The Fifth Essence: The Dreaming Galaxy

The Fifth Essence: The Dreaming Galaxy is the first part of fifth issue of The Incal, and part of the first volume of The Incal saga. It's divided in three chapters. In this issue, as Technogea is destroyed, the menace of the Darkness starts to become more apparent.

It was published in 1988 by Les Humanoïdes Associés. It was written by Alejandro Jodorowsky, illustrated by Moebius and colored by Zoran Janjetovt.

Inhuman!
A Medusa is summoned by the Incal and is able to neutralize the darkened Emperoress. However, if they want to effectively destroy the Darkness they need to find is true source, so the Incal proposes going after the Techno-centreur, a being totally devoted to the Darkness, who escaped the destruction of Technogeas and is now hiding in the War Star, a massive military complex. Although initially unwilling, DiFool ends up going to the War Star along with Greyfield, pretending that they’re defecting to the other side. In the meantime, Raimo explains before the Assembly the new state of the Emperoress.

Greyfield betrays the Emperoress’ loyalists once again, confessing their plan. Now that they have been discovered The Techno-centreur attacks John with black plasma and begins to be consumed by the Darkness. But the Incal, which is miniaturized inside John, can’t do anything until the Imperial Fleet arrive. Raimo decides to make a risky maneuver: They’re going to go into subspace despite not having the exact coordination, making the rematerialization extremely dangerous.

I Saw You As You Are
Predictably, the Imperial Fleet end up rematerializing too close, the circumstance looks suicidal. By now the dark plasma is almost completely covering John, so the Incal gets out through a microscopic hole of one of DiFool’s hairs. The Incal enlarges and start attacking the Endoguards. Greyfield, desperate to get his daughter back, attacks Stirlog, who accidentally breaks Crystal (who was in a cryogenized state). In retaliation, he transforms her into ice and she also breaks in a thousand pieces, Greyfield tries to do the same to Horlog but as he is doing it Horlog stabs him, and both die.

The Seven destroy the main processor of the War Star, and the enemy surrenders. The Commander of the Purple Endoguards informs them that the Techno-centreur must have sought refuge in the War Star’s core. Indeed, Solune and the Techno-centreur are fighting in the core. Techno-centreur destroys the shell of the Incal, while Solune removes the Techno’s helmet, revealing his skull. At that moment the Great Darkness is liberated and starts to surround Solune, the Incal descends into the Darkness to help Solune, breaking the barrier of the Light in the process. Solune makes the Darkness retreat, but now that the barrier is broken the Darkness has a new pathway to spread its negative force.

The Singing Galaxy
Back in the Assembly, the political factions are arguing about what to do next, and the Seven are exasperated. Suddenly the darkened Emperoress, who has killed the last Medusa, appears. Solune mutates into an Energy Egg to counter her/him, but before dying the darkened Emperoress tells them that in 22 days Darkness will fall across the heart of the galaxy. Impressed by Solune’s power, the Assembly elects him the new Emperoress, under the title of “Patmah”. In his first proclamation, transmitted by Euphes Busadam, Solune proclaims that humanity must enter a state of deep slumber called the Theta Dream to avoid falling under the influence of the Darkness and empower the Incal. In Terra, 90% of the population has already fallen sleep under the supervision of Arhats. The Empire decides to make use of Holovid propaganda to spread the message to the rest of the worlds. They achieve their objective ahead of schedule, but the Incal senses that there are 78 billion human beings who still haven’t fallen sleep in the Berg galaxy. Animah convinces John to inspect what’s going on there.

Other Issues

 * 1) The Black Incal (1981)
 * 2) The Luminous Incal (1982)
 * 3) What Lies Beneath (1984)
 * 4) What is Above (1985)
 * 5) The Fifth Essence: The Dreaming Galaxy (1988)
 * 6) The Fifth Essence: Planet DiFool (1988)