"From what I have been able of gathering, only a few people stand on a pedestal of strength, having now gotten a good idea of a gravelord's prowess, I can suppose that only them can truly give you any sort of a challenge" Loimos and Nosferatu were standing in the middle of one of those immense hallways, the skeleton having agreed to assist in feeding the vampires, they were all dry of blood at the moment and only by consuming any amount of blood could Nosferatu manipulate their blood and get it to multiply on its own.
It was all a lengthy process for every single vampire, thankfully, the gravelord had brought with him not only vampires, lest they would have been here for even longer, though, that did not mean it would be quick, however, the monument had sank deeper into the water, now fully submerged.
So it was not like there were any risks of new invaders, the vampire hunters had all dispersed nearly immediately as well, their plans unknown.
"There are the two copper knights, I have not met them in person, but all seems to agree on their might, Shieldmaster Bough is said to have impenetrable defences, whilst Halbardier Pierre-Ornée is crowned as simply unbeatable, having been in close proximity with another of those symbols of strength, I was able of asking her various questions, and even she seemed to think that this was no malarky" as per the gravelord's wishes, Loimos was speaking of the strongest living.
Nosferatu was rubbing his dry hands continuously, itching to have a fight, not interrupting the skeleton.
Forming a small drop of nourishing blood into the mouth of a vampire of Nosferatu's descent, they quickly moved on to the next without explaining anything to the undead that slowly came to its senses, it could honestly be difficult to tell men and women apart when it came to the vampires associated with the strongest gravelord.
"Maliah, The Death Dealer, I can personally testify to her capabilities, we are in a business relationship however, and her taste for mass murder aligns her with our goals" he went on to explaining a few finer details, making Nosferatu raise an eyebrow, but once again, he did not stop Loimos.
"Rosemary, The Volcano Witch, she has already bested Unacunerra in a clash of zones and has yet to truly show the full extent of her capabilities, if I may ask, how would you deal with a highly destructive zone?" waking another vampire, they moved on to the next coffin, this one filled with a zombie,only requiring a whiff of miasma to get moving again.
The coffins were subject to specificities, capable of putting undeads into slumber, only allowing another undead to open them, if given the authorisation by the master of this tomb, namely, Nosferatu, it was an additional safety measure, but only the second option.
The first being a direct order of the king, which would make all the lids fly off on their own.
Those are generally used by mages, Unacunerra was always in charge of dealing with those if they got too close, but I personally just walk up to the caster anyways, none were nearly potent enough to stop me from moving or too get me to focus on regenerating, why bother learning a difficult technique or one of those counters when you can just be strong enough to not care?" he chuckled nastily, casually recounting how, arguably, the strongest and most difficult technique had never even fazed him.
But it made sense, Nosferatu was pretty much nothing but a close quarters fighter that used naught but his own fists and body, to still be the undeniable strongest of the gravelords meant that he had pushed it much beyond the limits.
Unacunerra had never encountered any living capable of beating him in terms of zone, so, was Rosemary's mastery great enough to even pin Nosferatu down?
"Syklon, or Lady Syklon, Storm Of Blade, is a remarkable user of battle arts, I was told that even during the war, not many used them, we have noticed that she moved to Tamaris, it would have been preferable had she remained on her own, but there is nothing that we could do to prevent it"
"That's it? Five of them?
I hope there are really much above the rest, but if the rest is to be quantified using those vampire hunters, being above that is not a tall order, seems like the peace has made life softer, this might have been what King Nitok was betting on, give them their victory, we drop into obscurity for thousands of years and come back when the prize is as easy to claim as it ever was…"
"Not a fan, but it definitely is a good course of action, especially if being sealed was inevitable, say, any ideas where Sun-Walker is?"
Loimos responded negatively, the whereabouts of the gravelord that lived in death were even less known than the rest, every undead worth their salt wanted to get their hands on him.
"Argh, no matter, it wouldn't be a challenging fight anyways, what about Thanatok Ynigós and Maiele Liameilos? Those guys should still be around" he asked, only to be met with another negative answer, any records of those two had ended exactly when the former had disappeared during the war, and exactly after the latter had sealed Nitok.
"Let me tell you about them, well, mostly about Ynigós, I fought him on multiple occasions, you kinda remind me of him by the way, your death force I mean, it is special like his life force was, you can manipulate your death force precisely, can't you?
Even us, who were chosen by deaths and were granted an avatar, we can not control death force in any way that matters, it is a rare skill, to manipulate one's most important essence"
"Ynigós is the only living to have ever manipulated life freely, and you must be the only undead with the capability to do so, although, that did not stop me, let me tell you how to properly deal with The First Death Hunter, I was not capable of defeating him, having seen his life up-close, I can guarantee you, he could not have died naturally"
And so he did, soon enough however, he moved on to the Elven Light.
"Maiele Liameilos, I honestly have a hard time quantifying her strength, one could tell that she was always holding back when fighting us vampires, always trying to lure us closer so that she could use her domain, did you know?
Domains are typically associated with zones, said to be innate powers in contrast to the learned zones, they are usually non-combat oriented however, and are rarely actual domain either, no idea what the guy that named that was thinking"
"Anyways, the problem with Liameilos is that her domain summons a sun, an actual sun, and after it is conjured up, she can used her energy outside of her body, which is, true sunlight, does not matter if if am stronger than her, she carries a one-hit KO around, and not just for vampires"
"And few of us gravelords could challenge her due to that"
The vampire lord scratched the side of his weirdly shaped head, then pointed at Loimos's chest.
"I have a good feeling about you skelly, Dracula already taught you didn't he? Let me show you why I am the strongest" he grinned tapping against the chestplate, the other firmly placed on the skeleton's shoulder.