"Let's see . . . west of here is the Wind Cave and north of here is . . . ?"

That was odd. The sign said the town of Northwind, with a line through it, and "North Window" written next to it with a little trademark symbol.

" . . . . . . . "

Rolling his eyes heavenward, Young Master McDohl just kept walking towards North Window. After a few hours, he could see the top of some kind of tower in the distance. After a bit of reflection, he recalled hearing of a castle in that particular town. It was instrumental in repelling Barbarossa's army a long time ago.

As the impressive old castle came into full view, McDohl stopped to look at something odd happening with that same tower he spotted before. It appeared to be some kind of smoke billowing out of the windows. The smoke was a bit hard to spot at first, since the greying mortar of the castle walls neatly covered up anything even close to the same color.

Upon closer inspection, he changed his mind and said it was mist. It had the same effect you get when you drop dry ice into a glass of liquid.

" . . . . . . "

Shrugging his shoulders, McDohl started for the entrance of the town, becoming instantly convinced that whatever he had come to fight was in the castle. It would only fit the increasing pattern McDohl had come to expect from these cartoonish super-villains that he ended up fighting on a semi-regular basis.

Just as Young Master McDohl was getting close to the entrance, he noticed two women leaving the town. One was a very pale albino and required support from the other. The other . . . was probably the most muscular woman McDohl had seen this side of Ronnie Bell.

McDohl raised his arm and waved a greeting, but they just walked past him as if he didn't exist. McDohl managed to get a glimpse of the exhaustion on both their faces and figured they were too tired to notice him passing.

Young Master McDohl wondered if they were also adventurers sent to kill the monster. Judging by the condition of the pale-haired girl, the two of them just escaped with their lives. Perhaps it would not be best to disturb them at this time.

Once at the outskirts of the town, McDohl noticed another sign. This one read:

"North Window. Population: 500 . . . 328 . . . 100 . . . . -49 . . . -140 . . . Fresh blood appreciated."

Young Master McDohl blinked a few times, then blew out a sigh. Oh great . . . the undead. McDohl recognized that same joke when had stormed Neclord's castle, so it must be a rather popular cliché among undead creatures. It had to be . . . since Neclord was dead. Or at least deader than when he had last seen him.

McDohl was instantly horrified the moment he walked past the entrance to the city. It wasn't the fact that the main road was littered with crudely constructed graves that numbered in the thousands . . . it was the fact that each and every grave was empty. That, and they appeared to have been burst from the inside.

"This is awful! What could have happened here?!"

"Uhhhhhh........"

"The only person I know who could be this monsterous is Neclord, but he's not a suspect anymore . . . "

"UHHHH......!!"

While McDohl had been losing himself in thought, about a dozen putrifying zombies had shuffled in behind Young Master McDohl and were groaning loudly, not sure why the human wasn't paying attention to them.

Every so often, one of the zombies tried to lunge at McDohl, but luck would have it that he stepped out of the way the very instant before the zombie could grab him. All the while, he didn't even know they were there, and kept examining the graves.

"If I only I had some sign of what was going on . . ."

"UHHH!!!!"

Neclord, on the other hand, was too busy wheezing and coughing when he walked past the window to notice the young man in the green bandanna being followed by three dozen zombies, who's fastest run was the young man's walking speed.

Along what used to be the shopping promenade, Young Master McDohl found that the entrance to the castle resevoir was blocked by an intense magick field, while the direct passage was blocked by debris. McDohl knew full well not touch the barrier, lest he be shocked accordingly.

"Hm . . . there has to be some kind of release mechanism around here."

Young Master McDohl walked over to the bushes to search for some kind of release switch while one of the zombies had tried to leap at him again. It crashed into the barrier and sizzled until it became a pile of dust on the floor.

McDohl heard the noise and turned back, too late to have seen anything. He poked the barrier with a stick curiously and was happy to discover it was not there. With a smile on his face, he strode through the entrance, unknowingly with most of Neclord's army following him like a pack of tourists.

The interior of the castle was far from spartan. In fact the place was so dusty that even the tumbleweeds were starting to contract allergies.

As McDohl started up the stairs, the zombie horde were faced with a dilemma that they tried to avoid up until now. How would their decaying limbs fare against walking up a steep incline?

They all huddled together for some debate. After a few minutes, one of them bravely decided to put his foot on the next step and put enough weight on it to force his rotting body up to the step above it. That pipe dream ended quickly as the strength added to the weight on non-existent tendons sent the zombie's knee clear through his leg, splitting it in half, and letting the knee come to rest where the foot previously was.

Even though the results were less than encouraging, the zombies put their heads together (in some cases literally), and came up with a new master plan. Six of the stronger zombies took another and all picked him up until that zombie was over everyone's heads. Running forward, they hurled the zombie into the air and, incredibly, over the steps. Everyone groaned a cheer as the zombie landed on the ledge and started to slide forward, past the obstacle. The cheering died down, however, when the muckus coming out of that zombie's chest not only kept it sliding at an increasingly fast pace, but made the zombie explode in a rather disgusting goo when it slammed into the far wall.

One zombie just smacked his forhead with his open palm in embarrassment, only to have his head fall off and roll out the door.

As it turned out, McDohl had to face the same problems as he did the last time he visited a castle taken over by the undead.

Puzzles. Nothing but puzzles as far as the eye could see. What was it with undead and puzzles? Didn't they ever hear of deadbolts?

Young Master McDohl nearly broke his back moving heavy statues of weird-looking gargoyles over pressure plates to open sliding panel doors in the wall.

However, the weirdest thing that occupied Young Master McDohl's mind was . . . where were the monsters in this town?

Down on the first floor, the whole room with the stairs was just LITTERED with greasy, grimy, zombie guts. About 14 zombies had met their fate trying to climb a set of stairs and by now the human must already be on his way to the fourth floor. That meant more climbing for the rest of them.

The poor zombies were torn between the fear of their master's wrath and the problem of trying to surmount those four pesky steps. They all stood still for a moment, deep in thought, before making a simultaneous gesture of disgust and wandering back out to the yard.

Between the heat of the inner castle, the incredible wind chill from the precipices between towers, and that incesant organ music coming from somewhere, McDohl was about ready to take a vacation.

Thankfully, his toils were not for nothing as Young Master McDohl reached the top floor of the castle's central tower. As if to further agrivate the situation, the organ music was just getting louder and louder, making McDohl plug his ears with his bandanna to even be able to think straight.

The room that he entered was far different from the grubby, unclean castle below. This place was shiny with fresh tile on the floors, a golden pipe organ on the wall, and several scented candles giving off a spooky light in the room.

A man wearing a black cape was busy playing away on the organ and didn't appear to hear Young Master McDohl enter. After a lot of shouting availed for nothing, McDohl took a candle holder and lobbed it at the man at the organ.

However, Young Master McDohl's aim was worse . . . or better, depending how you view it . . . than he had anticipated and the candle holder hit the man square in the back of the head, sending his face crashing into the ivory tiles and making the organ groan out several loud notes.

" . . . . oops."

The man stayed facedown on the organ's keys for a moment before springing out of his chair, flinging the candleholder aside, and getting really really pissed off.

"What the hell was that all ab . . . YOU!?"

"Look, I said I was sorry! I didn't mean . . . YOU?!"

"McDohl/Neclord!!!!"

The two of them looked at each other in surprise for several moments, both tensed up for the attack they expected to come.

Young Master McDohl's face showed the panic that he evidently felt. Last time he looked on that pale face, Viktor had cleaved it in half with the Star Dragon Sword. What was this guy doing alive?! Or rather . . .undead!?

On the other hand, Neclord was starting to get a massive migraine. First Lady Sierra shows up, then that weird woman, now that McDohl kid? Did the zombies write "open house" on the castle wall, or something?

Struggling with his shock, Neclord finally returned to his smug, sardonic grin. He fixed his cape and made a sweeping gesture at McDohl.

"Greetings, Lord McDohl. You seem in fine health. I'm very impressed that you made it all the way to my humble abode without causing much noise, fighting my zombie army."

"Zombies?" McDohl looked confused. "What zombies?"

"Why, the zombies out . . . .you mean you didn't see. . . but, how is that possible?!" Neclord sounded like he was stuttering, then rushed to the window. Outside, the zombies were lounging around. A few of them were kicking around the head of the zombie who accidentally knocked it off, with the headless body chasing after it.

The zombies all started scrambling for cover when they heard their master screaming obscenities from his tower and throwing magick lightning down on them for letting McDohl get away.

After relieving some stress, he turned back to McDohl and looked a lot more composed.

"Now then, where were we?"

"We were about to discuss why you can't pick up a new routine." McDohl answered, annoyed. "Don't you have ENOUGH brides as it is?"

And, as if he wasn't irritated enough, McDohl just had to sit through a medely of Neclord's laughing.

"Come now! You can never get enough of a good thing."

"Well, I'm here on business. The people of South Window have no IDEA what kind of a roach problem they have here."

And now it was Young Master McDohl's turn to grin at the way Neclord growled, being called a roach. He flipped his cape back, preparing to attack.

But Young Master McDohl had already prepared for that. When Neclord transformed himself into a large vampire bat, McDohl used his staff like a bat of his own and knocked Neclord clear across the room; slamming into the large pipe organ. A lot of weird sounds came out as the bat tried to pry it's head out of the blow hole for the pipe. It sounded strangely like melodic cursing.

After yanking his head free, the bat turned back into Neclord, who spent the next few minutes trying to walking without spinning around.

He was apparently in better shape than he appeared, since he let loose with a large energy wave, knocking McDohl off his feet.

"You haven't lost your touch, you little brat. But now it's time to end our game."

As Neclord started to advance, Young Master McDohl struggled to his feet and his right hand started to glow ominously.

"Funny, I was thinking the same thing!"

McDohl raised his hand and pointed at Neclord, sending the rune of the Soul Eater spiralling into the air. At the same time, Neclord's own right hand was raised and the image of the Moon Rune spiralled next to the Soul Eater's . . . as if in a Rune Unite. There was a lot of rumbling outside and the sky turned pitch black.

Neclord braced himself, but there didn't appear to be anything happening. McDohl looked at his hand and shook it. That was odd . . . .

Just as Neclord was about to say something smug, they noticed that at the four corners of the room, purplish lines zigzagged into a pentegram and several demonic angels appeared in a circle around the tower.

"Uh oh . . ."

People from miles away could see the JUDGEMENT spell literally take the roof off the tower in a column of massive purple and destructive energy. From magician's island, Leknaat watching in her crystal ball and just shook her head.

Both occupants of the tower were sent spiralling into the air. A few miles away, a screaming fireball crashed into a lake, sending water everywhere and drenching Oulan and Sierra.

A few minutes later, a wobbling McDohl crawled out, having been saved by the same rune who's power he unleashed. His eyes were almost cartoonish swirls and he smiled at no one in particular.

"Scooby Doo?" he murmured, before collapsing on the ground in a stupified heap.

Meanwhile, waaaaaay off at the Kolbold forest, Neclord was pulling himself out from under the singed remains of his pipe organ. He was climbing to his feet, when he turned face to face with a large, white horse with a horn, standing near the tree he landed at.

[Hey, you're not a pure maiden.] Siegfried said, accusingly.