I Became A Zompirewolf

Chapter 495 Reclamation (4)

After a few minutes had passed, Ashton decided to peek around as his body kept dangling like a ragdoll on the undead's shoulder. The city he remembered had changed a lot.

'Just broken buildings and abandoned roads. It looks like I'll have to wait till we move further ahead...' Ashton thought, 'Judging from the tech they were brandishing, I was expecting a bit more.'

Waiting was the only choice Ashton had. But no matter how far they went, all he could see were old, abandoned, and rundown buildings on the verge of collapsing.

Apart from that, he also noticed damaged cars buried deep under patches of some strange gooey substance. Soon the gooey liquid could be seen covering everything in sight.

But there was something even more weird going on. After a few moments, Ashton saw beautifully maintained trees and plants running around the path the undead were following. It felt strange that this area had trees and vegetation, unlike the other parts of the city he had seen.

[How the heck are these plants even alive under these conditions?]

'I was hoping you'd tell me. That aside, there's something familiar about these trees. Though I can't quite put my finger on it...'

[A garden... why would someone make a garden in the centre of a graveyard? I never took these dead bastards as environmentalists.]

'That might not be the case after all.' Ashton replied as he found a reason why there were so many trees around the area.

The undead momentarily halted in front of a relatively well-maintained building. Inside the building were humans... the place was a meat farm for the undead.

Hence there were trees to provide oxygen and barely living conditions for the humans so that the undead didn't have to resort to consuming rotting food.

Dozens of questions erupted in Ashton's mind. First and foremost was why the Corpsification gas wasn't working on the humans? The trees could handle the pollution, but he highly doubted they could have eliminated the gas.

Before Ashton could find the reason behind it, the undead were on the move again.

The network of roads leading to the city's centre was now indistinguishable from the surrounding landscape. Fallen trees blocked some of the paths while others continued to grow, their branches no longer prevented from growing into broken houses.

Some doorways seemed in relatively decent condition, while others were destroyed and indistinguishable from other collapsed walls and piles of rubble.

Many roofs had collapsed and, in some cases, had taken the entire building with them. Other buildings looked in crappy shape and were filled with dirt.

It didn't seem a long time had passed since Ashton first arrived in Contingency as Mera's pet and the Academy's student. But now, everything was different, yet it felt similar.

Once, it had been a growing town on the rise to a better future, but now, it was just a ghostly shell of its former self.

An eerie silence had taken over and was only interrupted by the cracking of wood in the wind and the occasional monster cries which had made their home under one of the many collapsed roofs. Nature had taken its toll on the vast majority of the town.

But even though many buildings had found a new purpose, there was no way this town's former self could ever be restored, even if the undead were gone for good. It wasn't worth the effort.

Hopefully, if Ashton's plan goes well, the werewolves will not need to try and repopulate the city.

As they moved forward, a familiar building greeted Ashton. The newly constructed academy building was where werewolves and vampires were about to study together. But before any of that could happen, the undead bastards took it all away from them.

The undead surrounding the building were different from the rest. Although Ashton wasn't sure, they seemed to possess intelligence comparable to the vampires.

Next to the building was a hangar filled with vehicles for transportation.

'No wonder they were able to spread so fast. After the portals were shut down, no one would have expected them to use vehicles instead.'

[As I said before, be it humans or mutants, they consistently overestimate themselves.]

'Probably something we inherited from the Precursors.'

After walking for a few more minutes, the undead finally halted. Ashton still appeared to be unconscious as everyone entered the 'palace' as it was referred to now.

No words were exchanged, but the undead were somehow communicating with each other. A moment later, the undead grabbed Ashton by the hair and slammed him onto the ground before walking away.

Ashton acted as if he had regained consciousness due to the sudden shock caused by being thrown on the floor. However, when he attempted to get up, he was promptly kicked in the face by one of the residents of the Palace.

Ashton looked up and saw a familiar face. How could he not recognise the potion master from his academy days?

"Professor Kakaroff..." Ashton mumbled, but the professor was no longer there. The man before him was just a shell, a vessel, nothing more.

Ashton didn't know why, but seeing him like that almost made him lash out. Thankfully, the sensible part of his mind calmed him down. It wasn't time to rain hell on them yet.

While his head was forced to the ground, Ashton heard footsteps racing towards him. He slightly raised his head to see everyone at his welcome party. Nothing in the entire universe could have prepared him for the surprise he was about to receive.

"Take your hands off him. I want to see his face." The leader smiled, "Your hair has grown quite a bit. Your physique and face have also changed, but those eyes are still the same. Full of anger and chaos."

It was only right to greet royalty as per the customs, even though they were dead. Especially since the one standing before him once ruled over Lycania...

"I wished I could say the same for you, your highness." Ashton sarcastically remarked, "King Bismark."