Apocalypse: King of Zombies

The Beast Sovereign had actually arrived pretty quickly. Just over three hours had passed since Chris found a Beast Lord in the nearby mountains and asked it to relay the message.

Clearly, the Beast Sovereign had set out the instant it received word and flown at full speed without stopping. That was the only way it could have reached them so soon.

The Celestials Patriarch’s face changed the moment he spotted the Beast Sovereign. He tried once again to break away from Dopey and flee.

He had barely moved when Dopey stepped through space and appeared in front of him. A sharp thrust of the black spear forced him back.

They had been fighting for a long time. Ever since the Gildari Patriarch died, the Celestials Patriarch had been looking for a chance to escape. Unfortunately, Dopey’s spatial movement was simply too fast. There was no getting away from it.

As the Beast Sovereign drew closer, the Celestials Patriarch’s heart sank. His face grew paler by the second.

Now he truly understood what helplessness felt like.

The Beast Sovereign soon reached the battlefield. Seeing Ethan alive, it immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Then it noticed the Gildari Patriarch’s body on the ground and looked over at the Celestials Patriarch, who was still locked in combat with Dopey. Shock spread across its face.

It knew exactly how strong Dopey was. At best, the soulless thrall was evenly matched with the Celestials Patriarch. Against two of them, it shouldn’t have been able to kill either one. Protecting Ethan and the others should have been impossible.

That was why the Beast Sovereign had raced here the instant it received the message, never slowing down for even a moment. It had hoped to arrive in time to save them.

But in truth, it hadn’t expected much. Ethan’s group had been up against two Tier 47 fighters, with only one soulless thrall to protect them. There was no way they should have survived.

Yet not only were they alive, they had somehow killed one of the Tier 47 Patriarchs.

How did they pull that off?

The Beast Sovereign’s mind was full of questions, but this wasn’t the time to ask. It needed to deal with the remaining enemy first.

After only the briefest pause, it charged straight at the Celestials Patriarch.

The Celestials Patriarch seemed to have accepted his fate. He stopped trying to escape, backed away, and lowered his weapon.

Dopey was about to keep attacking, but Ethan ordered it to stop.

Now that the Beast Sovereign was here, Dopey no longer needed to do anything. It could just stand back and watch.

The Celestials Patriarch turned to the Beast Sovereign, his eyes filled with bitterness and resignation.

”Beast Sovereign, we lost this battle, but we did not lose to you. If these humans hadn’t interfered, your side would be the one facing defeat!”

”You’re right.” The Beast Sovereign nodded without arguing.

It knew better than anyone that without Ethan, it would have died long ago.

”But a loss is still a loss. It doesn’t matter how it happened. You lost, and from this day forward, your so-called apex races will no longer exist on the continent of Eldoria!”

The light faded from the Celestials Patriarch’s eyes.

Who could have imagined that the apex races, which had always stood at the very top of Eldoria, would fall this far?

”I hate this!” His face twisted with rage. ”This is all your fault! You deserve to die!”

He glared viciously at Ethan and the others.

”It’s called karma,” Ethan said with an eye roll. ”If you hadn’t attacked Eldoria’s humans in the first place, none of this would’ve happened.”

”...”

The Celestials Patriarch fell silent.

He had been the first to suggest attacking the humans back then.

In truth, the humans hadn’t done anything to harm Eldoria. If anything, they had contributed a great deal to the continent.

But they were outsiders, and their strength had grown powerful enough to threaten the apex races’ position. That meant they had to be destroyed.

The war had cost the apex races dearly, but after the humans were wiped out, they could finally rest easy. Not once had they believed their decision was wrong.

Ethan’s words, however, made him question himself.

Was this really karma?

Had they made the wrong choice back then?

Without that war, the Outland Beasts could never have matched the strength of Eldoria’s other races. How else could the apex races have fallen to this point?

But the Celestials Patriarch soon shook his head violently.

No!

He had done nothing wrong!

The humans had been a blade hanging over the heads of every apex race. How could any of them have felt safe while the humans still existed?

His expression shifted again and again. After a long silence, he raised his head and spoke coldly.

”I’ve never believed in karma. If I have anyone to blame for how things ended today, it’s myself—for not personally killing all of you the moment I had the chance!”

”Still refusing to admit it.” Ethan shook his head. ”Beast Sovereign, there’s no point listening to any more of his crap. Kill him.”

”All right.”

The Beast Sovereign nodded and attacked without hesitation, whipping its massive tail at the Celestials Patriarch.

The Celestials Patriarch had no intention of waiting to die. An enormous Radiant Blade appeared in his hand as he prepared to fight to the bitter end.

But the gap in strength was too great. Desperation couldn’t change that.

He held out for a little over ten minutes before the Beast Sovereign finally crushed him to death with its tail.

Everyone watched with mixed emotions.

The Celestials were widely considered the strongest race on the continent, and their Patriarch could practically be called the leader of Eldoria’s nonhuman races.

Yet in the end, he had died such a miserable death.

If there was one lesson to take from all this, it was simple: never get on Ethan’s bad side. And whatever you did, don’t give him a reason to come after you.

It never ended well.

After killing the Celestials Patriarch, the Beast Sovereign wrapped its tail around the corpse and flew over to Ethan’s group.

”You’re not eating this one?” Ethan asked curiously.

The Beast Sovereign shook its head. ”No. I’ll leave it for the others. I’ve already eaten two, and it did nothing. At my current Stage, eating Stage SSS corpses won’t help me break through.”

It had originally planned to devour all the Tier 47 corpses in hopes of advancing to a higher Stage.

But after eating the Stoneborn Patriarch and the Soulkin Patriarch, it realized that method wouldn’t work.

If it wanted to break through, it would either have to obtain the corpse of someone from a higher Tier or accomplish it through its own efforts.

”All right. But I’m sure you’ll break through eventually,” Ethan assured it.

”It’s fine. I’ve been stuck here for so many years that I’m used to it,” the Beast Sovereign replied calmly.

Then it pointed toward the Gildari Patriarch’s body.

”By the way, how did you manage to kill him?”

It was dying to know.

”We fought like hell. Can’t you see we’re all injured?” Ethan said with a bitter smile.

”You fought like hell?” The Beast Sovereign stared at him.

As if fighting hard is enough to kill a Tier 47!

It didn’t press the issue. Ethan probably had other trump cards he hadn’t revealed, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to pry.

”Now that these two are dead, I don’t need to wait for the Void Realm passage to open in a few days. I’ll go directly to your world with you.”

”That’s even better!” Ethan’s face lit up.

Returning with the Beast Sovereign at his side would give him all the security—and prestige—he could ask for.

”Good. Rest a little longer. Several of my subordinates are already on their way, so we’ll wait for them to arrive.”

”Sounds good!”