Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 1240: Face-Eater

Capítulo 1240: Face-Eater

The Fin-Limier moved like a swift shadow. His mission did not take him into a quiet zone for him to place an array–Far from it, he had to infiltrate and roam one of the most secure structures on the continent. Pure spirits and sapient golems did not like large megalopolises in the least. They much preferred small villages… Both greatly enjoyed being closer to whatever element or matter they were made of.

As such, grandiose architecture was a rare and peculiar sight across Lefaux. Only a handful of these mega-structures existed, and most of them had been left abandoned, akin to the ancient temple Odicious currently lurked inside of… Arleqkin, on the other hand, had to sneak inside one that was still very much in use…

This was the building where official matters took place. Where officials roamed and worked all day long. The king and queen rarely came here. Most often, the advisors would have meetings here, structure whatever they wanted to report and say to their rulers, and then meet the royal couple in another place… Somewhere more special. Less enclosed, and instead more in line with the rest of the continental style of building.

Thankfully, it seemed like they were confident in their great barrier. The building itself wasn’t too heavily guarded–At least, not from an experienced assassin’s perspective. Being that Lefaux was populated for the vast majority by pure spirits and sapient golems, most of the security measures were made with the intention of preventing those two groups in particular from getting in–Naturally, a place’s native and most numerous population would be the most likely to act afool.

Arleqkin gained access through a window after he climbed up a wall like a gecko. He slithered inside without a noise. Carefully, he checked his surroundings, and then crept out of the office of sorts he was in, peering into a hallway…

Left… Right… Left… Right… No one within sight. No one within the range of his senses, he took this moment of lull to move to another room, and then another… And yet another. In this manner, he progressed quietly through the architecture’s inside until he finally spotted someone, a pure spirit made of wind, only visible being the individual was intentionally making them so… So that no one would just walk right through them, which one might imagine to not be very pleasant.

Arleqkin locked onto this spirit, stalking them for a long while until they finally entered a room by themselves, without anyone else anywhere nearby. The assassin followed soon after, but he did not pull out any blades as he silently walked closer to the wind spirit. Arleqkin instead reached for the mask that had basically melded with his face. He ripped it off, resulting in strings of foul putrescence to be wrenched out from his head, revealing the rot hidden beneath the mask.

Most of his face was gone, but that had nothing to do with undeath. It had always been this ever since he donned the mask… His skull was partially revealed, but the true point of interest was the mask itself–Following Arleqkin becoming an undead, the nature of the mask passed on from one generation of Fin-Limier leader to the next had changed drastically.

It was no longer just an artefact allowing the wearer to access the memories of the former bearers. It had gained more. Now, foul tendrils of writhing flesh extended out from the inside portion of the mask.

Once Arleqkin was close enough, he slammed the mask directly against the pure spirit’s body–It felt counterintuitive, but the mask did, in fact, work against spirits and the like. The fleshy tendrils spread for a few moments, and then, Arleqkin’s body turned into smoke, which soon melded into the pure spirit’s body and disappeared.

The mask similarly began turning more and more translucent until it was completely invisible. Arleqkin successfully took over the wind spirit’s body. He used this new body, whose memories he was actively devouring, to get around the place much more openly, not having to sneak around in the least.

Using his victim’s memories, the assassin was soon able to find what he was truly looking for. Namely, the assigned offices of advisors. The goal was clear: He needed to take over the body of an advisor, but getting close to one without a ‘costume’ would be too risky, so he instead acquired a handy disguise on his way there…

In any case, he was eventually able to find an advisor who was currently in her office–Argaxpar, a sapient golem made entirely out of water. Once again, using his victim’s memories, Arleqkin faked being here for some important matters, drowning out the conversation with a bunch of different topics until Argaxpar ended up turning her back to him–Somewhat…

He quietly positioned himself as she was busy with something else, enacting his best stealth abilities so as not to alert her at all. Arleqkin prepared to dissolve his disguise and return to his original body to strike.

The door to the office was flung open as another sapient golem came into the room without even bothering to knock.

“Lady Argaxpar! There is an urgent matter that requires your attention!”

“Alright, I’ll be there”

She turned to the wind spirit.

“You can leave for now and come back later”

Arleqkin watched as his chance slipped away. The advisor got out of his grasp, and he was left alone in the office.

‘Should I wait for her to come back? Or should I look for another opportunity?’

The assassin was uncertain which of the two options was best, but he ended up following his putrefied guts and went with the first one. He allowed his disguise to dissolve, leaving place to his true body.

Arleqkin found himself a nice, dark corner to hide in.

He waited and waited. After a while, he started to wonder if he had made the wrong decision. His success in taking over the body of an advisor was instrumental for the plan to function properly. It would be rather disgraceful for the leader of the Fin-Limier assassins to fail to perform an assassination…

However, the door to the office soon opened and closed, revealing the amorphous frame of the sapient golem… Argaxpar could technically take any shape she wanted, but she seemed content with just being a tall, slime-like being, extending tendrils to grab items.

“Mmh…?”

She noticed the distraction Arleqkin had left on her desk. Indeed, he hadn’t just been standing still and doing nothing in the darkness. He had prepared the terrain to ensure that his target would be in a prime position for him to strike down.

Without making even the smallest of sounds, the assassin took a step forward. He was stretching his senses to the maximum, making sure no one else was going to show up and interrupt his mission… He sensed nothing problematic. The Fin-Limier took several more steps, bringing out two daggers made specifically for him to deal with a sapient golem.

One was deeply imbued with the concept of ‘Silence’, one of the Pale Lady’s aspects. The other one was instead going to inflict paralysis and weaken the advisor’s defences. Arleqkin was just about to stab down when he heard a knock on the door.

He swiftly moved alongside Argaxpar, staying away from her notice as he swiftly moved behind the desk to hide.

“Come in”

Another advisor stepped into the room.

Arleqkin hadn’t heard him coming because he was floating above ground and was constantly masking his energy signature for some reason–Thankfully, he had been more polite than the previous one and had actually bothered to knock on the door before storming in.

Fortunately, the discussion did not lead to Argaxpar leaving the office, so after several long minutes of exchanging words about topics that were of no importance to the assassin at all, the other advisor finally left the room, giving the undead free rein.

This time, no one got in his way, he stabbed both daggers simultaneously into the sapient golem’s back, allowing him to silence and immobilise her for long enough for him to slam his mask into her…

It took a long while for him to actually be able to take possession of Argaxpar’s body, but he was able to do it.

He was piloting the body of the sapient golem… Now, he simply needed to wait, bide his time, and strike when the time was right.

It was just a matter of patience. The next biggest hurdle in his mission was yet to come.

‘Hopefully, all of the others will be able to fulfil their missions without issue as well…’

As he thought these words, Maliah and One were still in the midst of making their way to their own destination–For the arrays to perform their function perfectly, One needed to unleash her pink haze from a very specific location, namely, from the very top of the highest point of this continent. Which was a great tower situated near the residence of the king and queen of Lefaux.

This tower, meant to provide safety to the two rulers, was going to serve as the epicenter of a pink flood…