The Zombie System.

"Remember when we stood together."

The voice pierced Kael's consciousness as his body rose from the bunker into sky. Ancient memory flooded his mind - scenes that belonged to people he'd never met but whose blood flowed through his veins.

Images cascaded like breaking dam. Common Blood and Pure Blood working side by side in vast libraries. Sharing cultivation techniques openly across marble tables. Teaching each other forbidden arts that made both factions stronger than either could achieve alone.

"Your fire complements my ice," a Common Blood woman said to her Pure Blood partner. "Together we can forge steel that neither flame nor frost can break."

"Knowledge shared is knowledge multiplied," the Pure Blood man replied, rolling up sleeves to reveal intricate scarification that matched hers perfectly. "My family's wind techniques with your earth mastery - we could move mountains."

But the harmony cracked. Corruption seeped through cracks like poisonous gas. Pure Bloods began infiltrating archives during night shifts. Gaining positions in libraries through political marriages. Taking control of teaching academies with carefully placed bribes and blackmail.

The gradual theft began with whispers in council chambers.

"These techniques are dangerous in Common Blood hands," declared Lord Vex to his assembled peers. "Their inferior breeding makes them unstable. Unpredictable. Only Pure Blood possesses the genetic refinement to handle such power safely."

"Agreed," a noble nodded from her jeweled throne. "We've seen the accidents. Common Blood attempting advanced cultivation and burning out their own nervous systems. Surely it's merciful to protect them from themselves."

Scrolls burned in midnight raids. Teachers executed for "corrupting young minds with dangerous knowledge." Histories rewritten to support the new narrative. Common Blood techniques became illegal overnight. Punishable by bloodline severance - magical lobotomy that left victims as hollow shells walking through life without purpose.

The final betrayal carved itself into law and stone.

"Common Blood is naturally inferior," proclaimed the First Emperor's decree. "Always have been. The evidence surrounds us - their weak manifestations, their unstable cultivation, their inability to achieve true mastery. We Pure Blood bear the burden of protecting them from their own limitations."

Lies became truth through repetition. Truth became treason through legislation.

Kael's awareness snapped back to present moment. Understanding flooded through him with rage so pure it burned his veins like molten metal. The betrayal was complete. Systematic. Generational.

"We were never weak," he whispered, voice carrying harmonics that made nearby demons recoil. "We were silenced."

His body defied gravity through blood-magic manipulation that operated by different rules than external spellwork. Red-gold runes orbited around him, each symbol pulsing. Strength. Speed. Regeneration. Foresight. Elemental control. Powers stolen and forgotten now blazing back to life with interest accumulated over centuries.

His blood hummed. Literally hummed and resonated with planetary core energy. Ancient cultivation patterns activated in his nervous system. Muscle memory from genetic inheritance stretching back centuries guided movements he'd never practiced.

Breathing techniques amplified power intake from surrounding magical environment. Each inhale drew energy from leylines beneath the city. Each exhale refined that power into usable force. His enhanced senses detected underground rivers of liquid fire flowing in geometric patterns that connected every district.

Lost martial forms manifested instinctively. The Threefold Vein Severance materialized in his hands - attack sequences that disrupted enemy blood flow and magical circulation by targeting pressure points that existed between physical and spiritual anatomy. Crimson Palm techniques could heal allies or destroy demons with identical gestures, the only difference being intent rather than method.

Ancestral Sight pierced illusions like looking through colored glass. Blood Bond communication linked him instantly with other awakened Common Blood across the city. Their thoughts flowed together without losing individual identity. Elemental Fusion combined magical schools in ways Pure Blood doctrine claimed impossible - fire and ice working together instead of canceling each other out.

Memory Palace techniques accessed ancestral knowledge stored in genetic code. Information passed down through generations disguised as children's songs and bedtime stories. Every rhyme contained meditation instructions. Every lullaby taught breathing patterns. Every fairy tale mapped cultivation meridians.

Across Marastra, other bunkers activated simultaneously. Mechanical sounds echoed from underground as ancient mechanisms engaged for the first time in centuries. Common Blood emerged from depths with identical transformations occurring in perfect synchronization.

Dock workers rose from harbor bunkers with water mastery that let them walk on waves. Servants erupted from kitchen bunkers wielding fire that could melt steel. Laborers ascended from mining bunkers with earth control that could reshape mountains or carve intricate sculptures.

All gaining power that dwarfed noble bloodlines.

The awakening spread like wildfire jumping between trees. From sealed towers, Pure Blood nobles pressed faces against reinforced windows, watching in horror as the "inferior" masses rose into sky with abilities that exceeded their own carefully cultivated techniques.

Communication networks formed through blood resonance that operated faster than spoken language. Coordinated movements flowed without verbal commands. Hundreds of awakened Common Blood acted as single organism while retaining individual personalities and goals.

The city's social structure collapsed as power balance shifted like tectonic plates grinding against each other.

A winged demon swooped toward Kael with predatory confidence. Crystalline bones reflected distorted light while membrane wings beat. Poisonous saliva hissed where it touched stone, eating through material that should have been demon-resistant.

The creature expected easy prey. Another Common Blood to be harvested for the invasion effort.

Instead, Kael's body moved in patterns he'd never learned but somehow perfected. The Threefold Vein Severance targeted the demon's magical circulation points with precision. Combat flowed like choreographed dance - moves passed down through genetic memory from ancestors who'd fought similar battles.

His first strike severed the demon's connection to its poisonous breath. Second strike disrupted flight magic that kept wings functional. Third strike cut off access to whatever dimension supplied its power.

"Impossible," the demon snarled as it tumbled toward earth. "Those techniques were destroyed centuries ago. We made sure of it."

"Nothing stays buried forever," Kael replied, red lightning dancing between his fingers. "Especially truth."

Other awakened Common Blood joined the fight without being asked. Their abilities complemented his perfectly. Fire, ice, lightning, wind working in harmony that created effects none could achieve alone. A coordinated assault that cleared demon-infested sky in moments.

The remaining demons retreated in organized fashion. Not random panic but strategic withdrawal from threats they hadn't expected to encounter. Their invasion plans clearly hadn't accounted for Common Blood awakening.

From his aerial perspective, Kael saw the bunkers' true purpose with stunning clarity. Built on intersections of magical energy that flowed beneath Elysia like blood through circulatory system. Each convergence point designed to amplify bloodline potential during crisis situations.

The Pure Blood nobility had known about these sites for generations. Kept them secret while using them to siphon power from Common Blood for their own cultivation enhancement. The bunkers weren't shelters - they were awakening chambers that activated when suppressed bloodlines faced extinction.

Evidence everywhere that Common Blood ancestors had planned for this exact moment. The leylines connected to similar sites across all continents. A global network designed to trigger simultaneously when any node detected sufficient threat. The demonic invasion had activated a planetary defense system that transcended national boundaries.

Childhood memories surfaced like bubbles rising through water. His grandmother's whispered stories when Pure Blood weren't listening. Tales told in kitchen corners and garden sheds where authority couldn't intrude.

"Long ago, Common Blood could speak directly to the old gods," she'd said while kneading bread. "Heroes who could heal incurable diseases with touch. Predict disasters weeks in advance. Communicate with ancestral spirits for guidance."

"Are those true stories, grandmother?"

"Just folklore, child," she'd replied with eyes that held ancient secrets. "Nothing more than stories to pass the time."

But every myth contained practical information about awakened abilities. Ancient artifacts scattered throughout Common Blood homes bore hidden symbols that suddenly made sense. Coded language that preserved truth across generations of persecution.

Cooking recipes that were actually meditation instructions. Embroidery patterns that mapped cultivation meridians. Garden layouts that channeled leyline energy into homes.

His grandmother and thousands like her had kept this knowledge alive through centuries of oppression. Waiting for the moment when suppression would end and power would return to its rightful inheritors.

Below, the massive seal beneath the Dungeon Garden cracked with sounds like breaking thunder. Ancient stonework designed to contain and redirect leyline energy for Pure Blood exclusive use. The awakening disrupted the theft mechanism that had operated for generations.

Energy siphoned for centuries returned like floodwater through broken dam. Pressure that had been building underground finally found release. The garden transformed from Pure Blood cultivation site into Common Blood power source.

All bloodlines across the city responded to liberation of suppressed energy. Even Pure Blood felt the change as stolen power returned to its origins.

A shadow fell across the sky that made demons look like annoying insects. Something descended that radiated authority and corruption in equal measure.

The being wore silk robes marked with infernal symbols. Noble house crests twisted into demonic sigils. Gold thread corrupted to tarnished bronze. Jewels that pulsed with otherworldly light. Its speech carried aristocratic accent mixed with harmonics that belonged to other dimensions.

"So the mongrels still breathe," it said with contempt that transcended mortal arrogance. "How remarkably persistent. Like cockroaches surviving apocalypse."

"We are more than survivors," Kael replied, rising to meet the threat. "We are inheritors."

"Inheritors of nothing but servitude," the corrupted noble laughed. "Do you think awakening changes your nature? You remain Common Blood. Inferior. Disposable."

Other corrupted nobles began emerging from sealed towers. The enemy wasn't just demons invading from outside. It was the system that had created vulnerability to invasion through internal corruption.

Pure Blood nobility had made deals with demons to maintain their power structure. Corruption was the price paid for keeping Common Blood suppressed. Now that suppression was ending, the true cost revealed itself.

"We were silenced," Kael said, red lightning arcing between his fingers in patterns that made reality shimmer. "But silence ends. And when it does, truth burns everything built on lies."

The corrupted noble drew a blade that wept shadows. "Then let's see how well truth bleeds."