Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead
Chapter 805 - 805: Within

The surroundings were unlike anything the commandant had ever seen before, and having once been the pampered daughter of a noble family, she had gotten to see a lot of things, her father had brought his beloved little girl to countless places, and shown her many wonders.

The young Antieeld had not realised it, but that extraordinary attention he spared for his daughter was because her mother had died giving birth to her, and the child she had left behind, a near identical copy of herself, was all that he had left…

If only she had realised this sooner.

'Focus'

The walls were constructed of the same, nigh unbreakable steel alloy as the slab Milo had opened up to get into here, but the pipes and wires themselves were constructed from many different materials, each wonders of the mind, the wires were mostly made out of silver, or at least, something that resembled it greatly- But some were made out of copper, gold and the likes, not being familiar with the purpose of such things however, Antieeld could not guess what was the benefit of these different resources in this context.

As for the pipes, it was similar, some seemed to used to move liquids, some gases, some even solids objects judging by the clamour they emitted constantly, some were warm, some were cold, some were somewhere in between, but they all intertwined and crossed one another into a magnificent mess, there was certainly a method to the madness, but one could not so easily glean at it.

The death hunter stood before the hallway Helena had spoken of, it was circular in shape, just like the pit that had just been descended, walls and ceiling similarly covered with pipes and wires, steam and gases were being evacuated at fixed intervals, and the sound of steel being struck echoed from deep within, there were lights present, but they were dim and still left pockets of darkness around.

Antieeld could not sense any of the defences that had undone Helena's wind spell, and hoped that the same would not happen to her, but the ability she was using was much different from a spell, although originally born from spirit creation, it had been shaped by her innate talent as a commandant as well, forging it into something unique.

She could call upon the fighting spirit of past warriors, footsoldiers and the likes would always respond, but stronger spirits would generally require something else, an incentive, or a bond to Antieeld, indeed, they weren't just images of the deceased, these fighting spirits retained parts of their memories, their ideals, and their goals, which meant that although once they were called, Antieeld could control them, she refrained from doing so, as they were actually autonomous.

So right now, it was Ilmael himself who stepped forward, he and Antieeld had never even heard of one another, but she was an ally of the death hunters, and fought against forces of the dead, so it made no doubt that he would manifest without delay.

He marched into the hallway, and nothing stopped or dispelled him, presumably due to his unique condition as a fighting spirit, his short sword was sheathed, each step was careful, and each passage through the dark was tense, but no traps activated, and no invader ambushed him just yet.

And soon, the death hunter arrived in a place that was a near total departure from the previous environment, the hallway led into an underground garden, and not a pale or warped one, a beautiful place.

'These are trees and plants from the Emerald Realm' thought the commandant, the invaders had brought these close to study them, but one had to admit that this place was gorgeous.

Ilmael hid behind a tree as a figure approached, one dressed similarly to himself, the spirit flickered with indignation, to think that the foul corpses would dare parade their brainwashed living soldiers in attires reminiscent of that he and his fellow death hunters used to wear was a clear affront.

But he was an experienced warrior, he did not act upon his anger and stayed still, carefully watching the invader, they carried a spear, but were clearly not holding it with the intention to be thrown into a fight, this was a mere patrol.

'Not on alert? They surely know that this place was damaged… Does a fighting spirit not register for them? Did they feel the damage, but did not detect any intrusion?' the commandant was wary, and so was Ilmael, the undeads were known to not give away their intentions, so this invader could be doing the same thing, simply pretending to not know about an intruder, so as to lure them in.

Getting a read on these people was difficult however, fed propaganda, made to wear masks, and harshly taught how to be good soldiers, they almost looked like golems in the way they behaved when out of combat.

Antieeld had never actually seen them like this, outside, they were always on guard and running around doing things, but this one, they just seemed peaceful and without worry, crouching down to get a better look at a flower.

It was tempting to move in and swiftly assassinate that guard, but it would just be a mistake, Ilmael let them move away on their own, and then swiftly resumed his advance throughout this strange underground.

Although far from the strongest fighting spirit Antieeld could summon, as Gelter's was always ready to help, in fact, capable of manifesting without Antieeld willing it, Ilmael was a death hunter that had lacked in brute force and talent at wielding energy, but he had survived and fought the dead nonetheless, so he was resourceful and apt at concealing himself.

One capable of hiding from the undead when brimming with life force was naturally able to hide from the living as well, he moved silently, undetected until he reached yet another bizarre area.

It was a small church.

With small altars bearing stone tablets, each altar held tablets describing the aspects of death, and said tablets were translated in a language Antieeld could read, so clearly, they were planning on spreading their religion of decay throughout the Emerald Realm in the future.

Soon enough, Ilmael got somewhere interesting, hallways that crossed one another, with countless doors lining the sides, to Antieeld, this looked like their barracks, where soldiers would rest.

The death hunter had had to evade and wait many times as the patrols were common, but so far, only the human-sized and human-shaped invaders had been spotted around, no traces of the brutes or anything else.

Without needing to be told, Ilmael sought out the place where a leader would be at…