The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"Mia?!"

Zombie gasped – this time in a genuine worry and kneeled over the dark-skinned woman wriggling in agony.

|CRANBERRY! WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HER?!|

The blue undead shouted internally, calling out to the being sealed inside of him.

|It's Durian – he was notified about Mary's disappearance and connected the dots – unfortunately, he seemed to have got himself lost in anger and is using his magic to force every single person marked with his slave crest into forceful obedience to make them search for her – and most likely to capture all of us here.|

She explained sounding every single bit as agitated as her blue host, so she didn't even notice the way that the blue undead addressed her.

|Forceful obedience?! So what, he's trying to make all of them lose their free will? What the hell?! When you said that Mia and Luke will be necessary later, you meant just the empty husks?!|

Zombie gasped furiously in disbelief.

|No. Just wait.|

The sealed being sounded as if she had shaken her head and declared.

|Wait for what?! Am I supposed to wait until Mia will get brainwashed just as I did at the beginning of the first playthrough?!|

The blue undead growled while kneeling by the woman in agony and at least making sure that she isn't slamming her head against the floor.

*crack*

The next second, the ivory bracelet on Mia's hand snapped in half and fell down, losing its glow

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The pain that Mia had been going through must have multiplied without the protection of the defensive bracelet, as the dark-skinned woman screamed terribly and clung to the blue undead as if he was her only lifeline.

"...ha...?!"

"...!"

Maybe because Zombie was paying attention to all of the life essences thrown into a frenzy the one of the few that did remain normal managed to sneak up on him – in form of the red-haired Cranberry who opened the door to his room and was greeted by the sight of some unknown woman clinging to her familiar.

|You were waiting for her! Make her use the healing spell on Mia!|

The sealed being called out...

"Cranberry! Roan kidnapped Mary and is trying to run away with her – Druian is forcing his slaves to chase them and get us too – This girl is willing to help us! Use heal!"

...which prompted the blue undead to call out to the stunned Cranberry before she could erupt in anger over the assumed cheating.

"Roan did what...?!"

The red-haired girl blinked repeatedly and backed off – as if expecting that her familiar was only playing with her.

"YES! Now heal her or you can forget about our earlier deal!"

The blue undead lost his cool and shouted at the red-haired girl, making her flinch – but besides startling her a little bit, he managed to get her to raise her scepter – which she brought with her just in case since she indeed was alarmed by the screams. And closed her eyes concentrating on the magic.

"GHAAAAAAAAAAA...!"

Yet it didn't really look like she was helping Mia at all.

|Her magic is too weak to work against the damage of Durian's magic – use overpower on that spell and heal Mia yourself!|

|!!!!|

The sealed being shouted at the worried undead, forcing him to act.

Without wasting any more time, the blue undead's body shone with a powerful violet light – far more intense than he remembered it to be, and he felt the power welling up in his body.

"Now... heal."

Zombie breathed out and touched Mia's head with his left hand...

********

A low, unearthly hum filled the air and the dark-skinned woman's body lighted up and she trembled – not from pain but from the sheer amount of healing energy that passed through her destroying any sin of both physical and magic damage, old scars and the damage that Durian's magic was causing her in real-time.

Actually... even the slave crest disappeared from Mia's shoulder...!

"Wh-what happened...?"

The dark-skinned woman gasped without the slightest intention of leaving the blue undead's pleasantly cool embrace.

"Healing! Now get your thieving paws off of my HUSBAND!"

"Wha...?!"

And such behavior certainly did not sit well with the red-haired girl – since Cranberry was a Pride, she knew well about all of the skills that were at the avatar of pride's disposal, and hence was not all that moved by the show of a mighty healing spell more than just a few times stronger than her own – so instead of dwelling on that, she simply grabbed onto the fur of Mia's barbarian armor and put her back into pulling the dark-skinned woman away from Zombie, making Mia cry out in surprise.

"We need to go save the prince – you might be free from Durian's control, but the rest of your former colleagues will surely be a problem."

The blue undead casually stood up and dusted his lap off while looking over at the confused Mia getting dragged away by fuming Cranberry.

"Wait... what...? Free...?"

Mia was still slightly out of it – even though the pain itself was gone, the memory of it was very much alive in her mind.

"Yeah."

The blue undead nodded, tapping his shoulder to make Mia look at her own.

"Ah! I-it's gone!"

"WAH...!"

The darks-skinned woman gasped and stood up so fast that she pulled Cranberry with her, causing the red-haired girl to almost losing her balance.

"FOCUS!"

"...!"

"!!!!

The blue undead shouted, making the two girls stop glaring at each other.

"We are going to help Roan and Mayrie – follow m...."

"As long as the prince didn't knock your friend unconscious, that girl will not be willing to leave without her griffin – and if so, they are surely going for the stables. I know the shortcut through the mansion – follow me."

The blue undead walked towards the window to open it up and jump out but was interrupted by Mia who waved her hand and moved to the door.

"..."

Cranberry looked between the two of them, before taking the step towards her familiar ar more willing to follow him instead of the dark-skinned woman.

"Mia's right... there are a lot of slaves running outside – they surely do not expect us to go through the mansion. Lead the way."

Zombie grabbed Cranberry's hand and then nodded at the dark-skinned woman.

|See? All as it should be.|

The sealed declared pridefully.