Apocalypse: King of Zombies

High in the sky, the man and the beast moved fast enough to make the clouds feel slow.

In a little over half an hour, they went from Rivermark State’s Blackpine Wilds all the way to Atlas City.

They could’ve gotten there even faster—Ethan deliberately slowed down near the end.

His mental energy had been almost drained fighting the Titan Bull. He needed time to recover.

He had no idea what this terrifying beast actually wanted, but one thing was obvious: if he was going to survive whatever came next, he needed his mental energy topped off. Even if it was just psychological comfort, it mattered.

So as he flew, he kept chewing through crystal cores to replenish himself.

The beast didn’t stop him. Didn’t rush him.

It simply followed behind at an easy pace, like Ethan’s ”maximum speed” was still some kind of casual warm-up to it.

When Atlas City came into range, Ethan didn’t fly over the compound. He curved wide around it and headed for the Void Realm passage entrance not far away.

He was sure Atlas City had already noticed them, and he didn’t want anyone doing something stupid out of panic.

Soon, they touched down at the spot where the Atlas City compound’s Void Realm entrance used to be.

Ethan had been here twice. He knew the location by memory.

But now the air looked normal.

No warped space. No visible dimensional rift. Just… empty sky.

”Open it,” the beast said calmly.

”Alright.” Ethan nodded, swallowing. ”I’ll try.”

He stepped to the exact position, lifted his hand, and sliced the air.

A dimensional rift opened.

Ethan stared at it, uncertain whether the other side truly led to that Void Realm. For a moment, he didn’t dare step in.

The beast didn’t hesitate.

It walked right through.

Ethan’s mind flashed—Should I just close it and trap it inside?

Before the thought could even finish forming, a massive pulling force seized him. Like a hook in his chest.

He didn’t get a chance to resist.

He was dragged into the rift.

Ethan sighed internally as the world twisted.

Of course.

A Stage SSS beast wasn’t something you ”outsmarted” in a moment of inspiration.

A breath later, they emerged from the void channel.

Ethan’s eyes flicked over the landscape—and relief hit him so hard it almost made him laugh.

It was familiar.

This really was the same Void Realm world.

So it worked.

Riftwalk really could take him into other worlds.

That was… dangerous. And insanely interesting.

If he survived today, there were a lot of places he could take Fallen Star Squad.

But first—

He needed to figure out how to get rid of the monster walking in front of him.

The beast, once it entered this world, went quiet. It stared ahead with a blank, heavy stillness, and something complicated stirred in its eyes.

Then it started walking—slowly, deliberately—toward the deeper forest.

Ethan hesitated, glancing back the way they’d come, the urge to run rising again.

He forced it down.

Even if the beast wasn’t paying attention, it would notice the instant he tried something. There was no point gambling.

Better to cooperate. Don’t invite pain.

At least it hadn’t attacked him yet. That meant he was still useful—or still interesting.

And it clearly recognized Dopey.

Maybe Ethan could pry a few secrets out of it, if he played this right.

So he followed behind, obedient as a kid in front of an angry teacher, not daring to make a single wrong move.

If anyone had been here to see it, they probably would’ve had their jaw on the ground.

This was Ethan?

The same Ethan who’d been wiping races off the map like it was housecleaning?

The beast slowly toured the Void Realm, almost as if it was… revisiting something.

Then it finally stopped at the place where Ethan and the others had dug their way through before.

Without warning, it lifted one foreleg and stomped.

The earth collapsed instantly.

Ethan’s stomach dropped.

Before he could react, his body plunged straight down into the sudden sinkhole.

He snapped a teleport at the last second and landed cleanly, managing not to embarrass himself by faceplanting.

Ethan landed hard, heart still pounding, and looked up.

The beast was already standing in front of the altar, staring at it in silence as if time had folded back on itself.

After a long while, it finally spoke.

”You were the one who broke this altar?”

”…Yeah.” Ethan nodded carefully, acting like a kid admitting he’d broken a window.

”There should still be a set of Outland Beast remains here,” the beast said. ”Bones.”

Ethan’s stomach tightened. ”How do you know that?”

He didn’t say the rest out loud, but it flashed through his mind anyway.

Don’t tell me those bones are connected to you…

The beast’s gaze didn’t even shift. ”Don’t worry about how I know. Where are the bones now?”

Ethan swallowed. ”…We took them back. Turned them into weapons.”

”…”

The beast went quiet.

Ethan’s fingers tensed, ready—if he had to—to slam Absolute Stasis and run for his life.

Then the beast exhaled. A slow, tired sound.

”Forget it,” it said. ”She’s been dead for countless years. Seeing the bones or not… it doesn’t matter anymore.”

Ethan’s lungs finally remembered how to work.

Thank god. Not exploding. Great start.

But curiosity still got him. He couldn’t help it.

”Um… you knew that skeleton?”

”Obviously.”

”…Right.” Ethan rubbed his nose, a little embarrassed. That was the second time he’d been slapped down with a single word.

”Were you close to her?” he asked anyway, quieter now.

The beast’s eyes darkened, and for a moment Ethan saw something in them that didn’t feel like a monster at all—just grief that had been buried too long.

”She was my mate.”

”—!”

Cold shot straight into Ethan’s skull.

He almost panicked on the spot. ”I—I’m sorry. I didn’t know she was your mate. If you want, I can try to find the rest, maybe piece it together—”

The beast shook its head.

”No need,” it said flatly. ”It’s already just a corpse.”

Ethan nodded fast. ”Okay. Got it.”

Internally, he was screaming with relief.

If this were a human? Touch their wife’s remains and you’d get ground into dust.

Then Ethan’s mind jumped again, and he asked the next question before he could stop himself.

”If that skeleton was your mate… then Dopey—”

”Dopey?” The beast frowned, like it had to translate the word into something meaningful. Then its tone sharpened. ”His name is Abyron. Not Dopey.”

”Right. Abyron. Sorry,” Ethan said instantly, cooperative to the point of obedience.

He swallowed, then pushed forward carefully.

”So… what is Abyron to you?”

The beast was silent for a beat, then answered, voice heavy.

”He… is my benefactor. If I hadn’t asked him to come with me to rescue my mate, he wouldn’t have ended up like this—turned into a soulless thrall.”

There was unmistakable guilt in its voice.

Ethan blinked, confused despite himself. ”Wait—Abyron is just peak Tier 35. What could he even do in a rescue like that?”

”Peak Tier 35?” The beast looked at Ethan as if he’d just said the sky was green. ”You think he was only peak Tier 35?”

Ethan’s brain stalled. ”Isn’t he?”

The beast gave a humorless laugh. ”Then tell me—have you noticed anything different about him compared to your other soulless thralls?”

”Different…” Ethan hesitated. ”Yeah. He doesn’t use skills—he just throws fists, straight in. And his body is absurdly strong. I figured the creation method was different, or maybe he didn’t have many skills in life—maybe he rolled all body-strengthening abilities?”

The beast’s gaze turned cutting.

”Do you think that’s possible?” it said. ”Your kind gains a random ability each time you advance. Do you think anyone could climb to that level and somehow only gain body-enhancement abilities?”

”…There are always exceptions,” Ethan muttered, a little awkward. (If he wanted to, he actually could—but he wasn’t about to say that out loud right now.)

”At that Stage,” the beast said coldly, ”there are no exceptions.”

It looked at Dopey—Abyron—like it was seeing him through layers of time.

”And I’m telling you this with certainty: he has skills. Extremely powerful ones.”

Ethan’s eyes widened. ”Then why can’t he use them? Is it the creation method?”

”The method you used to create him is indeed unusual,” the beast said. ”But that isn’t why he can’t use his skills.”

It lifted its head slightly, voice lowering.

”The real reason is simple.”

”He is sealed.”

”Sealed…?” Ethan stared. ”You mean… his strength is sealed?”

”Yes.”

Ethan’s scalp tingled. ”So he isn’t Stage S?”

The beast’s eyes turned sharp. ”Have you ever seen a Stage S with a body so strong even Stage SS can’t damage it?”

Ethan hesitated, then spoke cautiously. ”I thought his body got that strong because he absorbed something from the ritual… from your mate’s remains, I mean.”

”The ritual circle didn’t strengthen him,” the beast said. ”It used my mate’s blood essence to suppress him. Without that suppression, they never would have been able to turn him into a soulless thrall.”

Ethan went still.

Then, very slowly, he asked the question that made his throat feel dry.

”Then… what was Abyron’s strength when he was alive?”

The beast looked down at him.

Then he said the one thing that made Ethan’s mind go blank.

”Stage SSS.”