Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Ethan opened another Riftwalk and brought the group deep into the mountain range.

The moment they emerged, they found themselves face-to-face with a powerful pack of Outland Beasts. Dozens were at Stage S, including two at Tier 34 and one at Tier 35.

"Finally, some good luck!" Ethan laughed.

"Get them!"

The group descended on the Outland Beasts like a band of raiders.

"Roar—!"

The leading beast had barely opened its mouth when a poleaxe split its head apart, cutting off the roar.

The others quickly attacked the remaining Stage S Outland Beasts. Before long, all several dozen had been killed.

The commotion soon drew a massive number of Outland Beasts toward them.

Ethan had been planning to leave, but then he noticed that many of the approaching beasts were Stage S. There were even quite a few at Tier 34 and Tier 35.

"Damn. So we didn’t get lucky," Ethan said with a grin. "This place is just crawling with Stage S Outland Beasts."

"In that case, we’re not going anywhere. Let’s slaughter as many as we can."

Ethan released all his thralls, leaving them and Chris’s group to face the overwhelming tide of Outland Beasts.

Meanwhile, he hunted down the high-Tier Stage S beasts himself.

Roars soon echoed nonstop through the depths of the Suncrest Range.

Galeborn...

As one of the Eastern Region’s ten great races, the Galeborn held an exalted position. Members of other races usually went out of their way to avoid offending them.

Now, however, a pall hung over the entire race. Everyone looked grim.

"Patriarch, are we certain Veyr was killed by the humans?" a Galeborn elder asked solemnly.

"Yes. Veyr saw his killers clearly before he died. It was that group of humans from the Southern Region," Galeborn Patriarch Vaelor said, his expression dark.

"What do you intend to do?"

"They killed my son. They’ll pay with their lives."

"But... they’re inside the Suncrest Range. It won’t be easy for our people to act there."

"Hmph. It’s too late to worry about that now. The agreement has already been torn apart in the Southern Region, so there’s no reason for us to keep honoring it."

"They killed my son. I don’t care if they’re hiding in Outland Beast territory. They will die."

Vaelor swept his gaze over the elders.

"High Elder Aeron will remain here. Every other Stage SS elder will come with me to the Suncrest Range. Tear the place apart if you have to, but find those humans!"

"Yes!"

Just then, the chief steward hurried into the room, his face filled with shock.

"Patriarch, something terrible has happened!"

"What is it?" Vaelor asked with a frown.

"The Patriarchs of the Celestials, Soulkin, and Emberborn went to the Veilmist Range to meet with the Beast Sovereign and mediate the incident in the Southern Region. The negotiations failed, and they ended up fighting the Beast Sovereign. The Emberborn Patriarch was killed, while the Celestials and Soulkin Patriarchs escaped with severe injuries."

"What?!"

Everyone shot to their feet and stared at the chief steward in disbelief.

"Is that true?"

"Absolutely! I wouldn’t dare make up something like this!"

The room fell silent.

"The balance of power on the Eldoria Continent... is about to change," High Elder Aeron murmured.

"Is the Beast Sovereign really that strong?" Elder Kaelen asked in shock. "Even three Patriarchs couldn’t defeat it?"

"The Beast Sovereign reached the peak of Tier 47 thousands of years ago," Aeron said. "If it had a method to reach the next Stage, it might have broken through long ago."

"The Celestials and Soulkin Patriarchs may also be Tier 47, but there’s still a considerable gap between them and the Beast Sovereign. As for the Emberborn Patriarch, he was only Tier 46. It’s no surprise that he was killed."

His voice grew heavier.

"But those three Patriarchs didn’t merely represent three top races. They represented every race on the Eldoria Continent. For the Beast Sovereign to attack them without reservation and kill one of them... does it intend to sever all ties with the other races?"

"Hmph. Isn’t that perfect?" Vaelor said. "I was worried that entering the Suncrest Range would draw condemnation from the other races. But after this, war between the races and the Outland Beasts is inevitable. No one can accuse us of violating the agreement now."

"Notify every Galeborn at Stage A or above. They’re all going to the Suncrest Range. We’ll harvest its Outland Beasts’ crystal cores before anyone else gets the chance."

"Isn’t that a little premature?" High Elder Aeron asked with a frown. "The top races haven’t issued any orders yet."

"It’s only a matter of time. If we wait until they issue the order and every race joins in, how many crystal cores do you think will be left for us?"

"Well... that’s true."

"Fine. We’ll do as you say."

Before long, a massive force of Galeborn began advancing toward the Suncrest Range.

A movement of that scale quickly drew the attention of the other races. At first, they couldn’t understand what the Galeborn were doing, but then they remembered what had happened in the Central Region.

"Is war about to break out between the races and the Outland Beasts? Did the Galeborn receive advance warning and decide to seize as many crystal cores as they could?"

"That bastard Vaelor. He’s as underhanded as ever. We can’t afford to fall behind."

One after another, the races of the Eastern Region dispatched large numbers of fighters toward the nearby mountain ranges.

The sudden disaster caught the Outland Beasts completely off guard.

What had gotten into these races? Had they all decided to ignore the agreement?

The Outland Beasts quickly fought back. The conflict soon alarmed the stronger beasts, drawing them out as well.

Meanwhile, in the grand hall of the Celestials in the Central Region...

The Patriarchs of the Celestials and Soulkin had gathered with six or seven powerful elders.

Both Patriarchs were pale and unsteady, their presences weak. They were clearly gravely wounded.

"That Beast Sovereign was truly ruthless!" one elder said, his expression livid. "Does it really think there’s nothing we can do to it?"

"Our top races have remained quiet for too long. That animal must have started believing it’s invincible!"

"These old bones of ours haven’t seen action in quite some time," another elder said coldly. "Perhaps it’s time we changed that."

"Don’t be reckless!" the Celestials’ Patriarch quickly interrupted.

"The Beast Sovereign has already reached the absolute limit of Stage SSS, and it has tempered its body to a terrifying degree. Not one of us can defeat it alone."

"We were all gravely wounded in the war against humanity. We’ve spent these years recovering, so our strength has barely improved. The Beast Sovereign, however, has continued growing stronger. Its Tier may not have increased, but it’s far beyond an ordinary Tier 47."

"It would take at least four or five Tier 47 fighters to have any hope of killing it."

"But you also know that the Beast Sovereign isn’t the Outland Beasts’ only Stage SSS. They have fewer Stage SSS fighters than we do, but the difference isn’t that large. Now that the Emberborn Patriarch is dead, if the Beast Sovereign ties down four or five of us, we’ll have no advantage left."

The elders frowned. They all knew he was right.

"Are we supposed to let this go?" one of them demanded. "Did the Emberborn Patriarch die for nothing?"

"Of course we can’t let it go, but this is not the time to wage war against them. The return of humanity is a far more important matter. Besides, there’s something strange about this entire incident. We need to find out exactly what happened."

"For now, we’ll swallow our pride and negotiate peace. The Outland Beasts only lost a few Stage SS fighters, while they’ve already killed one of our Tier 46 Patriarchs. That should be enough to satisfy them. If it isn’t, we’ll offer compensation."

"We can settle the score after we’ve dealt with the humans."

"Fine," the elder muttered. "But damn, this leaves a bad taste in my mouth."