Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

The castle, which had seemed so difficult to infiltrate before, was left wide open, Louizon's earlier hijinks had caused the bridge to be broken and thus, rendered unable to be pulled back up, though the entrance was opened, the amount of guards around had increased by a notch, and they already seemed to be looking into repairing the damage caused by the blasts.

"Should I blast them all to hell?"

"No, what if there are multiple more like that robed fly-man from earlier? One is easy enough for you to handle, but do you think you could keep two of those at bay, or perhaps even more than that?" Griar said "We should try to be stealthy instead, the chief was very strong already, and I have an inkling that the countess is probably even more powerful than that, he would be better off if we just don't fight her at all"

"It's a shame that we need to avoid the countess, since I really wanted to see the miniature girl Griar spoke of, but that's true, we should be avoiding fight if possible, one wrong and we're dead after all" Lizi spoke up as all three of them were hiding behind a tree, the village in front of the castle was completely empty right now, the only people around were the guards wandering near the broken bridge.

Louizon would rather blast everything apart, but she understood that it would be best to be cautious, so she casted a spell first, she skipped over the explosion part and instead manifest the smoke that would normally be generated when she created blasts with fiery effects, weaving that smoke into another spell that wrapped around her body, and soon seemed to turn her invisible, or at least, mostly translucent.

"Oh, that's a new one for you, Louizon"

"What can I say? I love destruction, but I love magic too, so I checked out different spells"

Griar was impressive, he thought that his mastery over the wind element and his own invisibility spell were good, but here comes his older sister who does the same thing, with greater ease, and by using an element that is absolutely not conducive at all in the casting of such a spell, if anything, using the blast element to do such a thing would be making things needlessly difficult, and yet, Louizon did as easily as she breathed.

Soon after this, Lizi also turned invisible, but by using mundane mana instead, which was already much simpler normally, and Griar had already known that she could do that anyways, one of her tricks in swordsmanship was using that spell to make her sword invisible, she had used a handful of times during their spars, and every time, Griar would fall for it in some way.

If he tried to use mana sense to detect in which position the sword truly was, that focus would get him hit, and if he did not try to use mana sense, then the unseen blade would easily hit him anyways.

He could detect the sword much easier now, but he didn't brag about it, he knew that Lizi was not concealing the mana as thoroughly as she could, it was training after all, there needed to be a difficult curve.

Griar followed suit and casted his own invisibility spell, and then, the trio slowly and quietly made their way through the crowd of guards, being extremely careful not to bump into anyone, thankfully, none of them were a robed enforcer or anything that seemed special, they all appeared the same as the townspeople, mostly out of it and sluggish in how they behaved.

So none of them would suddenly accelerate without reason.

The siblings managed to get past them, but that was only a portion of the challenge, the real trouble was within the castle itself, they had to enter it and navigate its immensity whilst searching for clues and making sure not to be spotted by anyone, because if they were caught and an alarm was given, all hell would break loose.

Funnily enough, they gained access to the castle's interior through the exact same window as Griar did back then, and they soon arrived into the wide hall.

Unlike before however, the place was far more lively, he didn't know why that was, but maids and butlers were walking around, their faces and heads covered by veils as they marched in ways that made it seem as though they were no infested with stagnant water, their steps were firm and the manner in which they moved appeared natural.

Using a spell, Louizon communicated something silently to her two siblings.

'Split up? That sounds like a terrible idea!'

But his concern was shot down, if they stayed together, whilst theoretically safer in case of an attack, it would also cause them remain within the castle for far longer overall, which only increased the odds of being eventually found out, furthermore, with three of them, if they encountered a hallway that was slightly crowded, having someone bump into them would be far too likely.

Also, unnecessarily, Louizon added in stories, there were some survivors precisely because people split up instead of staying together.

'Did she really have to say that?' Griar felt like sighing, but stayed silent, each of them went into a different direction, and soon enough, after encountering several bedrooms for guests that were completely empty, alongside some other rooms that had nothing of interest, he quietly slipped into a brightly lit room, catching the sound of a conversation.

"So what do you think about your new self? Does it feel uncomfortable? There is always the change to change to something else, so don't be shy, it is best for everyone if your new form fits you"

It was Countess Ada's voice, that high-pitched, cute tone was unmistakable.

He didn't know what it was about, but he perked his ears, inching closer until he caught sight of the countess.

The small woman was sitting on a high-chair in front of a mirror, a maid was busy doing her lord's hair.

'...That explains the veils…'

The maid was similar to the robed enforcer, she looked insect-like, the fusion between human and insect seemed much smoother for her however, appearing like a genuine insectoid beastfolk rather than an abomination.

She made a weird noise in response to the question Ada asked.

"That is great then"

'Can she understand that?'

As Griar wondered whether the countess could actually comprehend the incomprehensible noises the maid made, or if she was just pretending, he felt his blood freeze as Ada's ocean blue eyes moved, locking onto him as she stared into the mirror.

Within a second, some sort of stinger flew out and pierced the place Griar had been standing in a moment ago.

"Mmh… Was I imagining things? Sorry for the disturbance, keep going" and just like that, she returned to what she was doing like nothing happened, and the maid did not seem disturbed either.

'That… That was close'