Unsheathing her twin scimitars, Ir'Houwl manifested her innate ability, dark red sands appearing all around her in a swirling fashion, the speed at which it spun and appeared increasing second by second, until finally, a sufficient amount had been summoned, she controlled part of it to move toward the water.
To do so, she was moving her body in some sort of dance, her movements a mix of fluid motions, abrupt stops and turns, all the while with blades of black stone in her hands, now, Ir'Houwl was uniquely suited for this job because of her innate ability, which was still far from reaching its full potential, although the appearance and colour of her red sand would not change, it could switch between multiple types.
At the moment, she only had access to three, the most important perhaps, her sands could either, drain water in the surroundings, drain blood, or drain mana, here, the first sort was in use obviously, absorbing the water of Mistdrown, creating depressions on the surface of the water.
The lake shuddered, the mist seeming to stop and turn to the source of the disturbance, fog gathered, around the desert undead, attempting what it had always done when someone dared to threaten the lake in any sort of way, trying to drown her.
The mist being floating moisture, it was absorbed by the sands still swirling around her, not to mention that trying to drown something which did not breathe was a useless affair, although she made sure not to get wet as her body might suffer from damage if suddenly hydrated a great deal.
The drained water could not be returned, and the sands would not break down no matter how much they drained, unless completely submerged and made to absorb too much at once, all of this, Loimos had heard directly from the minor lord, originally from Pezerx, where draining the water from someone, even if only a bit was already enough to bring them down, and where water was not exactly overflowing, she had had to do some tests when outside of the sandy expanses.
Ir'Houwl kept on focusing, until she noticed the mist growing darker, reacting to the approach of its master, further away into the lake, water rippled gently, all life living within the waters was still, frozen in place as the protector moved in what must have been years.
One hand reached from below, landing on the surface as though it was solid ground, rugged and rough, the arm attached to that hand was thin, yet stalwart, seemingly formed from solid rock, a shade of pale blue.
The second hand soon came, and Mist-Drowned, or so he had been titled, propped himself up from the lake, standing tall on the waters, walking on it without disturbing it in the least, not even an inkling of ripple followed his steps.
As Loimos had remembered, the beings life force was of great quality, not quite on the level of The First Seed, of the hidden tree and not even close to the blast he had received at Ircron, but it was definitely much higher than the norm, holding a special quality to it, life flowed through this body was especially suited for this environment, like he had been moulded by the lake itself, or as though the lake was but an extension of Mist-Drowned.
He stood at a tall height, a head above Loimos, his face was not proportioned like that of a regular person, longer and learner, a clear absence of any physical attributes that were to go on a visage, only a few stray algae growing from his chin.
Not speaking a word, unclear if that was even in his capacity, mist suddenly gathered all around his body, shrouding him and dispersing, revealing him gone from where he had stood, reforming from mist closer to Ir'Houwl, stepping forward with a stomp, bringing his fist down.
Uncaring from the sand spinning all around her, stepping to the side, the minor lord slashed both of her blades at the side of the guardian, leaving shallow gashes, revealing that his insides seemed to just be solid rock as was his exterior.
She stepped back, Loimos right by her, unnecessarily coughing like imitating a clear of the throat, she spoke up.
"Guardian of this lake! My general wishes to make you an offer" she looked at Loimos as if trying to probe his reaction, a meaningless act.
"Nature is changing its course, moving over from reliance on life, to relying on death, this is King Nitok's will, and it can not be stopped, do you yield?" Loimos did his usual speech, he had done it to a few other natural guardians of other biomes, though Mist-Drowned was clearly a completely different breed.
He was not a spirit of nature, who did not see much of a difference between life and death, those spirits were made into vampires using Atsalinopalo's blood, as for the being in front of him, it seemed more like defending this place was a choice it had made rather than being bound to it in some sort of way.
So negotiating with it was doomed to be another matter entirely, so instead of parading Yuolrt around to show that the dead did have some care for nature, he had taken this occasion to drag Ir'Houwl out of the sand she buried herself in for some reason.
Mist-Drowned stood still, his featureless face directed at him, tilting from right to left, left to right, right to right and left to left, like a curious canine, until cranking the neck way too much to the right, back of the head laying against his own torso.
"I am Poitirus, king of this lake, its founding deity" thankfully, by way of the old gift of comprehension granted upon Viridis, the undeads could make sense of what would have otherwise been gargling with a throat full of holes.
"General Loimos, I think this guy is a bit insane, mad, or nutty if you will…" she whispered in death tongue, feeling like making herself small and hiding behind Loimos.
"Greetings your majesty, I am Loimos, royal courier in service of King Nitok's Prince Of Death, King Nitok is also the lord of Faraday, a godslayer, I do believe my king is no less of status as you are?"
Loimos presented himself, Poitirus twisted his neck back in place.
Remaining silent for a few more moments, Poitirus spoke again.
"I can live forever, why bow to death then? I am divine, I am to never die"
"If you are to be the new order, then defeat me, prove to me that your king is superior" the lake's king was coated in mist once more, the lake's water rousing from its bed.
This certainly explained why King Nitok's dominion was not naturally taking over this lake, Poitirus was in possession of a domain, and one that he had been nurturing for countless years.
"Stay in support Ir'Houwl, focus your sand on draining his mana" appearing right before Loimos, Poitirus was surging with potent mana, his rough hand morphing into a blade, which was stopped by the undead.
Grabbing the supposed lake-god's forearm, the arm began to rot in its entirety.
Loimos was not limited today however, his grip could not be broken out off, and just , red sand swarmed all around Poitirus, devouring his mana.
With a swing of his other arm, he chopped it off and dissolved into the mist, his lost limb regrowing at a slow rate.
Looking up, Poitirus seemed to take from the lake, his presence surging, a spear piercing the waters and arriving in his hand.
The spear's shaft seemed constructed from the same matter of the lake king's body, crowned with a pointy dark blue crystal, seemingly formed from some sort of variation of water mana.
He jumped back onto the center of the lake, and without hesitation, Loimos walked toward him, walking upon the surface of the lake, pungent blood solidifying beneath his feet, the war scythe manifesting in his hand, followed by a steady stream of red sand.