Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

According to the man, the realm he and his people live in is extremely inhospitable to life, forcing all that develops within it to accommodate to the extreme environment, for example, although clearly humanoid, it seems like the sapients of this realm are not humans, or are at least a completely different species of humans who have thoroughly evolved to survive.

The reason he and the people before him had been skinned alive was actually not intended as torture, it was because otherwise, they would easily survive being thrown down here, indeed, their skin had developed into a sort salt armour, turning completely white and growing solid, yet flexible bits all over the body, which allowed even a mundane member of their group to resist being submerged in highly concentrated waters like here.

And the strongest people, as he claimed to be a part of, would willingly plunge into such waters, seeking more and more highly concentrated areas, apparently, this allowed them to temper their bodies to greater degrees, although, that increase in defence was probably only valuable against salt-based attacks.

This might sound ridiculous at face value, but since the realm that man inhabited seemed overrun with salt, it was the most logical thing to do, there, beasts all abided by salt, their morphology having become far more bizarre than that of the sapients, basically becoming one with salt, allowing them to freely swim in the Saline Sea, or to stay submerged in Brackish Pits, or even to move alongside the clouds carrying Briny Fall.

The realm was also home to naturally occurring salt golems and salt spirits, they were not intelligent enough to be sapients, although the man claimed that a handful of such beings did exist.

What the man spoke of the most however, was the community his people had built, they were confined to a single island in their realm, the Saline Sea that surrounded them would get stronger the further one went, and as such, the boats they were capable of constructing would eventually fall apart, rendering them unable to reach the other distant islands they could something catch sight of across the horizon.

They were a few magic practitioners, as it seemed that ambient energies were the same, only that they were somehow salty too in this realm, so flight was not impossible, but those who had attempted at instead fallen prey to beasts hiding in the clouds, or if they flew too low, to beast hiding beneath the waves.

The people were essentially trapped, and only existed on this single island… They had chosen leaders for generations, but recently, a group that was dissatisfied with the rule had orchestrated a coup, and were currently attempting to solidify their position, but were encountering much resistance from everyone that wasn't them.

In short, the realm was in turmoil, and leadership was as unstable as it could get, the people were revolting against their unworthy, new rulers, and the tension was causing the group that had taken over to backstab one another in an attempt to claim the highest position.

Executions came in droves, blood was being spilled every hour, and it had been so for two weeks now.

"Do you know if there are more people like you on those other islands?" One asked another question after noticing that the man had stopped speaking.

Despite his, clearly, lethal injuries, he was not dying, which were not to be attributed to his resilience, even if he was definitely a tough fellow, he was alive because Loimos was frightening his life force into not leaving his body, essentially causing the man to enter a state of limbo.

The instant Loimos retracted his will, the sum of the damage he should have endured during that time of stasis would all come flooding at the same time, but under the influence of the singular word of death tongue, the living was incapable of doing anything but obey.

Indeed, if that man was not disillusioned and was indeed amongst the strongest of the realm, then a small squadron of the vanguard would easily be able of taking control of this realm.

"I don't know" that was all he had to say apart from some stories and myths which veracity were highly questionable.

"How much do the people respect you, personally?" this time, Loimos was the one to ask a question, the answer would determine the man's immediate fate.

"I was the top guard and warrior of the previous chief, many said that I was the strongest warrior in generations, as far I am warrior, the people love and respect me, primarily because they loved the chief, I believe…"

"And I assume that your chief was killed in the coup, were they?"

"Yes…"

Thus, Loimos gathered ambient energies, which were untouched by death considering that they were beyond the Empire's territory, and were naturally quite charged with life force, controlling it without converting the life to death was somewhat challenging, but this way, the skeleton was able to weave a healing spell that could cause no harm to the living, and in the blink of an eye, the man regained his lower half, all wounds were healed, and his natural armour returned, making him appear far different.

The armour was close-fitting, but had jagged edges and points, none could get in the way, but they gave volume to the man's appearance, especially the armour piece that covered his face like a mask, it extended rather wildly to the sides.

"This… I am fine?" for a moment, the man could not believe it, but swiftly he bowed to Loimos, his behaviour completely changed as an intensity settled in his eyes.

"Oh, Outer World Divinity, I thank you for your heavenly blessing, how might a mere mortal like myself repay you?"

One and Maliah glanced at one another, exchanging a few words of death tongue that the living could not understand.

"I guess it's normal to assume that Loimos is a god when you don't know any better…"

"I mean, quite a lot of undeads might as well be gods compared to this guy, but that was a rather swift switch up…"

"You merely need to follow my orders, my name is Loimos, and under imperial authority, me and my companions have come to propagate the greatest blessing upon your realm and people"

"Assist me in making your fellows see the truth"

"Of course! I'll do everything in my power to be of help!"

"Very well, let us proceed into the realm then"

In the following moment, the undead trio and the living were all suddenly taken through the gateway, appearing in a large room, just on the edge of a pit, at the bottom of which was the other side of the gateway.

And immediately, they were faced with a group of salt people that could probably not look more confused than this…