In Septimus, 23 BY, Ixi and Kujo undertook a Council mission to explore the ruins of Min Lue. On their approach, they found the forest grew unusually dark. Then they seemed to be pulled into the ancient past, when the city of Min Lue still stood. It was a large and glorious city, surrounded by high walls. However, it was under assault by a seemingly endless horde of undead.

A tower at the city's center supported a massive gemstone known as the Eye of the Dawn Titan. It projected some sort of radiant field that instantly destroyed any undead that reached the city's walls. The city believed it was safe because of the Eye, but it was not.

The story, as pieced together from the vision Ixi and Kujo experienced of the past as well as the explanations of a phantom, who called himself only the “Guide” and appeared as a young child, is as follows:

Min Lue was one of the last strongholds of an ancient kingdom against the undead army of an evil wizard named Kalad. During this war, Kalad corrupted a great “sorcerer of the light” who lived in a tower nearby and turned him into the Duke of Shadow, a servant of darkness.

Together, Kalad and the Duke of Shadow marched on Min Lue with a horde of undead. The city withstood their onslaught for many days but finally fell as the Duke's minions infiltrated the city walls and tainted the Eye of the Dawn Titan, causing the radiant field to fail.

As punishment for standing against him, Kalad cursed the spirits of the city's last defenders to relive the moment of their downfall with every new moon for eternity. He also sealed the Duke of Shadow under his former tower.

In the year 23, the Duke had begun to stir, and that caused the curse to accelerate, so that the phantoms were reliving the events every night instead of every month. The Guide feared that if things continued at that rate, Min Lue's curse would spill into the present world. Fortunately, Ixi and Kujo were able to disrupt the pattern and return the curse to its normal routine.

One more warning from the Guide was that if the Duke of Shadow ever managed to gain control of the Eye of the Dawn Titan, wherever it may be, disaster would surely follow.