Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 564 : Gathering Intel

"General Loimos, all of the living soldiers have perished" reported a putrefied undead that seemed to have been ground up under the wheels of a carriage.

Loimos was standing in the middle of a large room, cluttered with objects of all kinds, magical devices, mechanical contraptions, lights, smoke and steam pouring out from the machines as dozens upon dozens of undeads moved around like industrious ants, pulling levers and pushing buttons, collecting intel through the now deceased drafted soldiers.

Although devoid of death force, the equipment worn by the living soldiers was still of undead conception, conceived in the guts of the empire's forges, and many would claim- Undead genius is the world's finest.

As such, every piece of equipment being equipped with what someone clueless might mistake for a rough form of intelligence, but it really was simply that many reactions to different situations had been ingrained into its very fabric, weaves and metalworking.

When a soldier died - Which was predicted to be a common occurrence due to the fact that the average soldier was rather weak, and that the armour they were granted wasn't nearly as good as that of the vanguard's rank and file, overall feebler and also possessing multiple points that were simply unguarded, such as the neck for example - Their gear would break down into nonexistence as well, denying the enemy any chance to get any sort of spoils.

But that was only the most surface level aspect, the gear could differentiate between friend and foes, simply by being imbedded with how to recognise an ally and treat everything else as enemy, the gear would remain if it was in possession of allies.

This had been the first basic function that the equipment was required to possess, the second had been surveillance capabilities.

Of course, to manage such a feat even in the most derelict of capacities, countless concessions had to be made considering that it was simultaneously meant to relay information from another realm, from a place where death as they knew it had no place, and whilst working with equipment that couldn't be the best they had as it had to lack death force entirely.

That was exactly when the value of knowing a variety of ways of power came into play, where one method would have fallen short, they could stack multiple together, using an ingenious blend of arts, conditions and enchantments, they achieved something, the intel was sent back to them using the death of the wearer as a fuel and condition, since the whole had been made to work on the living soldier's own energies, taking bits of different types here and there, they had successfully fooled the whole thing into acting like it was all at the soldiers behest, and that this, their death was about as great of a price as it could be as they were considered the 'user'.

Still, the intel that was sent back to them was only of value when combined all together, it couldn't send back images or sounds, only record the movements, different states of the soldiers, the type of damage they had received and a rough outline of their slayer's life force.

"General Loimos, it seems like they walked in circles, feasted on one another to continue moving and were picked off one by one by enemies they couldn't perceive- Only the stress level of the message bearer fluctuated at all, all others died without realising anything until the very end" reported another undead.

"They were caught in an illusion on arrival" deduced the champion, not like there were many possibilities to cause one-hundred and sixty whole people to start walking endlessly into a single room without any seeming to ever grow worried or frustrated about it, their mental state remained just as stable as when they left too, so clearly, it wasn't the effects of a drug or hallucinogen.

"It seems that they were all slayed with using naught but bare hands, the message bearer was killed by someone having plunged their index and middle finger into his jugular, the rest are similar, ranging from having their chests suddenly pierced through and heart destroyed, to their necks having suddenly been broken"

"The enemy is capable of punching through their armour?"

"Do not forget that the living soldiers are wholly unaware, the enemy has all the time in the world to prepare for any sort of attack"

"Readings are coming through, the attacks were enhanced using an unknown energy, further analysis shall determine whether it is similar to anything we know-" the undead bearing a canine-like skeletal head covered by an elongated strip of flesh stopped as Loimos signalled for him to hand over the reading.

'The general is performing the analysis himself… Right in front of me!' joining both hands together as the champion simply absorbed a bit of the recorded information through his rot.

"It is sunlight, it bears some signs of holiness as well, the enemy probably follows a sun cult" he determined in an instant, that cult would probably be pertaining to that emerald sun he had noticed during his short trip into this realm, this had been no simple solar star after all, it had clearly been a being but he had not noticed any signs of divinity within it, simple mark of the holy like that energy, like the livings who had killed the soldiers and that sun used the exact same energy.

But Loimos was aware that there was a difference between what worshippers used and what a god used.

A god would always be in possession of divine energy, attuned to whatever it was that they represented, worshippers would be using the holy variation, only using the divine one by being explicitly allowed to, like how Loimos could wield divine death directly instead of holy death due to being Death's Chosen Champion.

But for the supposed object of worship to be using the same thing as its supposed worshippers could only mean that it was no deity at all and that although following practices of faith, their particular way of power had nothing to do with the holy or divine, at least, when it came to the energies.

The faint traces of holiness were naught but smudges caused by their genuine belief and nothing else.

However, beings that are worshipped can absolutely develop divine abilities, the divine beast and false idol Loimos had encountered in the deep sea were proof of that, although not as impressive as gods should be, wielding divine energy was as simple as having people genuinely worshipping you.

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In the case of this sun, the fact that it hadn't developed any either meant that it wasn't the recipient of the faith, or that it was rejecting divinity.

How curious.

"Send it through" spoke Loimos, a black knight standing near the door to this room giving a salute and rushing away to relay the order.

Since soldiers would simply be caught in an illusion if sent first, they simply needed to make sure that no one would be around to be casting any such thing, the way to accomplish that was incredibly simple, in fact, one didn't even need to be particularly cunning to come up with it.

A little bit of bruteforce couldn't hurt.