Standing upon a tower of pure dark iron, a small one by undead standards, Loimos overlooked the organisation of both the platform surrounding Belliste, soon to become a fully encompassing ring wrapped around its barrier, as well as what was going on within the territory, although Loimos could not know everything, it would be a mistake to assume that he did not have eyes within, in the form of small birds and insects, controlled by ghosts he had trained in the ways of Körpersucher, inhabiting vessels that retained life force, none could suspect anything about them.
Tilmiel worried to prove that a group like the nightbirds was not superfluous, but Loimos had quite a fair bit of stealthy castes serving under him, many of which reported directly to him, and him alone, their ability to be even unknown by allies proving their competency in their respective fields.
Those information gatherers were certainly useful, but due to the fact they needed to be ghosts, and also trained in the ways of a gravelord meant that their numbers would never be exceptionally high, so their deployment would need to be strategic and well thought-out, Fin-Limiers and Nightbirds could fulfil these niches otherwise.
Thanks to all of them, he already knew about Horhir handling of the negotiation, Tilmiel's decision when made to chose something alone, the struggle in detecting the westerners, as well as Ourlst minute changes in strategy as time went on, all of them would come to report to him without knowing that it was nothing new to him, but once again, the possessers and Loimos would not always be there, so installing this routine was worthwhile.
Meanwhile, the minor lords and their increased troops had gone to conquer the nearby islands, each of them they had gone to picked by Loimos to be especially difficult or otherwise disadvantageous for each of them to deal with, but of course, one was not a minor lord by mistake, so they eradicated life with ease each time, also getting to learn about a bit of naval knowledge and most importantly, command a greater amount of troops, they were once used to small committees of warriors and adepts following them around, so getting true personal forces was a big leap, one none of them failed to make.
Loimos had also made sure to hook them all up with other undeads that could provide assistance, such as orchestrating for Ourlon to meet with Gharl, the two of them definitely sharing much things, and most importantly, Loimos had deemed that Ourlon's forces were the most fit to take upon the experimental weapons.
The champion paid extra attention to Ourlon, the strongest of the minor lords for a very specific reason, when the Tochian undead finished dealing with the islands assigned to him, he obviously came to report to Loimos.
Seemingly rather troubled by something, putting one knee on the ground, Ourlon bent his head down nearly as soon as he reached the top of the tower.
"General Loimos, I have come back from the mission given to me" he said "However, the last island was uninhabited, upon it, there was only a single construction overgrown with vegetation, a shrine whose architecture greatly reminded me of…" he marked a small pause.
"Tochian architecture, that is because it is" Loimos filled in the blank, having found and prepared everything himself, he knew every detail, much more than anyone else for now.
"...I see, there was a pulsating sphere within this shrine, reflecting images of somewhere else, it all seemed like familiar places built upon places I never saw before, I was tempted to touch, but wanted your opinion on the matter" Ourlon was naturally a bit disturbed, Tochi had already been conquered, it was undead territory now, the images he had seen however, were not places under undead occupation.
Loimos motioned for him to stand.
"You would be correct in believing that this portal leads to another place, however, it does not link to Tochi, I myself have stepped within, it is another realm, I have once been told that Tochi, or its ancestor had taken roots upon Viridis, but had migrated from elsewhere" the champion explained, Ourlon knowing this as well.
"As you know however, there are no nations like Tochi upon other continents, the first assumption would be that it was lost to time" he paused as Ourlon visibly realised something.
"General, do you believe that this realm is the origin of Tochi?" Loimos nodded affirmatively.
"I do, and from what I saw during my brief time within, it is a realm where battle arts rule supreme, as the only way of gaining power beyond the limits of the body and simple training, even the system does not work the same way there, not granting any stats or anything for that matter"
Ourlon remained silent, feeling certain in what he had been thinking.
"General, do you wish for me to spearhead the invasion in this realm?" from the very beginning, without truly knowing what it was, Ourlon had known that Loimos had not done things randomly, each minor lord was given a clear path to follow, a set amount of islands to deal with, he was meant to come upon this old relic.
"I want you to be the sole undead in charge of this conquest, this realm does not only restrict ways of expression power, but death has a weak reach there as well, the ones that will fight there need to be in tune with battle arts, there will no such thing as miasma and eternal darkness, it will be most typical warfare for us to engage in" said Loimos, indeed, no one seemed more qualified than Ourlon for this job.
"There, you shall be the visage of our empire, of death, you will be ruler and highermost leader"
"You will not participate, my general?" Ourlon was surprised.
"Indeed, not only are there dangers in the world that I must be on the look-out for, but I trust in your capacities, I have observed you in length, you have the ability to lead troops to victory"
"I will also trust you with commanding the nightbirds, they were trained with Tochian methods as well" Ourlon listened to Loimos's words.
"I don't know if I am worthy" he said, having the champion's trust was one thing, but he wasn't certain he trusted himself to take this mantle.
"There is only one way for you to decide" a simple remark from Loimos made Ourlon shudder, knowing well what this was referring to.
The pale blade poised himself, and drew his sword.
"Please, face me in battle, Sir Loimos!" the only way for Ourlon to know was to clash blades.
"Very well, cast duel of true skill" Loimos momentarily turned into a blur of rot, assuming the short-lived attire he had assumed during his time in Tochi, as he had faced off against Syklon's followers.
A great katana, dark and bearing reflections associated with the forging in the damascus style, this one with the auspicious pattern precisely, Loimos was going to use Harbinger's Harvest to assume a most perfected style of Tochian combat using the sword.
Ourlon was faced with an incredible opportunity, receiving guidance from Loimos was one thing, but getting to experience Harbinger's Harvest directly, even if in a limited form, was a treasure.
Ourlon doubted that his own swordsmanship was anywhere close to that of Loimos.
"I shall also scale down the strength of my regular, skeletal body, to match yours, for all intents and purposes, only skill matters here"
Ourlon had to stop himself from shuddering, it had been decades since he had experienced such a reaction, believing them to have disappeared alongside his life, but no, when Loimos directed his fighting intent at him, the fear of combat bloomed again like he was holding a blade to kill for the first time again.
"Come, face me Ourlon"
Pulled out of his reverie, the minor lord calmed himself down, he had to make full use of whatever time this fight would last for, he had to prove to himself that was worthy of trust from the champion of death.