☥ Z O M B I E ☥

I can be your sugar when you're fiendin' for that sweet spot
Put me in your mouth, baby, and eat it 'til your teeth rot
Lilith Kadokawa

The cursed lands were a ghastly place, quite a cliche for it's namesake. A desolate place to travel through, it is chilly in these lands, absence of a breeze. Everything is still and quiet, void of life and happiness. As though the plains themselves had long since died, leaving nothing but an air filled with an ominous energy, it was almost palpable to some. Although curiously the raven-haired Rune Knight had no qualms stepping onto such malevolently tainted soil, she breathed as easily as though the air was pure, unaffected by it's dark magic. Her emerald eyes scanned the large building before them, a decrepid place, it's brickwork worn from time and neglect. She adjusted the jacket of her uniform, glancing over at the member of Dies Irae with a looking of hopeful excitement, "Shall we begin?" She would ask her job partner, unable to mask the thrill of anticipation she felt. Finally after all this time she might actually get to indulge in something juicy.

The two of them had been sent to inspect the abandoned space, talk of the outbreak of some flesh-eating creatures lurked inside the barrier that had been set around the guild. It was their job to make their way in a gather as many survivors as they could before the place got blasted with the Magic Council's Etherion Cannon. It was an extremely risky task, with little time to work with and excessive levels of dangers. She couldn't wait to get started. Finally joining the Rune Knights might reap some kind of reward for the vixen, for so long she had craved the dangers rumoured to come from such a position. This was all she hoped for, an opportunity to explore the risks and her own magic too. She had been forced to restrain herself for so long, and now she would finally get to indulge in something she could rarely enjoy. To dish out a little pain, sure she might need to hide a little of the enjoyment she was going to experience from her colleague. But that didn't mean she would relish in it any less.

---

I can be your sugar when you're fiendin' for that sweet spot
Put me in your mouth, baby, and eat it 'til your teeth rot
Lilith Kadokawa

Lilith's eyes slid over to the Dies Irae hunk standing next to her, he was quite the eye-candy. As he modelled the legal factions' gear spectacularly, she wouldn't have minded getting to know her company a little better. But unfortunately, time was 'of the essence' and they needed to get a move on, what with the cannon's blast incoming and all. They had to get as many folks out as they could before the entire place was blown to smithereens. He would answer her question in a cool collected manner, allowing Lili a moment to watched him as he walked towards the building. Her emerald eyes getting a nice look at his figure, she whispered.  

"Stoic, what a flavour." She uttered before striding after him, entering the building. The room was a tip, furniture smashed up, paper and various objects spread across the room in a haphazard manner. Her partner was moving forward with caution, whilst Lili strolled beside him in an almost casual manner. As though she wasn't about to face off with a horde of the undead. "You know... I didn't catch your name. Might be important you know, if I need your attention. You can call me Lili." She told him idly, running her finger over the broken edge of a table.

She could sense the death in the house, the living yet not, it was palpable. Hungry. The waves of want for human flesh between their teeth rolling over the Rune Knight. Lili took a moment to wonder an important question; If I was hiding from a zombie where would I be? She wandered from the main hall, down the hall she peered down the hall. So many closed doors, like Schrodinger's box, whatever was in there was either dead or alive. "I'm going to start going room to room, try not to wander too far from the entrance if they trap us in it'll be harder for us to get the civilians out of the building." She told him, not really concerned about who was in charge. At the end of the day, it didn't matter. There was no room for pride when lives were on the line, or at least that's what the folks at the Rune Knights were telling her. She moved deeper into the hall, creating space between her and her partner. She approached the first door, stepping close, she tested her senses. It was hard to tell if there was anything specific behind the door, there was so much death in this house, pinpointing it was a challenge. This truly would be a hit or miss. Reaching for the door handle, she twisted it slowly and stepped into the room.

---

Ah, here we go again... and once again, here we go
Jariel Jareem

Hmm… this desolated place previously made sounds, didn’t it? However, with what JJ was seeing, he began assuming something far better than a random gathering of flesh-eating anomalies waiting for them upstairs… maybe many of the survivors had sought shelter here. Now, the Demon Slayer had never faced off against a ‘zombie’ before, but he had read comic books featuring them in several fights. A comic book wasn’t exactly the most authentic source to learn about the behavior of zombies, but he felt that he had nothing else to lay a foundation on. If they appeared to act like those in the comics, then they would definitely be closer to the center of this deserted, doomed town. Perhaps attracted to the loud noises that they all made in unison, this would leave buildings near the edge of the town deserted for both human and zombie presence… which would, very likely, harbor safe havens for the civilians who were trapped in here.

The entrance to the backyard was blocked by the pile of papers, and so was the way to the staircase… maybe this was the work of a survivor?

However, these thoughts found themselves resting in the back of his head as the Rune Knightess asked for his name. She wished to be called Lili, which softly implied that she was using a nickname of hers resembling the entirety of her actual name, and if she was anything other than a member of the Rune Knights, then this man - Jariel Jareem - would find it an itsy bit suspicious… but he could trust her. He didn’t find any issue in exchanging names.

“Jariel… Jariel Jareem,” he replied with a clear voice, hoping that his pronunciation of the ‘J’ and the ‘R’ in his name wasn’t too rough given his Desiertan accent, “You can call me JJ, if you wish…” The way he pronounced ‘JJ’ was with a full, Fiorian accent - a soft and low sound like pronouncing ‘jade’ or ‘Jay’.

It was true that the main entrance would be the quickest way to get any survivors out of this building. He would do what Lili put up for advice, looking back at the entrance and making sure not to make too much of a distance between it and him. It would’ve been preferable to have eyes on the neck for this kind of duty, but he had to work with what he was capable of right now. Although, in case if he found the entrance packed with the wrong type of people, JJ walked towards it once again and laid his right hand on the floor. White lines escaped his palm and planted on the floor, manifesting a magic seal from his Demon Slayer Magic. His hand was the detonator, and with channeling the right amount of mana to his thumb before pressing it down, he would be able to detonate the seal like C4.

Rising up on his feet again, his ears twitched at what could be sounds from above him. He had realized a while ago that his magic had enhanced his physical senses to some degree, but he still had to get used to it and all. Hearing what could be interpreted as footsteps, he had trouble concluding if it was right up on the second floor or if it was higher than he thought.

“… Huh?” JJ let out, having spotted that Lili went out of his field of vision once she entered another room.

---

I can be your sugar when you're fiendin' for that sweet spot
Put me in your mouth, baby, and eat it 'til your teeth rot
Lilith Kadokawa

There was echoing creak as she pushed the door open, exposing the room before her. It was a kitchen, one she would expect was once filled with clean surfaces and sizzling pans. But from what she could see, this kitchen had been upturned into chaos. A cataclysmic mess of broken glass, discarded utensils and blood. So much blood, smeared across walls, counters, and the flaw. Lilith could only imagine that she would undoubtedly walk into many more room like this tonight. She stepped forward cautiously, ready to throw out some magic should an undead fling itself at her.

As she stepped into the room fully, she would glance over it, her emerald eyes perusing scanning the scene. The air was thick with the spell of blood and she quickly found the source lying in a pool of crimson. It was the body of a man in his late-thirties. dark hair, deep tanned and most notably a bullet-hole on the right side of his temple and a Glock hanging loosely in his hand. It didn't take her long to figure out what was going on here, all of the signs pointed to one scenario. The man chose a bullet over being torn apart by flesh-eating zombies. Lilith felt like she should have been more disturbed by this, it was a dead body. The corpse of a suicide. Even with all her training, looking over images of the dead and studying crime scene reports. Shouldn't she have been more shaken? Maybe, but this wasn't really the time for an analysis of her own disturbing unperturbed psyche.

"Hello?" She would call out softly, testing the waters to see if there was anyone else in here. There was a pause. A moment of quiet that would lead Lili down the belief that this room was a dead end, literally. And then a sound; soft, weak, feminine. A woman's voice, whimpering. "Hello, I'm Private Lilith Kadokawa of the Rune Knights, I'm here to help." She called out in a tone that was supposed civil, to coax out whoever was hiding. The sound of movement catching her attention, coming from behind the door of which she could only assume was a storage room. "Is it safe?" It was the whisper of a woman, Lilith moved towards the door.

"For now, but we need to get you out of the building as soon as possible." She responded, trying to convey the urgency of the situation. There was another pause until finally she heard a click. The sound of the door unlocking, before it slowly eased open. Lilith's gaze would meet the face of a woman petrified, clinging to a small child. They looked entirely broken, terrified and hopeless. And still, nothing. "Follow me." She instructed, nodded for them to move behind her. Swiftly, she guided them out of the room, ignoring their whimpering's as their eyes fell on the dead man. Maybe he was a stranger, maybe they knew each other, maybe he was a relative; All of it was irrelevant right now. All that mattered was getting the job done. They moved back into the hall, Lilith returned to the front entrance where she had left JJ. "Two civilians here, I'm going to head back and search more rooms." She told him before returning back down the corridor.

---

Ah, here we go again... and once again, here we go
Jariel Jareem

… There was another sound. This time, it was definitely closer to him, which resulted in JJ’s slowly-lowered arms to rise and be held in front of his chest with his hands ready to be clenched into fists and channel magic. That was a little too close for comfort, and JJ wanted to uphold his comfort zone for a while longer. He was on a mission, but this place was quite nerving for him. Breathing yet as calmly as ever, he was about to approach the other side of a desk where there was a painting hung over when Lili returned with two survivors; one lady and who JJ assumed was her child. His eyes widened in empathy, and he was glad to see that they had survived and were relatively safe in his eyes. Then again, wasn’t that pretentious? They must’ve been through hell in here…

And now, they were under his protection as Lili went back to search the other rooms. JJ nodded as simply as always before turning his look at the woman and her kid, his eyes resting a bit as he closed them to think his next actions through. “… Stay close to me-“ he was about to inform them, but his voice triggered another sound that sounded like a footstep from the desk, which his sharp hearing caught. Turning around as if having had the scare of his life, JJ looked towards the desk and found no living thing waiting to ambush him there. He wasn’t making things up, for he knew himself better than that… but there was something suspicious about the painting.

The painting looked weary. It looked like it had been stabbed a couple times, for the layer was worn and had long, thin holes cut into it. Once he made his way to the painting, he looked back one more time and spoke to the woman and her kid: “Stand back. Who knows what could jump out…” With that said, he watched them make distance, but he kept his eyes at them for a while. This room wasn’t safe in his judgement, so what if a zombie was sneaking up from behind them all?

Gladly, that wasn’t the case. Sighing, JJ removed the painting and found a larger hole leading into the ventilation system of the building. There were branches of tunnels from this system leading up and around the entire building, and JJ thought this through and concluded that someone must’ve used this ventilation system for escape…

He had stuck his head into the ventilation tube without looking to the left. That proved to be a huge jumpscare moment, for the moment he looked in, the bridge of his nose was scratched by a flying kitchen knife. The shock caused him to back out quickly and gasp for a brief moment, scaring the two other survivors into kneeling down and covering their heads.

“T-That was close-“ he moaned with an annoyed voice, “Hello…!” He looked into the ventilation system once more and had his guards up while looking to the left, spotting another tunnel leading towards what looked like a young man crawling in the other direction. The man quickly appeared at the other tunnel that lead parallel towards the exit, so JJ eyed directly at his position.

“Come out of there! There are-“ JJ warned him, but he was cut short by the surprising yelp from the young man. “W-Wait, you’re not… y-you’re not a zombie, oh god…” the young man realized and reassured himself as he breathed heavily in relief, “You’re… w-wait, you’re here to help? P-Please, there are others-“ “We’ll get to the others, but you come out of there now…!” JJ called back at him, “There are zombies upstairs! IF they find a way into the ventilation, then you’re in trouble!”

“O-Oh, don’t mind that,” the young man tried to calm JJ down, “I’ve been hiding here for… w-well, how long has it been? I don’t know for sure, but it’s totally sa-“ As if fate mocked him, he wasn’t even able to finish saying the word ‘safe’ before a loud thud echoed from above him, almost shocking his body to the point of peeing in his pants. His safe space was invaded…

Looking at JJ for a whole second, the young man made a run for it… or well, given the height of the tunnel, more like a ‘crawl’ for his life. JJ held out a hand to grab his the moment the chance showed itself… and he had to hurry, for a zombified, old man crawled down the ventilation right where the younger survivor had showed himself earlier. And it was crawling yet on after his legs to grasp and get a fresh meal.

Right when the previously-confident survivor grasped JJ’s hand with his own, the Demon Slayer backed out quickly and almost flung him out of the tunnel before the zombie could grab his legs. With the speed that the zombie was crawling, it torpedoed out of the tunnel itself and landed on top of the desk. The impact didn’t hurt it much, and it was quickly lifting itself up by its hands to look at the woman and child. Those were fresh meals, too…


It received a hard chop on its head by JJ, a chop that wasn’t sharp or fast enough to cut its head in two. However, his hand was glowing with a sharp, white contour that lit up the room for a brief moment like a blitz from a camera. Pulling the other man away, JJ inspected as the zombie approached them… only to suddenly burn up from the inside and turn into ashes via the after-effects of his Demon Slayer Magic.

So that was how Demon Slayer Magic reacted to undead entities like zombies?

---

I can be your sugar when you're fiendin' for that sweet spot
Put me in your mouth, baby, and eat it 'til your teeth rot
Lilith Kadokawa

Room to room the Ravenette went, three rooms empty after the first. Two were clean, undisturbed it would seem, as though the zombie scourge hadn't reached it yet. One of them had been torn apart, blood-smeared amongst its surfaces, no bodies, however. She would reach a set of double doors, something told Lili this wasn't a private room but one of the main rooms of the guildhall. As she inspected the door, her emerald gaze racked over a gold plaque, bloody imprints staining the letters 'Lounge'. As she leaned in she could hear noises, scraping and raspy growlings. Definitely the undead. She could move on and ignore this room, but something else held her. She sensed magic, felt weak and faint but it was in there. It could have been something random, but it could also be a person. As a knight, she knew she had to check it out if there was someone trapped in there and she didn't help them. Then that was just an automatically screw up in the mission she'd been assigned.

Lilith ran her fingers over the doorknob, her magic began to swell around her. A cluster of magic gathered at her hands; light, and darkness mostly. With traces of something else at her fingertips, something sinister. She would twist the door open and step inside of the room that had once been a lounge. It had most likely been a nice room once upon a time, a place where groups gathered on their sofa's to chat about their day, to share laughter and fond memories. But now, it was just a room, torn apart by the dead. Tables turns, chairs smashed, the remnants of bodies strain across the room. The zombies were gathered around a cabinet, three of them, clawing away at the wood with senseless desperation. One of them turned to look back, catching sight of the Rune Knight as she entered the room. It snarled, turning away from the cabinet it charged towards her hungrily.

Lilith directed the magic down her body, focusing it around her legs. She would bend down, with a swipe of her leg, she would take the zombie off its feet. Quickly rising to a stand, she hopped over to the beast and stomped down on its skull. The force of her boot and the magics directed there crushing it beneath her foot. Without a moments pause, she brought her hands up, firing off her hexes at them. The magic blasting a hole in each of the undead foreheads, killing them instantly. The bodies fell to the floor and the room was quiet was more, the zombie's dealt with. Lilith looked down at her uniform, blood-spattered her know and there was the remains of zombies face on her boot. She kicked her foot for a moment, trying to rid herself of some of the mess. As she heard a shuffle, her face shot up, eyes alert for a moment. It was then that a thought came to mind as no monsters came at, she moved forward. Closing the distance between her and the cabinet, she reached forward, pulling it open. Inside was a couple, holding each other tightly, trembling with terror. They must have trapped themselves in here whilst the zombies were finishing off the others in the lounge, it was the only reason they flesh-eaters would be trying so desperately to get inside the cabinets.

"Come, we're getting you out of here." She instructed, turning she would begin to lead them out of the room. The concoction of hex magic still lingering at her heads at the ready as she led them back to where the Dies Irae was waiting. She eyed him, it seemed that he had not been idle during her inspection of the rooms, glancing only briefly at the others that waited near him as she added the couple to the group. Without further word, she turned back, heading back the hall to continue her search. She cleared the remaining rooms with ease, only finding one remaining undead trapped in one of the bathrooms. To which she had greeted by crushing its skull with her hex magic. It was mildly curious. Should she not have been more freaked out? With each kill, she found herself weirdly unperturbed. She had never killed zombies before this night and yet she hadn't been sure what to expect. But she thought, she might be more bothered with the real thing. Throughout her life, she had never been disturbed by horror, whilst her friends screamed their lungs out at the cinema she had always been unphased, sometimes she even found it funny. Maybe this was just a reflection of that?

She cleared the remainder of the hall, moving through the kitchens and toilets. By the time she returned to JJ, she had four more humans in tow. Discovered hiding in the bathroom stalls, three women and one male in their early twenties. "The rest seems clear as far as I have seen, what do you reckon, should we move these folk to the checkpoint or try the upstairs first?" She asked, genuinely intrigued to see his opinion. She wouldn't mind trying her hand at the upstairs, where she knew there were many more zombies to contend with. But she also really wanted this job to go well and to do so they had to get these people out alive, otherwise, she could kiss any more good jobs goodbye and it would be back to desk-bodying for her well-shaped ass.

---

Ah, here we go again... and once again, here we go
Jariel Jareem

The dust settled around JJ and those who were under his protection for now - the lady and her child as well as the young man whose butt he had just saved from the hungry jaw of a ravenous zombie. The efficiency of his magic against those types of evil… it put JJ’s mind at ease. He was glad to know that they wouldn’t be too much trouble… for now, that was. Who knew if his peace of mind would be ripped apart later on today?

“W-Woah, t-that… holy shit, you vaporized that poor dude!” the man said with his arms flailing right in front of the Demon Slayer’s face, “C-Can you do that on all of them…?” Depending on the amount of mana that JJ possessed, he should be able to keep his dukes up for… not so long, actually. Having used a spell to pulverize that one zombie while having a seal hidden on the ground near the entrance at the same time put a toll on him. Unlike some wizards, he had yet to fully master his magic, so every time he cast a spell, it cost more effort from him than one would think just by looking at him. Give it time, and the man would begin sweating from overuse… so he had to be tight with his magic power.

“Khuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu…” he breathed out to regulate his breathing, so that he could calm down and gain focus again, “I’ll be careful with my magic, but your safety comes first.” Not exactly a reply to the young man’s questions, but JJ felt that there was nothing more to say.

Lili returned from her search around the numerous rooms along with another couple. That made… this young man with blonde hair, the first couple that they found, and the new couple that she brought along. Five people in total. He eyed her back and noticed that she reeked with a strange, chaotic magic… not just the smell, but the appearance as well. Before he could ask her about it, though, she turned back and searched for more survivors. His mouth was but half-open, but he quickly closed it again and cleared his throat. It made JJ realize that he had to ask the young man who was hiding in the ventilation system earlier about something.

“Are there any more survivors upstairs? If there are, we’ll need to get them out of this building too,” JJ asked the blonde gentleman. He was, sadly, met with a shaking head and a depressing reply: “I’m afraid not, sir… Carm- n-nevermind, just… p-please, get us out of here. I’ve had just about enough of this town, anyway…” It was a sharp shift from his previous, livelier attitude, which made JJ feel as if he had touched a sore spot on him. He had been in the ventilation system for a while, symbolized by the amount of dust on his clothes and skin that the poor man hadn’t even spared time to wipe off. It was best to leave it at that.

Five people now, and Lili brought four more. They were now nine… too many people for JJ to be able to guard over at once in the case of any group of zombies showing up for a quick meal. He didn’t know what Lili was capable of with her magic, but if push came to shove, then he would be ready to aid her in any way.

“We’ll have to get these people to safety. I’ve been informed that there are no more survivors from him-“ “Y-Yeah, I’ve been crawling around the ventilation for what feels like an eternity, now… i-it’s all deserted up there, not a single soul left,” the blonde cut in accompanied by a dry chuckle that could be easily shrugged off as a chuckle of worry or a counter-act to show optimism in a situation like this. JJ’s ears were twitching in response to a strange tone, but it wasn’t from his chuckle… it was from the entrance.

The ground at the front of the entrance towards the open began cracking up, beat by beat… something was punching its way up through the floor, and given the radius of the cracks lifting the floor up, its fists must’ve been huge. JJ’s eyes moved towards the floor and was about to raise an arm up to signal the civilians not to get any closer, but lo and behold, he didn’t need to do that at all as none of them wanted to go anywhere near what was about to break its way up the floor. He, instead, moved his hand forward and did a ‘thumbs-up’, then pressed his thumb down. “Please work…”

The magic seal that was imprinted on the floor lit up, revealing its sharply contoured textures and illustrations of what looked like praying people with horns on their faces. The seal expanded so quickly that it looked like it exploded, releasing a wave of photons that caused the floor to burn… or rather, the huge zombie underneath it. Whatever it was, however, it appeared to die down by his spell, which pleased JJ as he took down a threat before it could even show itself. “… I-It worked. Nice… *sigh*”

Having had the seal active for so long had him needing to stretch his shoulder and regulate his breathing once more, while the blonde man along with them had his eyes widened in awe. “M-Maybe I should become a wizard, too…” he mumbled as he dreamt of one day possessing the same strength as Lili and JJ. JJ shrugged the remark off and approached the floor on his way out of the building, braking in his steps to look back at the civilians and Lili if she wasn’t leading her way outside as well. “My magic is very effective against zombies, after all…” he himself mumbled as he thought out loud, “… *sniff* Shit, but wh-!!!”

He had caught the scent of something grotesque coming up on them. From the wall that broken down in an instant to reveal its arrival, another humongous zombie with big, bulked arms came charging through - half of its body was hanging flesh, and its right arm was larger than its left by a margin. It didn’t lose any acceleration by smashing through the wall, and as JJ lifted is hands up to guard his chest and face, it managed to backhand him across the room, crashing through the counter where people used to talk with the employees of this house. Had it waited for his magic seal to be used before it charged in? He only noticed its approach when it was too late, even with his senses… damn it.

---

I can be your sugar when you're fiendin' for that sweet spot
Put me in your mouth, baby, and eat it 'til your teeth rot
Lilith Kadokawa

Lilith listened quietly as JJ addressed her question by explaining that he had already confirmed there was no one they could save upstairs, during which he was hastily interrupted by a blonde man with a rather awkward addition. The blonde can't have seen anything pleasant whilst hiding in the ventilation and it can't have been an easy place to remain hidden either. Cramped up in such a small space for so long, fearing that a zombie might find it's way into the ventilation and tear him apart. No wonder he was so shaken. Lilith didn't think she would have coped very well if she had been trapped in such a manner, she was much more of a hands-on a fight type of a girl.

As JJ turned his attention elsewhere, Lilith would follow his gaze spotting the cracking in the floor. It would appear that something was trying to burst its way out of the ground, inconveniently at the entrance of the building. She would wait as JJ made a motion for them not to approach, which none of the civilians had any issue with abiding. He would then adjust his hand so that his thumb was sticking out before pressing his thumb down, the action causing a magic seal on the floor to light up suddenly. It was a strange image, full of what seemed like drawings of praying folk bearing horns, demons perhaps? The seal would then expand suddenly in a burst which seemed to kill whatever it was that had been trying to break its way out of the earth. Lilith shot him an impressed nod, before beginning to make her way out of the building.

It would almost seem like they would get out of the building without any issue one of the walls of the build exploded outward, smashed through from the might of a huge zombie. The giant beast of the undead appearing suddenly within the room, creating an eruption of screams from the civilians. Before either of the mages could act, JJ was backhanded across the room with tremendous force. "GET OUTSIDE NOW!" Lilith roared at the survivors, before running toward the beast, she would bring her hands across her chest and then swing them outward. Following which chains made of shadow would erupt from her palms, soaring towards the massive monster. Swiftly the binds would wrap their way around its limbs and throat, tightening with such force that the zombie would become instantly restrained.

Lili would then leap up into the air, jumping through the earth and disappearing completely into her shadow. A moment later a shadow would reappear where JJ had fallen and she would jump through it. Placing her hands on the injured man's shoulders, suddenly the wind around them would pick up and void particles would formulate around then, swirling around her hands and flooding him with healing magic. "Come on, we have to go!" She barked, letting go of him. She would kick-off of the ground, unable to teleport again right away, she sprinted back out into the main entrance where the zombie was straining against her binds. They were already beginning to loosen up, it would not be long before it became free to attack once more. Lilith spotted one of the civilians crouched on the floor in terror, the stupid woman hadn't fled with the others. The zombie had already turned its attention to her and was desperate stretching toward her in an attempt to snatch her up and make her a snack.

Lilith raised her hand, firing a blast of hex magic towards the creature, the ball of energy would slam into the zombie's shoulder, knocking it away from the woman. Lili darted over to where the woman was crouched, grabbing her by the arm she yanked her onto her feet. "Get the fuck up if you want to live!" She roared, dragging her along, she rushed her out towards the entrance over to where the others were waiting uncertainly. Lilith let go of the woman, before spinning back to the giant zombie. She would fire off several more chains to bind the beast in place, before calling out to JJ. "Either kill that thing or come on! I'm taking this lot to the collection point." She called to him, turning on her heel. She would indicate to the group to follow her, moving across the cursed lands toward the city's monument; the Spiral Tower.  

They would cover the ground from the guild hall to the monument quickly, entering the building that had been cleared in advance. Lilith took the front, keeping an eye out for any unwarranted surprises. She led them over to the elevator, squeezing all of them inside, fortunately, it was a service elevator, so it was pretty large. She held the door open, looking out she would wait for JJ. Wondering if he was still behind them, she wasn't about to leave him behind, he was her partner on this and letting him die here would only reflect poorly on her. "Shouldn't we go up." One of the women asked, but Lilith shot her a hard glance, before looking back out of the elevator door, hand pressed firmly against the door to prevent its closure. She didn't know JJ, but she was a pretty good judge of a person's capabilities, he would make it to them - She was sure of it.

---

Ah, here we go again... and once again, here we go
Jariel Jareem

There was a pause of silence… no, more like an interval of time where all JJ could hear was the ringing sound surging through his head. That backhand was rough, but he was guarding someone, and he couldn’t leave them exposed. Luckily, Lili was with him and could probably save them from the zombie, which meant that JJ would have a moment to recover. He couldn’t moan over his head injury just yet when he was under a mission of this caliber… this would have been a good time to utilize healing magic. Unfortunately, despite having holy light magic, JJ had not a single healing spell on his arsenal…

That was when Lili, a helping hand that pulled him up to the game once again in a heartbeat, appeared behind his own shadow… no, it wasn’t his. It was a whole, new shadow where she emerged from and tapped his shoulders! A wind kicked up, and JJ immediately felt his wounds recover via her magic. She stated the next objective of the group; clear the place, now! And JJ wouldn’t waste any second interpreting those words, although his head was a little dizzy.

He pulled himself up on his feet and approached the exit, watching the zombie from before having been chained up by Lili’s magic. Despite being chained, it was about to take one of the survivors, but she was saved by Lili who led them all out of the building, which meant that JJ had to maneuver pass the zombie himself. As the zombie from before had shown weakness to his Demon Slayer Magic, he simply threw a dodgeball of holy light to headshot it, causing its skull to splatter and turn to dust along with the rest of its body.

Then, he made a run for it. He darted out of the building, hearing the roars of the nearby zombies. From all their commotion, the hordes outside had gathered near the building, and now, JJ was on their sight. He didn’t have time to fight them, and he didn’t have enough mana to do so if he wanted! Besides, this place was going to be nuked anytime soon!

“C’mon, JJ… faster-!” he cheered himself as he sprinted towards the monument, followed by hundreds of zombies - from small to big, wide to narrow and all the rotten flesh in between. It had become a bull race, and he was the only runner against a pride of flesh-eating mutants.

Without him noticing, he was emitting blitzes and bursts of sharp light as he ran. In this circumstance, he felt like he was in the ‘moment’ where a moment or second would feel like minutes, but he was actually going faster and faster…

…

At last, he managed to leap into the elevator, making sure to leap over most of the heads of the survivors who ducked to make space for him. Due to the velocity, he smashed his back onto the back of the elevator before watching its doors close. He made it just in the nick of time…

“H-How do I turn this off-“ he panicked, trying to remove the blitzing effect emitting from his skin. Only after a few seconds, the blitzes disappeared, and he would feel rested and out of energy. He looked around, recognizing all of the survivors and Lili, and laying on the floor with his back against the wall of the elevator, he tipped his cap to her as a sign of optimism and that the two of them had, truly, done their best…

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