Chapter IV: Red Death
A year has past since Catra met misfortune at the opera, but nothing has happened since then. It seems that the Phantom vanished which was music to the managers ears.
Every year the opera sponsors a masked ball everyone rich or poor comes to celebrate the new year.
Amidst the crowd a man dressed as a skeleton wearing a black hooded cape approaches another man dressed as skeleton in a gold cape.
"M. Mossman?" the black caped skeleton asks his colleague cautiously removing his mask to reveal that it Mekaneck.
"M. Mekaneck?" the other skeleton asked in reply as he removed his mask to reveal the green face of Mossman.
The two skeletons shake hands and look out at crowd of party goers, it was as if all of Eternos was in one room and the rules of class and rank were lifted making everyone equal in this maelstrom of humanity.
"What a great party, I am proud of us," Mekaneck said with a smile on his face.
"I am too, and to make things even great we have not heard anymore of the Phantom," Mossman praised looking at all the costumed dancers.
Among the throngs of revelers were the Vicomte Adam and his fiancé Teela, however Teela's happiness has been usurped by fear, fear that her jealous and vengeful 'angel might return and make good on his dark promise to kill her and Adam for seeing each other.
"Just think Adam, soon we will be married" Teela said holding up her engagement ring which she wore on a chain around her neck.
"I don't understand why it has to be secret Teela it's not like we killed someone." he told her as they waltzed across the floor.
He looked around the revelers all dressed out in wild costumes, Devils, Angels, Knights, Wizards, and Kings all dancing in this chaotic tumult of a party, truly for the first time since the Horde War, Eternia was turned upside down.
"Please Adam, I'll tell you when the time is right" Teela told as they continued to dance, her eyes were darting to and fro, she was looking for someone, someone whom she feared, but he wasn't here and she was glad.
Just then, the music stopped as everyone turned to look at a mysterious being that was standing at the top of the grand staircase.
He had blue skin with a red chest plate that was decorated with skulls; a red cape that reached to the floor; a yellow skull mask with a gold helmet over it; and in his hand a gold skull staff, the Phantom had returned!
"Did you miss me?" he said as he walked down the steps, "I have created an opera for you, here it is, King Hiss Triumphant," he said as he threw the manuscript to the feet of the managers.
"Hi everyone, I just wanted to give you some directions before practice, Catra must take acting lessons, and no one wants to see her walk around like a beauty queen," He said threatening the diva with his skull staff, who was ready to scratch this masked man to bits.
"Our lead actor must shed all those pounds its not good for him to be overweight," the phantom said again swinging his staff at Man-E-Faces, who like Catra was not pleased to be threatened by this stranger.
"As for you two dolts, you should be pushing papers not practicing pirouettes," the phantom yelled threatening Mossman and Mekaneck as he moved the staff from Man-E to Mossman and Mekaneck, who were both enraged and terrified.
"And as for Teela…" he said holding his staff in a neutral position.
Adam stood in front of Teela; ready to protect her but the phantom pushed him aside and knocked him off his feet.
Teela stared at this being, transfixed by him, but she felt a sense of dread in her heart, that overwhelmed her very being.
"She will do her very best, it's true she can sing well, but if she wishes to be the best she still has a long a way to go. If she is not too conceited she should return to me her instructor," he said in the most angelic tone of voice.
It was then that he saw her ring, enraged he rips it from her neck, "YOU ARE MINE YOU WILL SING ONLY FOR ME" he yelled as he disappeared through a trap door, the whole room was in shock of the events that transpired.
Adam managed to get to his feet; he found and opened the trap door. He followed the phantom down it to land in a hall of mirrors, his sword drawn; ready to kill the phantom, but the Phantom was able to trick him using the mirrors. Adam chased him for hours until he finally came back up and took Teela away from the opera house for awhile.
Later, he went in search of the one person who seemed to have answers, Mme. Angella.
He searched for about an hour when he found her in her room in the opera house.
"Madame Angella, wait!" Adam shouted as he saw her leave her room, he had to learn the truth about this phantom.
"Please, Monsieur, I don't know anything" she pleaded with him, trying to convince him of her ignorance.
"That's a lie, and you know it" he told her, he was going to find out one way or another who this mysterious 'ghost' was and how to 'exorcise' him from the Opera House.
"I can't, Monsieur, there have been too many people hurt, too many coincidences," Angella protested as she tried to leave the room.
"Coincidences? Please Mme. Angella for the sake of everyone at the Opera" Adam pleaded.
"All right, it was years ago, there was fair in town and this fair had a sideshow and one of the attractions was a..." Angella told him, bursting into tears.
"What was it that you saw Angella?" Adam pursued the subject further, he knew whatever it was distressed her greatly but he needed to know what he's up against.
"I saw man in a cage, a genius, they said he built the Hall of Wisdom for the Elders, but he was deformed, from birth they said." She told the Vicomte as she looked as a picture of herself as a young woman.
"What happened to him?" Adam asked trying to fit the pieces together in his mind.
"He escaped; he killed the owner of the carnival. He was never seen again, until now. He's genius, a sorcerer, musician, a composer, a genius," Angella told the Vicomte.
"But now the genius has turned into madness" Adam told her, he now knew what he was up against.
Later that night Teela left the Opera House and went to visit her father's grave at the cemetery of Eternos-Gheriac.
When she arrived at the graveyard, she walked over to the grave she heard a familiar song, The Rebirth of Hordak, being played on the violin. Her father used to play that song, but there was something different about it, whoever was playing it endowed it with an almost hypnotic, entrancing quality.
Teela slowly began to walk towards the music, she heard a voice call out, and "Teela, you are lost without me, you shunned me, but now comeback to me your Angel of Music," the voice said beckoning her to the grave.
It was at this moment that Adam came rushing through the graveyard, "TEELA STOP, THIS MONSTER IS NOT YOUR FATHER" Adam called out, it was then that the Phantom emerged from his hiding spot to confront the Vicomte
Adam drew his sword and soon a duel as underway, the two men fought valiantly and fought for hours until Phantom cut Adam's arm and fled into the graveyard chapel.
Adam sheathed his sword and went in after him.
The chapel was ornate with beautiful stained glass windows; a large ornate altar; and statues of the goddess of Grayskull, but what made this chapel unnerving was that walls and the emblem of Grayskull on the wall behind the altar was made of human bones
Adam was looking around the temple hoping to find the Phantom when he heard a noise; he turned around and found a skull lying by his feet.
The incident unnerved him slightly but he soon regained his courage and continued his search.
He knelt before the altar said a prayer to the goddess of Grayskull and continued his search.
He entered the room that the Gnostics used to pray in before the formal worship ceremony began. It was while he searching in this room he heard a noise and looked around, again at his feet he found a skull, it was becoming that this was the phantom's handiwork.
"Show yourself!" he yelled, the sound of his voice echoed in the chapel. It was answered by another skull landing at his feet.
He was about to open a closet door thinking the Phantom might have escaped through some hidden passage (Gnostic temples are known to have hidden passages in strange palaces) when he heard music outside, the Phantom is trying to hypnotize Teela again.
He rushes out of the room, out of the chapel, and out into the graveyard trying to hypnotize Teela.
"Teela!" Stop don't listen to him!" he called to her, trying to break the spell.
The Phantom stopped playing "Bravo Sir, what a moving speech" the Phantom taunted the young lover as he drew his sword, but before he could strike Adam knocked it out of his hand by throwing a stone at him.
"You can't get her to love you by hypnotizing her." He said walking up to the Phantom, but before he could get close, the Phantom produced his Havok Staff, which he always took with him and fired an energy bolt that landing just in front of Adam's feet.
"Adam, wait! Come back!" Teela yelled trying to make her childhood friend stop, but no avail.
"Come here Monsieur, I am the Angel of Death, come Monsieur and meet your end!" the Phantom taunted as fired another energy blast at the Vicomte.
"Adam please!" Teela said as she grabbed Adam's wrists and left the cemetery.
"DON'T LEAVE!" the phantom shouted as they left, "NOW I DECLARE WAR ON BOTH OF YOU!" he shouted as he fled the cemetery.