Zoe immediately collapsed to his knees the moment he reached the center of the room, barely able to hold himself upright as he struggled to catch his breath."Young…young master…" Zoe immediately stammered between ragged breaths."Take your time, Zoe, breathe." Sylra Ashwright immediately said gently, kneeling beside him and placing a steadying hand on his shoulder.Zoe nodded weakly and forced himself to speak, though his voice trembled with every word."The lower towns… they're being raided." Zoe immediately gasped out."Raided by who?" Kaelen Ashwright immediately demanded, his entire posture snapping into alertness."Dead walkers, young master." Zoe immediately said, his eyes wide with lingering horror. "Corpses… reanimated corpses, dozens of them, maybe more. They tore through the eastern gate like it was made of parchment."Gasps erupted across the room once more."Dead walkers?" Old Moth immediately repeated, her grip tightening around her crystal ball necklace. "That is old, f

Wei Crossblade immediately grinned and hefted his massive war hammer onto his shoulder. "I'll just be smashing things until they stop moving. Simple, effective, and incredibly satisfying.""That's not a strategy, Wei Crossblade, that's just you being you." Ash Thornwood immediately teased, earning a round of light laughter that momentarily cut through the tension in the room."Hey, it's worked so far, hasn't it?" Wei Crossblade immediately shot back, unbothered.Ash Thornwood chuckled and unsheathed a pair of twin daggers, their blades shimmering faintly with a pale blue light. "I'll stick with the Twilight Fangs. Fast, precise, and perfect for picking off any stragglers that try to flank us while everyone else is busy causing chaos up front."Song Lianhua stepped forward next, water swirling gently around his outstretched palm. "I'll focus on crowd control and support. If the dead walkers are being directed through necromantic energy, I can use water infused with purification tali

The marketplace fell into a suffocating silence, broken only by the crackling of dying fires and the faint groan of the reanimated corpse's twisted, shifting form.Kaelen Ashwright's grip tightened around the Convergence Blade, his knuckles white as he stared into those endless black eyes."Kaelen Ashwright, do not move an inch toward him." Commander Zach immediately said, stepping protectively in front of the young man, the Ember Judgment blazing brighter with every passing second."That thing is not simply a dead walker anymore. That is Vandel himself, speaking through a stolen vessel.""I gathered that much, Commander Zach." Kaelen Ashwright immediately replied, his eyes never leaving the corpse.Sylra Ashwright rushed forward, positioning herself protectively beside her son, her poisoned dagger raised and trembling ever so slightly. "Absolutely not. Kaelen Ashwright is not going anywhere near that monster.""Mother, I—" Kaelen Ashwright immediately started."No." Sylra Ashwright i

The words struck Commander Zach like a physical blow, his entire body going rigid as the color drained from his weathered face."What… what did you just say?" Commander Zach immediately asked, his voice barely above a whisper, trembling with a mixture of confusion and dawning horror.Vandel's decayed lips curled into something resembling a smile, though there was no warmth in it whatsoever, only a cold, calculated cruelty that seemed to relish the unraveling of the commander before him."You heard me perfectly well, Zachariah." Vandel immediately said, his voice carrying that same disturbingly gentle tone. "Your grandmother, Lady Zane, the woman the entire family mourned as a tragic accident for over two hundred years.""Do not." Commander Zach immediately snapped, his hand tightening around the Ember Judgment's hilt until his knuckles turned white. "Do not speak her name.""Why not?" Vandel immediately asked, tilting his head with mock innocence. "You wanted answers, did you not? You

Ryn Ashenfang's eyes widened in horror as realization dawned across her face. "It was you. You killed them too.""Your mother, my own daughter, began asking questions." Vandel immediately said, his voice growing colder, harder, stripped entirely of the false warmth it had carried moments before. "She had inherited her mother's intelligence, unfortunately for her. She noticed inconsistencies in the official reports surrounding Lady Zane's death. She began digging, quietly, carefully, believing herself clever enough to uncover the truth without my noticing.""She confronted your father with her suspicions first, foolishly believing he would help her expose me to the council." Vandel immediately continued. "He agreed. Together, they gathered evidence, prepared testimony, and made arrangements to bring their findings before the elders during the next full council session.""They threatened to kill me themselves if the council failed to act swiftly enough." Vandel immediately added, almost