The Sequel to the Romance Fantasy Was a Zombie Apocalypse – Chapter 83

“Young Lady… No matter how upset you are with me, isn’t this a bit too much?”

Lanit grumbled at Esmela.

“What am I supposed to do with just this tiny Spinel against those dozens of Zombie Wyverns? If you have complaints, just say them, verbally.”

Although both had become quite close over the past three years while stuck in the Royal Capital, Lanit always tried to overlook Esmela’s complaints as much as possible.

Even though they had spent more time knowing each other as humans in this life than as her favorite in the game of his past life, she was still Lanit’s favorite.

However, even he thought that Esmela’s recent remark crossed a line.

‘Even if she’s upset with me, to openly say I should just go die is too much.’

As he shot her a look filled with grievance,

but Esmela’s reaction was different from what Lanit expected.

“What are you talking about?”

She met his gaze with an incredulous expression, as if wondering what he had been on about.

“Did you forget already?”

Lanit was taken aback as Esmela pressed him, making him think about what he had overlooked…

“…Oh! You mean the ultimate move! Right, Young Lady!”

Only then did the answer dawn on him.

“Yes. You’ve always been slow, but just now was especially bad.”

“Ah… haha. Sorry, Young Lady. It took me a bit to grasp what you meant when you suddenly presented the Spinel. I haven’t used it in over a year… haha…”

Realizing he had been acting foolish, Lanit scratched the back of his head, breaking into awkward laughter.

“And you call that an ultimate move? My word. I thought you were just dumb, but it turns out your sense is utterly the worst.”

“It is an ultimate move! It’s super strong, shoots fire and everything…”

Pouting as he defended his naming sense, Lanit shrugged.

“…But is it really okay? Last time, we decided not to use it because it almost burned everything around us.”

“That’s true. But look around.”

After Esmela’s words, Lanit checked his surroundings once more.

A desolate plateau where almost no trees or grass grew, just barren earth.

“If it’s here, couldn’t we test it again?”

“Certainly… that’s a fair point. I won’t need to worry about Herta’s Flame spreading around.”

Right? With a proud expression, Esmela raised her chin.

Lanit smiled back at her, unsheathed the sword at his waist, and began to rush toward the Zombie Wyvern’s nest, clutching the Spinel she had handed him tightly in his hand.

“Whoa, whoa. What’s he doing?”

The soldiers watching Lanit rush at the Wyverns unarmed were left in shock.

Regardless,

“I’ll take care of the Young Lady’s protection!”

Leaving those words behind, he quickened his pace.

“Protection? As if I’m the one protecting these ruffians.”

Esmela feigned annoyance, but her smile radiated confidence in her devoted butler bringing them victory.

-…Squeak?

The Wyvern, who had been dead to the world with its eyes closed, suddenly opened them.

Normally, its eyes would gleam like yellow jewels, but due to its transformation into a zombie, they were now a murky green.

Those dozens of dreary green eyes turned toward the single human sprinting toward their nest.

-…Kieek.

Having found a prey after days of hunger from a lack of humans passing by,

-Kieeek!


-Kyaak! Kyaak!

The creatures excitedly flapped their wings, emitting eerie cries that echoed across the dry earth.

And just as their cries died down,

Swish-

As if they had made an agreement, dozens of Wyverns suddenly soared into the air together.

With bodies measuring 2 meters in length and wings that spread three times wider,

They scraped their claws, sharp as swords, ready to snatch their prey, with their tough, earthy-colored scales acting like armor that rendered any final struggle from their captured meal meaningless.

Each one could be likened to a small dragon.

As dozens of them took to the sky, they cast a shadow over the ground below.

But the butler bravely charged toward them.

No, rather, he wore a confident grin of victory.

If they had not been zombies before, the intelligent Wyverns among the monsters would have sensed something amiss about the prey’s bizarre behavior, keeping their distance and observing…

Swack-!

But now, as zombies, they lacked the reasoning to think that far.

Blinded, they raced blindly toward the delicious scent of their prey, plummeting straight down from the sky.

The butler halted.

Was he finally trying to escape?

No, instead, he shoved the small gem in his hand into his mouth and swallowed it.

One second, two seconds…

Before the third second ticked by, just as the beak of the foremost Wyvern was about to pierce the butler’s head,

Kwahh!

A powerful black flame burst out from him, incinerating close to half a dozen of the Wyverns charging him in one fell swoop.

-…

Their scales turned to ash, their flesh melting away rapidly, these Wyverns fell to the ground without even a death cry.

-Sheesh, sheek!

The Wyverns had been flying toward the butler, but upon witnessing the ominous black flames erupting around him, they instinctively flapped their wings madly to fly higher, putting some distance between themselves and him.

Even a brainless zombie could sense a life-threatening danger. This was the last proof that they were still living beings.

Dozens of Zombie Wyverns, unsure of what to do, merely circled the blazing black fire in confusion.

As time passed, the flames gradually dwindled…

Thud, thud.

The red-scaled, half-dragon figure strode out from among the black flames.

“Hmm…”

Lanit examined his altered body part by part.

Arms covered in scales.

His ten fingers were as strong and sharp as a dragon’s.

“I don’t have scales on my belly. Does that mean even the little things are dragon-like?”

He marveled and stroked his firm, bare abdomen.

Arms, legs, hands, and feet.

His whole body had transformed into the form of a red dragon.

Now he felt his face with both hands.

He couldn’t see his face directly, but it felt like almost everything except around his eyes, nose, and mouth was covered in scales.

Satisfied with his splendid transformation, Lanit closed his eyes and began to sense the changes within himself.

Thud. Thud.

The sound of his heart pounding fiercely.

It wasn’t quickened due to fear or excitement, but rather a heavy thrum that resonated through his body each time it beat.

Because of the life force surging from that heart flowing through his veins, Lanit was struck with the impulse to move his body right now.

But it wasn’t just that instinct circulating within him.

There was also the wild pulse of black flame mana coursing through him, threatening to ignite his mana circuits.

It felt like he was going to burst.

Before this body burned up, he wanted to expel the fire within him—

“Kyaaaaaaaaa!!!!!”

The Dragon-Man bellowed wildly.

The roar was so tremendous that it surpassed the collective cries of dozens of Wyverns, rippling hot air and shaking the ground he stood on.

The Wyverns, caught between instinctual desires for survival and their zombie cravings for flesh, flapped helplessly, letting out pitiful cries from far above him.

“Hey, you guys up there.”

Looking up at them, Lanit spoke. His face wore no trace of his usual humility or kindness, replaced instead with a haughty confidence.

“Sorry, but could you be my practice targets?”

With that one-sided proclamation, he launched himself off the ground, springing upward toward the unwieldy flock of Wyverns flying above him.

Swack-!

Gripping the beak of one Wyvern within reach with both hands, he yanked it wide open and tore its head apart.

“Wait, what the heck…”

Ricky, a soldier of the Pedina City Guard, gaped with his mouth agape, staring cluelessly at the absurd scene unfolding before him.

The young man who had described himself as the butler of the Ducal Family.

He had just yelled at the Young Lady before throwing something he received from her onto the black ground and charging full speed toward the Wyvern’s nest.

Even though he had found him annoying for acting all high and mighty the whole way here, he didn’t hate him enough to let him go die alone.

Despite Ricky’s yelling for him to come back, Lanit only seemed to increase his speed, charging toward the Wyverns even more.

With no other option, the soldiers started running after him to at least save his body.

What they witnessed upon arriving nearby was a scene where black flames suddenly erupted around Lanit, and from within, a creature resembling a scale-covered human burst forth, leaping at the flying Wyverns before tearing apart their limbs with his arms.

“I can’t believe this. I just can’t comprehend.”

Ricky’s mind struggled to grasp the situation unfolding before him.

“Uh, Young Lady. What in the world is going on? Who on earth is that, and what has he turned into?”

His head filled with curiosity, Ricky dared to speak to the Young Lady of the Ducal Family, temporarily forgetting basic etiquette due to his confusion.

“Hmm…?”

However, Esmela showed no signs of anger or displeasure at his impudent behavior.

Rather, her face brimming with a confident smile seemed as if she had been waiting for the question, and she responded kindly to the soldier with the goat-like beard.

“Who, you ask? That’s a foolish question. Obviously, it’s my Personal Butler, Lanit. What he’s transformed into… It would be more accurate to say he’s a half-human, half-dragon, or rather, half-salamander.”