I Got Reincarnated as a Zombie Girl - Chapter 277

Chapter 277: Chapter 273 – Explosion Within the Mist
The mist seemed alive.

Every time Sylvia’s chains lashed out, or Alicia and Stacia’s spells tore through the air, the fog only grew denser, heavier and more consuming. The once silvery-gray air turned dark, as if black ink was spilling across the sky.

The clashing of chains, the shattering of crystal, and the hiss of magic wove together into a strange symphony in that directionless space. There was no sky, no ground, only mist pressing from every side, reflecting sound, and whispering like breath at their ears.

“Stacia, behind you!” Sylvia shouted.

Her black chains shot forward, slicing through the mist and striking something solid. The fog-creature was hurled back, its trembling body shattering into black particles that dissolved into nothing.

But the more they destroyed, the heavier the world around them became. Each step dragged like wading through invisible mud, and even raising a hand felt like pushing a mountain underwater.

“My movement… it’s slowing,” Alicia hissed, her breath uneven.

She tried to cast Soul Veil again, but the blue light that usually blazed bright now only flickered weakly.

“My mana… it’s being drained…”

Stacia turned sharply. “This mist isn’t just attacking our minds. It’s absorbing movement and magic, turning the space around us into a spiritual swamp!”

Sylvia scanned their surroundings. The fog had grown so thick her vision barely reached two meters. Their footsteps sounded strange echoing far away, as if someone else were walking in a different place altogether.

“Stop for now,” Sylvia ordered.

She focused her Death Aura, trying to disperse the fog. But even her aura which usually devoured everything was swallowed instead.

The mist was drinking death.

“This is irritating,” she muttered. “Even death won’t work here.”

Before they could think further, something cold brushed Sylvia’s cheek. She turned instinctively but too late.

A misty hand burst through her guard and struck her stomach hard. Her body was flung several meters back, slamming into a wall of fog that flexed like thick liquid.

“Sylvia!” Alicia screamed.

She raised her staff and unleashed Soul Strike. A beam of blue light pierced the fog, but it slowed midair thickened fading before it reached its target.

“Our attacks… are being eaten too!” she said, panicked.

Sylvia gritted her teeth. Her undead body was hard to damage, but that blow had left her aura heavily drained, as if part of her energy had been stolen.

“Enough,” she said coldly. “I’m done playing with this mist.”

She lifted her hand high. Dark energy swirled around her, her chains trembling in resonance with her anger. Her Death Aura erupted outward, spreading across a wide radius but this time, not to attack.

Instead, Sylvia compressed it, forcing all that power into a single point above her head.

Alicia’s eyes widened. “Sylvia, what are you ”

Before she could finish, a low hum filled the air. Violet-black light began to whirl above them, forming a massive ring like a demonic eye opening in the sky of fog.

“Nether Flame…?” Stacia whispered, feeling the crushing force of the mana. “No… this is more than that. You’re drawing every trace of Death Mana in the area!”

Sylvia didn’t answer.

Her crimson eyes blazed, her hair lifting in the storm of her own power. The chains around her spun faster and faster, forming a vast circle like a vortex of hell containing the spiraling energy that could shatter worlds.

The mist around them went wild. It spun faster, writhing, trying to devour the gathering force.

Whispers rose into screams.

….Stop. You must not. The world will not endure you!

Sylvia smirked a cold, merciless smile.

“Then let the world burn with me.”

And at that moment the Nether Flame exploded.

The blast wasn’t like normal fire.

There was no red, no orange, only black, turning into blue-violet spirals that spread like a storm of unmaking.

For an instant, the world was silent. Then it screamed.

BOOOOOOMMMMM!!

The shockwave tore through the mist, erasing everything it touched.

The ground or whatever they stood on shook violently, fracturing into shards of black crystal that scattered in all directions.

Alicia quickly raised a blue barrier, Stacia summoned a triple-layered Aether Wall, and Sylvia crossed her chains before her, forming a Chain Shield of living metal.

But the force was too great.

The blast consumed them. Even through their shields, the heat struck like a divine hammer. Their bodies were hurled hundreds of meters away, thrown across the collapsing dimension.

The air became a hurricane of dark energy, devouring everything that remained.

Sylvia slammed into something hard, perhaps the wall of the dimension itself before finally stopping.

Her body remained intact, but her aura quivered violently. Stacia steadied herself with a gravity spell, while Alicia dropped to one knee, her staff trembling in her hands.

Slowly, the roar of the explosion faded. They looked ahead and froze.

The mist was gone. The air, once thick and suffocating, was clear save for faint black particles drifting down like ash. The ground, once hidden, was revealed dark, cracked, scorched.

Hundreds no, thousands of fog-creatures lay strewn across it. Their bodies were charred, some still smoking, others melted into pools of black residue. The air smelled of metal and ash, heavy with the cold breath of the underworld.

Alicia stared, eyes wide. “…Gods, Sylvia…”

Stacia looked toward the center of the blast, where a swirling core of blue-violet flame still hung in the air like a dying star.

“That wasn’t ordinary Nether Flame,” she said quietly. “You mixed it with Death Aura. You nearly destroyed half the floor.”

Sylvia said nothing. Her breathing was ragged, but her eyes were steady and cold.

“At least we know one thing,” she said finally. “These things aren’t immortal.”

She gazed upward at the underworld’s sky now clear, silent, empty. Her chains trembled faintly, as if echoing her bitter triumph.

Alicia stepped closer, her expression a mix of awe and concern.

“If that explosion had been any bigger, we’d have been vaporized too.”

Sylvia gave a faint smile. “Then at least I’d die beautifully.”

Alicia sighed, rubbing her forehead. “You’re terrifying…”

But beneath that fleeting laughter, they all knew The blast hadn’t just been destruction. It was a warning.

Each floor ahead would be deadlier, more unpredictable, and the deeper they went, the closer they would draw to the core of the underworld itself.

…..

Far below the ruins of the seventy-first floor, something began to stir. The scorched earth trembled. Black cracks spread in every direction, and from them burst dark red light like molten blood seeping through the flesh of the world.

Alicia stepped back, her staff rising instinctively.

“Sylvia… something’s waking up!”

Stacia snapped her grimoire shut, summoning defensive runes. “The mana pressure isn’t one of those mist creatures. It’s much bigger.”

The ground split open like the jaws of a colossal beast. Black smoke surged upward, spiraling into the air. From within, a towering figure emerged cloaked in blood-red robes lined with cracked gold.

Two crystalline horns jutted from his head, glowing with deadly violet light. Around his body, hundreds of faint faces swirled laughing, crying, screaming changing every second.

Even from his aura alone, Sylvia knew: this was no ordinary ruler.

The figure’s golden eyes locked on Sylvia, radiating pure, undiluted fury.

“…You,” his voice rumbled, echoing through the realm,

“dared to desecrate the Palace of Emotion with your deathfire.”

Sylvia didn’t retreat. Instead, a thin smile curved on her lips.

“Oh, so I really did destroy something important? Good.”

Alicia groaned, pressing her hand to her face. “Sylvia…”

But Sylvia ignored her. She lifted her hand, activating Appraisal EX.

A flash of blue light crossed her eyes, and transparent text appeared before her.

[Dantalion – Grand Duke, Lord of the Palace of Emotion]

RANK: Abyssal Duke (Demonized Entity – Emotional Aspect)

LEVEL: 250 / ???

ELEMENT: Emotion, Mind, Chaos

HP: ??? / ???

MP: ??? / ???

DESCRIPTION:

One of the highest rulers of the middle underworld, born from 72,000 human emotions corroded by time and hatred. Known as the Mirror of Feelings, capable of manipulating, amplifying, or consuming any emotion around him.

Sylvia lowered her hand slowly, crimson eyes gleaming with unmistakable excitement.

“Dantalion, huh?” she said lightly. “A lovely name… for someone who just lost half his property.”

Dantalion stared at her for a long moment. Then a crooked smile formed more a wound than an expression.

“Lovely? No. You have no idea what you’ve unleashed.”

The air trembled.

Whispers rose no, screams from everywhere: the air, the ground, even inside their heads.

Hundreds of faces around Dantalion’s body howled in unison, their voices piercing straight into the mind.

Alicia shuddered, her pupils shaking. “Damn… his voice inside my head…” Stacia struggled to focus, gasping. “His emotional field… he’s turning fear into active magic!”

Sylvia only smiled a cold, knife-thin smile.

“So you can consume emotion, can you?” she said, stepping forward. “Unfortunately, I don’t have much left for you to enjoy.”

Black chains burst from her shadow, hissing like starving serpents. But Dantalion raised a hand, and all her chains froze midair.

His voice was low, resonant, vibrating in their chests.

“There’s no need to pretend courage, Queen of Death. I know you tremble within. The mist you destroyed… was merely the lowest form of my emotion.”

Hundreds of faces on his body turned toward Sylvia at once, some laughing, some crying, some empty.

“Now, allow me to show you the true shape… of fear that cannot die.”

The sky above them convulsed. The ground split open. And the mist that had vanished returned this time red and pulsing, like living flesh. The air grew so heavy it was as if the entire underworld itself held its breath.

The real battle was about to begin.