Chapter 265 World’s Strongest Mutant (2)
Chapter 265 World’s Strongest Mutant (2)
The moment Ashton received the word from Sheera about potential intruders, he grabbed Baiter's latest creation, [Wraith Sniper Rifle] and headed to watch over the portal. Even though, Baiter had already filled the area around the portal with remotely activated mines and could take care of the intruders by himself.
But Ashton explained it was the perfect moment to test the explosive rifle. Even if the rifle didn't work as intended, he could always activate the mines and get rid of the intruders along with the portal.
After using the rifle, Ashton was impressed. it was similar to the crossbow he had been using but the range was much larger and the damage was explosive. Normally, a crossbow wouldn't have been able to kill a target, let alone an undead, from such a distance.
But Ashton decimated the opponents in a matter of seconds. The power of the sniper definitely made it into one of his preferred weapons. Although handling it was a bit taxing and it couldn't be used in close combat, as long as he had to eliminate a target from far away, sniping was the way to go.
As for Jerico, well, it didn't take much effort for Ashton to capture the runt and drag him back to Livan for interrogation. The rest of them were killed without a shred of mercy.
"Hm... Undead, what a disgusting surprise." Ashton let out an overexaggerated sigh when Jericho did not answer his question, "What are you fuckers doing here?"
"Fuck your wives and moms?" Jerico smirked and so did Ashton.
Getting answers out of Jerico's mouth was a difficult task. Not because Ashton lacked the strength to force the answers out of him, but because he couldn't even torture the undead into answering him.
Jerico was a zombie. A creature that felt no pain. What was even the point of torturing such a bastard? The only way to hurt the undead was to use psychic attacks, and sadly, there was no one in Livan who was capable of using them.
Hell, since the mutants conquered the planet, there had been roughly 3 mages capable of using psychic attacks one of which was Dracula. Unfortunately, none of his descendants inherited that ability of his.
As for the other two, one of them was never seen after the war with humans came to an end and the second, well, she was killed by the undead. But back then, Ashton had something entirely different going through his head.
'Weren't these bastards supposed to be mindless? Forget about now having a brain, this fucker can also converse like normal? What the hell?'
No matter whom he discussed the undead creatures, all of them had only one answer for him. The undead were a mindless species whose only driving force was their hunger. But the undead being he was seeing in front of him didn't seem to be motivated by hunger.
To make matters even weird, the fucker had a sense of sarcasm as well. Something the werewolves were not appreciative of.
"Fine, I didn't want to do this, but you have forced my hand," Ashton said with a smile.
[Skill: Corpse Parade has been activated.]
Raising skeletons was merely the secondary function of [Corpse Parade], the skill was initially made to have one particular use. To tame undead creatures into doing the caster's bidding as long as the caster's level was higher than the undead's.
[The undead <Jerico> is now under your influence.]
[The undead <Jerico> now recognises you as his master.]
As soon as the notification appeared in front of Ashton's eyes, Jerico's body went limp. It was funny to watch a zombie snore but as amusing as it was, Ashton had important matters to discuss.
"Oi bastard, get up."
"Yes, sir."
At this moment, Jerico no longer viewed Ashton as his enemy or a werewolf, but as a being of his kind, a zombie and a comrade. Thus he ignored everyone else present in the room and proceeded to talk with Ashton as he would to a superior.
"What's your name?" Ashton asked to make sure the idiot was completely under his influence.
"Jerico, sir."
"Fuck you, Jerico."
"Please open my restraints and I will gladly do so."
"..."
[Not only is this planet broken, but its residents have weird fetishes as well.]
As much as Ashton wanted to have a chat with Astaroth and discuss more of Jerico's fetishes, he chose to focus on the more important aspect of their conversation.
"Why are you here? What was it you wanted to accomplish?"
A moment of silence followed before Jerico opened his mouth again.
"Domination. That was our goal behind attacking this kingdom." Jerico replied as if he couldn't be more proud of himself, "We were the first of the mutants to be born in this world and yet these fucking mosquitoes and pesky mutts were ruling over more than three-fourths of the world's population?"
"It was unacceptable to us. That's why we decided to take the matters into our own hands. Since the vampires had a genetic weakness to us, we could easily take them down." He continued, "The werewolves on the other hand... were a different story."
"They were stronger than us and their pack mentality was almost impossible to break. Thus we planned to turn them into our foot soldiers. That way, not only we will be able to establish a foothold in the middle of a territory dominated by the werewolves but also build an army to conquer the vampires!"
"As much I would love to listen to your monologue, get to the fucking point!" Ashton yelled at him, "How the hell are you going to convert werewolves into undead creatures?"
"Using corpsification gas, of course." Jerico stated matter-of-factly, "I don't know the science behind it, but the containers we have been carrying around contain a weaker version of the Xenonic Virus, the same virus that gave birth to the mutants."
He continued, "Once the contained explodes, the compressed liquid turns into gas upon coming in contact with air. Then this gas propagates further and further, infecting anyone that breathes it in. Unfortunately, about 39% of the people survive the process and turn into Undead, the rest die and serve us as food."
Ashton was in disbelief. But he wasn't the only one. Everyone that was present there couldn't believe their ears either. From what Jerico had just told them, it was clear these bastards have been panning this attack for years, maybe even decades.
Watching the undead boast about it like it was some honourable work, made Virgil's blood boil. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to rip that bastards head off and tear the rest into pieces, but Ashton wasn't done asking questions yet.
"Did you attack doctor Avalina because of this goal as well?"
"I am but a brigadier. I don't have all the information, but commander Servina must know about it." Jerico replied carefully.
"Alright, final question. How many of you people are there in Lycania right now?"
"Do you want to know how many of us entered Lycania today?"
The way Jerico asked the question, left a bad taste in Ashton's mouth. But then he remembered the theory they came up with back in Transylvania, the undead could be living amongst them.
"No, I want to know the number of all the undead living in the kingdom."
"More than thirty thousand."