Chapter 131
[Something must’ve happened at the mansion.]
Magnus said, gazing at the confused zombies. Standing beside him, Javier also stroked his beard with satisfaction.
“Hoho, isn’t this an overwhelming victory? All the effort and time put into preparation now seem pointless!”
[…]
Magnus silently stared at Javier, then turned his head again. Javier connected to the thoughts of the Meat Golem and gave an order.
“Now’s the time! Push forward with everything you’ve got!”
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Meat Golems, dragging their massive bodies, began charging into the zombies like tanks.
The zombies’ tight formation crumbled like soft tofu, and behind them, Magnus’ skeletons followed to finish off the fallen.
“Keep going! Keep… Hm?”
Javier, who was issuing commands frantically, suddenly looked toward the mansion.
Someone was stepping out from the balcony.
He wore a flaming skull over his head, half of his body was cloaked in a shadowy mantle, a white greatsword in his right hand, and Prince’s crown in his left.
[…So that’s the one responsible for neutralizing the zombies.]
Magnus muttered, having also noticed him. But beside him, Javier’s eyes were trembling with fear.
“W-why is that guy there…!”
[Do you know him?]
Then, the man on the balcony removed Feer’s skull and tossed it over his shoulder.
Soon, his hair fluttered, and a young boy’s face, still bearing youthful features, was revealed.
‘He’s that young?’
Javier was beyond shocked to see that the one who had struck him down in a single blow was such a young boy, it even stirred feelings of jealousy.
‘Just who in the world was he?’
While Javier was busy staring in disbelief, his eyes widened even further. The boy had set down the greatsword and was now about to place the crown on his head.
‘He’s not actually going to wear that, is he?’
Javier’s lips curled into a grin.
Prince’s Crown held the power to become the King of Zombies. If a human wore it recklessly, their mind would be torn apart, turning them into a vegetable.
Even Prince himself, an Ancient Undead and rightful owner of the crown, couldn’t endure the pressure of its will and had to operate his main body and avatar separately. A human wearing that crown would definitely break.
‘A golden opportunity to take him out without lifting a finger!’
Javier flared his nostrils, watching the boy with eyes full of anticipation.
‘Put it on. Put it on. Hurry and wear it!’
The boy raised the crown high. And without hesitation, placed it upon his head.
Ruuuuuuuuuumble!
A torrent of Darkness exploded from his body.
[You lunatic!]
Prince crawled toward the terrace on his knees. The Absolute Order from Simon still hadn’t been lifted, so crawling was the best he could manage.
[What are you thinking?! Now that we’re legion-bound, if you die, I die too!]
Prince’s eyes turned to the skull of Feer hanging behind Simon.
[You’re insane too, Feer! He’s your contractor! Why aren’t you resisting?!]
[Keh-heh-heh! If you don’t understand anything, just shut up and watch.]
Feer’s upside-down skull grinned.
[He’s the one who succeeded in wearing me on the first try.]
[What?]
Fwoooooosh—
The wild torrent of Darkness surrounding Simon began to stabilize.
Simon staggered forward, placing one hand against the wall and covering his forehead with the other.
“Fuuuuuu…”
His eyes shimmered with a brilliant golden hue, the same color as the crown. Strange patterns etched themselves into his pupils.
He inhaled deeply, and then—
“───────────!!”
A monstrous roar, unrecognizable as human, erupted from his mouth.
The battlefield fell silent.
In this space where thousands and tens of thousands were entangled, a perfect stillness spread. Every zombie, frozen like a doll with its strings cut, raised its head to look at Simon.
Under his falling bangs, Simon’s eyes gleamed with madness, and his lips curled up in a frenzied smile.
‘That is…!’
Feer felt a shudder from deep within.
The tyrant who wore a mask, hid his name, shook the entire continent, and then vanished.
Richard’s face began to overlap with Simon’s.
[All of you,]
Simon said, gazing down at the zombies.
[Follow me.]
Ruuuuuuuuumble!
RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMBLEEEEEEEE!!
Magnus and Javier recoiled in shock.
The zombies began to change. Their once unfocused eyes turned gold, their teeth and claws shifted to a dark blue hue, and dark blue smoke began to seep from their bodies.
—KIEEEEEEEEEEEEH!
—UOOOOOOOOOH!
The dead roared.
From the sky, it looked like a massive blue wildfire had erupted.
—KYAAAAAAAH!
—KIIIIIIIIII!
Without a single exception, every zombie here began reproducing Simon’s Darkness from within their bodies. All of them had fallen under the rule of Simon, the one who wore the crown.
[Ha.]
Prince leaned back against the wall, dumbfounded.
[…H-haha!]
A hollow laugh escaped him.
Something even an Ancient Undead like himself couldn’t do, a mere human pulled off effortlessly?
Vwoooom.
Simon stepped on the balcony railing and leapt.
Zombies swarmed beneath him, piling on top of each other, forming a hill and then a mountain to catch his body.
As if to keep a noble being from ever touching the filthy ground.
[Advance.]
Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuumble!
The black wave carrying Simon began to move.
It pulled back once like a living wave, then soon surged forward, curling down from the peak where Simon stood.
The zombies around Simon joined in with monstrous roars, the flow formed by the gathering undead swelling ever larger, soon reaching the size of the mansion behind them.
The zombies charged, carrying their king.
A furious tide surged forward.
‘This is impossible!’
Javier shuddered again and again at the sight he was experiencing for the first time in his life.
‘This is already beyond the realm of undead control!’
On the black wave carrying Simon, countless blue eyes were glaring fiercely at Javier.
A suffocating fear like none he had ever felt before. Javier could feel his entire body drenched in sweat without even realizing it.
Simon, riding the wave, let out a long exhale.
“Feer.”
[Yeah!]
He raised the Greatsword of Destruction high.
The first to be eliminated were the Meat Golems. The wave of black zombies clashed with the first Meat Golem visible at the front.
CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-KA-BOOM!
The Meat Golem and the wave collided. Like water splashing, zombie bodies flew into the air.
The massive body of the golem was swallowed by the wave, with only its head sticking out. Simon, passing over it atop the wave, swung his greatsword and cut it down.
[Next.]
The zombie wave turned direction and charged toward a Meat Golem on the side. The skeletons swung their weapons in resistance, but they couldn’t withstand the massive flow and were swept away.
The black wave dyed everything around it pitch-black, and only the face of the Meat Golem remained above it.
Simon harvested it like a farmer reaping well-ripened grain.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
The once-invincible Meat Golems, with only a single loss before, were now losing their heads one after another. Each time the wave extended, the skeletons’ formations collapsed and the golems were reaped.
“Th-this is! Impossible!”
Javier screamed in rage, clutching his head.
Twelve.
Thirteen.
Fourteen.
Fifteen.
There were no exceptions.
In less than a minute, Simon had led the wave forward and destroyed every single Meat Golem. Javier’s legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground.
—KIEEEEEEEEEEH!
—UOOOOOOOOH!
The zombies roared in celebration. Simon, standing atop them, lightly rested his greatsword on his shoulder.
“…Kill him.”
Javier, sprawled on the ground, trembled as he looked to his side.
“What are you doing, Magnus! Kill that ba—!”
Shhhhing.
Javier couldn’t finish his sentence. A black sword slash cut through, and his head flew high into the sky.
[I’ve known from the start.]
Click.
Magnus sheathed his sword as he spoke.
[That you were using me.]
Javier’s severed head rolled across the dirt and came to a stop.
Magnus slowly stepped forward toward Simon. The surrounding skeletons parted like the Red Sea, clearing a path.
[Young king, what is your name?]
Simon lifted his chin.
“Simon Follentia.”
[I am Magnus, Knight of the Talhern Empire.]
He raised his sword upright.
[My purpose and fate is to complete vengeance against Keyzen. I ask that you hand over the crown.]
“Vengeance?”
Simon’s golden eyes gleamed as he smirked.
“Sorry, but that’s none of my business.”
[…]
“I’ve heard enough about you, the former Swordmaster of the Talhern Empire. You plan to lead the undead of Deathland to exact revenge on Keyzen? Do you truly think that’s feasible?”
At the word feasible, Magnus fell silent.
“In the end, you can’t defeat Neftis. The essence of what you’re doing is nothing more than a rampage. Do you know how many people of the continent will die while your army marches to Keyzen?”
The Talhern Empire is already gone.
If there were even a sliver of a chance that Magnus’ rebellion could succeed, Simon wouldn’t be mocking him. Then it might have been a revolution.
But with just the forces of Deathland and Magnus, they could never defeat Keyzen.
A predetermined conclusion.
In the end, Magnus would only become a threat to the descendants and future generations of the Empire, those who live on without even knowing the Talhern Empire existed.
“You’re already someone erased from history. A being like you dragging up the past to ruin the lives and livelihoods of your thriving descendants, that’s a contradiction. You have no purpose, no justice, no practicality, no legitimacy. In other words, it’s just…”
Simon’s lips curled up.
“A pitiful, pointless rampage.”
[In that case—!]
Magnus swung his sword.
A fine line was drawn across the zombie wave Simon was standing on, and shhhhhh! it split in half.
Simon’s body was thrown into the air, but another swell of zombies rose like a lump from the other side of the black wave and caught his legs.
[Then what should I do to console the souls of the Imperial citizens who were unjustly slaughtered by Keyzen!]
“Then who consoles the countless souls that would be sacrificed in your future rampage? Your loyalty, your noble souls, it all just sounds like self-righteousness. So let me say this.”
Simon raised the greatsword.
“To prevent the sacrifice of souls to your outdated, meaningless rampage, I fight.”
[…Seems there’s no point in talking further.]
Magnus spread his legs shoulder-width apart and lowered his sword diagonally. Simon raised his left hand, the one not holding his sword.
—KYAAAAAAAH!
—KIIIIIIIII!
The zombies of Deathland roared and wailed.
Facing them, Magnus felt a cold chill.
How could he forget?
The ten necromancers who brought down Talhern’s most elite army.
Among them, the three most overwhelming were those called the “Legion Commanders”.
Comrades, is this the feeling you once had?
Ten thousand pairs of eyes, forming the black wave, were fixed on Magnus.
Superb.