The battlefield was quiet again—unnaturally quiet.
The stench of decay still hung thick in the air, heavy enough to make the wind itself feel diseased. I stood amid mountains of corpses, my boots sinking slightly into the pulpy mess of crushed skulls and rotting flesh. Shalltear hummed softly behind me, spinning her parasol like a child admiring her art after painting the walls with blood.
I opened my system interface, a flicker of golden light hovering before my eyes.
[Quest Log Updated]
Zombies Eliminated: 421
Quest Coins Earned: 105.25
I frowned. "Only got that much for four hundred plus kills?" I muttered. "Where's my bonus? I at least expected a multiplier for crowd control."
Perhaps the system knows I wasn't challenged enough.
"Unfair," I sighed, flicking away the holographic window. "I almost broke a sweat."
Before she could reply, a low, rasping voice slithered through the haze. "Are you the one who killed all of them?"
Both of us turned.
A familiar figure stumbled forward from the smoke—tall, proud even in death, her once-brown skin mottled gray and cold. The remnants of the Dora Milaje uniform clung to her like rags, and her red eyes burned with a sickly, hungry light.
"…Okoye?" I muttered.
Zombie Okoye's head tilted unnaturally, the sound of bones grinding echoing in the air. "You destroyed my army," she said, her voice not entirely her own. "You should not have done that."
Shalltear stepped in front of me, her parasol slowly reforming into her crimson spear. Her gaze sharpened with interest. "Oh? So you're the one controlling this horde."
Okoye didn't reply—her mouth opened, but the words that came weren't hers. They sounded… distant. Distorted.
Shalltear's expression twisted into a cold smile. "But how are you doing it remotely, I wonder?" she mused aloud, her tone laced with curiosity instead of hostility. "Even a necromancer of high caliber can't take control of hundreds of undead they didn't create from afar without physical presence or at least a focus anchor."
Her words weren't for Okoye—they were for whoever was behind her.
I folded my arms, listening. She was right. In Yggdrasil, even a world-class necromancer couldn't command this many (in thousands) undead they hadn't personally created, not without extensive preparation. They can, but it will cause unnecessary usage of mana. Only a noobie will try something like that.
But here… whoever this was, they weren't just controlling the dead—they were corrupting the living into their network. Turning them into nodes of a hive mind.
Fascinating.
For Shalltear, who herself was a vampire necromancer born of divine magic, this discovery was clearly striking a nerve.
"Impressive," I said. "Disturbing, but impressive."
"Do you follow the Scion?" Okoye rasped suddenly, her body twitching like a marionette with tangled strings.
That made Shalltear's eyes narrow dangerously. "Scion?" she repeated. "You mean your master? How primitive."
Okoye took a step closer, the faint red glow in her eyes intensifying. "You are undead. You will obey. The Scion calls to you."
A ripple of red energy pulsed through the air—faint but tangible, like a psychic pressure wave. I could feel the edge of it brushing against my mind, probing, testing. Shalltear's parasol clattered to the ground as she clutched her head for an instant, her body trembling.
But then she laughed—low, cruel, and amused.
"You… tried to control me?" She raised her head slowly, and her eyes gleamed with cold, aristocratic fury. "Pathetic. I am Shalltear Bloodfallen, True Vampire Ancestor. My mental resistance alone exceeds anything this pitiful infection can conjure."
The ground cracked beneath her feet as her aura flared, pure crimson and blinding. "You think to dominate me?" she hissed. "I could consume you instead."
The psychic pressure instantly shattered. Okoye's red glow flickered—the controlling will behind her faltering.
But now that Shalltear mentioned it… I could see it—faint strings of corrupted energy connecting Okoye to the rest of the zombies, threads of blood-colored mist like a spider's web, spreading outward in all directions.
"That's how you're doing it," I murmured. "You're not casting from afar—you're using relay hosts. Each zombie acts as a node in your network. The control signal just needs to reach one of them, and it spreads."
Shalltear grinned, baring her fangs. "Then destroying the node should disrupt the entire network, yes?"
I smirked. "Exactly."
Before Okoye could speak again, I raised my hand, and my weapon materialized in a burst of golden light. "Sorry," I said. "Fascinating experiment, but your usefulness ends here."
Her mouth opened, maybe to scream, maybe to channel her master's will one last time—but I didn't let her.
A single slash of energy cleaved through the air, faster than lightning. The impact blew apart the corpses piled around us, sending chunks of rotted flesh scattering into the dark.
When the light faded, Okoye was gone. Nothing left but dust and ash swirling in the wind.
For a moment, the rest of the zombies froze—then their bodies began to twitch, jerk, and crumble. The red glow in their eyes extinguished one by one, and the freed zombies are still zombies.
So they attacked me, the living, so I killed them all.
I looked around at the silent field, the stillness almost deafening.
[ System Notification ]
"Zombie Hive Connection Severed."
"Network Node Destroyed."
+45.50 Quest Coins Acquired."
[Quest Log Updated]
Zombies Eliminated: 889
Quest Coins Earned: 222.25
I sighed, dusting off my coat. "At least I got paid for cleanup."
Shalltear let out a contented hum. "So simple, yet so satisfying. You really do make everything look effortless, my lord."
"Occupational habit," I replied, sheathing my weapon. "Efficiency is art."
She giggled softly, stepping closer until her crimson eyes gleamed just inches from mine. "Shall we continue our art, then?"
I glanced toward the distant horizon. I looked at the direction where the Hummer had driven off hours ago. Somewhere beyond that, Kate, Kamala, Yelena, and the others were likely fighting their own battles.
"Not yet," I said, my tone shifting back to focus. "We need to catch up with them. If the one controlling Okoye was just a projection or fragment, the real threat's still out there."
Shalltear's smile faded into something more serious. "Do you believe this 'Scion' will target them next?"
"Of course," I said, stepping over the fallen corpses. "They're alive—and in a world crawling with death; that alone makes them valuable."
She tilted her head. "You almost sound… concerned."
I looked at her over my shoulder and smirked. "Don't mistake pragmatism for empathy."
I took the cruiser bike from my inventory, and Shalltear changed into modern clothes.
"Let's go," I said. "We have a Hummer to catch."
~~~
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