Ereshkigal
returns to Lemuria with the Unbinding Stone of Oshemar and confronts Ghaur, Priestlord of
the Deviants, claiming it (and she) will save their people. Ghaur is not
impressed when she is forced to admit she doesn’t know what it does or how to
activate it. Then Kro and his band of warriors returns from Olympia bearing a broken
resurrection chamber of the Eternals, with the prisoner Phastos to be forced to
restore it to working order. The assembled Deviants hail Ghaur as their savior
and Ereshkigal
is forced to flee for her life, vowing revenge….
Thor
flies with Karkas and Ransak (both Deviant mutates who are now with the good
guys) over the ocean toward Lemuria and they only know they have arrived when
the Deviants shoot down their plane, casting them all in the sea. The Deviants
take the two mutates prisoner, deciding they don’t want to risk Thor’s wrath.
When the Thunder God awakens, he swims to the massive Deviant city to rescue
his friends. He enters and is met by the Forgotten One, the Eternal once known
as Gilgamesh. He explains that he was endowed with a gift by the Celestials, an
awareness of the pattern to reality so that he can know where and when he is
most needed and thus be on the scene. He leads Thor in search of his friends….
Phastos
resists torture, refusing to rebuild the resurrection chamber.
Karkas and Ransak are brought in and Ghaur mentions his ability to manipulate
the minds of any Deviant whose genetic code is known to him. Ransak is immune
to his power because of a stable genetic code but Karkas isn’t and Ghaur has
him beat Ransak. Thor crashes into the throne room and takes on the giant
Tutinax while Ransak and Karkas continue to fight. (The Forgotten One then
moves on to the next place he is needed and is soon forgotten, as his name
suggests.) Phastos, seeing his friends harmed, relents and agrees to repair the
resurrection chamber. He tells Ghaur he needs a supply of Antarctic Vibranium
which the Deviants do not have on hand. Phastos proposes going to the Savage
Land to acquire some with Thor, who is faster than any craft the Deviants can
provide….
Not
far away, Ereshkigal sits with the Unbinding Stone of Oshemar, trying to puzzle out the runes
engraved thereon, her only hope….