Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Loimos would not claim to understand the will of Death, only Nitok, crowned king of the dead as per the will of Death could make such an assertion.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

What did Loimos want? In truth, the skeleton wanted nothing, his undead will was what brought him from place to place, from action to action, and today, he walked amidst vampiric beasts and dark blue golems of stone, the messenger was escorted by the servants of the twin gravelords.

Vespertillo, The Night Flier and Atsalinopalo, The Shattered.

One ruling over the beasts, animals and monsters alike were quick to fall prey to the strength of his blood, which empowered the primal force those creatures were inherently born with, reinforcing their natural attributes, making even the most docile of animals into a bloodthirsty follower.

Of course, not only beasts could be turned by the gravelord, humanoid figures, their physical form, their faces warped into the semblance of a bat, perched up in the distant darkness, they waited, unmoving.

Much different in the capacities of his blood, Atsalinopalo was clearly present as well, the dark golems, different from the ones manipulated by a plant, had his sanguine powers coursing inside of them, having the unique ability of making that which was neither alive, neither dead into scions of his blood.

Clearly, the twins had not remained idle, the underground ruin was far from being deserving of such a title, for it was still being constructed at this very moment, its wide halls being expanded without stop by an untiring work force.

Constantly pulling beasts and all that was vulnerable to the allure of blood in the dark expanse below ground, their forces were constantly expanding, even a few nature spirits had been made into vampires, although plants did not all fall under the susceptibility to the beast blood, some definitely did.

In the room where Loimos came to a stop, countless trees and humongous flowers were to be found, their branches and roots filling a large circular hole in the ceiling, the blooms were varied, but the most noticeable were the ones with large, tube-like stems extending from their base, these were in charge of controlling the regular golems.

Now, it seemed obvious that the one to thank for their mending was Atsalinopalo, his expertise with such constructs was hardly rivalled.

Hanging from the ceiling, a gigantic bat, with big round eyes and orange fur, apart from its red eyes, it was hard to find any signs that this was a vampire, its natural dentition allowing for vampire fangs to go completely unnoticed.

"Ahoooooooooool!" its cry was synonymous with its name, Ahool, perhaps the most prominent beast under Vespertillo's control, unlike its master, its features were truly that of a bat.

Dressed rather lavishly, garbed in a long dark cloak on the outside, bright red on the inside, fluttering with every step, although this cloak was more like a cape, allowing plenty of room for the gravelord's wings to unfurl, spanning well over the size of his own body.

"Visitors are rare, and I can tell that you have not come by mistake" Vespertillo's voice was raspy and unpleasant to the ear, the gravelord's appearance was befitting of his beast blood, his face was in the image of a particularly ignoble bat, dark brown and covered in wrinkles that could qualify as flaps, obstructing the view of his red eyes, his jaw appearing much too big.

Long ears swung from side to side, the only hair visible on his body being found on the backside of his hands, the same colour as his visage and adorned with claws apt at ripping and tearing into anything that he could get them on.

The gravelord smiled, a most grotesque sight, he grinned as Loimos explained the reason for his presence here, almost beginning to laugh aloud, stretching his arms and wings to the limit.

"Atsalinopalo, did you hear that? We are back in the game!" just as he said, another figure, the exact same height and build as Vespertillo flew down right next to Loimos, still holding onto a stone arm.

"I do hear it" unlike his brother, Atsalinopalo sounded mechanical, metallic and although the twins were once perfect replicas of one another, they still dressed the same way funnily enough, except for the interior of the cloak, which was a dark blue for Atsalinopalo.

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His head wrapped in some sort of stretchy fabric, round goggles tightly secured over the eyes, an iron jaw and metal claws replacing parts that he had lost in a fight against The First Death Hunter, made incapable of recovering after being partly imbued with his life, parts of his wings had also been mended with external materials.

"Young undead, you bring news of unprecedented goodness to us, we too, from this bastion, we have been keeping an eye on our king's crypt, but as per his orders, we had to remain hidden, forced to watch as they built a fortress around him, encasing him in more walls that he already was, and you, it must be fate that brought you to us" The Shattered approached Loimos, grabbing the skeleton by the shoulders, most certainly having already noticed the peculiarities that made Loimos the undead he was, as well as the blood of two of his fellows.

"And if The Graveyard is still amongst us, then strengthening it back to its old form should be our priority, the king had great visions of potential for our bone calamity, even beyond what it had demonstrated" Vespertillo scratched the side of his face, brushing off one of the many insects flying around.

"Dracula, Nosferatu, Faraday, Unacunerra, Slotriig, Artencil and The Graveyard alongside us, you have done quite a lot for single skeleton, you must be cut out of fine materials indeed, only Vwoldtnir, Körpersucher and Multaemanus are missing, the last two are annoying, tracking them down is nigh impossible, even the pesky death hunter and haughty elf abandoned the idea of fighting them" Multaemanus put the stone arm down at last, instead cutting into his wrist with one of his metal claws, drawing a pale, silver blood from his veins.

"In any case, you appear to be similar to our royal beast, in that you can absorb or something similar to grow stronger, if Dracula and Nosferatu trusted you with their very own blood, then it must be impressive, drink up, I have heard of a continent ruled by sapient golems and pure spirits, we will eventually have to deal with those, this should be useful"

This blood was much thicker than typical blood, almost like a paste rather than a liquid.

"Ah, King Nitok will surely be thrilled by a rare undead joining us, we have been in hiding for aeons and only now do we see a new one, I do notice some affinity for beasts somewhere in there, have you absorbed many of those?" Vespertillo also stepped forward, the two brothers just bouncing off one another's words.

"I have decayed a variety of organisms and objects, yes and I do dwell in a beastly fighting style, my innate teeth are made only to kill" Loimos called off his helm, revealing his skull, in response to which, the two gravelords casually took off a teeth each, inspecting Loimos dentition.

"It's like you were made with the express purpose of learning from us"