"W-who are... you?

He smiled evilly as imulsion dripped down his face as he began to speak in a low tone.

"...I am Vazeera."

Che'ziek stumbled back in fear, wide eyed as Vazeera lurched towards him giving off a sinister laugh he started to sprout tendrils from his back. Che'ziek pointed his gun at Vazeera with his hands trembling and his forehead sweating.

"W-Why are you here!?"

Vazeera leaned in close and looked him examined his prey.

"I was looking for some recruits... You look capable enough."

Che'ziek revved up his chainsaw bayonet and jumped back as Vazeera still walked towards him.

"Back off! Or this next one's going to your face, dark-"

Vazeera stuck his hand in his mouth and yanked on Che'ziek's forked tongue.

"I believe you need to learn your manners, or it comes off next time."

Che'ziek had the wind knocked out of him with Vazeera's swift fist as he punched him in the gut. Che'ziek wheezed as saliva and blood dripped from his fangs, as Vazeera began whipping him violently with his tendrils. He lifted up Che'ziek's battered face as he cringed in pain.

"I've seen your behaviour towards the high priest. You were envious, sickened with anger."

"H-how did you k-know that?"

Che'ziek muttered weakly, as Vazeera stood up and a polyp crawled out of his sleeve.

"I listen to the creatures, and they listen to me. I am their king, their dark ruler."

Che'ziek stumbled to his feet as Vazeera held a hand out to him.

"If you join my ranks however, you WILL get your recognition!"

Che'ziek shot a glare at him as he sliced his hand off with the bayonet of his chainsaw.

"I don't want to hear your lies! I would never betray my people like that!"

Vazeera picked his hand off the ground as he leaped into the air and kicked Che'ziek into the ground as he reattached his hand to his limb. Before picking up Che'ziek and wrapping his cold hand around his neck and squeezed tight.

"If you won't except my offer then you are of no use to me, instead I'll make you into another puppet!"

Vazeera unsheathed his hand from his sleeve and held it out. It was surprisingly cleaner unlike the rest of his body.

"Your hand... Where is the imulsion? It was there... A minute ago!"

Che'ziek's eyes widened as he had realized what had happened. Vazeera had transfered his imulsion into his bloodstream. Che'ziek looked down as the veins in his arms glowed bright yellow. Che'ziek shrieked in immense pain as his body glowed golden as he warped into a lambent, groaning, making hissing noises, and trembling in agony.

Vazeera turned around as his robes flowed elegantly in the cold wind as he took a now lambent Che'ziek with him in his stride.

"Nonsense! The lambent were defeated!"

A boomer slammed his fist on a scaffold as he snorted angrily. The others had gotten the news of the lambent returning and a lot of them were quite concerned.

Skorge watched stressfully as the locust talked about the lambent as Kandace noticed him and sat beside him.

"It's stressful, I know. We can beat them, I'm sure of it! Hey, Skorge?"

Skorge lifted his head up and looked Kandace in the eyes.

"...I'm going to kill them all."

Kandace looked a little concerned with Skorge's behaviour. She got up and placed her pale hands over Skorge's and gave him a small smile.

"If you want I can show you the cool things I got at my place! This one time I stole this guy's cool looking Lava Lamp. It's a totally nice shade of sunset orange."

Skorge grinned as he stood up and put his arm around her waist.

"Well I guess you're right, it'd be nice to get away from all this paranoia clutter."

Meanwhile, the Crimson Knights had entered the throne room to explain a plan they devised to help with the lambent. They got on one knee and bowed their heads in respect as Myrrah got off her throne.

"Queen Myrrah, we've got news to deliver. We decided we were going to raid the humans for supplies."

Myrrah looked intrigued by the idea. Using humans to get more supplies? Only the best would've known to do this, she had thought.

"Very well, make sure not to waste too much troops."

Coquelicot bowed in honor.

"Of course, your Majesty."

Kandace opened the front door to her place as Skorge peeked his head in and looked around confused. Her house wasn't looking like a cell, or was even in poor condition. It looked relatively normal, like how a human would have it. Kandace stretched her arms and relaxed herself on her couch as Skorge was examining a calendar baffled at the human technology.

"I-it's so small and square..."

Kandace laughed a bit as Skorge dropped the calendar in confusion and slowly turned his head to Kandace.

"M-might I ask why you're so... Casual?"

Kandace sat up and shrugged a bit.

"I dunno, humans are probably just more innovative I guess. Plus, I AM half-human, I got a humans figure and face with the only difference being the shoulders, teeth, tongue, toes, skin and eye colour. I mean, I have HAIR for God's sake."

Skorge kneeled to Kandace and placed a hand under her chin.

"Well, those features are what make you so pretty to look at, right before you rip their guts out."

Kandace smiled as she stood up and walked to a cabinet and took out a vial blood and took a quick drink of it.

"Yeah, I forgot to take my blood dosage."

Soon Kandace heard tapping on the window. As she approached it, she saw a ticker with a message strapped to its back, she took the paper and read that something was going down near human territory.

"I'm sorry, but I have to leave, I appreciate your company though."

Skorge nodded his head and went to leave before Kandace grabbed his arm and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, leaving a slight blood smear on his face.

"By the way, I want you to come back without some lambent parasite swimming through your veins."

"Relax, I'll be fine! I've survived everything else, Skorge!"

Kandace laughed as she drew her weapons and headed out. Skorge decided to leave and head back to the others in case plans were being made, Myrrah needed escorting, or other things. On the way there he walked into a Palace Guard.

"Oh! High priest Skorge! I didn't expect to see you here!"

The Palace Guard bowed as Skorge walked past him. The guard shot up, and stumbled over to Skorge.

"Th-theres... Blood... On your face... You didn't do anything irrational did you, Sir?"

Skorge growled a bit, feeling a tad annoyed at the behaviour of the guard, being obnoxious and many other things that he wouldn't even waste saying to his face.

"If you must know, Kandace invited me to her quarters and had to take her blood dosage... And well... You know."

The Palace Guard placed a finger on his chin in sudden realization.

"Oh! Did you two mate or something?"

Skorge's face turned red and he hissed in anger as he roughly slapped the guard on the top of his head.

"N-NO WE DID NOT!" Besides, she can't reproduce anyways, now will you quiet down!?"

The guard grinned and nudged Skorge a bit and began rubbing the back of his sore head as Skorge angrily glared at him.

"Don't worry about it, sir. I won't tell a soul about what you and your mate do."

Skorge shoved him away and walked far away and wiped the blood smear off, as the guard angrily bared his fangs as he stumbled to his feet.

"Of course his temper acts up... Again..."

Meanwhile, at a base nearby, the Crimson Knights were hiding in the shadows nearby whispering among themselves.

"We can't leave without Kandace! She's our leader, Stizza!

"I know, but we're pretty talented, right guys?"

"You're an idiot..."

Stizza leapt up as a clicking noise was heard as the circular panels on the palms of his artificial hands began to ignite, Stizza ran out of cover and sprinted through the entrance of the base before hearing a beeping noise and looked alarmed seeing it was rigged with grenades and other traps. Stizza leaped forward as he rolled away with the spines on his armor, avoiding the blast radius, as Coquelicot facepalmed in the background.

He turned to see the human forces pointing boomshots in his direction. Stizza panicked only before one of them got sliced open by Kandace from behind with one of her large scythes, alerting the humans as the Crimson Knights sighed in relief. They leapt out of cover and pointed guns at the humans threatening Stizza.

However, seismic activity could be felt as a large stalk burst from the ground and carried the humans while impaling most of them. Soon a large glowing figure burst out of the stalk turning out to be a lambentzerker.

"W-what's THAT!?"

"Lambent."

Kandace lifted her scythe over her shoulder and glared at the lambent berserker.

"It's never easy, isn't it?"