Do Whatever He Wants

Azu glanced at the people who were obviously from the Archaeological Team, then paid them no mind and descended from the other side of the Pyramid.

A moment later, he found the entrance and slipped inside.

Beyond the entrance was a passageway, its towering walls on both sides covered in writing Azu did not recognize.

A little farther in, there were murals.

In the murals, countless people were worshipping a woman.

Judging by her attire, the woman was clearly dressed in an Egyptian style.

She held a Scepter high above her head, with a crescent moon behind her.

Azu only glanced at it a few times before continuing onward.

Soon, he saw another mural.

At the very top of this mural were several planets. From their arrangement, they appeared to form some kind of celestial chart.

Unfortunately, Azu knew nothing about astronomy.

But beneath those planets, there were depictions of objects resembling spacecraft.

All sorts of alien creatures descended from those spacecraft.

Those aliens had erupted into a great war with the humans on the ground. Behind the humans stood the Egyptian woman from the first mural, holding her Scepter aloft with the crescent moon at her back.

It seemed that the woman had led humanity against alien lifeforms that had clearly come from outer space.

"Interesting."

Azu continued exploring. Then his ears twitched as he caught the sound of voices coming from the entrance.

"Look, the isotope readings show that this Pyramid was built five thousand years ago. That matches some of the records I found in Egypt's Book of the Dead."

"Professor Nick, look here. This is Ancient Egyptian."

"Let me see."

"Hmm, it says that a great dead being dwells here, and only the chosen may see her."

"Look, it says 'her,' not 'him'!"

"That means the one dwelling inside is a woman."

"Most likely the Queen of the Night mentioned in the Book of the Dead."

Azu found it amusing. It felt rather like visiting a museum and listening to a tour guide's explanation.

So he simply stopped and listened to see what other information Professor Nick might reveal.

A burst of footsteps approached.

Then Professor Nick said in a trembling voice, "It really is the Queen of the Night. Look at this mural."

"The Book of the Dead records that Princess Ye Lily Ankaline was tempted by the Grim Reaper and became the embodiment of evil."

"She wielded many incredible powers and nearly overturned the regime."

"She could turn day into night, bring the dead back to life, and command a vast number of servants."

"But in the end, she was subdued and banished from Egypt."

"After that, as my research progressed, more and more clues indicated that this Egyptian princess came here after leaving Egypt."

"And I suspect that this Queen of the Night was not tempted by any Grim Reaper at all. Rather, her genes mutated."

"She may have been the world's first Super."

Azu froze for a moment.

That was not right.

The entire TV series The Boys had made it clear that Supers existed because they had been injected with Compound 5.

They were not naturally occurring Supers.

However, after watching three seasons, Azu had never seen where Compound 5 came from.

The show never traced its origins.

So it was hard to say whether naturally awakened Supers might exist in the universe of The Boys.

At that moment, Professor Nick exclaimed again.

"What is this?"

"Aliens?"

"A war?"

"That's impossible!"

"This is absurd. Could this Pyramid be some kind of prank?"

"Why is the Queen of the Night leading humanity against aliens?"

"But Professor, isotopes don't lie, unless the ancients five thousand years ago deliberately built this Pyramid for the sake of a prank."

"But is that possible?"

Azu did not find it all that strange. If the Queen of the Night could be assumed to be the first Super,

then why could there not be alien civilizations?

He himself had crossed into another world.

What else could possibly be impossible?

Professor Nick seemed to have calmed down. "Come on, let's keep going deeper."

"Remember, don't touch anything."

"Though I don't believe any so-called Pyramid curse exists, there's no telling whether the ancients poisoned the artifacts."

"The Egyptians could make mummies five thousand years ago. That proves they had their own system of chemical knowledge."

"Making poison would not have been difficult for them."

Hearing the footsteps heading in his direction, Azu flew deeper into the passage ahead of them.

In the blink of an eye, a massive door appeared before him.

On either side of the double stone doors stood a statue: Anubis, the jackal-headed god worshipped by the Egyptians.

"It looks just like a Gate of the Dead."

Azu scanned the scene beyond the stone doors and found a hall inside. Rows of stone platforms stood in the center, each bearing a dried corpse.

It had the feel of a Sacrificial Hall.

He extended a finger and gently pushed open the doors.

While Azu was on his archaeological adventure, on the other side of the ocean, New York City was in an uproar because Homelander had failed to appear at his hearing on time.

"He didn't come!"

"He didn't come!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is now two o'clock in the afternoon!"

"The hearing concerning Homelander began half an hour ago. Yet our protagonist, our hero, Homelander, has not appeared!"

"What does this mean?"

"Does this mean Homelander has no regard for the entire Federation system?"

"Does this mean he simply does not care about any of this?"

"This is utterly arrogant and disgraceful."

"And so far, Vought's spokesperson has offered no explanation whatsoever."

"They have even shut down Seven Tower!"

"Don't let me be right, but I'll bet Vought can no longer control Homelander."

On the streets of New York, a news anchor on a giant electronic screen spoke excitedly, spittle flying everywhere.

"I believe that today's incident should serve as a warning to our nation and our military."

"We must cautiously and seriously reexamine these Supers."

"Today, Homelander can do whatever he wants and ignore a summons from the Supreme Court."

"Then tomorrow, other Supers may disregard the law."

"And the facts have already proven that Vought can no longer control every Superhero as they promised!"

"This is a crisis!"

"An unprecedented crisis!"

As the host screamed himself hoarse and shouted wildly,

a white woman on the street shook her head. "I don't believe Homelander is that kind of person."

Just then, her phone rang.

A close friend had sent her a video.

At the very beginning of the video, red words appeared across the screen: Protest! Solemn protest! We protest the military's concealment of the truth, and we protest the politicians' malicious distortion of facts to slander Homelander, to slander a true hero!