[Marcus... are you prepared?]

[You are now among the REAWAKENED]

[However if you think for even a moment that this means you are invincible when compared with the people of this world... you are in for a rude awakening.]

[For the man who stands before you is no normal human.]

[He too has been influenced by one of the experiments of that man... and corrupted with those runes that that man sought to control.]

[Yet unlike myself... he is not one of the numbered experiments. No... he is different.]

[He is among the UNNUMBERED.]

----

'The Unnumbered?'

This new term put forth a series of questions in the mind of Marcus, yet he had no time to think about such things.

However even so, there was one lingering thought which Marcus could not remove from his mind.

'Just how many experiments were there?'

"How disappointing.... how truly... truly disappointing."

Yet these thoughts were interrupted by the words of the shriveled man, who glared towards Marcus and Sylvia with an immense hatred.

"Is it just that you three are strong? Or perhaps it's that those mindless creatures were so terrifyingly weak?"

Holding forth his hand, the man bore a toothy grin, revealing the rotten teeth of a man who had no concern for his health.

Yet somehow, Marcus felt that those rotten teeth were not a result of the rotting of this world - but rather that they were already like that even before this world had gone to chaos.

"I suppose I'll just have to find out."

At that moment, the man stood up from his shriveled position, dashing across the room in a manner which could only be described as distorted.

His entire body was completely wrapped up in itself, and the way he ran was something which looked more like a monster than a human.

The man who had been sitting in the corner rushed out of the room, heading straight for a door to the side of the chamber which had been revealed during the explosion just moments before.

"Running away?", Marcus asked with confusion, glancing over to Sylvia. "Should we chase him?"

However without statement, the woman too ran off after the man - a deadly glare in her eyes.

"I don't know who that man was or why he is here... but his words just now... haha... they couldn't have meant anything good. He may become a problem for us, therefore it would be best if it were nipped in the bud."

"Should I accompany you, Mistress?"

Stopping for just a moment before she entered the door to follow the man, Sylvia was presented with a decision by the girl who served her.

"Marcus.", She called.

"Yes?"

"I don't believe in doing something without a plan. But I also know that if we let this man go off and do as he pleases, that he will also formulate a plan. No... perhaps he already has formed many. And if we allow him the time to prepare such plans, then even with these powers that we hold... he may end up defeating us. Therefore... I entrust the plan and the girl to you."

At that moment, Marcus felt something strange.

'She’s leaving… whether I like it or not.'

Fixing his suit, the man smiled as he turned around, facing his back to the woman.

"I see. You're leaving me to analyze the enemy... find out his aim and his methods... and find a way to defeat him. Very well."

Stepping off in the direction of the store, the man chuckled to himself as he motioned for the girl to follow him.

"I will take the resources we have... and ensure that they are put to good use."

With this statement, the man walked back into the department store, disappearing from the room at that moment.

With this, Sylvia stood forward, stepping through that door which led to the unknown.

----

Sylvia was a judgemental person.

The moment she first met someone, she would tend to immediately classify them.

Useful or useless.

Powerful or powerless.

Intelligent or foolish.

Cooperative or uncooperative.

Naive or hardened.

Reckless or cautious.

Competent or incompetent.

Within the first few minutes of conversation, these questions had all been answered within Sylvia's directory of information.

Which is why as soon as she saw this man, there was one thing that she knew.

'This isn't someone I can reason with.'

While on the outside the man appeared to be nothing more than a pathetic excuse for a human being, Sylvia felt something which made her extremely cautious of such a person.

'He is... the opposite.'

Seemingly useless, yet useful.

Seemingly powerless, yet powerful.

Seemingly naive, yet hardened.

Seemingly reckless, yet cautious.

Seemingly incompetent... yet competent.

'That man was someone that I shouldn't underestimate. And it is for exactly that reason...'

As the woman made her way through a short hallway, darting towards the exit to which the man had likely just escaped to.

'That I cannot allow him to escape.'

Sylvia was not the type of person to recklessly attack someone, and particularly not someone that she didn't even know.

Yet this feeling within her gut did not lie to her.

'If I allow such a man to escape, then I feel that he will return all the more prepared to face us.'

As she burst open the door which had likely been used as an escape route, the dim lighting which hung above seemed to flicker as she took her surroundings into account.

It was a warehouse.

The ceiling rose three or four stories, and in front of Sylvia as if to direct her path was an arrangement of large cargo containers.

'Heh... it would seem that he has already prepared enough. How unfortunate. However...'

Stepping forth, Sylvia entered a maze.

Forced to take a turn as she rushed in without reserve, the woman smiled as she pressed forth, glancing around as she came to a decision.

'I’m not the one who needs to worry about having a plan.'

Turning left, the woman immediately found herself rounding yet another corner, only to reach a dead end.

At that moment she heard it.

"Rargh!!!"

The snarling of the undead.

Turning around to see that they were climbing into the maze from above, Sylvia took a fighting stance as she prepared to face the beasts.

'After all, in the game of chess... there are three factors which influence whether one will win.'

The zombies jumped down, landing before the woman as she closed her eyes calmly.

'Number one. How many pieces one has.'

At that moment, the woman held out her hand as the air itself seemed to become icy.

Then, forming in the middle of the air, a shard of ice was created from what seemed to be the very moisture within the air, falling straight down as it pierced the head of a zombie on impact.

The other two zombies jumped back at the sudden weapon which was created, looking at their slaughtered companion whose head had been reduced to guts - yet these zombies immediately looked over to Sylvia as they continued their assault.

'Number two. How powerful the pieces are.'

In that instant, the temperature of the air returned to normal, yet the movements of the zombies seemed to slow to a crawl.

They appeared to walk forward in slow motion, as if their very movements had been reduced to a minimum.

'Number three. The position of the pieces.'

Casually, the woman took up a leisurely attitude as she strolled past the zombies, who seemed to reach out at her in slow motion, just barely grazing her hair with their hands.

'These three are essential for victory. Yet... there is one more thing which is required to win.'

Now standing behind the zombies who twisted their bodies around ever so slowly as they attempted to attack the woman, the hair of the woman seemed to stand on end as it formed a series of spikes that slithered around her like snakes.

And in that instant, the woman walked forth, placing her hands on the shoulders of the zombies.

'How you use them.'

Slice!

Shooting out at the heads on her immediate left and right, the hair of the woman was stained as the two zombies were penetrated in an instant.

Barely even able to move, they had been taunted and slaughtered - however such a taunt was perhaps wasted on those creatures.

For they could not possibly comprehend the mocking manner in which they were killed.

[Hehehe... now you're looking more like a villain.]

Or could they?

With a sinister grin, the woman walked off with smug steps, making her way through the labyrinth in a casual - and perhaps reckless manner.

'Therefore... in order to gain the time to properly use our pieces... I will act as a distraction.'

Her hands trembling with excitement, the woman chuckled to herself with a mad grin.

Stepping forth into the maze, she turned a corner as she returned to her previous decision.

'I will act as a sacrificial pawn... so that we may ensnare their king in an inescapable checkmate.'

----

Turn after turn, Sylvia began to wonder why someone would go to such lengths to create this maze.

'To ensnare one's prey? No... if such a thing were the goal, then a much simpler trap would be used.'

She herself did not know how many dead ends she had met, yet she knew one thing for certain.

With each dead end she came across, the undead would appear seemingly out of nowhere to attack her.

'I know this all too well. This man is not trying to ensnare me. No... he believes he has already ensnared me in whatever mechanisms he has plotted.'

With a smile, Sylvia stopped herself from laughing out loud.

'Right now... he is toying with his prey.'

As she approached a decision with three paths - forward, left, and right, the woman took a deep breath as she closed her eyes.

Opening her eyes, the woman decided to move straight forward, rushing forth without hesitation as she navigated the maze.

'However... there is a great danger in overconfidence.'

Forced to take another turn and met with yet another dead end, the woman turned around as she headed back to her previous decision.

'For when one becomes overconfident in themselves... they open up a door to a failure that could not be possible otherwise.'

Her hastened yet quiet steps were perhaps the only things the woman could hear, as if everything around her no longer could produce sound.

'They allow the possibility for someone far weaker to defeat them.'

Coming back to the previous intersection, the woman immediately noticed that something was off.

The option to her right had been blocked off.

A container which was not there before now existed, and at that instant the woman widened her eyes in surprise.

'That... shouldn't be right.'

Walking over to the newly placed barrier, the woman felt it with her hands as if she needed to feel such a thing in order to prove to herself that it actually existed.

Yet in that instant, as she held out her hand towards the object, it disappeared.

The path opened up once more, as if such a container never existed.

"What!?"

Speaking out loud as she was filled with surprise and shock, the woman rubbed her eyes as if to confirm once more that she was not seeing things.

'Just a moment ago... there was an object here.'

'And yet...'

Taking a deep breath, the woman resolved herself.

Stepping forth as she made her way into this unknown path, a sound entered the mind of the woman.

'Eh?'

The sound of something large and mechanical.

The creaking of metal, and then -

Above her.

'Ah... I see.'

It was a crane.

And hanging from a wire was none other than a large container.

In a matter of moments this container seemed to fly through the air with precision as the item was placed right above the entrance to this newfound path.

'So what I saw just now... was a vision.'

'Now the question is... just who caused me to have such a vision... and why?'

With the snap of the wire, the container fell to the ground with a loud slam as it fit into the maze like a piece into a puzzle, cutting off any retreat for Sylvia.

'Was it that my opponent has the ability to show me a future that he will mold into reality?'

'Or perhaps...'

However before Sylvia could finish her thought, a pain erupted in her shoulder.

'Eh?'

Turning to see that a member of the undead was currently taking a bite out of her, Sylvia held back a scream as she grabbed the zombie ferociously, shoving it off as it took her rotten flesh with it.

"GRR!!!"

Her hair shot out on its own as her flesh regrew, penetrating the zombie as the woman looked over to see that the doors of the container had been pried open as it had landed.

"GRR!!"

"RARGH!!!"

"URGH!!"

And inside the container were not one... not two... but what seemed to be a dozen pairs of hands, all fighting and trying to escape through the thin opening.

The container had been deformed upon the impact of falling and the doors were mangled, stuck in whatever position they had been deformed into with an opening just small enough for a single zombie to fit through.

Yet this bottleneck proved to be enough to prevent any from attacking the woman, save the one who had exited first as it attacked her silently.

'Something... is wrong.'

Shooting forth a flurry of hair as it wrapped around the heads of each zombie within the container, the woman thinned her eyes in suspicion.

'The machinery... is something which would be here in a warehouse. That much is fine.'

'The cargo... the way it was used to form this maze and ensnare me... that much is understandable. That much I can see.'

'Even the use of the undead as weapons... I don't know how exactly those zombies were collected... but I suppose I could see someone doing such a thing.'

'Yet... why is it that I failed to notice... even as a zombie escaped from the container and jumped out at me?'

At that moment, the heads of each and every enemy were disintegrated.

Wrapping them with her hair like wires and tightening those threads to the point where the creatures were diced into cubes, the sounds of groaning came to a cease from within the cage.

Yet the woman approached the cage with an inquisitive expression as she gazed inside.

'Was it just that my ears were ringing from the loud sound of the crash?'

'Or perhaps it's that the zombie jumped out within mere moments of landing?'

'Yet... I don't feel that such a thing was the case.'

'For in my mind... there was nothing.'

'Nothing else than thoughts of what had happened before.'

'And if those thoughts were somehow used in order to distract me from even what was happening right next to me...'

"Welcome, welcome!!! Hahaha!!! I see that you've already found quite a few of the traps within my warehouse, woman! Yet it would appear that somehow, you still live.... ah... I see, I see. Indeed... I see everything. It is as clear as crystal, as transparent as the cloudless skies. Somehow... you have become a member of the undead. Yet you still retain your mind. How strange, how strange. Yet... I suppose there is nothing left in this world which is strange anymore. Or perhaps everything is. HOWEVER! Such a thing is of no matter!"

Sylvia's thoughts were cut off by an extravagant voice that spoke from an intercom, spreading throughout the entire warehouse.

"For you have entered my store of your own will. Yet... you are no customer."

With a pause, the man lowered his tone as he spoke in a threatening manner.

"And for those who are not my customers... entering my store is the last decision that they will freely make."

As the man broke out into a sinister laugh, Sylvia felt a strange resemblance between the taunts of the man and the taunts of the creature inside her.

Yet even so...

'This man is nothing.'

The woman smiled as she was mocked from the voice above, preparing herself to take on even an opponent who seemed to hold every advantage.

For she was no longer a mere human... and even the power of death was on her side.

"Heh... bring it on.", the woman whispered as she entered the container, glancing around the scene of destruction before confirming that there was nothing left of use. "I was in the mood for someone to take this anger out on... and I seem to have found the perfect target."

----

"When I awoke in this world... I, at first, was DEVASTATED."

A crack had formed on the opposite side of the metal container upon impact, which Sylvia had squeezed through without issue as she returned to the maze.

She continued her way through this labyrinth, returning to that intersection and this time taking a different path as she proceeded on to the unknown.

"My company... my employees... all those people who I worked so hard to train up... all the time and effort I invested into them.... and yet they had the GALL to turn into zombies."

The concept of a voice without a face speaking to Sylvia was something which she now considered to be common, yet this time was different.

For the voice did have a body, even if it was not in this place.

"That's nothing short of disrespectful, isn't it?"

The man spoke with lament in his tone, and Sylvia could almost feel his undue spite.

"Everything I did for them... all the paychecks I gave them... all those times I allowed them to take a break to use the restroom... and this is how they repay me? It is nothing less than disturbing. Yes... quite disturbing. And that is exactly why I will utilize them even now... as human resources."

As Sylvia turned yet another corner, she was faced with two more zombies who lunged out at her.

"You fool."

Holding out her hand, the woman grinned as she prepared to decimate the members of the undead.

However in that instant, she felt her hand move on its own.

Its path was directed in a strange manner, moving out of her control as she aimed at the very ground below her.

The pavement below her seemed to form a series of cracks, and the woman shouted out in pain as her very feet ruptured from her misguided area-based attack.

"AGH!"

Sylvia fell to the ground in pain as her own feet were mutilated from underneath her. Unsure what had happened, she didn't have the time to so much as ponder this.

"Number One... Did you do that? No... I can already tell."

As she lay on the ground, her feet regenerating, Sylvia smiled deviously as she held out her hand towards the zombies that lunged at her.

Yet before they finished their diving motions, their heads exploded into bits of flesh, raining blood upon the woman.

"That wasn't you, was it? It was HIM."

"How.... How disappointing. Ah... stand up, will you? I can't see you suffer if you're beaten to the ground like that. Come now... don't tell me that you're not going to put up a fight?"

The man spoke these words as the two zombies fell to the ground, at which the man immediately stopped speaking.

"Eh?"

This single shocked statement was all he could let out as Sylvia slowly found her feet regenerated from the destruction that she had caused upon herself, standing up once more.

"That... that shouldn't be correct. You shouldn't have... how did you... no... I suppose I see.... hahaha... a miscalculation. I see, I see. No, that certainly makes sense. I suppose I'll have to be careful of that."

The man rambled on as Sylvia stepped forth, her feet brand new - though still as rotten as ever.

"I don't know what you did.... but I've got some words for you."

With a smile, the woman pressed forth, her steps becoming more and more haste filled as the pain in her feet eased.

"You may think that you have every advantage in the world."

"You may be looking down upon me from some cozy seat, watching as the zombies do your job for you."

"You may be sitting there and taking enjoyment in this trap that you've set for me, waiting and watching for me to fall."

As Sylvia said this, she thinned her eyes in demonic pleasure.

"But even if I fall... that won't be the end."

As the woman said this, she turned one final corner.

And as she turned this corner, she saw it.

An open area.

As if an arena had been prepared specifically for her, the woman stepped forward into this arena.

And as she did so, she glanced behind her with a smile.

'As I thought.'

"You fool. You've walked straight into this.", the man uttered.

The clanging sound as another container was lowered, blocking off all escape, resounded in the ears of the woman.

Yet even as such a thing happened, her confident smile did not disappear.

Instead, the woman strode into the center of such an arena.

And she laughed.

"Heh.... heh heh heh...."

Placing one hand to her forehead, the woman could not stop herself from laughing.

"You.... you must have lost your mind, woman. Or perhaps you don't realize the situation you've been put in. Therefore... let me help you understand."

"No... you're the one who doesn't realize the situation you're in."

Taking a deep breath, the woman closed her eyes.

"One.... two... ten... twenty... One hundred and thirty two."

With this statement, Sylvia slowly smiled to herself, whispering so that nobody else could hear.

"Hey One. I think I've found something out."

[It would seem you have. But even if you have THAT... does that mean you can escape?]

The voice asked this question, however the woman paused for a moment as she opened her eyes.

"HAHAHA!!! You idiot!!! I'll have my workers destroy you!!! Move, minions!!"

At that instant, the sounds of creaking metal overtook the warehouse.

The containers seemed to be ripped apart, and from them exited an army.

"It would seem that my estimate was correct. But I suppose that isn't very surprising.", Sylvia whispered as she was surrounded by well over a hundred members of the undead. "But One... I think you fail to understand something here."

The hair of the woman seemed to electrify itself as she took up a fighting stance, preparing to take on all the creatures at once.

"I have no need to survive here."