NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 169: This Is New
Ren slowly turned at the sound of the voice, eyes wide.
The whole village had gone silent. Not just quiet, but frozen. Every red-eyed zombie had stopped in place, like robots that had been powered down.
And then, like a wave, they parted.
A tall zombie strode forward, shoulders broad and a cape attached to his neck. His body was gaunt, as if he had been starved to death. Horns curled up from his forehead like a twisted crown, and red veins moved, snaking under its translucent skin like worms.
Where the other zombies had pools of blood in their eyes, his eyes glowed a bright red that made Ren's stomach turn. There was no denying the intelligence in those eyes. Or the hatred.
This was the one who had spoken.
"You," Ren said, his voice low. "How do you know my name?"
The creature tilted his head, and an eerie smile stretched across his bloodless face, his lips tearing until the smile stretched to just underneath his ears, showing off his jawbone, where his surprisingly normal teeth stopped.
"Terence Ross." He said slowly, as if savoring each syllable. "My greatest enemy. Do you think I wouldn't remember the one who made me into what I am? You cannot delay the inevitable. I have too long for that to happen."
Ren narrowed his eyes. "How is it that you can speak?"
He didn't know what was going on and how the zombie knew of him, but he had to get every scrap of information he could out of him.
"Oh, how insulting." The creature chuckled. "Did you think intelligence was exclusive to the living?"
"No." Ren replied, eyes narrowed. "Just surprised you're using it to monologue instead of attack."
The creature threw its head back and laughed, the sound gurgling deep in its throat. "Foolish as ever. Allow me to enlighten you before your final moments."
He stepped forward. "I am the Red Prophet, and I am the will of the Plague. I am its voice and its blade. I will liberate Elnoria of the pus that festers in its heart."
He snarled. "The king, the Pope, the Synod, the entire church itself, even the cramped and walled cities that pretend safety is control. I will tear it all down and build a new world in fire and blood."
Ren blinked slowly. The Prophet's speech seeped slowly into his mind. This was new. Very new.
In the game, the zombies had been mindless, dangerous creatures with no goal except to spread and destroy. But the creation of a new world? This... was different.
As the Red Prophet continued its speech, Ren surreptitiously dipped his hand into his coin pouch. His fingers brushed against gold coins, closing around them. He took a breath and activated his Tithecraft.
The coins vanished, absorbed in a blink. Power filled every crevice of his body, euphoric and dizzying. A grin bloomed to life on his lips before he could stop it. Then a short, sharp laugh burst out of him.
The Prophet paused mid-sentence, glaring at him.
"What," the creature hissed, "is so funny?"
Ren grinned fully now. A part of his mind was detached, watching with cold and clinical clarity, while most of his mind buzzed with pleasure. Then, he dumped all the energy inside him into the switch for plants in his head.
His mind cleared instantly.
"This." Ren grinned, and slapped his hand against the ground, pouring every bit of energy he had in the switch into it.
The cobblestones beneath the Prophet and the zombies cracked. Vines burst from the stone, thick and wild, wrapping around every single zombie in sight. Red eyes flashed as the Prophet snarled in rage. "You dare?!"
"Elias! Torch the vines!" Ren shouted.
Lilith dropped the dome, and Elias didn't hesitate. He stepped forward, stabbing his flaming sword into the vine at his feet. The fire caught instantly and raced outward.
The vines burned, taking the zombies with them. Screeches filled the air, and the Red Prophet threw back his head, laughing maniacally as he burned.
"You think you can run? You think you can escape me?" He roared as flames consumed its body. "You'll never escape! No matter where you run off to, Terence Ross, I will find you again!"
Then it was gone, reduced to ashes.
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The night had fallen by the time they found a safe place to camp. With a silence filled with words unsaid and questions not asked, they lit up a fire in the ruins of a stone barn, as far as they could ride away from the village.
Thorn sat cross-legged, expression unusually serious. He poked at the fire with a stick. The silence continued for a few minutes before he looked up at Ren.
"So," he began, "is the Plague supposed to be that intelligent?"
Valen, seated with his back to a nearby beam, spoke first. "I've never heard of or seen this kind of plague before but I can guarantee that it's not just intelligent but also learning. I could feel it. Towards the end, it spread faster, trying to overwhelm my Gift. Testing."
Ren stared into the fire. "From what I know, the Red Plague is a supernatural disease. A plague that spread by blood. But it also had intelligence that was limited to whispering in the minds of its victims and convincing them to spread the plague deliberately."
"The plague makes the zombies go mad and lose all rational thinking. Not… this.
"And the girl?" Lilith asked softly.
"I've never encountered behavior like that before." Ren whispered, thinking of everything he knew of the plague from the wiki and the game itself. "She should've been too far gone to be capable of thinking. But that…"
He looked up at them.
"That wasn't in any book. The victims are supposed to grow more aggressive. They seek out uninfected people, and then burn themselves out. Their bodies explode, spreading the contagion. That's how it works. But now, they're planning. Setting traps. Using children."
"It can only mean one thing. There's a mastermind behind the plague." He paused. "The Red Prophet."
Silence filled the ruined barn.
Then Thorn spoke again. "So, what now?"
Ren leaned forward, palms on his knees. "Now? We find out which cities in Elnoria still stand. We find the survivors. And we find the Red Prophet."
"We finish this. Before it finishes everyone else."