Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 490: Off

"Something feels off…" offhandedly, Aramap spoke his thoughts aloud. Read latest chapters on novelbuddy

The first knight was sitting near a campfire, in a rare occasion, he was not wearing his armour as it had been battered severely in the last visit above ground, armed with what was basically bombs of acid to the undead, the last few expeditions had gone much better, the soldiers could actually make a clear difference thanks to this new weapon, one did not need strength or particular skill to chuck these at the enemy, so whilst the knights fought head-on, they received magnificent cover, allowing for much less casualties and even a few victories.

Though, the introduction of the life bomb had not tilted the scales nearly as much as all would have liked, it did help revitalise morals, and when moral grew, so did the combat performances of Cleavster’s army, all thanks to the orderly ranks none amongst the Southern Shores even knew existed, to Alisart, these qualitative improvements were perfectly normal and to be expected.

The flames crackled and cracked as the blond man stared at the dry wood being consumed, finding distraction in seeing some small branches breaking, still, even if the heat was comforting, if life in this underground was pleasant… Aramap could not help but shake off that sensation.

It was not simply due to knowing that the proud farmers of his homeland were still stuck above ground, under the nauseating, filthy rule of the dead, he had already steeled himself on this aspect, having since long accepted that they lacked the strength to force their way, might insufficient to deal with the enemy who outmatched them in both numbers and overall strength.

Loimos’s vanguard had many exalted individuals who could clash and exchange blows with him, though he was not planning on being careful next time…

No, it was something more insidious, his honed instincts were telling him that something shady, something slimy and revolting was going on, so he scanned his surrounding, almost expected a putrefied corpse to just pop out from behind a bush, a dusty skeletal to peek from behind a tree, or for a salivating ghoul to be hiding right behind him.

He looked and observed, but no such things occurred, there were no breaches in the underground, no one seemed to be suffering from any sort of poisoning, no one had passed away or disappeared, his worries appeared as nothing more than meaningless anxiousness unbefitting of his status.

Aramap knew that his king felt the same way however, Cleavster might not say it, but his second-in-command knew how to pick up the signs, both of them could feel an impending sense of doom approaching, many knights also felt uncomfortable on the regular, clearly, something was off.

’Urgh… I need to sleep…’ shaking his head, he extinguished the campfire and went inside of his tent, spear propped right next to his bed, quiver of javelins not far either, sword clutched close to his body, and also a dagger hidden underneath his pillow, just in case.

Whilst some went to slumber, others remained around their campfires, cooking strips of meat over the flames, smoke permeating it, giving the food a distinctive taste.

"I still can’t believe you didn’t die back then…"

"How many times are you going to bring this up? I am starting to think you regret that I survived…" Tarq sighed, during the last battle before confining themselves, he had indeed gotten very close to dying, on more than one occasion, nearly splattered by a ballista shot, not once, but twice- And nearly bludgeoned to death by Loimosian knights, it was indeed a wonder how he had not keeled over and died.

"Mmh…" Ilte’s constant mention of that fact and the thoughtful expressions she made every time as though imagining a world where he had indeed been killed were seriously starting to make him nervous.

"Come on, don’t whimper like a little baby! I am not going to kill you in your sleep, or poison your food, or push you into a pond and step on your back, or-"

"Alright! When did you get so- So mischievous?" the knightess just laughed in response, taking a bite out of the corneau meat she was holding over the fire.

"Relax Tarq, it’s not right for a knight like you to get so flustered over nothing" Ilte chuckled as she laid on her side.

"I don’t know about that…" pulling on the collar of his shirt as he leaned back, beginning to eat his own piece of beef.

The two knights went back and forth as the false sun above had already grown utterly devoid of sunlight, a handful of fires still blazing in the dim shine emitted from above as the artificial sun moonlighted as a lunar body also, casting brightness even as night fell.

Discussions went on far into the night for those that were not set to fight tomorrow, although, some were never sent to the surface, specifically the two latest arrivals in this buried pocket of life, the knight trainee and his younger sister were not made to confront the undeads for a simple reason, the latter simply because she was no fighter at all, and the former because he was not yet a true knight, sending him to fight into such dangerous circumstances would be nothing more than idiocy.

So to make himself useful, Isilt toiled away during the day, and was thus fast asleep when the sun changed its form, not sensing a single hint of that ambient dread his more experienced peers could feel hanging in the air.

Meanwhile, Pitit was sitting near a small pond, not having much else to do but stare at his mirror-like surface, this one was not the largest of the bodies of waters, but the central one had a rather distressing inhabitant at all times, being capable of seeing its soul was even more disturbing than its physical appearance, that being was wrapped and without a clear colour, as if not bearing any understanding of good or evil, and perhaps of everything, even of its own abilities, of its very existence…

It gave her the creeps, imagining herself stripped of such fundamental aspects was something that always coursed through her mind when she gazed upon this being, disfigured both in body and spirit.

She much preferred the calm, the lull of the other ponds, finding much beauty in the blades of grass growing from the shallow bottom, most lakes and such were also overgrown with grass on the surface, in fact, most would end up waist-deep before realising that this was not just another overgrown section of the flatlands.

New novel chapters are published on freewёbn૦νeɭ.com.

As it turns out, Pitit had never really seen water like this, only in buckets and in wells, she had never even gone to the shores that had given the region its name, going to the beach was not really an activity amongst those of the south, and the dark yellow sand was not exactly soft on the skin either.

’I hope you’re alright, Grigri…’

Sighing softly, she poked at her own reflections sending faint ripples, disturbing the immaculate reflections, her heart skipping a bit, the young girl freezing in place, there was another reflection, a person’s…

"Eh eh… Are you scared?"