Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Nerissa’s face turned to frost as she stared at the approaching Eldoria factions.

”What is the meaning of this?” she said coldly. ”I already told you—this city has been claimed by the Azure Nereids. Are you trying to make an enemy of us?”

”Sylvan elder” stepped forward with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. ”Nerissa, we’re all from Eldoria. Why do the Azure Nereids need such a big appetite? There are so many humans here. Wouldn’t it be better if each race took a few hundred thousand?”

”I said no,” Nerissa snapped, voice like ice.

”Then we can only apologize,” the Stoneborn leader said, his expression darkening.

”So you really plan to attack us?” Nerissa’s gaze sharpened. ”You’re not afraid the Azure Nereids will make you pay for this later?”

The Sylvan elder chuckled. ”The dimensional rift is already closed. It might never open again. Your Azure Nereids can be as strong as you want—what does it matter?”

He lifted his chin, contempt thick in his voice. ”With just this many people, do you really think you can stop us?”

Nerissa’s chest rose and fell hard, anger hitting the exact wound they’d aimed for.

”You…” Her teeth clenched so tight her jaw trembled.

At that moment, Miles spoke—calm, almost bored.

”So none of you are even going to pretend you see the people of Fallen Star City.”

The Eldoria creatures finally turned their attention to him.

And then they burst out laughing.

”HAHAHA—are you serious?”

”Did the little ants just threaten us?”

”Ants should know their place. Be good slaves. This kind of battle isn’t for you.”

”You say we don’t see you—do you think you’re even qualified to be seen?” a chorus of Void Realm creatures sneered.

”Ants…” Miles smiled faintly.

He didn’t look angry.

But there was light shifting behind his eyes, cold and bright, like a blade catching the sun.

”Then today,” he said softly, ”this ant is going to teach you a lesson.”

The instant his words fell—

A beam of light shot out from inside Fallen Star City.

It punched clean through the skull of the creature that had been laughing the loudest.

The laughter cut off mid-breath.

Its head exploded.

Its body toppled backward, stiff as a board.

”!!!”

The Eldoria factions jolted, expressions snapping from mockery to shock as they stared toward the city.

The Stoneborn leader’s face sank. ”I didn’t expect you to have something like that. Looks like we underestimated you.”

”Just cheap tricks,” the Sylvan elder said coldly. ”We have so many people. How many can that thing kill?”

But before the last word fully left his mouth—

Another beam flashed.

It shot straight at him.

The Sylvan elder’s pupils shrank. He threw himself into a roll—

And the Sylvan man behind him took the hit.

His head burst open like a smashed fruit.

Silence.

The Sylvan elder rose, face dark as thunder, and stared at the wall like he wanted to carve it down with his eyes.

”…Good,” he said, voice low and vicious. ”Very good.”

He lifted an arm.

”Then there’s nothing left to discuss. Attack!”

At his order, the Sylvans charged first, surging toward Fallen Star City in a wave. The other Eldoria factions followed immediately—no hesitation now.

Someone else was taking point.

What did they have to fear?

Nerissa’s expression changed. She tensed, ready to lead her people forward—

But Miles raised a hand, stopping her.

He watched the oncoming tide with unsettling calm.

When the Void Realm creatures drew close to the wall, the ground beneath them suddenly lit up—lines of light connecting into a complex pattern like a massive engraved seal.

Then—

Every invader who stepped into the zone blinked, their vision warping.

In the next heartbeat, the battlefield was gone.

They found themselves standing in a completely unfamiliar place.

A strange environment. Wrong sky. Wrong air. Wrong everything.

The Void Realm creatures froze, frowning, confusion sweeping through the ranks.

They clearly remembered attacking a human city.

So why were they here?

Something was off.

Very off.

Panic and suspicion surged together.

They began attacking in all directions, trying to smash the illusion apart—

But as they struck out blindly, they also felt it.

Something was striking back.

Up on the wall, everyone just stared blankly at the scene below.

The Void Realm army was… killing itself.

”What the hell is happening?” someone blurted. ”Did they all just go insane?”

All they’d seen was the enemy charge in. They’d braced to die.

Then the invaders suddenly stopped, looked around like they’d been dropped into a different world, and started attacking everything—swinging at air, slashing at shadows… and gutting each other in the process.

Slowly, the people of Fallen Star City turned their heads toward Miles.

The last couple days, he’d been tinkering with that patch of ground nonstop, burying crystal cores all through the soil like he was planting a minefield.

This had to be him.

The locals put it together fast.

The Azure Nereids, though, were completely lost.

Nerissa and her women watched the chaos below—different races, different elites, all swinging like madmen and bleeding each other out—and their eyes nearly popped out of their heads.

”This is…” Nerissa’s voice came out thin. ”What is this?”

Miles gave her a mild smile. ”Nothing. Just a small trick.”

He’d gotten his hands on a Ritual Circle Compendium from Ethan before, and he’d been studying it ever since. With his brain, given enough time, it was inevitable he’d build something nasty out of it.

Until now, Miles had poured most of his effort into the citywide warding ritual circle. But after the last Void Realm army showed up at the gates, he realized defense alone wasn’t enough.

The ground outside the walls needed teeth too.

So after Ethan and the others left for Rivermark State, Miles quietly set up an illusion ritual circle outside the city. He hadn’t expected the enemy to walk into it this quickly.

Nerissa stared at Miles—calm, unhurried, almost lazy—and felt a chill run up from her feet to the back of her skull.

This Fallen Star City really wasn’t what it looked like on the surface.

Even now, she still hadn’t seen them field any truly terrifying ”main force.”

And yet… they’d wiped out an Umbral vanguard. Captured Tier 29 Umbral elites.

Now this man—this human who looked like he belonged in an office, not on a battlefield—had casually made tens of thousands of Stage A+ invaders slaughter each other.

The method was… terrifying.

People on the wall started cheering, eyes blazing as they watched the enemy tear itself apart.

But then—

A group of Stoneborn suddenly sank into the earth.

The ground bulged.

Then it exploded.

Crystal cores blasted upward as chunks of soil and light pattern fragments sprayed out like shattered glass.

And just like that, the ”madness” below stopped.

The Void Realm creatures froze mid-swing, blinking around with confused, stunned faces—as if they’d just woken from a nightmare.

Miles exhaled, almost amused.

”Yeah… figured it wouldn’t be that reliable.”

Stoneborn were earth-type. They’d probably sensed something wrong underground and simply tunneled in and ripped the circle apart.

Still… it wasn’t a loss.

That one ”small trick” had made the invaders kill more than ten thousand of their own.

With their own hands.

That was a pretty good trade.

Below, the Void Realm leaders regained their bearings—faces pale with lingering shock.

”What happened?!”

”It was a human ritual circle,” the Stoneborn leader said grimly.

”Ritual circle…” another faction’s commander muttered, swallowing hard. ”I’ve heard of them. I didn’t think they could be this terrifying.”

The Sylvan elder’s face turned viciously dark. ”Hmph. Cheap, crooked tricks. The circle’s broken now—let’s see what they use to fight us next.”

The Sylvans had taken the worst losses—mostly at the hands of the other races during the illusion. But the elder couldn’t exactly pick a fight with his allies over it.

So he turned his fury toward the city instead.

He raised his staff and screamed, voice raw with hate.

”Kill them! I won’t be satisfied until this city is drowning in human blood!”