The Zombie System.

"This ends now."

Leon shot downward like a falling star. Shadow-edge gripped tight in both hands, the blade crackling with green and black currents that spiraled around the steel. The Life-Death Balance energy wrapped around the weapon, each pulse synchronized with his heartbeat.

The crater below him glowed with hellish fire. Heat waves rose from molten stone while the air bent around the commander's wounded form. The entity began to rise, void blade reforming in its grip. Black ichor streamed from the wound in its chest where Leon's previous strike had connected, each drop eating holes in the ground where it landed.

But it was too slow.

Leon's silhouette streaked through the sky, a blur of vengeance fueled by every loss he'd endured. Tommy's death in the qualification dungeon. Elise's final smile as void energy consumed her heart. Each memory drove him faster toward his target.

Shadow-edge pierced the commander's chest. The weapon slammed through ancient flesh and buried itself in the creature's core with a sound like breaking glass. An explosion of hellish force erupted around them as dimensional energy met hybrid power in devastating collision.

The earth cratered further beneath their combined weight. Stone liquefied under pressure, while cracks spider-webbed outward for hundreds of meters. The shockwave toppled buildings three blocks away, their foundations crumbling.

The commander's void blade fell from nerveless fingers. The weapon that had devoured civilizations shattered into mist that dispersed on winds. Its trapped souls found freedom at last, their screams fading into whispers of gratitude that only Leon could hear.

Leon collapsed beside the fallen entity. His breath came in ragged gasps while his body shook from overexertion. Blood seeped through his clothes from wounds that Life-Death Balance couldn't heal fast enough. Internal bleeding painted his lips crimson while his ribs ground against each other with every breath.

He remained crouched, hand on Shadow-edge's hilt. The blade stayed buried in the commander's chest, its hybrid energy keeping the entity pinned to mortal reality like a specimen mounted for dissection.

Air pressure collapsed around them with the sound of tearing fabric. Reality tried to fill the void left by the commander's fading presence. Air rushed into spaces that had been twisted beyond recognition while natural laws reasserted themselves with violent snaps that made his teeth ache and his vision blur.

The commander twitched. Its form unraveled like smoke touched by wind, cosmic flesh dissolving into component energies that sparked and flickered. Yet its face held serene, eerie calm despite approaching dissolution. Ancient intelligence burned behind eyes that had witnessed the birth and death of stars.

Leon coughed blood onto the entity's chest plate. The metallic taste filled his mouth while his bones cracked from the strain of maintaining his grip on the embedded blade. Every breath sent fire through his ribs where dimensional force had compressed his organs into shapes they weren't meant to hold.

"Stay down," he wheezed through lips that barely moved.

The commander's voice no longer thundered with authority. It whispered, but the words still echoed in Leon's soul with weight that made reality shiver around them.

"You fought well, mortal."

Leon felt the entity's presence weakening like a candle flame guttering in wind. Golden ichor pooled beneath them while dimensional energy bled away like water through cracked stone. The commander's eyes, once bright as stars, dimmed to ember glow that cast dancing shadows across the crater walls.

"It seems I was wrong about your kind." The entity's voice carried something approaching respect, each word carefully chosen. "Your bonds create strength that transcends individual limitation. Love made manifest in ways we cannot replicate."

Leon growled through gritted teeth. "You'll fade, and we'll rebuild. This is where you end."

The commander smiled faintly. Its features were dissolving, edges blurring as cosmic flesh returned to component particles. But ancient intelligence still burned behind dying eyes that had seen the rise and fall of galaxies.

"For me, yes. But I was merely the door."

"What?"

"The first of many. A scout to test your defenses." The entity's voice grew weaker with each word, forcing Leon to lean closer to hear. "My master has seen what you can become. He will come personally."

Leon's grip tightened on Shadow-edge. The blade pulsed with hybrid energy that made the commander's wound bleed faster, golden ichor flowing like liquid starlight. "Let him come. I'll be ready."

"Will you?" The commander's form flickered between states of existence, solid one moment, ethereal the next. "Can your reality survive what approaches? Can your people endure what I have shown them?"

Around them, Armathor burned. Dimensional tears spread across the sky like infection while reality hemorrhaged through wounds that would take months to heal. The invasion had failed, but the damage was already done.

Buildings leaned at impossible angles, their foundations twisted by forces that ignored architectural principles. Streets curved into patterns that hurt to perceive directly. Citizens who'd survived the initial assault wandered through ruins that no longer obeyed normal physics, their faces blank with shock that transcended understanding.

"My master will come," the commander repeated. Its voice faded to barely audible whisper that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. "And when he does, you will understand the true meaning of despair."

The entity's body fell completely still. Its cosmic presence dissolved into drifting strands of void energy that dispersed on dimensional winds like ash from a dying fire. The commander's final words echoed through Leon's consciousness like prophecy carved into stone:

"My master will come."

Then silence.

Leon's legs gave out beside the remains. His fingers slipped from Shadow-edge's hilt as muscle control abandoned him completely. He slumped into fractured earth, body broken, magic nearly gone, but breath still coming in shallow gasps.

Blood pooled beneath him from wounds that wouldn't stop bleeding. His system interface flickered with critical warnings about organ failure and manna depletion, red text cascading across his vision like digital rain. His enhanced healing worked desperately to keep him alive, but the damage exceeded what even hybrid magic could repair.

But he was alive.

Leon blinked once. The sky overhead rippled with new instability, colors bleeding from the electromagnetic spectrum while dimensional tears pulsed like infected wounds. Reality struggled to repair itself, natural laws reasserting dominance over spaces that had been twisted beyond recognition.

His enhanced hearing caught sounds from the city. Survivors calling for help through smoke-filled streets. Emergency sirens wailing in the distance like mourning songs. The rhythm of Association rescue teams coordinating evacuation efforts through communication tabs that barely functioned.

They'd survived. Somehow, impossibly, they'd survived.

Consciousness faded like dying flame. The adrenaline that had kept him fighting drained away, leaving only exhaustion that went deeper than bone. His enhanced durability was the only thing preventing complete system shutdown.

But just before darkness claimed him, a whisper from beyond the veil reached into his mind. The voice carried weight that made the commander's presence seem insignificant by comparison, each word resonating with power that could reshape realities.

"You have caught my interest, champion."

Leon's eyes snapped open for one final moment. Something vast and ancient was watching him from spaces between realities, its attention focused on him with intensity that made his soul burn. Something that made dimensional entities look like children playing with forces they couldn't comprehend.

The voice continued, each word carved directly into his consciousness with surgical precision:

"Rest now. When you wake, we will have much to discuss."

Then darkness took him.

In the crater beside the commander's dissolving remains, Leon lay unconscious and bleeding. His body was broken but breathing. His spirit was shattered but undefeated. Shadow-edge remained buried in cosmic flesh that continued dissolving into component particles.

Above him, the sky continued tearing itself apart while reality wept through wounds that would never fully heal. The commander's invasion had failed, but the scars would remain forever.

The real war was just beginning.