Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

The countess was growing old, and her small body, which had refused to grow like that of other people, was too weak to handle the process of aging, no matter what the servants did, the countess's health kept degrading, even the rising star of the area, Isabela, with her diploma of medicine, could do nothing to be of aid, this was no disease that could be solved, Ada was simply too old, and her body could not handle it.

Still, she kept on writing in the book, and she kept on trying to do something about the problems the people faced, that was what the lord was supposed to do, and unfortunately, Ada had no children or family leftover once she died.

She had tried to start a family, and sought out men, but not only was it difficult to convince someone to come live in a castle in the middle of nowhere, especially in the world of today, when one could lead better lives in the cities, but none had seemed comfortable with the way she looked.

'What was their problem anyways? What was I supposed to do about that? That's just how nature decided I would look like!' this was one of the rare moments toward the end where she seemed to have energy to be angry, failing to continue the bloodline and leaving the castle without a successor was perhaps the greatest failure of her entire life.

But then, Fe was mentioned.

The leader of a small cult, Ada had known about this cult before, but considering them harmless, had left them be and it seemed like that action was the best decision she could have ever made, to simply let some people be…

Lady Fe, The High Priestess of Los Libres, came with an offer, claiming that she could save Ada, help her right every wrong and ensure that the ancestral castle of her family was not left without a master.

On her deathbed, the countess had no reason not to let Fe try, and so, the writing in the book regained vitality, and the joy that had seemed absent returned in bulk.

Ada had regained her youth, she was back to her prime, sure, she was still abnormally small and youthful looking, but this was simply how things were, she did not resent the way she looked, that was how her parents had birthed her, and they had loved her all the same, even if it was possible with the help of stagnant waters, she refused to change her appearance.

The countess was able to solve the problem of the land under her supervision, she granted the powers of stagnant water to the servants who had remained by her side despite it all, and granted a pool of stagnant water, Ada was able to nurture all sorts of insects that were in great harmony with the stagnant water, especially mosquitoes, these flying insects loved still water to lay their eggs in after all, and by stabbing into the skin of people, they could inject stagnant water.

Griar shuddered as he read, Ada claimed that the underground beneath the castle had become a breeding ground for the mosquitoes and other insects, she evaluated their numbers in the millions, that number kept on increasing exponentially, the more there were, the more eggs were laid, and nurtured by the stagnant water, the batches of eggs would always, all hatch without problem, leading to countless giving birth to countless.

She was planning on unleashing them throughout the country, as revenge against the government that ignored her pleas for help and left her people to starve to death, to die worse deaths that plague-ridden dogs.

Ada predicted that once the insects were unleashed upon the world alongside the stagnant water, that their numbers would soar even higher, indeed, it did not seem to be an exaggeration to say that her insects would be able to cover the entire world… Or rather, the entire realm.

Her obsession with insects seemed to become shared with her servants, leading to them willingly morphing themselves into abominables fusions between human and bug apparently, the robed enforcers, as Griar referred to them as, were made of the maids that had cared for Ada for all of her life, taking on especially awful forms to gain the strength to act as shield and sword on behalf of the countess.

"These people are all insane…" he couldn't help but mutter, never would he have imagined that even a single person here would willingly accept to be transformed, but not only did they accept it, it was on their own initiative? Did they see their master's interest in insects and changed themselves to demonstrate their loyalty?

Griar shook his head and continued to read.

There were mentions of Isabela, apparently, Ada was quite fond of that girl who was far younger than her, yet so much taller.

It was rather humorous to think about, but the countess seemed to treat the chief like she was her daughter.

'We better not be around when she learns what we did to Isabela…'

At last, Griar's eyes landed upon her name.

Flor.

'Isabela sent me the girl, her name is Flor, and I must say, she has quite the looks…'

'...I couldn't help but notice that she was awfully thin, it seemed like the food problem was not yet fixed…'

'...I kept her a bit longer at the castle than was necessary, surely, Lady Fe wouldn't want the girl to be all skin and bones, right?'

'...I suspect that the intruder was here for her, a lover perhaps? In any case, it is no longer in my hands, after getting her fed, dressed and dolled up, I sent her to Lady Fe"

'From what I understand, Flor has shown great resilience against the stagnant water, she retained her mind and has not shown any changes, Lady Fe seems to believe that it is a sign of great talent and wishes to allow her to bathe directly into the main pool'

'It seems like we are going to get a fourth member to our little trio…'

Griar felt a chill course through his spine…

'Bathe in the main pool?' that did not sound good, it didn't sound good at all.

He scanned the pages like a hawk seeking a prey, finally, he found something resembling a clue.

'I decided to accompany her myself, only I have ever gone there, and the place the main pool is at is hidden within the mountains, even I, who knows the way, almost got lost on more than one occasion, thankfully, the chants of the followers are always a good indication that you are getting close…'

Here it was, Griar knew where to look.