Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"Move, hand" spoke the golden lord, and as per his orders, Loimos's hand moved of its own volition, reaching- Seeking to tear out his own throat with the full force he could command.

Indeed, on top of being an extraordinary tool of defence, offence and even utility, Xacobus's innate ability allowed him to seize control of what the golden dust touched, but unfortunately for him, it could not allow him to control things in any way that he wanted, the grey soil that had been covered in his golden dust could not be ordered to rise up and attack on his behalf, for it did not have the ability to move on its own.

Similarly, he could not do more than order objects to act in ways that he could not himself comprehend, so although he should technically be capable of peeling away at the flesh in the same manner that Loimos had done before with his face, he did not for the process was entirely foreign to him.

However, moving one's limb was easy and exerting one's full force was something he was familiar with, so attacking Loimos with his own hand at maximum power was possible.

"You won't be defeated by a mere torn out thro- Oh…" the king stopped himself and tapped against his crown, seeing that the hand, moments away from accomplishing its order, went limp and refused to move again, just hanging there.

"...My, how did you do that? And how did you figure it out so quickly? That is bloody impressive! Alas, you've already lost one hand, perhaps you should have come at me with your true strength from the get-go instead of hanging back and analysing me? Mmh?"

"You yourself is holding back as well, are you not waiting for me to commit to an attack to show the true extent of your strength?" Loimos casually responded, making Xacobus tap his crown just once.

"Heheh, very perceptive… Was my demanding of your full power a little bit too on the nose? I dare claim that I nail the acting of the thrill-seeking, bored overlord…" for a skeleton, Irlanx was managing to be very expressive, one could just imagine the sort of smile he would wear, were he not naught but bones.

"...Nevertheless, my golden dust has seeped into your hand, if you reverse whatever you did just now, I'll take control again, so you are absolutely deprived of one of your limbs, it might have been different were you not wearing this disguise, but there is nothing you can do about it currently, yes?"

"I shall take that silence and lack of reaction for a yes until proven otherwise- In our little bout during which we both assessed the other whilst refusing to go all-out, I have come out victorious, let us move on to the plat de resistance right this instant then!" with a snap of his fingers, the still present hound was split in two by a chain of gold.

The king began floating higher into the air, his overly ample robes beginning to flutter more and more as he did so, manifesting a golden rapier in his right hand, he took up a classical posture fit for a duel between two warriors.

He pointed the blade down at Loimos, who had already manifested a jian in his left hand, or so it appeared, the blade seemed to be bubbling, moving as though insects were crawling within, writhing.

Indeed, instead of only using object manifestation and object binding to form his weapon, Loimos was also channeling the beast variants, due to one simple fact, apart from a sizable increase in power, it also opened up the way to much more.

When using the object variations alone, he was somewhat restricted to manipulating the form of it, and to inflicting things relating to rot and decay, beasts on the other hand, could be created with much more strange abilities, meaning that by combining them all together, he could emulate his regular fighting style to an extent, the only thing stopping him from doing just that being that his current body couldn't be shaped, reformed and changed as per usual, although he could certain break it up and forced unnatural movements it was nowhere near enough to fully use Harbinger's Harvest in full.

Still, that combat style of his was, to put it in simple terms, the closest style to perfection possible, as every motions, every weapon, every body parts, every element, every way of power, absolutely everything that Loimos had ever come into contact with was put to use within it.

So naturally, even if you removed parts, it still remained an incredible battle style, simply becoming one attuned to a humanoid body that could change form at will, and to one that was only capable of using five ways of power.

Irlanx felt something and almost backed off instinctively.

"Hey… Did you just release your aura on me or something?" Xacobus did not waver.

"Loimos, I am called by many names, you know why they call me Golden Lord already- Let me show you why they also titled me King Of The Flies!" with his empty sockets flaring up with gold, something else lit up, countless red dots appeared, their shine growing and receding every second as an awful, nearly, deafening buzzing sound engulfed the area.

Like a tide, they appeared from within the king's robes, black flies shining red from within like fireflies.

Soon enough, they formed a maelstrom around their master, shrouding the king's figure completely before dense streams of them broke out of the group and lunged for Loimos, holding up his writhing weapon, Loimos swung, the nearest flies all frozen solid before he went on the move, even with one hand no longer operational, he moved with deceptive swiftness, switching between running and crawling like some sort beast, evading the flies and golden chains hidden within their midst, some of the chains bore blades or the heads of maces, upon contact with his sword, they did not release any dust, as the gold was instead plagued by rust.

'...' the king stayed silent as he felt his connection with his chains dissipate, both gold and flies he controlled could serve as extensions of himself, but he could not quite share in their senses himself.

So as Loimos used the full might available to him in the mortal coil he inhabited, rusting the chains and tearing through the black flies with powerful elemental attacks, the way things were going didn't make sense.

Xacobus regretted enclosing himself within his own flies, having been thinking that what they could relay to him would be enough, but it was folly, the various attacks seemed to be coming from too many different places and directions, if Loimos was so fast, he wouldn't have been hit by the golden dust in the first place.

'He must have created more beasts… He can do that? Livings with that sort of power can either create one beast or a pack composed of weaker individuals… The attacks are too diverse and powerful… But then again, he isn't a living at all…'

A strong gust of wind blew away the flies to his right, momentarily revealing what was happening outside to him, but he couldn't see much as he instantly greeted by Loimos's blade, manifesting a shield before counterattacking, he saw the jian bend against the shield, exploding like pustulent flesh filled with gases, spreading an odd, reddish-brown mist, which instantly began to put rust upon the king's gold, including that which was exposed by the gashes upon his bones.

Using the flies to quickly pull himself away, he dismissed the rusting rapier, and slashed his arm through the air, manifesting a few dozen chains that each split into dozens more that were equipped with weapons.

"Seems like you've figured out a weakness I didn't even know existed!" praising the one who had inflicted damage upon him, something which hadn't happened in a long time, Xacobus launched his chains forth.