Emperor of Steel

Chapter 728: Before and After 1

Two days from Nemesis.

Reina, who joined the 3rd squad of the Continental Alliance along with the 2nd and 3rd squad of the Saint Guards, was struggling to purify the zombies.

Fortunately, the clean-up went smoothly.

Because the zombie disease was reported right away, and the measures were taken immediately, so they managed to prevent the disease from spreading to nearby larger towns or cities while blocking the borders.

“Catch them! I mean, make sure they don’t scatter them!”

“Look at what the soldiers with the shields are doing! Some of them are running out of there! Stop them quickly!”

In the vast plain, 50,000 soldiers were fighting with 30,000 zombies.

The zombies surrounded by the 3rd squad ran wild to stop the those who escaped.

The 3rd squad had already prepared everything in advance to trap any escaping zombies.

The pits were dug with the Gigants, as well as walls, and fences were built up.

In addition, unlike the 3rd squad, which was organized according to the formation and operation, the zombies turned into prey.

“The large number of zombie outbreaks was because there were people behind the scene which helped in spreading them. It is important to take care of them.”

Reina, who had been very thorough in the zombie outbreak, provided the information she had to her men.

And the commanders, according to her explanation, would move and bring in the zombie, and worked hard in eliminating those who were involved in the spread of zombies.

In the pursuit of those zombies, warlocks of Veritas Magic Tower ran away quickly, yet they were sniffed out and killed.

Thanks to that, the zombie disease spread had stopped at simple steps.

“Kukkkk!”

“Ahhh! My-my arm…!”

At the forefront, the soldiers who were forming the siege screamed when a zombie bit one of them.

Frightened, he ran away and an officer rushed to him and smacked his head.

“You idiot! Don’t get bitten by them!”

“Well, but…”

“Before you turn into a zombie, Your Holiness will save you. The guys who were in charge of the zombies also believe in her!”

As the officer said, there were already hundreds of soldiers isolated in the center.

They were the people who lured the scattered zombies to the plain land.

In the process of coming to the place, nearly half of them were bitten by zombies, but the rest were holding on fine.

Even if the Holiness was able to heal it, it didn’t seem right to get recklessly bitten by the zombie.

“How long should I endure this?”

“Until Her Holiness is ready! So, stand up!”

“Can’t we just pushed them away with the Gigants?”

As a young soldier asked by looking at the Gigant, the elder next to him burst into shouts.

“Yeah, you idiot! Imagine if you were to turn into a zombie! There are a lot of allies even among them!”

“Right, my friend from my hometown is in there too!”

At those words, the young soldiers eagerly stopped the zombies again.

When the 3rd squad with Gigants in the back and the shield soldiers in the front were stopping the zombies, the commanders watched all of this happen from a cliff that was overlooking the plain.

“Count Ferrero, how long do I have to wait? We are done preparing.”

A clear and pure voice, which didn’t go well with the battlefields asked.

When asked by Reina, Ferrero seemed sad.

“Wait a minute, please just a moment, Holiness.”

The reason for Ferrero to delay her movement was to confirm the situation.

In fact, even before the siege, there were enemies who were surrounded by his men.

However, it was the first time for Count Ferrero to create a large-scale siege.

Ferrero too wanted to finish up the zombie clean up.

And their purpose wasn’t to purify the zombies, but to conquer the capital of the Baroque Empire.

While they were here, the 1st and 2nd squads went over to Nemesis, while Count Ferrero was stuck with the zombies.

“Sire, I am a professional in the scout unit.”

A messenger’s report Ferrero took a look at the scroll in his hand.

“What does it say?”

At Reina’s question, Ferrero spoke.

“After a thorough 100-kilometer radius search, there were no more zombies.”

“Then all the zombies are the ones gathered in here.”

“Yes. Let’s go down to purify them!”

At Ferrero’s request, Reina made her way to the end of the cliff.

And raised both her hands.

Woong-!

When the Aether in her body converted to Spirit Power, a fresh light flashed from her body, and snow flowers began to fall from the sky.

The soldiers seemed confused as it rained snow flowers which seemed to have a pure essence in it.

It wasn’t a flowering season, and only weeds would be present in plains.

The moment the flower touched the bodies of the zombie infected, an amazing thing happened.

It was because the infected zombie flesh was regenerating, and the light from the flowers turned the blackened eyes back to their original color, with one after the other regaining their consciousness.

“Yes? Ye-where is this…?”

“I was obviously bitten by the zombie…”

While those who turned into zombies were regaining their consciousness, the soldiers of the Continental Alliance burst into cheers.

“Woah! It is done!”

“Long Live the Holy Pope!”

“Yes, but someone tell me what happened!”

Those who turned back to humans from zombies asked, the soldiers who were close to them explained the situation.

When they all learned that they turned into zombies and were healed by the Pope, they all thanked the Pope on the cliff.

Some even knelt on the ground and prayed to God.

“Holiness, thank you.”

“Huhu, it was something I had to do. The outbreak is done with this, right?”

“Yes, as of today, it is all done.”

Count Ferrero nodded at Reina’s question.

In fact, it could have been that a few zombies were hiding somewhere and were never found.

However, it was planned to continue the search at a later time and countermeasures too were planned, so there was no need to worry about it anymore.

As a result, the 3rd squad of the Continental Alliance, which had stopped because of the zombie disease spreading due to warlocks of Libiya, began to resume their advance to Nemesis.

“I feel exhausted for some reason.”

“Haha, it is because of using such great power all of a sudden. Go down and take a break…”

It was when Count Ferrero asked Reina to take a break.

Rumble!

The cliff shook as there was an earthquake down, and a red pillar of fire in the far northern sky soared high.

“Wh-what? Was that an earthquake?”

“What is with that pillar of fire?”

Everyone started to whisper and mumble.

“Count Ferrero, isn’t Nemesis over there?”

At Reina’s question, Ferrero measured the distance and direction to answer her.

“It could be.”

“Then…!”

At that moment, her body staggered.

It was because she thought that the pillar of fire could be related to Luke and his party.

“Holiness!”

Baron Bertie, who was the escort of Reina, quickly helped her.

Soon she got up and waved her hand.

“We need to go to Nemesis right away.”

“Yes?”

“He said he was going to the Imperial Palace right away!”

The other day, before he went for infiltration of Nemesis, Luke said he would raid the Imperial Palace.

However, an earthquake and a huge pillar of fire occurred on the day Luke and his party was supposed to attack the Imperial Palace.

Something must have happened, something extremely wrong.

Count Ferrero’s face distorted when he heard Reina’s words.

‘If something did happen to His Majesty Luke, it would be a mess!’

Holding his heart, he called for Count Darland to clean up the camp below and went for Nemesis with just the Knights.