91 An Army of Undead (2/2)

Malakov was overjoyed with the fresh bodies that arrived each day in front of him. Carefully extracting every single drop of blood from their bodies and putting their organ into bottles, the clean prison reeked off blood. He then used numerous spells to made it seems like the blood was very old and not at all gathered an hour ago. Noticing a door still clean, he purposely added rust on it and made it look like a prisoner tried to cut the iron bars.

The routine kept going, until the very last day before the assault. The horde of rail skeletons and few zombies were ready to depart, but they still needed to do two things before. That someone saw an undead kidnap one human and that the trail toward the cultist lair was found. The first will be of course discovered by Meridiana and Davion, but the latter should not be related to them at all.

Perfection never existed, and will never exist. Because of this, making the succubus find every clues and secrets of the cult would only make her more suspect. If by accident they find a secret room, it was a possibility. If they were lucky to catch an undead kidnapping someone and stop it, it will be weird and smart people will find it unlikely to happen. One time could be a coincidence, two times attributed to luck but three times was a conspiracy.

During the night, the succubus and the Akûl, therefore, roamed the poor area. If before they would have received angered stares and constant oppression, now they were welcomed like kings. The number of bodies that went missing was now 43, making it extremely obvious that something will happen very soon. Even the mother of one of the gang leader disappeared, provoking a wave of panic. But when the citizens tried to escape Archet, they realized it was a mistake as well.

Dozens of people had tried to flee the city. But the first night after they left Archet, they vanished. One caravan of merchants that arrived in the direction that they took was then questioned to know how they were. The merchants never saw them, making everyone close their door with the worry of being the next to be taken. All the patrols sent only managed to find the belongings of those families, but not a single human was present.

Unlike the ones captured inside Archet, Leilade didn't let anyone escape the city either. The merchants and the adventurers were spared because it was not logical for a small force to attack them. As for the inoffensive commoners, they were currently turning into zombies. She truly hoped that people will remember them when they will see their undead state. The more terrifying the experience will be for everyone, the more limelight Davion, Gwendoline and Meridiana will receive.

As for the five ghouls that were easily climbing out of the sewers, they were nearly invisible in the dark night. With the massive clouds obscuring the city, not even a single light from the two moons was visible. Those five undead were specifically created by her. They were barely smaller than Meridiana, but were far more deadly than any zombies. They still were soulless, since they were just pawns, but they were not dumb.

Compared to a zombie, a ghoul was obviously at the advantage. They were similar to the vampires in a sense that they were not alive, but not dead yet, allowing them to still keep their brain intact. Its corpse was not decaying like a zombie, and its muscles were still reacting well. Its body was strengthened and its extremities were longer than expected. It claws and teeth were extremely sharp, making it a deadly threat for anyone without a weapon. And when people were asleep, it only took one second for her deadly servants to end their lives.

Two ghouls had already finished their tasks and were using the hidden passages from the White Hands to escape. As for the three others, Leilade was leading them in front of some patrols. Of course, the first will be totally slaughtered. Hearing the screams of the guards, many people woke up immediately. She could already hear the cries of young children, terrified by the sounds resonating in the night.

At the same time, people were beginning to take a peek at the outside and saw two armors rapidly heading to the location of the screams. The closest managed to see the battle between the two adventurers and the dark shadows. Cleaving two shadows in half, they could only reluctantly see the last one escape. Of course, the last ghoul wasn't really escaping, but it stumbled upon another group of guards.

They managed to heavily injure the beast, but not without suffering some casualties on their side. In the end, the creature found its way toward the sewers but was not able to harm any further the population of Archet. Following the dark blood that was spread on the ground, some adventurers immediately pursued the ghouls, thinking about the hefty reward they will receive. Her work accomplished, Leilade disappeared, not leaving a single trace about her presence.

The next day, the two brave adventurers that killed the ghouls were present in the meeting room of the City Hall. Inside, everyone holding a substantial amount of power was present. From the captain of the guards to the main treasurer. The obvious discussion about the imminent threat had hardly begun before it was interrupted by a servant that was panting. Without even caring about the fact that a few were angered by someone barging in like that, he explained that the adventurers found an army approaching. Feeling that everyone was perplexed by his words, he rephrased. They had found an army of undead.