Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

In the past, Lady Fe had merely been the leader of a meaningless cult, in hindsight, it was obvious that the beliefs she used to preach about held no truth whatsoever, deep down, Fe had known that she was merely spouting nonsense for personal benefit, but at the time, the fervour was so great, that she too was immersed in the lie profoundly.

Everything changed when Loimos appeared before, dressed in three-piece suit of foreign manufacture, a skeletal being that stepped out of the shadows, most others would have been terrified, or at the very least shocked by the sight before them, but for some reason, Fe had known instantly that he represented providence, that he was like an arch-angel descended from the heavens to deliver a message.

Of course, apparently, due to the nature of this realm, Loimos was unable to speak at all, and so, it was left to someone else to speak for him, Fe wasn't truly certain of who One was exactly, the High Priestess assumed that she was his missus considering the loving way she looked at Loimos and acted around him.

Honestly, One had been quite the shock to Fe, the vampiress was an otherworldly beauty, literally, her face was pale like that of a corpse, but that was it, there was nothing else that could be described as a flaw about that woman, she was just stunningly beautiful, forever youthful, athletic and seemingly driven by a great goal.

Compared to the two undeads, Fe had been nothing but a vagrant, a woman who had abandoned all semblances of a normal life to go hide into the mountains and be worshipped by easily deceived fools, she had since long given up on being a part of society or interacting with others beyond the followers of her cult, in a sense, she had already deemed her life to be as good as it could get.

It was pathetic, but it was the best she could manage, so there was no reason to complain.

That day however, it seemed like Loimos saw something within her that interested him, after all, amongst the numerous people he could have chosen from, why settle on her? And how did he even find her in the first place? Fe did not dare ask, but it seemed rather obvious that Loimos had simply known where to find the perfect candidate to guide the will of death in this realm.

Fe became Lady Fe, High Priestess of Los Libres, and soon enough, Loimos and One perfected the stagnant water.

As the name implied, although many things had been used to create it, at its heart, this source was merely water that had grown still, festering with countless things that could kill a person.

Fe was the first to experience the completed form of the stagnant water, as Loimos rather unceremoniously tossed her into, seemingly perfectly confident that she would be able to adapt to it without a problem, and indeed, what a revelation it was for her, it was like she had been born for this, the malignant force, capable of eroding the strongest of wills, became obedient before her, perfectly merging with her body.

And that was when she realised that the stagnant water was just a substance, it was a being, and it would keep on evolving as it spread and extended its influence…

Afterwards, she received her mission, and did not see Loimos for a long time, One had sometimes come by, and a handful of other undeads entered the realm to perform research, but her interactions with them were limited, the only undead that seemed willing to speak with her was One.

That was how Fe stayed aware of the developments outside of the realm, and One was also the one who taught her and the others how to speak the emerald tongue, claiming that it might be useful, and that even if it wasn't, that it was important to learn new things.

And indeed, unexpectedly, it turned out to be immensely useful, otherwise, they never would have realised that the strange invaders were actually from beyond the realm.

And so, Fe made the decision to call for Loimos's assistance, she believed that by now, he should no longer be held up by the matter that had caused him not to show up in years.

Indeed, within less than an hour, the skeleton appeared before her, looking the exact same as the last time she had seen him, though she could tell that his presence had grown more profound.

One was here as well, and she look quite different, first of all, her eyes were now a bright, glowing pink, and overall, it seemed like she had grown even more beautiful than before, additionally, there was third person present this time, a woman Fe had never met, but who gave off quite the chilling impression.

Her lower jaw was metallic, and it seemed that like Loimos, she was unable to speak in this realm, leaving it up to One to act as a mouthpiece like usual.

"Fe, what is that you wish to report?" she asked with a smile, the vampiress still feeling giddy from her advancement.

The High Priestess bowed slightly before responding.

"We have encountered invaders from another realm" she replied, the two undead women showed a bit of a reaction to that, but as per usual, Loimos was as unreadable as a random rock on the side of the road.

All he did was merely move his hand, indicating that Fe should continue speaking.

"That is not the most worrying part, they were speaking the emerald tongue… The three of them looked somewhat alike too, I believe that they were siblings"

One took a few moments before saying anything else, that was quite the information, speaker of the emerald tongue could only mean the escapees, as the entire Emerald Realm was under undead control now, and somehow, those refugees had travelled to another realm, and the realm they had travelled to was this one at that? Either this was a deliberate move to mess with the Empire's interests, or this was an enormous coincidence.

In any case, this needed to be investigated, this might be a lead toward finding the escapees, they might have left a trace behind, something that could be used to track down, and pinpoint the realm they were currently residing in.

"Is there something else you want to say?" the vampiress noticed Fe's behaviour.

"I… I am uncertain of what I witnessed, but one of the invaders demonstrated abilities that caused a bright shine… A golden brightness…" she said.

"...A golden glow?"

"Yes, that is a good way to describe it"

"Filthy rats…" One muttered something in death tongue, it seemed like certain things simply refused to be buried.