My Reincarnation as a Chicken

“Feeling guilty for all that happened, I decided to help Zana do whatever it was that she did.”

‘So, you’re the sister that allowed their sister to get bullied because you didn’t want to feel left out? You’re the kind of sick animal I hate most.’

I told her and stood up.

‘Get up, Ulva. We’re going back home.’

She stood up and walked ahead of me.

“Please! I beg of you! I stood by to let her get bullied the first time. I do not wish the same events to happen this time round!”

I saw her prostrating herself, but I didn’t stop to take what she was taking seriously. I really didn’t want to abandon Zana after hearing her story. That was exactly why her sister told it to me. So, I would feel guilty about leaving her to die in a fight. Still, tricking me to come fight a necromancer with the lives of hundreds of people who looked up to me for protection on the line? That was way more vexing.

Ok, maybe she was misdirected into believing that I could resurrect people. Maybe her plan wasn’t actually stupid under the conditions she was imagining. Maybe she had been in a real tough patch before and was surprisingly a good person.

Ok… maybe it would be a dick move to ignore a fellow victim of bullying. Yes! I can’t allow someone to be bullied just like I was, especially because they were ugly like I was.

I groaned, annoyed at the prospect of what I had accidentally convinced myself to do. If only I was a “cool kid” in former life. I definitely wouldn’t bear this guilty conscience.

‘Fine! I’ll help you guys out. Tch, I can’t bear to watch someone get bullied.’

The copperhead was staring at me weirdly, making me feel a bit awkward.

‘Come, Ulva.’

I grabbed her and shadow teleported us to the lizardman village. There, I saw that Shiroi had kept the villagers at the center of the town like I asked her to. When I asked where Sylvie was, she told me that the pixie was in the chief’s hut, trying to make what I asked her to. Apparently, the lizardman who died already had those items on hand in his cave. Quite handy if I had to say. If possible, I would have liked it if he worked with us, but he was already dead.

After that, I ordered Sylvie, Shiroi and Ulva to head back to the West without me. Given that this was a fight against someone that sought death to become more powerful, I couldn’t rely on my belief in them to reassure me. I had a load of weapons that would prove useful on their own against them. The others, other than Sylvie, did not.

I gave a similar order to the lizardmen. They were reluctant at first, so I forced them all through my portal. What I did may have looked like holding an entire village hostage, but it wasn’t. I was simply grabbing potential enemies before they could do anything. If the necromancer got to this village first, she would transform them into her pawns, hence more enemies. I wasn’t ready for that kind of crap.

When all was done, I was alone in the lizardman village.

‘Oi… Akira. Did you manage to stop, [Evolver]?’

‘Huh? Stop [Evolver]? You’re definitely not thinking straight! I told you that can’t be done.’

‘Seriously? Boo! That means I’ll actually die soon… at least this time a bunch of people should be able to say good things about me.’

‘Pfft. That’s what you’re thinking about?’

‘Well… yeah. If we’re lucky, we simply reincarnate after dying at [Evolver]’s hands, no?’

‘What makes you think we are coming back?’

‘Plot armor.’

‘You actually still think we’re in some novel? Damn, your adventures here really screwed you up.’

‘Shut it. Now let’s apologise to the Tyrant of the South.’

‘Apologise? We did nothing wrong.’

‘True… but…’

‘It seems we still have the problem, huh?’

Akira drew my notice to something that made me flinch. Flashbacks of that incident came and I noticed my wing shivering.

‘Weird.’

I shrugged it off and decided to return to the tyrant’s cave.

***

‘Tch… where are they?’

Zana stood on the empty wet field where she was supposed to meet her army to make the final face off against the necromancer. She anxiously looked around, holding her spear shakily.

‘T-They abandoned me?’

She thought. Her mind started to go back to the time her grandmother died and the time Ongril died. Back then, she only saw those deaths as them abandoning her to the cruel world. She didn’t really get it, neither was there anyone to explain the situation to her.

To her, the current situation that was unfolding was no different from them abandoning her to the cruel world once again. She gulped and grasped her staff.

A shaman was not really one who was meant to do battle and she hadn’t learnt a lot of offence magic due to several personal reasons. At best, she would take down as many as she could and prove her title true.

She never thought she’d ever be in such a situation. It was almost enough to completely break down her psyche. Why wouldn’t it?

Out of all the tyrants she actually had 0 benefits after receiving her title. Krull was blessed with immense strength right after receiving the title. Sora received unparalleled speed post his ascension, Minerva, just like Goliath had received the ability to command whoever stepped even a single foot into their territory, as well as immense physical prowess. What did she get? Nothing. She remained same old Zana, although others assumed she was blessed with her high magical proficiency, which was very inaccurate.

Now, as a creature with barely any difference in strength from before her ascension, she was not nearly as confident in her abilities as one would expect. This made her a “pushover”, allowing for everyone to disrespect her.

Her life had always been terrible. She even received the moniker, Terrible Witch. Now she was going to die in a terrible way. Had she not tried to live a good life? Had she not done nothing but protect those in the south? Had she not always offered a helping hand to friends and shown mercy to foe? The irony of it all.

So, right now before she allowed herself to die, she was cackling eerily. A mental breakdown right on the spot. A truly terrible way to die.

‘Sheesh. What’s with that creepy laugh? You’ll scare the undead away.’

A voice resonated in her head. Looking back, she found the bird that she had sacked from her cave walking towards her.

“W-What are you doing here?”

‘Um… rude much? The bloody calvary is here!’

If Zana hadn’t gone mad, this was definitely what would break her. A chicken that couldn’t even beat a Tyrant? This was her calvary? She might as well have just gone to hand herself over to the necromancer. Her laugh intensified, sending shivers down Hinotori’s spine.

‘I know I said you’ll scare the undead away, but at this rate, you’ll scare me too.’

“And what does a chicken want here?”

Zana asked with a threatening voice, not in the mood for any jokes. Hinotori flapped her wings, alarmed by the sudden the switch in moods. The antennae on her head flinched.

‘Calm down, would you? J-Just see my army first.’

“Army?”

Just as she questioned that, five monsters appeared behind the chicken. These five creatures were clothed in jet black armor, with lean builds and large horns sticking out of their heads. Their eyes were pure red and the aura they produced was akin to that of Supreme beasts. They were for lack of a better term, superior in every way to the chicken. At least from what she had gathered at an eye value after scanning her.

Was the chicken actually hiding way more power, being able to summon such powerful monsters? The scarier part was that the beasts were capable of summoning more beasts like themselves albeit weaker. It didn’t take long for her to find herself looking at a massive black wall that stood mightily behind the bird.

‘W-What… What are you?’

She found herself thinking. Even if she begged the fog to help her fight the demons, she doubted much could be done. Just like the undead who were immune to inhaling poisoned gas or getting lost. She just had the feeling that none of those tricks would work.

‘Go forth. Destroy all the undead in your path.’

The monsters dispersed at an alarmingly fast rate, leaving the two to themselves once again.

‘It seems we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Hinotori, and if you want, let’s be friends.’

***

When I went to Zana’s cave, she was no longer there. Curious as to where she was, I sent out a shadow being to go search for her. I explored her cave a bit and there was her cauldron of boiling liquid that showed live footage of the necromancer and co. They were a nasty bunch and quite numerous. Like when I say numerous, I meant they would crush a lot of armies I’d seen before. They were definitely above 2000 undead, all of various species. Since when did necromancers control that many?

I tried to get a closer look at the necromancer. She was something like an undead herself. Her body was old, cracked with feint light shining through the cracks, dragon-like wings and claws for hands and legs, with a weird orb in her hand. I tried to get a closer look at her face, but when I did something disrupted the vision.

With perfect timing to, because my shadow told me that it had found Zana. With haste, I teleported to where she was. A wide empty field, far from the homes of the lizardmen and copperheads. I thought I would be in for a world of pain, but all I met was the scariest laughter I’d seen since Miss Kushieda’s cackle whenever there was a pop-up test. Good thing I’d never see that woman again.

I quickly realized that she wasn’t laughing out of any glee. It was a lonely empty laugh filled with regret. I noticed tears on her face when I was there, but decided to ignore that for her pride’s sake.

After explaining my plan to her, I teleported back to her cave with her.

We were currently looking into the magic cauldron, where we saw a very horrifying battle scene. My 500 hundred shadow demons against thousands of undead. Like I thought, the undead did not possess aura control or proper mana use, so the lot of them were being beaten up. Even if some could control aura, they were either beneath C rank, or my demons were simply more experienced in combat.

Within minutes, more than half of the enemy’s side was eradicated, with me taking zero losses. It was almost amusing, especially looking at Zana’s expressions while I perched on her shoulder.

‘W-What is this?’

She thought, completely overwhelmed by the situation.

‘You know, a tyrant should not allow themselves to be scared by such a thing. Be a bit bolder.’

“S-Sorry… It’s just that-”

‘Don’t think too much about it. This was never a fair battle from the beginning. Undead versus my Shadow Army? Unless the gods themselves intervene, I will completely destroy them from here. Believe in me.’

“Ah… but why are you so angry?”

‘This necromancer insulted my friend, of course I’d be angry. Let’s crush her completely! Game on, necromancer!’