Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

All thought that the downfall of life was impossible until it happened, then it became simply inevitable.

_______

Loimos spent most of his time moving around, leading troops to build forts, doing some landscaping, removing forest, adding forest, deleting mountains, replacing them, draining water, corrupting waters, digging lakes of blood, planting trees for bloodfruits, erecting miasma generators.

He had been given authority to direct troops as per his discretion, in the lands without protection by life, now known as the badlands, he was the highest ranking officer of his majesty, King Nitok.

Acting as messenger, he conversed with the minor lords, undeads of greater stature and of keen minds, the minor lords commanded over the lesser lords, to the living, all forts and bastions were different in shape and structure, all appearing to be made for rulers of equal standing, but that was wrong, only seven minor lords had been dispatched to the badlands, not one of them was put in charge of a fortress close to Tamaris, they watched over their castle and that of subordinates, focusing on building roads in between them all, digging underground too.

Vwoldtnir's followers were hard at work deep below the earth, after making certain to rile up some of the big players on the enemy side, and informing the minor lords about what was to come, Loimos headed for another place entirely, he had not lied when he had said that King Nitok bore little interest in Tamaris at the moment, unlike the posers, he was a true ruler, holding special influence over conquered lands, the priority was expanding the domain of undeath.

As such, Loimos currently was approaching a city well away from the center of the undead empire, he had bypassed many others in his way here, flying through the air and then landing up on top of the rampart, a rather big city of Glittegoyaume, a simple kingdom with a monarchy, it was apparently was somewhat big deal, but considering how little it was mentioned, this was all past glory and nothing else.

Like most nations of Viridis, it had seen a steep decline in the past generations, the gift of comprehension brought peace, peace carried stillness, and stillness allowed stagnation, stagnation giving way for devolution and decay.

With very little to compete for, no conflicts of any kind that could surmount the mark of simple pettiness, the best most could do was simply keep its prestige, really, only Tamaris had been constantly seeking to improve, solely because their king's eyes were not dulled with what he already owned.

It was the exception that confirmed the rule.

Loimos, winged with abject extra limbs, landed right in the middle of pale guards, they had not noticed his arrival but fear was already etched into their minds and bodies, expecting a dark tide of death to appear in the horizon, wholly unprepared to deal with mental anguish that had just set foot amidst their ranks.

Reaching into empty air, his war scythe manifested out of rot in all its glory, unleashing the sense-numbing stench he had kept inside, the guards coughed, nostrils burning and eyes watering, but they still pointed their spears at the undead, about a dozen of them.

Tips of their weapons scraping against his helm, bones spikes skewered them all, lifting their bodies as the bone structures extended inside of them, puncturing just about every organ inside of them, their bodies falling apart, decaying into nothingness in seconds.

Making certain that no one could interrupt him, Loimos planted his weapon into the ground, got down to one knee and began reciting words in death tongue, making a series of odd and most bone-hurting movements for the next ten minutes, enacting a very specific combination of many fields to achieve a certain results, anyone that was incapable of gleaning into the specifics would just think he was doing random things however.

Once his convoluted behaviour ceased, a ignoble amount of rot was called forth, the sludge falling off the walls and into the city, crushing a few houses as it went, only then did the result of Loimos's ten minutes of nonsense occurred, the rot moulding itself into an army of rot creations, undead soldiers and beasts that began scouring the city as soon as their construction was finished.

Their appearance was rather singular, of various shapes and sizes but all adorned with red fabric over their heads and bodies.

They would not be able of catching everyone but it was of no importance, the point was that some would escape anyways, he had not chosen this city for no reason, this was Belleville, capital of Glittegoyaume, who was wholly lacking in defensive equipment and such, they should have received gifts from Tamaris, but clearly, they had either not thought it wise to use the gift given by the only people that were actually protected, or they had failed to put it in place.

Whatever was the reason for this grave mistake, panic was going to ensue now, the survivors would spread to the rest of the kingdom, sharing the panic with them as everyone believes the undead legions are now attacking them, when it really was just Loimos by himself, he hadn't even brought anyone else with him, not all undeads could fly, not all that could were able of flying as fast as him and those that did were followers of the twin gravelords, thus, they could not travel during the day.

As soon as he was done with his little manoeuvre, Loimos took flight, smashing right through the roof of the royal castle, straight in the path of their monarch, catching him as he attempted to get out of his throne room, but the man of power quickly backed in as the undead walked forward, the king and his escort of colourfully armoured knight acted like a hive-mind, all trying to get as far from the skeleton as was physically possible.

"I am Loimos, royal courier…" he introduced himself, as was instructed when dealing with such characters.

"Allang Allantir, King Of Glittegoyaume, it has come to King Nitok's attention that you declined joining him for meeting, or rather, that you did not respond in the least, my majesty would like to know if the letter came through as intended"

Of course, Loimos did not show up on a whim.

King Nitok was a most fine gentleman, his good character was not to be questioned, as such, he had graciously extended a hand toward the rulers whose territories were found in the badlands, few showed up, in fact, only the two sovereigns that were detained were present.

The reason was obvious, but the undead king was willing to give them a chance to redeem themselves and come visit his crypt in the center of a fog of death so thick that light could not penetrate.

Where they could either accept to become a vassal state, refuse or die.

The last one being a requirement regardless of answer, the only difference is that in one case your territory would be uprooted and buried.

Allang Allantir did not respond, trying to say something but stopping himself as he sheepishly went back to sit on his throne like a proper ruler, signalling for his knights to arrange themselves like this was a most regular audience, they just needed to ignore the hole in the roof and the undead oozing a terrible stench as well as giving them images of death every time he spoke a word.

The living king cleared his throat, putting on a mask of composure.

Looking right at Loimos.

"My sincerest apologies, the letter must have gotten lost! It would be my pleasure to meet with his majesty, King Nitok! In fact, I'll get going right now!"

"I will accompany you" Loimos said, the king forced a smile.

"G-Great! Shall I-"

"No need for anyone else to accompany you"

"Aherm… What room for negotiations is there, if I may inquire?"

"None"

"Understood…"