"The Leader"

As the light of life faded from the eyes of Sirio, now transformed into a "small" lava giant, his twisted body erupted with waves of heat. Flames surged from beneath his metal skin, licking over his body, the Bone Sword in his hand, the blades in his chest, and the "traitors" behind him.

The Bone Sword warped in the heat, but the armored soldiers and their weapons remained untouched, demonstrating the Mystical Item's defensive power. The soldiers pulled out their weapons and, without a moment's pause, stabbed Sirio in the back again.

Slash. Slash.

Fortunately, the five Tinplate Soldiers did not hate their former boss quite enough to put on a show of dismemberment for Angel. They had spent a full half hour taking his orders, sharing his injuries, lending him strength, and working like beasts of burden, but they stopped as soon as they confirmed Sirio Sauron was dead.

Angel soon realized it was not that they did not want to continue. They could not.

As Sirio's Incomplete Mythical Creature Form collapsed, his corpse—metal-skinned and filled with roiling lava—became a shapeless lump of iron radiating an eerie aura in the heat.

The five armored soldiers who had killed him raised their weapons in different poses of victory, then shrank until each could fit in a palm. One by one, they linked together and returned to their original form: an iron-black Tinplate Puppet pendant.

Had they reverted because they'd lost the Spirituality supplied by their owner, or had their time run out?

Angel swiftly landed and approached the chain of soldiers. She carefully picked them up while they were still hot, then looked at Sirio, who had been stabbed in the back and died in an Incomplete Mythical Creature Form.

*That's what happens when you're already in bad shape and