"I am the commander of the Greek army and an ally of Ramesses II. I've already sent out a rescue signal to the surrounding forces. Someone will come to receive this ship soon! You two are coming with me!"
Seeing how urgent the situation was, Samael immediately stirred his divine will and laid down a protective Barrier. Then, without giving them any chance to object, he scooped up the female pharaohs and beat his wings at full speed, flying toward Egypt.
Moments later, a massive black Great Dragon skimmed over from above the Sea of Chaos. Its claws seized the damaged Solar Barque of the Night, and amid the screams of the survivors inside the cabin, it flew toward Thermopylae.
In a corner of the lower cabin, an elegant woman with long black hair draped over her shoulders and a flower hairpin in her hair clasped her hands before her chest, praying over and over without pause.
Now that Nitocris and Cleopatra had confirmed someone else would take over their mission and finally let their worries go, Samael immediately cut off the projection over that airspace. His gaze turned sharp and cold. His metallic wings vibrated at high speed, shedding dozens of feathers that, driven by divine power, shot into the vast sea fog ahead.
Hiss, hiss, hiss, hiss!
Amid the dull sound of torn cloth, deep-sea serpents were pierced through their cores one after another, shrieking as they fell into the sea.
Looking down through the thin mist, he saw the tide gradually darken and churn violently. One marine creature after another tore at the others in a frenzy. Their bodies twisted and swelled at an alarming speed, their limbs mutating into hideous and terrifying forms.
As the three figures swept across the sky, the aberrations that had caught the scent of fresh prey leapt out of the sea, lunging toward Samael and the others.
Roar!
Just then, amid a chorus of hundreds of roars, spell projectiles of every color, some as small as pigeon eggs and others as large as washbasins, rained down like a storm. Their ferocious firepower swept the surrounding sea clean.
Sizzle…
Yet the pieces of flesh floating in the water did not lose their vitality. Instead, they fused together, gathering into new twisted bodies.
"Spell: Blazing Sky! Spell: Dense Sky! Spell: Icy Sky! Curse Layer: Radiant Sun! Curse Layer: Black Sky Cavern! Tamamo Love Bullets!"
In the next instant, rapid divine words echoed all around. Countless Magecraft arrays formed on both sides of Samael's path. Like a torrential downpour, spells crashed down amid the shouting of a certain fox spirit, clearing the way for the three figures ahead.
"My·de·ar♡, go ahead and do whatever bold thing you need to do. Leave this place to little Tamamo! Your beautiful, gentle, devoted wife will always be your strongest support."
Tamamo-no-Mae descended from midair and landed on the back of the hundred-headed Great Dragon Ladon. She turned gracefully and made an elegant gesture with her fingers.
Samael nodded from afar, then accelerated without hesitation.
"You ugly freaks, every last one of you, get out of my way! Let me show you what divine punishment means! World-Shattering Slaughter Realm! Tamamo Love Bullets!"
But the instant Tamamo-no-Mae saw Samael off and turned to face the swarms of aberrations below, that damn fox immediately changed into an openly disgusted expression.
It feels like something strange got mixed in there…
Hearing her shrill cries one after another, the Ancient Serpent's mouth twitched. He steadied himself and finally found a moment to turn to the two female pharaohs.
"What exactly happened? Tell me while we move."
Nitocris composed herself, pressed her lips together, and began explaining the situation in Egypt.
Three days ago, just as the Pharaoh was preparing to gather his army according to their agreement and march on Thermopylae, an uninvited guest arrived from the Red Sea. The prophet of the Israelites, Ramesses II's brother, Moses.
Ramesses II and Moses had long since become enemies due to their different stances and ideals. The two had sworn never to meet again.
However, Moses brought something, and terms, that the Pharaoh could not refuse.
A sacred object of Judaism. The Covenant.
As long as he renewed the covenant with God upon those Stone Tablets, restored the Ramesseum Tentyris, and transformed it into a Divine Tower to welcome the descent of the Kingdom of Heaven, Ramesses II's eldest son, who had died during the Ten Plagues of Egypt, and his wife, Queen Nefertari, who had passed away in sorrow, would both be granted the right to resurrection.
And when his wife truly stepped out from the light and stood alive before him, Ramesses II hesitated no longer. In the end, he turned his back on Ra, severed the connection between the Egyptian divine realm and the earth, and made a pact with a foreign Divine Spirit.
Once the plan was complete, the figure that had been plotting for so long emerged from the darkness and revealed its hideous intent.
He intended to use Egypt as a sacrifice, dissolve all things, gather Spiritron particles, pierce through the world wall, and welcome the descent of an alien god.
From that moment on, everything spiraled beyond recovery.
"Cyrus?"
Samael's pupils narrowed slightly, his voice dry. The two female pharaohs pressed their lips together and nodded.
No. Not just Cyrus. The one capable of dissolving all of Egypt was definitely not the same Great King of Persia he had fought on the Land of Nothingness.
In an instant, a certain answer was on the verge of emerging in Samael's heart.
Then the Ancient Serpent recalled that damaged Solar Barque, and the World-Destroying Serpent of Darkness, Apophis, stretching across the sea. His eyes flickered, and he asked with a frown, "Then how did you escape?"
Nitocris and Cleopatra fell silent for a moment, then slowly gave an answer Samael had not expected.
The one originally responsible for pursuing them was Moses.
Yet no one had expected that this prophet of the Israelites, this apostle of God, would turn against them at the critical moment, shattering the large-scale magical barrier that sealed off all of Egypt. In the end, he joined hands with Ramesses II and won the Solar Barque of the Night a single chance to escape.
...
At the same time, in Egypt.
The cities were collapsing. The world was burning.
The Nile, once surging with life, had long since dried up. Its riverbed had broken apart, exposing pitch-black hollows. The fertile lands along both banks were melting away inch by inch under the sweep of red-black Ether storms.
Wild sand raged. All shade and vitality had vanished. From the fissures tearing through the earth, violent torrents surged forth. Landmasses sank one after another. The corpses of wailing humans and livestock floated freely, torn apart and devoured by monsters undergoing gradual mutation.
As far as the eye could see, all of Egypt had become a sea of nothingness. Only the remaining Ramesseum Tentyris stood like a lone island upon the deep sea. The few Egyptians fortunate enough to escape into this final sanctuary trembled as they watched the apocalyptic disaster descend.
Puff, puff, puff, puff!
In only a few moments, at the four corners of the temple's high platform, dozens of Hot Sand Sphinxes resisting the descent of the blazing white pillars of light burst one after another into clouds of blood mist, crushed into pulp. Temple guards wearing jackal god masks turned to dust one by one.
The end before them was just as hopeless. Even inside the Ramesseum Tentyris, they had only gained a few more minutes of desperate survival.
As the three blazing white pillars of light in the sky converged, the temple's layers of radiance were stripped away inch by inch. Those exposed to the outside world instantly dissolved within the glow, decomposing into pure Ether.
Even so, the figure on the high platform of the temple, his back bent beneath the pressure, still roared and stood upright.
Upon him rested the final afterglow of the Nile's setting sun.