The Seven Tower Guardians sat around the table, the vast city of Rein within easy view from the tower. The other four planets were in sight as well, though the once vibrant planets were reduced to black globes of sludge.

Hein, the eldest and Guardian of the City Tower sat like the stone golem he was, his silver marble body veined with blue, his voice deep and smoother than his surface "We cannot continue to fight like this. We are not winning but barely holding back the tide of this…oil. Every party we have sent out has been lost to us. What can we do?"

The Guardians and their attendants said nothing until one of them, an old man in a hooded red cloak stood up "Lord Hein…perhaps we can do nothing. These creatures do not stop until destroyed but their very footsteps are infectious."

Hein's green eyes met the robe of his contemporary "But they can be killed and in that there is hope."

"Have you gotten in touch with your friend?" asked one of the attendants.

Sighing deeply Hein shook his head "I have not heard from Karn in many, many years."

Sayla had been a Valiant on Innistrad, charged with hunting down the renegade demons with her group when the final assault had taken place. They had chased a demon deep into a crypt in the densest and most unexplored part of the world. They had never seen the demon but in that flickering torch light they knew they severely underestimated this demon.

The victims had been shredded until nothing was left but a puddle of blood and some clothes, maybe a piece like a finger. She never got a chance to see it since she was at the back of the group. But when her captain's scream for retreat was cut off in a gurgle of blood she turned and ran. Fear raced through her and she was entirely alone, the rest of her squad dead. It appeared in front of her, it was slimy and bulbous but vaguely human shaped save it was black as a shadow with red eyes and fangs that were curved into a smile.

One talon, as long as her entire hand touched her chin as it hissed "What have we here? A girl…been too long since I had a girl in the dark like you."

She was paralyzed as it ran a hand across her long red hair. It only took a moment for her whip to lash out and cut it's face deeply. As it roared and flailed she felt it's talons cut deeply into her side and she lashed out again and again.

The fight ended abruptly when the demon grabbed her wrist with one hand an, her throat with the other and slammed her into the wall. It stared at her, one eye closed and the grotesque form bleeding from the lashes. It's growl was starting to pull at her in more ways than one-she could feel it messing with her head "Little girl, I will kill you and eat you…no, eat you alive, watch you scream as you realize that all your fighting means nothing. Your little angels will not save you and your company dead. And they will taste just as good as you will!" and he threw her to the ground.

Her last mortal moments she saw her company members, dead. Her captain's eyes wide as he screamed for her to run. Her father. Her eldest brother lay in his own blood. Tears flooded her eyes as she waited for the ground. But it never came.

Outside the church dozens toiled under the sun with a mark branded on them. The seal of those who devoted themselves to gold with the signet of the sun. Deep within a group sat around a circle sat the advisors. One of the Boros angels lay on the flood dead, the sword through her chest saw to that. One of them, a younger man sighed and shook his head "I actually liked this one."

One of his contemporaries laughed "You just wished to get her to bed."

The other shrugged "I'm not going to deny that."

The eldest, a man the looked closer to 1000 sat down "Silence. It is time to create another angel."

White and black magic started to swirl around the dead angel until her corpse started to twitch and writhe. Her once red hair darkened and her skin turned gray, her wings grew longer and longer as the black overtook the once white.

When Asina looked at herself she found her clothes were different, the armor of reds and whites was transformed into golds and blacks. The sword at her side was now a scythe in her hand and the wound she died of was no longer there.

The old man waved a hand "Whom do you serve?"

She bowed her head and her wings laid almost in a curtsy "I serve the Church."

"Good." with a flick of his wrist a small medallion embedded itself in her forehead and immediately the history of the Church and her duties flooded her mind. But she still remembered who she was. Asina of the Boros.

One of the men muttered "Something's wrong…" before sighing "I hate dealing with the Boros angels, always too strong minded. This is why we just need to make our own from scratch, and we can do it!"

The youngest, the one who favored her rolled his shoulders "Then we're just going to have to destroy her."

The eldest laughed before turning to them "Too late. Something very interesting has happened." the spot where the angel had stood was nothing more than a halo of soot "We must bring this before the Council."

Hein stood up for the first time since the meeting began "My friend, why won't you say anything?"

The robe in front of him was black with white hems and green and white thread making flowing patterns "Because I do not know how to say what I wish to." the others looked to him, the one who's Tower was the most effected and yet also their hold out. "My creations are changed by the oil, yes, but they still serve me and I order them to fall into the pits where their oil is extracted." the others were silenced by the news "Yet even more trouble brews. After they are touched they hear…voices. Prayers and whisperings of a "Father of Machines." There is something leading these abominations on."

The red robed one shuffled his hands reveling blue hems and asked quietly "Can you change these voices?"

The black robe pulled back his hood to reveal pure white hair, deeply tanned skin, and eyes a swirl of the colors of his cloak, but what separated him from the others was a chain of vines around his throat that covered the scars from his decapitation. "I have not found where they come from."

The marble golem stood "This is a continuing crisis. We must keep word from spreading to the public. Now go with peace and fulfillment, we are to protect this world as our forefathers did when they built these great Towers!"

A cheer filled the air before they left leaving the unhooded one with the golem. "Hein, there is much more going on here than just the oil. I can feel it in my bones."

"They have never been wrong before, even when you were alive…" he mused.

"Look, I need time to find these voices, Arbadal will not stop until he changes these voices but they are not on this planet. You and I both know that the Star Rails were taken before White Stone could mount a defense and there they spread Green Rock, Blue Wall and Red Side. To find them I'd have to send my creatures to each planet and search one by one and as of yet none of my creatures have even made it to the Star Rail of this planet."

A heavy hand was gently placed on the other's shoulder "Oden. Go home. Rest then continue this search. You are the closest to fixing this and I will do everything in my power to buy you time."

The living zombie sighed as he waved his hand as his ride shot off from the ground hundreds of feet below "Hein. I'm sorry, but I don't know how much time we have left. If you're right and we had more-any of these…planeswalkers we might be able to do something."

From the ground a behemoth rose, the white skeleton of a dragon nearly 70 feet long rippled as vines quickly overtook it's body. Some withered and other flourished before it spread it's wings to rise to it's master. Oden stepped onto the beast's back and took off towards his home.

Marble moved silently as Hein sat in his throne and rubbed his face "Fourteen thousand years after I gave up my human body and it's still biting me in the ass." he lamented before a knock was heard on the meeting hall doors. "Open."

A man rushed in wearing plate mail with a saber at his side and a spear in his hands "My lord!" he shouted as he leaned on the spear trying to regain his breath "Two women…just appeared….in the market!"

Hein pinched the bridge of his nose "Great. Just what I need. A four hour meeting with the Guardians followed by two mysteriously appearing women."

The City Tower Guardian snapped and both he and the guard were transported to the marketplace where he saw two women, one heavily wounded glaring at everyone that came near, including each other. The glass ring on Hein's left thumb glowed brightly before a blue beam of light covered the area and his voice was heard by everyone in the area "Strangers, please, be at peace. We do not wish to harm you. Please come closer so we may heal your wounds and find out what has happened."

Both the warriors slowly did so and the golem's ring pulsed again, this time to contact his best healer. The wounded woman screamed "Where am I?!"

"Please come closer. I wish to help you, ask any here, my job is to help and protect others even if they are travelers." he entreated until both came close enough that he could intervene if they decided to attack anyone. "Miss you are wounded. I would like to take you to my home where a healer is."

Sayla pressed a hand to her side and felt the blood run through her fingers, her head was light and she sighed but nodded. Asina's wings fluttered as she pulled them back and shuffled in a sign of agitation that very few were familiar with. The angel looked around, both hands on her scythe ready to attack "Who are you and where am I?"

The golem spoke quietly "Please come with me, I will explain and in my home you will have everything you need." he walked backwards towards his home "My name is Hein, I am a Guardian, one of the seven people who protect this planet, called Black Earth. We call our plane The Ring."

Neither woman paid any attention to their surroundings but to every word the golem said as he led them to an elevator. Sayla hissed as she held a hand to the gash in her side "How did we get here?"

"I believe both of you are what we call Planeswalkers. You are able to travel from any world to another, unlike the rest of us bound to one plane until we die."

Slowly the elevator ground to a halt and the door opened, like every other room in the tower the floor and ceiling were marble with pillars around the perimeter, there were several couches and beds with curtains between them marking this as more of an infirmary.

"Seriously? You call me back to play medic for two girls?"

Hein sighed "Oden, I need you to look at Ms…?"

The Valiant replied "Sayla. My name is Sayla."

Oden growled and pointed vehemently at a couch "Sit down." he ordered as his finger shined with a white light and he zipped it across the gash causing her to gasp in pain before he stood up and walked out of the main room and into one of the side tunnels grumbling "First I have to play nice with those" the rest was unintelligible but they were not nice words.

Asina's face was totally deadpan "Some bedside manner."

Hein chuckled causing both women to look at him "I'm sorry. I have been friends with him far longer than anyone else on this plane has been alive. Oden is the greatest healer…though after his death he became less and less…personable and turned his attentions elsewhere. But make no mistake, none of those in his care have ever died from the disease or wound he was treating them for."

Sayla growled "If he could back that up it would be quite something…"

The angel said "You called this place 'The Ring', why?"

Motioning them to the railing the giant spoke "Look there." he pointed to the horizon where four black orbs were visible attached by giant chains to each other and to this planet. "These five planets are linked together by the Star Rail, though who built them is beyond us. That one" he said pointing to one "Was White Stone, next to it is Blue Wall. We are on Black Earth and the next in the chain are Red Side and Green Rock. Several years ago White Stone became infected with a dark sludge that corrupted everything that touched it. Like an infection it spread quickly and the other four planets were quickly lost. Here on Black Earth we have been able to fight it but we are not winning."