Laid upon foreign sand, thousands of corpses, many mangled and unrecognisable, some being naught but piles of flesh with broken bones sticking out, all had been lined up with an equal distance separating them.
A similar sight was to be seen with weapons and other trinkets a distance away, more bodies and items were being added at this very moment, under the gaze of Ir'Houwl, who was currently overlooking the whole process, although she did have a few soldiers that could reanimate corpses as undeads, it was best to be meticulous with which of these former livings would join the empire first, her method of conquest was rather far apart from diplomacy, so the amount of negators was bound to be high, so having them rise as undeads in large chunks would be a terrible idea.
She first needed to create an environment suitable to prevent the rise of living thoughts and let them be cradled into accepting undeath, she also needed to make sure tensions were appeased between the three reviled faiths and the two main faiths.
Sanguine, cleansing, and illusory worshippers got along very well now, so that part was fine, and the prime and watchful worshippers she had made sign contracts back then had also integrated nicely, so the minor lord would be using them to further propagate this good entente, beginning by the capital, which she had held back from bringing ruin and misery to after defeating the two Ersta'ras.
The capital was the only city in the desert that still had livings, and perhaps there were a few monster tribes and wanderers still moving about, but the capital was really the only place remaining with an actual living population, by turning it into a place were all faiths could interact together, she would achieve one part of her goals, and by making the livings used to the presence of undeads, she could also make sure that the amount of negators would be made as low as a possible when the time came…
And the way in which Ir'Houwl was going to do all of this was simple.
She was just going to use propaganda, it was such a handy tool, and it had already proved very effective with the living soldiers back at home, at first, they simply trained them and shoved things into their mind to make them loyal and obedient, but nowadays, they had established colonies in which undeads served as rulers and spiritual leaders, making sure that from the moment of birth, the livings there were utterly convinced that the empire was the greatest thing in existence, and that those who made themselves useful would be granted the ultimate gift : Undeath.
The other superpowers might not see such activities nicely, so it was a good thing that all of these operations were hidden from prying eyes, apart from realm dwellers, no living knew that the empire had living soldiers.
To fool the inhabitants of the desert, the method seemed fairly straightforward, all viewed the Undevigintis as sacred figures, and talent in wielding vapour was seen as divine grace by the common folks, having undeads capable of wielding this energy should be enough to convince them that their existence was sanctioned by their solar deities.
'How can I turn the Undevigintis into undeads, however?' she pondered, having them on her side would make things much easier, as after securing the eternal loyalty of the sapient and intelligent livings, she would begin a grand campaign to hunt down the beasts and monsters.
And after that, it would be the turn of the solar beasts, these mighty creatures may be in slumber, but that did not make them exempt from receiving the greatest blessing of all, besides, from what little she had heard about them, they were majestic and powerful beings, if she could restrain one, and keep it alive, then they would be able to send one to the Emerald Realm.
Ir'Houwl wasn't the best informed about that particular realm, but she had heard that the sun there was somewhat special, so perhaps having people and creatures aligned with other suns could put things in jeopardy over there.
It was nothing but conjecture but it was worth a shot, and besides, the people here definitely had great prospects as living soldiers, even though they might seem like mere ants to her, it was undeniable that the strength and martial arts of the basic warriors that couldn't wield vapour were actually very good.
"Lord Ir'Houwl, will you use black needles on the two Ersta'ras?" asked one of her elites.
"I was thinking about only turning the Prime Ersta'ra to begin with, he seems more agreeable, but that shall wait for now, how is the situation inside the capital?" asked the minor lord, right as Osla stepped to her side.
"The people are panicked, but they don't know that their Ersta'ras have fallen just yet, they can't quite conceive their leaders being defeated in any context, so despite the creeping fear, they are still very hopeful" replied the nightbird.
"I see, did you find anything of note inside of the solar temple?"
"Yes, firstly, the Ersta'las and Ersta'sols inside are a bit more aware that something happened to their leaders, and are naturally much more panicked, but do not quite believe that they could have been slain even then, though, that notion seems to be growing stronger as I was exploring the temple however…"
"And secondly, there is a most curious area in the underground of the solar temple, it is like a home was built, only that it was built with a very specific resident in mind, namely a giant that is oddly civilised, and that was caring to a baby giant"
"So you're telling me that the giants were not eradicated, and that they kept some hidden underground?"
"I looked around to make sure- There is only that singular giant that is an adult, there are a few more, but none were close to adulthood, and some of them do not look exactly like giants" corrected Osla.
Ir'Houwl rubbed her chin and then turned her attention to the corpses of the two Ersta'ras on the ground near her, one with a hole through his chest, the other visibly drained and with his head separated from the rest.
"Well… Tell me, which one of them do you think it is?"
A nearby elite tilted his head a bit to the side, not connecting the dots.
"Some of them looked a whole lot like the one with the beard, none were even remotely similar to the other one" replied Osla, looking at the currently uncovered face of the Watchful Ersta'ra, who did not bear gruesome injuries as one might have expected, there were many scars, but all had healed well, so it seemed more like something else about these injuries had led him to hide them.
But in any case, the attention was on the Prime Ersta'ra instead.
"What do you think, can we keep him in check by threatening that giant?"
"I believe so, from what I gathered, he showers her in gifts and seems to live in the same house as her, which would be a bit much if the purpose was merely the production of half-breeds"
"Good to hear, this should be of a great aid" with these words, Ir'Houwl pulled out a black needle and stabbed it right into Khasekhemwy's body.
Now was the beginning of the second phase of this realm's invasion, the long and gruelling one that would see very little action, perhaps the one that would challenge the minor lord on the things she was the least proficient in…