[Verse 1] The place had no name No gate No level marker No crew behind him No broom in his hand
Just the lion
The way it was the first time The way it was always going to be Again
He had not stood here in three hundred thousand years He stood here now
[Pre-Chorus] Every weapon he had ever carried Would not touch this hide Every sword, every spear Every thing that cut Would not cut this
He knew this He had always known this He had known this Before he knew his own name
[Chorus] The Labors What the hands remember The Labors What the body never forgot No weapon cuts the Nemean hide No blade no fire no force Only hands Only arms Only the strength That was always his The Labors He remembers
[Verse 2] The lion moved The way the lion always moved Fast and certain And unafraid Because nothing had ever hurt it
He moved to meet it The way he had always moved to meet it Before the 300,000 years Before the brooms Before the hollow residue Before the levels and the crew And the quiet man who carried things
That man stepped back
And something older stepped forward
[Pre-Chorus 2] His hands remembered Before his mind did
His arms remembered The shape of the grip The exact pressure The exact angle The place where the strength had to go And had to hold And had to keep holding Until the lion stopped
[Bridge] This was not the first time
He had done eleven more after this He had done things that had no name He had carried the sky He had brought back the dead
He had swept floors And not said what he was For three hundred thousand years
And now
Every labor Every breath Every impossible thing he had survived Came back to him All at once In his hands Around the neck of the Nemean Lion
[Final Chorus] The Labors What the hands remember The Labors What could not be taken No weapon cuts the Nemean hide But he is not a weapon He is Hercules He always was The Labors He remembers He remembers everything He is back He was always back
[Outro] The hide settled around his shoulders The weight of something invulnerable That was now his
And the separate existence closed And Level twenty-nine opened And he stood where they had all been Before the flash
He said: I’m back He said: where are they
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