The Zombie System.

"His vitals are stabilizing."

Golden light filtered through the hospital windows. The healers' chants echoed through halls that reeked of antiseptic and charred flesh. Leon lay motionless in an enchanted bed, regenerative runes pulsing beneath blood-soaked bandages that wrapped his torso.

The upper district hospital was the only functioning medical hub left in Armathor after the attack. Everything else had been reduced to rubble and memory. Wounded hunters filled every available bed while healers worked around the clock to keep them breathing.

But even surrounded by the soft voices of medical staff and the warm glow of healing magic, Leon's mind was elsewhere.

He drifted into darkness.

The dream realm materialized around him like smoke taking shape. An endless expanse of shadow stretched in every direction. No ground beneath his feet. No sky above. No visible light source, yet somehow he could see his own hands, his own body standing in the void.

"Welcome, champion."

The voice came from everywhere and nowhere at once. Deep and steady. Leon spun around but found only emptiness that seemed to press against his consciousness.

"Show yourself," Leon demanded, his voice echoing strangely in the void.

"Patience. We have all the time in existence to talk properly."

The Demon King stepped from the shadows like a nightmare given form. His body was cloaked in darkness that moved like smoke, writhing and shifting around a frame that suggested immense size and power. His face remained completely obscured, but overwhelming pressure radiated from his presence.

"Your actions during the commander's battle were most impressive," the Demon King continued, his voice carrying the weight of eons. "Mortals with such resolve are rare even across the countless realms I have conquered."

Leon's hands clenched into fists. "What do you want from me?"

"To understand what drives you to fight impossible odds. To see if you're truly worthy of survival when the final reckoning comes."

The entity gestured with one shadowed hand, and across the void, illusionary visions materialized like windows into hell. Other continents burning under demonic assault. Cities falling to dimensional tears that bled horrors. Armies of demons pouring through rifts while defenders were slaughtered.

"Similar invasions are underway elsewhere as we speak," the Demon King explained with casual indifference. "Your precious world bleeds from a thousand wounds, each one deepening by the hour."

Leon watched the visions with growing horror. Elysia's grand capital consumed by flames Tharion's magnificent floating cities crashing into the sea, their anti-gravity cores shattered by void energy. Khasai's desert fortresses buried under swarms of shadow creatures.

"All this destruction from just my minions operating independently," the Demon King mused with obvious satisfaction. "Imagine what I could accomplish when I arrive personally to oversee the final phase."

"You're nothing but a monster," Leon spat.

"I'm efficient. Your beloved Armathor exemplifies this perfectly."

More visions appeared around them, each one more horrifying than the last. Leon's home city lay in ruins, its proud buildings leaning at impossible angles where blast force had twisted their foundations. Survivors wandered through debris fields, their eyes blank with trauma.

"Broken defenses scattered like children's toys. Crumbling infrastructure that will take months to repair. Terrified civilians who will never feel safe again," the Demon King observed with clinical detachment. "All this devastation from just one of my commanders having a brief conversation with your reality."

"We survived your creature's assault," Leon said defiantly. "We beat it."

"You delayed the inevitable outcome by a few precious days. Nothing more substantial than that."

The entity moved closer, his presence making Leon's enhanced senses scream warnings about power beyond mortal comprehension. The very space around them seemed to warp and bend under the weight of his attention.

"I offer you something no other mortal has ever been granted," the Demon King said, his voice taking on a persuasive quality that made Leon's will waver. "A place among my inner circle. Power beyond your current understanding. Protection for those you care about. Guaranteed survival when the final assault arrives to claim your dimension."

"In exchange for what exactly?" Leon asked, though he already suspected the answer.

"Renounce your pathetic humanity once and for all. Embrace complete dominion over the dead. Serve me willingly instead of dying pointlessly alongside the rest of your doomed species."

Leon didn't hesitate for even a heartbeat. "No. Never."

"Such unwavering conviction. Even when faced with absolute certainty of defeat?"

New visions materialized around them with vivid detail. Massive armies of demons flooding through. Cities burning while their defenders fell like wheat before the scythe. Leon's friends and family consumed by darkness while he stood powerless to save them, forced to watch their deaths replay endlessly.

"This is precisely what awaits your people if you face another invasion as unprepared as you were before," the Demon King explained with clinical detachment. "Your hunters lack the fundamental strength to resist what comes next. Your leaders lack the wisdom to make necessary sacrifices. Your civilians lack the will to endure prolonged suffering."

"We'll find a way to stop you," Leon said with more confidence than he felt.

"How touchingly naive. You cling to hope like it cannot be broken under sufficient pressure."

The entity's aura shifted dramatically. Restrained fury replaced casual amusement while the void around them pulsed with malevolent energy that made Leon's bones ache and his vision blur.

"I do admire that determination you display," the Demon King continued, his voice now carrying undertones of genuine respect mixed with cruel anticipation. "But I also enjoy watching hope shatter into pieces when mortals finally understand their limitations."

Leon forced himself to stand straighter despite the crushing pressure that threatened to drive him to his knees. "Then you're going to be very disappointed."

"We shall see how long that defiance lasts. This brief peace you've managed to win through sacrifice is only a single breath before the storm arrives."

The visions changed again, showing Leon scenes that made his blood freeze. He saw himself older, scarred beyond recognition, standing alone on a battlefield covered with the bodies of everyone he'd tried to protect. Elise's corpse stared at him with accusation in her lifeless eyes. Damian's broken form lay twisted among fallen Iron-fang warriors. His mother's body was barely recognizable after the war had claimed her.

"Heal your broken city if you can," the Demon King commanded with absolute authority. "Warn your kind about what approaches. Prepare them however you see fit. Gather whatever allies you can find. But know with complete certainty that I am coming soon."

"How soon?" Leon asked, dreading the answer.

"Soon enough that your desperate preparations will prove utterly insufficient when tested. Late enough that you'll have time to truly appreciate the futility of resistance."

The entity began to fade back into shadow, his form becoming less distinct with each passing moment. But before disappearing completely, he added with cruel satisfaction that made the void itself seem to smile:

"And don't expect any help from the other continents. They bleed just like yours does. Their warriors fall just as easily. Their hope dies just as quietly."

The Demon King's silhouette loomed impossibly large as he leaned in close to Leon's face. Ancient malice radiated from the darkness where features should be, making the air itself recoil from his presence.

"I want to see exactly how long your precious courage lasts when you stand completely alone against infinite darkness," the entity whispered with intimate cruelty.

With that final threat, the realm collapsed inward like a dying star. Leon tumbled through swirling fire, ash, and memory as reality reasserted itself with violent force that left his consciousness reeling.

"Leon! Can you hear me? Leon!"

He jolted awake in the hospital bed, his body drenched in cold sweat while his heart hammered against his ribs hard enough to crack them. The healers rushed to his side, their concerned faces illuminated by gentle healing magic that pulsed with warm light.

"You're safe now," one of them said, pressing a cool cloth to his forehead. "Just a nightmare. Your vitals spiked dangerously but you're stabilized again."

Leon stared at the ceiling tiles above him, counting the cracks while his breathing slowly returned to normal. The conversation in the void replayed in his mind with perfect clarity. Every word of mockery. Every threat. Every vision of destruction yet to come.

The invasion wasn't the war.

It was the warning.

And time was already slipping away like water through his fingers.