Crownfall City Compound...

The air inside the compound felt like it had been compressed.

Every street, every checkpoint, every rooftop—people moved like they were bracing for impact. Faces tight. Eyes darting. Hands never far from weapons.

With the survivors who’d fled Ridgegate City spreading the story like wildfire—embellishing every detail—everyone already knew it.

The compound was about to face its darkest hour.

Eight million zombies.

Just thinking about it made your scalp go numb.

In a situation like that, it felt like there was only one ending.

Panic had started seeping through the compound. Some people were openly shouting about evacuating, demanding the gates be opened. Others were already packing.

Edmund was about to split in half from stress.

He’d been trying to keep this under wraps, hoping to buy time and control the message—but those Ridgegate escapees had blown it wide open.

Right now, he wanted to line them up and shoot them himself.

And the worst part? The zombie tide had come from Ridgegate City and was marching straight toward Crownfall.

There was no way those people were completely innocent in that.

They’d led it here. Whether on purpose or not.

But this wasn’t the time to start killing. If he did, the compound would implode from the inside before the zombies even arrived.

Besides... the news would’ve come out eventually. People were just hearing it early.

Then the compound’s loudspeakers crackled to life across every district.

"Everyone—quiet!!"

The chaos didn’t vanish, but it dulled, like a crowd forced to hold its breath.

Edmund’s voice came through, hard and loud.

"Yes. A massive zombie horde is coming toward our compound."

"Right now, we’ve reached a moment of life and death."

"What we do not do is panic and think about running."

"What we do is pick up our weapons—and defend our home."

"The compound is the foundation of our survival. Lose the compound, and we don’t survive this world. Not any of us."

The compound went strangely quiet.

Nobody needed the speech to understand how important the walls were.

But eight million?

How were they supposed to hold that?

Edmund seemed to hear the unspoken question through the silence, because he continued immediately.

"I know what you’re thinking—can we hold?"

"But I’m telling you right now: whether we can or not, we must."

"We fought this far just to stay alive. For your family. For yourself. We hold."

"And we’re not fighting alone. The other major compounds have already dispatched their strongest forces to support us."

"I believe we can hold this line!"

That last part—support—hit the crowd like oxygen.

You could see it spread: shoulders unclenching, people swallowing hard, eyes shining.

"Other compounds are coming..." someone whispered, voice shaking. "We’re not alone..."

A few people wiped at their faces like dust had gotten in their eyes.

That was the Atlas Federation’s best trait.

They could argue all day, tear each other apart over internal politics—but when something from the outside tried to crush them, they locked in together with terrifying unity.

Edmund’s voice sharpened again, like he’d been saving the best for last.

"And one more thing. This is important."

"Fallen Star City is also sending super experts to support us!"

"Fallen Star City!!!"

The name alone rippled through the compound.

It didn’t matter how scared people had been a second ago—hearing Fallen Star City was like hearing the word safe spoken out loud.

These days, Fallen Star City was basically a holy place in the Atlas Federation. Its fighters had been mythologized to the point people spoke about them like legends instead of humans.

Especially the Fallen Star Squad.

The image of them wiping out the Yamato Empire had burned itself into everyone’s memory.

A guy near one of the main streets barked a laugh, loud enough to carry. "Hell yeah! If Fallen Star City’s sending people, what are we even scared of? Ten million zombies? So what—let’s fucking do it!"

"Exactly!" someone yelled back. "In front of Fallen Star City, zombies are trash!"

"I just wanna see my idol in person," another voice cut in, excited. "If he shows up, I can die happy!"

"Your idol who?"

"Big Mike!"

"...."

Someone choked. "Your taste is... kinda special. Why not Ethan?"

"Because Ethan’s got too many fans. I can’t squeeze in," the Big Mike fan said seriously. "Big Mike’s better—fewer fans. And I’m fire-type too, so I gotta support my guy."

"...Fair."

Edmund’s broadcast did a lot more than quiet the compound.

The suffocating dread eased—hard—and in its place, a fierce, almost desperate will to fight surged up.

Squad after squad of Enhanced fell in with their units and headed for the gates, ready to meet the horde head-on... and waiting on reinforcements from the other compounds.

It didn’t take long.

The first to arrive was Heartland City Compound, the closest one to Crownfall.

Sixty thousand Enhanced—Tier 15 to Tier 17 across the board. On top of that, there were more than a dozen Stage B (Tier 18) powerhouses.

They hadn’t sent cannon fodder.

They’d sent their core.

Edmund personally went out with his people to receive them.

And the moment Crownfall’s residents saw real reinforcements pouring in, they finally believed it. The commander hadn’t lied. A huge chunk of the fear evaporated on the spot.

Now they were just waiting for one name.

Fallen Star City.

Inside the compound’s operations command room, the leader of Heartland’s support force—Zane Cole—looked Edmund in the eye, face grim.

"Edmund. How far are the zombies? When do we estimate contact?"

"Less than eighty miles now," Edmund said, voice low. "They’re still expanding as they move, so their speed isn’t the fastest. But even so... they’ll reach us in under two hours."

"Two hours..." Zane’s brow knotted.

"That’s not enough time. At best, only Goldcrest City and Rivergate City can make it. Everyone else is too far to arrive that fast."

"Tell me about it." Edmund let out a breath. "I’ve got people out there trying to slow them down, but you know how it is. An eight-million-level tide—how do you ’delay’ that? It’s not a convoy. It’s a moving disaster."

Zane hesitated, then asked the question everyone was thinking.

"Is Fallen Star City coming?"

"General Kane said they’d send people," Edmund answered. "But Fallen Star City is too far. I’m worried they won’t make it in time."

Zane frowned. "You’re forgetting something. Fallen Star City has flying mounts."

"I know," Edmund said. "But I also heard Ethan took tens of thousands of them and went abroad. I don’t know how many flying mounts Fallen Star City still has left."

"They’ll have some," Zane said, firm. "Ethan’s not the type to leave his home without a backup plan."

Edmund nodded, but his expression stayed heavy. "Hope so. Because without them... I honestly don’t know how we’re supposed to fight this."

When he spoke to the public, he’d sounded like steel.

But the real pressure sat on his shoulders alone. He couldn’t dump that fear onto the people inside the walls—not now.

Zane reached out and patted Edmund’s shoulder.

"Relax. We’ll hold. We have to."

Edmund forced a nod. "Yeah. Thanks."

A little over an hour later, the reinforcements from Rivergate City Compound and Goldcrest City Compound arrived almost at the same time.

They came in breathing hard, sweaty and winded—clearly having sprinted like their lives depended on it.

Both compounds had sent their strongest forces too.

Goldcrest brought sixty thousand, minimum Tier 15, top-end Tier 18.

Rivergate brought fifty thousand, similar strength.

Crownfall’s Enhanced watched them stumble into formation, panting, and a wave of emotion rolled through the defenders. Gratitude. Relief. The kind that makes your throat tighten.

The three supporting forces together were still under two hundred thousand.

But they were elite.

It boosted Crownfall’s fighting strength by a huge margin.

Still... against a tide pushing ten million, it was a cup of water on a forest fire.

And as the minutes bled away, no more reinforcements appeared.

The horde was almost here.

People started glancing at the horizon more and more often. The disappointment was hard to hide now, settling into eyes and clenched jaws.

Then—

Up on the highest watchtower, a scout with binoculars went pale and lowered them with shaking hands.

He practically threw himself down the ladder and sprinted straight to Edmund.

"Sir. The zombie tide is here!"

Edmund’s chest sank.

So we didn’t make it...

His eyes swept the wall, the defenders packed shoulder to shoulder, the city behind them holding its breath.

He raised his voice, letting it cut through the air like a blade.

"Everyone—battle stations!"

"Get ready to fight!"