Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

When Griar came back to his senses, he had already washed ashore, laying on his back upon a beach of sand, completely soaked and shivering in the cold at every stray gust that passed over him, he jerked up and looked around, finding nothing and no one.

He could see the castle far away into the distance, obscured by fog.

'I swam that far?' without any mana augmentation, he had a hard time believing that he had actually managed such a feat.

As he thought of this, memories of him swimming whilst surrounded by nothing but darkness resurfaced, even just remembering that filled him with fright, when he dove into the water, he had not imagined that this would occur, he had acted in the heat of the action, brashly, and it truly could have easily costed him his life.

He could have drowned whilst lost, he could have died from the cold, or as he most feared, something lurking in the water could have claimed his life, and it didn't even have to be a monstrosity from the depths, in the state that he had been, without access to magic, even a mundane creature could have severely wounded him or outright slain him, but none of this had occurred.

Griar did not know if it was because there was nothing dangerous in the water, of if he had gotten lucky, but he was still alive and well- However, he had miserably failed at finding and rescuing Flor, with a spell, he could certainly traverse the water and get back to the castle far more safely, but his body was beyond exhausted, and what would be the point anyways? How was he supposed to help Flor when he couldn't even protect his own life? That thing Countess Ada sent after him was definitely capable of killing him with ease.

The countess, despite her modest size, was probably capable of doing it too if she was infested by the black water, and he hadn't even seen the High Priestess at all.

Truly, he had been too presumptuous to come back to this realm as he was, Griar was far too weak to face the dangers of this place.

'Wasn't this realm supposed to be a safe place? What has happened since Arzt last checked up on it?' Griar sat down upon the sand, hardly having the strength in his body to even stand up.

'Can I even come back to this realm again later? What will happen to Flor? And… Am I even capable of leaving this realm?' he attempted to expand mana to return to the Peaceful Realm, only to have his energy be interfered with, the only difference with before was that he clearly felt the interference, or rather, he was able to feel that it was caused by something or someone that was nearby.

Despite the weakness plaguing him, this revelation caused him to jump up to his feet, expecting to be attacked once again.

He looked into every direction for the sign of a presence, but found only sand, and beyond the beach, what he assumed was an island rose up into a small hill, where grass grew and a few trees were dispersed, the threes were full of leaves here, but upon closer inspections, he saw that they carried fruits that were being silently feasted upon by a variety of insects, with the most prominent ones being mosquitoes.

That would be fine if not for the fact that these insects seemed to be oozing that foul, dark substance he had seen emerge from multiple villagers before…

Griar stood in place for a few moments, not knowing what to do.

"Well… Are you not going to come over here? You can not leave this island anyways, I will block any attempt that you make at casting a spell, you can not swim back normally, not without attracting its attention, at least" a voice that Griar would call most appallingly disgusting rang out from further into the island, it sounded like a mix between snarl and the tone of someone whose throat and vocal cords had been irreparably damaged, it made him him to cover his ears.

But something was more unsettling, which was that this man was speaking a language different from the other people he had met before, Griar was understanding him perfectly, but it was not the tongue of the emerald folks or the language that had hailed from Tamaris… It was something else, the words were unknown to him, and yet, he understood them without problem.

Griar swallowed his saliva, and quietly attempted to cast a spell, but the man was not bluffing, he could not do anything with his mana currently, and considering the rather ominous warning about trying to swim, the young man could only sigh and ascend up the hill, running into a rock formation that protruded from the ground with a hollow interior.

"Who… What the hell are you?" Griar could not help but blurt out as he caught sight of a man standing near a pool of pitch black water, he was dressed in a rather odd manner, a sort of dark grey suit with a white shirt and dark grey tie, the style was not anything Griar had ever seen before.

"Oh… I feel like you can answer that question yourself, young man" the man stepped forward and out of the shadows, fully revealing his ghastly appearing, his skin was pale, abnormally so, his teeth were grey and black, facial expression seemingly stuck in a snarl as he constantly bared his teeth, despite the colouration, they appeared strong and firm.

Most worrying however, was his head above the nose, it was simply missing, it looked like a master swordsman was cleanly sliced everything above the nose, leaving the brain, skull and bloody flesh exposed.

He had no ears left at all, and hair still clung to what was left, and what left Griar most horrified, was that it seemed like the man had been cleaved recently, blood still spurted out from the lethal wound every now and then, the brain and everything that was exposed looked fresh, and he could swear that his pale skin tone hovered in between something more healthy and a deathly white.

It was like this man was stuck in a loop of dying.

"Why such a terrible expression, young man? Did your parents not tell you about the undead?"

"You- You're an undead?!"

"Obviously… Yes… I am Vostes, a humble researcher aiding in the development of the stagnant waters- And you are? I am afraid that I am not so knowledgeable concerning the escapees"

"I… I am Griar…" whilst speaking, he slowly backed off from the corpse.

"Griar… Griar? How come? Oh… My apologies, my mind went to someone else for a moment- The child of the golden boy? You have grown a fair bit! Have the years really been passing so swiftly?" the undead chuckled to himself, his teeth clacking against one another.

"My… May I ask why an escapee ended up in this realm?"

Griar was tense, but he did not know how to get out of this situation, so the best he could do was to provide answers… For now at least.