“These are… Quite different than you are…” I started to explain what differences were between him and the ones I read about.

And the more I spoke, the more trembling his body became.

For a moment there, a faint red mist appeared from his body, before it vanished inside like he inhaled them back.

“This… My lord this isn’t our race. They are the variations we created when we conquered any race. They are deformed and twisted souls, without mind to control, and only a vicious desire for flesh and blood.”

“I can vouch for that,” I bitterly smiled, “those ones are really vicious. But I heard such an interesting story about the presence of hope for your race.”

“The den you mean, right?”

“You know about it?” I felt a little surprised when he said the same thing as my necromancers.

“Well, it’s easy to guess. After all, for such deformed lowly creatures to be created, we have to leave behind a few of our people inside a huge den.”

“What for?”

“To exert control over these twisted souls. If not, then releasing them in any world would end it in ruins.”

“I agree,” I nodded, “so you are saying that these dens are the key?”

“That’s correct. But our people shall be in deep slumber. If they were awake, none of the atrocities you mentioned would have happened.”

“How can we awaken them?” This was why I called for him. I wanted to find a way to cure this infestation. But he said they could be controlled, and that was my second best answer I was looking for.

If I couldn’t manage to clear such infestation and cure it, then controlling it would be my best available solution.

“To awaken a zombie from our sacred deep slumber, you’ll need another zombie to call for them.”

“You mean…”

“I must come with lord,” he said in a firm way as if he just made a great decision, “I can’t stand by and watch my people get slaughtered and kill others without restraint. This isn’t how our people live by.”

“What will your people live by then?”

“Surprisingly for peace,” he really said something surprising, “we live not to kill or feed on other races. That’s quite barbaric! We are a civilised race. We feed on animals like any other race. We own… Owned our own worlds filled with cattle stock, enough to feed our people for generations to come.”

His words conveyed how arrogant this race was. Or else why would he act in such pain when he heard my side of the story?

But this… It made quite sense, but it was also quite surprising still. They fed over animals and not races?

“Then what about those who are carrying your name now?”

“They are just low creatures, slaves for us. We only used them at wars, to kill our foes. And as I just told you, we didn’t let them loose and kept them always under our leach. We can’t form them without using our people supervising them. That’s the unbreakable code and system our ancestors placed to make sure we would never go berserk or bloody.”

“Your ancestors are wise,” I paused, raising my head to the sky, “not like some crazy folks behind the system.”

I was talking to the system higher ups. After all, they unleashed this plaque while removing the safety button the zombie race’s ancestors created and left behind.

“Can it be cured?” and this was my top question, “the one infected with your blood.”

“It’s not our blood, it’s just an aura we release using some sort of our race’s ancient ways,” he said to correct me before adding, “and yes. It can be cured. And the cure is easy. We just need to wake up those in control, and ask them to reverse the process.”

“This…”

“Do you think we were just this bloodthirsty with no mind or wisdom? Lord, we are… We were once one of the mightiest races in our universe. We would have never reached this stage with might or terror alone. Yes we are scary folks, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t civilised.”

Well, the more he talked the more I liked the way his race did things back then.

“So… We just need to wake up those in deep slumber and then ask them nicely to follow our orders?” I couldn’t help but raise one eyebrow, making this Loran laugh shortly before saying:

“I will handle the task of waking them up. But lord will have to do the rest.”

“You mean…”

“Just like you subdued me and my forces, you can also subdue them, right?”

He got a point indeed. Controlling any race wasn’t an issue for me. But they got to be awakened first.

“What do you need then?”

“Nothing much. I lack enough power after all this time inside that damn prison.”

“You need to feed?” I realised what he wanted, and couldn’t help but feel a little vigilant here.

I would never allow him to feed on others, not on my people!

“Not races, lord. I just told you, we can feed on animals. Aren’t there any here?”

“We got monsters,” I motioned my head towards the far away ocean, “can they do?”

“Not as tasty as animals, but they can do just fine.”

“Great. You can stay here and wait until I’ll go to the monster’s place.”

“But lord… I may need a few of my elites.”

“How many?” I didn’t hurry to respond. I was still wary about this damn zombie thing. My old fears about zombies couldn’t be swept away just by the simple words of him and others.

“A group of a hundred will do,” he paused as if he was thinking about something, “we got a fierce waking up technique of our race, one that requires one hundred to get executed.”

“Good,” I nodded, “then you won’t have an issue to show me this before leaving back to my world, right?”