"Found you," Zaeered, charging forward. Seeing Zack approach, the leader’s face torted in pani expression almost human. It let out a high-pitched roar, one inaudible to human ears but uood perfectly by the surrounding mutants. In respohe nearby zombies surged forward, desperate to block Zack’s advance.

  "Getting nervous now, are we?" Zack muttered. With a smirk, he holstered his ion sword and broke into a full sprint. The ground shook under his feet as he barreled toward the leader, plowing through the undead like an unstoppable juggernaut. Bones cracked and splintered. Mutated zombies were sent flying, their bodies shattering like brittle cy against the Titan’s unstoppable charge.

  Overhead, more thay Avalons roared into the fray. Their bomb bays opened, and magic fluid cloud bombs desded, dispersing light e mist across the battlefield. The firestorm that followed turhe horde into a writhing inferno. But Zack didn’t stop. The explosions around him only spurred him forward, and sooood face-to-face with the trembling leader. Its sunken, pale face reflected iallic sheen of Zack’s blood-streaked armor. "End of the line," Zack growled.

  He raised his massive iron fist, now coated in gore and glowing faintly from the heat of tless impacts. "Die!" With a thunderous roar, Zack brought the fist down.

  Simultaneously, the Avalons released their remaining payloads. Mushroom clouds of fire erupted across the battlefield, each explosion sending shockwaves that rippled through the ground and air. The horde, on eide of death, was ed by the fmes. Zombies disied in the inferno, their twisted bodies reduced to ash. Amid the destru, Zack straightened, his massive frame t over a newly-formed crater. Ihe pit y nothing but a viscous, charred pulp—the leader obliterated beynition "It’s over," Zack said quietly, his voice eg in the cockpit.

  For the first time in what felt like ay, the battlefield fell eerily silent, save for the crag of fmes. "Finally," Zack murmured, retrag his bloodied fist and staring out at the horizon. Behind him, the survivors began to cheer, their cries of triumph rising above the chaos.

  Victory was theirs, but Zack’s gaze remained cold and calg. There would always be another wave, another leader. With the death of the leader, the zombie tide lost its cohesion, desding into chaos. What was once a unified, devastating forow became a scattered mass of wandering corpses, aimlessly lingering in pce.

  Above the scorched pins, more thay Avalons tiheir relentless bombardment. Each magic fluid cloud bomb created mushroom clouds that blotted the horizon, while the number of zombies steadily dwindled. By the time over a hundred cloud bombs had been deployed, the northern pins were unreizable. The once-vast fields had bee barren, charred nd. Not a single bde of grass remained for miles. The oppressive heat radiating from the scorched earth even began to influehe weather itself.

  The sky, which had been clear moments ago, turned a murky gray as yers of dust filled the air. Thick clouds formed overhead, thunder rumbled, and then it came—an uing downpour. It was as if nature sought to wash away the blood-soaked nd. The heavy rain fell in torrents, extinguishing the remnants of the fire. Yet, it wasn’t the rain that smothered the fmes entirely; it was the ck of anythio burn.

  As the infernos died down, the nuclear-induced dust clouds loomed ominously, their heights stretg thousands of meters into the sky. Radioactive ash mixed with the rain, falling back to earth, embedding itself into the barren pins. Millions of zombies, now leaderless, wandered aimlessly through the toxi. “This nd is done for,” Zack muttered as he hovered a thousaers above ground in his Titan armor. His steely gaze sed the desote ndscape below. “From now on, there will only be the undead here. It’ll remain like this for turies.”

  While Zack brooded, Lillian and the surviving Fearless Warriors boarded The Phoenix. Ava, piloting the sed-geion Avalon, flew alongside them, heading back to the capital base. Fortunately, the fallout zone caused by the cloud bombs was localized. The rain, heavy with dust and radiation, would not yet reach the base hundreds of kilometers away. At least for now. “Ego, how’s the weather looking?” Zack asked, his tone sharp and decisive.

  “The northern climate will remain stable for the several days,” Ego replied. “Light eastward breezes are expected, and no major cold fronts will move south until mid- month. The radiation dust will drift toward the Bohai Sea before then.”

  For once, a sliver of good news. “Good enough,” Zack muttered. With a burst of thrusters, the massive Titan armor accelerated, leaving behind a bzing trail as it flew toward the Capital base.

  The 100-kilometer jourook Zaearly ten minutes—a painstakiernity given the weight and aerodynamics of his eleven-ton armor. But when he arrived, the se awaiting him at the base was unlike anything he’d witnessed before. The aftermath of the battle had left survivors in an eerie limbo. Some hugged each hing hysterically or sobbing untrolbly. Others k on the ground, overe by the enormity of what they had endured. But as adrenaline faded, reality set in.

  People began colpsing without warning. Exhaustion, blood loss, and overuse of abilities cimed many. Among them was Erza, who fainted mid-step. A meical dog caught her just in time, preventing her from falling into the blood-soaked mud. While those unscious were spared from immediate despair, the oill standing faced a much harsher reality.

  Otlefield littered with severed limbs and broken bodies, only a fra of the 70,000 who had marched out to face the zombie tide remained. Five or six thousand survivors g to life, many of them already showing signs of iion. Miraculously, Scott was among the survivors. Slumped on the ground, his body a vas of cuts and bruises, he coughed weakly, his voice hoarse as he asked, “Is there aill moving?”

  Silehen, a deafening roar broke the quiet—a sound of propulsion engines overhead.

  Boom! A heavy objeded, shaking the earth. The massive Titan armor stood tall amidst the age, its t frame an imposing silhouette against the rain-filled sky. Zack’s voied, cold and authoritative: “Fearless Warriors, desd and maintain order! Spiders, clear out the zombies and eliminate all ied!”

  The six-meter-tall metal giant surveyed the battlefield, his glowing eyes exuding an unyielding dominance. “Meical Dogs, head into the base. Round up every survivor—young, old, it doesn’t matter. Bring them here to up this mess!”

  Zack’s tone grew harsher, brooking nument. “Any rebels? Kill them on the spot. o report.” His ands were met with swift obedience. Spiders scuttled into the chaos, targeting both zombies and those showing signs of iion. Fearless Warriors began patrolling, their presenough to quell any potential u among the survivors. The Meical Dogs marched toward the base, barking orders in synthesized tones, draggiant survivors out to the bloodied field. Those who resisted were dealt with harshly.

  It wasn’t long before shouts echoed from the survivors’ living quarters. Da-da-da-da! The shouting was swiftly drowned out by the relentless roar of heavy mae guns. Moments ter, a sea of survivors, herded like livestock by the meical dogs, began p out of the high-wall of Washington DC gates. “What are they doing?Why are they pushing us out?” “ the battlefield? Is the zombie wave really over?” “This is madness! They’re sending us to our deaths!”