Meanwhile, over in the US, Anna Bergomian was having problems of her own. Currently living in Colorado with her crazy aunt Brunhilda, Anna was dealing with two equally disgusting dilemmas. What to do about the zombies swarming in from the bigger cities out West. And how to explain Big Joe to the batty old hag living upstairs. Once the staggering, drooling hordes of the undead rose from their various graves Big Joe had insisted on staying close to Anna. Verily, he was practically stuck to her and it was getting a little hard to hide him. At least that was until Brunhilda came across him this morning. She couldn’t be judged too harshly for her reaction. A seven-foot hulking stone and steel man packing a broadsword and a 40 mm grenade launcher loaded with solid slugs standing in your kitchen at 7:45 in the morning would give anyone a start, especially if, under his brown fedora, all that could be seen was the bleached bone of a human skull. It took three improvised golems to hold her down. This last bit thoroughly pleased Anna, as last year she wouldn’t have been able to even raise one ratty sand golem without ten minute’s chanting. Now, she just pointed at her targets, ripped three souls out of the aether, and shoved them into their hosts. The souls interpreted her wishes as they bonded with wood and iron and before poor old auntie could do so much as scream, the kitchen table and chairs had sprouted arms and restrained the old biddy. Now, despite his outward appearances, Big Joe was really a very gentle guy, and was swift to apologize to Brunhilda who in turn stopped hyperventilating.

So here they were. Anna stood in the kitchen trying to massage the migraine from behind her eyes. Big Joe hulked silently in the corner constantly glancing out the window in case a horde of corpses decided to shamble into the backyard. Brunhilda peppered Anna with questions, staying far away from the again-soulless wooden table. “For the last time Auntie, no, I did not kill someone in order to make Joe. I don’t know why he’s got a soul that remains human but he does. He’s my guardian golem. He guards me, he doesn’t attack old ladies.”

Suddenly, Big Joe was at Anna’s side, gun drawn. His voice had a queer, echoing quality to it; like a landslide in a mountainside tunnel. “Anna, we must go now. They are on their way. I can feel their evil intent, scraping along my metal spine.” 

“Shit! Auntie B, grab some food and your keys. I’ll be right back!” Anna spun to face Joe, “can you slow them down? Without getting hurt I mean.”

“Master, for you I could slaughter an army of zombies and all of the bokors in the world” He holstered the launcher at his hip and drew the massive broadsword slung over his shoulder. The blade was made of a single piece of heat-treated steel, pressed into shape by the sheer pressure of Joe’s massive strength. A clever system of draws and magical symbols harnessed the seemingly endless energy that Joe’s soul put out into the blade. He activated this system now, causing a wave of heat and electricity to roll down the blade and giving it a soft red glow. Deep in the recesses of the skull’s empty sockets an angry blue glow built up, seeming to threaten violence without any actual physical movement required. At his master’s nod, Joe walked out the door and broke into a tireless jog toward the misty top of Pike’s Peak in the distance. 

Anna took off running up the stairs, desperate to at least get to her ‘magic kit’ before they had to leave the house. The kit was really just a set of fancy sculptor’s tools and a small book of good materials for golems and where to find them in the natural world. She had just grabbed the canvas shoulder bag when the sounds of battle reached Anna’s ears, along with her aunt’s screams. She ran to the nearest window, the bathroom coincidently, just in time to see a massive circle appear on the sparse grass her aunt called a backyard. The circle seemed to be drawn in blood and had a heptagram inscribed within. A dark rune was scrawled in the center of the figure, formed of the color one sees the scant seconds after they are punched directly in the eye. All shifting blacks, blues, greens, and strange purples, it was definitely now something from the natural world. Or this dimension of it, at least.