91 An Army of Undead

"You truly have managed to turn this entire place into such a thing. Everything is perfect, Malakov, perfect. You know what this means, right?" Leilade was roaming into the newly built hall, using her fingers to scrap the untouched table. Whether it was the walls or the furniture, she couldn't find a single speck of dust, no matter how hard she tried. Wand while it was not impossible to find some lunatics with cleaning issues, they were not that common.

"Of course, Empress. Your servant will fix this issue right now." Snapping his bony fingers, the lich woke up the sea of skeletons and manipulated them to begin to damage the beautiful and perfect scenery. From a totally clean sanctuary that could have been used by priests, if not some unholy things, it was turned into a more believable hideout of maniacs. Some skeletons were still periodically moving the chairs from one point to another, to make some marks on the ground, as Leilade kept visiting the rest.

Even if she wasn't aware of those dark magicians operated in this world, she had tasted the madness and despair that was lingering in the air. Even when she saw the small bone dust and crumbled pieces of skulls laying between two mattresses, she felt it was not enough. What it lacked was still a bit of blood, well, not only a bit actually. It was impossible to never have anyone injured, but as the time before their attack was getting shorter and shorter, she decided to postpone it a bit.

The reports of Meridiana spoke about the cute little slave she got. Apparently, after interacting with the succubus a bit too much, some of her charms tainted the fortunate human. Because of this, she felt that in a week or so, people will have their views changed about the beautiful woman, meaning that waiting was for the best. Past that period, Gwendoline, since it was her name, will still have an increase in status, but not at a rate quick enough to be worthwhile.

At the same time, the convoy of trolls was still inside the mountains, preventing Ymir to be present in case something went wrong. Of course, 3 out of the 5 survivors of Artosis were in the surroundings of Archet. So if someone was capable of beating that group, just the addition of the Akûl would hardly make the balance of power tip in their favor. At the same time, to still have those trolls perfectly visible was something she didn't want.

With their bad luck, the Organization will finally find their base thanks to those primitive giants if they were alerted by the surge of undead near Archet. And seeing the sorry state of Kardel and the fact that their full power was still a variable, no one rejected her proposal of delaying the attack by a few additional days.

With this, she personally entered Archet, to grab a few humans for their blood. Because of the suspicions of the powers located inside the city, and the fact that a family had already disappeared, the inhabitants were frightened. Hardly anyone was dumb enough to not notice the grave face of the guards nor the fact that the patrols had been increased a lot. In addition, groups of adventurers commissioned by the noble families were investigating any traces of something unusual.

The thieves, thugs and other criminals that thrived under the complacency of the guards suddenly found their business heavily impacted. At the same time, many families living inside the poor area reached for them for protection. Only a few appeared in front of them the first day, but after five people disappeared in the night of that day, the number was decoupled. Because a lot of outlaws had their families in that part of the city, the pressure of the unknown threat and the guards created something only a few could have imagined. A frail solidarity inside the darkest and cruelest place.

Shaking her head while hearing Davion reporting this, Leilade looked at the two in front of her. She was inside the room that the two rented in this inn. As for its name or why they chose this one, she hardly cared. But by extending her mana, she felt the numerous people with powers near them. This establishment was visibly flourishing thanks to the influx of adventurers inside its walls.

"Following your instructions, yesterday, we planted some pieces of evidence with the help of Gwendoline inside the sewers. This night, we, accompanied with a few guards, are supposed to accidentally stumbled on the secret room. With those humans as witnesses, no one will think we are accomplices. The Guild Master seemed to trust us a lot and seemed to be a bit infuriated with Meridiana. At the same time, she can't change her appearance anymore."

While Malakov was building the bait and Ymir was protecting the trolls, Meridiana and Davion were not idling. They had numerous appointments with the Guild Master and even one time with the Mayor. Gwendoline didn't betray anything when they were present, but they had seen that many people were looking at her with the will of protecting her. Of course, not a single magic was used, meaning that no one could find any fault with the beautiful employee.

This favoritism to the two strangers of the city provoked quite a few rumors in the ranks of the adventurers. The origin of those was not hard to find, but because they were supposed to act like a saint from now on, they didn't answer them. In the end, when the Mayor will personally thank them in front of the entire population, anyone with a brain will despise those slanderous adventurers. The more they appear lofty and unconcerned, the better it was.

Malakov was overjoyed with the fresh bodies that arrived each day in front of him. Carefully extracting every single drop of blood from their bodies and putting their organ into bottles, the clean prison reeked off blood. He then used numerous spells to made it seems like the blood was very old and not at all gathered an hour ago. Noticing a door still clean, he purposely added rust on it and made it look like a prisoner tried to cut the iron bars.

The routine kept going, until the very last day before the assault. The horde of rail skeletons and few zombies were ready to depart, but they still needed to do two things before. That someone saw an undead kidnap one human and that the trail toward the cultist lair was found. The first will be of course discovered by Meridiana and Davion, but the latter should not be related to them at all.

Perfection never existed, and will never exist. Because of this, making the succubus find every clues and secrets of the cult would only make her more suspect. If by accident they find a secret room, it was a possibility. If they were lucky to catch an undead kidnapping someone and stop it, it will be weird and smart people will find it unlikely to happen. One time could be a coincidence, two times attributed to luck but three times was a conspiracy.

During the night, the succubus and the Akûl, therefore, roamed the poor area. If before they would have received angered stares and constant oppression, now they were welcomed like kings. The number of bodies that went missing was now 43, making it extremely obvious that something will happen very soon. Even the mother of one of the gang leader disappeared, provoking a wave of panic. But when the citizens tried to escape Archet, they realized it was a mistake as well.

Dozens of people had tried to flee the city. But the first night after they left Archet, they vanished. One caravan of merchants that arrived in the direction that they took was then questioned to know how they were. The merchants never saw them, making everyone close their door with the worry of being the next to be taken. All the patrols sent only managed to find the belongings of those families, but not a single human was present.

Unlike the ones captured inside Archet, Leilade didn't let anyone escape the city either. The merchants and the adventurers were spared because it was not logical for a small force to attack them. As for the inoffensive commoners, they were currently turning into zombies. She truly hoped that people will remember them when they will see their undead state. The more terrifying the experience will be for everyone, the more limelight Davion, Gwendoline and Meridiana will receive.

As for the five ghouls that were easily climbing out of the sewers, they were nearly invisible in the dark night. With the massive clouds obscuring the city, not even a single light from the two moons was visible. Those five undead were specifically created by her. They were barely smaller than Meridiana, but were far more deadly than any zombies. They still were soulless, since they were just pawns, but they were not dumb.

Compared to a zombie, a ghoul was obviously at the advantage. They were similar to the vampires in a sense that they were not alive, but not dead yet, allowing them to still keep their brain intact. Its corpse was not decaying like a zombie, and its muscles were still reacting well. Its body was strengthened and its extremities were longer than expected. It claws and teeth were extremely sharp, making it a deadly threat for anyone without a weapon. And when people were asleep, it only took one second for her deadly servants to end their lives.

Two ghouls had already finished their tasks and were using the hidden passages from the White Hands to escape. As for the three others, Leilade was leading them in front of some patrols. Of course, the first will be totally slaughtered. Hearing the screams of the guards, many people woke up immediately. She could already hear the cries of young children, terrified by the sounds resonating in the night.

At the same time, people were beginning to take a peek at the outside and saw two armors rapidly heading to the location of the screams. The closest managed to see the battle between the two adventurers and the dark shadows. Cleaving two shadows in half, they could only reluctantly see the last one escape. Of course, the last ghoul wasn't really escaping, but it stumbled upon another group of guards.

They managed to heavily injure the beast, but not without suffering some casualties on their side. In the end, the creature found its way toward the sewers but was not able to harm any further the population of Archet. Following the dark blood that was spread on the ground, some adventurers immediately pursued the ghouls, thinking about the hefty reward they will receive. Her work accomplished, Leilade disappeared, not leaving a single trace about her presence.

The next day, the two brave adventurers that killed the ghouls were present in the meeting room of the City Hall. Inside, everyone holding a substantial amount of power was present. From the captain of the guards to the main treasurer. The obvious discussion about the imminent threat had hardly begun before it was interrupted by a servant that was panting. Without even caring about the fact that a few were angered by someone barging in like that, he explained that the adventurers found an army approaching. Feeling that everyone was perplexed by his words, he rephrased. They had found an army of undead.