I looked around the merchant hall at the assembled planeswalkers, counting faces and assessing the others' capabilities while trying to gauge our actual defensive strength. The number had grown substantially since we'd first entered this building, word spreading through whatever networks existed among travelers. Forty had become sixty, then eighty, and from what I could sense through the beacon's continued pulsing outside, hundreds more were arriving across the city with each passing hour.
The sheer concentration of power in this single location was staggering. Each planeswalker represented someone who had survived their home plane's dangers, ignited their spark through trauma or determination, and learned to navigate the infinite complexities of the multiverse. Individually, they were formidable. Collectively, they represented a force capable of reshaping entire planes when properly coordinated.
Razia's soldiers had spread throughout the hall, maintaining watch positions at windows and doorways while trying not to look too overwhelmed by the beings they were supposed to be protecting. The Boros legionnaires were experienced warriors who'd seen combat against everything Ravnica's guilds could throw at them, but planeswalkers existed on a different scale of threat assessment entirely.
Chandra's combat team had assembled near the eastern entrance, arguing among themselves about strike formations and whether fire or lightning would prove more effective against adaptive barriers. Karn's group occupied tables near the back, already sketching diagrams and comparing observations about the beacon's structure. Liliana had disappeared into a side room with several other investigators, presumably to begin researching what kind of operation would require this many planeswalkers in one location.
Ranni remained near me, her four arms folded in that contemplative arrangement she seemed to favor. "The numbers swell with a swiftness that bodes most ill," she observed. "Whoever fashioned this lure possesseth a most remarkable understanding... a knowledge of how to summon those who walk between the worlds. The beacon's pull is no crude, heavy-handed force. Nay, 'tis a far more subtle thing. It whispers to the mind, appealing to curiosity, and to that inescapable desire to seek out the strange and the unknown. A clever trap, woven with malice".
She was right, and that bothered me more than I wanted to admit. I did a mental count of the faces I could see from my position, trying to see who was present and who might be missing. Chandra was near the entrance with her combat team. Nissa stood by the window where she'd first spotted movement outside. Teferi was consulting with Karn about possible temporal manipulation. The leonin warrior whose name I still hadn't learned was sharpening his weapons aggressively.
But someone was missing from the crowd.
"Where's Liliana?" I asked, scanning the hall more carefully. She'd been here just minutes ago, having come out of the side room; she had been standing near the wall, making observations on how to investigate them. Now the space she'd occupied was empty, and I couldn't sense her distinctive necromantic aura anywhere in the building.
Razia turned from his position coordinating with his soldiers. "She said she was going to investigate. Why?"
"When did she leave exactly?"
"Maybe five minutes ago, just before Nissa spotted those figures moving outside." His expression shifted to concern as he processed the timing. "You think there's a connection?"
I extended my divine senses outward, pushing past the walls of the merchant hall to examine the streets beyond. The figures Nissa had spotted were closer now, perhaps fifty yards from our position and moving with that same unsettling coordination. I could count at least twenty distinct forms, all humanoid in basic shape but with jerky walking movements.
And Liliana's distinctive necromantic signature was completely absent from the area, as if she'd simply vanished entirely, like she hadn't existed.
But there was no way my divine senses were fooled; something else must have been going on.
"I don't believe in coincidences of this magnitude," I said quietly. "A necromancer disappears at the exact moment animated corpses appear outside our defensive position. Either she's been captured, or she's gone to investigate something without telling anyone her intentions."
"Or she's working with whoever trapped us here," Chandra suggested from across the room, her hearing apparently sharper than her casual demeanour. "Wouldn't be the first time someone played both sides for personal advantage."
Several planeswalkers turned toward us at that observation, conversations dying down as attention focused on the potential internal threat.
"We don't know that," Nissa said firmly. "Jumping to conclusions about betrayal will tear us apart faster than any external threat. Liliana might have a perfectly legitimate reason for leaving without announcing it."
"Go on then, name one," the leonin warrior growled.
"She's a necromancer investigating animated corpses," I said before the argument could escalate further. "If those figures outside are undead, which my senses suggest they are, she might have gone to examine them more closely using her particular expertise. It's questionable to do so alone, but not necessarily betrayal; we will find out more soon enough."
The crowd seemed to accept that explanation with varying degrees of skepticism. The tension didn't completely dissipate, but at least people weren't immediately preparing to fight each other.
Outside, the sound of combat erupted. Explosions, the clash of metal on metal, screams both human and distinctly inhuman. The merchant hall's boarded windows rattled from the shockwaves of magical detonations close enough to feel in our bones.
Razia was already moving toward the entrance. "Go! defensive positions! Combat team to the front, support to the rear, civilians to the center!"
The planeswalkers didn't wait for Boros's command to tell them what to do. Chandra's combat team surged toward the entrance with weapons drawn and magic crackling around their hands. Karn's group pulled back to more defensible positions while maintaining clear sightlines to observe whatever was happening and strike from afar. Those who hadn't committed to either group made individual, swift decisions about where they could be most effective.
I moved to one of the windows and carefully shifted the boarding aside enough to see the street beyond. What I saw made me look on with revulsion.
Different from the shambling corpses I'd encountered in various underworlds and necromantic operations. These were different, covered head to toe in some blue-tinted metal that gleamed dully in the firelight. Lazotep, Michael's memories supplied. Sacred metal from Amonkhet, normally used for burial cartouches. These zombies were encased in it, becoming armoured undead soldiers.
And they weren't human-shaped. Or rather, not all of them were.
A creature that might have been a lion charged toward our position, its body preserved through mummification and then encased in lazotep armor that covered almost every surface. Its movements were jerky and unnatural, but the raw power behind each step was undeniable. Behind it came what looked like a crocodile the size of a small house, its jaws lined with lazotep teeth that gleamed in the light of burning buildings.
More creatures followed in an organised formation, suggesting intelligent planning and coordinated command. Humanoid zombies wielding weapons. All of them covered in that distinctive blue metal, all of them moving with a unity of purpose that was deeply wrong.
This isn't some random undead. This is an army. Someone raised an entire menagerie of creatures, preserved them, armored them in sacred metal, and sent them here with specific objectives. This was going to be a pain.
The doors to the merchant hall burst open as two figures rushed inside, both breathing hard and showing signs of recent combat. The first was a woman with distinctive dark skin and white-streaked hair pulled back into warrior braids. She wore light armor, likely preferring speed over protection, and her hands still glowed with the residue of some temporal magic. The second was a man I recognized from Michael's memories.
The Gideon Jura, the indestructible soldier. A member of the Gatewatch, hero of countless battles, and, according to Michael's knowledge, someone who should have died during the War of the Spark on this very plane. But he's here now, alive and fighting.
"Eternals!" Gideon shouted as he slammed the doors shut behind them. "Hundreds, probably thousands of them, moving through the city in a coordinated assault. Looks like they're securing specific locations and establishing a perimeter around the beacon!"
The woman with him, whom I assumed was Samut based on contextual information, was already moving to help Razia's soldiers reinforce the doors. "They're covered in lazotep armor. Normal weapons barely scratch them. You need either overwhelming force or very precise strikes to penetrate the plating and reach the corpse underneath."
"Eternals?" Teferi said with recognition. "That's impossible. Those are from Amonkhet, from Nicol Bolas's operation there. But that plane was supposed to be abandoned years ago after the gods fell and the survivors scattered. How are they here on Ravnica?"
"You can ask him yourself when we survive this," Samut replied grimly. "Right now, we have bigger problems. The Eternals aren't the only thing out there. I saw champions leading them, greater undead that used to be legendary warriors. They're directing the assault with actual tactical intelligence."
The sound of impact against the merchant hall's walls interrupted further discussion. Something large had struck the northern wall hard enough to crack the stonework. Dust fell from the ceiling as the entire structure shuddered from the blow.
"Defensive formation!" I called out, my voice carrying divine authority that cut through the rising panic. "Let's secure the perimeter, support casters to secondary positions, and anyone with area denial capabilities establish kill zones at the entrances!"
The planeswalkers responded immediately, recognising and acknowledging that this wasn't the time to fight over who was to give orders right now. Chandra positioned herself near the main entrance, flames already building around her in preparation for whatever came through. Nissa began calling to the few plants that grew between cobblestones, using nature magic to create barriers of living wood. A planeswalker whose name I didn't know but whose affinity for ice magic was obvious started forming frozen barriers across the windows.
The leonin warrior, whom I finally heard someone call Ajani, took position near Gideon with a massive axe that glowed with white light. "How many are we facing?"
I wonder why I didn't recognise Ajani of all people. Maybe something else was going on.
"There are at least two hundred Eternals in the immediate area and more incoming," Samut reported while positioning herself near a weak point in the defenses. "More arriving by the minute through portals that open and close too quickly to track their origin. They're being deployed in waves, and each wave is targeting different districts of the city."
"So this is a full-scale invasion," Razia said with the grim acceptance of a soldier who'd seen this kind of operation before. "They're trying to occupy the entire city".
The wall exploded inward with a detonation of force and necromantic energy. Chunks of stone and wood flew across the hall as something massive forced its way through the breach. A crocodile the size of a wagon, its body mummified and encased in lazotep armor that shone with sickly blue light, pushed through the opening with irresistible force. Behind it came a tide of humanoid Eternals, their weapons raised and their movements synchronized.
Chandra didn't wait for them to enter fully. She thrust both hands forward and released a torrent of flame so intense that the air itself ignited from the heat. The fire washed over the lead Eternals, engulfing them in temperatures that should have reduced anything organic to ash in seconds.
The lazotep armor held. The Eternals emerged from the flames scorched but functional, their preserved flesh protected by the sacred metal coating every surface of their bodies.
"Shit, fuck, they're fireproof!" Chandra shouted with frustration. "Someone hit them with something else!"
Ajani leapt forward with speed that belied his massive frame, his axe swinging in a devastating arc that caught one Eternal across the chest. The blade cut through lazotep armor and mummified flesh with equal ease, separating the zombie's torso from its legs in a spray of ancient dust and preservative fluids. The Eternal collapsed into component pieces that stopped moving once the connection to whatever animated them was severed.
"Aim for the joints where the armor is thinnest!" Ajani called out while already engaging the next target. "Or hit them hard enough to shatter the plating entirely!"
Gideon had positioned himself directly in front of the crocodile's advance, his body glowing with golden light. The massive undead beast lunged at him with jaws capable of crushing stone, but Gideon simply braced himself and caught the jaws in his bare hands. His muscles strained visibly as he held the creature's mouth open, preventing it from closing or advancing further.
"A little help here!" he grunted.
Nissa responded by calling forth massive roots from beneath the merchant hall's floor, wood that had been sleeping under stone for decades, answering her summons. The roots wrapped around the crocodile's body with crushing force, binding it in place while Gideon continued to prevent its jaws from closing. Other planeswalkers seized the opportunity, launching attacks at the immobilized target.
I channeled divine fire into both hands and released it in a concentrated beam aimed at the crocodile's eye socket, where the lazotep armor couldn't fully protect the preserved tissue beneath. The fire burned through desiccated flesh and into whatever necromantic energy animated the corpse, disrupting the magic that gave it motion. The creature shuddered once and then went limp in Gideon's grip.
But for every Eternal we destroyed, more pushed through the breach or began forcing their way through windows and weak points in the walls. The merchant hall was under siege from multiple directions simultaneously, and the defenders were being pushed back step by step despite their power and coordination.
A massive lion covered in lazotep armor crashed through one of the boarded windows, scattering ice barriers and wooden reinforcements. Its roar was a horrible gurgling sound, air moving through a throat that had been dead for centuries. It leapt toward Samut with claws extended, moving faster than something that size should be capable of.
Samut's hands blurred with temporal magic, and she simply wasn't there when the claws arrived, stepping sideways through time itself to reappear behind the creature. Her weapon, a curved blade that glowed with the same temporal energy, sliced through the lion's hind leg at the joint where armor plating was thinnest. The leg separated from the body, and the lion collapsed to the side, its balance destroyed.
Teferi was there a moment later, his hands weaving complex temporal patterns that caused the lion's remaining limbs to age rapidly. Lazotep armor couldn't protect against time itself, and the preserved flesh beneath began crumbling to dust as decades of entropy were compressed into seconds.
But even as we destroyed Eternals, I could see more arriving outside the merchant hall. The street was filling with them, hundreds of armored zombies moving toward our position.
And then the champions arrived.
The first came through the main entrance riding what appeared to be a chariot pulled by skeletal horses, also armored in lazotep. The rider was humanoid, taller than a normal human, wearing ceremonial armor either royal or divine status before death and mummification. Twin curved swords gleamed in its hands, and its movements carried a fluidity.
"Its a champion of the Dread Horde!" Samut shouted with recognition and fear. "Chosen by the gods before they fell! They're vastly more dangerous than the regular Eternals!"
The champion drove its chariot directly into our defensive line with devastating effect. One of the Boros soldiers wasn't fast enough to dodge and was trampled beneath lazotep-shod hooves.