Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



Finding his balance, he quickly tried to grab me, using his momentum to swing me back and forth and from side to side like a bucking bull.

Every time his hands would approach me, I would bat them away with the knives, causing him to start screaming out in frustration.

I sent two tiny sparks of my purple flames into his ears, letting them burrow into his brain as deep as possible. I don't know if I wanted another Beta like the water one. I had a feeling that with our connection, I would be able to feel what he felt.

My goal for this 'king' was literally cannon fodder. I wanted to send him out with all of the troops to raze the land of humans, and if he got killed, well, I would try to find a secondary 'king' to take his place. But, seeing as I was expecting him to die, I didn't want any sort of link to him.

No, my plan was to implant my flames into him so that if he had a thought that might be contradictory to what I wanted, I could apply a bust of pain, hopefully bring him to heel.

And if that didn't work, I would link with him but use him as a general in the rear lines instead of in the front. Either way, I needed my flames inside of him, might as well have fun putting them in.

Now that I had one flame in his throat and one in each ear, I now wanted to put one in where his heart was.

The next time he flung his body to the right, I loosened my grip on his head and went with it. The momentum allowed me to slide down to his chest, my legs and ankles still locked tight around his neck.

He looked down at me and sneered. Bringing his hands forward, he gripped my shoulders and pulled me away from his neck. My legs couldn't keep their grip around their neck, and I was peeled off of the monster zombie.

Literally dangling in front of his chest, I quickly stabbed forward, cutting his chest and implanting a fourth spark of purple flame. He roared his outrage and flung me as far away from him as he could.

Flailing in the air, I remembered what Violence had mentioned about this being my last life, and I cringed a bit.  Luckily for me, though, I had four big, strong men around me, and one of them plucked me out of the air without a second thought.

Looking up, I saw myself in Chen Zi Han's arms. "Thanks!" I said with a chuckle as I gave him a quick kiss. He put me back on the ground with a grunt, and I sprinted back to the zombie in front of me, who was currently kneeling on a single knee.

"Is this you submitting?" I asked, cocking my head to the side to look at him. He let out a low growl and tried to come to his feet, but the flames inside of his body were making it impossible for him to do that.  I turned down the flame a bit and let him stand up.

"If you submit, I will let you have all the humans you could possibly want," I said with a smile on my face as I went to stand back in front of my opponent.

"Humans? Dumb meat?" he asked, tilting his head to the side and studying me.

"Dumb meat?" I replied with a question of my own. I had never heard of that expression before from any of the zombies.

"Dumb meat," he said, nodding his head toward my men. I couldn't hold back my laughter.

"Not them, but yes, all the dumb meat you can eat," I said reassuringly. I mean, if the humans were dumb enough to get eaten, then they deserved their fate.

"Submit," growled the king.

"Funny, I don't see you submitting," I shot back. After all, submission required more than a simple word.

The giant of a zombie dropped to both knees; his head hung low. The ground shook a second time as all the zombies behind him followed his example and fell to their knees. He looked up at me for a second before exposing his neck to me. Once again, all the zombies behind him followed suit.

I walked up to him until I was millimeters from him and placed my hand on his exposed neck. Calling on my pink flame, I branded him in a living flame. Every time his skin tried to re-heal itself, my flame would then reburn my handprint into it.

"You are mine," I said, looking at the monster of a zombie. Even kneeling, his head was at my level. But size didn't matter; dominance did.

"I yours," he agreed, his voice letting out a hissing sound as he formed the words. I could feel a link forming between us, but not like the one I had with Beta. Beta turned a dark purple once the link was established. The 'king' maintained his blue coloring, but my pink flame still linked us in a small way.

"Head north. Gather all the zombies you can and keep going north. Kill the humans and destroy their safe zones. Let them know that there is no safe place left in this world. Show them who is king," I said with a smirk.

I once read a quote that had stayed with me throughout all of my lives. It went, "Some people need a hard lesson to learn, others are the hard lesson." I would be the lesson to teach humans where they stood in the hierarchy. I would bring them to the very precipice of their cultivation and watch them either succeed or fail terribly.

But there won't be any handouts, no free passes. The humans would live or die based on their own convictions and hard work. They won't have time to think up new ways of fucking over the world; they will be too busy living in it.

Oh, this was going to be great fun.