I Got Reincarnated as a Zombie Girl-Chapter 156 – Shadows Strike

The night air hung thick over Nocture. A thin fog began to drift in from the north, shrouding the hills and rocky slopes that served as the natural boundary between the city and the outside world. Behind the near-motionless fog, dark shadows crept like an underground current silent and well-trained.

Twelve hooded figures moved between large stones and clusters of dead shrubs. None of them spoke. Communication was done through hand signals and internal crystal wave comms accessible only via Central Military devices. They were part of the Covert Conquest Unit, one of the best infiltration teams under the Central Military Headquarters formed for hit-and-run missions, high-value target eliminations, and the destruction of strategic structures behind enemy lines.

Leading the team that night was Lieutenant Keron, a man in his forties with sharp eyes and a long scar across his right cheek. He knelt behind a dead tree, gazing toward Nocture, visible only as a dark silhouette in the distance, surrounded by high walls and watchtowers.

"Alpha Team, advance five meters. Bravo Team, place the demolition spells and explosives at point nine-B," he whispered into his communicator.

The signal was sent. Alpha Team moved, three operatives silently sneaking through brush and shadows, tracing the dry riverbank once used by refugees as an escape route. They placed small orb-shaped silent magic bombs designed to explode in a narrow radius and sever local magical networks without causing major physical damage. The goal wasn’t mass casualties, but rather to sever communication between the castle and its surrounding units.

Meanwhile, Bravo Team began preparing sihrum grenades small bluish-green balls that pulsed gently. A new weapon from Central Command, designed to bypass magic defenses and sow chaos in control networks.

"Distance to the outer wall: one hundred meters. No immediate guards. No visible response," one operative reported.

Lieutenant Keron observed for a moment, then signaled: "Initiate Phase One. Detonate decoy on the southeast flank. Launch silence spell at Alpha-Three."

Soon, a small explosion sounded not a booming blast, but a pressurized burst that scattered dust and disrupted magic light in the targeted area. A torch on the southeast side went out immediately, followed by two zombie guards losing their footing.

However...

Behind Nocture’s walls, red eyes lit up one by one.

Sylvia’s detection system was no ordinary array. It was a network of consciousness embedded into the city’s defense structure. The sensors detected not just magical movement, but intent resonance from spellcasters as they prepared an attack. And this system... was fully active.

From within the wall, a faint kringgggg! echoed in the air inaudible to most human ears. It wasn’t an alarm, but a special signal—sent directly to elite human and zombie units nearby.

And they began to move.

To the north, one of the infiltrators was checking the perimeter when the ground beneath him trembled slightly. He stopped, placing his ear to the earth. Nothing until suddenly, from behind an ordinary-looking bush, a tall figure emerged wearing a skull-helmed face.

Those red eyes glowed... and in a split second, the axe-wielding zombie struck.

Crack!

The intruder’s auto-activated magical shield absorbed the initial blow. But the shockwave from the strike struck his body like a hammer, shattering the comm crystal embedded in his chest. He was thrown back, staggering.

"Contact! Enemy detected!" he yelled, finally breaking the silence.

But it was already too late.

More armed zombies emerged from the flanks. They didn’t groan like wild undead. They were silent, coordinated, swift, and lethal.

Lieutenant Keron unsheathed his sword, blue magic flowing from its edge. He saw his teammates slowly getting overwhelmed.

"Beta Team! Deploy disorientation spells now!"

Small orbs were thrown toward the nearest zombies. A burst of white light erupted—disrupting vision and undead magical balance in a small radius. A few zombies froze, stunned, but others kept marching forward unflinchingly.

In the distance, the eastern tower of Nocture began to glow softly. At its peak stood a figure in a neat suit, black hair slicked back, arms folded behind his back Zark.

He calmly observed the situation, then activated the communication relay spell.

"Initial report: twelve infiltrators, Central Military formation, mid-tier magical weaponry, decoy and sabotage tactics. Three captured, two retreated, seven still active in combat."

Sofia’s voice came through the channel: "Take them alive. If any are critically injured, disable them. We’ll interrogate them below."

Zark replied curtly, "Understood."

Then he jumped from the top of the tower to the ground below.

His undead body suffered no damage upon landing. He walked silently through the mist, and each of his steps made the earth feel heavier. When two infiltrators rushed from his right, he raised his hand and both were instantly trapped in a black magical wall that resembled glass.

"Covert Conquest Unit," Zark murmured. "Old tactics. Same strategy. Same outcome."

He stepped deeper into the small battlefield outside the wall. Other zombies moved to form barricades, pressing the infiltrators into a trap formation designed on the very first night Sylvia departed.

Lieutenant Keron realized they had lost the element of surprise. He quickly pulled out a hexagonal magic crystal a panic summoner.

"Gamma Team, initiate retreat protocol. We can’t take them tonight."

But before the crystal could fully activate... a shadow appeared behind him.

A female dark elf zombie, wearing light armor and long silver hair, stared sharply. She gave no warning just a direct strike to the nape.

Thud!

Lieutenant Keron collapsed instantly.

The last conscious member of the military team looked around in panic. Flickering red magic light danced at the edge of his vision their disorientation sensors were overloaded. The mist had thickened, and one by one, they fell... not from brute force, but from design.

Nocture never allowed a threat to approach twice.

The underground chamber beneath Nocture was built from black stones that absorbed mana. No windows. No sound. Only a dim pale-yellow light glowing from small lamps on the walls enough to show the room’s edges, but not enough to offer warmth. The air inside felt cold, as if time itself had stopped ticking.

Three of the twelve infiltrators now sat bound to metal chairs bolted to the floor. Their arms and legs were shackled with special magical chains that would shock them if they tried to manipulate mana. Their mouths were silenced by mute spells that could only be lifted by a warden.

Zark stood before them, silent.

He carried no weapons. No torture tools. He didn’t need them.

Sofia sat behind a magical mirror connected to the surveillance room. Beside her stood a white-robed zombie scribe, recording every word and magical pulse in the interrogation chamber. Rina sat beside Sofia, eyes alert and focused.

Zark slowly raised a hand, and one of the infiltrators the youngest-looking was allowed to speak. The mute spell vanished from his mouth.

His name was Sergeant Mavin, age twenty-seven, graduate of the Eastern Combat Academy. He stared at Zark with ragged breaths.

"I won’t talk," he said. His voice trembled, more from the cold than from courage.

Zark lowered his head slightly, then turned one hand. An illusion appeared before Mavin not a terrifying scene, but an image of Nocture in the morning: children running, farmers harvesting crops, zombies helping construct a new tower.

"Look," Zark said flatly. "The city you call a ’perversion.’ This is not a fortress. This is a home. And you came to destroy it."

Mavin looked at the illusion, and a flicker of doubt appeared in his eyes. But he quickly turned away. "We... were just following orders."

"Orders to kill civilians?" Zark asked.

"We weren’t ordered to kill! Just... sabotage the network, sever communication magic, weaken defenses!" he replied, almost as if justifying himself.

Zark said nothing. He moved to the second infiltrator an older woman with a hardened face and many scars. Lieutenant Valen, a veteran of five assassination missions.

The mute spell was lifted.

"Valen, who commands your unit?" Zark asked.

"I’d rather have my tongue cut out than answer to creatures like you," she snapped. "We do not recognize this city. Nocture is a nest of darkness. And sooner or later, you’ll all be destroyed by the light of true humanity."

Zark stared at her without emotion. He whispered something in a dead language, and the wall behind her displayed an image her and her squad attacking a northern civilian settlement two years ago.

"Did the light of humanity burn this village too?" Zark whispered.

Valen clenched her jaw, though her eyes clearly flickered. Memories don’t lie.

In the observation room, Sofia clenched her fists. "They were trained not only to kill... but to hate," she whispered.

Rina nodded. "And that hatred has made them blind."

One last infiltrator a gray-bearded old man was allowed to speak last. He didn’t look at anyone. Just lowered his head.

"My name... is Keron," he said weakly. "And I knew from the start this was a suicide mission."

Zark stared at him without speaking.

Keron continued, "Headquarters didn’t send us here to win. They wanted to test Nocture. Measure your response. How fast you mobilize, how your formations shift, who leads the troops when the Queen is absent... All of it is data. And we... were just measuring tools."

Sofia froze. Rina tensed in her seat.

"This wasn’t infiltration. It was covert reconnaissance paid with real lives," Keron said softly.

"Who planned the operation?" Zark asked.

Keron was silent. Then lifted his head.

"I don’t know for sure. But I suspect... it wasn’t ordered by the general staff. It came from a secret branch the Internal Extremist Monitoring Division."

Sofia turned sharply. "That intel unit... was supposed to be disbanded years ago!"

Rina furrowed her brow. "If they’re active again... it means they see Nocture not as an external threat. But as an internal rebellion."

Zark shut down the infiltrators’ communication magic, then stepped out of the interrogation room. He entered the observation chamber without a word and stood before Sofia.

"They’ve spoken. But we don’t know everything yet," he said.

Sofia nodded. Her face was tense, but her eyes sharp. "We must prepare. The next attack won’t come to steal... it will come to destroy. "She exhaled softly and added, "And the mastermind behind this might not be the military alone. There are others who hate this place... and want it gone." frёeωebɳovel.com

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