"My God!"
Pitas felt not only his scalp tingling but also his legs going weak. The zombies that had fallen into the pit were like a cascade of sand, crashing down and awakening the dormant undead below. In an instant, a storm of guttural roars swept across the area, sending chills down the spine.
"Of all the things to run into…" Rosen muttered, feeling exasperated as he quickly manipulated the surrounding sand.
"Earth Surge: Sandstorm!"
With a thunderous rumble, the ground trembled, and an immense wave of sand poured into the pit, burying countless zombies.
However, the ones on the surface were already closing in on Rosen.
"Multi-layered Sand Tempest!"
The swirling sandstorm in Rosen's hands twisted into countless intricate formations. One by one, towering tornadoes of sand erupted around him, roaring outward in all directions.
Numerous zombies were swept away by the tornadoes, vanishing into the distance. Yet, some of the larger ones managed to remain grounded, their feet buried deep in the soil. Though their bodies were slashed by the storm's cutting winds, they refused to be carried away.
At that moment, Rosen noticed countless limbs emerging from the sand-covered pit.
He could bury them, fill the holes with sand, but he couldn't reverse the process. The moment the ground had turned to sand, it lost its solidity—unless he continuously compressed and reinforced it with his abilities.
But he had merely covered the pit as a reflex, not expecting the zombies to be particularly strong. That was his miscalculation.
Boom!
A towering three-meter-tall zombie with an eerie blue glow burst out from beneath the sand. Using both hands and mouth, it lunged at Rosen.
Rosen had no idea what this thing was, but he had no intention of letting it touch him. If it carried some unknown virus that could even affect a Logia-type user, getting careless would be a fatal mistake.
"Find a place to hide—Desert Barrier!"
A wall of sand rose in front of Rosen. The blue-skinned giant slammed into it with a resounding crash, its body nearly deforming from the impact, yet it still let out an unwilling roar.
With its mouth wide open, it unleashed an air cannon, blasting the sand wall to pieces.
Rosen immediately sensed that this attack came from a Devil Fruit power. Thanks to his Observation Haki, his perception had heightened significantly.
"This big guy… Was it an ability user before it died? But aren't Devil Fruits supposed to reincarnate upon the user's death? Or… could it be that they didn't fully die?"
That was the only possibility that made sense to Rosen.
"Desert Lance!"
Rosen clenched his hand in midair, forming a spear of compressed sand and hurling it forward. The spear pierced straight through the zombie's body, flinging it into the distance.
But Rosen knew the attack hadn't destroyed its head. Its reaction was still sharp, meaning it likely wasn't dead.
From the way the previous attacks had worked, it was clear—the weak point of these zombies was their heads. That wasn't surprising. After all, the head was a critical spot for most creatures, even the undead.
"Desert Greatsword!"
The zombies that had managed to approach Rosen were decapitated in one swift slash.
Yet despite this, these fear-driven creatures continued to surge forward relentlessly. Their vitality was extreme—even when buried under the sand, they would still struggle and claw their way back up.
"Sandstorm Starfall!"
The swirling sand around Rosen shot into the sky before transforming into countless sand-forged greatswords, raining down in a sweeping barrage.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ground erupted like a cluster bomb detonation.
Countless zombies were torn apart, and even those that survived were missing limbs, their movements slowing down significantly.
"Sandstorm Surge!"
Rosen wasn't finished. A true sandstorm materialized, sweeping across the land, swallowing everything in its path.
Even these undead creatures were powerless before the storm, carried away to the farthest reaches of the desert.
Rosen infused the storm with his ability, ensuring that it would continue rolling forward like a raging tide, only stopping at an undetermined point in the distance.
In an instant, the vast horde of zombies was swept away, leaving behind an eerily cleansed battlefield.
Amid the sandstorm, countless writhing undead could be seen, creating the terrifying image of a "zombie sandstorm."
"Let's go."
With most of the zombies cleared, Rosen didn't intend to linger. Logia-type users truly were the bane of these lesser creatures, and he had no interest in wasting more time on them.
"Roar!"
But at that moment, Rosen saw something shocking—
The blue-skinned giant had torn its way out of the sandstorm.
And it wasn't alone.
Dozens of enormous zombies followed, now clearly visible without the surrounding horde to obscure them.
Some had mutated grotesquely—zombies covered in bone spines, others with multiple heads and limbs, looking even more monstrous than before.
Among them were a few with green moss and vines growing from their bodies, eerily resembling plants.
This made Rosen recall the warning from the captain—never, under any circumstances, get wounded by these particular zombies.
"Move! Don't just stand there!"
Rosen had no intention of wasting time on them. He wasn't here to clean up zombies. Right now, while their numbers were still manageable, escaping through the air was the best option.
Moonwalk!
With a few rapid bursts, Rosen grabbed Pitas and shot into the sky, disappearing from the area in just a few flashes.
Some of the zombies spat corrosive projectiles after them, but since there weren't many, Rosen easily dodged them.
After escaping several kilometers away, Rosen no longer sensed any pursuit.
However, looking down at the basin ahead, he saw something even worse—
Between several hills, an enormous horde of zombies was aimlessly wandering.
Thousands upon thousands of undead.
For anyone with a fear of crowds, this would be an absolute nightmare.
They huddled together, swaying listlessly in their dormant state.
To avoid attracting attention, Rosen had to land and proceed on foot.
Flying was too conspicuous. More importantly, some of these zombies clearly had aerial attack capabilities.
"This… This can't be real. How could so many people have turned into this?"
Pitas was in disbelief. He might have been a low-life, but this was still his homeland—an island under the rule of the Lantis Kingdom.
And now, it was difficult to find a single living soul.
For him, the sight was despair-inducing.
"This is reality," Rosen said grimly. "It's likely the entire island has fallen. And judging by the lack of defensive structures, these zombies have been here for quite some time—not a recent outbreak.
"If this had just happened, there would be signs of massive conflict. But everything here has already settled into an undead nation."
Rosen felt an unsettling weight in his chest.
A nation of a million people—turned into the living dead.
And the outside world barely knew.
Survivors who had escaped only described "monsters" on the island, but without a concrete picture of the scale.
From what Rosen had seen, however, he could already deduce the horrifying truth.
No wonder the Marines had sealed off this island.
If whatever caused this was contagious, the consequences could spread beyond this island—perhaps even threatening the world.
But what baffled Rosen the most was this:
What kind of power in this world could turn people into zombies?
And not just any zombies—some had clearly mutated beyond normal undead.
More disturbingly, some still retained their Devil Fruit abilities.
These weren't just mindless corpses.
They were monsters.
Yet, judging by their tattered clothing, most of them had been ordinary civilians before this.
Was this the result of a man-made catastrophe? Or an accident?
Rosen didn't know.
But whatever had happened here…
It was beyond terrifying.
(End of Chapter)
=========================================================
DROP THEM POWER STONES PLEASE
SUPPORT ME ON P@TREON IF YOU'D LIKE ACCESS ON ADVANCED CHAPTERS
PAT REON . COM / TurdTranslations (Just remove the space).