The response from the King of Mazandaran came wrapped in haughty disdain and fiery arrogance. He declared to the Iranian envoy, Farhad, that he would never bow to Kay Kavus, boasting a court grander than Iran's and an army beyond count—including twelve hundred war elephants. He threatened to march a pride of lion-like warriors into the heart of Iran, turning its exalted peaks into dark dust and awakening the Iranians from their peaceful slumbers with the clash of blades.
Farhad, having witnessed the enemy monarch's fierce pride and unyielding defiance, turned his reins back toward the Iranian camp. He laid bare the entire mystery, informing Kay Kavus that the lord of Mazandaran deemed himself higher than the heavens and held the world in utter contempt.
Indignant at such humiliation, Kay Kavus summoned Rostam, the elephant-bodied champion. Rostam stepped forward before the king and offered to personally carry a thunderous ultimatum to the enemy—words sharp as unsheathed steel that would turn streams red with blood. Kay Kavus praised Rostam as both his greatest warrior and his most formidable messenger. He commanded the royal scribe to dip his pen like an arrowhead and write a stinging decree: if the King of Mazandaran did not immediately purge his heart of insolence and submit like a slave, Kavus would unleash an ocean of troops against him, leaving even the White Demon's foul soul to watch vultures feast upon the villain's brain.