Capítulo 1266: Closer
Fallael could rejoice. He had been correct. Griar had an incredible amount of unearthed, unpolished potential at his disposal. He had been able to overco an incredible foe without much problem by using only a raw, incomplete mont of understanding as the fuel–Til’Tilim might not have been a Lieutenant, but he had been a powerful adversary nonetheless, a vampire of Nosferatu’s brood who was also a werewolf… Being able to defeat that was no small feat, especially for Griar.
Now, following the events of that night, the serpent had watched Griar closely–Very closely. The human had been progressing. He had taken the ti to properly digest what had happened and what it ant for him and for the realm as a whole. The foreign mories, which had pretty much been fused with his own, had been properly sifted through.
Griar was at the strongest he had ever been, and he was continuing to progress at a rapid pace even now. The knowledge wasn’t a re power boost. It was a foundation upon which he could rapidly build. For example, he was quickly able to progress into learning to use Apex-level augntation across his entire body, and it did not seem far-fetched to imagine that he might be able to eventually learn to perform Transcend-level spells and the like.
Moreover, Fallael was uncertain if Griar had so sort of effect, or if it was the natural boon of being a social species, but his progress seed to be rubbing off on the others as well. They were improving their skills and increasing their might at an accelerated rate compared to before. Their life forces were like blazing infernos.
The undead attacks were still taking their toll. Many had already lost their lives volunteering to defend the Peaceful Realm, but with this sudden spike in the strength of all the greatest defenders, a sort of equilibrium was forcefully reestablished, allowing the livings to hold their own as they had at the beginning… The serpent could also have sworn that the twisted rules had slightly moved back into their correct shape as a result.
This was extraordinary–But still insufficient. The Undead Empire was simply and purely relentless, endless, and ever-adapting. Evolution was supposed to be one of the main things about life, but the dead had it copied to a tee. They were constantly coming up with innovations, new equipnt, novel castes, and never-before-seen thods to breach the life barrier through one way or another.
It was an arms race, and while the livings had made a sudden and incredible improvent, the undeads were always steadily progressing, never slowing down in their constant march toward conquest… And speaking of conquest, it had co to the attention of all livings that the number of Apocalypse Knights and other apocalypse-thed castes had been increasing significantly over the past week.
They had gotten a taste of what this could an when Loimos had used the aspects of the apocalypse and literally summoned the horsen in his fight against the Pure Living. They did not want anything relating to this to happen here, so they had been focused fire on those particular undeads, but they just kept coming, not to ntion that most of them weren’t exactly easy targets.
These were castes requiring insight into a rather complicated and dangerous phenonon. The pure casters were easy enough as long as you could hit them, as they tended to be rather fragile and squishy, but the knights and warriors? Those guys were utterly ridiculous.
The average Apocalypse Knight was a difficult fight, but still manageable. However, so of them weren’t garbed in the exact sa manner…
The regular knight wore a simplistic set of plate armour, a torn cloak and a hood coloured to match whichever aspect of the apocalypse they specialised in–Red for War, White for Conquest, Green for Pestilence, and Black for Famine.
If they were an agent of War or Conquest, they would wield a War Scythe, and if they were an agent of Famine or Pestilence, they would wield a Harvest Scythe… It was rather simple to identify them in this manner, but it also made it clear when they diverged from the norm. So Apocalypse Knights were clearly much different from the regular sort, garbed in more refined armour representing their chosen aspect.
The War Knights were much larger than the others, bearing horned helms depicting the face of a scowling, wrathful demon–Representing the actual horseman, who always took upon the form of a red-skinned demon, as it was apparently a fact that the red horseman was of demonic origins.
The Conquest Knights, garbed in long flowing cloaks that concealed their much more stylish armours, wore helms with a crown built into them. The crown was indeed a symbol of the white horseman, who was said to be of royal origins.
The Famine Knights were slender, being unnaturally tall and crooked, resembling grim reapers with their scythe. No one had actually seen what their armour looked like from up close, as they also wore exceptionally longer cloaks and hoods which covered everything about them.
The Pestilence Knights were the most disgusting, being literally walking mounds of Pestilence which had seemingly been forced into sets of armour. Approaching them had been deed far too dangerous. They carried countless plagues with them.
…And these were only the hyper-specialised ones. There were so Apocalypse Knights running around with the ability to use two aspects…
These guys had been worrying before, but now, they were everywhere. They were a part of every single undead attack, and it was believed that the Lieutenant of their caste was roaming around, looking for an opportunity to force entry into the interior of the life barrier. If not for the recent power boost, this undead probably would have gotten in already.
In any case, the implication was clear. The undeads might actually be preparing to unleash so sort of apocalypse upon the Peaceful Realm. They needed to work in overdrive to prepare for the eventuality, if even a single one of the four aspects was allowed to take root, it could have imnse consequences–Famine and Pestilence in particular could be devastating to the livings, they all lived inside the barrier. If disease were to spread, or if food were to run scarce… They would be trapped in an awful situation.
As such, while they scrambled to prepare whatever ans of defence they could think of, the word was to destroy any undead who even seed to be associated with the concept of the apocalypse. The livings didn’t know how the Undead Empire could just manifest such an event, but they assud that it was triggered by the undeads doing sothing in particular. If they could even delay the event, it would be great.
Regardless of this, Fallael still kept most of his attention on Griar. The man’s progress was fascinating, and it seed like it was set to never stop… Though right now, Griar was busy spending so ti with his children.
Aurelio, Mila, and Laster. The twins were still very young, while Aurelio was more akin to a teenager now. The child born from the unwanted union of Flor and Lady Fe looked nearly identical to the one who had ‘fathered’ him. It was rather frightening how easy it was to tell that this was Lady Fe’s offspring.
Nonetheless, no signs of the Stagnant Waters had been detected within him. By all ans, he was just a regular boy, albeit a very quiet one who seed more interested in staring at the horizon than anything else.
Griar was doing his best to be a good father for Aurelio, but the young teen was not very receptive. He listened when spoken to and obeyed when told sothing, but there was sothing very… Lifeless about him. If possible, he would always avoid speaking. He always walked, never ran, and tended to make almost robotic movents.
The way he turned corners was deeply unnatural. It was like he slid on the ground when turning his body sotis. The only thing that seed to actually make him look like a regular boy was his mother. It was like he lived in a world of darkness, and Flor was his only light.
Griar definitely found Aurelio to be weird, but he could only guess that it had to do with Fe. The High Priestess had conceived him by transforming her body using the powers granted to her by the Stagnant Waters… It was impressive that she had been able to transform herself enough to actually father a child, but had it been perfect? Had it truly been accurate, or did she transform incorrectly? If the transformation was purely due to the Stagnant Waters, how was it possible that Aurelio was free of it?
Flor had been in contact with the substance as well… It could only be assud that he had inherited his mother’s resilience to it.
Still… Fallael felt that it was best to keep an eye out. What if Aurelio was a sleeper agent? It wouldn’t be surprising from the Undead Empire, honestly…
Reviews
All reviews (0)