Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"Someone that has a genuine worship for a god?"

"Our young undead wishes to infiltrate Millipolo, a blessed land where belief is most important, it would be rather difficult for him to pass any of their tests of faith"

The twin gravelords spoke and nodded to another, thinking about it up until their trainee finally managed to flap his rotten wings up to their level, resembling some sort of squalid angel with his awfully arched back and hanging limbs, the form was absolutely horrendous, but this was what he just looked like when stationary.

His choice of wings was rather odd as well, chimaeric in nature, various beastly parts strung together haphazardly, having taken the many advices and teachings given to him by most luminary undeads to create the best version he could muster, simultaneously fleshy like bat wings, but also covered in dark feathers, sprouting jagged horns and ending with atrophied claws that could still definitely bore into flesh.

He also had a tail that was equally as repulsive to assist in the control while in the air, a body part that both of the brothers also had, not that anyone would know without being told or demonstrated, well hidden inside of their flashy cloaks.

But that was mostly Vespertillo that was shining through with those additional body parts, Loimos had not forgotten to also add in non-biological materials into the mix, but amidst the rotten fluids and general disease ridden look of Loimos, it was rather hard to notice.

"Well, we did have lots of undead priests that still retained their holy connections and such, but I have not seen many of those after the end of the war, you don't seem to have it, and neither do we gravelords really, but normally speaking, undeads do tend to have a weakness to the holy, I would guess that the gods never liked us very much…" Enjoy exclusive content from empire

"Indeed, we vampires are not allowed to step into sunlight precisely because of them"

"Don't mention it! The fact that it's a blessing at its base was really conniving of those guys"

They shook their heads.

"There are some that worship death itself, not any gods that borrow its name but the real deal, it is sort of god to us, even if it more of a natural force than a being, it does not gain anything by being worshipped, though, it is willing to supply those who do so anyways with holy death energy"

"Ah yes, I had forgotten about those guys, Dracula had quite a few of them back in the days"

The twins turned to Loimos.

"Lord Dracula had none of them staying in his domain" he informed them, currently trying to get this whole bit of using blood to float in place working at the moment, planning on figuring it out and then reverse engineering it to get working with his rot, being able of making every and all of his constructs as well as himself floating in the air was a rather handy concept to have at hand.

"They were a minority to begin with, and if I remember correctly, they had set up a church of some sort directly inside of King Nitok's crypt, they were probably all sealed alongside him" Atsalinopalo scratched his metal jaw.

"You might be better off befriending a living monk or priest, the plan you mentioned seems rather solid, but it lacks the most important component, I personally recommend a young priestess of a foreign country… You like this and like that" moving his hands with defined strokes, he made for a rather descriptive mime.

"Vespertillo, don't project yourself onto our pure skeletal corpse youngling, perhaps you know someone that fits the category already Loimos, and you can always ask for that One vampire girl for assistance, if her network is as expansive as it seems, she'll surely be able of finding devout follower of whatever god for you to use as a shield when inside Millipolo"

Shutting his brother up, The Shattered decided that it was best to talk about something else before The Night Flier made a fool of himself by exposing his preferred tastes in extracurricular activity partners.

The twin gravelords had already gotten over their personal boons regarding blood as well as their various techniques, just like Dracula and Nosferatu they mentioned the special technique each of the gravelord had learned from King Nitok.

Life Drain, it was unclear whether it was an aspect of undeath, an art or something else, only King Nitok could teach it, and only the gravelords had received such teaching, it was a power activated through physical touch, subjugating the life of the target and turning it into death.

Giving it directly to the user of life drain, it was a technique that allowed the gravelords to recuperate greatly even when in a space suffused with life, although it did not work on those of greater or power equal to the user.

Each of them had a different way of using it, Dracula used the excess death force to empower troops, Nosferatu barely used it at all and if he did, it was just to hit harder.

The twins would mostly put it to regenerating any lost pieces of themselves, Atsalinopalo also had insights into the ways of the others as well, although called life drain, it could do much more than simply suck the life out of someone.

"Life drain is a handy trick to have, but I usually just fall back onto the good old roar personally, brother, float back for a moment…"

"Let's check how good you are at it now!"

______________

One stood on top of a partly crumbled tower, which was to be found amidst a small settlement, inhabited solely by people wearing masks on their faces, moving around as though they were being threatened at blade point, twitchy movements, pauses at most random of time and a clear lack of reaction even when one accidentally stabbed a splinter right in between two fingers, simply pulling it out, ignoring the bleeding.

Leaning forward, the vampire was rather bored at the moment, having nothing much to do other than oversee the progress of her project, she now had quite a fair quantity of spies amidst the higher hierarchy of Starkefolten as well as many other countries, rulers were a bit too careful to get, that was alright however, she had never aimed for them.

Instead getting those they trusted on her side, making certain to lead those kings and such to pay attention to anything that was not related to the undead.

Her performance was stellar and Unacunerra would always praise her when she reported back to him, but he wasn't the one she wanted attention from, she wanted to be doted on by the mouldy skeleton, not the dusty one.

The one that smelled of abject corpses in the morning, not of old books.

"Oh, Loimos… How can I get you to point all two hundred and seven bones to me?"

The communication amulet emitted a pulse of energy, signifying that someone wanted to speak to her.

"Hello, hello! One here!" she responded, and as though her prayers had been heard by something, it was not the elder skeleton this time.