Bro, I'm not an Undead!

A man with a green and white mask sat on the opposite side of the table donning a long, dark brown robe with a hood.

This was naturally, Actuass.

His relaxed air could be felt by everyone in the room despite the fact that everyone else was on edge.

This made the man and woman behind him feel a bit more relaxed as on top of their trust in him, they also believed that he could handle the situation if anything was to go wrong.

A conversation was ongoing as the new entrant found her way in.

“Our failure to retrieve the powers of Fulgardt was a shame but not unexpected. It was merely a possible route with its own cons. His legacy was the perfect power to go against such enemies though.”

“Hmmm…”_.

The footsteps of the entrant brought about a silence to the atmosphere as it seemed that everyone was awaiting the news she had on her quest.

“Fulina?” Actuass said, prompting the woman with copper shimmer hair to give a report on her latest mission.

“It’s done. Eofel was graced by a Paladin Champion as you said. The piece I left is sure to rattle her enough so that the Purity will take our organisation as a threat to be eliminated,” the woman, whose name was finally revealed to be Fulina said.

Her spread of <Faithful Message Undeath> had indeed caused a devastating stir that would reach far and wide.

Actuass turned to the other man who had glossy dark hair that was combed back immaculately. He had a young looking face as well as bright yellow eyes that showed his emotions on the matter.

A long coat with soft fur covered his body, and his image as he sat down looked a bit more imposing than Actuass’.

“As you can see, involving yourself with us will grant you steady results. The Purity will view us, the Green Neolists as not only a problem that the nation must solve anymore and will involve more of their peak fighting force, Paladin Champions, to hunt us down. In that, you’ll eventually find the individuals with close ties to the three Deities to use for the ritual.”

The man in the dark hair frowned as he listened to Actuass’ words. He was not convinced.

“In as much as you might not want to believe it, Undeath is much more effective at large scale operations than your Deity’s current strength. You need us for the numbers and we need you for the damage. I’m sure Fulina can attest to this after having seen how effective the small help you gave before was with her custom Cursed Knight.”

Fulina know that this was her cue to speak even when Actuass didn’t say anything else.

“Indeed. Because of the link to undeath, I can see the memories of all my creations. The Champion was unable to deal with the Cursed Knight because of the aid you gave, handing us a smidgeon of Boron’s raw power. Her divine blessing has the ability to resist my basic Undeath Concept but the addition of your aid managed to suppress her.”

“Is that so?” the man with the dark hair finally said, his eyes staring deeply into Fulina who flinched slightly. “Then where is this… Cursed Knight now?”

“A third party intervened, helping her defeat it.”

Fulina’s response was careful as she didn’t want to outright explain the oddity she saw through the Knight’s eyes but from the looks of it, she didn’t need to.

The man turned his head to Actuass whose hazel eyes peeked from the mask. He spent some time mulling things over without a word while his eyes remained glued to Actuass.

“I showed you some goodwill and you showed me some. At least you made an effort to. The Evenfall will consider it. However, at the end… bodies with their blood thick with the essence of the three Deities must be delivered at my feet. Are you willing to battle the entirety of Aigas with us just to break the seal to the Under?”

Actuass emitted a scoff as he stood.

“Do not mistake my need of your aid as incompetence on my part. Just because you are comfortable under the shade of the traitorous Deity doesn’t mean my benefactor is any less powerful. Yours exists confined by the laws of this world while mine exists not in this foul reality altogether.”

***

Eofel, City Lord’s Palace.

“I’ll send word to the Purity itself of your incompetence! Did you consider how many would be lost because of your foolish actions?! How much damage would be done?! The city lost a huge chunk of its livelihood because you lacked foresight?!” Yugefet bellowed as spots of saliva spilled from his mouth while his eyes almost looked like they would pop out of his sockets.

Within the Palace, the captain of the Capital Knights, Beron, the captain of the Purity Knights, Gin, the Grand Priest and a few nobles were in attendance to the meeting where the figure of Elita was being judged.

She had cleaned herself up of the blood after finding that she hadn’t died as she had thought. She actually felt fresh and free after waking up, her mood being torn to pieces only when she had been brought before the fuming Yugefet who blamed her for every single thing that happened.

She stood with her hands behind her back, her head slightly lowered as she wore a blank expression, listening to every accusation.

Due to the structure of the city, the nobles that lived higher up hadn’t been ravaged by the terror of the undeath messengers with only the common residences and business areas below seeing this chaos.

The Grand Priest who had merely seen the bright flash of light as well as the consecutive explosions had thought that he would have to answer for this but after a briefing from Gin about the whole circumstance, he found himself side-lined while Elita was being chewed out.

“What did that foolish mind of yours think would happen when you merely captured a member of that group of Necromancers and brought him into my city?! Where is he now? Did he escape after taking advantage of the chaos?!”

“Who cares if you fought off a majority of them? Do you know how many of our strong backers died in that bright red light?!”

Apparently, Skullius’ attack had obliterated a lot of the normal people that lived in the reserved upper section of the city after it tore apart the undead whose official name was the Cursed Knight.

This too had been blamed on Elita.

Gin had been unhappy with Elita’s decision to keep Skullius alive and though he was happy he was right, he was very devastated by the situation that unfolded.

He didn’t know if it was linked to undeath exclusively as the grotesque image that had appeared earlier still roamed in his mind, giving him the impression that the Evenfall was also behind this.

Nevertheless, he felt that Elita was responsible for the situation as the fact that Skullius was gone spoke a lot about his involvement. Or at least it hinted it.

There was no way it wasn’t linked. Elita’s failure to take the matter of the attack more seriously had spawned this.

Elita hadn’t bothered defending herself.

The Grand Priest didn’t know what to say.

Blaming Elita wouldn’t bring back the dead but he also felt that she was somewhat responsible thus chose to say nothing.

“The Purity sent you here because you were supposed to be the leader of this… communion or whatever! They judged wrong! You’re unfit and all those lives are on YOU!”

Yugefet finished his barking session with an agitated heaving of air while his stout finger pointed at Elita.

When she heard that the man was done, Elita raised her head with a stern expression that showed no traces of flickering or wavering.

“I accept all your accusations. Indeed my foolish actions led to this and all the lives lost were as a result or my lack of foresight. As I stated before… I take full responsibility.”

With her words, a deep silence reigned over the hall.