Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

It was widely believed, for unknown reasons, that the dark miasma would have more trouble penetrating underground, spreading much less quickly than above ground, Milo did not know whether this was true or not, but it seemed like the folks of the endangered lands wholeheartedly trusted in this baseless supposition.

Digging into the earth, hiding and shivering in near total darkness, groups isolated from one another, those that could dig deeper sometimes managed to evade the attention of small undead hordes, at least, when they were not led by an elite, but for those that could barely burrow into the soil, they were always discovered without fail.

The farm boy and hidden in vegetation, accompanied by Molc, the talent holder pertaining to crossbowmanship, his aim was impeccable even from great distances, but considering that his close-quarters skills were lacking, Milo was with him to aid in case undeads managed to spot him, as he was covered with leaves and perfectly still.

Milo was not very familiar with the talent holders outside of Antieeld, and this guy was certainly singular, one might think that his life depended on his skills with the crossbow, even more so since, like many other students, his country of origin were now under attack of the undead empire, already lost and soon to be besieged.

The nerves of the two young men were put to the test, they did not know were survivors were hiding, only learning of it when they were dragged out and promptly executed, but the two of them could not act, the numbers of the hordes were too great for them to take out in an instant, not to mention, their mission, like that of many others, was to survey the movements of the undeads.

Building underground tunnels, made with the finest crafts to conceal them and go past the bastions builts near the edges of the life barrier.

But there was not much to see, even from their vantage point, most hordes were not directly led by elites or special undeads, there was no point to reveal themselves just to deal with the bottom of the barrel, mere footsoldiers that barely wielded weapons or wore armour.

Apart from observing the actions of hordes set out to cull hidden livings, they were also working to find weaknesses and find out the heads of the various fortresses and bastions, engaging in any sort of big conflicts with enemy's defence positions everywhere, all home to powerful undeads.

The gravelords were already a big enough of a worry, everyone already felt at a disadvantage before anything even began, the two young men moved on, slowly switching position, giving them sight on one of said fortresses, this was more akin to a tower however, surmounted by a spire, large, skeletal avian creatures flying all around and perching upon specially builts protuberances, at night, even larger winged creatures would come out.

Now, it was high noon, only the smaller carrion birds were out.

Milo and Molc had been observing this particular bastion for the past few days, the ones closest to the barrier were for the powerhouses to deal with, the students and rookies were in charge of collecting information on the ones erected throughout the lands being the mountain chain.

Night was when the vampires would come out, the sun was a sign, not of safety, but simply of less danger, the best source of information was Toby, with his special system that he was learning and refining upon every day was the best way for them to get any intel on their foes.

Using an item that allowed the otherworlder to see what the various scouting groups wanted him to see, he had been able of identifying many of those fortress leaders, what sort of undead they were, and a surface level of what their capacities were.

The one that ruled over the tower was a sort of zombie, half a mass of corpse sludge with bones swimming in it, half an elongated pale, androgynous corpse, dark hair covering the horror that most certainly masqueraded as a face.

All that could be gleaned about it was that it was an ancient undead, one that specialised in magic, which was rather obvious since it carried a staff with its terribly long arms, there was little more to be learned about the tower, its lord or the troops at this point, but Molc and Milo still showed up today, hoping for the exact scene that was currently playing, they held their breath, wearing items to help conceal their presences, apprehension filled their being, looking over their shoulders as they brought out the mirror that would allow Toby to exert his analysis from a distance.

The zombie, was just about to meet with the courier, the one that called himself Loimos, there was no point in eavesdropping, they conversed in the death tongue, a language the living could not possibly understand as it actually hurt their hearing.

But they could try to get intel on the one that served as the face of the undead empire, as far as they knew, no gravelords had shown themselves yet, nor had their king, whose asphyxiating presence was especially strong outside of the barriers.

At the moment, Tamaris had made a simple hierarchy based on what they knew.

At the top, there was the undead king, Nitok.

Then came the various gravelords.

Then any undeads that were close to the court, this should include the courier.

Then, the ones put in charge of bastions.

Then the elites and lastly, the regular undeads.

It was rather rough and probably inaccurate, but they did what they could with what they had.

'Come on Toby…' Milo cheered the otherworlder on, not daring to voice it out, as Loimos might hear it as he had before.

Molc was focused on Loimos, ready to shoot if needed, even if unlikely to be effective, he was going to put a bolt right through his skull if given reason to.

A ruckus came from the mirror, Toby falling backward as he attempted to analyse Loimos.

"C-Crap… He has defences in place…" he whispered, both the talent holder and simple student tensed up, expecting the courier's head to be turned right to them, but he showed no reaction, continuing his conversation with the tower lord.

"Milo, he might be pretending, let's get the hell out of here…"

"What if he is waiting to tail us?" Milo replied, the two of them stared at one another, unsure what to do, Loimos might be acting oblivious, or perhaps Toby's analysis did not alert him in the least.

He could be secretly instructing troops to attack or stalk, or absolutely nothing.

Which one was it?

"Ridfoirn, two livings from Tamaris up on the nearby hill to the left, make sure to check the area after they leave"

The two undeads moved into the tower without acknowledging the livings, Loimos was royal courier for a reason, his main job was that of a messenger and he had words to relay to Ridfoirn, who was a disciple of Nitok, the same as Unacunerra, simply not quite suited to be counted amongst the royal guards.

"...The signal will be a distinct pulse that you will feel throughout your entire being, The Graveyard will have completed its first evolution"

"Understood"