Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead
Chapter 886 - 886: Greatest Challenge

When Herlbe received the order to prepare from his general, the revenant was not nearly as ready as Alkayne and Ir'Houwl, as whilst he had seized control over a large portion of the realm in one, fell swoop within a very short amount of time, his skills in managing what was essentially a whole nation were far inferior to his peers, which made him realise that the greatest challenge the general had intended for him was not to defeat the imaginative powers of the Tsarina, or to overcome to pure expanse of giant strength that was the Tsar…

No, Loimos had most definitely meant to put his leadership skills to the test, and indeed, compared to wielding his great cleaver and slaughtering everything left and right, managing something was incredibly difficult for Herlbe.

Controlling the sapients of this realm was easy enough, the 'forcoids' as they were now called, were simple beings, they followed the strongest without question, making them excellent recruits for the ranks of the living soldiers, especially since despite their impressive strength, they could actually reproduce relatively quickly.

But when it came to things besides fighting, they could not be relied on, so the number of personal the revenant had at his disposal to manage things was ridiculously low, his personal army was the smallest out of all the minor lords, having picked the strongest and decided on having only absolute elites following him around, which sounded good when the objective was to rip some heads off and hollow some chest cavities.

However, now, not only were they similarly not that great at other stuff like him, but their low numbers meant that Herlbe had very little flexibility in how things went, especially since the main hurdle he was facing had to do with the Okean, the great ocean filled to the brim with giant marine life was vast, and unlike the land, which was dominated by the Forcoid, who was the only species that had enough intelligence to have a semblance of civilisation, and also was rather easy to explore and map- The sea was a different affair.

Firstly, none of his soldiers were really built to go underwater, so apart from occasional catches of creatures to send alive back into the main world, Herlbe couldn't do much more, his grasp on the Okean was weak and he could not really control anything going on within it.

His best assistance in that matter was naturally Pangea'Kalst, even if now undead, he still retained his title as the Tsar of this watery mass, and his presence could not be ignored, unfortunately, Pangea'Kalst was a smart fellow, but he was not a true sapient, so the way in which he ruled the Okean was not at all conductive to what Herlbe had to do to truly conquer it.

Moreover, it had been discovered deep in the water, there were actually intelligent species that lived down there, and they knew how to herd and use the powerful beasts and monsters to defend themselves, the minor lord could just go there himself, but his talents as a negotiator were rather poor, so making them submit properly so as to avoid a high number of Negators was not something he could achieve through his usual methods.

Otherwise, he would have already dove in and given them a piece of his mind about their futile resistance.

Indeed, the biggest problem was that the empire's methods were not brutish, there was a real will to convert those that were conquered without further complications, but Herlbe was not one to want peace, he wanted problems, always!

"Aherm…" he faked a cough to gather the attention of a certain few people "...Ladies, any ideas?"

Amongst every undead that he had available for assistance, there were only two who seemed to have a grasp of how to do things without resorting to violence and mass murder.

"Lord Herlbe, I believe that we should not hyperfocus on the Okean so much, and instead spread some attention to the land, although it is under our control, we have done little to assert the influence of the empire and demonstrating our superiority, the Forcoids merely think that we are strong, it may be sufficient for now, but I would suggest that we show them what else we can do- My first move would be to bring some architects to expand upon the cities and create some strongholds as a show of another kind of strength" the first one to respond was the nightbird that had been accompanying him since the start and relaying messages from the realm to the main world, and vice versa.

"Why not establish some trade with those people living under the sea? I am certain that there are many things they don't have access to, that they would love to possess, and in that way, we could subtly send them things to make them believe that undeath is super cool or whatever… Or maybe we lend them a hand in protecting themselves? They are skilled at surviving, but not all creatures down there are simple-minded enough to be tricked by them, from what I gathered, they rarely live for long solely because they get killed off" and the second person to offer an idea was the Tsarina.

Delelgoliol'Erstvourst Von Hartracite, of her full, self-given name.

The former leader of the Forcoids, who was actually a viscacha, had turned out to be a competent leader, probably thanks to all the brainpower needed to operate her ability.

Herlbe lowered his three head at the same time, everyday he hoped to receive the news that there was an extraordinary foe for him to face, or at least an army of beings that they had missed until now- But the truth remained, he had already fought everything that was worth fighting, there was no point in bringing his cleaver out anymore, he had to sit behind a desk and actually act like he was a lord, and this realm was his domain.

"Very well, birdie, bunny, you can leave" he said, ignoring the latter muttering about the fact that viscachas and rabbits were not at all related.

Next, he called over one of his trusted warriors, namely, the rabid-ridden werewolf.

"How is it going with the Forcoids? No signs of rebellious thoughts?"

"None at all, Lord Herlbe! They are as well-behaved as they can be, they sometime try to challenge us to duels, but that's just part of their culture, they always test one another- If anything, it shows that they have completely accepted us" reported the werewolf, strangely eloquent even as foam gathered in his maw.

He looked around.

"Was Miss Hartracite here just now? I can smell her… What a nice odour" his decayed ears moved a bit.

Herlbe shook his heads.

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