Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"It still feels like I am dreaming" said a man, garbed in a simple tunic provided by the sun worshippers, which was easy to tell as they were always dressed in green.

"Get a grip, it's been months now" responded another, who looked rather similar to the first.

"I mean, can you believe that we- The two of us, managed to somehow survive, of all people? I thought for certain that this random one-armed undead was going to butcher us and slap us in our faces for even thinking to try anything" he sighed, it had really been a stroke of luck.

"Come on now, we are only alive because of our practice of running away, that's what we did the most in all of our adventuring career" that was also true, few could somehow escape in a panic across an unforgiving terrain, know how to keep running in fear even when falling and tripping every step of the way.

It certainly was a skill to master, one that the brave sorely lacked.

Both of the men turned quiet as they stepped upon a balcony, the height could easily makes one's skin crawl, the tall towers of the sun worshippers could indeed get extremely high, whilst still preserving this oddness in the architecture, as the towers would always spread out to the side with solid bridges of stone and sorts of miniature towers at the end of them, logic would dictate that trying something of this nature should result in at least the bridge breaking and throwing the small tower to the ground.

But somehow, it never happened, even when the base of the tower, which was actually linked to the soil, was much thinner than sub-towers linked to it and everything else directly above, the constructs never did as much as slightly crack, always standing tall under the warmth of the emerald sun.

Having no churches like Viridis used to have, worship of the sun was instead done anywhere where it light could reach, thus the presence of countless balconies that were always bathed with its radiance, some even communed at night surprisingly enough, instead praying alongside the reflected light of their astral deity upon the moon.

Joining their hands together and lowering their heads, although never really religious, the two of them had felt the need to pay some sort of respect as the people of this realm and welcomed them and all other refugees with open arms, and surprisingly enough, communing with the emerald sun felt pretty good, it always seemed like its light would permeated through their skin, a warmth forming inside of their bodies, embracing them from the inside-out.

Staying like this for several minutes, one thing to note about faith in this realm, is that it was lacking in codes and clear customs, how, where and when one prayed was utterly subjective to themselves, so seemed to pray like it was a greetings to be given to the sun, some stood in place for hours on end, some would even sometimes go and sleep under the emerald light.

As long as the intent was to worship, it seemed to just work.

But not wanting to mess anything up, the two of them instead took it simple, just to be certain that nothing offensive was performed.

Rising their heads, hands parting, they looked up to the sun.

It always seemed to be looking back somehow, as if acknowledging everyone who was trying to 'connect' with it, to those who actually interacted with this luminous star, there was little doubt that a mind existed within, and one that was not so dissimilar to their own at that.

A hand gently fell upon a shoulder for each, scaring them out of their minds, having been relatively certain that the area was completely empty, on top of having heard absolutely nothing in the silence of their prayer.

"Saul, Zola- My favourite brotherly pair, how are you doing today?" turning around with haste, it was just the regular person that snuck up on them every now and then, but being so incredibly sneaky, they never expected the ambush.

"Herald Liliazin, we are doing fine, how about you?" Saul quickly gathered his wits back, Zola nodding along.

"That's great to hear! As for me, I am as happy as usual! You know, I was a bit worried about you two at first…" the herald walked past them, spun around and slapped both hands against their backs, leading the brothers into a walk.

"Ahah, thanks for the concerns, Herald Liliazin but we aren't dumb enough to fall off a balcony…" Zola joked, a slight smile forming upon the herald's face.

"Sure, but some are so enthralled by the beauty of our sun that they leap off in an attempt to grasp that magnificence, you know?" replied Liliazin, the brothers palling a little as they imagined themselves freefalling from this height for a second.

"This happened?" asked Saul.

"Of course not! Why would anyone be suddenly charmed? We see our glorious sun everyday since the day we are born!" chuckled the sun worshipper, the three of them beginning to ascend a spiralling staircase leading even higher into the skies.

"That makes sense…" Zola commented, not yet used to the habit of sun worshippers to joke around at seemingly every turn of the way.

This even included implying that some people had jumped and fallen to their deaths from this sort of height, from so high up, it was doubtful there would even be a body left to hit the ground by the end of it.

Saul and Zola were somewhat familiar with Herald Liliazin, towers of such a great height and size always had at least one emerald herald occupying it, living within, only small and minor towers could go without a herald's watch.

The brothers had settled on this one in particular because during the very first days of exchange between the refugees and locals, as everyone was beginning to learn the language spoken in this realm, emerald heralds and divine dancing priestesses gathered to exchange and properly handle the sudden influx of foreign people, agreeing that those who had a good grasp of the language could go wherever they wanted, whilst those who were struggling would be taken under the watch of locals to learn with more help.

This was the case of the brother, and surprisingly, it was a herald that had decided to handle it.

Liliazin, with bright red hair, a stature that was only a bit smaller than that of the two former adventurers, dressed like every other herald, the same smooth grey skin, smoke coating the boy and eyes whose pupils and irises constantly shifted from one pattern to the other.

One thing that took them a while to put together was that Liliazin was a bit special compared to other heralds and the priestesses, they could not be blamed for it as it was genuinely impossible to tell at a glance unless you were some sort of expert on the matter, but of the current higher echelon of both sun and beast worshippers, Liliazin was the only male.

They did not know why, but apparently, the ascension to these higher levels had a tendency to not work out for men, which was why the beast worshippers called their leader priestesses.

So although no different from the other heralds in other aspects, he was still a bit of a novelty, even if one without prior knowledge would not be able to notice that difference without being told.

"Have you ever gone to the top?" asked the herald, both responding negatively, the amount of stairs one needed to climb was a bit too egregious for them to attempt, especially when they had been given rooms rather low in the tower.

"I'll show you then, the view is fantastic…"

"Hum, Herald Liliazin?"

"Just call me Lilia"

"Alright… Lilia, what did you mean by worrying about us earlier?" asked Zola, he had played this comment as a joke before, but was curious now.

"I'll tell you later" as mischievous as always, the sun worshipper kept the suspense hanging in the air.