Yebin was paralyzed with fear.

The person…

The Creature…

The THING that was in front of her had just bellowed, making the room shake as it did, and the command was directed exactly to Yebin, who was now stupidly pointing at the pharaoh with her cellphone’s flashlight.

She was going to die, yet her body refused to move.

The deceased pharaoh got off the opened coffin, dragging its feet slowly as he did in Yebin’s direction. It stood easily a head or two over Yebin, which only served to fuel the fear inside Yebin’s mind.

The archeologist’s teeth clattered constantly against each other, going faster for each step the creature took. She had forgotten entirely about Eunwoo, who she doubted, from the bottom of her heart, was even alive at that point.

“You’ll make for a fine servant…”- - “God Set has given me another chance! The world will kneel before him!”

Even the putrid smell that came from the creature’s body wasn’t enough to get Yebin’s gears into function. She was completely frozen.

And, even then, the last thought that crossed her mind just as the pharaoh raised its hand and began chanting, was that of Minkyung’s smile.

Where was she? Was she really okay?

It was her only regret, to go out without being able to see her wife again.

“I’m sorry…”- She muttered, she would even cry if her eyes allowed her, but not even her tears were willing to answer while standing in front of Menkaure.

*CRASH*

Something loud resounded in the distance, followed by a short quake much like the one the pharaoh caused when it awoke. The motions of the earth were enough to not only throw Yebin off balance, but the pharaoh too.

The fragile-looking creature hit hard against the ground, but neither disarmed nor its dusty bones broke.

This time, however, Yebin could finally pick herself together. Like a miracle, the fall let her blood flow again. She took advantage of the newfound freedom, bolting around and exiting the chamber’s doors as fast as she could.

She had managed to get out of the room, sprinting as fast as her legs would let her towards the entrance before her path was blocked once again. There was a weird, purple smoke that blocked the entirety of the path that would guide her towards the entrance and, what she assumed was, safety.

“The is this?!”- She almost screamed, forgetting for just a brief microsecond about the nightmarish creature that was probably just about to pursue her.

She raised her right hand, tentatively drawing it closer to the purple smoke. She touched it, or rather, her hand went through it. She remained like that for a second until the sudden pain made her retract it.

Yebin hissed, examining her hand, there were no apparent wounds on it but she was sure she felt as if she was soaking her hand in a cup of acid. She wouldn’t try again, that was for sure.

The purplish smoke was impassable, so that left her technically locked inside the pyramid. The only other place she could go was the newly located chamber – or the pharaoh’s chamber, but she was obviously not going back there-.

As if on cue, her thoughts were interrupted by the odor of death that reached Yebin, pugnaciously attacking her nostrils, making the girl back up a little as she heaved.

She turned around, facing the decrepit figure that was slowly approaching. What used to be yellow robes were now decolored - the color now assimilating a more apricot tone - and decayed. The outfit was shredded in some places, allowing Yebin to see the dry skin that, besides showing the aspect of being well preserved after more than two millenniums under wraps, laid hidden behind the ceremonial attire and the rest of the cloth from the mummification process. The thing’s head resembling more of a meat colored skull, home to two cavities that shone a bright red, despite the absence of the eyes, which had probably decomposed long ago.

Truly a sight to retch at, or marvel… she wasn’t exactly sure right now. Thinking about it again, Yebin would probably spent days questioning the creature about it time and customs.

That’s it if, of course, it wasn’t out to kill her.

The corridor started filling with the same purplish smoke, which followed the creature like a hound sticking behind its master, waiting to attack at the slightest motion from it. Now, with a renewed sense of dread, Yebin dashed to her left, running full speed towards the fountain room.

Her only hope now was hiding inside the treasure chamber and wait for the being to leave, maybe to harvest other souls that were not hers or something.

She arrived at the fountain room after a short sprint, looking back she saw the creature turning around the corner. Its movements were slow and that gave Yebin the advantage, at least for now.

She practically dived towards the loose brick that acted as a button, pushing it as if her life depended on it – which, for the record, it did – and waiting for the door to reveal itself. It took a few seconds of inexplicable anxiety for it to do so but, as soon as it was fully open, Yebin wasted no time jumping inside.

The space between the rooms started to close once again just as Yebin felt the presence of the creature drawing closer. Purple smoke started to enter the fountain room just as the bricks clasped together, leaving Yebin in the dark room with nothing but her cellphone’s flashlight, which she quickly turned off in case the beast was able to detect light or some bull that allowed it to find her.

She held her breath, hearing the muffled steps that came from the other room. Bone clashed against ceramic; slowly, but surely, emitting a sound that was driving Yebin mad.

She didn’t know how many minutes went by but, eventually, the sound seemed to stop. It allowed Yebin to breathe easily for once.

Yebin closed her eyes, bringing her hands to her chest and feeling her wildling heart.

*BOOM*

The shock of the sudden sound made her trip as she tried to jump backwards. A few bricks had fallen from the wall, letting light go through the gaps.

And, to top it all off, the bony face of the pharaoh could be seen from one of them, looking at Yebin intently as a carnivore would while stalking his prey.

It didn’t make sense and that made Yebin angry, how was it possible that a god-reanimated being made purely of bones had such a colossal strength to be able to bash an ancient brick wall? Actually, scratch that, how was it possible that such a thing existed in the first place?

Maybe it was fear, maybe it was anger, or maybe it was just a mix of both yet, as the monster kept hitting the wall that separated them, Yebin got on her feet with nothing else on her mind than to at least insult it.

“Would you off already you dirty bag of bones?!”- Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to insult an ancient ruler that was capable of performing magic, but Yebin didn’t exactly care at that point.

Specifically not when the wall finally gave in; letting free way to the being.

The creature said nothing, merely raising its hand once again, just like it had done when it was about to presumably kill Yebin for the first time. Long gone were Yebin’s bravery and exasperation, replaced in a flash by nothing but regret.

Her mind switched to Minkyung once again.

And, once again, the floor quaked, only that this time, it did not stop.

The tremors persisted, growing in intensity for each one that passed. The pharaoh was no longer looking at Yebin, instead gazing towards the gaping hole in the wall. She’d even say that its face, or what was left of it, had a tinge of terror creeping through it.

Finally, with a boom, the hole that was about two meters tall grew even further…

When a golden scarab the size of the entire room pierced through it, its horns ferociously pinning down the pharaoh against the wall before it launched him across the room.

The scarab was now standing between Yebin and the ancient Menkaure, growling menacingly at the ancient being, its mandibles clacking against each other, emitting a sound that froze every last drop of Yebin’s blood.

Things had just taken a turn for the weirder.

This time the pharaoh was the first to lunge, attacking the beetle head on with a stream of that acidic purple smoke. The jet of smoke collided against the scarab, who opened its elytron – the wing cases - mostly to shield Yebin from it. It seemed that the smoke wasn’t as effective against it as the ancient pharaoh had thought.

With an ethereal roar, the pharaoh dashed against the giant insect, only to be swiftly repelled by the beetle's horns in spite of the close spaced it was maneuvering in. The golden insect rammed against the ancient being mightily, pushing the pharaoh back and slamming it against the wall once again before it got up almost immediately. Yebin was under the impression that it would have attacked again had it not been for the olive-skinned boy that entered the room seconds after that.

A boy she clearly recognized as the worker of the hotel that aided her when Minkyung disappeared. He was wearing the same ceremonial robes Set had been wearing just twenty or so minutes ago but, unlike Set, he was far less muscular and more delicate-looking.

“Rest”

It only took that simple word to come out from the boy’s mouth for the pharaoh to start tossing around, letting out distorted screams as its body seemed to pale even more and its bones turned to dust. With one final agonic shout, the pharaoh’s borrowed life extinguished, leaving nothing but a purple cloud of smoke hanging over its remains.

Yebin wondered if reanimated spirits could feel pain, because that didn’t exactly look like a pleasant experience for the ancient ruler.

“Cleanse”

The cloud turned white.

“What… How… I can’t even…?”- Yebin couldn’t manage to get the words out of , but she certainly felt safer now, even if there was a giant ing beetle staring directly at her.

And just like that, to add to the list of inexplicable things that had been happening to her ever since yesterday, the scarab morphed into a human after a flash of white light. It was the spitting image of the man that had destroyed the pharaoh, only his hair was different, being entirely dark instead of something close to a greyish blonde.

“ ‘Can’t even’ my girl, you’re lucky Atem is here to cover for you because otherwise I’d be giving you a piece of my mind!”- The scarab-turned-human lashed out at her, making Yebin back up - “A hundred of my ing babies were murdered by your ungrateful ! Even Asim! He was my favorite! Just don’t tell Astarté or she’ll get angry at me…”

“What?”- Yebin’s shock was replaced by confusion, who exactly was this guy?

“Oh! So you are just going to feign ignorance now is that it?”- The boy took another step and Yebin reacted by taking a step back as well.

“Khepri, enough, she probably doesn’t understand a single word you are saying right now…”- By now, the other man had chimed in the conversation, calming down his annoyed raven-haired counterpart - “Besides, it’s really not the time to start talking about your thousand different sons…”

“You… you are the bellboy, aren’t you?”- Yebin looked at him from head to toe, there was no doubt about it, he had been the one she had seen at the lobby of the hotel, cleaning around. - “How come I just saw you erase an entity out of existence? Why am I even asking? This has to be a dream… can I wake up now please?”

Her mind started to rationalize things little by little, there was no way that was happening at all, was it? It all sounded borderline psychotic, an evil god that kidnapped her wife, an ancient deceased pharaoh surrounded by acidic smoke and a giant golden beetle.

Not something you’d experience on a daily basis.

“As much as both of us would like that, this isn’t a dream Kang Yebin.”- Bellboy answered after a few seconds - “My name is Atem, and this is Khepri, we are both here to prevent anything bad from happening to you under Ra’s orders, yet it appears we failed at keeping your friend safe too…”

“Eunwoo…”- Contrary to her previous thoughts about the situation, her friend’s death hit her like a bucket of ice-cold water - “… I’m going to kill that bastard”

“Do not worry yet, I can undo what Set did”- Bellboy Atem added, gesturing for Yebin to follow him, strangely, the white cloud of smoke started trailing after the trio too. - “Follow”

The three of them – and the cloud of smoke that Yebin inferred was the remnants of the pharaoh’s soul (Which at the same time were the remnants of Eunwoo’s soul… it was all really confusing if she had to be honest) – walked out towards the corridor that led inside the pharaoh’s chambers. The wall of purple smoke that prevented Yebin from running towards the exit wasn’t there anymore, to be expected since the pharaoh was not exactly ‘alive’ anymore.

 “So… what are you two exactly?”- Yebin, being the social butterfly she was, tried to strike up conversation amidst the silence, in spite of the situation she was currently in.

“Can’t you tell already? Gods, girl, we are gods”- Khepri answered, seemingly still annoyed at her.

Yebin mentally facepalmed, of course, she had been studying Egyptian history and mythology ever since she entered university but she somehow still didn’t realize when Atem mentioned their names.

Atem, the god of creation, the OG god and a sun deity.

Khepri, the god of rebirth and sunset, another sun deity.

Made sense that it was Ra the one that sent them, yet it still bugged Yebin how Atem, the very definition of almighty, was under the rule of another god. To tell the truth, the entire situation hadn’t really clicked inside her head yet, but she wasn’t going to voice her concerns with the veracity of the whole thing, specially not when she just saw a man shift from a giant beetle to a human in a matter of seconds.

She was sure that, the more she thought about it, the closer she’d be to snapping.

“You don’t seem all that godly to me to be honest, where is that infinite wisdom and stuff?”- Troubled by her own thoughts, Yebin spoke without thinking properly and forgot to keep her manners for a moment.

“Well, excuse me for not showering you with idioms, lessons of acumen and AFTER YOU MURDERED EXACTLY ONE HUNDRED BABIES OF MINE!”- It was Khepri, again, the one who barked at her, shortly followed by an advice from Atem.

“Don’t mind him, he can get pretty grumpy when it comes to his children…”- The god of creation said, sounding aloof.

“I don’t follow”- She really didn’t, what was his problem exactly?

“Man, how dumb can you get?”- Khepri seemed to done with her it almost hurt - “What did I just transform into before I swooped in here to save your ?”

“A giant scarab, but what does that have to do with… oh…”- she knew exactly was he was talking about then.

“Exactly…”- Khepri’s sarcastic remark did not take long to appear.

“The insects you saw in your room were actually trying to cleanse the figurine… until you burned it down and released all the evil within it, of course”- Atem explained in his characteristic monotone sounding voice. - “Ra let us know of Set wrongdoings and told us to keep an eye on you, Khepri tried to prevent the artifact from harming your wife but… well, you know what happened next.”

“Damn… so I actually ruined things?”- It suddenly dawned on Yebin how she was the one that ed things up. Kind of a miserable thought to say the least.

“Damn right you did”- Yebin was growing quite tired of the god’s endless sarcasm supply.

“How was I supposed to know that those things were supposed to be helping? I freaked out, okay?”

“Here”- Atem cut the conversation short before he kneeled down besides Eunwoo’s body. The blonde girl was barely recognizable anymore, sporting many fractures and exposed bones on multiple sides of her body. Yebin turned around, she wasn’t exactly in the mood for a sight like that.

Atem had said that he was able to undo what Set did and Yebin had high hopes for it but still, even if it was a low chance, she didn’t want her last memory of her best friend to be that of a mangled corpse.

“He used your friend’s soul, corrupting it and remolding it to fit the pharaoh’s remains”- Atem explained like it was something he saw regularly. Yebin still didn’t understand – “Thus transforming the body into a vengeful lich...”

It didn’t take long for her to realize he was referring to Set and how he managed to wake up the pharaoh. Yet the god sounded weird for some reason, like he was struggling to talk.

“You seem confused, is everything alright?”- Admittedly, the question came out of nowhere, but Atem answered anyways.

“Oh yeah, I’m fine, it’s just… I struggle with my memory sometimes…”- The reply was curt and mysterious, yet Yebin pushed no further.

“Don’t ask about it girl, you wouldn’t understand anyways.”- Surprisingly, Khepri’s voice sounded like Atem’s when he wasn’t in a sour mood.

Yebin took a peek of Atem’s work. He was apparently commanding the white smoke silently, muttering a small chant every now and then while Khepri watched uninterestedly from the sides, yawning occasionally.

Eunwoo’s body was no longer looking that bad, the bloated skin had returned to normal and there was no trace of bones or anything. Now it looked more like she was sleeping against the cold, hard floor. She even had one of her “This-is-totally-not-my-jam” frowns in her face.

Finally, Yebin watched Atem put his hands together over Eunwoo’s chest. She was about to complain about the “not-so-innocent” nature of the act when Atem said something, unrecognizable to her, and Eunwoo disappeared.

 “Where did you take her?”

 “Her room… or at least what I think was her room…”- Yebin wasn’t sure if she was supposed to feel relieved or terrified - “Either way, she won’t remember anything by the time she wakes up, and if she does, she’ll most likely just brush it off as a nightmare.”

There was a brief pause, none of them spoke for some time until Yebin decided to. She cleared , catching the attention of both of them.

“So what now?”

“Easy, we take you to Ra”- Khepri stated plainly - “She is expecting you after all.”

“Well, I certainly wouldn’t mind meeting the sun god if he explained to me what the hell is…”- The prospect of meeting a mayor deity and the sun god was endearing to Yebin, whose mind had slowly started to acknowledge what had transpired - “Wait. A. Minute. She? Isn’t Ra supposed to be depicted as a male?”

Khepri emitted a short giggle and Atem looked at him for a brief moment as some sort of reprimand before he made eye contact with Yebin once more.

“Well, that was certainly the case before…”- Atem seemingly struggled to find the right words to explain - “You see, us gods are able to adapt any form we want and Lor- Lady Ra has been quite enchanted with her new form as of late… for the last three hundred years to be exact.”

“Whoa…”- Khepri chuckled again, this time at Yebin’s stupefaction.

“Indeed. Now grab my hand, I’ll take you to her”- Atem extended his hand and Yebin obliged, timidly taking hold of it.

The trio disappeared, just like Eunwoo just a few minutes ago, in a flash of white light.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The light inside the room was a stark contrast with the scarce light that was inside the pyramid. Yebin could barely attempt to open her eyes before having to shut them again due to the brightness.

She heard some voices but she couldn’t make anything out of them, she was completely disoriented. Between the weird teleportation experience and the blinding light her brain was about to explode. Throw a random headache into the mix and you’d find yourself a very grumpy Yebin. She’d have started hurling insults at random if it weren’t for the dizziness.

At least five minutes had to go by before she was able to open her eyes a little.

“Ascending can be rather… troubling for normal humans.”- The voice that greeted her didn’t belong to Atem or Khepri – “And my carriage isn’t exactly fit for visitors either…”

It was the voice of a girl, high-pitched and feminine yet not too much to be confused to that of a kid. Moreover, the air of dignity and wisdom the mere sound of her voice exuded was enough to convince Yebin it wasn’t a young person either, even if it sounded like one.

A few moments later, she could finally open her eyes to at least gaze at the owner of the voice.

“Greetings!”- The sun god greeted Yebin, who still couldn’t adjust to the intense brightness of the room, solemnly – “My name is Ra”

Twin pigtails, Yebin couldn’t stop herself from staring at them, baffled. The girl in front of her also seemed to be in a perpetual state of eyesmiling.

“You must be confused…”- The girl’s lips twitched, turning upwards into a small smile as she addressed Yebin’s confusion - “I assume both Atem and Khepri already told you the important parts”

“Um…”- Yebin hesitated for a moment, still marveling herself in the sight of the sun god. - “Yeah, kinda… well, actually… I don’t understand anything at all”

“To be expected”- Ra let out a girlish giggle, something that didn’t sound right once Yebin thought about it, who expects the sun god to laugh like that? - “I’ll try to be a forward and simple as I can be: Your wife was kidnapped by Set because he wants to unlock her memories”

“Unlock her memories?”- She remembers Set hinting at something like that, but it was still puzzling, why would he need to unlock her wife’s memories? In fact, what memories were they talking about?

“There is no easy way to say this.”- Ra’s face turned serious and her eyes opened, which slightly startled Yebin - “Your wife, Minkyung or whatever you may call her, is one of us, she is a god.”

“What? How? That’s not possible”- That piece of information hit Yebin like a truck, she’d surely have noticed if her wife was an omnipotent god, wouldn’t she? She was questioning everything she knew for a fact right now. - “How are you even supposed to exist? You were myths and legends just days ago for me…”

“Understandable”- In spite of the barrage of questions, that could clearly be considered insulting to some – especially when you were doubting of said person existence and you didn’t address them properly at all – Ra didn’t seem to mind Yebin’s brutal bluntness, instead, she kept explaining things to her, the smile never leaving her lips. - “Then you might be surprised to learn that every single thing you know is probably true… We are the gods of the ancient world, Kang Yebin. Left to be forgotten once humans moved on and war ravaged their knowledge… We are now nothing but mere pages in history books.”

“I… I’m so sorry…”- She didn’t know why, but Yebin felt the urge to apologize to her, maybe it was the fact that for each passing day, less and less people were willing to research about history itself.

“There is nothing for you to be sorry about, Kang Yebin”- Ra, despite being a little bit smaller than she was, walked up to her and reassured her, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder - “The work of your people is praiseworthy. Your kind keeps us alive with the way we get our power, the more people know about us the more power we’ll have, even if it may not reach our peak like in the past, we are grateful for your endeavors.”

“But why? Why stop showing yourselves to humanity? Wouldn’t you have immense power if they all knew then?”- It made sense, if everyone knew about the gods of the past, then their power would be limitless, it was a logical conclusion and it did nothing but to further increase Yebin’s curiosity.

“As humans strayed away from us, it was clear that our guidance was no longer needed and neither did they sought it actively. So, in the end, we decided it’d be for the best to just part ways with them, a sacrifice that had to be made if you ask me… yet many of my peers do not share my views on the matter.”- - “There was a gathering, most of us chose that path, yet now Set is acting up, causing trouble… I believe it has to do with Nephthys, your wife…”

“Why? Why were her memories locked then?”- The mere mention of Minkyung rallied Yebin once again. With everything that was happening it was hard for her to concentrate on the fact that her wife was hostage to a mad god.

“After we started to lose our power, Nephthys, your wife, opted for a more normal life. Sealing her powers inside her and erasing her memories before being relocated somewhere.”- Ra seemed to reminisce a little, holding back a polite chuckle - “She has been doing it for the last thousand years. Since she cannot physically die, once time passes and the suppressed memories resurface, she comes back to us and I myself apply the seal once again… Many other gods do that too”

“So, let me guess, Set actually wants to free that knowledge so he can take her again, after all she IS his wife”- Indeed, the ancient stories talked about Set and Nephthys being married, even though at the time Set apparently couldn’t care less about her, Yebin wondered exactly as to where the change of heart originated.

“Wonderful, I expected nothing less from you”- Ra beamed, apparently content with Yebin’s demonstration of knowledge. - “She didn’t love Set at all, part of the reason why she chose the path she did… I remember that stirred quite a bit of trouble at the time. Nephthys used to spend most of her time either with her sister Isis or with her favorite priestesses, is there anything else you’d like to ask?”

“Well… actually…”- The lingering question had been nagging at the back of Yebin’s head ever since she saw the girl in front of her, and apparently Ra had sensed that too.

“Oh? This body?”- Ra smile only grew bigger. - “I’ve grown quite attached to it for the past century when I was traveling the world… you mortals gave this one a different name too…”

Yebin was about to ask, but Ra did not give her enough time.

“Yehana, goddess of the sun”- The smile on Ra/Yehana’s face grew even bigger, if that was even possible - “I quite like that name if I have to be honest, has a certain refreshing tone to it.”

“Oh”- Yebin tried but couldn’t fully suppress the weird feeling that overcame her - “Fitting…”

“Now enough about me, Atem told me what Set did to you and your friend”- Yehana’s expression turned thoughtful - “We usually have a certain degree of freedom to do as we please as long as do not interfere with mortals like we used to in the past… So I’m going to have to ask you to stop him”

“Hold on a second, me? Why can’t the others do it?”- As much as Yebin was into the idea of rescuing her wife like a knight in shining armor, she didn’t stand a chance against someone with godly powers, and she was not foolish nor suicidal enough to face someone like that.

“If Set has Nephthys under his control then it’s likely they wouldn’t stand a chance against her powers… only you would be able to break that control in the best of cases”

“What? But Atem is the freaking god of creation, how come he can’t handle her?”

“You may have noticed already, but Atem is nothing like he once was.”- The mood turned sour for a second just before Yehana explained - “His power is sealed too.”

“Is that why he looks so forgetful and aloof all the time?”

“Certainly so, Atem, being the god of creation himself, has an amount of energy so vast that no simple human body could contain it; even with the decrease that come with the forgetfulness of humans.”- The sun god started pacing back and forth inside the room - “There were two choices, he either travelled the cosmos as formless energy or he remained inside a human body with limited access to his powers.”

“I see…”

“Naturally, he chose the latter, so we had to apply and amnesiac hex to make him forget his words of power”

“So the chants…”- Yebin was starting to connect the dots.

“That’s how we access our powers, the original language allows us to morph access the ether plane and draw energy from it… not that I expect you to understand what that means anyways.”- Ra/Yehana said with a tinge of arrogance in her voice. - “Atem cannot, under no circumstance, morph into his true form, lest it be a danger for humanity”

“Then… what do I have to do?”

“You are not going alone, of course not, my dear”- The smile returned to Yehana’s face - “But you are going to confront Set”

“And you are going to take back what’s truly yours.”

Sup’?

Trying to get back on routine, sorry for the unexpected month and a half vacation I took, updates should become a regular thing again until I finish this, the SAS side stories and a couple of chapters from primordial claw. Then I’ll take another month or two until I come back again.

Back to this story, the next chapter should be the end (or maybe not if it ends up being too large for my liking) this one isn’t proofread as of now (22/07 4:57 am. Here in Argentina) because I just finished it and I have a killing headache. I’ll proofread it once I wake up tomorrow.

Hitting the bed, again, sorry for the unexpected absence.

Hope you enjoy this exposition-heavy chapter.