Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 717 - Operation Arid Soil Part Twenty-Eight

717: Operation Arid Soil : Part Twenty-Eight

717: Operation Arid Soil : Part Twenty-Eight

Ir’Houwl knew nothing of the beliefs, religions or even cultures of this realm, she hadn’t gotten the occasion to speak with the locals after all, the closest she had right now were orcs whomst she had had to give extensive skincare to because they were unable to understand that she was an enemy too powerful for them.

The minor lord sat down before the small obelisk, there were only five lines upon it and nothing else, but they were already plenty interesting, as they allowed her to extrapolate that the people here certainly seemed to see something divine or otherwise remarkable about the sun, or suns.

Which was only natural, any civilisation would have been the same if there was a huge solar body that never moved and seemed to morph into different forms each bringing something different and even transforming the appearance of the desert itself, it only made sense that cults or something similar would form.

And it seemed like one of such had formed around each of the five forms, or at least, around five of the possible forms this Undeviginti could take on, two of which were praised and respected, being the followers of the prime and watchful forms, the latter of which were probably the warriors that had descended upon the desert as comets during the time of the pale blue sun.

They were called hunters yet were revered, so it must be that they hunted down something specific, threats perhaps, which would make sense as to why they were so interested in the undead, not quite certain if they should be taken as a danger or not.

The servants of Prime Undeviginti were merely called walkers, which didn’t indicate much as to what they may be about, it could indicate pilgrimage, supposed Ir’Houwl, which would place them as more traditional believers, they don’t do anything specific in the name of their chosen deity and simply sings its praises.

‘As for the other three… They don’t seem to be quite as accepted by the people, or maybe it is a matter of perspective, and the people that lived were simply both followers of prime and watchful…’

The servants of Sanguine, Illusory and Cleansing Undeviginti were given much less favourable titles, heretics, tricksters and butchers.

‘Maybe the orcs will know more’ she stood up and heard the sound of something pressing upon the sand.

The ground within the town was still sand and judging from the noise, it was the foot of a humanoid, and then were wearing shoes made of soft material, the town was shaded by the many bush-tree planted upon the roofs and around, but her darkness awareness had not picked anything up, although her affinity with the desert meant that her own darkness awareness wasn’t as great as that of some others, as a minor lord, it was still impressively sharpened.

It could not be an ally, as she could sense death force just fine, and especially that of her soldiers, she knew how their energies felt individually and could tell them apart with ease, but she did not sense life force either, which to her, indicated that something a bit worrying was happening.

Though, the fact that she had heard something or was considering something could not be made out from an outsider’s perspective, she might not be naturally spawned undead, but her demeanor was very much like that of one.

She had learned much from General Loimos about concealing intent or faking it as well, Ir’Houwl wished to be a warrior after all, and there were few undeads that were better to learn from than the pure undead himself, his battle style allowed him to teach anyone in any subject.

As such, Ir’Houwl appeared oblivious as she began to walk back through the town, her own steps naturally did not disturb the sand underneath, appearing like a perfectly silent shadow, which made every other noise seem that much louder.

Another step was heard, quite a bit further from the first one, which either said that there was more than one source, or that the one was only occasionally failing to silence their steps, no one could be perfect after all.

This time, Ir’Houwl was prepared however and channeled her focus into her senses and made full use of undead synesthesia to visualise what had caused the noise, be it its appearance, smell, how it felt the touch, how it tasted and even the sound of its organs at work, once she latched onto its position, it was as though nothing was a secret anymore.

Their muscle tensed, seemed like they felt that something was wrong, but it was a bit too late as the minor lord had already sprung into action, one of the black stone scimitars was unsheathed and tore right the air, reaping one arm in full, sending it flying away as warm blood sprayed out.

“Bastard-” she heard the sneaky fellow, a man, curse under his breath whilst stumbling back managing to keep his balance despite it all as Ir’Houwl manifested a tendril of red sand, grabbing the disembodied arm before it touched ground.

“Excuse me, Sir, but you dropped this… Were you not taught not to throw trash outside?”

The man clicked his tongue at the taunt, grasping his and compressing the stump as his disguise that had rendered him invisible faded away, fading away in a vapour similar to that the hunters or bone puppets had possessed, only that it was pinkish.

“Illusory Undeviginti, I presume?

That sun is actually pink?

It should drop the disguise then, I have not yet seen a pink sun”

“You are awfully confident, woman- And what is this sorcery you are using?

Your words are clearly another language, so how come I understand them?!”

“I have been around for what must have been centuries if not more, and yet I had to step into another realm before I got to be called ‘woman’ at all, is that a cultural thing?”

“W-What else are you supposed to call a stranger apart from man or woman?” his eyebrow twitched, he was garbed in rather regular desert clothing, no armour of any kind and his equipment did not appear enchanted or otherwise augmented, he did have a dagger strapped to his forearm, but being in its sheath, it was impossible to tell whether or not it was decorated with a tale like the weapons of the pale blue hunters.

“I assume that Illusory Undeviginti does not provide healing?

Or is you bleeding so much an illusion?

I feel that you are struggling to concentrate, and let me warn you, low effort illusions will not function on me” her taunts were really getting on the nerves of the severely wounded living, she seemed to just have the perfect intonation to sound despicable.

“Come on, I am sure we can reach an agreement, perhaps our doctor will agree to stop the bleeding if you tell us everything you know-”

“You can dream, I’ll praise Sanguine Undeviginti before I lick your boots!”

“Shame… Say- You must be out of balance now, right?

Let me trim that excess weight”

Still only wielded one scimitar, she stepped forward, the man, whose skin was heavily tanned and bearing burns like that of the hammer-knight, recoiled and tried to focus, manifesting pink vapour all around him, wrapping it around himself, casting an image of five of him running in different directions.

“Sloppy” she commented, and much to his dismay, all of the four illusions were suddenly pierced by a tendril of red sand, whilst Ir’Houwl rushed right at the real him, chopping his remaining arm right off before catching it like the previous one.

“You forgot to make the blood of the illusions leave stains on the ground, that’s amateurish at best… I assume that you’re like a scout, probably a scout trainee?

In any case, you are my guest for an indefinite amount of time now” she grabbed him by the head and pulled him out of the town toward the oasis.