Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

In the distance, across a nearby, large river that brutally flowed without stop, completely dissociated from the body of water the monument of the dead was to be found, from where the vampire hunters stood, the river separated them from a cliff, countless rocks and roots sticking out from it sides, protruding from the soft dirt, little bits of the humid earth sometimes falling out into the water. Explore hidden tales at empire

Up on this cliff, seemingly shattered and left to rot there for years, a huge caravan was to be seen, moss growing over its surface, although finding destroyed remains of something was not too surprising considering where they were, a danger zone were usually only adventurers ventured into, many people had met their ends here.

The problem was that this caravan, even in the state it currently found itself in, was very hard to miss, even to the untrained eye, so failing to notice its existence until now was especially curious for the experienced vampire hunters, Abraham and Échalas looked around, ready to lash out.

A boom echoed across the overgrowth, of the jungle, causing a great deal of birds to take off flying from fright, a dark blur travelling through the sky, propelled with great force, but also with outstanding precision, or so the vampire hunters supposed, as the figure landed straight into the water next to the ruins, sinking, most probably, all the way to the bottom before erupting with crimson and dark, quickly tainting the waters, suffusing it with putrid blood, the two liquids mixing as they took over the surrounding.

Échalas quickly reactivated his ability, relief making its way through his mouth in the form of a small sigh, returning to his own body to give an order, roaring out without hesitation, none questioning it.

"Ignite the bombs in the water!" despite the clear danger this action could pose to those that had gone inside, it was done without delay, bright green lights filling the surroundings of the monument, purifying the area with exceptional speed.

Approaching the edges, all of the death hunters brought out concealed crossbows, whispering words, this act imbuing their own life force onto their bolts, each of them scanning the trembling waters for movement not due to the recent blasts.

'It is still day, a sunwalker? Or something else entirely? It avoided confrontation altogether, so it has to be smart'

'Smart fucker, are you done for or just immobile? I bet the second…'

The purified waters quickly turned back to their dark red, then erupting with dark red flames, forcing the hunters to step back lest they wanted to lose some hair.

"Blood fire?

This could not have been a dracula, it clearly stood straight under the sun!" one of the vampire hunters expressed what everyone was thinking, although the draculas might not instantly turn to charcoal under the slightest bit of sunlight, they would absolutely catch on fire and be severely weakened for a long while, their regenerative properties would be made null, their death force and blood igniting as well, just a quick hop into water wouldn't undo all of this.

Their mysterious visitor wasn't willing to answer their questions however, its figure slipping into the entrance of the monument, not without being shot at, and even hit with life infused bolts, the death hunters not willing to miss even the smallest of occasions.

"I doubt that thing will keel over with just a few bolts, we are merely using paltry arts to imbue life into our projectiles, and it won't remain imbued long now that it is no longer nearby" Échalas quickly went back to the scouts inside, telling them that something, most certainly an undead, had just managed to slip inside.

The five people that had gone inside had not lingered on however, not content with being slow and meticulous, they were swift and efficient, even with waters halting their momentum, they had quickly found a place of interest.

After walking through utterly empty hallways, the interior design being completely absent, just smooth grey stone and nothing else, the area with a beautifully carved well stood out especially.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The water had yet to engulf this part, after climbing down into it, the thing being wide open, they had arrived in an area free of the wetness, to do so, they had taken a lengthy ladder, an extremely long ladder, arriving into the guts of the monument, this was why their leader had been comfortable blowing up the bombs in the water, knowing that none of them could reach his scouts.

The ruin hadn't even shook or been damaged at all, its durability greater than expected.

"Do you see this sir?

This… This is terrible" one of the five managed to speak through the shock, the ceiling higher than their enhanced eyes could see, seemingly endless hallways spreading into every direction, the walls of those immense corridors with countless pocket of space carved out, each of those pockets filled with stone coffins, all, without exception, emitting a certain level of death force.

Undeads unhabituated every single one of them.

"Don't even get close to them, prepare to retreat-" Échalas spoke into their minds, this was it, they were sinking this place, burying this entire jungle if necessary, not even a single of those repugnant corpses was going to see the moon again.

His order was compromised, as something crawled down the well, ignoring the ladder entirely, landing against the ground without any sign of grace, a mass of blood and flesh, bits of putrefied fur, feathers and all things organic splattered as it crashed.

A humanoid figure stepped out of the decay, resembling nothing but sculpture of rot, festering with blood and deformities.

A hail of bolts pierced the revolting undead, all going right through its form, not encountering any resistance.

"This thing is a decoy!" realised one of the death hunters, this thing was doing nothing to attack them, focusing on sealing their only exit, the rot was solidifying into bone and steel, the calcic matter turning lustrous and reflective, in the guise of a certain battle mage of the dead.

Indeed, mounds of rot had spread out everywhere upon the arrival of this thing, and in one of them, hidden away, Loimos had discreetly crawled out of, headed toward the strongest source of death force without any hesitation, this had not escaped Échalas however.

"The thing controlling the rot is running away! Defeat it to get away!" he told his scouts, even if life force could bore through the metallic bone sealing the well, the sheer size of the well meant that it was meaningless, the best way was to defeat the one casting it.