Chapter 86: Gravekeeper Tomo

"Time to feed, my friends."

The zombies were morphing and transforming under the shadows of the tombstones that towered over everyone. Howling, the enhanced zombies galloped forward, their new monstrous and bestial forms striking terror into the hearts of the Eight Guardians.

"Don't falter!" Sanada ordered as he stepped forward. With a swing of his hand, he froze the first wave of zombies. "They're still just fodder!"

Crack!

"Impossible!"

Sanada's eyes widened when he saw the enhanced zombies breaking out of the ice.

"Tch!"

Gendou quickly conjured his infinite number of restraints and manacles to trap and bind every zombie within the 500-meter radius around him. However, the zombies began tearing the chains and traps apart with brute strength.

"What the…?! How are they so strong?!"

"They've been enhanced by those gravestones," Nagano warned as she glanced at my Astral Graves while erecting a golden barrier to defend herself from an assailing zombie. "They're no longer normal zombies. Be careful!"

"Then if we destroy those tombstones…!"

Hoshizaki was already on it, launching a shower of meteors at my Thousand Astral Graves. I merely smiled and drew my Blood Dragon Sword. With a single swing, I unleashed an immense Shadow Lunar Fang that streaked skyward to intercept the meteor shower and obliterate them in midair. The sky lit up as explosions scattered across the skies like fireworks.

"Kuh…"

Domon grunted as he conjured a bunch of carnivorous flowers and plants to entangle and trap the zombies, but as usual, the zombies merely ripped the vines apart. They felt no pain, ignoring the thorns embedded deep in their flesh, and roared as they inexorably advanced forward. In fact, a bunch of them actually began consuming the plants.

"How creepy…"

Domon shuddered.

"It won't be long before we're overwhelmed by them!" Aoyama warned as he slashed at a zombie. He had not activated his curse to teleport me away, because that would defeat Takeda's entire plan of trapping me here to capture me and steal my ability.

"Yeah, even if you destroy these ones, I can always summon more."

With a wave of my hand, I demonstrated my prowess by summoning a fresh batch of zombies from the earth, watching in satisfaction as they dug their way to the surface, only to be enhanced by the gravestones. The golden symbols on each tomb glowed brightly, as if in defiance of the Eight Guardians who opposed me.

"Earlier, you asked how I was going to protect Restia by myself, right? But the thing is, I'm never alone."

"So what?"

Narrowing his eyes, Makoto lunged forward and slashed me with his knife.

"If I kill the summoner, then all his summoned zombie will cease to exist. That's the weakness of all summoning magic."

"Can you even kill me?"

I shrugged, not even bothering to parry Makoto's strike with my Blood Dragon Sword. After all, that knife failed to scratch even the first defensive layer of my Redwood jacket. However, Makoto must have realized that, for he activated his spell.

BOOM!

Fireballs blossomed and whacked me off my feet, engulfing me in a furious explosion that caught not just me but a few of my zombies and the nearby tombstones, incinerating them.

"You have no more chances," Yonebashi crowed triumphantly as she watched the flames ravaged my surroundings.

I rose to my feet grimly, holding up my Blood Dragon Sword. Despite my Redwood jacket, the explosions did knock the wind out of me, but otherwise I had sustained little damage.

"After all, our plan isn't to kill you. You can turn this into a siege and throw an endless hordes of zombies at us…but in the end, as long as we keep you occupied and trapped here until Takeda-kun's ability recharges, it's our win."

"In other words, I have to beat you guys decisively, huh?"

Even as the zombies continued their onslaught, the Eight Guardians pulled together and coordinated an unbreachable defense behind Nagano's barriers, Sanda's glacial walls and Domon's rampantly growing plants.

"Lock!"

Not wasting any time, Gendou raised his hand and restrained me with his pink chains, immobilizing me to the spot.

"I'm not going to let you escape or move around."

"Your zombies may be powerful…"

Nagano had produced a weapon – a sacred sword. With a swing of her weapon, she mowed down a huge swathe of zombies in one go.

"…but in the end, they're just zombies. Did you really think they'll be a match against eight heroes?"

Despite their initial shock, the Eight Guardians were rallying and destroying the hordes of zombies with their heroic abilities. Makoto's five elements, Sanada's ice, Domon's plants, Gendou's traps and chains, Hoshizaki's meteor strikes…and Nagano's holy sword. Even Aoyama was dealing major damage to them with healing spells, reversing the undead's Regenerative abilities with holy magic and delivering catastrophic damage to them.

"Now just wait patiently and give up your ability."

With a raise of his hand, Gendou tightened the grip of his chains around my limbs, forcibly rooting me to the ground.

Makoto held his knives before immolating another horde of zombies.

"We'll finish off all your zombies," Domon declared. "You're welcome to summon more, but it's just another fruitless attempt. We have all the time in the world to keep you company."

"Ah~"

I sighed and shook my head. At least Gendou had the decency not to put a collar on my neck and bind my head along with everything else.

"I should have known regular zombies wouldn't be able to deal with you."

"Admittedly, these aren't regular zombies," Nagano conceded with a smile. "It's impressive how you managed to transform normal zombies into such frightening beasts."

"Oh, you misunderstand. They are my regular zombies."

"…eh?"

Hoshizaki's brow twitched and she instinctively backed away when realization dawned on her.

"Tanaka-kun…he still has further tricks up his sleeve?"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Makoto cried. "Just how many tricks can this guy pull?"

"As many as you need me to." I shrugged. "After all, I'll need an endless number of tricks if I want to defeat Kobayashi and his armies. You guys aren't even the end goal here."

"You talk a good game," Gendou sneered as he gripped his chains tightly. "But can you actually back your claims up?"

I closed my eyes, amused. "Are you sure you want me to? Hmm…I guess it's not a matter of whether you want me to or not."

Four zombies on horseback materialized in front of me. Under the shadows of Thousand Astral Graves, they began morphing and transforming before the Eight Guardians' wide eyes, taking on new colors and weapons.

The white knight, Conquest. The red warrior, War. The black nightmare, Famine. The skeletal grim reaper, Death.

"W…what the hell…what the hell are those?"

Yonebashi's jaw dropped as she stared at the new zombies, unable to believe her eyes. The other seven Guardians unconsciously took a step back, their minds ensnared by cold, unimaginable fear and indescribable terror.

Every instinct in their bodies told them to run. To escape from the face of such existences that could surpass even the deadliest demon nobles in Restia.

"These are…boss-level monsters, aren't they?!"

"How…how is Tanaka-kun able to summon something like those?!"

"Just what the hell are they?!"

"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

The four zombie knights rode toward the Eight Guardians, who quickly scattered out of the way. However, War swung his sword, unleashing a strike that blew them off their feet.

"Ugh!"

"What power…!"

"Split up!" Sanada shouted, taking charge. "Two to each zombie! We can do this!"

"Two to each zombie?"

I smirked. At that moment, Conquest was raising his lance and banner. Hordes of zombies materialized around him, flocking to his banner,

"There aren't enough of you to outnumber my zombies."

"Kuh!"

"Don't falter! We can still beat them if we work together!"

Sanada's voice remained firm. Nagano nodded.

"Let's go, Kozue-chan!"

"Yes!"

The Eight Guardians split up into four groups to tackle the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse. It seemed that Gendou and Aoyama had drawn the short end of the stick as they had chosen to square off against Conquest and his endless horde of zombies.

Unfortunately, the rest were not faring much better. Hoshizaki and Nagano had the ineviable task of staring down Death, who decayed anything he touched. Despite Nagano trapping him inside a barrier, Death merely poked it with his scythe, causing the golden barrier to blacken and crumble away. Nagano cursed when she saw that.

"This is going to be hard," she muttered.

"You want to switch?" Gendou called out to her.

"Sure!"

That was when Gendou saw the decaying barrier, and then he shook his head.

"My ability works better against huge numbers."

"…excuses."

"Stop fighting!" Sanada snapped as he fought to contain War. War's gleaming sword slammed into his icy blade, shattering it and sending Sanada staggering back, but the Ice Lord trapped the crimson warrior in a coffin of frost, to no avail. War broke out of it almost immediately. "Focus on the enemy in front of you!"

"I'm trying, but my abilities are not meant for combat," Yonebashi muttered as she tried to help Sanada. Unfortunately, her Demonic Fear did not work against undead zombies that felt no emotion, least of all fear.

"These guys are tough!"

Makoto complained as he tried to trap Famine under a block of wood, which was reinforced by Domon's Agricultural Assault. Unfortunately, the bugs began crawling out of the woodwork. Quite literally. Makoto grimaced.

"Disgusting!"

"They really are a pain to deal with," Domon agreed as he produced what he hoped were pest-resistant crops to block the incoming swarm of locusts.

"Well, my particular zombie is bugged," I remarked. "If you aren't satisfied, you can always make a bug report."

"Oh, shut it!"

Even when they outnumbered the four zombies two to one, the eight heroes still had trouble dealing with them.

"Just burn already!"

Makoto was struggling to incinerate the bugs with his fire magic, but there was way too many of them, and Famine constantly regenerated.

"They just keep on coming!"

Gendou had a similar problem. Despite restraining the enhanced zombies under Conquest's command, he couldn't stop them from breaking free of the chains and traps with sheer brute strength. Similarly, Aoyama was finding himself pressured under the constant charges from Conquest.

"Kuh! This guy is…strong!"

"You think that zombie is strong?!" Sanada snarled as he dodged a heavy blow from War that nearly split the ground in half. "You want to trade opponents?!"

"I thought you said no fighting!" Yonebashi hollered at him as she dodged another strike from the crimson knight.

"I can't believe Tanaka-kun is capable of using his summon abilities to such an extent," Nagano remarked as she struggled to keep Death at bay. "If this was a one-on-one battle…no, even if it was a seven-on-one battle, he might actually win."

"He might actually be capable of beating Kobayashi-kun," Hoshizaki agreed, doubt creeping into her voice, even as she launched a meteor strike against the encroaching Death, who merely decomposed her attacks. Even stars died, after all.

"Hah! We'll see about that!"

Makoto snorted as he tried to conjure a new bunch of elements – this time, water to wash away the swarms of insects.

The battle between the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the Eight Guardians of the Iron Knights raged on for another fifteen minutes or so, with neither side getting the upper hand. The Eight Guardians, particularly, were getting exhausted as they struggled to defend against their seemingly invincible enemies, whose strength only continued to increase as time went past.

"This guy just keeps destroying my barriers!" Nagano exclaimed in frustration, but then she noticed something.

Why is he decomposing Kozue-chan's attacks? Could it be…?

"Kozue-chan, back me up. Stop shooting at him. We're going to trap him first…"

"Understood!"

Nagano took a deep breath and began conjuring several barriers to trap Death. Death merely walked through them, destroying each barrier one by one.

However…

"Kozue-chan, now!"

"Got it!"

Hoshizaki had prepared a single, massive onslaught of meteors and was directing it at Death. Just as Death broke through the last remaining barrier, Nagano opened a small gap for the meteors to go through.

Death looked up, only for the comets to slam into him and tear him apart. Trapped within a confined barrier, without any point of escape, he was unable to decompose the incoming meteors in time before they collided with him.

The single spell obliterated him.

"Huff…finally…huff…"

Hoshizaki slid down, perspiration running down her face. Nagano smiled and patted her shoulder gratefully, but her complexion remained pale.

"Good job, Kozue-chan."

Not to be outdone, Makoto and Domon were having a fierce battle with Famine.

"Trap him inside your giant oak tree, Domon-kun!"

"Yeah."

Domon conjured a gigantic oak tree to swallow up Famine. Even as the bugs began to swarm out of the holes in the tee, Makoto was already moving. Summoning his five element star, he plugged the holes with soil from the earth.

"Not yet…wood elemental magic!"

Vines, branches and leaves sprouted out from the earth, trapping Famine and his insects further inside the ball of soil and wood.

"Now…fire elemental magic! Draconic Fire!"

The wood embedded inside the ball of earth easily combusted, serving as fuel for Makoto's flames, which expanded into a colossal explosion that ripped it apart, consuming both wood and bug alike and utterly incinerating Famine into ash.

"Huff…finally…"

"I can't believe it…we actually did it…"

Both Domon and Makoto panted as they dropped to their knees, heaving from exhaustion. They slapped each other a high five.

"Can't lose to them!"

A short distance away, Gendou had trapped all the zombies, including Conquest, inside iron maiden coffins.

"Aoyama-kun, now!"

"Got it."

Aoyama lunged forward and pressed his palm against the coffin that Conquest was trapped inside. Muttering something under his breath, he unleashed his most powerful curse. Blue mana seeped into the Iron Maiden and worked its way into its contents, corrupting and eradicating Conquest for good. Upon his death, the remaining enhanced zombies began to crumble. Gendou sped up their demise by crushing them with his traps.

"Bloody hell…making us work so hard for that win…"

"Absolutely."

Aoyama nodded in agreement as Gendou fell to the ground, cursing vehemently. The two of them looked completely spent.

"Oi, oi…don't you think it's time for us to finish up as well?" Yonebashi asked. Sanada sighed and shook his head.

"I guess this isn't the time to be holding back…"

As War advanced upon him, he parried the zombie's strike with a thick ice shield. Gritting his teeth, Sanada began casting his most powerful spell. His eyes shimmered and glowed a deep blue as he unleashed his ice magic.

"Absolute Zero."

War froze. The ultimate ice magic transfigured him into ice, rendering him into little more than a sculpture. While Sanada froze him, Yonebashi dove forward and kicked the frozen War, shattering him into a million pieces.

"Huff…finally. Great move, Sanada-kun."

"No…I can't believe Tanaka-kun forced me to use my ultimate spell."

Beads of perspiration were forming over Sanada's face as he bent over to heave. He looked up at me, his face pale.

"But with this…"

"We won," Domon declared, scarcely able to believe it.

Makoto nodded and turned to glare at me.

"If I'm not mistaken, those were your trump cards, weren't they? Your strongest zombies. And now that we've taken them down, you have nothing left."

"You lost, Tanaka-kun."

Hoshizaki took a step forward and said in an almost gentle, sympathetic manner.

All eight Guardians stared at me, half recognizing my strength and efforts, and half relieved that they had finally defeated me.

But I merely smiled.

"Really?"

"!"

All eight Guardians jumped back when my Blood Dragon Sword glowed. With a single flick, I severed the chains that Gendou used to restrain me, freeing myself.

"You've killed about twenty thousand of my zombies, plus minus."

"…so what about it?" Aoyama asked, instinctively getting into a defensive stance with his scythes. "I know you don't have enough mana left to summon more zombies. You don't have infinite mana or anything of that sort."

I laughed. "You already defeated 20,000 of my zombies. What's the point of me summoning more?"

"Then what are you talking about?!" Makoto demanded. I licked my lips and held up a finger with my left hand.

"Do you remember that I drank some of Suzuki's blood earlier, when we were fighting him outside Cross Castle?"

"…what about it?"

"Isn't that disgusting?" Yonebashi grimaced. But Nagano's eyes widened.

"No, he's…a vampire. That means…"

"That's right."

I grinned and reared my right hand back, holding my sword upright as if I was getting ready to throw a javelin. My Blood Dragon Sword was glowing, turning into what looked like a black projectile, waiting for me to hurl it.

"Though it's not as effective as Takeda-kun's Plunder ability, I was still somewhat able to Devour one of Suzuki's abilities. Hmm…perhaps borrow is a better word. It's not as if I stole it from Suzuki, after all. He still has it. I merely copied it."

The Lightning Lancer had a thousand abilities, which was a pity…but I was more than happy with the single ability I copied from him.

"Every zombie that you guys took out can be considered a kill."

My sword flared even more brightly than before, almost turning into a miniature sun in the middle of the night.

"Once 1,000 lives have been extinguished within a certain area…this ability of Suzuki Shirou's will have its conditions fulfilled."

"Don't tell me…"

Sanada's jaw dropped.

"This is his strongest one," I informed them as I stretched my arm as far back as possible.

"Hey…what is this power?!" Domon demanded, his voice trembling in fear as his eyes were fixed on my glowing sword.

"Of course," I continued with a growing smile. "The higher the number of creatures who get killed, the stronger this technique is."

"This is Suzuki-kun's technique…"

Hoshizaki recognized it. I nodded.

"God-Slaying Strike."

"Hurry and get out of the way!" Nagano commanded. Immediately, the Eight Guardians scattered and dispersed in all directions.

It didn't matter. I flung my glowing sword as far as I could. Blood Dragon Sword turned into a bright, gleaming light of darkness and hurtled toward their direction.

No…not their direction.

I had aimed for the top of the barrier. My sword completely flew above the evading Eight Guardians and slammed into the top of Nagano's barrier.

He missed?!

Gendou blinked in disbelief, even as he sprinted across the ground.

Why didn't he aim for us…?

…eh!?

His eyes widened when he noticed an anomaly.

My sword had indeed struck the top of the barrier, far away from the scattering Eight Guardians, but it ricocheted and split into multiple beams of black light, bouncing and reflecting off the surfaces of the barrier to divide into yet more beams.

What is this?!

"Ah!"

Sanada cried out as he was pierced by one of the many beams that were scattering and reflecting across the entire enclosed space of Nagano's barrier.

"It's everywhere!" Makoto cried, similarly trapped and bombarded by the various beams that were criss-crossing the confined space, unable to evade.

"Thanks to Absolute Appraisal…"

I smirked as I stared at the numbers, calculations, estimated trajectories and paths of the multiple beams in the lenses of my glasses.

"By firing it at the right angle, the projectile from God-Slaying Strike will reflect and disperse into many beams…and these beams will be reflected and fired off continuously as it bounces off the walls of Nagano-san's barrier."

Outside the gigantic barrier, Takeda watched the hundreds of beams ricocheting across the walls of the barrier and filling the entire space with ominous lighting.

"Looks like…"

His voice was grave as he analyzed the situation calmly.

Inside the barrier, Hoshizaki, Aoyama, Domon and Gendou were similarly caught by the multiple beams, unable to evade the sheer number of them.

Shortly after, Yonebashi too was hit by several beams.

"…the Eight Guardians have been defeated."

Instead of sounding furious, Takeda Tetsuo actually sounded impressed.

Back inside the barrier, Nagano stood alone, the only survivor of the Eight Guardians, as she glared defiantly at me.

I smiled at her.

"Just like your analysis…"

I jumped away when my lenses flared up, warning me that several beams were converging on my position. Relying on the estimations calculated by the super-intelligent artificial intelligence embedded into my glasses, I deftly evaded the beams.

"In this situation, besides me, who has Absolute Appraisal…"

The criss-crossing beams finally reflected and converged on Nagano's position.

"All of you…"

Nagano's eyes widened when she realized that she had no way of escaping the incoming black beam.

"…can't evade them."

In the next moment, Nagano's barrier shattered, falling apart in countless golden shards.

Takeda watched calmly as the barrier broke apart, giving way to countless drops of blood. Once again, the formerly frozen floor was filled in a sea of blood, with Blood Ghouls rising from it and shambling through the falling pieces of the barrier.

His expression remaining nonchalant, Takeda calmly watched as the Blood Ghouls staggered toward him.

At the head of the horde of Blood Ghouls, I stood alone, staring down at the seated Takeda. Even as the golden shards of Nagano's barrier rained around me, I took another step forward and smirked, savoring my recently acquired freedom.

"Just as I suspected…once Nagano-san is defeated, her barrier will be destroyed."