"Guardian of the...? Oh! Do you mean the constellation?" the teacher asked. She didn't seem to recognise the name right away. Though it made sense, they probably didn't speak to everyone here, just the headmaster and a few other individuals if the necessity came up.

  "Yes, where are they?" The fact that they weren't here was a bit nerve-racking. It wasn't like constellations were moving around physical locations like that. They weren't stuck in some classroom; they would have to be aware of basically everything going on in the school.

  At the very least, they would notice three other powerful constellations entering their space, not to mention Ashton, someone they gave a quest to before.

  "I haven't heard much about it in a while... But why? Do you think it could help us?"

  Ashton slowly shook his head. It really wasn't like the Guardian could do anything to help with this situation right now. As long as their protection was kept up, that was fine. Maybe their attention was just drawn elsewhere right now, to some other place in the world that needed it more.

  But how the hell would they not react when there was a literal zombie infestation going on in this school? It really put Ashton on edge. The constellations following him didn't seem to have anything to say about that, either.

  "Okay, crap... Just stay in here. Is anyone injured? No? Good, lock the door, and only come out when you're told it's safe." Ashton put his hand on the doorhandle. It didn't look like anyone imminently needed his help right now. "But... where were those smart kids? Millie, Joey, Sean? They had a great grasp of the situation with the monster camp outside last time."

  The teacher hesitated to answer, but soon shook her head. "I don't... I don't know. They were right there with that man when he turned, and I... I'm not sure what happened..."

  "Excuse me? Fuck, okay..."

  "Hey, language! There's still kids-"

  "Please, just shut up for a second," Ashton interrupted the teacher. Sure, maybe he shouldn't cuss in front of kids, but they've dealt with so much worse already. But none of that mattered right now anyway. He just had to collect his thoughts for a moment and hope that none of the kids turned into zombies.

  It was one thing to kill turned adults, but... children? He would do what he had to do, but there was still a part of him that hesitated just at the mere possibility of it.

  "You said you think the man that started all of this is in the auditorium?"

  "... Yes. It's relatively close to the gymnasium. Walk down the hallway past the changing rooms, down the steps, left around the corner, back up the steps there, and then straight ahead," she said, and Ashton nodded. He roughly remembered where it was, but it was still good to hear it again. The layout of this school was a bit weird at times.

  Ashton left the classroom and made sure to listen to the sound of the door being locked, before making his way through the building again. He hid himself in the shadows wherever he could, and every single time he turned a corner, hoped that he wouldn't see a zombie standing there.

  Often, that was the case. At other times, it wasn't. Every zombie roaming the halls or standing mindlessly in an empty classroom, looming over a corpse that had yet to rise again was quickly dispatched and consequently incinerated.

  "I'm sorry I didn't get here earlier..." Ashton's whispered apologies were heard by none but himself.

  Seeing the corpses of people on the road was already a hard sight, even if he had grown used to it by now, but having to actively kill the results of something that Ashton knew for a fact he could have prevented was... painful.

  To the point where, though his feet were moving faster and faster, Ashton felt like he was moving slower than ever. Walking past the changing rooms, rushing down the stairs. He practically leapt up the stairs after turning the corner, and then saw it at the end of the hall.

  The doors to the auditorium—a grander name considering what it really was; a small room with an uneven stage and a few dozen chairs loosely locked together—were wide open.

  Ashton sprinted through the doors, and on the stage were the remnants of what seemed to have been some kind of play. He remembered; at the end of every school year, just before summer vacation, the graduating class would put on a small play for their parents.

  This time, it seemed to be about some kind of candy wonderland, with tall cardboard lollipops and white pillows piled up like a mountain of blood-soaked marshmallows. At the centre stood one of those bright pink play houses which had probably been borrowed from one of the parents.

  The Marked was nowhere to be seen. Probably already left. There was no reason why it would still be here, anyway. It made more sense for it to roam around the school, seeking out more and more survivors than stay here like some boss monster.

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  "Shit," Ashton looked around the room. Blood was splattered around, and a pile of guts lead straight out of the room through the other door.

  He quietly followed the trail. There was a lot of blood here, a lot more than would belong to just one person. Ashton incinerated every tiny bit of it as he moved on. Though, he would need to come back and burn those pillows later... whether or not it was infected blood, it was far too risky to keep them there.

  Ashton followed the trail up some stairs onto the next floor, and then saw it down the hallway.

  It was a man, slowly walking forward, his back turned to Ashton. He was holding a ripped-off arm in his hand, gnawing on it like at it like a dog on a bone.

  He was tall. Not freakishly so, just a regular tallness, but he looked taller than he was with that thin frame and long limbs. He looked like a corpse that refused to stay put.

  All of Ashton's instincts screamed at him that this was who he was looking for. There weren't any windows here, so Ashton could disappear in the darkness easily. He moved forward without a trace, without a single sound. This was a Marked, not just a regular zombie. He couldn't be taken lightly like the others.

  Ashton jumped from the shadows and struck the side of the Marked's head. With a loud crack, its neck broke, bending in almost a right angle.

  But even so, the Marked stayed upright. Instead, they dropped the arm they were holding onto the ground, and placed two hands onto the sides of their head, trying to fix its position.

  With a click of his tongue, Ashton spun his staff around and hit the Marked in the back of the head. The zombie stumbled forward slightly, and soon turned around.

  That just now felt like hitting a brick wall. Sure, Ashton expected the Marked zombie to be more advanced and powerful, but this was... beyond what he thought would happen. It had already advanced to the second stage of zombification already, where its decaying flesh instead hardened and strengthened it.

  Ashton sighed. "Why can't any of you guys just be normal for once?"

  He started spinning his staff around, hitting and pushing back the Marked with as many hits as he could. The staff itself was just mundane, and Ashton didn't have the sort of mana that he needed for his usual techniques, so it made sense to somewhat fall behind with such opponents at this point. The most he could do was adjust the mana pattern a little to strengthen the impact ever so slightly.

  But the damage that Ashton did to this guy did little more than stun it. Even the wisp's attacks didn't do much, though due to the zombie's low weight, the force spell worked amazingly at pushing it back.

  The most annoying part was that, although the attacks clearly seemed to do something, breaking bones or tearing muscles, it was like this guy was made of clay that stuck back to itself with just the slightest attempt at fixing itself. With just a brush over his skin, any tearing of his flesh was shoved back together, and even when its arm was only hanging on by a few rotting muscles, the Marked was able to just push it back into place.

  "This is why zombies are annoying..." Ashton groaned. The more advanced the zombification, the more unique their traits became. Clearly, this guy was ridiculously resilient, even if extremely slow at the same time.

  But despite the Marked's low speed, Ashton had to keep his distance as much as he could. Receiving just a small injury from it would essentially kill Ashton. It even got close a few times. Zombies didn't feel pain, though despite all of the hits that Ashton was placing against its body and particularly its head, it just kept on moving like nothing happened. Because to it, unfeeling and self-repairing, it really was like nothing happened.

  So then, Ashton did something that he would have preferred not to. He called back the salamander, which had been popping in and out of his vessel the entire time, and grabbed a flame from the elemental's body. The flame was quickly pushed into the wisp, as it took on the trait of flames.

  Ashton took a step back, pulling his staff behind his body. With a swift motion, he had the wisp shoot straight at the head of the Marked and activated the force spell at the same time.

  The explosion created by the fire magic itself was shot forward, enveloping the monster's head. As flesh melted off the man's face, Ashton focused more on the hallway behind the Marked.

  The flames had caught on the posters and the cobwebs, and were quickly spreading. Ashton immediately tried to snuff out all those flames, but extinguishing them safely took some time. This was why he didn't want to do this inside here. It was too dangerous to do in a closed space, no matter how effective fire was against undead.

  The Marked clawed at his own face, trying to shove the flesh back into place, but all that did was make the magic fire spread onto its hand. But really, the moment that attack landed was enough to doom it, as it fell to the ground not long after.

  His entire skull had cracked, and the flames were crawling in on his brain. Even the strengthened flesh of a second stage zombie weren't able to fight back against it for long.

  Before the notification could pop up, Ashton spoke.

  "I'll offer the Marked's life to the Daughter of the Crimson Heart."

  [You have killed a [Marked Human] and offered its life to the [Daughter of the Scarlet Heart]]

  Ashton took control of the flames and quickly used them to burn the Marked's body to a crisp until nothing was left but some ashes.

  With him gone, Ashton just had to get rid of the rest of the zombies in the school and things would be fine.

  Checking the quests, it seemed that this Marked counted toward the 'Elite Monster' counter from the Daughter's quest as well as the 'Marked Human' counter from the Executor's quest. That... made things easier, actually. Would killing those ten marked really count toward clearing both quests? Hm, maybe the Marked would need to have a certain level of power for that.

  Though, this guy was much weaker than Gordy before, but that was to be expected. Gordy had been supported by a constellation, and this man wasn't.

  Ashton walked down the hallway, relieved that this guy was taken care of easily, and turned around the corner.

  And there was a sight that turned Ashton's stomach upside down.

  In the corner were some kids, huddled together. One was holding her arm, scared and bleeding. That was Millie, one of the 'bad kids' that were kept up in that isolated classroom. The other two beside her were Joey and Sean, holding their friend and staring up at the zombie that they were barely blocking with a tipped-over table.

  The zombie was James Crombe, the headmaster of the school.