"Hey! Who the hell are you talking to, you big oaf? Feeling bold because Father is not here to expedite you through all states of decomposition?! We are not being used or tricked, it is an honour to fight for him! It's a privilege of the highest order to accomplish something for the empire whilst still living! All of the soldiers who fight will receive prestige and glory once they are brought back as undeads! Dying will only bring us closer to Father, and we yearn for the day we draw our last breath, but we shall fight and remain alive for as long as possible to allow this realm to receive the empire's most divine blessing!"
Even Milo felt like recoiling before the intensity of the girl's words, she genuinely believed everything that was being said without even a shred of doubt, there definitely was no going back from this, the Soror, each and every member, was too deeply fanatical.
'And yet they still show some childish candour?' he did not understand why would Loimos teach them to simultaneously be so devoted to the cause, but also not bother to rid them of their deep-rooted desire to have the fun that they had missed by being locked in an underground since birth.
But the reason was simple, one could not find reason within the actions of one such as Loimos, the antithesis of life might be capable of mimicking and understanding, but in the end, the pure undead was that, and nothing more, nothing else.
He and Thanatok Ynigós were the same whilst being polar opposites, idealised version of a living and undead, beings that fitted the description of their core being so perfectly that they should not exist, their existences should have remained theoretical concepts, but somehow The World, or perhaps something even greater, had decided that it shall not be.
Milo sighed and looked directly at the brown haired girl, she and Alici did not look similar at all, but it somehow still seemed natural to call them siblings.
"A blessing you say? What is your name?" his body bright with gold, he asked a simple question.
"Aegli, member of the Soror, and daughter of Loimos"
"Aegli, huh? I'll remember that after I have killed you" he surged forward, going from standing upon the ground, to soaring through the air, his foot falling heavily where the girl had once stood, the ground breaking into spider cracks as particles of golden mana seeped from them.
He assumed that they could probably tell his movements by sensing his soul, as she had moved well before he got close, that was the issue of facing someone that used a way of power different to yours, it was like Milo and them were playing two different games, but somehow still competing to decide who was the best.
Milo looked back a bit, the others were fighting against all of the beasts at once, whilst being harassed by the sharpshooter, who was seemingly firing from a great distance away, they were tearing through the beasts without much problem at all, but the amount of enemies was simply outrageous, and if not for the fact the corpses quickly broke apart into spirit life, they would already have been buried under a mountain of cadavers.
Meanwhile, Milo was rapidly surrounded by the all of members of the Soror present, except the one with the black cloak, who remained standing a distance away, overlooking the battlefield as a whole, but her eyes with glowing bright blue, meaning that whatever ability she possessed, was currently being used, or perhaps was prepared to be used…
So right now, Milo was in a one against four.
Alici, with her bizarre flames.
Aegli, with the ability to endlessly repeat an attack.
And two others, one had rescued Alici at the start, a rather tall girl with short dark hair and a sort of tomboyish look, he assumed that her ability had been responsible for the girl switching places with that explosive beast, and if so, then she might just be the most annoying enemy around.
And lastly, one he had no idea about, a very small, blonde girl with pigtails, that was currently humming a little song, the others might be somewhat child-like in behaviour, but they did at least look somewhat adult, but this one straight-up looked like a little girl that had wandered in on the scene.
If not for the white uniform, he might have actually doubted that she was an enemy at all with how non-threatening she looked and felt, and this told him that she was probably the most dangerous out of the four, there wasn't any strong reasoning, he was simply used to being wary of the unassuming ones.
"I think I am missing some of your names, since we can communicate, do tell me so that I can pray that you will come to your senses before I splatter your brains on the ground" deeming it important to not forget that the soldiers were still living people, he would have asked the names of all that he had killed had he been able to speak to them.
"Basmi" replied the tomboy.
"Alila" replied the little girl.
The former grasped her pendant and called forth some sort of mace-looking thing with hook-like protuberances, whilst the latter just smiled, revealing a set of pristine white, sharp teeth.
'...This one actually has teeth that look like his…'
"Is that the golden boy?"
"He is, so be careful"
"He has the smell of children on him, it makes me hungry" Alila licked her pointy teeth with an abnormally thick tongue.
Milo did not know if she actually was the more dangerous, but she definitely was the worst.
Aegli stepped forward, her stomp repeated itself and rapidly caused the ground to break toward Milo, forcing him to jump up, energy bullets were fired at his back, whilst Alici called her crossbow back, Basmi rose her strange weapon as well, and seeing it from this angle, Milo realised that it was actually a cannon adapted to be carried by hand.
Bullets, bolts and countless pebble-sized projectiles were fired at him from many different angles, the energy bullets arced and turned to cover any area the other two could not cover, but Milo merely created a small pulse of mana, pushing everything away.
"Ahahah! That wasn't even the golden mana!" Alila was deceptively quick on her short legs, lunging directly at Milo without any weapons, simply opening her mouth- Or maw, as the entirety of the girl's head unfurled into one gigantic mass of teeth and tentacle-like tongues.
He pushed directly into the monstrous jaw, creating a flash of gold, and sending the petite girl flying straight into the ground like a broken doll, but despite clearly feeling that he broke nearly every bone in her body, the blonde rose up like nothing happened, returning to normal and pouting at him.
"Aw, that hurts! Did your father not teach you not to hit girls? Or did he die before he could do it?" speaking most innocently, Milo felt his stomach turn.
The midget definitely was the one that felt the most like her supposed Father.