Hah…? I made zombies…?

  No way. Actual zombies? ZOMBIES?!

  I recoiled and leapt away as the zombie lunged, its jaws snapping shut with a loud, bone-chilling clack just inches from my neck.

  Holy shit. I doubted it had enough force to hurt me, but I wasn’t about to risk turning into one of those things.

  Wait a second—he wasn’t the only one falling apart. The flesh on these walking corpses looked like dried-up banana peels that had somehow liquefied. Did that make sense? It did to me. The point was, their flesh was dripping off their bones like melted wax.

  The villagers, who had moments ago been ready to avenge their fallen, stared in stunned silence. Their determination evaporated faster than water on a hot skillet.

  “What’s happening…?” the handsome guy asked, his voice trembling.

  I sprinted past him, shouting, “They’re trying to eat me!”

  People probably expected me to stop the zombie horde, but honestly? I wanted nothing to do with zombies. They were zombies for crying out loud! I’d only ever seen them in movies and TV shows. Hell, I’d even had nightmares about them, constantly wondering, What if zombies were real?

  Well, that wasn’t an “if” anymore. Now it was, They’re real, so what the hell are we going to do about them?

  I scrambled up a massive tree and crouched like a soldier surveying a battlefield.

  “Granny, stop…” the handsome guy begged, tears welling in his eyes.

  Could he really convince the zombies to resist their cannibalistic urges? Or was he doomed to fail?

  His granny—a tiny, elderly woman now reduced to a walking skeleton—turned her hollow eye sockets toward him. A young girl stepped forward, her face etched with sorrow.

  “Granny Zelra, Metran, Belchan, Nulji, Bacuij… Please stop!” she cried, her voice trembling with emotion. “We have to accept that you’re gone. I’ll always remember how you taught me to catch fish, Zelra. And Metran, you showed me how to dress well. And… um… the rest of you taught me things I can’t quite remember right now, but! Doing this… it’s ruining how we remember you. So… please stop.”

  The handsome guy took a step forward, tears streaming down his face. “Please, save your reputation and return to the dead so we can mourn you properly! We know you love us and wouldn’t want to hurt us. Don’t let this… this curse turn you into something you’re not!”

  The zombie he called “Granny” tilted her head, as if considering his words.

  Holy shit, the speech was actually working.

  She took a few shaky steps toward him, but her movements were unsteady. After three steps, she collapsed in a heap. Losing your muscles along with your skin makes walking a bit tricky. Who knew?

  “Boy!” a voice growled.

  I turned to see the zombie who’d tried to bite my neck earlier charging toward the handsome guy. Unlike Granny, this guy still had some muscle left, though most of his face was just bone.

  He lunged, arms outstretched. “I’m going to eat you, boy! You think I care about you? Are you insane? I wanted your mother to abort you the second she told me she was pregnant!”

  Ouch. Harsh.

  The handsome guy stumbled back, narrowly dodging the zombie’s grasp. He fell to the ground, his eyes wide with terror.

  Granny shouted, “I told you not to tell him that! Why can’t you keep anything to yourself?!”

  The handsome guy scrambled to his feet and bolted, yelling, “Forget what I said! Reality Defender, please kill them!”

  Understandable.

  I intervened by hurling a fireball at the zombie’s head. It struck true, setting him ablaze before he could turn toward me. I stood up, spreading my fingers, and fired precise fireballs at the zombies’ heads. One by one, their skulls burst into flames. Their screams echoed like something straight out of a horror movie.

  But they all collapsed, their cries fading as the flames consumed their bodies. Maybe zombies weren’t so scary after all—I’d taken them down pretty easily.

  The handsome guy turned to me, his face a mask of stress and confusion.

  “Sorry about all this,” I said. “I just wanted to fix things…”

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  I’d been cracking jokes and treating his grief lightly because I thought I had the solution. I’d messed up. Even now, I didn’t want to take things seriously. Was I worried because of morals, or just fear of consequences? How twisted was my soul?

  He didn’t respond. I couldn’t blame him.

  “They’re still alive!” Yuen shouted from a distance.

  What?

  I turned to see the zombies rising again, their bodies still engulfed in flames.

  Haha…?

  What the hell?!

  They resumed their chase, but this time, they weren’t after the villagers—they were coming for me. They clawed at the tree, screaming as they reached for me.

  Holy shit, I’d just created flaming zombies.

  Fine. More fire it is.

  I conjured a massive fireball in the sky, feeding it the flames consuming the zombies’ bodies. Once it grew large enough, I leapt to the ground. The zombies’ charred bodies were already regenerating. They jumped from the tree and charged at me.

  I pointed at myself with my thumb. “Catch me if you can!”

  “I’ll eat your flesh!”

  “I’ll wear your skin like a shirt!”

  The others shouted similar threats.

  Well, it’s nice to be wanted, I guess. Anyway…

  Fire Skin!

  “Burn to hell!” I roared, unleashing the fireball. It plummeted to the ground with the fury of a scorned lover, engulfing the zombies and myself in a tsunami of flames.

  I’d used Fire Skin and imagined my clothes as part of my body, so no, I wasn’t going to end up naked again. Even if fire has no weight and can’t generate force, the sheer heat should’ve turned them to ash instantly.

  The flames roared on, so I decided to extinguish them. I gathered the fire into a ball and—oh right, I had Fire Suppression. Thank God.

  I didn’t want to be responsible for another accidental massacre.

  I lowered my hand, and the flames obeyed, fizzling out.

  Man, I sucked. Instead of resurrecting the villagers, I’d turned them into zombies and then killed them again.

  “Grh…”

  A growl. Then another. And another.

  I turned to see the zombies regenerating from their ashes.

  Hm.

  Yeah, this wasn’t funny anymore.

  Yuen shouted from a safe distance, “Can’t you undo the pseudo-resurrection with the same skill?”

  Well, yes, I could, but… my first thought had been fire. Whatever.

  I swiped my hand to the side like a judge wielding a gavel. “Fall—”

  Before I could finish, one of the zombies ripped open its chest, exposing its rotten innards.

  I felt everything I’d eaten earlier rising in my throat. I turned and vomited.

  What was wrong with these things?!

  A cold, skeletal hand grabbed my ankle.

  AH! EW!

  I didn’t even look back. I kicked like an agitated horse, the air whipping as my foot connected. Something cracked, followed by a thud. I think I kicked Granny’s head clean off.

  Anyway, I ran.

  I sprinted like my life depended on it, my face drenched in sweat.

  Yuen ran alongside me. “What’s your plan?”

  “To get the hell out of here!” I replied.

  “What about the villagers?”

  “I’ll say a prayer for them. What’s your god name?”

  “You twisted little—”

  “Sorry, I’m not exactly brave when faced with immortal zombies!”

  “You made them! You can unmake them with your skill.”

  “When I tried, they—” The memory of their rotten guts flashed in my mind, vivid and nauseating. “Did something horrifying. I’m traumatized.”

  He stared at me like he wanted to strangle me.

  “Fine, fine, I’ll un-zombie them,” I grumbled, turning back to the slow-moving horde. But as soon as I looked at them, they ripped their stomachs open again, and I immediately vomited.

  “Yeah, I’ll un-zombie them later,” I said, sprinting toward the city.

  “What do you mean, later?!” Yuen screamed, easily catching up to me.

  “When they stop doing that gross stuff! I can’t use two skills at once. Well, I can, but it’s easier if they’re from the same skill card and don’t require focus. I can’t freeze time and use pseudo-resurrection at the same time.”

  Yuen glanced back at the zombies and promptly vomited on himself. “Rotten… guts.”

  Yup. Same tactic.

  We ran like hell.

  I didn’t use the fireball traveling technique—it wasn’t worth the EP.

  Anyway, we finally reached the walls of Second Cinderayul.

  I screamed at the top of my lungs, “An army of zombies is approaching!”

  The wall guards shouted back in confusion.

  I turned toward the zombies, far in the distance. They couldn’t keep up with Yuen and me—we were too fast.

  I waited… and soon, the guards appeared.

  “What’s going on?” one asked.

  I pointed in the distance, making them squint to see. “Undead. They’re immortal.”

  “I see... we’ll need to call the knights.”

  The knights took their time arriving, which worked in my favor. The zombies had more time to close the gap, and if they were closer, their guts trick would target them instead of me.

  Finally, the knights arrived, donned in armor, wielding swords, axes, spear-guns, metallic whips—whatever they had.

  Hm… it seems common sense just hit me. I had a method to deal with the exposed guts threat. I didn't need backup.

  I raised my hands to the sky, palms facing down and closed my eyes.

  The zombies screamed, “You wicked child!

  “We will have you!”

  I spoke in the calm tone of a humble priestess, “I’m sorry, poor souls, for being forced back into the mortal realm…”

  I had a feeling many of them attempted the guts trick, but my eyes were closed.

  “Return to the dirt!” I echoed.

  Pseudo-resurrect gave the dead another chance at life, but not with a perfect mortal body. It kept them in a state of limbo, neither alive nor truly dead—immortal. It used skill energy, which meant I only needed to use the skill again, but this time, I’d deliberately mess it up by not channeling enough energy.

  The disturbance that followed was… silence.

  Is it safe to peek now?

  I opened one eye and saw fallen corpses around us.

  "Sorry for everything," I whispered.

  The knights looked at me strangely. Shit.

  I cleared my throat and, with a maidenly tone—whatever that means—said, “The souls… have been freed.”

  They didn’t rejoice, so I raised my voice, “They are FREE!”

  “Y-yes!” they replied, nervously.

  “Free!”

  “Wonderful job!”

  Well… I was never using that skill again. But damn, I felt bad for the villagers. This was a learning experience for me. With great power comes great responsibility.

  I was going to do what was right and turn myself in.

  A huge knight walked toward me. Shit, he was handsome.

  He said, his voice full of awe, “Thank you for your amazing work, miss. If it weren’t for your bravery, there could have been casualties.”

  My face flushed red as I twirled around, laughing awkwardly. “Well… I mean! I just had to do the right thing! The moment I learned about the zombies, I knew I had to rush out to see how close the army was to the city! Even if it meant dying, I had to do it! For a noble cause!”