《耶利歌》扭曲灵魂！

I

扎尔兹·克里奇过去曾是一个普普通通的人。作为土匪头子杜拉夫·卡斯卡利安的杀手，克里奇是个为了钱财

杀人不眨眼的家伙。但有些任务总会有些意想不到的代价，这就是其中一个：当参议员美丽的女儿露辛迪克用

沾满鲜血的双手抓住克里奇，告诉他其实他也是个受害者的时候，克里奇竟然被说动了。她说，他们所生活的

这个城市——普利摩顿——的统治者才是真正拥有罪恶灵魂的人，他们违背命运的意志，随意践踏生灵，让象

克里奇这样的男人成为疯狂的野兽，让象她这样的女子失去亲人和爱人。
Zarles Kreiger was human once．An assassin working for the gangster Duarf Cascarellian，Kreiger

was a man who would do anything for a price，and this proved to be one of them．Caught red-

handed by the Senator's daughter，the exquisite Lucidique，Kreiger was persuaded that he in his

turn had been a victim．The rulers of the city in which they all lived - the vast，degenerate

city-state of Primordium - were the truly guilty souls; and until the dynasty was brought down

life would continue to be a bloody confusion in which men like Kreiger acted like rabid animals

and woman like Lucidique lost their loved ones．

这一切都必须停止，而露辛迪克知道该怎么做。她劝说克里奇去找一个叫阿冈尼司帝斯的远古神灵，他能让克

里奇改头换面。
It had to stop．And Lucidique knew how．She persuaded Kreiger to put himself into the hands of

an ancient entity called Agonistes，who would traumatically reconfigure him．

克里奇遵照她的话做了，在城外沙漠中度过整整八天八夜后，他以镰刀手-梅司特的身份回到了普利摩顿，成

了一架威力无比的杀人机器，在短短几个小时里将普菲多王朝从历史的舞台上彻底抹掉了。
He did as Lucidique suggested，and after eight days and nights out in the desert，he returned to

Primordium as The Scythe-Meister: a powerful engine of destruction，who in a matter of hours

brought the Perfetto Dynasty to a close．

在屠杀结束即将回到黑暗沙漠之前，他对露辛迪克说了一句值得玩味的话：
“……你无法想象……”
Before disappearing into the desert，he had words for Lucidique，three teasing words:
"…you cannot imagine…"

II

人们将那个王室被屠杀的夜晚看作是“大起义”的开始。这场屠杀唤醒了人们心中压抑已久的仇恨，一系列的

起义在各地展开了。大法官、主教、神职人员、商会领导等等这些曾经依附于普菲多王朝横行于世的权贵们突

然发现自己变得孤立无援起来，他们现在不得不直接面对那些曾被自己欺凌压迫的人民。
They called that night - the night the Emperor and his family were murdered - the Great

Insurrection．In its wake，a host of minor insurrections took place，as old enmities erupted．

Powerful figures who'd used the decadent reign of the Emperor Perfetto as a cover for their

corruptions - judges，bishops，members of the clergy，guild and union leaders - found themselves

unprotected，and face to face with the people they'd exploited．

即便是那些拥有私人军队，向来为权贵们效力的黑帮头子们也开始感到害怕了。就拿土匪头子杜拉夫·卡斯卡

利安来说，他从来都不是一个傻瓜，事实上，自从他的杀手扎尔兹·克里奇在“大起义”那个夜晚失踪之后，

卡斯卡利安就开始怀疑王朝的突然颠覆与克里奇有关。而他的一个在皇宫做守卫的探子报告说他曾经在王室大

屠杀当夜亲眼见过那个被叫做镰刀手-梅司特的怪物，当时它正在皇宫的喷泉上濯洗它的武器，那个探子说虽

然自己也不确定是不是看错了，那个半人半鬼的镰刀手-梅司特虽然机敏过人，但看上去长得确实有点象杀手

扎尔兹·克里奇。
Even those amongst the criminal classes who had private armies to protect them against this very

eventuality were fearful now．Take for example，Duarf Cascarellian．He wasn't by any means a

stupid man．The fact that his assassin，Zarles Kreiger，had disappeared the night of the

Insurrection made him highly suspicious that Kreiger's fate was tied in with the almost

supernatural fall of the Emperor．Indeed one of Cascarellian's spies，who had been a guard at

the palace the night of the slaughter，had seen the creature everyone called The Scythe-Meister

washing his weapons in one of the Palace's many fountains．The informant had escaped the

massacre without harm coming to him，and
reported that unlikely as it seemed the semi-mythical figure of The Scythe-Meister bore a subtle

but undeniable resemblance to Zarles Kreiger．

这可能吗？卡斯卡利安想，难道失踪了的杀手克里奇和镰刀手-梅司特会是同一个人？难道有什么超自然的力

量作用于克里奇把他变成了威力强大的复仇者？如果真是这样的话，那个和镰刀手-梅司特说话的女子露辛迪

克在其中又扮演了什么样的角色呢？
Was it possible，Cascarellian wondered，that the missing assassin and The Scythe-Meister were

somehow the same person？ Had some incomprehensible sea-change been worked upon Kreiger，turning

him into this unstoppable avenger？ And if so，what part did Lucidique - who
had been seen in a brief exchange with The Scythe-Meister - play in the process？