The Justice van plowed through the outer edges of the zombie horde like a battering ram, its reinforced bumper sending undead bodies flying through the air. But before the vehicle could actually collide with the main mass of zombies, something remarkable happened.
The horde simply... ceased to exist.
Reality itself seemed to slice through the zombies. Judgment cuts—invisible slashes through space itself—carved through entire rows of undead, reducing them to falling pieces before they even realized they'd been cut. The precision was surgical, the destruction absolute.
Simultaneously, massive tidal waves of water erupted from nowhere, churning and crashing through the zombie ranks. But this wasn't clean water—it was toxic, polluted, carrying the weight of ocean garbage and industrial waste. The wave carried zombies away like debris, drowning and crushing them in equal measure.
Dark magic and beams of crystallized hope and despair collided in a spectacular light show. Black tendrils of shadow magic wrapped around zombies, pulling them down into darkness, while beams of white and black energy pierced through multiple targets at once. The contrast between destruction and salvation, despair and hope, created a mesmerizing display that would have been beautiful if it weren't so deadly.
Flames roared across the battlefield—not the orange flames of normal fire, but the golden-red flames of a phoenix, flames that couldn't be extinguished by water or smothered by earth. They burned with purifying intensity, reducing zombies to ash and cinders.
And through it all, a vortex of pure annihilation engulfed entire sections of the battlefield. This wasn't elemental magic or physical force—this was the power to manipulate time and space itself, creating a localized reality distortion that simply erased everything caught within it.
The Justice van barreled forward through the path cleared by these devastating attacks, its engine roaring as Cecilia Immergreen pushed it to speeds that should have been physically impossible for a vehicle of its size and shape.
"I SEE THEM!" Cecilia shouted from the driver's seat, pointing through the windshield at the massive ID branch building looming ahead. The structure was like something out of a science fiction movie—a gleaming tower of metal and glass surrounded by energy shields, with weapons platforms firing in all directions and spacecraft circling overhead.
"HOLD ON!" Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame called from the passenger seat, already gripping her massive greatsword in preparation for combat.
The back doors of the van burst open even as it continued moving. Nerissa Ravencroft and IRyS vaulted out, spreading their wings and taking to the air with powerful strokes. Nerissa's raven-black wings carried her east, where she immediately unleashed a wave of dark magic. Her voice—trained and powerful from countless singing performances—carried across the battlefield, and the sound itself became a weapon. Zombies caught in the path of her voice-enhanced magic found their movements warping, their bodies twisting in unnatural ways as reality bent around them.
IRyS spiraled through the air mid-flight, her heterochromatic eyes glowing with power. Crystallized daggers of hope and despair materialized around her body, dozens of them spinning like a deadly constellation. Then she shifted her trajectory, tucking her wings and entering a controlled spin that turned her into a hovering Beyblade of destruction. The daggers extended outward as she spun, creating a blade storm that zigzagged through the zombie horde. Any undead that came within ten feet of her spinning form was instantly shredded.
As she spun, IRyS extended her hands, and beams of hope and despair energy shot from her palms like machine gun fire—white and black blasts that struck with pinpoint accuracy, each one punching through a zombie's head or chest with lethal force.
Her spinning trajectory brought her near the ground, where Ollie was still fighting with her sword. IRyS, unable to stop her momentum in time, accidentally punched Ollie square in the face with a hope-empowered fist.
"OW! I'M A GOOD ZOMBIE! IT'S ME! OLLIE!"
IRyS's eyes widened in horror as she recognized her friend. "Oh, sorry!" She immediately changed course, spinning back into the air to continue her assault on the actual enemies.
Ollie rubbed her jaw, which was already healing. "Watch where you're punching next time!"
Cecilia drifted the Justice van sideways, the vehicle's tires screeching as it slid perpendicular to its direction of travel. The modified suspension and steering system she'd installed handled the maneuver perfectly, bringing the van to a halt mere feet from the ID building's energy shield.
The door slid open with a pneumatic hiss.
Fauna Ceres leaped out first, followed immediately by Hakos Baelz and Ouro Kronii. The nature-loving idol didn't waste a single second—her hands slammed into the barren ground, and her eyes glowed with intense green light.
A shockwave rippled outward from the point of contact, visible as a pulse of emerald energy that traveled through the earth itself. Where the shockwave passed, the dead soil came alive. Thorned vines—thick as tree trunks and covered in spikes as long as swords—erupted from the ground in a spiral pattern. They grew at impossible speed, twisting and interweaving to create a massive barricade that surrounded the ID branch building.
The vines didn't stop at the ground level. They continued upward, climbing over each other to create a wall that reached fifty feet high. The thorns grew larger as they rose, creating a nearly impenetrable barrier of living wood and vegetation.
But Fauna wasn't done. She poured more power into the earth, and the vines thickened, forming multiple layers. Any zombie that tried to push through found itself impaled on thorns, then crushed as the vines constricted around it.
"Kronii, now!" Fauna called out, sweat already beading on her forehead from the effort.
Ouro Kronii raised her arms, her blue hair floating as if in zero gravity as she channeled her power over time itself. A dome of shimmering blue energy expanded outward from her position, encasing Fauna's vine wall in a temporal barrier. Any zombie that touched the barrier found itself trapped in a time loop, repeating the same moment of trying to break through over and over again without actually making progress.
The combination of nature magic and time manipulation created a double-layered defense that would take a concentrated effort to breach.
Bae cackled with delight, executing a perfect backflip into the fray just beyond the new defenses. "YYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHH!!! CHAOOOS!" she screamed, her voice carrying the pure joy of someone who lived for exactly this kind of situation.
She reached into her pockets and pulled out handfuls of twenty-sided dice—D20s, the iconic tool of tabletop roleplaying games. But in Bae's hands, they were so much more. She hurled them like grenades, and as they tumbled through the air, reality itself bent around them.
Every die landed on a natural 20.
The probability of this was astronomically small—one in eight trillion for just twenty dice. But Bae was chaos incarnate. Probability was her plaything, and she bent it to her will with gleeful abandon.
Where each die landed, reality warped. The ground fractured and split, creating chasms that swallowed zombies whole. Explosions detonated at seemingly random locations, but always exactly where they would do the most damage. Zombies imploded into nothingness, their physical forms unable to withstand the paradoxes Bae created. Some zombies simply ceased to exist, erased from reality by rolls that decreed they had never been there in the first place.
The western section of the battlefield descended into beautiful, terrible chaos. The laws of physics became suggestions. Gravity reversed for some zombies, sending them floating helplessly into the sky. It reminded everyone of the Domain Expansion Incident, except this time, the chaos was directed at zombies instead of each other. Others found themselves moving backwards in time, growing more intact before suddenly ceasing to exist. Some exploded into flowers. A few turned into chickens. One briefly became a very confused office worker before returning to zombie form and immediately being hit by another chaos effect.
Bae laughed through it all, spinning and dancing as she scattered more dice, spreading chaos like a force of nature—because that's exactly what she was.
Ollie and Anya, who had been fighting on the ground, glanced back at the new arrivals. For a moment, they felt genuine relief—reinforcements were here, and they were every bit as powerful as needed.
Then the zombie horde, never one to take a break, renewed its assault. Ollie and Anya pivoted to face the renewed onslaught, now fighting alongside their EN reinforcements.
"DRIVE, CECILIA!" Calli's voice boomed from inside the van.
Cecilia didn't need to be told twice. She slammed the accelerator to the floor. The van's tires screeched, leaving smoking rubber on the ground as the vehicle shot forward. Fauna, seeing what was about to happen, gestured with one hand. A ramp of living roots and vines erupted from the ground at an angle, creating a natural launch point.
The Justice van hit the ramp at full speed and went airborne.
For a moment, the van flew through the air in a perfect arc, its undercarriage visible as it soared over Kronii's temporal barrier and Fauna's vine wall. It passed through the energy shield surrounding the ID building—Kaela having temporarily opened a section to allow them entry—before gravity remembered it existed.
The van landed roughly on one of the ID building's lower defensive platforms with a tremendous CRASH, its suspension groaning from the impact. The doors burst open before the vehicle had even fully stopped.
"GOGOGOGO!" Calli shouted, leaping out with her scythe already in hand.
Nanashi Mumei somersaulted out mid-drive, somehow managing to draw her dagger while still in motion. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a tiny, wet model of a ship. "Go, Pocket Titanic!" she cheered, enlarging the massive vessel to crush a line of zombies, before following up with a Tax Beam. The moment her feet touched the platform, she extended her free hand and fired Tax Beams. Zombies hit by the beams withered and aged rapidly, their already-rotted bodies accelerating through decay until they collapsed into dust. It was fitting that the embodiment of civilization would fight the end of civilization itself.
Gawr Gura and Koseki Bijou dove out of the van next, hitting the ground in combat-ready stances. Gura raised her trident—a divine weapon that commanded the oceans—and summoned massive tidal waves of toxic, polluted water. The waves churned with garbage, industrial waste, and chemical pollutants, creating a corrosive mixture that dissolved zombies on contact. It wasn't pretty, but it was devastatingly effective.
Bijou unsheathed the Yamato from her back, the legendary blade gleaming in the gray light. She activated Devil Trigger mode, red demonic energy engulfing her body as her power multiplied exponentially. The judgment cuts she unleashed now were far more powerful than before, each one creating spatial tears that extended for hundreds of feet. She flew through the air in a samurai whirlwind, her blade creating afterimages as she struck faster than the eye could follow.
But Bijou didn't stop there. She deployed gem-based technology she'd been developing—crystalline turrets that materialized in the air around her, hovering in place as they rotated to track targets. Each turret fired beams of concentrated gem energy, creating overlapping kill zones across the battlefield. Any zombie that entered these zones was hit by multiple beams simultaneously, the concentrated energy vaporizing them instantly.
The remaining Hololive Advent members sprang into action with practiced coordination. Shiori Novella shouted from inside the van, "Get us through that part, Cecilia!"
Cecilia, somehow back in the driver's seat despite having apparently left the van moments ago (time was weird in the ID building's vicinity), responded by swerving the van violently. The vehicle's tires screeched as it drifted through another section of zombies, its reinforced frame crushing undead beneath its wheels like an apocalyptic monster truck.
Meanwhile, Kiara Takanashi had somehow made her way to the roof of the moving van. She stood there with perfect balance despite the vehicle's wild movements, her sword flashing as she carved through any zombie that got close enough. With each swing of her blade, bursts of phoenix flame erupted, the golden-red fire spreading across the battlefield and clearing the path ahead.
Ninomae Ina'nis had taken position near the edge of one of the defensive platforms, her tome floating open in front of her as she channeled her eldritch powers. The air around her darkened as reality itself bent to her will. From the shadows at her feet, massive tentacles emerged—not metaphorical or small, but genuinely enormous appendages that towered forty feet into the air.
Twenty of them.
The tentacles were a sick purple-black color, covered in strange markings that hurt to look at directly. They coiled protectively around the ID branch members before lashing out at the zombie horde with terrifying precision. Each tentacle moved independently but with perfect coordination, slamming down onto zombies, sweeping through crowds to flatten dozens at once, and even wrapping around larger groups to crush them en masse.
The wet sounds of pulverized corpses filled the air as Ina's tentacles methodically dismantled the approaching horde. The tentacles didn't tire, didn't slow, just continued their relentless assault with mechanical efficiency. Some zombies tried to bite the tentacles, but their teeth couldn't pierce the eldritch flesh—and those that tried found themselves grabbed and thrown into other zombies with bone-shattering force.
Cecilia finally brought the van to a halt as Shiori Novella emerged, pulling out her book and quill. The archivist's hands moved with practiced speed as she scribbled spells directly into existence, her unique form of magic translating written words into reality.
Just as Nerissa whirled around in the air, unleashing another surge of dark magic that obliterated an approaching cluster of zombies, Shiori completed her first major incantation. She slammed her hand onto the page, and the spell activated.
Ink-black turrets materialized around her position—ten of them, each one standing six feet tall and bristling with arcane weaponry. They immediately began firing, spitting forth streams of solidified ink that struck with the force of cannonballs. The ink itself was acidic, eating through zombie flesh like paper.
But Shiori wasn't done. She flipped to another page and began writing faster, her quill moving so quickly it was almost a blur. When she completed this spell, she didn't slam the page—she tore it out of the book entirely and threw it into the air.
The page exploded into a massive inky dragon, its serpentine body easily a hundred feet long. The creature roared—a sound like tearing paper amplified a thousand times—and dove into the zombie horde, its jaws snapping shut on dozens of undead at once.
Shiori flipped to yet another page, writing a third spell. This one summoned at least a hundred spectral knights, each one clad in armor made of solidified shadow and wielding weapons of pure darkness. With a sweep of her arm, she sent them crashing into the undead horde like a cavalry charge.
The Fuwamoco twins—Fuwawa and Mococo—barreled out of the van next, their excitement palpable even in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. "BAU BAU!" they barked in unison, their signature greeting somehow managing to sound both adorable and menacing.
Their claws extended to their full length—no longer human fingernails but genuine demonic dog claws, each one sharp enough to slice through steel. The twins moved with synchronized precision, weaving between zombies and tearing through rotting flesh with surgical strikes. Their Abyssal Demon Dog nature rendered them completely immune to zombification—the zombie virus simply couldn't affect beings from the demon realm.
Fuwawa favored sweeping strikes, her claws extended wide as she spun through groups of zombies like a blender. Mococo preferred targeted strikes, her claws jabbing forward with spear-like precision to pierce zombie skulls and hearts (not that hearts mattered for the undead, but it looked cool).
IRyS, still in her spinning assault pattern, suddenly felt a sharp pain in her arm. A zombie—one of the faster variants—had managed to get close enough to bite her during a moment when her guard was down.
Fangs sank into her flesh, and for a moment, her eyes widened in panic. The zombie virus was supposed to spread through bites, and even with her Nephilim nature, she wasn't sure if she was immune.
Then golden light erupted from the wound.
IRyS's half-angel blood, literally divine in nature, reacted to the infection immediately. The light spread from the bite mark through her entire body, purifying the zombie virus before it could even begin to take hold. The zombie that had bitten her actually recoiled, smoke rising from its mouth as the divine blood burned it from the inside.
IRyS blinked in surprise, then her eyes narrowed with realization. If her blood could purify the infection, maybe she could weaponize that.
She channeled the same radiant energy outward in a massive burst. Golden light exploded from her body in a sphere that extended fifty feet in all directions. Every zombie caught in that sphere simply disintegrated, their corrupted flesh unable to withstand the purifying power of her divine heritage.
"...Huh," IRyS muttered, looking at her hands in wonder as golden light still flickered around them. "Didn't expect that to work that well."
Nerissa, witnessing this from her aerial position, called out approvingly. "Nice light show, IRyS! Very dramatic!"
IRyS grinned and shot back up into the air, ready for another pass. This time, she had a new weapon in her arsenal.
Nerissa herself continued her assault, swinging her dark spear with deadly grace. The weapon seemed to extend and retract at will, allowing her to strike targets at varying distances. She combined her spear work with her powerful voice, unleashing waves of dark magic that rippled through the air like visible sound waves. Zombies caught in these waves found their bodies warping and twisting as the magic interfered with what little coherence their undead forms still possessed.
When suddenly—"Ow! What the—? Aahh! I've been bitten! I'm gonna—"
Nerissa's panic was cut short as something sharp jabbed into her leg. She looked down to see Kobo Kanaeru, the water-based idol, holding an antidote injector that she'd just plunged directly into Nerissa's crotch area.
"OW! THAT WAS UNNECESSARY!!"
Kobo shrugged unapologetically. "Sorry! You were moving around too much, and that was the only spot I could reach!"
"You could have ASKED ME TO HOLD STILL!"
"No time!" Kobo said cheerfully, already moving on to find her next patient. The young idol had apparently perfected the art of emergency antidote administration, prioritizing speed and efficiency over comfort and dignity.
On the rooftop of the ID branch building, Pavolia Reine finally allowed herself to collapse to her knees. Tears of relief streamed down her face as she watched the EN members tear through the zombie horde with devastating efficiency.
"We're saved!" she almost wept, her voice cracking with emotion. The elegant peafowl had maintained her composure throughout the entire siege, but seeing reinforcements arrive in such overwhelming force finally broke through her carefully maintained facade.
In the operations center, Zeta raised both hands in celebration, her secret agent cool completely abandoned in favor of pure joy. "YEAH! TAKE THAT, ZOMBIES!"
Iofi, sitting at her drone control station, did the same, cheering at the top of her lungs. "WE'RE NOT GOING TO DIE IN A ZOMBIE DIMENSION! I NEVER THOUGHT I'D BE SO HAPPY TO SEE EN!"
The two of them high-fived so hard it actually hurt their hands, but neither of them cared.
Kaela Kovalskia, the ever-practical blacksmith, allowed herself a small smile of relief as she stepped out from behind her control terminal. She switched the destroyer warships to advanced autopilot mode—a setting she'd created specifically for situations where she needed them to continue fighting without direct supervision. The AI systems acknowledged the change, and the spacecraft adjusted their patterns to become even more aggressive, no longer holding back ammunition for potential future threats.
At the entrance to the ID building, Kaela saw the Justice van still circling on one of the lower platforms, its occupants firing everything they had at the surrounding zombies. As she watched, Cecilia brought the van to a screeching halt, and four figures jumped out: Kiara, Amelia, Ina, and Calli.
All four rushed toward Kaela, their faces a mixture of concern and relief.
"Kaela!" Calli called out, jogging over. "Are you okay? Is everyone accounted for?"
"We're all alive," Kaela confirmed, her voice steady despite the exhaustion she felt. "Tired, low on supplies, but alive."
Ame was already pulling out her pocket watch, checking readings that only she understood. "How's your structural integrity? Any damage to the building's core systems?"
"Minor damage to some external defensive platforms, but the core systems are fully functional," Kaela reported. "The fusion reactor is operating at eighty-seven percent capacity, energy shields are holding at ninety-two percent strength, and most of our weapons systems are still operational."
Kiara looked around at the massive building complex with visible awe. "This place is incredible. You built all of this?"
"With help from Moona and the others, yes," Kaela said. "ID branch takes our construction work seriously."
Ina, her tentacles still visible and actively fighting zombies in the background, asked the critical question: "What's your supply situation? How long can you hold out?"
Kaela pulled up a holographic display from her personal terminal. "We're currently at fifty-eight percent of our original ammunition and energy reserves. That sounds reasonable until you factor in that most of what we're using consists of weapons and equipment meant for client orders. We've essentially been fighting off a zombie apocalypse with other people's merchandise."
"Ouch," Ame winced. "That's going to be a nightmare to explain."
"Indeed," Kaela agreed dryly. "Our reputation as a reliable supplier is somewhat at risk."
"We'll help you explain the situation to your clients," Calli promised. "I'm pretty sure 'We were fighting zombies in another dimension' is a valid excuse for delayed delivery."
"One would hope," Kaela said. "Thank you for coming to rescue us."
Calli placed a hand on Kaela's shoulder. "That's what family does. We look out for each other."
Kiara headed off first, spreading her phoenix wings as she took to the air. "I'm going to do a perimeter check, make sure there are no survivors or innocents from this world who might get caught in the crossfire!"
She soared upward, her flames creating a trail of light against the gray sky as she surveyed the surrounding area. Her enhanced vision allowed her to scan the ruined cityscape for any signs of human life—actual human life, not the undead variety.
Meanwhile, Cecilia was back in the driver's seat of the Justice van, the vehicle's engine revving as she prepared for another combat pass. In the passenger seat, Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame gripped her massive greatsword Thorn with both hands. As Cecilia accelerated toward a new cluster of zombies, Elizabeth swung the blade through the open window.
Blue flames erupted along the sword's length—not the bright orange flames of Kiara's phoenix fire, but a deeper, cooler blue that burned with an intensity that seemed to freeze and burn simultaneously. She swept the blade in a wide arc, and the blue flames leaped from the sword to engulf the zombies ahead of them. The undead didn't just burn—they flash-froze first, their bodies crystallizing before shattering into pieces.
In the back of the van, Gigi Murin had moved into position with her shotgun. The grease monkey's grin was manic as she pumped the weapon and fired through the van's back windows. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Each shot rang out, the buckshot tearing through zombie after zombie with satisfying efficiency.
Beside her, Raora Panthera had armed herself with a belt of grenades. The pink-haired panthera pulled pins with her sharp claws and tossed them out with precision timing. "Flashbang out!" she called, throwing one of the disorienting devices into a group of zombies. Even though the undead couldn't be disoriented in the traditional sense, the explosive force was still effective at destroying them.
All the while, Cecilia kept the van moving in complex patterns, drifting around corners, accelerating through straightaways, and generally treating the apocalyptic battlefield like her personal racing course.
Then, as the Justice van charged toward a particularly dense concentration of zombies, something unexpected happened.
The van exploded into smoke.
Well, not literally exploded—but a massive cloud of smoke erupted around it, completely obscuring the vehicle from view. Some of the ID members watching from the building assumed the worst, thinking the van had finally succumbed to damage.
But then figures emerged from the smoke.
Cecilia burst through first, but she wasn't on foot. She was riding atop a massive mechanical horse—a steampunk construct of brass and steel, built like a draft horse but clearly designed for combat. The automaton's hooves struck the ground with metallic clangs, and steam hissed from vents along its body. Gears and pistons were visible through gaps in its armored plating, all working in perfect synchronization to give the mechanical beast fluid, natural movement.
Cecilia brandished her white lance, the weapon gleaming as she led the charge. Her usual elegant demeanor had given way to something more primal, more passionate. She was a knight charging into battle, and the joy of combat was evident in her eyes.
"FOR JUSTICE!" she shouted, her voice carrying across the battlefield.
The rest of Hololive Justice followed close behind, having apparently abandoned the van for more direct combat methods.
Elizabeth's greatsword Thorn blazed with even fiercer blue flames as she ran alongside Cecilia's mechanical steed. She cleaved through zombies with massive, sweeping strikes that left trails of frozen fire in their wake. Each swing was powerful enough to bisect multiple zombies at once, and the blue flames spread from each impact point, consuming everything they touched.
Gigi, now clad in her oversized rocket gauntlets, had transformed from ranged fighter to brawler. The massive mechanical fists added considerable weight and power to her punches, and she used them to devastating effect. She smashed zombie skulls with brutal efficiency, her strikes creating shockwaves that knocked back nearby undead. She was laughing the entire time, clearly having the time of her life.
Raora surged ahead with surprising speed, her pink claws extended as she slashed through zombies with feline grace. She continued to throw grenades and flashbangs with her free hand, creating explosions that cleared paths for her teammates. Her sharp eyes—honed from years of paperwork and detail-oriented management—allowed her to spot threats before they became problems, calling out warnings to the others.
Cecilia's mechanical horse trampled zombies beneath its steel hooves, each step crushing skulls and breaking bones. She guided it with subtle shifts of her weight, the mount responding to her commands with perfect precision. Her lance struck out like a viper, impaling zombies before she yanked it free and moved on to the next target.
Elizabeth took command, her natural leadership instincts kicking in. "Formation gamma!" she called out, and Hololive Justice instantly adjusted their positions. They formed a wedge shape with Elizabeth at the point, Cecilia on one flank, Gigi on the other, and Raora providing support from the rear. The formation allowed them to push deep into the zombie horde while protecting each other's backs.
Meanwhile, Hololive Advent fought on their own front, maintaining a different section of the battlefield.
Shiori's ink-based creatures continued their assault—the dragon coiling through the air before diving down to snap up zombies, the spectral knights marching in formation as they cut down undead with their shadow weapons, and the turrets providing constant covering fire. She stood in the center of this controlled chaos, calmly flipping through her spell book to find the next incantation. "Let's see... ah, here's a good one."
She began writing again, and moments later, a massive ink-based golem rose from the ground. It stood twenty feet tall, its body composed of solidified ink that flowed and reformed as needed. The golem waded into the zombie horde, each step crushing dozens beneath its weight.
Nerissa soared overhead on her black-feathered wings, diving and rising in complex aerial patterns. She wielded her dark spear with one hand while casting spells with the other, creating a devastating combination of physical and magical attacks. Dark energy trailed behind her as she flew, and zombies touched by this energy found their bodies decaying even faster, crumbling to dust within seconds.
Fuwawa and Mococo had found their rhythm, moving through the battlefield with acrobatic grace that belied their combat effectiveness. They leaped over zombies, used their bodies as springboards to reach others, and generally treated the entire battle like a violent parkour course. Their claws left trails of light in the air as they struck, moving too fast for most observers to follow.
Bijou, still in her Devil Trigger state, had become a whirling dervish of destruction. The Yamato sang as it cut through the air, each swing creating spatial tears that carved through multiple zombies at once. Her gem turrets had multiplied—there were now at least thirty of them hovering around her, creating an almost impenetrable field of intersecting energy beams.
Fauna called out to Kronii as they worked together to maintain and expand their defenses. Fauna gestured, and plant-based turrets emerged from her vine wall—massive flowers that looked like sunflowers but fired explosive peashooter rounds. The projectiles arced through the air before detonating on impact, each one powerful enough to create a small crater.
"How are you holding up?" Kronii asked, her temporal barrier flickering slightly as she poured more power into it.
"Getting tired, but I can manage," Fauna replied, though sweat was dripping down her face from the effort of maintaining so much active plant life. "These zombies just keep coming!"
In the southern area of the battlefield, something truly spectacular was happening. Tsukumo Sana, the embodiment of space itself, had decided to stop holding back.
She grew.
And grew.
And grew.
Within seconds, Sana stood over two hundred feet tall, her form towering over the battlefield like a titan. Her hair seemed to contain actual stars, twinkling with real starlight. Her presence was so overwhelming that zombies near her simply stopped moving, their minimal brain functions unable to process something so far outside their understanding.
Sana's massive arm swept through the air, batting aside hundreds of zombies like they were insects. She reached down with both hands, grabbed the remains of a collapsed building, and hurled it at a distant concentration of zombies. The structure tumbled end over end before crashing down with devastating force, crushing everything beneath it.
"THIS IS ACTUALLY KIND OF FUN!" Sana's voice boomed across the battlefield, amplified by her increased size. She took a step forward, and the ground shook from the impact of her foot. Dozens of zombies were crushed beneath her, and she didn't even notice.
Mumei, fighting on the ground below, looked up at her massive friend and called out, "Try not to step on any of us!"
"I'LL BE CAREFUL!" Sana promised, though given her size, "careful" was a relative term.
Mumei's dagger had shattered earlier in the fight, the blade simply unable to withstand the constant combat. She'd been fighting hand-to-hand since then, using her civilization powers to age and decay zombies with touch attacks. But now, Anya Melfissa—the ancient keris—approached her.
"Mumei!" Anya called out. "Catch!"
Anya's body blurred and transformed, shifting from her humanoid form into her true nature as a sentient weapon. She became a gleaming keris dagger, the traditional wavy blade of Indonesian origin, ornate and beautiful and deadly. She spun through the air toward Mumei, who caught her by the handle with practiced ease.
The moment Mumei's hand closed around Anya's hilt, power surged through both of them. Mumei's civilization energy and Anya's ancient weapon essence merged, creating something greater than either power alone.
"Let's do this!" Mumei shouted, raising the blade high.
"Agreed!" Anya's voice emanated from the weapon itself.
Mumei channeled everything she had into the blade. Golden light—the light of civilization, of progress, of humanity's endless march forward—engulfed the keris. The light grew brighter and brighter until it was almost painful to look at directly.
"KERIS CALIBUR!" Mumei shouted, swinging the blade in a wide horizontal arc.
A devastating laser slash erupted from the weapon, a beam of pure golden energy that cut through the battlefield in a perfectly straight line. The slash extended for over a quarter mile, slicing through everything in its path. Zombies simply ceased to exist where the beam touched them, reduced to less than dust—reduced to nothing at all.
When the light faded, a perfectly cut line was visible across the battlefield, like someone had taken a laser pointer to the world itself. On the far side of the cut, zombies that had been bisected by the attack belatedly realized they were in two pieces and collapsed.
"That was AWESOME!" Mumei exclaimed, looking at the keris in her hand with newfound appreciation.
"We should do that again," Anya suggested, her voice still emanating from the blade.
"Definitely!" Mumei agreed, then gently set the keris down. In a shimmer of silver light, Anya reformed into her human shape, stretching as she regained her natural form.
"Thanks for the partnership," Anya said with a small smile.
Ina, watching from her position, spoke up. "We should consider leaving soon. While we're winning now, this world seems to have an essentially unlimited supply of zombies. We could fight for months or even years and still have more coming. It would be stupid not to retreat while we're ahead."
Kiara had just returned from her aerial reconnaissance of the surrounding area. She landed on one of the defensive platforms, folding her wings as she approached the group. "I've checked the entire area within a five-mile radius. There are no survivors—no living humans at all. This world really has fallen completely to the zombie plague."
"So this world is completely lost?" Fauna asked sadly, her nature-loving heart aching at the thought of an entire world dying.
"It appears so," Kiara confirmed. "There are no signs of human settlements, no crops being grown, no evidence of any organized resistance. If there are survivors somewhere, they're far from here."
"Then it's definitely time to go home," Calli decided.
Moona tried to activate her powers to open a return portal, but the moment she began channeling energy, she staggered. Risu caught her before she could fall.
"I can't," Moona admitted, her voice weak. "I'm completely drained. It took everything I had just to teleport us here and maintain the shields during the siege."
Risu wasn't in much better shape. "Same here. My forest magic is exhausted."
Anya, having returned to human form after Mumei set her down, shook her head. "I'm still too busy helping fight. I can't spare the concentration needed for a dimensional portal."
But Ina stepped forward, her tentacles retracting slightly to conserve energy. "Don't worry. While we were traveling here, I was studying the dimensional coordinates of this world. I can create a quick teleportation portal back to our Earth, but we have to go now. The portal will only last about ten seconds, and it'll take every bit of power I have left to make it large enough to transport the entire ID building."
"Ten seconds?" Zeta's eyes widened. "That's not much time to get everyone inside!"
"Everyone, get ready!"
Word spread quickly through the combat teams. The ID members who were inside the building were already in position. Those who were outside fighting needed to withdraw immediately.
"ALL EN AND ID MEMBERS!" Calli's voice boomed across the battlefield, amplified by some kind of magic. "FALL BACK TO THE ID BUILDING! WE'RE LEAVING IN TWO MINUTES!"
"Ina, give status updates!" Calli commanded.
"Two minutes until portal activation!" Ina called out, sweat already beading on her forehead from the immense concentration required.
Ollie, who had been gleefully fighting in the thick of the horde, stopped mid-swing. "Wait, what? We're leaving?" She looked around at all the zombies still remaining. "But there are so many left!"
"Ollie, get your ass back here NOW!" Zeta's voice came through the communication system.
"Alright, alright!" Ollie turned and sprinted back toward the building, her sword still in hand as she cut down any zombie that tried to slow her down.
Anya, in her human form, quickly turned and ran alongside Ollie. The two of them moved with impressive speed, their combat experience allowing them to navigate the battlefield efficiently.
Mumei, still holding Anya's keris form—wait, no, Anya was running next to her. Mumei looked down at the blade she was holding, which was now just a regular weapon. "Oh, right." She sheathed it and ran.
"One minute remaining!" Ina's voice echoed across the battlefield.
Hololive Advent responded by using a group teleportation spell. Shiori quickly scribbled in her book, and a magic circle appeared beneath all of Advent's feet. In a flash of dark light, they vanished from the battlefield and reappeared on one of the ID building's platforms.
"Thirty seconds!"
IRyS, still airborne, heard the call and immediately ceased her spinning attack. She zoomed toward the building, her wings creating sonic booms as she pushed her speed to the limit. She passed by so fast that the wind from her passage knocked over several zombies.
Hololive Justice, in the middle of their formation assault, responded immediately to the order. "Justice, rally back!" Elizabeth commanded, and they disengaged from combat with practiced efficiency. Cecilia's mechanical horse turned on a dime and galloped back toward the building, its metal hooves leaving indentations in the ground. The others followed, fighting defensively as they retreated.
"Ten seconds until portal opening!" Ina called out, her voice strained.
Ina stood at the center of the ID building's roof, her tome floating open in front of her as she began the most complex spell she'd ever attempted. Her tentacles spread wide, creating a circle around her as she channeled every last bit of her eldritch power.
"Connecting dimensional coordinates," she murmured, her voice taking on an otherworldly echo. "Mapping spatial trajectories. Calculating temporal displacement. Establishing anchor point in our home dimension."
Purple energy began to gather around her, growing more intense by the second. The air itself seemed to bend and warp as she forced reality to comply with her will.
"Five seconds until portal activation!" Ina called out, sweat beading on her forehead from the immense concentration required.
Everyone still outside rushed toward the building. Ollie and Anya made it through the energy shield with two seconds to spare. IRyS landed on the roof with a heavy thud. Hololive Justice's mechanical horse clip-clopped onto one of the lower platforms just as Ina shouted:
"PORTAL OPENING NOW!"
The space above the ID building tore open like fabric being ripped apart. A massive portal—easily large enough to encompass the entire sixty-story structure—opened in the air. Through it, they could see glimpses of their home: the familiar skyline of Jakarta, the blue sky of their own Earth, the normal world they'd left behind.
"EVERYONE HOLD ON!" Ina commanded.
She brought her hands together, and the portal moved. Rather than the building going through the portal, the portal came to the building, descending like a massive ring. It passed over the roof, down the sides, encompassing floor after floor as it descended.
As the portal passed, sections of the building vanished from the zombie world and reappeared in their home dimension.
The zombies, seeing their prey escaping, surged forward in one last desperate assault. But they were too late. The portal passed the ground level, then disappeared entirely, taking the last of the ID building with it.