Arthur met Kai early the next morning before the city had fully woken. The training fields were empty except for a few students going through slow forms under Kai's supervision, their breathing were steady, and their stances were clumsy but earnest.
The old man had calmed down a lot after taking care of Lucian Blackwood and he spends most of his time teaching in one of the schools in Avalon.
The sense of guilt and craving for revenge that had once been the goal of his life was no more. Many get lost in that transition of losing their purpose, but Kai's emotion had settled into something quieter, something closer to resolution. He had found a new purpose in his life; he now dedicates most of his time to teaching.
Kai dismissed the students with a wave of his hand and turned toward Arthur, folding his arms. "You always appear when something troublesome is about to happen," he muttered, though there was no real annoyance in his tone.
Arthur gave a faint smile. "I thought you'd be relieved to see me."
Kai scoffed but he couldn't deny he was relieved after seeing Arthur.
They walked slowly along the stone path bordering the academy grounds. In the distance, synthezoids assisted instructors, carefully adjusting practice dummies and recording lesson data. Avalon had changed so much over the years that moments like this almost felt unreal, it was peaceful, and orderly.
Kai eventually spoke again, lowering his voice in a grim tone. "The Church won't ignore Lucian's disappearance forever. He wasn't of low status, he had both influence and power. They will come demanding answers from you."
Arthur already expected that. He leaned against the railing overlooking the academy grounds, watching as more and more students filled it. "They probably already know it was me," he said plainly. "I didn't exactly try to hide it when I kidnapped him."
Kai let out a long breath. "And you're still this calm?"
"They haven't moved yet," Arthur replied. "That means they're waiting. Either they want leverage against me, or they're trying to understand what they're dealing with. When they finally act, I'll handle it."
Kai studied his only disciple for several seconds, as if weighing whether to argue further, but eventually shook his head. "You say that like you're talking about bad weather."
Arthur shrugged. "Compared to what I've dealt with recently, it kind of is."
The old man snorted despite himself. "Just don't vanish without saying anything again. The children and the citizens keep asking where you go."
"I'll make it up to them," Arthur said quietly.
After leaving Kai, Arthur returned to his residence, his thoughts already shifting toward what came next. The Immortal Soul Crystal rested in his dimensional storage. Fixing the imbalance between his body and soul mattered far more right now than whatever political games the Church might be preparing.
When he found Selene, she was already waiting.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
She nodded immediately. "I told Grandpa and Grandma I'll be away for a while. Grandpa said not to worry and that he'll keep an eye on Avalon."
Arthur felt a small wave of gratitude. Even now, others were carrying responsibilities he should have borne himself. He made a mental note to repay that trust properly when this was over.
Together they left Avalon and traveled to the isolated island Arthur used as a transition point between universes. The sea winds were sharp there, carrying the scent of salt. Arthur summoned the Obelisk, activated it, and the familiar tear in reality opened before them.
Selene glanced at the portal, excitement shining plainly in her eyes. "Every time I see this, it still feels unreal."
Arthur offered his hand. "Ready for something a little less peaceful than Thyrandel?"
She took it without hesitation. "With you? Always."
Arthur smiled after hearing that and they stepped through.
…
They appeared atop a high-rise building beneath a grey, cloudy sky.
Wind howled through shattered glass windows, and rusted billboards creaked under pressure. Below them stretched a city that had long since fallen silent, streets were clogged with abandoned vehicles, storefronts were torn open likely the result of vandalism, entire blocks were stained by blood, covered in moss and growing vines.
Selene slowly turned in place, as she looked at the condition of the city below her. "What… happened here?"
Arthur scratched the back of his head, suddenly aware of how bizarre this looked as a destination for their date. "Well… this is a zombie world."
Selene blinked in confusion as she had never heard of that word before. "A… what?"
Seeing Selene's confused look, Arthur pointed down toward the street. Where figures staggered through the ruins, their movements were unnatural, jerky, and their bodies were decayed but still moving with disturbing persistence.
"They're infected humans," Arthur explained. "A virus mutated their bodies, it resulted in ceasing most of their brain functions, then this virus reanimated them. Though some infected adapted instead of dying and became stronger."
Arthur felt Selene would not like it here but seeing her fascinated look instead of disgust, he heaved a sigh of relief. He had half expected her to hate the place, to ask to leave immediately. Still, he felt no one would take their girlfriend to a zombie apocalypse for a date, maybe he was weird but since Selene was ok with it, he saw no problem.
They then started to fly above the ruined city slowly. A few minutes later, Selene pointed downward. "Someone's fighting."
Below them, a group of survivors struggled against a tightening ring of zombies. Their movements were faster than normal humans, but he could see exhaustion was already setting in.
From his previous visit to this world he had collected the zombie virus and after some analysis he found a very surprising result, the virus was man made. And some infected were able to overcome zombification and gain superhuman strength and agility.
But the group was slowly getting overwhelmed with the increasing number of zombies. Just as the humans were getting stronger by consuming the cores found in the zombie's brain, the zombies too were also getting stronger.
Selene looked at him. "Should we help them?"
Arthur nodded and without moving from his position from the sky he snapped his fingers.
…
Arnold staggered backward, nearly losing his footing when he heard a warning. "Arnold! Watch your left!"
He quickly backed away from the zombie he was fighting, seeing two more coming from his left.
His exhausted teammates were barely blocking the attacks from the mutated zombies. They had come out searching for supplies and stray zombies to collect their cores when out of nowhere a group of zombies attacked them, and now they were trapped.
Their world had descended into chaos two months ago when a renowned scientist created an organism he claimed could form a symbiotic relationship with humans and provide them with enhanced strength and agility.
The first human test was successful so the company behind the scientist started to mass experiment with voluntary soldiers after the military gave the go-ahead signal. But everything spiraled out of control when a few soldiers started to show aggressive behavior and started to bite the lab assistants.
The security tried to stop them, but those soldiers were too powerful, and guns were less effective against them if not shot at the head. The lab assistants who were bitten started to turn deranged too and the whole lab was taken over.
The government decided to bomb the facility, but it only doomed the world. The organism was extremely tough to kill, and the explosion only exposed them to the air. They quickly evolved and started to spread throughout the world within a month. Governments fell one after another, and the organism was named zombie virus as it showed similar effects.
The world population was brought to only 5 percent within a month due to most people being unable to survive the infection and turned into zombies, and now that two months had passed, who knew how many more had died.
Arnold gritted his teeth seeing their hopeless situation, "There are too many!" Arnold shouted. "Fall back!" But he knew most of them would die here today.
Just then one of their group members whose name was Lily tripped while running away.
"No!" Arnold shouted seeing her fall and nearly five zombies quickly appeared in front of her.
With wide eyes all of them saw the zombies lunge towards Lily, they had already guessed she would be torn apart the next second, but what happened baffled them. The zombies running after them, the zombies that were just a moment away from reaching Lily and all the zombies surrounding them turned to dust.
The creatures simply disintegrated into dust.
Lily closed her eyes due to her inevitable death but feeling everything quiet around her and not feeling any pain, she opened her eyes but saw there were no zombies, only her stunned classmates. "W... Where are the zombies?"
Luke, one of her classmates stuttered, "W... What was that just now?"
Seeing no one answering her Lily stood up and saw zombie cores scattered on the ground. She widened her eyes as she saw dozens upon dozens of cores all around them. There were around a hundred zombies chasing after them, if all these cores belonged to them… A chill passed through Lily's body; she couldn't imagine how those zombies were killed or who was capable of killing so many zombies in less than a second and there was also no trace of those zombies's bodies anywhere to be seen.
All around them, the battlefield had become eerily quiet. Only the small crystalline cores lay scattered across the ground.
They waited for a few more minutes but seeing no one was coming to collect the cores they took them and left the area in hurry, too shaken to question their luck.
…
Arthur and Selene, who were watching everything from above, also left to explore more of the city.
***
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