Zombie Domination

Chapter 437: Chapter 437- Us

The throne room fell silent.

Darwin’s gray eyes, still wide from his defeat, locked onto Subject Zero. The creature stood at the entrance, pale and gaunt, its empty white eyes scanning the destruction. Its aura pressed against everything, cold, hungry, wrong.

Then Darwin laughed.

It started as a wheeze, then a chuckle, then a full-throated roar of desperate, triumphant laughter. Blood still dripped from his wounds, his transformation was shattered, his body was broken but he was smiling.

"You’re alive," Darwin gasped. "I thought you were a failure. I thought the fusion rejected itself. But you’re alive."

Subject Zero’s empty eyes turned toward him. No recognition. No emotion. Just the void.

Darwin crawled.

On his hands and knees, dragging his wounded body across the cracked marble floor, he approached the creature. His crimson liquid, now inert, trailed behind him like a dead serpent’s tail.

"Subject Zero," Darwin said, reaching the creature’s feet. He looked up, his gray eyes blazing with manic joy. "I am your creator. Your master. And I command you—kneel."

Subject Zero looked down at him.

Its expression didn’t change. Its empty eyes didn’t flicker.

But its hand moved.

Long, pale fingers wrapped around Darwin’s throat. Not gently. Not carefully. With the casual efficiency of someone picking up a piece of trash.

Darwin’s eyes bulged. "What—what are you doing? I am your—"

Subject Zero lifted him.

Darwin dangled in the air, his feet kicking uselessly, his hands clawing at the creature’s grip. But Subject Zero didn’t flinch. Its empty eyes remained fixed on him, cold and indifferent.

"Obey me!" Darwin screamed. "I created you! I gave you life! You are mine!"

Subject Zero’s head tilted.

For the first time, something flickered in its empty eyes.

Disgust.

Then it opened its mouth.

Wider than any human mouth should open. Wider than seemed possible. Its jaw unhinged, revealing a throat that was not flesh but darkness—absolute, consuming, hungry.

Darwin’s screams were cut off as Subject Zero pushed him inside.

Headfirst. Shoulders. Chest. Hips. Legs. Feet.

The Crimson Sovereign, the man who had ruled Eclipse for years, who had terrorized the wasteland, who had created monsters and armies and nightmares, disappeared into the creature’s gullet in less than ten seconds.

Julian watched.

His dark blue eyes were wide with something he rarely felt. Shock.

Subject Zero’s body shuddered.

Its pale skin rippled. Its gaunt frame swelled. The scars on its body glowed and then faded. Its empty white eyes flickered, and for a moment, something else looked through them.

Darwin’s gray.

Then the moment passed.

Subject Zero’s aura intensified. The temperature in the throne room dropped further. The shadows lengthened. The very air seemed to grow heavier, denser, harder to breathe.

And then it spoke.

"That’s... better."

The voice was not Subject Zero’s. It was Darwin’s. Coming from the creature’s mouth, shaped by its pale lips, but unmistakably Darwin.

Subject Zero—no, Darwin rolled its shoulders. Cracks appeared along its arms, and from those cracks, crimson light bled through. Not the uncontrolled liquid from before, but something refined. Something integrated.

"I was a fool," Darwin said, his voice echoing with an unnatural resonance. "Trying to control this body from outside. Trying to use it as a weapon instead of becoming it." He cracked his neck. "But now? Now I understand."

Julian raised his blade, though his arms trembled. His reserves were nearly empty. His transformation had faded. He had nothing left but steel and will.

"That’s enough," Julian said.

Darwin’s empty eyes turned to him.

"Is it?" Darwin smiled. Subject Zero’s pale lips stretched wide, revealing teeth that were too sharp. "I don’t think so."

He moved.

One moment he was ten meters away. The next, his hand was wrapped around Julian’s throat, lifting him off the ground.

Julian’s blade swung. Darwin caught it with his other hand and crushed it. The black steel shattered, fragments raining down like broken dreams.

"Your sword," Darwin said, almost pityingly. "Your skills. Your little tricks." He squeezed. Julian’s vision darkened. "None of it matters now. I am no longer Darwin. I am no longer Subject Zero. I am something new. Something perfect."

He threw Julian across the throne room.

Julian crashed into the far wall, his body screaming in protest. [Regeneration] worked overtime, but even that skill was faltering.

Darwin walked toward him, unhurried.

"I should thank you," Darwin said. "If you hadn’t defeated me, I never would have been desperate enough to crawl to him. To become him." He stopped in front of Julian, looking down at the broken Ghost. "You gave me this gift. And in return, I’ll give you a quick death."

He raised his hand. Crimson light gathered in his palm with pure energy. Enough to vaporize Julian where he lay. frёewebηovel.cѳm

Then the ceiling shattered.

A figure dropped from above, landing between Julian and Darwin. Dust and debris billowed outward, forcing Darwin to take a step back.

The figure straightened.

She was tall, taller than any human had a right to be, easily over two meters. Her skin was pale, almost gray, stretched taut over a frame that was both muscular and unnaturally lean. Curving upward from her temples were a pair of crimson horns, smooth as polished glass, catching the dim light of the throne room. Her eyes were the same shade of red deep, luminous, with slit pupils that contracted as she surveyed the destruction around her.

But it was her body that told the story.

Patches of dark chitin covered her arms and shoulders, like armor grown from within. Her left hand was human in shape but the fingers ended in claws that clicked softly against the marble floor. Along her jawline, small scales caught the light, iridescent, shifting between red and black. And from her back, folded against her spine like a second cloak, a pair of leathery wings not fully formed, but visible, twitching with each breath she took.

She was mutated. Transformed. Something between human and monster.

And Julian knew her.

His dark blue eyes, dimmed by exhaustion and pain, widened as recognition flickered through the haze. His memories pulled him back not long ago, to a nest deep beneath the ruined city, to a woman they had found trapped in a cocoon of flesh and chitin. Kevin had been the one to see her first. Kevin had been the one to insist they cut her free.

"She’s not dead yet," Kevin had said, his voice rough but certain. "We don’t leave people to die like this."

Julian had argued. The woman was already mutating, already transforming into something that wasn’t human. Killing her would have been mercy. But Kevin had won, as he often did when it came to Julian’s cold practicality versus his own stubborn hope.

Julian had never expected to see her again. He had assumed she would die, or fully mutate, or simply disappear into the wasteland like so many others.

But here she was.

Standing between him and Darwin-Subject Zero.

Her red eyes turned to look at him. She studied his broken body, his shattered sword, the blood on his lips.

"Kevin," Julian said. His voice was weak, barely a whisper. "What did he do?"

Darwin’s voice cut through the moment, still echoing with that unnatural resonance. His empty white eyes studied the mutant woman with something between curiosity and hunger.

"And who are you?" Darwin asked. "A friend of the Ghost? Come to save him?" He laughed, the sound wet and wrong. "How touching."

The woman turned to face him fully. Her wings twitched, spreading slightly, revealing their full span. Not large enough to fly, but large enough to intimidate.

"I didn’t expect a human to do something so interesting," she said, her voice low, almost admiring. "Fusing with an entity like that. Becoming something new." She tilted her head, her red eyes narrowing. "You’re not quite human anymore. And you’re not quite monster. You’re something in between."

Darwin’s smile widened. Subject Zero’s pale lips stretched too far, revealing teeth that were now uniformly sharp.

"You’re not wrong," Darwin said. "I’ve evolved. Transcended the limitations of flesh and will."

"No," the woman said. "You’ve become us."

Darwin’s smile faltered. "Us?"

She gestured to herself, her horns, her chitin, her claws. "The mutated. The transformed. Those who were changed by the Blight and survived." She stepped closer, her claws clicking on the marble. "You wanted to create an army that never questions, never hesitates, never breaks. But you didn’t create anything new. You just reinvented what already exists."

Darwin’s empty eyes flickered. "I am not like you. I chose this."

"Did you?" The woman’s voice was soft, almost pitying. "Or did desperation choose for you?"

Darwin’s aura flared. Crimson light bled from the cracks in his arms, his chest, his face. The temperature dropped further.

"I am your superior," Darwin snarled.

The woman didn’t flinch. "You’re my kin. Whether you like it or not."

Behind her, Julian pushed himself to his feet. His body screamed in protest, cracked ribs, torn muscles, burned skin. [Regeneration] was working, but slowly. Too slowly. He leaned against a broken pillar, his dark blue eyes fixed on the woman’s back.

"It’s been a long time," Julian said. His voice was still weak, but there was an edge to it now. "I thought you’d be dead."

The woman glanced back at him. One red eye, glowing in the dim light.

"I thought so too," she admitted. "For a while, I wanted to be."

"But you’re not."

"No." She turned fully to face him, her expression hardening. "Because of you."

Julian’s jaw tightened. His hand found a shard of his broken sword, still sharp, still usable. He gripped it tightly, ignoring the pain.

"Kevin," Julian said again, the name heavy on his tongue. "That idiot. He couldn’t leave you to die."

"He couldn’t." The woman’s voice softened. "And I’ve been paying attention ever since. Watching. Waiting for a chance to repay the debt."

Darwin laughed.

"Repay the debt?" He spread his arms, his crimson light bleeding into the air. "You want to save him? You want to protect the Ghost?" His smile turned cruel. "Then you’ll die with him."

The woman’s red eyes blazed.

"I don’t intend to save him," she said.

Darwin’s smile faltered.

"I intend to kill him," the woman continued, her voice cold. "Before anyone else does."