Chapter 665: Do you all remember our school motto?

Leia froze mid-stride, her speed dropping sharply like she’d just stepped into quicksand. It felt like a mountain had slammed straight into her.

Her bones creaked and groaned under the pressure, as if they were about to snap. A wave of searing pain crashed through her body.

“This is… Absolute Domain?”

Her face went pale in an instant. She knew exactly how bad this was.

Up ahead, the Zombie King stood motionless, calm as ever, like none of this was worth his attention.

But Leia was nothing if not tough. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to push forward, pain be damned. Her lightsaber slashed through the air again, even as the pressure threatened to crush her.

She looked like a moth caught in a hurricane—fragile, flickering, barely holding on.

Ethan watched her quietly. With a flicker of thought, the power of the Domain of the Dead surged and focused into a single point—like a steel whip lashing out.

Crack!

Leia took the hit full-on. Blood burst from her mouth as her body was flung backward like a baseball knocked out of the park.

Her lightsaber flew from her hand, its energy blade flickering out mid-air.

As she plummeted, Ethan casually raised a hand and caught the weapon with effortless precision, like it had always belonged there.

Leia, meanwhile, hit the ground hard, her body crumpling like a ragdoll. It felt like every bone in her body had shattered.

“Instructor!”

Her students rushed over, panic written all over their faces.

But they were confused too.

Weren’t they supposed to lock down his movement and finish him in one strike?

How the hell did it end up like this?

“Instructor, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“Here, let me help you up.”

“What’s going on with that Zombie King? I swear he didn’t even move!”

“…”

With their help, Leia staggered to her feet. Her face was grim, dark with tension, like a storm was brewing behind her eyes.

“This graduation trial… has gone completely off the rails.”

“What?” The students froze, dread creeping into their hearts.

Leia wiped the blood from her lips, her eyes locked on Ethan like she was staring down death itself.

“If I’m right… that thing in front of us… is a Voidborn Undying.”

“The… the Voidborn Undying?” one of the students stammered, voice cracking.

Leia didn’t stop. “And not just any Voidborn Undying… one that’s awakened the Absolute Domain.”

“…?!”

The students were stunned into silence, like they’d just been struck by lightning. No one said a word. No one could.

A Voidborn Undying was already terrifying—one of the apex predators of Necroterra, the zombie homeland of Originis. But one that had awakened the Absolute Domain?

That was a king among monsters.

The kind of thing you only read about on the last page of the textbook—highlighted, underlined, and marked with a big fat “DO NOT ENGAGE.”

A few of the students felt their hope drain away completely. What was supposed to be a simple graduation trial had turned into a face-off with the final boss.

“Instructor… this wasn’t on the syllabus,” one of them muttered, voice hollow.

The figure standing ahead of them felt like a mountain pressing down on their chests, making it hard to even breathe.

“Why… why is he even here?”

“We never should’ve messed with him.”

“…”

Regret hit them like a tidal wave.

They never should’ve dropped in from the sky.

That upperclassman, Damon—the one who’d confidently analyzed the zombies and said they were weak—was now just a cold, lifeless corpse.

Leia swallowed hard, the metallic tang of blood stinging her nose. But her eyes—those eyes—hardened with resolve.

“Do you all remember our school motto?”

“Yeah! Never give up!”

“Good. Then now’s the time to live it. Swallow your fear—don’t give anyone a reason to laugh at you. Even if we die here, we die with dignity.” Her voice was calm, steady, like steel wrapped in velvet.

“Yes, ma’am!”

The students answered in unison, their spirits reigniting like a spark catching dry tinder.

Ethan watched them quietly, a flicker of interest in his eyes. The humans on Originis… not bad. They had guts.

Leia reached into the pouch at her waist and pulled something out, clenching it tightly in her palm.

It was a small orb, about the size of an egg.

Its design was sleek and strange—wrapped in a silvery metallic shell, with a glowing crystal core pulsing at the center. The energy radiating from it wasn’t weak, either.

“What’s that?” Ethan had already noticed it earlier. Now, his curiosity deepened.

What Leia held was a Crystal Core Bomb—her last resort.

Every instructor was issued one when leading students into dangerous trial zones like this. Just in case things went sideways.

This one was crafted from an SS-grade crystal core. When it detonated, it would unleash all its energy in a single, devastating burst. The kind of explosion that could level a battlefield.

Maybe… just maybe, this’ll buy us a shot at survival…

Leia wasn’t optimistic. If it were just a regular Zombie King, she’d be confident. But this guy? He was on a whole different level.

Killing him outright was probably impossible. But if she could injure him—just enough to create an opening—maybe she could get the students out. If they could reach the evac ship, they might still make it.

Either way, she had to try.

Her eyes sharpened, lightning crackling around her as her energy surged again.

She crouched low, body coiled like a spring, then launched forward in a blur of electric light.

Her speed tore across the barren land like a thunderbolt.

But just like before, the moment she crossed into the Domain of the Dead, it was like slamming into an invisible wall. Her momentum dropped instantly.

Leia gritted her teeth, forcing her lightning energy into the bomb in her hand.

The orb lit up, glowing brighter and brighter, a pure white light building at its core.

“RAAAHHH!”

With a roar that tore from the depths of her soul, Leia hurled the Crystal Core Bomb high into the sky with every ounce of strength she had.

The bomb, supercharged by her lightning, shot upward like a comet.

“Now!”

Leia had calculated everything. The bomb would reach its peak height just before detonation—maximizing its destructive radius.

“Oh?”

Ethan looked up, eyes narrowing slightly. A single glowing point hovered in the sky, frozen in time.

BOOOOOOM!

A blinding flash erupted, flooding the sky with searing white light. The energy burst downward like a divine hammer, shaking the heavens.

The explosion roared like a furious god. The ground split apart, massive stones shattered into dust, and shockwaves tore through the air like a hurricane of knives.

The sheer force of it was apocalyptic.

Even Hank and the other zombies were caught in the blast radius, flung like rag dolls into boulders that cracked and crumbled under the impact.

At the epicenter stood Ethan—his white-clad figure swallowed by the explosion, his silhouette breaking apart in the blinding light.

The students had already retreated far from the blast zone.

The wind howled around them, ripping at their hair and clothes. They shielded their faces with their arms as debris sliced through the air like razors.

“Holy crap, that was insane!”

“Did we get him? Is the Zombie King dead?”

“I think so! I saw him get swallowed by the blast!”

“Seriously? That’s amazing!”

“…”

The explosion raged on for several long seconds before finally beginning to fade. The smoke and dust hung thick in the air, slowly drifting away.

A massive crater now scarred the earth where Ethan had stood. Chunks of rock still tumbled down its sides.

He was gone.

“Cough, cough!”

Leia stumbled forward, covered in ash and dirt, coughing hard as she squinted through the haze. Even she hadn’t escaped the shockwave unscathed.

“Did we… actually do it?”

…