Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Since the pale blue sun arrived and the desert turned pure white, one week passed, or enough hours to be considered a week passed rather as they was no day and night cycle here, normally, the undeads wouldn't bother with keeping a close eye on time as it was typically meaningless to them, but now, they had wished to keep a close eye on how this whole realm functioned, and had thus set up clocks to keep track of it.

And indeed, exactly one week was the time the pale blue sun remained, after this, the eye covering its surface seemed to grow tired and shut before vanishing entirely, the dimness slowly disappeared as the sun returned to its full brightness, soon unleashing the radiance and searing heat that the desert had been filled with on the first day.

Flames surged to life in the air, and without any sort of wait, the unmoving sun bloated as more appeared alongside it, six additional suns forming a circle around it as two more rolled over in the horizon, their position allowing for them to cast light into the unnatural forest that had sprawled during the week, but even then, it didn't get far as the woods were too dense.

The camps themselves were well-hidden in the new foliage of this unconventional oasis.

All undeads were safe from the sudden increase in temperature as nine whole suns cast light that threatened to cook and turn them to charcoal as the transition between the pale blue and this had been rather slow.

For now, there wasn't much they could do apart from wait or further work on the oasis, which was now filled with many more undead warriors and beasts than before, the portions of nature separating each camp were being filled with traps for any potential, would-be invaders.

Standing atop a tower of one of the camps standing on the edge of it all, Ir'Houwl observed the horizon, her nightbird assistant standing a small distance behind her, the sand had returned to its previous colour, and she could spot a beam of light manifest and create a line of glass before disappearing as quickly as it had formed.

But there was undeniably something new, a rather hefty elephant in the room.

The minor lord could clearly see a great palace with towers ending in rounded shapes that were themselves topped by small points, the palace was colourful and beautiful, standing tall within the desert and its dunes, but there were a few problems.

Firstly, this thing hadn't been there before.

Secondly, the distances didn't seem to make sense as they seemed to shift dramatically depending on how she was looking at it.

And thirdly…

"Osla, what do you see?"

"I see a grand spire with countless winged humanoids circling around it" casually responded to the nightbird.

"How about you, soldier?" she then asked the crossbowman that was still standing on duty right next to her.

"I see a great jungle with dark figures that look like monkeys swinging from tree to tree" said the skeletal soldier.

"It's impressive" commented Ir'Houwl, what they were seeing was definitely a mirage, which was to be expected in such a place, although Ir'Houwl was not much of the sort to bother to find the precise explanation to a phenomenon, she remembered Ridfoirn once explained it to her as light passing through air that was at different temperatures, making it seem like one's vision was distorted or even give the illusion that they were seeing something that did not exist.

Naturally, such optical illusions did not work much on the undead, even if the illusion was perceived, it was easy for them to realise that it was nothing to be concerned with, the same was happening here as even a regular soldier was distinctly aware that the jungle wasn't really there, however, the sheer precision of the mirage was what was odd, each of them were seeing something completely different, detailed and some even with moving parts to it.

It was like light was bending in a specific way for each different individual, perhaps trying to show them something they were specifically interested in, which was even stranger, as Ir'Houwl remembered hearing about this type of architecture when she was just a little girl.

Naturally, she had never mentioned to anyone that her younger self had wanted to be a princess in a castle, so the fact that whatever was responsible for this mirage did know about it was odd, almost like it had sought out something directly within her mind, which shouldn't be possible due to her status as an undead, and it was also unlikely that the mirage was formed from one's subconscious as that would similarly require some form of access or insight into the mind of an undead.

She looked in the direction of the still sun, it looked just like it did before the week of the pale blue sun, but something felt off.

If the still sun was responsible for the mirages, then it might not be too farfetched to simply assume that it was powerful enough to peer into the minds of the undead, at least just enough to form an image that was consistent with their character and own personalities.

"I'll check something" she said and jumped out of the tower, stepping out directly into the sun, the minor lord known that she could endure the combined strength of nine suns without much problem, as expected, the mirage wasn't actually getting any closer as she stepped forward, the distance separating it from her only seemed to fluctuate based on the angle she look at it.

Some angles made it slip further into the landscape, whilst others made it look like it was barreling right at her.

After a few moments of standing under sunlight however, her surroundings suddenly morphed into the interior of a palace, reminiscent of the one she used to be a royal guard to back Pezerx, following around a series of child-emperors that had all ended up assassinated by the high-nobles of the empire as they grew to not be so easily manipulated, back then, she as a much of a guard to them as she was their executioner.

But in this strange space, she wasn't a guard, instead wearing a lavish dress with an open back, although she was still her tall self, her hands were remarkably lacking the dryness and skeletal thinness she had grown used to, instead plump with lively flesh, frail and delicate looking.

"Disgusting…" finding the sight of living flesh abhorrent, the unconvincing illusion shattered into a million pieces, and the mirage seemed to shy away as though fearful.

"Let's not take any chance, everybody is on house arrest until the mirages stop"