Chapter 89: Ch 88 “Thesis of Undead Nature”

  Sitting on a toppled tree, Iris observed the bizarre scene unfolding in front of her. Kia ordered Umbria to gather all surviving undead, behind the necromancer roughly twenty of their original number survived with twice that surviving from the other side who submitted to Kia.

The prisoners were lined into a long line, all of them kneeling on the ground wearing a look of great shame on their faces while Kia slowly made her way from one side of the line to the other. She would talk to the prisoners, her smaller then average body overshadowed even the largest of vampires in presence. Her "court" proceeded swiftly from one undead to the next with Karol acting as Kia's executioner. She knew the necromancer's harsh sense of justice but seeing it with her own two eyes was a totally different experience than reading it on a piece of paper or hearing it. After judging all the prisoners, only four undead had not been turned into a pile of ash still kneeling on the ground. 

 

  Staring at the faces of the survivors, Iris wasn't sure if they were entirely happy with their faith compared with the undead experiencing their final death. Each of the sentenced bloodsuckers who were now nothing but ash, bore faces of sad acceptance and almost uncontrollable happiness while answering Kia's damming question, similar to children being happy at the return of their father from war while being scolded by him for not helping their mother while he was gone. 

The four survivors looked much more disturbed with only their eyes looking up to the necromancer eagerly waiting to be of use. Their solemn faces were possibly caused by what they just experienced, a brutal battle shortly before a cruel and unforgiving court with no right to defend themselves was granted nor even tolerated wasn't something to leave someone of the right mind but... Iris didn't think that the possibly centuries-old undead who followed a brutish warlord cared for such things. 

From what little she learned while living with the undead as an undead with a mind of what she was before, she came up with a theory. She wasn't sure if her assumptions were correct but the undead with the notable exception of Kia and her seemed to instinctually desire stability and permanence in their existence or at least those words were the most accurate at describing her thoughts.

 

  The undead residing in tombs and burial grounds which she ventured into while she was still serving Brad, the undead were there not because of them being stuck there but a desire for everything to remain the same. She remembered overhearing a cleric speaking about how rare undead attacks really were, only really happening when either they were resurrected by a necromancer or if their tombs were trespassed into with the roused residences wildly attacking nearby areas and leaving gruesomely mutilated corpses as a warning to the living who would find them.

She wasn't sure if intelligent undead like vampires worked in the same way but they seemed to desire the same things after satisfying their basic needs. The vampires occupying Firmusa were happy enough to laze around in their mansions, secretly ruling humans from the shadows even if they possessed the power to potentially conquer all human kingdoms in Edor with the possible exception of Oriripol. If this all was true and she haven't missed something important, she could maybe understand the reason for the disappointed look on the four survivors and Kia's unsettlingly ruthless judgments. She didn't think the four were suicidal but they still at least on an instinctual level desired death as a permanent solution for their immortal sins. If they wronged what they assume is their Master, was there a punishment harsh enough to undo the wrongs they had committed? 

If so, it was kind of ironic that the undead must see mortal punishments such as cutting off a thief's hand as unusually cruel and unnecessary punishment. If a cut hand can be healed with a bit of magic and the absolvence which the stump provided by remaining the thief of the consequences of their actions can be removed what was the point of the punishment? Death presents a permanent solution to ease the undead's immortal minds. She saw the undead being resurrected but only mindless undead, never seeing an intelligent undead being resurrected from what was currently left on the snow-covered ground.

 

  Iris's head started to hurt while trying to organise her thoughts, she wasn't sure if she was even on the right track but it wasn't like she could read on the topic seeing how living and undead interact with each other.

 

"Hey, Are you alright?" A voice pulled the risen from her thoughts. She looked up and saw the snake lady staring at her from above. "Hi, Iris was it?"

 

"Greetings," The elf stood up, her tall body was a head higher than the human. "Iris and you are Marleen." She said before noticing everyone was gone.

 

"Ahh, I was checking on you on this issue. Follow me, Great Master and Mistress Umbria are heading toward Akkad's lair." The woman must have realised Iris's confusion and smiled before walking away with the elf quickly following behind her.

 

  The two women quickly caught up with a small procession led by the four vampires. Iris jogged toward the head of the quickly moving undead column, taking up a spot right behind Kia. The silvery moon beamed down on the undead, as time passed Iris noticed Kia's already extremely pale skin on her exposed shoulders was much more paler, the dim silvery light managing to pass through her skin, silhouetting Kia's skeleton but before she managed to ask the girl about it all of the undead stopped. She took her eyes off the necromancer and saw a large cave entrance with hundreds of skulls impaled on rusted swords littering the ground in front of it. They slowly ventured inside, the damp air clung to their bodies. The naked rock around them was covered in a thin layer of dark red, their feet stuck to the wet floor as they stepped into the old drag marks on the floor. It was hard to believe a vampire famous for their opulence would subject themself to live or rather rot in a place like this.

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The tight passage widened into a man-made hall with a large pit in the center.

 

  Iris approached the edge of the pit and among piles of old bones mixed with newer corpses, she spotted a white worm-like thing laying motionless at the bottom.

As soon as Kia looked down at the blood pit the white worm moved its head toward her, resembling a strange breed of dog with wrinkled skin, a long snout, small closed eyes and long downward curved ears. 

 

"What is daemon doing in here?" Umbria said while staring at the thing.

 

  Daemons regardless of their tier are extremely dangerous beings with far more power of than their level would suggest but somehow this daemon looked weak while laying in the shallow pull of blood.

  The blood at the bottom of the pit was quickly sucked into the daemon's body, a crimson aberration burst out from the worm. The bloody illusion was a much more threatening-looking monster which still possessed the worm-like body with two long unnaturally thin boney arms acting as the daemon's legs.

 

"Consume, eat devour to be One! One is all all must be One! WE ARE CHAOS!" The daemon opened its mouth

 

  The phantom swiped at the edge of the pit, tearing the solid stone from underneath Iris causing her to fall into the sacrificial pit. 

The blood daemon's other hand dragged itself on the floor causing further rubble to fall onto the elf with hurried shouts coming from above her. 

 

"[Fortitude]" Iris hissed through her teeth as an unimaginable force began to weigh on her legs. Each step felt like torture as she slowly neared the small worm under the blood daemon. Her Mark of Darkness suddenly shined with brilliant purple light inside her head with the power of twelve suns. As she stopped to grab her head which felt like an anvil had hit her, her undead body faltered under the pressure and she felt her knees hit the ground only arms reach from the little wrinkly daemon causing havoc on the high-level undead guarding Kia.

 

"Hi, do you remember me, Lonely One? You really should, I did say I will come by."