Global Evolution: I Became A Zombie!-Chapter 216 - 212: The Cost of Devotion

"My... lord?" Xilo asked, walking into the ever-dark temple.

"You’re late," came the reply. "Were your wounds that severe?"

Afraid of upsetting Blaze, Xilo frantically shook his head. If he told the lord that he nearly gave him irreversible brain damage, then he’d be discarded like those before him.

After all, their god craved perfection, and anyone deemed otherwise was dealt with haste.

"As I thought," Blaze replied. "The punishment wasn’t severe enough."

A chill ran down Xilo’s spine. His mouth twitched in indignation, worried if he had already lost all the favor with his god.

No, if that were the case, his excellency wouldn’t have spared me.

"You are correct," Blaze said, hearing Xilo’s thoughts. "You might have failed, but you still have your uses, and that’s why you’re alive."

The lights in the spaceship casually flicked back to life for the first time since the crash. The signs of nature that had taken hold of the ship from the outside were cleared in one go.

If Blaze desired, he could have left Sadarla in that instant. But he didn’t. Not before conquering Pagona as well. While it would have been easier to just blast the entire continent with his ship, it was tedious and unfruitful.

After his conversations with Timo and the others, he realized the situation in Pagona was quite strange. Everyone there had some kind of ability, which was unlike Earth, where only a certain number of individuals had abilities.

Blaze smiled, remembering his past, which felt like it had happened centuries ago. Back then, if someone else wanted to get an ability, someone who already had the powers had to die.

But according to Timo, Pagona worked differently. People there were born with abilities. It was a rich and stable land, unlike the other continent, where tribes constantly fought each other.

Because of that, the population of Pagona kept growing, as every family wanted strong descendants.

As such, the theory of having a constant number of ability users fell apart. One could debate that the people of the other continent balanced out those in Pagona.

However, given the dwindling population before Deca’s rise, that wasn’t possible either. There just weren’t enough people to balance out those with powers.

It led to two possibilities.

First, the Collective didn’t treat other planets like they had treated Earth, or second, whatever trick or resource they used to give powers to others was dwindling.

Either case was like music to Blaze’s ears.

While the Collective was potentially struggling to create supers, Blaze had found his own way of making them. Although his way wasn’t as successful or gave miraculous reality-altering abilities, it was perfect for creating foot soldiers.

But that’s all they were.

Footsoldiers.

Blaze needed stronger soldiers, like those Pagonans under him. That’s where Xilo came into the picture.

The power Blaze gave him had already saturated. Since his body had gotten used to the changes, it was time to make the said changes more severe.

How will Blaze do that?

Just like he had made the zombies stronger.

In his days as a recluse god, he hadn’t remained idle. He was thinking of ways to make others stronger without completely turning them into zombies.

A creature that was alive, yet dead. It was a creature the Collective would see in their nightmares. After countless experiments, the proof of which remained scattered around the spaceships in the form of corpses, Blaze had managed to brew something... special.

Xilo wasn’t Blaze’s first preference for the experiment. The Decan wasn’t remarkable in any field. He was just... average in everything. The only thing he had that surpassed others was his blind faith in his god.

With his devotion, he just might break through the barrier.

He looked at Xilo, and a smile crept to his lips.

"Tell me something, Xilo."

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

"Do you fear death?"

"Your Excellency...?"

Blaze didn’t repeat his words, just stared at Xilo, who shook his head vehemently. As soon as he did, tendrils ripped out of Blaze’s back and restrained the Decan.

While Xilo was surprised, he didn’t dare to fight back. Well, not like he could do what when even his body wasn’t under his control.

"Try not to die on me," Blaze whispered, patting Xilo’s cheeks.

The next second, a tendril thrice as thick as the rest was shoved into his mouth.

"Gur—GARGH!"

A hideous gurgling sound erupted from Xilo’s mouth as his throat was stretched to the limit of bursting. His eyes turned red as a mixture of blood and tears dripped out of them.

He could feel the tendril separating into hundreds of thousands of smaller sections as it climbed deeper into his body. No crevice inside was left untouched, while Blaze casually conjured up a throne to sit on while the process unfolded.

At times, Xilo’s vitals would flicker, but every time his devotion pulled him through. Whenever that happened, Blaze’s smile widened. Slowly, Xilo’s body changed as each near-death experience forced the cells Blaze had implanted in him to evolve rapidly.

However, that evolution wasn’t Blaze’s goal. It was so that the true process could unfold without risking the subject’s ’life’. In simple words, Blaze was preparing Xilo’s body for the actual operation.

An ordinary body can’t take multiple souls inside it, after all.

While Xilo was still being tortured, Blaze got up and moved to the soul-separating device that Anur had once used on him. The only difference was that she did it when he was already dead in the conventional sense.

What Blaze was about to do was unconventional, even in Anur’s eyes.

"The Deca might have been weaklings when I arrived," Blaze mumbled, more to himself than Xilo. "However, there had been many talented individuals among your clan."

He continued, "Unfortunately, they weren’t appreciated. Additional resources weren’t allocated to them in the name of ’fairness’. In the end, they died saving those untalented individuals, thrusting the Deca into the misfortune clan it became later."

Xilo was put into the silo to separate his useless soul from his body. As if realizing what was about to happen, he finally broke out of the imposed control momentarily, but it was already too late.

"I’ll give you the strength you desire," Blaze said emotionlessly. "Only thing is, you wouldn’t be you."