I Got Reincarnated as a Zombie Girl

Three months passed quickly, flowing like sand in an unforgiving hourglass. Yet for the City of Nocture, three months was not a time for leisure, but an incubation period for a grand ambition ready to erupt.

The sea wind carrying the distinctive scent of salt and a thin residual miasma brushed against Sylvia’s face. She sat casually atop a rocky cliff jutting out toward the sea, her legs dangling over the edge. Below her, the slightly dark-blue waves crashed against the coral formations, breaking into white foam that was flung into the air.

Yet that natural scenery held no interest for the Queen of Death. Her pair of heterochromia eyes, one the color of fresh blood and the other the silver of moonlight, were fixed intently on an industrial masterpiece stretching along the coastline.

The Nocture Docks.

The port facility had been built from nothing in only ninety days. For pre-apocalypse human civilization, constructing a deep-sea port and giant shipyard from empty land would have taken years, perhaps even more than a decade. But Nocture did not operate on mortal human standards. They possessed a workforce that never knew fatigue, never needed sleep, never demanded wages, and never complained.

Millions of low-class undead workers white skeletons reinforced with bone-hardening magic, and giant mutant zombies labored twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. They hauled tons of stone from the mountains, split hills, and built dock foundations beneath the toxic seawater without any need to worry about drowning or running out of breath. Zark truly demonstrated his competence as an Undead General in managing massive-scale infrastructure.

The result? Giant steel ships that looked like metal monsters now lined up neatly along the docks, reflecting the midday sunlight from their sturdy black hulls.

Even so, the construction process had not been entirely smooth. Sylvia clearly remembered how Zark had once complained because the hull assembly process suffered severe delays. The problem was not with the zombies, but with the primary material: steel.

The steel used to build this ocean-conquering fleet was not ordinary commercial steel once used on Earth. The current seas were filled with giant monsters whose shells were as thick as cliffs and whose jaws could chew aircraft carriers as if they were biscuits. Ordinary steel would shatter with a single swipe of an Abyssal Leviathan’s tail.

Therefore, Stacia and the Dwarf engineers had created a new metal alloy called "Black Star Steel" , a mixture of magical iron ore mined from the depths of the mines, melted low-level monster bones, and meteorite dust. The hardness of this material defied reason, but as a consequence, normal smelting methods could not work properly. Coal furnaces or even electrical heating reactors were unable to melt it.

The Dwarves skilled in magical metallurgy had to work hard hammering the metal day and night under the blasts of Aurellia’s fire and high-level magma elemental magic. Those thick-bearded Dwarves cursed every day because the workshop temperatures nearly matched the core of a volcano, making the production of ship plating the only bottleneck in the fleet’s construction. Yet their hard work paid off in full. The ship hulls were now immune to seawater miasma corrosion, resistant to mid-level magic, and possessed physical durability capable of ramming into coral islands without the slightest dent.

Sylvia observed one of the main cruiser ships moored closest to the cliff. Its design was extremely fierce and intimidating. There were no conventional rotating radar towers on top; they had been replaced by giant observation crystals that emitted magical sonic waves.

Further still, there were radical changes to its propulsion and weapon systems.

In the pre-apocalypse era, a ship of this size would have required thousands of barrels of diesel oil or large-scale nuclear reactors to move. Both were too risky and space-consuming, not to mention that the fuel was now impossible to find. Instead, Nocture’s ships were powered by something far denser and more efficient: Monster Cores compressed into pure Mana Crystals.

During the land-clearing operations, millions of monsters from Rank 1 to Rank 5 had been slaughtered by Sylvia’s forces. The energy cores from their hearts were not discarded. Under Stacia’s insane alchemical array modifications, those monster cores were distilled, purified, and compressed into fist-sized crystal chunks that stored energy equivalent to a nuclear power plant. Because the engine rooms that once occupied one-third of the ship’s hull were now replaced by extremely compact crystal reactors, the ships’ cargo capacity became massively perfect for holding the "seafood ingredients" the Queen was targeting.

As for the armament, Sylvia could not help but smile sardonically at the giant muzzles perched on the ship decks.

"No precision cruise missiles, no heat-seeking torpedoes, and no intercontinental ballistic missiles," Sylvia murmured to herself, her voice soft and carried by the wind.

Modern precision electronic systems were highly vulnerable to interference from wild mana fluctuations and the miasma radiation enveloping the world. An advanced ballistic missile could suddenly veer off course and explode in place because its navigation chips were fried by energy waves from a passing Rank 6 sea monster.

In response, Nocture’s civilization decided to "regress" conceptually yet "advance" destructively. They returned to the era of giant artillery cannons.

On the decks of those ships were mounted dozens of giant cannon barrels, their entire bodies engraved with ancient Fairy runes and elemental magic formation arrays from the Dwarves. These were Mana Cannons. Instead of firing gunpowder shells, the cannons absorbed energy directly from the Mana Crystal reactor in the engine room, concentrated it inside the barrel through spiral arrays, and fired compressed pure energy projectiles. Their destructive power was terrifying. A single shot from the main cannon could vaporize a rocky mountain into ash, leaving an energy radioactive crater that would burn anything for years. It was a crude, brutal weapon, and perfectly suited for hunting giant tentacled sea monsters.

While Sylvia was contemplating how absurd the military power she now possessed was, the soft sound of footsteps approached from the path behind her.

"I knew I would find you here, Your Majesty the Queen of Death who is running away from stacks of documents."

That soft yet authority-filled voice made Sylvia’s ears twitch slightly. She did not even need to turn to know who had arrived. The scent of lilies mixed with the calming warmth of the light element immediately drove away the remaining sharp smell of the sea.

Sofia walked closer, wearing her white-and-gold military commander uniform complete with the neatly folded angel-wing cloak on her back. The blonde-haired girl carried a winter monster-fur cloak and immediately draped it over Sylvia’s shoulders.

"It’s spring, Sofia. The air isn’t that cold, and I am a Demigod-level Undead. I can’t catch a cold," Sylvia said casually, though she made no attempt to reject the cloak and instead pulled it tighter around herself.

Sofia sat down beside Sylvia, her legs also dangling over the cliff edge. "You may not be able to catch a cold, but you can ruin the scenery if you sit here like an ice statue. Besides, Stacia is currently raging in the meeting room because you haven’t signed the budget allocation approval for the smoked meat supplies for the ship crews."

Sylvia laughed softly. "Let Stacia forge my signature. She’s become very skilled at it lately."

The two fell silent for a moment, enjoying the view of the busy activity at the port below. The sun slowly began to move westward, refracting golden light across the endless ocean surface.

The ocean was so very, very vast.

"You’re thinking about the world map again?" Sofia asked, breaking the silence. She knew her lover’s habits very well. If Sylvia stared at the sea with an empty yet calculating gaze, it meant she was trying to calibrate her past memories with present reality.

Sylvia let out a long breath and pulled a thin magical tablet from inside her sleeve. The screen projected a holographic globe that flickered. Most of its surface was covered in thick black with large red question marks.

"This frustrates me, Sofia," Sylvia said, her tone sounding annoyed. "In my previous life, before this damn apocalypse happened, I knew Earth’s geography by heart. I knew where the Pacific Ocean was, where the Mariana Trench was, where the continents of Asian, Europe, or America were. But now..."

Sylvia spun the earth projection with her slender fingers. "...now, Earth has expanded a hundred times beyond its original size."

That was the most terrifying yet confusing fact after the apocalyptic disaster. When the dimensional collision and apocalypse occurred, Earth was not only flooded with miasma and monsters. The planet literally underwent fusion, merging with fragments of planets and worlds from other dimensions. Tectonic plates were torn, ancient continents sank, and giant alien landmasses rose from the split ocean floors.

The gravity of this world should have crushed itself due to the sudden addition of mass, yet somehow the new cosmic physical laws or perhaps the intervention of gods and goddesses from the ancient pantheon had stabilized it. Distances between regions that once took only a few hours by commercial airplane now stretched into journeys that could take months to cross.

"All the great cities of the past have been completely reduced to dust. Tokyo, New York, London... all vanished without a trace or were buried underground by the fusion of the earth’s crust," Sylvia continued, her eyes narrowing as she stared at the rolling sea. "I honestly don’t even know which former continent we are standing on. Is this the remains of Eurasia? Or South America that has been twisted? There is not a single astronomical or geographical reference point that matches my memories. Even the constellations in the night sky have changed."

Sofia rested her head on Sylvia’s shoulder, her gaze softening. "Does that really matter, Sylvia? The past has been destroyed. The Earth you once knew is already dead along with the billions of humans of that era. This is a new world, a completely blank page."

"It matters for navigation, my dear Sofia," Sylvia replied in a practical tone. "If we want to sail across this red ocean to hunt Rank 7 Abyssal Crabs or oyster-flavored Kraken, we must make sure we don’t get lost in the endless waters. Moreover..."

Sylvia paused for a moment, recalling a supernatural intelligence report she had received from her spirit network a few days earlier.

"...Moreover, the oceans of this newly fused world are not empty territories without rulers."

Hearing that, Sofia’s relaxed expression gradually turned serious. "You mean the ongoing power struggle among the Sea Gods?"

Sylvia nodded. "Exactly. The dimensional collision has awakened many ancient mythological entities that were once considered mere fairy tales before the apocalypse."

Sylvia pointed toward the northern open sea. "In the freezing northern waters, there are remnants of Nordic sea god influence. Jormungandr may have risen in a new form, or perhaps Vanir gods like Njord are trying to reclaim dominion over the sea storms. The miasma there is mixed with absolute ice magic."

Sylvia’s finger then shifted toward the southern and southwestern open sea. "Meanwhile, in the warmer deep-sea regions filled with eternal thunder storms, there are divinity fluctuations from the Greek Pantheon. The authority of Poseidon or whatever inherited his trident is trying to dominate the sea mutants to become its army."

Sofia furrowed her brow, her light elemental aura unconsciously rippling softly in response to her war instincts beginning to stir. "Nordic gods and Greek Sea Gods are fighting each other over the expanded ocean territories... and our fleet will sail right through their war zone."

"Precisely," Sylvia smiled crookedly, a smile that radiated the arrogance of an entity standing at the peak of the cosmic food chain. "They may be Sea Gods, entities revered in mythology for thousands of years. They hold authority over the tides, storms, and kraken. But they have forgotten one thing."

"What is that?" Sofia asked softly.

Sylvia’s heterochromia eyes flashed with a restrained yet intoxicating killing intent. "Everything that breathes, whether mutated sea monsters, continent-sized turtles, or even sea gods themselves... can ultimately die. And in this world, I am Death itself."

Sylvia stood up, straightened the fur cloak on her shoulders, then extended one hand to Sofia. The sea wind blew stronger, making her dense black hair flutter in the air. Behind her, the giant iron ships seemed to roar along with her, waiting for the command to release their anchors.

"Let’s go back inside, Sofia. We need to check the final reports from the Dwarves," Sylvia said, her voice now filled with burning enthusiasm. "Let those sea gods play with their storms. Soon they will realize that the Nocture fleet is not sailing to interfere in their ocean politics. We are sailing... because my seafood menu list is still far too short!"

Sofia accepted the offered hand with a bright laugh, shaking her head in resignation at her lover’s never-changing ridiculous motivation. Yet no matter how absurd the reason was, she knew one thing for certain.