Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Chapter 897: The Burning

The blast of gold engulfed an area of several meters for several seconds without weakening, forming a perfect circle around the source of the explosion, typically, anything inside of that radius Milo wanted gone, should have been erased completely, he surprised himself with that one, he worked on nothing but instinct, but managed to form a complex spell using his own severed leg as a catalyst to cast it, or was it that the gold responded to his wish and acted on its own?

He could not tell, and he honestly could not care less, as from the gold, an unscathed Loimos emerged, the attack only amounting to causing a bit of smoke to rise from him, every particle of gold that tried to cling to him unceremoniously withering away.

Seeing this, it was a bit hard to believe Thanatok’s words, as it did not seem like the gold had any chance of having any effect whatsoever on the pure undead, but Milo did not have time for doubts, he could only used the fact that Loimos needed him alive for at least a while longer, even if he was a harbinger of the apocalypse, or death’s little darling did not matter, anyone fighting against an enemy that wanted them gone completely, but did not use lethal force themselves was deemed to be in a disadvantageous position eventually.

As long as Milo was not afraid of getting hurt in horrific ways and just fought head-on, he could temper himself and eventually, his gold and himself would be able to fight back, the only caveat was that he needed to reach that point before Loimos achieved whatever it was that he was gunning for.

‘What could this bastard possibly be after?’ he wondered, right his lower jaw was punched right off, the pain was immense, radiating throughout his whole body, but he focused his eyes, and dragging his upper teeth across Loimos’s fist and arm, he punched back without care.

He could feel his teeth being eroded and corroded from mere contact with the clothes woven out of rot worn by the undead, although the garments worn by the undead could take on his maximum durability and retain perfect flexibility at the same time, Milo noticed that beneath what looked like fabric and leather, there was actually what felt like a proper suit of armour, indicating that beneath the mantle and such, Loimos was actually wearing a full suit of plate armour.

And he felt it especially hard when his counter punch landed against the undead’s chest, his fist impacting the resilient surface, his phalanges breaking into countless pieces as a result of the direct blow, the undead himself was unmoved, and swiftly hooked the assaulting arm, spinning Milo around like he weighed nothing.

Unexpectedly, despite absolutely holding the advantage in brute strength, Loimos employed a grappling technique and pinned Milo on the ground, pressing his knee against the back of the living’s neck whilst pulling onto the arm that just struck him, the shattered bones in the hand already healing at a rapid pace.

Milo attempted to circulate mana to blast the ground and get the corpse off him, but found that his energy flow was being blocked by the undead, who had just needed to touch him and less than a second to completely take control of a living’s inner energies.

Such skill with energy manipulation was something Milo would usually only associate with Helena and the late Rosemary, and for a second, he felt completely helpless as his brute strength was enormously great, abnormally so even, but against the pure undead, it was like a baby trying to arm wrestle his father.

But as Milo was expecting Loimos to just go and tear his arm off, the undead instead placed his finger against the living’s back, and drew something on it before swiftly moved away, before Milo could do anything, he erupted into black flames, the titular Loimosfire, naturally, no one was more adept at wielding it than the one it was named after.

‘He drew a rune or sigil on my back, didn’t he?!’ the pain was nearly paralysing, burning alive was probably worst of the worst ways to go, but Loimosfire was much different from regular flames, they were greatly attuned to the aspects of death, and so, as the corpse willed it, he channeled the aspect of Agony moments later through them, transforming intense suffering, into something so far beyond that Milo would not be able to find words to describe it, every of his nerves flared up, constantly under assault, yet, the flames refused to burn them away, intent of making the pain last for as long as was possible.

Milo could feel his eyes melting out of their sockets whilst simultaneously being repaired by the gold, his bones turning into ash every second, his stomach and chest cavity being hollowing out by the inferno, and the blaze refusing to fully burn away any organ that was too essential, keeping them going and allowing the gold to maintain them.

Naturally, Loimos was not kind enough to merely channel only the aspect of Agony, he also channelled the aspect of Eternity to make it seem like those few seconds were years worth of time, and although the gold could combat that false impression as well, it was inevitable that it would get to the living anyways.

And after ten seconds of this, the flames stopped burning Milo, and instead, Loimos channelled the aspect of Peace, making the living completely relax before following with Compassion.

Loimos stood still for several more seconds, before gold flashed out from the living, like a bolt of lightning descending from the sky, wresting the influence of the undead away and dispersing the flames alongside the rune that had been producing them.

“What… The hell was that about?” Milo muttered to himself unconsciously, but he was not expecting any answer as he immediately launched himself right at Loimos once again.

The pure undead observed his opponent, finding that despite the incredible strain he just put the man’s mind under, that the subsequent wave of gold had not fully awoken the golden attribute relating to his mind power, facing against users of soul energy had allowed him to awaken the attribute of his soul, but it seemed like the one on his mind required actual, direct damage rather than typically mind-targeting attacks like he had just performed.

Loimos dodged and grabbed the living, throwing him away before swinging at the air.

Naturally, as the leader of the vanguard, and thus, to all of the castes within it, he himself was very much adept at the techniques and ways of the Mind Peelers, with just a simple swing, he sent the equivalent of a simple mana blade using mind power at the living, which struck true, nearly severing his mind in half.

Loimos observed to see if the results would be what he wanted, but his attention was required elsewhere, as something came slicing through the air at him.

Seemed like someone else had arrived.