"Sweet freedom... Wasn't I supposed to be done with this crap?" It seemed
that I had celebrated too soon.
Alas, I was standing in the Sandora royal castle once more, sighing to myself.
I was looking over at a man sitting on the throne. It was the king of Sandora,
Abdul Djerba Sandora III. Or rather, the former king.
"Guhuhuhu... Wretched Grand Duke... I see you've come again! Ohoho!"
"Geez..." His rotten, severed head started chatting to me. The pigman king sat
atop his gaudy throne, head literally in his hands. His entire body looked pale,
and his once-beautiful clothes were all worn and dirty.
Basically, he was a Zombie. He was buried in a Sandoran graveyard, and
apparently he just up and rose right out of it. I thought maybe it was the work
of the wicked god, but no. He seriously just came back as a Zombie. He just
straight-up had so much of an attachment to the material world that he rose
right up out of the dead.
The Zombie king attacked the prime minister first and turned him into one as
well. As is the typical rule, those bitten by a Zombie would typically rise as a
Zombie themselves.
Apparently, the Zombies started multiplying like rabbits after that. We were
just so busy dealing with the slaves in the other settlements that none of us
noticed the capital city becoming a Zombie settlement.
The king wasn't the only one here. There was a line of Zombie generals and
Zombie retainers, too. They all stood there, staring at me with vacant eyes.
Their mouths drooped open.
Gross, gross... Something's coming outta your mouths...
"Guhuhuhu... I have a new power... I have new slaves... I'll enslave you too...!
Oink, oink, squeee!"
Did he seriously just oink? He's transitioned entirely into a Pigman Orc, holy
crap.
I sighed slightly as three men and one... What looked like a woman...
appeared from behind the throne. They all had pig-like faces.
"Oink, oink... Father's goal is our goal! Father's grudges are our grudges!"
"Snort, snort... Let's eat him!"
"B-B-Brains... L-L-Let me e-eat b-braiiiiiins..."
"Oink, oiiink! Let's kill him...!"
Goddamn. Pigmen princes and a princess, huh...? He seriously zombified his
own kids? They're the spitting image of him... Were they ever even human to
begin with? Well, whatever. They're Zombies now.
"Oink, oink, oiiink! See, fool? How can you defeat us now? We're immortal!
We'll use this new power to enslave those foolish runaways!"
You're really saying that again? Well, as the saying goes... Once a fool, always
a fool. I guess even death can't cure stupidity. I can see that pretty clearly in
front of me.
"I guess I'll have to put you down for good, huh."
"Silence! Kill him, Zombies!" I sliced at one of the Zombie generals with
Brunhild, severing his arm, but he just came charging at me again. Then, I
shrugged, realizing I didn't need to hold back. Zombies were rotten... Though,
these people were rotten even when they were alive.
"Oink oink oiiink! Fool! We have immortal bodies! Bodies that know no pain!
Any attack you launch at us is futi—"
"Come forth, Light! Soothing Comfort: [Cure Heal]."
"Hnghuh! O-Ow! I-I-It hurts! I-It burns!"
"Looks like you were wrong."
Damn, that really worked. Nice. The Zombie general started screaming and
writhing in pain after I cast Healing magic on him. For the undead, restoration
magic was a natural ward.
I took a small bottle out of [Storage] and sprinkled it over the Zombie. It was
the perfect finishing move.
"Auuugh! My body! I'm melting! I'm meeelting! What was that?!"
"Holy water, duh. I boiled the hell out of it."
"H— Ugaaah!" The Zombie general writhed in pain as he melted and vanished
into nothingness.
Pass on in peace... Man, the holy water from Ramissh is some crazy strong
stuff... Crazy strong...
"Bastard... Where did you get that?!"
"Huh? Are you stupid? I heard I'd be fighting Zombies, why wouldn't I bring
holy stuff? Also, I'm adept at purifying magic."
"Wh-What'd you say?! Gwaugh!" The pigman rose from his throne and tried
to run away. The other Zombies ran after him, too. They were surprisingly fast,
given their state...
"[Slip]."
"Hngh?!" Their feet all gave way below them, and the Zombies went tumbling
down. Blood, guts, and gore splattered everywhere as their rotting bodies burst
open on impact. Zombies couldn't regenerate, but they could go on living for as
long as their brains weren't destroyed.
"Alright, enough of this crap. Come forth, Light! Shining Exile: [Banish]!" The
Zombie retainers standing by turned to particles of light and vanished. They
were done.
"Gyaaah!"
"I don't wanna die agaiiin! Guyahaaah!"
"I'm meltiiing!" They all screamed out in agony as they vanished. The only
ones left were the pigman king and his family.
The princes and princess all left their father's side and shambled over to me.
They leaped up into the air before crumpling down at my feet in a haphazard
bow. I'd never seen a jump turn into a bow before... It was kind of gross
because they broke their legs on impact.
"O-Oink! We were only following orders!"
"We're not even his real children, honest!"
"P-P-P-Promise!"
"Just forget you saw us...!"
"Y-You brats! How dare you disregard your father!" The pig king screamed, his
head rolling around on the ground. The four of them looked back at him and
tilted their heads.
"Oink... Who were you again?"
"You little shiiiiiits!" The pigman clenched his teeth to the point where I
thought his blood vessels would explode. I took advantage of the situation and
poured a bucket of holy water over the heads of those little oinkers.
"Gyaaaaaauuugh!!!" The four piglets screamed as smoke rose from their
bodies and they vanished into nothingness. The pigman king looked on, his
expression of fury transforming into a full-fledged grin.
"Oinkahahaha! Serves you right, traitors! Little shits!"
You and your whole damn family are disgusting... There's no way the slaves
you've all killed could rest in peace while you're still chattering.
"Strike true, Light! Sparkling Holy Lance: [Shining Javelin]!" I fired a lance of
light into the king's chest. His entire body caught fire and burned away to ashes
in a matter of seconds.
"M-My bodyyy!" He squealed in shock as his rolling head looked at what was
going on. I was tired of his nonsense, so I decided to put an end to it all.
I took out a tank of water from [Storage]. Unlike the previous containers I'd
taken out, this one didn't contain holy water. It was just plain old river water.
I invoked [Gate] and summoned several living creatures from the Great Gau
River. They appeared inside the tank. They were long and thin, around ten
centimeters in length. I enchanted them with Light magic.
"What... What is that thing?"
"Fish native to the Great Gau River. They're called the candira. They
exclusively eat meat, and have a particular preference for rotten meat."
"W-Wait, then you...?"
"[Gate]." I created a portal beneath the pig of a man, and his head fell into
the tank with the fish. All the fish in the tank immediately began nibbling at his
face.
"Hiagaugh!! N-No! No! My e-eyes! My eyes! They're e-eating... Nghn!!!"
"Oh man, they sure are hungry..." The candira were a funny type of fish. They
greatly resembled the candiru fish from my former world.
The candiru fish lived in the Amazon rainforest, and they were fierce. They
were a parasitic species that burrowed inside larger fish and ate them from the
inside.
They were supposedly related to catfish, but they were more deadly than
piranhas. They also attacked larger creatures in groups. Humans weren't even
an exception to this creature's horrific menu. They were even known as the
vampire fish to some people.
I was pleased to see that the candira fish were just as horrible.
"S-Save me!"
"Hell no. If I spared you now, the people you've hurt would never forgive me.
I guess if I did let you out, I'd just put you back in your grave as a head." I
watched him writhe in torment as I recalled the faces of the slaves we'd
recovered from the castle dungeons. Most of them were dead and bound.
Tortured, and abused. Not just the men, but the women and children too.
My only regret was that he couldn't feel more than the disgusting sensation
of his own death creeping toward him. In a sense, I was glad he came back. He
didn't deserve a regular, clean death. I wondered if he came back to the world
of the living so the dead would find peace knowing he truly regretted his deeds.
"Ohhh god! Please, please! It's horrible, m-make them stop! They're... They're
burrowing, oh, oh god!" The fish had been enchanted with light, so once they
entered his body they created a burning sensation. He was a Zombie, so he
wouldn't suffocate. It would probably take a full day for the fish to pick the flesh
from his face entirely.
"Think about the vile deeds you've done up until now. Think about it, and
know nobody will ever forgive you."
"O-Oink! Auuuuuugh!" He'd die after losing part of his brain, since he was a
Zombie. I was happy to wait for it to happen.
I used [Banish] on every Zombie in the capital city... except the king, and
called it a day.
The royal capital, much like Astal before it, became a city of the dead. There
was no way Sandora would recover. I used Earth magic to weaken the city's
foundations, hoping that the sands would reclaim that cursed place.
The dead slaves might find peace now, I hope... I left the desert capital with
those feelings in mind.