Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 532 : Strange Compulsion

"Well… The whole gang is here, I see…" after spending some much time reminiscing upon the past, at last, Abraham had felt the compulsion to step out of the woods and meet with some people again, like it was somehow important to do so to him, all of a sudden.

"Not really though, Rummy decided to throw a girl-only bath-party, for some reason" dressed similarly to the old man, Échalas was sitting in a chair.

The both of them truly looked like a youthful and elderly reflection of the other, which might be why the leader of the vampire hunters had always felt a certain bond with the wizened death hunter.

"Ah! Some reason you say… It's obvious, that girl knows what good for her, and for her eyes mostly" the two vampire hunters just stared silently at their demonic fellow, Tappduur had not changed much at all since they had been defeated and forced to retreat, the red demon did not seem to be that chagrined by the fact that they had failed their duty, or by the beating he had personally received.

Marks could be seen on both both of his dark, thunderbolt-shaped horns, a good indication that they had regrown from being savagely broken during their escape, few knew how it felt to have a horn broken through brute force, but they doubted that it was anywhere near pleasant for the sane of mind.

His jovial mood was a combination of his usual self and the effects of the Emerald Realm, after all, although all refugees seemed rather novel to the inhabitants, a large demon with red skin that could spew fire was an especially impressive novelty, the big guy had lots of beast worshippers fawning over him, as much as they were with the beastfolks amongst the refugees.

To them, people born with animalistic traits was nothing short of a divine blessing, as even when two beast worshippers had children, the offsprings would be of the regular appearance of people here normally, they did not pass down any traits acquired through their communions.

"By the way, were you ladies not invited at all?" Tappduur snickered a bit before asking, Abraham taking a seat around the table, putting his hat down.

"I was, but I don't feel very comfortable around those youngsters, they remind me that I spent my youth slicing up corpses in dark, damp undergrounds instead of forming bonds and being with my family" Latir-e-se, the ghoul huntress looked the same as ever as well, keeping her flowing white robes and mask even after moving into the Emerald Realm.

"You sound like an old hag expressing regrets on her deathbed"

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"And anyways, you have bonds with us, right?"

"Huh…" the huntress sighed "...You are colleagues, not my friends, are you?"

Échalas coughed.

"I thought we were a bit more than friends… Since that time in the tundra…"

"Oh please, it was just to conserve heat"

"I am fairly certain that conserving heat does not require-"

"Now, now… Solve that sort of issues in private" a voice cut them off, although they had hogged all the talking time so far, the death hunters were not the only ones present around this table.

Sitting with a kind smile and luminous aura, a woman with long dark hair, garbed in white robes bearing small amounts of vibrant green across its surface, a golden necklace carrying a pendant in the shape of a flower with a face.

"How are you all today?" she then asked, Archbishop Joala, not being very fond of the subject from just before sought to change the subject entirely.

As was common, everyone just said yes, although, they weren't exactly lies as life in the Emerald Realm was far from displeasing, but all avoided to speak of their problems relating to the past.

The believers of the gods were rather numerous, the bulk being followers of Phanes and Nike, god of life and goddess of victory respectively, that faith had not helped them against the undead but hardships even of this calibre could hardly shake them in their holy convictions.

Those two churches were most prominent as they had been especially present on the battlefield, Archbishop Joala and Archbishop Mealt had believed much in combating the undead threat head-on, unfortunately, they had had to retreat before the superior might of the church of death, unlike them who prayed to silenced gods, their object of worship was very much present.

"Welp, I don't think there is any need to dance around the subject, we all gathered here at the same time because we felt compelled to, didn't we?" spoke Mealt, as per usual, it was the archbishops doing the talk whilst their paladins and such stayed quiet.

But they were the first to confirm it nonetheless.

Arch-paladin Muspuella and her sister, priestess Illimine as well as paladin Emina.

"I felt like someone I don't like speaking with screamed in my ears to show up" mentioned crusader Thomas, his deep voice reverberating inside of the great helm he still wore all the time.

"I didn't want to mention it since some people would have called me senile, but I also felt the need to come out of the woods, it was upon waking up, actually" mentioned Abraham, stroking his grey beard in thought.

As everyone confirmed that it was the case, Joala scratched the side of her face.

"Well, if that's not an isolated incident, then it can only be the work of Quideos…"

"How?" asked Tappduur, surely the lunatic had been killed during the undead invasion, and even if he hadn't…

"That doesn't really seem like that relates to his prophetic ability" mentioned Latir-e-se.

"Most of you have only known Quideos after he began going insane, but before that, he had been capable of many more things than just see prophecies and foresee events" began explaining Joala, being the only one here who had truly been close to Audit, having known one another basically from when they were still in the crib.

"His ability is also tied to memories and knowledge, so I suspect that he is trying to send us a message in some way by infiltrating our dreams through the fragmented memories our minds use to create them"

"You seem awfully certain of it"

"He used to do it when I was having nightmares, when we were little, I mean…"

"...So whether he is alive and trying to communicate something, or somehow still living through his powers at least- I truly think that we are missing something"

"If that's true, that would mean that he regained his wits, no? If he had stopped using his powers since going mad and all…"

"I suppose, but that would also mean that there is something that we need to know, all of us at that, probably a warning"

"That's doesn't sound good"

"Well, it isn't complicated to figure out" spoke Échalas, everyone turning to look at him.

"We just need to ask for that one Emerald Herald… I heard that she can see people's dreams- I think her name was something like… Iolenzta or Ioleznta? Anyways, that Antieeld girl mentioned it to me one time"

"I wasn't aware of this" muttered Mealt, having already spoken with Antieeld concerning Quideos Audit as she had claimed to have had a dream with him in it, however, what she had described had seemed like an actual dream that just happened to have Audit in it as he had apparently not mentioned anything at all.

"In which tower is that herald?"