Miss Hebe is Fighting Her Way Out of the Lostbelt!

Tutankhamun's eyes widened, a look of astonishment on his face.

At this moment, Hebe spoke her final words: "...I believe the gods only need one ruler, and it doesn't matter who that might be."

Then, with her will, new words appeared.

The color of those words was extremely faint, like fresh snow on a window.

"Ozymandias's ascension ritual is nearing its halfway point. As per Cruel Wolf's promise, a new ruler will enter eternity, and all of Egypt will crumble and cease to exist. However, there is still a turn of events."

"This is because the opinions of the rulers are not unified. The gods only need one ruler, but it doesn't matter who that might be. It could be Ozymandias, or it could be someone else. And the Priest had promised the goddess who forged the alliance that everything would be alright, that everything would be in order."

[You will witness the birth of a new ruler, and with it, the declaration of Ozymandias's defeat. Thus, the end of this Lostbelt will be proclaimed.]

When Nitocris stood outside the city of Abydos, her mood was far from good, for she realized that Hebe's words carried a deep sense of farewell.

She felt indignant, angry, and ridiculous, yet utterly powerless as Pharaoh.

Nitocris respected Hebe, just as Hebe respected her. In her eyes, Hebe was a child who could destroy herself at any moment, and the more so, the more Nitocris wanted to cherish her, protect her, and accompany her through a peaceful growth.

If there was still a possibility.

As she thought of this, Nitocris's heart grew colder. She gazed at the soldiers standing guard on the city walls, calmly extended her hands, then clenched them and crossed them over her chest.

A dark halo rose behind her head, but the darkness was immediately stained with a pale white, speckled like silent snowfall in the deep night.

[First Mark: Funeral Edict]

[Second Mark: Great Work of the Underworld God]

[Third Mark: Judgment of the Underworld God]

[Fourth Mark: Wind of the Desert Night]

The four gates of Abydos were suddenly covered with a thin layer of white frost, and a chilling cold began to sprout from every inch of the land. Both commoners and nobles unconsciously lowered their voices, and even their footsteps seemed to sound loud.

Sacred script characters appeared on Nitocris's crossed arms. Merely witnessing them, the guards on the city walls could not help but shed tears, but the tears froze before they could even trace a path down their cheeks.

A chilling wind arrived from all directions, circling silently in the gloomy sky. Then, everything fell silent in the intoxicating frost, with no more extraneous noise.

Heavy snow came from the end of the sky, dyeing the city of Abydos into a world of blue and white. Both the Temple of Kings and the Obelisks that recorded merits appeared frail under the pressure of the snow.

The city was completely transformed by the power of winter. It appeared even more beautiful under the snow and moonlight, and a mesmerizing silence lingered in the city's sky.

It had walls like a crescent moon and a facade like fresh snow; this was the Abydos of today.

Yet, Nitocris still felt it was not enough. She raised her arms, and ancient papyrus scrolls unfolded silently. Heartbreaking words fell onto them one by one, and thus, those who had died on this land for thousands of years crawled out of their graves one after another.

These dead had sunken eye sockets, and their mouths, where flesh should have been, were shriveled and smooth. They moved, skeletal, through the north wind, becoming the best residents of Abydos.

At this moment, Nitocris finally finished her preparations. She gently exhaled a pale breath.

The new snow and the north wind responded together, emitting a soft resonance.

—[Mirror of the Underworld].

At some point, a mirror, as if polished from obsidian, appeared in Nitocris's arms. The mirror was pitch black, like the silent night sky, and as she raised her hand, the reflection of Abydos appeared in the mirror, though the city was equally silent and still.

All living beings were drawn into it, unaware that they had departed from the present world.

In the Abydos of the present world, only silent dead remained. Following their residual memories, they found their former homes.

Nitocris hugged the mirror. She reached into it and pulled out a white cloak.

There was nothing else on this cloak except for two empty eye sockets, silently gazing forward.

Nitocris draped the white ceremonial robe over herself.

In the next instant, a rumbling roar echoed from afar.

The female pharaoh looked up, a scorching wind carrying a sandstorm howling from the distant horizon.

39 The Abydos with a Crown Dragging on the Ground

Seno and the others sailed upstream along the Nile.

Their boat was ancient in design, with pointed ends raised at both bows. This was a vessel crafted by the Sacred Ram School, modeled after the Solar Ship.

Although it couldn't travel through the air like Ozymandias's throne, only sailing on the water, its speed was still very fast.

In mythology, the great god Ra traveled across the sky from east to west in the Solar Ship. At night, the Solar Ship sailed through the Underworld River. Ra defeated twelve monsters along the way, thus ushering in the dawn of the next day. This was the composition of a full day in Egyptian mythology.

If nothing unexpected happened, it would take them at most half a day to reach the vicinity of Abydos.

However, events did not proceed as smoothly as anticipated.

On the boat, a soldier casually scooped up a handful of Nile water. The water rippled in his hand, its color under the sunlight a faint red.

"This isn't right..."

Seno had no time to say more, quickly leaning his upper body out of the ship's railing, his eyes fixed on the river water.

In the horrified gaze of everyone, the waves rippling from both sides of the ship began to bubble rapidly. These bubbles were pale pink, clinging to each other like grapes, but in people's eyes, they were more like blood foam spat from the mouths of the dying, or alveoli exposed to the air from a chest that had been cut open!

The bubbles quickly burst, and then, dark red surged, replacing the clear river water from tens of seconds ago.

A pungent smell of blood gradually rose into the air, and even visibility became blurred.

One of the Nine Disasters, the Blood of Isis!

Just as Horus is to the Scarred Father, and Set is to the Cruel Wolf, Isis is the aspect of the Seventh Archon, the Holy Grail!

This disaster only occurs around bodies of water. It does not, like the Osiris Plague, claim lives on a massive scale while plunging everything into darkness. Instead, it only pollutes the water sources, making all water emit a pungent, bloody stench, and causing all life within the water to die!

"Stay calm, everyone dock!" Seno shouted loudly. "Keep your distance from the bloody water."

His calm commands gave everyone present a sense of direction, and the fleet slowly approached the shore.

However, his inner state was far from the composed demeanor he displayed.

Fortunately, the King of Ibis is not far behind us. Now, the only thing to do is reach Abydos as quickly as possible.

As Seno was thinking, his boat suddenly began to pitch violently. The bloody water churned into a vortex, and a massive suction force from below began to pull at his boat, preventing it from docking.

Immediately after, a low grumbling sound suddenly echoed from beneath the water.

A Crocodile Beast, with compound eyes and armored scales, emerged from the water and leaped towards the boat!

The part of its body that emerged from the water alone was several meters long. What was even more terrifying was that this behemoth could actually survive in the depths of the Nile, which had already turned into bloody water.

"Damn it!" Seno didn't have time to draw his sword, so he could only clench his right fist and smash it towards the giant crocodile's snout.

Thump!

The wooden boat spun and crashed into the shore, and dark red bloody water surged up from the bottom. The crocodile wailed and lifted its head, falling back into the river and writhing in pain.

The power of the curse hissed and surged through Seno's fingers, instantly vaporizing the splashing blood.

He quickly jumped onto the riverbank.

The foul-smelling river water churned, like a chaotic hell. The giant crocodile sank into the water, whether it was dead or licking its wounds, no one knew.

Their boats sank one after another into the river, without even creating a ripple.

Along with the sinking boats, the spirits of those who witnessed this scene also plummeted – their previously high spirits instantly deflated.

Failing at the outset was the most demoralizing way to start an endeavor.

Everyone once again turned their gaze to Seno, awaiting his next command.

"How much food and clean water do we have left? Were any weapons lost?"

After receiving affirmative answers, Seno calmly said, "Since we have provisions and weapons, what reason do you have to be dejected? Moreover, the King of Ibis is right behind us. Do you really think Lord Imhotep would just watch us die?"

The crowd murmured amongst themselves, regaining confidence from Seno's assured tone.

"Let's go, let's make good time," Seno waved his hand. "This time, we'll travel by land."

Traveling by land would take longer, but it was supposed to be safer and more stable... or so it should have been.

After encountering sand bandits for the second time, Seno ordered them to stop holding back.

They had already wasted enough time, and among the obstacles on this road, the blind sand bandits were already the easiest to deal with.

If they encountered a natural disaster, they would have to take a detour.

But during this journey, the most unsettling and anxiety-inducing obstacle was the massive herds of beasts.

These monsters, which usually remained hidden, appeared before them in large groups, and the closer they got to Abydos, the more frequent their appearances became.

Something has happened in Abydos, Seno thought.

He refused to engage in endless, baseless speculation and could only lead his team forward. At the end of their silent march, they finally saw their intended destination.

According to legend, this was a city no less grand than Memphis. The King's List and temples here had established a majestic scale, and the lineages of several dynasties had been long remembered here.

However, at this moment, thick clouds swirled in the sky above Abydos. A scorching desert wind howled and destroyed its outer walls, turning this city that had stood for centuries into a gray-yellow ruin.

A winged viper perched on the tall obsidian obelisk. On the city streets, now covered in shifting sands, tens of thousands of scorpions made chilling sounds as they laid eggs, hatched, and devoured each other.

And the rooms where the people once lived had become the nests of Poison Birds. Their withered bodies were covered in sticky feathers, and they let out hoarse, piercing cries, proclaiming the city's demise.

Abydos was finished.

They had arrived too late, only to witness the city's end.

Seno had no time to ponder what this meant. He immediately ordered the team to slowly retreat to a safer distance – during the time they were observing, the giant winged snake swirling in the storm had already begun to swim towards them.

Seno was fortunate. They did not witness the descent of the Breath of Set with their own eyes. It was an extremely abnormal and terrifying sight; merely witnessing it could cause severe disorientation, or even direct mutation.

Nitocris had evacuated the frost-covered city of Abydos at the first opportunity, but she had not truly distanced herself.

Although she had some suspicions about Hebe's arrangements, she could not truly believe that Ozymandias would destroy the city of Abydos.

The reason was simple: the Temple of Kings was located there.

It was the place where successive pharaohs were worshipped, and the burial place of many pharaohs.

In other words, it served as both a ancestral temple and a family graveyard.

It was like a hooligan, rumored to be evil in every way, who, no matter how bad or terrible his reputation, shouldn't go so far as to dig up his own family's graves... but Ozymandias was no ordinary person.

He had already burned the past kings in the Temple of Kings as firewood when he renounced his pharaonic title!

For Ozymandias, destroying another city that was nothing more than an empty shell like Abydos held no pressure.

The scorching wind and sandstorm arrived just like that.

Nitocris suddenly felt a chill. She was utterly disappointed in Ozymandias, whom she had once looked up to.

She silently watched Abydos, watching destruction descend upon the dead within the city.

First, the scorching wind and sandstorm completely sealed off Abydos.

Immediately after, all the water reserves in the city turned foul and undrinkable.

Large numbers of maggots bred in the putrid water.

Theoretically, the dead in these cities should have been unaffected, but chaos was born from them—these silent dead began to resist Nitocris's control, attempting to achieve "freedom."

To avoid detection, Nitocris severed her control.

The silent dead launched a terrifying rebellion. Their desiccated bodies had no blood, yet under the influence of the natural disaster, they acted according to the residual instincts of their former lives.

Thus, the entire city, from top to bottom, bottom to top, fell into chaos.

The dead swayed silently in the terrifying atmosphere. Some of the dead who had gained self-awareness tried to open the city gates to stop the chaos, but it was futile.

Soon, mere desires for survival became uncontrolled and alien. Under the bizarre influence, the dead shed all sense of self. This change not only occurred internally but was also reflected in their bodies from the inside out.

For those who once favored reproduction, their cheekbones became more prominent, their arms elongated and strangely wing-like, while their lower legs atrophied from disuse. Their reproductive organs grew more robust, replacing their shrunken legs as tools for locomotion, making their overall appearance like winged serpents.

For those who once favored combat, their arms became increasingly strong and powerful, their hands mutating into pincers. Having lost the use of their arms for climbing, their ribs became flexible, parallel legs, allowing them to move freely on sand and steep cliffs. Their tailbones extended backward, growing venomous stingers like scorpions.

For those who once favored power, their skin grew feathers, covering their otherwise bare, desiccated bodies. They eternally held their heads high, either circling in the clouds or residing in the high places of the city. They were easily recognizable; apart from their bulging eyes, they resembled giant birds.

This was the initial origin of the monsters. Rather than a fall, it was a metamorphosis and a return to ancestral traits. The silent dead became legions under Cruel Wolf, and after dozens of rapid iterations, they had completely transformed into monsters.