"Where are they?" Dreth scowled, peering down the road. He was getting impatient, and the urge to slaughter something was getting stronger. He managed to suppress it, just.

"Why are we waiting?" the devil said, hopping from one foot to another. "It's just a village. Are you an evil monster or aren't you? Looks like you've gone soft to me."

"Blooood!" moaned Darkblood.

"Very well. Come on then." Dreth adjusted his cloak so it looked its best and drew the dark blade with a flourish. "Forward! To death and glory!"

"About time!" said Percy.

"Oh no," said Emerald in dismay. She watched as Dreth marched off down the road, his black robe billowing about him impressively. The zombies followed, a foul and rotting trio of minions.

"Follow us, but stay out of the way," Dreth called back over his shoulder to her.

The small group approached the village, and he grinned savagely. This was going to be fun! A woman in a green dress saw them coming and waved in a friendly fashion.

"What's she so happy about?" asked the devil.

"Who cares?" asked Dreth. He raised his sword, which was howling with anticipation, and brought it down in an impressive overhead swing that would have split the woman in half, had something not stopped it.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" asked the devil. "Kill her already!"

"I'm.. trying," said Dreth through gritted teeth. He was wrestling with the blade, trying to complete his attack, but some invisible force was resisting, pushing back against him.

"Welcome travellers!" A short man with dark hair, dressed in a blue robe trotted up. "My name's Dave. Welcome to the village of Farsii." He was smiling and apparently totally oblivious to the fact that three of the people he was talking to were mostly dead.

"Die!" said Dreth, giving up on his first target and swinging at the new one.

Dave stood there, beaming like an idiot as the blade came closer, but once again the invisible force stopped the sword.

"Arrrg!" said Dreth, with feeling.

"There's no need for such anger," Dave said, shaking his head gently. "We here in Farsii live a simple life under the guidance and protection of our god, Contenx. A simple life but a pleasant one. You'll be quite content." He reached out and took Darkblood with his bare hand. Plucking it out of Dreth's grip like a man taking candy from a baby.

Dreth stood still, mouth open in astonishment.

"You must be the friends of our other guests," said Dave. "Let's go and join them shall we? They're over by the temple." He pointed at the large building further down the street. "Your lady friend will come too," he stated, as several other villagers approached. Emerald was walking along between them. She shrugged when she saw Dreth looking at her.

"I don't think we want you though," Dave continued, waving at the devil, which disappeared with a shriek.

"Every cloud," muttered Dreth.

"This won't take long, and then we can have dinner. I hope you like potato." Dave turned away.

Dreth shuddered. "I'm in monster hell."

They trudged off, herded along by the locals.

"What the is going on here?" asked Emerald.

"How should I know?" Dreth replied.

They approached Frumble and Tybalt, who were sitting on a bench surrounded by smiling villagers. The whole effect was creepy, though Dreth, and that was saying something for him.

"Hello again," Percy said cheerfully. "You two really aren't very good as scouts are you?"

"Don't blame me," Frumble said. "It's this place," he gestured at the structure they were sitting outside.

"What is it?" asked Dreth, looking at the building. It was grander by many levels than the surrounding shacks, painted all in white with a bright blue dome on top trimmed with gold. The windows were stained glass and decorated with various pictures.

"It's a temple to Context, the god of blissful ignorance," Frumble replied. "No doubt the priest will perform some ceremony and we'll all end up in a state of, well, ignorant bliss, like this lot." He waved his hand at the villagers.

"At least we'll be happy I guess," Emerald said.

"Only for a while," the mage replied. "The god is said to suck your life energy out. You end up little more than a drained husk."

"This guy took my sword away!" Dreth complained, waving at Dave, who was talking to another person near the temple entrance.

Frumble nodded. "Yes, he's the high priest I think. The god's very powerful close to his base. It would take a lot to overcome him here."

"So there's nothing we can do?" asked Dreth.

"We're doomed is my guess," Frumble said.

"Newcomers!" Dave raised his hands.?"Listen to me and you shall soon bask in the radiance of Context!"

Sighing, Dreth shook his head. "Great," he said sarcastically. "Lectured to death. Just how I always wanted to go."

~ * ~

Marvin Moonface was sitting by the side of the road, eating an apple, when the thin old man came into town. The other newcomers were still near the temple, listening to Dave preach. They didn't look very enthusiastic, he thought. Still that wasn't unusual before they went through the Ritual and were transformed by the Greatness of Contenx.

He bit into his fruit and watched as the latest visitor trudged down the road. It was certainly a busy day today. There hadn't been any visitors in months and months, and now a bunch had all arrived at the same time!

This one was an old man, dressed in a long grey gown that looked like it had seen better days. Wispy white hair that stuck out at odd angles and blew about in the breeze, and he was using a long black staff as a walking stick. He appeared to be muttering under his breath. Behind him was a skeleton, rattling along in a knock kneed gait, white bones gleaming in the sun.

Despite this, what caught Marvin's attention were the large fluffy pink slippers the old man was wearing. They were shaped like rabbits, complete with beady glass eyes and floppy ears sewn on.

Someone near the temple pointed out the fellow to Dave, who stopped preaching at the others and walked up to the man and his bony friend, meeting them in the street in front of Marvin, who took another bite of his fruit as he watched.

"Welcome travellers!" Dave said, as he usually did. "My name's.."

"I don't care," the man interrupted. "Unless you've got a cup of tea on your person you can just bugger off and get out of my way."

Marvin noticed the other newcomers, the mostly dead looking ones, talking excitedly amongst themselves and pointing down the road. His attention was distracted as Dave spoke again.

"This is the village of Farsii, where all live in contentment.."

"I'll be content with a hot cuppa," the man interrupted again. "Now, get out of my way. I can see my business over there." He started to walk forward, and Marvin watched as Dave held out his hand to stop him, as he usually did.

To Marvin's immense surprise, the old man pushed him aside and started off towards the temple.

Dave looked at his hand with a puzzled expression, as if trying to figure out why it was broken. At the same time there was a disturbance outside the temple. The first group was trying to fight their way through the crowd, evidently attempting to get away from the approaching man, who trudged steadily onwards. They didn't have the same success though, and were still there when the man closed.

"Dreth!" he said. "I am the Extremely Dark Necromancer, and I have been charged by the Overlord to put an End to you."

The necromancer seemed to swell, and a shadow fell over Farsii as clouds scudded across the sky at unnatural speed, blocking out the sun. A cold wind picked up, and Marvin shuddered.

The tall one, evidently Dreth, grabbed the black sword that Dave had propped up against the wall earlier, and ran at the old man. The Necromancer watched him for a moment, and then made a movement with his hand. Dreth flew through the air, to land on his back in the middle of the street. The sword flipped away, to come to rest point down in the dirt.

The Extremely Dark Necromancer walked over to the prone form. He was no longer a frail old man, but a hazy black figure that radiated power. He held out a hand and Dreth screamed.

A shadow rose out of Dreth, as if his soul were being dragged out of his body. The screaming continued as the Necromancer raised another hand, and continued to suck out the energy, as if reeling in a particularly stubborn fish.

Marvin wrapped his arms around him as the temperature plummeted, dropping the apple in his fright. The sun was almost totally obscured now, like night had decided to make an early start, so he didn't see the zombie sneak up behind the necromancer and stab him in the back with the black sword until it actually happened.

A piercing shriek rent the air, and Marvin clapped his hands to his ears. There was an explosion, and a halo of pretty blue energy ripped though the village, knocking over everyone in its path. Marvin rolled onto his back, crying out in fear as he was blown along the ground, coming to rest against the side of a house.

He lay there for several minutes, quivering with shock as he recovered from the battering. Eventually he opened his eyes and shakily sat up. The street was a mess. People lay strewn about the road, ominously still. In the middle of it all lay the necromancer. His skeleton friend was no more than a pile of scattered bones. Of Dreth and his group, there was no sign.

Picking himself up, Marvin staggered over to the prone body, which once more looked like an old man. One of his pink slippers had fallen off, to reveal a red and white striped sock with a hole in the toe. As he watched the man opened his eyes.

"Er, are you alright?" Marvin asked.

"Come..Come.." the necromancer croaked, beckoning.

"Come closer?" Marvin said.

"Yes."

Marvin, never the brightest of people, did as he was told, leaning over the body.

"Sorry..about..this." So saying, the Necromancer grabbed Marvin's head with both hands, which turned out to be very cold indeed, and muttered a Word.

Icy pain swept through Marvin's body, and he tried to pull away. The grip was too strong though, and he opened his mouth to scream instead. Nothing came out, and now he gasped for breath as the air was sucked from his lungs by some unseen power. He struggled, thrashing about like a fish on land, desperately trying to escape his fate. He could do nothing but watch as his arm slowly turned brown, the skin crumbling before his eyes. In his last moments of life, Marvin saw the Necromancer in his true form.

Which wasn't the most pleasant thing to see just before you die.