Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Chapter 220 Loimos, Follower Of Death



The two demons found little difficulty in making their way back to the surface, climbing with great efficiency, their tail allowing for most unexpected movements, once Rummy hoisted the last beastfolk up there, she lingered on the surface for a little while, helping the locals properly use the beast repellent as well as telling to be careful on their way to the flying ship.

Meanwhile, the dark underground began to liven up, heavy footsteps, scraping against stone, the ground cracking as the dry blood was stepped upon, the reason why the flower-piloted golems up on the surface were rare or in poor shape came into light, as countless, undamaged versions of them made their way in the room.

Carrying all sorts of weaponry, assuming simple formations, or at least tried to, the stone and withered vines forming their bodies were blasted to pieces the second they stepped within range of the two vampire hunters, they could not even see the moving statues, simply shooting in direction of the sound with awfully powerful bolts.

Loimos did not even need to pretend to help, the few dozens of statues were dealt with in just a few seconds, and without breaking a sweat.

"There is no sensation of XP" one remarked aloud, just as Rummy came back down.

Loimos went up to one of the remains, those statues were undeniably of the same manufacture as those outside, at least in origin, these ones had received some mending from expert hands, repaired and adapted to another method of control.

The ones above were controlled by flowers resting on their backs, these ones had no flowers however, only a singular, thick length of a dark green stem going into their backs, each of them leading further into the darkness of the buried ruin, that stem emitted death force as well.

The undead put his hand up against it.

"Are you two sure you want to keep going? I am fairly certain this is a lair in its own right, four of us won't be enough to overcome the enemies and probable traps this thing has to offer, why don't you escort the locals to the hot air balloon and contact the others?" she advised them, but they only looked at the huntress like something was wrong with her face.

"Rummy, don't you have a way to contact Échalas and Abraham? Just do it"

"And you're talking like you'll keep going with this stranger even if we leave, is something the matter?"

Her colleagues weren't convinced by her recommendation.

"Hum… you see… heerm…"

"It's just dangerous alright? And I know that you two will throw yourself at the danger! So just go back and live another day, I know how to run away, I am an expert at that, protect the locals" she slapped grappling hooks onto the chests.

"A death hunter's primary job is not to hunt the undead, but to preserve the living, right? I will come back alive, you can trust me on this" she stared at them dead in the eyes, their reluctance seemingly vanishing.

The duo did as she said and made their way up, and out of the ruins, leaving Rummy and Loimos by themselves, the undead simply standing idly as everything unfolded.

Rubbing her eyes, the vampire hunter turned to the skeleton, currently standing at the edge of the light provided by the orb that floated above her head.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Would you stop staring at me? It's a bit unnerving, Golpilz, or whatever you are called" brushing dust off her shoulders, Loimos reflecting into her dark glasses.

"What are you here for?"

"Dropping the pretence? I already told you how I feel about life and your kind, I just wanna talk" she casually responded the words spoken to her with the pale tongue, the odd nature of the language spoken by the skeleton making it so that it seemed to be coming from but also not from Loimos himself, lacking in natural echo, instead having its own.

"You wish to speak with gravelords, about why life or the rest should not be eradicated to leave space for death?" lacking in everything that made a voice what it was, the words spoken by Loimos hardly sounded like the question it was supposed to be.

"Gravelord? That's what you call them? Hold on, did you just say gravelords?" Rummy tensed up as she realised the usage of plural in this particular situation, Golpilz, as she knew him, did not seem like the sort of misspoke.

She and Loimos just stood opposite to one another, the huntress incapable of reading him, whether he would attack, speak or do nothing was impossible to gleam from him, his pose had gone to one of absolute neutrality, having lost all of the personality he had infused into his fabricated alter ego.

It was chilling.

The silence as she waited for him to do something felt like an eternity, the death in the air feeling like it was growing denser and deeper by the second, the stench of death emanated from him with strength no piles of putrid corpses could hope to match.

"You can try, I can not tell you what they would think of your offer, I do not speak for them, but neither will they be able of giving a satisfactory answer, it is for neither I, nor them to make this sort of decision, it is not undead reasoning that guide us, but Death itself" the light seemed to grow dimmer.

"Whether we can coexist or not, I do not know, I shall comply to Death's will no matter what, but until then, we will continue"

The undead stepped up to her, his approach devoid of friendliness or aggression, he simply moved and that was all there was to it.

"In the event that your wish is also Death's, I will allow you to live a while longer, in the event that it is not, take this and plead with Death in person" he grabbed her right hand, placing a dark crystal in the palm, keeping a firm hold onto her.

"I-"

"I see, that is very generous? Of you…" she had to do her best not to start shaking like a leaf caught in between two tornadoes, although she could probably fight back against the undead, that was technically speaking, he had already infected her mind with fear before she could make that decision.

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"Let us make a pact, in exchange of your life and the information I provided, you will not speak of anything you learned here, you will not speak of any great information you will find in the future regarding the undead either, you will not do or say anything that could bring misfortune to the undead, up until the information is revealed on its own" she silently agreed, in spite of only understanding through sheer intent, as Loimos spoke in the death tongue, and a pact did form just like that.

Loimos let go of her hand, stepped away from her without any intent, disappearing into the darkness without speaking any other word, not any noise came out from the darkness.

Rummy did not know how long she was left standing there, clutching the dark crystal, only certain of one thing at the moment, she had been very lucky, not just to not be attacked, but simply to have been given this occasion.


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