Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Alkayne was the first of the minor lords that was to face off against what was left of the Emerald Realm, and indeed, despite having suffered tremendous loss previously and some major players that could shift the tide of battle missing… The warriors of this realm remained numerous and fierce, it was certainly due to their culture, after all, progressing as a beast or sun worshipper was viewed as a virtuous act, and those two paths turned one into a powerful and competent warrior, and it seemed like provoking those previously peaceful livings had only further pushed them toward strength, after being put through a crucible by General Loimos, those who had survived had grown stronger, which in turn pulled others upward to match these new levels of strength…

The Emerald Realm most definitely was a place the empire needed to conquer, adding the beast and sun worshippers to the rank of the undead empire would be a tremendous boost, not to mention the incredible things that could be achieved with their ways of power- Alkayne could already imagine it, fusing sun worship and the wielding of vapour together, or beast worship with the likes of the disaster beasts.

But they were indeed fierce and abundant with life, it might be due to the strengthening of life due to their conquests over the years, but all of those livings seemed to be brimming with life force, to the point that their attacks somewhat carried a hint of it naturally, this incredibly vitality and the sheer unwillingness they had toward submitting meant that the likelihood of negators arising were high.

Gravelord Dracula knew this, which was why he decided to try and appease their fear and hatred by offering this deal that benefited them, General Loimos had unfortunately had to hurt the reputation of the undeads to get the golden one where he wanted him, usually, they would manage to be viewed more favourably than this by engaging in warfare guided by rules and demonstrating respect for their adversaries, even if it was fully performative for a lot of undeads, it was necessary to ensure that the empire earned the most growth out of every conquest.

Alkayne himself was not of those who could not stand interacting with livings, some might even say that he shared a bit too strong of an affinity with them due to a certain past occurrence- Which had unfortunately not stayed under wraps for very long.

In any case, to try and maximise the chances that the emerald folks would hold and get to appreciate the undeads keeping their words and being honourable, Dracula had ordered Alkayne not to take all of his troops, and the minor lord had gone a step further by putting as much soldiers with less experience than the rest amongst his ranks for that attack, which meant that he had put all of the Kalts that had wished to join his personal army here, which included a whole bunch of paladins and hunters turned warriors.

He had also refrained from bringing any of the beings that dwelled beneath the ice that surrounded the frozen realm, or brought Jormunal or any Kalt that he deemed a bit too powerful to take part.

Still, it seemed like the sheer aura of frost his troops carried was posing a problem to the livings… But he did not pay much further attention to this, instead focusing on the Divine Dancing Priestess.

Irlitimiz looked a whole lot like some wolf beastfolks he had seen before- He had some amongst his men, actually… Covering in black fur from head to toe, he face was just short of being fully bestial as she very much retained the expressive eyes of a sapient and her maw was still clearly capable of forming human-like expressions.

Alkayne was a pretty tall man, but she was even taller than this, her ears twitching as she locked onto him alone, naturally, she was the only emerald folk currently participating in the battle that could stand up to him.

The priestess began the battle by rushing him down on all four, weaving from side to side with great swiftness, Alkayne could follow her movements, but simply decided to manifest a whirlwind of freezing squalls around him to fend her off, simultaneously channeling necrotic lightning throughout his body, blasting through the raging winds, attempting to slam into the wolf-like woman, but she proved reactive enough to dodge, clearly attempting to lead him away from the battle were those weaker than themselves were fighting.

Alkayne could indeed just go to the frontlines and slaughter livings that were simply defenceless in front of him, but not only would it not look very good when he was supposed to demonstrate some honour, but it was also not his style to begin with, he was confident that his men did not need his direct involvement to hold the line.

So he simply followed after her, maintaining a constant stream of cold winds around him, causing the surroundings to whiten as frost coated over everything within range.

Irlitimiz's tail swung from side to side like a pendulum, her long fingers adorned with claws twitching, appearing exactly like a predator preparing to sprint right toward a prey, but indeed, a solitary wolf was a wolf at its weakest, so she used the ability her thorough communion with Zuoltrs over many years had granted her, allowing for the manifestation of many other Zuoltrs.

This emerald beast was cannibalistic by nature, a wolf that built its pack by preying and devouring its own kind before manifesting them as strange spirits of sorts, which appeared to be fully physical, as it stood, they were nearly impossible to distinguish from a genuine Zuoltr.

By fully going down the path of communing with a single beast, Irlitimiz had adopted their habits as well, hunting and feasting upon Zuoltrs herself, not only this, but as more and more of them manifested, it became clear that she had done more than just learn their innate ability, she had pushed it to a higher level.

Not content with simply gaining a singular pack member with every one of them she devoured, the Divine Dancing Priestess had even become capable of taking the pack they had themselves gathered for herself as well, resulting in a truly absurd amount of black wolves surrounding Alkayne, and she was probably still keeping a lot in stock…

He assumed a stalwart combat stance, his voice spreading out despite his mouth remaining unmoving.

"I have heard of that ability, and I was wondering… Would it work on people for you?" he asked.

"No idea" she simply responded.

Frozen winds and wolves clashed, the area erupting with cold violence.