Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

The sight of a titanic menhir rising up to the skies like it weighed nothing was certainly a sight to be beholden, those fighting on the ground couldn't help but stop for a few moments to stare at it.

"The Tsarina is fighting!"

"Lady Hartracite is with us!"

"All hail the muscular brain!"

Cheering loudly, the realmnites seemed invigorated by the mere mention of their ruler, whomst power they couldn't possibly fathom, they pushed back harder against the elite soldiers of the minor lord, they had the advantage of numbers, even if they hardly cooperated with one another in any significant manner, the sheer mass of them was incredible.

Indeed, what could strength-lovers do when they had no conflict to fight? Duel one another? That got old really quickly, there was little thrill in facing an ally, so instead, they had spent their time expanding their city of stone and reproducing, constantly, quite literally without ever stopping until undeads had showed up.

One of them, with six arms and towering over his surroundings fellow struck one of the walking corpses right in the jaw, some sort of oni garbed in haphazardly placed armour, the strike took the undead's lower jaw right of, prompting it to just swings its head like battleaxe and sink the remaining teeth into the wrist of the hand that had just struck.

As this happened, the oni also grabbed another living by the throats, ripping out both trachea and oesophagus in one fell swoop, the kill restoring back of its damage body, this was an ability that seemed to be shared amongst all of the forces of Herlbe, an ability earned solely by working under this minor lord in particular.

This allowed them to fight with increased brutality as they didn't even need to care for the damage their received, without having to bother to not lose an arm or a leg in the fray, this came on top of being without tiredness and pain, which was why despite their much lesser numbers, the ranks of Herlbe were pushing forward still through the living masses.

Each of them a small powerhouse in their own rights, wielding massively heavy weapons for some, whilst others simply went through with the carnage with their bare hands, such as the currently strongest member of this striking force, a savage werewolf whose death had arisen due to severe rabies, the aggressivity stage of the disease still coursing through his unfeeling veins, in between clawing and biting, he would puke out foaming saliva, which showed effect incredibly rapidly, causing hallucinations, paralysis and a general state of delirium in those stricken by the ever-plagued werewolf.

Howling at the giant white star upon seeing the menhir rise up, his aggression heightening even further.

"Welp, that guy is losing his mind over there" commented Herlbe to himself, by now, he had unfurled a decent portion of the chain wrapped around his right arm and upper body, swinging and controlling it with expert finesse, but he wasn't hitting much at all.

The tsarina had grown more proactive, perhaps feeling more in a hurry to deal with him, or maybe everything that had happened before had been merely a test, Herlbe himself had been only testing the waters.

Deciding to heighten the tension as well, he jumped straight up, striking the wall he encountered and beginning to bounce around madly, leaving deep indentations upon the inner walls of the stone palace.

Much to Hartracite's disapproval, her beloved menhir was getting ruined by a filthy savage.

'I only need to seize what his true maximum power output is, once I get a hold of it… It will be over' she certainly acknowledged that Herlbe was one tough vermin, but although she was thinking about this, it didn't mean that the tsarina wasn't willing to put an end to this masquerade sooner.

Once again reinforcing her body, the chain suddenly wrapped all around her head, one pull was all it needed to crush and tear it to pieces, but even then, there wasn't even have a second of blankness in her imagination, instantly returning to normal, she seized the chain with a few dozens of conjured arms, focusing on the minor lord.

"I do not know much about what lays beyond that portal, so do tell me if the pressure of our deepest ocean is anything similar to what you know" with a snap of her fingers, Herlbe was trapped inside a pyramid of water that was perfectly mimicking the strongest pressure this realm's ocean could reach, and just like the resilience of their regular stone, the crushing force was powerful, incredibly so.

Everything seemed to be physically domineering in this realm, environment as well as inhabitants, but seeing that the undead wasn't being turned to paste and was even moving through, she imagined the pressure as being twice as strong, only for Herlbe to erupt with force once more, dispelling the water pyramid.

"I get it now! Your so-called imagination can easily replicate materials and phenomena as you know them, but when you step out of the bounds of the natural, you always seem to go about it by multiplying whatever property you have in mind…"

"...I guess you have a harder time imagining the pressurised water than rock since you didn't increase its strength by ten times"

Hartracite clicked her tongue.

"I guess there is an advantage to having multiple heads, you are almost smart enough to make simple deductions!"

Suddenly bursting forward, the tsarina landed a kick to the revenant's stomach, sending him flying through one of the walls and onto the side of the menhir, which had pivoted to be floating in the air upon its side.

Vermillion cloak caught in strong winds, it seemed obvious what the limitations of his enemy's ability were, what he just stated, she had a harder time using her power on things she didn't have a good grasp of, meaning that her power wasn't literally that of imagination but that it had to abide to a certain logic, she had to understand what she was trying to imagine and understand the difference it would bring to bring improvement to something.

Meaning, that she had to actually visualise the toughness of bleached rock when ten times more resistant, it indeed required a fair bit of brain power to use.

"Tsarina Delelgoliol'Erstvourst Von Hartracite, you're ability is indeed rather impressive, and it would be even more so with a mind not bound by life"

"You speak a lot for a brute"

"Hey, we are the good guys, so we have to make it clear that we only want good for you, am I not appearing more sympathetic than if I had just barged in without saying a word?"

"You are appearing more annoying"

"Urgh, you look like a brat and you act like one too, huh?"

"Silence, mongrel"

'And the other limitation is… That you can't actually use your power on another being directly' that one was the most obvious, if that was the case, she would have long imagined him either defeated or immobilised.

Visualising Herlbe paralysed in place shouldn't be very complicated after all, then again, the revenant could also chalk it up to her ability being more difficult to use against other beings, being more costly, or simply because he was too powerful to be affected, but he stuck with his initial guess.

"Come here, I'll give you a good spanking"

"Stupid, ugly and lecherous as well? You truly are a collector of awful traits"