The ChaosBringer - an ancient evil determined to destroy the omniverse - has begun his final assault on reality. He has lead an army of darkness against the Starlight Citadel, home of Merlyn and Roma on Otherworld, and his agent, the Fomor Lord Bres has lead an army of the dead against the newly risen city of Lyonnese. Otherworld is being defended by half of the Crusaders, Prester John and the remnants of the Knights of Albion and some of the Captain Britain Corps. Lyonnese is being defended by the other Crusaders, the transdimensional telepath Lissa, The Interloper, Modred, a boy called Mabon who is really a dragon and the Eurostar Arcadia who is a faerie queen. Oh yes, and Merlyn is doing something dramatic.

As the light of dawn breaks above the eastern horizon and flows over the army of death, the knights of Lyonnese ride forth onto the plain of battle. Their numbers have never been huge - and they cannot remember what their forces were like before the ocean claimed their island and transported them to another world, but they are still an impressive sight as they ride out. A sea of lance points and golden barding.

At the head of the line rides the noble figure of Eiaan, their commander, and Arcadia, their Queen. Molly has discarded her normal leather outfit and has dressed in the traditional armour of the Tuatha - a light silver-gold chainmail and a white tunic. Her long red hair is braided and she has raven feathers tied into the ends as a symbol of the goddess Morrigan.

Behind her, at the gate of the castle, are the Crusaders and their allies; Union Jack, Sherwood, Mabon, Modred, Lissa and the Interloper. They have been commanded to stay as a second wave of the assault. Union Jack is not happy.

" This is stupid! Some of us should go out there and help her?"

" Joey, she was adamant that we should stay behind. This is a fight for her people." Sherwood puts a hand on his shoulder.

" She is a troubled woman." Lissa answers them all quietly " I can see how she feels and this is the one place she feels she can call home. She is fighting for herself and her future."

Sherwood increases her grip on Joey's shoulder and guides him away from the rest of the group. She faces up to him but he won’t meet her eyes. " Joey, stop it!"

" Be fair Robyn, I'm not sure you've got anything to say to me or me to you?"

" I have Joey. I have a lot to say - maybe not all now, but I want to tell you everything. The person you kissed wasn't me, but I.."

" Then who the Hell was it?"!

" I can't tell you that yet. It's too soon.."

" So you'll just keep some little secret from me? No thanks Robyn. Look, I'll say it one time, now, in the heat of battle and then you'll never hear it again. I love you, I've always loved you since I first saw you, but you've just messed me about and I can't let that happen. Now let me go." And with that he storms off.

Sherwood feels a tear fall down her cheek " The person who kissed you wasn't me, but I wish it had been, you fool!"

" Get that man out of here!" Black Knight screams at one of the Knights of Albion as his comrade is broken and wounded by one of the black monsters. He stands in front of the bleeding knight and parries the blow of the beast with the Shield of Night. Slipping his blade under the shield's cover he slashes into the belly of his foe and forces it to take a few steps backwards.

Meggan swoops down into the courtyard, with a ball of burning lightning in her wake. The crackling ball of elemental force explodes on the body of the nearest beast and blows it apart. She hovers and nearly cries as three more of the tide of darkness take it's place.

The Destroyer and Prester John stand side by side in one of the main palace thoroughfares. The young man is a frenzy of arms and swords - the war-like nature of his avatar coming to the fore. The older man is calm and collected as he fends off the enemy with the ruthless efficiency that comes from battling since the middle ages.

Spitfire zooms around the battlefield, tending to the injured and helping out where she can. The battle has been evened by the twisting corridors and enclosed courtyards of the palace. Maybe they can win?

Hern stands impassive in the main hall. He has vacated his mortal body and joined with the Council of the Green.

The Captain Britain Corps swoop into the fray. They are stalwart warriors, everyone of them and they destroy many of the blackened beasts. Linda looks as they battle and her heart swells with pride. These are her people.

" So you have chosen to meet me, Elf Queen?" Bres stands proud amongst his troops, shouting his challenge. Arcadia says nothing. She reaches down and unsheathes a rapier thin blade. With a slash of her sword, her knights break and charge and the battle is joined. Golden armoured troops smash into the wall of fetid flesh. Swords crash against spears and clubs. Claws dig into the under bellies of horses. The copper smell of blood fills the air.

Arcadia spurs her horse on and leaps over a knot of skirmishing soldiers. He lands before Bres and vaults down, landing with an athletic assurance before him. " Let's finish this?"

" By all means, if you wish to speed your passage to Anwyn, let me help." A gnarled, bladed shaft appears in his hand and he swipes in down in a scything arc. Arcadia parries it with her blade and flip flops backwards. The final battle has begun.

"We can't keep this up!" Linda McQuillan rubs the blood from her eyes and defends the bleeding body of Admiral Empire from the rush of monsters.

" I agree! We've got to signal some sort of retreat - to regroup." Black Knight has dismissed Strider and is helping Sanjay and Prester John.

" OK, everyone back to the main chamber. Meggan, give us cover!" Spitfire bellows her command and her team obeys. Within minutes they are gathered in the main chamber with the doors sealed by Roma's magic.

Spitfire looked around. There were only a handful of the Knights of Albion left alive, and they had lost five of the Corps. Almost everyone was injured in some way - even Linda. This was suicide. There was no way they were going to be able to get out of this alive and with the Omniverse intact.

" We're beaten. There's nothing we can do to stop them." Spitfire's voice is dead of emotion. She looks at Roma for a reaction but the Goddess just returns the look with an enigmatic smile.

" Listen?" Black Knight takes off his helmet and looks out towards the enemy " They've stopped trying to break down the doors?!"

" I've seen 'Zulu' Dane … this is the bit where they kill us all." Even in these dire circumstances, Sanjay manages a joke.

Roma staggers across the room, holding herself on a chair.

" It is too late! He is here. The ChaosBringer has manifested in Otherworld!" The doors of the chamber burst open and a lean dark-skinned man stands in the doorway. He is dressed in only a loin-cloth, but his hair is spiked like a Celt warrior and his skin is a swirl of wode tattoos.

Arcadia has never trained as a swordswoman and it shows. The transformation that made her into this elf queen has given her some … well, it must be a form of hereditary knowledge, but she is still unskilled and Bres is beating her. She knows he would prefer to use his formidable magical abilities on her, but she is immune to his power and he would never try to match an indirect magical battle against her unpredictable luck powers. No, he was going to have to be content with smashing her brains out. Yet, she could not afford to lose! All of the men, women and children of Lyonnese were depending on her to win and to deliver them to some form of safety. Everything depended on her.

At the palace, Joey looked down at the battle and saw his worst nightmare unfold. The army of the dead had broke the Tuatha line and were charging towards the landbridge and the island. There was no question about their involvement now.

" Crusaders, lets get it on!"

Sherwood stands tall and strong. She feels for the arrowhead at her neck and whispers a quiet prayer to her ancestors. She had to depend on them because they sure as hell didn't teach you about anything like this in STRIKE basic training. She extends her bow and creates an arrow of plasma. The first of the onrushing living corpses falls into her line of sight. With one fluid movement she unleashes three arrows and the zombie explodes in a shower of gore.

The Interloper regards the battle around him and then smiles. He turns his head towards a group of undead and unleashes a battery of eye blasts that cut through them.

Lissa huddles back with Modred and Mabon. The mage looks down at the small boy and nods. The boy walks forwards and pulls his arms back and behind him. Waves of rippling force flow out of them and the boy begins to twist and grow until he is a fully grown dragon! With a flap of his huge wings he takes to the skies and engages the zombies.

Micromax grows and dives amongst the mass of enemy bodies, using himself as a human battering ram. He feels their claws dig into his flesh, but he knows that his fists are pounding them to nothingness.

Union Jack slashes with his knife in his left hand and shoots with his pistol in his right. The bullets weren't doing any good but they made him feel better! He had been on the end of so much recently, he just wanted to fight and fight and fight.

They fight with vigour and venom, but they are to pre-occupied to notice the dead taking to their feet again and rising all over the field…..

The Adversary strides into the Chamber and waves his hand. Time stops in the Chamber, expect for Roma. The Crusaders and their allies are frozen in their tracks. Roma begins to back away from the evil entity.

" Never Demon!" Roma raises her hands and a blast of eldritch energy batters the Adversary. He grimaces, staggers backwards and then slowly straightens himself and puts his hands into the ongoing blast, grabbing the energy and tearing it in two. Roma staggers under the feedback and falls to the floor.

" There is nothing you can do and you know it. This is your destiny. You can resist the forces of fate…" He reaches down and strokes Roma's chin. His hand snaps out and rips her dress away. The Crusaders look on, frozen, as he abuses her.

Elsewhere in the Citadel, Merlyn hears the screams of his only daughter. He swallows back the tears and works faster and harder at the regeneration. There will be a reckoning!

Before him a body of a man is floating in a tank of fluid.

The battle had raged throughout the day and now the heroes were faced with a new horror.

" They're rising again! I thought we'd beaten half of them!" Joey cannot believe his eyes. The undead had risen again and they now had a good few Tuatha in their number.

" Fall back to the Landbridge, Joey and we'll hold them off there!" Sherwood blasts a spray of plasma into the wall of flesh.

Suddenly the far end of the battlefield explodes in a shower of mini-missiles. Five STRIKE Attack Helicopters crest the hill and spray the zombie army with incendiary bullets. High above the battle, a phalanx of Shockforce troopers descend, battering the battlefield with their plasma cannons.

< Joey? Robyn? Harkness here. Wouldn't let you have a scrap like this without letting me join in, would you?>

< OK boys and girls, who let the casting for Evil Dead IV get out of hand?> The unmistakable Welsh tones of Commander Dai Thomas of WHO cam through their comm-links < The Shadows are here to clean up the mess as per bloody usual>

< It took us a while to work out where you had gone, but me and the lads weren't going to let you have all the fun> That was Commander Myers of ShockForce.

< Hell fire! They even let me and some of the boys out of the office! Commander Lomax of Psi Division checking in>

" Well knock me down with the bloody proverbial - it's the cavalry!" Joey grabs Sherwood and hugs her tight.

One of the helicopters hovers over a hilltop and five people spill out. When the craft rises, Dai Thomas shouts orders to his people " Abbot - try to find out from these dead people what's happening. Malachi - while the sun's down, watch his back. Betsy, you're coming with me to that castle. We need to have a word with some people. Pete, Emil - just blow stuff up. It's what you do best."

Dai and Psylocke begin to fight their way through the crowd. Suddenly, and to Dai's shock Psylocke disappears!

At the palace, Lissa fades away too.

The battle rages!

Merlyn watches as the two women appear in front of him. They are stunned and fall to the floor.

" I am sorry ladies, but you have something that I need dearly. Whether you are from the same plane or not you are both the same person and you have one unique feature - the energies of your father and his genes. The Braddock gene!"

Bres stands over the battered body of Arcadia and laughs. His mocking face is all that she can see.

" You are a weakling, like all of your race! When the ChaosBringer rewards me for my service I shall have your kind as the servants of the Fomor, for all eternity!" He brings the wicked staff down to cleave her skull but she rolls out of the way at the last moment.

" You'll never learn, will you! You can't just kill us all. Power has to be earned, not taken. Whether it's the human race, the Tuatha, or any other race of beings, we will not be put under your control by anyone!" Arcadia uses all of her energy to make one final lunge at Bres. He raises his staff at knock the blow away but it breaks in his hands. The rapier point slides through his skin and the cold iron enters his heart. All across the battlefield the scream of the dying Fomor can be heard. A gut wrenching howl like nothing of this Earth. And then the battlefield falls silent for a moment. Suddenly the sickly scream is started again as the undead lose their power to manifest on this plane and fade out of existence.

Arcadia slumps to the ground and them looks up. The screams of the undead have been replaced with another noise. The cheers of the Tuatha. My God, we've won!

The Adversary looks down at the naked body of Roma and laughs. He has won at last! Soon he will be able to undo this pathetic excuse for a reality and rebuild it in his image. Soon…..

He raises his hands and magical forces begin to wrack the Starlight Citadel. Pieces of stone begin to fall around the inert bodies of the Crusaders. The air begins to shimmer and shake. The boundaries of the Omniverse are falling. The room is filled with flashes from an infinite number of Earths as they all begin to meld into one. The collapse is under way. He throws back his head and howls with delight!

Merlyn watches as the Omniverse begins to disintegrate. He knows that time is short. Soon the Adversary will have won and all existence will be ended. He stands before the stone monument and raises his hand. The naked figure before him rises and walks towards the stone block.

" Look my son and see what lies before you. A battle that may be the end of all that is, all that was and all that will be. I need you to choose your weapon. Will you choose the Amulet or the Sword?"

The hand of the figure rises and hovers over the block. It forms a fist and then grabs the amulet from it's housing. There is a crack of unearthly thunder and a bolt of supernatural lightening. The air is filled with a myriad spray of red, white and blue.

" I'm back! I'm really back! Again, you've given me another chance! I'll not disappoint you Merlyn, not this time. Whether as a hero, or as Brian Braddock, I'll uphold your trust and my father's legacy…..

NEXT ISSUE: That's it! No more ……….Only kidding. The senses shattering conclusion of this storyline ( and this chapter in the Crusaders Saga) can be found in the Crusaders/ Shadows Special. Rush out and get it …NOW!

Green and Pleasant Letters

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