Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"Mmh, well, well, well… This looks a bit ominous, doesn't it?" looking toward the horizon, standing upon a small watchtower, all of its shooting windows wide open, foundations thrusting into the dark yellow sand below, crabs of various sizes digging around the shore, unearthing humanoid remains much too often.

Handing the longview in his hands, the bulky man that had spoken went twirling his moustache, without this instrument, the subject of this discussion could not be seen, the glass was special and had been subjected to many enchantments and the likes to achieve this sort of prowess.

"Yes… It is indeed rather ominous, it resembles some sort of black storm? Perhaps it is a mana storm of the darkness attribute?

We had a storm of fire a few years back…" the blond man put down the longview, looking over to the only other person present at the top of this tower, this other man had long black hair, a face marked with countless scars, bringing into question just how one could survive so many grievous injuries.

A simple crown sitting upon the head, he shook his head.

"Don't mention it, that was a disaster, I am still certain it was coming from that disfigured bastard, ah! Curse you Irlke!" Clenching his fist and yelling at the clouds.

"Ergh… Anyways, that storm as you call it, it is probably more than just a mana storm, call it instinct if you want Aramap, but this might be a good occasion to negotiate a truce, we had managed one when the headless beast rose from the ground, for a little bit… I mean, we are surely not the only ones to have noticed, it is only natural that everyone would want some peace to brace for whatever impact it might bring, don't you think?" Aramap looked at the crowned man in wonder, nodding his head before sliding a great helm on, speaking only then.

"Your majesty, I understand your idea, but proving any type of danger to the other warkings is a tall hurdle, they'll first assume that we are only using the vague threat of something far beyond the horizon to get a sneak attack on them" indeed, the situation on this continent was much different than that on Viridis or any other really.

Viridis had been graced with the gift of comprehension long ago, allowing for a certain peace to settle in over time as everyone understood one another perfectly, breaking the language barrier and when one could have discussion with the enemy as well as their friends, it became harder to justify waging war upon them.

Here on Belliste however, this had never happened, and not only this, but the continent had truly devolved into constant warfare after an empire spanning its entirety cracked to pieces, leading to an unending era of conflict, where the lords were all called warkings instead, pieces of territory were regularly changing hands, their equivalent of peace was when they just stopped battles and moved on to having roaming soldiers act like bandits upon their enemies.

Aramap's lord, Alisart Cleavster had forged his own crown from that of others, but he still remained just another lord amongst the others, all were equivalent in strength, those weaker were nearly instantly devoured.

"Well… Unless you are ready to accept Derdlim's marriage proposal?" the knight chuckled, his laugh echoing within the helm.

"I am not getting anywhere close to this vile woman! And certainly not without a complete suit of armour, and you want me to approach her in my birthday apparel? Utter madness, I would rather cover myself in honey and stick it inside an anthill than her" the rugged giant of a man shuddered, preferring to raise the longview and stare at the storm of dark in the distance instead.

It was still incredibly far away, it wasn't even certain that it would keep moving toward them, but Alisart was trusting in his guts, his soldiers were growing rather tired from the current string of battles, any reason to have his enemies mark a pause as well was a good one.

Although continental truces were rare, the last had been rather recent, when conflict in the central plains had awoken a slumbering beast, it had been agreed to take it out before resuming the bloodshed, and surprisingly, it had been respected.

So a storm as dark as that one should definitely qualify as well.
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"What is in this direction anyways? Is there another continent this way?" the warking wondered, as far as Belliste went, he knew the regions and such, but beyond the shores, it was rather foggy in his memories.

Both the lord and his knight began rehearsing the names of each continent and their overall directions, sea travel was rather rare, but there were always archives of some madmen who had managed to make the voyage back and forth by sheer force of will, and mostly luck.

"Ah, Viridis is this way, no?" finally, Aramap managed to pinpoint it "But in what way is this important?"

"Not very important I suppose, but it's just that this sort of things usually happen in the middle of nowhere, in areas where there is little or no lands, you would expect an entire continent to find a countermeasure when something like that is forming or coming their way, instead of just letting it be… Maybe it didn't even come close to them, it's hard to judge distances between continents…" the warking shook his head and slid down the ladder, stepping foot upon the sand, hardly sinking in spite of the weight of his armour.

Aramap came soon after, his white cloak fluttering in the wind, posted all around the lonely watchtower were many other knights garbed in basically the same attire as Aramap, only that his own great helm was decorated with hints of a greenish alloy, marking him as the First Knight of his warking, and thus leader to his men.

All climbed upon the back of horses and rode away from the shore, the black storm was a good pretence to force a truce and recover some strength, solidify the defences which had been consistently worn out over the years of conflict, rare were occasions to work without being under threat and he was intent on making the most out of it, and of course, if the storm from afar was to truly wash over them, he also had to find out just what it was about and how to properly defend his lands.

But he had the gnawing feeling that something, whatever it was that he had to worry about, was going to go much worse than he could envision.