The Villainess and I, her Zombie

When the ashen undead knight peeked through the hole in the defensive wall created by the outrageously powerful attack, what or rather who she saw was...

---

"Well, this is rather awkward..."

Zombie sighed, furrowing his brows while dragging the fourth knocked-down zombie horse back to the toppled wagon before Cranberry went and rolled it back in the proper position.

"How much stronger that primal thunder was...?"

The red-haired girl asked as she started picking up the boxes with fish and stacking them back on the wagon.

The problem was that because of the power and heat of the attack, all the ice created by the ashen undead melted off leaving the wet smelly cargo in a rather pitiful state.

"I guess around four or six times. It was really something, though the backlash was rather... unexpected."

Zombie nodded, waving his right hand that got stripped of the skin and a good chunk of meat off of its bones and then got charred black by the overwhelming strength of the overpower skill used on the primal thunder spell.

"Since when can you pick a spell to use your overpower on without someone using, or at least beginning to use it?"

Cranberry added curiously, using the ice spells on her own to freeze back the crates that she kept on putting back on the wagon.

"Not sure. It's not as if I care about it either. It's just that recently when I activate overpower, the lists with things I can select to use it on, have been enriched by the spells that a person has in their arsenal."

The blue undead knight said indifferently while shrugging his shoulders dismissively.

He was more focused back in the fort, or rather - more specifically - on the part of the defensive wall that got unintentionally caught in the blast and ended up evaporating - as the ashen undead knight who admitted to being a remnant of the god of chaos, Love, was currently peeking through said destroyed wall, staring at him with consternation.

"Khahaha! Do you think that she will be willing to join?"

Zombie laughed and waved at the ashen undead knight with a big old smile - which prompted her to hurriedly hide back.

"Haa... honestly, I doubt it. The EXP was good, the stronger we get the better, but considering that she has connections to the church of the system's faith, I honestly doubt that we'll get her in this part. Honestly, we should only encounter her after the hub village is created and we completed at least two other secret quests of the capture targets."

The red-haired girl shook her head and approached her husband, reaching out for his damaged hand and inspecting it with a bitter expression.

"Haa... this is a mess. No wonder that Cranberry from this playthrough went and basically died while using the primal thunder without a proper procedure. Are you alright? Can you move it? Did you suffer any other damage?"

Cranberry furrowed her brows touching the exposed bones charred black and the coarse burnt flesh.

"There was that feeling of something trying to smash my brain against the back of my skull but it passed with no trouble."

Zombie smiled and reached out to touch the girl's face with his left hand.

"How about you?"

He asked caressing her cheek.

"Oh, are you worried that the shockwave that toppled the carriage and knocked out the zombie horses have harmed me too? That's actually cute."

The red-haired girl smiled and while still bothered about Zombie's damaged hand.

"Well, I've seen you die before and if I reach far enough I can connect it with you not telling me things that bothered you, so there you have it."

The blue undead knight tilted his head and smirked, looking down at the red-haired girl, who flinched and looked back at him with a bitter expression.

"I'm fine, only the caster can suffer mental damage from this spell if they use it without proper preparation, the worst thing that happened to me was getting thrown out of the cart and getting some bruises, but with the level up even that got healed up instantly, so there. Actually, nothing to worry about. But about your hand..."

Cranberry rolled her eyes and explained before she brought back the subject on the wounded hand.

"It's fine since we don't have a mend skill and even with the holy power resistance the normal healing spells cannot heal me, the best option is to either use the life drain or something or simply wait for the HP recovery to do its thing."

Zombie explained while Cranberry leaned into his touch and closed her eyes.

"Rotten brain."

She pouted looking away.

"Hey! Zombie! Was that you?! That giant lightning?!"

"...haa..."

But the touching moment was not meant to last as almost as soon as Cranberry made a move suggesting that she wanted to hug, the ashen undead knight hastily approached the two of them and called out.

"That's right, I hope you aren't angry that I decided to step in and join in for the EXP, right? You seemed to be rather preoccupied."

Zombie and Cranberry stepped away from each other and the blue undead smiled at the shaken ashen undead...

...he was just a little bit annoyed that she interrupted them...

"...how...?"

The ashen undead knight furrowed her brows in confusion and asked, taken aback.

"Hey, you aren't the only unique undead around, you know? I might not be a remnant, but I am plenty special on my own."

Zombie didn't have the liar title for nothing - there was nothing in his appearance or tone of voice that would suggest that he was dissatisfied that the ashen undead didn't take a little longer to return.

"You have ice, I have something else."

The blue undead laughed while tapping the jet-black gem in the middle of his chestplate.

"...!"

The ashen undead's eyes widened as she saw that the hand zombie was tapping his crystal was severely damaged.

"Oh, and yes, it isn't something I can do without any backlash."

Zombie saw what was she looking at and nodded, moving his finger around the best he could in their current state.

"Aren't you worried about your steeds? Oh, and while we're at it, sorry about your steeds."

He changed the subject, pointing at the knocked-out zombie horses.

...hopefully only knocked out as it was really hard to say with the undead as they didn't have the life signature so Zombie's skill wasn't very useful - although there was no message about defeating anything else other than the sigil monster had popped up, so the not lethal option was the most likely one.

"Don't worry about them, they might have fallen but it's only for a moment. I can see their HP, they are fine, though in a serious daze."

The undead elf waved her hand dismissively and instead began picking up the rest of the crates and putting them back on the wagon while freezing them as she went.

"We need to hurry now, at this rate I'm going to be late, and I hate not being punctual."

She added hurriedly moving around busily.

"Of course. So, it means that we are done here? You did what you wanted to do in this outpost?"

Zombie waved his hand dismissively and helped Cranberry get onto the wagon before climbing on it himself.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure. Wake up, we're going."

The ashen undead glanced at him and nodded dismissively before she snapped her fingers and called them out, which caused the zombie horses to flinch and get back up immediately as if nothing happened so that she could tie them back to the wagon.

With all that done the ashen undead got onto the driver's seat and snapped the reins at the zombie horses, and their journey reassumed.