The Zombie System.

"You're early."

The voice cuts through the stairwell's shadows before Leon rounds the corner to the third floor. Heat radiates down the marble steps like breath from a forge. The air tastes of sulfur and scorched stone.

Leon takes another step upward. The temperature spikes.

A roar shakes the building's foundation. Fire erupts from the landing above, a torrent of gold and crimson that turns marble to slag. Leon throws himself sideways, rolling behind a stone pillar as flames wash over his previous position.

His elite mage zombie materializes mid-roll, skeletal hands already crackling with purple energy. The undead spellcaster fires through the inferno without hesitation. Its mana bolt punches through smoke and flame, exploding against something solid in the haze.

"Clever pet."

The voice comes from everywhere at once. Fire swirls inward like a reverse tornado, revealing the figure who commands it.

Matthias Virell stands seven feet tall in the landing's center. Broader than his dead brother Marsen, with shoulders that could crack doorframes. Flame dances along his arms and across his chest, not burning him but becoming part of him. His eyes glow molten red in a face carved from granite and fury.

The marble beneath his feet blackens and cracks. The air around him shimmers with heat distortion, making his outline waver like a mirage. When he breathes, small flames escape his nostrils.

Leon rises slowly, studying his opponent. The family resemblance is unmistakable, but where Marsen had been calculating, Matthias radiates raw violence. His presence warps the temperature of the entire floor.

"A-Rank Flame Berserker," Leon murmurs, recognizing the classification from hunter databases. "Tobias's most feared brother."

His warrior zombie appears beside him, mantis blade drawn. The spectral armor gleams despite the heat haze. Shadowedge materializes in Leon's grip, dark mana flowing along its edge like liquid night.

Matthias grins, revealing teeth stained with soot. "Who sent you here, necromancer? Doesn't matter. You're never leaving these towers."

Leon tests his grip on Shadowedge. The weapon feels solid, reliable. "I have a debt to pay. You're in my way."

The laugh that erupts from Matthias's throat sounds like a bonfire consuming dry timber. He raises both hands, flames gathering between his palms. The fire compresses, condensing into a sphere of crackling gold-red energy that hurts to look at directly.

"You think the dead can save you from this?"

He hurls the sphere without warning.

Leon's warrior zombie steps forward, mantis blade raised in desperate defense. The fire sphere strikes the weapon's edge and explodes. The blast vaporizes a marble pillar behind them, sending chunks of superheated stone flying like shrapnel.

The mantis blade glows molten red from the impact. Steam rises where supernatural heat meets spectral metal. The zombie staggers but holds its ground, absorbing force that would have liquefied a human.

Leon's elite mage retaliates with practiced precision. Three mana bolts lance through the smoke in rapid succession. The first carries frost energy, ice crystals forming around its core. The second pulses with raw kinetic force. The third wraps itself in shadow magic that drinks light.

Matthias doesn't even move to dodge.

He waves his hand dismissively, and superheated air disperses the frost bolt before it can reach him. The force bolt strikes his chest and disappears into the flames surrounding his body, absorbed like water into sand.

Only the shadow bolt finds its mark, hissing against enchanted armor plates that protect his shoulder. Dark energy spreads across the metal like infection, but Matthias flexes his arm and the magic burns away.

"Is that all?" He grins wider. "My nephew could do better, and he's eight years old."

Flame erupts around Matthias as he conjures his signature weapon. A greatsword materializes in his hands, its blade longer than Leon is tall. Fire runs along the cutting edge, hot enough to melt steel. The crossguard bears the ARES guild symbol, wreathed in perpetual flame.

He lunges with speed that defies his massive frame.

The warrior zombie meets him head-on. Mantis blade clashes against burning steel in a shower of sparks and flame. Each impact sends shockwaves through the building's structure. Windows on neighboring floors shatter from the vibrations.

Leon circles to the left, staying low to avoid the heat radiating from their duel. He signals his assassin zombie with mental commands, directing it to use the smoke as cover.

The undead killer flows like liquid shadow, blades ready for a backstab. But Matthias catches the movement in his peripheral vision and spins, abandoning his attack on the warrior zombie.

A sweeping arc of fire erupts from his blade. The flames miss the assassin by inches but create a wall of superheated air between Leon and his servant. The heat is so intense that the stone floor begins to buckle and warp.

"Cute trick," Matthias snarls. "But I've been fighting longer than you've been breathing."

Leon's mage zombie casts a gravity well spell, its skeletal hands weaving complex patterns in the air. Purple energy distorts the space around Matthias, dragging the flames away from the team for precious seconds.

The warrior zombie seizes the opening. Its mantis blade finds a gap in Matthias's guard, sliding through enchanted plate armor to slice deep into his thigh. Dark blood hisses where it meets superheated metal.

Matthias roars in pain and fury. Flame explodes from the wound like a geyser, washing over the zombie's arm. Spectral flesh blackens and burns, parts of bone becoming visible through charred tissue.

But the undead warrior doesn't feel pain. It continues fighting even as fire consumes parts of its form.

Rage overtakes calculation in Matthias's mind. He drops his greatsword and grabs the zombie's head with both hands, massive fingers wrapping around its skull. His palms glow white-hot as he channels fire directly into the undead's brain.

The zombie's flesh sizzles and pops. Smoke rises from its eye sockets. But even as it burns, the mantis blade punches upward into Matthias's side, finding the gap between armor plates.

Matthias releases his grip with a curse, stepping back to examine the wound. Blood runs freely down his flank, steaming where it touches his superheated skin.

Leon uses the distraction to flank left, building momentum as he moves. Shadowedge leaves his hand in a perfect arc, spinning like a boomerang through the air.

The dark blade curves around Matthias's guard, slicing across his back before snapping back to Leon's waiting grip. New blood joins the flow from his other wounds.

Matthias staggers, breathing hard. His perfect flame aura flickers for the first time since the battle began. But instead of falling, his eyes blaze brighter with renewed fury.

He claps his hands together with thunderous force.

Every flame in the room responds to his call. Fire flows inward from melted stone, from burning tapestries, from the very air itself. The temperature spikes so high that Leon's hair begins to singe.

Matthias spreads his arms wide, fire swirling around him like a hurricane of destruction. His voice echoes with the power of controlled inferno.

"Let's see your undead handle this!"