I Got Reincarnated as a Zombie Girl

The sun had just touched the horizon line in the west, painting the sky with gradients of deep orange, purple, and blood red. The twilight glow reflected on the rippling wave surfaces, creating a path of light that led straight toward the port of Nocture.

From the distance, the low yet powerful hum of magical energy began to be heard, breaking the afternoon silence. Three massive jet-black silhouettes slowly emerged from behind the thin fog of residual sea miasma. Those were the three Black Star Steel cruiser ships that had just completed their first trial voyage. The ships cut through the waves smoothly; their steel hulls showed not the slightest sign of wear even after being forced to speeds of 50 knots and crushing various sea monsters along the way.

At the dock already filled with ranks of undead workers, Stacia was waiting while floating a few centimeters above the ground. Behind her, a group of expert Dwarf metallurgists stood with tense faces, carrying various magical measuring tools, inspection hammers, and note parchments. They were the creators of those ship hulls, and for a Dwarf, seeing their work return after being tested in the post-apocalypse ocean was a nerve-wracking moment.

The moment the central command ship dropped its giant anchor with an ear-splitting BAM, the Dwarves immediately ran toward the hulls, pressing their ears and scanner crystals against the black steel surface.

"By the beards of our ancestors!" shouted one of the oldest Dwarves, his eyes wide as he stared at his scanner crystal. "No micro-cracks! Absolutely no dents! The kinetic impact recorded at the bow shows this ship collided with at least a dozen monsters weighing tens of tons, yet our Black Star Steel isn’t even scratched!"

Hearing that, rough cheers and thunderous laughter exploded from the Dwarves on the dock.

Stacia ignored the Dwarves who were celebrating their technical victory and immediately shot up onto the command ship’s deck. She landed right in front of the helm room, her thin-framed glasses reflecting the twilight light. Her eyes quickly scanned the open mana crystal reactor indicator panel.

"Two point one percent..." Stacia murmured, her breath catching slightly. She turned toward Sylvia, who had just casually climbed down from the command room roof. "Energy consumption only decreased by two point one percent after several days of sailing at maximum output and one Mana Cannon shot?! Sylvia! This is insane! We’re breaking the thermodynamic laws of energy conservation!"

Sylvia lightly patted Stacia’s shoulder, smiling in amusement at how excited Nocture’s genius scientist was. "Calm down, Stacia. You yourself designed the alchemical array for the reactor. You should already know how efficient that thing is. Besides, there’s something more important I brought back today."

Sylvia flicked her fingers. From the direction of the ship’s stern, the sound of heavy footsteps was heard. Four giant mutant zombies stepped forward, carrying a massive block of ice that radiated extreme cold mist. Inside that crystal-clear ice block was trapped a giant tuna more than five meters long, its silver scales still gleaming perfectly, frozen in a state of absolute freshness.

Stacia looked up at the three-ton fish, then shifted her gaze to the blue-silver fishing rod Sylvia was resting on her shoulder.

"Don’t tell me..." Stacia massaged her temples, feeling an imaginary headache attacking. "You used a pure Mythril rod woven with Rank 5 spider silk... equivalent to a god-level defensive artifact... just to catch a fish?"

"This isn’t just a fish, Stacia. This is a masterpiece of nutrition from the deep sea," Sylvia corrected with a deliberately serious tone. "Take this to the castle kitchen."

The aroma rising from the kitchen that night was truly different from usual. There was no scent of broth simmered for hours or heavy spices that stabbed the nose. Tonight the dining hall was filled with the fresh scent of the sea, the fragrance of specially fermented soy sauce from forest fairies, and a slight sting of magical wasabi crushed from hydroponic plant roots.

A three-ton tuna could of course not be cooked all at once. In the kitchen, Sofia had cut the best belly sections of the tuna, setting aside hundreds of kilograms of the remaining meat into the eternal cold storage protected by high-level ice magic.

The double doors of the dining hall opened, and Sofia entered while pushing a long silver trolley filled with various dishes. Her blonde hair was tied neatly, and her apron was slightly stained with soy sauce, but a proud smile adorned her face.

"Attention, castle residents," Sofia called, stopping her trolley beside the mahogany dining table where Sylvia, Celes, Aurellia, Stacia, and Alicia were already seated waiting with sparkling eyes. "Tonight we present a catch straight from Her Majesty the Queen of Death. Mutated Giant Tuna, purified with eighth-rank Holy Light."

On the table, Sofia served large porcelain plates. There were stacks of Ootoro (high-fat tuna belly) sliced one centimeter thick, its color a pale pink with white fat lines forming a perfect marble pattern. There were also cuts of dense red meat (Akami) served atop a bed of shaved ice. For Aurellia, who did not particularly enjoy fully raw food, Sofia had prepared a Tuna Steak the size of a small sofa pillow, quickly seared with fire element so the outside was savory and smoky while the inside remained juicy and melting.

"This... is so beautiful," Aurellia murmured, drooling as she stared at her giant steak. Without ceremony, the fire-element destroyer girl stabbed her fork into it and cut a large piece of meat, putting it into her mouth. Her eyes immediately widened. "Oh my god! The meat falls apart on my tongue! It tastes like butter seasoned with pure sea essence!"

Celes, on the other side, used her silver chopsticks with extreme elegance. The silver-haired female knight took a piece of Ootoro, dipped it lightly in soy sauce and wasabi, then ate it slowly. Her cold expression immediately collapsed, replaced by a flush of satisfaction. "The mana density is very high, yet the fat doesn’t make one nauseous. Perfect cutting execution, Sofia. You didn’t damage the muscle fibers even a little."

Sylvia sat in the main chair, propping her chin with one hand while swirling her wine glass filled with pomegranate juice. She watched her family devour the food with gusto, a sincere smile blooming on her pale face. She took a piece of tuna belly sashimi, put it into her mouth, and closed her eyes to enjoy the texture of fat that slowly melted on her tongue, delivering an extraordinary umami explosion. Her effort in pulling that three-ton monster from the sea had truly been worth it.

Sofia removed her apron and sat beside Sylvia, pouring herself a cup of warm green tea. "You all should thank Sylvia. If she hadn’t gotten bored and decided to fish using a god-tier artifact, we might still be eating smoked meat rations tonight."

"Long live our hungry Queen of Death!" Stacia cheered while raising her already empty plate, inviting laughter from the entire room.

After that extraordinary dinner feast ended, the atmosphere gradually shifted into a more serious mode. Cute little skeleton servants entered to clear the table, while Stacia once again pulled out her holographic projector from inside her cloak.

"Alright, full stomachs, brains ready to work," Stacia pressed a button on her projection crystal.

Blue and red light once again filled the dining hall, displaying a far more detailed topographical sea map than before. This was the result of the sonar emitted by the three cruiser ships over the past several days, spread as far as 10 kilometers in every direction, collecting data at the speed of light.

"The data from this mapping trial is very interesting, and at the same time quite worrying," Stacia pointed at the hologram projection. "Our ships successfully mapped the deep-sea region within a radius of approximately 500 kilometers from Nocture’s coastline. Within this radius, the situation is relatively safe. Of course there are sea monsters from Rank 2 to Pseudo-Rank 6, but our Mana Cannons have proven they are not meaningful threats to the ship hulls."

Celes narrowed her eyes, noticing a thick blackish-purple line that circled the 500-kilometer radius boundary. "Then what is this thick line, Stacia? Is that the limit of the sonar range?"

"No," Stacia answered, her voice lowering and becoming more serious. "It is a physical wall. Or more precisely, a weather anomaly wall."

Stacia enlarged the projection on that purple line. The hologram now displayed visualization recorded by the ships’ magical cameras. The image that appeared made everyone at the table hold their breath for a moment.

The ocean in front of the ships seemed split by an endless storm wall rising from the sea surface until it touched black clouds in a sky whose end could not be seen. The wall consisted of hurricane wind vortices spinning at lethal speeds, toxic miasma clouds so dense they looked like solid sludge, and flashes of red and black magical lightning that continuously struck the ocean, each one potentially incinerating a small city.

The waves near the storm wall could reach heights of more than one hundred meters, ready to swallow anything that dared approach.

"This is the ’Death Storm Wall’ often mentioned in the residual memories of the sea monsters we interrogated," Stacia explained. "This miasma storm wall is a manifestation of colliding ancient divinity fluctuations. Based on particle energy analysis in the air, this storm separates Nocture’s waters from the true open ocean. And beyond this wall..."

"Beyond this wall is the arena of battle for the Greek Sea Gods, the remnants of the Nordic pantheon, and whatever other ancient gods awakened by this planet’s fusion," Sylvia cut in, her voice calm yet resonating with deep power. She leaned back in her chair, staring at the projection of that terrifying storm without the slightest fear. On the contrary, her pair of eyes actually glowed with interest.

Aurellia twirled her fork, fire element sparking at her fingertips. "Can Black Star Steel pierce that storm, Stacia? If we enter there, the hulls might withstand the lightning, but hundred-meter waves could flip our entire fleet."

"Three small cruiser ships will not be able to break through it," Stacia answered honestly. "Their mass is too light. They would be flung like paper toys. But... if we use the main-class Dreadnought ships currently still being assembled at the shipyard docks which are 500 meters long and weigh hundreds of thousands of tons combined with storm-repelling magic shields... we can pierce it."

Sofia turned toward Sylvia, seeing the line of her lover’s jaw harden into a smile full of anticipation. She knew that look. It was the look of a Demigod who felt challenged by the universe.

"You want to break through it, don’t you?" Sofia asked softly, reaching for Sylvia’s pale hand that rested on the table and channeling warmth.

Sylvia returned the grip, turning her head to look at Sofia and her entire circle.

"This continent has already become too small to contain us," Sylvia said slowly, yet every syllable carried weight that made the air in the dining hall grow heavy. "Those ancient gods think they can divide the oceans of this new world as they please. They lock themselves behind this stupid storm wall, play with the power of the past, and refuse to accept that their era has already ended."

Sylvia stood up, her black cloak rustling as it swept the marble floor. She walked closer to the holographic projection of the Death Storm Wall, raised her hand, and clenched the image of the storm until the projection shattered into fragments of light.

"Stacia, order Zark and the Dwarves to work four times faster. Give them no rest even if they have to burn their soul cores. Complete the assembly of five main Dreadnought ships and twenty cruiser ships within one month from now," Sylvia commanded, her absolute authority as Queen of Death allowing no debate.

Stacia immediately bowed in respect; the glasses she usually used for comedy now reflected the seriousness of a war strategist. "Understood, Your Majesty."

Sylvia turned back toward her family, a intoxicatingly cynical smile clearly carved on her face. "We will pierce that storm wall. We will sail into their territories. If the Nordic gods block us, we will freeze their seas. If the Greek gods challenge us, we will sink their tridents."

Absolute Death grinned, her red eyes glowing with a hunger for domination. "Prepare yourselves. Because next month, the Black Iron Fleet of Nocture will show this new world who the true absolute ruler of this planet really is."