Chapter 1366: What Gold Could Not Burn

Ethan compressed the white lightning in his palm into an energy sphere and tossed it forward.

The sphere crossed the gap and punched straight through the zombie’s head. Its skull burst apart in a flash of white. The ruined body staggered another two steps before losing its balance and collapsing.

The energy sphere kept moving.

After piercing its target, it curved back toward Ethan and began circling him at high speed.

The scent of fresh blood spread deeper into the laboratory.

More zombies came pouring out from behind counters, between broken machines, and through darkened corridors. They paid no attention to the energy sphere orbiting Ethan. Drawn by the smell, they simply charged.

The first zombie entered the surrounding force field.

The sphere swept across its chest. The outer field crushed its bones, then flung the entire body into a wall.

A second and third zombie followed close behind.

The sphere continued circling Ethan, tearing apart every zombie that entered its range. Severed limbs littered the floor, but they did not stop moving completely.

Death was the one thing these creatures did not fear.

Some had only one leg left, yet still kicked against the floor. One had been reduced to a single finger, and even that kept bending toward Ethan.

A shield still surrounded him.

Teeth, fingernails, and jagged bones pressed against the outside of the light screen, constantly biting and scraping at its surface.

After watching them for a moment, Ethan wondered if he could control them.

He formed another energy sphere, this time reducing its power to the absolute minimum. The dazzling white light dimmed until only a soft glow remained.

Ethan guided the sphere through his shield and into the body of a relatively intact zombie.

His vision changed.

Bloodred.

Nothing but endless bloodred in every direction.

Dense red mist blanketed the surroundings, while columns of bloody energy rose from the ground into the sky. Ethan tried to make the zombie move, only to sense several strange presences deep within the mist.

Several even more deformed zombies crawled out.

They shrieked and charged through the blood mist toward him.

Ethan was about to hurl the energy sphere in his hand when the zombie he controlled exploded from within.

Bang!

The connection broke instantly.

Ethan’s consciousness was forced out of the body and returned to the laboratory. Pieces of the exploded zombie lay scattered around his feet, while the noise drew the surrounding undead toward him.

A new energy sphere formed in his palm.

He surveyed the mangled remains around him, then reluctantly pressed the sphere into his own body.

Black particles emerged across his skin.

Ethan’s outline rapidly dispersed until his entire body had become a connected cloud of black particles. Without his energy to sustain it, the shield around him also dissolved into white particles and slowly faded away.

The zombies outside lost their target.

They crowded around the spot where the last white motes had vanished and continued clawing at empty air.

Still in particle form, Ethan passed through the horde and searched the laboratory for a more intact body.

Most of the zombies here, however, were already too badly damaged to meet his needs.

After wandering for a while, Ethan found a staircase leading down.

"Stairs going underground?"

The steps were stained red with blood and descended into darkness with no end in sight.

The surrounding zombies still could not see Ethan.

They remained packed around the spot where the white particles had disappeared, yet deliberately kept their distance from the underground staircase. Not one of them was willing to approach the entrance.

Ethan descended.

At the bottom, he found a massive figure ahead of him.

There were no other zombies in this area. Only the hulking creature stood in the darkness with its back to Ethan, repeating the same name over and over.

"Shaela..."

Its voice was deep and hoarse.

"Shaela... Shaela..."

Ethan ignored the muttering and continued forward.

A rectangular table stood at the center of the room. Five bird-beaked masks had been arranged neatly on top. Their long, pointed profiles perfectly matched those worn by the five black-clad figures in Granthor’s memories.

Ethan regarded them calmly.

He had expected to find something like this. There was nothing surprising about it.

He made a circuit of the underground room but found no other clues. Only then did he approach the zombie that had never stopped repeating Shaela’s name.

Up close, Ethan could clearly see its abnormally powerful muscles and the strange genetic chain within its body.

More inexplicably, its cells had completely ceased functioning.

If none of its cells were active, how had this body survived for so long?

Outside the laboratory, the Golden Crucible was changing.

The golden cage gradually swelled while its radiance grew fainter. Everyone had assumed the zombies trapped inside had been destroyed, but as the thick golden liquid receded, moving shadows appeared within it once again.

The dismembered zombies were pulling themselves back together.

Severed limbs devoured and tore at one another—the very sounds the group had heard earlier. The mangled flesh continued merging until it formed a single, much larger body.

They had come back from the dead.

Or rather, they had fused into a new monster.

The giant zombie opened its vicious eyes and planted all four limbs against the edges of the cage. Its speed defied its enormous size. With a single burst of strength, it tore free of the golden light and scrambled up the laboratory’s outer wall toward the dome.

Its fingers gouged deep holes into the metal.

The giant zombie reached the highest point, kicked off with both legs, and launched itself at Andona in midair.

Feeling the pressure from above, Andona immediately shot higher.

The zombie swept past the soles of her shoes and crashed heavily into the ground. A deep crater opened in front of the laboratory, hurling chunks of stone and mechanical wreckage in every direction.

The giant zombie raised its head from the crater.

"Heh... hehehe..."

A low laugh emerged from its mouth.

Its expression was unmistakably mocking their incompetence.

"Ravager!"

It pounded its chest and laughed again.

"Hehe!"

Andona stared down at the Ravager in disgust.

Golden light crackled across the blade in her hand as Divine Power spread out behind her. The apparition of an Angel stepped from the light, followed by more Angels appearing across the sky.

The Ravager looked around wildly.

Even as more Angel apparitions surrounded it, the monster showed no fear. Instead, it threw its arms wide and laughed with even greater arrogance.

Andona raised her golden blade and slashed downward.

A golden arc descended from the sky. At the same moment, the Angels all dove toward the Ravager.