Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead
Chapter 832 - 832: Blasphemy

Following that day, the undead really tried to hammer in their aspects of death into the heads of the people of this realm, from what they understood, the aspects were expressions of Death itself, and plenty of the clerics tended to specialise in a single aspect, bringing it up to its maximum application, similar to how some monks might starve to death by lengthy fasting, they were so dedicated to that one aspect, that it practically moulded them into entirely new individuals.

Some of the preachers were part of those that wholeheartedly focused on a single aspect, but only two or three so far, most were more regular, deacons, priests, monks and the likes, simple members of the church without clear specialisations, and it quickly became apparent that the church was a wide-reaching group as the undeads part of it were of many different species, some were naturally spawned, some had been alive once, but all had that same flame of faith burning within them.

After two weeks of preaching however, the undeads decided to switch things up a bit, and have members of vassal faiths show up as well, in essence, the church of death was the only belief in the undead empire, but it was only because other religions and worships were absorbed within it and made into wings of the main belief, this was how the livings were presented to dragon communion and the likes, or the more traditional faiths that worshipped the gods living in the divine realm, the gods who had gone silent long ago after the actions of The Defiler Of The Holy.

A particular duo was especially notable however…

As he often was, Milo was here to watch over the whole event, he did not actually show up everyday as he still needed to spend some time with his family, but he tried to make some time to make sure that he could be here and act if necessary, just in case the undead got any funny idea, but so far, they had behaved themselves, even if Milo would personally qualify them preaching their filthy death cult as a form of attack.

Toby was here as well, looking a bit paler than usual… For reasons that were all but obvious.

"Did you properly learn mana reinforcement?"

"It does not help much at all, Milo… This… I am dealing with an enemy of incredible strength… Oh god… This- This was the peak of the heat, it had to be… If not, you might have to dig a grave for me"

"I thought you had grown super resilient to blunt damage?"

"Blunt damage? Oh… This isn't it, I am just suffering from severe exhaustion, my bones are a-okay- Hold on, the undeads this time… Don't they look a bit familiar?" Toby cut himself off as the undeads arrived, and this time, instead of one preacher there were two, a man and woman, or rather, an undead male and undead female, both were on the fresher spectrum of zombies, as they might just pass of as alive with a bit of make-up.

The two looked rather similar to one another, so Milo assumed that they were siblings and thus, former livings.

Despite their physical resemblance however, the clerical robes they were wearing differed in design, although all of the undead faithfuls they had seen bore a certain few symbols in common upon their robes, and all carried an item they referred to as either 'Mort-Cross' or 'Cross Of Mort', each sections of faith had their own specificities that set them apart.

And these two in particular…

"I knew I had sensed heresy occurring nearby" the two men were taken aback as someone just showed behind them as they were sitting on a roof.

"Archbishop Joala?"

"It's been a while since we spoke- Is everything alright?"

"Thank you for asking, Toby, I am not fine, in fact, I am currently so angry, I might just pop a blood vessel" the archbishop replied in the most calm and composed tone they had ever heard from her, which probably meant that she was indeed, very mad.

"Maybe you should sit down and talk about it?" the only woman Milo knew how to calm down was his wife, and even then, his methods were wildly inconsistent, but thankfully, Joala was a pious woman, even if she was upset enough to want to murder someone, she would remain as calm as a still pond.

"I have been watching the preaching sessions from a distance everyday, and whilst I'll admit that they make for very good preachers despite the content of their speeches essentially being that we should all die, what I am seeing right is nothing short of heresy" she was talking about the two undeads that had stepped forward and already begun speaking, specifically, she was staring right at the male.

"I should probably get out there and beat his skull into the ground, but I suppose that this would jeopardise the efforts of the two ancestors of this land" Joala sighed, the truth was that the undeads were probably hoping for a negative reaction so that they could shorten the deal and attack immediately, and if the two ancestors attempted to renegotiate something, the foul one would just bring up this accident again.

It was obvious.

"Still… My deity, Phanes, is a god of life, so how could an undead possibly worship him?"

"Well… They already said that they were planning on killing the gods and turning them into undeads, so I suppose that it doesn't really matter what any deity is the god of, they just intend on forcing them into becoming part of their own pantheon"

"Forcing literal gods to come into your pantheon, so you can worship them in a plan only an insane person could come up with, seriously, how do they expect this to work in any way?"

Milo and Toby had heard quite a bit of undead preaching by now, so they had heard of the grand goal of the church of death, which, from the way they put it, was truly a goal of theirs to begin with, it had not been an idea of Loimos, or their king, but of the pontiff, or as they tended to refer to him, Supreme Pontiff Pietrus.

This Pietrus had rather blasphemous intentions for a man of the holy, but to the undead, there was nothing more pious than bringing death to that which lived, they called it a blessing and gift, after all.

"Is Archbishop Mealt not here as well?"

"He is also aggravated by seeing an undead claim to be a follower of his goddess, but I guess I am the hot-headed one who couldn't help but move closer…"

She sighed, bringing both hands behind her back.

"By the way, Milo, when are you planning on having your youngest receive the blessings? We have plenty of holy water ready to rub on his forehead"

"Should be soon, but Griar is… Well, he doesn't like meeting new people, barely even one, and already antisocial"

"Ahah, I can't wait to see him for myself then" she shot a glance at the pair of undeads before walking away.

Toby looked back, waiting for her to disappear.

"This reminded me of when my mom was mad, I haven't felt that kind of fear in a long time…"

Milo could not relate to having a mother, but he nodded anyway.