Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 738 - Operation Arid Soil Part Forty-Nine

738: Operation Arid Soil : Part Forty-Nine

738: Operation Arid Soil : Part Forty-Nine

A shower of pale blue comets befell the desert, falling in many different areas, each was a hunter of Watchful Undeviginti, members of its faith who had given their freedom up to act as their patron sun’s personal agents, apparently, it was the only Undeviginti that seemed to possess such an ability, but it was also the one that showed the clearest signs of intelligence and personal agency, so perhaps it was linked.

A few landed near the city, and quite a few seemed to have landed near the entire span of every oases created by Ir’Houwl and her soldiers, it looked like an attack, but after a few moments, she felt no signs of combat, although the territory controlled by the undead stretched over a long while, and Ir’Houwl herself didn’t have the means to just know the status of all of her soldiers at once, but that was where orderly ranks came into play.

Thanks to the variation granted to her small army, she could know that no fighting was taking place just yet, and considering that no one could have missed the comets falling and crashing into the desert, it felt like this was naught but intimidation, placing warriors close-by.

“Benerib, don’t come out even if a fight breaks out” reminding the only living nearby to not show herself under the blue sunlight, the minor lord descended the steps of the solar temple and moved through the city, right toward the entrance, joined up by her troops along the way, forming a congress of undeads.

Just as she expected, a handful of hunters were there, she suspected that the hunters were all simple arm-bearers whilst the Ersta’la and above simply remained in their temples, nonetheless, the hunters were clearly a respected bunch, considering that they spared the resources and efforts to craft equipment for them, in particular, the full suits of plate armour were something that really only they wore, armour wasn’t that big of a thing in the desert when most of the time was spent in scorching heat, and could only be worn during the time when the desert cooled down, which was solely when the watchful one reigned.

Amongst the group of livings, a few were in armour and some were dressed more typically, but all were standing as guards around a hunter whose entire body seemed to have been wrapped in bandages of sorts, eyes depicted all over them and simple robes over the body, which did not look like that of the higher ranking members of their faith, at least, Cheops had not described it in such a way.

Around their neck, a medallion of sorts with a depiction of Watchful Undeviginti was hanging loosely, clearly the catalyst that should allow them to wield the vapour.

On the bandages that covered the hunter’s face, there was, large eye drawn over them, which the living seemed to bring attention to before speaking.

“I am the one who speaks the word of Watchful Undeviginti, my great lord wishes to know a few things from you” revealing a raspy voice, like the man had screamed until his voice was broken and like he had not drank a single thing in days, his mannerisms was awfully slow, yet unusually fluid, like it was all a dance he knew by heart.

“You are speaking for this guy up there?” Ir’Houwl pointed at the sun, whose eye was laser focused on the scene playing out.

“Calling the watchful one, ‘guy’ is a bit… But yes, I am speaking for our radiant blue star- My lord does not understand where you and the rest of your kind came from, all that sunlight touches is fully under Watchful Undeviginti and knowledge… You could not have been hiding inside of a building as the people already live in them, and you could not have come from beneath the sand, for beings like you could not possible have existed for so long when your forms are not adapted in the least”

The living’s hand and arm gestures were somewhat odd, it felt like his mouth and body were controlled by different people, with the one in charge of the latter just doing whatever whilst the former went on and on.

“At first, our brilliant lord believed you to be rogue minions of Sanguine Undeviginti, who had somehow maintained their existence despite the red sun’s absence- But it now seems clear that this can not possibly be the case… So, would you mind introducing yourself as well as your kind?

Then, Watchful Undeviginti shall decide whether or not you are a true threat that requires to be dealt with”

Ir’Houwl stayed silent for a few moments, looking as though her gaze was piercing the bandaged hunter.

This situation had been something the minor lord had been thinking about for a little while now, her plan required the livings to be oblivious to the undead and to misattribute the growth of oases and the likes to a coalition of the illusory, sanguine and cleansing faiths instead.

However, the sun currently up in the sky was a problem to that plan, it knew exactly where the undead where and that the trees growing were linked to them, it could easily have one of its hunters go and inform the livings, but thankfully, this star believed itself to be a paragon of rightfulness, making it prey to much more manipulation than most.

It should be smart enough to understand that informing the livings would inevitably lead to skirmishes as they would not accept that an unknown group was spreading their territory and had taken over a city and towns, as such, Ir’Houwl believed that was long as she could convince this Undeviginti that the undeads were not an actual threat, that it would keep quiet so as to avoid creating conflict that it would believe would not happen otherwise.

The minor lord was not exactly the greatest actor, so she needed to actively weave some truth into her story to be convincing, or so she believed, it was unlikely that the livings would be able to read an undead, but she felt the need to be especially cautious.

“I am Ir’Houwl, me and my people are undeads… We came from afar”

“How far?”

“Hard to say, our travels led us to a sort of anomaly which enveloped us and brought us here in the blink of an eye”

“Who do you work for?

Or are you the leader of the undead?”

Ir’Houwl felt like scoffing at such a ridiculous notion, she was still far from even being close to qualifying as a gravelord, and some random living was wondering if she led the empire?

Or was it the sun that was asking the question here?

If so, then for a sun treated as a deity whose main thing was having an eye it really was off the mark.

It was then that she decided to lie, not completely though.

“I am under the orders of my king and queen, Dark Undeviginti and Radiant Undeviginti” she said, it was a bit of a leap, but King Nitok and Queen Maiele were both the masters of powerful suns of their own, Ir’Houwl did not know much about those, but they were certainly powerful enough to at least borrow the name of Undeviginti for a while.