Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

A collapsing mass of black feathers and blonde hair fell straight upon the abomination's neck, the faces trapped within its back crushed by skeletal feet, nearly three whole quarters of Tilmiel's blade were ran right through the monster's nape before it could even react, it's howl was suddenly stifled as both trachea and oesophagus were cleanly severed, shifted her grip upon the sword, jumping off to the side without letting go, live a lever, the blade carved right through, decapitating The Unseen.

'Clean execution, your rebirth shall be swift' landing softly upon the ground, heels never even touching the carpet of filth, the corpse of her kill fell moments after, the confusion was still fresh, grabbing a small, dark needle in between index and middle finger, stabbing it right through the fallen creature's head.

Tilmiel's strike had been rapid and flawless, the sparks of realisation appeared within The Unseen's eyes as its head was already falling, landing such a perfect sneak attack was very satisfying, especially on such an adversary, this living would have given her one hell of a time under other circumstances, The Unseen was not a simple creature, clearly partaking in rites, it's current form was the result of contact with whatever he communed with through this flame ritual.

Blood was barely pouring out from the wounds, one hand reached for the disembodied head, casting its long shadow over the nightbird, the creature rose once again, but as an undead.

Removing all blood clinging to her sword with one quick swing, Tilmiel sheathed it again, facing the two feasters who were understandably taken aback by the sequence of events, one instant they were braving The Unseen's mighty roar, the next moment, it was dead, due to an undead striking from above, even still, the creature had not seemed completely dead from being beheaded, the needle had surely finished it off, forcefully converting all life force into death force.

Bringing one hand up to her chest, fingers and palm straight, thumb facing the assassin, reciting something in death tongue, presumably concerning what she had just done to The Unseen.

"You must have been seeking to consume its flesh" spoke the nightbird, following her words with a whistle.

"You are probably thinking about fighting to get it either way, but that monster is now of my kind, and I have called for reinforcement just now, leave now or attacked from both sides at once, your life shall be spared for today" The Unseen held its own head, wishing to attack, driven both by the wish to defend its nest from before, and also by the nascent undead will within its mind, but there was a clear hierarchy here, one it could not bring itself to break in spite of failing to understand why this hierarchy was to be respected.

"My lord…" Gartran asked for Maulerd's thoughts on the matter, and although she was clearly itching to swing her cleaver right through the nightbird's skull, Derdlim could only agree to leave right here and now, this situation was far from behind to their advantage.

"We're leaving…" watching the two livings agree to retreat, Tilmiel felt relieved, not wishing the engage in confrontation with the eastern folks, that would go against the plan, interacting with them in such a manner was also not within the reaches of Horhir's vision, but it had to be done, for them, had they been able of consuming this creature, they had might have gain abilities completely outside what had been imagined, who knew if they would gain some sort of way to better resist the famine this way?

But also, The Unseen was an unknown quantity, one that the nightbirds had overlooked, it was up to their leader to fix this error, now that she had slain this creature, the plan could properly resume.

"Were you the one to spot me before?" she asked the monster, who seemed to understand the death tongue, only that it responded in another language entirely, one that the precious necklace around her neck could not decipher at all.

"Nod for yes"

For a whole second, it did nothing, as though processing the words, then nodding.

Tilmiel almost feared that she had gotten the wrong being, or that there were more creatures that they had completely missed, which was still possible, but rather unlikely.

Asking for The Unseen to follow after she confirmed that the two livings were indeed leaving and not waiting for them at the exit, the flames of the ritual had died out.

'This all could have completely derailed the lieutenant's plan…I need to be more careful' meeting with other nightbirds at the exit, they all guided the new undead to a certain location, its odd language and communing was certain to spark some interest, it was likely that The Unseen used this ritual to gain something from beings from another realm, presumably the visages it carried within its back.

'Sir Loimos will be very pleased'

If her assumption was correct, then this could be the key, or at least a scrap of clue to how to reach another realm, which would naturally interest Loimos as he sought to extinguish all life, which included the countless separate spaces on top of this wide world, but doing so was not exactly easy, and fluctuated very much depending on which realm you aimed to invade.

But it would also greatly interest the scholars and other thinking heads, who gathered knowledge as their occupation.

'This shall be a great step for Sir Loimois's crusade' indeed, this was what it was all referred to as, for it was the champion's own volition that had led him to form the vanguard and endlessly expand, it was not a direct order from King Nitok.

The Prince Of Death sought, first and foremost, to create a place where undeads could thrive, this was already achieved by conquering Viridis.

The gravelords all had their own opinions, but they too were not nearly as focused on expansion as Loimos was.

As for the pontiff and church, their main objective was the creation of an undead pantheon, but they certainly closely aligned with the champion.

This always reminded Tilmiel and all other castes of the vanguard that this mission they were given was not that of the whole empire, expansion and slaughter of the livings was a duty that came with serving Loimos, it was a special honour to be part of such an exquisite force, one that they should cherish and give everything to see success.

And so, it was an honour to be the one to deliver such intel back to him, a great way of demonstrating that the nightbirds were an efficient force, perhaps, would they even be granted the right to participate in other missions soon?

'But first… I must report to the lieutenant' one should not forget about the chain of command, Horhir should, or at least, should soon be done with his meeting.