The Legion becomes aware that Blok and Mysa have been visiting museums throughout the galaxy. They are apparently interested in obtaining a Philosophers' Stone, by whatever means, beg, buy, borrow, or steal. Fortunately, they have not found one yet.
The Legion confronts the two renegades at the Flash Museum on Earth. Part of the display is the ostensible Philosophers' Stone used by Dr. Alchemy.
Mysa is in her Black Witch form. Blok is much larger, well on his way to his 5YL appearance- smouldering volcanic pustules and so forth.
With Mysa's vastly increased eldritch powers, the two easily take on the rest of the Legion. Blok displays powers of strength and invulnerability, energy absorption, increasing gravitational mass, and resistance to organic telepathy. When they obtain the stone, Blok appears to communicate with it telepathically. "It is alive," he declares, "But drained of power. But there is another."
The Legionnaires follow Blok and Mysa to the abandoned Puppeteer Planetoid, where another battle ensues. In the midst of the battle, Blok finds the black stone they have been looking for, which immediately fuses into his forehead, becoming a virtual third eye. With new, alchemical abilities rivaling those of the Progenitor, the Legion is hopelessly outmatched by the two ex-Legionnaires. However, they depart without doing anyone any actual harm.
The Legion pursues Blok and Mysa to the dead world of Dryad, also known as Korlon, the former homeworld of Blok's people. As the Legion are held at bay by the Black Witch, Blok plants his feet firmly in the soil, and the Sorcerors' Stone in his forehead erupt. Waves of transmuting energy wash out across the planet, and the rich soil and lush vegetation, recently reduced to ash and slag by the nova of Korlon's sun, are restored.
Spent, Blok's huge body falls to the earth, lifeless, an inert, empty rocky husk.
From a nearby cave, the crystalline forms of Korlon's females emerge.
They have a story to tell.
The Dryads of Korlon are the caretakers of the vegetarian Edenic world. Without insects, birds, or other land creatures, the Korlonite plants rely on the stony Dryads for fertilization, life, and husbandry.
Every few thousand years, the Korlonite sun, an irregular star, goes nova. When the Dryads see the signs approaching, the female Dryads go underground to hibernate, while the male Dryads remain on the surface. Within their rocky, near-invulnerable bodies, they envelop the seeds, spores, and shoots which will re-colonize the planet after the stellar catastrophe, sacrificing their lives to protect the future of the planet.
It may take a millenium or more for the glazed surface erode back into a form which will again support life. But the hibernating female Dryads are long-lived and patient.
There is generally one or more male Dryads who leave the planet near the time of the catastrophe. He is charged with finding a Philosophers' Stone, or similar source of power, and returning to Korlon to jump-start the revivification process.
The young Blok was chosen for such a duty. However, his mind and memories were corrupted and erased by the Dark Man. It was only when Mysa began to attempt to divine his destiny in her Magic Mirrors that the history of Korlon and the Dryads, and the part Blok had to play was revealed.
As the female Dryads speak, the Legion observes the animation of the stones near every plant and tree. In human, semi-human, and other forms, the male Dryads, through the power of the Stone, are wakening from their temporary death-sleep, and returning to their duties as the Gardeners of Korlon.
A group of the female Dryads surround the rocky corpse of Blok, and infuse it with energy. The husk falls away, and the young, more human-like Blok is revealed. The Dryads give to Mysa the now-exhausted Philosophers' Stone, charging her to re-energize it, and hide it somewhere a young Dryad might be able to find it in 10,000 years.
Mysa, in return, gives the Dryads a black marble, containing a fraction of the dark, destructive power which she has been containing, and requests that they bury it in the heart of Korlon, and watch over it, and keep it imprisioned with their goodness.
The status quo restored, everyone goes home as if nothing had happened. (Blok and Mysa are still together.)
-------------------- "So different from the Original Superman of Krypton!"
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