Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"As was suspected, Verdoyante is an extremely dangerous continent, unlike Yoreterre on which the threat of danger is obvious and easily understood, Verdoyante is far insidious, and according to Lord Yuolrt's reports, her mission did not immediately failed solely because they are undeads, even with her superior senses, it took her a long time to realise that the entire continent was shrouded in an unseen, cloud that threatened to take control of the minds of anyone within it"

Ourlst explained before Horhir picked up where he had left off.

"The resistance of undeads to such attacks is naturally high, some of us are even completely immune to them if they are not accompanied by something that we are weak against, but in the case of Verdoyante, everything is overflowing with life, and the only reason Lord Yuolrt and her followers did not fall prey to it is because of their strong attunement to nature, indeed, that haze of mind control is not the work of a hidden living, or the result of a natural hazard that just happens to be present"

"Lord Yuolrt is certain that it is something casted by the continent itself, her study of the local flora in great details has allowed her to discover many things, not only are there plenty of plant-type beasts and monsters that are to be found deeper within the continent, but they, alongside all of the mundane plant-life are all actually linked together"

The two knights read from the reports made by Yuolrt, and although they were efficient and quick-witted strategists, it was to be said that the druid was the sort whose writings could be understood by anyone, she went into far too much detail for what was supposed to be weekly reports.

But in short, Verdoyante possessed its very own will, the continent was like a giant creature upon which only plants were allowed to exist, every blade of grass was directly linked to the Verdoyante and could be used as a catalyst to spread the mind controlling haze, which, after analysis, clearly showed what had happened to all of the previous explorers who had dared to set foot upon this land.

In simple terms, their minds had been completely taken over and then, they had 'willingly' made themselves into living fertiliser until death, which was wholly unnecessary to begin with, because the soil of Verdoyante was fertile to impossible degrees to begin with, there was no need to introduce anything else into the ecosystem at all.

But the will of this continent seemed to truly despise anything that was not a plant, or somewhat plant-like.

Though, the haze was not the reason why Yuolrt had been pinned down on Verdoyante without room to temporarily leave, it was the next thing that the continent had done to get rid of the intruding undeads, the will seemed to be quite intelligent, quickly realising that the usual method, which had probably worked without issue for hundreds, and thousands of years, was not functioning as it should.

So instead, it decided to employ more violent methods, some of the trees, hidden deep within the land, and typically surrounded by grassland, allowing them to spread their canopies widely without having to worry about other trees- Those trees had a very specific ability.

Growing like fruits, it manifested monstrous beings, each of them dreadfully powerful and cunning from the get-go, they looked like beings of flesh and bones, but their muscles were made of plant fibres, their bones made from wood…

Most of those creatures were described as lanky and rather unpredictable.

Yuolrt believed that one of these sorts of trees could only manifest a single of these beings at a time, basically, it seemed like the trees themselves were piloting the creatures, and so, when a monster was destroyed, it would quickly be replaced with another that looked the exact same.

They were the real reason why the minor lord had to stay behind, her followers were skilled and powerful, as well as unified together, however, they could not do much against these creatures, druidic spells were less effective against them, and only Yuolrt had the power to forcefully wrench control of the avatars of those trees and effectively defeat them without problem.

She had already managed to put some of the monster-spawning trees out of commission, but the continent was too vast, and many of the trees were out of reach whilst their avatars scoured the land in search of the intruders.

Loimos listened to the long report in silence, knowing that this was probably only the beginning of Yuolrt's problem on that continent.

It seemed like Verdoyante had to be added to the list of superpowers despite having no real government, for the sole reason that the continent itself seemed sentient, if not outright sapient.

It was concerning, but also a good thing.

If the whole continent itself was a living, then finding the way to slay it would allow the entirety of Verdoyante to instantly fall under undead control, and the sheer boom of miasma that could result from this would be immense…

Once that was done, the two knights continued with the next report.

"Lord Ourlon has made significant advancement in the conquest of the realm, unfortunately, the livings of this realm, such as the ruling force called the Hitobito, are proving far more tenacious that expected, Lord Ourlon has extended his influence far and wide, practically surrounding the capital of Seinaru and constantly launching assaults upon it, but the place still firmly stand"

"On a more positive note however, the Hitobito, humans of this realm, make for remarkable living soldiers, and some of the other intelligent species are also adept in that department, not to mention that the realm reportedly has many beast species that are of interest as well"

It was to be expected for Ourlon to not be able to take over completely, amongst the minor lords, the direct opposition he was facing was probably the strongest, and also had an advantage as their capital was positioned strategically.

The livings of this realm would be able to hold on even if their society was torn apart by constant warfare…

"Lord Ir'Houwl has had quite a lot of success on her end, the desert realm is basically fully under her control, the population follows her will, and thanks to this, she has been able to hunt down the 'Solar Beasts' one by one- I have seen one of those, and I can indeed attest that they are great assets" spoke Horhir.

"Though, she was wondering if General Loimos would be willing to spare some of his time as despite her best efforts, Lord Ir'Houwl finds herself unable to turn the various suns into undeads, and thus, would like for the general to provide assistance in that regard, if possible" added Ourlst.

The two armoured zombies looked at Loimos, who was sitting behind his desk about as stiff as someone could be.

"The prayers of former livings that worshipped them were unable to affect them?" he asked.

"Apparently not, My General"

"Then, I will head there"