Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Beneath a mountain somewhere in the Suncrest Range...

Henry and the others stood guard outside the cave, watching the distance with growing concern.

”Why isn’t Chris back yet? You don’t think something happened to him, do you?” Henry asked quietly.

”Don’t jinx him!” Emily glared at him. ”Chris has Ethereal Form. Nothing could happen to him.”

”Sorry, sis.” Henry immediately lowered his head, but inwardly cursed Chris countless times.

His own sister was already taking that bastard’s side. This was all Chris’s fault.

”He has been gone a while,” Sean said. ”It’s almost been two days. You’d think he could at least come back and let us know he’s okay.”

”Maybe he can’t get away right now. Don’t worry. Chris is nearly as hard to kill as the boss now. He’ll be fine,” Garrick assured them.

”Yeah.”

Meanwhile, on the battlefield...

High Elder Aeron had given up chasing Chris. Instead, he remained at a distance and kept track of his movements.

After pursuing him for so long, Aeron hadn’t touched so much as a hair on his head. All he had accomplished was killing a large number of his own people.

There was nothing else he could do but stop for now and wait for the Patriarch to return.

As long as Chris remained within their control, that was enough. Once Vaelor returned, the human wouldn’t escape even if he grew wings.

With Aeron no longer chasing him, Chris could finally relax. He took the opportunity to restore his mental energy and steal more crystal cores.

The Galeborn fighters, however, were miserable.

Whenever they encountered a Stage S Outland Beast, they didn’t know whether to kill it or leave it alone.

If they killed one, Chris would immediately appear and steal its crystal core. Even if they extracted the core first, he would simply kill them and take it anyway.

He was worse than a bandit.

Worse still, aside from the Galeborn’s highest-ranking fighters, no one knew where Chris was. People kept dying for no apparent reason, leaving the Galeborn too frightened to attack whenever they encountered a Stage S beast.

High Elder Aeron saw all of this, but there was nothing he could do. If he attacked, even more Galeborn would die.

All he could do was grit his teeth and watch, promising himself that once the Patriarch returned, they would make the human pay back everything with interest.

And so Chris ran wild across the battlefield.

With plenty of crystal cores available to restore his mental energy, he stayed invisible at all times. As long as he didn’t activate Ethereal Form, the cost of maintaining his invisibility was negligible at his current level.

By now, even the Outland Beasts knew someone like him was lurking around, yet none had ever seen his face.

It wasn’t until the morning of the third day that Vaelor returned, fully recovered.

The moment High Elder Aeron saw him, he nearly burst into tears.

”Patriarch! You’re finally back!”

”Where is he?”

”Over there.” Aeron pointed toward the center of the battlefield.

Vaelor looked over just in time to see a Stage S Galeborn fighter severed at the waist.

His face darkened completely.

With a flash, Vaelor appeared above the battlefield, his overwhelming presence sweeping across the entire area.

”Everyone, move!”

At his furious command, Galeborn fighters and Outland Beasts alike scattered as fast as they could.

Chris’s heart sank.

He had guessed that Vaelor had left to have his injuries treated, but he hadn’t expected him to return this quickly.

Chris had considered leaving over the past few days, but High Elder Aeron had kept such a close watch on him that leaving would have been more dangerous than staying.

Here, the Galeborn elders had to consider their own people and couldn’t attack recklessly. Once he left the battlefield, they would have no reason to hold back.

His only option had been to stall until Ethan finished absorbing the crystal cores.

Unfortunately, Vaelor had returned before Ethan emerged.

Now Chris was in trouble.

Without hesitation, he fled with the scattering Galeborn fighters.

”Hmph!”

Vaelor unleashed a terrifying Blade Tempest directly at him, sweeping countless Galeborn into the attack as well.

Damn, this bastard’s a lot more ruthless than High Elder Aeron!

Chris immediately activated Ethereal Form.

Raw power wasn’t the problem. Ruthlessness was.

High Elder Aeron had chased him for days without accomplishing anything, largely because he hadn’t been ruthless enough. Whenever too many Galeborn were nearby, Aeron hesitated to attack.

Vaelor was completely different.

He didn’t even blink before slaughtering his own people.

The Blade Tempest tore several thousand Galeborn fighters and Outland Beasts to pieces.

Ethereal Form saved Chris, but he was caught at the center of the attack, and his mental energy drained at a terrifying rate.

That taught him something important.

Ethereal Form wasn’t invincible.

When an opponent was vastly stronger than him, their attacks could destabilize the ability. Vaelor was at the peak of Tier 41, far stronger than the Tier 39 High Elder Aeron—and on a completely different level from Chris.

Chris couldn’t fully ignore Vaelor’s attacks, even in Ethereal Form. He had to burn far more mental energy to maintain it.

He quickly tossed a crystal core into his mouth, then rushed into another dense group of Galeborn fighters.

But Vaelor wasn’t High Elder Aeron.

He truly didn’t care how many of his people were caught in the attack. Another Blade Tempest came crashing down.

Thousands more Galeborn were shredded.

Ethereal Form protected Chris again, but the attack consumed more than half of his remaining mental energy. If Vaelor attacked one more time, Chris would be forcibly knocked out of Ethereal Form.

This is bad.

Vaelor alone was harder to deal with than all the elders combined.

Chris still refused to sit back and wait for death. He rushed into another Galeborn formation even farther away.

He wanted to see whether these people would truly stand by while Vaelor slaughtered them without restraint.

As it turned out, Chris was right.

When Vaelor prepared to attack again, High Elder Aeron finally couldn’t take it anymore.

”Patriarch... perhaps we should withdraw our people first.”

”The human will simply follow them. The result will be the same,” Vaelor said, shaking his head.

”But if you keep attacking like this, our people won’t survive!”

”Sacrifices are inevitable. If I handled this like you did, we would never drag him out.”

Vaelor snorted and prepared to strike again.

Before he could, the surrounding Outland Beasts suddenly began roaring with excitement.

The Galeborn frowned and followed their gazes. Their expressions immediately changed.

More than a dozen powerful flying Outland Beasts were approaching at incredible speed. Among them were the three Stage SS flying beasts that had escaped earlier.

The Outland Beasts below roared in celebration at the sight of the Stage SS reinforcements.

They had suffered terribly under the Galeborn over the past few days. Nearly half the Outland Beasts in the entire Suncrest Range had already been killed.

Fortunately, the Beast Sovereign hadn’t abandoned them. More powerful reinforcements had finally arrived.

Vaelor and the Galeborn elders turned grim.

Every one of those flying beasts was unmistakably Stage SS, and several were at the higher Tiers of the Stage.

”What do we do, Patriarch?” the elders asked tensely.

”Hold them off. I’ll capture the human, then we’ll withdraw.”

Vaelor immediately launched another wide-range attack at Chris’s position.

His obsession with Chris had run so deep that even with powerful reinforcements bearing down on them, he still refused to let the human go.

What the hell?!

Chris had been overjoyed when he saw the Outland Beast reinforcements. He hadn’t expected Vaelor to ignore them and keep attacking him.

”You ruthless bastard!”

He had no choice but to activate Ethereal Form again.

Every Galeborn fighter and Outland Beast in the area was torn apart.

Chris’s mental energy hit rock bottom, forcibly knocking him out of Ethereal Form.

”Pfft!”

He coughed up blood and crashed to the ground. His invisibility failed, revealing several deep wounds that exposed the bone beneath.

Every eye on the battlefield locked onto Chris.