Chapter 383: Final Hours (1/2)

The meeting with Thea was surprisingly tense, but Zac guessed it wasn’t anything too surprising considering how her last month had been. It was obvious that she was both physically and spiritually exhausted after fighting the zombies for so long. He could only shrug off the uncomfortable feelings as he proceeded with the things on his list.

He visited his settlements one after another to see whether there was anything that required his attention. Luckily things were running quite smooth so far. The former Incursions had vast swathes of unclaimed land around them, and there hadn’t been a single dispute over territory so far. Not that anyone would dare encroach on his domain.

Next he headed over to the Atwood Army, which once again was embroiled in a protracted war against the second undead horde. The soldiers looked at him with awe as he stepped toward the frontline, and he saw Ilvere hurry over from the distance.

“Is there something wrong?” the demon asked with confusion since he hadn’t been forewarned about Zac’s arrival.

“I’m leaving in a bit,” Zac said after making sure no one else was within earshot. “I thought I could thin the herd a bit for you guys before that. Do you know a good sector to strike?”

The general’s eyes lit up and he immediately started to think of a plan.

“I’d stay away from the innermost core, even if I were you. The young master mentioned that there is an extremely strong array in there, he barely got out before it closed in around him. There are a few places we call command clumps in the inner area though. They’re far into the horde, but not so far as you enter the array of Unholy Beacons,” the demon eventually said.

Zac nodded as he had heard Ogras mention it earlier as well. It was the same reason that Thea hadn’t dared another assassination attempt. It was pretty much impossible to head into the core unless you were ready to risk it all in taking the General down, and Zac wasn’t ready to reveal all his cards before fighting the Lich King.

“Command clumps?” Zac asked curiously, focusing on what he could help with at the moment.

“Clumps with highly intelligent zombies that commands the rest of them. They’re what stopping the stupid ones from simply walking off into the woods. We generally try to find and kill solitary leaders like that to fracture the horde one piece at a time,” the demon said.

“Won’t I cause a stampede if I kill a command clump then?” Zac asked skeptically.

“The clump is surrounded by the strongest zombies. If you kill them as well only the rabble will remain,” Ilvere said. “We will be able to handle the weaker ones now that we have the underworld army to help.”

“How have things been working out with the Council so far?” Zac asked.

The Underworld Council was the last thing he needed to check in on before returning to Port Atwood. The Atwood Army relied on the strength of the Councilors to keep the Undead General in check. Now that Alea was out of commission only Janos and Ilvere remained. Both had gotten a decent power-up from the Dao Funnel, but they also had a much lower starting point compared to the Undead Empire.

They alone weren't a strong enough deterrent, but with ten councilors to help out, even the undead General would have to think twice before moving out.

“They are competent fighters,” Ilvere said with approval. “Much better than the rabble of the Sino-Indian Alliance. But they are also holding back, and they appear to have sent out quite a few scouting parties toward the wilderness.”

“They’re no doubt looking for places to set up proper towns,” Zac said, before changing topic. “By the way, how’s your progress on [Cyclic Strike] coming along?”

“I’ve mastered it, thanks to the opportunity you and the young master presented,” Ilvere said with some pride.“I managed to push both my Daos to Peak mastery. Everything went extremely smoothly after that. As soon as my soul healed I tried it out, and it almost came naturally, as though the two Daos wanted to form a cycle on their own accord.”

The mouth of Zac started to twitch with some annoyance since he couldn’t say that he had enjoyed the same success the past days. He had renewed his efforts of mastering [Cyclic Strike] now that both his Seed of Trees and Rot were at peak mastery. But his control hadn’t really improved at all, and he wasn’t even halfway to being able to activate the skill properly, let alone using it in a fight.

Was this the result of having 0 affinity with the Daos? Was he forced to stay a dumb brute who had to smash his head against every trial that came his way? Was the path of the refined cultivator forever out of his grasp?

He had the demon display the strike a few times, and Zac had to admit that its might was a bit shocking. It almost felt like the large metal ball was infused with a Dao Fragment rather than two Dao Seeds as it shot out in the direction that Ilvere targeted, and the power was enormous for someone at Ilvere’s level.

Yrial had said that the attack was nothing much, but was he simply saying that from the perspective of a C-Grade hegemon? [Cyclic Strike] was not too important for Zac who already possessed a real Dao Fragment by now, but what if he managed to form the Life/Death Fragments? How powerful would the skill be if it was powered by Fragments rather than Seeds?

Zac kept having Ilvere repeat the strike over and over, and he asked all kinds of questions to make sense of why the demon mastered the skill so effortlessly. He asked about everything from how he controlled his Mental Energy to even minor details like how he breathed during the infusion.

Zac was determined to learn the skill during his stay in the Tower. If he couldn’t manage that much in 100 days he might as well jump into a well and stay there out of shame.

He didn’t immediately find out any solution to his inability to combine his two Daos, but he did get a few clues on how to act going forward. It was all he could do for now, and he returned to the subject of thinning out the zombie horde.

It quickly became apparent that they would need the assistance of the Underworld Council if Zac started rampaging inside the horde, so Zac set off to the nearby, and much larger, camp belonging to the Council. He was immediately showed inside a command tent with great courtesy, and he spotted a few familiar faces there.