Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"So, those undeads waged war on the livings?

That seems like a logical outcome" the herald swung her feet in the air as she sat upon Antieeld's bed, the commandant having described the war against the undeads in broad strokes, the eternal night, drowned in most absolute darkness, the unending ranks of the dead, their blinding strength, the gravelords, all of the powerhouses housed by the dark empire, the spread of malignant miasma, the slaughter, the losses.

But the most memorable of all was Loimos, probably the cog that had led to the rebirth of the undead empire, appearing from nowhere, a measly skeleton that had set out to slaughter the living, and to this end, he had gotten deeply involved, infiltrating the academy, fooling even the volcano witch, he had ruined Syklon's entire criminal network, he had murdered and impersonated Lunate and for Antieeld, what she remembered best, was the fact that he had killed Gelter, and even began wearing the noble knight's armour as his own.@@novelbin@@

To the livings as a whole, his most vile act had been the victory over Thanatok obviously, the hero of life had been a curious individual, not really prone to cooperation, only interested in facing a powerful undead, a wish he had most definitely gotten.

"If I understand correctly, you did not specifically intend to end up in the Emerald Realm, and simply aimed to be transported away from death? It is a rather dangerous game…" the herald smiled, leaning her head within one palm.

Although Antieeld greatly respected the greater members of this odd society, she had had the occasion of conversing with Arzt, the carver, who did not seem to hold either of the worships in great esteem, but then again, the fact that he could do his own thing and was still alive meant that they weren't too angry about it, but there was definitely something a bit disturbing about people who were truly, one hundred percent devoted to worship and nothing else.

Antieeld had seen a few churches like this back on Viridis, but they, even if silent, had worshipped actual deities, here, the people prayed to regular beasts and to the sun, not as symbols of something greater, but those concepts directly.

The commandant did not know exactly why the carver thought poorly of them, the hairy man would never elaborate, he was only willing to speak about carving and naming, he never stopped with the former, but with the latter, he would often blank out in the middle of a sentence and just never end it, no matter how many times he was questioned, the same result would always occur.

One thing Antieeld had understood however, was to not speak of the world beyond this realm to anyone, unless they clearly demonstrated already be knowledgeable about it, the heralds and priestesses were definitely not favourable to everyone knowing that there was something beyond this world, in fact, they explained the presence of smoke-less folks through some incredibly convoluted means, which were not really questioned as everyone was much too worried about communing. Your adventure continues at My Virtual Library Empire

"...But you have nightmares of this undead despite not participating in the battle with him? That is a bit odd… Especially with how clear those dreams are"

"Clear? You can see what I was dreaming about?"

"Ah, do not take it the wrong way, I am not wandering the halls of this tower at night because it's my hobby, I am the herald in charge of checking if the light reflected by the moon is in a good mood, I feared that the repetitive nightmares of you and your people were due to our glorious sun having a bone to pick with you, or being generally mischievous!

Our good sun is a leading force, but it is like us in many ways as well, we are used to its sense of humour, so our kind sun tends to be a bit heavy handed with outsiders" chuckling whilst covering her mouth, Ioleznta leaned further back.

"Alas, it seems like your problem can not be traced back to a distasteful joke, but rather to the simple impression this Loimos left upon you all!

Some individuals are simply that remarkable, and the simplest way to become as such is to gather power, we emerald heralds and divine dancing priestesses become exceptional beings through contact with something greater, surely, 'death' is an exalted force similar to our lovely sun…"

Standing up, brushing her shoulders and legs, she put the hood back on.

"...But fret not, Miss Antieeld, I consider you as guests and friends, and I certainly found you lot more accommodating than some previous outsiders, and death in the Emerald Realm, is far from death in your previous realm, I am certain that even if your bogeyman finds his way here, that he would not find the voyage very pleasant"

With these reassuring words, Ioleznta finally exited the room, allowing for Antieeld to lay back down into her bed, it was a bit harder to fall back asleep, not because of the nightmares or because the herald had been discussing with her for a while now, but because the commandant was now aware that every night, a woman was walking around with full knowledge of what people were dreaming about, she probably knew more about people's dreams than they themselves did.

Which was certainly worrying.

Closing her eyes anyways, she still had to catch some sleep, mind drifting away, slowly but surely lulled to slumber once again, but yet again, a malevolent figure took center stage within the illusory scape of her dreams, often, it involved the undead simply walking toward her, unfazed no matter what got in the way.

Fists clenched unknowingly, harder than those of a dead man, the vision that tormented her nights the most was those she knew were close to reality, when he killed people that he had truly murdered.

Him, disguised as his persona of Osworth, plunging his arm straight through Gelter's chest, her knight melting away, decaying as his armour became Loimos's.

As the scenery faded to true darkness, Antieeld thought that she had woken up again, as she found herself to be in full control, she saw as she should, all movements felt correct, only that she still stood in absolute darkness, and most importantly, she was standing dressed in her white uniform, in fact, she quickly realised that both eyes were blinking, no signs of the eyepatch or wound anywhere.

"Am I… A bit smaller?" she unwillingly spoke aloud, a singular tree appearing into view, small and with a crooked trunk, small apples that definitely seemed like the kind to assault the roof of your mouth with a cascade of sugar.

From the base of this tree, the darkness vanished, replaced by the refreshing sight of a small hut, lost in the countryside, the sun was a brilliant yellow, the sky was blue.

This was not the realm of emerald, and yet, it did not feel like a dream.

"Miss Antieeld?" a voice called out to her, was it coming from the house? From behind? No, she looked and instead found the owner standing right by the tree.

She knew this man.

"...What?"

He raised his hand, mouth opening as he tried to say something, but only silence came out, everlasting silence, within moments, the man was gone, the tree was dead, the house was ruined, and now standing where he had stood…

There he was once again, an unnatural ecosystem, a fauna and flora that should not be blooming all around, putrescent flowers, blood flowing in place of rivers, the light of the sun weakening as it turned pale and frail.

Antieeld thought she heard countless drums arising from all around her, it was but her heart.

It only took an instant, he vanished and darkness filled her vision from the left.

The commandant leapt from her bed, pain flaring from the wound, hands bloodied as her own fingernails had dug into the palms, feeling like her heart was going to explode, she could only utter two words.

"-Quideos Audit!"