The sea of dust and bones, which had not even been graced with a name by the livings, was somewhat similar to a desert, all things considered, only that all points of interest were bones, off all sizes and shapes, but bones, all of them were a pristine white, as though impossible to sully.
Loimos could sense that the skeletons that could see on the surface were only the tip of the iceberg, many more were buried much further below ground, and sometimes, list amidst the dust, one might find objects that were not bones, but the clothes, weapons and other personal belongings of livings who had once walked the very same spots as the two of them were currently going through.
The restless that had killed them must have had no use in whatever they were carrying and simply left these items where they had fallen, free to be slowly eroded and consumed by the elements, of which, there wasn't much, actually.
The split blue sun shone its light down on the endless expanse, but it carried no warmth, no heat or cold in fact, their temperature was still, stagnant here.
Gusts of winds could occur, but were rare, carrying dense amounts of soul energy with them, as for weather events, they didn't seem to be par for the course, as there were no clouds to be seen floating in the sky, the fractured sun was all there was up there, apart perhaps, from the occasional flying restless soaring through the air.
Unlike undeads of Loimos's sort, they had an obvious weakness that could not really be covered up, which was the fact that their true body was their soul and that they had to use it to control their bodies, meaning that inflicting damage upon their physical bodies could also deal damage to their souls.
Moreover, a restless's soul was kept from breaking down by the body they formed, so they risked leaking parts of their souls when their bones were broken, all in all, they could not make full use of their undead status due to the manner in which they became one, such issues would have to be addressed once their kind was officially attached to the empire, they had potential thanks to their connection with the soul and ability to strike it with each and every one of their attacks.
Still, this was all to be thought about once this realm was made appropriate for the empire to settle down in, as it stood, death needed to be spread, and that, until miasma could appear without falling apart, this was how they gauged when a realm that rejected their way of death was giving in to their influence.
"I guess that you want to recruit those restless fellows to slaughter a good portion of those soul guys?" asked Maliah, not sure about the point of this, since they could have easily done a massacre back when they were within their walls, the place was filled with weaklings that could be killed in a single strike.
"Indeed, that is the idea, although, during my information gathering prior to bringing you in, I have also heard that the restless had a king, and I would like to speak with him, a regal figure like that would surely not see too kindly to becoming vassal to another undead king, especially without knowing anything about the disparity in their respective strength" he explained, and Maliah had to agree, she tended to forget it, but the invasion and conquest like by the undead were rarely all about brute force, they sought to make the livings 'see the truth' or whatever, and to do so, making the process of their death not quite as gruelling, or plant seeds of doubt within their minds about the nature of death was a big part of their job as well.
Maliah herself would rather just murder everyone and let them see for themselves how much better those idiots would feel as undeads, but she was no diplomat.
"And you know anything about this so-called restless king?"
"Not much, only that he sometimes go by the titles of 'Golden Lord' or 'King Of Flies', his actual name, if he has any, was never mentioned and his abilities can only be inferred through his titles, as I was unable to get intel from one who has actually seen or fought him, only the ancients of the livings have done so, and they rarely come out"
The living and undead masquerading as living had been walking right next to the gargantuan remains of some sort of bear-like creature, having been moving right next to the bones of its arms for the past few days or so, and when they finally moved past the very tip of its white claws, their eyes fell on what was within a hole, a depression within the dust plains.
There, an enormous trees stood, leafless, its bark, branches, its everything was a pristine white, its roots could be seen coiling and emerging from the ground in certain areas, its idea of fruits, were the rotting corpses of livings hanging from its branches.
On a closer inspection, it was clear that they hadn't been hung by an outside force, bony vines were instead wrapped around their necks, chests, or ankles instead, these remains hadn't even been stripped of their clothes or weapons, seemingly indicating that it was the tree itself who had slain them.
Which made sense, for it was a restless.
At the foot of this tree, was another restless, humanoid in shape, only that they didn't follow the conventions of a skeleton at all, it looks more like bones had been melted and shaped into the guise of an emaciated, slender figure, their face naught but a single, gaping hole within which soul energy nestled and festered.
They were also wearing clothes, certainly scavenged from the cadaver of a living, moving around with their clawed hands held forward, they were digging holes and dumping bones into them before burying everything with dust.
The texture of dust here was similar to that of soft, fertile soil.
The sound of something cracking and breaking would rang soon after the bones were covered up, which were probably caused by the tree in some way.
"Mmh… Must be why those other guys were digging around for some bones, they are probably trying to feed this tree or another one too" spoke Maliah.
Though, neither she nor Loimos could tell what was the point of this, the tree probably did something good, but right now, nothing was happening as a result of being fed.
"Stay hidden for now, I will go and speak with that restless" guessing that this humanoid restless was the one capable of speech he had been pointed to, Loimos began sliding down the dust.