CHAPTER 763: LIGHTS OUT

Bloodveil was already thinking about bailing. Sure, he wanted those human crystal cores—who wouldn’t?—but staying alive took priority now.

His eyes darted around. There were still quite a few other Zombie Kings from different Regions nearby. But with the speed those SSS-ranked Awakeners had? No way they’d outrun them.

Still, Bloodveil wasn’t about to worry about the others. If anything, leaving them behind might buy him a few precious seconds to escape.

"We need to stick together!" he shouted, masking his true intentions. No way he’d let them know he was planning to ditch them. After all, he was part of the infamous "Backstabbing Alliance"—betraying teammates was kind of his thing.

"Boss Bloodveil, what’s the plan?" asked the Two-Headed Zombie King.

"We hit them together, take those humans down!" Bloodveil said, trying to sound fired up.

"Uh, sure, okay," the Two-Headed Zombie King replied.

But just as Bloodveil was about to give the signal to charge—really just a cover to make his own getaway—something unexpected happened.

The Two-Headed Zombie King bolted.

Like, immediately.

He didn’t even hesitate. One second he was nodding along, the next he was gone, zipping off like a bat out of hell. For a psychic-type, the guy was fast—gone in the blink of an eye.

"Huh?!"

Bloodveil’s eyes went wide, his face frozen in disbelief. That was supposed to be his move!

Guess those two heads weren’t just for show—he’d outplayed Bloodveil at his own game.

The other Zombie Kings looked just as stunned. Some even looked a little nervous.

"Boss Bloodveil... you’re not thinking of ditching us too, are you?"

"Me? No way!" Bloodveil forced a laugh, trying to play it cool.

But Howard and the others had already caught on. They could see the panic, the shifting eyes. These zombies were about to bolt.

"Don’t let them get away!" Howard shouted. "Let’s go!"

"Right behind you!" the other three human powerhouses responded, launching into the air in hot pursuit.

Gareth unleashed a wave of psychic energy that surged forward like a tidal wave, making the very air tremble. Several Zombie Kings were caught in the blast radius.

The mental force slammed into their minds like a hurricane, tearing through their consciousness.

"AAARGH—!"

A few of them screamed in agony, their thoughts wiped clean in an instant.

Howard was already on them, flames igniting around his fists. He drove a burning punch straight into one Zombie King’s chest, reducing it to ash.

Serah was even more ferocious. With a single strike, she shattered a Zombie King’s skull. A crystal core shot out from the wreckage.

These Zombie Kings weren’t weak—they were all at least S+ rank—but against the four elite human Awakeners, they didn’t stand a chance.

"Damn, it’s been a while since I’ve had this much fun!" Serah’s eyes sparkled. Taking down these monsters seemed to light a fire in her again.

Bloodveil watched as the humans tore through his allies like paper. He didn’t care about them—he just needed to get the hell out.

But Tharen was already on his tail.

"You’re not going anywhere!"

A wave of SSS-level ice power surged forward, freezing the air itself. In a flash, it was right in front of him.

"Shit!" Bloodveil snarled, baring his fangs. Blood-red energy exploded around him as he activated his Bloodtide Domain, trying to hold back the freezing assault.

But it wasn’t looking good.

He was pinned down, and the pressure was only getting worse.

Maybe... maybe he shouldn’t have come here in the first place...

A flicker of regret crept into Bloodveil’s mind.

But just as the battle raged on, the sky suddenly darkened.

It was like someone flipped a switch—day turned to night in an instant.

"What the hell?" Howard muttered, glancing up.

Everyone looked skyward.

The three suns that had been shining brightly were now shrouded in thick, black fog. It rolled in like a living thing, twisting and writhing like some monstrous beast, creeping closer from the horizon.

"This can’t be good..."

The human warriors tensed, brows furrowed, a deep sense of dread settling over them.

With Mist’s current power, the black fog now stretched out over a ten-mile radius—more than enough to blanket the heart of the battlefield.

Lights out.

The thick, inky mist surged forward with a clear target: the Dreadnought-class Starcruiser. Within moments, it swallowed the ship’s line of sight, plunging the area into a manufactured night.

Panic rippled through the crew aboard the Starcruiser.

Inside the command deck, Harren stood still, his cloudy eyes narrowing. Necroterra was a place of chaos and anomalies—nothing here could be taken for granted.

"More Zombie Kings?" he muttered.

But the pilot beside him stared at the screen, his expression shifting from confusion to alarm.

"Harren, radar’s picking something up inside the fog—fast-moving objects, closing in."

"What?" Harren’s eyes snapped to the display.

The radar lit up with a swarm of tiny blips, all converging on the Starcruiser. There were hundreds of them—no, more than a thousand.

"Don’t tell me..."

He had a sinking feeling.

Suddenly, flashes of fire lit up the fog. The roar of flame-jet thrusters echoed through the air like the cry of a dragon.

Sleek, silver-toned metal bodies emerged from the darkness, radiating lethal intent. These weren’t just machines—they were top-tier war tech: Guard Mechs.

Under the cover of the black mist, they surged forward in a coordinated assault, swarming toward the Dreadnought-class Starcruiser like a mechanical plague.

Down below, Howard and the others looked up, their expressions tightening. Even without seeing them clearly, the sound alone told them what was coming.

And if the Guard Mechs were here... that could only mean one thing.

The Zombie King in the white shirt was back.

"He’s here... it’s him!" Howard’s voice cracked with tension.

Serah pressed her lips into a thin line, her face pale. A chill crept up her spine as she scanned the shadows, her nerves on edge.

"The nightmare... it’s starting all over again."

"But where is he?"

"..."

The entire battlefield tensed like a drawn bow.

Memories of that day beneath the Skywall came flooding back—visions of chaos, of helplessness. Howard and the others felt the weight of it pressing down on them again, like a blade at their backs.

Meanwhile, Umbradrake and his sidekick Howler were both excited and a little stunned.

This fight was nothing like the last one.

The humans had come out swinging, deploying four SSS-ranked Awakeners right from the start. And now Ethan had unleashed the Guard Mechs—his deadliest cards were already on the table.

It was hard to imagine how brutal the battle ahead would be.

The Guard Mechs had a clear objective: the Starcruiser’s main cannon. If they could destroy it, it’d be like ripping the fangs out of a tiger.

"Hmph. Easier said than done," Harren scoffed, instantly seeing through their plan.

He thought these monsters were delusional—zombies dreaming of miracles.

Without wasting time, he started issuing orders.

"Deploy our own mechs. Stop them in their tracks!"

"Yes, sir!" his second-in-command responded, relaying the command immediately.

Within moments, lights flared to life inside the fog-shrouded Starcruiser. Flame thrusters ignited, and one after another, alloy-clad mechs launched into the sky.

Unlike the Guard Mechs, which were stored in the Hawke family’s labs, the Dreadnought-class Starcruiser came fully loaded with its own combat mechs—ready for war. pilots took control, soaring into the air to intercept the incoming threat.

The two forces clashed almost instantly.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

They opened fire with Crystal Core Blasters, hurling energy spheres across the sky. The explosions were deafening, shaking the heavens.

Both sides had green energy shields flaring to life, absorbing some of the impact—but not all.

The blasts tore through the air, sending shockwaves in every direction. The sky turned into a chaotic storm of fire and metal.

Down on the ground, Bloodveil and the other Zombie Kings stared up, stunned speechless. Since gaining sentience, they’d never seen anything like this.

"What... what the hell are those things?"

...