Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead
Chapter 970 - 970: The Start

"Is something the matter, Hirzartanli?" Solzmimi turned to her fellow ancestor as they both stood upon a tower of the sun worshippers, overlooking the horizon, today was the day, the undeads under Dracula's command were going to launch their first assault, so it was no time to be distracted, even if the ancestors were not supposed to directly intervene… They had managed to get the vampire lord to agree that the ancestors could provide some amount of support.

"Nothing much… Just a weird feeling, it felt like someone just did something incredible with beast worship… But it was strange, like it was simultaneously happening right now, had already happened in the past, and was going to happen in the future…" replied the beast ancestor, not having a clue who or what could have caused this, especially since it seemed to be occurring at three different times at once.

"We could use someone with extraordinary achievements in beast worship right now" commented the sun ancestor, noticing the first group of undead approaching, according to what they knew, leading it should be what the undeads called a 'minor lord', just by the name, one would assume that the leader would not be too powerful, but apparently, that was actually a rather high title for one to possess.

They should be many times more powerful and experienced than the lieutenants of the vanguard they had already seen in the past.

Warriors of the Emerald Realm were already stationed and waiting outside the barrier, and more were in reserve behind it, Irlitimiz had been chosen as the one to lead the troops, and thus, also the one to take on the minor lord as if they were truly that much more powerful compared to lieutenants, then anything below an Emerald Herald or Divine Dancing Priestess would be insufficient to even keep them occupied.

As the congress of corpses approached, the nearby grass and trees became enveloped by a layer of frost, the environment turning frigid in their wake, the emerald folks had been told that the minor lords would only bring their own personal forces to the fight, with the implication that there would thus, not be too many undeads at once, but here, the sheer number of corpses approaching- Whilst not anywhere near as the highest as what they had seen before, was still impressive compared to what they had been expecting.

Amongst the undead troops, there were soldiers carrying all sorts of weapons and knights for the most part, mages and the like were probably hidden in the back… But still, it was like there were two distinct groups amongst the ranks, there were knights and soldiers whose gear seemed to somewhat mirror that of their lord, with greyish armour and cape or cloaks of fur… But there was also another group, with the knights instead garbed in hooded white cloaks that completely concealed their appearances, and soldiers that looked more like hunters than anything else.

Still, the troops were orderly and marching in perfect unison, all stopping in an instant as the minor lord raised his fist, taking a step forward, only twenty meters separating the undeads from the livings.

Although the minor lords had not been as talked about compared to the gravelords or Loimos, they still had had some recognition amongst refugees from beyond the Emerald Realm.

This one appeared like a classical knight from a frozen landscape, his armour seemed robust, the chestpiece somewhat rounded, giving the impression of a protruding belly, a cape of fur rested upon his shoulders, his helm was one that left the face open, letting any onlookers behold a rotten and frozen visage.

Carrying a halberd with a banner wrapped around its handle and what seemed to be a prosthesis replacing his right foot.

For a few moments, the two sides stood still, eyeing one another, the livings gained by playing the long game as an assault did not need to be truly defeated or repelled for it to be stopped, currently, it was midday, and if they could hold on until night fell, the undeads would have to retreat, at least, as long as they actually kept their word, which was something the two ancestors were still not too keen on trusting.

Saying something in death tongue, the minor lord manifested a spectral standard much taller than himself, and stabbed it into the ground, empowering his troops as the majority of the soldiers and knights ducked in unison, letting a hail of projectiles and spells pass above them, aimed directly for the emerald folks.

The attention that would have been diverted toward the apparition of the spectral standard followed by the perfectly timed ranged assault would have caught most off-guard, but Irlitimiz's attention was sharp, and her sharpened instincts had since long sensed incoming danger, so she slammed her palms together, and demonstrated what was Divine Dancing Priestess could do with the bestial sorceries one could learn through beast worship.

The wolfish priestess was usually more one to let her claws and maw do the fighting rather than use sorceries, but as her rank implied, she was very much skill in wielding them nonetheless.

Her action caused a translucent Ahltaizth to manifest out of emerald sparks, the massive whale-like beast endured the whole slew of projectiles and spells before being dispelled by the Irlitimiz, although the powerful manifestation was not destroyed, the damage it endured rendered it useless.

'So the assault of just that guy's mages and crossbowmen can wound an Ahltaizth to such an extent…'

Immediately, she howled, and the brave warriors behind her replied to the attack with a hail of their own, beast and sun sorceries soared through the air toward the undeads, and in an act that mirrored the priestess's, the minor lord was the one to take action, the area directly around him was frozen completely solid as he grasped his halberd with both hands, and with a single swing, manifest a powerful curtain of frigid winds, somehow turning energy-based attacks into ice sculptures, leading to them just falling harmlessly to the ground.

Since volleys of spells and the likes alone seemed ineffective on both sides, it was in close-quarters that the outcome would be decided, the undead began running forward whilst maintaining formation, and the emerald folks did the same.

The warriors of both sides meeting in the middle, as per usual, the beast worshippers with their transformed physiques were at the front with sun worshippers focused on providing direct support, the latter proved especially important early on.

As all of the undeads, be they soldiers or knights, emitted a most dreadful cold, striking at them would result in one losing all sensations in their fists in very little time, but thankfully, the emerald light could be used to warm them up, preventing the beast worshippers from being rendered unable to fight so early on in the battle.

In the meantime, the two leaders clashed…