Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Before the first clash occurred, the nightbird stealthily jumped away and perched upon what looked like a chimney or sorts, observing both Lord Herlbe allowing the livings to close in on him and his valiant, brutal troops reaching the city as well, everything exploding into a deluge of brutal violence and bloody carnage as both sides seemed to be nothing but barbarians animated by a lust- An insatiable craving for destruction.

The troops were forced to slow down to engage with the livings, their individual strength not enough to force passage through the people of this realm, unlike their leader, who sliced the closest realmnites to pieces with a single swipe of his left hands, dreadful claws nailed upon the forearm, its edge purposefully lacking in sharpness, leading to the corpse being sliced perfectly halfway whilst the rest was savagely ripped off.

This act of mutilation did not deter the livings at all, in fact, it seemed to further bolster their want for combat as the nightbird sensed a subtle increase in the ferocity of their life force, it might be substantial normally, but when facing Herlbe it was like adding a drop of water to the ocean.

A punch of his right hand wrapped in chain was sufficient to instantly kill another, eyeballs and brain melding together into a compact goo on impact whilst another living approached from the side, punching the minor lord's chin, the middle-head's chin to be precise, there was enough strength behind the strike for it to seem relatively effective, but it was the attacker who recoiled as their knuckles ached.

"Not bad!" lunging forth, cloak fluttering wildly, Herlbe bit the entirety of the realmnite's face off, throwing the loose lump of flesh at another before them by one arm and swinging the living around like flail, knocking multiple people off the roof like this, until the poor fellow was unexpectedly launched away as the arm gave way and came right off.

Once the area was momentarily cleared of opposition, the revenant walked over the edge and looked at how his men were doing on their side, of course, they weren't as overwhelmingly powerful as he was, but they were still good enough to contend with the livings here, especially since they moved as a group, thanks to being a part of Herlbe's very own militia, they could fight all the while recovering from any damage done to their bodies, and by being undeads, the type of damage that was actually debilitating needed to be much more severe than for livings.

"Little birdie, stay with my troops, I'll be heading over there" pointing to an immense monument that seemed to pierce the sky, if not for the fact that this realm's equivalent of a sun was an immense star that was sending light from countless angles at the same time, this obelisk of sort would be casting a dark shadow upon wide spans of the surrounding city at nearly all times.

The nightbird nodded and simply summoned a rotten bird to follow the minor lord in her stead, understanding that the implication was that things were probably going to be getting explosives.

Jumping from place to place, as though the fact that a battle was occurring attracted them, livings that definitely had no business even knowing a fight had broken out in the distance were rushing over there.

The realmnites were a rather colourful bunch, the shade their skin took seemed random as it be yellow, blue, red or green, as well as grey, white or black, in fact, many things about them seemed random, almost as though they all shared large bloodlines from various different beings that may or may not express themselves.

The only common traits they shared were their rather powerful stature, even if not abundantly tall or large, it was clear that their muscles were compressed and dense, much tougher than one would expect from a human with a similar build, skin tough, their battle instincts sharp.

Also, all possessed some sort of rock-like growths covering their eyebrows and nose, which were in fact, more resilient than the rest of their skin, as well as rather large foreheads.

But beyond that, it seemed like they pulled a lottery ticket as some had additional arms, some had tails, some more eyes, the tails in particular were nothing like Herlbe had ever seen, fleshy and coloured exactly like the skin of its owner, sometimes ending with mace-like rock that was exactly the same as that upon their faces.

Clearly, it was well-inscribed into them this was not something unnatural or that had come from somewhere else, having a tail simply seemed like the norm for their species, which made one wonder why it wasn't shared across them all.

Landing in front of the obelisks, which would actually be more accurately described as a menhir due to its rather rough shape, there was nothing smooth about it, from afar it looked well sharpening on top and wide at the bottom like some sort of mystical arrowhead but the truth was much different up-close.

The people here may be strong, but there was no way they had actually erected a rock this large upright, Herlbe was strong and having seen how durable the stone here was back with the roof from earlier, he didn't delude himself into thinking he could lift this thing.

'Well, if I activated both of General Loimos's gifts, then perhaps…' he shrugged, better not get tempted, he would get scolded if he actually disturbed such an impressive monument, that land was to be under the empire's rule, and the ruler of this realm to be a regional lord after all, breaking their nice castle might not be the best of ways to convince them to be agreeable.

Killing them was fine though, since they would discover that death was better than life.

Herlbe looked around, seeing no one in the direct vicinity, the empty space separating the menhir from the city was rather wide, and with every living sensing battle and running to it like a moth to a flame, the revenant was free to ascend the steps and push open the enormous and awfully heavy doors to the inside.

Now, the question was who was inside of there, was this realm ruled over by a single king or emperor? Or were their multiple nations with their own leaders? The realm certainly appeared many times larger than what he had seen for now.

'Heh… If I can conquer my realm in less than a day, I'll be sure to rub it in everyone else's face' walking through severely empty space, he spotted what looked like a throne.

And the person lazily sitting upon this throne of bleached stone was all alone in this wide chamber carved inside of this great rock, no signs of lifeforce anywhere else, no guards, no servants, no nothing.

"Halt there, whomst darest intrude upon my throne?" rising up one hand, the voice's owner smiled smugly.

Ignoring the vocabulary, Herlbe just looked at them with confusion, a sentiment that was invisible upon his decayed visage.

"Who are you?" he asked, tilting his three heads to the side, the one on the left, that of a goat, was the one that seemed most questioning.

"Who else? I am the ruler of all here, Tsarina Delelgoliol'Erstvourst Von Hartracite…"

"..."

"Don't just stare at me you fool beast, respond!"

"Where is the actual ruler?"

"I am"

"No, you are a little girl"

"I am of average height, in fact, I am a bit taller than that! Show some respect cur!"

"Sure… But I am looking for the leader of the battle maniacs outside, and I doubt you qualify, you look more like a lost little child to me"

"Once more… You dare refer to Tsarina Delelgoliol'Erstvourst Von Hartracite like she is a mere infant- I bite my thumb at thee! One does not require physical might to rule over those fools! Might as a whole suffices to convince them!" leaping from her throne, draped in an ample coat that only served to make her look like a child wearing an adult's cloth, skin a rosy colour, hair a bright blonde, her two bright yellow eyes brimming with indignation.

Even the way she landed on the ground made it seem like she weighed as much as a feather.

She didn't even have additional arms, a tail or such, barely even having the rocky protuberances and certainly none of their oversized forehead.

"I wear a crown, it should not be so difficult to guess my position"

"I mean, it doesn't even fit on your head, so…"

"Silence! I can accept a little intrusion but insults to my refined appearance shall be punished with- With… Are you alive, intruder?"

"I am dead"

"Very well then, I'll punish you with life then, I suppose…"

'Is she actually the ruler?' Herlbe wasn't sensing anything extraordinary, which either meant that she wasn't worth much, or worth a good bit.

Putting her crown down on the throne, Tsarina Delelgoliol'Erstvourst Von Hartracite, as she called herself without a single stutter, dusted her petite shoulders and lifted one finger.

"I shall demonstrate- Why they all fear me"

"Do it instead of saying you will"

"Hmph… A monarch's words are worth as much as a thousand actions"

Everything began to rumble.