The Zombie System.

"Move, boy! The runes are turning black!"

Kael dropped his breakfast bowl as the second tremor hit. Thin gruel splattered across cracked stone while the tenement walls groaned around him. His foster mother, Meren, gripped the doorframe with white knuckles.

"What's happening?" she asked.

Through their single window, Kael could see the Dungeon Garden's protective sigils flickering. Gold light turned sickly yellow, then darker.

"I don't know."

The silver line along his forearm began to burn. His bloodline mark had never reacted this strongly before. Not even during the cultivation exercises he practiced in secret.

The third tremor split the obsidian street below. Violet flame erupted from the fissures. Then the screaming started.

"The Garden's breached!" someone shouted from the street.

Kael grabbed his emergency pack. Three days of dried meat, water purification tablets, basic medical supplies. Every Common Blood kept one ready.

"Kael, where are you going?"

"The bunkers. You should come."

Meren shook her head. "The Verans will protect us. Lord Darius wouldn't abandon his own holdings."

Through the window, Kael watched golden barriers shimmer to life around the noble towers. One-way shields. Nothing got in. Nothing got out.

"They're sealing themselves away."

Another explosion shook the building. Chunks of obsidian rained from the ceiling.

"Go," Meren whispered. "Find safety."

Kael climbed through the window onto the fire escape. The metal ladder vibrated under his feet as he descended. His enhanced reflexes kept him steady while others stumbled and fell.

The street below writhed with panic. Common Blood fled in every direction while purple fire spread from the Garden's direction. No organization. No evacuation plan. Just terror.

A child's cry cut through the chaos.

Kael found them trapped under a fallen beam. Nira and Jorik from the building next door. The girl couldn't be more than seven, her brother maybe nine.

"Help us!" Jorik pulled desperately at the stone.

Kael wedged his shoulder under the beam. His bloodline enhancement kicked in, muscles flooding with borrowed strength. The stone shifted just enough.

"Crawl out. Now."

Nira emerged first, tears streaming down her dirt-covered face. A fresh bloodline mark glowed silver along her neck. Too young for manifestation, but the chaos had triggered something.

"Where are our parents?" she asked.

Kael looked at the collapsed building behind them. No sounds from inside.

"We need to move."

He lifted Nira onto his back while Jorik gripped his hand. They joined the stream of refugees flowing toward the ancient bunkers on the city's western edge.

A noble caravan blocked the intersection ahead. Six horses, enchanted armor, magical weapons that hummed with contained power. The guards formed a protective circle around their charges.

"Please!" A woman with a baby pushed toward them. "Take my child!"

The lead guard's expression showed only disgust. "Common Blood stays common. Move along."

"We're citizens too!"

"Citizens with rights." The guard's hand moved to his sword hilt. "Which don't include contaminating pure bloodlines."

Kael pulled the children around the caravan. No point arguing. The system didn't bend for emergencies.

"Why won't they help?" Jorik asked.

"Because they think we're worth less than their horses."

The bunker entrance lay ahead. Massive doors built into the hillside, covered in blood runes that pulsed. A line of Common Blood pressed against the entrance while guards checked bloodline marks.

"Only marked individuals!" the guard captain shouted. "Proof of noble heritage required!"

Kael rolled up his sleeve. The silver line glowed brighter as they approached.

"This sufficient?"

The guard studied the mark with practiced eyes. "Weak but legitimate. The children?"

Jorik showed his own faint marking. Nira's new manifestation blazed.

"Fresh awakening. Interesting." The guard stepped aside. "Enter."

The bunker doors began grinding shut as more refugees pressed forward. Those without marks pounded against the closing entrance.

"Let us in! We're people too!"

"Find other shelter," the captain replied. "These bunkers are for bloodline preservation."

A shadow fell across the hillside. Kael looked up to see something massive descending from the burning sky.

The demon hit the ground like a meteor. Its body gleamed black glass and molten silver, towering fifteen feet above the fleeing crowds. Each step left glowing footprints in the stone.

"Run!" Kael shoved the children toward the narrowing door gap.

The demon's eyes fixed on them. Or rather, on Nira's blazing mark. It raised one crystalline arm, preparing to strike.

Blood runes carved into the bunker entrance flared to life. Ancient defensive magic surged outward in crimson waves. The demon's form wavered as the spell washed over it.

"Now!" Kael dove through the closing door with both children.

The massive portal slammed shut behind them and echoed through stone corridors. Outside, muffled sounds of violence continued.

"We made it," Jorik breathed.

Kael set Nira down in the dim corridor. Emergency lights glowed along the walls, powered by blood magic drawn from the refugees themselves. The stronger the marks, the brighter the illumination.

"Your mark," Nira pointed at his arm. "It's glowing."

Kael looked down. The silver line pulsed with rhythm that matched his heartbeat. Around them, other refugees showed similar reactions. Bloodline marks responding to something deeper than surface magic.

Ancient inscriptions covered the corridor walls. Text in old Elysian that most Common Blood couldn't read. But as Kael watched, the symbols began glowing in response to their presence.

"Can you read that?" asked an elderly woman nearby.

Kael approached the wall. The words seemed to shift and change, becoming clearer as his mark burned brighter.

"'When the blood awakens, the sleepers rise,'" he read slowly. "'When the pure becomes corrupt, the diluted shall inherit.'"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Behind them, deeper in the bunker, more inscriptions lit up in sequence. A pattern spreading through the underground network like blood through veins.

"I think we're about to find out."

Nira's mark flared again, brighter than before. The light revealed something carved deeper into the stone. A map of Elysia with dozens of points beginning to glow.

"Kael," she whispered. "Something's coming."

Above them, the sounds had changed. No more random screaming. Now voices chanted in unison, speaking words that made bloodline magic recoil.

Whatever was awakening wasn't just in Marastra.

It was everywhere.