《Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead》 Chapter 1: Witnessing A Miracle Hunched over a floating dark sphere, an old, decrepit fossil of a man remained with his mouth agape for a few seconds, incapable of reacting properly at first before breaking into madughter. A raspy, guttural scraping came from his dried-out throat, his meagre attempt at voicing his joy was cut short as he began coughing without stop, up until blood sshed down onto his emaciated arm. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om His broken record of a voice repeatedly bounced off the eroded walls surrounding him on all sides, escaping through cracks and slowly growing distant as his distorted words escaped the dungeon he had made into his own prison. Not only did he not know how to speak properly anymore, his life was nearing its end. But it didn¡¯t matter to him. This floating orb was the sum of his entire life, nearly one hundred and ten years, all for the sake of this one object. Turning around hurriedly, he clutched the sphere, cradling it like a child. His abrupt movement sent him to the dusty and cold hard ground, uncaring for the newly risen particles suffocating him. He dragged his sorry self through the pebbles, shards of ss, and many other objects he had hoarded and taken with him before secluding himself. The vestige of a man smiling toothlessly was reflected in the orb, uncaring for the abuse he was putting his decaying flesh through. He had long since forgotten what the point of the orb was, what it was supposed to aplish, why the fire of hatred within him was soothed by itspletion. Why he had even locked himself deep into a dungeon in the first ce, he only remembered the process he had borated. With madness fueling his muscles, he soon arrived before a huge hole in the ground, overflowing with cadavers, some whole, some reduced to mere dust, most in between those two states. There was no telling just how expansive the hole truly was underneath, how many people and creatures had been shoved into its darkness, left to rot away. Just above the pile of decay, a small bird cage was hanging on by a thread from the ceiling, its exterior rusty and suffering from the elements. Its exterior was illuminated by a bright light, but its true colour couldn¡¯t be perceived, was it red? Was it blue? Was it everchanging? Was it a colour that did not exist? The crumbling elder could not care less. There were many lights, in fact, the sheer mass of them pressed against one another unified them as one. Inside of this cage, the souls of the bodies beneath were trapped, both their spiritual and physical bodies had been gathered together, the souls carefully extracted so that both the minds and spirits remained perfectly linked to the soul. All of them were to be used as kindling for the orb to reach its true potential. Struggling to his knees, his bare body bruised from all the crawling, the living corpse the man had be took in the sight before him. The stench of death had since long numbed him, his eyes gued by cataracts, he smiled. Not one of his teeth remained in their ce, the gum supposed to anchor them had turned ck and unstable. With warm tears going down his cheeks, finding themselves in a maze of deep wrinkles, the old man raised the sphere as high as he could muster, readying himself for the penultimate moment of his awfully long life. Even without being able to remember a single reason why this was so important to him, he looked forward to what was going to happen. His long and filthy beard found itself within his vision, averting his gaze down, his moment interrupted as he wondered what could be happening. No breeze this potent could make its way in this deste room. It was no breeze, he felt nothing on his back, something was pulling everything in the room. Looking back at the pile and cage, he witnessed the mountain of dead bodies folding onto himself, the rotten and mummified flesh waspressed, the bones were ground into dust as everything converged into a single point. Everything in the room but the old man was sucked in, furniture, filth, dust, any piece of rock that wasn¡¯t properly stuck to the walls. The cage and orb were no exception. His most prized treasure was snatched as easily as candy from a baby©¤ powerless to do anything about it. The old man could only question what was happening. He hadn¡¯t done anything yet, this wasn¡¯t his doing, it wasn¡¯t his creation. The remains and souls fused with one another seamlessly. Theplete harmony mesmerised the sole witness before blinding him as thepressed mass exploded outward with a dark, purple light. A purple the old man couldn¡¯t fathom, a colour he could perceive, yet, knew he had never seen before and would never see again. When he regained his sight, something else now stood in the room with him. "Aah- AAAAH!" crying out shamefully, he tried to get up to his feet only to fail miserably, falling to the ground once more and forced to crawl like a maggot. He didn¡¯t dare look back again, consumed wholly by his fear, he moved with renewed vigour. Still, his poor attempt at escaping wouldn¡¯t have even gotten him away from a sloth. The sound of footsteps rang out like the tolls of a passing bell. Clicks resounded from the being that was slowly walking up to him. A loud ck shook the room, like a bear trap snapping into action. This sprung the elderly man to stop his useless attempt to flee and roll over on his back. Raising his arms defensively, he shouted iprehensible words at the creature, his intent unknown even to him. No one would have understood what he said, much less the being walking toward him. Seeing his doom only getting closer, showing no hesitation in its advance, the frail man swatted his arms randomly, most likely hoping to deter the monster. There was no sess to be found in his frantic action, the thing born from thousands of corpses and souls took a hold of his twig-like arms, snapping them with appropriate ease. His suffering didn¡¯tst long, the aggressor, not interested in making him wail, swiftly grabbed him by the neck and with a sudden motion, broke it. Death had already been inevitable for him, his actions had only brought it faster and made it that much more harsh. His executioner stared at its own reflection for a few moments, taking in its own appearance before dropping the lifeless husk down like the meaningless object that it had be. Still, to the monster, the old man had ascended to something superior. Chapter 2: No Time For You Letting go of the corpse, it fell limply on its back, the monster moved onto inspecting its own hands. They were skeletal, nearly nothing but bones, so was the rest of its body, it was a skeleton. Not only that, it wasn¡¯t a pristine white one, its body was discoloured and rotten bits of flesh seemed to be sprouting everywhere like parasitic mushrooms. For all intents and purposes, anyone would believe this undead to be the animated remains of a human, save for the long and pointy teeth that filled its jaws. Pinching one of the rotten bits, it oozed out with putrid blood, the vile liquid falling right on the old man¡¯s body. The undead stared at the spot it had just touched for a whole minute without moving in the slightest, it had grown back. Its arrival had made the roompletely silent and empty, moving over to the deep pit where the countless corpses had been kept, it looked down, seeing nothing but pure darkness. With unreadable intentions, it moved back and forth, dragging the old man by the wrist before lightly kicking him into the hole. Silence ensued once more as the undead remained in ce like a statue. Multiple minutes after, a loud ssh and p came from deep within the hole. As though it was all meaningless, the walking cadaver turned and headed toward the very same direction the old man had been trying to escape toward. Of course he would, the only door out of this room was there, it was a roughly built wooden door, made by an amateur of the craft, hastily assembled nails and nks. The frame and door weren¡¯t even fitting well, the skeleton stared at the door with his hollow sockets, not having a clue what a door was for a few seconds before trying to open it up normally, reaching for the handle and pulling it. One pull didn¡¯t do anything, the second neither and by the third, it was clear that the old man would have never made it out of here even with a severe head start. One could only wonder how he had even found his way inside of here. One could, but the undead didn¡¯t, instead opting to pry the nks off one by one with remarkable care. Peeking into this new room, the light flickered for an instant, the source of it unclear, there was simply light and no reason to bother questioning why. This one hadn¡¯t suffered from his entrance, and was thus, filled to the brim with its old owner¡¯s personal belongings. Papers, papyruses, stone tablets, a wide variety of objects and materials used to write down information were gathered here, spread out on tables haphazardly, manyying on the ground, others hanging from the ceiling or disyed on the walls. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Most were damaged but even for those that were legible, the skeleton wouldn¡¯t be able to find a usage for them, for he couldn¡¯t read. Picking up one of the nks he had taken off the door, he moved on to the next room. The door swung open effortlessly this time, it was much smaller than the frame. Unlike the first two, which had been rtivelyrge but still nothing too grand, this one was simply gigantic. The ceiling was too high to be made out, the only proof of its existence being the pieces of debris that had fallen from it and smashed into the ground. The light source wasn¡¯t unknown this time around, the area was much dimmer, illuminated by differently coloured orbs simr to the one the old man had been clutching so longingly. Each of them were resting on stone pedestals, there were two rows of them, ten of them in each row. There used to be at least, a good portion of where pedestals had most likely stood had been destroyed by rubbles from the ceiling. All of those that remained had an orb sitting atop however, each sporting different shades. The undead walked in between the two rows, undisturbed as a rock the size of his skull fell right beside its position. All were shining a light but one shone much brighter, moving up to it, the skeleton inspected it, feeling something that shouldn¡¯t be from it. "Hello? Hey? What the hell is happening?" a youthful and confused voice rang out from the brilliant orb. "Anyone there? Seriously, am I in aa? Did I have a heart attack or something?" on and on, it seemed like the orb was speaking its thoughts aloud. What was most curious however, was that the undead was understanding the words being spoken, which was ludicrous on multiple levels. It didn¡¯t even have clear thoughts and had only gotten the rough grunts of the old man as words until now. Grabbing the orb with one hand, the undead lifted it up to its face, cking its jaws loudly. The physical touch startled the orb as it began to speak rapidly, shooting out sentences one after the other without end. "Oh!" suddenly, the rapid fire of words ceased as the voice eximed loudly. "Is that? Oh my god! It¡¯s like in those-" "Dear lord, why the hell is it so cluttered? It¡¯s like if someone never closed any of their tabs for a year straight¡­" The whole time, the skeleton had been calmly walking until it found itself back in the very first room. "Hold on, we are moving right? To where? Are you God? Or something like that?" the orb seemed to finally realise what was happening. Frankly, the soul contained within the orb had been quite confused at first, one second, the young man was eating heated noodles as the only meal of the day, and then, he was seemingly blind and unmoving. It had been so quick that he hadn¡¯t had time to let it sink in and now, strange things were appearing before him and someone had picked him up. "My reading experience tells me that this is a-" The skeleton dropped the orb into the hole. The light allowed the undead to get a better idea of what was down there, although it was still much too deep to see anything. There was definitely some water or liquid at the bottom, but it was hard to judge just how much. Now that that was done, it made the short trip back and shattered all of the other orbs, only keeping one intact to serve as a light. The only other way beside the one it had gotten in from was a simple corridor without any luminosity. Chapter 3: Meaningless Floating Screen The sound of bones rustling and grinding against stone softly reverberated throughout the long corridor, only sometimes apanied by the distant crash of a piece of rubble or something copsing. They came from both sides of the stone hallway, but not only, noises also came from beyond the walls, from below and above. There was no telling just howrge this ce was, all that was certain was that it was in a slow process of decay. Which was strange, nothing seemed to be the cause of it, the dungeon may be old and unattended, but it didn¡¯t appear fragile in the least, the rock wasn¡¯t falling to dust, it was still strong andpact. The only signs of damage were due to the illogical source of the destruction too, something else was at y here, but the undead had no way of knowing what it was. It couldn¡¯t speak, it couldn¡¯t read, it wouldn¡¯t have been able to get an answer out of either of the two persons it had met even if the skeleton had wanted. Instead, the creature of bizarre origins simply kept on walking without any reaction to what was going on, whether or not it was even thinking or realising any of this, there was simply no way to tell. After dozens of minutes of walking at a slow pace, the monster arrived in a fourth room, this one, was thest. There wasn¡¯t any way out of here. The same four grey walls were all that greeted him, everything was empty save for the usual rubbles. The old man had to have gone in there somehow, there was no proof of it however, by all means, the elder had just popped in there. Running its bony fingers along the walls, producing a sickly melody, the corpse suddenly stopped, the confused words of the youthful-sounding core reminded it of the things it had been seeing as well. Most notably, when it had killed the old man and the orb, which had all seemingly been alive, otherwise there would have been no reason to destroy them as well. Thinking about this, the skeleton smashed the remaining orb to pieces, not only had it fulfilled its purpose already, the undead didn¡¯t find much difficulty in navigating the dark anyways. Also, it helped to bring up that t, bright but not luminous thing in its vision again. The rotten skeleton couldn¡¯t read, yet, he was able to understand what was written on there for some reason. *yed an unwanted presence* It tried to touch it, to no effect, phasing right through the thing, even when waving through it and covering its hollow sockets, the undead could still make out the information conveyed on the dark purple surface. It was something curious, but it didn¡¯tpletely fit the description the orb had made. The apparition soon went away on its own. Perhaps the skeleton needed to do something to bring it up, what could this something be though? The undead hadn¡¯t been having any sort of thoughts at first, when it had killed the old man and dropped the orb to its death, there had been nothing going on up there. A few moments ago however, it had remembered a past action and wondered about it, in fact, it had somehow understood what the orb had said. Not ruminating on that, the undead thought about bringing the luminous surface, it worked but it was just the same thing as before, trying again, it just kept on bringing up the words telling about what had been killed. Not trying anything for a few dozens of seconds, the skeleton then tried to bring up something again, this time, not thinking about what it had seen before. Wanting to see what the orb had spoken of. And once it did appear before itself, it understood what the orb had been talking about. The sheer amount of information present on there appeared endless at a nce, everything was neatly separated but it didn¡¯t change the fact that one needed to crank their necks up and down to look at some of what was disyed. Ignoring much of the information since most of it was empty, the undead focused on what was actually filled in. *Species: Putridum Ossa* *Title: First Of A Kind* It was all that truly mattered at the moment, no need to pay attention to what was empty or was followed by a zero, especially when information about the whole thing was already entering its mind without being asked for. The first thing was good to know, but was, ultimately, of little importance. The second one however, if what he was in the process of spontaneously learning was to be trusted, mattered a bit more. Focusing a bit more on the ¡¯title¡¯ section of this maze of words, which was apparently called ¡¯system¡¯, at least it was just a single word. Not that pronunciation was something bothersome for a mute corpse. *You are the first one of your kind, and you¡¯ll be the only one, thus deserving of a name* The logic didn¡¯t seem sound but the undead¡¯s gaze was attracted to a previously nk portion of the purple surface. It stood right at the top of it, implying that it was an important facet of the skeleton. It now read something, it was the skeleton¡¯s name, no longer a simple monster. And with it, came the very first true thoughts of the undead. N?v(el)B\\jnn ¡¯Loimos¡¯ Perhaps it should have been more grandiose of a moment, maybe he should have felt something about it. Loimos was already dead however, there was no emotion to be had, there was only one thing. There being nothing of use in here, he moved through the ambient darkness enveloping the hallway, still unbothered by the progressive copse of his surroundings, the skeleton found himself back to the room filled with papers and parchments. He still couldn¡¯t read them despite suddenly being capable ofprehending words and somehow being able to think. He couldn¡¯t read them, but he could still find a use for all of this mess. Chapter 4: Kin The skeleton, Loimos, had no way of carrying much things on his person, there were no bags and articles of clothing that could be used or fashioned to fulfil such a purpose. So, there was only one thing to do with every single object within his reach. The same treatment he had given the remains of the old man and the orb was granted to these lifeless constructs, although they had once been part of something that was alive, for the most part. The few tables ricocheted and bounced along the edges of the deep pit, a few times before being clearly broken to pieces, whatever splinters and parts came out of this went on to join what had been thrown down before them. What the undead was going to do after didn¡¯t allow for him to even take a single thing in his hands or in between his terrifyingly pointy fangs, he had tried to keep something like a nk stuck in his ribcage but so little sess. His bones weren¡¯t smooth by any means, but the outgrowths of rotten flesh constantly oozed with putrefied blood, meaning that anything that wasn¡¯t tightly jammed in between his ribs would slip out. This applied to everything he had tried. As such, once he was down with emptying the rooms of everything that could be moved, meaning everything for the undead didn¡¯t care for passing time or the continued crumbling around him, so he went and even spent the time to move the heavier furniture and disassemble part of the walls. Nothing could tire him, so he never stopped for even a second. He began to climb down without hesitation, he had no real idea how to do this but it wasn¡¯t difficult to figure out, the sides of the chasm weren¡¯t t, much different from the walls of the rooms, which were made from grey, stone bricks. Everything was rough and uneven, gaps here and there, rocks sticking out, finding ces that he could keep stable footing and hold on was a task anyone could have done. Granted, people of flesh and bones wouldn¡¯t be quite able to use the slimmer spots he was shoving his bones in, neither would they be calm. It didn¡¯t bother him in the least, but some time ago, the mysterious lights illuminating some of the rooms had disappeared, so everything was pitch ck whilst he was doing this. A living would be tense and most likely shaking, only further heightening their chances of losing their grip and falling to their deaths. No such problem for Loimos, he quickly made his way further and further down, until he reached what appeared to be a cave, he hadn¡¯t arrived at the bottom, not by a longshot. His bones grinding against the hard rocks, he put both of his feet down into this cave at once, faced with pure darkness still. The ceiling was high enough for him to not scrape the top of his skull against it, though the width of the tunnel didn¡¯t allow him to spread his arms in their entirety. He could hear the sound of footstepsing from deeper within. Multiple sets of them moving about, seemingly randomly, though it was too soon to make such an assumption, some were familiar, others weren¡¯t. He moved forward after only a short instant of listening, his steps slow and as discreet as possible, if there was something to kill, getting the jump on them would allow him to do it so quicker. Crouching down, walking on all four like a beast on the prowl, he followed the wall to his right, softly touching it once in while to make sure he wasn¡¯t deviating. His jaw opened bit by bit, ready to close shut at any given time. By all means, Loimos was still weak, moving simple furniture around had taken him quite some time, him easily breaking the old man was more revealing of the elder¡¯s frailty than of the undead¡¯s strong grip. Though, he could tell with certainty that his jaw packed much more powerpared to the rest of his structure, the ¡¯ck¡¯ sound it emitted when suddenly shut was loud and threatening, it could easily be mistaken for a bear trap. Not that Loimos knew what a bear trap was, or what a bear was for that matter. cing his bony hand against the wall again, he could feel a curvature, moving along, he was greeted with a wide room, much reminiscent of the ones he had seen up above. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Antern was dangling from the ceiling, fastened to it with a chain. It glowed with faint, dark blue light, the corners of the room remained shrouded in dark but the rest was decently lit for the skeleton to see who were the owners of the footsteps. Sealing his jaw without a ck, he walked into the room. His assumption had been right, the locals were indeedpletely aimless, walking in random directions. Some of them were even walking into walls, bumping into random furniture or tripping on rocks. It didn¡¯t bother them in the least. It all changed when Loimos entered the room, they all stopped and turned to stare at him, only for a few seconds before resuming their mindless activities. They were all undead like him, skeleton and zombies. Lacking his astute intelligence however. They seemed ancient, the zombies seemed all dried up, their integrity preserved by the environment. The skeletons, allcking any rotten flesh, had turnedpletely grey, their hollow sockets filled with dust, it seemed like any sort of damage would cause them to fall apart, like a strong breeze would disperse them. They had existed for too long without reaping life. Seeing them, Loimos spontaneously understood why they were in this state, as though the information had always been within him, waiting to be unlocked. ¡¯They have not acquired experience from killing or absorbed more death force, they are too weak as a base to maintain their form, so, they have continued to follow their dposition like a corpse would¡¯ Undeads couldn¡¯t really be destroyed without outside interference, they always produced death force on their own, though, even if what Loimos had just thought was perfectly urate, the degradation would eventually stop, or they would be an entirely different sort of undead. There was no need to help them gather more death force, they weren¡¯t in need of sustenance like the living did. Undeads existed at all stages of dposition, still, they were all undeads, everyone in this room wouldn¡¯t hesitate to rush down the first thing with a pulse that appeared before them. It was his and their purpose to do so. However, just like him, they were too weak to even develop the basic skill and ability set of an undead, rendering them unable to do anything but walk in circles, unable to track and detect life. To change this, they would just need to find things to kill. Chapter 5: Unacceptable It was easier said than done however, there was a reason why all of these undeads were stuck wandering aimlessly here. The room, which wasn¡¯t crumbling down like the rest but still bore marks of the ages had four ways leading out of it, one led to the pit Loimos hade from, two others led to dead ends blocked off by a strange, flesh-like growth. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om It wasn¡¯t part of some being, he would have been able to tell whether it was of the living or undead, it just happened to look like meat. Thest way, the one facing Loimos as he entered the room wasn¡¯t a dead end per se, it simply required one to scale a wall, something that was beyond the feeble preserved corpses. It was easier for him to aplish but not quite as simple as his earlier feat, this wall was also partly covered in the flesh-like substance, resulting in his first few tries to end in utter failure. Quickly facing the fact that the outgrowth was too slippery for him to climb no matter what he tried, he focused his time on biting and scraping it off the rock instead. His careful work slowed down by the fact that this thing seemed to refuse to be removed from the territory it had grown over. This work, which would have typically been considered arduous and downright inhumane, was the sort of thing a court woulde up with to punish an especially terrible criminal, or the sort of punishments inflicted upon characters of mythology. For an undead, it was nothing. The parts that were peeled off the rest quickly withered and died off, falling apart like burnt paper. Apanied by the sounds of his fellow undead prowling around behind his back and of the more distant than ever falling debris, he eventually managed to outspeed the outgrowth and render it nonexistent. ¡¯Clearing the other passageways should also be possible, if it did not grow over the walls as well¡¯ First, he made his way up the wall and crouched down close to the edge, he didn¡¯t have much room up there, the tform onlyrge enough to fit his feet, his skull close to the ceiling. Looking down, the poor lightinging from the room behind was of no use right now, thankfully, down into the pit, another light wasing from around a corner. It was bright and powerful, a shine unlike any other Loimos had gotten to witness before. The light seemed somewhat distorted, not certain what was causing this, the undead brushed off some pebbles and dust off into the pit. Resulting in a few low sshes to ring out, Loimos realised that he was faced with water. Carefully climbing down, he entered the cold water, making certain that he would be able to go back up, he began to walk toward the light. Unable to swim or gain any sort of traction underwater, it was all he could do. The light couldn¡¯t blind him, but the water was still dark and obstructing his vision, as he walked, he kept on moving lower and lower. Until he reached the bottom of a body of water, its true size unknown. Since he could easily go the other way at any moment, Loimos walked at the bottom of the water, causing dirt and sand to rise up with his steps, he looked around for any sort of wildlife but everything was empty. No fishes, no amphibians, nothing, not even some dreadful monster of the dead, or if there was, it wasn¡¯t willing to move for an unappetising pile of bones that was most certainly capable of sending even strict scavengers straight to their graves for attempting to sate themselves. The rotten spots on his bones ejected the viscous rotten blood from time to time, tainting the waters around him. The liquid was so vile and heavy that it sank directly to the ground. Walking in a perfectly straight line in spite of the utterck ofndmarks around to guide him, he eventually began to rise up again, the soil beneath his feet turning into sand only. The water was so opaque, that even when he was barely a millimeter away from breaking to the surface, he couldn¡¯t see anything outside. As such, he carefully stuck his skull out until just the the top of his eye sockets was outside, it was well enough for him to make out what sort ofnd he was walking toward. It was a minuscule batch of sand with only a singr tree on it, the sole vegetation was grand and ridiculously sizedpared to the surroundings, adorned with some sort of fruit Loimos couldn¡¯t identify. Seemed like the random bits of knowledge that were popping up in his mind didn¡¯t cover this sort of thing. It was green and round, seemingly around the same size as his skull. He diverted his attention elsewhere once he confirmed that nothing necessitated his attention on the ind. Heeding closer inspection to everything else, it was clear that he had found much of what he had been searching for. Further away from the ind, much further, the body of water, which he would ssify as argeke, vast expanses of greenery stretched further than he could see, basically, all directions, save for the one he hade from, were filled with thriving life. Insects were buzzing around, pollinating flowers, birds chirped happily, small animals that one wouldn¡¯t be able to imagine themselves petting, preys, predators lived in the perfect harmony that was the cycle of life. It seemed that closer to the shores, the waters were also vibrant with action. Everywhere he looked, he was faced with different wonders life coulde with, varieties of flora and fauna, the sun up above casting its nourishing light upon them all. Of course, everything was still underground, the walls of the dungeon behind Loimos confirmed that while seemingly unrted, he was still deep within the earth. The sun wasn¡¯t real, or maybe it was, the undead had no way of truly telling whether this sort of thing was possible or not. He hadn¡¯t even known the sun was a thing until a few seconds ago when he looked up. Lastly, popting the beautiful areas were various sorts of monsters as well, some more intelligent than others. Monsters and animals were very distinct categories, even if the line could get beyond blurry. Loimos himself was technically a monster after all and yet, things that were truly just big wolves were monsters as well. Seeing the refined cycle all around him and the achievements achieved by the more aware of monsters, he felt nothing of course. One thing was certain however, all of this wouldn¡¯t fly in his presence. Chapter 6: Still The undead retreated under water, leaving only a dark spot where he had stood. He wasn¡¯t a rabid beast, he could bid his time ande backter, before making any decision on his next course of action, he would try and clear the other two ways of their fake flesh growths. He seemed to be walking a little bit faster now, or rather, the weightlessness he felt in water wasn¡¯t quite as pronounced as when he had first stepped into it. Arriving back amidst his fellow undeads just a little bit faster thanks to this, he instantly went to work, this task too appeared to be going smoother than before. Whilst fighting the ever growing flesh, he brought up the purple panel, feeling like it might have something to do with the sudden improvements. Certainly enough, a previously empty spot now had a few things written in it. The skill section had multiple sub-parts but for now, only the first, nameless one was filled. Considering what Loimos had noticed improvements on, the skills he saw made perfect sense, there were even a few skills he had obtained but hadn¡¯t noticed anything when partaking in the rted activity. Climbing, moving underwater, ripping apart and sneaking around to mention the most prominent ones. Even though the other two ways were obstructed by much more of the fleshy substances, doing it for long enough would guarantee that he would eventually reach his goal. The distant falling of debris now seemed much less frequent, the sound of the zombies and skeletons were inadvertently making seemed much more prominent as well. Just as he was about to begin with one of the two paths, the undeads all stopped dead in their tracks, as though a switch had just been flipped, they all moved directly toward the Loimos, or rather, toward the wall he was facing. Instantly, they put their weak bodies to work and began to tear the false flesh apart, wing and biting at it. With their assistance, the entirety of the path was cleared in little time, at least, little time for a bunch of undeads without clocks. Moving some rocks, the faint lighting of the room allowed them to see what was hidden behind, this path got smaller and smaller, ending with a dead end. Resting against the wall of this dead end, was another undead, which rose to its feet the instant it realised a way out had opened. Unlike Loimos and the rest, which could seem to all being from human remains or something of simr build, this one was muchrger, nearly two meters tall with thick bones. Pieces of petrified muscles and bits of dry skin still stuck to it in certain ces, its skull had a distinct shape, somewhat elongated toward the back. Its lower jaw wasn¡¯t holding on as it should anymore, hanging loosely. Still,pared to the rest of the undeads, it didn¡¯t seem nearly as frail, it must have had quite the hefty kill count to be brimming with so much death force or had remained in a ce full of death for a while. In the intelligence department, it was tied with the rest however. It appeared to be realising that some life was nearby but unable to pinpoint the location, so instead of going after that, it followed Loimos and the rest as they went to deal with the other way. He didn¡¯t know why they had all suddenly began to follow him around, he hadn¡¯t gained anything that could have such an effect. With the big guy¡¯s help, everything was much swifter, the sheer width of its hands made it more efficient than all of thembined, not to mention how easily it was ripping the flesh-like construct. This way didn¡¯t lead them to another ally, but to a long, very long passageway which ended with a sturdy, stone door. Even theirbined efforts couldn¡¯t budge it in the least. There was nothing that could be done. It was time for Loimos to pay a visit to the other side. _________________________ The sun never truly set here, it simply glowed less strongly until one could barely see a few meters in front of them. Despite the dark, one of the green-skinned inhabitants of a small tribe of little monsters wasn¡¯t afraid to venture out, he had been around for three years already, he was all grown up now and knew that there was nothing dangerous around. It would be a different story were he not heading for theke, but he wasn¡¯t an idiot, he knew where hairless wolves lived, they didn¡¯t go down to this part of the river anymore ever since the chieftain had hunted them into near oblivion. He also knew that the wolves despised the taste of goblin meat with a passion and would only even think of biting them if they stepped too far into their territories. He wasn¡¯t stupid, so he was perfectly safe, all of the tribes had friendly or at worst, neutral rtionships, there were no dangerous monsters living in the water too. Going to get some buckets of water was no big deal, when the others woke up and noticed that he had gotten all of the water needed for the day by himself, he would be praised and perhaps, he would even be able tond Irgob¡¯s affection! ¡¯Yes, that is a wless n, all thedies love a hardworking man¡¯ he thought with a satisfied smile on his face. Not only that, but he was only second in strength to the chieftain himself, he could carry buckets filled and water back and forth without any issue. A good personality and the body of a war god? He was simply irresistible, one could only wonder how he had yet to find a mate. He arrived on the shore, there was no sand on this part, only humid grass, which had been ttened by the repeated passages of various goblins doing the same thing as him over the years. It was a surprise grass even persisted to grow here. He could see the reflection of the dim sun up above, making for a beautiful sight. ¡¯I should take her here during the night, I am sure she¡¯ll love it¡¯ smiling by himself as he got lost in reveries, he shook his head and prepared for the first filling of the buckets. Something moved in the water. "Mmh? Someone here?" he spoke aloud, he could have just assumed it was a fish or something, but for some reason, he instantly believed that it was someone else. Maybe the way it sounded reminded him of when he went for a swim himself, or perhaps he unconsciously caught a sight of a figure standing upright. The night was dark but not the darkest it could get, with the water reflecting some of the light, he felt confident that someone wouldn¡¯t be able to hide very well in theke. "Need some help?" N?v(el)B\\jnn "No?" he grew a bit scared, his mind running wild with multiple possibilities, mostpletely improbable. He backed off from the edges of the water, grasping both of the buckets with only one hand, he pulled out a knife made of stone from the beast pelt tied around his waist. "You better not be trying to be funny, I¡¯ll seriously stab you!" he warned in the dead of night, it would be a shame if some joke ended in bloodshed. Puffing his chest and standing as tall as he could, he knew that if something was lurking around, appearing stronger than you did could dissuade it. He hadn¡¯t gotten the pelt he was wearing by sitting back andzing around. ¡¯Huh? What¡¯s this?¡¯ his gazending on something in the water. It had been standing there for gods know how long, it had been remaining so still that it had merged into the surroundings perfectly. With the lighting from behind it, he couldn¡¯t tell for sure what it was, but the fact that streaks of light could somehow pass through its body freaked him out beyondprehension. Raising his arms aggressively, he slowly backed off, not wanting any sort of business with whatever this thing was. It remained perfectly still nheless. Chapter 7: Lying In Ambush The stillness stayed so for what appeared to be multiple minutes to the goblin, but really was nothing more than ten seconds. He really didn¡¯t want to turn his back to this thing, but he wasn¡¯t feeling like backing off without having any idea what was behind him either. The one in front of him may be a decoy for all he knew! All of this could be an borate trap! Flexing his muscles, a vein popped out on his bald head as he dered his identity: "I am Stolgob! Second strongest of my tribe! You think you can take me?!" he wasn¡¯t bluffing, he had stopped a charging deer with his bare hands just the other day, his body wasn¡¯t thin and his belly wasn¡¯t chubby like the typical goblin. He would knock the first fool who thought so on his ass with a single punch. Still, no response of any sort came from the mysterious being in front of him. Stolgob couldn¡¯t even tell if that thing was looking at him or not, he could only hope that he hadn¡¯t been trying to intimidate a nt with a funny shape. ¡¯I¡¯ll just run away ande back another time¡­¡¯ the goblin had already decided on what he would do, he could always impress Irgob another time. "ck!" a loud snap split the silence, startling the goblin to jump up for an instant as the sound of water being troubled followed immediately after. When the creature had finished crawling out of the water, he was already long gone, having sprinted away at full speed right through the underbrush. ¡¯Pity¡¯ Loimos thought tly, as he gazed in the direction the green man had run toward. He had already lost his chance the second the goblin had backed away from the shore, everything after that was just to test him. ¡¯Stolgob, tribe, second¡¯ listing off a few things he had learned about the buff little goblin. It seemed obvious to the skeleton that he wouldn¡¯t win in a frontal confrontation, the smaller monster was clearly experienced and fairly powerful, at least byparison to himself. The original n had failed superbly but it didn¡¯t matter much, he had seen the goblin holding onto buckets, they came to get water from here, he would have many more asions to get a hold onto one of them. He went back into the water and submerged himself, lowering his body down but remaining right up the shore. The soil here was soft and somewhat muddy, using his fingers to dig into the side of the shore, he buried himself under a thinyer of dirt. Completely concealed, he went immobile, thanks to the filth covering his bones, the rotten blood he regrly expelled was prevented from staining the water in any visible way. The water of theke was incredibly opaque to begin with, no matter whether it was inside or outside, seeing anything through it was a tall order. Despite not being able to see, he still had advantages over the living when submerged. Which were that his other senses weren¡¯t impaired in the least, he could hear clearly what was going on outside and inside the water. Unlike the majority of undeads, he also had ess to the five, most basic senses. He could smell, taste, touch as well, if not better than a living made of flesh and nerves. He remained unmoving throughout multiple cycles of day and night, dozens of days went by without the undead growing bored or impatient, for he was incapable and unable of such things. He listened to the goblins¡¯s conversations as they went to gather water, sometimes to simply discuss, to go for a swim or other sorts of extracurricr activities. Loimos didn¡¯t act, even though he had multiple asions to, he extended his senses to their maximum and remained perfectly hidden, stalking the goblins, animals and other monsters that sometimes came by. He learned their names, how they behaved, what was thetest topic of discussions in their tribes. There were a few names that were more recurrent than others however, Stolgob, Irgob, Pokzgob and Gobstroz. Respectively: The best hunter, the prettiest of the tribe, the designated wise one and the chieftain. Their subject of conversations were rather limited, but perhaps it was that Loimos only got to hear of their small talk, they could simply be having the most important talks within the confines of the tribe. He developed his understanding of each of the goblins, his stealth and senses all at once amongst other things. After weeks had passed, if not months. Loimos moved again, he had learned enough and since it seemed that those ¡¯skill¡¯ things were getting much slower to progress after a while, he decided to start working on culling the living. He had moved because an easy prey had shown itself, the goblin was alone. This one was frailer than the rest, aged and without anything notable about him. His name would no longer matter, he stuck his hand into the water right above Loimos. He didn¡¯t act in that instant, he knew his routine, the old goblin would check the water temperature, a useless act considering that it never truly changed significantly. After confirming that it was eptably warm, he would sit down and let his feet sink into the water. A minute or so would pass, and he would begin to throw small rocks and pebbles at theke, watching the wildlife that would sometimes emerge. Unlike Stolgob, he was weak. The instant Loimos deemed the goblin was immersed in his activity enough, he rose from the soil and shut his jaw on his feeble ankle. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Not hard enough to damage it too severely, only enough force to sink his fangs down to the bone. Before the green monster could realise that he had been attacked, Loimos dragged him into theke, forcing him away from the shore and deeper. He exhausted himself quickly, his struggle grew lethargic as water filled his lungs, he had missed his asion to shout for help. The undead went away with his new prize, pulling the dead body along toward the room with his fellows. Chapter 8: Something In The Woods "Chieftain?" a meek-sounding voice, polluted by the not-so-developed vocal cords of goblins spoke out as its owner stood right in front of arge and cosy tent, yet, it remained primitive in its construction. A rough ¡¯Mmph¡¯ was the only answer this goblin got, prompting him to carefully push the tent door and make his way inside whilst keeping his head low. The goblin stayed in ce, fidgeting in ce as he didn¡¯t want to start speaking without authorisation. "What¡¯s the matter? Say whatever is on your mind" the chieftain coughed a few times. "Hum, boss¡­ The old Gobert has gone missing and Stolgob thinks it¡¯s the thing he saw a few months ago that is responsible¡­" the goblin exined tentatively. "Huh? That old guy?" the chieftain stood up from his seat as he waved his hand through the air. The younger goblin finally looked up at him, seeing him pushing away the smoke umted around him from smoking random herbs from a worn-out wooden pipe. Seeing smokeing his way, the goblin reflexively held his breath as the chieftain stroked his long, grey beard thoughtfully. "Gone, just like that? That¡¯s weird, he was our sharpest tool in the shed too, no one knows how to put up a tent and fires like him" the chieftain of this tribe rambled for a bit before taking a puff from his pipe. He was known as Gobstroz, the fact that the ¡¯Gob¡¯ in his name was at the start rather than the end indicated that he was from an older generation. Much taller and generallyrger than the rest by a wide margin, some clueless adventurers might think of him as a hobgoblin but the truth was that he was just built different. Evacuating the smoke out from his nostrils, he dropped the pipe and crossed his arms. "If Stolgob is so insistent about the thing he saw, it must be that Gobert went missing when going to theke, right?" "Yes" after holding his breath for too long, the goblin took in a deep breath and began to choke on all of the smoke. "Ahaha! Don¡¯t die on me and listen:" Gobstroz smacked the smaller goblin¡¯s back. "We¡¯ll keep an eye open in case the old fart decided that ying jokes was his thing now, but more importantly, no one is allowed to go to theke alone, groups of two minimum, understood?" "Yes chieftain!" putting himself together again, the goblin stood at attention. "Tell them that if they don¡¯t listen, I¡¯ll have Pokzgob give them an early taste of what being buried feels like" Gobstrozughed at his own words, he wouldn¡¯t actually do that, though the younger goblin was convinced he was dead serious. "I¡¯ll be on my way!" quickly escaping the scene, the goblin heaved a sigh of relief, cursing his bad luck for losing the game and forcing him to be the one to speak with the chieftain. ¡¯You better be actually dead Gobert¡¯ he gritted his teeth and went on to announce the chieftain¡¯s words to the rest of the tribe. He didn¡¯t delegate the duty, he took pride in being ordered by the grey-bearded goblin in person. Contrary to what one might expect from an unadvanced bunch like them, the tribe was actually quite expansive, spanning over arge area, at least for goblins with their short legs. As such, it took him a long while to get a hold of at least one member of each family or group. He first went to the most important members, the designated hunters, the builders and such, as well as Stolgob, the best hunter and second strongest of the tribe, the goblin found it quite inspiring for another of his kind, which was the same age as him, to already be so strong andpetent. The goblin silently hoped for Stolgob to one day manage to get Irgob¡¯s affection. ¡¯I believe in you, brother!¡¯ Then, there was the tribe¡¯s only mage Pokzgob, who was a slight bit older than him but still youthful, goblin¡¯s with talents in the arts of using the natural energies were rare, it was said in the tribe that before Pokzgob and his earth magic, there had only been three others capable of manipting energy. Though, after that they started speaking of how one of them had actually been a user of mind power and not mana, the goblin didn¡¯t understand anything from that point on. Neither did the other, they were just that much better at pretending to know. He ran around like this for the rest of the day, only allowing himself to take a break when night was falling. The sun was slowly beginning to dim, allowing the dark to set in. ¡¯Damn, this one¡¯s going to be pitch ck¡¯ he remarked to himself as he headed for the tent he and his family lived in. It was just within sight, some goblins were even sleeping outside, since the days and night had been growing warmer recently. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om As it turns out, the underground also replicated the passing of the seasons, how urate it was to the outside, nobody knew, the goblins didn¡¯t even know that there was an outside. The tribe was surrounded by basic fences, built alongside trees, it was sturdy and no dangerous animal or monsters could somehow find their way inside, although the most dangerous thing around were big deer monsters with bone tes on their head. They weren¡¯t that aggressive either way. The absolute darkness was soon to settle in but its reign was yet to be established, allowing the goblin to look over to the side, into the distance, seeing as far as the fence on this side of the tribe. He saw nothing of interest but his gaze still lingered in ce as he reached for the tent door, grabbing it, the goblin froze. He hadn¡¯t immediately realised it. There was something right up to the fence. No, it wasn¡¯t as close to the fence as he first thought, it was peeking from behind one of the trees, shrouded in shadows and leaves, something whitish seemed to be there. It was hugging the tree trunk, only allowing what looked like an arm and its head to be seen. He was utterly frozen in fear at the mere sight of this thing, his jaw hung low and his eyes quivered as his brain failed to decide between fight or flight. As though it could feel his state, the creature moved from behind the tree and moved right up to the fence, sticking one of its thin arms through. Slowly moving its hand, it showed the goblin its palm and then crooked its index finger. Mechanically moving it back and forth, urging him toe closer. It was enough for him to break out of his trance and scream. Chapter 9: Intrusion By the time other goblins came to see what was happening, the mysterious creature was long gone and the darkness was already settling in. There was nothing that could be done now, the goblin could only make a poor attempt at exining what he had seen. Putting his impression into words was overwhelmingly difficult however and he quickly realised that he hadn¡¯t seen much of this being at all, his idea of it was born solely from the sheer terror it had inspired into his heart and psyche. Really, after he managed to calm down, now that he wasying down and slowly feeling more and more tired, he tried to remember the details of this strange figure, its mannerisms, its appearance, anything. It only inspired a deep sensation of unease, everything about it was off putting and simply wrong. He remained on the edge of slumber for a while, ncing around the pitch ck tent, staring intensely in the direction of each little sound, no matter howmon the noises may have been, he couldn¡¯t help but associate them with the presence of the beast. Sleep eventually imed him however and he awoke the next day, refreshed and with his mind hazy, he slowly rose from his rudimentary, butfortable bedding on the ground. The image of the creature popped up in his mind again. Feeling a cold sweat overtake him in spite of the ambient heat, he got out of his tent before anyone else of his family, the sun blinded him severely, it took him a few minutes to get used to it. It seemed like he had awoken early, most of the goblins that had chosen to sleep outside were stillying there in random positions. The only ones that were missing were the hunters, today wasn¡¯t a hunting day but they were used to waking up early, since he couldn¡¯t see them around, it most certainly meant that they had gone to theke. The hunters were stronger and more careful than the rest, they were in group too so going to theke shouldn¡¯t be a problem for them. However¡­ The sheer terror the mysterious being had imnted straight into his soul never truly left his mind, always breathing down on his neck. ¡¯Are the hunters actually safe from this creature?¡¯ he couldn¡¯t help but wonder, he had heard a few things from elders, stories passed down from times the goblin couldn¡¯t even fathom. When this ce was much more dangerous and the diversity of danger was far wider than what it is now. Theke had once inhabited abominations of the deep, but the fishfolks had eradicated them all a while ago, the waters far from the shores had also once been said to be the breeding ground of corpse-like creatures. Theke was now as safe as it could possibly be however, only home to delicious meals and a perfect ce to sit back and rx. The goblin racked his mind for any legends of yore he might have heard over the years, but after a while, stopped to think about the strange creature. Stolgob had first spoken of something standing in the water, ording to his description, it was quite tall since it was half submerged but still almost as tall as the run of the mill goblin. Goblins around here were about one meter tall on average, not that any of them had a clue what a meter was, they used themselves as a basis to measure things. Stolgob was just about ten centimeters above average, marking him as a tall guy. Gobstroz on the other hand, was a whole fifty centimeters above average; marking him as a giant in the tribe and really everywhere around theke, all of the intelligent species inhabiting the area were rather small, all about the same size as them. If Stolgob hadn¡¯t seen awfully wrong, then the creature was even taller than the chieftain, corrting with what he had himself seen the night before. Not many goblins were taking the sightings very seriously, but the orders from the chieftain were respected wholeheartedly, he could tell them to start crawling around instead of walking and they would do it without a second thought. ¡¯What if it¡¯s one of those ancient creatures?! We arepletely unprepared for this sort of thing!¡¯ feeling panicked at this prospect, he thought about making his way to theke to tell the hunters but thinking about traversing the small portion of woods by himself gave him cold feet. So he just began to pace around the tribe, looking for something else to do whilst waiting for others to wake up. With how hot the whole ce was, there was no need to bother with the central fire, he instead went over the Gobert¡¯s tent, which he had upied alone, it was just a tent like all the rest, only much smaller because the old goblin had never had a mate or children. He stayed cooped up in there most of the time, in fact, he only ever got out when called out by the chieftain to put his talents to work or to spend some alone time at theke. Carefully entering the tent, almost expecting to find the elder just sitting there, he was struck by that hard to describe old person smell. It assaulted his senses nearly as much as the chieftain¡¯s smoke, but it was much easier to ignore. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Looking around in awe, he quickly came to realise that Gobert had been an even sharper mind than the other goblins believed, drawn on well-preserved tablet¡¯s of wood, were many symbols that he couldn¡¯t understand. Though, he knew what this meant about the missing elder. ¡¯He knew how to write and read!¡¯ it was no secret that the average goblin wasn¡¯t only small in size, but also in brain, in fact, the number of goblins with savvy minds could be counted on one hand. If one was the talk of the tribe, then it probably meant he or she was more well-off in that aspect. As such, while he had heard that they had a specifguage, he had never seen it. Gobert had had it in his possession this entire time. Intrigued, the goblin wanted to skim through the various tablets when a shout pulled him out of his thoughts, a blood-curdling one. Rushing out of the tent, it didn¡¯t take him too long to put one and one together upon seeing the scene before his eyes. The creature had infiltrated the tribe during the night. Chapter 10: Fear Wanting to make sure, or rather, wishing to disprove his own conclusion, he took unsteady but quick steps toward the growing crowd gathered where most of the goblins that had decided to sleep outside had been. All had awoken now. Except for one, who may appear to be sleeping on his stomach at first, only that he wasn¡¯t breathing and his face, which had faced the ground moments ago, was twisted into a stifled scream. His expression distorted by sheer terror, his green body had hints of purple intertwined into it, dried saliva had run from his mouth, all seemed to indicate that he had been suffocated by something. This goblin was the only one that had been killed. Whilst everyone was either panicking, trying to find out what had happened or just standing around without any clue about how to react, the young goblin could only realise the incongruity of the situation. By all means, it was no simple beast that had just wandered in and killed one of them, it had snuck through the fences, wandered into the tribe without being caught. When it decided to y a goblin, the creature chose to manoeuvre through the sleeping goblins outside and picked the one right in the center of it all, it seemed nothing short of illogical. The fact that it used suffocation of all means to do the deed was far from something anything they knew would or could do, on top of it all, this being had done it all without awakening anyone and then ced his body in the one way that would allow the corpse to pass of as slumbering. This was the work of a creature of great intellect, the choices it had made couldn¡¯t be random, it had done exactly what it wanted to do. It had shown them that they weren¡¯t safe, that an unknown beast could sneak up on them in their sleep whenever it wanted, kill them silently and leave without anyone ever being able toe to their aid. Of course, the goblins may be led to believe that the true culprit was one of them and not some mystical, never seen before creature risen from the depths of darkness. The youth only had to take one look inside of his fallen brethren¡¯s mouth to know otherwise however. The murder weapon was still obstructing his throat. A mass of pungent rot and vile, gooey ck blood was stuck in there, sticking and eroding at the soft tissue inside. The reek of death assaulted his senses relentlessly, making him gag and tear up simply for being in contact with it for an instant, he puked not far away. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The chattering amongst the green-skinned monster only got louder as their fear and worry spiked, the cold hand of the beast had now taken hold of all of their hearts, with just one death, they had all been affected deeply. Death of one of their peers didn¡¯t amount to much for them usually, they may be shocked at the moment, but ultimately, they would just take notes of the reason why that goblin died and avoid it. The unknown killer had done much more than this, he had rattled them to their cores, perhaps much more than it itself had expected. However, the goblins weren¡¯t a disorganised bunch, the instant the chieftain showed himself, in all his grandeur and authority, his mere presence soothed his tribesmen. They didn¡¯t know when, but Gobstroz had gone and gathered the hunters. With Stolgob and Pokzgob by his sides, there was no need for a motivational speech, this trio alone was a paramount to strength in this tribe, they may be uneducated, primitive and objectively stupid monsters all things considered, but around thiske, in this miniature world cut off from the rest of the world, they were actually the mightiest tribe. No one wanted problems with them. "You three!" he called three hunters over as he mmed the top of his stone club onto the ground. His stern and utterly serious disposition made everyone reflexively go down on their knees, making the tall goblin sigh and shake his head. "The three of you will travel to the other tribes and warn them of the unknown dangers, at once!" he didn¡¯t dilly dally on any details, the hunters knew what they needed for such a task and he didn¡¯t bother to exin his reasoning either. He could have tried and uncover what the culprit truly was before alerting the rest but that was simply idiotic to him, they had all achieved a sturdy state of peace and cooperation, also, even if he didn¡¯t particrly like any of them, they could still be allies in case there wasn¡¯t only a single monster. Gobstroz suppressed a slight smile as he prepared to continue speaking. "We will all be working toward improving our defences!" in the end, he couldn¡¯t help but smile as he saw everyone¡¯s expression turn sour instantly. It was a point of contention in the tribe, the fences had been built under the supervision of Gobert when he was still a youngster, so it had been a little bit more than ten years since then. The construction had always been meant to be expanded on and finalised, but finding arms willing to do that wasn¡¯t a simple task, it was probably even harder than actually finishing the defences. Now that fear would be fueling their movements, they would be building efficiently and with attention. Turning a bad event into a good one was the strongest suit of any leader, or so Gobstroz believed. As the three hunters finished packing up their things and the chieftain gave out other orders, the abhorrent murderer watched from afar, sitting in a tree. He thought nothing, looking simultaneously at the three messengers and the rest of the tribe. Which should Loimos eliminate first? Was it best to avoid the rest of the living being alerted or was it to clear up the bulk of the living here? Which option would lead to the demise of all life around theke the quickest? Chapter 11: Starved I stood back in the garden of my childhood home, the flowers were pretty. They smelled like nothing, nature was silent. The trees stood all in lines, perfect lines. There were no trees, there was only one. It repeated over and over, my childhood home had disappeared and only this tree existed. The ground was no more, the sky had been reced. The tree was everywhere. I shuddered and as one of the reflections died, withering away from old age. Another caught fire, was cut, another uprooted, one was devoured by termites. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om I bore witness to all of this one tree¡¯s possible fates, thousands of them yed out in front of my eyes as I was unable to look away or think. My vision faded to ck. My childhood home was back, the tree stood in front of me and I was made to bear witness to another fate. The true fate. -Extract from Quideos Audit¡¯s most recent vision Following from a distance, Loimos could see that the trio of hunters were debating something, they wouldn¡¯t be gone for a little while. He listened in on their conversations, having been privy to many conversations amongst the goblins, he already had an idea what the three designated messengers were busy talking about. They were discussing whether to go to the bark dwellers camp first orst. To understand why it mattered, one first needed to have an understanding of how theke and its surroundings. The soil surrounding theke formed the rough shape of a reversed U, the bottom of this shape led to the durable grey, brick wall, where Loimos hade from. If one assumed that the small ind was the center of this miniature world, which it wasn¡¯t, then, the wall of grey was south. The goblins were thus, west of the ind, below their tribe,id the camp of the bark dwellers, those monsters had no clear campground, they lurked the woods near the grey wall, their numbers unknown and their behaviourrgely shy and fearful. They were guided by The First Seed, a tree that had lived before them all and would most certainly outlive all of them. It was said to be able to manipte the woods around its body, making it impossible for mere monsters to stumble upon. It would only be found if it wanted to. There had been other asions Gobstroz had wanted to share words with the tree and its people, all hunters had heard about how it had once taken a whole week to be able to speak with it. Being that this was the only group below the goblins, the three hunters wondered whether they should get it out of the way right now, or leave forst. Common sense dictated to go with thetter, after all, bringing the message of a possible threat to as many tribes as possible should be done quickly. Thus leaving the most annoying and possibly time consuming one forst, despite not being the brightest, the three hunters eventually managed to get their facts straight. By the time they had finally decided, Loimos had already moved. He knew the goblins best out of all the tribes, their tricks, mindset, intelligence, options, he had studied them for a long while. They were also the most prominent one in spite of having such blockheads as hunters, wiping them out would leave an empty space in the chain of power. He decided that he would be taking those three out first. The skeleton had taken a good look at their supplies, they had packed some food and canteens of water. Each of them wielded a different weapon, one a hammer, another a spear and the third, a sling. Loimos held no doubt that each of them would be capable of breaking his skull and bones when given the asion. Thankfully, the living had plenty of exploitable weaknesses, their need to keep their stomach full and their bodies hydrated was one of their biggest ones. The undead knew that they would travel alongside a small stream, not all tribes were close to theke and if they wished to gather more food during their travels, sticking close to theke wasn¡¯t ideal, the line of sight was too broad, animals and monsters would see theming from far away. These goblins weren¡¯t expert fishers as well, not patient enough and with rough equipment, they never bothered to even try. With this knowledge in mind, Loimos ventured ahead of them, running at his full speed next to the stream. As an undead, Loimos could sprint at his maximum possible output constantly and without ever having to stop, even if he wasn¡¯t very fast, he had no issue leaving the three hunters in the dust. They walked to conserve energy, had to sleep when night fell, eat and drink, utterly meaningless activities. The undead arrived upstream way before they did, it would take them a few days to get up to his position, meanwhile, Loimos was free to put his n into action. Laying his body into the small stream, he began to work on growing as much of his putrid flesh as possible, constantly oozing rotten blood. After experimenting with it and learning more about himself, he had managed to willfully produce the flesh, after he had yed the goblin in the tribe, he felt his control grow. It wasn¡¯t simply due to what the system called ¡¯Experience¡¯ or ¡¯Stats¡¯, reaping a life had simply granted him a greater understanding of his own nature. The flowing water wasn¡¯t affected in the first few hours, but after a whole day, it took on a darker taint as the rot kept growing. Unlike before, instead of simply remaining there without doing anything, the pieces that detached from his bones stuck to other surfaces, trying to expand all on their own. They had no mind of their own, they simply inherited of Loimos¡¯s goal and tried to grow over life and snuff it out themselves. Remaining in ce for days and doing nothing but growing decay, Loimos stood up and suddenly began to travel back downstream. Eventually running into the three goblins. They were dehydrated, not willing to touch the water after what had happened to it. It seemed like they had wanted to move away from the stream and toward theke, but their intellectual inaptitude had caught up to them. They had eaten meat from a contaminated animal. Chapter 12: Easy Preys The sound of sickly coughing resounded throughout the woods, blood tainted by dark spots was sshed over the vibrant green grass. The spear-wielding goblin was contorting his body on the ground, desperately trying to find a spot that would allow him to find a form of sce in his plight, he mmed his hands on the ground, trying to offset the pain in his stomach. No matter how much he bled, he couldn¡¯t ignore it. The one with the hammer had gonepletely delirious, continuously trying to wash his mouth with the contaminated water, having grown convinced that he could onlybat fire with fire, he barely managed to drink correctly anymore, drowning himself. As for the one armed with the sling, he hadn¡¯t been blinded by pain or turned mad. He had eaten the least of the meat due to feeling sick when they caught the rabbit, whilst the other two had been continuously coughing blood, vomiting and suffering from severe diarrhoea. Those symptoms dehydrated them incredibly fast, but should have allowed them to clear their organisms of the rot they had ingested. The trio wasn¡¯t so lucky however, the rot stuck to their stomachs, gnawing at them from the inside and unaffected by the acid in their bellies or by their bowels movements, they didn¡¯t realise it but they were decaying from the inside out. The sling holder was more well-off than the rest however, thanks to thepletely unrted illness that had struck him, he still had a chance of making it to a safe ce, where he would perhaps be able to find someone with the medical capacities to cure him of his ailment. There was still hope. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Someone arrived, he heard footsteps. In spite of his condition, he was keenly aware that this wasn¡¯t a beast, he distinctively recognised a pair of two footsteps, not four. Only the intelligent tribes walked on two legs, smiling at his and hispanions incredible luck, he turned around tiredly, ready to justy down and let whoever that was figure things out. Instead of relief, it was nothing but fear and iprehension which overtook him, he fell on his butt as the strength was drained from his legs, they trembled without stopping, he knew very well that anything would be able to finish him off. His state made him incredibly vulnerable. The goblin¡¯s gaze was fixated on the tall being that was standing beside his delirious fellow hunter. That fool hadn¡¯t even realised that something was standing beside him. Wanting to cry out to warn the other two of impending danger, he opened his mouth only for a faint grunt toe out, his throat was too dry for him to shout, it only prompted him to cough up dark blood. Instead, he could only analyse the unknown creature in front of him. It was still day, he could make out every feature without problem. Fact was, that it clearly was a skeleton, that he could tell with certainty, he had seen many of those and even kept some skulls as trophies, what he couldn¡¯t wrap his head around was what it was supposed to belong to and why it was walking without its flesh. A more knowledgeable version of himself would have likened the moving remains to that of a human, maybe an elf or anything of that build, though it wasn¡¯t quite right either. The fiendish, pointy teeth were terribly off-putting, what sort of creature would need nothing but those sort of teeth? Only a creature that didn¡¯t need to chew or eat would find use for such things. It was much taller than a goblin, it was even taller than Gobstroz. It was quite lean in shape but eighty centimeters taller than the average goblin, any of them, even the fiercest and bravest of them would be stunned by having to crank their necks up so much to look this thing in the eyes. All that just to stare directly into hollow pits of darkness, if this goblin wasn¡¯t a hunter that had gone further into the woods to face truly dangerous monsters, he would have started crying already. Though he probably would be soon where he notpletely drained of the water in his body, the skeletal undead ignored the madly drinking goblin and walked up to the spear-wielder, picking up his weapon off the ground. It wasn¡¯t exactly simple for the undead to hold the spear, one was supposed to have something else on their hands for such activities, though it appeared like after a few moments, the monster figured out a way somehow. Pointing the stone tip at the goblin in pain, he casually pushed the point against his throat until it pierced. Twisting it a bit and shaking it inside the wound, he pulled it out just as calmly before turning his attention back to the delirious one, kicking him in the back of the head into the stream before stomping on his upper back, maintaining him under water for multiple minutes as thest goblin watched in horror. His legs refused to fulfil their one purpose for existing, so he was forced to crawl the earth upon his belly. This method of transportation was subpar at best, even with a head start of multiple minutes, the goblin was caught up to without any problem. Pushing himself onto his back, he grabbed a hold of the rocks used for his sling and tried to throw them at the malevolent creature. The skeleton had already dropped the spear and picked up the hammer instead, swinging at the goblin¡¯s forearm, the green fellow¡¯sst ditch effort was nullified and without getting to voice out his head was repeatedly bashed in. It took an absurd amount of hits before Loimos was able to truly kill the monster, he stared at the hammer, the weight of it in his hand was¡­ Off to say the least, it was poor craftsmanship and hisck of knowledge pertaining to the usage of weapons was also to me for this messy carnage. He had held the other goblin¡¯s head under water for much longer than was necessary too, but these sorts of skills came with trial and error. Loimos went on to take care of the bodies before returning to the rest of the tribe. Chapter 13: Stalk After Loimos was done dragging the bodies back to the dwelling of the undeads, he stepped back in the small area where he had yed the three goblins, something he never could have done so easily had he not intoxicated them first. He had known that his rot was adverse to anything living just like an undead, but he hadn¡¯t known just how potent it could be when ingested by one of them. He had dug through their guts to get an idea of just how little was needed to aplish the effects it had had on them and as it turned out, very little despite he and his rot still being weak. Killing those three had further empowered him, even if only by a bit, he could feel like he was close to unlocking more of his abilities. Normally, an undead wouldn¡¯t need to kill more than a single living being to get ess to their natural abilities, if they didn¡¯t have them unlocked by default like most. The forsaken undeads Loimos had met were simply drained of nearly all of their death force, he hadn¡¯t been and still needed quite the push to get the basic undead kit. He didn¡¯t ponder over it however and simply began to walk back toward the goblin tribe, after they were dealt with, dealing with the other tribes would be much simpler, especially now that the undead realised that he could simply taint their water supplies. Once he had infected all of the small streams and ponds, he would go on for the entireke, both the tribes and vegetation would be forced to sustain themselves on water he had gone into or refuse to drink, leading to the same oue. The best oue. It had only been a little while since the three hunters had gone away, though Loimos¡¯s sense of passing time wasn¡¯t to be trusted, a few years and a few seconds didn¡¯t share many differences to him. No matter how long he had truly taken to take the goblins out, the rest of their tribe had made some progress on their defences, it wasn¡¯t a shoddy job at all, the parts they had reinforced and improved on wouldn¡¯t allow him to get through any more. There was even one goblin doing some curious things. He was just moving his hands around, incredibly focused and sweating despite just standing there. ¡¯Magic¡¯ Loimos grasped his actions as he looked at the ground underneath the upgraded fences, it was barren and seemed much more solid than normal soil. Though the skeleton didn¡¯t know the finer details of the goblin¡¯s magic, he understood that he was condensing the ground to prevent anything from digging its way into the tribe. Loimos¡¯s first idea upon knowing of their intent was to dig, but it seemed like the goblins were being supervised by one that had more potent brain power. Although he had difficulties differencing goblins from one another, males and females truly looked simr. He had still managed to separate a few individuals and pinpoint some distinctive features on each of them. The chieftain, Gobstroz was obviously the most recognisable, his strength wasn¡¯t to be underestimated, the oddly finely-made stone club he carried around was clearly heavy and yet, he just strutted around with it all day long without tiring. One clean hit, even by this goblin¡¯s fists would destroy Loimos for certain. Stolgob was in the same category, although he wasn¡¯t carrying a specific weapon around and was much shorter than the chieftain, he would be able to grind the skeleton into bone meal without a problem. The one waving his hands around was Pokzgob, a mage with an affinity for the ground below by the looks of it. Though it seemed like condensing the soil directly was quite draining for him, when he was creating earth out of thin air to form a shape, probably to illustrate whatever he was talking about concerning the fence, he had no such troubles. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Loimos supposed that forming an element from magic was simpler than controlling actual earth. He would have to look out for this guy especially, for he didn¡¯t understand more about magic, he could only recognise its usage but that was it, he had no clue what sort of force allowed this one goblin to manifest earth. Pokzgob didn¡¯t seem nearly as physically threatening as the other two, however, with his ample belly and small arms, he was clearly weaker than the average hunter of the tribe. Then there was another one Loimos took notice of, he had no clue what this one¡¯s name was. He wasn¡¯t chubby like the mage, quite skinny and unimposing, smaller than the average goblin, he was a non-threat in appearance but he clearly carried himself differently from the rest. Loimos kept on observing the goblins at work, he went through what he had learned during his time under water near the ce they usually went. The chieftain wouldn¡¯t leave the tribe reliably often enough and would most certainly havepany, he was out of reach for the time being. The undead didn¡¯t believe that he could be snuck up on in his sleep or otherwise either. The nameless goblin seemed quite fearful at all times, much more alert than the rest, the mage also had his own bodyguards now, Gobstroz wasn¡¯t taking any chances with the unknown threat. It only left Stolgob that, while not simpler to take down, had the advantage of having a grave weakness, which would allow Loimos to get him out of the tribe. That is only if he managed to gather the right parameters however, which he couldn¡¯t be certain that he would be able to meet. So for now, he shall simply await in ambush at theke, it didn¡¯t matter if other goblins saw their brethren be pulled in theke and killed, they would always need toe gather water. When they were too focused on protecting themselves while going, it would slow down the construction of their defences. Loimos was going to whittle down their numbers and gather their corpses. Chapter 14: Off "Do you think there really is an unknown monster roaming around?" a goblin carrying a bucket in each of her hands questioned without looking back. "Heh, doesn¡¯t matter, we¡¯re going to kill it!" another carrying a small spear replied boisterously. "Argh, didn¡¯t you listen to the chieftain? We need to be super careful, let¡¯s get the water and head back" a third goblin shook his head, he was clutching his primitive hammer tightly. The one with the spear rolled his eyes. "Pay more attention to her! What are we going to look like if something just grabs her and swims away?! Huh?!" the cautious goblin stayed close to the female whilst the more rxed one just faced a tree and began to take a much needed leak. "No animal or monster will attack when there are multiple of us!" he spoke from behind the tree, stretching his neck and still barely catching a glimpse of the other two. "I hear that on the other side, the kobolds have to deal with some big lizards that wait in the water near the shore, waiting to grab them, maybe that¡¯s what got Gobert?" the female goblin leaned closer to the imprable waters and filled one of the buckets. "Those are some old stories, the kobolds have long gotten rid of them with the help of the fishfolks" the cautious one corrected her, wholly believing that the source of their worries was unknown. "Which kobolds? The scaly ones or the furry ones? Mmh?" the goblin with a spear asked from behind the tree as he was finishing his business. "The dogs are the only ones near theke you idiot" the other goblin was getting fed up with this guy. "I got the buckets" she spoke up and began walking away from the shore, not feeling veryfortable with it. She could barely see her own reflection in theke, anything could be right beneath the surface and she would have no clue. "Where did he go?" the goblin with the hammer tensed up as his annoying brethren was nowhere to be found. His first thought was that he was being a pain in the ass again, until he looked down at where he had been standing. In perfect equilibrium on a de of grass, a small drop of blood attracted his attention, looking around the tree, he quickly found a trail of blood leading straight into theke. "..." "..." "Let¡¯s go" feeling his throat constricting, he spoke with utmost calm, feeling like panicking would get him killed. He grabbed the goblin with the buckets by the arm and began to calmly walk away, fearing that going too fast would only prompt the mysterious beast to strike. Looking back at theke, he saw a faint shape retreating back into the water, he didn¡¯t say anything. ______________ Loimos stayed near the shore for a few moments before going to drag the newly acquired corpse back with the rest. In the center of the room with all of the ancient undeads, a small pile of bodies had been arranged. Consisting of six rtively fresh goblins, as well as a variety of animals and monsters that hadmitted the grave mistake of drinking suspicious water, Loimos had begun sensing death force, allowing him to track down the remains of the unfortunate wildlife. His control over his rot had also increased, he could coat his entire hand with it in ten seconds and also produce the blighted blood on its own. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Apart from those bodies, there were also skeletal remainsying around, thanks to being able to feel death force, the undead had managed to discover where the goblins buried their dead, they didn¡¯t have a designated location for that. They just buried them wherever, which was how he had retrieved the body of the goblin he had suffocated in the dead of night and collected many other remains. The cloud of death the mass was forming was beginning to resemble something else. cing a skeletal hand on the decaying pile, Loimos felt like something could be done with it now. _________ After the death of that one goblin, dishonourably ambushed with his loincloth down, things had suddenly calmed down, two weeks went by without anything weird happening. "Hum, something¡¯s not right, I feel like something is wrong" the chieftain repeated himself as he stroked his grey beard. His well-honed instincts were tingling, the odd beast should have struck again and he refused to wallow in the possibility that it had gone away or died off without anyone knowing. He had reached the point where he now stood by being much more cautious than the rest, which wasn¡¯t saying much about him since most of the other goblins weren¡¯t examples of intelligence by any means. Still, he could feel that a storm was brewing. He could only await for the three hunters to do their diligence once every other chieftain was alerted, he would use his and their own influence to make The First Seed move its old roots and at least point out the threat to them. The ancient tree didn¡¯t interact much, Gobstroz always suspected that it was because he wasn¡¯ active much at all, spending most of its time in some sort of sleep, or whatever trees did. If the threat was serious enough, it would deal with it and the status quo would return to normal. He looked around, his tribesmen were hard at work. "Stolgob!" the best hunter was currently on one knee and trying to charm Irgob, the fairest of the younger goblin¡¯s generation. Gobstroz didn¡¯t quite understand the point of such theatrics, in his time, if you were strong enough, you just walked up to whoever you wanted as your mate and proimed it. Shaking his head as he realised that he hadpletely missed out on the new ways of the youth, he watched as Stolgob waved his hands around at Irgob before hurrying his way. "Yes chieftain?" he asked respectfully. "I will need you to oversee some new work I will be putting in ce, gathering the strongest hunters, you guys will be uprooting the trees around the tribes and bringing them back in" the chieftain didn¡¯t want anything to be able to get above the fence by climbing up on a tree. He also wanted to have a stronger presence outside and around, clearing up the vegetation will also prevent the unknown monster from approaching unseen. ¡¯Something is definitely off¡­¡¯ Chapter 15: Beginning The piled up corpses had been reduced to a pound of rotten flesh with jagged bones protruding from its bloated mass. It was pulsating, squirming and moving. Oozing blood corrupted by decay, it was dark and gooey, moving along the ground, crawling up the walls and covering the ceiling. The undeads were being filled with death force, their hollow sockets burning with ghostly mes. The mass of putrefaction emitted a visible smog, a miasma of death that searched for nothing more than filled every crevasses avable, it yearned for life, to destroy and corrupt it until only death remained. Loimos was the source of it all, putting his own rot maniption to work, he had transfigured the corpses into what could be likened to a machine which purpose was nothing more than constantly pumping this murderous fog. The undead had gained a greater understanding of his singr ability, he had understood even before the system had put this ability into words. *Primeval Rot* Its name wasn¡¯t of much importance, though the fact that the system ced it apart from the rest might have been deemed of interest to some. Loimos didn¡¯t bother much with this system, it wasn¡¯t like he needed its help to use his rot. Probing the swollen pile, he remained still and observed it for a while, sooning to the conclusion that it wasn¡¯t going to remain in function for a long, multiple weeks wasn¡¯t a long time at all. He was going to need to add more corpses to it, perhaps after a certain threshold, it wouldn¡¯t need anymore to remain in ce for eternity. Therge skeleton, which had been standing in a corner and staring at the wall for an indeterminate amount of time, suddenly straightened its pose, turned and looked up, blighted blood drooping on its skull. Its death force had been greatly empowered thanks to the miasma, it now seemed strangely active. Grabbing its lower jaw, it clicked it back into ce with a sudden jerk of the hand, its jaw now fixed it wasted no time and suddenly opened it, somehow emitting a loud roar in spite ofcking all the necessary equipment required. ¡¯Not quite death force¡¯ Loimos recognised the feeling of death from the roar but it had clearly not been aplished using the energy of the undeads. He wagered that it had done this using the same sort of energy used in magic as he followed after therge undead as it began barreling toward the shut stone door. All of the ancient undeads followed suit, though the strongest of them didn¡¯t require their help, pushing hard enough to flung the doors open and cause one to fall off its hinges. Loimos hadn¡¯t gone to check it out himself, but he had expected this sort of scenery. The path leading up to the door was quite long, it wasn¡¯t too surprising that they would all end up on solid ground in the woods next to theke. They should be fairly close-by to the goblin tribe, though there was another obstacle in the way. Small shapes emerged from the trees, staring at the undeads with curious, glowing yellow eyes. The bark dwellers didn¡¯t recognise the undeads for what they were, they were just like the goblins, ignorant. Though, even the least intelligent of species didn¡¯t need to know what an undead was to feel fear at their sight. The miasma, which had been locked up inside of the confines hadn¡¯t been able to expand beyond the door, at the touch of the soft tall grass, it began to travel a little bit faster, hungry for the nt¡¯s life force. The bark dwellers were all running away, their survival was only thanks to The First Seed in the first ce, they were under its protection and didn¡¯t know how to deal with conflict on their own. So they all retreated into the woods, hoping that their godfather¡¯s maniption of the woods would keep the terrifying corpses away from them. The undeads seemed on the verge of giving chase but stopped upon hearing a distinctive ¡¯ck¡¯ noise. None could actuallymunicate with one another but they all shared the same goal, they already seemed to acknowledge Loimos as an undead that should be followed, so they stopped and stayed still as he closed his jaw shut. Seemingly unwilling to borate he simply began picking up the vegetation that had been drained of life and the rest followed suit. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om There was no need to rush in, be destroyed and waste perfectly good chances of killing life, the simplest way of taking out all life in here was to feed the generator of miasma. In the state that it was now, it could only restore the undeads to their true glory by filling up the missing death force animating them. Case in point, Loimos hadn¡¯t seen much improvement at all unlike the rest who could now run around and burst through stone doors when they struggled with moving around before. The miasma did have the property of enhancing the dead beyond their current limits but it was faint enough that it could be ignored. It was also having a struggle with des of grass, these living couldn¡¯t defend themselves at all. The miasma was the bare minimum, goblins would be able to walk through it without much problem. Instead of running after the bark dwellers, the small undead troop began to gather the drained vegetation and dig up whatever remains they could find. They brought the swollen mass of rot out into the open too, elerating the rate at which they could fuel it, the more they fueled it, the faster it drained the surroundings of life. The faster life around it was killed, the more it could be fueled, resulting in an endless loop that could only end once nothing was alive and everything had been converted to death. It was also to be mentioned that everything the smog eradicated counted as if Loimos had done it himself, because it was exactly what was happening. The fog and rot were all his. Once entire trees began to be drained, it was simply the beginning of the end. Or rather, it was the beginning. Chapter 16: From The Fog "Yeah, I knew something was off" surrounded by the utter chaos and collective hysteria his tribe had devolved into, Gobstroz felt oddly cold-headed as he stared ahead at the ever growing wall of dark fog. The smog was high, seemingly expanding in height faster than it spread on the ground. Its effects were obvious, seeing the nts and trees falling apart, growing strange, tumour-looking fleshy protuberances, oozing a dark and gooey substance, it was clearly something no one would want to touch under any circumstances. He had no clue whether or not this was rted to his previous problem of mysterious creature and he frankly didn¡¯t care, at the rate this thing was progressing, it would engulf his tribe in a week, and that was being optimistic. This deadly smoke wouldn¡¯t care for their improved defences and might, it wasn¡¯t something he could face in a fight, it was a natural disaster, the first to ever befall the inhabitants of this underground world. "Chieftain?" a mousy voice called out to him. "Go on" he gave permission to speak as he turned around, not bothering to identify who was speaking, any ideas, no matter how idiotic was worth listening to at the moment. ¡¯Oh, it¡¯s that kid, what was his name again?¡¯ he recognised the goblin that had spoken to him about Gobert¡¯s disappearance, an unremarkable member of the tribe, easily forgotten about. Gobstroz still managed to remember this fellow¡¯s name. "Imigob, what is the matter?" he added as he saw that his tribesman was still hesitant about giving his opinion. "Hurm, chieftain, I, I have an idea to slow down the mist" he looked away as he spoke. "Then go ahead, exin" Gobstroz nudged him to continue, grabbing him by the shoulder and forcing him to stand up as he brought the smaller goblin next to him, both facing the unstoppable miasma. "Well, I noticed something about it¡­" he was still fidgety but kept on nheless. "If you could look over there¡­" he pointed at the ground in front of the death cloud. "The grass and flowers die faster than than bushes and trees, and the mist advances faster into those areas as well, so-" "Oh!" The chieftain mmed his fist into his hand as he understood, he hadn¡¯t thought of it like that, but hearing about it from Imigob made him realise this obvious fact. "So it would seem that the mist progresses at the speed at which it can kill things, growing over the areas it had already grazed¡­" the young goblin finished his thought. "I think I see where you are going, but go on Imigob!" the chieftain pped the goblin¡¯s bald head, encouraging him. "O-Okay! I would suggest that we burn the ground and vegetation in between the mist and the tribe, so as to slow its approach" Imigob stared into the miasma as he spoke. "That¡¯s what I thought, howe I never heard that you had such a good head on your shoulder" the chieftain began to walk away, scooping some of the panicked goblins to go and do some scorched earth tactic. Imigob remained in ce, staring at the approaching smog with a fearful expression, looking from behind the false safety of the fence, he saw something move. He tensed up, his eyes widening as he stared at the vague shape moving and pushing through the dense mist. N?v(el)B\\jnn ¡¯It¡¯s¡­ Getting thicker?¡¯ the miasma was turning darker and proliferating faster, it was all happening so fast, he could hardly believe it. With a thud, a huge, skeletal monster emerged from the fog, covered in a dark, oily liquid, it yelled out toward the tribe. Before the sound could reach Imigob, his mind had already gone into overdrive, analysing in too much detail every single thing within his sight. Therge beast wasn¡¯t alone, smaller beings simr to it were following, all appearing like walking corpses. Their empty eyes smouldering with dark fires, they didn¡¯t rush forward and simply stood there after making their presence known. Imigob¡¯s attention was centered on what filled thergest monster¡¯s ribcage, the mass of pure rot was pushing against its ribs, sticking to its body and entangling around its bones. The miasma wasing from within this creature. The young goblin opened his mouth as he turned around, ready to shout about the danger when the roar reached him. Him and all of the other green monsters suddenly grew pale as their muscles tensed up, their heart rates suddenly slowed before growing stronger and harder, this roar had just instilled something into their minds. They had been forcefully made to realise that they could die at any moment. The roar wasn¡¯t powerful enough to paralyse the strongest members of the tribe and only halted their steps for an instant, still, most of the goblins were left stumped in ce. Unable to do anything as the undead troop got into action, grabbing chunks off of the rotten mass, they began throwing those torn pieces over the fence, at the foot of the fence and nearly everywhere else. The small bits quickly began to start growing, corrupting the rich life in the air, much richer than anywhere else due to being so close by to the dwelling ce of the goblins, a species with more lifeforce than the mundane nts and trees. The undeads then retreated back into the miasmic cloud, disappearing from sight after leaving the goblins to deal with the rot, which had seen some severe improvement after being nourished so much. "Burn the crap they threw at us! Don¡¯t leave any stone unturned, burn it all!" the chieftain yelled out, dragging the mortified goblins out of their stupors. ¡¯Damn, those things got all the way over there? Then does it mean that The First Seed was taken out?¡¯ the mist had since long covered the entirety of the bark dwellers¡¯s living space, but Gobstroz had still been hesitant to count the old tree as dead. It was, by all means, the mightiest being of this miniature world, nothing got close to even matching its power and control. If it had fallen, there was little hope for them, mere monsters. Chapter 17: The First Seed Loimos stood in the middle of the forest, now turned into a wastnd, facing a huge, leafless tree. The tree wasn¡¯t simplyrge, it had a face, the face of an old man sprouting out from the trunk, looking down on the undead. The old wood creaked and cracked as the ancient tree smiled softly, though there was a certain sense of madness to it. Loimos wasn¡¯t familiar enough with the facial expressions of the living to get much of that disy, he simply stayed in ce. The tree wasn¡¯t being affected by the life-devouring miasma, in fact, there was some sort of bubble free of the smog surrounding the overgrown nt. "Your soul, it is quite special, undead" it spoke slowly, its voice deep, so deep that it seemed toe from the depth of this very world. "You are an undead unlike any other, dead in all forms and shapes, never having tasted the sweetness, delicateness, bitterness of life" it chuckled, the voice was neither masculine nor feminine. Loimos couldn¡¯t and didn¡¯t wish to respond, he was only there to try and figure out a way to bypass the tree¡¯s defences. Upon being exposed to its voice however, it became clear to the skeleton that The First Seed wasn¡¯t nearly as simple as the goblins and other tribes believed, the voice wasn¡¯t truly present physically. But it wasn¡¯t urring within Loimos¡¯s undead mind, he could clearly feel how it wasmunicating with him. Soul to soul, they were much closer to one another as it seemed. "Truly an antithesis" it mused aloud without borating. A sudden burst struck Loimos, eradicating his left arm entirely, he didn¡¯t make a sound or any sudden movements, he didn¡¯t feel any pain or emotion. "I was aiming for the head, I wasn¡¯t off either, I shall watch your movements with great interest" not aggravated by missing his attempt at destroying the undead, the old tree began to fall into pieces. The protective bubble disappeared, allowing the miasma to consume the remnants of The First Seed. He didn¡¯t receive any word from the system telling him about ying anything, and he could trust the system for this, since it told him about every single thing he killed, from the smallest bit of grass and insects. Anything that was alive was counted by the system, so not getting anything for the ancient tree meant that it had lived, considering the soul to soul proximity Loimos had just experienced, it must have evacuated and simply left after using this tree¡¯sst bit of life force to try and destroy him. The st hadpletely erased his arm however and he had no idea if he could regrow it, it should be possible, he just didn¡¯t know how to. He didn¡¯t dwell on this small loss in the least and instead moved from his position, the other undeads should have already been done dispersing small bits of the miasma generator. Loimos looked back at said generator, the piece that barely fitted inside of therger skeleton¡¯s rib cage had been cut out of it, it had begun growing exponentially, moving it was impossible for the small group now, but seeing the rate at which it was now pumping out rot, blighted blood and miasma without growing any weaker even without nourishment was well enough. Grabbing a piece of the decay, he stuck it in his own rib cage and walked into theke, the surface of the water quickly darkening as he went by the goblin tribe. Taking a quick look out of the water, the goblins were running around frantically, trying to deal with the small bits of rot thrown around and not quite seeding as miasma had already begun to gnaw at their homes and defences, spreading much too fast. It was already toote for them to salvage anything and they instead started to save whatever they could. ¡¯They are going to leave¡¯ they had no other choice, they were going to run away from their own birthce, leave it all behind and try to reach another tribe. Loimos knew that they would have to follow along the edge of theke, for he had already contaminated all other water sources in between the goblins and the next tribe, which was inhabited by scaly monsters with snake tails. They weren¡¯t the smartest bunch and had already suffered greatly from his actions, even if the goblins managed to reach them, they would be greatly disappointed. To ensure that maximum damage was dealt to the goblins, Loimos quickly made his way toward the small, central ind and nted a small portion of rot on the tree there before returning near the shores. Sitting at the bottom of the water, he began producing the maximum amount of rotten blood he could, quickly tainting the water. The goblins wouldn¡¯t be able to get water from anywhere, apart maybe from some wild fruits, they would only be able to satiate their thirst by drinking the blood of beasts and monsters, which were most certainly already all contaminated to some extent. They would either slowly die or be forced to venture deeper into theke to get some untouched water. Loimos couldn¡¯tpletely extend his rot to the entirety of theke in so little time. If they tried to do that however, they would be attacked from beneath. Maimed and dragged into the depth, there was no cutting it, Loimos didn¡¯t need to put any of the ns he had thought of to deal with the tribe¡¯s strongest members, they would have to die without being able toy their eyes on him. Gobstroz had the sheer might to take on all of the undeads by himself, but it didn¡¯t matter. Nothing mattered for them anymore, they would simply have to ept death, something no living being could do. After their lives were reaped, it would be time for the next tribe, and then the next, until the entirety of this small world was overtaken by death. The miasma will eventually condense and force its way beyond the limits of this ce. Loimos didn¡¯t know what was beyond here, but he would be finding out soon enough.N?v(el)B\\jnn Chapter 18: Desperation ¡¯We are all dead¡¯ Imigob weakly, but correctly assessed the current situation. One didn¡¯t need his above average brain to figure that out, the only goblin¡¯s that weren¡¯t convinced of their fast approaching demise were the ones that were already dehydrated and starved. "I¡¯ll¡­ I am going to get water¡­" a goblin hunter with a bleak look in his eyes said as he stared further into theke, where water wasn¡¯t polluted by the reeking death. "You¡¯ll never make it, it¡¯s in the water, it¡¯s probably watching and listening to us right now, you¡¯ll just get killed¡­" Imigob reminded the hunter of what lurked out of reach, out of sight, that a rotting carcass that only wished for them to resemble itself awaited in ambush. "...I" the hunter hesitated for an instant, swallowing his saliva to soothe his dry throat "I¡¯m going to risk it" he had nothing to lose and didn¡¯t care for Imigob toe up with reason, he rushed toward theke. Grabbing hold of a bucket, he held his spear tightly as he ignored the headache and nausea his sudden movement brought him,pletely focused, he didn¡¯t hear the shoutsing from behind him. It was all white noise to him. Thrusting the spear into the ground, he rose his body up, propelling himself through the air and above the darkened waters, he flew through the air, eyeing the clean water with intensity. Holding the bucket above his head, he allowed his body to hit the water in the most painful way, so as to not sink in too much and avoid tainting the bucket with the filthy water. He wasn¡¯t so smart, he was stupid, below average even by goblin standards, but in the state he was now, nothing was left to chance, swimming the few meters separating him from the drinkable water, he filled the bucket and rising it above his head as far as he could, he began swimming back through vile, oily liquid. ¡¯Is he going to make it?¡¯ Stolgob had been watching from afar, silently rooting for him in spite of not believing that he would survive in the least. Now however, the goblin seemed fast approaching, closing in on the shore and escaping from danger with a valuable prize. "He is making it!" another goblin eximed, wholly unaware of what was going on beneath the water. Loimos had just been standing a distance from where the goblin had made his heroic leap, he just walked over, looked up at the swimming green monster and simply grabbed his ankle, hoisting himself up since even with the improvements of his ability to move under water, he couldn¡¯t actually swim just yet. Even with only one arm, Loimos wasn¡¯t shaken off as the goblin began to panic and struggle, the hunter was fatigued, his stomach empty, he had no energy to struggle with. The biggest and strongest were the first to feel the strain of ack of nutrition, the hunter stood no chance of prying the undead off of him, especially since he had to keep the bucket full of delectable water above the rotten blood. Loimos bite right through the monster¡¯s ankle repeatedly, until it was barely holding on by a thread of flesh, his bones dented and chewed, the blighted blood touched and mixed with his sanguine wound, bringing a pain he never could have imagined, making him drop the clean water and sink. Trying to scream out in pain reflexively, he swallowed some of the surrounding water, between the pain, shock, confusion and terror, he failed to notice that the weight pulling him down had changed its position. Thest sight the rest of the tribe had of the brave hunter was of him struggling to move before a horrid undead burst out from the water behind him. With one missing arm, filthy bones oozing rot and blood, he resembled a foul creature of the depth, grabbing the goblin by the head, Loimos sunk his teeth infected by decay into the goblin¡¯s throat, quickly forcing the twitching mess down under. Straight to the bottom, the instant his life force left his body, the skeleton began converting his corpse into rot to fuel the generator still embedded in his rib cage. Theke was growing darker. ¡¯We are all dead¡¯ Imigob reiterated his earlier thoughts, he had allowed his heart to be fueled by hope for an instant, but it had served as nothing more than poison, only reinforcing his nihilistic belief. Their numbers, their prodigal members, their defences, it was all for naught. "We are no match for the dead" heid on the ground, his empty gaze fixated at the sun up above as it slowly grew dimmer. It wasn¡¯t time for night yet, a dark cloud had begun rising in the air, the miasma pursuing them was only growing stronger and faster as time went on, and now, it was expanding its cruel dominion over to the skies. It made no doubt in the goblin¡¯s mind that the very sun itself would soon be consumed and be nothing more than another medium for the rot to spread even further. "We have been forsaken by the gods" Stolgob looked over to the love of his life, Irgob who was currently spouting some pretty scary stuff. He would have liked to say something tofort her but really had no clue what he should say about this. Say that there were no gods? That¡¯s depressing if she truly believed in them. Say that they hadn¡¯t been abandoned? That was just wishful thinking . n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "We are not dead yet, we can still triumph" in the end, he settled to just push back the inevitable and also use a big word to show off how smart he was. Silence had befallen the entire tribe after witnessing the hunter¡¯s brutal death. Pokzgob, the mage of the tribe approached the chieftain with a grim expression. "I have been sensing the vibrations in the earth" he began, his face told of his mental tiredness as he had been circting his mana into the ground without stop. Gobstroz nodded his head, indicating for the mage to keep on speaking. "The serpent-men appears to have all died off, I sensed no movementsing from the direction of their viges, it makes no doubt that they have all sumbed to the rot and will soon be new sources for the mist¡­" he gritted his teeth and looked away "...We have no other choice but to push past and move toward the fishfolks" he concluded and turned away. Loimos emerged from the water, onto the small ind, within sight of all the goblins, holding up the disembodied and already rotting head of the hunter. A sign of what was toe. Chapter 19: Emerging "It won¡¯t stop, it will never stop, stop, stop, why won¡¯t it stop?!" Imigob crawled to the ground and assumed the form of a ball, delirium was slowly creeping up onto him. Its vile tendrils of pure white probing and pinching at his mind, at his brain, his soul. Pulling and stretching, pulling and stretching. It wouldn¡¯t stop, it won¡¯t stop, it refuses to stop. The pain was getting greater, yet lessening at the same time, colours and shapes were blending together, was it his vision deteriorating or was it the effects of the approaching miasma? He was having difficulties telling reality from the hallucinations brought by his malnourished body, slowly approaching death, its grasp was cold and the fear it installed into his heart didn¡¯t fall. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Aware that death was inevitable, he thought that the terror would eventually begin to fade away, dilute as he slowly began to decay alive. He was wrong. Standing up to his feet, he was unable to stop himself from scanning his surroundings, still looking for a way out. Few goblins still retained coherence and autonomy, despite being blessed by intelligence and sapience, they weren¡¯t high up on that scale, starvation and dehydration ravaged them much faster than one might expect. Imigob enjoyed the luxury of a greater mind, he was able to see his brethren falling apart, the proud hunters, much more skilled and powerful than he was, they wouldn¡¯t be able to put up any fight in the state they were in. "Still not stopping¡­" he sounded like an old tree copsing under its own weight, his throatpletely dry, the thought of quenching himself with the pungent water forced its way into his brain for an instant. He looked up as a shadow was cast over him. Was the chieftain here? The figure seemed tall enough to be the old goblin, but the rays of sunlight passing through the shape¡¯s body was a clear indicator proving otherwise. Loimos had stepped out of the water, looking straight ahead, where the two strongest of the tribe were standing. Pokzgob, the earth mage was out cold, he had exerted himself trying to prevent the undead from hitting the tribe with throws of rot. Gobstroz and Stolgob had done their best to retain their strength and lucidity, but they had still fallen tremendously from their peaks, meanwhile, as the miasma progressed and engulfed more and more life- Loimos hadn¡¯t stopped growing stronger bit by bit, the arm lost to The First Seed wasn¡¯t back yet, but it was steadily reforming. Still, it seemed doubtful that he would be able to face them head-on, doubtful in their eyes, but obvious in his hollow sockets, he focused on the closest goblin. Imigob¡¯s eyes widened as he tried to step back, but he was too weak for any sudden movements, he felt the world turn around as he fell to the ground, not any further from danger. He raised his arms defensively but his actions couldn¡¯t matter less, none could reach and assist him in time, the chieftain and prodigal hunter tried to take aim, strike the undead with something and force him away. They had failed to properly evaluate their state, Stolgob missed entirely, his stone knifending straight into the corrupted water behind the undead. As for Gobstroz, he tried to focus too hard, more than what his mental capacity would allow in just an instant, his club didn¡¯t leave his hands, his vision doubled and felt like he was more likely to hit anything but the skeleton. Loimos bit right into Imigob¡¯s arm, grabbing him by his other arm, he dragged him away with ease, like an adult picking up a small child. Struggling amounted to nothing, Loimos submerged himself alongside his prey, not giving a thought about the fact that he was killing a monster with a bright future ahead of himself, Imigob was a genius never seen before in the tribe. Talent and potential couldn¡¯t save him from drowning. It didn¡¯t take long for him to stop moving, the rotten waters, now constituted of more vile blood than anything else corroded his eyes, lips and any soft tissue, invading his throat and lungs, he passed out from pain before suffocating. His life force dissipated, turning and transforming, shifting into death force. Loimos didn¡¯t bother to turn the corpse into rot, he quickly reemerged onto the shore, facing the only two goblins capable of fighting back. The chieftain rested his stone club on his shoulder, shaking his head and cracking his neck, he assumed a disgruntled expression as he stared at Loimos. The downfall of the goblins signified the fall of this entire, little world. As if reacting to the prospect of wiping out all life present around, his hollow sockets were ignited with a glow much different from that of the other undeads. The dark mes burning within that of the others were dreadful and threatening, this was entirely different. There was no fire burning in Loimos¡¯s eyes, as if twonterns had been lit, he casted a dark purple light in front of him, blinding the chieftain as an intense fear tried to consume him whole. All undeads inspired a strong dread, all undeads reminded without fail to the living that death would eventually im them. The stronger the undead, the most powerful that sensation was. Loimos wasn¡¯t very strong, but the terror he emitted was nearly paralysing. "Stolgob, take your beauty and do your best to run" Gobstroz was the chieftain of this tribe, he had no other choice but to be buried alongside his tribesmen. Stolgob had no such obligations and it could always be justified as an attempt to preserve their heritage and legacy. The goblin didn¡¯t attempt to go against the chieftain¡¯s orders and did as he was told, running deeper in the forest with rapid steps as he carried Irgob on his back. "Come over here! Face me like a man!" Gobstroz didn¡¯t have any fuel left for insults, so he just began making his way toward the walking corpse. Stone club in hand, he couldn¡¯t help but notice that Loimos wasn¡¯t looking at him, staring at the back of Stolgob as he disappeared behind the foliage. The chieftain didn¡¯t know that Loimos didn¡¯t have to make such an obvious head movement to be able to clearly perceive them, he didn¡¯t even know what an undead was. So he truly believed that he had his sights solely on the run-aways. He rushed forward, toward his imminent end. Chapter 20: Stand Gobstroz rushed forward, ready to crush the undead even if it was the least he would ever do, he raised his stone club, a weapon that had apanied for nearly all of his life, it had been short but so was the life of a goblin. He didn¡¯t aim for the skull, it was a part that could easily be moved away, the skeleton had seen himing from afar, even if he was lesser than the chieftain in every aspect, the corpse had had all the time to predict and prepare for his next move. The elder goblin instead aimed for the center of the fiend¡¯s mass, aiming to snap him in half and leave him powerless. Gobstroz stared intensely, straining his tired brain to perceive any twitch or movement, he was going to try something, he had to. The undead had already proven to be cunning and conniving, it would be nonsensical for such a monster to do nothing in this situation. Loimos moved, the absurdity of it all took the chieftain by surprise, he didn¡¯t evade the blow, he simply began to walk away, right past Gobstroz without showing any regards for the goblin¡¯s existence. Such a show of confidence andck of apprehension didn¡¯t deter the green monster from striking, what stopped him in his tracks was the sound of rising water, although the sshing wasn¡¯t nearly as normal as it should be due to its oily, dense, petrol-like consistency. His attention was taken from Loimos to the giant of a skeleton and its congregation of corpses rushing out, the smaller cadavers throwing themselves on the incapacitated tribesmen, digging their frail fingers into their throats and faces. Ripping and tearing everything apart without a care, stopping the instant they ceased to live and moving onto the next. As for their leader, he had been targeted by thergest of the undead, the skeleton with the elongated skull stepped forward with incredible speed, mostly due to being so tall to begin with, it mmed its open hand right into the chieftain. Gobstroz shielded himself with his club but was unable to block all damage and certainly not stop himself from beingunched off the ground. His back mmed painfully into the trunk of a still lively tree, the pain took root into his spine and propagated to the rest of his body, ming to the very extremities of his limbs, he almost let loose of his club. He forced himself away just in time to avoid having his brain sttered by a kick from the bone behemoth. Surrounded by his brethren as they were being ughtered, Gobstroz took in a deep breath, looked straight at the giant undead, its rib cage overflowing with rot and miasma. The bestial roar it threw his direction filled with dread, his legs shook, but only for an instant. "Come here! Be a good corpse and lie down for good!" Gobstroz responded with a roar of his own and began moving forward, advancing with quick steps, he was going to die today. But he didn¡¯t have to lose. ______________ Stolgob ran and ran with stop, weaving through the woods expertly, still, he was slower than normal, he was tiring faster, his muscles weren¡¯t outputting nearly as much power as they did during the hunts. He was rapidly weakening, he had to find a ce to hide, somewhere the dead wouldn¡¯t be able to reach him. He reached the limits of the miniature world, the limit of the entire world in his eyes. The grey stone bricks used to be covered in vegetation, moss and vines growing so thickly on its surface that he had never seen the grey on this side. The deathly mist was making its approach faster and faster, its decaying capabilities growing more and more potent, it had caused the vegetation to subside, to back off from its own territory. It had also begun to gnaw and enfeeble the walls, the rock was eroding and turning, even the inanimate wasn¡¯t spread by its ruthless dominion, just contact with life wasn¡¯t tolerated. Stolgob saw an opportunity, it was meager but he saw the light of hope, his speed increased and he reached the limit in just a few moments. The stone was cracked, splitting into pieces, small pieces peeling off, breaking off into shards and dust by a mere touch. The prodigal goblin looked frantically for something, looking for an opening in the walls. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om There was no rhyme or reason to his thought process, but the mere sight of the crumbling convinced him that there was something beyond the borders, beyond this world. The corpses had to havee from somewhere after all, the safe haven he was dreaming off could be right behind those walls. He searched and searched, though weakened, the wall itself was still standing strong, defiant of the abject fate the miasma wanted for it. Stolgob found it, an opening big enough for him and Irgob to squeeze through, there was a tunnel there, it had always been there and the mist had simply revealed to his eyes. "Irgob! Quick!" he spoke with urgency, shaking her out of her daze whilst pointing at the hole. "We can get out of here!" he said with a smile. Then he looked back from where they hade from. It was pure chance, mere luck but their eyes met. Loimos was standing right there and the second he was spotted, he stepped out of his hiding spot, his sockets still glowing with the shine of an unknown purple. A purple so deep and strange. Stolgob had never even seen the colour purple before, there were many things he had never experienced before, still, his very being screamed that the glow wasn¡¯t natural, that it didn¡¯t exist. Yet, he could attest to its existence. "Go ahead" Stolgob spoke sternly and took hold of something wrapped in pieces of clothing from his back. It was a weapon of simr craftsmanship as the chieftain¡¯s own weapon, although only in difficulty to create, although one may believe the stone club could be of the goblin¡¯s own creation, even if that was hard to believe. The same couldn¡¯t be said for the axe Stolgob brandished at Loimos, the handle wasn¡¯t crude, the axe head made of forged iron, its size clearly made for a creature withrger bodies. Where did ite from? One might wonder, neither the weapons owner nor the one it was threatening cared for such a thing. The goblin and undead were at a standstill, but Loimos wasn¡¯t going to allow Irgob to wiggle her way into the tunnel. He took a step forward and pointed at her, cking his jaw menacingly he began to form a ball of rot in his only avable hand, his other arm still unusable. Taking this as an imminent attack, Stolgob moved forward to stop him, dancing right in Loimos¡¯s palm. Chapter 21: The Spirit "The spirit of life is indomitable" You may have never heard of this quote before, it isn¡¯t from me, nor is it from anyone you could guess. I have searched through much of my family¡¯s lost archives, all in an effort to excavate the past back into the light, so that it may not be forgotten, so that we may learn from it, so that we may avoid the mistakes of yore. In my research, I have dug up the retelling of a most noble, and mighty hero, sadly forgotten in spite of his legacy still staring us all in the face. All of us have heard, or seen, death hunters, valiant men and women who fight against the undead scourge without fear. Yet, none of us, none of them remember The Death Hunter, the very first who took a stand against death, the world we live in today would have been much different if not for his actions. He was the one to speak those words: "The spirit of life is indomitable" Ick context of why or when he professed this sentence, but I can still see their value. The gue of the living dead, foul and hypocritical creatures preaching the joys of death, unable to realise that all they do is merely live in death. They dare look down on the living, us, who breathe and whose hearts beat. The practitioners of necrtry in the underground tower would only agree with such an idea, but The Death Hunter could see past the obvious, he could see that there was beauty and power in life. He believed that the living could ovee their fear of death and be triumphant over the animated corpses. His name was Thanatok Ynig¨®s, and I ask that we remember him. - Extract of ¡¯Forgotten Heroes¡¯ by Bethome Meleme. _______________________ Stolgob felt his resolve grow stronger as his fatigued legs took him to the vile skeleton in only a few seconds, the distance separating them hadn¡¯t been much, still, in the state he was in, the swiftness of his approach was remarkable. He got into position, the edge of the axe was somewhat chipped in certain parts, but it remained sharp nheless, this weapon had been cared for and looked over. Repeating the actions of his chieftain, he aimed for the undead¡¯s midsection, swinging from the side where the corpse was missing an arm, as his muscles tightened and expanded the size of his arms, a certainty appeared in his mind. He was convinced the skeleton in front of him would be unable to dodge, that the axe strike would reach its target and split the cadaver in half. Loimos chucked the ball of rot he had been making with any strength, it was only a distraction to get the goblin to rush him down, it wasn¡¯t going to shoot out like an arrow or anything. N?v(el)B\\jnn The small conglomerate of rot went over the goblin¡¯s head, taking his attention just a little bit. Reaching up, Loimos grabbed hold of a sturdy branch just above his head, grasping it firmly. Stolgob had no idea what Loimos was trying to achieve, and he hadmitted to this strike too much to stop his movement. He could only watch in wonder as Loimos hoisted himself up into the air just a little, still allowing the axe to go right through his spine above the hips area. Still, Stolgob shed right through with incredible ease, too much ease in fact, his momentum wasn¡¯t stopped in the slightest and he found himself almost losing his bnce. Loimos¡¯s lower half fell to the ground, cutting his own weight by arge margin and allowing him to rise his body up with tremendous ease and control, the rot stuck within his rib cage trembled for an instant. His ribs seemed to expand and move on their own, producing a sickening sound, making the goblin feel like dropping everything and run away right at this instant. Stolgob didn¡¯t have time to make any decision however, Loimos dropped right on his head, the goblin¡¯s head was submerged in decay and rotten blood, sticking to his face and eating away at him without any respite. The green monster threw himself blindly, trashing and rolling around in an attempt to remove the undead from him but it was all useless, the rot dposed his eyes, lips and tongue in only a few moments as the dark blood invaded his insides. The instant it reached his brain, he stopped all movements andid still. Loimos looked at Irgob¡¯s shuffling feet as she tried to wiggle her way into the tunnel, he simply left the rot to eat away at Stolgob¡¯s body as he began to make his way toward her, crawling as he opened his jaw. He repeatedly bit right through her feet and legs, to the point that he tore everything that was within his reach, his sharp fangs coated in his oil-like blood, the wounds already looked infected after only a few seconds. Blood loss eventually imed her life. Stolgob had failed everything he had attempted, but thankfully for thete goblin, Loimos wasn¡¯t going to disparage him or his efforts, it was something the living did, not the dead. Loimos¡¯s lower half walked up to him on its own, it might look like nothing, but retaining pristine control over body parts separated from the headpletely wasn¡¯t something any undead could achieve with such precision, some not at all. Using his rot to try and stitch himself back up, Loimos hadn¡¯t actually been shed in two, he had just disconnected part of his spine, which was why the goblin had felt no resistance whatsoever, he wouldn¡¯t have had much more problems had Loimos not done this. Though it wouldn¡¯t have been nearly as easy to reconnect, he had been the one to split himself, so putting it back together only took a few hours with the miasma produced from the generator eating away at Stolgob¡¯s body and Loimos¡¯s own rot. By a few hours, it really meant that a whole day and half had passed before he was stuck together enough again to move without falling apart. Making his way back to the shore, the deathly fog had already washed over the ce the goblin¡¯s had been ughtered, their bodies elerating the spread by a notch. The bodies had been consumed whole already, not even leaving behind their bones, the only bones left behind were those belonging to the undeads that had been destroyed. All of the ancient undeads had fallen, all of the tribesmen may have been killed but Gobstoz had replied in kind, taking them all down, including the bone giant, before breathing hisst. Chapter 22: Seven It was a shame to lose manpower, but also not an issue in the least, the goal of the dead had been aplished, the goblins, who had been the only monster tribe aware of the existence of the undead, had been silenced. Now, even if a few monsters managed to escape the miasma, they would have no clue what it was or where it could havee from, Loimos held that certainty that it was best to keep the living oblivious. It was easily done here, the somewhat intelligent monsters had no clue what an undead was, but it would be idiotic to believe that the miasma could¡¯t, and wouldn¡¯t be linked to undeath by smarter species. Loimos spent the next weeks it took the miasma to spread, to do whatever appeared best, the system granted ¡¯skills¡¯ that granted visible improvement to whatever they pertained, a single level wouldn¡¯t be visible for most but as an undead with a perfect idea of his capabilities at all time, even the slightest of chance was noticeable. Another proof that death was superior to life. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om The death of all life contained within the walls of the underground also brought what the system referred to as ¡¯experience¡¯, which went into ¡¯levels¡¯ and when the number next to level increased, it wouldn¡¯t then be the numbers next to the various ¡¯stats¡¯ that would increase. This also brought some moderate improvements, which was always wee. The system wasn¡¯t alive after all, so Loimos wouldn¡¯t reject its offerings. The skeleton also went through the notifications the system would sometimes manifest in his sight, Loimos was never bothered by them as they couldn¡¯t impair his senses, but he never bothered to analyse what they contained. You yed this, you yed that, you went up a level, you obtained a title, you obtained a skill¡­ It was quite dutiful in informing him of everything that was going on, he might have been touched, had he been able to feel anything. Thest week soon came, the week during which all of the life remaining would be extinct. On the first day of thest week, the miasma reached high and surrounded the source of light, the one shining sunlight during the day, and moonlight during the night. Only darkness was left for the few survivors, the endless dark of death was presented to them in a lesser form, still, they shuddered. On the second day toward the end, the miasma had absorbed all of the breathable air, leaving only its own toxic self for the remaining to try and sustain their existence, their life was beginning to seep. They were made to realise how wrong and improper it was, how limiting their need to breath truly was. On the third day leading to extinction, the disappearance of light and non-toxic air led to the demise of all nt life, the soils turned bare and dry. Cracking and copsing at the slightest of touches, even the ground wasn¡¯t eternal. On the fourth day of destruction, something essential was killed, consumed by the miasma, the obstructed sun and moon, source of all light in the underground was broken and torn off its vantage point. Crashing down, it shattered like ss, now, there would be no more hope for light to return, to ovee its prison, even it had decayed. Darkness had truly taken hold and taken its rightful position. On the fifth day of eternal night, all the life squirming and swirling in theke had surrendered, there was no more water, only blood as dark as true darkness. The first and strongest cradle of life fell, a grim presage for those walking the fallingnds. On the sixth andst day of life, the animals, monsters and tribes inhabiting dry ground, thest few that had managed to hold on in spite of the very air around them turning hostile, their remains turned to formless rot, fueling the spread of the miasma. On the seventh day, Loimos turned and headed for the tunnel discovered by thest victims he had yed with his own hands, ignoring the copse behind him, he crawled out and away from his own actions. This work was already done, it was time for him to move on and continue his most noble duty. The arm that had been sted off was nowpletely back, the utterck of lifebined with the thick cloud of death was to be thanked for its swift retrieval. Loimos squeezed his skeletal body through the narrow passages, twisting his bones covered in blood to get through gaps his skull barely fitted through. Until he emerged into a pitch ck crawl space, thanks to the hefty amount of death he had caused, Loimos had gained ess to much of an undead¡¯s natural capabilities, he had already demonstrated clicking his bones off and on. As though, he was an borate puppet, but now was time to make full use of an undead sight. Typically, skeletons and the likes held dark vision, meaning that they required no light to see. Loimos, hadn¡¯t unlocked dark vision. The truth was that he had gained ess to something else, simply called ¡¯Dead Senses¡¯. It was much better than a simple dark vision since it had everything an undead could have, shoved into a single ability, coupled with his natural capabilities linked to senses that had nothing to do with skills and other system abilities, saying that he could just see in the dark was a vast understatement. The crawl space he had found himself in was rather wide actually, since he could move around whilst simply crouching down, though Loimos moved faster when crawling on all four like some sort of demented beast nightmares are made of. He did have the dentition of one already, so it was only natural that he would start moving like one too. The tunnel had been quite long to traverse, a resilient living would have starved multiple times over trying to get through it, and Loimos had had no need for breaks. The miasma had trouble expanding there, also due to the fact that there was no life to drain. Loimos felt the now substantial reinforcement it had been granting him wear off as he crawled around until he found an opening in the ground. Slowly sticking his head out of the hole, he solely twisted his skull around to look around. It would seem like the crawl space he had found himself in was right above a long series of dull corridors, filled with nothing but dust and deserted cobwebs, the hallways were all made of the same grey stone bricks as before. cking his jaw loudly, he determined with echolocation that it was beyond huge, and seemingly extending in all directions. Maybe it linked with the deep hole he had first climbed down to get to the miniature world, he would have to explore some more to see if that was the case, since the hole and original way he hade from hadpletely copsed due to the miasma eroding everything. The miasma leaving nothing untouched was also the reason why Loimos had been unable to keep any weapon or object, they had all decayed away, even the iron axe head, though it had rusted into a useless piece of junk beforehand. Chapter 23: In For It "Did you hear that?" a girl whose orange hair was haphazardly tied into a ponytail stuck her ear out. "Hear what?" Another girl of simr stature, but with slicked back blonde hair, revealing a big forehead questioned her with a sigh. "ck, ck, ck?" "ck? What do you mean ck? Like something falling? Like a door?" the word used to describe the noise was rather broad indeed. "Huuuh, like pping, but with hard things?" the red-headed girl¡¯s poor usage of her gift to express herself wasn¡¯t doing much to help her case. "That¡¯s- That¡¯s what ck means" the blonde girl rubbed her temples with her worn out gloves. "Do you still hear it?" a third person joined the conversation, a woman dressed in a purplish robe that had seen better days, she didn¡¯t seem much older than the other two, if at all, but she certainly had a more mature presence. "No, it suddenly stopped" the one with a ponytail was called Cassi, it wasn¡¯t a nickname, or rather, everyone, including herself and her parents, had forgotten what her full name actually was. As for the one with the big forehead, her name was Lynn, with two N¡¯s because her parents believed that it looked cooler. "So anyways, instead of making up sounds, why don¡¯t you exin what the hell this is?" Lynn gestured at the recently uncovered entrance of what appeared to look like a more than mundane cave. "Indeed, you are the one who dragged us all here Cassi, it wasn¡¯t to show off a cool cave and suggest that we make a base in it I hope, you are a bit old for such things" Cassi coughed at the words spoken by the one wearing a robe. The woman in a robe had messy short brown hair, as though an entire team of dedicated professionals was put in charge of making certain it looked like her way ofbing her hair was getting shocked by electricity. Her name was Eppie and she was the unfortunate leader of this group of four adventurers. Though that implied that they went on adventures, which was as far removed from the truth as was possible. Them and other adventurers for that matter, were more like a bunch of idiots ready to do any odd jobs, and sometimes do adventurer stuff. Clearing her throat, Cassi smiled proudly and proceeded to also gesture toward the cave. "Ladies, this here is no ordinary cave-" she paused to think of what she was going to do next, her presentation sounded much cooler and definitely more fluid in her head "-It¡¯s a special cave, wait, what¡¯s the word again?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om She closed her eyes for a second, then another, and another¡­ "Dungeon?" Lynn¡¯s eyes brightened up as she threw her guess. "Yes! That thing!" Cassi pped her thigh in excitement. "A dungeon? Are you certain? Why did you bring us here then? We have to report it to the guild first" Eppie rubbed her chin and put one hand on her waist, questioning the content of Cassi¡¯s skull, a question she had asked herself every single day since she hade to know this girl. The redhead¡¯s expression sank as she began to wave her arms around like a drunk octopus. "I mean-! I thought we could just take a look around, you know, just identally step in and find some treasure, you know, by just hanging around a dungeon, like normal adventurers do" weaving an excuse so fast caused her to bite her own tongue. "We don¡¯t have the equipment to evaluate its danger though, I wouldn¡¯t be opposed to the idea to snoop around without authorisation but what if it¡¯s a dungeon filled with monster¡¯s too powerful for us?" Eppie reasoned using hermon sense, a devastating weapon Cassi couldn¡¯t parry. Lynn made an ¡¯Mmmh¡¯ noise whilst staring in the direction of the dungeon entrance. "Well, can¡¯t you use a spell or something to sense the dungeon¡¯s mana level or something? I was told that it was possible to make a rough estimation based on this" the blonde girl countered with her own insight. Truth was, Eppie would rather not enter any dungeon that hadn¡¯t been explored by others first, she had never visited any herself, but she knew that those ces could either be a walk in the park or a manifestation of hell times three. Her and her whole two fire spells didn¡¯t feel confident dealing with anything that could be found in there. She couldn¡¯t argue against a fact she knew herself, so she just closed her eyes and focused on sensing the surrounding mana. Beginning by excluding her own mana signature and the faint ones of her three friends, she slowly worked her way toward the cave, excluding the ambient wild mana based on its elements until she could only sense whaty beyond the entrance of the dungeon. "..." Eppie was self-taught, and had a rather poor talent as a mage, so she always took her time when possible. To the other two girls, it always looked like their leader had just passed out standing. "Nothing" after a bit less than ten minutes, the mage came out with her findings. "This dungeon is dry of any of its own mana, all that is to be found in there is natural ambient mana that found its way in, I barely detected any signaturesing from rats, it has no monsters" she sighed in defeat, Eppie could have just yed the card that she couldn¡¯t sense anything because the dungeon was just that good. However, it was so unlikely that she kept it to herself. The ce inside was ancient and decrepit, it seemed more like whoever or whatever had once gotten this dungeon running had died off, leaving only an empty structure the children from nearby cities and viges woulde to get a fright or y stupid games. "Alright then, we¡¯re going in!" Cassi jumped in ce like an excited puppy under the judgemental eyes of Lynn. "Hold on, let¡¯s ask Tahnee how she feels about this" Eppie still had one more way of not setting foot in there however. Slumped like a bag of rocks against a tree, their fourth members had been sleeping this entire time. The three of them could only wish they could fall asleep as easily as Tahnee could, it was like she could just switch on and off. The moment her name was called, the fourth girl in question woke up. With long blonde hair that had umted a fair bit of rocks and leaves from her habits of sleeping on the ground, she was definitely taller than most, taller than most men actually. She didn¡¯t say anything as per usual and just headed for the dungeon, she was in for it, much to Eppie¡¯s disappointment. Chapter 24: No Objections The group of four manoeuvred their way through the copsed and tight entrance to the dungeon, soon arriving in the unremarkable maze of grey corridors, only the light seeping in from behind them was willing to illuminate their way. This was no problem though, Cassi had a bag full of various equipment meant for all sorts of adventures, which were rarely of use since they didn¡¯t live up to the name of their upation. Pulling an unlit torch and somewhat reflective stone, she lightly hit the wall with thetter to create a small spark, lighting the torch in a ze as the animal fat it had been rubbed in ignited with ease. "I see three different pathways, Which do we take first?" Lynn spoke up as she inspected her crossbow, the blonde girl was the designated ranged support, and considering the sort of junk of a weapon she was carrying around, she was a rather skilled markswoman. Cassi repositioned the visor-less kettle helm on her head as she nodded energetically. "Left!" she eximed. "Don¡¯t you know the basic rule ofbyrinths? Always follow the wall to the right!" Eppie waved her hand around as if she was a teacher in a ss of unruly children. "We¡¯ll just have to turn around and follow that same wall when going back, and I refuse to spend any night here and sleep in this¡­ ce" the mage shuddered at the thought as she inspected the surroundings. The dungeon seemed rather mundane and empty, in fact, she felt like this was the most basic dungeon possible, even though she had never been to any other. Still, there was something off putting about being in here, it was like visiting an old home, but strangers now lived here, and the house had been rebuilt, it was simultaneously familiar yet utterly alien. ¡¯I hate this ce¡¯ her mind was already made. Tahnee didn¡¯t say anything and didn¡¯t look disturbed in the least, whilst Cassi and Lynn were simply looking forward to what they would be able to find in here. The leader sighed and gestured for Tahnee to lead the way. The easily slumbering girl was the one with the best gear out of them, since she was always the one standing right at the front. An old kite shield Cassi had ¡¯found¡¯ and a short spear recuperated after a longer spear had been broken in half and thrown away by a fool with no idea what value objects held. All of the girls wore cheap but trustworthy gambeson, since it was the cheapest armour one could offer themselves, Eppie knew a little about sewing and such, so she was able to get some that were torn apart and then put them together at an even cheaper price. The real boon however, was Tahnee¡¯s chainmail, truly giving her the identity of the group¡¯s hit-taker, a real piece of modern cksmithing, earned with great efforts because Lynn¡¯s brother was a cksmith and that she knew things about him he would never want his wife to know. Saving on every expense and ckmailing even your own family was the truest essence and most primordial skills an adventurer could have. Which was why, despite looking like four rickety peasants enrolled for war as meat shields, these four girls were the cream of the top, from the one city they lived next to. Tahnee was right in the front, Lynn and Eppie stayed in the center of the formation, the first ready to shoot at whatever made the dire mistake of moving, thetter pre-weaving a ssic fireball spell, probably the most known of all. Cassi stayed in the rear, just in case something attacked from behind. The group paid attention to any trap or malevolent contraption but the dungeon was truly bare of anything dungeon-rted, there had been no monsters, no environmental hazards, no traps, no enigma to solve. No nothing. It was almost disappointing, though for Eppie, it was only straining her nerves even further, her outlook was that this calm could only be for a grander storm, even if by all means, calm was generally just calm. "Hold on" Cassi whispered, a clear sign that she was serious, which was worrying in of itself. "I heard something up ahead" the redhead had quite the fine hearing, she probably could have made for a phenomenal musician had she ever gotten the asion to hold an instrument. s, she was born in the backwaters of a backwater kingdom, without much appreciation for the fine arts. "What is it?" Eppie crouched down and extended her mana sense to try and get an idea of what Cassi was talking about. If she focused really hard, she should be able to get an idea of the general shape of what was ahead. Unless it had no mana at all, she should be able to notice anything on ount that the air around was nearly dry of any natural mana. N?v(el)B\\jnn She sensed nothing. Tilting her head, she trusted in Cassi¡¯s ears and she trusted her not to mess around in such a situation, especially when their only lights were a torch and a fireball spell, they were surrounded by darkness and had been walking for a few minutes already. Tahnee was steady and ready to intercept whatever could be lurking. Lynn aimed her crossbow at the dark space. "Where is it?" she muttered softly, Cassi ced her mace under her arm and leaned in next to her friend¡¯s face. "More to the right¡­ Stop, aim slightly down¡­" she guided Lynn¡¯s aim, pinpointing the position of the unknown creature based on itsst location. It had stopped moving the instant Cassi had heard it, as though it had been staring right at her and probing for a reaction out of her. That was ludicrous however, how could anything dwelling deep in this dungeon know that she, out of the four of them, would be able to hear it? The bolt was shot, piercing through the air and an old cobweb stretched in the middle of the hallways. It struck something hard, something that was standing right outside of the range of the torch, right at its very limit as the bolt fell on the ground. ¡¯It just¡­ Took it?¡¯ Eppie shot her fireball forward without hesitation. A bricking from the walls was thrown right at them, blocked by Tahnee, Cassi could clearly hear something crawling up and away, the sound disappearing in the distance. "We¡¯re leaving right now" no one had any objection. Chapter 25: Different Making their way back to the entrance wasn¡¯t a problem, at the pace they were moving now, the group of four should be able to make it in much less time than it had taken them to get where they now stood. "It¡¯sing back!" Cassi could hear the rustling and grinding of this thing¡¯s hard body against the stone as it crawled above their heads. Moving around swiftly and with great intent, this wasn¡¯t like a rat moving around in the attic, this thing had a clear idea of what it wanted to do and why, you could just tell by its movements. The redhead being the only one able to hear iting from far away, she guided her teammates so that they would turn their back to it. By all means, it seemed like it was alone thankfully, nothing else was making any noise. Suddenly stopping in a corridor to their right, it threw something at them from the darkness, not a brick but a mass of something putrid crushed into a ball. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Tahnee peeled it off her shield with the point of her spear as it stayed stuck there, oozing some sort of oil and reeking impossibly bad. This went on the entire duration of their run back, the unseen creature would just throw whatever at them, be it pure stench manifested in physical form, or bricks and rocks that could definitely knock someone out, though it seemed like the creature wasn¡¯t throwing them hard enough to truly make use of their weight and sharp angles. If it hadn¡¯t been consistently aiming for the head of Lynn and Eppie, who didn¡¯t have the luxury of a helm, they might have thought that it was just trying to chase them off. Still, there was more fright than danger, they made it out of there in one piece. The monster veiled by the dark stopped its assaults when they got close to the exit, crawling away and nevering back. "What the hell was this?" Lynn questioned, her breathing a bit ragged from all that running, the fact that there was dust floating in the air inside of there didn¡¯t help her poor stamina. "Hell if I know! That thing ate your bolt like it was nothing!" Cassi jumped in ce, her helm falling out of ce and getting in her vision. "..." Tahnee wasn¡¯t shaken. "Calm down everyone, did any of that stinky crap get onto any of you?" Eppie took control of the conversation. Everyone shook their heads, Tahnee had blocked every single of those reeking projectiles perfectly, her shield still had some of the oil-like liquid sticking to it. "I¡¯ve never seen something like this¡­" "It¡¯s consistency is so great that it looks like ck worms, ugh" Lynn stepped away from this thing whilst Cassi just started poking at it with a stick. "Alright girls, I¡¯ll take care of informing the guild, I¡¯ll tell them that we investigated what we thought was a cave and that the instant we entered the dungeon, we got attacked, alright? Don¡¯t tell anyone we tried to loot a dungeon without reporting it!" Eppie spoke calmly to Lynn and Cassi, Tahnee wasn¡¯t going to be spilling any beans unlike them. "You know what, don¡¯t talk of the dungeon at all, don¡¯t even speak the word, if someone asks you about it, refer them to me, no matter how weird it looks or sounds, understood?" everyone nodded to their leader¡¯s pleasure. She led the way as they went back to town. It was still quite a shame that they hadn¡¯t found anything at all in there, it had been nothing but corridors and hallways, there hadn¡¯t even been any rooms to explore. Without any other monsters apart from this thing that attacked them, it seemed likely that this was a dead dungeon, something of no value except to those that liked the aesthetic. _____________________ Loimos wasn¡¯t exactly certain what those four creatures had been, his memory had been filled with information on certain species for some reason, but he didn¡¯t have much description of them. Unlike for the monster tribes that had dwelled below, it seemed to the skeleton that knowing about them was important, goblins had been filled with terror at the mere sight of him, his presence inspired them the fear of death. It hadn¡¯t worked in the least on those four however, clearly, the resistance and strength of those above ground was on another levelpared to his previous victims, by arge margin it seemed. Even his rot seemed less effective, as though everything that had been below the ground had simply been of lesser quality, the grass, the trees, the inhabitants¡­ The air wasn¡¯t the same, after waiting for the four women to leave, he peeked out of the dungeon, illuminated by the bright sunlight, it failed to blind him. The sun was definitely much different here, it seemed huge, yet, he could tell that it was certainly much further than the replica he had destroyed. Its light was warmer, more benevolent to those it casted radiance upon, but somehow, also hostile to him, as though trying to pierce right through his skeletal body, he may only know bits and bits about most things due to the random memories he had been gifted with, but he knew a whole bunch about his own kind. Some undead were allergic to the natural light, some to light in general, some would even be instantaneously burnt to a crisp for merely allowing one streak of light to touch them. Some of the dead were even weakened or unable to operate during the day, even if they were in the pits of darkness, the simple fact that the sun loomed in the sky was enough. Loimos didn¡¯t suffer from such a weakness, in fact, he could tell that as far as weaknesses went, he didn¡¯t have any, apart from his susceptibility to life force. He retreated back into the dungeon, he still had much ground to cover on this floor. He couldn¡¯t simply venture to the outside when four random, peasant-looking, somewhat advanced apes were simply that much stronger than him. Chapter 26: Not Allowed The floor of the dungeon, on the surface, was devoid of much, apart from a few rats and insects Loimos had hunted down, the smashed up bodies of the rodents decorated some the walls of the bleak interior as impromptu paintings. With no bugs to feast on their carcasses, they would be certain to remain in ce for a long while. Loimos hadn¡¯t converted them into rot and left their corpses out in the open for anyone to see, he wished for anyone that came here to never be able to guess that it was an undead that was on the prowl. He had tested if his miasma invasion was nearly as effective as it had been down there, and it wasn¡¯t, the air was much more lively here, so much so that it actively pushed back the miasma and didn¡¯t allow it to consume it. Life was everywhere, it had been there for a long time, only an incredulous amount of potent miasma would be able to ovee it and still, Loimos could only imagine seeding thanks to the fact that the dungeon was a mostly closed-off area. His death mist would disperse and weaken out in the open, where life was even more plentiful and where the wind blew. There was no need for him to specte about it however, he had begun to delve deeper into the dungeon. It was easy to tell that he had stepped foot in a new area, for some reason, the seemingly endless maze of straight, ancient and crumbling hallways of grey shifted into something else. A staircase led deeper into the earth, this staircase wasn¡¯t of much use to most at the moment however, for it was flooded with imprable ck waters, much like that of the now bloodyke. With his dead senses, Loimos could peer right through as though the water was pristine and perfectly clear. He stepped forward into the ice-cold water, in fact, it was much colder than it should be considering how warm the air was inparison. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Loimos felt that it was cold, but he didn¡¯t feel the cold, he had the information but not the ufortable feeling, it was an opportunity for him to get better at moving under water, since he could still mostly walk at the bottom. The scenery didn¡¯t change much once he reached the end of the staircase after a few minutes, the hallways were very much the same, just with a watery vour added, nothing was growing and there was no sign of life. Looking around, Loimos searched if this floor also had a crawl space above and after discovering a hole in the ceiling, which was aptly ced and sized for someone to stick their head through, he hoisted himself up there. The crawl space wasn¡¯t flooded, somehow, allowing for a daring adventurer to catch their breath before diving back down into the cold and dark expanse. Loimos could see from his position that many other such breathing gaps were ced everywhere at regr intervals. When this dungeon was still active, it had definitely wanted for challengers to be able to make their way through here, but that was nonsensical, a dungeon should put its architecture toward inciting adventurers to venture in and murdering them, not escorting them through its floors. Perhaps Loimos was missing some information. Or maybe he was not, it wasn¡¯t the big question right now. The real thing that was taking up his attention was the clear sign of life he was beginning to feel as he moved deeper and deeper into the flooded corridor. It wasn¡¯t much of abyrinth, only a few paths diverting to the sides, but all ended almost immediately with dead ends, one needed to keep on moving forward to reach the end. Not having to do something as pesky as breathing, Loimos reached what was very much a well built in the middle of the way. An architectural nonsense that Loimos sunk into without hesitation, the well was tight enough for him to climb back up without a problem. Now, this certainly seemed more like a challenge for the living, not only was the well deep enough for someone to drown multiple times over even with their lung capacity doubled, they would be forced to swim down at maximum speed to hope not to asphyxiate. Which would prove difficult considering how narrow the space was, the deeper it went, the colder it was getting too. A true test of resilience and skill, but not for everyone, none of the obstacles could impair Loimos in the least, but undeads weren¡¯t really the sort to go dungeon diving. His feet touched soft ground, rising particles of dirt as he found himself in a wide pocket of water, no ce to breathe in, only jagged rocks for walls and ceiling, easily disturbed soil as ground. The room was roughly the shape of a demi-circle, on the other end opposite to the undead, a sealed door stood, about the size of any regr door but most certainly made of heavy metal. Small clouds of dirt rose not to Loimos¡¯s surprise, he had already sensed their life force a while back for they weren¡¯t even trying to conceal it. Small sized, piranha-like fishes surrounded him, frankly seeming confused about what to do with their sharp fangs. They were made to slice through flesh and cause heavy bleeding, what to do with a corpse? They couldn¡¯t even tell if that was an intruder or just a random skeleton that had been thrown down there. One went for it anyway, biting Loimos¡¯s forearm and wiggling its body, trying to dig into his bone. Instead of achieving its goal, it reached death as rot grew on the spot it was nibbling on, erupting into an explosion of blighted blood, passing the vile thing through its gills and knocking it out on the spot. Allowing Loimos to guide the slippery fish to his jaw and bite right through it. The rest saw this and collectively decided that it wasn¡¯t their problem, going away and burrowing back into the ground, pity that the undead wasn¡¯t going to allow that. Chapter 27: Second Time Leaving the fish monsters resting at the bottom, Loimos approached the door, sensing a considerable amount of life forceing from a singr being, in fact, that amount was so great that the undead¡¯s better reasoning should have dictated for him to back off ande backter. Yet, he took hold of the door, cing his skeletal limb against its surface, it had yet to begin rusting in spite of the water, but it was softer than expected, it was like the metal had begun absorbing the water like a sponge. He gripped the handle and tried to turn it, the movement was smooth and unimpaired, the door swung open on its own, revealing another expanse nearly identical to the one Loimos had been standing in. Only that it was dry, free of water even as Loimos unsealed the door, the water was stopped by an invisible force, the unseen wall bore no effect on the skeleton. Before the undead¡¯s eyesid a curious sight, he moved forward, some sort of chair with armrests equipped with various sorts of objects sprouting from it. Items made out of various materials, symbols shining with various colours engraved on their surface, looking down, the ground was free of any of that vtile dirt, it was oddly t, various circles drawn along its surface with the chair in its center. Loimos didn¡¯t step beyond any of the circles and simply observed the figure slumped in the chair, hooked up to all of those seemingly magically powered devices. It was a familiar yet different figure, one that had no business to still be breathing. The old man Loimos had first relieved of his excess life force was still alive, incredible amounts of life force being constantly produced and injected into his barely twitching body. He looked even more decrepit than he had been back then, his grey beard was nowhere to be seen, having fallen to pieces, leaving only what was hardly recognisable as a person. The living corpse opened his eyes, the effort being the greatest he must have exerted in a long time. Loimos looked up at the ceiling, there was to be found the secret to the old man¡¯s machine, all of the machinery took root from a single orb stuck in the ceiling. Muchrger than the others Loimos had encountered on pedestals before, this one wasn¡¯t the same thing, this was the core of this feeble dungeon. Not that Loimos could be certain, but it would make for a fine exnation as to why this entire ce was nothing more than the shell of a dungeon, the elderly man hade along and repurposed the core to his own benefits. And what filthy benefits they were, eternal life. The vestige of a man could consider himself lucky that Loimos couldn¡¯t be offended, otherwise he would have already gotten to taste his own ground up teeth against the ground. "You¡­ Again¡­" his words took a while toe but they had the benefit of being clear this time. The undead knew for a fact that this was the same person, their life force was squirming in the same way. ¡¯...¡¯ ¡¯...¡¯ Was he perhaps expecting a conversation with Loimos? Not that the undead was adverse against producing words and listening to some random guy that would soon be dead, but he couldn¡¯t speak. The crumbling sack of dry flesh sighed in realisation of this fact, and went on to monologue to the one being that couldn¡¯t care less. "I am¡­ Ramth, Ramth Of The Underground Tower" he presented himself, the undead simply standing there, the old man seemed to be meaning to reveal some important information, so his demise could be postponed by a few minutes. Ramth began to exin that he had been the founder of that underground tower, a secret yet widely known ce of learning for mages and schrs interested in the undead. Whilst the tower was quickly deemed heretical, forbidden and many other bad words, people that wished to study, learn and spread their discoveries about the undead always found their way in. Those that wanted to burn it down and hang all of its denizens never could find even a single good lead, Ramth was just that good at concealment. But unlike those that came after him, Ramth wasn¡¯t truly interested in the dead, he had only created this ce because he wished to understand the workings of death force, so as to manipte his life force to behave simrly and achieve immortality. At least, that was the theory, he never achieved his goal and ashamed from standing in the midst of true geniuses and schrs of the undead, he left his own tower and locked himself deep into this dungeon. The best he was able to create was this device, modifying and adapting the dungeon core, he made use of the fact that it could create life to turn it into a giant ¡¯machine of immortality¡¯, technically sessful, he couldn¡¯t help but scorn his own creation. He never stopped it however, because being alive in this way was simply so much better than death. Before hooking himself to it permanently, he had managed to create some sort of clone of himself, which Loimos had brutally ughtered on his first day of existence. "I only wanted to transport my mind into one of them" Ramth had used the orbs to transport the souls of others, and using the pile of bodies and souls as sacrifice, fuel for his spell, he hoped to manifest their physical form, kill their soul and mind and then ce himself into their bodies. All ridiculous make believe, he didn¡¯t have the sort ofpetence to pull this sort of thing off. The orbs weren¡¯t even his own creation, stolen before they were used in a summoning ritual. And Loimos, who had been forged from the countless corpses and souls, had nothing to do with him, he had simply been there to witness a natural event. "Curse you, who does not know degradation, who does not know the looming presence of death-" Ramth only wanted to speak his mind to the first person that woulde along, he had spent too much time in istion, he felt the need to talk. Yet, he had forgotten who, rather, what he was conversing with, he had stared at the wall whilst retelling his miserable existence. A skilled mage, but not one of exceptional talent. A man with a dream too grand for his capacities. He had failed to judge his own worth ordingly and tackled challenges that wouldn¡¯t topple over no matter how much momentum he umted. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om His gaze wandered to his listener and then, his words got stuck in his throat as he saw the pits of darkness in Loimos¡¯s eyes brighten up with a purple glow. A colour that simply didn¡¯t exist, yet did. The undead said nothing, but Ramth felt like he had received an answer either way. Loimos knew all that there was to know about death, because he was a pure manifestation of its grasp. "I-" the decrepit old man didn¡¯t get to ramble any further, he had nothing of interest to spout. Loimos walked up to him and with a single swing, dispersed the living before him like dust in the wind. Chapter 28: Not Wanting To Work The light of the rising sun shone light on the floating dust and dirtiness of the single window of an office. The nks and beams used to build this room had gone through many changes since they had been set in ce, heat, cold, humidity, and of course, theing and going on the two owners of the two desks ced opposite to one another. Nicely crafted out of cheap, but sturdy wood, a chair creaked as a man with a nose reddened by the regr consumption of alcohol in his younger years, he leaned back and put his feet on his desk. Today was another day of waiting at the local guild of Throdqdmond, most prosperous city of the surroundings and one of the least wealthy of the kingdom of Tamaris, despite being part of the, if not the richest country of the continent, the city and its surroundings had once had ess to lots of natural resources. It had all run dry, leaving ghost towns, empty viges and cities such as this. Those sort of concerns weren¡¯t on Frank¡¯s mind however, he was trying to take a nap. Failing miserably at cking on the job, he reached for a book on his desk, without changing his position that he deemed perfectlyfortable. Straining his body and feeling like he was elongating his arm, he touched the cover of the book with his fingers and managed to drag the book closer and closer until he was able to grasp it. Forgotten Heroes, written by Bethome Meleme, a recent book that he had gotten his hands on thanks to some random passing schrs forgetting it, truly a boon that he, who had bothered to learn how to write way back to impress a cute girl, woulde upon it. No other guild workers could im to be nearly as educated as he was, though many could safely describe themselves as morepetent. He opened the book at where he had left off, having only read the very first chapter, or hero in the case of this book, since Bethome Meleme was pretty much listing a bunch of guys from way in the past and going on about what was known about them. The floorboards creaked as someone made their way toward the room with hurried footsteps. "Frank! You won¡¯t believe this- Oh what are you reading?" a tall andnky man burst into the room, easily distracted by the sight of the tool of learning. "Bethome Meleme¡¯stest book" Frank casually responded, showing the cover to his colleague and friend. "Ah, the sham of a historian?" whilst Frank may be the technically most educated for he had received the most lectures, Louis was definitely more knowledgeable than he could ever hope to be, simply on ount that thenky man didn¡¯t stay seated in his chair all day. "Sham?! She is the most recognisable name of the field, everyone holds their breath when she publishes something, I heard" "Isn¡¯t Meleme a man? Anyways, didn¡¯t you notice anything while reading through it? I see that you left a bookmark, so you must have read the first chapter, he is totally giving his own opinion!" Frank titled his head at Louis¡¯s words. "Yeah, sure, but what¡¯s the problem about this?" he asked cluelessly. "Historians aren¡¯t supposed to be biased Frank, anytime Bethome Meleme speaks about the undead, he manages to flip off and go on tangents, in a written format no less" thenky guild worker shook his head, apparently, he had also read the book. "I mean, everyone should agree that the undead are bad, right? It¡¯s not that bad of a problem" he removed his feet from his desk and sat down properly. "Certainly, but he totally idolises that Thanatok Ynig¨®s guy, who knows what he didn¡¯t say about him so as to not tarnish his pretty quote" Both of the men looked at each other for a few moments, both nodding their heads in agreement. "Bethome Meleme is totally a woman though, I learned to write to impress a girl with her exact name when I was fifteen" Frank spoke with utter calmness before looking down on the book in his hands. "Huh?" "The next chapter seems to be about an elven hero" "Yes it is- What did you say just before?" Frank ignored the question with ease and just began reading the book aloud. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om _____________ Maiele Liameilos, The Elven Light, a heroine of great standing whose death was never recorded, leading me to believe that she might still be walking amongst us. Still, that is of little importance, much like Thanatok Ynig¨®s, she was a dire asset in shielding life from the vile hands of undeath. Her light was a direct counter to the undead king¡¯s darkness and capable of burning vampires to a crisp, by all means, she single-handedly dismantled the ranks of the dead by sealing their ruler in his own throne room. With the king out ofmission and the vampires unable to do anything, the endless advance of decay was halted and pushed back, to such an extent that to this day, many aren¡¯t even aware that we were once at war with an army of the dead counting numbers beyond our imagination. In fact, allow to me emit a theory that will certainly gather the ire of many of my fellows who would rather believe in the benevolence of the all-mighties above: The gift ofprehension and understanding was a reward for the cooperation of all life against death. In any case, Maiele Liameilos is a great figure, which I find troubling even her own kind, known to live for centuries and sometimes even longer, have also managed to forget about her incredible deeds. _____________ "Well, she isn¡¯t so dead set on the undead part this time, didn¡¯t even insult their king" Frank remarked as Louis just stared at him. "What?" "Nothing, anyways, I came here to tell you about the discovery of a dungeon nearby, Eppie and her party are the ones that found it, they also reported the presence of a strange monster that hides in darkness, seems fairly cunning and can also take a crossbow bolt at close range without any problem" Louis decided that he would get the answers out of Frank at another time and simply proceeded with his job. "Heh, not getting harmed by a bolt from Lynn isn¡¯t anything too impressive, both her weapon and ammunitions are junk, it doesn¡¯t even fire straight" the red-nosed guild worker dismissed the supposedly impressive defences of the unknown monster using facts and logic. "We send Z and Saul to check things out?" Frank nodded his head at this, the two adventurers mentioned were the best around, not only in terms of capabilities, but were also the most trustworthy to work with. Because the two were brothers. And Louis was with their sister. So they had no choice but to do their job reliably, or else they would get scolded by big sis. Chapter 29: Brothers "Damn thatnky fucker" two young men stood in front of the dungeon entrance, one cursing Louis as he took a look inside. This ce was pitch ck, only pure darknessid beyond, while this was giving them the heebie-jeebies, the two guild workers with their asses screwed to their chairs had warned them about this. What truly aggravated Z and Saul was the fact that they had left out the fact that it reeked of death in there! They could smell it even from the outside, with a strong breeze blowing through, the stench of rot was assaulting their nostrils with extreme prejudice. The hair inside of their noses was shrinking and moving back as if a me had been brought before them. The two brothers looked truly alike, despite not being twins, they could definitely be mistaken as so, only entuating their physical simrities, was the fact that they both wore what was pretty much the same clothing. A nasal helm resting on each of their heads and wearing the same grey thick gambeson, only difference in equipment beyond their weapon of choices. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Z carried a longsword and Saul was armed with a shortsword and round, wooden shield. Their arms were in a much better state than that of the majority of other adventurers. There was nothing around Throdqdmond that they couldn¡¯t cut down, still, they felt apprehensive about entering a genuine dungeon, even if Frank and Louis seemed convinced that the unknown monster wasn¡¯t as fierce as Eppie had described, the two had never ventured in a dungeon. Also, they trusted more in the words of a fellow adventurer than the two guys that had probably never swung a de sharper than that of a butter knife. "Let¡¯s go, I guess¡­" Saul sighed, unlike his brother, he was resigned to his fate of venturing into the dungeon of stink. Z followed quickly after, together, they entered inside, engulfed by the worst smell they had ever had to endure, they would have to take long baths to hope to be freed from its grasp after they were done in here. It was so bad that even when keeping their mouths shut, they could still taste it through the smell, making them gag and feel their stomach constraining. "Be careful, there might be more dangers than expected" Saul spoke with his hand over his mouth whilst Z shuffled with a somewhat diamond shaped object, having a hard time injecting his mana inside of the item. When he finally managed the basic manoeuvre, the small thing, no bigger than a pebble was suddenly illuminated and rose up in the air, shining a bright light that was so brilliant, the two men needed some time to adapt to it. The inside was exactly as they had been described, not willing to stay in there any longer than needed, the brothers went on the move, Saul had a piece of paper stuck on the inside of his shield, he was going to draw a map as they moved. Mapping was right up his alley, it wasn¡¯t going to be anything fancy, but considering the ce they were in, it wouldn¡¯t have been even if he was a map making genius. They might be feeling like hurrying, but now wasn¡¯t the time to be hasty, they had agreed to the job, even if against their will, they were going to do it properly since the two frickers at the guild had the merit of not being scrooges at least. And also Louis had put a ring on their sister¡¯s finger. They moved steadily, following the unbreakable rule of maze-running: ¡¯Always follow the wall to your right¡¯ Bizarre how widespread it was despite on one in the surrounding areas having ever encountered any form ofbyrinth. They moved for a few hours, making steady progress, taking a break to eat some dry food they had brought, with much difficulty considering the ambient stench was refusing to yield, no matter how long they were staying, it wasn¡¯t getting any better. It was as if a bunch of corpses had begun rotting but had also all let their bowels fulfil their purposes onest time beforehand. Truly vile, definitely something they wouldn¡¯t forget before a long while. The two brothers were careful about the ceiling in particr, they had been made aware of the fact that the monster seemed to be moving through some sort of crawl space up above, each hole was a source of apprehension for them. They didn¡¯t possess the same hearing acuity as the redhead, so they couldn¡¯t simply rely on sounds, there was no telling if the monster wasn¡¯t simply lying in wait, ready to pounce on unsuspecting victims at the slightest signs of inattention. Nothing happened. Saul and Z were able to go around the entirety of the floor and loop right back toward the entrance by following the wall to their right, it took them quite a long time, but they were used to lengthy quests of this sort. Saul had mapped everything, they had gone right past the flooded passage but had obviously not dared to step in. They had failed to locate where the absurd reek wasing from, nothing showed any signs of rot, the water had been dark, but certainly not infested with filth. Without any sightings or suspicious sounds, the monster was also left unfound. Perhaps it had left the confines of the dungeon. It was more likely that it had simply stayed silent, probably above the ceiling, or hidden under the water. It also seemed likely that the terrible smell also came from it, or was hidden too. No amount of money could convince either of them of sticking their heads up there however, it only took the monster to be right there and it would have full ess to one of the most prominent weak points of the human body. Also, it was probably impossibly cramped up there, impossible to move fluidly and even more so swinging a de. The two of them were just about to exit when the sound of something falling down in the hallway across the exit. A figure garbed in a tattered cloak stumbled forward into the light casted by the floating diamond before copsing head first onto the ground with a thud. Chapter 30: Switch Aim "Oh crap-" Z tried to step forward but was instantly stopped by Saul¡¯s arm. "Are you really trying to go check up on this guy?! It¡¯s clearly suspicious" he stared at the fallen and unmoving figure, trying to catch sight of any suspicious movement or waiting for a noise toe from the figure. However, they were as silent as one could possibly hope to be and garbed in an ample cloak, they looked nothing more than a dark bump on the ground, he couldn¡¯t discern any sort of shapes. The figure was soaking wet, a puddle of water forming where it had fallen, taking a few more steps forward to allow the diamond-shaped light to reveal the full extent of the dark shape. "Ouch¡­" both of the brothers emitted the same noise as it came into view that the shrouded figure had an old, rusty de stuck in its back. Saul would have liked to point out ack of blood, but the dark mantle could very well have been absorbing most of the bleeding. "I certainly hope it isn¡¯t actually some guy bleeding out to death whilst we are just watching" Z voiced out his concern but Saul wasn¡¯t buying into any of it. "We checked every nook and cranny of this ce, this guy is soaked, meaning that he came from the flooded area, the water was nearly freezing cold and he somehow didn¡¯t make a single noise whilst making his way here with a sword stabbed straight through his back? I don¡¯t believe a word of it, let¡¯s just get out of here-" Saul was adamant on taking the least risk possible. Z on the other hand, felt like there was something to do. "Right, by all means, it appears that this is actually the famed monster that throws rocks and random crap, so, let¡¯s kill it" Z thought back on some things he had heard about the monster. What truly stood out was its shrewdness andck of mindless aggressivity, a sign that it was a cut above the regr monster¡¯s the two were used to kill, but that did not mean that it was out of their leagues, the simple facts that it kept its distances and employed such tactics should be proof enough that it wasn¡¯t one possessing incredible physical might or magical powers, it did seem to have ess to some terrible substances, but all signs of it had ended up disappearing. The brothers simply exchanged a nce and Saul spoke. "Nah, this is just too odd" Z sighed and yielded, they began walking away. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om After a few seconds, both Saul and Z reached for a dagger tied around their waists, throwing it at the unmoving figure on the ground, striking it, the sound of flesh being pierced and clear, yet the monster didn¡¯t move an inch or react in any other way. They looked at one another, Z shrugged and they both moved up to the cloaked dark bump, lifting the cloth from as far as possible using his longsword, they both stood in witness to a corpse. The corpse of a beyond decrepit old man, the upper half of his face sted to smithereens. Before any of the two could realise that they had been had, a brick flew out from the darkness and smashed the floating diamond-light, drowning the surroundings into darkness, the faint light that remained was thating from the not-so distant entrance, they were lucky that tonight was a full moon. Still, they couldn¡¯t see anything, and the sound of something running around soon filled their ears. "Back to back! Shield your face!" Saul shouted, the two siblings were close enough to one another to not be separated, sticking together, they began moving toward the faint moonlight, they had spent much time running around the dungeon. They didn¡¯t run, feeling like they were going to identally trip on something or run straight into a spike of some sort. The unseen monster showered them in bricks, no signs of the strange substances they had heard about, Z and Saul seemed to only be deserving of stone. ¡¯It¡¯s going to leave some marks¡­¡¯ Z couldn¡¯t help but think before a brick hit him in the back of the head. May the man who invented helms be blessed, he had just saved his life, or at least a bad concussion. Thepidation suddenly stopped. ¡¯No more ammunition?¡¯ Saul held his breath of relief in. Something began running straight toward Z, the sounds of its strange footsteps echoing down the halls. They were nearing the exit, just a few more steps before they were basked in light. Z only had his longsword, Saul pushed his brother to safety and raised his shield, bracing himself for whatever wasing. The footsteps neared close before stopping, using its momentum, the monster had jumped up and used its whole weight to dropkick Saul, his shield blocked the brunt of the unexpected attack, which he had no way of knowing was actually dropkick but his arm behind the shield still ached. Groaning in pain, he was thrown in the light as well. He expected an inhumane horror toe rushing out of the darkness, to pin him to the ground and drive something straight into his throat. He only heard the sound of retreating footsteps and a loud, cking noise, like a bear trap biting shut on nothing. "Ah¡­ What the hell was that?" he spoke aloud with a smile on his face, his heart had really begun racing back there. But both of them were fine in the end, Saul felt like something was off with his shield-holding arm, Z was starting to believe he had received one too many bricks to the head. They would both undoubtedly still need some time to recuperate from all of this, but they were alive and well, it was all that mattered. "Urgh¡­ I am never going to another dungeon ever again" Z spoke as they both stepped outside, breathing the fresh air of the night. "You said it" the two stumbled away under the moonlight, unaware that they were being watched. Loimos had concluded that the peopleing to the dungeon weren¡¯t adequate targets for the current him. He was going to aim lower. Chapter 31: Sadness Etched "Hey boys! You look messed up today" an old man with his back hunched over walked up to the two brothers. "Mister David¡­ Still up at this hour?" Z was the one to respond first, his head still aching from the repeated beating he had received just about ten minutes ago. "The night falls quickly, and I am still trying to convince Milo to marry Helena, it takes hours to get anywhere with this" the elderughed heartily. "But seriously, what happened?" he stopped as quickly as he started, the two brothers were truly looking deplorable. The duo exined what they had been up to, they and David exchanged a few more words after that but quickly went on their ways to goy down their bruised bodies. Old man David looked around, when he hade out to greet the two brothers, he could have sworn to have seen a third person in the distance, they weren¡¯t showing up however, so he just shrugged his shoulders and assumed that it was just his imagination. He headed back into his humble home, a ratherrge home inparison to the rest that could be found in the maze-like vige surrounding the city of Throdqdmond, but still quitecking in all that mattered for a house. It used to be a barn after all. David failed to see the skeletal figure creeping from behind a tree, Loimos had been mere meters away from him. Blissfully unaware, he retreated back into the safety of his home, watched the entire time but not followed as the undead turned his attention to a shed ced opposite to the entrance the man had just gone through. The old man sat down at a table, were a well-built young man, dressed in a typical shirt most peasants like them wore around the whole year, it was impossible to tell whether it was discoloured or not, if it was supposed to be disproportionate or if it had simply been worn for too long. One thing was certain, one with smooth skin wouldn¡¯t be able to wear this without itching terribly. "So, Milo, where were we?" David spoke casually, as though they hadn¡¯t had this exact same conversation hundreds of times, like they hadn¡¯t gone over it a few minutes ago. "Mister David, I won¡¯t marry your daughter, I don¡¯t even know her! How will you even convince her? She is literate, an apprentice schr and a mage! I seriously don¡¯t understand why you want that to happen!" like many times before, Milo formed a perfectly logical argument. It was only natural that a mere peasant like him shouldn¡¯t mingle with someone of such talent, even if he shared what was pretty much a father-son rtionship with David, that didn¡¯t seem proper. "I don¡¯t want her to end up with a snobby noble, you are a good kid Milo and I assure you, you two will hit off just right-" David was also capable of using logic unfortunately, it was a simple tool even barely educated farmers like them could wield with lethality. As he was making use of it however, both him and Milo heard something falling off with strength outside. Both recognised this sound, it wasn¡¯t the first time a robber tried to break into the shed outside. David grabbed a pickaxe leaned over on a wall whilst Milo grabbed a pitchfork. They stepped outside and watched the shed from afar, no sign of someone running off into the night, no more sound, the moonlight shone brightly. Something else fell in the shed, this thief was quite the daring one it seemed. David shouted at them to get the hell away, not truly wanting to cave their head in with his pickaxe, though they would better not try him. "I don¡¯t think they care" Milo remarked aloud, after that other object fell heavily, the robber continued to search through the shed, rustling and shuffling things around without even stopping or slowing down as they were told to go away. The two of them looked at one another, definitely not wanting to approach the dark interior of the shed when there was seemingly a fearless man inside. A few more moments passed and soon enough, a figure stepped out of the shed, both David and Milo stepped back preemptively despite already being a considerable distance away. The robber looked at the two living before him. Loimos had found exactly what he needed inside of there. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om He looked nothing like a thief, by digging through all of the random stuff packed up inside of there, he had found boots, pants, a shirt and a dark mantle, which was closed with buttons and was so long that it reached just above his ankles. He had put on more than a singleyer of clothes and grew rot all over his body to give the impression that it was indeed a person under all of this. Gloves tied to his arms with ropes and strings so that they wouldn¡¯t slip away and reveal his true self. As for the head, the mantle didn¡¯t have a hood attached so Loimos settled for an old, white and dusty potato bag, it was quite the huge sack, it wouldn¡¯t be ripped off his skull easily. He had cut two holes for his eyes, his dead senses didn¡¯t allow him to see right through solid objects after all, he would still be able to manoeuvre using his undead senses and other extra senses, but the holes served to indicate that it was just a man beneath the mask. Though, the way he had cut the bag open, it gave the impression that his ¡¯face¡¯ was permanently stuck in a sad expression. He tried to mimic breathing using false organs made of rot but it wasn¡¯t very convincing just yet, no matter however, the old man and youth in front of him weren¡¯t paying attention to that, nor were they attentive enough to notice that his fake breathing waspletely wrong. The two were not only taken aback by his appearance and rather tall stature, but also by the fact that he had taken something other than clothes from the shed, in fact, from their perspective, it seemed like the so-called ¡¯thief¡¯ had gone in and only came out with a machete. Certainly, the two living were starting to believe that he wasn¡¯t after money or goods. The three stood at a standstill for a mere second before Loimos simply turned and walked away,pletely ignoring them. Neither of them felt like confronting him and so, they allowed him to disappear in the darkness of a nearby field of corn. Chapter 32: Prowl Unbeknownst to the two frightened livings, Loimos watched them retreat into their homes before turning his attention to one of the many darkened farms. He could tell which were inhabited at the moment and which were empty, most were rich with multiple sources of life, some dwindling, some flourishing, some stable. They were all living still. The vast fields Loimos had encountered on his way there were vibrant with life, the sheer variety of crops was quite surprising, some even seemed to be cultivating flowers or trees, the expanse of the farnds reached beyond his undead sight. His dead mind went to work as he looked over his surroundings, prowling the fields and the outside of the farms, looking through a window, which was nothing more than a small hole in the wall. He could see slumbering younglings, if his arms were just a little bit longer¡­ No matter, it was clear to him that agriculture was a big deal wherever he was now, probably much bigger than adventuring or any other profession, the living conditions of the farmers didn¡¯t tarnish his view, they had importance, even if they failed to take advantage of their positions, that didn¡¯t change. ying farmers would certainly result in the fields they watched over to be overtaken by another, if he started to kill too many, hysteria would settle in. Loimos didn¡¯t want the living to start going haywire by touching something of such importance, at least, not so soon. Instead, the undead, headed deeper, further from the fields and into the inner part of the vige, perhaps calling it a vige wasn¡¯t correct, it wasrge, it seemed like many viges had merged together. They had probably all flocked toward whatid in the center, a city, with stone walls and guards positioned above, although theycked attentiveness. The guards seemed well-equipped, perhaps better equipped than the adventurers he had met, but they were definitely less perceptive, and they seemed to only patrol the city, not the vige. Whilst it appeared like the vige stretched as far as the fields did, it wasn¡¯t the case, some patches were left uninhabited and the farther he moved from the city, the more habitations he found that were abandoned, until what could have qualified as a prosperous vige were left deserted. Though, some people still lived amidst those forsaken habitations, unwanteds, criminals in hiding and simply elders that had never left their homes. Seemed like some of those ces hadn¡¯t been abandoned for nearly as long as it might appear. It was a good ce to start doing some work on the poption, Loimos stepped out of the darkness of a crumbled house, which had been made with sturdy rocks, a clear sign of the wealth of the former upants. Leaning against the old home of a small bourgeoisie was a crippled middle-aged man, his legs swollen and blistered, he could definitely still walk, but not without great strain and pain. Without any hesitation, as soon as he appeared under the moonlight, he grabbed the man by the top and his head, driving the weathered machete straight into the side of his neck, twisting and shaking the de in the wound, producing a sickly cracking noise as he separated two vertebrae. Ripping the weapon out, he left the not quite decapitated body of the man spurting blood right where it was, he hadn¡¯t even made a noise, it was night time after all, he had been sleeping soundly. Walking up to the other side of the street, if anyone had seen what had happened, they would have questioned their own sight, for no one could be so casual after butchering a man like this. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Loimos wasn¡¯t leaving the crime scene, he was heading toward a new one, there, a leper was not sleeping, but definitely out of it, the undead positioned himself in front of him, aiming his next sh with care, he shed right through his throat and watched him bleed out until he was dead for good. Turning his head to the side, Loimos locked eyes with a man that had the closest appearance someone could have to a rat whilst still beingpletely human. A cold sweat traced his balding head as he and the undead stood about ten meters away from one another. "S¡¯rry sir¡­ Didn¡¯t mean to intrude¡­" he rose his hands and began running away, quite impressive speed right there. Loimos didn¡¯t bother to run after this random criminal that couldn¡¯t even handle the sight of a few dead bodies and locked in on the next beggar in sight. Judging by what the system was shoving in his sight, those ¡¯humans¡¯ were worth quite a lot of XP, worth more than that Stolgob, despite the goblin certainly being stronger and more capable than those defenceless people. He could feel his death force growing deeper by the kill. He had cleaned up the surroundings of all the easy prey, not one of them had had a strong enough survival instinct to notice the looming danger, or perhaps Loimos was simply that much more stealthy. He walked down a moderately wide street, the ground beneath his feet had been nothing but dirt, for it had been overtaken by grass that almost reached up to his knees. It was understandable why they all chose to pass out here, the ground must have been quite soft. Loimos wandered through the ghost towns, sometimesing upon a living that he could ughter, be they a person, an animal or even just an insect. The night became day, but the atmosphere didn¡¯t change much in these abandoned parts, Loimos kept on prowling for multiple days and nights, of course, no guards or such ever came to investigate the death of the people he had butchered, no one knew, nor cared about them and the sole witness was nothing more than a lowly criminal that couldn¡¯t even show his face in public without being thrown into a cell. Though, there were still people willing to get in his ways. Bandits, some of the beggars and cripples probably had some dealings with must have taken his actions as some sort of provocation, and finding him wasn¡¯t exactly difficult, since Loimos hadn¡¯t been hiding himself, it wasn¡¯t like the typical dwellers of the surroundings could run away from him. "Now, who the hell are you working for?" another bald man, but much bulkier, asked him with a tone that was somewhat threatening. Chapter 33: Amidst The Ruins "..." silence encroached them all as they waited for a response from Loimos, who just stood there motionlessly, his fake breathing had gotten a bit more convincing, but still looked somewhat off, only contributing further to the feeling of uneasiness he casted upon the three bandits. Standing on each side of the wide-shouldered bald man, where somewhat emaciated men, the three of them didn¡¯t appear to eat as much as they should. On his right, the other bald man Loimos had encountered before, he remained a bit further than the rest, seemingly trying to hide behind therger man but also attempting not to make it too obvious that he was scared. It was obvious. The third man, the one on the left, was blessed with a head full of hair, unlike the other two who sported swords of questionable durability, he also enjoyed the joy of a ranged weapon in the form of a bow and a few arrows. Loimos only counted five, five shots wasn¡¯t a lot, especially when piercing damage was hardly effective against him. Though he would probably be shooting in a straight line unlike the crossbow wielder fromst time. "Boss, I don¡¯t think he¡¯s going to respond¡­" the frightened one shook in his boots as he demonstrated his superior intelligence, or not. "Listen you, you better answer or else, we¡¯ll be breaking your legs" he nudged the man with the bow and the man understood that he was supposed to get ready to shoot, he got into position to send an arrow flying at any given time. His target, the stomach, wasn¡¯t lethal but would hurt and bleed like hell. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "..." "Hum, perhaps this is one of Aliz¨¦¡¯s hunting dogs?" the smaller bald one did in fact have a good head on his shoulders, for now. "Aliz¨¦? By the ever-living gods! Those bitches think they can unleash their crap on our turf?!" the apparent leader of the group seethed, his bald head turning red as veins popped out. "Come on man, don¡¯t speak too loudly, the bitches can make us their bitches, I am not into getting beaten up by a woman, like, at all" the one with the bow turned his head to speak, as he gave his sentiment on the situation, Loimos fluidly ran off into a tight alley in between two ruined houses. The three bandits were stunned for a second, the smoothness was simply too slick for them to register for a second. "Do-" the scared rat of a man tried to speak up. "Fuck it! Kill him!" the leader wasn¡¯t about to let some weirdo in a mask ughter his people, no matter how messed up they may be, no matter who had sent him, he couldn¡¯t allow others to walk all over him, this ce belonged to him! His two coborators weren¡¯t thrilled by the concept of pursuing this creepy dude into the confusing ruins, but they still followed suit without hesitation. Manoeuvring the overgrown alleys, which were filled with sharp pieces of wood and protruding rocks, both hidden under the tall grass wasn¡¯t a simple affair, the three were used to them but chasing someone through them wasn¡¯t the same deal as walking through. "Damn, he¡¯s fast¡­" the one with the bow panted, none of them could give chase for too long. Loimos had no stamina to worry about and was constantly sprinting at full speed, so he lost them in no time. "He surely has to stop and recuperate at some point, any clue where he went?" the boss and his two goons stepped into a small clearing, meaning a ce where there were no ruins and only vegetation. In the center of all that grass, an old well, pretty much intact unlike the rest, was standing tall, to the right of the clearing however, was the most surprising sight. Arge, ss window which most likely used to give customers sight upon wonders was now leftpletely dirty, but still somehow intact. Amongst the plethora of ghost towns and deserted viges, this ce was one that didn¡¯t see many visitors, if at all. It made no doubt that youngsters that came to challenge themselves here would have broken it for fun and giggles. The well and that window were what attracted the gazes of the three, the boss carefully approached the well, imagining that the sack-headed man could be hiding inside, holding onto the sides. The one with the bow put his hand on his sheathed dagger and carefully approached the window, it was quite the attractive ce, perhaps their runaway had headed into this building. As the rat-faced man, he had just stood there unable to decide what to do, simply deciding to keep an eye on his fellows¡¯s backs. He gasped as he heard some stepping with strength behind him, turning around with a jittery hold on his sword, he only a close-up on a rock as Loimos smashed it into his face as he ran past him. The true danger the group posed was the big bald man, he struck the weakest of them before he could shout and rushed toward the boss, who soon realised that someone wasing from him. He reflexively turned and blindly blocked with his de, which was of no use, he had been toote, his attention hadn¡¯t been on the right ce. Indeed, he had been looking down into the well, which wasn¡¯t awfully deep but still gave him a bit of a scare, imagining himself falling head first down there. He had been taken aback and forced into thinking as he noticed the machete Loimos had been holding before at the bottom of the well, the handle buried into the ground, the de pointed upward. ¡¯How the hell did he have the time to do that?¡¯ the man could only wonder, of course, he was thinking as if Loimos was a person, maybe a bit psychotic, but a person nheless. He couldn¡¯t imagine that the undead had thrown himself down there and climbed back up like a nightmarish terror from the depth of darkness, those weren¡¯t things people did. The boss was simply toote and was tackled right into the well, plunging right toward the machete as Loimos was already running for his next target. Chapter 34: Slugfest The bandit wielding the bow, unlike his boss had ample time to see Loimosing, he slightly trembled, quickly realising that his two allies weren¡¯t going to be helping him right at this moment. One down into a well and the other still reeling from a powerful blow right to the face, he was already in position to shoot. Letting go of the string, his first arrow reached its mark, plunging right in the assants chest, into where his right lung should be, without thinking, he readied another arrow, only noticing that Loimos hadn¡¯t slowed down at all from the first. He shot again, his aim was somewhat thrown off by the shock but it was actually beneficial, not being an expert bowman, he always aimed for the chest since this was the easiest ce to consistently hit. Thanks to being distracted by surprise, the next one lodge went right for the head, unfortunately not piercing it, only striking the side of the head as it went past Loimos. Still, it should have sorted his thoughts and yet, to the bandit¡¯s horror, he didn¡¯t slow down. Loimos expanded his arms and took hold of the man as he ran right into him, propelling the two of them right through the filthy window. It exploded into a shower of sharp shards, the two didn¡¯tnd on the ground of the supposed shop, instead rolling over on a table. The bandit managed to throw Loimos away, sending him flying further against the counter, hitting the back of his skull against the side of it. The legs of the table broke mere momentster, sending the man rolling right onto the carpets of shards, earning a pained cry from him. He didn¡¯t feel like moving or doing anything at all right now, but from the corner of his eyes, he could see Loimos standing back up like nothing. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Ah! You motherfucker, are you on some drugs or something?! You¡¯ve got a hole in your lung, get the fuck away from here!" he cursed loudly as he ignored the pain, pulled out a shard stabbed in his nose and spat on the ground. Loimos wasn¡¯t impressed by his attempt at cutting this fight short and simply began walking toward him. The two were in a confined space now, and it should be a given that the bandit wasn¡¯t going to stand idly like before when he now knew what sort of hijinks Loimos was willing to pull to murder him. The bandit had certainly never imagined that his opponent would put himself in harm¡¯s way like he had just done. ¡¯I lost my bow¡­ And my arrows went flying everywhere¡­¡¯ the bandit took hold of his dagger, it had thankfully not been flung away in the struggle. He inspected his surroundings, but apart from the destroyed table, a bunch of sharp shards and the counter, this ce was barren of anything much. The two doors he could see were boarded up too, leaving only the window as an exit, but big shards were still stuck on the extremities, he wasn¡¯t confident that he would be able to leap through without getting himself stuck. "You guys better hurry the hell up!" he shouted as loudly as he could. At least one of hispanions should be capable of doing something, he may have been slugged in the face, but that had probably not knocked him out. Loimos kicked up some shards right at the bandit¡¯s face, shielding his eyes and closing his mouth, he still swung his dagger. Feeling the de sink into something, he smiled until he moved his other arms from in front of his eyes. "Goddamn freak-!" he was interrupted as Loimos punched him in the ribs. He reciprocated by repeatedly striking Loimos in the face but it wasn¡¯t doing much, it felt somehow mushy. The bandit had indeed managed to stab Loimos, but only on the undead¡¯s terms, the dagger had sunk into the skeleton¡¯s palm, he had grabbed the bandit¡¯s hand, locking them both in ce where they could only beat each other up without any sort of finesse. A true slugfest. The bowman was a dirty fighter, he tried to kick his foe in the crotch, only to be rmed by theck of response, in fact, his leg was locked in ce, putting him in a less than ideal situation. Using this moment of inattention, Loimos poked the bandits¡¯s eyes, not quite enough to blind him forever, but just enough to draw blood and give him a taste of what death looked like. He instinctively tried to pull back, Loimos leaned forward, sending the man right to the ground, where all the shards were. He mmed down with even greater force than before, the shards that were already stuck in his flesh and cloth sunk deeper as new ones joined the party. The bandit was in no state to fight back any longer, Loimos let go of his legs, wrenched the dagger out of his grip, pulled it out of his hand and shove it right into his throat, gave it a good twist before ripping it right out, blood gushed everywhere as the undead stood right back up. Right in time to get shot in the neck, the rat had recuperated from his daze and wanted to fight. "Ya bastard! I¡¯ll gut you lik¡¯a pig!" it seemed like something was angering the feeble, little man. He dropped the bow that he had picked up without questioning why on earth Loimos was unfazed and used his sword to get the protruding, sharp ss at the bottom of the window frame out of the way before jumping in. The rat sweeped at Loimos¡¯s legs, forcing the skeleton to move back until he reached the counter. He acted as though he hadn¡¯t known exactly when he was going to reach it, prompting the mad bandit to go for a powerful sh, Loimos leaned his back on the counter and reached for something he had noticed to be there back when he had been flung right against the counter. It was nothing much, just a singr wooden cup, tavern drunkards were most familiar with them, and although the rat couldn¡¯t handle much alcohol, he recognised the object for what it was quickly. ¡¯What is he-?!¡¯ the bandit was left stumped for an instant, he could only think of two uses for the cup, blocking an attack or using it for attacking. He focused his attention on the newly arrived object, which Loimos did nothing more than letting go of it the instant he showed it. It was but a mere distraction, just to make sure the rat wouldn¡¯t be able to dodge the dagger Loimos stabbed right through his open mouth. Chapter 35: Bled Driving the de into his mouth, the taste of iron invaded the bandit¡¯s gullet in more ways than one, he could feel his teeth shifting position as the de stuck itself in between them, the strange pain as his tongue was nearly split in half, the horrendous feeling as the de reached to far it made him feel like puking. Loimos wasn¡¯t interested in causing pain, he quickly retrieved the dagger and shed the man¡¯s throat for good measure. It didn¡¯t seem like the rat was feeling like dying, he grabbed onto Loimos¡¯s leg as the undead tried to move on to his next victim. Striking the struggling living in the forehead with the end of the handle, he knocked the man to the ground and repeatedly stomped on his face, until only mush remained. A leaking source of life force was rushing toward him, Loimos barely had time to turn and face it, a fist was already striking him straight in the chest. ¡¯That punch is not typical¡¯ he coldly noted before his body was sent right through the wall, his sprawled, lifeless body thrown so hard that he bounced against the ground and went right through an old wooden door,nding him in the former dinner room of a peasant family. Clicking his limbs back in ce, the dagger had been lost as some of his fingers went out of ce, he stood up and looked through the smashed open door of the house he had found himself in at the bandit leader. His fall in the well, onto a machete hadn¡¯t been fatal, Loimos had known that since he had felt his life force the entire time, what wasn¡¯t expected was this sudden surge of power the bald man was experiencing. Certainly, Loimos was aware that some living experienced greater feats of strength and resilience in the face of death. Certainly, this applied to the man, for he had in factnded on the machete, the side of his body was bleeding profusely at this very instant, the color of his skin was ever so slightly paler than before. But that punch wasn¡¯t a result of that, it was a second, invisible force that had struck him at the same time this man¡¯s fist did. Having witnessed mana woven into magic, Loimos could tell that this wasn¡¯t it. ¡¯A system skill¡¯ he concluded as he ever so casually grabbed a whitered piece of wood lying on the table, perhaps it had been a te once, it was of now real importance. Not only was the leader¡¯s adrenaline rush wearing off, his body was slowly shutting down from blood loss, his life force was also steadily vanishing at this very instant. Why exchange blows and fight? This man was going to die on his own, Loimos¡¯s ploy had already killed him. He threw the piece of wood at the man and ran off into the darkness of the house "Come back here you coward!" it was riching from the guy that hade with reinforcements from the get-go, but it was understandable why he could be feeling aggravated at the moment. In any case, the bandit leader gave chase without caring for his state, he probably shouldn¡¯t have yoinked the machete out of his wound, but it was all done in the heat of the moment, the fact that he hadn¡¯t been feeling any pain at the moment had also been a major factor. Now that it was all steadily going away, he could feel even greater exhaustion creeping up on him. Recing the thoughts of his impending death with some for vengeance upon Loimos, he stepped into the home. Unlike the old store, it wasn¡¯t well lit, flooded with darkness in fact. Swinging his sword like a lunatic at any piece of furniture that remained, the leader expected the cockroach to appear from the darkness at any moment, he moved fast, feeling himself grow weaker and weaker by the seconds. "Coward!" he shouted again as he reached a dead end, or rather, he reached a small window, Loimos could only have gone there, meaning that he had escaped. The bandit boss tried to spin around and go on the hunt but he only felt his knees wobble, soon enough, his back was against the wall as he slumped down. In this abandoned home, he was going to bleed out and die like he lived, as a nobody. Light shone from the small window onto his face, its warmth was quite soothing, but not enough to allow him to forget what awaited him. A shadow was cast over as something got in the way of the light, the weakened bandit couldn¡¯t even muster the strength to raise one arm as he sat in a pool of his own, warm blood. Loimos slithered right back into the room, walked up to the man and took his sword from him. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om cing the edge against the top of his head Loimos raised the de, bringing it down brutally and splitting this living¡¯s skull in half. Leaving it stuck in his body for the time being, the undead grabbed the brawny man¡¯s body by the feet and began dragging him away, leaving a trail of blood as he went, Loimos brought him back to the well and chucked his body in. Repeating this action with the other two as well, Loimos made sure to strip them of any of their belongings as well, forming a small pile next to the well. Climbing down himself, it was as good of a time as any to try something, now that he had yed quite a lot of people, including three bandits capable of actually defending themselves in some capacity. His rather easy victory could be attributed to the fact that they had been fighting him as though he was just another person, had he actually been a human like them, it wouldn¡¯t have gone so well. The hits he had endured would have been enough to crack his bones without the protection of his rot and clothes wrapped around him. It was of no importance now, he tried to manifest his rot powers in a way, not to produce more rot or a miasma generator, but simply to elerate the decay of their bodies. Loimos didn¡¯t pay attention to the passage of the days as he tested this. Chapter 36: Attic A young woman yawned and raised her hand to stop the aggressive sunlight of the early morning to blind her as he stepped out of her small home, neither far from the farnds, nor far from the city, she lived where the houses were beginning to grow closer and closer to one another. The street was wide enough for carriages to get through unimpaired, that was an advantage of leaving right next to the main way to the city, your neighbours didn¡¯t have a perfect view of what was going on in your own home. She looked to the right, hearing the sound of other people stepping out of their homes to go to work, some worked as farmhands, whilst others did whatever was avable in the city, they always needed arms for construction over there. She looked to the left and was left confused for an instant. Sighing, she moved toward the person sprawled on the ground, they weren¡¯t passed out, she could see them moving. "Partied too hardst night, heh?" she spoke with an unrefined ent, trying to get a look at who it was, she knew quite a lot of people¡¯s faces and her memory of names was pristine, allowing her to carry conversations with pretty much anyone. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The woman recognised the middle-aged man but stepped back as soon as she got a good look at his face. Her scream forced everyone awake. At a nce, it might seem like nothing was wrong with the man, he may seem a bit unkempt but he was known to work at a nearby farm, so it was more-so a sign that he was a hard worker. One simply needed to do just like the young woman and look at his face. His mouth and nostrils were sealed shut, in quite the gruesome manner at that, sewn haphazardly and with much violence taking ce beforehand, his face had been beaten ck and blue, enough to allow his aggressor to stuff his mouth with rocks and hay. By the time peopleposed themselves, the minuscule amount of life he still had in him by the start had already gone out, leaving only a still warm body in the middle of the street. "Will somebody go call the guards?!" someone with a better head on their shoulders than the rest finally spoke up, otherwise they would have all just stood around with mildly concerned expressions for a while. "Dear gods, how could this happen?" a man with a thick beard and mustache spoke to himself as he looked from a distance, just barely stepping out of his own house. Something attracted his attention in the opposite direction from the dead body, turning his head with a: "Mmh?" He could only see the sad eyes on the bag staring right at him as something cold pierced his throat. One couldn¡¯t fathom what could happen in broad daylight, as people could see, it only needed to be fast and inconspicuous in execution. Loimos had walked out from a narrow alley as though it was the most normal thing in the world, as long as it appeared like he belonged here, the few people that may have noticed his dark figure from the corner of their eyes ignored him. Quickly silencing the man by stabbing him in the throat, he pushed him back into his own house and closed the door behind him, letting the already condemned man bleed out on the floor, the undead walked with a faster step to intercept the person he could feel was going to enter the room he was in. It was but the home of peasants, a father, a wife and a few kids at most. There were basically only three rooms, two bedrooms and another that served as both the kitchen and dining room. Living rooms were a term only the more wealthy knew, those of lesser fortune wouldugh at such poor usage of space. "Honey-" Loimos was already standing in her way, grabbing her wrist to get it out of the way, he also shoved his de into her throat, pulling and throwing her to the ground, he seamlessly transitioned from murder to movement as he headed for thest room. The three livings in there didn¡¯t pose any problem, only one was awake and he couldn¡¯t even get a noise out at the mere sight of Loimos. The whole venture only took him two minutes at most, he stepped right out of the house the same way he came in, covered in blood, but at this point, he wasn¡¯t within anyone¡¯s sight as they had all gathered around the body. As though it was an attraction, it truly was a wonder how the living could be both so fascinated and also so afraid of death, Loimos didn¡¯t question the discrepancy in behaviour and walked away in the main street. He broke into a few more homes along the way, mostly because they just happened to make the fatal mistake of opening their doors when Loimos was in the perimeter, they couldn¡¯t even start to question his weird appearance before he was already stabbing them. Though some proved to be morepetent as they just shut their door at his sight, he was covered in blood at this point after all, it was otherwise more rming than wearing a potato sack on your head. The dark coat mostly concealed blood stains, but the rest of his clothing wasn¡¯t so dark. The bag was already starting to take on a darker shade. Loimos arrived before a farm, unlike the majority of the dwellers the other way, those that took care of the farm and pretty much owned them had already been up for a while, they were already well aware of their surroundings and not groggy. Not to mention, Loimos had noticed that they seemed otherwise more brawny and willing to cave someone¡¯s head in for a slight transgression. Apletely different breed in sum. The skeleton climbed up the side of the farm, crawling through a gap in the roof, making his way in an attic filled to the brim with random stuff, cobwebs and dust. Heid down, face against the ground and stopped moving, simply staring through the small gaps in the floor. Chapter 37: Helena "Well, would you look at that, what a coincidence" old man David tapped on Milo¡¯s shoulders. There were no coincidences. Milo would have liked to just sink into the ground and disappear right at this instant, just teleport at the top of a mountain and be left by himself. David¡¯s daughter, Helena was standing right there, the old scourge must have asked her toe from the city. Milo had always thought that she was too busy with her schr and mage sses and that thus, that he would never actually get to meet her. ¡¯Oh no, she¡¯s hot!¡¯ Milo tried backing away, right out of the room but David had already taken out the exits. Milo had to admit, he had a hard time believing this was the old man¡¯s daughter, not only did he must have already been old when she was conceived, he had clearly partook in her creation with a woman way above what he should be able to achieve. The young man rubbed his chin in thought, maybe she was also adopted. Lost in thought, he turned and actually looked at Helena, who seemed simrly bothered by her father¡¯s antics. She had long brown hair, a somewhat simr colour to that of Milo¡¯s but that was to be expected since it was the mostmon hair colour around. Though her eyes were a gorgeous dark blue, which was definitely notmon at all, Milo had never seen that before. Wearing a long and neat dress, as well as a hat that Milo could only describe as silly looking, she was inplete antithesis with the inside of the barn turned house, even though she had used to live there in her younger years. "You must be Milo" she extended her hand toward him and he instinctively shook it, David cheered in the background at this casual greeting. He had expected her hands to be all soft but they were simrly calloused to his, she had still spent most of her youth working at the farm after all, in fact, Milo was realising that she had pretty big hands for a girl. In fact, now that he was just in front of her, he was realising that she was taller than him. And her handshake grip was pretty strong actually¡­ ¡¯Huh¡¯ ¡¯Why in damnation did he not mention that his daughter was like this?!¡¯ Milo thought as he turned to the old man. It would have made everything so much simpler, to hell with the schr and mage stuff! Milo would have been instantly sold had he mentioned that! n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om He took a few steps back and calmed down, it seemed like something had just awakened in him, and he wasn¡¯t fighting it. "Yes, your father spoke a lot about you Helena, but I see that he wasn¡¯t very honest, you are much prettier than he described" ¡¯Smooth¡¯ Milo thought. ¡¯Not bad kid¡¯ David shrunk back in a corner, seemed like he had seeded in getting Milo on board with his superb idea, now he just needed to see if Helena was simrly interested. "Do you have rats in the attic?" much to everyone¡¯s disappointment, she instead looked up at the ceiling. "No, there hasn¡¯t been anything up there for a while, not even a marten or anything¡­" Milo looked up at the ceiling too "Why do you ask?" "There¡¯s some weird mana fluctuations up there, like something odd was there for a while, by the way dad, are you not worried about the strings of murder recently? It has already been a week since it started and there hasn¡¯t been a single day without victims" Helena didn¡¯t show it on her face, but it was clear in her tone that she was worried. "Bah, nothing more than a lunatic on the loose, I would like to see hime here!" David, much like most farmers, wasn¡¯t afraid of this guy, despite the fact that the killer¡¯s kill count was already racking up in the dozens. "The people that were living on the outskirts, in the old towns have also all vanished, I heard that the guards found a well filled with corpses, some having already been decaying for a while they said" unlike farmers like her father and Milo, Helena was more keenly aware of XP and of the workings of the system. She knew very well that even a regr person, after ughtering so many people, would have umted much enough strength to be a threat to even the strongest of men outside the city. It wouldn¡¯t be farfetched to say that even guards should be careful and move in at least groups of two at this point. "My instructors are busy, I¡¯ll stay for a little while" she didn¡¯t if it was necessary, but she preferred staying close-by, just in case something did happen. The attic was also worrying her. "Let¡¯s go check what¡¯s up there" she grabbed Milo and he allowed himself to be led around, he was also curious to see what she had been talking about. Unfortunately for them, nothing was to be seen within the attic, in fact, the cobwebs indicated that nothing had disturbed them in a long while, still, Helena could still clearly feel like something was wrong, like something had been missing. It was like an object had beenying somewhere around here and preventing mana from moving on its position, and only now that it was gone was the ambient mana allowed to move freely. "That reminds me of the man that stole a machete, not too long before the murder started actually" Milo had almost forgotten about this event, but now he felt like he should perhaps speak to a guard about it. Him and Helena began speaking about it, not realising that they had missed Loimos by barely a minute. Night was falling and he was going on the prowl once more, this time, heading in the opposite direction from the habitations and the city, heading toward a still illuminated and loud building. Like on most other constructions, the windows were no more than small openings for the most part, if they were actuallyrge, they had already been shut with ps. Chapter 38: Scarecrow Standing in front of the tavern, Loimos didn¡¯t simply step in and instead turned to the wheat field facing the lonely building filled to the brim with drunkards, walking through the golden ntation, he arrived before a scarecrow. Taking it down from its wooden support, he threw it further into the field and hoisted himself up in its ce, granting him a perfect view of the tavern, and also hiding him in in sight. Though that would have worked pretty well, it wasn¡¯t necessary, tonight was a dark night, the people inside, consumed by alcohol would never even be able to make out the shape of the scarecrow. Loimos remained in ce for an hour, until a group of three, all of them struggling to even walk properly, walked out of the bustling tavern. The three men seemed to be trying to support one another but none of them was even remotely steady in their movements, Loimos stepped down from his spot and made a bee-line for them. Retrieving a dagger from the inside of his coat, he approached with silent steps, standing awfully close to them. There was no breathing for them to feel on their necks as Loimos assessed the situation, waiting for the perfect asion to strike. Raising up his dagger, he targeted the one in the middle. He wanted them to be confused for a moment to make the whole thing smoother, but their reaction with their friend just slumped down would be unpredictable, he wanted the one he was going to strike not to die instantly and keep his grasp on the other two. As a skeleton, he knew exactly where to strike to avoid hitting a rib, his de went right through the unsuspecting man¡¯s back, the point of the de ending its course as it pierced his right lung. The force of the strike drove the air out of his other lung, in spite of the pain, all he could do was mutter a weak gasp, a mere exhale that meant nothing. He lost strength in his knees and fell forward, the other two almost got carried along with him but caught themselves,ughing at their friend for almost falling on his face, they held no doubts in their hearts. Up until Loimos quickly stabbed one in the throat and then grabbed the other into a choke hold before driving the dagger through the top of his head. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The undead put his feet against the man¡¯s head to get his de back, but realised that his recent acts of ughter had worn the de out significantly, getting right through someone¡¯s skull had been the tipping point as most of the de remained stuck in. He rubbed the blood of what remained of the dagger on his sleeve and still put it back in his coat, it was still plenty enough to cut someone with. Loimos dragged the one he had stabbed in the back into the wheat field, this man wasn¡¯t dead yet, he was holding onto his life surprisingly well. Not that he could turn things around and escape with his life, Loimos pulled him away with the same ease he could crush the smallest of humans in his palms. He brought the dying man to the spot he had been disguising as a scarecrow mere moments ago, Loios fetched the clothes of the strawman, undressed the man and put on those of the inanimate humanoid on him. He dispersed what was left of the scarecrow and tucked his victim¡¯s clothes in his coat before cing his body as the new, much more realistic scarecrow. It mighte as a surprise for Loimos to bother in such a way, but he had heard the people talking of his murders, most believed it to be the work of one of their own, but some would rather me it on a monster. As such, Loimos decided to do something very human-like, and pose a body as if to mock the guards and others trying to catch him. At the very least, they shouldn¡¯t expect it to be an undead of all things. He left the other two corpses as they were and made his way back toward the farm he had chosen as his hiding spot. Before climbing back into the attic through the gap he had found, he crept up to a window and observed the inhabitants inside, specifically the new girl that had arrived and was said to be the offspring of the old man. Despite not having any resemnce with one another. Loimos had clearly recognised that feeling he had noticed about that adventurer back then, surprisingly enough, he had never felt that with the goblin mage, despite all three of them being of this profession. The undead couldn¡¯t quite tell himself, but what he had felt was their mana sense extending over to his position, Eppie hadn¡¯t noticed anything in the dungeon due to theck of ambient mana. Helena was not only more skilled than her, but the air outside was much richer with mana, making Loimos¡¯s undead presence much more noticeable to anyone paying attention. Mana was rejected from him, creating an empty space, most wouldn¡¯t have paid it any mind, it was something that happened, Helena was overly attentive and worried however. Things that she would normally chalked up to nothing were now suspicious urrences that needed investigation, Loimos had seen it y out, how she had clearly noticed him in the attic before he had made his exit. She was speaking with that Milo kid right now, if he just broke in right now and attacked her, would he be able to kill her? Was he fast enough? Was he strong enough to burst in through the door in an instant? Could he be capable of throwing his broken dagger right in the back of her head through this window? Should he go back to the attic and wait for her to notice him again, and ambush her once shees to check things out? Could any of those work out perfectly? Loimos stood still for a few moments, before stepping back into the darkness. Chapter 39: Long Nights Coming What is an undead? Here is the question me, and many of my colleagues constantly find ourselves asking. The simplest answer would be: "Something that is animated, yet does not possess life force" That is obviously wrong however, this definition would ssify golems and some spirits as undead, yet, everyone agrees that it isn¡¯t the case. No, the more correct definition of an undead would be something animated by death force, something that is by all means, dead and yet, still retains functions normally attributed to the living. Now, what is the difference between an undead and something that is simply dead? Whilst corpses create death force, they eventually just stop doing so after a while, undeads do not. Or so it generally is, but once again, corpses that just manifest death force without stopping and undeads that don¡¯t produce their own death force exist. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om For example, the mostmon of zombies and skeletons fit into that second category, generally born and fueled by ambient death. Now, you are wondering where I am going with this, aren¡¯t you? That is but an introduction, I have presented you with two sorts of undeads, those that produce death and those that do not. I am simply aiming at putting down on paper the variations of undeads, necromancers shouldn¡¯t dive into the dangerous practice of death magic blind. When ites to aspects nearly all beings share with one another, I ssify undeads to fall into three categories regarding each of those aspects: -Possess the same as the rest -Lack it entirely -Possess another version of the aspect, which shall be referred as ¡¯undead¡¯ for simplicity sake- Extract of ¡¯Undeads For Dummies: What Is A ¡¯True¡¯ Undead?¡¯ by Ohith of the Underground Tower. A somewhat chubby man stood before a small pond, the surface had turned red. He held a soft tissue to his mouth and nose as guards pulled out corpses after corpses, each belonging to people living in the viges outside the walls of Throdqdmond, he felt like gagging every time a new one was fished out. Each and every one of them was horrendous and disgusting in its own way, some were bloated due being submerged for a long time, others were squirming with worms whilst some were simply disfigured from the brutal ordeal they had gone through before ending up in there. The man felt sick, but he was even more furious. His name was Harold, and he was the mayor of Throdqdmond, at first, a few peasants dying wasn¡¯t anything to write home about, it was a shame to lose perfectly good manpower but it was what it was. Now however, this mysterious killer had begun to attack the farmers and it was equivalent to punching the city¡¯s economy straight in the guts, now that was heresy, this was an attack that couldn¡¯t be forgiven. The killer had been active for about a month now, and there rarely was a day during which no blood was spilled, Harold had be convinced that this man was actively trying to ruin this city, for he even attacked the few cattle grazing around. Even dogs and cats weren¡¯t safe, as it had be awfullymon to find either of those smashed up in the middle of the main road, merchants and travellers had begun to avoiding through Throdqdmond. And it was perfectly understandable, a maniac was on the loose and no one was able to track him down. He had seemingly only been seen once, and described as wearing a ¡¯potato sack with sad face on it¡¯. Thus, the sad faced man had be the looming shadow of Throdqdmond, whether it was turning people into scarecrows, hanging their bodies around or simply ughtering them and leaving them as is. Harold was dreading the day this lunatic decided to upgrade and start prowling the streets of the city itself. ¡¯I have already got all adventurers on it, not a single guard isn¡¯t on the lookout for him, why?!¡¯ he sighed heavily and motioned the captain of the guards not so far toe closer. "Listen, do not stop anything, continue trying to catch this bastard, but don¡¯t despair alright? I am going to try to get Thomas and others as well" Harold spoke seriously as he spared a nce at yet another body being pulled out of the pond, he felt sick seeing someone so young, and yet, already in the grasp of the grim reaper. "Thomas? The- The crusader?" the captain of the guards paled, not because he was afraid of this man, he simply remembered the one time he had been in his presence. That seemed¡­ Excessive for a filthy murderer, a warrior as noble as a crusader shouldn¡¯t have to be bothered for such things. Yet, he didn¡¯t doubt that he would heed the call. "We¡¯ll double our efforts sir!" the man responded and saluted, not wanting the crusader to be bothered with something so measly, he was ignited with a renewed fervour as hemanded some of his men to go on the move. "Captain!" just as he did so, one of them came rushing out toward him. He nodded, prompting him to exin what was so urgent. "The vigers¡­ They are all sick and tired of our¡­ Hum- Ipetence! They are taking things into their own hands¡­" this was only to be expected. Loimos had arisen one of the mightiest of forces, the wrath of themon people. The undead wasn¡¯t fazed by it however, he watched things unfold from another attic he had crawled into, the folks below him had no idea he was there. He listened in on the people outside, he could only hear bits here and there, but it was enough to understand what was happening. The peasants and farmers were forming a righteous mob, there was little doubt in Loimos¡¯s mind that they would crush his bones if they caught him, though not everyone was going to rush out into the night with torches and pitchforks. Some of them were going to be barricading themselves in their homes, such as the family living right below him at this moment, he could hear them moving furniture around and boarding up windows. They had no idea that they were going to be the first. The next few nights were going to be long. Chapter 40: Sick Freak "Those idiots, they are really doing it¡­" a middle aged man with hands swollen from harshbour muttered to himself as he was sitting in a chair facing the blocked off entrance of his own home. He couldn¡¯t help but shake his head, to him, trying to hunt down the maniac behind all the murders was only going to result in more casualties, he firmly believed that no simple man could massacre so many people. Men, women, and the children too, even the vilest of people tended to have limits, this one did not, a savage beast in the form a man is all he was. The man¡¯s house was situated in between the farms and the small habitations nearing the city, he had lucked out and managed to get a two-stories home for his family, the only thing he had feared until this had all started were the taxes he had to pay to the ¡¯local¡¯ lord. Humbled worker that he was, with a wife and three children, soon one more toe, it had really been his only enemy. Now however, he had to stay guard, worried at every second that the ¡¯sad faced man¡¯ as they called him was going to try and force his way into his house. He rubbed his eyes and sighed again, he looked behind him for no particr reason and was faced with the darkness filling the room behind him. Whilst it had a floor above, the house itself wasn¡¯t remarkably big, the first floor only had three rooms, a dinner room also serving as kitchen and two cers in which they put either food or misceneous stuff. Had he left that door open? A question suddenly arose from his mind as he noticed the door of the food cer hanging open, barely peeking out from the ambient darkness. He had to have done so, or maybe someone else had forgotten, he tried to reason with himself. ¡¯No, we always close it¡¯ he stood up, and moved the chair away, he grabbed a wooden club, it had been in use by his father for dealing with wolves back in the day, but the man still remembered clearly that he could deal with thieves and the likes just as easily. ¡¯Just one good hit over the head¡­ If you can¡¯t, just keep hitting until you can¡¯t anymore¡­¡¯ he remembered the wise words of his progenitor, whose brute force had solved a wide array of problems. The man tightened his grip and grabbed thentern he had been using as his source of light, the shine it let out was rather dim, it was also a relic after all. He approached the cer carefully, expecting a variety of scenarios, all of which involved the sad faced man rushing out from the darkness, so stressed, that he couldn¡¯t even contemte the very real possibility that nothing of such amplitude was at y. Normally, he would have simply assumed some animal had just pushed the door open, it wasn¡¯t like it was tightly locked or anything, this thing barely had a door knob after all, a stray gust of wind could have forced it open. Only if it hade from inside the cer however. The man breathed out heavily, sweating in anticipation of the worst, ready to shatter the skull of anything that could appear, clutching the club andntern so hard his battered hands turned somewhat purple. The cer was entirely empty. "Ahah" he chuckled to himself for being so paranoid. What had he been thinking after all? That the murderer was snuck up behind him and opened the door to the cer? That was simply ridiculous. All of the tension began to evacuate his body, only to rush right back in as he heard the floor creak right above him, and then a door being casually shut. He quickly stepped over the bottom of the stairs and shouted up: "Who was that?" he expected one of his children or his wife to answer him, but no one did, the utter silence of the house suddenly dawned on him, constricting his chest painfully as he once again went into full paranoia. The worst possible scenarios going through his head, he rushed up the stairs without any caution and flung the first door he found open. "Honey?" his wife wasying on the bed, the nket up to her neck, just as usual. He repeated himself as he made his way over to her side, shining the light on her face, she seemed to be peacefully sleeping, yet, she wasn¡¯t waking up. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Straining his eyes, he couldn¡¯t help but notice that her expression didn¡¯t seem very natural, it was more like someone else had tried to replicate the look of calm slumber, like some sort of demented puppeteer. He lifted the nket off of her, many things went through his mind as he nced upon the guts of his loved one, how could this have happened? Whilst he was just on the floor below? How could he have not heard any struggle? Any scream? What sort of sick freak would kill someone like this, and then take the time to cover it up, falsify the very expression on her face, all for what? A scream whose driving emotion was unclear shook the house, spreading beyond his walls, straight toward the ears of the righteous crowd. The man rushed out of the room, his steps were loud, making the entire house creak and wince, kicking the door leading to the room where his three children should be sleeping, thentern shone its light on three beds. Two beds, ced as they always were, with two children within that slept as they always did, two pillows on their faces, two chests that did not heave, the dimntern shone, the father watched, his timely arrival©¤toote, a decision had been made, and don¡¯t we all have to go someday? Standing over his youngest, thest child of his, there he stood...a man famed for his sad expression, a cut-out potato sack as a figure-head. It was then that their gazes met for the first time...and it would be thest. "..." he opened his mouth, trying to say something. Only a rabid noise came out, dropping thentern he gripped the club with both his hands. Chapter 41: Run The old home rumbled with fury as the father stepped forward, the floor seemed ready to give in at any moment, but it did not. Supporting the thunderous stomp, the man raised the club high above his head, it made no doubt, this hit would carry every single bit of strength avable to him, certain to blow Loimos¡¯s skull apart. Grabbing the pillow he had just used to snuff the youngest, he chucked it without much force at the man, whopletely ignored it and kept on charging forward, he was going to m this club down no matter what. Watching the approaching attacking from above, it was fast, but not fast enough to catch Loimos by surprise, bending his knees, he used his maximum speed and strength to side step at thest moment whilst simultaneously reaching into his coat. The father¡¯s bloodshot eyes were focused on the club, smashed through floorboards, he wanted to pull it back up and swing again, swing and swing until nothing but paste was left of the abject murderer. His mouth was filled with blood, a violent stinging from his nape brought him to his knees, sapping the strength from his arms, he fell limply down, the wrath animating him did not die down, but it was reced by the coldness of death. The fear. Loimos heard the shouts of the mob converging outside as result of the father¡¯s scream, it wouldn¡¯t be long before they began trying to break in. Seizing the heavy club from himself, he turned his attention to thentern the man had dropped, it hadn¡¯t been broken by the fall, the me inside was still swirling and dancing. Quickly dragging and throwing the corpses in the room into a pile, Loimos pushed the beds together, the legion of peasants were beginning to kick into the barricades. Loimos swung thentern at the wooden frame of the bed in the middle, sshing the oil on the sheets, the fire bursted as Loimos stepped away and made his way back into the attic he had crawled out of. He waited for a little while, listening to the crowd¡¯s gasps and curses as they realised everything was burning down, they had nothing at hand to even try to contain the mes, their attention waspletely diverted from catching the scorned killer to searching for a solution to stop the mes from spreading to other habitations. He slipped through the crack in the roof that he had used as his first entry and stepped out, simply taking a long step onto another nearby house and then climbing down further, away from the mob and back onto the prowl. "Stop there!" Or not. The fellow that had stopped him hadn¡¯t been spotted by Loimos¡¯s sense for life, not because he was particrly stealthy or anything of that sort, the young guard had simply been napping whilst standing and had remained so still, that he had mixed into his surroundings. This guard was wearing the same sort of iron armour as all of the others, a basic chestte and helm, the rest was protected by thick gambeson, it might not seem like much but it was more than enough for most problems they could be made to deal with. He pointed his spear unsteadily at the undead, it made no doubt in the youth¡¯s mind that he had just identally stumbled upon the sad faced man, but he wasn¡¯t particrly happy about it, he had only found him because his colleague had left him there! Leaving the new guy where he was after he had fallen asleep on the job would have been funny normally, certainly not when a bloodthirsty psycho roamed the surroundings. "Don¡¯t move! Drop your weapon andy down on the ground! Face against the ground!" at least his tone wasn¡¯t a dead giveaway that he was pissing his pants in fright. Loimos didn¡¯t abide by the orders and instead began taking steps toward the guard. "Hey¡­ Oi! Didn¡¯t you hear what I just said?! Stop right here! I¡¯ll seriously impale you!" he wasn¡¯t going to be impaling anybody, he didn¡¯t have the guts to strike first, even at a loathsome personage like the murderer in front of him. The undead was well about to send all of the guard¡¯s teeth flying, but was interrupted as a crossbow bolt hit him right in the side of his head, the strength of the projectiles enough to push him away. The dull sound of the bolt piercing fabric and rotten flesh before hitting a skull made the youth back away. An older guard emerged from another alley. "Damn boy! I go take a piss further away and you find the sad faced fricker?" the dryugh of the man was inplete antithesis with the situation. "Why are youughing?! Your bolt just bounced off this guy¡¯s head!" it certainly looked that way, this bolt had been shot from a proper crossbow, were it not for Loimos garbing himself with additional defences, he would have had a hole in his skull right now. He rubbed the ce he had been struck, like a non-undead would and just ran off, sprinting away as suddenly as he had arrived. The youth looked at the retreating figure and then at his senior multiple times over. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Are we not giving chase?" "You think you can catch up?" "No, but we could still try something¡­" "He is already gone though, bastard is quick on his feet, how the hell does he take corners at those speeds?" the older guard had given up on pursuing Loimos the second he saw that speed, his ageing body wasn¡¯t going to be of any use. The younger fellow may seem more capable, but he was as lean as it gets, no muscles, no stamina, no stats and no XP, such was the state of this rather poor duo. "We running to give rm!" the older one had just been taking his time to prepare for another exercise, they weren¡¯t going to be catching up to anyone worth their salt, but not every single guard was like this. The sound of bells soon sounded throughout the night, it rang three times in quick session, this was the code signifying that the target had been spotted and was on the run. Chapter 42: Hounds "A true undead has no need for sustenance, no need for rest, no need for fear, a pure undead needs nothing" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om ____________________ Loimos emerged into a field, paying no heed to his cracked skull, it would mend itself anyways. In his haste, he went and retrieved a few more weapons that he had kept hidden away, his steps were nothing short of perfectly normal, his rate of movement decreased to a mere walk as he made his way toward a small group that had most certainly broken off from therger mob. The righteous deliverers of the unrefined rumble of the lowly people had broken into multiple pieces, small cliques had formed to cover more ground. Small only inparison to their total numbers however, there were still nine people gathered, they seemed to be debating the optics of searching this particr field, it was one filled with pumpkins after all. It was a curious thing that they grew wheat and pumpkins during the same period, however, no one here was going to question it. This was the norm for the locals and Loimos had no reason to wonder about such a thing, as he entered within their range of sight, he hid the weapon he was carrying behind his back and began taking a much more human disposition. Gone were the oddly efficient steps, he acted as though the small differences in soil consistency and dirt mounds were actually surprising him as he walked in the dark. A small man noticed him first and he waved his arm to make himself more noticeable, they could discern his shape but certainly not the more minute details of his appearance. Were he able to talk, he probably would have said something too. His acting was already well enough to fool those unwashed peasants, they didn¡¯t take him for a threat at all and began calling out to him. The small man seemed to be taking steps toward him, intending on meeting Loimos halfway, he elerated his steps subtly to avoid having to start his chain of kills in a bad position. "Hey, did you find something-?" the man was allowed toplete his sentence, but not his life. Loimos somewhat arched his body to the side, using the small man¡¯s own body to obstruct the others¡¯s sight of what Loimos was pulling from behind his back. He didn¡¯t even see iting as Loimos stabbed him in the chest with the sword of the bandit leader, he could barely even groan before Loimos decided to make use of the momentary confusion to advance upon the eight others. They all stared directly at him rather than the corpse, it was a wee attention to their situation, but they would have been better off acting out of line, from the depth of his hollow sockets, a dark but blinding purple light arose for a split second, blinding the fools. He began with the biggest of them all, a man with huge hands which most certainly could have been of use, Loimos hacked right into his face, pulling the sword back to him, he sent the bloodied-up man tumbling into two others, his dead weight pinning them to the ground. With another two shes, he sliced right through two throats, two attacks were needed for the next one however, as he luckily raised his hand before the killing blow could reach its mark. Almost cleaving his wrist right off, he probably didn¡¯t feel much luck as he soon joined the others on the grounds, fertilising the ground with their fresh blood. Loimos¡¯s blinding sh was more effective than he had nned for, that or the peasants were too prone to panic, making them easy targets as they dropped both their weapons and guards to try and solve theirck of vision, absolutely not concerning themselves with the one that had inflicted thisck of sight upon them. Apart from the few that managed to move at the right time, all of them only bore a single flesh wound, the great majority to the throat. Loimos was aware that major blood vessels were also to be found in other areas such as the armpits, thighs and such. Striking the heart, lungs and head directly were also options, however, not only were the neck and throat easily essible, unprotected and tremendously easy to cut through, he couldn¡¯t help but also want to silence in the same move. If he was urate enough, blood would fill their throats and they would never be able to do more than gargle a bit. Dealing with small, isted groups was much more efficient than trying to go up against the whole mob. He felt the death force within growing deeper as his prey¡¯s life force dissipated into the air. Loimos would also have to do something about all of the ntations, but doing so without revealing his undeath wasn¡¯t within his reach at the moment. He didn¡¯t want specialists of the undead hunt toe for him just yet, that would definitely end up in less living dead by the end of it than otherwise. The skeleton moved away from the corpses and soon stepped onto a wide dirt path, the main road still bore the markings of the regr passage of carriages and caravans, even though the influx had recently dropped severely. The sound of barking reached Loimos, he was certain that he had gotten rid of all the stray dogs, and also of all the ones domesticated by people, it had been a necessity since their keen sense of smell wasn¡¯t fooled by Loimos restricting his pungent fragrance of decay. They had most probably been brought from within the city walls, and judging by the fact that they were rushing right toward him in spite of the darkness shrouding him, they were locked in on him. They must have been given his scent, he had most likely lost a bit of his mask when was shot right in the skull. He could easily beat them in a battle of stamina, and may even be able to match their speed if he decided to move like when he did back in the crawlspace of the dungeon, like a mad beast. Though he doubted that his overall swiftness would be enough to prevent them from catching up. Those hounds were rushing toward him without a shred of fear, they must have left their owner in the dust, he was simply going to take them out right here, if they could track his trail, they would be a problem he would have no choice but deal with anyways. Chapter 43: That Is Certainly True "A true undead knows no pain, A true undead suffers not" ____________________ Loimos raised his de, shifting the position of his feet, he prepared to cut right through the open maw of the first dog that got to him. ¡¯...¡¯ he thought nothing but shed at the air, he had noticed somethinging but was way off in his attempt at deflecting it. A first arrow lodged itself right in his chest, the tip digging into one of his ribs, he hadn¡¯t thought that anyone would be able to see him, much less aim for him at all, from his position, he couldn¡¯t even make out enough details to tell who was shooting at him. Or rather, he couldn¡¯t make out the people nning to shoot him down, before he could do anything else, a flurry of arrows rained down upon him. Going right through his clothing and rot, some leaving cracks in his bones. ¡¯They are urate¡¯ he noted, barely a few of the shots missed him, and not by much. Dozens of shots struck him in the chest and abdomen area, a dozen others spread out between all of his limbs, he didn¡¯t release his grasp on his sword, even when arrows hit him in the skull, one right in his left socket, the tip protruding a slight bit from the back. The impact of getting struck by so many arrows at once forced him back and somewhat off-bnce, allowing the fastest hound to dig its fangs right into his ankle. The animal stopped, wanting to recoil as the blighted blood sshed into its mouth, Loimos wasn¡¯t fazed by the extensive damage he just received, he stabbed down on the canine¡¯s nape, killing it instantly before sending its body away with a kick. The rest of the dogs suddenly seemed hesitant to go after him, the undead jumped into the field to his left, opposite to the pumpkins were long lines of green beans, crouching down, his figure should be out of sight of everyone. An arrow still somehow managed tond squarely on his back. Loimos wasn¡¯t bothered much by getting shot, he could only wonder about who was aiming so distinctively, were he not an undead, he would have probably been killed by that first arrow. In fact, most undeads wouldn¡¯t have been able to just move away after getting damaged so extensively. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ____________ "Men! We give chase!" the captain of the guards lowered his bow, undid the string, and put everything back into a bag strapped to his back. He said this, but he ran much faster than any of them, leaving them mostly in the dust. ¡¯This is no reason to call for Sir Thomas¡¯ the captain couldn¡¯t have been certain before, but it had be clear that the sad faced man didn¡¯t hold a candle to anyone who actually knew what they were doing. He could only prey on nonbatants and use surprise attacks, it was a good thing the mob was preupied with preventing their homes from burning to a crisp, otherwise the death toll may have ended up being much higher. Whistling, the hounds broke out of their fearful daze and resumed the chase. The captain had nothing inmon with the men working under him, all were enrolled locals, theycked much training and rarely ever encountered difficult situations, one look at the adventurers was enough to know that Throdqdmond was a peaceful ce. When the best were Eppie¡¯s team and the two brothers, it was to be expected that the most dangerous thing around wasn¡¯t anything much. Even the mayor, he ruled the city but he had not even a drop of noble blood, he only had sufficient wealth. Throdqdmond wasn¡¯t anything grand, still, the captain wasn¡¯t from around here. He went right through the field without caring for the damage, managing to catch up to Loimos before any of the hounds or anyone else by cutting him off, bashing his shoulder into the undead as they neared the edge of the field. ¡¯What a strange response!¡¯ the feeling he felt when he tackled the abhorrent murderer was odd to say the least. The captain watched as Loimos was sent flying against a tree, they had found themselves in an orchard, the sound of water flowing could be heard in the distance. he watched as Loimos stood back up immediately, seemingly unbothered and unharmed. ¡¯I definitely felt his right arm being crushed and broken¡­¡¯ but it didn¡¯t appear as such at all, the mysterious man didn¡¯t even make a sound as he got back onto his feet, not to mention all of the arrows were still stuck in his body. It was like he felt no pain whatsoever. ¡¯He does seem to be breathing¡­ What the hell is he? He has an arrow through the freaking head!¡¯ the captain unsheathed his sword, a slight blue glow seemed to epass both his body and de, but Loimos saw none of it, he only felt a slight change. He prepared the rush forward, but Loimos threw his sword forward, aiming at the captain¡¯s midsection, making sure that he wouldn¡¯t be able to simply dodge and continue his movement as the undead took off in the opposite direction, weaving in between the trees. He began running like a beast, making him much harder to follow, as well as surprisingly faster. "No fucking way you are human!" the man shouted out as he deflected the thrown de and began running, the captain was faster than Loimos was, but the undead had much more ease navigating the ce. Still, the captain was gaining ground, slowly approaching the sad faced man, raising his de, he was nearly on the verge of reaching Loimos. The sound of water flowing got louder and louder, the living soon realised what the killer was aiming for. Loimos leapt into the waters below, the captain was forced to stop, the river wasn¡¯t at the same level as the two of them, it was deeper into some sort of ravine-like formation, the flowing of water was raging. He wasn¡¯t going to let Loimos get away, however, even through the ambient darkness, the captain was still able to pinpoint his position as he was falling down. Rising his sword above his head, grasping the handle with both hands, he sent it spinning through the air with lethal force. Splitting the air, the center of the edge lodged itself straight into Loimos¡¯s skull, splitting it and his mask down to the upper jaw. A ssh sounded throughout the area, the captain steadied himself waiting for the feeling of XP flowing into his body, only rxing when he felt the rush entering him. ¡¯He is dead¡¯ he naturally and correctly concluded, they would only have to fish the body back up, show it to the people and everything would be good. Chapter 44: Wet And Indeed Dead "Only life may challenge a true undead" ________________ "Damn it" the captain cursed under his breath as he stared into the river. It had been a week ever since he had felled the sad faced man, despiteunching searches nearly immediately and starting way further than the ce the corpse had fallen, him and his men had failed to get the man¡¯s body. It had neither been caught in thes they had set up at multiple points of the river, and they had failed to find him stuck in rocks or floating back to the surface, the current was too powerful for him to just sink and stay in ce. It wasn¡¯t even that deep! "No need to bother with this, if you are certain you killed him, he is dead, we¡¯ll just get a dead leper and dress him up like the sad faced man, the people will be content with that, barely anyone alive has ever seen him, they won¡¯t be able to tell the difference" Harold, the town mayor reassured the captain. "You are right sir, it is just¡­ I suppose I fear that he may have lived is all, I find it hard to believe my senses when there is no physical proof of the deed, it was so dark, I acted on nothing but instincts and a rough feeling of his position, I have no idea what sort of injury was Inflicted on him" he covered his mouth, a stern look on his face. "I have heard of assassins capable of faking the influx of XP so as to appear dead, or skills making the system grant actual XP when there was no kill-" "Oh please! What are you on about Robert?" the mayor tapped him on the shoulder. "You said it yourself! He was a sloppy and untrained murderer, why would he have such advanced capabilities? Surely, a man with such abilities wouldn¡¯t have been so easily defeated!" he was right, it didn¡¯t make much sense. "Perhaps¡­ Maybe it wasn¡¯t a learned skill or ability, but something in-built?" the mayor raised an eyebrow at these words, seemingly considering them for an instant before shaking his head. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Sir, this man was strange, he received plenty of wounds that would be lethal even for mighty heroes, organs pierced by arrows, two shots received directly to the head, leg mauled by one of my trained hounds and many more! This guy may have not even been human, what if it was another of Aliz¨¦¡¯s-" he spoke his mind earnestly, growing more and more convinced that the killer was still hiding somewhere, waiting for things to calm down before emerging again. "Don¡¯t speak of those lunatics! They haven¡¯t shown themselves in years, this isn¡¯t even remotely simr to anything they pulled back then" Harold told Robert to rx and go back to his family. "You are much too on edge, the sad faced man is dealt with, call off the searches and let the people celebrate" the mayor turned and left back toward the city. Robert could only sigh and do as he was ordered, it was true that all of this was just a theory after all, it was much more likely that he had truly yed the serial murderer and that his corpse had just gotten itself stuck somewhere out of reach. "Alright boys! Dismantle everything, I¡¯ll pay for drinks tonight!" he announced loudly. _________________________ "Thank the gods, they got him" Helena slumped back in her seat after a neighbour came by and announced that the sad faced man had been officially dealt with. "Are you going to go back to the city?" Milo asked with a straight face. "I-" she stopped herself for a split moment. "My instructors aren¡¯t gonna be avable for a while longer, so I¡¯ll stay around for a bit" she twirled her hair a bit. "Oh really?" the young man spoke excitedly. ¡¯Ugh, that was way too obvious¡¯ he immediately thought, Helena didn¡¯t seem to pay attention to his outburst however. "Do you have something on your mind?" David watched from a distance, he couldn¡¯t but feel his heart warming up, they were just getting along so well! He had honestly not thought that it would go that well, he had feared that Milo wouldn¡¯t be able to talk to her, he had seen him fumbling exceptionally hard when conversing with the opposite sex before. He was also pleasantly surprised to see that his daughter was still the same as ever, he had feared that spending too much time in the city surrounded by haughty pricks would have changed her for the worst, but she hadn¡¯t changed in the least, she just dressed like a delicate youngdy is all. Seeing that Milo wasn¡¯t managing to spit out what he had in mind, the old man, who had been the one to give him the idea in the first ce, stepped in to help the younger generation. "Why not go to theke, the one next to the watermelon field?" he did his part. "Ah, I haven¡¯t been there in forever, you know it Milo?" Helena perked up, she used to love throwing rocks and pushing other kids in there back in the days. "Yeah! Mister David showed it to me" The two continued to bond together until the day began to retreat, casting a bright orange light upon the world as the moon became visible in its entirety, casting its own, fainter light. Tonight would be bright, a good thing since many would be busy drinking themselves away to celebrate the end of the strings of murders. They had even made an effigy of the loathsome one and burnt it earlier that day. Utterly convinced that the nightmare hade to an end, they rejoiced and looked forward to better days. Tonight would be the start of it all! Loimos emerged from the tumultuous river, his skull stuck back together but notpletely mended. The people the mayor had called for had been sent away or told about it beforehand, the target had been dealt with, the guards were either back to their families after multiple days of constant hunt, or drinking themselves away with their captain¡¯s money. The undead found a way to sew his mask back together roughly, armed with the bandit¡¯s sword and that of the captain that the man had unwillingly donated, he made his way toward the tavern lost amongst the fields. Chapter 45: Bar Brawl "Hey man, I heard that the king was gonna marry¡­ With¡­ Huh, what¡¯s her name again?" a drunk man raised his head from the table, and his own vomit by the same asion to speak his mind. This particr group of drunk men was sitting right next to the entrance, they paid no mind to the man that had just entered, not even sparing him a nce as he put something down and lingered at the entrance for a little bit too long. "Heh? I hear- I hear-" another tried to respond but just fell asleep right here and there. "I was told that Halbardier Pierre-Orn¨¦e is actually a woman" a third one interjected with somethingpletely unrted. The man at the entrance was messing around with the door, locking it and shaking it with utter calmness to see how well it was holding up. "I thought that it was Shieldmaster Bough that was thedy, can you imagine all that meat under that armour?" one stared at the ceiling at the thought of the meat in question. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Done with his verifications, the man standing there looked around at the rowdy tavern, filled to the brim with dead drunk men, a few waitresses weaving around the copsed, drooling fools to serve more alcohol. Dead drunk wasn¡¯t enough dead for him. "Aah, shut up man, try getting into your wife¡¯s pants before Bough¡¯s!" they erupted intoughter at their friend¡¯s expense, mocking his failed marriage like only good friends could. The entire room was full of nothing butughing and fun, the oh-so distinctive smell of booze and its regurgitated homologue was permeating the air. Looking up, Loimos could see that the room was illuminated by a sort of makeshift chandelier made up of multiple brightnterns, apart from that, othernterns were strung about, out of reach of the partygoers. Alcohol and fire didn¡¯t mesh together very well after all. The undead picked up his two swords that he had propped up against the wall, he could do all the suspicious movements he could think of, no one was paying attention, and frankly, it was dubious if anyone could put two and two together at the moment. He dual wielded the two des, the two swords not quite the same length and width, Loimos found no issue in this, he was neither left handed or right handed after all, he could use his two hands just as well as the other, unlike the supposedly greatly evolved apes. With top notch precision at all times, or at least, his top notch. He rose one above the head of theughing men, the one that had begun with speaking of their king¡¯s uing marriage. The other at a waitress with her back turned to him, the women going around to serve drinks were most certainly a problem since they weren¡¯t intoxicated, but it didn¡¯t matter. Without hesitation, Loimos split one¡¯s skull and shed right through a nape. Killing the two instantly, the blood sshed over some of the customers, they were confused as to why warmth was getting all over them, the more apt realised that it was blood, but they weren¡¯t quite clear minded enough to immediately react and just stared at it with nk expressions. Pulling the de back the divided head, Loimos pulled the man out of his chair with this move, the shock of hitting the ground dislodging half of his brain, allowing it to roam free and see the outside world for itself. Loimos stepped over it without a care as he began to ruthlessly cleave through as many of the living before him as possible, dealing horrific wounds with each of his shes, at the moment, standing around like statues, they were nothing more than a grass field in need of some trimming. Dozens of people were reduced to limp masses of flesh oozing blood as they convulsed helplessly before someone actually reacted, some big guy with long dirty hair crashed into Loimos, mming the undead into a wall. All hell broke loose. Loimos stabbed both of his des into the man¡¯s back, forcing him to let go. The passive drunks had finally finalised their process of choosing between fight or flight, and they all chose fight. As soon as the skeleton got rid of the first man, one had already shattered a chair in his face, pushing Loimos away, who didn¡¯t care for it and used the provided momentum to swing one of his swords and slit two throats. Running in between the two dying men, he pushed them into the crowd and dropped oneyer of his disguise right there and then, a foetid smell infested the tavern, overtaking the ingrained scent with ease, multiple puked and more were repulsed, their eyes itching and watering. Loimos stabbed someone through their open mouth, receiving a nasty left hook right to his jaw, which tilted his head away, he kicked the man in the crotch anyways and swung his other sword in the other direction. Someone caught his arm and refused to let go, the undead dragged the stubborn man along with him and used him as a meat shield as he abandoned his other sword as it stayed stuck in ce. Instead sucker punching a skinny man right in the throat. He managed to throw the one clinging to him over at another man, before kicking a table to create some breathing room. Another chair was broken to splinters as it was mmed into his back, before some guy with huge arms and burns on his arm uppercut Loimos, almost popping his skull right off. Two other guys had taken their time to pick up an entire table, throwing it with remarkable force at the undead, who crouched down to dodge it, it instead hit other of their fellows. It seemed like they were beating the crap out of him, which was absolutely true, but they were definitely not dealing as much damage as they believed, Loimos, even if his bones were damaged, they were held together by his thick coat of rot, he shrugged off every hit. A sly one grabbed the undead by the shoulder and proceeded to repeatedly shank him in the stomach, quite the impressive technique there, he had definitely been in the business of stabbing people for a while. Piercing damage was probably the least effective thing against Loimos though, and he had just benevolently brought a new de to him, one much easier to whip around amidst this conglomerate of furious drunks. He headbutted the stabber and haphazardly chucked hisst sword at the legs of the crowd, making them all jump around, bump into each other and fall as a collective. Turning the knife on its owner, Loimos pushed the trembling body away and leaped on a table before jumping once more and catching onto the chandelier. The loose thing dropped to the ground immediately, crushing many of the customers and sending fiery oil onto the wooden floor. Chapter 46: Blown Away The inhibited blood flow of the drunkards didn¡¯t make thempletely stupid, fire was a very natural fear, especially when it suddenly appeared in your face. Immediately, most of them switched their gears and aimed to either try to find something to put out the fire, or escape the tavern. The clothes of the corpses of those that had been crushed by the chandelier served as perfect kindling for the mes, a blinding ball of fire soon formed in the center of the ce, threatening to swallow everything. Loimos had already leapt away before he too was caught in the midst of the fire, throwing himself to the ground, rolling and quickly standing up, only to receive a severe kick straight to the abdomen, the sort that forcefully regurgitated your previous meal. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om His lower back struck a table, stopping him from getting thrown to the ground, with an unnatural movement, he leaned his back on the table to grab a bottle, throwing it at the man¡¯s chest before he could get to him. The bottles were of good manufacture, it didn¡¯t break from the impact, but it certainly hurt like hell. It seemed like Loimos had chosen the worst possible direction to jump away from the mes, running toward the one guy that was both still willing to throw hands by this point, and also one that actually knew how to fight. Loimos was no fighting expert, he mostly operated on his undead instincts mixed in with whatever information the system had fed him due to the undead obtaining and leveling up a variety of skills from his strings of murder. But he could tell that this stature was the one of a seasoned fighter, a skilled adventurer perhaps? Or one of the better guards? Perhaps simply a retired veteran? It was of little importance, the man grabbed the bottle as it was falling and threw it right back at Loimos, with much more force than the undead was capable of summoning, exploding into a shower of shards right in his face, he kicked down on one of the legs of the table, unexpectedly using the subsequent tilting of the table to roll away as the man kicked down on his former position. Loimos heightened the putrid stench he was emitting, the increased smell of rot struck spread across the room, one man trying to get through one of the narrow windows passed out after identally taking a deep breath. The oddly focused drunk fighter didn¡¯t recoil but his eyes ached just as when the scent had first spread out, he forced himself to keep his eyes open, it was no use, his vision blurred intensely as tears were forced out. He wasn¡¯tpletely blinded, raising one hand, he fearlessly stopped the knifeing his way with his own palm, clutching Loimos¡¯s hand and forcing him to stay within reach. One punch struck him, two punches struck him, many more hits came raining down on him within a few instant. It was clear by the living¡¯s expression that he came to notice that something was terribly off with Loimos, the stench could be attributed to various things, but that feeling he felt when his punchesnded squarely against him, that was a clear sign that something was wrong. The undead grabbed the man¡¯s wrist and leaned forward, uncaring for his mask in the way, he bit right through the throat, ripping everything he caught between his sharp teeth. With the bottom of his mask bloodied up, Loimos turned to the man behind the counter, who curiously enough, hadn¡¯t escaped, he was the only one left that still seemed to believe he could put the fire out. The undead approached. ___________ "Things haven¡¯t changed much since thest time I was there" Helena spoke with her hands behind her head as she spoke. Milo, who was soaking wet at the moment, turned to her. "How long have you been in the city for exactly?" he had never been told by David how long he had truly been separated from his daughter, he felt like there were things he didn¡¯t know. "Five years? Pretty much ever since mom died" she responded tly, not seeming very saddened about mentioning her mother¡¯s death. The farm boy didn¡¯t feel like digging was the right option there, so he swiftly, and very much slickly, changed the subject. "Ah, would you mind showing me what sort of magic you learned?" he had yet to see any of what she was supposedly being tutored about, she had mostly seemed like a country girl, but with a bigger vocabry and a more restrained ent. "Well, I have mostly been focusing on manipting my inner mana and converting it to my affinity, it is pretty boring honestly- Let me show a spell instead!" she quickly beamed a smile and seemed ready to do it right there and then. The two youngsters could see the tavern burning to the ground from their position after getting out of a heavily forested portion. They had been so focused on discussing, that they hadn¡¯t even paid attention to the smoke before, chalking it up to just another brazier lit up by the vigers, just like the one they had put together to burn the sad faced man effigy. A closer inspection would have revealed that it was obviously much too big and dark to be the case. Their timing was perfect for them to witness the owner of the tavern bursting out of the front door, or rather, being brutally forced out as he was burning to death. Milo and Loimos locked eye contact, the two recognised each other from back when the undead had first stolen his clothing. Loimos wasn¡¯t interested in trying to kill him at the moment however, he was apanied by a most troublesome opponent! However-! He wasn¡¯t quick enough to get away before he felt a disturbance, said anomaly was the gust of wind that took him off the ground and swept him right back into the burning tavern, so powerfully that was sent flying straight up at a wooden beam. ¡¯Magic is troublesome¡¯ he could onlye to this conclusion as he focused on his rot to keep his spine together. Most importantly, he made his escape through the window from the back before the me caught onto him. "Let¡¯s hurry back" Milo grabbed Helena by the hand and began running, seeing theplete destruction and people running off into the distance, he had instantly be worried for the old man. Chapter 47: An Accident ¡¯What the hell was that?¡¯ Helena was left momentarily in shock when she caught a glimpse of Loimos, checking people¡¯s mana signature had be a habit for her, but she wasn¡¯t taken aback by the fact that she failed to find a signature, it was because by focusing directly on him, she had in fact felt his mana. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Awfully deep and dark mana, it felt like sensing it for too long would be dangerous and her heart skipped a beat, it didn¡¯t stop her from sending him flying purely on reflex though. She didn¡¯t notice the feeling of XP flowing into her and instead, just like Milo hurried to get in touch with her father, the news of the tavern massacre seemed to have already reached the vige, everyone was moving around in a panic. Despite already sensing him once, after letting go of her focus on him, Helena could no longer get a hold of him, normally this would be possible. The two soon arrived before their home, old man David was standing at the front door, perfectly fine and seeming overjoyed at seeing them all right. Loimos bursted out of a dark alley and rushed down to someone standing on the main road, a woman that had probably been doing the same thing as David was, waiting for her loved ones to show up. The undead grasped her by the back of her neck, his murderous hand nearly wrapping all around her frail neck, Loimos was certain that he would be able to shatter it by simply squeezing harder. He seemed faster too, it was like the rush of the new death force was more potent than it used to be, normally, even after killing so many people, he shouldn¡¯t have experienced such an increase in power, even when counting the possible stats upgrade. Stats were nothing but an essory to one¡¯s physicality and capabilities, the death force Loimos absorbed transformed him into a greater undead every time he took in more. The skeleton didn¡¯t stop to question what was happening to him, he began advancing upon the mage, using his hostage to make sure that she wouldn¡¯t be casting any gusts of wind. Once she was dealt with, the vigers running around like headless chickens would be free game, he would ughter as many of them as possible and retreat once the guards showed up, or rather, when their captain arrived. ¡¯Crap!¡¯ Milo almost spoke aloud, the sad faced man, with his bloodied up mask was charging at them fast, really fast actually, he had wasted no time between when he had showed up again and began his rush down. They had still been focused on David when he got a hold of the woman, and they weren¡¯t that far from one another either. The farm boy had to react quickly, without thinking. Helena could only cast a simple spell with the time allotted to her, nothing that would allow her to bypass the meat shield could be put together in so little time, and she wasn¡¯t going to be evading Loimos. ¡¯I should have learned more about mana reinforcement!¡¯ she cursed herself for not being able to know every single thing about magic, already imagining the de of that knife being driven into her chest. Milo stepped in between her and Loimos. This wasn¡¯t within the undead¡¯s expectations, he was still but a new undead, he may be a special one, but still had a very much stunted view of his natural enemies, the living were supposed to fear death to their very cores, this was a fact, yet, sometimes, that fear could be pushed back even if only for an instant. To Loimos, until now, a living taking a hit and putting their precious life on the line was an impossibility, protecting another? Certainly, but this was on a whole different level, once he got a hold of Milo, he would kill him for certain. The knife sunk into flesh, right through the side of the chest, in between two ribs and piercing a lung. Loimos¡¯s knife was taken for his hands as the body moved away with much force, he had stabbed neither his intended target, nor the one that had just managed to take him by surprise and subvert his expectations. Old man David had been swift, so very swift. Neither Helena, his only biological child, nor Milo, the boy from nowhere he had taken under his wing made a sound. They could only see their father sprawled on the ground, bleeding profusely and unable to breath. Loimos snapped the neck of his hostage and threw her corpse at Helena, still intent on killing her anyways. ¡¯The living have always paused when confronted with the death of their own before¡¯ whenever he had yed families, friends and such, it had always happened, even if only for a second. Tonight was a night of learning however, and he wasn¡¯t allowed even an inch. The undead turned as he realised that the farm boy was going to try and attack him, receiving a punch straight to the center of his chest, he tried to back off, feeling himself being pushed back, thrown into the air and against the side of the nearby house. Hitting the wooden wall with excessive force. ¡¯Incredible striking force¡¯ he could only note coldly as the concussive force ignored his mantle of rot, shattering his ribs and almost splitting his upper and lower half again. That kid, that small young man that appeared scrawny and weak had just hit him harder than he had ever been hit, at least when it came to straight brute force, there was no technique, just pure muscle mass and wish for the undead to be turned to paste. Loimos pushed off the wall and tried running back toward a dark alley, as he used his right arm to get more momentum when getting away, it was suddenly shed right at the shoulder by a de of wind. That would have cut him in half vertically had he not moved as soon as it was possible, the fact that his mind couldn¡¯t be muddled by pain or anything was the only reason he wasn¡¯t in pieces right now. He knew that this wouldn¡¯t have destroyed him, but that would have certainly put a stain on his idea of retreating. That attack was perfect, however, he took off running, and before any of the two could give chase or shoot him down, they were distracted as his severed right arm moved on its own, leaping into the air where they could see. Chapter 48: The Rot Loimos ran off through the habitations, through the deserted viges, aiming to make his escape and hide into the woods until further notice. He heard the familiar barking of hounds in the distance, the captain must have been quick on the uptake. Loimos couldn¡¯t drop down and begin running like a wild monstrosity either, with a missing arm he would just end up moving slower than he could with just his two legs. Something was off this time, the barking wasn¡¯ting from a single direction, it wasing from all around, as though he was already surrounded, which was nonsensical, the captain couldn¡¯t have just known that Loimos would end up here, he shouldn¡¯t have even been certain that the sad faced man would reemerge. But by all means, it seemed as though the captain knew exactly where he was at the moment, perhaps he was close-by already. The undead stopped abruptly, unarmed and missing an appendage, he was severely disadvantaged, even more so since the captain of the guards was already a living he couldn¡¯t take down in a fight. Loimos had been nning on eventually catching him in his sleep, that would save most of the trouble. He prepared for whatever could being his way, the dogs were converging onto his position, he could tell by the sound. Something soon became clear to the skeleton, but it was toote, he turned and saw that the captain, as well as a bunch of other people had already arrived. The barking had kept closing in from every direction, yet, Loimos never sensed any life force entering within his field of senses, it was a trick. He had stopped right there and then to meet the animals but only allowed his pursuers to catch up to him. There were seven people, Loimos knew all of them, at least, he had seen them before. Robert had brought with him none of his guards, his best men had all been drinking at the tavern and were either too wasted to fight, or already dead. Knowing that this was what they would do in advance, the captain who had been severely doubting the validity of the XP he had received, gathered the best adventurers of Throdqdmond. Namely, the team of four youngdies, and the two brothers, that was the best this ce had to offer, it was sad, but it was true. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Robert trusted in their abilities however, he whistled and the noise of barking hounds disappeared, that was his specialty, the dogs he raised and trained could be of many uses to him outside of what they could normally provide. Sharing senses, and this little trick he had just used, which allowed him to make the sounds his dogs made to appearpletely elsewherepared to their locations, nothing better to stop a runaway, when he had the asion of using it. He once again reinforced his body and sword with mana, only to see Loimos not care at all and just sprinting the other way. The sad faced man was currently looking quite disheveled, his mask and coat were all distorted from receiving all sorts of hits, being coated with blood over and over, he resembled some sort of creature of nightmares. Seeing him with an arm missing, but not bleeding at all confirmed his suspicions that he was no man. Robert didn¡¯t need much time to catch up, shing Loimos in the back. Being in a rather precarious situation, the undead abandoned all pretenses and allowed his rotten blood to splurge out, the dark liquid forced the man to back off, feeling like this thing could definitely melt through his skin. Loimos kept on trying to get away, but luck wasn¡¯t on his side today, he reached a cliff, one deep, steep and filled with jagged rocks, this wasn¡¯t like the river, this would definitely grind him into bone meal, even with his best efforts. He stopped and backed off from the edge, just in time to get hit in the face by another of Lynn¡¯s terribly ineffective bolts, his skull was rather in poor shape at the moment however, his skull took damage. Cassi approached from the side with her mace at the ready, he raised his arm to try and intercept her, only for it to be chopped just like the first one by Z. Now, this was rather troublesome, the mace hit him right in the jaw, smashing it alongside his teeth, taking away another one of his weapons. The undead avoided two attacks, Robert trying to deprive him of one of his legs, and Tahnee simply sweeping at them. Saul blocked his way, stabbing him in the back and mming his shield as well, pushing the undead back into the midst of the formation. Another bolt was shot, hitting him right in the knee somehow, shaking the link in between the two bones and making him wobbly. Rendering him unable to move for the fireball carefully prepared by Eppie, it wasn¡¯t a regr fireball however, it was her second spell, which was a fireball but with a twist. Instead of exploding and sting whatever was in the radius, the fire engulfed Loimos, setting himpletely ame. Regaining his footing, he ignored the fire, he couldn¡¯t do anything about it anyways, Eppie was well guarded in the back of the formation, and even if he got to her, he wascking in ways of killing her at the moment. Tahnee¡¯s kite shield mmed into him from the side, Cassi and Z both aimed from his legs, one smashing it down with mace, the other brutally stomping on the side of his knee, both achieving the same result. Robert was going to the killing blow. ¡¯...¡¯ ¡¯This is quite the pickle, I find myself in¡¯ ¡¯I need to do something, otherwise I will not be able to fulfilling my purpose any longer¡¯ The undead thought rationally, his eyes bursted out with the purple glow as he focused on producing and manipting the rot. Primeval Rot, this was the name of the ability he had had since the very beginning, it was what he, a pure undead, had been brought into existence with. His clothes erupted with rot, covering his entire body in a sh, it grew and grew, pushing all of the living away, before suddenly bursting into a rain of blighted blood. Small vegetation withered away, the skin of the attackers was burnt when itnded on them, resting metal and eating away at wood, only a pile of broken bonesid in the center of the st, something was missing. Chapter 49: Gone "He got away" Robert moved some of the still bubbling and writhing rot to reveal more of the filthy bones beneath. "Huh, he looks pretty dead to me" Cassi chimed in, kicking arger mass of decay, which seemed to be moving on its own. "Yeah, we even felt the XP and all that business" Lynn backed her friend up. Z stepped forward, the bright moon up ahead illuminating everything clearly in spite of the trees, the rain of ck blood had certainly reduced the amount of leaves all over the area. "Oh, the head is missing" he quickly mentioned after scanning the remains, that was a rather suspicious part of the skeleton to be missing. "Between the bones, whatever that crap it spewed out before blowing up and the freaking stench permeating the air, it seems pretty obvious that our murderer was an undead in disguise" Eppie ran her hands through her hair, getting rid of some of the decay that had gotten stuck. "That would certainly exin why this guy never flinched at all, though, with that sort of behaviour he has shown, wouldn¡¯t that make him a superior undead? Have any of you actually met one of those walking corpses?" Z spoke up again, only Robert had ever even seen an undead before today, and they had all been mindless ones, not even natural undeads, they had all been minions for a necromancer. This one definitely seemed like the real deal. "Undeads are supposed to be rare, the mostmon that have actual intelligence are vampires and the sort¡­" the captain was feeling anxious, one other thing he knew was that undeads didn¡¯t typically more by themselves, skeletons and zombies generally formed in groups, since the amount of ambient death force needed for corpses to be undead was quiterge. Everyone remained silent for a while as the very real possibilities that this was the early sign of a horde dawned upon them. Although the records and knowledge of thest war against death had been mostly lost, the living still remembered one term associated with them. The hordes. Travelling in groups, they stampeded over viges, forests, everywhere where there was life, converting the people, beasts and monsters into moving carcasses, growing and growing in numbers to the point where their sheer strength as a group became simply overwhelming, necessitating war-like efforts to clear. Not to mention that such arge mass of undeads, packed up together would lead to them destroying the life in the air wherever they went, recing it with death and leading to the growth of a real bizarre ecosystem. The ce a horde was destroyed would be an undead breeding ground if not properly cleared up, one of the most devastating things a horde could create was death miasma. "I¡¯ll go report to the mayor immediately-" Robert was about to leave immediately. "Hold on, are we not gonna, like, search for this guy¡¯s head? He couldn¡¯t haveunched it that far" Cassi interrupted him. Sure, hordes were dangerous, but this singr thing was also dangerous in its own right, it couldn¡¯t be allowed to get away from here. "I fear the skull wasunched over there" Eppie pointed toward the cliff. The ravine here was simply enormous, it had used to be a hotspot for adventurer missions when there were still crystals and minerals to be harvested near the surface, but it had all dried up, not to mention, depending on how strongly the undead hadunched itself, it could have sent its skull into the deeper chasm, which was mostly unexplored territory. "Hold on a second, why is everyone acting like it¡¯s not dea- I mean, double dead? Anyways, we got the XP is what I mean, that is confirmation" Lynn expressed herself, Cassi nodding her head in approval of the question. Eppie had no actual clue why Robert didn¡¯t believe this, so she just turned and looked at him. "It has already tricked me this way" he simply responded. In truth, he didn¡¯t know exactly what was at y here, he could only suppose that it was the effect of a skill or technique perhaps. "Now I¡¯ll be going" he ran off, for if a horde had really formed somewhere, they would need to call the specialists immediately. The professionals that made the destruction of the dead their all time job, the death hunters. The adventurers were left by themselves, with what Loimos had left behind with his escape. Z turned around to look for his brother, who hadn¡¯t participated in the talk at all for some reason. ¡¯Huh¡¯ he remained in ce as he bore witness to a most interesting scene. Saul hadn¡¯t spoken up because he was busy with important business, namely, flirting with the fourth member of the other team there, Tahnee. ¡¯In any situation¡­¡¯ right after a literal mass of rot and pungent blood had blown up in their faces didn¡¯t seem like the most optimal moment to approach a woman, but Saul was definitely doing it. He wasn¡¯t even fazed by the fact that Tahnee never said a word and just made small sounds at most. Waiting for his brother to finish the conversation, he then pulled him a distance away as they began making their way back. "So, I didn¡¯t know you were into women taller and bigger than you" "Oi, she is only, like half a head taller than me-" "..." "A head taller alright, and what¡¯s the problem?" Saul coughed a bit. "Nothing, I just didn¡¯t realise you were the submissive sort" Z had to stop himself from dying ofughter at his own words. "You¡¯re a real piece of shit man, just because it¡¯s the truth, it doesn¡¯t mean you have to say it!" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Saul rubbed his chin. "But if we are ying this game, then does that mean I get to mention the time you said you wanted to marry our sister?" he snickered back. "Hey now, I was five years old, and I was told that marriage was with a girl you liked! I didn¡¯t know any better! I just thought she was the neatest girl I knew!" Z defended himself, his stomach turning upside down as the memories resurfaced. The two brothers continued this back and forth all the way back,pletely unconcerned. Chapter 50: Massacre And Depth "How long until we understand? How many more need to die? How can we not all see it? How is it that we have not gone to greater lengths to eradicate our natural enemy?" -Bethome Meleme ______________________ Silence. Only silence could truly capture the emotions swirling in the air, many had died tonight, murdered brutally and without any thoughts given to them. Man at least felt something when killing its own, there was a purpose when man hunted beasts down. But there was neither feelings, nor a need when an undead took a life, it simply did and would proceed onto the next one without any more thoughts given. It seemed as though there was no purpose to killing, the corpses they left in their wake were hollow, devoid of meaning, or so the living seemed to think. Helena and Milo were frozen in ce, David had had no final words, only hisst, sacrificial action was left as a testament of the man he was, the hit had been instantly fatal, the pain instantly knocking him out, only leaving him a few moments as he silently suffocated. Helena could only curse herself for not being more forceful when she had tried to convince him to move into the city with her, but David would never leave his fields behind, he had always been intent on breathing hisst here. Milo¡¯s head was empty, he barely had any memories of his time before meeting the somewhat goofy old man, he had been his only parental figure, and he had been a great one, even if, truthfully, their time together had been short. "Could you help me carry him?" Helena was the first to break the heavy silence, her tone and face distant as put her hand on David¡¯s shoulder, it was already cold. The warmth had been robbed. "I¡¯ll take care of it" Milo was simrly disposed, but he felt distinctively sick. He picked up his foster father, David had been old but strong, yet his body felt so incredibly light, when had he gotten so small and frail? Helena didn¡¯t need to tell him what to do, he was already aware, David had had the poor habit of constantly speaking of what to do when he died. He wanted to be buried beside histe wife, frankly, Helena didn¡¯t want him to rest eternally next to her, but she would never be able to bring herself to desecrate her father¡¯s wishes in this matter. ________________ Deep into the earth, amidst murderous stgmites and impending stctites, here too, silence ruled over all, any sound made here, even the slightest, even if incredibly subtle, it would echo, resonate throughout the intertwined caverns, reaching deeper into the earth than any had ever gone. Or at least, deeper than anyone had evere back from. Where the slightest movement of an insect was a cacophony, a loud and wet pping sound silenced the critters, petrifying them in ce. Bats rose from their deep slumber, flying away in fright at the strange neer, the loud sounds were generally rocks breaking off, but this was nothing like it, nor was it the sound of heavy rain. A scrawny figure, with minuscule, glowing eyes crawled over from a small passageway, clicking its tongue against the inside of its mouth, dark, protruding spots, each much harder and than its pale skin rubbing against the stone as it tentatively moved its disproportionately long arms closer to the thing that had justnded there. This monster was a curious one, chattering its teeth constantly as it got closer, its vision was incredibly poor, in fact, it was pretty much blind and would suffer immensely by being even grazed by a ray of sunlight. It could feel the foetid smell, but as a creature that fed on decaying corpses and faeces, it wasn¡¯t shaken by it, even if the smell was much stronger than what it was used to. It¡¯s curiosity was simply too great to be left unsatisfied, the chattering of its teeth grew more and more rapid, reaching the immobile mass of rot, it just wanted to poke at it, a simple thing, just touch it and see, it was all that it truly desired from the strange thing fallen from above. Its nailless finger neared the pile, it was still unmoving, it got closer and closer, already imagining how it would feel to push against the rotten mush, but once it reached its mark, it didn¡¯t touch anything. The pound of putrefaction moved at thest moment before closing in, ensnaring the hand and wrist of the foolish creature. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om It shrieked in pain as it tried to pull away, it was digging into its skin and flesh, emanating some sort of oily liquid as it did so, as though it was trying to inject him with venom. Willing its strength against the stack of flesh debris was very sessful, but simply meaningless, some of the rot popped, sending a straight jet of ck blood directly at the monster¡¯s face, getting into its nostrils, small eyes and mouth, pretty much forcing its way in like a congregation of disgusting snakes. The harrowing cries of the monster filled the caves, perhaps some of its kin woulde to help. None would, the cries of one of them was a sign to hide and run, not a call to rally and unite their strength. The rot dragged itself along the ground, much like a slug, it left a dark trail behind itself as it crawled upon the convulsing monster, following the blood, the rot turned more malleable and made its way inside, through the throat, directly to the stomach area, before bursting with a stream of foul blood. The monster stopped struggling andid still as it experienced a fastened process of dposition in certain areas of its body. Its corpse lost all of its meagre muscle mass, much of the flesh was lost as well, leaving only a thinyer of skin floating around the bones, its eyes hollowed. The meat and muscles were reced by rot as something became engraved on its abdomen, the skeletal face of Loimos, as the remaining half of his skull pushed against the skin from the inside. The corpse stood up, walking away with a straight back and a calm walk,pletely unbefitting of itself. Chapter 51: Eccentric Only a week passed after the tavern massacre, normally, a ughter wasn¡¯t exactly a cause for rapid investigations or anything, people ending up as chew toys for some random monster or a random maniac going on a rampage was at the bottom of the list of important things. At least when the victims were no name farmers and peasants from a remote, destitute city. However, the word that the cause was an undead hadn¡¯t been kept a secret, not at all, Robert had spread the word to his men, who all repeated it to their wives and children, who in turn spread it around with impressive speed. Harold even held a speech about it, where he pronounced the word ¡¯undead¡¯ so many times that it barely sounded like a word by the end of it. The mayor and captain of the guard knew exactly what they were doing, the information spread out quickly, and it quickly reached ears that did nothing but wait to hear about the walking corpses. After just one more additional week, the death hunters had already arrived, it was like they had been waiting close-by, but in truth, they were just very fast when it mattered. Harold and Robert stood side by side, honestly quite in shock at their supernatural swiftness, they were like a bunch of moths drawn to a light, flocking and hitting their heads against the ss of antern repeatedly. Much like the fuzzy insects, leaving after being attracted would prove difficult unless they found a satisfactory conclusion to what they called, ¡¯the undead filth¡¯. "Have you two gotten the guild ready?" Robert asked two other men standing nearby, Frank and Louis had been burdened with an actual job to do, which was to amodate the guild for the flood of death hunters, though they had vastly underestimated those fanatics, they were way more of them than one could expect. Those numbers could actually make some very small countries sweat a bit, and this was just those that had gotten there for now, no one could tell when more would show up. "Yes sir, we have dusted off the station for weapon and armour maintenance, emptied some storage rooms to serve as bedrooms or whatever if necessary" Frank spoke first, wiping his sweaty forehead. "And I will take care of going around and informing them of the finer details of what happened" Louis followed quickly, cracking his neck in preparation. Before any of the four men could say or do anything, someone came from behind the two guild workers, putting their hands on their shoulders, startling them both enough for them to yelp out. "Gentlemen, you look like people in charge" it was a rather tall young woman, she seemed rather slender as well but she was dressed in some sort of brown, aged trench coat which made it hard to know for sure. She was wearing some peculiar round sses, the lens seemed to be able to be flipped in and out of their sockets, they were flipped up at the moment. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Leaving a clear sight of her oddly pink eyes. "How may we help you?" Robert spoke first, putting his hand in front of the mayor¡¯s face to signal to him that he should be silent for a bit. Robert, as good as he was, hadn¡¯t seen hering at all, and judging by the way she was dressed, using his meagre knowledge of death hunters, he guessed that she was a vampire hunter, which were regarded as generally the harder undead sort to hunt down. "Oh hello handsome, why don¡¯t you tell me about that undead that went through here?" she gave him a smile that made him deeply ufortable, he looked around for Frank and Louis, but the two cowards had already run away. He turned to the side, even the mayor had casually slipped into the distance, Harold just showed him a thumb up as he backed off. "I heard a lot of rumours but they weren¡¯t very clear, and so very much going in all directions, what sort of undead was it?" she spoke again, Robert took a step back before answering. "We strongly believe that it was a skeleton, it¡¯s remains were put on disy at the guild, if you want to inspect it, one of its arms is pinned with nails to one of the farms, it is still moving and trying totch onto people" Robert had to keep stepping back because she kept trying to get ufortably close. "Also, I am married" he added defensively, perhaps he would have normally been ttered that a younger woman was interested in him, but she seriously creeped him out, like, just her presence made him feel soiled. "Huhuh, a skeleton? A smart skeleton all on its own?" ignoring hisst words, she piled up the questions for a few more minutes until Robert had nothing more to tell her. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully, the captain noticed a reflection inside of her right sleeve as she did so, she was probably carrying weapons everywhere on her person. "Hum, hum¡­" she smiled again. "You say it ejected its skull into the ravine this way?" Robert nodded his head. "If I am not mistaken, that¡¯s the Elephant Cave System, it spreads in every direction, linked to hundreds and thousands of caves everywhere, certain portions are also nearly impossible to navigate, either environmentally speaking or due to the monster poptions¡­" she clicked the lenses of her sses in,pletely obstructing her eyes with a dark shade. She shrugged her shoulders dismissively. "By the way, my name is Rummy" she ran her gloved hands through her curly short blonde hair. "Your wife would never know old man, let¡¯s go out sometime" then she strolled away, Robert heaved a sigh of relief. ¡¯Dear gods, I hope not all the death hunters are like that, they better find undeads to kill, otherwise I fear what will happen if they stay here for too long¡¯ he took off his helm and just leaned up against a wall. Chapter 52: Hunters Of Death "This is pretty worrying actually" a big man with red skin and dark, lustrous horns in the shape of thunderbolts spoke as he held onto the arm that had been pinned to the barn by Helena and Milo. The thing was still moving with much strength, threatening to slip out of his grasp, the man¡¯s grip wasn¡¯t easy to ovee however. "Yeah, the death force isn¡¯t in abundance, but it isn¡¯t slipping away from the severed limb, and it seems like it is truly operating of its own volition, the undead isn¡¯t willfully trying to move his arm at all, it¡¯s basically it¡¯s own undead" a woman dressed in all white wearing a mask crossed her arms, her white robes flowing all over the ce. The man with red skin, peeled off the sleeve and glove still stuck to the self-efficient arm, brushing away the rot as it bursted with ck blood like ripe fruits. He and the woman inspected the skeletal arm with interest, watching as small bumps of rot grew back naturally on the arm, despite no longer being able to produce rot as efficiently anymore, the arm still blistered with some anyways. "I would wager that this undead is fairly new, very new in fact, which is weird, being so intelligent from the get go, I would suppose that it is an incarnated undead, that it kept all of its memories and personality from when it was alive, but its behaviour says otherwise, still, undeads like skeleton and zombies, when they have great intellect, they usually stay low, move to a ce reeking of death and wait there to naturally reinforce themselves¡­" the man spoke thoughtfully. He was an experienced death hunter, one specialised in dealing with skeletons and such, he carried a heavy warhammer with a peculiar shape, more resembling the sort of mallets used for constructing things rather than a weapon. It was as easy as breathing for him to tell that something was off with this undead¡¯s behaviour. "Huh, could it have been ordered by something higher ced than itself?" the woman tilted her head a bit, not afraid as the arm suddenly tried jerking around and grabbing her face. "I have to say though, doesn¡¯t that death force seem weird?" she added after a few moments, death force was something she wasmonly confronted with, her specialtyid in culling ghouls of all sorts. Death force was always roughly the same thing, it had much less differences between individualspared to life force, this one however, it felt distinctively different. "Reminds me of the death force I sensed back in Gruyere ins¡­" her expression under her mask twisted. The man¡¯s face simrly turned awfully serious, as though he had just been announced a terrible news. "Are you certain about this Latir-e-se?" he looked down on the undead¡¯s arm. "It¡¯s not quite the same thing, but it does share something with Vwoldtnir" n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om The two stared at one another for a second before someone else spoke up. "Are you saying this measly skeleton¡¯s death force is simr to that of the Grand Ghoul¡¯s? One of the oldest undead lords?" three people had showed up, all three dressed simrly to one another. The speaker was the man in the middle, he had dark hair reaching down to his nape, to his right, the creepy vampire huntress, Rummy was flicking her lenses on and off repeatedly for no particr reason, to his left, an older man that resembled him a fair bit, with grey hair of the same length, but with beard, he were a hat concealing his eyes. "Tappduur, Latir-e-se" he greeted them with a nod. "¨¦chs, Rummy, Abraham" the two greeted them in the same manner. Robert was wrong with his assessment of the death hunters, vampire hunters were in fact, the most numerous group amongst them, those that focused on any other sort were actually much more rare. "I only caught a glimpse of Vwoldtnir back then, he didn¡¯t even bother to fight or say a word, he just went away without a care" which was a good thing, back then, when she had just begun as a death hunter, the mere presence of a lord had frozen her in ce. "So, if you are correct, I suppose we can assume that this skeleton has the potential to be a lord?" ¨¦chs rested his chin in his hand, this certainly brought the whole situation several notches higher. "We can hardly explore the Elephant Cave System without breaking an ankle and turning into minced meat by falling, so what do we do? We can¡¯t possibly hope to guard every cave entrance connected to it either" the old man, Abraham spoke his piece, already thinking about ughtering the supposedly, would-be lord. "We can try to find the ce it came from, it might be crawling with other undeads" Rummy raised her hand at that idea, waiting from everyone to acknowledge her, she coughed a few times and pointed into the distance. "I heard from a group of four adventurers that there was a dungeon discovered just a little while before the undead showed up, it is considered mostly empty but not everything was checked out" the death hunters looked at one another. "Let¡¯s go then" ¨¦chs led the way and everyone followed without questioning much, Tappduur nailed the arm right back to the barn. ¡¯Mmh, I don¡¯t know who thed that did it first is, but he must have some impressive arms¡¯ he praised whoever had subdued the stray limb first before going his way. They went past the burnt down tavern, a temple of booze reduced to ashes was quite the poor sight, guards were busy trying to get the charred corpses back without letting them crumble to pieces. The easiest had been that of the owner, since he had been thrown outside, the fire that killed him had died off faster than that of his business, the bodies inside had mostly been left as nothing but charcoal skeletons. "This skeleton is also not afraid of fire, they are generally wary of getting burnt, this one doesn¡¯t seem to have weakness for it" Tappduur muttered to himself, noting that his fiery breath may be of little use against it, where they to somehow cross paths one day. Just as he finished speaking, he felt a drop of water hitting the top of his bald, crimson red head. It had begun raining. Chapter 53: A Taste The sound of falling rain reverberated on the walls of the cavern, Only it filled the quiet expanse of this underground at the moment, a dweller of those deep caves moved around on its own two feet, not making use of its two, elongated arms meant specifically to walk around on all four. It was carrying the dead body of a bat, reaching a wide open space, the ceiling covered with threatening stctites, the walls covered in sharp gypsum crystal, the ground uneven, covered in jagged rocks. The monster¡¯s feet and shoulders were covered in shallow cuts, they were umting as its cold body could no longer regenerate from its wounds, but it was of no importance either way. Others of its kind would sometimes spot it, but they never took long to realise that it would be best not to approach or call out to it, it seemed as though it had been infected with a disease of some sort. Their natural instinct told them that it was best to keep away. Endlessly wandering the confusing maze-like caves, squeezing its body through gaps that should be much too small, contorting its body in horrific ways without any acknowledgement, it spent its days catching insects, bats and whatever made the mistake of being in its presence. Arriving before a pile of corpses, some of them having already begun the natural process of decay, the monster reeled its way and chest back, a few guttural noises came from within, he threw up a stream of oily blood, apanied by dozens of insects and other of its catches. ¡¯This shall be sufficient¡¯ Loimos thought, his remnant skull piece forcing itself against the inside of the creature¡¯s belly, without meaning to, Loimos, by his influence, had converted the corpse he was parasitising into some sort of pseudo-undead. Meaning that it wasn¡¯t affected by the natural cycle of putrefaction, nor was it being slowly dissolved due to its close proximity with his death force and rot. It seemed like Loimos¡¯s intention to use the monster¡¯s hollow carcasse as his ride for a while had somehow done something specific to it. Heid with his back resting on the pile as his skin suit bursted with rot and blood, a true downpour, splurging everywhere it could reach as the corpses were engulfed, shifting to rot and converting into miasma generators, the miasma created was dense, and seemed to refuse to spread out, forming a cocoon all around what had been left of Loimos after his previous fight. Where he had been severely beaten down without any room for counterattack, he had certainly lost that battle, but he hadn¡¯t been destroyed, he had also learned many more things, he wouldn¡¯tmit the same mistakes again. Since it was definitely obvious to the living that he was an undead, he wouldn¡¯t bother with staying covert, let them call for their troops, let they bring forth the practitioners of life arts or whatever they may call it, he would unleash a flood of miasma directly from below. He would start from here, and allow the dark mist to fill up the underground. The stable environment of the caves was soon to be disturbed. _____________ "It¡¯s here" Abraham was the first to speak up about it, as soon as the small group of death hunters made it inside the dungeon, all of them could clearly sense the obscene amount of death miasma nesting below. "But how do we get down here? If the report is to be trusted, the only possibility found to get deeper was through a flooded passageway, I am not too keen on going for a dip" ¨¦chs tapped on the wall to his right, hoping to hear that it was hollow behind. "It¡¯s quite deep underground too" added Rummy, staring straight down at the floor with her lenses clicked on. "Well, it was also said that there was a space above, right? So-" Latir-e-se pointed up, contributing to the collective thinking when she spotted Tappduur raising his hammer up above his head. A wave of dust struck them all, blowing their mantles and robes back as they could only stand by and watch as their red-skinnedpatriot just began doing some unpromptedndscaping directly inside the dungeon. A brick fell directly on the top of his head, he didn¡¯t even notice and just kept on pounding n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "No bother! The ground is fragile!" he yelled with a smile. "This is fragile?" Abraham gave a light kick into a brick split in half, it might not be exceptionally durable for someone of his level and strength but digging down with nothing but a hammer and elbow grease was still a bit too much. "Don¡¯t bother, he¡¯s a demon, his base physicality is much higher than us" the masked hunter waved her limp hand in the air dismissively. One would expect that the deeper one went, the harder the soil would be, but it seemed like the dungeon was expanding far beyond what the eye could see, everything was made from that same grey rock, which Tappduur had absolutely no issue grinding into dust with his swings. After a while, he suddenly stopped after carving a nice, natural staircase of debris.down onto the ground. "It¡¯s here" he called out. The miasma was seeping through thin cracks. "That¡¯s pretty dense alright, not awfully powerful, but definitely more proactive and aggressive than regr miasma, it feels like anything thates from that undead is imparted with its will or something" the demon rubbed his chin, quite surprised, it maycked in sheer force, but it made up by simply having unusual properties. All of them brought their two hands together, making some sort of weird hand sign, and speaking a few words: "Life, defend from corruption" and just like that, their life force acted on its own and spread out of their bodies, onto their skins and gear. They broke through thestyer of rock and stepped into the small world Loimos had brought to its knees. A world devoid of life. Chapter 54: Dead Expanse "This is¡­ What is this?" the death hunters were left in awe at what they saw, peering through the dense coat of miasma, they could sense immense formations of bones and rot, cascades of toxic blood, and beings emitting deep death force, not quite like that of the undead, but awfully close. What was happening here was not the expected result of death miasma corrupting the area, there were only two possibilities when such mist was unleashed and remained in ce, either everything would turn barren and fall apart, or something new would sprout, vegetations-like things, an ecosystem with death at its center instead of life. This wasn¡¯t quite what was happening here however, the ground was shifting, as though it had first destroyed everything, and then begun remodelling everything to suit its needs, thendscape had nothing inmon with what it was before. There was no moreke, the ground had turned soft and mushy, a thinyer of moss growing atop the rotten soil, Tappduurid a foot on the surface, he felt himself sink down to his ankle. It had be an enormous swamp, the dark-coloured blood rushed out of the ground, threatening to eat right through his boots, theyer of life force shielded him however, the miasma, as though possessing its own intelligence, retracted from him, not wasting itself trying to damage an untouchable living. "Terrific" Rummy spoke in an almost humorous tone, but a bead of sweat trickled down the side of her face. They could feel the rough outlines of the constructs hidden within the fog, but they would have to get there to actually know what they were. One thing they weren¡¯t aware of, was that the area had gotten muchrger, the miniature world brightened by a false sun used to be much smaller, and much more cubical in shape. The rot and miasma had carved out a new room with it as its base, it was now shaped like a dome, and most surprisingly, it seemed to be in the process of trying to replicate the fake star, rays of dark light would sometimes shine down from high above as its construction kept going. "Any idea what¡¯s going on?" ¨¦chs asked unconvincingly, he had read many outrageous things from the archives kept by the death hunters, he knew that undeads were a more than simply dangerous bunch, still, what he was bearing witness to wasn¡¯t amongst them. "Seed of a lord huh? I don¡¯t want to see what this thing will bloom into" Latir-e-se stepped forward, her soft steps allowing her to avoid sinking into the putrefied filth. Moving through the miasma, despite its special properties and apparent awareness, they didn¡¯t encounter any problem, they could sense that there were undeads moving in the distance, but they didn¡¯t approach. They instead moved toward the center, to the eye of the storm, most likely preparing for a stand-off. They passed by bone formations, somewhat resembling remains of massive creatures but clearly arranged in illogical ways, the skeletons were shaped more like ces to hide, outposts and areas to set up ambushes. There were also rot formations along the way, some resembling pirs, spewing blood into the air, creating rain in certain areas. The ground would sometimes erupt, throwing out rough balls of rot that would soon explode, it was all bizarre and somewhat off, it seemed as though it was doing test runs, trying out stuff. Arriving on more solid ground, they paid no mind to the moremon creations of death, ck flowers, trees and other vegetation were mimicked here, even mushrooms. They cranked their necks up to stare at the looming shadow that had be visible mere moments ago, a huge figure, dwarfing them all in sizes, taking more steps forward, it slowly became clearer and clearer. It was a gigantic, tree-like creation, its bark wasprised of some sort of segmented, bone tes, the whole thing seemed to be swirling a bit, as though something was trying to grow and break free from the side. Its branches were mostly barren of anything except for fruit-looking things, the branches extended beyond what they could perceive, the miasma was much thicker here, in fact, it seemed to grow denser higher up into the tree. The miasma generator, or at least, the main one, was situated somewhere on the tree. "Is that thing an undead?" Abraham questioned aloud, it possessed death force, but the simrity with the undead was present, still, it seemed a bit too much for a single, still weak skeleton to do, surely, the tree was its own thing. "I don¡¯t know about the tree, but those over there most likely" Tappduur readied his warhammer as dozens of small figures emerged in the distance, slowly circling around the death hunters. A fruit fell from the tree, bursting with miasma, another of those undeads emerged from within. "The lunatics of the underground tower better not get their greasy hands on this" Latir-e-se reached for something inside of her ample sleeve. The small undeads arrived within view, they seemed to be the animated remains of kobolds, lizardmen and goblins amongst other things, some of them seemed to be carrying weapons, including the one that had just emerged from the fruit. "Let¡¯s burn this down!" Tappduur bellowed with a wide grin as he charged right through the lesser undeads, trampling them without a care, aiming straight for the tree itself. The three vampire hunters pulled out bizarre weapons from gods knows where, carving through the undeads with ease, even simply punching them straight in the skull, bones were shattered and feeble, decaying flesh was blown apart under the force of their strikes. The masked hunter revealed her weapon, which turned out to be just as strange, if not more than the folding weapons of her three colleagues, it was a metallic whip, which could somehow be swung around just like an ordinary whip, but also turned into a rapier at a moment¡¯s notice. Although this weapon was more suited for carving up ghouls, it did its job perfectly against such weaklings. The demon man prepared to unleash his breath of mes upon the base of the tree, but held it in as he noticed something approaching from the side. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Raising his weapon, he blocked all four strikesing his way, kicking the newly arrived undead away. Sizing it up, Tappduur nodded his head with a slight smile. The undead in question had an elongated skull toward the back, four arms and was simr enough in build to the death hunter. "We better get a hold on this guy soon" hemented aloud as the four-armed skeleton roared with intensity, throwing itself at the living in four of itself. The demon swung his hammer nonchntly, dispersing bones and shards in all directions. It was no match for him. Chapter 55: An Offer A skeletal arm rose from a mound of rot, soon followed by a skull and ribcage, the cavern was loud, much louder than it should be, howls and shrieks sounded throughout therge expanse of rocky tunnels and deadly drops. They didn¡¯t appear to be responding to one another, they were all directed toward the same direction, they surrounded the area Loimos had decided to recuperate his body in, though, it wasn¡¯t like they could just waltz in and start hitting up upside the head. His rot had spread out defensively, filling up the room and surrounding him as the cradle of miasma slowly reconstructed him. For now, his skull, torso area and left arm were the only things that had been put back together, even now, the process was continuing. Loimos looked into a seemingly random direction, it wasn¡¯t the cries directed at him that had convinced him to shift his position and pay attention to his surroundings. ¡¯The miasma was cleared¡¯ he quickly realised what this disturbance he had sensed was, as the miasma he had left behind in the miniature world was eradicated, not only could he distinctively know despite the distance separating him and his creation. But it came alongside a flood of information as well, not about what had happened there, but about the potential of his primeval rot. It was rather interesting, manifesting some rot in his bony palm, he tried to convert it into bones instead, the result wasn¡¯t immediate, in fact, he remainedpletely still, not doing anything else for several dozens of minutes. The rot did eventually turn into the desired thing, but it wasn¡¯t great, all he had done was change the material, not the shape or anything else, and it was a small piece too. Next, stillpletely ignoring the howlsing his way, he instead tried to change rot to miasma, it was easier to do, but he had no control over it, once transformed it began acting just like regr miasma. Since he was rooted in ce until he got the rest of his body back, he spent his time trying out a bunch of different things, and also perfecting what he could do at the moment, meanwhile, whatever was busy outside, yelling at him didn¡¯t stop at all. It sounded like they were taking shifts screaming at him too, perhaps they were hoping to scare the massive mass of rot that was leaking sticky blood by trying really hard. By all ounts, they probably weren¡¯t the smartest bunch down there, further proven when their incessant act of loudness attracted the attention of something from deeper into the caverns. Loimos had been listening to everything whilst simultaneously doing his own things, so the arrival of a set of heavy footsteps could hardly go unnoticed, at least to Loimos¡¯s discerning, undead sense of hearing. The monster¡¯s outside however, were too self-absorbed in their useless endeavour to notice the metal clunks of the newly arrived challenger. It was something one would be expecting down there, it was a knight, or at least, it looked like one. The way the iron sounded made it fairly obvious to any keen listener that this knight was made of nothing but iron. The skinny, hairless ape-looking creatures outside only noticed the knight after he cleaved one of their own in half, prompting them to switch the target of their shouts. They seemed intent on using their voices for everything that came up, as though it was the solution to everything they could ever encounter. Truthfully, these monsters weren¡¯tpletely braindead, the targets of their cries were supposed to experience some sort of mind anguish, they actually innately possessed the ability to rattle the mind of their targets directly. Making them a great obstacle for anyone trying to explore those caves, they never let anything they had begun attacking alone, it would persist until either their target, or them, had died. Unfortunately, today wasn¡¯t their lucky day. Undead¡¯s were well known for their immunity to such parlour tricks, and the knight didn¡¯t even have a mind to target, so they were looking real stupid right now. Thankfully, none of their targets would bother mocking them, the knight was missing an arm and was truthfully, looking pretty miserable, yet, the mind-trembling apes didn¡¯t stand a chance. With a kick, the living armour stomped on one of them, those that received some brain matter directly on their faces stopped a moment to reconsider their actions, but they resumed shouting anyway. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om It took a few more of them getting brutally ughtered before they decided that fleeing was also an option, they were much faster than the knight, which didn¡¯t seem willing to exceed his walking speed, watching the apes retreat before turning to the rotten mass, and staying still. It simply stood there, it didn¡¯t swing its sword, it didn¡¯t do anything but stand there as though waiting for Loimos to let it in. It remained frozen in ce for a few minutes before its helm twitched and began carving something into the rot. Loimos let it do its thing, not filling the gaps in the rot for now, not only did it seem like it was trying to do something other than destroy, it also had the advantage of not being alive, a must if one was seeking diplomatic rtions with Loimos. The armour was writing, it was actually carving words, for some reason, an empty suit of armour knew how to write. An armour without any mind or soul could do something the majority of the human poption couldn¡¯t, truly, life wasn¡¯t nearly as good as it tried to appear as. After writing its message, the empty suit of steel moved away with heavy steps. Going back to the deeper parts of the caves, the armour somehow began making less and less noise as it went away, the noises of it moving around not reverberating against the surfaces all around. ¡¯Faraday awaits you¡¯ this was how the message began, it was then followed by a series of instructions on how to encounter this certain ¡¯Faraday¡¯. Though, he wasn¡¯t given any good reason to do so. Chapter 56: Burning A true undead¡¯s senses are simply that much more superior to anything else, I believe that most of my readers are already familiar with the concept of the undead synesthesia, whilst simr to what we, as living, experience when we speak of synesthesia, for the dead, it is much different. It is not a mere impression, not only does a pure undead possess the five basic senses, which can not be impaired through natural means, if at all, as well as armed with ¡¯dark vision¡¯ and ¡¯darkness awareness¡¯, they can feel everything about someone based on just one sense. By this, I mean that if a pure undead heard me moving around, it would be able to ¡¯see¡¯, ¡¯smell¡¯, ¡¯feel¡¯ and even ¡¯taste¡¯ me, it is as though all of their senses were merged into a singr thing. Coupled with ¡¯darkness awareness¡¯, which allows an undead to extend a sixth sense through the dark in every direction, I would wager that no other being could possibly bepared in that department, though, as I have to repeat, the existence of a pure undead is purely theoretical. That is all just extraption based on the analysis of many undeads. Extract of ¡¯Undeads For Dummies: What Is A ¡¯True¡¯ Undead?¡¯ by Ohith of the Underground Tower. The tree burnt to cinders, the awful smell of cooked, rotten flesh invaded the air, despite being protected by bone tes, the gigantic imitation failed to withstand Tappduur¡¯s mes, it soon crumbled as the miasma already began to thin. It was rather fast, the entire ce quickly began to crumble to pieces, as though the tree fastened the end of this little world of nothing but death just to try and bury them alive. Running at top speeds, they weren¡¯t in much danger however, the dome copsed on itself much after they had all already made it out of there, the entire space under the earth filling up with debris as all traces of the rot and miasma vanished into thin air. It was dubious whether one could even find evidence that such a thing had taken ce here, the disappearance of it was immacte, too perfect. "Anyone sense anything else?" ¨¦chs could sense nothing, he asked the others just to be certain, but it seemed like this dome underneath the earth had been the only ce the undead had spread its vile corruption in. "We just need to find the skeleton now" Latir-e-se shrugged her shoulders, not believing much in their chances of aplishing that, it would require an exceptional amount of luck to somehow stumble upon this particr undead. The sound of something clicking repeatedly attracted everyone¡¯s attention. "Actually, I got a good grasp of its death force now, we just need to follow the trail" Rummy¡¯s odd sses shined with a faint light. "Girl, it doesn¡¯t change the fact that we can¡¯t get down and explore the caves willy-nilly" Abraham flicked her in the back of the head. "What¡¯s the big deal with this hole in the ground anyways? Aren¡¯t there dozens of cave entrances leading deeper into it? We don¡¯t have to jump down the first ravine we find like a bunch of morons¡­" she pped the old man¡¯s hand away before he could flick her again. "True, but that doesn¡¯t change much, the caves are unpredictable and barely any maps exist, not that it matters, the terrain probably changed a lot since thest time someone attempted something down there" Tappduur thought back a few decades back, then, a few ghoul hunters had braved the caverns again, believing that this was where Vwoldtnir was holed up. It wouldter turn out that they were way off, but that wasn¡¯t what was of importance. The caves may seem empty and deste, but certain areas are inhabited by treacherous and terrible creatures, not to mention, going down there wouldn¡¯t be a short trip in the least, nor would it be easy, there were no telling what sort of narrow passages one would need to squeeze through to get anywhere. Food and water would be an issue quickly, being underground, it was possible for tunnels to copse as well, all in all, the caves on their own was already a nigh insurmountable problem. The demon remembered what had happened, he snapped his fingers. "Abraham, you were active as well when the ghoul huntersunched a hunt down there, do you remember what the survivors reported?" he addressed the old vampire hunter, who was currently holding up rummy by the back of her cor, much like a cat. "Huh?" never heard of it, I was busy trying to track down Nosferatu back then. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "That fucker¡­" he narrowed his eyes and cursed under his breath as he thought about the ugly mug of that vampire lord "Guess I¡¯ll have to do it then, herm" "In short, there may not be any undead lord down there, but there is definitely an undead of importance, The deeper parts of the caves, or at least a portion, is actually a dungeon I believe, filled with living armours and skeletons of a kind never seen before then" Tappduur had been active back then as well, however, much like Abraham, he had been more focused on his own activities. Namely, trying to find a way to get past a seal, which he had since then abandoned. "Oh wait, I heard that a dungeon was down there, supposedly, but doesn¡¯t it have an entrance all the way to the surface?" Latir-e-se repositioned her mask. "Which is filled with living armours" added ¨¦chs. "Ah, so we can just get through the dungeon and find the undead from there" Rummy offered a solution but everyone just shook their heads, knowing that it was also a dead end, this dungeon had a clear ending portion, which definitely didn¡¯t lead that deep into the earth. Either the dungeon had somehow been split in two, or there were just two different dungeons right next to one another. Not that it mattered, unlike the one they were in right now, the dungeon they were speaking of was the real deal, you couldn¡¯t just bust in and out through the walls easily, not to mention, it was far away, much too far away for them to get there and hope the undead was still around by then. "The caves are simply too dangerous, spread the word of that undead still, we need people to be wary of skeletons until it is dealt with" The death hunters wouldn¡¯t go after Loimos, losing lives to snuff out the death of one of the dead was simply counter productive. Chapter 57: Putrid Gift A heavy sigh made its presence known, it was noon and today, the sun was rather gentle. Milo was seated in a chair, overlooking the still fresh soil covering the final resting ce of David, his foster father, Helena sometimes went by, the two of them had gotten busy taking care of the fields, much the same as many other people. The amount of deaths that had urred was not to be underestimated, many farnds had been left without owners, with only few avable to take over, many had to be harvested early to avoid unnecessary losses. Milo had been nning on taking over the old man¡¯s crops, but Helena had had a surprising proposal for him. He sighed once more, resting his head in between his hands. "I- I don¡¯t really know what to do David, I don¡¯t know what you would have told me to do, and honestly, you are the only person whose opinion I ever bothered truly listening too, I don¡¯t think you were ever wrong on anything that mattered" he said to no one. "Get this: Helena thinks I shoulde along with her, not to the city, she says that she will be going to some sort of school or academy or whatever, I apparently have potential in her eyes, I think Helena wants me to go there because she is under the impression that I want to avenge you" "Maybe I should be insulted that she thinks I am so stupid, but I am actually looking forward to spending more time with her, would you want me to hunt down that undead who killed you? Does it even matter? They are nothing but soulless husks, I don¡¯t feel like I can hold one ountable for its actions" he scratched the back of his neck, realising that he was sounding quite different from usual. "I am just so sad" he then blurted out. No one could respond to him, he shook his head and stood up, retrieving the chair he had brought, what was he even doing here? Speaking to the dead? It was useless, David wouldn¡¯t want him to waste his time doing something so meaningless. Turning around, Milo began to move back toward the barn, he was going to tell Helena that he was going to agree to go with her, it was simply the right thing to do, David had pretty much begged him to try and get with his daughter, and also, Milo had to admit that he was very much fond of her. Two birds one stone, David would have loved this. "I¡¯ll make you proud! Just you watch!" Milo raised his fist and smiled up at the sky, David may not have been very pious, but he had surely risen up to heaven. ¡¯At least I hope so-¡¯ "Mmh?" something attracted Milo¡¯s attention, he turned around, facing back toward the two graves, where David and histe wife were supposed to be resting for the rest of time. He loosened his hold on the chair he was carrying, confused for a moment. "A mole?" he hoped for the best as he stood still, looking down upon the small, trembling mound of dirt. But there was no point, his hope was nothing more than wishful thinking, he could already tell the truth the instant he hadid his eyes on the grave. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om A pale, emaciated finger protruded from the dirt, the whole hand soon followed grasping at the ground as a familiar but distorted figure emerged from beneath. Mouth agape, orbits partially hollowed, the zombie still looked like David nheless, Milo stared, his eyes wide open and bloodshot, gritting his teeth, he approached the newly arisen undead fearlessly. The zombie did not advance after breaking out of his confine, he looked around himself in a confused manner before locking in on the living moving toward its position. Letting out a terribly hoarse cry, it rushed toward Milo, not an ounce of realisation struck the empty husk of David, Milo was left no choice but to desecrate the corpse of his adoptive father, it was the only way he had of returning him back to his grave. "..." Milo didn¡¯t make a sound, he silently did what needed to be done, forced to destroy the head of David to finally put him to rest, he buried him back and hid the signs of struggle, not wanting Helena to know her father had been resurrected as an undead. He himself would have liked to never have to be faced with this, ttening the dirt with his bare hands, his face covered in gore and hands covered in soil, sticking to his palms due to the rotten blood covering them. "Undead filth¡­" _________________ Loimos finally emerged from his cocoon of rot, a wave of miasma following him as he exited the cold and filthy embrace, he was back in full. All around him, the hairless apes were already back, uncaring that some of theirs had been taken apart in the very spots they were standing, in fact, were it not for their proximity to his rot, their corpses would still be there. They kept on shouting and shouting without stopping, they weren¡¯t shocked by the fact that he was a skeleton, but they quickly grew appalled at the fact that he wasn¡¯t falling over and dying like any other of their targets would have. It still took them a while to put two and two together, Loimos had yet to move for he was busy inspecting the ape directly in front of him, this one wasn¡¯t hollering without stopping, it was just sitting there. Loimos could only suppose that it was their leader somewhat, not that it had any distinguishing features other than being a little bit taller. This ape was definitely not that much stronger than the rest. It made a sound, prompting the rest to grow silent and look at it. Then, it yelled once at Loimos, looking ridiculously regal and overbearing, it seemed like its superior strength didn¡¯t lie in brute strength, but merely in the potency of its mind-shaking shout. Loimos was unfazed, no reaction whatsoever to the attack, but he hadn¡¯t stood still, the moment he was certain that this monkey had nothing more than this, he ran forth, growing blood-filled ball of rot, he mmed it in between the ape leader¡¯s face and his skeletal palm. He writhed in pain as the ck blood dug into his skin, burning his soft bits with remarkable power, it wouldn¡¯t be lethal on its own, but a good bite to the nape would certainly be. The rest quickly dispersed without bothering about their leader. The skeleton threw the lifeless body into the rot cocoon for the miasma generator to consume and went on his way. Chapter 58: Teachings "You look awfully tired, are you sick?" Helena stuck the back of her hand against Milo¡¯s forehead. "Just having trouble sleeping, this is all new for me" he lightly chuckled. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om The two of them were standing side by side in front of an orb-like object, Helena gestured toward it. A distance away, a few others of simr orbs were resting, lined up and seemingly cared for extensively, for they all came in their own little boxes. Milo and Helena had finished up with what needed to be done at the farm, and had subsequentlye to the city, he didn¡¯t know what he was expecting exactly, but Milo had felt like the city looked nothing like his imagination. It was certainly better looking than the outside, but the streets were also quite filthy, and most residential areas felt quite crowded with buildings, as well as people of course, everything felt narrowed and tighter here. Milo felt like he shouldn¡¯t breath in too deep, lest the rising of his chest would prevent him from moving through the condensed masses of people going in every direction, the ease with which the inhabitants here weaved through was also quite the sight, he totally would have ended up stuck somewhere were it not for Helena¡¯s expertise of the area. She took him by the hand, which he appreciated in more than one aspect, and easily led him to a tall building, which was to say that it was simply taller than two-stories, absolutely unnecessarily enormous in his eyes. And here they had soon found themselves after going up all the way to thest floor and through a locked door, clearly, the orbs and whatever else were in this room were valuable. "Hum, where are your instructors?" he asked. "Oh, they barely evene by anymore, I am just practising the same stuff over and over again until I reach an eptable level" exining this to him, she picked up the closest orb and held it up. "Hold this with both your hands, don¡¯t drop it!" she carefully passed him the orb, keeping her own hands on it. Milo had no clue what she was doing, but Helena was running her mana through the orb to activate its effect. Removing her hands after a few seconds, the orb shined with a series of differently coloured lights for an instant each, some brighter than others. "Oh! Is this the thingy used to know someone¡¯s affinity?" Milo felt like he had just realised what it was. "No" she responded immediately. "That would be the orb over there, this one is meant to give an idea of your reserves in each of the energies, don¡¯t bother too much with those for now, most people, including myself, only know anything about mana" she waved off any questions and instead tapped the orb. "All that aside, your reserves are pretty good, my instructors always tell me how having a lot of mana is just a good thing when you are shit at manipting it, I think they just say this because they have so little themselves but they are certainly right" she put the orb back in ce and moved to another. Not stopping to say anything and instead using them all to check whatever it was that they each checked for Milo. Finally, she got to the one meant to assess affinities, it wasn¡¯t thest one in line, she was just messing with him because he was clearly most interested in this one. "The moment of truth, by the way, not having an affinity does not mean than an element is off-limit, far from it, it is just rmended to focus on the uses of basic mana and elements you have affinities for first, since it is much simpler and faster" she exined to him beforehand. Most people didn¡¯t have any affinity at all, or at least, such a small amount of affinity that it wasn¡¯t even registered, she was rather lucky having a great affinity for the wind element. "As you probably have heard, fire, water, wind and earth are the mostmon, as affinities but also because even without, they are rather easy to get a hang of, as long as you don¡¯t go too in depth that is, apparently, anything can be an element, but for those, having a good affinity is pretty much required to get anywhere" she rambled happily as she put the orb in his hands, repeating the same action as she had before. Taking a step back, she and Milo looked intensely at the orb, it didn¡¯t shine for a few moments, leading to them looking at each other, one feeling sorry for himself, the other sorry for him. The orb shined with a brilliant golden light for an instant, but the brightness was so strong that it couldn¡¯t be missed. It was then followed by a blue glow. "Oh! Th- Tha- What was that?" he stuttered for a few moments. Helena rubbed her chin, took a piece of paper and quickly wrote down a bunch of things. "So¡­ I am not sure what that was, it was bright and looked a lot like light, but it was very golden, gold? Light? Golden light? Somethingpletely different?" she admitted that she had not a single clue as to what his element was, all she knew was that it was an affinity for mana, as indicated by the blue glow that followed it. She handed him the piece of paper. "The various orbs inspected various aspects of your energies, and it seems like mana is the only viable option for you to focus on, you have above average or average in most categories straight from the start" she exined, only stopping when she noticed the confused look on his face. She raised an eyebrow, looked down at the piece of paper and then back up to him. "Ah¡­ Of course you can¡¯t read" she pped her forehead. "I can read all the signs around the vige¡­" Milo could somewhat read what was in front of him, or at least, he could have tried but the way Helena wrote and the way peasants wrote on their signs was like night and day. "Why is everything so tilted?" as it turns out, the way they wrote wasn¡¯t simply different, some of the letters were straight up not the same. "There is plenty of time before the academy opens, I¡¯ll teach you how to read and write properly" she gave him a thumbs up. Milo felt like this wouldn¡¯t be very enjoyable. Chapter 59: Faraday Loimos left this miasma generator to do its own thing as he began to go on the move, being the unappetising meal that he was, rare were the cave dwellers willing to engage him in any sort of manners, only the hairless monkeys seemed intent on flexing their mind powers on anyone within reach. Some insects seemed willing to try andy their eggs on the bits of rots protruding on his bones, none of them ever managed to do so, getting sucked into the rot and disappearing forever. Some scavengers and eaters of the dead briefly turned to him, but even to them, he would be a severe stomach ache. The lone undead retained a perfect memory of the words carved by the hollow suits of armour, the confusing nature of the underground did little to trouble him as he absolutely did not follow the instructions, preferring to approach from apletely different angle. There was no discarding that it was all a weird, but well thought-out trap, it could also be leading to a marvellous ce, nothing pointed in either direction very strongly. Squeezing his bones and growing rot all around him, he shoved himself in a tight tunnel, his suit of decay and oily blood serving as some sort of slug for him to force passage. Poking his head the other way, he spun his skull around multiple times as he analysed the area, there was a metallic structure, grand walls embedded deep into the stone, it seemed very much like the structure had forcefully manifested and pushed everything away to make space. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om The metal was pristine as well, not a single dent or blemish to be spotted anywhere, not only that, but it was quite fancy too, it was chrome, and would probably shine dazzlingly if exposed to light. Living armours just like the one from before were patrolling around, some seemingly movingpletely randomly whilst others repeated the same path over and over again without stopping. All of them showed some sign of damage, missing a limb or two, some missing even their heads, though since there was nobody under there, it didn¡¯t seem to impair them in the least. Most of them were quite dusty and filthy, but from what Loimos could see, they were made from the same chromatic metal as the walls. Loimos flinged a bit of rot at one of them, it showed no reaction whatsoever, he attempted the same thing with more volume and on different ones, the same thing everytime, these hollow knights definitely did not care about him, or his actions. Despite this, whenever anything bigger than a rat got a little bit too close, or watched in their direction for a second too long, they would squash whatever that thing was, leaving it for a swift scavenger to swoop in and im the prize before ending up in the same way. Loimos went back up into his rot slug, and moved to another spot to observe the area some more, once he arrived there, however, he just stepped out amidst the living armours, there were death forces signature inside the chrome walls. The silent guardians showed no reaction to his presence, allowing him to walk along the tall walls without obstruction, they reached quite high, seemingly higher than the cavern ceiling did, there was little way to tell just how enormous the inside truly was. Now, he just needed to find a way inside. Or not, an entrance just appeared out of nowhere, despite Loimos not doing anything in particr at all, he didn¡¯t step in immediately and instead took a look from the outside, the living armours weren¡¯t doing anything different, and nothing came rushing out to turn him into fine dust. "Come on now, just walk in" a voice sounding like two someone beating a block of iron to death with a digging bar, tone was mostly absent, it was easy to tell that it was no living speaking with pitiful vocal cords. Loimos was in presence of another undead, so he stepped inside and found himself in an unnecessarily wide and tall room,pletely barren of anything except for a throne in the very center, the building material was the same metal as before and nothing else, there were no signs of anything being welded together, so it had to be assumed that everything had been built as is. "Wee, wee! To my dungeon, my tomb, my prison and whatever else, what is your name?" sitting on the throne was a tall undead, well over two meters tall, two meters and thirty centimeters tall to be exact. It was a skeleton dressed in a robe reaching down to his ankles, and just like all else, both his bones and robes were made of the chromatic metal, Loimos really stuck out like a sore thumb. Especially since he was so bleak and decrepit looking, with ck blood leaking out from time to time. Loimos couldn¡¯t respond however, so he just cked his jaw. "Now what does that mean?" "Ahahah! Oh my, do you have neither the pale or death tongue?" the undead stood up from his seat and waltzed over to Loimos. "One with such perfect death force? How-" he ced his hand on Loimos¡¯s skull, seemingly getting the answer to his second question himself. "Not even a year? Brilliant! You are a greatd, though you are missing quite a bit" the metallic skeleton stepped back and put his hands behind his back. Stay tuned with freewebnovel "Aherm" he said aloud, clearly having a knack for theatrics. "I am Faraday, a god-ying battle mage from the times of yore, as well as our king¡¯s right hand, would you mind helping me break out of this jail, in exchange of my superb and wise teachings?" his eyes shined with grey me, once again chromatic. He had spread out his arms and got into a grand pose, and was currently maintaining it, awaiting a response from Loimos. The undead stood still for a few moments, going through every gesture he knew to find the most appropriate one. He gave a thumbs up, with all of the personality, character and charm he possessed, none. "Damn kid, your even less expressive than the minions I summon, they are nothing but mindless drones, I am simply bbergasted-" "But enough of useless banter! Let us begin, you¡¯ll be my protege, and I¡¯ll be your wise master" Chapter 60: Aspects Of Energy "I don¡¯t understand a thing" Milo could feel his mental energy being sapped for every second he spent trying to put every bit of information in order, thinking deeply about theoretical stuff wasn¡¯t his forte in the least. Good thing Helena was rather patient, though she was slowly starting to speak lower and lower, articting her every word to an absurd degree, doing her very best to make his brain understand. For some reason, someone had decided to split one¡¯s energy into more than ten whole parts, one¡¯s talent was measured by how good those ten things were at a base, most of the orbs had been used to that end. One could improve on each of those, but it did basically clearly point out the aspect in which one would always be weaker or stronger. Milo had thought that lectures on reading and writing were brutal, but it was child¡¯s ypared to the intricacies of the very basics of magic, he needed to understand what each of those ten things were, what they meant, how important they were in rtion to one another, how important it was to have advantages in certain areaspared to others, and how disadvantageous it was to face off against someone with advantages. "Alright Milo, we are gonna repeat what each of the categories is about, surely, you remember that? It is pretty much in the names" she put her hands on his shoulders, he shuddered, this sounded like a threat but it wasn¡¯t fear that made him tremble. ¡¯Oh crap¡¯ he swallowed his saliva, they had just begun the lessons early in the morning, Helena had divided the day into various lessons, and the basics of magic had been running on for a while, longer than she had expected. Unfortunately, Milo¡¯s apparent smartness didn¡¯t apply to any sort of academics, he was all about live practice, but one couldn¡¯t just try shooting spells around without proper theoretical teachings and knowledge. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om He felt his body heat up, doing his best to prevent himself from sweating like a pig being roasted, he put his all in focusing, the categories were easy. ¡¯They are easy, I know that¡¯ he told himself, trying to convince himself. Helena breathed out heavily, her hands still holding Milo in ce, he wasn¡¯t going to go anywhere. "Alright Milo, first, what are the two types of maniption?" she calmly asked. ¡¯I know this¡­ Don¡¯t say something stupid¡­¡¯ "Inner and outer!" he stated with utter confidence, waiting for confirmation. "Indeed, mind telling me more about each?" she pressed for more, pressing his shoulders tighter as well, she really had the hands of a farmer, he quite liked it but he couldn¡¯t afford to be distracted right now, else those hands end up doing something else. "Yes¡­" "Inner maniption of mana is the most basic, and most important, it is all about controlling one¡¯s own mana inside of the body, most mages only focus on weaving mana from the inside, shaping it before constructing the spell and shooting it out¡­" "Outer maniption is more of a specialised category, generally reserved for higher tiered mages, or for people particrly gifted in it, it allows the usage of ambient mana to form spells, it is much simpler to form spells at other locations that way, and is a requirement for learning a zone spell" he recited what he had learned, even though he didn¡¯t actually understand certain things. Helena still found his memorisation to be satisfactory this time, he heaved a sigh of relief as he felt her grasp rxing. "Now, capacity?" she asked without waiting much at all, cutting his relief short. Thankfully, this one spoke for itself, and didn¡¯t have much to speak off, it was but the amount of mana one possessed, this one was hard to improve on its own, though the system had no problem improving that aspect, the system and its own intricacies was also on the list of things Milo would have to learn, and he wasn¡¯t looking forward to it. Efficiency, recuperation, output, speed and perception were also fairly obvious, Milo had to admit he had never seen things that way, having awful talent in one category could really cripple a mage with otherwise really good capabilities, one could be great in all categories, but if they had terrible efficiency, they would just use all of their mana on just a few simple spells. It might not be enough to make one unable to be great, but it would very much be like trying to run but with someone hugging your leg. Milo was lucky to not be below average in any category, his learning curve wouldn¡¯t be impaired by these, though his poor learning abilities probably would. Now, limit, transmutation, resistance, trait and internal or external were a bit less obvious, and Milo found himself unable to remember what thest three were referring to. "Well, that¡¯s better than before, good job" Helena praised him, pping his shoulders. "Trait is a very special category, having any sort of trait in one¡¯s energy is rather rare, for example, it can be that someone¡¯s mana is attuned to a certain element, or is of an element normally, it can also be any other specificities of one¡¯s personal mana, you and I don¡¯t have any, but recognising someone who does is apparently rather simple, but we would need to meet one to test that" she exined it again, sitting next to him. "As for internal and external, I have been told that some consider having external mana is a trait, but just assume it isn¡¯t, most people have internal mana, having external mana just means that it overflows from one¡¯s body constantly, that¡¯s all" she pushed a piece of paper and a pen to him. "Now, write it all down, you have until tomorrow" Milo paled. ¡¯It never ends!¡¯ he didn¡¯t feel so good. "By the way Milo, where do you want to sleep? There are two rooms" she switched the subject, he turned to her thoughtfully. "What¡¯s the difference?" "One is free, I sleep in the other" she, ever so casually, said. Milo had a mild heart attack for a moment, not sure whether this was a very alluring offer or a very hrious joke. He had to use his full mental capacity to answer that one in a timely manner. Find exclusive stories on m_v l|e¡¯m-p| y r "I would very much like to share the same bed as you" Chapter 61: Glow He tried his best and was honest. "Maybe another time" Helena had responded, Milo was still thinking about it as he slept all by himself in his own room, staring up at the ceiling with an empty gaze. ¡¯Damn¡­¡¯ ¡¯She didn¡¯tugh or say no though¡¯ he closed his eyes, trying to catch some sleep instead of going through scenarios in his head, he had tried his best to write properly, and apart from having a horrendous handwriting, he believed to have done fairly well. As his mind cleared and his breathing slowed, he slowly and seamlessly began to transition into a nice, and cosy slumber. The bed he was in was definitely much morefortable than anything he had ever been in before. The image of David¡¯s decayed face shed in his mind. He found himself wide awake in a second. Discover exclusive content at freewebnovel Completely livid for a second until he paid attention to his surroundings, despite what it had appeared, it was already morning. Milo shook his head, forcing the traumatising image out of his mind as he put his feet down on the ground, he found it difficult to just force himself to put something to the back of his mind, so he began reciting what he was supposed to be learning aloud. "Inner and outer maniption, limit, efficiency, capacity¡­" he recited what he actually knew, Helena had spoken of a lot of other stuff, but she hadn¡¯t gone much farther than just telling him those things existed. What he had actually learned was solely the various categories used to ssify the raw talent of a mage, in practice, those things didn¡¯t matter quite as much when the variety of possibilities and alternate usages were pretty much limitless. He sighed and looked outside, the first rays of the sun were quite pleasing on the skin, he continued to move his lips as he kept on speaking to himself. "¡­And perception" he finished, his mind wandering to another ce nearly immediately. ¡¯I wonder what¡¯s most effective against undeads¡­¡¯ _____________ "Nothing is more dangerous to us than life force" Faraday waved his arms around, his ample sleeves slinging from side to side as his bony arms allowed them much freedom of movement. "Though, even if it is our bane, we can also resist and counter it with our own death force, though it will always be worth our attention, a well ced st of life and we are done for, at least for most of us" the chrome skeleton walked in circles around Loimos, who just stood there perfectly still. Making a much better impression of a dead body than Faraday. "Your death force is quite special, in fact, I can say with certainty that you are a special undead in many ways, you know, one thing that is pretty much constant, is that when an undead grows in power, they start to develop a personality or ego of their own, which not only makes them less undead-like ironically, but it is also the gateway for a undead to be one who lives in death" he struck his open palm with a fist. Loimos didn¡¯t move. "Those who live in death are nothing more than livings that have attained undeath, thankfully, this antithesis makes them weak, except for Sun-Walker" Faraday shook his head, it wasn¡¯t the time to speak of this. "Your mana, every energy you possess, every facet of your being is truly dead, normally, a soul, a mind and energies can neither be alive nor dead, I had yet to encounter any exception to that rule, until today" he gestured toward Loimos, his metallic bones grinding against one another. "Do you know the categories by which the talent of someone is measured? It is most typically used for mages since mana is by far the mostmon one, perhaps not anymore though¡­ I haven¡¯t been out of there in quite a while, in any case, it can be used to do the same with death force" Loimos responded by swinging his skull from side to side, he had never even heard of such a thing. "Well, let me take a look" nothing seemed to happen for a minute as both of the skeletons just stood motionless as skeletons typically did. Faraday pped his hands in appreciation, it was simply wonderful, inspecting Loimos only revealed that the battle mage was more than right in his first impression, he could tell that the undead in front of him was truly the epitome. It wouldn¡¯te easily, but it was easy for Faraday to tell that Loimos was built to use death force to its maximum potential, it was so pristine and perfect, he wouldn¡¯t have any use for mana and the likes, and yet, the special properties of his other energies made it easy for them to be converted into even more death force. ¡¯He might actually be able to attain it¡­¡¯ had he been able to, Faraday would have smiled manically, few things could make him want to do such a thing truthfully. "Allow me to exin everything that I know, but first, I need you to unlock at least one of the tongues" the metal undead would have liked to begin right there and then but Loimos¡¯s mutism would slow them down, also, he was quite curious what he would actually sound like. "The death tongue is the most important for us, it will allow you to instantaneously learn thenguage of the dead, it is also one of the greatestnguages to be used when speaking incantations or anything else requiring spoken words" n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "The pale tongue is much less useful, but most undeads, as they be stronger and awaken their ego, tend to gravitate toward it, most of those that live in death are only able to learn this one as well, if you ever see an undead rising and it can instantly use the pale tongue, kill it for it is a living retaining their memories" Faraday began exining a bunch of things, but most importantly, he revealed that the learning of the two tongues was quite random for regr undeads. "I shall aid you in this aspect, try reading this" Faraday manifested a thin te of chromatic metal with a wave of his hand, glowing symbols written upon it. The sight of those made Loimos¡¯s hollow sockets re up with the usual purple glow, Faraday¡¯s jaw almost went agape as he saw this, yet another thing he had never heard of, an undead whose eyes light up with a light rather than a me. Chapter 62: Try it Milo was able to recite every category and their importance this time, without a hitch, Helena nodded approvingly. "I lied actually" she said with a smile, pointing at Milo. "What?" "I lied about the number of categories, there is one more actually, any idea?" Milo raised an eyebrow, his face scrunching up as he thought deeply. "Did you forget about it?" Helena coughed and averted her gaze. "Certainly not, just a little trick to get your brain working a bit¡­" she waved it off rapidly and instead questioned him again. "I honestly have no idea, heat of mana?" he tried something random. "Range, it is range! Find exclusive stories on mvl Everyone got a different range within which they can interact with mana, but there are no orbs to test that aspect, if someone has a wide range, then they can counteract having low resistance by keeping some control over their spells, which, by the way, is easier than it sounds, since spells made from one¡¯s own inner mana are easier to manipte from a distance, so you don¡¯t have to be great at outer maniption for it to be possible" she drowned him in a deluge of information without mercy as she reached for an obscenelyrge book behind her. "Now, we¡¯ll go over the system, how do you view the system?" she swiftly moved on to another subject, one that was an even bigger can of worms than magic. "Well, I see one red bar and a bunch of abstract symbols, no clue what each of those are about though, I never bothered to find out either" the system was something everyone and everything possessed, it was a constant, a rule which had yet to find its exception. Everyone technically was equal in front of the system, it was simultaneously incredibly consistent and overwhelmingly chaotic at times, in most cases however, one could trust in its consistency. Everyone interacted with the system differently however, Milo only had a very basic one, it was of the visual kind and wasn¡¯t very user-friendly at all, in the amount of information it disyed, it was rather generous however. Helena handed him a knife, which she pulled out from one of her pockets. "Try cutting your finger a bit, keep an eye on your system" she instructed, he found it a bit difficult to willfully cut himself but he eventually managed, seeing the red bar decrease by a slight bit. "This means that the red bar represents your ¡¯HP¡¯" she made quotation marks in the air. "How many of those weird symbols do you have exactly?" having knowledge of ¡¯HP¡¯ was rather basic. "Sixteen" he responded after carefully counting them, having had to take care of crops and selling them sometimes, he at least knew how to count and basic mathematics. "Ah, it must be the stats then, is there really nothing else?" she seemed quite impressed with what he said. There was nothing else his system seemed willing to divulge. Helena began exining a bunch of things in length, cramming Milo¡¯s mental space relentlessly, he did his best not to space out but it was honestly horrific just how many things she was exining about, all the while saying things like: "That isn¡¯t certain though" "There was two sides to this, the debate is rather heated I have been told" "No one agrees on the actual number" "This is just spection" "It can vary from person to person" On and on, etcetera and etcetera. Without Milo noticing, the day went by with Helena still exining things just as energetically as she had been at the start. ¡¯No way she actually finds this enjoyable¡¯ Milo could hardly think straight any longer, his thoughts muddled by everything he had been told today. "We will be continuing with all the theoretical stuff, writing, reading and such for a few more weeks, then we¡¯ll begin with live magic practice" she hammered thest nail in the coffin ruthlessly. His face fell forward on the desk he was sitting on, crumpling the papers he had taken notes upon. Helena tapped him on the back gently. "Don¡¯t be disheartened, the pain is mandatory" her encouragement didn¡¯t help, but looking up at her rough, but cute face, he felt like he at least had to do it for one reason. ¡¯Yes, it¡¯s absolutely worth it¡¯ his gaze went down from her face, Helena didn¡¯t seem to mind. The next few weeks went by in a sh, Milo did his best to learn everything as quickly as possible, Helena kept on happily teaching him the most obscure and nonsensically difficult things known to man, she even began speaking of history at one point. Apparently, she wasn¡¯t satisfied with the abject theories of magic and system, she had even begun dabbling into the specific theories for other energies despite not using them and began reading on subjects that would definitely not be of much use to her. Milo couldn¡¯t wrap his head around why she would willingly subject herself to all of this, but it certainly revealed something, there had been no pain for her in the learning of all of this, it was her element. Today was the day he would attempt to manipte mana, not make any spells or anything, he would just try to manipte his inner mana for the next few days until his control was sufficient enough for Helena to allow him to try a spell. "Alright, rx, breathe in and out and focus, as long as you manage to get a hold of your inner mana once, you should be able to do it much more easily after" Helena put up her palm against his chest. "I¡¯ll begin by manipting your mana for you, focus on the how it feels" she instructed as she did exactly that, Milo almost yelped out loud as he felt it, it was incredibly bizarre, it was like some sort of frozen snake thing was crawling amidst and through his guts, the feeling slowly made its way throughout his whole body, down into his legs down to his toes, into his arms and all the way to his fingertips, even into his brain and eyes. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om It was disorienting, but it was nothing more than a feeling and he managed to stand still without making a fool out of himself, he realised that mana truly traversed his entire body, it was everywhere all at once. "Mana cane from anywhere in the body, but most people make it circte starting from their hearts as the starting point, they sort of force their mana to take the same pathways as their blood, it makes the whole process much easier, but you could make it start from wherever, don¡¯t tie yourself down with just one way of doing things, resting on the first manner you learned is a mark of sloth and mediocrity" she removed her hand and the feeling stopped instantly. "Now try for yourself" Chapter 63: Double "Try saying something" Faraday stepped back, tapping his metallic fingertips against each other, he wouldn¡¯t have expected such early sess in any other case, but he firmly believed that something so mundane shouldn¡¯t pose a problem for Loimos and his seemingly perfect death force. For a few moments, only small metal clinks could be heard throughout the oversized throne room. Until words spoken in an unknownnguage rippled over them, Faraday was pleased with the results, Loimos had learnt the death tongue already, which was more than enough to properlymunicate. What took him aback however, was his voice, it was only natural for an undead to carry no tone or emotions in their voices, but never had he expected himself to be dumbfounded by such an utterck of everything. Find more adventures on mvl ¡¯That even got me to pause for a moment, this will get the living thinking back on the choices that led them to this¡¯ in any case, it was now time to get down to business. "The pale tongue was unlocked too" in the same truly dead tone, Loimos informed Faraday that they were doubly sessful. After settling down, Faraday truly began exining things, though knowing that Loimos could speak, but didn¡¯t was even more off putting than simply having him be mute, he ignored this as he quickly exined a few basic things, Faraday and the living seemed to share the same ideas of what the categories to ssify energy talent were. "Do not bother with those however, death force maniption will be as natural as killing to you, that is for certain" Faraday instead began exining about other stuff in quick session, teaching from undead to undead was rather simpler than living teaching to living. Undeads couldn¡¯t really forget things, Loimos being pretty much the ideal version of one meant that Faraday could just ramble on without stopping and without caring, Loimos would just remember everything as clearly forever. "There are sixteen stats that I know of, however, we undeads only have fourteen, vitality and endurance have no meaning to us, endurance is literally meaningless in its effect, as for the effects of vitality, which is to increase HP and HP regeneration, as well as regr health, well, for us it is added to the effect of constitution, that¡¯s another advantage we have" "Let¡¯s talk about HP while we¡¯re at it, that is pretty much the most meaningless thing, no matter how much they have, if you stab a living them in the head, they die, some of us undeads can also be instantly defeated by having our head crushed, though, not necessarily, some of us need to be brought to zero HP to be defeated but that is unusual, generally, we can get to zero without any problem and still operate the same, we have to be destroyed entirely and have our death force eradicated to be dealt with" Faraday went on and on about how HP was a useless value. He kept at it for an indeterminate amount of time, all the while with Loimos not saying a word. "Now, for the more important stuff, I am a mage, my element is this chromatic metal, it looks shiny, but is also an excellent conductor, lightning and electric mages stand no chance against me, I am not kidding in the least, I have told that I was a god yer, yes?" "Well, back when our glorious king and the lords were all active, we naturally waged war on all that lived, I don¡¯t really know how but some priests or clerics or whatever really didn¡¯t want to die, they must have been praying very diligently because their god came down in person" he waved his arms around as he recounted the tale. "Normally, I should have been vaporised, but I wasn¡¯t a fool, I had been solely targeting the lightning affiliated groups for efficiency, so it was a lightning god that came down, he probably could have still bludgeoned be to paste with his fists but he took too long just standing there majestically, so I casted a spell, my cage, my Faraday cage if you will" "Which drained him of all his lightning, which being associated with his divinity, drained it as well, he turned into dry piece of whatever and died, let me tell you, everyone was freaking out, I was hit with a tidal wave of XP and the system started speaking to me and all, you yed this, you earned that title, ¡­" he pped his hands. "So anyways, for this affront, the other gods locked me into a seal and put me there, it got quite a fair bit weaker since then, allowing him to turn the seal into a dungeon" He stopped as if to gather his thoughts. "Ah yes, what I meant to say is that elemental interaction is very important, for you, you mostly only have to worry for life users, be it the life element or life force, it really is the only element that can rival you without necessitating an overwhelming amount of extra firepower, not that you can just block everything thrown your way anyways" he pointed in the distance. A pir of metal rose from the ground, standing about twenty meters away from the both of them. Faraday could tell that Loimos could already feel his death force clearly, so he skipped the first part and asked him to shoot something straight away, the metal mage took a few steps back just in case. Loimos had heard him say a lot of things, he had already exined what was necessary to use any sort of energy, feel it inside of oneself, make it move a bit and then visualise the desired effect. Loimos only aimed to fire pure death force, without shaping or transmuting it into anything else, he raised one arm and pointed his index finger at the pir. Nothing happened for the next few minutes. The death force was circting around quite well, without any hindrance and was going where Loimos wanted it to, but shooting it out of his body wasn¡¯t as simple as willing it, one needed to try for quite a while to aplish it. Thankfully, he could try indefinitely, without suffering from any sort of exhaustion. Faraday stared up, focused on something only he could see, he had noticed strange activities up in the dungeon for a little while now, a certain group of young livingsing in and out. He brought his attention back to Loimos as death force exited from his finger, only to dissipate chaotically in the air. "Seems like your death force is too good, it is trying to go ahead and reach for something alive rather than be shot in a straight line" that wasn¡¯t too unusual. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Let us see for body reinforcement and conversion next" Chapter 64: Quideos Audit More than one month had now passed since David¡¯s death, the death hunters were slowly thinning out as each and every one of them failed to find any other signs of undeath in the area, only the underground and the escaped undead had been present. Word that the skeleton had escaped into the Elephant Cave Systems soon spread out, the enraged people were appalled that it had been allowed to flee, they feared that it woulde back again, resume its senseless massacre. Together, they put up a sizable bounty on the ¡¯sad faced man¡¯, nevermind that no one could clearly identify this undead, and nevermind that no one knew where to look. Still, deeming it best, Harold, mayor of Throdqdmond added some of his own money to the reward for the undead¡¯s head, and had the few people that had been in close contact with the undead give their testimony and rough description. Quickly enough, the target became just a little bit clearer, a skeleton that could manipte rot and blighted blood, remains of it indicated that it possessed a rather impressive dentition. The hunt was on, the reward was already worth some trouble, and it didn¡¯t seem like it would stop growing any time soon, the fear and hysteria wasn¡¯t going to back down as the shadow of Loimos loomed over the people, even as he didn¡¯t n toe back to there. Some local adventurers tried taking the bounty on, but only a minority, most simply went back to their routines, the guards remained vignt however, some of them had fallen in the ughter, all of a sudden, the job of guard was no longer so attractive. Tension remained, but everything soon stabilised and a semnce of calm nestled. ________________ Things were much different far from all the chaos and death, in here, the ceilings were audaciously high, the walls were ornate with various paintings and scriptures, hallways bustling with activity as men and women dressed formally moved around swiftly, but without rushing, carrying cloches filled with steaming food, brooms or just messages. There was even a juggler waiting outside tall double doors, standing at the front of a line of people of all shapes, sizes and dressed drastically different from one another, some gaudily, others inplete contrast to the magnificent and clean interiors, while some actually seemed like they belonged. However, they all had to wait in line, politely waiting behind the ones that had arrived before them, any sort of harsh attitude could be met with severe punishment, although the morevish in the line were obviously displeased with having to wait behind random, filthy peasants and awful performers, especially considering who they were waiting to meet with. Not that whoever was behind those doors was lesser than any of them, they just couldn¡¯t bear having to give in to the entricities. ¡¯Even the king of Starkefolten didn¡¯t do this sort of thing¡¯ one thought as he was getting seriously tired of having to smell the peasant standing right in front of him. He kept it in, he couldn¡¯t afford to offend the king of Tamaris, even if he was a mere roitelet, nothing more than a bonafide merchant wearing a crown and ying rulers. Tamaris may be small and rather pathetic whenpared to the others, but it was situated strategically, surrounded by mountains, gigantickes and other natural hazards, it couldn¡¯t be invaded easily, and also, whilst their military wasn¡¯t developed, their warriors were good enough to be hired as mercenaries. Despite all of this, no one could really take this ce seriously, the other nations were simply that much more mighty andrge. The sound of someone storming through the serene atmosphere of the pce rang out from deep within the halls, everyone turned to look at who was arriving, the guards, who had been out of sight until now emerged from their spots between pirs, their copper-coloured armours, their helms leaving not much ground for a weak spot, all of them carrying halberds. This casually reminded everyone that one transgression too big and their skull would be forced to divide. Emerging within everyone¡¯s sight was a man dressed in clerical robes, looking frankly dishevelled and manic, a young servant was moving alongside him, frantically trying to tell him something, probably warning him not to cause a fuss or to rush through the halls like this. Everyone expected this man to be taken away, or perhaps, even cleaved right here and there, but instead, the guards took one look at him and backed off, returning to their posts without any grumble or hesitation. "Sir! Please, his majesty is busy with auditions today-" the servant¡¯s plea fell on deaf ears, the man was actually rather handsome, with his unusual white hair, he would have been a head turner if he did not look insane and in dire need of sleep. Without even bothering to respond, he pushed the double doors open, with rtive ease, and walked up into the throne room, passing by the person that been in audition as they were making their way back. The servant bowed forward, nearly out of breath, he still spoke up: "Prophet Quideos Audit wishes for an audience with his majesty, Agilulf Wanneck, king of Tamaris!" "Quideos, how many times have you uwfully stepped into my castle by now?" the king didn¡¯t put up any pretences as some guards quickly shut the doors to the throne room. "This is the fifteenth time! Listen my lord, there is no time, I have had the most worrying visionstely!" Quideos much in the manner his appearance would make one expect, swinging his arms around madly and contorting his body. "Everyone else has justughed in my face, they refuse to believe the truth!" he suddenly spoke in a low tone, squinting his eyes. The king sighed and shook his head, Quideos Audit was a great prophet and seer, but he hadpletely gone off the rails in recent years, there was little doubt that his visions still carried weight, however, his mad rants and other hallucinations have made him much less trustworthy than he used to be. "What is the matter? What have you foreseen?" he was still very much willing to hear him out though. Quideos took in a deep breath, reeling his body and head back exaggeratedly before straightening his back and beginning to speak seriously. ¡¯Terrific¡¯ the servant was thoroughly freaked out, this guy didn¡¯t look like a bumbling madman right now, he appeared truly insane. "Trees! Two trees! Heroes from times immemorial, two of which escaped from the clutches of death to fight once more! The dead rising! Four riders, gravelords, an old crown and a betrayal! Watching from high above- Aaaah!" he tightened his fist hard enough to make himself bleed. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "I saw you die as well my lord! Your heart ripped out of your chest-" "Enough! Take a breathing Quideos, you have my interest" Chapter 65: Dismissed "Calm down Quideos, your predictions have never been so messy" the king rose one hand, this action doing little to appease the raving prophet, currently iling his bloodied hands and staining the floor of the throne room. "Sir, it is simply because that is a prediction that is nigh too much even for me to bear, and unlike others, it keepsing back! Every night, every time I close my eyes, no matter for how long, it all shes inside of my mind without end! It is all that I can see, I am certain this fate is one that is nearly unshakable, if not actions are taken as soon as possible, it will alle true in the exact manner that I see!" Quideos Audit began walking in circles as he exined this. "Your majesty! Have you heard of a young team of adventurers that go by the name of ¡¯Ladies Of All Around¡¯?" he suddenly spun on his heels, as though he had just remembered something important. "Never heard of such a poorly named team" the king reached for a scepter and lightly tapped it on the ground prompting two armoured men to suddenly appear from pathways hidden from sight. Quideos didn¡¯t react, but the servant still standing at attention near the entrance felt like the air had gotten heavier, he was seriously regretting going after the madman. "You two have better knowledge of that sort of thing, ever heard of them?" the roitelet questioned the two men, the servant turned to look at them, the king waspletely unbothered unlike him, the prophet probably wouldn¡¯t care even if a dragon suddenly crashed into the room anyways. Agilulf Wanneck stroked his white beard, his fingers adorned with countless rings forged out of various precious metals, he was dressed mostly in bright red, the most eye-catching being the cloak, truly a piece of clothing only a king could wear. The vast amount ofyers gave him arger presence, the servant could only admire this old king, especially more so when seeing his two closest guards, Shieldmaster Bough and Halbardier Pierre-Orn¨¦e. The first was a real giant by human standards, looking about two and half meter tall, he carried a shield that was even more enormous than he was, and that was it, it was said that even the breath of a wind wyvern couldn¡¯t make him move at all. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Those who had never seen him and only heard of the shield-carrying man couldn¡¯t imagine just how awfully minuscule anyone else looked beside him. The second wasn¡¯t small by any means, but much leaner-looking, carrying a halberd, all of the guards in this pce yearned to achieve even half of his skill, tending to literally remain his Bough¡¯s shadow, the servant knew little about Pierre-Orn¨¦e. Both were garbed in the same copper-coloured armour as the guards outside, the halbardier was pretty much wearing the exact same suit same for some minor differences, Bough on the other hand, famed for his defences and unshakable nature, had been equipped with much more advanced armour, no weak points could be exploited, apart maybe from the slits of his helm, still, it was doubtful whether that would work. The young man had only ever seen them from a distance, he had only ended up doing the presentations to the king because he had followed Quideos, he wasn¡¯t normally supposed to end up here. He awaited the two greatest warriors of the court to start speaking, what sort of person were they? He couldn¡¯t conceal his curiosity. An uncharacteristic, creepy chuckle came out of Bough as he nodded his head. "They have been working themselves out, their leader has been given a key allowing to challenge the chromatic dungeon¡¯s boss, something of that sort if I remember correctly" he leaned up against his shield as he mimed the act of rubbing his chin with his helm on. "That is a bit off, ¡¯boss¡¯ could be a bastardisation, we have no clue what that key actually does, I have gotten multiple spies on that group actually, it is the team led by an unwanted" Pierre-Orn¨¦e corrected, his voice raspy and unpleasant to the ears. "Oh, it¡¯s that one? I know what you are speaking of Quideos, yes, yes, two human girls, an elf, a dark elf and a red ogress, is that right?" the king leaned forward with a slight smile, he knew it well, he kept himself informed on unwanted presences in his country, and since that girl was the only one at the moment, it was well within his memory, although that team name was new information. He repositioned his crown and gestured for Quideos to continue with what he was saying. "My vision revealed to me that a king from long ago would soon awaken, this awakening is what would truly kickstart all of the other events leading to our end, whatys deep within this dungeon is in rtion with this, you need to make sure they seed in their endeavour" the prophet was sounding a whole lot moreposed right now, he actually sounded calm and reasonable. "Can we not simply stop them from using that key? Or take that key and send our own elite troops to deal with whatever is inside?" the roitelet asked despite knowing that it most likely wasn¡¯t possible. Quideos Audit was rather unhinged, but he was definitely being awfully serious at the moment, he looked just like before he started spiralling into madness. It was well known that his visions of the future were actually very clear, he simply wasn¡¯t allowed to be clear whenmunicating them, being forced to leave out details or be cryptic, only he was allowed to know the full truth of his revtions. The fact that he was actually allowed to speak of someone¡¯s death, and even precise how it would happen, meant that the vision was so terrifyingly bad that even that wasn¡¯t considered as a big piece of information. "No, doing so won¡¯t work, the only way is for them to seed on their own, if they cannot, then¡­ We better prepare for pandemonium!" "Well then, perhaps it is time to pull out our summoning rituals out of the dust" "Your majesty, the unwanteds summoned are rubbish nine times out of then" Pierre-Orn¨¦e reminded. "They can¡¯t handle any crushing" agreed Bough. "Manpower is manpower, let us prepare as though we were going to go to war! I will trust you Quideos, I will trust that you haven¡¯t lost all that once made you the man you once were" "Dismissed!" Chapter 66: Sour Wood splintered, falling to pieces, the pir broke down, taking what it was supporting with it in its fall, dust was risen, and only silence followed to destruction. "Alright, your aim is¡­ Fine actually, you just have no control over your own spell and it flickers around like a drunk fly in a hurricane" Helena waved her hand, blowing away the debris, revealing Milo¡¯s poor track record. A single target was ced in the space in front of them, it was intact, unlike the wall behind it, which had more holes in it than cheese. Milo¡¯s inner maniption was much too rough to form a stable spell just yet, he couldn¡¯t really correct the trajectory with outer maniption since he wasn¡¯t gifted enough in that department to hope to do anything with it at the moment. Whilst Milo had appeared to have average talent in most categories, he had shown tremendous progress in certain aspects, enough to convince Helena that his talent was actually pretty great. Still, the most important categories were the ones rting to maniption, and he was definitely not great in those, he could form a simple mana bullet and shoot it out, but as demonstrated, it wasn¡¯t doing him much good. In fact, the more he was practising with mana, the worse it was getting due to making tremendous progress in other categories. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Usage, output, speed, resistance and range had grown by leaps and bounds. The raw, base power of his mana was impressive, the speed was so great already that it made Helena believe that his golden attribute was actually just fancy, golden lightning with how proficient he seemed in that category. Combined with the resistance of his mana to the outside elements and interference as well as his incredible range, he was well set to go on the path of a long-range mage, specialising in precise spells. They had also tested his usage a bit, and he could overcharge his spells even further, they hadn¡¯t attempted this since for obvious reasons. Milo actually needed to learn how to tone down those aspects of his mana to hope to get anywhere, with his current maniption, he would never control any spells. "Listen, don¡¯t get discouraged so easily, you have a bright future, don¡¯t botherpressing mana, just form a mana bullet with the least amount you can manage" Helena raised her hands to get his attention. "Magic and mana control is heavily tied to your imagination, will and control, strong emotions will show in your spells, and that¡¯s bad, it almost always result in awful control and half-assed spells, steady your breathing and don¡¯t wallow around, you have to will it over and over again until it does it, there is no secret, you to repeat it the same action" she had exined this a few times already, but much like what she was exining, it was best to teach the same thing multiple times to be sure it was understood. "You can do it" she stepped back and winked at him. ¡¯Ah shit¡¯ Milo was feeling quite a fair bit nervous, he did understand well what she was saying, and he had been trying to apply her teachings everytime, but it always spiralled out of control the moment he decided to manifest the spell. It would always seem like everything was under control whilst he manipted his inner mana, but that was because it was still inside of him, the instant the spell went off to do its thing, chaos would ensue. He was rather pleased with the sheer power, that thing would blow the regr schmuck on the street to pieces, which was also a problem, Milo didn¡¯t want to turn a random passerby into red goo. He put his all into his next attempt, and the next, and then the one after that, again and again until he wasying t on the ground with drained reserves. "I don¡¯t feel much progress Helena" he said, lookingpletely spent, as it turns out, training magic was also pretty tiring physically, since he was always trying to stand perfectly still and holding his hand up. "You are progressing Mimi, it¡¯s just that your mana¡¯s power and speed do so at a better rate than your maniption" she extended her hand to him, hoisting him up without much difficulty. He didn¡¯t quite know how to feel about the cute nickname, it seemed like a good sign but he didn¡¯t want anyone to hear her call him that. "I didn¡¯t want you to bother with all of this, but I guess there is no use, most beginner mages actually use incantations and hand signs at first to help with their maniption, it¡¯s not the same sort of incantations and movements used by great mages however, they have no other purpose than to help with learning" she shook her head. Helena had learned this way, however, this was quite problematic in its own rights, if you were taught to use those things for everything, then it may be difficult to stop doing so, using incantations and signs without greater purpose was idiotic, and frankly dangerous. It was preferable to not bother with this if possible, but Milo seemed to be a rare case where they would actually be needed for him to progress. "In any case, let¡¯s do this tomorrow" the two of them made their way back to their lodging in the city. On the way there, it was clear that the majority of the death hunters had cleared off, reced instead by mercenaries and adventurers interested in the bounty on the undead, they hung around and talked big games, iming that they were going to dive into the deep caverns and such. Most of them only took about ten steps into any given entrance before promptly turning around, either encountering too tight of passages for them to befortable squeezing in, some of them straight up never came back, which was to be expected, this ce wasn¡¯t leftrgely unexplored for no reason. There were no chances that any of them would actually manage it, even when cornered, the undead had managed to escape, a few ill-prepared fools wouldn¡¯t do much better when they were in unfamiliar and unfriendly territory. ¡¯...¡¯ Milo suddenly felt sour. Chapter 67: Slotriig "Life and death force maniption is rare, unlike the living, our death force grows as we kill and reap life, I only know of one for each, you being one of them" Faraday mused, Loimos¡¯s attempts at projectiles weren¡¯t going very well, his death force was truly not willing to stay packed together, it splits apart and just went into every direction. Faraday didn¡¯t doubt that those slithers of death would be able to find and target anything living, but it was doubtful they would make a difference between a de of grass and a person. It was all rooted within Loimos¡¯s dead mind, on the spectrum of life, he made no difference, all living were to be equally eradicated, of course, he himself could reasonably pick and choose, ignore vegetation and such, his death force didn¡¯t bother with such things however. It became apparent that the key to managing a long-distance usage of it was simply for him to kill more and upgrade his death force further, everything would go up everytime he did so. Simply training would be no good, as an undead, he couldn¡¯t make a mistake in something so repetitive, manipting energy to achieve a result was rather cut and dry, if he couldn¡¯t manage it now, it meant that it wasn¡¯t possible. "Show me what else you can do" spoke the metallic skeleton. It seemed clear that Loimos had ess to more than just an invaluable death force, actually, Faraday was rather interested in what sort of skeleton Loimos exactly was, he couldn¡¯t quite pinpoint what species the skeleton he was animating used to belong to. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The build was very much human or human-adjacent, but the lined-up, pointy fangs meant for nothing but ripping and tearing were rather dubious, it didn¡¯t seem like those teeth could have been used to chew or anything. In fact, they were rather long and unwieldy looking, it was perfect for an undead that had no use for such things but every corpse was once alive. "Loimos, does your system mention the exact sort of skeleton you are?" Faraday had been spending much of his time teaching and analysing Loimos¡¯s death force, he had yet to question him on his system. "Putridum Ossa" he responded in death tongue, raising his arm and manifesting rot from his bony palm, keeping his posture as he slowly converted it into bone, made it ooze blood and then turned the whole thing into miasma. "How well can you control it when it isn¡¯t directly touching you?" "The miasma and rot are able to be moulded to a lesser degree, the blood and bone are out of my control entirely" he demonstrated as he spoke. "I see, then let us focus on this and on using death force to reinforce the body, I foresee much more potential within this ability of yours, there are no better ways to learn than to be put into action, Slotriig!" he called a name and what appeared to be nothing more than a wall slid open, a huge figure stepped into the room. About two and half meter tall, garbed in outrageously heavy, chrome armour and carrying a sword that could be considered oversized even for this size, it wasn¡¯t wide, in fact, it was rather thin considering the length. "Here is Slotriig, my best soldier and royal guard of his majesty, and here is Loimos, you two shall spar, avoid the head" Faraday made his way to his throne. Slotriig put his sword down, deeming that it was overkill for now. "Pleased to meet you" he said, using the pale tongue to converse. Loimos didn¡¯t reply and instead manifested arge amount of rot within his ribcage as he ran toward Slotriig in an arc. He was trying something for the purpose of learning as Faraday had put it, but the oue was fairly obvious from the start, Loimos got kicked up into the air, crashing against a wall and then falling down with a ssh as he tried to use blood-filled rot to soften his fall, he was a bit off and ended up with not a single of his ribs intact. Using rot to nullify the fall wasn¡¯t sessful but he had still been able to bend his limbs and body back to force all of the damage to concentrate on his ribs, which were a part that he could around the same even without. Faraday was perfectly right, by fighting and having to deal with situations on the fly, Loimos¡¯s control and repertoire was deemed to improve much faster than otherwise, in fact, primeval rot was both an ability intrinsic to him, but it was also simultaneously recognised by the system, despite not actually originating from it. As such, as he grew his own understanding and the ability grew, the system was also feeding his mind with snippets of information,plementing his own. Slotriig would certainly force him to discover how to use his primeval rot to defend and evade, even though he wasn¡¯t really trying, he was significantly stronger than Loimos was. He was a skeleton of the same sort as Faraday, thus armed with a strong and resilient body to begin with, his overwhelming base might was all he needed to throw Loimos around for now. Also, it seemed as though the armour was one at all, it had felt like the thing wasn¡¯t hollow or softer anywhere, the metal skeleton was encased in even more metal, all of it seemingly integral to his form. The fact that he was considered powerful enough to serve as guard to the undead king could only mean that he was capable of rivalling some of the strongest of the living. "Slotriig wins the first round" pointing his finger at Loimos, Faraday did something that restored his mushed ribs. "By the way Loimos, he used to be known as Hero-yer Slotriig, expect even more than double that amount of force as you progress" he mentioned casually, it might not sound as impressive as ying a god, but bonafide heroes weren¡¯t supposed to get ughtered by a guard. Slotriig wasn¡¯t one of the undead lords, it was only testament to how powerful the undead force was under the reign of the king. Chapter 68: Progress "Precision, hold, dead calm" Milo chanted words, just normal words, and yet, the improvements were visible. His mana bullets weren¡¯t going nearly as haywire as before, for starters, the mana was being kept together much better, he was actually firing mana bullets rather than a chaotic mess, the aim still wasn¡¯t going great, the spell flickered and weaved on its own still. But after a few weeks of constant training, when the progress in his best categories started to gradually slow down, his control was able to start catching up, and he began to actually hit the target without it being a stroke of luck, as Helena had stated, his aim had been on point since the beginning. Ever since he began actually having control on his spells, his sess rate grew. "Alright, let¡¯s try and drop the chanting entirely now" Helena hadn¡¯t expected him to take so long, the increase in certain aspects of his mana had been muchrger and much more lengthy than it should have normally been. But as she thought about it, it actually made sense, it was simply that she was been taught all of this from the regr perspective, which is that the person being evaluated had been actively circting their mana and practising since a young age, in her case, she had always been doing so subconsciously, so the aspects of her mana were already set at their expected rates. Milo¡¯s mana had been left to stand still for his whole life, much like a muscle that wasn¡¯t exercised, its development was stunted, the instant he began getting it moving, it resumed its growth into what it always should have been. This made Helena wonder just how many impressively talented mages just never got to learn how good they were due to the same circumstances, Milo was way above average in multiple categories. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Doing the same thing without actively chanting was a bit harder, but as instructed, he had paid attention to how his mana had been behaving, and always knowing that Helena would make him stop incantations, the shift wasn¡¯t difficult and he soon reached the appropriate amount of control over the mana bullet. He wasn¡¯t quite done with it however, his teacher wasn¡¯t going to let him persevere without truly mastering the most basic spell of all. But first, she had to congratte him. "Mimi, you are officially an apprentice mage now!" she eximed, spreading her arms open and catching him into an embrace. "Oh!" Milo didn¡¯t see thising, instinctively stiffening up as he felt the twin peaks he looked so fondly upon pressing up against his chest, his chin stuck against her shoulder and his face in her hair. ¡¯Damn, that smells good-¡¯ his surprise at the fragrance of a woman was short-lived as he was reminded that he was being tightly hugged by a real girl of the farm. "Hele-Helena?" this was a bearhug, this was an actual killing move right there. "Ah, my bad" she let go of him. "What the hell were you fed in your youth? No one should just have that sort of strength for a casual hug¡­" "I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about, I am a sweet girl mage" she waved him off with a smile. "We¡¯ll go over a few more basic spells and mana usage, then we¡¯ll move right on to transmutation, I am quite curious what that element of yours really is" she said as Milo stretched his previouslypressed shoulders. He nodded his head and was about to respond. "Huh?" they both made a small noise. The feeble wooden structure around the target finallypletely copsed, falling apart like a card castle. Helena quickly lifted everything off the ground with a spell, throwing everything away from sight. "Don¡¯t worry, only the target is necessary anyways" she quickly moved away, it was already the end of the day, it was time to go back and rest. ______________________ The months slowly went by, many machinations progressed without halt. Milo and Helena simply kept at it until time to leave for the academy she spoke of came, time went by peacefully for them, both of them still remembered David¡¯s demise vividly, but they kept each other¡¯spany, together, the two of them were, and would be fine. Agilulf Wanneck was hard at preparations as well, he had decided to fully believe Quideos Audit¡¯s horrifying prediction, his well-honed instincts, with which he had grown so wealthy that he was able to crown himself king, told him that the raving prophet wasn¡¯t preaching of one of his delusions. He put his two closest men to work, and his mages were busy preparing a summoning ritual, a specific spell to summon an unwanted presence, one that wasrgely frowned upon, not because it was seen as hical or problematic, but simply because it had the tendency of costing much more than it was worth. Unwanteds were generally not any greater than anyone else, but had the advantage of always having something special about them, summoning one was like gambling in a sense, you either got a meatshield or a good meatshield, with how rich Tamaris was, he could afford to summon a ton of them. He also got busy getting in touch with the other surrounding kingdoms, whilst they had seemingly all dismissed Quideos previously, they had to hear the roitelet out, even if his status as a king wasn¡¯t seen in a great light, they had held bigmercials ties with him, he could force them to at least pretend to try and do something about the harrowing future. Deep below the earth, encased between thick metal walls and guarded by countless living armours, Loimos and Slotriig continued on sparring without any stop, the two undeads never stopping in all of those months. Faraday looked on, restoring any damage done to make sure no time was wasted doing nothing. The ancient metallic undead could witness firsthand just how versatile and powerful the primeval rot could truly be, it was still not much of what he envisioned, but it was nothing like when Loimos had first gotten there. The progress was great, so great that Slotriig picked his sword back up. Chapter 69: Oh A great portion of the chrome floor was currently covered in a thinyer of ck blood, exhibiting a particrly sticky properties, stretching and resisting to pulling force well enough, it wasn¡¯t good enough to hold Slotriig in ce just yet, his excessive raw strength could get him moving still, however, Loimos wasn¡¯t ying nning on exchanging blows with the metal giant. Flowing endlessly in cascade from his hollows sockets, the ck blood wasn¡¯t merely an environmental hazard, he could still manipte it. Slithering along the floor like revolting worms, the rotten liquid converged wholly around Slotriig¡¯s feet and legs, the weight of the blood increased and the amount increased its special properties,Slotriig was starting to feel his movements being truly impaired. So he reinforced his legs with mana, not the metal mana just yet, just regr for now, freeing himself from the hold of blood, during that time, Loimos didn¡¯t stay idle and grew a repulsive mass of rot around his body, melding into it and disappearing from sight as the rot expanded further, continuously oozing more ck blood to slow down the metal skeleton¡¯s approach. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "This again?" Slotriig spoke to himself, his sword resting on his shoulder. He had had the sword at hand for a few rounds now, his strikes could easily carve right through whatever Loimos¡¯s could pull, at the moment, he had achieved impressive control over his rot, blood and miasma, although hecked much good usages of the miasma for now. Being death miasma, Slotriig couldn¡¯t be blinded by it and he still had some work to do before swiftly converting it into anything else, as for the bone, he had yet to try much things with it, making Slotriig question whether it was because it would be ineffective, or if Loimos was just keeping it up his sleeve. The armoured undead expected the rot to continue expanding into a multitude of directions, this trick was rather good, Loimos could travel through his rot much faster than he could move around otherwise, still, with regr a swing of his de, Slotriig could stir up the winds and blow everything away. He prepared to do just that, but unexpectedly, the rot converged into a single, bloated sphere, condensing further and stretching up in a few quick moments. Slotriig stood still, he could have done something to stop this, but with the current restrictions he was putting on himself and the fact that this was all meant for the purpose of progressing in control and power, he waited to see what in tarnation this was all about. The amount of subtle control needed for this was beyond what had been previously shown by Loimos, the armoured undead stood in a defensive position, noticing his footing changing somewhat, he realised that the blighted blood had switched properties, returning to a much more liquid state, quite slippery in fact. The mass of rot seemingly exploded, blood and gore was flung everywhere. "Oh?" Slotriig didn¡¯t miss the very oundish approach chosen by Loimos, propelling himself with a blood explosion and sliding alongside the ground, the speed was impressive, but both Slotriig and Faraday had their gaze also attracted to some of the flesh debris flying through the air at the moment. Augmented by death force, Loimos dropkicked Slotriig¡¯s left ankle with enough force to somewhat move him, thanks to the slippery floor, it wasn¡¯t very effective against the heavy undead, though, most people would rather dodge this than take it head on. "Pause" Faraday called out, raising one hand up into the air. The two stopped instantly mid-movements, whether or not Loimos would have ended up stuck to Slotriig¡¯s soles would be determined another time. Faraday walked up to some of the fallen bits that had been flung all around by the corpse explosion. "Now, this is something" the battle mage wasn¡¯t expecting this, it seemed like the intense condensation the rot had undergone for the purpose ofunching Loimos had resulted in the rot transforming unexpectedly. The skeleton in robes was holding a heart, it didn¡¯t even appear to be decaying, of course, it was packed with death and emanating the appropriate stench, but in appearance, it looked like a recently, surgically removed heart. Imitating a body part wasn¡¯t what seized his attention however, but a small piece of fabric stuck amidst blood and pungent flesh. Just like the heart, signs that it was in realityposed of rot couldn¡¯t be hidden, yet, the appearance, the texture, it was incredibly convincing. "Continue" having confirmed it, Faraday returned to his seat, removing everything from the room for the two to resume, he didn¡¯t feel the need to tell Loimos about, he had proven to be well aware of what was happening with his rot, the fact that he hadn¡¯t even bothered to stop and question it was yet another proof that Loimos was somehow, wired like a mindless undead despite clearly not being one of such a piece. The two undeads went into position once more. _______________________ Deep within a forest of tall trees, a forest of now and frozenkes, a forest of steep falls, mountains and deep caverns. "Sir Audit? Once again, this region is filled with werebeasts, and not the nice kind that turn into people, why insist so much on going deeper and deeper?" a young man, his face obstructed by the equipment he was wearing spoke while shivering through the freezing winds and heavy falling of snow. Large mounds of snow would sometimese crashing down trees, threatening to bury one of the dozen of men Quideos had somehow convinced toe with him here. They were all dressed to withstand the murderous cold, unlike Quideos, who was dressed the exact same as usual, in clerical robes. His white hair was thrown around by the violent gusts, he stepped ahead through the snow, leaving the others in the dust as he stepped near a cliff, overlooking an immenseke, frozen to its deepest parts. "My friends! The evil of the awakened one knows no bounds, his mere existence has begun infecting our world, not just the continent of Viridis, the whole world of Vivax is at risk of corruption! We must quell thergest of those buds ourselves, we must buy time for the heroes to rise again!" he shouted, his voice echoing in the distance and probably provoking some avnches on the way. "Inspired yet?" he asked whilst turning around, only to see that the snow had taken on a darker shade. "Oh, found it" Chapter 70: Delusion "My poor friends, I am terribly sorry to have brought you all here with me, and frankly, I lied about the whole point of this little exposition in this magnificent, murderous frozenndscape¡­" "No, don¡¯t say anything, I am not deserving of your pardon, I-" A gurgly, rupturing roar washed over Quideos, sting his long robes and hair back as suspiciously coloured, mud-like saliva struck him on his forehead, he had a perfect view down the oesophagus and of the scenery behind since it was full of hole and tears. "Oh please, can¡¯t you see that I am giving a grandiose speech to the strangers you turned into mush a second ago? Ah, if only I had bothered listening to their cries for help as I attempted to inspire them to ignite their heart and soul to protect what is right" he calmly shut the two-legged beast¡¯s maw. Quideos was currently standing dangerously close to one of the many werebeasts said to inhabit this frozen region, this one was already dead however. Most of its fur had either fallen or turned disgustingly warped, both of its ears had been seemingly ripped off, its tongue had already putrefied away, even its tail had gone entirely missing. To the point that the prophet could hardly tell what it had used to be, but not that it was of much importance. "The blight from outer tomb really has reached so far already, they won¡¯t be able to ignore my warnings when all of their graveyards be the spawning grounds of countless undeads!" He swung his arms around as he kept on speaking to a reanimated cadaver of a beast that never could have understood him even in life. It swung both of its jagged ws, coated with the blood and gory bits of the poor men that had chosen to follow Quideos, not leaving even a dent on the frail-looking man¡¯s clothes, not even budging him from his spot. "Oh! Now you¡¯ve done it, here I am, speaking my mind to you and you just try to spill my guts out into the open? In such weather? You have no manners, even for a mindless and soulless corpse only animated by your predatory desire to kill!" he pped its paws away as if it was a child trying to touch a recently baked cake. He pointed his index finger at the beast¡¯s forehead, a bright line of energy suddenly went right through the undead creature, eradicating any proof of its existence in an instant. "Bad!" Quideos turned on his heels, walking right back toward the cliff and promptly jumping off of it head first. And here it was, it was a shame that they had all been converted to ground meat just moments ago, otherwise they could have all had a great moment of discussion and bonding whilst climbing down. Not interested in doing this by himself, the prophet took the quicker way down,nding softly on the ground despite the height, swinging his arm at an innocuous pile of snow, he blew it away, revealing a carved door into the cliff side. Exactly where his vision had told him it would be, right before him shouldy the mausoleum to a hero of the past, though, Quideos hadn¡¯t been made privy to the who it was that was left to rest in each of the tombs he had seen in his mind. So naturally, he busted his way in to find out. "Ah sweet" he eximed in a low tone, rubbing his chin with a smile as he came across carved out writings on the wall. He hummed a small song as he read through the ancient scriptures, Quideos was high in spirit since thenguage it was written in was one that preceded the lifting of thenguage barriers on this continent. Back when the gods were still involved in earthly matters. His face soon dropped as the name of the hero turned out to be one he didn¡¯t know, the prophet was researching for three distinct heroes, the title of hero, whether granted by the system, the people or both didn¡¯t mean that they would be very useful. There were lots of heroes, but few left a mark, and only three truly seemed deserving of high praise. He had seen revtions concerning those three multiple times, if any heroes could fight back the impending dark gue, it would be them. Thanatok Ynig¨®s, The First Death Hunter. Maiele Liameilos, The Elven Light And of course, the one whose name was left forgotten by history, the one whose existence seemed to only be known by Quideos Audit at the moment: Sonnentr?ger. Whoever the man buried here was, he was neither of them, still, perhaps he could still be useful. The prophet moved deeper into the tomb, manifesting a bright orb to illuminate his way as he soon found himself before the stone coffin covered in engravings depicting some sort of werebeast. "A bear?" he tilted his head, not certain as the engravings were old and of rtively bad quality to begin with. In any case, he straightened his backpletely and put on his serious expression, bringing his palms together, the line formed in between them being horizontal. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Under the star of the first, below the gaze of duty, underneath the foot of retribution" He began softly reciting some sort of prayer. "I ask for you to fulfil your duty, I demand you see your destiny through" "Come and prove your worth" he separated his palms and pointed up with both his index and middle finger. Nothing happened. "Now that¡¯s curious" he unceremoniously kicked the lid of the coffin, finding it utterly devoid of its upant. Nearly as soon as he did so, the prophet ducked down, avoiding a swift shadow. "To think the blight even managed to reach so far already, you must have really been a fraud of a hero, whatever your name was!" Quideos talked down to the dry husk of the hero, whilstcking an ego, this undead clearly had a mind and soul unlike the werebeast from before, it had potential to quickly grow into a problem. The forgotten hero was still wearing his armour, and from the way his hands shifted from looking like bear ws to human hands, he also still had ess to his abilities. "No matter, you¡¯re just a third-rate hero anyways, probably just a glorified adventurer or hunter, I¡¯ll show you your terrible truth" Chapter 71: Truth The gloryless hero backed off and stopped for a second, his dried, crumbling face twisted into a hardly recognisable expression, a powerful roar blowing right through the room. The sides of his face cracked, dust forcing its way out as he transformed his dead body into a legitimate werebear, his bestial form appeared just as fragile as his human cadaver at least in appearance, he kicked off the ground of the small tomb with uracy, dragging Quideos outside in one move. Stirring up the snow, flocks of birds flew up, left from right. "So you still got a bit of personality up in there then? Are you really certain you don¡¯t want to put your undeserved title to use for the sake of good and goodness?" it was hard to read expressions on the face of a dead bear, but the hero was definitely taken aback at the moment. The prophet had blocked both of his paws made for naught but ughter with his bare hands, and he was still talking! Somehow roaring with petrified vocal cords, the hero of yore took hold of Quideos¡¯s wrists, flunging him into a tree further away. "Just remnants huh? Even from this I can say that your personality wascking!" the yapping prophet hadnded safely and softly, currently holding onto one of the branches with one arm, swinging the other around as he insulted the corpse. Another roar came his way, this one much stronger as it ripped three trunks apart as it made its way toward him, he took the attack without much problem, somewhat all around his body shining brightly for an instant. The hero¡¯s reactions were naught but reflexes still etched into his body, this suggested a rather strong sense of self, yet, both his soul and mind had failed to return as they should have, instead forming new ones for his undead form to rise. He plopped down into the snow, dusting his shoulder off of some snow as he repeated the same hand gesture from before, pointing both his index and middle finger up, this time however, his other hand wrapped around the wrist of the signing hand. "Alright,e over here" as though his words were gospel, the old hero slid along the ground, his foreheading into contact with the prophet¡¯s palm as he stopped his handsigning and grabbed him. The hero saw nothing for a split second, before being met with countless visions, the future, the past, the present, what never was, what could have been, what couldn¡¯t. An ideal life, an ideal end, an abject beginning, an abject conclusion. Experience exclusive tales on NovelBin.C?m n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om He saw lies, he saw the truth, and then the actual truth. He was seeing it all with all of his being, his mind, his soul, his spirit, his body, every energy in his body, everything that constituted his person was made to bear witness to all of it, all at once, without stopping. Even his undeath wasn¡¯t sufficient to protect him, everything that was him crumbled away a mere second after being touched by Quideos Audit. "On to the next one then" ____________________ Another month went by, the ambiance surrounding the dungeon of metal chrome was rising, both of the king¡¯s highest guards had done their best to try and make everything right as per the prophet¡¯s, or rather, destiny¡¯s design. Pierre-Orn¨¦e and Bough felt like it was a waste of time, the adventurer team with the poor naming convention, ¡¯Ladies Of All Around¡¯ wasn¡¯t shabby by any means, but considering how Audit had been speaking of whatid deeper in, they doubted in the chances of those five girls. By all means, it had sounded like something even the two of them wouldn¡¯t want to set foot in. They had been instructed to try and raise the levels of those girls, but it was easier said than done, they were strong for sure, but that didn¡¯t mean they were good teachers, in fact, anyone that had seen the halbardier training the royal guards could attest to the fact that his ways were spartan and more akin to cksmithing. Striking those poor guards until they took on the appropriate shape. He could do this because what was expected of a royal guard was set in stone, they practised mostly the halberd and such, a team of five adventurersprised of multiple species with wildly varying strengths and powers was another story entirely, he could only fall back on giving advice. As for Bough, there was no point inparing him to Pierre-Orn¨¦e, there were no royal guards carrying shields like he did for a reason, he couldn¡¯t be trusted with the safety and overlooking of anyone but Pierre-Orn¨¦e, so telling him to train people vastly weaker than him was just asking for disaster. With the more reasonable of the duo also present, he could direct Bough to assist him in making demonstrations, also, since he was an immovable mass, you could throw anything at him, and he at least was well aware of the strength of anything hitting him and his shield, so he could track progress in that regard. Today, the group was going to tackle the dungeon for real, they were going to step into the supposed deeper part, which existence was confirmed by Quideos Audit. "What do you think, Bough, are they going to do it?" "No chance, the prophet probably knew it as well, there is no way such a shabby group could take on anything that could be responsible in any manner of what he described" the shieldmaster shook his head, not believing in their chances for one second. "What a shame" "Let¡¯s keep watch for a while longer, Audit likes to say that destiny can be changed after all, we might luck out" Pierre-Orn¨¦e sat down, his halberd resting by his side. The upper portion of the dungeon wasn¡¯t very dangerous, only inhabited by living armours, all the same sort as Loimos had encountered in the caverns, albeit those weren¡¯t damaged, forming straight out of the walls at a steady rate, the metal would lose its chrome-like sheen when they were defeated but it was still great quality, especially for something that could be harvested endlessly, many weapons and armours were forged out of this throughout the country. Five girls, appearing rtively young in appearance, showed up in front a staggeringly tall wall, the end of the dungeon, no signs of a key hole or of any contraption anywhere that could indicate that it could be opened. A rather strange groupposition, one red ogress, one dark elf, one more regr elf and two humans, one of which being an unwanted presence. The one that wasn¡¯t of this world pulled out a small cube, a pattern brightened up on its surface, prompting it to rise off into the air by itself, merging right into the wall. The wall rose up, shaking the entirety of the dungeon down to its deepest portion. Chapter 72: The Second Portion The wall trembled, rising off of the ground, no dust or filth was stirred up, the ce was awfully clean of such things, the five women were greeted by an endless expanse of darkness and dead silence. Your journey continues on NovelBin.C?m "Shite! Run!" the dark elf, Irgot, was in possession of a pair of eyes adapted to peer through the dark, it was mere night vision, but since there was light behind them, she was clearly able to see the lines and lines of living armours and other armoured monsters lying in wait. As was customary, when someone yelled that it was time to run, everyone followed suit, except for the human dressed up in a blue, clerical robe, she rose one hand up, rising up a transparent, luminous wall of holy energy to block the path of the unleashed swarm. It was rather effective, whilst the living armours were just inconvenienced by it just by any other wall, the other monsters garbed in protective suits, which were undeads much like Slotriig, were forced to keep their distance and unable to damage it, the holy warded them off. There was no need to specify how disappointed Pierre-Orn¨¦e and Bough were when they saw the group of five running out of the dungeon as though they had seen a ghost. They had been expecting the way to open upon a secret chamber, which had been the case, they just hadn¡¯t thought about the fact that there could be enemies waiting for them, the way had been opened upon a muchrger portion of the dungeon, the parts previously avable barely amount to even ten percent of the whole thing. "Let me tell you, the export of metal is going to increase when the moths are inevitably attracted the new shiny stuff uncovered" the halbardier shook his head, he could already imagine himself staying in this horrifically empty and uneventful city. "Surely there are criminals and bandits to mur- I mean, apprehend with excessive, but nheless righteous force" Bough covered his mouth with his hand like a little youngdy would, there was no need to specify why everyone in a fifty meter radius felt like their spines were being slurped up. "I swear B-" Both of them cranked their necks up toward the entrance of the dungeon, both expecting something other than an adventurer toe crawling out for a brief instant. "Audit really was messing around, the best oue he mused over has no chance of happening" Pierre-Orn¨¦e could definitely sense something further into the guts of this dungeon, the simple fact that he could feel it meant death for anyone weaker than he and Bough. It didn¡¯t seem like an insurmountable challenge for him, but that was only based on that thing¡¯s presence, there was no telling what it really was. _____________ "Oops, I think I leaked something" Faraday waved his hand, him, Slotriig and Loimos had distinctly felt the opening of the way, even from their position in the deepest portion. None of them had been sparring however, the owner of the dungeon deemed that it was no use for Loimos to continue like this, although he could still progress, Faraday had a different conception of time to Loimos, the skeleton of rot could easily spend any amount of time doing the same thing over and over, both Faraday and Slotriig, not so much. "It is great, I have no doubts that those pesky explorers will want to venture deeper now, go kill them Loimos, it will certainly boost the speed of your improvements" the robed skeleton shooed him away up to the entrance of the throne room. "You too Slotriig, even if you can maintain your death force, it won¡¯t hurt to replenish it the better way, by plucking some lives" he stopped, unable to step outside of this room. The seal imprisoning him may have weakened, it still fulfilled its primary function, trapping him evestingly. Loimos didn¡¯t bother to converse with him, but he already had an idea to get rid of said seal, and the arrival of living flesh was the necessary ingredient needed for it. "So, Loimos, we haven¡¯t spoken much despite all of our interactions, what did you use to do before, you know, being dead?" the giant-sized mass of steel attempted to make conversation. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Nothing" Loimos graced him with an answer, walking up to some of the wandering undeads, each encased in their suits of armours and parading around enormous weapons. It seemed like Faraday had a preference for his minions, not much variety, just a bunch of pure masses of defence and hard hitting weapons, no speed, no flexibility and no rangedbatants. This could be exploited, the adventurers would quickly be falling into routine, only being mildly attentive, thus susceptible to surprise attacks from a swifter undead, manifesting arge amount of rot, he began implementing his own touch to the vertigo-inducing hallways. "Brace yourself Loimos, the moment it spreads out that there are undeads in this dungeon, the death hunters will surelye flocking in, if they are still a thing, do you know if they are?" Slotriig wanted to give advice, but quickly realised that his words may be outdated, him and Faraday had been locked away for a while, definitely enough time for kingdoms and dynasties to end, be reced, multiple times over. "I do not know" Loimos had already sted himself into the caves before any death hunter had shown their faces before him. "What about the country we are in?" "Tamaris" that Loimos had heard during his prowls. The people of this kingdom were rather big on gossip, Loimos had been made aware of quite a lot of things without fishing for it, the name of the king and his closest aides, a few personalities and even rumours of conflicts. Putting aside the whole skeleton thing, he probably could hold a conversation with the first random guy that wandered in and appear just as informed as anyone else. To do anything like that though, he would first need a good disguise, and also not speak with his actual voice, it wasn¡¯t a thing just yet, but he had the exact voice one should expect from an undead, his words just oozed death and decay. So much so that even Slotriig felt it distinctively. Chapter 73: Let The Others Try First The movements of the entirely metallic beings throughout the simrly halls,pletely forged out of metal didn¡¯t go unnoticed, the instant the way had been opened to the deeper portion of the dungeon, everything moved out of their stasis and began moving, the scrapping, nking, the shing, the bludgeoning, everything bounced off the walls without stop, as though even sound was trapped down there. Anyone, anywhere in the dungeon could hear those at all times, having no idea whether the ce they had felt iting from was the original source or nothing more than an echo, the exploration of the depth wasn¡¯t necessary for the working of the cities economies, not in the least, but such things weren¡¯t on the minds of the daring people delving into the danger and darkness. They all aimed to hit it big, find something that would make them rich multiple generations over, everyone had heard of stories, stories of great treasures hidden away inside dungeons, some were fake, some weren¡¯t, one could in fact be rich by stepping in a dungeon and stumbling upon something. A secret way had been uncovered, nothing screamed of riches more than a hidden path, everyone that could fight swarming in, like flies to a pungent corpse, even those that couldn¡¯t, and wouldn¡¯t step into the dungeon were attracted. A dense presence of dense skulls incensed merchants of all sizes and fame, they too could hit it big thanks to this opportunity, whatever that could be sold was getting sold, clothes, armours, weapons, potions, scrolls, anything that was even remotely close to the experience of dungeon crawling. But there was a ring problem, one that didn¡¯t discourage much, only heightening their expectations and hopes, the dungeon was simply enormous, a veritable maze of unknown proportions,rger than any that had explored others could have expected. Even if one were to know the exact way from entrance to end, it seemed clear that at least a week would be necessary to traverse it all, without counting the threat of monsters or ounting for the requirement of sleep and rest. Everyone believed it to be even longer, this harrowing fact served as fuel. ¡¯What lies at the bottom must be extraordinary¡¯ they must have all thought, seemingly convinced that a dungeon had to reward their efforts and not simply be one giant death trap. Time passed and passed, the group of five that had opened the gateway to all of this madness had entered multiple times since then, going back in and out, attempting to map the way to their destination without getting skewered. The monsters were certainly dreadful, but predictable, as well ascking in much stealth. Even despite theck of lighting, the sounds of their approach made it hard not to be expecting them, even with the constant echoing. In any case, as more and more teams went in, they strung upnterns and other light sources as they went, slowly uncovering the veil shrouding the interior. Within a few days of it being made clear what the monsters besides the living armours were, death hunters began to show up, making much better progress in the mapping and reconnaissance department than anyone else, a dungeon sprouting up undeads was much akin to a deration of war for them, they would pick this whole ce apart if necessary. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om However, the progress, which was certainly fast at the start, hit a roadblock when a staircase leading to another bit of the dungeon was discovered as the only way further down. From here on out however, things got much more difficult, and the group five were right there to witness it themselves, not anyone had yet to truly explore deeper ande back to speak of it, either killed, or unable to make their way back. With a quick prayer, Iritim, the group¡¯s priestess called forth a luminous orb, whilst being a priestess, she pretty much filled in as a mage equivalent as well, since no one in the group could use any sort of energy beyond mild body reinforcement. "This is disgusting" eximed one of them, right before the macerating smell of the whole thing hit them head on, not a single one of them was able to hold back their face from scrunching up reflexively. Iritim recited a prayer to shield them from toxic fumes, which this smell definitely was, even by just being on the edge of its reach, they could feel their skin itching, and their nasal hair to curl up like deceased spider legs. Wiping the tears that had formed in her eyes, Irgot, the dark elf, serving as one half of the pair of scouts alongside, Ariandnel, the elf. She inspected the strange substance forming some sort of indoor jungle of nightmares, it sizzled, bubbled and moved in generally disturbing manner. "Looks like something rotten¡­¡¯ remarked Ariandnel, reconsidering taking another step down. Continue reading stories on NovelBin.C?m "Well, there are already undeads in there, so not totally unexpected, right?" Tilke, the red ogress cracked her neck, not quite minding the prospect of digging through pure decay. "We don¡¯t have to step closer anyways, step back everyone!" finally, the star of the show, Marlene, the unwanted that had warranted this team to be under close surveince in the first ce, closing one eye, she flinged some sort of round object with a rope attached to it. The item bursted as it struck the ground, spreading a ming liquid all over the growth of rot all around, quickly spreading along the vile substance. The five ran up the stairs, not nning on staying in the dungeon as smoke filled up the whole ce. The great stake of mes fell t as the rot quickly began to defend its integrity, oozing and bursting with ck blood, extinguishing the fire before it could deal any real damage. The burnt off pieces fell off and were promptly reced before the astonished eyes of the group. "Don¡¯t tell me this whole thing is a single monster" that was a rather spooky prospect, and seeing the way it had reacted to being attacked, even if it wasn¡¯t the case, they may as well treat it as such. "We still have the nes at least" rtivised Marlene, still opting to retreat and regroup for now, they would allow others, and hopefully the death hunters to try their own things before moving any deeper. Chapter 74: Pincer "This is rather tough, I feel like we¡¯re trying to punch above our weight ss" amidst a group of mask-wearing death hunters, all of them dressed in white, impersonal practical clothing, the one speaking was crouching down, bringing up the fact that their current attempt to clear out the rot wasn¡¯t very sessful. As had been demonstrated by Marlene and her group, the regr mes weren¡¯t going to cut it, the first idea was to bring in an experience pyromancer, they would keep control of their mes and continue injecting mana into the spell to prevent it from being put out, however, even that proved unfruitful, the amount of ck blood the rot could ooze was simply obscene. The strain of keeping the mes going was beyond expectations, and not efficient enough to burn through the blood and flesh anyways, bringing in more pyromancers and having them work together was then hatched, much simr results urred, even if they advanced on the rot, there was simply too much. The instant not enough pressure was put on it, it would regrow into its previous spots and ruin everything they had achieved, fire wasn¡¯t going to do the deal, the death hunters brought out something better. Explore more stories at NovelBin.C?m Death miasma was a typical and well known weapon of the undeads, as such, the hunters of the dead had devised an equivalent to it long ago, it was even believed that it had been first brought into existence by the first of them. The devices they had brought out with them this time were top of the art machineries, crystal or any substitute rarely came attached with life, as such, those contraptions had to get creative, putting together magic circles of the written sort, sigils, runes, enchanting and arrays, this device was capable of creation a fine, white mist of life force. While the life force was genuine, the whole process being artificial naturally resulted in an inherent weakness, if this life fog encountered genuine death miasma, it would lose the battle for certain and only serve as kindling to its growth, this was why they had brought out many of such creations and were using incantations and arts to reinforce them. The rot once again didn¡¯t back down in the least, counter attacking by emitting miasma of its own, though it appeared like they were steadily gaining some ground as the hours went by. This group of hunters hadn¡¯te unprepared, bringing down materials and such, they set up a small camp in the gigantic corridors of the dungeon, a safe zone to rest in and keep up the pressure. They demonstrated that their reputation as beingmitted to their craft wasn¡¯t earned for nothing, they brought down cattle, soil and crops as well, armed with life mist, it was easier than ever to maintain such operations. No one was going to budge until results were obtained. Still, as the one that had spoken stated, the difficulties they were facing to clear the way seemed to indicate that they weren¡¯t up against any random undead, this entire dungeon also seemed to be built for a specific purpose as well. Only undeads and animated suits of armour roamed the halls, everyone was under the impression that only a powerful undead or necromancer could be found in the depths of its guts, the death hunters currently present on site couldn¡¯t confidently im that they could deal with this. Which was why they were focusing on clearing the ce off of the rot, the metal skeletons would only keeping, it was all they could do. "We probably are, but then again, when are we not? Us lesser hunters stand above the lesser undeads for sure, but they are much more numerous than we are, we have hunters of great power, but once again, less than they have undeads of great power, I doubt we have any single person capable of standing in the same room as any of the gravelords" another one responded tly, not letting go of his sight upon the rot at the bottom of the stairs. "Don¡¯t bring down the mood, we aren¡¯t even nning on going down these stairs anytime soon, we¡¯re just smoking everything out" a third one interjected, his attention soon taken away as he moved up to one of the settlement¡¯s walls. "It¡¯s true, undead dislike fire, abhor the holy, but nothing will get quite rid of one for certain than life- What did you see over there?" the first one noticed him looking over in the distance, standing still after climbing up there. In response, the death hunter fell like a bag of bricks as he stumbled back. "Everyone! We have a problem" despite his first reaction, he called out with rtiveposure as he got back up to his feet. The hunters reflexively gathered near the two walls, the camp was ced right in front of the staircase leading down, in the center of a long hallway, the space to the right was aplete dead end, yet, this was the ce the hunter was pointing at as the source of his distress. There, standing amidst the strung up lights, his gigantic de resting on his shoulder, Slotriig¡¯s mere presence was intimidating, but the death hunters weren¡¯t worried, generators of life mist had also been put in ce near the edges. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om No undeads should willingly approach them, at least in theory. "That¡¯s a big one" "Big boy" "How the hell did he sneak up on us?" "Would anyone pay attention to the other way?" Thatst one brought attention to the only path leading out of there, and indeed, it turned out to be a pincer attack, while not nearly as physically impressive, Loimos was certainly much more disturbing of a sight to behold. With his line of unpleasant-looking teeth, hollow sockets overflowing with rotten blood and generally pustulent looks due to the growth of rot on his bones, he looked like some sort of personification of disease. "Should we shoot them down?" asked one. "No point in provoking the big guy, I doubt we can even leave a dent on him, the other one seems more easily destroyed, but let¡¯s not rile it up either, it¡¯s awfully off considering the rest of the monsters, and it¡¯s cooperating with the other, it is best if we assume they are both equally problematic for us to deal with, we are h-" the one that seemed to be in charge stopped as he noticed something down into the staircase. "Plug it!" he quickly switched his thought process as he clearly saw the rising of ck blood, they were going to get flooded! Chapter 75: Bluff And Misdirection Death Surrounds me, whispering to me, softly and harshly, the cold hands of my loved ones urge me to follow. I must not yield, I must not give in to its lies, I must fight back, I must discover the real truth. My efforts havee short until now, only feeding death¡¯s endless appetite. There it is, death is now before me, I look into its eyes and see something familiar, victorious over life, I can only stand down. But I refuse, I may have bent but I am not broken just yet, my hopes and dreams, my unlikely vision of a bright future now seems ever more distant. There he is, even with life at its lowest, he still stands, brighter than the sun, capable of defying it all. _____________________ "Plug it! Defend and reinforce yourselves!" the death hunter yelled, circting his mana through his body, swinging his arms up, a powerful breeze blowing forward, lifting the generators of life mist up the air. All of them did the exact same motion, speaking the same set of words: "Life, defend from corruption!" uttering the words necessary for the art to function, each of their life forces moved to shield them. The man turned to look at each of the two undeads as he used the winds to lift himself up, none had moved a single centimeter, the other hunters used their magic and skills to block up the way down, trying to prevent the ink-ck blood from reaching them. It was no use however, the life mist couldn¡¯t slow it down, as right before everything surged, the rot emitted greater amounts of miasma, the artificially produced white mist prioritised defending itself, allowing the rotten blood to go past basically unhindered, it didn¡¯t rise up like normal liquid either, like a sentient mass, it crawled up the steps, climbing up onto the walls and ceiling. The quickly ced counters weren¡¯t good enough to stop it from slithering through cracks, once it got through, everything came crashing down, basically eating through anything that weren¡¯t the hunters themselves. Their equipment was already good enough to prevent them from being turn to mush by the acidic properties of the blood, adding the life force defences, they didn¡¯t even have to worry about being impaired, the blood was unable to close the gap on them, instead spreading everywhere else, taking down the walls, the cattle and crops, growing in mass exponentially every time it devoured something. "Wey down our life to defeat death!" yelling a motto, the leader couldn¡¯t help but not be very hopeful about their chances. The metal giant began moving, the swarming mass of dark allowing free passage for him. ¡¯This is being controlled¡­ Not by the giant-¡¯ his eyesnded on the other undead, the blood that reached this one didn¡¯t make way, it wasn¡¯t making any move, retaining the same pose, not acknowledging anything that was happening in particr. Like it was nothing but a prop. ¡¯This one controls the blood, probably the one responsible for the rot as well¡­ What is an undead of this sort doing in a metal-themed dungeon?¡¯ "Everyone, work to hold the giant back, don¡¯t try to win, just survive" he gave hismand and began rushing forth toward Loimos, unsheathing a short dark de, it was imbued with mana that wasn¡¯t his own. "Life, grant me strength!" performing another art; his de was coated with his life force as well. Atst, the undead showed movement, suddenly bursting with rot,pletely encasing himself, the hunter swung his de thrice, shes of life flying through the air and slicing right the rot. He didn¡¯t hit any bones, the rot continued spreading, extending a multitude of tendrils in every direction, holding themselves up in the air by sheer defiance of physics it seemed. shing some from a distance, the living kept his distance from them, not certain what to expect from this particr skeleton. Two pirs of rots extended to each of his sides, one five meters to his right, the other ten meters of his left. He kept his attention on both of them equally in spite of the difference, the rot had already proven that it could extend itself swiftly, he expected to be rammed by rot or be assaulted by a surge of ck blood. Instead, one skeletal arm emerged from each of the two pirs. Find more chapters on NovelBin.C?m ¡¯It dismantled itself?¡¯ the small amount of time it took him to react and understand how it was possible was minuscule, he had experience, he knew what skeletons were capable of, but he didn¡¯t understand that point of the manoeuvre, the two arms came out and went away without doing anything. "Crap!" he understood toote, he could only watch as Loimos wasunched right at him with terrific momentum. Raising his de, he took on the appropriate stance to block most of the damage from the attack. He hadn¡¯t been expecting to get drop kicked by a skeleton ever, but here he was, his arms aching and de vibrating from the impact of the undead cannon ball. Nothing was broken, he took time to regain full control over his stricken limbs, watching as Loimos put his arms back on, carrying them to himself with rot. ¡¯Coming to me in person now? I can¡¯t predict anything this one is doing¡­¡¯ the leader of the hunters didn¡¯t mind the lingering ache in his arms bared his de at Loimos, it made no doubt that a cut from the life infused sword would sh right through the undead like butter, even with his great death force, his reinforcement and usage of it wasn¡¯t good enough to block something like this. There was also the de itself, there was clearly something special about it in of itself, was a weapon meant to fight the undead? A sword wasn¡¯t the preferred tool to fight a skeleton with as well. Perhaps it was a bluff, the sword was nothing but a distraction to make any undead intelligent enough focus on it. Loimos could y the game of misdirection and bluffs as well, he had already shown it. cking his jaw loudly, he went into a fighting posture, taught directly by Faraday, it was supposedly his own, original fighting style. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The death hunter couldn¡¯t recognise it, and steeled his wariness, an entire fighting style had the possibility of being one, big battle art, in this case, the possibilities of the arts were hard to predict and could get rather powerful. ¡¯Is this it?¡¯ one wrong move, and he could lose his life, lose it to undead filth. Chapter 76: Unfair Crawling up the high walls, the death hunter felt his chances diminishing by the seconds as the blood moved, he had no good way of closing the distance between himself and Loimos, the undead was insisting on keeping his distances as well, even when the gap was breached, the skeleton would dodge any attacking his way by taking himself apart andunching his body parts away. He wasn¡¯t even attempting anything else, he most certainly could have caught the leader of the hunters by surprised with anotherunching manoeuvre, he had learned many ways of fighting, many tricks and techniques, his augmentation using death force would probably be able of harming the living over the course of multiple hits. But he just didn¡¯t, and it was obvious why, the entire area would soon be covered in blighted blood, it wouldn¡¯t take much longer before the halls began to truly begin to flood, the hunter could see that a wall of rot had been erected further behind the undead. Loimos could fight without actually having to bother reciprocating attacks, he just had to dodge and run away until victory was achieved. ¡¯They aren¡¯t faring well on the other side either¡­¡¯ although his fellow hunters of the dead also benefited from the fact that they weren¡¯t going into this fight with the intent of achieving victory, only aiming to buy some time, they were getting pieced up, not a single one of the massive undead¡¯s swings hadn¡¯t resulted in someone being killed or being put out ofmission. Slotriig¡¯s reach was simply much too wide, even the enormous hallways didn¡¯t house enough space to allow the hunters to get afortable distance away from him. Disembodied limbs were consumed into the back blood as the protection of life force wore off, elerating the inundation, it was a battle of time, the leader could tell, that they had already lost this fight, had it been only the giant, they could have run away, some of them could have escaped. Had it been only the one manipting the rot and blood, they could have defeated it by working together. There was no point in musing about what might have happened in another reality, the death hunter stepped back sheathing his de, standing tall as he cupped his two hands together. ¡¯The most problematic of the two is¡­¡¯ he stood his ground, his resolution almost tangible, the wavers of his life force told Loimos enough, he sent a pir of rot toward him, it wasn¡¯t quick enough to stop the living from performing this battle art. Death hunters were not all elites, but their dedication knew no bounds, men and women from all over the continent, even from beyond its reaches, no matter what life they had walked before joining, all of them could shake hands and face themon enemy. Unfortunately, be it the life element, or life force maniption, the most effective weapon against the dead was incredibly rare and difficult to wield, nearly every single one of them had no other choice than to resort to learning battle arts to cover for this. The arts were for the most part, able to be performed by anyone, most only required spoken words and movements, though some of them needed additional conditions to function, or forced upon a price to utilise. Continue your journey with NovelBin.C?m Such arts however, granted much more potency in return. Still, even with arts, the amount known by the death hunters was little, the leader of this group only knew three. ¡¯Life, defend from corruption¡¯ ¡¯Life, grant me strength¡¯ "Life, I give you everything!"pleting the condition to activate it, the unnamed man felt his life force being sucked away, gathering into a powerful beam. Loimos was reminded of the attack used by The First Seed back then, the old tree had been imprecise and slow with its own strike, but the power had been the real deal. This one would hit him for certain, its apparition forced back the rot and blood controlled by the skeleton, ensuring that he wouldn¡¯t be able to block it and mitigate some of the impact in any way. Loimos had to act quickly, but that was a given, for an undead such as himself, the question wasn¡¯t about whether or not he could react, it was whether or not he had the capability of not being erased by thisst ditch effort. The skeleton grabbed his skull, detaching it from his neck, simultaneously manifesting some rot a distance behind himself, converting some of the blood. Using himself and his death force as a shield from the life emanating from the rapidly approaching st, he was able to maintain it, throwing his skull back and focusing his death force into the rest of his body. The powerful art was slowed for an instant, having to dig through Loimos¡¯s pure death and body, by then, his skull had already reached the rot, exploding andunching it well away. The vibrant green beam went straight, ending its course against the surface of the dungeon, the hunter¡¯s bodyid lifeless on the ground, already being consumed. It was a familiar situation for Loimos, nothing but his mostly broken skull left from him, he rose what remained of him up with rot, resembling some sort of nightmarish serpent from the depth, his lower jaw hung loosely. He had won, thanks to hisst experience with a living sacrificing himself, he hadn¡¯t been caughtpletely off guard by the suicidal move, although that one had been rather quick to use it, hispanions weren¡¯t all dead yet, and he could have attempted to run away, his life imbued body and strikes would have allowed him to breach the wall of rot sealing this portion of the dungeon. However, the leader hadn¡¯t taken time to consider this option, he had no idea whether the two undeads were the only ones around, and he would have been right, many armoured undeads had been waiting behind the wall of rot and down into the staircase. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Instead, he had opted to put his life down to take down Loimos, whose ability to wield rot and blighted blood was simply too dangerous, despite himself not being that powerful, had this been an actual fight one on one, the hunter would havee out victorious. Unfortunately, this was never meant to be fair, no one here, dead or living had even thought of such a notion. Chapter 77: After Find your next adventure on NovelBin.C?m Slotriig made quick work of the remaining death hunters, they were just a bunch of average joe¡¯s, nothing like the ones that used to fight on the frontlines back then, holding his oversized sword like a cane, he stabbed one that wasn¡¯t quite dead in the spine as he turned to take a look at Loimos. The corpse of the leader was rising up from the ground, putting the white mask back on his face, the actual head of the man was sinking in the blood, the torrent that had been threatening to flood everything flowed away, back down the stairs as the walls of rot vanished. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "You almost got yourself erased there" spoke the giant undead, Loimos had decided to put his skull in the man¡¯s ce, another trick taught by Faraday, while undeads naturally regrow their bodies, it wasn¡¯t always so simple, taking over a corpse and using its resources to go back to peak condition was preferable. Also, the white suit of soft armour the death hunters wore was rather good, itpletely covered the body and came with a mask as well, Loimos was going to take advantage of what was left just lying there. The hunter had also cleared himself of his life force on his own, making the attachment even easier than it would normally be, the undead swung the sword a bit, having rarely wielded a sword and only used it like a glorified knife, he was trying to see what was so special with this dark de. "This thing just has a rune changing its look inscribed on it, pretty good de though, the craftsmanship isn¡¯t shoddy" Slotriig was more knowledgeable on the subject of weapons, it turned out that it really was nothing more than a bluff, it was meant to make one believe that some sort of curse was imbued into the sword. Sheathing the weapon, now that Loimos¡¯s corrosive blood had gone by, nothing remained of the camp and its inhabitants, it looked like no one had ever gone there, the two skeletons retreated back down the staircase, their job here was done. It was time to wait again. And it didn¡¯t take long for people to notice the disappearance of this group, the other hunters quickly put two and two together, there was no proof of what could have happened to them when they went to check, but it was rather obvious that they had been swiftly wiped out. In the depth of this dungeon, were sounds of heavy armours clinking, it didn¡¯t even have to have been silent, but clearly, dangers greater than the living armours and undeads roaming the halls hade out of hiding. "What do you reckon we should do? Ilmael¡¯s troop wasn¡¯t a bunch of pushovers, he himself was in line to be a leader in zombie hunts" one of them shook her head, they were all dressed in much the same fashion as Ilmael had been, and thus, the same way Loimos currently was now. To her, they were clearly out of their depths right now. "We should back down for now and at least call for the Phanes church-" she spoke her mind, quickly cut off. "Their priests and pdins won¡¯t show their faces for a dungeon, unless we can prove that those undeads aren¡¯t just summoned by the dungeon" everyone sighed loudly, the worshippers of Phanes, a god of life, were just as, if not more, belligerent when it came to undead matters. However, they weren¡¯t nearly as quick on the uptake, despite having ess to holy energy, holy energying from the following of Phanes carried some aspect of life as well, making them exceptionally effective. s, they mostly cared about cleaning up the mess, rather than working to prevent it. "Sure, the skeleton encased in armour may be dungeon spawns, but what about the rot down there? I am telling you, that makes no sense for monsters to diverge so strongly from the theme to be down there, there has to be an outsider in there" another one was certain of his im. "Speaking of the rot, I did some checks up on this, and it somewhat sounds like an undead that was spotted in Throdqdmond, remember the massacres? The skeletonunched itself down into the Elephant Cave System, considering the newly discovered part of the dungeon, it is very likely that it goes much deeper¡­" "You think that undead could have gained ess to the dungeon from the caverns? A dungeon should only have one entrance, but if the rot is truly associated with that filth, then it is hard for me to find fault in that reasoning, it lines up perfectly" silence befell the room as the hunters thought for a moment, their attention brought elsewhere upon wearing two simultaneous ps. "I knew it, rot you say? It does line up perfectly!" everyone stayed silent, recognising the neer, and intruder. "Miss Rummy? I thought you had gone with Mister Abraham and Mister ¨¦chs to investigate some Nosferatu vampires¡­" the woman from before spoke up first, since no one else felt like engaging the blonde girl in conversation. "That was a false lead, just a thrall, dealt with within a minute!" Rummy began circling around the masked hunters, her sses clicked on. "In any case, unlike the others, I never gave up on tracking down that skeleton, I got in touch with the Bethome Meleme and forced her hand a bit to help research on the Elephant Cave System and this dungeon" everyone perked their ears up, Meleme was not only a highlypetent historian, she was also an avid supporter of their cause. It was rather obvious since her usually pristine, and unbiased writings always took on a different form when undeads were involved. "What did you find out?" asked another one. "Ahaha, Aah, you guys should all pull out" she advised them, her yful tone dying down for a moment. "W-" "Don¡¯t ask, Meleme is writing on it at the moment, my lips are tied until it is released, but know this: This isn¡¯t something we death hunters can take on without seriously going all in, give up and don¡¯t bother spending any of your resources on this ce, go back to your usual spots and do something more productive, this dungeon, and that skeleton I was after are both out our reach" she took a seat on a nearby barrel. Not one of them felt like giving up without knowing why, but despite her antics, Rummy was reliable enough, directly linked to the two best vampire hunters of the present, she was said to be next in line as their leader after ¨¦chs, although that reality was a frightening one. "Where is Ilmael anyways?" "Most likely defeated in action¡­" "Ah shit, he was only mildly afraid of me" Rummy grimaced, and everyone just acted as though they didn¡¯t hear anything, scattering away under the pretence that they needed to prepare for their departure. Chapter 78: Jungle "I am gonna be honest girls, it¡¯s now or never at this point, the death hunters have pulled out and cleared off everything, the adventurers and explorers, as idiotic as they may be, are starting to get cold feets which all of the disappearances recently, soon, only the insane and foolest of fools will be daring to go beyond the secret passage" Pierre-Orn¨¦e spoke his mind, Bough chuckling creepily in the background, absolutely folded with hrity for some unknown reason. The halbardier nced at his fellow royal guard, doing nothing to silence the tall freak. "Under normal circumstances, I would have rmended for you to follow the lead and get the hell out of here, but these are special circumstances, it is a call of destiny, or fate, in any case, I still rmend for you to take the hint, worst thing that could happen is Audit bursting out of a random corner and dragging you five back to this dungeon" he looked around at each of their faces. ¡¯Why are those little girls looking at me like that? Am I not speaking reason?¡¯ he repressed the will to hit them over the head with his fist capable of breaking walls and sighed through his helm instead. "But do what you want, I personally wouldn¡¯t willingly throw myself into actual decay and blood so vile it turned darker than the night" he didn¡¯t know why he was bothering trying to help them, they weren¡¯t even remotely kids, had his age begun to make him see youngsters as children? Now that was something to truly be wary of, and with that thought, he understood why Bough was chuckling like a schoolgirl, the big man had already noticed this. "Oh, Pierre-Orn¨¦e, the deadliest warrior working under his majesty is getting softer" "I despise you" The two of them went back and forth after the five adventurers had already left, it appeared like they had suddenly begun to fancy their chances were many more, trained professionals with years of experience working together had failed entirely. That was thanks to a little implement that had under their sleeves, Marlene had spent multiple years in this world by now, she wasn¡¯t taking this dungeon lightly, but it was clear that all of those that had perished hadcked something. They weren¡¯t brave enough, or rather, they were overly cautious. Being careful was good and all, but they had all decided to work by setting camps up regrly and trying to fight against the rot from below, they always spent too much time standing idly by the staircase leading down. So it was no surprise that they would always suffer the same fate and vanish alongside their camps, they were leaving themselves wide open for an ambush, it couldn¡¯t be known clearly what truly happened to those people, but the issue leading to their demise was rather obvious. The two elves, Ariandnel and Irgot couldn¡¯t help but wear their thoughts on their faces at the moment, Tilke was just like them but simply didn¡¯t show it, they still remembered Marlene¡¯s and Iritim¡¯s plot. "Humans are truly the masters of deception, I shudder" the ogress muttered. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om The two human girls¡¯s ploy was simple, yet quite ridiculous, no one believed that Iritim could muster up a sermon capable of convincing the remaining explorers to go along with them, but they had underestimated the intensity of their priestess. Some grown men began crying as she ruthlessly used the full capacity of her lungs to shout at all of them, and also used her very priestly skills to make her words more convincing and inspiring. Some may say that it was tant maniption, they were right. There were no authorities to stop her however, no crimes were thusmitted, that was how it worked after all. The group and their new allies, inspired by the grace of Iritim¡¯s goddess of victory, were dragged along to their imminent wealth, or demise. Ploughing through the first part of the dungeon was easy, so was the second part, although the group¡¯s teamwork wasckluster since it consisted of a bunch of parties and lone wolves grafted together. But only the five of them were equipped with a special item, a ne that had much the same effect as the death hunter¡¯s art, ¡¯Life, defend from corruption¡¯, only that the object furnished life force from itself rather than utilising the wearer¡¯s own. The other¡¯s would have to make do with whatever they had. There it was, the unexplored staircase, in this dungeon of metal, it was nearly impossible to force your way through with explosives and the like, much too tough and rapidly self-repairing. They all stepped down, each and everyone¡¯s figure covered by a faint sheen, traces of Iritim¡¯s blessing casted upon them, a blessing casted by a priestess of the goddess of victory naturally made it more likely for triumph to be the oue for each and every person affected. The instant they made it down the stairs, carefully making their way further in so as to avoid getting into contact with the rot, with the life-imbued item, the rot moved away on its own, all sounds stopped. The usual cacophony brutally ceased, it was like all eyes in the dungeon had turned on them. Read exclusive adventures at NovelBin.C?m Someone turned around to look up the flight of stairs, only greeted by a closing wall of durable metal. The few able to do so had already brought out their lights, be it mundanentern or via spells of some sort, whilst light wasn¡¯t missing, visibility was still terrible, rot grew like invasive moss everywhere, imitating vines and tall grasses in a most horrible way, everything filled to the brim with toxic blood, the slightest of grazes was certain to get one covered in it. Everyone here either had durable bodies or ways to shield themselves from the corrosion, but many clothes were ruined, and some of the more unlucky ones sported what looked like chemical burns, others looked as if a cheese grater had been brushed over their skin amongst others. The diversity in injuries from a single source was strange, armour and clothes also suffered from different sorts of damage, some even rusted from the contact. They kept on carving their way through the jungle of putrefaction. Chapter 79: Odd It was no simple affair, the putrefied reek in the air made most blink more often than they would like, tears filled their eyes over and over again, until it all dried out, many had begun to regret their decisions, but there was no going back, the way had closed behind their backs, they could only persist against this environment built with products of death. The paths avable were tight, forcing them to crouch or even crawl in certain parts, the deeper they went, the less the decay seemed to be willing to back down even in the presence of life, forcing its way closer and closer to them, everything seemed to be somehow growing quieter and quieter. The explorers had already been the only source of sounds for a while now, their narrowing surroundings only forced them to repress themselves, no one said anything, all of them subconsciously tried to be as small as possible, somehow fearing that they would alert something. Iritim silently casted miracles upon everyone periodically, keeping their minds in the right ce, preventing anyone from suddenly starting to freak out, the travel across this wretched dungeon soon reached a greater ce. A wide, open room, rot was still present all around but not nearly as oppressive, the ground was the familiar lustrous metal rather than abject grass of rot, they had all been moving around, contorting themselves to avoid the decay and getting its special, showery surprise. Those that had gotten marked by its filthy embrace had required excessive healing, despite not being outrageously powerful in its varied effects, the injuries it did manage to leave vehemently fought against their removals, the few healers had expended way too much energypared to the sort of wounds. "Let¡¯s take a rest here" Marlene spoke the awaited words, everybody sighed in relief, brightening up when she tapped on a ring on her index finger, bringing out necessities out of thin air. Your next chapter awaits on NovelBin.C?m The morose mood was quelled just like that, the five girls moved away, the two elves appearing rather concerned about something, in fact, Tilke also appeared with a frown on her red face. "There is definitely someone missing¡­" Irgot started first, installing a cold shudder into everyone as they turned and tried to see for themselves, absolutely unable to notice anyone missing. "It must have been one of the solo adventurers, otherwise a teammate would have alerted us already" she continued before Ariandnel took the lead. "I heard some sort of whooshing sound at some point, like something was quickly pulled away, but in those tight tunnels, impossible to see anything happen, though, it¡¯s pretty weird that this was the only noise I was able to hear, or that no else noticed anything despite the absolutely silence we were in" she shifted ufortably, it was rather obvious what had happened to that missing member. "I didn¡¯t notice any of that, but I have to admit, it feels like something has been watching us for a while now, I supposed it was just the feeling of being so close to the rot, since it¡¯s apparently one big thing from what I heard" Tilke shrugged, looking at the unsuspecting, enrolled adventurers, feeling quite sorry for them, the tunnels of decay weren¡¯t gone for good, more would be snatched up for certain. "Hum, I¡¯ll set up a barrier with scriptures then, at least for now, I don¡¯t know whether it would be best to force through and hope not too many are taken away, or to remain still for now and try to lure out whatever is hiding inside the rot" Iritim rubbed her nape, they had went directly in because they had considered staying put as dangerous, did it apply here as well though? "Alright girls, look at me and don¡¯t react okay?" Marlene spoke in a suspiciously low tone, even cing herself so that Tilke obstructed the sight of her to the rest of the adventurers and putting one hand in front of her mouth. "We haven¡¯t gone down in numbers actually" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Huh? But I am certain that someone is missing, like, I can¡¯t tell who exactly, but it just seems obvious" Irgot was rather confident in her earlier im, which was supported by the sound Ariandnel heard. "I mean, don¡¯t you think it¡¯s not that we are missing someone, but that someone lookspletely different?" no one turned to take a look at the group, everybody just acting like they were thinking deeply about something, even though beads of sweat were running down their faces. "Actually¡­ Yeah, but how the hell are we supposed to know? We just dragged in whoever, we didn¡¯t ask their names, we barely looked at their faces and such, there are groups and loners, if it was a loner that was reced, then no one will know!" it was a rather difficult situation, they had conscripted so many people to help them, but it wasing back to bite them. "I mean, this dungeon is filled with living armours and undeads, unless a third type of monster showed up, our imposter should be one of those, right?" Tilke rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "She¡¯s right, we could just look around, or, I could add specificities on my barrier" Iritim smirked, a glint in her eyes as she pulled out the necessary equipment for her to put a barrier. Normally, a holy barrier shouldn¡¯t permit for an undead to remain in, but considering that there was the possibility that it could be something else, the priestess simply had to add conditions on her barrier, she had the qualifications to do something like that. Without wasting any second, she naturally began the process, inscribing scriptures on the floor with a paste diligently, having done this action plenty of times before, it didn¡¯t take her long to finish the foundations for her barrier. Some of the adventurers were already sleeping soundly, exhausted from all that exertion and pressure, the group of five paid close attention to the loners in particr, but couldn¡¯t notice anything too suspicious about any of them. With a p of her hands, Iritim erected the barrier, there was no way for her conditions to be bypassed, she had only allowed inside the people that had entered the dungeon with them, excluding monsters as well for good measure. Yet, nothing happened. "Huh, has anyone left the premises? Marlene, count again" Chapter 80: Greed "No, the amount hasn¡¯t changed¡­ Maybe no one was reced after all, but if that¡¯s true, then our instincts are way off and that leaves a bunch of things without answers" Marlene squinted her eyes, not convinced much. "I think someone over there just wentpletely limp though" Irgot pointed out, Iritim expected the intruder to get booted out of the barrier instantly, not for one of the adventurers to pass out. "He looks dead to me" Arandniel looked left and right, by now, everyone else was lying down, sleeping or not paying attention to them in any way, getting the clue Irgot used one of her abilities, shrouding the surroundings a way that made everything harder to perceive, making it highly ignorable. Discover stories at NovelBin.C?m The elf shed open the man¡¯s gambeson, revealing a gaping hole, his chest and stomach cavity had both beenpletely hollowed, his ribs sticking out chaotically, bearing marks of having been eaten away by acid, a clear signs that his insides had been dealt with by the ck blood. No trace of anything foreign was inside, taking closer looks around, this wasn¡¯t the only signs of damage, thin passageways appeared to have been carved all the way across the inside of his body, considering that this guy had still been moving a few moments prior to the barrier being erected, he had been puppeteered. No wonder no one was able to notice something was off, the sensation of somebody missing was simply wrong, their corpse was still there, moving with them. "Since it wasn¡¯t an entire being, but just a part having been injected inside a person, the barrier erased it all" the priestess dusted herself and stood up. "What do we do with the body now? Do we tell the others or¡­?" Tilke questioned, looking up at the ceiling. The five of them looked back at one another for a few moments, their decision making interrupted as the rot around began to move, making way for armoured skeletons, many of them. As they revealed themselves, the usual sounds they produced became apparent, leading everyone else to be alert, simultaneously, the rot started to expand, closing in on the previously vast room, spitting blood as it went. Thanks to their equipment, the five girls were free from the hold of the blighted blood, unlike the rest who, for the most part,cked a good way of shaking it off as it crawled up their legs and restricted their movements, making them easy targets for the heavy weapons of the metal skeletons. Blocking the strike of a sword, Marlene¡¯s sword seemed to faintly glow for a second before she counterattack, cleaving right through the undead¡¯s sturdy defences, leaving it to fall into two pieces. "There are too many of them, we move on!" she spoke, not too loudly lest the trapped adventurers heard her. Outrunning and out manoeuvring the encased undeads when their feet weren¡¯t tied down was no issue, especially since they prioritised cleaving down the few adventurers trying to fight back. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "I feel like we could have made it just as well without them, I feel a bit bad now" Irgot spoke as she looked back at them getting sliced up mercilessly, their bodies then covered in blood and consumed, some of them even dissolved alive as they fell right down, the rotten liquid seeping through their mouths and noses, eating through their eyes in only a few instants whilst their innards were stabbed by other undeads. They stood no chance, were taken by surprise and had been standing right in enemy territory. "Huh¡­" "Their sacrifices were all for the glory of Nike and our imminent victory upon this dungeon!" Iritim was swift to ce value upon their deaths, and just as she did so, they arrived inside yet another stairway. Only that they descended upon this one for days, they had to take stops and rest multiple times, there was no rot or blood here, there were no sounds indicating the presence of other undeads, only stairs, upon stairs, upon stairs, upon more stairs. Nothing pursued them either, what had happened up in the room above had remained there, knowing this, it was hard not to feel bad for the drafted people, or even for those that had camped in front of the first set of steps down. All this time, it was only needed for them to rush through without any thoughts, the death hunters, with their numbers and life arts would have easily made it all the way down there, their caution had been warranted but unnecessary either way. Although the threat that had taken all of those people down hadn¡¯t shown itself just yet. Soon, they arrived before a great gate, and Marlene could tell. "That¡¯s a boss gate alright, everyone feeling good, well rested? This is where the real challenge is!" she was excited, but also starting to feel nervous, all in all, this dungeon wasn¡¯t very dungeon-like, only the uppermost portion had any sort ofbyrinth, the part filled with rot was more so a straight path leading to a straight path leading down. This was no dungeon promising treasures and rewards, that they had all known from the very beginning, in fact, when they had found the cube opening the way, apanied with a description of what was sealed here, they hadn¡¯t been certain whether to go there or not. But, this here was the key to them not having to work another day in their lives! Felling a close member of the long gone undead king was certain to get them undying praises and rewards, instead of spending their lives roaming around, hoping for luck to strike, they were going to put it all on the line for a chance at taking that luck for themselves. Also, it was rathermon for seals to sap the energy of the one being locked down, after all, seals couldn¡¯t be trusted tost forever, they would inevitably degrade as time went by, the purpose was to weaken the target and then have someone skilled swoop in after a while and permanently dispatch the threat. This seal was one set by the gods themselves, Iritim was a learned priestess, so she knew of the ¡¯Great Silence¡¯, when the link between the gods above and mortals below was pretty much severed, this also entailed that the divine seal had also endured a great blow. The seal was weak, and this had pushed them to rush their decision of taking this fight for themselves, since it could break on its own at any time. Chapter 81: The Final Room The immense gate opened nearly without a sound, they had been expecting to be struck by a wave of dust, ancient air trapped beneath the walls for centuries, but there was none of it,e to think of it, it was already weird that they could breath so well at such a depth under the earth. The inside suddenly lit up with blue mes, how nice of the owner to grant them sight himself, when he would benefit from the pitch ckness, not at all a worrying sign for what was toe, nothing but typical theatrics. Immediately, the five explorers¡¯s faces turned grave as something was off, one would be expecting a singr entity sealed at the end, the metal chrome skeleton dressed in robes of the same quality as his bones made for a good candidate for that, sitting on his throne as though expecting visitors. The problem were the other two nking him by his sides, to the right of the one presumed to be the sealed battle mage, Faraday, stood a muchrger being in armour, one that hadn¡¯t been mentioned amongst the writings they had discovered back then, despite the fact that Slotriig had been remaining to his master¡¯s side ever since then. The stalwart undead hadn¡¯t been brought here to be sealed with Faraday after, he hade himself and stood guard after the undead king was himself sealed, which had taken ce not long after Faraday¡¯s. To the left, standing even more motionlessly than two immobile skeletons, someone that they may have mistaken for a death hunter were it not from the toxic ck blood seeping from the two, minuscule eye holes of the once pristine white mask. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om The white attire had been stained with the ever so dark blood as a whole, appearing like it had been left to the element of a forsaken oubliette for years, but the valiant hunters of the dead had disappeared not so long ago. Loimos, once again, despite being the weakest in the room, managed to be the creepiest one by far, but all of the attention nheless went to Faraday, he rose one hand up, his ancient presence captivating the sight of the five adventurers thoroughly. ¡¯This is bad¡­¡¯ shared by all of the members of this little cohort, it was rather obvious that not only was their target apanied by worrying subalterns, he himself didn¡¯t appear very weakened. Pity that they had arrived here after Loimos, or even just a bit earlier. Using the plentiful corpses he and Slotriig gathered outside, he had used his primeval rot in conjunction with the harvested material to produce beautifully dense death miasma, cing some generators near the edges of the seal to weaken it over time, he had also used some to recover some of Faraday¡¯s death force, his strength. With the old and weak seal slowly being eroded by Loimos¡¯s pure miasma, and its captive regaining his former powers, this prison was deemed to soon crumble, Quideos Audit¡¯s prediction seemed nigh, were Faraday and his troops unleashed upon the outside, no one would be able to even begin to estimate the damages that would ensue. "Wee visitors!" Faraday had always wanted to say that, but he had been left with no challengers ever since then. Thest thing he had the asion of killing was an actual deity, albeit a lowly and rather idiotic one, but a godly figure still, his undead self was itching to reap life once more, even if lesser in quality. "I am Faraday, the star of this dungeon, but not of the show" as he delightfully spoke to the adventurers, who were already considered turning tails, Slotriig suddenly moved, a veritable blur that they only noticed after he had already acted. Picking Loimos up and chucking him like a cannonball at one of the members of the team, tackling Iritim right out of the room, the doors shutting themselves with a m right after. "Now" pping his metallic hands, Slotriig moved back to a wall of the room, nting his sword into the ground, resting both hands on its pommel. "Come" he ushered them closer, standing up from his throne and summoning forth a suspiciously, non-shiny metal staff, which looked more like a beaten up rod than a mage essory. "I haven¡¯t gotten the asion to put to the test all of that lightning I have absorbed" he proimed to no one in particr, mming his feet down on the floor, the impact spreading throughout the room, trembling, it soon spread beyond the walls and onto the rock walls of the caverns behind, copse sounded all around. And he appeared right in front of the four with a sh. Iritim grunted as she emitted a wave of holy energy from the center of her body, pushing Loimos away, catching himself by sticking to the ground with blood. Swiftly pouncing right back on, trying to grab onto her face right on, his death infused body pushing against the life produced by the ne with much less difficulty that the priestess would have liked. His hand threatened to tear a chunk out of her visage, priests and clerics were generally on the backline after, simr to mages in that regards Although, Iritim had held such a position in her group, Loimos, who had been observing them from beyond the rot their entire travel there hadn¡¯t missed some key details, such as the fact that the rest of her group didn¡¯t seem to be keen on protecting her, or the way she had of carrying herself, it was subtle, but since it wasn¡¯t perfect, the undead had noticed. Enjoy new chapters from NovelBin.C?m He begun this confrontation without using his sword to get a good idea of just what she could do, even had he nned on evading her, he wasn¡¯t quick enough and was swung right above the priestess¡¯s head, with minimal energy reinforcement too, those robes were ample not just for show, but to conceal as well. Instead of crashing against the hard ground, Loimos harmlessly sshed into blood and rot, twisting his wrist around, he grabbed onto her arm as well and produced toxic blood point nk, eating right through her sleeve before pried herself away from him and made some distance, beginning to recite a prayer with frightening speed without sacrificing any spelling. Something about enclosing, and just as described, a small, sphere-shaped barrier formed around Loimos, manifested from holy energy, it should be extra effective against the undead. Loimos filled in entirely with petrol-like blood, soon punching right through without showing signs of being affected negatively by the holy. ¡¯Just my rotten luck! An undead unaffected by holy energy!¡¯ she had heard of this possibility but had never actually encountered such an event, Iritim couldn¡¯t rely on the simple fact that her energy was like poison to him, meaning that her non-offensive prayers and sacred gestures were utterly useless. Chapter 82: Surprise "In this case¡­" Iritim focused her reinforcement into her legs for an instant, unexpectedly closing the gap in between the two of them right after willfully creating it, transferring most of her augmentation to her right fist, shended an uppercut squarely on Loimos, despite the blow not actually connecting with the mask itself, spiderweb cracks formed on its base. ''I''ll just crush you to dust!'' Loimos''s head was thrown up by the blow, he enclosed both of his arms on her anyways, unbothered but hitting air nheless, she crouched down and moved to his side kicking up to the side of his face, the soles of her shoes digging in entirely. It was all the more impressive considering that Loimos was a whole head taller than the priestess, yet, reaching so high didn''t throw her off bnce in the least, bending the knee of the leg still touching the ground and retaining her equilibrium whilst dodging the undead''s sudden punch. Following with a leg sweep, Loimos demonstrated that he too could twist his body as he wishes, of course, he had no flesh or muscles to worry about. Iritim couldn''t move away normally, but manifesting two small barriers by her sides, she used them as leverages to pull herself out of here, sessfully evading the attack. Holy energy coursing through her body, she directed a portion toward her hands, sending forth a small spike of energy straight at Loimos''s head, he rushed forward, dropping to his knees to avoid the attack, sliding along the ground as ck blood manifested below him, following him as he went. Rot appeared behind Iritim, threatening to bind her as it expanded to her sides, she called forth another barrier, and instead prepared to meet Loimos, he stood up mid-glide, throwing a kick aimed at her guts. The priestess had already guessed it, but the undead before her actually seemed rather knowledgeable in hands-to-handsbat, he may have been trying to misdirect her with his first few, more savage attacks, but it seemed obvious that he knew exactly what he was doing. Reinforcing her forearms, she blocked the strike, one of her brows raising a great bit as she instantly realised that it was much too weak, Loimos had barely empowered his strike with death force, instead, a pocket of rot had appeared in between his kick and Iritim''s defence, crushed by the blow, it exploded with an obscene amount of acidic ck blood. Its consistency made like that of water, its property concentrated to be has acidic has possible, the priestesses robe wasn''t a mere piece of clothing, so even as she was caught by surprise, the drops didn''t went right through, one simply grazed the side of her forehead, leaving a nasty chemical burn and going right through her hair. The intense pain assaulting her senses made her grit her teeth, she didn''t let go of the opportunity she had however, grabbing the skeleton''s ankle with both of her hands, she sent strong pulses of holy energy as she threw him away, sting it apart from sheer force. Struck by a sudden formation of rot in her movement, it was easily removed, just in time to witness Loimos soften the throw by catching himself with even more rot. "It''s honestly aggravating how versatile that crap is" she spoke out loud, moving away from her previous spot and dispelling the barrier holding the previously manifested rot back. Thankfully, she had managed to eliminate the ck blood that had gotten in the wound on her face, she wouldn''t want to know how this thing performed if it was allowed inside of her veins, she raised her arms into a defensive pose. "You aren''t susceptible to holy energy, this must mean that you were a user of it in life, surely, the undead life isn''t what you wish for?" she had heard of undeads that didn''t react to holy energy in general, but she had also been told that those undeads received such a blessing because they had been users of it themselves, their bodies, even deceased, remembered the holy. Which was why even the dead could be clerics and priests, it was rare, but not unheard of. Loimos appeared as calctive and rather sly, so she guessed that he was surely capable ofmunicating and remembering his past. Chapter Read:n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Her thoughts meant nothing, and Loimos had already arrived at the conclusion that there was no need for him to speak, with a swing of his arm, a line of death miasma was sent forward, not certain that her basic barriers could stop the smoke of an undead attuned with the holy, Iritim had no other choice than dodge. As she did so, Loimos began to move, crawling along the ground like mad beast, the priestess certainly couldn''t have been expecting that he would be faster when made to move along the floor, he threw himself forward striking her in the side, pushing her away before raising more miasma and hiding himself within. Focusing her energy, Iritim appraised the state of the ne around her neck, it''s effects were certainly great, however, she couldn''t help but notice that its strength had diminished with each of the strikes the undead hadnded on her, as such, she wasn''t going to test her chances with the miasma it had created. Bursting with holy energy, the miasma was cleared without resistance, and she was punched straight in the face, once again, without much force, ck blood eating through the softer bits of her skin without problem and even corroding her teeth. Having been preparing another miracle, her hands, shrouded with sharp energy, pierced right through Loimos''s chest, annihting part of his ribs and spine. More ck blood flowed onto her arm as the rot within Loimos contracted, leaving her stuck in ce, raising her other hand, she hurriedly weaved in another attack, a spinning discus enveloping her hand. The rot pinning her in ce was infused with Loimos''s potent death force, ensuring that she wouldn''t break out easily, aiming to cleave him and half, and perhaps even her own arm if necessary, she could see that the undead wouldn''t have time to stop her from doing so, both of his arms in poor positions. The sliding of something sharp sounded out, a tendril of nothing but rot had creeped out from behind the skeleton and wrapped around the handle of the sword at his waist, it unsheathed the de andshed at her, or so she believed, the rot wasn''t strong enough to swing a sword effectively, it only harmlessly threw the sword in a random direction. But it was enough, Iritim had halted her movements for a moment, two sharp bones pierced through and out of Loimos''s fist, shing right across the priestesses neck. Her miracles slowly degraded into thin air as she bled out, clutching at her neck, Loimos freed her arm and stepped back as she slumped to the ground. Chapter 83: Good Fun After Years Of Confinement Moving with swiftness that was unseen by the four women, he extended his open palm and struck Tilke right in the chest, not too powerfully, measuring his strength to merely push her away, then, without utilising his previously overwhelming speed, he rose his staff of sort and brought it down toward Marlene, who, having already taken her sword out, was able to block the strike. "Ah, that is interesting!" like reading an open book, Faraday was able to clearly see the inner workings of the ability she had just used, indeed, a simple block of her paltry de shouldn''t have stopped this strike so simply, the force flowed from the staff and into the de. Swinging her sword, it was clear that it now carried the force Faraday''s blow and that of the unwanted''s own sh. This allowed her to easily cleave through the skeletons encased in metal by parrying them only once, an ability that was both a perfect defence and great offence, Faraday blocked the strike with his pinky. His interest was piqued, but he was not impressed, backhanding straight in the face, just in time for Ariandnel to shoot a plethora of arrows straight in the air, the arrows each defied thews of gravity as they flew through the air, homing in on Faraday without losing even a slight bit of their momentum. "Would you look at this Slotriig, the guys that came to destroy me are actually not bad! Not anywhere near an Ynig¨®s or Liameilos but then again, they are exceptions" reminiscing aloud, he flicked the pesky projectiles away, not even turning to look as he clearly sensed Irgot appearing behind him. It was rather obvious that shing and piercing would be rather ineffective against a skeleton forged out of steel, so the dark elf mmed the base of the hilt right on the back of his skull, for no damage whatsoever, Irgot felt a ripple coursing throughout her entire skeleton. Turning his body a bit, he put his arm around the sneaky elf, much in the same an older brother would grab a younger sibling, and headbutted her with much more restraint an actual sibling would have, it still concussed her on the spot, taking hold of her by the back of her cor he dropped her a distance away. He then turned and stood perfectly still as Tilke rushed him down, punching him straight to the face, not being very effective, she kept on striking him in the same spot over and over again as he allowed it to happen, the ogress seemed to have activated some sort of self boost, she was going all out, only resulting in her fists bleeding. With a flick of her hand, both of her arms were blown away. Blocking another attack from Marlene, he grabbed her sword and stopped for a moment, debating what to do, in the end, he let go, knocking more arrows out of the air as he stepped away. Throwing his staff like a javelin, he pinned thest standing elf against the wall, which was wholly unnecessary since she had already ran out of arrows, but only the unwanted presence, Marlene had truly caught his interest, after being locked down there for so long, he was really craving some action, and he had also never had the attention to truly test himself since his ying of a god by absorbing all of his lightning. Pointing one finger at thest one capable of fighting, he turned his head to the side. "Seems like Loimos performed well" he shot a small bolt of bright lightning, it was divine in nature, simr to something formed from holy energy, but much more potent.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Willingly slowed the bolt down to allow Marlene to block it with her de, he wished to see what would happen. The instant Marlene hit the attack, she could tell that its power was much superior to anything she had ever absorbed before, the way out was already blocked, and every else beside her had been put out ofmission, she could have hoped for Iritim to finish on her side and open the way, but that wasn''t very realistic. It was do or die, she had to try and defeat Faraday, whilst he was still ying around would be best, clearly, he wasn''t nearly as weakened as he should have been, not only that, he was inpany, instead of shooting the divine lightning right out like she usually would have, she channelled it and used it to reinforce her body. "Oh, Slotriig, look at that, she is killing herself!" Faraday pped his hands, sounding like two anvils falling on top of one another. "Listen well everyone, whilst that girl is busy adapting to the power of the lightning, I will exin one of the greatest heights of energy maniption" crossing his hands behind his back, he ignored the powering up Marlene and began his exnation, Slotriig shaking his head in the distance, his master was clearly much too bored. Chapter Explore: "Zone! What is a zone I hear you asking Miss ogress?" he spoke to the bleeding woman on the floor. "Simple, it is the mastery of outer maniption to convert ambient mana in an area into your own, granting you effectively infinity mana, the ability to deny your opponent outer maniption, spawning spells from anywhere within the zone, simply using the mana to instil pressure upon the enemy, or better, inscribe a spell directly into the zone!" he lowered his head. "That is the basics of this supreme act, but I have never attained it, the closest I got was my cage, the Faraday cage!" perfectly timed with Marlene growing used to the rampant lightning, he manifested forth the cage in question. It was shaped like a sphere, forming directly around the unwanted without allowing her time to react, an act of outer maniption, the divine force was sucked right back out and given back to Faraday. "Well, then there is dominion, territory and such, but I seem to have lost most of my audience¡­" Faraday was just clowning around, a very non-undead thing to do but he was still killing them at least. "Loimos,e back in, I''ll teach a few more things" he ignored the still living adventurers, motioning for Slotriig to finish the job, which he did by stomping on them. Chapter 84: What A Small World! The buzzing of insects mixed along nicely with the singing of various birds, the trees were full of vigour, sporting branches full of leaves, many even showing off ripe fruits, the avian wildlife couldn''t resist such juicy goodness, rustling through and skipping around in the ambient heat casted by the oddly shaped sun up above. Summer had began, life was thriving and the sun up above had taken on its usual form for the season, resembling a drop splitting into two, somehow, its light was now much, much warmer, only shades could be called fresh, the tall grass and flowers could serve as pockets of heat, the bare soil of the beaten up roads would scorch anyone daring enough to step upon it bare. Pushing the sounds of nature further away, the sound of a carriage drawn by two impressive steeds tumbling its way down the unkept paths through the woods, the wheels passing over countless hole and shallow holes, the entire things bouncing up and down as it encountered minuscule, but sturdy pebbles. The two horses at the front were starting to struggle, but the coachman would raise his hand, sshing them with fresh water to prevent them from suffering from the heat too much, inside, Milo stared out of one of the openings absentmindedly, he had gotten used to the routine back at the city during the months he had spent there with Helena. He was getting quite nervous about this whole academy stuff, frankly, before meeting with her, he had never even heard the word, he had heard of the existence of schools, but simrly, he had never been able to confirm their existences with his own eyes, it was like going on a travel to meet someone who didn''t exist. Startled as he felt someone poking his shoulder, he hadn''t noticed Helena casually sliding right next to him. "Stop stressing yourself and pay attention to the surroundings, there are bandits in every forest you can think off, try not to get shot in the face" she said, trying to get him to worry about his well being rather than the future, it worked, it was just a little strange to say it like that. "Actually, I have heard that the highwaymen haven''t been doing much banditismtely, in fact, it seems like they have begun departing from the area, no one has reported getting robbed by any of the known faces in weeks" the coachman, actually Helena''s main instructor, spoke up, making it apparent in his tone that he didn''t believe it was a good thing. Not only did it mean that something was going on, it meant that other bandits would soon take their spots, bandits were all criminals, but ones that had been settled in spots for a long time were always much more courteous and less violent, they would just rob certain caravans and rarely even hurt someone, much less kill. It was to the point that merchants actually feltfortable traversing this ce, they knew the bandits, the bandits knew them, everyone would shake hands in agreement of what needed to be paid, after all, the bandits also took care of wild animals and monsters in the area. No one minded them, so it was worrying for them to start vanishing without a word. "One would sell me back magic items at real good prices too¡­" hemented aloud, scanning the tree line but not sighting anything of importance. "Oh, and there is also the fiasco with the metal dungeon a few months back, I am telling you, prices are going to rise and rise for a while until the adventurer get their balls back and start collecting resources again in there" the instructor went on spree ofints, mostly about money and prices, the steel taken from this dungeon was rather widespread after all and was traded at good prices with other nations, with that stopping for even a little while, it was certain to affect the market for a while. It may have been fine anywhere else, but Tamaris was a nation of merchants, word had already travelled, they would all be quick to adapt their prices. Chapter Find: "So, are we getting close or¡­?" Helena tried to stop the endless rants with a question. "Not at all!" he instantly replied, making Milo slide down in his seat, the heat was making it hard as well, he just had to sit inside without being exposed directly to the sun and the warmth was still overwhelming, this summer promised to be especially hot. Having turned his head to respond, the coachman put his eyes back on the road, rising up an inclination in the road, he noticed a dark spot appearing on the distance, squinting his eyes and brining one hand above his eyes to see better, he could tell that it was a person walking in their direction on the side of the road. Augmenting his eyes with mana to get an even better look, that person''s get up immediately made him suspicious, he was wearing a long dark coat, it almost dragged alongside the ground despite looking torn. It was clearly something scavenged and old, it looked filthy despite the ckness of the clothing. Grey, ample pants held to the legs with bandages, sewn up over and over, the man''s boots were even tied to his feet with pieces of ropes, in dichotomy with the rest of his apparel, the man''s head was wrapped in a white clothes and covered by a white mask. Those were much more clearly dirty and aged, in fact, the instructor was near certain that it was stained by multiple bloodstains, all diverging in the time they had been sshed upon this stranger. Helena''s main teacher had been around for a long time, he could tell that the mask was that of a death hunter, as such, the solitary disposition of this man was even more suspicious, the fact that not even his hands were visible, also covered by gloves only made him want to turn around. To dress like this in such dreadfully, scorching condition only indicated bad business. But there was no easy way to turn back on this road, so he persevered, in the worst case scenario, he could always st this man with a spell. "Be careful kids" he warned Helena and Milo. Soon enough, their paths crossed, both the stranger and the coachman turning their heads to look at one another. The instructor halted his breath for a moment as the man held up a piece of paper, a map. "Would you happen to know in which direction Findpasser is?" an old, bizarre sounding voice came out from behind the mask.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om As a response, he pointed behind him and told the man to ask there for clearer directions. "My Thanks" and just like that the suspicious man went on his way. Chapter 85: Crawling Out Approximately a month before Milo and Helena were traversing this beaten up road, the sun was barely transforming into his twin-drop form and the days were still rtively cool, the multiple bandit groups prowling the hills and forests were idle as per usual. Well, calling them bandits was no longer very urate, their camps resembled settlements ready to be viges and maybe even small-sized towns in the future, their criminal acts were closer to a small toll to pay for passage, they had their own crops and livestocks. Having begun to exploit the natural resources of the nearby mountains and woods, it was likely that the former bandit groups would soon disappear altogether, nevertheless, despite their dwelling ces being filled with nonbat-ables, women and children, the men that used to rob entire caravans were still here and well. One of them was standing at the entrance of a small cave, leaning against a rocky wall, he wasn''t taking his surveince duty very seriously, inside, sheeps had been gathered recently, they waited to be let out again into a verdoyant meadow until a predator problem was solved.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om There was no need to exin that this former bandit would have preferred not standing there, one hand resting on the hilt a weary sword, he found himself nearly dozing off when the sound of a falling rock attracted his attention. "Hmm?" his expression changed for the worst as he thought of the possibility of a cave-in, without thinking much, he rushed inside, it didn''t take him long to reach the ce where the sheeps were kept, all of them uncharacteristically huddled together in a corner, sticking to the walls as if the gue was standing opposite to them. The man''s eyesnded on a portion of the wall in front of him, he was able to quickly discover what the sound had been, a rock lodge in the wall had fallen into the enclosure, this was probably what had frightened the cattle. Taking a few steps closer, he noticed that the space behind the fallen stone wasn''t filled, it actually opened up into arger cave system. Unexpectedly, this little cave was actually linked to the wider Elephant Cave System, though, that wasn''t on the bandit''s mind as his attention was drawn to his chest, a dark de protruding from where his heart was. A hand garbed his white quickly covering up his mouth as the sword was pushed further in and twisted, sentencing him for good. Loimos noticed no one other than this man was heading into the cave, so he turned his attention to the sheeps, which were all rightfully terrified of him, animals had better instincts than the humans, one look at him was enough for them to know that he shouldn''t be approached, they had no way to run however and seemed to be hoping that staying perfectly still and silent would get them through this. The undead advanced upon them and they all began bleating for their dear lives. The cave wasn''t far from the main camp, everyone currently in heard it clearly, but as quickly as it started it was over, Loimos was already stepping out of the cave by the time people showed up to see what was the matter. The man, the sheep and everything else within grasp had been converted into apressed mass of rot, which was floating up by the undead''s side, his amount of tricks and control over the primeval rot had significantly increased under Faraday''s training and amount of killing he hadmitted, Loimos had learned that the rot converted from things that hadn''t firste from him was especially malleable and potent. With a swing of his arm, he struck the ball of fresh decay, sending it hurling toward the wooden wall of the camp, the rot quickly spread over it, sealing off the exit and forming ayer of miasma around itself. This camp was rather simple, it was built near a cliffside, which allowed the people here to not to build a wall surrounding their whole camp, the natural terrain served as one already for the greater portion. It didn''t take him long to block off the escape routes, but multiple people were already surrounding him, probably not quite realising what he had just done, their equipments were lesser than that of the death hunters Loimos had previously faced in every way, they were less trained, less skilled, they were simply weaker in every sense of the terms, be it in natural body or in powers granted by the system. Without knowing that he was an undead, they attacked him, despite all of this, unlike the death hunters, Loimos was facing them alone, and it turned out that they could coordinate their attacks well. The fastest one went in for a thrust, his chipped de grazed Loimos''s side as he basically threw himself on the man, the death hunter attire handled the damage from a sh aimed at his back wonderfully. Manifested ck blood in his palm, Loimos grabbed the man''s face, making sure the liquid got into contact with his eyes, the skin on his face was burnt away, revealing the sanguine sight hidden beneath, paying no heed to his scream of suffering, he went behind him and grabbed his hair, swinging the pained and helpless man around, preventing his allies from attacking in unison. From there, it all went downhill for them, the former bandits had never met significant opposition, none at all in recent years in fact, although their teamwork was good, they had no clue what to do the second Loimos got himself a meatshield, swinging his de coated in his blighted blood, the shallowest of cuts were significant. Chapter Stay: ''Only six weapon carriers, others must be out'' Loimos had been preparing for a much harder confrontation, no matter how weak, groups of enemies were always a dangerous bunch, he would know since this was a tactic of the undead. Soon enough, he dealt with the nonbatants and with his rot, erased any proof that this entire camp full of people had even existed, he left the premises without waiting for the supposedly remaining bandits, he wasn''t out there specifically for them. He was trying to find out where the resting ce of the undead king was situated, however, no one here had been willing to give him an answer, perhaps he should have used his little rot trick to produce a voice instead of speaking with the pale tongue, or perhaps he should have approached them without killing someone first, not that he could have passed of as a normal person after crawling out of the caves. Chapter 86: Intercepted Loimos''s lone wander through the nearby woods, caves and cliffs wasn''t very fruitful, despite him questioning a number of people, both with words and with actions, no matter who it was, random bandits, someone living out in the wild or caravans going through the area, they all seemed to have no real ideas of who the undead king was and where he was sealed at. He had earned a few more cracks on his mask, and skull, acquired some new articles of clothes after getting repeatedly shed and hacked, even having to reattach his right leg at some point after clearing the guts of someone with it. He had not been violent with the travellers, he was aware of who he could just carve into pieces without risking getting hunted down, he had shown courtesy to the people going through the area, although they had all seemed wary of him, since he definitely didn''t look amicable. Loimos had already learned much from Faraday, after setting up many miasma generators on the outside and inside of the seal, he had gone on ahead, the path to sovereignty of the undead was obviously by unsealing their rightful ruler, Nitok, a skeletal lich that had not only gained the rights for his crown from both the system and the other gravelords thanks to his strength, he also had the respect of the vampires on a whole different level. However, Faraday had been sealed a long time ago, Slotriig hade by his sideter when the king was sealed, but it was also a very long time ago, the ces they had mentioned seemed to no longer exist, even their memories erased from the history of the living by time. Still, the battle mage was certain that the crypt, and thus royal castle, were Nitok had been sealed would still be intact and well, for it was no mere construction, not only had it been carved out of durable rocks bathed in death forces, the king had coated the entire thing and some of the surroundings with his domain, which was apparently some inborn ability that could be likened to a zone but only superficially since it acted over an area. "Not only that, it was a dominion! The melding of both his domain and his mastered zone, allying the aspects of the two abilities, I am confident that no one could have undone it, even after sealing him, Slotriig said that The Elven Light made no move to destroy it" he had said whilst mming his fist up and down enthusiastically. Faraday was no gravelord, but he had been a close aide of the king nheless, his belief ought to be urate. So, Loimos had also simply been questioning people on such a construct, it had to be a coveted ''dungeon'' or something of the likes. The skeleton had gotten multiple leads on multiple crypts said to house powerful undeads that were sealed, Slotriig was only aware of Faraday and Nitok being locked down, he had seemed rather convinced that the gravelords had all safely retreated to their own dwellings, whatever activities they may have been up to since then was unknown. Finding the gravelords was naturally another goal of Loimos, but releasing Nitok from his seal took priority for this would inevitably lead to the undead swelling up again. With no clear leads though, Loimos was headed for the closest location he had heard of, Findpasser was a city of Tamaris, after getting direction from a passing carriage, he continued on his way. What he was going to do was simple, even if he found Nitok first, he was still going to pay a visit to each of those locations, after all, the more the merrier, any added manpower was wee for the righteous quest of ending all that lives. After Findpasser, he would head for Weafewand, another city of Tamaris, then Muho Chitai, which was much further away, located in another kingdom entirely and then Bourgliotte, in yet another country. Loimos had a lot of walking to do, and there was already an obstacle right in the way, two random men just bursted out of the nearby woods, looking rather spent and staring right at him, clearly, they had business with the lonesome undead. The skeleton had dealt with many people ever since he had wiped the existence of this first settlement a few weeks back, he had done so with many others as well, those that had been fortunate enough to not be around for the cleansing were left rather confused since Loimos wouldn''t even leave the houses, huts or such, only the soil that had been stomped over and the paths forged over time were left.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om One might say that those survivors were a bit bummed out at the prospect of their homes, friends and families vanishing without a trace, those two in front of him were no exception, one was a skinny man with rather wide shoulders, the other was young fellow, with rugged face but clean hair, this second one was wearing clothing Loimos was familiar with, in fact, he didn''t seem to be from Tamaris to begin with, even the way he carried himself was way different than what Loimos had gotten ustomed to. His clothes were ample, hiding the finer details of his movements, one hand on the scabbard of his de, the other just above its handle, he bent his knees. ''He is going to attack, he is either fast or will use a ranged attack'' Loimos recognised the intention. "Hey you, you''ve been lurking around for a while haven''t you? Your track is all over the missing camps!" by the looks of it, the skinny man was some sort of expert tracker, a scout or hunter of some sort, after all, Loimos didn''t leave obvious residuals of his presence, he must have followed the track left by his death force. Judging by the way they looked at him however, the one speaking did not realise that he was an undead in the least, seeing that he was speaking to him like this and that the other one had not attacked immediately. ''The swordsman is powerful'' he assessed before a flood of ck blood came down from him, forming a circle around him, at the same time he had acted, the one that had been ready to strike vanished and then reappeared in his spot. It was rather impressive, he had rushed forward, swiftly enough to not be glued to the ground, shing Loimos across the chest and done the same thing backwards, just to return to his previous position in the exact same pose. The sh certainly bypassed Loimos defences, but bleeding him wasn''t the way, and he had been able to tell what the swordsman had been up to thanks to reading his life force after the fact. The undead looked down at the wound, shrugged his shoulders and spoke up to the swordsman. "Pitiful" he provoked him with perfect calmness, the worst way to be provoked was really by someone who seemed like they couldn''t care less about your existence, it irked the man and with a slight ent, he announced his next move. "Your head ising off" assuming a simr, yet a much different posture, he was ready to put his threat to action immediately. Chapter 87: Esteemed Character Crouching low to the ground, the swordsman with a one-edged de pointed the end of his sword at Loimos, who stood in ce, surrounding by a puddle of ck blood, although the undead could trace the man''s movement''s after the fact thanks to his residuals of life force, but his haste surpassed even his superior senses. Disappearing from his spot once more, the skinny man in back appeared confident that his colleague would sessfully deal with Loimos, only, he didn''t reappear in his previous position as he did just before, his eleration was cut off as he sank into the ground right in front of the masked cadaver. Secretly, the skeleton had been finely controlling his corrosive blood to eat through the ground around him, forming pits just deeper enoughpared to the beaten up road to catch the swordsman slipping. His concentration whilst using his sword arts was dispelled, it was like identally going two or more steps down the staircase, this sudden feeling, like one was free falling and going to plummet to the ground like a disgracious bag of bricks. The man was quick to gather himself however, ignoring the growing sense of numbnessing from the leg deep in the tar-like substance, he managed to swing his de anyways by quickly sheathing it again to meet the requirements for another sword arts he specialised in, unleashed a dreadfully quick cleave at the undead''s neck, chopping the head off and sending it rolling away. "You had me worried for a moment there" the man in the back rubbed his weary forehead, for a moment, he felt like he saw the swordsmanpletely losing on such a puny trick and provocation. "Come on now, just one mistake-" his speech was interrupted by the scrunch caused as two bone spikes went right through his skull. Starting down from the chin, all the way up the top of his head, making a quick a passage through both of his eyes, the headless corpse had feinted stumbling back for a second, instead, it had just taken the win with a particrly nasty uppercut. From where he stood, the skinny fellow couldn''t quite tell what had just happened, after all, when decapitated, people were supposed to die, so surely, the two bloody tips protruding from his ally''s head were naught but his imagination. Busy in his own confusion, he was an easy target, Loimos retracted the murderous ws and ced his arm on top of the swordsman''s head, whose body had yet to realise that it was deceased. Using him as a crutch, the two bone weapons sprouted out from his fist once more, only this time, they were shot out at a reasonably high velocity, it wasn''t anything to write home about but to shoot down a stationary target, it was more than enough.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Lacking in uracy, only one of the two struck the target head-on, embedding itself in the man''s neck, the other only grazing the jugr, still, rhythmically, as his heart beat, blood would spurt out from the wound. He weakly bled to death on the ground as Loimos went to fetch his head, sticking it back on, he used rot to hold it ce whilst also manifesting some miasma to elerate the process of recovery, with his current death force mastery alongside his primeval rot, he could reattach lost limbs much quicker than before. Recuperating one from scratch would still be an issue, but there were few ways that one could find their body parts annihted in their entirety, he quickly cleaned up the mess, leaving on the hole he had left in the road as proof of his passage. No one else showed up out of nowhere to slow him down, he encountered quite a few other carriages along the way, some more heavily defended than others, most seemed to be transporting young people like the first one he had encountered just before his little confrontation. "Hey lone wanderer!" one of such youngsters thought it was a good idea to call out to the clearly suspicious man on the side of the road. "Mydy, it may not be wise to-" apart from the knights on horseback circling the carriage, there was another sitting opposite of the girl, and he seemed rather familiar with her for he seemed to already know exactly what she was up to. "Calm your pants Gelter, this sir over there, doesn''t he seem rather skilled to you?" she was leaning over the window of her transportation, Loimos could only make out her face and part of the uniform-like clothing she was wearing. Clearly, she was no backwater peasant, her long, dark red hair and golden eyes were already enough for anyone to guess, but she was also dressed with some military get-up, a white uniform decorated with, frankly, too many golden and light blue ornaments. "I suppose he does" Gelter could only tell the truth to hisdy "although-" He hadn''t caught up on Loimos''s true nature, but he could clearly tell as a seasoned knight that something was simply off about him, the undead was making a good job of putting up a ''lively'' enough posture, even making unnecessary movements, sometimes slowing down or elerating in his steps just in case someone was looking from far away. It was all calcted to appear as natural as possible. "I am Antieeld, one of the twelve recognised talent holders of this generation, where are you headed for?" she presented herself, by this point, both the carriage and Loimos had stopped. There were no downsides to speaking the truth. "Findpasser" he simply spoke, using the same trick as before, forming convincing vocal cords and all that was needed for a living to speak. This made him sound like an old man with poor lungs, but he at least didn''t inscribe the inevitability of death in the hearts of those listening. "Hum" rubbing her chin, Antieeld threw him a piece of metal, some sort of emblem. "You shoulde by Toordefer Academy, it''s in the capital, Wanneckssa and ask for me, I''ll be there for a while, the next five years at least" she bid him farewell just like that, not exining the why or anything else. However, Loimos did not bother with the antics of some living and just moved onto his way, though, he was aware that it was a rather big boon, to have ess to the capital, he didn''t know what this academy was about, but judging by Antieeld and her personal bodyguard, it ought to be a rather important ce. Chapter 88: Short Halt Today, the leaves were burdened by an additional weight, the surroundings were calmer than usual, the birds seemed to be flying higher above the canopy, not stopping to catch any insects or to take a rest, the ambient life in the air was less as the forest animals had cleared off the area. Tinged ever so much by death, Loimos didn''t recognise it as the usual amount an undead would leave in its wake, the lives taken here were for the growth of another living, touching and decaying the blood upon a nearby leaf, he could tell that it was human. Everything was already dried by the enormous heat of the conjoined suns, but it was obvious that everything was recent, Loimos had slightly diverged from his path because he had sensed a spike in death in the woods of to his right, only to discover once he got there that it was not the work of a fellow. The undead''s bone ws hadn''t recovered yet, the creation of bone was still a long process for him, the ws were the implement he had put in ce in his right arm, a useful tool that had already proven their lethality, but he had something else in stock in his other arm. He followed the trail of blood, approaching an area where death was strongest, stumbling upon what little remained of a person, rotting everything away, he then went the opposite way, where the body had been dragged from, arriving into an orchard filled to the brim with cherry trees, the fruits ripe for the taking and bursting with juice. When decaying something away, Loimos got a clear idea of the target and its condition, which allowed him to more easily use his rot and mould it to the desired form, it worked best with bodily structures at the moment. This had allowed him to get a good idea of what sort of teeth the predator that had feasted on that first victim possessed, so seeing said creature in person only confirmed what he had already supposed, beyond the orchard, epassed within it in fact were a set of a few houses, a smallmunity that most certainly lived off of thend and didn''t sharemunications with any city or the likes. Loimos had walked for a few days since thest notable event, so it was no question why they weren''t bothered by bandits here, they were much too far, perhaps enough that the two parties hadn''t even been aware of the other. The doors were busted down, weakened by the brutal strikes of a sword and by relentless mming, it was doubtful that every single one of those doors had been locked when the predator came, it seemed more like the concept of doors was offensive to the man currently on his knees, deep in gore and fresh blood as he gorged upon the remains of inhabitants. He didn''t notice Loimos walking over to him until only ten meters separated the two of them, fumbling over and slipping around in the guts he was previously slurping like they were a savorous meal, he growled at the undead, trying to stand up on his two legs but seemingly unwillingly returning to the posture of a wild beast.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om It looked like it was no more than a cannibal, not even a wild one, he was wearing clothes that fitted him, they looked rathervish too, unlike that of a lowly subject, the sword he began iling around was chipped and bent from severely abusing it but still retained details indicating a craftsmanship of higher standing. "What the- Who?" his speech was somewhat slurred, confused, his face and teeth tainted red, he appeared deeply shocked by the sight of Loimos. Loimos thought about the fact that this guy seemed to have the qualifications to make a good ghoul, unfortunately, the skeleton didn''t know how to purposefully turn someone into an undead, so he would just kill him. The man looked down at his meal, and puked, vomited with such abject disgust that some bits came out of his nose, tears streamed from his eyes, making a clean path through the drying blood covering his skin. "Ah¡­ Ah! You got to help me! I didn''t mean to!" loosening his arms, he let his sword hang low, trying his best to exin himself, Loimos didn''t move a millimeter. Perhaps this time, a living would have something interesting to say. "It''s- It''s those bitches from Aliz¨¦, I tried to just go back on a deal when I discovered what they were actually doing, they- I was stung by something and I can''t stop myself, where even is this? Where the hell am I?!" he was getting a bit agitated, his breathing waspletely out of line, the cannibal might just copse dead on his own. He grabbed his head and stared down, losing the strength in his legs, not paying attention to Loimos for a few moments. "Wait, are you one of them? Did youe to-" he rose his head only to find the undead looming over him, the way the man was positioned allowed Loimos to step right on his arm holding the sword, snapping it like celery stick, grabbing his head with both hands, Loimos rose him off the ground and spoke with the pale tongue, the dreadfully cold voice of death washing over the man, reminding him that there was something worse than his current situation. "Exin, who is Aliz¨¦?" he asked, neither calm nor inclement, the cannibal felt his agitation crumbling into thin air, as though the madness that had possessed him was scared away, the pale tendrils of insanity retreating in the face of death. Exactly one hourte, nothing remained of the orchard or of the few habitations, everything consumed by unceasing rot. Loimos moved back onto the path he had been previously walking, returning to his previous upation seamlessly. The next few weeks of constant walking weren''t met with any other perturbations to his travel, at least, until he arrived before Findpasser and had to go through the gate. Chapter 89: Do Not Be Afraid "Oh, a shipment of steel from that dungeon? Have the adventurers finally begun to do their job again?" a guard standing in the open gate to the city spoke as he wrote down a few things on some paper. "Not quite, I just had some reserves, you know, just in case, heheh" the merchantughed a bit, making the guard shake his head, motioning for him to move in.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om The line of people waiting to get in was rather lengthy, be it people on foot, on horses or with carriages, they all had to go through the checkpoint and the guards there, though, mostly only the carriages were checked extensively, and that was only really for those driven by faces they didn''t recognise. After being on this post for so many years, the man standing at the front knew many merchants, he would just exchange a few words with them and let them through without verifications, today was just another day for him. "By the way, there is a weird guy in a mask prowling around-" the merchant warned him as he went by., but the guard just waved his hand dismissively. "I know, everyone has already told me about him, I saw him in the distance too, don''t worry" he found himself yawning, the man was quite surprised actually, everyone seemed to think that this random guy was suspicious and should be mentioned, it wasn''t his first time having weirdos roaming. The next person in line was on foot, wearing a big cloak with the hood on, raising an eyebrow, the guard spoke first. "Aren''t you warm in that?" the twin suns were hitting hard, it was noon too, it was like standing in a sauna, the guard was keeping it together well from experience, but he felt like he was a rotisserie chicken inside of his armour. "Armond! We need to talk '''' raising his hood up a slight bit, the cloaked man revealed his face, Armond''s face scrunched up reflexively. "Miqi?! What the hell are you-" he coughed a bit and turned back to some others guards in the distance "someone take my spot real quick, I need to set something clear with this fellow here" Grabbing Miqi by the shoulder he pulled him a distance away from everyone else as a young guard walked up and began doing the check-ups, which was of course much slower since this youngster didn''t know the regrs like Armond did. "Exin, what are you doing here?" the experienced guard turned his back to the crowd, his face pale with worry. Knowing that actions spoke louder than words, Miqi showed Armond his right hand, or rather, theck thereof of his limb, grimacing he didn''t let him get surprised and ask. "I am doing you a favour by telling you, take your wife and kids, get the hell away, go to another country, those bitches from Aliz¨¦ are going fucking mental, the money isn''t worth getting pieced up!" Miqi''s wrist and bandaged and still bloody, clearly, he had gotten this gruesome injury recently. "You probably heard of what they have been up to with their newest drug as well, it isn''t as simple as some aphrodisiacs and hallucinogens sold on the street anymore, they''re building up troops, we can get tortured and killed for that sort of thing!" failing his stump madly, he still did his best to keep his voice as low as possible, throwing nces at the waiting line behind him. "Alright, I understand that part, and I agree, but what happened to your hand? Surely, had they gotten word of your intention to leave everything, they would have done more than this, unless-!" Miqi quickly stopped him right in his tracks. "They don''t know that I am betraying them, and I am not ratting you out either! Listen, not only are those four making moves that ssify as high treason, they are justpletely insane to begin with, whatever number she goes by, the vampire chick just walked up to me and cut off my hand for no reason, I could put up with the crazed antics before, but now that I know what they are really after, I am not getting close to any of them, they are madwomen!" Miqi stepped away, pointing his stump at Armond. "Hold a second Miqi, shouldn''t we report them? The king would be willing to forgive us if we spoke up about a conspiracy or whatever it is that they are brewing!" he tried to reason but Miqi was already moving away, running off toward the woods in fact. Keeping his cool, Armond returned to his post like nothing happened and resumed work, watching as the figure of his friend disappeared amongst the trees. Unaware that as soon as he was out of sight of everyone, Loimos osted him, grabbing him by the wrist that still led to a hand. Miqi had been too focused on what was in front of him to notice the undead intercepting him, speaking with his imitation of a voice, Loimos squeezed enough to make it hurt whilst simultaneously reassuring the living. "I could not help but notice you mentioned Aliz¨¦, and that one of them was a vampire, borate" "H-How the hell could you hear that? Are you one of their goons?" Miqi didn''t dare to yell, he knew all too well what would happen if he raised his voice. "Do not be afraid, do you not recognise this mask? I am a death hunter, I simply want to know more about this group housing a vampire, I only want the good of lifekind" speaking unnaturally clearly and deliberately, Miqi was getting more and more put off the more Loimos spoke. "You- So you will let me go if I tell you everything?" he asked carefully, feeling himself sweating even more than when he was right under the light of the suns. "You can trust me on this" Catching his breath, the man with a missing hand couldn''t help but notice the fact that the ''death hunter'' wasn''t letting go of his wrist in the least, in fact, it was quite worrying how perfectly stable the strength of his grip was, actually, the man hadn''t moved at all since he had grabbed onto him, still like a statue, knowing that his current position was perfect and didn''t allow Miqi to do anything. "A-Alright, I, hum, I have met with all four of the leaders at least once¡­" Chapter 90: One, Two, Three And Four Miqi could still hear the distant chatter of the people waiting in line to enter Findpasser, but he focused on the situation at end, the more he paid attention to details of the man holding him in ce, the colder he felt, so he looked away from the minuscule, hollow ''eyes'' of the worn-out mask. "They, they all go by numbers, one to four, I have no clue what their real names are alright? I am fairly certain some of them are from outside Tamaris however¡­" he swallowed his saliva, silence was the only answer he would get from the supposed death hunter. "Four is probably the most recognisable, she is a tall woman with wide shoulders, she is always wearing some huge, leather coat, it''s so long you can barely even see her feet, but you would really know it''s her by getting a look at her face" he made the mistake of looking back at Loimos, he was much more afraid of the undead than Aliz¨¦ at the moment. "She has purple hair, red insect eyes, her skin is awfully pale and weird-looking, like a doll''s, yes, a doll! And also, she is always shing an awful smile with way too many, small pointy teeth, freaky I tell you!" Miqi tried to get any sort of response from Loimos, but he didn''t react in the least. Taking it as a threat and a demand to keep going, the manplied with the imagined order, his face drenched his sweat by now, even a blind person would be able to tell he was a nervous wreck thanks to the smell and heavy breathing. "Three then¡­ Three is probably from Tochi, she carries a sword that is typical from there, only that the de is a bright green for some reason, do you know what a katana or whatever the name is? It''s one of those des with only one sharp edge, but not quite as curved as those from Pezerx¡­" Miqi did his best to exin with his own words, theck of anything from the skeleton was really driving him crazy, he felt every single thing he said was wrong. "T-Two, speaking of Pezerx she is probably from there, she has darker skin than people here, and she is always dressed with those ample, desert clothing things, I have personally never met anyone like her in my entire life of travelling, but just in case¡­ She has a huge scar running on the side of her face, she is even missing an ear"n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "And then there is One!" feeling like he was slowly making Loimos inclined on murdering him, he quickly moved on to thest member, details about the others onlying into his mind as he arrived there. ''Should I mention them?'' this question ran through his mind, but he ignored it, he was just going to finish things as rapidly as possible. "She is the vampire woman, she dresses in ck armour with a red pattern on the chestte, but leaves her neck and headpletely unprotected for some reason, apart from that, she has the distinctive red eyes and fangs any vampire has!" Miqi tried to conclude, but Loimos had grabbed him with the intention of learning about this vampire, apart from Faraday and Slotriig, he had yet to encounter undeads that he could converse with and that possessed their own reasonings and powers. Loimos doubted that even if he found the king''s crypt, that he would be able to waltz in and break the seal so easily, he was nning on this not being possible and was thus, trying to prepare by gathering intel on possible allies. The cannibal from earlier had spoken of Aliz¨¦, so Loimos already knew much about the organisation, the substance they were using to turn that random guy into a maddened devourer of his own kind seemed like a good addition to the arms of the undead legion. "Whose vampire lord is she rted to?" he asked, of the eight gravelords, five were vampires, Faraday had told him much about all of this, the diversity in vampires depended on who was their lord. Miqi paused for a moment, he wasn''t the most knowledgeable on the subject, and fearing saying something wrong, he took his time to think this through, even though the answer was in obvious. It was just that the gravelords in general weren''tmon knowledge nowadays, but he understood what Loimos meant. "She''s a sun-walking vampire" there was only one type of blood-drinker capable of moving under the light of the sun, even in the modern days, when undead threats were much lessmon than before, the vampires of Sun-Walker remained rather famous. "My thanks" Loimos actually let go of Miqi''s wrist, stunning even the living for a second, not actually have been expecting to be released so quickly, he didn''t even get time to look back at Loimos before the undead grabbed him by the face, pinning his head against a tree before dousing him at point nk with blighted blood, turning his head into mush. It went without saying that the living had nothing else of substance to say, he would have spilled the beans already, and anything else of importance wouldn''t simply be known by this rat tag man. Once more perfectly erasing any evidence of the death, Loimos walked back toward the road, but not toward the people lined up, instead he went the opposite way. __________ Armond continued on doing his job for the rest of the day, letting people in and asionally searching some people, but he really was focused on what Miqi had told him, should he run away or should he not? Should he risk attracting the wrath of Aliz¨¦? Perhaps he could simplyy down and keep on working for them, after all, Miqi could be wrong about their intentions. "Oh well, the mayor made an order of mana crystal? Hurry on in then" seeing that the wax seal was legitimate, he let the well-guarded caravan in. "Fifteen barrels of salt? That''s less than usual¡­" remarked Armond, letting the familiar face in anyways. "The biggest salt mine haspletely copsed on itself, expect less for at least the next few months, they''ve been saying that it wasn''t an ident, get from that what you will!" the man moved in after speaking his piece, without going through any sort of search. Chapter 91: Good Business "You''rete" a man whose belly couldn''t possibly expand any further without rupturing spoke with a face reddened by the ambient warmth, the heat of the two suns was even worse inside of the city, much less cold breezes to rescue you and a density of people and building trapping the hot, umting it. "Sorry, a freaking tree had fallen in the way, and no one to help me, I had to get a change of clothes afterward, looked like I had went for a swim, but hey, fifteen whole barrels of salt, with the stop in production, this is a lot" the man spread his arms and tilted his head to side a bit. The well-fed man shook his head, beads of sweat emerging from his forehead, trickling down his chin and neck. "Here, that''s double the usual, now help me unload" he threw a pouch of coins, rolling his eyes as he climbed up onto the carriage, the two of them carefully unloaded each of the barrels on stable ground. Putting them in line, they were both drenched in sweat by now and chugging down on some lukewarm water, the buyer moved up to the first barrel they had unloaded, tapping on the cover. "Is there a problem with this one?" the coachman moved up to the merchandise as well, musing over the fact that despite the two of them being inside a room with no windows, it was still impossibly hot. "I thought that it was heavier than the others, and look, it was already unsealed" he pushed up against the cover, it was clearly moving from the slight interaction, the other man pushed his hair back and didn''t hesitate to just open the barrel, wanting to see whether or not the salt had been damaged. The bigger man had been imagining that an animal had snuck inside and reflexively backed off, nothing happened and the first man ran his hands through the salt, moving it around and checking. "False alert, the salt is pristine! Must havee off when we were unloading them" rationalising, the coachman put the lid back on and stepped away, taking another swing of water before stepping outside, pushing open a door without any handle or locks to get back to his carriage. His horses were busy resting under the shade of a building and drinking from a small watering though, they had been busy unloading and taking breaks for a while now, the outside had turned dark, and was only getting darker, despite this, the salt provider was intending on driving his carriage back home. He bid his goodbyes, not lingering any long than he was supposed to, leaving the well-bellied man by himself, he remained outside for a while longer, the arrival of the night had made the outside fresher than the inside, he took multiple minutes breathing in and out, the sweat in his body drying away, leaving him feeling less filthy and ready to start working again. He went right back in, the flimsy wooden door swinging back and forth behind him as his attention naturally turned to histest purchase, he had paid double the usual for less salt but it was no problem, he had gotten wind of copses in the main salt mine before most and gotten the coachman to bring them immediately, he was nning on selling it at a much higher price than normal. He rubbed his hands together, imagining the fine prospect this would bring to him, he might even be promoted from lowly merchant to a bourgeois, he could buy a plot ofnd and start doing some agriculture, and from there, he would be able to passively build ie. His imagination was far from reality but he allowed himself to have hopes and dreams. In his daze, he didn''t notice something and kicked a piece of woodying on the floor, with pain surging from his toes and looked down at what he had just mercilessly struck. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om The room was illuminated by a brightntern, he quickly recognised the object, he almost ignored it but quickly realised that something was terribly off about its presence on the ground. He turned to the barrels, discovering the same one from earlier had once again lost its cover. "He put it back on, didn''t he?" he muttered to himself, having difficulties trusting his own memory for a moment, he clearly remembered the lid having been put back on just a little while back, but it was on the ground now, so surely he was mistaken. Stepping up to the barrel, the inside wasn''t well lit since his shadow was obstructing the light, but it looked just fine, half-heartedly, he ran his hand through the salt, expecting some sort of animal to bite his fingers. ''Ah, I must be going crazy¡­'' he honestly didn''t know why he had gotten so scared all of a sudden, the cover of the barrel hade off, what of it? One couldn''t just start panicking over every incongruity they encountered, it just wasn''t healthy and a waste of time. Just as he wasughing at himself for being such a scaredy cat, he saw a second shadow merge with his. He tried to question the foreign shadow but he failed to form any coherent words as he flipped around, barely catching a glimpse of the intruder, their hand already grasping thentern hanging from the ceiling, with a crunch, all light disappeared from the room. Raising his arms defensively, the big man backed off until he hit a wall, then moving to where he knew a corner would be, he felt more safe knowing that nothing could slither behind his back. He tried to make himself as quiet as possible, hoping that his assant had lost track of him in the darkness. The living''s hopes were all but insignificant. Remaining perfectly still, slowly feeling the strength of his legs being sapped away, sliding down to the floor as he heard nothing but the sound of his ragged breathing and beating heart. Until it spoke to him, a voice from outer-tomb, so cold and unfeeling. He shuddered. Chapter 92: The Dead That Live After finishing his business, Loimos stepped outside into the night, the moonless sky provided the perfect environment for an undead such as himself, he walked through the deserted streets, the lull of the night only disturbed by distant howls and shouts, passing by a few ces with light slipping to the outside, Loimos noticed how different Findpasser was to Throdqdmond. It had no habitations outside of the walls, the ce seemed to have been built with the express intent of one day bing a booming city as well, rather than a settlement growing overtime, it was clear that everything had beenid out to be of this size. No narrow back alleys, no scent of death hanging in the air, clearly the ce was maintained much cleaner and wasn''t ridden with murderous criminals, passing by a building titled adventurer guild, a stalwart stone structure, then by what seemed to be barracks for guards. Many businesses dealing with potioncraft, enchantments and other magical affairs, as well as more regr things, such as cksmiths and leatherworkers, for now, Loimos didn''t bother with them, simply acknowledging their locations, he was walking straight for the supposed crypt housed within the city, it was most definitely not a fluke, the undead could clearly sense a good amount of death force. It seemedcking to be his majesty, but all that mattered was that an undead did seem to be dwelling inside, Loimos climbed over a fence that couldn''t keep anyone meaning to get inside from doing so and approached an enormous chasm in the ground, the so-called crypt was more an enormous hole. The width of it spanned around ten meters, a rough staircase could still be made out on the side, spinning around the edges of the pit, though some parts had clearly copsed and even what was left didn''t appear very friendly to anything that didn''t weigh as much as a feather. Moving away from the hole, Loimos headed for a section of the fence that looked like a gate, having noticed that there was a lengthy sign erected right next to it, reading it, the skeleton was made aware of what the general poption knew of this. To the living, this ce was only rumoured to be the resting ce of an undead, although, with the clear death force emanating all the way to the top, even if they weren''t as sensible to it as Loimos, the death hunters should definitely know that it was a fact, yet, they hadn''t dealt with it already. Secondly, every year, at the end of summer, a torrent of wolf-sized, bat-like monsters were set toe spewing out, it was rmended to lock yourself at home for the day whilst adventurers and such were clearing out those that remained in the city rather than immediately flying off into the distance. Loimos reached into one of his pockets, having to dig through salt, after immersing himselfpletely into one of the barrels, every single ce that could hold any amount of salt was currently filled to the brim with it.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om He fished out a badly dposed hand, took off what was on his left hand and ripped it off, letting fall to the ground, his bony limb remaining mobile, using the extra hand he had kept on himself to quickly regain the use of his lost limb, he then enveloped the self-sustaining appendage in a thick ball of rot and blood, throwing it straight into the hole before stepping away. With a st, the mass of rot impacted on the ground soon after, allowing for Loimos''s hand, which was just as aware as he himself was, the undead was pretty much piloting himself and his limb at the same time, a task of no difficulty when everything about him was undead and benefited from the full advantages. Like a spider from the bottom of nightmares, the hand strolled along the ground, tip tapping as it headed for the source of the death force, ignoring the slumbering bat monsters, moving into a partly copse passage, every surfaces soon changed, or rather, they received a new addition, the typical grey of the stone and protruding crystals had all been utterly covered by undead locusts, all seemingly frozen in ce. Hidden away at the very end of it all, a singr corpse cradling its own disembodied head, on its knees and wearing robes whose original colours couldn''t even be guessed at this point, the head alone moved a bit as Loimos crawled closer. The corpse wasn''t skeletal or dried out, it was still muchposed of flesh, festering with the same locusts as before, Loimos had been told much about the closest members of the undead court, the gravelords, the king himself, the advisors, which Faraday was a part of and the royal guards. Amidst the advisors, there was one thatcked muchbat proficiency, a seer whose locusts could be used to predict sites where tremendous amounts of death would soon ur. "Irmandos" somehow speaking with the death tongue as nothing but a hand, Loimos called out to the seer. A bright spear-like rock was stabbed right through his arm and chest, the head shuffled around, using its hair to position itself upright. "That is indeed my name" he spoke in a strangely jolly tone, his decapitated head jumping up. "I am sorry, but I can not be of much help any longer, this spear was stabbed into me by a death hunter, trying to remove it will result in my total erasure for certain, I know because I can see the future, a bit" "Though, I can''t do any divinations with that thing in me, maybe fate has changed its course from what Ist saw a few millenniums ago, you must be looking to unseal his majesty Nitok, as all undead should be" Irmandos chuckled, opening and closing his jaw mechanically,cking any sort of lips or tongue, he didn''t even have any teeth. "I am afraid I won''t be of much use, the topography is doomed to have greatly changed since the war, but I can tell you about one thing for certain, Sun-Walker is a traitor" Faraday had been sealed before anyone else, yet, he too had been putting suspicions on Sun-Walker, thest gravelord to have joined their rank. "We undeads suffer from a problem, traitors within us, undeads who live in death" Chapter 93: No Failures "There has always been an unfortunate issue with many of the undeads that remembered their past lives, many couldn''t leave behind life! They were tainting death and all thates with it by taking it for a second life, simply outrageous! Malevolent! True evil! But under the rule of King Nitok, there was nothing they could do to challenge us" the spear embedded in his chest cracked, making some of the rotten flesh infested by the locust fall off, turning into goo before fully disappearing. Clearly, making any sort of movement or action was agitating the solid mass of life stuck in the zombified seer, he hadn''t moved at all from this spot for this very reason, but he knew very well that the spear couldn''t be removed at this point, he had already been forced to crawl all the way down here, with how much the life had already prated, all he could do was share his meagre knowledge, which he couldn''t even be sure was relevant any longer. "First, the Elven Light appeared, her abilities were a direct counter to both the vampires and our king himself, at around the same time, it became clear that Sun-Walker was never a true undead, he had only showed up out of nowhere, it didn''t take long before he began taking actions" the flesh on his head melted nearlypletely off, slipping through Irmandos''s fingers. The locusts spread their wings, buzzing filling the crooked space as the seer went into details about Sun-Walker''s treachery, he conspired with the elven heroin, allowing her to face Nitok on a one-on-one, a battle where the undead king was at a disadvantage, but somehow, even when faced off against a natural enemy of power rivalling his own, Nitok was simply not going down. Since prolonging a confrontation for too long could mean the arrival of the royal guards and gravelords, who Sun-Walker was supposed to preupy, Maiele Liameilos was forced to abandon the idea of total annihtion and sealed off the king of the dead. With his fall, those who lived in death scuttered away and despite being able to fight still, the gravelords all fell back and went into hiding, Irmandos was slowly getting more and more incoherent, unlike Loimos, which both soul and mind alike were considered dead, Irmandos only had regr ones, who were neither alive or dead.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om The life seeping into him was altering his speech and thoughts, it was doubtful whether what he was saying was perfectly in line with what he had truly meant to tell, his lower jaw detached but he kept on speaking. "The gravelords believe wholeheartedly that only with Nitok leading the dead can they triumph over life, they have retreated for I have predicted that it was the best course of action, that Nitok would naturally break off of the seal, fret not my fellow, time is on our side" he wentpletely silent for a few seconds, his body copsing upon itself. Loimos manifested some rot, preparing to decay what remained of Irmandos and absorb the ambient death force as Faraday had advised him to for he believed Loimos had the capabilities to aplish such a feat. "Vwoldtnir! Deep Crawler!" the zombie shouted, not even addressing Loimos any longer, it was quite unbefitting of an undead. "Drac, Son Of Dragon" after the outburst, his voice went down. He recited the name and titles of each of the gravelords, as though he was announcing their arrival in a throne room. "Vespertillo, The Night Flier" "Nosferatu, Of The Foetid Blood" Loimos had already heard much about the gravelords from Faraday, but the steel skeleton hadn''t bothered to mention their titles, he waited for the seer to finish. "K?rpersucher, Mind Scourge" "Multaemanus, The Unceasing" "Atsalinopalo, The Shattered" He paused, his melted body writhing as the spear of life threatened to break into pieces any seconds from now, his head falling to the ground, smashing against the ground like a rotten watermelon. "Sun-Walker, The Curse Breaker" He ceased and with this, Loimos enveloped him, and the locust with rot, pulling the remaining death to him as the spear shattered, driedpletely of life in the process of extinguishing Irmandos. As he had stated himself, there was nothing to do, so there were no failures here, only sess on Loimos''s part, it was just a shame that an undead that had been so close to the undead king had to be destroyed like this, that life spear had been some effective work as well, the skeleton could feel that, had he attempted to get rid of it which his usual methods, that it would have just detonated on the spot, the life within was rather vtile. The hand moved out of the thin passageway and into the chasm, the rot created from all of this followed closely behind him, he dug into the ground with acidic blood, stuffing all of this rot away from prying eyes. The bat monsters showed no reaction, still deep in their slumber as a bony hand moved along the ground before joining up with the rest of the rot, Loimos converting his own limb into more rot, this little underground operation he was doing was a little surprise that woulde in at ater date. With the knowledge that Sun-Walker, an undead chosen by death to be a gravelord, was a traitor, he had to be more mindful of that sun-walking vampire from Aliz¨¦, which was why, Loimos had been walking around the surface all of this time, searching for a certain life force signature. The one of the guard that he had spotted working at the gate, he had heard their entire discussion and thus knew that Armond was affiliated with Aliz¨¦, with Miqi, who by all ounts had been in charge of contacting the decision makers of that group, taken out of the picture, it shouldn''t be out of the realm of possibilities that they woulde and ask Armond about it eventually. As a guard working at the entrance and seemingly solely in charge of deciding who got in or not, Loimos reasoned that he was the one permitting entry of whatever substances Aliz¨¦ was making, he was rather important all in all. As a cadaver, Loimos had time to spare, he just needed to make sure Armond wouldn''t try to slip away from the city, so once he found out where he lived by tracking his life force, he simply walked up to his front door and knocked. Chapter 94: Deceit I believe I have already made myself clear about this subject in the past, but many of my kind contemporaries seem to entertain the belief that criticising a colleague''s work without any knowledge or substance, not even an ounce of understanding of the topic even. It is truly a bizarre thing, we all gather inside of this secret tower to speak of matters rting to our good friends, the undead, and yet, we have failed to shine a light on the fact that many amongst us are dead of mind! In any case, there is no point to the name calling, no matter how entertaining or true the activity may be. It seems a discourse has arisen on the subject of undead synesthesia, it used to be widely agreed that the purer an undead was, the more their senses merged with one another, hearing through sight, seeing through smells et cetera and et cetera, I shouldn''t have to repeat myself on the basic concept, I hope. A great portion of the misunderstanding of the theory of the perfect synesthesia for a perfect undead lies in the extra senses, I''ll admit, I believed that I had also made this clear, but allow me to borate once more. Let us first admit that our perfect undead is based on the corpse of some lizard, and has thus ess to some vision of heat, yes, through that particr sense, the synesthesia still applies, just as it applies through the dead one''s ability to detect life, death, mana or any other energy. Perfect means perfect, we are not dealing in approximate, the theoretical undead we are speaking off is simply a beast of perception, all that it needs is a good range for its senses and the capabilities to react to what it can perceive to be a true beast. If you only skimmed through my writings, here is the simplified version, the perfect undead is simply built differently. -Ohith Of The Underground Tower, ''A Brief Reminder'' Armond opened up the door after five whole minutes, time during which Loimos kept on banging on the door at the same exact rhythm, it would be an understatement that the guard was mad, he was fuming, awaken wholly by what he believed to be the tomfoolery of a group of child up much past their bedtime.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Not expecting to be met with a tall figure garbed in ck and wearing a filthy mask, he didn''t even register Loimos for a second, Armond had no other choice but acknowledge the undead however, the skeleton punched him in the guts without any precursory signs. Naturally leaning forward and holding onto his stomach, Loimos had all the time in the world to firmly grab him by the top of his head, pulling him outside for a moment. "Armond, Miqi has died and we at Aliz¨¦ are much aware of what he thought of our operations, you two were rather close, try following his footsteps, I will tear you limb from limb, attempt to report anything, I will gut your wife and strangle your children before your eyes, show anything indicating that you are under threat, and I will show you that all of the previous options are alluring inparison" grabbing one of his ears between his index and thumb, he pulled just enough for it to hurt. "Do not answer, I know that you understood" pushed him back inside, the undead closed the door himself and walked off in the same way he came, very nonchntly, his ways of trying to not appear too undead-like with his movements and behaviour ended up making him look like a very unbothered, but ssy mad hobo. This fact was something he for once didn''t realise. It went without saying that he wouldn''t be leaving the guard unsupervised, the livings could prove rather unpredictable in their actions, he knew this all too well. Tucking himself away in a dark corner, a good distance away from Armond''s dwelling, he spent his time circting his death force as well as doing the exercises Faraday had passed on to him, there was also the fighting style he had been taught, he had called it a portion of a style actually, but that wasn''t very urate, the metal skeleton simply believed, perhaps too much, that Loimos could incorporate the various ways of fighting of all of the gravelords. It was true that Loimos could probably replicate most of the blood powers of the vampires with more control of his rot, but for some other, he hadn''t been told what he could possibly be taught aboutbat by ghosts. Time went on as it was supposed to, and the rtively cool night soon turned to a gruelling hot day, the twin suns showed their ugly maws once more, quickly eating up the streets and producing a blinding light for those that made the mistake of raising their eyes. Loimos stood his ground, his arms crossed and looking down, despite looking absolutely suspicious beyond end, no one was really feeling like bothering with his existence, people were filling up the streets, all headed in various direction, the skin already glistening and the air filling up with the distinct smell of sweat. It would be a good idea for the undead to learn how to replicate this smell, at the moment, he was suppressing the vile odours he was supposed to unleash upon his surroundings, only his clothes carried a vague smell of dust, he mostly reeked of salt though. Soon, Armond went past him as well, they locked eye contact for a moment, the living couldn''t maintain it, it would appear that the undead''s impression of a threat had been on point, he followed the guard around the whole day and couldn''t catch any sign of him being nefarious. Apart from him allowing carriages containing drugs of course, Armond must have mentioned him to the carriers, they all motioned to him and one even spoke a bit, Loimos had inserted himself into this organisation the night just before and none seemed to be able to find fault with it. They were either a much bigger group than the undead had expected, or those guys were wholly ignorant, maybe simply idiots. The guys in charge of getting the drugs inside of the city were deemed to not have been granted much information anyways, they were the most likely to be caught and interrogated after all. His short conversation with the talkative one was rather fruitful however, he had learned that they weren''t members of Aliz¨¦ per se, they were employed by them but were really part of some sort of gang inside the city, a ckmarket of sorts, Armond had been working with them from the start as well. Aliz¨¦ had set nothing up, simply hijacking the current criminal affairs for themselves. Chapter 95: One "You''ve been looking an awful lot paler than usualtely Armond, what''s the matter?" another man, keeping a stall for some apples, sitting down on a stool and looking terribly out of shape, with his clouded eyes, the simple fact that he was noticing something about the guard was a cause for worry. "Just a little sick is all, I must have eaten something that wasn''t fresh!" he brushed off the question and quickly spun on his heels to leave, somehow, his gazended straight on the true reason of hisplexion, just leaning up against a wall and staring straight at him, by this point, it felt like there wasn''t a single spot on his skull that had been intensely watched by his stalker. He wasn''t just worried on the premise that Loimos was dering himself of Aliz¨¦, but that it didn''t make sense in the least, he had disguised it as jokes and off-handed remarks when mentioned him to the drug carriers, but those fools couldn''t see what was so off about this random guy. He had heard much from Miqi, and now knowing what theirtest drug was designed to do, it was apparent that apart from the four maniacs Miqi would sometime meet with to report to, no members of Aliz¨¦ were willing, he had seen one of those before, anyone that had worked with them had at least seen one of their freaks. Livid men and women, their eyes haggard, staring directly ahead at absolutely nothing, feeling seemingly no pain and barely capable of realising their own deaths when it befell them, Aliz¨¦ was full of nothing but thralls that could do nothing more than follow orders until they died, they wouldn''t and couldn''t do anything they hadn''t been explicitly told about by their bosses. But this guy that hade to threaten him was much too coherent, he was off in his own way for certain, but Armond couldn''t put his fingers on what it was that made his masked stalker so precisely weird, even after two entire weeks of having to endure his forcedpany. This weirdo could sometimes be found peeking through his windows, peeking was a rather light word to use, he wasn''t hiding himself, he just walked up and looked inside without any hesitation, Armond would even sometimes find him sitting in a corner of his bedroom. ''How is that even possible? Where does that chair he sits on evene from?!'' it was terrifying to know that someone could just go in and out of your home as they pleased, but the fact that he was even bringing his own furniture inside was simply horrifying in its own right. The inside of his home was also looking a lot more mouldy and decrepit than it used to as well, Loimos was a veritable disease upon his surroundings, his prolonged presence made things spontaneously want to putrefy. But eventually, and Armond couldn''t believe that he was considering this a good thing, one of the four finally decided to show up, wanting to discuss a few things since Miqi had vanished, he had been in charge of reporting pretty much everything rting their trade in Findpasser as well as the surroundings. With him gone, it seemed like Armond would have to fill in for a little while, but despite being relieved, for that event should signify that Loimos would stop staring at him every single hour of both the day and night. But the intermediary that hade to fetch him had only mentioned Miqi going missing, he doubted Aliz¨¦ would hide it had they butchered him like a pig, especially when the one keeping watch over him hadn''t hesitated to pronounce him dead, it was fishy. Armond knew that something shady was going on, but clearly, Loimos knew what the guard was thinking, sneaking out of the city to reach the point of rendez-vous, a night of a full moon, Loimos was pretty much dragging the poor man by the back of his neck. "Armond, how many of the four would Miqi usually meet up with?" questioned Loimos, his false voicecking much of the intonation generally associated with interrogation. "Only one?" not quite certain why he was asking this now, Armond kept eyeing his surroundings, he was not feeling this. Loimos couldn''t tell for certain with his ability to sense life force, it wasn''t advanced enough to detect someone rtively skilled trying to conceal their presence, he was able to suspect more than one person simply due to the physical clues left in the air, their scents hanging in the air wasn''t hidden alongside them. Although, it was obvious that One was part of the show, not only was his death force sense more proficient, she wasn''t hiding in the least, which was strange, as a sun-walking vampire, she was actually weaker during the night, maybe not as much as usual since it was a full moon but still, that wasn''t the best tactic when you were part of an illegal organisation manufacturing mindless soldiers. Loimos tightened his grip on the living, silencing him as he didn''t simply pull him along and truly began dragging him, heading straight toward the vampire. The skeleton was understandably more on guard than he would usually be since the vampire one was descended from was a betrayer, but he wouldn''t hold this against her, he didn''t hold anything against anyone. He first had to determine whether she was of those that live in death or an actualpatriot, surely, they could still find apromise even then, or he could just demonstrate her was true death feels like. The putrid undead was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, the ball was already in her camp before they even met. Him and an Armond shifting in colours made it to a minuscule clearing, a nicely carved table was sitting in the center of it all, the wind was quiet and the night was refreshing, standing opposite to that table was definitely the one calling herself One.N?v(el)B\\jnn A rtively, garbed in the dark suit of armour Miqi had described, it was indeed finely crafted, apart from everything above her shoulders, it was all well protected, although full of small parts clicked together, it didn''t seem shoddy in the least. The red pattern the living hadn''t been able to decipher was a rune pulled straight from the death tongue, which aptly signified the number one, that was a good sign, she knew the death tongue. Bright blonde hair going down to her shoulders, red eyes full of curiosity and a fanged smile at the sight of Loimos throwing Armond like rubbish to the ground, she was definitely rather attractive by human standards, Loimos himself had no such standards, so he had to make do with the opinion of some livings. "Will you assist me in liberating Nitok, King Of The Dead?" No bothers given, full speed, Loimos went straight to the point. Chapter 96: Corpse To Corpse Communication "Slow down there big boy, everyone knows that this is a matter of time, not of effort, why don''t we speak of my drugs, or perhaps of what is under that mask of yours?" she ignored the question, saying the same thing Irmandos had. She put one of her elbows on the table, leaning forward, shing her fangs at him, the furniture shaking abruptly when Armond hit his head trying to get up, weakly hoisting himself up for his head to peek up. "Miss One¡­ There is no need to worry about the trade in the city, I''ll keep doing my job!" at first, he had been wanting to say something about the fact that Loimos was probably not affiliated to Aliz¨¦, but the two had clearly been hitting it off from the get go. He didn''t even question the bit about undead of the dead or whatever it was that he had heard, he also did his best to ignore the fact that in that instant, his stalker''s voice had beenpletely different,ing from him but also not, instilling a deep sense of unease in him, like he didn''t belong. "It pleases me greatly to hear this, it really does, hum, Arnold? Whatever your name was, I''ll give you a promotion" the vampire turned to him, sounding just as casual but overall less friendly, Armond didn''t notice the subtlety in her tone or pale face. "You have my gratitude! What is it that I should do?" joining both hands together like in a prayer, One didn''t like that gesture one bit, her face immediately darkening in abhorrent disgust, bringing on hand in front of her face to shield her eyes from such decadence. "They''ll show you the ropes" with a snap of her fingers, figures garbed in white tainted by blood emerged from behind the trees, they were most likely the ones who had left traces of their passage and residuals of life around. Moving around with odd pauses and sudden impulsions of speed, they appeared like horrific puppets controlled by unsteady stings and twitching hands. Without waiting for much longer, they grabbed Armond, just as he realised what this all meant, despite all his years as a guard and living through his own handful of difficult situations, he didn''t possess the strength to break free from the hold of the thralls of Aliz¨¦, they grabbed his four limbs and carried him off into the woods as he screamed for help, screamed which fell on deaf ears. Like a damned insect, the vampire quickly scuttered up next to Loimos, she was rtively tall all things considered, Loimos had actually grown a bit since his beginnings, but he was just a head above her. "Hey, what is your name and why do you have no smell of your own" it was a good thing that Loimos bor little expectations of things and no reactions, because no one could have expected a vampire smoothly making her way across and shoving her face on your shoulder to take a whiff. "Loimos, Suppressing it, what is your name?" it seemed like she was quite the chatterbox, he would have to do his best and hold a conversation to hope to get somewhere.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "I don''t have a name of my own, it''s just One, did you see those guys? They used to be random bumpkins wasting away on the streets, now, they are serviceable pawns that can be ordered to do anything, if I order them to fly, they''ll actually try until they die of high exertion" she rapidly transitioned, putting a hand on the undead''s shoulder and pointing in the general direction they had gone with the Armond, who had grown silent after merely a few seconds of disappearing from sight. Loimos could still sense his life force off into the distance, waving chaotically and decreasing every instant. "Using their bodies to create undeads would be more efficient and yield greater results, but mere strength of body is not what you are looking for-" "Yes! Oh, you really get me Loimos, the point of my little experiments is to be able to create pawns that would still be able to operate like normal on the surface, and, you know, use it on higher figures of nations, really mess everything up" she cut him off, seemingly very excited, it looked as if she was going to bust out some dance moves any moment from now. "But it is still far from such a result, yes?" he had been speaking with the pale tongue at the start but switched over to the dead tongue, Faraday had mentioned how those that lived in death struggled to acquire its usage. "Oh Loimos, your empty tone really strikes hard, if my heart was still beating, I might have skipped a few pulses¡­" but One proved that despite the very lively movements and tone, she was an undead who left life behind, the possibility wasn''tpletely dispersed. "You are right though, I am not a great alchemist and the ones that I painstakingly brainwashed with my meagre vampiric charms aren''t much better, the only advantage is that I can truly work them to the bone" her armour clinked and nked as she made wide movements with her arms. She turned to the skeleton, crossing her arms. "Enough about me however, why don''t you get morefortable and take that mask off? And maybe that I should relinquish the weight of my Armour as well?" she winked at the unfeeling corpse. "Even if the return of our ruler is decided by the passing of time, we should not remain idle, do you know where the royal crypt is?" wholly ignoring the previous statement, he asked his own question. "I have no idea, many ces are said to have crypts, but whether or not they belong to the king is hard to tell, I myself, am not proficient enough at sensing death force to know the difference between undeads stronger than myself, what about the one here, in Findpasser?" she answered seriously, still moving back towards him, clearly she wasn''t aware of what personal space was about, thankfully for her, Loimos didn''t know this concept either. Loimos exined that it was where Irmandos had been left trapped and that he had been destroyed, One didn''t know much at all about the days of the war, she had only been a vampire for a few years. She had not a single clue who Irmandos was, in fact, she only knew the founder of the sun-walking vampires by name. Chapter 97: Agreement "You have no knowledge of the war or the gravelords, yet you appeared certain that his majesty would be brought back by time alone, howe?" by then, the two of them were overlooking Armond getting wrapped up in bloody clothes, he had only been injected with a dose of thetest drug produced by One a few few minutes ago, but he had been made into a loyal servant already. "Don''t you feel in your guts? We undeads just know it, the king to soon break out of his cage ande back to lead us once more, that''s why I''m working to nt agents high up inside as many kingdoms as possible, this way, we could distract them with their own affairs for us to properly group up" she exined as the newly made thrall stood up and joined the ranks.of the few others the vampire had brought with her. She had spoken in length of many things, if Loimos didn''t stop her to question her, she would just keep on rambling, all the while moving closer and closer, to the point that she might just climb up on his back at one point, Loimos couldn''t be slowed down by her weight so he didn''t bother moving away. "So, you are set on finding out where the king is, and then you''re going to go find the ancient undeads who were part of the court?" One rubbed her chin, her other arm around the skeleton''s neck, she could clearly tell that his body was somewhat mushy by now, only cultivating her odd fixation.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Loimos knew that the undeads that once surrounded the king were simply in realm of powers that he hadn''t even scratched yet, Slotriig, a royal guard, possessed incredible might, the heavy hitters on the side of the living had been there a long time ago, it was highly unlikely for them to still be around. Thanatok Ynig¨®s, The First Death Hunter and Maiele Liameilos, The Elven Light. Those two were the two big names of the living ording to Faraday, Ynig¨®s was an adversary that was said to be nearly unbeatable, only, he had disappeared without a trace half-way throughout the war. Liameilos was said to have been a high-elf, a long-lived species, which made it possible for her to still be around, but it was a challenge the undeads could ovee, there was also the issue of Sun-Walker, but once again, a single gravelord wouldn''t be able to topple everything. "That is my intention" he responded shortly. "Your own n has merit as well, may I have doses of the drug?" he extended his hand toward her, and she mused whether to hold or not but managed to contain her urges, calling one of thrall over and getting them to hand over four doses, each contained in small sealed containers, Loimos slid three inside of his coat and rotted the fourth, so that he may learn to replicate it eventually and add its effects to his blighted blood. With the matter of the crypt in Findpasser dealt with and his confirmation that the sun-walking vampire of Aliz¨¦ was an ally, he would be heading for Weafewand to check its own crypt himself, he made sure to interrogate One on the various cities he had to visit and if she was aware of any other crypt. Weafewand, unlike Findpasser was very focused on a single matter, it was said to be built above mines of stones and crystals dense with mana of all sorts of elements, a true wonder, mages were believed to be of greater powers when born there, as such, the entire city relied on magic researches and preparing their young mages to integrate into Toordefer Academy. Everything had to be done with magic one way or another their, as such, it was certain to be a difficult town to infiltrate for Loimos, magic casters would be everywhere and could be able to detect his abnormal mana, not to mention that if a fight broke out, Loimos would be at a disadvantage, spells can easily carve right through him, even with his death force reinforcements, he wouldn''t hold up against a barrage of spells. "Loimos, before you leave, would you mind, hum, lending me a hand? I had actually been meaning to silence everyone knowing of the deal within the city, those fuckers think they can just sell my stuff at a higher price than normal and not give me my money at all, I can''t have them telling on my business when the final product isn''t even close to being done, can you help murder every single criminal in this city, pretty please?" he could have told her that one of the royal guards he was going to look for eventually was a knowledgeable alchemist, but he knew that were idea of passing time, and his idea of it wherepletely different, it would take him months, if not longer just traveling from ce to ce to check the crypts and he might not find this undead at all. So he agreed, he could not possibly have a problem with ughtering people. "Alright, let''s find each other near that hole in the ground in three days, at night, I''ll bring the other three as well, don''t try to murder them please, I need them alive for my dealings" without borating any further, she sent a kiss flying his way and took her thralls away. It was a wonder whether she would still be so flirtatious was she aware that he was a skeleton coated in decay, but not one of Loimos''s, he headed back into the city, the gate still somewhat open from when Armond had sneaked out, he had gotten himself into the night shift ahead of time to be able to go out and meet with one, no one else seemed to have noticed that the gate wasn''t as it should. Loimos slipped inside, walked over to the rather simple contraption in charge of making the gate slid and closed it down as it should be before heading for the home of thete Armond, getting inside through a window that didn''t close as he had many times before and to insure that his disappearance wouldn''t be noticed too quickly, silenced the ones certain to know first. Clearing everything of possible proof of foul y, Loimos used the reminder of his time before the agreed time with One to do some light testing of his abilities. Chapter 98: Red Entrance With two bone ws and other tricks operational once more, Loimos stood on the outside of the gate supposedly preventing people from getting in, this night wasn''t nearly as bright as a full moon but the moonlight was shining somewhat either way, not that it mattered for Loimos, but One was bringing along some livings, it was unlikely that they all had great vision in the dark. The streets were once again empty, save for a few younglings that had ran through the streets a few minutes ago, it was certainly hard to imagine that some great criminal activities were constantly brewing just out of sight of Findpasser, One was selling drugs to fund her project, and from what she had said, they weren''t soft in the least, so the fact that Loimos had yet to stumble upon anyone under its influence was rather suspicious. It didn''t take much longer for the vampire and her temporary colleagues to show up, and they looked just as Miqi was described, save for some details he hadn''t mentioned, One walked over and leaned up against the undead. "This is Loimos, he''ll be helping us today" the undead nodded, as it seemed like the vampire wasn''t wholly certain that he wouldn''t attack anything that breathed on sight. Loimos wasn''t a wild animal, he could work with a few livings here and there, he would still be plotting their downfall as an entire group at the end of the day. Miqi had been right to be afraid of these women, they all indeed seemed mentally deranged in some way. Two, the desert woman was holding onto a long spear with a ded point, appearing more suitable to cut and ve than to pierce, she was just staring at the ground, deeply in thought, which she had been even as she had been walking over. Three, the one with the unusual green de just seemed itching to murder someone, all the while wearing a pleasant smile on her face and whistling a tune. As for Four, well it seemed rather obvious face to face that she wasn''t a human at all, from afar, one might make the mistake but upon closer inspection, it should have been clear that she wasn''t even close to being one. Apart from One, they didn''t seem very interested in the concept of armours, none were wearing an effective set of protective gear, but One had said that she needed them, so they were surely going to show him that they didn''t need any. "Let''s get down to business, one of the entrances to their underground is in a house nearby" the vampire led the way, it was a very good thing that no one was out, the mere sight of them gathered together would be enough to make children cry. Arriving before a home like any other, Loimos could confirm that two livings were inside, sitting down and ying some kind of card game, he still couldn''t use his synesthesia to its fullest extent when it came to his senses to detect life force unfortunately. The woman with the green de took the lead, assuming a simr stance to the man that wielded a simr de, but she was clearly on another level entirely, the man had mostly relied on the capacities his sword arts brought him to fight, but she was seemingly able to maintain the absurd eleration granted by the art. From the undead''s point of view, it was like the door burst open at the same time the two men inside had their heads detached from their bodies, one of them ying his cards before truly dying. Arts were truly an interesting concept, Loimos had tried to replicate the movements of the man from back then, and despite doing so wlessly, he had been unable to achieve the expected result, clearly, the arts held conditions beyond the stance. "One, those are freaking weak, absolute bums picked off the shit-flooded streets!" sheined, kicked one of the headless corpses down before sheathing her de once more, the weapon free of any blood. "Those are just the lookouts, tastes like crap" meanwhile, the bug-eyed woman took a bite out of one of them, shaking her head unfavourably. Clearly, the food was too nd for her liking. One was also busy with gathering the blood into a floating sphere, showing that she wasn''t very experienced as she struggled to do it for a little while, finally, the bodies themselves were disposed of by Loimos. Meanwhile, the one with the spear pried open a hatch in the ground, barely hidden underneath a rug, the locking mechanism was protruding from the ground, creating a bump on the chosen method of concealment, clearly, the criminals weren''t trying really hard.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om The covert nature of their dealings must have made it so they were never bothered in the first ce, considering that Armond had been part of their group as well, it wasn''t farfetched to believe that many other guards also worked for them. Loimos dropped down there first, able to confirm that the ck market was just ahead, bustling with customers that were probably not from Findpasser, the passage leading there was rather cramped, they would have to each step out into sight of everyone one by one. "Two, you''re up! Do the spin thingy" One spoke to the dark-skinned woman, who acquiesced with a nod and moved on ahead, after much brushing past everyone. Stepping out into the open, she cracked her neck and raised her spear above her head, everyone was either busy trying to negotiate prices and looking down with hoods over their heads to conceal their identity, so they took an awful lot of seconds to notice her spinning her weapon at high speeds. This time, it was no battle art, she just spun her spear in ce to build up momentum before turning into what could be essentially described as a tornado of blood and dismembered bits. "It hurts to think so much blood is going to get mixed in with filth" Once the gorey tornado concluded, the rest of them were already out of the narrow tunnel, ready for carnage, as the hysteria of the people settled in, nearly all of the other ways inside the underground copsed on themselves, the other passages linked to the outside of the city, so they had already been rigged with explosives, now detonated by One''s diligent, unwilling workers. As for the way they had gone in themselves, the monster woman spat something back at it, which deployed into thick, sticky spider webs. There were no ways out. Chapter 99: Slaughter I have seen my fair share of history, I have borne witness to many atrocities birthed from all sides and reaches, I know of whatys upon other continents, millions upon millions of kilometers across the sea and oceans, dreadful monsters, nations of madness, inds consumed by an ominous me, ces inhabited by beings we can noty eyes upon. I have gone to many ces, I have risked my life many times solely for the selfish desire of more knowledge, yet, somehow, there is only one thing capable of appalling me even more than the undead legions and their rotten desires. When I hear of a fellow person, someone gifted with reason, logic, blessed with the ability of sapience, when I hear that someone much like me in mind rejoices for the damage done to those they disagree with, celebrate the misfortune. I can only look upon them in disgust for they are squandering the freedom granted by their evolved mind, for they can not see that the damage done to their proimed enemies could soon befell them as well, they do not realise that byughing and epting what happens to their rivals, they are only leaving themselves open to the same happenings. So let us all shake hands for once, let us all recognise our differences but also the fact that we are all living, let us make use of the fight given to us, people of Viridis by the unreachable gods, we were granted the ability to all understand one another despite thenguage barriers, and yet, we haven''t used it to its full extent. Let us think freely and recognise ourmon enemies, those who oppose our very nature as living beings. Let us unite, and wipe out the threat of the living dead. -Excerpt of ''We The Breathing'' by Bethome Meleme. Loimos was thrown back into a flimsy stall as a bulky man bashed him in the side, only to also impact balls of rot, all ripe with petroleum-like blood, exploding with their nasty juices, the man, who had deemed it unnecessary to wear a shirt was doused in the malevolent concoction, his skin sizzling and sending him rolling to the ground. "Ahahah! Crying like a little baby?" the spider woman mocked him and the buff criminal witnessed with his one untouched eye at the four, horrifically long spider legs protruding from her back, all of them decorated with unlucky colleagues, who hadn''t been in before being paraded around. She kicked him in the face with much brutality back toward the already approaching Loimos, who put his foot up against his nape and gave it a good twist, a sick crunch indicating his certain demise. The whole ce had turned beyond chaotic at this point, most of the buyers couldn''t fight for the life of them, or were too spooked to try, leading to many people just running around like headless chickens, some of them, in fact, missing their heads. The various criminals inhabiting the ck market had quickly beguning out of hiding, but none proved to be particrly skilled or strong, no mages had shown their faces either, so the five of them were free to rampage as they pleased. One had pulled out two odd-looking des, somewhat simr to the one-edged de of her ally but much shorter,cking pointy tips and definitely bulkier, those des were clearly overly weighty. Using them as a medium, she was flinging flying blood des all over the ces, the shes aimed in on unsuspecting people, cutting them to the bone. Although, at the moment, the vampire was sitting back and gathering blood in an orb while simultaneously sipping from it with a wooden straw. Two, after her initial storm of limbs, hadn''t done any other shy moves and simply used the length of her weapon to easily pick apart the people trying to fight back, ignoring those unwilling tobat. Three on the other hand wasn''t aiming for anyone in particr, zipping around the ce without restraint, carving through masses of people, their clothes, flesh, bones and weapons incapable of even slowing her down as he mowed down the crowd all the whileughing wholeheartedly like she had just heard the most hrious joke ever.N?v(el)B\\jnn The spider woman, Four, was just adding more bodies to her growing collection impaled upon her extra legs, it wasn''t clear whether it served a purpose or not, but she seemed to be having a lot of fun doing this all the while chewing on a disembodied arm. As for Loimos, since he couldn''t quite keep up with the murder machines in the front, he just worked to absorb the ludicrous amount of death force in the air and cleaned up the corpses, objects left behind as well as the stalls and everything they had to sell. All of this would do good to add to his repertoire of things he had to learn to replicate with primeval rot, though he would first need to be able to grow bone structures at a moment''s notice like he was able to do with his blood, rot and miasma. An arrow empowered by mana was sent flying straight at One after someone came bursting out of the door elevated above the market itself, in fact, the archer was swiftly followed by others, all taking aim at different targets. The projectiles were right through the vampire''s head, without resistance for it had all turned into a pinkish mist right before impact, then turning back into her head, only that she had a light frown now, her wooden straw had fallen to ground for there were no mouths to hold onto it. Whether or not they thought they would be effective was unknown, but their volleys of arrows didn''t harm anyone, a bunch struck Loimos straight in the chest but they didn''t even hit his bones, they just sank right in and were consumed by decay. Moving up to the spider, Loimos mimed a flick with his finger and pointed at the archer. "Throw me" he demanded, and the spider showed him her countless teeth. "I like how you think rotbag!" without asking for more rifications, she curled up one of her extra legs, Loimos point his feet upon it and when she released it, the undead was sent like a true cannonball, much faster than when he did it himself, he ought to implement a system like this one instead of his imprecise sting procedure. Landing an elerated dropkick directly to the sr plexus of the archer directly in front of the door, the criminal''s neck was snapped before his body could be minced up as they struck the uneven wall behind. The two people inside the room looked at him as though he was an unicorn, sheer confusion stered all over their faces. Two men, one with a branding mark burnt right on his forehead and another, a barbarian-looking green-skinned orc. Loimos went back to his feet, casually moved up to the door and closed it, turning the lock even. "Who the fu-" the man with a brand etched onto his face wished to express his confusion aloud but both the orc and Loimos were already at each other''s throats. Chapter 100: Piercing Drop Apart from the three of them, the room was only filled with a rathervish desk, poorly painted art pieces and stacks of coins in a corner behind the branded man, the walls were carved roughly through the stone, the ceiling was a good height to amodate for therge orc, but all in all, the room was much longer than it was wider. The green-skinned fellow stomped forward, shaking the room, he towered well over Loimos, not much in terms of sheer height, but his shoulder width was simply enormous, multiple Loimos would be able to stand next to one another before reaching the same size. Pulling out the short ck de, Loimos mimicked the movements of its original owner perfectly, tricking the orc into thinking he was better at wielded the de than he really was, still, he didn''t back off and simply frowned, banging on his chest, the dull sound of metal hitting metal filling the room. The orc wasn''t wearing much armour at all, only a chestte and some of the leg pieces, his bulging arms were leftpletely unprotected, and unfortunately for the undead, his opponentwas well aware of this, banging on his chest and letting out a warcry was the necessary requirement to activate was battle art to reinforce his bare body against sharp weapons. His fists wrapped with spiked gauntlets, he charged toward the skeleton, who maintained his position, seeing someonepletely unbothered by his murderous charge, with which he was in many in a single hit was rather troubling, so he adapted and broke his momentum with nothing but the strength of his arms, instead switching up to a kick aimed straight at the center of Loimos''s mass. Like an eel, the undead weaved his body in an ufortable-looking position, somehow regaining his bnce without a hitch, the undead ran around the orc whilst he still had one leg up in the air, sliding back and attempting lodge the tip of his sword into the back of the knees of his adversary.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om But the de on bounced back harmlessly as it met with something harder than itself, crumpling to the ground and rolling away to avoid the counterattack, the two of them returned to their first positions, both having failed to do any harm, Loimos sheathed his de for it was clearly useless. Instead stepping back and probing the exploded cadaver he had made his bloody entrance with, shifting its entire mass into his own rot,pressing into a ball, turning a portion of the inside into fluid blood,pressing everything further again, but instead of using it to attack, he put it away and manifested a torrent of blood himself as the orc wasn''t going to let him to his things so easily. Backing up against a wall, the undead feigned surprise, unnecessary for his green enemy was already in the process of punching forward, the strikended straight where the skeleton''s stomach should have been, the orc only felt the hardness of the wall however, all of the rot and bones had been moved out of the way, the hard impact against the wall caused dust to fall from the ceiling, a wave of vibrations coursing through his body as a result of the manoeuver. "Watch the hell out! Do you want to get buried alive?!" the branded man had retreated further into the room, hiding behind his desk and chair like a scared little mouse, there was no way for him to hope to help the orc fight anything, so he was hanging back and not getting in the way. "Don''t you worry boss, I''ve got the freak!" the green fellow smiled brightly, showing off his tusks more than able of grinding the undead''s bone straight into bone meal. Saying this, he used his other fist to try and pop the skull of Loimos, against a wall, it was certain to work out perfectly, despite having already shown his resistance to being beheaded, the skeleton didn''t allow the orc to check if crushing was the same, his head, as though his neck had goneid, went swinging down up against his chest, resulting in the orc once against hitting nothing but the wall. Using the shock of having his opponent breaking their own neck spontaneously, Loimos pulled thepressed ball of rot filled with blood, he hadn''t stoppedpressing further and further ever since he had hidden it away, his hands moved right in front of the living''s face, the small, dense ball of rot spun up in the air right into front of his eyes. The orc didn''t really know what he was looking at, with both palms, Loimos pped down on the rot creation, rupturing the rot and propelling the packed blood forward, the uracy left to be desired, but at point nk, the undead didn''t have to worry about this. The ck blood surged in a line, missing the living''s eye only by a little bit and striking him against the side of his nose, managing to leave a hole and burn on it, drops of the vile liquid ending up inside of his ocr globe anyways. Reeling back at the sudden pain, the living brought his hands up to face, feeling the small drops of blood squirming around and digging into his soft bits like festering insects, the pain was nigh unbearable, and his vision on his left side was gued by growing dark spots. "Hey watch out-" the other man inside the room tried warning the orc, but it was futile, Loimos was already leaping on the orc like a rabid hound, shoving two fingers into the still good eye, popping the entire thing out of its sockets before injecting a small amount directly into the now hollow space, the orc grabbed the skeleton and threw him away before starting to blindly thrash around until he finally copsed as the corrosive blood dug into his brain. "Oh gods- Hey, surely we can speak about this? I have lots of money, I have a few connections to plenty of markets as well! very is banned on Viridis, but I can still get you one, what do you like man?" the man, apparently the boss of this ce, put his hands in front of him, like he was trying to calm down some dangerous predators approaching him. Loimos put all of his bones back in his their intended ces and began walking toward thest living in this room, the man in question could only look powerlessly at his supposedly secret escape tunnel, which had been copsed the same as the rest, despite the disy of power, he didn''t even realise that Loimos was an undead. "Not interested in money and ves? Those are temporary after all, I understand! I have a lot of goods you could choose from, maybe I could order something for you? Is there nothing that you like?!" he was forced into a corner as the undead didn''t stop advancing upon him. "You would not happen to be in possession of a map detailing the location of various dungeons and rted buildings, would you?" the man went pale as Loimos addressed him with the pale tongue, feeling himself dry of all words. Understanding that this was a no, Loimos stepped back and unsheathed his sword, slitting his throat. Chapter 101: Ones Delusions "There really is nothing left huh? You would make for a great assassin Loimos, you should consider joining the Fin-Limiers"mented Three, her green de resting on her shoulder, everything from corpses, items and even constructions had been eradicated from existence, even the slightest of misceneous objects had decayed away. Loimos had only left most of the money the head of the ck market intact for One to forward her ns with, but he had still rotted some, if he could learn to recreate them perfectly, he would be able to start murdering economies by proliferating those coins and then suddenly making them disappear. What a shrewd method it would be. "Alright then, I suppose it is time for us to part ways" the vampire put her hands on her hips, her threepanions off discussing something amongst themselves a distance away. Loimos was going to head for Weafewand, a ce he was certain would pose him lots of problems just manoeuvering in, but it would surely be a good experience, if an undead was really confined within this city, it was certain to a rather powerful mage, King Nitok was a mage himself and he had nurtured many other during his reign, any undead that had learned from him were highly valuable allies. One of them even was a royal guard, Slotriig had even imed that he was more powerful than he was, but really, any assistance was wee, it was a good thing that One was also working on something as well, the more undeads came together to prepare for the arrival of Nitok, the worse it would be for the living. "Hum, may I see your face, before we part ways and all that?" the vampire tip-toed up to him, showing him big round eyes like a kitten, as though that would aplish anything. He slid his mask up, having to put some force into it since it was stuck to his skull by plenty of disgusting bodily fluids and substances that could not be properly described without a full team of experts. Revealing his putrefied skull and teeth meant for ughter, the vampire squirmed in ce, tightening her fists as though she had to hold back from doing something, to her dismay, Loimos quickly put the mask back on. "Oh Loimos, you are exactly my type" she said seriously, ttering words addressed to a corpse with thoughts of genocide of all that lives. "There are plenty of rotten carcasses waiting toe out of hiding for his majesty" he assured her, but she waved his words off and nted a bloody kiss on the mask of moulding cadaver, Loimos felt nothing but if this sort of meaningless activities were going to get her to put her n into action faster, he would allow it. Absolutely not shaken in the least, Loimos reminded her of their job as undeads and walked away, the red mark of the kiss still right in his mask, it certainly gave him a less cold vibe, nobody would think that the guy getting kisses was a vile undead after the life of everything alike. "Did you just say that your type was a corpse?" the desert woman couldn''t ignore that statement, even for a vampire that was freaky, she looked genuinely distressed as the images forced themselves in her mind. "You wouldn''t get it" One responded with a smile. "I sure hope I will never get it!" "Just you watch, I will teach him about love, and then we''ll have lots of half-vampire half-skeletons babies" "Alright, I am leaving" "I agree with Two, that crap is too much even by my standards" said the spider monster currently licking an eyeball like it was a delicious candy. "People like you is why cremation is getting more popr" all three of her colleagues took shots at her before making their way out, soon enough, the empty space where the ck market once stood was left deserted. On his way out of the city, Loimos broke into the businesses he had noticed before and decayed their products and tools for undead purposes, Weafewand may be the closest city on his list but it was still much further than Findpasser had been from the spot he had emerged out of the caverns, he might actually need to get a carriage or horse, which implied learning to drive and ride each one respectively.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om For now, he walked into the night, taking the main road as he had before, the beaten path empty of all cirction at the moment, stretched out into the horizon and the night soon turned into day, the deadly heat returning with it, the suns sending down waves of heat even greater than the previous days, to the point that it wouldn''t be strange for wildfires to spontaneously begin where the canopy of the countless trees didn''t cast deep shadows. His hand deep into his salt-filled pockets, Loimos was really starting to master his ''lively'' walk, looking less like a wandering murderer than before, even if just by a little bit. Suppressing his stench of death at all times, he was osted by wild beast and monsters on a few asions, the sort of monsters that lurked near such roads were rarely very dangerous however, the territorial ones that had used to live around had quickly been killed or push away, and for the simply powerful ones, much the same treatment had befell them. Roads were goods travelled were an affair of great importance, especially in Tamaris, it wasn''t something that could be left to chance, Loimos had no trouble dealing with the few that dared showed up when they saw him moving all by himself. He passed by multiple viges and settlements, and may have shown some livings there that the other side was a much better ce, but for the most part, he moved without stopping at all. Up until he met a man by the side of the road, the wheel on his carriage had broken beyond repair, and of course, this human tried to ask for some assistance. Chapter 102: Reminder Of The Basics "Alright then, I know all of you already learnt this, but not that I mean to insult your teachers and instructors, it is simply rathermon for egregious shortcuts and simplifications to be made when they shouldn''t, thankfully, as shown during the earlier test of your generalpetences, all of your have a good grasp of mana weaving" Milo and Helena were sitting side by side, she was expertly attentive as usual, he was also paying attention, feeling quite rxed after all. The entrance ceremony hadn''t been too bad, and contrary to what he had used to hear about nobles and people of higher bloodlines, no one was an overly annoying prick, Toordefer Academy wasn''t a ce for one to mess around in, it was considered the finest academy for magic and energy teachings. And since Tamaris was a nation that preferred to remain neutral at all times, there were even foreigners roaming the halls, everybody here felt like it was an honour to be here, honestly, Milo had no idea how in all of creation he had ended up here with Helena. Thankfully, it seemed like it wouldn''t be as difficult as he pictured, thedy teaching them was simply going to go over the criteria to gauge one''s mana, something he had learned well. The woman teaching them was clearly a mage by profession, dressed up in dark red robes, she was still moving around unhindered in the least, her hair were simrly a bright red colour, not orange, actual red. Milo had never seen this before, even her eyes seemed to be ignited with fire, she had presented herself as Rosemary and judging by the gasping that had urred, she was rather famous, though, if they knew her already, how could they have not recognised her on the spot? Milo shook his head, he needed to focus even if he supposedly knew the lesson already. "Each one of us have simplicities and difficulties due to the various aspects of our mana, it goes without saying, but there are various methods to improve each of those aspects, be it by simply practising more, using the system or specific items, do not forget that the differences in your mana will most certainly always remain, the people with greater mana than you will always be better at the same level, keep that in mind as a rule of thumb" she crossed her arms, many had the bad reflex of focusing on the mass that had been elevated by such an action. Milo kept it straight, he had other mounds to worry about, Rosemary continued her lesson unbothered. "Alright, then the basics of the basics, inner maniption, this is where the magic happens, literally, you circte and form spells inside of your body before manifesting outside, generally by retaining physical touch with the spell, which, while having technically brought the spell out, allows you to retain control over it with inner control" She turned to an open window, raised her right hand and manifested a me from the top of her index finger as demonstration.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "A nice trick, however, if you were to fight anyone, this means that you have to tantly signal that you are casting a spell, and in this manner, the direction you are aiming in is also beyond obvious, this can be solved with outer maniption or by simply being faster in your casting" she exined, also taking some time to ask around if people around were still using gestures and spoken words to cast basic spells, the high amount made her sigh deeply. "So, outer maniption¡­ In practice, you will feel that is like inner maniption but just awfully more difficult, depends on whether you project some of your mana outside of your body or take over some ambient mana, but both ways have their share of problems, most people barely bother with this in the end, they only learn it in very close proximity to themselves at most" she then effortlessly conjured up a round ball of fire all the way at the back of the ss, maintaining it whilst simultaneously talking and moving around, not even keeping her eyes on it. Right after saying how difficult it was, she was definitely flexing her otherworldly mana control on them, and it was working wonders, everyone was agape. Rosemary didn''t feel the need to bask in the admiration of students that couldn''t even qualify as third-rate mages yet, she pped her hands, causing the orb of mes to disappear. "Now, limit, do you all remember what that means?" now that she had gone over the most obvious of all, she decided it was time to see if they had properly learned before showing up here. Many hands raised at the same time, the striking silence of the ss only interrupted by the shifting air caused by their arms standing straight. In true teacher fashion, Rosemary looked at the people that clearly knew the answer, her gaze thennding on a mousy girl at the front, who was definitely not asking to answer the question. "So, what is limit all about?" the poor girl swallowed her saliva, took a deep breath and gave her answer slowly. "Limit refers to the maximum amount of mana one can force into a spell on top of the necessary amount, it¡­ It also sometimes refers to the opposite, how much someone can remove mana from a spell and still make it work out as intended¡­" the girl was looking down. "Perfect! Indeed, that is what limit is all about, and unlike what some may say, it goes both ways" their red teacher praised the timid girl and moved on to the next point. "Efficiency is rted to limit in some capacity, having higher efficiency means that you will consume much less mana than average, with bad efficiencyes awful mana usage, if you are weak in that department, do not worry, it is one of the more easily solved by simply training" she reassured. "I don''t need to exin capacity, it is just your total amount of mana, always useful to have more than everyone else, but having an enormous amount makes it harder to conceal and you may have the bad habit of pouring more mana than necessary" she exined a few things anyways, apparently, there were downsides to have lots of mana. The lesson about the basics of mana was getting quite lengthy, the more it went on however, the less they would be speaking of more advanced stuff, Milo was liking this prospect. Chapter 103: Stumping Question "Recuperation should also be self-exnatory, it is the rate by which you recover your lost mana naturally, the faster the better but if your recovery is too fast, you might suffer from some mana sicknesses, it''s kind of eating too fast, so you would have to learn to bear the effects or manage to slow your recuperation yourself" Milo hadn''t thought that their could possibly be disadvantages to have a mana aspects way above average, he had imagined that the great mages one would sometime hear about were of those whose every aspects were off the charts. Rosemary seemed to be implying otherwise however, walking through the halls, tormenting nobles and talentedmoners alike with insidious questions, the ssroom was much like an auditorium, the students were higher elevated than the teacher at her desk, only when she went by Milo did he realise that the fiery-coloured mage was actually quite tall. In fact, he was fairly certain that he had never seen such a tall person ever, but more notable than this, with his meagre amount of training in mana detection, he noticed that he couldn''t sense her mana in the least, in fact, even when she had casted spells, he hadn''t noticed anything, he chalked it up to his proficiency being poor but was still rather impressed. "Transmutation now, few are the mages who make use of basic mana on the regr, it is usually favoured to use the element one is aligned with, even those with no particr affinities tend to rather go through the bother of using an element anyways" she took a pause and stared straight at a random student, freezing him in ce. "That is absolutely idiotic, basic mana isn''t something to leave behind, I would wager that basic mana will always be the mana you have the most control over, unless you are a special case and possess a specific trait" "Keep on using mana in its raw form" she advised them, although it sounded more like an order. "Thenes the power, or sometimes referred to as output, the capacity for destruction of each of our manas is different, it is an aspect that is nearly impossible to improve by simply training, thankfully, spells and condensing mana allows an easy way to improve fire power even with ridiculously low power" "Once again, too much power can prove difficult to control, and may even bring harm to the caster, lot of items, such as most wands and staff increase the power however, but those are for special asions, or ipetents" she spoke thosest two words really quickly, as though they could be directed at someone in particr. She quickly moved on, summoning two mes, making them orbit around her, the one closest to her spinning much faster than the one further away. "Speed, exactly the same thing as power, they go hand in hand really, someone with both tremendous speed and power in their mana can cast a simple mana bullet and obliterate a sturdy creature, let''s say a bear, as an animal, it doesn''t have much magic defences, an average mana bullet would pierce without much problem, the one with great speed and power would make the poor beast explode everywhere" she mimed the explosion with her hands, apparently imagining it vividly. "Resistance is much more important than you think, every year, the younglings seem to think everything is about maniption, power and speed, they are wrong and so are you! If all of you casted a spell at me right now, I would be able to dismantle all of them, turn your mana into my own and throw it right back in your faces before you get the time to breath out" she casually imed, there were around fifty students in the ssroom, everyone here was talented in a way, some tremendously so, but she didn''t doubt herself one bit. Of course, the students kept their mouths shut even if they highly doubted her im, it would be a bad look to get pped in the face by their teacher on the first day, perhaps some would grow braver at ater date. "Resistance governs how well your mana can hold together against the ambient energies and the interference of other mages, it also governs the amount of time your spell will remain effective once you let go of your control, it is perhaps the most important aspect when in a battle against another magic user" she did a quick demonstration of what dismantling a spell looked like by calling forth a haughty-looking boy, that was actually all jittery from stress. He casted a mana bullet as was instructed, Rosemary first stopped it in its track, and slowly demonstrated how to break down a spell, exining as she did it that it also applied to other energies and that they would be learning about those as well. "Taking a spell apart is a skill affiliated with outer maniption, you can see how much more powerful a mage with good outer maniption would do against one that does not, none of their spells would be able to reach their target properly, if at all" "Trait, as well as internal and external are rare specificities, trait are as diverse as it can get, your natural mana can be an element already or be attuned to one, those examples are the mostmon sorts of traits, but they can be much less obvious, I for example, possess mana that is already an element and is also attuned to various others, this means that I can skip the transmutation and cast spells even faster" "Internal and external now, all of you here have internal mana, meaning that your mana doesn''t naturally overflow and wrap around your body, as you can expect, this means that those with external mana don''t need to bring their mana out manually, haveyer of protection at all times but also that concealing their mana signature is much more difficult" she went over those quickly, since for those that were concerned, they would receive personal guidance.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Rosemary quickly exined perception and range as well, those were very much simple, although, there was once again a downside to having too good of a perception, as it could get one easily distracted. Their teacher then smiled and asked them all a question: "Do any of you know thest aspect of one''s mana?" ''Hold a second¡­'' Milo counted real quick, fourteen aspects, Rosemary had spoken of all of them already, was it a trap? He looked over at Helena, she was frowning and rubbing her chin, her face switching from one troubled expression to another. Milo slumped in his seat, if she didn''t know, how could he? She had taught him everything. Chapter 104: Talkative "Ah good sir! Would you mind lending a hand to a man caught within times of trouble?" the man by the side of the road was needlessly formal, he seemed rather distressed too. But unlike how it had first appeared to Loimos, this man wasn''t alone in the least, there was someone hidden inside of the carriage, their life force signature was simply faint and had been directly behind the more vibrant life of the man, concealing it from the undead, up until he got closer and got another angle of vision on the scene. "You must be desperate to ask just anyone for help" Loimos didn''t frighten him to death and used his imitation voice, then pointing at the broken wheel without allowing for the coachman to respond. "Do you have a spare?" he questioned as the living rubbed the back of his neck, nodding his head. "I do but the entire thing just shattered, the carriage has tipped over and I don''t have the mean to lift it to rece the wheel" exined the man, most certainly feeling really stupid at the moment, he had never had any problem of this sort and had clearly never spared some time to think about the eventuality. Loimoscked the capacity to make fun of him, and didn''t see the point in ying that sort of role at the moment, instead, he walked past the driver, took a good look at the two horses and then looked straight through the fabric covering the goods inside of the carriage. "Why not ask for the miss inside for some assistance?" he coldly remarked. Paling, the coachman forced out a wry smile, looking left and right as though this ce saw a lot of passage this time of the year, the living, who had been holding out well under the extreme heat suddenly drenched in sweat, trying toe up with reasons but only silently moving his arms around. Under Loimos''s unmoving gaze, he yielded and begged for his secrecy as he did his best to exin the situation in terms that didn''t make him look too bad. "A ve for a mage to experiment on? So, you are heading for Weafewand, who else knows of this little trade, the magic-focused city would not miss a person being snuck into their walls" the living''s shoulders eased, Loimos appeared to not care in the least about this. Despite very and everything rting to the practice having been wholly left behind centuries ago across the entirety of the continent, only isted tribes still practised it in the open, as the for the rest, it was only urring in the ck markets and even then, few criminals yed into this much, it had be more than a forbidden practice, it was genuinely seen as something even a king would have trouble getting away with were it to be heard that they took part. Tamaris in particr, with its way of handling economics and money, had never done any in its history. But there were still a few who were willing to pay for ves, such as researchers wanting to perform destructive tests and experiments on fellow human beings and other sapients. "The guards at the gate have already been bribed heavily I was told, the client is rather influential in the city as well, he is a rare holy mage, I am not sure what that really means, but it''s a big deal apparently, I hear he wants to experiment creating angel-like familiars" he spilled everything without hesitation, definitely a poor choice to carry such a sensitive package. "Do the guards know to expect you in particr?"n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Well no, I never went to Weafewand ever! Haha, I am just supposed to mention that I am here to deliver something to this mage, with the guards mana sense, they''ll notice the ve immediately too, so-" "Very well then, I shall lift, and you shall rece the wheel" Loimos moved on instantly and the coachman almost jumped up in joy, he had been stuck here for hours now, and he was fearful of the reaction that would ur if he delivered with extreme tardiness. Loimos walked up to the carriage, he had no problem lifting the carriage enough for the living to do what was needed, the undead wasn''t holding up the entire weight of the carriage anyways, with one hundred percent strength usage in every part of his body and perfect posture, he could literally do this years, the carriage would dpose into nothingness without any strain put in the skeleton. "Ah, thank the gods for you! What can I do to repay the favour, good sir?" the man offered, not only was it natural to do, but Loimos had just effortlessly done something impressive just before, he wouldn''t want to get punched by someone with that sort of strength. "I am also headed for Weafewand, and would like to learn how to operate a carriage as well as how to ride a horse" the living saw absolutely zero downside to this and readily agreed, starting to treat Loimos as though they were colleagues in his illegal ordeal. Loimos had found a ride, but the distance separating them from the city of magic was still lengthy, and after showing the ropes of what the undead had wanted to learn about, the living began to speak and speak. Even under the scorching heat, he had plenty of energy to spare to discuss anything, when they were moving, he talked, when they stopped and he went to check on the ve, he still wouldn''t stop yapping. "What do you think? It''s a shame that such a cute girl is going to get dissected, heh?" he was making a topic out of everything and nothing, the undead could only try and push him into actually interesting topics or nod his head. "Honestly, I didn''t want to take this job, but I had to see to the future, everything is going wrong around me, and my life was honestly not going in the right direction either, with the money from this job, I''ll totally be able to afford living a good life, build a nice house in front of ake, find myself a good woman and have a bunch of kids, I would prefer a boy as my first but I can adapt¡­" Loimos nodded. Chapter 105: Look Over Here "Really, it wasn''t easy to adapt to Viridis, you guys here can all speak the samenguage and when I set foot here, I could do to, it was really disconcerting, it felt like my mouth and ears were possessed, but thanks to that,pared to Belliste, you guys here are much more peaceful, who could have guessed that being able to understand one another clearly would lead to more efficient diplomacy?" the livingughed, he had told Loimos his name at one point but it wasn''t important information. What he was spouting right now was otherwise more interesting, this inconspicuous-looking man had actuallye from another continent entirely, that wasn''tmon, most of those that attempted such travels died at sea, smashed into paste by a dreadfully powerful monster of the waters, or falling victim to the natural happenings of the oceans. He was actually very knowledgeable, so Loimos listened on. "Yoreterre is actually very close to Belliste, our ships would be able to make the trip back and forth without getting obliterated rather often! Ah, Yoreterre is a whole continent supposedly inhabited by nothing but beasts and monsters, no civilisations to speak of on there, with the resources that can be grabbed there, we can create more powerful weapons and such, to wage even more brutal wars, yadi yada¡­" the living had taken the risk of leaving his home continent precisely because of the constant conflicts. "Honestly, even if you gave them a singrnguage, I doubt it would solve anything for them, even babies want to rip apart the other nations" he shook his head dejectedly. Loimos prompted him to speak about the other continents he knew of, but he didn''t seem to know more than surface level information. "Lefaux, Verdoyante, Bermude, Durter and Dragonnerie, most of them sound like nothing more than stories to me, but their existence was never questioned, continents led by golems and spirits, nothing but nt life, entirely submerged in deep waters, buried under the earth or floating in the sky and guarded by hundreds, if not thousands of dragons, you have to see it to believe it and I haven''t" The living''s thoughts wandered off to some unknown ces for a moment, probably deciding what to speak of next. And speak he did, of every person he had encountered in his life, of every country he had visited before settling down in Tamaris, Loimos was able to learn much about the current state of things on Viridis, this man had visited many ces, though he was unable to think of any dungeon or crypt he had encountered during his journey. He only stopped to sleep, eat and drink, and finally when Weafewand showed up in the far distance. "Ah, here we are and it seems like there is no line for us to wait in, the trade route must be linked to another gate-" before he was allowed to drift off and resume his endless spewing of words, Loimos raised one hand, pointing back at the carriage behind them. "The ve is making some suspicious noises" the undead warned the living, getting him to instantly hop off and move to check on her whereabouts. Flipping the cloth covering open, revealing way on a rather spacious cage containing a fair young woman sleeping on afy-looking nket, it was a special delivery after all, the goods had to be taken care off properly, which was why she was well fed and unhurt, the cage even had a cooling system, a luxury even the deliverer didn''t enjoy. She was worth more than him after all. The soon to be sold girl groggily opened her eyes, meeting the confused gaze of the coachman. "Are you sure? She is just wa-" he couldn''t even turn around, only knowing that something was wrong by the widening eyes of the ve.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om A hand grabbed him by the back of the head, pushing him forward and mming his forehead against the cage, once, twice, thrice, four times, six times, ten times, again and again until his skull cave in, only then was he pulled back and thrown to the ground, where he was finished off with a series of stomps all over his face and throat. The man barely had time to yelp in shock or pain during the ordeal, knocked out by the first blow he suffered. His body dposed along his personal belongings in an instant, Loimos turned toward the young ve girl, who was certainly shocked by the sudden disy of brutality, enacted by a man she hade to believe was a friend of the one that had just been ughtered like filth. The bloodstains and bits of gore soon decayed away from the undead''s clothes, leaving only the general filth and dust covering him, as well as the singr bloody kiss on his mask, he didn''t bother trying to converse with her and simply opened her cage with the key he had just stolen from the body, making sure not to rot it as well. With a single punch right to her face, he knocked her out and closed the cage back, moving on back to the front of the carriage, driving the rest of the way toward the gate leading into Weafewand. The guards there certainly looked at him like they should, with suspicion as he approached. "I have a package for the famed holy mage" he spoke to them as soon as they were within ear shot, immediately rxing, they let him in despite clearly noticing that his mana was weird, but he knew of the trade and had someone in the back, they didn''t see any reason to distrust him and possibly make the delivery runter than it otherwise should. Once inside the city, Loimos drove to a quiet portion of the city, some people gave him weird looks, but they didn''t bother much further with him, his atypical looks weren''t exactly strange inside this ce, where plenty of entrics gathered. Once he had no more eyes upon him, Loimos swiftly did what needed to be done, ying the girl and horses, then decaying everything, including the carriage itself, now he just needed to bide his time and wait for nightfall. Unaware that a pair of eyes retracted back into the shade of an alley after seeing him do all of this. Chapter 106: Weafewand "I see that none of you have heard of thest aspect, and it is perfectly understandable, chances are, your former instructors haven''t either, since it is a new addition, it will take some time before the knowledge spreads, and it is an important aspect that always should have been measured" Rosemary exined with a vibrant smile, it wasn''t umon for the new aspects to be brought up. Typically, they were either covered by an already existing one, or simply in wrong, this new one had been deemed to fit however. "It has been given the provisory name of ''know'', and if you know anything about the convention of researches and our scientificmunity, provisory means that it will be the official name for the many years toe" she reached for something underneath her desk, pulling out a familiar-looking orb, all of the students had interacted with such things before, it was a tool used to measure one''s mana aspect. "We''ll end this simple lesson by gauging your guys''s know, any idea what it could refer to?" their teacher asked them, knowing full well that the appetion told pretty much nothing about what it was about, but she could always be surprised. No one seemed willing to try, until one hand rose, content that someone had the spine to shoot their idea in the dark, Rosemary gestured for Helena to speak. ''Absolute mad woman'' Milo smiled to himself, looking at her perfectly stoic face, he had just seen herpletely at loss mere seconds ago, she was positively trying to bullcrap her way to victory. "It could be referring to how much¡­ One''s own mana knows who its owner is?" she narrowed her eyelids, everyone waiting for Rosemary''s response, who was just standing there, her arms crossed and looking just as usual. One boy in the back pulled on the cor of his shirt, getting hot despite the state of the art cooling system equipped into the entirety of this academy. "That is close enough, it is used to refer to how much one''s one mana and spells can affect the user, whether they can be hurt by them, and if so, how much, it also deals with other, non-explicitly harmful effects, such as, whether or not a mage will be affected by the pushback of an explosion they caused, or if they can feel the heating from their own fire spell" "Of course, one can grow better to avoid drawbacks, or be affected by their offensive spells if need be" quickly ushering people to get in line and test on this aspect for themselves, as it turns out, the know generally fell into two categories. One was either affected by all phenomena caused by their offensive spells, or were only slightly protected from the harmful effects, no one found themselves perfectly immune, neither of those three options seemed to be ideal in the eyes of Rosemary however. Their teacher believed that one should learn to master this aspect of their mana, since it made one much more flexible, being unaffected by the effects of your spells could allow one to unleash a violently harmful spell at point nk without any worries, but possessing perfect immunity wasn''t exactly a great thing either, this meant that one couldn''t use their offensive spells with flexibility at all, the st of a spell couldn''t be used to propel oneself for example. Or if one were to be attacked by a spell from within, they would find it impossible to deal with it since it would inevitably involve harming oneself with their own mana to fight back, that second idea was unlikely to happen, but Rosemary had encountered such things. Once again, it all came down to whether one wanted to excel at magic, or stick to the fundamentals, all great mages need to either master their mana, or be lunatics and use it in the most unconventional of ways. A little bit of both could carry one a long way. "Alright then, I''ll dismiss you for now, next lesson, we''ll continue with theoretical knowledge, mana cores, mana crystallisation and all that rtes to them, now shoo" _____________ Loimos was in a bit of a tight spot, he was in a little of a pickle one could say, perhaps it might be correct to say that he was faced with a nearly insurmountable problem. There was indeed a crypt contained within Weafewand, but unlike in Findpasser, it wasn''t simply surrounded by highly ineffective fences, the entire thing had been encased with enchanted iron, covered with runes, magic circles, sigils and even surrounded by an entire array, the entire thing was also floating up in the sky, in sight of everybody, and under surveince by guards that were definitely much more of a problem that the regr schmucks Loimos had encountered many times. They were moreparable to the guard captain of Throdqdmond, Robert had been, and would probably still be a difficult opponent for Loimos to face, even with all his new tricks and enhanced physical capacities. These men and women probably weren''t as great with the sword as the captain had been, but they were trained in extensive mana usage and armed with otherwise more threatening equipment, the undead would get pieced up with efficiently.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Adding all of this to the fact that his peculiar mana instantly got their attention, Loimos had no way of breaking in at the moment. He would first need to get rid of the guards, also make sure that no one else could just see him making his way up there, and then he would have to break through the hefty defences. Now that was a devious challenge, thankfully, Loimos had plenty of time, since he was dead. Faraday would tend to say that mana was the most prominently used energy, for it was the most plentiful on the continent, and thus, quite a few people had talent andrge reserves of it within their bodies, he had enumerated a rather lengthy list of other energies, said that this was barely a few examples, and that the average person actually had some amount of every single energy, with only a few exceptions, such as life and death force, those two excluded one another. Whilst they each had slight differences and favoured applications, the principles caught with mana could be applied to them as well, meaning that by listening in and asking progressively more precise questions to anyone he met around here concerning mana, he could actually use this knowledge for death force. Faraday may be a powerful mage, but he himself admitted that he was more of a fighter than anything, which was part of the reason he was utterly unable to learn a zone, he mostly used his metal mana to hit harder, making him not the greatest person to teach such things. Chapter 107: Dealing In Death "Still nothing?" a man of stalwart build, his shoulders wide and his face seemingly carved out of smooth stone, he asked a young woman wearing bright robes simr to his. Unlike him, whose skin was rather fair and whose head was adorned with buffalo horns, his ears simrly that of the animal rather than human ones, the young woman was rather smell and had oversized ears that didn''t seem to be that of any known animal, her skin reddish and decorated by slight bumps resembling pebbles growing out of her body. "No¡­ Despite having definitely entered the city, the package you ordered haspletely vanished, the man driving it was rather peculiar and was spotted on multiple asions, his mana signature is rather hard to follow, ambient mana just spontaneously fills in and reces his mana residues¡­" she spoke carefully, only looking up at the horned man from time to time, his expression had been rather scary at the beginning of this. As a few days had gone on, he just looked tired now however, the initial anger had since faded away, the holy mage only wishing to uncover what was going on, it didn''t make any sense.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om The guards under his boot had assured him that the coachman had arrived with the package, witnesses had seen him inside the city as well, his bizarre mana hard to ignore, yet, the good, alongside the carriage and two whole horses had vanished into thin air, and now, like a ghost, the coachman was wandering around, doing whatever. Who wouldn''t have cashed in the money for the delivery? Had someone else offered more money? At thest second? The more he tried to find reason, the more nonsense he uncovered. "What do you want to do, Sir Maelstroff?" his assistant asked him after a minute of utter silence, her ears twitching. "Only the coachman can give me answers, I''ll go look for him myself" he dismissed her and slumped in his seat, it was alreadyte, tomorrow would be the day. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, falling asleep surprisingly quickly, only awakening muchter when the door to his office was unceremoniously pushed open, the entire room had turned significantly darker, only illuminated by the mana crystals on the ceiling, casting a faint andfortable glow. Quick to awake and rid himself of any grogginess, the holy mage stood straight in his seat, used to havingte night visitors, although those visitors weren''t generally here for work purposes. Standing in the doorway, their face cast with shadows, a deformed-looking figure stepped into the room with remarkable casualness, still, the mage had already leaped out of his seat and taken multiple steps back, that didn''t seem like an friendly visit. "Name yourself" he ordered, ready to cast a spell at the intruder, his horns brightening with bright, gold-like light, revealing that he had etched runes and such into them. "I am sure you can guess" stepping forward, basking into the bluish light of the crystals was a woman, garbed in a horrendously long and wide dark cloak, she showed him her hands, apart from her face, everything was wrapped in dark as well, some sort of leathery matter it seemed but it was hard to say. ''Dark brown hair, a bit curly, weird obscene look in the eyes, palish, not a bad face, negligible curvatures¡­'' analysing her with his expertise, he suddenly backed away further, noticing a thin dagger strapped to her waist. "The Death Dealer? Who the hell put a hit on my head?" he asked, knowing with certainty that he wasn''t big enough of a deal for the murderous maniac of the Fin-Limiers to show up on his doorstep. "It''s a bit difficult to exin, but the king heard of some rise in ve trade within the country, ordered some of his nobles to deal with it rapidly and one of those nobles hired me so that they could be very, very efficient" she didn''t see any problem telling him this, clearly, she was intent on silencing him. "I hear you, I hear you, but I have nothing to do with any sort of ve trade, I can assure you" he had heard plenty about the one called Death Dealer even amongst a group of assassins, she was no stranger to killing even those that had nothing to do with her missions, even if he was to prove with perfect evidences that he shouldn''t be put on the chopping block, she was still likely to murder him right here and there. "No need to lie, I heard it all from the seller and delivery guy already, I know that you aren''t the only one either in this town" she retracted her arms behind her oversized cloak, and she began stepping forward, each and every movement of hers nearly impossible to follow with the eye, it was like every part of her bent and weaved at ufortable, impossible angles. Without hesitation, Maelstroff unleashed the spell he had been charging up, sending a brilliant barrier covering the entire room in length hurling right at the assassin, instantly rushing for the window behind his desk, breaking through the window andnding on the roof of another building next door. Somehow, before he could rush forward again, the malformed shadow that was The Death Dealernded without a sound right in his path. He had trouble believing that she could deal with his barrier so quickly, but he had no time to think, the assassin was already right in his face, impossible to detect with his mana senses and dreadfully fast, he casted multiple spells all at once, weaving and manifesting them in an instant before the dagger pierced his neck. First, a wave of holy of mana, forced The Death Dealer away, secondly, a serie of barriers formed in between the two of them and at odd angles around the assassin, wanting to restrict her movements as he unleashed yet another spell, a bright light illuminating the city in the middle of the night. But the idea wasn''t to alert anyone, the mage knew that no one would get here quickly enough, especially when he saw the assassin carving through his spells like they were warm butter. ''That dagger¡­'' the de she swung around with as much strangeness as she moved was nothing short of a tool designed to ughter mages. He had first believed to be able to run from her, that option out of reach, he circted his mana once more and called forth a luminous figure armed with two swords, sending it forth as a distraction as he reached for something around his neck, crushing it, he felt a his neck being shed right as he was transported away. "Mission aplished" The Death Dealer stretched her arms, knowing that the holy mage was already done for. Chapter 108: Speed Reading "Incredible! And you say that you''ve never practised magic in your life?" an excited old man spoke with one hand in front of his mouth. "There was no such time to practise" Loimos responded truthfully. Unaware that his question was set up for such an answer, the old man rubbed his short beard, still having a hard time that no one else had ever picked up this man as an apprentice ever, even without having ever used his mana, his aspects were incredibly good. "Well, I don''t think I am qualified to rmend anything to you in particr, I don''t think there are any areas of magic were you couldn''t excel with your raw talent, just walk around and check if anything catch your attention" the old man was actually the keeper of the main library of Weafewand, and having obviously noticed Loimos''s peculiar mana, which he believed to be like this due to a trait, which was probably exactly what this was. Everything Loimos rted just had the ''undead'' trait attached to it, but since even amongst the ranks of the dead that wasn''t something typical, none of the many mages that had approached Loimos were able to notice that his trait was something so condemning. The undead had done a good job of concealing his death force, and since he had an abundance of other energies gued by his trait, the attention of people was absolutely absorbed by those as they surrounded his death and covered it from view. He had spent a few days roaming the streets and listening in on conversations, saw someone get shed in the throat on a rooftop, that guy had gotten absolutely dominated, absolutely demolished by what Loimos could only qualify as a professional, he had only been able to know the mage wasn''t spontaneously dying from self-manifesting shes by looking at the scene directly, absolutely impossible to sense the presence of his attacker otherwise. And still, he hadn''t been able to tell what had been attacking him exactly from his spot, that was some pretty exemry show energy suppression and sheer stealth. Being stealthy whilst having already been spotted was simply another dimension of sneaking and infiltration. In any case, keeping everything he had heard and seen in mind, Loimos began to scour the lengthy halls of this library, it was by far thergest inside the city, and Weafewand had a soft spot for books, the undead had counted twenty-four of such buildings, and that was only counting those that were only libraries, you could read books in most public ces here, he was nning on checking those as well. One advantage he had was that he couldn''t forget anything, so there really was no need for him to read things in a specific order, he just needed to read everything, so he began with a book that supposedlypiled every known usages of mana, reading through it exceptionally fast as he was reading two page at once, from top to bottom, bottom to top all at once, had he had actual eyes, he would have looked absolutely idiotic. Already, one could see that there was a little problem when tackling the vast field that was magic. "Ah shit" eximed a young man reading another copy of the same book as Loimos, he was just reading the table of content, but that was enough to give someone a splitting headache, so many categories, sub-categories, sub-categories within sub-categories, pure nightmare fuel. Not only was magic a difficult thing to study in any capacity, but theck ofmunication between the various schrs and researchers meant that each subject had multiple interpretations and theories linked to them, sometimes contradicting one another, ideas of the far past shed with newer ones, some of those schrs taking shot at one another,pletely unrted to the matter at hand and blurring everything some more. Turning his head and seeing Loimos reading through this mine-field of a book like it was made up of nothing but images made the young man pale, put the book back and ce and leave, his psyche wasn''t strong enough just yet to tackle magic. So far, Loimos counted seventeen big categories, although that number depended on how you saw things, it may be more or less, not that it mattered. Categories that caught the undead''s hollow sockets were the ones rting to spirits and golems, putting aside spirit calling and spirit binding, there was something called spirit creation. Depending on how you created said spirit, it could end up in two different ways, you either made it from nothing but mana and called the job done, or you imbued something into the spirit as well, generally a specific spell.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om That was interesting to Loimos because of golemcraft, which was pretty much the same thing, only that you used materials as a base and then used mana or any other of the many ways to get it to move around and do your bidding. Combining spirit creation and golemcraft was considered the greatest way of using those two categories, though that was the very biassed opinion of the cited source, two lines lower and other researchers called this thing absolute bull diarrhoea. The undead found this interesting because it appeared like something he would have a rather easy time making, since he could produce a variety of things with his primeval rot and that they would all easily circte his death force, being technically a part of him as well, they could carry on his intelligence and reasoning without any tinkering, or so he assumed. Having numbers on your side was always a good thing, undead hordes were always a problem even if only made up of mindless and weak cadavers, by getting better at transforming his primeval rot and learning to better control his death force, he would be able to create himself an army of allies at a moments notice, each of them he would be able to control as he wished due to theirposition. This would certainly aid him in getting the guards around the crypt away from it, nothing like an old fashioned undead legion to rile people up and get them to crap their pants. In any case, there was still some way before he could do such a thing. Chapter 109: Blood Angel "May the gods have pity on us, The Death Dealer? She could be in this room right now and we wouldn''t have any idea!" this cry for help fell on unresponsive ears, many people, men and women, of various species and each dressed in rather colourful robes stood around a circr table in a room lit solely by mana lights. A state of the art construction, utilising the knowledge of many fields of magic, it was supposedly intruder-proof, providing its upants with perfect safety, imposing an oath of non-aggression on everyone within the room as well, the perfect meeting room possible. Yet, none of the people inside appeared rxed in the least, most, if not all of them had taken part in the illicit act of ve-buying, all to forward their various researches or for personal amusement, not a single one of them wasn''t regretting their decisions sourly at the moment. The Death Dealer was a big deal, some of them had even paid her for her services before, they were well aware of how verypetent she was, and also how overkill she could be, you could point her a single, rather simple target for her, and instead of simply killing that target, she would also ughter everyone and everything in the same building and surroundings as them. When someone took time to shoot birds out of the sky, you knew that they had a serious problem, and judging by the volume of street animals somehow vanishing from existence since she had been confirmed to have showed up, she was having her fun. "How are you doing Maelstroff?" one of them, dressed in bright green, asked the horned mage. His eyes dim, skin pale and looking generally drained, the holy mage looked at the one that asked the question like he was an idiot. "Bad" he shortly responded, shaking his head and forcing the people by his sides to shift their position to avoid getting hit by his horns. "The dagger she stabbed me with is a real mage yer, the moment it harmed me, my mana control went out of control, it poisoned my mana, not to mention that she was carving through my spells and destroying them with ease, honestly, I am only alive because I used an item and because she didn''t actually try to stop me, I am certain she could have taken my head right off" Maelstroff wasn''t seeing their odds very brightly, especially when he couldn''t find any solution to his mana poisoning. If he were to encounter The Death Dealer again, he would be incapable of using any magic to defend himself, faced with all of this, the other mages around the table sported grim expressions, they couldn''t just hide away and hope for the storm to pass, this assassin wouldn''t just leave them alone. "Welp, good luck to you guys" one of them however, didn''t seem very worried, he stood up from his seat and pped his hands together. "Where are you going Yriel?" "Back home, unlike you guys, I have done nothing that could paint a target on my back, the trade of enved monster and beasts isn''t the same as people, I am in the clear, so I will not remain near any of you and get myself killed, bye bye" Yriel, a mage dressed in an obnoxiously bright yellow robe waved them off and exited the room without any hesitation. They all looked at one another, expecting someone toe up with a good idea. Soon enough, with no one proposing anything a few other of the mages present left the room, after all, it wasn''t certain that The Death Dealer knew every single person guilty of funnelling money into the ve trade. She couldn''t know every single thing. "Huh, maybe we could request help from the royal guards? The original order may havee from the king, but I doubt he was envisioning one of his nobles to employ the mad dog of the Fin-Limier Assassins, she is a highly wanted criminal, if he can just hold out long enough, we could receive the assistance of Shieldmaster Bough and Halbardier Pierre-Orn¨¦e" Maelstroff, sounding rather lethargic, was actually the first one toe up with an actually good idea. "How does shepare to the royal guards however? I haven''t heard of any target she wasn''t capable of ying, no one ever spoke of surviving having a hit ced on them and then being hunted down by The Death Dealer" only lucky bystanders had gotten to witness her at work, though none could recall her face, neither Maelstroff, her identity seemed to be protected by some sort of ability or spell. "It is worth the try¡­" "Indeed, although Bough is inferior to me in a matter of speed, he is impossible for me to scratch, Pierre-Orn¨¦e, he is definitely stronger than me, I don''t stand a chance" "Reall- Wait what?" all of them turned to see the misshapen mass of a darkness with two feet up on the table, munching on some sort of sandwich bursting with ingredients. "..." they all looked straight at the assassin, a sinister, yet very smug smile etched on her face as she casually put the sandwich away inside of her cloak.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Maybe we could convince you with a higher sum of money?" as if walking on eggshells, one of them made an offer, whilst the holy mage eyed another item hidden around his neck, he had one other of such objects. Maelstroff was rather serious concerning his safety after all, but it wasn''t that odd of a personality trait for mages to have, he debated when to use it up until the moment his hands fell off. The round table was flipped up in the air, and hacked away until it exploded into a shower of splinters, a few spells were fired but unlike before, The Death Dealer wasn''t aiming to have anyone lead her anywhere, in an instant, limbs were sent iling against the walls and ceiling, heads rolled to the ground and bodies copsed, the entire room painted red. The assassin, having yed everyone within reach, took off her cloak andid down in the growing puddle of blood, swinging her arms and legs, a peaceful look on her face as she created what would be called a blood angel on the ground. Chapter 110: Wandering Slaughter After spending more than a week standing around and reading books at impressive speed, the regr visitors of the library were starting to think that something was weird, whilst the keeper himself was reminded of his first time in a library, when he had used mana reinforcement to maintain himself awake and focused, so as to not waste any second doing something as frivolous as sleeping and learn as much as possible, he had held on for almost a whole month in this manner. It warmed his heart seeing that there were still people intent on uncovering the entirety of the magical knowledge, he had been like this once, but he had had no other choice than to settle down when his talent proved to be too little. He was exining all of this to a regr of this immense temple of knowledge, they had just pointed out that perhaps it wasn''t judicious to allow someone to do this and endanger their health, but they had instead been treated to the old keeper''s life story, a punishment they were currently cing only below getting kicked in the family jewels. He was leaving no openings for them to exit the conversation, much too happy to have gotten someone to spew words to. Meanwhile, Loimos hadn''t actually been remaining within the library at all times, the ce was open night and days, allowing him to step out whenever he noticed a stray dog or cat,mit horrendous acts of animal cruelty, known as killing them with his bare hands, grow stronger and rot the bodies to reinforce his understanding of his own power. Unfortunately, he had an unseenpetitor in that department, but he was ahead in the rat hunting methods, since he had learnt to mimic smells that the rodents liked, Weafewand was getting cleared of all life than weren''t people, Loimos had also noticed a sudden spike in death force somewhere under the city, a clear sign that multiple people had reached the light at the end of the tunnel, but considering that they had been killed, it wouldn''t be wise to just head there and inhale everything, even if he couldn''t sense anyone else amidst all of those corpses.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om He was going to wait a few more days before reaping that prize he hadn''t earned, for now, he was trying to shape his rot into rats, it was the single organism he had decayed the most, and thus the one he should have the most ease recreating, his first attempts looked more like crude poop effigies than anything. Instead of attempting an instant creation, he instead went to carefully crafting each part of the rat, the flesh was the easiest, he could just use his rot for it since the result wouldn''t be an actual whole rat, but an undead version. He just needed to make it denser and wrap the whole thing into the fur, which proved to be rather simple to create, the outside portion of living beings, scales, feathers and such came naturally to Loimos, so much so that when he rapidly created some rot, some bits of feathers could sometime be seen sticking out. The most difficult part were the bones, it still took him time to manufacture those, and an entire skeletal structure was otherwise more precise than rough bone ws, the entire process of trial and error was taking ce directly inside the undead, where a living''s stomach would normally be, on the outside, he was still just reading a book about the long term effects of reinforcing one''s body with elemental mana. The library was rather empty at this time of day, the poor person the keeper had been talking too had left once the story had reached its end, a few people were still around of course, in Weafewand, even without an undead that never slept, it wasn''t unusual for people to be roaming libraries at all hours of both the day and night. As the skeleton finished with this book, he moved on to the next one, its title rather uninspired. ''Conditions, Rules, Vows, Pledges, Troths, Sacrifice, Waive And All That Rtes'' Loimos had already encountered the terms of condition and rule in previous books, it was something that supposedly all mages could do once they reached a certain level of mastery, although it wasn''t limited only to mana users, as it suggested, it was an application of a condition or rule upon oneself to get something else in return, it was a ssic for third-rate mages to take up permanent variations of such things to fill in the gap. For mages, they first needed to learn to get in touch with the condition element or such, which was actually a thing Loimos had read about leaf and pepper magic, it wasn''t exactly surprising that this was how this worked. Apparently, despite being a rather precise and odd element almost no one ever had an affinity for, it was remarkably easy to get a hold of it and then use for whatever purpose, this put into question how this thing worked for people that didn''t use any energies to fight and all, but the book wouldn''t go into such details. It was all about the dozens of variations of the basic condition, sacrifice and waive were rather interesting, he would have to try them out. "Herm? Oh, yes, they are over there" the undead heard the keeper speaking to someone, pointing them toward a young woman reading a book at a table,pletely absorbed in her readings. The undead hadn''t sensed anyone entering the library, despite having no line of sight, he could see the keeper as he spoke, clearly, the person spoke back but he couldn''t hear them in the least. It was just like that malformed shadow on the buildingst time, and logic would dictate that it was the same person, he didn''t move from his spot and simply focused on the youngdy that was asked for. Not even a second, it didn''t even take a singr second for The Death Dealer to grab her by the hair and then stab her in the throat, mming the target''s face against the table before calmly walking out of the library, under the stupefied gaze of the old book keeper. Not even bothering to properly kill her target, already knowing that she would bleed to death on her own. Chapter 111: Two Killers, One Lasagna "Am I the only one left? Hello? Might the gods help me, I am the only member of the council that wasn''t partaking in ve buying?" Yriel spoke aloud to the few assistant mages present, even the assistants had seen a ratherrge decrease in their numbers, but that was mostly because they had the unfortunate habit of remaining close to their boss, making them targets of opportunity for the mad woman. A few of the casters that had been ughtered in the underground meeting room had been part of the city council, but only a handful, Yriel hadn''t been aware that ves were somonly shipped into Weafewand, it was honestly disconcerting how little he knew of the trades taking ce in the shadows. Now, he was the only figure of authority left in the city, all of the others most certainly dead already, although it was hard to say because corpses had been vanishing, the bodies of those that had been killed in broad daylight had ended up disappearing not long after, meaning that those that had just disappeared might as well have received the same treatment, simply before anyone could confirm their death. With The Death Dealer running around and ughtering as she pleased, many were fearful and wanted something done about her, but of course, only Yriel knew who they were dealing with, and thus, only he knew that there was nothing to be done. ''And frankly, this is not that bad of a thing¡­'' he found himself rather pleased, the assassin was taking out the trash basically, people Yriel certainly wouldn''t want to associate with himself or the city, The Death Dealer yed them without revealing their crimes, so no one was none the wiser about the whole thing, except for the noble that hired her of course, he would just need to connect the dot. But the mage trusted that this unnamed noble would keep his mouth shut, they wouldn''t want it to let it be known that they had acquired the services of the most infamous assassin this continent had to offer, to fulfil an order of the king no less, even if efficient, there were limits that shouldn''t be crossed. So all in all, as a man innocent of the crime of owning a ve, and as a councilperson of the city, he was actually pleased with the development, even if she was certainly killing innocents as she went, what worried him was the matter with the bodies. The underground meeting room had been thoroughly cleaned of everything possible, the body of a young mage murdered inside of the central library mysteriously disappeared when no one was looking, and now, just as this very instant, an assistant entered the room and whispered something in his ear. "What happened to the graveyards?" "It might be best if you saw it if your own eyes sir" "..." "..." "This is actually ridiculous! Is it a necromancer? Is one of those corpse fuckers in this city?!" Yriel looked into an empty grave, even the coffins and gravestones were gone, the entirety of the non-guarded portion of the burying grounds had been desecrated, the rest of the dead vited. "Were they any attempt to intrude upon the guarded graves?" Yriel asked as he kept on moving from one hole to the other, each of them dug in the same way and with disconcerting precision, what sort of freak of nature could be sopetent at digging up corpses?n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ''Even the dirt that was removed somehow isn''t anywhere around¡­'' he scratched the back of his head. "Nothing of the sort sir, we did a check up on the outskirt of the fences but nothing there either" the guarded part of the graveyard was looked over for two simple reasons, the people buried there were powerful mages, so powerful that it was judged that even a novice necromancer would be capable of raising them and ess an undead with magical capabilities remaining. And also because it was always a worry whether a mage that had passed would eventually turn into a lich, but for those, they were within an underground mausoleum in the center of the guarded area. "I want all focus to be put on our corpse snatcher, the corpse maker is out of our hands, understood?" there wasn''t much Yriel could do right now, he could only give the order and have mages attempt rituals to catch a trail of what he assumed was an aspiring necromancer, or in the best of cases, someone with just a very bizarre passtime. ____________ The duo, who together worked to speed up the cycle of life and death, both ended up finding themselves at dead ends in each of their respective ventures, The Death Dealer knew of one other target residing within Weafewand, knew that this very target hadn''t left the area, but was unable to pinpoint their location. Most certainly hiding using an borate array of sorts, probably aiming to remain in seclusion for quite a while, and hopefully emerged when the assassin had decided to move on, but that wasn''t like her, she never left any job unfinished. As for Loimos, as the weeks went by, he kept on repeating the same actions until he ran out of books to read, he had moved on to decaying even the corpses of people, even going as far as starting to steal random items simply to get better with his rot. But he wasn''t seeing enough improvements to be able to put his n into motion, even if he managed to break into the floating crypt, he would have toe out with his newly acquired ally, that a clear problem, he may not encounter an undead that was particrly powerful, he might even encounter one that lived in death and have to engage inbat instead. At the moment however, the two that dealt with the dead in some capacity were standing opposite to one another, a woman and a corpse, having crossed paths doing what they both did best, trying tomit an act of animal cruelty. Widely known as absolutely massacring the creature until it reassembledsagna. Chapter 112: Deal The two of them just looked at each other, then at the unlucky errant canine that had chosen the wrong time to wander into the magical city of Weafewand, another day and perhaps he would have been chosen to be a familiar, he would have been well fed, he would have thrived and lived the best possible life for a mutt like himself. s, he instead found himself in an alley, sandwiched in between the worst possible people within a radius of a width that can not be simply measured. The Death Dealer tilted her head to the side a slight bit, her dark brown hair following suit with an abnormal dy, her sick yellow-green eyes seemingly glowing as they reflected the dim lighting of the moon. A peculiar, but rather telling smile on her face, her mouth barely opened with a slit, no teeth visible, that look meant something precise, or perhaps it was a mere coincidence, like a mix between ''What do we have here?'' and ''You fucked up''. Not paying any mind to the awfully bizarre expression, Loimos remained quiet, fairly certain that this was the person he had already noticed in the distance a few times, and whomst he had been graciously cleaning up after. The smile disappeared when she brought her neck back straight, pointing at the animal having a panic attack on the floor, gesturing toward the beast with one of her many thin daggers and finally speaking up. "Are you gonna eat this or not?" yes, the most prolific assassin, with dozens of contracts offered to her all the time, was asking a mobile putrid skeleton, in the middle of the night, whether or not he was thinking about eating a random, anorexic dog. "Do you have no money?" Loimos saw a good opportunity, so he initiated a conversation with her. "Nah, nah, I don''t bring money with me, I stash everything at home, shoving every coin and treasures together like a squirrel preparing for harsh times" then she imitated the sounds of a squirrel, it was a convincing one, the dog''s ears perked up. "I have found some coinsying around" spoke Loimos, having gathered riches through the cultural practice of tomb raiding. "Oh" she understood what he was getting at in a jiffy, kicking the dog into a wall for it was no longer interesting as a future meal.N?v(el)B\\jnn This is how, somehow, Loimos managed to get The Death Dealer''s attention, by inviting her to dinner, his smooth talking and experience with psychotic women learned thanks to interacting with One. Loimos had been expecting to have to make a great argument with his head detached from his body to convince her that they should have a talk, it was certainly a pleasant surprise that he could subdue her murderous tendencies with food. The entirety of the other patrons were looking at them from time to time, rather hard to ignore the filthy masked man and the suspicious woman garbed in all dark that had a tendency to suddenly shout out seemingly random words. Her antics were quite something but Loimos couldn''t care less, literally, as she munched down on sausages, meat pieces and whatever else was avable, the undead had found quite a bit of money, and only one of them was eating anyway. "Ah, mister corpse, I hadn''t imagined the first person to take me out for dinner would already be dead, but it makes sense now that I think about it" she was even eating the bones, she was sporting some good teeth in there. It wasn''t surprising that she could tell that he was an undead, although she had known for a while, since she had actually been around Loimos for a great portion of the carriage drive to Weafewand, witnessing him disposing of the original coachman and ve, she had been nning to do it herself but she firmly believed in firste first served when it came to murder. Unless it was other assassins, it gets professional and she takes work very seriously. "So, what do you want? Want to put a hit on someone''s head? I can kill a few randommoners for this food, or is this supposed to be an actual date? Do you even have a c-" she rubbed her chin, deep in thought. "I wish to see the remaining of the city council, and the entirety of the guards disposed of" Loimos went straight to the point, as per usual, his progress with his own powers wasn''t exactly speedy even with his constant training and refining of his techniques, The Death Dealer had the capabilities to do everything he wanted with her arms tied behind her back, it would be idiotic not to try and use her assistance. "All?" "All" "I don''t think you treating me to dinner will cover this, though¡­" she pulled out a dagger out of nowhere, admiring it and ignoring the gasps of people around. "That would definitely be a fun job! It is certain that bystanders will witness the scene, oh, I will have no choice but to silence them, will I? The men, the women and the children too! It will be endless ughter for at least a few days, just shing and stabbing, and shing, and stabbing, and hacking, and dismembering, and stabbing, and piercing, and splitting, and burning, and drawing, oh drowning! It is so underrated, when they il around and make bubbles whilst screaming for help! What are those fuckers even saying? ''I am under the water please help me?!'', oh, ahahah, aaaah¡­" she breathed out, smacking her lips before looking around, she had stood up on her chair at some point. "Oh¡­ I overreacted a little bit" she settled down, the people, all mages in some capacity, had passed out under the effects of her enthusiasm, some were actually choking in their passed out state at this very moment. "But anyways, I can''t just go on a rampage, I am a professional assassin, my kills are worth more than double their weight in precious pelf" she said, mostly to convince herself however, she couldn''t allow herself to get sidetracked, she was still on a job, which wasn''t ending with thest target of this city, she had many for targets and leads to explore. "I had roamed around the city before you caused a stir, I have been paying attention to life force signatures and their whereabouts the entire time, you have not yed anyone in days, I can only assume that one of your targets is hiding from you, yes?" with everyone around knocked out, he spoke with the pale tongue, the voice that usually inspired dread in those that heard it but The Death Dealer only trembled, in a way that couldn''t be referred to as a one of fear. "We''ve got a deal!" Chapter 113 Quick Job "Ah, I like your words funny bone, read over this contract and sign it if you see no issue, again, I am a professional, don''t listen to people saying that I am a lunatic who only lives for murder and bloodshed! I am a pretty girl, and I have never bathed in blood, or hugged decapitated heads, and I have certainly never done a blood angel because I miss the snow!" she overshared as Loimos read over the very simple contract, which was written in blood, the undead was able to tell many things others may not have been capable of. The blood she had written this contract with was her own, which wasn''t surprising since every thing she was wearing, as well as the dagger she had swung around also contained traces of her blood, hair and flesh within them. Whether it was an act of entricity without meaning, or if it was actually for practicability purposes was hard to tell. Seeing nothing wrong with the contract, he signed it, obviously, it wasn''t just a regr piece of parchment, it actually bound the two parties to fulfil their vows, The Death Dealer was positively excited at the moment, how long had it been since she had gotten a job where she was directly supposed to go on a crazy ughter? If she went for the guards during the day, she would totally be allowed to ughter every single pedestrian around. "Cheers to the uing bloodbath! Let''s start with myst target, what do you know?" she kicked her chair into the distance, shook Loimos''s mushy hand and led the way outside, it was still dark, but still various lights peering through windows to the outside. The undead asked her about the target in question, and The Death Dealer gave a detailed description, she hadn''t skipped on her homework, thest mage on her list was a young man practising wind spells and apparently went around with a living proof of his crime, as he had some sort of wolf beastfolk as his familiar, and since it wasn''t a beastfolk of the monstrous sort, it wasn''t allowed in the least to have them as a familiar. Life force going underground and then disappearing from the undead''s senses weren''t exactlymon, it had only happened twice in Weafewand, and the first urrence had been interrupted by the assassin, the second one however¡­ Leading her to the spot right above where the signature had gone invisible, with this knowledge, it didn''t take long for The Death Dealer to discover the way in, with her expertise, she uncovered the secret hatch hidden right behind a potion shop. "It''s so much easier when you know where to look, don''t you agree, huh, what''s your name?" the assassin jumped in, going first in a rather tight tunnel, she realised that she hadn''t bothered to ask who she was dealing with. "Loimos" "Nice name, people call me The Death Dealer, I don''t know why, I don''t fit the description, but they never listen when I tell them my name is Maliah, it''s cute though, much more fitting for an adorable girl like me, who has never done no wrong! Maybe it''s because I always killed them afterward" with a shrug, she kicked open a measly wooden door, shattering the flimsy thing to pieces. The mage inside the room was startled, dropping what he was doing instantly as he jumped back like a frightened cat. What he had been doing was his familiar, indeed not much of a beast this beastfolk was, more of a folk really. "Kill her!" ordering his ordered bedpanion without any hesitation, the mage moved to ce himself behind his familiar whilst charging up a spell, Maliah evaded the leaping wolf-person, letting her crash behind. Casually walking toward the mage with off-putting speed, she deflected a sh of wind right back at the mage, who managed to call off his spell before it hit him in the face, lengthening his life by a few seconds before the thin de went through the bottom of his chin and up through the top of his skull. His swift disposal broke the link between him and his familiar, who thus dropped the intention of fighting on his behalf and instead tried to escape, bumping right into Loimos, the passageway was much too narrow for her to go by the undead, instead trying to grab him by his left arm to pin him against the wall and make way for her, the mushy sensation of his arm threw her off for quick moment, but not as much as the fact that countless bone spikes suddenly bursted from his forearm, multiple of those piercing her right in the face. Loimos had deliberately put his left arm forward, but in this situation, the former familiar hadn''t stopped to analyse his movements and rushed right into a trap.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Oh boy, we finished this quick! So we can get to the mass-ughter, as per the contract obviously" Loimos first worked to dpose everything possible and suggested that they waited some time, since the popce was on high alert, and Loimos always preferred to have some element of surprise even if there was no doubt that it would work out well with Maliah aiding him. "Shucks" "Do you still have money? I got hungry again" "I do not" She put her hands on her hips, now standing amidst apletely barren room, the musk of recent coitus still hanging in the air, thankfully, the pleasant stench of blood and death was stronger. The Death Dealer always felt serene in such an ambiance, but with Loimos standing there, perfectly still since there was no need to feint signs of life, it was a bit hard to rx. "Say, who''s the lucky girl?" she pointed at the bloody kiss imprint on his mask. Stay connected through empire "A vampire" "Wait, it''s actually directed at you? I thought you had just stolen the mask as is, you dirty bone sack, you''re actually a yer! You go around looking like the deadest of the dead, but you don''t hesitate to try and score at every asion, heh?" Her words bore no effect, much to her displeasure, Loimos was an awful conversation partner, anytime he said something humorous, it was purely idental and unintended, he was like those people that only spoke of work all day long, except that his job was eradication of life. "May I inquire on how you forge your arms and equipment?" though, the simrity in what he had been attempting for a while and the apparent way Maliah created her belongings was hard to miss, he could learn something useful from her, surely. Chapter 114 Dealings En Masse "Ah crap, is it me or it''s getting even warmer?" a guard in darkish armour expressed his distaste toward the weather. The siamese suns had grown brighter, ncing up could earn you a good few seconds ofplete blindness at this point, inside of their suits of armour, the brave defender of the city were getting cooked, a terrible stench of sweat emanating from all of them, even those having taken refuge under shadows couldn''t escape the extreme heat. Thankfully, their smell was shared by pretty much everyone, only those remaining inside, in their magically cooled interiors could enjoy themselves without being assaulted by the spheres of sma in the distant sky beyond. The people avoideding to the outside for too long, whilst they, the armoured ones had to reinforce their bodies with mana to avoid passing out whilst standing, his vision distorted, one guard brought his hand just above the slits for his eyes on his helm. "Hey, why are they closing the gates?" he had already noticed one closing in the distance a few moments ago but hadn''t seen it fit to mention, however, now that the other ones were also closing, he felt like something was off. "Are they? We didn''t receive any word of something like this¡­" another one joined in. "Well, let''s not just stand around, I''ll go ask-" with this, he jumped off their vantage point over the city, freezing after a single step before hurriedly climbing his way back up. No one asked him the reason, they could see it from themselves, to them, it looked like a misshapen mass of dark had crawled out of some deep abyss, making its way toward them, slowly. Experience new tales on empire They blinked, it vanished, now standing right beside them. "W-" "A-" Two of them spoke simultaneously, only managing to utter a single sound before the deformed mass burst open, and two arms blurred right through them, an rm rang out throughout the city, one that hadn''t been used ever since it had been put into ce, the people had no idea what it meant exactly, only that they should be afraid, very afraid. Walking up to the center of the city, under the shade of the floating crypt as the twin suns loomed right overhead, Maliah was soon surrounded from all sides by guards, some garbed in darker armours, others looking more in, the majority around were holding spears, but some also carried warhammers or maces amongst a variety of other weapons.N?v(el)B\\jnn Grinning andughing like a malevolent hyena, The Death Dealer looked around at the guards, their bodies jumping up and eyes growing unsteady as her gazended on each of them, but a voice came from up on a building. "Assume formation, feel no fear, no matter how horrific, we have an utter number advantage, trust in yourpanions by your sides!" presumably the leader of the city''s security spoke as he pointed his sword up at the sky, at the same time people in robes started emerging on top of the other buildings and houses, all casting a wide area of effect buff on the guards, and debuff upon her, well, they tried. "The spells of weakening don''t work at all on her" a mage by the captain''s side informed him, since she hadn''t interfered in the least with the casting of the spell itself, it meant that either her mana reinforcement was ster or she was wearing something to defended for her against such a spell, the mage would bet that it was a mix of the two. "Whatever you do, don''t start casting spells haphazardly, remember the orders, only throw your spells when the guards back off from her" the captain said in a low tone, not at all reminding the entirety of the mages, but he couldn''t help but repeat it, if only to calm his nerves. Maliah was looking particrly joyful, very bright, perhaps even cute if it weren''t for her expression shifting between happy girl and devilish banshee every few seconds or so. Six guards moved toward her first, two at the front, two from the back and one from each sides, it was a nice change of pace, she rarely had to the asion of killing coordinated groups, always sent on missions on wealthy and powerful targets that had a plethora of guards, but absolutely no team cohesion, some strong ones dropped here and there, never any substance. With barely any dy, the six spearmen reached her and thrusted forward, a configuration of attacks that would leave no chance for one to evade all of them, but she did, twisting her body like a boneless contortionist, the spears all failed to even scratch her equipment as he reached within her cloak, pulling out a singr dagger. It looked exactly the same as the one she had used previously, putting one feet up on the handle of one the weapons trying to puncture her, she rose herself up, stabbing her de right through the eye and brain of one of the guards, killing him on the spot before doing one of the most gruesomely, unnecessary and shy things ever. Cutting the dead man''s head off with surgical precision, putting one hand up on his head and giving it a good spin, stabilising her whole body up on that one hand, stylishly beheading the five other guards in one swoop. "Did you see that shit?! Ahahah! Why don''t you attack with more people next time? How many more dumbfucks can I decapitate in one swing?" after pulling up that sort of bloodily shy move, no one was feeling like approaching her. A volley of spells came instead, weaving through them, before crashing into the first line of guards, kicking one in spite of him raising his spear defensively, both the wood and his ribs broke apart as the chestte caved in, crushing his organs as he was sent flying back against his fellow. ''What the hell is this strength?!'' the guards behind tried to catch the unconscious man but were all thrown to the ground as they saw blood and body parts fly up in the air, The Death Dealer slicing right through their armours like it was all meaningless and frail paper. Chapter 115 Monsters Using everything he had, the captain of the guards blocked an attack from the dark-cloaked assassin, feeling his body going numb as the rippling force of the strike echoed throughout his entire body, every single bone holding him up feeling utterly jittery. ''That''s not normal strength, is she even human?'' the captain had jumped into the fray nearly just as Maliah had knocked down many of his men onto their asses with the corpses of one of their fellow, still, not even trying anything like before, she just began swinging wildly, her movement impossible to follow as she carved her way through the armoured masses, no amount of group battle arts or coordination could help them. "Ah, the big fish has finally shown up! Let me peel off those scales!" he attempted to use a sword art, but she spun right around him, killing guards as he went before kicking him in the back of his knee. He felt utterly helpless in this situation, only able to throw himself away from the murderous shadow thanks to the intervention of a mage, who shot a mana bullet at the assassin, his reward, receiving his spell right back to his face, blowing it to pieces. Stepping away, the captain shouted an order. "Everybody, retreat!" contrary to his expectations, The Death Dealer didn''t try anything to stop them, smiling at him in a derisory way, like ''you think you did something there?'', but he didn''t allow her to destabilise him, throwing his sword at her like it was a discus, he rushed forward. "Oh, I see, mister is actually a pugilist!" dodging his first few punches, she hid her dagger behind her cloak, putting it away as she put up her own unarmed stance, raising her eyebrows repeatedly, obnoxiously. Infusing his body to the brim with mana, his armour cracked as it couldn''t support his unleashed might in spite of having been made with this purpose. "Vertex!" he couldn''t help but say aloud, causing the assassin to startughing once more, she liked hearing that word. "You better amount to something nameless man! No one is going to leave this city, I''ll fillet them all! I''ll stomp on the newborns on the filthy ground, I''ll gut parents right in front of their children, pull the eyes out and make them choke on it! Watch as they gargle on their own blood after I puncture both their lungs! You hear me you fucking idiot? I am feeling it today! I am killing every single person in this city!" diverting one punch, she mmed her elbow onto his nose before pushing him away. Just waiting for him to try again, and again, and again. "You can surelynd one hit? Half a hit perhaps? A quarter? Maybe you could do something if you stopped hitting like a slug in a salt storm!" As the maniacalughter of Maliah seeped into his ears, the captain could only think about one thing. ''What is Sir Yriel doing?'' indeed, the captain didn''t fancy his chances very much, despite not having much of a powerful build, the woman before him was simply supernaturally strong, was she concealing her reinforcement immactely even then? He couldn''t believe it, but it had to be true, how could one easily deflect his strikes otherwise, strikes that could send even minotaurs reeling. He could concede that perhaps her daggers were perfectioned tools of murder, but he was only going up against her own self right now. ''Simply impossible!'' As the captain fought with everything he had, Yriel was currently standing opposite to Loimos, in the hallway leading up to the meeting room of the council, bodies of many assistants had been covering the ground just recently, but they deteriorated until nothing remained in a mere instant. With all of the morepetent forces having gone to intercept Maliah, Yriel was nning on cowardly slip away, knowing very well that he would mean nothing as a variable against The Death Dealer, he knew very well that she didn''t y by the rules he had learned, she was a freak of nature, and only another of such existences could possibly matter in such a fight.N?v(el)B\\jnn "Who might you be? I would like to let it be known that a frenzied assassin is within the city as we are speaking¡­" he didn''t know why Maliah had suddenly decided to go for the mass murder route when it shouldn''t have been part of her current mission. He tried to reason with Loimos, but it was no use, he dropped what looked like a white fragment and as it hit the ground, the small shard was enveloped in rot, before forming into a swarm of decaying rats. If anyone would be capable of escaping the city right now, it would be Yriel, so the undead had intercepted him, sending forth his creations, legitimate undead creatures carrying the undead''s own death force and unbreakable will. Yriel tried to raise a wall of earth, seal off the rats and their owner away from him, but he was made to forcefully halt and hesitate. "Stop" he couldn''t understand the words spoken with the death tongue, and frankly, Loimos could have said anything to the same effect, already terrified beyond belief by Maliah, it was certain to get him to the full extent. One rat broke out from the group, elerating and jumping up on the man''s ankle, before suddenly expanding and bursting into an explosion of ck blood and bone shrapnel. The pain jolted the mage back to his full senses. ''That thing, it''s eating away at my mana and multiplying?!'' he didn''t recognise the force as death force but he definitely acknowledged the danger, though he missed the blighted blood crawling into the nasty wound he had just received. Manifesting earthen spikes, he copsed the floor to stop the other rats from reaching him, preparing another one to aim right at their summoner. "Wait!" the undead had punched before the ground gave in beneath his feet, and he was plunging straight at the mage, mming both of his fists onto the mage''s faulty defence, his half-assed reinforcement not holding a candle to the undead''s that had been fully prepared a while ago. And his weak mage arms weren''t going to help him either, his back mmed against the ground with the added weight of the skeleton bearing down on him. ''I can still get him!'' ignoring the rats that were going to take him apart bit by bit, he focused on trying to take out Loimos, it was only natural to aim for the one responsible for bringing the beasts into existence. But it was always best to be calm when casting a spell, and honestly, whilst Yriel may be talented, the very fact that he had remained within Weafewand, the city prodigies were supposed to leave to go to the academy, go study under powerful mages or to be their own legends, it was a proof that even whilst his talent may be good, hecked the mentality to ever amount to something truly important. Loimos grabbed one of his thumbs and cracked it like a celery stick,pletely reducing his efforts of spellcasting to nothing as he dropped the mana weaving entirely, allowing Loimos to start whaling on the defenceless mage, punching him in the throat and face until he couldn''t even try to mitigate the damage with mana, the rats began biting and tearing him apart, opening wounds and crawling into them. The undead finished the job by stabbing him in the head with his bone ws. Now to the main objective. Chapter 116 Corpse Betrayal Walking through the streets after The Death Dealer had went through them would have been a surreal experience for anyone else, the bodies mutted in seemingly impossible ways, ignoring armours and weapons, cutting them down with the same as she cut through flesh, deep gashes left into the ground and walls, some homes copsed after being supposedly smashed down with nothing but raw force.N?v(el)B\\jnn After Loimos went through, the bloody, the sttered organs, the expressions frozen with horror as death stared them right in the eyes, all of this disappeared without a trace, even the death force in the air vanished, leaving a ghost town in his wake, nothing but ruins without habitants, without life. Maliah was still hard at work, or rather, having lots of fun somewhere else in the city, killing everyone in such a popted city wasn''t an easy feat, and she was taking her time with some of her victims as well, their screams of suffering andst howls could be heard in the distance further away. The undead soon arrived in the center of Weafewand, this ce wasn''t filled with as much corpses as one might have expected, but there were still plenty of heart-wrenching sights, especially this one man that had clearly been slowly taken apart, it was like breaking down a crossbow into its many parts, but with a living person. Clearly, the captain had to have been rather interesting to receive such noble treatment from The Death Dealer, his remains were soon washed away by the unrelenting tide of rot Loimos headed, it really was a boon to have gotten her assistance for the skeleton. He would be able to gain much power in many departments, the sheer amount of death force would prove substantial on its own, on top of this, she alone would take full credit for whatever happened there, the living would have no idea of the truth of this event, the indeed would be able to proceed as if nothing happened. The floating crypt wasn''t looking as pristine as it used to, some bodies had clearly been thrown directly against its surface, and somehow, it had received shes and other blows despite being so high up. Heading for the spots were guards had been overlooking the object, it didn''t take too long for Loimos to find the various arrays and circles used to maintain this thing afloat, roughly breaking the very surface those were drawn and ced upon, the sphere began to lower itself, like invisible chains holding it up were being snapped one by one. Touching the ground, the sphere didn''t roll in the least, he approached it, manifesting rot in the shape tendrils ending with monstrous-like flowers of rot, like hoses, they showered a part of the outside in ck blood for minutes on end, the material itself was holding on well, but the various runes and sigils inscribed on its surface saw their shapes altered ever so slightly, ruining the carefully constructed prison. The creators had made the mistake of linking all of the parts together, so as to achieve a greater result more easily, but this meant that the slightest of disturbances would affect the integrity of the seal in its totality. Like an egg, the sphere cracked and from there, Loimos could easily punch his way in, although impressive, the sphere wasn''t enormous, and the structure trapped within was even smaller, curiously, what little of this ce remained was constructed out of colourful y, much in opposition to what the undead had been made to traverse before. Most importantly however, there were two undeads in there, one was dressed in tattered robes, appearing like a dried corpse with bright eyes, a draugr that Loimos could almost with certainty, link to one of the king''s advisors, whilst the other¡­ Pale beyond belief, a look of sickness in his eyes, barely any hair remaining on his decrepit head, somewhat exaggerated facial features and overly wide shoulders, with two sharp fangs protruding, Loimos could tell that this was a vampire sharing blood with Nosferatu, this onecking some of the other bodily features of the lord however, marking him as a rather weak vampire, perhaps even a dhampir or ancient thrall that had gotten lucky maybe. The two other dead bodies stopped what they were doing, seemingly taken aback by his entrance, more surprised by Loimos than the fall of the crypt, but it was no matter, the draugr was hiding behind a barrier he had manifested, the vampire battering his fists against it, but unable to break the barrier as the mage constantly repaired it, seemingly never running out of mana. Letting loose of his concealed death force, he said one thing in thenguage of the dead: "Artencil" he spoke the name of who he believed the Draugr was, the mage reacted with a nod, the vampire seemed confused. Loimos''s hollow sockets brightened with the dark purple glow, the light peering through the minuscule holes of the eyes and various cracks now adorning it. Without hesitation, a pulsing tide of rot struck the vampire, pushing him right against the y wall, in response, he smashed his fist down on the wall behind him, freeing himself as he bit into his wrist, controlling his blood to stop the rot. Not showing reactions as Loimos directed a few more words his way, clearly, this vampire couldn''t understand a lick of death tongue, and had been attacking an advisor of the king, clearly, this man right there was no undead, he lived in death. And he dared do so in the presence of the pure undead. Still, even if weak, he was a still carrying the foetid blood of Nosferatu, the mightiest vampire lord, using his blood to force an opening through the rot, the treacherous corpsended a punch squarely in Loimos''s chest, lifting him off the ground. Indeed, even this betrayer, armed with the gravelords blood, hit harder than that orc from back then. Obviously unfazed, Loimos wrapped his legs around the arm that struck him and leaned forward so much that it seemed his back had broken, striking the vampire straight to the face with his spiked left hand. Pushing the skeleton away, the two cadavers steadied themselves for round two. Chapter 117 Just Sending forth a blood de, the vampire once again tried to close the distance, using his death reinforced bone ws, Loimos cut right through the blood attack, continuing his path toward the one who lives in death, who grabbed the skeleton''s wrist, effectively stopping the attack. Loimos followed with another punch, which the vampire also grabbed, but it was the left hand, bursting with bone spikes, now, the traitor couldn''t let go of it, reacting like a living at the sight of the gruesome injury, Loimos had plenty of time to repeatedly kick him in the guts, retracting his spikes, the skeleton allowed the vampire to be thrown back, ending up ankle deep in a wide puddle of ck blood, which quickly began wrapping up around his legs. Curiously, the corrosive nature of the blighted blood was utterly absent, Loimos focusing everything on it being durable enough to hold the vampire in ce, it was a sess, he had to bend down and try to use his hands to free himself, there was no point in him utilising his vampiric blood powers. Loimos was able to tell when he deflected that first sh and by observing his opponents movements, due to being a disgrace to undead kind, his vampiric powers were pitifully weak, this one was only amounting to anything because it was the blood of Nosferatu that had transformed him, the foetid blood was more potent than the others to begin with, and the special properties of this vampire kind were easily essible even to the weakest.N?v(el)B\\jnn Marching through his ck blood without being slowed down in the least, Loimos took hold of one of the vampire''s arms, getting him into an armlock, preventing him from freeing his legs, grasping the arm strongly, the skeleton wasn''t nning on stopping there, twisting the limb in horrendous ways until it started to emit sick cracking noises. "Wait! Hold on a second!" finally, the betrayer was considering speaking up, though that didn''t even slow down Loimos, ripping his right arm, sending a torrent of blood out of the wound, the fool couldn''t even prevent himself from bleeding, truly an embarrassment, he could consider himself lucky that it was Loimos that showed up and not Nosferatu, he would been made to know that being so pitiful was considered a direct insult to the man himself. "You fucker!" despite not feeling pain, the vampire looked like he was suffering, clearly under the false impression that this sort of injury was actually something to worry about. "I told you to hold for a second! I am a damned vampire you lowly undead! Listen to what I have to say!" Loimos grabbed his other arm, stretching it out. The vampire had toe to terms with the fact that the skeleton wasn''t giving a single shit about what he had to say, but he couldn''t. Experience tales with empire "I''ll tell you everything I kno-" Loimos, wielded the vampire''s teared off arm as a club, broke his other arm at the elbow, continuously hammering it without rest until he finally pulled the whole thing off, walking in front of the vampire whilst holding up both of his arms. Decaying both of the limbs in front of his eyes before turning to the Draugr, who seemed to be struggling to even stand at the moment. "Artencil, could that one bear any information you are not aware of?" asking the Draugr in a tongue the vampire couldn''t understand, Artencil was another advisor of the undead king, not a powerhouse, but a schr, in charge of settings up arrays outside of battle and creating what Faraday had likened to siege weapons, he had even taken a pledge to forbid himself the learning of offensive spells so as to empower the rest, all to do his job even more efficiently. But even then, the treacherous vampire had failed to defeat the Draugr, although, Loimos was well aware that the timeline of events was a bit strange, Weafewand was a longstanding city, and the seal epassing the crypt had to have been just as old as the city, at the very least. But that would mean that the one that lives in death and Artencil had been struck there for years upon years, maybe even centuries and longer, it seemed unlikely for a corpse that thought itself alive to hold out for so long, he reacted adversely to being harmed after all, this fool could never handle so much time passing. "Just one that thought it judicious to follow in Sun-Walker''s footsteps" the vampire couldn''t understand any of what was being said, but he felt like it wasn''t anything in his favour, beginning to panic, he thrashed around, doing his best to break free of the hold of the ck blood, but by now, the vile liquid had already reached up to his waist and solidified its grip, simultaneously durable and stretchy, there was no way for the vampire to hope to escape its grasp. Especially after letting most of his blood flow out of his body, he was weakened. Having received an answer from the ancient undead, Loimos revealed his bone ws once more, stabbing them through the vampire''s eyes and injecting a continuous stream of ck blood into his body, this time, the excessively corrosive kind. Reducing his body to mush was enough to get rid of one of such undeads, decaying what remained and absorbing what little death force he possessed sealed the deal for certain. Loimos moved up to the draugr and exined his presence here. "Are we nearing our grand return?" seemingly unable to stand up at the moment, Artencil spoke up. "We are" Loimos confirmed. "This crypt we are in, it is of my own invention, and so was the seal on the outside, the ce we are currently in is actually deep underground, the specificity aren''t easy nor simple to exin, however, you could say that the inside of the crypt was paralysed, it is like the time of I and that vampire had been stopped, though it really was just that we were put in something like aa, unlike him however, I am well aware that a long time as passed" exined the Draugr, finally managed to stand on his legs. "I have already met with Faraday and Slotriig, the seal of the former is on its way to be broken, Irmandos fell victim to life" Loimos gave a quick overview of where they currently stood. "I am currently weakened, and wouldn''t be of much use either way, but I shall begin to amass troops for our king, destroy the seal entirely after youe out, this will ensure that no other will be able to use it to travel here" dusting his tattered robes, Artencil suddenly seemed much more focused, certainly feeling invigorated at the prospect of a return of the king. Loimos didn''t respond and instead executed the demand, Artencil may not be a powerful undead, but he was an undead with history, if he said that he could gather troops, then it wasn''t to be doubted. The skeleton stepped out of the seal, and as instructed, decayed the entire thing, finding no trace of the y structure he had been in moments ago. Now, what was the joyful mass murderer up to? Chapter 118 Promise To Kill Falling to the ground, a guard tried to crawl away, stopped right in his track as what looked liked the remains of an organ sttered right in front of his eye, soon followed by a boot that came down upon the lost body part, twisting her feet as her weight bore down in it, a stray stream of blood hit the guard right in the face. "Get up already you moron!" another guard suddenly showed up, holding nothing but a shield, not seeing the point in carrying anything else when he couldn''t hope to hit the danger scouring the city anyways. At the moment, the guards and The Death Dealer were standing inside of a house, which had received a new paint and severely new decorations just recently, courtesy of a nice and certainly not scarydy. The crawling guard rolled away from the murderous woman, through the remnants of the home owners, up until he reached the side of his colleague, the assassin not making a single move and just looking at the scene with one of her terrifyingly, precisely telling smiles. A piece of furniture slightly shifted in position next to the assassin, alongside the movement, a strident cry, very much displeasing to the ears. "Wah Wah Wah! Is that all you can say?" she reached for it. "Wait! Don-" the shield bearing guard tried to reason with her, but instead was struck with something, aimed perfectly at the center of his shield, exploding into a fine red must on impact, and finally putting an end to the annoying sound. It took the two guards a second to realise what had just happened, or rather, it took them a second to ept that it had just happened, plenty enough for Maliah to appear behind them and stab them each in their spines. Dragging them outside by their feet, for she could tell that those two were thest people still alive within the city, it had taken her much too short of a time to cut down through an entire poption of people, but after all, apart from that captain guard fellow, none had demonstrated anything worthy of attention, this city really was just the starting point for mages, so it only had beginners and failures roaming its streets. She shrugged her shoulders and hoisted the two paralysed fellows up on poles, took twenty steps back, and pulled out a bow and arrows from behind her cloak, she took aim and began to kill some time with some live targets. "Ouh, that was your spleen right there" shemented as Loimos approached her, the sound of destruction ringing in the background as he showed up. "Ah, Loimos, I don''t know what you wanted to do with everyone dead, but it was a lot of fun, my clients never bother to help me usually! Like, just because I am the greatest assassin and barely a few people can challenge me, it''s a good reason to leave me by my lonesome?" she put her hands up against her cheeks, probably trying to emte a cute pose, but instead giving a good idea of what an eldritch horror might look like when possessing a human. Loimos couldn''t possibly see a problem with this, and instead pulled something out of his pocket, alongside a hefty amount of salt, somehow, after getting thrown around a whole bunch, he was still packed with salt. Maliah looked at it with an eyebrow raised, the distant sound of a building copsing and a pained groan from the un-spleened fellow right there didn''t disturb either of them.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Hold on, but we already agreed for the contract so¡­" she pped her chest with her hand. "Is this a gift?" she was vibrating in ce, looking like she just got proposed to. Stay connected through empire "A present" Loimos shoved it in her hands. "It will surelye in handy one day" he added, The Death Dealer putting it away under the cover of her cloak. "It''s just that, no one ever gave me a gift, not even my parents, just because we were ''poor'' and because I had dozens of siblings, I swear, some people were just raised wrong, I waspletely justified to burn them all in the shed they called a house, I mean, why breed like rabbits when there is barely enough space for the two of you already? Just idiotic, I did a favour to the world to not allow those low-lives from spreading their legacies any further" exining herself to Loimos, who was just absorbing information and nothing else, only stopping when what was causing the distant demolition came into sight. Nothing but a mass of pure rot, crafted from the many corpses just lying around, appearing like a giant snail from afar, its shell, the ruins of buildings and habitations in the process of being consumed into this giant of putrefaction. "You know, I always try my best to maintain the anonymity of my clients, but I will have a hard time convincing the higher-ups that it was all me that erased this entire city from existence" Maliah scratched her chin, but then shrugged. "Not like they can prove otherwise, you were pretty fun for an emotionless corpse, let''s meet and kill again" and just like that, shepletely disappeared, the skeleton had no clue where she had gone to, but it didn''t really matter. Despite moving awfully slowly, the rot snail''s size allowed it to cover a lot of ground, taking in everything it could until nothing but a patch of dry dirt surrounded by vibrant green grass remained as the remaining testament to Weafewand''s presence upon this ground. The next location he was heading for was Muho Chitai, a city situated in another country entirely, Tochi, where the swordsman wielding one-edged de were said to originate, a ce said to not inhabit many mages and more martial artists utilisingplex and difficult battle arts. Whilst technically closer than thest city, Bourgliotte, it wasn''t by much, the travel to this ce would be long, incredibly long and since Loimos would travel through the quickest path, he would encounter some environmental hazards and go through actually dangerous areas, the safe roads proper for transporting goods would soon be a distant memory. Chapter 119 Three Unwanteds "Pierre-Orn¨¦e, Bough, good to see you two back, I already have a new job for the two of you" Agilulf Wanneck, King Of Tamaris weed his two closest guards himself, pping his hands and producing a metallic clink from his fingers were covered with golden rings, adorned with precious minerals and gems. His long beard swayed as a strong breeze blew through the gardens situated all across his pce. The two warriors stayed silent and listened to his next words, but instead of speaking up, their lord walked past them, signalling for them to follow, walking through the immense corridors of the royal castle, built sorge with the express purpose of being capable of housing all sort of species, a sign of respect on Wanneck''s side. It was also rather useful considering the size of his shield carrying personal guard, walking behind their king, it didn''t take too long for the two of them to realise where they were headed. Soon enough, they found themselves in front of an open room, evenrger than the king''s throne room, covered and filled with magical contraptions to aid in the matters taking ce here. "My Lord, how many are you going to summon today?" asked the halbardier, still not feeling like using the assistance of unwanteds to be a good use of their resources. Guards and soldiers could be trained as groups and units, achieving sufficient results for a fraction of the cost, whilst an unwanted presence could be nothing more than a regr person, certainly capable of achieving great things, but just as everyone else, it wasn''t worth spending so many precious materials and botherpetent mages for the rarity of an unwanteding with a useful ability. "Is this¡­?" Bough was more interested by one of the mages that were going to work on the imminent summoning. "Pierre-Orn¨¦e, we will summon two of them, a third, naturally summoned one was already fetched, it''s this guy with the roundish sses in the corner" the king first responded to him before turning to Bough.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Truthfully, the halbardier was also quite surprised seeing that mage here, but the money of his lord came before his own personal surprise. Enjoy exclusive content from empire "I thought Rosemary never agreed to work for anyone" the shieldmaster trembled, Wanneck raised his hand up. "What can I say, I just went to her myself and asked her nicely, and offered to provide some ressources for her students, how you demand things is very important, you can''t just waltz in on anyone and make orders just because you are the head of a country"ughed the old king. ''You absolutely can'' ''Isn''t that a perk of the job?'' ''That old man is pretty cool'' His two guards, and the unwanted that was already present here, albeit against his will, all had their thoughts on the king''s wise words. With a mage of Rosemary''s calibre participating in the summoning ritual, it was virtually impossible for it to fail, the two unwanteds the king wanted would be summoned without any problem. "Everyone is ready? Those that aren''t participating, do not move from where you stand, and could someone close the door?" the red mage gave her instruction, once everything was put in ce, she brought her hands together and didn''t skip anything, activating the various portions of the ritual on her own, the other mages present with her only there to funnel mana into the grand spell. Rosemary''s mana control was well enough for her to handle to the rest on her own, it was like all mana bent to her will, the main circle around which all of them were surrounding soon lit up with a white and light purplish light. From there, the room was drowned entirely with the two shines, forcing everyone to shield their eyes for the next minute or so, until it slowly began to die down, revealing two new people sprawled on the ground, looking terribly hungover. The king would have liked to wee them but they didn''t seem very aware of anything at the moment, so instead, he asked for people''s opinions on his two new recruits. "From what I can see, each of their mana aspects are rather good, some training should prove rather fruitful in that aspect" Rosemary started, focusing a bit and it turns out that she could discern one''s energy aspects all on her own. "The girl seems athletic enough, the boy is not too shabby either¡­" Pierre-Orn¨¦e was pleasantly surprised, they didn''t seem like failures, yet. "Toby, show them what you can do" the king spoke to the third unwanted. "Ah, certainly sir¡­" clearly feeling a bit intoxicated by the strong presence in the room, he just walked up closer to the king, looked at the two newly arrived unwanteds. "The blond boy has an affinity for light magic, the girl, well, she seems to have an affinity for the four elements, hum, fire, wind, water and earth" he recited, not actually certain if the four elements he was referring to applied to this world. "Toby here is a rarity, he has special system functions, let me tell you, our fortune is good with unwanteds, I must have been a saint in a past life" mused Agilulf Wanneck, being the only oneughing. "Miss Rosemary, my royal mages, you are all dismissed, that is all I have to ask of you today" he bid his goodbyes to all of them, until only him, his two guards and the unwanteds remained in the room, two of them still very much lethargic. "Since our two new friends are out of it at the moment¡­ Toby, those two are Pierre-Orn¨¦e and Bough, respectively known as Halbardier and Shieldmaster, they will be the ones looking over you and showing you the ropes of enacting violence in the name of justice, but mostly my name, don''t be intimidated child, be afraid instead!" the king smiled and simply left the room, wishing for them to get along. Toby didn''t try to meet the gaze of either of the two guards. "Well then, have you ever swung a sword or any weapon like it?" Pierre-Orn¨¦e and bough could only focus on their new task. At least, they all seemed to have some form of talent or special abilities. Chapter 120 Physical Exercise "Alright kids, the great majority of you look like walking from one ssroom to another is the greatest exercise you perform at any given time, this is not good" back to her students, Rosemary was standing on one of the many outside portions of the academy, where one could breath fresh air, smell the flowers, and slowly die of heat exposure. Everyone except her looked like they had ran a marathon by sprinting the entire time, but no, they had just stood outside for too long, she had really brought them out at noon as well, either a machiavellian ploy on her part, or perhaps because she couldn''t tell the difference between the cold inside and zing volcano that was the outside. "Listen well, I know most mages either look like they could roll off the a slope or like dried branches, but that doesn''t mean it is ideal, it is far from ideal in fact, a stronger body can inhabit stronger mana, but that is not all, not being built like a wimp also ensure that you''ll die with more difficulty, you!" she suddenly pointed at one of the few students with a good build. He looked around, and now being certain that she was talking to him, he advanced from the ground with certain hesitation. "Why are you scared? Listen, youe from a lineage of knights, right?" "Yes Ma''am" he responded with a strong nod. "You have learned hand to handbat?" "Yes Ma''am" he repeated the same exact movement. "Alright then,e at me and show your ssmates how to fight" he paled instantly, breathing in and out, he looked back at his fellows, they offered no support to him. Rubbing his sweat covered forehead, he took position and ignited every fiber he possibly could manage with mana, took one step forward, his posture was nearly perfect, clearly showing that he had been diligent in his training from a young age, all of this just to instantly eat dirt. "See? He is fine because he had the correct response to getting mugged right in the face and a well-trained body to withstand the shock" Rosemary calmly exined, even though the boy was not getting up,ying face first on the grass. Ignoring that fact, their teacher continued on exining her point. "Which is why we will begin some daily physical exercises, as well as some sparring and perhaps some of you could pick up a weapon, although with rigorous training in both the body and magical field, your own body will be a rather powerful weapon in its own rights" she instructed them to begin with running someps for now, just to check who had some good stamina and such. "Are you alright?" Milo asked the fellow of knightly descent, checking if he wasn''t dead from blunt force trauma. "No" he simply replied, his voice muffled by the dirt and greenery. Read new chapters at empire "She pped me, pped me so hard, one p, just one, and both my knight and mage training failed to do anything, it''s like getting kicked in my parts, but on a fundamental level, my only wish is to be one with the grass now¡­" a bit over dramatic but Milo understood the sentiment in a sense. "Come on, Miss Rosemary said that she would hit anyone who doesn''t do the exercise" lied Milo, but since this fellow had been having an existential crisis, he hadn''t been listening at all and believed it instantly. Jumping to his feet and taking off running toward the rest of the group to ask what the exercise was even about. As expected, most of the ssgged behind a few people, three in fact, the boy that had been pped in front of everybody as an example, and the two who had spent most of their childhoods on the farm, Milo and Helena, the rest had spent most of their times practicing magic and such. Rosemary covered her face with one hand, honestly baffled that anyone could be so unathletic, as she thought of the time that it would take to take so many kids into shape, someone walked up to her side. "Headmaster, what brings you out into the sunlight? Going for a walk after lunch?" she asked the old man whose back was arched beyond what was healthy, and whose beard dragged on the ground as he moved in the help of an exquisite staff. "Oh, Rosemary, already unpleasant on such a sunny day? I simply wanted to check on your students, as venomous as you are, you always have the best youths" speaking like a kind elder, he watched the running students for a few seconds.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Those two¡­" "Milo and Helena" Rosemary rified. "Hmm, ah yes, the boy is the one with the odd affinity, right?" he spoke in a low tone. ''The geezer knows more than he is letting on'' Rosemary rolled her eyes at the foolish antics of the old fossil, he always did this, every time there was something the teachers weren''t aware of, he would just show up, act all mysterious and then not borate even when asked about it. "You are also teaching the twelve talent holders in parallel, how are they?" the headmaster switched the subject as per usual. "They are doing very well, they were nurtured even beforeing here, I don''t have many gaps to fill with them, what of the elemental champions headmaster?" not really interested in discussing anything with him, Rosemary kept on overlooking her students. "Oh, they are doing-" "Headmaster, what the hell are you doing here? You never care for anything that happens, even when students get injured, you don''t show up, you are only headmaster in name, just a figurehead that nobody likes, every teacher let it be known that you are unlikable right in your face, stop trying to act all nice and get to the point, I am in ss, working, you know what that means?" "Oh, Rosemary, still as insulting as ever! Always good to know you are in good health, but for once, I really just wanted to see the students, our glorious king is preparing for a war as per the instructions of Quideos Audit, these youth will certainly be soldiers soon" "You and I will have to die before those kids step foot on an actual battlefield" she responded tly, prompting the headmaster to get the hint and slither back to his dimly lit office. Chapter 121 Softhearted Lunacy "Aplete tragedy! Oh people, my friends! Not a single one, not even one, not even half of one! None of the heroes of yore I have visited in their tombs answered my call for help, or worse, they had answered the call from beyond instead! Argh, is it too much to ask for a hero worthy of their title?!" a certain raving lunatic of a prophet was currently singing hisments inside of a tavern, where he had stopped whilst on his way back to visit the king of Tamaris. "Can you believe this, heroes entombed in personal graves, their coffins exquisitely carved and frescoes of their supposedly great deeds painted upon the walls, won''t even bother to rise from the dead to fight again, absolute bums I am telling you!" by this point, no one was really listening to him any longer. Except for the person that was sitting across from him, who wasn''t really appreciating him going into rants and chants in the middle of a discussion. "Quideos! Sit back down for goodness sakes, I only agreed to meet up because we used to be good friends, just go to the point, please" it was a fairly young-looking woman, dressed in pristine white robes with hints of a booming green, a golden ne around her neck depicting a some sort of nt with a face, staring straight ahead right at Quideos. "Used to?" the madman settled down and suddenly looked very sad. "I can''t believe it, alright, we are still friends, you are just a bit unhinged now, don''t get depressed and exin" she urged him, rubbing both her temples. "Oh my, thanks Jo, you know, it''s a shame we don''t speak more often, you are like the sister I never had, which is to say a lot because I never had much familial bonds, despite my best efforts to connect with parents-" he fiddled with his fingers. "Quideos" "Ah yes, my bad, as an archbishop of Phanes, you havemand over many pdins and clerics alike, and I was hoping you could give a hand to the death hunters in hunting the undead" he finally began to exin why he had asked for her to show up. "Quideos, we already do this and you know it, it isn''t like you to dance around the point you want to make, is it about yourtest vision? I have gotten echoes of it, listen, I know you arepetent, but with your recent streaks of madness and false revtions, few people are willing to believe anything you say, I can''t just move so many people on ount of your vision, none of my peers believe in you anymore" she exined, seeing him grown sadder and sadder as she spoke, until he looked like a little puppy. "Don''t make those eyes at me- Urgh, that''s their opinion, I know you well, I can tell that you aren''t having a delirious episode, even if you consistently look insane, exin the details you can, I''ll make sure to try something to help, but don''t get your hopes up! Continue reading at empire Unless something undeniably undead rted happens, I can''t take great actions" she made herself clear, but all her seriousness couldn''t even budge whatever was going on inside Audit''s head. "Jo, listen closely, I haven''t revealed everything, the amount of information I can share depends on who I am revealing it to, and as you know it, information that I can''t reveal to someone, can''t be revealed by someone else, the rules are set in stone, but, I know that something big is going to happen in multiple ces, however, with there is hardly anything that I can reveal, ancient undeads are rising from their tombs, the gravelords of yore will go to war once more, risen from their sleep by the foil of a man fallen from grace-" he stopped for a few moments, struggling with finding the right words to express the most he could. His senses assaulted by countless images and visions of the future, some clear, some iprehensible, he had to pick wisely else he could send Jo on the wrong track entirely. "Alright- Alright, the heart of death is unknowingly guarded in Bourgliotte, if you must take any action, it is to ce more people there, ah, how terrible this future would be¡­" he shuddered, paling and growing smaller in his seat, his lips sealed from any further revtions for now. Quideos and Jo stared at one another, the prophet looking spent and the archbishop quizzical, she spoke up. "So, a veritable army of the dead is set to rise in the near future? Far future? You can''t tell? But the problem is that few are willing to believe in that, otherwise, we might be able to rally and unite against the only great undead we know the location of¡­" "Gravelord" corrected Quideos. "That is a term that hasn''t been used since forever, I only ever saw it in decrepit old books and archives, times so far back it might as well be fiction as no one can truly attest to them, but if the impaler is one of those ''gravelords'', then don''t you think it would be beneficial if we struck him down before everything starts going poorly?" Jo shook her head, knowing that there was already a reason why no one had bothered even attempting to dislodge the impaler despite him encroaching on the territory of multiple kingdoms. It simply wasn''t worth it, and it wasn''t going to be Quideos''s vision, or Jo''s word that would change anything about it. "If I must bepletely transparent, I don''t believe it can be prevented, so if anything, I would want you to make sure the greatest forces of lifekind don''t get taken out, with your status, I am certain that you could do it, somehow¡­" "Gather and maintain our best assets for what is toe huh?" the archbishop stood up from her seat, ready to go back to her church and begin the preparations. "Jo? It was pretty nice seeing you again, by the way, can Ie by the church?"N?v(el)B\\jnn "Of course you can Quideos, no one is going to stop you, it was good seeing you as well, you seem to have gotten better since yourst mad ramblings, be careful" she bid her goodbyes to him. "Oh, if only convincing the king of Starkefolten was as easy as that¡­" heined in a low tone, reinforcing the security of Bourgliotte would certainly be much simpler if the big man in charge of the country was willing to hear him out. Chapter 122 Snowy Mountains "Well, well! A lone traveller, how atypical, empty your pockets, whatever is inside shall be the price you pay for your life" it went without saying, but Loimos had been approached with such demands a whole lot more ever since he had begun entering the mountain range surrounding Tamaris, the poption of bandits and other low-lives varmints was rather dense, in two ways actually. Ranging from iprehensible bber to rather sophisticated demands such as the one that was in the process of happening, the diversity in highway folks poption was surprising, they were much like goblins, everywhere, adaptive, group-oriented, generallycking in advanced thought process and not exactly pleasant to look at. "Did you not hear him? Give us your valuables, lone wanderer!"N?v(el)B\\jnn "Now that I think about it, it really is very umon for people to be alone in this part¡­" "He is carrying a sword too" "And that mask is a bit creepy" "Howe no one else intercepted him before us anyways? They would have jumped on a solitary traveller" The well-spoken bandits started looking at one another, and then back at Loimos, who had taken a step forward when they weren''t paying attention. "I must admit, maybe we were a bit too impetuous, now that we are up-close, this fellow looks very much unpleasant as a robbing victim" their leader stepped back and the others followed, they all sunk down into the ground, nearly down to their knees as the ck blood bubbled. The refined bandits didn''t even have time given to them to try and bargain as the blighted liquid engulfed them all, silencing and digesting them in little time. That was the big mistake of those bandits, they always tried threats and intimidation first, they would have much more sess if they shot their targets in the legs, stole everything and just killed them. Being civilised was their mistake, also ack of proper spatial awareness, leaving a big hole in the middle of the way, Loimos walked past it and went on his way, the road, which could barely be referred as such, was leading him upwards as he would have to traverse the sharp and tall mountains serving as a natural defence for the country. From there on out, he shouldn''t encounter any more bandits, for this ce was home to some monsters, vindictively territorial ones at that, the sort that you could anger without meaning to, or fail to provoke even by trying, rather unpredictable lot. Oddly enough, despite the deathly heat still bearing down upon the soil below, Loimos soon found himself with snow piling on his shoulders, and waist down in powdered snow, good thing he had no eyes and couldn''t be blinded, the reflections of the sun were so bad, it could actually be considered as an of pure evil. Unfettered by such a mundane thing as thermal shock, Loimos continued on his way, simultaneously freezing and being warmed up until he managed to find a spot that wasn''t nearly as flooded with snow, or rather, an area where the snow wasn''t so soft, not losing track of the direction he was supposed to go in, he came across many caverns on the sides of high portions of the mountains, sharp rock flying up into the sky, piercing and dividing the clouds far in the distance. More importantly, the caves were inhabited, small masses of white fur came running out with much hastiness after one of them shouted out upon noticing Loimos, who dressed in ck, stood out a pretty big deal. Screaming and hollering in one anothers faces, the small creatures started throwing rocks at Loimos, with good uracy but reprehensibly low strength, even when hit straight in the face, his head barely moved in response. He rose a wall of soft rot in front of him, the singr force of one rock was poor, but there were a lot more rocksing, expanding his rot forward, he immersed himself in and using the speed boost moving through his own creation granted him, he soon found himself in front of one of the small ball of fluff. Grabbing it by it heads and popping it like a rotten orange, with his enhanced strength from much murder, absorbing of death force and decaying of many things, it was awfully simple to kill these feeble creatures, although it turns they packed quite the weight for their size, stacking up on much fat. After crushing one skull, stomping on one and exploding another with a kick to the stomach, the hairy horde scattered back in the caves, probably not finding this activity worth it, however, going into the caverns wasn''t the wisest move, the undead easily sealed the entrance off with some rot and then unleashed miasma directly inside, suffocating them all to them all the while continued on walking forward. But of course, the screams of the little one''s attracted other dwellers of the snowy mountain, another hairy creature decided to show up, this one had its ugly maw visible for all to see, which was a dark blue colour and possessing an oversized nose, probably to counteract the fact that air was scarce up there, not brawny but thin and with long arms that it used much like a gori would. Its stomach area was simrly uncovered of fur and hollowed out, letting out a howl, Loimos scanned the surroundings for more like this guy, but he turned out to be all by himself, a lonely monkey man of sorts. Explore more adventures at empire Rushing forward with wild abandon for no discernible reason, the monster leapt up in the air, swinging both fists down on the skeleton''s head. In response, the undead took one step to the left, raised one fist up, and hit the monster squarely in the jaw, rattling its brain around in its skull just as itnded down on nothing, sending it stumbling away like it had just drank a whole barrel of booze. Walking up to the defenceless aggressor, he grabbed both sides of his head, giving it a good twist, breaking the ape-like creature''s neck. So far, so good. Chapter 123 Chilling Or not, soon after easily dealing with the monkey, Loimos was hit by what wasmonly referred to as an avnche, which carried him into some sort of cave, evident by the fact that the area was covered in stgmites and stctites, the entire ce was packed with them, it was incredibly difficult to move around efficiently, but the hindrance was mostly to due to the floating bits of snow hammering the undead with spells. Countless snowballs were constantly hitting him from various directions, the snow in question sticking to him and threatening to restrict him into an impromptu white coffin, so he had to constantly douse himself with corrosive blood to prevent this from happening. Loimos had to guess that those were some sort of spirits, but he couldn''t tell for certain, breaking off a nearby stgmite, he threw it like a javelin at one of them, the spike of rock harmlessly piercing right through the floating snow, ending its course further away and causing many of spikes growing downwards to copse. If they couldn''t be affected by physical blows, Loimos would just call forth some miasma, reinforce it with a hefty dose of death force, and spread it all around himself, its effects soon making themselves known upon the environment all around, eating away the surface of the cavern, the moment the death mist touched one of the snow beings, they recoiled in apparent horror, or surprise, or maybe it just felt weird, all that mattered is that upon being enveloped in the dark purplish fog, the snowball throwers stopped doing so and seemed to focus on defending themselves. Once surrounded, Loimos condensed the miasma around them and began to close up the hollow spheres of mist with the snow spirits inside, even then, it took multiple minutes for them to properly die, their forms weren''t corporeal and it seemed like the miasma wasn''t having an easy time consuming them. With his harassers taken out of the picture, Loimos was able to finish traversing the sea of stctites and make his back to where the avnche had swept him away, only to discover more problems, namely, more of the snow goris from before, oddly silent and pointing at him, showing the undead to an arriving figure. The skeleton unsheathed the dark de, infusing it with a small amount of death force, the energy of the dead was rather destructive, most items couldn''t handle too much of it, the death force he always kept hidden within bursted out and wrapped around his body, enveloping him in its protection. Before him, it seemed like some sort of monkey champion had shown up, its arms crossed and looking up to where the avnche had firste down, grumbling, it let it be known that it wasn''t pleased. Most likely because the avnche had been its work, and it had hoped for it to sessfully bury the roaming dead body, an utter failure. Discover exclusive tales on empire Raising its hands up in the air, gritting it teeth and curling up its fingers, it circted its mana with certain difficulty, transmuting it to the element of ice and forming it into spells, the monster wasn''t taking too much time at this, but it was clearly a strain as the ice mana formed into two swords, well, two chunks of ice vaguely in the shape of swords, it was doubtful whether these things any sort of a sharp edge. The smaller apes kept their distances,pletely calm and nearly immobile, this fight was apparently only for the big one to take, despite them having much better chances were they to cooperate, but this had to be some sort of ritual, maybe a way to demonstrate why this one was the wielder, or maybe all of the others were actually females and this was some sort of mating ritual, who knew what was going on in their oh-so small skull. Unleashing the odour of putrefaction as he began to move, the armed ape halted his step for a second, then Loimos spoke a word of death his way just as he moved again, making him hesitate once more, twice just as the confrontation began, the monkey wasn''t making good figure in front of its audience. In contrast, Loimos arched his body back as the monster roared and swung both his de at once, both of them shing roughly the same area, to conserve his eleration, Loimos manifested some ck blood beneath his feet, sliding elegantly on the snow as he arrived near therge beast, throwing a ball of rot toward its stomach cavity, whilst converting the blood used for movement intopressed masses, which bursted as quickly as the undead created them, pushing him him off the ground just in time to avoid more shes. Once again, the monster didn''t see it fit to use his two swords, to attack two ces at the same time, with the size difference between the two, Loimos had no issue dodging the long-winded strikes of the monster, ending up right in front of its face, Loimos pped his hands, the same thing that had gotten an orc defeat was shot right at the big-nosed snow monkey, since then however, it had gotten much stronger and more precise,nding straight in the left eye. Feeling the blood slither around in its eyeball, the ape shouted out in anger, resulting in a very real wave of sound that crashed right into Loimos at point nk, sending him flying into the side of a rocky area. An attacking from the mouth was deemed to move at the speed of sound, or at least somewhat simr, it would have certainly been a good idea on the monster''s part to begin the fight with that handy attack that Loimos couldn''t have dodged.N?v(el)B\\jnn Rising up after getting thrown around and having his bones shifted around at odd angles, his rot coat had been able to absorb much of the concussive force, the snow hended into afterward was also to thank, but he had definitely cracked many bones still. Therger ape trampled the ground, digging into its own eye sockets to try and remove what was eating through him, his body was durable, very much so, but itsck of focus caused its icey swords to be dismissed and despite its brethren raising their voices to apparently warn the approaching doom, it didn''t pay attention and ended up with a death infused sword shoved down to the pommel in its eye. Pounding on the end of the handle, Loimos forced the de deeper into its brain, killing it for good, the cacophony of cries heightened, the monkey''s had set up a duel, but it seemed like only one result was eptable in their book as they began to surround the undead. Pulling out an oddly dark crystal from his pocket alongside a piece of bone, not a mere shard this time, but a genuine piece of one of his fingers, dropping them on the deceased ape champion, the two materials dispersed and vanished, and the dead rose. Chapter 124 One Problem To Another After turning the remains of the champion into a puppet using his acquired finesse, as well as sacrifices of his own body, with golemcraft and spirit creation, the horde of snow dwellers didn''t back off, instead charging forth harder as though they were in a frenzy. But was of little importance, Loimos used his rot to propel himself away from the converving mass, and made use of the champion in a most simple way, using its greater size and mass, the undead made it roll around on top of its former fellows, crushing them into red goo without them being able to do anything about it. Soon afterward, the reanimated corpse ceased any actions, unfortunately, when bringing anything to some sort of undeath, the time was limited as Loimos couldn''t quite stop his death force within them from leaking out as it threw itself on the closest life around. Apart from having a great deal of damaged bones, the undead had dealt with the situation at hand rather well and moved forward, not encountering much of the other inhabitants, for those that he did notice, they all scampered away before he could do anything about their breathing situation. Stirring up snow as he walked, night fell and the conjoined suns reappeared as he noticed what appeared to be the edge of the mountain, and indeed it was, a rather precarious slop greeted him alongside the sight of a dense forest which trees reached incredibly high, nearly half the distance separating him from the ground down there. These trees had no leaves whatsoever, only densely packed thorns grew all over them, connecting each of the tall nts to one another, the prickles colouring the whole thing with their dark red. Assessing and calcting the optimal way of getting down there without exploding against a rock along the way, Loimos was interrupted as the freezing winds going all over the mountains intensified, turning, he realised that, clearly, something had sessfully sneaked rather close to him without being picked up by any of his senses. Shrouded in a thick blue fog, two eyes stared right at him, only the head and neck of the being protruded from the concealing mantle of the freezing mist, a whitish, thick skinned beast with a maw full of teeth the size of the average man''s arm, at the base of its neck, a mana of dark blue feathers. Its eyes were calm, its skin covered in deep, yet natural gashes simr to wrinkles, Loimos couldn''t be certain of what he was looking at until the creature moved forward a bit, a wing protruding from the fog. Simply put, it was probably of the lengthy dragon family tree, and as such, Loimos stepped off the side of the mountain, allowing himself to get torn apart right as the mighty creature roared, creating a dome of pure frost, freezing even the snow, reaching the spot the undead had stood moments ago. Bing an ice statue certainly would have thrown a wrench in his objectives, the dragonoid moved with careful steps to the edge, seeing Loimos ragdolling in the distance, puffing frozen air from its nostrils, it turned back, not nning on giving chase since the undead had so courteously left on his own. Contrary to what might have been expected, Loimos managed to keep all of his limbs thanks to utilising his rot well enough to soften the many impacts, but in the end, cascading all the way from a mountain, even if somewhat controlled, he was thrown right into a tree, hitting him in the midsection and splitting his body into two.N?v(el)B\\jnn Sliding along the thin and soft grass, his lower and upper half ended up rather close to one another, each with variety of broken bones only held together by sheer power of primeval rot, everything was much darker here, only few strands of light could be seen finding a way past the thorns up above, everything down there was covered in dark green grass, vegetation wasn''t very flourishing, only few stray bushes and smaller trees could be seen into the distance, amidst the enormous barks of the leafless trees. They somehow seemed even taller than they were before, Loimos''s senses couldn''t be tricked however, they had definitely grown taller than they were when he was looking up from above. Discover more stories at empire Sticking himself back on, Loimos rose to his feet, swaying a bit as the rot took proper hold to stop him from dividing himself again, the forest was thriving, however, he wasn''t sensing any wildlife anywhere, having monsters capable of hiding from his senses was one thing, but he wasn''t even noticing a single insect in the vicinity, he stepped forward, the ground was a bit soft, he could feel himself sinking a slight bit with his every steps, making a splosh noise every time. This ce was damp, seemingly unaffected by the egregious heating from above despite the temperature being incredibly high, he must have been close to arge body of water, but he couldn''t see any or hear any flowing even when focusing his senses, he had read much things back in Weafewand, many concerning regions ranging from the most simple and uninteresting ones to the magical wonders, somehow, nothing had mentioned this clearly suspicious forest however. He walked for an entire day without encountering anything he hadn''t already, night had fallen and everything was perfectly pitch ck, a better environment for the undead, since his darkness awareness could work full time, providing him with an additional sense, yet, there was still nothing, Loimos knew very well that he couldn''t have been caught in an illusion, yet, he was well aware that the forest hadn''t been nearly sorge to begin with. A few hours of walking into any direction should have taken him right on out, but it hadn''t. Something was definitely off, but just as was about to try something else, he stumbled upon human remains, well, humanoid at the very least, bones in perfect conditions, still wearing their clothes and grasping on an unrusted sword, the corpse sitting against a tree and looking forward still, not curled up miserably like they had died from exposure, just sittingfortably. Not a speck of death emanated from the corpse, like it was actually a prop. Following the discovery, a life signature appeared right behind Loimos, his merged undead senses, telling him everything he could possibly know about the sudden apparition, but before he could do anything about it, it had already grabbed onto him, and without much effort, threw him right through the thorns and branches up above, going through them without breaking any, crashing right back down onto the forest ground. Chapter 125 An Old Sight After being flung across who knows how many kilometers, Loimos got up like nothing happened, finding himself unharmed in spite of the heavy fall he wasn''t able to soften, he just sort of fell t to the ground, instantly losing all momentum. That little airborne session did help him get a free overview of the forest, and it now extended in every direction beyond what his senses could see, the mountain was nowhere to be seen, nothing but an endless expanse of the forest of thorns. Even if all directions led to absolutely nothing, Loimos picked the one supposed to get him closer to his next destination and instead of just walking, since he had somehow ended up in a strange ce, he dropped the living facade for now and began sprinting in the most efficient way possible, the sound of his footsteps striking the wet ground grew louder and faster. Quickly enough, he stumbled upon other skeletal remains, this time, those of a young child, once more, in pristine condition and posing in a way that indicated no reaction to their death, this time however, he propelled his blighted blood in every direction before the being even revealed itself, despite the barrage of acid, it grabbed Loimos anyways and flung him away. This being was nothing more than a long, skinny arm that appeared out of thin air, despite clearly possessing life force, it didn''t react much to being harmed, repeating the same series of action a few more times, Loimos could tell that the arm in question retained the damage inflicted upon it. It was odd really, he could only supposed that this forest, this ne was actually some sort of ability, perhaps the domain of something or someone, but the method of killing was rather specific, and frankly, inefficient. The arms flinging Loimos around couldn''t hurt him in any ways, the few bushes and smaller trees around always had plenty of berries and fruits, all of which weren''t poisonous or harmful, one could simply live here rtively well. They could also not approach the dubious cadavers, Loimos had stood a distance from one for dozens of minutes, but the arm would only act when he was almost right on top of them, it might still be effective on a living, but Loimos couldn''t be bothered by any of it. To him, it was all just stalling him. Stalling¡­ Growing rot from his palms, he threw it on a nearby tree and immediately began to have it produce miasma, Allowing the decay to grow and grow until it swallowed entire trees whole, meanwhile, Loimos stood still, unclear from the exterior was he was doing, the light from the two suns peeked in. Despite clearly being some sort of separated space from the actual forest, it still retained the twin-suns as its light source, the details of this ce mattered little as it was being drowned in an endless stream of death miasma and constantly spreading masses of rots, simr to what he had created to erase Weafewand, only on a smaller scale. The life here was genuine after all, so if he overwhelmed life with death, it was deemed to alle crashing down, Loimos thought so, and the hand must have as well as it broke the rules it had followed until now and manifested on its own, or perhaps damaging to environment always was a way of summoning it. Appearing amidst dense miasma, it visibly withered moments after appearing, its life force being sapped and destroyed, it grabbed Loimos anyways and attempted throw him, this time, he had rigged himself and the spikes normally supposed to burst out of his left arms bursted from his chest, right where the hand liked to grasp him, the throw was aplete fail, the flinger writhing like a worm in the sun as the miasma seeped in through its gruesome wound. And then, nothing happened, the miasma continued to spread and no further attempts were made to stop it, until the false reality broke and a voice reached Loimos directly inside of his dead mind. "You are terribly hard to contain, it''s barely been an hour, Loimos" the undead was back in the actual forest, before him, some sort of fly-looking creature was struggling as countless roots stabbed its body in all direction. "I even enlisted the assistance of this fellow, what a shame" pulling its roots back, the body of the monster waspletely torn apart, the bloody appendages retreating back a small tree inplete dichotomy with the rest of nt-lives all around, it was only half as tall as Loimos, and had a face, a familiar one at that. ''The First Seed'' the undead recognised the lively nt even with its stark change in stature, sending a wave of ck blood without wasting any time, the tree retreated underground, its potent life signature vanishing despite its voice remaining clear. "Now, that simply isn''t correct decorum when meeting an old acquaintance, even if it hasn''t been that long all things considered¡­"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om "Loimos, a name granted by the system¡­ Or is it simply etched into your very being? Whatever that may be, I thought that I would be able to do something here, but I must have grown numb in the head, you have be a mightier undead sincest then, I can not do much on my own¡­" the deep and ancient voice of The First Seed faded away, the old tree had truly left after spouting a few words. Loimos remained alert, despite what it had said, a burst of life force like it had done back in the underground world could definitely seal the deal, or perhaps it couldn''t do those as easily as it seemed. The spot where it had been nted hadn''t been damaged by it burrowing into the ground, in fact, it seemed much more vibrant than the rest of the forest, its sheer presence and life force enough to make the surroundings grow healthier and stronger. The undead stepped forward with caution, this time noticing the life forces of the critters and distant animals, going over to the spread out remains of the fly monster, Loimos couldn''t discern the exact reason why The First Seed had taken it hostage, but from what it had said, it seemed like the ability he had been put under originated from it rather than the tree. And in the far distance, figures were alreadying to meet with the undead, there really was no downtime in the wild. Chapter 126 Mist Apart from a few, terribly cared for des and some arrows, that only met the requirement to be called so because they were shot from a bow, sticking out of him, Loimos hadn''t encountered much issues traversing the forest of thorn, it had been home to some groups of people-sized trolls, who wore clothing and had a constant, off-putting smile on their faces, but they seemed to be spending their times herding deers as cattle, so they weren''t much of a threat. Sure, they had managed to surrounding him at one point, pin him down and stab him in the guts about five dozens of time like expert knifemen, but Loimos couldn''t ask to be attacked in a better spot than this, there was literally nothing they could do with their shoddy weapons that way. It had given him plenty of time to engulf them in rot and throw them off, picking them off one by one from there, they hadn''t stopped smiling even in distress when he reciprocated the warm wee and spilled their guts with their own blunt des. Their skin was a bit tougher than the average human, so it was a bit more difficult but not overly so, he really didn''t know why no one would want to write about this small forest, but once he came out and got a good look at the surroundings, he immediately got a good guess as to why nobody bothered to document the area, it seemed like the thorn forest was situated right in between the freezing mountains and an enormous foggyke. And by foggy, it meant that one couldn''t see even five meters in front of them, and even then, that little zone of sight wasn''t very clear, with his impressive sights and senses, Loimos could probably see further than most, waving his hand through the thick mist, it almost seemed tangible. The water was simr, not dark, seeming rather clear in fact, however it was also foggy, somehow. He knew of thatke however, it was just that the maps he had consulted weren''t very urate, the cartographers were seriously cking on their jobs, there wasn''t supposed to be water here ording to them, then again, they had missed an entire forest, the slouches couldn''t be trusted in their own field of expertise. That posed a problem however, this wasn''t like the waters of the underground world from the beginning, this was crawling with rather unpleasant locals, Loimos couldn''t hope to be ignored thanks to being a corpse either, the bottom was teeming with purgatory octopuses, monster that weren''t deserving of such an appetion, and certainly not octopuses, but they were numerous and love rotting carcasses. Which they wouldn''t, and couldn''t shy away from, as they were nothing but slimes, even if they weren''t equipped to eat through his clothes and all, they would swarm him and find a way to get their tentacles on his nasty bones, dissolving them even if they had to kill themselves by nibbling on his death force. Their poption was simply too high, their love for putrefaction meant that he wouldn''t be able to easily kill them with rot or blighted blood either, he could only do so by injecting death force, with howrge theke was, he wouldn''t make it by just traversing the bottom. That was without considering the fact that he might just get crushed by anotherke dweller, they weren''t very keen on rotten flesh, but if they didn''t like his presence, they could probably just sweep at him and turn him into a life-size skeleton puzzle. He examined his other options. Swimming on the surface should leave him out of reach of the slimes, by dropping balls of rot as he went, he would be able to prevent them from ascending up andtching onto him where they felt that he really was just a snack that warranted the hustle.N?v(el)B\\jnn Not viable either, much like sharks, some of creatures didn''t have the best eyesight and wouldn''t recognise a humanoid figure swimming, easily mistaking him for something else and just chomp him down, he could release blighted blood to deter those, but then that exposed him for rebellion from thergest threat, which gave theke its name and looks. The Mist-Drowned wasn''t a big fan of people messing with theke, said to have murdered one man, and gone back to kill someone in the next few generations over the course of many years just because he had thrown an old pair of boots in. No need to say that it might have been an overreaction, but The Mist-Drowned was the one who made the rules, don''t overstep your boundaries and it won''t do anything, one could fish in theke just fine, just don''t do it too much, a fisher and his group had been too overconfident and the guardian of Mistdrown had given this body of water its name and also given itself a title, by drowning them all by sheer control of the mist, except for one, there needed to be someone to tell the others what wrong had brought forth the marine justice. Loimos wasn''t certain, but he felt that dousing ck blood for the entire duration of his swim through theke might not be seen in the best of lights, although the skeleton had also wondered whether or not the creature was a fellow undead or not. But he had his answer right there, the mist carried the slightest bit of life force, it wasmon for other energies to seep in when one used any energy or an ability, and it seemed like the fog that permeated both the air above and the waters was an aspect of The Mist-Drowned powers. Well then, he doubted that he could just challenge theke benefactor to a fight and win, so he had to find a boat, or make one from scratch, he looked around the shore for anyone that might have crashed in the past but this ce was pristine, as should have been expected. Thankfully, Loimos could enlist the help of fine gentlemen, they may be monsters but with their builds and habits, surely the trolls could make sense of his words, this continent was blessed by a singrnguage after all, he hadn''t heard them say anything before. If they couldn''t understand with words, then he would speak to them with actions. He unsheathed his de, going back into the forest. Chapter 127 Envy Unknowing of the poor trolls suffering abuse, Milo stared at a piece of paper in front of him, looked left, looked right and seeing that everyone was approaching this test with confidence, deemed that the questions he had just read weren''t traps. Perhaps he was just traumatised by Helena''s shrewd and inhumane idea of what a test was supposed to be, but the questions were rather straightforward, fitting of their teacher, who always approached every subject like doors that needed to be kicked open. The first few questions were about mana crystallisation and cores, though that was the name the lesson was called, it also covered other things in rtion to them as well. In this case, crystallisation referred to that of a mage''s own mana, rather than the crystals that could be found in the wild, it could ur naturally or by the will of the mana user, the first question pertained to the difference between the two. ''As long as the mage is skilled enough, both are equally harmless and useful, however, if the person crystallises their energy in a wrong ce, it can lead to health issues, or even damaging one, or multiple organs¡­'' the natural crystallisation was nearly alway exact, of course, it was possible for it to go wrong nheless but it was surprisingly rare, still, Milo made sure to mention the eventuality anyways. The second question was about cores, those were basically an advanced application of the same principle as crystallisation, but certain much more potent, although, having a core damaged and having a crystal broken waspletely different, one was nothing but a mass of mana for one to use as an extra reserve when necessary, it wouldn''t blow up if damaged, cores on the other hand¡­ They had many benefits, such as speeding one''s mana cirction, granting an extra oomph to spells in many departments and even allowing to inscribe at least one spell to allow for extra quick casting. But were much more costly to have, they were like an extra organ and were incredibly pain sensitive, so much so that the pain of having a core damaged was said to be able to make a grizzled and emotionless murderer cry like a little baby. Most importantly however, they had a tendency to blow up when hurt, the explosion was rather strong and would send shards everywhere like shrapnel, considering the bomb was inside of you, and generally close the heart in particr, suchmodities where only sought after by poorly talented mages in need of a boost and long distance casters that didn''t risk getting struck at all. Rosemary had spent much time dissuading them of going for such a thing, they were more of a tant weak point that a real help, they were actually mostly used for powering arrays and as materials. Milo couldn''t imagine growing a core, and then cutting yourself open to get it but it was a rathermon practice since monsters rarely grew cores on their own. It really was just a test to see if they had properly absorbed the information, next were questions revolving around energy organs, gates and mutations as well as transntation, Milo would spend most of his time outside of sses studying with Helena, so he the details of each subjects were well ingrained in his mind. He wrote down everything he could think of, feeling confident in himself, Rosemary had told them that the main grades were all practical anyways, but that she still wouldn''t let anyone just avoid the theoretical side of learning. Some students who finished up before the end of the hour left early, but most stayed until the end, rereading their answers, probably changing good responses in the process. The very first test of this first year ended without much stress for anyone, their teacher was just leaning back in her chair, reading aicallyrge book without paying much attention to the students, although that probably was far from the case. Milo and Helena hadn''t known much about Rosemary beforeing here unlike everyone, so they had gotten the fresh experience of how mind bogglingly amazing she was, even those that had been well aware couldn''t help but open their mouths wide open when she demonstrated something incredibly difficult with intense ease. There was no doubt in anyone''s mind that she could spot any attempt at cheating with nothing but her mana senses, fear kept everyone in line. Handing over their papers, no more sses followed this one but it was still bright out, Helena bumped him in the shoulder, staring at one another, he could tell she was giving him the look. Continue your saga on empire "Feeling like it?" she asked him, a yful smile on her face. "Always" came the reply, not an inkling of hesitation. Another student sent a confused re, the same student that had been humiliated by Rosemary during the first exercise lesson. "Damn, already? The year barely begun" he muttered to himself, honestly impressed, but he couldn''t allow himself to be jealous, his parents had already arranged a marriage for him, he had to stay pure until then. The two lovebirds moved away, in apletely different direction to where the rooms the students resided in were situated, prompting an eyebrow to raise from the young man, now he was just confused. ''Hold on a second, weren''t they going to¡­?'' he stood in ce for a few moments, looking to the sides to see if anyone else had witnessed this scene and would be willing to assist him in trying to understand the deep meaning in all of this, but no one else had been paying attention.N?v(el)B\\jnn ''Oh, I am too curious now'' he took rapid strides and followed the direction the two lovebirds had left in, arriving before an open room he was rather familiar with. "Whoa, you exploded your previous record Milo!" "Looking big!" she praised him, as he lifted weights, they were working out together, and somehow, this made the young man infinitely more envious than anything else he could have possibly seen. Chapter 128 Sand The troll of the thorn forest clearly knew how to build things, small houses, fences and tools, such as axes and fishing rods, they definitely held some level of skill in that department, so having them build a boat shouldn''t be out of the realm of possibilities, unfortunately,munication was difficult, they actually seemed to understand Loimos more when he spoke in the death tongue than the pale tongue. Those guys were awfully silent at all times, actually conveying things to one another by staring at each other and doing some eye movements, sounds meant nothing to them, so they actually got more of the undead''s intent when he uttered words on thenguage of the dead, it carried more of his will, one might say. It still wasn''t going well however, none of the dispersed groups of trolls seemed to have experience in nautical travel, curiously, none had thought of going fishing anywhere further than the shores, but Loimos only needed something that floated and could support his weight, the equivalent of a piece of flotsam really. Nothing too fancy, but with how unwilling his building partners were being, Loimos might just get proficient enough with his rot to create his own approximative boat before any of those trolls got the message, from afar, the undead looked like he was trying tomunicate with a bunch of chimpanzees by making broad movements, and growing mouldy eyes to try and replicate theirmunication methods. When that failed, and no progress was made, Loimos calmly made a troll home vacant with the help of his fists, tearing to thing down, he gathered the rough nks the monsters created and simply began to try and create something himself, he had no knowledge but he might was well learn, the trolls already had the required materials for it to work out, by being graciously given said materials, the undead went to build up multiple attempts, which really where just a few nks tied together. Which were then thrown into the water and tested to make sure the skeleton wouldn''t sink at one point, by doing nothing but this for an entire week, Loimos quickly began to see some amount of sess, first it was that the flotsam could float on its own, then he managed to figure out how to prevent water from seeping in at all. After another week of funing, Loimos had his floating piece of wood operational, and a paddle, which was just a branch, he sailed upon Mistdrown, the angr and unnatural shape of the rickety boat was definitely too foreign for any of the marine creatures to wish to take a bite out of it. Some swam around curiously, but ended up deciding to do nothing, Loimos, whose senses were muddled by the fog, could only tell that much by the movements of the water, but as he traversed theke, nothing came to disturb him, the fog didn''t shift in an aggressive manner. One possibility that didn''t escape the undead was that The Mist-Drowned might take offence if an undead intruded upon theke, after all, Loimos was very much willing to turn this beautifulke into a swamp of ck blood after all, he just didn''t try it because he was well aware that his current mission would be much more conductive to his goals, and also because provoking guardian wasn''t very wise for him at the moment. Continue your adventure at empire He made it to the other end of the shore without any hitch, and with just a few weeks lost due to a poor cartography job, the foggyke was situated nearnds unimed by any major power, it wasn''t a huge swath ofnd by any means, only a few viges and tribes were found within, the reason this area was left mostly untouched wasn''t because the area wasn''t rich or was particrly dangerous, it was a designated border between two nations. And the one Loimos arrived in after making his way through here wasn''t Tochi, but Pezerx, thend of sand, Loimos had to go through the gigantic desert empire before setting foot in the country he was aiming for, in the dreadful summer that was getting hotter by the day nheless, the people here had grown limated to the extreme heat, in more than one ways. But Loimos, whilst unaffected by heat on a surface level, might actually catch on fire, not undeterred by the prospect of bing a skeleton torch, move forward and it didn''t take too long for the intense warmth to intensify even further within the desert, the air visibly distorted to hardly imaginable degrees. However, there was one advantage that Loimos had in the desert, in the uncivilised portions of the desert, which included the entirety of the outskirts of the empire, most of the poption situated closer to the center of the desert, where cities had been built around flourishing oases. But on the spans of sand, where death wasmon for both the local wildlife and visitors from afar, undeads naturally rose from the sand, said to be swarming ancient ruins buried in the sand, sealed vestiges of the past containing untold amounts of corpses animated by death force. "Follow me" the corpses that wandered the desert even in daylight were mindless, and followed their fellow who could utter word in the death tongue without question, this way, Loimos didn''t have to worry about the monsters that also roamed thends of the empire, together, they had the numerical advantage in case of problems.N?v(el)B\\jnn On his way to Tochi, Loimos was nning on taking some time to visit the buried ruins, whilst Pezerx was an empire much too young to be known to Faraday, the great desert had been there for seemingly forever, it had been and prone to death for a long time now and used to be under the watch of undeads trusted by King Nitok, the ancient forts and monuments erected by them had been destroyed and had sunken in the sand, so the odds that any of them still remained was slim, but not impossible. Chapter 129 Legion During the war against the undead, the great desert where Pezerx now stand was a territory fully controlled by the repugnant corpses, many explorers and adventurers, in search of riches are sorely reminded of this fact when they uncover one and attempt to break inside, only to be met by a swarm of dried corpses and skeletons, pouring out of the ruins like a tidal wave, ughtering them all, taking them apart and dragging their bodies through the sand, back inside. The ruins are sealed once more, and the desert, as if well aware of the horrors dwelling inside, covers it once more, burying the hateful dead once more, until someone else made the dire mistake and it all repeated. Thankfully, after this happening dozens of times, people have learned their lessons, especially when supposedly prepared parties were wiped out just as easily, the undead of the desert seemingly unbeatable, reforming even after being shattered to dust, only life can force the restless cadavers to their rightful graves. Still, faced with the knowledge of the age of those tombs, the death hunters preferred to focus on burying those ces deeper and harder, encasing them with sturdy rocks to prevent all thinking that treasures inside could be piged without difficulty. Despite nameless to history, the undeads that ruled the desert under the king of the dead''s name were tough opponents, in the environment of the desert, which they were said to have control over, the brave warriors of life could only crumble and burn, swarmed and assaulted by countless of the undead filth. However, I wager that the death hunters could exterminate them all with ease, indeed, I have discovered that the rulers of the desert were all defeated by Maiele Liameilos, The Elven Light, or at least, a great majority of them. The heroine was naturally immune to the scorching heat the desert lords could conjure, without that, they couldn''t amount to much. As such, I call for a grand operation to permanently purge the old ruins, easing ourselves of a problem that is only waiting to blow up. -Excerpt of ''Call To Arms'' by Bethome Meleme. "Now I am certain, the number of corpses has definitely increased!" a big, swarthy man rubbed his forehead, he looked intensely at the discoloured skeleton, whose bones had taken up on a shade simr to the sand, which had still filled its skull as the man brought down his hammer down on it.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Making certain that it wasn''t going to suddenly reform itself and attack him, he looked over at the rest of his party, countless undeads littering the ground, all needing much more force than usual to take downpletely, it was just like for the undeads of the ruins. The corpses that arose and roamed the desert were usually much weaker, and less numerous. "They are smarter as well, the random wanderers don''t usually carry weapons or remnants of armour, some of them clearly scavenged or killed people for their equipment" another manmented, having raised his sleeve to tend to a nasty wound left on his forearm. Not left by a sword, but by the bite of an undead still covered in dried skin, the risk of infection was concerning, so he didn''t wait any longer than necessary to clean the wound and spill some alcohol on it. The men present around all had dark skin, a must to not get fried by the sun in Pezerx, wearing ample clothing shielding their bodies and allowing for air to refresh them, they were all tired, having grossly underestimated the undeads. "The client said that there weren''t nearly as many as that, those fuckers were waiting in the sand as well! Husksying traps and forming groups is concerning, is it the work of a necromancer?" one that had had the displeasure and getting skewered by a weathered spear right in the side of his stomach,ying on his other side as someone applied the little healing magic they knew over to him, trying to get the sand that had gotten into the injury when the man had been sent rolling to the ground. Singrly, they were better than the corpses in nearly all departments that wasn''t stamina and the likes, but the second they had been divided and surrounded by more than one, problems arose, they were lucky that only a few of the undeads had gotten they hands on weapons, otherwise they wouldn''t have escaped this fight with just wounds. "Alright, you can thank the stars, the spear didn''t damage any organs, and no, those undeads are not controlled by a necromancer, I sense no traces of magic being casted on them, those are all natural undeads" the designated mage of the group spoke up, scratching his chin in thought, he couldn''t see any reason as to why the amount of undeads would suddenly start increasing, as well as their quality. Usually, the risen dead would only wander around aimlessly, the fact that this was changing would be noticed very quickly. "With some luck, we could get a bonus for reporting this first-" the one with the injured arm thought of extra money when he noticed the youngest, and most agile, member of their group fall backward after climbing up on a hill, a knife stuck in his throat, his eyes wide open as he stared back at his silent party members. With many of them injured, and all of them absolutely spent after having to fight for much longer than expected under the twin suns, they could only look up as a shadow appeared over their downed ally, the figure obstructing one of the suns, until others joined its sides,pletely casting the adventurers in shadows. A purplish mist spread, incredibly close to the ground, gathering around the destroyed undeads and seeping into their broken bodies, infusing just a speck of death force was enough for them to reform, sending panic throughout the group of living, those that had their movements restricted were thrown in a struggle as the reawakened corpses lunged at them without hesitation. ''Shit!'' those that could run, did so, abandoning their woundedpanions. Chapter 130 Strongholds Now, obviously their reaction was fueled by sheer instinct and terror, it didn''t take long for some of them to regret their decision of leaving theirrades and friends behind like this, but upon turning back, their spirits ignited by a desire to save fellow livings, they could only see that the dead did not hesitate, the wounded had already been torn apart by the recently reformed undeads. On the hill, a figure unlike all of the others spoke an iprehensible word, it was like an insidious whisper and an impossibly loud roar at the same time, utilising their moment of weakness caused by fear and guilt, the corpse leading the desert''s cadavers petrified them all for a few instants, simultaneously, undead charged down the hill, some of them appearing armed with bows and arrows, javelins and various others ranged weapons. The sole mage amidst the group of living conjured up wall of sandstone hastily, blocking a great deal of projectiles, many of those that had still been standing were struck down after having failed to break free of the death tongue''s dread, still targets were killed swiftly, some of them turned into bloody porcupines. Some that had managed to get their bodies moving were still hurt by the volley, the uracy of the dead was not to be underestimated, they did not tremble, need to breathe and their vision couldn''t be impaired easily, those lucky enough toe out unscathed of this ordeal resumed their escape without any thoughts given to one another. The sand trembled, all of the living knew what this was, some cursed their rotten luck, others, including the mage dared to hope that the arrival of a member of the infamous monsters of the desert would instead aid them survive, it simply depended on which of the two party that sand crawler would target first. Bursting out from beneath the sand, arge creature cked its worn-out mandibles, it''s insectoid maw flowing with sand as it emitted a shrill, nearly otherworldly cry, the mage paled as he turned to the beast, it''s exoskeleton was missing parts, its flesh was dry and covered by sand, holes dug into its flesh by time and allowing the living to gaze upon the hollow insides of the monster. "Ah, what sins have wemitted to deserve such a-" his words were cut short, the sand crawler swung its head like a battle axe, bisecting the fleeing adventurers in two, knowing that there was nothing that could be done, the mage unconsciously let go of his control over his sandstone wall, allowing an approaching undead to split his skull with a single strike of a curved de.N?v(el)B\\jnn Loimos overlooked the bloodied sand, decorated with the recently deceased corpses of the adventurers, their bodies still bleeding, some of even still twitching, rather than decaying the remains as he usually did, the undead allowed another skeleton wearing a simple robe, its jaw devoid of any teeth, the lower portion hanging down loosely and its skull filled to the brim with sand like many other of the desert cadavers. It uttered a single word in the death tongue, the most it could manage before raising its bony hands up in the air, performing a special art it had been taught by the rulers of the desert long ago, Loimos participated in the action, furnishing the fellow skeleton with death force that was sent out toward the corpses, forcefully raising them as mindless undeads, necromancy wasn''t a simple practice, very few could perform such a thing with just magic, even amidst the dead themselves. Loimos himself was only able to allow the dormant undeads of the desert to awoken by using his miasma infused with death force, but that was an entirely different matter, he was merely giving them what was necessary for them to rise once again. He had spent quite some time excavating his fellows, going around and digging into the sand to recover their bones and body parts, with some assistance from some that had already been wandering the surface, he had managed to awake the robed skeleton, he was only a lesser spell caster possessed no particr affinities, but he had been taught a necromantic art. By having him around, Loimos wasn''t going to have to wander around aimlessly in search a sign of the buried ruins, the other mindless undeads couldn''t quiteprehend what he wanted them to show him, it was dubious whether they were even as ancient as the mage either way, people dying and their corpses being covered up by the sand wasn''t an umon urrence in Pezerx. Gathering up more forces as they went, the mage was leading the way toward a lost bastion of the undead armies, encountering many corpses that either Loimos could reawaken, or that the mage could use the art to raise a undeads, this included the desert crawler, arge and long centipede-like monster that travelled beneath the sand to ambush preys, but preys weren''t exactlymon ce, so they mostly partook in cannibalism. Taking notice that the presence of adventurers must mean that a city, or at least a settlement was close, it wasn''t visible however. The oases weren''t present during the rule of the dead over the desert either, such blossoming life would have never been tolerated, so the mage couldn''t pinpoint the locations of cities and such. The ancient fortresses and their surroundings weren''t exactly conductive to lush environments, so they didn''t encounter any of the areas where the people of Pezerx lived, finding themselves in front of an inconspicuous area, a t piece of sandynd much like everything else in this empire, but Loimos could definitely sense the massive amount of death force hidden below. Loimos was fully prepared to dig his way to the entrance and to force it open, but the caster stepped forward, spread his arms, raising them up until his body formed the shape of the letter Y. "Rise" "Open" He spoke one word at a time, his gesturebined with the spoken words seemed to activate something, the buried structure rose out from the sand, the entrance opening with ease despite having clearly been sealed from the outside before. The rulers of the desert had installed some nice functions on their strongholds. Chapter 131: Colourful The inside of the ancient construction was rather modest, it was a ce only for undeads to dwell in after all, there was no need for anything flowery or superficial, only the bare minimum, space and equipment, the inside was clouded with an old miasma, not quite as aggressive as Loimos¡¯s own, but it was sufficient, inside, many undeads simr to the mage he had picked up could be found. Other mana practitioners and some warriors wearing old armour, they couldn¡¯t say much, but they were capable of speaking some words in the death tongue, it was good to know that old forces of the army were still operational to this day. Explore new worlds at empire Much like One, the ones that weren¡¯t mindless seemed to simply know that their king would eventually reim his throne, waiting in the ancient fortresses for his return to attack the nearby cities, however, Loimos wasn¡¯t too keen on them throwing themselves against a well-established civilisation the second King Nitokwas broken from his seal. It made little doubt that they would at least suffer lots of losses, if not outright lose, Pezerx was definitely well aware of the undeads stacked up in the buried ruins, they didn¡¯t do anything about it for now because it wasn¡¯t an active issue, but it would be foolish of them not to have a few things prepared in case the dead decided tounch an attack. As such, in the absence of any leading figure amidst the undeads, Loimos took up the role, with his immense and immacte death force, as well as his perfect speech in the death tongue, there was no doubt in their bones that the undead was effectively their hierarchical superior. He ordered them to take in the undeads he had raised in the desert, except for the mage, and instructed them to bury the ruin as deep as they possibly could, ensuring that the remaining forces of their king were kept safe. Making certain that they would stay put upon Nitok¡¯s release from his seal, he wanted them to be avable for the king tomand them directly, he was a professional after all, the undead leading the entirety of the dead and having the loyalty of the gravelords had to be a glorious strategist, it was best to leave as many soldiers for him to order around. After all, it was undeniable that nowadays, the threat of the dead wasn¡¯t nearly that big of an issue, apart from highly dangerous zones like the desert of Pezerx, undeads rarely naturally formed, Faraday would say that at the height of his the king¡¯s rule, the living had to destroy every corpses for even deep within the territories of the living, the dead would rise of their own all of the times soon after death. The death hunter were still active, and the ire they held toward the dead was strong, however, they had much less work than during the rule of Nitok, back then, every single one of the hunters had been powerhouses, not so much today, Loimos had been able of defeating one on his own even. The stronghold sunk back into the ground, much deeper than before, sand covering over it under the gaze of Loimos and the nameless mage, thetter was still needed around to raise the dead and gather more forces as they went, as well as opening the way to the other fortresses. Loimos was able of sensing travellers and adventurers from afar, upon gathering a sufficient amount of undeads, he wouldunch carefully prepared attacks upon the unsuspecting groups, the first few days ended up in quite a lot of adventurer casualties, the travellers weren¡¯t very numerous, and no one would notice their disappearances, the adventurers however, it was quickly noticed that the parties had a tendency of vanishing more often than they used to. It wasn¡¯t simple of pinpointing the cause for the desert people, Loimos didn¡¯t let anyone live to tell the tale, and made sure that him and his convoy of corpses didn¡¯t linger anywhere close to the cities, only attacking the living that wandered far into the desert for one reason or another. The killing wasn¡¯t the main objective anyways, Loimos was simply using the guidance of the mage to visit each of the ancient constructs, awakening undeads and raising the corpses of desert crawlers as they went, adding additional forces to every ruin they visited whilst also making sure that they received Loimos¡¯s orders, it took multiple months to move around, but it was definitely worth the trouble, strengthening their foundation for when King Nitok took the reigns was of great importance. Adventurers became rare to encounter, and by the end of it, Loimos had been able to ry his words to every location and amass greater numbers without anything happening, the living were oblivious to his actions, allowing him to fulfil his mission without any hitch. Learning the necromantic art from the mage before leaving him in thest ce they visited, Loimos also got himself a bow and a whole bunch of arrows while he was here as well, and contrary to what had been expected, despite the temperaties continuously increasing bit by bit every day, he hadn¡¯t caught on fire yet, but the summer season and the twin suns didn¡¯t appear to be on their way off either. His boots filled with both sand and salt now, Loimos stepped out of the great desert, his stay uneventful, but of much importance, he had discovered that none of the rulers of the desert appointed by the king remained, they had all been truly eradicated. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The sand was soon cut off, Pezerx and Tochi separated from one another by a measly river, which Loimos was simply able to walk through, immediately, he could tell that this kingdom was much different from anywhere he had been before. He had known this from his research, but the impression was still the same, the grass wasn¡¯t the same green as usual, the trees had thick trunks and grew in serpentine shapes, blossoming with atypical colours. And although he had yet to reach any sort of civilisation, some locals were kind enough toe over to him as soon as he stepped out of the water, tribal-looking monsters of various sizes were alreadying over to bash him over the head. Monsters really didn¡¯t know to leave a lone, putrefied carcass by itself, did they? Chapter 132: Muho Chitai Smashing his back against a nearby tree, alongside the pesky little monster that was currently repeatedly stabbing Loimos in the neck, only to get appallingly fruitless results, the agile little creature¡¯s frame was mangled upon being crushed against the trunk, allowing for the undead to easily grab it and throw it to the ground. Pulling out the bone dagger grinding the surface of his neck, the skeleton looked over the surrounding, quite a few of the same sort of monster were sprawled about around the lush scenery, the first one had let out of high-pitch cry, bringing its friends over, forcing Loimos to enact great violence upon them. They had dark grey skin, eyes receding into their skulls, big droopy ears and messy teeth that seemingly couldn¡¯t grow properly, their bodies were frail,cking much strength, even some of therger individuals, who had been carrying heavy-looking clubs turned out tock explosive strength, they just let themselves be carried by their swings. Their tendencies to stop in their tracks to scream also made the job easier for the undead, still, he had to remove a few additional dagger and small spears stuck in his body at the moment, after his trek through mountains, snowy tops, fall off said mountains, traversing a forest, getting knifed by trolls, a desert expedition under exceptionally harsh weather, a small trip in water and now getting stabbed again, he was really looking like a mess. His dark coat was riddled with countless holes and tears, worn out by the environment, the white mask stuck on his face was visibly cracked and shifted to greyer tones, the red kiss mark on hit standing out even more now. The soles on his boots wished to separated from the rest, all in all, he was truly looking like an errant madman, the dark sword was also chipped, duller than it used to be, the cosmetic enchantment supposed to fool opponents was malfunctioning, actually giving a more threatening look to it as it seemed like the de could actually blow up at any moment. Your next read is at empire The bow and arrow were the only objects he owned that were in a good state, at leastpared to the rest at least, he took a few of the monster¡¯s bone daggers, although of rather poor quality, they could do the job. Clearing the colourful area of the additional red and bodies, Loimos still had some way before reaching Muho Chitai, it wasn¡¯t exactly near the border and Tochi wasn¡¯t exactly small either, the terrific strength of the siamese suns weakened as he left the desert, but calling the rays they emitted weak would be a gross understatement. Also, whilst one of them retained the appearance everyone knew a sun to have, the other one was taking on a darker shade, the splitting of the sun during the summer season wasn¡¯t abnormal, however, that new development was far from typical, the suns were supposed to fuse back into one at the end of the season. Some were worried, but worry was something for the living, Loimos passed by a few small cities, ignoring them as he traversed some more rivers, quite a few dazzlingly colourful forests and clearings, and thenstly, a swamp that was no less colourful than the rest of this country¡¯s wildlife. Finally, he found himself before Muho Chitai, a city said to inhabit a crypt-like construction, he couldn¡¯t find much intel on the nature or description of the point of interest, but it had been clear that there was something for Loimos to investigate here. Tochi was an old kingdom, it¡¯s roots had already been firmly nted back during the war, the nature had certainly recovered greatly since back then, it hadn¡¯t always bore this name but by connecting the dots between Faraday¡¯s memories and what Loimos had gathered on his own, it seemed clear that Tochi was one of the few nations that had technically survived the undead legions. The skeleton remained at a distance for now, hidden in the muddy ground of the swamp still, he hadn¡¯t really bothered with Pezerx¡¯s constructions and such, so the way things were built here was his first true experience with apletely different architecture, everything was different here, even the way people dressed and acted was distinctively different. Loimos could decel such things easily, the areas weren¡¯t very dangerous, as such, the city didn¡¯t really have high walls,only small walls, which appeared more as tasteful decorations that defensive measures, apart from the swamp and one forest opposite to where he was, the area was t and flower filled, devoid of any of the small monsters he had encountered on a few asions, they knew not to mess with the humans. Although the poption wasn¡¯t entirely human, they didn¡¯t lean very far from humans but other species could still be seen here and there, beastfolks with no more than the basic apparels of animal ears and a tail, and some horned people. The houses were tightly packed, but not directly stuck to one another, some buildings reaching a bit higher than others, but all in all, no constructions exceeded the few watchtowers built around. Using his synesthesia to gather information from his position for a week, Loimos quickly came to realise that Muho Chitai was overrun by a slight problem, although very different from Tamaris, the basic structure than interested Loimos was of course the guards and keeper of peace of the city, they were always the main problem. Unlike Tamaris, which was a primarily trade-focused nation ruled by a merchant by trade, Tochi was known for its many mercenaries, whilst Tamaris also dwelled into such things, not nearly as much as them, learning how to fight was deeply ingrained into the very soil, for it was the greatest and most respected way to earn ie here, as such, many things were developed around that, even if it didn¡¯t make much sense. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Anyone that held some sort of influence had to also hold actual power, it was an iron rule, however, the way the people of this achieved power wasn¡¯t typical, they didn¡¯t dwell into the learning of energy or into the system much, innate abilities were also not what they prioritised, Tochi was the pioneer of battle arts, mostly weapon arts. All in all, Loimos had been expecting resistance of a kind he had yet to experience, having only witnessed the usage of arts for certain from two swords wielder from this very ce, Three from Aliz¨¦, and the nameless bandit. However, what hadn¡¯t been expected was for the city to bepletely under the control of criminals. Chapter 133 Nosy Hand At a nce, nothing seemed wrong with Muho Chitai, just another city amidst the coloured wilderness, peaceful and beautiful, yet harbouring countless fiercebatants aiming to be renowned with their skills and capabilities. However, it didn''t take long for Loimos to realise that the so-called guards patrolling the streets were also bill collectors and regrly intimidated the citizens, the fact that an entire street was home to nothing but shady deals and women offering coitus was also a good indication that this ce did not have an actual official figure in charge. In fact, said street saw the most passage and even had its own entrance, which wasn''t even hidden, everything was in in sight. Loimos was already certain that regr guards wouldn''t have allowed him through willy nilly considering that he looked like he had fought a pack of lions, but those thugs would immediately search problems and probably try to rob him, they weren''t pleasant to actual travellers even when they came specifically to indulge in the various illegal services they had to offer. Moreover, despite his incessant spying, the undead was unable of detecting where the crypt even was, the ruin was certainly controlled by the criminals as well, and the people didn''t like to speak of them, even behind closed doors, even the underlings they used in ce of the guards kept their lips sealed about anything other than the least interesting of things. Although mild-mannered and clearly enjoying their power over the popce caught in the schemes of criminality, the guards actually patrolled every inch of the city every day, the night watch wasn''t shabby either, so instead of trying the usual way and attempting to sneak inside whole, Loimos detached his left hand and sent it on a mission. Waiting for night toe, Loimos''s limb could easily crawl right through the main entrance, the area was so unproblematic that it wasn''t sealed off, under the mantle of darkness and thanks to being so small, the hand was able of sneaking past the guards, although more than one of them definitely felt like they had heard something, but faced with theck of concrete proof, they convinced themselves that it was nothing. Using rot to climb up walls, the skeletal hand listened in on many more conversations, but those bore nothing of substances, Loimos was interested on inspecting the few building that he hadn''t been able to sense anything from, clearly, special measures had been put in ce to prevent anyone from peeping and hearing things that they shouldn''t. Continue your adventure with empire As such, the undead definitely needed to hear what was going on in there, for them to ensure that those were made soundproof and not the brothels, there had to be some important matters discussed by the people in charge, whilst well guarded and protected against people, the safety measures hadn''t been erected with a disembodied hand in mind, burrowing itself underneath the foundations, the limb scuttling around, searching for a gap that could possibly lead inside. The flooring wasn''t made with wooden floorboards that would easily shift around due to humidity and heat, the floor here was made from woven straws, meaning that Loimos couldn''t easily dig a hole using his ability to rot objects, or use the corrosive nature of his blighted blood, but doing so would leave a clear trace of invasion, unless he was able of finding a spot that wasn''t within the sight of upants, such as underneath or behind a piece of furniture. He could feel subtle vibrations from people walking above him from times to times, despite this, his synesthesia wasn''t working properly, despite sensing them through touch, he was unable to get a clear sight of the people or any other of the aspects about them, something was muddling his senses, and it wasn''t the materials the building was constructed with. Probing around the lengthy underside of the straw floor with great precaution to not leave even a single milimeter of space unchecked, the undead ended up finding a slight weakness in a corner, pushing up against it, the disembodied hand finally managed to squeeze through the slight gap that was created, the undead found himself in a dusty room filled to the brim with misceneous objects, weapons and sealed containers. Cobwebs were umting on the ceiling, only a small portion, which wasn''t crowded with the aforementioned objects of the room, seemed to see some passage, for some reasons, the majority of the stocks in here weren''t seeing any use. Now that he was inside, Loimos could sense things around much more easily, although certain rooms remainedpletely off-limit, remaining hidden for a few days, there was clearly regr passage of an important figure, constantly apanied by many guards whose countenance had nothing to do with that of the regr guards, said important character never said anything, but some of the guards positioned around the mansion-like habitation were a bit more talkative. Lady Syklon was her name, and from the looks of it, she was the only leading figure of this whole criminal affair, everyone else that seemed to be talked about were nothing more than arms used to carry out her orders, gathering what he could from his position, he then waited until silence befell the manor, which actually meant that it was day, for the nights were always loud and filled by the chatter of many people, many more people that should be able of fitting in the building. Latching on the door handle, he twisted the door open, immediately attracting the attention of a nearby guard, who quickly positioned himself right in front of the door, but still a good distance from the inside, his hand resting on the de at his hilt, most certainly preparing to unleash one of the rapid unsheathing art Tochi was most prominently known for. Seeing no one inside, sensing nothing off, the guard entered the room, ready to strike down, but there was nothing. "Huh, what is wrong with this?" he nudged the door, turning the handle to check if the thing was broken, not noticing the limb crawling up right above his head and into the corridor.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Loimos''s senses had felt off ever since he had entered this ce, and it was rather obvious why now, the inside was many timesrger than the outside suggested, countless rooms and a main room where people were dancing and partaking in various acts of debauchery immediately came into view. Lady Syklon was certainly more wealthy and resourceful than Loimos had first assumed. Chapter 134 Adorable Music from various instruments red throughout the mansion, despite the soft straw flooring, the sounds of countless people walking and dancing could still be distinctly heard everywhere in the buildings, people drank to their heart''s contents and watched with lecherous gazes the dancers, some of them imported from distantnds to add more exotism. But the main hall where the main festivities were taking ce was far from the only area inhabited by guests, countless rooms were also avable to them, some were simply private areas where more distinguished clients could do the same thing stated before, feast until their stomachs seemed ready to rupture, or for more private events, there were auctions of various sizes happening everywhere, rooms where coption seemingly never ended, some were people''s darkest desires could be fulfilled, all just with money. Curiously, amidst all the raunchy debauchery, there were people simply practising the arts ofbat, one could even tell that once inside the spatially distorted manor, a basement area had be avable, where bloody fights where thepetitors were from various species, be it sapient, animals, monsters and everything else you could think off. Nothing seemed out of the realm of possibilities here, stretching into what seemed like infinity, everyone could enjoy themselves in some way, above the basement and various floors of nothing but personal entertainment rooms, across various wide areas like the first one, on the topmost floor, a single room was located, this one significantly smaller than the rest, for one could easily see the end of it. An office decorated in a simple manner, the door left open and allowing the sounds from below to seep inside for the head of the operation to revel in, this was the sound of money and sess, this was simply perfection to the ears of Lady Syklon. The person in charge of the highly condemnable activities below and all over the city was satisfied with today''s surge of customers, yet it was utterly impossible to infer this from her face, the two guards standing in the room alongside her were convinced that she couldn''t possibly be more mad. Eyes colder than ice, the pale blue inspired nothing but a chilling sensation, her expression was a bit more expressive, but it was she wore all day and nights, always appearing displeased with something, in spite of everything going exactly as she wished, a pigeon coulde over and spread its faeces on her shoulder and her day would still be great. Going nicely with her eyes, her skin was snow white, rather than giving her the appearance of a sicklyplexion, it simply gave her a special feel to her, her hair was also perfectly white,bed into a simple ponytail slumped over her shoulder, though, out of all the unusual physical aspects of the ringleader of a criminal operation, what was most noticeable where her fuzzy eyebrows, white as well, it would remind someone of one of those cute moths. And cute she was, in fact, the men positioned as her guards at the moment only managed to not stare at their adorable boss because transgressions weren''t taken lightly, Lady Syklon looked overly young in appearance, her feet where dangling from her chair as her desk was normal sized, even when wearing wooden shoes to elevate herself a bit, she could still be mistaken for a lost kid. It didn''t help that her kimono was sorge and ample, like a parent putting on their own clothes on their child, even on her chair it dragged on the ground and she had to raise her arms to free her hands from the sleeves. The guards couldn''t allow their intrusive thoughts to win, she absolutely despised being even slightly treated like a child, thest guy that had done it had left this ce without fingers, toes, a tongue eyes, was sticked in a barrel, force fed milk and honey until he got diarrhoea and turned into a rotten mess in his own excrement while he was still alive. In fact, when one realised that she was a grown woman, it only made her seem incredibly uncanny at all times, especially knowing what sort of things she was involved in. Drugs, very, proxism, name a crime and you could probably link at least hundred cases back to her. She stopped staring at the papers in front of her, raising her head from the desk, her eyebrows raising. "Is something the matter, My Lady?" one of the guards was faster on the uptake, their boss could hear pretty much everything inside the building, so seeing her appearing slightly confused at something was tremendous. Or maybe it was not and she was just going to sneeze, but one needed to suck up with great efficiency to get in her good books. "An insect, or a rat, no¡­ Why does it sound so rough and dry?" she wondered aloud, her voice like a soft cloud blessed by the angels. "Find someone to get rid of that filth, and go tell the beastfolk whores to get in action already" her voice was beautiful, but the content wasn''t in corrtion. The two guards executed the orders immediately and stepped out, the sound of the pest still ringing in her ears, she sighed and jumped off the chair,nding in the ground, the top of her head barely protruding above the desk as she walked to the center of the office. Explore stories at empire Dressed entirely in bright blue, dragging behind her, her hands brought together against her body, a refined walk as she tried to pinpoint the location of the critter, well aware that her men could go for days without finding something so simple. But that couldn''t be allowed, the way that thing sounded as it scuttered around was greatly displeasing, it didn''t sound like something normal either, leading her to wondering if one of the monsters hadn''t managed to escape, somehow. The guys in charge of them better pray that it wasn''t the case. ''Those fuckers really think they can get paid when making egregious mistakes on the regr? If they can''t take care of the beasts, then they''ll feed them,zy bastards must have stacked up on some fat'' she cursed them already, listing off every minute mistake they hadmitted in thest years.N?v(el)B\\jnn She moved into the hallway, heading straight for the annoying little creature. Chapter 135 Lady Syklon Lady Syklon stepped into the crooked hallways leading to her office, whilst this room was the sole one on the floor, and also the smallest floor by far, it was still filled with countless hallways, all either led right to the office, or to nowhere, one needed to be approved by thedy to be allowed entry here. However, as she followed the sound, she discovered that whatever creature it was, it had bypassed that simple rule and was moving around freely, just as he was trying to cut it off in its path, it took another hallwaypletely and found its way right into her office. ''Are the little things exempt from the restriction?'' she wondered, not worried much about this thing infiltrating the most important room of this entire manor, it was clearly nothing worth getting riled up about, rats and insects certainly carried out their functions better than the numerous idiots working for her. She didn''t even suspect this little thing she was hearing to actually be a disguised intruder, inside this manor and especially on the top floor, even The Death Dealer wouldn''t be able to stay concealed. Arriving back into her office as quickly as she left it, she scanned the room, the sounds stopped shortly after entering, but that was enough for her to know exactly where it had stopped, pushing over a small table, the smalldy looked down at the uninvited guest, or rather, at where it was supposed to be, there was a hole in the ground instead, looking like someone dropped some acid on the floor.N?v(el)B\\jnn "That''s it, I am revoking each of their rights" speaking as her face scrunched up, even with an ugly expression and a vein popping on her forehead, Lady Syklon still looked positively adorable, like a kitten hissing, her bite would be otherwise more devastating however. Clearly, the men in charge of looking over the monsters had messed up again, they had already been lucky to only get their arms broken when they let loose a cyclops, now it was time to demonstrate what it meant to damage the ground of her own office. She breathed in and out. "Gather!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, her voice ringing out throughout the entirety of the manor, but was only heard by the guards, the clients and partygoers utterly clueless of the situation. Meanwhile, Loimos crawled out from underneath Lady Syklon''s desk, rot growing from his bony fingertips, silencing his finger-steps by also using ck blood and forming it into sludge, ensuring with certainty that he wouldn''t produce a single noise, he couldn''t be certain that the little woman wouldn''t hear him anyways, but he was just a stray hand here, he could afford to get caught anyways, and thus tried it. The fairdy left the office quickly enough, probably hoping to catch the critter herself, or most likely going to order her guards around, Lady Syklon was a peculiar human, she didn''t look anything like any other Loimos had ever encountered, using what he had gathered by observing them, he could also deduce that she was the prettiest human he had encountered as well, though her peculiarities might change that, the undead hadn''t studied too in-depth with that aspect of people, it wasn''t very important. Despite being so small and frail, she held an abundance of refined life force within her, she was clearly strong, probably the strongest person in this manor, which was curious, even in a world where energies could enhance you, where there was a system capable of granting skills and abilities, amidst countless other fantastical ways to increase one''s power, in the end, the strength of one''s own natural body ended up being the deciding factor in a great deal of battles. After all, stats weren''t a raw unit of power shared by everyone, all started with no stats at all, zero, nada, one unit of strength for a skinny teenager wasn''t worth the same as the one of a well built martial artist, the difference would be evenrger with a giant. Stats built upon the natural foundation of one''s natural capabilities, same as energy reinforcement would naturally work better with someone with the physical capabilities, as such, for such a petite human woman, it should be rather difficult to attain a satisfactory amount of power. And yet, Loimos had clearly heard the sound of her clothes brushing up against at least two hilts of de, indicating that much like a lot of people in this nation, she was a swordswoman. A rather terrific one at that. "There is a hole in the floor of my office, and let me rify that I know exactly who to me for it, not only has a monster been left to wander outside, amidst my clients, amidst my money! It is one that can carve holes through the floor and walls! May the one that was in charge of watching over the cages step forward" Lady Syklon spoke, many men and women much bigger than her holding their heads low and doing their utmost to stay as silent as possible. "I said to step forward" she added, ever so slightly more demanding, forcing the man in question to move in front of everyone else. Read new chapters at empire "You think you can justmit a mistake like this? Don''t answer you idiot, keep it shut, of course you can''t, show me your hands" shemanded him, and he did as ordered without question, genuinely terrified of her, beginning to tremble. Lady Syklon was unpredictable with her punishments, she could be generous and let someone go with just some chastising, or uproot your entire family tree, her mood was impossible to gauge, leading most to believe that she just decided on the sanction at random. "Well, would you look at that! Soft and without any blemish, like a baby''s, have tou ever worked a day in your life, you fucking stain?" not expecting any answer, her arm moved for a split second, her hand resting on the hilt of a sword as the arms of the lousy worker fell cleanly off, cut right at the shoulders. "Healers, reattach his arms on the wrong spot, let us see what the final form of ipetence looks like" she spat on the ground, motioning for the bleeding man to clear off. "You''ll clean up your messter" She turned back to the rest of her workforce, somehow even more still than before, now was not the time to make even the smallest of mistakes, theirdy shined a pretty smile at them. "Now, go find the critter, be efficient, any ckers will have to find a good exnation, out of my sight" she gave her order and they all spread out into groups without asking any question. ''Ah, I should just invest in some golems¡­'' she rubbed the bridge of her nose. Chapter 136: Whispers "The Lady is pissed off for sure, if we can¡¯t catch that runaway monster quickly, she¡¯ll start mincing us" two guards were walking near a main room, still filled to the brim with the rowdy clients, it would probably be preferable to evacuate to avoid one of them being injured or worse, however, the goods furnished here were just too good to be undermined by even a bloodbath. Also, they were all well aware of Lady Syklon¡¯s temperament, it was best to just go along at all times, preferably not have any sort of eye contact, unless you worked for her directly, it was best to just act as if she wasn¡¯t there. Although it wasplicated since she was just too adorable, even if everyone knew that she wouldn¡¯t hesitate to chop you up into little pieces. The guard that had spoken had some sort of rock-like scales spread out on his forehead, giving him a grave expression at all time, he was doing his utmost to fulfil the order given, although his partner wasn¡¯t nearly as invested, looking dreamy and distant. "Well, she is just even more beautiful when she gets mad¡­" he said, leading the other guard to stop right in his tracks. "You idiotic twig! The Lady can hear almost everything in this manor, yourments might get a pass usually because you can restrain yourself when she is around, but that might not work, she had that guy¡¯s arms put on the wrong spots for the gods sake!" his fellow guard, who was certainly on the leaner side of things shrugged his shoulders. "She¡¯s not as bad as you think, you¡¯ll never get a promotion by being so stiff heh-" their banter was set to go on for little while longer but both of them suddenly tensed up, perking their ears, trying to put the loud music and noises of the crowd on the back of their mind. "You heard that?" "Sure did, it came from one of the empty room right over there" The two guards brought their hands on the hilts of their de, ready to unsheathed or bring down their attacks at a moment¡¯s notice as they approached the room in question. The one with the scales on his face, didn¡¯t linger outside the door any longer and slid it open without hesitation, it was one of the more simple rooms, with just a bathtub in a corner, a bed amidst variety of other items to go along each of the two most prominent features of the love room, or so it was generally referred to. Having been made aware that the escapee was the crawly kind and rather small sized, about the size of a fist had said theirdy, they immediately looked straight up at the ceiling and walls, absolutely nothing. The leaner one looked into the bathtub carefully, once more, he didn¡¯t find anything out of the ordinary. "Who is going to get down and look under the bed?" the scaly guard asked, both of them knew fully well that flipping the entire thing over would be safer, but destroyingLady Syklon¡¯s property, to perhaps not even find what they were looking for was certain tond them in trouble. N?v(el)B\\jnn One was fearing being turned into a living piece of art, the thought of having legs instead of arms as well as many other dangerous futures crossed his mind. The other, was more worried about ruining his chances with thedy, as though he had any to begin with, in any case, none of them was willing to take the risk, they stared at one another. "Paper" "Scissors" "Goddamnit" the lovestruck guard chuckled at his wondrous luck, life was truly good to him, he stared longingly at his own hand, imagining Lady Syklon¡¯s small limb in his own as they walked amidst the colourful trees. "Hey, calm down there weirdo and watch for it, it coulde rushing out at any moment!" averting his gaze from the rising fifth extension of the human body, he walked over to the bed, preparing to quickly get down, making sure that hisrade wasn¡¯t lost in lurid fantasies before leaping into action. Discover more content at empire Frankly, the guard had been expecting some sort of lizard, or centipede, monsters of that sort could have corrosive acid at their disposal, so he expected a small thing like that, so when he saw a skeletal hand, standing on its wrist, wriggling its bony fingers as apressed mass of darkness revolved before its palm, he was genuinely confused. They didn¡¯t have any undead for their attraction, this meaningless thought rtive to the situation at hand caused some disservice as the sphere of darkness wasunched straight at his face. It was like being hit with slime, except way stickier, quickly expanding itself into his nose and mouth, rushing up against his eyes just as he reflexively closed them, then, the substance switched from slimy to more liquid, allowing it to more easily travel inside of the guards body, then the corrosive nature came into full power as there was nothing that could be done anymore. He didn¡¯t even scream, the sudden jolt of pain almost knocking him out right on the spot, but he didn¡¯t fall down, he had refined his mastery of the sword and ofbat with great care, he could handle it for a few moments, try to discover a solution to the horrifying attack he had just endured due to his carelessness. The guard with a crush on theirdy had absolutely no idea what was happening to his fellow, but he went into full alert mode, stepping back, keeping both the other swordsman and the bed in view, unsheathing his de, he rose it above his head. The hand crawled on the ground, right into sight before jumping up an impressive height andtching onto the back of the guard that was currently melting from the inside. Like the devil itself, the hand reached his left shoulder,nding onto him as though it was going to give him fatherly advice, this impression was right on point, for the hand spoke insidious words into the dying swordsman¡¯s ear. The first few words were in dead tongue, conveying something that the guard understood immediately, then, to be clear, the monstrous limb spoke in the pale tongue, giving out the answer that the guard wanted. "You will live, you simply need to reap his life" taking advantage of the fact that the swordsman was now fully aware that his death was imminent and unavoidable, delirium threatened to take over, but before the white tendrils of madness could embrace him, death whispered a way out. It was only natural that a living would not want to die. Chapter 137: Divide And Conquer The intense dread of death breathing right down on his neck made the guard tremble, he had had close brushes with it before, or so he used to believe, but it couldn¡¯t bepared to what had just happened to him, death had stared into him, and he had no other choice than to stare back, he became well aware of what wasing and could only crumble, realising that that bing a mangled up mess at the hands of Lady Syklon would be much better than death, he came to know that nothing he had ever experienced could even bepared to it. Truly, there was no fate worse than death. The dark whispers that reached him in that instant, normally, he would have disregarding the words of a creature such as this, but it offered a way to avoid the ultimate end of his existence, in that very instant, he trusted those words with his entire being, and thus, believing that his life could be spared in exchange of the measly life of his fellow, the dread was reced with a coldposure. Lashing out thrice with his de without moving, he unleashed double the amount of mana shes, despitecking in the department of energy control, the de art he had taken up and trained in for years at this point did the heavy lifting for him. The only condition was that he had to perform clear movements corresponding the sort of shes he wished to send out, also, by having the weapon art take the mana necessary from his own reserves, this allowed it to be much more devastating. Loimos jumped off his shoulder as the scaled man charged right behind the flying blue des, he analysed the weapon art in great detail, he had already attempted to imitate some in the past, to no avail, but that wasn¡¯t going to discourage the carcass. Battle arts were an interesting branch of power, they worked in great likeness to conditions and rules, based solely on a strict set of actions and prerequisites, most potent battle arts were jealously guarded by certain groups, making one of the prerequisites for the art to function be that the user be a part of said group. This was the case for nearly all of the arts used by the people of Tochi. des struck one another as the lean man deflected an attack from his colleague after dodging to the side to evade the barrage of mana shes, the two men were swift, swordsman of Tochi prized themselves over their speed and dexterity, they rarely wore armour, and if they did, it was far from the same protectiveness offered by the suits worn by knights. Their swords, katanas as they referred to this variation, shed repeatedly, each strikes capable of leaving a deep gash were it to be allowed tond, the two moved as though they had prepared for those movements for months, with certainty and poise. They dodged, parried and deflected with refined movements, only a few seconds had passed since Loimos inserted his odious whispers within the guard¡¯s mind, he had reverted the ck blood within to a more harmless state, still allowing it to burn him from the inside to constantly remind him of the stakes, although that wasn¡¯t even necessary. The furious strikes of the scaled man took the other by surprise, he wasn¡¯t holding back, straining his limbs to put an end to his life, this could be exploited but the lean guard couldn¡¯t benefit from this, his strength was inferior, thus, his defences were eventually flung aside, blood spurting from his chest. N?v(el)B\\jnn Crazed by fear, the scaled man smiled seeing that he was gaining the upper hand, just for his colleague, to resheath his de, and use his sword in its scabbard to smack the bloodied sword away beforending a kick directly to the stomach, forcing his maddenedpanion away as he unleashed his own sword art. "zing instincts!" striking an odd pose and speaking the name of the art clearly were the necessaryponents to coat his de in a bright me, though that was only the most minor of the two effects granted upon him. Like a pyromancer enhancing their bodies with precision to push their perception to the maximum, the lean man acquired a sight, hearing, reflexes tempered by fire, taking the wild and explosive nature of the element for himself. He arched his body back, dodging one mana de before striking the second one down as he approached his former friend, the scaled guard took a defensive pose, predicting that the fired up swordsman would go for a decisive blow, he aimed to counter and end the fight swiftly. ¡¯I¡¯ll feint a mana de before going for a thrust for his heart¡¯ he concocted a n in mere moments, paying close attention to the de of his opponent, shrouded in mes. Both of them sprung into action, both convinced that they knew the tricks each other could use perfectly, only one was right in their assumption. Continue reading stories on empire Swinging at the same time, one¡¯s de shone with blue glint, whilst the other stopped midway, or rather, so it appeared for a split second as the mantle of me was thrown off the de, directly in the scaled man¡¯s face, utterly thwarting his n and forcing him to back off as fire licked his face. This moment of weakness wasn¡¯t wasted, with a swift motion, the lean man sliced off the sword hand of his friend before kicking him straight to the neck, knocking him out on the spot. "The healers should be able to figure out what¡¯s wrong with you" muttering, the man stricken by love for theirdy knew that reattaching a hand, even after a while wouldn¡¯t be a problem here. The reason manypetent warriors flocked to Lady Syklon was because of that, injuries could be healed easily and having her as an employer meant that one might be rewarded with techniques and such that she had umted with her obscene wealth, or maybe even be taught crumbs of her own battle art. Completely confused by what had happened, the lean man still didn¡¯t forget about the monster. ¡¯Crap! I lost it during the fight¡­¡¯ But Loimos hadn¡¯t lost the living,nding on the back of his neck, a single bone spike emerged from the center of his palm, resulting in instantaneous paralysis and death shortly after. And then, the rot consumed it all, leaving nothing but the damage caused in the struggle behind as the hand crawled away. Chapter 138 Basement And Discovery It was unclear whether it was the work of a specific ability, or if Lady Syklon was just that perceptive, but she had instantly realised that something was wrong with the two guards, not long after Loimos escaped the scene of the crime, multiple groups of guards surrounded the room. The Lady was beyond being slightly displeased at this point, upon returning to her office, she discovered that the monster had trashed it all, or rather, it had erased everything from existence, she stored quite a lot of things in here, most were things she had memorised perfectly already, such a books and scrolls detailing battle arts, not very valuable things to her, even the furnitures were of little importance really, although it was annoying that her sheets detailing her gains and all were also lost, it was also all safely stored in her head. What she couldn''t stand was that something, anything had dared do this, and clearly, the fact that this had happened meant that the monster had tricked her somehow, which then revealed something else. Although she dwelled in many businesses, the monsters she kept to sell and fight were rarely intelligent, their brains forcefully muddled if they appeared even a little bit too smart for the tasks they were assigned. Those allowed to keep some of their smarts to make their fights more interesting were branded heavily with ve seals, a monster could run off, sure, but one that had its wits? Simply impossible, that wasn''t allowed and this meant that they had been somehow invaded from the outside! "Attention! Consider the monster a filthy intruder, work harder and kill it! Put the idiot''s arms back on their right ce too, the punishment shall be moved on to the guards that were in charge of the area that thing entered from, and let me reassure you, I will find where it came from!" the guards all froze in their tracks, only them hearing the words of theirdy. Enjoy exclusive adventures from empire They couldn''t afford to make her wait at this point, a breach in security had only happened once before, they had failed to react in a satisfactory way to the problem, and the memory of what followed was deeply imprinted on the minds of the guards that had been there to witness it. "Did you not fucking hear Lady Syklon?! Hurry the hell up, don''t you value your skin?!" one of them leapt into action using one-hundred and twenty percent of his potential, unlocked by sheer force of fear, forcing the others apanying him to up their pace as well. Every ce that had to be checked was checked, flinging doors open, they all worked with precise cohesion to search every single nook and cranny from top to bottom, otherwise, they might discover the imaginative mind of theirdye into y to show them what poor performances truly led to. Meanwhile, Loimos had gone down into the basement, after getting a good look at Lady Syklon''s office, he had met with two guards that he deemed simple targets and was now looking around at caged beasts, as well as guards looking around with great focus, getting on their hands and knees, shovelling away piles of monster''s excrements, just to make sure the reason for theirdy''s ire wasn''t hiding underneath. After scouring through her many papers and all, Loimos hade to discover that what he was looking for was supposedly down there, and that it was a dungeon, she had linked it to her space-distorted manor and was making use of the monsters it spawned as free sources of ie, having gotten a hold of the dungeon core, she had learned to tweak it to get specific monsters and materials. She didn''t trust any of her subordinates to do it in her stead, unfortunately, this heavily implied that no undead could be found here at all, the dungeon spawns were all living creatures, the skeleton unable to detect any death force anywhere. Of course, it might be faint, perhaps the undead captive here was like those of the desert, in need of a slight bit of death force to get going, the life force in the air was dense, the basement levels filled with countless living. Some areas housed hundreds of caged creatures, the most dangerous subjugated by ve brandings, the undead had thought of breaking them free, but the only ones that would be able to act were much too weak to pose a threat to the guards. Some of the ones down there were otherwise more impressive than the regr guys that patrolled random areas, they seemed to be in charge of other guards, Loimos had to be extremely careful to not be spotted by them, the usual guards were already rather sensitive to anything unusual.N?v(el)B\\jnn The higher-ranked ones got close to finding him more than once already, everyone seemed somewhat tense, distressed even, like their well-being was on the line, those guys were really crapping their pants at the thought of enraging a woman smaller about a tall as your typical halfling. He managed to distract them by making noise using rot filled with air and dispersing it before they got there, he inspected the basement thoroughly, passing by rings surrounded by many clients, shouting obscenities and screaming their lungs out as they spectated fights of various sorts, monsters against monsters, people against monsters and all sort of variation to keep things fresh. The way to the dungeon itself waspletely off-limits for him however, he would have toe out into the open to ess it, and it was guarded by multiple guards even then, thedy''s order may have sounded like it was meant for everyone but the subordinates here knew very well that leaving their posts would result in a world of pain opening before their eyes. ''I require a distraction'' and he knew exactly what to do to create a distraction, although it was dubious whether he could even aplish it. The corpses of many participants of the underground fights had been piled up in a hole, awaiting destruction once the day ended, still, despite the night of debauchery having started only a few hours ago, many corpses had already piled up. Loimos had learned how to execute the necrotic art to raise the dead, however, it required him to make a movement with his arms, he could manage the spoken portion with just a hand, but he couldn''t know whether moving his body that was well away from this ce would work out. But he tried it nheless, currently hiding in the swamp, he raised his arms a slight bit, as a word of the death tongue escaped from the disembodied hand. And thus, Loimos discovered that it did indeed work as the corpses began to move. Chapter 139 Three Favourites Bones creaked and flesh ruptured as the battered bodies rose from their eternal rest, their skin decaying subtly under the strain of Loimos''s death force seeping deep into them, the bodies were fresh, some of them still capable of roaring. Climbing and crawling out of theirmunal grave, the mindless carcasses charged at the nearest livings with extreme prejudice, a horned beast rushing to try and fling one of the guards into the air, only for its charge of be met with a bright de of light, cleaving it straight in half with exceeding simplicity. The swordsman eyed the oing tide of corpses, yelling out for some reinforcement, despite the overwhelming quantity of newly risen undead, the guards managed to confine them nearly immediately, preventing them from reaching any of the clients, who were, for the most part,pletely oblivious to the movements of the guards. Each of them disyed various sorts of battle arts, most of them wielded swords of varying length, mes burned the cold flesh amidst a variety of other elements, some of them clearly more effective than others. Enjoy exclusive adventures from empire Those utilising arts linked with poisons and venoms found them utterly useless against the reanimated monsters, forcing them to rely on their sheer swordsmanship, it wasn''t too bad since many guards had joined the fight, covering each other and working together to bring down the beasts. The undeads were naturally resilient, but considering that they were brand new, they could take a high amount of damage without crumbling down, all thanks to the Loimos''s superior death force coursing through them, they refused to be put down, thrashing around even as the guards sliced off their limbs, forcing them topletely crush the corpses to put them out ofmission. The highest-ranked guards working under Lady Syklon were also present, assigned to survey the most dangerous areas of her trades, the three of them clearly left the rest in the dust, taking care of their own bunch of cadavers all by themselves, and without breaking a sweat at that. One wielding a de that was much thicker and more curved than the rest, he was much fatter than muscr, a round stomach showed bare to the outside world, he was rotund but powerful and quick nheless, holding hisrge de in one hand and carrying a bottle of booze in the other. This must have all been part of his battle art, dousing his de with alcohol, a single strike against the ground produced the necessary spark to lit it in fire, suddenly improving its cutting power, the mes quickly spreading over the dead as he struck them down, kicking the burning remains into the mass of corpses further away, his mes were too potent and forced the beasts to take other routes, these undeads also seemed to inherit some greater thinking skills from the one that arose them. Though, that didn''t matter, his aim had always to funnel them into tighter areas to allow the rest to take care of them more easily, in another area, body parts flew into the air, monsters were cleaved apart every second, unable to move past a certain point as one of the three most trusted guards of Lady Syklon unleashed a constant barrages of white shes through the air, simr to the mana shes used by the scaled guard earlier, simply far more potent and controlled with higher precision, the length and the distance they could reach was adjusted to perfectly target the monsters without damaging any of the environment. He was an old man, despite his body being all wrinkly, his grey beard beingpletely white on the right side of his face, despite clearly being aged, his movements didn''tck any poise and were steady, swinging his katana with one hand without putting any strain on his body. It wouldn''t be impossible for him to take care of all the corpses by himself, although it wouldn''t be nearly as clean. Lastly, a young man wielding a spear was running around, dancing amidst the rows of beasts, swinging his spear around stylishly, ripping the carcasses apart with both ends of his spear, be it the ded tip or the wooden end of the handle, both were equally as devastating. He never stopped moving for a second, spinning around, and even sliding if needed, dragging the de of his spear on the ground, producing countless sparks, the moment he lifted it off the ground, the sparks stopped midair, transforming into metal nails, shooting out in the direction he swung his weapon, shredding the corpses in their path. All in all, the threedy''s favourites, as the others liked to refer to them as, were set to manage the tide, with the assistance of the other guards, no one even got hurt despite the wide disparity in numbers and the strength some of the monsters still possessed. Still, it would take about ten more minutes to properly quell the sudden attack without harming the integrity of the area. Or so they predicted, the remaining undeads suddenly dispersed into fine red mist alongside all of the already felled corpses, the guards all fell to one knee reflexively.N?v(el)B\\jnn Most of them had yet to see thedy do something like this, she was still standing at the entrance of the area they were in, having erased all of the cadavers from dozens of meters away, she wasn''t even holding a sword, her hands still brought together in front of her. "You idiots left the dungeon without surveince, did you not?" it was unclear whether her words were specifically targeted, but they all took it to heart and lowered their heads. "You are in luck, nothing happened to the core, and you did good taking care of the zombies, but clearly, our intruder wanted to check something down there, reinforce security and check for anything it may have left behind" blessed be the gods, she wasn''t mad. But it wouldn''t be the case for long, her subordinates wouldn''t be finding their intruder any time soon as the hand hid back in the little storing area it had first infiltrated, sticking itself in a corner right behind a bunch of crates. Loimos''s body outside emerged from the swamp as well, he would have to get inside of there himself. Chapter 140 Monkeys "Oi, what''s up with those monkeys?" one of the two men stationed to guard the main entrance into Muho Chitai eximed aloud, surprised to even see the monsters at all. The humanoid monsters that one could encountermonly in the wild had since long understood that approaching any construction made by the people was a terrible idea, the residents could even forget about their existence as one would never see or hear them whilst hidden within the walls of the city. "Hell if I know, are theying over there?" the other man furrowed his brows, the group of monsters only had five members, and they didn''t seem afraid in the least, in fact, they were charging forth with uncanny determination, as though nothing could stop them. The monsters stalking the ins in groups were colloquially referred to as monkeys by the people, since they shared lots of things with said animal, however it wasn''t exactly urate. The shapes of their heads and body structure was certainly simr, but the monsters were much more apt at creation and utilising tools of various sorts, their jaws were more canine as well, granting them more biting force than one might expect from those little creatures, even the bigger individuals barely reached to the average man''s chest, although, appearing weak and helpless against sapient species, the so-called monkey''s weren''t to be underestimated too much. One trying to follow them into their caves would soon discover that the ones prowling the outside world were much like foot soldiers, the strongest members of their species rarely showed themselves, but they definitely would if too many of their precious smaller fellows didn''t return from their expeditions.N?v(el)B\\jnn Their bat-like ears perked up, the small group of Derelictus-Mens, as the system had chosen to call them, didn''t back down or hesitate for even a second, running straight for the two guards, their bone daggers ready to tear into flesh, clubs raised high with the intent to break bones. The shrill cries they constantly let out seemed to invigor and empower their suicidal resolve even further, the two guards readied their spears, not afraid to deal with them, at thest second, just as the monsters were on the verge of reaching the attack range of the two humans, they suddenly stopped and spread out to surround them. "We really just got outsmarted by monkeys" one of them groaned, not expecting the little apes to have such good coordination and wits. Though, none of the creatures possessed the means to attack safely, so they just remained out of reach, moving their heads and bodies from left to right, ready to pounce or back off. "Shoo! Shoo! Just go away little guys" this did nothing, so the guard cut the crap and stepped forward, stabbing one of them straight through the head, its body went limp, only to suddenly jolt back into action, moving forward, digging the spear deeper until it began to protrude from the back of its skull. "What the-" the two guards were taken aback by the tenacity of the monster, twisting the spear didn''t even seem to hurt it, so the guard moved to simply fling the monster, it was basically as light as a little child anyways, but he only took this decision after a few moments. Your next chapter awaits on empire The other Derelictus-Mens grabbed onto their undying brethren and onto the spear, putting their whole weight onto it. Two of them joined the stabbed one, the other two screaming at the other guard, grabbing rocks and pebbles from pouches and throwing them wildly, but with good precision. None of the men had any idea what was happening, why it was happening, or how to react to all of it, they were just measly arms that weren''t even allowed to step into the manor, they spent all of their times standing at the entrance, doing nothing, the slightest of action that didn''t involve punching drunk people was new to them. The second guard struck another of the monster straight through the chest, killing it on the spot, or so it should have, but once again, it tensed and awoken from the mortal wound, reeling its head back and spitting some sort of ck tar onto the guards hands, burning him and making him let go of his spear. Stepping back, he tripped onto something, his headnding right at the feet of the three other Derelictus-Mens, staring down on him, their beast-like maws dripping with saliva as they didn''t stop shouting and screaming. ''Where the hell is-'' he froze, his colleague wasying on the ground, this was what had caused him to fall on his back so ungracefully, an arrow was struck right through his left eye, he must have died without making a sound. The arrow was much toorge to have been shot from a bow wielded by one of the monkeys, but that was the least of his worries right now, one of them wielding a club basically threw itself down on the guard''s face, as the ones carrying bone daggers began stabbing him repeatedly. Without waiting for anyone else toe over to see what was going on, the five monsters, two of whom with spears stuck in their bodies, grabbed the corpses and dragged them off into the distance. A few people had seen the scene ying out right in front of their eyes, none hade over to help though, they were merely citizens, and honestly, seeing some of the thugs getting attacked wasn''t a horrifying sight, nobody liked them on ount of their poor behaviours and highly dislikable personalities. Still, it was rather unexpected to see them get ughtered by a measly group of five monkeys, the arrow that had killed the first one had flown from a great distance away, from within the cover of the swamp. One of the witnesses looked around for other guards, the screams of the monsters had already gathered some attention but he figured that they might not bother checking it out, the criminals were too arrogant to believe the Derelictus-Mens could do any damage. Unfortunately, said bystander was readily shot in the face, an arrownding straight on his forehead. Chapter 141 Well, Thats Awkward Arrows rained from the sky with astounding precision, aiming for the regr folks rather than the more adept guards, whose guard was raised the instant they learned of what was happening, projectiles aimed at citizens''s vitals flew in between buildings, following the shape of an arc. Some fell to the ground the instant they were hit, others stumbled about for a few seconds as their throats and organs were damaged, few shots missed their marks, although not everyone were struck with lethal wounds, what followed forced all attention to be put on the ones that had been sessfully targeted however. The volley of arrows ceased only a minute after it had begun, the deceased suddenly began convulsing, their corpses bloating and decaying at a rapid pace before the sudden umtion of miasma caused them to burst into pieces. Mounds of rotten flesh crawled together, gathering random bones before finally forming into rotten hounds and masses of putrefied rats, all of them dispersing all over the city, running past the people and guards, spreading blighted blood as they went. "Don''t let any of them hide, thedy is already mad enough!" one of them shouted, the guards ran around like headless chickens, pursuing decayed corpses through the streets, forced to crawl on the ground to find those rats hiding under buildings. Unseen by the many people rushing to lock themselves inside their homes, and the guards doing their utmost to not displease theirdy, many skeletal hands clung to the sides of habitations, serving as Loimos''s eyes and ears, allowing him to aim for people that were incredibly far away. His initial intrusion inside of the manor taught him valuable information, inspecting the dungeon, which was only a single roomrge, he had been able to detecting a rather faint death force deeper underground, though the shape of the slumbering undead was unclear, Loimos had been able to tell that it was humongous, this didn''t ring any bell concerning named members of the king''s court, but it indicated to him that it was a precious ally nheless. This ally was deep underground however, encased in several meters of dungeon rock, which could quickly recuperate the damage dealt to it, his disembodied hand couldn''t reach the undead by itself, and even if it could, it would be a bad idea to awake it this way. Stay tuned for updates on empire Lady Syklon would be nearby where the giant creature bursted out of the earth and ripped everything apart, he didn''t know the full extent of her capabilities, but it seemed likely that she would be able to dealing with the undead with ease, as such, Loimos needed to lure her well away from her manor. The fact that the undead had been caught into the spatial distortion also meant that Loimos had no choice but to get inside, or to disrupt whatever was the source of it, both were easier said than done. To this end, he had regrown and removed his hands multiple times, spreading them all around the city and sending some of them to do some light scouting. And he just managed to find out something of interest, coaxing some roaming Derelictus-Mens into doing his bidding was simple enough, they froze right in their track and would stay like this for multiple seconds upon being exposed to the death tongue, from their, instilling the fear of their imminent death required only to walk up to them. The two that had died and been swiftly converted into undeads had returned to their cave, where their queen resided. Letting the guards of Muho Chitai struggle with his created undeads, and the damage they were causing by puking rotten blood everywhere they went, eating away at the wooden structures, and once their time ended, the creations of rot would simply explode, creating nests of rot. That would upy them and keep them on their toes for a little while, as the undead headed for the Derelictus-Mens queen, he himself doubted that he could aplish much all on his own, his current mastery of the primeval rot allowed him to gain the advantage in number and to submerge enemies, but that trick would only work on those that were about as powerful as him, or only a bit stronger and not in possession of a way to counter attack on the same scale as the undead. Lady Syklon and her three best guards possessed the means to render this meaningless, since he couldn''t just be instantly stronger to remedy to this obstacle, he simply had to enlist some assistance from the natives, the two monsters turned undead were quickly dispatched by the stronger members of their little tribe, immediately noticing that something was wrong with them. The other three were still infected with some ck blood, but no obvious signs could be noticed on the outside. There was just a slight issue with Loimos''s n, he was well aware that to get the assistance of all of them, he simply needed to get their queen on the move, either by influencing her decisions the same way he did for the scaled swordsman and the five Derelictus-Mens, or by killing her and using the necromantic art. He was confident that activating the rotten blood''s corrosive properties within the three he had already infected, using their corpses to fabricate rotten creations would be enough to distract the greater monsters, allowing him to get to the queen. And as such, he put his n into motion, sliding rapidly through the small caverns whilst everything inside was distracted by the blood and flesh sshing everywhere, rats emerging from the gory mess. The Derelictus-Mens were otherwise easier to distract than the guards at the manor, they barely registered his passage in the confusion, allowing him to arrive before the queen in record time. ''This is not going to work out'' he assessed. The queen was towering well over Loimos despite being all crooked, her head looked much like that of a dog or wolf that the rest of her kin, she couldn''t reasonably be called a monkey in the least, appearing more like some sort of beastfolk species.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Her head was adorned by a finely crafted wooden crown, a tattered cape and loincloths covering her bare, and hairless body, appearing emaciated as she gripped onto an exquisite staff, atop of it, a mana crystal carved into a sphere. The queen was clearly a mana caster, but what made Loimos conclude that this attempt was for naught was the speed at which he saw said staffing from him, hitting him straight into the chest,unching him out of the cave like a piece of garbage. ''I will find another way'' Chapter 142 Elite "Smart one heh?" one of Lady Syklon''s three elitesughed heartily, the other guards apanying him weren''tughing, they were all looking at corpses of theirrades, the limp bodies of the monkeys also lying around, the bodies of theirdy''s forces were riddled with arrows, some of them partially molten, chemical burns all over their skin. Their clothes partially fused with the contaminated flesh, it was a disgusting sight, even insects and rodents didn''t dare approach the bodies, for the blight had already taken root within them, their insides were filled with miasma, the organs reduced into mush already, but the bodies had been left still. "Must be a threat or something, heheh, what else is happening?" the elite was the shirtless one with an ample belly capable of safely storing away a tarvern''s entire stock of booze, his heavy de resting on his shoulder as per usual. He took a swing of one of his bottles as another guard sighed, exining the situation in more detail. "As you would know, our foods mostlyes from other minor viges and towns, we get it basically for free thanks to Lady Syklon effective threats and demonstrations, however, the fields and cattle have been under attack, the water sources have been getting repeatedly contaminated by a petroleum-like substances, killing most of the agriculture and animals.N?v(el)B\\jnn The waters have been purified many times, however, it keeps getting stronger, not to mention that the priests and priestesses simply can''t keep up with whatever is responsible for it, at this point, they can barely do anything about it, and the crops that didn''t need to be watered have been physically targeted, there is basically nothing left, they are all starved and dehydrated, even the grass, trees and wildlife has been infected and pushed away, we can keep going because we are better protected and thanks to the dungeon being capable of spawning edible monsters, but-" the guards could have gone on for a while longer, but he was stopped by the elite. "I get it, the fucker is trying to weaken us, they use the apes as distractions, attack our weaker men, cuts off ess to provisions, as well as pretty much isting us, soon enough, most popted areas beside us will be deserted" he took another swing of alcohol. "What about the caravans and carriages?" he realised that he had cut off the guard before he got to those. "Unfortunately, the roads have been blocked, the carriages repeatedly raided by seemingly rabid monsters, few are ables of making it anywhere safe, for those that do, their stocks are contaminated anyways, the remains of countless caravans litter the roads, they are only still trying to make it despite the danger because they fear Lady Syklon more than they fear what prowls the wilderness" announced the guard, looking over at his fallenrades. The elite smiled, turning to the dozens of guards that were with him. "Why don''t we go visit our dear friends? I am certain we will be able to catch the culprit unlike them"ughing boisterously, the guard that had been speaking this entire time couldn''t help but question his decision. "Is this thedy''s will?" "This is the will Guorzo, Guorzo The Fat! And I have served thedy since before you soft-skins were even born! Skeletal hands roaming our city, intrusion upon her manor, murder of her properties, harming her businesses and directly attacking her wellbeing, we must get our hands on the bastard that dares to oppose her!" Striking his chest, he raised his de up in the air. "Thedy will be pleased by your contributions and will surely reward you handsomely, so keep you heads high and follow me" Guorzo led the way, it wasn''t like the others had a choice in the matter, without thedy around, the words of the three elites weren''t to be disobeyed. Guorzo, referred to as The Fat, or sometimes as Drunken de, had much more intricate thoughts as it might appear at a nce, sure, he was an alcoholic, foul-mouthed, perverted unwashed brute with greasy hair, but his wits were easily on par with thedy''s most trusted, he wouldn''t be considered one of her three elites otherwise. He stood at the bottom of the list however, Ohrn, the elder and Abbanh, the youth were respectively first and second, but the spear user was only a ce higher due to his overall prowess, he was too foolish to be trusted with anything other than fighting. Guorzo and Ohrn were the only ones that could both serve as her des and as assistants to her businesses. ''The cockroach is doing it''s best to undermine Lady Syklon in every way possible, he clearly aims to weaken her and her forces as much as possible, because he can''t stand before us otherwise, one of the three elites apanied by third-rates warriors, abandoning the safety of Muho Chitai to head to barely guarded shitholes were everyone is already dying is not an opportunity he''ll miss¡­ I will be able to earn her praises!'' the drunkard smiled foolishly, but his n wasn''t idiotic, it wasn''t like his absence would make the city raidable all of a sudden. Their unknown enemy had to make use of every possible opportunity, even if it was obviously a trap, they had to ovee said trap to hope to progress swiftly. Not to mention that Guorzo''sbat skills always had been heavily restrained inside the city and manor, he couldn''t just burn everything or exercise his groundbreaking strength, that would damage hisdy''s properties, which was uneptable. Outside, in a random settlement that barely had any value, he could go all out to ensure that his n worked out, he purposefully set out for the furthest vige possible, by now, some of the guards were catching onto what he was nning, but they couldn''tin. Your journey continues with empire "Oh, were we expected?" grinning, his yellowed teeth showing in all theirck of glory as he arrived before the entrance of a small camp-like settlement, it had mostly been thriving thanks to cattle, so it had quickly ran into problems. Right at the entrance, the guards hesitated, two corpses were hanging from the wooden walls surrounding the living areas, badly dposed, the entire ce overrun by carrion birds, which were all rotting as well, yet, they still flew around, staring at the living with unconcealed intent. "Hum¡­" the guard from earlier wanted to emit his doubts but was cut off. "The cowards will be burned, let''s go and visit our dear little troublemaker" And so, they all stepped inside. Chapter 143 Friendly Fire The settlement appeared as though an army had swept right through, the homes, once filled with warmth andughter, were mostly copsed, covered in mould and decaying, the walls letting the element intrude for they had been mercilessly broken down. The grave heat of the now separated twin suns bore down from above, producing a greatly bright light, making it difficult to make out the finer details, but one thing was clear, everything reeked of death and decay, not a single de of grass remained, the soil was barred, puddle of ck liquid were everywhere, stray limbs decorated the frail trees, they had lost all of their colours, now as colourful as a moonless night. Bodies littered the grounds, everywhere, be it skeletal remains, dried up husks or festering remains, what was left of the innocent inhabitants had been posed and ced in ways that garnered both the fear and ire of the guards, even scummy criminals like them couldn''t help but be repulsed, revolted at the scenery before them. Countless broken down carriages and caravans had been dragged inside the settlement as well, creating countless covers and blindspots, the guards were tense, except for Guorzo of course, he was perfectly rxed, unbothered by the stench that made many gag, and only barely fewer throw up. Their eyes and small cuts stung, like salt was pressed up against them, none of this happened for the Drunken de, it was below him to be affected by such pedestrian things, instead, he brought de up and proimed his arrival: "To the one who dares cross Lady Syklon, the sharpest de of this continent,e out and surrender, perhaps your allegiance would be enough to appease her wrath!" he lied as easily as he breathed, overly praising hisdy wouldn''t fly in her presence, but he indulged himself, the name Syklon was supposed to inspire fear in the hearts of those that heard it. As expected, the cockroach didn''t appear, but Guorzo didn''t care much, it was just something he tried to see if he could make things easier. "As you wish, but I know that you hear me, let''s make this quick, we don''t want to waste our time, do we?" coating his de in booze, the distant rumbling of many paws running on the ground began to sound all over the city. ''Urgh, fucking rats'' igniting his sword, hundreds of rats began to swarm the guards from all sides, soon enough, hounds joined the fray as well, the birds that had been only silent observers also began moving, pping their putrefied wings. Stay tuned to empire The men unleashed their battle arts without hesitations, Guorzo''s wide swingying waste upon the undeads, it didn''t take long for the first guard to receive an arrow, piercing him in his dominant arm just as he was about to strike, leaving him wide open, countless rats swarmed him and pushed him to the ground, tearing him apart just enough to put him out ofmission, not taking the extra time needed to finish him off, instantly moving to their next target. The attacks of the corpses barely hurt the elite, seeing that the regr guards would be swarmed and taken apart soon enough, he sighed. He wasn''t much of a team fighter, his weapon and style didn''t allow for much help, as such, he simply decided that he might as well finish this charade swiftly, filling his mouth with alcohol, he breathed fire right at his feet, creating an expanding carpet of fire, the mestching onto both allies and enemies without any distinctions. He ignored the curses sent flying his way as his supposed allies were burnt alive, he didn''t care, his attack absolutely eradicated all thend-bound creations of rot, only leaving a few flying wretched creatures, circling above Guorzo. The puddles of ck blood began to bubble, surging up in the air, drops of blighted blood soon falling from the sky, extinguishing the fire, charred corpses and damaged weapons covering the ground all around the elite as he came face to face with Loimos, the smoke clearing away. The two of them were standing opposite to one another, about twenty meters separating the living and undead.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Guorzo raised an eyebrow, Loimos''s ragged and sordid appearance hadn''t gotten any better since before, but what surprised the elite was the strange feel he got when looking at him, the drunkard, considering the scummy tactics utilised and such, had been expecting a feeble necromancer of sort, but Loimos, at least when wearing clothes well-filled with rot, didn''t looknky in the least. By now, he was standing rather tall, somewhere around one meter and ny centimeters, still a bit shorter than the huge elite, but close enough, his cracked mask was also a point of surprise. ''A death hunter? No, must have stolen it, and why does it have a kiss mark on it?!'' straightening his back, Guorzo swung his ming de through the air, getting into position to get into a fight. He was confident in his capabilities, but one thing every warrior that ought to get far had to learn was to always fight like your life was on the line, analyse your opponent, but never get toofortable, it wasn''t automatic, but he had managed well enough until now. "You have seriously offended Lady Syklon, what is it that you want to y with such a dangerous fire?" Guorzo narrowed his eyes, bending his knees, preparing to lend the first strike. "What do you mean, I have only been breaking a little brat''s toys, who is that dy'' you speak of? Surely, it does not refer to the toddler in need of a spanking?" the elite let out a stifled groan, barely restraining himself from rushing forward. "Who the hell do you think you are? Lady Syklon is a grown woman! She is twenty five years old and a prodigy of both the sword and the battle arts!" stomping the ground, he rushed forward with incredible speed unbefitting of his plump disposition. ''Provocations are not effective'' manifesting rot by his side, with a swift explosion, Loimosunched himself away, right into a copsed house, out of sight. "Coward! You think you can insult mydy and run away? I''ll take you apart, you can consider yourself lucky, your death will be much better than what she would have done to you herself!" he shouted with a smile, the me in his de gathering together, with a downward motion, he sent a destructive sh of fire right at the house. ''Hold up, he didn''t have any bow or arrows'' his realisation came at an opportune moment, allowing him to deflect an arrow shot from a great distance away. "Ah, you aren''t alone?" he concluded, putting his attention back on the smouldering home. The mould was spitting some ck blood, preventing his fire from spreading and extinguishing it little by little. It had only just begun. Chapter 144 Eye Of The Storm Amidst the smoke, mes and debris, Guorzo spotted Loimos''s gloved hand reach for something, grasping a nearby table, crushing the portion he gripped upon before throwing the entire thing straight at the elite, then a chair, then closet, everything and nothing that was within reach. ''Impressive strength, he doesn''t seem to be using a battle art either¡­'' in that department, the ming swordsman was no slouch either, swinging his de and rendering the furniture to splinters, one punch from his free hand enough topletely nullify the heavy closet. He made small movements to evade knives and other cutlery swung his way, only for his opponent to next pick up a fallen beam of the home partially charred, Loimos threw it straight at, not like a javelin, using the entire width of the piece of wood to force Guorzo to destroy the projectiles, using this opportunity to slip away as arrows began raining from multiple directions. "You freaking rat!" it was obvious that Loimos was trying to go for a battle of attrition, and since he was the one to initiate it, the elite could only assume that it was because he was confident in winning it. Roaring and puffing his chest out, a white smoke seemed to surround the living for a short instant, the next volley of arrows harmless bouncing off of his body as he rushed toward one of the habitations, using his overwhelming strength and reigniting his de to demolish it. Spinning his sword above his head, he created a veritable whirlwind of fire, from there on out, as long as he maintained the miniature tornado, he would be able tounch destructive mes without losing the infernal coating on his weapon. Bringing every house down one after the other, he expected to see Loimos emerge from one of them at any second, but instead, he saw the putrid warrior somehownd behind him from the corner of his eyes. Although he called it a tornado, it was merely the creation of his fiery battle art, it was shaped like a cone and a few meters taller than himself at its peak, nothing prevented anything froming from above, but it wasn''t everyday that someone would even notice, even less try it and seed. ''I haven''t shown this move in ages! He figured out the weak point in so little time?!'' Guorzo had to give it to him, Loimos was attentive and certainly brave toe into the eye of the storm. "Haha! You''re a disrespectful little shit, but you have balls, I''ll break you!" positively thrilled, Guorzo didn''t hesitate to plunge his sword deep into the ground.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om The storm expanded and closedpletely, the force of the storm all around them increasing alongside the temperature. "I misjudged your character, for my arena to enclose and power up like this, it means that you epted the challenge" Guorzo''s battle art wasn''t nearly as simple as it might appear, whilst others would focus on the main aspect of their art, reinforcing it to grow more powerful and make their attacks increasingly harder to defend against, the well-fed elite enjoyed challenges, in that way, he was more honourable than his peers. Facing enemies at their full prowess was something that he deemed most important than everything else as long as they were deserving of his attention, rather than crush them swiftly before they could show off, he would allow it, and by defeating them then, he ultimately demonstrated his superiority in every way. How could he face hisdy if his strength was nothing more than a supposition? When he never forced himself to push his limits? Taking the easy way out might be the best, smarter option, but it wouldn''t lead to nearly as much progress and satisfaction. Killing a dragon in its sleep didn''t make you a dragonyer, it was facing it head on that granted you the title. And Guorzo, he was the dragon here. "Let''s see whose funeral this will be!" stomping on the end of his de, he forced it so deep underground that getting it back would be a hassle, but this made it certain that the tornado wouldn''t be dispersed. Taking up a sumo stance, the elite''s palms ignited with mes for a brief instant, meanwhile, Loimos unsheath his de, the darkness coating it flickering for a few moments before dispersing, the strain of the surrounding inferno destroying the aesthetic enchantment once and for all. Continue reading stories on empire Strapped over his back, multiple katana''s he had gathered from the dead before throwing himself into the fray, his tattered mantle fluttering chaotically amidst the waves of heat striking him, seeing his opponent unfaltering despite the condition excited Guorzo, raising one leg high up, he struck the ground once more, this time, starting the duel for good. They both moved at the same time, one enhancing his already outrageous strength and speed with his burning battle art, the other, his undead physique amplified by death force, his movements made even more unpredictable and swift by coating his entire body with ck blood. Guorzo didn''t dilly dally and threw a punch with no intention of stopping it, shattering the ground as Loimos dodged it by a hair''s breadth, twisting his body in painful-looking contortions, spinning around the living by sliding along the ground, attempting to stab the elite in the side, despite his confidence in his defences against such a worn out de, but he didn''t dare to underestimate his foe at such a time, and moved away, repositioning himself in just a moment beforending a hit straight as the stomach of Loimos with his knee. His blow was cushioned as ayer of blood and rot appeared in between the two of them, he still felt the distinct sensation of bones breaking, the undead grabbed onto his leg, stabbing the sword straight at his ankle without reacting in any way to the damage inflicting upon him, something of perfect naturality to Loimos, but to the elite that was still oblivious, it was a sign that his opponent was not nearly a pushover, he grinned broadly, the short sword stolen from a death hunter shattered, leaving only a faint cut. Another swing of the leg and Loimos was thrown off, his back hitting against the edges of the arena, the storm pushing him back in, rolling off the ground, he carried on the momentum the inferno had graciously given him, continuing his path by rushing forward like a four-legged beast. Rot began topress all over the battleground. Chapter 145 Charred Black Loimos suddenly broke his momentum, standing up and halting as though his feet were stuck to the ground, just before hepletely lost his haste, he grabbed hold of one of the three katanas he had in reserve and threw it at the living, the sword spinning through the air like disc as he riled up arge amount of blighted blood, rising up a high wave obstructing Guorzo''s sight as it approached. Unafraid, the elite tilted his head back and unleashed a single fireball from his mouth, eradicating the tidal wave in one go, as was expected, Loimos didn''t stay idle, and moved up to one of the marble-sized,pressed rot, crushing it with a p of his hands, propelling the condensed bullet of corrosive blood directly at its target. ''That''s much faster than the rest of his attacks!'' surprised, but still all smiles, he blocked the dense blood bullet, the blood quickly evaporated in contact with his body, but it left a nasty chemical burn on his forearm nheless. The undead moved from one marble-sized bullet to the other, but the living went on the move, hitting true on his target wasn''t nearly as simple when they were moving at wild speed, in no time, Guorzo arrived before Loimos, hitting him in the chest with a ming punch, which went straight through his chest without budging the undead as he deliberately moved his bones and made the targeted area brittle, it was in this instant that realisation finally dawned on the elite, as Loimos''s coat and clothes burst apart, revealing his ribs, their shape and length deformed as he basically turned his chest into some sort of bear trap, the death enhanced bones tearing through the living''s arm as he spurted acidic blood in every direction. Bursting into mes, Guorzo wasn''t going to allow even a drop of the blighted blood to enter his system even for a second, gritting his teeth as the pain surged through him, he turned the intense suffering into fuel for his strength as forced Loimos up in the air before violently throwing him to the ground, ribs still stuck in his arm as forcefully broke out of the undead''s hold. Looking like he had fallen from the clouds, Loimos, got himself back onto his feet, he had only lost the great majority of his ribs, nothing serious, his opponent however, he had lost ess to his dominant arm. Guorzo''s right arm gushed with blood for a few moments before ayer of mes came to stop the bleeding, not the safest way of tending to his wounds, but he didn''t have much of a choice, his muscles had been torn apart, and he was fairly certain smalls bits of the bone in his forearm had been broken off. His limb wasn''tpletely useless, but he couldn''t punch with it unless he wanted to worsen the injury, such nasty wounds weren''t as easy to heal as clean cuts, Loimos''s attacks were anything but clean, in every sense of the term. Even then, he applied ayer of ck blood to the de of a katana, the second one in his arsenal as he came swinging at the elite, imitating the movements he had witnessed before, mixed in with his own ir. Seamlessly mixing his natural capability atmitting untold brutality, the skilled movements that could be make heads turn and fall, as well as the utterly bestial maneuvers, Guorzo was once more surprised, but not as much as before, now knowing that his enemy was an undead made things much more difficult. ''No wonder he tried to go for a battle of attrition, he literally can''t lose no matter what he does!'' He groaned in pain as he moved around, his arm itching, it was like hundreds of ants were burrowing underneath his skin, unpleasant, but not exactly the first time he got hurt this badly. ''I yed exactly how he wanted, cheeky bastard!'' gritting his teeth into a grin, his entire body began to be coated in mes, the heat rose up so much that Loimos''s clothes began to catch fire, cracking and getting out of shape. Guorzo messed up and got harmed, being incapable of even slightly bending the truth in front of hisdy, he would have to exin his idiotic mistake after failing to even consider the possibility after seeing the rot, undeads and everything else, all that was left to do was to crush the enemy. Frankly, he didn''t know much about undeads, he really knew nothing, no one had ever spoken of undeads, he had never seen one, heard of one anywhere before, he only knew the most basic of things about them, in Tochi, they were incredibly rare, even vampires rarely appeared despite being rather infamous in most ces. He only knew one thing, he was wounded, he had been tricked once, and hisck of knowledge could mean that he could be tricked again, as such, he had to employ his maximum power to end this fight right at this instant, even if doing so when unaware of the extent of your opponents capabilities was foolish. He had to take the gamble. "For Lady Syklon!" shattering the sword Loimos was holding, or rather, dispersing the molten iron as he struck it with his fist, kicking up at Loimos, pulling part of the ground alongside the strike, the undead went up in mes, but was quickly put out as he sweated liters upon liters of blood to counteract the fire.N?v(el)B\\jnn But he was still pushed up in the air, without a good footing, even if he could twist himself into a box, his room for movements and evasions was lessened nheless, not that it mattered, Guorzo didn''t intend on pushing and kicking, instead, he breathed in, expanding his lungs to their maximum capacity. Using his art without alcohol was possible, it was simply much more straining, using booze made it much simpler, but resulted in less power, the opposite was also true, this was how his battle art had been created, and he wouldn''t have it any other way. Like a dragon, a potent stream of fire crashed into Loimos, it was like the mes were physical, damaging him like the blowsing from countless maces as it pushed him up against the fiery storm, tearing him apart from two opposite sides. The elite focused harder as he felt a deluge of ck blood pushing up against him, but in the end, his strength was greater, the storm ceased,unching the burning corpse right into the remnants of a carriage, which also went up in mes. "If the arena was released, then it means that you''re done for!" Guorzo breathed heavily, his lungs burning, his muscles aching, he hadn''t been expecting such a challenge when he first came here. He tried reaching for one of his bottles of booze, but they had all sumbed to the intense heat, he was out of stock. "Oh damn- It?" his eyes widened. Continue your saga on empire Why was a zing figure walking toward him? A mask fell to the ground, turning to ashes. A darkened skeleton loomed over the kneeling elite, most of its ribs missing. ''But the arena was released! I felt the experience surge, how-'' He tried getting up to his feet, he somehow managed, but it wasn''t steady. Murderous teeth moved, striking against one another with a sickening ck. Loimos didn''t look great, his bones were charred, his left arm was missing its hand, consumed when he held it forward to block the fiery breath, his back partially shaved away by the powerful raging hot winds. But he was still standing, and as an undead, still perfectly able to fight at full power. Chapter 146 The Burning Guorzo breathed in, his tense and aching muscles rxing, he rose both hands up, even his mangled arm would have to do some work, sweat covered in body, his hair sticking to his face as he stared ahead at the loathsome undead. The elites battle art of fire was off-limit for him at the moment, with his sword embedded in the ground, and all of his alcohol destroyed, he couldn''t even utilise the more basic arts of his kit, as for the rest, it would cause his body to break for certain, he still had other battle arts, of course, as one of Lady Syklon''s top dogs he had been allowed to get his hands on some of her stashed up arts. Thinking of hisdy, Guorzo could only steel his resolve, he had sworn to follow her, not only because she was beautiful, she was also the unrivalled master of battle arts, a genius capable of easily creating new arts, to modify existing ones and her own personal arts were enhanced through ways that the mediocre contemporaries couldn''t even fathom, it was all about natural talent and understanding of the intricate weave of bothbat and battle arts. He did not understand why she bothered with all of those affairs when she had what it took to govern this country and to expand it, but he could never question her, Guorzo could only think about how disappointed she would be if he was defeated like this. The undead hadn''t used a single art during their entire fight! It was nothing but pure brawn and natural capabilities, the elite could tell, he wasn''t just facing off against a powerful and crafty undead, something he couldn''t quiteprehend was standing before him, something he could not quite fathom, just like hisdy. Smoke was rising up from Loimos''s bones, dust sipping from his hollow sockets, the putrid skeleton he was, was nowhere to be seen, the rot that naturally grew from his filthy white bones was utterly gone, his body turned pitch ck by soot and fire damage. He had yet to experience this, to be struck with such a devastating blow, it had actually impacted his capabilities, he could not produce any rot or anything at the moment, his control over the existing puddles of dark blood was also weak and sluggish. With most of his ribcage gone, he only had part of his natural body at his disposal, the bone ws and spikes were reduced to smithereens before he could even pull them out, that was unfortunate. Reading the fear, apprehension, but also the determination in the living''s eyes, Loimos reached down and picked something off from the embrace of ashes, a de that had seen better days, but perfectly capable of cutting through his weakened opponents. The two began walking toward one another, ignoring the small settlement that was burning to the ground around them, the two suns bearing down on them, their shadows slowly reduced in size as they got progressively closer to the point right beneath the twin stars. Guorzo made the first move, pulling his strength together to stomp the ground, raising up the ash, Loimos shed right through without hesitation, evading a punch aimed at his skull, missing his sh as the elite lowered his body, attempting to sweep the corpse''s legs. Rather than dodging, Loimos challenged his resolve and stabbed the katana into the ground, de facing the iing leg, Guorzo''s groaned and hastily stopped his manoeuver, the undead didn''t even bother getting the sword back, using the fact that therge warrior had deliberately reduced his height to kick up ash into his face. The living refused to close his eyes, blocking a punch from Loimos with his wounded arm and pushing the skeleton away, the pain was unimaginable, but it helped him stay focused, the elite rushed forward, kicks and punches were quickly exchanged. Loimos maintained his superiority in speed and evasion,nding multiple hits on Guorzo, yet the man was flinching, taking every hit and attempting to grab Loimos, or so it appeared, once more stomping the ground, this time with a minor battle art he had never bothered to train, the force was barely enough to make the cadaver''s feet leave the ground for a split second. Guorzo didn''t miss this time, his unhurt fist striking the undead, though Loimos managed to shift his head so that only his lower jaw was crushed, it wasn''t nned to get hit, but he saw a great asion. His feetnding on hard ground once more, he didn''t move away and instead dug his upper teeth into the living''s arm, running forward and leaving deep gashes at the cost of getting swept away once more. The elite cursed, that trade wasn''t worth it in the least, the undead wasn''t bothered by the loss he faced, sure, he wouldn''t be able of using his bite, but that wouldn''t impact him negatively, Guorzo on the other hand, was bleeding profusely, his left arm wasn''t damaged as extensively as the other but he couldn''t cauterise the wound, ash was falling onto and into the injury. Loimos picked up the sword from earlier, and arrows pierced through the air. The living hadn''t forgotten about the archers and readily activated the same battle art that had protected him from earlier, but the arrows were severely weaker than before, not escaping his notice, Guorzo was surprised at how quickly his brain was functioning right now. He had never experienced such rity before, it would be exhrating in other circumstances. ''The archers are weak, he isn''t using his abilities from earlier, and he hasn''t made any move with those dark puddles that were everywhere earlier¡­'' It would seem like the archers were all actually just the undead himself, as if to confirm his thoughts, Guorzo taught sight of movement on the roof of a building that had yet to burn down, the archers were nothing more than piles of rot with skeletal arms attached onto them. There was no time to gloat about his investigative skills, Loimos once again threw a sword straight at him, this time,unching it like a javelin, rushing forward himself.N?v(el)B\\jnn Chapter 147 Learning The undead reached down and grabbed hold of another fallen de amidst the ash, Guorzo hit the flying sword out of the air, aiming to meet head on with the undead before he could properly raise the sword. This action cut him, for the battle art that protected him from arrows was specialised to prevent purely ranged attacks, and sword throwing wasn''t exactly a typical action, although Loimos certainly made it seem like the opposite was true. Pulling his bleeding arm back, Guorzo could already tell that he wouldn''t be able tost much longer in this state, he had to defeat Loimos as quickly as possible, the undead wouldn''t be able to get into position to defend quickly enough, he was certain of it. That was assuming the sword he bothered to pick up woulde into y, Loimos let go of it nearly as quickly as he took hold, letting himself fall forward, crawling right in between the living''s legs. Spinning around and kicking down instinctively, the elite could only see that the skeleton hadn''t stopped in his tracks at all, and had gone to pick something amidst the mes, lifting up a smouldering carriage wheel, throwing it up in the air at his enemy. Without paying any mind to the scorching inferno, Loimos retrieved whatever he could get his hands on, chucking them right at Guorzo, who could only run around to avoid the wreckages that he normally would have been able to block without much problems, however, the undead wasn''t simply using his brute strength, he was also injecting death force into the objects he pulled out of the fire, causing them to release it when they crashed and shattered to pieces. Death force used in this way was hardly a problem normally, but Loimos''s death force was just as insidious as him, the closest living being was the elite, and the air was reeking of death due to the living''s stunt from earlier, but mostly due to Loimos''s massacre of the former inhabitants.N?v(el)B\\jnn Capable of swirling through the air for a little bit longer than normal, the death tried to find entry inside of Guorzo through the wounds on his body, the living''s instincts told him to move away despite not being able to see the death force, he could feel it reaching for his life. ''He''s trying to wear me out without even getting close!'' Guorzo ran toward the undead, epting that pieces of debris would hit him, he didn''t have much other choices, the fire he had caused surrounded the two of them, and he would be burned to death were he to try traversing it in his state. As the elite approached Loimos, thetter retrieved a burning stick, and raised it up as he moved forward as well. He weakly threw it over the living''s head mid-swing, surprising Guorzo who had been prepared to parry this attack and go for a finishing blow. ''What is he doing? His punches and kicks can''t hurt me severely-'' indeed, that was a fact, had Loimos been able to injure him with nothing but his bare bones, he wouldn''t have hesitated to do so when hended multiple hits, it wouldn''t be sensical for that to be have been a bluff. The skeleton''s hollow sockets red up with a dark purple light, blinding Guorzo as a thought came upon him, remembering an advice Lady Syklon had given him when he had first met her. He had been merely an aspiring wrestler back then, however, he wasn''t very talented, he had no innate ability, his physique wasn''t ster and being born in Tochi, he never had the asion to learn to wield mana or any other energies, he could only fall back on arts, however, being of low standing, he had no ess to even lowly battle arts. Lady Syklon, hisdy, was a prodigy however, she had a keen eye for unpolished diamonds, she had been brutally honest and told him that he would never amount to much, but she offered him a better way nheless, he could only be grateful to her. "For those of low talent like yourself, the only way to make dire progress and hope to reach greater heights, is to fight with you life on the line, to always be challenged, to always be forced to learn more tricks, to perfect your skills and uncover what might lie beyond your own mediocrity" As always, she was harsh, unbefitting of her soft and refined appearance, but her words rang true. "Even for I, once I had reached the limits of my talent, I had to partake in such activities to progress even further, although it was rather difficult to find anything challenging¡­" He had applied this like a philosophy, and now, he was witnessing it from an opponent, Loimos was but a rookie still, only appearing powerful thanks to possessing the primeval rot and being an undead in every aspect of his being. Loimos still had much to learn and much room to grow, Guorzo, got to be on the front seat of such learning, the undead''s fist shot forward, the living instinctively bringing both of his arms to defend without thinking, the impact sent ripples all the way throughout his body, sending him flying back into the mes and even further into a home that hadn''t been touched by the fire yet. Both of his forearms blown apart, his chest caved in as he was feeling his heart beat faster and faster despite the damage it had sustained, trying to pump blood and maintain its host alive, it was all for naught, his body was growing colder by the second. Guorzo weakly looked up at Loimos as he approached, the undead''s right arm had crumbled to pieces, incapable of handling the enormous amount of power he unleashed, he could tell that even had he been in top notch condition, his arm would have still been destroyed without question. Before wondering what exactly had happened, Loimos grabbed the elite''s throat, digging his fingers in before ripping it out. "Sorry¡­" a faint noise escaped Guorzo''s lips, and then, death imed him. Loimos won. Chapter 148 Paint It Red "Aherm, Guorzo is nowhere to be found, it seems likely that he perished, the settlements, viges and small towns that had been facing famine all vanished in their entirety, it seems that not a single person has survived, we have tried to push further, but although they are still standing, the previously inhabited areas have be nesting grounds for the monkeys¡­" a shivering guard reported, not daring to look up from the written reports he was reading from, afraid to met the freezing re of hisdy. "Guorzo, Guorzo¡­" her head resting against her hand, she was leaning against a brand new desk. "My Lady, there is nothing to worry about, Guorzo''s passing is unfortunate, but he wasn''t an important piece of your force, and seeing the methods utilised by our enemy, it is clear that it is not the work of the royals or of any powerful faction, I would wager that their gueri tactics imply a small group, or a lone-" Ohrn spoke up, only to be suddenly silenced, keeling over to one knee. "Did you feel the need tofort me Ohrn? Guorzo was a fool, but don''t forget that you are on the same standing as him from my perspective, I invested in him, his progress was satisfactory for his poor level and depraved tendencies, do you understand? My investment, my trust was killed, what are you going to do about it?" she calmly turned to both Ohrn, Abbanh as well as the rest of the guards present for this little assembly. Just as they were about to respond, a young guard rushed into the office. Enjoy new adventures from empire He stopped instantly and stiffened up, Lady Syklon motioned for him to get to speaking already. "My Lady, word is that the royals have heard of what is happening, they don''t know much but many of them see this as a sign of weakness, they might believe that you are vulnerable¡­" he said stopping before he could continue as he made the mistake of looking her in the eyes, shutting up instinctively. "The sharks are smelling blood, well, they''ve never liked me very much, I don''t appreciate their ball-less behaviour either, they are only breathing because I couldn''t care less about their existence, did they mistake my graciousness for passivity? Do they think that Lady Syklon is a little pushover because someone has cut my supply lines? Very well then, very well" she walked past everyone, her face impassive, as captivating as always. No one dared to stare for too long however, she put her hand on the hilt of her de. "Ohrn, you are in charge of dealing with the cockroach, maintain activities, or cease them for a while if you wish, I want that foul thing gone by the time Ie back, I will be paying a visit to the dear leaders of this nation, a little stroll if you will, it is high time that they remember that this country was built with might" sheughed a little bit, a rarity that sent shivers down some spines, or that warmed the heart of those that didn''t understand what thatugh meant. Just like that Ohrn was put in charge, a heavy burden to carry, he couldn''t possibly disappoint hisdy, she was trusting him with her entire business, the elite was aware that she didn''t truly value it as much as she made it seem, but still, it was something that had been built with her own two hands. It might as well be pure gold in Ohrn''s eyes, gold so beautiful that entire nations would fight to the death to eveny their eyes on, he couldn''t imagine himself putting it on pause for any reason. "As you wish, have a good travel mydy" he recited, soon followed by everyone else, once she set her mind to it, Last Syklon pretty much vanished from the city, Ohrn predicted that it would take her a week to get to the royal lodgings, about ten minutes to ughter everything and everyone if she took her time, so all in all, he had two weeks to get her orders done with.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om It had already been a week since Guorzo''s supposed death, it was hard to say if he was truly dead since no body had been found, but his loyalty was firm, he couldn''t have run away even if he hadmitted a mistake that warranted his execution, the elites of Lady Syklon weren''t only so because of might, but also because they couldn''t betray her. The office was soon cleared of all the lesser guards, leaving only the old man and the second elite. "Abbanh, I trust that I don''t need to tell you that we must get it done as quickly as possible, but we can''t just both go onto the hunt, our enemy is a filthy rat, but much like the rodent, he is cunning, he only attacked Guorzo because he was alone, an opportunity they couldn''t miss on, he couldn''t fight with help for the live of him, you and I can, and won''t be tricked so foolishly" "I don''t n on halting Lady Syklon''s businesses, we might not be getting any new customer due to the constant attacks on the roads, but plenty are still around, they are afraid of leaving, and in dire need to get their minds elsewhere, we can squeeze them dry of everything they own, the record profit, plus the annoyance being dealt with will surely please ourdy, not to mention, her mood will be high after murdering the royals, we mustn''t sour it" Ohrn stroked his beard, his white apparel fluttering as he quickly walked toward the door, followed by Abbanh. "We simply need to decide who will be in charge of what-" "I''ll leave you the administrative stuff and all that crap, I can''t run a business at all! I''ll take a small force and scour the surroundings and ins for the critter, he has been using the monkey to assist him, I''ll visit the areas they inhabit as well" the spearman didn''t hesitate. Ohrn had expected this, but he was still disappointed, Guorzo had been foolish, but he had had a good enough head on his shoulders to multi-task, Abbanh was nothing but a meathead, a glorified enforcer. "Very well, with me here, you can just take our best men, if you die, thedy will despise you" warning his younger fellow, Ohrn watched over one of the main areas, which would soon be filled by customers. Chapter 149 Skeletons New Clothes Loimos had been left without a right arm, a lower jaw, pretty much incapable of using his rot, charred and surrounded by a smouldering inferno, also, he had lost all of his gear, procuring some swords would be easy, he still had a few bows intact as well, but he was in dire need of some protective gear. Although, the main purpose of wearing clothes had always been to keep it hidden from his foes that he was actually an undead, they had no idea that their enemy couldn''t grow exhausted and wascking many vitals, or that pain was an obscure concept to him, right now, it would be difficult to keep the act going. The undead also felt like he had just unlocked something as well, his death force was no longer the same, or rather, the way he was circting was different, it seemed like he had just gotten an enlightenment in the middle of the fight, leading him to switch up his strategy and justnd the most devastating punch he had ever hit someone with, it was potent, but it had also seemed like something else was at y. His maniption of his death force wasn''t that good just yet, it had felt like his bones strengthened through other means as well, and that the death force reinforcement applied itself over multiple things in his arm, resulting in a killing blow, but also in the destruction of his limb. He could not reproduce the second effect, but how to use his death force was now imprinted upon him, he could already tell exactly how to use it to achieve better performances, but first, he needed to recover his lost bones, his new mastery would quicken the process for certain. Since he couldn''t produce anything at the moment, he went and fetched what he had already created before and gathered it all, slowly manifesting it all into a cocoon of rot for him to get in and recuperate thanks to the production of miasma. Hiding himself, it was surprisingly fast, way faster than it used to be, although he had done and ughtered a lot of livings since thest time he had to do such a thing, but circting his death force through his primeval rot and miasma also helped. It only took him a full day toe back to peak capabilities, from there, he went and got rid of the various ces he had turned into ghost towns, they had only been meant as potential traps, now that he had yed one of the elites, it shoulde to reason that such an asion wouldn''te again.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om So he went ahead and added more fuel to his primeval rot, his production of bones was already significantly faster than before, but he did not decay everything, he was in need of some clothing. He first wrapped his now filthy-white-again bones intoyers of random pieces of fabrics, filling it all with the maximum amount of rot and tying everything into ce using ropes, resembling some sort of bodybag, which was urate to what was inside. Covering everything with the clothing of a swordsman, Loimos wasn''t aware of what those articles of clothing were actually called, but they were excessively easy to move in, some sort of dark red, ample pants that could almost be mistaken for some sort of extra long dress from afar. And a clean white shirt, the entire thing fastened in ce by a type of rope, by the end of it, Loimos actually just ended up looking like a stalwart kendo practitioner, but with actual swords. The wide sleeves only reached about to the skeleton''s elbows, so the assortment of random sheets and clothes maddeningly stuck to his bones and rot with ropes was still visible, inplete dichotomy to the rest of his get up, well, alongside his face. He just looked like a Tochi-voured sad faced man, the arms could be exined, but the head was simply too noticeably weird, he didn''t want to be noticed as suspicious too quickly, or at least, be seen as suspicious, but as a regr suspicious errant swordsman instead. So he added twost touches to his disguise, a red mask, an red oni mask, the local version of ogres, or so Loimos supposed, with that stuck to his wrapped-up head, as well as an oversized straw hat, he should be able to approach people closer than otherwise. In any case, all that mattered was that his identity as an undead was perfectly concealed. He didn''t rush anything and waited to see what would be happening now that one of the elite had been in, he still add many skeletal hands roaming Muho Chitai, some had been found and destroyed, but surprisingly, the one hidden inside the manor had managed to resist the search efforts, probably due to the fact that they must have assumed it had wandered back outside somehow, that or the guards had really managed to miss it for all this time, they had been rather silent inside of there. Sitting in a tree, hidden by the colourful foliage, Loimos was able to witness Abbanh, the spear wielder, leave alongside arge number of skilled-looking fellows, their life force matched those of what Loimos had deemed to be the upper-echelon of guards, those that primarily guarded the inside of the manor. Abbanh first scoured the surroundings of the city, but Loimos was much further away than this, and using hands with high vantage points, he could track their movements as he wished, always stayingpletely opposite to their position, he wouldn''t want to get too close to a skilled warrior like the elite, he would most certainly be detected. The undead watched, observed as the forces slowly went further and further away from the city, judging by the numbers, only the lowly outside patrols, lesser criminals with little actual skills were left inside the walls, maybe with few of the actual guards, but Ohrn was also in there. Enjoy new stories from empire It would have been preferable if the old man had gone outside instead of Abbanh, the younger elite''s art was much simpler for Loimos to counter, his projectiles are small and thus hardly effective against skeletons. The bright shes of the elder were certain to take Loimos apart, but he would work with what he had. He could go into the city and wreak havoc before retreating, but there was something better to do, Loimos had a great way to ensure that both of the elites would be very busy when it was time for the undead to storm the city, the manor and free his fellow. Although, there was one thing to look out for, where was Lady Syklon? The undead had no clue. Chapter 150 Putrid Ploy Abbanh could not allow even a single stone to be left unturned, the loyalty Lady Syklon inspired in her followers wasmendable, Loimos could certainly see the natural charisma and presence required to bend sapient, living humans to one''s will without the use of any outside means, he himself could only do so by catching hold of their life with his own two hands, and even then, it wasn''t certain to work with all of them. The littledy was simply a natural born leader, few other individuals could boast being able to have such powerful men following after them, it required strength, but also so much more, to inspire trust and confidence, true loyalty without even purposefully fishing for such results. It was impressive, it really was, Loimos being unbiased even to the good points of the living he encountered could only acknowledge her authority, he could also see how it could be exploited however, Abbanh, Ohrn, Guorzo, they simply went further and beyond into everything they did for the beloveddy. The spearman had to find and defeat Loimos in her stead, for he had damaged her business, her goods, the undead hadmitted what her elites considered a cardinal sin, fueled by both the desire to honour her order and his own willingness to avenge her loss, Abbanh was driven by the two most powerful wants he had ever experienced. He was willing to put himself into harm''s way, all to not miss any corner the scorned skeleton might be holed up against, there was no need for Loimos to put any efforts into luring him into the perfect ce. The young elite could recognise that an area was prone to ambushes, and instead of avoiding it, he would charge in to push his target to show itself, the instant Loimos would appear before him, a fight the undead could not win with one hundred percent certainty would break out, and that wasn''t taking the rest of the forces following Abbanh. Facing his enemies head-on was not something Loimos tended to do, standing atop of a high cliff, he overlooked therge group of experienced warriors walking into a circr opening in the side of a small mountain, the disposition could allow one to have the high ground over them, on multiple levels at that. The spear wielder knew this, and he hoped Loimos would bite, just like he had bitten with Guorzo, the situation was much more favourable too, Loimos could have easily ced many of archer arms around, he could have ced rot bombs to copse the ce in and trap them in. Those circumstances had been thought of by both Loimos and Abbanh. Much like the undead knew how to use the loyalty held toward Lady Syklon, he was well aware of how to use the psyche and instincts of other denizens as well. The livings were greeted by a growing rumbling, shrill cries carried far by the air, growing in intensity and numbers, they grew more and more hateful by the seconds. "Is this¡­?" Abbanh and his men did not take long to realise what was going on. Loimos had been using the Derelictus-Mens as footsoldiers, of course it was ounted in Abbanh''s theories on what could be thrown at them, but he hadn''t gone further than the mere, little monkeys. The small monsters were less intelligent than humans and other civilised species, that was a fact, they appeared weak to those unaware of their society, but that was because the small groups one could encounter on the outside and simple hunters and gatherers, hunting small preys and moving with few numbers to hide from bigger predators. Incapable of distinguishing between powerful powerful people and regr folks, they had the reputation of rushing towards their death, but it was simply due to a misunderstanding, they could target so many humans and intelligent races travelling the nes with their numbers without problem, they grew convinced that all were preys and ended up dead once their luck ran out. Loimos had observed them for a long while, his encounter with one of their queens taught him about the strength they could possess, were they led by a queen and her regents¡­ ''They are fiercely loyal to the collective, just as much as you are to yourdy'' One simply needed to be able to remotely kill and control the actions of a great deal of the lesser members of the Derelictus-Mens tribes, so many deaths, and using a few of them to point at a cause, Loimos could do that. Painting the walls of their safe caverns with the blood of their brethren, tricking them, Loimos unleashed five queens and their tribes upon Abbanh and his troops. Each queen had dozens of consorts, or so Loimos referred to them as, muchrger, and stronger males, and below the consorts, were all of the others, hundreds of them, without a shed of fear or apprehension. The shouts of their queens empowered the subjects as a whole, through the use of a natural battle art, the consorts shouted as well, applying anotheryer of this art upon those below them and to themselves. Discover hidden stories at empiren/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Like a wave magma, the initial sh swallowed many of the guards, unprepared to have to fight dozens of frenzied monsters at the same time, bone daggers were stabbed into the legs, pushed to the ground and killed without even having the asion to wiping out their well-honed battle arts. The second sh did not go much better, the consorts jumped above the others, protecting the weaker monsters from the guards, the third sh, the queens waved the finely crafted wands they had received from unknown sources, unleashing simple, yet devastating spells. On top of being the physically strongest, the queens were somehow all mages, knowledgeable on how to circte mana and how to create spells, simple shards and bullets of basic mana, but also moreplicated spells. A deluge of bestial fury and calcted magic rained down on the unprepared guards, the so-called elites allowed to guard the halls of the manor were crushed by the monkey''s they looked down upon. Abbanh could not believe his eyes, his senses as a whole, was all of this really happening? Were they really being ughtered by lesser beings? Beast with no knowledge of martial arts beyond their instincts? Monsters which only battle art was one they used without realising, something they had not learned but been born with? Could proud warriors like them really fall against such things? Abbanh was confident in his strength, fighting against overwhelming numbers never bothered him, facing a few consorts was one thing, but even a single queen inspired dread in his heart. The queens were overwhelmingly powerful naturally, their bodies were simply superior, and they were even permitted to learn magic? How was that possibly fair? "Don''t grow arrogant, monsters that lived but a few steps away could defeat you with one hand behind their back if you are not careful, monsters you know use numbers, or are merely glorified animals, the true monsters have an inborn advantagepared to us, if they wear the title of king or queen, I expect a decade before you and your poor talent canfortably challenge one without getting injured" he remembered the words of hisdy, gripping his spear with resolve. He could not disappoint her. Chapter 151 Arrogance ''My potential can grow! I can win, even if only by myself!'' Abbanh spun his spear, kicking off the ground, countless lesser Derelictus-Mens''s heads were sent spinning up in the air, causing the consorts to turn his attention to the spearman, away from the still living guards. The consorts, despiteing from different tribes, demonstrated impressive cohesion, leaping into the air unnaturally, despite their great sizes, they were armed with bone daggers all the same as many of their lesser brethren, simplyrger to fit in their hands, they swung with brutal strength mid-air, forcing Abbanh back as they isted him from the rest of the battle. Even when using all arts that could enhance his trained strength, he was thrown back with ease by a single one of them, things were looking grim, he knew it, even by taking the attention of a majority of the consorts, it didn''t mean that his men were faring any better, he saw one get crushed in between the teeth of a queen, still alive before being turned into nothing more than light snack. The rest were getting swarmed by countless of the monkey''s, unable to resist the sheer numbers and fury animating them, their normally feeble bodies enhanced by the presence of their leaders, they butchered who they thought to be the source of their losses with extreme prejudice. Read thetest on empire "I know you''re here! Do you like the show you bastard?!" the elite growled, struggling to not be turned into a nameless sack of meat by the consorts, they didn''t even attack all at once, instead opting to switch every dozen seconds, maintaining maximum pressure on Abbanh. The living had to put his all into merely dodging and evading, there was no room for him to counter attack, every time he saw an asion, another monster would simply step and prevent him from evennding a scratch. His signature battle art couldn''t even be used, he was managing to avoid getting damaged, but his body was put under immense strain. ''Ohrn would be able to fight back! His art would have been able to quell their numbers as well¡­ This only happened because I am incapable of anything other than fighting, but I can''t even do that right!'' growing more and more distressed, a mad look started to settle in his eyes. He looked up there, he could see the height of the mountain, the rugged cliff side was right above them all, he could not reach it with his art, but an idea appeared in his mind. ''I have the talent, I know I do!'' stabbing his spear in the ground, the consorts felt like something was off and backed off, allowing him to push his two palms against each other, his spear in between them as he began to rub his hands together, like his spear was a branch and the ground a campfire awaiting sparks to ignite. Countless sparks began to appear as he furiously ground the de of his spear against the ground, the sparks spreading all around him, refusing to dissipate as they should, instead forming into a dome around him. The monsters didn''t dare to push through, instead opting to observe, keeping their distances for now as Abbanh began to cackle like a maniac, hisughter sounding like someone was pulling on his vocal cords. "Oh, Ahah! Lady Syklon! Bear witness to my awakening, I have transcended my mediocrity, I am not useless!" swinging his spear around, the countless sparks spread all over the area, rising up into the air and forming into nails as wide as a man''s torso. The elite had just done it, he had sessfully modified his battle art, evolving it to greater heights, right there and then, in just few moments, it was rough, it was imperfect, but it was more than enough to bring ruin upon the filthy monsters that thought they could assault the men of Lady Syklon!n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ''Guorzo was right, it is with our backs against the wall that we can truly grow stronger, watch me as Iy waste to these monkeys, I will y the one who killed you, and the praise I''ll receive shall also go to you!'' striking his spear against the ground, the nails began to move down, closing in. The consorts were about to pounce, but Abbanh was confident that his nails would pin them down before they could touch him, he felt so serene, was this how Lady Syklon felt? Was this the sensation of being overwhelmingly powerful? ''I don''t dislike it in the least'' The elite closed his eyes, certain of imminent victory, some enemies, many of them would survive this attack, but right now, he could only see triumph, he could taste it in his mouth. "Halt" He released his guard, and a single, venomous word dripping with putrefaction reached him, the order took hold and the nails ceased for a brief instant, just enough for an arrow to pierce his unprotected throat. A single drowned cough came out of him, the nails reverting into harmless sparks that readily dissipated into the air. Abbanh''s eyesnded on the distant figure of Loimos, but he could barely see what was in front of him, he could only recall hisdy''s advice once more. "Don''t grow arrogant" The very first words she had spoken, she had shared only a few words of guidance, and he had somehow managed to fail in applying them. He was a failure, and could only die apologising for his ipetence, thepetent men he had taken with him were all brutally ughtered by monsters, who were now dragging and hoarding their flesh, vying to gather as much for their tribes as possible before quickly slipping away, the queens wishing to avoid conflict between themselves. Loimos kept his distance, he didn''t pull anything against those five tribes, allowing them to take off with bodies and items he could have decayed, he wouldn''t want to get grounded into the floor, he still had to pay a visit to Muho Chitai. But he still took the time to gather the death force and what remained of the corpses beforehand, now, it was time to direct the wrath of some more tribes. Chapter 152 Walk In Ohrn stood over a multitude of papers and parchments, it had only been a few days since hisdy had gone away but as he had predicted, he could really produce a ton of money thanks to the circumstances, many big wigs of the criminal underworld had been around and had had no choice but to remain inside, those cowards afraid to step outside despite being surrounded by their own, personal bodyguards, but that was a good thing for business. The elite knew that he could drain them of their money, he saw them as nothing but degenerates, and thus, he agitated what made their brain activate in front of their clouded eyes, Lady Syklon would be very pleased with the results. Now, Abbanh simply needed toe back with the head of the rat to ensure maximum satisfaction of theirdy. ''It''s all looking good'' he nodded his head, feeling content. "Sir, Sir!" but of course, there were always problems to deal with. "What is the matter this time? Are some of our guests causing problems again?" he asked with a sigh, lifting his sight from the many papers, seeing the pale-faced guard, out of breath. "Oh my, is it urgent?" "Sir, ten- No! Dozens of monkey queens are approaching with their packs, they look rather displeased about something, they keep screaming and howling!" Ohrn looked at the guard silently for a second. "What the fuck did you just say?! How many? How many did you say? Are they all grouped up together, or are they approaching from different sides? Answer me!" he grabbed the poor man by the shoulders and shook him around with his superior strength, racking the guard''s brain around. "A great portion are packed up anding from the north, the rest areing from every direction-" just as he exined this, the manor shook a bit, ever so slightly, but the fact that they felt it from inside of their meant that whatever caused it was actually rather potent. "Damnit, I''ll take care of the north by myself, you lot protect the city from the rest, try to draft the men of some of our dear guests, they are all in danger after all!" Ohrn rushed away faster than the guard could see, he saluted without realising that he was now alone and ran off soon after to ry the order. The elite was able of confirming the poor state of affair they found themselves in, one of the queens that had been a little pissed off by the machinations of a certain goober had mastered a form of explosive magic, blue,et-like projectiles flew over the city,nding into building and in the middle of the street, her casting speed wasn''t too much, but Ohrn had to deal with this one as quickly as possible, thankfully, she was positioned in the north. Taking a vantage point, the elder was able to evaluate the damage the city would endure already, Lady Syklon would be displeased. ''What the hell happened? The Derelictus-Mens know not to approach the city to avoid danger, Lady Syklon had made it clear not to purposefully hunt their hunting parties either, what could we have done to enrage so many queens to take actions personally?'' Ohrn had questions but no one to answer them, he rushed over to where the greater majority of the monsters were gathered. Quickly demonstrating that the gap between the first and second elite was vast, his battle art, whilst rather simple in nature, was unblockable and nearly unavoidable for both the lesser monsters and the consorts, tearingrger chunks of them apart with just a few white shes. Unfortunately, the queens were true monstrosities, and their staves were robust enough to block and deflect his shes, the queens focused their fire on him, forcing him to move around, he could take on a single queen rather easily, but there were more than five here, apanied by their troops and consorts. He didn''t doubt his chances, it would simply take a while, who knew what could happen to the city whilst he battled here? Continue reading at empire ''It would appear that Lady Syklon is absent'' Loimos threw the maximum amount of Derelictus-Mens he could gather to attack the city, he had to use everything he could to restrain the likes of her even for a slight moment, but for reasons he hadn''t been made privy to, she was not here, the elder elite was doing good, but it would take him a long while to clear the northern portion. Loimos casually stepped into the city, with monsters flooding the streets, the people and guards couldn''t care less about him in particr, amidst the monsters, he just looked like a person, a miscalction that resulted in a few fighters to get their necks swiftly cut as the undead passed by. Allowing his corpse reek to permeate him and his surroundings, infusing it with death force, he ensured that the frenzied monsters distinguished him from the rest, after all, Loimos had made sure that they would believe that the ones responsible for their losses were the people of here. It wasn''t perfect, but smelling like a putrefied mound of excrement-filled cadavers did not make him very appealing to approach or confront.N?v(el)B\\jnn Loimos made his way to the manor, pushing the guards standing in front of the entrance with a wave of ck blood, kicking the doors open into an area for customers to gather, various elevated scenes were performers would typically be were left empty, the customers currently inside were cowering or too inhibited to notice anything, they were still plentiful however, the morning was barely rising after all, their debaucheries were supposed tost until noon. Loimos''s arrival wasn''t unnoticed, in fact, the guards inside, which were far from the usual forces, were already tense, having been staring at the entrance with fervour, expecting monsters to start pouring in at any second. But only Loimos appeared, he was shot at despite not looking like an invading creature, receiving dozens of arrows straight to the chest, meagre damage. Manifesting apressed mass in front of him, Loimos pped down on it, sending thepressed, piercing blight straight into the crowd, striking down multiple defenceless guests. Their bodies soon turned into plentiful rot for the undead to work with. Chapter 153 Release The Beast The yed clients melted into rot, crawling into one mass, forming into some sort of pir slightly taller than a person, then Loimos detonated it, bone spikes emerged from within, slightly poking out just before the entire thing erupted, propelling the spikes into every direction, but not a single one of them going into the undead''s direction.N?v(el)B\\jnn Some guards managed to weave through the st and its dangerous shrapnel, one stabbing his spear at Loimos, all of the greater forces had been taken by Abbanh, both of the elites having been convinced that nothing wrong could happen with the elder stationed here, they had been wrong, leaving only the grunts that were normally never allowed to set foot into the manor. Mere minions thatcked in the understanding of even their simple arts, with bodies left untempered, the thrust was evaded and stopped, the skeleton pulling the guard toward him with a jerk of his hand, shing right across his face and pushing the living back into the rot and blood forming from the victims of the st. Guests ran around like headless chickens, the sheer terror and confusion could be tasted in the air, the inexperienced guards already struggled with the basics, but with nonbatants screaming and stumbling in their ways, they stood no chance of fighting properly or managing to gather as a group to fight together. Their enemy cleaved through both the clients and themselves, his sword swung with higher power, the edge unbothered by the obstacles, Loimos''s new understanding of his death force enabled greater reinforcement of both his body and his armaments, the death force permeating his being was forced outside his body, coating him in a protectiveyer, but also allowing him to utilise thatyer to attack, the guards that attempted to sh des with him saw their poor weapons erode and rust visibly. The sharpness impacted first, for now, it could only reliably affect inanimate objects, his control still too faulty to allow him to eat away at the living, but it was enough for now, his undead body, enhanced further allowed him to easily overpower the majority of the fighters, breaking down their guard and rendering them unable to fight with a single attack, the growing rot finishing the job. Of course, not all of them were weak, they all had the same defects in the sense that they barely knew how to properly utilise their arts and didn''t train much, but some of them were of species blessed with greater physical bodies, they had the possibility of dealing actual damage. At least, it would have been so under normal circumstances, Loimos did not hesitate to grab still living bystanders, throwing them at the guards, who despite being lesser than the rest, were no less aware of Lady Syklon, hurting clients without proper reason was forbidden and during the short instant as they saw one of them fly their way, they had to decide whether or not this was a good reason. Hesitation meant death. The growing amount of corpses allowed Loimos to rapidly form a swampy environment only for the living, dragging some of them to the ground and drowning them, restraining the movements of others. Loimos was able to carve his way through the crowd, many guards still remained, and they were intent on dealing with him even then, certain that numbers would eventually be enough to overwhelm him. Quickly enough, Loimos turned back, he had left the corpses of the guards intact, executing the necromantic art, he raised them as undeads to upy the people here as he headed for the basement. Coming down the stairs, he heard one of the guards that had managed to chase after him shout something. "Release the champion!" Once he arrived at the bottom of the stairs, he was able to see exactly what this meant, four burly guards pulling on chains with all of their might, three of them quickly ran off once Loimos came into sight, but not from him. Two other guards hastily threw arge stone club, thest remaining living pointing his finger at the undead. "Alberg! It''s time to fight!" he spoke an order aloud, a crest on the chest of a blue-skinned creature lighting up as he received the order, the monster was tall, towering well over Loimos and every single guard, even if one were to count thete Guorzo, the beast was a stalwart figure, broad-shouldered and wearing an expression of uncareness, his gaze retaining a glint not when he was given an order, nor when hezily flicked his hand at the remaining guard, sttering him into chunks of flesh, the monster champion of the fights taking ce in the basement was free was covered in scars that had healed nearly perfectly, only leaving a mark as testament of their past existence. Alberg, or so he was referred to, returned to attention only when his gazended on Loimos, his mouth opening slightly as he grinned devilishly, showing off his teeth, the remains of past challengers still stuck in between them. The nearby guards scoffed at the fool that had been killed, the crest Alberg was marked with only allowed for two orders to be given, fight and rest, when resting, he couldn''t harm anything or anyone, but once the order to fight was given, he was allowed free reign, which was why the order to fight was normally only given when he and hispetitor were safely locked in the arena. The grinning oni snapped off the chains binding him like twigs, taking hold of his signature stone club, roaring at his new opponent, the sheer force contained in his lung pushing the undead back and almost taking him off his feet, flinging the hat on his head away. Thankfully, this roar wasn''t like that of the snow beast from back then, it was simply a demonstration of Alberg''s incredible physiology, nothing in the arena had bested him for years, none had even been able to leavesting injuries on his body. Continue reading at empire Today however, he was sensing a worthy foe. "Why isn''t Alberg rushing in like usual? Don''t tell me he is wary of this guy? Just our rotten luck, it really just had to happen when ourdy and the elites are all away!" the guard shut up as the oni nced his way, not appreciating the chatter as he was sizing up the skeleton. Loimos ran his palm along the side of his de, coating it with ck blood, reinforcing both his weapon and creation with the maximum death force possible. The only way forward was through this ogre. Chapter 154 One Punch Whether it is through the understanding of the energies around us, woven into magic and other extraordinary constructs, through the understanding and creation of fantastical arts, or even by giving everything to the inconsistent and chaotic system, or even by the study of Volonstone, amidst many others, the way to strength is one that can be split into numerous paths, whether it is best to devote yourself to one and be a master, or split your focus to be more flexible, remainsrgely unknown. We are not all born equal, opportunities and natural talent ys a huge factor, luck also matters much more than some would like you to believe, some say that natural talent does not matter, that through hard work, the same levels of power can be achieved, but isn''t one''s willpower, willingness to push themselves an integral part of the talent? I was told many times that discovering the singr best route to strength was a fruitless affair, but unwilling to give in to the incessant whispers, I have decided that the best way to find what I was looking for, is to simply ask the masters of each discipline. -Extract of ''Optimal Power'' by Dhogus. Alberg''s arms seemed to grow in size as veins protruded out, a mad grin adorning his bluish face, his teeth clenched and grinding against one another, bringing his stone club down at full strength, spiderweb cracks spreading along the ground, the floor shattered as rock and dust flew everywhere. The audience of guards didn''t stay without sight of the battle for long, the oni''s wide movements blew the thick cloud of dust away, repeatedly swinging and striking with both weapon and body without losing an ounce of momentum, each attack meant to kill multiple times over, Loimos dodged a swing of the club, barely any room for mistakes, he pushed off the club as it went right past him, throwing himself with so much force that he had to roll to avoid falling over. Swinging his blood-coated sword at the oni''s ankle, leaving a shallow wound that quickly healed, expelling the foreign substance at the same time, the undead swiftly moved out of the way to avoid getting stomped. One of the guards pulled his bow, shooting an arrow thatpletely missed its mark and hit Alberg instead, the monster grunted and grabbed hold of the floor, pulling out fragments of stone, hurling them at the group the arrow hade from, none shall intrude upon his fight, seeing Loimos approaching him once more, he jumped in the air, his entire weight crashing down. The ogre knew with certainty that he had missed his mark, the sweet sensation of flesh and bones being crushed didn''t wash over him, clearing the dust he once again rose, apressed blood bullet hitting him straight in the side of his face. His natural defences and regenerative factor, tempered by his years in the arena, shielded him from much damage, but he was positively impressed at the damage such a puny projectiles could inflict upon him, the sheer force of the strike dug into his flesh, the acidic properties quickly showing themselves whilst some of the dark blood attempted to infiltrate his body, he wasn''t used to such convoluted attacks, everything always was what it seemed, the ck blood however, was many things at the same time. Loimos began to spread out a blood swamp, rather than working to try and restrict the monster, he made it as corrosive as he could, infusing the maximum amount of death force into his creation, melting the ground beneath their feet, not at the same pace everywhere, creating invisible holes for the monster. Meanwhile, Loimos could continue to walk around without any problem, the blood beneath his feet solidifying for him. Alberg roared once more, a wide area around him impossible to step into as he raised his club once more, he seemed, somehow, even more joyful than before. He did not strike the ground however, throwing his only weapon, a fortunate timing on the oni''s part, Loimos sunk into his sanguine swamp, dodging the attack that he otherwise would have had to get struck by, the speed at which he could move when fully emerged into his primeval rot was something else. Using one of his old-fashioned rot creations to propel himself, he emerged behind the ogre, ending up even higher than the tall monster, stabbing his de into Alberg''s shoulder, down to the guard, infusing more death force than the de could handle, he made it explode into a countless shards inside of his opponent''s flesh. The ogre attempted to crush the skeleton like a mosquito, Loimos abandoned what was left of his weapon, and jumped off of the monster, focusing his death force into his right arm, two bone ws emerging and extending, shing at Alberg, the oni using his left arm to block the attack. The ws dug into his skin deeper than the katana had, but the extensive lengthening made the attack feeble, the bones breaking, but Loimos never wasted any of his rot, the shards erupted from within, everything seemed to be a bomb with Loimos. Ignoring the intense paining from his shoulders and the countless bone shrapnels and acidic blood hammering into him, Alberg attacked, the undead was prepared to use his rot to dodge, but the ogre''s left arm stopped mid-swing. ''That is a convincing feint'' noted Loimos, getting punched with the full might of an oni, breaking just about every single boneposing him and sending him flying into the distance. Alberg growled, not even bothering to move from his spot even though the dark swamp and constantly eating away at his regenerating feet and ankles, he was feeling a bit lightheaded and lethargic, the sword stabbed into him had gone too deep from his flesh to be able to extract the shards, but most importantly, it felt like some sort of parasitic energy had infected him. He did not worry for the fate of his opponent, he felt the distinct sensation of a kill, that pleasant feeling washing over his weary body. The nearby guards looked at each other. "Alberg, rest!" one shouted, lest the ogre might find them to be suitable snacks. "That guy was a real menace, what the hell sort of battle arts were those? They are lingering even after his death!" "Maybe he is not dead" "Don''t spout nonsense, Alberg stopped after that hit, he is a professional, and I doubt anyone would survive getting hit straight on like that" "We should go check for the body still" one of the more careful guards suggested, looking off into the distance of the humongous basement, he was fairly certain to have seen their intruder fly straight through multiple openings into separate rooms. There was no telling how far he had flown to.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om Chapter 155 Clapping "Hum, I don''t want to spell doubt or anything, but why have all the light in the past few areas all been unlit? They are supposed to never go out unless they had deliberately snuffed out¡­" one of the guards, with red skin and a thin tail shivered as he looked over his shoulder, holding onto antern just like the others. "Listen man, shut your feminine mouth for a second, there is absolutely nothing wrong, Alberg didn''t continue the fight, so it means that the fight was over, that he won! Alright? The lights must have been blown away by the flying body¡­" "Yeah that makes sense, no it does not! Do you hear yourself?! Those rooms span hundreds of meter at minimum! And this is the fifth one that has beenpletely dark, red boy is right, something is wrong, what if that guy was an assassin or something?" another joined the side of pessimism. "How does- Hold on, I did hear that they could fake their deaths by replicating the sensation of XP!" The group of guards all stopped and turned to one another, forming a circle, by then, even the one that had been loudly trying to convince the others not to worry was rubbing his chin, deep in thought. "Uh oh, do you guys think the royals could have hired a Fin-Limier to kill us?" he joined the side of wild theories with extraordinary speed, the men didn''t even bother to continue searching at this point. "No way, those stupid stuck-ups wouldn''t have tried anything like that with Lady Syklon around, they wouldn''t throw money away, and they certainly wouldn''t expect her to leave to go and murder their asses! They live in their own worlds, but there are limits¡­" "Could it be¡­ The Death Dealer? I hear she and Lady Syklon once shed, the very fact that the assassin is still around is worrying¡­" All fell silent, looking around and illuminating the area around themselves, everything was oddly quiet and empty. "Weren''t there customers in other areas? Why has everything gone so calm?" one of them finally brought up the biggest discrepancy of all, it was only natural that none of them had noticed what was wrong until now, the buzzing of shouts and voices had disappeared before they went for their searches, during the battle between Alberg and the intruder.N?v(el)B\\jnn They moved a few steps forward, their light shining on the feet of multiple people, their dismembered feet. Stepping back, the guard breathed heavily, but kept their mouths shut, either their intruder had just shrugged off the lethal blow he had received and gone on to somehow extinguish every light and then mutte the customers, or, more likely, one of their monsters had gone haywire. Both assumptions were somehow both right and wrong at the same time. The guards wanted to verify what was truly happening in the darkness, discovering that not one, not two or three, but every single one of the monsters that were being kept in cages were gone, whether or not they were under the effects of a crest didn''t seem to matter. Meanwhile, the few guards that had remained with Alberg, trying to get him back to his cage were fully allowed to see the skeletal hand skittering along the ground, tapping on the stone floor without a care of their presence. There were only two of them escorting the docile oni, not nearly enough. "Fight" said the hand, and the lethargic ogre didn''t miss the opportunity, crushing both of his captors before they could give the opposite order. Speaking in the death tongue, the hand informed Alberg that the ailment he was suffering from would kill him for certain, unless he couldbat it by ughtering as many livings as possible, it was not a lie. By growing subtly stronger and exciting his life force throughbat, Alberg could theoretically ovee the death infesting him. Continue your saga on empire The difference between theory and practice wasn''t knowledge the oni was particrly interested in, he understood the brunt of what was being conveyed to him, and without hesitation, he leapt away and rushed for the upper areas, which were still bustling with life. With this out of the way, the sound of something pping with thick gloves pierced through the darkness, twice in a row, the sound was low, but the guards were travelling through an utterly silent expanse, currently tense to the limit, one reacted quickly, blocking an unseen projectile. The other, wasn''t so lucky, he attempted the same but missed, thepressed blood bullet striking into the side of his jaw,ing straight out of the other side, fragments of teeth and bits of soft flesh apanied by gum sttered over the face of the red-skinned guard, making him cry out in disgust. Following the first two ps, many more followed, amidst them all, some were much weaker than the rest, simply hitting the guards with the same ferocity as a stray discharge of spit, whilst others sent their brain matter to adorn the floor and walls. Some of the guards decided to rush into the opposite direction from where the projectiles wereing from, not a problem, they ran into the released monsters, no longer susceptible to the order imprinted upon them, as they stood amongst the rows of freshly awakened corpses. The released monsters had first devoured one another, the weaker ones, those that didn''t even require a crest to control, had been poisoned by Loimos''s skeletal hand, allowing him to quickly y the monsters from within, and then raise them as allies. The underground was filled to the brim with walking carcasses, whilst the floor above was being ravaged by Alberg, no one could stand in between him and his slumbering ally, Loimos walked slowly, his legs barely able to holding him up after receiving the full force of an oni, he had managed to preserve his arms, but the rest were in a rather poor state, the red mask on his face had been destroyed, and the pure white upper portion of his outfit was stained ck. He would be able to recuperate quickly, especially with the incredible amount of deaths uring nearby. But first, he had someone to meet. Chapter 156 The Graveyard Loimos made his way into the miniature dungeon, the ceiling above trembling from terrible impacts, rubble and dust falling down, the area shifting in length and size, it seemed like whatever was distorting the inside of the manor was slowly breaking down. His next action was certain to shatter itpletely, bringing both hands up against the wall, focusing his death force into his palms, injecting his chaotic death into the wall, soon reaching the unknown undead slumbering encased deep into the earth, barely even a lick of death force reached it, but it was enough, it moved. Easily breaking out of its natural prison, splitting the earth like a natural cmity, the manor waspletely uprooted from its foundation, and so was most of the city, the sheer size of the corpse was much beyond what Loimos had been able to sense, the mere act of digging itself out brought enormous destruction and death all over the surface. Loimos was spared from the destruction, as an enormous skeletal hand grabbed hold of him, safely pulling him to the surface, the fighting ceased on all sides as the massive creature appeared, the soil was copsing down, the geological disturbance splitting a small mountain in the distance. "Weeeell, number one amidst the king''s loyal servants, it is I, The Graveyard, where heeroes, armies and loooords join in mymunity, amunal burial for all" surprisingly enough, the mass of pristine white bones had a rather pleasant voice, almost soft and even a slight ent of unknown origins. "You have guessed right, I am the so-called bone cmity, the shaaaallow grave the enemies of the skeleton king are granted atst, ataaaast!" The Graveyard, whomst Faraday and Irmandos had somehow forgotten to mention the existence of, was nothing clear, a sheer mass of bones and nothing else, intertwined remains of countless beings, humans, beasts, monsters, giants and everything that had lived during the reign of the undead king, its head, or at least what it looked like its main head amidst the piles of them, was malformed, misshapen, as though it had been broken, melted and rebuilt countless times by an amateur. A white sh struck one of the thousands of arms the abomination was in possession of, leaving a mark that quickly repaired itself. The Graveyard waved about three hundred hands the size of Alberg, chuckling. Without saying anything, or paying attention to the originator of the attack, the gigantic undead pushed up the ground, erasing all life that remained inside of the city once it hit the ground. "All of you, joining The Graveyard as coborators is definitely the worst fate a living could get, unfortunately, it is not a choice" speaking to absolutely no one in particr, the undead creature emitted a low ''hum'' absorbing the departing souls of those that had been in, once in possession of all of them, now having the authority over their very beings, the flesh of the corpses was stripped off swiftly, their bones sucked into the endless mass. "Now, we are all brothers and siiiisters" it eximed, ncing down at the remaining Derelictus-Mens and the sole remaining human, Ohrn could not believed his own sight, the sheer grandeur of the undead before him was enough to suffocate him, and it had done nothing but do some basic movements and im its prize, the extent of its power had to reach further than this. "You, you are family, a true friend! What is thy name? I am naught but the bone cmity, The Graveyard, the creature his majesty wished to see grow into a divine beast, s, the foul Death Hunter crushed me, I am but a mere splinter of what I once was!" he brought Loimos closer to its deformed head. Loimos, currently shrouding himself in Miasma and using the massive amount of death his new ally had just caused to mend himself, replied immediately. The skeleton also made sure to swiftly update Graveyard on the current situation of the dead, it would appear that the king''s beast had been defeated well before the main events of the past war, and having been attacked by Thanatok Ynig¨®s, The First Death Hunter before his untimely vanishment, well before many events. An undead defeated by this ancient hero should have had no way to not bepletely erased, leading everyone to believe that The Graveyard was no more, having been many timesrger than even now, the mesh of skeletons had managed to avoid total defeat and had gone into a stasis. "Shame, pity, but this age is a new one, let us finish off those livings-" "Mmmmh, Loimos, what is that distinct sense of approaching danger I am feeling?" it spoke nonchntly, pointing dozens of fingers at the something Loimos was unable to see until it finally stopped. "My Lady? You are early!" Ohrn was taken aback, but relieved still, he had predicted two weeks for her toe back, and it hadn''t even been one. "You truly are the strongest, and the most beautiful mydy!" "Silence, exin why a shitty piece of art is stomping on my city" she demanded, calmly.N?v(el)B\\jnn The elite cleared his throat, looking up at said art piece. "I do not know mydy, the ape queens suddenlyunched an attack, and out of nowhere, this thing bursted out of the ground, murdered everything in the vicinity, and as since been spouting iprehensible words at someone in its hand, one of its hands" the elder could note up with anything better than this, he hadn''t been looking for a little while, and everything immediately turned for the worse. "Where are the-" he suddenly realised that there were still plenty of monsters everywhere, but he was only greeted by corpses. "That''s already dealt with, can you seriously not handle a few monster queens? Have you been cking? All of you are fucking disappointments" she shook her head, beginning to stroll toward the humongous beast, however, the bone cmity just put someone down and began running in the opposite direction. Loimos was not going to lose such a great ally by throwing The Graveyard at the little menace that was the adorable little girl standing before him. The king''s beast value already exceeded his own just by existing, it just needed to gather bones to grow stronger at a fast pace, the graven mass was quick, already disappearing into the horizon once it began using its strength to push off the ground and jump, it would hide off somewhere and quietly gather some strength. But despite this, Lady Syklon still needed to be distracted for a few moments, it made no doubt that she could catch up if she really wanted to. "Mydy, there is no need to bother with him, he is clearly buying some time-" Continue your journey on empire "Ohrn, keep it shut will you? Can''t you see it? This fellow here, he has good potential" It was a bit annoying that her work had literally been squashed, but it barely mattered anymore, she had already yed the rulers of this nation and had never really cared deeply about anything here. Her gaze sharpened. Chapter 157 Parting Gift "I heard that your name was Loimos, not bad, I believe it is a word straight out of the two tongues the system enjoys so very much, yet, you seem to hold your strength yourself, I can sense great natural talent from you, and you are an undead as well, truly, you have everything to seed in every area" Lady Syklon spoke, taking off the excess clothing, revealing a suit not so dissimr than that the undead himself was wearing, or rather, had been wearing, it looked nothing like it used to at this point. "So why are you so weak?" she unsheathed her de, one of the two des she was in possession of, Ohrn stepped back and watched in awe. Loimos raised one hand in the air, the subtle sound of crackinging from him, gathering the death force hanging in the air, turning the myriad of dead bodies, whether they were intact of nothing more than mush didn''t matter, they were all converted into primeval rot, gathering above his lifted palm, being infused with a constant stream of death. The orb of rot rose up in the air and stood still, Loimos stepped toward the littledy, stillpletely unbothered even as he arrived less than a meter in front of her, she simply watched him and did not interfere, surely,ing worth witnessing woulde out of this.N?v(el)B\\jnn He shed at her with his bone ws, his strike effortlessly deflected, without him even being able of seeing the motion, the clothes wrapped around his face came undone, trying to bite down on her skull, only for his teeth to end up vanishing, not even feeling any sort of attack. Unleashing every single trick he had the capacity of pulling off, ws of bonesing from his knuckles, wsing from his fingertips, using rot to extend his limbs,pressed blood bullet, blood waves, the blood swamp, screens of miasma, rot explosions to propel and attack, manifesting spikes of bones to fight with, conjuring up creations of rots, be it rats, hounds or birds, even a bone tail a one point, trying to blind Lady Syklon with the deep light from the dept of his eye sockets, absolutely nothing could even make her move, all reduced to nothingness by impossibly fast and precise attacks. "Are you not the same one that cleared up my office back then? Howe you are not even using a single battle art? And what are you nning to do with that filthy, floating orb over there? A big explosion? Do you really think that would work?" "I stand at the top, the undeniable master of battle arts, only a few people can im to be on my level, so please, try a bit harder" she taunted him, to no effect, though she did kick a stray sword toward him. "Come on, use an art" Lady Syklon urged him, trying to see something worth her while before dealing the final blow. Loimos denied her, ignoring the sword she willfully granted to him, instead grabbing his own skull, ripping it off from his body. The undead wasn''t much of an art user just yet, but he had earned a greater understanding of a few concepts from his trips to Weafewand, conditions and the likes had be a big part of his kit, he had learned to abuse the functionment using his advantages as an undead, the merging of spirit creation and golemcraft had alsoe a long way already, he had learned to manifest three rot creations so far, that, without having to rely on a condition or rule for it to work out in the first ce. He had learned about many more things as well, but only those few aspects were truly worth mentioning, as such, he employed multiple conditions at once, as well as a sacrifice. The first condition had already been fulfilled, which was tost a certain amount of time against Lady Syklon, something that should be impossible, but seeing her behaviour, he was able to tell that the little woman would want to y around rather than immediately dispose of him. The second one, was currently taking ce, removing his skull from the rest of his, so at a specific timing and speed, such level of precision simple for an undead, but overall, it was technically an impressive feat. The third one, was to speak aloud, clearly making it clear what would ur next, going around this by speaking in the death tongue, anguage that was greatly in tune with incantations, however, this was no incantation, only a simple sentence made long and slow to make the condition more potent. "With myself here as sacrifice, I summon an image of a friend, a shade that will do as it pleases" Shades were the projection of a being, called apparitions in the wild, shades needed one to be familiar with the person, the being, and to either have their approval for it, or to simply be greatly in tune with them. As undeads, both of thetter conditions were met at once, as for the first, it went without question. "I summon Faraday, yer Of A God" The summoning of a shade was linked to spirit creation, albeit only lightly, Loimos had still read of it, already knowing from the very moment he learned of it that it was something essible to him, in the future at least. That was the greatest boon of conditions and the likes, to transcend one''s limits at a certain cost, here, to make sure that it worked out, Loimos gathered a great amount of primeval rot, death force and offered himself as well. Had Loimos not been devoid of emotions, he would have certainly smiled at his devious ploy, knowing full well that the cost he had to pay did not truly exist, but that he was going to get what he demanded as though he truly was. Just like this, the undead and the rot dissipated as a dark, translucent shape appeared in his spot, unaffected by the wind and the environment, the shade of Faraday had no mind of its own, not in the truest of senses, it was simply driven by the undead''s natural instincts, which was to destroy all that lived. "What disrespect" Lady Syklon spat, staring up at the sky, some of the putrefied birds still circling in the sky. "I don''t even know who that guy is" she shook her head, there was nothing to be interested about any longer. So she ended the confrontation. Chapter 158 Preparation "Alright ss, you have made some good progress, no one isgging behind, not too much at least, there is still much theory for us to go over- Do not sigh- But from now on, we will mostly be working on live practice" Rosemary was pacing the ssroom was per usual, the sound of soft, cold wind blowing into the room had ceased. "Summer has finallye to pass, no longer will you all fall to the ground and risk dying from dehydration within a few minutes of outside exercise, you guys are going to love the actual physical training I prepared, but first, let''s go into the woods" she pped her hands, beckoning them to follow after her. Their teacher seemed happier than usual, that was not a good sign. "Are we gonna have to fight monsters out of the blue?" Milo scratched the side of his head, he had grown a whole head taller since his departure from the city, he had grown much bulkier as well, he had always been strong on ount of working on a farm for the greater majority of his life, but he had not had proper nutrition and physical training. It was something to be proud of, his magical studies were going rather well, academics were not his forte, but thankfully, he had Helena backing him up in that department, otherwise he would have drowned in all of the work that needed to be done. Speaking of that girl, Milo had never asked how old she was, but he had always assumed that she was a bit older than him and had finished her growth, how wrong he had been, she was still taller than him. She had never been delicate, but Helena had also gained an atrocious amount of bulk, David had not been that big of a man, making Milo believe that the old man had actually gotten with an orc or barbarian woman. ''May the gods bless your soul David'' he thanked his foster father, ignoring the slight ache he felt when thinking back on what had happened, but he had to focus on the present. "I don''t think so, Miss Rosemary wouldn''t throw us into such a situation without preparation, I hope" Helena responded, not quite certain about their teacher. Rosemary appeared reasonable on the surface, but that magedy was definitely a bit off in the head sometimes, but rarely when doing her teaching duties, it was only when they crossed her path outside of ss hours that she was busy with the most convoluted, nonsensical, and definitely dangerous of researches, if one could even call them that. Stepping outside the academy, Rosemary went and fetched her other ss, the twelve talent holders as they were called, as the strongest and best mage of the academy, as well as the continent actually, their red-haired instructor was of course put in charge of the best of the best as well. It wasn''t the first time she had decided to teach both sses at once, for people with such high titles and talent, they weren''t nearly as pompous as one could expect, whether it was their character or Rosemary''s harsh ways, was unknown. Amidst them, there really was only one that actually appeared to be a noble, Antieeld, with fiery dark red hair, not quite the same colour as their teachers, but it was weird that two people with the same peculiar hair colours could be found in close proximity. Milo honestly did not remember any of their names, he only remembered that many of them started with a M, he actually remembered the name of the extra person always found with the twelve. "Oh hey, when did you get an additional bodyguard Antieeld?" one of Milo''s ssmates, the one that Rosemary had grown to prefer picking for demonstrations. "Ah, he just got there, he had been on a little errand until today" she responded, her golden eyes turning to her two followers.N?v(el)B\\jnn One of them was the knight whose helm opening was reminiscent of iron bars, Gelter, always garbed in nothing but te armour and carrying around a longsword, he was a man of few words when it wasn''t hisdy that he was conversing with. The second one, who had presumably arrived earlier today, was wearing long, flowing robes, his hands behind his back, he had a very singr presence, a round brooch on the left side on his chest and wearing an iron mask whose mouth was melted shut. "That is Osworth, don''t try to speak to him too much, he took a vow of silence" Antieeld introduced him, putting one hand on the tall man''s shoulder, he didn''t even react in any way to anything that was happening. "Oh well, I am Griar, nice to meet you" their ssmate extended a hand toward the man, who only then reacted and shook it. "Attention ss!" everyone straightened up like soldiers. "I know that many of you are nning on using my teachings to either secure their position in their household or make a name for themselves, few are willing to delve into bing schrs, not any actually¡­" she shook her head in disapproval. "So, since most of you will be using magic for violence and renown, we will be doing some outside training for the next few months, then finally, if the problem hasn''t been resolved since then, I will apany you guys on a little field trip to find out who, or what, has been copsing the many mines of this country, as you know, Tamaris exports a lot of goods that are mined here, salt, magic crystals, precious ores and minerals et cetera" she began exining, her two hands joined together and her brows furrowed. "However, said mines, at least in the biggest area where the mines are, have been copsing in thest few months, repeatedly, and by the use of earth magic, if the culprit isn''t found out by the end of our special training, then I will have you investigate and the mines in groups as a test, depending on what you can discover from the residuals and such, you will receive an ording grade" "Understood? Great! Now go into the woods ande back with the necessary ingredient to brew a potion of minor pain relief" She shooed them off into the nearby woods, which were absolutely non-threatening, except if you slipped and hit your head on a rock. Chapter 159 Impressive Smoothness The students did as was instructed without inquiring for any further information, the two bodyguards remained where they stood, it wouldn''t be a good training with outside help, leaving the two men with Rosemary. "Are you really certain about this miss? I have heard that the culprits behind the mine copses were Defiler''s Of The Holy, or Ironic Puppeteers, I can not permit mydy to risk encountering such vulgar individuals" Gelter spoke his mind nearly as soon as the young generation disappeared from sight. "Bollocks, there are no proofs of that, and neither of them have ever shown the intent on crippling the economy, no, this must be the work of those neers, Aliz¨¦, or just an unknown party, it does not matter anyways, I''ll be with them the whole time, do you think any of them can touch a single of their air in my presence?" Rosemary casually asked, walking over to Osworth. She looked him up and down, having already noticed for a long time that he was wearing multiple items concealing various aspects of his being, giving the impression that he was just a prop to the untrained eye, of course, the teacher knew better. "I have heard that you were renowned as the strongest mage of the entire continent, I can trust you with Antieeld''s safety, but may I enquire, have you reached the level to form a zone?" the supposedly soft-spoken bodyguard gently grabbed the backside of her hand, as though he was going to read fate in the palm of her hand. "Rosemary, The Volcano Witch is many times more famous than Rosemary, Teacher Of Toordefer Academy" he added, his tone tranquil and deliberate, almost charming despite being somewhat muffled by the odd mask. "Oh? Hum¡­ Heh heh, well yes of course, I have mastered both zone and transcend, I can utilise them in more than one way as well!" Gelter shuffled ufortably, cing both hands on the hilt of his sword, staring into the woods rather than the conversation taking ce next to him. "Then, it would be foolish not to put our trust in your capacities, not to mention, we will apany thedy everywhere unless ordered otherwise, but on another note, I have always been curious about those of great achievement such as yourself, the rumours did not paint you nearly as beautiful as the truth" very smoothly, all the while still holding onto her hand, Osworth continued topliment Rosemary. His fellow bodyguard would be lying if he said that he wasn''t impressed, Osworth hadn''t even been told to get into the mage''s good graces, well, he understoodpletely, Rosemary was a beautiful young woman that had already achieved more than most would in their entire lifespan. If that wasn''t attractive, then nothing was. The knight ignored the fact that his colleague was openly flirting for the remainder of the time, standing perfectly still, if he did not move, it would be like he was not, and had never even been there. "I know for a fact that you have mastered the pure maniption of mana, but having heard much from Antieeld about you, it seems unlikely that any category is unknown to you" he ttered her once more, pulling out a book from his oversized sleeve as though it was the most natural thing in the world. "Being a mediocre mage myself, I have been attempting to learn more about incantations and the arts, unfortunately, information is scarce" "Incantations and magical arts are viewed as lesser and subpar by the majority of themunity, sorcerers are too deep inside of their own rectums to begin considering certain practices as more than party tricks, the arts are only seriously practised in Tochi, and all rte to swordsmanship and sometimes other weapons, they have no knowledge of magical arts, although, perhaps the midget would know some¡­" Rosemary shook her head and moved next to Osworth, taking a peek at the book he was holding. "Oh, don''t bother with this one, it''s outdated, and there aren''t even any incantations that can be used in it, how about we meet up tonight, after the sses, we can talk, and such" The rubbing of iron sounded out as even Gelter couldn''t help but turn his head, that was incredibly fast, he just got here, barely ten minutes had passed since the students were gone. "Aherm, I mentioned the defiler''s earlier, do you intend on teaching your students about the heretical and forbidden knowledge, I mean, not teach them said things, simply inform them" the knight felt like he should step into the conversation. The topic swiftly shifted after a slight pause on Rosemary''s part.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "My apologies, had to burn a boar to a crisp, some of the students are still too fearful to attack living beings, which is why it is best to prepare them the best as it is possible in our power, so yes, we will go over them at one point, by the way, I believe you are in possession of a battle art, perhaps you could demonstrate to the students one time, Antieeld certainly knows it already, but the rest have probably ever heard about those from me" The knight nodded, noticing multiple groups of students alreadying back from their little expedition, their instructor stepped forward, analysing the group they had decided to form before checking for the ingredients. "Good, good, good, that is poison, in what world do you live in? That mushroom is bright red and has growths that look like mould, not to mention their are no mushrooms in the recipe to begin with" throughout the next hour or so, every single one of them came back, the forest was ratherrge, but free of any danger, especially so when Rosemary was looking over them and ready to burn anything into non-existence. Only a few groups hadpletely failed by bringing harmful ingredients into the mix, some had brought too many, but not any that would have made the subsequent potion a hazard, others had forgotten a few ingredients, the majority did perfectly however. One thing became clear out of this, under her watchful eyes, many had searched the forest without paying attention to their surroundings, they weren''t alert enough, and that needed to change. Chapter 160 Library Talk "To tell you the truth, I had been sent on a little trip by Antieeld, as a talent holder specialising inmanding troops and others, she wished her to get a better grasp of the various bastion of powers, and their ways, unfortunately, the obligation and opportunity of studying at the academy under your tutge is not something that can be postponed or wasted in any capacity, I was thus sent in her stead, to travel the continent" Osworth exined, both him and Rosemary by themselves in the academy''s huge library, normally locked at thiste hour, however, the volcanic mage had permission to go wherever she wished. Both contrasted quite heavily, walking side by side, everything about Rosemary was red except for her skin and sclera, meanwhile, her new friend was dressed in ample dark robes and a mask, not even an ounce of his body could be made out, his steps were oddly silent at all times, he smelled of nothing and was wearing a variety of trinkets and items to conceal every aspect of his being. Clearly, Osworth was not the same sort of bodyguard as Gelter was, he was no knight, more of a shadow to Antieeld, making one wonder if he had truly returned this day, or if he had only revealed himself, having beenying in wait and analysing everyone that came close to hisdy, onlying out of hiding when deeming no one a threat. But no, he had entered the academy like everyone else should, through the front gates and by showing an emblem of Antieeld, although that could be part of the ruse as well, though, Rosemary doubted that he could have evaded both her senses and that of the headmaster. "It must have been a bit more than a little trip then, I have heard unwanted presences say that even solely Viridis was muchrger than their former worlds had been in its entirety" Osworth brought one hand up to his chest and emitted a light chuckle, or something simr to one. "Well, perhaps I am minimising my adventure, but it was not a problem for me, I simply wanted to bring this up for I have came across things that do not seem to have reached this country, if any" he revealed, stopping as they both stood on the middle of an immense alley, bookshelves reaching much too high to be practical.N?v(el)B\\jnn "Firstly, mydy wished for me to meet with a certain Lady Syklon, said to be the uncontested master of battle arts, I was a bitte however, I only encountered ruins and nothing else, so instead, I headed to the royal pce, where many great users of the arts would surely be gathered, but they had all been yed, Tochi is, as far as I am aware, without a ruler" The discreet man said this first piece of information without much grandeur, like it was nothing worth mulling over, which was actually true, Tochi was much too far from Tamaris, and the king would neverunch a conquest, he was pretty much an ally of everyone, and without actual rulers, initiatingmunications would be a foolish affair. Neither of them were diplomats or any sort of government officials however. "That was a surprise to be sure, so I felt like sharing it first would be most appropriate, what I meant to inform you about was concerning the mines copses, you see, amidst all my stops and travels, I was not able of suppressing the feeling of curiosity, Antieeld did not care for whatever backgrounds anyone had as long as she deemed them within her reach to subjugate to her will" Osworth was a man of few movements, people usually made many movements and shifted around when speaking, themandant''s shadow however, rarely moved outside for the means of walking, and the asional hand grabbing. Now however, he took a slight step forward, leaned and tilted his head to the side, a bit too close for generalfort but his interlocutor did not mind, raising an eyebrow and perking her ear up for what he was going to say next. "I am keenly aware of where the culprit hides in between his acts of demolition, as well as his deeper schemes, dark ploys that could send shivers down even the two high-knights of his majesty, I am certain" his voice sounded, a bit more lively and seductive, perhaps it was just the mage''s imagination. "Gelter would never agree for Antieeld to venture anywhere close to the mines, however, I believe it will be a grand, masterful learning experience, especially with your presence, Rosemary" He reverted back to his usual, neutral pose. "This is all a conspiracy of a high order, Aliz¨¦, Defiler''s, Puppeteers, they are in cahoots, it is difficult to guess who is the head, and what they truly expect toe out, since they are all mad beyond belief, the machine is well-oiled however" "I can see that you wish for the best for all of your students, allowing them have controlled encounters with all of those forces, as well as sharing into the act of uncovering fangs aimed at the neck of the royalty, they will be able of earning good graces and renown without actually putting themselves into true dangers" Rosemary closed her eyes and rubbed the back of her neck, her new friend was right, Osworth seemed to purely see this from an objective point of view, he was quite in contrast to his knightly colleague, Gelter would immediately imagine the worst case scenario, how a single moment of inattention could be fatal, after all, a defiler''s attacks were not forgiving, wielding the Defiler''s me, they imed that it was the birth of this fire that had sent the gods into hiding, and many agreed. Osworth seemed awfully confident in Rosemary''s abilities, hearing tales and rumours was one thing, but he had never seen her in action, it had been a long while since anything had brought the might of an eruption out of her. "You said that you only found ruins, but you certainly still attempted to meet with Syklon, was it her that made you so certain of my capacities?" "You are somehow just as sharp as you are beautiful, indeed, Storm Of de spoke highly of you" Chapter 161 Spar The change in season had been incredibly fast, the twin suns quickly joined together once more, melding into a single mass as though nothing had ever happened, the breeze turned colder, refreshing after such long months of torturous heat. The leaves swiftly changed colours, creating a new canopy, a colourful expanse for many gazes to wander to, the length of the days shortened a great deal nearly instantly, this change in weather led to many more students doing some exercises outside, for others, nothing changed as the temperature never bothered them anyways. Today was a harsh day still for the students however, they were learning basic survival tactics, all the while not allowed to utilise their magic or special abilities, one would not always have mana at their disposal and such, so it was important to be able to do something with their own two hands. Right now, they needed to make and light a small campfire, it was going well, no one had hurt themselves yet. "They have grown significantly more capable in the few months you have taught them, I wasn''t a fan of your harshness at first, and I really am still not one, but the results speaks for themselves, mydy had never really gotten herself dirty beforeing here" Gelter spoke, standing beside Rosemary, his colleague seemingly bing one with nature as birds were perching up onto him. "It''s for the best, amandant needs to have skills to back up their position after all" Rosemary pped her hands, everyone had performed as was expected of them, no one had tore a hole through their hands or immted themselves, that was better than usual. With a flick of her hand, she erected a small tform of solid stone, dark in colour and perfectly t surfaces, both of her sses gathered in front of her. "That''s right, you have done a good job, and as such, we will be doing some light sparring, I know that you all prefer using your abilities like this, a bunch of brutes you are" she joked, walking over to the bodyguards. "But you will all be facing either of those two gentlemen instead of your peers, I''ll remind you all that this is still academy ground, the building is like, twenty meters, you can all see it, so don''t just use attacks of a big scale, part of the assignment is to show some restrain and not just splurges your mana everywhere" The birds perched on Osworth flew away, Gelter shaking his head, the knight had only agreed to show off his battle art in the first ce, but his flirtatious peer had gotten the both of them into this, he always had a hard time understanding what this masked fool was thinking in that head of his. He barely conversed with his own colleague and lord, but would go into passionate conversations with the volcanic witch, truly, only mystery hid behind that mask. "You may choose who you want to face inbat, Gelter, a knight, or Osworth, whose proficiency you surely all have little clue about, except for Antieeld, as theirdy, you will be having the honour of sparring with me" Rosemary smiled at the unfortunate girl. Griar stepped forward first, finding it less stressful to go first, also eager to challenge a true knight, he had only ever had spars with one other knight, which was his very own father, it went without saying that those little training sessions weren''t very serious, his progenitor would go easy on his only son every single time. Gelter''s sword was a rather long one, definitely more so than the typical de of this sword, his armour was with few gaps, each of them still protected by chainmail and gambeson, he wielded this sword in one hand, keeping hold of his scabbard in the other. ''Oh, he is left-handed?'' the young man immediately noticed it, most swordsmen of a high-calibre would learn to use weapons with both of their hands, being assigned as a bodyguard of one of the twelve talent holders, it would be idiotic to consider the alternative. Still, it was only natural for one to begin a fight using their most habile limb, this was a bit problematic, the blond boy wasn''t certain how to properly approach this. He utilised his magic, circting mana throughout his body and sabre, transmuting it into his umon element, sword, just sword. Although allowing for the creation of great armament of pure magic, and the conjuration of great projectiles even with his basic mastery as a mage, he only used the potent reinforcement it allowed him to bestow upon his weapon. Wishing to use this opportunity to learn as much as he could about the de, he used the most power he could unleash right off the bat, he could not allow himself to get knocked on his ass within the first few seconds. Gelter wasn''t much of a mage at all, his talent was too poor to even bother learning energy reinforcement, but it wasn''t necessary, thrusting his de straight into the ground, a purplish energy flickered into existence for brief instant. The effect of the knight''s action was to sweep the young noble off his feet and pull him forward. Griar was taken aback but did not panic, lowering his body to avoid getting hit in the face by the sheath, swinging his sword at one of the few gaps, right at the bodyguard''s armpit, despite having his speed and power enhanced, the student''s attempt was not slick in the least, his attack dodged with ease. The scabbard thrown directly at his stomach, freeing the knight''s hand to then switch his hold onto his weapon to half-swording, the pommel smashing into the youthful face, knocking him out instantly. "My bad, you alright kid?" he got no response. Rosemary pointed her finger at the unfortunate Griar, shrouding him in a soft me that healed in minor injuries, and woke him up.N?v(el)B\\jnn "Who wants to go next?" she casually asked as Gelter helped the dizzy young man off the tform. No one wanted to get beaten down next. Chapter 162 Talents Although for the regr students of the academy, learning some fighting skills was rather important, they hade to improve their worth after all, however, for the talent holders, their worth was already at an all-time high, and their talent did not always rte to swinging weapons or flinging spells. There was a bloody trumpeter amidst them after all, though, despite having the most innocuous of talents, he was still a part of the twelve, mostly because he could use his music to inspire, enhance and help others in general, making him rather precious as part of an army, the only limit to his capabilities was the number of people that could hear him y. Noticing that people were a bit reluctant after Griar was brutally taken down, he stepped up, but challenging Osworth instead, the robed man seemed less inclined to violence after all, with his incrediblyposed behaviour and posture at all times, with the amount of concealing items and such, it was a bit difficult to guess what his proficiencies were. Being part of a duo, many were under the assumption that he was more inclined towards magic, or something of that nature, once the fighting began, the bodyguard dodged a simple spell thrown his way like he was dodging a leaf carried by the wind, and ran up to the talent holder. Looking like he was floating, he moved behind the boy and grabbed him, executing a perfect supplex. "Ansonio, avoid making guesses about your opponent''s specialties too early on" Rosemary told him, despite appearances, Osworth hadn''t broken his skull with that beautiful grappling, he had stopped his momentum just before the youth''s head impacted the ground. After this, most of the regr students and nonbat oriented talent holders decided to challenge the robed man instead of his armouredpatriot, one was clearly much gentler than the other. It mostly went the same as for Ansonio, disying various grabs, grapples and throws to the other students. Liebeln, with a talent for architecture, was demolished with a chokehold.N?v(el)B\\jnn Marl, talented cleric had many miracles in his arsenal, all imbued with a trace of life for he was of the church of Phanes, he had not learned much hand-to-handbat however, and saw himself pped straight to the floor, falling t like a pancake throw from the clouds, the poor young man unable to even do anything. Osworth had taken him down faster than the previous two. Equally ruthless to everyone, he subdued Minli, a very small girl with a talent rting to healing and medicine, by grabbing her by cor and lifting her off the ground, exactly like one would do for a rowdy kitten. Next came Sp, incredibly talented in alchemy, she tried to throw a potion at him, the robed bodyguard simply catching it, one needed to mention that the young girl threw with even less strength than expected, here was one who did not do well in Rosemary''s physical exercises. He just calmly walked her out of the arena. Thest two talent holder''s that challenged him were a bit more fit physically than the rest, the first was a tomboyish girl with many freckles on her face, Mamiel, with a talent for taming beasts, she also happened to have the temperament of one. Osworth had to restrainpletely before she gave up, giving him puppy eyes, that tactic was wholly ineffective. Andstly, a bear of a man, he was the same age as everyone else, but was also a bear beastman, he did not only have the ears and tail, but also the stature, but it was all put toward his own specialty, smithing, so despite being very strong physically, Poho was defeated by being pushed to the ground and rolled off the arena. "Well, I am a bit disappointed kids, none of you have managed to put up any good performances yet, despite Osworth being very nice to you all, allowing the first strike, guess I''ll have to increase the difficulty of the next sses" their teacher smiled, asking for the next person to move forward. By this point, most of the regr students had already tried their chances with the masked bodyguard, leaving the fight uninjured physically, but wounded emotionally, feeling like they had been treated as mannequins for him to test his moves on. "I want to challenge Gelter!" someone said, prompting Osworth to get off the tform, shaking his colleague awake. Despite seeing the proficiency of theposed bodyguard, thebat-oriented talent holders still wished to test themselves against the knight, a groan escaped the barred helm as he went into position, facing off against a girl with messy hair, holding onto a regr looking sword like it was her life. "I am Hoffnu, talent holder in swordsmanship, thanks for the spar!" she greeted him energetically, Gelter just nodded off to the side. "Thank those two" Without any further pleasantries, he thrusted his de into the ground once again, activating the gravitational pull once again, the sole battle art the knight had ever had the chance of learning, it did not possess the capability to be adjusted, and Gelter himself wasn''t talented enough with the art to make changes as he wished, so the art''s full power always showed when used. It swept Hoffnu off the ground and pulled her in, getting his sword back, the knight cancelled the pull, swinging the sheath as her chin, the item moving much faster than when he had faced Griar, still, the swordswoman managed to deflect the attack, kicking at Gelter''s crotch. "Oi" the knight coudn''t help but say something, there had been no hesitation, either this was a rather nasty habit, aiming under the belt, or she had thought of this n before stepping onto the tform, eitherways, the knight found it fucked up to resort to such tactics right off the bat, in a friendly spar no less. He dropped his scabbard, grabbing her ankle, before bonking the girl over the head with the t side of his sword, multiple times. "You are too young to be touching that" Chapter 163 Hidden Blade After Hoffnu''s attempt at a swift victory by utilising Gelter''s anatomy to her advantage, the other talent holders swiftly followed, none of them did much better than her however. Molc, who could already shoot his crossbow from great distances, did not stand much of a chance in a restrained environment. "That''s why you need to focus on learning some earth magic, then, you''ll be able to create covers and prevent enemies from getting up-close" nothing better than allowing your students to get beat up to force them to realise that you are speaking in thenguage of facts and logic. After the crossbowman, came the shieldwoman, Menhirel who was rumoured to have something to do with the famed Shiedmaster, not only because of both their affinity to carry nothing but a shield around, it was also due to the fact that she was a bit sick in the head, sometimes. After all, what was the most distinct characteristic of Tamaris''swful living barricade? It was not his gigantic size, it was not his impressive might, nor was it his odd voice, what everyone that had ever met him remembered was just how disturbing he was to be around for more than a minute. Seeing how Menhirel''s face scrunched up into a terrific smile the moment she enteredbat, it was hard to deny the simrities, Rosemary knew very well that this was not the case however, being familiar enough with the lunatic himself to know that he only interacted with women to hit them with his shield or if ordered to. In any case, despite her impressive defences and willingness to learn mana reinforcement, she was defeated just like the others, even with their talents making them much stronger than they would otherwise be, they were still just a bunch of younglings, they could notpare to the years worth of strength and experience Gelter had umted. Thest to try his chance was Merno, Rosemary quite liked him, for his talent lied in magic, and he had a great affinity for all four of the basic elements. ''Just like that unwanted, now that I think about it'' Now, unfortunately, Merno was not very good at physical stuff, the knight threw his scabbard right at the mage''s chest, ending the fight before he could cast any spell, any close-quarterbatant ought to know that to deal with a mage, one should beat the crap out of them with excessive speed and force. "Alright, only three of you are left, Milo, who do you want to test yourself against?" she looked over at him and Helena, those two always stuck together like snails sharing a single shell, it was cute seeing young love, Rosemary had to admit it. "I''ll face¡­ Osworth!" he eximed, meeting the gaze of the masked bodyguard, or so it seemed, no one could be certain whether the eye holes on this thing were where his actual eyes could be found. Milo did not carry any weapon, only his fists, the same seemed true for his opponent, who was standing with his hands behind his back as he stepped up onto the tform, then taking up a fighting stance, some sort of chimeric creation that seemed to have been created by grafting many styles onto a single one. Milo could not tell as much himself, as he did before, Osworth allowed the student to make the first move, standing his ground until then, the youth''s own posture and movements were reminiscent of that of a boxer, he aimed a left hook at the side of the bodyguard''s ribcage, on the side were his defence appeared weaker. Severely enhancing his punch, it was both fast and destructive, glowing with a faint golden light, it brushed up close to the man''s robe but ultimately missed, Osworth spun around Milo, grabbing the center of his shirt as leverage, letting go and crouching down when the young man attempted to strike him with an elbow strike. Grabbing the student''s arm, Osworth threw him over his shoulder, pinning him to the ground, but was quick to roll away once he noticed that Milo was conjuring up a mana bullet with his chest as the origin point, leaving a big hole right in the middle of his shirt. Milo jumped up to his feet, but the fight was already over, the de of a dagger just twitching away from pressing against his throat. ''Where did he pull that out from?'' as if hearing his thoughts, Osworth gracefully stepped back, the curved de spun into a reverse grip and swiftly hid it in his sleeve. "Not bad" Rosemary nodded in approval, that was good performance considering that he waspletely outmatched to begin with, though, she had not realised that Osworth was so strong physically, although items could conceal a lot, she was certain that he could not have concealed any sort of energy reinforcement, meaning that he was naturally powerful enough to easily overpower Milo when augmenting his body. The young man had very good output and speed on top of a very good physique, so this was rather unexpected. The bodyguard helped Milo up, just in time for Helena to also challenge Osworth, deeming him the most interesting option of the two, she was fairly certain that Gelter would simply be able to power through her spells and strike her down like he had with Merno. Focusing deeply on the opponent as Milo passed by and encouraged her, sensing something odd about him. She was unable of sensing his mana, or any other energy, meaning that it was something else that gave her that weird vibe, narrowing her eyes intently, incapable of figuring it out, so instead, she used the fact that he gave her time to do anything she wanted to prepare a powerful spell. Rosemary nodded along. ''As expected of my best student'' a sigil manifested beneath Osworth''s feet, conjuring a raging tornado around him, wind shes already flying through the air, the impressive disy of outer maniption and general magic prowess was cut short as the bodyguard retrieved the same dagger as before, parrying the shes as they came toward him, even those that Helena had hidden by making thempletely invisible. There were more than two types of wind shes, each with different parameters, making some much easier to detect, but Osworth seemed to see all of them with the same ease, blocking the potent attacks without showing any sort of strain. Throwing the dagger through the tornado, it was not stopped by the raging winds and closed in on her face, before suddenly disappearing. By then, he had already arrived right in front of her.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "You and that boy make for a good pair" hemented, turning to Rosemary. "Time for you to show your prowesses" he held out his hand, offering to help her up on the tform, she absolutely didn''t need any assistance but she epted without thinking. "I see that my bodyguard has found-" Antieeld tried to say something witty. "Shush, I can easily burn away specific things" her teacher threatened with a bright smile. "Oof¡­" Chapter 164 Lonely Old Man Wood creaked, the day of learning had ended hours ago, each and all students had lost without being able to fight back much, the headmaster had observed everything from his window, despite the sorry performances, the old fossil felt rather pleased with the results, after all, it was not like they had stood a chance even with twice the strength and experience. Stroking his beard that reached all the way to the floor, he put on sses, an act that was of no longer use, that hadn''t been any useful ever since his youth, but the habit had stuck, whenever he wished to inspect something more profoundly, he would do it, and this time, he focused on a few people. Standing in his office, hidden behind the window that allowed those on the inside to gaze out, but not the opposite, here, he was all alone, and had been for years, rarely any visitors came to him, it had been long since he had ever invited anyone in, his rtionships with everyone he knew had deteriorated, particrly because of what he was currently doing. The entire academy grounds were under his refined surveince, whenever he felt like something was off, that somewhere, there was wrong festering, he would begin examining each and every person within the building, except of course for Rosemary, the witch would notice his gaze ande to kick his feeble butt. Not that he disliked it, but the broken bones and burns were a hassle to mend, he chuckled to himself, in all of his years as headmaster of Toordefer, never had the discovery of something truly insidious urred through his astute watching of even the tiniest corners, of every second what was going on inside rooms, he was well aware that it was not proper to peek inside of there, but it was not like he enjoyed peeking on people with such poor magic capacities. His depraved attention was only reserved for the best mages, but that was of no importance at the moment, the person that worried him wouldn''t even be enticing even if possessing the best magical skills this world had to offer, because Osworth was a man. The masked man was suspicious, there was no way around it, an unknown man enters the capital, and then the academy, d in long, ample flowing robes, his bodypletely concealed, an iron mask tightly secured on his face, the design of which had never graced the headmaster''s mind, despite being in possession of an emblem of one of the talent holders, and hanging around her and Gelter without being called out, the decrepit mage could not ignore the feeling in his withered guts. "What is your problem¡­ What do you want with this academy?" "Little Antieeld is very smart, an intelligent young woman, but she is still just a child at heart, believing that her talent is more powerful than it truly is, you conniving bastard surely is feinting allegiance¡­ But to what end? To what end indeed¡­" he muttered aloud in the tranquillity of his office, no sound could escape from inside of here. He found it particrly rxing and insightful to speak aloud when inside of here. He quickly found the position of Osworth, scouring the library as always, this man did nothing but read and incessantly flirt with the volcano witch, the headmaster could not wrap his head around the why that the ironically frigid mage would be so smitten by this outrageously fishy individual. The robed man was rarely sleeping, and when he did, he did not take off anything, simplyying there, as though he had been paralysed. The headmaster had observed him for a little while now, noticing weird behaviours but nothing that could be held against him, he was weird, but not criminal. "This fucker does not even oggle anyone, he keeps sticking to Rosemary but does not show any attraction to her body, that''s not how this works¡­ Maybe it''s just me" he scratched his forehead, watching intently as the subject of his attention read through two books simultaneously. The elder did not like him very much, but he had to admit that his skills were impressive, even if he hadn''t shown any magical talent yet, the headmaster could only approve of his thirst for knowledge.N?v(el)B\\jnn After all, knowledge was the only yearning above that of fleshy pleasures. "Ah, is he trying to get close to her to get her to spill some of her stacked up discoveries and knowledge? Nice try, but she won''t say anything inside of the academy" he felt like he cracked the case, but did not immediately assume that it was the only reason for his presence. He turned his attention to Gelter, the knight was an actual follower of Antieeld, the headmaster was certain, but perhaps the mystery of Osworth could be cracked by taking a look at his colleague. But it was no use, this man did nothing but guard hisdy at all times, impossible to tell whether he was slumbering whilst standing or actually awake, he pretty much stood in front of her room, blocking the way with his own body all night. "Both of them are oddballs" he shook his head, refraining himself from peeking inside of the room, he had to stay focused. Turning back to Osworth, the headmaster jumped back for a moment, finding his suspicious guest to be staring right at him, or so it seemed, the masked man''s head continued on turning without pause, reaching for a new book higher on the shelf. "Mmh" As an ancient man, the headmaster knew very well of each and every factions that stood in opposition to the crown in some capacity, they were small, minor aches that could be ignored for the most part, but this guy was really starting to unnerve him, the more he observed Osworth, the more his presence felt sordid, like each movement he made was going to be aggressive, as though this man was going to one day turn directly toward his invisible gaze and speak up. "Fuck this, if I can''t find out anything, I''ll just get rid of you" Chapter 165 Not Lonely Old Man A faint sigh escaped an old man''s lips as he slipped into bed, despite his more than advanced age, Agilulf Wanneck was not even close to appearing like a crumbling geezer, his white hair were resplendent, slightly wavy, his beard perfectly trimmed at all times, though he did not sport any moustache, this was his signature look. The refined appearance he was known for, the merchant king that did not hesitate to meet within the heart of others territories, and did not shy away from interacting with various other species, even if some of them were hard tomunicate with, any business partner was his best friend. His generousness with those that treated him as an ally would most be seen in his interactions in Tochi, where he had not only stricken a deviously good deal with the royalty, the famed Lady Syklon herself, and even multiple Derelictus-Mens queens, indeed, he was to me for gifting scrumptious staves as well as teaching them the basics of magic, which the monsters had greatly improved upon on their own. Not everybody liked him for his money schemes, but they had to admit that his deals were the best, and by far, some called him Roitelet as a mockery, they were stilling to him for trades however, that told enough. His still toned body was eced by a pretty demon woman with light green skin, one of his many mistresses, that was another advantage of being on good terms with everyone, he had many partners, though, he had yet to take a queen and have sessors. For someone such as him, it wasn''t an urgency however, he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer, still looking intently at some official papers, even in bed, his job was not done for the day. "You seem a bit odd today, is everything alright?" his demonic mistress resting her head on his chest, putting down the piece of paper, he stroked her hair, a bit in thought. "Nothing of importance, the unwanted presences are progressing at a steady rate, our preparations for Audit''s vision are progressing well too, it''s just those mine copses, the loss in profit is miniscule, negligible, but it does not feel right to allow someone to do as they wish" truthfully, even the tiniest amount of loss was rough in his heart, but his mind knew better than that, he could not police each of his businesses perfectly at all times, there was always a chance of things going wrong. And it was a good asion to use the manpower that usually worked there, putting them to work elsewhere, to revitalise regions that had grown poorer in thest years, with some luck, new deposits of resources would be discovered. That thought eased his worries a great deal, also the fact that he had a beauty next to him, but the prospect of money always wins the game. Even with multiple mistresses, it wasn''t even a contest. After a bit more reading and quality time, the king fell asleep, the soft breathing of his bedpanion washing over his neck, until he awoke, only a few hours had passed, it was the middle of the night. He was hearing footsteps somewhere close-by, as the ruler of this pce, Agilulf Wanneck''s bedroom was beyond oversized, resting in the center of the castle, he had ess to pretty much every room through both simple doors and secret passages. Listening intently, he was able to pinpoint the location of this person, well, where they were going, with low hum escaping his lips, he slipped away from the tender hold of his mistress, put his nightgown back on, grabbing a candle stick, lighting the three candle on it without lingering on, he snuck into one of his secret passages. Travelling without a sound, the owner of the footsteps went silent inside a pantry,rge and brimming with enough food to feed the upants for an entire year, if not more. Without hesitation, the king stepped out in the darkened room, his blue eyes shining from the mes, his visage unmoving and perfectly neutral, even when he spun around, using the candlestick to block a dagger swinging down on him. Twisting his impromptu weapon, forcing the intruder to drop his weapon right into the king''s hand, stabbing the dark figure right in the stomach, forcing it at an odd, upward angle, the tip of the de sticking into that definitely wasn''t good.N?v(el)B\\jnn The assassin grunted like a wild beast, soon falling as though all of his bones had been robbed from him. "Guards!" he yelled, ever so casually, sounding more like he was calling for someone to clean some poop off the floor. Multiple guards appeared, surprised at the sight of an intruder, especially so deep into the castle. "Keep it somewhere cold, we''ll go over this mess in the morning, I have a bed to help warm up" Agilulf Wanneck yawned, going away without a speck of any emotion from killing a man. Without having to be told directly, the guards ryed word to the rest of their fellows, searching everywhere for any additional intruders, but only the one that the king had noticed had somehow found a way inside, a few other intruders were found near the edge of the pce,pletely inert. Once morning came, the corpses of the night lurkers were put out in the middle of the throne room, overlooked by the king, sitting in his royal seat, his two guards by his side, apanied by their trainees, the unwanteds. It would be an understatement to say that the three young summons were a bit ufortable at the sight of corpses, but they had to maintain face at the moment. The bodies were stripped of their dark clothes, revealing magic circles and sigils inscribed deep into their flesh, their backs riddled with small holes, but what made the unwanted gag was the faces of those assassins. For they had none left, only a hole left by a dreadful fire that seemed to have been raging until very recently, the head and skull leftpletely hollow. "Looks like a coboration between The Defiler''s and Puppeteers, they must have had help from a skilled mage to inscribe those things on their bodies without killing them¡­" Pierre-Orn¨¦e noted. "The circles and sigils seem to be solely meant to increase their stealth and reduce their presence" one of the royal mages remarked. "Well, that looks like a deration of war, feeling like killing some people, kids?" he turned to his threetest recruits. They vigorously said no with their heads. "They certainly are" responded Bough in their stead. "Great then, go on the hunt" Chapter 166 In The Deep Stone cracked, falling apart as a fist came crashing down against its surface, the culprit behind this act of destruction cursing loudly, his sounding as though he had been living in a smoke factory for birth. "What the hell is the matter with you again?" another nearby asked, many people, their identity nearly impossible to decipher, garbed in tattered robes and cloaks fashioned from materials recuperated from the trash of others, part bup, part whatever. Their hands were all grossly misshapen, covered in burns, bones protruding out from flesh that had once melted, solidifying into the abominations they still dared to call limbs, the one that just spoke up limped his way to his angry associate. Their heads and faces were no better off than their deformed hands, all of them had both of their eyes carved out by dark orange mes, ever burning inside of their sockets, recing their sights. "The matter with me?! You know very well what the problem is! Why are we stuck in this shit hole, why are we always hiding? We are the scions of the new age, we were chosen by The Defiler, yet, we allow the holy to spread, they erect their churches and cathedrals with impunity, we are destroyers, we must spread the fire no matter what!" his teeth were stained ck, the skin on his face king off. The inferno infecting his eyes grew darker for an instant, prompting him to grab his head, ignoble pain assaulting him, he did not stop however. "Why is it that we have to associate ourselves with those doll botherers and stupid bitches?! Answer me, why are we taking orders from that forsaken skeleton?!" clenching his molten hands, he only received a wave of the head as an answer at first. "You little idiot, there are only a handful of us, if we want to aplish anything meaningful, we have to partner up, otherwise we''ll be snuffed and serve as the kindling of our disgusting enemies" despite sounding more sane than hispatriot, the way this one smiled was a rather clear indicator that he was not even remotely close to sanity. Though, the madness guing each and every one of them was far apart from the natural lunacy that could creep up upon everyone, for it was most certainly the dark work of the fire that had nested inside of them. "Urgh, we still lost perfectly good husks just for a meaningless stunt, I don''t understand what that bag of bones thinks he is aplishing by riling up the king as well, if one of his two knights shows up here, we''ll all get crushed" "The undead seems to know more than he has any rights to, but it does not matter what his own ns are, we are along for the ride because we can use this opportunity to finally crawl out of obscurity, he knows it, we know it, everyone involved knows that we are each in for our own benefits, that''s why he doesn''t share his own goal with us" the moreposed madman exined his reasoning, the mes brushing up against his brain as he thought. "We, the Puppeteers, Aliz¨¦, we are all working with this corpse for our own benefits, I am certain, so shut the hell and control yourself until then, I am certain he is listening in on us at this very moment, we will wait until timees, right?" he pointed his finger at the face of the rowdy fellow. "Fine, fine! I can''t believe we have to employ such tactics, The Defiler was-" "We are not The Defiler, we are mere ember" __________________ "Dearest, it seems like our fiery allies are punching the walls again" someone, their voice perfectly androgynous, noted as they did a light twirl, such gracepletely unwarranted in the dank depths they were currently in, surrounded by nothing but stone, some minerals scattered here and there. Garbed in a huge piece of dark fabric, covering their entire body, giving no room from them to move their arms as they wished, a gorgeous, thin red rope tightly wrapped around their necks, ensuring that their peculiar attire did not move out of position. Without any sound of a footstep, the one that just spoke danced their way back to the rest of the people grouped up here, all dressed in the exact same way, down to the very particr way the rope was tied, utterly impossible to tell any of them apart. "Dearest, the beautiful lord has something to say" another said, in the exact same voice as the first one. "What wisdom is our beautiful lord imparting upon us, dearest?" "Dearest, do ry our handsome lord''s words" The congregation of dark figures spontaneously moved to positions around a muchrger figure than themselves, beginning a slow, perfectly learned group dance, their dark cloth fluttering around, giving the impression that they were all dark roses blooming.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om A single one remained immobile, leaning their head near the pale, porcin face of the handsome lord, absolute silence filled the room as the dancing continued. The lord of the Ironic Puppeteers, was a puppet, utterly inert and unmoving, many timesrger than a regr man, dressed in incredibly thick clothing,yers onyers of the same dark fabric it''s servants wore, some part of its attire floating up in the air seemingly by themselves, only the face of the lord was visible,cking in much details. The porcin was pristine however, despite the near constant fall of dust from the ceiling, the appearance of the lord continuously tended to by its eager followers. "The lord is speaking" "The lord is saying for us to only prepare ourselves for theing descent" "The lord is saying that the lostmbs are not a matter to concern over" "The lord has spoken" This signalled the end of the performance, the puppeteers twirled closer to their lord, many of them resuming the tending, whilst the rest went into different tunnels, off to prepare for the descent their lord warned them about. Just as they wished to do this, the cave rumbled in a particr way, sign that they were called by the master of this operation. Chapter 167 Little Flirt "And you told me you weren''t good at magic, I never met someone so good at spirit creation and golemcraft" Rosemary but up her hand against Osworth''s shoulder, unlike usual, she had ditch her red robe, currently dressed in brown pants and a white shirt with no sleeves, her arms weren''t very bulky but definitely well trained, not everyone would get bigger with training after all. Turning around, she pped her hand and showed off the creation she and Osworth had just built to her ss, in thest month, she had taught both of her sses at the same moment every single time, they needed to get more familiar with one another to form more cohesive groups. "You will be trying out just spirit creation for today, but look at this magnificent creation, do you not want to be able to conjure such a valuable ally at all times? Bybining a spirit you created with a golem, the result is even more powerful than the sum of both their strength added to one another, it has greater intelligence by default as well, to achieve such a result with either a spirit or golem, lots of works and training is needed, but if you can manage to fuse the two, even if the most basic and weak versions possible, you will have a great source of strength at hand" she exined, clearly very enthusiastic about this lesson. Unlike spirit calling, bound spirits, familiars and shades, the strength of created spirits and golems was always tightly linked to the mage''s own, they were valuable skills to learn, and that even if left to collect dust for a while, would always grow alongside the user themselves. Unfortunately, the greater echelon of magic was very obsessed with the most basic utilisation of mana, spells conjured by nothing but the sorcerer''s own mana control, not that basic magic was bad, it was simply a waste to inculcate young mages that it was all that was worth their time.N?v(el)B\\jnn Rosemary had been taught the same at first, but being so overwhelmingly talented, she had plenty of time to delve into the other documented ways of casting magic. "Do not try to inscribe a spell or use an element for it at first" she instructed them, stepping to the side to observe them. Obviously, some had already read through some of the books their teacher had given them and attempted it before, but still, none were close to seeding yet. "Where is Gelter today? I didn''t expect him not to watch over Antieeld even if the world turned upside down" "He has been given a little task, leaving the two of us to ourselves, it would appear, how many of them do you believe will be able of learning spirit creation?" he asked, his tone unchanging throughout the course of his sentence. "Well, it is hard to be certain, most of them are talented enough to learn it eventually, but the biggest hurdle to ovee concerning both spirit creation and golemcraft is not to create one, but to learn to maintain it, after all, at the beginning, their creations will require their attention not to fall apart, but you would know about this, you didn''t tell me you were so skilled" she put her hands on her hips, giving him a look indicating that she wanted him to borate. "You give me too much credit, it just happens that I am good in those specific areas, after all, as you must have noticed, my mana has a special trait, but I am, let us say, blunt when ites to affinities, I have none, I struggle to invoke even the basic elements" he admitted, looking over the students, all of them still struggling to even form their spirits. "I am starting to believe that you just underestimate yourself, hearing you talk, it sounds like you were immediately capable of grasping the concept of those two nearly immediately, you should juste by at my ce" "Well, I do not think I can reasonably deny that offer, but I must consult with Antieeld first" The two of them continued on exchanging pleasantries for the next thirty minutes, only stopping for the asional giving of advices to the youngsters, she had already hammered the good ways to circte mana into them, so repeatedly trying to create a spirit wasn''t too straining on them, though, those with the most mana definitely had an easier time. Only after half an hour did someone finally manage to shape a spirit. "Gelter might have broken his calm demeanour" remarked the masked bodyguard, indeed, the red-haired futuremandant had been the first to manifest a spirit, and she was even managing to keep it together for quite a while. Being made from simple mana, it took on its natural blue colour, somewhat translucent and shaped like a regr knight,ing even with a shield and spear, standing at attention. The young woman did her best to appear perfectlyposed, like it was only natural, but the corners of her mouth curled up anyways, her eyes positively shining at the sight of her own creation, beads of sweat trickling down her face. "Good job Antieeld, I didn''t actually expect such an early sess on the first lesson, don''t bother on maintaining it for now, focus on learning to create and dispel your spirit as you wish" she rubbed her student''s shoulder, noticing that she was quite tense. "Antieeld was looking forward to this lesson, as amandant, being able of increasing the numbers on her side as she wishes is a big deal, ording to her, she spends her time reading on the various ways to do this" Osworth whispered the Rosemary when she came back next to him. "Unfortunately, I am not an exceptional instructor" he made a light gesture toward her, which she assumed was a silent way of implying that she was exceptional. "Aherm, it''s mostly them, they are the ones who do the majority of the work after all, I just give them the tools they need¡­" Without anyone paying attention to him, the headmaster who had walked up to a nearby window was left with mouth gaping for a little while now. ''This smooth motherfucker, he really is doing it!'' Chapter 168 Nothingness The headmaster overlooked the two figures of Rosemary and Osworth leaving the grounds of the academy, headed straight for the witch''s dwelling, the elder felt like pulling out his hair, he had kept on observing the masked man, continuously, without stopping, but he could not find out anything wrong with his behaviour, yet, his guts did not weaken down, they told him to be wary of him. He trusted his well-honed instincts, they had been mercilessly forged throughout countless years, but for a mage of his calibre, logic and proofs were of the utmost importance, despite what he could say to himself, he had not managed to bring himself to eliminate Osworth based on nothing but gut feeling, he desperately wanted to find something to confirm his suspicions, or something topletely bury them, either way was fine. However, Osworth continued on just being this odd character, growing intensely talkative and warm when around the volcano witch, it was like something just clicked in this guy''s mind whenever he approached her. Time passed by in a swift manner as the headmaster banged his head against the wall, incapable of acting, until night had fallen and he saw Osworthing back, it appeared like Rosemary had preferred to stay at her ce out of the academy for the night, whilst the target of suspicion came back. Nothing illogical in all of this, he was the bodyguard of Antieeld, of course he wouldn''t spend so long away for his master, the thought that something could have happened to the witch didn''t even cross his mind, he was well aware that she could not be defeated so easily, and that she had rigged herself with a spell upon death, that was one of the few things she had been willing to share with his whitered self. "Well, fuck all of this, I''m too old to be stressing over something like this, I''ll just walk up to him, and ask him questions myself, I am the damned headmaster of this academy, I can inspect people on my grounds" he pped both sides of his face, pretty much flying out of his office, wanting to catch Osworth as quickly as possible.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om ''I should have just done this in the very beginning-'' he suddenly halted all movements, all thoughts, his previous worries disappearing as his face hardened. Something was off here, and it had nothing to do with the masked fellow, who was walking toward his assigned room with his typical fast and silent steps. Within the academy, the headmaster could sense everything, his senses could reach even the furthest point, not weakening in the least, like he was just looking at his own hand, he had sensed nothing, which was odd. He could not possibly sense nothing here, but where? Where had that nothinge from? It was as though it was everywhere and nowhere all at once, a sign that the thing hiding from him was beyond skilled in the craft of stealth. The old man soon noticed that the nothing went away, having most certainly picked up that he had not been none the wiser to its existence, he momentarily forgot about Osworth, much more pressed by a tangible proof of something invading his academy than his unfounded suspicions on a man. But he was not allowed to forget his suspicions for long, because the bodyguard diverted from his initial path, sooning into direct view of the headmaster. "Headmaster, you are not in your office, you must have noticed it too then?" his oddly pleasant voice was quite grating to the elder''s ears but he didn''t show it. "You sensed it as well? Rather impressive but most important, something or someone definitely just infiltrated the academy, wouldn''t you say?" acting casual, he looked intently at the man before him who was as frustratingly unreadable as usual. "With talent holders and nobles residing within the academy, ites to no surprise that some could be targeted, however, no measly assassins could simply waltz in and escape you, yes?" "That is only natural, I hadn''t even believed that any coulde in until today, my surveince only gets stronger with the passing of time¡­" "How about the Fin-Limiers? I have heard that no assassins were finer than them, simultaneously awfully famous for assassins, yet uncatchable and without failures, perhaps a sufficient enough bounty has been promised for them to take the risk of invading the grounds of Toordefer" "We shall be more careful than ever, the outside excursion organised by Mary is growing closer as well" Osworth spoke his mind, to which the headmaster could only agree. "Mmh? Excuse me, Sir Osworth, what did you just say? Just now" despite the tense situation, he had not missed such an outrageous thing, surely, stress had made his ears y tricks on him, there was simply no way Osworth had just uttered something like this. "The excursion is soon to happen" he said, ever so casually. "No, I mean, what did you just call Rosemary?" the old man borated without pause. "Mary, she said that I should call her in such a fashion, after our time together earlier" The headmaster keeled over, grabbing his chest. "Argh, that is- That''s good to hear¡­ Young people growing so close in such a short amount of time, isn''t life beautiful sometimes? Aah¡­" How long had he worked with her? He had pretty much known her ever since she was a youngster, a beginner! And all he earned was her ire, not that he enjoyed her attitude anyways, but something he didn''t know was there was just mercilessly stung with the force of a thousand needles. "Aherm, Osworth, you are just called Osworth right?" "Indeed" "Osworth, take care of her, alright? I know she''s strong but still" he picked himself up again, regaining hisposure. "Do not worry in the least, I already took care of her, she fell asleep with a smile on her face" Osworth ced his hand against his chest, leaning forward as he spoke in a lower tone, slightly nodding his head. The headmaster felt his heart stop beating for a good second, not even paying attention as the masked man bid him good night and walked off. Chapter 169 Vertex As the months passed, as the day of the field trip grew closer, the intensity and duration of Rosemary''s sses increased exponentially, studying the various applications of magic in as much details as was sensible, some like Marl, the talented cleric, focused more on the applications of the holy obviously, which Rosemary was also knowledgeable enough to teach him in. Today however, it was about three particr techniques shared amongst all energies, the techniques in question could actually be considered as one split into three steps, although most wouldn''t go past the first, and even more would not be touching upon the third.N?v(el)B\\jnn "The first step is called ''Vertex'', it refers to the utilisation of mana at the maximum possible power you can manage, as well as pushing the limit, the additional mana you can add, it is nothing but pure energy used in its most bare form, it can only be considered as truly learned when you can maintain it, due to its nature, it can hardly be used as projectile, and is mostly reserved for physical reinforcement, be careful however, it can cause a toll if you use it for too long without proper training" she exined, the concept was well-known, so it was nothing new to the students but she still made certain to remind them the dangers. Although it sounded simple on paper, managing to maintain both one''s output and limit to the constant peak possible required a certain finesse, which could only be achieved with ample training and experience, after all, such a technique was most useful inbat, so even if technically mastered by simply training, once in an actual situation, it wouldn''t hold up for even a second. "You don''t need to actually learn vertex, this exercise is only meant to improve your control over the output of your spells, though, if you do manage to learn it, I''ll add points to the next few exams" she shined a smile at them, making them all grumble, that was such an obvious to bait to force them to try even harder than usual, but despite this, they all gobbled it up because she had promised that the tests that woulde after the field trip would be much more difficult, and Rosemary never lied, to them at least. Milo steeled his focus, knowing that power and limit were his bread and butter, he had to spend a lot of time learning to control his outrageously potent mana, he had more experience than his ssmates in that regard, he just add to find the right bnce. Controlling and keeping his mana at its maximum, coursing through his body was achieved rather easily, so the rest of this lesson was spent to truly discover the utmost height of his limit, meaning the additional mana he could add on top of this, likeyers, each would need to be at maximum power as well, and this is when he began to realise that it would be a difficult affair. As it turns out, he could add a hefty amount of additional mana to his reinforcement, meaning that aplishing vertex would be more difficult, one with a subpar output and limit but good enough maniption would be able to do vertex more easily. That was a good thing however, the greater those two aspects were, the more impressive the results would be, Milo''s vertex was set to be exceptionally potent. Everyone was progressing at their own pace, some attempting it immediately, others like Milo testing the grounds beforehand, others trying to mimic a vertex, simply doing the opposite and using the minimum power and only a singleyer of additional mana to try and get a good idea of what the bnce should be like. Helena belonged to the third group, her impressive maniption allowing her to easily maintain it together with much more ease, then slowly working her way up, there were no methods that were better than the other, only methods best suited to individuals. "The two lovebirds are very talented despite not having noble upbringings, especially that Helena girl, although Milo''s element is rather peculiar" "Indeed, they are quite good, but each of my students have their strong points, Griar is very lucky to have the sword element, he is already surprisingly good at infusing his sword, perhaps we''ll get to see the rise of someone capable of giving Pierre-Orn¨¦e a run for his money, in a few dozen years" Rosemary rubbed her chin, a proud smile on her face, even with how good and famous she was, not every students she had taught had be good, certain people were simply not meant to be mages, like Marl and some of the other talent holders, but they had predetermined paths they could always fall back on. "But if I may ask, do you have any idea what Milo''s element is all about? I have never seen or heard anything like it before?" "My apologies Mary, I do not, I can only feel the fact that something about it is odd" "If some of them manage to properly learn vertex by then, would you consider teaching them about apex and transcend?" he then asked, seemingly quite interested. "I wouldn''t mind, but beyond vertex, it gets a bit too dangerous" shaking her head, she remembered her very first attempts at both of those, it was a good thing she knew how to heal. "I can''t police what they do in their free time anyways, the path of magic is filled with dangers, those who attempt to circte their mana without proper guidance or knowledge tend to die or cripple themselves in some way, apex and transcend are even more dangerous, and there is no real way of doing it without risking injuries, even vertex can be a bit dangerous" Silence befell the entire area, only groans and low cursing words sometimesing from the students filled the air, Osworth and Rosemary just observed in silence, their efforts as unfruitful as could be expected on their first attempts. A few more lessons passed by without anyone managing to do it, though, a few were getting very close, standing just next to the edge, one more step and they would manage to aplish their first vertex. "Would you look at this Mary, seems like you might have to give out free points" Chapter 170 Alone, Together Atst, the promised day hade, the culprit of the copsing mines had yet to be found by the instant the time limit set by Rosemary was reached, meaning that the students would soon be venturing into the areas where the mines had been targeted, trying to discover clues and such for the betterment of their grades. Although the time was here, none expected to get directly into it, the academy was far from the area touched by demolition, but they guessed wrong, arge magic circle had been drawn into the ground outside, their teacher was not a fan of wasting time. As such, she had marked the location ahead of time with another of such circles, there was no downtime for the younger generation, the entirety of both of her sses were swiftly put into the circle, Rosemary standing in the middle of it, as well as Gelter obviously. Less expectedly, Osworth was not going to be of the party, he was standing outside the reach of the magical construction, right next to the headmaster, who couldn''t help but throw nces in his direction. "Do be careful Antieeld, the dangers that could lurk within are untold, spare of the fragile masses you have grown ustomed to" he spoke words of warning to hisdy, waving his arm at Rosemary. Without another word, bright mes engulfed the group, burning away the circle and leaving nothing apart from a dark spot on the ground. "Very impressive is it not? To master one''s element so much that you can make up for ack in other affinities" "Why are you still here?" the headmaster wasn''t too keen on conversing with him, he might have been struck by Osworth''s wordsst time but he had not forgotten his suspicions, and now, the fact that he was remaining at the academy instead of following his master was beyond strange. "I am but wishing to catch the intruder, or intruders, fromst time, Gelter can abide alone for a while, with Mary aiding him, there is simply no way that something could happen to Antieeld, why do you ask, headmaster?" The old man did not appreciate him acting dumb, there was no way he had not picked up on even a sliver of the fact that he was being suspected of something by now. "In any case, have you noticed the odd presence fromst time again?" the masked bodyguard switched the topic of the discussion, turning his entire body toward the headmaster now, his hands still held behind his back. "I have not, if that really was a work of the Fin-Limiers, then the fact that they got spotted very well could have meant the abortion of the mission entirely, they are a careful bunch, only one could possibly forsake the veil of stealth¡­" he shook his head. "...But that''s impossible, she should have ords with the king, which extend to the academy" he rubbed his beard, deep in thought, only shifting his attention when Osworth spoke again.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Well then, there should be nothing to worry about then" he slightly bent forward, bidding his goodbyes before walking away, wandering to gods knows where, this man had somehow managed to read every single book avable in the library already, sotely, he spent his time just hanging around, walking through every single hallways the academy had to offer, always cing himself right in the middle of them. ''God damned freak, there is definitely something wrong with you'' with the absence of both Rosemary and Antieeld, there really was nothing preventing him from acting on his suspicions. Yet, he still felt reluctant, the possibility of being wrong about something like this couldn''t be ignored, just because he was the headmaster did not mean he could do as he wished, in the end, he was supposed to represent the authority of the king here, and if he tarnished what he had been entrusted with, who knew what would happen. He certainly would flog himself for such a transgression, but it would not stop here. ''Still, if my instincts are right and I do nothing¡­'' He stared at the back of Osworth, his face scrunching up into a grimace of impressive nastiness. ''Tonight, once night has fallen'' he spoke to himself, repeating it like a mantra, over and over. ''Tonight'' ''Tonight'' And unfortunately, tonight did end uping, it was time for him to finally get done with this endless charade. Standing in his deste office, he stretched his arms, preparing for the confrontation. "Well, he ising on his own?" he muttered with slight surprise, it wasn''t likest time, there was no particr reason for Osworth toe find him, convincing himself that it was further proof of bad intentions, well, first proof really. To start, he simply sat down behind his desk, taking up the most nonchnt pose he could think of, simply waiting for the bodyguard to arrive on his own, this office was the best ce for anything to happen, if something needed to happen. The elder was real quick in his actions, but with the pace Osworth was walking, it would take a few more minutes until he got there. Coughing a little bit, he dropped his attempt at nonchnce, shaking his head and feeling the unmistakable coldness of a de brushing up against his neck. He ceased all movement, frowning as there was no doubt in his mind who it was that had managed to sneak up on him, in his academy, in his own office, a closed room with only a single door leading inside, which was right in front of his eyes, and could only be opened by himself. "Well, to what do I owe the visit of such a prettydy, sote at night? Not that I am not ttered, but I don''t think you are into decrepit old men" he spoke, a bead of sweat trickling down his wrinkled forehead. A smile forming on his face, feeling likeughing aloud at his own words. One hand grabbed onto the shoulder on the opposite side of where the de was softly touching his jugr. Squeezing it without much force, almost friendly. "Oh, old man, whatever your name is, are you not wise enough to know on your own?" words dripped into his ears, making him shudder, feeling as though a tongue had just licked his earlobes. "I was hoping that you would contradict my own conclusion" he responded with a small sigh, his shape turning dark, like a shadow, he darted to the other side of the room, a small cut gushing with blood on his neck. "Don''t you dare think that I am an easy target, Death Dealer" Chapter 171 Atop The Roof Staring at the malformed shape lunging at him, the headmaster erected a wall of earth, destroying his office without hesitation as he forced his way through the ceiling and onto the roof, only to find that the mad dog of the Fin-Limiers was already there. Hands on her waist, impracticallyrge cloak dragged by the strong winds that had decided at an opportune moment to show up. ''Amongst those that stand a step higher than everyone else, only a few can be crowned with such lofty titles nowadays¡­'' the headmaster''s heart was beating too fast, he controlled his breathing to calm his nerves. "If I may ask, who has put a hit on my head? Surely, I can offer up more than them" he attempted to be diplomatic, it worked more often than was believed, even with lunatics. "Heh, the privacy of my clients is important, but let me tell you, you must have fucked up big time, it was a money pool, they spared money for a while to get you six feet under, don''t know about you, but I think it''s pretty telling" she shed her teeth at him, grabbing hold of her cloak, swinging a portion of it in front of her, revealing two small crossbows in both her hands. Conjuring up strong winds, the headmaster took control of the direction the many bolts shot at him, redirecting them right back at her, the creepy smile she wore didn''t falter dodging them in the most minimalistic way possible. ''The crossbows disappeared¡­'' just like everyone else, the senior mage was not aware of the true methods of The Death Dealer, acting with caution, he continuously backed away from her, conjuring up invisible winds to keep her at bay. She easily broke free of his first crushing wind currents, demonstrating brute force unlike what should be expected of an assassin, forcing him to immediately put his all into spells only meant to prevent her from getting close, even then, she was not swayed easily. With a burst of power, he began to fly into the air, trying to take the fight away from the academy, there were still plenty of students and teachers after all, he had to keep the bloodthirsty maniac away from them. Pushing off the ground, the assassin jumped up into the air, twisting the headmaster''s expression into a deep scowl as he suppressed the temptation of expressing his thoughts on the situation aloud, she was right in front of him, and judging by the pose she was taking, she seemed confident in the idea of pushing against the very air. Before she could render him into a bloody mess, his body once again turned dark, the ck mass shooting away, back onto the roof of the academy, revealing the headmaster on one knee, hastily performing hand signs and incantations. "Come, dragon!" he finished his singr spell, manifesting into existence the phantomatic form of a four-limbed draconoid, turning dark once more, he retreated further away as the assassin plummeted down,nding without a sound or a speck of additional destruction.N?v(el)B\\jnn "The hell you''re saying dragon for? Does that thing even qualify as a wyvern?" retrieving a pale sword from behind the cover of her cloak, she rushed forward, taking the shape of a twisting mass of writhing darkness, jumping over the ming breath of the created spirit, stabbing it straight through the head. Dispelling its translucent body, revealing the stern headmaster a hefty distance away, having created a small altar of some sort, and drawn a circle on the ground, which was sucking in a great deal of his deep mana pool, calling forth a spirit rather than creating one. A ripple disturbed the very air, growing more and more frantic with every ripple, until a humanoid figure forced its way out, revealing a hardly unique-looking knight, though, even if very much unremarkable physically, the greyish ghostly figure of the knight had remarkable poise. A spirit of stone, the old man stepped back, casting a de of water without waiting, the knight sprinting right for The Death Dealer, knowing no fear for what did not possess the means of ending its existence. Throwing a punch, the assassin dodged the side, noting the amateurish stance as she deflected the old man''s spell with a flick of her wrist, a dagger having appeared in her hand at an unknown point. She moved to swiftly dispose of the spirit, dark mass rushing up to her, morphing into the headmaster as he manifested twin swords of condensed earth, swinging at her without wait. "Well, I have to apologise, I wasn''t familiar with your style!" sheughed, pleasantly surprised as the summoner and spirit both relentlessly attacked her at close range. The conjured swords broke apart as per the mage''s own will, turning into countless shards of sharp rock, shooting out at close range, somehow blocked still, the headmaster didn''t let this failure weight down on him, repeatedly conjuring weapons of various elements, making them explode when still in his hands, throwing them up in the air, allowing them to remain motionless, looming over and threatening toe flying at the Fin-Limier at any moment, casting spells directly from behind her, but every damn time. Without fail, the wicked woman would somehow dodge or block the spell, doing so with so much ease that it was frustrating. Gritting his teeth, the headmaster steeled his resolve and infused his body to the limit, unleashing the level of power just above vertex, apex. Literally running into the dagger pointed at him, grabbing the wrist of the despicable assassin, pushing his other palm right up against her chest, even then, she just smiled at him. "Disappointed much? I am rather t-" he unleashed zing inferno, burning so hot for a split instant that it shined white, injuring his own hand by utilising the mana going through apex as a projectile, it exceeded the strength of his usual mana by a great deal, the know of his mana could not protect him from damage entirely. The spirit''s head fell down. "-But hey, I think I am still pretty hot, ah, get it?" "What the hell are you made of?!" "I was just born different, built with the best parts avable" He saw the soles of boots appearing in view, covering the entirety of his sight, there was no dodging this. Chapter 172 Obvious Or was there? The headmaster did not feel the boot crushing his head into paste, it would appear that The Death Dealer had not helped his brain experience fresh air, instead, with his eyes closed, he felt a sudden pull, a vertigo, and a body crashing into him. "You seem do have run into a bit of pickle headmaster, a snafu of some kind" the old man was pulled up to his feet, the assassin maintaining her pose with her leg outstretched, as though she had not realised that the old head''s skull had not been converted into sand. But no, she stared right at the now two of them with a look of curiosity, just keeping herself into this position for no viable reasons. "You disrupted your mana flow, but I would prefer some assistance to deal with this feisty woman" Osworth ced his hand onto the elder''s shoulder, his tone still as palpably tranquil as usual, even when literally showed by the finest Fin-Limier''s refined killing intent, either he was unshakable, or he was just unable to notice. He handed a small vial to the headmaster, stepping forward and raising his hands, daring to challenge her to a fight in close quarters. "Are you insane?! She''s going to tear you apart!" the old man protested, he was well aware of where he stood in the chain of power, and knew very well that he at a spot well above even those said strong, but so was he knowledgeable that he was way down beneath the extraordinary, some sort of middle ground that he had since long gave up on reaching, those fated to step up did so early. The Volcano Witch, Storm Of de, The Death Dealer and The Two Copper Knights, all four had been born muchter than himself, but reached their level well before he had aplished his own, what took him decades only took them less than a single one. He highly doubted that Osworth was somehow capable of even holding her back at all, she might just be able to literally walk through him. "Do not worry for even a second, I can not die" The assassin stared at the masked bodyguard with an eyebrow raised, one hand on her face, a finger tapping repeatedly against her cheek. "Absolute idiot!" the old man cursed as his brazenness and illogical confidence, gulping down the small vial, trying to get his mana circting properly again, to what end, he did not know, even a harmful manoeuver using apex at point nk, literally casting the spell directly into her chest had not even made her pause mid-sentence. This was no normal strength, even species with impressive magical defences would have severely reeled from such a blow, and The Death Dealer certainly looked like a human, not even imposing, and she just ate it, not even her clothes were damaged by the severe inferno. He could not guess what could be the true reason behind such an outstanding body, he did not have enough information, all he could tell about her was that she was a woman, was probably a freak of nature, and was kind of cute, though thatst point was not relevant. The old man just couldn''t help but notice that detail. ''We can not win, but surely, we can still retreat, somehow¡­'' he raised his hand to cast a spell, blinking a couple of times as he saw double, everything seemed wobbly, his mana ceased its cirction against his will. ''Did she poison me- Poison?'' he wanted to gasp audibly, but instead, his legs gave in, falling to his knees, catatonic, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. "Welp, let me tell you, that disguise of yours is actually pretty convincing, I didn''t recognise you for a second there, I probably wouldn''t have at all had I not known in advance honestly" the assassin cracked her neck, walking up to Osworth and pping him on the back. "How''s it going Loimos? Making old bones? I wasn''t expecting you to hire my services again, I don''t ept jobs without kills usually, just made an exception, because ofst time, haven''t had much luck on my missions since then" she tapped his chest with her index, awfully talkative with a decaying corpse. "I did not believe that any other would be able doing the job as well as you, the headmaster had tricks that would have dealt with regr assassins easily, also, we are familiar with one another" despite being in presence of someone aware of his rotting status, his voice as Osworth remained the same.N?v(el)B\\jnn Maintaining such a potent disguise, which was needed considering the sort of people he was constantly around, had necessitated him to take up some restraining conditions, one of them being to maintain the Osworth character he had invented. Though, that wasn''t even close to being the most constraining. Walking up to the inert, but still breathing headmaster, Loimos snapped his fingers, prompting the man to stand up. "You will not make any further actions against I, you shall act as per usual and never go against me or my allies, await your next orders and end your life if you are discovered to be under control, keep yourself in your office as much as you did before, and repair the damages done, if anyone asks you about what happened, say that a problem happened with the academy''s array, keep an eye on the king''s action" the skeleton recited a series of orders before sending the headmaster away. "That''s some impressive stuff you got there" Maliah nodded her head. "It was a coboration of many minds, may I ask for a favour?" the undead moved right up to her. "Yeah sure, you''re the closest thing I have to a friend" "I would appreciate if you could make sure that no bounty is ced on Aliz¨¦, and that if one is, that no one takes up the mission, I have an ally, to convince whoever takes care of such matters, here is a sample of an earlier version of the serum the headmaster just ingested, they should be thrilled" Chapter 173 Salt Mine "That is a lot of salt, how is there still so much in there? They''ve been exploiting these mines for years already" Griar looked up at the high ceiling, talking to distract himself from the fear that everything woulde crashing down on him and crush him into liquid.N?v(el)B\\jnn None of his threepatriots shared in his fear however, their teacher had taken multiple measures to ensure that whoever, or whatever was responsible for the copses could just drop the ceiling on her student''s heads. "We are deep now, there is still much ressources to be collected higher up, so they probably haven''t yet considered harvesting the salt that is in more dangerous ideas" Antieeld responded, sending a bright orb of mana into a tight passage, finding only a dead end. "Anything on your end?" she directed a question at Milo and Helena, the first lifting small pebbles, the second trying to find remnants of mana signatures. "No residues to be found" she spoke first, her mana perception being the highest of the group, the job of checking for such things naturally fell on her, but mana from people and such dispersed rather quickly, especially in an environment rich of wild mana such as this one, there was nothing suspicious for her to find. "Oh, that''s¡­ This is, hum, something" Milo was thrilled finding something of odd nature, but was honestly unable to identify what he found, safely secured into ce beneath a small rock, weight down on this soft matter, which was mostly of a pale white colour, but with small bits of it appearing like it had been burned. The group of four gathered around the finding, tilting their heads, at the strange mass, norger than a thumb, justying there, moving a bit as it slowly recovered its original shape from before being sttered by the rock. "This looks like a piece of burnt flesh to me" Griar spoke up, the others agreeing with a nod, hastily turning toward a still unexplored path, as the sound of rock dragging on the ground rang out, a slight bit of dust flying into view from behind the corner it had alle from. Enjoy new chapters from empire Instead of something rushing out of the veil of dark, the cave moved, immense masses of solid stone grinding against one another as everything shook, a strident noise assaulting their ears, the room they were in splitting apart into two, forcing the group to spit into a one to three ratio. The walls were overflowing with a sudden burst of mana, preventing them from even leaving a crack into the rock. Cursing under his breath, Milo felt himself falling as everything turned, throwing him into another area entirely, rolling against the rough and jagged ground, he held his breath to avoid inhaling the old dust umted in these caverns, hastily casting a luminous orb to shine upon his surroundings. But he did not even require a light to catch sight of the man in here with him, his eyes and skull molten by an orange me, smouldering intensely as the one with a fire so close to his brain raise his arms in a slow manner, slowly forming a Y shape, stretching his entire body upward to make himself appear taller, standing on toes as he hummed a poor melody, staring up at the ceiling before bringing it down to stare at Milo. "My child, you are set on a very, very, very, very, very bad path, yes indeed, the path is awful, very bad¡­" he opened his mouth making a noise that could only be described as that of a rooster simultaneously chanting and drowning. "Oooh, don''t you want to go onto the right path? To do good? To not followws? To not have to hide your stealing and murdering from anybody, to be truly free, just as the gods did not intend? Mmh?" Milo dusted his shoulders, scratching the back of his head. "Sure, that- I mean, that sounds great, freedom sounds good" he looked around the room, it was nothing more than another pocket of empty space below ground, a naturally formed cave from the looks of it, the only exit situated right behind the burning man. The stranger sighed, shaking his head in the most exaggerated manner possible. "Ah, how harmful it is, to hear such graceful words uttered in a vile lie! Don''t you want to do what you desire, without fearing repercussions or the judgement of your peers, are you not tired of asking for, urgh, consent?" "What the hell is wrong with you?" "Oh! The pot calling the kettle ck, perhaps you ought to invest into a mirror, you might learn a few things by knowing how to recognise a filthy bastard, I did it myself, so I can tell that you are a little orphan" the man smiled, biting the inside of his cheek, drawing blood. "We are the scions of The Defiler, great man of great stature and greatck of care for what others consider bad, or immoral, or maybe psychotic" he spat a mouthful of blood, clicking in tongue, ushering in two dogs whose heads were burning with the same fire as him. "I was once a filthy follower of a righteous god, I was stupid, why be righteous, why be malevolent when you can be both, none, or switch depending on your mood? Why lock ourselves into tight containers, when he are free to wander the meadow that is life as we please?" he pped his arms, imitating the sounds of a bird, it was a pretty good impression. "Well then, so you have nothing to say if what I want is to beat the crap out of you, right?" "Oh oh! You are making progress, but freedom is riddled with challenges boy, you have to earn that right yourself,e! Come and rub that rugged fist into my delicate face, hihi, you crave it don''t you? My exquisite pain!" With a shout, the madman sent his attack dogs after Milo, grabbing ignited eyes, the fire grew darker, the farm boy did not back down and ran forward as well, sending a pulse of mana at one of the hounds, stopping it in its track whilst allowing the first one to lunge at him, grabbing the abhorrent beast by the throat, chucking it straight at the lunatic, who did not pay any heed to his pet, shooting out a condensed bullet of heretical me through the mutt, splitting it in two, the projectiles making odd movements and twirls, highly imprecise, but alsopletely unpredictable. "ept his fire inside you, you''ll love the warmth it procures" Chapter 174 Porcelain Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire As for Milo''s three allies during this cave diving session, they were all pulled together into the same room, into a pir of empty space carved in the ground, the width of the surroundings wasn''t much, only forming about a twenty meter circle, the ground here was much less rocky than before however, it was soft soil, with plenty of moss growing atop. In this damp and squishy atmosphere, the silhouette d in ckness unfolded itself, giving out ear grating cracking noises as it stood up to its maximum height, just above the two meter mark, the beautiful red rope tied around its neck stood out from its dark choice of attire. "Our valiant lord has spoken" "Die, die via haemorrhagia" The androgynous voice spoke clearly, the red rope tightly bound around its neck came undone of its own volition, falling to the ground like a drowsy serpent, the dark veil slipping down from the back of its wearer, revealing whaty beneath. "Praise the lord, offer up your blood, offer up all that you own, offer up your body, offer up your mind, offer up your soul, and ept to be reborn, only by being sculptured by a higher being can you hope to rid yourself of impurity" its body unfurled, revealing countless arms ending with sharp objects, knives sliced through the air, scissors opened and close as its elongated, feathery limbs stretched out all of their joints.N?v(el)B\\jnn The body skeletal, skin pulled thin against the bones, chest barely raising as the abomination breathed in and out, a perverse respiration muffled behind porcin fused with its head, mask etched so deeply that without a doubt, it had be one with the skull. Its grand speech and undressing was cut short, a flying de of sword mana aimed to cut through the puppeteer''s face, blocked rather easily for it had more arms than the three studentsbined, repeatedly clicking the scissors, taking a single step forward, beginning to dance toward them. Using the abject length of its limbs to try and take them all out in one fell swoop, swinging from both sides, aiming for a swift and simple victory, it''s wide movements may be graceful in a way that was hard to decipher, but theycked in speed and couldn''t be more predictable. Griar had run forward first, sliding in between the puppeteer''s legs, Helena simply used her wind element to float up into the tall expanse up above, going well out of the crafted abomination''s range. Lacking the means to worry, it simply focused on attacking Antieeld, who still remained standing in ce, instead of carving her to pieces, the lustrous alloy of knives and scissors hit something hard, much too durable to be destroyed in one go, two knights carrying great shields appeared to the youthfulmandant''s sides, the girl simply pointed the tip of her sabre at the center of the puppeteer''s mass, using the de as a wand to shoot out a mana bullet. Just as it registered the iing projectile, the existence of the other two students was forced back into its mind, the knight-in-training shing deep into both of its heels, knocking the frail fanatic out of bnce, an abject sin for them who spent their entire time dancing. From above, countless des of wind rained down, cutting and tearing into many arms, amputating a great deal of them, only red threadsing out of wounds, incapable of feeling the pain, it could still tell that this was a rather poor situation. Its body moved on its own, letting a strident scream that rattled the focus of the trio, allowing the puppeteer to do the unthinkable and finish dismembering its feet, standing tall on stumps, hugging itself tightly before unravelling it all, spinning like a whirlwind of sharpness and death, the speed grinding down its legs bottoms up, deep cuts were left in the walls of the cave. But there was no blood, where was the awaited carnage? The only ughter that urred was its own as the students were currently floating high above, the twond-bound youths having been swiftly scooped up by Helena. "Offer them up! Your lives!" gone was the lull generally inspired by the Ironic Puppeteers, with a strained growl, this one spoke like a maddened canine, meaninglessly swinging at empty air. A bullet of air came crashing through the top of its head, unleashing the suppressed winds inside, exploding from the inside out, and the graceful creature of nightmares fell inert to the ground, unable tond any blow. "Dear freaking gods, what the hell was this?" Griar ceased with the calmness once got his feet back on solid ground, pointed at the feathery remains. "An Ironic Puppeteer, I heard those guys worship a puppet, I hadn''t been told about their¡­ Unique designs" Antieeld looked at the corpse with interest, wondering how it was possible to alter somebody''s physicality to such an extent, they were lucky that only one showed up here, one more of those many-armed psychos and the party immediately would have gotten much less funny. "Miss Rosemary told us that they normally fight in groups of three or more, why was that one on its own? But more importantly, we need to regroup with Milo" Helena spoke rapidly, even if he would be protected by their teacher if things went south, she would prefer to be here to help. The farm boy in question rolled to the ground, tackling and grabbing a hold of the second dog, subduing it with a chokehold, breaking the animal''s neck before using the corpse as a projectile against its master. "Oh ah! No respect for those of lesser cognizance, heh? I understand, what''s the point of existing if you can''t evenprehend why food turns into poop?!" still as burning as ever, the unknown follower of heresy coated his hands in fire, or rather, he allowed his limbs to catch on fire as his body clearly wasn''t shielded from the me. The wall behind Milo, where the first projectile had ended its course was left with a deep hole and burn, the mark left on the stone simr to that of a burn of skin, cracks shining with the same orange glow. The me of The Defiler was not one that could be tamed. "Come on! Come on! Are you not interested even a little bit? We don''t limit ourselves to any department! I am sure you have desires you can''t act upon because of the idiotic beliefs of the ignorant masses,e on! Come out and say it, what the hell do you want?!" spouting about without a care in the world, the defiler tried to get a hold of Milo. Chapter 175 Lunacy Of Fire Milo dodged his sleazy attempts at grabs, punching him straight in the chest, the raving lunatic managing to step back, rendering the blow much less effective. "Listen here buddy, my most filthy desire is marrying my girlfriend and founding a family, I don''t think that fits into the whole defilement project of yours" Milo answered his question, making the man with an inferno in ce of eyes drop his shoulders, and somehow, somehow visibly frowned despite not having any sort of flesh where it mattered for such an expression. And he shed a tear, which instantly dried. "My boy, you are boring, there is no other word! That''s such a balless thing to say out loud, are you not ashamed? What else? Want to get a house? A stable job? Be a respectable man? You make me sick to my stomach, consider investing into a man''s phallus to rece your whiney bit" he rubbed over the dried tear, raising his hands. "Don''t you have anything else to say? To defend yourself from the degeneracy you just uttered of your own will? Like¡­" he mimed a most depraved action, he did it very well though, that impressed Milo for a second, that madman really conveyed such a precise act of lustful heresy with nothing but himself and his dexterity. "Your skills as a mime are to be praised, but fuck you man, being infected by a mind-controlling fire that turns you insane does not give you the right to do¡­ That" "Perhaps, but it grants me a perfectly viable excuse" the madman blew air into his smouldering palms, sending a wave of mes forward, the orange fire covering the view entirely, behaving erratically and heading into a seemingly random direction after breaking free of the initial momentum. It was no coincidence, Milo emerged from behind the zing curtain, taking the heretic by surprise. He tried to strike Milo with his right arm, but with fire absent from his limb, the student was able to seize hold of it, twisting around, bringing his elbow down on his enemy''s own, bending the whole thing in thepletely wrong direction. Groaning in pain, though it sounded awfully like a moan, the heretic gritted his worn out teeth, forming a smile as the fire licking his skull and brain flickered darkly, bringing his face up to that of Milo, unleashing a hail of chaos, the proximity with the me said to be capable of defiling the very gods themselves brought an odd feeling inside of the farm boy. Stay tuned to empire He threw the madman away like a ragdoll, instead of getting out of the way of the bullets, he simply changed the way itself, taking a note out of Osworth''s book, Milo rushed after the flying shape of the lunatic, grabbing him from behind and supplexing him directly into the rocky ground. "Ahah, you''re not very gentle!" despite the brain damage, heughed anyway, contorting himself in painful ways to quickly get back in action, kicking Milo to the face before once again bringing his hands up to his face, calling unto the heretical fire. Pulling the inferno into his mouth, onto his tongue as it condensed into a ball, burns appearing all over, preparing such an attack at close range could only mean two things in Milo''s mind, either it was bluff to pull him closer, or it was a bluff to make him back away reflexively, then, the attack could be unleashed.N?v(el)B\\jnn The farm boy was a simple man, if you open your mouth too much, he would shut you up, without hesitation, he uppercut the madman straight to the chin, forcing his lower jaw to reunite with its upper half, making him bite his own tongue off and knocking many teeth straight to dust. Flying and spinning before impacting the ceiling, the hereticid to the ground, twitching and chuckling. Just as his three teammates emerged from the way out of this room. "Are you alright Milo?" Helena ran up to him, inspecting his condition. "Yeah, just got kicked a bit" he replied. "Argh, is that the one? Damn I be, my big sorries big guy, I wasn''t aware of the specificities! Ah" with these parting words, the heretic passed away, the mes in his eye consuming his entire body in moments, leaving nothing of him behind. "Let''s find a way back to the surface, we''ll report our findings" Antieeld spoke up, no one having any objection to this, they had just ran into both an ironic puppeteer and defiler of the holy, under odd circumstances at that, those findings were definitely worth a good deal of points in the test, now, they just needed to present them in a good way, that task befell Antieeld, much more apt at the arts of logical nonsense than any of them. "It feels¡­ A bit odd to kill someone, even if insane and under the will of something else, that guy had a very distinct personality" Milo said aloud, it was odd, but he did not feel nearly as bad as when he had had to put down the reanimated corpse of David, an act he still kept to himself. "It''s always weird to see anything that was alive, unmoving and with a nk stare, but it is what it is, killing is an integral part of knighthood" Griar rubbed the back of his neck, it was one of the first things imparted upon him in his training toward bing a noble knight. Antieeld just shrugged her shoulders, she supposed that it was normal to feel a bit reluctant to ending a life, but she had not ever felt that way, they lived in a world where a system rewarded killing with XP after all, even if not considered the main source to power, it was still here. The quartet expected themselves to be split apart once more on their trip back to the surface, but were pleasantly surprised as nothing happened, the unexplored part of the mine they had been exploring had returned to its original state, Helena noting with a worried frown that the mage that had controlled the earth had done such a great job that he had left not even a speck of residuals anywhere. That was certainly information worth reporting as well. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 176 Going Well ''Just as Osworth said¡­'' Rosemary looked off into the distance, having just received the findings of thest group by Antieeld, obviously, she was well aware of what they had found already, she wouldn''t throw them into those mines without keeping a keen eye on them, she had itched to intervene multiple times, but in the end, they had managed by themselves. That was something to be proud of, the three that had faced against the puppeteer hadn''t demonstrated ster team spirit, but great trust in one another''s capabilities still, they had mostly done their own thing, not getting into one another''s way was the crux of fighting as a group however, so that was good in her book. As for Milo, she had been worried about him considering that he was fighting a defiler, the heretical me was known to be pretty much a one-hit KO for the vast majority of the poption, Rosemary was only confident because the fire wasn''t truly under the caster''s control, the fire had a mind of its own, but it did not actively fight back per se, with her mastery over fire, she could take control of the mes for little while without risking anything. Otherwise, the concept that defiler''s were around would have made it a no go for her student to get anywhere near here. Thankfully, the boy knew how to handle himself, and also, this particr madman had seemed a bit too focused on talking rather than attacking, although despite all his grandiose speeches, it was undeniable that he had been rather proficient with the me, not a mindless husk to its defilement. ''That puppeteer was a rather advanced one as well, not the sort that we are used to, they attacked by themselves too, clearly, the earth mage set up those encounters purposefully, but why? How could the two other groups agree to be put in such predicaments?n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om The earth mage could have assisted them in battle, it makes no doubt that more lunatics are to be found down there too¡­'' she tapped her forehead, trying to find logic amidst the madness, the behaviour of the two couldn''t really be counted on as proof that they were on board. Both are too deep into their own, filthy little worlds to not preach to the first people they encounter. ''No signs of Aliz¨¦ though'' this particr group, or organisation was one she was much less familiar with. Even if small, the defiler and puppeteers were old, perhaps even ancient for the followers of heresy, their patron was said to have walked the earth at around the same time as the Elven Light, whenever that time immemorial had been. Aliz¨¦ however, for all intents and purposes, seemed to have been created very recently, their influence was still small, their ns unclear, Rosemary had inquired about what Osworth knew in greater details after their discussion in the library, he was certainly more knowledgeable than he typically let on. He had even heavily implied that the one responsible for the copses, who seemed to be the earth mage, was someone he personally knew, that was an odd detail to share without boration. But he had echoed the idea that it wasn''t a simple partnership, that they were somehow forming an army through allyship down into the mines, plotting against the crown, against the country, the people, they had delusions of grandeur. No signs of Aliz¨¦ and their intoxicated goons were to be seen however, she had no idea what the leader might look like, but amidst puppet-people and burning heads, it shouldn''t be a herculean task to figure it out. Groups went one after another into the different mines, some finding absolutely nothing, some being dragged into fights the same manner as before, a few requiring intervention for their lovable teacher, who mercilessly made them into charcoal. A few days passed like this, one group diving at a time, although Rosemary could easily watch over all of them at once, it was always preferable to be careful when possible, they had plenty of time, she put her all in watching a single group at a time, keeping the rest of her precious students close-by. Actualbat was of great value, especially to those talented but that had been seriouslycking in actual practice, they would certainly already do much better against the two bodyguards. Speaking of them, Gelter would be shifting ufortably everytime hisdy would go in, absolutely straining himself to remain in ce, not liking it one bit that she had to have even the smallest of interaction with those degenerates. "Aherm, so, Osworth knew of this?" he asked, his tone calm. "Yes, he thought that it would be a great learning experience for Antieeld, and you have to admit, her progress is outstanding thanks to this, she is getting better and better at coordinating her group, even making friends, don''t take it badly, Antieeld was a bit reluctant to be friendly with anyone at first, she seems so stern and confident, but is actually very shy! That''s pretty cute" Gelter turned to her, silent. "Lady Antieeld has always been cute, I have apanied her for all of her life, she was made aware of her responsibilities and inborn talent, gift of the system, at an early age, with knowledge that she was meant tomand others, she has struggled between interacting like a normal girl, or as themandant she is expected to be, no matter what thew regards, or how they may appear, kids are kids muchter than we believe" "Children need to be cared for and protected from what they can not handle, I know this, but I still vividly remember her younger self when I see mydy, it is difficult for me to imagine her fighting and killing, unlike Osworth, he does not know her" he suddenly jolted straight, raising one hand up to his helm. Settling back into position without another word, ignoring the questioning re of the volcano witch. "Excuse me Gelter, but what''s up with that reaction?" "..." "It is nothing important, I wasn''t supposed to say anything" he replied cryptically, clearly unwilling to speak up any longer. "I am her teacher Gelter, I only want her good, and so do you" Rosemary crossed her arms. The knight remained motionless for a few more moments, his expression unreadable underneath his armour. He sighed. Chapter 177 Shady Gelter sighed heavily, taking in his surroundings before saying his part. "Lady Antieeld only has one bodyguard, myself, this Osworth man, I have no idea what his background is, he is just an odd wanderer that mydy found interesting, she just sensed potential from him and handed over one of her insignias, telling him toe to Toordefer Academy, she didn''t even ask for his name, and hees this total stranger, dressed in a bizarre fashion, from head to toe covered in countless ways to mask his identity, with a different voice, inventing himself a mission he had been on for a long time, acting like he is just a normal bodyguard of Lady Antieeld, not even giving her the honorifics, like he knows her that well that it isn''t necessary!" he tensed down, shaking his head dejectedly. "I did not want to attract suspicion upon someone mydy had chosen herself, and I also didn''t want to tell you about this, seeing how well you seemed to be getting along with him, it''s just that, I can not reasonably put an ounce of trust into this guy, Lady Antieeld seemed to believe he was charmed by hermanding talent as others had been in the past, and his behaviour has been perfect, I don''t like him, but he is right that this is a great asion for her" "His odd lies to appear like an older follower made me think that was only vying for a good position and to be in greater view of others" "Well, that is certainly strange, but he hasn''t done anything too suspicious-" she stopped, putting her attention on the knight next to her. "There is something else you want to say" tonepletely t, she did not phrase this like a question in the least. "Yes, you must have thought of it already, but Osworth remained at the academy as per his own will, he is the one who spun up a reason to remain behind, mydy did not order him to do anything, but do not worry! The headmaster and the other teachers are there, even if he wished to do something condemnable, he wouldn''t be able to" Gelter reassured her, as well as himself, mostly attempting to shield hisdy from criticism by defending Osworth. "That is true, the old fossil can hold his own, especially within the academy, I am rather displeased that an unknown variable was introduced inside of the learning grounds, there are children of nobles of other nations here, even of kings, I''ll have to talk to Antieeld about this" Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Rosemary seemed a bit dejected. Why was that whenever she met a nice man, there had to be something shady about them? "Apologies, once more, but I am certain that Osworth is naught but a bit of an entric" the knight said, just as the group of four including hisdy came out of yet another expedition. ____ Deep beneath the earth, seated atop nothing more than protruding rocks, three figures formed a triangle, on one end, the immobile figure of the beautiful puppet lord, two of its devoted followers standing close behind, one of them speaking out words in its stead. Right across from the puppet, a smouldering person dressed in molten armour, stuck to the skin, fused with flesh and muscles, a majority of the defiler leader''s skull could be seen, deformed by the intensity of the mes nesting within. Also apanied by two subordinates, much less dignified andposed than the puppeteers, twitching and vibrating in ce, needing all of their willpower to remain still. In thest corner of their disposition, there was a skeleton, who did not waste much time before standing and speaking up, tapping the rocky ground with a grey staff, nearly as tall as the undead was, its surface was rough and jagged, anyone with the poor idea of having skin on their hands would have the displeasure of cutting themselves trying to hold this thing. "I havee to the understanding that you all had something to tell me" dressed in an ancient brown robe, suffused with dust amassed over countless years, his voice was dry, rough the ears like sand on the skin, definitely masculine. His bones were rtively frail, adorned with signs of wear and cracks, especially on the left side of the skull, appearing like something or someone had unsessfully attempted to smash the skeleton''s head in. Eyes ring with dark brown mes, he stared at the defiler''s own burning gaze, unshaken by directly staring at heresy personified, this little spark much too removed from the real deal to shake up any sort of animated corpses. "You filthy grave fucker, do you think we wouldn''t notice what you are doing? Thought you could get away with it, taking us out one by one, are you actually working against us?!" ming up, the defiler spat his words like vitriol at the emotionless carcass, hitting the air with his fist. "Our great lord agrees with the molten one, you are taking us for fools, eliminating us one by one" one of the puppeteers ryed the words of the puppet. "You are nothing more than a skeleton, a stripped body, nothing but bones, I certainly hope you have a good excuse, otherwise I''ll get onto some nec-" the undead stuck his staff down again, silencing theints and threats. "Yes, I am indeed trimming you all down, like weed, like you livings deserve, is there a problem? You agreed to follow me into those mines, caverns and depths, knowing well that this wouldn''t be a grand friendship, you all vye to dispose of one another, I act upon it, are you going to do something about it? I assure you, if the n works out, you will gain much infamy and the kingdom will be weakened, that is what you desire, no?" "I can kill you all, right here, right now, the spells are already casted, they just need my approval" reminding them of where they stood, the skeleton walked right through the wall behind, phasing right through the stone.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om "Bastard, but he really just forces his will on us, we really are his little things down there" his mood switching brutally. The puppeteers and their lord simply remained silent. Chapter 178 Whats Coming The undead''s bony feet scraped against the ground, fingers and toes twitching at an odd tempo, bringing his hands together, just in front of the heavily faded emblem drawn directly onto the front of his robe, a sign of having once belonged to the now inactive army of the dead. "Loimos, get over here will you? You should be done on your end" turning to a dark corner, where a motionless figureid on its knees, head tilted back, armspletely limp, dressed into an antique armour, simrly touched by the decay of time as was the attire of the skeleton, the suit of protective gear jolted into motion, a sudden twitch, a dark purplish glowing out of the thin slits of the helm for a brief instant. Rising up only using its legs. "The headmaster has been secured, our foothold within the academy is guaranteed unless he is discovered" Loimos immediately reported, his disposition utterly different from that of his Osworth persona, back to the very definition of undead. "Great, that One vampiress is more capable than she appears, her concoction is a great addition to our collection, it should be high time to get done with this then, the livings are growing more dissident" speaking of their temporary allies, the mage snarled. "When is that woman going to allow all of her shitlings to step in at once?" rubbing his cracked chin, the sorcerous undead hadn''t had such an opportunity in a long, long time, and it was all thanks to Loimos. It had been a chance encounter, proof that fate aligned with the dead, that once again, they would rise from outer tomb and rain ruin upon the proliferating filth that was life, it had been so long since their glory days. "Nowadays, even puppets get to be alive, simply preposterous, I would crushed this fool into jam without a second thought were he not useful" revelling in long awaited progress, Unacunerra, known as The Earthen Catastrophe and royal guard to his majesty had not seen such a thing in too many years. The marks of his failure still clung to his skeletal form even to this day, of course, there had been no way for him to possibly defeat The Elven Light by himself, but the knowledge of this fact did not alleviate anything. "Soon, our legion shalle back together, stronger than it used ever was, facing against our enemies, who have never been so weak" he looked forward to the reascension of death. This all had been put into motion after Loimos somehow managed to not be destroyed entirely at the hand of Lady Syklon, it was technically his own attack that did the damage but that did not matter, all that was of importance was that he was not defeated in the truest of sense. Loimos was a skeleton capable of piloting his severed limbs wherever they remained, a great deal of them at the same time, and over a distance that seemed to simply not end. The putrid skeleton had lost many bits of himself over the course of his career, getting hacked up and thrown around was a typical urrence, there was that arm cut off by Helena way back in Throdqdmond, but it had eventually been destroyed by the residents to calm their wrath. Of course, they were the countless hands that had been wandering Muho Chitai as well, but the disembodied limb of interest was one that had been left in Findpasser, down into the pit resting in the center of the city, inhabited by countless bat-like creatures, after his conversation with Irmandos, he had simply left the hand down there, enveloping it in rot, his death force had remained here all of this time. And as such, he was able to regrow fully from there, saving quite a bit of time travelling, emerging out at night, making his exit undetected, and without surprises, he had then decided to head for Bourgliotte,st city to check out on his list. He had not been able to get very close to the city, not to mention inside, the country Bourgliotte belonged to was Starkefolten, they enjoyed having armed forces and power in the form of violence, vestige of their old times as a warmongering nation. There had indeed been a crypt inside, the monument was so huge it could provide shade for half of the city, and it appeared to only be peeking out from the ground, it was actually rather easy from Loimos to tell that this was the right ce, since any goober with the slightest of senses of energy would be sted by the intensity of the struggle, a seal of phantasmagorical proportions, intertwined with both a powerful radiant energy and life force unlike any other the undead had ever witnessed suppressing the death force the building seemed to naturally emit. Faraday had said that the king''s castle was permanently shrouded with his dominion, so the struggle he could so simply make out from such a distance was most certainly the undead king''s dominion actively fighting the seal.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Such a duel could not possibly go unnoticed, it was unclear the how or why, but Starkefolten had erected a great city, or rather, a bastion to keep a watch and contain the crypt, whilst it might appear like a city, Loimos''s observation quickly revealed that there seemed to be no simplemoners within the walls, even the merchants bringing in goods were awfully powerful, clearly over qualified regarding their position. Bourgliotte had countless walls and defensive measures, guards armed to the teeth and garbed in the most exquisite of equipment avable, even getting anywhere close to the city was certain to result in the undead''s eradication from the face of this world. Although this country was known for its military might, itcked any individual that could pretend to reach the level of the likes of Syklon or Rosemary, but all of this, it was the work of countless people from many different fields, created, crafted, perfected over countless generations, it was nothing to scoff at, and reaching the king of the dead would be a troublesome affair, an affair requiring immense firepower, overwhelming numbers and great ingenuity. In short, the might of the dead was needed. It was time for the dreadful lords of yore to rise again, for the chosen champions of death to fight once more. Chapter 179 Clash Unacunerra stood in the center of one of his fine creations, a small altar ce in the very middle of an assortment of magic circles, runes, sigils and all that could fit into it, meant to further enhance any spells he would produce amongst other things, his wish for Rosemary to allow all students at once into any given mine was but hopeful thoughts, she was clearly going to stick to the method employed since the very start, keeping a watchful eye on her students. Putting much carefulness to avoid them running into severe problems, and wrestling against her mana maniption would supposedly not be very conductive, Loimos had warned him not to attempt anything of the sort before the finale. Infusing mana into the stone around him, deep into the earth, and up towards the soil, he took control of it all, initiating thest portion of this little n he, Loimos and One had brewed, a little special dish cooked up by the cold hands of proud undeads. Everyone had their own roles to fulfil in this preparation, including even the livings they had partnered up with. The ground beneath the feet of the students and their teacher rumbled, shaking with great intensity without any prior signs, Rosemary was already reacting, having noticed the influx of mana that she hade to recognise, its approach had been well concealed, leaving only little time to try and fight back, Unacunerra had had plenty of time to prepare for this particr spell as well, condensing the mana and adding as manyyers as possible, making it certain that no portion of his spell would bepletely nullified. Allowing for the rise of countless walls, pirs and other random structures of both stone and earth, and to make sure that it wouldn''t all just be blown away by the volcano witch, the undead himself emerged to the outside, although he certainly disliked and looked down on the living by principle, he did not bother trying to just exchange some random spell with her. Loimos had been very clear about her, he had done everything to get as close to her as was possible, merging what he learned through that and what he looked up on her past achievements allowed for a clear picture on Rosemary. With how much she had achieved at such a young age, things that Unacunerra had needed both the miracle of undeath and hefty talent to aplish, it was obvious that no messing around was allowed, it was full throttle or be thrown to the gutter. "Zone" he spoke aloud, such aplicated technique needed all the help it could get, and saying exactly what wasing before it did was a rather good condition to add, though, he could just speak in the death tongue to circumvent this little drawback. But not today, he could not, he had to wear a disguise, taking the guise of a defiler, utilising the same ways he had provided for Loimos''s Osworth persona, covering up the fact that he was dead. Fortunately, unlike Loimos, whose mana was dead, Unacunerra had the regr mana everyone added, so there was no need to bother concealing that. Following the spoken word, he recited the name of the particr spell he intended to inscribe upon his zone, using his finest creation in the manner of pure defence and nothing else, to reinforce his zone. Rosemary didn''t even blink upon noticing him ever so casually deploying the most supreme of magic, that was certainly worrying. Not bothered as the ambient mana around the two of them were subjected and turned into the mysterious mage''s own, she simply countered the greatest height in the best way it could be, by unleashing her own zone. Unlike the undead, Rosemary''s mana was already a special element, her trait in perfect ordance with her affinity, thus, as the wild mana was pulled toward two distinct casters, it brutally switch from a red hot element to its natural state, back and forth, every bit of mana intensely strained in the struggle. The teacher writ a powerful offensive spell upon her zone, aiming to crush Unacunerra''s incredible defence. ''By Nitok''s beard! What did they feed her?!'' he had expected a difficult battle, but that was a bit much, certainly, it was nothing like the zones that had crushed his own without even needing to fully form, but that treading the line of oveing him too closely. The royal guard was at a disadvantage on multiple levels here, although his zone was much more refined and perfected, which was to be thanked for being an eternal being and being wholly focused to the task, even when improvement only came in barely noticeable ways once every few years. Despite this, the fact that she had a special trait of this sort made it that taking control of mana under her influence was more difficult than normal, not to mention the element used to form her zone was incredibly unique and powerful by default, he was only versed in more regr elements of the earth, elements she had certainly learned to recognise and how to effectively fight against. Meanwhile, he had to contend with an element that had probably only ever been of use to her, he could sense things such as fire,va, magma and many other things, the logical assumption would be that it had to do with volcanoes, but that wasn''t the case. He casted a simple spike of earth forward. ''He can cast spells even as we are shing¡­'' she noted, replicating in kind, even if he was once the backfoot concerning zones, he had the advantage of not feeling even the slightest strain by maintaining it and casting more magic simultaneously. Their duel wouldst for a few more minutes. Everywhere else, holes opened up in the ground, allowing for defilers and puppeteers toe bursting out, a totalck of cohesion in between the two groups, the defilers did not even have it with one another.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om They could hardly work together, their numbers much higher than any might have expected, the students had been well taught however, fighting back without question, some of the enemies suddenly going up into mes, somehow, their teacher was still protecting them. As for Gelter, he was pulled underground, separated from hisdy, made to face another knight. Chapter 180 Knight VS Knight Gelter first attempted to simply jump back out, not wanting to waste any time away from Antieeld during such an emergency, but he had no choice but to defend himself as the knight garbed in ancient armour swung his weapon at him, a halberd with a nk banner decorating it. ''Damnit!'' The bodyguard was pushed back, clearly, he could not simply weasel his way out of this confrontation, and unfortunately, the enemy in question was not weak either.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Clutching his longsword, he lunged forward, the speed of his attack far surpassing that of what he had shown before, his de cutting through the air with abnormal swiftness, before crashing into a wall, obliterating with disconcerting ease. The enemy knight dodged, feinted a sweep at his legs before stepping back some more, striking the end of his halberd onto the ground, an odd white smoke shrouding the weapon, rippling across the ground, emerging from the ripples were misty figures, appearing like mere footsoldiers. Gelter released his own battle art, pulling in the summons with ease, their weight far from that of whatever people they were supposed to emte, their master however, as though he already knew what wasing, had firmly nted his feet on the ground, using his armament as a crutch to avoid the gravitational attraction. Without mercy, the bodyguard did not remove his sword from the ground, maintaining the powerful pull, ignoring the foggy presences, rushing for the main man himself, ready to plunge his fist enhanced with his inborn ability, his actual main source of power, owning this particr art was but a coincidence after all. Gelter true ability, was to manipte the weight of objects, focusing on his gauntlet, well aware that if that punchnded, it would most certainly be of lethal consequences, and he was going to hit him right in the center of the chest, even through a hefty suit of armour, the shock would certainly stop this unknown knight''s heart on the spot, and if not, well, the damage should be sufficient to secure a victory still. The bodyguard was in a hurry to end this, however, he was not facing a mere man, but a most perfidious undead. Loimos let go of his weapon, allowing it to be pulled in by the well of gravity, straight in the living''s path, forcing him to think and do something about it, meanwhile, however, he further condensed his rot, shaping it into something of greater weight. Rendering him immune to the pull, the strength of which could not be adjusted by Gelter, the initial force of the pull was stronger than what it settled upon, but he was too far from his sword to do anything with this fact, he caught the halberd, it was not his preferred weapon, neither was itpatible with his battle art, but with his innate skill, it could be made into a gravely powerful tool of murder. Gelter''s ability was something integral to himself, not a skill given by the system, as such, it had influenced his body, granting him greater natural strength to allow for a greater usage of this ability, he could swing weight that would rip people''s arm off without much strain, confident in his strength, he rose the halberd, aiming to smash it down onto the ground with his maximum power, copsing this entire ce on itself. Having noticed Loimos now capable of moving freely in spite of the gravity, he decided that it would take too long to properly put him down, he had to get away from here right this instant, so he would bury the both of them, and bet that he would be able of emerging on the surface, which was not that far away at all. The undead wasn''t impressed, he was not a fool, he had not handed over a weapon to Gelter without thinking, he had ways to evade a punch, and even had he not, having some bones crushed was a non-issue. Before the weapon could tear the stone asunder, it all turned into ck blood, flowing onto the bodyguard, falling and sttering like gtin, smoke rising from the armour as the acid bore into it. At the same time, the gravitational pull ceased, the de falling to the ground as blighted blood had seeped into the ground and devoured its de sunken into the earth, the foggy soldiers get back up, swinging their transparent weapons at Gelter''s back, their hits bouncing off, like peasants encountering a noble on the battlefield, they could not get past his defences. Loimos could however, invading the academy and this very event had been nned for quite a while now, his mastery over the primeval rot, death force and other concepts had grown higher, the mist soldiers were dispersed by the bodyguard, the undead and living engaging in good old fashioned fist fighting and martial arts for a few moments, ceasing when Gelter bent in Loimos''s chestte with a punch, sending against the wall. The man did not stop and continued on attacking, his attacks shattering the wall as Loimos rolled against the rocky surface, receiving another punch that twisted both his helm and skull a whole one hundred and eighty degrees, he responded by attempting to grab the bodyguard, but his arm was caught into an armlock. No problem, with a twist, the undead relinquished his limb to the gobsmacked living, who was unable to react properly when the discarded arm detonated, corrosive blood sttering everywhere, shrapnel of both bones and iron scraping against the armour, the small explosion deafened Gelter in one ear, disorienting him for barely a second, just one more second and he would have been able of catching himself, there were no break to be had. Loimos kicked him in the back of his knees, getting behind him and grabbing him into a chokehold, disgustingly vile rot spreading out from his stump like vines of nightmares, twisting around the living''s body, pumping blood and miasma at point nk range. The bodyguard cursed loudly, feeling his defences being bypassed by the purplish mist, his skin sizzling and bloating in contact to it, with a groan, he managed to flip the undead over his shoulder, stomping down toward his head, only for the skeleton''s neck to crank itself way out of the natural bounds. A word of death tongue was uttered, making the stressed bodyguard halt for an instant. "Damnit¡­" Chapter 181 Surrounded The students were being attacked from all sides, split into random small groups, enemies pouring from every direction, puppeteers dancing around, their unison seemingly unbreakable, weaving and spinning around with bloody grace, none had died yet, but many had been injured, forced to focus on dodging the burning attacks of the defilers, who were otherwise more dangerous than getting shed or stabbed. Utter chaos was befalling them all, their saving graces amounted to two things, the rigorous training they had been made to follow relentlessly, and the protection of their teacher, many puppeteers and defilers seemed to spontaneouslybust were they to get to close to actually harming someone severely. Rosemary was simultaneously maintaining a zone in a sh against a particrly skilled mage, one that was certainly stronger than any she had ever had the asion of meeting, casting spells at him and countering his own, circting mana through her body to enhance her performances, and also enacting punishment upon the fools that thought they couldy their greasy hands on her pupils.N?v(el)B\\jnn None could even consider getting close to the sh of supreme magics, the mana around had turned into a death trap for the uninitiated, Milo made good use of the fact that he was close to such a hazard, the puppeteers surrounding him had to be mindful of their environment, unable to fully deploy their dance of death, simply pushing them into it, even if they only grazed it, the simple act of getting into contact ignited their internal mana with the same strife, killing them on the spot. He had, somehow, once again found himself all by his lonesome, everyone had been separated into groups except for him, it was no problem however, reinforcing his strong body as he had been taught, he could block the sharp des without suffering injuries. Augmentation wasn''t a singr trick, it was one of the simpler applications of energy, but it was no less one that could be refined and specialised, focusing on shielding his skin against cuts, he grabbed one of the knives aimed at his eyes, ripped the long, segmented arm of the crafted abomination, swinging its limb around like a glorified whip, piecing multiple of them at once. This was an advantage of being alone with a bunch of enemies, he did not have to worry about hitting his allies, in fact, there were so many people aiming to turn him inside out, that it was turning advantageous, the defilers were getting in the way of the puppeteers pristine teamsmanship, forcing them to switch around to less effective methods so as to not break the cohesion and rhythm. He could use them all as cover and shields against the heretical fire, as for the puppeteers, he could handle them thanks to his exceptional mana aspects and his learned capabilities, were it not for the defilers making a mess, they could have certainly managed to overwhelm Milo though, so he made certain to not eradicate either of the two parties first, keeping their numbers in the positive as he slowly dwindled them down. Breaking necks and shattering porcin, his chest heaved as time passed, whilst many enemies without proper teamwork was legitimately simpler to manoeuvre than a single skilled enemy, the weight of greater numbers wasn''t to be underestimated, even if all of them were enemies he could face with some ease in a one against one situation, it didn''t mean that it was effortless, he was still a rookie, just a rookie that hit exceptionally hard and with a good physicality, he had to avoid making excessive movements, lest he hand up out of breath and fatigued still surrounded by enemies. They were all getting used to his speed and tactic as well, thankfully, he had something else to show them. In the beginning of his school year, he would always try to go at an absolute one hundred percent in every exercise he was given, it was a good thing in practice, but on the terrain, when facing actual enemies that wouldn''t hesitate to stab you in the back, sometimes, going all-out from the get go wasn''t the wisest move. Most would try to probe around to get a good idea of the power and abilities of their enemies, trying to reveal as little as was possible, they yed a game of lies and deception, if you went all out, only to realise that the enemy actually had something to counter you up their sleeves, you would end up looking really stupid, unless going all-out without pause is one''s forte. Or, if you are an undead. The mana circting his body, empowering his body switched from the simple, natural mana he produced to that of his golden element, which specific properties were still not properly defined, though, it was clear that it was more potent in every departments, his speed changed on a whim, surprising the puppeteers. Milo suddenly felt exposed, and it had nothing to do with his apparel, it was just that it like thousand gazes suddenly turning directly to him, taking a look around at his enemies, an idea of what it could be due to became clear, whilst the puppeteers were simply confused by the sudden burst in speed, it was like someone had just pushed a button inside of the brain of all heretics. Their lunacy, antics only befitting of the mentally ill, ceased at once, the fire in their eyes slowing its movements, the twitches andughter died down. ''Huum, the hell did I do? Are the other defilers also looking at me? Through the freaking walls? I can feel insistent gazes piercing through me¡­'' Shaking off the profound sense of unease tickling his bones, he weaved past two puppeteers, breaking a leg for each of them, quickly striking a defiler right in the jaw, right on time for the area to take a orange tint, inhuman howls filling the area, all of the heretics around dropped whatever they had been doing, running over toward Milo. Their approach was anything but discreet, Milo was thankful to have left some puppeteers around, he would be needing their unwilling assistance to not be cooked alive. A fate quite a lot of the defilers suddenly suffered. Milo would have normally just taken off, but they wereing from pretty much every direction, the one that was free of them was blocked by mana that would instantly get him six feet under. Not the best situation to be in, he would definitely prefer some quality time with Helena, but right now, a ton of defilers of the holy would rather have quality time with him. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 182 No Need To Linger On Witnessing the defiler''s suddenly turnpletely silent, dead seriouspletely out of the blue was certain a surprise for everyone, especially the puppeteers who had had the displeasure of having them as neighbours for much too long, their reaction to the odd urancested a bit too long, leaving them static, target of well ced strikes that decimated their numbers. Not every group of student had followed the same tactic, though, all of them had been able of recognising how valuable having defilers being themselves was, the crafted abominations were dangerous enemies, few had what it took to withstand their sharp edges, and it was not like they aimed randomly, each of their graceful attacks were meant to kill or cripple, since many could not reliably block their strikes, they had to run around constantly, using the defilers as props to disrupt the performance of the puppeteers. Curiously, despite some of them, the majority, simply trying to carve through both allies and foes, it was like an invisible force prevented them from doing so willfully, and with of much intent they put into the slightest of their movements, doing anything without thoughts was a mountainous task for them. "Looks like they have a rather tight pact of non-aggression" remarked Antieeld to the students around her, under her directive, the fighting was already going well into their favour before the defilers sudden movements, but now, they had been able of wiping the floor with the distracted puppet worshippers. "It looks like they are heading tow-" the soon-to-be general suddenly halted, her mask ofposure reced with a pale visage. "Go help the others, be careful!" she suddenly shouted, rushing off into another direction, not leaving any time for anyone to question her, especially when giving them an order using all her expertise with her talent. "No, no no no no, no!" she unconsciously muttered arriving into a section empty of any students or enemies, arge pit carved in the center, as if waiting for a time cue, the ground further away erupting into debris, a figure familiar to hering crashing into the side of one the earthen walls. Quickly jumping off to meet him, she rose her valiant knight from the rubbles, his armour battered, covering in scratches, bends, parts burnt away and others seemingly rusty, a vile odour clung to him, enough to make her gag, something she could only describe as fleshy moss growing over him, crimson red in colour, Gelter tried to say something to her, but he only coughed up blood.N?v(el)B\\jnn A loud cracking noise emerged from the dust rising up, a knight of no clear allegiance stepping out, busy with recalibrating his helm it appeared. nting his halberd firmly into the ground, he stood tall, staring straight at Antieeld, she felt like looking away, meeting this man''s gaze nted a seed of fear into her heart, like she had just dared to look at death. The fear was much less intense than her bubbling anger however, having sensed the state of her most loyal knight had consumed her with worry, catching a single glimpse of the reason for Gelter''s situation was all that was required to turn concern to a wish of eradication. "Name yourself!" she demanded, not offering her own name. The ancient knight''s set of armour was simrly battered as that of her bodyguard, in fact, he looked somehow worse for wear, the way his chestte was caved in could only mean that the majority of his ribs had to have been crushed, his helm was simrly damaged, he was even missing an entire arm, there was no way this man had not sustained dreadful injuries. A gruff voice answered her. "I was not graced with a name, but if you truly wish to refer to me in some way, you may call me a knight of gue, my services were hired to upy this knight¡­" He lifted his halberd, making the nk banner swirly in the air, summoning a small group of foggy soldiers. "...But I will not deny your will to fight me, little girl" Antieeld remained silent, eyeing the knight''s summons. It might look simr to spirit creation, but it was naught but a battle art, the specificities could not be made out in their entirety, but it was clear that the movement and banner yed a significant role. "Hold on Gelter" she only addressed her faithful knight, unsheathing her sabre, cing its de close to her face, the back of it lingering closely to her nose, the metal shining with an odd colour. It was not a mere coincidence that Gelter was one of the few outside of Tochi that utilised battle arts, not everyone hadpletely discarded their utility here, this included the house of Antieeld, whomst prized this particr art very much, despite its steep requirements to even make use of, it was one of the reasons they had favoured Antieeld above all else, not only was she the holder of a talent, a rare urrence, she held a particrly impressive one, which coincidentally, also made her the perfect candidate to wield the family art. Army sh, a battle art reserved to leaders of armies, that only grew more and more potent as one''s force expanded, grew more powerful, an interesting art that required only to maintain a simple pose for a brief instant to activate, what was initially demanded of one to learn it was already difficult enough to allow such a thing. And right there, this was the proof that Loimos, as Osworth, had not been quite as trusted as it seemed, he had not been made privy to this little piece of intel, otherwise, he would have not opted for this strategy at all, there was no doubt that he was overall stronger than the youth, her skills were lesser than his, her strength abysmal inparison, but the sh that was travelling right at his midsection was another story. He could tell, there was no way for him to slow this thing without putting in his one hundred percent, but was not supposed to utilise anything that marked his status as an undead out in the open, it was already a bad thing that Gelter managed to slip out of the underground, forcing Loimos to switch the look of his rot, turning it into some sort of crimson, fungus-looking thing. ''No matter, victory is already assured'' the undead made a peculiar noise, causing the ground beneath his feet to swallow him up, leaving the mist soldiers to be halved. He simply retreated, his job here was already done. Chapter 183 The Retreat "Gelter, Gelter! Can you hear me? Don''t let that thing grow any further!" Antieeld kneeled next to her knight, lifting him up. He was not yet dead, but he was not responsive, his means ofmunication had been targeted first, ensuring that no problematic things could be uttered. "Hey¡­ Hold on for a while longer, Miss Rosemary can surely heal you" the zone duel was still raging, neither of the two casters allowing the other to gain the upper hand. The knight could make no sound, he instead raised one hand up in the air, clearing hisdy''s face off of tears, the weight she was carrying suddenly increased, Gelter''s head tilted to the side, no more strength in his muscles. Death had imed him, and soon enough, the crimson growths imed his remains as well, she wouldn''t even get to give him a proper burial. ''A gue knight, huh¡­'' _____ The area was torn to shreds, the sh between Rosemary and Unacunerra was of a small scale, but the sheer amount of damage they were causing was mind-boggling, the constant change in the ambient mana was akin to corruption. ''That witch, is rather problematic'' the skeleton mage had the advantage of endurance and tolerance, however, he was definitely on his backfoot here, the volcano witch was pushing back against him with great ferocity, never weakening in all of this time, there were no doubts in his mind, his zone was going to lose soon, and once it did, he would be engulfed in hers without protection, instantly burning away into nothingness. Now, this was something that impressed him, he had faced many mages bred and trained during the lengthy war of old, those times had called for life to surpass itself, the strong, collective desire of the living to fight back against the inevitable, against death itself had allowed a good quantity of heroes to be emerge, even if a zone remained a rare urrence even in this age, he had had the asion of shing with a lot of them over the decades, some had been more difficult than others, some had attacked him in numbers, forcing him to struggle against three simultaneous zones, he had crushed them all, their corpses raised as undeads to instantly throw back at the filth of life. However, now, countless years after, constantly refining his understanding and mastery, he was being defeated by a single mage, he had not grown rusty, an undead could not, he was stronger than back then. ''She is too dangerous to be left alive¡­ Teaching those critters, but I am too weak to face her head-on, for now'' grasping a small crystal in gloved hand, Unacunerra did not wait for thest moment to make his escape, using the spell trapped in this item by crushing the material, he vanished into thin air, his zone remaining standing even without his support, but without its caster, it was quickly crushed. Rosemary did not bother to question what had just happened, no longer preupied with him, the entirety of the puppeteers and defilers fell victim, only a few of them left alive, there were a few questions they had to be asked about. None of her beloved students had died, though, quite a lot of them had sustained injuries, many quite dire at that, but her healing prevented anything from worsening. "Are you doing alright?" she floated down to Milo, who was closest to her, and had been in a rather tight spot. "I thought I was going to die, but I didn''t, I am pretty happy with that- How is Helena, I mean, the others?" the defilers had not been messing around for once, they didn''t bother with any sort of banter, did not start monologuing about the strangest of things either, hell, none preached the goodness of bing a depraved mess. They had simply focused fire right at him, seemingly not even registering the presence of the puppeteers as they shot right through them, apparently, their pact of non-aggression or whatever wasn''t tight enough to prevent acts of literal insanity. "Your girlfriend is perfectly fine, none of them can reach her up in the air, she''s this way" his teacher directed him, instead moving over to where Antieeld was standing. The littlemandant, as Gelter used to call her as a child, had gone onto her own mission, as if possessed, she had moved and decided to get information from the many enemies wandering around. Even the lunatics did not feel like praising their puppet lord or heretical forefather, she was allowing the full might of her talent at point nk whilst shaking and pping them in the head repeatedly, but they could only stutter and offer up useless information, those guys seemed to not have a clue about anything that had happened before today. "Antieeld" Rosemary carefully ced one hand on the girl''s shoulder, expecting anger and sorrow. "Miss, they don''t know anything, have you ever heard of a gue knight? He was clearly not affiliated with either of those two, maybe he is of Aliz¨¦ instead? But he did say that he had been hired¡­" she was only met with disturbing calmness, her eyes and face still wet with tears. "Hum¡­" knocking out the stray defiler that Antieeld had scooped up, Rosemary cupped up Antieeld''s face. "Don''t you worry, Gelter was a proud knight, he was always ready to ept death for your sake, wherever he ended up, he would only think of you and your wellbeing still, tell me, what do you think is best for you right now?" she appealed to Antieeld logical mind instead of lingering on too long on the emotional stuff she was not verypetent at. The littlemandant seriously thought about it, having been doing nothing but acting upon her wish for answers, in some sort of trance.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Without saying anything, she just hugged her teacher, her face directly up against Rosemary''s vicle, which was a bit ufortable but even if it felt like getting stabbed repeatedly, she wouldn''t have said anything. The volcano witch awkwardly rubbed her student''s back, not quite certain how this whole process was supposed to go, handling people''s crying their hearts out into your chest was not in her area of expertise. She was more of the sort to suggest solutions to problems. ''What a goddamned disaster, why in hell would so many of them even be here to begin with? And where did they find someone with a zone? This guy was seriouslypetent too, and a gue knight? Never heard of that either'' ''Oh, and she''s moved her head down¡­'' Chapter 184 Royal Measures Looking back, it was clear that this was their first big move against us. __ "It would appear that the ones that had been behind the copses of various mines were the defilers and puppeteers, investigation and interrogation did not reveal much, they had taken strong measures to avoid any information from getting out, the captured members of both group had no prior memories before theirst assault, some reports seemed to have been indicating that a new group, called Aliz¨¦, had been part of the effort, but no concrete evidences of their involvement have been confirmed" "The numbers that have been both killed and captured are tremendous, it makes no doubt that neither of them retain much of their forces, most intriguing, are the two unknown variables that participated in the battle, the so-called knight of gue, and the mysterious caster" "Both were sighted for the very first time on this very day, a knight of good power wielding a potent ailment, but most concerningly, the mage could not only make use of a zone, he was able to do battle with Rosemary, The Volcano Witch, she reported that the refinement and expertise of her enemy was higher than hers, only dominating the fight thanks to her inherent advantages"n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "We suspect that both of those men were hired des, the defilers and puppeteers are rather weak overall, they wished to cause discord and stir up troubles by ughtering students of the academy, some of them from other nations, and the talent holders, it makes no doubt that had their n gone their way, the diplomatic rumble would have been unmanageable" "But of course, doing so in the presence of powerful foes would have been difficult for them, Miss Rosemary made it impossible, and Gelter, the fallen knight, was also a force to be reckoned with, making it likely that both were paid a hefty sum to take care of those two, despite this, their attack was a failure" This was the sort of melodies that had been gracing the king''s ears for the past few hours, he had not been left untold of this ident for long, of course, having students be attacked wasn''t a good look, but Agilulf Wanneck was quick to turn the whole thing on its head, managing to convince anyone, even if begrudgingly, that this attack clearly showed that the students could not possibly into better hands. Where else could youth be ambushed in this way and everyone ending up perfectly fine? Only under Toordefer''s care. "First, they invade this pce, then they dare to try and harm students of our respected academy, those fools have gotten too big for their britches, their existence will no longer be tolerated, I will do the unthinkable, and expend funds to eradicate what''s left of them" the king uttered, sitting in his lustrous throne, making his subjects gasp. "Also, I will take responsibility for the regrettable passing of Gelter, may he be given post-mortem honours and titles, invite hisdy here as well, I have to present my apologies" he signalled for some pages to go ahead and do just that. Agilulf Wanneck cleared his throat, standing up from his throne, his bright red and exquisite cloak fluttering. "This whole thing is certainly dubious at best, powerhouses don''t grow on trees, a lone knight I could understand, but a mage that has mastered zone? Our dear volcano witch spoke very highly of his capabilities at that, in this day and age, only Rosemary was a known user of this supreme technique, considering this and putting it together with Audit''s visions, I will admit that I worry for the wellbeing of this nation" The king admitted, allowing the many of his subjects gathered in his throne room to speak amongst themselves before striking the ground with his sceptre. "Starkefolten, Pezerx, Millipolo, Glittegoyaume, Dschungend and Tochi, mightiest nations and either ancient or descendants of old superpowers, none seem to truly be taking the threat the prophet warned us of, they don''t believe his ramblings, and they believe themselves capable of handling whatever it is that ising for us anyways" he mentioned Tochi even though he had since long been made aware of the less than ideal state the country had been left in. In fact, the mad prophet had made a greater job of gathering allies than himself, Agilulf Wanneck had heard that Quideos Audit had somehow managed to convince one of his old friends of helping in some capacity, clearly, he was constantly working toward preventing the terrible fate he witnessed, if it was all another one of his delusions, it would have ended a long time ago. "On top of ridding ourselves of pests, we shall begin further reinforcing our defences, someone go get me all of the Starkefoltians diplomats residing on our grounds, we''ll get a hold of their defence technologies" "My loyal nobles, begin training troops on yournds, we will slow down on our food exports, stock up for ourselves, catch a hold of the death hunters, we''ll offer them a good ce in Tamaris and advantages for settling in here¡­" the king enumerated countless measures and things he wanted done, finally turning to his three otherworlders. "As for you three, you stillck in experience, you missed the chance to battle defilers and puppeteers, so you''ll be participating in their extermination, Pierre-Orn¨¦e will be apanying you" Last time, he had sent them out to find the heretics and doll lovers, but they hadpletely missed their hideout, having reasonably crossed off the mines of the list of where to look since they had been made aware that the volcano witch would be there for a little while, there was no point to bother. He continued on exining specifics, his nobles taking notes, the servants running around, the king had thought long and hard about all that could be done to prepare for what was looming ahead. Just as he prepared to end his speech, a page arrived sprinting into the room,pletely red, panting heavily, raising his index finger, trying to say something but running into some problems. "Breathe in and out slowly my child, who is it that is barging in this time? Did I summon him by saying his name? That would not even surprise me¡­" "My King, there are three of them!" Chapter 185 The Menace As expected, the troublemaker was good old Quideos Audit, once again letting his manic tendencies lose in public, the fact that he hadn''t arrived at the same time as the page was because he had brought with him someone with more manners, the woman was just itching to start speaking but held it in, veins throbbing on her forehead, constantly pushing her sses back up as it kept slipping. The third visitor was really the one who had made the young servant sprint at a speed he hadn''t even thought possible, even though she was clearly the mostposed and ready to wait. ''Well, that is¡­ Quite the line-up¡­'' Agilulf Wanneck was back sitting on his throne, not quite certain who to hear out first, he wasn''t even certain who the woman apanying Quideos was, she was dressed in nice brown pants, a waistcoat of the same colour and white shirt, clearly more of an intellectual than anything, he tried to search his memory for who it would be, he had met and read many things, so he had probably engaged with her in some way before. But before solving that mystery, he instead signalled for the third visitor to speak up, he did not need any introduction to know who she was. "Greetings, King Agilulf Wanneck, I am Lady Syklon, and I wish to ask for asylum" the petite woman went straight to the point, not any less eloquent and graceful than the king himself.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om "Are you willing to help me with your great knowledge of battle arts? To train troops? As well as lending your strength to this nation?" he asked, already fairly familiar with her from a few business dealings, as well as one other source, though thatst one wasn''t very reliable. "Sure" Lady Syklon wasn''t feeling like engaging in negotiations with him, everyone had their area of expertise and this one was the domain of the king of Tamaris, he could tantly scam people even with a de against his neck, an absolute nightmare it was to engage him in money talk. Moreover, she really did not see a problem with what he asked of her, uninterested in ruling over Tochi, she had travelled to Tamaris, the best ce to settle down by far, although his demands seemed to indicate that he was meaning to get into a fight, she did not question him on the spot, simply nodding with a satisfied smile, it was time to have a ce of her own again. "Quideos, what do you want to say to me? It if is concerning your ord with archbishop Jo, I have already been made aware of this" "Ah!" the prophet shouted, looking around for a few seconds. "Sorry about that, it is simply that, as you know, as I know, as everybody should know, oh is it known-" "Sorry again, my visions tell me much of the horroring ahead, of the utter strength of the forces that will soon march upon us all, trampling down onto us, we well be like ants missing half their legs faced with an entire pack of anteaters that can manipted the winds as they wish¡­" Shaking his head, he presented the woman vibrating in ce. "This here is the illustrious, the grand, the one and only, the smartest woman I have ever met, far ahead of my own mother, I can tell as much! Bethome Meleme, she writes books as fast as I can have uncontrolled seizures on the floor from my mind numbing visions, it takes some skill!" he presented her, the king''s eyebrows rising in understanding upon hearing that name. "Hum, ah yes, I meant to say beforehand that my visions whilst harrowing and rather detailed, details I am not allowed to share, I can say that the exact nature of the disaster has never been made obvious, all that I know is that enormous amount of death they''ll cause, and here is my good friend, Bethome is convinced that-" "The undead! It''s the freaking walking corpses, it''s obvious, all of your visions clearly point to the danger having to do with death, so much that it is almostical, the undead are rising again!" she had a small outburst before settling down, assuming a veryposed attitude out of the blue. ''They attract one another like mas¡­'' "Aherm, my king, I have been working on uncovering the truth of the ancient past for most of my life now, and the most interesting period is one that seemed to havested for centuries at a minimum" "The war against the undead?" the king was indeed quite familiar with her works, he just didn''t realise that Bethome Meleme was a woman at all, she published her works herself and did not have a known address, writers did like their privacy, so he had not had the asion of meeting her before. "Well, it is more like the war against life¡­ I wholeheartedly believe that what Quideos is predicting is the rising of the undead filth once again, although I was able of confirming that whilst the undead forces were defeated then, none mentioned a total victory, none of the gravelords that I found out about were even guessed to have been taken out, all that I know, is that their king was tightly sealed in his crypt, which I can only suppose is linked to the guarded ruin of Starkefolten, as for the rest, it is all up in the air" "Well, I am not very knowledgeable of the war with the undead, details are hard toe by, you are the only one that seem to have any sort of knowledge on it, and still, I don''t suppose that you know much about the gravelords and such?" the king asked, considering the possibility, if it was really an undead menace that wasing, then it was even worse than his wildest ideas. He had thought of many things, but none were as obviously damning as the dead that hates life, their numbers could endlessly grow as they lost theirs, although incredibly rare nowadays and regrly hunted down by death hunters, the undeads still hold a reputation as difficult enemies to face. "The folks of the underground tower probably know more" she refrained her want to spat on the ground, not a very big fan of those corpse lovers, who hid in their towers situated somewhere hidden, sending out papers singing the praises of the undead. "Very well then, let me try to contact them" the king casually mentioned. ''He makes it sound like that is an easy thing to do¡­'' Chapter 186 Three Ways Barely a day after the attack, just a few hours after the king''s speech and audience, something came to disrupt the peace of Tamaris once more, contrary to what had been assumed, the two groups of lunatics were not nearly done just yet, appearing all over the country and even inside of other nations, bringing the attention of all forces onto them, their numbers far exceeding what had once been believed. "They are taking the bait with excessive ease, the greater majority is hyper focused on them" Unacunerra, remarked standing straight inside of a fairly tight space, the atmosphere was odd inside of here. Dusty, damp, suffocating, the ground was unsteady, it had actual ss windows, but they were clouded by severalyers of grime, barely allowing light through, dark curtains that appeared to have been mauled by packs of wolves flowed over them, both on the inside and outside. The wood creaked endlessly even without movements, each nk disced from where it should have been in a minuscule way, bent out of way by humidity, random chains and ropes hanging from the ceiling, crates and barrels ced haphazardly, empty cobwebs decorated the corners. "What are the two leaders up to now?" the earthen mage questioned the blonde vampire, who swung her limp wrist in his direction. "The puppet is back to its usual ce, hiding off into the wounds with its harem of caretakers or whatever, as for hot head, he has taken a peculiar route,st time I heard, he had boarded a ship with his strongest followers and sailed into the ocean, the ocean! Can you believe that? He clearly has something in mind, but I don''t know if that will happen, naval trade and travel is rare for a reason" she reported, casually sliding across the small bench built directly into the small space. Feinting a yawn and putting her arm over Loimos''s shoulder, who did not react, as though he was a piece of furniture. "Now that most are focused on the defilers and puppeteers, we will be allowed to make bigger moves unnoticed" Indeed, this had been the greater part of the n all along, a mere act of diversion on a continental scale, allowing each of them to act upon different ns at once without alerting of the undead threat. This had all only be possible thanks to the association of the three corpses, Loimos had encountered Unacunerra in the mines, royal guard of his majesty alongside Slotriig, the ancient skeleton had been a bit lost until their meeting, unable to do anything of great consequence. Loimos had introduced his fellow to One''s existence, and swiftly moved to get in touch with the vampire, she was more than a little happy to see her favourite decaying pile again, and the mage wasn''t very thrilled about her antics, but credit had to be given where credit is due, she had had extensivework of connections, her presence and influence already well established in the underworld of criminality, this was invaluable to the dead''s noble cause, Unacunerra being a highly skilled mage, but also knowledgeable of many other things, such as alchemy, allowed for a swift progression in the form of her marite-making dew, having be potent enough to subjugate the will of someone like the headmaster.N?v(el)B\\jnn Surprisingly enough, it really was One that enabled this entire n, she was able to get a hold of the head of both the Defilers Of The Holy and Ironic Puppeteers, luring them into a deal they were going to regret extensively. But there was a problem, those two groups had too few members to begin with, not nearly enough for any part of their n, thankfully, they also had a solution to this, employing the undead efficiency, One''s furnished plenty of subjects to turn into new puppeteers and defilers, the second one''s being the easiest as only a touch of the fire was enough to do so. Making plenty of meat shields that weren''t up to standards, but had the advantage of being very obedient, just a snap of the finger and their memories would be wiped. Despite being a rather subpar vampire, One was to be thanked greatly for their manoeuvreing into fruition, of course, the other two did not ck. Loimos had learnt and improved on many things, such as the further extent of having sapient limbs of himself around, although he could not pilot two whole bodies at once without having one be ineffective, he could switch between the two, each body recognised as its own being and allowing for highly constraining and destructive conditions and pacts to be put into usage free of charge. It was thanks to this, as well as Unacunerra carving runes and sigils directly into his bones, that he was able of fooling even the volcano witch with his disguise, taking upon rules that wentpletely against his very nature, at least, that''s how it was interpreted by whatever or whoever approved of conditions, vowing not to kill anymore livings certainly warranted a great deal in return, a vow he had somehow abused with a loophole even in his Osworth persona with the headmaster. Loimos had been in charge of turning the headmaster into a pawn and of taking care of Geter, though his greatest achievement was knowing people, serving as the bridge between the mage and vampire, even personally knowing The Death Dealer, Loimos was a well connected skeleton. As for Unacunerra, as mentioned before, he had aided both of his aplices, particrly in teaching Loimos to use his mana instead of his death force, and of course, stalling Rosemary, something neither of the other two could have done at all, one needed to fight zone with a zone. "Very well then, One, you are in charge of turning as many high members of Starkefolten into our pawns, I shall go over to Faraday and help undo the seal faster from the outside, then find Artencil to get him up to date, as for you Loimos, you will have the greatest mission of all" the skeleton mage brought his bony palms together. "It is up to you, to find our venerable lords and direct them back toward our eternal court, the court of Nitok, King Of The Dead, the mage that once brought forth an undying eclipse" Chapter 187 Trying And Failing "You mean the gravelords? Yeah, we have lots of archives on these guys, we have a monopoly on them in fact, what do you want to know?" an old man with a most exquisite moustache, a well-rested face and a charming smile spoke up, his voice echoing inside of the grand throne room. To his side, a young man was simply standing there. "Everything, but first, who am I addressing exactly?" the king and his little troop were standing in front of the projected bodies of the two men, their forms blinking in between transparency and opaqueness, the brightness shifting from time to time. ''Unbelievable¡­'' Bethome Meleme covered her face with one hand, it was only logical however. "Ah, my apologies, Ohith, of the underground tower, next to me is my disciple, Tholth, of the underground tower" "I am sorry, but our current leader is a little busy at the moment, but it is for the best, no one understands his mumbling and slurred speech" he chucked, turning to his disciple, whose projected image disappeared for a few moments as he walked away,ing back with a neatly organised stack of paper. The old mage cleared his throat, licking his finger to flip through a few pages. "Alright then, as far as we are aware, there were, or are, eight gravelords in total, we have really searched everywhere we could to find a trace of them, and there is only one that was ever sighted, and not even by us¡­" The undead researcher purposefully made them wait before he started speaking. ''Get on with it, the faster you are done here, the faster you can go back to phndering in the tomb!'' the historian was seething in the background, if only she could grab them by their twig-wide necks and just start shaking them. "Vwoldtnir! The Grand Ghoul, Sun Hater, or The Deep Crawler, we have reports concerning his rather unconventional bodily shape and choice of limbs, though, they are not very precise as to what that could mean, we have theorised that it was because he was part of the ''Ghoul Fodiens'' meaning that he would have arms in ce of legs" he twirled his moustache, passionately rting the discoveries of the underground tower, for once someone was curious about them, in a way that did not entail lighting a fire. "Although he is one of the more curious gravelords, his exploits were rather shy, copsing the very earth, many ravines and underground systems are attributed to his exploits, such as the famed Elephant Cave System, he still exists for certain, a death hunter spotted him not so long ago, a few years back" The king coughed. "There is one of those gravelords alive- I mean, still around, and no one thought a good idea to mention it?" The mages of the underground tower were one thing, they kept themselves secluded most of the time and werergely despised, but he had just said that it was a death hunter, the king had a good rtionship with them. "They defenders of life after all, they deemed that no one should even consider trying to do anything about it for it would too dangerous, our informants did not manage to make anyone cough up the location either, and then they found that he was from the underground tower and kicked his ass, but anyways, we barely started" He left the spotlight to his disciple for the next one, the two of them really treating this important meeting like a one in a life opportunity to show off. "K?rpersucher is only known to us as a name, we don''t even have a particr title attributed to them, their mention are few and far between, all only talking of them as a great menace without even knowing the power of this gravelord" "Multaemanus is in the exact same spot, only noted for particrly cruel acts of barbarism, did you feel it by the way? That feeling like someone just brushed their freezing fingers across your nape? That''s what happens when you mention this gravelord" Tholth quickly went over the two lords they had the least information about, basically, they were nothing more than names, in fact, there was very little to be known about any of the gravelords, anything that came close to being actual intel was nothing more than padding added by the two researchers and mere spections. The many vampire lords only had more information in the way of their special powers being named, and being known to have participated in battles no one knew anything about, how were they supposed to know how impressive it was that Drac wiped out an entire coalition, when the coalition''s size was unknown, the details of the battle were blurry at best, and when each member of said coalition were groups and nations that had been thrown to the oblivion of history? It was best to say that they knew nothing about the forces of the undead, they knew with near certainty where their king was at least, but Starkefolten was not to be convinced easily, and they were already keeping a close eye on that crypt anyways, they would be offended that their might could be questioned by Agilulf Wanneck of all people, they did not have the strongest under their banner, but they had the strongest army. "Well, that was a big waste of time" Meleme shook her head, not even mad anymore, just disappointed. Even the corpse touchers knew nothing of the ancient undeads. "Calm now, perhaps these gentlemen know something about others¡­" the king leaned forward, the old man and his disciple still all smiles, to them, what they had just shared was tremendous. "What about the heroes of the past? Thanatok Ynig¨®s and Maiele Liameilos? Miss Meleme was able to find many things on them and their deeds, so perhaps, your own archives would have some more? Such as, their whereabouts?" it was wishful thinking, but at least The Elven Light could still be around, part of an illustrious species of elf said to be even above the high elves,bined with the mythical power she was said to wield, it wouldn''t be a stretch to think that her longevity could have taken her all the way to the present. The master student pair looked at one another, then back at the king, raising their shoulders. "Our apologies, we have indeed thought to try and find her, you know, to get her first hand ount, but not only are all records of her stop after the sealing of the undead king, she seems to be immune to divinations" they extended their excuses for not being able to help on this matter, flickering out of sight. "Well, this was useless" "Let''s take care of your citizenship and titles Miss Syklon, sorry for the wait" "I don''t mind, it was interesting considering that I ran into an undead myself not so long ago" "Excuse me?"n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 190 Icon Of Light The dark caravan drove through the peacefulnds, lush trees overflowing with ripe fruits, making for an endless source of food for many birds and other animals, no monsters had made their presence known just yet, but there had to be some of them, they were beings of nature as well after all. Find your next read on empire Wheels crushed the tall grasses, reducing pretty flowers to mush, the overflowing life the wilnds emitted could be suffocating to lower undeads, the domination of life in the current era showed in all its filthy glory, death was but a mere fuel to the life that would after here. Just a bit of miasma could tilt the fragile bnce life believed to be gospel, but it wouldn''t be conductive the greater goal to go after this ce already, Loimos simply went on his way, continuing his travel, his pace made to very slightly, just in case eyes were inspecting him and his carriage. Loimos did not encounter any of the local denizens, no signs of elves and the likes, no monsters either, the only sign of them he discovered was some sort of altar, a treerger than the rest, its leaves a soft pink, its bark and branches bright, dazzling like the sun, in fact, Loimos was incapable of telling the difference between this light let out by the tree and that of the sun, they were simply the exact same. Nestled amidst protruding roots, a rock had been carved out, allowing empty space inside, here, offerings, incenses, flowers and herbs alike had been gathered, in front of a small portrait, appearing like a very realistic piece of art, the artist''s own ir couldn''t be made out, the intent being to transpose the person''s looks as faithfully as possible. Loimos had stopped his caravan, stepping down to take a longer look at this portrait, obviously, to receive such honours, the woman depicted had to be quite illustrious, and indeed, one only needed to look to know that there was something of importance about her. A fair tone of skin, long and pointy ears, much longer than that of the elves one could meet on this continent, pink hair, the exact same tone as that of the very tree this image could be found, and her eyes, holding the exact same glow as the very sun, the artist had clearly gone above and beyond to represent this as well as was possible, this piece seemingly left untouched by the passage of time. The elf''s hair was somewhat slicked back, showing her forehead in full, the end of her hair subtly wavy, only her face and shoulders were represented on this icon, but what had been drawn had been done without mistake. With such singr characteristics, failing to recognise this figure could only mean that one had no clue about her existence, Loimos turned his body to the side, a distance away from the bright tree, a new one had just appeared. "Gorgeous, isn''t she? Surely, even an empty and meaningless being such as yourself could recognise and appreciate her looks" The First Seed once again appeared before Loimos, erupting with a constant of life force, which potency had yet to have been topped by anything Loimos had bore witness to, not even close. Looking at the undead for a moment, the sapient tree scoffed,ughed a bit, its wood creaking violently as it shook from side to side. "I am giving you too much credit, nothing can move you, not even Maiele''s beauty" the old tree sounded genuinely disappointed by Loimos''sck of reaction. "Are you not going to attack? We are both well aware that you have the necessary firepower to do so" the undead paid no heed to the tree''s odd fixation on the elven heroine, inquiring about it. The First Seed was clearly an ancient being, the way he talked and spoke of The Elven Light only confirming that he should have been around for the advent of the old war, yet, none that Loimos encountered had known of such a being.@@novelbin@@ It was only natural to question it now that the nt decided to show up on its own. "Oh, you have no idea, no idea! Just how much I would like to st you apart, I can''t believe I missed my only shot at it, the life I hold, is not to be squandered undead¡­" "Here, we stand near a tree grown from blood drawn of Maiele Liameilos, shed in a vicious battle against the twin gravelords, from which no victor would be decided, the vampires forced to run away, tails in between their legs, once The Elven Light''s true sun rose, no vampires could stand in her way" the tree changed subject back to the elf again, clearly more interested in telling a corpse about her history than anything else. Loimos remained silent for a few instants, analysing The First Seed, its expression was rather hard to decipher. "You make it sound like a threat, am I to believe that she has yet to pass?" "Oh, who knows Loimos, who knows, I am merely here to watch over you, I am never far behind you know, but I emerged today so that you may not touch this tree, it is ridiculous, but I value it, touch it, and I shall not hesitate to waste the precious life I hold to erase you for good" Its face protruding out from the bark contorted, truly meaning it. The skeleton wasn''t nning on it anyways, climbing back onto his caravan, not stopping for thest words addressed to him, no matter how ominous they may be. "Go Loimos, go and gather them all, help the dead back to their peak, we will be here, waiting for you, may we meet again" The First Seed disappeared into the ground, its overwhelming life signature vanishing utterly. Loimos would be waiting for them as well, with the gravelords and king back together, none shall stop death, all life will eventually sumb to its call, this time, all of it shall fall at once. Chapter 193 Thirst For Conflict Things did, in fact, not go smoothly. Stay tuned for updates on empire Lately, it seemed like everytime Loimos attempted something, someone woulde along with a metal bar and hit him in the knees, he was well aware that it was naught but coincidences, but one could have readily assumed that Lady Luck was looking down on them, puking herst meal to demonstrate the esteem in which they were held by her. Because, as it turns out, there is more than one dragon inhabiting this ce, it made sense after all, somewhat, Drac had a strong affinity with the lizardous characters, amongst the vampire lord, only he held the ability to reliably turn one of such beasts into vampire by sharing his blood with them. Although not the strongest of the gravelords, the manpower and forces he could bring to the table made him an invaluable asset anyone would like to have by their side, a greatmander, earning him the special spot of second inmand when it came to the armies of the undead king. The fact that he was the one whose location could actually be reliably guessed was a great boon, but it also seemed like his mere presence had attracted many dragon-blooded beings to make home here, perhaps not even understanding why they felt such a powerful call, maybe the gravelord was willfully calling them, luring them into his domain. It was all baseless conjecture, what mattered right now was that countless, small dragons, which didn''t even have wings, were endlessly spewing their foggy breath at Loimos, crawling around like incessant cockroaches, harassing him in spite of being shown that their breath attack was much too weak against the corrosion he enacted upon the ice forming on his body and caravan. Clearly, the one from before had higher thinking and agency than them, they were nothing short of feral, and honestly quite idiotic too, they were simply hyper aggressive against all that wasn''t themselves, fighting even urred amongst themselves, indeed, even when Loimos was ripping them apart, quarrelling would not cease. They were barely an annoyance to the undead, he simply needed to make sure they didn''t umte too much, but they couldn''t help but find their way inside the caravan on their own, which was to be likened to jumping in one''s own grave head first. No, the real problem were the flying wyrms of various shapes and sizes, none reached even half the grandiose size of the frost dragon though, not that one needed that much to tackle Loimos to the ground, as beast of the draconic sort, their bodies packed power beyond one could simply expect. Also, although the system was a well known entity, the XP it could grant and stats being well known as a good way to increases one''s power, although viewed as an artificial way of doing so by sapient species, the beasts could not care less, they just killed and killed, getting the funny fuzzy sensation and XP as well as levelling up, they liked it and partook wholeheartedly. Meaning that creatures of lesser intelligence were the party making the greater use of this aspect of everything''s life, one could not simply tell the difference between a wyrm that had little system stats and one that did not, Loimos would be made aware of the finer details when they pped him across the face, sometime not doing much, sometime tilting his head to the side, sometimes leaving an imprint on his helm, or once in a while, sending his entire head flying into the depth of the mountain, where it ended it course by exploding against the ground. Which could be a rock, ice of a frozenke or even snow, from that height, nothing could prevent the spreading of decayed gore. The breath attack of the wyrms were more potent, but still not enough to pin the undead down, incapable of freezing his insides, and without freezing every bit of him, he would be able of breaking out. The skeleton was getting beaten up without stop, he was not halting however, they could only impede on his mission. That was not the case for the third group of belligerent enemies he encountered, truly, no one around here seemed to understand that they could simply ignore one another and continue on their way, continue on living for Loimos''s opponents. Where dragons went, many followed, cultists that worshipped the strength of the dragons, or envied it to a fault, they too, despite clearly having something of substances going on in their heads, could not help but try and destroy Loimos, casting attacks inspired of their lovely lizards, the majority were in ordance with the region, utilising ice and snow. Some others had gathered other techniques from times before their seclusion in the mountains. Which was why Loimos was currently on fire, burning whilst also freezing, no wonder the survivors of explorations despised and feared this ce, the locals were absolutely awful to be around, notprehending that they should perhaps, give up after their hundreds of attempts resulted in failures. Loimos was not dropping inert no matter what they did, he could get over broken parts of the road, he could extinguished the mes, he could decay ice, he could regrow his head and defend himself even without one, he had yed many of them as well over the course of more than a week now. But there must have been a factory creating all of them, they kept oning, attacking from high vantage points, up until Loimos reached yet another very top of a mountain, this one not nearly as t as the first one, slight protrusions of sharp rocks, frail trees without leaves popting the area, all attacks ceased as he approached it. There, another one of those cultists, garbed in a hefty amount of fur, adorned with fallen feather of dragons, this was one of the cultists that venerated the dragons, worshipping them like gods, slowly transforming his body into one resembling them, the particr dragon this one had chosen to praise endlessly was clear, an old, discarded piece of flesh was the current object of his attention, the frost dragon had no true scales, but rather thick skin, feathers and something like down feathers arranged like a beard. Thinking about it, the mighty beast was actually quite the fuzzy and fluffy fellow. In any case, the cultist must have been scouring the areas the creature passed through to gather pieces of it, it was unclear what this man had originally looked like, but his face had already begun turning more reptilian. Loimos manifested the familiar dark de that had been broken, the man having already noticed him, dragon worship stopped, flexing his wed hands, the cultist wanted to fight.@@novelbin@@ Chapter 195 Gaze Down Beyond the peak where one could gaze upon countless suns and moons, the terrain was otherwise more treacherous, the area had been the site of battles between giant beings, what they may have looked like impossible to tell, none of their bodies were to be found anywhere, indicating that it had either taken ce so long ago that even their mighty bones had fallen to the passage of time, or that they had simply passed by here in their fight, those mountains nothing more than fences to them. Many parts of the roads werepletely gone, forcing Loimos to scale the rugged sides of the mountains to get over the chasms that would drop one straight to oblivion, falling into there would make one a target of tumultuous, biting cold winds, one would either be torn apart by the air currents, or freeze to death before reaching the ground, which was now impossible to make out, foggy frost covering all vision just a few meters below the feet. Having to hang from rough edges, whilst cutting through dense clouds was already difficult enough, the rocky walls could give out at any moment, the mountains were not forgiving of mistakes, if Loimos lost his hold, he would be swiftly swept further away. One not only needed to be extremely careful, but they needed to be quick, any extra second spent manoeuvering was nothing but an additional asion for the mountains to tear you limb from limb, creating this caravan really had been a great idea, the surface area Loimos could grab onto was significantly increased. Though those aspects, coupled with the incredibly harsh environment would have already imed the lives of most explorers, there were also irregr tremors to add to the mix, the mountains shaking intensely from time to time, like the peaks were mming into one another, a singr pulse that came at odd moments, causing many smalls bits of the walls to break apart into rocks. The ripples of vibration travelling straight into Loimos and his caravan, those bound by the usage of muscles would have found their precious flesh giving out on their own, for the majority. Loimos did not let go however, the natural hazardsing close to felling him, but never managing to achieve victory over him, the undead needed months to reach the top of this mountain, not only was it even taller than the previous onesbined, the rowdy travel here made everything more difficult. At the very peak, yet another environment awaited him, lush vegetation, a miniature ecosystem of nothing but nts of ice and snow, they possessed life force, and grew simrly to regr trees and flowers. No sr or lunar bodies anywhere in sight despite the elevation being several times superior to before, just a campfire in the midst of this freezing foliage, a single figure, their appearance concealed under countless stacks of fur, taken from creatures roaming the mountains. The only thing one could belonged to that mysterious character were the incredibly lengthy hair that emerged from where their head should,pletely covering the face of that person, unkempt cascades of beautiful blondeness, the undeads arrival with his caravan did not go unnoticed, the unknown figure jolted up to their feet, pointing at the skeleton, no words managing to form coherently. The person jumped up in ce, like Loimos was an unexpected, but weed guest. Loimos quickly noticed that this living was not preparing for a fight, lowering their body and raising their hands up. Clearing their throat, the person, a rough voiced woman, beckoned Loimos to join her by the fire, but faced with hisck of answer or action, she put one arm down, ever so casually sliding the campfire, alongside the me closer to him, brushing her firstyer of sleeve to get rid of the small bits of fire clinging to her. "Thanks for epting my offer, are you an undead? I smell death, my sense of smell is well developed" making odd and erratic movements, she sat in front of the fire on her knees, hands on her knees as well. "You must be here to meet Lord Drac, aah" this wild woman, was very big, even down on her knees, she could stare Loimos in the eyes as he sat at the front of his caravan, although her ocr globes were well hidden behind her hair. "You have met Gravelord Drac?" Loimos questioned her, finding it highly unlikely that she could have learned his name, and not die in the process, he had been nning on caving her head in just now, but it would seem that Son Of Dragon had deliberately not bled her dry. "Yes! Oh, I begged him to make me into one of his vampires, Lord Drac''s vampires are the most beautiful of all, their link to the mighty dragons would ensure strength, but he said that he could not turn me into a vampire, because of the blood of giants coursing through my veins! Directing me to go and find Nosferatu instead, for only his foetid blood could truly make me into a vampire without waste, without waste he said!" "Yet, you remain here" Loimos stepped down from the carriage, the big woman lowering her head to maintain perfect eye contact at all times. "You were deemed worthy of undeath by a gravelord, why do you desire it?" Loimos could see it, the deep chasm where the gravelord had found home, covered in a thick mist of frost, preventing all light that could somehow find its way here to pass through. Your next read is at empire A staircase had been made into the side of the mountain, made from nothing but this woman''s hands, she must have really been camping out here for a while, having refined the stairs to the level talented sculptors would have. "Hehehe, that is embarrassing, Lord Drac did not like my answer very much" she fidgeted around, pushing the very tips of her two index fingers together, the sort of actions that looked a bit ridiculous on a giant. Loimos did not even need further borations, to realise that this living woman was just like One, she told him what it was that she desired anyways, one could only wonder where those people came from.@@novelbin@@ But the undead could only approve, death and life did not have as different of characteristics as it seemed on the surface, it was only because life dominated this world that things formed around it. So, who was to say that an undead could not bear a child? Although, showing up in front of a gravelord, without even knowing what a gravelord was, as a living, and asking to be fertilised right at this instant was more than a little bit daring, and idiotic. "My name is Elenantiel, The Desirerer, would you mind asking him again on my behalf? I was told not toe back unless I wanted to be, and I quote, impaled in a way I wouldn''t like-" Loimos had already reduced his caravan''s size and begun walking down the stairs. Chapter 199 Beach Talk Under the resplendent heat of a warm sun, four women werevishlyying upon towels of pure cotton, enjoying the rays hitting against their exposed skin. "Still a bit weird, those swimwear things, feels like parading around in my underwear" one of them voiced out, with ck hair tied in a ponytail, shielding her green eyes from the blinding light. "It''s all the new rage, no clue what they are made from but it''s not a bad idea, really helps show of your attributes as well, orck thereof, I suppose" another one spoke up, clearly the one behind the entire idea, her short bright blonde hairying directly against the soft white sand. "Ah, is that the real reason? You are scouting out ahead of time, checking if you look good? Explore stories on empire I don''t think your Casanova cares much about your curves and other womanly shapes, in fact, I don''t think he enjoys anything at all, you could probably sneeze all of your teeth onto hisp without earning a reaction" a third woman spoke up, her skin a much darkerplexion than the other three, the sun''s best effort could not possibly burn her.@@novelbin@@ Her head was tilted to the right, trying her best to avoid getting sand onto her left side as a rather nasty scar was to be found in ce of her ear. "You girls think I could catch a fish?" the biggest of the four, with a very distinct appearance, mostly due to the fact that she had four spider legs protruding from her back, asked in a totalck of care for the ongoing conversation, it was a mystery whether she had even heard any of it. "Four, we already stand out enough as is, don''t go fishing with your bare hands again" That''s right, the four heads of Aliz¨¦ were having a rxed day at the beach, which was to be found in a nearby country to Tamaris, one of the few with ess to the ocean, although that was not exactly a great boon when the waters were the most dangerous ce known to everything and everyone. They had a nice beach without danger however, coupled with a port that was mostly for show and to steer around the safe waters for people with money to waste, which was where the four women were currently found, the ce was visited by few people even though it was always warm over here for reasons that were better not questioned. Just another sr body hijinks that could not be exined with rationality. "By the way Two, don''t insult Loimos''s sensibility like that, I am sure he cares about somethings, like, stabbing people to death, perhaps, and even if you are right, I don''t see why I shouldn''t look good" One was currently wearing a ring on one of her fingers, which concealed her fangs and turned her red eyes an ocean blue, because spider women were all-right, but vampires were a big no-no to have around. She herself had settled on a more skin covering swimwear, the vampire was quite lean, despite usually seen wearing a rather heavy suit of armour that left much to the imagination, she had no muscles to speak of, it was all supernatural vampire strength pulling its weight. "We are not here for this anyways, and you know it, but since you mentioned it, what do you think? Am I attractive? What''s my strong point?" she spoke in a low tone to her tanned friend. "I don''t know why you''re asking me this, it''s not like I know what men like, and I certainly have no idea what corpses want-" "You are still the most qualified around" One and Two turned to Three and Four. "The way of the de is a virgin one" "I only eat people in a single way" Two could only shake her head, indeed, there was no question to be asked on this subject to the other weirdos. Looking her undeadpatriot up and down, she quickly gave her opinion. "You are as t as it gets, but you have some pretty meaty thighs" she pped it for demonstration, making an ok sign with her hand for the satisfaction this single action brought her. "Pray that your rotting darling somehow likes those, I hear that men like that for some reason, don''t know what''s so good about fat stored in a these specific spot" The vampire looked down at her chest, and then rippling thigh. "Is it bad that I am t? You are too and I have seen manye to talk to you already since thest few days" "It''s just because she is from Pezerx, she looks exotic here, what looks exotic often looks tastier, and often, that evaluation is perfectly right" Four chimed in, her spider legs shivering. "Or because I am the only one that doesn''t inspire dread in people, a maniac practically making love to her sword, a drooling spider with a stiff face and a blonde that mutters constantly to herself, we''re supposed to be incognito, but I suppose being so painfully noticeable makes us less suspicious in a way¡­" "If it was about appeal, they would all be fawning over Three with her twin blunt force trauma weapons and her thunder thighs, I had never realised those thing could get so huge until she stripped down, these can genuinely break necks-" One signalled for everyone to shut up. "Act casual, they have finally gotten here" Because of course, the four of them weren''t at the beach just to enjoy the sun and give evaluations of one another''s bodies, they hade here ahead of time because they were on observation duty. One''splotting against Starkefolten with her puppet-making elixir was already put into motion, and there was nothing that could be done about it on the end of Aliz¨¦ at this point, as such, they were currently keeping an eye on the leader of the defiler''s, allowed to roam free afterst time''s stunt, his movements had proven suspicious, unlike that of the puppet leader, who had returned to his original dwelling. There was no real need to act oblivious, the leader and his clique, were not paying attention to their surroundings, after spending a long whileying low, they just barged into one of the ships, throwing the people aboard into the waters, taking over the vessel and taking off into the ocean, clearly not intending on staying into the safe area, taking off at full speed toward an undisclosed location. "Welp, I got the thing onto the ship before they left, seems like we are going to be staying here for a while" One smiled, not having been expecting such a reckless action, now, she supposed that she and the three other would be spending time on the beach until either the defiler''s reached their destination, or more likely, were ripped apart by a monstrosity of the depth. Chapter 203 Invader In the distance, across a nearby,rge river that brutally flowed without stop,pletely dissociated from the body of water the monument of the dead was to be found, from where the vampire hunters stood, the river separated them from a cliff, countless rocks and roots sticking out from it sides, protruding from the soft dirt, little bits of the humid earth sometimes falling out into the water. Explore hidden tales at empire Up on this cliff, seemingly shattered and left to rot there for years, a huge caravan was to be seen, moss growing over its surface, although finding destroyed remains of something was not too surprising considering where they were, a danger zone were usually only adventurers ventured into, many people had met their ends here. The problem was that this caravan, even in the state it currently found itself in, was very hard to miss, even to the untrained eye, so failing to notice its existence until now was especially curious for the experienced vampire hunters, Abraham and ¨¦chs looked around, ready tosh out. A boom echoed across the overgrowth, of the jungle, causing a great deal of birds to take off flying from fright, a dark blur travelling through the sky, propelled with great force, but also with outstanding precision, or so the vampire hunters supposed, as the figurended straight into the water next to the ruins, sinking, most probably, all the way to the bottom before erupting with crimson and dark, quickly tainting the waters, suffusing it with putrid blood, the two liquids mixing as they took over the surrounding. ¨¦chs quickly reactivated his ability, relief making its way through his mouth in the form of a small sigh, returning to his own body to give an order, roaring out without hesitation, none questioning it. "Ignite the bombs in the water!" despite the clear danger this action could pose to those that had gone inside, it was done without dy, bright green lights filling the surroundings of the monument, purifying the area with exceptional speed. Approaching the edges, all of the death hunters brought out concealed crossbows, whispering words, this act imbuing their own life force onto their bolts, each of them scanning the trembling waters for movement not due to the recent sts. ''It is still day, a sunwalker? Or something else entirely? It avoided confrontation altogether, so it has to be smart'' ''Smart fucker, are you done for or just immobile? I bet the second¡­'' The purified waters quickly turned back to their dark red, then erupting with dark red mes, forcing the hunters to step back lest they wanted to lose some hair. "Blood fire? This could not have been a drac, it clearly stood straight under the sun!" one of the vampire hunters expressed what everyone was thinking, although the dracs might not instantly turn to charcoal under the slightest bit of sunlight, they would absolutely catch on fire and be severely weakened for a long while, their regenerative properties would be made null, their death force and blood igniting as well, just a quick hop into water wouldn''t undo all of this. Their mysterious visitor wasn''t willing to answer their questions however, its figure slipping into the entrance of the monument, not without being shot at, and even hit with life infused bolts, the death hunters not willing to miss even the smallest of asions. "I doubt that thing will keel over with just a few bolts, we are merely using paltry arts to imbue life into our projectiles, and it won''t remain imbued long now that it is no longer nearby" ¨¦chs quickly went back to the scouts inside, telling them that something, most certainly an undead, had just managed to slip inside. The five people that had gone inside had not lingered on however, not content with being slow and meticulous, they were swift and efficient, even with waters halting their momentum, they had quickly found a ce of interest. After walking through utterly empty hallways, the interior design beingpletely absent, just smooth grey stone and nothing else, the area with a beautifully carved well stood out especially. The water had yet to engulf this part, after climbing down into it, the thing being wide open, they had arrived in an area free of the wetness, to do so, they had taken a lengthydder, an extremely longdder, arriving into the guts of the monument, this was why their leader had beenfortable blowing up the bombs in the water, knowing that none of them could reach his scouts. The ruin hadn''t even shook or been damaged at all, its durability greater than expected. "Do you see this sir? This¡­ This is terrible" one of the five managed to speak through the shock, the ceiling higher than their enhanced eyes could see, seemingly endless hallways spreading into every direction, the walls of those immense corridors with countless pocket of space carved out, each of those pockets filled with stone coffins, all, without exception, emitting a certain level of death force.@@novelbin@@ Undeads unhabituated every single one of them. "Don''t even get close to them, prepare to retreat-" ¨¦chs spoke into their minds, this was it, they were sinking this ce, burying this entire jungle if necessary, not even a single of those repugnant corpses was going to see the moon again. His order waspromised, as something crawled down the well, ignoring thedder entirely,nding against the ground without any sign of grace, a mass of blood and flesh, bits of putrefied fur, feathers and all things organic sttered as it crashed. A humanoid figure stepped out of the decay, resembling nothing but sculpture of rot, festering with blood and deformities. A hail of bolts pierced the revolting undead, all going right through its form, not encountering any resistance. "This thing is a decoy!" realised one of the death hunters, this thing was doing nothing to attack them, focusing on sealing their only exit, the rot was solidifying into bone and steel, the calcic matter turning lustrous and reflective, in the guise of a certain battle mage of the dead. Indeed, mounds of rot had spread out everywhere upon the arrival of this thing, and in one of them, hidden away, Loimos had discreetly crawled out of, headed toward the strongest source of death force without any hesitation, this had not escaped ¨¦chs however. "The thing controlling the rot is running away! Defeat it to get away!" he told his scouts, even if life force could bore through the metallic bone sealing the well, the sheer size of the well meant that it was meaningless, the best way was to defeat the one casting it. Chapter 206 Swift The sharp sound of a sharp metal object falling right on its point against the ground, trembling from the fall for a few more moments, the noise spreading all the way throughout the sunken tomb. As it turns out, it had been hope speaking its typical nonsense, there was no such thing as an easy strike against a gravelord, but when life found itself cornered, weaving countless webs of self-told lies,ing up with ideas and concept that were clearly false, but the living spirit was an illogical one, allowing itself to be fooled if deemed necessary. The vampire hunter did not even know what hit him, his metal stake, beloved tool of this particr caste of death hunter, items they considered great artefacts, which method of creation was a steep one, so much so that the greater majority of them only carried a single one with them. Made from polished and highly reflective metal, the material itself was imbued with the natural life that was floating everywhere in this word, further enhanced by intricate carvings, even if simply stabbing a vampire in the heart was rarely fatal, doing so with this tool guaranteed the destruction of the hateful undead. Well, at least, it made it rather certain, for as long as it could pierce the skin. Not only did it fail to even leave a mark on the gravelord''s coat, the precious tool was damaged, the tip bending and breaking apart for the offence of believing that anything could be done. Now, the daring hunter of the dead, who had ignited his life in onest act of defiance, his brain matter was to be found in many ces, over a wide area, little pieces here and there, on the ground, the walls, safely stuck to his friends even, shards of his skull had received the same treatment, splintered up into more pieces than could be counted, his body still standing straight up, failing to realise that the main organ upstairs was gone forever, having left its duties due to some extraordinary circumstances. The blood had not gone and sttered everywhere however, remaining stationary in the air, dragged to the vampire and consumed in the blink of an eye, the remains shrivelling up in mere moments. "Well, that is less nourishing than it used to be, what in the goddamned hell happened here? Have I been sleeping as humans devolved into apes?" shaking his head the four remaining scouts, as though truly expecting them to exin in details, unsurprisingly, they instead attacked, not like running away was any wiser, instead, they all spoke the words and striked up the pose necessary to unleash the power of theirst resort, the same life art that Loimos had once had to deal with, which power was still definitely enough to graze him of the surface of this world. Nosferatu, tapped his fingers against one another, allowing those four to do their thing, ''Life, I Give You Everything'' did not spoil the blood anyways, and as one could have expected, the condensed might of four lives being given up made for a nice light show, but nothing more for a gravelord, having the same effect as a pebble thrown by an armless, sickly baby with the umbilical cord tight around the neck, derisory,ughable, simply pathetic and disappointing. Absorbing the blood of the fools, Nosferatu once again remarked how poor it was, being used to consuming death hunters, he was appalled at the difference in quality, even their little nails used to be better than this, they used to at least capable of prickling him a bit.@@novelbin@@ "That is still better than nothing¡­" he turned back to Loimos, who was just standing there, as per usual. Find your next adventure on empire "I don''t suppose that you are a food delivery boy, is something the matter little skeleton? No one would find their way in here and raise me up from my sleep by ident" smiling as he looked around at the rows of coffins, he walked up to the undead, not requiring many steps as he towered above Loimos. Nosferatu was barely below the two meters and a half mark, appearing especially domineering due to his oversized shoulders, unlike Drac, who maintained a disposition that could make one question whether he was an undead or not, the strongest gravelord never blinked, moving his various body parts at distincts moments, giving out a strange impression of slowness. He only expressed himself normally through physical movements to the five scouts, now that hemunicated with Loimos, most people would think that he was a corpse being marited by an especially sluggish person. Loimos exined the situation as sinctly as possible, the same he had previously, only adding the fact that they now add the assistance of Drac. "They built an entire city around his majesty''s crypt? Very well then, where is it?" "Which direction are they? Come on skelly, I''ll deal with it real quick, give them all a quick paint job-" "We wish to gather all of the king''s forces before going for any sort of assault, so that the new war may begin with us trampling over as many unsuspecting nations as possible before they can rally up" Loimos spoke, the gravelord making an odd face at him. "Aah, yes, that makes sense, but it seems like you lot were nning on staying discreet, but there was a bunch of vampire hunters up there that definitely know that something happened, even if they can''t tell who or what I am, they''ll know the danger this ce poses, someone was looking over those five with an innate ability as well" scratching his ear with his murderous w, he did not seem very worried at all. "They can leave all they want to, I can feel that it''s still bright outside, I am still not back in my prime, some shade won''t be sufficient for me to step anywhere outside when it is day, are you going to kill them all? They are severely weaker than the death hunters I know, but you are weak as well" he stared up through the ceiling, straight at the hunters, who were most certainly all retreating right this instant. "Those five were not enough to nourish you?" Loimos was not very familiar with the ways of the vampires, all that he had encountered were well-fed too. "Not even close skelly, but I can get myself back in town on my own, unlike all of the vampires slumbering here, say, could you perhaps do that blood thing for them as well, otherwise, I''ll have to get them on a little hunting trip, there are more than a thousand vampires here, that won''t go unnoticed, especially since I will definitely ughter any town I notice, seriously, I am so bored, where are the strongest of this era?" Chapter 209 Snuff The Spark "Behold! The visage of our forefather! The one who defiled the very gods! Who brought them to their knees, humiliated them!@@novelbin@@ The first of the unholy!" the leader of the smouldering heretics held a patchwork of a mask, its original colouring hard to gleam upon, charred ck and molten, it did not appear to have any sort of feature, nothing at all, a nk te for one to hide their true identity behind. The man was holding it up like it was the most precious of artefacts, and of course, it was the only physical remnants of The Defiler Of The Holy, this object was infused with his lingering presence, the surface still so hot that the hands of the leader were melting. Discover stories with empire None paid attention to such a minute detail, the essence of the original me that could burn the gods could still be felt from it, never had the fire in their eyes been so strong, so maddening. "Atst, we are going to unleash its power, I was blind to see what stood before me, first, I failed to realise that one of our lord''s kin had approached us, and then, we all felt the soft glow, how disgusting! We are inadequate!" the audience of lunatics hung their heads low, unable of refuting his words. "We failed at everything, but we still have value, and along with this relic, we will call upon one that can uphold the will of heresy! We-" his expression dropped, noticing a few mere dots appearing up at the edges of the carved bowl, without bothering to finish his epic speech, he clutched the mask, breaking it. Erupting with the original heretic me, engulfing all of the defilers as an unseen de of wind cleaved the leader in half along the vertical axis, his body consumed by the ravenous inferno as well, forming a dome of imprable fire. "We were just a second toote" remarked the halbardier, truthfully, they had just approached at the worst possible time, right when the leader happened to look in one particr direction, otherwise, he would not have begun the ritual at this instant. Coincidences were birther of many things however, and they could not be escaped, the veil of defilementpressed into a ball, before once again expanding into some sort of wall, a portal. From which stepped out a most bizarre figure, pushing against the ming curtains, slowlying into view. The simple sight of which, even from a great distance, threatened to ignite the eyes of the otherworlders, Pierre-Orn¨¦e spun them around. "Fun time is cancelled, you three run forward to the boat" hearing his authority tone, they failed to even question him in their minds, not that it could be achieved, they were pushed back by a sudden gust of wind, the copper knight having disappeared from his position, his halberd already striking the strange figure as it stepped out from the mes, the fire faded away, the sound of metal striking metal resounded as the newly arrived spawn of heresy was sent flying back. Pierre-Orn¨¦e was not going to allow it to make its entrance before beating down on it, the strange character that had seemingly been called by the defilers, offering a relic of their lord and their lives as cinder for its summoning, it was deemed to be of a good breed. The copper knight had no idea what he even was looking at, it was somewhat humanoid, but despite seemingly functioning like a human would with their limbs, some parts of its body were missing, the left arm was entirely gone, leaving only a floating hand that still moved as if attached to an arm. He already knew that it was not simply invisible, there truly was nothing to strike there. Overall, it resembled molten bits of an unknown iron, a greatsword arranged in a singr manner melted to its right hand, two distinct des weaving around one another, appearingcking in any sort of sharp edges, but the royal knight did not doubt that it could rip through most things with ease, especially as this entire being shrouded itself in the defiler''s me, much deeper, much stronger than the frail imitation used by the defilers of this age. Dozens of shes of winds crashed into the unknown creature, forcing it to the ground, rising ash and dust for the human knight to approach once again, striking it the area that should be the chin with the end of his halberd, propelling the enemy in the air. Constantly raining down strikes, not allowing it to even move its sword arm of its own volition, the enormous force of the winds weakening the mes, like a furnace, the fire was threatening of growing fiercer, and even the earth-shaking blows were only slowing down the uing inferno. The unknown being was still heating-up, but that could not be allowed. The three unwanteds were still being blown away by the strength of the winds even from where they stood, even as Pierre-Orn¨¦e constantly pushed the heretical being well away from them? "And this guy speaks of regr fights?! What the hell?!" one of them could not help but shout out, their teacher''s every swing, no matter how small and minuscule was stirring up the winds destructively, the brunt directed at the ming creature. The ashes were being swept well off of this ind, it was a wonder how the enemy could even withstand such blows, the answer was simple, it was not, but it''s broken parts, it decapitated head, severed limbs and shattered sword was mending themselves at extreme speed, no matter how far the parts went or if they were ground to sand, they came back as good as new. However, this constant recuperation slowed down the furnace, allowing the copper knight to flung it around, until he finally pushed him up in the air, right as they had arrived on the other shore, opposite to where the ships hadnded. Pierre-Orn¨¦e truly hadn''t the slightest of ideas what in tarnation the thing he was beating up relentlessly was, just that it should not be allowed to ignite its fire as it wished, it wielded the defiler''s me after all, an inferno otherwise more dangerous than any other. Bringing down his halberd as he and the figure were in the air, with tremendous speed, heunched it well into the distance, straight in the water, somehow managing to grab onto the thing''s sword-holding arm, and unsheathing his side weapon, cutting the iron limb,holding onto it as the creature was sent deep under water. The arm still moved, trying to get back to its main body. "I''ll keep that" "Too dangerous for you to y with¡­" Chapter 212 Good Progression And time passed, the rampaging defilers and puppeteers ceased all actions nearly a year after the start of it all, their numbers and the damage they caused were never great, but it was like they had all been lined up, waiting for a spot to free itself, as though they had been ying the long game. The death hunters, a great group constituted of only men and women of great valour, was officially associated to the merchant kingdom of Tamaris, the recent actions taken by the neutral nation had gotten its allies worried, still refusing to yield to the warnings of both Quideos Audit and Agilulf Wanneck. They liked the lull, enjoyed the peace brought by the gift ofprehension, believing themselves untouchable by the strife of battle and war, nations had forgotten its horrors and difficulty, yet, they still feared it. Even as Agilulf Wanneck personally met with the leaders of all nations, be they grand, be they ancient, be they illustrious, be they strong, be they weak, be they small, be they insignificant, bringing to them a most worrying piece of news that he had learned from the vampire hunters, he failed to rally the most important pieces of Viridis. The beastfolks, non-humans and monsters blessed with sapience were rather easy to convince, for no one other than the king of Tamaris had better reputation in their eyes, being part of weaker kingdoms still holding up mostly because of Tamaris, it was only logical that they would not doubt his demand of aid. The intel he shared with the leaders was dreadful, his contemporaries saw nothing to worry about, yet, they kept the words spoken to them a tightly guarded secret, the people of today, so little knew, that there might as well be none. None understood the threat posed by the undead, the only ones that could see the far reaching consequences of this possibility were the death hunters, and churches worshipping deities of life, only they sought the dead, confronted them and met the terrifying strength that lied in outer tomb. Others, they never encountered the dead, barely even realising that undeath existed outside of old stories about liches and death knights. And of course, the leaders believed themselves capable of handling it if what Tamaris was predicting came to be true, although the strongest people alive were mostly gathered in Tamaris, those were only the known forces, surely, the likes of Starkefolten would have a weapon to rely upon, or an individual thatid low. They already had their seven elemental champions, although not to bepared to the likes of the copper knights, Storm Of de or the Volcano Witch, they were still potent warriors that Starkefolten was proud of. Another thing Agilulf Wanneck did that roused the worries of his business partners was recruit many of the academy students and talent holders, even though the great majority had originated from other nations, but it was difficult to refuse the offers of the wealthy king. "Although I am mostly theorising without proper proofs, Agilulf Wanneck''s actions have gotten me suspicious, especially his repeated attempts to get Starkefolten to reinforce Bourgliotte further, it would seem that we had been found out, or at least suspected, since the beginning" the familiar voice of Unacunerra wasing out of rusted pendant,ying in an armoured palm. "But our usage of the defilers and puppeteers was still a good idea, they have had their hands too full dealing with them to bother with looking for undeads, from what I have gathered, it does not seem like anywhere but Tamaris is worried about us, let us keep it that way,y low, how is it going on your end?" he then asked, having not had anymunications since they all split up. "I have met with Gravelord Drac, and Gravelord Nosferatu, Drac isying on stand-by, already prepared to strike Bourgliotte at any given time, Nosferatu is still busy bringing the undeads that had been slumbering alongside him back to full force, I have spent the greater majority of the year helping him in that regard, I am on my way to Dschungend, to check out the forest of Laba, what is the progress on your end?" Loimos responded, standing not too far from a deste little road in some overgrown woods, inside of his caravan. "Fantastic, I have managed to contact Artencil, he has gathered old reserves of undead soldiers that had remained in frozennds, and I have just arrived near the city where Faraday and Slotriig are to be found, the security seems to have been tightened, but I''ll just dig until I reach them, I have taken a defiler with me, the rickety divine seal should get torn apart in a few days at most, what about you One?" Both the skeletons were doing fantastic in their endeavour, but the sun-walking vampire also had a rather important job to fulfil, if she could sessfully turn many high-ranking members of of various nations, their chain ofmands could all be thrown into disarray, allowing for even swifter takeovers by the undeads, with lots ofnd under their control, any counterattacks from those able would be made intensely more difficult. "Hello guys, hello Loimos, it''s going rather well I would say, we managed to get the king''s personal advisor, he is the one supposed to find him his new wife by the way, can we do anything with that?" her voice quickly came through, as happy as always. The three undeads seemed to be making good progress on all of the terrains they had ventured onto, with Faraday and Slotriig soon joining up with Unacunerra, including the first''s legions of iron skeletons, The Earthen Disaster would be able of keeping all of them hidden by moving underground, not to mention that Unacunerra and Slotriig were the king''s royal guards, together, their strength would skyrocket. "Although¡­" But of course, not all could be decay and gloom for the dead. "...My brainwashed servants, the ones that were dispatched around to upy people away from the undead, have been meeting rather strong attacks, from what I was able of gathering, it seems like the tamarisian king is cracking down on us with an especially heavy hand, and he is using students that graduated early from the academy, thanks to the headmaster, I know that it has been converted into a real military school, teaching all that it can, and they are teaching life arts" One reported to them, silence was thick for a few seconds. "I see, Tamaris will be tough to defeat, One, rile them up some more, use some of your more advanced minions, make sure they put more and more focus on Aliz¨¦, Loimos, just keep going"@@novelbin@@ "Once all of the gravelords are gathered together, our king will take his throne again, King Nitok guarantees our victory" Chapter 215 Flight As the lord of beasts, Vespertillo had exceptional ease converting creatures such as animals and monsters into vampires, the physical changes urred by this were much less severe than when used on the likes of humans and elves, his scions of blood were referred to as bat-faced for a reason. The days of travel, Loimos spent them scanning the bustling life fellow for signs of death, remaining all by himself for the majority of the time, he did not seem very approachable after all, only Rummy eventually decided toe and exchange a few words with him. "Say, Golpilz, why do you do what you do? For the money? For the thrill or something else entirely?" she asked him, leaning up against the railing. This method of transport was rather odd, it was much like hoisting up a structure that did not belong in the air, looking more like bridge-like construct that one would find built upon shallow waters, there were no rooms, just a singr cube were people could answer nature''s calling, dropping their droppings from great heights, far from the eyes, far from the nose. "I work for the betterment of this world" for once, Loimos did not lie. The death hunter seemed taken aback for a second, but quickly fell back on her usual, most bizarre attitude, Rummy cupped chin into her palm, covering the mouth with yful fingers. The undead turned to her, his voice currently imitating that of a young man, just gruff and stoic, as if scarred by past events, it waspletely copied from a random adventurer that Loimos had to murder not too long ago, this mister had been a bit too stealthy where he should not have, witnessing something problematic. Which had called for his brain to get a whiff of fresh air using a stray rock, he had not sounded nearly asposed at that time. "What about you?" he asked, feinting interest. Find more to read on empire Looking over her shoulder at the two fellows, she leaned closer, her joyful expression receding a slight bit, her pink eyes still hidden behind her odd sses. "Most death hunters join for simple reasons, either that is something that they do in their family, the hatred of the dead passed down the generations from times long past, still just as ardent as it used to be, others, they had the misfortune of having something taken from them by an undead, those two over there, they both had their parents ughtered and devoured by a bat-faced vampire, I did force them toe, but only by telling them that I suspected Laba was the hiding spot of those particr vampires¡­" "They are willing to put their reason and logic aside for a time, they yearn to find the one individual that robbed them, but to be honest, I doubt they ever will, and I hope they never do, people like them, they are driven solely by vengeance, they have no idea what to do after, they don''t think about it, their sole focus is revenge, if they get what they want, they''ll be leftpletely hollow, without purpose, funny how its an undead that makes them so full of life, heh?" She chuckled without humour, shaking her head. "My old man has been in as a vampire hunter because his lover was turned into a nosferatu, he looks for nothing more than a cure, essentially a cure for death, just that¡­ Not to mention that even if he finds one, they would have grownpletely apart now, many hope that a cure can be made-" She met Loimos''s gaze, who was just listening silently. "Ah, you did ask me specifically, well, I am neither of the two really, always thought it was silly, this fight between us and the undead, I was always under the impression that if something existed, then it was just meant to be, alive, dead, undead, spirits, sentient golems, I am certain we could just make do without wiping one another out, the world is more interesting with a great blend of people, would you agree?" Loimos did not respond immediately. "My own opinion is that only one can truly thrive, but my will is of little importance" he did not lie, having the impression that it would be a bad move to do so, of course, he wasn''tpletely honest. Silence encroached in between the two of them, the vampire hunter meaning to say something, cut off by the conductor. "We have arrived, I won''t go any further than this" he called out, he was going to remain stationary for a set amount of time, waiting for the group toe back and he was far from willing to stay in ce anywhere deeper than the very edge of Laba, clearly visible as the trees stood higher than everywhere else, forming an opaque canopy, where the sun could only rarely peer into. Simr to the veil of frost above Drac''s domain, Laba was perfect for a vampire to settle into, even during the day, sunlight struggled to get in, and the terrain inside was said to be far less t, going up and down, filled with hidden caverns and stalwart hills. "To be honest, I have already visited Laba once before, Abraham had gotten himself to think that the progenitor of the nosferatus might be hiding here for some reason, I was but a weed back then and we found absolutely nothing, but the second time''s the charm!" pping the undead on the back. "Ouch, forgot you were wearing armour under all that¡­"@@novelbin@@ The flying transport slowly lowered itself until it was just above the treeline, from there, the members of this impromptu expedition had to slide down a rickety rope and then climb down from the trees. Rummy slid down with panache before everyone, closely followed by her two fellow hunters, most certainly not meaning to leave their rowdy junior alone for too long. The two demons came right after, getting down there with impressive speed, their bodies meant for this sort of exercise. Loimos approached the conductor, exchanging some words with him, the three beastfolks were not very reassured with how they had to go to the soil below, but seeing that the undead was busy, they steeled their resolve and followed one another down the rope. "I am certain you were not expecting an additional passenger, here is a little something aspensation" Loimos handed over a bloodred crystal, which could barely fit in the palm of the conductor, and was covered in rough edges. "It is not much, but it has value, I can assure you" the undead stepped away and slid down the rope, standing as straight as an I. The human man had not even minded the additional person, so even if this thing had no value, it was always more than he had expected. He waved the adventurers goodbye, putting the crystal in his pocket. Chapter 219 Suffocating Underground Loimos sttered to the ground like a wet towel, having softened his fall with mound of gooey and bouncy rot, quickly hiding everything as he paid attention to the descent of the living, the initial ballon Rummy had pulled out was only good had breaking their fall it seemed, as she had switched to some sort of wide piece of cloth, the undead not knowing what this sort of equipment was called, or if it was even named. The undead inspected the surroundings at once, and over a wide area, drowned in utter darkness, his senses were at their best in this environment, everything was within grasp at once, the texture, material and position of every corner, rooms and objects, nothing was a secret to him here. He had known that the space below his feet was empty thanks to darkness awareness in the first ce, the only question left was if the living had understood his actions as a simple warning, or as an attempt to kill them all using gravity. "Are you doing alright up there?" he asked them before they could evennd. This underground area was clearly marked by death, dark, bluish stone formed the underground structure they found themselves in, scarred by countless wings directly on the surface of the stone, some of those remnants of beastly wrath and terror were especially deep. Although, none had managed to pierce through the stone, no matter how powerfully they had tried to escape, no matter how many ws they had broken and ripped off their paws, staining the walls and ground with their blood, this had happened many times, the floor was bumpy and irregr, cracking with every step. The blood of the trapped creatures had covered the stone, now however, the ancient hall was riddled with pieces of debris, vegetation that hade from above, broken trees covered the chasm, parts of them hanging down. The ceiling had been much thinner than the walls, but also much higher than expected, many protrusions came from the walls the more elevated one was, the more of them there was, like perches for a winged creature to settle upon, and considering the extent at which each of those were stained dark red, it had been another ground for ughter. The hidden ruin was a veritable ughterhouse, and this was but a single room, it expanded much further, all of it was suffused with death force, life had been chased out of here, in fact, Loimos could tell that this underground was even denser with death that Drac''s domain or Nosferatu''s sunken monument, someone, or something, was actively dragging living here and carefully eradicated all life within them, converting a single life into the maximum amount of death force as was possible. The work of an expert. Such fine craft, that the living were left all pale and with wobbly knees as they finally touched ground, the beastfolks had trouble breathing properly, one was led to believe that the supposedly horrendous smell of the vampiric blood was significantly stronger here, overbearing, ever present, all epassing. For those that could not distinguish the particr scent, it was simply the death hanging in the air that sapped the colours of their faces, Rummy approached the beast people while the other vampire hunters had their veins bulging and eyes bloodshot, as if they knew from the depth of their being that they were close to something they sought after. "Sorry, but could you describe what you smell? Is it stronger in a certain direction?" the young huntress gently tapped the back of the wolf-headed beastman, whose sense of smell was obviously the strongest of the trio. Coughing strings of saliva and feeling the back of his throat burning, the beastman needed a few minutes before he could manage to say anything, no one paid much attention to Loimos in that time, he was still standing in the darkness after all, even as the death hunters brought out luminous objects, the undead stood beyond the rings of light. "I- I smell a lot of things¡­" the man first said, one hand up against his chest, in an attempt to calm his wildly beating heart, the animal instinct residing within the beastfolks was alerting them of an apex predator, neither close, neither far, simply there, they knew that they were within its reach, no matter where they went. "Don''t worry, I''ll make sure to get you all out of here in a moment, just tell me what you smell first!" Rummy encouraged the man, and it worked. "There are countless, iron-like scents, those of many different creatures, and people that have bled here, there is a subtle smell of rot too, but not very pronounced¡­ What is really sickening however, it''s something other than the smell of that blood you had us smell before, it is present here, very much so, it''s like I am being sted by pheromones at all times, it is dreadful, but not what is the strangest¡­" his words got the attention of the hunters, not sure what he meant. "It''s¡­ It''s like- It reminds me of when I visit my alchemist friend, a chemical smell mixed with that of blood, the most awful scent I have ever encountered¡­ That''s not normal, and both that and the smell from before are stronger in the same direction, right over there!" he pointed without hesitation. It was a good thing that Loimos had remained hidden in the dark, because he was pointing right at him, well, behind him, Loimos could not possibly exude such smell, he had already managed to fool the nose of the beastfolks despite being packed with rot after all. ''Two smells'' he thought, rising one foot up. And stepped into the light, with a most friendly posture, as friendly as a tall knight dressed in a dark mantle could appear at least. "Will they be alright on their own? Laba is still dangerous after all, even if they do not move around" he shared his false, but logical worries, they had not even been scratched, but that was only thanks to the death hunters, without Rummy to guide them, they would have to move much more carefully, much slower, exposing themselves to more attacks from the predators. "Don''t worry Golpilz, I thought about it already, I''m not an idiot" she quickly looked away, searching frantically in her pockets before heaving a sigh of relief. "What did I say! Beast repellent, I still- I had taken some preemptively" she nodded to herself, handing it to the locals, who were not feeling very good, not meant to be in such an environment, the death hunters could manage, the locals would die eventually if they remained. "We should be able of climbing back on our own" one of the demons spoke up, eyeing the various perches and gaps in the walls, it was like this was meant to be scaled. Discover hidden tales at empire As for the beastfolks, Rummy revealed some sort of grappling hook that came from beneath her right sleeve, shooting out straight up, stabbing into one of the tilted trees, now slumped over the chasm. "One at a time folks" she extended her other hand, the other two beastfolks pushing the wolf-headed one to go first, since he was the one struggling the most down there.@@novelbin@@ Chapter 220 Loimos, Follower Of Death The two demons found little difficulty in making their way back to the surface, climbing with great efficiency, their tail allowing for most unexpected movements, once Rummy hoisted thest beastfolk up there, she lingered on the surface for a little while, helping the locals properly use the beast repellent as well as telling to be careful on their way to the flying ship. Meanwhile, the dark underground began to liven up, heavy footsteps, scraping against stone, the ground cracking as the dry blood was stepped upon, the reason why the flower-piloted golems up on the surface were rare or in poor shape came into light, as countless, undamaged versions of them made their way in the room. Carrying all sorts of weaponry, assuming simple formations, or at least tried to, the stone and withered vines forming their bodies were sted to pieces the second they stepped within range of the two vampire hunters, they could not even see the moving statues, simply shooting in direction of the sound with awfully powerful bolts. Loimos did not even need to pretend to help, the few dozens of statues were dealt with in just a few seconds, and without breaking a sweat. "There is no sensation of XP" one remarked aloud, just as Rummy came back down. Loimos went up to one of the remains, those statues were undeniably of the same manufacture as those outside, at least in origin, these ones had received some mending from expert hands, repaired and adapted to another method of control. The ones above were controlled by flowers resting on their backs, these ones had no flowers however, only a singr, thick length of a dark green stem going into their backs, each of them leading further into the darkness of the buried ruin, that stem emitted death force as well. The undead put his hand up against it. "Are you two sure you want to keep going? I am fairly certain this is air in its own right, four of us won''t be enough to ovee the enemies and probable traps this thing has to offer, why don''t you escort the locals to the hot air balloon and contact the others?" she advised them, but they only looked at the huntress like something was wrong with her face. "Rummy, don''t you have a way to contact ¨¦chs and Abraham? Just do it" "And you''re talking like you''ll keep going with this stranger even if we leave, is something the matter?" Her colleagues weren''t convinced by her rmendation. "Hum¡­ you see¡­ heerm¡­"@@novelbin@@ "It''s just dangerous alright? And I know that you two will throw yourself at the danger! So just go back and live another day, I know how to run away, I am an expert at that, protect the locals" she pped grappling hooks onto the chests. "A death hunter''s primary job is not to hunt the undead, but to preserve the living, right? I wille back alive, you can trust me on this" she stared at them dead in the eyes, their reluctance seemingly vanishing. The duo did as she said and made their way up, and out of the ruins, leaving Rummy and Loimos by themselves, the undead simply standing idly as everything unfolded. Rubbing her eyes, the vampire hunter turned to the skeleton, currently standing at the edge of the light provided by the orb that floated above her head. "Would you stop staring at me? It''s a bit unnerving, Golpilz, or whatever you are called" brushing dust off her shoulders, Loimos reflecting into her dark sses. "What are you here for?" "Dropping the pretence? I already told you how I feel about life and your kind, I just wanna talk" she casually responded the words spoken to her with the pale tongue, the odd nature of thenguage spoken by the skeleton making it so that it seemed to being from but also not from Loimos himself,cking in natural echo, instead having its own. "You wish to speak with gravelords, about why life or the rest should not be eradicated to leave space for death?"cking in everything that made a voice what it was, the words spoken by Loimos hardly sounded like the question it was supposed to be. "Gravelord? That''s what you call them? Hold on, did you just say gravelords?" Rummy tensed up as she realised the usage of plural in this particr situation, Golpilz, as she knew him, did not seem like the sort of misspoke. She and Loimos just stood opposite to one another, the huntress incapable of reading him, whether he would attack, speak or do nothing was impossible to gleam from him, his pose had gone to one of absolute neutrality, having lost all of the personality he had infused into his fabricated alter ego. It was chilling. The silence as she waited for him to do something felt like an eternity, the death in the air feeling like it was growing denser and deeper by the second, the stench of death emanated from him with strength no piles of putrid corpses could hope to match. "You can try, I can not tell you what they would think of your offer, I do not speak for them, but neither will they be able of giving a satisfactory answer, it is for neither I, nor them to make this sort of decision, it is not undead reasoning that guide us, but Death itself" the light seemed to grow dimmer. "Whether we can coexist or not, I do not know, I shallply to Death''s will no matter what, but until then, we will continue" The undead stepped up to her, his approach devoid of friendliness or aggression, he simply moved and that was all there was to it. "In the event that your wish is also Death''s, I will allow you to live a while longer, in the event that it is not, take this and plead with Death in person" he grabbed her right hand, cing a dark crystal in the palm, keeping a firm hold onto her. "I-" "I see, that is very generous? Of you¡­" she had to do her best not to start shaking like a leaf caught in between two tornadoes, although she could probably fight back against the undead, that was technically speaking, he had already infected her mind with fear before she could make that decision. Experience exclusive tales on empire "Let us make a pact, in exchange of your life and the information I provided, you will not speak of anything you learned here, you will not speak of any great information you will find in the future regarding the undead either, you will not do or say anything that could bring misfortune to the undead, up until the information is revealed on its own" she silently agreed, in spite of only understanding through sheer intent, as Loimos spoke in the death tongue, and a pact did form just like that. Loimos let go of her hand, stepped away from her without any intent, disappearing into the darkness without speaking any other word, not any noise came out from the darkness. Rummy did not know how long she was left standing there, clutching the dark crystal, only certain of one thing at the moment, she had been very lucky, not just to not be attacked, but simply to have been given this asion. Chapter 223 Bad Actor Loimos had gotten very close to the students of the academy, having gotten a clear idea of their capabilities in a sparring session, of course, he had defeated all of them with the disadvantage of having most of his abilities and tactics unavable to him, but it wouldn''t be right to discard all of them as no good because of this, they had gotten much experience and training since then, their progress only getting faster since the attack led upon them using puppeteers and defilers. The skeleton had made certain to share every details of his learnings about them to Unacunerra, having mentioned a few of them as to be looked out for the most, today, as The Earthen Disaster appeared in the wide halls of the prison Faraday had been locked at the bottom of, he was met with two of those, pretty much inseparable from one another. Even the utterly emotionless Loimos had noticed that they were held together by something firm, of course, the concept of love was foreign to him, simply seeing the natural need for procreation of the living as this link. Unacunerra found it rather amusing, that his undead junior was somehow simultaneously capable of grasping the concepts of the living and also utterly miss the point, interrogating him on such concepts was always a guaranteed way of hearing some most bizarre and obscure things. Coupled with One being around, Loimos was inadvertently a greatedian and entertainer even when as apathetic as apathy could go. This was what Unacunerra was reminded of when heid sight upon Milo and Helena, the girl, it was obvious why the rotten skeleton had deemed her as a living to pay attention to, but the experienced mage could see even further than this.@@novelbin@@ Magical talent was easy to discern for him, he had fought and yed many that would have been deemed incredible geniuses in this day and age, he quickly considered killing her right here and there, but spotting a magical item infused with burning mana, it should be made obvious that were he to try, or attempt to use a spell to overpower that object, the woman that had already bested him once would show up, and getting into a struggle of zones was not conductive to anything right now. Instead, he looked over at the boy, not quite seeing what had made the all logic, all calctive undead deem him a threat to pay attention to, sure, his natural physique was incredible, the typical build of one that could make great use of the system stats due to having an incredible base without using any tricks. Powerful mana, sure, but that was not especially impressive for Unacunerra, who had learned directly from Nitok, the conventional grading system for energy aspects was rather obsolete in the case of the undead king, so having a few aspects off the charts was not anything to write home about. His element was rather odd, but nothing seemed to be overly special about it. ''He is not the sort of to get random odd feelings about anything, and, it was the release of this boy''s elemental mana that got the defilers all worked up, perhaps it rtes to the heretical fire'' Disguised, the royal guard stepped from a corner, into sight of the two students, who instantly stopped moving. His control over the earth allowed the skeleton to appear like some sort of y sculpture, keeping his mana hidden, making sure that they would not be able of linking him with certainty to the zone user they had met, having even put his staff away. "What brings you here children? All that was to be done has already been dealt with" he crossed his arms, taking up a non-aggressive pose with them, still stepping toward them though. The two living looked at one another. Stay updated via empire "Don''t take another step forward and identify yourself" Helena conjured up a few visible des of wind to make her demand more convincing. The undead mage did as he was told. "I have no name" he did not feel like inventing something, instead throwing a question back at them. "Were you stationed in the city to watch over this dungeon? If not, I do wonder what you are doing rushing into here when the earth is shaking so powerfully" "You see, I am questioning whether you are so incredibly brave, or so mind-numbingly idiotic for taking this course of action" he swung his hands around, slowly putting his feet into a much less amicable disposition. "We, and by that I mean all recent graduates of Toordefer, have simply been assigned areas to watch over, simply making sure no puppeteers and defilers are still wandering around" Helena handled the talking. ''That sounded like a lie'' "Ah" Unacunerra did not say anything about the perceived deception and just went along "So, you are wondering if I have anything to do with those? Rest assured, I simply cleared this dungeon of its master, I am no viin" thest of the servants of Faraday disappeared into the tunnel. And without bothering to buy any more time, the skeleton mage moved right up to Milo, ignoring the harmless de of winds raining down on him, their power wasn''t too bad, but any harmful spells getting close to him were dissected and rendered back into simple mana. Grasping the boy''s arm, Unacunerra didn''t give much a leeway for Milo to slip away, taking control of the living''s mana and thus preventing him from augmenting his physical prowess, forcing him to produce some of his golden element and guiding him to crystallise it on the outside, draining him of his energy in just an instant. Taking the crystallised mana for himself, Unacunerra stepped back, erecting countless walls of earth as he retreated back to the lowest chamber of the iron dungeon, having done all thisplicated actions in less than five seconds, leaving no chance for either of the two to properly fight back, but he made sure not to endanger them. Sensing multiple of his walls copsing as he arrived back into the tunnel he excavated, he had to admit that the winds that girl could conjure were rather destructive when needed. The dungeon began to copse, starting from the bottom, Unacunerra had sessfully retrieved Faraday, Slotriig, and a great number of forces, soon, he would be able of learning more about Rosemary as well, with some luck, he would be able of gleaming a way to counter her zone more efficiently. And if he could not figure out a way to overpower her with certainty, then, The Earthen Disaster would simply bring his findings to the only mage more capable than himself. Chapter 226 Vision It was painful, genuinely hurting his very bones, to know everything, yet be forced to keep it all to himself, remain silent about the undead, Agilulf Wanneck had managed to piece things together, and clearly, Fioldron Ferrcrona had been somewhat moved by his speech, though, the hard-headed king would never follow his words. Endlessly thinking about the future, about the past, about what he could have done better, how he could have been clearer without breaching the terms of his ability, it was toote now however, it was all he could think about, to the point that he would lose himself inside of his own mind, so long that he now found himself well away from Starkefolten, staring at the fading sun and the distant moon. ''There are only three people that can be trusted to go against them, only three of them that could rival the forces of death with certainty, three, three¡­'' The sun shone a bright orange, casting its soothing light upon the prophet, who had stopped just short of a cliff, the allure of the bottom was especially absorbing today, almost enthralling, a hand was waving at him, beckoning his approach. Quideos ignored it again, putting his attention toward the moon instead. ''Thanatok Ynig¨®s, Maiele Liameilos and¡­ And¡­'' ''The First Death Hunter, Elven Light and-'' A cold hand ced itself onto his shoulder, rotten, festering with the buzzing mour of an unseen insect swarm, something clicked its tongue, mockingly so. Experience new tales on empire "Quideos Audit, failing to remember your own visions? How far you have fallen, pitiful living seer, unable to handle the weight of the truth, your unstable mind, the insanity that made you into the untrustworthy man you now are... Did it not ur because you tried to foresee the uing future entirely? Thinking yourself untouchable in your visions?" It paused, massaging Quideos''s shoulder, the damp flesh stirred and bent, stretching and moving away from the bones. "I understand that feeling, I was the same before returning to the oblivion of true death" The living seer turned to the loathsome wraith, this voice, this rotten carcass which held his own decapitated head under his left arm, clouds of locusts flying around, crawling over the decayed flesh, into the gaps opening the skin, fingernails broken, twisted upward or pushing deep in the fingers. A most despicable sight, Quideos was unmoved however, this vision of horror had been haunting him a while already, the reason why was obvious to the prophet, who had the displeasure of getting acquainted with each and every scion of death. Irmandos, fellow seer, was supposed to have been destroyed, rendered to nothingness by life, and yet, he continued on existing through visions and prophecies, spreading his bile at every asion, shaking Audit''s resolve at every turn. The zombie was not alone in this endeavour. The prophet''s idiocy in the past had led him to treat visions as unthreatening, wholeheartedly believing that naught could reach him in this way, no matter what visions of horror might assail his mind, he had seen much death and destruction before the advent of his gazing upon the arrival, the return of the undead¡­ That had beenpletely wrong, one of the gravelords was a being that one could not simply be gazed upon as you wished, infecting his mind with a deep, dark poison, for months on end, he would be driven by nothing but this vile toxin, a time he had no memories of even to this day. He had learned his lesson, each step, each movement performed within visions was carefully calcted, avoiding any further mentions of Multaemanus, The Unceasing, even to this day, he still considered her to be the vilest of the gravelords.@@novelbin@@ "If you are here, then I am having another vision, aren''t I?" calmly, the prophet ignored the words being spoken to him by the zombie and instead focused on the vision itself, the scenery all around him changing. He was certain of it, there were three heroes that could stand up to the undead, yet, thest one remained elusive even in their existence, not to say that the first two were much better, tracking either of them down had proven a fruitless endeavour, the noble heroes of life and light would only appear of their own volition, which should not be long. Yet, this was not ideal, the heroes should strike before the kingdom of the dead rose again, but nothing Quideos did could shake fate in the least, fate was set in stone, and also not. There were many things that had the seer worried. The world changed, turning into a vast expanse of grey, covered in small hills, turning around, Audit discovered that thendscape was much different from what he first believed, thend was split in two, both were barren, the seer standing right in between of the two opposing sides. In front of him, his rotten counterpart stood in silence, content just allowing the vision to y out. Both sides began to blossom with countless blooms, one turning green, colourful with bright shines, erupting with plentiful life of all kinds. The other however, was in no ways less colourful, still was bleak however, blood and flesh in dpositionid as the foundation of this parallel reality where death ruled, both were at odds, spearheaded by two giant trees. As soon as this vision happened, it all vanished, leaving Quideos in pure darkness, all on his own, even the undead seer was nowhere to be found curiously, although drowned in dark, the prophet was able of making sense of where he was, the floor was creaking with a familiarity, theyout, even unsee, soon made sense to him, throwing him back to one of his earlier visions. The home of younger years, when he had yet to have awakened his affinity for revtions, here, he did not find the third hero, nor did he find a way to convince his fellows of the approaching doom. ''To think that I am left unheard because a gravelord directly intervened¡­'' he mused, suddenly feeling nostalgic, feeling like thinking back on his failings as he found himself in a safe ce, a warm house unlike any other, even though the cold winds could go right through the walls. A candle was lit, as he now sat across the rickety dinner table, not faced with his mother, nor nked by Jo, the sides were left empty, no chairs for anyone toe sit. Instead, barely visible in the candlelight, a figure Quideos did not recognise was standing, the stench of decay hanging thick in the air. Was there even something here? The living was not certain, it soon dawned upon him, simultaneously a part of fate, yet ungraspable by it, there it stood, the undead that even fate feared to approach, for the corpse could even make that which is eternal fear oblivion. "What is your name?! Who are you?!" Quideos Audit fearlessly flung the table aside, grabbing the corpse by its cor. It did not answer, something else did, and it left the seer shaken. Slipping through the cracks. Coming to himself, no longer on the edge of a cliff, but at its bottom. Chapter 228 Pale Garden "What a drag¡­" "Do I have to be here? Go meet your grandpapa or whatever on your own, it''s not my problem that this decrepit assembly of mental oddities can not be trusted"@@novelbin@@ "You are entitled to your opinion Death Dealer, but my ancestor is the founder of the Fin-Limier association, you have him to thank for receiving payment for mass murder and other crimes" Maliah rolled her eyes, entirely shrouded in her misshapen cloak, appearing as naught but a shadow given physical form, even the assassin associate, current leader of the Fin-Limier, had trouble distinguishing the girl''s presence as she just walked beside him. "In any case, you remember the drill right? He has not had any interaction with the outside world for well over a hundred years by now, probably more¡­" the man wore a mask, or rather, it seemed like the mask was wearing him as the mouth and eyes of the inanimate object moved with fluidity, the bodily acts supposed to season his wordsing a moment tote, a moment too soon- Never right on time, only barely at best, never at worse. "I have no speck of a clue what my ancestor is up to in his garden and chamber, and to be frank, I would not bother to check were it not for that deep-pocketed king putting the coins on the table, do you know what is better than money Death Dealer?" he asked, having raised his index finger two minutes prior. "Killing? Stabbing? Gouging eyes-?" "More money! Blood-soaked money has that distinct taste against my tongue, more metallic than usual, so sweet¡­" he pped the tongue inside his mouth, tapping teeth together in a distinctive manner. "Oh, old Odicious used to be a fine connoisseur of money, I would dig into my mind if my perception of time was not stunted by so many memories, all jammed together!" "Get back on track" she rmended, pping him in the head. "Ah¡­ The drill, yes, Odicious, is my not-so venerable ancestor, the ringleaderid the foundations of what a fin-limier assassins ought to be, his obsession towards crafting the best killer of all is simply boundless, I am certain that he will be thrilled to meet with you, but if needed, don''t hesitate to restrain him¡­" They arrived before an old wooden door, seemingly untouched by time despite having stood in ce since forsaken times, it was well preserved and constantly tended to, or at least it gave the appearance that it was. Putting and turning a simple key inside, it opened just like any other mundane door, revealing the other side of it, mouldy, crumbling, bloated by humidity, whatid on the other side was nothing short of a maid''s nightmare, the path was barricaded by countless spider webs, which were unfortunately still upied. "Dark and damp, just how I like it! Odicious should not be far" the assassin leader stepped forward, straight through obstructions, uncaring as the eight-legged, miniature critters crawled all over him. Maliah simply followed in silence, listening to the ramblings of the man that was in charge of her paychecks. "It has been long since a king worthy of such a lofty title has called upon us, and to think that he even knew about old Odicious and our traditions! I was so touched by the efforts that I almost cried, thankfully, I had already done so prior to the meeting, how embarrassing it would have been, hehehah!" "I must warn you though, my ancestor was always a bit of an odd sort, a little scallywag if you will, if he can remember and still bust down the assassinations move, my economics will see a sharp rise" He persistently kept on talking as they made their way through ludicrously high, yet terribly cranked passage-ways with poptions of squirming insects that seemed to want nothing more than to hold onto Maliah''s hair. Soon after that, they arrived into a small garden that was illuminated by a singr crystal protruding from the ceiling, ending in a sharp point that nearly scratched the ground, hanging as the centerpiece of the pale blue garden, the ce was minimalist, just a few bushes and wild flowers, nothing too extraordinary. What was most captivating was the forcefully soft voiceing from the room right next to it, chanting a luby that would be considered deranged even as the lyrics were iprehensible, spoken in a long lostnguage. A tongue that had been left to the side and forgotten after the gift ofprehension had fallen upon Viridis, it was a man''s voice, sung without a care, or notice of the two people that had stepped upon his lodgings. "What does Wanneck want to use this guy for? I don''t think the crowned merchant would put any amount of coins on the table for mere intel and some hired-hands, he already has the copper knights at his disposal if he oh-so wished to render a nation to a mound of corpses and ruins" Maliah yawned, ever so calmly pointing a de at her boss. The mask contorted into a smile, its cheeks puffing pink like actual skin as the man raised both hands. "Oh, Death Dealer, you are such a treat! The best woman- Man? I honestly can''t even tell even as I am looking straight at you, you are one magnificent murderer! My greatest pride for certain, let me be straightforward with you" leaning forward with a severe dy, his eyes narrowing and twirling as though they were both ocr globes and brows. "May I tell you a story?" "No" "Oh¡­" "Well then, I''ll make it short, I, Arleqkin am the current leader of the Fin-Limier, Odicious is the ringleader, our oldest member, although technically speaking, Odicious is also me, for he has once donned the mask, as have all of the leaders, they are all me, and I am all of them" "Get it?" Maliah just stared at him with a clearck of interest. "Just wanted to share that too, because I was hoping you would take up after m-" Readtest stories on empire "I will not, no way in hell am I putting this garbage on my face, it''s clearly fused into your head? Not a fan of this" "Aww¡­" He slumped his shoulders five seconds toote. "To answer your question, King Wanneck is supposedly nning on waging a war, apparently as per the words of Quideos Audit, I am not one to judge but this guy is a nutcase, but no matter, money is money, and Odicious serves no purpose down here!" He stepped into the ringleader''s chamber, a huge man, back humped and covered by a tattered cloak, his skin having turned a distinct blue, like that of a drowned corpse. "Sweet Holli, rest as I greet our visitors" he spoke in a stifled tone, turning to the two assassins, his face a bright red, a clear view upon the muscles of his face, exposed teeth and permanently wide open eyes, somehow, it was still appearing fresh even after being supposedly locked down here for an absurd amount of time. Cradling something invisible, he gave them a graceful bow. "Arleqkin, is that you? And who is this- Ooh! What is this fine gem? Sweet Holli! Look at this assassin, shrouded in mystery! Murderous and without hesitation! Take a good look my daughter, this is the zenith!" "The zenith!" Chapter 230 Arts Training Although Milo, and honestly, most of his peers had absolutely no future in the practice of battle arts, that did not mean that Syklon could not teach them anything, to properly craft battle arts and attain her incredible understanding of the arts, she also had to simply be good at learning, adapting and creating battle styles. Somehow, despite being so small and frail, she could box Milo and wrestle him into submission with one hand, while standing in equilibrium on one foot, absolutely ludicrous, both to experience and to watch, but no one wasughing, all had gotten the premium experience at least once before, her hands were too small to properly grasp them, but they just did. Your journey continues on empire This was the result of reaching the pinnacle of the arts, to the point that an unknown number of them were constantly active even if Syklon was sleeping, ranging from strength enhancements to automated reactions, it would not be a stretch to believe that all of the arts she could be seen using were actually always active, their requirements already fulfilled, or being fulfilled at all times. "This, is what one would call a master of one, I gave everything up for the arts, closing paths forever is what one that thanspires to reach a certain peak should not hesitate to do, I used to be lined up to be a great magic caster as well, but I gave that up in favour of the arts¡­" She twisted the boy''s arm into a painful hold, his face turning red as he fought back the instinct to scream, and that seemed to be just about the only thing he could do, the rest of his body seemingly immobilised even though it was not caught in a hold too. "...I also gave up the system and all of its boons too, meaning that I rejected the stats, choosing to stay with my frail body as all that I had, but I also rejected the handy weapon skills that allow one to understand your arms and styles better by just practising like always, that was probably the biggest thing I gave up, considering what I wanted to aplish" finally letting go of Milo. "For you, you shouldn''t pay attention to more convoluted and finer techniques outside of learning how to counter them, your main point is pure strength, you have not gained much XP at all, so it means that you have the striking force of a bear naturally, don''t bother spinning around and looking graceful, punch your foes in the mouth and kick them in the knees" Syklon signalled for Ohrn to pass over a manual, written by herself, specifically for Milo''s eyes to read. She ended up telling simr things to most of the other students, those that had no talents in the arts needed to use their strong points and focus on it, if one was nimbler than average, stronger, more instinctive, also for those that even after having gone through the repeated physical trainings of Rosemary, had not been ster in things that required muscles, she simply directed them to learn to hide themselves better as they cast spells from afar. They had heard such things from their magic teacher as well, but of course, her teachings were more rted to mana and all.@@novelbin@@ Helena was in a simr spot as Milo was, being pretty much the opposite of Syklon in physicality, the swordmaster had stopped growing early, Helena seemed to not want to stop, to the point that people were seriously considering that she was part giant, despite these natural advantages, such as having much more reach than everyone but the shieldmaster himself and being about on par with Menhirel, the talent holder of the shield category. Despite that, it was obvious that she should focus on her spell casting, her affinity with the wind element was almost outrageous and favoured high movement speeds and unseen attacks, still, it would be a shame to not put all that extra muscture to good use, so Syklon gave her a rundown to use her wind attribute to do some hit and run. After all of this, most of the students that could make use of some arts were only given a few to try and learn, their instructor not expecting any outstanding, except for the two that could actually hope to do more than basic enhancements with battle arts. First, Griar. ''A real gem that one'' she thought, this kid was way too enthusiastic all the time, but being that he devoted some much time to honing his sword skills, Syklon could not help but like his attitude, with him, everything had to be about the sabre. His de was his main weapon, his element was all about swords, and he focused on using it to reinforce his swordsmanship despite having ess to ranged attacks with it, he would rather close the distance instead. Griar knew what he wanted to do, and how he wanted to put his de to work, although his style was unlike that of the knights he seemed to admire so much, in Tamaris and most of the continent, knights were fully armoured men that usually carried long weapons, swinging with destructive force and capable of taking hits of equal might without budging. Knights in Tochi tended to put a bit too much faith in overwhelming speed and single strikes. The young noble fell somewhere in between, and his single-minded focus was reflected in his talent for the arts. It was a bit odd, but then again, few things were sensical in this world, Griar had a talent for battle arts, that was undeniable, Syklon could sense it but it did not mean he could learn arts easily, his talentid in creating his own arts, just like the rest, he had a clear idea of what he wanted to do with this aptitude. She would simply guide him and assist in honing his pure sword skills, afterwards, he would go spar with Ohrn, who might be lesser than hisdy, but was certainly no rookie and he also had the advantage of having lots of experience due to his age. Lastly, also talented not in the broadest of terms but still tremendously so. "Antieeld, how are you today?" "I am fine, thanks for asking" the youngmandant also wielded a sabre, but considering her position, it should not be drenched with blood unless things went haywire. Which was why, in ordance with her talent as a leader, her talent with the arts relied onmanding and empowering troops, inspiring them. "Say, Miss Syklon¡­ Would you happen to know a particr battle art? One that requires the user to swing a halberd adorned with a banner to summon foggy soldiers? I have been meaning to ask for a while¡­" "That''s the art used by the gue knight, right?" Syklon feinted being deep in thoughts, instead debating whether she should be honest or not. To lie for the girl''s good, or tell the truth, for the girl''s good? To lie and keep things as they are, or tell the truth, renewing hope? Lady Syklon was not the best at this sort of things. Chapter 231 Holy Land That day, when her entire crime empire was quite literally torn to pieces, when that amalgamations of twisted bones rose from beneath the earth before escaping, this had been her first encounter with an undead, this being had gone unseen since then but she had made certain inform her new employer, namely Agilulf Wanneck but ever since she had heard of the incident with the students and about the details concerning one of the two oddities present, she had been certain. She had also spoken of it, about her doubts of the gue knight, even if not especially convincing. This mysterious knight had used a battle art that seemed to be a derivation of one of the arts that she had been keeping in her old office, before it had been utterly cleared of everything inside. The culprit of this theft was rather obvious, the other undead that had been present, the one that had seemingly disintegrated of its own will to summon a shade of another undead, a rather tough shade at that, not that it had posed a problem but it had made her question just how strong the actual being would be. Usage of this battle art had made her believe that somehow, the undead that should have been eliminated by its own actions was still on and about, it was true that its destruction had always felt a bit odd. "Antieeld, I do know of a simr battle art, and it''s user should be an undead, but the arts do not match, so to be perfectly honest, the most logical assumption is that the gue knight is simply an undead that was taught the art and modificated it" in the end, she chose not to tell what she really believed, mostly because it was just her guts that told her the undead she had met and the gue knight were one and the same, she had no real concrete evidence to fall back upon. The young girl did not ask any further questions about this subject, instead focusing on the training, and once it was time to stop, she left to continue this training even further. "I can sense a great art brewing inside of her, the more she seems to anguish over her fallen knight, the more it takes on a firmer shape" Ohrn stepped up to hisdy''s side,ing back from a lengthy spar session with Griar. "Seems like your eyes have learned to finally discern properly" receiving praise, the elder froze in ce. "Where are my four disciples?" speaking aloud, four young women stepped inside, not veryfortable wearing the traditional Tochi clothes, but Syklon wouldn''t have it any other way.@@novelbin@@ After officially bing a part of the kingdom of Tamaris, Syklon agreed to train the students and als impart simple arts upon royal knights and also teach some people arts that they would then teach upon soldiers, but of course, she also wanted things of her own, Agilulf Wanneck was very generous with her, what she was asking for was not anything ridiculous however, when someone offered their hand to you, it was only natural not to grab their wrist. Continue reading at empire Syklon had always wished to impart arts upon others, have her very own disciples but she needed them to have the talent to learn her very own style, her three elites had been good, but not the kind of good she had been looking for. Here in Tamaris, it had only required very little time, inviting various adventurers teamsposed of fairly young members, but not children, Syklon despised the recently born, even if they were knowledge sponges, interacting with them was worth too much energy and patience. The one that had passed with flying colours was a group of four that even after being washed and dressed properly, still looked like four unwashed peasants from the countryside, or more specifically, from the sides of roads, the sort that coulde out of bushes, grab your ankle and spat out an unknownnguage reeking of novel diseases. Tahnee, Eppie, Cassi and Lynn, denizens of the not famed town of Throdqdmond, which had lost quite a lot of its inhabitants as most of its people had decided to enlist into the army, no adventurers remained and it was pretty much nothing but farnds by now. Having be one of the ces where food was being produced hastily with the assistance of some nature-aligned elves. Coincidentally, they had alsoe into contact with an undead at one point, which was curious at least. "Alright girls, time to show improvement, arm yourselves!" "Oh gods¡­" _______ "Halt" speaking without threat, a pdin fully decked out in highly reflective armour raised one hand, stepping forward, the bright rays of the sun bouncing off his chestte, none blinding the people approaching the other way. This faithful pdin was in charge of guarding one of the entrances into the holynds of Millipolo, theocracy that rested upon faith, faith for the silent gods. "I am a pdin of Aletheia, do not engage in deceit, answer truthfully" he said, asking a few questions to an old man, letting him through soon after. He stayed where he had stepped up to, noticing two figures approaching in the distance, emerging from the bright light of the sun. A young woman, hair arranged in a ponytail, dressed in a simple dark robe and red gloves, the pdin was quickly able to guess that she was a priestess from Pezerx, not only because of her tanned skin, but also because of her missing left ear, a clear sign that she engaged inbat, as wasmon with the worship of the nameless sand god that was said to have been the source of every grain of sand in the desertic nation. Standing by her side, holding a mace sternly, a gigantic, an absolute mastodonte of a pdin, immediately, the pdin of truth felt that it would be best to not make any sudden movements, as he guessed that this fellow was guarding the priestess. The fact that his armour design was not in ordance with Pezerx was a bit odd, but to a citizen of Millipolo it was just a sign that all the faiths could be brought together. He repeated the same words as before, the armoured man did not budge, seemingly staring straight ahead rather than the gate guardian. "Do not worry about him, he has taken a vow of nomunications, not considering himself worthy still to engage in the gift ofprehension" she said, reassuring him that herpanion was to be trusted. "I see! That is rather extreme¡­" clearing his throat, asking the first question. "Is your faith in your god genuine?" "Yes" The truth. "Do you intend tomit any nefarious or otherwise uwful activities in Millipolo?" "I do not, neither does my friend, he is in search of a luminary of his order, nothing more" "What do you intend to do here?" "I am only apanying my friend, and acting as his mouth" "Nothing more?" "Nothing more" Chapter 234 Treacherous Meeting "Ah, Sir Calidumello, leaving already? I was under the impression that you would deal with the problem-" Quideos Audit caught up to the masked man, who had walked right past everyone without deigning them with even attention to their existence. The man that called himself Calidumello turned to the prophet, crossing his arms.@@novelbin@@ "There was a slightplication if you will, and our environment is not really conductive to its resolution, I am sorry, but your ''problem'' will have to remain as is, and quite honestly, I doubt I would have been able of cleansing the caves as you would wish, after all, at the moment, he and I stand on rtively equal footing, I don''t know his full capacities and he haspany anyways" he said with desinvolture, insouciance and nonchnce that made Quideos blood boil. "You seem to know more about this thing than you let on at first, and if so, you should be well aware that this thing is a menace to public safety! I can''t say much-" "Vwoldtnir" "Huh?" "Vwoldtnir, that''s who you are talking about, yes? I know him, a small ghoul of remarkable agility, as I said, I am unable to defeat him as of now, he is in his element, has support from countless of his servants and probably knows more about me, that I know about him, I only epted your offer to sneak me into Millipolo so that I could try and discuss with him, nothing more, I am pretty strong, don''t get me wrong, I am not stupid however" "Who knows how much stronger he has gotten since then as well¡­ While I have been stagnating, such is the first nature of death, decay and rot, in the long run, nothing cane out of it, do you agree prophet?" He extended a hand toward Audit. "Death is the end of life, and life thrives from death, eliminating one will simply cause imbnce, that is what I believe, no, for both to be at their best, they need to be at constant odds, an endless struggle, death will always be life''s end, no matter how strong life gets, that won''t change, and to that end-" "Hold on a second, are you implying what I think you''re implying, I- I sweated blood and crawled on the ground to get a hold of you! Of the traitor! Why would a traitor be so- So neutral? Why the se- Argh!" Quideos rubbed his temples. The sun mask shook his head, shrugging shoulders. "Be careful Quideos, it seems like your restrictions are getting stricter by the day, your guest seems to rival you in the mastery of foresight and prophecies" chuckling, he tapped the seer''s shoulder, easily moving the man without even meaning to. "It is a bit embarrassing, it served as a pause of some sort, and I needed time to figure something out, but mostly, huh¡­ You know what? It is best if you don''t know, the ridiculousness might actually invoke a heart attack, you are too young to die like this, and don''t take my words too seriously, what I say, and what I do, are two entirely different things!" Calidumello turned and walked away, only taking a few steps before sighing to himself. ''Aah¡­ Something was up with that undead, it''s annoying that I can''t tell what it is, but the fact that I can''t, is also an answer of its own¡­'' the traitor took a sharp turn into a small chapel amidst the crowd of other buildings dedicated to faith, this one was not in the worship of a god, instead being some sort of altar to the glory of someone past, the ce was deserted, evidently not receiving much visits at all, only a single person was to be found inside of her,vishly seated in front of the ce were offerings were supposed to go. Decorated with a single painting depicting the most gorgeous woman the traitor had ever gotten toy eyes upon, taking a seat next, but not too close, to the person, he took off his mask. In this austere ambiance, the two of them were certainly stains, despite both of them having all the rights to pay a visit. "I take it that you had a short discussion with the freak?" sitting with legs spread, slouched back on the bench and staring at the ceiling with disinterest, a woman dressed in clothing Calidumello could only describe as painfully supernatural, somehow tight fitting but also not, it was a rather basic get-up one could expect to find on some adventurers, simply cleaner and whollycking in truly defensive properties. She looked like a spitting image of the woman depicted on the clearly wizened and ancient painting. "I didn''t even have an asion to try¡­ You know, you have not changed one bit, still just as beautiful-" "Man, shut the hell up" she waved the poor attempt off, looking at him instead of the ceiling. "I don''t mingle with anyone, and certainly not with a vampire, and howe you didn''t have an asion? That human prophet pretty much hand-held you straight to Vwioltinir or however you pronounce that assault onnguage" she leaned forward, resting forearms on her knees, posture still horrendous. The traitor stayed silent for a moment, thinking about how to not invoke mockery. Enjoy new stories from empire "I ran into another undead" "And? Was it a gravelord? In broad daylight it could only have been the spectre or ghost, and I doubt Miss-Many-Hands could go unnoticed, so the pervert ghost is the only option, I don''t think he can do anything to someone of your level, even if you have severely fallen" scratching one of her impossibly long ears, so lengthy that it casted into question how she got through some doorways. "It wasn''t a gravelord" he added. "Why are you not saying everything at once? Was it that shiny skeleton? The frail mage? The one with the big-ass sword?" "Neither, it was an undead I had never seen before, despite the fact that I still have my authority as a gravelord, he just walked up and openly threatened me, it was pretty convincing too, shades? Only the people who know how to use them know that they even exist¡­" "He was a bit odd, and add a name in one of the systemnguages, so I took him to his words and left" Turning to his elven associate, Sun-Walker was met with the most t expression possible, like he had just spoken intensely about walking on a dog dung and had gotten the attention of a stranger. "You let yourself get threatened by a random undead?" "I doubt he is exactly ''random''..." "You got scared of a random corpse- Hold on, how did he get in Millipolo?" Chapter 237: First Encounter "We don¡¯t really know one another, huh¡­ So, how is life in this mediaeval magic society?" Toby asked, a slight bit intimidated by the fact that Milo¡¯s shoulders were about as big as someone¡¯s head. The instructors had had the brilliant idea of pairing everyone up with people they didn¡¯t really know or interact with, the otherworlders were a fair bit social for the most part, except Toby of course, who would rather gather dust in a corner than be out there. "What does mediaeval mean?" Milo did not quite pick up on the unwanted presence¡¯s awkward demeanour, the two young men approached a small building overgrown by roots and grass. Constructed out of the famed grey brick every architect and their mothers seems to have a passionate affection for, it was pretty much impossible to identify what this stranded ruin even used to be, it was surrounded by nothing else and had no roads leading up to it. "Ah, I guess this is modern here, It¡¯s just that there are skyscrapers, TV and nuclear bombs from where Ie from" Milo slightly pushed vines that obstructed what was probably the entrance, not understanding a thing of what Toby was babbling about. ¡¯Skyscrapers? Is that another word for giants or something?¡¯ he wondered, but stayed silent as the two of them ventured inside, they had already done this many times in the past weeks or so, their duo was odd but worked rather well, although Toby kept on asking questions that made no sense to Milo. Milo would rush forward, and Toby would support from a distance, the otherworlder could gather information on enemies as well, allowing for the farm boy to fight with an advantage most of the time, although, they had only ran into a handful of bandits, as well as wildlife, the bears had been oddly aggressivetely for some reason. "Well, it¡¯s empty" the roof had long copsed, allowing light to trickle in between the branches that had reced it, the interior was bare, only decorated by rubbles. Milo bent his knees, noticing an imprint on the ground, there was a spot that was dirt without grass, like something had been there and preventing the growth, he was rather familiar with such sights, it didn¡¯t take long to find the small piece of debris that had been right there. "Seems like someone visited this ce recently" he said, it was a bit odd that a ruin would be walked into shortly before they arrived but it was not the most suspicious thing ever, there were viges and towns around, anyone could have just explored the woods. Milo, if he had the asion, would have certainly explored random ruins in the woods, for no other reason that he found it entertaining. "Herm¡­ They might still be here actually" Toby called Milo over, a trapdoor was left open, quite wide and made out of sturdy wood, seemingly unaffected unlike the rest of the ruin, looking around, it had been covered in rubbles and such until recently. Adder led deep into darkness, the two of them looked at one another. "We agree that this is the perfect way to get ambushed, right?" Toby readjusted his sses, using a function of his special system to summon antern that he had received from a death hunter. "Indeed, and just how deep is this thing? That can¡¯t be a normal basement, and¡­" both of them were suddenly hit by the smell of blood, its aroma was so strong, it was as though they had just bitten their tongues off, allowing rivers of blood to flood their mouths. @@novelbin@@ Once again, they looked at one another. Clearly, going down thatdder was a rather poor idea and both were not idiotic enough to give in to the curiosity, lest they end up like the cat in the idiom. It was a shame however, a cold hand firmly pressed against the center of their backs, gentle, yet ill-intended, cold, yetforting somehow. None had the time to do as much as gasp, they were pushed as simply as that, unable to put up any sort of resistance, their ears ringing as though someone had just yelled directly into their ears, no such had happened to either, or at least, they did not realise that it had. Milo reinforced his body with his golden mana, grabbing Toby before falling right onto his back, letting out a pained groan, something sshed, thentern intact still. The two of them were quick to get back to their feet, the fall was fear inducing but it had not been as deep as they had imagined, the ground having been close to the distance the light had reached from up there. The ground was covered in something that felt oily, sticking to clothes, making moving around tenuous, whatever substance was on the ground mattered little, it reflected the light strongly, but Toby quickly turned it toward every corner, until it finally fell on a figure standing with their back to them. Spacious and barren, the thing that covered the floor was pulled into something in front of that person, seemingly disappearing entirely, drained into the ground, leaving the two young men alone with thisplete stranger. Even from the back, they could clearly tell that it was a woman, that much was obvious, a ratherrge one-edged de against her shoulder, she turned around. A saucy smile on her face, her green eyes focused, dangerous. ¡¯A Tochian? I doubt she is one of those refugees¡­¡¯ Milo raised his hands, giving Toby a slight tap. The otherworlder understood and summoned a simple sword and bow, giving the melee weapon to Milo, he stepped back ready to shoot at a moment¡¯s notice. "Wh-" Milo attempted to ask a simple question, but the woman shut him up, grabbing the sheath secured to her waist, putting her de in with much poise, normally, this would be a sign of non-aggression, but for a warrior from Tochi to do such a thing, this was a threat. "You wanna fight big boy? Feeling yourself today?" she snickered, Toby was incapable of reacting, not noticing anything until he realised she had disappeared from where she stood, he had been expecting something but not to this extent, after all, his system had not recognised her as a ¡¯boss¡¯. Milo was able of reacting, to a feint, seeing a green bluring overhead, he raised the sword, infusing it with mana to block the attack, somehow, the sword was back in its sheath when a foot struck his guts. She caught him unprepared, he had not reinforced that area, still a rookie. "Heeeh, not bad I guess" Milo ignored the pain, stepping back and throwing the sword without hesitation, augmenting his entire body, barely avoiding a stray sh by sheer instinct, he could not believe it, the sword did not even seem to leave its sheath at any given time. Another sh came, shing deep on his chest, despite his arms being in the way of the attack, they were untouched. Your journey continues at empire All the while, this swordswoman was dodging and deflecting arrows from Toby without even ncing at them, the two of them were way out of their depth right now, the otherworlder was deeply inexperienced andcking in firepower, whilst Milo just did not have enough fight under his belt, the majority that he had experienced were either friendly spars or against inferior enemies, few had been against opponents stronger than himself, and this woman was clearly much more skilled than he was. ¡¯She¡¯s just grazing me¡­ Not taking me seriously, I better-¡¯ he threw himself backward with a pulse of golden mana, aiming at the ceiling, he fired a simple mana bullet, but with the power his energy packed, nearly the entire thing came breaking down. Considering how durable he was, Milo could have used this opportunity for an attack by rushing through the falling bits of stone, but that would be stupid, instead, he grabbed Toby and got the hell out of here as quickly as he possibly could. "Oh, tactical retreat? Not a big fan, next time I find you-" the young men didn¡¯t hear the rest. Not stopping when they got out of the basement, kept on running for minutes on end, even though it seemed like she was not going to give chase. "Tactical retreat? How nice¡­ I was just running away like normal" Milo nervouslyughed. "Running away in fear yeah¡­" added Toby. Chapter 240: Nightfall On the dawn of the sh, both champions faced off in deserted cities, the defeat of either, the knell signifying the beginning of the end. _____ "Oh, by the gods, why is the atmosphere so tense here? Is something happening in Bourgliotte?" "Bourgliotte? Certainly not, it is as peaceful as it can get, everyone is sleeping soundly, that is for sure, no, the tenseness is probably from me, you see¡­ I am not simply a wandering merchant, I also transport special goods for specific clients, and, do notugh, I am awfully clumsy" "I had this beautiful silver sword, a gift for the youngest daughter of a noble, I hear she is his favourite, and fool that I am, wanted to clean it, right next to this ravine right here! I do not need to exin further, the finely crafted arm, paid from the pockets of a loving father, fell right in, it does not seem broken, I can see the shine from up there- Do take a look, miss, would you not happen to have an idea?" "A silver sword? That is quite umon¡­ Ah yes, I do see it when I lean for-" What followed was a rather shrill cry of surprise and the regr sound of flesh being shredded in impact, the perfect crime, the scene cleaned itself up, all dissipating into rot and disappearing, not even the ambient death released by the sudden and brutal murder was left behind. This was the fifth one today, Loimos was ced just by the main road leading to Bourgliotte, having taken this spot after fruitless searchings, time was generally not a worry for the dead, but the more they waited, the more likely it became for the word that death¡¯s scions were on and about would spread, having an entire country know was already problematic enough. They were lucky that the prophet that had carried the news had already been made highly untrustworthy by the work of a gravelord, and so, they would soon walk upon Bougliotte, without all of the gravelords. Quideos Audit had not given signs of life in months by now, Tamaris was making too much progress too fast, and Starkefolten, it seemed like something was brewing here, Fioldron Ferrcrona was up to something too, having made certain to have his elemental champions hide away for unknown reasons. And as such, Loimos was currently ying his role as Golpilz by the side of the road, doing what could be considered meaningless work as preventing solitary travellers from making it into the city was arguably inconsequential, such people would be trampled upon, but exerting his decay, gathering death and also the free XP that came with it was always worth it. Rot creations of his were keeping tabs on various ces, including every area where an uprising would ur, whilst taking Bourgliotte and liberating King Nitok was the priority, expanding the territory was also at y, take over multiple country, bring governments to their knees, run the chain ofmand into the ground before they could even realise what was happening. Tamaris would be entirely ignored, instead, focusing on taking control of the surrounding nations, cutting their trade routespletely, isting them and forcing them into a battle of attrition against the undead, a prospect that could make anyone cry. That was for the future. "Loimos,e over" a feminine voice rang out directly inside of Loimos¡¯s mind, death tongue spoken in a particrly elegant way, having no oppositions to the demand, the skeleton was engulfed into countless spectral hands, which closed upon him, both him and the variously shaped limbs disappearing into thin air. Reappearing much deeper underground, so deep that the temperature here could make Loimos¡¯s rot-weaved suit of armour turn red after a while, there, many familiar faces were to be found. Continue reading at empire Obviously, both of the king¡¯s royal guards were present, they would have to stand right by his side once the seal was shattered, Unacunerra and Slotriig were standing at attention. To ensure that this mission could not be failed, Nosferatu was present, all by himself, none of his vampires apanied him, having been dispersed to other areas, with the strongest gravelord merely being present, Bourgiotte would be turned upside down, although, the vampire would have to hold back a bit, it would be a shame to ruin such a good defensive position. Of course, integral to the n, Vwoldtnir was here too with a great deal of other ghouls, most of the same kind as him but also differing sorts that he had gathered as he had excavated his way straight to Bourgliotte, tunnels dug by him and his subordinates had an almost supernatural strength to them, such fine work could not even be achieved so smoothly and easily by The Earthen Catastrophe. Passageways had been made all around Bourgliotte, and although the living would probably deem it impossible, he had also dug directly underneath the city, the walls ran deep, so deep that it implied that Bourgliotte had been first created long ago, when mages and such still held much more power on average, but nothing could go deep enough to escape the Deep Crawler. The ghoul lord was instrumental, but his involvement would limit itself to those preparations, as for the rest, the only other gravelord directly present here was none other than Multaemanus, whomst Loimos had been able to find thanks to a remnant of her power that had been sticking to Quideos Audit, the spectre lord would remain hidden alongside Vwoldtnir. The Graveyard was here too, with the sole purpose of its presence being to feast on the corpse and death that this would all result in, although there was no doubt that having this beast inside the city would crush most of them. For now however, the bone cmity was but a shadow of what it once was. Artencil would be busy in the frozennds, although some of his gathered troops would be taking part. Malro, Casten Of Drac had left his post to serve as the leader of the vampiric knights and soldiers of Drac, his forces were the one that were closest to a true army amidst the troops of all gravelords, having many knights from all over the continent, trained soldiers and the likes. As for the man himself, he would conquer the treacherous mountains, his job incredibly important in suppressing Tamaris, turning the natural biome that had served as an imprable shield into a cor that would strangle them. As for the twins, they were obviously going to conquer Dschungend, unleashing a tide of beasts upon them, and most certainly, impede upon the surrounding nations as well. As for Loimos¡­ "We strike at nightfall" Here ites.@@novelbin@@ Chapter 242: The Beginning : Miasmic Skulls Coalition of those that can fight, living representation of Viridis¡¯sst bastion, they descend upon the natural enemy, ascending- Awaiting a miracle has bore no fruits, so they shall create one with what is left, from their own hands. Enjoy new chapters from empire A miracle born of mortal wishes, for their salvation, wished upon themselves, granted upon them without the divine. How many miracles will be necessary? _____________ "Captain! Undeads are everywhere, it¡¯s a massacre! What are we going to do?!" a young mage reported to a man in armour, a solemn atmosphere engulfing the surrounding area, as manybatants of all sorts were gathered on t rooftops, barracks right underneath their feet, swarms of decaying monsters filling their sights. "Should we throw spells in?" another caster questioned weakly. "Fool! They are ignoring the people on the roofs for now¡­ Why would you provoke them? Just- Just allow us a bit of peace¡­" a soldier, his face darkened by his helm, was sitting on the ground, hugging his knees, weaponying on the ground. Few mages knew how to float up, all of them that had known such a trick had readily attempted to flee, only to be instantly shot down by a brown-robed skeleton, standing upon his tower of earth, the undead stood still. Everyone up on the walls were brutally ughtered, the people inside buildings, out on the streets were ripped to pieces by the horde, many soldiers and guards should inside of the walls, but it made no doubt that they too were being pulled apart at this very instant, it was simply impossible of knowing where screams wereing from at the moment, cries of help, death shouts rang out from all direction, clearly growing weaker by the seconds. The captain of the guards, considering the situation, was pretty much in charge by now, he couldn¡¯t be certain, but the city lord was probably dead already, his residence was right next to the center of Bourgliotte, the chances of survival were null. "Arm yourselves¡­ Something- It¡¯sing" he did not spare a moment for a grand speech, having been fixated on the beings he assumed were leading this murderous assault, a mage that was weaving mana without budging, a giant in armour that was targeting guilds and other fighter associations¡­ All of them seemed to be focusing on something, there had been a hideous creature amidst them, but all sight was instantly lost the moment this one decided to move, no one was able of following the pale-faced devil¡¯s movements. The captain was warning his people about neither of those three, for unlike what some seemed to believe, there was a hunter scouring the rooftops, they had simply not been paying attention, wallowing around and trying to escape into their minds. A deep purple glow emanating from within the armour, the angel of putrescence flocked nearby, flying up further, dark wings extending with the sickly sound of breaking bones and rupturing flesh, bing unwieldyrge. Circting mana throughout his body and equipment, the captain stared wide eyed at the undead creature, what was it doing? What would be its next move? Were his eyes deceiving him? To serve as the captain of Bourgliotte, one needed to have experience, strength, connections, knowledge, have an understanding of the situation on the continent, know about the other nations, one did not end up with this upation by ident or luck, he could recognise many styles and powers, and as such, no one was more afraid than he was. The people around were ignorant of the truth, how envious he was, but now was not the time to falter, for legs to shake, to wobble and panic. Both enormous wings coiled and wrapped around the undead, quickly snapping back into position, seemingly defying physics, only slightly flying back as exactly ten sphere of miasma formed on the inside of the feathery limbs, condensing until it took on a darker shade, rot weaved and changed inside, skulls forming. The miasmic skulls began to move, floating at a rtively slow speed at odd angles toward the group of living, leaving a trail of death fog behind themselves, swing of the wings, a soldier closer to the edge of the roof was grabbed by the head. @@novelbin@@ With massive momentum, his head was ground up against the t stone surface, a line of blood and sparks risen from the contact of the helm and rock, only grasping pitiful remains where a head should have been, the undead had arrived behind everyone, taking a second for them to turn around, at least, for the majority. "I said arm yourselves! Don¡¯t just stand around!" the captain, thrusted his spear at the invader, striking multiple times before the people around him beganing to their senses, that was when the miasmic skulls also arrived as well, the jaws opening and closing mechanically. ¡¯Shit!¡¯ he cursed, his weapon sessfully stabbing right in between the gaps of the undead¡¯s helm, yet, he felt no response that was to be expected, and his spear was stuck, getting pulled in and most certainly broken down by decay. A guard made the mistake of trying to hit one of the floating skulls as it came toward him, triggering its effect, exploding into a shower of shrapnel and corrosive blood, but most importantly forming arge sphere of miasma nearly epassing the entirety of the rooftop, as well as activating all of the skulls as they were within the radius. The captain of the guards abandoned his spear and jumped off toward another nearby roof, feeling his skin sizzling, dark spots appearing in his vision. He unsheathed his side arm, taking notice that no one other than him had managed to avoid the initial st of each of the skulls, having been wounded and made sitting ducks for the miasma, vile mist seeping into their wounds, pinning them to the ground with sheer agony. ¡¯Why is it just standing there?¡¯ having been expecting a ruthless and endless assault, the captain had been ready to fight until the end, but right now, his despicable adversary was pointing its palm straight up at the sky, a small spike of bone was expelled from the center of the hand. "Ooh¡­" only a faint gasp was able of escaping his lips after the undead stomped his foot, bone spikes and ribs stabbing right into the living¡¯s legs and back, staring up at the sky, dozens upon dozens of white spikes raining down. Loimos took off again, leaving the skewered corpse of the captain of Bourgliotte¡¯s guard, usually, he would have decay it but such things were for The Graveyard today, especially a cadaver of such good quality, even if it had not been difficult for Loimos to take him out, he had been somewhat strong. Chapter 245: The Beginning : Reclamation When night had fallen, when the attack on Bougliotte was set into motion, many other areas were also besieged by the forces of death, most prominently and brutally, the primordial desert of Pezerx was shaken, sand was flung into the air and shrill cries filled the empire after nightfall. Emerging from the sand, ancient fortresses of the undead forced their way out, as if receiving a call from something greater, countless corpses rose from the sand of their own, duty was lingering above all undeads, fueled by death and driven by loyalty, all undeads of the desert rose, husks of centipedes instantly began massacring their living counterparts. Oases went from green and blue amidst the yellow, to bright red amidst the yellow, the better defended cities onlysted a slight bit longer, their gates splintered and poptions ughtered, as for the capital city, they might have preferred to be attacked by the sand legions and their local creatures turned undead, approaching the city after the sun retreated, Faraday struck the ground with his staff, signalling his stationed troops to get into action. A sea of reflective metal emerged as per hismand, here, there were no orders to keep the cities intact, their infrastructures were abysmal inparison to Bourgliotte, their walls and habitations would be torn down and serve as the foundations of new bastions. For now however, time was at destruction instead of creation, without moving from his spot, Faraday manifested countless javelins, as a battle mage, the creations of these projectiles was the only part of this particr spell, their propulsion was to be handled by the skeleton himself. Needing to be swift with their conquests, the javelins soared through the air en masse, the walls of the capital were pierced with terrible ease, going through countless homes and bodies, bringing pirs down and inciting a panic, the projectiles were unseen to the people, not understanding what was befalling them, panic ensued, running around like headless chickens, desert folks exploding into bits of gore and red particles left and right. When it all stopped, everyone looked around, now all t on the ground, having been enduring the whistling of javelins and falling rubbles for minutes on end, a man that had been grasping onto the hand of his mother opened his eyes, only to find a block of debris had fallen straight onto the back of her head, howling like a mad beast. Many such scenes were urring all around, the livings were in such shock, that barely any of them noticed the gates behind torn apart, the metal legions forcing their way inside the capital, destroying and killing all that stood in their way as they close in on the main attraction, where the current emperor of Pezerx was illegitimately ruling over these undeadnds. As much as the undeads would tear everything and everyone apart, the emperor was still a good hostage and bargaining chip to have at hand, as long as the dead did not execute a ruler, it would bring in the idea that the undeads could be negotiated with, and that the other heads of nations had no good reasons to be deathly afraid. This would encourage some to stay put amongst other things. Faraday made his way inside of the emperor¡¯s dwelling ce apanied by two of his encased knights, not sparing any servants or guards however, even if they did not interfere. The target in question was waiting in his throne room, whether he had prepared himself to meet the invaders or had simply been there already when it all started, in any case, the child-emperor looked about as was described, although, the battle mage had been told to expect a little boy emperor, not a little girl emperor. ¡¯Is this a double?¡¯ it wasn¡¯t exactly umon for rulers to seeks out look-alikes to rece them when trouble came to their doorsteps, but being tasked with capturing a ruler, Faraday had made certain to gather information using some of Loimos¡¯s rotten birds and such, the emperor had been inside the capital, and now, there were no hopes of escape, a magical item preventing teleportation and the likes was already put in ce before the javelin rain started. "Are you, Irtancix Vilopx?" he asked just to make sure, giving outmands to his two knights to scour the rest of the ce up. @@novelbin@@ Faraday also took notice of a hole in the wall right next to the throne. ¡¯Whoops¡¯ he had almost turned the emperor into jam, that would have been awkward. "Yes, I am Irtancix Vilopx, Emperor Of Pezerx, what power do you belong to?" the little girl maintained a perfect poker face in front of the battle mage that had in a god, not that she would know such an obscure fact. "I am Faraday, Advisor Of King Nitok, Monarch Of All Undeads, do not fret, I am not here to take your head, simply here to inform that you are now a vassal kingdom of our glorious empire, what do you say? Do you ept or do you refuse?" spreading his arms, his metal robe grinding against his skeletal arms as he stepped forward, just perfectly within range for him to bring down his staff if the answer was not satisfactory. Or at least, he made sure that it looked like this, no matter the answer, the emperor would be detained. "Will you spare my people if I abdicate?" she asked, her little crown shimmering with various blue gemstones. "I will not, the only life that you can save is your own, all others will be exterminated regardless of your answer¡­" "...But, as long as you live, perhaps your Pezerx could survive, not live on, but be something greater" Faraday saw a slight twitch of her eyelid, the emperor closed her eyes and sighed. "Very well, Pezerx submits" the emperor bowed her head. Continue your adventure with empire "That¡¯s great to hear! You¡¯re going to love it" Faraday casually blocked a strike from behind, a masked man wielding a pair of curved swords. "I would like to order him to stand down, but I fear that my guards are fighting for their own preservation" the child-emperor apologised. "You know, just because we¡¯ll kill everyone, does not mean that all will cease to be, we are the forces of death, pledge allegiance to King Nitok, and I¡¯ll be certain to kill you in a non-destructive way, would it not be best to keep your head intact and not lose some limbs after joining the right side of history?" his promise of greatness did not evoke many things into the guards, who equated death and undeath as the same thing, they were not wrong, but they were also not right. Faraday walked up to them, ready to give this throne room a new paint job. Chapter 248: The Beginning : Peaceful Life "Arise now, turn your backs and flee, live longer, live in fear- In fear of the night!" ______ "I hear that Dschungend and Pezerx have already beenpletely conquered, the undeads are waving the emperor and king like trophies¡­" a man with a reddened nose and with a bit more meat on his bones than the norm said, rubbing sweat off his forehead. Him and another man were sitting on a bench, surrounded by an hectic flow of people, they overlooked the work of countless people, sowing and ploughing the fields, elves and nature spirits helping in this endeavour, times had changed before and now, they were changing for the worse. Everyone had hoped that those measures put in ce by the king were a fluke, naught but an odd decision in the endless pursuit of more wealth, but somehow, things had turned out terrible, literal armies of the dead had stricken at night, unprecedented swiftness, taking over entire, established nations in the span of just a few days. The great desert empire was crawling with death, rumours said that nothing survived, not even mere insects. Enjoy new chapters from empire The lush kingdom on the other hand, had been taken over, but the radiant life fuelling its endless growth and regrowth meant that the undeads could not make it their home field on a whim. Starkefolten, the powerful kingdom where a dreadful presence could be felt, it was in a poor state, the capital city was shielded, Fioldron Ferrcrona had heeded the warnings in the end and installed a device to produce a life barrier around his capital city, the rest of thends, were currently the theatre of massacres. The miasmic cloud progressed at a slow pace for now, but that did not stop the forces of undeath of venturing into viges and cities, killing and taking all, demolishing settlements and homes, what little news the people received were enough to colden their hearts, and that was most probably the least of it all. Tamaris was protected from outside interference, the king had set up ways to self-sustain, they could thrive within this solitary nation, the barriers created covered the above and underground, if the main barrier fell, another woulde up, many times over. And if all thergest barriers were to fall, all popted areas had their own barriers. Sides and ideas were already picked even after only a week had passed, some wished toe out and fight right this instant, iming that an emerging empire, even if of death, would be at its weakest during its initial blooming. Others, the majority, would rather hide away until death came to naturally im them as it normally would have, fearing the brutality lurking outside. Some, curiously enough, said that we should be diplomats and attemptmunications, that perhaps they were not after the extermination of all life, were they, surely they wouldn¡¯t be keeping rulers alive. It was much too soon to make any big decisions. "I heard the same thing, though, apparently Millipolo is holding out, their own barriers are not as great as ours but it works, the holy people have an advantage against the undeads too" the other man responded,nky, rather rxed. The main topics these days all rted to the decaying threat, how each and every ce and nation was fairing, smaller nations that had not been convinced by their king were being invaded, or were at threat of soon being invaded, Glittegoyaume, the bright kingdom was far away from the forces of death for now, but they had not listened to the warnings, their time to prepare was limited. Of course, Tochi was doomed, the rulers had recently all passed suddenly, and the nobles had been doing nothing but quarrelling amidst one another, most of the poption had moved to Tamaris instead. With no one to lead the pitiful number of people left, the dead would just stomp through without a care. Saying that things were grim would be a vast understatement. @@novelbin@@ Still, life in Tamaris had not changed much at all, even if surrounded by mountains burning with blood, they were safer than anyone else, not only this, but it was said that apart from some basic forces, the undead were prioritising the unprotectednds first, trying to expand their territory, grow the dominion. "But anyways, how is it with the wife Louis?" asked Frank, the two guild workers had been put out of job and given new ones in quick session during the whole switch up done by order of the king, Throdqdmond was turned into a solely agricultural town and saw the arrival of most gorgeous guests, the people here had never seen other sapient species other than humans. Everybody knew that the king and Tamaris enjoyed great rtionships with them, but they had never gotten to encounter these allies, they were not disappointed. Many types of elves, beastfolks, demons and such crowded the country now, whereas they used to only live out in specific areas adjusted for them, or as people liked to joke, only popted the king¡¯s bed. "Oh still good, she¡¯s pregnant" "That¡¯s great news! But how many? That woman can lift a cow on each shoulder, surely she can carry more than one-" "How would I know that? And what sort ofparison is that anyways?" Louis shook his head, noticing two more people from the corner of his eyes. He raised one hand to greet them. "My dear brothers-inw, I thought you were in the capital training¡­" he spoke out, genuinely surprised to see them, having clearly undergone some serious training, now carrying around a more refined presence or something, not that either of the former guild workers could tell what was more qualitative about the brothers. "Did you just say that my sister got knocked up?! By you?" "Here I was hoping that she would ditch you eventually¡­" The brothers were not thrilled. "Hehehe, sorry, but it was already made concrete just after you guys left for the capital" Louis showed off a ring. "As you can see, he is now the amazon¡¯s husband, his status has increased by leaps and bounds" Frank chimed in. "My bad, my bad, just hard to believe she would get with a scrawny guy like you, I always thought she would go for an orc or minotaur, you know, something almost as brutish as her¡­" Z smiled. "Come on now, she might hear it¡­" Saul narrowed his eyes, scouring the area for signs of his big sister. "Don¡¯t be afraid brother, we are stronger now, we are faster¡­ We can outrun her, I am certain!" ¡¯The training did a number on them¡­¡¯ both of the former guilds workers thought. Chapter 251 The Beginning : Scouts It was widely believed, for unknown reasons, that the dark miasma would have more trouble prating underground, spreading much less quickly than above ground, Milo did not know whether this was true or not, but it seemed like the folks of the endangerednds wholeheartedly trusted in this baseless supposition. Digging into the earth, hiding and shivering in near total darkness, groups isted from one another, those that could dig deeper sometimes managed to evade the attention of small undead hordes, at least, when they were not led by an elite, but for those that could barely burrow into the soil, they were always discovered without fail. The farm boy and hidden in vegetation, apanied by Molc, the talent holder pertaining to crossbowmanship, his aim was impable even from great distances, but considering that his close-quarters skills werecking, Milo was with him to aid in case undeads managed to spot him, as he was covered with leaves and perfectly still. Milo was not very familiar with the talent holders outside of Antieeld, and this guy was certainly singr, one might think that his life depended on his skills with the crossbow, even more so since, like many other students, his country of origin were now under attack of the undead empire, already lost and soon to be besieged. The nerves of the two young men were put to the test, they did not know were survivors were hiding, only learning of it when they were dragged out and promptly executed, but the two of them could not act, the numbers of the hordes were too great for them to take out in an instant, not to mention, their mission, like that of many others, was to survey the movements of the undeads. Building underground tunnels, made with the finest crafts to conceal them and go past the bastions builts near the edges of the life barrier. But there was not much to see, even from their vantage point, most hordes were not directly led by elites or special undeads, there was no point to reveal themselves just to deal with the bottom of the barrel, mere footsoldiers that barely wielded weapons or wore armour. Apart from observing the actions of hordes set out to cull hidden livings, they were also working to find weaknesses and find out the heads of the various fortresses and bastions, engaging in any sort of big conflicts with enemy''s defence positions everywhere, all home to powerful undeads. The gravelords were already a big enough of a worry, everyone already felt at a disadvantage before anything even began, the two young men moved on, slowly switching position, giving them sight on one of said fortresses, this was more akin to a tower however, surmounted by a spire,rge, skeletal avian creatures flying all around and perching upon specially builts protuberances, at night, evenrger winged creatures woulde out. Now, it was high noon, only the smaller carrion birds were out. Milo and Molc had been observing this particr bastion for the past few days, the ones closest to the barrier were for the powerhouses to deal with, the students and rookies were in charge of collecting information on the ones erected throughout thends being the mountain chain. Night was when the vampires woulde out, the sun was a sign, not of safety, but simply of less danger, the best source of information was Toby, with his special system that he was learning and refining upon every day was the best way for them to get any intel on their foes. Using an item that allowed the otherworlder to see what the various scouting groups wanted him to see, he had been able of identifying many of those fortress leaders, what sort of undead they were, and a surface level of what their capacities were. The one that ruled over the tower was a sort of zombie, half a mass of corpse sludge with bones swimming in it, half an elongated pale, androgynous corpse, dark hair covering the horror that most certainly masqueraded as a face. All that could be gleaned about it was that it was an ancient undead, one that specialised in magic, which was rather obvious since it carried a staff with its terribly long arms, there was little more to be learned about the tower, its lord or the troops at this point, but Molc and Milo still showed up today, hoping for the exact scene that was currently ying, they held their breath, wearing items to help conceal their presences, apprehension filled their being, looking over their shoulders as they brought out the mirror that would allow Toby to exert his analysis from a distance. The zombie, was just about to meet with the courier, the one that called himself Loimos, there was no point in eavesdropping, they conversed in the death tongue, anguage the living could not possibly understand as it actually hurt their hearing. But they could try to get intel on the one that served as the face of the undead empire, as far as they knew, no gravelords had shown themselves yet, nor had their king, whose asphyxiating presence was especially strong outside of the barriers. At the moment, Tamaris had made a simple hierarchy based on what they knew. At the top, there was the undead king, Nitok. Then came the various gravelords. Then any undeads that were close to the court, this should include the courier. Then, the ones put in charge of bastions. Then the elites andstly, the regr undeads. It was rather rough and probably inurate, but they did what they could with what they had.@@novelbin@@ ''Come on Toby¡­'' Milo cheered the otherworlder on, not daring to voice it out, as Loimos might hear it as he had before. Molc was focused on Loimos, ready to shoot if needed, even if unlikely to be effective, he was going to put a bolt right through his skull if given reason to. A ruckus came from the mirror, Toby falling backward as he attempted to analyse Loimos. "C-Crap¡­ He has defences in ce¡­" he whispered, both the talent holder and simple student tensed up, expecting the courier''s head to be turned right to them, but he showed no reaction, continuing his conversation with the tower lord. "Milo, he might be pretending, let''s get the hell out of here¡­" "What if he is waiting to tail us?" Milo replied, the two of them stared at one another, unsure what to do, Loimos might be acting oblivious, or perhaps Toby''s analysis did not alert him in the least. He could be secretly instructing troops to attack or stalk, or absolutely nothing. Which one was it? "Ridfoirn, two livings from Tamaris up on the nearby hill to the left, make sure to check the area after they leave" The two undeads moved into the tower without acknowledging the livings, Loimos was royal courier for a reason, his main job was that of a messenger and he had words to ry to Ridfoirn, who was a disciple of Nitok, the same as Unacunerra, simply not quite suited to be counted amongst the royal guards. "...The signal will be a distinct pulse that you will feel throughout your entire being, The Graveyard will havepleted its first evolution" "Understood" Chapter 254 The Beginning : Reverence All stood as tall as was physically possible, the very wordsing from King Nitok seemed to manipte their movements, raw authority and charisma melded with pure power that radiated from his every action. Ang Antir looked to the side, moving only his eyes, spotting Ilraptere Vinntm and Irtancix Vilopx, they had been here for much longer than any other livings, and they were in perfectly good health, looking just as he remembered, the jungle king and veiled emperor did not looked nearly as worried as the rest here. ''Did they already converse with him?'' wondering, the king of Glittegoyaume awaited for King Nitok to speak again. Paying close attention to the most important undead of all, although his aura was overwhelmingly intense, he himself appeared rxed, as rxed as a skeleton could be anyways. He was hard to perceive, like light was drawn to him, blinking repeatedly as it seemed like King Nitok turned into a hole of darkness, only to reappear as normal in the next moment. Chinying in his hand, tilted a bit to the side, tapping the side of his skull with his index, mes of darkness burned in his hollow sockets, his skeletal body was in a perfect state, as if polished and maintained daily, although the shape of his sockets was far from round, appearing somewhat misshapen, almost as if they had partially melted. His sceptre, or staff was propped up against the throne, of a rather simple design, forged out of an unknown dark alloy and nothing else, appearing nearly as tall as its wielder, truly, despite being arguably the head of the strongest forces on the continent, King Nitok was not very shy at all. Dressed in a simple dark robe, not any rings or pendants to be seen anywhere else, he didn''t even wear shoes. His crown was the only additional article he had on his person, and it was simrly simple, nd almost, crafted from the same material as his staff, no inscriptions or gems, just a basic headpiece that fitted perfectly on top of his skull. The skeleton mage standing near the king''s side stepped forward. "King Nitok makes an offer, one that you can not refuse" it was hard to notice due to the unbridled power the king exuded, but every undead present in this room, even the simple guards standing around, they were all significantly powerful, to the point that even an uninitiated man like Ang Antir could feel it, although he could not possibly tell the minute differences, they were so much above him that telling the difference of power in between them was an impossible task for him. The mage was not quite as forcefully captivating as King Nitok, but he, apparently, was not quite as nice as his words made the livings guts turn contract. "ept, and you''ll remain in charge of your jurisdiction, as a vassal ruler of King Nitok, the price is but a benefits, for it only entails epting the blessing of undeath" he stepped back in position, normally this was when people would voice out theirint, regarding the fact that they were required to die, but lips were sealed. The king stood up from his throne, grabbing his staff as he simply descended the steps until he met the sovereigns face to face, King Nitok was not that much taller than the average man, but everyone felt like they needed to crank their necks up to its maximum to get a good look at his bony face. As he moved, it became clear that it was not just an impression, light was genuinely drained into him, making for surreal sight, he moved without a sound, walking up to the the two rulers he had detained at the very beginning of his rise to prominence, putting one hand on Ilraptere Vinntm''s shoulder like he was a good friend. "Thy two forebears have already consented" he said, removing his hand and instead patting Irtancix Vilopx''s head, then pinching her cheek. "I do offer thee to stand beside I, upon the precipice of oblivion, to join eternity and be graven into the mind of creation" "Yet, thou art free to refuse" He turned his head toward them all, his neck seeming too flexible and in possession of too many artictions. Ignoring the fact that the undead king was interacting with the emperor of Pezerx like she was a small kitten, Ang Antir imitated the movement of the mage from earlier and took a step forward, not wanting to suddenly speak up, lest that was taken as an offence. "Yea? Pray, speak thy mind" King Nitok put his attention onto him, which the living would have preferred to not happen, it was like weights were tied to his shoulders.@@novelbin@@ "Your majesty, your proposal is alluring, but may I enquire about the fate of my subjects?" he asked without a stutter, no one showed any reaction, it seemed like his words had not provoked any adverse reactions from the undeads. King Nitok slightly raised his staff for a brief instant, an absolutely terrifying action that only served tomunicate a simplemand. "The current decided fate for non-rulers is to be killed, moulded into rot or be granted as sacrifice for The Graveyard, only members of their close guard are to be made into undeads, remaining into service of their former lord" Loimos spoke, Ang Antir felt like swallowing saliva, the courier''s voice was right behind him, had he been standing there the whole time, or had he sneakily approached him the moment he moved? The king of Glittegoyaume ignored this and listened intently. "Thou hast heard him, what dost thou desire for thy people?" King Nitok, extended his free hand ufortably close to the living''s face, just barely out of touching distance, most of his visionpletely dark as all light was drained by the undead monarch. "May I ask for a percentage to also be made into undeads-? "So be it!" he snapped his dry bony fingers without wait, pointing his staff at the heart of Ang Antir, a sudden pulse went right through him, in the blink of an eye, he lost consciousness and came back to himself, still standing right in front of King Nitok, feeling the same, yetpletely different. He looked down at his hands, cold, but so easy to move, tireless and strong, his mind was cleared, no, he could process everything he once thought of at once without strain. "Miraculous¡­" "Is it not so?" The king felt a hand grabbing his shoulder from behind, Loimos pulling him out of the line-up. Instructed to go back to the room from before, he did as he was told without question, his objective aplished with much more ease than expected. ''Who would have thought the undead king would be easier to negotiate with than your typical merchant?'' to him, his demand was ridiculous, but it really was of no importance, the regr people were of no use for the growth of The Graveyard, turning them into rot was but a simple use for them, instead turning some into undeads was of no consequence. The other small sovereigns either epted without question or asked for a simr condition to Ang Antir, all that demanded for it were epted, each of them instantly made into subjects of Nitok, all left with a rather good impression of the undead king. They had expected to be admonished and executed like cattle, so his pleasant attitude, albeit naturally terrifying, was of a great surprise. Chapter 255 The Beginning : Unlikely Team? ''What are we waiting for?'' Milo wondered, another month had gone by without anyone taking any actions, both sides seemed to be waiting for the other to act, but that was clearly wrong, the undeads were growing in strength and influence every single day, surely, the ones in charge were preparing for something but that still seemed too slow. He was standing near the edge of the barrier, on its inside, standing as a lookout even though no one had told him to do this, Helena had just gone by and as such, thest thirty seconds of so had been spent in some sort of vegetative state as he looked at her walking away. Not getting bored of the view even after multiple years by this point. Milo sighed, he had originally been nning on proposing after they both graduated from the academy, but fate had decided otherwise, the both of them alongside every student had been scooped up and drafted into a war against the undead, something that could not exactly be ignored. ''The undead¡­'' being reminded of David''s ultimate fate was still just as unpleasant as it used to be, and with undeads crawling inside bastions well within view, it was hard to not think back on it, the rot, the decay¡­ Those undeads did not move around awkwardly, they were soldiers, trained and ready to fight without any fear, never stopping until victory was achieved, and there were so many of them. A few skirmishes had happened here and there, but the undeads that had approached were but mindless ones, born of the corruptednds and made to wander without much purpose, reports said that most of them headed deeper into the undead territory, but some were allowed to prowl as they pleased, probably as a means to make sure nowhere was free of death''s presence. Curiously enough however, his thoughts on David''s rotten corpse were now also followed by images of the royal courier, Loimos. ''What is up with this guy?'' Milo was seriously intrigued for reasons he wasn''t certain of, he might have some theories, but that was naught but gut instinct. He shook his head. "This is stupid" ''I''ll just go join the other and train some more-'' He spotted someone. "Hey you! Don''t get close-" but his words fell on deaf ears, the person, a child from the looks of it, just walked right through the life barrier and into danger. The life barrier allowed the living through from both sides, one didn''t even need to push hard, it was like it didn''t exist for them. He rushed up to the spot that child had stood, watching them just taking off like their life depended on it, and clearly, it did, for that kid was just sprinting in the direction of a fortress, and not the nicer amongst the plethora around the pyramidal barrier, this one was filled with flesh-eating ghouls, this kind in particr was dangerous because they were not only fast and in possession of sharp ws, but also bulky and capable of spitting acid. The molten flesh and bones would eagerly be sipped, a sight that had made Milo''s stomach turn more than once as refugees from the outside were intercepted as they attempted to get in. ''Hold up, the edges are supposed to be free of civilians¡­ What is that kid doing here? Did they walk on their own? Running from something? Is it a trap? How could the undeads do anything inside the barrier?'' a torrent of questions flooded his mind, doubt and suspicion arose and were shot down in an instant. Not only was the barrier there, covering every possible ess point, but the inside was flooded with life mist, invigorating the living and harmful to the dead, so even if undeads had been inside Tamaris during the erection of the barrier, they could not do anything as they would be weakened and forced to hide. "Ah shit¡­" Milo could rationalise a bunch, but the situation just was not fair to him, even if suspicious, the slightest possibility that an actual child was running straight to their brutal doom was enough to get him moving, and once he kicked off the ground, he had grabbed onto the child within a second. A little boy, no older than nine he assumed, staring nkly at him, not an ounce of ego or thoughtsying beyond that dead fish gaze. ''Well¡­'' he had heard of this, people turned into mere flesh puppets, but it was not the work of the still atrge Ironic Puppeteers, instead, this was the mark of a more recent group. ''Aliz¨¦e? But what is the point-'' he rolled away, the little boy going inert in his arms, a deep gash left in the ground. He put the boy down, unable of doing anything for him at this point, turning to face the undead that had just appeared in a sh. Rising his fists, circting golden mana, Milo eyed the barrier that was not so far from his position, the only problem being that the undead had positioned itself to stand in the way, there was hardly any bypassing this one, especially not with the sort of speed demonstrated just prior. But Milo was already analysing his opponent. A skeleton by the looks of it, dressed like a trainee swordsman from Tochi, clothes discoloured, gripping onto his withered de with both hands. ''Miss Syklon called this one a simple basic¡­ That''s an undead from one of the bastions further beyond the mountains'' he had done his homework and learned about the fortresses that he had not personally scouted out. All was well, this was not ruler of any of the forts, this was perhaps an elite, or maybe semi-elite under themand of a Tochian undead. ''Is he alone? What even is the point of this ambush?'' Milo was confused, but he had to focus, the undead sheathed its de, and made a sudden movement using a battle art, it seemed like only basic arts were at this one''s disposal. Reinforcing his hands, Milo caught the de in a way only a madman would consider, grasping onto the edge with his fingers, the undead naturally attempted to pull his sword back, which would have typically severed several fingers, but Milo''s reinforcement was powerful, and after his bad experience with a certain swordswoman, he had spent some time learning how to defend against shing attacks in particr. Both of themnded a punch to the other''s jaw, Milo was bruised a bit, the undead lost its lower jaw and some teeth, not that it was a big loss. However, the golden mana rippled through its bones, making the undead let go of the sword and step back, not willing to spend too much time in enemy territory, Milo ran for the barrier, throwing himself through, still clutching the sword. A bit of steam rising from his face. He turned around, but the undead was gone, and so was the unmoving body of the child. Even though it had gone through the barrier, Milo threw the sword outside, not willing to take any chance with something an undead had been using.@@novelbin@@ ''Was this an odd coincidence, or is Aliz¨¦e working with the undeads?'' ''I better ry this¡­'' Chapter 257 The Beginning : Lonely Peak Loimos pped his rotten wings, searing through the air far above the first line of clouds, ever since King Nitok had awoken, he had had a lot on his te, the king had great expectations for him, thus making up the role of royal courier for him to fit in, having Loimos go from ce to ce, overlook the bands, prepare thends ahead of time for the miasma and serve as the leader of the vanguard. Loimos handled pretty much everything in the bands, which were territories that were conquered, but not quite yet imed as the dark miasma had yet to reach fully, the miasma generators that Loimos could create had impressed the king very much, allowing for the creation of powerful death fog much quicker. King Nitok could easily control Loimos''s rot constructs, and taking advantage of the rapidity the skeleton brought to the table, the undead king was expanding his dominion upward and downward, bringing the speed at which everything spread close above ground to about the same one as it used to during the first war. This was meant as a trick to fool the heroes that he suspected to still be around, all the while allowing for greater control of the skies and underground, at any time however, the miasma could be made to spread around at a quicker pace. That was only one thing however, King Nitok had charged Loimos with diplomacy as well, an odd choice considering that he was who he was, but it was not like anyone else could represent the undead more urately that Loimos, also, he had a few ties with some of the powerhouses of the living. Having brushed up with both Rosemary and Syklon, and also had a good rtionship with Maliah, whomst he was going to meet with today. The Death Dealer was the first living he had ever handed a dark crystal to, he had also given one to Elenantiel, Rummy and to the three living members of Aliz¨¦e as well, as with everything he did, it had a clear point to it. It meant something, although, none of the people he had made this suspicious gift to actually knew what the meaning of it truly was, he had not borated on the purpose of his present. Breaking his momentum, Loimos fell head first toward the ground, waiting until the veryst moment, the p his wings and prevent himself from turning into a stain, softlynding, discarding his wings and calling his war scythe forth, he had arrived at the top of an average sized mountain, and thus, it meant that it was above the first line of clouds. Viridis did have some rather extraordinaryndscapes, except that to most people, these were regr sights. In any case, this particr mountain was one that sat in the middle of arge grasnd, one could see the ocean from here, this ce was all the way own to the south of the continent, and mostly imed by beastfolks tribes and popted with small settlements, all with their own particr poptions and cultures, many of them had evacuated to Tamaris a while back, few still remained. The ins were mostly empty of people, and here, at the top of this lonely peak, this solitude was even stronger, Loimos hadnded near an old temple exposed to the element, a t ground engraved with weathered symbols and a few eroded pirs, not quite a ruin as it had still been in use until recently, but today, whatever worship typically urred would not be in session. The Death Dealer was standing alongside her leader, Arleqkin, and ringleader, Odicious. One was gawking at the view, the other conversing and cradling with an unseen infant, many other Fin-Limier assassins were waiting further down the mountain, they were a rather heterogeneous organisation, many species and sorts of assassins were gathered under the same name. It was rather hard to believe that an assassin guild could need so many members, were hits put on heads that often? Even for one with a pessimistic view of the world, this might appear excessive. "Ooh, that is an excellent suppression of your presence and energy! Little Holli, look at the undead, take it in" Odicious was the first to speak, his exposed flesh still as red as ever. "Are you the one who gave Maliah the mission to ughter Weafewand? You know, you are probably the closest thing she has to a frien-" "Ignore them, thanks for showing up" Maliah shoved her leader away, seeming a bit less maniacal than usual, this must have been her typical attitude when not in the prospect of murdering someone. "This is Arleqkin, the leader and that''s Odicious, the ringleader, whatever the difference between the two is, don''t pay attention to Odicious, he just speaks with his daughter, who apparently is so incredible at stealth from birth that no one can sense her existence, even by touch" she quickly exined. Loimos responded to their greetings and pulled out a small artefact from within his mantle, resembling a small piece of wood with runes from the death tongue inscribed upon it. Having a good rtion with the greatest assassin of the Fin-Limiers, Loimos had been exchanging words with them for a little while, serving as a counter negotiator as he knew very well that they had already been made offers by Tamaris, Agilulf Wanneck might have effectively endless wealth, but King Nitok could make all and every currencies worth nothing by just conquering everything and saying so. The riches-interested Fin-Limier leader was obviously a bit torn at first, but after Loimos had taken him to take a look and meet with the King Nitok and the gravelords, his opinion was settled in stone, clearly, the side that would bring in the most coins was going to be that of the undead. Arleqkin was used to evaluating the strength of everyone he met with, as well as imagining how to best take them out, a simple habit any assassin worth their salt should pick up, he had assessed that putting together the might of King Nitok''s forces, as well as other advantages he had been shown, that the dead would eventuallye victorious. "King Nitok understands that not all your members would wish to cooperate with us, are they still in the dark about our agreement?" asked Loimos, his perfectly emotionless and t tone of voice earning him praises from Odicious. "Of course! My employees know nothing" the mask smiled with tardiness. "Then, here it is, a creation of King Nitok himself, put that inside of your quarters, and nothing will be able of bothering you, activating it is as simple as willing for it to be" Loimos handed over the artefact. He then brought a few nes as well. "These allow for the wearer to traverse the miasma without hindrance, King Nitok might want to have you intervene if necessary, wear them then,munications will be done with this item" like clownsing out a carriage, Loimos''s pockets seemed bottomless. He then ended it all by handing out four dark crystals, one shaped differently from the ones he had given before, the other two the same as usual. Thest was small, like a needle. "Is this¡­? Oh, would you like to hold her?" Odicious tried to have Loimos hold his invisible daughter, and for some reason he did, grabbing something that was clearly not there. "You don''t have to pretend-" "Hold on, there is actually a baby there? He isn''tpletely insane?" "The stealth is great, but the life is not quite concealed" Loimos quickly gave the baby back, the inside of his helm illuminating with deep purple glow. Find your next read on empire Expanding his wings again, he suddenly flew off again. "Is he scared of babies or¡­?" Arleqkin wondered aloud, his mask forming a questioning furrow ten seconds after his initial words. "No matter, all that I heard is that I won''t be killing anything for a while"@@novelbin@@ Chapter 260: The Beginning : Searching And Finding out All of those enved people were dressed roughly the same, cloaks covering most of their bodies, each toiled away without stopping, hours on end, the signal for respite being one of them copsing to the ground, physically incapable of standing any longer, two others went over to help him. Or so Milo and Griar first assumed, instead, they tore his cloak off, revealing a shirt covered in holes, held close to the body of its wearer with ropes of web, the holes allowed for bloated mounds to enjoy the outside air, malignant protuberances that were far from solid, small creatures crawling inside, doing their utmost to break through the stic skin. Taking cleavers out, the two that had approached chopped off the arms of their fellow after ripping the sleeves, carefully soaking them in the salty mixture, each of them seemingly carrying a pot on their person at all times, uncaring for the rivers of blood spurting over their shoes and the floor, one picked both of the limbs up, carrying them to the closest. He stopped for a second, just staring at the content without any particr reaction, thissted a dozen of seconds before just cing the arms inside, sticking them to the web with utmost attention and precision. Both of the young men felt like they had already seen enough but the spectacle was not yet over, only the arms were kept in reserve, the legs and head were apparently left as treats for the hard working servants, without hesitation, without adding anything or cooking anything, all of them feasted upon the the remains, leaving only the torso intact, cing it onto the butchered man¡¯s cloak, wrapping it with the same care they used for the arms. Not even the bones were left after they were done, gorging themselves like wild beasts, but without their ferocity, like automatons programmed to enact this very action, watching this was certainly disturbing, but by now, both of the young men had already tempered themselves. And now, the choice of which one to follow was easy, without saying a word, they set sight on the one that picked up the torso, one of them once again passed awfully close to their hiding spots, quickly, they set off after their target. "What was that inside his body?" Griar whispered, focused on the back of the slowly walking man, he was moving with exceptional attention to his surroundings, his posturepletely different to the rest as they simply rushed off looking like their blood was one-hundred percent alcohol. They had heard and seen a bit of the ravages the drug produced by Aliz¨¦e could have, but the people under its effect were usually dressed like they belonged to a cult of some kind, and seeing the way they had reacted to various situations, it seemed like the so-called mindless servants could actually receive multiple orders at once. "Not sure¡­ But why did they all show up moving like they could barely stand, when they also clearly showed that they could move around normally and act with care?" Milo wondered, something was definitely fishy, even beyond the apparent involvement with the undeads. @@novelbin@@ Debating these questions inside of their minds, the two of them followed the enthralled man until they reached a small vige, people of various species walking around, many houses and amodations in the midst of being constructed. A typical sight these days, many had firste to the cities, only to eventually wished to live in a more rural area, Milo understood very well, the stone roads and packed shops of the capital had a tendency to make him ufortable, like they were going to close in on him, the wide space of the backcountry were much more refreshing and less oppressive. However, this man did not enter the vige, instead, keeping to the forest as he circled around, until he arrived to the very end of the vige, where an old, partly copsed tower was still standing tall, it was about the size of a three storey building in terms of height, the back of it was shrouded in deep shadows, trees and vegetations was closely packed, not allowing on to peer beyond with just their sight. This was where the man was headed, delivering the package they presumed, as he stepped in, and then out in seconds, without the torso, walking into the tower, disappearing within. He passed by a pretty blondedy dressed in a buffy dress, the sort noble women would wear, she was just sitting on a long chair outside, a shiny ne around her neck. "Should he check it out?" Milo asked. "Do you have a death wish? We don¡¯t know what¡¯s in there, and the people of the vige look like regr folks too, engaging in a fight here seems like a poor idea¡­ Also, we know that this ce had ties to Aliz¨¦e for certain! Let¡¯s just retreat and call for backup" Griar reasoned, knowing that Milo was actually quite thoughtful. "Will it be given priority however? The undeads are seemingly preparing for an attack soon, and no matter what may be happening, all of our forces will be needed for a chance to push them back, allowing them to breach the kingdom-wide barrier is a worst-case scenario, I doubt they will dispatch much forces during such times¡­" perhaps a bit too thoughtful for his own good. "The undeads are still in the middle of preparations though, a quick intervention wouldn¡¯t be pushed back-" both of them jumped away, whistling right where their necks had been a moment before. A spear was swung around with much elegance. "Two men hidden in bushes, I wonder what you might be gawking at?" dressed in ck, ample desert clothing, a dark-skinned woman with a missing ear casually asked them, as though she had not just attempted to lob their heads off. "Nothing! Just passing by" Griar felt incriminated by that question. Considering where the two of them were, trying to wiggle their way out with lies seemed improbable. Milo stood up, not circting his mana just yet. "We were just following a suspicious man, do you live here ma¡¯am?" she was not impressed by the attempt at switching the focus on another topic, instead swinging her spear up in the air, somehow managing not to hit a single tree. Sand began to form around, spinning and spinning, she turned into a raging sandstorm, sting the trunks off and ripping the grass off the soil as she flew forward at Milo. "Move!" Griar moved in the way of the tornado, bending his knees, grasping the handle of his sabre, a light blue glow enveloped him in a circr shape for a brief instant, before wrapping around his de, swinging defensively, he was pushed back out of the cover of the trees. The storm dissipated suddenly, his de shing the chest of his enemy, only for a shallow cut, still earning some surprise. Griar did not like the way she was looking at him right now. Chapter 264 Battle For Ircron : First Order Ircron, capital city of Starkefolten,st bastion of life within the kingdom, was surrounded by nothing but bands, the environment was changing, bleak grass of repulsing texture, blood red trees, imposing spikes were erected, corpses of unfortunate souls disyed upon them. Some of them were still alive, siege weapons were being assembled, some mundane, some enchanted, some entirely magical in nature, troops of the undead army were lining up, barricades and towers were built, hiding finer movements of the dead from the sight of nervous soldiers watching from afar. The armies of Fioldron Ferrcrona were also preparing from battles, surrounded from all sides, there was nowhere to run to, fighting was inevitable and there was no negotiating with the undeads, they wanted the livings dead and nothing else, that term was not eptable to anybody in their right mind. Remaining scooped in under the protection of the barrier might seem alluring, but it was not going tost, under the relentless assaults of the eternal army, it would eventually shatter, and they only had one of those, any dysfunction or damages would have to be tended to immediately, mages and experts were assigned at all times to watch over the structural integrity of the device that was the only thing preventing death from ravaging the capital. The king was right there on the wall with his soldiers, scouring the horizon all around the city, things were not looking good, but they were not as terrible as they could be, Fioldron Ferrcrona noticed that the great majority of the troops on the opposing sides seemed to be regr golems, undeads seemed to only be operations machinery and leading the operations. Of course, the numbers of those golems was simply obscene and their strength could certainly match that of a regr soldier if not surpass it, not to mention that these golems were clearly mass produced, losing all of them might not even tickle the undead king, but with proper nning andmand, the king was certain that they could be handled well. What truly worried him was the possibility of vampires joining the fray at night, or that many more troops were hidden underground, he could do nothing about this, so he instead moved to the most obviously worrisome points, the siege weapons, some of which were simply absurdlyrge. Trebuchets that seemed to be meant to assail a bastion created by giants were posted far in the distance, he did not doubt that the undeads had already aimed them perfectly and of course, the one that was the head of this army. Loimos, Royal Courier, butcher of the bands, repressive inquisitor of the undead king, he was the face of undeath to the people, every interaction that had urred were handled by him. He had made an offer to Fioldron Ferrcrona, but the king had not feared to refuse him right there and then. There he was, standing in the distance, standing perfectly still, looking straight ahead, banner tied to his war scythe fluttering in the cold winds, this was the golden hydra head, the one that had to be buried for victory to be achieved. By his sides, special looking undeads could sometimes be seen, one was responsible for the quick growth of corrupted flora, the rest were a mystery. "My lord, what are your orders?" a man dressed in green asked, one of the eight elemental champions, strongest warriors under Fioldron Ferrcrona''smand, each holding mastery over an element and trained in martialbat as well, they were the king''s greatest pride. "We must only attack right after sunrise, fighting the undead at night is simply suicidal, we have to proceed as though only we are going to be fighting, prioritise rapid assaults, we simply need to disrupts their attacks on the barrier, as long as they can''t pierce through, we have not lost" he spoke, turning to his champions. Young folks that he had gathered up when he rose to the throne, more akin to close-friends than troops. "Even if tempting, do not go for the royal courier, retreat if he steps in, the same goes for his peculiar-looking subordinates, any prolonged fighting puts us at a disadvantage, they probably have smaller mounted weapons as well, they have towers with archers and crossbowmen, those must be meant to take anyone who steps out of the barrier" walking around with a sheathed sword as a cane, the armoured king saw the golems lining up, ordered around in an iprehensiblenguage by Loimos. More impaled bodies were being lifted up, it was all an attempt to hurt their morale, and it was sessful, the soldiers were afraid, the undead empire had crushed the majority of the continent already, the simple presence of their king caused enormous amount of deaths, all had heard knew in their hearts that the undeads scouring the bands were nothingpared to what the vile king had in stock. But they did not yet panic, they were scared, but not defeated, their stalwart king and his champions inspired themon soldier. "Herees his ultimatum" a female champion with crystal growing on her face spoke, Loimos was walking up to the edge of the barrier, not expecting anyone to step out, he just looked up at the wall, straight at Fioldron Ferrcrona. "King Nitok wishes good luck" it wasn''t even an ultimatum, it was a mockery. "Everyone, get in ce for the first battle" ordered the king.@@novelbin@@ The barrier stopped barely a few meters beyond the edge of the fortifications, the gates were opened, soldiers gathered under the lead of two elemental champions, the others would remain behind and provide long-distance support alongside the many sharpshooters up on the walls. Some of the crossbowmen had been equipped with heavy crossbows, strong enough to instantly throw a strong man to the ground, archers and mages were also present, ready to rain down projectiles upon the golems. Stillness on both sides, the enemy knew no fear, no pain, no hunger, and were all going to fight to their best capacities until the very end, an undead soldier was superior in all aspects to a living soldier, only the grit of the living, and their spirit could help them prevail. Loimos raised his polearm, the curved de of his scythe glistening darkly, its edge calling for bloodshed, the dead wood creaked, ropes pulled, the weapons of siege stirred until they stopped, waiting for the signal. A word of death tongue was spoken, the golems twisting their stone bodies into position, three lines of spear wielders tightly packed together, standing tall and firm, weapons pointed forward. Find exclusive stories on empire The scythe came down, hell broke loose. Chapter 266 Battle For Ircron : Shine Of Hope Fioldron Ferrcrona was growing more and more worried with each passing day, despite none of his champions being put out ofbat or killed, despite maintaining their position and managed to reach the original objective of damaging some of the weapons to prevent too much damage from befalling the barrier, despite all of this, he could not help but be concerned. Loimos had not moved a centimeter ever since this had all begun, continuously staring ahead, at the same empty space, the strategy on their side never changed, the golems would always start from the same spot, move forward at the same speed, in the same manner, no new troops were added, the archers posted on towers stayed the same and only the Tochian undead would appear to upy the elemental champions, even as they numbers increased and as they grew a firmer understanding of the skeleton''s capacities. It just didn''t make any sense, they could deal so much more damage to the barrier if they just focused their fire a bit more, but they wouldn''t, as though¡­ "As though they are waiting for something? For what? If they can overpower us as is, why not do it? The royal courier has to be a devil of the battlefield, hemands that Tochian skeleton after all¡­ Why not join in and bring death to my champions?" his armoured hand covering his mouth, he whispered to himself, night was dark and the cacophony of projectiles and corpses crashing against the barrier was as loud as ever. He stood on his own, up on the wall, he could not see or sense him, but he was certain that Loimos was still just standing there, like a statue, of course, it was easy to not care when the only loss you suffered were simple golems that could be easily reced. ''He does not only have that swordmaster at his disposal either¡­ There is the one with antlers and that goliath-size zombie, we have seen them around, and there are possibly more that he keeps hidden¡­'' Fioldron Ferrcrona was feeling restless, the royal courier was not trying to just conquer Ircron, these battles everyday held another purpose to him. Some sort of distraction perhaps? But for who? What enemy would require the undead to engage in something so ridiculous? The iron king had gotten to speak with this Loimos, and he had not given the impression of one that enjoyed ying with his food, in fact, Fioldron Ferrcrona held to conviction that were he not given specific orders, Ircron would already be a bastion of the dead. ''Mmh, or maybe- Maybe he is extending everything to lure out reinforcements? Even I am not certain that some wille, that makes sense¡­ But it feels wrong, they hold the advantage against us, we have to hole up behind barriers, they just need to spread their miasma everywhere on the continent to trap us inside and prevent the great majority from even stepping outside for a second''@@novelbin@@ He hummed in thought, repositioning his crown, pointer finger tapping on the pommel of his sword, a soft metallic ng resounding, drowned amidst the constant rumbling against the barrier. Indeed, the livings were at a clear disadvantage, that much should be obvious, most would assume that loss was inevitable even. ''I just can''t wrap my head around it'' hemented, incapable of getting inside of the head of the undead, especially when it seemed the orders wereing from above, and not a decision from him directly. "My lord? I''ll stay in watch, you should go rest" one of his champions approached from the darkness, dressed mostly in white, a fairly petite girl with dark hair tied in a simple ponytail, carrying a rapier on her waist. "Ah Lunate, you are right" she was a fairly recent addition to the ranks of the elemental champions, and one the king would have liked to oppose but could not find any good reason to. Even if a bastard, he did not want his daughter to get anywhere close to the battlefield, but s, he had decided to keep this rtionship a secret and her capacities were sufficient to join the ranks of his champions, so he had to relent against his wishes and ept to maintain this secret. "Do be careful" he advised softly, taking a few steps away before he felt a slight warmth on one of his fingers. He stopped, confusion turning to a bright smile, incapable of holding hisughter. "Ah, Wanneck, you crazy bastard¡­" this signal did not mean anything specific, simply an old gift from the merchant king as a sign of appreciation but Fioldron Ferrcrona could read in between the lines, reinforcements had arrived. Judging by theck of any reaction on the side of the dead, it seemed like they had not been noticed just yet, tomorrow morning, they would get their chance to truly hit the undeads heavily and perhaps, even halt their conquest for some time. "Lunate! Stand ready for tomorrow, the whole team is going for it!" he told her without boration yet, proper nning would wait until everyone was well-rested and present. _______ This morning would mark the seventh day since the beginning of the battle for Ircron, the gates were closed at the moment, the livings would soon step out andunch another assault. Ourlon was standing tall, hand resting on the hilt of his pale de, he was within trenches dug by servants of Vwoldtnir, tunnels leading to humongous underground chambers containing obscenes amount of golems, some of a different manufacture to the ones that were being thrown at Ircron everyday. It was also were other minor lords were waiting for further orders, teleporting gates had been set up, allowing for troops to retreat or be called in at any moments, but any more reinforcements would most certainly not be necessary, the sheer amount of simple golems was enough to hold back tides of enemies for days on end. He approached his general, Loimos, the swordsman''s left pinkie finger was subtly twitching. "I sense a good fight oing" he spoke, and almost startling the swordmaster, Loimos graced him with a movement, turning his body and head to face the minor lord. "My apologies-" Ourlon felt like he shouldn''t have brought something he couldn''t prove up. "How urate are you?" but as per usual, Loimos seemingly showed no particr reaction. "It has yet to have failed me" the minor lord admitted, a battle hardened warrior like himself was difficult to intimidate even when put in front of superiors, but Loimos had the singr quality of being genuinely creepy and unpredictable, and having seen a portion of the general''s powers, he could only respect the strength demonstrated as well. "Then, take Prikrip and Alkayne with you as well" Loimos was pretty much giving him the leader position amidst three other minor lords, the two mentioned right here and Yuorlt, who was always meant to apany him. "Do not be defeated, retreat if necessary, fight another day, sharpen your de for the next confrontation, do not rely on The Graveyard and King Nitok, hail to the king" with the sama deadpan tone as usual, Loimos advised Ourlon before getting back in ce, mming the end of his polearm into the ground, right in front of himself. Both hands grasping the handle, Ourlon could sense death force and other energies swirling inside and around Loimos, arts and his special ability clearly at work. ''Is he going to joinbat today?'' the livings were to be pitied, but they were also lucky, Loimos always followed orders perfectly. Far in the horizon, the sun rose, bright sr star was exceptionallyrge today, it seemed like the regr one had relented its spot for a gigantic counterpart. The seventh morning was here. Chapter 270: Battle For Ircron : Headless Miasma swirled, blown away as a brown blur moved around, ground and rocks exploded, towers and siege weaponry were rendered to splinters, golems and undead soldiers were ground to dust, the blur gaining speed and power each time it kicked off something, never stopping for even an instant, endlessly gathering momentum and destructive potential. Your journey continues on empire All to destroy Loimos, he had called forth arge amount of miasma, not to damage his attackers, but to block their sights, especially that of the hidden sharpshooter, time would tell whether this smokescreen was of effect, or if it was to be coupled with mirrors. Latir-e-se¡¯s whip sword shed through the miasma, the bright green shine of life force sticking to its de, Loimos quickly noticed that the life arts of the death hunters had gone through a most qualitative change, the difference was like night and day, an impossibility for what he was seeing to simply be due to a difference in skill between the ghoul huntress and the hunters he had encountered before. shing right through him, he made to sure to switch the flow of his death force to external, expanding it as far as possible, preventing the life infused weapon from approaching him, the huntress had an easy solution to this problem, simply cancelling the life arts, wrapping the supple de around the skeleton, and then activating it, taking a hand from the undead with ease. Mound of rot growing like a most despicable bloom, reforming into the lost limb, bone and clothing alike, for it was all rot at the source. He analysed the ghoul huntress¡¯s fighting style, clearly, she focused on dismembering, her life art preventing any sort of regeneration, Loimos¡¯s death force was potent enough to overpower this meagre art however. @@novelbin@@ The rabbitfolk mmed onto his back, folding him, ripping him in two as she kicked off, each dropkick from her was actually two attacks in one, the initialnding, and then the push of her continuing bouncing around, despite his upper and lower half clearly being separated, Loimos remained like normal, like throwing sand, the skeleton dispersed miasma, bright flickers within this thick mist. Latir-e-se jumped back weightlessly, before the miasma could erupt like a cloud of explosive powder, his body already mended, he shot apressed bullet of his dead mana, then two, then bone spikes, more of those two, thenpressed projectiles of blood, some of them ming, some not, certain forming into blood beasts after losing their velocity. Circting mana into the de of his polearm, a pale blue shine surrounded it, expanding its size, Loimos swung rapidly, forcing the death hunter back, she must not have been confident against the infused de, as she did not attempt any attack. Obviously, the rabbitfolk soon appeared again, causing destruction all around as he continued building up momentum, sooning mming onto his back for the second time in a row, her reinforced boots came right out the other hand, Loimos¡¯s enter chest area underneath his mantle had turned into goopy ck blood, the mantle breaking into dust, leaving her nothing to kick off from and stuck in ce. Raising her arms defensively, she assumed a mana reinforcement meant solely to block damage, or so she should have, but instead, this woman just focused on her fists and arms, veins bulging dangerously, absolutely whaling on Loimos¡¯s helm and skull, bending it inward as it continuously returned to its original form, until his neck snapped around, the deep purple glow appearing, expanding outward like a beacon, every living that were not perfectly angled away from him was momentarily blinded. Although not quite as powerful as Vwoldtnir¡¯s, this blinding light was built upon the teachings of the ghoul lord, some of the victims found their eyes aching, dark spots appearing within their vision as they partly recovered. Latir-e-se was lucky to be directly behind him, as for the rabbitfolk, called Yuhu, she was put on full st, which did not stop her from battering Loimos, even as she cried blood and her ocr globes felt on the verge of exploding, arms bursted from the skeleton, war scythes manifesting into each of them, except that both ends were the head of scythe on these ones, infusing the des with all dead energies and death force at once, spinning at wild speeds. "Oh shit man, I can¡¯t see crap, but I smell death approaching!" Yuhu seemed to be enjoying herself, just as the spinning des closed in, menacing to tear her apart, it made no doubt that she would not be able of resisting. Just as Loimos sliced halfway into her however, he threw her away, the instant he inflicted a mortal wound, he sensed something from within, a perfect sphere of life suddenly engulfed the daring rabbitfolk, exining why she had been so direct when fighting him, the life that just expanded was not her own, and it was even stronger than that of the ancient tree. Loimos¡¯s left arm and part of his face was reduced to nothingness as he was caught into it, feeling the control over his rot weakening, momentarily stunned, the sword whip wrapped right around his neck, infused with a life art, taking it right off. A strong force washed over all in the area, sting the miasma away. "General Loimos!" Herlbe shouted out, having never seen such powerful life, and his general had just eaten it at nearly point nk, it hade out of nowhere as well, this life had beenpletely concealed until thest moment. The revenant was ready to drop the original orders and tear right through the elemental champions and wounded iron king to help, but Loimos raised his remaining hand, although he had lost power over his creations, his body and attire he carried with himself at all times remained in ce even then. This meant to stand down, the minor lord settled down at once, Loimos regaining his footing, his decapitated head melted into rot, the entirety of Loimos¡¯s powers and abilities were shaken by the life just now, he was certain of it, that unknown, one trick pony of a rabbit had somehow, erupted with the life of the one. Seemed like this innocuous beastfolk somehow had ties with the enemy of all undeads, thankfully, the blinding glow from Loimos and subsequent mortal wounds had still put her out ofmission even after being healed by the life force. Having disappeared in a haze of mes, Tamaris had not sent out their warriors without putting a fail safe in ce, even had Loimos bisected her, she would have been taken away and sticked back together, The Volcano Witch had ess to healing mes of great strength and being transported back into the life haven that was Tamaris currently, Loimos did not doubt that Rosemary would have made it happen. But this meant that he only had Latir-e-se to worry about now, and he had to make do with only one arm, he still had his sword attached to his waist, his war scythe having been reduced to smithereens, the ones he had just manifested fell apart, and he could call upon his rot at the moment, and at least for the next few minutes. A hail of projectiles came flying, now that the miasma was gone, the line of sight was restored. Kicking the ground were that he had previously turned into a swampy area, heunched part of it toward the ghoul huntress, running toward her in a circr path, bringing her sword back to its solid version as she stepped to the side, diverting Loimos¡¯s punch, the whip form was brought back, wrapping around his forearm, tearing it apart once the life art was used. At the same time however, the skeleton stepped onto one of her foot, rot gathering into the soil below, turning it into a swampy puddle, he could not quite manipte or create rot right now, but as was shown by the fact that his armour and mantle were still present, it was not the same story for the decay that condensed around him at all times, this was the rot from his disembodied head. Solidifying, Loimos stepped back, his sliced forehead turning to blood and binding her sword hand, allowing him tond a kick straight to her jaw, which she could not soften on ount of being locked in ce. Disappearing in a burst of mes, he had knocked her out. Chapter 274 Battle For Ircron : Dust And Nature Dirt was roused, withered trees and pale growths were torn apart under the ferocity of Prikrip''s attacks, poised to perfection, always in the right spot at the right time, the young fighters of life were slowly crumbling into dust, even when working together, even when focusing on evading, they were slowly being pushed to the brink, and by now, it seemed certain that the minor lord''s dposing dust had eaten right through their safe line. The veryplex spell casted upon them by their fiery teacher was unlikely to still be whole, and with this sort of advanced magic, any sort of damage meant the failure in the casting, after all, it was a burning spell meant to take them well away from here, taking its roots in spatial magic, none of them could even fathom the first thing about this. Neither of them could even get close to him, the effects of the dust was even greater when struck directly by the sword, in fact, he had ditched ranged shes altogether, suppressing them with naught but his sheer skill and power, Milo dreaded the return of Alkayne, although a good hit, the farm boy was well aware that this wasn''t enough to put the zombie out ofmission, he coulde back at any time and like Prikrip, demonstrate his dominance over them. Antieeld had noticed it too, somehow, the undeads were trying to kill them, but also simultaneously holding back, her well-honed instincts as a strategist were telling her that at least two of them should have fallen already, but they had not.@@novelbin@@ The same idea that had been born inside of Fioldron Ferrcrona''s mind arose in hers as well, the undeads were deliberately lengthening their stay, the conquest of Ircron, the very fights they were in, they were clearly waiting for something, or rather, expecting something that happen, apparently wanting it to happen as they were caught in a struggle. Experience tales at empire ''This has to be to lure someone or something out, showing that part of their forces are busy somewhere else? But the zombie and this bird were confirmed by Toby to not be on the level to be gravelords, they call themselves minor lords as well¡­ Who would be drawn out by this? Clearly the strongest fighters are still lying in wait¡­'' she could not untangle whatever thinking process it was that had led to all of this, was it just a random act to confuse them? "Dammit, Griar, Milo, do it!" she stepped in between them and Prikrip, assuming the best defence reinforcement and defence art she knew, an upward sh from the undead destroyed her sabre and left a cut right across her face, half of it crumbling to dust, the enemy did not know what the two men were up to, he prepared to cut them down with a dust sh. Antieeld was not done for, still holding onto the hilt of her de, she threw it in a clumsy arc, aiming toward the part of the skull that was shattered, Prikrip deflected the attack in spite of itsck of power, the youngmandant was in luck, this master warrior was especially careful of this spot. His sh was dyed enough, Milo grabbed Griar, and with a sudden burst of golden energy, threw the noble right over the tree line, shrouded in his battle art, and this distance, the flying dust shes would be ineffective, and there were still two livings right up to him, the bulky one already charging at him like a madman. Distorted words of death tongue washed over the area, Helena noticed the druidic skeleton react to it, part of the animal and monster spirits surrounding her rushed off into another direction. Unlike the others, Helena was only suffering from minor injuries, Yuolrt did not possess an innate ability, she was instead a learned druid, to this end, it was nature energy that fueled her attacks, mana was only a supplement, in this pseudo-domain, nature was overwhelming and no other energies were allowed, Helena could not detect nature energy with nearly the same finesse as mana and to top it all off, with mana absent from the surroundings, her mana sense was restricted, she had to hover above ground and keep bursts of air at the ready to be able of avoiding the attacks. Which mostly consisted of roots and briar alongside the many spirits trying to distract her, at least, an advantage was that her enemy did not have sure ways of hitting, the druid made movements to cast her spells. Yuolrt''s bony hands were almost touching, straight and t, her palms seemed to shape tree roots forming in between them, twisting around one another before hardening, lengthening and spinning at high speed, shooting out towards Helena''s abdomen. The living dodge to the side, but casting a series of unseen wind des forth, the quantity was obscene, and her proficiency at concealing them was to be praised about, Yuolrt summoned a tree around herself to block any possible sh, not willing to bet and get hit even once. She had not moved from this position at all since the start of this, the skeleton was more a traditional caster, and was not very big on the whole hand-to-handbat thing, rather focusing on either preventing attacks from beingunched at her, or having the power to block them entirely. The green crystal in the middle of her split skull shined for an instant, still paying close attention to everything happening outside of the tree, as a druid, she had ess to a variety of spells that could be considered odd for a traditional mage, especially since some of them barely consumed any energy, appearing more akin to abilities than spells. Even without expanding her pseudo-zone, the druid could see and sense through vegetation far around her, her awareness of the battle field, as well as the situation on the other side, all was known to her, waiting until the shes stopped and some more, she waited for her earlier spell to continue its course. Helena only noticed it tad bit toote, moving out of the way, but still getting part of her side pierced as the intertwined roots from earlier had looped right around, having been made not to track a target, but insteade back to its caster, retaining influence over it, Yuolrt made certain to aim for the living''s back. The druid had hoped to hit the spine and end this fight right there but Helena extended her winds a fair distance around her, allowing her to notice the projectile and evade the victory blow. Calling the protective tree off, the skeleton was no longer inside, somehow emerging from the ground, a pretty, pink flower growing from where she had been standing moments prior, directly beneath Helena, Yuolrt twisted her fingers into a hand sign. "Bloodcreep vines" bursting from below, tentacle-like dark red vines instantly locked in on the bleeding living. Sharp winds rained down, but the sheer quantity of vines forced Helena to fly higher, they just kept on emerging pushing the earlier sprouts higher up, faster. ''A shame to use this little nt, but it should get her upied-'' "Prikrip! Put up your guard!" Yuolrt mmed her bone hands together, antlers glowing with antique runes, crystal ring bright, mes burning up into her sockets as she called forth for two trees, one to defend herself, another to defend Prikrip. A faint whistle rippled throughout the pseudo-domain, the druid felt the very fabric of nature energy splitting, followed by a rumbling and crashing. Chapter 277 The Expansion Within the next day, no longer attended to, the barrier protecting Ircron from the undeads copsed, the capital city of Starkefolten was invaded and made into a fort for the eternal legion, the same happened for the holynds of Millipolo, both poptions had been evacuated entirely to Tamaris, the wilds of thest standing nation of life were invested by countless new people. All tacitly allowed by the Monarch Of The Eternal Night, who seemed as though he could not care less that all of his enemies were banding together, right after everyone evacuated, miasma began emerging from the countless bastions erected all over the continent, the darkness that had surrounded Tamaris also appeared everywhere, concealing various areaspletely. Miasma clung to the edges of that pyramidal barrier, slowly threatening to break it down if left to do as it wished, still, nothing else happened to directly menace the living, instead, nothing much seemed to change for them, Loimos, now left without victims to pursue in the bands, instead led the advances of undead vegetation covering Viridis in growths of paleness and blood, the dominion of King Nitok was expanded into the ocean, made firmer onnd. A loud hum began resounding throughout thends, further growing the concerns of the living, undead wildlife was starting to scour all around, the thickening miasma allowed a faster growth, hidden behind the abnormal darkness, Drac was gathering troops all around Tamaris, organising them and setting up training camps within the mountains, his movement unseen, but the intent carried by him and the countless troops could be felt, radiating killing intent, the air felt suffocating close to the edges. Agilulf Wanneck had gathered all of his troops, which had now grown significantly, he looked over them all, evaluating his chances were a full-blown conflict to break out suddenly, logistically speaking, how would the full might of the living hold up against that of the dead? Hecked intel to do so properly, but considering the reports received concerning the might of mere minor lords, things were rather grim, the sanctity of the multiyered life barrier was not to be worried about, with the new assistance of many priest and priestesses of Phanes, as well as those of many other callings, the life force barrier was further reinforced with various holy energies, many were always standing ready to repair damage if needed, but the day the undeads decided tounch an all-out assault was one to be dreaded still. The royal courier had said that King Nitok could ignore some livings on the continent until they were the only one left, that the full force of the undead army would not fall upon them as only the gravelords might attempt it, but it was hard to believe anything Loimos said, his tonecking in all emotions,cking in everything, it was like reading words on a piece of paper when on the verge of copsing, this odd stoicism that waspletely unwarranted. He looked down at his feet, unknowing that Vwoldtnir and his ghouls were digging endlessly under the continent, going as deep as was possible, whatid beneath the soil was also the territory of the dead, lines upon lines of soldiers walked underneath at all hours of both day and night, miasma flooding the underground, seeping into the earth and corrupting it. Ecosystems of rot were sprouting within the caves, mountains hollowed out, the sheer amount of death permeating the air and groundid way for naturally urring undeads to appear en masse, further bolstering the ranks of the eternal army, most were mindless, some were special, few held reasoning, but few amongst such terrifying numbers was still high. Not to mention that the forges of the undead pce were hard at work, forging weapons and equipment for each and every members of the legion, no expertise of craftsmanship were foreign to them, golems stepped out at a constant flow, under the directive of Atsalinopalo, the corpses that were missing pieces of them received prosthesis, amongst the tide of regr golems that served as mere fodder in the army, no matter how refined and powerful some of them might be, the only golems that were kept hidden were the ones with a spark of consciousness. Those animated with what was neither life nor death, they received blood from the vampire lord, steadily forming a veritable army of vampiric creations, the chambers of the king''s crypt were filled to the brim with knights and reserves of soldiers, still, everything remained mostly silent within. When night fell, Vespertillo would take off from the bastion he currently resided in, taking flight above the ocean, the high skies and depth filled to the brim with monsters and animals of great might, many ancient vampires that he had turned during the first war still lied in wait at the bottom, but he was not here to gather them, he was ordered to conquer it all. Without fail, once the sun hid away, he would spread his wings and dominate the flying and the swimming, injecting his blood and forcing them to submit to his will, and by extension, to King Nitok''s will, the oceans were slowly but surely bing a part of his dominion, extending it much further than it had ever been. Multeamanus remained elusive as usual, hordes of ghosts and spectres were circling around the continent, she was busy rousing the vengeful spirits from their sleep, K?rpersucher would have normally been helping in this endeavour. As for Nosferatu, he remained by the side of King Nitok alongside the two royal guards, or rather, he remained close to the crypt, awaiting someone. The focus on the part of the undead was mostly put on further growing their ranks, reinforcing the king''s dominion, before thinking about setting sight on another continent, the king first wished to make his hold over Tamaris as firm as was possible, miasma was to reach to the very guts of this world and to the top of the skies before such. Although Tamaris was supposedly thest bastion of life on Viridis, certain areas were harder to conquer than others even without active push back, Loimos approached a familiar body of water, apanied by one of the minor lords there were seven of them five of them had been with Loimos at Ircron, the other two had remained in their bastions. Ridfoirn remaining on stand-by, andstly, Ir''Houwl had simply not been needed for anything until now, but it was important to get them on the field as much as possible, they were gravelord candidates after all, they needed to kill as much as possible and exert their powers to progress.@@novelbin@@ She was rather obviously from Pezerx, dressed in sand-coloured, ample clothing typical of the country, dual scimitars forged out of a lustrous ck stone, an ancient mask stuck to her face, giving the impression that her headpiece was resting on nothingness. A sign that she had been a close guard of an old emperor of the desert, her special ability was perfectly suited for the mission at hand, so even though Loimos could have done it on his own, he was going to stand on the sidelines. The sound of sand brustling against fabric and itself was heard every time she took a step. Both of them stopped near the edge of the water, Loimos had onlye here once, back then, he had peacefully traversed the surface of Mistdrown''s water. Today, he was here for violence, for the aptly named guardian was a rather powerful agent of life, his will prevented the miasma and death from spreading naturally to theke. Like two loathsome bill collectors, Loimos and Ir''Houwl were going to knock on the Mist-Drowned''s front door and have him pay up using aggression, although, not too violent, as apetent guardian of life, he could make for apetent guardian of death as well. Loimos told the minor lord to get to it. Find exclusive stories on empire Chapter 279 The Start Of Eternity Circting his mana, Poitirus hastened the regrowth of his lost limb, grabbing his spear with both hands, stomping his foot on the water, he glided forward,shing out with his weapon, each thrust, Loimos replicated in kind, neither of the two opponentnding any hit in this initial sh. The crystal serving as the tip of his spear shined brightly, infused with a hefty dose of deep water mana, condensed waters gathered all around it, forming arger and longer point, the water''s pressure capable of punching a hole through most materials without even much force put behind a strike. Loimos let his polearm slide in his hand, until it touched the de, he deflected the king of theke, shing him across the chest, in the next instant, moving to his side, Loimos stuck his back against that of Poitirus, bone spikes erupting from him, skewering the living, raising him off the water before exploding into a showers of shrapnels. Letting his weapon disperse, the skeleton spun around and kicked the living whilst still in the air, throwing him into a thick storm of red sand, with a small cracking sound, he erupted with deep waters, running back toward Loimos, stabbing forth and missing once again as the undead flew up with wings, grabbing theke guardian by the shoulders and flinging him around, straight into the waters, which turned liquid to soften the blow. Putting himself back on his feet by manipting the waters, Poitirus thrusted his spear at the sky, causing dozens of enormous tentacles to shoot up from below, Loimos recognised them as oversized purgatory octopuses, theke''s lord magic affinity seemed to not be water or deep waters, but the veryke itself, as the denizens began to form out of mana, swimming below the undead''s feet and through the mist above. Lashing out with the conjured tentacles, intent on using the creature''s special ability to digest corpses against his enemy, bringing out his death force into an external flow, the predators and tendrils decayed away when trying to pin Loimos down. Cracking noises came from within Poitirus, using the mist he lifted himself in the air, noticing that no more sand wasing, that was suspicious but his attention had to be devoted to the royal courier, staring at the undead, the guardian felt a distinct sense of dread, before, he felt threatened, sensing that the rot he harboured within was capable of reaching all. But now, after those few exchanges, he felt it strongly, Loimos was reading into him like an open book, he had not shown much and yet, Poitirus could feel that the butcher had clearly discovered the limits of his power, and was now going to break the self-appointed god down. "Did you tell that woman corpse to stop? You think you can defeat me all on your own?! I may not hold divinity, but make no mistake, the very environment worships me!" Loimos raised one hand, he had a proposal. "Lord Nosferatu often limits himself to force a submission, Poitirus, from now on, you will win if you can manage to force me out of your domain, otherwise, I will defeat you and you shall ept death''s blessing, be it a soldier, be it a lord, be it a king, be it a god, King Nitok''s cares not for your aspirations" the creature did not answer immediately, which allowed Loimos to further his offer. "I will not change the form of my body, only using blood non-offensively and only reinforce myself with mana alone as well, it may be humiliating for a god to ept such terms, but is it not attractive?" Poitirus scoffed. "Very well Loimos! I trust that you are a man of your word" once more thrusting in the air, spheres of condensed waters appeared all around, serving as proxies for the constant casting of simples spells, be they water bullets, shes or the likes, they endlessly rained down, Poitirus manipted the mist to fly about as he wished, rushing downward toward the undead with incredible speed. As though everything was in slow motion to him, Loimos casually side-stepped all spells and plunge, at least, it looked like this, it was more so that he had already analysed the spells and their trajectories, simply knowing where to stand and how to move to evade them before they were anywhere close to him.@@novelbin@@ Their sheer power and speed might rival with the best mages, but the finesse and proficiency was severelycking, it had the qualities of a beast''s magic, of which Loimos could see right through, having been lengthily trained by the lord of beasts himself and learned to integrate their powers and attributes. The same went for Poitirus''s spearmanship, it was brutal and swift, barbaric almost but its intent was easily read, it had been developed topete with other beasts and not refined warriors, it was all natural instincts as a foundation. Loimos grabbed him right by the face as the plunge was dodged, swinging into one of his own orbs of water, kicking off the ground, he met theke''s ruler right as he was stopped by the water, grabbing him into a hold and mming him back down, where they both sunk into the water. But only for an instant as the skeleton hoisted himself right back up whilst holding Poitirus by the neck, using solidified blood to stand, forming a wide tform to prevent the living from escaping under water. The spear was thrust, deflected by a punch, Loimos repeatedly struck his opponent right in the face, his attacks flinging Poitirus around like a ragdoll as chunks of his head were shattered right off. Once dazed enough, Loimos swiped the spear right out his grasp, throwing it behind his back, trapping it into solidifying blood. All the while, the spells continued on missing their intended target, managing to gather himself again, theke''s ruler cancelled the self-operating spells and put his all into reinforcing his physical body, doing a vertex based on naught but animal instinct. Certainly capable of punching through Loimos using only mana to augment himself, but that was only if a hitnded, with his swings, Poitirus raised high tides of devastating waters, calling onto condensed bullets that shot out as he fought. "Dammit!" watching Loimos effortlessly evade him, the crackinging from within intensified, never had he ever been defied and unable to crush the offender for it, channelling the vertex outside of his body, condensing it to its limits, achieving apex, and forming a spell from this energy, he unknowingly reached transcend. Forming a five meters wide sphere of destructive waters, held in ce by his will, any sort of contact with this sphere was certain to render the target into nothing, tearing them down to their smallest bits. Tearing through the air, emitting a deep howl as theunched itself in an arc toward Loimos, twisting his foot a slight bit, Loimos waited for the sphere to get within a close distance, it wasn''t exceptionally rapid, but the angle it moved at and the width of the sphere might prove problematic, might. Once again, it was all very clear cut in its intentions, Loimos narrowly avoided the spell, and ran up to the caster, Poitirus shuddered in both fear and anger, his transcend moving to get right back on to Loimos again, but the undead simply stood there. The spell soon came upon him, falling apart right before impact, tendrils of red sand wrapped all around theke king, having drained all mana that remained, and making maintaining the spell impossible. "What sort of monster are you, Loimos? Why serve another?" Read exclusive chapters at empire He did not respond and instead pierced his head with a spike of bone, and just as this urred, night fell instantly, not a flicker, the middle of the day became utter darkness. The eclipse had begun. Chapter 281 Confrontation "And here you are, you mad man, back for what you cursed me to hold in your stead?" the primordial tree hidden under the ocean was once again faced with some visitors, this time, the one that he had been expecting for all of those years, alongside with the cursed seed created from this abject betrayal. The First Seed was silent, its face of bark looking down at the ground, the words were not directed at this lively tree, but at the humanoid figure standing at the front, arms crossed, a tall and muscr build, garbed in a simple armour, unbothered by the usatory words of the ancient sprout. "Cursed you say¡­ I do admit that I did not really think of the consequences upon you, but it can all be reversed, simply divest yourself of it, and hand it back, you will be able of producing viable seeds, that are not¡­ unsavoury, like this one" the man looked back at The First Seed, the tree shrinking under his gaze. The great tree looked down upon the puny man, seeing only a bundle of vile selfishness and madness crumpled into the shape of a person, the gigantic roots slithered through the soil, the presence of the old being growing more intense, more focused. The man tilted his head, the edges of his mask just barely not scraping against the shoulder, metal groaning as he tensed up. "You absolute lunatic, are you so certain that taking your filthy essence back will solve everything? And even if it does, do you really believe that I''ll forgive all those years of solitude and the corruption of my seeds? You fool, take it back, over my dead body!" the wizened tree mmed his roots upon the ground, retracting back the crushing, life-infused presence, right as a visitor that was actually wanted appeared. "And here I thought you were actually going to show me some fighting skills, what is an undead doing here?" the sun-masked man turned to face the neer. Sun-Walker took off his mask, throwing it away, his body growing an incandescent shine, his features now more hidden than they were with a mask, appearing like a true spirit of light given human shape, the vampire''s brilliance was only halted by his armour. "And not any undead, the so-called royal courier, Loimos, how we meet again¡­ Are you going to threaten me with a shade again? I have the regret to inform you that it is unlikely to work this time" the treacherous vampireughed, looking at both of the trees present, shaking his head before beginning to step toward the skeleton. Explore more stories with My Virtual Library Empire "I do wonder what is so special about you that Nitok would appoint you to such a position, leader of the undead vanguard¡­ That is more of a job for Drac, but you are not anywhere close to a gravelord, were you grown by Nitok like The Graveyard?" He received no answer, Loimos was absolutely still, staring straight at the traitor of undeadkind, he had heard most of the conversation urring beforehand, and it implied something of most dreadful significations, The First Seed was silent, The Great Tree was silent, Sun-Walker was cracking his neck, raising his fists. Even if treacherous, Sun-Walker was a gravelord, but as Nosferatu had discovered, he had never, even for a second, devoted himself to death, never partaking in the rites of a vampire, never drinking even a drop of blood, never developing his unique blood, he had never progressed from the day he had be an undead, but of course, his power was still dreadful, to be made into a gravelord without allegiance, it meant that his might had been deemed sufficient. Or so it was logical to assume, Loimos was suspecting that he had be a gravelord through a loophole, based on the life he had led before dying, right before Loimos, was not only standing the vampire that had betrayed King Nitok and all of the undeads, but also a living that had tricked death itself. Now, this was an egregiously serious offence, and to prevent what was in the works here, Loimos would have to best the bright lord inbat, Nosferatu had done so easily, but taking the one of foetid blood as a metric was not sensible, of course he would easily crush Sun-Walker. The skeleton did not bother to call forth his war scythe, he would not be able of keeping his adversary from getting much too close to properly use the weapon in its most basic form. The deep purple glowing from within his hollow sockets filled the inside of Loimos''s helm, peering through the visor, Sun-Walker was a powerful adversary, but a weak undead, the skeleton could see this clearly. Common abilities of the dead were unreachable to him, darkness awareness, death and life sense, his treachery made the little death force within him hostile, Sun-Walker must be draining himself of it to prevent any problems, all of this meant that he had plenty of exploitable weaknesses for Loimos to take advantage of. Cycling all of the dead energies alongside his death force, using stack all over his body and rot armour, all of them already reinforced by condensed rot, this variation of stack was not nearly as potent as that of Nosferatu yet, and the usage of rot to manifest aspects of creatures and materials was not yet as powerful as that of the twin gravelords, none of the abilities taught by the undead lords reached the level of their original masters. But bybining it all together, something great could be achieved, Loimos''s current utilisation of reinforcement was that of vertex as well, the royal courier stood above a minor lord, but below a gravelord. Yet, he was going to challenge a gravelord to a fight, to prevent him from getting what it was that he had given to the primordial tree. With a burst of speed, Sun-Walker appeared before Loimos, striking the undead right in the chest, but instead of breaking through, it was like mud had been hit, this trick was unable of trapping the vampire''s fist, but enough for Loimos explode with pungent, corrosive blood, taking on all aspects of the four vampire lords, it was especially acidic, carried a me upon its back, attacked like a ferocious beast and attempting to take over the will of its target. The traitor endured the barrage, the ground all around turning into a swamp of decay, Loimos sunk into the soft ground, allowing it to spread further and further. Sun-Walker seemed unimpressed by this disy, stomping his foot down, dispersing part of the swamp with naught but brute force, throwing him forward where he knew Loimos was hiding, his speed ungodly has he was managing to catch with the undead even when held back by the ever-expanding swamp and when the skeleton was travelling quickly himself by being submerged in the vile substance. Loimos escaped up in the air, not nning on doing anything to the vampire just yet, instead, he formed a congealed bullet of energy, mixing all that he could, and fire it straight at the false sun embedded in the ceiling, moments before being suddenly tackled straight into a wall and then back to the ground. Sun-Walkernding a heavy blow to the head, bending the helm inward and very audibly, breaking the skull underneath, good damage, but ineffective still, the vampire jump back as Loimos erupted with bone spikes, some straight spikes that and some more like ribs, as per the undead''s will, they began to emerged from around the traitor, aiming to skewer him. This was one of the things he had learned from Drac, adapting the vampire lord''s blood spikes to bones instead, the only requirement was that a piece of Loimos was nearby to activate their arrival, something that was easily done as the undead was always subtly leaving what looked like dust everywhere he went, with just swings on the arms, they could go very far, in little time. The artificial sun shattered above their heads, pieces of the ss-like material came crashing down, losing their shine, and leaving Sun-Walker as the only light source around. "You are a little fucker, huh? Why are you relying on trickery and machinations? I have heard of your exploits, mister butcher of the bands¡­ You have much more direct means to fight than whatever you have been showing up until now,e and show me what Nitok''stest favourite corpse can do!" ripping his upper armour and clothes to shreds, Sun-Walker allowed the shine of his body to illuminate the surroundings. In the darkness, it was like Loimos had disappeared. Controlling death force was simrly to controlling any other energy, so teachings of mages such as Unacunerra, Rosemary and King Nitok had been very useful, but still, even if all energies shared most of their points, their differences capable of being so minute that many assumed that it was all just mana with a different hat- Even though they were so simr, death and life force were special, they fueled beings. In much more quantity than any other energy, so Loimos had to learn most of it on his own. Concealing himself, it had always been something he would use more often than not, his current proficiency owed to Maliah and the Fin-Limier assassins. Sun-Walker could not sense the skeleton''s presence for as long as he remained hidden in the dark. So why should he bother showing himself, when he had plenty of means to attack from a distance?@@novelbin@@ Chapter 283 Joy Coming from all sides, a variety of projectiles were aiming to tear Sun-Walker to pieces, like a furious dance, the treacherous vampire punched and kicked any and all that intruded upon the circle of light he casted on his surroundings. Bones needles filled with potent poison and acids, bullets of various energies, some infused with all dead forces the skeleton possessed, some only made from a single ones or falling somewhere in between, waves of blood, spikes and ribs emerging from the soil, trying to lock him in ce for other projectiles to hit true. Countless thin arms harassed him from all sides, arrows and bolts raining down like an army was upon the vampire, even then, no matter what befell him, the disloyal gravelord proved that his status was not a fluke as he deflected and evaded all. "Ah, enough of this!" puffing his chest, the light covering his body grew stronger, shing truth upon the darkness. Loimos was not, in fact, running around and firing like a madman all of those attacks, he was nowhere to be seen, having been busy moulding the environment to the image of death, arge area beyond the previous ring of light was covered in pustulent and putrescent nature, a dome of rot having been erected around the bright lord. Undeads created from Loimos''s rot went on the move, charging at the gravelord, aspect of beasts and materials all over them, their creator appearing as he emerged beneath Sun-Walker''s feet, grabbing his ankles and pulling him downward for a bear-like mound of decay to sh right across the chest. Backhanding the pesky creation, the one that lived in death broke out of Loimos''s grasp, pulling the skeleton''s hand apart in his movement, with a spin, he threw the clutching limbs away rushing right through the various soldiers and creatures created by the royal courier, gathering momentum before raising his foot high, above his own head and stomping down on the marsnd of filthy decay, sending it all flying away. Finding his slippery opponent again, Sun-Walker quickly went to grab Loimos, the skeleton not backing off this time, manifesting bone ws from his fist, and shing forth with all his might, the ws extending as far as they could, piercing through the dome of rot and leaving deep gashes on the edges of this underground biome, followed by countless other of those shes as he broke them off, making explode into sts of shrapnel, swinging his arms without stop, growing more arms, so many that Sun-Walker didn''t even bother trying to count them. Attacking from every possible directions, the traitor charged through the shes, his body turning into a blur as he sted through the bones, mming Loimos into the ground with a punch directly to the face, the skeleton''s body sinking into the swampy soil, still not sparing his skull from being reduced to mush simply by force of the impact. ''Mmh?'' the vampire switched his attention, noticing that something was odd about Loimos, his guts were correct as the undead appeared right behind him, having abandoned this body and instead reformed from a piece of him further away. "Impressive regeneration, but how many times can you do this?" once more, he was not given response, his opponent only continuing the assault. Dispersing miasma at close range, it was all blown away, both of them raised their fists. ''Ooh¡­ He just took conditions and activated arts, didn''t he?'' Sun-Walker was sensing something pulling within him. ''What is this?-'' He did have time to muse over all of this, it seemed like Loimos wasing at him in close-quarters, Sun-Walker attempted an upward strike, aiming to take the skeleton''s head right off, his fist tore right through without an resistance, the undead directly striking the bright lord''s chest. The vampire attacked with the same ferocity and power as before, his attacks breaking through his enemies defences with ease, too much ease in fact, the power of his blows was somehow cancelled with how easy it was to destroy Loimos, it was like hitting air, punches and kicks were not budging the corpse. Sun-Walker recognised this style, willfully taking hits and attacking in direct strikes, simply allowing one''s absurd regeneration to take the toll and stand your ground, this was a prized tactic of Nosferatu, it was uncanny almost, how close the royal courier was to perfectly replicating it. ''You are not Nosferatu, you can''t sustain it!'' lowering himself with a split almost, Sun-Walker sweeped right through both of the undead''s legs, expecting him to falter. But it did not stop. ''Must be a trick learned from Multaemanus or K?rpersucher, his spiritual body is maintaining the link of his true physical body, how the hell could he integrate the technique of a phantom?'' proving this fact, Loimos''s next hits also struck his own soul and mind, clearly, Loimos could interact and exist as both a physical and non-physical entity. "I''ll admit, I underestimated you!" heughed, it was pulling harder now and he started to enjoy himself, yet, his body dimmed as he abandoned the powers granted upon him. Grabbing Loimos''s head, headbutting the skeleton with newfound strength, finally managing to force the skeleton back as he controlled his strength to not rip through like he was poking wet paper with a spear. Moving to the side, narrowly avoiding another strike, Loimosid his hand on the shoulder of his enemy, shing across the face with the other, Sun-Walker onlyughing harder. ''Vespertillo and Atsalinopalo together! He''s doing it both at once, all the while reinforcing himself with Nosferatu''s technique!'' Passing by one another, the vampire and skeleton turned right around, thetter twisting his body parts one hundred and eighty degrees, his helm opening like a dripping corpse bloom, the deep purple glow emerging outward engulfing the inside of the dome. This light was capable of blinding even a vampire like the traitor. ''Vwoldtnir as well!'' "What else can you do, huh?!" No answer. The moment he recovered his vision, he noticed drops of burning blood hovering all around him, each and everyone of them turning into dark red spikes, threatening to impale him from all sides. Drac''s technique was first made to be used with his burning blood, the creation of the spike was as swift as the me smouldered, Sun-Walker was stabbed by multiple of them, his skin tough enough to prevent them from prating too deep, ejecting the burning blood from him. Roaring, he charged through and kicked Loimos in the abdomen, a moment of slowness fell over the duel, Sun-Walker staring into the helm, he sensed a palm grasping his face, a ghost hand trying to crush his skull. Followed by the words from Loimos, word Sun-Walker failed to understand as they were pronounced in death tongue, anguage a false undead like himself had never been able of understanding, even less speaking. Hearing this though, he did recognise what was at y, he protected his ears before more harm could arrive, feeling his will to fight being staggered as the order carried within those words was far stronger than the usual poise carried within thisnguage. ''This little skeleton has even earned a great control over Multaemanus''s mastery of the death tongue, and Nitok only made him a messenger? There is no way that he won''t be made into a gravelord eventually, a gravelord that could even surpass Nosferatu!'' He crippled his own hearing, knowing that if Loimos had learned the other ways the spectre lord could use thenguage of the dead to attack, it could still be used against him, but he did not care, he acted on the moment, on instinct, and he only wished to exchange more blows. Loimos demonstrated the powers andbat styles of each and every gravelord, mixing them together, and then adding onto all that he had learned from other sources, turning into a whirlwind of decrepit gore, adding limbs, exploding them, subtracting ,exploding his entire body, reforming, manifesting weapons, taking them away, modifying them, using battle arts, magical arts, casting spells, using all in conjunction, mixing it all together, switching between his humanoid form, wings, tails and entire bodies of various beasts and monsters, his fighting style ever changing. Miasmic skulls igniting, altars of miasma appearing, stirring murderous weather inside this dome. Injuries mounted over the treacherous vampire lord, struggling to recuperate all, and yet, he was fighting more and more ferociously, his own battle style well-honed, having given up on using the little powers of light granted upon him, he was somehow harder to predict and deal with, his heart within his chest was growing warmer, a smile stuck on his bright visage. As they moved to sh together once again, Loimos was realising that at this rate, he was going to let him slip out of his grasp, this fight was having an adverse effect, he needed to forsake the ssic undead strategy of draggin confrontations out unto eternity, and end this fight right this instant. Turning his body into a mix of ectosm and mushy rot, he shot out like a drop of filth, like a crucible of putrescence where all that had lived and died, been created and destroyed, had existed and departed to oblivion, where it was melded and molten together. This abomination mmed and stuck to the traitor, frail and pale arms emerging to grasp tighter onto the target. Dust formed from the palms, crumbling the flesh, cold winds formed a tornado around them, red sand manifesting within, umting until only red could be made out all over. The touch of the dark substance was decaying the vampire''s body.@@novelbin@@ "Aren''t those innate abilities of some of those minor lords? You can even replicate that?! What a thrill, I- I might actually lose!" "But no¡­" Sun-Walker settled his ecstasy, and focused. Discover exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire "I can''t lose like this, not this way¡­ This is not me, this is not the greatest height I can fall from¡­" "Do you hear me, Loimos?!" From the outside, both of the trees, standing on the sidelines, saw the dome of robe implode, the force almost enough to uproot the great tree, The First Seedpletely taken off the ground and sent rolling away. The nearly broken figure of Sun-Walker wascking all light, a dark creature stuck to his back, its long ws sinking into his shoulders. Now, he had done it. Chapter 284 His Name Is... Without a sliver of hesitation, Sun-Walker, soon to crumble and rot away, the blood fuelling his vampiric self utterly drained away, Sun-Walker grabbed the elongated, malignant dark creature perched on his back, the beast dug into his body, further worsening the extinguished bright lord''s condition by taking his death force away. "Now I remember clearly, what is it, that I live for¡­" forcing the dark being''s maw open, he began to pull in opposite direction, a dreadful growling from within, its ws were going as deep as they could inside of his flesh, but it was for naught, even reduced to this state, Sun-Walker overpowered once more, tearing, ripping, destroying, renouncing, liberating, reiming. Tearing the beast, ripping it from his back, destroying the link, renouncing his lordship, liberating himself from the hold of death, and reiming his life. The First Seed fell into pieces, The Great Tree screeching in pain as what he had been holding onto was, atst, taken back, like a tumour removed, the original owner and sole person capable of wielding it was invigorated, returned to what he once was. Further away, Loimos was reforming with difficulty, the summoning of the dark beast had been capable of stunning him for an instant, for it was the being that marked a gravelord as such, the sole and most important proof of one''s status, a death avatar, which dwelled within all gravelords and undead king, a manifestation of death''s acknowledgement. Sun-Walker had just severed that link, and destroyed his own, an act that would warrant the erasure of any other, but he was no longer undead, with Loimos as his witness, he underwent a veritable transformation, his physical body shifting. Discover stories at My Virtual Library Empire Whereas he used to be the same height as the skeleton, he now stood a full head above, his shoulders broadening even further, his body growingrger as a whole, long, lustrous golden hair fell over his immacte back, gone were the vampire fangs, the bright skin infused with light and other blood boons, these had nothing to do with the man now standing before the undead. Passing his hand over his face, brushing some hair away, he rose the other, smiling contentedly, basking in his own glory and power, his eyes were a vibrant green, beaming with the brightest and most radiant of life, his face angr, shaped to utter perfection.@@novelbin@@ "My apologies for everything, Silvaram" as per his will, The Great Tree was rejuvenated, free of all wears and tears, of all damages and anysting consequences. He turned to Loimos, who had now finished his reconstruction, his rot armour and body was under constant strain, like a bug flying too close to the sun, he was breaking apart by simple virtue of standing here. Loimos was a primaeval being, he was a pure undead wielding primeval rot and authority of death force, he was a skeleton, undead that simultaneously stood right at the bottom, and straight at the top, his power had grown intensely in little time, and the potential held within was unfathomable. His sockets glowed an unknown deep purple. "I suppose I shall apologise to you as well, I am not Sun-Walker, or rather, that thing is just a fluke" his words seemed to deafen the undead''s senses. He crossed his arms, a knowing smile on his face. "I am Thanatok Ynig¨®s, The First Death Hunter" the voice was strong, his eyes brimming with an unknown bright green. Thanatok was just like Loimos, also a primaeval being, in possession of authority over life force, as well as user of primeval vigour, a human, the weakest and strongest species of creation at once, Thanatok Ynig¨®s had been active long before Loimos existed, long before that miserable old man had even brought the materials necessary to his birth, he had fought and learned for countless of years, and unlike Loimos, he had passed to the otherside. "Do not take whatever that Sun-Walker might have said or thought to heart, putting my life away as led to other parts of me to go with it, memories, core aspects of my being, that filthy tree you encountered inheriting the worst cocktail it possibly could have" he spread his arms and walked up to Loimos, the undead struggling to remain standing could do nothing. "You, you are one of a kind, that vampire alter-ego could not see it without my help, but you are just like me, you are me, you are my fated nemesis! Yes, surely that is what is at y here, my patience has been rewarded and God sent you so that we may have a true fight, or maybe-" "-Maybe it is something else, but why not both?" Circting his death force, every fibre of Loimos''s being trembled under the struggle, his death forcefully pushed back as he tried to manipte it, failing to manifest anything from rot, his simple fist crashing into the pure living''s chest,pletely harmlessly, possessing no strength to even snap a frail piece of wood. "But it is a shame, you are much too weak as of now" bringing his fist back, Ynig¨®s pinned the undead right to the ground with a strike to the chest as well, the skeleton could sense residues of life sticking to him and eating away. The living retracted his life, and held out his hand. "I only wish for one thing, and it is not for life to prosper onto eternity, but for one good fight, one fight where I am actually at a danger of losing my life, what do you say Loimos? What about grazing everything to the ground, elevating you to my level and having one final fight amidst ruins? The winner gets to do whatever they want then" "Would it not be glorious? Is it not worth fighting for? Is it not worth dying for? Is it not worth living for?" "But to truly do this, I need you by my side, what is your answer?" Loimos remained silent, grabbing hold of the living''s hand, which Thanatok took as agreement, hoisting the undead up to his feet and dusting his shoulders off. "I too only want one thing" he began saying, staggering forward. The living nodded his head. "For death to rule supreme" flinging his living equivalent over his shoulder, he stepped back outside the natural radius of his life, and began properly recuperating his capacities. "Ahahah¡­ Not convinced huh? I guess I shouldn''t have expected some sort of mutual understanding" he retracted his life forcepletely within. Thanatok Ynig¨®s could very clearly wield life in an outer manner, unlike Loimos who could only use it effectively when inside his body, the level of control and mastery in their life and death was not to bepared. But it was not like Loimos could retreat, being sted by the apparition of the death avatar and then taking a brunt of the living''s life force hadpletely disabled his ability to use rot, to properly use his death force and such, there was no way for him to manifest wings or to sink into the ground. In this case, he might as well just keep trying for it was the only thing avable to him. Stepping forward, he focused what meagre powers he could bring out, and punched forth, like a child trying to defeat a brick wall, only he received damage, but kept going nheless. One, three, six, ten, twenty, forty-five, seventy-seven, one-hundred, he attacked fast and still with some strength, but it was utterly futile, The First Death Hunter just stood there, unmoved. Grabbing the skeleton''s helm, he punched without the aid of his life force, ttening the armour piece and crushing what was inside, sending Loimos scraping against the ground, creating sparks from the friction. "You have grit Loimos, you show no fear, no apprehension or anything, remember Millipolo? We shall meet there once you believe yourself ready to face me, until then¡­ Well, I suppose I''ll hang around that Tamaris kingdom, our fight''s conclusion will serve as the bell for both sides to charge in, whoever makes records of events will have something epic to recount for once" he chuckled to himself stepping away as Loimos stood back up again. There was simply no way of winning here, and yet, the living was willing to give up on an easy victory? That was something anyone else but Thanatok Ynig¨®s would havee to regret, but with this living, his certainty was not unfounded, the potency of his life meant that none that could not rival his output would be able of snuffing him out. Taking the reasonable option, Loimos crawled out of the submerged biome. "Your arrogance will be your undoing one day" The Great Tree, Silvaram of his true name, chastised the hero of life, and he was not the only one that found his decision tock in sense. Sliding down the side of a root, caught before he fell forward by Silvaram, Quideos Audit could not believe that one of the foremost heroes would just let Loimos go like this, the prophet was neither mad or raving at the moment, in fact, moments ago he had experienced a burst of rity unlike any before. First, the wretched wraith disappeared, bidding him farewell as he dissipated, and now, the malignant whispers had ceased, it was like bugs that had been crawling in his ears had finally gotten the cue and left. And as such, he experienced an epiphany unlike any other before, a vision of great importance, he saw a sliver of a possibility for victory, earned by the skin of the teeth. Still, it was but a mere miniscule fate that he had witnessed, disposing of the foul undead right there and then would have been much better. But Audit did not want to lecture Ynig¨®s, he had something else to ry. "Thanatok Ynig¨®s! You need to help the Elven Light" Chapter 286 Burst Of Light Blocking a high kick, Nosferatu attempted to grab on to her ankle, which was a sess, only that she cut it off herself, the limb regrowing near-instantaneously as blood rich with sunlight exploded everywhere, the drops mysteriously going thepletely wrong course, missing the vampirepletely. He threw the disembodied foot away, dodging another kick and spinning around the elf, thrusting his hand like a spear at her lower back, ws nearing, Maiele arched her back forward like a contortionist, the upper portion touching with the vampire arms, allowing her to wrap one arm around, repositioning herself as she used Nosferatu''s limb as a tform, turning around just enough to allow her legs to perfectly grab his neck into a lock. Striking the undead''s ugly maw repeatedly whilst trying to squeeze his head off his shoulders, smiling, Nosferatu grabbed her waist, spun around and mmed forth into the ground, but she did not let go of him even as he began tearing into her flesh, separating the sun-infused blood and flesh from him as he went, battling against her absurdly fast regeneration speed. Ignoring the damage, Maiele inhaled, feeling a sense of exhration she had never experienced since mastering her domain and elven sun, it reminded her of the time before the system crowned her a hero, when she only had a weaker sunlight within her body, the joy and dread of fighting The Defiler and his awful mes was not yet equaled, but getting anywhere close was a vast improvement from thest aeons or so. Raising her hand right in front of Nosferatu''s face, his sickly green eyes shining with dark intensity, umting light in her shoulder, condensing and forcing more and more in this single spot, before sending it forth down her arm, and right as it was about to pass through her wrist, reach her hand, the very tip of her fingers, before it could get through this joint, she cut off her own hand. Back then, when shecked any means of using her powers outside of her body, she had discovered one way, albeit crude, albeit barbaric, she had been kindly exposed to this way of attacking by the relentless shing of The Heretic''s machetes in a time long past. The unexpected amputation allowed for a pathway to form, light stuck within burst out into a chaotic spread, right in front of the gravelord''s face, his bushy eyebrows rose in surprise, his predatory smile remaining in ce as he gritted his teeth, his expression darkening with delight, something was shed as the light struck true, turning the vampire as dark as charcoal before crumbling to pieces. Liameilos moved way back, regrowing her lost hand regenerating from thecerations, flesh and muscle growing over her exposed ribs, rubbing the back of her neck, half-scowling, half-smiling, sunlight coursing through her body, refilling the lost blood as she tore off her sleeves. Her attention fell to a severed,rge finger, adorned with a monstrous nail more akin to a w, from which, pungent blood that seemed to corrode the very air, emerged and formed into the shape of the gravelord, body and clothes returning as before. He didn''t say anything, but he was clearly ted, his king was not speaking up either, Nitok''s attention taken by something urring afar. Maiele had certainly pinned him and struck him perfectly with her attack, but none could restrain the strongest gravelord, a mere drop of his blood could be thrown onto the floor and allow him to reform entirely, with any loss to his power output and resilience, Nosferatu had since long mastered regeneration and learned to perfect it, which allowed for him to take hits upon hits and to go head first into traps without any chances of him actually getting trapped. They readied themselves once more, Nosferatu assuming a blocky, boxing-like stance, Maiele Liameilos kept her hands open, one foot forward. One focused solely on offence, the second more evasive and pertaining to severely punishing the opponent with deadly counterattacks. Neither moved as their attention was also taken in the direction King Nitok had been staring in, the skeleton king turned to his gravelord, not very bothered. "You sense this? Thanatok is firing something in our direction"@@novelbin@@ "That bastard, that''s going to fire a hole in the miasma for certain" the vampire was not worried about anyone getting hit by this st of life, it was slowly moving up, ending its course against the edge of King Nitok''s barrier, more so a warning shot than anything, for the main course was the man in person, who had been riding upon the life, breaking right through the barrier, hended in between Nosferatu and Maiele Liameilos, neither of them seemed particrly pleased by his arrival. The elf rolled her eyes, the gravelord shrugged his shoulders. "Thanatok Ynig¨®s, it has been a long while, what brings you here today?" King Nitok fired a shard of solid darkness at the living, who deflected it. "Oh Nitok, I am only here to pick up my elven associate, my interest has been wholly absorbed by a certain Loimos" he casually responded, eyeing Nosferatu and the undead king, the gravelord moved to his lord''s side. "I would have guessed so" King Nitok''s eyes were ring with his dark mes, bringing one hand to his chin, he signed for Nosferatu to step back, calling off the remnants of his barrier, motioning for the two living to leave. "This ne is one of both life and death, of all sorts of existences outside of those two, but death, can reach them all" "You two can go and live another day if you so insist, I would rather not have my crypt be damaged only for a stalemate, but do remember, your days are counted" King Nitok reminded them, him and The First Death Hunter staring at one another in silence for a few moments. "We shall see to that" Thanatok Ynig¨®s jumped away, cracking the roof as hended on an orb of life, moving through the miasma unhindered. "We might have been able of killing the Elven Light, but by the simple presence of Ynig¨®s, our capacities are reduced, truly the worst enemy we could wish for" the king mused aloud tapping Nosferatu''s shoulder. Find your next adventure on My Virtual Library Empire "True, no matter how many times I faced him, I never got close to actually defeating him, it was just an endless battle that would eventually turn to my disadvantage" the vampire responded. "But let''s look on the bright side, we have control over the continent and The Graveyard has developed the abilities I hoped for, not only that, but Loimos can defeat him, that''s what he was created for¡­" "On this note, go fetch him this way, and tell him that he is promoted" Chapter 289: Lonely No More Milo kept on his way, after traversing another inner garden within the royal pce, he arrived on a private road that would have been normally beautiful to travel, vegetation was lush and beautiful, flowers were colourfully blooming and the scent of nature was overwhelmingly sweet, now swimming through darkness, only the smell was left, although subdued as the darkness elemental mana threatened to seep into the environment. It was an untold problem few were aware of, the eternal night was not only eternal, but it was influencing the fauna and flora as well, changing the naturally floating mana into its own, as Lunate had put it, it was as though he world had been ensnared into a gigantic zone, it was slow and countermeasures were being put in ce, but it served as a reminder that they were not untouchable. Milo thought back to Aliz¨¦ as he was struck in the face by thin branches, scraping against his arms, spiderwebs sticking onto his body as he tried to manoeuvre this little road, since then, the group had gonepletely silent, taking every signs of their presence with them, Milo had failed to catch any trail despite his best efforts. He was worried about attacks from within, and he had shared his worries, but even with great help, nothing was aplished, now however, he had something else to do, stepping out of the hidden road, he arrived at familiar building, covered in mana-blue lights, he stepped through the gate, many soldiers and warriors were training even when they could barely see the end of their own arms. One advantage of constant darkness was that it favoured the learning of certain aspects ofbat, just as always knowing where every and each of your limbs and weapon was without needing to look, it was pretty much mandatory now as light was scarce and weakened by the dark sun. Stepping inside of the bustling academy of Toordefer, Milo knew the way by heart, having spent much time just walking around with Helena, the wood creaked beneath his feet, ascending familiar steps, the air inside of the academy was filled with memories, it was within here that his rtionship with Helena had been made, official, one might say. Discover exclusive tales on NovelBin.C?m @@novelbin@@ But the mana here was not quite as abundant with darkness, the remnants of Rosemary¡¯s mana remnants and of other great mages had formed a protectiveyer, not to mention that the academy was under the watchful guard of the very person Milo was here to see. Arriving before a door, he knocked once, immediately hearing the wizened old tone of the headmaster weing him in, the door unlocking and opening on its own, the office was well lit with mana crystal, the elder mage was sitting behind his desk, back arched as usual, excessively beard reaching the ground with length to spare, his exquisite staff propped at his side. He took off small round sses perched on his nose and weed Milo, a slight chuckle escaping his lips, the old man was in an awfully good mood today, and the farmboy felt like he knew why, affixing a hat on her head, a tall blonde woman dressed in a long coat walked past him, waving at the headmaster as he stepped away, lighting antern. "Aherm¡­ Good to see that you are in good health Sir" Milo awkwardly greeted, not having expected for it to be revealed that this elder still had that sort of stamina in stock whening here. "Why thank you young Milo, I too am happy to see that I have not lost my edge" heughed, rising from his seat to walk over to his visitor, using his staff as a cane, one hand firmly behind his back. He rubbed his beard, appearing full of vitality. "So what are you here for? You youths don¡¯t have much time these days, how is your mana control going?" "It¡¯s progressing along swiftly, no need to worry¡­ Miss Rosemary wanted to know how you were doing on the enchantments and runes for the trebuchets" the old man shook his head. "Oh, that is nice but it is not me at all that is working on that, I am simply overlooking everything, but yes, they seemed to be progressing along swiftly-" "She is a bit worried because she noticed that some of the runes and enchantments seemed to have been customised with some rather strong conditions and vows, she would like for them to show how they were working, so she¡¯ll make some time and pass by in a few days" Milo ryed, not noticing as the old man¡¯s eyes seemed to lose their lustre for a brief moment. "Ah¡­ They took some liberties is what you are saying? Well then, Rosemary is always wee here, the academy is like her¡­ Home¡­ Home¡­" he seemed saddened for a brief instant before reverting to normal. Milo looked to the side, now extremely awkward. The headmaster coughed. "As I am saying, there is no problem, but she knows that she is always free to show up whenever there is something else, right?" "Hum¡­ Don¡¯t take it the wrong way sir, but some of the soldiers in training here have reported movements of strange groups as far back as a few days before the night fell, I suppose that if you didn¡¯t report anything that it is nothing to worry about, but we would like confirmations" it was pretty much saying that, at beast, the headmaster, who was nearly all-knowing about the happenings on the academy grounds, could have missed something, or at worse, that he was covering for something. The elder didn¡¯t seem fazed by Milo¡¯s words, rubbing his beard quizzically, as if trying to recount what the youth could be talking about. "Well, I have not noticed anything out of the ordinary, they must have just mistaken rowdy youths learning here for something else, I don¡¯t forbid a bit of tomfoolery in such a dreadful climate, they need to have some semnce of fun, wouldn¡¯t you agree?" the headmaster dispelled any thoughts of something odd happening within his academy. "Ah, well I guess that makes sense¡­ If I may ask, thatdy from before, she is¡­?" "A good friend with a preference for weary old books" "I see¡­ I¡¯ll take my leave then" Milo slightly bowed his head and walked out of the office, feeling like the headmaster was a bit odd, but it might be a bit rude to call someone weird because they seemed genuinely happy for once, although there was also that one moment that made Milo want to investigate on his own¡­ Fearing that the old headmaster was being caught up by his age atst, something might have slipped from his attention. But no can do, Milo was still due to some harsh training sessions, he could not stop now as he had finally seen some dire progress, he felt like he might soon be capable of challenging that swordswoman with the green de on equal footing, that was tremendous. And so, with some doubts concerning the mental health of the headmaster, but still a trust toward the elder, Milo came back from where he hade from, scrutinised as he went by four pairs of eyes. Chapter 292: Vision Of Burning With a groan, Fioldron Ferrcrona rubbed his temples, a heavy headache pounding from within, echoing and bouncing everywhere inside his skull, despite his body being healed, something had been left behind, he had held strong in the face of death, but wounds beyond the flesh had been inflicted nheless, Loimos¡¯s ursed voice was still ringing in his mind. "Curse you¡­" he murmured in the darkness of his room, the room he had used a few times in the past when visiting Agilulf Wanneck for whatever businesses, this was where he had been brought after receiving the miraculous healing of Rosemary¡¯s mes. This room was outrageouslyrge, and somehow managed to not seem uncanny with a bunch useless empty space, the merchant king had always known how to amodate just about anyone, but something else had been brought to his room as per his wishes, something that even when half-way unconscious and broken in body, he had not forgotten to point out. His eyes met with the slits, flesh tingling just by looking at it, both power and the history of Starkefolten were staring right at him, he had failed to defend his nation once to many times, he had been too weak to lead this glorious kingdom, his sword was feeble, strength insufficient, beaten down by a single undead, a mere courier at that. Read thetest on NovelBin.C?m A king felled by a messenger, there was nothing more humiliating, and yet, no one seemed to hold any contempt for him, his people had seen him and his champions setting outside the safety of the barrier and challenge the dead, the people valued courage and valour, but that was wrong, they should have valued strength and power. What good is a crown when its weight is too heavy to bear? Fioldron Ferrcrona had not bent his will to The Prince Of Death, he had not bent his honour to Loimos, he had resisted until his very flesh and bones gave out, and it was all much too less even then. In this world where there were countless ways to grow more powerful, the majority still saw no benefit in it, and amongst those that tried, many were met with unbreakable obstacles preventing them from stepping into the domain of true champions and heroes. The iron king was one of such people, holding not any type of talent, but he had something close at hand, the legacy of Starkefolten was right within reach, its infernal interior called for him. "In retribution, my flesh shall singe¡­" he walked up to this artefact and ced his hand up against the chest piece, feeling his headache receding, but no, now was not the right time, the pain was to be immense and without limit, but he mustn¡¯t grow used to it, his agony had to be ripe and at its peak when the dead came knocking, his full wrath fueled by suffering had to befall them. A knock came upon the door, taking him out of his daydreaming, suddenly feeling much better now his determination solidified, he beckoned them to enter, channelling some mana into a nearby crystal to illuminate his room, now that he thought about it, he had been staring at something inplete darkness, truly, its call was strong. "Your majesty" it was Lunate. ¡¯Ah¡¯ the iron king said nothing, suddenly remembering about his hidden daughter, indeed, he had to be burned for her sake as well, for the sake of the blood and flesh he did not recognise as his heir, fearful of what would be thought of him when it was known that he had failed to uphold the vows of marriage. Although, it was almost certain that many already suspected it, the ck hair, the dark blue eyes, even their faces, she was a spitting image of the iron king, it was simply that none dared to bring it up, lest that obvious connection turned out to be a coincidence. "Have your injuries healed properly?" she asked, her hands behind her back. "Yes, no need to worries, I am as good as new, probably better than I was before in fact, the mes of the volcano witch are truly exceptional" he reassured her, not mentioning the near constant headaches he would get, or the odd visions of Loimos he would sometime get in his nightmares, certain that it was not simply his fears, but that the undead had somehow taken root within his mind and was tormenting him, he would never admit to such things that could not be cured by anyone. It would be worrying his people for no reason. "Are you not training with the others, Lunate?" he changed the subject, the girl held one hand up. "I have been familiarising myself with our other allies, and also, I have brought a woman knowing of rites luck, you might be familiar with her, my lord, her name is Mnit, it might not be much, but we require all that we can, do we not?" she smiled slightly, ncing at the item Fioldron Ferrcrona still had his palm up against. An enormous suit of armour of lustrous ck alloy, decorated with lines of gold, the entire suit seemed unfit for a human to fit in, a greatsword that would be perfectly at ease within the iron hand of this armour. Lunate did notment upon it, even though she should be in the know about it, acting like nothing was seen, bowing her head and taking her leave, noments despite knowing what this suit meant, and what it entailed for the one that wore it. She retreated back into the dark hallway, heading back to her fellow champions after strolling the halls and paying a visit to areas where people of Starkefolten had gathered, silently navigating the obscurity with the same ease as though she was born into it. Fioldron Ferrcrona Turned his attention back to the suit of armour, a fair bit taller than himself, the armour pieces were not individual, the entire thing was put together and was not to be separated, much too heavy andrge to be possibly worn by a human, but it was for one of this species that it had been created, this one had a semnce of a crown upon its helm. Thest of Starkefolten¡¯s once most powerful force, thest steam knight, the only suit that had never been worn and kept hidden within the guts of the royal castle, the steam knight meant for the king in person, but back when they were in use, the king had not had the grit to step in the inferno. @@novelbin@@ He would not make the same mistake, he would sacrifice his flesh. Chapter 295 Dark Stroll In the end, full of suspicion, Rosemary had made the decision of simply shifting the creation of those weapons to the castle, where they would always be created and assembled under her watch, even if they didn''t have the same infrastructure and such already present, she could arrange something, always better than receiving sabotaged goods that would result in poor performances and lives lost trying to operate them. Discover hidden content at My Virtual Library Empire Those trebuchets and other great weapons were of tremendous importance, before, the undeads had already been an unstoppable tide, within miasma, they held a distinct advantage over the soldiers and other living troops, but now, the darkness was thest nail sealing their coffin, the dead held a potent additional sense within whilst they werepletely blind. In this scenario, the soldiers of eternity would trample on Tamaris''s mundane forces even if lesser in numbers, to this end, the battlefield would have to be illuminated somehow, so they had been pouring their all in finding ways to shine light through the Prince Of Death''s dominion. One of those means served two purposes, obviously, a trebuchets could deal significant damages to ranks, but if shooting specific projectiles equipped with luminous properties, then it would also allow troops to see what they were going up against, and themanders to actually assess the situation, allowing for actual orders to be given. Attempts were made to create magic items granted one dark vision, but not only was that a difficult affair in normal circumstances, but the darkness conjured by the undead monarch was not so simple either, this was not just true darkness, it was eternal and devoured light itself. The creation of something capable of piercing King Nitok''s veil would require a keen understanding of him, his magic, and his dark sun, no one could brandish understanding of either of those, the idea was thus scrapped entirely in favour of other options. Yet, even after making this decision, she did not leave the academy grounds just yet, well, she had imed to be leaving, but she really just stood in a corner, her eyes brimming in the darkness as mes went to enhance her vision, her very fire was going to be the fuel that shine upon the future battlefield, although Rosemary could not see that far like this, it was not even required to begin with, mostly using her mana sense in spite of the darkness interferences to direct herself. No matter how much to old headmaster tried to reassure, the volcano witch was not buying into it, the foul y was urring within the academy, no doubts were held on this point, the old man''s neat surveince had been fooled somehow, that, or his activities with whoever had really gotten him daydreaming at all times. Which was not out of the question, this elder had been stuck all by his lonesome looking over Toordefer for decades now, any sort of action could have muddled his muddy brain even further. Walking around with her arms behind her back, like a stern teacher, the sheer calmness of the academy after the time for learning was over remained immacte even as it was made into training grounds for soldiers and the likes, even as it weed many more people than it used to, this was aforting atmosphere for Rosemary, having always enjoyed the tranquillity of the dark lull, reading smelly books and ancient tomeste at night with only a me from the top of her finger to shed light. Her years as a child were still great memories, and they had been spent in this very building, but there was bitterness too, it was also here that she had been fooled by Osworth, or rather, as it appeared, Loimos. Rosemary had really believed to have found a kindred spirit, only for him to turn out to be a most vile undead, foul for he had truly blended into the scenery and ced himself right beside her, knowing full well that it was an advantageous position, all taking root from a chance encounter with Antieeld. He had remained here, perfectly at ease, without ever doing anything objectionable, in fact, as the volcano witch had since long wondered what had been his aim, simply direct her to go through with that field exam at the mines? That could be it, but he had been here for so long, what else could have been done? Loimos had been trusted with the charge of great tasks, clearly not a random undead that just happened to be around, such a person required to be capable of taking opportunities, but she had been unable of figuring out if there had been anything else to his intrusion. Rosemary reached an open space within the heart of the academy, stepping onto a carpet of blue flowers, a ce where students were to learn outer maniption with the thicker presence of mana thanks to the flowers pulling it in, shaped like a square, this area had four entrances that shaped a cross, three of which were shut and locked, the sky controlled by undeath right above. Tilting her head a slight bit, looking back at the gate she had gone through, she stepped further, toward the center piece of this area, a small blue tree that served the same purpose as the flowers, it had been nted a while back, but it had never managed to grow further than this meagre form. The situation was obviously odd, she expected the fourth gate to shut behind her back, but it did not, instead, a voice rang out a distance behind, apanied by steps on the flowers, wholly unconcealed, despite the energy signature of this individual remaining null.@@novelbin@@ "Hello there! How are you doing today?" it was a rather joyful voice, turning to try and discern the man, he was standing just about on the edge her enhanced vision could gleam through, waving at her exaggeratedly, like he was an old friend going off into the horizon. Stepping forward and enhancing the augmentation to her eyes, gaining a better idea of this absolute stranger that was definitely not supposed to be here. Rosemary did recognise him, he had shown up to the royal pce to strike a deal with the king. "Arleqkin, Fin-Limier leader, what brings you here of all ces? You have not given signs of life in a long while, we assumed you and your troop to have perished at the hands of the undead" raising an eyebrow, looking around for anyone else. Just now, she had managed to pierce through hisyer of stealth and get a hold of his signature. His mask was already shifted into a sad look. "Boohoo¡­ We almost did, most certainly did fall prey, but! We have arrived here atst, and frankly, I was a bit lost at first, so I just went to the first building I recognised, well, going to the royal pce when everyone seemed to have decided that it was time to sleep would have been a clearck of decorum on my part" he stood still for a few seconds, then waved it off and shook his head. "It is great that you are here Miss Rosemary, would you bother apanying my lonely self to the castle? An assassin can''t just show up unannounced¡­" once again with atence, his mask smiled. "I would love to, but-" something shined behind her back, a ming barrier resisting the assault of a de. "-It seems like you would rather guide me to the grave instead" Chapter 296 Concealing Nonsense "Don''t take it to heart, Miss Rosemary, we are but chasing our best interests!" his mask twisting into a grin, Arleqkin retrieved two daggers from behind his back, throwing them with grace, simply swinging his arms and allowing the hilts to slip out of his fingers. One, two, three, four, five¡­ No matter how many times he threw them, they just reappeared in his hands as he stepped forward and spun around like some sort of manic dancer, the de only struck against a scorching barrier, behind her, Odicious pped his hands together, the callouses making for a most distinct resonance, his skinless face, eyes permanently opened staring right at the volcano witch. Garbed on a long dark cloak, giving him a most absurd shape, only his hands sticking out from it, sleeves rolled up, his muscr forearms and battered hands, one could tell by just a look that each and every one of his fingers had been broken multiples times and mended by naught but the natural regeneration of the body, forearms covered in cuts, burns, and other marks, each of different times and sources. He spoke something in anguage different from the one granted by the gift ofprehension, calling forth spinning rings of pale blue light. Both assassins had once been invited and hired by Agilulf Wanneck, but clearly, their allegiance had shifted since then. Rosemary had thus only met them once before, but she was capable of getting a good idea of what they were all about, unlike their thirdpatriot, whomst the caster was expecting to show up at any moment. Arleqkin is simultaneously a rather simple assassin and also not, he did not seem to possess any special ability or talent in energy maniption and the arts, he was equipped with special artefacts and had a way to kill people that could only be described as graceful and artistic. Meanwhile, Odicious was a ritualist of some sort, a caste of magic closely tied to the battle arts, involving circting mana in specific ways and executing precise movements, at least at its most basic. The pale rings and daggers were harmless against her, she always had a spell active that shielded her from such things, simply needing to look out if they decided to pull something else, the real problem was The Death Dealer, the crown jewel of the Fin-Limier. Rosemary was fairly certain that it was a woman, but piercing through heryers of stealth and grabbing a hold of her mana was a difficult task even for the mage, The Death Dealer was a renowned character, it was doubtful that the leader and ringleader would challenge the volcano witch in this manner if not counting on the support of their best weapon. Explore more at My Virtual Library Empire "Mmh, this doesn''t make any sense" frowning, the two assassins suddenly caught fire, ending up turning into a sh of pale blue light.@@novelbin@@ They had been projecting themselves from further away. Maintaining barriers around her, Rosemary extended her mana sense all over the academy,tely, things were much toocking in logic for her tastes, there was no point in revealing their treachery only to aplish nothing, without even the beginning of a n. It was just like with the sabotaging, the awful absence of a good exnation was pulling on Rosemary''s nerves, all that she could imagine was that it was all willfully nonsensical to confuse and divert attention from something else. But good luck discovering what this something else could be. Expanding her senses, she discovered nothing out of the ordinary, no one seemed to be harmed or dead, the environment was to the assassins advantage, if they were working for the undead as she thought, then the darkness mana might be aiding their concealment as well. ''How did they even traverse the miasma? The hideout of the Fin-Limier is not in Tamaris, that much has been made clear from the contract¡­'' it was a shame that Arleqkin never signed any contract that did not allow for him to break if a better offer was given, but he had been made to admit under forced oath that his base of operations was situated in a mountain under no particr jurisdiction. She slowly moved back inside, scanning every corner, peering through the ground¡­ "Ah¡­" tilting her head, deeper than the underground reached, there was a pocket of space where her mana sense was not reaching quite as easily. Rosemary remained careful, that little performance from earlier had actually led her to pay closer attention and notice this discrepancy, which was a little suspicious at the very least, but there were no tunnels or path leading to it, sized like arge rectangr room, even as she pierced through the veil, she found it empty of people. Looking over her shoulder again, she dissolved into mes, reappearing within this hidden room, standing still for a second, no traps of any kind. ''It''s just a storage room'' a room with a long table in the center, chairs and crates stacked atop one another, a single unlitntern swinging from a chain, the most interesting item within was some sort of iron golem shaped to look just like a heavy suit of armour, a bright white and adorned with gold. It was sitting motionlessly against a wall, it looked like a golem, but Rosemary found no mana pathways or anything that could be used to activate it, instead, its chestte could be opened, giving way to a hollow sphere within. Looking around, there were more of these, only that they were in pieces and yet to be assembled, some of them did have signs that they were actual golems, only the one fully put together had this odd aspect about it. No traces of remnant mana anywhere, clean and tidy, a door that opened onto nothing, yet a breezeing forth from it, and a dagger stabbing into the shoulder. Stepping back with a burst of mes, Rosemary had been taken by surprise, her barriers swiftly and neatly pierced right through, by a thin dagger, signature de of a certain assassin, a misericorde dagger, its sharpnessing with a disturbance of mana and the very muscles, as though all that it touched was doomed to falter. "Fucking yes! Finally! Blood! Blood on my de! Blood on the floor! Dagger to hand, dagger to flesh, dagger to heart, dagger to life! Ahahah!" bursting with glee, Maliah spun two daggers in each hand, like a malformed shadow exposed to light, she weaved and bent. "How long has it been since Ist killed? I am getting all giddy, weak in the legs you might say!" chuckling, grinding the two misericordes together, blood seeping into the depth of the mysterious alloy. She sighed with pleasure. "Rosy~" "Oh Mary¡­ If only you knew how much I am loving you right now!" Chapter 299 Undead Expansion Graced by dark skies, under the watchful gaze of the sun, of moons and stars, likeborious ants, a grand sight was nowid across the continent of Viridis, across mountains, biomes, both transformed and crafted, aplexid-out of countless turns, ups and downs, underground and high towers, ofkes and seas, of woods and jungles, of deserts and dunes, of hills and mountains, jagged peaks and deep crevasses, bridges and roads, floating isles and inverted spires. All was submerged in the king''s glorious eternal darkness, blessed and divine, overwhelmed with thick miasma, buildings and nature mixed and ovepped, blending together to utter perfection, styles of architectures encountered and shed, the confusing,byrinthine continental city built over the course of little time was nigh impossible to navigate, lest one possessed a sense adapted to the dark. Up on t rooftops, nature-aligned undeads stomped their feet, great beasts roaming the putrescent forests and other environments, patrols of knightly d guards roamed, hidden in every corner, capable of emerging from every direction. Continuously constructing, the forces of oblivion erected churches and cathedrals dedicated to the worship of death and to deities that were to soon join the other side, but the prayers dedicated to death itself were the most numerous, the priests and monks were all brought back by the power of the crown''s divine beast, garbed in robes as pale as bones, they preached without stop, spreading holy death as they went, letting it be known that the rule of King Nitok was a right given by an entity greater than all. Sanctioned by the most divine of all things. Hidden by the king''s night, the undead have expanded much further than any might imagine, roads allowing for passage where to be found all around, flying undeads pierced through the clouds at all times, circling around the high towers that seemed to reach unto infinity, mountains once surrounded Tamaris had grown higher, expanding over the pyramid like a wave of earth and stone, countless constructs hanging from the edge, ins around the base of the life barrier were extended. All was ready for a full-blown conflict to erupt at any time, one tower in particr loomed over all the rest, stretching to the side withoutpromising its integrity, floating inds all around the very top reaching through multipleyers of clouds. "The settling of the time is due tomorrow" Drac remarked, standing near the edge, looking down on the green shine of the pyramidal barrier, hand resting on the hilt of his de. "I do think that our calctions were correct, with some extra room I might add" Vespertillo chimed in, hanging from the ceiling, small bats hanging from his shoulders and ears, a smile covering his bestial visage. "All of those options and abilities are not my cup of tea, but with his advances on death force maniption, he should definitely stand a chance, although-" Nosferatu was cracking his oversized fingers one by one, only for a spectral hand tond on top of his bald head. "Cease this torture of the noble fingers and don''t spell misfortune out of your mishappen maw, if you will" Multaemanus manifested into existence above the one of foetid blood, agitating one index in the air. "Loimos could not possibly be progressing faster, and Ynig¨®s has never faced an enemy with an actual way of defeating him, as strong as you might be Nosferatu, your superior martial skills matter little when you can''t crush the source of his immortality, don''t they?" the vampire lord rolled his eyes as she casually just put a dozen hands all over his head and shoulders, just tapping on his skull. "I had never met a non-fantomatic undead capable of learning our spectral tricks, and even after that, he still managed to surprise me, the church of death''s worship has pretty much decided that he was their lord and saviour already, all the priestesses are fawning over him, and since he could not care less, they love him even more because he really is just that undead, my peeping sessions when unseen have never been so hrious" sheughed, her smile awfully pleasant to the ears for a ghostly mound of hands stolen from corpses. "Yes indeed, it has never been a matter of power or pure strength with Ynig¨®s, but a matter of having the one, specific counter, as it standeth, only our faithful Loimos has that counter, and I would suppose that he is the first andst that will ever possess it in this manner" Vwoldtnir ground his teeth together, standing right by an odd column filled with water stretching all the way to the bottom and into the ground. Atsalinopalo was staring at one of his unfinished golems, carefully considering the next step of creation when he turned his head and spoke his mind. "He is more than just our weapon against him, his nature as a pure undead bears qualities that greatly simplifies many of King Nitok''s ns, but he can not pull out of this fight, and I know that he wouldn''t even if possible, eliminating The First Death Hunter is of primordial importance, that battle, shall be hisst, no matter the oue" the metal recing part of his body produced a most irritating noise. "You have always been good at ruining the mood brother" The Night Flier shook his head. "Oi¡­" "In any case, thanks to K?rpersucher, our own battle should be much simpler, at least, our eternal legions will trample over the united forces of life, as for us Gravelords, we shall remain careful, alright? That also means you Nosferatu, do not be misguided by the weakness of the today''s living, their greatest champions may be the finest we will ever face, we must not disappoint King Nitok" Drac acted as the leader of the group, a long cloak worn over his suit of armour. "This goes without saying¡­ The minimum we can do, is take down the main barrier and push the living back into smaller confinement" "We shall crush Tamaris in one fell swoop, their king has denied Luminary Nitok''s proposal utterly, they cling to their miserable life far too tightly" Read exclusive chapters at My Virtual Library Empire Multaemanus and Nosferatu expressed two different ideas at once.@@novelbin@@ Doors in the distance were pushed open, leading way to a veritable congress of worshippers of death, ghouls, vampires and all types of undeads dressed in weary pale robes, no matter how ridiculous they might look in them, a particrly prominent one with mitre on his head, a small skeleton with some sort of beard still clutching onto the chin. "Honourable Gravelords! Sir Loimos is ready" he dered with pride, presenting the undead like he was his own son. Chapter 302 Death-Touched Ruins Necrosis grew over stone and wood like moss, blood-seeking vines scaling the sides of buildings, crawling and shoving into the thinnest of cracks, waiting for prey blinded by eternal darkness and confused by the royal miasma to stumble upon their territory. Sunflowers with stems as pale as bone, seeds as dark as the sovereign sun, darksun blooms all staring straight at the astral body, guide to countless stars, constetions and moons, some of them as tall as a man, some as tall as giants, growing through building, tearing them down. Standing alongside those nts were a variety of flowers,ing in all sorts of colours, but all were either bleak or awfully bright like signalling toxicity, some twisted forms of living vegetation, otherspletely unseen before, produce of death alone, especially loathsome and vile. Tulips, poppies, chrysanths, roses, irises, intertwined with mushrooms such as horn of plenties, the variety in types of growths, not caring for differences in temperature and needs, all simply grew as it wished, overflowing and eternal all, a treasure trove for botanical enthusiasts it might have been, but everything was out to kill.@@novelbin@@ Releasing parasitic spores, pumping out miasma, physically attacking, spectral blooms attempting to nt their buds within one''s soul, the putrid flora was thriving, even though efforts of renovations and change had not been undergone here, death had left its mark. Rotten trees had picked up churches, modified the scenery by erasing roads and crushingndmarks, the once holy-heavy environment was still present, only that it was now the worship of death that fueled it. The area had been blessed by priests of death, the very center of Millipolo was now adorned with anky tree, its branches growing downward, as though it had plunged its many limbs into the roofs of nearby holy establishments, near this very tree, there he was, waiting already. Climbing up on a nearby roof, getting up to the same elevation as his adversary, Thanatok Ynig¨®s, crossed his arms, mimicking Loimos''s own posture, with the snap of his fingers, the pure living dispelled the entirety of the miasma shrouding the abandoned holy city, there wasn''t even any resistance, no one was trying to prevent this. Objects shaped like small birds were flying around, construct devoid of both life and death, miniature golems transmitting their sight to the Tamarisian King and his entourage, all staring intensely, eyeing both the undead and living with unbreakable attention, already, groans were heard as their gazended on Loimos. A deep purple light shining from behind the barred visor, Thanatok Ynig¨®s rose his fist forth, his entire figure erupting with the vibrant green life force, his undead counterpart zing with the decaying dark of death force. "Let''s make one thing clear Loimos, you are the underdog here" taunted the living, his legs tensing up, the roof beneath cracking under this mere action, any time now, at any point from now on, he could burst forth. The undead was unfazed, and without budging in the least, the very ground moved, a great portion of Millipolo was flipped upside down as a tidal wave of corrosive ck blood rose, engulfing all within it. Disappearing within the blood, Loimos nearly immediately reached up to The First Death Hunter, who had leapt up into the air, back adorned with putrefied, thin insectoid wings, the skeleton thrust his hand like a spear, his straightforward attack easily evaded, arm grabbed and head caved in by the strike of the living''s elbow, sending his life force at the same time. Enjoy new tales from My Virtual Library Empire Pulling away, Loimos sliced off his own head, regrowing it back to normal in the blink of an eye, the disembodied one breaking apart, vanishing like it had never even existed. This was Thanatok Ynig¨®s''s most dangerous weapon, not just his incredibly potent life force that allowed him to punch right through undeads like they were made of warm butter, but the fact that it sort of had a mind of its own, even when detached from him, without his input, it would seek to devour all death force within reach, easily tearing down any undead to utter nothingness in mere seconds, both in body, mind, soul and whatever else, nothing would be left if allowed to proliferate. It was due to him that Nosferatu had be so overwhelminglypetent at regenerating his body, a single strike of his had almostpletely destroyed The Graveyard back in the day. This was his signature technique, generally titled as ''devouring life'' or ''devouring life fist'', oveing it would be Loimos''s first step toward victory. The insect wings exploded as the regr wings took their ce, pushing Loimos backward with a single movement, feathers detached, turning into metallic discuses, taking various paths as they all closed in on the living. Ynig¨®s formed a tform beneath his feet, looking at the dozens of flying weapons without urgency, evidently unimpressed unlike the spectators wishing his ultimate triumph. Each and every single of those disks were the exact same at just a nce, but not a single one of them was a carbon copy of another, all created from the same thing, yet bearing much different capabilities, some were wholly physical, naught but what they appeared as, other were forged out of energies, some were imbued with so many battle arts that Syklon was genuinely bbergasted, Loimos had clearly just made them up on the spot, and done nothing specific, yet the amount and sheer potency held within every single one of those arts was unimaginable. Mixing energies, arts and his primeval rot together so seamlessly, with just the p of his wings, this was a matter one should worry about, and everyone was, except for the one actually facing this onught. With a bright smile, the pure living rapidly punched down each and every of the projectiles aiming for him, when some exploded, sending shards of shrapnels into his body, they were quickly destroyed and his injuries mended instantly. The undead flew above Thanatok, calling forth a great steam of fire, manifesting the decapitated head of an ancient dragon, to use its signature move, but only after empowering it with every single thing imaginable of course, a zing breath of fire that could make the mythical beast it had been stolen from look down with shame, the mes were wholly ignored, Ynig¨®sunching himself right through it, going right through the disembodied head, and grabbing Loimos right by his face. The mming of life force ensured that the undead could not slip away from this grasp, thrown right back down with a loud boom, soon followed by the livingnding as well, dispersing the conjured sea of ck blood. Millipolo had already suffered great damage just from this opening attack, the soil the two were standing upon was bare, certainly lower than the ground the roads and buildings were supposed to be built upon. "Let''s do this on solid ground, it''s much better" Loimos''s wings were already in motion, making him airborne once more, but only for a moment, throwing himself with a stomp, the hero of life moved up, knocking the undead to the ground once more. Loimos removed part of his body to prevent the spread of life and coated himself with external death force, letting it overflow from within, another pir of mes shot out from beneath the human, this one without the need for a dragon head to be conjured. "Only arts for this one¡­ And it was more powerful than the first, things are going to be messy real quick¡­" Syklon covered her mouth, trying to decipher the secret Loimos was employing to wield the battle arts so freely, it couldn''t just be raw talent that allowed for him to manipte them like this. Bothbatants stepped forward, preparing to engage in close-quarters. Chapter 305 Cry Wolf? Agilulf Wanneck and his brave warriors all watched, on the edge of their seats, so far, many impressive things had happened, yet, overall, the fight had yet to move on to a truly dangerous point, neither of the twobatants seemed fatigued or injured, even after both were torn apart and struck with attacks of immense magnitude, even as the living suffered lethal wounds and the undead was hit with his greatest bane repeatedly, neither seemed afflicted. Right now however, the champion of life had decided to kick the notch up, catching death''s champion within the clutch of his devouring life, smothering the death of the undead as he simultaneously unleashed a hail of strikes, putting Loimos on the back foot as he put up as good of a defence as he could, eventually, the devouring life would just take over and extinguish him. "He is doing it!" Milo found himself saying, hands grasping his own knees firmly, his thought was shared by everyone, if Loimos could break free of this, surely he would have done so already, right? "He is resisting an awful lot, is he not?" Helena''s face scrunched up, the previous strikes of Thanatok Ynig¨®s''s had forced the skeleton to part with the stricken areas, but right now, he seemed to be resisting it instead, forcing his death force out to shield himself. Smiling, The First Death Hunter inexplicably knocked Loimos out of his life aura''s reach, retracting it back to its original position, instead focusing life into his right arm,unching a sh across the ruined buildings of Millipolo, missing the undead as he sank into the ground, turning into a mass of phantomatic goo, reemerging a distance behind the human. Without hesitation, he spun around and rushed Loimos down, the two engaging into another close quarters confrontation, Loimos might hold the sovereignty when it came to versatility, but all of his attacks would end up carrying his undeath, making them less efficient against Ynig¨®s, the same might apply in reverse, but the living was more powerful in his energy maniption. Sliding back by turning his soles into slugs, Loimos spread miasma, assuming a more passive stance, constantly stepping back, and making distance in between the two of them, conjuring high walls of rot and swamps of blood, only the pure living understood why Loimos was taking those steps, and although he wanted a great fight, simply allowing the skeleton to do as he pleased was not proper warrior etiquette. Tearing through the abandoned ruins of the holy city, hended some more hits, his life force seemingly growing more potent as it slowly begun to show the same results as before, the living was getting fired up, and it was to be felt in his tumultuous life coursing through, if he couldn''t end this fight soon, he might have to grow careful, was this not exciting? Was it not worth living for? Was it not worth dying for? "This absolute fool, if anything, I always thought it would be his stupidity that would get him killed¡­" "Miss Liameilos¡­ I thought you would note" Pierre-Orn¨¦e spoke, eyes still fixated on the duel between the two champions, something was brewing, bubbling and boiling. Fists shed with one another, the living ecstatic as his strike did not go right through, exchanges followed, tendrils burst from the dead''s back, wrapping around a partly destroyed pir nearby, dragging Loimos away, mming himself into the obstacles, purple glow intensifying, Thanatok Ynig¨®s assumed a protective stance, still grinning as he erupted with life force, just in time as death reached outwardly from Loimos. "So, finally gotten there?" still rxed, the death hunter began circling around keeping a reasonable distance from his foe. "Was that what you were aiming for?" Loimos did not see the point in asking this question, not only because it was not like he was known for his answers, but also because the living already knew the answer, he had knocked him out of the aura of life for a reason, and that was to prevent the undead from getting as grasp of devouring life''s essence. To Loimos, surmounting the problem posed by Ynig¨®s''s mastery over life, was to simply match him in this regard, and considering the simrities between the maniption of both opposing forces, what better way than to take this technique to the face over and over until you got it? The pure power his death force had just underwent was enormous, but still below the refined force of the death hunter, but no matter, Loimos could utilise stack to breach that gap as he continued on improving upon it. A spark went off within his helm, spewing a torrent of ck mes through the barred visor, freely infusing death into his ranged attacks, no longer deprived of range when wielding his death force, meeting the rush of fire head on, Thanatok felt a zap of lightning coursing through him, trying to gue his muscles with necrosis, noticing a tinge of worn-out gold amidst the mes, his life pulsed, dispersing the fire, shing with Loimos as he once again assumed his ever changing form, thin feathered arms ending with sickle-like deshed in quick session, now enhanced with death''s version of devouring life, and shaking intensely, like the edge of the des yearning to sh through. As if he had been waiting for this, Loimos added something new to a rotation the living had not expected, amidst the mana and other energies, a dull gold now joined, not simply holy, it was like death had bestowed something upon the skeleton in particr. The way to defend against each of this was slightly different, for the holy death, it was more than that, using this momentary distraction, Loimosnded a sh across his chest, trying to inject ck blood at the same time, unsessful. Both of their respective forces intertwined, locked in a perpetual conflict, the life force was faster and more powerful, the death force was backed by dead energies and a hail of arts, resisting as they both attacked, the undead returning to his humanoid form.@@novelbin@@ Punching the living''s lower jaw right off, his upper teeth scraping against the armour beneath the clothes, the human instead pierced right through his enemy''s chest, both of their invasive life and death began consuming the other, tearing off the touched parts and regenerating, all while they struck one another again, again, and again, and again, and again. Launching through cathedral, sts grazing new impromptu roads across the ruins, rotten blood, decayed marsnds, putrid bones, Loimos demonstrated his entire catalogue of abilities, grasping the living from afar with spectral grasps, not for long as life decimated it, but enough to set for a follow-up attack. Using techniques of the gravelords, of the advisors, of the minor lord, of the royal guards, of the undead king in person every time he could get a hold of Thanatok, each and every thing he had ever seen was used to gain even the slightest of edges, the smallest of edges to the overwhelming strength shown by The First Death Hunter. His mastery made him pretty much unkible, he could allow himself to be torn apart by Loimos''s festering death, the undead knew that wasn''t the case for himself, eventually, contact with the devouring life would begin to weaken him. For once, the war of attrition was to the living''s advantage. The next step was to¡­ ''Something ising'' as calm as usual, without urgency, Loimos took notice of an unseen and unexpected attack, when it was already right upon him, a great-sizedpressed sphere of life struck him right in the back, spinning and ripping into him, he resisted, but was left vulnerable as it burst and riddled him with holes. Giving up defences and such for this asion, Thanatok Ynig¨®s reeled his right fist high in the air, focusing everything onto it as he pinned Loimos right to the ground with the most powerful attack of his since the beginning, mming into the undead who coldly realised that not only was it a focused strike, but that the randomly urring phenomenon Nosferatu had mentioned, the one he mastered with stack, had decided to happen right there and then. The purple glow went out for a moment, returning weaker and flickering, death and rot were momentarily withoutmands as connection was lost. Thanatok Ynig¨®s stood triumphantly, his thoughts shared. "He won! Thanatok Ynig¨®s won!" Chapter 308: Never Brought Down A most enchanting sight, illuminating scenery, of sce and repose, all seemed so bright, all so luminous, all so lively, flowers were blooming, birds were singing, nature was healing, critters flourish, grass was a vibrant green, pink and blue blooms, pollen hanging in the air. Simply repulsive, sphemy against most divine death! All of this was under the tranquil shade of a titanic tree, its bark a light brown, bustling with leaves and life, theyers of clouds parted to show its immensity, its full splendour, all its glory. Its heresy in this world of eternal night, a sight of pure unholiness. Having appeared in an instant, popping into existence, growing to maximum height, scraping up against the very end of the sky, and perhaps even beyond, crown sitting upon as a highest peak. Within all of Millipolo, much beyond, far and wide, kilometers upon kilometers, the royal miasma was dispelled, fresh air taking its ce, the soils scourged by famine and pestilence were cleared of their undead outgrowths, reced by the vibrant radiance of thriving life, popting every single ounce of space was life force, as numerous as mana typically was. At the foot of this tree, close to its great roots, the pure living stood with his back to it, his lost arm regrowing within moments in this environment, the four riders were nearly instantly blown into particles upon its appearance, before the might of the Zoitree, Tree Of Life all that was dead shall crumble and be sent nowhere, not even oblivion. But Loimos was defiant of life¡¯s tyranny, his death force quickly consumed as he defended himself, continuing on stepping forward even under this torrent, crashing against every fibre of his being, from every possible direction all at once, simultaneously crushing and pulling him apart. Soon, surely, he¡¯ll be consumed as well. His armour cracking under the burden, he kept on moving forward either way, getting just a bit closer to the living, the purple glowser focused on Ynig¨®s, one step at a time. The First Death Hunter stepped forth as well, readying his fist to knock Loimos down onest time, the skeleton¡¯s only way to do anything at this point was to challenge Thanatok with an ability of simr potency but considering how recent his progress with death force were, it was unlikely that he could pull this off, unless he was given free reign to analyse it like before. Which was not going to happen, destruction was assured, but Ynig¨®s couldn¡¯t help but remain vignt, there was this gnawing at the back of his mind telling him to remain passive, just let the life-filled environment brought upon by the Zoitree deal with it on its own, but then, what if Loimos endured long enough to figure something out? He had proved to be a veritable cockroach, and had already demonstrated capacity to learn this way. What to do, follow his instinct or reasoning? Which should prevail? He hesitated for a split second, and moved to follow through with his initial idea, throwing out a straight punch at the skeleton, the world all around turning twisted, like air in the desert, the scenery changing suddenly, finding himself in some sort of underground, the stone weathered and crumbling. Life from the Zoitree was still present, but seemed aimless, not finding the undead to target, despite him standing right there, the distance in between the two of them, their postures remained exactly the same, it was like a space had been created around them. "That¡¯s Ourlon¡¯s signature art!" Syklon immediately recognised it. "He can even replicate such a personal art, and it seems like he customised it as well¡­" her expertise came into y as she stared directly at the art, which from her perspective, only resembled a pyramid of pure ckness, the edges of the subspace created by the battle art. Analysing its threads of creation intently, peering into its fundamentals, it had clearly been adapted to fit the situation. Loimos seemed to have some sort of way to produce all sorts of arts on a whim, so it was not out of the question that this adaptation of ¡¯duel of true skill¡¯ was heavily made to advantage its user. "Should we intervene? They are both heavily hit, we could take Loimos out swiftly if we destroyed this art unexpectedly" she remarked right after, everyone thought for a few seconds. Enjoy new stories from NovelBin.C?m Unable of sharing their thoughts as the pyramid shattered, barely thirty seconds had passed on the outside, judging by the state of the two champions, the fight within had been ferocious, the undead armours was bent inward in countless spots, while the living was bloodied up nearlypletely, his hair of old stained red. @@novelbin@@ Ynig¨®s¡¯s hand was thrusted right through Loimos¡¯s chest, thetter was holding a freshly ripped out eye, partly crushed in between his fingers, although it all came crashing down, the effects of theplex art remained for a few seconds more. The First Death Hunter wore an expression standing partway in between the thrill ofbat and worry, not relieved as the undead was brought under the full might of the Zoitree once again. Gathering nearly all of the death force he had left, he held up both arms, life already stabbing right through his body, words were uttered into an incantation, spoken into prayers, spoken for the arts. Deep within the royal crypt, sealed chambers filled with putrid body parts moved into ordance, thereid the trick used by Loimos to appear as a godly battle art user, capable of stacking movements and postures of various shapes and species, with different numbers of fingers, aplishing so many at once should be impossible, conditions physically without possibility of happening, whatever decided of the value of the conditions and limitations put upon an art did not take Loimos as the basic for what should be valuable or not, but instead took the average, it encouraged the usage of such loopholes. The same as conditions did with energy usage, which he wholly abused as well, funnelling everything into the creation of something capable of giving him an edge, uncaring for the life consuming him, he aplished countless steps in just a few seconds, the fist of Thanatok looming close. He gave up the advantage of the stacked up limbs and parts hidden away in the royal crypt, he gave up theplete amount of all energies except for death force, keeping just a little for himself, he gave up his soul and mind, he could do without them and would get it all back eventually, he just needed to earn a victory. Furthermore, he took a pact upon himself, cutting away all escape routes avable to him, and bypletely taking advantage of his undead nature, of the rules manipting the various sources of power- He brought it forth. Chapter 312 Fear The Night : The Worse There were nine main fronts in total, seven were on the ground, one was in the air, and one was underground, none of them were going to the living''s favour, above and below ground, the forces of Tamaris had no real ways to properly fight back in these spaces, they could only put a flimsy excuse of a defence. The mundane soldiers of life were outmatched by the regr soldiers of death, life could only count on their greater warriors to make a difference, but many of them were either dispatched against Loimos, or were to be kept in reserve for the stronger forces of King Nitok. They could not fight forever, they had to save their strength and stamina, the only good way to push back the undeads was to push back their strongest leaders. But their strongest leaders did not even need to show up unless Tamaris''s champions stepped out, it was a desperate struggle, a sprint to somehow manage to force the undeads to cease their assault before they could breach the barrier, even if the country had many other barriers, once the main one came down, miasma would be free to spread in between the others, the other pyramids were weaker and smaller, not to mention that all of the people capable of maintaining and repairing that sort of barriers were put to work on the main one. To the north, there were two big fronts ying out at once, one had made ster progress at first, the general here had been too eager to gain terrain before the undeads could reach his men and pushed much too deep, allowing too many of his forces to step out of the barrier. No lords of any kind appeared, neither did any elites, just a few regr foot soldiers, who were sucked into the corrupted soil just before contact was made, allowing for a hand to reach out of the darkness, its hand had twice as many fingers as a human''s, like it was mirrored, bringing it down side first, it swiped the te clean, crushing and rolling the soldiers into a round mound of bloody flesh melded together alongside equipment, pulling the ball of gore into the dark, the giant did not appear again, its presence perfectly concealed within the darkness. After this, the general did not dare send anyone back, at least, no undeads were battering against the barrier¡­ But if any forces appeared, he wouldn''t be capable of fending them off, he needed some reinforcement already, barely a few minutes after the battle began. The second northern front wasn''t faring much better, the rank and file of the undead would look desirablepared to the sort of things here, two minor lords had made their presence known, the elite undeads under theirmands had no problem pushing the living back even when in numerical inferiority. Armoured zombies under the direction of Alkayne, and mysterious warriors with the heads of birds mounted atop humanoid bodies, the men of Prikrip, stalwart and brutal knight-like, elusive and rapid warriors fighting in perfect coordination, mirroring that of the lord they had pledged allegiance to. Weapon imbued with necrotic lightning and dposing dust, even when no wounds were suffered, when attacks were blocked, weapons and equipment would partly fall to dust, lightning would dance atop surfaces it struck, reaching the skin, shocking muscles and spreading vile decay, a moment of weakness that resulted in the death of the unfortunate soldier nearly every single time. Here, the person in charge could only do their best by focusing on keeping them just a distance away from the barrier, there was no progression to be made upon them.@@novelbin@@ The only reason the barrier was not being struck by the lightning and dust was thanks to the death hunters also present amidst the ranks, warrior better used to facing undeads, even if the elites of the minor lords were entirely new to them, their expertise still came into y, allowing them work with the regr soldiers to prevent the worst. That was far from the ideal situation however, one mistake and all that equilibrium would be broken. But despair was not allowed to take root, reinforcements of great strength would arrive, it was a shame that they could not even contend at all with their many brave soldiers. To the south, not a single de had shed, curses were sent at the living even with the protection of the barrier, such things formed from holy death managed to seep through in part, the clerics were standing outside of their reach, the great ballistas could reach there, but hidden away in firm forts, the curses would not be stopped, the soldiers here almost had to retreat further into their own territories, especially when a stop urred, sign that the priests and priestesses were joining together, having arbitrary decided that one had to die right this instant. ''Just how many of them are there?!'' the general retained a poker face, his mind a torrent of fury, the priests of Phanes present could not contend at all, it wasn''t just a matter of strength, the number of curses being brought into existence every second was simply obscene. And this was on the entirety of the southern side, this was the only front in this cardinal direction, kilometers upon kilometers ofnds were battered by the worshippers of death. It all stopped for a minutes, the constant praying in death tongue grew louder and louder, stomping their foot in perfect unison, sounding like thunder, and once it all stopped, nothing seemed to ur, indeed, nomunal curse befell the living, no great st of holy came flying from the eternal darkness. Instead, a single undead stepped within sight, arms spread out, slightly upward, a blinding green shine emerging from the split skull. "Fire! Steel your resolve!" without hesitation, the general shouted out an order, recognising the enemy from the reports, his mind raced forth in multiple directions, he understood what was happening, the why and how. Read exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire Great bolts, veil of arrows and spells appeared as per his order, right as Yuolrt brought out her pseudo-zone, a magnificent jungle sprouted into existence, pink flowers growing from the ground, the general had not told his men to steel themselves for no reason, but it was meaningless either way. Many of the loyal soldiers disappeared in hazes of pink, the flowers taking their spot, as the soldiers took the positions of the flowers, outside the barrier. The pseudo-zone, enhanced by the collective blessing cast upon the minor lord beforehand, was already overflowing with the ghostly spirits of beasts and monsters, there was no chance for anyone to survive outside of the pyramid. "The druidic minor lord is in the south!" he refrained the will to try and rescue the soldiers brought outside, instead informing that Yuolrt had acted in person. "Aah¡­ May the gods protect us¡­" he whispered, a tide of spirits mming against the barrier, lifting his spear high in the air, giving the order to attack without stepping outside, as soldiers were being transported directly in the maw of death. He prayed to the gods once again, without receiving an answer, against the might of death, the very gods were considered preys, even had they not been forced into silence, it was dubious any would have dared to show themselves. Chapter 316 Fear The Night : Sixteen Roars of titanic strength shook the air, the constant breaking of ss, the barrier strained under the pressure of the dead, a bright light shining somewhere on the western front, great fights breaking out in between the champions of both sides, armies shing in desperate hope, the eyes of soldiers burning with dire perseverance, or turning dull as something infected their blood. No matter what, the living remained on their backfoot, the pyramid suffered more and more damage, it was mended at a slower pace, cracks remained upon its surface at all times, a dreadful atmosphere spreading out over the living, its center, the royal pce, something was happening even there. Under much pressure, a team of many members,posed of the elemental champions of Starkefolten, numerous talent holders geared towardbat and other students, not the strongest forces of Tamaris, but numerous and united enough to be able to deal the final blow to a weakened Loimos, in theory. Deprived of all energies, only holding death force meant to keep him going, his rot was no longer in control, only the one stuck to his body, in the form of armour and such, made to be a part of his skeleton. The underground chambers filled with countless limbs and objects to help craft incredible arts were now emptied and out of his reach, battered and tattered, it was dubious whether he could even twist his bones around at all, or if he was locked in the movements of a typical humanoid figure. A faint purple glow still emanating from beyond the partly broken visor, thest flying golem was broken as the stored spell within med up, transporting the one''s here to challenge death''s champion. Milo, Helena, Griar, seven elemental champions, and six talent holders, sixteen against one, the odds were definitely in their favour, each had been forged into the trials of training by the strongestbatants of life, they had all advantages on their sides,nding onto nearby crumbling buildings. For the most part, Milo did not waste any time andnded directly on the undead, bringing his hands together and mming both fists down like a hammer, reinforced by gold, shaking the ground covered in pieces of debris and dust, the undead having stepped away at thest moment. ''He is still fast!'' raising his arms, blocking a punch from the skeleton, knocked right away, managing to stay on his feet, Milo saw the undead already moving in for another attack, thankfully, he was far from alone, a strong de of wind struck Loimos, dealing much less damage than it should have, a broken building behind was knocked downpletely by the gust following it alone, whilst the primary target only suffered a scratch upon his armour. From behind his back, Hoffnu, talent holder in the sword went for a sh aimed at one of his arms, Loimos now seemed unable to recover from damage, as shown by the fact that his armour remained in poor shape. Dismembering him would thus be efficient, but the destructive de did not reach its target, Loimos grabbing it before it struck him, the ground below cracked under the force of the attack, bolts shot from a crossbow did not faze him as he attempted to wrench the sword from her, which Hoffnu would not allow so easily, even if struggling against his strength was difficult, relinquishing a weapon was a poor idea.@@novelbin@@ Loimos handed up swinging her above his head, throwing her away, before taking off running, avoiding a rain of spells from the elemental champions, the ones fighting from long range were protected as Griar and Milo engaged the undead again, thetter''s forearm still bruised severely, he did not take time to heal such a minor injury and instead went swinging at the skeleton again. Assuming a striking stance, rising his foot up, Griar sensed an arting up, confirming that the undead was not entirely deprived of them, expanding his own battle art, he cancelled Loimos''s, his sabreshing out against the stalwart defences. ''That barely does anything, I''ll have to seriously increase my output to do anything substantial'' the problem here was that he was already putting in his all there, it was oundish how durable Loimos was despite being essentially at his lowest possible, was that what being powerful meant? He narrowly avoided a punch to the face, his cheek scratched by the blow, Milo appeared behind the enemy,nding a axe kick in between the corpses neck and shoulder, the youth''s incredible physique empowered by golden mana managed to force Loimos down to one knee for a moment, allowing Griar to stab the skeleton right in between the gaps in his visor; sensing his de grinding against bones, retracting it, although weakened, his de was chipped at the tip and traces of rust were visible after getting a bit too close to the actual skeleton hidden beneath. Swinging his head back, Loimos headbutted Milo, simultaneously, he grabbed the living''s arm before he was knocked back, swinging him as a whole toward Griar, who had to awkwardly put his de away to avoid skewering his friend, both were thrown back. A fireball struck him straight in the face, exploding at point nk, mana scattering in a way meant to muddle his senses, which were alreadypromised due to the ambient energies of life and death struggling against one another, the nts of life and death shined with light and darkness respectively, but the end result was that there was light all around, preventing a proper usage of darkness awareness. Having been ravaged by life, his usually perfectly in tune, and melded senses were messy, yet he managed to block two des of mana swung at him from an odd angles, parrying them with his arms, he stepped forward at the champion of sword, Msir cursed under her breath, Loimos looming over her, kicking at her, she brought both of her sword defensively, mitigating the damage as she wasunched back, caught by the talent holder of shieldmanship, Menhirel. ''My attacks are too weak, they are nning on rying themselves on the offensive, that small woman is healing those who can not do it themselves'' Loimos''s attention fell on Minli, although his strikes like the power to instantly kill those that dared to approach him, crushing that frail talent holder in the field of healing would only take one direct blow. Putting one palm down on the ground, crouching forward, avoiding des of wind shot from both Helena and the champion of wind, Forven, by the same asion, he enacted a simple art to enhance his speed for a split instant, aiming to tackle the healer, which would certainly result into a most gorgeous disy of crimson mist. Menhirel got in the way again however, holding her ground in front of her ally, shield bending inward against the tyrannical might of death''s chosen champion, one of her arms crushed into a twisted mess of bone and blood. Cursing at the skeleton''s non-existent mother, she moved her shield in spite of the injury, raising the awfully heavy corpse off the ground before he could move away. Enjoy new chapters from My Virtual Library Empire "You heavy piece of shit!" bringing it back down, throwing her own equipment alongside Loimos who almost dug into her face. ''Seems like they thought of this possibility'' ever-so unfazed, Loimos pushed the shield away as it cracked, revealing a bright blue light, this thing was rigged with an explosive enchantment hidden inside of the weapon. Chapter 318 Fear The Night : Momentum ''Tough'' the spine did not snap, the girl''s body was not ripped in two, guts did not fly everywhere, not only because Loimos''s power output and her defences meant that it would be difficult to inflict such severe damage, but also because the champion of earth, Filiusorci casted mud to soften the impact. No matter, Loimos could tell that a vertebrae had been disced, their healer waspetent, but not good enough to heal something of this nature with spells, she would have to get busy to hope to put it back in ce, and even then, the talented de was not standing back up for a while. Filiusorci had not lost sight of the undead as he was falling head first, catching himself with tendrils of earth, demonstrating his mastery over his element, he slid over mud, coating his hand and forearm with condensed earth, ranged spells actually capable of making the vile corpse let go would strike her as well, and Loimos was far from above using someone as a meatshield, so instead, he closed the distance, eyes locked onto the faint glow. Chills ran along his back, there was no denying it, he, and everyone else, were afraid. Loimos was supposed to be cornered, but they still struggled to inflict damage upon him, a wounded beast was most dangerous they said, but even when locked out of pretty much his entire skillset, the skeleton did not appear anywhere near being out of options, hemanded fear upon the hearts of the living. Rising up to his full height, Loimos threw Hoffnu away, her afflicted figure serving as a shield as the champion of water, Defoim''nocle, also approached from another direction, catching herself in much the same as her fellow, certainly aiming to do the exact same thing as him as well, the other livings were soon to arrive, but a fortuitous side effect of sacrificing pretty much all of his reserves to steal victory over Thanatok, was that he had made himself nearly impossible to detect, by simple virtue of divesting himself of all that could give away his position. For the next few seconds, as dust and debris covered view and shrouded all sounds, those two were on their own, none would dare aim a spell randomly, indeed, Loimos predicted that either Forven, or Helena would unleash a gust of wind to clear the dust.@@novelbin@@ In that instant, as they took in the scene within, he would already be done with those two, powerful they may be, one needed much more to trump over the one death had marked as its champion, stomping his foot, the undead assumed a limited form of harbinger''s harvest. Loimos''s personal fighting style was built upon every single thing he could do, every single ounce of power he could unleash, a perfect coalescence of learned and crafted fighting styles, grafted together. Even if limited to the movements of a human, it was a treasure trove, and it went without saying that it had been made into a grand battle art as well. It was a bit ridiculous, but to get it to output the sort of strength he envisioned, he had to engage in practices considered idiotic to the wider fightingmunity, but arts were arts, and something so fundamentally counter productive would always yield good results. "Palm strike" hearing words spoken in pale tongue, said in anguage he could understand, Filiusorci guarded against exactly what had been told, his armour of earth cracking and breaking into pieces. "Stomp" it certainly helped that Loimos was literally spelling out his moves, but the end result was that the strength put behind the strikes were dealing damage even through his defences, the champion of earth was naturally more prone to blocking than evading, Loimos knew this, and he thus assumed a fighting style geared toward breaking through earth, the sky was not the limit in harbinger''s harvest, everything you could want was to be found inside. Spinning around most majestically, his torn, dark mantle twirling, Loimos kicked dust and shattered pieces of stone up at the champion''s face, Defoim''nocle had caught Hoffnu in a bubble of water and had just sent said bubble floating out of the roused dust. The veil was soon to be lifted, the skeleton knew this. "Right hook" third time''s the charm, he did not follow through with his words, hitting Filiusorci in the chest with another palm strike, the champion did not miss the fact that this particr palm strike was not the same as previously, their were only so many different ways to go about it, and it wasn''t the posture taken that worried him, but the fact that like an oar in water, it pushed the energies in the air. Reflexively, he had reinforced his chest, only to realise that the ambient energies in the air were not pushed inside of him, or even used to empower the strike, in fact, Loimos didn''t even hit him hard at all. The wild energies just stuck to him harmlessly, also sticking to the undead''s palm, allowing him to pull the champion in, and then get him with an actual right hook, moving forward as he struck, Loimos shoved the living''s face right into the ground below. Defoim''nocle was already preparing a spell, still stuck to the champion of earth, Loimos swung him above his head and into the ground again, kicking him off toward the champion of water, that woman was too worried about her allies for her own good, rather than avoiding and counter attacking, she focused on catching him, it was just her personality, but it was something Loimos knew how to exploit to his advantage. Attention diverted, he reached without any hassle, grabbing her arm, twisting it behind her back, the skeleton shoved his fingers in between the bars of his visor, retrieving the piece of shield shrapnel that had lodge itself in earlier, stabbing down onto her elbow, right in between the junction linking the humerus to the ulna and radius, with a sick crunch, tearing her arm right off, , the shrapnel falling to pieces, following by grabbing her hair and punching directly to face and then the sr plexus in quick session. Lifting his foot, stomping down on the fallen Filiusorci''s chest, breaking ribs, right on time as the expected gust of wind finally came, only a few seconds had passed since it had even risen, Loimos had still eliminated three threats to him. It was a shame that neither were dead, but with what he had avable, the line between killing and putting out ofmision was wider than usual, every single instant was of importance, he had to make a most dire concession, and not grant them a free ticket to visit oblivion. Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire Kicking off the ground, Loimos was already rushing down someone else, the livings had been spread out all around by the fall, bolts came for him, act of the talent holder of crossbow, Molc. He was urate, but required too much time to fire off a truly powerful shot, Loimos had no need to worry about him for now, he was posted on another ruin further away, hidden somewhere and certainly moving around. The undead was already upon his next victim. Chapter 320 Fear The Night : Reducing Like a devil crawling out of hell, the still smoking cadaver rushed forth, already on his way toward the mages, thepressed group spell was fired out, its speed easily much too great for the skeleton to evade, shredding through part of his helm and skull, opening a gap on the right side, as though it had been carefully sanded with tools. The force of the blow forced his body to spin right around, but that barely halted his momentum, twisting his limbs backwards, falling on all four he continued on barreling forward, atst however, the close quartersbatant finally caught up. Milo was the first to arrive, throwing himself onto Loimos, skillfully grabbing a hold of his waist, flipping around without allowing himself to fall to the ground, raising the absurdly heavy corpse and throwing him onto the ground. ''Seriously¡­ What the hell is with this guy?'' Milo could easily lift a horse on each shoulder but Loimos was just too much, he somehow was literal dead weight whilst also struggling like an eel out of the water, subduing him was nearly impossible.@@novelbin@@ In the distance, each and all livings were noticing the fights in Tamaris escting, they could not see it, but they just felt the ripples of confrontations, the earth shook, roars reached them, the cracking of the barrier could be heard in faint whispers. ''Hey Toby, did you manage to decipher anything yet?'' no responses came, Milo assumed a fighting stance as his allies gathered around the undead, Griar had been right behind him, Menhirel had recovered the usage of her arm and had gotten another shield, Msir had finished carrying the wounded to Minli. Even if Milo didn''t know all of them very well, he felt connected to them, united inmon cause, to fell the vile undead, Loimos, sweat trickled down the side of his face, body soaring with golden mana, everyone was pushing their limits, simply being around death''s champion was enough to warrant their bodies going into overdrive, the fear of death clung to them, gripping their hearts, clutching their lungs, each of their actions was driven by both the instinct to survive and cold calctions aimed to the same goal, and yet, so many of them had already been dispatched in just a few instants. Nothing short of perfection was asked of them, and even then, it was likely to fall short, the instant they allowed Loimos an inch, he would turn it into a kilometer, you allowed him to graze you, you allowed him to rip the guts from your stomach. Even with a portion of his skull missing, he was not pushed off bnce, he retained his momentum. Griar extended his battle art, Loimos would not have ess to the battle arts. ''How did he even pull off that sigil? You still need mana to activate it, and you need mana to exert influence on ambient mana, even if that doesn''t consume any, there were no sparks of art in use too'' the blond boy was tense, the notions he had been taught were challenged. Worried that the undead''s options were not quite as limited as they had first assumed. Loimos had nted a seed of doubt within their minds, only those that could ignore the gnawing at the back of their minds would be capable of prevailing. The two young men stepped forth first, shes of a sabre raining down upon Loimos from the side whilst Milo extended his fist toward the undead''s helm, passing through the gaping hole in the side as his target stepped off to the left, not paying care to the shes, Griar''s de ignited with mana, extending his reach, the next sh striking a deep gash unlike before, the strength of of actually preventing Loimos from moving further in that direction, setting him right for a kick aimed at his knee, knocking him down. Bringing both des together, casting a spell upon both separately and joining them, Msir stabbed at his back, managing to get through the armour somewhat, it was definitely thicker than any regr suit, it was pretty much Loimos''s equivalent to skin and flesh after all, the armour he wore was closer to what a knight would wear when jousting. Maintaining her spell even as it cried to be dispelled, doing the best she could do to keep the undead pinned down, the heavy shield of Menhirel came crashing down from one side, empowered shes came down with dys, and Milo''s golden strikes were fully empowered, bending the armour in. Still, the skeleton beneath was not giving in to mostly physical strikes, only the pure magic spell from earlier had worked. ''That''s weird¡­ He had been taking spells without any bruises before, even if greatly empowered, it shouldn''t have been so efficient, right?'' the farm boy felt that sensation, like someone''s cold hand had just grabbed the back of his neck. Another circle of holy life appeared below, another pir wasing. "Say, conditions are not arts, right?!" in the middle of this intense moment, Milo shouted out a question at Griar. "No! Why?" "Can you sense or dispel them?!" Griar stayed silent for a moment. "Oh shit!" he cursed, shouting for everyone to pull back, not having a clue what their enemy might have nned, certainly not liking the prospect however, he maintained his battle art, meaningless as even it was dispelled, the familiar ring of blue extended in a split second, like sh of blow exploding outward, only that its source was not Griar. With just a simple vow to lose a part of himself that had no value to him, Loimos had been able of unleashing such a powerful art for a brief instant, no, he had most certainly made it so short as a further way to enhance its strength, overpowering the very man that had created it in the first ce, an art he was only able of crafting thanks to having a special affinity for the creation of an art of his own, Loimos did not care about his talent however, he had seen the capabilities of Griar''s art and decided to use it for himself. Striking behind himself, the extended de of mana of Msir gone, he struck down on her still extended wrist, snapping them like mere twigs, taking her dual swords for himself,shing out, Griar managed to raise his guard but was knocked back, and to the ground. Spinning around, Loimos kicked Msir in the jaw for good measure, keeping the momentum as he raised his right foot well above his head, bringing his heel down on Menhirel''s shield, bending it inward, their gazes meeting. shing out with both des, the shieldswoman managed to raise one arm up, the other still strapped to the greatshield, even then, hand and fingers were severed, the shes reaching up to her face, pushing the crumpled shield out of the way, he quickly threw one of the des at her stomach, the weapon shattering as it impacted with the armour she wore, but not without somehow managing to breach it. Milo had had the right call to not wear any sort of heavy armour, there was nothing that seemed to be capable of stopping the undead''s furious assaults. Milo prepared to move back in, meanwhile, an ambushed shooter took aim. Chapter 322 Fear The Night : Taken In The Storm Bloody foam gathering from within, spreading out upon lips and face, Milo fell onto the ground, back first with a loud m, his entire weight crashing down, reaching to pull the sword back out, Loimos was met with resistance as Griar was still not staying down. Your journey continues with My Virtual Library Empire Thest strike had trouble his breathing however, ignoring the banshee-like crying from the mages, Loimos kicked at the living''s ankle, forcing Griar to lower himself, setting him up for a punch directly to the top of his head, throwing him face first into the ground. A violent gust of wind crashed into the skeleton''s face, the power might be greater, but it nowcked finesse, the force of the blow was enough to take him off the ground and send him away, but the blow was not focused or precise enough to inflict real damage. This hadn''t been the intent however, taking the two young men upon the back of gentle winds, and here she came, Loimos had no one around to act as a flesh barricade, the other mages did not act, now Loimos had to be careful. Inexplicably, he rose one hand up in the air, this gesture bore no arts of any kind, it was unnecessary, and thus incredibly suspicious, Helena did not stop to question it however, up until now, Loimos had made certain to keep close to her allies, not even always using them to prevent spells from targeting him, it could be taken as him simply not being capable of always having people where he wanted them, but to her, it seemed more like Loimos only searched for the proximity. Like he knew exactly what would happen otherwise, taking a deep breath, eyes focused on the undead, he assumed an actually meaningful stance, some sort of symbol shed above his head for a brief instant, no doubt about it, he just knew it ahead of time. "You guys have spies in our ranks?" she asked without expecting an answer, but Loimos saw an opening. Slightly turning his head to look at the remaining champions specifically, targeting them with his next words. "Ever since Ircron, I have been amidst your lot, next to your king" the thinly veiled threat intertwined with a revtion certainly sent them for a mental ride, Helena was not too concerned by this, but she was much too empathetic to not think about what this could mean beyond just the people she knew, if what he said was true, it meant that this monster, or at least a portion of him, was within. ''No¡­ Even if he used to be, his fight with Sir Thanatok would have severed that connection, he can''t even manifest a slightest bit of rot right now, so controlling a second body from so far away is impossible¡­'' she narrowed her eyes. ''Did he use that revtion to empower his art? What a piece of shit'' her mana circting appropriately, foot firmly rooted upon the ground, covered in both blooms of rot and vigour, bearing the marks of the fight. "Zone!" the raging storm took hold instantly, shrouding both the user and target amidst a raging tornado, the undead had leapt forward just before its apparition, but had been knocked right down by the shes of winds all around. Helena was nowhere near as proficient or talented as Rosemary was, she had to make a choice about her zone, and now that he had casted it, she was locked in ce until it was dispelled, be it willfully or not. The spell she had decided to imbue into her zone was a most simple sh of wind, but within here, it rained down indefinitely from all sides, stronger and incapable of missing, Loimos had no energy to fight back with. She did not know what the Lithitree was, whether it was a domain ability, a zone or something greater, but Loimos could not unleash it again, he only had some death force left, and so far, he had not brought it out, keeping it safely inside. If he could not use it, she would be able of withling him down, if he could, then she invited Loimos to do so. ''Go ahead, exhaust yourself'' the skeleton had shrouded himself into an art to defend against the element of wind, coupled with his absurd defences, he was not taking nearly as much damage as she would have liked. Helena was not skillful enough to focus fire on a particr area, the shes struck everywhere equally, a thousand cuts were meaningless if they barely left a mark, but at least, the undead seemed incapable of moving forward. For the next thirty seconds. mming his fist into the soul, gashes forming upon his skull, one of his fangs finally breaking apart and breaking, he was slowly lifting himself up to his feet, but it was too slow, Loimos was well aware of this, even as he had analysed his enemies from up-close, finding a counterattack to a zone in his state was near impossible, the arts he knew that were meant to fight back were too demanding to be enacted at this instant, so he had instead settled on one to increase his defences against wind in exchange for other resistances. Even then, he had been doing his best to prevent this from happening in the first ce, Helena could not distinguish between enemies and foes, so she would not use her zone with anyone around. The living was struggling to maintain her zone more than usual, it was a spell still, and proximity with Loimos''s festering death was still harsh upon it, no matter however, she was going to keep it together long enough to inflict sufficient damage.@@novelbin@@ His attention fell upon the fallen fang, focusing upon it for an instant, the de of winds began falling upon it, recognised as an integral part of him, focusing some more and the amount of des increased in one ce, as it decreased in another¡­ Bringing one hand up to his maw, breaking off the fangs adorning his lower jaw, before clicking the body part off entirely, throwing each individual tooth alongside with it in the air. Loimos had always been able of ''tricking'' the system, switching from his body to any remnant of himself, each individual piece of him, be it his rot or anything else held the potential to be him, to be his vessel, anything that held his death did. Yet, despite all being himself, if he switched from one body to another, any vow that should clung to him for eternity would be made obsolete and forgotten, by simply pulling himself ever-so slightly toward each of those pieces, he made them targets of the zone as well, and as he pulled himself toward them, the less his actual body was considered one. A handy trick that could only work because Helena was not a masterful zone user, her great spell was pretty much working on its own, she only had influence on the casting and dispelling of the zone. His dark mantle was torn to shreds, leaving him only in his armour of ck iron, covering in bents and gashes, his skull without protection, missing the lower jaw and a portion near his right socket, he rushed forward, Helena not quite understanding what was happening, she attempted to cast another spell on her own, using one arm to direct it, the mana soon to shoot out, only for the undead to swing his own head at her wrist. Tackling into the amazonian-sized woman, lifting her off the ground, mming her right back on the ground, letting punches rain down as he pinned her arms with his knees. Helena wasn''t nearly as easy to damage as the ones that came before however, maintaining a spell of augmentation while also having much tougher defences, not quite as tough as Milo''s however. Covering his fists and skull with blood, the zone came undone of its own. Chapter 326 Fear The Night : Image Of Sadness One step forward, steel shed dozens of times, two steps forward, the ground shook, three steps forward, the sick sonority of flesh parting unnaturally, blood falling up the ground, of bone snapping under terrible weight. On and on, Milo moved forward, forcing himself to move even as Minli tried to stop him, the sword piercing his right lung brought unending agony, his breathing was troubled as pinkish foam travelled up his throat, the embrace of gold surrounded him, shining brightly as it attempted to tend to his wounds. Why was Milo here today? Because he had fallen in love with Helena? Because David had been brutally murdered by an undead? Because his corpse had been made into a mindless puppet following this? Because he had made friends with his peers? Did he feel the need to take revenge? For his loved ones? For himself? Was it for the greater good? Did he consider this Loimos to be a threat to all? Was this what drove him forward? One of these? All of them? He did not know, he had no idea, he just brought one foot before the other and walked, circting his golden mana without even knowing why, he had been born strong, but this was not the reason David had taken him in, then why? There was no particr reason, it was simply what had felt right to the widower back then, Milo just followed his footsteps, acting upon a reasoning he could not quite grasp. His legs buckled, threatening to give up, Milo was the one inmand of them, he could not allow it, his vision was narrowing, moving forward, he brought one hand up against a nearby piece of debris, and just beyond it, there they were. Griar and Loimos were engaged in furious fighting, the young noble was fighting fearlessly, one arm sluggish, the other broken beyond repair, like a candle''s me caught in a rainstorm, every moment threatened to be hisst, by the end of his fingertips, hetched onto any opening that allowed him to keep going.@@novelbin@@ Milo could see even in the state he was in, that this would once again result in a loss of life, Loimos had dominated the battlefield even when at every disadvantage, they had never stood a chance, miracles and the breaking of their limits were but light bumps on the undead''s road, and they knew, that this fight was just a demonstration of death''s uing victory over life. Milo could barely see anything anymore, he had dragged himself over here because that was what his instincts dictated, but what was there to do apart from watching his friend die? Eventually, Griar slowed down for a split moment, a grave shoring, in the next instant, the skeleton''s arm was piercing his chest, grasping upon his still beating heart, gritting his teeth, Griar forced both of his damaged arms inside as well, trying to pry the undead''s finger off. Find exclusive stories on My Virtual Library Empire Loimos''s free arm grabbed onto the living''s head, pushing against the cracks left upon his skull, yelling and shouting, without hope Griar struggled against the undead''s superior strength with all of his might, the ring of blue, mana des erupting to no avail, he was losing focus and force by the second. Griar maintained his resistance for much longer than anyone might have expected, his fingers giving in to Loimos''s deathly cold hold, with a sudden jerk, the undead ripped out the blood-pumping organ alongside a great stretch of flesh and white fabric from Griar''s uniform, the young noble sending onest act of defiance by pushing Loimos back. The white piece of cloth, weighed down by stains of blood,nded directly on Loimos''s head, nothing too problematic, Griar fell like a bag of brick, there was no cutting it for him, the undead had definitely reaped his life, the influx of death force confirmed it, not nearly enough to help Loimos regain his capabilities, but that was beginning, after all, who else was left to get in his way now? No one. Soon enough, Death''s Chosen Champion would get back to his true prowesses and join the siege, unleashing the four aspects of the end upon the unsuspecting Tamaris, the gentle hands of death were pushing him to. Unfortunately, a most random of events, the bloody white clothnding atop his skull, forming some sort of mask, almost like a bag wasid on his head, reminiscent of a role he once took upon back in the lonely town of Throdqdmond, a character no one associated with him. In all of these years, the undead hidden beneath the guise of the sad faced man had never been linked to Loimos, even with the many aliases and titles he had worn, it was perhaps the worst one of all, for it was his actions and short-sightedness as a recent undead that had created him. Pulling the bloody cloth off his face, Loimos took notice of a short sword flying through the air at neck-breaking speed, enshrouded in brilliant gold, Loimos aimed to strike it out of the air, only to hit nothing as it crumbled to dust right before impact, incapable of enduring the dire augmentation of gold. In a sh, the champion was lifted off the ground, hit in the chest by what very much felt like a whole cavalry, but no, it was just a single fist, enhanced by the brightness, it was followed by the wave of gold, the energygging behind the explosive speed of its user. Loimos, under the mantle of Osworth, had deemed Milo a threat to look out for, the element of gold had always seemed to hold a special property, something hidden just beneath its surface, it was not simple gold obviously, the element of gold would manifest as a metal. The gold Milo''s mana took after was something else, something special, this idea was confirmed as Loimos was unfortunate enough to take it head-on, the gold mming into him, a bright pir of brightness rising after impact. It went right through his defences as though they didn''t exist, cracking his chest te, mming both into him physically and into everything else, damaging his festering death substantially, it felt just like being punched by an attack empowered with life, the gold seeping into him and threatening to destroy him from the inside out. Loimos was thrown through the air, sent flying through multiple ruins, rolling onto the ground and debris, this one strike was without a doubt the most damaging one he had received since he had triumphed over life''s champion. Pushing himself back up, evacuating the invasive gold, his attention upon the youth, overflowing with powerful gold he may be, this little fool had still just ripped a sword that had been stabbed through his lung. He had lost a lot of blood, and even if he had just grasped upon the true might of his gold, he had no clue how to replenish his lost blood. Taking up a defensive posture, Loimos used both hands to block the next punch, Milo seemed to be in some sort of frenzy, one might say that he might have been a little bit mad, maybe even angry. Something had clicked in his mind, the white cloth grasping upon the shape of his skull had followed the exact same as that of David''s murderer, how could he forget a single detail of the ursed undead that had yed and defiled his father? He could not. Chapter 329 Fear The Night : Annoying Sitting upon a rock, chin resting upon a delicate hand, bright pink hair swaying in the cold, putrescent air, unbothered by the royal miasma, by the eternal darkness casted by the sun of oblivion, sighing, Maiele Liameilos was well outside the safety of the barrier, the natural hazards of the death-touched continent did not bother her in the slightest. Although a bit ufortable on her skin, it was not yet powerful enough, and with her eyes infused with true sunlight, the veil of dark could not deceive her sight, rubbing the back of her neck, she did not turn her head as two figures appeared behind and in front of her. The Elven Light was not feeling very enthusiastic about a fight at the moment, scratching the point of her ear, standing up from the rock she was sitting upon, stretching her arms, artictions popping with satisfying sounds. "So, a rematch it is?" she smiled smugly, although not especially excited, she was not going to say no to a difficult confrontation, it was what got her blood pumping after all, feeling like her life held onto a thin line, this was what she lived for, when one was eternal and untouchable by illness, when one had lived a life of brutality and ughter, the prospect of losing and taking life was the only thing that could get her to smile andugh truthfully. "Well, the first n was just for one of us toe and do some good old fashioned stalling, pride of the undead!-" "-But we brothers always do things together, most things at least, I will not be affiliated with his embarrassing attempts to hit on the beast priestesses" with the squeak of iron, Atsalinopaloughed.@@novelbin@@ "Now, did you really have to tell the god damned Elven Light about this?" "It''s funny" "...Alright, it is pretty funny, ahahah!" Maiele rubbed the bridge of her nose, she talked of a rematch, and indeed, this was the second time a fight would break out against the twin gravelords, and even with the fact that one had to get himself fixed fromst time, they were just as annoying as they used to be. Enjoying their banter a little too much, in much too many situations. Doing the necessary movement, the mythical elf called forth her sun, its brilliance tearing through the night, but the echelon of power had already been settled, Nitok''s ck sun was the strongest of the two, and although she was able of conjuring it into existence, it was severelycking in power. And clearly, Vespertillo and Atsalinopalo knew this already, not even moving from their spot, a little bit of steam rising from their bodies but not much else, the true sunlight suffocated by the darkness cast by the sr body of darkness above. "Aherm¡­ So I heard that you denied joining us as a most powerful undead?" Vespertillo''s wings disappearing from view, his ws extending from their respective fingers, glistening under the shine of true sunlight. Each vampire had a different level of sunlight they could endure, and of course, the lords were especially resistantpared to the regr vampire, even if the two brothers were below Drac and Nosferatu in this regard, with the sunlight weakened by the influence of their glorious monarch, they were allowed to bask in the sun for the first time in countless years, not particrly enjoying this sombre moment. Opening his metallic maw, a thin tube emerged, bright white mes fired out in a way that imitated Drac in his draconic form, albeit to a much lesser degree, and by using an incendiary fuel instead of blood, propelling it with great force, the liquid sted into the ground, leaving in its wake shallow lines of zing destruction. Rattling his throat, Vespertillo spat corrosive mucus repeatedly, bearing holes into the ground and stone around the mountain, the bright figure of the Elven Light weaving in between their attacksing from opposite direction, jumping up onto her sun, with it able of actually remain manifested, this meant that the sunlight sealed within her was allowed to burst out without requiring some gorey workaround. Your next read is at My Virtual Library Empire Firing out beams of light from both her body and from the sun itself, the brightness was gued by dark, like malevolent serpents, it coiled around her attacks, slowing and weakening them, allowing the twin gravelords to move out of the way with ease, spreading their wings and flying about to evade as they pleased. Beasts of blood, and golems of silver were conjured up by each of the brothers, rays of light shot out at will, lighting up distant portions of the night before being snuffed as per the will of the king. "You know what I think, Atsalinopalo?" "What do you think, Vespertillo?" "What sort of brothers call themselves by their full names like this? Especially with such mouthfuls" Liameilos squirmed with difort at their barely disguisededy bits, she was truly regretting not burning them to ashes back then, should have tried even harder to erase them from the face of the world. Even after countless years, those two were still the same, like two kids that would not stop speaking in ss, awful to be around, truly one needed to be cold blooded, to support this endless back and forth. And she knew that even if she fired a hole through one of them, they wouldn''t get any more serious, because they were absolutely, one hundred percent serious already, this was their maximum and she wished that was wrong. They ignored her remark, and also the fact that she was charging for some more sts as they paused to run their mouths. "I think that Miss Maiele Liameilos, would make for a great lord to the sun-walking vampires left behind by Ynig¨®s" "A most fine remark that you just thought up on the spot and that we did think over beforehand! They thrive under sunlight, and even if not as a vampire, her sun could be very beneficial to them" The two nodded in unison, thumb and index on their chins. "But she has already declined!" "Ah shoot¡­ What a shame, but there is so much fightinging up ahead-" She just shot at them without paying their monologue any mind, not like it was going to go anywhere, a concentrated, constant beam of light emerged from the released sun, whilst the elf manifested shards of light from above, quickly firing them out as the longer they stayed in the darkness, the more they would lose in efficiency. Like a duo of mostly abject dancers, the brothers worked together to dodge the attacks, using their wings to fly around, manipting the blood within them to make absurd turns and stops any time they wished. Atsalinopalo was the easier target, for Vespertillo could embody the aspects of pretty much any beast, his way of flying and moving around could change at any time, making him even more unpredictable than his brother, but that was not to say that The Shattered was actually getting hit, whilst not as flexible, his various enhancements in machinery upon his body gave him many ways to be confusing as well. The Night Flier swooped in unexpectedly, close proximity with the sun was a bit harder to handle but sweating blood, he formed a fment of protection, engaging the Elven Light in close quarters with his bestial style ofbat. Coming up against Maiele''s more refined and structured style, well, at least it appeared more refined on the surface thanks to all her finesse, twists and twirls as well as just how she looked in general, truthfully, when she got to actually attacking, the elf was incredibly brutal and almost savage. Vespertillo''s preferred type of opponent. "Don''t fall in love mid-fight brother!" simultaneously taking a jab at Vespertillo, Atsalinopalo also attracted attention to himself, some sort of a needle sticking out of his left palm, firing out a condensed beam of pure mana. In the distance, the barrier cracked louder than ever before. Chapter 332 Fear The Night : The Evil Within Moments after the sixteen had gone to try and strike thest hit on Loimos, the king of Tamaris is standing within his throne room. Within the royal castle, most of the valiant guards and soldiers typically scouring the halls and palisades were fighting on the front, leaving only a reduced force close to the king, Agilulf Wanneck had decided to trust his generals andmandant with the safety of the barrier, he remained within his pce, using miniature golems simr to those employed to spectate the duel between the two champions, he overlooked the progress of the dead, and the failures of the living. Knowing that there was not much to be done, he could only lower his head and hope for the best, the greater majority of his forces had gone to face dire challenges and tribtions, Syklon had left just a little while ago alongside Ohrn, her disciples having been dispatched to a front already, around the king, Fioldron Ferrcrona was impatiently waiting for a good reason to join the fighting, shaking with expectation and fear, of both the enemy and what would have to be done to stand before them. There were also the three that had ties to the two heroes, he did not know much about them, but they were ready to fight for life and that was all that mattered in these treacherous times, Agilulf Wanneck had already been betrayed by the Fin-Limiers, losing the strength of The Death Dealer was a serious blow to his ns. All followers of Phanes, all death hunters, all had gone to face the undead tides head-on, even the talent holders that were not proficient inbat had gone to provide whatever assistance, the halls of the pce were silent and drowned with darkness, the light put up not helping much, he could see it, he could feel it, the dark was growing deeper, its influence expanding with every second, the light that could once hold it at bay were being consumed, deprived of their shine. Looking over at his contemporary, Agilulf Wanneck knew that the only reason the iron king had not gone off and thrown himself into a hell of pain was because his daughter was right over there, well, the merchant king could not know for certain if that was the case, but he did have eyes and the tool of pattern recognition within his arsenal, they looked exactly the same.@@novelbin@@ Except for himself, everyone was sitting on the ground, back against the wall or a pir, no matter how well they tried to hide it, everyone was nervous, their lives were on the line after all. Read chapters at My Virtual Library Empire A most gentle hand came upon the king''s shoulder. "My king, shall I enact another luck rite?" this awfully pleasant tone never failed to give him goosebumps, always sounding much closer than she was, like her mouth was right up to the air, lips brushing up against. A truly terrible sensation, but Agilulf Wanneck did not show it. "Everything that can help is wee, Miss Mnit" he responded, turning toward this woman. Lunate stood up from spot, walking with perfect casualness, no one noticed her moving, even amidst this permeating dark and silence, unsheathing her de like it was the most natural thing, moving up to her father, plunging the rapier into his chest. In the same instant, the delicate hand was thrust through the king''s back, slithering in between the bones, but finding itself stuck before being capable of grasping onto anything of substance, and before this could be resolved, two feet crashed onto the attacker''s face, a tree suddenly erupting and shoving Lunate away from where she stood. "What the hell just happened?" Yuhu, the rabbitfolk questioned after dropkicking the hell out of Mnit, one second thetter had been speaking soft words, the other she was trying to wriggle out some of the king''s organs. "Lunate?" Fioldron Ferrcrona stood up, a rapier stuck right through his chest, seemingly piercing through his heart, although it was hard to believe that he had, considering the fact that he was not dead already. The champion of salt turnedpletely inert the second she was hit by that tree, grown by the third champion that had yet to show himself anywhere, brought in by the Elven Light, Ayelene was a wood elf, and much like Yuhu and Lylya, Thanatok would have said that he was not anything to write home about. Lunate fell apart like a segmented doll, a white mist seeping out of her hollowed body, the same thing urring from Mnit''s sttered skull, shards of skulls floating amidst blood and pieces of brain like a most disgusting soup, the particles of white gathering into a single floating mass of ectosm, a crooked silhouette of translucence, many ghostly, globulous eyes sticking out from both sides, dozens of them atop one another like a most vile bouquet. Twisting in the air, two arms sticking out, four elongating, jagged fingers protruding, spread outward, face toward the high ceiling, the ghost howled, the sounds wave visible to the naked eye, shaking their minds, muddling up their thoughts for an instant, not letting them think at all about his identity, but they didn''t need to think, their bodies reacted instantly the instant he escaped from his shells, the dread, the fear. That was the presence of a gravelord, of the most elusive of all, if Nosferatu was the strongest, then he was the trickiest. K?rpersucher, Mind Scourge, the ghost lord, thanks to his particr talent for possession, had been capable of bypassing the barrier, and using this same technique, Loimos had also gone inside under the guise of Lunate, but had to leave the empty shell for the gravelord to use as well since he had no way of maintaining control over the possession whilst getting mmed with devouring life. "Mmmh¡­ I liked that suit a fair bit¡­ A delicate, most exquisite youngdy¡­ My favourite kind of flesh to slide into!" chuckling in a reverberating voice, K?rpersucher was a most misshapen phantomatic mass, without legs, and without any distinguishable body parts other than his warped head and distorted arms, he didn''t even use his limbs to attack, swinging his entire body like a il, mming into Yuhu first for the dire crime of breaking one of his best flesh suits. The ghost''s attack somehow hurt physically, throwing the rabbitfolk straight into a wall, but most importantly, it struck right up against the mind, contorting as he floated above ground he punched down toward Agilulf Wanneck, instead striking at a tree, the summoned vegetationcked a mind however, and its apparition was much too slow to take a gravelord by surprise, the ghost lord''s fist went right through, still hitting nothing as the Lylya pulled the wounded king away. "Ah, you! You will make a most fine fleshy vessel for me" pointing his cooked finger at the dancer, then bringing it to what might be his chin. "Urgh¡­ Or maybe we should keep you all as your own undeads? We''ll see how things go!" K?rpersucher was awfully gleeful, not finding anyone around that could even begin to challenge him, he may not be the strongest of the lords but his nature as a ghost meant that few could even try to fight him. And no one here knew how to fight back against a ghost. Chapter 334: Fear The Night : Handy The phantomatic soldiers of Antieeld spread out quickly, bringing their assistance to all that could still be helped, but a few fronts had been left without generals and with no more than a handful of soldiers, incapable of fighting back against the undeads, all attack forces from the dark had changedpletely, not a single front was under assault of regr foot soldiers, knights and elites were everywhere, the near entire surface of the life pyramid was covered in cracks. Those in charge of repairing the barrier could no longer follow with the damage inflicted, rumbles shook itpletely as Svaltimas was thrown against its surface, his pale blue hide, once considered nigh unbreakable, had turned red, blood and flesh exposed to the outside, marks of dire burns riddling his body, veins smouldering from the inside out, wings torn and broken, one of his hind legs ripped offpletely, pinned against the barrier. The majestic sanguine lord stood over the disgraced lord of the frozen peaks, front ws digging into the chest, grasping into bones, no way to break free without further damaging himself, Svaltimas weakly howled, the frozen roar much too weak to faze Drac. "Long and hard, you have thought, yes?" Drac himself was in a worse state than he would have imagined ending up in, Svaltimas was much stronger and resilient than expected, no doubt about it, if he refused the grace of ming blood, then it was mindless that he would serve as a soldier of eternity. "So, what is your answer, deprived lord?" Drac, Son Of Dragon, gave his ultimatom, body covered in frost, battered, wed and bitten upon, mantle of blood me covering his pale scales, melting the ice away and mending the injuries, soon, the vampire lord would be back to top condition. @@novelbin@@ The frost dragon stayed silent for a moment, raising his head with much difficulty, scorched upon the face,pletely blinded, still did he know where to pivot his neck to meet face to face with the vile, most noble gravelord of all. "Fuck you" had his bestial features allowed for it, Svaltimas would have smiled in thisst act of defiance, but even without being visible, the pure joy of it could be heard clearly, for a split moment, the draculian dragons roared below, interrupted by the sound of thest living dragon of Viridis having his chest ripped open, killing him on the spot, body lifted from its position and mmed back down, again, and again, and again. Thrown back, corpse rolling and bouncing down the barrier, Drac pushed himself back into the air, head raised high, gathering his bloody me inside of his throat, the severely damage pyramid could not hold on for much longer, and under the force of the gravelord¡¯s congealed spray of burning blood, atst, it was breached, the attack went through, crashing below. Following this, the pyramid, above and below ground, shattered into a million pieces, allowing the loyal followers of King Nitok to flood into Tamaris, obviously, the inside was submerged with life mist, but it only served as fuel for the royal miasma to spread like wildfire, the other minor pyramids were far from being as durable as the outermost one, and that was without mentioning that much less people, or none at all, would be present to repair or reinforce it, they would fall victim in no time to the tide. "That¡¯s even sooner than I had thought" Syklon looked back at the barrier crumbling down, de resting upon her shoulder, the back of it tapping against her body, then turning back to her adversary, which she hade out to face just a few moments prior, sensing the dire presence approaching, blocking this abomination¡¯s way seemed to have not helped the barrier in the least. In truth, the artsmaster did not quite understand what she was looking at, a mass of hands protruding out of what she believed was some sort of portal to a ghostly realm, Multaemanus was not a very good opponent for Syklon, as a master swordswoman, she could cut down the non-physical, but that did not mean that it was the same thing. And she did not know much about the spectre lord, or spectres in general, but knowledge on her kind was of little importance, as a gravelord, Multaemanus did not y by the rules, the hands she conjured were not a part of her true body, they were just under her control, turning ghostly or physical at will. Shooting out from the swirling darkness from which all the limbs protruded from, a giant hand came mming down upon Syklon, sliced apart before it coulde down, dissipating into a ghostly mist as many more reached for the living¡¯s petite frame. Knocking away and slicing as she rushed forward, cleaving the ground with the residual force of her blow, the undead was already gone, the darkness retracting upon itself, only to reappear elsewhere, delicate hands formed a specific pattern in an instant, forming a magic circle with naught but these limbs, mana circting in a very specific way, firing a twisting pir of pale mes, cold to the touch, cold to the soul, Syklon shed through it all the same. Multaemanus was simr to K?rpersucher, not only in their ghost-like natures, but also in the way they tended to sit back and let their fellows take the spotlight, as such, the details of her abilities were unknown to all. Uttering a word in death tongue, her mastery over the aspect of the dead¡¯snguage thatpelled those that heard it to sumb and heed the orders given, her control over it was a notch above all others, even Lady Syklon had to focus to endure the dreadful orders given, and simultaneously, speaking taking none of her attention, the spectre lord formed multiple circle¡¯s back to back, casting a spell that shrouded the ground in a wide area in the same ghost mes as before. Following by unveiling monstrous hands that sought to crush with only brutal strength. Multaemanus¡¯s hands were not simply conjured up. "Ah¡­ Little Syklon, give them to me!" The gravelord¡¯s signature hands all once belonged to people, victims of hers, she never failed to take their hands for herself, adding it to her unending collection, where they would serve as both weapons and great things to look at in her spare time. As all collectors were, she had very specific targets for her obsession, only taking the hands of women, and as Syklon discovered, it extended to beasts and monsters, wsshing out as a giant¡¯s palm came down from above, raising the ground and blowing the cold mes into a wider area. "Kill me first" "I wouldn¡¯t have it any other way¡­ I much prefer the coldness" Chapter 337: Fear The Night : Resolve "Brother¡­ I think something broke" Z whispered, hidden in darkness, which was nothing but a hiding spot considering what was going toe looking for them, but even if part of the undead king¡¯s dominion, dark was rather soothing, one could not see anything, and thus felt like nothing else could see them either. Find exclusive stories on Freewebnovel "Something you say? I almost went deaf for how loud it was! Must have been the barrier¡­ We are all fucked" Saul was not very optimistic, especially after what the brothers had done. After bearing witness to most suspicious activities, they had wanted to inform someone at first, but their guts told them to shut the hell up, a feeling that only intensified when they noticed unknown people searching for something at night, them they assumed, seemingly sanctioned by the headmaster despite being total strangers, they had taken to empty rooms of the academy and hidden like cowards for a lengthy period of time, even missing out on the call to arms against the undeads, not by choice, they were asleep like logs. Spent from never sleeping in fear of being caught at their weakest, and so, they had remained behind. "Saul¡­ We need to do something, we can¡¯t just hide until deathes to find us!" standing up, Z hit his head on some shelf. "I mean¡­" Saul thought for a moment. "...If they breached the barrier, we¡¯re all going to die anyways, so might as well look good while doing it¡­" he had wanted to deny, but he failed to envision a world where he did not end up as either a pile of bones or a rotten husk wandering the bands, so before meeting his disgraceful, he might was well attempt to look cool and heroic for a split second. "No Saul, remember our adventuring days? We did not go exploring random woods and huts with the prospect of finding nothing, no matter how obvious it was that nothing of value would be found, we went out with the certainty that we were going toe back richer than the king himself! We are going to go out there, and beat some undead ass!" He managed to find his way to a door, flinging it open, allowing some of the shine of a nearby crystal to illuminate the room, Saul staring at his brother with a distinct look of confusion. "What the hell is up with you today? You are getting me fired up as well! Fuck it! Let¡¯s go!" running out through the dimly lit hallways, grabbing equipment on their way out,unching themselves out of the academy, the capital set alight with great pyres burning with the volcano witch¡¯s me, Wanneckssa was already under assault. "Dear gods, the barrier broke just a few minutes ago at most, and how are they here already? Are the other barriers not capable of barring the way to the undeads at all?!" Indeed, only the outermost barrier had held the power to stop the advantage of the soldiers of eternity, and now that the king¡¯s dark dominion was expanding, growing in power as it consumed territory once dominated by life, it impacted upon his followers as well, the servants of oblivion were spreading deep into the territory, the forces of Tamaris could not stop them all, not even close, the living soldiers, the soldiers of Antieeld, they were already submerged, the dead were seeping through the defences and into the entirety of life¡¯sst bastion. And indeed, already were they marching upon the capital, fighting was already breaking out between the guards of the capitals and all soldiers that had remained, spearheaded by the few remaining royal guards, and as they fought to defend the founding city of their kingdom, the pce erupted with debris, the malformed shape of the ghost lord shing against the furious mechanical might of thest steam knight, burning steam erupted from all over the royal suit of armour, the gravelord meeting blows and weaving in between them, taking the fight atop the castle. Twisting his body, lifting up in the air, he howled, his cry propagating all over the capital, gripping all with fear, shaking their minds, but soon did they catch themselves and resumed fighting. Saul and Z were brought to their knees, gasping for air, simply being around a gravelord was enough to sap them of all their strength. In the minute or so they remained still, the academy went up in mes, a magical fight breaking out within, they turned, but could not wonder too long about what may be happening, the source, the reason, it did not matter, the academy and capital were thest buildings, they stood at the very end of the capital, up on high hills, and as such, close to the walls. A singr undead stepped out of the surroundings woods, dressed in ample ck clothing, standing with the distinctive poise of a seasoned fighter, already, the brothers swallowed their saliva, a mere undead warrior, and they could feel it, totally outmatched. A small cloak draped over the shoulders, this undead¡¯s facial features were hidden by the veil of a hood overflowing with darkness, only one skeletal hand sticked out of a sleeve, indeed, this eternal soldier was missing the right arm, grasping onto a longsword, of the Tochian style, unsheathing it with finesse, deliberately, dark de gleaming under the shine of nearby mana crystals, giving it a bluish hue. Both of the brothers had been trained as spearmen, consolidating their postures, pointing their only recently forged weapons toward the enemy, who was walking toward them without haste, tip of the de only barely not dragging against the ground. And then, it stopped, rising their left arm, perfectly straight along the vertical axis, grasp upon the hilt not strong, almost sluggish, holding this pose for one second exactly, most definitely a battle art, but neither of the two living could sense or decipher those, so they simply prepared themselves for impact, moving one foot gracefully, just barely above ground, without momentum, the undead warrior moved forth, de crashing into the handle of Saul¡¯s spear, nearly cleaving it, but they had been taught arts as well, and he had prepared by reinforcing his weapon, still, he was thrown back by the sheer brutal strength held behind this one swift movement. Kneeling down to take the blow, Saul felt his arms shaking, and that was not all, behind the undead, as it had flown forth, de of mana were formed by the art as well, Z thrusted at the undead¡¯s back, only to be forced to stop as the de were all fired at him, the dead, without turning, kicked back at his head. Z blocked the strikepletely by ident, having not seen iting at all. @@novelbin@@ "Dear lord, is this one of those minor lords?!" "High-Soldier" the corpse responded, hard to tell, but it was most certainly mocking them. And just as it said this, more undeads emerged from the woods. "Z, do you still believe what you said earlier?" "It was mostly bravado¡­ But you know, getting pieced up by lesser undeads after saying all of this is far from glorious¡­" "Yeah, I get what you are saying" And in this agreement, they both threw their spears and took off running like two cowards, but two very fast cowards, throwing themselves down the rather steep slope that was the entrance into the academy, rolling down without grace, no clue where they were even going, the capital was being invaded from all sides. "For eternity! Bring oblivion to the heretical living!" the high-soldier spoke in death tongue, raising its de high. Passing by, vampiric beasts of Vespertillo took the lead, leaving the others in the dust, sensing and smelling the stench of life still bustling within Wanneckssa. This would be allowed, no longer. Chapter 338: Fear The Night : Fleeting Readtest stories on Freewebnovel Thends of Tamaris were being ravaged, the blight that was death spread with virulent haste, the followers of eternity marched upon the lesser barriers, upon the poption, upon the very identity of this once peaceful country, knights and soldiers threw themselves into the fray to no avail, outmatched in every aspect, the king¡¯s miasma consumed all upon its path, creatures of the night tore apart households, none were spared. In the wake of Nitok¡¯s army, only bloody pulps, dismembered corpses, stains upon the walls and soil, empty, splintered cradles, the cries of the damned were drowned out by the stomping of the undeads, their calls for help heard by none other than the next victims. As they passed through a small city, once again, the foolish livings attempted to put up a resistance, despite the ranks of undeath reaching as far as the eye could see, they held on to a dying ember of hope, everytime, it would be snuffed without fail. A death knight garbed in stone armour stepped forth, rising its greatsword high above the head, shaped like an executioner¡¯s sword, bringing it down like the de of a guillotine onto the weak guard, no amount of third-rate shield and or armour would stop the de from cleaving through. Just as the death knight raised its de, sensing a livinging from behind, stepping over its fellows and then onto its head, pushing the stone sword away, throwing themselves forward, upside down as this living appeared within sight, de brimming. "Army sh" speaking casually, without emotion, the green sh fuelled by all the meaningless hope carved its way through the ranks of the dead, but even cleaved in half, the death knight held itself together and swung, the living still in the air, without protection, the familiar ng of a sh of des rang out. The ghostly form of Gelter had appeared in the way, parrying the strike, longsword striking with absurd weight, the upward strike dragging into the ground,unching debris and dust alongside the undead knight. "Soldier, I would rmend to avoid any sort of confrontation" Antieeld said, her features barely illuminated by light that were slowly being drained, her golden eye seemingly shining in the dark, naught by the startled guard¡¯s imagination. "We are retreating?" he asked without really knowing why. "Retreat? That¡¯s too organised, no, I order you to run for your life!" she shouted at him, sending him running, at the same time, sabre overflowing with both mana and arts, the distinct green shine of army sh clinging on to the de still, she deflected a series of arrows that came from everywhere, she did not linger on for much longer, taking her own order and running into the opposite direction. Antieeld was mostly using her mana sense to see where she was going, the regr guards and soldiers dispatched within cities and viges were could only use their eyes, the siege weapons using Rosemary¡¯s mes had all been at the border and thus been crushed, only ming towers were around and not many of them, she knew very well that probably all of the people she prevented from being killed would just dieter on, but she found it impossible to not intervene when she could, but clearly, the undeads that were opening the march were far from weak, a regr undead rank and file was superior to a soldier of Tamaris, the ones at the forefront of this invasion were many times more powerful, more intelligent, she wouldn¡¯t be surprised, if they started speaking to her. ¡¯How are they all doing?¡¯ she wondered, her friends that had gone to face vile Loimos, the champions that had gone to face the gravelords, deep down, she knew that even if they held the potential to prevail, the situation brought them to a disadvantage. @@novelbin@@ Life burning within her, the tiredness that should gue her limbs, the pain that should radiate from her left eye and the many injuries she had suffered on her way here, all were absent, she felt no fatigue even as she ran faster and longer than she should be capable of, actually running from death granted all that lived extraordinary capabilities, and after a while, maybe just a minute, probably hours of constant running and shing with undeads that could kill her in one hit, she arrived at the royal pce, the dreadful presence of the ghost lord nearly paralysing her. That was how she knew that Nosferatu hadn¡¯t even tried to impress the livings when he had appeared, he might have actually consciously held back, upon the roof of the king¡¯s castle, Fioldron Ferrcrona was fearlessly engaging K?rpersucher, the only sounding from within the armour being grunts as he swung his sword, each strike backed by his entire weight and power, and somehow, he seemed to be holding his own, at least for now. Antieeld kept moving, forcing the way through the crowded streets, her own arrival was about the same as that of the undeads, some had gotten there before her,ing from other directions, the capital was already under assault, sliding beneath the legs of some rotten orc-alike undead, shing with decayed Tochian and Pezerxian warriors, Gelter appearing at will to aid hisdy at any time. The castle had already been breached as well, leaping over the gates, themandant tried to evaluate the situation, the pce shaking, when she got to the throne room, apart from bloodstains, a corpse and signs of destruction, no one was there, the mana residues of the three, the king, Fioldron Ferrcrona, Mnit and Lunate were still here. Mnit¡¯s headless corpse was still lying there, not too far, a pile of something Antieeld could not recognise, a pile of rot and dust. She did not stay for too long, heading to a very particr room that was to be found underground, beneath the rest of the pce, there, a great density of undeads were scouring the halls, this area had been equipped rather potent barriers of life and life-infused illusions, this was where the king¡¯sst resort had been hidden, a n even Antieeld knew nothing about, it had been kept under wraps, in fear of spies and traitors, a worry that had not been unfounded. All she had been told about was a set of instructions to follow were the undeads to breach the main barrier. Evading the undeads, confused by the environment, she stealthily headed for a particr wall, feeling confident that she had followed the directions faithfully, pushing up against the wall as sheid t against it, being suddenly spun as she was taken behind the wall, the inside brightly illuminated to not alert the undead of this room¡¯s presence with their darkness awareness. Down lengthy flight of stairs, she found everyone, the talent holders, the elemental champions, Helena, Milo, Griar, the otherworlders and a few others, such as the disciples of Syklon and two young men she had never seen before, no one but Minli, the healer was unscathed, in fact, everyone seemed close to death¡¯s door. The three summons from another world had not been made to participate except for Toby with his analytic ability, but they had been deemed too weak to do anything other than wait in this room. But Antieeld¡¯s attention, first and foremost, fell upon Griar, who was unmoving. "..." "...Did you- Did you win?" she asked Minli, the only person that had been present that was not knocked out. The healer stayed silent for a moment, not looking up from what she was doing. "We failed" she hastily responded after a moment. "I see¡­" Antieeld sat down, not falling solely because Gelter was there to catch her. "Hold on Antieeld, I need to disinfect that wound" themandant did not respond, all of the adrenaline had just suddenly left her, but she refused to fall unconscious, needing to maintain the ghostly army, they might still be capable of saving some people, make a difference perhaps. A fleeting hope. Chapter 339: Fear The Night : Copper Halberd and fists shed past one another, Halbardier Pierre-Orn¨¦e and Nosferatu, Of The Foetid Blood were locked in constant exchange of blows, moving at neck breaking speeds for the smallest of thing, the eternal night filled with the gravelord¡¯sughter, for every punch hended, the halbardier wouldnd three, spinning his halberd masterfully, Nosferatu now understoodpletely where the copper knight ungodly strength and masterful martial arts wereing from. To give up power in one form was to trade the talent and future held in this aspect to another, but what if one gave it all up? All energies, the arts, special artefacts, the system in its entirety, all to focus entirely on one¡¯s simple flesh. "You are a most fine specimen, Pierre-Orn¨¦e! I bet that even the king wouldn¡¯t be capable of turning you into an undead without your authorisation!"ughing madly, Nosferatu burst forth, but bothbatants were already at their utmost, and neither was triumphing, none had the edge. The halbardier stepped back, and grabbed something wrapped in clothes and tied by abnormally tough ropes, it had been upon the back of Pierre-Orn¨¦e the entire time, and only now was he unfurling it, revealing some sort of metallic arm, with hints of bright orange, malformed and with aplete gap in the middle, still, the two parts remained together despite this void, and it was still moving. Nosferatu raised one his bushy eyebrows, the living throwing this disembodied limb in the air, the thing flying away, as if pulled somewhere else. "Oh oh¡­ Ah¡­ Was this thing hindering your movements? Now that¡¯s interesting! But really, what is this?" he rubbed his chin, intercepting a thrust of the halberd, revelling in the fact that the living was indeed faster than before, meaning that Pierre-Orn¨¦e was faster than the gravelord. Not by much, but any physical advantage over Nosferatu was an achievement worthy of being sung for generations. "Who knows? I didn¡¯t want to give that thing its arm back, but I might as well at this point-" the copper knight was interrupted, both him and the undead having their attention taken by the sudden bright orange shine in the distance. @@novelbin@@ "-But well, apparently he is called ¡¯Nameless King, First Of The Hollows¡¯, if he can get warmed up, he should be at least as strong as us" Pierre-Orn¨¦e casually mentioned, although short, he had never forgotten his encounter with the being summoned by thest of the defilers, a being smouldering with the defiler¡¯s me, the fire of heresy. Find your next read on Freewebnovel A being that held influence over the fire unlike any other, he had beaten it down before it could properly even manifest and conjured up his power, Pierre-Orn¨¦e most certainly could have destroyed it had he wanted to, it was the perfect opportunity, but instead, he had used the fact that it prioritised reconstructing itself over unleashing its full power to trap it underwater. Keeping the nameless king around for when he might be needed, which was right now. Like a profaned shooting star, a stream of condensed mes crashed in between the gravelord and champion. ¡¯This was quicker than I imagined¡¯ the copper knight thought, the Nameless King rising from a crater of heretical mes rose his coiled sword high, turning toward Pierre-Orn¨¦e, and then Nosferatu, directing his de at the both of them, but the living was not nning on taking part, sending forth of burst of wind, aiming to slip away ande to the help of his fellows. ¡¯Would have been too easy¡­¡¯ he shook his head, a curtain of defiling mes rose, epassing a wide area, the First Of The Hollows was not allowing anyone to leave, Pierre-Orn¨¦e vowed upon his pledge. The veil of mes appeared like a tower from a distance, its profaned shine capable of piercing through the night, allowing all to see it as the pir stretched out far into the sky, but few stopped to stare at it. Bough was focused on trying to squash the ghoul lord, the little thing with messed up limbs that twisted in every direction had even seemingly told the minor lords to go on their ways, leaving Vwoldtnir to take care of the strongest living shield, chest and ribs split open, the gravelord¡¯s inner light exploded outward multiple times consecutively, most people would be blinded forever by only one, but Bough was not most people, he was a copper knight that served alongside Pierre-Orn¨¦e as a personal knight of his majesty Agilulf Wanneck, if the halbardier was the spear, then he would be the shield. Striking his chest, mming his shield into the ground, Bough leapt into the air, mming down with all of his weight, lifting the soil and the gravelord by the same asion, swinging his shield, t side first, he stirred the winds, attempting to take the ghoul into the currents, but Vwoldtnir used his four arms to grasp onto pieces of the earth that had been risen, using them as leverage to send his small stature spinning through the winds,nding right onto the shield as it was swung, the lord¡¯s ws managing to dig into the copper-coloured shield. Crawling up its surface, climbing onto the very top of it right as Bough mmed the front into the ground, leaping forth, Vwoldtnir wrapped all four arms around the knight¡¯s helm, charging up his blinding light at point nk. "Gehahah! Try me little ghoul!" rather than trying to wrench the gravelord off, he closed his eyes, not very effective against the gravelord¡¯s light, but better than nothing, Bough trusted in his defences, and instead held his shield with both hands, headbutting it, the undead right in between. The lightshow was apanied by most horrendous music, Vwoldtnir¡¯s body was rtively feeblepared to other gravelords, but he was built to dig and burrow, he was inimaginable flexible and malleable, so he took the risk and continuously erupted with his light as he was being battered, until eventually, Bough grabbed the ghoul lord and threw him away, grasping at his helm, his eyes bloodshot, the veins red and clearly visible, some of them having already ruptured and painted the scleras with stains of crimson. But his sight was not yet lost, his extraordinary constitution was to be praised, without much dy, he went right back to attack, dropping on top of the gravelord, sensing a distinctck of crushing, the ghoul having burrowed right into the ground, dropping below ground like it was water, remerging below Bough¡¯s right foot grabbing onto it, and lifting. Managing to pick the shieldmaster off the ground for a brief moment, the living reacting predictably, stomping down to break free and step right on the ground, but this time, the ground gave in, within less than a second, Vwoldtnir had carved an underground system that would preciselye crashing down if Bough stomped. The copper knight was free falling. Chapter 343 Fear The Night : Loyalty "Little ghoul¡­ Where are you?" Bough spoke in his usual tone, giggling like a schoolgirl as he held up the terrific weight of tons of earth and stone bearing down on him, Vwoldtnir had not attempted anything fancy, and done the usual thing he always did when fighting anything, which was not something he did very often even though he was a gravelord. He buried Bough alive, piling up stone and dirt on top of him, but the shieldmaster was not giving in, even managing to lift his shield up even as more and more weight was stacking up, groaning alongside his shield, ignoring the ghoul lord as he crawled in front of his visor once more, repeatedly erupting with his blinding light, ribs squirming, the teeth inside the throat grinding against one another. The copper knight''s eyes felt like they were on the verge of rupturing, and he took it as a challenge, not paying his agonising arms any heed, Bough free one of his hands, holding up the weight with a single one for multiple seconds, not giving in as he pried Vwoldtnir off of his face, the lord''s potent ws digging into the nigh unbreakable suit of armour.@@novelbin@@ Once again, the knight''s eyes and sight were preserved, throwing the ghoul away, feeling invigorated by the even greater pain radiating from his ocr globes which dripped down his face, down onto the neck, deep into his brain, numbing his senses, his thoughts, but it was not a problem, Bough''s was a simple man with simple needs and intents, even if smarter than he might let on, muddling his mind could not impede upon his will, which was to crush, to stomp, to stampede, to pulverise the enemies he was pointed to. And with naught but his incessant wish to prevail using brute force, he gave another push, lifting the rocks and dirt in the air, bending his knees, jumping up against the debris, managing to st through and get his feet back above ground, finding the previously filled to the brim battlefieldpletely empty, even without being capable of seeing anything, Bough could tell that all undeads had marched into Tamaris, only those remaining within the forts and other constructions nearby were left around, apart from them, Bough was left alone with the ghoul lord. Something warm was travelling over his arms, his feet and ankles felt cold, all results of his struggle moments ago, his muscles had been strained to their limits, eyes sore and bulging out of their sockets, the shieldmaster stood tall still, Vwoldtnir emerging from the ground a small distance away, the gravelord was basically unhurt however, his nimble body resistant to crushing and shock, not to mention that like all undead lords, he could easily regenerate any damage. Bough was not a treasure trove of tricks, he carried a big and heavy shield, wore a big and heavy armour, and that was pretty much all, itplemented his special constitution created through an inborn ability, he was meant to take all damage and fight simrly sized adversaries. None of the gravelords were good opponents for him, all were fast, all were powerful, Vwoldtnir was perhaps one of the worst options however, which was most certainly why he was there in the first ce, the ghoul lord had been supposed to oversee the progress of the underground assault, but it had gone exceptionally well, so the lord had emerged and freed the Ir''Houwl and Ourlon from their duties. Diving into the solid soil, basically swimming through, he engaged in a hit and run tactic, the shieldmaster had to be careful to not be trapped underground again, he would most certainly not manage to brute force his way out again, using his shield as a shovel, flinging rocks at high speeds. The ghoul twisting his body in ways that would make a contortionist jealous, avoiding all attacks, ws digging into the ever-regrowing suit of armour, never managing to draw blood, the flesh beneath was somehow even tougher than the armour and refused to bleed even when damage was inflicted. ''Mmmmh¡­ That is definitely my loss¡­'' giggling to himself, he drove one knee against the ground, a loud m reverberating as he brought his right fist in front of his face. Vowing upon his pledge to Agilulf Wanneck, once called Roitelet,monly referred to as Merchant King, the Tamarisian king was known to his two most faithful knights as the Copper King, and once, the original copper knight, although bearing his colours, neither Bough nor Pierre-Orn¨¦e had followed in his footsteps. But when necessary, they could call upon their oath, and if their loyalty was sufficient, the pledge shall respond. The gravelord moved back, sensing somethinging and indeed, from high above, without any of the usual signs of one, a bolt of lightning fell from above, without thunder, coated the armour and shield of copper with its sparks, a mantle of electricity that stimted the damaged muscles of the shieldmaster. "Ah! You want my head little ghoul?! Then im it!" stomping the ground, a circle of lightning spreading outward, Bough''s every attribute were enhanced, for how long, even he did not know, nor did he care, mming repeatedly into the ground, sparks of electricity following every single attack. The mantle coating Bough prevented Vwoldtnir fromtching onto him. Even from a great distance, the shieldmaster''s jubtion could be clearly heard, but it did not reach as far as the royal capital, the undeads wereying siege upon it, scaling or flying over, trying to break through the sturdy gates, Ir''Houwl stepped inside, being the first minor lord to make it here, the rest overseeing the progress of troops, Ourlon, who should have been standing beside her had stopped a while back. Skeletal hand upon the hilt of his de, sword still sheathed, he faced a warrior in much the same pose, looking straight at one another. "I shall honour this warrior''s want for a duel" he had said to Ir''Houwl, she had wanted to dissuade him but he had no specific orders at the moment, so there was no making him budge from a duel between another Tochian. The undead swordsman thanked Vwoldtnir in his fossilised heart, he stood face to face with Ohrn, in this crushed expanse, around themid the remains of a small vige, the cadavers of its inhabitant already consumed by the royal miasma. Fingers tapping upon the handles of their weapons, the skeleton spoke first. "I am Ourlon, in the name of King Nitok, my de I wield" he presented himself, showing that he did hold some respect for his adversary. The elder''s gaze did not shift. "I am Ohrn, in the name of Lady Syklon, my de I wield" he reciprocated. "So you are a student of hers?" "A follower rather, I am not skilled enough to pretend to be one of her pupils" "Really now?" They exchanged a few words, remaining perfectly still. "Are you not going to use your signature art, Sir Ourlon?" "Duel of true skill? That is only for fights I know I couldn''t win otherwise, and besides, it is no longer my signature art¡­ I did not have the asion of disying it against a proper opponent for a long time, don''t worry, I won''t do anything petty like revealing its name or nature¡­" "...Let us demonstrate our de skills, and our arts!" And with this, both moved from their position, appearing where their opponent had just stood a moment ago, back turned to one another, a strand of Ourlon''s ancient ck hair fell to the ground. A light cut appeared upon Ohrn''s arm, frozen for an instant, he fell to one knee, using his de to support himself as he caught his breath. He was fine. "I would not find it petty at all actually" the elder smirked at the undead, who chuckled for a moment. "What a brazen old man, I don''t usually enjoy talking during a fight, but it is only a matter of entertainment, I suppose¡­ Very well, I was able of deciphering your art myself, so let me tell you about the creation born out of my oath to Luminary Nitok" extending his sword arm to the side, showing his chipped, pale de in its full glory. "I call it, ''Pseudo-Death de'', every strike itnd, will cause the living to die for a split instant, so fast that it takes no toll upon the body in fact, but as you can attest, it is rather disorientating, and to boot, if I sh the same living enough time, no matter the time in between each individual attacks, they will die for good no matter the state of their body" Ourlon graciously exined, but it was not like their was a good counter, the only way to avoid it was to not get hit at all. Both got back into position, des now out of their sheath, once more, they shed. Ohrn trying to decipher the conditions required for the undead''s art to be effective, simply striking was much too less for such a potent reward, Ourlon simply needed to get into position to strike again after one sh to keep the enemy perpetually defenceless, or to simplynd a mortal wound immediately. Sparks flew, and so did the elder''s blood, barely scratched. ''Lady Syklon¡­'' Chapter 344 Fear The Night : All-Out Raising his halberd aloft, Pierre-Orn¨¦e found himself to be standing at the point of a triangle formed of only incredibly powerful beings, each of them radiating a domineering presence, capable of crushing the wills and bodies of those lesser than themselves. Himself, Halbardier Pierre-orn¨¦e, who had given up everything in the pursuit of what he viewed as the mightiest of powers, one''s own self. The strongest gravelord, Nosferatu, Of The Foetid Blood, who had done the opposite, taking everything he could, stacking it all using his mastery of his blood, bringing it all together, managing to make a randomly urring event submit to his will. The mysterious being of heresy, the one called, Nameless King, First Of The Hollows, an empty shell, the perfect vessel and thus capable of wielding the defiler''s me without drawbacks, the furnace that was his chest was now fully alit, nonsensical contradictory form zing with fire that could prove fatal to anyone. Lightning came striking down, infusing and coated the copper knight''s weapon and armour, with finesse and style, the nameless one held out his sword-holding arm straight, a low hum, words perhaps, softly emanating from within what appeared to be the head, anguage known only to the hollow. Nosferatu looked at his two adversaries preparing to go all out, a saucy smile upon his visage, showing his many pointy teeth, running his hands over his perfectly bald head, he had nothing fancy to pull out himself, and unlike Pierre-Orn¨¦e, he did not few this fight as a three-way, it was a two on one, for he was not going to let either be free of his crushing blows. The hollow was not alive, as in he did not possess life force, but he was not undead either, he was thus an enemy, one that could not be made to follow the king''s orders, grabbing his own mantle, infused with dust, he ripped it off into an explosion the filthy powder, revealing his muscr body in its full glory to the unwilling adversaries. This was his way of demonstrating that he too, was ready to go all-out, his body bulging as the corrosive blood circted at wild speeds, arms spreading. "Enough exposition! All who oppose death''s rightful throne, shall meet with it at the bottom of oblivion, shorn of all is and will be, in simpler terms : The two of you are going to die, show some solidarity as impure creatures, and try to take me down in tandem!" provoking his opponents. Fire and sword, halberd with winds and lightning, all things the gravelord could handle, it was not a matter of skill, it was not a matter of strength, it was all a matter of time. ''Let''s start by taking away your ws and fangs¡­'' the pir of heretical mes shuddered, expanding at odd times, lightning crackling and fire cackling, bones cracking under the pressure of the very muscles that wrapped them. Both copper knights called upon the grace of lightning, as Storm Of de faced off with the spectre lord''s true form, the swordmaster tried to count the total amount of arms, but the number always grewrger, Multeamanus''s body was ethereal, her countless limbs could phase through one another and did not need to be logically ced against the sides of her body. Syklon did not need to exchange blows to know the gravelord''s dark body was much like the portals of swirling darkness, telling her that she could probably teleport around just like they could, and that her whole body was thus a portal in of itself. ''Then-'' the undead lord chuckled with one hand in front of the lower portion of her face, it was nothing but smooth darkness where a mouth would typically be. "I see you looking around littledy! Did you think you would find my hand collection here? Sorry to disappoint, but it''s all safely hidden in my private pocket~" sheughed again as Syklon scowled. Walking forward a few more steps, swaying her hips and swinging her tail, Multaemanus leaned forward to meet the living to her height. "Say Syklon, do you like hands too?" she asked in a low tone, a de soon passing right through her head, leaving no damage, the swordswoman frowning, as she realised that the regr art meant to sh non-physical beings was falling short against the lord''s true body, following with raging dome of des, the spectre parrying the many shes with her abundance of hands, only moving out of the way when Syklon put more force behind her attack,unching a flying sh through the temple, leaving a big gash at the very end of it. Manifesting first from a small dot of darkness, quickly unfurling and spinning back in the previous form, even keeping hold onto the pale pieces of clothing, which might infer that it was not clothes at all and just bits of her body that were a different colour. She appeared right next to the damage.@@novelbin@@ "Was that really necessary now? You aren''t going to defeat me anyways, you would have to drag me out of here to do so anyways, I don''t own any domain ability or a zone, but this realm is pretty much my house, why don''t we¡­ Sit down and have a nice chat with me instead-" the living kindly declined with her sword, leaving a sh on the undead''s face for a moment before it was closed. Staying silent for a moment as more shes came for her, Multeamanus vanished from her spot, immediately appearing next to Syklon, grabbing her by the face, throwing her out of the temple, teleporting again, twisting her arms into a particr formation, a rain of ghost me falling from the bleak sky above. Catching small bits of the cold fire with her hands, the spectre coated them with the ming coldness. Even with simple steps, the undead was quick to get close, pping every burning hands in unison,unching a veil of mes, gracefully dancing through, parrying the shes aimed at her, at least most of them, when it came to sheer speed and power, the living had her beaten. Emerging from the stomach area, a massive, four-fingered hand erupted, not remaining stuck to the lord, throwing itself forward, split into two parts, moving her de through the air, Syklon gathered the cold mes, dispersing them harmlessly, there was no point in throwing it back at the spectre. Holding her posture for an instant, the living channelled more arts, infusing her de with life thanks to their usage, Multaemanus had been wondering why the little swordswoman had not done so from the start, but now she knew exactly why, Syklon had been keeping it under wraps until she was certain it would be effective, and also because she was not messing around with the sort of arts that would be used in this fight, consuming a great deal of her own life force to deeply imbue her de and all of her future arts. Grabbing the hilt with both hands, pulling into opposite directions, manifesting a second de, carrying the same arts as the first one. Swirling darkness appeared all around, the ghostly spirits in a wide area disappearing from view, presumably wanting to not be caught in the crossfire. Countless hands from Multaemanus''s collection manifested, an enormous mass of bending dark covered the sky, two hands covered in sparks of lightning appeared behind the lord. "A certain skeleton, with greatly reflective metallic bones, once yed an idiot god, I only like the hands of women, but it would be stupid to not take advantage of divine hands, would it not?" arching her back as pieces of her collection crowded as far as the eye could see. "Killing an idiot is nothing to write home about" Chapter 347: Fear The Night : Take The Hand "How long¡­? How long have we been there for?" asking in between heavy breaths, Antieeld realised that she had no idea just how long she had been struggling against sleep for, helped in this endeavour by regrly urring shakes and booms echoing throughout the royal pce, signs of dreadful battle, that had ended after a nearly constant series of heavy strikes, or what she believed to have been strikes. @@novelbin@@ All had ceased now, only the distant echoes of footsteps could be heard, like insects crawling within the walls, the undeads were not easily fooled, the maze created in secrecy in the undergrounds of the royal castle told them that something was to be found here, stronger corpses, less easily affected by the defence mechanisms put into ce must have arrived, dismantling all, searching for what was hidden. Which was the youths, and also other rooms, where citizens had been taken secretly, just before the beginning of thest battle, as the duel between Thanatok and Loimos had been raging on, a bet to be sure, as no one could be certain who might be spies, but it was a risk the king was willing to take, Wanneck had never believed strongly in the chances of life, but his champions and warriors, they absolutely did, and if they did not, they would have never given up the chance to defend thest livingnds of Viridis, it went beyond all else, few saw running away as an option, and even if it had been presented to them, refused it would have been. The copper king might have not trusted in victory, but he too would remain in ce as the undeads stormed his nation, and even as heyed in a pool of his own blood, mixed with that of those who had stood alongside him, Agilulf Wanneck did not regret his decision. Below, Antieeld could sense the troops being crushed, or rather, that they had definitely been crushed already, fights were breaking out in the hallways nearby, it seemed like another group was heading for this secret room, managing to force their way through undeads confused by the environments, luck was on their side, managing to slip inside unseen. Antieeld¡¯s attention was focused on the vibrant orb partly tucked away into the wall, at the very end of brightly lit room, looking at herself next, she realised that Minli had already tended to her every wound, wrapping her body and face with bandages dipped in healing water, and since the little healer was thorough, themandant had been basically made into a mummy, but humid. Not paying attention to her fellowsying on the ground, or the new arrivals, which turned out to be the leaders of the death hunters alongside some of their followers, instead, she approached the orb, this was the greatest discovery made during the race to get anything on the undeads, this was basically the only thing that qualified as such, and even Antieeld did not know what it was for, only that it could be activated by simply touching it, she could infer that it was a mean of escape. ¡¯Teleportation to another continent?¡¯ she wondered, her thoughts interrupted as she felt like something physically constricted her throat, everyone reacted to it, even those deeply unconscious. Enjoy new tales from NovelBin.C?m "What is this?!" blurted out Minli, who had already begun tending to the newly arrived death hunters, although unhurt, she had not stopped at all for hours now, stopping the blood loss upon grievous wounds, closing shes and gashes, cing bones on the right tracks, performing surgical operations, signs of fatigue upon her face vanished, the source of this difort was still far, marching through the gates of the capital, having suddenly appeared, presence irradiating like a malevolent sun. Walking into Wanneckssa, surrounded by his subordinates, Nitok, Prince Of Death, walked upon conquerednds, logically imed after a confrontation that hadsted for nearly an entire day, an expeditive invasion that could only be qualified as exceptional, only below the domination of the rest of Viridis, some obstacles had been great. Taking all of thends under his dominion, King Nitok¡¯s influence soared, walking into the pce¡¯s throne room, the ceiling, the pirs, the throne, all were in ruins, K?rpersucher was already there, wearing Lylya¡¯s body as his, bowing to his king, presenting the corpses of those that opposed him, the ghost lord may have gone overboard, only keeping Agilulf Wanneck alive, if only barely. Drac was the only other gravelord present, the rest being a bit busy at the moment still. "How fareth it?" asked the king, the vampire lord nodding his head, Drac¡¯s refined appearance and immacte clothing made it hard to believe that he had engaged in brutalbat against Svaltimas. "Total victory, my king" he assured, bowing his head as Nitok moved before the copper king, the living was kneeling upon the ground, ck and pale, tapping his dark staff upon the defeated ruler¡¯s head, King Nitok extended death¡¯s kindness upon him and healed his wounds, Agilulf Wanneck opening his eyes wide open, suddenly recovering all attention. "Living, thou hast fought well, until now" sockets zing with dark mes, extending his free hand toward him. "Take mine hand, spare thy people pain, shun the well of oblivion, squander not love for ire¡­" "...Thou art king, make the right choice" Agilulf Wanneck sighed wearily, standing up before the king of the dead, his throne room squirming with undeads, hisnds being taken apart and changed under the watchful eyes of the minor lords, the loss of Tamaris was set in stone, there was no changing this fact. "I take it that both options lead to simr oues, yes?" "Simr... Simr... They art as night and eternal night, utterly different, mine friend! But I do suppose that it may seem thus to thee, behold thus: Pain, or an eternity ofpassion!" King Nitok spread his arms wide, quickly extending his hand again, beckoning for the living to take it. "...Very well¡­" he kept himself from making any otherments, reaching for the skeleton¡¯s hand shakily, expecting everything to disappear the moment he did so, he hesitation was palpable, but Nitok did not budge at all, letting Wanneck take his time, until finally, their palms touched. The moment it happened, all turned dark for the king, a sight of oblivion and the sensation of another¡¯s hand upon his, not of the Prince Of Death, something smoother, pleasant, alluring, a hand one would never want to let go off, but just as the feeling settled in, imprinting upon his mind, it was gone and only the King¡¯s skeletal limb remained. "Didst thou feel it? Death is gentle and kind" as he spoke, Nitok stared directly through the ground, pointing for his forces to go fetch the remaining living, hiding beneath, but naught could be done, all had vanished in the next instant. Viridis was now the continent of the undead, without anyone, or anything to oppose it, it was the end of something, but also the beginning. Without forces to challenge them, they could grow stronger, andy siege upon all else in peace. It would soon be time for death¡¯s champion to unleash war, conquest, famine and pestilence. Chapter 348: Fear The Night : Unseen Hand The ethereal soil, it was covered in gashes that no longer managed to be closed in a brief instant, covered by damages from various elements, ghost me smouldering all around, rubbing his face, Syklon saw crimson upon her pale skin, meanwhile, using her endless hands, Multaemanus put her upper body back on the lower, seamlessly reconnecting them. The spectre¡¯s featureless visage turning to the side, a wave of dread mming into the living, a ssh of refreshing cold washing over the undead, turning back to the swordswoman, her tone ted. "Tamaris has fallen, atst¡­ Atst! Viridis is ours, I bet that the miasma outside would now be capable of even picking you apart, Syklon" the mere act of sensing her king¡¯s presence made all possible remnants of damage vanish into thin air, the Prince Of Death¡¯s dominion could no longer be challenged, the entire continent was his, from the depths of the world to the heights of the skies, all was undead territory, all was suffused with miasma, the living¡¯s presence upon this continental piece of earth would no longer be tolerated. All of Syklon¡¯s efforts had been run back, discarding the second de she had conjured, gripping the true de with both hands, taking up an offensive stance, hilt close to the left side of her face, edge upward, tip pointing straight at the enemy. Your journey continues with NovelBin.C?m "Onest time" she ushered in a tone high enough for the gravelord to hear clearly, unfurling an uncountable amounts of arms, all the same shadowy texture, the ethereal capable of interacting with the physical, the arms could extend and bend at will, the portals of swirling darkness were nowhere to be seen, none of her collected hands seemed ready to burst out of the body either. Syklon had tried countless arts already, but Multaemanus did not of have any easily exploitable weaknesses apart from life force, and even then, it was not exceptionally efficient, as a gravelord, life force pulled through arts was not anything to be worried about, facing great undeads was always a chore, keeping them down in any capacity was pretty much impossible under advantageous circumstances, so with the backing of their king, of his eternal night and the royal miasma, they were basically fighting with a home advantage. And as powerful as Syklon was, she had been pitted, most certainly intentionally, against the spectre lord of all gravelords, elusive, and even her true body was not an easy affair to deal with considered that it was not physical, and since she had already expanded stamina and been injured whilst her opponent was without even the slightest of cuts now. Lunging forward, her de stabbed through one hand, then another, two more, four more, so many that the de disappearing within the shadowy limbs, still, Storm Of de pushed on, the sword¡¯s reach extending, more hands stacking atop of it, slowing down the swordmaster¡¯s charge, but not enough, the tip of the sword nearly reaching up against the gravelord¡¯s face, grazing it. Syklon¡¯s was pouring everything into this potentially finishing blow, twisting her de, tearing all of the stacked up limbs apart, charging through the veil of shredded phantomatic limbs, aiming for the spectre¡¯s neck, de zing with nearly all the living had to offer, each and every limb that came her way were destroyed, eyes wide open, she watched intently as she neared her objective, perhaps, with some luck, striking the neck with such a potent, life-infused art would be enough to put Multaemanus down, with a sick crunch, all was stopped right in its track, the living¡¯s de only cutting halfway through the lord¡¯s thin, and gentle neck. A dark hand tightened its grip upon Syklon, like a child ying with a puppet, it had its hold over her entire body save her head, and her arm that was sticking out in between two fingers, the limb that extended from this hand came from behind the spectre, just at the end of her back. ¡¯That damned tail¡­¡¯ turns out it was especially subject to shifting its size and length, unlike the rest of the arms that could only extend and nothing else. "Nice try Syklon, one needs to be decisive when dealing with me, or any of mypatriots, we can not truly be chipped away at, we always win the battles of attrition" the hand squeezed harder, bringing the living face to face with the undead. "Sweet Syklon¡­ You were truly blessed, master of the arts and adorable¡­ And these hands! How soft, how tender" her face split open, revealing another hand, softly grabbing the living¡¯s chin, caressing the soft features. "It would be a shame to see all of this rotten away, don¡¯t you agree? Aah, but you are strong, you¡¯ll get to choose what kind of undead you be, I am certain that you can be a gravelord too with some time" Syklon tried to force the de through the rest of Multaemanus¡¯s neck, to no avail, she had no strength left to do anything, no arts were activating. @@novelbin@@ "...Unless you are willing to give me your hands, pretty please?" the spectre tilted her head, presumably to appear more convincing. "Just take me to your king and ask him" Syklon replied without emotion. "Very well" Far away, the copper knights own confrontations were soon toe to their conclusion as well, and yet, the shes were raging stronger than ever, the hollow¡¯s de was snapped in two by a strike of Nosferatu¡¯s fist, sent flying through the air but quickly caught by Pierre-Orn¨¦e, swinging his halberd like a club,unching it back straight through the vampire¡¯s back, heretical mes and lightning intertwined, without showing reaction, Nosferatu headbutted the Nameless King, caving his iron-like head inward. The living already upon him against, sting his head away, only for it to immediately regrow, and without even slowing down his counterattack, striking Pierre-Orn¨¦e right in the chest, lowering down and grabbing a hold of the copper knight¡¯s ankle, swinging him right at the approaching hollow. The Nameless King turned his attention to the pir of mes, which was trapping his enemies, a disturbance urred, two figures bursting in. "Pierre-Orn¨¦e! Need a hand?!" Boughughed gleefully, throwing the ghoul lord of his shield, mes of defilement hanging upon both of their bodies, neither seemed to be feeling the strain of its heresy just yet. "I wouldn¡¯t say no" calmly responded the halbardier, both of the knights of copper were severely beaten down, and yet, their armours and bodies held on as they joined up, lightning dancing atop. Meanwhile, the two gravelords also regrouped. Both also looking rather rough, Nosferatu had willfully torn his own mantle off, his chest bearing a nasty burn mark that was not easily going away, some scars proof that his oundish regeneration was in need of some repose, the same went for Vwoldtnir, his small stature covered in the marks of lightning, and having been crushed a few times, though, both of them were still in their peak condition. The ghoul pointed at the elephant in the room, being the fifth character that clearly did not belong. Nosferatu did not really answer this question, instead sharing a little n he had juste up with now that Vwoldtnir was with him. "Then let us engage in jolly cooperation, you reckon this is wise?" the ghoul lord asked as he stood up on his hind arms. "I reckon it is stupidly dangerous, but will absolutely grant us victory" responded the vampire, both could sense that their king had walked upon the capital just moments ago, but the refreshing wave that should havee with it was not reaching them, the Nameless King¡¯s tower of mes getting in the way. "Let us go then" and with this, both the undeads moved swiftly. Chapter 350 Undead Balade The king''s words had been sinct, orders had been given, the first being to secure the borders of the continent, a herculean task to most, but something that would be done in the matters of a few days by the maniac corpses that were in charge of building things, a few days to aplish the objective, they would inevitably keep going until it was impossible or if they were tasked to focus on something else. Building crews were certainly the busiest out of all the castes of the undead legion, warriors and soldiers would be remaining idle for a while, as all could have guessed, Nitok''s first objective upon finally conquering the entire continent, was to secure and make it an imprable fortress, the continental fortress, Tokstrom. Its walls were set to reach higher than any other, but it was far from the only security measure that would be put in ce, Artencil was in charge of the defence, and with the enthusiasm of the workers and architects, all ideas would be made possible. Apart from Vespertillo, who was still to dominate the seas, most gravelords were left to wait until an assault upon another continent was dered, and surely, it would not take too long. Your next chapter awaits on My Virtual Library Empire "What have you been ordered to do, Mister Champion?" Loimos was moving around with a very active follower that tended to grappled upon him at odd timings, One was awfully happy to be seeing Loimos in the rotten flesh again, thest few times had been when he had been wearing Lunate as a suit, which was weird to see, knowing that the living before you was actually piloted by the least expressive corpse to ever exist was a more than a little unnerving.@@novelbin@@ "I am to cleanse nearby inds" he responded, stepping into a room that smelled of imminent death. Unlit as was nearly all of Viridis now, three beds had been positioned against the wall directly in front of the entrance, the sheets unstained by blood, as the fabric greedily drank it all as soon as it fell. "As you can see, they are doing fairly well" said the vampire, looking at her three fellows of Aliz¨¦e nearly drained of all their life. "Screw off One! This is nearly unbearable, Imyre is fully hallucinating dunes of sand or whatever, and Irbyw is eating the bed, this is terrible" no longer bothering with the code names, Three, or rather, Saliana was the only one that seemed to have her wits, still clutching her beloved green de. "All can be resolved, clutch the dark crystal I have gifted you" Loimos instructed, even though it was meant as simple words, the champion''s words were to be followed by the lesser, and so, even the other two that could not have possibly understood what he was saying, followed through. Reaching for the crystals, squeezing them within their palms, Loimos presents had once seemed tough, but here, they crumbled into dust with ease, unleashing what was kept in stasis within, at first, those crystals had been naught but crystallisation of his death force, but as he had progressed, so did they, as death''s chosen champion, the crystals could be held in great estimation, especially considering that the worshippers of death had decided that he was their patron saint, and were collective every little thing that was a part of him, or was rted to him to keep as reliques, in fact, a few of them were following him around at all times, the priestesses in particr for some certainly obscure reasons that One found most challenging to deal with. The simple fact that the crystal were crushed so easily was a good sign, those gifted with such an item were those that Loimos had deemed worthy of entering undeath, for the members of Aliz¨¦e, it was One who had asked him to extend his kindness forward, and since One, in spite of the energetic personality, was a dedicated undead, he had decided to trust her judgement. Lo and behold, it all worked out perfectly, the three livings were turned into appropriate undeads by Loimos''s festering death, the dark miasma that had been left out of this room was allowed in, overflowing and feeding the new undeads with the rich death contained within. "Oh¡­ Oh my, that feels good, whoa" Saliana rolled out of blood-devouring bed, her skin having turned pale blue in the matter of a second, a bit on contrast to her trusty green de, but she did not seem to care about the aesthetics, already testing out her swings, already loving the utterck of tiredness, the absolute control over the strength exerted, the dream of all warriors. The same went for Imyre, but not for the resident spider woman, who had been logically turned into a ghoul, although she had not changed much physically, or in any other aspect for that matter, she was still hungry for flesh, and was thus munching on One. "Will you take us with you to cleanse those inds?" asked the vampire, knowing that Loimos could very well do it all by himself. "Certainly, but not just yet" he responded, making a swift turn and leaving the room, having to bend forward to not hit the top of the doorway, this area had definitely been built with the smaller folks in mind, and Loimos was just over two meter tall now. Since One had not been expecting an affirmative response, and this fact was visible on her face, Loimos borated before she could barrage him with more questions, although King Nitok had not given him this mission, the champion had free reign to do whatever he wanted, the inds were an objective that was not urgent, and the pure undead was nning on making use of those living-infestednds, untouched by the grace of death. The rotten skeleton had much on his te, he was the champion of the empire, the patron saint of the worshippers of death, leader of the minor lords and set to be the vanguard once more when the time came to pay a friendly visit to the other continents. Loimos was nning on creating his own striking and repressive forces, Loimosian soldiers and knights of some sort, not only would it allow him to n many things with better uracy if he trained his own warriors, it would reinforce the ranks of the dead as a whole, not to mention that he had very precise ideas as to what those ''warriors of Loimos'' would be trained for. One listened attentively to every single aspect of his concept idea, as though he was preaching from a gospel. "But Loimos, how long will all of this take? The invasions will happen in a year at most, right?" Saliana and the rest of Aliz¨¦e had followed after them, the swordswoman itching to put her de to the test again, especially against a certain red-haired girl. "At least five years, a decade at most" he casually answered, without tone as per usual, not caring, perhaps not even noticing that his words stung the battle-junky. He just kept going, meaning to check up on a few things before getting to work. Chapter 352 Evening There once was a mother, dejected and without recourse other than faith, cry she did, to no avail, tears were meaningless, only serving to moisten the freshly upturned grave.@@novelbin@@ O, how small of a grave it was, soon had this nascent soul departed- ''Too soon, toote¡­ Who knows?'' "O, brightdy, why refute this child?" asked the woman "O, paledy, why take this child?'' Naught but silence was present to respond, but ask she kept, begging for her child to be returned. Find your next read at My Virtual Library Empire ''One child, two children, your vige, the whole region¡­ They all must pass eventually, your child is but ahead of them¡­'' Indeed, no one wished to answer her prayers, but silence was not taken as a refusal, nothing but the absence of approval, yet. "O, brightdy, can you hear me?" No one appeared. Silence once more, the grave lull was not the domain of the bright. "O, paledy, can you hear me?" And silence, spoke back. "Yes, my child" no one was there, yet, here she was, thedy of pale, cascade of dark upon her back. Here and not, physical nothing, the lightless dark, the pure silence- Oblivion. "O, paledy, please spare my child" asked the mother, demanding the misborn back. "Spare?" the paleness leaned forward, arched backward, depth of the eyes giving directly into oblivion. "Spare you say? Do you think death is a punishment? That the end of one''s life is a tragedy? Is there sin in eternal repose? In eternity itself? You vibrant lot are all of a piece¡­ Seeking life eternal, yet scourge truest of infinity?" The mother closed her eyes, lowering her head. Silence befell stronger than ever before, no more was sound. Laying eyes upon the paledy again, she was no longer paying attention to the mother, looking upon the paleness of her own hands. "Aah¡­ this one could have barely realised it, There is an I, to me there is a thing, an existence, but I am¡­ Here I am, I exist, I think, I act, that is a first..." thedy''s gaze turned to the mother once more. "In ce of the bright, allow me" One step forward, many more traversed. "Allow me to help, all shall experience the bliss of eternal death, all shall meet my embrace eventually, so just this once, I will allow it, have your spawnling back, watch him grow weary, have him watch grow weary, and smile, when you are liberated from my sister''s domain¡­" The paledy enacted death''s utmost trait, and reanimated the baby, fetching his soul, his mind, all that made him the individual, the one destined to be. She extended her tenderpassion, horror gripping the mother, handed a child drained of all colours, molten with putrescence, one devoid of life, filled with death. Thus, the paledy discovered joy, as the first undead, the first of her people, was given back to his mother, the parent was trembling. Trembling with fearful joy. She too, was touched by death''s kindness. _____________ "Ouch!" a man scraped his toenails against a protruding pebbles, the devilish thing not budging the entire ordeal, bringing most sweet agony upon him as he fell forward, face stering into the soft sand. "Ah ah! Still not used to watching where you are going? At your age?" another man mocked him, not a hint of sympathy for his friend''s situation. "How am I supposed to get used to it?! It''s always the evening now, when I wake, when I eat, when I shit, when I sleep! Evening! Always! What happening to our sun for gods sakes? Why is it so dim?" he threw a fistful of sand straight at the other man, demonstrating most dreadful uracy, striking the eyes, nostrils and mouth in one go. It had been a long while, hard to say how long when day and night no longer existed, but some time ago, darkness had fallen upon the horizon, opposite to the sun they were used to following, when it rose, they waked, when it fell, they slept. Simple as that, when the dark appeared however, as if caught in a fright, their sun had frozen in ce, its light dimmed, or rather, the light that reached them was so weak, that it might as well be moonlight. "Don''t-" he coughed up some sand "Don''t worry so much, it will get back to normal eventually" the sanded one was optimistic, awfully so one might say, but he was only repeating the words of their elder. The decrepit old man was, or at least pretended, to be a seer, and as such, his words were always considered an absolute truth. "He has never been wrong, right?" "Urgh, I don''t think him predicting that we would all die unless he took three new, young concubines was very serious" responded the other, flexing his assaulted toes, grimacing intensely. "Now that you mention it- What is that?" pointed beyond the shore, the first man was suspicious that he would befell the attack of sand were he to turn around, but he eventually did so anyways. "Is that a sea monster?!" the second man added when both had their eyes upon the looming figure. "Hold on" stepping closer, carefully avoiding putting pressure on his aching foot. Narrowing his eyes, shaking his head with a smug. "I forget that you are just a grown-up child sometimes, that''s a ship! A big boat if you will, this one is awfullyrge¡­" he turned back, disying his greater knowledge of the world beyond this ind. His eyes leaving their sockets, arrows neatly aimed. Mouth agape, sand prepared as revenge seeping in between his fingers, legs did not move, locked in ce, the young inder watched in shock as the massive ship rammed into the sand, its body reflective, as though made from iron, ropes dropping from the deck, vile figures sliding down, one after the other. Aligning neatly,pletely ignoring both the youth, or the one they had yed, body crushed by their violentnding. Hundreds of them, their ranks tidy, carrying various weapons. Making way for a tall figure garbed with a dark mantle, apanied by two stalwart ck knights, holding longswords with both of their hands, ready to split skulls at a moment''s notice. The one they seemed to be escorting walked right over to the paralysed youth, too close forfort, hands firmly held behind the back, weaponless, somehow the most intimidating still. "Bring us to your lord" he ordered, the inder feeling like refuting him, but it was not like the ind was big enough for anyone to hide from such a great force, instead, he caved and fearfully nodded his head. ''Maybe they are willing to speak peacefully?'' he hoped. Chapter 353 Training By Fire He was wrong, so wrong, the tall one, who all knights and soldiers referred to, gave orders to his men the instant it was learned that only a single tribe resided on this small ind, all spoke in a strangenguage to one another, simply hearing their words was enough to bring pain. They were not simply there to kill them, first, they began by gathering everyone in one spot, surrounding from all sides, spears preventing any hope of running away, anyone that dared to resist, or even raise their voices was severely beaten for everyone to see, their twitching, bruised bodies thrown atop all. A few cut down trees and tore down habitations, fashioned simple pirs, nting them into the ground, those who had previously opposed them, alongside the strongest men of the tribe, were taken from the mass, tightly tied in ce, where they were set to experience their final anguish. First, their leader ordered for some of the archers to step forward, raising his right hand straight up, palm and fingers aligned, they each knocked an arrow, the arrowtips were blunt, speaking words that the locals could understand. "Liver" and so the archers all drew fire upon the liver, their aim was perfect, and so was their coordination, to prevent wasting any of their projectiles, they all let go of their bowstrings at slightly different timings, barely noticeable. Each of them striking the skin and battering the organ below, none piercing. The leader raised his hand once more, the archers stepping back, leaving ce for others. "Pancreas" the blunt arrows fell once more. "Left kidney" and again. "Right kidney" and again. And again, and again, all organs were targeted, but the archers did not pull back with all of their strength, the arrows were not simply blunt, built to inflict as little damage as possible, well, little was all in perspective. The man was untied, sprawling to the ground, one soldier stepped forward, lifting this man up by the hair, strands caught in between the tes of his gauntlets, pulled down by the weight of his own strengthless body, barely even conscious, his neck was extended to the utmost possible, allowing for one of the two knight to walk up, and cleanly behead him. The soldier holding the disembodied head, swung it at the rest of the captive, sshing them with warm blood, throwing it in the crowd, all took their positions again, a moment of pause, and it was time to switch up. The strong men of this lonely ind tribe were taken up first, used as living training dummies for the soldiers to train in the handling of their weapons, all were made to bear witness to the atrocities, the leader of the savages from the beyond the sea gave orders after orders, seemingly telling his men to make sure not to strike fatal blows until they were clearly told to do so. Swords of all kinds, axes, spears, shields, obscure weaponry, this stranger''s soldiers were many in numbers, and despite wearing the same armour, different castes were trained in very different types of arms. And clearly, he was using the strong men of the ind to further hone his own men''s skills, and they did not hesitate to strike defenceless people, mere civilians, no one on this ind was a proper warrior, there were so few of them, there was only one tribe, they nevermunicated with any other intelligent life, as a soldier battered one of theirs with just fists and what was worn upon them, they wanted to look away, to scream, but the des of spears were close, close enough to caress the sides of their necks. Points just up against the jugr, if they caused a fuss, or refused to be witnesses to the horrors, they were stricken. They could only watch, no details lost upon them, those soldiers bore no resemnce to anything they knew, they dressed in ck, armour and clothes, incredibly well-equipped, their numbers suggested that they were foot soldiers of some sort, or perhaps a militia, that would exin why they all wore chest tes, and expensive pieces of equipment that would usually be forgotten on such lowly servants, such as all gear that went upon the legs. Wearing some sort of small cloak upon the shoulders, only covering a small portion of the upper back, a discoloured grey upon which a ck sun was depicted. Upon the front of their chest tes, an insignia carved upon it with pale cold, depicting a magnificent tree, their heads, covered by a veil of what appeared to be mail, falling upon their shoulders and a bit below. The armour of the knight''s was not quite as dark, the same insignia on the chest, the design of their visors imitating that of their leaders, although the helm they wore took more from a frog-mouth design. An order was given, and the man being beaten was untied, all had been beheaded until then, but the leader gave a new order, he had always said the same thing before, not this time, no knight stepped in to finish the job, this soldier was given permission to y this man himself, grabbing his head from both side, with little to no resistance, the neck snapped on the first attempt.@@novelbin@@ Not stopping there, twisting the neck around, and around, tying it into a knot, until finally, it gave in, ripping it off the shoulders, the head was thrown with the rest. There were no one with any sort of strength in their bodies left to train upon, so it was now time for the rest, starting with the elders, one by one, they hung from trees, lined up, a soldiers pulling down on their legs to tighten the noose and make sure they could not, somehow, escape. Enjoy new tales from My Virtual Library Empire The only old man left was the chief, self-proimed seer, his visions had not told him of the arrival of ughterers. Then, came the time for the young, the soldiers forced the women to dig arge pit, and then to bury their children, younger siblings and alike, even grabbing upon their hands on the shovels to strike those that attempted to climb out, there was no struggling against them. Being thest one left, the women were directed to a home that had not been destroyed, forced inside, barricaded from the outside, bringing something out of satchels, the soldiersid what looked like charcoal all around, throwing it on top of the roof. Following this, they reached for something else, roundish objects with small ropes attached, within, something was moving, in unison, under the directive of their leader, they threw it at the habitation. All erupting with a ck me, sparks of crimson, foetid green, pale silver and red flying all around as the makeshift bombs exploded, waves of ghostly and spectral air, a blinding light shing for a brief instant, these bombs were still unstable, but worked nheless. The ck me consumed the home and those within, their cries only serving as further fuel for it, their flesh, their minds, their souls, all that they were was burned away. Although needing some refinements still, this was what he had aspired to create. This was it, the me that would be bestowed upon his legion. Loimosfire, as his soldiers called it. Chapter 354 Value In Some That Lives Loimos was preparing for lengthy invasions, lengthy upations of livingnds, to take upon ces where death might normally struggle to reach, to this end, the pure undead taught his soldiers how to be feared, and how to be beloved by the living poptions, how to be alongside them, which was why his rank and files, and main knights were entirely veiled, hiding their undeath, trained in building their own camps and fortifications, smiths and various other nonbat professions were taught to them in simple amounts, alongside the presence of actual experts. Their leader, Loimos could do all of this with his rot in the blink of an eye, but his forces were meant to be capable of operating on their own, the culling of the inds all around Viridis was set to impart all of those ideas, the forces present with him here, still of a small amount, would pass on this rich experience upon those that would join themter on.@@novelbin@@ Once all that had had been trapped within the habitations died by the mes, only two remained, the young man that had graciously led them there as well as the chieftain of this modest group, who had been kept alive for another lesson from General Loimos, the first being about the livings from area to conquer that cooperated with them. The champion grabbed the young man by the head, lifting him off the ground, showing him to all of his men, exining what sort of archetype this living fell in. "This would be a coborator, this one is of low-value, and will soon be killed considering that the ind is an already conquered region" he dropped the youth, who was then taken away by one of the two Loimosian knights, the sound of something falling and rolling sounding out not long after. Your next chapter awaits on My Virtual Library Empire "When we will take onrger regions, or continents, it is important to keep those alive, make them feel like they have achieved safety through betrayal, let them be seen by their fellows, let them unt their supposed allyship to us, this shall encourage more to defect as they realise that we hold the advantage, this will cause strife amidst the ranks of our enemies, distrust and paranoia, they are to be kept alive until they no longer serve any purpose, until there is no more enemy to poison with doubt and thoughts of treachery" he exined, envisioning conquest uponnds where death''s influence was weak. Obviously, if the undead could exert their full might, there was little point into engaging into such a tactic, simply spread the miasma and be done with it, but Loimos was well aware that Viridis had been a sess because it had been divided, had the entire continent united like it did during the first war prior to the assault of the undead, a lengthy war would have ensued, many more heroes and champions would have risen, life would have progressed at fulgurous speeds. Other continent certainly suspected something already, even though the nature of this world meant that many suns and areas that broke all rules of another existed alongside one another, Luminary Nitok''s ck sun casted its veil of utter darkness far and wide, even so close to Viridis, a mere ind had its very own sun, and it had been affected. The living, the sapient golems and pure spirits, all that was not fueled by death force, would surely prepare and find ways to counter the encroaching miasma, or ways to bar the dead from approaching entire continents, focused on their survival, foes that were not easily brought down by brute force alone. It was all necessary for his men to know, Loimos was the spearhead of the undead empire, he was death''s champion, and thus, each and every undead directly under hismand had to be champions themselves, no matter how weak they may be individually. He grabbed the elder next,st survivor of the intelligent species on this small stretch ofnd, he made sure not to tear his wrinkled head off his feeble neck, lifting him up as well, he exined something else. "This type of living is also to be kept alive, at least at first, that is a leader, they are valuable bargaining chips alongside a few others that we will soon go over, but leaders in particr are to be kept alive, show other lords and kings that we are not barbarians and can be reasoned with, if they realise that they were no match for our strength, they will attempt negotiations and cease fighting, allowing us to settle more firmly, and perhaps even turn livings against one another by making them into temporary allies" "On the other hand, they can be used as examples in grandiose executions if it is required to intimidate either other leaders, or the poption they used to rule over, any questions?" he threw the chieftain to one of his knights, the fate being the same as that of the young man. Although they all appeared perfectly stoic, to be on this expedition, the undeads that Loimos had gathered and trained had to be capable of expressing themselves fluently in both the pale and death tongue, but the pale tongue was of little use for now, the inders were separate from Viridis, the gift ofprehension that allowed all to understand one another was not functioning anymore. But it could taken a hold of, considering that the gods responsible for the gift had also been kicked from the ne alongside all of the other deities by the heretical me a long time ago, so it was not a question of whether or not it could be taken for a ride beyond its intended reaches, it was just a matter of who could do it. Loimos held a favourable position with death, he did not use simple holy death, but divine death for his holy attacks, one might say that death liked him especially much, so seizing something divine was not too difficult for him, especially when nothing and no one was stopping him from. It was like trying to grab something atop a shelf, Loimos just happened to be tall enough, others might require a chair to stand upon, and as efficient as he was, the project to make trinkets carrying this most useful blessing was already in action. Every single one of his soldiers raised their hands, most just had the same questions, but it was still a good thing that they were so utterly engaged in everything he said, the greater majority of them were naturally created undeads, so they had no prior memories or knowledge from past lives to go off of. He spent much time answering all of their interrogations. Chapter 355 Calm Sailing After the lesson in fear mongering and the following question and answer session, it was time to get to the terraforming, nothing quite as grandiose as thendscapers and architects would do, of which Loimos would be taking around his ship eventually, for the creation of strongholds below and upon the oceans, as well as floating inds apparently, it was best not to ask any architects andndscapers what they had in mind for future projects, those guys were utterly mad. Thest big idea floating around had been an inverted mountain that would be floating in the sky, and would sink into the ocean at certain times, utter madness some may say, Loimos left those details to them, he had his soldiers retrieve some sort of instrument from the ship, nting it in the center of the ind, unfurling a few parts, the surface was fleshy, tough, quickly rooting itself firmly into the soil, expelling dark miasma from the very top. Experience new stories on My Virtual Library Empire A pre-built miasma generator, designed to not be too encumbering, and that can be used by anyone, just requiring two regr soldiers to set up, there wererger models requiring more man power but that would be overkill for such a small ind, the quality of Loimos''s miasma was great enough even to be used in small quantities now. Next, they released some undead beasts to popte the area some more, the current creatures were rather weak, and a lot failed to turn into undeads by the touch of the miasma, those corpses were instead loaded onto the ship to be brought back the maind, King Nitok had been from Viridis after all, any exotic species would be of interest to him, and also to Yuolrt and all her fellow nature enthusiast, if thendscapers and architects built things, they were the one who were in charge of popting them. Once this instation was done, Loimos and his soldiers went back up on the ship, a tool Loimos did not require, as he could move as well on ground as he could in the sky and underwater, but once again, it was meant for his followers, although he created reserves of everything they were to use and utilise, they were all meant to know how to reair build their own ships if required. Those vessels were of the medium sizepared to the greatest Loimos had designed, there were various sorts that he had made for fleets of his own, this was not meant to be capable of challenging other ships, being tough but without weapons of its own, its main purpose was to carry undeads and ressources, as well as unloading waters touched by undeath as it went, not the most efficient design in thatst regard, but all of his ships also corrupted as they went. The group sailed away, easily breaking away from the beach they had struck on arrival, steering around with unnatural precision, the waters seemingly boiling, bubbling violently, the ocean teeming with undead marine creatures, clinging and swimming right next to the body of the great vessel. "Loimos! You were so cool right there, you really gave of the vibes of a cold-hearted general whomits atrocities and then sits rights next to the corpses of the innocents to sip on a coffee" One showed up out of nowhere, trying to tackle into Loimos, but only mming into him as she would with a wall, squirming like an insect on fire.@@novelbin@@ The vampire was about just as head over heels as she usually was, her very obvious attempts at getting his attention still bearing absolutely zero fruits, One had to give up for the hundredth time and just engage in normal conversation. "Was it conclusive?" she asked, crossing her arms as she stepped back amidst her group, Aliz¨¦e was still very much a thing, One was still in charge of that most useful drug that had allowed them to easily invade the academy, it still had uses to be made. "Yes, would the four of you demonstrate how to efficiently ughter an opposition when the time presents itself?" since he had them around, he might as well put their expertise to good use, in between the four women, they had a rather diverse skill set, that should give the soldiers a good idea how to work together even when paired up with allies that foughtpletely different to them. For now, Loimos''s rank and file only worked with one another and Loimoisian knights, but woulde the time they would fight side-by-side with the warriors of the core army and that of the gravelords. "ughter? That''s right up my alley! Why not me? I have not been bathed in blood for too long, I had to wait on the sidelinesst time too¡­" emerging from behind Loimos, Maliah was already swinging her dagger at empty air, looking up at the undead. Unlike Aliz¨¦e, The Death Dealer was not yet an undead, all other of the Fin-Limiers had taken the step, willfully or not, but not Maliah, she wanted to get killed by something or someone, not just crack a stone and be done with it, that was sentiment that made some sense in truth, wanting to meet death from natural means was honourable enough, and anyways, she had always reeked of death anyways. Even without the stone, she would be turned into an undead without a doubt, even Loimos from their first meeting had been able of telling so, Maliah was favoured by death even in life, and since he had been the one to scout her out, the pure undead was also the one she hung out around with, but mostly because he was the most likely to be close to some ughter or massacre. It was soothing for a mad murderer to be around a corpse oozing festering death. "Maliah, you will be up if a particrly powerful individual appears, take it apart without killing it, demonstrate how to bring down a more powerful foe" he also had a mission for her, in actuality, Loimos had scouted out, and was scouting at this very instant the inds, he was not making empty promises, he knew very well where Aliz¨¦e and the assassin would be able of making demonstrations. Loimos moved up to the front of the ships, clearly showing that he was watching over his soldiers, there was no need to actually direct his hollow sockets to know everything going on upon his vessel, but the soldiers did not know this for certain, so he made sure to distinctively watch them. The waters they were travelling through were not yet corrupted, not yet filled to the brim with undead creatures, Vespertillo was efficient, but the depth of the ocean was immense, and he also had to take care of the flying creatures. After some time, a few days, the next ind appeared upon the horizon, this one even smaller than the previous, the inhabitants, not humans like before. Already showing aggressiveness from this distance, globulous eyes of deep orange, somewhat humanoid body, at least in the fact that they stood upon two legs, expanding the front of their throat, letting out shrill cries. Some type of amphibian beastfolks, whether they actually held intelligence or not, was yet to be determined. "Leave one alive" Chapter 357 Rocky Lair As an unseen blur, Loimos went in ahead of them, reaching their of this ind''s defacto master, he perched upon the ceiling like a bat, unlike his loyal soldiers, he had sensed the life force of this slumbering beast, although terms like drake, wyvern and dragon were thrown around without much consistency, Loimos had managed to put his finger on what this draconic creature was. Fairly small in size, if standing straight up, it would be just barely above the height of a regr elephant, two wings, and two legs, a long tail ending with a rugged, roundish protrusion, most certainly meant as a way to club foes, without horns, eyes small, barely perceptible, this drake was entirely stony, resembling a rough sculpture, especially as it stood perfectly still, the movement of its chest as it breathed was unseen, it too was a master of camouge, to hide from what, nobody knew but it. Loimos could tell that it had lived for a long time, whatever had forced this creature to be invisible was long gone, perhaps bested, perhaps it had left of its own, itsir was filled with the remnants of many creatures, very few actually belonging to beasts of the ind, the drake hunted the marine monsters, dragging them here, where it feasted, leaving only the bones. A great being to be sure, an ancient living that had existed for countless years, it was strong, to his soldiers. Remaining in ce, they soon arrived upon the scene, without making a sound, silence was an aspect of death after all, so unless necessary, their advance was always made in perfect lull, and immediately, they perked into action, although silent, the winged drake sensed that something was off even in its slumber, being approached by death was not something its instincts left out, turning its fairly long neck toward therge group of undead, already into position. The two knights showed their quick thinking, as the foremost of Loimos''s knights, they had to demonstrate their capabilities to lead and fight, they had a wide array of soldiers equipped with different weapons to choose from, the ones carrying warhammer and other blunts weapons were quickly set to take the lead, the defences of their enemy was obviously of a great calibre, soldiers carrying tower shields stepped forward, supporting one another as they slowly inched closer, the drake howling, reeling its head back, it would appear that this small draconian was in possession of a breath of its own. But no fire came out, instead through the throat, from the depths within the chest, a spew of rocks emerged from its maw instead, striking the shields hard, but the shield-carriers were in formation, taught collective battle art to reinforce their guard, they were able of maintaining the line. Puffing its nostrils, shaking its head, the stone drake also appeared to have expected otherwise, moving from side to side like a prowling tiger, analysed the odd creatures that had unexpectedly invaded itsir and disturbed a most fine rest, the ceiling was high, but it was reluctant to take flight nheless, much too easy to ground oneself in such an environment, roaring once more, the uninvited guests were wholly unimpressed, keeping on moving forward, a arrow flying from above the shield, powerlessly bouncing off the beast''s head. But the me upon the arrowhead stuck, stirring panic at the unknown dark thing, it looked like fire, but to get rid of it, the drake had to drag the touched portion across the ground repeatedly, giving the aptly armed soldiers time to approach, not scared by the sudden and unpredictable movement of the startled creature, they approached the legs and struck, minute cracks appearing, the soldier quickly left without a target as the living jumped back, unleashing its hail of rocks again, the soldiers left in the open struck head-on, the solidity of their armours was put to the test, which it passed, the inner portion was well stuffed to support blunt force trauma. Having even a single mage would be of tremendous help, but s, Loimos''s ranks did not count any just yet, a hail of arrows set alight by Loimosfire befell the drake, who attempted to stir the air with ps of its wings, a little tote, a few of themnding upon the chest and inner portion of the wings. Stay tuned with My Virtual Library Empire Screaming with furious pain, the drake rolled upon the rocky ground, like an avnche of boulders, its movement was far from safe to approach, assaulted by a fire that left nothing untouched, the agony was far from anything it had ever experienced, thrashing until all was gone, clear gaps were left upon its might hide. Rather than keeping distance any longer, the winged drake charged directly in, the arrows clearly much more dangerous that the melee assault from earlier, the drake was not an intelligent dragon like Svaltimas, smarter than a typical beast, but a beast nheless, it moved in without considering everything. Both of the knights moved in, significantly faster than the rank and file, all soldiers taking out roped bombs of Loimosfire, swinging them in ce, taking aim as the two knights dragged their de across their vambraces, ignited them with the same dark me, the drake immediately wanted to cease it charges, but had gathered too much momentum, the dreadful des dug into the stone, dragged across, having moved to slow down, the soldier were given a perfect target, the bombs raining down, each only throwing one before rubbing some powder over their own weapons, setting them alight as well. The beast soon fell, and as it did, all mes dispersed, the men of Loimos all ceasing attacking as the pure undead turned back to his typical form, dropping from the ceiling, arranging themselves orderly once more, a few soldiers have been wounded, but their armour helped them recuperate as it mended itself as well, as far as it went, it had been a sess. But of course, Loimos wanted them to do even better, so he went over every single details of this encounter, pointing out every single w or things that could have been done better, overall though, the two knights had handed things well, now, it was time to take care of the dying drake, that might have attempted onest stand had it not been utterly frozen in fear.@@novelbin@@ Without resistance, Loimos put his hand over the beast''s forehead, a bone spike emerging from the undead''s palm, piercing right through, reaching the brain, injecting his festering death directly within. Forming a pure crystal of death directly within, Loimos could have done many things, but the drake was a living being and he wished for it to keep its memories, and thus, leave its abilities the same, the stone drake would remain as is, even in death. Making specialist and specific creatures was left for those that would naturally emerge from the miasma-ridden soils, although creatures like dragons were rare to appear, it was not impossible and the morend were conquered the more likely it would be. Installing a miasma generator upon the very top of the high hill, Loimos left the dragon to watch over this ind for now. The next stop was right within sight. Chapter 358 Little Test The next few inds visited by Loimos and his troops were nothing of much importance, a few small poptions that had not quite graduated from tribal living, except for one that had been well on its way, well united in the worship of a god that would never respond to their prayers, instead, they were introduced to the worship of death, which they had no choice but to enjoy it. "May the time be short, for when their original deity joined the pantheon of undeath" spoke a soldier, the miasma spreading all over the ind. In the absence of the deities from high above, it appeared that many inders had turned to the worship of much less divine beings, but that unlike the gods, deigned respond to them, but when it came to death''s champion of his entourage, even those would rather keep their heads low, all ces that were popted by sapient species were made theatres for the undead''s to learn, those budding civilisations did not have the manpower to resist, all were burned, ughtered and atst, given the most precious of blessings, death. "Land" spoke one of the soldiers, prompting one of the knights to put his attention toward the direction it was pointed at, definitely thergest one since the rocky ind of the winged drake, and unlike their of the beast, this one was bustling with vegetation that was definitely worthy of a jungle, high trees and dense bushes, a wide variety of critters, preys and predators, and for the first time, opposing intelligent forces. Although the finer details were only known to their leader, this ind was where the soldiers would truly be put to the test, the greatest denizens of this inds were a variation of the goblin kind, humanoid monsters that much like humans, always managed to find themselves in every environment and were highly adaptive, so much so, that it wasmon for both of those to differentiate so much in their adaptation to be distinct from their brethren. Here, they were not small as wasmon, rathernky for the most part, their skin hidden underneath ayer of bark, which naturally grew over them, muddling their features and making them less easily seen amidst the bustling greenery, although rather dense in appearance, plenty of open spaces existed within, were the various groups had settled, and those fellows were not very into friendly trade, but more into ughter and envement of their enemies, it made no doubt that aggression would the first reaction to the arrival of the undeads. "Sir Loimos, what are your orders?" asked the knight looking over the horizon, hand already upon the sheath of his sword. Making a slight hand movement, all of his men immediately gathered to listen to his words, even though they were undeads and thus not to bepared to regr, living soldiers, Aliz¨¦e and Maliah were always surprised nheless by how attentive and organised they were at all times, they were not pure undeads like Loimos was after all, they were deemed to not be perfect, but it was all thanks to their leader''s draconian concept of training. Loimos began exining a few things about this particr ind. "There are multiple groups with their own distinctions living upon thisnd, one of them dominates all other however, that tribe alone possess more numbers than us, and knows the terrain, their ability to hide within the jungle could allow them to go unnoticed from even your senses" the ranks remained perfectly silent, the authorisation to ask questions had not yet been given. "This shall be ourst expedition before we head back to the maind, if you seed in this endeavour, then you shall all be made into trainers for the uing members of this legion, training the next Loimoisian knights and soldiers, you will need to demonstrate the capabilities and skills I taught you, and that, without utilising my fire to simply burn down the jungle, you must tread like the environment is an essential structure that must be preserved" That was a harsh demand, but none flinched, the two knights who would inevitably be made into the leaders of this expedition, already started thinking about what would be the best course of action, they would be stepping into territory that was already in conflict, not quite a full-blown war from what they were hearing, more so that skirmishes could break out at sight of one another. There was also the fact that unlike their glorious general, none of them could possibly hope tomunicate with the goblins. "Your objective is simple, focus on the lesser tribes, eradicate or force them to seek asylum toward the greater tribe, once all of the goblins are gathered in one ce, save for perhaps a few wanderers, I and Maliah shall take care of the rest" manifesting his war scythe, all saluted instinctively, thrusting it toward the sky. Without much further ado, all went into action, taking up what was necessary from the ship and unloading upon the shore, as per the orders of the two knights, groups of soldiers were made to surveil the edge of the jungle, this once, the ship''s conductor had not rammed straight onto the shore, stopping by as was typically meant to avoid alerting the ind dwellers of their arrival. Since the jungle was a difficult environment to navigate and was the preferred domain of the local livings, the two knights decided that it was for the best to establish a camp upon the beach instead, rapidly erected spike walls using dead wood sourced directly from the maind, this would allow for a ce to gather and strategise with much less risks of being attacked. Your next chapter awaits on My Virtual Library Empire First of all, although Loimos had not imposed a time limit upon them, they knew very well that neither precipitation, nor a snail pace was expected of them, they needed to approach the ideal speed as closely as was possible, perfection, or at least the attempt at perfection was what was wanted from them. As such, they spent the rest of time of daylighting up with ns and course of actions, indeed, here too a distant sun was dimmed by the king''s ck sun, but it was more brilliant, and further away than what they had seen before, so the day here was brighter than they had grown used to on the previous inds, who had had very dim suns, or none at all and were thus mostly drowned in darkness, only earning shine from distant ces.@@novelbin@@ They waited for the true night to fall, which was a dark as the eternal night they enjoyed in their empire, scouts were sent out, not only to find out the exact positions of tribes, but also to abduct wildlife, although not specialised in this discipline, the soldiers had been furnished with spikes of bone, this tool was also part of the basic equipment. The livings heard the unnatural cries of beasts in the dead of night. Chapter 362 Dive The first punitive expedition led by Loimos and his soldiers ended on a most gruesome spectacle, as one might have expected, Maliah knew many ways to force a giant foe to its knees and it thus took many hours before the demonstration was finally over, The Death Dealer brought out des built for extensive torture, healing the wounds it left behind. As the butchering was taking ce, Loimos had been exining exactly why what they were witnessing worked out, in the end, the ind had been made into and of death, the goblins and creatures that popted turned into undeads, miasma shrouding thend mass like a concealing veil, having experienced all of this, the soldiers and knights were brought back to the maind, where they were made to overlook the training of more soldiers. The quarters of Loimos were expansive, alongside the regr soldiers and knights meant to make up the bulwark of his striking forces, other undeads were also being trained in more precise roles, the naturally spawned undead beasts and monsters obviously had to be put into other directions, but the effects of Loimos influence could set into motion transformations for those that served him, the pure undead himself was a master of many things, and his followers, short of being capable of specialising in so many different fields, chose certain things to focus upon. Stay connected through My Virtual Library Empire In time, it would give rise to a great variety of warriors types, and uniquebatants, the first two Loimosian knights had already given rise to distincts types amidst this supposed to be simple rank, it seemed that their difference in main sword hand had been taken as something of much greater importance that it was, now called the left and right hand of Loimos, they were already developing different battle arts. Although it was only due to chance, Loimos saw no issues with this, it created a littlepetition between the two groups, that should allow for some greater progress, already a few more knights wielding different weapons had appeared, the putrid skeleton had made the first batch of his forces into trainers for a reason however. His time was spent between finding ways to enhance Loimosfire, studying the Lithitree in greater details and fashioning tools for his own forces and all that served undeath. Many were very interested in the tree of death, not only did it converge the aspects of many nts into one, it provided a boost to all undeads, the blessing stronger the closer they were, and as such, lots of the undeads were trying to find ways to grow more of them. Loimos had tested to see if it was possible to grow more himself, but he could only manifest one that would notst eternally, there was only one that could be made this way, but the Lithitree was not yet providing seeds that could grow. Instead, the nt enthusiast diverted their attentions to the many other unique flora born from Loimos''s festering death, indeed, the undeads had many preupations at the moment, and time was very rtive to them, Loimos eventually moved to do something else, the progress on his ck me was steadily improving, and he also made developments into something that he was currently on his way to being put into use on the terrain. Standing upon the deck of a much smaller ship thanst time, this one was also faster and spewing death infused waters and miasma, apart from the conductor, the pure undead was apanied by a familiar face. An expert of the maritime scene, body rugged and rough, a pale blue-grey, a featureless visage, carrying the spear with a pointy crystal as a de still, Poitirus, The Mistborn was not quite the same as when Loimos had left him, Loimos had given him a rather sizable promotion, from guardian of a a singleke, to guardian of the death-touched waters, the pure undead was trusting him with leading the undead marine creatures, not only that, but his transformation into one of the dead had allowed for him to gain more power. Poitirus was a lord upon water and mist, so even if no longer alive, he still retained authority over the living beasts that dwelled within both, making him a great choice to watch the oceans, rivers,kes and other watery ces. A small cloak over his shoulders and crooked back, a small crown of crystal sitting upon the head, Poitirus emitted his mist, now entangled with miasma, but considering the sheer surface area that he would have to cover, Loimos prepared special miasma generators, which copied the mistborn''s own special mist, they were to be nted at the bottom of the ocean, thebination of Loimos''s dark miasma and Poitirus''s mist should make for a death fog that the undead associated with the marine would find especiallyfortable to move in. The putrid skeleton believed that in time, the mistborn could be made into a bonafide minor lord, and perhaps even a gravelord, he had already been powerful in life, and by giving him a prominent role over the wide waters of the undead empire, he should only keep going up. Both of the undeads leapt off the ship, many miasma generators following behind them, first thing first, they began by the shores of the maind, already conquered thanks to Vespertillo, it was still necessary to not leave it untouched, here however, they could make full use of the assistance of the undeads that lurked down there, so the cement of generators in this area was rtively rapid.@@novelbin@@ But even then, both discovered that Loimos''s repressive work upon the ind would not be enough to rid the area of the living entirely, indeed, this world was a simple one, not only could the oceans go deeper than the skies could get high, but caverns existed below too, flooded mountains, pockets of water that carried different qualities, different pressures, areas without the liquid existed below as well, small living poptions inhabiting some, with no clue that what was above them was an ocean, they had their own stars and suns below for some even. Truly, Loimos would have to scour the variousyers of clouds for dwellings of the living there was well, this would call for methods to make his warriors fly, they were well hidden, they were everywhere, like rodents to an abandoned home, every nook and cranny could house a variety of them, the livings had invested all amount of spaces, Loimos''s work seemed to always extend further. And that was without counting the other continents, which would surely pose immense problems to properly conquer. At the moment however, as he swam into not-yet conquered ces, he had to deal with the abject creatures living there. Chapter 363 Under The Sea "Sir Loimos, I could not help but notice that you seemed to be searching for something in particr" asked the mistborn, the two of them currently standing on the ocean''s floor, or rather, the lowest point on their current position, they were scaling a mountain of coral as the dreadful pressure around attempted to crush them, to no avail, one was simply unaffected, and the other held a part of sovereignty over water. They were seeking a path inside, it would be simple to just break in to ce the generator, but Loimos was well aware that King Nitok sought to preserve as much as was possible, The Prince Of Death was an avid collector, and as absurd as it might sound, he wanted to document all cultures and all manners of knowledge, the undeads were loyal, but they were not a single mass with the same vision of things, those that had once lived in a desert, or emerged within one, would feel a sense of familiarity to such a ce. As the king wished both to keep a trace of everything, and to please his subjects, it was important to not graze everything when possible, and in this situation, Loimos had all the time in the world. And it was also an opportunity to walk Poitirus through the domain he would soon be watching over, not every body of water was the same as Mistdrown, to enact his full power, he needed to be familiar with the different types of waters and creatures avable for him to use in every situation, the waters were the firstmost line of defence in case of an assault on the maind, and Poitirus would be the ruling hand in here at all times. Loimos did not linger on to answer the question, there was indeed something, or rather, someone that he had been seeking ever since Viridis had been imed. "Quideos Audit, the living prophet haspletely vanished" he responded. Indeed, Loimos had returned to the sunken mountain, finding Silvaram, a primordial tree that had served to contain Thanatok''s devouring life, but the seer who had been hiding there had disappeared entirely, and even after turning the tree to an undead, Silvaram could not tell where Audit had gone to, he had simply vanished out of thin air, hiding on the undead maind was impossible, the potent miasma would destroy him, and Loimos knew that the prophet had not perished, the remnants of life force clearly told him so. The living had failed to stop the undead once already, but allowing him to try again could prove problematic, none could do however, he had disappeared without leaving any trail behind. Poitirus had not much to say to this, tilting his head as he nted a generator in the center of the coral mountain, the surrounding colours were plenty,pared to Mistdrown, the ambiance was much less bleak.@@novelbin@@ Thinking that Loimos had most certainly already made every obvious consideration, so Poitirus instead focused on his surroundings, in the ambient darkness that was natural so deep, he could sense far and wide, and this ecosystem was one of many wonders and horrors, both most of the time. He had heard that sea serpents were rtives of dragons, and the one they had encountered convinced him wholeheartedly, that creature had not appeared massive, but its body length stretched far beyond anything he had ever imagined, in fact, he had not seen the end of its tail, Loimos had easily defeated it and made it into a guardian. Such creatures were supposed to be overlords of their environment, but before death, they were easily felled, and as per usual, the pure undead had just said that it was not as strong as it had appeared, for itcked an intelligent mind amongst other things. The pure undead seemed convinced that there existed individuals that could challenge him, even though he had already ovee his natural enemy, whether it was modesty, a mindset to avoid surprises or simply a fact, was hard to discern. But many only knew of Viridis, it might be true that other continents could house powerhouses that surpassed what they had already faced, it was hard to imagine that something could not be, astral bodies forming out of thin air, suns that only shined on certain, restricted area despite clearly being in the same sky as the rest, illogical depths and heights, the fact that life and death were not the only method beings could exist, all were much harder to believe, and yet. "Sir Loimos, it appears that we stumbled upon some ruins" pointing at a statue oddly free of the effects of nature, depicting an unknown bearded man, the statue wasrger than the two undeads, although perfectly preserved, not many details were visible, the sculptor had not been of expert skill, the man was carrying a staff and a book, perhaps implying that it represented some sort of keep of magical knowledge. This statue was at the forefront of ruined buildings that had suffered much more dearly under the strain of time and of the ocean. "The rest is buried below" remarked Loimos, weaving rot into existence, he cleanly carved a way through the floor, revealing that the ruins they were seeing was just the top of buildings, and that the statue was anchored by a lengthy chain that had rusted. The architecture was oddly reminiscent of buildings that would be on dry ground, not at all adapted to life underwater, even if the upants could breath down here. The whole of these ruins was rather small, one could see it all in details even from up close, interest was better direction at the well sitting at the center, the water within was like that of an underwaterke, the pressure waspletely different, and most things that went in there would be corroded away, like jumping into the stomach acid of a whale. Corrosion had been a part of Loimos''s skill set since nearly the very beginning, he extended a tendril of rot into it, remaining cautious of what might be hiding in there, he spoke up after a few seconds. "A temple is below, it would appear that the residents used to worship a creature" he said, walking up to the wall and letting himself sink into it, Poitirus followed right after him. Find your next read at My Virtual Library Empire "So, it''s a holy beast?" "Divine beast" "More powerful than the sea serpent?" "Most definitely" It was amon belief that the gods gained more power by being worshipped alongside probably other means, no one had ever asked one if that was true, or the records had been lost, but one thing was certain, when something or someone was worshipped, they had the possibility of gaining a holy disposition, as an idol. Of course, that did not always work, but Loimos was saying that the beast was divine rather than holy, which was the step above. Unique specimens like this one were must-haves for the undead, they represented great power instantly, and Loimos was also a wielder of divine energy thanks to being death''s chosen champion, so it should be rather simple. "Try making it submit, Poitirus" Or not. Chapter 365 Another Way Grabbing Poitirus''s spear as it was sent floating his way, Loimos approached the felled beast, it had managed to pull itself by the bootstraps at one point, this was a good thing, it would make for a good undead, its body dimming, Loimos pierced its brain with a bone spike, making it into a proud servant of death, as for Poitirus, he had been caught by surprise by the beast''s sudden understanding in how to utilise its power, losing an arm and half of his face, damage which was harder to recuperate from due to the nature of divinity. A dark with hints of bright gold washed over the mistborn, healing his injuries, Loimos spoke in death tongue to the beast, it did not answer, but nodded its headless neck to show understanding, that was a good harvest, and it was nearly a certainty that many other creatures were just waiting to be made into followers of Nitok, from the smallest of algae to thergest of beasts. cing a miasma generator in the heart of the hidden city, the beast was left to watch over this area for now, much like the stone drake, guarding the ces they knew best until further notice. Loimos and Poitirus ascended back on the surface, stepping back onto deck, this venture had been fruitful, expanding upon their control of the nearby ocean, it was of importance, especially for their future assault upon Bermude, the sunken continent, it was less important for Durter and Dragonnerie, respectively said to be underground and floating in the sky. This little expedition hadsted a week or so, nting miasma generator upon the areas already conquered by Vespertillo and the exploration of still living waters, taking in a sea serpent and a divine beast, Loimos returned to the maind, the training of his troops was progressing smoothly, the two foremost knights very excited to show him how many new rank and files, knights and other castes had reached the levels set beforehand. Including mages, which the two knights were especially ted to show off, those mages were actually a part of the rank and file, garbed in heavy robes, gauntlets of dark irons upon their hands, these were catalysts, recing staves and the likes, although training required for them to cast the necessary spells without them, upon promotion, they were given those to enhance their mana and spells, the crest representing the Lithitree upon both front and back, unlike the soldiers who wore the chain mail all over their heads and shoulders, the mages had a hole to fit their faces in, leaving space for a mask. All were the exact same, save for a single detail carved upon the forehead, a rune from the death tongue, special runes created by Loimos, with the assistance of Unacunerra and Nitok, it enhanced the casters mana as well, the mages were only four at the moment, Loimos had chosen for his regr mages to be of those that had no particr elemental affinity, they were taught not simple magic, but what the pure undead called a sorcery. Combining a few obscure magical concepts, the very own mana of the user was cultivated and transformed into dead mana, like Loimos''s, the fact that they were undeads certainly helped in this regard, and then, they would be taught a variety of spells that utilised this mana. After being shown the advance in his ranks, Loimos moved on to experimenting with his ck me some more, making minor improvements upon it, not quite reaching what he was aiming for. Following by visiting the Lithitree, which seemed to be have grownrger every time, its foliage denser and more diverse, bleak sap seeping down its trunk, it did not have any that at first, the tree of death was not quite in its greatest state just yet, collecting some of that sap, Loimos moved on to his next appointment, which greatly diverted from the usual routine he had set upon himself. It had been a little while since he hadst talked with her, stepping into his quarters at the royal crypt, he normally would have just met anyone anywhere there, but his notoriety was a bit too great, some of the architects and such had passed by, in fact, they weren''t the only ones that visited the champion for one reason or another. Said architects had insisted to make him an office, which basically served no purpose, if anything, Loimos would always be the one moving to whoever he meant to discuss with, today however, it would see some use, like a bull on a ss floor, the undead simply lookedpletely out of ce, they had gone all in in designing a space they deemed worthy of housing the regime''s champion. Sitting down on a fine leather chair, the desk was popted by all sort of trinkets and tools that Loimos could just manifest from rot, the craftsmanship was definitely impressive though, perhaps they should have focused on more important affairs, Loimos knew that convincing those guys that amodating him was not important was pretty much impossible. The ceiling was high, a number of chandeliers and other decorations hanging from the ceiling, paintings of all kinds, finely forged weapons hung upon the walls, at least they had restrained from making a statue of him, or perhaps they had run out of space before they could. In any case, he put a crystal of concentrated death on the desk, this one different from the rest, it was especially formed for the living that stepped into the room, lowering her head to fit in through the door, the giant-blooded woman looked at the chairs avable, and just decided to kneel down instead. Still garbed in nothing but beast fur, Elenantiel, who called herself The Desirerer for reasons Loimos had not asked about, pointed at the crystal. "Is this it?"@@novelbin@@ "It is not certain to function as expected, but it will at leasty the proper foundations" he exined, the crystal held a slight shimmer of light red, almost pinkish in its center, on his way to Drac''s domain back when he acted as messenger to gather the gravelords, Loimos had encountered Elenantiel, a living that was incredibly, perhaps too much, interested in bearing a child from the draconic vampire lord, but it was not possible, the undeads could not really reproduce in this way, two undeads could not mate and expect anything toe from it. But that was ridiculous, if the living could do it, then why not the dead? Elenantiel was not here just because of her peculiar interests, but also because those interests came from a special ability she imed to have, which was to have control upon any newborn growing within her, control upon how they would turn out and ensure that all would be perfect. And apparently, it was also why she had been living in the mountains, Loimos did not bother to question those things, more interested in the prospect of introducing more ways for the undeads to multiply. "I have also prepared an entire room to ensure that the process works to its best, prepare as much as you want before using it" he pushed the crystal toward her. Obviously, Elenantiel was not exactly thrilled about the concept of dying, but it also represented a great opportunity for her ''craft'' as she liked to refer to it. Keeping the precious crystal close, she quietly ran off. The putrid skeleton saw many opportunities if he could usher something new in, but it was certain that if that worked out, a certain vampire would gopletely hysterical. In any case, Loimos was going to go back into the ocean with Poitirus, work was never over for the undead, and when it would be, a new challenge would take its ce. Chapter 366 Pale Stars All around the undead coast, close and far away, ships spreading water touched by death circled Viridis, a steady stream of miasma rising from them, pushing the livings back or embracing those too slow with a most divine blessing, all driven by undeads bearing the symbol of the Lithitree, meanwhile, Loimos and Poitirus scoured the bottom, embedding miasma generators as they went, ensuring that every single speck of space was infused with the deadly fog to the maximum possible. The champion and his subordinate uncovered many ruins and signs of ancient civilisations as they went, of all kinds, kingdoms, empires and dynasties that had been swallowed by the ocean in some ways, old continents that had been dragged to the depth, tforms floating upon water that were eventually submerged, floating strips ofnd taken out of the sky, or simply poptions that had established directly inside of the sea, all that they had encountered so far had been lost to time, exterminated by disasters. Many now the nests of majestic beings, or abominable horrors of the deep, the champion did not make differences between a little fish and a monstrous star-shaped creature when it came to turning them into undeads, though, specific ruins kept showing up, the bright orange y constructions that had housed the divine beast were not a solitary civilisation, many of other such ces were to be found hidden underneath underwater wells, each of them seemed to have once been the holy ground of other worshipped creatures, clearly, this culture put extreme emphasis on such practices. Explore stories on My Virtual Library Empire But no beasts, or their remains were to be found in the dozens of orange ruins, no signs of the inhabitants either. "Sir Loimos, the ground is hollow" Poitirus tapped the end of his spear upon the ocean ground, cing his hand down next, he could sense that there was no water below, yet, the crust that separated the incredibly dense abyssal water and this probable came was incredibly thin, definitely should not be in one piece, and definitely not after he struck the ground more firmly. As Loimos moved up next to him, he attempted to seriously break through, his attack bouncing off as though he had struck steel, stepping back as his leader inspected this odditie himself, signing for the mistborn to move a reasonable distance. Loimos had not noticed that there had been a space below, which was odd, if it was filled with dark, his darkness awareness should have allowed him to know from kilometers away, and in fact, Poitirus had only noticed the discrepancy due to his habit of using his spear like a cane, tapping it as he moved with small steps, the would-be ocean guardian did not typically move fast at all. Neither death''s champion and an undead specifically suited to the environment had been capable of sensing the space below, this indicated that there was something interesting to be discovered. cing one finger up against the ground, Loimos pierced through with a slight resistance, extending his rot within to take a look, discovering a rather cramped passage that led even further down, the tunnel went far beyond any other passage that had been discovered until then, many caverns and such had been found by the two undeads, some flooded, some free of water, this one was of the second variety, and it even stopped it from flowing in.@@novelbin@@ Loimos erected a small structure over this hidden tunnel. "Let use back to this at ater date" sensing that it might actually be a difficult challenge to venture into this unknown ce that inhibited the senses. Going on with their cement of miasma generators, nothing else of great interest was uncovered, the areas they went through tended to be deserted due to the fact that the two of them utterly terrified all life in a wide radius, only a few daring creatures thought that they could put up a fight. Although most of the creatures around were not the exact horrors that one might expect, further from the shores and past the many inds, the depths would get even deeper. Once again, Loimos and Poitirus emerged from the water, heading back tond, the pure undead was aiming to secure the ocean up until the surrounding inds, which would all serve as an imaginary line to signify the end of their expansion until further notice. Already, the areas they had filled with miasma had been invested by the architects, towers started from the very bottom were already piercing the sky, floating tforms, and it seemed like some were already working on the floating inds, which would bepletely new additions and created from scratch But this time however, Loimos did not head back to the royal crypt, he had said that the underground tunnel would be investigated at ater date, and that date was right now, the champion simply did not want to involve Poitirus, as much as destruction did not mean much thanks to The Graveyard, it could take quite a bit of time, which would be better used training the mistborn for his duty. His back erupting with ck wings, a whirling of putrescent feathers exploding outwardly, Loimos flew into the sky, wrapping his wings around his body as they melted away, like a vortex, the undead spun as he made a downward arc through the air, diving back into the ocean and into the tunnel, turning into a slithery mass of rot to traverse the winding path, no diverting passages, only one way in that went on for hours even with the undead''s speed. Eventually emerging into a most otherworldly area, turning back into his humanoid form, pping his wings just before mming into the ground, softlynding as he took in his surroundings, the ambient dark was not immune to his darkness awareness here, only in the secret passage here and upon the limit of this area. This ce was yet another bright orange ruin, simply muchrger, and not uninhabited, small, insectoids beings that shared the same colouration as the building material they used, which turned out to not be y, but a mix of simple dirt with their saliva, turning it into this particr colour, some of them were constructing new habitations at this very moment. Not even reaching to his knees, they had six limbs, four arms and two legs, yet still walking around on all four, their bodies crooked and bent forward, their heads shaped like nautilus shells, walking around with their two free arms stretched forward, as though always reaching for something. They did not pay attention to the undead, in fact, they did not register his presence at all, endlessly bumping into him if Loimos happened to be in the way, if they weren''t walking around aimlessly or building something, they were staring up at the ceiling, which looked exactly like a star-ridden night sky, apparently entranced by its appearance. Rather than immediately ughter them all, Loimos let them do as they wished, waiting for the insects to do something else, and eventually, as though called upon, all moved in unison, toward a crack shimmering with false stars. The stars were calling them. Chapter 369 Second Expedition nking their leader, the two knights walked in front of their forces alongside him, before the many soldiers of the rank and file, arranged neatly ording to their choice of weapons, the sheer amount of thempared to the first punitive expedition was astounding, under the watchful eyes and with the blessing of Loimos, most regr undeads managed to attain the strength necessary to qualify in little time, bearing the symbol of the Lithitree upon their chest, most of them were skeletons and zombies, although one could hardly tell the difference when in full gear. Although technically the weakest members of the entire force, the regr soldiers were the pirs, the foundation of the whole thing, most of the living that would be taken in the tide of the vanguard army of eternity would only ever meet them. Enjoy exclusive chapters from My Virtual Library Empire Trained in their weaponry, in team work, a few battle arts made specifically for them, hurling Loimosfire bombs and such, this caste also englobed archers and crossbowmen. But of course, there were many other castes in the champion''s army, he sought an elite that could face the living on their own and secure territory, make locals submit and even, perhaps,e to think that their invaders were not so bad, this mindset from livings in possible upiednds was to be chased, it was then that their wills would not only be crushed, but that they could be used for other purposes. Next, were the machinery operators, such as the undeads that steered the ships, this castes went from such undeads who would hardly be faced with fighting, to those in charge of controlling heavy weaponry such as ballistas and trebuchets, their equipment simr to the rank and file, only that they wore a thick gambeson and a kettle helm put over the veil of chainmail, the range of weaponry they had avable was smaller, equipped with a bow or crossbow in case the machine they operated went out of service, and a dagger, or simple sword. There was only one of them during thest operation, but as could be inferred by the amount of boats now circling the maind, this had changed rapidly, and of course, the sort of things they would soon be in charge as well would not simply be limited to weaponry and ships, they had a continent that floated and one underwater to conquer also.@@novelbin@@ Next came of course the centralmand of the army, the Loimoisian knights, the bread and butter of Loimos''s ranks, simple knights that could be trained in bulks, whenever rank and file would go, those knights would always be around as well, serving asmanders. They too were proficient in all sorts of weaponry, also, each and every one of them was required to know how to properly wield and shoot a greatbow, so that they couldn''t just be caught with their pants down by simple ranged attacks. Those three castes served as the core of Loimos''s army, theoretically, groupsposed of only them could fulfil most demands, that was how most armies tended to operate sincepetent mages did not grow on trees. In the undead empire they didn''t either, they first grew out of the ground and then were made into mages, Loimos had a great deal of mages too now, they too with many variations, the basic mages being those that partook in sorcery and made their mana into dead mana, obviously, there were those with actual elemental affinities too, and those that chose other types of sorceries devised by Loimos. Amongst other things, there were many beasts that had appeared as well, alongside undead forms of much different species with characteristics that could qualify them for other castes, but for now, many of those other castes were still very small. The two knights still did not hesitate to talk in length about each, and also going over undeads they believed had great potential, and when they were done, without waiting, they marched toward their next expedition, the second one since thest. The first venture upon the inds had been rather simple, Loimos had clearly chosen those inds ahead of time and decided for theirst evaluation to take ce on the jungle ind inhabited by goblins for a reason, because they could show what they had learned on easy targets, it would be foolish to think that all of their missions would be as simple as tricking some warmonger goblins with short tempers and not much intelligence. But the inds they were going to subjugate were unlikely to house full-blown societies, and indeed, climbing upon an egregiouslyrge ship, which was closely followed by an absurdly long sea serpent upon which Poitirus was riding, the efforts of the champion and the mistborn were clearly visible, the ocean and its surface were overflowing with the special miasma of Poitirus, intertwined with the royal miasma. The advances of the raving builders was also clearly visible, those madmen had erected fortresses, towers and the likes in the middle of the ocean, their constructs either mysteriously floating upon the water, or taking root straight at the bottom, it seemed like Yuolrt and followers had also went by, inds bustling with undead nature had also appeared, their efforts further filling the sea with undeads, introducing great creatures that had emerged either from the soil of the empire or been brought back from oblivion by The Graveyard. It was hard to imagine any living forces even thinking of attempting such a travel, there was literally not a single direction that was safe, especially considering that the architects had made their floating inds a reality, some of them simply ces for flora and fauna to thrive, some with cascades that were sources from no one knows where, and other simple flying castles. Some were anchored in ce by chains, others simply staying in ce, and a few circling the maind or making predetermined, repeated movements, certain inds were made into ce for Drac''s dragons to perch upon and look over the horizon. It would not be a stretch to say that Viridis was simply impossible to assault for the living, the other continents would be forced to endure their assault without any asion to snuff the problem at its source. "Land!" the ship''s conductor spoke, shifting her direction, stopping the vessel in a proper manner. "Disembark!" shouted the right-handed knight, a flood of undead soldiers descending upon the shores of blue sand. The left-handed knight noticed that Loimos was still standing on the deck without saying anything or giving any signs, meaning that they had to figure things themselves. "Scouts gather! Mages gather!" both of the foremost knights called, the scouts needed for obvious reasons, the mages because those that had made their mana in dead mana had been taught spells to hide one''s presence, after already being designated as the two mainmanders, it was best for them to not leave any details up to chance the very moment they were back on the field. Neither had any idea what it was like to get reprimanded by Loimos, and they would rather go on for eternity without finding out. And so, the second expedition officially began. Chapter 372 Warmongers "Mmh, well, well, well¡­ This looks a bit ominous, doesn''t it?" looking toward the horizon, standing upon a small watchtower, all of its shooting windows wide open, foundations thrusting into the dark yellow sand below, crabs of various sizes digging around the shore, unearthing humanoid remains much too often.@@novelbin@@ Handing the longview in his hands, the bulky man that had spoken went twirling his moustache, without this instrument, the subject of this discussion could not be seen, the ss was special and had been subjected to many enchantments and the likes to achieve this sort of prowess. "Yes¡­ It is indeed rather ominous, it resembles some sort of ck storm? Perhaps it is a mana storm of the darkness attribute? We had a storm of fire a few years back¡­" the blond man put down the longview, looking over to the only other person present at the top of this tower, this other man had long ck hair, a face marked with countless scars, bringing into question just how one could survive so many grievous injuries. A simple crown sitting upon the head, he shook his head. "Don''t mention it, that was a disaster, I am still certain it wasing from that disfigured bastard, ah! Curse you Irlke!" Clenching his fist and yelling at the clouds. "Ergh¡­ Anyways, that storm as you call it, it is probably more than just a mana storm, call it instinct if you want Aramap, but this might be a good asion to negotiate a truce, we had managed one when the headless beast rose from the ground, for a little bit¡­ I mean, we are surely not the only ones to have noticed, it is only natural that everyone would want some peace to brace for whatever impact it might bring, don''t you think?" Aramap looked at the crowned man in wonder, nodding his head before sliding a great helm on, speaking only then. "Your majesty, I understand your idea, but proving any type of danger to the other warkings is a tall hurdle, they''ll first assume that we are only using the vague threat of something far beyond the horizon to get a sneak attack on them" indeed, the situation on this continent was much different than that on Viridis or any other really. Viridis had been graced with the gift ofprehension long ago, allowing for a certain peace to settle in over time as everyone understood one another perfectly, breaking thenguage barrier and when one could have discussion with the enemy as well as their friends, it became harder to justify waging war upon them. Here on Belliste however, this had never happened, and not only this, but the continent had truly devolved into constant warfare after an empire spanning its entirety cracked to pieces, leading to an unending era of conflict, where the lords were all called warkings instead, pieces of territory were regrly changing hands, their equivalent of peace was when they just stopped battles and moved on to having roaming soldiers act like bandits upon their enemies. Aramap''s lord, Alisart Cleavster had forged his own crown from that of others, but he still remained just another lord amongst the others, all were equivalent in strength, those weaker were nearly instantly devoured. "Well¡­ Unless you are ready to ept Derdlim''s marriage proposal?" the knight chuckled, hisugh echoing within the helm. "I am not getting anywhere close to this vile woman! And certainly not without aplete suit of armour, and you want me to approach her in my birthday apparel? Utter madness, I would rather cover myself in honey and stick it inside an anthill than her" the rugged giant of a man shuddered, preferring to raise the longview and stare at the storm of dark in the distance instead. It was still incredibly far away, it wasn''t even certain that it would keep moving toward them, but Alisart was trusting in his guts, his soldiers were growing rather tired from the current string of battles, any reason to have his enemies mark a pause as well was a good one. Although continental truces were rare, thest had been rather recent, when conflict in the central ins had awoken a slumbering beast, it had been agreed to take it out before resuming the bloodshed, and surprisingly, it had been respected. So a storm as dark as that one should definitely qualify as well. Discover hidden stories at My Virtual Library Empire "What is in this direction anyways? Is there another continent this way?" the warking wondered, as far as Belliste went, he knew the regions and such, but beyond the shores, it was rather foggy in his memories. Both the lord and his knight began rehearsing the names of each continent and their overall directions, sea travel was rather rare, but there were always archives of some madmen who had managed to make the voyage back and forth by sheer force of will, and mostly luck. "Ah, Viridis is this way, no?" finally, Aramap managed to pinpoint it "But in what way is this important?" "Not very important I suppose, but it''s just that this sort of things usually happen in the middle of nowhere, in areas where there is little or nonds, you would expect an entire continent to find a countermeasure when something like that is forming oring their way, instead of just letting it be¡­ Maybe it didn''t evene close to them, it''s hard to judge distances between continents¡­" the warking shook his head and slid down thedder, stepping foot upon the sand, hardly sinking in spite of the weight of his armour. Aramap came soon after, his white cloak fluttering in the wind, posted all around the lonely watchtower were many other knights garbed in basically the same attire as Aramap, only that his own great helm was decorated with hints of a greenish alloy, marking him as the First Knight of his warking, and thus leader to his men. All climbed upon the back of horses and rode away from the shore, the ck storm was a good pretence to force a truce and recover some strength, solidify the defences which had been consistently worn out over the years of conflict, rare were asions to work without being under threat and he was intent on making the most out of it, and of course, if the storm from afar was to truly wash over them, he also had to find out just what it was about and how to properly defend hisnds. But he had the gnawing feeling that something, whatever it was that he had to worry about, was going to go much worse than he could envision. Chapter 376 Slow And Steady Floating upon the water, the corpse of a massive whale-like creature, its back covered in white growths serving as natural armour, itid riddled with harpoons, amidst cracked pieces of ice and its own blood, circling the fresh, still twitching carcass were multiple massive ships, cleaving through the dense ice with ease, miasma rising from it, water was syphoned and instead, crimson blood was expelled instead. Aftering upon a frozen part of the ocean, it was decided to make it into one of frozen blood instead, as such, an agile knight jumped out of the ship, the design of his armour different from the usual, the helm in particr was made to resemble a swordfish, marking this particr undead as a beast knight, one of the many castes that had arisen under themand of Loimos. Diving into the freezing waters, unsheathing a knife, carving his way to the monster''s heart, indeed, this particr bone needle granted by the champion was different from the usual who was meant to pierce the brain to show its best effect thanks to a condition and art cast upon them. No, this one was to turn a target into a vampire specifically, and it had to be precise, this future sea of blood in particr was not supposed to be made from the blood of any of the lords, so the putrid skeleton had to find a very specific dosage to create unaffiliated vampires, akin to atypical naturally urring vampires, which would typically pledge allegiance to a lord and be granted lord blood anyways, the creatures of this region had to be without any clear lord influence, that was what had been decided for this ce. The knight nted the needle and quickly made his way out of here, the monster beginning to move, awakening once again as an undead, holding onto the edge of the ship, he watched as the whale creature swam down to the depths, it was slow work, the further they went from Viridis, the less death held influence, and it seemed like death growing in power suddenly had prompted life to empower as well, miasma produced from the ships was not remaining for long, and so was everything else touched by death introduced with the support of the great miasma sourced from the holynd. But Loimos was resourceful, and had equipped his vanguard with equipment to spread death''s influence in spite of this, water was taken and reced instead of being immediately changed, rather than melding life and death together, he took away life and put death in its ce. The blood used was also not carrying death force, instead made to be incredibly thick and non-dissolvable, rather challenging the matter that was water instead of life directly, once the frozen area waspletely changed, it was then that death would strike, leading battles against the environment itself, iming territory and victories day after day, month after month, year after year, indeed, the champion led his repressive and murderous campaigns, his destructive and violent crusades without rest. To the one that was the purest of all undeads, a single second and a millenia might as well be the same thing, but in the grand scheme of thing, being well aware of the passing of time was required, it was only ignored for the opposition he faced off against was no real army that could challenge him or his troops, mere tribes, minuscule kingdoms at best, microcosms unaware of the world''s vastness. He prepared the terrain for the terraformers and architects that progressed alongside the royal miasma, but the further they spread out, the more surface area there was to cover, by simple virtue that the circle grewrger, but also because the oceans grew deeper, and filled with beasts and monsters much stronger, calling for more careful expeditions, and thus, even slower progress. At this very instant, Loimos was working upon another one of his crystals, his soldiers working on their own without their great leader, his Loimoisian knightsmanding the troops. Even after all this time, Elenantiel had yet to use the crystal, rather than breaking it directly, a single crack was put upon it, the death force slowly absorbed little by little,muning with it and such, today, she was nning on finalising the whole process and as such, she had called for Loimos to overlook the process, the giant-blooded woman had definitely lost her colours, certainly much paler, but not quite undead just yet. Apart from that, she was not showing other signs, which was what the skeleton had intended, taking into ount her ability and what he was trying to achieve, her physical form was not supposed to bepromised, and certain biological aspects of living beings had to be reced, normally lost upon death, the crystal was engineered to inflict a specific undeath upon the one using it, usually, Loimos would let the process make its normal course without applying his own spices into it, but obviously, he had already devised multiple crystals of congealed festering death to achieve particr results, which could actually influence a being that was already dead. Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire@@novelbin@@ Allowing the members of his forces aiming in a certain direction to reach it. The bare bone concept was already well understood by Loimos, but the application here was on a different level, not simply trying to make Elenantiel a special undead, but attempting to introduce the concept of reproduction to death itself, now was the moment of truth. As the crystal finally shattered, the pinkish glow held in its center vanishing as it flew directly into Elenantiel, its bright glow returning after an instant, exploding outward, true dark and true paleness surrounded Loimos, as per usual, he showed no reaction to anything happening around him, his hand was lifted of its own, no, amidst the dark and pale, there was a being sharing the same colours, holding his hand in its own. A few words were spoken, and then, he was back to where he had been standing, the giantess looking pretty pleased with herself, trying to shake Loimos by the shoulders, but utterly failing to budge him a milimeter. "Incredible, I already feel no more back pain! Is this the bliss of death I have been hearing about?" interlocking her fingers and stretching both arms. The putrid skeleton did not respond to this question. "You can go ahead now, it was a sess, I have been told" indeed, Loimos didn''t have to check to know that he had been sessful in this endeavour, although, it was not really due to his own efforts, but rather thanks to his connection to death. His idea had simply been approved. Chapter 379 Library Tower As such, the two foremost knights walked through wide roads, since Loimos was regarded as an utilitarian, the architects had also made sure that the paths leading to the various areas of the ''Champion''s Domain'' as they called it, they made certain that they could also serve as roads for many other purposes, so somehow, Loimos was somewhat responsible for them creating an alternative passage system above the current one, although, the closer they got to the tower, the more the undeads around were warriors of Loimos. Keeping especially close to the outskirts of this fantastic creation were the beasts under hismand, never keeping far from their master, not that anything could even possibly get this close to the epicenter, not to mention that if something did, then they wouldn''t serve much purpose, but still, they were fiercely loyal. The tower itself was of an odd design, with pieces of debris floating around, the outside wall was not of a single, uniform material but rather a grafted, chimaera-like pattern that defiedmon sense, still, it gave the tower an uncanny disposition, making it appear as though it could crumble down at any moment. Stepping through the main entrance, they were greeted by a maze of high shelves, a winding staircase and a solemn ambiance, like a piece of oblivion had been ground and mixed to paint the walls. The inside was unlike the exterior, everything here reeked of antiquity, wooden floorboards that felt like they should creak, but never did, cobwebs that never got in the way, and most importantly, an endless selection of books, tomes and other grimoires, anything of such a nature that was found was to be amassed here, Viridis had been the main contributor, but it was not their literature that had managed to make Loimos stay in here for so long. Many other undeads were around, sometimes, one might even find King Nitok in person reading up, it was safe to say that it was rather popr, especially the sections that the champion had created with the aid of the gravelords and other illustrious undeads, tomes describing the ways of the various castes of the vanguard and also that of all other warriors groups. As such, many rank and file, Loimoisian knights and the likes were always around, some of them present to guard their leader, who was to be found currently on the fourth flour, which was still quite a trek, the organisation of books was based on multiple criterias, but the tower was still mostly empty, probably because it was gigantic. Moving up, the two knights found Loimos reading through parchments made from skin, the esoteric writings resisted the power of the stolen blessing ofprehension, and were also written in either rudimentarynguages or needlessly convoluted ones, as such, making urate trantions and understanding the content was a challenge even for one that wielded death. And where Loimos was, there tended to also always be followers, Poitirus was not around today, most probably out installing miasma generators in the depths, but of course, One was right here, trying her damn hardest to understand a book that she could actually read, which was titled : ''How To Make Him Understand Your Signs, A Book For Lonely Maidens'', one could not deny that she was dedicated, years of unrequited affection and still holding on as strongly as ever. The two knights truly always felt amiss here, either other great undead figures would also be around, which made them walk as if they were on eggshells, interacting with their lord was as easy as it went, most respectfully, Loimos basically had no personality, he was just a corpse. Gravelords andpany however, they didn''t really know how to act around them. Thankfully, none were there today, instead, it was the always present swarm that hung around. "Ourlst, there are more than before, right?" the right hand asked. "Indeed¡­" Read exclusive chapters at My Virtual Library Empire The bachelorettes, always a sight to behold, the amount of undeads that saw their glorious lord in the light of deep affection was simply staggering, but just like the sun-walking vampire, they were all doomed to an eternity of chase, probably¡­ Still, when one was not pure like Loimos, it was a bit embarrassing of a situation to traverse. "Sir Loimos, we bring news of our conquests!" both eximed at once, falling to one knee and taking off their helms, revealing the mesh of rotten sludge clinging to their skulls, the entire thing tightened inadvertently by stray strings of hair, pieces of goopy putrescence stuck to the inside of their head pieces. Engaging with their unnecessary show of devotion and respect, the pure undead told them to rise, Loimos was used to putting what was only theatrics in his view, it was favourable to bettermunicate with his fellows who had habits and lingering feelings, even they could be taken aback by his true behaviour. Especially the typical undeads, who would have never seen him in person and only heard the words of others, which tended to paint Loimos in a much different light than reality.@@novelbin@@ Listing every single thing aplished by their teams, the two knights went into egregiously precise details, sharing every single thought and theory they had had, the possibility of Dragonnerie taking action, or the possibility of nearbynd with a drake poption. Ending with their belief that Belliste was preparing something, knowing full well that making a b-line directly for the continent was not in the ns at all, the undead would rather want to fight with the support of potent miasma than without, that was only logical, and with eternity on their side, it was natural to not dread the prospect of a lengthy siege. "Dragonnerie has indeed made moves, but those drakes are unrted, there is no need to worry about Belliste, it will be challenging but nothing that can not be handled" their general simply responded. "Sir Loimos, how do you know all of this?" Horhir asked, had someone else already informed him? "Although it is a certainty that we can eventually triumph over Belliste even at their best, it is never a bad idea to get ahead of thepetition" without ever moving at all, he continued. "I have already dispatched a soldier to Belliste, he will get them to focus more on the inside than otherwise" The two knights looked at one another, their decayed faces jiggling as the various strips of rotten flesh were given free reign of movement. "But Sir, no ship has gone for Belliste, and who would bepetent enough to be deployed alone?" Both of them were full of questions, and that was without mentioning the fact that it would still take many years until the invasion was officially begun, how could a single undead be expected to not only cause problems, but also evade the livings for so long? Chapter 382 Idyllic Within the territory of Warking Alisart Cleavster, the Southern Shore spanned well beyond the sandy edges, giving in to wide ins of blossoming green and fields of bright yellow, on top of having a great ess to the ocean and fishing spots overflowing with fishes overloaded with fat, thends of the south were highly fertile, allowing for immense fields, using the cheap workforce that was enved wild ogres, about three meters tall and rather skinny, they still made for powerful arms, allowing to maintain suchrge fields without much cost, but of course, not willing to give those monsters anything sharp, the harvest was done by the farmers themselves. These instations made for great open spaces, where one could see from far away, the only obstacles being the asional small hills and farms, all in great shape as major infrastructures of the region, it was not too umon to see the knights of the south patrolling the fields and the surroundings on horseback, their pure white cloaks and immacte suit of armours reflecting the light of the sun, which almost appeared like a spiral, at least the inside of this bright star seemed to be spinning as so. Ogres were working the fields under the scorching heat, whilst the various families of farmers instead tended to their secondary source of ie, the cattle, much less numerous as a source of food than fishing and growing crops, as the only cattle that was around for the people to breed were somewhat small bovines with heads and necks covered in intertwined horns, these creatures did not easily reproduce, but any money and food was wee, their meat was considered a luxury and handsome rewards for the knights of aplishments. But of course, farming was secondary in renown only to the art ofbat, the knights of Lord Alisart, all under the directmand of Aramap, as such, all families yearned for a child of theirs to be born strong and with dispositions to be a trusted knight rather than a regr soldier that would inevitably get torn apart in a future conflict. The wandering knights looking over the exploitations also served as scouts for boys and girls that held some talent. Sleeping peacefully under the shade of his farm, a stalwart man satfortably in a rocking chair, his worn out straw hatid over his face, wholly unaware to the world around him, not only was this area rather calm as the borders were always keenly watched over, but after the four great warlords hade to an agreement to cooperation, life had never been so peaceful, the sound of his children ying loudly around the farm failed to disturb him. After having so many of them in little time, having his ears blown off by the constant wailing and crying, this all sounded like a luby, the fresh air that often blew past lulled him into deeper and deeper slumber, but all of this came crashing down when someone roughly pped his shoulder. "Honey, the big corneau is making a fuss again" his most beautiful and gentle wife almost made her husband think someone had just tackled him with that tap, which was more akin to a punch.@@novelbin@@ "Oh, again? That one hasn''t stopped since yesterday¡­" quick to get back onto his feet, he stretched a bit, the big corneau, or rather, the one male bovine they had at the moment had been restless since the night before, not turning violent or the likes but generally stomping and bellowing at absolutely nothing, hiding in corners. "I am telling you, that big wimp probably got bitten or stung by something and thinks the pain is something attacking him" shaking her head, hoping to be right, because if the corneau was going cuckoo and was about to die on their arms, then they would to get a new one, the king and his knights paid good for that meat, and losing that ie could prove problematic, especially since it was summer, and the ogres tended to keel over in that weather, they were not exactly cheap. If corneaus were hard to breed, then one wouldn''t want to try their hands at getting ogres to do it, they were difficult to convince and hard to train, it was generally a side hustle reserved for knights who could overpower the monsters without much of a problem. The husband was pretty worried about the male dying, it was a young one at that, and they spent good money to keep their livestock in perfect health, the animals basically lived as well as people, with plenty of space, food, water and attention, procuring a single male was already difficult, and he was hoping to get another one, which would allow himself to produce more and rece females without having to ask other farmers. The profits could be tremendous, but not if this young one just decided to go and die for no clear reasons. Going over to the startled livestock, he inspected the hooves, the body and such, the man''s presence seemed to reassure the bovine, not appearing to have hurt himself somehow, really just appearing utterly terrified of something, yet, the females were wholly unbothered, and since they were all pregnant, if anything, they should be the one more on edge about small things. "Alright buddy, just calm down, this continent is at peace for once, everything is the best it could possibly be, rx" rubbing the corneau''s snout, the beast seemed calm for now. Looking around for anything that might have caused this sudden influx of fear and finding nothing, the man went back to the front of his farm, watching as his ogres worked the fields, whistling for one to go back to its stable, noticing that this one seemed a bit too sluggish. All of the ogres sold to the farmers were castrated males, the sellers kept hold onto the females but still took measures to make certain that ogres couldn''t be bred elsewhere, one could always just find wild ogres and attempt something, which was fair game, not that many people would see this as a good idea. Experience new stories with My Virtual Library Empire But they were well tamed, first in a simple manner as one would a dog, and then branded with a special seal for extra measures. It was all well thought out, having inherited this farm from his father, the husband had had a good headstart and was nning on leaving this farm in an even better state to his own children. Thinking about the still distant future, he noticed an approaching figure a bit toote, taking off his hat and bowing respectfully. "Good day to you sir knight!" he greeted with a smile, the knight nodding in his direction, holding a spear in one hand, holding onto the reins with the other. "Everything alright over there?" asked the knight in white. "Oh sorry mam, yes, everything is alright!" correcting and responding at once in a quick breath, he was used to the same knight always patrolling the area, or at least, he assumed it had always been the same, but this one was clearly ady. The armour was the exact same, and considering the requirement to be a knight in this region, they all ended up looking uniform in spite of sex. "No need to apologise, I was told to inform you that your son has sessfully passed the tests and has already enlisted as a knight trainee, I''ll be taking him along with me on this path to get him used to patrols" she said, one capable of making out a light small on her face even with the great helm in the way. "That''s great! But if I may ask, what about the gentleman who usually passes by here? I was under the impression that he would be the one taking care of my son since he scouted him out, or is it that he was moved to night shifts?" "Well, he was supposed to, but was sent to the castle to be disciplined for sleeping with a trainee- Hold on sir, what do you mean, night shift?" tilting her head a slight bit, the knight asked. "Are there no night patrols? I saw a knight on horseback passing in the distance well after night had fallen yesterday, you see, my male corneau was making a fuss and since it was a full moon-" "And they truly looked like a knight?" she cut him off. "Yes, they wore a white cape, although, now that you mention it, it did look a bit longer, and the horse was also wearing a white veil¡­" shrugging his shoulders, the farmer pointed in the overall direction he saw that knight, another dirt road that acted as the limit of his fields that way. "I see, my thanks good sir, it is probably nothing, but do be careful in theing days, alright?" and with this, the female knights pulled onto her reins, the horse quickly taking her away. "Weird" the man did not think much of this interaction. "Honey! You won''t believe what the knight who usually patrols here did¡­" instead more focused on a juicy bit of information. Chapter 384 Man In White Watching from inside of his farm, the man had juste back from locking his corneaus inside of theirfortably wide enclosure, safely hidden away inside, thest few days had been a bit odd, the amount of noble knights patrolling the area and its surrounding had increased a notch, searching for something that had killed an ogre, the female knight had said that it was probably the work of some rogue monster or a pack, and to then not allow children too far from home, and to not travel alone. Farmers never really went far from theirnds anyways, so it was not too bothersome, although, all were keeping a close eye on their ogres and cattles, keeping the young ones inside, and nothing had happened again. The man had even seen his oldest son patrolling alongside thatdy knight and another one, even the knights moved as duos, and since his son was a trainee, they made a trio, recognisable as a knight-in-training by the fact that his white cloak only covered the shoulders rather falling down nearly all the way to the ankles. "Dad, can we y outside now?" one of his young daughters asked, picking her off the ground, she looked at him with her big round eyes. "Sorry sweety, it is up to the knights to decide that" giving her a kiss on the forehead, he carried this daughter of his to the bed, night was already falling. Counting his children as he went, making sure that none had had the poor idea of sneaking out again. ''Alright, the kids are all in their beds, the corneaus are locked up properly, the ogres as well¡­'' rehearsing everything, he looked through a window, a luxury that they weren''t aware of, was the fact that they had ss windows instead of holes, shutting the ps tightly, lingering on as he reached the veryst one, thinking that something moved in the darkness, narrowing his eyes, head and arms outside, holding onto the wooden shutters, a cold dropletnding right atop his head. "I am seeing some shes in the distance, we are going to get some lightning" his wife spoke from behind, also bringing up the fact that a few of their kids would inevitably want to sleep in the parental bed, terrified of the thunder.@@novelbin@@ Barely a few seconds after that initial drop, a humongous amount of water began pouring down, this was not a bad thing, their crops were tough enough to handle a downpour, lightning storms were amon urrence during the summer months after all, and the wheat could use some watering. Constant tapping flooded the home, drowning out all other sound, only cut by the arriving thunder, which carved through the mming of rain with ease, the two parents were wholly unbothered and headed off to bed, already overcrowded by their young children, to the mother and father however, the rain and thunder were rather peaceful sounding. As some drifted off into soft, sweet sleep, others were still out in the storm, gusts of wind made the farms howl, the dirt roads turned muddy, the only natural light that appeared were the shes of distant lightning, but the knights in white patrolled anyways, atop of their horses,nterns raised high. "I am not seeing crap!" "What?" "I said : I am not seeing crap!" speaking louder, a knight express himself to the female knight, the trainee riding in between the two of them, ever since the beheading of the ogre, knights had been scouring the surroundings for any trace of the culprit, closer inspection had revealed that it was in fact, a de that had brought about the demise of this monster, the trail of this mysterious rider in white was privileged for now. Surely, finding an entire person and a horse should be simple enough, horses were only in use by the knights, one apanied by such an animal could not hide anywhere, the knights had even inspected the people''s farms and the one farm that was without residents, but not anything was to be discovered, the knights wandered at night still, braving the elements. "No one but madmen would be out in this weather, even our crazed beheader probably opted to stay at home¡­" the male knight, same one that had first discovered the corpse,ined, the rain drenched their cloaks, weighing them down. "Do you never stop running your mouth? If you could fight as well as you bber, Aramap would have had to step down ages ago!" As his two seniors only by a few years argued amidst one another, the trainee turned his head to the side for no particr reason, coincidentally, lightning struck at the very same time, illuminating the tumultuous night for a split second. "T- There! Hea-" his two seniors reacted quickly, shining their ownnterns in the direction pointed to them, right in time to illuminate a white blur, a cloud of pale smoke, a flowing figure mming into their trainee, a spinning mess of white cloaks stained by the mud. The trainee was the one with his back to the ground, struggling as apletely white silhouette tried pushing a slender dagger straight through the eye slit, before that de could reach its intended target, both knights got off their mounts, one of them kicking the attacked off of their trainee, despite the strike, this figure managed to regain its bearings and get back on both feet within an instant. "Get to your feet rookie, and light this guy for us" the female knight pulled the young boy back up, who hastily did as was ordered, hisntern raised high, which would allow both seniors to wield their weapons without having to bother with anything else. Casting the shine upon the attacker, dressed nearly entirely in white, a long cloak, an uniform with golden decorations foreign to the knights, only the boots and gloves were ck, a high cor meant to tightly embrace the neck. Discover exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire Only that the being before them had no head or neck at all, standing to his full height, he still somehow managed to stand over the knights, if only a little bit, staring directly at this creature, a faint whistling sound could be hearding from all around, disturbing, eerily melodious cries of pain rumbling alongside it. The dagger held in his hands turned to a light purplish mist, stepping forth with a stomp, a spear now manifested in hand, thrusting forth with a twist of his wrist, a devastating attack, both knights knew even as they evaded it. Replicating with their own spears, the headless stepped in first, allowing the other to pass underneath his left arm, locking it in ce as his weapon once again dispersed into mist, turning into a mace. With strength more akin to that of a beast than a man, it came crashing down. Chapter 387 Deadly Night With a jolt, a young girl rose awake from her bed, unlike her sisters that shared this room and even bed for some, she had always had a rather easily disturbed sleep, so the repeated mming of what was assumed to be a window shutter or door easily stirred the girl awake, yawning and cracking her neck, dexterously moving over her sisters and stepping onto the floorboards, messy brown hair falling upon face and back, garbed in a nightgown several times toorge for her. Grabbing a small oilmp, navigating the dark room expertly, she set out to find just what had been improperly closed and had dared to interrupt the most sacred act of slumber, when one was born into a farming home, boy or girl, they were expected to help on the farm, and even if the youngest yed most of their time ying and running around, it was all exhausting, so disturbed her rest was sacrilegious, walking down the stairs carefully, hand steadily following the railing, the sound of the mming continuing at an odd rhythm. The closer the young girl got, the more curious she became, already expecting it by the time she saw it for herself, of all things that could have been forgotten, it was the front door thatid wide open, gusts of wind flinging it back and forth, causing this certainly despicable sound that seemed to only disturb her out of the whole family. Grabbing the door handle, out of curiosity, she took a look outside, the night was not as a dark as she had expected, moonlight was shining through, and as light often did, it illuminated white particrly well, allowing her to see a horse draped in pale white standing idly just in front of a neighbouring farm, which still stood a fair distance away. Garbed in the same colouration, what was most certainly its rider stepped out of the farm, stuffing something into an already heftily encumbered bag, pulling two strings together, he shut it, put it down, a purplish haze, slightly glowing in the night, manifested and with a sh, disappeared alongside the sack. The rider in white definitely looked weird, but making out details was still difficult even as the man''s choice of clothing made him into a beacon even under moonlight, shadow still fell over him, and the girl was still groggy. ''Hold on a second¡­ Horse in white, man in white?'' face contorting with realisation, immediately washing away all tiredness, acting as though he had heard something, the man moved his body around. Now, it was rather obvious why he looked so odd, it wasn''t that she could not distinguish his face, it was that he had none, and with this understanding, he turned directly toward the young girl, raised one hand, moving it from side to side. He was¡­ Greeting her, saluting her perhaps, following it with another hand movement, raising his index finger up above the reaches of his cor, a faint whistle spreading through the night, then shooing her away, as though saying that it should be a time to sleep. The young girl would rather not interact, but feltpelled to acknowledge his existence, fearful that ignoring him might make the monster mad, so she reciprocated the wave and nodded, slowly closing the door and locking it properly, rapidly making sure nothing else had been left open before silently, and shakily slip back into bed, the whistling could still be heard, permeating the surroundings, the walls of this farm, inside her very ears, only when it went away, did she feel the grasp of fatigue lulling her away. The next day, or perhaps at one point in the night, knights had noticed that something was off, their senses were well-honed after all, and the passage of the headless had left a certain trail of cold air, capable of sending shivers dancing upon one''s spine. The front door had been shut, but it had not been locked, marks showed that someone had fiddled with the door with something sharp, managing to shove it in between the space separating door from all, and undone the lock, patrols had gone by the very front of this house during the night, meaning that the one in white had perfectly timed it, having probably been hiding close the entire time. Many parts of the house were left turned upside down, a fight had clearly taken ce, however, no one had heard anything, no screams, no cries for help. "Trainee, it''s important that you behold this, but just as an advice, make sure your helm wille off easily, alright?" Ilte rmended the rookie. "Indeed¡­ I have seen a lot on the battlefield, but this sort of brutality enacted upon- This makes my blood boil" Tarq cut himself off, Isilt was momentarily paralysed in ce as his eyes witnessed just a portion of the scene. Running out of the farm to empty his bowels. "I remember I couldn''t eat anything without puking it out for days after I imed by first kill on a person, it wasn''t even particrly violent, this is much worse" the female knight shook her head, the very first body one would stumble upon when entering this deste farm was that of the family''s father, from the looks of it, the headless had intruded without alerting anyone, had walked up the stairs, and had simply went in the closest room. Belliste was used to atrocities of war, but such deplorable actions only urred in the Central ins these days, none of the four great warlords could ever pierce far enough to even get close to the civilians of other regions, even in thesends overflowing with brutality, going after the non-soldiers was not viewed in a great light. "Well¡­ At least the littles ones did not wake at all, they didn''t suffer" The youngest of the family were yed first, the headless acting with surgical precision, piercing the heart with such swiftness that one might mistake the bodies as sleeping if not for the fact that their heads were taken, also sliced with extreme carefulness. The knights presumed that things had turned into a confrontation when he got to the second room, it seemed like one of the older children had woken up. "The headless was probably already standing right over him, the others are all peacefullyying down, but here, there was a struggle, our culprit having to repeatedly stab the young man to finally get him to stop struggling, by then, the sound of this had awaken the parents¡­" Ilte moved around as she spoke. "...He was probably moving toward the door already, and he was confronted in the hallway, the father probably managed to put up a fight, and both were made to fall down the stairs, judging by the state of the first floor, he used everything within reach to deal with the intruder, he has a bunch of cuts and wounds to the arms, the headless had some problems getting him, but eventually pinned the father down and stabbed him right through the back¡­" The man''s back was turnedpletely red, evidently, even with the headless on top of him, he kept on struggling and required excessive amounts of stabbing to kill. "...And then the mother''s turn came, and look at that, where she stands, the ce is also a mess, this woman clearly didn''t just stand there, evidently, she broke quite a few chair trying to defend herself, yet, she is not nearly as covered in injuries as her husband" Tarq crossed his arms. "Perhaps our murderer is softer on women? It can''t just be about fighting back or not, when that son and the father fought back, he definitely did not hesitate to piece them apart with overwhelming force, if he handled the same problems in the same way, he probably would have swung at her a few times before killing her" "Not to mention, the puncturation mark through her chest is clean, he definitely made certain to be precise and deliver a quick death even as she was breaking the furniture over him¡­" The two knights remained silent, their trainee finally returning, still making sure not to stare too much at the bodies. "Well¡­ I remember being told stories that some knights followed some sort of chivalry code¡­ You know, the noble knight, evil dragon and princess stories? Maybe the headless is one of such knights, and even in the¡­ State that he is in, still follows it?" he said. "I do remember those stories, assumed they were just bollocks, that chivalry thing always sounded idiotic, but it''s true that those stories are probably grounded in some truth, the pyromancers are our friends now, we can ask them to check their library" Ilte led the way back outside. "Heh, I guess we can do that now¡­" scoffed Tarq. "And by the way, as I was puking outside, I noticed something, would you go out before us Sir Tarq?" Isilt asked. Making sure to close the door, he shouted something loudly, and only then stepped outside alongside his senior, who was looking at him weird. "Did you hear anything senior?" "I heard some mutterings at most¡­" "Oh, that is quite an interesting find you just made, kid!" Ilte understood immediately. "That headless has quite therge bag of tricks¡­" Tarq was left out of the loop. Find exclusive stories on My Virtual Library Empire@@novelbin@@ Chapter 390 Whistle "If I may ask Sir Loimos, the headhunters are even more special than other undeads under yourmand, they are not just a part of the vanguard, but always the very first to be sent, and I had been wondering what exactly set them apart from duhans and other headless undeads?" "The headhunters are all made from living champions and heroes, turned into dust, the head in particr, is to be scattered, to maintain the memories, however, their sense of self is taken away, hidden from all" "Is this what makes them so resilient?" "It is what makes eversting" -Transcript of a conversation with Champion Loimos The fight did notst long, both knights currently sat on the ground, white cloaks stained by blood, repeated strikes from their enemy''s two axes proved capable of shaving off buts of their armours and draw blood, but in the end, the headless had realised that this was not going to work out in his favour, other knights had been alerted and were already on their way, even with an undead''sck of stamina, always striking with maximum strength and many other advantages, the headhunter''s movements did not feel correct, facing more than one of those veteran knights was already a tall order, so he eventually summoned his steed and rode off into the night. The whistling, the cries lingering on for a few more seconds before growing silent, hiding off into the woods, the undead got off his horse, beginning to walk aimlessly, with whirlwinds of purple haze, summoning weapons after weapons. Something was wrong, something was definitely wrong, this was not right, but why? He did not know. He did not know if he would ever know. Whistling rippled in the distance, this was not his. __________ Day by day, Loimos''s vanguard got closer and closer to Belliste, slower by the day, but cease moving they never did, Poitirus secured the oceanic depths, caves and caverns were conquered, flooded mountains becamendmarks of death''s empire, the ocean guardian moved by himself, only followed by his own followers, there was not a day during which he did not lose a limb or had his head blown off, the monsters and creatures were all terrifyingly powerful, their strength so old and ancient that even the undead''s sovereignty over water was challenged by their mere presence, even by using the cover of the miasma and attacking from safety, picking them one by one when possible, it was excessively difficult. Sometimes, he wished that Loimos would still apany him, for the champion of the empire, dealing with such creatures would be a breeze, but knowing how he went about things, he would still just make him do things, there was no point to not use the asion to train his subordinates after all, so far into the ocean, they had even begun to encounter creatures that definitely could be counted as mythical, inds that had developed upon the backs of great beasts, some appearing like patchwork of multiple creatures, like those turtle-like abominations with rows of tentacles as limbs, or those giant fishes with oddly humanoid faces amongst other things, however, the sheer amount of those creatures proved that they had nothing mystical about them. They were but regr life forms down here, living their lives, reproducing and multiplying, and even with death''s advance, they still did just that, thankfully for Poitirus, Ourlst and Horhir were doing work on the surface, luring in and ying creatures there as well, with the tremendous progress of Loimos''s forces, units of great power could work together to bring down monstrous whales and the likes, and when a living passed, they joined the ranks of death, they joined the right side. The way to Belliste was a rtively typical ocean, much easier to navigate than the burning one they had run into a while back, or even the blood sea, there were actually seas of blood without their interventions, the beasts here were quite resistant to the allure of lord blood.@@novelbin@@ However, a certain distance from the shores of Belliste, the area was prone to severe storms and to forming vortexes, taming this area was of importance to allow a proper invasion to take ce, but the continent was also making progresses, the undeads could sense it from afar, Loimos knew of it thanks to the presence of vanguard within the living territory. Grand dragons sometimes flew overhead of the ships, Dragonnerie was much further away, but the inhabitants there were definitely not unknowing of death''s movements. "They are erecting a barrier" Horhir, the right hand, remarked, he had not been there to witness the conquest of Tamaris, but had heard plenty of it, the barrier constructed by those people had held strong, it was to be assumed that Belliste''s would be on par, or perhaps even greater, the livings far away had much more time to prepare after all, and apparently, they even had the support of dragons from Dragonnerie. "It is deemed to be a difficult war, but we will prevail, they can only dy the inevitable, death stands with us" Ourlst, the left hand, responded noticing the waters shifting, dozens of segmented, elongated creatures emerged, intertwined with one another. Enjoy exclusive content from My Virtual Library Empire The work was never done, both gave the order to attack, hail of projectiles, knights leapt into the water, and within a few hours of struggle, the livings were dispatched, their corpses punctured with bone needles, right in time as yet another shadow passed above them, truest of dragons once again. They never attacked, merely watching the undead, surveying their movements presumably, and as such, the foremost knights never gave the word to attack, knowing full well that the might of Dragonnerie''s inhabitants could very easily destroy ships with their mighty breath, so unless provoked, the undeads left them fly as they wished, trespassing upon the miasma was dangerous even for those great creatures, so they either only make quick trips, or never even got anywhere close to it. "General Loimos said that the dragons were most likely working alongside Belliste" "Then it should be our very next target, should it not?" "It''s impossible, this continent can float away much faster than we can make any progress" "When we conquer Belliste, we will be able to use the plentiful life as foundation for a much greater miasma generator, on par with the miasma originating from King Nitok''s crypt, this should definitely allow for faster advances in the future, no?" "That''s right, but even even Sir Irmandos foresees that it will take us a long, very long time to reach that goal, not to mention that Dragonnerie is full of dragons and draconic species that couldy waste to us from far away, I spoke of it with Sir Loimos, and even he said that it would be a great challenge to simply face their strength" "What a shame, if our leader says it, then we better grow stronger¡­" Chapter 393 The Arid Cliffs Inparison to the east, life in the Western Cliffs wasparatively more frugal, it was nearly desertics, splits apart by humongous fissures into the ground, almost greenless teaus, only cacti of great size, leafless bushes and asional miniature trees could be spotted, it was either at the very bottom of certain cliffs, or within those cacti that one could find water, the people of Jaral Cribler favoured the second option, even setting up rudimentary farms, it was believed that a cactus would nourish itself upon water that was hidden deep underground, but such questions were frivolous. One did not need to know where the water came from to drink from it. The western king awoke in a spacious hammock, wearing absolutely nothing as the sun was rarely merciful in this region, the soils were as dry as it went all year long with the only exceptions being rare rains that whilst typically powerful, were never long. The people either wore little or ample clothing as well as covering their bodies with paint fashioned from blood, bones or cacti to protect themselves from the rays of the sun, they were not originally from here after all, they did not benefit from centuries or millenniums of adaptation, so they had to be smart about it, the cliffs saw much breeze however, so it was here that they established their homes, hanging in between both faces of the cliffs, suspended right above certain death, it might appear overly dangerous, but living upon the teau was nigh impossible, the heat was tremendous, the wind itself finding it ufortable to pass by here. Still, despite being here and also having the best residence as king, Jaral Cribler was still feeling warm, as tightly wrapped and lying upon his chest was Alintair, who could definitely not be escaped in this situation, it was like trying to do something about a snake when it had already perfected its hold around your neck, utterly futile. But he would not go as far as to im that this was ufortable, the increased warmth was offset by the body parts pressing upon against his chest, subtle and small, exactly as he liked it, or was it that he enjoyed them because of who they were attached to? Such philosophical questions were not to be answered now. Enjoy exclusive chapters from My Virtual Library Empire Like most women, Alintair dyed her hair a bone white, brushing them upward, he always found it difficult to think that such a cute mug was deemed necessary to hide behind a mask all day long, supposedly that it helped her aim better, since she was only second to himself in archery, in had to be true somehow. Softly running his hands against her sides, feeling each ribs as he went, soon managing to awaken the constrictor. "Morning already?" lifting her upper body up, stretching arms and back, yawning those words out, both of them were sweating mess, making their skin glossy, bodies rather hard on the nose, neither seemed to care, Alintair leaning forward again for a kiss, both of their unnatural heterochromatic eyes staring into one another, their soon-to-pass amorous congress was interrupted as someone knocked on the door, a rare urrence. "One moment please" spoke Jaral, Alintair sighed as she got off the hammock, tying her hair properly and beginning to get dressed as Cribler also stood up, stretching first thing first, putting on his attire. Unlike Alintair''s, whichpletely covered her silhouette, ample enough to allow any sort of breezes to pass in and be kept within, coloured in a rtively bright shade to chase off the sunlight, perfectly aligned with the colouration of the Western Cliffs. The warking''s clothing left his abdomen exposed nearly entirely, covering every exposed bit of skin with paint, arge hood that only allowed one to gaze at shadows when conversing with him, he never lifted it when out in the open of the west. Before answering the door, he moved up to Alintair, pulling her close by the waist. "I''ll make sure to make up for this distraction tonight, all right?" he promised, earning a light chuckle from beyond the wooden mask. "I am certain that you will take what is due, my king" not lingering on close for too long lest he put his words into effect right there and then, opening the door, one of his people standing as straight as an I. "Boy, what is the matter foring to me so early in the morning?" he asked, beginning to walk upon a shaky bridge that linked his small home to the rest of the vige, walking beside his king, the young man began exining. "My lord, I was on hunting duty this night, and I found suspicious marks upon a nearby teau" replied the boy. "Night hunting and you are still awake? It must be rather suspicious indeed, what did it look like? Was itpletely unknown or something that should not have been there?" passing from hanging constructions to another, he instructed the boy to show him the way to this oddity, Alintair following close behind like a shadow, making no noise whatsoever. He described as best as he could, but being a young hunter, he did not recognise what he had seen, at least in part, leading his king to the site, all evidence remained as they had been, the sandy ground of this teau undisturbed. One thing that the hunter had recognised was the mark of feet standing right up to the edge, pointing right at the suspended vige, it was the feet of any of the drylurkers and certainly not that of birds, neither was it that of bottom-prowlers that had somehow climbed up. "Those are the soles of boots, good manufacture too"mented Alintair, startling the young hunter. "Oh! Greetings Miss Alintair¡­" "And here, of course you wouldn''t know that, those footprints look like the hooves of a horse, this teau is much too far from the borders for a horse to ess however¡­" he remembered such marks from the few times Alisart had attempted to set camps within the Western Cliffs. From the looks of it, after more careful investigation, the rider and their horse had somehow gone through multiple teaus, overlooking the vige from multiple angles and then vanished out of thin air, the trail ending at an impossible area, in the middle of a t top. "Either they floated up, leapt without disturbing the sand or just popped out of existence" rubbing his chin, Cribler listened to Alintair''s remarks. "That is odd, but I think I know exactly what it could be-" all three stopped talking, taking notice of rising dark smoke in the far distance, Combuscrus really had it easy to call for anything, his pyromancy allowing for such things with ease, Jaral would have had to get a hawk to carry a message to do it.@@novelbin@@ The western king had just thought to call for a meeting himself, this saved time. "Very well then, before getting on our way, let''s gather as many people as possible, we need to remain vignt from this threat, if it is what I am thinking of, there is a real danger to our people" with these words, he headed back toward the vige, it seemed like the approaching death was closer than it appeared. Chapter 394 The Bountiful Shores Sitting upon a throne of heavy iron, a greatsword and great helm leaning over next to the legs, Alisart Cleavster garbed much simrly to his loyal knights, many of them standing around the room and patrolling the halls of the castle, unlike his three contemporaries, who lived in a cave, a small weathered hut, and a simple room suspended above the void, he lead aparativelyvish existence. The three other main regions had remained without lords, and some without any poptions for a majority of the warlord era of Belliste, even during the golden age of the empire, those regions were left neglected, the Southern Shores and Central ins held all the ressources, they held the fertile soils, they held rivers,kes, easy ess to the ocean as it was the only region that was not significantly elevated, indeed, the edges of the other regions gave into steep, tall cliffs, improper for any sort of fishing. Those two regions also had ess to great quantities of ores and stone, the south had once been in much a simr state as the ins, locked in constantbat between dozens of minor warlords, as such ,seizing the entire regions and booting all opposition out was a feat none of the other lords couldpare to, and that without any special means of power. Stay updated through My Virtual Library Empire Using the resources avable, Alisart ruled over prosperousnds, and built himself a fortified castle, not too great in size, surrounded by moats, it was not exactlyfortable living as it was mostly made with defence in mind, still, it left any other of the royal residences of his fellow lords in the dust. His face covered in scars, listening to reportsing from the farnds told by one of his knights, the majority of his people were farmers and fishermen, they formed the heart of this region whilst the knights and soldiers were its bones and skin.@@novelbin@@ The whistling had grown louder and more repetitive, the rider in white had been but a taste of what was toe, other headless creatures began scouring the countryside, dressed in ck instead, always acting alone, the rider in white did not appear again since then, leaving space for his fellows, thankfully, their solitary movements meant that Alisart''s knight could always gain enough of an upperhand to force the undead''s away, but it was still recent, there was no telling if the headlesses would begin moving in groups. However, his knights were not afraid of this possibility, not fearing the challenge in the least. ''Mmh, it''s been five days, the riders in ck are much more aggressive than the ones in white¡­ They will probably show up in other regions as well eventually, I should call for another meeting¡­'' leaning his chin upon one hand, the report about night encounters quickly concluded and the regr parade settled in, Cleavster often held audiences for anyone that wanted to speak of any matter, although the regions were all immense, they held aparatively small poption, so really, the problem of one farmer or fisherman was a problem for pretty much everyone. And honestly, it was as good of a passtime as any, but it had an unfortunate effect. "My lord, behold my beautiful daughter, strong and dashing!" it had the adverse effect of bringing many who wished to marry their daughter to their glorious lord, who remained without any spouse to this day, after all, the settlement of the four great rulers was still rtively recent, there were no wizened old lords, all were young and still brimming with vitality, they were all ripe to create some heirs. "I''ll consider it" he refused politely, knowing very well that this was not thest one of the day, if anything, if he was to take a wife, it would obviously have to be one of his knights, but then again, he felt that this was a bit weird too, like marrying your cousin because she was the only woman avable. Looking up, Alisart suddenly leapt from his throne, taking notice of high cloud of smoke looming in the distance right through an opening near the ceiling, near the entrance to the throne room, adder could be taken to lead to a balcony meant for soldiers to watch over the surroundings using the special longviews the south had a blueprint forying around. "Well, would you look at that! Aramap!" calling for his second-inmand, the warking dly escaped the audiences he had himself allowed. "The folks that brought their daughters can go back home, the others, be sure to hear them out, alright?" he told the knights guarding the way out of the throne room, sliding on the great helm, strapping his greatsword to the side, he was quickly joined by Aramap. "I have never said this before, but Combuscrus and his needle arms can be blessed! Perfect timing, just as I was thinking of setting up a meeting myself¡­ You know what Aramap?" "What my lord?" both of their voices deformed by their helms, they reached the stables, thanks to their horses, they would probably be the very first to get there. "Perhaps I should marry one of his pyromancers, some fire flinging could only do us some good, don''t you think? Ah ah!" The knight shook his head, knowing very well that this was not going to happen, Aramap had stood with Alisart since the very beginning, he knew his lord very well by now and his type of women as well, Alisart was very much focused on pure physical strength and the wielding of weapons, he admired a sculpted body and a strong spirit. Which was why Aramap was amongst those who actually thought that his king should either go for a knight, or just relent and agree to Derdlim Maulerd''s proposal, as negative as being a cannibal may be, she also had the positive of ruling another major region and being strong. A ruler should not settle for just anyone, marriage was a powerful tool in their arsenal after all, however, none of the other warlords had descendance, so there really only was the man-eater avable for a political marriage. The knight kept his thoughts to himself for now, and they silently rode into the Central ins, where it had been decided that they would meet, the warlords here were all weak and without much forces at all, currently alive only because fighting had been made to cease, otherwise, they would be changing every other day. The ce they had chosen to establish their little round table was rather rickety and not at all regal, and as expected, the knight king was the first to arrive. Soon followed by Irlke Combuscrus, who had gotten some advance as he had made his pyromancers send the smoke message. Then Derdlim Maulerd andstly, Jaral Cribler. Chapter 395 Why Here? The whistling echoed loudly, but thesends were not that of Belliste, the many warriors of the undead vanguard were all gathered together, tightly in formation, grouped up ording to their respective castes, the rank and file soldiers, rank and file mages, Loimoisian knights, pdins, priests, beasts, specialists, highly skilled and equipped to deal with all sorts of terrains and situations. And amongst them, many headhunters garbed in ck, only a handful diverting from this colour palette, this particr caste was hand-crafted by Loimos himself, and although not yet perfected, showed much promise for the future, at the moment however, those that had been dispatched in Belliste were not reaping much sess, the heads they collected were mostly that of wild creatures, indeed, the strength of a regr warrior of Belliste was high. So, although the headhunter''s were proficient and resilient enough to not be dealt with, their performance was not ster, especially that of the one garbed in white, the very first of the headless, but also a shaky sess, the method employed by Loimos was one that he hade up with on his own, so of course, it was requiring refinements, and something was simply not correct about the rider in white. Today however, as Loimos was no longer within the library, overlooking the troops of his vanguard, simply terrific numbers, he also looked over to those that set themselves apart from the rest, those that had received the title of champion from him in person, distinguished members of his forces. The miasma had reached a near stop recently, progress was so slow it was barely noticeable, the initial calctions made to determine the time until Belliste was reached were much below reality, the more death progressed, the more life ignited with indignation, miasma generators alone would soon not be enough, even as they were upgraded, and even as the dominion of King Nitok grew, life was simply too resistant with the current methods. With defiance, it spat in the face of death itself, unshaken by anything Loimos tried throwing at it, and as more time passed, Belliste only reinforced itself, any life barrier created would also be severely more powerful, nothing like that of Tamaris, which the current Loimos would be capable of shattering with ease. No, something needed to be done to not be met with a roadblock, some sought to find a way to naturally grow more Lithitrees, or at least, minor versions of it. Some others said to take the plunge and simply sail toward Belliste now, spreading death upon another continent was certain to work out. The church of death experimented with the concept of divine entities, seeking to create divine beasts closely aligned with miasma to perhaps give the undead an edge. All of those ideas would certainly bring something to the table without a doubt, but the champion sensed that something else may be at y. Life had oppressed death for an untold length of time, it had permeated this world like a gue, and to many livings, death was naught but the conclusion of life, not something of its own, it was only obvious that life would still hold the advantage in a struggle.@@novelbin@@ However, Loimos knew very well that death held the most strength inparison, life always ends with death, it is the logical conclusion, it was by corrupting the sacred realms of death and installing the concept of afterlife that the enemy had so deeply beaten undeath, to the point that the brunt of them all had found themselves on Viridis in particr. King Nitok had lived and died here, and so had many of the gravelords, the rest, had been drawn to this continent, something that they could not exin logically. Loimos himself, the pure undead, had formed here, his own existence called into question life''s grip upon this world, or rather, it called into question Viridis itself, what was about this particr continent that drew death and the undead in? Those that had arisen away from it would inevitably find their way there, or be destroyed trying, by all means, it was not just the sacrednd because they had conquered it, it had always been. The putrid skeleton''s researches had yielded nothing however, having scoured every nook and cranny, looked through every archive, dug through ancient civilisation upon and around the continent, none even touched upon Viridis''s special rtion with death and its primordial aspects. Something was escaping Loimos''s attention. "Show no worry concerning our slowing advance, eternity is on our side, life fatigues eventually, we will reach Belliste and begin our conquest in due time" "However, a change of strategy is to be done, until now, we have been expanding King Nitok''s dominion in the shape of a perfect sphere, but this approach is inefficient, to make any sort of substantial gains, we will have to focus on certain points" Loimos''s idea was simple, rather than spreading forces all along the edges of the miasma, make use of more strength and numbers to actually gain ground, and although he did not specify for it, many were already imagining specifical pushing in direction of Belliste, not abandoning the advantage of miasma, but also making haste toward the next continent, prime target on the list of all undeads. Their general left the right and left hand to decide how to approach the new orders, obviously, making a corridor directly toward Belliste had inconvenients, the spherical shape was strong and prevented death from being pushed back, like a branch however, a line was more easily snapped, meaning that directly going for the continent was doomed to be a waste of time. The path to their next destination needed to be solid,rge enough to not be subject to life''s push back. Right next to Loimos, a winged undeadnded already kneeling. "Sir Loimos, a dragon wishes to speak" "Did the dragon ask for anyone in particr?" The bird-like undead responded negatively. "He only asked for the person in charge of the spread of miasma, so-" Loimos signed for the undead to stop there, it should be no surprise that the livings outside had no idea how the empire of death operated, so rather than asking for a specific rank or title without knowledge of whether or not it existed, they instead specified someone regarding the miasma itself. "How did the dragonmunicate with you?" "There were two of them, general, one seemed to be casting spells to trante the words of the one speaking, do you ept to meet them?" Your next chapter is on My Virtual Library Empire Sprouting ck wings, Loimos saw no reason not to converse with the enemy, Dragonnerie was far, but the dragons were still very much involved already. Chapter 398 Highway "Why are the constructions on the left sidegging behind the ones on the right? Are the architects running into problems?" Horhir asked, jumping from a tform onto a ship. "A young leviathan lives right next to where the constructions began, Poitirus and his lot have been struggling to even make it move away, I had no clue what a leviathan was until I heard of this one, and clearly, it''s no joke¡­" Ourlst responded, looking over the side of his ship, distant rumbles urred for the next few seconds, before all went still. "Should we set up a killing party?" the right hand put up one palm upon the pommel of his de. "No need actually, General Loimos took matters in his own hands for this one" and just as the left hand said this, a massive, twisted mass of slimy scales rose from the depths, without a drop of blood following, the life force within this mighty juvenile was snuffed and reced by death, with a jerk, it swam away peacefully. "This one was a reject, it cleared the area of other powerful creatures however, the architects should have free reign as long as Poitirus is around" showing up behind their backs, Loimos did not look like he had just fought a legendary creature at the bottom of the ocean in the least. One of the reasons progress had be harder was also due to the fact that the corruption unleashed by the ships was no longer nearly as potentpared to the lively waters and air, before, many creatures would just move out of the way without attempting any fight, territorialism did not run rampant down below, but now, the vessels of the undeads appeared more like regr ships, the new method in ce meant that they were more densely packed however, so even that increased aggression did not result in any of them being sunk, only superficial damage. This project was dubbed ''Highway To Belliste'' by the architects, not quite a stylised as their buildings and concept ideas, but they made up for it with the designs they were constructing, as the name implied, the idea was for troops and all undeads to be simply able of walking straight to Belliste without even touched water, this required some defences on the side however, as the miasma would not go much further than the path itself for a fair while, even if Loimos said one thing, he was ustomed to livings making most odd decisions and choices, they were not to be trusted to be even follow their own internal logics. The tform constructed were defended by ships, as well as the winged and marine beasts of Loimos, as well as Poitirus obviously, but thetter was still not ready to be the official guardian of the depths, Loimos himself had no issues dealing with the livings around because they did not know how to protect themselves from his festering death, much like of Thanatok could mow through regr undeads by simple virtue of being a walking bane to them, regr livings without knowledge of their life force failed to defend it from him. And of course, none had ever managed to endure the first strike to learn from their mistake, yet. "Ah, General Loimos! I was wondering how we should proceed once we reached Belliste, it has already been a few years since we begun, and we have only been perfecting our approach, so it should for soon¡­" Horhir asked, ever since Loimos had left the library, getting a hold of their leader had once again be a tall order, having been meeting with the minor lords and gravelords on the regr, probably personally informing them of oceanic regions suitable for their particr influences to be spread upon, or so the two knights guessed. "We will notunch an immediate attack, to secure ourselves from preemptive attacks from other continents, I have taken an oath to engage in regted warfare, at least for a time, not to mention that it appears that they have erected a formidable life barrier" Loimos responded. Ourlst tilted his head a bit. "But sir, you can break oaths at will, can you not, why respect your engagement?" he wondered aloud. "For they do not know of this fact, and it is more favourable to let them believe that we are ones to honour and respect our engagements with livings, we shall keep this under wraps until they wholeheartedly believe that oaths are set in stone, they will demand for more as time passes, they will not see iting" reaching for something in his pocket, not bothering to precise that they should keep their mouth shut about this little fact. Loimos handed over a ne to the two of them. "I have figured how to turn the blessing ofprehension into an artefact, the forges also hold this knowledge, all troops will be granted one in due time" exining this, he called for another undead he knew to be around. Basicallying crawling over the ground, prostrating before him and grabbing his hand as though simple touch was an honour. "Saint Loimos! How may I help?!" even more unhinged than the architects, the faithful members of the main church, of the church of death, were somewhat intense. Find adventures on My Virtual Library Empire@@novelbin@@ Loimos, thanks to his mastery of not simply holy death, but divine death, was considered their patron saint, he himself had trained a few of their members from naturally spawned undeads, the priests, priestesses, monks and such always had good affinities for healing, blessings and curses, not to mention that they could often perform the same duties as mages, although still barely emerging, the affiliated churches awaited the deaths of their chosen divinities every day. It was often that the pope, Pontiff Pietrus, would show up to speak with Loimos of invading the divine realm to bring true sanctity of the gods, he and the other followers were very dedicated to finding a way into said realm. This particr priestess was at the head of the missionaries who apanied the vanguard. "Alisiana, our arrival upon Belliste will mark the firstrge scale campaign the vanguard will set uponnd, which means that your own work will also vastly increase, you will have to preach of much more people, poptions with different cultures and beliefs" lifting the priestess off her knees, it looked like there were sparkles in the dark hollows where eyes should be. "Of course my saint! I will not disappoint you, I will make sure to convert all those heretics, they will hear the holy silence, I swear!" jumping in ce, she clenched Loimos''s hand in her own, bringing it up to her face for an ufortable amount of time, probably smelling it as well. And then, she scuttered away, Loimos soon taking off as well, leaving the two knights on their own. "Ourlst, I think I''ll visit the church when we go back to the maind" "You don''t say¡­" Chapter 399 Remnants After much observation, the remnants of Tamaris''s life discovered that the Emerald Realm was inhabited by only one nation, but within which there were two distincts belief systems, wandering around the wilderness, the wildlife seemed rather simple, few monsters were to be found, and even less that were actually aggressive in any capacity, the actually dangerous ones were easily avoided, and they were better left alone as one of the two poptions worshipped beasts, fighting and killing such beasts was a sacred rite that was not done on a whim.@@novelbin@@ Although understanding thenguage of those people was not easy, the beast worshippers were easily swayed thanks to the presence of Poho, the talent holder in smithing, as a bearfolk, he had aspect of an animal directly upon his body, which was something those people sought after in their practices, and also thanks to Mamiel, talent holder in taming, giving her a close connection to beasts. Thanks to those two, forming a good connection with those folks was achieved without much of a hurdle, although their practices could seem a bit odd, and perhaps even horrific in certain aspects, everyone kept their mouth shut on this, now was not a time to make enemies of the locals. As for the other half of the poption, they also worshipped something of their own, but instead of the beasts poption thend, it was up that they discovered something worth following, the emerald sun that gave this realm all of its personality, as such, it was religion that ruled this realmpletely, which might exin why other conducts of power felt so odd to use, or it could just be the fact that a realm could have it own rules, nobody could just know for certain. The followers of the emerald sun were otherwise more spiritual and approachable than their fellows, Antieeld in particr was managing to pick up theirnguage quite quickly. "Each of the two religions have three main castes each, forming a sort of triangle each, with one above the other two, the highest rank achievable ording to their beliefs" dressed in her stitched back together white uniform, left side of the face now adorned with arge, ck eyepatch, covering arge portion as the wound she had suffered was rather lengthy, Minli was always worried that it might be infected and considering that it had somewhat grazed themandant''s skull, it would be immediately bad it that were to ur. "Ah, so they mirror one another¡­" remarked Helena, only a few faint bruises remained upon her face, standing as one of the least injured of the troop. "Indeed, for the beast worshippers, in the lower portion, they have the beast followers and beast sorcerers, both of which gain their abilities and strength via enlightenment of some sort, deepening their understanding of beasts seem to have that effect on them, even going as far as transforming some¡­" "So warriors and mages? What about the higher caste?" Milo asked, sitting down on the grass, they had established a small camp amidst the tall grass, to the right of their position, the sun worshippers lived mostly in tall tower that seemed to defy gravity, obviously trying to get closer to the object of their faith, to the left, the beast worshippers lived mostly in tightly packed towns, close to nature, although the two poptions seemed to ovep a fair bit. The refugees of Tamaris had feared that the two were at odds with one another, but as far as they could see, they went along well, oddly well some might add, in the end, both were of the same species, and from the looks of it, both beliefs had developed alongside one another. "The Divine Dancing Priestesses, they are the highest caste of the beast worshippers, I was told that their dances can bend nature to their will, they channel aspects of beasts so firmly they hardly look like the people they once were, I have heard" no one had ever seen one of those, ever, although supposedly rather numerous, the bulk of them moved to a more sacred ground, some sort of pilgrimage. Experience new tales on My Virtual Library Empire "Only priestesses?" Hoffnu, the talent holder in the handling of a sword, walked over, still a bit wobbly from having her spine disced by Loimos. "Apparently not only, but they are apparently much more likely to achieve the requirement to be divine dancers" Antieeld almost lifted her eyepatch to scratch an itch, but themandant was stopped right in her track by Minli''s harsh re, much like a honey badger, one would better not provoke this small-sized girl. It was like she had eyes in the back of her head, even as she checked up on everyone''s wounds, making sure that nothing had gone wrong, changing bandages and applying oils and the likes, thankfully, she had help from Sp, the talent holder in alchemy, thisnky woman who always smelled of herbs had been having a great time discoveringpletely new ingredients anding up with novel recipes, which also aided Minli. All help was wee, as the wounds she had to look over were mostly severe. Ansonio, Poho, Mamiel, Sp and Liebeln were unhurt as they had participated in any sort ofbat. Hoffnu had almost nearly lost the ability to walk, Antieeld had lost an eye, Molc had somehow survived after having his chest and face nearly shredded, Menhirel had lost her left hand, Marl''s throat had suffered permanent damage, Merno had had his eyes rendered to notice but gooey pieces, he would never recover his sight and had to wear a blindfold to protect the injury from anything that could get stuck in there. As for the elemental champions¡­ Alosfit had lost his left leg, everything beneath the knee was gone. Defoim''nocle had lost her right arm, simrly missing below the elbow. Forven had had one of his arms broken, but thankfully, it would heal back, though it had been close to requiring an amputation. Filiusorci''s rib had almost all been broken or otherwise damaged, his face bearing deep scars, he had to not breathe too deeply lest he enter a world of pain. Dasato had endured an explosion at point-nk, most of her chest shredded away, regrowing the flesh would require some time, without the bandages, one would be able of seeing bones and lungs at work. Neige had lost half of her face, simrly exposing what should be kept protected beneath flesh and skin, Poho was working on a mask to properly protect that portion as bandages were rather crude due to the extent of the damage. Both of Msir''s wrists had been broken, but Loimos had been rather clean with it, some time would be needed before she regained her dexterity, but it was better than losing her handspletely. But despite all of those gruesome, and evesting wounds, the worst toll had been taken on their spirits, the pure undead had truly etched a mark of fear in their souls, they had basically been powerless to do anything. The thought of the vile corpse only brought disgust to Antieeld. "Well¡­ As I was saying, the sun worshippers also have three castes¡­" it was best not to linger on too much on the past for now, they had things to do in the present, things that did not involve Loimos one bit, even if his existence never exited their minds. Chapter 402 He Is Here "Atst, our true test is here" Ourlst and Horhir stood behind their general, after years of constant work, of constant fighting off marine livings, spreading miasma and turning the ocean overflowing with life into one overflowing with what was right, their great highway had reached Belliste atst, none of them even knowing the exact number of years by this point, even with their faster pace thanks to progressing in a line, it had taken an ungodly amount of time, one needed to know that the undeads worked without pause, be it physical or mental. Such a project would have been deemed impossible and cost countless lives for the livings to aplish, but for the followers of eternity, it was all a matter of time, and this time hade. "Begin the spread of miasma around the continent" ordered Loimos, his right and left hands rying the word, a wide tform of ck stone had been built, and soon, it would be extended to grasp the continent into a chokehold. The putrid undead approached the life barrier, a real prodigy of its sort, bringing up one palm against its uneven surface, pushing up against it, using all of his strength, he went right through, this was not a malfunction, it was working perfectly as intended. Discover exclusive tales on My Virtual Library Empire Loimos could read the functions and capabilities of this barrier, and testing it himself, it was clear that it had been refined multiple times over, without undeads to put it to the test, it should have been difficult, but he had agents to inform him of how they had proceeded, a dragon aligned death in some capacity, a necromancer of some sorts, hade to aid them in the testing, although nothing like death force, or his own festering death, it had allowed them to work in the right direction, Loimos could not breach it. If something could be endured, the barrier would take it head-on and block its passage, if something would deal severe damage, they were let through, passing the defences to the inner effects of the barrier, if he wanted to step inside, past a certain limit, one would need to ept an oath to limit their strength and such, the functions of the barrier were clearly meant to be changed at any time. The barrier itself was not simr at all to that of Tamaris, not only was it much stronger across the board, it''s shape was not a pyramid, rather, it was formed like some sort of mountain, rugged and jagged, its surface capable of changing its overall toughness and sticity to amodate for different types of blows, the way it was kept together was also much less exploitable by the undeads.@@novelbin@@ Tamaris''s pyramid had been maintained by livings in person, here, a particr machine, aplex tool had been constructed that could provide for the barrier without living intervention, so simply piling up damage to tire out whoever maintained and repaired the barrier was not avable. Not to mention, that they had kept a fair portion of the surrounding ocean for themselves, obviously, the south thrived partly on fishing, they would probably want to negotiate non-aggression on their fishermen. Loimos had agreed to engage in regted warfare against Belliste, and so had they in return, the detail of such warfare were to be decided between himself, and the four greater warlords, unlike them, he already knew quite a bit about each and every one of them, Sst had managed make Loimos take away his headhunters, and only the headhunters. All of them were all neatly aligned a distance behind him, alongside his trusty rank and file, his knights and many others, the ones at the forefront were those he had deemed capable enough to be titled champions of the vanguard. It was an honour unlike any other to be recognised as such by Death''s Chosen Champion himself, it was like being graced by death itself through him in a sense, but the strongest of his forces may not be put to use inbat at first. Indeed, one thing that was to be noticed, especially with himself, is that as well oiled and thought-out this barrier outer and inner parameters might have be, suppressing an undead as powerful as Loimos was not done with ease, so if him and all of his strongestbatant entered the barrier, the lower ranks, and perhaps even some elites, would be capable of entering without any drawbacks. Loimos might just call up the minor lords to help in this regard just to be certain, it all depended on how the first negotiations went, the warlords knew that it was best for them to agree to engage in regtedbat, as if left to their own devices, the undeads would inevitably figure something out, no, it was preferable to fight on their own terms, as such, Loimos predicted that they would make certain to make him take an oath to not attempt destruction of the barrier. Retracting his hand, the general gave an order to a small group of skeleton with feathered, white wings and garbed in ample white robes, each were holding salpinx-type trumpets, the small troop was led by seven distinct skeletons that were an additional piece of cloth, coloured in grey, none of the seven put their instrument to use, and insteadmand the rest to y a loud tune. For a few seconds, they yed, and once they stopped, all spoke in unison, words of death tongue, beckoning the livings to show themselves. "People of Belliste, Champion Loimos has arrived" and with this, Loimos stepped fully through the barrier, surrounded by suffocating life, he fell downward from the tform,nding upon the plentiful waters, sending faint ripples that travelled far with each of his steps. The warlords were not far, of course all would be present when the undead empire was right up to their doorstep, Belliste had a most peculiar sun, King Nitok''s collection had yet to get a hold of one of those, even with the great amounts of different one seized from Viridis, The Prince Of Death, as well as many of Loimos''s own soldiers were collectors, and Belliste was a treasure trove of valuable intel. Combuscrus''s pyromancy, Maulerd''s feasting and Cribler''s eye imntation, their techniques were unique and interesting, Cleavster might seem less interesting inparison, but he had also created something interesting, even if not intentionally, his order of knights being a meld of self-imposed restrictions and battle arts that had naturally developed, even Loimos would not pretend being capable of reproducing the way this had been put in ce, at least not without knowing the exact way it hade to be. With knowledge of what they could bring to the table, of what they were like, the four warlords appeared within sight, their respective right hands behind them, all of them tensed up for a split instant, nearly imperceptible, Loimos knew exactly what muscles had tensed however. The trusted warriors brought a few things with them, putting together a nice table, seats and such directly upon the dark yellow sand of the Southern Shores, the livings remaining close around this wide round table, whilst Loimos was opposite to them, leaning back and interlocking his hands. Discussion was to begin soon. Chapter 404 Inactivity It was most bizarre, soldiers and knights remained perched upon great fortifications, such ramparts had been erected precisely for a conflict unlike any other, and yet, themon folks, the fishermen could calmly walk in and out, pass through the confusing, illogicalyout of the undead camps, it had been allowed for one or two knights to apany the fishermen, just to reassure the people who were forced to get much too close too cadavers that yet moved, decay, stagnation, dust and other filth mingled in the air, making one gag even after dozens of times. Every time, without fail, fear would grasp their heart, in their eyes, nothing was stopping the corpses from cutting them all down, outside, with never more than a single brave knight, they could be swarmed and butchered in under a minute, but of course, the vanguard was steeled with discipline, simply standing around like statues. Still, the knights scanned their surroundings at all times, from the moment they stepped away from the ramparts, when they reached the waters, as they fished, and when they headed back, the elites of the south were not only here to calm the nerves of their fishermen, but also to try and scout out the enemy, it was the undeads''s prerogative to decide when a battle would ur, the people of Belliste would remain on the defensive, yet, it had already been a week since the leader of the vanguard hade, and apart from setting up camps, nothing had happened. Their camps were something the knights were looking out for, they blended clearly contrasting architectures, meshed and grafted together in a way that was so off, so confusing that it had to be intentional, tents of all kinds, wooden structures, stone and iron amongst others things, the Bellistians did not know that, but these abominations were the clear mark that the architects had been given free reign when it came to the looks. Discover hidden content at My Virtual Library Empire But never did any of the livings were able of peeking at whatid within those absurd creations, the undeads never moved in or out in their presence, they didn''t even move at all actually, as such, all that the knights were capable of confirming was the presence of tools of warying around, racks of weapons and the various sorts of undeads. In this regard, the south was doing pretty well as they had the excuse of having to go fish in the waters, it was highly probable that the undeads knew very well what they were trying to aplish, but they just let it happen, the other regions were less lucky, they were hidden in smallmittee in wide biomes, their food close at hand, they were hiding within their own territories, but they too wanted to get an idea of what they were up against. The south had furnished their allies with the enchanted longviews they held the secret to, so that they may watch the enemy from afar, sharing intel in between them, it seemed like that even though the diversity of warriors within the ranks of the vanguard wasrge, that the ones that gave out orders were majorly the in-looking ck knights, garbed in a helm somewhat simr to that of Loimos, all carried a greatbow but tended to wield massively different weapons, even amongst the most numerous, which had to be the footsoldiers of Loimos, there was a remarkable palette of weapons amidst them, although their sheer number meant that many still shared the same weaponry, it was surprising.@@novelbin@@ Especially the one carrying what seemed like big hunks of woods, heavy crossbows and what seemed like cannons, some soldiers of the living were worried that these weapons would be capable of piercing right through the defences they had erected. Alisart Cleavster went through the reports everyday, descriptions of especially fearsome undeads amidst them, corpses his people had deemed to be one of a kind, rather than part of a caste, identifying those as possible high-ranking officers of Loimos, although none were close to the walls A slender knight equipped with a long and short sword, wearing an armour of silver, a piece of cloth tied around the chest and waist, seemingly depicting four distinctively coloured circles, that one always remained seated under a shade, only noticeable thanks to the longviews. Amongst the undeads there were also missionaries of sort, they often showed up near the ramparts, singing praises and sermons about death, the one leading them was a priestess with nothing particr about her apart from the intensity with which that woman would recite words presumably straight out of a book she carried, although, never did that missionary require to even open it to do it with confidence. No, what was more odd was the gaunt putrefied zombie with a beard still somehow clinging to his chin, his eyes shined a dark red and upon the head, a mitre rested, a deacon of the church of death, or so logic dictated, even with his back arched, tall he still remained, using a staff taller than himself as cane, unlike the others who were singing and dancing around like maniacs, he just stood a distance away. One of the most striking, at least to Alisart, was the one that had been described as wearing an armour forged specifically to look like many hands embracing him, from the greaves to the helm, everything looked like exceptionally realistic hands, even the handle of his great executioner''s sword was a hand grasping his own, the only thing that made a difference was the simple, tainted white cape upon this undead''s back. Not only did this one have a particrly striking appearance, he was rather active, always watching from a distance when a group of fishermen went out, as if just itching to grab one and squeeze the life out of them. There were probably special individuals amongst the ranks of the undead vanguard, but they had yet to show themselves, the southern king read through everything, even if not unique, many of the castes were definitely elites in their own rights, one just needed to take one nce to know that, from the looks of things, there were even beasts and monsters amidst them. "What about the regr soldiers? Was anyone capable of gleaning any details to their fighting style and such?" speaking to Aramap that stood just at the corner of his vision, Cleavster felt tense, not once had Loimos shown himself since that meeting. Hemunicated through messenger birds with the other warlords, but neither of them had caught sight of him either, the leader was probably overseeing the progress of their miasma ring around the continent, but he could not help worry about him, perhaps because a general so confident that he would not show up tomand himself was a ill omen, or perhaps because he would rather keep that monster within sight. It was probably a mix of both. "Sorry my lord, but the undead soldiers are not doing anything other than stand around, we can only infer what sort of formations they may assume by the weapons they most often carry around" Aramap shook his head, always throwing nces at the door, expecting a messenger to announce that the undead had decided for a battle to soon take ce. But another week went by without anything happening.