King of Light

Ten minutes earlier, while Huai Shi and Hercules were locked in mutual slaughter.

The door to the Eternal Frozen Furnace Core was pushed open by a belated traveler. In the darkness, the skull sleeping inside the tank seemed to sense something and stirred gently in the Divine Wine.

Yet it remained immersed in dreams of the past, never waking.

Had someone arrived?

It could not hear clearly. Was it a passing guest?

After such a long journey, was he tired? Perhaps it should offer him a place to rest, but it was too sleepy to get up. Sorry, the food and water were in the cabinet. Please help yourself.

In the silence, Izzy removed the cigarette from his lips and quietly gazed at the sleeping skull in the tank.

After a long while, he slowly knelt on one knee.

Lowering his head, as though facing some lofty dignitary, he spoke respectfully: "Your Excellency, I have come from where the mountains clashed, bearing the greetings of Gold and Mother of the Moon - Mamagiriya."

Mamagiriya?

It sounded familiar. Where had it heard that name before? Yet it still could not remember.

Inside the tank, the skull's dark eye sockets were illuminated by the rising light beyond the door.

It was somewhat uncomfortable.

Even in sleep, it felt a faint unease.

Outside, was there a feast underway? Had Father and the others begun drinking through the night again? Another victory? They must have defeated their enemies once more, right?

The light was too bright, too cruel.

Those excessive celebrations, those brutal spoils of war, that mead flowing with blood...

The skull remained immersed in fragments of its dream.

Memories of the past seemed to surface again, but those distant outlines were too blurred to recall.

It only remembered a burly figure seated