Chapter 107 – Loyalty
In the distance, the sun began to slip beneath the horizon, casting an orange hue across the sky, still heavy with the dust and smoke of a broken civilization. Amidst the wreckage of a world torn apart by catastrophe, life in whatever form pressed on.
Zark stood motionless atop a hill that was once the ruins of a small settlement. Now, the place had changed. Hundreds of zombies were working in organized, efficient silence, shaping a massive structure from stone, metal, and debris. Giant pillars slowly rose, Gothic-style window arches began to take shape, and crude carvings started to adorn the walls completely out of place in the modern era.
A castle.
Not a military base, nor a bunker, and certainly not a logistics camp. A castle.
This old-world structure looked absurd in a land of burnt cars, fallen satellites, and dangling power lines. But Zark didn’t care. The old world was dead. And for his Queen for Sylvia the new world deserved a new symbol.
A place that could be both a throne and a home for a being as magnificent as her.
He closed his eyes, recalling the gentle telepathic voice from before.
"Then... since you’re now Rank 4, I’ll give you a name."
"From now on, your name is Zark."
That name wasn’t just a label. It was a sign of trust. Proof that he was no longer just a pawn among the undead ranks, but something more. A leader. A commander. And perhaps... a true companion to the Queen.
With his new Rank 4 status, Zark could now access abilities that had once been locked. One of them was large-scale coordination commands. With a single thought, he could direct hundreds of Rank 1 and Rank 0 zombies to work in sync building, digging, stacking stones, and installing structures. Rank 2 zombies served as overseers and sentries at the construction site, while 18 Rank 3 zombies took on the role of brute-force engineers transporting massive materials and shaping the foundation of the castle.