Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"Ah, my knee joint is creaking, something is going to change…"

"Old fool, your joints creak because you stay in the same position for hours, if not days at a time, how long has it been since you tasted the outside's fresh air? Do you even remember what grass looks like?"

"Oi, am I being sermoned by a little girl? Do you think I don't eat or something? I go outside plenty of times! How else would I know about what's going on outside?"

"I know you used some your strange carvings to get informed, don't take me for a cretin"

Shaking his head, Arzt shrugged his shoulders, the movement causing loud cracks to fill the dilapidated home of the old man.

"But anyways…" shaking her head as well, Ioleznta chuckled, banter was all that could be done with the carver, he was too attentive to be pranked, so this was as much entertainment as could be pulled out of him "...I don't need your ancient bones to know that something is coming, first of all, things have been calm and stable for way too long, since they managed to establish a presence on our lands, they haven't changed their methods at all"

"They are just throwing bodies at us continuously, be those big warriors, the ones that are about our sizes- Or even the odd, slender people…"

"I believe some of our friends have been referring to them as 'Ironic Puppeteers', from what I understand, the undead are really using just about everything they can to get to us despite the fact that the can't enter themselves"

"Precisely, but they haven't actually done anything of consequence all of this time, but what really tells me that something is preparing, is the ambient spirit life… Every sun worshipper can feel it right now, the spirit life that hangs in the air is subtly being corrupted as time passes- We are doing our best to purify it, but something about it is beyond our control…"

Ioleznta walked in circles around Arzt, not appearing at all worried as she blinked a few times at him.

He sighed.

"I feel like that is the moment where you say that all that you said previously has nothing to do with what you actually want to say…"

"Very astute! I just wanted to let you know that some stuff is happening while you are busy carving statues- By the way, what are those? Life size replicas of people you saw back when you went to travel outside the realm?"

"You are changing subjects again… But no, those are not statues of people I know, nor are they life size, well, they are, but using the word 'life' might be a bit inaccurate… My artistic ventures have nearly always been done without a clear goal, I just let my hands move as they please, piloted by a mind that prioritised the subconscious over the conscious"

"And often, I carve things that exist but that I have never seen myself, this over there is the 'Godslayer', the face is unclear, but I'm fairly certain that is an undead, there is 'Unarmed Champion' and here is the 'Red-Ice Witch', I don't know about the first, but the latter two were carved swiftly, which I interpret as a sign that they aren't that far"

"Mmh…" the Emerald Herald rubbed her chin, staring at the statues depicting a robed figure, a soldier of sorts, and what appears to be a mage.

She spun around to face him, leaning forward with her usual expression that spelled mischief.

"You really should stop carving undead-related stuff, you look like your worship them with how much of those things there are around now- But anyways, it's our kind sun, we have been informed through the emerald light that the invaders have suddenly stopped acting like usual, they are waiting for something to happen" her irises and pupils shifted into triangles for a moment, spinning slowly.

"We are expecting either a whole lot of what we already know, or a batch of a new sort of their living soldiers, we are pretty confident that the corpses themselves should still be unable to set foot on the realm"

"Is it really something worth worrying about? Their living soldiers, even the big ones, are much too weak to be a threat, even if the new arrivals are more competent, that will not change that the forces they have settled are feeble" Arzt inspected a small sculpture as he spoke.

Ioleznta looked up at the ceiling, her eyes returning to a more circular shape.

"They haven't sent any powerhouse yet, they have so many living soldiers, it is only natural to expect them to have few of them that are stronger, more talented than the rest, right? But not a single one of these have showed up, they are all uniform and of the same level of strength overall, merely soldiers without anything too distinctive about them"

"Don't you think it's weird? They clearly aren't trying their hardest, or rather, they are purposefully sending them to their death"

Arzt scratched his beard.

"That sounds about right for undeads"

"It would, but living people don't grow on trees, it takes a long time for a child to grow before they are capable to serve as soldiers, they are just wasting their ressource, even if they love death and want to cause it as much as possible, I doubt they would have them trained or have produced equipment for them all if they truly just wanted to throw their soldiers into the meat grinders" the Emerald Herald explained, sitting directly on the ground.

Raising one index, even when serious, she retained the same smile as usual, the sort that made it seem like nothing was wrong, it would be an odd sight if not all sun worshippers had some sort of variation of that expression plastered on their faces day and night.

"Killing them is helping the undead, I am sure of it, but we can't ignore these soldiers, they'll just keep piling up otherwise! Truly, that is quite the conundrum! I offered that we capture and throw them in a cell, but that is unrealistic too, way too many of them, and allowing enemies inside our safe zone is simply not going to be allowed-"

"-In short, the smelly cadavers have been progressing, toward what exactly, I can't tell, but we are not at a standstill with them, they aren't being passive, and I feel like what is coming will only accelerate everything"

Arzt put the small statue down, looking at the herald with a tired expression.

"Lots of words, but why are you telling them to me?"

"Come on now, you are basically family! And besides, I know that you'll want to join in if something happens, so better make sure one of our greatest assets is well-informed" she chuckled, and the old man breathed out in exasperation.

"I swear, Ioleznta…" he stopped and then asked something else "...How are our latest friends doing? Did you inform them?"

"I am going to be doing just that shortly, I would rather keep them out of this as much as possible, but they'll definitely get involved if the undead progress"

"Naturally, they already have past grievances, and now, they have new things to protect as well…" Arzt smiled as the herald stepped out and disappeared from view, engulfed by a pillar of emerald light.