Death herself rises to take oz's light...

       "Stretching was what happened first.  Corpses, blackened and rotting - only to a point - squished awake. There seemed no sentience in the collapsed eye sockets, but animation - that was very evident. Anti-Light smeared from these hollows, and seemed to snatch illumination from the very air itself. Dragging themselves along, they plowed through the dirt, the strength in the limbs obvious as ungainly feet dug ditches, marking their shambling forward progress. 

Mombi had decided to secretly lie in her position below Green’s newly wrought castle. Her commands were the only ones that really mattered to these dolls of decay - she was Mistress of Death. Green - and her perversion of Nature - was clever, powerful, and could bring about the rise or fall of many natural things. How limiting. No, Death was not permanent for this witch of graves. Nothing, in her estimation, was even close to reanimating anything she wished. Plants died. So did skin cells.

Mombi was spoiled no doubt, but, even having this Legion - for there were catacombs she’d had other mannikins (which were dead things, with no life, obviously) create tirelessly, and fill with the deceased of all time, she craved yet more dark power. 

Every corpse that had ever been planted in Oz was hers to command. Every one. The greasy, pruny fingers of death were not for every chore, but that had never been a problem. Even Green knew not the extent of Anti-life. Any fallen twig could be, from her perspective, a tool. Any breath exhaled, was cast off, and thereby her weapon. 

As the thunder of morbidity’s march finally began, she smiled. A new tooth had actually thrust its way up through her gums. The more dead things were brought back, the more powerful she became. And even Life had an expiration date. She knew that last gasps were her appetizers, a death rattle her favorite song. And music, in Oz, was power.

Chuckling, she rose into the air - without any color cloaking her at all - and sailed higher…and higher…seeking out her dead children."