Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"Damn it" the captain cursed under his breath as he stared into the river.

It had been a week ever since he had felled the sad faced man, despite launching searches nearly immediately and starting way further than the place the corpse had fallen, him and his men had failed to get the man’s body.

It had neither been caught in the nets they had set up at multiple points of the river, and they had failed to find him stuck in rocks or floating back to the surface, the current was too powerful for him to just sink and stay in place.

It wasn’t even that deep!

"No need to bother with this, if you are certain you killed him, he is dead, we’ll just get a dead leper and dress him up like the sad faced man, the people will be content with that, barely anyone alive has ever seen him, they won’t be able to tell the difference" Harold, the town mayor reassured the captain.

"You are right sir, it is just… I suppose I fear that he may have lived is all, I find it hard to believe my senses when there is no physical proof of the deed, it was so dark, I acted on nothing but instincts and a rough feeling of his position, I have no idea what sort of injury was Inflicted on him" he covered his mouth, a stern look on his face.

"I have heard of assassins capable of faking the influx of XP so as to appear dead, or skills making the system grant actual XP when there was no kill-"

"Oh please! What are you on about Robert?" the mayor tapped him on the shoulder.

"You said it yourself! He was a sloppy and untrained murderer, why would he have such advanced capabilities? Surely, a man with such abilities wouldn’t have been so easily defeated!" he was right, it didn’t make much sense.

"Perhaps… Maybe it wasn’t a learned skill or ability, but something in-built?" the mayor raised an eyebrow at these words, seemingly considering them for an instant before shaking his head.

"Sir, this man was strange, he received plenty of wounds that would be lethal even for mighty heroes, organs pierced by arrows, two shots received directly to the head, leg mauled by one of my trained hounds and many more!

This guy may have not even been human, what if it was another of Alizé’s-" he spoke his mind earnestly, growing more and more convinced that the killer was still hiding somewhere, waiting for things to calm down before emerging again.

"Don’t speak of those lunatics! They haven’t shown themselves in years, this isn’t even remotely similar to anything they pulled back then" Harold told Robert to relax and go back to his family.

"You are much too on edge, the sad faced man is dealt with, call off the searches and let the people celebrate" the mayor turned and left back toward the city.

Robert could only sigh and do as he was ordered, it was true that all of this was just a theory after all, it was much more likely that he had truly slayed the serial murderer and that his corpse had just gotten itself stuck somewhere out of reach.

"Alright boys! Dismantle everything, I’ll pay for drinks tonight!" he announced loudly.

_________________________

"Thank the gods, they got him" Helena slumped back in her seat after a neighbour came by and announced that the sad faced man had been officially dealt with.

"Are you going to go back to the city?" Milo asked with a straight face.

"I-" she stopped herself for a split moment.

"My instructors aren’t gonna be available for a while longer, so I’ll stay around for a bit" she twirled her hair a bit.

"Oh really?" the young man spoke excitedly.

’Ugh, that was way too obvious’ he immediately thought, Helena didn’t seem to pay attention to his outburst however.

"Do you have something on your mind?"

David watched from a distance, he couldn’t but feel his heart warming up, they were just getting along so well!

He had honestly not thought that it would go that well, he had feared that Milo wouldn’t be able to talk to her, he had seen him fumbling exceptionally hard when conversing with the opposite sex before.

He was also pleasantly surprised to see that his daughter was still the same as ever, he had feared that spending too much time in the city surrounded by haughty pricks would have changed her for the worst, but she hadn’t changed in the least, she just dressed like a delicate young lady is all.

Seeing that Milo wasn’t managing to spit out what he had in mind, the old man, who had been the one to give him the idea in the first place, stepped in to help the younger generation.

"Why not go to the lake, the one next to the watermelon field?" he did his part.

"Ah, I haven’t been there in forever, you know it Milo?" Helena perked up, she used to love throwing rocks and pushing other kids in there back in the days.

"Yeah! Mister David showed it to me"

The two continued to bond together until the day began to retreat, casting a bright orange light upon the world as the moon became visible in its entirety, casting its own, fainter light.

Tonight would be bright, a good thing since many would be busy drinking themselves away to celebrate the end of the strings of murders.

They had even made an effigy of the loathsome one and burnt it earlier that day.

Utterly convinced that the nightmare had come to an end, they rejoiced and looked forward to better days.

Tonight would be the start of it all!

Loimos emerged from the tumultuous river, his skull stuck back together but not completely mended.

The people the mayor had called for had been sent away or told about it beforehand, the target had been dealt with, the guards were either back to their families after multiple days of constant hunt, or drinking themselves away with their captain’s money.

The undead found a way to sew his mask back together roughly, armed with the bandit’s sword and that of the captain that the man had unwillingly donated, he made his way toward the tavern lost amongst the fields.