Modulo Chapter 9

Pinning his daughter's death on the Rumelians, the Deskunte chief moves to seize their territory and canal. Dura agrees to face the Deskunte champion in single combat to safeguard his people.

For a Simurian, the third eye is a vital organ, the fountainhead of their rolloluca, the term for cursed energy. Tears flow from it for most Simurians at birth and at death, but Rumelians alone weep through the third eye whenever a Kalyan dies, a release that badly wounds the brain and may even kill. The Rumelian elder told the village that a Kalyan had killed the Deskunte chief's daughter and that the chief, blaming them for goading the beasts, was demanding ninety percent of their land plus the canal as recompense, with war as the alternative. To settle it, the Deskuntes invoked their custom of the duel, each tribe naming one champion. The villagers breathed easier, trusting in Dura, who had once triumphed in a Deskunte fighting tournament before their home was destroyed. Dura felt far less sure, recalling that many powerful fighters had sat that tournament out, but with a refusal counting as defeat he took up the challenge for the whole tribe.

Dabura strode in as the Deskunte champion on the day of the contest, his presence alone striking terror into the Rumelians. Ignoring Cross's pleas, Dura entered the ring and learned from Dabura that his sister was being held captive so he would have no choice but to fight to the death. Dura made a request, and once Dabura consented to it, Dura turned to the gathered crowd and exposed the truth that the Deskuntes had stormed Rumelian land ten years back to claim its mul, not over any matter of faith, urging the listeners to honor the Rumelians and accept them as neighbors. The chief then called the duel to begin, and Dura was struck down and killed. Grief gave way to fury as Maru tried to charge Dabura, only for Cross to restrain him, while Maru charged that Dabura had gone easy; Dabura answered that he simply had not wanted to mar Dura's face. The pair, it turned out, had been close friends who spurred each other toward greater strength. As the funeral procession moved on, Cross thought back to Dura's lesson on the word neighbor and found he could not embrace it with his mentor gone. Come nightfall, Dabura appeared with Spejo and disclosed that Dura had left something for the Rumelians, leading them to a pit brimming with mul he had dug up during the canal work. Maru's touch made him glow, and the hand he extended to Cross, once taken, lit his brother up with rolloluca as the surrounding mul lifted skyward, exposed as ore even purer than mul. Maru put forward the idea of guiding the Rumelians to a safer home away from Simuria, and Dabura asked to come, bound by his promise to Dura to shield them. With the mul fusing into the spaceship Naunax, Maru proclaimed they would go seeking their neighbors past the sky. A bonus four-panel strip closes things out, with Yuka blabbing a secret about Tsurugi to Panda, whom she takes for a mere doll, until Panda startles Tsurugi later by speaking up.