The Villainess and I, her Zombie

|Zombie...! Zombie wake up! We screwed up!|

Patience's voice was echoing in the boy's head... he heard it, but it was so hard to wake up...

But he had to.

Cranberry was waiting for him.

"...ugh..."

"!!!!!!!!!!!!"

He muttered in spite of himself and he heard the sound of someone hurriedly backing off, so he rolled over.

|Get up! Open your eyes! We messed up! Hurry! We need to fix it as soon as possible!|

Patience commanded him in an urgent voice.

|Alright, alright...|

Zombie agreed feeling waves of strong pain crashing all over his body.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked up.

Right in front of him, he saw a young blood-red-haired freckled girl in a red dress, staring at him with scared, wide-opened eyes.

"...Cranberry...?"

He asked in confusion, his mind still foggy.

Then he looked down, just to see his hands, still in the color of the living being.

"H-huh...?! HUH?! What the hell?!"

The boy shouted and jumped right back up at his feet.

|That's what I've been talking about, idiot! You're still alive! I knew that you shouldn't have leveled up reaching level 3 of superbia! The passive modifiers must have multiplied your DEF stat so much that the speeding carriage wasn't able to kill you! Hurry! We must get you killed or our plan will be ruined!|

Patience cried out in a panicked voice

"What is this supposed to...?!"

"NEIGH! (IT HURTS! BLOOD! KILL! I MUST KILL HUMANS!"

He complained but his voice god drowned by the horse's neigh so loud that it must have been heard in the entire village.

Of course, such a loud noise got the attention of everyone present...

And what they saw was the massive jet black horse monster with crimson eyes standing up from over the carcass of the other horse...

Its jaws now filled with sharp fangs were drenched with the blood of its dead brethren and its body was getting covered in rapidly growing horns - two especially big grew straight from its forehead...

...right above the brightly burning mark...

|Eh...?! Well, isn't that a ridiculous coincidence! Zombie, it's one of your favorite sigil monsters!|

Patience laughed in relief.

"ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!"

The boy roared in shock mixed with fury...

"NEIGH! (HUMAN FOALS! YOU SHALL BE MY FIRST MEAL!)"

...and as if in response, the horse monster snorted back and an unbelievable amount of red and black smoke shot out from its nostrils and formed a dome-like barrier that pushed out the remains of the carriage together with Lord Blackberry and the wounded coachman but encompassed the two children and the horse monster.

|No fucking way! Are you telling me that this is how the meeting between the two of us was supposed to happen?!|

Zombie growled internally.

|There's nothing about it in the knowledge I have access to! This meeting is a mere backstory, it wasn't properly explained or showed in the game! Everything will be fine as long as you end up dead... I guess...|

Patience explained hurriedly but didn't sound very certain, especially not by the end of her sentence...

|YOU GUESS?!|

Zombie roared furiously.

"NEIGH! (HUMAN FOALS, I SHALL FEAST ON YOUR FLESH AND THEM IS HALL DEVOUR EVERYONE ELSE! BE GRATEFUL TO BE THE FIRST OF YOUR KIND TO BECOME MY PREY!)"

The beast's voice sounded as if it laughed as it kicked up the ground with its clawed hoof, staring hungrily at the soft defenseless bodies in front of it.

|You heard that? This one is way more talkative than the previous two! Must be a difference between the mind of a bug and the mammal.|

Patience pointed out with interest.

|I don't give a damn about how well-spoken it is! It wants us dead all the same!|

Zombie gritted his teeth, glaring at the confident monster looking with amusement back at the barrier it created - or rather at Lord Blackberry giving his best but failing miserably to break through it.

"NEIGH! (FULLISH HUMANS! ONLY DEATH AWAITS YOU ALL! WITNESS HOW I DEVOUR YOUR FOALS AND WAIT YOUR TURN!)"

The horse monster neighed mockingly and more red and black smoke escaped its nostrils.

"Hey! You dumb horse, aren't you forgetting about someone?!"

"HA?!"

Zombie scoffed and stepped in front of Cranberry, protecting her with his body - which made the girl gasp in shock and disbelief.

|Yeah... if you only needed to die here, there would be no problem, those horns look really sharp - little horsie ranked up all the way to a bicorn - the thing is, you need to die but make sure that your villainess will survive. Are you up to it?|

Patience asked sounding as if she was stiff from worry.

|Do you even have to ask? I won't fail her the second time.|

Zombie scoffed back, watching as the bicorn slowly turns its head and focuses its crimson eyes straight at him.

|Ugh... creepy, horses aren't supposed to have front-facing eyes like those...|

Patience muttered in disgust, but this time she was ignored, even though Zombie was one hundred percent agreeing with her.

"Neigh... (Cheeky human foal, why does it sound like you can understand me, food isn't supposed to talk back...)"

The bicorn neighed mockingly, but its voice didn't lack surprise.

"Food? Big words for a mere prey!"

Zombie laughed back as his face twisted with a mocking smirk.

"Neigh...?! (Huh, you do understand me! What magic is this...?!)"

"Ha?! You, you understand that monster?!"

Both the bicorn and Cranberry were equally shocked by the realization.

"..."

Zombie's smirk turned from a mocking into a confident one as he turned back and glanced at the red-haired girl.

"Miss, you don't look like you are ten years old, you must have not become a player character yet, have you?"

He asked in a completely different tone.

"Ha...?! Um... yes, but, that's not the time to...!"

Cranberry flinched and took a step back, glancing between the smiling boy and the large beast staring down at them with an unprecedented fury.

"It would be a shame if you missed on the benefits of the early quests just because of some measly monster..."

"NEIGH?! (A WEAK FOAL IS CALLING ME A MEASLY MONSTER?!)"

The bicorn foamed from anger at the boy's words and lowered its head for a charge.

"...leave it to me. I will make sure to protect you until you will be able to stand your ground on your own! Then... we will take on the world together, my princess."

Zombie laughed and winked at the baffled girl turned back to face the enraged sigil monster.

|Wha...! Where did that come from?!|

Patience gasped in disbelief.

"Ha?! Who is your princess, you...!"

"Kopia, it's time to play."

"Let's!"

Cranberry gasped and pouted, although her face did turn slightly pink for some reason, but then the words got stuck in her throat once Zombie pulled out a one-handed short-sword from the expensive-looking scabbard - and the sword responded to him in a high-pitched voice before flashing white and turning into a scimitar!

Then, three more thin crimson threads sprouted from the scimitar pommel and wrapped around the boy's right hand, joining a single thread that was there from the very beginning, adding to the girl's confusion.

"I can imagine that you are eager to fight too, but leave this one to me..."

Zombie laughed, glancing at Cranberry one more time.

"...now... let's do this, stupid horse!"

"!!!"

Then he laughed and his body began glowing with a vibrant violet light that left Cranberry speechless.

"NEIGH! (YOU WILL REGRET MOCKING ME, HUMAN FOAL!)"

The bicorn neighed and launched straight at the boy, kicking up a fountain of soil.