The Zombie System.

"We will see…", what exactly was Elise talking about. The commander's blade was coming down straight for his heart and she was kneeling back to the blade as it descend.

Yet she was still there and then it happened and the next sound he heard broke him to a fit but he couldn't move. He tried to look away in disbelief.

"Don't look away."

But Leon couldn't close his eyes. The void blade descended toward his heart until Elise threw herself between them.

Steel punched through her back. Emerged from her chest. Black energy crackled around the wound where hellish force met mortal flesh.

It pointed edge gleaming with blood dripping on him. Elise!!!

The commander's weapon withdrew with a wet sound. Void corruption spread from the hole in Elise's chest, preventing normal healing magic from taking hold.

She stayed on her knees above Leon's broken form. Her hands pressed against his temples where healing energy had been flowing. Blood poured down her shirt, but she didn't move. Didn't fall.

Leon tried to scream. No sound emerged from his ruined throat. His hands couldn't comply too and his eyes couldn't comprehend what he was looking at.

"You always look so tired," Elise whispered. Her voice cracked. "Carrying all that weight alone."

Green light pulsed between her palms despite the mortal wound.

"I wish we had more time." Blood trickled from her mouth. "Fighting beside you. Helping with the load."

Leon's tears streamed down his face. He tried reaching for her again but his shattered nervous system wouldn't respond. The commander's beating had severed more than bones.

Elise smiled through the pain etched across her features. "I love you, Leon."

That word struck him like a punch to the gut. He had been busy trying to upgrade his status and enforce justice that he had forgotten what really mattered in life. Love. Elise loved him and he wasn't aware till this her dying moment. How foolish he was unable to comfort her still as she took a blade meant for him while still healing him.

Her healing magic continued flowing into him. Life force and death energy merged in patterns that rewrote fundamental laws about magical interaction.

"The fact that I can't love you tomorrow more than I loved you today and yesterday makes me so sad."

The void energy eating through her chest accelerated. Her life force bled away faster than evolved healing could compensate, but she kept channeling power into Leon, pouring everything into one final gift.

"I have no regrets," she said while her eyes grew glassy. "But promise me something."

Leon managed the smallest nod.

"Don't reanimate me. When this is over, let me rest."

Her hands blazed with magnificent light . The Life-Death Balance she'd achieved was evolving beyond control, drawing power from reserves that would kill her to access.

Leon tried speaking. Only blood emerged.

"Someone has to survive this." Her voice faded. "Someone has to remember what we fought for."

She then fell flat on his chest but her hands were still pressed tight to his head as she poured her magic into him.

The healing magic penetrated deeper than should be possible. It flowed through his broken bones, damaged organs, severed connection to necromantic abilities. More than physical repair, it was rewriting his system interface completely.

Power that belonged to life and death simultaneously flooded his consciousness. Elise was sharing her evolution, burning out her magical pathways to grant him abilities that bridged opposing forces.

What exactly had she done to him. Elise still on his chest, his system interface came alive and a message showed immediately.

His interface flickered wildly:

[LIFE-DEATH SYNTHESIS DETECTED]

[SYSTEM EVOLUTION INITIATING]

[WARNING: UNPRECEDENTED INTEGRATION]

[NECROMANTIC PATHWAYS RESTORING]

[DIMENSIONAL RESISTANCE ENHANCED]

[NEW ABILITIES UNLOCKING]

The commander watched with clinical interest. "Fascinating. The healer sacrifices herself to empower the necromancer. Mortal bonds create possibilities we hadn't calculated."

"Shut up," Leon gasped as feeling returned to his limbs.

"Pathetic."

The Demon Commander descended from above, floating over the crater with casual menace. Its void blade dripped with afterimages of Elise's soul-light, each drop sizzling where it met corrupted air.

"Puny humans, ruled by sentiment." The entity's voice carried harmonics that made reality shiver. "Love only weakens your kind. Had you accepted my offer earlier, none of this suffering would've been necessary."

Elise collapsed forward, her body falling across Leon's chest. Instead of weight, he felt warmth spreading through his system. Her final gift was still transferring, rewriting his abilities at their core.

[EVOLUTION COMPLETE]

[NECROMANCY CLASS UPDATED: DEATH-LIFE BALANCE]

[UNDEAD ABILITIES ENHANCED]

[HEALING CAPABILITIES UNLOCKED]

[DIMENSIONAL ANCHOR RESISTANCE: MAXIMUM]

Strength flooded back into his broken body. Shattered ribs knitted together while internal bleeding sealed itself. This wasn't normal healing. It was reconstruction that balanced destruction with creation.

Leon sat up slowly, cradling Elise's still form. Her eyes had closed, peaceful expression softening her features. She looked like she was sleeping rather than dying.

"Elise?" His voice was hoarse but audible. "Stay with me."

No response. Her breathing had stopped. Heart remained still. The magnificent light around her form faded to gentle afterglow.

Leon's enhanced senses detected the exact moment her soul began separating from her body. His new abilities offered him power to anchor her spirit, bind her consciousness to his necromantic matrix. She could live again as his most powerful undead servant.

But she'd made him promise.

"Let me rest," echoed in his memory.

Leon held her closer while his system showed him exactly how to violate her final wish. The temptation was overwhelming. He could bring her back. They could fight together again. She would never be afraid or hurt or lonely.

All he had to do was break his word.

The commander's void blade pulsed with renewed hunger. "Your emotional attachment creates predictable weakness. Resurrect the healer and face me with combined power. Or honor her sacrifice and fight alone."

Leon looked up at the dimensional entity that had killed the woman he loved. His eyes blazed with energy that shifted between green healing light and purple death force. The Life-Death Balance Elise had died to grant him was stabilizing into something unprecedented.

"I don't need to choose," Leon said while still holding Elise in his hands.

His necromancy abilities had evolved beyond original limitations. Death energy no longer operated through domination and corruption. It worked in harmony with life force, creating possibilities neither power could achieve alone.

Leon could feel everything Elise had done with her dying breath, every new abilities that had been added. His new abilities could manipulate both creation and destruction with equal precision.

The commander had taken everything from him. His mentor. His friends. The woman who'd believed in him when no one else would and still stood in his front telling him human emotions was puny.

Damn him to wherever he was coming from…

Elise's sacrifice had given him tools for revenge that hellish horror couldn't anticipate.

With it he will stop this once and for all.

Her sacrifice must be worth it and nothing else.