Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Undeads were the enemy of everything that was not themselves, not only content with bringing life down to nothingness, they were even after the other forms of existence, everything had to abide by death and accept to become scions of eternity, there was no negotiating it, one could only buy time, or attempt to fight back.

Griar had no choice but to pick the first option, the undead before him… It was hard to tell how strong he actually was, Vostes was not a name he had ever heard about, but the stories he had heard about the undead were plentiful, and even he knew well that not only was the average undead stronger than the average living, but also that the dead outnumbered them by a great amount.

Not only were nearly all of those who had passed away within their reach to recruit, but the conquests of the undead empire led to wide spans of land to fall under their control, and this apparently allowed for them to so thoroughly change the environment that undeads would begin to naturally manifest from the very soil, it was unclear just how many were created every day, every hour or every minute- But it was undeniable that the vile corpses were many.

As such, with such incredibly numbers, and the fact that undeath spared no one and nothing, the empire was coalescence of all kingdoms, empires, nations, tribes and civilisations that had ever existed, every beasts, animals, monsters, and sapient species were integrated within the dead lands.

And with their aggressive mindset and will to eradicate and conquer all, their armies were ever-growing and trained to the highest levels possible, this meant that they not only had the advantage of numbers and immutable traits on their sides, but also personal strength overall.

In short, fighting the undeads was a losing battle on every front.

The one standing in front of Griar had to be a competent mage to be able to so thoroughly interfere with his ability to cast spells, so there was little hope for him to win if a fight broke out…

"Hum… How I ended up in this realm, you ask?"

"That is indeed my question" the corpse with half his face missing smiled with his teeth out.

The young living swallowed his saliva, not only did he somehow run into the enemy of all that exists, he just had to bump into an especially creepy one at that.

"Well… I don't really know how to explain it… But, I can sort of travel in between this realm and another, you could say…" the corpse tilted his head upon hearing that, still fresh blood spurting out from his exposed brain, his tongue peering out to lick at the surface of unhealthy grey and black that were his teeth.

"That family of yours seems to hold quite the bloodline, what could be the odds that the son of the golden boy would encounter an undead in a realm that he somehow can travel to? The odds- The odds are simply infinitely small, I would say!" the cadaver stepped forward with a sudden motion, bringing himself far too close for anyone's comfort.

"You do realise that I, Vostes, am the only undead present within this realm, right? I hid away on this small island to perform research on the stagnant water, with the express intention of not running into any other livings that one we are collaborating with, and yet, you somehow managed to drift away upon my shores? Despite the mortal danger that lurks beneath the waves? I do not believe it- For even a second!"

Vostes made a sort of growl with his teeth grinding against one another, Griar could see his sliced brain twitching and moving, blood silently rising from the eternally fresh wound.

"Certainly, there are certain reasons that allowed for this to occur, some luck might have played a part, but not all of it can be given to fortune… Tell me the truth, how did you keep the creature from tearing you apart like everything else? I don't know if you are aware of this species… But in this realm, they don't have beasts or monsters, only animals… What prowls the area around us is an orca, or killer whale, if you will…"

"Normally, those sadistic creatures hold a certain amount of fear and respect for humankind- Those with enough intelligence to enjoy violence recognise one another… But after being granted stagnant water, it has ascended and no longer cares for anything, the waters around us- They are nearly entirely devoid of life, the orca has slaughtered them all without mercy, anything that moves too greatly in the water is certain to attract its attention, you should have been mauled and launched through the air by the swing of its tail, but you are alright!"

"How?"

"I- I truly don't know! I think I lost consciousness at one point… And shouldn't you know? Haven't you been interfering with my mana for a while now?" Griar backed away from the undead, who rubbed his chin in through, somehow, even with everything above his nose missing, this corpse had very easily readable emotions, his mouth and nostrils were oddly expressive.

"Me? Interfering with your mana? For a long time? What could you possibly mean? I only did something when you washed up on the sand… You mean to tell me, that someone, or something capable of interacting with mana exists within this realm? How come… How come? No, the humans here are primitive, they can barely bring out the potential of mana even with greatly invasive surgeries and treatments… Have you seen it? Their super soldiers are pitiful! They barely get a small physical enhancement that they can't even control! That leads to them poisoning themselves with their own mana over time! And at best, they can only wield mana by using tools…" Vostes mumbled through his gritted teeth, before running his fingers across his brain.

The undead rubbed his palms together, mimicking a sigh.

"That was a nice discussion, I suppose… But I sense that you have not much more to tell that you will be willing to reveal- No need to argue against that, I am somewhat proficient with death's aspect of Truth, I can tell"

Vostes pointed one finger at Griar, and mana coalesced rapidly into an energy bullet that flew through the air, aimed directly for the young man's heart.

Griar cursed and attempted to protect himself, raising his arms and did his best to wrestle over control for his mana…

Vostes watched as his mana bullet continued its course in the distance, hitting absolutely nothing.

The living popped out of existence right in front of him.

"How curious… This living child managed to overpower my hold on his inner mana…"