Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Without Antieeld realising it, Loimos had spoken words laced with Death's aspect of Truth to her, silently eliminating most of the doubts and suspicions she might have otherwise harboured, but it didn't matter much, considering the current situation, the commandant was well aware who it was here that would have an advantage if things turned awry, she did not believe that she could truly threaten him in a fight, even if she had some tricks up her sleeves, there was nothing that could be claimed to have a one-hundred percent chance of burying Loimos.

Antieeld swallowed her saliva and kept her eyes on the undead, waving her hand and gathering mana, lifting the unconscious Milo of the ground, thinking that she was not only sending a friend to his death, but also the father of several children, the guilt felt indescriptible heavy, but the shoulders of a commandant had to be able to endure such burdens, so despite the inner turmoil brewing within her, her movements were smooth and seemingly lacking in hesitation.

"Antieeld…" from the side, the talented healer's voice resounded.

"I know, Minli…"

Milo was carried over to the undead, the man set upon the ground, his wounds had been patched up already, but he was still nearly out of gold, and it looked like he was set to remain unconscious for a long time.

Loimos knelt down beside him, his thoughts inscrutable as the livings that could only watch the scene powerlessly turned their heads away or closed their eyes, fearful of what would happen next…

Milo and Loimos, unexpectedly, those two had quite the history together, starting wayback when the pure undead amounted to nothing much at all, back then, he was basically just a rogue skeleton that went around, simply killing and slaughtering at every occasion, he had been so weak that a Milo that didn't even have access to any energy whatsoever had been able to inflict damage and actually force him to retreat.

In essence, it was the pure undead's fault that the one bearing Sonnenträger's gold had been led to develop his powers and discover his affinity for gold, in countless other scenarios, Milo might have never truly training this ability, only serving as another nameless carrier for the golden energy, who would simply die without bringing the first hero any closer to coming back, but Milo had been allowed to grow, to survive and at a certain point, it seemed like cog had already began to turn, and that there was no way of stopping it.

Sonnenträger would return eventually, even if Milo died, that would not change.

When the name began to spread, it was further cemented… But Loimos had already been preparing for an ultimate gamble, since the golden hero's return was set in stone already, there was no point in uselessly delaying it, the undead empire was eternal, it was pointless to bury one's head in the sand about this matter, so Loimos decided that rather than letting it go ahead and progress without intervention, that he would engineer the return of Sonnenträger, have control upon the when and where it would occur.

Milo had already fully awakened, and the name had spread far and wide, the world remembered Sonnenträger, The First And Only True Hero, the one who had felled countless calamities most could only dream of even landing a single strike upon.

Forces of the Abyss, heralds of the True Void… It seemed like the golden one's last mission would be to face off against Death itself.

Raising his hand, Loimos plunged it right through Milo's chest, his eyes flicking open one last time as the undead tore open his ribcage and extracted his still beating heart, this was not the heart of anyone, but of one who not only carried the remnants of Sonnenträger, but who had truly awakened the capabilities linked to the possession of such a thing, despite being a mere human, a boy who had been adopted by an old farmer, a boy with no recollection of his life prior to that event- A mere peasant from the countryside that should have been destined to nothing.

This heart, one might say that it was akin to that of an elder dragon, this was the organ where all of the gold and fated greatness seemed to converge.

Loimos crushed it in his palm, it crumbled to rot and was absorbed fully by the skeleton, Milo's corpse following soon after, a rush of strength coursed through the undead, his helm returning alongside his full power, the mere materialisation of the true might of his festering death formed a tall pillar that pierced the sky, and indeed, the pyramidal barrier of life shattered into thousands of pieces.

And at the same time, a golden comet descended from somewhere beyond the reaches of this realm, engulfing the world in its radiance for a few moments before landing quietly a few meters behind the undead.

Livings were left in awe, but meanwhile, the undeads silently turned away from the battlefield, indeed retreating like Loimos had promised.

"Aah… This little boneling, hasn't he grown into a fine skeleton, heh? I was one of his first mentors, you know? Alas, the disciple always ends up surpassing the master, it seems" Faraday shrugged as he looked over at Loimos, who was facing the golden radiance, that comet emitted a serious amount of power, the chrome skeleton felt that if he got to close, he might actually start melting.

"Anyways, fun time is over, Zilania, is it? Do tell me when you die, we should hang out sometimes" laughing with his steel teeth striking against one another as he used mana to fly off toward the dark keep.

Looking back toward the champion.

'Be careful, Loimos'

The pure undead's dark mantle was flung backward as though a strong gust was crashing into him, but that was merely the ambient energy being flung away from the golden radiance, as though it did not feel worthy of staying close to the one at the heart of the brilliance.

Just as the brightness receded, and a figure began to be visible within it, both the golden one and skeleton seemed to simply pop out of existence, neither even attempting to resist as a third acted, pulling them into a separate plane.

Both seemed to have already known that Quideos Audit would act in such a way, and neither cared about it.

The radiance finally went away, revealing the man within.

Here he was, here he stood.

Sonnenträger, hailed as the greatest hero to have ever walked this world, and perhaps even all worlds- He had reappeared into existence.