Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Without a sliver of hesitation, Sun-Walker, soon to crumble and rot away, the blood fuelling his vampiric self utterly drained away, Sun-Walker grabbed the elongated, malignant dark creature perched on his back, the beast dug into his body, further worsening the extinguished bright lord's condition by taking his death force away.

"Now I remember clearly, what is it, that I live for…" forcing the dark being's maw open, he began to pull in opposite direction, a dreadful growl coming from within, its claws were going as deep as they could inside of his flesh, but it was for naught, even reduced to this state, Sun-Walker overpowered once more, tearing, ripping, destroying, renouncing, liberating, reclaiming.

Tearing the beast, ripping it from his back, destroying the link, renouncing his lordship, liberating himself from the hold of death, and reclaiming his life.

The First Seed fell into pieces, The Great Tree screeching in pain as what he had been holding onto was, at last, taken back, like a tumour removed, the original owner and sole person capable of wielding it was invigorated, returned to what he once was.

Further away, Loimos was reforming with difficulty, the summoning of the dark beast had been capable of stunning him for an instant, for it was the being that marked a gravelord as such, the sole and most important proof of one's status, a death avatar, which dwelled within all gravelords and undead king, a manifestation of death's acknowledgement.

Sun-Walker had just severed that link, and destroyed his own, an act that would warrant the erasure of any other, but he was no longer undead, with Loimos as his witness, he underwent a veritable transformation, his physical body shifting.
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Whereas he used to be the same height as the skeleton, he now stood a full head above, his shoulders broadening even further, his body growing larger as a whole, long, lustrous golden hair fell over his immaculate back, gone were the vampire fangs, the bright skin infused with light and other blood boons, these had nothing to do with the man now standing before the undead.

Passing his hand over his face, brushing some hair away, he rose the other, smiling contentedly, basking in his own glory and power, his eyes were a vibrant green, beaming with the brightest and most radiant of life, his face angular, shaped to utter perfection.

"My apologies for everything, Silvaram" as per his will, The Great Tree was rejuvenated, free of all wears and tears, of all damages and any lasting consequences.

He turned to Loimos, who had now finished his reconstruction, his rot armour and body was under constant strain, like a bug flying too close to the sun, he was breaking apart by simple virtue of standing here.

Loimos was a primaeval being, he was a pure undead wielding primeval rot and authority of death force, he was a skeleton, undead that simultaneously stood right at the bottom, and straight at the top, his power had grown intensely in little time, and the potential held within was unfathomable.

His sockets glowed an unknown deep purple.

"I suppose I shall apologise to you as well, I am not Sun-Walker, or rather, that thing is just a fluke" his words seemed to deafen the undead's senses.

He crossed his arms, a knowing smile on his face.

"I am Thanatok Ynigós, The First Death Hunter" the voice was strong, his eyes brimming with an unknown bright green.

Thanatok was just like Loimos, also a primaeval being, in possession of authority over life force, as well as user of primeval vigour, a human, the weakest and strongest species of creation at once, Thanatok Ynigós had been active long before Loimos existed, long before that miserable old man had even brought the materials necessary to his birth, he had fought and learned for countless of years, and unlike Loimos, he had passed to the otherside.

"Do not take whatever that Sun-Walker might have said or thought to heart, putting my life away as led to other parts of me to go with it, memories, core aspects of my being, that filthy tree you encountered inheriting the worst cocktail it possibly could have" he spread his arms and walked up to Loimos, the undead struggling to remain standing could do nothing.

"You, you are one of a kind, that vampire alter-ego could not see it without my help, but you are just like me, you are me, you are my fated nemesis! Yes, surely that is what is at play here, my patience has been rewarded and God sent you so that we may have a true fight, or maybe-"

"-Maybe it is something else, but why not both?"

Circulating his death force, every fibre of Loimos's being trembled under the struggle, his death forcefully pushed back as he tried to manipulate it, failing to manifest anything from rot, his simple fist crashing into the pure living's chest, completely harmlessly, possessing no strength to even snap a frail piece of wood.

"But it is a shame, you are much too weak as of now" bringing his fist back, Ynigós pinned the undead right to the ground with a strike to the chest as well, the skeleton could sense residues of life sticking to him and eating away.

The living retracted his life, and held out his hand.

"I only wish for one thing, and it is not for life to prosper onto eternity, but for one good fight, one fight where I am actually at a danger of losing my life, what do you say Loimos? What about grazing everything to the ground, elevating you to my level and having one final fight amidst ruins? The winner gets to do whatever they want then"

"Would it not be glorious? Is it not worth fighting for? Is it not worth dying for? Is it not worth living for?"

"But to truly do this, I need you by my side, what is your answer?"

Loimos remained silent, grabbing hold of the living's hand, which Thanatok took as agreement, hoisting the undead up to his feet and dusting his shoulders off.

"I too only want one thing" he began saying, staggering forward.

The living nodded his head.

"For death to rule supreme" flinging his living equivalent over his shoulder, he stepped back outside the natural radius of his life, and began properly recuperating his capacities.

"Ahahah… Not convinced huh? I guess I shouldn't have expected some sort of mutual understanding" he retracted his life force completely within.

Thanatok Ynigós could very clearly wield life in an outer manner, unlike Loimos who could only use it effectively when inside his body, the level of control and mastery in their life and death was not to be compared.

But it was not like Loimos could retreat, being blasted by the apparition of the death avatar and then taking a brunt of the living's life force had completely disabled his ability to use rot, to properly use his death force and such, there was no way for him to manifest wings or to sink into the ground.

In this case, he might as well just keep trying for it was the only thing available to him.

Stepping forward, he focused what meagre powers he could bring out, and punched forth, like a child trying to defeat a brick wall, only he received damage, but kept going nonetheless.

One, three, six, ten, twenty, forty-five, seventy-seven, one-hundred, he attacked fast and still with some strength, but it was utterly futile, The First Death Hunter just stood there, unmoved.

Grabbing the skeleton's helm, he punched without the aid of his life force, flattening the armour piece and crushing what was inside, sending Loimos scraping against the ground, creating sparks from the friction.

"You have grit Loimos, you show no fear, no apprehension or anything, remember Millipolo?

We shall meet there once you believe yourself ready to face me, until then… Well, I suppose I'll hang around that Tamaris kingdom, our fight's conclusion will serve as the bell for both sides to charge in, whoever makes records of events will have something epic to recount for once" he chuckled to himself stepping away as Loimos stood back up again.

There was simply no way of winning here, and yet, the living was willing to give up on an easy victory? That was something anyone else but Thanatok Ynigós would have come to regret, but with this living, his certainty was not unfounded, the potency of his life meant that none that could not rival his output would be able of snuffing him out.

Taking the reasonable option, Loimos crawled out of the submerged biome.

"Your arrogance will be your undoing one day" The Great Tree, Silvaram of his true name, chastised the hero of life, and he was not the only one that found his decision to lack in sense.

Sliding down the side of a root, caught before he fell forward by Silvaram, Quideos Audit could not believe that one of the foremost heroes would just let Loimos go like this, the prophet was neither mad or raving at the moment, in fact, moments ago he had experienced a burst of clarity unlike any before.

First, the wretched wraith disappeared, bidding him farewell as he dissipated, and now, the malignant whispers had ceased, it was like bugs that had been crawling in his ears had finally gotten the cue and left.

And as such, he experienced an epiphany unlike any other before, a vision of great importance, he saw a sliver of a possibility for victory, earned by the skin of the teeth.

Still, it was but a mere miniscule fate that he had witnessed, disposing of the foul undead right there and then would have been much better.

But Audit did not want to lecture Ynigós, he had something else to relay.

"Thanatok Ynigós! You need to help the Elven Light"