Apocalypse: King of Zombies

The sudden turn of events hit everyone like a truck. For a moment, nobody even processed what they’d just seen.

Then it clicked.

And eyes went wide across the battlefield.

The black-robed crowd and the Windkin looked the worst—faces drained, expressions twisted with pure shock.

Elder Gale’s eyes bulged. ”How is that even possible? Elder Corvin is Tier 35! A Tier 32 shouldn’t be able to knock him down like that!”

”Aaaagh—!”

A savage, pain-choked scream tore out of the crater. Elder Corvin exploded up from the pit, his face a mask of blood. Violent black energy gathered around his arm, swelling into a brutal mass as he drove it straight at Ethan.

”I’LL KILL YOU!”

Ethan didn’t flinch.

He opened Nullspace Domain, bracing to tank the blow head-on. At the same time, his poleaxe lit up with black radiance again as he swung from the side—aiming for Corvin’s head.

BOOM—!

Corvin’s punch was monstrous. It shattered Ethan’s Nullspace Domain outright, smashing through it like glass.

But the strike still got slowed—just enough.

Ethan’s poleaxe landed.

BANG!

Blood sprayed again.

Corvin’s body was launched backward, tumbling across the ground. He hit hard and… stayed there, struggling, unable to rise.

Ethan shook out his wrist, numb all the way to the elbow. ”Damn. That bastard’s skull is hard as hell.”

Two Annihilation Strikes had almost drained his mental energy dry.

And Corvin’s head still hadn’t popped.

That was Stage S for you.

Fighting across Tiers at that level was a nightmare—and Ethan had just crossed three.

Corvin cracking Nullspace Domain with a single punch proved it: within Stage S, every Tier jump was a massive gap.

Still…

Ethan’s gaze stayed cold and steady.

He’d crossed Tier 3.

And he’d put Corvin on the ground—twice.

The battlefield went dead silent.

Everyone stared at the blood-smeared crater and the Tier 35 elder lying there, stunned beyond words.

If the first hit could be blamed on surprise—on Corvin being careless for one brief instant—then the second couldn’t.

That second exchange had been a straight-up clash.

And Corvin had fallen again.

Ethan, meanwhile, was still standing there without a scratch.

For a beat, nobody from Fallen Star City spoke.

Then the silence detonated.

”That was insane!”

”Boss, you’re a monster!”

”Commander!”

”Commander!”

The roar swept through the forest like thunder, shaking leaves loose overhead.

Nearby, Elder Gale swallowed hard, throat bobbing. He looked at Ethan with naked fear now.

Tier 35 Corvin had been dropped in two hits.

So what chance did a Tier 34 like him have?

And that wasn’t even counting the Tier 35 roc hovering above them like a guillotine with wings.

Elder Gale’s feet started inching backward—slow, careful steps. He was already thinking about running.

But the instant he moved, Ethan’s eyes slid over.

A chill ran down Gale’s spine.

”Trying to run now?” Ethan’s voice was calm. Almost amused. ”A little late, don’t you think?”

”You… what do you want?”

”What do I want?” Ethan smiled.

His smile didn’t reach his eyes.

”Since you came here…” he said softly, ”all of you can stay.”

”Delusional!” Elder Gale snapped, forcing arrogance into his voice. ”I admit you’re strong. But there are over ten thousand of us here. If we really fight to the end, you’ll lose at least half your people!”

He spread his hands like he was being reasonable. ”Let’s each take a step back. From today on, we don’t cross each other’s lines. How about that?”

”No.” Ethan’s answer was instant—flat as steel.

Then his expression turned colder.

”Where do you get the confidence to tell me I’ll lose half?”

He lifted one hand.

With a ripple of space, a dense mass of figures appeared as he released them from his spatial storage ring.

Soulless thralls.

A lot of them.

They stood in silence for a fraction of a second—dead-eyed, waiting.

Ethan didn’t hesitate. He pointed at the black-robed crowd and the Windkin like he was pointing at a pile of trash.

”Kill them.”

The moment Ethan’s order left his mouth, Dopey lunged straight for the Windkin elder.

No roar. No wind-up.

Just a plain, almost casual punch.

Elder Gale’s face changed. He snapped up Cyclone Barrier in an instant, and at the same time slashed out a vicious Cyclone Blade toward Dopey.

BOOM!

One punch.

Cyclone Barrier shattered on contact. The fist didn’t slow—didn’t even stutter—as it drove into Elder Gale’s chest.

”Pff—!”

Blood sprayed from Gale’s mouth. His body was sent flying hundreds of feet before he slammed into the ground hard enough to crater it.

And the Cyclone Blade?

It struck Dopey and might as well have hit a steel wall. Dopey didn’t even blink.

”Peak Tier 35?!” the mad elder’s face twisted in shock.

That was the tipping point.

The rest of the thralls moved, and Chris’s group moved with them, crashing into the black-robed crowd and the Windkin in a brutal, silent wave of slaughter.

By now, their thrall count was insane.

Fallen Star Squad had three each. The second echelon had two each. Over forty thralls total—every one of them at least Tier 29. And with the soulless thralls’ nature, their real combat power was comparable to Stage S.

Over forty ”Stage S-level” soulless thralls…

Plus Aeralon and Mia’s two true Stage S thralls.

Plus the roc.

Plus Chris and the others, now all at Tier 29 themselves.

The Fallen Star Guard barely even had room to join in. The Void Realm side was getting ripped apart so fast it looked unreal.

And with Elder Corvin already smashed into the dirt by Ethan—and Elder Gale crippled by Dopey—the underlings completely lost their will to fight.

They only wanted to run.

Too bad.

Ethan had already had the Fallen Star Guard and the Flamebirds lock down the perimeter. The forest around them was sealed. The sky above was sealed.

Where were they supposed to go?

Ethan didn’t do ”let them escape.”

When he moved, he cut weeds out by the root. No loose ends. No tomorrow.

Chris and the others hadn’t thought that far ahead earlier. If they’d surrounded the Windkin back then and kept them from fleeing, none of this would’ve happened.

But they’d been limited by reality.

Back then, they only had the roc as their single piece of power above Stage S. Even if they did surround them, there was no guarantee they could keep everyone from breaking out.

Now?

With Ethan here, their top-end strength crushed the enemy’s.

And Ethan had flattened the opponent’s strongest fighter the moment he arrived—shattering morale before the real fight even started.

That made everything after… easy.

When it came to battle, Ethan simply saw farther than the rest of them.

That was exactly why Fallen Star Squad had survived this long under his command.

The fight had no suspense.

From the first second, it was a one-sided collapse. The Void Realm formation disintegrated, and they were butchered so thoroughly they barely managed any meaningful resistance.

In only a few minutes, the ten-thousand-plus Void Realm fighters were finished.

Aside from the two elders and a dozen or so Stage S experts who’d been crippled instead of killed…

Everyone else was dead.

Big Mike hurried over, grinning like his face might split. ”Boss is still boss. You show up and the whole situation flips instantly!”

”Quit sucking up.” Ethan shook his head, unamused. ”Clean the field. We’re going back.”

Orders snapped out.

The Fallen Star Guard started clearing the battlefield, knocking out and hauling away the Stage S-level captives. The rest of the Void Realm corpses were collected too.

Food for the Flamebirds.

Nothing went to waste.

Chris walked up, eyes bright with excitement. ”Ethan—was that a new skill just now? The one where you stepped out of that rift? That was insanely cool!”

”Yeah.” Ethan smiled. ”New skill. Riftwalk. Want to try it?”

”Yes!” Chris answered instantly.

The others nodded just as fast.

”Alright.”

Ethan lifted his hand and casually dragged it through the air.

Space tore open.

A dimensional rift bloomed in front of them like a doorway cut into reality.

”Let’s go.”

Chris hesitated, staring into the dark slit of space. ”Wait… we can actually go in?”

”Of course.” Ethan glanced at him like he was stupid. ”You think I’d throw you into something dangerous?”

”I’m going first!”

Chris charged through, practically bouncing with excitement, and the others followed right behind him.

Ethan turned to the Fallen Star Guard.

”You’ll fly back on your own,” he said. ”I can’t take that many people through a rift at once.”

Then he stepped into the rift as well.

The dimensional rift slowly sealed shut behind him, the air smoothing over like it had never been cut at all.

The Fallen Star Guard stood there, staring at empty space, completely blank.

After a long moment, someone muttered, dead serious, ”Do you guys think our Commander is still human?”

Another voice answered just as quietly.

”No.”

A third said it like it was obvious.

”He’s a god.”