The Mystic Realm seemed pretty peaceful…for the moment. It seemed that Fear's corruption hadn't spread to this place. But now that the Dream World had fallen, he could infiltrate ANY place.

A pride of Manticores scattered when Van Helsing entered through the portal with Bigfoot and Sasquatch. The elder brother began reaching out to the ancient magic through his connection to it, his eyes closed.

"So, what do these legends say, old man?" Abe asked.

"The four barrier pillars remain equally apart, at both the north, east, west, and south portions of this world. Hmmm…of course! I had a feeling those legends were true!"

"Never dug this deep before?"

"Shush, you! Let's see…yes, yes, they seem to be working just as originally inten-."

Suddenly, his eyes shot open with a startled alarm!

"Dragon Scales! The southern pillar! It's inactive!"

"Bad?"

"Yes Big, VERY bad." He answered his brother. "If even one of the pillars remains offline, the barrier will be deactivated! Those dark and terrible forces will be able to seep into this world!"

"So we gotta get that thing online again." Abe replied. "What's the location?"

"The southern Desert Lands of Shamara! I'll make us a shortcut! And hurry! There is no time to waste!"

Sasquatch drew a circle with his wooden staff, opening a portal. The trio leaped through, and Abe found himself at the foot of a massive pyramid-like structure in an enormous desert oasis.

"The pillar is just underground, within this tomb! Come, Van Helsing! We must make haste!"

They raced into the dark depths of the building, but something crossed Abe's mind as soon as they made their way completely inside.

"Just to be clear," He asked. "What is this place the tomb OF?"

It was then that one of the nearby sarcophagi broke open, the reanimated mummy growling and roaring like mad before tentacles sprouted from the body as it rose, with similar warriors awakening, breaking free, and arming themselves!

"Well, guess that answers itself!"

"Oh, right…" Sasquatch gulped. "I was so busy focusing on the immediate threat that I completely forgot. These are the ancient Ra-Thet warriors. Their Kingdom of the Sun was one of the most powerful during their time. But now, something has tainted that light…"

"I'll say. Smells like Deadites."

Van Helsing armored up and charged into the fray, the Okash cryptids right behind him. He hacked and slashed through the Mummy Deadites, making them turn into dust and disintegrate with his magic. Bigfoot easily pounded them as Sasquatch countered their magic with his own.

A scimitar clashed against the gun-sword, with Van Helsing firing during the blade lock, downing the last of them with ease. However, something began happening.

The downed Deadites' eyes flickered from green to purple. And the corpses laughed in creepy sync.

"So…you continue to defy my master once more, Van Helsing." They said, echoing through the tombs. "But it does not matter. You will not reactivate this pillar! I will make SURE of it!"

"Creepy…" Bigfoot whimpered. But Van Helsing recognized this technique.

"You're talking through these bodies like a hive mind." He stated. "Who ARE you?"

"He knew of the threat you posed, so he sent his greatest of worshippers! I am Mgepog'drn, one of the great Soth Uh'eogg! And you have chosen your enemies poorly…"

"Soth…what?"

"Rise, revenants! Crush and destroy these mortals and taint their flesh as you shatter their minds in the name of Azathoth!"

The light in the eyes faded. The hunter only looked back up.

"Well, getting right to a boss already?" He stated. "Alright then. Better amp this up to Dark Souls mode."

Hitting his Badass Beats playlist, the hunter charged deeper into the tombs as the brothers followed. It looked like they had to fight their way through…

But it wouldn't be easy. The reanimated warriors had activated the tomb's defenses. The trio had to evade and shut them down to proceed. Van Helsing narrowly dodged swinging axes, Sasquatch cast a force-field to block flame jets, and Bigfoot's incredible strength prevented a stone door from crushing them, lifting it back into the ceiling.

The sphinx centaur guards and statues were reanimated and living as well, proving as additional obstacles to overcome. And yet, the more he fought against the eldritch abominations, the more he began to feel…strange.

L' mgr'luh ot ahororr'e ymg' shuggog. N'ghftog fhtagn ph'nglui fahf shuggog.

The eyes! So many eyes! They…they were EVERYWHERE!

"Such misplaced zeal. Their eyes remain closed to the true path. Not like you. My devoted chosen…"

"Van Helsing! Are you there?!"

The hunter snapped awake as if dreaming. He only rubbed his eyes. Without the Moonstones to amp up the armor, he felt severely mentally damaged from that dark hallucination…

"I'm still myself, Sasquatch. We gotta hurry."

The trio rushed deeper and deeper into the tombs. And it wasn't long until they finally reached the pillar.

But with it were both mummies and abominations alike, all led by a black humanoid crow figure. On his staff was a living and sentient eye.

"So…you are still sane." The crow growled. "No matter. You will be broken soon enough…"

With a dark and terrible caw, he pointed his staff forward, and the reanimated charged with howling roars! The hunter took swift and evasive action.

They were nothing new to him. He downed them as he would any other mummy. But, to credit, Van Helsing did notice how tougher and stronger they were than other mummies. They even surpassed Imhotep himself in dark necromancy and sorcery! Had he fought these creatures a decade ago, Van Helsing would not have stood a chance.

And he needed a much better name for this guy. No way could he even come CLOSE to pronouncing that gibberish crap! How about…the Eldritch Elder? Yeah, it made sense. That bird DID look a bit old.

And he said he was part of something. Van Helsing decided to go with this: The Abyssal Lords. Yeah, that was badass.

Bigfoot easily destroyed and battled the more larger foes, with Sasquatch clashing his own magic against The Eldritch Elder's own dark version of it. The elder pushed the beam to overpower the crow, who roared in slight pain.

"Puny mortals! You cannot stop me!"

Casting an orb of dark light above him, the Eldritch Elder summoned forth a laser of dark energy, which the Okash narrowly dodged. The Abyssal Lord followed up with a blinding seer, Van Helsing being able to shield himself from the light.

"OW! MY EYES!" He heard Bigfoot growl, stumbling back.

When his sight returned, Van Helsing saw the Eldritch Elder surrounded by a dark mystical circle of energy that seemed to heal his previous injury. Yet it seemed harmful to anyone else.

It was all the Abyssal Lord needed. With a mighty yell, he fired forth a powerful laser beam of energy, with Big having to take a big leap to avoid it. Sasquatch also managed to teleport away just before it could make contact.

Van Helsing struck next, firing bullets from his twin assault rifles. The Eldritch Elder only waved his staff, redirecting the bullets elsewhere with his magic, then countered by sending out dark orbs with swings of that staff.

"Okay then. Time to fight fire with fire."

Van Helsing readied a powerful fire spell, summoning a glyph with one hand and punching it with the other to send out a massive jet burst of green flame. At this, the Elder only laughed and guarded effortlessly!

Van Helsing nearly cursed. That did NOTHING!

"You should have heeded my command! Collect its blood!"

He summoned forth flying eyeballs that began zapping the fighters, who furiously dodged with leaps and rolls. Van Helsing took aim with his twin pistols, this time enchanting the bullets within. With each shot, he struck the bulls' eyes. And speaking of eyes, he managed to figure something out. What the Elder's weakness could be.

He aimed at the eye on the staff and fired again. The Elder seemed to be in the middle of charging another powerful spell, but this time, the hunter wasn't waiting around.

Once struck,the black blood spurted out, the eye screeching like mad.

"What?!"

Van Helsing didn't waste his chance. Aiming with a shotgun, he teleported up close and blasted the staff directly, shattering it to pieces! This seemed to make the Elder recoil in pain!

"ARGH! How DARE you strike one of His followers?! You will SUFFER for this! I swear! You cannot hope to succeed! My brothers will make SURE of that!"

Now seemingly powerless, the Elder cursed and swore in that incomprehensible language and vanished. From Van Helsing's guesses, normally those floating eyes were a lot tougher to destroy. Well, at least through training, he was kind of prepared.

"He seemed to be a magic user who required a weapon to harness his power." Van Helsing stated. "It'll take him a while to create a new staff. Which is why I prefer the hand magic style."

"Thankfully," Sasquatch added. "It seems like he didn't damage the pillar TOO much. Maybe I can restore it…"

The Okash elder placed a hand to the pillar, staff to the ground, and chanted a mantra. The blue magic seeped into the structure, and after a while, it began to operate. But it seemed rather…slow…

"Oh my…that sorcerer must've been tasked not with destroying the pillar, but damaging it enough to make it unable to work at full capacity!" Sasquatch gasped. "The barrier's up again, but it's weakened! Another strike like that, and there's no getting it working again!"

"Is there any way to get it stronger?"

"I…do not know. This strange magic seems alien to even MY knowledge. It's as if it's far more ancient than my own!"

"Uh oh…" Bigfoot murmured.

"I should have the locals and kingdoms here defend this pillar." Sasquatch added. "You should head back to your home realm, Van Helsing, and learn more from Providence about what these strange enforcers of Fear might be."

"Seems like boss material, sure." He replied. "Maybe these could be the enforcers he was talking about…"