Rewriting My Fate in the Apocalypse-Chapter 406: The Silence After Thunder

Where the commander had stood before, only ashes remained. Not even a fragment of his armor remained.

The aliens who had just surfaced had also been reduced to ashes and the remaining zombies collapsed one after another as if they had run out of battery life.

Without a word, Lu Zhen shot flames at them and reduced them to ashes as well.

Smoke rose lazily in the air as silence descended over the ruins.

The stadium that had been packed just moments ago was now empty with only the survivors of Leng Pan’s team remaining.

Some people were injured, but none life threatening.

Lu Hao swayed where he was standing, and Lu Zhen immediately extended his hands to catch him.

Leng Pan checked his pulse and realized that he was just exhausted. Nothing was wrong with him.

Lu Tao approached enthusiastically and looked at Lu Hao in worship.

"Wow! Second brother, that Commander looked so powerful and you erased him just like that?" One could feel his excitement radiating off of him in waves.

It was as if he was the one who had killed the commander.

"He was being noisy." Lu Hao replied, causing Leng Pan’s jaw to drop.

He killed someone so violently just because he was being noisy? How ruthless. But she liked that more than those fake sympathetic survivors.

She burst into helpless laughter and even Lu Zhen’s lips curved faintly. This new brother sure was interesting.

Around them, teammates stood frozen, staring at the crater that had once been a stadium. Just how powerful was this second son of the Lu family?

The two fused dragons above gradually separated into water and fire before shrinking down.

But this time they didn’t dissipate but hovered above their masters like guardians.

They weren’t like before when they seemed to be in danger of evaporating any moment. Instead, they were solid and looked completely alive.

Leng Pan looked at them thoughtfully, then turned to look at Lu Hao.

She turned her sights to the huge crater and finally realized that humanity had officially declared war on the aliens and zombies.

It was no longer about survival anymore but defending this planet to the death. And they had just announced to the enemy that earth was not defenseless.

Lu Zhen glanced toward the horizon, where distant clouds swirled unnaturally.

"Next time, we will face stronger ones." He said with certainty.

"That’s okay too." Leng Pan replied, her eyes cold. "Let them come." She added calmly like the commander she was who was ready for war.

But after those bold words, silence settled again. And in that silence, reality slowly returned.

The wind carried the scent of scorched flesh and melted metal. The stadium that once held cheers, sports, and celebrations was now nothing but a smoking crater carved into the earth like a scar.

Even though the stadium had been ruined by the meteorites before, it wasn’t to this extent. Now, it could never be repaired.

Leng Pan turned around to look at her teammates and only now did the weight of losing three members settle on her shoulders.

She walked toward the remaining teammates, her expression no longer cold but solemn.

"Does any one of you have injuries?" She asked softly as if afraid of startling them.

Juan Ke stepped forward first. His sleeve was torn, blood staining his forearm. "Minor cuts. No infected wounds. We lost Liu Shan, Zheng Wei, and Qiao Lin during the ground rupture."

One of those was a new teammate and the other two were part of the modified group.

Even so, Leng Pan considered them all her soldiers.

"They died in battle," she said steadily. "Not running or begging. They will be honored when all of this is over."

In this apocalypse, dignity in death was a luxury. But it was a luxury many yearned for but few received.

The three members had died with dignity.

Lu Zhen walked over to Leng Pan and placed a comforting hand on the small of her back.

"We can’t stay here for long in case the previous explosions attract other things." He said before turning to the other teammates.

"Collect all the crystal cores and let’s get moving."

The two dragons floating in the air descended as if they could understand.

Instead of swallowing crystal cores like they were doing before, they began expelling those in their stomachs into neat piles.

This sight stunned everyone present.

These dragons were a little too aware and obedient.

Leng Pan walked toward her water dragon and extended her palm.

The dragon lowered its head to allow her to pet it.

For a brief moment, she felt something akin to emotion through their connection of touch.

It wasn’t her spiritual control, but something deeper and real.

"They are different from before." She said quietly to no one in particular.

Lu Zhen observed his crimson dragon hovering at shoulder height behind him like a guardian spirit after it was done spitting out crystal cores.

"They even survived fusion and managed to separate again. And that Commander, I think they absorbed his energy. Of course they are different." He said thoughtfully.

Lu Hao, though exhausted and leaning on Lu Tao’s shoulder, opened his eyes slightly.

"They have cores," he said softly.

Everyone turned to look at him in shock. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"What?" Lu Tao blinked as he looked at his second brother in disbelief.

Lu Hao lifted his hand weakly and pointed at the dragons’ chests.

"Inside. Like zombies."

Leng Pan’s heart skipped. She extended her spiritual sense carefully into the water dragon’s body.

At the center of the dragon’s chest, a faint swirling nucleus of condensed energy.

It wasn’t a zombie core, nor was it alien. It was something formed from fire, water, spiritual force, and crystallized combat energy.

She couldn’t even tell how something like that had formed. It felt like everything was luck but also fate.

If there weren’t crystal cores in their stomachs. If there wasn’t water and fire fusion. If they hadn’t experienced combat with the commander, then that core wouldn’t have formed. If even one of these opportunities was missing, the dragons would have dissipated after losing the crystal cores. But now, they had built their own core and could survive on their own, without support from Leng Pan and Lu Zhen.