Alaric's journey in Egypt finally came to an end.
However, this trip brought him quite a number of gains.
Collecting Egypt's magic was secondary, and helping Nitocris build a powerful empire had merely been something done along the way.
Alaric's true gains were twofold.
The first was his control over the leylines of all Egypt.
After Nitocris unified Egypt, everything in the land came under her control. At that time, Alaric had a sudden idea.
Although the division of divine domains prevented gods from crossing between them, what would happen if, just as he had done in the Greek divine domain, he merged all of Egypt's leylines with Hecate?
In theory, after becoming the Goddess of the Magic Network, all leylines belonging to her were like parts of her body, under her complete control.
One could even say: the leylines themselves were the goddess's true form.
Although divine domains separated the gods, what if a god's "body" crossed those boundaries?
In that case, could the god's consciousness transcend the separation and enter a new domain?
With that thought, he acted immediately.
Taking advantage of Nitocris's large-scale construction projects, Alaric replicated his earlier method, bringing the leylines around Lake Faiyum under Hecate's control.
Then, Hecate's consciousness descended.
This goddess successfully crossed the divine domain boundary and manifested in Egypt.
At the same time, the Heliopolitan pantheon of Egypt sensed the birth of a new goddess.
Sure enough, Alaric's hypothesis was correct, through this method, a god's existence could cross divine domains.
However, things were not as perfect as imagined.
In Egypt, Hecate's displayed power was only at the level of a minor deity, essentially equivalent to a guardian goddess of Lake Faiyum.
The overwhelming might she possessed in Greece, where she could stand alone against the entire Olympian pantheon as the Goddess of Magic, was nowhere to be found here.
In other words, the current Hecate was more like a localized deity of the Faiyum region.
This situation made Alaric realize the true reason behind it.
The claim that gods cannot cross the barriers between divine domains was only partially accurate.
The real reason was that these barriers sealed away divine power and divinity.
That was why gods could not enter other divine domains.
However, a god's consciousness itself could cross such boundaries.
But which god would be foolish enough to separate their consciousness entirely from their power? The divine world, like the human one, was full of competition.
Doing so would be tantamount to handing over one's power to others, while the consciousness that crossed into another domain would gain nothing, after all, consciousness alone could not establish a new divinity in a foreign domain.
Thus, no god would undertake such a thankless endeavor.
Hecate, however, was completely different from other gods.
She had become the Goddess of Magic because her consciousness had fused with the leylines. She was the leylines, and the leylines were her.
Her ascension to godhood was merely the elevation of her soul to sustain such a form, while domains like magic and magecraft were merely additional enhancements.
As such, she had no fear of her power being usurped.
Moreover, Alaric's actions in a foreign divine domain ensured that she possessed divine power upon arrival.
However, as mentioned earlier, divine power could not cross domains. Therefore, in Egypt, Hecate only possessed the power derived from a single leyline.
But for Alaric and her, that was enough.
As long as they continued steadily expanding their control over leylines, one day her power in the Egyptian divine domain would become as formidable as it was in Greece.
For now, although the Egyptian gods had noticed Hecate's presence, they would merely regard her as a newly born local deity, or perhaps a resurrected goddess.
After all, her appearance coincided with the creation of the Faiyum reservoir. The revival of a once-dead lake could very well signify the return of a long-lost lake goddess.
Thus, Hecate successfully established a "branch" within the Egyptian divine domain.
Naturally, after her arrival, Hecate became acquainted with Nitocris.
Although she usually indulged Alaric without question, seeing him assist Nitocris, just as he had once helped her ascend to godhood and take revenge on the Olympian pantheon, left even Hecate feeling a trace of jealousy.
And so, Nitocris came to learn a bit about Alaric's romantic history in Greece.
This brought Alaric quite a bit of trouble for a time, as he had to endure Nitocris's resentful gaze every day.
That pitiful expression of hers was enough to make anyone question their life choices…
In any case, as Nitocris continued her massive construction projects across Egypt, Alaric steadily expanded his "branches" throughout the land.
In the end, the construction of the Pyramid of Nitocris became the final step for Hecate to ascend as the Goddess of the Magic Network within Egypt.
In short, Alaric's plans in Egypt were essentially complete.
His second gain was learning the secrets of the Age of Gods within the Type-Moon world.
As Pharaoh, Nitocris ruled Egypt for sixty-seven years before ultimately passing the throne to her nephew.
However, no one knew that Nitocris had not truly died.
As a powerful mage-queen, even after ruling Egypt for over sixty years and reaching nearly ninety years of age, her physical body remained youthful.
As a divine descendant and a master of magecraft, while she might not have been immortal, her lifespan was at least comparable to that of Phantasmal Species.
In truth, she could have ruled Egypt for hundreds, even thousands of years.
The reason she abdicated under the pretense of death was an invitation from the Heliopolitan gods.
As the one who had always assisted Nitocris in ruling Egypt, Alaric accompanied her to meet her ancestors, the gods of Heliopolis.
In fact, the Heliopolitan gods were truly ancient beings among deities.
Long before the arrival of the extraterrestrial entity around 12,000 BCE, the Heliopolitan pantheon already existed.
At that time, they existed as primordial conceptual gods; concepts such as the Ennead had not yet even formed.
After the catastrophic arrival of the extraterrestrial force, when the primordial gods shattered and declined, the Heliopolitan pantheon, following the Babylonian pantheon, emerged early as part of the new generation of gods.
This was also why Egyptian civilization arose shortly after Mesopotamian civilization in history.
Perhaps it was because Nitocris had achieved feats unmatched by any Pharaoh before her, or perhaps it was due to her extraordinary talent as a descendant of the gods. In any case, the Heliopolitan gods greatly appreciated this junior.
Thus, they finally manifested and communicated with her.
During this process, Alaric also took part and inevitably learned a number of secrets about the gods from them.