When the time of reckoning arrived, every Death Pharaoh fighting another felt it, whether in the underworld or the mortal world.
No matter how far away they were or where they were hiding, they all stopped what they were doing and answered the underworld's summons. One after another, floating balls of ghostfire appeared in the darkness of the Hall of the Dead.
It was much like the opening of a grand assembly. Under the watchful eyes of Triss, Hathor, and Shani, the invited guests began arriving one after another.
The Underworld Kings numbered eleven: all were dead pharaohs. Yet every oasis in the Songhai Empire had its own pharaoh. Unless their crimes were so heinous that even the underworld rejected them, they would join the ranks of the Underworld Pharaohs after death, continuing to stand among the rulers even in the afterlife.
The oases across the Thousand-Year Sea of Sand were as numerous as stars, so the number of Death Pharaohs in the underworld was considerable.
Some had lost their seats when their oases were seized by others or buried beneath the sands. Unable to establish themselves in the underworld, these Forgotten Ones could only hide miserably in ruined cities of the mortal desert and weep in secret. But after High Priest Bayek issued his summons, more than six hundred Underworld Pharaohs had gathered here in less than five minutes.
The Hall of the Dead, a moment ago silent and desolate, quickly became "lively."
The Underworld Pharaohs took their places behind different pharaohs—or Ancient Kings, as they were also known—according to their respective factions.
The number of followers each had revealed how much the eleven pharaohs had accomplished in life.
Behind a great figure like Hamons I, the first pharaoh, who had single-handedly established the Songhai Empire's line of succession,