The Zombie System.

"Common Blood scum!" Lord Vex shouted from above. "You think your little awakening changes anything?"

"Let's find out," Kael called back.

The corrupted nobles attacked first. They moved like dancers. Every strike was perfect. Beautiful. But their magic felt wrong. Cold. Twisted with something that didn't belong in their world.

"Move!" Kael yelled.

The Common Blood scattered. But they didn't run. They fought back.

"Look at them fall from their towers."

Kael's blood still burned with new power. His hands shook from the energy flowing through his veins. But his eyes were clear as he watched the sky split apart.

The Pure Bloods descended like falling stars. But something was wrong with them. Their skin looked pale. Too pale. Dark veins showed through like black rivers under ice.

"They made deals with demons," Nira whispered beside him.

"I can see that." Kael clenched his fists. Red lightning danced between his fingers. "Look at their eyes."

The nobles' eyes glowed with hellish light. Their elegant robes were marked with symbols that hurt to look at. These weren't the same Pure Bloods who had ruled them for centuries. These were something else. Something worse

A dock worker named Tam swung his fist at a noble. His knuckles had turned to blood-hardened bone. The punch connected with Lord Kellor's chest.

The sound was like breaking glass.

Lord Kellor staggered back. Red blood flowed from his chest. Pure Blood. Actual Pure Blood from a Pure Blood noble.

"Impossible," Kellor gasped.

"Not anymore," Tam grinned.

For the first time in centuries, Common Blood had drawn blood from the High.

More demons poured through the rift above the city. They came in waves. Claws and fangs and burning eyes. The awakened Common Blood split into two groups without being told.

Half faced the monsters. Half turned toward the nobles.

Kael chose a path straight up. A horned demon blocked his way. The creature was huge. Its skin looked like burnt leather. Acid dripped from its mouth.

"Die, mortal," the demon snarled.

"Wrong mortal," Kael replied.

He fused two bloodline techniques mid-air. Fire from his left hand. Ice from his right. The elements mixed instead of canceling out. Something the nobility said was impossible.

The fire-ice spiral punched through the demon's chest. The creature's eyes went wide. Then it fell like a broken kite.

But the fight wasn't going well. The Common Blood were strong now. Stronger than they'd ever been. But the corrupted nobles were something else.

Every time they got hurt, they healed. Fast. Too fast.

Kael watched Lord Vex take a blast of lightning to the face. Half his skull melted away. Then it grew back in seconds. The new flesh looked wrong. Gray. Marked with black veins.

"Surprised?" Vex laughed. "Pedigree rewrites destiny, boy. We made deals you can't imagine."

"What did you trade for that power?" Kael asked.

"Everything that mattered," Vex smiled. "And it was worth it."

A young woman named Leta tried to protect a child from falling debris. A noble's spell caught her instead. She burned from the inside out. Her scream cut through the battle noise.

"Leta!" Jorik cried.

The sight of her death changed something in the Common Blood. Their anger became something sharper and more focused.

A peasant named Rek let red lightning pour from his veins. The power was forbidden. Sealed away by noble decree centuries ago. But the seals were broken now.

The lightning struck three nobles at once. They screamed as their flesh cooked. But they didn't die. They got back up. Angrier. More twisted.

"You can't kill us," one laughed. Her face was half-melted from the lightning. "We've moved beyond death."

"Then we'll have to try harder," Kael said.

He locked blades with Lord Kellor. The noble's sword dripped with poison that made the air sizzle. Kael's weapon was just steel. But it was backed by awakened blood.

They spun through the air. Striking. Blocking. Neither giving ground.

Kellor's face was ruined. Burns covered half his skull. But he was smiling.

"You don't know what your blood is really capable of," he sneered. "But our Master does. And he's already begun rewriting your fate."

"What master?" Kael pressed his blade deeper.

"The one who taught us that power is everything. That mercy is weakness. That the strong deserve to rule the weak."

"Sounds familiar," Kael grunted. "Sounds like every Pure Blood for the last thousand years."

"No," Kellor's smile grew wider. "This one is older. Much older. And he's coming."

The sky above them cracked like broken glass. But what showed through wasn't more demons. It was something else. Something that made the demons look small.

Powerful and wrong.

The thing that emerged wasn't fully formed yet. Just a presence. A weight pressing down on everything below. But Kael could feel its attention. Cold. Calculating. Hungry.

"You feel that?" Kellor whispered. "That's what real power feels like."

"I feel something," Kael said. "But it's not power."

"What then?"

"Corruption. Rot. Death wearing a crown."

Kael drove his blade deeper into Kellor's shoulder. The noble screamed. But his wounds were already healing.

"It doesn't matter," Kellor laughed through his pain. "You can't stop what's coming. None of you can."

The presence above grew stronger. More solid. Whatever was emerging had once ruled even demons. And it was answering the corrupted blood's call.

"Maybe not," Kael said. "But we can try."

Around him, the other awakened Common Blood felt it too. The ancient thing pressing down from above. Some of them looked scared. Others looked angry. All of them looked determined.

They had just discovered their true power. They weren't going to lose it without a fight.

Even if the fight was against something that had ruled the world before humans learned to speak.

"Come on then," Kael whispered to the cracking sky. "Let's see what you've got."

The ancient presence seemed to hear him. Its attention focused on Kael like a crushing weight. For a moment, he couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Could only feel the immense power pressing down on his soul.

Then his awakened blood flared. The power his ancestors had hidden rushed through his veins. He wasn't just Kael anymore. He was every Common Blood who had ever lived. Ever fought. Ever died for something bigger than themselves.

"We're ready," he said.

The real war was about to begin.