Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Although Herlbe proclaimed his goal loudly and with much certainty that he would eventually get the job done, the truth was that he truly had no clue how to tackle the problem that was Pangea'Kalst, the long-legged crab was no random beast, even if not in possession of enough awareness to be called sapient, he was a serious problem, large enough to be mixed up with a continent and carrying a thriving ecosystem of life upon his back, capable of nourishing countless plants with his life force without even meaning to.

Herlbe definitely couldn't consider his job done with such a living still around.

Not to mention that Pangea'Kalst was also nearly constantly meeting up with females of his species, none were even nearly as large as he was so who know how that worked, but it did as the amount of offsprings of his scouring the okean was simply extravagant, but even when carrying his blood, none seemed to hold the capability to grow as immense as him for some reason.

The revenant tried to familiarise himself with their anatomy by carving the smaller crabs first, which wasn't easy as 'small' around these parts still meant giants to giants- But this allowed him to get an idea of where Pangea'Kalst's own vital organs were actually situated.

Observing the tsar in his day to day life was certainly intriguing, his pincer-legs were so incredibly long that he could grab an unsuspecting prey from kilometers upon kilometers away, hunting prey was as easy as snatching candy from stillborn babies for him, so naturally, he didn't move around much at all, in the days of observing, he had perhaps taking a few small steps around at best.

Naturally, Herlbe had assumed that mobility wasn't its forte, and he had been wrong, after a while, the preys naturally began to distance themselves from the tsar's reach, forcing him to move a bit, which he did by taking three whole steps to the side, and thus, Herlbe totally lost sight of him, so far away that he couldn't even sense the immense life force anymore.

It was important to mention that Pangea'Kalst hadn't hurried to move, those three steps had been casual ones, he had just walked over to a completely different part of the ocean.

'Alright then…' now aware that his opponent could just go beyond the horizons in less steps than it could take one from getting from their front door to their bed, the revenant had to devise a strategy to hinder that mobility, if Hartracite was correct and the okean's ruler was no being of complicated thoughts and emotions, then he would just run away if in a pinch, the so-called tsar had only earned a name and title from others, he himself did not care for them, there was no pride to protect or any honourable battle spirit dwelling inside of his carapace.

Considering its special position however, Herlbe did not dare think that the tsar's intelligence was merely on par with the rest of his kind, however, instead assuming that he stood at a mid-way point, a cunning beast capable of fooling sapients whilst not being one himself, all of this wrapped into a body of tyrannical might and power.

The minor lord had a hard time imagining anyone easily subjugating the continent-wide beast, especially himself.

Eventually, he took the plunge and decided to step directly upon the landmass that had formed upon Pangea'Kalst's back, the crab did not seem to care at all, if he even took notice of Herlbe's presence was questionable.

This living continent was populated by rather simple species, a whole lot of deers whose antlers spread over their body to form a sort of body armour, felines with mace-like tails and most prominently, goblins and kobolds, each definitely larger and more threatening than their most common counterparts outside of this realm, the generally green-skinned monster were grey instead, their head appearing incredibly small compared to their bloated muscles.

As for the kobolds, they looked like werecoyotes instead, both of these species were seemingly at war with one another at all times, and they didn't speak any language at all, the best they could muster were cries for danger, food and the likes, even though they were much like the realmnites and geared toward combat, tides of them were no match for Herlbe.

From the looks of it, that was all there was to find on the wide spans of Pangea'Kalst's back, nature brimming with vitality and two kinds of monsters waging constant warfare against one another, every once in while, severe earthquakes would hit the land as the tsar decided to move, which might explain the one thing that piqued Herlbe's interest, or rather, made his mood even more sour.

As he walked through one of the many forests, the great white star that filled the sky had grown unseen as this realm's version of night settled in, which was a tide of black clouds suddenly emerging to completely block off the pale brilliance from descending.

It was in this pitch blackness that he came across a large bonfire, goblins dancing around it whilst spewing random sounds into what might be qualified a chant if one was sufficiently far away, their movements were manic, and this impression only solidified as they began grabbing smouldering pieces of wood with their bare hands and forcing them against their chests, the smell of burnt flesh, remindful of pork, filled the air as they kept on dancing as they kept on purposefully burning themselves, this went on without until one goblin finally collapsed, either from fatigue or pain.

In reaction to a brethren of theirs falling to the ground, the other monsters picked their fellow up and threw him directly into the flames, still alive, the creature struggled for a few moments before suffocating in the smoke.

This ritual might not mean much on the surface, but Herlbe kept looking for them and they occurred awfully often, and weren't limited to the goblins, the kobolds also partook in the same rites.

These prayers and sacrifices weren't for naught, they were all directed to the land, or rather, to Tsar Pangea'Kalst, the big crab wasn't simply carrying a continent on his back, but worshippers as well.

This meant that Herlbe was dealing with a being that had been receiving prayers for who knows how long and had thus accumulated much power from them, the brutish nature of his worshippers was probably what had caused the okean's ruler to grow so massively large overtime, their prayers were providing physical strength and power, but this also meant that Pangea'Kalst was technically something of a deity, as he should theoretically have earned some divine energy from all that worshipping, unless it was directly funnelled into his physique.

'Just to be sure…'

Just in case, the revenant was going to put an end to the rites.