Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"Aah, it really is all coming together, don't you think?" walking up to a balcony, carved directly from dark stone, pulsating with a variety of distinct strengths, laying one skeletal hand on the balustrade, the other grasping upon a staff of pure dark iron, deeply infused a pure energy of darkness, with wished to pour out, yet simply held back by the identity of its owner.

"Your majesty, it is always coming together recently, huh?" with both hands behind his back, Nosferatu moved up to his king's side, his head as bald as usual, his wardrobe, much like that of pretty much all undeads, had seen an upgrade after the victory, albeit against his will.

The vampire lord was not a fan of excessive decorations and additional colours on his dusty coat, but he had to relent, being the strongest gravelord did not shield against the big, round eyes of the tailors.

At least, he had managed to not end up like Nitok, who had been garbed in dozens of rings, bracelets and other trinkets, the exalted ruler of the undead empire did not see a problem anywhere, even though his crown now seemed out of place compared to the rest.

"Indeed! But Nosferatu, it seems like you are a bit bored, it has only been what, a few years? You will get more occasions to fight, I am certain, you could have been the one to lead the vanguard, were you not allergic to commanding troops" the gravelord just pushed his lips together, his methods would be more akin to charging until everything was dead.
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"It isn't for me anyways, Loimos is doing as well as we could wish for, I had not expected him to be capable of so easily build-up an army, make them so fiercely loyal and then more, dare I say, even good old Dracula would not have done so well…" closing his eyes, the gravelord scratched the side of his face, if there was one thing to look forward on the mainland, it was news of the vanguard's progress as well as discoveries they were making.

It was mind-blowing to the undeads here, more and more, Loimos was graduating from champion, and being viewed as a full-on hero, some idolised him, perhaps too much…

"Do dare, Dracula said so as well, he is extremely competent in leading troops, but our dear bone-ling seems to have no limits to what he can do, must be do to being a pure undead! But more importantly, look at how much we have grown, expanded! Before we emerged victorious, I never would have thought that the emergence of our undead empire would lead to such a wonderful sight!

A nation of death can not coexist next to nations of life, this was a given, but to think that we were being suppressed so strongly…" the king moved away from the balcony and back inside, the royal crypt had also seen much improvements, having somehow grown even larger.

The quarters once used by Loimos to train the vanguard had certainly shrunk a bit, turning to a lengthy office space where communication agents relayed messages, the training grounds having been moved away from the heart of Nitrosm.

Nitrosm being the name the capital was known as now, Tokstrom, the continental fortress was everything else, Nitok had not been the one to pick the names.

"Ah, by the way you majesty, have you heard of this little group that formed in Tokstrom?" Nosferatu spoke up.

"Which one? The Vwoldtnir fanclub, the sculptors perhaps?"

"No, I mean the Sons Of Loimos"

"Huh, I didn't know about that, who is the mother, is that One vampire?"

"Your majesty… Although I do admit that I too had my curiosity piqued by such a prospect, of you know, Loimos using the two-hundred and seventh bone, but that is just what they decided to call themselves" explained Nosferatu.

"I was joking, of course I know them, nothing escapes my attention in my dominion, you must be worried because they think that the empire is not supporting Loimos enough in his incursions, do not fret Nosferatu, they are just rowdy folks, young decay that is enamoured by our champion, but what can I say?

The boys want to be Loimos, and the girls, well, they want to be with Loimos, as minuscule as the chances are, the boys are more likely to succeed, but well, not all of them believe that it is achievable…"

"...So instead, they formed this group, all of them may hold questionable beliefs, but in the end, all they do is encourage more newly formed undeads to join the vanguard… But I sense that it is not why you are mentioning them" the king signed for Nosferatu to speak as he sat down upon his throne, no longer standing in an awfully empty rooms, as lesser thrones had been created, to allow for the undeads given charge of every specific regions to come and have seat.

"My lord, it is simply that in there attempt to imitate Loimos, they are much too worried about being pure and hunting those who live in death, which they have been starting to refer to as 'negators', I simply worry that they will eventually spiral out of control and create tension within our borders" Nosferatu spoke seriously.

Nitok took a few seconds to respond, behind his grand throne, the banner of the empire was hung over the wall proudly, followed by paintings, all rather recent depicting the victory, the gravelords, as well as the minor lords and even simple undead soldiers, the triumph had led to many undeads taking up non-combat professions, including some that definitely did not even help combat like smithing and the likes, which was welcomed by Nitok, undeadkind was not strictly meant for fighting and killing, it was the aggression and oppression of the livings that had led to his image.

"The Sons Of Loimos, they are a bit intense, that is true for certain, but they are not mad, nothing will occur for as long as Loimos is loyal to the empire, but to be certain, let them come here, I'll talk to them, reassure them and explain that it is not that I don't support the vanguard, but rather that Loimos wanted the vanguard to develop on its own…"

"...Which was greatly successful, thanks to what he had discovered and demonstrated, the core army of the empire has improved and increased by leaps and bounds as well, wouldn't you agree, Nosferatu?"

"Indeed, never would the number of vampire sharing my blood have been so high otherwise, and even without this, quite a bit of units trained under his command join the core army instead of the vanguard still" the gravelord nodded with a smile, truly quite proud that the rather weak skeleton he had met in his own tomb had progressed so far, even mastering stack, if not expanding on it further.

"I'll be returning to my own quarters, your majesty" giving a slight bow, Nosferatu might have nothing to fight, but as said earlier, the number of his followers had increased exponentially, partly thanks to the lordless vampires forming naturally, who could accept his blood without any chances of it failing, but also the fact that Loimos himself had trained undeads to send them to the gravelords.

Which was how Nosferatu also had a dragon amongst his following now, of course, it wasn't the greatest of dragons, it only classified as a monster at most and had no sapience, but it was a big dragon that hit hard, and that was all that mattered here.

Of course, Dracula still held the bragging rights for his following, even if all four vampire lords could technically have dragons in their personal forces, thanks to The Graveyard bringing back all the fallen undeads, minus those obliterated by Thanatok himself during the first war, Dracula had so many dragons flying and lying around, even if each vampiric blood had its qualities, it was always Dracula that held the cool factor.

'Mmh' laying down in his coffin, currently turned into a bathtub filled with blood, Nosferatu really wanted to move and test just how good Loimos had become at fighting, but it was clearly not the moment to, so instead, he had to think about something other than fighting or the security of the empire.

He could always find someone to reproduce with, as it was no longer just a leisure activity, but could actually yield magnificent results, the offsprings of gravelords could really end as something great.

The easiest way was one of his own followers, but it was just weird to him, he literally shared blood with them, so even if by all means, they had nothing to do with him, it just wouldn't feel right.

'Or better yet!'

Although each gravelord had their own abilities, it was undeniable that the vampire lords had a much easier time sharing their powers with others, the amount of skilled foetid blood users was way ahead of spectres capable of collecting hands, ghosts that could perfectly possess bodies, or ghouls that could turns eyes to ashes.

Each of the vampire lords had once been simple vampires with any allegiance, they had developed their own blood into what it was.

Meaning that any vampire doing the same could give rise to a new type of blood power.

Standing up in the bath-coffin with a saucy smile plastered right upon his face, he had just gotten a marvellous idea, something that he would definitely not find boring, and that would also benefit the empire, killing two birds with one stone.

"It's time for a new generation" he said to no one in particular, throwing on his clothes and taking off running at full speeds, straight for the place where natural vampires formed.