Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Quietly forcing the backdoor open, Grigri tiptoed around the wooden floorboard, feeling them bend under his weight, slowly creaking, keeping his focus on the living he was heading for, muffling all sounds he inadvertently produced, ascending steps one by one, lightly pushing door to the soldier's room, this woman was not betrothed to anyone, but she seemed to have quite a few sisters, two of the youngest clinging to her.

This was not too problematic, Grigri only needed to plant the horn, but he needed to make sure the soldier would be the one to find it first, it could otherwise implicate bystanders, and no one sane wanted that, as such, the headless looked around the room for a good place to put the report. Stay connected through My Virtual Library Empire

'Where to…' he did not wish to linger one for any longer than was required, but deciphering which area was that of the soldier and which was more-so that of her sisters wasn't simple, bringing his attention to the ceiling, an idea appeared, a soldier would certainly notice it there.

The treacherous undead then quickly left the room, closing the door, placing it as it was when he first pushed it, Grigri was careful to not be noticed as he left the farmlands, getting far away, amongst the headhunters scouring the wilderness, waiting for what was to come, he did not know if what was written in this report was even enough for anything to be decided, it did have a rather precise census of all undeads guarding the farmlands, as well as much intel concerning those stationed within the fortified wall.

Grigri had hoped to find a flaw in the wall, but as should have been expected, even ants with human intellect and arms would not have been capable of building something so flawlessly, only insanity could lead to such perfect results- The architects and builders had plenty of it on top of glorious work ethic.

'...I do wonder who it is delivered to and how, sending such a thing to the royal castle should be impossible, unless they still have some of those things to teleport… But where else could it possibly be going?' the headhunter had no clue of the specifics, only the soldiers in charge of receptioning the reports had any idea, but thinking about that only reinforced Grigri's certainty that the decision to not pull all that was possible from the prisoners was some sort of stunt.

Moving closer to the farmlands, he felt worry and anxiety eating away at him, the southerners were already at a clear disadvantage, the possibility that the undeads were doing something behind the scenes seemed foreboding.

The days passed without anything changing, without anything happening, he looked for more information at the fortified wall, but Ourlst was not receiving anyone these days, Frenand remained at his post within the farmlands, Erestel and Sari stayed put in their respective quarters, Deacon Grilt recited prayers without ever stopping whilst Alisiana made dreadful progress in converting the two prisoners.

Grigri had no words to describe it, she had first begun by making the two pray the way of compassion, although the headless was not very close to the church of death, he had heard that the worship of divine death was divided into multiple ways, a few of the most prominent being the way of Oblivion, silence, compassion, eternity and dark.

The way of compassion was all about kindness, pity, misericorde, mercy and all of such things, one who followed this way would be taught all about death's endless sympathy, and how death was a deliverance from the greasy paws of life.

Alisiana had plenty of holy texts and scriptures describing them, accompanied by stories that Grigri deemed to be fabrications, which demonstrated such kindness and how pain was erased after leaving life behind.

What the headhunter deemed utter nonsense however, seemed to have resonated with the two captives, that or they were excellent actors, but he doubted that one could fake such things in front of a fanatic like the missionary.

Now, she had decided to introduce them to the way of silence, learning it required to make the minimum amount of sounds, the two livings were made to read in a perfect lull as the undead watched over them.

This felt much too creepy to observe, so the headless did not wish to linger around for too long.

"If it isn't one of our noble headhunters!" he only made a few meters before the harmonious voice of Alisiana rang out, it was certainly important to note that this skeletal undead with the skin literally right upon against her bones had a beautiful voice, in fact, it was another reason why Grigri did not like being around the priestess.

She sounded too calming, too enthralling, it made one want to listen to her sermons and prayers, it wasn't any sort of ability or trick, Alisiana just happened to be perfect for her duties, no doubt why she had been the missionary to stand the longest within the vanguard, Loimos must have noticed her talent early on.

Obviously, Grigri stayed silent and just turned to face her, trying to remain as dead-looking as possible, avoiding any sort of mannerism that did not fit the persona that had been built around the headhunter in white, only slightly bowing to acknowledge Alisiana.

He was a bit taller than her, and despite the lack of head, Grigri still had sight, he had never actually interacted with the priestess personally, although neither a lieutenant or champion, she was was still a rather exalted member of the vanguard, so the traitor had always done his best to not get close, fearful that Alisiana might just see right through his disguise.

Playfully slapping the back of her hand against his chest, right where the soul and mind were situated, she chuckled a bit.

Now that he was getting a closer look at the missionary, Grigri found himself questioning a few things, it was acceptable that hair would still be stuck to her head considering that skin was still present and seemingly without any damage, but she was definitely skeletal, both the face and hands were clearly so.

So why was it that it seemed like this was not the case for everything beneath the robes? There were clearly shapes that could not be due to bones.

'That's weird…Is stuffing a thing for female skeletons?'

Those interrogations helped him appear as a good undead as he completely zoned out, at least until she spoke up.

"You do realise that there are ways to redemption, right?"

'W-What?'

"One is allowed to commit errors and mistakes, me and my colleagues know how to forgive even livings, we don't go preach to them every day for no reason, we know, deep within us, that they are just misguided and unlucky to have been born alive…"

'Does this mean-'

"I feel you a bit tense, Grigri-"

"-Oh, the snafu! I called you Grigri when I shouldn't know that name! That's why I told Sir Ourlst to not tell me anything, I can't help but speak and speak, blah blah blah…"

"...Ah ah…"

"So you knew!"

"Of course we did, who do you take us for? This is the undead empire, not a trinket shop, if you thought you were being discreet crawling through hay, think again, and one just needs to look at you to know that something is off-"

Running past Alisiana, Grigri leapt right through an opening, throwing him straight into a freefall.

Splattering to the ground, the fact that he was made of pretty much nothing but dust helped him a great deal, what it did not help him with, was the massive hound looking down on him.

Rather than staring at the growling beast and its foul saliva dripping down, the headhunter looked in between its legs, trying to get a good look at what was happening in what little portion of the farmlands he could see.

He saw pretty much nothing, and it did not really matter, the utter casualness of the priestess when her tongue slipped, and the fact that a beast of Loimos was waiting for him right there were enough to let Grigri know that whatever the undeads were planning, was already well on its way.

"I don't have time for you, dog!" roared the headless, and surprisingly, the beast moved out of the way.

"I hope you may free some time for me, then"

Grigri's soul sank into a dark, cold pit.

"Loimos…"