It was a nightbird, a small undead girl as they tended to be, garbed in a feathery cloak not bearing any one avian's plumage specifically, her flesh looking like it would slide off of her bones at any time, even more sludge-like than the two knights own bodies.
"Go ahead" after a moment, Ourlst spoke up, it was always a bit strange to technically be the most important decision-makers in the vanguard, their fellow undeads would always await for permission to speak and be awfully cordial, which was only natural, as they were filling in Loimos's shoes.
"Lord Herlbe has successfully subjugated the leaders within his assigned realm, a viscacha calling herself Tsarina Delelgoliol'Erstvourst Von Hartracite with the innate ability to bring her imagination into reality and a giant crab called Tsar Pangea'Kalst, both were killed and turned into undeads, securing dominance over the rest of the realm's inhabitants" she began.
"He believes that the realmnites could be valuable as living soldiers, as they are naturally powerful and prone to blindly follow those they perceive as stronger than themselves, however, they suffer from a distinct lack of energy exposure due to the environment of their realm" receiving detailed explanations, Horhir looked at Ourlst.
"If Lord Herlbe says so, then it surely is the case… I will go and check that out immediately- But do we have anything already available capable of dealing with their energy problem? After all, the Emerald Realm was also thriving with ambient energies, and their unique behaviour might actually make their issue worse" the right hand wondered.
"You ought to ask Grilt or Alisiana, they are always well-informed on potential new livings to educate, they probably already know about each of the realms and have devised ways to aid in their teachings… I'll stay here and oversee any progress in the meanwhile" Ourlst spoke up, turning his head to look at the black board and the many other pieces of paper displaying all sorts of gathered intel.
"Very well, please lead the way!" the nightbird rose up and using a small, round charm, opened a jaw-like portal through oblivion.
Which took them both to the island with the portal to Herlbe's assigned realm in little time, the place had already been invested by the druids that had stayed behind instead of joining Yuolrt's expedition and the architects, already rambling about the most nonsensical of building ideas, nonsense which would be brought into existence as they knew no limits.
The nightbird did not stop walking and went right into the portal, it was actually Horhir's first time venturing into another realm, these strange spaces that could sometimes pass off as off-shoot worlds or simply as bizarre biomes.
Although the scenery and different areas in the empire were far from not utterly odd, it was certainly novel for the right hand as he bore witness to the gigantic white star in the sky, the brittle pale grass and city of bleached stone.
'Oh boy, the architects are going to have a field day' new types of building methods and material was just more fuel to the eternal flames alimenting their creativity that had since long stepped into the domain of madness.
Surprisingly, the city looked intact, in its center, a tall menhir thrusted into the sky, but the signs of conflict were visible in other ways, as quite a few undeads originating from its realm were wandering around amidst their still living fellows, their bodies were most definitely geared toward combat, big and stronger, sometimes sporting additional limbs, tails always ending with some sort of thagomizer or mace-like protuberance, their heads were large but not to accommodate for a larger brain as they skulls were incredibly dense.
Their bones and flesh in general were of a great quality favouring both great stamina and explosive might, unlike the livings they were currently sourcing their soldiers in white from, these people were all born warriors, fit to be sent on the frontline to die in the name of the glorious undead empire.
"Lord Herlbe! I see that you did not waste any time"
"That, I did not" the revenant was sitting on the hill overlooking the city, the only of his warriors directly nearby being the rabid werewolf, foaming at the mouth as per usual, and also at every other hole in his putrefied carcass.
"You seem a bit despondent" remarked Horhir.
"Lord Herlbe has just realised that he needed to organise the population, do a population census, lead the gathering and explorations for new materials and the likes…" whispered the nightbird as she propped herself up on the knight's shoulder for a few moments.
"Ah…" in short, Herlbe had gone in high spirits for slaughter and combat, completely forgetting that the job of conquest went beyond the waging of war and achieving victory, there was a reason that that conquest and war were different aspects of the apocalypse, and that was because they weren't the same thing, at all.
Conquest involved every small detail and all manners of bringing a population or area under one's control, whilst war was the most final and destructive of these manners.
The revenant was more habilitated for striking problems until they stopped being issues, now, he was stuck doing maths and filling in reports about every single blade of grass that was slightly different.
Horhir could understand, he too wasn't exactly keen on such affairs, but he had the advantage of having Ourlst by his side who revelled in them, unlike Herlbe who had surrounded himself with pure warriors, coordinating with the undead explorers and researchers was perhaps a greater challenge than the fights he had gone through lately.
"Welp… I have gathered a bunch of these guys, don't worry about running out of them, if they aren't eating, unloading their bowels or fighting, they are making babies, and may death be my witness, the little dastards grow awfully fast" explained the minor lord, beckoning the gathered livings to come closer.
"Idiots, this is Horhir, a lieutenant of the vanguard, one of the two most important in fact, he is the biggest authority when General Loimos isn't around"
"Sir Herlbe, he looks small and weak!" the blue-skinned guy who spoke up was slapped behind his head by the werewolf, who was threatening to hit again if he dared to open his big mouth again.
"Heh, they are expendables anyways- Horhir, this guy is one of the strongest, punch him dead to assert dominance, those fools don't understand any other way" truly, it was a testament to their sheer strength as to how they had managed to be the leading force of this realm even before Hartracite took the lead, if humans were like that, they would have been fighting for cave space with goblins instead of spreading everywhere.
"Mmh… I do hope Grilt and Alisiana will manage to get into their heads still, then" they exchanged in death tongues, the knight stepped forward and slightly jumped up to uppercut the blue fool's head off his shoulders.
"Bleh… The guys of the church could turn a regular plant into a zealous follower of death" ignoring the awed realmnites who looked as their brethren head spun through the air, spraying a jet of blood as it went.
Gaining their respect and loyalty was as easy as that.