I Got Reincarnated as a Zombie Girl

The Eclipse-Class Fleet cleaved through the Outer Ocean like an unstoppable pack of black steel giants. The arrow formation led by the five Main Dreadnought Ships moved with lethal grace, followed by the fifteen remaining Hunter-Class Cruiser Ships after five others had been left behind as a garrison on the Chimera Continent.

The scenery around them had transformed into something extremely surreal and magnificent, a sharp contrast to the filthy waters of Nocture. Beyond the Death Storm Wall they had successfully pierced stretched the Outer Ocean, radiating bright blue bioluminescence. Its water glowed naturally, illuminating the darkness of the post-apocalyptic world with a mystical sapphire-blue light.

Yet the beauty of the Outer Ocean came at a deadly price. The air in these waters was filled with an extremely dense pure divine pressure. This pressure was not merely an ordinary gravitational anomaly; it was a manifestation of residual energy from ancient gods and cosmic entities trapped at the bottom of the ocean after Earth experienced dimensional collisions and crustal fusion that expanded it tens to hundreds of times its original size.

For ordinary humans, breathing the air here was equivalent to swallowing shards of molten glass. Therefore, the entire ship crew consisting of Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Beastmen had been ordered to remain below the steel-layered decks. Their safety depended entirely on the ships’ protective systems. The Main Dreadnought Ships, each reaching 500 meters in length and more than 80 meters in width, were solidly wrapped in two-meter-thick Black Star Steel. This super-strong metal alloy created by the Dwarves and Stacia had proven capable of withstanding miasma, magic, and kinetic impacts from sea monsters, while simultaneously isolating the divine pressure from outside.

On the open main bridge, only transcendent entities could stand without feeling choked.

Sylvia, the Queen of Death, sat cross-legged on a soft lounge chair placed precisely at the tip of the bow. As a Rank 7 Demigod who possessed the authority to manipulate reality and the Domain of Absolute Death, the pure divine pressure around her had no effect whatsoever. Instead of feeling oppressed, she merely yawned softly, enjoying the sea wind that swept through her silver hair.

At her side lay Sol and Noir. Sol, the ancient giant Golden Dragon that had shrunk into a spoiled golden cat form, purred gently on Sylvia’s lap. Meanwhile, Noir, the Rank 7 Zombie Dragon sheathed in necrotic flames that guarded the towers of Castle Nocture and had now taken the form of a small black cat, was busy licking its claws on the chair’s armrest.

Sylvia’s left hand casually held a Mythril Fishing Rod. The fishing artifact she had crafted herself was made of pure Mythril and Rank 5 spider silk, making it a magical item whose durability was equivalent to a god-level defensive artifact. Its hook had been cast far into the depths of the blue bioluminescence, waiting for prey foolish enough or large enough to take the bait.

"Sylvia, you know, fishing in an area with a concentration of divinity like this is ecologically extremely dangerous," a woman’s voice came from behind.

It was Stacia. With reading glasses perched on her nose and her ten black angel wings neatly folded on her back, she walked toward Sylvia. Stacia, who served as the logistics brain, alchemy scientist, and ecology expert of Nocture, held several reaction tubes containing samples of the glowing blue seawater. Her magic grimoire floated beside her shoulder, automatically recording data.

"Dangerous how?" Sylvia replied without turning, her eyes still fixed on the tip of her fishing rod. "Is the fish poisonous? As long as Sofia is there to purify mutated food ingredients but since Sofia isn’t here, there’s also Sol, a golden dragon who uses the sacred element. I don’t care how poisonous they are. I only care about the texture of the meat."

Stacia let out a long sigh, lamenting her sister’s never-fading culinary obsession. "That’s not what I meant. Based on my analysis of the new continental ecosystems and this expanded ocean, the monsters in the Outer Ocean have evolved beyond reasonable limits. This ocean is inhabited by colossal mutant monsters of giant size, ranging from Rank 6 to Pseudo-Rank 7. If you casually fish with a rod that radiates pure mana fluctuations, you could attract the attention of something the size of a small continent."

"That’s exactly the main point, Stacia," Sylvia smiled crookedly. "The larger its size, the more meat we can bring home. I’m already imagining a giant barbecue party in the palace courtyard. Just picture it grilled giant squid with spicy magma sauce..."

Before Sylvia could continue her culinary fantasy, the steel deck beneath their feet trembled violently. The vibration did not come from the ship’s engines, but from the depths of the ocean itself.

The blue-glowing seawater suddenly flickered irregularly, as if a massive electromagnetic wave had just swept across the ocean. The sunless sky above them was abruptly covered by giant cumulonimbus clouds that spun rapidly.

The airtight door behind them opened roughly. Celes ran out from the command room. As a frontline fighter skilled in space- and dimension-cleaving magic, Celes’s spatial senses were extremely sharp. Her usually stoic face now looked tense, revealing increasingly clear lines of fatigue. Her right hand rested on the hilt of the sacred sword at her waist.

"Your Majesty! Our mana radar has detected insane energy fluctuations from the north!" Celes reported urgently. "There is a continental-scale spatial distortion occurring at the bottom of the sea trench! The shockwave is spreading toward us at supersonic speed!"

Stacia immediately opened her grimoire, projecting a three-dimensional holographic map of the Outer Ocean. Her eyes widened behind her glasses when she saw two giant red dots colliding in the northern area of the map.

"This... this is impossible," Stacia murmured, her voice slightly trembling with a mixture of awe and dread. "The energy mass of these two entities far exceeds Rank 6. They are in the realm of gods. The center point of this collision is precisely at the Northern Sea Trench."

"The Northern Trench?" Sylvia raised an eyebrow, her interest beginning to rise. She recalled the ancient archives and mythology she had once read after awakening in this new world.

"Yes," Stacia nodded quickly, her hands tapping the grimoire pages to enlarge the image. "According to ancient records and mana resonance analysis, this is the location where Jormungandr resides. The World Serpent of Nordic mythology is fighting!"

"Fighting whom?" Celes asked, staring in horror at the energy indicators that threatened to overload the ship’s sensors.

"With Envy," Sylvia answered casually, her smile now growing wider. "The manifestation of the Great Sin of Envy, which takes the form of a Leviathan Serpent. I’ve heard Envy is currently attacking Jormungandr in the northern trench to seize the title of World Serpent."

"Your Majesty, we don’t have time to discuss mythological titles right now!" Celes interjected in panic, pointing toward the horizon. "Look over there!"

In the distance, the blue horizon suddenly rose upward. It was not merely a wave; it was a giant tsunami more than one hundred meters high, created purely from the shockwaves of the two cosmic serpents’ battle in the north. The wall of water radiating deadly blue light surged toward the Nocture fleet like a giant hammer of the gods.

"Celes, activate the shields. Stop panicking, you’re making your already tired muscles even more tense," Sylvia ordered without rising from her chair, not even releasing her grip on the fishing rod.

"Understood!" Celes immediately pressed the communicator in her ear. "All engineering crew, listen to my orders! Channel power from the five compressed Mana Crystal reactor towers to maximum! Activate the Storm-Repelling Shield Formation right now!"

Inside the bellies of the five Dreadnought Ships, the reactor towers powered by Rank 6 Monster Cores roared like rampaging dragons. Lines of golden light spread through the ancient rune engravings along the Black Star Steel hulls. In an instant, a transparent energy dome with hexagonal angles enveloped the entire fleet, linking the five dreadnoughts and fifteen cruiser ships into a single absolute defensive network.

BBUUUUMMMMMM!!!

The giant tsunami slammed into the fleet with force capable of leveling a small nation. The ocean exploded in sprays of foam and blue light. All the ships tilted up to forty-five degrees; the metal of the hulls groaned violently under the tremendous pressure. Yet the engineering masterpiece of the Dwarves and Stacia held firm. The Storm-Repelling Shield Formation withstood the thousands of tons of high-pressure water, split it, and allowed the fleet to pierce through the water wall like a bullet through glass.

When the ships slowly regained their balance, the seawater that had spilled onto the decks immediately evaporated under defensive magic. Celes and Stacia exhaled in relief, grateful that their technology had not disappointed.

Yet exactly when the waves subsided, the Mythril Fishing Rod in Sylvia’s hand bent sharply.

ZZZZZZINGGG!!!

The fishing line made of Rank 5 spider silk tensed brutally, producing a deafening friction sound. The pull from the end of the hook was so strong that the two-meter-thick Black Star Steel deck where Sylvia stood began to emit fine cracking sounds.

"Oh? What’s this?" Sylvia’s heterochromia eyes sparkled with full enthusiasm. Her laziness vanished in an instant. "It seems the underwater earthquake earlier scared the big fish and drove them toward us!"

"Your Majesty, the pull is too strong!" Celes shouted, looking at the ship’s traction indicators. The bow of the giant Dreadnought weighing hundreds of thousands of tons was slowly beginning to be dragged forward by whatever creature had taken Sylvia’s hook.

"Of course it’s strong," Sylvia laughed softly. "A creature fleeing in terror from the battle between Jormungandr and Envy is definitely not an ordinary small fish. Let’s see your face, darling!"

Rather than using her physical strength, Sylvia decided to resolve it in a queen’s manner. She flicked her free left fingers. Instantly, the air around her turned monochrome; the colors of the world drained away, leaving only black and white. This was a small portion of the expansion of her Domain of Absolute Death.

From the shadows beneath her feet, dozens of dense black chains made of abyssal energy shot out. The Chain of Abyss Sylvia’s Chains of the Abyss raced along the fishing line, pierced the water surface, and coiled around the giant prey in the depths.

"Rise!" Sylvia commanded in an absolute tone.

With a rough pull from the shadow chains, the ocean surface exploded open.

An extremely massive black silhouette was flung into the air, covering the sky with its shadow. The creature was an Abyssal Kraken Leviathan, a deep-sea mutant monster nearly the size of a Hunter-Class Cruiser Ship. Its body was covered in thick serrated carapace, its dozens of tentacles sprayed corrosive acid that hissed, and in the center of its tentacles was a circular jaw full of sword-sharp teeth. Its energy fluctuations clearly indicated it was a Pseudo-Rank 7 monster.

The giant kraken thrashed in the air, intending to slam one of its tentacles down to destroy the ship that had hooked it.

"Too noisy," Sylvia muttered in boredom.

The Queen of Death raised her right hand, pointing her index finger at the giant creature floating in the air. With a single, extremely simple yet lethal finger flick, the authority of Absolute Death was activated.

There was no explosion. There was no blinding magic beam.

In the blink of an eye, the existence of life within the giant kraken’s body was completely erased. Its cells died simultaneously, its soul shattered into cosmic dust, and its movements stopped instantly. The colossal creature that had previously radiated a deadly threatening aura was now nothing more than a pile of fresh, lifeless meat that fell with a deafening buuum onto the ocean surface, right beside the hull of the Nocture fleet.

Sol and Noir only lifted their heads slightly to look at the giant carcass, then went back to sleep, feeling that the threat was not worth their rest time.

Sylvia leaned back into her chair, retracting her fishing rod with a satisfied smile. "Stacia, call the chefs from below deck. Tell them to cut the tentacles of this creature. I want to know whether the meat texture of a Pseudo-Rank 7 monster exposed to pure divinity tastes better than Giant Tuna."

Stacia could only massage her temples. "You just erased the existence of a monster that could destroy half a continent with one finger, just for an afternoon snack?"

"Of course," Sylvia answered casually, allowing several transparent black rose petals to float around her. "But you know, Stacia... a kraken this size seems to be only a small fish trying to escape from the actual battle zone."

Sylvia stood from her chair. Her black gown fluttered elegantly as she walked to the edge of the deck, staring sharply toward the northern horizon where magical storm clouds still swirled and flashes of lightning tore the sky. Her eyes no longer radiated laziness, but the anticipation of an apex predator that had found worthy prey.

"Celes," Sylvia called, her tone now cold yet filled with dangerous enthusiasm.

"Yes, Your Majesty?" Celes answered upright.

"Inform the helm section. Change the course of the entire fleet. We will not waste time fishing for small fish fleeing in terror." Sylvia pointed straight toward the northern trench. "Aim the muzzles of our Mana Cannons at the Northern Sea Trench. We are going to watch the battle between the Nordic World Serpent and the Manifestation of the Great Sin of Envy in person."

Celes swallowed. "Your Majesty, with all due respect, those two entities are at the level of gods. Involving our fleet in their battle..."

"Who said we would get involved in their battle?" Sylvia cut in, giving a sweet smile that somehow made the hairs on the back of Celes’s neck stand up. "I’m only thinking about how extraordinary the meat of a primordial serpent god must taste. Giant roasted serpent coated in mystical honey sounds like the perfect main course for tonight’s dinner. Full sail north, now!"

Realizing that nothing could change the Queen of Death’s mind when she was hungry, Celes could only salute in resignation. "As you command, Your Majesty. Eclipse-Class Fleet, change course 45 degrees north. Target: Northern Sea Trench!"

With the roar of reactor engines splitting the silence of the ocean, the Nocture fleet shot forward, sailing directly toward the storm of gods and death, where two legendary cosmic serpents awaited their fate at the hands of a Queen of Death who longed for a delicious dinner.