The director was still missing. Ashton had to find her as well. Whether he liked her or not, didn't matter at the moment. She had saved his life on multiple occasions, it was only fair he did the same. Also, if he managed to save her, maybe she would be able to help him and Avalina in creating a clone for Astaroth.
Thankfully, Ashton had more than enough people to look for her. But first, he had to get the rest of them to safety. He retraced his step back to the portal. As soon as he walked out of the building, he was greeted by a pleasant sight.
All of the zombies had been taken care of. Including the ones the bitch called Servina brought with her. In some distance, Gokund and Lich's undead could be seen playing with a bunch of severed heads as if they were balls.
It was a sickening, yet funny sight. Celeste was roaming around creating more 'children' to help look for precious items, the undead might have dropped. While Sven was sitting next to the portal, protecting it.
Ashton's eyes then wandered over to the students, who were still in shock. And who could've blamed them? They might have studied in the same academy. But unlike him, it must have been their first close encounter with death like this.
In fact, Ashton would have gotten worried if they had not shown any emotion. After all, it wasn't every day that one's city got invaded by a bunch of over smart zombies.
However, even though they were safe, it didn't mean the crisis was evaded. They were still in danger. Hell, some of them might also have been infected with the virus without them knowing anything about it.
"Take her and protect her till I come back." Ashton warned Celeste before handing Anna to her, "She is a friend, so don't you dare try doing anything to her. If anything happens to her, I would stop punishing you entirely!"
"N-No, master! I would protect her with my life... though I'm already dead!"
Celeste being the masochist she was, couldn't even bear the thought of Ashton not berating her. Being downgraded and used by her master was her only purpose in 'life'. She couldn't let anything come between that!
Watching her behave like that, Sven couldn't help but shake his head. They were the servants of a great master. Thus they should behave like it, and yet Celeste always had to let everyone around her know how big of a pervert she was.
"Is she alright?" Layla immediately ran up to Ashton the moment she saw him.
Since Anna's appearance had changed a lot, Ashton took the liberty of covering her up. So that her wings, tail and horns were hidden away. Who knew how these fuckers would have reacted if they saw what he had done to her.
"Yeah, she's fine. Unfortunately, she had inhaled quite a bit of the smoke while she was unconscious." Ashton replied, "For now, my soldiers would keep an eye on her to make sure she's alright. Once she gets cleared, I'll send her back to her family."
He continued, "Till then, it's for the best that I keep her around me. It would be helpful if you could tell her parents about the arrangement."
"Thank you so much..." She immediately kneeled in front of Ashton, and so did the rest of the students, "For saving all of us."
Layla choked up a couple of times as tears flooded her eyes, before she finally managed to speak clearly. They were safe. It was a feeling not many of them could feel. They were the lucky few who managed to get out of this crisis.
Ashton nodded and left them behind, "Take them to the Palace and keep them there. If anyone of them shows signs of conversion, kill them."
He instructed Sven who was busy hacking away the zombie remains to strengthen his shadowy sword. Sven nodded, crushed the head with the hilt of his greatsword and disappeared into the portal.
Ashton had no idea how strong Anna was, but Sven and Celeste should be able to keep her in check. In the meantime, he once again tried using [Detection] on Anna, but just like before, it showed him the two most infamous sentences.
__
Please wait while genetic calibration takes place.
You'll be able to view the subject's status once she had completely recovered.
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With everything being taken care of, Ashton could now focus on disposing of the remaining enemies and hopefully, finding the Director somewhere in the city.
She was strong, so she should be alright. But he didn't know what the rest of the undead were planning. They could have potentially managed to defeat her.
"Let's get going shall we?" Ashton stretched his neck, "Rise and shine, you ugly bastards."
As soon as Ashton said those words, hundreds of corpses around him rose up. Well, at least those corpses that were somewhat intact.
The students assumed a defensive position the minute they saw the undead rising up. Only to see them bowing before Ashton as if they were his loyal subjects. Hundreds of undead, bowing down to one man... the sight was terrifying and satisfying at the same time.
"What even is he?" A first-year student asked.
It was obvious she did not know who Ashton was. Essentially, none of them had ever seen him before. Only the second and third years knew about him, along with the professors.
"He... is the strongest person to have ever entered the academy," Layla replied with an awestruck look, "Ashton Bismark, a student who never learned to bow before the rules that made our lives terrible."
"Senior, you shouldn't drool over a boy like that. Strong men don't like desperate girls." The first-year chuckled before heading into the portal.
Ashton closed the portal once all of them were gone. Despite his heightened perception, he couldn't find anyone who hadn't turned into undead. Let alone the director.
"Go ahead and find her. If you don't I'll kill you fuckers myself."
He ordered the undead he had taken control over before his legs gave out. He was using his abilities relentlessly. He was bound to suffer from exhaustion.
"You know, this place would be suitable for me to live." The Lich said, "A change of scenery might be helpful to me in ascending."
"You wanna live here? Go ahead, knock yourself out." Ashton replied without any care in the world, "You don't have to leave though. You might have given away the rights to the Eastern Palace, but you're more than welcome to live there."
"I will think about it."