Return Journey to the Royal Castle II
Undead. A type of monster, but it possesses a unique classification based on how it comes into existence: natural emergence, corpse transformation, and artificial creation. Typically, they arise and become active during the night when the sun sets. However, if they are part of a group known as a Parade or transformed by a powerful being, they may begin to move even during daylight.
The worst trait of these undead is their instinctual ability to sense living beings, particularly in areas densely populated by humans, and march toward them. If a massive Parade of undead, led by colossal undead creatures, is active even in broad daylight, the potential damage could extend beyond just a village or town. Thus, I called out to Fana and we took off running.
And then, I caught sight of a truly disastrous scene.
“…What a jackpot, damn it.”
“Y-Yeah, it’s definitely a mess.”
“Take down the giants and lizards. You stand at the front and hold them off.”
“Leave it to me.”
We dashed through a grassy field that sloped slightly upward, reaching the edge of a downhill incline. There, a nightmarish sight unfolded before us. The scent I had detected mixed with my recollections, revealing a massive Parade of undead, numbering in the thousands.
Four Giant Zombies and two Dragon Zombies.
These were among the worst of the undead, marching proudly alongside thousands of zombies and skeletons. Fortunately, as I scanned the surroundings, I didn’t see any signs of a large crowd nearby. This meant that no humans would be panicking and rushing toward the undead after witnessing this Parade.
After instructing Fana to halt the advance of the undead at the front, I lunged toward the sluggish Dragon Zombie trailing behind us. I regretted not picking up a few wooden sticks, but I pulled out the bone of an Earth Dragon from my Magic Bag, just in case.
“Alright, time to clean up this trash!”
With that, I swung the bone before the Dragon Zombie could register my presence. The sensation of slicing through a mass of mud traveled through the bone as the Dragon Zombie’s body exploded, scattering its remains around me.
I landed and discarded the shattered bone, then pulled out another bone from the remains of the Dragon Zombie. I approached the second Dragon Zombie, which had begun to notice me, and swung the bone again.
Just like the first, it burst apart, its body scattering across the area. I then moved toward the now motionless remains, weaving through the chunks of flesh to extract another bone.
‘‘‘‘――――――――’’
“…Tch, just you guys, huh?”
As I pulled out the bone, the surrounding undead reacted, and the Giant Zombies halted their advance, turning toward me. However, the other undead resumed their march as if nothing had happened.
Cursing under my breath, I hurled the bone at the farthest Giant Zombie’s chest without checking for a hit, then dashed to the nearest Giant Zombie and kicked its decayed, crumbling leg.
With its support gone, the massive body collapsed, and I sprinted toward the remaining Giant Zombies.
‘‘―――――――――’’
A voiceless sound, an inaudible noise, echoed as the decaying body moved, reaching out with an arm that had rotted away to the point where bones were visible. I grabbed the hand and twisted it, climbing up its arm. The other arm, from another Giant Zombie, reached for me, but its movements were sluggish, allowing me to reach its shoulder and grasp its neck, tearing it free.
Just as I was about to break the neck of the third Giant Zombie, I sensed a powerful presence approaching, sending the marching undead flying as it tore through the ground. I threw the third Giant Zombie toward that presence and then headed back to the first Giant Zombie I had toppled, crushing its head beneath my foot and kicking its lower half into the midst of the undead horde.
‘―――――――’
As I did this, I caught sight of the fourth Giant Zombie, its chest pierced by a bone, raising its body to crush me. I rushed over and kicked out the leg it was using for support, sending it tumbling down.
With a loud crash, it fell, scattering dust and flesh. I climbed up its fallen body, kicking away the arm it had tried to use to rise, and smashed its head into the ground, crushing it. As I confirmed the flesh was scattered, I pulled out the bone embedded in its chest and leaped down, charging toward the remaining undead while swinging the bone with all my might.
~~~Undead, extermination in progress~~~
“Ugh, these guys are such a hassle to clean up.”
“Indeed… and we’ve gotten quite dirty ourselves.”
“Given the high number of zombies, it’s likely that some fools didn’t handle the corpses properly and buried them in a graveyard, or perhaps some beasts aimed to control the undead… Either way, not all of this happened naturally.”
“Is that so? I thought the scale could allow for natural emergence.”
“Except for the giants and dragons, there aren’t any corpses of anything other than humans.”
As we finished off the undead and gathered the scattered remains, we set them ablaze while exchanging words with Fana.
Both of us were smeared with the flesh of the undead, the stench of decay assaulting our noses. However, we prioritized disposing of the dismembered undead over cleaning ourselves to prevent any resurgence. Generally, unless their heads are crushed or they are completely dismembered, undead do not truly die or stop moving. If we leave the remains unattended, they can reassemble and become active again within an hour.
To prevent that, we needed to set fire to the scattered remains ahead of time, even if this group wasn’t a natural occurrence but rather the result of someone’s actions.
“…Now that you mention it, that does make sense.”
“Right? Regardless of how they got here, the fact that this many could march without involving any non-human corpses is unusual. If there were a Lich or Necrosis involved, it would be a different story, but there were none of those around.”
“Yeah, I haven’t seen any signs of that either.”
“That leads to the conclusion that someone must have created all of this. While it’s possible that the giants and dragons attacked villages or settlements along the way, causing their corpses to rise in this manner.”
“Hmmm… Could it be the Demon Race?”
“Possibly. After all, we destroyed a research facility where someone was mass-producing undead not too long ago. It’s not impossible that someone else is attempting the same thing.”
“Hmmm… Should we search for them?”
“Not a chance.”
Even if there’s a possibility that this was artificially caused, I couldn’t afford to search for something whose location was unknown. While we must deal with anyone aiming to produce and mass-produce undead, searching would take at least a month. We needed to report back to the Royal Castle, so we couldn’t do it immediately.
Besides, they were just undead. No matter how many gathered or how large they became, they were nothing more than weaklings, so there was no need to worry.
“Hmmm… I’d like to search, but I’ll accept your decision.”
“That would be helpful. Dragging you to the Royal Castle would be a hassle, and they’re just undead that can be crushed with a good hit.”
“Is that so? …Yeah, you’re right. With even a single torch, we could handle them easily.”
“Yeah… More importantly, let’s finish this up, wash off, and get moving again.”
“Agreed, let’s do that.”
I found myself delayed by something I hadn’t anticipated, and we had been diverted from a direct route that would have surely led us home. We needed to assess which direction we were headed and our current location to decide on a path. I wanted to finish the cleanup and wash off the remains clinging to us as soon as possible.