Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

One thing that was hard to miss, was that much like King Nitok, Loimos was concerned with improving the undead legion, the territory, the technology and all that related rather than focusing on slaughtering the living and expanding the territory as quickly as possible, so of course, he wished to make Poitirus into the best version of himself as was possible, although the seas and oceans of this world were very talented at making themselves awfully dangerous, creatures of all kinds, natural phenomena, the sheer size of them, meaning that even the shortest of trips could rapidly end into a bloodbath, and that even without that, the longer travels could easily starve every expedition members before even five percent of the way was traversed.@@novelbin@@

And that was without counting the legendary beings that specifically seemed to despise land-bound creatures traversing over water, even then, Loimos saw a way to make it even worse, the oceans were set to remain as actual water rather than be converted to corrosive blood, at least the greater majority of them, so simply making everything into acid was not an option.

Having Poitirus expand his miasmic mist and rule over the waters as guardian was an excellent idea however, he was uniquely suited for aquatic environments already, and was also powerful already, but the world was unforgiving, even if Loimos could just subjugate every beast and creature residing in these marine areas, making Poitirus the ruler then, that would be simply misguided, the mistborn needed to not only be the water watcher in title, but also in strength.

So what was better than to subjugate an ancient beast that had received so much worship that it inherited divine properties?

It was all on its own too, the two undeads arriving into an area below the well, here, the water was glistening, the pressure was much less powerful than above, in fact, both noticed that even a regular human would be capable of breathing down here, it was not another quirky environment that decided to go against the pre established logic however, the source of this space being the way it was laid just a distance away, upon the highest point of an old city, built out of bright orange clay.

The inhabitants must have been afraid of height as none of their constructions really went up, top of their homes remaining close to the ground, only their divine beast, most certainly once considered a divinity, was given the right of high ground.

Looking around this old city, it remained in a pristine state, no signs of damage or withering to be seen anywhere, well-fed fishes swimming around, thriving and fattening up without any major predator to disturb their idyllic peace, and yet, no one was inhabiting these homes, no signs of life within.

The city was deserted, only the beast remained in place, lost in a deep slumber, two undeads walking up the stairs to meet with it, their darkness awareness was without use in this space of bright waters, walking over the last step, arriving onto a flat area, surrounding winding pillars shaped into a pyramidal form, rising up against the ceiling of this pocket below the ocean, the ground was covered in fine carving that did not seem to mean much beyond depicting the divine beast, which laid right in the center of this high platform.

It did not look much like an aquatic creature at all, at least at a first glance, its body was large and without legs, perfectly translucent, allowing one to freely gaze upon its crystal-like, brilliant organs and nervous system, emitting beautiful shines, this also allowed anyone to notice that its brain was within the chest, indeed, its head looked nothing like one, if anything, it seemed like a serpentine neck that only ended in a rounded form, a vague orb of crystal shine serving as an eye.

Upon its back, three pairs of small wings, like the kind one would find on some fishes, its arms however, seemed atrophied compared to the overall size of its body, appearing like that of a human, hands with five fingers.

Sleeping soundly, without a sound, the two undeads watched for a moment, before Poitirus decided to act, the mistborn debated whether to stir the waters around the resting beast, but this pocket of water was already under the hold of this divine creature, Loimos was right to covet it, beings that could exert authority over a space were of primordial importance in defending positions.

Since challenging its power would inevitably result in a struggle of their wills, and most certainly awaken the beast, Poitirus instead opted to do it in a simple way, slowly approaching his prey, rising his spear high, wondering whether to go for the brain or the heart, wondering if his spear would manage to pierce its see-through hide.

Wonder he did, but hesitate he did not, with a twist, Poitirus thrusted at the beast's crystal heart, the undead's own crystal spear managed to penetrate, the rumbling sound of glass breaking spread out, the bright water strongly illuminating as the worshipped creature was jolted awake, emitting a melodious cry of pain, part of the targeted organ cracked.

Sending Poitirus away with a swing of its arm, the beast dove directly into the ground, swimming into the solid matter, quick to get back to attention even after being brutally pulled out of a lengthy rest, it reemerged below the undead, trying to crush him in between its palm, the crooked corpse was more agile than he appeared, evading and striking at the beast's wrist, shaving off part of its flesh into shards.

Raising its other hand, gathering the shine seen in the water all around, manifesting a rain of the bright light.

From the sidelines, Loimos watched without intervening, the beast was powerful on the behalf that it had once been the idol of a whole population, but it had definitely never been used as a beast of warfare, the usage of its divine powers was wonky at best and clearly not instinctive.

With the head start Poitirus had gotten, he should definitely emerge victorious, especially as he began wrestling the beast for control over the water, completely throwing it off, although it had an advantage since this was its territory and was imbued with its divine powers, Poitirus had a definitive advantage on the technical side, Mistdrown had had its fair share of problems that required to be dealt with.

Not to mention that he had received some guidance after becoming an undead, but Loimos was vigilant still, not of the divine beast, but of whatever had been able of taking its worshippers without waking it.