Thursday, January 11, 2018

Episode 42 : Glimpsing the Dark

Skeleton General Skull Kaiser
(In Hell)

Skull Kaiser, formerly one of Samhain's greatest generals, stages a rebellion against impossible odds. The fate of countless worlds rests upon his ability to protect the Loss Queen and beat back her assailants. Along the way he is forced to fight old friends and make new allies...

Episode 42 : Glimpsing the Dark

The episode opens with chaotic flashes of a violent scene. There are screams and there appears to be a lot of blood everywhere. After a number of confusing flashes, we see a man in tattered pants and no shirt flailing his arms wildly, attacking numerous people, all dressed in business suits and the like, who go down with single blows. The man's body appears to be painted white and his facial features have been darkened with soot or something to give his face the appearance of a skull. Behind him there is a huge, gray-green mass of sinewy vegetable matter—the Undead Vine. As the man continues, he rears his head back in uncontrollable laughter. As the camera zooms in on his face, we can see that this man is Skull Kaiser. The zoom continues, obscuring the view; there's a flash and we fade to dark.

Suddenly, in the dark we can see Skull Kaiser standing alone. He looks at his hands and sees that he's not wearing the Kaiser Bones. In fact, he's just wearing a pair of tattered pants. His body, though not painted white, is covered in scars, and he checks himself either for injury or to make sure he's really there. The light adjusts a little and we can see the interior of the room Skull Kaiser is in. He is incredulous, though, thinking he recognizes this place. Then he realizes that this is the asylum he was in after being knocked out by Phantasma King. He questions himself as to what this means, what this place is, and how/if it figures into his past. The asylum appears to be abandoned now and looks as though it's been looted or there were some violent struggles.

We cut to Agrippa and Merlot who is supporting Phantasma King. They're all intrigued by the blaze created by Agrippa's Inversion Gun; Merlot and Phantasma King seem a little in awe or fear of Agrippa. There is a loud noise from the horizon and the ground shakes, causing everyone's attention to shift. Phantasma King says that the Root Palace has unwound by now and surely that was the sound of it's approach. The light of the Loss Tower has sufficiently faded now for the Undead Vine to come near. Phantasma King reminds them that Gear Binder remains, and while they shouldn't expect trouble from Dust Pharaoh, Samhain had sent for additional agents, so they should return to the Loss Tower as soon as possible.

We cut back to Skull Kaiser who has wandered through some darkened hallways and finds his way to the exit. He pushes through the cracked double glass doors into the gray-black night of a destroyed city: high rise buildings are toppled, cars are smashed and overturned, rubble is everywhere, and the streets are dotted with craters, large and small. Skull Kaiser is shocked by this sight and is confused. He's been party to this kind of destruction before so why should this particular city make him so terribly uncomfortable? His gaze focuses on something, something large that he traces up into the sky. The camera shifts then moves around so his head no longer blocks our view and we see the Undead Vine sunk down in the middle of the city where the damage is the worst. He grasps his head and screams and we cut to flashes again of the crazy, painted man laughing like a maniac at the mayhem he's caused.

This image fades out to Skull Kaiser back in the present, pinned against the wall of Needle Mountain. He convulses violently and drops down to the ring on one knee. Shinzan, who was standing idly with his arms folded across his chest, drops his arms in surprise. He steps forward with a chuckle and asks if there's a little fight left in Skull Kaiser after all.

To Be Continued...

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