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monstrous limbed fish lurched onto all fours with a splash, a weird crackling coming from its grinning skull. Behind it, five more misshapen skulls breached the surface. Along the waterline a dozen sets of bubbles began to boil.
    The Silver Bullets were the first to act, sending a volley towards the largest of the skeletal creatures. A few of the shots hit home, but most went whistling straight through. Vance’s barge was next to fire, a cannonball blasting between two of the foremost creatures and taking out a third in a spray of shattered bone.
    Volkmar pulled his warhammer from his back and splashed out into the shallows until the water lapped around his knees. Setting his feet in the shale, he bared his teeth and willed the beasts to come closer. Von Korden appeared at his side, silvered pistols drawn. To either side of them armed crusaders splashed into the water, shouting defiance as they formed a wall of blades.
    Three of the undead beasts crashed into the Talabheimers at the shoreline, fleshless jaws snapping and tearing. Swords stabbed and slashed in response, but even the most determined attack did little but nick their algae-slicked bones. A three-eyed monstrosity loped towards Volkmar, jaws open as it reared back to strike. Von Korden blasted a pair of holes in its skull with such force and accuracy that it toppled backwards in a jumble of bone. Volkmar scanned the waterline during the second’s reprieve the hunter had bought them. The blades of his men were having little effect.
    The Grand Theogonist took a deep breath as the fish-headed quadruped splashed towards him. He alone could break the magics at work here, and even then it would take a miracle. Yet he had little choice. Plunging his sacred warhammer into the cursed lake with both hands, he channelled all his hatred and revulsion into a blast of spiritual energy.
    ‘Die in the name of the Heldenhammer!’ he boomed, bloodshot eyes bulging. ‘Die, I command you!’
    Golden light suffused through the waters like the spilt blood of some celestial being. Tendrils of pure energy spread outward from Volkmar’s gauntlets, touching the bony legs of the guardian beasts. One by one, the monsters collapsed back into the water, the binding magics that had animated them undone.
    Volkmar straightened and thrust his arms into the air with a roar of triumph. Golden droplets sprayed out in all directions from his still-glowing fists.
    ‘Look upon this act, men of Sigmar, and find hope!’ he bellowed. ‘The evils of this realm, undone by strength of will and by the force of the one true faith!’
    Standing in the shallows a few feet away, von Korden pulled a sour face, eyebrows knitted as he protectively dried his pistols with a lambskin cloth.
    ‘If you got any of that water inside these barrels, old man,’ he whispered, ‘I’ll kill you myself.’

KONIGSTEIN ROAD
    The Vale of Darkness, 2522
    Von Korden trudged along the roadways of Sylvania at the head of a small column of troops, the occasional crunch of shattered bone punctuating the squishing of thick black mud. The place had become even more dismal since he had left for Altdorf. Thin rain pattered down from the charcoal skies above, and the howls of the wind had taken on a very unsettling tone.
    A rivulet of rainwater dribbled off the broad brim of the witch hunter’s hat, spattering his knees. The image of an armchair, a pig and a pipe by the fireplace swam to the surface of the hunter’s mind. He crushed it out with practiced ease. Not long now, a few more miles at most. And if he was fortunate enough to meet Ghorst and his brothers on the road, well, he had more men than ever to ensure they were cut down and burned to ash. He would warm his hands over the flames and be done with it.
    The crusade’s victory over the monsters on the Helsee shores had raised the spirits of the men for a time. With von Korden leading the way, they had made good speed past the nearby cairn circle whilst its guardians were