Tsarina Delelgoliol'Erstvourst Von Hartracite, of her full name and title, definitely didn't fit the part to be the ruler of a species that favoured physical strength over everything else, small, delicate, and even speaking in a rather refined language, everything from her hairstyle to the way she dressed just said that she would be more at home as precious little princess safely kept hidden in a castle.
Typically the type Herlbe could see getting pat on the head by King Nitok and Faraday, those ancient skeletons never said it, but they definitely had a soft spot for small and cute things, the revenant did not quite get it himself, as the entire place began to rumble, he swung his metal claws at the Tsarina, although hard to believe, she had to be the actual boss around these parts, and so, he expected her to dodge with remarkable agility or turn incorporeal perhaps, but no.
Herlbe felt like he struck a block of condensed iron of the same quality as his own claws, his strike not going any further than the surface of the living's coat.
"I can not tell if you are surprised due to that hideous face of yours- Faces? But you must certainly be intrigued as to why your brute force can not even budge me…" Herlbe just striked again, his left arm equipped with the claws lashing out dozens of times in a few mere seconds, slashing marks appearing on the ground due to the sheer residual force left as each of his hits landed on the Tsarina.
"Mmh… So it wasn't a one time thing?" he still wasn't sensing anything, no energy usage or the likes, so he guessed that this could only mean one thing, an innate ability, he himself possessed two of those, it could be something other than that but it would still land within the spectrum of inborn traits, which he all considered to be basically the same.
"It is not! And avoid speaking over me- You can not harm me because unlike the fools outside, I do not rely on my arms and legs to be powerful, but on this" she pointed at her own head.
"A jester, are we? I am obviously pointing to my brain! This is where true strength lies, in the mind, the power of imagination! You see, I simply imagined myself to be as tough as the most resilient rock of my palace times ten as I knew that you wouldn't be capable of cutting it-"
A deep gash appeared across her body, spurting with blood as she just looked down at it.
"Thanks for the info, guess I'll strike you like I am trying to cut that most resilient rock times eleven" he chuckled, of course messing around as he had no idea how though that particular rock may be, he just based his strength on the regular stone he had encountered until then and cranked up the required force to cut it way up.
"You foul- If you could strike harder, then you should have done so from the beginning! Were you going easy on me?! May you be damned, I am Tsarina Delelgoliol'Erstvourst Von Hartracite, there is no one stronger than me in this world"
"You mean this realm?"
"You can not just use a synonym and act like there is a difference" in the blink of an eye, all of her injuries were gone, and so was the blood spilled, although he had definitely cut her deep enough to separate into multiple pieces, but she had stayed as one and even managed to step back without problem, all that without a loss of any life force.
"...I almost forgot, I need to introduce the empire to you" changing subject as he realised that he hadn't preached to her yet, Herlbe spouted the usual.
"I am Herlbe, Minor Lord in service to His Majesty- The Prince Of Death, King Nitok, I can assure you that death is a much better plane of existence than life, would you mind surrendering and dying, becoming part of our glorious empire?"
"I don't know why we even bother"
The revenant kicked off the ground, thrusting his claws forward, which failed to pierce the living at first, until he adjusted his strength to overpower the heightened resistance, only for the tsarina to casually step away and unlodged the selectively sharp edge from her body without as much as a wince, holding out one hand forward, a spew of liquid lava emerged, striking the undead's chest like a jet of condensed water.
Impacting against the lengthy chain wrapped around his torso, he just brute force through the attack and struck the living again, her body tougher than before but his strength properly adjusted already, reaping one arm that quickly reappeared right back in place as the opponent decided that she would rather not be standing on the ground, rising up into the air.
Herlbe leapt up after her immediately, but instead struck a wall that popped into existence and which stayed perfectly in place despite being linked to nothing but empty space, still, the minor lord punched a hole right through it, greeted by a hail of swords on the other side, a few managing to leave small cuts upon his rotten flesh, it seemed like she was already getting the hang of his durability.
Next, a perfect sphere of lava enclosed him, making his cold body go warm in what must have been hundreds of years, if not thousands.
'Mmh… Is there a cost associated with her ability? There definitely seems to be limitations but…' not quite pressed by being submerged in lava, the undead, swung both arms and forced himself out of there, grasping onto one of the menhir's walls as he and Tsarina Delelgoliol'Erstvourst Von Hartracite exchanged a glance.
With a small gesture of his right hand, a chain lunged forward, piercing right through the living's chest, where Herlbe knew her heart to be, but once again, she showed little reaction to the mortal wound, her expression only telling that she wasn't pleased with getting hit, even as another movement from the undead shredded her in half, ruining heart and lungs.
She was back to normal in an instant, motionlessly conjuring a dozen actual living beings in existence, all already lunging for Herlbe, each of them looked much like other realmnites, their gazes and expressions full of life and personality.
"Hold on… This is a magnificent power! Say, how long can those guys remain in existence?" not bothered by having a whole bunch of powerful beings try to pin him down, he instead threw a question at the Tsarina.
"They will stay for as long as I don't erase them" she replied, clearly very smug about it.
"Wonderful!" making use of one of his two innate abilities, Herlbe's entire body seemed to ignite with power as he erupted with pure, physical force, shredding the imagined beings to pieces all while using the boost that gave him to launch himself off the wall, knocking the living back to the ground and a downward strike.
It was certainly impressive, although he could not fly or float, Herlbe had so much strength in his limbs that even without proper footing, he could stop all momentum in mid-air with a simple swing.
"Though- I can't help but notice that I can still harm you even as you increase your defences… Could it be that you can't go too high in resistance in one go?"
"If you can strike harder, then why did you not hit me at full force from the very beginning?"
Both just threw a question at one another, neither intent on replying.
The entire place began to shake again, clearly rising up from the ground.
"It would be a pain to rebuild anything down there, let us fight higher"