Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

As a sphere of brine water rose up from the ground, Ehll-Giablo's drowning shout only managed to manifest a few bubbles, his mastery and strength insufficient to break through the undead's spell, he could only struggle uselessly as his vision slowly grew darker, and darker, until only a smidget of light was still visible, and then, the sphere suddenly fell apart and the brine goblin came crashing upon the ground, sprawled in a mos disgraceful manner as he coughed up water and pulled on his lungs for some air.

From one of far ends of the carved-out cavern, Gobo-Dalo was trying to be as perfectly still as a living being could be, he had hoped in his heart that the chief, the most powerful man he knew, would be able to prevail but that hope had been mercilessly stomped upon, the skeleton was clearly many times more powerful than the chieftain, it wasn't even a close fight at all.

The strongest brine goblin to ever grace this island was no match at all for the strange being, but for some reason, it looked as though Ehll-Giablo had been spared… Did that mean that he, Gobo-Dalo, could also have his life spared if he begged hard enough?

That was worth the try, he would chop off both his hands as long as he could leave with his life…

The chief coughed for a few more seconds before weakly pushing himself off the ground, looking up at Loimos.

"W-Why did you… Spare me?" he asked, that had been a killing move just now, the brine goblin had stood no chance of breaking free of that sphere of water, his power was insufficient to overwhelm a construct of the undead.

The skeleton took a step forward.

"I am Loimos, Champion of the Undead Empire" he began, naturally, the goblin had no clear reaction to this, not knowing the name of Loimos, what an undead was, or of any empire at all.

"The Empire is a superpower that exists beyond your world, this realm has neared close to the borders of our empire, as such, I and my companions have come to rightfully claim it as territory for the Empire" he explained, conquering land was already something the chief understood more clearly.

"The Empire is fair and just, agree to serve its interests loyally for eternity, and you shall keep the rule of your island as a regional lord, nothing much will change for you overall, but you will have to answer to King Nitok, The Prince Of Death"

"Swear loyalty to King Nitok, and you shall acquire power beyond anything you could have ever grasped as a living" as he said this, Loimos crouched down and raised one index finger, from it, a sharp, needle-like black crystal manifested upon it, this one adorned with crystals of salt.

Immediately upon lying eyes on the needle, something stirred within Ehll-Giablo, he could sense it, this was an object of power, he did not know about the rest, but he could tell with great certainty that the crystal-like needle was indeed something that could bring about greater power.

And anyways, even if everything was false, what was there for him to do at this point? He had been completely defeated and overpowered with powers that were just like his, only more refined, more precise, more powerful.

He could hardly rule his people with dignity following such a crushing defeat.

After a few moments of staring at the needle, under the horrified gaze of Gobo-Dalo, the chieftain got on both knees and bowed his head down.

"I swear an eternal oath to King Nitok, The Prince Of Death" without hesitation, he gave up his role as the greatest authority upon his people and agreed to be an eternal subordinate.

"Rise" said Loimos, and so the chieftain did.

"You shall know eternity, and you shall know perfection"

"You shall rise without stop, for that, is our blessing" Loimos then stabbed the needle right through Ehll-Giablo's chest and heart, the crystal swiftly shattering as the death force contained within devoured all traces of life force within the brine goblin's body, and before his body could even lose balance, all life was erased, replaced by death.

A horrific transformation took place before Gobo-Dalo's eyes, the chief's eyes decayed away, his skin growing disproportionate, as if stretched to its very limits against the body beneath, and from his skull, solid spikes of salt grew, forming a natural crown.

Unseen to the goblin's eyes, the chieftain's inside were also replaced by great amounts of salt mixed in with potent brine water.

Despite no longer possessing eyeballs, Ehll-Giablo looked down at his hands, feeling power course through him like never before, all pain and exhaustion were washed away as though these concepts had always been foreign to his being, he felt stronger than ever before, he felt like his manipulation of salt and brine water had reached a level far above anything he could have performed before.

Quickly however, he fell back to one knee.

"What are your orders, Champion Loimos?" as if it was the most natural thing ever, the chieftain inquired about what he should do from the undead, it was like Ehll-Giablo was no longer the same at all.

As though the change was not just on the outside, but had reached the core of his person.

"For now, lead your people as per usual, the resources of this realm are to be harvested and studied whilst still alive, furthermore, the Empire has a need for living soldiers, so train your warriors in the view of them joining those ranks" Loimos returned to his usual appearance.

"I understand, I shall do my utmost!"

Without wait, the chief rushed out of his cavern and down the flight of stairs to begin making changes to how things were handled, leaving the poor Gobo-Dalo alone with the undeads.

After getting over the bare bones of Loimos now that they were no longer visible, One wiped the blood on her face, reabsorbing it, and pointed at the frightened goblin that was currently trying his luck and had crawled like a worm closer to the stairs, his entire body freezing up as he realised that he had been discovered.

"Can I drink him?"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait! I swear I can be useful alive! Very useful! Everyone thinks I am the smartest goblin around! I can help convince everyone that you guys are super cool and absolutely not threatening at all! And my blood is super nasty too! I barely wash myself, I swear I am filthy! A refined lady like you shouldn't lower herself to drinking from garbage like me!" in a single breath, he begged for his life and exposed as many arguments for it as he possibly could.

"Impressive to speak so much with such small lungs…" commented Maliah.

"If the other goblins really listen to him, then I guess he could actually be useful alive" conceded One.

But the two women waited for Loimos to say something, he was the one here who perfectly understood Death's aspect of Truth, whether Gobo-Dalo was lying or not, was for him to decide.

"You speak no deception, but you are merely arguing to live because your life is directly at risk, once we are gone, you will do everything in your power to hide and try to run away instead of fulfilling your promise, as such, approach and sign of contract with me"

The goblin swallowed his saliva.

"O-Of course…" he did not know what a contract would do about this, but he had a bad feeling.

A very bad feeling.