Morte
D'Adam: Death At Castle Grayskull
By T. F. Stephens with Kirk Trigon
At the dawn of time, the Ancients say that
the Master of the Universe engineered two celestial forces and charged them
with the sacred task of ordering the affairs of
From the fiery,
green blood she buried in the mountains, came her sister, Heos
the Divine Sorceress, whose body is Destiny and whose heart is Truth. From the army of immortals who gathered at
the Sorceress’s feet, came a powerful champion to guard the fallen enforcer’s
lost secrets and to carry Heos’s hoary blade into war
with her enemies!
And with righteous, barbarous outrage, would her
champion lay waste the Enemies of Man, who conspired in the skies and seas to
pervert Man’s great destiny.
Outside Grayskull’s walls,
the vast, golden country once known as Heos,
at the center of which sat Zilora, the City of Truth,
cracked open in great, serpentine fissures that drove away the warriors, priests and
kings, who’d gathered around the castle! Deep
within, a great scream erupted from Zoardred’s throat, and
in the shadow of the golden colossus’s outstretched arms, the ancient stone and mortar
of Castle Grayskull shook apart,
..burying his savage foe under a pile of gray, moss-laced rubble!
“It took me many years to understand, wizard,” the
half-naked Vulnarian confessed, poising his enchanted
staff for another strike. “Just as the Divine Sorceress created herself from
Mighty Teela’s blood, has the Sword of Power always
been an avatar of the goddess’s Rod of Order! Did you think I didn’t know that,
devil, ..or
that the secrets of the Ancients were still beyond Man’s reach?”
From the serpent-headed weapon of Zoardred’s
crouching, stalking foe, another mountain-shattering flash of outrage erupted,
and the golden colossus was brought to his knees under its apocalyptic
force. What portion of the unleashed
energies he could not dispel with magic, drove into his golden armor and the
painted flesh underneath, so brutally that he felt himself impaled all over and
at once! “You know nothing of the power you control, brute! You’re a man—a
mindless savage playing with the tools of the gods! I am Destruction incarnate, ..and you are a jungle animal that must be shown its
proper…”
King Adam thrust the silvery rod outward again, and from
its head, styled like a hooded cobra’s, flared light and heat enough to turn
night to day! It was enough power to
light a city ten times the size of Royal Eternos, and
he saw Mighty Teela’s evil clone crumple behind it
like paper before a hurricane wind. “Nay, wizard! It is you, who went too long hidden
from judgment to be shown your place, ..but, Father is here, poor Zoardred! As in the beginning, when Mighty Teela and the Mallori were
engineered from the same celestial force, order will be wrought from chaos!”
The monster saw his golden-bearded foe thrust outward
again, with the unleashed anguish of a father’s vengeance and the outrage of
the gods, and Zoardred was hurled backwards through
the sandstone walls behind him and into another monstrously expansive hall, ..twisted down
upon his armored hands and knees, struggling for breath. “I feel Simyran’s
spirit stirring within me, my king, ..calling out for
the father, who abandoned him! Through his suffering, I will know Man’s heart as He-Man never will! Join me, Vulnarian! I will create another divine avatar, like my own, to house
Prince Simyran’s young spirit, if you will, but kneel before
me and betray mankind! Betray mankind, ..as you’ve betrayed your sons!”
With a flurry of brutal gasps, Zoardred's
words were cut off by nine, flaming arrows jutting from his chest, just as the
wild amazon lumbering from the shadows fired another
flight of arrows into his shoulders and upper arms, ..only
to see them vanish, like cobwebs, before her eyes! Lady Xarta glared
up into the green eyes of the evil that murdered Lenon
..and unsheathed her blade. “Do not forget your oath, King Adam! On Randor’s hand, you
swore to lead Eternia—to be her wisdom in dark times
and to be her heart, when she needs courage, ..so that
she will never kneel before the agents of Terror! This thing is not your
Holy Warrior! Whatever shred of Captain Teela
it once was is lost to us, ..and, for Eternia, it must die!”
As the gaunt monster, calling itself ‘Destruction’,
staggered backwards, Lady Xarta sent a flight of
fourteen enchanted arrows into the dank air before her, ..and,
pursuing with a primal growl, King Adam hurled the Rod of Order, like a spear, into Zoardred’s golden-armored chest. “Then, by all that is holy, noble Xarta, ..may the gods forgive me! May the gods
forgive it, all!”
Freed from imprisonment inside the mad god, Zoardred, in copper-scaled crown and aegis, the mighty
Warrior Goddess groaned and stood.
Towering above their heads, this giant, whose fiery will once turned
Time backwards and deep, blue oceans from their beds, now spoke. “Look
deeply into the Fires of Destiny that made you, He-Man of the Vulnarians, and know the truth of what I now bid thee to
do. By the Powers of Grayskull,
have I bound thee Avenger of Man and his Ancients. Honor thy bond! Take up thy
Sword of Power ..and lay waste the last of the Enemies of Man!”
“No, King Adam! You cannot do this!” Tall, dark, beautiful Xarta begged him, rushing between her half-naked king and
the warrior-goddess he loved, ..as the Sword of Power
took shape in one of his fists. “The child growing inside me will need the
protection of Mighty Teela and the other gods!”
“You’ll be all the protection he needs, fair one,” the
bearded monarch smiled, drawing the Targan princess
into his embrace and marveling at how familiar the firm, uncompromising
strength of her felt against his tired body.
So, like his fiery-haired captain, she was. Softly, he kissed the young woman upon her
forehead, as Lenon’s giant, blue wolf, Ro-Varr, sauntered lazily to Xarta’s
side. “Go now, Lady Xarta. Prepare Lenon’s son to be a just and strong king. The age of gods,
giants and supermen is soon to end, and I must clear its path to the
Abyss.”
“He will rule wisely and in your name, King Adam,” the
amazon answered sadly, kissing him. Though not quickly
enough to hide her tears, the raven-haired maid climbed upon the armored wolf and vanished into
the darkness. “Farewell, milord!”
In two hands, Adam of the Vulnarians
held his hoary Sword of Ancients before him.
Through all the beheaded monsters and enemy bones cleaved through, had
its metal remained a pristine and unscarred tableau of ancient outrage, and he
beheld it with the wonder a young groom beholds his bride, ..before turning
back to the armored goddess. “Is there another way, Holy Warrior?”
“There are only a few, sacred places in the world,
where one might kill a god, He-Man of the Vulnarians,
and I am no ordinary god. In my eons-long war with the forces of darkness,
Mighty Teela’s legend has surpassed even the divine,
as most eternals know it! Castle Grayskull, where a
warrior-queen from the Vine Jungle became a legend, is the only place I can
truly die, ..and you, my champion, are the only one powerful enough to deliver
me most surely and finally unto Death. It is time Man’s stolen destiny was
avenged, Adam, ..and the world of men was healed. Cured of the influence, for
good or ill, of we gods.”
With a tortured battle-cry and a swift, violent leap
at her armored bosom, ..He-Man of the Vulnarians beheaded Mighty Teela
with one blow, before tumbling back to the castle floor! As the goddess’s presence faded upon the
empty air, and unbridled tears of longing for her filled the He-Man King’s
blue-gray eyes, he knelt in silence. “To
a Vulnarian, Truth and Destiny are the World,
Holy Warrior. In your death, let the shattered destiny of Man be healed, ..and the World
be avenged!”
The Hall of Wisdom began to shake and crumble beneath
him and the facade of pale, exotic marble, turquoise stonework and gold
fixtures fell away from its walls to reveal the desolation around them.
The ruin Grayskull had become.
As spectral warriors in empty suits of armor took
shape from the shadows, so did two apparitions appear at King Adam’s side. Once
known as Lenon the Strong, the darker
and sterner of the duo raised a bronze-korodite
broadsword, much resembling He-Man’s Sword of Ancients, into an attack
position. Beside him, a tall,
broad-shouldered likeness of King Adam with hair of pale gold, held fast to
Glimevere's large, amethyst-headed, silver staff,
and his father marveled at the sight
before him. “Time bends strangely here,
my sons! Good Lenon is alive, ..and look at
the man my Simyran has become! What have I
done?!”
“What must be done, noble one,” black-maned Lenon answered assuredly,
over his shoulder. “Once, Grayskull was a wall that stood between mankind and his
fear of death. Now, it’s a wall separating Man from his freedom, ..and it must fall!”
With a cold glare, violet-eyed Prince Simyran took measure of the ghostly army arrayed against
them and poised his staff for fighting in close quarters. “It is all that
stands between Eternia and her true destiny, father!
Her future! An age without Fear!”
And from the shadows behind him, came Ogun, the Clamp-Champ of Clampesh,
Lord Stratos of Avion, the
Ram-Man of Talos, Fisto,
Earl of Evermore, Buzz-Off of Kex
and the Moss-Man of Vines! From the
shattered stonework of Grayskull’s Time Corridors,
King Adam’s long-dead parents, King Randor and
Queen Marlena of Eternos,
and his valiant sister, Princess Adora, last of the
She-Ra, ..unsheathed large broadswords, as the castle crumbled around them! Sy-Klone, Mekanek and Tom-Stone of the Royal Guard followed, ..led by wild King Simyran of Vulnaria, who entered the lists astride a giant, armored
tiger! From the shards of Eternia’s past, present and future, weary warriors bearing
bizarre shapes and strange weapons took the ground, beside their half-naked
king, until he was surrounded by his fiercest and most trusted allies, ..both living and dead!
“Thirty million years ago,” said Man-E-Faces of Heos,
clutching his disintegrator gun in a large, gauntleted fist, “—my starborn race, Grayskull’s first
rulers, subjected your kind to heinous scientific experiments in pursuit of the
secrets of the cosmos, ..but, the human inheritors of
those secrets inspired Eternia with a golden age of
enlightenment and nobility! Now, it is time for Man
to shape his destiny from the ruins of this age, old friend,
..that we may inspire worlds and legends, yet to be born!”
“And this fortress is the avatar of that past,
Adam!” answered the King’s fallen Man-At-Arms, Titus the
From the magic of the Ancients that filled the
surrounding darkness like fireflies, a harness of bluish-gray korodite metal took shape around the He-Man King’s broad
shoulders and chest, as boarhide boots formed over
his feet. “Aye, we have,
Into the fray, they rushed, scattering the empty
helmets and breastplates of the Ancients with blasts of blinding light and broad swings of their
enchanted blades, even as the stony backs and chests of the lumbering rock-hewn
golems were shattered before their onslaught.
With an iron fist and the strength of fifty-thousand wild warriors, one
battered the unleashed demons and giants down into the fiery, volcanic grave
that awaited them, where Zilora, the City of
As the ancient stone of Grayskull’s
walls and turrets ripped themselves apart, and the blue-white, cosmic fire of
her otherworldly weapons was unleashed in a flash of power brighter than the
sun, ..He-Man, with one final blow, hurled his body
against the skull-like face, and the walls of the great, dead castle cracked
apart, ..and Grayskull sank
most terribly into the twisting fire of the Abyss beneath it.
Never to be seen again.
King Adam, Teela,
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