Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1223 - 9: Is it Undead or Elemental Creature?

Chapter 1223: Chapter 9: Is it Undead or Elemental Creature?

"It’s undeniable that the greatest weakness of the Undead is their lack of consciousness, their lack of intelligence, their instinctive hatred for all living beings, only knowing to blindly pursue the living and assimilate them through death. In the last Undead War, the various races exploited this weakness to annihilate ten times, even dozens of times their own forces in Undead," Pannis tapped his fingers lightly on the tabletop, speaking earnestly, "But if we consider it from another angle, the lack of consciousness and intelligence could also be regarded as their biggest advantage. Consciousness leads to emotions, intelligence leads to thought, and with emotions comes the fear of death; even if they are mere Undead, once they possess individual consciousness, they will fear the eternal loss of this consciousness upon death. Moreover, the ability to think means they can make mistakes, can be provoked, divided, and swayed, and most crucially, having the ability to think means there’s a possibility to communicate with them, to have room for mutual compromise and concession. At this time, they can even be seen not as Undead, but as a greatly numbered, alternative type of Elemental Creature."

"Wait a minute, Elemental Creature?" Lina frowned, "Such words should not be spoken lightly. If death is seen as an element, then life, corresponding to it, would also be treated as a regular Element."

"I have no intention of desecrating life or the Deities, so I prefaced my statement with ’alternative’ as a qualifier," Pannis emphasized, "If that still offends the Deities, then please apologize to Lady Denia, Lord Yuktiraxil, and Lord Kaia on my behalf."

"Um, our lord and the other two wouldn’t mind, actually, it’s the believers who care," Lina paused as though she was listening to something. Moments later, she nodded, "Alright, I’m convinced. Catheria is right, if light and darkness can be considered special types of Elements, then life and death can also be considered special Elements. From a certain perspective, they indeed are types of special energy coalesced into Elements. We’ll just think of them as special Elemental Creatures then."

"Very good, we have reached a consensus on this issue," Pannis nodded, "Now, let me share my views, Your Majesty... alright, Flare, listen and see if you can accept them. If you can, consider using this idea to persuade the Elder Council or even bring it up for discussion at the high-level meetings of the races."

"In my name?" Flare frowned, "You don’t plan to come forward yourself? If you did, wouldn’t it carry more weight? Why won’t you show yourself?"

"That was the past, this is now," Pannis said with a rueful smile, shaking his head, "Besides, I have more important matters to attend to."

"Alright, let’s hear your views then." Flare didn’t even inquire about the more important matters Pannis referred to; the queen seemed quite aware of Pannis’ considerations and didn’t intend to discuss them in front of the young girls, so she simply nodded indifferently, "I’ll pass on your words. I would like to remind you, though, that your reputation might be slowly fading among humans and Beastmen, but among other races, it’s as good as it was a hundred years ago. That’s assuming, of course, that you can act with decorum during the meetings."

"Ahem, I’ve always been very professional," Pannis coughed awkwardly amidst the girls’ teasing laughter, quickly steering the conversation away from a topic unfavorable to himself, putting on a serious expression as if he had always been such, "First of all, we need to understand one question, what is the greatest threat the Undead pose to the Yarran World? Why do we view them as the foremost enemy? This did not start recently; since the Third Epoch, intelligent beings have often seen the Undead as a menace. The previous Return of the Dead aptly demonstrated this danger. Why don’t people fear the Sand People? Why don’t they fear Elemental Creatures like the Fire Element, Ice Element, or Thunder Element?"

"Because the Undead despise the living, killing them aimlessly," Lina replied without hesitation, "Other Elemental Creatures do not exhibit such behavior, and it’s entirely possible to communicate with them normally, but not with the Undead."

"There’s another issue," Flare added, "The sheer number of the Undead is simply too vast, so much so that it crowds out the living space of other races, whereas other Elemental Creatures are fewer in number and have less impact."

"I also believe that these two are the fundamental reasons," Pannis nodded, "But now, both these issues have already been resolved. The current situation proves that the Undead now possess reason and can engage in normal communication if they wish, and evidently, they now have little interest in aimlessly slaughtering the living. Even if living beings sway before them, they seem to only want to drive them away to avoid disrupting their work. As for their numbers, the fact that no new Undead are emerging from Death’s Gate indicates that their numbers are finite, or at least appear to be, so the issue of numbers no longer exists."

"Hmm, continue," Flare’s gaze was lowered, her eyes occasionally flashing with sharpness. Only then could the girls sense that the gentle and elegant lady before them was, after all, the queen who controlled a powerful race. The Queen’s eyes moved, contemplating as she spoke, "You make some valid points. There must be more, right?"

"Yes, since the first matter is resolved, let’s proceed," Pannis spoke softly, "Next, we need to understand why we are engaging in the Second Undead War, why spare no amount of manpower, material resources, financial resources, and even combine the entire strength of the Yarran Continent."

"Of course it’s for self-preservation," Flare answered, "Not many people are particularly keen on dying, everyone wants to live on, so it was easy to respond to your proposal for a union against the Undead. Oh right, speaking of which, you were the one who put forward this proposal, and now you’re actually asking us about the reasons."

"Ahem, who proposed it is beside the point; a plan is one thing, changes are quite another," Pannis coughed awkwardly once more, forcibly continuing, "So the question comes back around: since the Undead no longer kill at will and no longer encroach upon the living space of other races, why continue this war? Every day we deplete the heritage that the Yarran Continent has accumulated over thousands of years, to what end? Is the vast Sighing Desert truly incapable of accommodating a group of conscious and intelligent skeletons?"

"I suddenly have a feeling," Flare’s eyelids lifted slightly, she whispered, "This way of addressing the problem seems all too familiar to me, don’t you think?"