I Got Reincarnated as a Zombie Girl - Chapter 273

Chapter 273: Chapter 269 – Black Thorns and the Flame of Souls
Explosions and the clash of metal filled the air of the underworld.

The black earth beneath their feet trembled ceaselessly, the vibrations like the heartbeat of a colossal beast pulsing deep within the ground.

Sylvia stood at the center of it all, her body wreathed in a dense black aura. Her crimson eyes gleamed behind the swirling violet mist that twisted around her like a storm. Her chains coiled and danced through the air alive, aware, and hungry. They lashed out, whipping violently toward the horde of Erebion Shards charging from every direction.

Each strike of the chain sparked black light and filled the air with the scent of burning metal. The crystalline bodies shattered one after another, yet still their numbers did not diminish.

“Endless…” Sylvia muttered coldly, though her breathing had grown heavy.

Her body felt no fatigue thanks to the Queen Flesh regeneration constantly restoring fifty thousand HP per second but the burden of sustaining her power gnawed at her mind. The battlefield itself was thick with underworld mana, like a sea of viscous energy pressing on every motion.

In the distance, flashes of blue and violet pierced the haze signs that Alicia and Stacia had split up and found their respective targets.

Sylvia’s lips curved into a faint grin. “Good. Their turn to work.”

A massive Erebion Shard lunged at her, spinning into a crystalline drill. Sylvia swept her arm to the side and one of her chains shot forward like a spear.

CRAAASH!

The impact thundered through the air. The black chain impaled the creature, detonating it from within. Even before the fragments hit the ground, three more had already taken its place.

“They’re adapting,” Sylvia murmured, her tone shifting to something sharper. “Clever things.”

She activated Appraisal, and glowing text flickered across her vision:

[Erebion Shard – Variant: Crystalline Drone]

Rank: B+

Level: 70

Core Type: Cluster Soul

Behavior: Linked Swarm – Regenerates while connected to commander node.

“Just as I thought,” she sighed. “A hive system.”

A chain on her left suddenly tightened, snaring a shard that had tried to strike from behind. Sylvia spun it twice in midair, then slammed it down into the ground with a thunderous crash.

The earth quaked violently, cracking open into deep fissures. From within those cracks surged streams of crimson light raw underworld energy glowing like molten blood.

Sylvia exhaled. “This place really is a conscious hell.”

…..

Western Front

Alicia darted between towering crystal pillars. Her violet-gray mantle fluttered behind her, and the lantern at her staff’s tip quivered with every incantation.

“Soul Vision Expands Radius!”

A pale blue light rippled outward, casting mirrored shadows across every crystalline surface. Hundreds of soul signatures appeared before her eyes but one shone brighter than all the rest, pulsing with deep violet light.

“Found you…” she whispered.

She stepped forward, a glowing magic circle forming beneath her feet and then she shot forward in a blur of azure light, the air rippling with spiritual pressure.

When she reached her target, Alicia slammed her staff into the ground.

“Soul Anchor!”

Chains of radiant energy burst from the earth, wrapping around the creature’s legs and locking it in place. The violet Erebion Shard roared, its voice vibrating the air like shattering glass. Energy waves surged from its body, but Alicia was already preparing her next spell.

“If you’re the one commanding them…”

Her blue eyes flared with light.

“…then you’ll be the first to die.”

“Soul Break – Rhapsody of Silence!”

Hundreds of blue projectiles erupted from her staff, piercing the creature’s body like a storm of bullets. Each strike cracked its crystalline shell further until, within seconds, the entire body convulsed and exploded into glowing dust.

A shockwave of spiritual light rippled outward. The Erebion Shards around her froze in mid-motion, then disintegrated silently into mist.

Alicia steadied herself, panting lightly. “One sector down. Two to go.”

…..

Eastern Front

Meanwhile, Stacia faced something far more brutal.

Dozens of crystal creatures surrounded her on all sides, the ground erupting again and again beneath their attacks. Yet her expression remained calm, composed of her focus unshaken.

She opened her Grimoire of Abyssal Weave, and from its spinning pages, dark violet webs of energy began to unfurl.

“Dimensional Split – Veil Fracture.”

The sky above cracked open, and from those rifts reached countless shadowy hands made of pure energy. They grabbed the crystal beings, dragging them screaming into the fractures of another dimension.

Then, from the fog, a larger being emerged brighter than Alicia’s opponent, with three cores rotating inside its body like orbiting planets.

Stacia shut her book slowly. “Now that… is interesting.”

The creature bellowed, unleashing a barrage of razor-sharp shards and thousands of crystal projectiles raining from its body.

Stacia tapped a single page of her grimoire.

“Mirror Ward – Fracture Bloom!”

Dozens of magic mirrors materialized before her. Every projectile reflected upon impact, splintering into beams of energy that turned back toward the creature itself.

A massive explosion followed as heat rippled across the ground, scattering the mist in a gust of burning air.

When the dust settled, the creature was still standing but cracks now ran from its head down to its chest. Within those fractures, violet light pulsed violently.

“In that case…” Stacia raised her hand, magenta energy spiraling around her. “Let’s finish this with one strike.”

“Abyss Grimoire – Soul Devour Script!”

The pages of her book dissolved into hundreds of glowing runes that flew into the air, forming a vast magic circle beneath the creature.

The ground split open, revealing a gaping void that swallowed the monster whole.

In a single pull, it vanished without a trace. Its dying scream echoed faintly then faded into the silence of the abyss.

Stacia closed her book, breathing a little heavier. “One more down.”

…..

Back to the Central Field

Sylvia was still surrounded by hundreds of remaining Erebion Shards but she could feel it now.

The tide was shifting. Their numbers were falling, their regeneration slowing.

“It worked,” she said quietly, a small, satisfied smile on her lips.

The chains around her rattled softly, as if sharing her relief.

She looked up at the pulsating red sky. The battlefield’s chaotic energy was stabilizing; the violet haze thinned, revealing the glossy black ground beneath gleaming faintly like dried blood.

Sylvia lowered her arm.

The chains slowly retracted into her shadow, coiling calmly like beasts returning from a hunt.

“Five hundred… six hundred… I’ve lost count,” she muttered, gazing at the mounds of shattered crystal around her.

The fragments sparkled faintly, reflected in her crimson eyes like the light of dead stars staring back into the void.

Moments later, two figures emerged from the thinning mist Alicia and Stacia, their clothes tattered but their auras steady.

Alicia stopped, staring at the scene in disbelief. “You… handled all this alone?”

Sylvia shrugged casually. “What, did you expect me to sit around waiting?”

Stacia clicked her tongue softly. “Still the same. Even in hell, you overdo everything.”

The three of them exchanged weary but genuine laughter.

Yet the moment didn’t last long.

A deep rumble echoed through the ground a sound that came from the very bones of the world.

The soil trembled harder than before. From beneath the crystal heaps, crimson light surged once again, pulsing like the heartbeat of something alive.

Sylvia straightened immediately, her aura flaring.

“Looks like,” she said quietly, eyes narrowing toward the source, “we just woke up something much bigger.”

The mist swirled. The air thickened.

And from beneath the ground, something began to rise, a colossal crystal being, its two glowing cores spinning within its chest. Each step it took made the underworld itself quake.

A new battle… had only just begun.

…..

From the trembling fissures in the earth, a figure slowly ascended.

The ground seemed to hold its breath; even the violet fog stilled, frozen in almost sacred silence.

Sylvia, Alicia, and Stacia all turned to face it.

The light pouring from the cracks was blinding, refracting across thousands of crystal fragments until the entire sky shimmered like a fractured mirror of seven hues.

The being stepped forward gracefully, its movements both majestic and oppressive.

It stood nearly four meters tall, its body resembling a living crystal radiating seven shifting colors red, blue, green, violet, yellow, silver, and black flowing like an aurora across its form.

Each step chimed softly, like glass striking glass, yet behind that beauty loomed an ancient, crushing weight, a presence too old to be understood.

Its aura was not only powerful but primordial as if it had existed since the birth of the underworld itself.

Sylvia raised her hand, activating Appraisal.

Violet glyphs lit her eyes, scanning the figure as data streamed before her vision.

[Andromalius – Earl of Abyss]

Lord of the Black Mirror Palace

Rank: SS (High Demon Class)

Level: 165

Elements: Abyssal Crystal, Corrupted Light, Shadow Flame

Title: The Mirror Warden, Judge of Reflection

Description: One of the oldest rulers of the underworld. Guardian of dimensional gates and arbiter of souls who enter uninvited. Possesses the ability to create limitless crystal replicas of himself.

Sylvia clenched her fist slowly.

“…An Earl, huh?” she murmured. Her tone darkened.

“Looks like we’ve wandered into someone else’s home.”

Andromalius gazed at them, his face almost human save for the twin black crystal spheres rotating slowly where his eyes should be.

When he spoke, his voice echoed in three tones at once, as though coming from different dimensions.

“…Three foreign souls.”

“Three breaths of life among the dead.”

“You were not invited into my palace.”

Alicia took half a step back, her voice trembling. “His energy… it’s endless. Like an ocean with no shore.”

Stacia grit her teeth. “Even the underworld’s core doesn’t feel this heavy.”

Sylvia stood firm, eyes locked on the towering figure.

“So you’re the master of this place, huh?” she said evenly, her aura rippling around her.

“Well then, sorry for wrecking your front yard.”

Andromalius stared at her silently.

The lights on his crystalline body flickered like stars, and suddenly, the entire battlefield began to hum with energy. From the shattered crystal debris around him, new shapes began to rise smaller reflections of himself, semi-transparent, but emanating the same piercing power.

“You have defiled sacred ground with power not born of this realm,” his threefold voice intoned.

“Thus, the Law of Mirrors shall cast you into the shadow of your own reflection.”

Sylvia’s lips curved into a faint, dangerous smile, the sound of rattling chains echoing from her shadow.

“Fall into our own shadows, huh?”

She raised her hand, and the black chains spun faster around her, scattering sparks of dark energy.

“Unfortunately for you… even shadows answer to me.”

Alicia and Stacia took their positions at her sides, magic flaring. Stacia’s grimoire opened, pages glowing dark violet. “One against a thousand or worse. Typical of us, isn’t it?”

Alicia lifted her staff, the lantern glowing gently. “You started this, Sylvia. Don’t think we’ll sit it out now.”

Sylvia took a slow breath. Her aura expanded outward, black as ink spilling across the ground.

Her chains trembled alive, coiled, ready to strike.

“Alright then,” she said, her calm voice vibrating with restrained power.

“If you want to test us, Earl of the Mirror Abyss…”

Her crimson eyes flared like molten fire.

“…then let’s see who truly deserves to rule the underworld.”