Apocalypse: King of Zombies

”Hisss…”

Everyone sucked in a sharp breath, faces going pale with shock. It was terrifying—no one expected that savage zombie to suddenly evolve at such a critical moment… and awaken some freaky psychic ability on top of that.

Ethan cast a casual glance over, his eyes calm but clearly satisfied. He hadn’t killed those Awakeners outright for a reason—he wanted to give his underlings a little trial by fire.

They’d been eating too much lately anyway. Time to burn some calories.

Up ahead, the Cyborg T-08’s once-handsome face was now twisted and deformed. Parts of his body had been blasted open, exposing the metal skeleton underneath. The damage was so severe, even the liquid metal couldn’t cover it anymore.

After analyzing the battle, T-08 came to a clear conclusion—this opponent was unbeatable. Without hesitation, he uploaded all combat data to the cloud.

Which meant… he was ready to shut down.

Green light flickered in T-08’s eyes as he prepared to unleash every last ounce of energy he had—activating the ultimate move of a fourth-generation Cyborg.

He spread his arms wide. In one palm, lightning crackled to life; in the other, fire roared and surged. The two forces gathered in his hands, each pulsing with raw power.

The lightning danced wildly in the air like silver serpents, while the fire blazed upward, forming a dense, glowing orb—like a miniature sun.

The combined glow lit up the battlefield in flashes of blinding brilliance, casting everything around in stark contrast. The sheer destructive energy radiating from him made the very air tremble.

Then, T-08 brought his palms together, forcing the two energies to collide. The lightning sphere and fireball began to merge.

In an instant, the light intensified, turning everything around them a blinding white—like the world had been bleached of all color.

The fusion of fire and lightning grew more violent, more unstable. The two volatile forces finally fused into a single, blazing red fireball, crackling with arcs of electricity.

”He can do that?” Ethan’s eyes narrowed, intrigued. This was the first time he’d seen elemental powers actually merge like this.

A combo move?

But pulling that off required insane precision—like trying to peel a raw egg with a bulldozer. Only something as precise as a machine could manage it. No human could pull that off.

”Annihilate!” T-08 roared, hurling the fused energy forward. The fireball shot through the air, expanding rapidly like a rising sun.

Wherever it passed, the ground cracked and collapsed. The air itself screamed in protest. Nothing could stop it—everything in its path was about to be reduced to ash.

Ethan watched the wave of destruction coming straight at him.

His opinion of T-08 just went up a few notches. This attack? It wasn’t just powerful—it was dangerous.

The red fireball, infused with both lightning and fire, was so intense it tore through space itself. Even when it entered the Domain of the Dead, its speed only slowed slightly.

Ethan didn’t dare take it lightly. He activated the Star Map tablet in his hand. The glowing patterns on its surface flared brighter, and four dazzling Radiant Crystals lit up in sequence.

A powerful force field began to gather around him.

Then, with a mighty swing, he hurled the tablet like a comet crashing from the heavens, trailing a blazing tail of light as it slammed straight into the incoming fireball.

”BOOM!”

The impact was like two comets colliding. The red fireball was knocked back before detonating mid-air. The explosion sent shockwaves ripping in all directions.

Everything near the blast zone was instantly flattened. Buildings crumbled into rubble, then disintegrated into dust. Even some of the nearby Awakeners and zombies were thrown off their feet, nearly killed by the shockwave alone.

At the heart of the explosion, a mushroom cloud rose into the sky.

Thanks to the Star Map tablet’s barrier, the damage was contained—barely.

But even so, half of San Antonio—the half not shielded by the tablet—was completely leveled. Nothing but ruins remained.

”Holy shit…”

Everyone stared in awe. This battle had gone way beyond anything they could comprehend.

”No wonder he’s a fourth-gen Cyborg. That power’s insane!”

”Think the Zombie King got caught in that blast?”

”Hard to say…”

”…”

The smoke and dust slowly began to settle. The battlefield fell silent, the chaos finally fading.

Everyone held their breath, eyes locked on the two figures emerging from the smoke—Ethan and T-08, standing face to face.

”What the hell…”

”What’s going on?”

Shock rippled through the crowd.

The Zombie King had taken that devastating blast head-on… and looked completely unfazed.

At that moment, a sharp beeping echoed from inside T-08’s head. A faint red glow flickered in his eyes—an internal alarm.

”Energy depleted… Shutting down.”

His body went limp like a puppet with its strings cut, crashing backward into the dust with a heavy thud, kicking up a cloud of debris.

”T-08… lost?”

People stared in disbelief. Ethan’s white shirt was still crisp and spotless, not a single mark on him. If it weren’t for T-08 lying motionless on the ground, it would’ve looked like nothing had even happened.

”How is this possible…?”

A wave of despair washed over them.

Even T-08—their strongest weapon, the pinnacle of Genesis Biotech’s combat power—hadn’t been able to scratch him. What chance did the rest of them have?

They were doomed.

”ROAAARR—!”

A bone-chilling roar tore through the air. The Awakeners from Genesis Biotech turned toward the sound—only to see the Fear Zombie King charging at them, his underlings regrouped and ready to kill.

”Shit! The zombies are coming again!”

”Help!”

”Run! Run!”

Panic exploded.

T-08’s defeat had shattered their morale. No one had the will to fight anymore. All that was left was raw, primal fear—and the instinct to run.

But Fear and his crew were fired up, bloodthirsty and relentless. They surged forward, pouncing on the fleeing humans, dragging them down and tearing into them with teeth and claws.

The Awakeners were quickly overwhelmed, their screams echoing for a few brief seconds before being swallowed by silence.

Ethan strolled forward, casually approaching T-08’s ”corpse.” He tilted his head, examining the body. It was banged up, sure—but still mostly intact.

That was intentional. Ethan hadn’t gone all out. He’d held back.

”Take him back.”

Fourth-gen Cyborgs were top-tier tech from Genesis Biotech. Ethan had plans for this one—he wanted to study it.

He activated his spatial storage ring and absorbed T-08’s body into it. He figured he’d toss it to PhD later. Once they figured out how it worked, maybe they could retrofit Laura with the tech—combine the two and create the ultimate warrior.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Genesis Biotech Awakeners had been completely wiped out by Fear and the other zombies.

The battlefield turned into a grotesque feast. Zombies dropped to the ground, tearing into corpses, the sounds of ripping flesh and crunching bones filling the air.

But not far off, there was still one area where the screams hadn’t stopped.

Leah, Nora, and a few others were still beating the hell out of Frank and his second-in-command. Frank had it the worst—his body was a bloody mess, bones shattered, barely a single unbroken spot left on him.

All that arrogant swagger from his days as a Genesis Biotech exec? Gone. He was groveling now, begging for his life.

”Boss lady… please! Stop! I get it, I was wrong!”

”Oh, okay.” Nora glanced around, noticing the battle was basically over. Beating him any more did seem a little excessive. So she actually stopped.

Frank blinked, stunned. She… stopped? Just like that?

Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all.

Then—shing!—Nora whipped out her Bowie knife without warning, raising it high, ready to bring it down and finish him off.

”OH MY GOD PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!” Frank screamed, dropping to his knees, sobbing and pleading.

But Leah stepped in, raising a hand to stop her.

”Don’t kill him yet. He might still be useful.”

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