Ashton's undead left no corner of the city unturned. But all they found was more and more zombies. It was safe to assume, that there wasn't anyone alive in the city anymore. Which meant, that either the director was turned or she wasn't in the city.
"Something doesn't feel right." Ashton mumbled.
Jerico said there were more than thirty thousand undead in Lycania. Yet, Ashton could only find roughly four to five thousand in Contingent. Where were the rest of them? Sheera had already informed him there were roughly about the same number of Zombies there in Deja as well.
But it only accounted for a third of what Ashton was expecting. On top of that, Jerico was under his influence while Ashton interrogated him. Thus, Ashton was sure, Jerico wasn't lying to him.
[They are hiding, but why?]
"They are planning something. Either in Contingent or in Deja or maybe both the places." Ashton replied confidently, "It's a hunch, but I think the corpsification was just the tip of the iceberg. Those bastards would never put so much effort into merely conquering a kingdom."
However, there was one more thing that had Ashton confused. He was absorbing the Abyssal smoke slowly, and yet the fog was only getting heavier. As if someone was continuously spouting more and more smoke. Yet they weren't able to find the source.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtUntil now.
Just then, a bunch of undead came running towards him. It appeared they found something. Instead of mobilising the soldiers, Ashton decided to check things out himself. Obviously, he had his reasons behind it.
But he decided to go alone, mainly because he didn't want to alert anyone who might be hiding. No matter whether it was friend or foe.
***
Back in Deja...
"Servina? What happened?"
"That fucking kid is alive!" Servina slowly opened her eyes, "Damn it, Leo! I told you we should have taken care of that bastard first!"
She was raging. More because she had been humiliated at the hands of a brat. Her anger had no bounds, so much so, that she ripped the head off of the nearest undead she could find.
"Relax. It's just one kid and it's not like he killed you." Leo smirked, "You lost a doppelganger, big deal. Just think about what would happen to us if he failed. Yeah, it doesn't seem much of a big deal now, does it?"
Leo was a 6' 0" tall, bronze-skinned man with a wide face, neat eyebrows and a broad nose. He was turned as a teenager, thus he looked like one, even though he was one of the oldest undead in history.
He was also someone who didn't care about the rest of the world or even his own kind for that matter. Despite that, he still managed to get wound up in Servina's schemes. Well, mainly it was the scheme of their king.
But since he was missing for a while now, his two advisors decided to take the matters into their own hands.
"Yeah... I lost a doppelganger. Motherfucker, do you have any idea how much effort it requires to make one of those?"
Servina's doppelgangers were different from a simple clone. It was basically a possession technique that allowed her to transfer her 'Soul' into an undead whom she had turned and change their appearance.
The Servina Ashton had imprisoned was the human scientist Tom, who helped them. But the moment he was captured, Servina left the control over him and returned to her original body.
This skill was especially dangerous because it basically made her unkillable. If she was threatened or on the verge of dying, she could simply shift consciousness to another undead and live on. Which was another reason why she was always present on the battlefield.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmIt was because she knew if things went south, she could always escape. Unlike the rest of them. That being said, constantly jumping from one body to another would syphon off some of her mana permanently. Thus, she tried not to use the skill too much.
It was also why she was so angry when her doppelganger was defeated by Ashton. After all, she lost a chunk of her total mana because of him.
"It's still a childish banter in my eyes. As long as you're not dead, nothing else matters." Leo shrugged his shoulders, "It's not like the kid would arrive in Deja. He would probably be busy sorting out the mess we made in Contingent."
Servina nodded her head. Her loss could be seen as a small sacrifice for the greater good. The cities they targetted might seem to be random, but they had a reason behind attacking Deja, Contingent and Livan.
Attacking Deja was to serve as both a declaration of war as well as crushing the command centre. Similarly, attacking Contingent served two purposes as well. Firstly, it would get rid of the vampires in the academy while also crushing the economy of various werewolf kingdoms and cities.
As for the reason behind attacking Livan... well, it only made sense for them to end the strongest man in the kingdom or at least keep him busy while their plans came to fruition. Despite failing to accomplish either of those tasks and technically losing Contingent, they were still going strong in Deja.
Jonathan was in their possession, while his kingdom was slowly but surely being turned upside down. Just as their 'King' had wished. At the same time, they were preparing for the ritual just like the spacefarer had advised them to.
As long as they did as he wanted them to, the gods would arrive on earth. And when they did, not even the combined force of the vampires and werewolves would be able to stop them. While the undead would rule over the planet along with the gods.
"We should keep our focus on gathering the corpses. We would need a lot more vessels for the gods to materialise on the planet." Leo smirked, "Even our progenitor won't be able to stop us then."