Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

After being flung across who knows how many kilometers, Loimos got up like nothing happened, finding himself unharmed in spite of the heavy fall he wasn't able to soften, he just sort of fell flat to the ground, instantly losing all momentum.

That little airborne session did help him get a free overview of the forest, and it now extended in every direction beyond what his senses could see, the mountain was nowhere to be seen, nothing but an endless expanse of the forest of thorns.

Even if all directions led to absolutely nothing, Loimos picked the one supposed to get him closer to his next destination and instead of just walking, since he had somehow ended up in a strange place, he dropped the living facade for now and began sprinting in the most efficient way possible, the sound of his footsteps striking the wet ground grew louder and faster.

Quickly enough, he stumbled upon other skeletal remains, this time, those of a young child, once more, in pristine condition and posing in a way that indicated no reaction to their death, this time however, he propelled his blighted blood in every direction before the being even revealed itself, despite the barrage of acid, it grabbed Loimos anyways and flung him away.

This being was nothing more than a long, skinny arm that appeared out of thin air, despite clearly possessing life force, it didn't react much to being harmed, repeating the same series of action a few more times, Loimos could tell that the arm in question retained the damage inflicted upon it.

It was odd really, he could only supposed that this forest, this plane was actually some sort of ability, perhaps the domain of something or someone, but the method of killing was rather specific, and frankly, inefficient.

The arms flinging Loimos around couldn't hurt him in any ways, the few bushes and smaller trees around always had plenty of berries and fruits, all of which weren't poisonous or harmful, one could simply live here relatively well.

They could also not approach the dubious cadavers, Loimos had stood a distance from one for dozens of minutes, but the arm would only act when he was almost right on top of them, it might still be effective on a living, but Loimos couldn't be bothered by any of it.

To him, it was all just stalling him.

Stalling…

Growing rot from his palms, he threw it on a nearby tree and immediately began to have it produce miasma, Allowing the decay to grow and grow until it swallowed entire trees whole, meanwhile, Loimos stood still, unclear from the exterior was he was doing, the light from the two suns peeked in.

Despite clearly being some sort of separated space from the actual forest, it still retained the twin-suns as its light source, the details of this place mattered little as it was being drowned in an endless stream of death miasma and constantly spreading masses of rots, similar to what he had created to erase Weafewand, only on a smaller scale.

The life here was genuine after all, so if he overwhelmed life with death, it was deemed to all come crashing down, Loimos thought so, and the hand must have as well as it broke the rules it had followed until now and manifested on its own, or perhaps damaging to environment always was a way of summoning it.

Appearing amidst dense miasma, it visibly withered moments after appearing, its life force being sapped and destroyed, it grabbed Loimos anyways and attempted throw him, this time, he had rigged himself and the spikes normally supposed to burst out of his left arms bursted from his chest, right where the hand liked to grasp him, the throw was a complete fail, the flinger writhing like a worm in the sun as the miasma seeped in through its gruesome wound.

And then, nothing happened, the miasma continued to spread and no further attempts were made to stop it, until the false reality broke and a voice reached Loimos directly inside of his dead mind.

"You are terribly hard to contain, it's barely been an hour, Loimos" the undead was back in the actual forest, before him, some sort of fly-looking creature was struggling as countless roots stabbed its body in all direction.

"I even enlisted the assistance of this fellow, what a shame" pulling its roots back, the body of the monster was completely torn apart, the bloody appendages retreating back a small tree in complete dichotomy with the rest of plant-lives all around, it was only half as tall as Loimos, and had a face, a familiar one at that.

'The First Seed' the undead recognised the lively plant even with its stark change in stature, sending a wave of black blood without wasting any time, the tree retreated underground, its potent life signature vanishing despite its voice remaining clear.

"Now, that simply isn't correct decorum when meeting an old acquaintance, even if it hasn't been that long all things considered…"

"Loimos, a name granted by the system… Or is it simply etched into your very being? Whatever that may be, I thought that I would be able to do something here, but I must have grown numb in the head, you have become a mightier undead since last then, I can not do much on my own…" the deep and ancient voice of The First Seed faded away, the old tree had truly left after spouting a few words.

Loimos remained alert, despite what it had said, a burst of life force like it had done back in the underground world could definitely seal the deal, or perhaps it couldn't do those as easily as it seemed.

The spot where it had been planted hadn't been damaged by it burrowing into the ground, in fact, it seemed much more vibrant than the rest of the forest, its sheer presence and life force enough to make the surroundings grow healthier and stronger.

The undead stepped forward with caution, this time noticing the life forces of the critters and distant animals, going over to the spread out remains of the fly monster, Loimos couldn't discern the exact reason why The First Seed had taken it hostage, but from what it had said, it seemed like the ability he had been put under originated from it rather than the tree.

And in the far distance, figures were already coming to meet with the undead, there really was no downtime in the wild.