"Well…it's not hot," Krissy said as she idiotically stuck her hand into the purple flames. "It feels solid though, like I'm putting my hand against a wall of glass."
"Yeah, it's definitely some kind of magic barrier, I've seen something like this before," Dirx added. "Although nothing of this size. This thing seems to go around the whole town."
"But who did it? What's going to happen to everyone inside?" Lyka cried, hesitantly pressing her hands against the flames. "Dad…"
"Is the town under attack? Is Carverstead under siege?" Darotha thought out loud. "The soldiers we have took a beating from that hobgoblin, could we even fight whatever it is off?"
I remained silent, and had since retracted my kernel energy in an effort to mask my presence. Something big and powerful was on its way, and I wondered if my scythe-rearing adversary had managed to catch up with me finally. I attempted to pilot my little fruit fly host over the flames, only to find that an invisible wall seemed to extend even above the touch of the purple fire. It was a barrier for real.
"If I could just get something inside there, I can figure out what's going on," I whispered mentally to the group. "I don't think the insects that I control can get in there."
"You summoned that tundra slug back in the woods, right?" Dirx asked. "Why don't you summon another familiar?"
"I almost forgot about that," I replied, forgetting that I'd summoned a magical ice slug to use earlier. "But what can get past this barrier?"
"Well it's purple, so it's probably undead magic," the goblin nodded. "Oh yeah, that stuff is always black or purple. Nothing living can cross it, but undead type creatures should have no problem."
"Gotcha…so I'll just summon something undead then."
I wasn't sure what I was going to generate, but disconnecting from the little fruit fly, I thought about undead things. Zombies, vampires, skeletons. I searched through my knowledge of undead fantasy creatures and tried to concentrate on pulling one into this world. Wraiths, ghosts, banshees. I focused on the characteristics of these things, and repeating the process that I'd done with summoning the slug but more specific on what I was asking for, briefly exposed my kernels to plug my energy into the desire of calling upon a creature to serve me.
My efforts paid off, and I eventually felt the presence of something emerge from the nearby the road. I wasted no time and immediately latched onto it, linking with my kernels and taking control of whatever it was. Sight returned to me, where I was greeted with a very monotone view of the world as I could see nothing but black and white, giving everything a dark a dreary appearance. Despite the light fading on the horizon, the lack of light seemed to be no issue, and prompting my new host forward, I looked down to see clawed talons, and to my pleasant surprise, I looked to the sides to see wings, and a beak in front of me. From the disgusted expressions on Lyka and Darotha's faces, however, I figured whatever it was, it wasn't pretty.
"Whoa, it looks like one of the undead animals from the Grimshire," Dirx whistled. "The Lich King that rules there uses undead magic to populate the place with undead animals. Looks like you're a vulture."
"What? I wanna see," I thought as I activated the kernel-powered sight in my corn body. Disconnecting from this undead animal, my new corn-vision gave me a panoramic view from Lyka's hand.
True to what Dirx said, I could see what resembled a large, dark-grey vulture hunched over by the road, except that undead was definitely something that one could use to describe its unsightly appearance. Its head stripped of flesh and was merely a bare bird skull, its sickly feathers loosely hung to its haggard body, which was filled with holes from excessive decay. It looked like more bone than bird at that point, with gaping chunks of its flesh and plumage missing from its chest and neck.
"Yeah, this is a zombie vulture alright," I commented as I switched back into the avian corpse. "Let's see if this thing can clear these flames."
With that, I clumsily coaxed the thing to stumble forward, before flapping the vulture's large wings. Unsure if it was even airworthy, I kicked off the ground but much to my relief, the bony bird manage to take flight. Although slow and clumsy, the undead animal still obeyed my order to climb, and to the amazement of everyone else, I passed over the purple flames unimpeded.
"You guys take cover or something until I can figure out what's going on," I instructed the group. "I'm going to mask my corn body's presence for now. I'll get in touch if I find anything."
With the others (except Lyka, who blew a kiss) waving at me while I glided over the town, I enjoyed the bird's eye view of Carverstead. It was definitely a medium-sized town filled with a variety of buildings and evident districts, and upon circling the bell tower, I could spot the castle where Lyka and her father lived. Turning the vulture's skull head to look below, I could see some people beginning to leave their homes as they became aware of the mysterious fire now surrounding their town. Most seemed blissfully unaware of the change, though.
I made a few passes overhead, searching for anything that seemed amiss. I eventually caught sight of a formation of soldiers gathering in front of the mayor's residence, before Soundov emerged himself.
"Has anyone seen Lyka?" he asked one of the guards, who shook his head. "Dammit, find her immediately. I swear, if that Tino did anything to her."
Nice to see that he still didn't trust me. Flapping my wings, I next passed over the area damaged by Gogrin. Quite a few houses were destroyed, and some construction crews had evidently already begun work. Watching this, I almost missed the large shadow speeding by me in the air, where I felt anxiety return to my yellow-kernel body as I was pretty certain of what it was.
Landing in the middle of an open plaza beneath the tower, was none other than Lysander the Reaper, riding atop his giant raven. Nearby civilians fled as he dismounted, wielding his massive scythe as usual. I figured that he was the culprit behind the barrier that now surrounded the town, but despite my certainty, I ended up being wrong.
A distant gallop began to sound from a distance. Landing on the bell tower itself, I careened my head to look down at what Lysander was doing. He was just standing around, seemingly waiting for something. Just as I was wondering what it could be, the aura around Carverstead changed as something sinister approached.
My zombie vulture shuddered as a flaming, skeletal horse rode into view.