Even Death Grew Tired of Killing Me-Chapter 69 - 64 - Theo, Kyrene, Astrae and the Zombie Hoards

Chapter 69: Chapter 64 - Theo, Kyrene, Astrae and the Zombie Hoards

[First POV-Theo]

The first wave reached us in seconds.

They did not charge like trained soldiers and they did not rush blindly either. They came in uneven bursts, some crawling low, others stumbling forward in sudden lunges, arms outstretched, fingers snapping like broken traps.

"Back to back," I called out quickly. "Use the columns. Don’t let them circle us."

Kyrene moved without question, sliding to my right. Astrae stepped to my left, her stance narrower than before but steady.

We positioned ourselves near one of the half-formed stone pillars, broken and thick enough to block at least one side. That way we only had to manage two angles.

The first corpse lunged at me, jaw hanging loose, eyes milky and unfocused.

I stepped forward instead of back.

Strength 32. Agility 32. Dexterity 40.

The numbers felt real now.

Not theoretical.

My body moved faster than it used to, cleaner. I grabbed the creature by the collarbone and twisted hard. Bone snapped with a wet crack and I drove my knee upward into its chest. The impact caved the ribcage inward. It fell backward into two more behind it, tangling them briefly.

"Mobs from left side coming fast," Kyrene uttered calmly.

"I see it." 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Another two surged at Astrae. She lifted her hand and summoned a short burst of divine light, not grand and not explosive, just concentrated enough to blast one skull apart. The second one slammed into her, knocking her a step back.

She gritted her teeth and drove her elbow into its temple, then finished it with a blade of condensed light through the throat.

The mob thickened.

They were not strong individually, but there were too many.

I felt the old panic try to creep up my spine.

I shut it down.

Failure Converter stirred inside me, threads of possibility brushing against my mind. This was not a single overwhelming enemy. It was a pattern problem.

Crowd control.

"Let’s do a tight formation," I called. "I’ll break their front line."

Kyrene smirked faintly. "Finally taking charge huh?"

"Just follow."

He laughed softly and pivoted, kicking one corpse square in the jaw. The head spun nearly a full turn before tearing loose entirely.

I stepped into the mass.

A corpse lunged at my face. I ducked under it, drove my palm into its sternum, and triggered a burst of force through my arm. The impact threw it back into three more, knocking them down like loose pins.

A hand clawed into my shoulder from behind.

My body reacted before the panic could.

Not by instinct or magic.

It’s from the pattern.

The angle was wrong. The weight distribution behind me shifted just a fraction, and the damp stone carried the vibration forward. My mind caught it a heartbeat late, but my body was already moving.

Agility and Dexterity carried the turn cleanly.

I twisted sharply before the second hand could close around me, caught the attacker’s wrist mid-swipe, and drove my elbow backward into its jaw. Bone cracked under the impact. I wrenched the arm downward and slammed the corpse face-first into the stone pillar.

It went limp before it hit the ground.

"Watch your right," Astrae warned.

I didn’t turn.

I trusted the warning.

I dropped low instead.

A decaying arm swept over where my head had been. I hooked my foot behind its ankle and kicked outward. The corpse fell hard, and I crushed its throat before it could rise.

They were not dying easily.

Some kept crawling even after losing limbs.

"Break the spine," Astrae instructed between breaths. "Or destroy the head."

"Got it."

A cluster of five pushed toward Kyrene at once.

He did not retreat, instead he stepped in.

He used minimal movement, efficient and precise. He ducked one swipe, caught another wrist mid-air, and snapped it with a twist. His foot swept under a third corpse, dropping it flat. Then he drove his palm into the chest of the largest one, sending it skidding backward several meters.

He was holding back, I could tell now.

"Feels like we’re in a zombie movie," Kyren half-chuckled, sounding almost as if he were enjoying himself. I ignored him.

I pushed forward again.

This time I activated Recorded Replay.

The skill flickered across my vision and for a split second I saw my own movement from a few seconds earlier, the angle of my strike, the positioning of my foot.

I corrected.

I pivoted differently, angled my shoulder tighter, and drove through the center of a charging corpse with better force than before. Its spine shattered cleanly this time.

Better.

Failure Converter pulsed again.

The mob was beginning to form a crescent shape around us.

"They’re trying to funnel us," I muttered.

Kyrene glanced at me briefly. "Then let’s collapse the middle."

"Exactly."

I sprinted forward, feet splashing through shallow water. A pair of corpses leapt at me at once.

I did not dodge.

I slammed into them.

Vitality 34.

The impact hurt, but I did not fold. I grabbed one by the neck and the other by the collar and smashed their heads together. Bone split and fragments flew. I hurled the remains sideways into the cluster behind them.

But the pressure broke faster than I expected.

A corpse slammed into me from the side, another hooked its fingers into my collar, and the third dragged me down into the mud before I could reset my footing. Weight crushed in from all directions. Teeth tore into flesh.

Darkness.

—

Return.

I moved immediately, correcting position, adjusting angles, breaking grips before they fully formed. It did not matter.

The numbers overwhelmed s.

A misstep. A crushed throat. A snapped spine beneath a collapsing pile.

Again.

And again.

By the time I reappeared on my feet once more, breath steady despite the chaos around me, the count settled quietly in my mind.

Total deaths since we started fighting: 312.

I inhaled slowly.

No panic.

Just calculation.

Then I triggered Death-Linked Burst.

Not fully.

Just enough.

Three hundred and twelve deaths compressed inward, impact and suffocation and broken bone folding into something dense inside my muscles. The pressure built, tight and controlled.

It was not rage.

It was accumulated consequence.

I drove both palms into the ground.

The release tore outward in a violent ring. Mud and fractured stone erupted around me, corpses blasted backward as if struck by an invisible hammer. Bodies collided mid-air before crashing hard against pillars and cavern walls.

The floor cracked beneath my hands.

For half a breath, everything stilled.

Then the remaining dead staggered, broken and disorganized.

Astrae stared at me for half a second, surprise flickering across her face.

"Don’t overuse that," she warned sharply.

"I know."

Kyrene appeared beside me, a frown on his face, "How many?"

I know what he’s asking, I answered truthfully, "312 as of now."

I could feel the cost already, a tightening in my chest and a faint ringing in my ears.

The corpses were not intelligent, but they adapted through numbers.

They began crawling over each other.

Literally climbing.

Two scaled up a fallen pillar and dropped from above.

I reacted late.

One latched onto my back, teeth scraping against my collar.

My increased agility carried me forward before it could bite deep. I rolled hard across the damp stone, crushing it between my back and the ground. It burst apart with a wet pop.

The second corpse landed beside me and clawed toward my face.

Kyrene was there first.

He kicked it away mid-lunge and grabbed my arm, hauling me upright. "You good?"

"Still breathing."

"Try to keep it that way."

We moved again.

This time I adjusted the rhythm.

Instead of charging into the thickest cluster, I targeted the edges. Break the outer layer and thin them from the sides. Astrae caught on quickly and began blasting precise bursts of light into the densest groupings, forcing them to collapse inward.

Kyrene controlled the center.

He moved like a pivot point, never staying still, never letting more than three approach him at once. Every strike he delivered was clean and deliberate, breaking joints and crushing skulls with almost casual precision.

My breathing grew heavier.

The adjusted stats were helping, but stamina still had limits.

The cavern floor was now littered with broken limbs and torn flesh, slick with blackened blood and stagnant water.

Still they came.

"They’re not stopping," Astrae breathed.

"They don’t have to," I replied. "They just need us tired."

Failure Converter whispered again.

There.

A pattern in the ground.

Some of the corpses were emerging from the same fissures repeatedly.

"Those cracks," I called. "They’re coming from below. We need to collapse the openings."

Astrae understood instantly. She shifted position and focused a controlled blast downward instead of outward. The light slammed into one of the fissures and sealed it partially as rubble collapsed inward.

I rushed to another and drove my heel into the unstable edge. Stone gave way and buried at least three emerging bodies beneath debris.

Kyrene followed suit, kicking and smashing the weakest points in the floor.

Gradually, the rate of emergence slowed.

The remaining corpses became less organized.

We pressed harder.

I moved with more confidence now. My strikes were cleaner, faster. Strength allowed me to push through grapples I would have struggled with weeks ago. Dexterity helped me reposition before getting pinned. Agility kept me from being overwhelmed.

One final cluster lunged.

I did not hesitate.

I stepped forward and drove my forearm through the chest of the nearest corpse, then used its body as a shield against the next. I shoved it into the last two and finished them with quick, brutal stomps to their skulls.

Silence followed.

Water dripped from the ceiling. Debris shifted occasionally as trapped bodies twitched and went still.

But the wave had ended.

I stood there, chest rising and falling, hands coated in blackened blood.

Kyrene glanced around once more, then relaxed slightly. Astrae leaned against a broken column, catching her breath.

I wiped my hands against my pants, though it did little to clean them.

"That," Kyrene muttered lightly, "was unpleasant, disgustingly so."

"Understatement," Astrae replied while sniffing herself.

I scanned the cavern again.

No more movement.

For now.

My muscles trembled faintly, not from fear, but from the sustained output. Still, I was standing and not gasping helplessly.

A few months ago, I would have been dead in the first rush.

Now I was leading.

That realization settled quietly in my chest.

I was still not a good fighter, far from it.

But I was not helpless anymore.

And in this place, that was the only difference that mattered.

~~~

[Third POV – Caedryn]

The chamber doors sealed with a low mechanical hum.

Caedryn stood motionless before the projection lattice, watching the last flickers of signal collapse into silence. Every control node that once pulsed with feedback from his constructs was now dark.

Gone. All of them.

His fingers pressed flat against the stone console, knuckles whitening slightly.

"How?" he demanded quietly, jaw tightening. "How did three of them push through layered containment?"

His assistant stood several steps behind him, careful not to move too suddenly. "Prefect, the outer undead formations have been destroyed. The Nullbone Wardens are no longer responding. The internal choir node has ceased entirely."

"And the lich?" Caedryn turned sharply. "What was Morveth doing?"

"The ancient one transmitted a brief statement," the assistant replied. "He said he will finish it and have them captured for further interogation."

Caedryn’s jaw tightened.

"He will finish it," he repeated under his breath.

He exhaled slowly. "He better."

A brief silence followed, heavy but controlled.

The assistant cleared his throat carefully. "Prefect, there is another matter."

Caedryn did not look at him. "Speak."

"His Majesty is demanding your presence at once."

Caedryn’s eyes flickered.

"And?"

"Prince Valeyn and Prince Aurelion have issued orders to deploy elite palace soldiers into the lower sectors. They are treating the disturbance as a security breach."

"And Princess Lysandra?" Caedryn asked coolly.

"She has not intervened. She remains within her wing."

A faint scoff escaped him.

"Valeyn always moves with caution," Caedryn muttered. "Aurelion moves because he wants to prove something."

He began pacing once across the chamber, boots echoing lightly against the stone.

"They believe this is a failure of containment," he continued. "A breach that requires visible force and visible correction."

The assistant waited.

"Delay them," Caedryn instructed at last. "Inform the throne that the lower foundation is undergoing recalibration and structural stabilization. Advise against sending elite personnel into unstable corridors."

The assistant bowed his head. "As you wish."

Caedryn stopped pacing and looked back at the silent projection grid.

"They cannot have progressed far," he murmured. "Morveth remains active. Once he engages directly, this disruption ends."

His voice regained its steady edge.

"When Astrae is secured again and Archivist Finley and his brother under our contr, there will be no breach to investigate and no disturbance to justify their intrusion."

The assistant nodded once more. "Understood, Prefect."

Caedryn folded his hands behind his back, composure fully restored.

"Let the princes posture," he said quietly. "Let them think they are correcting something."

His gaze hardened.

"This ends when I decide it ends."

The assistant withdrew, leaving Caedryn alone in the dim containment chamber.