Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 1237: Progress

Capítulo 1237: Progress

The situation within the Peaceful Realm remained stable even following the intrusion. The people–The livings of this realm were unaware that the machinations of the Undead Empire were eroding at some of the millennial foundations of the main world. Superpowers spanning the entire continent were being overtaken in total secrecy or being corrupted from the inside out.

Once the imbalance in power was settled into absolute undeniability, the main world, or at least, a wide portion of it, would fall under the cold grasp of the scions of Death.

The main world was vast, incredibly so. There was no telling what lay far beyond the reach of Viridis, Dragonnerie, Bermude, Durter, Yorreterre, Verdoyante, Lefaux, and even Belliciste… There could be so much more hidden beyond the seemingly unreachable horizons. Things no one could even imagine… However, it did not matter at the moment.

If the Undead Empire gained dominion over the living superpowers, then the Empire’s attention would fall fully upon the many realms available to them–Including the Peaceful Realm.

Undeads already lurked within the realm. Security had been breached, and hateful dead roamed the plains and forest at night. The wild, giant fauna was under attack. Mutilated corpses would pop up every morning.

Some said that they bore marks of attempted necromancy–Which was a good thing to some. It showed that new undeads could not be produced within the realm, meaning that Death’s influence was not yet strong. This meant that there was a fighting chance. A chance for them to push back and expel the undeads out of the realm once and for all.

Optimism was welcome, too many felt like they were being suffocated by the pressure of having to face the dreadful dead once more. The past few times had always ended in disaster and tragedy.

Things were different this time. The realm was completely to their advantage, and they had the support of Fallael. Defensive measures had been prepared well in advance by the more paranoid survivors of the past confrontations with the undeads.

Life barriers were erected using the pure and plentiful ambient life force of the realm, weapons had been prepared, and amongst other things–The death hunters had the necessary equipment at the ready…

…However, the undeads were not showing their rotten faces. They remained hidden. They remained concealed. They remained… Unseen. Traces of their presence would often be found, but never would be spotted directly.

Undeads were scouting the surroundings of the barriers awfully often, not bothering to cover up the footsteps they left behind every time–Which was certainly a deliberate move. They were most certainly leaving traces to let the livings know that they had been here. Allowing the denizens of the Peaceful Realm awareness that a threat was growing, promoting the rise of fear, panic, and anxiety.

The younger generation of the survivors, those who had not experienced the first clash against the undeads, and sometimes not even experienced the second in the Emerald Realm at all–The youths were pumped to fight back immediately. Willing to march outside to find the undeads directly.

Of course, the older generation–Aware of the dire threat posed by undeads–Was quick to shut down any such idea… Which was a good thing, as a quick test later, when they sent out a dummy meant to resemble a person faithfully, the dummy was shot down by bolts and arrows not long after exiting the barrier without proper protection.

Undeads were hidden all over the place. Waiting. Watching… Always. At the slightest occasion, they would strike to claim a life… Though the older generation did agree with the sentiment of the youth, when it came to warriors and soldiers of the Undead Empire, they couldn’t afford to act thoughtlessly.

A single mistake, no matter how minuscule… Could mean death. Unfortunately, the undeads were being too careful at the moment. They did not seem willing to engage in confrontations just yet. They were content with lurking and watching from afar for now. The livings did not know what their enemy was waiting for, but it worried them…

…It worried them dearly.

___

Within the main world, Loimos was suddenly introduced to two centipede creatures with interesting capabilities and enormous potential. Normally, the introduction of two female creatures would have caused a bit of a stir with One and Maliah, but it is safe to say that those two were now… Rather relaxed about things. The vampiress and assassin were very calm these days, like all of their frustrations had been washed away.

This made Vwoldtnir’s advice no longer applicable, but all was fine.

Loimos, currently not preoccupied by much as he oversaw the silent conquest in Dragonnerie from the shadows, had plenty of time to dedicate to Millepaat and Sidehuit. The former mostly needed to be shown how to properly and intelligently make use of the abilities she acquired from devouring. It seemed like she preoccupied herself too much with the raw power increase side of her devour ability.

She was more inclined toward beating things to death with fists, or slashing things to ribbons, than anything else… If she just used the countless abilities she was acquiring through devouring, then she would easily be much stronger, even without any further strengthening than when she first showed up here.

As for Sidehuit… Well, there wasn’t much there for Loimos to teach. The centipede queen was already smart and could think for herself just fine. She knew how to use her transformation ability effectively, and had a very good approach to her particular… Egg-producing skills.

She was not very talkative at all, but she did speak about the undead method of reproduction. Upon learning it, she was clearly very interested in the topic. It seemed like it would mix very well with her current methods of producing princes.

…Loimos agreed with her on this point. If she became an undead, her current methods would remain unchanged, with only the addition that the process would now be able to be supplemented with the death force of another undead–That was without mentioning that as a member of the Undead Empire, she would be able to get access to unlimited resources she could use to nourish her eggs as much as she desired, and even special items which could allow her to steer the development of her future princes in a certain direction from the get-go.

Though… It seemed like Sidehuit was a living who did not quite understand that undeath meant dying. Well, either that or she was one of the few livings deluded enough to believe that she didn’t fear death. Either way, she really wanted to become an undead, asking in very plain and clear terms for Loimos’s ‘seed’ to produce a powerful prince from, and many more after this, if the first was a success.

Now, the Pale Lady’s blessing only applied to One and Maliah, so this wasn’t going to happen–At least not anytime soon. Unless the Pale Lady was watching over him right now and decided that it would be funny to extend the blessing further… Honestly, it did seem like something she would do.

In any case… Loimos fed Millepaat a whole slew of things to put that devourer side of her to good use. Though Loimos was aware that she wouldn’t lose this ability once undead, it seemed like it would be advantageous to make use of her as a living soldier, at least for a while.

Same with Sidehuit, the mother-daughter duo could be put to use in the conquest of the Peaceful Realm.

Loimos showed them the way to properly develop and use their abilities until the situation in Dragonnerie became most advantageous… It took a little while, but the floating continent had slowly become more and more controllable as time went on. Solast had done a very good job in this regard.

Meanwhile, Loimos had not needed much bargaining to convince the now undead Ronarkatast to cooperate. The Dragonlord knew that he had been defeated fair and square. Normally, this should mean the end of his reign of Dragonnerie, but the Undead Empire operated on different rules. So instead of stepping down, he was going to accept the rule of the new overlords of the floating continent.

With Ronarkatast’s assistance, taking full control over the continent was easy. This marked the end of Dragonnerie as an independent, living superpower. It was now a vassal territory to the wider Undead Empire.

…And judging by what Loimos eventually heard from Vwoldtnir, Durter was also well on its way to becoming part of the Empire as well, although through a very different method than with Dragonnerie.

With those two superpowers quietly taken over, toppling the other two over became a much stronger possibility. Loimos was already formulating various plans using Dragonnerie and Durter…

It might not be long before all of the continental-wide superpowers were under the control of the Undead Empire. Once this happened, the miasma would be able to spread an incredible distance.

The only question was simple: What could possibly lie beyond the confines of this titanic area, all of these great continents found themselves in? Were there more continents to be found? Did great civilisations lie in wait for liberation from the curse of life?

Only the future would tell.