'Father…..what is he doing here?' thought Cheyenne as she kept running.
Looking at her father's figure, she found herself speechless.
Nevertheless, she was saved by him.
She and her father had a strained relationship. Quite frankly, she hated him, but he was still her father, the father she and her sibling adored when they were young.
She normally vented her anger on the man, but that was because she had nowhere else to vent it.
Having built up a deep well of frustration and anger, she had no idea how to empty it.
So, she poured it all on one of the main causes of her negative emotions.
He deserved it, she knew that, but she could also see the hope of their family uniting as one again.
The years of pent-up anger had helped to slowly dwindle it, and they were entering a period of healing.
Her siblings had talked about it and accepted not to focus on the past anymore. Their mother wouldn't like that her death served as a catalyst for all the troubles.
Sadly, their mother would not get to live in such a world.
It was unfair that she could not see the change in their father. She would have benefitted from it the most.
Raising his hand as a signal, Caspian said, "Stop, someone is coming."
The group naturally stopped afterward. After all, if the strongest one among them told them to stop, then it must mean something.
Roan walked up to his father and softly asked, "Father, can you sense who is coming? A zombie or a human?"
Knowing his father was a [Realm-3], he fully trusted his decision.
Unlike the lower realms which had some unique cultivators like Jake, Cheyenne, and Nico developing a faint sixth sense, [Realm-3] Cultivators had a perfect sixth sense.
They were able to view things with, not their eyes, but by their minds.
This ability would come in handy, especially when fighting a larger group, like a horde of zombies, for instance.
It would also act as a defense, helping one "feel" an attack before it actually got to them.
"I can't tell. All I know is that they are not stronger than me," responded Caspian.
Listening to his father, Roan confessed, "We can't afford another battle. We have been through a lot and are too weak right now."
The dark circles under his eyes and the excessively red veins pulsing in his skin, due to over-consumption of energy, said it all.
"I know. I will protect you all," sighed Caspian.
It was his duty as a king to protect his subjects.
Plus, if he had been more careful, perhaps they would have caught onto the tail of the mysterious organization much earlier.
Alas, there was no perhaps in life.
He, along with the military higher-ups, had decided to be careful and it had cost them a lot.
Caspian stopped thinking as the figures approaching them came into their sight of view.
He recognized them instantly. They were his direct subordinates, his limbs throughout the entire kingdom that answers to him, and him only!
Meeting their king, they all bowed down, but Caspian dismissed the greeting as it was not a good place for that.
They came along with some soldiers, clearly, they had been fighting for a long time as they heavily breathed.
Being the oldest among them, Lucian, the king's teacher, briefed him, "We are coming from the border. We were sent by the third Knight-General to send whoever is alive to the palace."
Having lost access to their king, the subordinates had to be productive and temporarily joined forces with the army.
"Hmmmmm…..I understand," murmured Caspian.
He kept looking behind him as he talked.
Feeling the need to tell them, he softly muttered, "Griff is dead."
The five subordinates, despite being entirely different, were close to each other. They were like family.
Although, they had prepared themselves for the possibility of death while on duty, it still hit hard when they heard of Griff's death.
However, they didn't have time to grieve.
Pointing at a young woman, Lucian introduced him, "This is Knight-Captain Zephora. She has the latest intel on the battlefront. We just met her, while trying to rally as much as we can."
Caspian scrutinized the captain before he gave her a chance to talk.
In a beautiful yet strong voice, Zephoria spoke out, "Your Highness, the situation at the front is not looking good. We seemed to have had a chance of controlling it when the zombie's numbers spike, along with all kinds of zombies. The strong we have seen is a [Black Eye Zombie] and there are five of them!"
This made sense to Caspian.
The increase in the zombie army was probably caused by the opening of the Nether Rift, which he had temporarily stopped.
'It should be closed for another hour, but the damage is already done,' analyzed Caspian.
Noticing the injuries on his body, Lucian asked him, "What happened?"
"It's a long story---"
Caspian was about to finish his words when his heart suddenly started beating insanely fast.
He instantly knew that what he had feared was going to happen happened.
His senses picked up an object flying straight at him at an incredible speed.
The rest of the group, especially the weaker ones, could barely notice it.
Only he and Lucian sensed it better than the rest.
The object moved at a speed faster than Caspian. It was on a different level and it locked on him.
Before he could think further, the object had gotten into his vicinity, only an inch far away.
He couldn't even block. He could only wait for death.
*Puchi!*
Fortunately, the death did not come.
Instead, someone else took his place for him. Someone who had long seen the attack before him.
Checking to see who it was, Caspian's heart despaired as he found out it was one of his subordinates.
It was Sia, the only female among them.
A gaping hole was now in her chest and a grey slob swam around her body, decaying it continuously.
However, Sia smiled at the fact that she had managed to save the king.
Pointing her hand at their backs, Sia showed the group the owner of the beam that blasted a hole through her.
When Caspian saw it, his pupils dilated. It was a zombie, but not just any zombie.
Judging from the horrendous aura exuding from the creature, he could tell that it was a [One-Star Zombie Lord].
Also, the fact it was able to hide its aura showed that it wasn't just any zombie lord.
Caspian looked intensely at it and could see no chance of killing it.
The [Black-Eye Zombie] he killed was a fluke, but this one would leave no chance of fluking at all.
His analysis was distracted by Sia's scream, "Go."
The group knew what she was talking about. She was asking them to escape and leave.
When they tried to retort, she shut them down, "I'm already dead. I will be your bait and cover. We have no time, go!"
She noticed that her king was distraught and smiled at him, "Your Highness, do not forget about me."
Her hidden words worked perfectly for Caspian as he wryly smiled back, "Very well. Farewell, Sia."
The other subordinates also said their last words to their long-time comrade.
The king didn't give them enough time as he shouted at them to run away.
So, the group escaped under the eyes of a nonchalant zombie, who didn't care about a few humans.
Since there was already some in front of it, it had no complaints.
The zombie barely had intelligence so, it did as it wishes.
Sia could also understand that.
That was why, as the zombie came closer to her, she prepared herself.
After her preparations, she thought of her relationship with the king.
To the public eye, it was a normal relationship, but actually, it was far from that.
The main reason Sia joined the group was that she was in love with the king from a young age.
After showing immense promise, she was invited by the king to be his direct subordinate.
However, unlike what her young brain thought, there was no fairy tale involving her and the king.
The king was astonishingly loyal to his marriage and never indulged in any extra-marital affairs.
Slowly, she had lost all notions of the fairy tale and had focused on her duties.
Yet, one night, a year after the king lost his wife, he had entered his study drunk, heavily drunk at that.
That night, she was waiting for him to report an issue, but she didn't expect to see a drunk king, who was extremely defenseless.
Coincidence followed and things quickly got heated up between the two. That night, they were submerged in the waters of pleasure and made a huge mistake.
The next day after that, the king acted normal. After apologizing to her, he ignored the event as it had never happened.
But she had kept it in her head all the time!
However, she wasn't foolish to not know that the king held no strong emotional attachment to her.
She knew he had his own fair share of issues, and quickly made herself lost in the background.
Now, here she was, about to die to her emotions. It wasn't a bad ending to her.
Sia was simple-minded. She held no goal in life except to fulfill her duties, and she did just that.
Now, she just needed to stall for a minute or so.
Smiling, she dipped a small black bean that was already on her hand into her mouth.
It was a high-quality exploding bean.
However, that wasn't enough for her plans.
There were multiple shining crystals on her hand. The exact name of the crystals was [Zyrcene], special crystals that unleashed an explosion whenever they came in contact with [Spirit Essence].
She held it in her hand tightly as she lunged at the zombie that was already beside her.
Smiling, she shone her body with [Spirit Essence], and as she expected, an explosion followed!
The destructive capability of the explosion lighted up the entire district as it destroyed it.
It unleashed a two-hundred meters(200m) explosion that was too visible for those that were not caught in it.
Sia, one of the king's subordinates, went out in a bang!