Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 1239: Lurkers

Capítulo 1239: Lurkers

The undeads could move quickly and without interruption. They only needed to be careful not to be spotted, but they had the means to do so without having to sacrifice too much speed–Of course, Sweet Holli was amongst the first to reach her intended destination. Her invisibility and unparalleled stealth allowed her to poke at livings without them even realising that something had touched them.

She would have been the very first had she not been assigned the furthest point. There, atop a small hill, Holli was far away from the spot where the split had taken place, any further than this, and the success of the array in amplifying One’s pink haze could not be guaranteed… Holli was not one to take gambles on missions, much less on missions of such dire importance.

The invisible girl prepared to set up the array, but something unexpected happened: A pure spirit of no particular renown appeared in the area. Sweet Holli stood perfectly still. Utterly silent as she stared at the steam spirit intently.

She wondered whether he had noticed anything. Her stealth was of great power, but she would never exclude the possibility that an individual could have a means of counter…

‘This pure spirit is acting suspiciously’ 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

To be able to come onto this mission, Holli had had to take a course on pure spirits and sapient golems. Loimos had crammed her undead mind with knowledge of such a specific nature that it nearly sounded like an elaborate prank–It was not, however. Loimos had taught her to read the body language of various kinds of pure spirits and sapient golems.

The steam spirit before her was doing their best, but it was pretty obvious that they had, in fact, some doubts about something… They were seeking something.

‘Did I mess something up? Did I leave a footprint…? No… Mmh. Can they detect something odd? Do they sense upcoming danger relating to this particular area? Does anyone else know that they’re here? Are they safe to kill?’

In utter quietness, Holli circled the steam spirit. Already coming up with ways to kill them swiftly and quietly. Nonetheless, she showed patience. There was no need to be hasty right now. The good of the mission came first, and the good of the mission was tied to patience. There was still time before things were supposed to occur. Rushing was not the right way–At least… Not yet.

Holli observed closely–Very closely–For several long minutes as the spirit looked around the small hill, until they looked behind a rocky portion, and spoke to themself.

“Perfect…”

It was a masculine voice.

Holli raised an eyebrow as the man’s demeanour changed and he rushed off into the distance, soon coming back with a second steam spirit, who had a clearly feminine voice.

“I told you, no one comes here anymore. We will be all by ourselves and unbothered”

“…Did you really check everywhere? It would be so embarrassing if someone saw us… If only we had our own place to do this”

“Don’t worry, we will soon–In the meantime…”

Holli witnessed a most unexpected scene. Half-confused, half-intrigued, she saw two masses, and steam seemed to merge together, hidden behind some rocks as they both made some weird sounds.

‘Huh… Is this what Mister Loimos does with Miss One and Miss Maliah? This doesn’t make sense… Undeads can make undeadlings, but since when can pure spirits make spiritlings in this manner?’

As far as Holli was aware, new spirits either just popped up naturally or were manifested by two spirits who really liked one another inside of a dedicated realm, where they would do something similar to undeads and merge their energies together to give rise to a new being.

She had received a thorough lesson on these fellows, and them hiding away to seemingly meld their bodies together in some sort of imitation of kissing had not been mentioned in the lesson. Holli could only guess that they just happened to express affection in this manner–Anyway… From the way they had spoken, it seemed rather obvious that they were secret lovers.

As such… No one knew they were here right now.

‘You two are liabilities. You’ll be liberated ahead of schedule’

She unsheathed a long-bladed dagger that could almost pass off as a short sword. This was a blade made by both The Death Dealer and Pure Undead, forged specifically to kill pure spirits. Holli wasn’t like Maliah. She didn’t have outrageously high levels of strength.

Everything was about her stealth and invisibility, so when it came to targeting beings made solely out of energy, she required special equipment…

Holli walked up to the–Literally–Steaming couple, and slashed right through them both with a single swing of her blade, causing them to silently disappear, their existence cut short as they dispersed, and Holli sheathed the blade.

‘Alright… Let’s go to work for real, now’

Things were going well on Holli’s side, and they were also good for Odicious. He didn’t have any innate advantage in the realm of stealth, but as the ring leader of an assassin organisation–Or rather, a caste now–He was naturally well-rounded when it came to sneaking around, and that was in spite of his large body.

He quickly progressed toward his objective–Which was inside an old, dusty building. This was where he was going to be setting up an array to enhance the strength and reach of One’s pink smog. It wasn’t clear what the structure had once been for, but he would guess that it was the site of a past worship that had fallen out of favour with the people of Lefaux, leaving only an old, decrepit ruin behind.

Odicious noticed no one around, but as a matter of attention and care, he explored the architecture’s interior, making sure that no one was around–Although pure spirits and sapient golems were unlike livings, they still grew up from the initial stage they were ‘born’ in.

Sapient golems in particular started as small beings with simple minds. They could be said to grow from children to adulthood over time as they add things to their bodies, literally shaping their future selves.

Some take longer to do so than others, and this may result in some being childish for longer, or somewhere awkward between child-like and adult-like. Case in point, Odicious discovered medium-sized sapient golems inside the structure. They had come to explore the ruins out of boredom and were acting in a somewhat similar manner to teenagers. Not nearly as obnoxious as the human kind, though.

The assassin would have loved to kill them on the spot, but he had no idea whether their presence here was known to others or not. If he killed them and people came looking… He could easily blow his cover and have the array discovered.

Instead, he followed them from a distance until they finally left the ruins, but not without speaking about potentially coming back to explore some more.

‘Such annoyances…’

The array was supposed to be set in the middle of the largest room. Odicious couldn’t exactly keep it hidden from prying eyes–Thus, he followed the group back to where they came from, finding out that they were part of a small community of sapient golems who lived in the forest and seemed to all be aligned with trees in particular, carrying at least one on each of their backs.

Odicious surveyed the surroundings for a while.

‘…Even if someone does come by, only a handful of days are left until then, so it shouldn’t get in the way of the plan, even if it did occur. Just in case, I’ll plant false evidence afterwards’

Odicious killed all of the sapient golems the following night. He then expertly did everything in his power to make it seem like they had all moved away from this place. The clues wouldn’t lead anywhere, but it would be enough to keep any possible person stumbling across the ghost village guessing. They wouldn’t raise an alarm immediately, and instead be merely confused… At least long enough for the pink haze to occur without interference.

The assassin without a face then returned to the abandoned structure and prepared the array exactly where it was supposed to be. He rubbed his palms together, cracking his fingers with glee.

Now, he just needed to be on the lookout for any disturbance and wait.

Thus, two of the arrays were successfully placed without any hitch.

Holli kept a close eye on her surroundings, always invisible, always unseen.

While Odicious hid in the dark of the dust-ridden ruins, lurking in the halls and listening intently for the signs of any possible intruder.

They guarded the arrays like avaricious dragons sitting atop their mountain of gold…

In the meantime, One, Maliah, Arleqkin, Loimos, and the other elites were also hard at work–The Fin-Limier leader, in particular, had been given a difficult mission… A difficult assassination, that is.

It was going to be the greatest job of his career as an assassin. If he succeeded, it would be his go-to story for any new person he met. This would be for sure.