Barely a day after the attack, just a few hours after the king's speech and audience, something came to disrupt the peace of Tamaris once more, contrary to what had been assumed, the two groups of lunatics were not nearly done just yet, appearing all over the country and even inside of other nations, bringing the attention of all forces onto them, their numbers far exceeding what had once been believed.
"They are taking the bait with excessive ease, the greater majority is hyper focused on them" Unacunerra, remarked standing straight inside of a fairly tight space, the atmosphere was odd inside of here.
Dusty, damp, suffocating, the ground was unsteady, it had actual glass windows, but they were clouded by several layers of grime, barely allowing light through, dark curtains that appeared to have been mauled by packs of wolves flowed over them, both on the inside and outside.
The wood creaked endlessly even without movements, each plank displaced from where it should have been in a minuscule way, bent out of way by humidity, random chains and ropes hanging from the ceiling, crates and barrels placed haphazardly, empty cobwebs decorated the corners.
"What are the two leaders up to now?" the earthen mage questioned the blonde vampire, who swung her limp wrist in his direction.
"The puppet is back to its usual place, hiding off into the wounds with its harem of caretakers or whatever, as for hot head, he has taken a peculiar route, last time I heard, he had boarded a ship with his strongest followers and sailed into the ocean, the ocean! Can you believe that?
He clearly has something in mind, but I don't know if that will happen, naval trade and travel is rare for a reason" she reported, casually sliding across the small bench built directly into the small space.
Feinting a yawn and putting her arm over Loimos's shoulder, who did not react, as though he was a piece of furniture.
"Now that most are focused on the defilers and puppeteers, we will be allowed to make bigger moves unnoticed"
Indeed, this had been the greater part of the plan all along, a mere act of diversion on a continental scale, allowing each of them to act upon different plans at once without alerting of the undead threat.
This had all only become possible thanks to the association of the three corpses, Loimos had encountered Unacunerra in the mines, royal guard of his majesty alongside Slotriig, the ancient skeleton had been a bit lost until their meeting, unable to do anything of great consequence.
Loimos had introduced his fellow to One's existence, and swiftly moved to get in touch with the vampire, she was more than a little happy to see her favourite decaying pile again, and the mage wasn't very thrilled about her antics, but credit had to be given where credit is due, she had had extensive network of connections, her presence and influence already well established in the underworld of criminality, this was invaluable to the dead's noble cause, Unacunerra being a highly skilled mage, but also knowledgeable of many other things, such as alchemy, allowed for a swift progression in the formula of her marionette-making dew, having become potent enough to subjugate the will of someone like the headmaster.
Surprisingly enough, it really was One that enabled this entire plan, she was able to get a hold of the head of both the Defilers Of The Holy and Ironic Puppeteers, luring them into a deal they were going to regret extensively.
But there was a problem, those two groups had too few members to begin with, not nearly enough for any part of their plan, thankfully, they also had a solution to this, employing the undead efficiency, One's furnished plenty of subjects to turn into new puppeteers and defilers, the second one's being the easiest as only a touch of the fire was enough to do so.
Making plenty of meat shields that weren't up to standards, but had the advantage of being very obedient, just a snap of the finger and their memories would be wiped.
Despite being a rather subpar vampire, One was to be thanked greatly for their manoeuvre coming into fruition, of course, the other two did not slack.
Loimos had learnt and improved on many things, such as the further extent of having sapient limbs of himself around, although he could not pilot two whole bodies at once without having one be ineffective, he could switch between the two, each body recognised as its own being and allowing for highly constraining and destructive conditions and pacts to be put into usage free of charge.
It was thanks to this, as well as Unacunerra carving runes and sigils directly into his bones, that he was able of fooling even the volcano witch with his disguise, taking upon rules that went completely against his very nature, at least, that's how it was interpreted by whatever or whoever approved of conditions, vowing not to kill anymore livings certainly warranted a great deal in return, a vow he had somehow abused with a loophole even in his Osworth persona with the headmaster.
Loimos had been in charge of turning the headmaster into a pawn and of taking care of Geter, though his greatest achievement was knowing people, serving as the bridge between the mage and vampire, even personally knowing The Death Dealer, Loimos was a well connected skeleton.
As for Unacunerra, as mentioned before, he had aided both of his accomplices, particularly in teaching Loimos to use his mana instead of his death force, and of course, stalling Rosemary, something neither of the other two could have done at all, one needed to fight zone with a zone.
"Very well then, One, you are in charge of turning as many high members of Starkefolten into our pawns, I shall go over to Faraday and help undo the seal faster from the outside, then find Artencil to get him up to date, as for you Loimos, you will have the greatest mission of all" the skeleton mage brought his bony palms together.
"It is up to you, to find our venerable lords and direct them back toward our eternal court, the court of Nitok, King Of The Dead, the mage that once brought forth an undying eclipse"