Prologue
Hunson Abadeer floated over the nightosphere, relishing in the misery of the souls below him.
Kill them. Kill them all! Let death have them! the Nightosphere Amulet whispered around his neck.
"No, Death is a cool guy. I don't want to bother him with all my guests."
Death would take your soul if he could.
"But he can't. We have an understanding."
JUST KILL THEM!
Hunson shut the amulet out. He had once thought it would be silenced if Marceline took the amulet and ruled the Nightosphere. Turns out he was just pure evil. The voice might just as well have come from himself. So he ruled, day in and day out. Same old grind.
Every hundred years or so death would pop in for a visit. Hunson relished those days. He couldn't really understand friendship but he'd like to think death was his friend. Today was one of those days. He landed on the sulphur plane and checked his watch. Just in time. Death should arrive any minute now. Death was a punctual guy, it waited for no man.
A light breeze stirred the layer of ash on the plane. It swirled tighter together and packed itself into the form of Death impersonated.
Hunsen approached him with a smile. "Hi old friend! How are things in the underworld?"
Death materialized completely and fixed Hunsen with a bottomless stare. "I don't have much time. I can only bring a warning before I have to leave again."
"Aw man, I thought we could invite Peppermint butler and play some golf? Ya know, kick back and relax once every hundred years..."
"There is no time. We might have a problem." Death said and raised his palm before him. Light swirled around his bony hand before materializing into two souls. A tiny elephant and a pig.
"Hey I remember those two." said Hunsen. "What was her name again... Appletree? Appletrunk?"
"Treetrunks and Mister Pig." Death said, sounding impatient. "They arrived last night. However they are not the problem, it's what they were guarding that bothers me."
Death let the souls fade back to the underworld. "I believe my herald is free again."
Hunsen raised an eyebrow. "You let those two guard your herald?"
Death sighed. "Circumstances allowed it, and at the time I thought it might be over for him."
"It will never be over for him." Hunsen hissed through clenched teeth.
"You'd be surprised." said Death. "Anyway, I must leave soon. This was the only warning I could give you."
"Hey wait a second! What would he want with me?" asked Hunsen.
"I'm sure you know." Death said, then disintegrated back into ash.
Hunsen stared at the spot where death had vanished, a little disappointed that they didn't get to play golf after all. But that would have to wait, the Lich was just about the only thing that posed a serious threat to Marceline, and that got his attention. Time to head home. He would have to inform Marceline about the true purpose of…
Crack.
An almost inaudible sound broke the quiet on the sulphur plane, causing Hunsen to spin around. He saw only ash, gently flitting down and covering the ground in a thin layer. "Must be the amulet." Hunsen mused and turned to leave. He didn't get far. Death's herald leapt up from the edge of the plain and knocked him down with a single blast of hellfire. The force of the blast plowed Hunsen into the ash and sent his head spinning. The Lich pinned him to the ground before he could move.
Abadeer spat ash from his mouth before eyeing the Lich. "You missed your master by about five seconds, you know."
The tattered remains of a faintly humanoid body hung around the Lich's bones, but any qualities associated with that were gone. He was Death's dark herald once again.
"You forget, Abadeer, that I am his herald." said the Lich. "I know when he comes and when he leaves."
Hunsen managed a sneer below the weight of the Lich's grip. "A pity then, you failed so badly a thousand years years ago. You should really stick to your own work."
"A thousand years ago I didn't have this." the Lich said, and dangled an amulet in front of Hunsen's face.
Hunsen's breath caught in his throat. The amulet looked exactly like the Nightosphere amulet, even up close he couldn't tell the difference.
'I didn't know you had a twin.' he thought at the amulet around his neck. Only silence greeted him. He glanced at the place where his amulet should have hung but found the Lich's hellfire blast had burned straight through his suit. His amulet was nowhere to be found. Unless…
He looked more closely at the amulet in the Lich's hand. "It can't be. How?"
The Lich sneered. "Death is fast. His herald needs to be faster. You have long been the soulkeeper of those death didn't want, but I am pleased to let you know you are relieved of duty."
The Lich slammed the amulet down onto Abadeer's forehead. In an explosion of black dust, Abadeer was sucked into the amulet, mind body and soul. When the Lich placed the amulet back around his neck he felt new bounds of strength that far exceeded his own.
"Oh Abadeer, if only you'd joined me a thousand years ago. The cosmos itself would have trembled at our power. But tomorrow we take Ooo, and then it will."