Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"I see that you have three candidates picked out already" casually walking up, Loimos spoke up.

"Oh! If it isn't my favourite boneman! It has been a little while Loimos, how did you get there? It felt like you just appeared on the island, did you master long-range teleportation? Or did you travel through a realm of death?" Nosferatu remarked, the gravelord slapping his hand down on Loimos's shoulder with enough force to blow some of the dust-like ground away from where they both stood.

"I simply have a body stationed here"

"Huh… That's less entertaining…"

Standing side by side, it was undeniable that they both seemed to have a very similar idea of what good fashion was, being a long, dark mantle as the main course, although, it was certainly questionable why one of them had settled on this look…

"...But indeed! Look at those three, I know they don't seem like much for now, but I can sense an inkling of something in their blood, I don't know if that makes them minor lord material just yet, but they are undoubtedly special, what do you say? You are the expert on finding hidden gems, after all" it was certainly true that Loimos had found and trained many talented undeads.

Some in areas that he had himself founded, such as Sari and astrology.

Others in the abilities of gravelords and other illustrious undead, as well as completely personal talents, such as Tilmiel, which made him something of a talent scout, but when one had such a tight connection with death force, discerning the capabilities of individuals was rather simple.

"All three do have the means to awaken their own vampire blood, and from what I can gather, one seems be somewhat adjacent to Lord Vespertillo's beast blood, one seems to be focused on spreading their vampiric blood as quickly and as simply as possible, and the last one, well, it can already be seen, it would focus on being undetected" true to his reputation, the putrid skeleton was capable of even discerning their abilities even as they remained unawakened.

The three vampires in question were remaining perfectly still, their expressions unchanging as they did their best to not even twitch in front of those two monuments of the empire, having to be around the strongest gravelord was already suffocating enough, but now, the general of the vanguard had showed up out of nowhere.

"What are your names?" asked the latter, his tone remaining the same as it was before, the three taking a second to realise that it was actually a question in their dazed state.

The one further on the left gave a messy salute, he had been recently born from the soil and had a very distinctive appearance from the get-go, not because he was from an odd species, not that there was any regular species amongst the four vampire lords anyways…

But he was seemingly moulded from the image of a human, that of a young man, the thing that set him apart from the other natural vampires was the fact that he lacked the most basic physical features of all, his skin was not pale at all, it would be able of passing off as lively easily, his eyes were not red and he had no fangs to drink blood from victims.

All in all, he looked just like he was alive.

"My name is Mangelanetwas, Sir Loimos!" he nearly shouted out, expecting some sort of response, only to see Loimos turn his head with wholly unnatural speed and precision to the next vampire.

The next person was a bit less tense, instead feeling disturbed by the skeleton, Nosferatu and him were like night and day, the lord had a very strong personality that you could just feel oozing out everytime he spoke or moved, it was easy to get a grasp of his character, Loimos on the other hand, seemed hollow.

"My name is Simplex, Sir Loimos!" he followed the same sentence structure as his fellow.

Simplex was a more regular-looking vampire, he also seemed to be modelled after a young human man, although perhaps not the more common human sort as his head seemed a bit smaller and his features positioned ever-so differently.

Unlike the previous vampire who was dressed in simple pants and a sleeveless shirt, he wore a mag-like robe, carrying himself with more dignity.

Moving on, the third and last vampire Nosferatu had seen some potential amidst the thousands that must have arisen during his stay on the island, this one also looked like a regular denizen of this area.

She looked like a human also, but her ears were rather big and wide, ending with a curvature, formed of nothing but flesh, it might look a bit weird, especially as they kept twitching, flopping up and down, flashing her entire rows of teeth, seemingly finding confidence the other two had lacked.

"I am Murcielago! A pleasure to be meeting you, General Loimos!" she stepped forward, shaking Loimos's hand with both of hers like he was some sort of idol, which he was to just about every undead of the empire, especially those that had arisen after the beginning of his conquest, and especially after he had single handedly introduced a novel way for undeads to multiply.

But clearly, considering the language used, Murcielago was more of a fan because of the first reason, already referring to him like he was her leader already.

"Do you intend on letting them experience the field of battle to awaken their vampiric blood?" asked the skeleton.

"Of course! There is nothing better for an undead to discover themselves than stomping on the heads of some livings!" although crudely expressed, Nosferatu was unequivocally right on this, killing and being bathed in the death force that was created was the most simple and basic way for an undead to increase in strength.

Although other elements were required if one wanted to rise as high as the gravelords, there was little mystery in the main activity they had partook in to climb this far, they had killed and slaughtered without end.

"Which is another reason why I wanted to talk to you… Would there be any small island that could be freed for them to take their first kills?" asked the gravelord, the logistics of what was going on the yet to be conquered lands was fully the business of the vanguard, and considering that Nosferatu would be accompanied by three rookies, he would also favour travel by ship.

Since he had already guessed that all nearby lands yet to be overtaken with the miasma had probably been dealt with already, considering the sheer size of the vanguard's personnel.

"Certainly, I will have a submarine prepared, considering that the distance to travel is great, you will go through many days, light is still strong where the miasma does not reach" Loimos would get an island more-so to the east of Belliste, since on the west, he had already been informed of rather strong sunlight and long days.

"That's great, but what's a submarine?-" Nosferatu began walking away with Loimos, the three vampires relieved of some pressure.

After Loimos explained that a submarine was basically a boat that went underwater and also allowed those inside to not receive light at all, Nosferatu looked back at the future minor lords.

"So, do you think they can make it? Their vampiric bloods does not seem nearly as powerful as that of me and the other three, like, not even at all"

"They have the capacity, and we have the means, they are not pressed by anything to grow stronger quickly, eternity is theirs to enjoy, the livings are highly unlikely to ever penetrate the miasma to launch any attack" confirmed Loimos, also pointing out the fact that there was no race for them to run.

Unlike the seven minor lords, they would not have to fight into a total conflict where danger would come from every side, so obviously, they would need more time to compensate the pressure of having to fight battles constantly and against livings whose strength was comparable to theirs, the crucible of war was no longer present, especially now that The Graveyard had achieved its full power, no undead would ever be truly defeated, it certainly removed a pressing matter when in combat.

"Mmh…" crossing his arms and nodding in agreement, Nosferatu then assumed his trademark saucy smile as he leaned forward.

"...But seriously though, how do you do it? How do you magnetise women like that?" he asked, his bushy eyebrows rising and falling repeatedly.

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Nosferatu did not think about the fact that Loimos would respond in the way he always did, with only careful observations and factual information with no hint of humour or anything.

He quickly regretted engaging the skeleton onto such a topic, he had also planned to ask about One and what he intended to do with her, as a joke, but after enduring the consequences of his first question, he decided that it would be best to leave that for another time.

"That… Was very insightful, thank you, Loimos… Your explanations were very detailed-" a smile quickly regained his lips however "-You should tell that to Dracula, Verpertillo and Atsalinopalo too!"

"I think they would love to hear about it…"