A phalanx of hooded human figures preceded the undead horde. It's unbelievable how you can just feel them coming, before you ever see or hear them. It's like the sickening, disorienting sound of swarms of locusts devouring crops. It forces all to keep their eyes transfixed. Closing them for even a moment fills the mind's eye with the horrid thrum of hungry insects. The image of millions of tiny mouths chewing and gnawing, the endless numbers of wings in flight sweeping down to consume it all.

Dusk seemed to stretch or skip, starting and stalling in dreamlike intervals, caught somewhere between moments. Every heartbeat, each new bead of sweat, colder than the last. Atmosphere so tense and baited, as if time itself was being pulled and distorted, jerking in blurred, fragmented motions that shaped into a terrible, building weight. Even the slightest sounds became inexplicably warped, like the reverberation of some unseen bell ,distant, drowning, sinking deeper into the unseen depths of bubbling, murky waters.

Creaking and groaning, the subtle rattling of  heavy old chains and the clinking of  dilapidated armor never ceasing. Shivering wicked cold spreading out in front like a creeping  inexorable glacier. One could feel it deep down in the pit of their stomach, crushing and rendering inconsequential everything in its path. Vacant unidentifiable hellish sounds stolen from a dream exquisitely complemented the deep bass chanting of so many human males. Upon becoming enamored by the spell-like quality of it all, one would forget their earthly worries and struggles, in a mind-numbing psychosis.

Deeply colored robes, some pristine while others no more than sackcloth burial wrappings riddled with myriad holes, flapped and swayed in the slow wind. The thick incense swirling slowly around them created a dreadful fog-like effect. Tiny torches, carefully  proffered by the smallest among them, were positioned strategically to avoid saturating the scene with too much light. A faint, orangish glow perfectly  accentuated. the reds of the roses and rubies, subtly illuminating. details they wanted  eyes to be drawn to with exacting precision.  Red roses, ribbons, and highly polished, oily-looking rubies adorning their forms radiated starkly against the age-worn, bright white or tan of the many bones.

Each costume was purposely chosen to create a visual effect that was both hauntingly beautiful and profoundly terrifying. The play of light and shadow, coupled with the macabre elegance of their attire, transformed the scene into a nightmarish tableau, where beauty and horror intertwined. The chanting grew louder, a symphony of intrigue and a somber yet evocative fantasy. Many feel it as a primal fear that resonates through the bones, filling the air with an atmosphere of ancient, inevitable longing and mystery. The sonorous chanting rose and fell, its hymnal a lugubrious dirge of resonance and longing, as if it had been moaned into transcendence  long before human voices had even learned to shape words. It hummed beneath and between ribs, sinking, enveloping the deepest marrows, stirring something universal—arousing and primal. The entire scene was a chilling, hypnotic display of decay and artistry. Thick and far away, breathless awe spreading through the gathered crowd like an invisible tar. And there they were, gathering  pushing wading willingly, deeper, farther.

Cloaks, hoods and wrappings intentionally concealed weapons and sinister implements. What was left to appear harmless, like a tiny dormouse or an empty fleshless hand, added to the intentional creeping sense of unease. The procession exuded an aura of the darkest, most moonless night, drawing all who saw it into an eerie, dreadful trance-like ambiance.

Shambling effigies formed from the thickest femurs and adorned with prehistoric skulls, many bearing multiple horns and limbs. Appearing now as creatures, crafted from the remnants of ancient, giant lizards and mythological beasts, evoked a sense of the eternal and inevitability of certain death. The frozen skeletal "grins" of so many exposed teeth seemed to mock true smiles all too cruelly.