Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Chapter 417 Hollow And Empty

Within an unlit underground chamber, a black knight leaned over a detailed map, not of the continent, but of a specific region, expertly made with the help of scouts, both on foot and airborne, as well as cartographers of course, the Eastern Peaks were a very vertical place indeed, some of those peaks were really only accessible to those gifted with wings or otherwise capable of flight, scaling them was much too arduous and dangerous, but it also had many caves and caverns, the eastern people had settled into caves which openings were on the sides of certain mountains, it was home to a few species of dragons, trolls and many other monsters, but really only the dragons could contend with the eastern folks.

All else was considered prey and food, no matter how appalling and disgusting they may be.

Horhir had spent much time documenting the hunting grounds of the livings, their habits, as well as those of the creatures they hunted down, what those preys fed upon, all natural sources of water, the livings of the peaks led simple lives, guided by feasting, they always ate, they were always seeking ingredients, they were always butchering their catches.

The right hand had gathered all possible information before declaring battle.

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"Tilmiel, you can proceed with the mission now" Horhir spoke to another undead present in the room, barely even noticeable, in fact, even he could only sense her because she was allowing for it, he did not know when Loimos had trained her, or created the nightbirds she led, but they were exceptional at stealth.

The knight was even certain what it was that they had been trained for exactly, simply assuming them to be assassins and spies, Tilmiel however, in spite of her occupation and rather melodious name, she was a rather imposing undead, taller and wider than Horhir, with hands big enough crush the heads of multiple people at once, dressed in simple, grey clothing, bands of leather wrapped around her feet, a cloak of black feathers cascading over the back, and rolling over the cascade of dark, was her surprisingly bright, almost luminous blonde hair, tied into a massive braid.

"It shall be done swiftly" responded the nightbird, her skeletal fingers cracking one by one as she stood up, vanishing from the room entirely.

But she could not just manifest the reason why they chose this approach of all things, had the undead camp even been there in the first place, or had it always been a decoy? Was the camp just a red herring, had they never intended on mobilising much troops at all?

All that she felt confident in, was that they would probably also declare battle upon the north and west soon as well, and would certainly not engage them in the expected way either.

As she thought, her warriors scoured the entire place, struggling to find their way through the intentionally confusing layout, all buildings and tents were empty, hollow, not a single object or trace had been left behind, this reminded some of what had happened to the last credible threat they had had to face, back when there had been two tribes living in the Eastern Peaks, their enemies however, had all vanished without a trace.

One day they were waging war upon one another, and the next, all was over, but in the case of their former opposition, it had appeared as though everyone had either ran away without taking any time to pack anything, or had just popped out of existence in the middle of whatever they had been doing.

One feaster mentioned this to Derdlim, who did not react much at first, it was an old story without explanation, not very relevant to the situation.

"Mmh... The undeads, they wouldn't know about it..." Gartran shifted uncomfortably, as though only he understood what the queen was thinking about.

Indeed, as her right hand, he was trusted with more information than all others, and so, like his chief, he was well aware that what had made their former enemy disappear, whatever being or event it was, had not only come about this one time.

"But chief... Who is to say that it will act against the dead? Or that they won't best it and turn it back against us?" he communicated using the secret language.

"Gartran, I don't think we are in a position to consider such an outcome any worse than whatever they have in mind themselves..."