"Could be an illusion," said Jasiri. "He's shown he can do that sort of thing before, with his giant snake-in-the-sky display."

"That was just a lightning bolt shaped like himself though," said Kion. "Then again, he did use spirit-sight to give us all a vision of his speech before that. Fuli?"

"Looks real to me, and I don't have any spirit-sight at all."

"Same here," said Ono, flapping alongside her. "It looks like someone pulled a giant stone structure straight out of the desert, and I'm the Keenest of Sight, so… you know."

King Simba sighed deeply, rubbing his brow with a paw. "I'd love to believe that none of this is real, but I doubt we'd be that fortunate at this point. And real or not, I definitely saw Scar enter this place."

"Right," said Kion. "That's what I figured. In that case, I'm going in first. There could be an ambush waiting for us in there, or – I don't know. General badness."

"I think badness is pretty much guaranteed at this point," said Fuli, slinking in after him. Day turned to night as they entered the stone causeway, and her green eyes gleamed in the darkness. "What do you think, Kion? Any chance of us encountering the dreaded Zimwi in here?"

"Fuli, at this point, I'm not ruling it out." His voice echoed strangely against the smooth stone walls, which he could only imagine had been carved out of solid rock with the power of the Roar. He flicked his claws but failed to produce more than a few sparks. Looks like my power to create light left me with Ahadi. He was not sure how he was going to fight Ushari without the help of the Kings of the Past, but it was not as if he had much of a choice.

"Smells old in here," said Fuli, squeezing in beside him. Her soft fur brushed up against him as they stood side-by-side in the narrow opening, and the whiskers poking against his nose made him want to sneeze.

"Yeah – I'm guessing this place was carved out a long, long time ago, most likely by one of Ushari's serpent kings." He rubbed his nose with a paw. "Fuli, it's not that I mind, but… do you mind?"

She grinned at him. "Sorry."

He rolled his eyes, knowing perfectly well that she would not be able to see it. "Well, if there was an ambush they just missed the perfect opportunity, so I guess we might as well all go in now."

They went through the corridor single-file, and Simba only barely managed to fit in even then. Whoever created this passage had not done so with adult lions in mind, Kion reflected. Slowly, their eyes adjusted to the low light, and he began to make out the individual stones around him – though Ono seemed to be having more trouble.

"Egrets were not built for exploring strange tunnels in the dark," he grumbled as he almost flew into a rocky protrusion for what must have been the third time. Eventually he settled on Simba's shoulder, resigning himself to having to rely on the sight of others for once. "Snakes rely on heat-vision and tasting the air with their tongue," he sighed. "Makes sense that they would build a cramped monstrosity like this."

The king scraped his throat. "I hate to tell the Lion Guard how to do their job, but do you think you could make less of an active effort to inform the enemy of our presence?"

"Too late," said Kion, resigning himself. Before them the corridor opened up into a wide chamber, and he could already hear the sound of haunting, manic laughter echoing within. As they entered the cool stone room, which was without light but for a few scattered rays that came in from a crack in the ceiling, he became aware of three presences before him. There, standing before an opening leading deeper into the void, a trio of grey outlines could just barely be made out in the darkness.

"You shouldn't have come here," said the middle presence. His eyes gleamed yellow despite the lack of light. "That's what I told you last time, didn't I? But you never listen, Jasiri."

"Janja." Jasiri filed in along with the rest of the group, taking up position next to Kion. He could feel her fur brushing up against his – course and rough and standing noticeably on edge. "What is this place? Where's your mother? Where's Shenzi?"

The figure laughed in reply, but it sounded nothing like the manic cackling from the shadows by his side, nor the carefree mirth that used to come so easily to Jasiri. There was no joy to it, no relaxation or relief as one would normally expect: It was a sad, mournful sound, like the last gasp of a dying animal.

"Shenzi," he whispered. "Always Shenzi. She really was the only person you ever cared about, wasn't she?"

Jasiri seemed taken aback, for once at a loss for what to say. "She's dead, isn't she? Did – did we kill her? Did she… suffer?"

The answer was more laughter, this time colder and more cruel, and Janja's cackling seemed to blend and combine with the mad giggling of his companions until it was almost impossible to tell them apart.

The wound on Kion's neck, which he had thought to be long healed, began to ache once more.

"Son," said Simba, stepping forward. "Go on ahead. We'll deal with this."

Kion turned to face his father, though there was little point in trying to make out his expression with the chamber as dark as it was. "What?"

"His Majesty is right," said Ono, still perched upon his shoulder. "Ushari has the ability to transfer power to his lieutenants. There's no point in fighting each of his minions in turn: You have to take out the snake himself, or he will just start all of this again the moment he makes his escape."

"Ono, that makes no sense," said Kion, rubbing his forehead with a paw. His old headache was starting to come back to him again. "If Ushari depends on his lieutenants, then that's all the more reason to take them out here and now. In fact, that's so dumb I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear it."

"If Scar dies, we lose any hope of winning," said Fuli. "Go."

"Have you all gone mad? This is what we did last time!" Kion wanted nothing more than to scream at them, to use his roar and impart some sense in them by force if need be. "Zazu died, remember? Whose dead body am I supposed to come back to this time? Ono? Fuli? Will it be you, father?"

"It doesn't matter," said Simba, still looking directly at Janja's yellow eyes. "One of the marvellous things about being king is that you do not have to explain yourself. I am giving you an order, captain."

Kion gritted his teeth and said nothing.

"Yeah, I don't think so," said Janja, stepping between them and the exit. "There you lions go again – looking down on us hyenas, refusing to take us seriously, like we're the butt of some bad joke. How many of you have I got to kill to get you to realize I'm a threat?" His eyes passed over the group, eyeing each of them in turn. "Nah, who am I kidding? I only want to kill one..."

"Janja," Jasiri said, swallowing. "We don't have to fight. We've fought so much already. I'm tired, Janja."

"Oh, tired, are you? Gotten bored with me at last?" The light in Janja's eyes flickered again, and though Kion might have imagined it, he thought there was the faint sound of whispers at the very edge of hearing, coming not from any of the three hyenas but from a space just behind Janja's head. "And that after all that time you spent pushing me around, just to show off how much stronger you are than the matriarch's son." He looked away in disgust. "I can't believe I loved you, once."

For the first time Kion could remember, Jasiri seemed truly shocked. "Love? No, what are you saying? You didn't love me. You were into me, sure – and I'll admit it was fun while it lasted, but…"

Janja ground his teeth, loud enough to be audible in that grey and empty room. "There's something wrong with you, Jasiri. Something's broken that stops you from caring about other people. I used to hate you for that, but I'm starting to think it's not your fault: It's this whole bloody world, in which we've got to eat each other to survive, that made you into what you are…" He stalked closer, and for one second the scattered rays of light that poured in from the crack in the roof touched upon his face and revealed a humourless smile. "Still, I'll make sure that you feel something genuine, one last time."

Jasiri grinned weakly back at him. "What, are you gonna make me feel scared, Janja? Are you gonna make me beg for mercy?"

"No." The smile vanished from his face. "I'll grant you your dearest wish and show you the person you care about so much." The whispers were becoming clearer now, roiling off him too loudly to ignore, and Kion realized in horror that it was Shenzi's voice whispering into his ear. "Do you hear that, Jasiri? There she is; Ushari's gift to me. She frankly drives me nuts, but I'll make sure at least one good thing comes of it: In the very last moment, right before I watch the light leave your eyes, I'll let her take over – so that if nothing else I at least get to see the look on your face as you finally realize that the only person you ever cared about wants you dead."

Jasiri recoiled in horror, but before she could respond Fuli stepped between her and Janja. "Okay, yeah," she said, "we're definitely not letting you fight this guy alone. Jasiri, why don't you go on ahead with Kion while the three of us take care of bad-breakup boy over here? I promise I'll make it quick."

Janja laughed; horrifying broken, humourless laughter, and his shadows laughed along with him. "Oh, that's pretty funny! You ought to have been born a hyena, Fuli. You really should stay here with us… forever!"

With the last word he roared, though it still came out sounding broken and twisted. The sound slammed against the walls and reverberated throughout the structure until the very ceiling shook from the onslaught. One by one the stones above them broke loose and fell towards them, far too many and far too quickly for it not to have been planned in advance, and Kion only barely managed to leap out of the way. The stones crashed behind Kion and shattered into a cloud of dust and fragments, filling the air until it burned his lungs like fire, and he had to drag himself to a corner of the room to recover.

There was a crash on the other side of the room, which was separated by the ruined ceiling which had collapsed down the centre. He could just barely make out a group of silhouettes fighting on the other side, hurling rocks at each other and hastily stacking up piles of rubble in defence. A pair of shadows was dancing amidst the chaos, laughing and cackling as they tore apart the fortifications in front of them, until a slim figure swooped down on them from above while another pounced on them from behind.

The largest of the defenders remained right in the centre of the room, staring down the final shadow, which by now had become almost indistinguishable from the dust and darkness that surrounded them. The defender turned and seemed to look directly at Kion, for all that he must have been near invisible himself.

"Scar is alone," Simba whispered, barely audible above the fighting. "You must save him. Go."

Kion cursed and ran, dashing towards the passage and further into the structure before any more rocks could fall down on him. The corridor turned and twisted, and at first Kion thought himself lost, but then the passage straightened and he could hear the sound of new fighting further ahead. He pushed himself through the narrow corridor, every step filling him with a thickening sense of dread.

The pressure inside his skull grew with each passing moment.

At last he emerged into the central chamber, and he blinked against a sudden light that filled the room. Right there in the centre of the hall was another triangular structure of stone steps that led all the way to the very top of the sloped ceiling, and atop its peak stood a glowing brazier. A single plume of crimson smoke wafted upwards, and outlined against its baleful red light was the silhouette of a coiled snake.

The silhouette lashed out, and in response there was a crash at the bottom of the stairs where a lone figure had been making its way upwards. A sudden wind whipped against Kion's mane as currents were drawn in from hidden tunnels to beat and rage against the lion on the steps. In response the creature let out a low growl, more of frustration than fury, and the whole structure shook with his efforts. The stone steps trembled beneath the figure at the top, and for one moment it looked like the snake would teeter and fall off, but then he found his balance and hissed back at Scar. The stones shattered between them as the two titanic forces clashed and vied for dominance, and finally a whole section of the structure broke off from the pressure, crumbling and burying the lion beneath an avalanche of shattered rock.

Scar…

The snake let out a long, hissing sigh. "If it were anyone else I would say that's the last anyone saw of him, but in this case I don't dare to think myself so lucky." Ushari looked in Kion's direction, and instantly his headache redoubled, seeming to explode out of his skull. "What do you think? Are you impressed with my people's work?" He bobbed his head as if to indicate the area around them, and for the first time Kion realized that the stone pillars in the corners of the room were not pillars at all: They were stone statues, shaped and carved to look like animals standing on their hind legs as they held up the roof. There was a cobra, a crocodile, a lizard and a strange ape-like creature that was too eroded to make out its features. "It's inspiring, isn't it? To think that these wondrous creations lay buried beneath the sand all this time, while oblivious animals trampled over it thinking of nothing but their next meal…"

Kion clenched his teeth, forcing himself to bite through the pain in his head to look at his opponent. "I suppose it is pretty impressive, to think what people are capable off when they're not busy running for their lives as you flood their land, burn their homes and slaughter them by the dozens."

It was impossible to make out Ushari's expression from that distance, but Kion somehow doubted he looked impressed. "Ah yes, because you care about your people so greatly – when you are not eating them, that is. Then again, I suppose your servants do their best to ease your pain by reducing them to unrecognizable chunks first."

Kion grimaced as the image of dead wildebeests flashed before his eyes once more – though it was replaced just as quickly by that of slices of veal being fed to him by Fuli. She was purring softly as she licked the blood off his fur.

"Yeah, all right," he said. "But I seem to remember that snakes eat lizards and skinks, don't they? That must've put a bit of a damper on your friendship with Shupavu. She died too, by the way, on account of the war you started. Just like everyone else who put their trust in you."

It might have just been Kion's imagination, but he thought he saw a flicker of emotion cross Ushari's face before he turned back to the brazier that billowed crimson fumes into the air. "Shupavu knew what she was getting into. She fought and died for her captain's cause, just like your friend Bunga did. Honey badgers eat snakes, incidentally, and I assure you that this fact also put a damper on our relationship." He stared into the crimson flames, which flickered and twisted despite the lack of wind. "I realize I should probably just kill you while I have the chance, but I must admit to being morbidly curious: What are you fighting for? It can't just be to keep everything the same, can it?"

"Well, why the heck not?" Kion stepped into the chamber, itching to face down Ushari, but there was little point in trying to cross the distance between them while the snake remained on top of his summit. "All the herd animals ever wanted was for things to remain the same! To have a safe and stable existence, without having to live in fear of the future. Your change has brought nothing but chaos, misery and death – and for what? Just so you can go on believing in fanciful stories about a long-dead past?"

"Those fanciful stories bring hope," said Ushari, "and it is impossible to live without it." He turned back to face Kion, staring down at him from above. "Do you know what my safe and stable existence was like, Prince Kion? I awoke into a nest of fifty hatchlings; far too many to sustain. When food grew scarce my mother was forced to start devouring us to survive, and I fled the nest in terror. I was forced to slither through the dirt, scrounging for food without limbs, with nothing to sustain me but a story she once told us about a long-gone realm where our kind ruled as kings." He flicked his tongue and let out a low hiss. "What would you have had me do, Prince Kion? Live in fear and worship you lions in the hopes of being eaten last, as Zazu did? If that's all there is to life, then it's better not to have been born at all!"

"And so you would lie to your own people," Kion said, "and tell them everything is going to be new and different this time. But in order to maintain control you have to cut some deals with unscrupulous people like Mzingo and Makuu, so the very worst people inevitably end up being in charge. And then when you're king you'd treat your own kind favourably of course, to make true on your promises, and in the end everything remains exactly the same except for all the people who died and all the needless misery you caused. And then after a while the next person with grand ideas comes along, and the cycle repeats itself."

"Well yes – that's what life is all about." Ushari flared up the wings of his hood, and the light of the brazier behind him cast elongated shadows along the walls, so that a multitude of god-like snakes seemed to stretch out before him. "Everybody dies eventually, but in the meantime you live and fight to pursue your hopes and dreams. And then when you die it starts all over again with the next generation. That conflict, that perpetual clash between competing visions is what makes it all worthwhile. You lions talk a good game about the Circle of Life, to try and justify having to eat others to survive, but you fail to apply it to the one area where it would hurt you: The life and death of civilisations themselves."

"Ushari, that's madness." He took a deep breath to try and steady himself. He could still sense Scar's presence underneath the rubble, and his friends were still alive for all that the sound of fighting had grown more intense behind him, which meant that stalling was still to his advantage. "You'd doom the world to an endless cycle of war and violence, just so you and everyone else can avoid having to look reality in the eye? That's the stupidest, most pointlessly selfish thing I've ever heard!"

Ushari swayed in what was probably intended as a shrug. "Everything we do in life is pointless and stupid, but that doesn't stop us from wanting to do them. Regardless, I did not actually expect to convince you, I was merely curious as to what…" There was a rumbling in the stones beneath him as the whole structure began to shake, and he looked down in bemusement. "Okay, what is he up to now?"

"Zira, bathe my enemies in fire!"

The floor of the chamber burst open as all around them the ground split apart and toxic fumes spewed upwards like geysers. Then Ushari's plinth itself split open as a plume of blindingly bright boiling magma burst into the air like a fountain, and the snake was forced to use a burst of wind to hurl himself away to avoid being melted on the spot. At the bottom of the steps the stones shifted and a ragged Scar emerged, shaking his head free of dust before darting between the plumes of fire and smoke to make his way towards Kion.

"The volcano," Kion said, not quite believing his own voice. "Granduncle, you redirected the Outlands' volcano all the way into this place?" He remembered how much Scar had scolded him for doing so during his own training, and that had not even been on purpose. To fill a room with lava while you were still inside it was a desperate move indeed.

Scar finished his dash towards him, and there was enough fury on his face that Kion momentarily floundered. "Boy, what are you doing here? Did Simba not relay my message? And what in the Pridelands is he still doing here? Go back and tell him to leave this place at once!"

"My father is the one who sent me here," he protested. "He ordered me to help you fight Ushari. And whether you agree with him or not, he is the king."

"Your father is a halfwit child!" Scar turned and roared at the volcano he had created, forcing as much of the lava as possible to pour into the gap which Ushari had disappeared into. At the same time stone ramparts began to rise up in front of Scar in preparation of the inevitable counter attack. "Who do you think has been advising him on the hard decisions, all this time? Who did he turn to when he was in need of an army? Who was it that bailed him out when he did not even dare inform his own wife and mother of the crises he faced?" Scar spun to face Kion, and his eyes burned with an ungodly light. "I will not take orders from someone I remember telling bedtime stories to as a cub!"

Kion flinched, but forced himself to look Scar in the eye. "Granduncle, there's a reason you're not king anymore. In fact, you never really were one. In any case, it looks like you could use the help."

The ground trembled underneath them once more, and this time a golden light emerged from behind the stone ziggurat. A radiant figure rose up up from the lava and the noxious fumes, born aloft by a greater power than wind alone, and in its centre a golden lance began to form.

"Get down!"

The spear of light seared the stone around them, and Kion would have been incinerated on the spot if Scar had not grabbed him by the neck and dragged him behind the newly raised ramparts. All around them the ground glowed an angry red where the light had left its mark.

"It's Ahadi," Kion breathed. "I didn't – I didn't want to believe…"

"Listen to me," said Scar. He forcibly turned Kion around, and when he did the look in his eyes was one of purest fear. "There's nothing you can do here. You have to go back and tell Simba to leave, to get the rest of his family and leave the Pridelands. There is a hidden oasis in the desert called Hakuna Matata Falls – Timon and Pumbaa will show you the way." His eyes were almost pleading now. "That boy is all I have left. You have to get him to leave. Please."

Kion stared at his granduncle, a strange feeling washing over him in spite of the danger they faced. "Scar, you idiot… you don't get it at all, do you? My father feels exactly the same way! Even if I did go, he'd just tell me to run right back here. For as long as you're in danger, he will never leave."

Slowly, very slowly, the terror drained from the old lion's face, and was replaced by something else entirely. "Then," he whispered, "If that's the case… I cannot lose."

A strange hissing sound was making itself heard from the other side of the ramparts, and Kion dimly realized that Ushari was laughing. "And how do you intend to win, master Scar? You, who destroyed everything you ever touched? You, who murdered your own brother and brought starvation to the Pridelands when you ruled, and then trained the very forces that are now setting it ablaze once more?" The golden light flared up, and though Kion knew better than to peek around the corner of their wall he could tell from the shadows that Ushari was floating higher and higher. "The very god of the Pridelands, the supposed great king your kind worships, is on my side! What do you have, king of nothing?"

"Spite," Scar growled as the ground began to tremble once more. "Spite and rage!"

All around them the lava burst to life as great claws shot forth from the pools of magma that had gathered on the ground, lashing out and tearing at Ushari. Kion watched through a crack in the wall how Ushari sped away inside a sphere of light and wind, but more claws of magma came to life and lashed out at him until at last one of them struck him out of the sky. Ushari instantly recovered and took to the air once more, but the claws latched on to the ziggurat and drew themselves up higher and higher, until finally two molten demonic lions had risen up from the deep to roar their fury at Ushari.

"What," said Kion, swallowing, "the hell are those?"

"Spite and Rage," said Scar. "I just told you. Now come on, we have to move before Ushari launches his counter attack."

Sure enough, not a second after Scar dragged him around the corner Kion could hear their barricades shatter behind them, as Ushari somehow found the time to attack them while evading the molten demons at the same time. After a brief but frantic run through the dark corridors Scar broke apart the wall separating them from the central chamber, creating an opening large enough for him and Kion to hide in while using the rest of the stones to reshape the wall around them as if nothing had happened.

"That won't work," said Kion, still reeling from the madness he had just witnessed. The stones and the darkness were pressing in on him from every side now, and his panting sounded strangely loud in his own ears. "Ushari can sense our presence, I think. After all, I can sense him. He'll collapse the whole place on top of us the second he notices."

"If he finds us we're dead regardless," said Scar, opening a small gap in the wall to witness the battle at hand. "Fortunately for us, the red fruit increases one's power at the cost of lucidity, and I doubt Ahadi is making him any saner. Our only chance is to keep up the pressure so he has no time to focus."

"Right," said Kion. He wormed his way to a sitting position, trying not to think about the fact that he was squeezed within a narrow crevice that could crush him at any moment. "In that case, I think I can disrupt his concentration even further. I'll just need a moment."

He closed his eyes and focused. When his father first told him about the Roar, he had described it as a divine gift, but the fact of the matter was that it was one's own talent and connections that gave you power. Just as Fuli was the fastest of their group, the crocodiles had favoured the use of water, and while Ono performed his role as scout Mzingo had served Ushari by hurling down lightning. As for Kion himself… it had been all too easy, thinking that he was just a vessel and that the Roar's power was beyond his control. It was only after he lost Ahadi that he had been forced to rely on his own abilities.

In his mind's eye, he was once again standing besides his father, perched at the peak of Pride Rock as they looked to the stars for answers. He was the only one who had been able to hear Mufasa. And then again, during the battle of Flatridge Rock, he had been the one who could sense Ushari most clearly.

He opened his eyes and beheld the sight in front of him. Empty grasslands stretched out all around him, an eternal savannah that extended into infinity. A sea of brilliant stars shown down from above, and in the centre of it all three ethereal lions were locked in a battle to the death. As he watched, a golden lion was pounced on by a fierce lioness who could only be Scar's paramour and the goddess of wrath, Zira, and he only barely managed to fend her off. At the same time, a lion cub leaped on his back from behind and started tearing into him, and the golden lion screamed out in pain and fury. He twisted his head and snapped at the boy, crushing his fragile body between merciless jaws and tossing him aside like trash.

The lioness roared in an expression of purest rage, and for one second Kion thought he could see the fire that had given her form in the physical world as she leaped for her prey. The two beings clashed, exchanging blow for blow as the heavens rang with their conflict. Yet for all her fury it was clear that the male lion was the stronger of the two, and bit by bit his relentless blows began to wear her down.

Kion squeezed his eyes shut: There was something wrong with the image in front of him, and it was making his headache more painful than ever. He opened his eyes to look again, and saw that the golden lion was not a lion at all, but rather a crimson snake. How could he ever have confused the two?

Ushari was glowing with that same golden aura, but it was coming from elsewhere, reflecting off his scales like the surface of the moon. Kion followed the light back to its source, and found a crater in the midst of the savannah – another thing he would surely have seen before if it had been there when first he looked. A faint golden glow emanated from the pit like the light of a fallen star.

"Ahadi," he called. "King Ahadi, is that really you?"

A deep groaning sound reverberated from the pit. "Ahadi is dead. I am no one."

Kion stared down into the pit, squinting against the painful light that seemed to be burning straight through his retinas, and realized at last what it was that had been giving him that splitting headache this entire time. It was impossible to make out the form of the creature below, and yet he knew with certainty that it was a pitiful sight to behold.

"No one is no one," Kion said. There was a riddle here, of that he was certain, but he felt oddly reluctant to learn the answer. "What did that snake do to you, Ahadi? What poison did he burn into your veins?"

"Nothing. Only nothingness remains." The creature stirred faintly, and seemed to look up at Kion, though it was impossible to tell against the light. "Who are you, child? You seem… familiar."

Kion found himself staring at the sight – staring down at the strange and wretched creature that he had once thought of as a god, and felt a deep resentment stir within. "You possessed me," he said, disbelieving. "I didn't ask for it, but you gave me power – used me to destroy those hyenas you hate so much. And now you are letting those very same hyenas use you to destroy everything you ever cared about."

"I don't… remember. The chains that bind me are fading. My people have forgotten their pride, and so they have forgotten me."

Unbidden, Kion's vision of Mufasa returned to him once more. "My son, you have forgotten me…" He still remembered the utter horror on his father's face as he heard those words repeated back to him.

"I've heard that line before," he said, gritting his teeth. "It seems to be a common problem amongst kings: I haven't failed my people, my people failed me. Ushari certainly seems to think so, as he throws the lives of his own followers away purely for the sake of his own selfish delusions. It's what Scar did, and now you are doing the exact same thing. You haven't been forgotten; you have forgotten yourself!"

There was a roar of purest rage and agony, but the fallen king could do no more than scrape up against the walls of the pit he had dug for himself. "How dare you compare me to him!" The burning claws grasped at Kion, and for a moment Kion feared they might reach, but then they fell back lifelessly to his side. "No… you are right. I have failed – I have turned my back on my own family. I am… nothing."

Kion stared at the fallen king once more, but he could no longer bring himself to feel the same rage as he did before. For the sad truth of wisdom is that even as it increases your power to seek vengeance, so too does it diminish your desire to do so, for it forces you to see the world through the eyes of others.

"You are not nothing," he whispered. "You are Ahadi: King of Kings. You are the morning and the evening sky. Every grunt and snort made by the animals of the Pridelands is done in praise of your existence. When the wind blows and the flowers bloom, they do so for your pleasure."

"Lies. All lies. Lies I told myself to make my existence bearable…"

"Then what's the truth?" He wanted to scream at the lion, to beat reality into him with force if need be, but instead he reached out and pulled on their connection with all his might. "Tell me the truth, oh god of light! What are you really?"

"I… I am…"

Kion was hurled backwards as something slammed into him, and he desperately tried to clamber to his feet even as he rolled across the grasslands. He staggered upright, noting with horror that Ushari had bitten him in the leg and that the deadly poison was already spreading through his veins, only to remember that he was still in the spirit realm and none of this was real. He forced himself out of his vision, and found to his surprise that he was back in the pyramid's central chamber: Scar must have dragged him along by the scruff of his neck, for the crevice they had been hiding in had been reduced to rubble.

No sooner did he blink awake or he fell into a coughing fit as noxious fumes seared his lungs, while the pools of lava on the floor radiated such heat that Kion felt like he would catch fire on the spot. The two molten lions had been beaten back into the earth and reduced to nothingness. He teetered on his paws, his leg still burning with pain for all that the injury had been imaginary, and stared back at his opponent.

"I took my eyes off you for too long," hissed Ushari. He was no longer glowing. "A mistake I never would have made if not for the crimson fumes and that damnable lioness distracting me. However, I still-"

A golden light rose up behind Ushari as something dragged its way from out of the earth, and roared at him with all its might. Ushari flew from the pile of rubble he had been poised on, and collapsed near the bottom of the stairs, burned and groaning.

The golden spectre flickered, but remained there, waiting.

"I don't know what you just did," said Scar, "but well done." He advanced towards Ushari, and seized the snake between his claws. "You have lost. Call your minions and tell them to surrender."

There was a sad, hissing sound coming from Ushari's mouth, and it filled Kion's heart with dread, for it reminded him far too much of Janja's broken and twisted laughter.

"What's so funny?" Scar must have squeezed harder, for Ushari let out a strangled, painful hiss. "Why are you laughing?"

"Because," said Ushari, choking even as he spoke, "back when I was… pretending, to argue with Prince Kion, and letting you prepare your attack… I was lending my power to Janja, and using him to shatter the Guard. I have… already won."

Behind them, the collapsed entrance burst open in a torrent of rubble as Janja and his hyenas entered the room and dumped Jasiri and Simba's motionless bodies onto the ground.