[NR] Deep In The Deep Wilds - Chapter 607

Deep In The Deep Wilds

Shshhhshsssshhss Alulmaa slithered through the new lands that appeared near his pit’s pyramid. They shifted, but this shift came at an odd time. That meant someone had been challenging the Forest and winning. Not that it mattered. Iä Slanthosss Fell Dweller, Lord of Venom which melts the spatial dimensions, and the Other God his people had worshiped since before time immemorial would keep the other fell powers at bay.

Despite that, not all matters would remain at a tails length. Though soon enough, Alulmaa found themselves in quite a mess. For some reason, the Forest had smashed together a number of quite dangerous regions. While not common, various forms of mind and body control also aren’t unknown to his people and their long history and so, they have defenses.

It is just that he isn’t sure if his will handle what is being thrown around. On one side, there was a corruption of body and mind so bad it rejected the spirit. To the other, a fragment of a blue goblin kingdom. Oh, and while not strictly mind control, there seemed to be a region of undead to the side.

Just on the face of it, Alulmaa would expect the blue goblins to quickly fall to the others. Except they also seem to have a decent foundation in necromancy, creating a cycle of strengths and weaknesses. The undead conquer the living corruption, but fall before the blue goblins’ phrenic powers. The living corruption easily infects those goblins, but can’t corrupt the undead. And the blue goblins can wrestle away control of the undead foot soldiers, while barely being able to use those same undead to hold the line against the corruption.

Of course, this is only a temporary stalemate. The seeming counter of the undead by the blue goblins won’t last long and once they’re dead, they too shall join the undead. At which point their resistance to the corruption and ability to convert dead corrupted into more undead makes things a foregone conclusion.

Which would be a problem for his pyramid. While they had sacrificed to the Other Gods for years uncountable, Alulmaa’s people had only conquered this area within the last few hundred years and so the pyramid sadly did not live up to the glorious ones from their past. The current architects are unable to properly replicate the runic math which made their old pyramids work.

So, it doesn’t matter if they make pyramids of gigantic blocks which rise hundreds of steps up to challenge the heavens. Such physical shells would be worthless, only the very top layers holding his people’s ancestral magics. That, in turn, means his pyramid is sadly vulnerable to outside forces taking it, with the undead being prime threats in such matters. More than a handful of his people’s most recent domains have fallen to the undead, both from without and within.

And thus the situation called for some guidance. Which sadly Alulmaa can not provide himself, and so he retreats back to his den to report. And much to his relief, those higher ups feel the same way about the situation, having not fallen such that finding eternal life as undead tempts them yet. It was a worry, for while his people have a long and glorious history of using their property to build their monuments, both while they are alive and dead. To actually turn undead yourself is stagnation and degeneration. Which his people have fought against sliding into since the very beginning.

Soon, though, Alulmaa is surprised to be sent back out by those same higher ups. They do not need him to direct people to the region. It is close enough that the change should be self evident. And worse, the group he is sent out with is much too weak and in that weakness, too small. It points to dark tidings.

If those in charge can not trust the undead masters of his den to handle the situation, they must have begun to fall. So, instead they depend on him and a few other lowers to force this regions stalemate into an inward spiral. Any corruption that tries to escape must be properly burned and cleansed, even if his group only has a minor cultist. Attempts by the blue goblins to retreat must be discouraged to the point that they feel the only way out is through. And the undead? An even harder task. Since they have no one that can control them, they must extract the bodies of the fallen from all sides without being noticed. Then those bodies need to be burnt to ash and mixed with special pastes to prevent any attempts to raise them. Otherwise, the undead would never truly lose numbers, instead remaining strong until they can conquer both opponents.

This goes well for Alulmoo, only for disaster to strike. One day out of the blue, one of the undead masters of his den slithers up out of nowhere, ceremonial garb rattling, for how could they have bone fetishes and not raise them? “I will take over!”

Alulmoo has a bad feeling, but only bows and leaves quickly along with another of his group. Behind him, he can hear the cultist try and get the master to prove the higher ups had sent him. Though the sizzle of acid and their abrupt silence proves Alulmoo’s choice in action to be the most prudent.

Besides, if this isn’t approved of by the higher ups, they need to hear of it. Except Alulmoo has a bad feeling and so makes another choice. “Keep going, I will sssircle back to get an eye on what happened.”

His fellows agree. They both had felt that someone should figure out that, but weren’t going to bring it up. Except, that wasn’t Alulmoo’s actual plan. While they saw him slither back the way they came from, as a scout he was able to silently follow the two as they approached the den.

The two did not make it all the way. From the brush, multi rib cages connected by lengths of spine spring out and catch them, before dragging them the rest of the way. Alulmoo risks himself to secretly follow, only to see what has become of his den and the pyramid. Above it, a great haze is forming to block out the sun and below his people are all dead. Various rituals are constantly being performed to turn them into undead of all sorts as the undead masters desire.

And those undead masters? While they appear to be alive, they must have stopped renewing whatever spell they had used to hide it. For they were clearly beings long dead and risen. Their outward appearance is maintained not by the energy of life, but rituals meant purely for vanity and hiding their true status.

Alulmoo shakes his head and vanished back into the forest, more silent than the dead. He still needs to report this, it is just that who it is to be reported to has changed. Another pyramid has fallen.