"Aah, how cute you all are!
Loimos really is something else, back during the first war, undeads that sprouted from the ground like little blades of grass would have never progressed to such levels even in years, you know?" Unacunerra had discovered himself a new hobby after the great conquest, in his short life, which had ended so long ago that he could not even begin to count the years, he had never gotten the occasion to teach the younger generation and found it rather amusing.
Well, it was certainly less tedious to teach undeads than livings though, a newborn living and newborn undead were like night and day.
He found Loimos's latest caste of stealthy information gatherers and assassins to be especially interesting, it had all started from a single undead with particular capabilities, which the champion had discerned before the owner of said talents could, turning an undead that normally would have become one of a kind, an unique warrior amongst the vanguard, into the leader of specialised troop in little to no time.
Although many praised and admired his overwhelming strength, but it was probably his outstanding management of the vanguard that was most impressive, the rank and file, as well as black knights were the bread and butter of Loimos's forces, they were the core, what was most important even if the less impressive, one might make the mistake of focusing too much on the stronger castes, or focusing too much on the regular ranks, even if not the intention, it could easily happen.
It was also one of the reasons why Unacunerra had travelled here, the vanguard was rather unseen on the mainland, but he had heard echoes of their incredible progress, in spite of Loimos not actively aiding in it, he wanted to see for himself how this all worked.
For now, he analysed the inner workings of the nightbirds, as well as how Horhir was faring in this mission, the right hand was more geared toward head-on conflict, and was thus made to fight only with nasty tricks and negotiations, he had proved that he could do the latter already, but the former, although implemented as intended, had been wholly ignored and thus, mostly useless.
"Sir Unacunerra, it is an honour to have you here!" the lieutenant was naturally intimidated, facing Loimos had become easy as he saw him many times and had learned to know that his general was the textbook definition of undead, but he had never had the occasion of conversing or even meeting another illustrious figure of the empire, he did not know what kind of person the royal guard was, why he was here for exactly, or the amount of decorum required to communicate.
If Horhir could sweat, Poitirus would have had a new underwater region to explore.
"Relax, would you? I am the one who will scan the earth for those hidden, hollow spaces, we shall see together whether that theory of yours was correct!" jested Unacunerra, he knew very well that the undead's idea was the right one, Loimos had confirmed it.
It was just that the ways to check this fact normally available to him were not capable of seeing through the concealment put in place by the easterners, and although it was good for the lieutenant to encounter some struggle, it would be counterproductive to just let him run in circles trying to solve a problem he did have the means to solve, especially when he already figured out the answer.
Putting the end of his staff upon the ground, which Unacunerra had also upgraded since last time, he brought one of his palms upon the top of it, pushing with little force into the soil, ever-so casually casting a series of spell without saying a word or even letting it show in any way, scanning the earth using multiple different means, he had to agree that whatever the feasters had used, was much more advanced than one would expect from cannibals living in caves and whose culture revolved around eating.
Pulling the staff out of the ground, Unacunerra looked around at the expectant undeads, certainly hoping for the underground theory to be true.
"May I have a quill and map?" he asked, Tilmiel pulling both out in an instant, for what reason the nightbird held onto a quill definitely too small for her huge hands to use, nobody knew but she had them.
"Ah, very nice cartography, as good as it can get using a flat model and without special means" he commented whilst drawing over the piece of paper, pointing out every single hollow spaces he had detected, minus the ones already documented obviously, there were quite a few caverns below, but a few had gotten his attention especially much.
For the royal guard, titled as 'The Earthen Catastrophe', making such researches was especially easy, he often did some purely for the sake of it, checking on what madness the architects were up to below ground, so although exceptional, the simple fact that certain areas were harder for him to sense was a huge red flag, once he managed to break past these barriers, he was able of confirming what Horhir and Tilmiel had theorised.
"A fair bit of those caves are actually quite lush and home to their own, diverse ecosystems, it looks like immense jungles to me for the most part, multiple of them, separated by large distances and often not even linked through any passages, were protected from detection in a curious manner" pointing them out on the map with his bony finger, Unacunerra explained.
"This one, this is where the livings are hiding" his finger moved over to one of the largest, somewhat shaped like the number eight, or like an hourglass perhaps.
The royal guard explained that it was rather deep and that there were no way to access it without digging, it had clearly once been accessible from the surface, through a series of caves and such, but it had all collapsed and been blocked off, presumably by the livings in prevision to use this space as a place to retreat to.
"Do be careful though, the fauna and flora down there is unique, this means that a certain someone will come and grab you if you damage the environment too much, but well, it is not for now, I am not allowed to just open the way for you guys" he shrugged.
"Loimos is going to test your capacity to organise a team of miners and diggers, and also, don't forget about the Western Cliffs" saying all of this with his index drawing circles in the air, Unacunerra began walking away as Horhir thanked him for the assistance.
'Mmh, well then, I guess I'll go check out those pyromancers next then…'