Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"Should we check out the castle?" asked Louizon, eager to blow that magnificent architecture into a pile of rubble

"I don't it's necessary, from what I remember, Flor was only supposed to stay temporarily at the castle before being taken somewhere else, since then, it must have been a long while since she was last at the castle" but Milo replied with a shake of his head, whenever Flor was, she was probably with the one called 'The High Priestess', or sometimes, Lady Fe.

But wherever that mysterious woman resided, was completely unknown, Isabela and Countess Ada might know the answer to that query, but they definitely weren't going to answer if asked about, especially since they sent flying the former just a few moments ago, the chief had probably gotten flung across several kilometers due to Louizon's spell, which had focused entirely doing just that rather than causing damage.

After all, Louizon wasn't a one trick pony, sometimes, she also used fall damage to turn whatever she wanted destroyed into dust, though, it was dubious whether Isabela had reached much damage that way, as the siblings were speaking right now, the tall woman was certainly already back on her two feet.

But she wouldn't catch up to them, they had left immediately after the spell was casted, and headed directly for the little mansion she resided in, in an attempt to discover any clue to the place Flor currently was at.

"Oh wow, you didn't mention this previously, that's quite the weird room… It looks like a grandma and a teenage girl live together in that room… That Isabela seems like she would be a fun person to talk to if she wasn't a cultist that worships water that doesn't move, and also if she wasn't trying to murder people…" Lizi rubbed her chin, truly, it was a weird world they lived in.

Who would have imagined that the scary, huge woman that had probably splattered the brains of dozens, if not hundreds of people in cold blood, would be such a huge fan of baby animals? If she wasn't in charge of security for a cult following the undead whose special substance was coveted by other nations, then her manor would probably be filled with animals and she would spend her days petting and taking care of them instead of trying to snap bones.

"What an awful painting…" Louizon was looking at a painting that was situated on the wall directly in front of the bed, which represented a most creepy thing that should make falling asleep difficult.

"...What are those called again?"

"That's a clown, I think they are supposed to look friendlier normally, though"

The two sisters had looked everywhere to no avail, from the looks of it, Isabela probably made sure not to keep anything that could give away Fe's location, after all, that woman seemed to be their leader, so it would be idiotic to make it easy for any intruder to find where she hid.

"I doubt that just looking everywhere without a clue will do us any good, we should just head to the castle and hope that the countess is less careful" Griar sighed, it would have all been much easier if he had had the strength to fight back then.

It was like anyone had a better idea than this, they were essentially on a wild goose chase, any clue would be greatly welcome, and since the castle seemed to have served as a point of transit when Flor was taken from the village to Fe, then one could reasonably assume that heading for the castle would bring them closer to their objective anyways.

They simply walked to conserve energy, Louizon all of them had very impressive reserves of mana, but it was best to be careful and have as much of it as possible when a threat showed up, and Lizi needed to recover some stamina too, the fight with Isabela, due to its length, had taken quite a lot out of her.

It was worth it though, it felt as though she had advanced in her swordsmanship, in a way only real combat could have brought.

But she could not help but think back about what she had spoken about with the chief, and the strange things she had taken notice of…

Isabela had said that the children had been sent to Oblivion ahead of the rest because they were innocent, and thus, were not required to prove themselves to the Undead Empire, which was just a softer way to say that they had killed all of the children in their fanatical madness, but if the children were considered to be in 'Oblivion', then it naturally implied that the adults and everyone else was not there yet, thus, that they were not dead and still very much alive.

If so, why did slaying them bring no experience at all? Isabela had also acted like those people Lizi had cut down had truly died, so for all intents and purposes, they were living people who had been slain, yet defied the laws of the system and did not grant experience to their killer.

Well, either that… Or it was considered that something else had slain them.

Lizi was no expert on the system, or how experience was distributed, but she believed that if there were multiple killers, either the experience would be split, or it would all go to a single source if it was considered that one of the killers had done far more work than the rest.

Lizi assumed that this was what was happening with the people here, she had dealt the killing blow, but their deaths were considered to be mostly due to someone, or something else…

'Is the stagnant water an actual being that can count as having participated in the deaths of these people? Or does it all go to the creator of the stagnant water? Maybe it goes to whoever is in control of it currently?

In short, either the stagnant water was being powered-up everytime someone it had infected died, or Loimos was receiving the experience, or it was Fe that was receiving it.

None of those options was great, but currently, somehow, the second one seemed like the best for them, after all, if Loimos was anywhere around, they would all be dead without knowing why already, whilst if it was any of the other two, an enemy they were facing all the time, or would have to face was instead growing in power.

Even if the increase was minuscule, it was always best not to strengthen an adversary.

'What a mess…'