GOTO ISLAND OFF THE COAST OF JAPAN SPRING 1274 AD 

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From his vantage point on a temple roof, Oni Demon Shuten-Doji gleefully anticipates the carnage that is about to befall the Goto Island inhabitants. In the courtyard below, the village’s samurai leader Lord Kurosawa is training young initiates when they hear the sound of warning horns. Mongols are on the horizon. The islanders hurriedly prepare to defend their home but are outnumbered and outmatched by the Mongol army, who lay waste to the village. Kurosawa is a keen warrior and so manages to take down many Mongols, but even he is eventually overwhelmed. 

 

The Mongol General Arakhan tortures the honourable soul for valuable information – to no avail. A shrewd man, Arakhan deduces that he has Kurosawa’s son and threatens the boy’s life. Kurosawa knows that he and his son are doomed anyway, and so holds his tongue. His heart breaking, the samurai is forced to watch as his son’s throat is cut.

 

Later, the Ulfhednar charge in. Incensed by their own tragedy, they dispatch the rudimentary Mongolian force left to hold the village. Arne stalks through the fallen, looking for evidence of his wife’s killer, but finds only a dying Kurosawa. As he breaks Kurosawa’s chains, Arne sees his grief and rage reflected in Kurosawa’s bloody eyes. With barely a word spoken, the unlikely duo form an alliance. At this exact moment, Freyja, Norse Goddess of War and Love appears beside Shuten Doji. It seems humans aren’t the only ones making a pact.