"Unbelievable, the bright dastard was Thanatok Ynigós this entire time?" Nosferatu rubbed his bald head in thought.
"Truly so, they sounded and looked completely different, even without the shining body, but it is no wonder that the champion of life would be made into a gravelord immediately, especially if he willfully gave up on his life to become an undead, taking life's greatest warrior was an obvious choice to make" Dracula followed, each of the gravelords, advisors and minor lords were gathered together around a round table, inside a complete space of darkness, where only the dark stone of the table was spared from it.
King Nitok was silently overlooking the discussion, Loimos was standing by his side, having just finished sharing his findings regarding The First Death Hunter and Silvaram, The Primordial Tree.
His near victory was met with a lot of praise, but it was simply near, and there was never any hope of winning against Thanatok Ynigós for him, his mastery over death force was simply not up to par.
"He is a clear obstacle to our conquests, his erasure needs to be the first thing that we do" The Prince Of Death made it clear, he wanted him dead, The First Death Hunter might be wholly focused on himself, but he was one that never passed up an opportunity to exert the might of his life force.
"He has already set upon a place for a duel with Loimos, no one will be able to assist him, he won't let anyone spoil his fight, why not ambush him then?" Multaemanus immediately thought to simply attack him as a group when he would be by himself, this opportunity had not risen in the past, when the war was tumultuous from all sides and the king's dominion was always changing, shifting between expansion and recession.
In this day and age, the undead empire was at all times high, only Tamaris remained untouched by death, day by day, the oceans all around the continent were falling under rule of King Nitok, with eternal night settled in, vampires could go wherever they wished, the undead could move as they wished, while the living had to carry lights to see what was right in front of them.
Any sort of conflict would be in their advantage, as the hours went by, the bastions, forts and other landscaping projects were progressing at wild speeds, what the livings had seen previously were but mere piles of rocks and twigs compared to what was happening now, King Nitok's dominion reached all the way to the stars, and all the way to the bottom, so would his castles and forces.
In the embrace of the king's darkness, undeads naturally formed every second, they grew stronger faster, they saw everything more clearly, The Graveyard was hard at work as well, stirring souls and rebirthing undeads that had once been destroyed.
The Prince Of Death's rule could not be challenged, only Thanatok Ynigós held the power to now truly destroy an undead forever, his devouring life force the sole capable of extinguishing death force in its entirety now that the divine beast's power was unleashed.
King Nitok's vision from thousands of years ago had been fully realised, not only had he granted all undeads the perfect conditions to thrive, his forces were now on the verge of becoming completely and utterly eternal, his forces would never cease to grow, death would spread all over this world, all over the planes, all over the dimensions, and perhaps even beyond.
"That could most certainly work, however, he has settled in Tamaris, I do not cast doubt that Maiele Liameilos would not interfere in any circumstance, the others, I would not be so certain, they view him as their hope, the man that can fell the undead…" Vwoldtnir ground his teeth together.
"Indeed, they will watch this fight intently, and intervene with whatever means, but they won't do so for no reasons, they too are to know that intervention would mean a counterattack, as long as both sides only send the expected person and number, it shall remain a duel" Atsalinopalo added, whenever this fight would occur, both the living and dead would be held in suspense, waiting for the result.
"We could just attack them as the fight is occuring, split their focus and do as Multeamanus said anyways" Vespertillo scratched the side of his face.
"Perhaps, perhaps… But I say that we lay our trust in Loimos, to vanquish Ynigós in a one-on-one duel, it should stand to reason, he is the only one with the capacity to end him for certain, his life force is unending, only a similarly unending death force could overtake it" Nosferatu leaned on the table.
"The same is true in reverse…" Multeamanus rubbed two hands together.
"Of course, but think about it- If Loimos reaches the level to defeat him, and he does so witnessed by Tamaris, it should come to reason that they will realise that they must defeat him in priority, for he is the equivalent to The First Death Hunter on our side, they can not allow him to go after witnessing this, perhaps our good friend Thanatok is already singing about his upcoming battle with Loimos to them…" Nosferatu grinned toothily, one eyebrow slightly raised.
"I see… So you intend on not only having Loimos bury Ynigós on his own, but you also hope that he will gather the attention of a good deal of Tamaris strongest fighters as well?" Dracula rubbed his chin in thought, blood red eyes shining in the darkness.
"Which would then allow for the rest of us, and our forces to set out an assault on Tamaris with much less resistance, victory would be pretty much assured in one fell swoop then" Vwoldtnir acquiesced.
The spectre lord moved around a bit, one of her hands raising its index.
"That is a fine idea, but can Loimos reach a sufficient level to defeat him in good time? The First Death Hunter might be patient, but he will not wait for too long" she said, trusting that he could eventually do it, but believing that it would require too much time.
"Of course he can, he is the most fearsome undead of all, just look at him" Faraday spoke up after a long time of simply standing in silence, pointing at Loimos, who was just standing there like everyone else.
"His understanding of all his energies has reached a wholly impressive level in very little time, and I am certain that he has capacities still to be unravelled" Artencil added onto his fellow advisor unthought words.
"What do you have to say, Irmandos?" the zombie seer, cradling his own disembodied head stepped forward, flesh teeming with locusts, the sound of their buzzing heightening for a brief instant before coming to a halt.
"I will not say that my capacities have fully returned since my return in this plane, whoever, I do agree with the sentiment of my two associates, Loimos has a tighter link with death than any of us, he was capable of seeing me even as but a haunt following Quideos Audit…"
"...The potential bears no limits, it is up to us and him to stretch it out for the duel" he held his head up.
All turned to the king, who seemed to be deep in though, tapping his staff, he asked a question.
"When shall we set that duel for then? One year? Two years? Our enemies are under heavy pressure, life is swelling within them, their potential will come forth, in an attempt to save them from doom, we shall decide on a time that is the minimum possible to prevent the rise of any troublesome lot"
"So, let us discuss the matter of time, a subject we rarely care for" the king struck the ground with his staff, pointing at the first person to his right.
Everyone was to give their opinion.