I, the Supreme Overlord, Start by Enslaving the Zerg Queen
Chapter 51 - 51: The Story within the Mural

This was one of the nodes of the Crimson Tide, with spatial fluctuations continuously flickering around it, accompanied by the arrival of the returned dead.

So this was also one of the sources of those returned dead!

Seeing this, Charles hesitated.

Logically speaking, if the things inside were this formidable, it implied that this probably wasn't something from the newbie village.

In other words, this place likely harbored powerful entities.

But if they didn't go in...

Gazing at Little Green and Medusa, who were already struggling to cope, Charles couldn't help but smile bitterly and shake his head.

Why did he always run into such troublesome situations?

"Come here, let's enter this spatial node. Inside, we might find the answers we've been searching for!" Charles shouted to them. Once they joined him, they all entered together.

"Damn it, come back! Come back!" The returned dead roared angrily and resentfully into the space, but none dared to lead the way in, as if something inside intimidated them.

Moreover, after Charles and his group left, the returned dead, who had looked somewhat human before, now revealed their true forms.

They stood there numbly, their hollow eyes carrying an eerie glint, like a group of exquisite statues.

...

In the midst of a dilapidated palace ruin, Charles stood dumbfounded, staring at the scene before him.

Gray death energy drifted around, and the temple's interior resembled something from an ancient era. To call it a palace would be an overstatement.

Upon entering, Charles didn't rush to explore. Instead, he first sent a punctuation mark to Eve.

[Charles: .]

It went through, which allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief.

At least, this place was still within the bounds of the Continent of Overlord.

"Master, what is this place?" Medusa asked, her tone tinged with subtle curiosity as she observed the pensive Charles.

The node of the Crimson Tide was not far from her territory in the Dark Serpent Queen's domain. She had been here for years, so how had she never discovered this ruin-like place?

Ruins, after all, symbolized antiquity.

And in the Continent of Overlord, antiquity was synonymous with power and inscrutable mystery.

It seemed that they had entered a period of frequent calamities.

Charles, upon hearing her question, responded gravely, "This place appears to be a sacrificial palace, complete with altars and the like."

Could this be a peculiar relic that had declined due to the loss of divine protection?

It was peculiar precisely because of the pervasive death energy in the air.

Charles's research on death energy was not extensive, but he knew it always accompanied the fall of numerous living beings.

But now?

Given that this place had become a ruin, it should have turned into a dead zone.

Such ruins were common on the outskirts of the Continent of Overlord, but they were typically abandoned wastelands.

Standing still and pondering would yield no answers, so Charles decided to explore further.

The death of numerous living beings...

He could only hope that this was the result of some unforeseen calamity that led to the spread of death.

Otherwise, this place might be far from tranquil.

The trio initially chose not to venture directly into the palace's interior but instead decided to walk out through the door.

Only by seeing the exterior could they make a rough estimation of the kind of world they had entered.

Fortunately, there were no treacherous spatial folding formations here, only minor iron mechanisms.

From this, it appeared that the civilization here was still pre-nuclear. As for the extraordinary levels, Charles would need further investigation to make a conclusive judgment.

The path through the grand hall was not complicated, and Charles soon found his way to the exit, arriving at the doorway.

The wide and sturdy door was adorned with intricate patterns and bore traces of dried blood.

It was tightly shut, as if it had endured significant upheaval.

Charles cast a glance at Medusa, who immediately understood.

For a princess seasoned in the art of warfare, using small tactics to scout the enemy's position was an essential skill.

Her voluptuous figure crouched slightly, and her delicate fingers tapped gently on the ground.

Thump, thump, thump...

She infused a layer of magic into her hands, enabling her to receive radar-like feedback about everything outside the door.

Soon, she stood up and said in a relaxed tone, "Master, there are indeed some extraordinary entities outside, but their strength is only around Tier 2."

Hearing this, Charles did not hesitate and pushed the door open.

As the door swung open, the lingering scent of decay slowly wafted out.

Charles casually dispersed the gases with a wave of his hand and gazed deeply at the world outside.

Gray.

Desolate...

The entire landscape was shrouded in yellow sand, stretching endlessly. A few hundred meters ahead lay some low mounds, giving off an air of bleakness.

An abandoned ruin.

Yet, Medusa had mentioned that there seemed to be some extraordinary entities.

This piqued his interest—where could they be?

As if to confirm Charles's thoughts, the mounds ahead began to move.

Yes, even those dozens of meters of earthen mounds were slowly lumbering towards them, occasionally emitting eerie wails of the undead.

[Skeletal Abominations]

[Race: Undead]

[Combat Power: Mid-Tier 2]

[Ability: Undead Wail]

[Description: This was once a paradise, but due to an unknown anomaly, they have become grotesque and irredeemable—a deadlock beyond salvation...]

Tier 2 undead creatures.

Charles gazed at the mound before him, pondering whether even the undead these days felt the need to add a layer of protection to themselves.

"This big guy looks pretty weak, not even as strong as those outside." Little Green muttered under her breath.

Charles shook his head slightly, and a long spear composed of black energy slowly materialized around him.

Swish!

The Spear of Overlord shot forth with lightning speed, piercing through the gigantic skeletal abomination in the distance. Without pausing, it veered to impale the remaining small mounds one by one.

As a Tier 4 warrior, Charles could already exert some of his past life's prowess, and his mastery of the spear was nothing short of extraordinary.

Watching the Overlord Spear move as if it had a life of its own, Medusa felt a shiver of fear.

Just from that display, she was certain she wouldn't be able to dodge it. The spear could likely impale her chest directly.

The weapon seemed to possess a spirit, or perhaps Charles's mental strength was so formidable that he could pinpoint his enemies effortlessly.

At that speed, it might be questionable for a Tier 4 to escape, but for anyone below that tier, instant impalement was inevitable!

"Wow! What an amazing spear, Master! Is this one of your abilities?" Little Green's small head was filled with admiration.

Charles nodded slowly, smiling. "No, strictly speaking, this is just a weapon's application. It's not difficult, you can have Medusa teach you later."

For now, they had other matters to attend to.

All the skeletal abominations had been slain, revealing their true forms.

They were horrific creatures made up of countless skulls.

To be honest, Charles found the combat power displayed here to be somewhat underwhelming.

After all, this place was supposedly connected to the Land of the Dead and the Crimson Tide, it didn't make sense for the monsters here to only be mid-Tier 2.

These weak skeletal creatures seemed more like bait to lure them in.

Charles glanced into the distance, realizing that in this world of endless yellow sand, there were no landmarks.

He thought that if he led his people outside, there was a high chance they wouldn't find their way back.

Getting lost would mean being trapped in this bizarre space.

Therefore.

"Alright, we've seen what's outside. The risks of going further are too high. Let's return to the grand hall, perhaps the answers are already there." Charles said, wrapping his right arm around Medusa's waist and holding Little Green's hand with his left.

The two women understood. In such an environment, it was all too easy to lose one's way, so they had no objections.

The three of them returned to the grand hall, and Charles made sure to order the door to be closed.

This was the only building in the desert space, and Charles felt that it had a significant purpose, or at least there were things they shouldn't disturb.

This journey had not only failed to solve the mysteries of why the Crimson Tide erupted and the resurrection of the dead but had also added more questions.

What kind of small world was this, and what had happened to make it so desolate?

Pondering these questions, the trio ventured deeper into the hall, continuing their exploration.

The corridor walls were lined with chaotic murals, filled with indistinct and cryptic symbols that made everyone's heads ache.

"Master, doesn't this look like a leader struggling against his own subjects?" Medusa pointed to one of the murals, which depicted a group of uniformly dressed, armed individuals driving away a crowd in tattered clothes.

She believed the story depicted here was likely about the conflict between the upper and lower classes of a nation, a fairly common theme in murals.

But Charles shook his head slightly and said, "I don't think so, Medusa. Look closely at the expressions of the weapon-wielding individuals and the other group."

Medusa paused for a moment and then noticed what he meant.

If the rulers were truly using their military might to crush the rebels, why do they look so twisted and terrified?

Following their gaze, those who were supposed to be the weaker group had eerie, unsettling expressions.

It was as if... they were about to devour the rulers!

Noticing the change in his dim-witted slave girl's expression, Charles explained, "In the subsequent murals, the leader's army is overrun by a group of seemingly powerless vagrants, who then tear apart and devour the leaders."

"Look at the beginning and the middle sections here. At first, it might indeed be a case of the leaders suppressing the rebels, as you said."

"But as you move further along, the leaders are the ones suffering constant losses, and those vagrants start to look less and less human."

"They went through some kind of mutation!"