No1 had been the last to have the operation, but he was the first to awaken. His eyes snapped open as they glowed with black-silver mana. Snapping his wrists he dropped off the hook and landed gracefully on the ground like some kind of alpha predator.

Fuck he’s a big cunt. Wolf thought. Not the quite the size of the human giant he had experimented on, but he was one big kid.

No1 just stood in front of Wolf and stared at him intensely.

“Was it you who reached inside of me?……” No1 whispered. Wolf just slowly nodded his head.

No1’s eyes widened slightly and he nodded back.

“I owe you one old man.” He said as he turned to watch his brother.

Within minutes No2 had successfully transitioned and ripped himself off the wall.

“Did you see that old man from the past?” No2 whispered. No1 just nodded as his eyes continued to scan the darkness.

“Fucking epic brah.” No2 said.

“Who knows what the full story is. What I can say is this, I think where possible we should use [Infinite Constellation] rather than [12 Chamber-Heart].”

“I agree” No1 said. “No sign of the mega zombie?”

“Nah. I escaped hours ago and operated on you all. There have been no movements in all that time.”

The sound of something snapping echoed out and body flew of the wall further down the line. No1 and No2 immediately adopted fighting postures and were ready to attack in an instant.

But out of the darkness walked a tall blonde woman. She looked strong and athletic, mid to late thirties.

“Hello Tovarishch. You are Australian yes?”

Russian. Wolf thought.

“Yeah we are Aussie’s ” No1 replied.

“Da, I am Anastasiya.” She said as she looked expectantly around at the three men.

“Wolf.”

“No1”

“No2”

Everyone introduced themselves.

“Who operated on me?” She asked.

“I did.” Wolf said.

“Fantasticka!” She smiled. “Thank you for saving my life.”

THUD.

A loud noise echoed as an enormous man came free of the wall. A small giant walked forward and everyone froze as its face was revealed. 7 feet tall and as wide as three of No1, he was truly a goliath of a man.

All hair had fallen off his body including his eyebrows as if he had alopecia. His skin was completely white like an albino and his eyes were pink. Other than that he looked like a normal person.

No1 and No2 began to tap mana as they went to attack, but Wolf stood in front of them quickly.

“Wait……i don’t think he is a zombie. I operated on him too.”

“Nyet he is a zombie lord!” Anastasiya warned as she strafed to the side. Indeed the aura the man gave off was similar to the mega zombie from earlier, though nowhere near as strong.

“No use your mana-sense it’s not quite the same.” Wolf said. There was an undead aura to the man but he lacked the rotten, decaying smell the zombies had.

The man ambled up and everyone skittered back except for Wolf. The giant stood in front of Wolf as it stared down at him. Wolf coaxed a thin line of black-silver mana into his energy lines just in case as he readied for an attack.

But the giant only slowly nodded as it dropped onto one knee and looked up with a face of worship.

“Daddy.” He said in a deep voice.

As the giant spoke the words Wolf could feel an odd connection to it. He remembered the branding sensation on his mana when he operated on the man.

Gently he reached out his hand and rested it on the giants bald head. He probed his mana-sense into the giant and marvelled at the transformation that occurred. It was if his body was body dead and alive. Half of it had turned into an undead and half was still living flesh. Somehow they had formed some kind of equilibrium and fused.

His blood had been completely replaced with a thick black-mana that seemed to achieve the same purpose. All his energetic pathways were filled with the red-mana which formed a pipeline down where his appendix should be. Instead of an appendix there was now a small round balloon sized shape made off hardened red-mana.

The black-mana that was his blood would pump down his energetic pathways into the balloon and then back out into the body.

It’s like his new heart. Wolf marvelled as he took it all in. From the balloon an entwined Origin Concept constantly pumped out into the man’s body as the black-mana circulated in and out. It was the feeling of total loyalty to a master and an odd feeling of life beyond death.

Holy shit. I think its Origin Concept of Fealty bonded with me somehow as its master. Wolf realised. HAHAHA fucking win!

Wolf removed his hand from the man’s head and looked cockily back at No1 and No2.

“Arise my servant and speak your name!” Wolf said in a grandiose manner. The man slowly stood and towered over them all as it opened its mouth.

“Daddy.”

No1 and No2 wrinkled their brows as they waited.

“No no what is your name?” Wolf asked.

“Daddy?” the man said.

Wolf began to get the feeling something wasn’t quite right.

“Ahhh where are you from?” Wolf asked trying a different tack.

“Daddy!” the man said enthusiastically.

Fuck I brought him back to life but clearly he left something behind. Wolf thought miserably as his dreams of a slave servant faded.

“Wow Old man, your so talented. You found yourself a buddy even balder than you.” No1 laughed.

“I think when you made Frankenstein you forgot to put the brain in.” No2 chipped in. “No offence Frankie.”

“Well……fuck.” Wolf cursed as he became deflated.

“I do not understand this joking.” Anastasiya said as she looked confused.

“Dun worry Anna Banana no one understands this old cunt.” No1 laughed.

“Ana, do you recognise this man?” Wolf asked. He was curious about the big mans identity.

“Da. All would recognise him. His level has fallen very drastically, but he was in the special prison here.”

“Prison?” No1 asked.

“Da, that is where these men are from.” Ana said sweeping here hand at the dead bodies on the wall.

“This Aussie entry node is also place for criminals. All countries send their criminals here. India, Russia, European. Most dangerous criminals are sent here, ones with the highest potential. They did not kill them in case we are needed one day.”

“This one.” She said pointing to Frankenstein. “His name was the Mad Bull. He was very talented with the two handed heavy sword and his Origin Concept was powerful called [Fealty]. He defected from the Australian forces and made his own platoon. He would kill zombies on sight, but the humans he would only ever give two choices. Join him or die. If they join him his Origin Concept bind them to his service.”

“Eventually they hunted Mad Bull down and killed his men. This is what is left of him.”

“What a badass.” No2 said.

The effects of resurrection seem to have inverted his Origin Concept Wolf thought. Before it would bind others to him now it bound him to Wolf.

“Time for talking is later. We must escape before the Zombie Duke returns.” Anastasiya said. “There is a storage area we need to visit first down here. This has all the mana-stones, memory-stones and resources of the base. We need to collect what we can before we flee.” She said.

No1 and No2’s eyes lit up at the words ‘storage area.’

Without waiting for a reply Ana began to run off forcing the others to follow her. She quickly manovoured past the wall of dead men and through a series of twisting corridors before she entered a room with a huge thick door. Wolf looked over his shoulder and saw that Frankenstein had followed him like a dog.

Everyone quickly piled in and saw a long corridor stretching in front of them. The form of Ana in front of them suddenly flickered and faded into nothing.

BANG!

The enormous door closed behind them and the corridor was thrown into darkness. A sliver of light penetrated through from outside where a small hand sized slit was open in the thick door.

Wolf rushed to the door and bounced off it as he struck it several times. He stopped when he realised the sound was echoing out and causing too much noise and his blows had no effect on the incredibly thick door.

“Ana….” Wolf whispered as he put his face near the tiny slit.

Two blue eyes stared back at him from the other side of the door.

“I’m sorry Tovarishch.” She whispered. “But what you did……no one can know. You have made a new path, no? They will kill all of us if they find out it exists. The [12 Chamber-Heart] will not tolerate it.”

“Ana listen to me it’s our secret, no one will know. Just open the door.” Wolf pleaded. But Ana just shook her head with sad eyes.

“I am sorry Mr Wolf. Two can only keep a secret if one is dead.” She said as her face disappeared from the door.

“Motherless cunt.” Wolf swore.

“Frankie. Smash this door.” Wolf ordered.

“Daddy.”

“No son, come here see? Look punch this as hard as you can.” Wolf said as he acted out punching the door and pushed Frankensteins fist towards it.

“Daddy!” Frankie said as he sat down on the ground.

“For fuck’s sake!” Wolf swore as he lost control of his emotions.

“Guys I think we have bigger problems.” No2 said as he stared down the corridor.

Faces began to emerge at the end of the darkness as glowing pink eyes could be seen and an ominous aura came billowing out.

“Fuck that bitch locked us in the prison part.” No1 said.

Wolf frowned as he realised what the pink eyes were. If the mega zombie had tried to convert all the other prisoners in here as well a few must have survived the process.

What level is zombie lord? Wolf wondered as the eyes slowly grew closer. As he felt their auras roll in one thing was obvious. Whatever there level was, it was definitely higher than theirs.