Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"You're certainly nimble on your feet, Loimos! But that can't be all, do not think that you can lure me in by making yourself out as a speedster and nothing else!" Irlanx Xacobus was what one might call an enthusiastic fighter, perhaps it was because of the lack of pushback in the last few centuries of his existence, or perhaps it had always been so, but he wasn't the kind to pass on a challenge.

With swings of his arms, and exaggerated motions, he summoned chains of gold en mass, not even bothering to equip them with weapons, he attacked directly with them, demonstrating his refined control be it by controlling them completely like serpents slave to his will, or by manipulating them like orthodox chains, melding the two styles together seamlessly.

At any point, a new chain could tear through the air, launched straight at Loimos, or multiple could be swung in wide arcs at him, only to be struck against one another, and naturally- Perfectly, wrapping one another up in a manner that created a new attack out of thin air.

To do such things without having to constantly take control of each and every chain required one to possess a keen mind for mathematics.

And of course, when the chains ground against one another, they would release some of that golden dust all around, but that was nothing compared to when Irlanx would go the extra way and tear the chains apart, the radius of the clouds of gold would only increase when he did so, and with the length of time they remained in place, and the intensity with which the fighting already was, the area was rapidly filling with gold.

Floating out of the mist of his own creation, Xacobus manifested more and more chains, quite literally flooding the area directly around him as they fell flat to the ground, slithering toward Loimos, but just as this happened, four more chains emerged from the grey dust beneath his feet, each seeking to bind one of his limbs.

Using the technique he had learned from Bilistam, Siften Steppe, he moved out of the way and appeared before Xacobus who opened his jaw wide, laughing.

A chain blocked the strike of his sword, dust emerged from the impact, forcing him to move away for now.

"Your little disguise is convincing indeed! You can even use their little tricks yourself? That is interesting, but that is nothing still, I am telling you, your act will not get me to drop my guard, I know very well that you are much stronger than what you're showing me!" the king of the restless spread his arms wide, chains spreading from him like angelic wings, moving far and wide in an attempt to enclose Loimos.

"Very well" holding out an empty hand forward, Loimos's palm seemed to split open, a most viscous drop of black blood fell upon the ground, soon shaping itself into the form of a beast, a towering pale hound.

A replica of of the many hounds of Loimos who had mostly seen usage during the conquest of Belliste, brought upon through soul manifestation and soul binding of the bestial variety, though, this beast's specialty was one that none of the real hounds knew yet.

"Now… That's not how those livings use their powers" commented Xacobus, after all, the whole point was to do with the soul, he had no immediate answer as to why Loimos had provided something else in the process.

The pale hound kicked off the ground, leaping to the air as soul energy condensed in between its open maw, with a firm bite, the congealed spike of energy was hurled straight the golden skeleton, who manifested a greatsword to swat it away, calling forth more chains that he directed to target the beast as it just landed on the ground.

With a warped howl, it moved to the side, leaving small dots of soul energy behind that soon turned into smaller projectiles.

Irlanx did not forget about the hound's master however, keeping an eye on Loimos as the undead fended off against the slithering chains from earlier, steadily destroying them all without getting caught by the dust, without any motion, a new chain emerged from beneath the king's robes, swung with greater speed and strength than those that came before.

Indeed, the restless king was only now revealing the true extent of his golden chains, the attack was so swift, that even Loimos, at least in his current suit of living flesh, could not fully dodge it without a heads-up, having to half-move away, half-parry the strike, with resulted in some golden dust falling upon the back of his right hand.

The dust stuck to his skin, almost seeming to burrow and fuse with it entirely.

"Heheheh, here it is, the power of my trusty gold, you have no idea how many decent challengers were defeated because they couldn't even bother to imagine the dust having a special effect after seeing me manifest weapons and control the chains so precisely" spoke Xacobus, indeed, the livings he had faced and even the restless who had once challenged his rule ages ago had made assumptions about his power based on their own.

To the livings, they assumed that Irlanx's ability functioned like theirs, and was thus, constituted of 'steps', the chains being the first and weapon creation being the second, that awful reading on their opponent had made them fall victim to the dust in little time.

As for the challenging restless, they knew more about how power functioned for them, indeed, they did not partake in any of the six ways of power, their powers were fully relating to the form they created for themselves, their powers came solely from their assortment of bones and raw soul energy usage.

But they too were sorely mistaken, Xacobus wasn't a restless like any other, the golden chains were the manifestation of something else.

Something Loimos knew well, they were powers that could not be classified easily, innate abilities.

Their strength, variety and usage couldn't be quantified easily, for they were always unique to the individual that held them, the only innate abilities that seemed to not be fully personal, and instead related to the nature of their owner had been his own, Primeval Rot, and that of Thanatok Ynigós, Primeval Vigour.

Naturally, being a restless, using his innate ability was without any cost to Irlanx, the mental burden of controlling many chains at once and having to make dreadful calculations at all times meant nothing to an exalted undead such as he.

The moment the dust fell upon him, Loimos understood its power.