Fire, screams and cries filled the air upon Crossfen Village as the peaceful Leshies fell upon the anarchic claws of the Whispering Way. Zombies and Skeletons descended upon them like an unceasing flood. Their vile claws, not tearing through the pudgy plant flesh of the Leshies, no for much to their horror, the Undead Horde grabbed them and forced them into a leather sack. Even those who tried to kick and swing away their assailants were subdued and captured.

It was no slaughter, but a cattle raid.

“The Village!” the Doctor-Commander gasped for his breath as he and his Myrmidon Escort arrived at the ransacked Crossfen.

He darted towards the threshold of the village and saw the Warding Stones that Mama Sopas had told him protects the Village from Undead coming from the north east. It was severely defaced, with the intricate details being carved violently out and then desecrated with an erring cold wind emanating from the black goop that defiled its surface.

“These Warding Stones Vessel, the stone itself is of high potentiate of power, these puppets of the Tyrant must have been able to break its enchantment.” Arazni whispered into his hear as her ghostly apparition bent down to examine the Ward.

“It was because… I… I showed Lysithea the designs of the Warding Stones. It was my fault this is happening.” Cold Iron lowered his head.

“I can forgive such a mistake from the likes of you. The Sorrowscythe’s lies are known to be as sweet as honey.” Arazni shook her head. “How many more of these Ward Stones did you know of Vessel? Artifacts of this nature come in batches.” Arazni asked of him.

“First, stop calling me ‘Vessel.’. And Four, including this one.” Izo clenched his jaw.

“Order your Golems to protect us whilst we repair the Warding Stones.” The Crimson Herald answered.

“How? Its destroyed.” He questioned her.

“Please, allow me...” Arazni beckons him as her spiritual hand wrapped itself around his wrist.

Following the Angel’s advice, Izo rather reluctantly place his hand on the desecrated Stone, his hand touching the black corruptive goo. His hand shivered fearfully for a second at such a repugnant yet simple action until a warm courage rippled inside his heart. Then his hand began to glow a pale golden light. Without even a proper say, the Crimson Crusader took control of Izo’s right hand and began to draw a new set of arcane symbols upon the Warding Stone.

Each stroke of his finger purifying the tyrannical grasp the Whispering Way held upon the stone.

As Arazni relinquished her control of Izo’s hand the Warding Stone emit a blue glow and released a vigorous heartbeat that pulsated around it radius. Several of the Undead Minions that were eyes locked across the Leshies fell like flies onto the soil.

“Otherworlder! Help us!” one Leshy who emerged from his kidnapping leather sack pleaded with the Commander.

“How did y—” Izo was at a lost of what fantastic deed he just accomplished. Energy sprouting from his deistic hand.

“As an Angel, I know of the Runes inscribed on these Stones. Now order your Golems to the defense! We cannot allow the Tyrant to enslave another soul here.” Arazni pressed him.

Izo nodded, his mind still unable to fully wrap what the Angel had done with him or what they both had accomplished. But alas, he has other priorities to attend to. He skipped towards the trapped Leshies and helped them free who scrambled their bodies upon feeling his armored hands clutched their little bodies.

“H-He-Hey! It’s me! Izo!” the Doctor-Commander calmed the Leshies.

“It is horrible Outworlder! Sorrowscythe destroyed our Ward Stones and let loose her monsters on us!” a young sapling Leshy cried.

“They are trying to take us prisoner! They already took some of us away!” a Lilly-shaped Leshy hugged her.

“There’s still more in the village!” a feline Cat-tail Leshy pointed with his tail-shaped reeds towards Crossfen.

“Myrmidon, Diamond Formation on me. Cover me whilst I repair the Ward Stones. We can use them to stop the Undead.” Izo ordered.

“Interrogative Secretary Baird. ‘Ward Stones’? I have never heard of such a Defense System before...” Myrmidon mumbled uncertainly.

“Yeah, you can say that it is. Just protect me!” Izo ordered.

“Affirmative Secretary.” The M.U.S.C.L.E Unit nodded.

Four of his Robots surrounded him from his 12, 3, 6 and 9-o’clock and synchronized their steps with their master.

Sweat falling and heart pumping, the Doctor-Commander ploughed through the ransacked village cutting down all the undead that dared blocked his path. Yet the further he pushed into Crossfen’s burning heart, the greater their assailants veered with their blank white eyes towards him. From common skeletons and decrepit corpses came hulking masses. Armed with their lances freshly smeared with the chlorophyll blood of leshies and a thirst to slay all things living. Like the piercing arrows their lances fashioned themselves onto, these Skeletal Infantrymen stood up to challenge the Myrmidons in combat. Barely enough time to have the Doctor-Commander and his robot minions draw their weapons.

“Engaging Enemy!” Myrmidon declared as they locked hands with the Undead Squadron.

Their vessels kicked and thrashed against the indefatigable weight of the Skeletal Infantry, their sheer tenacity and armored plates being more than a match for the Combat Robots in close quarter combat. Yet their weapons were found lacking in bringing about the (re-)finality of death back into the Undead Monsters.

“To your left, behind this bush.” Izo pointed out to Arazni as he slipped away to the next Ward Stone.

“The Sorrowscythe’s fallow hands knows no compunction. I fear what atrocities she has in plan to those Leshies she had already captured before our arrival.” The Crimson Herald forebodingly whispered to Izo’s ear as she used his hand to repair the Undead Disrupting Wardstones.

In a short action and the degree of Arcane Knowledge that the Angel sealed inside Izo had collected in all her years, Arazni was able to repair the Stone. It beat out another energy wave of magic that stunned the Skeletal Infantry that Myrmidon engaged in hand-to-hand combat with.

“Secretary Baird, my other Units reported of an enemy Technical holding several civilian’s hostage about hundred meters west of our position.”

“Technical?” Izo asked the A.I.

“A vehicle sir. Carriage or tracked vehicle sir? But it is capable of movement.” They clarified.

“Box it in and don’t let it escape.” He commanded with a huff of his chest. “I still need more time with these Wardstones.”

“You remind me of an old friend, Otherworlder. The way you spoke to your golems, you remind me of him when we conquered the whole of the known world together…” Arazni annotated.

“You can tell me more war stories after this is all over. We got a job to do Arazni.” Izo inhaled his breath before leaping off his feet once again.

“Brave and Decisive too…” Arazni added.

The next Ward Stone was not far off and was almost instantaneously repaired by the Crimson Crusader.

“One more and the village is safe.” Izo quipped as he massaged his aching wrists.

“Mister Secretary, you will have to cross the direct line of sight of the enemy Technical. I advise caution.” Myrmidon warned him.

“Keep’em distracted just a little bit more.”

Picking up the pace, the Doctor-Commander descended further into the village until at last he can see the

“Secretary Baird! Watch out!” Myrmidon pulled Izo away by a few feet as a heavy mass tore across his path narrowly missing him.

A splintering mass of messy bones towered above him like a living wave of unearthly hatred. Human bones much to Izo and Myrmidon’s horror. Their arms, ribs and skulls tangled in a bony mess.

“What in the hell is that… Thing?!” Izo gasped as his nose gaged from a decrepit smell of blackened flesh tar that it emitted beneath its bones.

“When a great atrocity that results in a mass of poor souls being buried alive together in a mass grave, the vengeful spirits within those bodies will become similarly tangled together unable to pass on.” Arazni whispered into his ears. “When these spirits cannot untangle, they instead return to their physical remains… into this… Mass. Tanglebones.” She could barely contain her hatred for such a sordid sight.

“Cr—imson Crusader… Behold---- Souls--- No---- Save” the Tanglebones locked their many hollow gazes upon Arazni’s puppet. Its voice a cacophony of over a dozen voice all meshed into one singular yet deathly echo. The undead mass clattered its many teeth as it presented about a dozen Leshies trapped in its multiple rib cages that fitted snuggly underneath them. “Like---this---” with a cruel twitch of its bones, the Tanglebones closed one of its rib cages prisons, crushing the poor Leshy inside into a green pulp.

“No!” Izo picked himself up from the ground.

“Ves--- Izo! Listen to me, we need to restore Ward Stones first before we can take it down.” Arazni stressed. He cannot allow both herself and Izo to be taunted by this peon of the Tyrant.

“I—I--- Yes…” the Doctor-Commander seethed beneath his breath but he knew he cannot be so hasty just yet, not when those Leshies lives are at his hands. “Myrmidon, distract it!” he ordered.

Izo strafed to his right to evade the Tanglebones claws as Myrmidon commanded their puppets to shield the Doctor-Commander as he leaped away to the last Ward Stone.

“Now Arazni!” Izo tells the Angel to possess him again.

His hand numbs as strings enraptured his bones. Possessed by Arazni’s extraplanar dominion, the Angel traced her fingers across the Ward Stone, writing down the intricate runes encircled from the stone. The Crimson Crusader adept runecrafting was nigh effortless to construct.

“Master!” Myrmidon screeched suddenly from behind them.

The very moment Arazni had finished mended the Disrupting Stone, she and Izo were swiftly grabbed by the Tanglebones. The vile undead having endured through and managed to break through the petulant pelting of the weak weapons of the Myrmidons before dashing its many dozen broken insectile-like legs towards them. It lifted the Doctor-Commander into the air, its labyrinthian collection of jagged bones rearranging themselves into an eviscerating maw.

“Unhand me restless spirit!” Arazni roared. Within Izo’s body, her heart housed within, the Angel outburst a blazing blade made of pale golden light. She cuts down the bones that grappled her and Izo before falling safely back to the ground.

The Tanglebones mewled painfully at such a burst that countered its brutish assault. They recomposed themselves before roaring loudly at The Crimson Crusader and the Doctor-Commander.

“I… Kill…” the Tanglebones threatened beneath their broken toothed speech. “Let me go… them…” the rib cages containing the imprisoned Leshies slowly close in on themselves causing the little plant-people to cry in agony.

“You are not taking anyone else away!” Izo rebuked the Tanglebones.

“We… Kill… We… Kill!” the Tanglebones binated their threat. The Rib Cage bones slowly readying itself to fully collapse on its hapless hostages.

“Izo, I need your body… again.” Arazni tinged inside of him. His heart raced to figure out what can he do now.

“What are you planning?” Izo lowered his voice to ask her.

“Drop… your weapon.” She replied.

“What?”

“Drop…Your…Weapon…” Arazni reiterated.

The Doctor-Commander was taken aback… but he knew if Arazni’s help so far has been anything but productive of positive results the reiterate his mistakes then he should at least… if so just for this moment take his faith not of himself but onto another.

With no other choices, either damn the Leshies to a fate worse than death to the villainous Sorrowscythe or damn the Leshies to a gruesome death by the Tanglebones… Izo inhaled deeply three times. He lowered his weapon slowly whilst he allows his body to be fully assume his Vessel’s Form.

Collapsing to his knee’s he fell silently to the awe and horror around them.

“What... you fight for Crim---Crusa---” the Tanglebone chattered brokenly from both arrogance and guffaw. “Vain---G-glor--- Hon--- Priieee?”

“No. For Love.” Izo’s eyes glowed blue. “And For Lightning…” He was no longer Izo Winters but Arazni, the Crimson Crusader reborn.

With thunderous speeds, a golden blade erupted from Izo’s left hand. Wind raptured his legs, his arms, and his blade as Arazni dashed at such blinding speeds that if the Tanglebones had eyes, it wouldn’t be as the sudden attack couldn’t allow them to blink. She cut through the Undead mass of Skeletons specifically aiming for the rib cages holding the imprisoned Leshie Villagers. After severing the bones safely away from the Leshies and their somatic captor, the Crimson Crusader rebounded her assault and began to cut the Tanglebones into ribbons and bone dust.

The Undead was reduced to a pile of inert remains before the blink of an eye. And with that one slain, and the reactivation of the Wardstones, the rest of the Undead Marauders disintegrated with the Tanglebones. Triumphant, Arazni slowly sheathed the Golden Blade away into her palms as she relinquishes possession to Cold Iron.

“Whoa…” Izo collapsed to ground.

“Secretary Baird!” Myrmidon rushed to his side.

Using two of their M.U.S.C.L.E. Units, the robot pulled Izo up.

Regaining his senses, the Doctor-Commander wobbly shoved himself towards the Pile of Bones that was the Tanglebones. Despite the cathartic expulsion of vigor just earlier, he took unto himself to dig the Leshy Hostages and pry them out of their ribbed cages. His eyes targeting the memory of one Purple-Onion shaped Druid amongst them.

“Where is she?!” Izo roared at the Leshies after he searched every nook and cranny for Mama Sopas but alas, he only found just the many myriad villagers of Crossfen.

“Who?” one of them questioned.

“Mama Sopas.” He answered.

“S-s-she was one of the first to be taken…” the Leshy reluctantly confessed. “Sorrowscythe plucked her out personally on her ebon-feathered wings before she unleashed the Undead unto us.”

“Where?! Where is she taking her?!” Izo roared louder.

“Vellumis, milord. Lysithea said that she has ‘something special’ for us Leshies when we get there.”

“No… No…” Izo crumpled his fist. His anger tremored on his hands. He turned away from the Leshies, his boots stomping away back towards Fort Bragg.

Prudently, Myrmidon decided, for their temporary safety, the Leshies are to be put under his direct protection and escorted the survivors back to the Bunker.

[-]

“Myrmidon! Myrmidon!” Izo stomped his foot against the marble floor of the Fort Bragg Bunker Complex. There was much commotion now going about in the Bunker Complex as the Leshies from rescued from the village reunited with their brethren who managed to rah ahead to Izo’s stronghold earlier. The Doctor-Commander’s eyes affixed to the one M.U.S.C.L.E. Unit that guards one sacred to his room of the Bunker Complex. The seedbed of his power.

The Armory.

“I need more firepower!” Izo demanded of them.

The Robot turned around and guided the Doctor-Commander towards one section of the Armory that housed a rack off 12-Gauge Pump-Action Shotguns. The robot knelt and picked up a green-colored box from amidst a palette of color-coded ammunition below.

“Armor-Piercing Steel Darts.” Myrmidon showed the ammunition towards their master. “Should cut right through them.”

“Outlander! There were dozens of Undead and Whisperers that descended upon the village to kidnap us.” The Flower Leshy warned him

“Yes, and over half of us were taken to Vellumis.” Another Leshy added.

“You all seemed to be all descent folks. Leshy… Plant people things… whatever. But in all honesty, you really need to have more folks like Golgar down’ere and stop pussying about. Take some damn initiative!” Izo dryly censured their doubtful words as he loaded his Shotgun.

Meanwhile the Leshy Berserker Golgar was trying much to their combined amusement and chagrin to wield the American Weapons in the Armory. But his tiny stature did not let him wield such tools of warfare as proficient as his bravado says he can.

“But the Whisperers are all in Vellumis, you cannot get to Mama-Sopas without getting through them and the Sorrowscythe. What are you going to do?” the fearful Flower Leshy asked him.

“I am going to get them all back.” Izo cocked the pump of his shotgun.

“Praise Yellow Bee-Lady! I wanna gut the that treacherous wench the moment I mett’er!” Golgar gleefully brandished his blade. His mouth salivating with viscous chlorophyll.