Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"It's been thirty seconds… And no sparks and suspicious sounds have been heard yet, it has never gone so well before" Irtop smiled beneath his mask, bringing his hands behind his back.

"Irtop, saying that sort of things tends to draw in misfortune"

"Don't be so worried Ayelah, we are in service of death, fate and luck have been slain in the empire and bow their head to the undead now, we can tempt destiny all we want, nothing adverse will happen, things will follow their course as intended"

Then the ground shook, it was a minuscule vibration, but tremors were not supposed to happen in this place separated from the rest of the realm through space manipulation, and furthermore, the only other thing that could have caused it was the machine before them, but it was still starting and heating up without any problem, it was not the source of the shaking.

"What did I say? We should stay silent in moments like this…" Ayelah shook her head, right as a horrific sound flooded the hideout, like the melded cries of thousand sirens and banshees, accompanied by until then, unseen light that flash brightly everywhere, making the entire interior of this place feel like a layer of hell.

"The actions of others are entirely different, they were going to break in anyways- They must have found one of our siphoning pipes and understood what we were after… Suspicious timing on their part, but it changes nothing"

"Misses of the Soror, may I ask that you remain as guards for this room?" Irtop wasn't feeling threatened, still confident that the machine would function as intended this time.

"Naturally, there is no problem with this" Bellah replied amidst the cacophony of sounds, right before the maddening cries constantly coming from all within the walls, ceiling and ground were joined by a most soft-sounding, female voice, the sort capable to making one relaxed just with a single word.

"Seven intruders, high danger level" it repeated the same thing over and over, adding to the mesh of sounds and noises erupting throughout the underground, as countless soldiers moved, seemingly made aware of the exact positions of the enemies the instant the alarm was given.

"All of the heralds and priestesses? At once? Good thing everything disperses into spirit life upon dispersion, the walls are going to receive a new paint job…" and indeed, as the leader of the living forces, Irtop had been hooked up on an orderly ranks, which had itself been hooked up to this very hideout, by focusing on it a bit, he could sense and know about things occurring all over the place.

He wasn't exceptionally compatible with this way of power, so he didn't actually do it that often, but right now, soldiers were converging and striking at the intruders every second, but were either reduced to nothing by flashes of emerald light, and turned into bloody pieces of meat so quickly, that Irtop couldn't even the movements being performed.

He knew that this would happen eventually, but the sight was something behold still, even the greatest elites available were cut down like peasant foot soldiers trying to fight a dragon, their unique ways of power, the intense training and their very physiques that were adapted to life in different environment and even different realms meant nothing here.

They had always known that they were battling an enemy many times more powerful than themselves, but had found solace in the idea that the Emerald Realm had seemed wholly peaceful and had thus assumed that even if wielding immense power, that the emerald folks would not be that skilled at combat and warfare, that assumption had been based on naught but absolute logic and reason, but it had been proven completely wrong.

The people of this realm outmatched them in these areas as well, even their weakest warriors fought with refined skill that had been born from seemingly nowhere, like the paths of sun and beast worship simply provided that much more compared to other ways of power.

And right now, it was their leaders that were rampaging through the hideout, and they hadn't even begun to go all out.

"It took a while and was expensive, but thank Death we made this entire place out of this legendary alloy…" the alloy didn't even have a name as it was a product that was constantly being improved upon, but it had proven its worth, as if it had not been so resilient, they would have just engulfed everything into that living light of theirs and called it a day, though, they weren't safe from having to endure that just yet.

"The traps are slowing them down, but they don't even care about them, they just push forward" he commented under his breath, turning his attention back to the machine, it had been a few minutes since it had been started up now, and still, not even the shadow of a problem was to be spotted.

The machine began to tremble, heating up to its maximum and requiring to evacuate some steam, one could just hear the gears turning, the pipes groaning as pressure built-up, the wires seemed to brighten as the machine pulled in great amounts of energy.

"Sir Irtop, is that normal?" asked Bellah.

"It doesn't sound right…" Ayelah could feel the temperature in the room quickly rising.

"I don't know, we never got so far before" the leader remained calm against all odds, his certainty concerning their impending success not shaken in the least even as the complex creation before him produced most worrying noises.

"I have to ask, but why are you so confident that this one will work as intended?" the elven girl turned to him, feeling like there was something that only he knew about this particular design.

"Did I not mention it? When I was receiving the blueprints and instructions, Sir Gharl and Lady Tiloh informed me that this was the best one yet, not only due to their improvements, but also because they said that General Loimos looked at it for a second and stated that it was a success"

"He said that?"

"They wouldn't make something like this up"

"Then I guess there is no need to worry, the general wouldn't have said anything if he wasn't certain"

"Father is never wrong"

"Father can probably see the future and already foresaw it working"

"Father's presence nearby must have blessed the machine before it was even put together"

The people here did not need more than that to have complete faith like Irtop did.

Not even a single worry as the seven intruders drew closer and closer…