"General Loimos, the eight weeks agreed upon will have passed in just a few hours from now, but we have not been able to figure out what they prepared during that time, surely they used that momentary instant of peace to further ready themselves for the war"
"The life barrier is potent, it is only natural that we could not freely surveil their actions"
"General Loimos, what will be our first course of action?"
"There shall be no change in what was originally planned, we shall not directly engage with the enemy for now, if they wish to fight us, then they shall come themselves, we will focus on understanding and taming the realm first, the emerald beasts are unlike any other creatures that we know of, their great strength and cunning is not what makes them special, but exercise wary nonetheless, their capabilities are, I believe, enhanced the more the Emerald Realm's integrity and order is threatened, the same is true for the weather and other natural hazards"
"As such, not only are we avoiding needless destruction so as to study everything after victory, but also because ravaging will set us back"
Before Loimos, all of the lieutenants within the realm were present, some undeads here did not officially have the rank of lieutenants, but possessed similar authority nonetheless, such as the leader and ringleader of the Fin-Limier Assassins, or even the four members of Alizé, although that organisation was now more-so geared toward researching and creating a variety of substances, the four original members still went by its name.
"Can- I mean, General Loimos, are we allowed to go and murder them if they are within sight and outside their barrier?" asked Saliana.
"Girl… You're embarrassing me in front of Loimos!" whispered One.
"It is not forbidden" simply responded the champion "Do not forget the main objective for now however, although some of the livings will be eager to fight us, it is likely that the majority will stay idle unless we actively target the environment or barrier, if they do not behave in such a way, we can only assume that they have something prepared and want to provoke us into getting within range of whatever that may be"
"As of now, they probably believe us to have trouble operating normally within the realm for more than three hours, they certainly assume at least double for you lieutenants, but in any case, you and your troops should only stay out for three to four hours at a time before coming back, we shall comfort them in their false belief, at least for now"
Loimos rose one hand signalling for his subordinates to disperse and get to work, and before long, the heart of the keep was left empty again, only the pure undead standing within, with the rapid flap of rotten wings that vanished as quickly as they appeared, he leapt up onto the stone platform standing opposite to the entrance, there wasn't much that was really special about this platform, it was simply furnished with equipment that allowed for Loimos to know what was happening in and around the keep, as well as control some of its functions, he normally wouldn't have required any external tools to do such a thing, but it simply how it was.
Currently, one room was filled with soldiers that aligned their abilities with the apocalypse, mostly mages, whomst had prepared great arrays to try and spread famine and pestilence throughout the realm, the success rate was something Loimos would consider rather low, as although potent and well-crafted, it was difficult to force such concepts to exist in a realm that was beyond thriving, there was no shortage of food, not even close, and everything was so vibrant, that pestilence would struggle to even take hold for a few moments.
Which is why he had ordered them to stay on hold for now and not do anything, as it would simply be useless and potentially reveal one of their cards early for no benefit.
The conquest of the Emerald Realm was not a light matter, if it was so easy, he wouldn't be personally present to lead it, the realm itself was a tough nut to crack, and they had barely even managed to force their way inside, now, they had to face a powerful civilisation that had been warned and told about them in advance by survivors of Tamaris, and possessed two regal figures.
Gauging the true strength of Solzmimi and Hirzartanli was not a simple affair, they were rather profound beings despite their rather whimsical dispositions, although Loimos had not made mention of it to them, he was able to tell that they had transcended the limits of their species, that in of itself was an oddly common thing, but the thing, was that they weren't deities at all, not even idols of worship, they had not a speck of divine energy, in fact, despite being called worships, the beliefs of the Emerald Realm had very little to do with holy energy.
It was similar, perhaps even adjacent, but the energies that coursed through the people as a result of practising these two ways of power were unique, but Loimos actually already knew what sort of beings the ancestors were, he had no name for the concept, and it was somewhat similar to pure spirits and sapient golems, in the way that they were 'alive' but did not have life force, or rather, had lost the need for it.
In short, they were just like Ronarkatast, The Dragonlord of Dragonnerie, they had gone so far with their respective ways of power, that the essence of it had become integral to them and replaced life force.
The All-Draco's way of power was innate however, dragon breath, the two ancestors were the same, but also different in that sense, as it would be like if Syklon had become so great with battle arts before her death, that battle arts had somehow replaced her life force and she had become a being of battle arts, which sounded ridiculous, but by all means, it seemed like it was absolutely possible.
Loimos knew that death force trumped over pure spirits and sapient golems thanks to the ability of Atsalinopalo's silver blood, but he could not know for sure how it would interact with the likes of the two ancestors or the dragonlord.
In any case, this achievement of theirs showed that they were far more accomplished than most enemies Loimos had ever faced, in fact, they might just be the most skilled as no one had actually achieved what they had, as far as the undead was aware.
So it was best not to start an all-out conflict just yet, the undead needed to secure some advantages before allowing such a thing to happen…