Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Curious to see if there would be anything else of interest, Griar continued to flip through the pages, even since the countess had been reborn through the unification with stagnant water, she had begun writing a whole lot more, writing a lot about things that were meaningless to anyone that would intrude into her bedroom and flip through her stuff to seek information.

It was honestly quite telling to how much a great thing the stagnant water was in her life, immediately after having her youthfulness restored, it was like all of her problems and worries had just faded away, like everything was going great, allowing the countess to even pay attention to things of lesser importance that she would have had to ignore in the past.

Such things included gossipping with her maids, playing matchmaker between the servants in the castle, and dedicating some of her time toward hobbies, truly, if one was not aware of the ravages stagnant water had done to other people, then reading this would convince them that the strange substance was truly a gift from the divine itself.

It was hard to believe that something created by the undead could bring joy to livings, Griar wondered what was the point of it all, since he did not quite buy the idea that this was meant as a test, he simply did not believe that the Undead Empire would care for such things…

'Oh… She's mentioning Loimos by name?' his attention perked, this was the undead that was most vile of them, not the true ruler of the Empire, yet the most memorable one, a well-trained attack dog that only left despair and misery in his wake, the champion who defeated all of the hopes that had a chance to bring the Empire to its knees.

And most important of all to Griar personally, the killer of his father, in fact, Loimos had killed both his father, and grandfather, as well as murdered many people that had been close to his family.

In fact, during his massacre in the Emerald Realm, Loimos had left behind orphans, indeed, it was hard for anyone else to approach the sheer amount of hate he had spread.

So naturally, he was quite interested in any information about him, since he was apparently the creator of the stagnant water, and had clearly been in this realm before, it wasn't unlikely that Countess Ada, as one of the leaders of Los Libres, might have met him in person before-

'Today, I went to meet with Lady Fe, and unexpectedly encountered the man responsible for rebirth!'

'He was just as Lady Fe had described him in the past…'

Griar frowned.

'...Elegant, charming, virile–I did my best to leave a good impression and look the most attractive, but his missus just kept getting in the way! I'll be an undead eventually, and you'll see! I am going to see for myself what those masculine bones look li-'

Griar shut the book, his expressions darkened.

'Yep, nothing else of interest or note in there' he thought to himself, putting the book back where he found it and shutting the drawer.

'Absolutely nothing… At all' he tried to convince himself, who knows, maybe if he thinks it enough, his brain will forget what he just read, cleanse his memory of the mind-bending knowledge he accidentally learned.

'How the hell am I supposed to forget this?! The pint-sized countess fantasises about… About a skeletal corpse! That's disgusting! I think I might actually vomit…' he gathered himself and breathed in and out carefully.

He looked around the room for a few moments, and then casted his invisibility spell once more, he and his sisters had agreed on meeting back after a little while, and that time should be soon, so he slipped back out of the room, thankfully, no one was around to see a door open and close by itself, and he then retraced his steps backward, as he had no other sure-way to return to where he was before due to the castle being a maze by its sheer vastness.

Griar most carefully, but soon enough, pressed himself up against a wall, truly, his luck was abysmal, as right as he was nearing the room where he had eavesdropped on the countess and one of her maids, those two stepped out of the room and began walking in his direction, knowing that the countess was capable of noticing something off even when he was invisible, Griar felt his heartbeat accelerate.

But fearful that she might hear that, he did his best to calm down, even stopping breathing as his back was pressed up against the wall, standing on his tiptoes to ensure that as little of him sticked out as possible, ensuring that the chances of either the countess or her maid bumping into him were as close to zero as was possible.

It was in that sort of moment that he wished he was better at magic, because if he could just turn himself into wind, such a situation wouldn't have happened.

Everything felt like it lasted for minutes on end, normally, a person walking by would be something that was done in an instant, but Countess Ada was walking painfully slowly, and coupled with the fact that her legs were so short, she remained nearby for far too long.

By the end of it, Griar felt like he was losing consciousness from the lack of her, thankfully however, the countess eventually disappeared from view, allowing for him to make his escape and go back to the great hall, where Lizi and Louizon were already waiting for him.

He told his sisters that he had enough information and that they could leave, there was no need to linger in this castle for even a second longer.

Louizon once again emitted the idea of blowing everything up, but Lizi would rather that they leave without making waves, and having seniority, the swordswoman was able to convince her younger sister to not give in to her appetite for destruction for now.

Surprisingly, they actually managed to enter and then exit the castle without any problem arising, Griar had been fearful that something would go wrong at some point, but everything was fine in the end.

Using the information he got from Countess Ada's diary, minus her attraction to a mass-murdering corpse, they headed for where Flor should be at, but also where the heart of Los Libres was located, the cult and its leader, Lady Fe.

Who, without the shadow of doubt, was a person they would rather not provoke.

And thus, they headed for the misty mountains.