Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 338: Fear The Night : Fleeting
Read latest stories on novelbuddy
The lands of Tamaris were being ravaged, the blight that was death spread with virulent haste, the followers of eternity marched upon the lesser barriers, upon the population, upon the very identity of this once peaceful country, knights and soldiers threw themselves into the fray to no avail, outmatched in every aspect, the king’s miasma consumed all upon its path, creatures of the night tore apart households, none were spared.
In the wake of Nitok’s army, only bloody pulps, dismembered corpses, stains upon the walls and soil, empty, splintered cradles, the cries of the damned were drowned out by the stomping of the undeads, their calls for help heard by none other than the next victims.
As they passed through a small city, once again, the foolish livings attempted to put up a resistance, despite the ranks of undeath reaching as far as the eye could see, they held on to a dying ember of hope, everytime, it would be snuffed without fail.
A death knight garbed in stone armour stepped forth, rising its greatsword high above the head, shaped like an executioner’s sword, bringing it down like the blade of a guillotine onto the weak guard, no amount of third-rate shield and or armour would stop the blade from cleaving through.
Just as the death knight raised its blade, sensing a living coming from behind, stepping over its fellows and then onto its head, pushing the stone sword away, throwing themselves forward, upside down as this living appeared within sight, blade brimming.
"Army slash" speaking casually, without emotion, the green slash fuelled by all the meaningless hope carved its way through the ranks of the dead, but even cleaved in half, the death knight held itself together and swung, the living still in the air, without protection, the familiar clang of a clash of blades rang out.
The ghostly form of Gelter had appeared in the way, parrying the strike, longsword striking with absurd weight, the upward strike dragging into the ground, launching debris and dust alongside the undead knight.
"Soldier, I would recommend to avoid any sort of confrontation" Antieeld said, her features barely illuminated by light that were slowly being drained, her golden eye seemingly shining in the dark, naught by the startled guard’s imagination.
"We are retreating?" he asked without really knowing why.
"Retreat?
That’s too organised, no, I order you to run for your life!" she shouted at him, sending him running, at the same time, sabre overflowing with both mana and arts, the distinct green shine of army slash clinging on to the blade still, she deflected a series of arrows that came from everywhere, she did not linger on for much longer, taking her own order and running into the opposite direction.
Antieeld was mostly using her mana sense to see where she was going, the regular guards and soldiers dispatched within cities and villages were could only use their eyes, the siege weapons using Rosemary’s flames had all been at the border and thus been crushed, only flaming towers were around and not many of them, she knew very well that probably all of the people she prevented from being killed would just die later on, but she found it impossible to not intervene when she could, but clearly, the undeads that were opening the march were far from weak, a regular undead rank and file was superior to a soldier of Tamaris, the ones at the forefront of this invasion were many times more powerful, more intelligent, she wouldn’t be surprised, if they started speaking to her.
’How are they all doing?’ she wondered, her friends that had gone to face vile Loimos, the champions that had gone to face the gravelords, deep down, she knew that even if they held the potential to prevail, the situation brought them to a disadvantage.
Life burning within her, the tiredness that should plague her limbs, the pain that should radiate from her left eye and the many injuries she had suffered on her way here, all were absent, she felt no fatigue even as she ran faster and longer than she should be capable of, actually running from death granted all that lived extraordinary capabilities, and after a while, maybe just a minute, probably hours of constant running and clashing with undeads that could kill her in one hit, she arrived at the royal palace, the dreadful presence of the ghost lord nearly paralysing her.
That was how she knew that Nosferatu hadn’t even tried to impress the livings when he had appeared, he might have actually consciously held back, upon the roof of the king’s castle, Fioldron Ferrcrona was fearlessly engaging Körpersucher, the only sound coming from within the armour being grunts as he swung his sword, each strike backed by his entire weight and power, and somehow, he seemed to be holding his own, at least for now.
Antieeld kept moving, forcing the way through the crowded streets, her own arrival was about the same as that of the undeads, some had gotten there before her, coming from other directions, the capital was already under assault, sliding beneath the legs of some rotten orc-alike undead, clashing with decayed Tochian and Pezerxian warriors, Gelter appearing at will to aid his lady at any time.
The castle had already been breached as well, leaping over the gates, the commandant tried to evaluate the situation, the palace shaking, when she got to the throne room, apart from bloodstains, a corpse and signs of destruction, no one was there, the mana residues of the three, the king, Fioldron Ferrcrona, Milanit and Lunate were still here.
Milanit’s headless corpse was still lying there, not too far, a pile of something Antieeld could not recognise, a pile of rot and dust.
She did not stay for too long, heading to a very particular room that was to be found underground, beneath the rest of the palace, there, a great density of undeads were scouring the halls, this area had been equipped rather potent barriers of life and life-infused illusions, this was where the king’s last resort had been hidden, a plan even Antieeld knew nothing about, it had been kept under wraps, in fear of spies and traitors, a worry that had not been unfounded.
All she had been told about was a set of instructions to follow were the undeads to breach the main barrier.
Evading the undeads, confused by the environment, she stealthily headed for a particular wall, feeling confident that she had followed the directions faithfully, pushing up against the wall as she laid flat against it, being suddenly spun as she was taken behind the wall, the inside brightly illuminated to not alert the undead of this room’s presence with their darkness awareness.
Down lengthy flight of stairs, she found everyone, the talent holders, the elemental champions, Helena, Milo, Griar, the otherworlders and a few others, such as the disciples of Syklon and two young men she had never seen before, no one but Minli, the healer was unscathed, in fact, everyone seemed close to death’s door.
The three summons from another world had not been made to participate except for Toby with his analytic ability, but they had been deemed too weak to do anything other than wait in this room.
But Antieeld’s attention, first and foremost, fell upon Griar, who was unmoving.
"..."
"...Did you- Did you win?" she asked Minli, the only person that had been present that was not knocked out.
The healer stayed silent for a moment, not looking up from what she was doing.
New n𝙤vel chapters are published on freeweɓnøvel.com.
"We failed" she hastily responded after a moment.
"I see…" Antieeld sat down, not falling solely because Gelter was there to catch her.
"Hold on Antieeld, I need to disinfect that wound" the commandant did not respond, all of the adrenaline had just suddenly left her, but she refused to fall unconscious, needing to maintain the ghostly army, they might still be capable of saving some people, make a difference perhaps.
A fleeting hope.
