I, the Supreme Overlord, Start by Enslaving the Zerg Queen
Chapter 52 - 52: The Monsters That Are Not Yet Dead

As Charles's resolute voice echoed, the entire corridor suddenly began to shake violently.

It felt as if... it had come to life!

Rumble!

A series of loud noises followed, forcing everyone to cover their ears, waiting for the tremors to subside.

Suddenly, furious roars erupted from outside the door. The creatures pounded on the door, sensing that living beings were once again inside the grand hall.

The undead, after all, are a race that despises the living.

"Master, you stay here and decipher the stone walls. We'll go outside and hold off those undead creatures." Medusa decisively said, ready to take Little Green back to the door to buy their master some time.

This place is very eerie, so the information left by predecessors is extremely important.

However, Charles shook his head and said, "The undead outside shouldn't be able to get in, otherwise, there wouldn't be just this one standalone structure."

"Listen closely to the outside world with your little tricks. They're probably just raging uselessly."

He calmly listened to the sounds outside the door, noting that while the undead were making noise, very few were actually pounding on the door. After the pounding, the sounds ceased entirely.

From the sounds, he could deduce that the creatures were merely howling at the door, unable to break through.

Medusa felt a bit embarrassed upon hearing this. She had wanted to show her loyalty, but who would have thought that the monsters couldn't even get inside this cursed place?

This was good news.

So, everyone quickly refocused their attention on the murals from the past.

Little Green looked at the paintings on the wall and hesitantly said, "Master, Medusa, maybe you didn't notice because you came in earlier. Before entering this space, I took one last glance at those returned dead outside. Their expressions seemed to match those on the murals."

It was fortunate that this girl had been so observant, otherwise, who knows when this information might have surfaced.

Charles's expression grew extremely serious.

If the murals in this place match the expressions of the dead outside, then... what about the scenes outside?

Could it be that the mishandling of the events depicted in the murals led to this lifeless little world?

In the murals, it all started with a peaceful feudal kingdom, where people lived happily within the images.

Charles could see that even the peasants in the paintings wore genuine smiles.

But that was just the first mural.

Afterwards, there were droughts and plagues that killed many people.

Coupled with the power transition in the kingdom at the time, the contenders for the throne didn't care about the common people, leaving them to fend for themselves.

This series of natural and man-made disasters spanned several murals, only stabilizing when the kingdom was unified once again.

Unlike the first painting, the leaders in the subsequent murals revealed their corrupt nature. They began to brutally massacre civilians for their own pleasure, turning the human world into a living hell.

It was a dark era, with marauders laughing wildly as they hunted humans. Some women, clearly mothers and daughters, were stripped naked and laid out on dining tables...

After the great calamity, things seemed to get even worse.

In a few more murals, the kingdom appeared to notice something and began to aggressively hunt down ordinary people.

But...

"Master, something's not right. This mural isn't complete." Medusa said with certainty.

Charles nodded. She was right. There was a gap between the nobles wantonly slaughtering civilians and the military being deployed to suppress the strange people.

Otherwise, there was no reason for such a sudden escalation to military intervention, nor for the previously powerless civilians to undergo such mutations.

Charles rubbed his temples, eerie snippets of thought echoing in his mind.

He couldn't shake the feeling that these murals had a subtle, disturbing effect on the psyche.

However, to understand what had happened here as soon as possible, studying these murals was the most convenient method.

In the later murals, the now-transformed returned dead civilians were shown overthrowing the army.

They annihilated the kingdom.

After their revenge, the returned dead did not return to the underworld. Instead, they revealed a bloodthirsty nature, beginning to devour those they had once known.

How similar this scene was!

The story ended with the returned dead completely exterminating everyone in the kingdom, converting them into creatures like themselves.

Over time, exposed to the elements, they fused together, becoming the stitched monsters outside.

Medusa gently massaged Charles's temples, helping to alleviate his mental fatigue. She spoke softly, "Master, you should take a break. Everything here is very eerie, only in full condition can we ensure maximum safety."

Seeing this, Little Green also massaged the other side of his temple, mumbling something about how the master should take care of his health.

Charles, however, merely gave a wry smile and prepared to continue walking.

The corridor ahead was still long, and they had a lot of ground to cover.

Charles had a premonition that the sudden downfall of this kingdom was likely connected to the Land of the Dead!

When it came to matters of life and death, Charles possessed immense resilience and courage. It was precisely this quality that allowed him to be one step ahead, every step of the way.

Seeing his determination, the two women, although helpless, respected his decision and followed along.

Soon, they came across more murals on the walls.

This time, however, the murals were adorned with splashes of fresh blood!

"Master, look! There are words up there!" Little Green exclaimed, poking Charles's arm and pointing to the ceiling.

Upon hearing this, Charles quickly looked up and clearly saw the mural on the ceiling.

That was...

"These are the missing pieces!" Charles said excitedly.

With that, they began to decipher the murals. Unfortunately, the presence of bloodstains made it somewhat difficult.

Fortunately, the critical information remained intact.

As Charles gazed at the dozens of murals above, his pupils contracted slightly.

Because the downfall of this kingdom was indeed intricately connected to the Land of the Dead.

Moreover, it seemed that the Serene Forest was experiencing a similar catastrophe!

Within the kingdom, the nobles continued to oppress the peasants. But at some point, the deceased peasants began to rise again!

Just like the process in the forest outside, some of the returned dead were farming for their families, while others were enduring countless acts of perverse humiliation in the nobles' training chambers.

At this point in the timeline, the next mural revealed that the dead were experiencing problems.

They began to crave flesh, whether it was domesticated poultry or disgusting insects—they were not picky.

Soon, people started getting eaten.

As these incidents escalated and became more frequent, the kingdom could no longer sit idly by and began deploying troops to suppress the man-eating monsters.

This is what the middle part of the mural depicted, but... it wasn't the end.

Although the leaders and their forces were killed and devoured by those monsters, the issue was fully exposed to the public.

Mages, warriors, and even reclusive bards with extraordinary abilities quickly eradicated the man-eating monsters.

Before long, all the man-eating monsters within the kingdom were executed and burned at the stake by holy fire.

Charles's face broke out in a cold sweat, and his sense of unease grew stronger and stronger.

Because... the kingdom still fell.

If those extraordinary beings had completely eliminated the returned dead, why had the kingdom been reduced to just a single main building?

The story wasn't over yet, and the next records would reveal the truth behind the kingdom's downfall!

In the final few murals, the kingdom once again appeared peaceful and serene.

But the mutation came swiftly, the man-eating monsters began to decay, starting from the palace.

They devoured each other, forming a particularly formidable monster that wiped out all the nobles within the kingdom.

And then, chaos reigned.

Countless returned dead that had been lying dormant resurfaced, starting to devour the living within the kingdom.

When the extraordinary beings reappeared to cleanse the kingdom once more, the returned dead self-destructed.

At the sites of their explosions, tiny fissures appeared, emitting the densest death energy.

This... was why there was so much death energy outside.

"So that's it. The returned dead aren't the main force, they're terrifying entities connecting to the Land of the Dead!" Charles's face turned grim.

In the subsequent murals, images of bone dragons, lich kings, and necromancers—the otherworldly invaders—appeared.

It was they who ultimately snuffed out the life of the kingdom, pressing the death button on everyone's existence.

"Master, these returned dead must be completely eradicated. We need to get out of here quickly!" Medusa's face was deathly pale as she spoke urgently.

No kidding, if we don't hurry, our home will soon become the Land of the Dead!

The fissures that appeared after the returned dead self-destructed essentially tore open the world's barriers!

Only in this way could the necrotic influence of the Land of the Dead gradually seep into this kingdom.

And then, powerful undead creatures, often at the eighth or ninth tier, could emerge through the fissures!

"You're right, Medusa. We do need to hurry back. No matter how many secrets lie here, we must return," Charles said, exhaling deeply to regain his composure.

"But there's one more thing I think you've all forgotten. Before we entered here, the passageway was surrounded by quite a bit of blood."

"Considering what the murals suggest, I'm more inclined to believe... they haven't eliminated the fusion monster that successfully merged within the palace!"