My Uncle is the Strongest Dark Mage

TLed by NolepGuy

Chapter 8

Chaos spreads quickly.

The commotion that began on the 9th floor.

A horde of zombies, contaminating the living and turning everyone into beings like themselves, began to invade the lower floors from the 9th floor.

Even those who initially didn’t understand the source of the noise fled to the lower floors as the zombie horde descended from above.

It was utter pandemonium.

A man shoving an elderly person to survive, a woman kicking a child to save herself, and a mother shielding her fallen son from being trampled—only to lose her life as others fleeing stepped on her with all their might.

Those who died to zombies and turned into zombies themselves.

Those who died but remained as corpses, not turning into zombies.

Those who somehow managed to flee skillfully.

And even those who, overestimating their abilities, fought the zombies but were overwhelmed by their numbers and ultimately met their deaths.

The Grant Department Store, swept by chaos and confusion, transformed into an apocalypse in an instant.

“…….”

Amid such a situation, someone calmly sipped coffee in one spot without a care.

Cain quietly observed the surrounding chaos and organized his thoughts.

Necromancy, a branch of black magic that revives the dead.

However, the dead could not truly be brought back to life. In reality, necromancy was merely a skill that infused an ego into the memories lingering in a corpse, manipulating it with the black mage’s magic power.

The greater the history built by the corpse, the clearer the memories left within it. The stronger the necromancer’s abilities, the higher the quality of the ego and the undead created.

Zombies were one of the most basic undead in necromancy, alongside skeletons, and among the easiest summons to create.

Yes, creating them wasn’t particularly difficult.

In other words, according to the natural law of this world where greater feats come with greater challenges, it was exceedingly difficult for a single zombie to cause a disaster of this scale.

No, one could almost assert that it was impossible.

The reason was simple.

Undead were directly raised by black mages, and it was unheard of for zombies to spread through infection as they were now.

At most, one might get infected by bacteria from the unhygienic teeth of a zombie.

But even that would only occur with corpses that had been dead for a long time, not with freshly killed bodies like these.

Still, this phenomenon wasn’t entirely incomprehensible.

While typical zombies fit the above description, there were indeed zombies that exhibited infectious traits like this.

No, to be precise, he had created them.

‘What if, through contact with a zombie, one could implant a fragmented ego into a corpse without directly touching it?’

It was something he had created half out of curiosity.

The idea was born from a lighthearted thought about how useful it might be on a battlefield.

Although, due to its nature, it couldn’t be applied to high-level undead and was only effective on things like zombies.

Thanks to that, it had proven highly effective during battles against the Empress’s army.

If the Empress had witnessed the horrors unfolding in this department store, she would have been unable to contain her fury and flown into a rage.

“Haa.”

In other words, this was an original black magic spell he had personally developed and created.

Yet now, it was being used by someone else, turning the place where he had been peacefully resting into a mess.

That fact was quite displeasing.

-Yes, what is it?

He pulled out his smartphone and made a call.

Even before the dial tone could ring, a voice answered from the other end of the line.

A deep, low tone reminiscent of a cavern.

Listening to the weighty voice, Cain spoke calmly and composedly.

“Take care of that Greed bastard.”

Though he spoke grandly, this black magic wasn’t even something he considered a secret technique; it was merely a trivial skill.

It was so simple that anyone could use it freely with enough practice.

Moreover, if one reached a skill level of about 4-star or higher, the infection wouldn’t even occur, making it a typical low-tier massacre spell.

Because of that, he hadn’t managed the black magic very strictly, but it was still his creation.

Most wouldn’t dare touch his work out of fear.

But Greed was different.

His loyalty to Cain was as high as that of any other member of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Yet he was the type bold enough to sell Cain’s magic for a hefty price as long as it didn’t harm Cain directly.

If his black magic had been leaked to the public, the culprit could only be him.

-Understood.

The man on the other end of the smartphone responded without a hint of doubt or hesitation.

The reason didn’t matter; it would come to light with a little investigation. And reasons were irrelevant when it came to carrying out Cain’s orders.

He simply thought quietly to himself, ‘That guy caused trouble again.’

“Tsk.”

Cain immediately hung up and gulped down the remaining Americano, as if to calm his nerves.

“Kraaaah!!!”

Then, breaking the isolated atmosphere, a zombie let out a scream and charged at him.

“Shut up. You’re noisy.”

“…….”

At his sharp command, the zombie instantly fell silent.

A cold gaze emanated from behind his thick glasses.

The zombie tilted its head dumbly, as if unable to understand why it had stopped.

Then, as if regaining its senses after being struck on the back of the head by another zombie, it turned and ran off in a different direction, away from Cain.

“The summoner’s skill is pathetic. That’s why they can’t even recognize the gap and just charge blindly.”

Watching this, Cain clicked his tongue again in clear displeasure.

Well, he had already left the clean-up of that irritating guy to someone else.

Now, it was time to punish the one who had dared to use his creation without permission.

It was blatantly obvious where that person would be.

The summoning spell for these infectious zombies was simple enough for even a novice to learn.

Yet the black mage who had taken over this place couldn’t even use it properly.

An amateur black mage who couldn’t even channel interdimensional magic power correctly.

They were likely at a skill level of around 3-star to 4-star.

There was no way such a low-level individual could single-handedly cover the entire department store.

‘In that case, they must have received magical assistance.’

The Artifact Store.

There was no other answer.

They were probably creating a few zombies there and using the artifacts to supplement their insufficient magic power while increasing their numbers.

Considering the kind of magic crystals used to craft artifacts that made it into a department store, they were likely of premium quality.

Even without such convoluted reasoning, the fact that the zombies had started descending from above made it obvious that the Artifact Store was the first place to suspect.

“…….”

And that realization soured Cain’s mood even further.

Of course, it was because Arina was currently in the Artifact Store.

“How dare they manipulate the dead in my presence.”

Arina was probably still safe.

No matter how many summons the enemy created, the dead could never disobey his will.

And the enemy would regret it.

He might forget favors, but grudges were always repaid.

Every single person who had ever even slightly offended him had been erased from this world without exception.

“…….”

With that thought, he finally rose from his seat.

His shadow stretched long, and a heavy silence enveloped the surroundings.

Death bowed deeply to him in reverence.

The undead ceased their rampage and quietly stepped aside.

Walking nonchalantly down the path of death, Cain slowly moved forward.

Toward the elevator leading to the Artifact Store, where the culprit of this incident awaited.

***

The luxurious wallpaper and the glass pillars scattered throughout were splattered as if painted with red blood.

Amidst the eerie atmosphere, grotesqueness, the stench of blood, and the trembling fear of the people, a man moved with an excited stride, manipulating something.

“Done.”

What he had set up was a video camera.

He pointed it at each hostage one by one, flashing a sinister smile with his hollow eyes.

“Come on, why so glum? I went through the trouble of sparing you.”

All the clerks working here were already dead.

However, the guests who had come to this place, those on the ninth floor or higher, had not turned into zombies and were taken hostage instead.

“Ah, if you’re expecting to stay alive for long, you might want to give up on that dream.”

Was it because they were wealthy that they were spared?

Was the man’s goal their ransom?

If that were the case, perhaps their lives could be saved.

They harbored such faint hopes, but the man shattered them instantly as he pointed the camera at them.

“Why would I spare those who use trash like Grant?”

If you hadn’t relied on such a garbage place, you could have lived your whole life without experiencing something like this.

Yes, this is all your fault.

“No! I came here for the first time today! I’ve never bought anything from Grant Department Store!”

A young man, seemingly indignant at the man’s words, suddenly stood up and shouted amidst the terrified crowd.

Then, forcing his trembling legs to move, he knelt before the man.

“So please, spare me! I’ll give you as much money as you want!”

“……”

“Do you know who I am?! If anything happens to me, do you think my family will let you off the hook?!”

His hair, which seemed carefully styled early in the morning, was now a mess, and his handsome face was smeared with tears and snot.

He looked as though he had lost his mind in fear.

Begging and threatening alternated so quickly that even he seemed unaware of what he was saying.

Perhaps the man found his panicked, nonsensical behavior somewhat amusing.

The man grinned unpleasantly and responded to the young man.

“No. You bastard.”

A dagger pierced through the young man’s neck.

As if unable to believe his own death, the young man collapsed to the floor with his eyes wide open until the very end.

“Graaah!?”

Then, twisting his joints grotesquely, he slowly rose from the spot.

“I got annoyed by your clinging, so I started without explaining.”

Looking down at the young man, who was now reborn as a zombie, the man turned his gaze toward the even more terrified hostages.

“Now, from this moment on, I’ll record each of your deaths on video. And I’ll spread it all over the internet.”

This was revenge.

Damned Grant, wretched Grant, the Grant that had taken everything from him.

A desperate revenge against them.

Every guest who came to the department store would die as a zombie.

And all of it would be captured on video and spread throughout the kingdom.

The damage to Grant Association’s image would be enormous.

This video would serve as his debutante, revealing himself as a villain.

It would mark the beginning of his cruel revenge against Grant Association.

“You can resist if you want. You can run. You can despair and accept it. It doesn’t matter to me.”

After all, there was plenty of fuel.

He had swept up all the artifacts in this department store.

He could maintain this zombie outbreak for several more hours.

Time was abundant.

By now, the commotion had probably been noticed from the outside.

Perhaps the police had already been dispatched?

But what could they do?

It would take a long time to break through the horde of zombies below and reach this place.

The black magic he had mastered was created by the Death King, the pinnacle of necromancy.

It was the worst black magic that had devastated the Southern Continent years ago.

And in that time, he could brutally kill everyone here and escape leisurely.

“So, who wants to die first? I’ll make sure the first one’s face comes out beautifully on camera.”

The man scanned his surroundings with crazed eyes.

As if infected by his madness, the zombies around him let out grotesque sounds and slowly approached the hostages.

Families clung tightly to one another.

Those desperate to live a little longer darted their eyes around, looking for someone else to take their place.

In the midst of this paralyzing fear, Nell glanced at her smartphone and frowned.

‘If I had known something like this would happen, I would’ve carried an expensive one from the start.’

No signal.

It was probably something the man had set up in advance.

Because of that, the delay in reporting this would make it take even longer for the situation to spread outside.

High-ranking officials were said to use premium smartphones equipped to prevent communication failures in such scenarios.

As for her, she had hardly any external activities since she was merely serving the Demon Lord, so she hadn’t bothered to buy an expensive one.

She felt an intense urge to berate her foolish past self.

“It’s okay.”

A voice whispered behind Nell, addressing her.

When she turned her head toward the voice, she saw a child.

“You are……”

Something felt vaguely familiar.

Golden hair and blue eyes.

It was definitely a child she was seeing for the first time, yet those striking features seemed to stir a memory.

She couldn’t quite place it yet.

“I already reported it.”

Unlike Nell’s phone, the child’s seemed unaffected by the communication block.

The child waved her smartphone proudly with a smile.

“I hate to brag, but my brother cherishes me a lot. He’ll probably be here to save us in less than ten minutes.”

“……”

“The problem is how to hold out for those ten minutes. Do you have any ideas? You’re the Demon Lord’s secretary, but you don’t know any magic?”

While Nell was uncertain, the child seemed to know her clearly.

At the child’s casual and straightforward question, Nell lowered her head apologetically.

“I’m sorry. I’ve never learned magic.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

The child bit her lip at Nell’s response.

Meanwhile, the zombies continued their slow approach.

The oppressive atmosphere suggested that a massacre could begin at any moment, not in ten minutes but within a single minute.

‘What should I do?’

As Nell frantically searched for a solution, her gaze caught something utterly unexpected.

“Huh?”

Among the hostages, someone suddenly stood up and walked toward the man.

It was another young girl, seemingly around the same age as the child beside her.

The bourgeois niece who had been roaming the department store with her uncle.

Arina.