Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Soon after the subjugation of the north, the Central Plains were completely deprived of all people, the continent of Belliste, land of unending conflicts and thriving warriors, had been successfully subjugated by the undead empire’s vanguard, crushing all resistance.

Great strongholds were erected in all five regions with a rapidity only the raving lunatics that were the architects and builders could achieved, each made with a goal beyond simply serving as fortresses, no, this sort of specialised defensive constructions were were going to be popping up across the surrounding ocean once it was also conquered, on top of that, Belliste was already surrounded by a belt, that was nearly a dome by now, put together as the miasma was steadily spreading around the landmass.

In the Northern Swamp, region that had immediately shown its willingness to work with the empire after attaining undeath, a mobile fort was built instead, without a proper name its own like the rest, it was dubbed as the Wandering Sepulchre, which was an actually an undead golem created through the means of Gravelord Atsalinopalo’s ability, harbouring its very own flame of pyromancy, not only serving as a great watcher and defender, but also bestowing aid upon those that cultivated their own flame.

Which was soon going to be an even greater percentage of the population as undeath allowed for much more simplicity in the learning of this fiery way of power, and also as the people here would no longer pass away, their numbers would do naught but increase as time went on.

Especially since they were former livings, procreation would still seem like a normal thing to partake in for multiple generations even as natural undeads would eventually begin to emerge from the swamp.

In the Western Cliffs, the very small population overall meant that keeping an eye out for possible negators was exceptionally easy, especially thanks to Loimos unveiling a brand new caste soon after the military conquest of Belliste concluded, if the nightbirds were a sisterhood of specialists, then the prowling shadows would be a brotherhood of generalists.

Although both dealt in the business of stealth and battle arts, the former was a smaller caste with a more focused area of business, whilst the latter was a much larger caste with a broader reach.

Nightbirds were all rather distinct individuals with different styles, the prowling shadows all had the same style of combat.

In any case, their greater numbers and predisposition to engage in surveillance meant that acting as the eyes and ears for Ourlst and Horhir was a job designated for them. Experience tales with Freewebnovel

So far however, whether it be because of no occasion to do act afoul or actual loyalty, the westerners did not show any signs of treachery or blasphemy against death so far, in fact, they were rather cooperative when it came to spreading undeath to the drylurkers and bottom-prowlers.

The deep sludge infested hollows in the ravines were not a tough terrain to navigate for those that thrived in true darkness, and it was where the stronghold of this region was established.

The Corrupted Undercroft was made into a place of both study and worship, as sorceries were created relating to the deep sludge, as transplantation was analysed and as the vile matter was blessed and welcomed as a part of the empire, unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the Abyss that had most probably created the sludge was nowhere to be found, not even a trace of where the opening to this terrific realm had manifested.

In the Eastern Peaks, things were not quite as ideal, the feasters were confrontational people, and that was not changed by their death, many, much too many fools seemed emboldened by their new capabilities, when it came to in-tribe troubles, all was fine as their lord could still deal with them without a problem, harvesting their meat and such before throwing their unrecognisable heads away for the vanguard to pick up, successfully dealing with a fair bit of negators this way.

But the majority of those fools did not take their complaints to their chieftain, but instead to the vanguard itself, since they were no undeads, destroying them would only be sending them to The Graveyard, and setting a system up to pick up those who lived in death as they were reformed, while necessary as some would definitely end up taken apart, was not the ideal solution.

Instead, the rebelling feasters were subdued and captured, sent away to what many assumed were some sorts of prisons, but only a handful knew it was actually the Erado they ended up at, purged by the blade of Carnifex, those undeads were not sent to The Graveyard…

For those in the know, it was a stark reminder that treachery was a way that only led to disgrace.

As for the easterners that stayed in line, they were made to discover their region’s own fortress, built beneath a mountain, the Searing Mausoleum was constantly filled with steam, one’s feet would easily melt against the ground as it was entirely made from iron, although not all rooms were gravely hot, as the purpose of this place was very much in line with the feasters, serving as some sort of grand kitchen for feasting to be developed further.

In the Southern Shores, it was where the majority of negators dwelled, and since their population was the greatest on the continent, monitoring was not at all simple, nor easy.

Horhir and Ourlst felt like Loimos had had Maliah go about as she wished to purposefully antagonise the southerners and make sure that they would encounter troubles in their post-war leading positions, on one hand, he had demonstrated how to properly integrate former livings in the north, whilst doing the opposite in the south.

Fittingly, the stronghold there was dubbed as the Lost Ossuary for it was one that was well concealed, the entrances reassembled nothing more than simple shrines made to commemorate the dead, the way to enter not at all obvious and more so, each of those entrances were lost amongst the tall grasses, newer ones only planned when the south’s loyalty was secured.

In any case, this stronghold was definitely the largest of them, being made of countless tunnels, some of them so narrow that if an average-sized living wanted to get through, they would need to breath out all of the air in their lungs to make their chest lower whilst they forced through against jagged rocks and dust-filled spaces.

Since understanding and implementing orderly ranks was something of great importance, the headquarter of research was not situated there, instead, it would serve as a magnificent breeding ground for natural undeads to emerge from.

Lastly, in the Central Plains, only empty ruins remained as all livings had been captured, either to be used as subjects in experiments, to be used to test weapons and such, or to be given to Gunlaurgh and the instructors for them to further refine their teaching techniques.

The fort here was rather imposing, the Chain Tower, aptly named as it was linked to what would become future floating islands, serving as the main hub for Belliste, at its top, an intricate teleportation array was currently in creation, meant to link the two continents under the undead empire’s control.