He had expected stronger consequences for his messing up of what had to be a complicated plan to put into place, whether or not the lack of food, the people leaving and subsequent blizzard had somehow been orchestrated as well or were a coincidence that had been taken advantage of, Alkayne would have to ask the thinking head about it, but in any case, maintaining multiple villages and nurturing this belief that the church was their saviour and only reason accursed had not devoured them only for a few people to offer themselves up by wanting to the join the church every once in a while…
Even with the dozens of villages Alkayne had found and subsequently emptied of their populations, it couldn't be that efficient, it was indeed likely that a large bulk of the wandering accursed had been created ten years ago, perhaps hinting that these villages had once been much larger in population.
After multiple weeks of daily extermination and having turned many villages into ghost towns, Alkayne still hadn't seen any retribution or even attempt to stop him, the church members present in the village would always try to fight but their numbers were always about the same, nuns, priests, and less than five paladins every time, oftentimes, there would only be a single one of them.
'Does he not care that I am dismantling everything? Or perhaps he believes those villages are obsolete to whatever plans he has? It has been ten years since the curse appeared, after all… Maybe he already has what he needs?' although Alkayne could not be certain, it made the most sense for Janus to be the one leading this whole operation, he was a blessed one and the minor lord, having been near him on multiple occasions, could tell that the pope was not a mere figurehead, he was clearly powerful and intelligent.
Having been the pope since well before the curse struck, it was highly unlikely that he wouldn't have realised something was off, or that he wouldn't have found at least one of the remaining villages, after all, being a virtuous man, he would have naturally sought to rescue survivors, unless he had other plans for them, of course.
It was the dead of night as Alkayne wondered about all of this, the last few days had yielded no results in more villages, his troops were only hunting the wandering accursed, which was also yielding less results as their amounts had already severely decreased, because of course, nothing could compare to undead efficiency, even in such arduous terrain and faced with a challenge that most would rather shrug at let be, they performed exceptionally well.
And this was with just part of the forces of a single minor lord, indeed, this level of greatness could only be replicated by the other superpowers, perhaps.
Looking out of the one-way glass, this night was surprisingly calm, the blizzard was mostly absent, instead gentle snow was slowly falling, no hail or freezing bursts of winds to be seen, the incandescent roof above and below Alkayne did not have much work to do, which was no problem, like everything they built, it could go on and function unto eternity without a hitch.
In fact, he guessed this fort would probably remain there even after the realm was fully conquered, crossing his arms, in an unusual manner, he was only wearing the lower portion of his armour, having only slipped out of bed recently, as per usual, Jiji required some special attention after he returned from expedition, Cecili had left afterwards to go and hand out a report, he certainly hoped that her own, personal reports wouldn't include the kind of activities the three of them engaged in much too often.
He sincerely hoped that Jiji's craving would subside when she would become an undead, but he wasn't very optimistic on that front.
'I should probably get her to find herself another hobby-' thinking this, he noticed something and turned to the window opposite to him.
Without a smidge of hesitation, he kicked off the ground, bursted right through the window, his shoulder tackling a figure that had been aiming to do the same thing in reverse, but of course, the glass was tainted from their side, having thus failed to spot the undead rushing straight at them.
The sound of iron being bent rang out into the night, as the figure was thrown back, still managed to land upon the searingly hot roof of the bastion, their snow-white robe fluttering back wildly, mere contact of the fabric with the incandescent iron set it aflame, forcing the invader the discard it, revealing a tall and large body covered in a heavy suit of pale steel.
Of course, this realm also had its own ores, although the inhabitants could hardly ever mine them due to the conditions, only surface deposits could be gathered by the livings, its usage was rare however, as carved stone worked just fine for the regular folks, so only the paladins used it.
The dire coldness this material emitted would give pause to most, but as an undead, that was also attuned with the cold in particular, Alkayne didn't have to worry about frost forming upon his body after contact.
Garbed in a great helm, the paladin resembled more-so a crusader.
The minor lord recognised the life force as belonging to one of Janus's personal guards.
There were hardly any doubts about the pope's involvement now.
"Where is the other one?" inquired Alkayne, half as a real question, half as a provocation as it implied that one wasn't enough to threaten him, not that doubling his opponent could worry the zombie, Alkayne hadn't even had to use Ierpalam or any of the equipment granted by General Loimos yet, even if pushed back, he had plenty of reserve.
The armoured warrior did not respond and instead unsheathed a blade that truly put the broad in broadsword, its surface gleaming with the same shine as the suit of armour, the length of the handle could almost make this sword into a spear.
Indeed, compared to the other paladins, the two that had accompanied the pope were an entirely different breed, they were definitely elites, and if that guy was also an accursed, then Alkayne knew to expect an increase in power at one point or another, if the transformation hadn't already occurred beneath that helm.
Meanwhile, Alkayne was only wearing half of his own armour, and hadn't even picked up his halberd, and yet, he casually descended the slope of the hot roof toward the living.
Without any further word between the two knights, they moved forth aimed to seize the initiative.