Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

The sun rose, the sun set… A new moon passed by, a full moon passed by… And then, this memory of the future shattered under the strain of having to house the clash between two destructive forces, wide reaches of the realm being reflected through memories had been turned upside down, the city they had first arrived in was gone, not even the smallest of remnants left behind, it was like a gigantic meteor had come crashing down in the middle of the city, wiping everything out, leaving only a wasteland of grassless earth.

And in the next instant, Loimos and Sonnenträger found themselves somewhere new, neither looked physically harmed in any sort of a way, ever since the undead had managed to deplete a portion of the hero's gold, very little had actually changed, they had struck one another on several occasion, the golden one had landed another 'Golden Glow' right into the skeleton's chest, only for the Loimos to once again escape destruction, and likewise, the pure undead had managed to punch his opponent's heart out of his body, but to little effect.

There was no meaning to targeting vital organs for either of them, both were akin to a hivemind, the gold and festering death was them, no matter the amount present or available, even a single, minuscule piece of it was enough for them to reform to perfectly nearly instantaneously.

They could only keep on fighting and aim to deplete the vital energy of their opponent, that was just about the only way for this fight to come to an end, but naturally, both were protective of that aspect of themselves, when hit, they prioritised shielding the energy rather than their physical bodies, so although it appeared like they landed fight-ending hits on plenty of occasions, it was never more than a scratch at best.

This time, the two of them found themselves in a memory in Viridis, Loimos recognised the place they had arrived in, although, it was clear that this was a memory of the past once more, the stone walls were not crumbling, appearing brand new, pieces of furnitures and neatly arranged books were to be seen everywhere…

A hole that should be in the ground was absent, and there were no signs of any item meant to trap wandering souls within, indeed, it seemed like Loimos had ended up in the very room where he had come into existence, at a time before the decrepit old man had begun to go insane or even thought of combining countless corpses and souls together to achieve immortality.

Everything was clean and tidy, at that time, the old man had not yet fallen to despair.

But all of this did not mean much, Sonnenträger had no idea what this underground room was, he merely lunged forward, swinging his mace into a wide arc, not even taking into account the ceiling of the room, simply swinging right through it like it was empty space, the gold channelled through the weapon coursed through the stone and earth above, causing everything to collapse on the two combatants, but mere rock and stone could not even slow them down, Loimos blasted through it all, his chest disappearing out of thin air as the hero trying to swing at him, rearranging his rot and body into a more bestial form, claws tearing through Sonnenträger's chest.

The golden one didn't even blink at that as golden blood flew out, instead manifesting a beam of gold from the front of torso, blasting the bestial form of Loimos apart, the man frowned and glanced to the side, what he just destroyed was an empty shell, a mere rot creation left behind as Loimos slipped away under the guise of a tiny serpent, slithering in between the rubbles created by the cave-in, and pouring everything into concealing his energy signature, presence and the likes, achieving a level of stealth that surpassed even that of Maliah and Sweet Holli combined.

Rather than focusing to see through the veil of stealth, Sonnenträger did something simpler, there was no need to play the undead's games, so he just erupted with an enormous blast of gold, creating a giant sphere of emptiness into the earth, the light of the sun poured down onto him, and he noticed the presence of the so-called miniature world, the very place where Loimos had first enacted his duty as an undead and slaughtered tribes of intelligent monsters, making every greater by flooding it all with miasma.

He had headed directly for the underground lake rather than sticking near the hero, and already, the waters were bubbling with, having turned darker than petroleum, the undead using the physically present lake to do something.

If the golden hero was not mistaken, Loimos was trying to use the now corrupted water as a catalyst or sacrifice of sorts to do something, which should allow for the creation of something greater than if he had just woven it out of rot that he himself produced.

"Utter madman…" Sonnenträger muttered to himself, the smile on his face growing fiercer as he launched himself straight at the dark lake, soaring through the air, like a golden falling star.

Loimos wasn't using black blood on the lake, he was manifesting deep sludge and attempting to refine it into what had originally spawned it, namely, whatever matter it was that the Abyss was filled to the brim with.

Abyss was something that even an undead could not ignore, it was a force that could rival life and death, so even Loimos was not safe from its effects if he were to actually manifest it, something Sonnenträger did not doubt he could accomplish, but that he assumed the skeleton had never actually done before, as manifesting Abyss anywhere was a sure way for a large scale disaster, something he wouldn't do anywhere else but a memory that would eventually break and be turned into clean slate.

Channelling gold through his silver mace, the first hero prepared to land a devastating Golden Glow directly upon the surface of the lake, but was just a little bit too late, as the deep sludge condensed into a small ball.

"Oh…" the first hero got a clearer understanding just as the sphere was consumed, and an abominable Abyssal creature manifested in its place.

He had underestimated the pure undead, Loimos had to actually be insane, to not just manifest Abyss, but to it to then use that potent force as an offering to summon a genuine Abyssal beast, not only would it spread Abyss everywhere, but the undead had not had the time to make a proper summoning ritual, so that creature would try to attack him too.

Which was probably why Loimos had taken his distances, currently calling upon the aspect of Conquest to manifest a bow…