Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 631: Operation Polar Winds : Part Thirty-Six

Many more forts were erected throughout the frozen realm, portions of the minor lord's elite were spread out nearly everywhere, progressing in the conquest of this realm, but one part of his troops in particular interested Alkayne, the ones who had encountered a strange being, without hesitation, he went on site himself to inspect the captured creature.

Which was no creature at all, as had been guessed from the very beginning, it was a kind of golem, but not the sapient sort that inhabited Lefaux, this one had been constructed and answered to a master's orders only, though, the method used in its creation was interesting.

Although Alkayne was no expert of magic, and of many ways of power, he still had to learn about them, to recognise and know how to counter them if possible, although the level on which it was put into display was rather staggeringly high, the zombie felt confident that he was looking at a golem crafted through a hex.

Hexes, most often used through hex totems, were a way of power that had multiple branches and application, sometimes used to cast spells that had the property of 'sticking' to their target and bring long-term effects, the most common usage was as physical totems crafted from certain materials, which allowed for the constant casting of a spell or effect over an area.

Although such things were absolutely possible with regular magic and many other ways of power, hex excelled and specialised in them, being an uncommon way of power also meant that someone detecting or understanding what was at play was rather unlikely, the typical person would have no clue.

"Using a hex to animate a golem… That is not something anyone can do- And that craftsmanship, the ghost wood was carved exquisitely, you can barely make out the place where different parts were put into one another" he commented, genuinely impressed.

This wasn't the work of a random schmoe, especially considering the way the hex itself was assembled, what constituted at the 'hex' in the golem's case were the bones inside of it, to manage to make it work so neatly whilst putting them in a manner to be reminiscent of a humanoid body was nothing short of genius, and then perfectly encase them into the wooden vessel.

And saying that it was perfect was not an understatement, the shape and sizes of the mould the wooden puppet had availably had been precisely carved to fit nothing more and nothing less than the exact arrangement of bones that were within.

Although the soldier who had shot at the being said that his bolt had definitely penetrated flesh, Alkayne was doubtful that the creature was weak in any capacity, if allowed to use the full extent of its talent with hexes, alongside probably more of these golems, fighting such a being might prove challenging, especially since it seemed avid of staying hidden.

"General Loimos and those in charge of such things are probably capable of wielding hexes in a greater manner, but we are the undead empire, our enemy is seemingly alone, or in a small committee if I had to make a guess, considering their capability to conceal themselves…" the minor went over to where it had all gone down, and it was very close to the nearby dome-shaped fortress, snow had already covered everything back up and with the soldiers taking every ounce of evidence, it truly seemed as though nothing had happened.

Alkayne checked the surroundings himself, but he knew that it was unlikely that he would uncover anything new himself, hounds specialised in sensing and smelling many things had already gone by before him, and their extreme specialisation and focus on this single aspect meant that they were pretty much impossible to top in that regard.

"So it left no traces of life force behind?"

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"None at all, My Lord, we don't know if its thanks to another hex or to a natural aptitude toward stealth, but to us, it is like trying to track, Maliah down when in stealth" the responding knight make sure to draw a comparison to The Death Dealer to really hammer in the point that no lead at all were left behind.

Indeed, they knew nothing or no one with greater skills in that regard, the living that often stood with General Loimos was something else.

"Maliah, huh? I doubt anything could measure up to that monstrous living in such a department, let us prioritise the hex route… What about our lead?" for an entire month, they had followed the only clue they had available, without knowing what it was worth.

"It has moved recently, My Lord, it was a rather drastic shift, it seemed as though the bolt was teleported or warped away"

"Instantaneously?"

"Not quite, there was a delay during which the bolt escaped detection before reappearing, approximately a second" responded the knight, their beast pelt fluttering in the wind as the blizzard picked up in pace for an instant, before uncharacteristically fading away.

For perhaps the very first time since the arrival of the undead in this realm, the sun became fully visible, Alkayne had known from what little could be made out that it was a rather standard-looking solar star, round and bright yellow.

But right this instant, it visibly morphed, talking the shape of a flower, its countless petals spinning wildly to the point of seemingly merging together, whether the spinning slowed down or became so fast that it appeared to slow down was unclear but it stayed as such, and the blizzard restarted, only much more dense, snow and hail melded together, creating a most brutal storm as hailstones the size of chicken eggs at their smallest were launched were being launched as too thrown from slings.

Alkayne and the knights showed no reaction as hailstones struck them.

"It would appear that winter is here"

"Indeed, My Lord"

That was not great, the light reflected against the snow seemed stronger and more numerous somehow, all the while the blizzard became more than just a simple environmental hazard, regular soldiers would have trouble properly working under the assault of this.

The so-called 'winter' of this realm was a brutal thing, the cold would worsen, getting blinded by reflected light was much more common and significantly more dire, these aspects, the undeads could deal with, the latter restricted their senses further but it was only a matter of adjusting.

The real problem was the strength of the blizzard, the soldiers may be elites, but they could only endure so much strike before suffering damage, it was especially bad for the archers and crossbowmen, there was no way to aim straight when the winds were all messed up and hailstones would constantly be striking at you and your weapon, not to mention that any projectiles was incredibly likely to get intercepted and weakened if it was fired.

In fact, only the most powerful crossbows might stand a chance at still being somewhat effective.

Alkayne had only heard about it from the kalt until now, but witnessing it himself was something else entirely, the efficiency of his troops would be lessened as they would need to move as cohesive groups to do the smallest of things when out in the blizzard.

Building new forts seemed complicated as well.

'Mmh, the obvious course of action would be to just wait for winter to cease, indeed, that would be the most logical and obvious option…'