Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Gravestone’s eyes flared wide with rage the moment he heard Ethan’s words. It hit him instantly—he understood exactly what Ethan meant. He, the mighty Voidborn Undying, was being rejected. Ethan didn’t even want to take him in.

Before he could react, Ethan’s Domain of the Dead burst open, swallowing Gravestone and his crew in an instant.

Their bodies froze, like they’d been dropped into quicksand.

Bulldozer, Laura, and the other Zombie Kings picked up on the kill signal and charged in like unleashed beasts.

Gravestone tried to fight back, but Ethan was already on him. One punch landed square on his face, and just like before, inside the Domain of the Dead, Gravestone didn’t stand a chance.

Ethan slammed him into the ground and started pounding him, over and over. Each blow shook the earth, shattering boulders and cracking the terrain. After a few brutal hits, the golden glow around Gravestone’s body flickered and died out completely.

No matter how tough his defenses were, they couldn’t hold up against Ethan’s relentless assault.

Once his energy was drained and he could no longer resist, Ethan summoned a katana with a flick of his wrist and brought it down in one clean arc toward Gravestone’s head. The blade sliced through with a metallic screech, splitting his skull in two.

A crystal core shot out from the wreckage.

Ethan caught it effortlessly between his fingers.

He lifted it up to examine it—a dark yellow crystal, about the size of a thumb pad, pulsing with dense, potent energy.

This was the first time Ethan had ever seen a Voidborn Undying’s crystal core. It was on a whole different level—far beyond anything the Crimson Count or LORN had ever possessed.

”Not bad…” Ethan muttered, clearly pleased, and a little curious about what it might taste like.

Meanwhile, the rest of Gravestone’s elite were being torn apart by Bulldozer, Laura, and the others. With Gravestone dead, his entire inner circle was wiped out.

That marked the end of this little ”exercise.”

The remaining zombie horde, now leaderless and disoriented, completely lost their will to fight. Most of them surrendered on the spot.

”We actually won…”

Umbradrake stood there, taking in the aftermath, a mix of awe and disbelief on his face.

He’d thought the four plant-type Zombie Kings under Ethan were already terrifying enough. But now? Turns out Ethan had even more monsters up his sleeve.

The battlefield cleanup began. Zombies moved through the corpses, cracking open skulls to dig out Neurocores and crystal cores, devouring them on the spot.

The air filled with the sound of bones snapping and wet chewing—an eerie, grotesque symphony of undead feasting.

Umbradrake plastered on a smile and walked up to Ethan. ”Boss, you took down Gravestone. That makes you the new Overlord of Southvale!”

Ethan shook his head. ”Nah. Gravestone came looking for you. So technically, you’re the one who took him out. That makes you the Overlord of Southvale.”

He said it casually, but there was a reason behind it. He hadn’t been in Originis long and didn’t want to draw too much attention just yet. If the old monsters from Heartland caught wind of him too soon, it could get messy.

Better to push Umbradrake into the spotlight for now—let him deal with the heat.

”Wait… I’m the Overlord of Southvale now?” Umbradrake blinked, stunned. It sounded like a good thing at first, but the more he thought about it… the more dangerous it seemed.

Gravestone coming after him was already proof of that.

Still, he couldn’t exactly say no. So he nodded reluctantly. ”Alright… I’m the Overlord of Southvale.”

”Good,” Ethan said with a smirk. ”I’m counting on you to go shake down Heartland for their pigs later.”

”…What?!”

Umbradrake’s face twisted in horror. Heartland? That place was a death trap. No way he was going there if he could help it.

Of course, Ethan had just been talking off the cuff. Southvale might be a bit barren, sure—but for now, the resources here were more than enough to meet his needs.

There was still a lot to do. First on the list: taking over Gravestone’s zombie nest. Odds were, there were still plenty of supplies stashed inside, ripe for the picking.

But that kind of grunt work? Ethan wasn’t about to get his hands dirty. He’d leave it to Laura, Big Ears, and the others to handle.

As he mulled things over, Ethan started thinking about relocating PhD’s lab. The current setup, perched on the edge of the Exile Zone in Solaris Citadel, just didn’t sit right with him. Too exposed. Too vulnerable.

Now that Gravestone was out of the picture, Ethan had no real enemies left in Southvale. That gave him a lot more room to move.

Never put all your eggs in one basket.

He planned to seize a few more zombie nests, spread out his influence. Let each of his Zombie Kings take charge of a region, build their own strongholds.

Leaving the battlefield behind, Ethan hopped aboard his aircraft and headed back to Solaris Citadel.

Along with him came a thousand Guard Mechs. They needed to return to the lab for maintenance—core replacements, recharging, full diagnostics. Gotta keep them combat-ready at all times.

...

Inside the Solaris Citadel lab, the setup was a little rough around the edges. The whole place was built from massive yellow stone blocks, giving it a crude, fortress-like feel. But the equipment inside? Top-tier. Precision instruments humming with power.

The entire lab was run by PhD—because, frankly, Zombie Kings who could actually do research were rare as hell.

Take Bulldozer and Laura, for example. Sure, they’d evolved enough to have decent intelligence, but when it came to science? Total airheads.

Right now, PhD stood in the center of the lab, wearing a white coat and a single-lens monocle, hands clasped behind his back.

One by one, the Guard Mechs filed into the maintenance bay. Some were still splattered with gore, others had drained energy reserves. All of them needed a full tune-up.

”You’ve been working hard,” Ethan said, appearing beside him.

”Not at all,” PhD replied respectfully. ”I’ve already gone through the data you brought back. There were quite a few... interesting discoveries.”

”Oh?” Ethan raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

PhD continued, ”Turns out, human civilization didn’t just develop mechs. They also built massive starships—capable of carrying half a million Awakeners and equipped with weapons of mass destruction. The main cannon on one of these ships could wipe out a zombie nest with over a million infected in a single shot.”

”Seriously?” Ethan let out a low whistle. A nest with a million zombies was the size of a major human city.

One shot from that thing was basically a flying nuke.

PhD nodded. ”Yes. These ships were considered one of humanity’s trump cards. They called them—Dreadnought-class Starcruisers.”

”Could one of those reach us here?” Ethan asked.

”Absolutely,” PhD said. ”In fact, that was the whole point. They were designed specifically to annihilate zombie civilizations. According to Originis historical records, thirty years ago, humans launched an invasion into Necroterra using three Dreadnought-class Starcruisers. They crossed the Exile Zone and pushed in from Westmarch, steamrolling everything in their path all the way to Heartland.”

”But then... they hit a wall. The major Zombie Kings banded together and managed to take down one of the ships. The other two barely escaped and retreated back to human territory.”

”Huh...” Ethan mused. ”Didn’t expect that.”

PhD went on, ”Most of the advanced tech we have in Necroterra now? It came from that downed Dreadnought. That’s why some zombie nests can still send out communication signals—and even have functioning labs.”

”That explains a lot,” Ethan said, nodding. He’d always wondered how The Voidborn Undying had managed to send him alien signals back when he was still on Earth.

Now it made sense. They’d salvaged high-end tech from a fallen human warship.

Just imagining it—a ship big enough to carry half a million people, packed with cutting-edge equipment, rare crystal cores, and who knows what else...

To Ethan, it sounded like one giant treasure vault.

”A ship like that... why hasn’t it come after me yet?”

...