Demon Lord's Reincarnation

In any case, I wasn't sure if it was paranoia setting in but as time passed—even if we already reconvened with Artem and his team in the Blumentritt Station—I'd still get the urge to look over the other side where Ilana and June sent their drones to take care of a special and few dozen base jumpers without wearing any parachutes.

Jared nudged me, "We can drive over there now, bro, if you want? These guys are gonna install the mine cart and it'll be smooth sailing until D. Jose Station."

"I—"

Bogdan cut in, "What's wrong over in that side? Those C4s are not enough?"

I replied, "You still got a barrel of napalm?"

"Heh. Have three more in stock."

"Can I take one?"

"Sure— Want a handful of pipebombs in your order, sir?"

Kuzma cut in as well, "Want a group to climb on the expressway? We should at least shovel off the corpses this fuck set ablaze, right? I'll kill whichever's left too—"

I shook my head, "Not so fast. I feel something off—"

"Hah?!"

"I'm serious. It's the same thing when Kristoff—"

Discover exclusive tales on empire

Instead of getting mad, Kuzma's eyes lit up, "We have a Hulker in the midst?!"

And yeah, as soon as the forbidden keyword was said, everyone else from their crew turned to us and I'm even gonna assume the three still in the hospital and the one in our radio station fucking did the same. Then again, I could still be mistaken and just wanted closure by seeing what remained from the explosion but it's always better safe than sorry.

So yeah, by leaving Morales to close up the station and make partial use of the mine cart, our main squad plus extra drove over to the site just under the expressway—and on another note—the underside of the expressway had no dangling Stitchers waiting for a victim to consume or take control of.

In addition, it just looked worn out despite the smidge or splotches of blood due to the explosion but reaching the actual blast site didn't answer or placate my suspicions either.

Kuzma looked around disappointed, "Aside from the horde we cleared, there's nothing dangerous here—even remotely."

Bogdan scratched his head, "What if the C4 did it?"

I started to scratch my head as well, "I could be wrong?"

Bogdan snorted, "You? Get something wrong?"

"I mean— If I remember the shit I've seen from Iskoh's office, there shouldn't even be a sewer system here large enough to contain a big one like the Hulker. And there's no reason for it to attract the dead up top aside from the other big one Ilana and June saw and blew up with the drones. Something still doesn't feel right for some reason…"

Katya chimed from the back, "It could be because it's too easy."

"Too easy?"

"Remember when we faced that fuck face? It took everyone here to take it down and it's a fucking struggle. We even lost Kristoff. And now, Hulker or not, it's over with a couple of C4s. I'm not saying plastic explosives are nothing but those are fucking C4s. I guess it would've been meaningful if we took it down with our bare hands but still feels incomplete, no?"

"Hmmm… I guess so… It would've been poetic to say the least. But I'd rather us all feel uneasy than to have something pop up out of the blue."

Tatiana nodded as she made her injector axe hiss a few times, "Hmm. I still wanted to cut it down with this axe and see what happens. You fucks encountered a partial one and it worked wonders. I wanna see how this holds up with the same thing that killed Kristoff."

Artem then joined in, "Listen to him, I'd rather we all come back in one piece. I'm all for revenge but I'd rather keep all of us than take down one of those things and lose one or more of us. Who knows how many of them are out there despite their low numbers? If anything *turns to Bogdan* Hey! Can't we have a napalm shot?"

Bogdan never looked so confused, "Napalm shot? What—"

My face never smiled so wide as I cut in, "Like a pipe bomb but with napalm inside. How much is in that barrel, at least a liter? Can we have something in a few ounces— It doesn't have to be like a pipe bomb, maybe even as big as a normal grenade just made for those fucks."

Artem nodded, "It's not C4 but it'll be enough to burn through their skin and maybe, just enough time and distraction for us to finish them off ourselves. It'd be safer than fighting one head-on."

JP cut in, "I thought Sir Bartow used acid as well?"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Bogdan rolled his eyes, "Acid over napalm? Please—"

"I guess it'll be more difficult to carry glass vials around than napalm that needed to be lit up first. It's not like anything would stay still if we pour acid on their heads."

"It's just a matter of what we have available and making sure it doesn't get on us. Both are equally destructive for us. If we're gonna whittle it down anyway, shouldn't we just aim for its knees first? That worked the first time, right?"

"I guess that's true..."

Then again, we still looked around for a bit to see if something like a Hulker was lurking around but yeah, Katya might be right and it's not the uneasiness of something out there but just the feeling of not being able to deal with it with how much we've been preparing for it.

Forgive the term but we're getting fucking blue-balled by the lack of something that could wipe us all out with one mistake but we really should count our blessings with their absence.

Still, another way to look at it was if they weren't here, they should be somewhere else but then again, their destructiveness would've been apparent and they would've been easily spotted so their actual chances of spawning or a regular deadhead turning to such things was very, very low.

But on another note, they could all just be like the bloaters, hiding somewhere until they received enough stimulus—eventually waking like a sleeping giant.

With all the what-ifs inside my head, I just decided to put all that energy from thinking to actual use by ordering everyone to continue the clearing process of the LRT Line 1 Station and the area below it.

And yeah, on the other side of where the Blumentritt Station was located was a public market of sorts where all sorts of stalls or random types of bullshit were put up—right on the road itself—definitely barring anything from driving through without hitting any pedestrian.

However, with the dead and light materials occupying those streets, we just made use of our truck to do a few laps and just crunching of bones along with scrap wood resounded as Unc just ran everything over with a huge smile on his face.

If it was any other day, it would've been several counts of hit and run but even I had intrusive thoughts of running all those people blocking the road over and over so that we could've just reached our destination much sooner.

That road actually wasn't meant to be blocked by vendors but the city itself grew tired of shooing them off every single day. While it was true that smaller vehicles could still pass through, it had just become an unwritten rule to not drive over there or else they'd get the ire of the illegal vendors peddling random bullshit just to get by.

But yeah, right on the last fucking street to clear out, several dozen babies with umbilical cords ripped out of their stomachs just came from the alleys looking like it was the first time they tasted light.

However, we couldn't quite explain the situation when each of them started crying like they just came out of their mother's wombs but the gunk on their bodies was their own skin rotting due to the curse of undeath.

Moreso, I felt fucking goosebumps when they all stopped crying at the same fucking time before turning their heads to us and walking clumsily like toddlers would.

I wasn't sure if this was their means of attack but we can't just let them get closer.

Then again, if this was any other day, it would've been several cases of killing fucking babies but how I wish I could've painted a better picture when one of them tripped on its feet and bumped the one next to it, causing a crash.

Because with the way their skulls weren't fully closed shut and how their stumpy legs couldn't provide useful mobility, what was left of the ones we didn't shoot fell on their faces and whatever the fuck's inside their tiny little heads spilled out from the top of their dome without issue.

If this was a game, we would've gained several kill combos due to making use of the environment but let's just say not all of them had enough damaged brains since a few had to twitch in place so yeah, we had to use our fucking boots to clear them out.

It was just one of those times we wish we could've just faced regular dregs because let me tell you, their deformed skulls didn't take much weight before they cracked from the pressure and these babies' brain matter on my boots doesn't feel that good either. And it's not that even a great feeling poking it with a stick.