“ry: The Silverback has incredible defense and insane jumping ability,” Ego noted.

  “No kidding,” Zack muttered, pulling back to a safer altitude. Once he was out of reach, he let loose his full arsenal.

  The rotating barrels of his Vul mae gun hummed to life, unleashing a hail of bullets. At the same time, the missile pod on his shoulder unched a barrage of miissiles. Explosions ripped through the hillside, engulfing the monstrous zombie and a nearby cluster of undead in a massive fireball.

  “Ego, s the area!” Zack barked as the fmes roared below.

  “There’s still activity… one life form detected,” Ego replied, its tone edged with .

  Zack’s jaw tightened. He reached bad pulled out his sword, the on r to life as its teeth spun. Ign the inferno below, Zack desded through the fmes. His war mae’s armor made the heat irrelevant.

  From the sm remains, The Silverback emerged, its skin bed and peeling away, revealing burned, bloody muscle underh. The fact that it was still standing was unbelievable.

  “You still want more? Fine,” Zack growled, nding firmly on the ground and charging toward the monster.

  “Left thruster, full power!” he ordered.

  A bst from his left thruster propelled Zack out of the way just as The Silverback lu him. Using the momentum, he swung his sword, carving deep into the creature’s thigh. Blood sprayed everywhere as The Silverback roared in pain, its muscles twitg and struggling to close the gash.

  “It’s over,” Zack muttered. Before the creature could recover, he leapt onto its back. With a powerful swing, he drove his sword into the back of its neck. The bde buzzed and tore through flesh, grinding against bone.

  The Silverback thrashed wildly, trying to shake him off. Zack held firm. “Stay down!” he shouted, f the bde deeper until there was a siing crack. The creature’s head fell to the ground with a heavy thud, followed by its massive body colpsing in a cloud of dust.

  The battlefield grew eerily quiet, except for the faint, dying growls of The Silverback. Zack barely had time to catch his breath before a pierg roar echoed from deep within the zombie horde. Ego’s voice broke the silence.

  “Sir, I believe there’s been a mistake. Actually, you made a mistake,” Ego said, its tone dry.

  “Huh?” Zack frowned, clearly fused.

  “I’m pig up anh-frequency signal. The source is now pinpointed. Margin of error is less than 50 meters,” Ego expined. A red marker fshed on Zack’s HUD map.

  “Wait, you’re tellihe zombie I just killed wasn’t trolling the horde?” Zack’s disbelief was obvious. “Are you serious? We got tricked by a zombie?”

  “Sir, the spiders are in position,” Ego informed him. Right on cue, a transport helicopter appeared overhead.

  “Perfect timing!” Zack grinned. “Have one of the spiders follow me. Deploy the others to the target area and prep them for detonation.”

  Activating his thrusters, Zack shot toward the coordinates where the roar had inated. Below him stretched an endless sea of zombies. Despite the overwhelming here was no sign of another mutant.

  With the error margin of 50 meters, the search radius spanned over 8,000 square meters. Finding one specifibie in that swarm could take hours, but Zack had no iion of wasting time.

  “Ego, are the spiders ready?”

  “Yes, sir. They’ve been deployed and are standing by for detonation,” Ego firmed as the helicopter released the final spider to join Zack.

  “Good. Blow them!” Zaanded.

  “Spider 4, 11, 12, and 3 will detonate Hydrogen Fuel Cells in three seds,” Ego responded. Zack’s HUD dimmed to shield his eyes as the world around him plunged into darkness.

  A split sed ter, four blinding fshes lit up the ndscape like miniature suns, their light blossoming into massive mushroom clouds. Zack’s jaw dropped.

  “Whoa. That’s… insane,” he muttered, watg in awe as the explosions grew. He had uimated the raw power of those hydrogen fuel cells.

  Moments ter, the shockwaves hit—ah-shaking roar apanied by tremors that rattled his armor. Below him, chaos erupted. Zombies were thrown into disarray, some crushed iampede, while others closer to the bsts were obliterated.

  Within a 200-meter radius of each explosion, there was nothi—just charred earth and ash. The primary bst zones, spanning nearly 500 meters each, had wiped out vast portions of the horde, leaving only scattered pockets of undead still standing.

  From her position on a sentry tower at the stru site, Erza watched the mushroom clouds rise into the sky, their light pierg through the darkness. Her fmes flickered as she whispered in disbelief, “Was that… a nuke?”

  At the same time, Antonny and his team were flying over a steel mill when they spotted the explosions on the horizon. The pilot’s voice crackled over the s, filled with shock. “Are those nuclear bombs?”

  “No,” Antonny replied grimly, his gaze fixed on the distaoo small for hat’s something else entirely.”

  Beside him, Ava stared silently, her thoughts drawn to the bck-armored figure they had entered before. Somehow, she knew he was behind this.

  Back at the bst zone, Zack steadied himself mid-air, rec from the shock. The destru was absolute—millions of zombies gone in an instant. Those outside the immediate radius weren’t spared either. Their flesh peeled away from the intense heat, leaving nothing but charred remains.

  Then came a new sound—a defiant roar cutting through the age. Ego chimed in. “Sir, I’ve identified the source.”

  An arroeared on Zack’s HUD, pointing to a zombie on the ground. Uhe others, it didn’t cower or flee. It stood still, gring up at Zack with something almost like hatred.

  “That’s it?” Zack muttered in disbelief. “You’re kidding, right? It looks just like the rest of them…”

  Zack studied the zombie closely. There was nothing remarkable about it—its appearand energy levels were ordinary, just like any low-level zombie. He raised his hand, his palm on glowing as it powered up. A beam of white light shot out, pierg through the zombie and leaving a fist-sized hole.

  “Not much for defense,” Zack muttered, unimpressed.

  But then the zombie moved. Slowly, it pushed itself back up, as though the gaping wou nothing. Its hollow, lifeless eyes locked onto Zack, and its jaw fell open in a silent, eerie roar. Suddenly, there was movement all around as tless zombies surged toward it. They ighe deadly radiation from the mushroom clouds, many of them colpsing instantly from the heat. But others kept ing, their flesh burning and falling away, leaving charred bones and mangled skin.