Upon dawn, Thu­via, Princess of Ptarth, notices her abduc­tors now bear the insignia of Heli­um instead of Dusar, spark­ing hope Cartho­ris of Heli­um means her no harm. Despite her inquiries, the abduc­tors remain secre­tive about their inten­tions. Their jour­ney ends at a desert­ed city on Mars, a rel­ic from a bygone era, now a haunt for the green nomadic tribes. These des­o­late places were famil­iar to Thu­via from her pre­vi­ous adven­tures, yet fear grips her as she is left alone in the plaza, reflect­ing on the ancient Mar­t­ian belief that the spir­its of Holy Therns inhab­it the bod­ies of the great white apes.

In her soli­tude, Thu­via notices a lurk­ing pres­ence, which turns out to be Thar Ban, a jed among the hordes of Torquas, rid­ing his mighty thoat. Thar Ban, after a suc­cess­ful raid, seeks refuge and graz­ing for his thoat with­in the des­o­lat­ed city. Stealth­ily, he approach­es Thu­via with the inten­tion of cap­tur­ing her, intrigued by the rar­i­ty of seiz­ing a red woman.

Just as Thar Ban seizes Thu­via and attempts to escape, Cartho­ris’s fli­er appears, descend­ing swift­ly in an attempt to res­cue Thu­via. The ensu­ing chaos sees Cartho­ris fight­ing fer­vent­ly against the men of Dusar, whom he ini­tial­ly mis­takes for his allies due to their decep­tive insignias. Despite his valiant efforts and supe­ri­or swords­man­ship, Cartho­ris finds him­self unable to pre­vent Thar Ban’s escape with Thu­via.

In a dar­ing chase, Cartho­ris fol­lows on foot after his fli­er is dam­aged by a shot from a pur­suer. The chase leads him into the treach­er­ous foothills of the moun­tains of Torquas, where the trail van­ish­es, leav­ing no trace. Cartho­ris’s search turns des­per­ate as he encoun­ters a banth track­ing the scent of poten­tial prey—possibly Thu­via and Thar Ban. Seiz­ing this glim­mer of hope, Cartho­ris fol­lows the banth, only to be led to a mys­te­ri­ous cave entrance, unex­pect­ed­ly open­ing a new chap­ter in his quest.

Through­out this ordeal, the char­ac­ters’ paths inter­twine with­in the des­o­late and ghost­ly rem­nants of Mars’ glo­ri­ous past, set­ting the stage for a tale of abduc­tion, intrigue, and the relent­less pur­suit of a loved one against the back­drop of a civ­i­liza­tion’s for­got­ten splen­dors and dan­gers.