Conan the Barbarian 126

Major Characters

 * Conan (Previous appearance in CB-125; next appearance in CB-127).

Minor Characters

 * Liirix (Previous appearance in CB-125); dies in this issue.
 * Shikar (First appearance); dies in this issue.

Locations

 * Stygia

Time Frame

 * A day

Synopsis
Conan is stuck in Stygia but Liirix can transport him using his dimensional mirror, but only if Conan will bring him the eye of a statue that is guarded by a nearby cult. Conan reluctantly agrees and seeks out the cult, finding a few of them carrying an old woman on a litter. The cultists attack Conan and he easily defeats them, but is stuck carrying the elderly woman, Shikar, to the cult's crumbling domain. She tells Conan the cult isn't feared for its power, but because they seek an unknowable truth and worship an unnamed god. She herself is approaching the end of her life and is returning to the city to die. They walk through the crumbling city and Conan slays a troll-like beast that attacks. They finally reach their destination - a statue of a great worm with the ruby placed in its forehead. Shikar dies happily on a dais and suddenly the worm comes to life and devours her body. It then turns to a horrified Conan who holds it off until he manages to crush it by pushing a stone column on it. Conan takes the ruby and sees the faces of all that the worm has devoured swirling inside, ending with the face of Shikar, telling him he has doomed them all to an eternal prison inside the ruby and he needed to make things right. Shivering, Conan returns to Liirix who immediately betrays Conan by blowing poisonous dust into Conan's face. But somehow the magic of Shikar keeps Conan alive and he tackles Liirix, taking and hurling the gem into the rocks, shattering it. A red mist bursts free as the spirits leave, and the mists surround Liirix, turning him into a ruby statue. The youthful form of Shikar appears, thanking Conan and telling him that he has released them all to merge with their God. She then ushers him out of the keep, where he finds himself teleported well out of Stygia into the north, outside a glistening city, with provisions and gold lying at his feet.

Reprinted

 * The Chronicles of Conan 16 - The Eternity War and Other Stories