Before the Mysterious Figure left, he gave the Phantom King a treasure.
It was an eerie lantern, radiating the same dark green light as the strange Power Ring the Mysterious Figure wore.
Shane knew it was not one of the lanterns mass-produced by the Green Lantern Corps to replenish Green Lanterns' energy.
He had witnessed the Eerie Lantern's creation with his own eyes.
Some glasslike material had been forcibly melted and fused by the eerie green light, then an eyeball, its blood still wet, had been placed in the center.
At first, Shane had wondered where that eyeball came from.
But soon, the Phantom King took him to see its source for himself.
The Eerie Lantern was essentially a stripped-down version of a Power Ring, and with it in his possession, the Phantom King finally held authority befitting his title of "king."
The Phantom King could use the lantern to command some of that eerie energy and conjure objects.
With the lantern giving him an unfair advantage, the Phantom King's forces finally began expanding rapidly.
Shane once again refused the Phantom King's request to help invent more practical tools, because he realized the Phantom King was no longer the man he had known.
His experiences in reality had also taught him to fear that eerie green light, so Shane naturally wanted to avoid too much contact with it. But the Phantom King clearly no longer cared much about Shane, either.
He simply raised the lantern and took Shane high into the sky, flying straight toward the brilliant blue star overhead.
As they traveled farther from the Red Continent, Shane was surprised to discover that the brilliant blue star did not obey the normal rule of appearing larger up close and smaller from afar.
No matter how close they came, the