Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

The mere sight of the corrupted marine beast, knowing that back then, when he drifted through the water in an unconscious state after before forced to dive into the water by the robed assaillant- Knowing that this monstrosity had been in the water with him, and could have, at any moment, dragged him into the depth where he would been powerless against drowning… It filled him with fear.

Griar did not seek to strike back, merely controlling the winds carrying him, heading for the shores.

There was no point in challenging the warped orca, that thing was bound to the water anyways, it would just be a waste of time and energy to fight with it, so Griar simply accelerated, paying attention to the surface of the water, tendrils shot out in an attempt to wrap around him but after a few failed attempts, the killer whale must have also come to the conclusion that Griar was worth too much energy for what he was worth as a snack, and gave up, not appearing at all.

The young man made his way forward, and soon enough, found himself before the castle that he had desperately ran through during his last visit into that realm, this place was under the supervision of a small woman called Countess Ada, in his memory, Griar mostly remembered the chase, but he had seen the countess, and she could only be described as small, very small.

From what he remembered, it had seemed like that girl with her exceptionally petite frame and soft features was actually older than him, she had gone as far as to place herself as an 'elder' in comparison to him, after all.

He knew from the letters that he had read back then when he had intruded into Isabela's room, that Ada was amongst the big players in the region, amongst those who were knowingly spreading the so-called 'Stagnant Water'.

Isabela had been abnormally strong, and the common inhabitants of this land were all infested with the stagnant water, so certainly, the unthreatening-looking countess was probably a lot more dangerous than her looks and high-pitched voice might imply, not to mention whatever she had sent after him last time, the castle was a killing ground, without the shadow of a doubt.

So Griar had no intention on entering it right now, he simply flew up and landed on the roof, although a single spell could be maintained for a while, it was far draining to do so in this realm than elsewhere, as such, conscious of his limited resources, the young man decided to mark a pause to recover some of mana and allow whatever force was preventing him from chain-casting spells to do its thing for a little while.

While he waited, Griar looked over the horizon, abnormal fog was getting in the way, but from this high point, he could still see rather far away, the castle bordered mostly the lake, there was only a single village nearby, being the one in front of the gates and within the castle itself, or rather, around the castle but behind the ramparts, there were plenty of figures walking around, carrying lanterns with them, and wherever they passed, they revealed that the amount of people around far exceeded Griar's expectations, many were simply standing still without any light, simply remaining in place like statues, in the dark, one would hardly be able to even make out their silhouettes with how immobile they were.

'Huh?' a small, yet annoying sound reached Griar's ears, it was a noise he knew all too well, summer in the Peaceful Realm was very hot, and at that season, mosquitoes appeared in abundance, doing their utmost to dry and take a sip of your blood, his own skin was too sturdy for them to do so, but the noise they made was an annoyance like no other.

And right now, as he turned his gaze to the side, he saw a mosquito had landed near him, it was rather small in size, and as it looked at Griar, the insect rubbed its proboscis using its front legs.

It made a small 'bzz" sound, and for some reason, Griar felt his instincts flare up, as though that tiny, insignificant bug had just done something of incredible magnitude, as though that little thing was an emperor having decided that he should be decapitated.

Without hesitation, Griar reflexively stomped down on the animal, and an abnormal amount of blood spurted out as a result.

'The hell?' it was not blood at all, it looked like water, filthy, stagnant water.

'Oh…' now that he thought about it, hadn't there been lots of mosquitoes and other insects on the island where he met the undead, back then? All of those had also been missing when he arrived, but naturally, he had not thought much of the fact that some insects were missing, they were just bugs after all, they had not left as much of a mark in his memory as Vostes or anything else.

But the idea that the insects were insignificant was quickly challenged as the sound of humming mosquitoes approached, so loud that it was almost painful to the ears, an entire cloud of them rose up to the same elevation as Griar, the swarm moving in unison, lunging for Griar.

But the young man did not need to see any aggression to act, he was already running, moving across the mostly tilted roof of the castle was complicated, but he could manage, the mosquitoes seemed rather sluggish in their movements, so outrunning them seemed possible.

The problem, however, was that outrunning them would not be enough by itself, Griar was on a roof, a very high one, there wasn't much place to run, even if the castle was enormous, the swarm of filthy bloodsuckers would still be able to find him.

'My inner mana is flowing normally again, I'll just-' as he prepared to leap off the side of the building, the buzzing of the mosquitoes stopped abruptly, as though they had all vanished out of existence.

He glanced over his shoulder, seeing no sign of the swarm either, and then a shadow erupted from in front of him.

Griar threw himself back, narrowly evading the swipe of dreadful claws.

The figure revealed itself to be a robed and hooded figure, like the one he had seen in the village back then, a truly humongous enforcer, easily three meters tall and with a powerful build that could be made out even with the ample robes, there was just no concealing that incredible shoulder width.

From the darkness of the hood, a few words Griar could not understand were spoken, and the enforcer punched down at him, the first going right through the roof without any resistance…