Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Alkayne walked through the halls of the Grand Monastery, walls and other places that had been damaged during the fighting were being repaired, those who had died were brought together and granted the gift of undeath, when it came to Jir and Jarl, securing their eternal allegiance was pretty easy, Pope Janus was a voice of authority, and the zombie's act of bringing his beloved back was not something that would be forgotten.

In fact, having Janus to back him up had been of the utmost importance since the very beginning, a leader could certainly help with the conversion of their population, but Janus was also pope, a spiritual leader that embodied everything that was sacred in kalt culture, his guarantee that undeath was sanctioned by Dame-Sommer was all that the his followers needed to hear.

As for the people that were basically used as cattle to further his original plan- Well, Alkayne just adapted the story a bit, anyways, they didn't know the truth to begin with and listened to Janus all the same, the frozen lake saw a sudden increase in population, although not everyone was made into an undead just yet, although it had seemed greatly unimpressive before the undeads, the so-called 'divine body' was an impressive thing nonetheless.

It wasn't a true way of power, Alkayne would qualify it as some sort of grafted, innate transformation ability of some sort, when one managed to channel the curse and not fall prey to it, they would gain the ability to change between their normal self and into a singular, special form that differed from person to person.

In Julo's case, only his right arm would transform, but it was capable of both attack and defence, the biggest downside was really that the paladin was right-handed and thus couldn't properly wield a weapon whilst transformed.

As for Jir, his divine body was certainly more impressive as it transformed his entire body, it was powerful for sure, although the increase in size also rendered the usage of weapon difficult, the more pressing problem was his dire weakness to fire, which probably stemmed from his lineage as a kalt, unlike the accursed that had lost their minds, those in control weren't granted a body that could resist the cold, so it was probably why his transformation created so much fat, as a means to combat the cold since the transformation ruined any and all clothing on his person.

The minor lord grew more and more interested in the powers of this curse, the more he learned, the more it seemed like an incredible boon for the empire to possess, if they could tame and understand it perfectly, even engineer it to perform better, they would be in possession of a flexile weapon, which could be both unleashed upon enemy populations or wielded by their soldiers.

Though these special transformations were rare, the other church members that also possessed it would typically transform into what simply resembled a basic accursed instead.

Also, those who had the cursed under control would feel no craving for their kin's flesh and wouldn't mutate further either when devouring some, unlike their consumed brethren, if through undeath, they could guarantee intelligence and allegiance of the accursed, then Alkayne was willing to bet that the taking of this realm would be a massive win for the empire.

'Perhaps I could even divert everyone's attention…' looking over at Jiji and Cecili, he would really like to keep this whole ordeal under wraps for as long as possible, King Nitok, if made aware, would definitely attempt to strike up a conversation between 'married men' and that just sounded like a terrible time.

Shaking his head, of course, the curse wasn't the only thing this realm had provided access to, their was of course Dame-Sommer and her blessings as well, the zombie had never heard of a deity such as this, neither of one that was an inanimate object, neither of one who possessed no actual divine energy and instead used something else entirely.

If they could somehow replicate it…

That sounded a whole lot more complicated, however, mastering and modifying ways of power was one thing, but Alkayne doubted that even General Loimos could easily tackle such a challenge, thankfully, time was unlimited for the empire.

In any case, now that the kalt was under his control, he captured whatever was left of the wandering accursed and put them in the underground area, as well as took actions to truly inspect this realm's natural resources, the cold iron that was available had already proven itself valuable, but naturally, there were plenty of things to be harvested and tested.

The one who knew most about the wilderness was Jarl, he had lived in it for the longest after all, and as it turns out, he wasn't just a very advanced accursed, he was sort of a special case, as he only got the divine body under control after wandering like other accursed, he feasted on the corpse of people left in the snow and eventually attained some intelligence, and he could actually revert to the form of a kalt, it just took him a while to figure it out as he remained transformed for several years.

That was good intel from the get-go, transforming did not put a strain on one's stamina, it might be draining when it occurred, but once it was done, it would only revert by the user's will.

Alkayne wrote down lengthy reports about everything he had done and learned, although he had conquered the sapient population, his work was far from over, although compared to the main world, this realm was small, being one big biome, it did not mean that it was fully under undead control.

The kalt people only occupied a small area of the freezing mountains, Alkayne could not stroll around and claim his job was over when wide spans were still completely unknown to him and his army.

Moreover, miasma could only be spread once all different resources had been collected in their base form, it was important to study them as they were within a place under life's hold beforehand, or so the undeads that did this sort of stuff said.

The zombie wasn't very knowledgeable in this domain.

"Mmh… It's too easy, too simple… Something is fishy" he spoke aloud, sharing his thoughts with Jiji and Cecili.

"General Loimos hand-picked the realms for each of us minor lords to be challenged and so that we may reach the next level in whatever it was that we were lacking or that otherwise needed improvement…" although perhaps insulting to his now former adversaries, but this mission hadn't been difficult at all, he hadn't been required to command his troops to do anything extraordinary and he hadn't needed to further push back his personal limits either in any way.

Now, he knew that even Loimos could not just find the utterly perfect realms that fitted each of the minor lords on a whim, he still felt that something was amiss.

Really, the most challenging aspect so far had been to get himself to get in bed with Jiji, and although Alkayne feared that Loimos would have somehow foreseen this course of action and determined that it would be a nice challenge for the zombie, he doubted that it was all.

'Further exploration should help determine whether or not I am correct…'