Chapter 415 Unlife



POV ?:

Nobles, kings, and even emperors couldn't do anything but keep their heads low as they were packed into a single massive chamber. The silver statue of a dragon in its center reminds them of their armies that burned under the onslaught of the draconic monsters.

'How could this happen? We have survived the demons and even the inquisition of the fanatical angel only to be beaten by fucking race that should have been long dead.' Duke Carlos could only keep his frustration to himself as he was weak and unable to resist the might of the immortal race.

The atmosphere in the room hall was heavy, as no one knew what would happen.

The armored guards of the kobolds, in their heavy armor and armed with the enchanted polearms, stood unmovingly like statues all around the walls.

"Welcome to the new world!" A woman's voice boomed across the room, bringing everyone's attention to her.

She stood there in her red dress and black hair, smiling at their fate.

"You have lost. You were utterly defeated by the might of the great dragon lord and the sole emperor of the Vesuvian empire, their imperial Majesty Vesuvius." The words rang in their ears, but none of them dared to move to defy them.

'Is she here just to rub salt into our wounds?' The words hurt because they were true. He always thought that humanity was no longer weak and could defend itself. Yet as if to laugh at his belief, he had witnessed the unstoppable might of angels, demons, and dragons that could smash all their weapons and advancement with nothing more than their innate strength.

The woman spread her arm wide, the room instantly turning darker and hotter.

"Your armies that rose against us were crushed and defeated. From now on you are no longer rulers, from now on you will gain the honor of joining the court of the new empire to replace the old ones."

"This is madness! You can't do this. The gods will punish you." Someone's shout resounded, only for blood to splash through the air as the glowing halberd of the guard swished and decapitated the old man with a crown on the spot.

His lifeless but hit the floor with a thud, the smell of piss filling the air as some prideful nobles fell on the ground in sobs while trembling.

'Damn you idiots, at least die with dignity. She really is insane as the rumors said.'

"Quiet down!" All the guards threateningly raised their glowing halberds, and the shadows deepened even more, the insane's woman's eyes shining like a pair of twisted rubies.

"Phhh, you will join us or die, the choice is yours." her pale hand moved as she pointed at the two large stone bowels.

Her eyes glowed even brighter as her face warped into a small smile that sent chills down everyone's bodies, "The left one contains poison. The right one contains the diluted blood of His Majesty. The choice is yours as I said before."

She turned on her heels as she walked through the massive doors, the sounds of her steps quickly vanishing in the long corridors, only her still loud voice reaching the, "No one will leave without drinking one. Take your time."

'So we can choose between becoming a monster or dying like a human.'

POV Lady T:

'The enemy was crushed yet the hardest part still remains.' The woman in red slowly walked through the galleries of their draconic capital

Their new lands were vast, stretching from the coast in the west all the way to the undead-infested plains in the east.

'The security will be taken care of by the master's kin, but wyrms and others are not capable administrators.'

It was a sad fact that even with them controlling the land on the paper and the armies of their enemies crushed, they didn't have any real control over them, only the temporary paralysis out of the shock and fear keeping them from imploding into a massive chaotic storm.

'Their Majesty needs a large functioning empire, not a giant burning wasteland.' She hated the thought of them just gaining the opportunity to join them.

'The current rulers will be brainwashed or eliminated to keep it from imploding. Then we can think about a better and more permanent solution.' They had landed, but they lacked administrators to take care of them.

'Hell, this whole war was rushed. A few more decades of preparations would help, but I am sure their majesty had their reasons for speeding it up.'

POV Vesuvius:

The dragon's vast, black shadow passed over the fertile and green fields. Small hamlets occasionally popped into his vision, but most of the land was filled with nothing but vast forests.

'So this was the reason...' Something was in the air. He couldn't tell what it was, but something was wrong with the entire kingdom. It was as if something was twisting and warping nature itself in small and almost unnoticeable ways.

The trees grew, but their wood was dry and dead. The grass was lush and green, yet it didn't contain a single drop of lifeforce.

Vesuvius saw it. Even though it all looked and acted like living, it was all fake.

'This whole place is like a sore green spot in the middle of the wastelands left by the war between angels and demons.' What convinced him even more that something was wrong was that there were no wyrms or even the simpleminded musclehead earth dragons trying to claim it.

'It just wittered all the wars that swept around it with everyone just ignoring it.' There was only a single thing that could cause it, in his opinion.

The deeper he flew, the more sure of it he was. He could already feel the aura that seeped into the soil itself. It was everywhere like some invisible network of veins that twisted life into something else.

It was all alive but without any life energy.

'They all avoided this place. That can mean only one thing. There must be something here that dissuaded them from attacking it.'

On the map, and to all the intel he collected from the archives of his kingdom, it was nothing but a poor, rural kingdom with a small army.

'But no one conquered them over the centuries. Borders shifted, new empires formed and the old one split, yet this one remained a constant.'

A city appeared on the horizon, its walls overgrown by the everpresent roots of the undying twisted trees throwing their dark shadows over the single access road leading to it.

He could feel it. The entire city and everything around it was covered in a sprawling domain pulsing with invisible energy.

'This is unexpected...' The entire city was long dead, yet all the people roamed the streets and squares, living their deaths without any care.

'They should be dead. They don't breathe, they don't have any pulse and most importantly they lack even a droplet of vitality.'

There was no rot present that usually came with the undead. Instead, everything was fresh and living even though it was dead without any life signs.

'Unlife is more fitting to describe this.' If undead were twisted forms of the dead that arose and still moved and walked, then unliving were twisted forms of living that should be dead yet didn't die and still lived for some reason.

It didn't take him long before the knowledge encoded within his inherited memories kicked in and connected all the dots. Only one thing could twist the concept of life on such a large scale as changing entire ecosystems.

'Death dragon...' In the same way, a dragon or an angel could fall and demonize. They could also turn into their death variant by dying yet not dying and continuing their twisted life.

The entire kingdom was nothing more than the long-dead people of the long-dead dragon that simply didn't die.

'No wonder everyone just ignored this place.' Just from the force of the domain, Vesuvius could feel the unfathomable age and power of the dead dragon.

Suddenly a voice spoke in his head, sounding like distant whispers from the bottom of a well, "Welcome to my kingdom. It was such a long time since I saw a living dragon."