The first sign was silence.
The ruined supermart had been filled with moans and scuttling only moments ago, but now—even the flies seemed to vanish. Dust hung in the air, unmoving.
Alvin's eyes narrowed. His instincts screamed danger.
Daniel, still scanning shelves with his pipe in hand, frowned. "Why'd it suddenly get so quiet?"
Xavier tilted his head, the flame at his fingertips dimming to a cautious glow. His tone was low, tense. "Because something's watching us."
Then it came.
From the far end of the aisle, where cracked tiles bled into shadow, a figure emerged.
At first glance, it looked like another zombie—skin peeling, spine crooked, empty sockets glowing faint white. But the way it moved was different. Slow. Controlled. Each step carried intent, like it knew they were prey.
Its head tilted, and a sickly pulse rippled outward.
Alvin froze.
A needle-sharp spike pierced straight into his skull, stabbing not flesh but spirit. His vision doubled, black spots bursting across his sight. A wave of nausea tore through him, but it wasn't physical—his soul was being clawed at.
He stumbled back, clutching his head, teeth grinding hard. "Tch… psychic…"
Xavier whipped around instantly. "Alvin?"
Alvin's voice was strained, each word pulled from the depths of pain. "It's… Level Three. Attacking my soul directly."
The zombie let out a guttural laugh—not from its throat, but inside their heads. The sound was jagged glass scraping through bone.
Daniel hissed, pressing his palm against his temple as the psychic pressure spread, though weaker for him. "It's… in my mind…"
Xavier snarled. "Stay sharp. Don't let it break you."
Alvin staggered to the side, breath uneven. He could feel the corruption threading into his mana pool, writhing like black worms. Every attempt to push it out only deepened the stabbing agony in his spirit.
The world blurred. For a moment, he wasn't in the supermart anymore—he was somewhere else. A wasteland, the sky blood-red, corpses piled like mountains. The zombie's laugh echoed everywhere.
Hallucination.
Illusion.
But the pain in his soul was real.
Alvin bit his tongue hard enough to taste iron. The sharp sting grounded him. His prideful sneer slipped into place even as blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. "You… dare…"
The psychic zombie tilted its head again, eyes glowing brighter. The pressure doubled. Alvin's knees buckled.
"Xavier!" Daniel barked, his voice steady despite the gnawing ache in his mind. "We need to take it down before Alvin collapses."
Xavier didn't hesitate. Fire erupted from his arms, spreading across his body like living armor. His pupils gleamed faintly red. "Then we don't hold back."
The zombie shrieked, not with sound but with a psychic pulse. The shelves around them rattled, cans exploding outward as if invisible hands had struck them.
Daniel darted forward, dodging the airborne debris. He slid low, swung his pipe into the zombie's knee. Bone cracked, but instead of falling, the creature's limb twisted unnaturally, bending to keep balance.
"Great," Daniel muttered. "Because normal physics weren't enough trouble."
Xavier leapt above them both, flames bursting from his palms midair. He hurled a torrent down, engulfing the zombie's torso. The fire clung, but instead of writhing, the creature spread its arms wide.
The flames flickered—then bent outward, snuffed out by sheer psychic force.
Xavier landed with a snarl. "So it can smother fire too."
Alvin, still on his knees, forced his hand upward. He carved a rune midair with trembling fingers, divine power faintly sparking. But the psychic assault stabbed deeper, shredding his concentration.
His voice was a growl of fury. "Xavier… Daniel… kill it."
His soul and body were not fused, being attacked in the soul, his useless body couldn't even maintain normal defense.
Damn it.
Daniel circled, sweat dripping. He studied the way the zombie's head moved, its timing between pulses. "It uses focus. Each time it attacks, its body slackens."
Xavier's flame reignited. "Then we hit when it's concentrating."
The zombie's eyes flared, another pulse tearing outward. Alvin grunted, collapsing fully onto one hand, blood dripping from his nose.
Xavier saw red.
"NOW!" he roared.
He hurled a concentrated fireball not at the zombie's chest but its legs. The explosion sent it stumbling, just as Daniel lunged with brutal precision. His pipe speared through the creature's side of the skull—close to the temple.
The psychic shriek that followed wasn't sound. It was a wave of agony blasting into their skulls. Xavier staggered, clutching his head. Daniel dropped to his knees, groaning.
Alvin screamed, his entire body jolting as if struck by lightning.
The zombie ripped the pipe out of its own skull, flesh knitting around the wound. It turned its gaze back on Alvin, ignoring the others.
Alvin's chest heaved. His pride flared hotter than pain. He dragged himself upright, one knee steadying him.
"Come for me… then choke on me."
Divine power flickered again at his fingertips. Weak, unstable, but enough.
Don't you kid me. How dare you even try to mock me!
The zombie's psychic force surged, trying to crush Alvin's soul entirely.
But Alvin sneered through blood-stained lips. He wove a single rune in the air—simpler than before, a circle of raw divine rejection.
The pulse hit him—then shattered against the rune like a wave against stone.
The backlash was instant. The zombie reeled, its psychic hold stuttering.
"Xavier!" Alvin barked, voice sharp despite his shaking frame. "NOW!"
Xavier roared, flames bursting violently from his entire body. He sprinted forward, his fist wreathed in fire, and slammed it straight into the zombie's chest. The explosion lit up the entire aisle, scorching the tiles black.
Daniel, seizing the opening, jammed his pipe into the same wound and twisted hard. Bone cracked, the smell of burning rot filling the air.
The psychic zombie thrashed, its mental assault scattering wildly. The illusions it had cast on Alvin shattered, the bloody wasteland vanishing back into broken shelves and dust.
For a final moment, the creature's mind lashed outward, a desperate psychic scream.
But Alvin, shaking, stepped forward. His rune burned brighter, divine energy pouring into it. "Be silent."
The scream died. The zombie's body burned from the inside out, collapsing into a heap of charred flesh.
Silence returned.
Xavier stood panting, flames guttering out. Daniel leaned on his pipe, sweat dripping down his jaw.
Alvin swayed, blood still trailing from his nose. His skin was pale, but his eyes burned cold and sharp.
Daniel exhaled shakily. "Level Three… and that was just one."
Xavier crouched instantly beside Alvin, gripping his arm. "You're bleeding. Don't push yourself."
Alvin gave him a faint, prideful smirk despite the blood. "If I don't, you'll both die."
Daniel rubbed his temple, exhaustion written across his face. "We barely managed with three of us. If more appear—"
"They will," Alvin interrupted, his tone flat. "This world won't stop just because we are afriad, it will throw all shit at us."
Xavier's jaw clenched. "Then we'll stop the shit first."
Alvin looked at him, the stubborn fire in Xavier's eyes meeting his own tired but unyielding pride. For a moment, despite the ruin and stench around them, Alvin's lips curved faintly.
"You'd burn the world for me," he murmured.
Xavier leaned closer, their foreheads almost touching. "Without hesitation."
Daniel groaned loudly, waving a hand. "Oh, for the love of—do this later. At least wait until we're not standing on zombie guts."
Xavier chuckled darkly. "Jealous, brother?"
Daniel gave him a withering glare. "I'll take the psychic torture over your flirting."
Alvin chuckled weakly, the sound edged with pain. But in his eyes, the glint of triumph burned.