Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead
Chapter 981 - 981: Timely Mercy

Looking up at Ir'Houwl, appearing as a high mass of darkness, taller than two meters in heights and with prodigiously wide shoulders even as a skeletal being, the minor lord was absolutely terrifying as she brandished her great scimitar, the runes upon its surface shining with a red glow, clearly prepared to not only decapitate her opponent, but also release red sands along with the strike to truly ensure the Emerald Herald's destruction.

Although the undead might internally think that she was not that convincing of an actress, not a single living was doubting the fact that she was about to kill Zilania, two red flames peering from behind the ancient mask that remained stuck to her face even so many years later…

Ir'Houwl had taken countless lives, and one could just feel it in this instant, the herald's gaze focused, although the grains stuck in her bloody stump and the tendrils performed sudden bursts of draining at different intervals, effectively blocking her from casting any spells using emerald light, Zilania was not too afraid, heralds had other means to defend themselves than just light.

Watching as the great scimitar was raised up in the air, it's rocky edge would definitely not leave a clean cut it it was allowed to cut into her neck, Zilania's leg had not been slashed neatly either, it was a nasty stump that had been left behind, breathing in and out, the herald prepared for what was to come, she had to be precise and act swiftly afterward.

The blade came down like that of a guillotine, merciless and unfeeling, its trajectory seemingly unstoppable, the Emerald Herald called not upon light, but upon spirit life instead, what better than something having to do with life to block an attack from an agent of death after all? But the spirit life never took shape as a means of defence.

"Huh?" the herald blinked in confusion as the scimitar suddenly stopped right in its trajectory, mere millimeters away from her neck, a minuscule distance from slashing open the jugular, the runes upon the blade lost their radiance, and the menacing, dark red flames nesting within the corpse's hollow sockets vanished.

"The end of the day has come, good fight" spoke Ir'Houwl, the great scimitar splitting into two again as she casually sheathed them whilst taking a step back from the herald, the tendrils or red sand alongside any stray grains popped out of existence.

Indeed, as the sun set, the end of today's battle also arrived, all fighting suddenly ceased, just like before, even the livings that were just about to have their lives ended saw themselves be spared, all murderous momentum coming to an immediate halt in perfect unison.

"We won?" a living warrior who had not participated the day before said in daze, just as the undead that had been right in front of him grabbed his shoulder.

"Excuse me, I need that" said the cadaver as he pulled out his dagger from the living's shoulder, then, they all turned back and head back for the dark keep, Ir'Houwl knelt a bit to grab the herald disembodied leg and handed it back to the living, who accepted it before watching as the minor lord joined her soldiers and soon disappeared from view.

Much like Alkayne, Ir'Houwl was nearly instantly intercepted by Prikrip upon returning to the dark keep, the bird-like corpse hanging from the wall.

"Nice job there, really showed them the restraint and honour of the empire" he clacked his beak a few times whilst the souls of the damned trapped in his skulls begged for mercy.

"Prikrip, those souls of yours have been getting louder and louder, just how many of them do you have in there?" Ir'Houwl did not dwell too much on the topic of the battle, she had nearly messed up after all, in the end, it turned out rather well as it demonstrated that the undeads would indeed cease their assault even if they had a powerful enemy on the ropes, but truly, this could have easily turned out poorly for the plan.

It was the very first time she was taking orders from a gravelord directly as well, it would have been quite the bad impression if she messed up when Dracula had deemed her capable of being amongst the first ones to go.

The likes of Prikrip or Herlbe who definitely could not be trusted with not slaughtering a living if given the chance had instead been made to go amongst the last, so that it would look like the pressure was ramping up as the confrontations went on…

"Oh, these? I gathered a lot of them whilst in the Black Fog Realm, there are a bunch of humans that were surviving despite the fog and its creatures spreading, they make for quite the nice tortured souls, they are already plenty desperate and terrified to begin with! Don't worry though, I just took their souls, they won't even know that I have them when they are blessed with undeath" he replied, having indeed been accumulating a whole lot of those souls inside of his skulls due to the fact that it had been a long time since he had ever needed to use any at all in a fight.

As he spoke, he dropped off the wall, and landed next to Ir'Houwl.

"I thought that we already had pools that naturally create damned souls, I don't think random human souls are better than those"

"It's for the love of the game, it feels right to pluck those screaming souls out of their physical vessel and then trap them inside of my skulls to join the rest, it's like art, if you will!"

"Sure, sure it is… Do remember not to do that to any emerald folk though, stealing and torturing souls would put a dent in our respectable look" she expressed, the corvid nodding along.

"Of course"

The minor lord bid his goodbyes and leapt back onto the wall under Ir'Houwl's gaze.

Meanwhile, the defenders of the realm had retreated back to the inside of the barrier, healing the wounded, and tallying casualties, much like last time, the amount of losses was surprisingly low, previously, the freezing had been the most problematic aspect, this time, it had been the sand-based attacks that had proven an issue.

Although seemingly less deadly than being partly frozen, healing those who had been injured was harder as grains of sand were left inside of their wounds, and some of them had had internal organs partly shredded by said grains.

This assault would leave quite a few warriors out of commission for a while, the sand and weapons used by these undeads seemed intentionally jagged, many sporting stone weapons that left cuts and slashes that were far from clean.

Zilania would only be able to get her leg back because she was an Emerald Herald, the way she could heal herself was great enough to reattach the limb, but for others, it would take far longer to mend.

At least, the good news is that they should have some respite until the next minor lord showed up…