738. [STAGE 45] Zombie Defense (3)
Leaving behind the scene where their husband Mikhail was chatting happily with Prince Ash, the commander of the front line here.
The five queens of Vermilion came out to the deck of the airship. It was to get some air from my frustrated mind.
“Wow, did you all see Michael’s expression?”
“huh. “I heard you had a smile on your face?”
“Boys Talk is very enjoyable, right…?”
The young new king of Vermilion, along with the Crown Prince of the Everblack Empire and the Lord of the Ivory Tower, smiled brightly and chatted with each other with a much more relaxed look on their faces.
A faint jealousy flashed through the eyes of the five queens, who grumbled as they recalled that scene.
“He didn’t show us that face.”
“I’m really excited. “I’m going to kill you tonight…”
“I’m going to torture you all night long until you admit what you did wrong.”
It was around this time that the five queens began to make dark plans for Michael’s grand execution(?) tonight.
Kiik….
Giik….
Riding on the side of the airship La Mancha, whipped by strong winds.
A figure was slowly but surely creeping up.
It was a hunting dog whose entire body had been mangled and covered in blood.
Despite being severely injured, the hunting dog crawled up the entire side of the airship with green eyes flashing… and climbed onto the deck.
《Krrr!》
The hunting dog on the deck shook itself.
“uh?”
One of the five queens, who spotted the dog a beat later, pointed.
“Isn’t that… a monster?”
“what?”
All five queens turned around in surprise and were shocked.
It was a monster belonging to the Hell Hounds Corps that Ash discovered earlier.
“Oh my god, I guess I was on a plane during contact earlier!”
It was a small monster and was able to climb up here to avoid La Mancha’s sensors.
The queens urgently tried to take out their weapons to subdue the monster, but the next moment they realized.
I left my weapon tied to the griffon saddle and came out.
Because I thought this secret ship was safe…!
“You have to escape into the airspace…!” However, it was faster for the zombie hunting dog
, “Kaaaa!”,
to rush in with blood splattering all over its body
than for the five queens to return to the secret ship in time .
***
“What’s the situation?”
When I returned to the bridge, I asked Macmillan.
Mikhail returned and the powerful Sky Knights joined him.
Thanks to this, there was a bright atmosphere with laughter for a moment, but the situation was not very optimistic.
Macmillan reported as if he had been waiting for me as soon as I returned.
“You’ve arrived at the right time, Your Highness! “The zombies have begun their advance!”
“…!”
“That too… at incredible speed!”
After La Mancha increased altitude, the zombies gave up chasing La Mancha.
Instead, he seemed to have decided to hurry on his way to his destination, north – Inse.
The situation on the ground was reflected on the magic panel on the bridge. Everyone gathered in the room sighed.
Kurrrrrrr!
It feels like a river of corpses is flowing.
The zombie monsters tangled with each other, twisted their legs, and fell repeatedly, as if their slow movements until now had been a lie… and started running north at a terrifying speed.
“What is the estimated time to reach the Crossroads?”
“At this rate, there are two days and 12 hours left!”
What kind of zombie is faster than a horse?
Mikhail, who followed me onto the bridge and was looking at this scene with a tired face, asked me quietly.
“Is there a way to defeat these guys, Prince Ash?”
“….”
Everyone’s glances at me are filled with trust.
Just as I have defeated countless legions of monsters, I feel the belief that I will solve the problem this time as well.
okay. Of course, there is a way. But.
“….”
I was lost in thought.
The exact method is the same as always.
Until we arrive at the Crossroads, we will use every means possible to destroy this zombie monster army, and then use our full power to wipe out the remaining remnants in front of the Crossroads.
This is the standard method of dealing with monsters, and I plan to use it again this time. But if it’s a problem.
‘Our power is not perfect.’
Does the current Crossroads have enough defense power to crush the enemy’s main force?
and.
‘The power of the enemy monster corps is abnormally high…’
Until now, the rule of this ‘Destruction Game’ was to impose a penalty even if only 2 monster corps were dispatched at the same time.
Because of the penalty in the Lord of the Flies match where Imp + Paris were deployed, the next four defense matches were not played at all.
But look at what is in front of you now.
Even though they are in a zombie state and their combat power is drastically reduced compared to usual, dozens of monster legions are banding together, forming an alliance, and moving north.
‘I’ve already gotten used to the difficulty level of this defense game, but this is so foreign.’
It sounds a bit strange considering the damn difficulty level so far.
The previous stages were either subtly or overtly concerned about establishing themselves as ‘games’.
This means that the match was balanced. This was especially true when the devil himself made the decisions.
The Lord of the Flies or the Night Bringer, who tried to destroy the world without hesitation, were different from the Demon King.
What is the devil’s purpose? I guess I should say that it feels like he wants me to suffer as much as possible, but he doesn’t want me to be completely broken.
Although we have never met face-to-face, the Demon King and I have shared the stage dozens of times… no, counting the repeated episodes and game experiences, the Demon King and I have shared the stage countless times.
I know his style.
‘Seeing as the scepter authority has been recovered, the return of the Demon King itself is certain.’
Only the devil can bring Cromwell back from the dead.
My opponent now is definitely that demon lord.
But what about the heterogeneous composition of enemies in this stage…
‘If it were a normal demon lord…’
It’s funny to say this to an enemy.
We may have planted a ‘weakness’ and a ‘breakthrough’ that we can overcome. No, it would be more accurate to say that I knowingly neglected it.
‘The enemy’s weakness…’
I rested my chin and was lost in thought.
‘Let’s think about it. ‘Characteristics of zombies, characteristics of demon species, characteristics of Cromwell…’
I was lost in thought for a while in the airship that was hurriedly returning to the Crossroads, ahead of the advancing zombie army.
Everyone on the bridge maintained a quiet atmosphere, as if trying not to disturb my thoughts.
How long could such a quiet flight last?
thud…! thud…! thud…!
The outside of the bridge began to become noisy.
At first, no one paid much attention, but soon the noise got louder.
No, it wasn’t just the noise. Screams and screams began to mix together. The people on the bridge who sensed something amiss exchanged glances with each other.
“Hey, what’s going on…”
At the same time Diarmuddin opened the bridge door and was about to ask outside,
“Aaaah!”
From outside, one of my soldiers let out a terrifying yell and tried to run into the bridge.
The frightened Diarmydin was frozen and unable to move, but Mikhail stepped forward with dazzlingly fast movements and threw a back kick.
Wow!
“Keuheook!”
The soldier rushed out at the same speed he came in. Immediately after, Mikhail looked shocked and apologized.
“I’m sorry. Stop being surprised by the sudden rush. are you okay?”
“Ugh! Ah ah ah ah ah!”
However, the soldier continued to yell and tried to enter the bridge.
Mikhail, embarrassed, slammed the bridge door shut, and the soldier shouted, pounding on the bridge door with his fist.
“What’s wrong with this person?”
“Get out of the way!”
I pushed Mikhail away and stood in front of the bridge door, examining the soldier’s condition through the transparent glass part of the door.
“iced coffee! Ahhh…!”
His two bloodshot eyes have completely lost their sense of reason, and his mouth is chewing on the glass window in an attempt to somehow bite the cage on the bridge.
And on the back of the arm… there are
clear tooth marks as if someone else had bitten them.
I broke into a cold sweat.
“This can’t be right.”
“majesty! Look at this…!”
After putting the lock on the bridge door, I turned around. Macmillan was operating the magic panel with a pale face.
“This is the current situation inside La Mancha.”
Macmillan manipulated the optical device installed inside the airship to show the inside of the airship.
Everyone looked like the soldiers outside, screaming and running to catch anyone who was still intact.
On the screen, an intact soldier was seen being captured and bitten.
“Ah, it hurts…!”
The soldier, who was bleeding from the bite wound, was in pain, and eventually transformed into the same form as the others and let out a scream.
“…It’s infected.”
I said, breaking into a cold sweat.
“Someone was bitten by a zombie monster and the infection spread.”
“That can’t be possible! There is no possibility of infection during the bombing operation to La Mancha, and all personnel of the Sky Knights also went through quarantine after the battle! “No one was injured!”
Macmillan strongly objected, but what can be done? This is reality.
As a result, the infection spread through small gaps that we did not detect.
‘Zombies in this world are a kind of ‘state’.’
If you are bitten, you will be ‘infected’, but this alone will not turn you into a zombie. You must die while infected for the corpse to rise, move, and attack the living.
In other words, the people outside are not zombies yet.
I think it would be more appropriate to describe them as ‘infected people’ who have become a bit more ferocious due to the effects of infection.
“I don’t think it’s a bit vicious, right?!”
“…This is my first time seeing someone actually get bitten.”
Usually, when you get bitten by a zombie, you get eaten and die right away.
Anyway, I think it would be convenient to think that if a person is bitten, they become infected, and if they die, they mutate into a zombie. It is a three-stage mutation: human → infected person → zombie.
And there is another characteristic… they do not attack the same infected people.
This is the secret to keeping the zombie army in check. It seems like some kind of homogeneous signal is radiating from each other.
“So these aren’t monsters yet. “He’s just a patient infected with the zombie plague.”
Diarmudin calmly refuted my conclusion.
“That is just a symptom of the commonly known zombification plague, Prince Ash. “I don’t know what kind of mutation occurred as the infection spread to the monsters below.”
“….”
“And if there are any deaths among the infected outside, and if they return like this, even Crossroads….”
Diarmudin didn’t bother to continue, but the implications were fully conveyed.
This empty space has already been polluted.
All crew members inside the ship except those on the bridge are infected. And although they are ‘infected’ right now, we don’t know when they will transform into ‘zombies’.
You must not return to Crossroads in this state.
That could end up putting not only Crossroads, but the entire royalties at risk.
Then…
beep. Beep beep.
At that time, a communication came in.
Macmillan shouted after confirming the point where the communication was coming from.
“A communication came in through the communication network installed in the warehouse near the hangar!”
“Connect.”
The communication was connected.
A moment later, a trembling voice along with a sobbing sound was heard.
“Mikhail, are you there…?”
It was the voice of one of Mikhail’s five queens.
“….”
Mikhail’s face had already become as white as it could be.
