Ahmed's heart pounded wildly. He found himself unable to move or speak, as if he had turned into a stone statue, only able to watch helplessly.
The person carrying the coral branch walked slowly past him with very gentlemanly steps, seemingly ignoring him completely.
Ahmed had a vague feeling that he had seen this person somewhere before. Although the details of his features were blurred by a faint golden light, his outline, especially his profile when he walked past him, made him certain that he had seen him somewhere before.
As a skilled detective, he remembers everyone he's met. He's certain he's seen this person before, perhaps on television or in a magazine. Yes, that must be it. This person must be a celebrity, a politician, or a tycoon. Well, a tycoon is more likely, because tycoons are more likely to appear in the media than politicians.
The man stopped at the center of the five stone tablets. Ahmed remembered that it was where the Pharaoh's sarcophagus was, but now the sarcophagus was gone, replaced by flat ground.
The light emanating from the five stone tablets intertwined around that person.
Ahmed looked closely and discovered that the light was emanating from the text on the stone tablet. When the light intertwined, it even transformed into three-dimensional text, like a holographic projection, twisting in the air as if it were teeming with life.
The man stood within the words of light, but he was oblivious. He crouched down and wiped the ground with his hand. Ahmed saw a symbol on the ground: two connected equilateral triangles, their vertices joined together, and their centers connected by a line segment.
The man inserted the coral branch he was holding into the apex of two connected triangles, where there was clearly a small hole. The coral branch suddenly burst into flames, transforming into a blazing inferno that danced amidst the surrounding golden, luminous characters. The distorted characters then flew towards the flames like moths, as if trying to extinguish them.
However, the fire grew stronger and stronger. The gold lettering that jumped in was like bamboo thrown into the fire, crackling and splitting open, eventually crumbling into fine sand. But the sand did not extinguish the small flame; it all flowed into the two triangles beside the flame.
As more and more golden characters were burned away, the light on the stone tablet gradually dimmed. Ahmed saw spiderweb-like cracks appearing on the stone tablet, becoming increasingly dense.
The last character jumped into the fire and disappeared with a pop.
Almost simultaneously, the five stone tablets collapsed with a loud bang, turning into five piles of stone dust. The stone dust slowly flowed into the triangular symbol through the winding, tiny cracks in the ground.
Ahmed saw the sand flowing within the two triangles, as the sand in one triangle was decreasing, clearly flowing towards the other. After the sand in the first triangle emptied, the two triangles rapidly rotated 180 degrees around the coral flame, exchanging positions. Then the sand in the full triangle began to flow towards the empty triangle, the fine sand flowing slowly along the engraved line passing through the apex.
Ahmed understood: it was an hourglass. Whenever the sand in one sand cone ran out, the hourglass would automatically turn over, and the sand would flow back from the other sand cone.
The flame in the middle kept burning, and three Sun appeared in the sky at some unknown time. Each Sun shone a strong beam of light, which fell on the spires of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure respectively.
The hourglass on the ground spun countless times, and Ahmed was almost mesmerized by it. The hourglass became more and more lifelike, as if it had stood up and become a three-dimensional, real hourglass—a crystal shell filled with fine golden sand and surrounded by rose-colored flames.
The hourglass grew larger and larger, and the flames grew larger and larger. Gradually, the entire world was engulfed in flames, including the three pyramids, which were also burned red-hot.
However, the hourglass continued to grow, eventually breaking free from the flames and transforming them into a blood-red flower inside.
Ahmed saw a look of surprise on the old man's face, as if something had happened that surprised him.
When the hourglass reaches the heavens and the earth respectively, the once majestic Pyramids of Giza appear as a child's toy in its presence, and everything else seems insignificant.
After all the sand from the sandpile had fallen to the ground, it was expected that the hourglass would reverse again, but this time it didn't. Perhaps it did, but Ahmed didn't experience the reversal; instead, an even more shocking scene Tushu him—
The entire sea of sand became the sand at the bottom of an hourglass. Suddenly, a column of sand rose up from the ground. Gravity seemed to have reversed. The sand column passed through the center of the hourglass and shot up to the dome.
A black hole appeared in the sky, and all the sand was sucked into it, disappearing without a trace.
The flames went out. Suddenly, darkness fell.
Before being swallowed by darkness, the old man bent down and picked up the coral branch.
Ahmed thought he saw him turn around and glance at him, then he could see nothing more.
Then, he felt someone push him hard from behind. He stumbled, bumped into something, like a low wall, and tumbled over it, falling to the ground with a thud, his buttocks and back aching from the hard stones. He also heard thumping sounds, like hail hitting a car.
He wasn't sure if he had fainted, but his mind was blank for a while. When he groggily opened his eyes, he saw a white light, walls on all sides, and he was lying in a small space.
He sat up abruptly and found himself sitting in a stone coffin, with a shroud wrapped around his arm. What had been pressing against him earlier wasn't stone, but gold nuggets and a mask from inside the coffin.
He climbed out of the coffin and saw two soldiers lying on the ground, with Professor Alef lying on the other side. They were covered in blood, but their bodies were intact.
Abdullah was lying by the coffin, his hands still gripping the edge, seemingly trying to climb inside. Ahmed remembered that he seemed to have been pushed earlier, and judging from the scene, the person who pushed him was probably Abdullah.
The five stone tablets surrounding the sarcophagus were gone without a trace, as if they had never existed. The five corpses in the corner were still there, their heads still facing the sarcophagus, with no indication that they had ever moved.
Ahmed examined the bodies of his four dead companions and found that they had all been shot, likely killed by stray bullets in the chaos. He realized he had escaped death only because Abdullah had pushed him into the coffin.
Abdullah saved him.
Ahmed carefully recalled everything that had just happened. The corpse coming back to life and everything he saw afterward must have been an illusion, or even a dream, but where were the stone tablets?
He recalled the wizard's curse in " The Mummy " and felt that this place was indeed a bit eerie. He decided to leave first.
When he reached the entrance of the passage, he turned back, hoisted Abdullah's body onto his back, and then began to laboriously climb up the passage. Because the passage was so steep, he could only drag Abdullah's body up little by little, leaving trails of blood in the passage.
As he emerged from the upper sarcophagus, he accidentally dropped Abdullah's body back down. Ahmed was too weak to go back down again. He said to the cave containing the sarcophagus, "Brother, I'm sorry. Let me go out and find someone to take you out. I will take care of your family."
After he finished speaking, he decisively turned around and went back up the way he came, soon arriving at the entrance of the pyramid.
Emerging from the pyramid, Ahmed took a deep breath of fresh air and slowly opened his eyes to adjust to the blinding sunlight. He noticed that the military and police who had sealed off the Giza region were gone, and tourists were strolling around as if nothing had happened.
Several Arabia were leading camels, offering to take photos for customers. A young East Asian couple was negotiating with them. After agreeing on a price, they got on the camels, but the Arabia merchants changed their minds and demanded 200 Egyptian pounds, refusing to let them off the camels until they paid.
Ahmed sensed something was wrong. He wandered aimlessly, trying to figure out what was going on. Why had the military and police withdrawn? Who gave the order?
As he walked, he arrived at the Pyramid of Menkaure and ran into the young Asian couple again. The boy was talking to the pyramid's caretaker in the gatehouse, and it seemed he was handing him some banknotes.
"Another one trying to climb the pyramids," Ahmed thought, but not wanting to get involved, he walked away.
He wanted to call the bureau chief, but couldn't figure out what to say. As he was thinking, he suddenly realized something was wrong and hurried back to the Pyramid of Menkaure.
He saw two policemen on camels shouting at the pyramids, "Get down! A sandstorm is coming! Get down now!"
The pyramid caretaker also came out of the room and shouted towards the top of the pyramid. However, Ahmed did not hear what he shouted at all, because he recognized him—this caretaker was none other than Abdullah Rashad Rashid Buzblah Izjerahi Tsarasha Mudzil.
The wind howled as a couple sat atop the pyramid making a wish, while a gray-black wall appeared on the distant horizon.
A sandstorm is coming.