The Villainess and I, her Zombie

It was dark.

Everything was so very dark as if the world was swallowed by a giant serpent...

Serpent...?

|THE REMNANT!|

Zombie roared before he realized that he did not open his mouth and only shouted in his mind.

Actually, after a closer inspection, Zombie realized that he does not possess a physical body.

He was merely a violet ball of light.

|What the...? Is ist this the sin of origin nucleus...? But why...?|

He gasped in disbelief, taken aback by the sudden realization.

Yes. It must have been that place again, when he focused, he could see the lights representing the avatars of sins and their heirs in the distance, though the yellow one was much much closer than he remembered it from the first visit.

|Ah, that must be because the queen is in the audience... she must be freaked out...|

Zombie scoffed, looking around in search of a way out...

Actually, was there even a way out?

The last time he just woke up...

|How am I suppsed to force myself to wake up in the first place...?|

Zombie muttered to himself focusing every bit of his will into making his body in the other dimension move.

...all for naught...

|The hell?! I must wake up! Come on body! MOVE!|

He roared furiously but only made himself bounce around in the suspended darkness.

|Did I die...? No, impossible, remnant or not, the hydra just ranked up which should make it level 1... the remnant of Wing was strong but it had time to level up before my Cranberry and I started farming it for the experience, and it lost levels with each resurrection too!|

The violet ball grumbled in confusion.

|Hey, Pati, what do you think about it?|

He ended up asking unable to figure out what to do next in that situation.

...

But the only answer he got, was silence.

|Pati...? Come on, it's not time to play around like that! Stop hiding and show yourself!|

Zombie called out, or rather, thought out loud, but there was no response.

|Are you still grumpy over what happened? Don't be like that, I have the right to be angry after being treated like an angry toddler!|

He complained floating around searching for the white sphere, but she was nowhere in sight.

|Pati! Seriously! We don't have time for this! I'm really going to start hating you if you keep hiding!|

He called out again, already feeling the anger building up in his temporary spherical body.

|...don't hate me...|

|...!|

All of a sudden, a silent cry coming from behind made him bounce up from the shock.

|Pati?! Geez, don't scare me like...|

Zombie gasped and instantly breathed out with relief, turning around to face the sealed overseer in form of the white sphere...

|...that...|

...that certainly was not there.

What was there instead, was a whole person made out of white energy, half-light half gass, whose facial feature the blue undead could not mistake for anyone else in the world.

It was...

Cranberry.

But not the young one that was left with Baron and Roan to defend against a hydra back in the other dimension, but the other one, the one from the first playthrough...

...his Cranberry...

|Wha...? H-how...?! Your... your data was deleted by Pati! I learned it straight from her when we merged right before I reset the world!|

Zombie uttered almost fearfully, floating back just a little bit from the glowing apparition.

|Z-Zombie...! Don't hate me...! Don't ever say that you will hate me...!|

The glowing Cranberry cried out so pitifully that Zombie's heart felt like it got pierced through with an ice spear.

|Don't say that you will hate me...! Don't hate me...! Please...! Zombie...!|

The glowing Cranberry was crying her heart out and reached her hands towards him as if begging for him to hug her and tell her that everything will be alright.

|Cranberry!|

Zombie felt his heart healing up, and he rushed towards her - it was her!

It was definitely her!

The Cranberry that only he knew!

The one who finally opened up to him only right before her demise by the hands of the will of the world!

Even if she was a ghost or a phantom, or even a figment of his imagination - to hold her one more time...!

He floated towards her, restless, he could see more and more details of her face, even in that strange half-transparent form she still had her charming freckles.

|Z-Zombie...!|

The apparition cried out, a bit softer as if her sorrow was eased up by her servant simply getting closer.

|I'm here, Cranberry. Everything will be alright.|

Zombie felt that he is no longer just a sphere of violet light, he could feel his body back, he outstretched his hands to lock his Cranberry in a loving embrace and...!

"!!!!!"

The little blue undead opened his eyes as his arms grabbed the empty air in front of him.

"AH! Master, you woke up!"

Kopia in her humanoid form cried out in relief, shaking his shoulder with a face that looked like she was actually shedding tears for him before.

"Wh-what is going on...?"

Zombie sat up, staring at the red and black barrier right in front of him.

"Where is my Cranberry...?"

He asked in confusion, lowering his head and looking at the empty air between his arms.

"Master! Cranberry is over there, fighting with the weird snake thing that knocked you out! Baron and the weakling prince too! You must help them, they are losing...!"

"Huh...?"

Zombie gasped, shook his head like a dog that got showered in water, and blinked a few times, still unable to comprehend what was going on.

"The weird snake thing with many heads! Over there!"

Kopia urged him in a high-pitched voice and actually grabbed his head and turned it in the right direction.

"..."

There, Zombie saw the massive hydra, biting on the red dragon with its four heads while the fifth one was attempting to swallow the red-haired girl and the blond-haired boy but was unable to due to the giant sword wedged into its jaws as well as the fireballs shot out of the rear end of the black baseball bat that the girl was holding on to in place of a standard scepter.

"...but my Cranberry... my Cranberry..."

"Master...?"

Zombie muttered under his breath and looked back down at his empty hands and trembled, making Kopia flinch and ask him fearfully.

"...my..."

The blue undead gritted his teeth and clenched his fists...

/Proficiency level reached

You receive the skill

Ira (level 1)

/Error

/An attempt to grant Ira to the target had been already registered

Unable to grant the same skill for the second time

/Calculating...

/Skill level up

Overpower (level 2)

"Maste-mpfgh...!"

Kopia cried out again but Zombie blocked her mouth with his hand and bared his teeth in a hateful grin.

"Kopia, form change."

"!!!"

He declared coldly and his sentient sword hurriedly nodded her head and flashed white, changing into a curvy two-handed blade with a sinister aura - the morbid blade.

*BOOOOOOOOOM*

In the next second, the blue undead and his sword disappeared leaving only a cloud of dust and a giant crater in the ground.