Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Half an hour later, Chris and the others came flying back on their soulless thralls.

They’d caught up and killed plenty, but a lot still managed to slip away in the end.

No way around it—there were just too few of them who could fly.

After that, Ethan did exactly what he’d done in Clearford City. On one hand, he had Edmund and his people start building a dedicated site for creating soulless thralls and gathering the necessary materials. On the other, he sent teams across the battlefield to search for any Luminari elites who were still breathing.

Since most of the killing had been done by Fallen Star City’s side, they already knew Heartland City compound would desperately need thralls. So they’d deliberately left some of the defeated enemies alive once they’d been stripped of combat ability.

Even among the Stage S powerhouses, most of them hadn’t actually been executed—just beaten until they couldn’t move.

When Edmund and the others found out Ethan was going to teach them how to create soulless thralls—meaning Heartland City compound could finally have high-end combat power of its own—they got so excited it was almost scary. Their efficiency shot through the roof. In less than two hours, everything Ethan asked for was ready.

Afterward, Ethan still had Chris and the others handle the actual teaching, walking Edmund’s group through the process step by step. Aside from the peak Tier 35 elder and the Tier 34 captain, all the other captured Luminari were handed over for them to convert.

At the same time, Ethan had Garrick take on the peak Tier 35 elder, and Big Mike handle the Tier 34 captain, splitting the work to cut the total time down as much as possible.

A day later, under Chris and the others’ hands-on guidance, Edmund’s group finally had Stage S soulless thralls of their own.

It also meant something even bigger:

Heartland City compound now had Stage S combat power.

Big Mike also successfully turned the Tier 34 Luminari captain into a soulless thrall.

Four days later, Henry hauled an unconscious Garrick out of the basement on his back.

And right behind them, the Luminari elder followed.

No question—Garrick had succeeded too.

But turning a peak Tier 35 into a thrall was brutal. Every time they completed one, the creator ended up completely wrecked—like they’d been squeezed dry.

At noon, they ate a lavish meal in Heartland City compound. Once Garrick finally woke up, Ethan and the others said their goodbyes to Edmund and his people.

They had to head to Goldcrest City next.

Right now, Goldcrest City was the urgent one. Atlas City could wait a little longer.

Edmund didn’t try to keep them. He understood—Goldcrest City was probably living the same nightmare Heartland had been, staring at the horizon every second, praying Ethan would show up.

Before long, Ethan tore open space again, taking everyone from Fallen Star City as they left Heartland City compound behind.

Goldcrest City…

And the moment they arrived, it was obvious something was already very, very wrong.

A full-scale war was tearing through the city.

One side was the Stormkin, the current occupiers of Goldcrest City.

The other was the Frostborn—the ones who’d originally taken the city—along with the Rimekin, allies the Frostborn had dragged in to help them claw it back.

In truth, the squads Stormkin and Frostborn had brought to Earth were about the same on paper: both led by a peak Tier 35 powerhouse, both backed by more than a dozen Stage S elites.

But Stormkin were simply stronger in a straight fight. The Frostborn had lost and been forced to retreat, surrendering Goldcrest City.

Still… Frostborn were a top-tier race from the Frostfall Continent. They weren’t the type to swallow that kind of loss.

So they’d called in the Rimekin—another Frostfall race—and come back for round two.

That was how things had reached this point.

The battle had swallowed half of Goldcrest City. Ice and lightning crashed together in overlapping waves, turning the skyline into something unreal—beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

Far behind the lines, a dense mass of humans huddled in the distance, trembling as they watched.

A fight like this was instant death for them. One stray attack and they’d be wiped out without even understanding what hit them.

Thankfully, while the Stormkin were violent and quick to kill, they didn’t treat humans like the Luminari did. They weren’t forcing people to act as cannon fodder.

Maybe they just knew humans would be useless up there anyway.

Even so, the Stormkin were ridiculous.

Despite being outnumbered by more than double, they were still holding their ground, trading blows without falling behind.

Lightning-type abilities were basically born for war.

If the Frostborn’s control abilities weren’t so nasty—so hard to deal with—Stormkin would’ve steamrolled almost any other race by now.

”Damn it—two crazy women.” Stormkin Elder Tharok’s face was twisted with fury. ”You really planning to go to the death with my Stormkin!?”

”Hmph.” Frostborn Elder Isolde’s voice was ice-cold. ”When you made a move against my Frostborn back then, I told you—this debt would be repaid sooner or later.”

”Damn it. If you’ve got guts, fight me one-on-one. Two-on-one—what kind of man—” Tharok choked on the words, spitting them out like they tasted bad. ”—thing does that?”

”Everyone knows lightning-type abilities are absurd in direct combat.” Beside Isolde, Rimekin Elder Eira smiled as if she were enjoying herself. ”We’re not idiots. If we have the numbers, why would we duel you?”

Tharok’s gaze turned savage. ”What the hell do you want, then? You want humans? Fine—I’ll give you some. Just stop pushing me. If you corner me, nobody wins.”

”Take your people,” Isolde said flatly, ”and get out of this city.”

”In your dreams!” Tharok snarled. ”This city belongs to the Stormkin now. No one’s taking it from us!”

”Then there’s nothing left to talk about,” Isolde said. ”We fight.”

”Fine!” Tharok’s voice thundered. ”You think I’m scared of you!?”

Their tempers snapped, and the clash exploded all over again.

Tharok’s lightning-type attacks were terrifyingly destructive. Bolts hammered down one after another, and the two women’s defenses were shredded almost instantly.

But they weren’t weak either. Both were Tier 35—one specializing in control, the other in raw offense—and together they made Tharok’s life miserable, yanking his rhythm apart every time he tried to press an advantage.

Right as the battle hit a fever pitch—

Above Goldcrest City’s central plaza, space suddenly tore open.

A jagged rift split the air, and a whole crowd of figures poured out of it.

The Void Realm forces fighting in the distance were too locked in to notice.

But the humans of Goldcrest City saw it immediately.

The instant they recognized Ethan and the others, the entire crowd started shaking like they could barely stand.

”They’re here… Fallen Star City really came!”

”Thank God—we’re saved!”

”That entrance was insane… that’s the Fallen Star Squad for you.”

Ethan’s group stepped out of the dimensional rift, and their attention snapped straight to the violent battle raging in the distance.

”Uh…” Someone swallowed. ”What the hell are we looking at?”

They were still trying to process it when the person in charge of Goldcrest City, Damien Caldwell, hurried over with a group of senior officials.

”Ethan.” Damien looked like he might laugh and cry at the same time. ”We’ve been waiting for you.”

Ethan nodded once, then pointed toward the distant chaos. ”Explain. What’s going on over there?”

Damien didn’t waste time. He quickly ran through the situation from the start.

”So that’s how it is.” Ethan nodded slowly, and a flicker of dark amusement showed in his eyes.

He hadn’t expected to walk in on two higher races smashing into each other head-on.

Over the last stretch of fighting, Ethan had more or less figured out how these Void Realm races were organized—at least the rough pattern.

If a team had a peak Tier 35 leader, it usually meant a higher race. The kind that definitely had Stage SS monsters back home—and usually more than one.

If the leader was only Stage A, that was more like a mid-tier race, with the top combat power probably capped around Stage S.

That was why most of the forces coming through the rifts in Eldoria were mid-tier. The dimensional rift there had opened in the Southern Region, and the groups that came through were mostly led by Tier 29-level fighters.

The Azure Nereids were mid-tier too—just the kind that sat near the top of that bracket.

As for lower races… the ones that showed up were typically Stage B with a Stage A leader. Like the Bloodfang Orcs they’d run into before—classic low-tier, with their strongest fighters probably topping out at Stage A.

Anything below that?

Not even worth mentioning.

And humans—if you didn’t count Fallen Star City—were honestly in that ”not even worth mentioning” category.

Because outside of Fallen Star City, the other human compounds still didn’t even have Stage A.

From what Ethan had seen so far, higher races weren’t actually that common. That was why they could lock down the few human cities they bothered to occupy.

A collision like this—higher race versus higher race—wasn’t something you saw often.