The hot stench of death drove into Alex’s lungs like a punch as he threw himself through the hissing Mirrorlands portal and hit the ground of the Ancestry in a roll. Wet earth squelched beneath him. A brilliant flash of light followed by the roar of magic tore through the sky, momentarily blinding him.

He pressed himself to the wall just in front of the portal, keeping himself low and behind the shadow of a craggy outcropping jutting out over the dead grass stretching out to the side. His heart slammed in his chest as adrenaline tore through his body.

Their prediction had been right. A chunk of what seemed to have once been part of the wall at his back had fallen to the earth some time ago. It now created a short cover, just large enough for Alex to stay out of sight if he ducked.

And staring right at him, from where he had also taken up cover in the corner, was a wide-eyed man. A cracked helm covered his head and he’d unbuckled the battered armor on his upper body to reveal a rather nasty looking wound. It was tinged green and brown, which was never a good sign.

Embossed into the bloodied breastplate was Crimson’s mark.

The two of them stared at each other for a brief, stunned instant. Then Claire shot thorough the portal after Alex. Her eyes locked on the man instantly. Even as his eyes opened, her hand darted out.

Blackened claws drove straight through his eyes and into his brain. There was a wet crunch as her hand closed down, killing the man before so much as a single word could leave his lips.

But even if one had… it wouldn’t have mattered. A deafening crash rolled through the air overhead. It cut through the thick haze twisting above. Screams and roared commands echoed through the room, joined by the booming roar of some massive creature.

“I thought you were going to wait for thirty seconds!” Alex exclaimed in a hiss.

“I figured you’d need some help,” Claire replied, dropping the man’s corpse at her feet. “Summon your monster!”

Alex didn’t waste time on any more words.

He summoned Spark.

Blue threads twisted through the air at his side like a cocoon spinning itself into being from nothing at all. They rapidly expanded as shadows lifted up from the ground, rain falling in reverse, to melt into the tall form of the Luminary.

Claire’s eyes widened slightly as the towering monster took form. Alex had called it just to the side of the cover, but it really didn’t matter. It was so large that no amount of cover would have been remotely enough to conceal it.

Cause a distraction. As much as you possibly can.

That was just about all the direction that Alex could give the Luminary. He had absolutely no idea what it was capable of. But those orders, as simple as they might have been, were enough.

Shadows pulled apart as the vertical maw running down the length of the Luminary’s body split open. Pale blue light spilled out from within the monster. It washed over the dead surroundings of the room they’d raced into, heralding the dozens of gossamer blue strands that spooled out from the open mouth.

“New monster! Threat level unknown!” a man roared, his voice slicing through the din for a brief second. Crimson had realized that something had happened pretty quickly. Alex tensed, but Claire grabbed him by the arm.

“No,” she hissed. “If they see us at all, they’ll react differently. A monster showing up in the middle of a fight is a lot less suspicious than another person. What is that thing? The Forsaken Revenant crossed with…”

“Spark.”

“Shit,” Claire breathed. “I see it… but shit. He’s gotten a lot scarier. That’ll definitely be enough to hold their attention for a while. I just hope he’s strong enough.”

Alex grimaced but gave her a sharp nod. They both pressed themselves into the crook of the outcropping and as far away from being noticed as possible. All they could do now was watch.

Spark didn’t seem to be doing much. It stood completely frozen, looming like a scarecrow with its hands extended out to either side of itself as if it were preparing to give someone a hug. A very unsettling hug.

An arrow streaked through the air, coiled in strands of twisting yellow energy. It drove into the Luminary — and passed right through it, shattering against the wall behind the monster. Fragments of the projectile spun so close to Alex’s face that they brushed by his hair.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The Luminary didn’t even react. It didn’t seem like it realized that it had been shot. The eyes on its hands were still closed, the monster still completely and utterly still save for the gossamer threads spilling out from its chest in increasing numbers.

A loud crash shook the ground beneath Alex, thudding his head back against the stone behind him, and a man cried out. It seemed like the boss — whatever it was — didn’t take kindly to being ignored.

“Split off! Auxiliary team, handle the new one while we finish the boss off!” Brandon’s voice boomed through the air.

Despite their situation, a grin pulled at the corners of Alex’s lips. He wasn’t much a fan of Brandon. If he was going to piss off one of the Great Families even more, then messing with this particular branch of Crimson was just about the best thing he could ask for.

A thick bolt of lightning screamed through the air toward Spark. It, just like the arrow, passed harmlessly through the monster to collide with the wall behind in a massive shower of sparks.

Sparks that rained down right on top of them.

Alex threw a hand in front of Claire’s face and squeezed his eyes shut for a brief moment, gritting his teeth as the hissing magic crackled against his arm. Princess’ magic wormed through him immediately, pulling the wounds shut as quickly as they had opened.

Another crash shook the room. A woman screamed, her voice coming to a sharp halt as a loud crack marked her slamming into the wall just beside the Luminary. She dropped to the ground just a few feet away from Alex and Claire, staring straight in their direction with wide eyes.

They both went stiff.

But the woman pitched forward, landing on the ground with a final thump. Blood leaked from a massive dent in the back of her skull. She hadn’t seen anything at all. The woman was already dead.

“Is it going to do anything other than stand there ominously?” Claire whispered. “Because now would be a really good time—”

The threads coiling through the air around the Luminary exploded outward.

Several of them sliced into the man that Claire had just killed a few seconds ago. More impaled the body of the newly dead woman that had fallen near its feet. The threads jerked both of the bodies upward, lifting them swinging into the air.

Blood rained down from their wounds to fall to the ground below where they’d been suspended in the branches of a gossamer blue tree forming above the Luminary.

Another arrow screamed through Spark’s body, but it passed through the monster just as harmlessly as the previous attacks had. The monster seemed fully focused on the two corpses swaying before it.

“What is this thing?” a man screamed. “We need more power! It’s playing with our men!”

“Who cares?” Someone else yelled. “Better the dead ones than the living! Whatever this thing is, it’s not corporeal. We need a Soul Lance! Now!”

“Jael had it,” the first man called back. A round of deafening explosions shook the room, one after the other in quick succession, and the pained scream of some great beast cut through the battle.

The urge to peek over their shelter pulled at Alex, but he repressed it. Crimson still thought they were under attack by the Ancestry, not other people. He couldn’t go ruining that just to satisfy his curiosity.

“What is your monster doing?” Claire whispered. “Why is it just swinging those bodies around?”

“I don’t know,” Alex hissed back. “I don’t know what it does yet! I just told it to make a—”

The eyes on the Luminary’s hands snapped open.

Alex didn’t feel anything, but Claire went stiff against his side as she drew in a sharp breath. Yells and curses rolled through the room as people stumbled, and a loud crunch marked another one of Crimson’s men falling to the boss.

Is that its terror aura? It still has it?

But the Luminary wasn’t done. It finally moved, bringing the two corpses strung up in its gossamer branches over to its hands. A pale blue glue emanated out from the piercing eyes within the monster’s palms.

Then it dropped both bodies to the floor with two wet, sad thuds.

The man that Claire had killed twitched. His fingers spasmed. His leg jerked straight upright, then bent back down at the knee with an unnatural, lurching motion. His body unbent itself, rising up from the ground with a series of jerky twitches until he stood on his feet once more.

Alex and Claire watched in disbelief as the dead woman did the same thing, rising to stand beside her dead compatriot with the same unstable, lurching movements.

So did the woman.

And, within their eyes, a dull blue glow ignited. The very same blue that burned within the void at the heart of the Derelict Luminary’s maw.

“Don’t screw with us!” a man screamed. He charged forward, moving into view of Alex and Claire’s hiding spot, but his gaze was so focused on the bodies of his comrades that he didn’t even glance in their direction.

He swung a hammer at the dead man’s head. It collided with a loud crack, ripping the corpse’s skull right off from its shoulders and connected only by a few weak scraps of flesh. The head rocked back.

Then, as if caught by a thread, it froze.

The head shot back into its proper position in a sharp snap.

“What the fu—”

The rest of the man’s sentence vanished as the corpse of his former comrade lunged at him. It bit down on his neck, tearing a huge chunk of flesh free in a spray of blood. The dead woman lurched forward as well, stumbling, lurching toward the next closest still-living member of Crimson.

“Oh,” Claire whispered as she and Alex finally realized just what it was that the Derelict Luminary was capable of.

Holy shit. It’s turning dead bodies into puppets.

Threads danced down the air to harvest bodies from the ground, stringing them up like puppets in the web of some great spider and bringing them over to hang above the towering monster.

And, as screams and panic rolled through the room, the eyes on the Spark’s palms snapped open once more.