Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Steam rose from the knight's exposed bones as the heat that permeated them was quickly sapped away by the chilly air, once the many, spike-like bones fully unfurled, both of the blood was already gone or frozen upon its surface, partly torn bits of flesh linking a few of the bones together.

"Behold, blessed one from far lands, the divine body!" contrary to what one might expect from a devout paladin who had certainly just gone through excruciating pain, he sounded awfully calm and clear, as if explaining the most basic of facts.

"Divine body? Would you mind explaining? I feel like I don't get it" simply questioned Alkayne, the so-called curse seemed like it could be wielded like a blessing, and as one planning on using it to strengthen the empire, he would like to know the difference between a paladin like himself manifesting the curse whenever he pleased and those wandering the mountains, seemingly without a mind of their own.

The prowling accursed were stone cold as well, whilst the living before him definitely still possessed bodily warmth and was probably still liable to freezing to death, in fact, the more he thought about, the more and more different these two applications of the curse appeared.

"There is nothing to explain" the paladin did not seem willing to share insight and instead planted his giant bones claws against the roof and charged forward, producing a most unpleasant gritting sound as sparks flew, moving aside to avoid the charge, Alkayne rose his fists and boxed at the cursed knight, his punches intercepted as despite only the right arm mutating, the entire body of the living seemed empowered as well, allowing him to turn and twist his exposed bones into a formidable shield.

'Interesting…'

"Say, can Janus control all of the accursed?" his fishing for information mid-battle seemed to annoy the paladin, clearly, even after revealing the divine body, Alkayne was not taking him seriously, or rather, he was not taking a proof of divine intervention seriously, a direct insult to Dame-Sommer!

"Heresy! If not for Dame-Sommer's kindness, your blessing would have been stripped!" the zombie felt like mutating had somewhat impacted the paladin's temper as well, growing remarkably heated in little time.

Unfurling his bones into claws once more, he swung madly, leaving gashes upon the surface of the incandescent roof, all damage quickly mending itself, truly, undead craftsmanship knew no equal.

"I am simply asking a question" but it was no use, the living had no intention of answering any question.

'I guess I'll ask Janus directly' weaving around the roof, both of their armoured feet were beginning to glow as the heat transferred to them, but neither of the combatants paid it any heed.

'The strength increase is rather impressive… But can he return to normal after tearing his arm open like this? Is he only limited to his arm and to that singular form? Is it that the curse can only manifest in this way for one in full control, or is it a matter of talent and control?'

Alkayne wasn't certain if he could call the curse a way of power in its right just yet, for all he knew, it could be the result of an ability or something crafted entirely, in fact, it may be a curse only in name.

Still, his interest was growing, just imagining this sort of ability, perfected and specialised, available to each and every undead- For the curse to be unleashed upon livings and for them to implode as it spreads, it might just be what the conquest for the Emerald Realm needed, if that curse even functioned there, of course.

'Well, I do have a few trained mind peelers in my own ranks…' such a zealous living was unlikely to not become one that lived in death, so the best option to avoid potential memory loss was to capture him alive and to have his every thought dissected by expert tendrils.

Crackling with dark lightning, Alkayne burst forward with haste his opponent was not expecting, having never shown any kalt his innate ability, the paladin did not know to expect such a thing, his gut instinct was to claw in a wide area in front of him, as long as he covered enough space, surely even such a swift opponent would be struck, this belief was not wrong, in fact, it was proven correct, only that Alkayne smashed right through the bone-claws and appeared before the cursed knight.

Meaning to retract what remains of his bones into the same shield as before and crush the undead this way, the paladin found that his idea did go through only that missed entirely as he enclosed on nothing but empty air, despite the zombie not moving a centimeter from his position, having right risen his right leg, the one whose foot was a prosthesis.

The metal prosthetic looked like something most mundane, but that was underestimating the undead, indeed, forged with the mastery of Gravelord Atsalinopalo to integrate countless aspects of materials into a single area, it was far more than meet the eye and indeed, as he rose his leg up, a blade protruded from seemingly nowhere, slicing right through the knight's arm, causing the mutated limb to fall off and grasp onto nothing.

Surprisingly, the limb seemed to not grow inactive after being cut, unfortunately, its shape was unfitting for it to move on its own.

Brought to his knees by the sudden influx of pain and heavy loss of blood, the paladin failed to defend himself as Alkayne grabbed him by the head and punched him repeatedly until the helm was caved in and he himself was knocked out cold.

"My lord! Brilliant fight!" a good deal of his troops were gathered outside the fort, looking up at the fight.

"My lord, we did not spot any other intruder, he seemed to have been alone!" another said whilst giving a salute.

"Reinforce surveillance anyways, and prepare equipment, we'll be paying a visit to Pope Janus tomorrow-" he simply stated "-And also, take him him to the basement and bring in our interrogators"

Ever so casually, Alkayne forced the bleeding wound of the paladins against the burning roof to cauterise the wound and threw him alongside his dismembered arm down at his soldiers who caught him as though they had been expecting it.

"Make sure to keep him alive until he has given all information, that wound might get infected, and make sure to collect his sword and the scraps of his armour" not forgetting any details, Alkayne signalled for them to get going.

With this, the soldiers went away and the minor lord was left by himself.

"Hum… Alkayne?"

"Yes, Jiji?"

Standing at the broken window which had already begun mending itself, the nun was covering herself up with a blanket.

"You looked super cool just there… And so…"

"Alright, alright, I am coming"