Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Inside Deadlock Dimension, the unicorn stared blankly at its unfamiliar surroundings.

How had it suddenly ended up here?

Ethan gave it no time to figure that out. The instant they entered, he attacked, bringing his black-glowing Poleaxe down toward its head.

Sensing the danger, the unicorn snapped back to its senses and roared. White light flared from its horn.

At that moment, Ethan’s eyes flashed.

Silencing Gaze!

The light on the unicorn’s horn vanished instantly.

Its eyes widened. It tried to activate the ability again, only to discover that it couldn’t draw on its mental energy at all.

Thud!

Ethan’s Poleaxe slammed into its skull.

He had poured nearly ninety percent of his mental energy into the attack.

The unicorn’s head burst open, and the force sent its massive body flying.

It hit the ground, rolled back to its feet, and shook its blood-soaked head. Its huge eyes locked on Ethan.

"Roar!"

It tried to use another ability, but still couldn’t access its mental energy.

Horror appeared on the unicorn’s face. It spread its wings and charged Ethan instead.

Having nearly emptied his mental energy, Ethan drained Skinny Pete and Garrick, instantly refilling his reserves.

He activated Absolute Stasis, freezing the charging unicorn in midair, then followed with another full-powered Annihilation Strike.

Thud!

The blow shattered its already damaged skull. Its body crashed to the ground.

"Heh. Tier 39 really is something. Too bad. Inside this space, you’re mine to slaughter."

Ethan beckoned, and a yellow crystal core flew out of the unicorn’s skull and landed in his hand.

A smile tugged at his lips as he looked at it.

"Thank you, Mother Nature."

He hadn’t expected the peak Tier 41 unicorn to somehow turn into a Tier 39 unicorn.

But he certainly wasn’t complaining.

He couldn’t handle peak Tier 41, but Tier 39? That was easy.

Still, the unicorn’s strength gave Ethan a much clearer idea of the gaps between the individual Tiers of Stage SS.

Those gaps were far larger than they had been in Stage S. Without the two abilities he had gained upon reaching Stage SS, killing a Tier 39 Outland Beast would have been nearly impossible.

Even after Deadlock Dimension weakened the unicorn by twenty percent, it had still taken two full-powered Annihilation Strikes to kill it—and that was with the unicorn unable to use any abilities.

Without the suppression, it might have used some kind of defensive ability. Ethan had no idea how many Annihilation Strikes it would have taken then.

More importantly, outside Deadlock Dimension, he couldn’t restore his mental energy instantly. He wouldn’t dare put everything into Annihilation Strike without keeping something in reserve.

Without Deadlock Dimension, Tier 38 was probably the strongest opponent he could handle.

Fortunately, he had it now. In here, a Tier 39 was only worth two hits.

Chris and the others walked over and looked down at the unicorn’s corpse.

"Boss, this isn’t the unicorn from before, is it?"

"Of course not. If it were, there’s no way I would’ve dragged it in here."

"The other one must’ve had somewhere else to be and sent this subordinate to guard us," Ethan said with a laugh.

"Haha, poor thing. Boss really screwed it over."

Everyone gave the dead unicorn sympathetic looks.

"All right, we don’t know when the other unicorn will come back. Let’s get out of here first."

"Okay."

Ethan gave the corpse one last regretful look.

Just like before, the unicorn was too large to fit inside his spatial storage ring. The ring simply didn’t have enough room.

Unfortunately, despite visiting so many Void Realms, they had never found another spatial storage ring. He would have to make do with the one he had.

He could choose a separate dimension like Miles had, but that would be too wasteful. There was no need to go that far.

Ethan deactivated Deadlock Dimension.

The group reappeared where they had vanished, and the unicorn’s massive corpse crashed heavily to the ground beside them.

The surrounding Outland Beasts had been watching the spot expectantly. At the sight of the corpse, their eyes went wide with disbelief.

Ethan ignored them and immediately activated Riftwalk. Everyone rushed into the dimensional rift and disappeared.

He had no idea when the other unicorn might return, and he wasn’t about to stick around and find out.

Only after they vanished did the Outland Beasts recover from their shock. Furious roars echoed throughout the mountain range.

The unicorn fighting Vaelor seemed to sense something. Its expression changed drastically.

It wanted to return and see what had happened, but Vaelor kept it tied down and gave it no chance to leave. With no other outlet, the unicorn unleashed all its fury on him.

Vaelor was puzzled by its sudden outburst, but he refused to back down.

No matter what it took, he would claim that crystal core today.

Elsewhere...

Ethan’s Riftwalk brought the group to another part of the Suncrest Range, but there wasn’t a single Outland Beast in sight.

Puzzled, they searched the surrounding area and still found nothing.

"Strange. Where did all the Outland Beasts go?"

The Suncrest Range was packed with them. Normally, they encountered beasts wherever they went. This was the first time they had seen such a large area completely deserted.

They kept searching, but after quite some time, they still hadn’t found a single one.

That only made the situation more confusing.

Just as they were about to continue, they heard what sounded like fighting in the distance.

"Something’s happening."

They exchanged looks, then quietly made their way toward the noise.

When they reached the edge of the battlefield, the sight before them left them stunned.

Outland Beasts and fighters from the other races filled their entire field of vision. The battlefield was absurdly huge. By a conservative estimate, at least several hundred thousand fighters were involved, along with more than a million Outland Beasts.

Even more shocking, the fighting wasn’t limited to Stage S.

Several Stage SS battles were raging as well.

"Damn. What happened here?" Ethan asked in surprise. "Did they finally tear up the agreement for good?"

"Boss," Skinny Pete whispered, "these guys have the same clothes and racial features as that son of the Galeborn Patriarch we killed. You think they came here looking for us?"

"Uh... You might be right."

"Heh. Who knew killing him would pay off like this? If I’d known, I would’ve killed a few more Patriarchs’ sons."

Ethan’s eyes gleamed, especially when he looked toward the Stage SS battles.

"..."

"Let’s move farther away and find somewhere to power up. Chris, you’re reaching Stage SS first. I’ve got an important job for you afterward."

"Got it!"