Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Sitting cross-legged upon a cactus, brown hair in a mess, intertwined with feathers of brilliant dark blue and green that fell upon the back, with hands that appeared a mix of blue and purple, like the skin of an asphyxiated corpse, nails dark but surprisingly in good shape. Discover more content at My Virtual Library Empire

Said hands were held right above the curious bird's eyes, scanning the horizon with intensity, emitting a melodious sound, bouncing right back at her, the nightbird stood up and stepped off the prickly growth.

The hummingbird, as she was called was the most trusted nightbird under Tilmiel's command, walking across the sand, leaving no traces of any steps, not solely due to her training, but also the simple fact that she weighted practically nothing, small in size like her titular volatile, Topi of her actual name, had been trusted with continuing for searches in the Western Cliffs, at the moment, most attention was on the Eastern Peaks, as they had an actual lead to follow.

Here however, the undead was chasing white rabbits, her information gathering and surveillance skills were top notch, but not quite developed enough to find trace of the easterners, it seemed, jumping from platform to platform, scouring the countless ravines that ran deep within the land, she was starting to wonder how it was that a headhunter had even found their place of dwelling in the first place.

Headhunters dressed in black weren't even the best of the sort, like many corpses of the female variety, Topi was never against following Loimos around, so she had heard and seen a fair bit about those strange fellows.

Those dressed in black were actually lesser variations, a sign that the ego of the person used as a base had failed to take root within the depths of this undead, which was a common occurrence for them, even if certain mannerisms and alike could shine through, they were ultimately deprived of their original powers.

The ones dressed in any other colours had maintained their ego however, said ego serving as a nexus on top of allowing the headhunter to freely utilise their past skills and such.

A regular one could only have used natural undead senses to find the right way, senses with all nightbirds had keenly developed, so it wasn't a matter of luck.

'Mmh… But the cacti they use to get water can only grow upon these platforms… And livings can't survive without water, especially when the temperature is always so high…' Topi looked down upon the edge, the cliffs gave way into the depth, and she had been warned about them, down there, bottom-prowlers as they were called thrived, strange monsters touched upon by a force that leaked and pooled, stagnating.

Having been by Tilmiel's side for the longest time, the hummingbird tended to always shadow the much larger undead, in fact, Topi was so ridiculously small and weightless that she could hide within Tilmiel's hair or cape of black feathers, basically sinking into them.

Clearly, she had risen from the undead soil and taken the form of a rather small species.

In any case, Topi was often on her senior's back, and had thus the great honour of hearing many conversations.

This included an idea as to what it was that accumulated at the bottom of the ravines, since none of the knowledgeable heads, including Loimos, had learned of it from anywhere, they had simply named it as 'deep sludge', assuming that it was a lesser form, or an offshoot of the greatly invasive and destructive Abyss.

'Would they really willingly descend into the depths?' wondered the nightbird, squatting down as one knuckle rubbed the tip of her nose, if it was close to the Abyss, the entire continent would have already been consumed, so it was safe to assume that the livings could survive there, but thriving and hunting the bottom-prowlers was another story, those things should be beyond poisonous to consume.

The only way to know for sure would be to catch one for themselves, but Horhir was reluctant to send anyone to test things out, that was one of his flaws in Topi's opinion, he was too soft, whether it was because he didn't want to lose any undeads under his command, or if the black knight was actually hesitant because the nightbirds were made up of mostly women, nobody could tell for sure.

What was there to fear after all? They were undeads, and not only that, they were truly eternal thanks to The Graveyard.

Topi might as well cut her losses and at least get intel on the creatures below, which life forces she could sense squirming around, it was like staring at a thousand centipede all bundled together.

Without worry, the hummingbird stepped off the ledge, as though the air was water, she slowly descended, stopping every dozen of meters or so to assess the situation, noting every minute changes down into an adorably small notebook, in which she wrote and drew using a severed finger that never seemed to run out of blood.

Progressively going lower and lower, she moved downward for a long while before seeing any signs of the deep sludge, which was truly contained at the very bottom of the cliffs, although it looked like a river branching off into every single possible ravine, it could not be stated to be coursing, it was just a very long puddle that only moved when the terrain forced it into movement, even then, it flowed like it stuck to the very air, she certainly didn't want to touch it, that thing would definitely stick to her like a duckling did to its mother.

As for the bottom-prowlers, Topi had been expecting an impolite welcome with a fair share of screaming and pouncing, but they completely ignored her, in fact, it seemed like they didn't even register that she was there.@@novelbin@@

She threw a rock loudly, no reaction.

Whistled with enough oomph for the sound to bounce around with the same potency for several minutes, no reaction.

She placed herself at every possible angle, no reaction.

Unleashed a strong odour, no reaction.

Only when she threw a rock directly at one of them did it actually react, but then again, it did not seem to understand that this rock had come from somewhere, simply continuing on as if nothing happened seconds after.

Clearly, they were all blind, deaf and had no sense of smell, only moving around by touch it seemed, doing so very naturally, when they brushed past one another, they either ignored, or attacked and devoured the fellow bottom-prowler.

Lastly, the nightbird retrieved a small pebble, clenching it tightly for a moment, throwing it to the ground.

Nothing happened for a few seconds, and then, a faint spark of green came out.

Every single monster in the area and even further away suddenly lost its mind, the ravines erupting into a clamour as they tore through their fellows, climbing upon the corpses to get to this minuscule pebble as though it held the secret to immortality.

'Interesting…'

Living creatures that were keenly aware of life force, or at least, of life force that was not tainted by the deep sludge, as they seemed to mostly ignore the denizens.

Noting this down as well, Topi began ascending back, it was enough information for today.