"General Loimos! We were not expecting you!" getting down to one knee, Tilmiel lowered her head, the champion had showed up so quickly and with an utter lack of grand entrance, she could not even tell the manner in which he had gotten there, with how nonchalant he always was, he might have just walked up at a normal pace and not been noticed until speaking up.
"I hope that mine, and the performance of my sisters were satisfactory…" although confident in her judgement and in the results the nightbirds had shown, she felt much less certain of herself with Loimos around, feeling like every single minute flaw and mistake were now so great that it ruined all that had been done.
"You did good, the west was successfully conquered with minimal losses" although losses in undead terms were not actually permanent, Loimos still made sure to discourage using this fact as a strategy when fighting.
Emitting a small pulse of death force, all livings that had died were filled with death, and as for those that still lived, their life was instead converted, they did not immediately rise as undeads, the general leaving them knocked out as there was no rush, also leaving time for those that had been mangled to be mended by their passage to the right side.
"Now that only the Southern Shores are left to defeat, the nightbirds can return to the miasma to await deployment in the Tochian realm" he walked up to Tilmiel, putting his hand atop her head, the small nick left upon the corvid’s skull disappearing without a trace, although the expeditive healing was not what made the skeleton’s jaw drop.
Obviously, Loimos just needed to direct a bit of whatever energy he wanted to mend any undead he desired, which he immediately did via another pulse afterward, returning all nightbirds to their pristine conditions, patting Tilmiel’s head was just a way to show that she had indeed done a very good job, as for some reason, a lot of lady undeads seemed to see value in this physical contact, especially the ones who viewed him as an older figure to look up to.
"F- I mean, General Loimos! I will never disappoint you!" exclaimed Tilmiel as Liotra rose up to her now regrown feet, they had even come with the appropriate clothing, even though they were definitely not a part of her body.
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"Can I? Can I get that too? My General? I worked very, very hard just before, and I am sort of the second or third in command, so…" the putrid undead just plopped his hand atop of the vulture’s bowl cut.
"I- Huh… I don’t get it…" Liotra felt nothing in particular from this touch, having genuinely been expecting something like a sudden jolt. Read latest stories on freewebnovel
"You don’t know what is good for you besides gutting livings, it’s an honour!" the hummingbird shook her head, enjoying its return as even though she could still operate, it simply felt odd.
Having said this, Topi looked up at Loimos with her big, round eyes, unlike her taller associate, she was well aware that this was an event that would probably not happen again, this was only because it was the first true accomplishment of the nightbirds as a caste, occasions to be praised with anything other than words were like perfectly sculpted diamonds forming in the earth, highly unlikely.
When his hand touched the top of her head, it was like two broken pieces had finally been brought back together, pure bliss and tranquillity achieved at last, Topi felt herself trembling in place with the same hastiness as the flapping wings of her titular bird.
"Oh… Ah…"
"That seems a bit excessive-"
"I will never disappoint, or bring dishonour to your name, dad! I mean, General, I meant general, I wanted to say general, it was just a little slip of the tongue- Why are you laughing Liotra?! It was just a small mistake…" the hummingbird quickly bid her goodbyes, escaping the scene of the blunder.
At the same time as Loimos as healed up all of the nightbirds, he had also somehow managed to fix any signs of destruction upon th suspended village and cleared all feathers, blood and unneeded body parts that were still lying around, the only sign that a battle had occurred being the corpses of the livings, who would soon rise into a much greater existence than before.
"I will let you handle the rest, Tilmiel"
"Thank you, General"
And just like this, Loimos sprouted two wings and disappeared as he took off flying, not causing any disturbance despite the swiftness with which he leapt into the air.
"We really ought to find a way to get wings too…" commented Liotra, it was a bit ridiculous that of all castes, the nightbirds did not know how to weave some rot and flap wings of their own.
"There is no need for wings, Sir Loimos clearly intends for us to partake in transplantation some way or another and learn the perfect air walk that was shown to us, if we can all use it and just move, find footing upon the air itself… Then it would feel a bit redundant for us to also learn how to make wings, don’t you think? As undeads, we will probably be able to use it indefinitely, especially after this method of power goes through upgrades by the hands of the empire" Tilmiel crossed her arms, she did not believe that anything Loimos did or ordered was without careful reasoning, the west possessing such an ability was too big to be a coincidence.
"Huh… Well, before thinking about walking in the air, we should probably all learn how to properly manifest flocks, you are still the only one that can do it properly" the vulture rubbed the back of her neck.
"That’s right… In any case, it is not like we are the one that will crack the logic behind transplantation, it isn’t our job, let’s begin by gathering the corpses, they should soon wake up…" getting everyone’s attention, the corvid spoke her orders "...Have the drylurkers brought to a nearby plateau for now, the bottom-prowler to another, and make sure the westerners are not stacked up when they come to their senses, we’ll them undead hospitality and welcome them nicely!" her brethren immediately went to work, heavy lifting like this was not their forte but Tilmiel knew that they would manage.
Meanwhile, she began walking to the cave where all of those monsters had come from, stopping before she even stepped inside, as a bloody mess was crawling up the passageway, bow and blade still held firmly in hand.
’A living? Sir Loimos would not have missed any life force, no matter how faint…’ indeed, battered, suffering from severe blood loss and poisoned, this westerner’s life was slipping away, low enough that even the leader of the nightbirds had not noticed as she got close.
’Liotra should have noticed something dying though…’ using her sword, Tilmiel rose the living’s hair, covered in gooey, dark blood.
Blade against the girl’s face, she only looked up at the skeleton, not showing much reaction at all, only trying to raise her blade and strike at Tilmiel’s foot.
"Well… Would you look at that… What is your name, living?"
"...Elie…"
"Say Elie, what do you think about swans?"