The Zombie System.

"Hold still. This will hurt."

Elise pressed her hands against the hunter's chest wound, green light flowing from her palms while smoke and screams filled the ruined district around them. Her fingers trembled from overuse after hours of constant healing. Mana reserves dropped steadily with each patient she treated.

The wounded hunter an Iron-fang, judging by his cracked silver armor, gasped as her power sealed torn arteries and reknit muscle tissue. Blood stopped flowing from the gaping hole where a demon's claw had pierced through enhanced steel.

"Thank you," he wheezed while testing his breathing carefully. "Thought I was finished when that thing got me."

"Not today," Elise replied while sweat dripped down her face. "Can you move without tearing the healing?"

"Think so. Feels solid enough."

"Good. Get to the evacuation point six blocks north. Tell them Healer Traven sent you."

Behind the crumbled wall that served as their makeshift medical station, another healer worked frantically over a civilian whose leg had been crushed by falling debris. The woman's hands shook as she channeled what little mana remained in her depleted reserves.

"Status?" Elise called while finishing the Iron-fang hunter's treatment with careful precision.

"She'll live," the healer replied without looking up from her patient. "But I'm almost empty. One more serious case and I'll collapse from mana exhaustion."

"I can take the overflow," Elise offered while helping the Iron-fang hunter sit up properly.

"You're already treating twice your normal load. Don't burn yourself out, Elise."

A nearby explosion rocked the street, sending fresh waves of dust and debris cascading over their position. The concussion knocked loose stones from their protective wall while windows shattered in buildings that were still partially standing.

The sound of crystalline golems echoed from three blocks away, their massive footsteps creating rhythmic tremors that made the ground shake. Aerial demons shrieked overhead while their poison breath created toxic clouds that killed anything they touched.

Civilians screamed in the distance. Parents calling desperately for children lost in the chaos. Wounded hunters requesting immediate medical assistance through communication crystals that barely functioned under dimensional interference. The organized evacuation had devolved into pure survival as dimensional creatures overran defensive positions.

"We need to move this station," Elise said while helping the Iron-fang hunter to his feet. "This position won't stay safe much longer with those golems getting closer."

"Where can we go?" the other healer asked while wrapping her patient's leg with emergency bandages. "Every building in the district is either collapsed or compromised."

"The old tunnels. They're reinforced enough to handle pressure."

Before anyone could respond, the healer beside her collapsed from overcasting. Her body hit the ground like a discarded doll while her patient's wounds immediately reopened without magical support. Blood began flowing again from arteries that had been temporarily sealed.

"Sarah!" Elise rushed to treat both casualties simultaneously, her healing magic stretching to cover multiple injuries at once.

The unconscious healer Sarah, showed classic symptoms of mana burn. Her neural pathways were overloaded from channeling beyond safe limits. Without immediate treatment, permanent brain damage would follow within minutes.

"Damn it," Elise muttered while splitting her attention between stabilizing Sarah and keeping the civilian from bleeding out. "This is why we have safety protocols."

"Is she going to be okay?" the civilian asked weakly while watching Sarah's unconscious form.

"She will be. Just pushed too hard trying to save everyone."

Then she looked up through a gap in their protective wall. In the fractured sky above Armathor, light exploded outward in patterns that hurt to perceive directly. Reality bent around the aerial battle while dimensional tears spread like infection across the heavens.

She saw it clearly through the smoke and chaos. Chairman Ethella, the legendary Storm Caller who'd led the continent for decades, struck by the commander's void blade. His body launched from the air like broken lightning, tumbling end over end toward the earth below.

The Chairman crashed into a distant tower with impact that sent shockwaves through the entire district. The building's upper floors collapsed in sequence while debris rained down like deadly hail.

Her breath caught in her throat. If Ethella had fallen, who was left to stop the commander? The man was a living legend whose storm magic could reshape weather patterns across continents.

"No," she whispered while watching the tower collapse floor by floor. "Not him too."

The tactical situation was deteriorating beyond hope. Leon was somewhere up there fighting a cosmic entity. Ethella was down. The city's defenses were failing while dimensional creatures poured through reality tears.

"What's wrong?" the civilian asked while noticing Elise's expression.

"Nothing you need to worry about. Just focus on healing."

Elise shoved her current patient into the arms of a nearby assistant healer who'd just arrived with emergency supplies. "Take over," she ordered while grabbing her medical kit and checking her remaining mana reserves.

"Where are you going?" the assistant called while accepting the wounded civilian. "We need you here!"

"Where I'm needed most."

"Elise, that's insane! The whole district is coming apart!"

"Someone has to help them."

"You'll get yourself killed!"

But she was already moving. Elise broke into a sprint, vaulting fallen debris with enhanced reflexes born from months of crisis medicine. Her boots found purchase on unstable rubble while she ducked under hostile mana currents that could fry unprotected nervous systems.

"Come back!" Sarah's replacement shouted from behind. "You can't save everyone!"

Elise ignored the warnings. If Ethella was still alive, her healing magic might make the difference between victory and total defeat. She couldn't live with herself if she failed to try.

"Crazy healer!" someone shouted from a ruined building. "Turn around!"

But Elise was already three blocks away, moving toward Ethella's crash site with determination that overrode rational thought. Her Life-Death Balance evolution allowed her to function where normal magic would fail completely.

The streets were a maze of destruction. Buildings leaned at impossible angles while maintaining structural integrity. Metal twisted into geometric shapes that existed in more dimensions than human eyes could process.

Monsters prowled the ruins between her and the tower. She caught glimpses of lesser demons feeding on corpses while crystalline golems methodically demolished whatever buildings remained standing.

A demon turned at her approach, acid dripping from fangs that could melt steel. Its burning eyes fixed on her with predatory hunger while toxic saliva ate holes in the concrete where it fell.

"Fresh meat," the creature hissed in languages that predated human civilization.

Elise raised a quick barrier of compressed life energy that burned through the demon's corrupted flesh like concentrated sunlight. The creature retreated with screams that made windows shatter throughout the block.

"Stay back," she warned while maintaining her sprint. "I don't have time for you."

"Healer magic," the demon spat while circling for another attack. "Delicious when properly prepared."

"You'll choke on it."

More creatures emerged from the rubble as her healing aura attracted their attention. Demons, shadow wraiths, and things that had no names in mortal languages. All of them hungry for the life energy that blazed around her form.

Elise wove between their attacks while maintaining forward momentum. Her evolved abilities created protective barriers that turned predatory creatures into fleeing shadows. Life force burned through dimensional corruption like acid through paper.

As she neared the impact zone where Ethella had fallen, the air turned wrong. Colors bled from objects while time stretched like taffy being pulled apart. The pressure in her ears changed as dimensional forces warped local physics beyond recognition.

Her evolved healing abilities resonated with the distortion rather than fighting it. The Life-Death Balance she'd achieved allowed her to function where normal magic would collapse completely under cosmic pressure.

Temperature fluctuated wildly. Ice crystals formed in the air while other areas blazed with heat that approached stellar temperatures. Reality couldn't decide what laws applied anymore.

Something massive was approaching from the sky above. She could feel its presence pressing against her consciousness like a weight that threatened to crack sanity itself. The air grew thick with menace that made her bones ache.

She stumbled on loose stones and looked up through the smoke and dimensional distortion. Leon crashed down from the sky just feet away from her position, his body limp and bleeding heavily from wounds that should have been immediately fatal.

He hit the street with impact that cratered concrete and sent fresh clouds of dust billowing outward. The force of his landing created a depression three feet deep while cracks radiated outward like a spider web.

Elise skidded to a stop, eyes wide with shock and horror. Leon's right arm hung at an unnatural angle, clearly shattered beyond normal healing. Blood poured from wounds across his chest and face. His breathing was shallow and irregular.

"Leon!" she screamed while rushing toward his broken form, her healing instincts overriding everything else.

The commander floated down behind him with casual grace that made gravity seem optional. Its void blade was drawn and pulsing with cosmic hunger while thousands of trapped souls screamed from within the weapon. The entity's presence warped reality around them, making gravity fluctuate while electromagnetic fields collapsed into chaos.

"Another mortal," the entity observed while studying Elise with predatory interest. "Your healing magic carries interesting resonance. Life-Death Balance. Fascinating."

Leon was barely conscious, his left hand twitching weakly toward the shattered remains of Shadow-edge. His system interface flickered with critical warnings while his connection to necromantic abilities severed completely under dimensional pressure.

Elise knelt beside him in the crater. Her healing magic flowed automatically, sealing the worst wounds before he bled out completely. Green light mixed with purple energy as her evolved abilities worked to repair damage that transcended physical injury.

The commander watched her efforts with cosmic amusement. "Mortal bonds persist even in the face of inevitable extinction. How inefficient."

Elise didn't hesitate when the cosmic entity shifted its attention to her. Her instincts overrode fear as they had countless times during the crisis. Her legs moved before her mind caught up, positioning herself between Leon and the dimensional horror.

The commander raised the void blade above Leon's broken form, its edge pulsing with the death of worlds. The weapon hung in the air like a cosmic guillotine, reality bending around its presence while trapped souls screamed their eternal anguish.

"Your healing magic is impressive," the entity said while studying Elise with predatory interest. "But can it repair souls erased from existence?"

"We're about to find out," Elise replied, her power blazing brighter as the void blade began its descent toward Leon's heart.