[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 736 - A Joint Invitation

Alexia Ashford.

When that name passed through those red lips, the hand holding Leon's wine glass didn't waver by a fraction. But inside, a tidal wave crashed through him.

Her?

Of course he knew that name.

One of the founding members of Umbrella Corporation. Granddaughter of Edward Ashford.

A monster who had fused herself with the T-Veronica Virus, slept for 15 years, and woken up as something that could barely be called human anymore.

The immense power she'd gained had made her a queen in every sense of the word.

So it was her. She was the one pulling strings behind President Arthur.

"Your ancestor Veronica is quite famous." Leon let the name drift out softly. "As is the virus you named after her."

The playful smile on Alexia's face froze.

Just for an instant. A flicker of genuine surprise moved through those ice-blue eyes.

The shock of someone whose secret had just been seen by a stranger.

The T-Veronica Virus.

Her masterpiece, built in a secret Antarctic laboratory at the cost of years of painstaking work. The Ashford Family's ultimate trump card. The means by which they would stand above the entire world.

She herself had endured 15 years in low-temperature hibernation using the slow-fusion method, barely completing the initial stage of integration.

By any reasonable logic, no one outside herself, Alfred, and the researchers already under her control should have known that name existed.

Yet the man in front of her had said it like it was nothing.

The surprise lasted less than a second.

Her pride reasserted itself. That posture of looking down on all living things slid back into place as smoothly as a mask.

If anything, she found it more interesting now.

She was clearly very confident in herself.

"It seems you know considerably more than I imagined." Alexia lifted her wine glass again. The red liquid swirled gently inside it. "Since you know about T-Veronica, I suppose there's no reason to keep hiding anything from you."

In her mind, Leon was an ant that had wandered by chance into a god's private garden. Even if it knew the garden's name, it was still an ant. One she could crush underfoot without a second thought.

Leon didn't follow her thread. He simply asked what he actually wanted to know.

"I'm curious. How exactly is Arthur being controlled?"

His gaze drifted toward the entrance of the banquet hall. Arthur was over there, raising his glass in a toast toward him.

"He's not a plant."

That line confirmed everything Alexia had suspected.

Leon didn't just know about T-Veronica. He had precise knowledge of the virus's core capabilities.

He knew that the initial form of T-Veronica, owing to the Solar Stairway's properties, could only affect plant life. But the later-stage virus was different. Transplanted with DNA from queen ants, various plant strains, and other sources, it had developed characteristics unlike anything else. Alexia's ability to command infected organisms around her, to extend her will across an entire ecosystem, all of it derived from that queen ant genetic code.

Controlling human corpses, though, required deeper development. She'd have to fully excavate the queen ant ability before that became possible.

The current Alexia clearly hadn't mastered it at that level.

So how had she managed this?

"Who says he isn't?"

A cruel curve pulled at Alexia's red lips.

"I simply made him part of my garden as well."

"A special plant spore has taken root in his neural center."

"He is now both human and plant."

"His every thought, his every heartbeat, all of it falls within my ecosystem's dominion."

Everything clicked into place.

Leon had suspected some kind of parasite before. Something along the lines of Las Plagas.

Turned out it really was T-Veronica.

Just a more domineering version of it. More absolute.

Arthur Graham, the highest authority in the United States, was no longer an independent human being. He had become a single molecule inside Alexia's vast ecosystem. A humanoid plant, bent to her will whenever she pleased.

"Your ability is quite interesting, Leon."

Alexia stepped forward, closing the distance. The scent of her perfume reached him, mingled with something cool and clean, a fragrance distinctly botanical, threading itself into his nose.

"Pure Genetic Assimilation, if I'm not mistaken?"

She extended one slender finger, reaching toward his cheek. Then she caught the expression on his face, growing harder by the second, and let out a soft laugh, withdrawing the gesture before it landed.

"But you can only manage simple control. Whereas I can create an entirely new world."

"Join me, Leon. Work together with me. Once I unlock the secret you're carrying, we can reshape this rotting planet into something divine. A kingdom that belongs to both of us. The only two gods left standing."

So that was it. She hadn't yet figured out how to control the living directly. She could only manage it through a plant-based medium. And that was why she'd set her sights on him.

From where he stood right now, the partnership she was offering was completely pointless. And there was absolutely no version of events where he let himself become her test subject.

Leon swept his gaze over this self-appointed goddess, then shifted it to the scientists in the center of the hall, still clinking glasses, still trading toasts, completely oblivious to what was coming for them.

They laughed. They argued. They boasted about their achievements.

Physicist Cavendish, working through a piece of lobster, was loudly mocking the Military's scientific illiterates.

The whole scene looked absurd to Leon.

"A divine kingdom?"

He shook his head. Then he smiled.

"No interest."

He turned back and looked at Alexia's face. A face that could only be described as flawless.

"And I have no intention of making an enemy of you. I'm simply here to take what I need."

"Those scientists." Leon tilted his chin toward the crowd of celebrating elites. "They've all had a drink of what I brought."

Alexia's ice-blue eyes narrowed.

"Right now, my will flows through their blood." Leon raised his glass and drained the last of the red wine in one swallow. "One thought from me, and every single one of them drives something sharp through their own heart without a second's hesitation. Those brains they're so proud of turn to useless pulp on the spot."

Leon stepped forward.

This time, it was his turn to close the distance.

Less than half a meter between them.

He could smell that cool, plant-tinged fragrance coming off her skin. And he could see it clearly now. Every trace of arrogance had drained from those ice-blue eyes. What was left was something else entirely.

A bone-deep chill.

"Now." His voice was quiet.

"Do you really want to make an enemy of me?"

➤ Next: The Composed Alexia Ashford