Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"I hear that the Fin-Limiers have attacked Miss Rosemary!"

"I heard that it was at the academy, and she launched a meteor straight out of the sky to finish them off!"

"You absolute fool! It was two meteors, one on top of one another!"

"I was told that The Death Dealer sliced the entire academy in half, in just one slash-"

"Apparently there is a volcano in place of Toordefer now…"

"Who- Who are you all getting your info from?"

A group of cards playing cards went back and forth with the most maddening rumours possible, only a single one of them feeling like questioning the sources of those claims, here, near the border, everything was rather calm, a portion space was left empty to allow for troops to mobilise and get into formation if necessary, as such, the men in charge of looking into the darkness and report anything weird had not much to do when in duty.

At the moment, they were all at the very top of their little tower, only one was not playing, tiredly looking around, and seeing pretty much nothing, darkness over there, darkness over here, darkness, darkness and more darkness, things were so suffocatingly dark that someone could standing right at the entrance into the tower and he wouldn't be able of noticing their silhouette.

It was nerves wracking at the beginning, and it still was, it was not natural to be living in pitch blackness, many were noticing their skin paling visibly, yearning for the warm embrace of sunlight, but the sun was no more, not a mere eclipse but a replacement, some were even saying that in the case were they won, the black sun would disappear and simply leave nothing behind, that the sun was dead.

It was all anguish-inducing thoughts, so the guards changed their minds by playing cards, illuminated by lanterns and messing around by repeating whatever nonsense they had heard before taking this post for the week, all to keep despairing ideas away.

As for the one currently on watch, he was bored out of his mind, he used to have the habit of stretching back and stare directly upward, but caught himself before he did, a new habit developed to not look up at the sky, even with something above his head, he naturally prevented himself.

Sighing and shaking his head, it was the little things that were really driving people mad, not being allowed to gaze up at the stars, having to carry a light, never knowing when was morning and when was evening, it was simply tiring.

They had been stationed here for a few days already, and were already running out of nonsensical rumours and stupid stories to share, rubbing his eyes, the guard staring into the dark began scanning the edge of the pyramidal barrier, it emitted a soft glow at all times, so it was pretty much the only place worth staring at, he blinked. Your next journey awaits at My Virtual Library Empire

Rubbed his eyes and leaned forward, tilting his head in confusion.

"Did ya notice something?" one of his colleagues asked.

"Huh… There is- There's someone outside the barrier…" he responded, doubtful of his own sight.

His words resulted in silence washing over everyone for a few instants, until they all stood up, knocking their seats over and gathered up to see what he was speaking of, lo and behold, a humanoid figure was in fact standing right up to the barrier, face almost directly against it.

The features were hard to make out from their position, staring at one another, seeing no movements from this individual.

"Hey… Someone use that thing" one of them pointed at a magical item laid out on the edge of the table, just a simple twist of a bit was needed to activate it.

An older guard moved over to contact assistance, even if not much by itself, undeads typically did not get so awfully close, and this one, it was especially creepy for some reason, a slight movement seemed to occur, naught but the imagination of the living, but something did pull up onto the mind, inciting to come down and move up to the barrier, a ludicrous idea, but this request could not be denied, the guard that had first noticed the figure seemed to lose control of his own legs as they took him down the ladder and onto the grass outside, the others failing to even say anything about it, frozen into place by a sudden wave of dread.

'Oh no, no no no no no! What the hell is happening?!' his thoughts were unhindered however, and he was free to come to the conclusion that his physical flesh had been taken control of, no longer abiding by his orders.

Sweating profusely, he was brought closer and closer to the barrier, was he going to be made to traverse the barrier? Was he going to die? No, that simply could not be it for him, just looking at the wrong place at the wrong time could not possibly result in the end of life.

Intensely, he stared right at the figure, getting a clearer picture, garbed in a long dark mantle, an exquisite piece of clothing that reached nearly down to the ankles, tailored made specifically to this individual, probably sewn together right around the body, the guard imagined.

Boots and gloves made out of incredibly dark leather, not quite as deeply black as the mantle, but close, also finely crafted articles.

The mantle's collar reached just about as high as it could, only stopped by a cage-like helm forged out of dark alloy, like the darkness, this entire figure's get-up seemed to draw in light, the glow of the barrier weaker around its mass.

He felt like he recognised this thing, that seemed like a perfect match for the description of the infamous royal courier, only that he did not remember him being described as so tall, that being he was forced to walk up to was certainly much taller than him, easily passing the two meter mark.

No sign of the trademark war scythe however, he was unarmed, so perhaps this was yet another diplomatic visit? The guard prayed to everything and everyone for that to be the case.

The living was made to stop before he walked through the safety and into the miasma, his entire body was repulsed and quivering intensely, his very self was going haywire by simple proximity.

'I beg of you, don't do anything!' the guard managed to force his eyes shut, or perhaps he simply lost his vision.

An unruly slap striking his back, dispersing all the fear and freeing his body from another's hold.

The last he noticed was the bare back of a man stepping through the barrier and into the miasma.

'What the hell was this?' he didn't even have the strength to move away, legs giving in, sent to his knees, soon picked up and carried away by his fellow watchmen, in the distance, he noticed torches and other lights lighting up, as though a call had just rippled through everyone.

Had the message they sent really resulted in such quick action?

But most importantly, what was happening? And that man, was it who he thought it was?