KAEL POV
[Two days earlier]
My system was screaming.
Not literally. It didn't have a voice. But the warning pulses hammering through my skull felt like screaming.
[ANOMALY DETECTED]
[DISTANCE: 2.4 KILOMETERS]
[NATURE: UNKNOWN]
[THREAT LEVEL: CALCULATING...]
I pressed my fingers against my temples, trying to ease the pressure. "Lysander."
My second-in-command looked up from the map he was studying. "The anomaly again?"
"It's getting stronger." I stood, shadows automatically coiling around my legs like loyal dogs. "We need to check it out."
"Could be a trap." Lysander's dark eyes were cautious. Always cautious. That's why he'd survived this long. "Genesis has been setting up lures. Fake survivor signals to capture awakeners."
"This isn't a survivor signal." I pulled up my system screen, showing him the readings. "Look at this. My death magic can't identify it. Everything has a death signature—humans, zombies, even plants. Everything dies eventually."
"Except this?"
"Except this." The wrongness of it crawled under my skin. "It's like it exists outside the rules."
Lysander studied the coordinates. "Genesis BioTech facility. Where the outbreak started."
Of course it was. Nothing good ever came from that cursed building.
But my system wouldn't shut up. The pulses were getting painful now, insistent. Whatever this anomaly was, it wanted to be found.
Or it was bait for the world's most powerful necromancer.
"Take twenty zombies," Lysander said. "I'll cover the perimeter with the rifle. If it's a trap, I'll pick off anyone trying to flank you."
I nodded. Lysander was the only person I trusted. The only person left from my old unit who hadn't died or turned into a monster.
The only person who knew what I'd done to my sister.
I shook off the memory. No time for ghosts. Not when I had real monsters to deal with.
My shadows spread out, touching the dead scattered around our camp. Zombie corpses, mostly. Fresh kills from yesterday's horde.
They twitched. Stood. Obeyed.
Twenty puppets with empty eyes, waiting for my command.
"Let's go hunting," I said.
The Genesis building looked like something from a nightmare.
Blood painted the walls. Bodies rotted in the hallways. Zombies wandered aimlessly, but they sensed me coming and fled. Even the mindless ones knew not to challenge death itself.
My system's pulses grew sharper with each step.
[ANOMALY DETECTED]
[DISTANCE: 47 METERS]
[LOCATION: BASEMENT LEVEL, STORAGE SECTION]
[WARNING: READINGS UNSTABLE]
"There." I pointed to a broken stairwell leading down. "It's below us."
Lysander's voice crackled through my earpiece. "I've got visual on the building. No movement outside. But Kael... be careful. Something feels wrong about this."
Everything felt wrong about this.
But I kept walking.
The basement was darker, colder. My shadows writhed happily here, feeding on the darkness. I let them spread ahead, searching for threats.
They found the storage room. Heavy metal door. Locked from inside.
And behind it... nothing.
My death magic couldn't sense anything. Not alive, not dead. Just empty space where something should be.
Impossible.
"Break it down," I commanded my zombies.
They threw themselves at the door. Metal groaned. Hinges screamed. The door buckled, then shattered inward.
I stepped through, shadows coiling protectively around me.
And froze.
A woman sat against the far wall. Silver-blonde hair tangled and dirty. Violet eyes that seemed too large in her thin face. She looked half-dead—no, three-quarters dead. Starved. Dehydrated. Barely conscious.
But that wasn't what stopped me.
Black veins covered both her arms like intricate tattoos. They pulsed with a light I'd never seen before—not quite alive, not quite dead. Something in between.
And around her, three zombies stood perfectly still. Not attacking. Just... waiting. Their cloudy eyes were clearer than they should be, like they were trying to remember how to be human.
"What are you?" I demanded, my shadows rising like weapons.
The woman's eyes focused on me slowly. She tried to speak, but no sound came out.
One of the zombies turned toward me. Saw me. And whimpered.
Whimpered.
Zombies didn't make sounds like that. They moaned. Growled. Screamed. But they didn't whimper like hurt animals.
"Kael." Lysander's voice in my ear. "What's happening? Your vitals just spiked."
"There's a woman here. With zombies. But they're not... normal."
"Kill them and get out. Now."
But I couldn't move. My system was going insane, flooding my vision with messages.
[ANOMALY IDENTIFIED]
[CLASSIFICATION: LIFE ENTITY]
[DEATH MAGIC INCOMPATIBLE]
[WARNING: ENTITY CANNOT BE CONTROLLED]
[WARNING: ENTITY CANNOT BE KILLED BY STANDARD MEANS]
[RECOMMENDATION: ELIMINATE IMMEDIATELY]
My hand moved to my knife automatically. Everything that couldn't be controlled was a threat. Everything that couldn't die was dangerous.
I took a step toward her.
The woman's eyes met mine. No fear there. Just exhaustion. Like she was too tired to care if I killed her or not.
That look. I knew that look.
I'd seen it in the mirror the night I killed my sister. When I'd held her infected body and put the knife through her heart because I loved her too much to let her become a monster.
That look of someone who'd lost everything.
My knife stayed in its sheath.
"Who are you?" I asked, quieter this time.
She opened her mouth. Closed it. Tried again.
"Zariah," she whispered. "My name is Zariah."
One of the zombies collapsed. Just fell over like its strings were cut.
The woman—Zariah—flinched. Her black veins pulsed brighter for a second, then dimmed.
"What did you do to them?" I crouched down, keeping my distance. "How are they still standing without attacking?"
"I... cured them." Her voice was barely audible. "I can reverse the infection. But it's..." She looked at her arms. At the black veins. "It's killing me."
My system flashed new information.
[ENTITY ABILITY IDENTIFIED: RESTORATION]
[RANK: SSS]
[NATURE: DIRECT COUNTER TO NECROMANCY]
[WARNING: ENTITY IS YOUR OPPOSITE]
My opposite.
Life to my death.
Healing to my destruction.
She could cure the infection. Actually cure it.
"How many have you cured?" I asked.
"Three." She gestured weakly at the zombies. "These three. They're still confused, but they're not... hungry anymore. Not violent."
Three cures and she looked ready to die. The black veins were the price—I understood that instinctively. Each cure took a piece of her life.
"Kael, what's happening?" Lysander demanded. "I'm picking up movement. Multiple hostiles approaching from the east. Armed humans."
Genesis hunters. They must have tracked the anomaly too.
I made a decision in a split second.
This woman was too valuable to leave behind. Too dangerous to leave for Genesis. Too unique to let die in this storage room.
"You're coming with me," I said.
She laughed. Actually laughed. The sound was broken and bitter.
"Why would you help me? I'm nobody. Nothing."
"You're wrong." I stood and extended my hand. "You're the most important person in this apocalypse. You just don't know it yet."
She stared at my hand like it might bite her.
Behind us, footsteps echoed. Getting closer.
"Decide now," I said. "Come with me or die here. Those are your options."
Her fingers touched mine. Hesitant. Weak.
The moment our skin connected, my shadows recoiled like I'd been burned.
My system flashed red.
[ERROR: DEATH MAGIC REJECTED BY ENTITY]
[PHYSICAL CONTACT SAFE BUT POWERS INCOMPATIBLE]
I could touch her. But I couldn't kill her. Couldn't control her. Couldn't affect her with my power at all.
She was immune to death itself.
"What are you?" I breathed.
Before she could answer, the storage room door exploded inward again.
Armed men in Genesis uniforms poured through, weapons raised.
"Targets acquired! The necromancer and the anomaly! Take them alive!"
My shadows exploded outward, shredding the first three soldiers before they could fire.
But more came. So many more.
And in my arms, barely conscious, was the woman who could save the world.
Or destroy it.