I Got Reincarnated as a Zombie Girl

The journey toward the Northern Sea Trench, where two cosmic entities were locked in conflict, proved to be far from a mere recreational voyage.

The blue-bioluminescent Outer Ocean indeed radiated an unmatched mystical beauty, filled with pure divine pressure that intimidated the soul. Yet behind that beautiful sapphire glow hid the true ecological nightmare. The shockwaves from the battle between Jormungandr the World Serpent of Nordic mythology and Envy the Leviathan Serpent, manifestation of the Great Sin of Envy, had thrown the entire ecosystem of the Outer Ocean into chaos.

As a result of the divine fluctuations and continental-scale spatial distortions occurring in the north, colossal mutant monsters of giant size, ranging from Rank 6 to Pseudo-Rank 7, poured out from the depths of the sea trenches like ants whose nest had been doused with boiling water. They were panicked, aggressive, and extremely hungry. And in the middle of that chaotic mass migration of giant creatures, the Nocture Eclipse-Class Fleet sailed through the ocean, openly becoming an easy target for their predatory instincts.

BZZZT... JDAAARRR!!!

Deafening explosions rang out continuously across the ocean. Along the sides of the Main Dreadnought Ship that stretched 500 meters in length, the muzzles of the "Mana Cannons" engraved with ancient runes continuously spat fire. Pure energy projectiles of lethal power shot forward at supersonic speed, striking the carapaces, scales, and tentacles of the sea monsters attempting to approach.

The ocean around the fleet transformed into a cauldron of purple and black blood. Carcasses of monsters the size of small islands floated, staining the blue-glowing water. Yet no matter how many were slaughtered, more giant monsters continued emerging from the depths, drawn by the scent of blood and the massive mana fluctuations from the Nocture ships.

Inside the main command bridge, Celes, the Supreme Commander of the Combat Forces who was usually steadfast on the front lines, appeared to be massaging the bridge of her nose hard. The dark circles under her eyes looked even blacker.

"Report, Commander!" shouted an Elf officer from the control table. "Northwest sector, three Pseudo-Rank 7 monsters shaped like octopus-headed sharks are ramming the Storm-Repelling Shield Formation! We have to divert ten Mana Cannons to hold them back!"

"Do it!" Celes ordered in a hoarse voice. "Don’t let those disgusting things touch our Black Star Steel hulls! What’s the status of the reactors?"

Stacia, standing not far from the tactical table, rapidly flipped the pages of her magic grimoire. Her reading glasses reflected the holographic light from the energy panels. "Bad, Celes. Very bad," Stacia reported in her characteristic analytical tone. "Our cannons keep firing nonstop without pause. The five compressed Mana Crystal reactor towers powering this Dreadnought are working beyond the capacity of my original design."

"You mean the fuel is running low?" Celes asked, clenching her jaw. "Didn’t you say one set of compressed Mana Crystals from Rank 6 Monster Cores should last for several months of sailing?"

"That was the standard assumption for peaceful voyages, not for being in the middle of a large-scale war zone!" Stacia replied while exhaling. "The energy consumption for the Storm-Repelling Shield Formation and thousands of simultaneous Mana Cannon shots has burned through our reserves. Fuel that should have lasted for several months is being depleted rapidly in just a matter of hours!"

Hearing that, Celes felt her head throbbing. "Then what solution do we have? If this shield dies, the pure divine pressure in the Outer Ocean will crush the lungs of every living crew member below deck!"

"Calm down, you’re making your muscles even more tense," Stacia smiled faintly, straightening her shirt. "Fortunately, reactor core replacement is extremely easy. My reactor tower design allows a plug-and-play system. And even more advantageous, we have an ocean full of free fuel deliveries out there."

Stacia flicked her fingers, projecting a screen that showed the alchemy and logistics rooms on the lower decks. There, Elite Zombie Knights were sorting through hundreds of glowing monster cores that had just been harvested by the fleet from the carcasses of the sea monsters they had shot down.

"We have plenty of fresh Rank 6 monster cores ready to be compressed," explained Stacia, Nocture’s chief alchemy scientist. "The Dwarves and alchemist zombies below are compressing those Monster Cores into new Mana Crystals in real-time. As long as our cannons keep killing, we will never run out of fuel."

Although that emergency logistics system was running smoothly, the Outer Ocean showed no mercy to anyone who let their guard down. Of course it was not an easy journey. When the fleet was maneuvering through a narrower trench, a massive underwater current anomaly erupted from the ocean floor.

BBUUUUUMMMMM!!!

Three pillars of extraordinarily high-pressure water, each as solid as steel and spinning like giant drills, slammed into the right side of the fleet. This sudden attack from the depths was not carried out by monsters relying on bites, but by high-level water manipulation magic from the ocean floor.

The impact force was too great and sudden. The Storm-Repelling Shield Formation enveloping the fleet flickered violently. In the right-wing sector, three of the fifteen remaining Hunter-Class Cruiser Ships failed to withstand the momentum.

Those 150-meter support ships were pushed out of the main fleet’s protective dome. The moment they were flung outside the Shield Formation, the hungry sea monsters that had been lurking behind the storm immediately pounced. A monster shaped like a fusion of giant eel and leech with a mouth full of thousands of sword-sharp teeth swallowed half the hull of the first ship. The other two cruiser ships were struck by giant venomous pincers that melted their metal.

"Commander! Right sector breached!" the radar operator shouted with a pale face. "We’ve lost three cruiser ships! They’ve been destroyed and dragged into the depths!"

Celes slammed her fist onto the tactical table. "Damn it! How many casualties?! Who were the commanders on those three ships?!"

"Wait, let me check the logistics manifest," Stacia tapped her grimoire calmly, completely unaffected by Celes’s panic. After a few seconds, an amused smile appeared on Stacia’s face. "Ah. No need to panic, Celes. Don’t forget the efficiency policy implemented by that lazy sister of mine."

"What do you mean?" Celes furrowed her brow.

"The three destroyed Hunter-Class Cruiser Ships had absolutely no human, Elf, or Dwarf crew," Stacia explained. "Because we lacked specialist crew after leaving the garrison on the Chimera Continent, Sylvia ordered that the outer-wing ships be fully crewed by the Death Legion."

"You mean...?"

"Yes," Stacia nodded. "Fortunately, inside the three destroyed ships there were only zombie troops. Hundreds of Shadow Zombies and Elite Zombie Knights."

Meanwhile, beneath the surface of the blue-bioluminescent sea, a highly surreal and somewhat comical scene was unfolding.

The giant eel-leech monster that had just swallowed the cruiser ship chewed on the metal debris along with the hundreds of zombie crew inside. Yet a few seconds later, the giant sea monster’s eyes widened. Its ferocious face suddenly transformed into an expression of extreme nausea.

High-level sea monsters were indeed savage and ate everything, but their biological instincts rejected consuming something that was magically rotting, filled with death miasma, and contained not a single drop of life energy. The necrotic flesh of zombies and the dry bones of skeleton troops were the most disgusting things to monsters that craved protein and fresh blood. In short, even the sea monsters had no appetite for Nocture’s zombie meat!

With a giant retching sound that created massive air bubbles underwater, the eel monster vomited out hundreds of zombie troops along with the ship debris, then swam away as fast as possible as if it had just swallowed toxic waste. The other sea monsters that had destroyed the two remaining cruiser ships did the same; they vomited out the Death Knights in disgust.

Inside the water filled with pure divine pressure, the Shadow Zombies and Elite Zombie Knights were completely unaffected. They did not need to breathe. Their lungs would not be crushed by sea pressure. Even the salt water could not make them sink because the density of their alchemically modified bodies was regulated accordingly.

With unblinking glowing red eyes in the underwater darkness, the commander of the zombie squad drew his greatsword and gave a hand signal. Without fuss or the panic typical of humans whose ship had sunk, the thousands of zombie troops swam in unison, flapping their legs and arms in coordinated motion.

They swam toward the main ships.

On the deck of the Dreadnought protected by the energy shield, Beastmen guards stared in disbelief toward the ocean. From behind the glowing blue water, thousands of shadows climbed out. The Elite Zombie Knights, their armor soaking wet yet still gripping their weapons tightly, clung to the two-meter-thick Black Star Steel hulls like extremely tenacious ants. They climbed the giant iron plates, entered through the hatch discharge openings, and lined up again on the deck calmly as if their ships had not just been chewed by sea monsters.

On the outer main bridge, Sylvia was relaxing in her lounge chair, enjoying a cup of rose-petal tea. On her lap, Sol, the ancient giant golden dragon in spoiled cat form, was yawning, while Noir, the zombie dragon tower guardian, curled comfortably at the foot of the chair.

Sylvia glanced downward and watched her thousands of soaking-wet Elite Zombie Knights line up again at their combat posts on the Dreadnought as if nothing had happened.

The Queen of Death, Rank 7 Demigod who possessed the Domain of Absolute Death, merely smiled faintly. "See, Celes? I already told you Zark’s zombie troops are extremely efficient," Sylvia said casually through her shadow telepathy communicator linked to the command room. "They’re environmentally friendly, reusable, and can even swim back if their ship sinks."

From the other end of the communicator came the sound of Celes letting out a long sigh as if the entire weight of the world rested on her shoulders. "Your Majesty... we just lost three ships worth millions of gold coins, and you’re proud because your zombies are good at the breaststroke?"

"Of course. At least I don’t have to pay their death insurance fees," Sylvia answered while chuckling softly. She set her teacup down on the small table beside her chair.

Yet the lazy smile on Sylvia’s lips gradually faded as she stared at the northern horizon. The sunless sky there was now completely covered by pitch-black storm clouds. Red-black magical lightning struck uncontrollably, slamming into the sea surface and creating tsunami waves hundreds of meters high.

"We’re getting close," Sylvia murmured, her heterochromia eyes narrowing dangerously. "The echoes from the Northern Sea Trench. The World Serpent and Envy are truly fighting with everything they have."

Suddenly, the ocean in front of their fleet exploded. Instead of waves, a giant spiked tentacle nearly one kilometer long surged up from the water, blocking the path of the main Dreadnought Ship. That tentacle belonged neither to Jormungandr nor Envy, but to an ancient sea monster whose territory had been disturbed by the presence of the Nocture fleet.

"Your Majesty!" Celes’s voice sounded tense. "Our Mana Cannons are currently reloading their crystal cores! We don’t have enough firepower to destroy an obstacle of that size in a short time! The ship is going to collide with it!"

"Too noisy. You people really can’t let me drink my tea in peace," Sylvia sighed, rising from her lounge chair. Her elegant black gown fluttered fiercely in the storm wind.

Sylvia walked to the tip of the bow. She needed neither magic cannons nor Dwarf technology. As a transcendent existence at the boundary of conceptual evolution, Sylvia raised one hand gracefully.

The world around her instantly lost its color, turning into monochrome black and white. The Domain of Absolute Death expanded from the queen’s fingertips. Dozens of pure black chains, the Chain of Abyss, shot out from empty air. The chains coiled around the one-kilometer-long giant tentacle with ease.

Sylvia flicked her fingers.

CTAK!

The sound of that finger flick rang louder than the rumble of thunder. In a fraction of a second, the existence of the ancient creature blocking their path was completely erased. The giant tentacle along with the entire body of the monster hidden beneath the sea turned into fine charcoal ash that scattered on the wind, leaving not a single drop of blood.

"Keep advancing," Sylvia commanded, her voice echoing throughout the entire fleet with absolute authority. "Nothing is allowed to stop my journey to the Northern Trench."