"Okay, so…Ka, Akh and Ba...afterlife, soul form and soul mobility. What the fuck does that mean?" Why are the Egyptians so fond of riddles?"
Kurou had to think while trading blows with Set and the result was only getting worse. Set increasingly punished Kurou with punches, kicks and strikes from his scepter.
"Think Kurou, these guys like to be literal and metaphorical at the same time. Post-Mortal is the one who lives after death. Ka is the soul that lives after death," he thought.
Set crushed two of Kurou's ribs with a swing of the scepter straight to his torso, and he crashed against a wall, coughing blood.
"Shit, shit, shit...I'm really going to die like this! What's the point of gathering so much power from those half-assed gods if I can't even handle this guy?" Kurou said.
Set laughed out loud.
"Your pretense immortality is of no use against me, human. You're not a god, what makes you think you can wield the power of one? Your only choice is to surrender. Give your power to me and maybe I'll let you and your friend live", Set said.
"You just want to lay waste to everything, do you really think I'm going to believe you'll spare me?", Kurou said, with a hand on his broken ribs, breathing hard because of the pain.
"That's a good argument", Set said, still chuckling. "You're less of a fool than you look".
But before Set could resume the onslaught, strong winds kicked up a lot of sand in the area. Set and Kurou noticed a source of evil energy approaching, and the god's attention strayed to it. Kurou frowned.
"Shit, here comes more trouble. I need to think fast...okay, Akh is the form of the soul, it must be what I use when I project my shadow", Kurou thought. A whirlpool of sand swirled violently and dissipated after a few seconds, revealing Ramses II, completely possessed by Apep, the Serpent of Chaos. His eyes glowed yellow, with vertical pupils like a snake's.
"Oh fuck, come on...if Ka is Post-Mortality, and Akh is the shadow projection, then Ba...soul mobility...", Kurou thought, but was interrupted by a monstrous roar from Set. Kurou was slightly stunned by the sheer power of the god's raging scream, but was brought back by a familiar voice.
"Ba is your ability to transition between life and death, Kurou", Harakhty said, approaching Kurou, limping and leaning on overturned old cars.
"Harakhty!", Kurou yelled.
Harakhty fell to the ground, unconscious after being tortured by Set. Kurou was enraged to see his friend in that condition. The policeman wasn't even that close to him, the two had only known each other for a short time, but he was an innocent man who didn't deserve to suffer because of the intrigues and skirmishes caused by the Egyptian gods.
Apep's alien voice caused Kurou to wake up from his thoughts and come back to reality.
"They tried to eliminate me from the game, but they only managed to make me come back stronger and even angrier", Apep said, manipulating dark energies that gave Kurou the feeling that he was still on Duat grounds.
"Serpent, return to the abyss from where you came. This world is mine and you have no place in it", Set said with hatred in his eyes.
"And who are you to lay claim this world, fallen god? You couldn't even handle those poor mortals," Apep said, running towards Set with astonishing speed.
"You're in luck, worm", Set told Kurou. "Our fight is on halt for a minute. After I destroy that filthy snake, I'll take care of you," Set said with a cruel laugh, heading towards Apep.
Seizing the opportunity that was presented to him by the two monsters pitting against each other, Kurou tried to understand what Horus tried to tell him.
"OK, so Ba is my soul's ability to transition between life and death. What now? Nothing has changed. It was no use wasting time trying to understand those stupid riddles. I better get Harakhty to safety before we get caught in the wreckage those monsters are creating", he said.
Kurou carried Harakhty behind a building cut in half and placed him in a spot that seemed the safest in the midst of all that madness.
"It seems too convenient that those two are fighting each other instead of coming to kill me", Kurou thought out loud.
"Are you feeling left out, Kurou?", said a female voice.
"You're still going to scare me to death!", Kurou said upon seeing Hatshepsut, who appeared out of nowhere.
"You are a wreck. I thought you'd be stronger after the coronation, but instead you look like a kid who's been beaten up by his neighbors", Hatshepsut said with a light smile.
"Haven't you seen how powerful Set is now? He's been feeding on his own destruction, and even my regeneration isn't keeping up", Kurou said, pointing at the god of storms, fiercely battling Apep.
"You're probably getting it all wrong", Hatshepsut said.
"What am I getting wrong? Horus made it very clear that I need to converge the three aspects of my soul so that I can use the power of the gods to the fullest".
"Did he tell you what aspects these are?", Hatshepsut asked.
"Yes, Ka, Akh and Ba. Post-Mortality, Shadow Projection and Soul Mobility, the ability to traverse between life and death", Kurou said.
"Yeah, you got it wrong", Hatshepsut said, with a little laugh. "Akh is not shadow projection. 'Soul Form', remember? That's what Akh really means".
"Right, Soul Form", Kurou said, confused.
"I can see you haven't put a lot of thought into this, but I know what you've been through", Hatshepsut said. "It's hard to think when a god is trying to kill you".
"EXACTLY", Kurou said, extending his arms in a gesture of thanks.
"All right, listen. Akh is not shadow projection, is the aspect of your soul that lets you adapt to any hardships. The form of the soul is not simply the shape of the soul or how you project it, it's its resilience, its ability to bounce back from pain, misery and any other kind of tribulation", Hatshepsut said.
"So...Ka keeps my soul alive after death. Ba lets my soul traverse between the worlds of the dead and the living. And Akh…allows my soul to withstand the hardships of both life and death?", Kurou asked, not so certain.
"That's pretty much it, Kurou", Hatshepsut nodded. "Concentrate on the hardships you have gone through, and it will come to you. I promise".
Kurou made sure Apep and Set were still fighting, checked Harakhty from the corner of his eye to see if he was okay, leaned against the building and closed his eyes.
Kurou remembered all of the suffering and loneliness he has gone through up to now. Not only from losing his newly made friends upon arriving in Egypt, but also from the miserable life he had led up until that point. Kurou had always been miserable, mediocre, useless. His soul had been tortured not by the defeats he had suffered in his life, but simply by the sheer frustration of not even doing anything worth suffering a loss.
He was, in a sense, already dead even before the plane crash.
And that wasn't fair to life itself. Kurou wasn't disabled, mentally ill or a drug addicted. He was just apathetic and indifferent about everything, from work, to family, to his own health.
And he never knew why until he became immortal.
It seems being unable to die gives a man a different sense of what life is all about.
Upon realizing he couldn't die, he thought boredom would be his only friend, and that he would do nothing but stare at the ceiling of some dusty old room like he used to.
But fate, it seems, smiles at you when you turn your back to it.
Since Kurou found himself incapable of dying, he also found freedom.
Freedom to do what he wanted to do, kill who he felt deserved death, follow the path he thought was right, offend who he felt was unworthy of his respect.
Unfortunately, that freedom came with a price. Kurou was thrown into the middle of a war between gods and pharaohs, and from the buck naked stranger lost in the middle of the desert, he turned into the heir of Egypt, King of a long lost civilization that for all his life he believed was nothing but a bunch of religious fanatics.
Still, he had the freedom to choose. And the fact that he wouldn't die because of that choice was more than enough for him to risk it all, confident that he could overcome whatever hardship he could possibly face because of what he had chosen.
In this case, Kurou decided to fight. Not for Egypt, neither for the Gods or Pharaohs, but to eliminate those who kept him shackled. If he was going to bore himself to death afterwards, it didn't matter. As long as the Gods and Pharaohs kept fighting amongst each other, he wouldn't find peace. They would make sure he wouldn't.
Kurou was about to enrage himself and go berserk when he felt Hatshepsut's hands cupping his cheeks.
"You don't need to enrage yourself, Kurou. You know it deep inside, don't you? You are eternal, now. You can do whatever you want. Your soul has been battered and hammered into shape, like a sword in a forge. Now it is sharp and strong, ready to strike. Yamada Kurou, set yourself free from the shackles that tie your hands. Show the Gods and Pharaohs of this land who's the strongest!".
Upon hearing those words, Kurou's soul erupted like a wild volcano. The endless flow of energy that poured from his body, once blackened and raw, was now golden and shiny, warm and soothing.
Kurou cuts and bruises recovered instantly, including his broken ribs. Kurou took a deep breath, as if he was breathing for the first time in his whole life.
"Let's end this now!", Kurou said to Hatshepsut, to which she nodded confidently.
Both Set and Apep were startled at the outburst of Kurou's power. For the first time, they felt genuine fear.
"It seems you let the worm turn into a python, Sutekh", Apep said with a disgusted face.
"Wasn't you supposed to destroy Amon-Ra and devour the Sun, serpent?", Set replied. "Too late now. The Avenger has awakened completely, and he won't rest until we're all dead".
"You might die indeed, but I...", Apep laughed out loud as sand poured from every pore of Ramses II's body, "I AM BIGGER THAN THIS WORLD ITSELF AND NOTHING CAN STOP ME!", the Serpent of Chaos shouted as the sand coalesced, forming a gigantic snake.
The giant serpent whirled in a spiral creating tornadoes and sandstorms capable of destroying all that was left in Cairo. Set easily shielded himself from Apep's attack, watching as Ramses' body fell to the ground, inert and probably dead, carried away by the powerful air current.
Powerful as he was, Set could not penetrate the sandstorm the Serpent of Chaos was conjuring, and he knew that giving it momentum would only cause the evil magic to gain strength, to the point of consuming the whole planet's atmosphere, until it turned the myth of Apep consuming the Sun, at least for Earth's inhabitants, into truth.
Realizing it, Set shouted for Kurou to hear.
"Post-Mortal, you see what the Serpent is doing. Help me defeat it or we'll all perish!".
Before Set could finish speaking, Kurou appeared beside him, levitating as if he were a god, but with the same insolent and irreverent expression he had always wear when dealing with the gods of Egypt.
"Who could have known, uh, ugly monster? Asking a mere mortal for help," Kurou said.
"We don't have time to bicker. Either we fight together, or we all die. I propose a truce. What do you say?", Set said painfully, trampling on his pride.
Kurou kept his distance, knowing how vile and cunning Set was. "I accept your proposal, for now. But that doesn't mean I'm going to add you to my networks after this is over."
Set growled at Kurou, ignoring his provocations and nonsense, and positioned himself to face Apep, using his own magic to dampen the overpowering gust of wind the Serpent was manipulating. As he did so, Set looked out of the corner of his eye and said: "I know the woman Pharaoh is with you. She knows the spell. Tell her to chant it before it's too late."
Kurou looked at Hatshepsut, who nodded. "Spell No. 7 of the Book of the Dead. I know it. I will chant it, Kurou, but beware of Sutekh. He is the most treacherous of the gods of Egypt," she said. Kurou grimaced and pulled out his khopesh, which glowed the same golden color that his soul was radiating.
Hatshepsut then chanted the spell:
"O you waxen one who take by robbery and who live on the inert ones, I will not be inert for you, I will not be weak for you, your poison shall not enter my members, for my members are the member of Atum. If I am not weak for you, suffering from you shall not enter into these members of mine. I am Atum at the head of the Abyss, my protection is from the gods, the lords of eternity, I am He whose name is secret, more Holy of throne than the Chaos-gods; I am among them, I have gone forth with Atum, I am one who's not examined, I am hale, I am hale!".
As Hatshepsut chanted the spell, Apep's discomfort was made visible. It was as if something was attacking the Serpent from within its guts as it concentrated to control the sandstorm.
Both Set and Kurou noticed that Apep seemed to be growing weaker, but as they tried to get closer, the monster roared with enormous intensity, causing them to be pushed back, and the storm got even bigger, soaring into the sky and expanding in a catastrophic avalanche of destruction.
The sand and strong gusts of wind hampered Hatshepsut's job, which should have been as simple as saying a prayer. But the strong and resilient Pharaoh would not be shaken by anything, even more so at such a crucial moment. Seeing how hard she was trying, Kurou steeled his resolve, aware of the power he was now able to manifest.
Exacerbating courage and determination, Kurou decided to invade the eye of the storm, being hit by several debris and ending up bitten by one of Apep's fangs. The Serpent's massive teeth slammed into Kurou's shoulder, causing terrible lacerations and indescribable pain, but that wouldn't be enough to stop the Post-Mortal, now that he had his regeneration ability restored. Furthermore, although his left arm had been immobilized by Apep's attack, his khopesh was in his right hand, granting him the perfect opportunity to plunge it into the Serpent's snout, and the power of Amon-Ra flowed through its body causing the monster to howl in pain.
Seeing that the sandstorm practically ceased due to Kurou's attack, Hatshepsut chanted the spell even more forcefully, ending it at the exact moment that Set plunged his scepter into Apep's head, impaling it on the ground.
Kurou evaded the attack by inches, aware that Set's attack was aimed at him as well, and inwardly laughed at the god of storms perfidious malice.
Silence was all they could hear for several seconds that felt like an eternity.
Suddenly, a mighty tremor shook the earth, and the Serpent of Chaos began to disintegrate, leaving nothing but sand and mud on Cairo's shattered ground.
"We have done it!", Hatshepsut said.
"I guess we have...", Kurou mumbled.
Without looking, Set smirked, and a sand swirl appeared behind Kurou.
The Post-Mortal had less than a second to evade the bite that most certainly would chomp half his body off.
It was Ammit.
"Goddamit you, Set. Off with the truce, already?", Kurou said, getting ready for battle, again.