The hillside shook violently.
"Something's wrong! Denji, we need to get away from that Devil now!" Cael barked.
"Oh… okay!" Denji stammered, panic in his voice as he tried to run alongside Cael.
But his malnourished legs betrayed him. He tripped over a stray rock, falling hard to the wet ground.
He stared up, frozen, as the massive, grotesque human face in the sky slowly descended.
"Hey kid, want to make a contract with me? Join our Devil family~" The Zombie Devil's voice slithered through the air, accompanied by a grotesque laugh.
"Tsk."
"I'll join your *!" Cael swore, spinning around and scooping Denji into his arms.
Denji was lighter than expected. He weighed barely fifty pounds.
"Tha… thank you, big brother."
Denji's maturity surprised Cael. Most kids his age would have screamed or wet themselves at the sight of a massive flying Zombie Devil.
"Don't worry, I've got you." Cael's voice was calm. He had seen enough death to know fear was a luxury. The priority was distance and understanding the Devil's strategy.
But he barely moved two steps when the Zombie Devil transformed again.
Thick, fleshy tendrils, like writhing octopus arms, shot from the Devil's head and plunged into the ground. One found its way into Denji's father's grave.
"Ugh—aaaaah—!!!" A low, guttural roar erupted from the grave.
The coffin lid splintered, and Denji's father crawled out.
Filthy, decomposed, stinking of rot, and with milky, sightless eyes, he was now a puppet of the Zombie Devil.
And he wasn't alone. Soon, dozens of corpses clawed their way out of the soil, eventually numbering a hundred.
Cael understood instantly. The shaking ground wasn't the Devil's power—it was the rising undead army.
Denji and Cael were surrounded.
"Go tear those two apart." The Zombie Devil's face twisted into a cruel grin.
The corpses moved as one, closing in on the pair. Denji's father lunged first, grabbing Denji's ankle with decaying hands and opening his jaw wide.
Denji's pupils constricted in terror. A dead father was worse than a living one.
"No… no! Dad, don't come near me!" he cried, trembling.
Cael's eyes narrowed. "He's already dead, and you're still whining?"
A black vortex formed in his palm.
Clap.
Half of Denji's father's body was crushed instantly by the gravitational pull of Cael's Dark Hole.
The Zombie Devil recoiled. "Cael, your ability is… unnatural. Which Devil did you contract?"
Hmph. Cael jumped onto the mound of the grave with Denji still in his arms. "Go to hell and ask there."
He slammed his right hand onto the earth.
"Dark Hole!"
Instantly, darkness spread outward in all directions. Within moments, all zombies within a hundred meters were trapped.
The vortex yanked at their feet first, crushing bone and flesh. The pull intensified, grinding entire bodies into the soil.
The zombie army was obliterated in moments. Even the surrounding dirt, grass, and the Jeep were reduced to rubble.
"What are you? What kind of Devil are you?!" The Zombie Devil screeched in panic, realizing its meticulously raised army was annihilated.
Heh. Cael smirked. "Not worth my time explaining."
The Dark Hole contracted into a small black sphere, floating effortlessly at Cael's fingertips.
"Big brother, your nose is bleeding a lot…" Denji whispered.
"Just a scratch." Cael wiped his nose with his sleeve, the black mourning suit absorbing the blood like ink.
The Zombie Devil knew it had underestimated him. Without hesitation, it tried to flee.
"Hmph, running now?" Cael said, sending the black sphere hurtling toward the Devil's back.
"My ability isn't just gravity… there's also…"
"Dark Hole, Liberation!"
The explosion of force blasted the Devil apart, scattering flesh and debris in a violent torrent.
"Eek—aaaaah—!!!"
The Zombie Devil disintegrated into dust.
Cael blew on his fingertips casually. "Old bastard, I said if you came after us again, I'd kill you. Didn't believe me?"
This was the Dark-Dark Fruit in action: gravitational pull with Dark Hole, repulsive force with Liberation. Attacks directed at him returned multiplied if they didn't outright kill him.
Ding. Host had killed 102 controlled zombies, gaining 102 attribute points.
Ding. Host had killed the Zombie Devil, gaining 21 attribute points.
Unallocated attribute points: 123
Crap, killing it so fast meant fewer farming opportunities, but better safe than sorry.
Cael allocated the points without hesitation.
Constitution: 114
Luck: 28
Power surged through him, filling every inch of his body.
"Not bad." He sighed, rubbing Denji's head. "We don't owe anyone money anymore."
"Mm-hmm, thank you, big brother! You were so cool just now!" Denji's eyes sparkled.
Cael smiled faintly. "So, what's next for you, Denji? You're an orphan now."
"I… I guess I'd work at a shady shop."
"Shady shop?" Cael shook his head. "Forget that. Work at my funeral parlor. I won't cheat you, and I won't let you starve as long as I can eat myself."
Denji's eyes widened. "Then… what would breakfast be?"
Cael smirked, pinching his chin. "Fried dough sticks, soy milk, steamed buns. Personally, I like corn porridge with sweet potatoes."
Denji swallowed hard. "If that's true… that would be amazing."