Khal looked at the old man with contempt, unable to contain his dismay. Since when was Gahzo attached to his son? After his recent betrayal, how can he proudly pretend to save his son? The Dune Walker was not able to understand the statement of the man. Long ago, he would have grasped the deep relationship of a father for his son, but that side of him was gone. Erased by the years of vagrancy that he spent the last century. Khal forgot how to love long ago, or at least he convinced himself on that…
"Why… Why now do you want to be a hero? How can you intend to sacrifice everything for someone that you betrayed!" asked Khal, looking at the ground thoughtfully.
"Khal… he is my son… Even if he breaks my heart a thousand times or if I try to distance myself from him. I can't stop loving him. I was the adult, and I acted as the child."
"Even if I make a promise, Nothing tells you that I will be able to save him. I'm an undead, the same kind that wants you dead every day. Unlike the gods you glorify, I can steal, kill and even lie… How can you be sure that I would not betray you! "
"I saw your look at these children before. Khal, I believed too that Dune Walkers were emotionless, but you are different… I know that!"
In the eyes of Khal, deep memories flashed.
"different…me different…."
A rainy day with two kids dancing alone in the street of a busy city. Their drippy hair, their smooth movement and the smile on their face. The temperature was horrible, but their hearts were full of joy even with that. Then a scream… blood, tears and darkness. A head fell on the ground turning the sky from gray to pitch black. After, nothing but the silence… One of the kids woke up alone in a dark but large panorama. The ground was filled with even darker water, and in front of him, a silhouette gazed at him. A beautiful and scary look; horrendous but classy body; A monster hidden behind a human figure. A God…
Camelia saw in Khal something she had never perceived before. The Dune Walker was fooling everyone, but not her. Khal was afraid… Behind his stoic face, his mind was in a commotion. Then in an attempt to bring him back, she walked through the corridor, opened her arms, and hugged him. It lasted only a few seconds, but for a small moment, the crisp body of Khal relaxed. Almost relieved of all pressure.
"I don't quite understand everything, but I know one thing for sure. You're a good man, Dune Walker."
Khal pushed back Camelia quickly and summoned his sword. Threatening the girl in the process.
"What do you want from me? Take care of your business alone! Everything happened because of the foolishness of your own kind," shouted Khal, pointing his sword to the head of the princess.
"Own kind…" asked Gahzo, strolling between the blade and the scared Camelia.
"Why do you talk like you are not like us?"
Khal falls back, putting down his sword. Stuck in a place like a statue, he stared at the ceiling, powerless. "Human isn't it…." He slowly returned his scimitar to sand and walked in front of Gahzo. He then gazed at him with animosity and took off his necklace. He showed it to him.
"A Dune Walker works by making contracts. I don't care about human pity. Do you intend to give me all the things that you promised me, ol' man?"
"My decision was made long ago, Dune Walker. I will sacrifice everything for letting my son and this city exist another day."
The black walker pointed his golden eyes to the resolved man.
"These eyes are marked by Heh. Giving me the ability to see your longevity. I promise you on these eyes that if you live quietly, you will have 1 year before your body begins to crumble. Do you accept this outcome?"
"Do what you need to do…."
With this answer, Khal then proceeded with the operation. A large amount of sand emerges from the body of Bag. The particle floated in the air and engulfed the whole room in a vicious dark sandstorm. Camelia and the counselors grabbed every part of the library to take cover. Khal recited an old prayer and reversed the pendant, letting the sand fall in the right direction. In minutes, the already old features of the man grew in scope. When the storm finally stepped down. Everyone was mesmerized; Gahzo was weaker than ever and unrecognizable.
Without looking back, the young Dune Walker told Camelia about his plan.
"Go to the door of Geb. If anything happens, wait there, Geb shouldn't let his door be broken easily. If I can't stop the sultan, this door will be our only hope."
"How would you find your way to my father?" asked Camelia
"The scent of Anubis is strong right now, and your father is sure to be at the center of it."
He then opened the library door but stopped before closing it behind him. Gahzo looked silently, waiting for a remark from Khal. The undead turned his head to him and nodded.
"This time, you made the right decision, ol' man. let the princess protect you, okay, your time is done…."
Gahzo smiled, and tears dropped from his cheeks.
"You better save this city, Dune Walker, or it's your time that will be counting."
Khal nodded and ran away. Starred by the wise Gahzo…
—
The room was dark and humid. The roof was old, and water leaked through it to attain the ground slowly. Making the green roots all over the place drank from this unique nectar. Even with the multitude of lamps all around the site. The room was obscure. Not because of the poor reflection of light on the wall, but because of the heart of the men filling the place. The only feeble hope was the boy attending this banish experiment. A kid hid in the middle of foolish adults…
Screamed from outside of the room began to be heard. The Anubis demons were starting to walk. In a spider form, they were infesting the underground alley, creating panic on their way, but that didn't stop the Sultan from his experiment. He quickly signaled the remorseful Saan, who prepared his two emblematic swords to fight.
"Majesty, perhaps It will be better for me to protect you from the inside…."
"The danger it's outside Saan. Your role is there."
"but…"
"You heard the sultan…" shouted Nasseh with a smile on his face. "Whoosh whoosh!"
Nasseh looked at him with anger and quickly turned his head on the poor Ali stuck in between. Without saying a word, he reached the door and invited Nas and Ali to follow him.
"That's a good thing since you already explained how to do it, scientist. We don't need you here anymore; perhaps you can help me deal with this monster."
"Who told you I'm a fighter? I'm sure the sultan…."
"That's enough, you two," cut the sultan. "I don't need anyone to finish the operation. You can go, scholar. The west gate should be safe. Go to the palace from there."
Angry, Nas stopped and tried to explain himself, but that only resulted in him being kicked out of the room with Ali. Not far behind, Saan was gazing at him with a proud face. Ali, scared, grabbed the lab coat of the young white-haired man. The demons were already gorging one of the two alleys. Saan jumped in front of the teen and quickly slashed the spiders without waiting. He then proceeds to block the dangerous path with a pile of roots. Creating a wall between Ali, Saan and him.
"Take the right road. We have plenty of guards on the way; you should be safe."
"How sweet of you!" answered Nasseh to the Walker.
"Go before I change my mind."
Ali approved quickly and pulled the scholar away. The kid was insecure, and all his body was bruised by the tension. When he planned on making his way to the palace, he never expected to be muzzled by this kind of scheme.
"Do… Do you really think that all of this will work?"
"What do you mean by that? Do you think I am a charlatan?" shouted Nas while pushing Ali away. Even with that reaction, a smile always stuck on his face.
The road was pretty large, and multiple large pillars maintained the structure with the help of large Geb roots. Only small torches on each side of the road were illuminating the corridor. Far away, multiple screams from demons were inflating a creepy atmosphere. Ali was not in his element, and the boy in the beautiful muscular body of a young adult was acting like a total kid. To the surprise of Nasseh looking at his funny gesture.
"No… no. but raise the dead his…."
"Crazy? Hahahaha, more like impossible," shouted Nas firmly.
"W… What…. and the flower and the explanation you gave to the sultan."
Nasseh then took a proud pose and pointed at his head.
"It was a good show, wasn't it? When I made the ankh flash, I placed the flower, and everyone saw nothing. Oh, when I think about it, the young Dune Walker saw through it… He's not bad…."
"But all the things you said to the sultan during this last day… about bringing back the dead to life, was it a lie?"
Ali was trembling in disgust. His eyes were wide open and fulminated from doubt.
" Humm, more like a lie hiding behind the truth. In theory, everything I explained was true. The proof is all around you, hiding in the core of the desert. The land of Damar is the place where your so-called God Ra created and sealed the demon Apep. To be more rational, for me, the event was more like a massive catastrophe of an unknown origin. All the sand of Damar is a residue of hold structure of all kinds from before the awakening. From plants to animals or even humans… Like my demonstration, large destruction pushing away Ankh from a material creates sand or ashes. Any object can't live without ankh unless it sands."
"I don't understand where you are going?"
"Oh, a simple mind, to summarize. Ankh is the only thing that maintains matter in his form. Without Ankh, Pshhh, only sand. The proof is that lands after the endless sea are pretty much non-desertic."
"Nothing exists behind the endless sea! After it, we fall to the afterworld!" shouted Ali
"Oh yes, young man, the "afterworld." You all live in disbelief. My memory is quite blurry, but I'm from a place far from the land of Damar… A place filled… yes filled… with white…."
Nasseh began to stutter, incapable of remembering clearly the scenery from his hometown. His memory was locked by a kind of strange and flashy light.
"You liar!" shouted Ali before going away.
"N… no… The real liar is you and that green Dune Walker behind. I saved you and put you in favor of the sultan, and that's how you repay me!"
"I never asked for your help…."
" Sure things, but this Geb contractor is even worse."
"What do you mean?" asked Ali, looking at one of the numerous roots all around.
"The corpse in this room isn't his kid. The body there is fresh and doesn't have traits similar to the Sultan. It's clearly the body of someone else. And when I saw the strange behavior of Saan, I'm pretty sure it's not the first time he let the sultan believe in this treachery."
"But why? I thought that Dune Walkers were scholars without any human-kind of attachment. Why lie to his contributor? "
"These men, intellectuals? Dune Walkers are only instructed by their experience, and this man looks even younger than me with his way of talking. He showed too much love to the sultan for a Walker. Sometimes he even acts like the sultan is his own father…."
Then before he finished, a loud sound stopped the two boys. Nasseh persuaded that it was an Anubis demon up his hands and prepared his tenses to fight. A shadow jumped from a hole in the ceiling and threw rock at Nas, who escaped in extremis. Creating space between him and Ali. The unknown man then slid from the blind spot of the scientist and tried to slash him with vivacity. Nasseh instinctively bent and showed the back of his white smock. The inside was unusually dark, and the stranger's fist dove in it like quicksand. Nasseh then took off his coat and pulled it to his side. The man fell, and Nasseh charged his fist with ankh, ready to retaliate. Just before he struck, a scream from Ali stopped him.
"Stop it, you two!"
Nas then looked at the man in front of him and burst out laughing. A black scimitar was pressing on his belly, ready to finish him first.
"So it's you, contractor of Heh."
"A pleasure, always mad scientist"
"Interesting, your sword is pretty sharp"
"And ready to slash before your fist."
"You think?"
The two men stared at each other. Nasseh was smiling stupidly, but Khal looked at him with a heavy face. Khal was ready to kill the scholar, and the scholar knew it… The two of them could finish pierced on a single move, but only the immortal will last.
"Stop it, Khal, I don't think killing him will resolve anything. We should move."
Khal hesitated but released his sword and stood up at the boy's side. Ali then explained to him the situation while they pursued their way to the room where the experiment should have started. On his back, Nas followed the two of them.
"...But we don't need to worry. The sultan will never succeed," finished Ali.
"That's not how things work with Anubis Ali. He doesn't only punish acts but principally attempts. If we don't stop him quickly, A door will be called"
"A door of Anubis," asked Ali, intrigued.
"Legend says…" answered Nas in the back, "that Anubis doors only can be invoked to sully attempts to break the taboo."
"So you knew it all along!" screamed Khal. He stopped his run and grabbed the collar of the man. Nasseh raised his hand in peace.
"Hahaha, I never saw one, so I don't really believe in all of that... But I would love to experiment on it"
"So you lead the sultan so that he can test it in your place! How far could you go to deny reality!"
"As far as I need to go to know the truth," Nasseh released himself and made appeared from his coat slight gold sediment. "The path of a scientist is a hard path full of sacrifice, but their role is necessary. They bring answers and prove the truthfulness of this world!"
He then threw to the group the residue and ran to the experiment room. Khal was stunned for a moment, blind by the pure energy of gold, burning the skin of the undead. When he woke up, he proceeded to run to the door. On his way, Saan saw him and cut the roots he created for defence to join him.
"What are you doing here and not at the side of Camelia? If you enter this room, I will…."
"Shut up, Salian, I know everything!"
The Geb Dune Walker, shocked by the remark, froze in place and looked at the three men entering the room consecutively. When he finally woke up and joined, morbid energy fulminated from the lab. Energy so dense and heavy than even him as a Dune Walker could hardly sustain. In front of him, Ali sat down, and Khal looked after him. Nasseh was barely standing but smiled with excitement. The sultan was at the side of the body in front of the source of this dark ankh. A simple door of black wood was standing before him. A humble door with nothing special. The door opened slowly, and the pressure increased exponentially, pushing back everyone. Only the sultan was unaffected. His eyes and eyes were passing from red to dark at each second. The sultan was stuck in place, attracted by the door marked by a sign well known by anyone.
"Close the door!" screamed Khal, to the sultan unable to answer.
Khal started to run to the sultan but fell. He tried to crawl to the door, but everything passed too fast. A finger crossed the door and proceeded through the frame. Then the door shut and disappeared, and the calm filled the room again.
"Don't touch it!" screamed Khal to the sultan, unable to answer.
Saan, remorseful, understood the seriousness of the situation and shouted too.
"Please, Dad, stop !" to the sultan, unable to answer.
Khal succeeded in grabbing the ruler, and Saan joined him. Even Ali held the two undead and helped them pull the sultan away, but it was futile. The sultan grabbed the finger, pushing out the group with a wave of a dark ankh. The ruler was trembling, and his body began to convulse. He turned his head in 360 upon his shoulder and looked at them with dead eyes.
"It's been a long time, Khal."
"You have the sultan. You don't need to punish anyone else."
"No, I need more…" answered Anubis through the mouth of the sultan with a deep broken voice.
Ankh began to engorge the finger, creating tremors all around the group. Khal fell back to Ali and Nasseh and prepared an incantation quietly.
"Let's begin the tremor from the Nile! aleankabut alsaamu! "
Then a large explosion destroyed the room and spread through a large zone in the city, killing thousands of citizens in a radius of almost a mile. Khal anticipated the detonation and called his bouncy demon Nitat to protect the two men. The underground was now wide open, and chaos spread throughout the city. In front of them, a gigantic spider demon of 15 feet roared in rage. Khal pushed aside his demon and looked at the things with disdain. His face showed nothing but his hand-shaken with fear. Behind him, Ali was voiceless, and only the laugh of Nasseh could be heard. The head of the things was marked by the sign of Anubis…