Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Ethan popping up right in front of them made the three grotesque figures frown hard, instinctively tightening up.

”Cheap tricks,” one of them snarled. ”I don’t buy it. You’re not even Tier 12—how strong could a piece of trash like you be?”

Monroe snorted. A massive black energy fist condensed in midair, then slammed down toward Ethan like a falling boulder.

Ethan’s mouth ticked up.

With a thought, a figure flashed into existence in front of him. It lifted a hand and casually slapped the dark fist aside—

—and the whole thing scattered like smoke.

”!!!”

Monroe and the other two froze, eyes blown wide, their faces turning wary in an instant.

They tried to sense the newcomer’s strength.

Nothing.

It was like that figure didn’t have any power at all.

Which made it worse.

Because something that could disperse Monroe’s Dark Fist with a lazy backhand had no business reading as ”nothing.”

Ethan’s voice went cold. ”Dopey. Kill them.”

Three enemies, and one of them was Tier 20. Ethan wasn’t about to gamble with his own life just to prove a point.

A trump card was a trump card for a reason.

The moment the order left his mouth, Dopey blurred forward.

One instant it was beside Ethan.

The next, it was already in front of Monroe, punching straight out—simple, brutal, no wasted motion.

Monroe’s face changed. A black energy shield snapped up in front of him, and he threw himself backward at full speed.

Too slow.

Boom.

The shield shattered like glass.

The fist didn’t even pause. It drove straight into Monroe’s body.

Thump.

The sound was low and heavy.

And then Monroe exploded.

Flesh and blood sprayed outward in a gruesome burst, pieces scattering across the ground.

”!!!”

Everyone who saw it went rigid, eyes wide with sheer disbelief.

Not far away, the main battlefield was still roaring—skills flashing, people dying—but right here?

It went dead silent. The kind of quiet that makes your ears ring.

”H-how…?”

”Aren’t those lords supposed to be invincible…? How did he get blown apart with one punch…?” Darren whispered, like he couldn’t make his mouth believe the words.

Even Malcolm’s crazed expression locked up.

He hadn’t gotten the scene he’d been begging for—his ”lords” crushing the enemy.

Instead, he’d watched the strongest one get turned into meat mist.

He just… blanked.

”Run!”

The remaining two grotesque figures snapped out of it and chose survival without hesitation.

Ethan’s eyes tracked them. ”One each.”

He teleported in front of one of them.

His poleaxe flared with dark light as he swung down hard.

”Just you?” The grotesque figure’s mouth twisted into something cruel. Black energy wrapped his fist and he punched straight at Ethan.

He was scared of Dopey.

He wasn’t scared of Ethan.

Ethan let out a cold laugh. ”Underestimating me…” His eyes sharpened. ”…costs.”

Boom!

A thunderous blast rocked the ground like a lightning strike at point-blank range.

A crater appeared where they stood.

The grotesque figure’s body was blown apart, torn into chunks that lay scattered in the pit.

Over on the other side, Dopey had finished even faster.

The last grotesque figure—unlucky enough to be its target—was already nothing but mush.

Ethan clicked his tongue and shook his head. ”What a waste of pet food.”

Then he casually put Dopey away into his spatial storage ring.

Around them, the Silverlake City compound higher-ups stood there slack-jawed, horror-struck.

In their eyes, those ”lords” had been untouchable.

And yet they’d been slaughtered like bugs.

So what did that make Ethan and that thing he’d summoned?

Ethan ignored the staring and walked straight up to Malcolm. He patted Malcolm’s face—light, insulting.

”What—still thinking about revenge for your son?”

”You…” Malcolm opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

”Forget revenge.” Ethan’s voice stayed flat. ”But I can send you to see him.”

He ended Malcolm without ceremony.

When it was done, Ethan teleported back up onto the peregrine falcon, Flint.

He looked down at the chaos below, voice crisp.

”End it fast.”

”Yes!”

The moment Ethan’s words fell, the Fallen Star Guard down below seemed to kick into a higher gear.

Silverlake City compound’s side immediately buckled under the pressure.

The fight turned completely one-sided. Fallen Star City’s twenty-thousand-plus pressed forward and slaughtered their way through several hundred thousand, driving them back step by step, leaving bodies carpeted behind them.

A lot of people lost the will to fight.

And when Big Mike and the others suddenly made their move and wiped out Silverlake’s leadership in one sweep, whatever cohesion they had left shattered. People started scattering and running for their lives.

But then—

Inside the compound, a huge wave of Enhanced surged out and cut off the escape routes. They blocked the fleeing crowd, and some of them even started beating them down on the spot.

The whole thing was so absurd that even Fallen Star City’s people froze for a second, not sure what they were looking at.

Then, one by one, they lifted their eyes to the sky.

Ethan’s voice came down, flat and decisive. ”The ones who just showed up—kill all of them. The rest, we’ll talk about after.”

”Yes!”

Fallen Star Guard moved again, blades and abilities flashing.

In the end, it took less than twenty minutes.

More than two hundred thousand Enhanced who’d joined the fight were wiped out.

Of those, one hundred seventy thousand were from Riverton City compound.

The other sixty thousand were Silverlake locals who’d thrown in with Garrett.

When the killing finally stopped, the scene looked like hell had spilled onto the ground—ruined stone, smoke, blood, ash, and bodies piled where the streets used to be.

Everybody who witnessed it felt their spine go cold.

What remained of Silverlake City compound’s Enhanced stood there in a tight, trembling mass, eyes fixed on Fallen Star City’s people.

In a short span of time, Silverlake had already suffered two catastrophes. Twice, the city had been drowned in blood. Whatever toughness they’d had left was worn thin to the point of cracking.

Right now, they looked like criminals waiting for sentencing—anxious, small, bracing for the next blow.

The compound had changed hands again, and they had no idea what kind of ruler they were getting this time.

All they knew was this: the people in front of them were the kind who could erase hundreds of thousands without blinking.

They didn’t dare resist. The gap in strength was right there in their faces. Those terrifying ugly monsters—the ones they’d thought were untouchable—had been punched to death like they were nothing. How could anyone here fight back?

But there was one thin thread of comfort.

These newcomers were human. Like them.

Not those hideous beasts who drank children’s blood.

Compared to that, almost anything felt like mercy.

Ethan looked over the sea of faces—over the tight jaws and shaking hands—and, for the first time, he found himself admitting Aurora might’ve been right.

These people really were miserable.

”Relax,” Ethan said, voice carrying. ”We’re not killing you. What you did just now—turning on them—that bought you your chance to live.”

He let that sink in, then raised his voice.

”From today on, Silverlake City compound is renamed Fallen Star City! You’re all Fallen Star City people now. I don’t care what you used to be like—starting now, you follow Fallen Star City’s rules. Understood?”

”Understood!” the crowd shouted back, loud and desperate.

”Good.” Ethan’s tone hardened. ”Remember this: Fallen Star City’s rules come before everything. Even The Atlas Federation headquarters has no right to interfere. Anyone who breaks the rules—dies. No exceptions.”

”Yes!” they roared again.

Ethan nodded once.

”Don’t worry. Soon enough, you’ll be proud you’re part of Fallen Star City.”

He waved a hand like he was done with the speech. ”Alright. Miles will talk to you from here. From now on, all compound affairs will be handled by Deputy Commander Miles.”

And Ethan bailed without hesitation.

He didn’t enjoy crowds, and he definitely didn’t enjoy giving speeches. If anyone was good at rallying people—and tightening a leash while doing it—it was Miles, not him.

Silverlake was huge. That meant problems. Hidden knives. People with their own agendas.

Even if nothing else, there were still plenty of Riverton City compound people mixed in there. That mess had to be cleaned up.

And managing a major compound came with a thousand headaches Ethan had zero interest in adopting.

Let Miles suffer for a while.

With Fallen Star Guard stationed inside, nobody was going to be able to stir up much trouble anyway.