The Devil"s Evolution Catalog Chapter 25: Mountain of the Dead
The nights in this new environment were quiet. There weren"t any sounds of waves crashing against the coast here.There weren"t any insects incessantly chirping at night. Nor were there any drunkards camping out in the streets at night, and there definitely weren"t any hooligans waiting to beat me up.
It was just silence. Silent in a variety of ways.
This dead silence was completely destroyed by the devil"s eating, yet this in itself brought a sense of life to this place. Because of the abundance of food, the devils happily feasted. Initially the abundance worried me. Would the corpses rot? Would the devils eat a bad corpse by accident and get some kind of sickness? However, these were unfounded worries as today was the fifth day and the corpses showed no signs of rotting.
Perhaps it was due to this environment or perhaps they simply did not rot. Either way, I did not know how they maintained their freshness.
Because of the lack of a sun, I would sleep once I started feeling tired. After sleeping for an indeterminate number of hours, I was woken up by the sound of the devils" clamoring.
d.a.m.ned potatoes, can"t you let me rest in peace? You guys have a giant mountain of corpses to feed off, while I have to go out and hunt for my food!
Before I managed to leave my cave and scold them, No.3 entered without my summons and reported: "Master, there"s a problem with the corpse mountain. Please evacuate immediately Master!"
There"s a problem with the corpse mountain?
Anxiety welled within me as I asked: "What"s the problem?"
"It would be faster if Master saw it for himself." No.3 brought me out and pointed at the corpse mountain, "The corpses are reviving!"
The corpse mountain now and the corpse mountain before I went to sleep had a very obvious difference. It was the lack of devils feasting. This was because the devil corpses had been reanimated, and were unsteadily moving about while some were crawling around on the mountain. Their eyes were filled with an eerie green light that were devoid of any signs of life.
Their strange movements reminded me of something...those zombies we met earlier...In fact, they were zombies.
I was dumbstruck at that moment. Based on the width and height, this corpse mountain had to at least contain several tens of thousands of corpses! If they all became undead, my devil army is as good as dead! We might as well just kill ourselves now and join the party.
Thankfully, not all of them became zombies. It was only a small portion that turned; about 5% of them. My subordinates defended against the zombie horde as they slowly retreated. Some of the unfortunate ones were atop the corpse mountain when it happened and got caught by a newly animated zombie. As they got tripped and pulled into the horde, their horrific cries filled the air as they were slowly eaten.
They were being eaten alive!
"Listen up everyone, make sure to work with the people beside you as we leave this mountain together. We will gather at the east side of the mountain." I raised my voice and tried to get them to cooperate. However, devils were a selfish life form. When things were going well they listened to you, but when things were bad, it was every man for himself. They clearly had no intention of cooperating.
Even the efforts of Big 1 and One-eye to gather the devils had limited results.
"Go and gather those idiots. I want everyone at the east side."
No.3 hesitated as he heard my command: "But there were would be no one to defend Master if I left."
"There"s still this fellow." I kicked the No.5 who was snoring loudly beside the cave entrance.
"Ah...what"s happening...is there an earthquake…" No.5 woke upon being kicked, his drool still hanging off the corner of his mouth. His groggy expression wasn"t the least bit endearing. As he looked around in a panic, he relaxed upon seeing my retracting leg. *phew*
He breathed a sigh of relief and wiped his drool before smiled ingratiatingly at me. "Master, you called?"
"See, this fellow is already awake. Even though his combat strength isn"t much, he can still act as a meat shield. It will be fine." I turned and smiled coldly at No.5: "Isn"t that right?"
"...yes…" He was probably aware of my mood right now and immediately nodded. Even after hearing the word [meat shield], he smiled accommodatingly.
"No.5 has no ability to command so sending him would be pointless. Plus, if you keep on stalling, my losses would be even greater."
"I understand and comply, Master." No.3 accepted the command in the end and gave a half kneeling salute. As he got up, he glared at the confused No.5: "Protect the Master well, if you dare to slack off again, I"ll make sure you pay!"
"Yes!"
Since No.3 has gone to gather my subordinates, I should make my way to the east side as well.
"No.5, it"s time for us to go as well."
"Yes master." No.5 sneaked a glance at me as he said so. However, he did not manage to gain much information from my expressionless face. Not like he could with that intelligence of his. He then glanced at the corpse mountain and immediately exclaimed as he was. .h.i.t by a sudden realization: "Master, why are those fellows acting so strangely!?"
"The corpses are reviving for some unknown reason and are turning into undead." We continued walking as I explained the situation to No.5.
"The place we are living in houses a lot of undead. I suspect that this is the world of the undead so the corpses here will automatically turn into undead after a period of time."
"Ah...so those corpses were that scary. Luckily, I didn"t eat much." No.5 patted himself on the chest as he said so, with a look on his face that said "I lucked out."
Wait what did you mean [I didn"t eat much]? Unlike you, all my subordinates were ravenously consuming the meat. Don"t tell me you aren"t interested in food? Do you have anorexia? What"s more, whenever I see you, you are always sleeping by the side of my cave entrance. Exactly how much did you love sleeping?!
Forget it, now"s not the time for this. Getting to the designated point is more important.
When I got to the designated point, Big 1 was already there with 200 large imps and was awaiting orders. These were the imps who were on the east side when I gave that order, so Big 1 had an easy time gathering them.
"Big 1, where were you when the corpses started reviving?"
Big 1 half kneeled as he explained why he wasn"t by my side protecting me: "Master, this lordship was eating at the corpse mountain."
"Did you fight with them?"
"Yes."
"How"s their strength?"
"The strongest I met were at the level of a large imp. The majority of them were at the level of a small imp. However...as it was a sneak attack, we suffered heavy losses."
"I saw that." While I didn"t observe the situation for long, I was able to see that we had suffered significantly. The large imps were all unprepared for the zombies, and ended up getting surrounded and subsequently dying.
Truth be told, if they had helped each other, their chances of survival would have been much higher. However, devils were selfish so the first thing they thought of when they saw what was happening, was how to ensure their own survival. They didn"t even try to save their comrades. This was why our losses were so heavy.
As time pa.s.sed, the number of reanimated corpses rose. One-eye and No.3"s group were essentially stranded on the north and southern sides. As I noticed this predicament, I immediately split up with Big 1 and sent help to both sides.
One-eye and No.3 had each gathered over 200 large imps. As for the small imps...they were basically wiped out the moment the corpses started attacking.
I brought No.5 and a hundred large imps to help One-eye at the north side. Standing between me and him were several hundred undead; which were still weak from being newly animated. Only a small portion possessed the strength of a one-star, the majority were at the level of a zero-star. However, as they continued to kill, they would get stronger so we needed to end this battle as soon as possible!
"I"ll lead the charge. Take care of the undead on my flanks."
"Yes Master!"
Flame Whip.
My scorching whip reared its head once more as I said so. With a chopping motion, I brought the whip down onto a stretch of road in front of me, its fiery body burning any undead unfortunate enough to be caught in its path. The air was soon filled with the foul stench of burnt corpses.
Based on my previous encounter with that heavy infantry zombie, I knew that fire was the bane of the undead. This attack proved this theory once more as the undead were quickly dispersed by my flames. Wherever there were flames, the undead instinctively retreated several steps.
I led the charge into the undead group with several swings of my flame whip to the left and right. We swiftly cut through the group in front of us, and within a mere 10 seconds, a laid open to One-eye"s group.
"Get over here quickly!"
"Master!" His eyes practically shone with light as he looked at me. His sidekick, Nine-finger leaned in at this moment and whispered something, but instead got slapped by One-eye.
Even in this situation, you guys didn"t forget to express your love for each other...Exactly how loving are you guys?
Having rescued One-eye, I checked on Big 1 and found that he was in trouble as well. With several more swings of my whip, I cleared the road to Big 1 and soon gathered all the scattered large imps.
It was around this time that my mana finally ran out and I had to cancel my flame whip. The army that was suppressed by the flames became active once more. Thankfully, our forces were ready this time and were able to repel them easily. With One-eye, Nine-finger and No.3 forming the spear tip of our charge, we quickly broke out and escaped from the undead horde.
But why did this place feel so familiar? Oh, that"s right. It"s similar to that ancient battlefield where I met that tough zombie.
Either way, it"s time for a break. The devils are probably tired from that sneak attack by the zombies. Having decided on that, I collapsed onto the floor.
"One-eye, get me a head count."
"Yes Master."
The head count was over in a short while. Not including the named imps, the number of large imps that had successfully escaped was 579!
d.a.m.n, when we entered this world, we had nearly a thousand devils.
Just as I was brooding, an anxious looking No.5 rushed into view. I had sent him out to scout the surroundings, and judging from his face, something bad must"ve happened. This potato even tripped on a stone as he ran over, nearly falling…
"Master...we have a problem, those undead are heading towards us…"
Me: "..."
"Master, what should we do?" Noticing the lack of response, he anxiously pressed me: "Judging by their speed, they will catch up to us in half an hour."
Zombies had the speed of a normal human, so he was right to say that they would reach us in another 30 minutes.
As time pa.s.ses, I"m sure that entire mountain would turn into undead. If all those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds chased us...Forget it, I can leave that matter for a later time. What"s more important is this impending crisis. Since we can"t retreat, we just have to move forward.
"Everyone, we will move out in another 10 minutes…"
Just as I finished saying this, I heard the familiar clattering of bones in the air… d.a.m.n it, I guess there"s really no rest for the weary…
The skeletons had arrived...
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