Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead
Chapter 884 - 884: Frozen Lake

"Soldiers- My valiant soldiers! Some of you have been with me since the very beginning, some of you joined the ranks from within this very realm, today, we all stand together to face the greatest challenge that each of you has faced, in fact, it is the greatest challenge I have ever faced as well! We may not know fear, but we know doubt and we are capable of pragmatism, fret not! You are brave! You are strong! The beings we face may be great, they might even be beyond our comprehension, but they have one fatal weakness…"

"...They still live! Plagued with the ultimate and greatest curse to ever emerge, they are destined to fall and die, for us, it is not a challenge, we are merely taking charge in the place of fate, and bringing to them liberation, the gift Death- Actually, that is no longer the right name… This gift is the Pale Lady's! They can not refuse it!"

The wind was howling sharply, but the authoritative voice sliced right through it, booming far and wide without losing any of its clarity, its source was an armoured figure, standing over-elevated before tidy ranks of soldiers, knights, mages and many others.

"We have endured defeats at their hands before, but we have learned… And today, the circumstances are special! Indeed, General Loimos, the Pale Lady's Chosen Champion, has issued an order! The prelude to a great war looms in the horizon, and to that end, we shall recruit these beings amidst our ranks, make them amongst the blessed, and once that is done, we too shall depart to fight!"

Slamming one fist against his chest, a loud boom echoed throughout the expanse of white all around, and swiftly, the troops before him struck their chests as well in unison.

"Then, let us prepare for the last assault" he calmly announced, and instantly, all moved into position, with the vivacity and precision that one could simply not expect from a regular army, each and every one of them seemed to already know precisely where they should go, where they were need, where their skills were best utilised for everything to go as smoothly as possible whilst not wasting even a single second, as such, they did not in the way of each other, the tight ranks simply dispersed in fluid manner under the gaze of their leader.

Soon, the sound of clapping sounded out from behind him.

"That was a great speech! I didn't know you could pull that off!" the armoured knight shrugged before reaching out and patting the one praising him on the head.

"Nothing much, it's part of the skills needed to be a good leader, is all- And also, it's mostly about channelling a battle art to enhance the legion, they don't need to be convinced or inspired to go fight" indeed, this was no regular speech meant to boost the morale of soldiers.

After all, no undead that could join the ranks of an army led by a minor lord could possibly need to be given motivation to march forward and go slay livings, but the content of the speech itself was not false.

Alkayne retracted his hand from Jiji's head before she got any idea, and grasped his halberd that had been planted into the ground for the duration of his speech.

It was hard to tell just how long it had been since Alkayne had first set foot into this frozen realm, really, the only thing that could really allow him to know that a lot of time had passed, at least in this realm in particular, was the living populations and their passing generations, as although a great portion of the realm was now undoubtedly under total undead control, livings were still present as they were being bred as living soldiers.

The paladins, armed with frost-infused armour and weapons, were indeed rather impressive when fully trained, and with three undead paladins that had been the cream of the crop and Pope Janus supervising it all, the stream of living soldiers that met the requirements to join the ranks was steady, though, some that had died after being deployed had now joined the ranks of Alkayne's own legion, their affinity for the cold was great after all, so once rid of life, they could fit right in.

However, Alkayne and his loyal soldiers had run into a slight issue during the conquering of the realm.

The mountains and such had all been conquered, all wildlife and creatures had been registered and plenty of strongholds had been established, they had figured out what the deal was with the accursed and learned to control the curse, having added it to the arsenal of the empire successfully, they had also defeated, and thus recruited, Jormunal, her talents in hexes and hex totems simply incredible.

On the surface, it seemed like all obstacles and hurdles had been surmounted, that Alkayne was victorious and had successfully conquered the realm Loimos had attributed to him, yet, he still remained here with the entirety of his troops.

Indeed, this realm actually possessed a challenge that had managed to force Alkayne to retreat several times now, the realm was far larger than just the surrounding mountains and other biomes, as surrounding it all was a seemingly endless ocean that was completely frozen over.

The frozen waters seemed desolate and totally devoid of anything, and indeed, the surface had nothing to offer, it was below the ice that creatures lurked- It was strange to say, but these beasts and monsters did not truly possess anything too special about them, they might be able to wield ice magic, breath freezing mists, as well as possess incredible stealth when submerged in the frigid waters, but overall, they were just creatures that were well-adapted to the environment, having become close to the chilliness of the realm.

As such, the real problem was simply their strength and dire numbers, these creatures were greatly territorial, and although not sapient, or guided by something that possessed that level of intellect, they were perfectly willing and capable of working with one another, cooperating to deal with those who came to disturb their frozen ocean.

But they were also smart enough to not draw close to the shores, meaning that Alkayne, unless he employed extraordinary means, just as poisoning and corrupting the entire ocean, which would definitely get him in trouble with Yuolrt for messing up an ecosystem before it could be properly studied- Unless he did that, he had to lead his troops to go and fight upon the ice directly, where the dwellers of the frost had a clear advantage, as they could break the ice beneath their feet and drag the undeads into the depths.

Where the cold was so powerful, that even those with great affinity for it found it difficult to properly operate, not to mention that only a small portion of Alkayne's troops had the skills and capabilities to fight whilst underwater.

So far, the undeads had endured exactly fifty defeats, not one less, not one more.

But this time, Alkayne was confident in achieving victory.

He felt that he had managed to figure something out…