The airship landed at the end of this massive city, on a raised slope.
The short, tender grass was scarred with a black mark by the landing gear—Mori Tsukisa's was particularly long. Without a decelerator, the girl had to dismantle and damage the airship piece by piece according to Baru's instructions, so much so that after the forced landing, the airship she piloted was almost a pile of scrap metal.
The other two airships were fine.
Imhotep was the first to jump off the plane, carrying Anck-Su-Namun down. As soon as his feet touched the grass, the High Priest's face turned incredibly grim.
"My magic..."
Anck-Su-Namun held the man's hand, a hint of worry on her face.
"The closer I get to Him, the less I can perceive the presence of magic..." Imhotep gazed at the ancient ruins below the slope, "We cannot escape this calamity, Anck-Su-Namun."
Imhotep was met with a pair of cold, alluring eyes.
"I still want to buy those beautiful clothes in another World. We..." The disingenuous woman said with a cold face, stammering as she edged closer to the High Priest, "We'll be fine."
Hoping... to place all hope on a powerful, morally ambiguous witch, it's hard to say if this was the right or wrong decision.
But at least for now, they had no choice.
If Mori Tsukisa couldn't contend with Anubis, and couldn't take her and Anck-Su-Namun's souls from the hands of the gods, then choosing Bastet would be even more meaningless.
Just as humans always side with humans: in the eyes of a god, he was like a flea in the eyes of a human.
"Look, it's really beautiful."
—A expanse of green in the distance.
This floating city had not been visited for a long time. Patches of wild-growing lilacs and white peonies dotted the landscape. Many nameless blue and pink flowers drifted across the mountains and fields like a green river, slowly flowing towards the newly landed group.
It was as if the river washed the flowers to their feet, proudly saying welcome.
'Beautiful?'
Giant trees with thick roots rose from the ground one by one, massive Roman-style columns collapsed beside the roots, covered in moss and wildflowers; deep green clumps of bushes and vines formed large spheres, squeezed beneath every ancient tree that proudly lifted its head towards the sky.
This pristine natural landscape, untouched by human carving or embellishment, seemed to transport one back to an era before this World was polluted and dominated by humans.
"Truly beautiful."
Mori Tsukisa shielded her eyes with her right hand, her long black hair fluttering in the wind that carried the faint scent of fresh grass. "Even if there are no dragons here, I wouldn't be angry."
She pulled Nagini, her bare feet stepping out of her shoes, crunching on the grass, feeling the soft, moist earth gently conforming to her soles.
"Baru?"
Baru was already overwhelmed. Among the group, only Baru had no immunity to the so-called 'impact'—Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun, needless to say, the pyramids themselves were miracles.
Mori Tsukisa's 'Bandits' could travel between Worlds.
So, only Baru, the little Boy with no resistance, was left staring in amazement at everything below the slope.
Suddenly, a series of faint scratching sounds.
Whoosh.
Whoosh... A few people turned their heads to listen, their gaze focusing on Baru's airship—specifically, on the small storage box in the airship.
The Boy shook his head in confusion, climbed onto the wing in a few steps, stepped on the seat, and opened the latch of the storage box... Whoosh!
A black shadow leaped out, directly pouncing into Mori Tsukisa's arms!
"Oh dear."
Thump.
The girl was knocked over, landing on her backside on the grass.
"Mori Tsukisa!!"
The girl lay flat on her back, spread-eagled, while the black cat stood above her, gnashing its teeth, stepping on her, looking like she had been betrayed.
"Mori Tsukisa..."
"How could you leave me behind!!"
Bastet's angry words had a slight tremor, which made Anck-Su-Namun instinctively lean close to her lover's ear: "You mean, He is that...?"
Imhotep nodded strangely.
"How strange?"
"...That's a god. One can only say it's a bit..."
"Special?"
On the other side, Mori Tsukisa laughed playfully. After picking up the cat in her arms, she rubbed its head with a hand stained with green grass clippings: "Hahahaha! I knew I forgot something."
Nagini and Arrietty suddenly understood.
—They had forgotten about this god.
"So! Not bringing me! What exactly did you come here for!" Bastet turned her head, growling 'hoho' twice, "I just wanted to see if you'd remember me, hidden in the storage box..."
"Waiting and waiting, waiting and waiting..."
"And what happened?!"
"You just played around!"
Mori Tsukisa had many things to be curious about, and this god had clearly waited in vain, spending a day and a night cooped up in the stuffy storage box, suffering the torment of fluctuating speeds during the flight.
"I was just about to, just about to remember you!" The girl pinched a tiny gap between her index finger and thumb, looking at Bastet with a serious expression: if not for her shifty eyes, perhaps the Valkyrie would have believed her?
"You ungrateful woman!"
Pfft.
Everyone present except Baru chuckled—Baru... was terrified.
My goodness...?
The cat spoke?
Bastet stomped on Mori Tsukisa's flushed face with her little paw pads a few times, then turned away indignantly, only to glimpse Baru's exaggeratedly startled expression.
She grew even angrier.
"What are you looking at! Haven't you ever seen a talking cat?!" Bastet held her head high and walked, feigning elegance, circling in front of everyone. After showcasing herself, she leisurely sat down.
Looking at Imhotep.
"Sinner, you truly deserve to die." It sneered: "You actually dared to follow Mori Tsukisa here. I thought you would stay hidden in your little underground nest until everything was over."
"I need to guide Isis and activate the flying stone." Imhotep bowed deeply: "Lady Bastet, my mission has ended here."
Isis?
That person who can't stop having children?
Bastet twitched its ears strangely, looked at Imhotep, and then at the nonchalant Mori Tsukisa: "You... had children?"
Huh?
The young girl angrily patted her belly, wanting to lift her clothes to show her flat stomach—but was quickly stopped by Nagini.
"Master, you can't do that, there are other people here."
Putting her hand down reluctantly, the girl pointed at Bastet aggrievedly: "It said I had children! With whom?!"
"How would I know." The black cat hissed: "To actually let your Attendant call you 'Isis', how shameful."
"But your personality really is similar to that person..."
"I told them to change how they address me earlier." Arrietty covered her mouth and laughed for a long time: "So that's how it is, does Isis have that kind of function?"
Of course.
Bastet finally saw Mori Tsukisa suffer a setback. It paced happily in front of Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun, issuing an order to these evil spirits in its capacity as a deity:
Until everything was over, the two of them must call Mori Tsukisa "Isis."
Ha! Ha! Ha!
No changing it!
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