"Archbishop Joala, was an agreement reached?" a young priestess, her cheeks and tip of her nose pinkish, next to her, Muspuella, the arch-paladin was standing robustly.
"Once again, just call me Joala, I am your aunt" Joala brushed her hand through the priestess's short blonde hair.
"And no, we still can't agree on anything of our own, half of us want to make moves of our owns, the other half want to wait for Tamaris to lead the way, no matter how many councils we call for, we won't be able of going anywhere" responding to the question, Joala walked out of the central church followed closely by the other two.
Even though the church of Phanes was in a position of power at the moment, the holy life they wielded was the best weapon Millipolo held against the undead threat, still, Joala was not the head of the church, and despite being in a good position to actively fight back, the council of popes could not fall into agreement.
No matter how many times they gathered to discuss this exact topic, it would not change.
"Do we really have to stand still? We could just act on our own…"
"Ilimine, just having a good affinity for holy life does not mean that you can just walk all over the undeads, to be efficient and not take unnecessary risks, we would need to have greater numbers and also be coordinated with the other churches, as it stands however, many want to do something, but can't, even though the most powerful of our enemies could surely-" Joala stopped, Ilimine looked around confusedly and Muspuella, retrieved two maces.
The current times did not call for idyllic walks, as such, the streets had been uncharacteristically empty in the past two months, the young priestess did not quite understand what the other two were tensing up for, but soon enough, she followed their gazes.
Which were focused on a wall further on the right, not even an alley or up at the roofs, no, directly at a wall.
And soon enough, the answer showed itself, as a pale, translucid hand reached out through the wall, then another, and then a head, something pulled itself into the street, oozing some sort of liquid, stepping forward, turning dark as the ghostly figure became solid, allowing one to more easily recognise the features.
"Ah, I heard of this one… The executioner?" refugees had managed to make their way here, and it was of this undead that they spoke of the most.
A polearm manifested seemingly out of thin air.
"Archbishop Joala, of the church of Phanes" he retrieved a rolled up scroll from one of his pockets.
He showed it off for a few moments, demonstrating that it was just a regular scroll before throwing it over at the group of three, Joala caught it, opening it without fear.
It was a finely written, formal proposal from King Nitok, to meet and discuss with the council.
"King Nitok is a merciful monarch, allegiance to a god of life does not bother him, for as long as you accept his gift" Loimos explained, seemingly unbothered by the fact that Millipolo was filled to the brim with holy life.
As Joala thought, the greater undeads held little weakness for the holy and even if more efficient, holy life was adjacent and only true life force would remain as a bane, for one holding such powerful death within, Loimos was unaffected by holy life that was not actively made to attack him.
"What if they refuse?" she asked, the undead was standing well over twenty meters away from the trio, unmoving and keeping a neutral posture, his intentions unreadable, but the scroll did appear legitimate.
And she had received word from Tamaris that the executioner actually went by as royal courier, so delivering messages was actually his main job.
"Millipolo will be annihilated" he simply responded, a shadow washing over the undead.
Without moving his head, he raised his war scythe, blocking a heavy strike from behind.
"What is it Archbishop Joala?" the crusader asked, moving around the still undead.
"You're not supposed to attack the messenger" she said, beckoning to move away from Loimos.
"Does that count when the messenger is an undead of this calibre?" Thomas was surprised, he had really struck hard, but it seemed like the royal courier had been aware of the crusader's presence the entire time and had already been expecting an attack.
"If your council agrees, be certain to hoist a blue banner near the northern entrance of Millipolo, if your council disagrees, hoist a red banner instead, if no banners are erected for one month from now on, it will be considered a refusal" completely ignoring the attack he had just been a victim of, Loimos elaborated on the details.
"Excuse me mister undead…" everyone felt like slapping their own faces, what sort of way of addressing anyone was that?
"...But would your king agree to still have livings around or not?" and as per usual, Loimos answered truthfully.
"All life will have to be exterminated, but a temporary agreement could possibly be made, it is for King Nitok to decide, all of your faiths will be preserved, for even the very gods shall embrace the gift of undeath" making this most worrying remark, Loimos extended his wings.
Taking off with a burst of wind, he quickly disappeared from view once again as he flew right through the barrier and into the cover of the clouds.
"We could have taken him out right there and then" the crusader sheathed his greatsword, only then ceasing the circulation of his holy energy.
"I wouldn't be so certain about this Thomas, he entered Millipolo completely unnoticed, if one can do it, then more probably can as well, the council better think about this one deeply" Joala looked down at the scrolls and rolled her eyes.
"I guess we're going back to the main church…"
"This one can phase through solid objects though, our barrier might not hurt greater undeads, but it is like a solid wall, they can't have too many ghosts and such, right?" Muspuella remarked.
"You guys are way too hopeful, this is a losing war, we are fighting for a chance to not be erased from the face of this world" Joala grumbled, looking back at the sky.
She remembered a discussion she had had quite a few years ago when she was still a little priestess with puffy cheeks, back then, Latir-e-se, ghoul hunter had come to check out the Gruyere Plains like many others during that time, the difference was that she saw something and was not blinded forever by it, a stroke of luck she said.
Saying that a grand-ghoul resided under the earth and that all should be dissuaded from investigating this forsaken place, her exact words had been:
"The thing below, it's one of the most horrifying monsters in existence" Latir-e-se had not known all the finer details at the time, but before the pulse spread and the undead empire appeared, the death huntress had come by again to elaborate further.
Joala shook her head.
"We are severely outmatched, don't bother imagining a bright future, even if we don't lose, it will be bleak"