Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Chapter 441 The Dreadful One

"So, those undeads waged war on the livings?

That seems like a logical outcome" the herald swung her feet in the air as she sat upon Antieeld's bed, the commandant having described the war against the undeads in broad strokes, the eternal night, drowned in most absolute darkness, the unending ranks of the dead, their blinding strength, the gravelords, all of the powerhouses housed by the dark empire, the spread of malignant miasma, the slaughter, the losses.

But the most memorable of all was Loimos, probably the cog that had led to the rebirth of the undead empire, appearing from nowhere, a measly skeleton that had set out to slaughter the living, and to this end, he had gotten deeply involved, infiltrating the academy, fooling even the volcano witch, he had ruined Syklon's entire criminal network, he had murdered and impersonated Lunate and for Antieeld, what she remembered best, was the fact that he had killed Gelter, and even began wearing the noble knight's armour as his own.

To the livings as a whole, his most vile act had been the victory over Thanatok obviously, the hero of life had been a curious individual, not really prone to cooperation, only interested in facing a powerful undead, a wish he had most definitely gotten.

"If I understand correctly, you did not specifically intend to end up in the Emerald Realm, and simply aimed to be transported away from death? It is a rather dangerous game..." the herald smiled, leaning her head within one palm.

Although Antieeld greatly respected the greater members of this odd society, she had had the occasion of conversing with Arzt, the carver, who did not seem to hold either of the worships in great esteem, but then again, the fact that he could do his own thing and was still alive meant that they weren't too angry about it, but there was definitely something a bit disturbing about people who were truly, one hundred percent devoted to worship and nothing else.

Antieeld had seen a few churches like this back on Viridis, but they, even if silent, had worshipped actual deities, here, the people prayed to regular beasts and to the sun, not as symbols of something greater, but those concepts directly.

The commandant did not know exactly why the carver thought poorly of them, the hairy man would never elaborate, he was only willing to speak about carving and naming, he never stopped with the former, but with the latter, he would often blank out in the middle of a sentence and just never end it, no matter how many times he was questioned, the same result would always occur.

One thing Antieeld had understood however, was to not speak of the world beyond this realm to anyone, unless they clearly demonstrated already be knowledgeable about it, the heralds and priestesses were definitely not favourable to everyone knowing that there was something beyond this world, in fact, they explained the presence of smoke-less folks through some incredibly convoluted means, which were not really questioned as everyone was much too worried about communing. Your adventure continues at My Virtual Library Empire

"...But you have nightmares of this undead despite not participating in the battle with him? That is a bit odd... Especially with how clear those dreams are"

"Clear? You can see what I was dreaming about?"

"Am I... A bit smaller?" she unwillingly spoke aloud, a singular tree appearing into view, small and with a crooked trunk, small apples that definitely seemed like the kind to assault the roof of your mouth with a cascade of sugar.

From the base of this tree, the darkness vanished, replaced by the refreshing sight of a small hut, lost in the countryside, the sun was a brilliant yellow, the sky was blue.

This was not the realm of emerald, and yet, it did not feel like a dream.

"Miss Antieeld?" a voice called out to her, was it coming from the house? From behind? No, she looked and instead found the owner standing right by the tree.

She knew this man.

"...What?"

He raised his hand, mouth opening as he tried to say something, but only silence came out, everlasting silence, within moments, the man was gone, the tree was dead, the house was ruined, and now standing where he had stood...

There he was once again, an unnatural ecosystem, a fauna and flora that should not be blooming all around, putrescent flowers, blood flowing in place of rivers, the light of the sun weakening as it turned pale and frail.

Antieeld thought she heard countless drums arising from all around her, it was but her heart.

It only took an instant, he vanished and darkness filled her vision from the left.

The commandant leapt from her bed, pain flaring from the wound, hands bloodied as her own fingernails had dug into the palms, feeling like her heart was going to explode, she could only utter two words.

"-Quideos Audit!"