Xykon faces the Sapphire Guard in the throne room.
Cast
- Team Evil
- The Sapphire Guard
- O-Chul ◀ ▶
- Black-haired Sapphire Guardswoman (31) ▶
- Blue Crewcut Sapphire Guardsman (14) ▶
- Blue-bearded Sapphire Guardsman (29) ▶
- Eyepatched Sapphire Guardsman (22) ▶
- Road to Adventure Sapphire Guardswoman (3) ◀ ▶
- Black-Haired Sapphire Guardsman (35) ▶
- Blue Spike Haired Sapphire Guardsman (36) ▶
- Chonmaged Sapphire Guardsman (32) ▶
- Completely Bald Sapphire Guardsman (19) ▶
- Crewcut Sapphire Guardswoman (21) ▶
- Do-Ragged Sapphire Guardsman (8) ▶
- Goggled Sapphire Guardsman (24) ▶
- Grey-cloaked Sapphire Guardsman (33) ▶
- Flying Sapphire Sorceress (10) ▶
- Navy-haired Sapphire Guardsman (5) ▶
- Balding Sapphire Guardsman (7) ▶
- Blue-cloaked Sapphire Guardsman (40) ▶
- Blue-haired Sapphire Sorcerer (1) ▶
- Green-haired Sapphire Guardswoman (15) ▶
- Grey-haired Sapphire Sorcerer (16) ▶
- Grey-shield Sapphire Guardsman (2) ▶
- Jiaya (41) ▶
- Purple-haired Sapphire Guardswoman (13) ▶
- Purple Spiky-haired Sapphire Guardsman (34) ▶
- Teal-haired Sapphire Guardswoman (27) ▶
- White-helmeted Sapphire Guardsman (38) ▶
- Wingfooted Sapphire Guardsman (9) ▶
- Yunji (23) ▶
- White-cloaked Sapphire Guardswoman (4) ▶
- Twelve Other Members of the Sapphire Guard
Transcript
- Panel 1
A glass window in the side of the Azure City castle.
- Panel 2
Xykon's head appears in the bottom of the panel.
- Panel 3
Xykon's trunk rises into the panel.
- Panel 4
Xykon comes level with the window.
Xykon: DING! 8th floor: Men's Outerwear, Sporting Goods, and Rifts in the Fabric of the Universe.
- Panel 5
Cut to Redcloak and the MitD watching with Redcloak's 1000gp spyglass.
Redcloak: What the hell is he doing?
Monster in the Darkness: I wonder if Xykon has any sisters, too...
- Panel 6
Looking through the spyglass, the panel shows Xykon hovering outside the set of long windows.
Redcloak (inset): Why is he going for the Gate now? The element of surprise has been completely blown. What possible reason could he have for attacking the Gate now instead of waiting for the army to move in??
- Panel 7
Back with Xykon.
Xykon: Time for some fun.
- Panel 8
Xykon crashes through the window, "CEESH!!!!"
Xykon: Excuse me, would you care to make a donation to the Save the Paladins fund?
Xykon: It's tax deductible.
- Panel 9
From behind Xykon, he faces in to the throne room which is full of the entire Sapphire Guard with weapons ready.
O-Chul: Sapphire Guard—
O-Chul: ATTACK!
Trivia
- Road to Adventure Sapphire Guardswoman (in the back by the throne with a bow and arrow) previously appeared in #320
- In the fourth panel, Xykon is missing his feet.
- In the eighth panel the window is boarded up from when Belkar and Miko crashed through in #284, Shattered Expectations.
- The Monster in the Darkness muses about Xykon's sisters, an extension of his earlier confusion surrounding the Xykon Decoys which he believed to be Xykon's idential triplet brothers in #426, and continued to believe even after Redcloak explained the ruse in #431.
- This is the first appearance of most of the Sapphire Guard. The only named members who have appeared before are O-Chul and Road to Adventure Sapphire Guardswoman. The other 27 are making their first appearance. Jaiya, Do-Ragged Sapphire Guardsman, Goggled Sapphire Guardsman, White-helmeted Sapphire Guardsman, and Yunji all make additional appearances outside the web comic, where Jaiya and Yunji are named. The other twelve unnamed paladins (and at least one spellcaster) do not recognizably appear in any other strips.