Crazy Plan

Clang~Clang~Clang~

The sound of steel pickaxes striking rock reverberated throughout the caverns of the mines, reaching the surface, where dozens of female zombies carried large sacks filled with mined dark ore and unloaded them before the processing zombies.

The processing zombies simply broke down the dark ores with clumsy swings of their hammers and sorted the resulting pieces by mineral content.

If a human or anyone else who considered the undead mindless monsters were here, they wouldn't believe it, nor could they, especially if it were to be a zombie. Zombies were well-known for being undead who were not only mindless, as all undead were or were supposed to be as lower demons, but also had an insatiable desire for flesh. Zombies didn't discriminate between the undead and the living.

They'd devour anything! Either it is a human, an undead, or even another zombie. As long as they could devour another, they would devour one without the slightest of hesitation; however, the zombies here weren't devouring another!

Instead, they were working together, not trying to kill another to ease their hunger, with human-level or possibly even higher efficiency than a human.

It was an incredible sight to see, and normally an impossible one to see. Humans of the higher planes would consider this to be taboo and would be disgusted and saddened by this sight.

Zombies, who once were humans who lived in the higher planes, weren't granted eternal rest as they desired after their deaths! Their souls could never escape the shackles that tightly bound them to their deceased bodies through dark magic. The dark magic didn't stop there; it buried itself into their souls and corrupted their consciousness, converting them into mindless undead.

When their owner needed them, they, who were now equivalent to soulless corpses, would obey commands given to them without complaining or resisting. They were slaves without free will, no different from puppets.

However, no human dared to traverse the dark lands—it'd be equivalent to suicide owing to the severe disadvantages of an unfamiliar plane and the elements they owned being weakened by the darkness. Even if there were a human capable of seeing this, what could they possibly do? They were in enemy territory, alone, without any allies to aid them and enemies on all sides.

Additionally, they would be in the kingdom ruled by the vampires, who had superior senses and physical capabilities than them. The one who commanded the zombies was none other than the sole princess of the vampire kingdom, Princess Lethia.

With her immediate strength, they'd be sensed immediately upon entering the dark lands and would either become a source of food for her and the kingdom or be turned into a Dhampir, the lowest of the vampire race.

Inside the mines, Aurora and Amia ascended up the mine shafts, carrying large sacks of dark ore. No words escaped their mouths. Only the subtle, hoarse moans escaped their mouths—the moans of a crying soul, ones that all zombies were forced to bear.

They weren't walking alongside one another as they normally did before, but instead, they kept their distance from one another. Zombies, who were recently created, were mindless beings who wouldn't have the slightest of intelligence until they evolved, where they'd regain some of their former intelligence.

Aurora and Amia, being from another world, and their protection against corruption countering the dark magic from corrupting them, kept their intelligence. Attracting the mistress controlling the zombies was out of the question—it'd be more beneficial to stay low and slowly evolve than be in the spotlight.

Fortunately, their mouths weren't needed—they could communicate through telepathy as they acted under the control of the mistress. Their eyes were cold and soulless; one could call them dead. This contrasted with what was happening on the inside.

'Aura… Can't we just kill that bat already? I don't like this! This isn't right for an empress such as ourselves! That bat's flesh strangely looked so appealing, I'm feeling the urge to devour her… Taste her flesh.' Amia exclaimed. She was bored and wanted to know why they hadn't killed the mistress.

Ever since they found themselves inside the mines, Aurora hadn't spoken much to her—she was told to keep a distance from her so as not to raise suspicion, but that was all! Aurora kept her silence, and her boredom grew with her internal pout.

But… Aurora wasn't ignoring her questions as she thought; she listened but kept her mind on developing a logical plan that they'd take to leave this mine—she'd already come up with a plan.

'I understand your boredom, hunger for flesh, and desire to deal with the commander and leave, but we can't. Not now at least. In our current state, we aren't highly ranked succubuses but the lowest-ranking undead. If we were to fight her now, we'd not only easily lose to her, but we'd expose that we weren't corrupted by the dark energy and that our intelligence was still intact.' She sighed and explained her plan.

'What? Is that possible?!' Amia was shocked. She hadn't expected Aurora to respond, but she did, with an absurd plan. They couldn't act out of line like an ordinary zombie, nor was it possible to leave. How were they supposed to achieve something more difficult than that?

Unlike the easier plans, this one proved to be more beneficial, and it would allow them to escape and deal with the bat, but... It could easily lead them to death, making it worse than the others; however, the decision rested on her shoulders as she incredulously stared at Aurora's back, almost breaking character.

For an unknown amount of time, silence ensued, and Amia blankly stared at her back. They had reached the surface, and Amia finally ended the long silence.

'Are you sure it's possible?'

'It's possible as long as she doesn't notice.'

Amia sighed. 'It's crazy, but… Fine, I accept!'

'Weren't you against it before? Why did you suddenly accept it?' Aurora unloaded her sack of dark ore, and Amia followed. Once finished, they returned to the mine.

'You're my loving wife, so naturally, I'd believe in you.' She answered, 'Though this plan may be absurd, I don't think you'd consider it without there being a possibility of success.'

As Amia spoke, Aurora went into deep thought. She couldn't disagree with her; the plan was crazy, some would say impossible, but escaping wouldn't provide them the strength to deal with whatever was outside, and attacking the mistress wouldn't amount to anything but their deaths with their current strength.

Though it could be considered suicidal, possibly leading to their deaths if they were caught, Amia agreed! And because of her cute nature! Why? Why would she agree to something so absurd out of love? Was she thinking right? No, it can't be... She didn't appear crazy! What was it then?

Aurora couldn't understand Amia's logic behind this! She might've been able to before, but half a millennia of loneliness brought changes to her—she wasn't the same.

After a long time, she couldn't think of anything that would make this reasonable. 'Why? I-'

'Don't overthink it. It's because I love you. Have you never heard that the power of love can cause one to do anything?'

Aurora accepted her answer, and silence ensued as they walked. It didn't take long before they reached the bottom of the mines, where zombies mined the dark ores. They didn't refill their sack or take a filled sack; instead, they enacted their plan.

She needed a target! one that wasn't hard to kill with their strength! She found one, a zombie appearing to be a young boy with a small figure. He was mining the dark ore with his pickaxe and soulless eyes. Without any further delay, she dashed to him, nimbly moving toward him.

Upon arriving before the boy, with her entire strength behind it, she punched. Even though her physical strength was only 4, she was far stronger than the boy or any ordinary zombie—her punch packed a lot of weight.

Thud~

The boy neither dodged nor did he even move to block. His body lost balance and crashed heavily into the wall, losing the pickaxe. Before the boy came back to his senses, Aurora grabbed the pickaxe and swung it horizontally. It pierced his heart.

Shatter~

The crystal that formed his heart and held the dark energy shattered, and the boy lost his movement. He was dead and had finally earned the peace he had ever so desired. Although his consciousness would never return to its original state after being corrupted.

'Time to feast.'

The dark energy slowly started to escape and shroud his body in a dark mist. Aurora and Amia closed in and immediately employed Devour. As if listening to their skills, the dark mist slowly flowed into them, freely entering their bodies with no obstruction.

In Aurora's consciousness, spears formed and attacked her; the spears tried to assimilate her with the rest of the mindless zombies, forcing her onto one knee from the pain.

Soul pain—it wasn't physical pain that zombies were immune to, but the pain that hurt the soul. No being, unless one owned the incredibly rare soul immunity, was immune to soul pain. It was even considered worse than physical pain.

'Join us! Become one with us!' She heard whispers.

The voices weren't words escaping someone's mouth but her consciousness's interpretation of the dark spears' intent; however, their words were ignored and the spears individually were weak. With a single soul ripple, they were destroyed, and the dark mist's absorption went smoothly, without any soul attacks.

With their first target devoured, they killed and absorbed more. Growing their strength little by little...