I Got Reincarnated as a Zombie Girl - Chapter 299

Chapter 299: Chapter 295 – The Breath of the Ruler Behind the Darkness
The underworld’s energy kept being devoured into the three cocoons like thousands of black rivers forced to flow through a hole far too narrow. The scorching hell-winds no longer felt like wind; they had become a violent pull that swallowed everything they touched. The garden ground trembled, trees snapped like brittle bones, and the black-iron gazebo began to crack under the pressure of evolution.

Belial stood at the closest point, arms folded, though his black eyes narrowed sharply. The arrogant smile he usually carried slowly faded.

“The energy they’re absorbing… the intensity just increased again.”

His voice was lower than usual. “If this continues, the entire 68th floor will be drained dry.”

Lumielle stood a few meters behind him, her wings of light trembling uncontrollably. Her usually calming golden glow had turned pale, as if fear itself was leaking from her body.

“Increased…? This is already beyond the scale of a normal evolution…” Lumielle forced her breathing to remain stable, but her chest rose and fell erratically. “This feels like… they’re swallowing the foundation of the underworld itself.”

Seere who normally kept her gentle smile even in the face of catastrophe was now clinging to a garden pillar. Her pale face had lost all color.

“This… is too strong…” she whispered.

But before any of them could step closer

RRRAAAAKK!!

A violent cracking sound shattered the air like glass smashed by a hammer. Above Sylvia’s cocoon, the air split open with a long black fissure, tearing the dimension like thin cloth.

Belial froze.

The crack wasn’t his doing. It wasn’t Lumielle’s. or Seere’s. And the energy leaking from it…

…did not belong to this world.

Belial swallowed hard something he himself rarely did.

“Who… is opening a rift in my territory… without permission?”

The fissure widened slowly too slowly and yet each inch released waves of pressure that made their skin crawl. Not physical pressure but pressure on the soul.

Seere was the first to collapse. Her small body trembled violently as though struck by lightning.

Belial spun.

“Seere! Get up!”

But Seere’s eyes were empty; she fainted before she could respond.

Lumielle still stood, but her entire body shook as if each joint were being pulled apart.

“This is… extra-dimensional power…” she breathed, voice cracking. “Belial… step back…”

“I do not…”

BRUUMMMMMMM.

The fissure fully opened. And from that black tear, someone stepped out.

Her first step.

The sound of her heel touching the ground made the entire garden quake.

Her second step.

The hellish air itself stopped moving, as if afraid to brush against her.

Her third step.

Even Lumielle’s light dimmed by half.

A woman emerged, standing calmly before the cocoons.

Her long black hair drifted like living shadows, her deep violet eyes radiating pure darkness. Her gown resembled cosmic night faintly shimmering like dead stars. And the aura surrounding her…

…was pure death. Not a cold death. Not wild death. But ancient death is older than the first world, the kind worshiped by primitive gods.

The woman gazed at Sylvia’s, Alicia’s, and Stacia’s cocoons with a gentle expression like a mother looking upon her sleeping children.

Her lips curved softly.

“My daughters… you’re growing stronger.”

Belial felt chills race down to his bones. Those words stabbed into his mind.

Daugh… ters?

Whose daughters?

Who was this woman?

Without realizing it, Belial stepped back. His demonic skin of a high-ranking devil was drenched in cold sweat.

Because his instincts screamed one thing:

DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY INTO THIS WOMAN’S EYES.

Lumielle gritted her teeth. Her knees trembled violently.

“Belial… be careful… she…”

The woman sighed gently, as if reading her thoughts.

“There is no need to fear me, Lumielle. I did not come to wage war.”

Lumielle froze.

Belial snapped his head toward her.

“You know her?”

Lumielle trembled.

“Yes… and I wish I were wrong.”

The woman raised her hand and the underworld shook like a vast heart gripped in terror.

Another rift tore open beside her. This one wasn’t a simple tear. It was a massive, pitch-black portal filled with hollow faces curled in eternal despair.

An aura poured out from it darker than the underworld itself. Older and Heavier. And Belial the ruler of the 68th floor collapsed to his knees, unable to keep his body upright.

“W-What is this…?” he hissed. “This power… impossible… it does not belong to any of the 72 demons…”

Lumielle drew a broken breath.

“Belial… submit. If you don’t… you will die.”

“I do not submit to anyone…”

“She is Persephone.”

Belial turned to stone.

The entire underworld seemed to stop breathing.

“Per… who?”

Lumielle stared at him with eyes wide open holding a fear Belial had never seen before from the Goddess of Light.

“Persephone… Goddess of Death from another world… The owner of an underworld far older than yours…”

Belial suddenly felt his breath caught in his throat. Not due to fear, but because his body refused to move under the weight of her aura.

The woman slightly turned her gaze, her eyes flicking toward him. And the Belial king of the 68th floor bowed his head instinctively.

“I’m… insane…” he whispered, voice shaking. “I… bowed… without being commanded…”

Persephone smiled faintly.

“You do not need to fear. I have no intention of disturbing your territory.”

Her gaze returned to the three cocoons. She lifted her hand.

Thick black aura curled from her palm gathering, merging, then enveloping the cocoons like a warm blanket.

Yet beneath that warmth… was a force so ancient it made Belial’s spirit shiver.

“The underworld’s energy is not enough for you three,” Persephone whispered, her tone motherly. “Because you no longer belong to this world.”

She twirled her fingers lightly.

CRACK!

The massive portal behind her fully opened. And the sight beyond it…was something no living creature should ever witness.

Rivers of death flowing like black blood. Mountains made of colossal bones. A sky of deep violet split by black-blue lightning. Shifting titanic shadows drifting in the distance formless, yet every movement shook the realm.

This was not Belial’s underworld. It was not hell. It was not any ordinary afterlife. It was an ancient underworld one even the gods of this world feared to name.

Belial collapsed backward.

“No… impossible…” his voice barely emerged. “This… this is a power outside any hierarchy… beyond the strata of gods…”

Lumielle nodded weakly.

“Persephone… the keeper of the oldest death dimension… the ruler above rulers… the ancestress of all death power…”

Seere, unconscious on the ground, began bleeding from her nose, her body unable to endure the pressure of that world.

Belial forced himself to look up.

“Why… would a being like you… enter my domain?”

Persephone looked at the cocoons with a terrifying tenderness.

“Because all three… are part of me.”

Her smile widened slightly.

“And I will not allow them to evolve with unworthy energy.”

The three cocoons trembled violently, responding to Persephone’s aura with a high resonance that made the air vibrate like overstretched strings.

Persephone nodded, satisfied.

“You’ve done well so far. But your path is still long.”

She raised her hand.

A wave of pure black energy like ink and light at the same time flowed from the ancient portal into the cocoons.

The atmosphere changed instantly.

Belial’s underworld… became too small. Too thin. Too weak to contain that power.

Lumielle fell to both knees, hands pressed against the ground.

“I… can’t breathe…”

Persephone didn’t spare her a glance.

“Do not resist, Lumielle. You are a body of light, my aura will destroy you if you fight it.”

Belial, struggling to stand, finally gave up.

“This aura… insane…”

Persephone closed her eyes briefly.

Then she whispered something that froze Lumielle’s blood.

“Awaken… my children.

Let us perfect your evolution.”

Her voice echoed across the floor piercing every layer of the underworld.

Even Baal far above on the 1st floor felt something strike his heart.

“W-what was that…?” Baal murmured on his throne. “This pressure… it’s not Belial’s…”

He attempted to pierce through to the 68th floor with his vision but Belial’s seals blocked him entirely.

“Belial… what are you doing on your floor…?”

Back on the 68th floor…

Sylvia’s cocoon shook violently, cracks of black light crawling over its surface. Alicia’s and Stacia’s cocoons trembled as well, their auras pulled strongly toward Sylvia.

Belial realized something.

“Their evolution… is advancing to the next stage…”

Lumielle nodded, face drenched in fear.

“They are no longer evolving as individuals…”

Her eyes widened.

“…Persephone is merging their bloodlines into a new level.”

Persephone opened her eyes.

“I have waited so very long… for this moment.”

Her black aura flowed gently. And the three cocoons… began to break. Black light darker than darkness poured out. Alicia and Stacia were pulled closer to the center, as if a new gravity had formed. Belial felt his body dragged back, Lumielle collapsed completely.

Persephone stood unmoved like a gentle breeze in a massive storm.

“It is time to open your eyes… My new Queen of Death…”

The cracks in Sylvia’s cocoon widened. Black petals of light opened like a blooming flower. And a pale hand slowly reached out.

Persephone smiled proud and warm.

“Welcome back… my dear.”