The new place was quiet- upon deciding to walk off, Karvas followed the river that resulted in the massive waterfall near his old home, something that quite possibly, was the best choice he had made yet, the bodies he carried proved to have been quite cumbersome due to their numbers so halfway through, he decided to turn them into the same fleshy blob of an undead he had made a few weeks prior, the only one left was the paladin and the experiments he had casted on such a person gave him results that he never thought he needed, Karvas wa able to conclude a few things- for one, he was able to learn that somehow, by some miracle, the paladin's body could not be converted into an undead, the skeleton warrior thought hard as to what could be the potential reason for such an occurance and simply put, the "soul" of the paladin had been taken in by the god he worshipped, as for the one's that now belongs to Karvas, well... it's safe to say that these people wouldn't be going to hell nor heaven anytime soon. Or atleast, they wouldn't be able to go to any paradise or punishment if he was still alive. Though, that would mean that there's potential when it comes to gathering souls...

As for the second thing he learned, well, Karvas was able to find out about the fact that despite the paladin no longer possesing a "soul" he can still gather the skills the man possessed, that being the fact that he was able to wield a mace with quite the bit of effort and, the fact that his will and his faith coincided with one another, Karvas had no need for the two things but he did take one a few things- and those would be paladin's finger bones, something that allowed him to cast spells in an unprecedented manner, though these spells were supposedly only for the divine, in the hands of the undead's decay and corruption, they had turned into something that did the opposite of what they were supposed to do, and these spells are as follows-

[Smite] needed a pact with a powerful deity back when it was still on the hands of the paladin but it turned into [Curse] the moment that it reached Karvas' hands. This spell allowed him to cast [Decay] and [Burn] on people, so to say, these two spells now turned into spells that he can inflict unto people.

[Channel] was a spell that once allowed the paladin to cast his god's spells, now in Karvas' hands, it turned into [Consume] something that supposedly happened to the paladin after it's death, the paladin's soul got eaten by it's god, and Karvas could now do the same thing.

Seems that being a follower has a price. the undead thought to himself as he looked at the spell,

[Holy aura] mixed with Karvas' own [Decay], and it now turned into something called [Mourn] apparently, thanks to the [Smite] conversion turned [Curse] Karvas can cast this skill to other undead to strengthen them, he had tried this spell on an animal he had turned into an undead a few days ago and Karvas felt the creature's will the moment that it was cast. He can turn this will into a command if he bends it to whatever he sees fit.

[Strength of Faith] was a passive skill the paladin had, it was something that allowed him to get a stronger with his god the more he believed in him and for the paladin, this was everything, his source of power, confidence and more importantly, his reason for living. Now belonging to Karvas, this passive skill turned into [Ragefilled Reason] it did everything the spell once did - including the one where it was his reason for living. - except it was all directed at Karvas' rage, his madness was both the reason as to why he dared to even walk, progress and

"Live." was a new word that escaped his mouth, his very existence, a second chance? Of course not, this was his only chance for the undead before him had been gone, consumed by him.

*************************************

Ursus sighed as he looked at the now beaten down camp of the once greater team of people whom were specifically tasked to hunt the undead, the paladin that was with the team was dead, though Ursus never knew his name, one thing was for certain- "He was considered an important individual by the church of Adalsteinn, and killing a devoted follower of such a god, whom not to mention was a leader of a pantheon that consisted of over 13 gods, was extremely daring. "Whoever did this is potentially being watched by Adalsteinn, and if he is currently living then..." Shivers climbed up Ursus' spine, what kind of monster would it be in order to garner the favor and not the rage of such a god after killing one of his paladins?

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Hope whoever did this died."

Karvas and Ursus had no knowledge prior about it but, it seems that the two made a mistake? One thinking that the god killed the undead whilst the other messed with the wrong church, one that now has gotten a message from the god they worshipped, Adalsteinn telling them that- "they should hunt this undead no matter what." though they did not know why hadn't their god just kill the undead with the use of his authority, they still followed regardless. As for what the reason was when it comes to the question prior, it was because adelsteinn foresaw a future, actually, it was two, one where this undead ruled over the entire continent, where everyone was but a crisp, and the other- was one where everything was prosperous, united against one enemy, and they had won against it, leading to an age where everything was united, and one where this one enemy is regularly released, to make sure that the people remember as to why it was necessary for everyone to unite.

****************

Karvas did not die, and he never will.

For even if he did now, the fear and anger held towards him by these villagers would simply put him back to life, for he can feel their life-force getting eaten by his skill, his presence alone burned the grass that surrounded their pathetic thatch village, their crops gone and reduced to ashes in mere hours with simply walking among them, and now, the causes for such a panic within this small town is infront of every villager that had decided to hide within the town square, the reason for doing so being the fact that all of cannot fight. As for those that prepared to guard against what they had thought were bandits, well... their fate was sealed the moment they felt crawling beneath their skin, that crawling feeling eventually turning into painful burns and rashes that made them all yell in extreme pain, causing those that heard it to feel horrified, and those that dared to look at the silent massacre fainted, their minds unable to look at the horrific scene even further.

As for the fate of the one's within the town square, well the now charcoal like undead simply looked at them, his mouth moving but words weren't coming out, only one from time to time, or rather two, but one was the only one that was accepted, for whenever he said "Live..." people would run, he needed to kill one of his test subjects before they would once again become obedient.

Deciding that they simply wouldn't listen Karvas decided it was better to simply grab them all by the wrist and tie them down, and so, grabbing a piece of rope- he grabbed the people one by one, the elderly, the young, the old, even those that were supposedly pregnant were tied down, the undead uncaring about their status, race age and constitution, for they are all nothing but Livestock to someone like him.

Karvas smiled, proud of what he had done, some people had already died due to the discomfort they felt from the rope, unable to bear the strain that their body had been getting ever since he captured them a few days ago, and each day that passed, the experiments he conducted became worse and worse, from skinning a woman and placing the bone that came from the arm of her burnt, rotting husband, to letting the people eat the fleshy blob whom he had been getting adept at creating. Something he was proud of, the result of eating said blob converted both the weak and the strong quickly, more results stemmed from such an experiment- placing not only a [Curse] but also a bit of the Life-Force he had been Consuming for quite some time now enabled Karvas to control them, strengthen them and even take the Life-Force back to kill them permantly. This was the most important information he had gathered yet, knowing that he would no longer exist if he ever got near that horde leader, Karvas grinned, happy that he was able to make a decision that enabled him to live even longer.

Soon enough, after such brutal experiments, his captives lost their will and simply followed on whatever Karvas decided on, after all of them had been wiped out, from letting maggots eat their skin to letting the fire slowly burn them, Karvas didn't really learn anything important- Though, there are a few important ones to take note of and these are-

[Decay] can attract the undead,

[Burn] Can act like some sort of disease if he inflicts it as a curse, and due to this, Karvas learned that the curse itself can act like a disease depending on what kind of spell he would use, for example, if he uses [Ragefilled Reason] as a curse, due to it being a passive spell, he can only target himself..

Days passed and Karvas was able to wipe the entire village, the houses that weren't burnt got sweeped when it comes to loot, as to what became this loot, it depended, the gold was sometimes melted and turned into different objects, the books, used as a writing material so that Karvas could take notes, Curses were placed on stones and the like- Luckily, all this time, no one truly visited the village and thus, Karvas was able to safely experiment.

Though he was confused, he burnt the crops and supposedly, someone was meant to come when that much smoke reached the sky. Either way, he did not care for someone no longer arriving enabled him to get to where he is in terms of power, he was able to [Consume] quite a lot of souls and his experiments enabled him to die down the flames present within his bones, which by this time felt like cold stone rather than heated up charcoal.