Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 1232: Failure

"Supreme Archbishop! We… We have a problem"

Someone late to the archbishop meeting burst into the room, swinging his arm wildly as he slammed the heavy door behind him.

The Supreme Archbishop, Talactuum, as well as the others, were all surprised as the tardy one's wild gesticulations sent copious amounts of blood all over the place–His left arm was missing below the elbow.

"What in damnation happened, Kalestop?"

The blind dwarf shook his head.

"We messed up! We played with something we shouldn't have touched, damnit!" the man breathed heavily, seemingly uncaring for his lost limb "Listen, I was checking on the latest batch of centipede queens that were gathered, and one of them had already laid a prince egg!"

"What?"

"How is this possible? We only selected juvenile queens! Did someone feed the growth accelerators way ahead of schedule?"

"Even then, how could some growth accelerators be enough to produce a prince egg so quickly?"

"Everyone! Let me explain already!"

The dwarf gritted its teeth.

"This queen outsmarted us. She's not normal, she's much more aware than the others… I suspect that it is the result of a rare 'princess'... It must have been disguising itself as a juvenile queen"

"What…? A princess? But those are…"

"Incredibly rare! And we're supposed to have entire teams of seers always on the ready to detect the birth of one throughout all of Durter! How could this one have slipped past us?"

"I don't know about that, but listen… When I checked and realised that she had a prince egg, I naturally made the move to destroy it and eliminate the queen. She was clearly not under our control at all… But the damned egg hatched right in my face!"

He gestured toward his missing arm.

"That thing was so quick, straight out of its egg, it moved quicker than I could perceive and bite my arm off! I only got away because it was busy eating my limb whole… As you all know, a prince born to a princess–By the earth, those names are annoyingly confusing–Is many notches above the other princes… That thing, though? It is out of this world. Its chitin hadn't even hardened yet, and it probably didn't have half of its senses… Still, it located me precisely and struck before I could react properly… If I hadn't moved reflexively, my head would have been what was chopped off"

"Alright, alright… But you are a holy artisan first and foremost, right? Surely, it isn't powerful enough to rival someone more offence-based, right? Right?"

"That's hard to tell for sure, but I wouldn't try it alone if I were you. We need to treat this thing extremely seriously… It… Its presence surged as it was eating my arm… It burst with holy energy… I think it absorbed my inner energies and grew even stronger from it"

"Great… A devourer? Our plan is completely backfiring. The centipede queens we control, we can make sure they deal only a bit of damage, but don't actually kill or seriously injure anyone–But this? If we don't shut it down swiftly, it might actually cause a tragedy, and he would be responsible for it!"

The Supreme Archbishop breathed in sharply, slamming his palm against the stone table.

"We committed a grave mistake. We must fix this misdeed of negligence right this instant. We will all go and inform the Hierophant-Queen of what is happening. If we hold anything back by trying to be as sneaky as possible, we take the risk of making things worse"

"If that prince is a devourer as it appears, then every second that passes is a creature whose strength and power are potentially being added to that of this prince… If unlucky, it might even be capable of absorbing memories. The longer we aren't doing anything, the worse it is getting"

Of course, every member of the council was well aware that they were to blame for this unfortunate situation. Even if this princess-turned-queen had existed in secret previously, they had gone out far from the borders and brought it there. Where its abominable prince could potentially feast on people.

If the worst-case scenario came to be and the prince turned out to be the strongest variation of a so-called 'devourer', then devouring just a single sapient would be enough to make it a threat beyond reasonable belief.

"Where was it exactly? Are there any settlements nearby?"

Kalestop thought for a few moments as Alaghul was casting a sacred healing spell, stopping the bleeding and restoring the dwarf's arm as if it had never left him.

"I think there is a settlement not too far away…"

The Supreme Archbishop stared blankly for a second.

"Shit"

Vwoldtnir heard absolutely everything.

'A devourer, huh? This could indeed be problematic. Those things are said to have explosive growth, and if this one was born powerful to begin with… This could easily get bloody'

So-called 'devourers' were a colloquial name given to creatures possessing some form of abilities to gain strength by either literally eating other creatures and beings, or simply killing–It didn't matter whether it was due to a bodily quirk, an innate ability, a special system, or some inborn aspect. All that mattered was what the ability did.

If the prince they were talking about really was one of those, then it was a killing priority for the Undead Empire as well.

'If only I weren't stuck here at the moment… Maybe I can get rid of the contractual obligation if I manage to get in touch with Artratac… The archbishops aren't weak, but they are definitely nowhere near as strong as I am. It would be for the best if I could handle this issue myself'

Unfortunately, as diligent as ever, the Hierophant-Queen did not make any unnecessary stops. When she heard that a great danger might be befalling her people, she made a beeline to the place…

As the archbishops were gathered, Artratac Dursol rose from the ground beside them.

"What is the situation with the settlement?"

This was her first question, and Doloctkar, with both of his palms pressed up against the ground, was the one to respond.

"...I only sense the footsteps of centipedes in and around the settlement…"

There was a moment of heavy silence amongst everyone present. The Hierophant-Queen understood that part of her people had been massacred, whilst the archbishops understood that they had really messed up with their hastily crafted plan to keep their leader away from the ghoul lord.

Sacrificing people of Durter was not an acceptable cost.

When they approached the settlement, they found that it had been turned into the Princess-Queen's new nest, a massive crater having been opened in the middle of the underground town.

This particular settlement had been home to stone people, so every structure was made out of stone cubes with very little decoration. They weren't big on making things fancy or pretty, being more concerned with utility.

Their architectures had been shattered and riddled with holes, now crawling with centipedes.

The Hierophant-Queen overlooked it all coldly.

The princess-turned-queen may be smart, but she was not wise. She had no idea how Artratac Dursol had slaughtered countless others of her kin. As such, the creature had built herself a nest just like the rest–A nest that could be erased.

Within moments, all of the stone structures containing centipedes, and the great pit into the ground–Both seemed to collapse in on themselves, crushing every ounce of life within them to nothingness.

The centipedes were all squeezed into millions of dark stains. Their existence now debatable to anyone who had not witnessed their presence directly… As for the centipedes moving out and about? Their fate remained the same. The ground beneath their feet literally swallowed them, squashing them with rocks and earth.

…Artratac Dursol may not have been able to save these people, but she was very much capable of avenging them.

The archbishops were silent, only jolted away as their Hierophant-Queen said something concerning.

"The prince is not here, and neither was the so-called Princess-Queen. They already left. The pit in the middle was not a nest at all, just a big hole hastily dug to give the illusion of something being present"

"I did not sense any signs of their presence elsewhere…"

Doloctkar, the stone bull, was taken aback by the revelation. He had thought that the steps of the queen and prince had been hidden amongst the mass… But if they had been hidden somewhere else, then he should have been able to tell them apart from a smaller sample of centipedes…

"Princesses are a rare variant of princes. They aren't just intelligent and powerful female centipedes that will evolve into queens… They are like princes and are born with a special trait–An ability… It is not unlikely that this one remained undetected until now precisely because it has an ability to hide its presence"

The Hierophant-Queen sighed.

"We can not allow this queen and prince to go around any longer than strictly necessary. I want as many people as possible on the case, also… I would like Sir Vwoldtnir's assistance"

The archbishops agreed, but on the inside? They were absolutely livid.