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Chapter 132: Horus
Chapter 132: Horus
Chapter 132: Horus
At the same time as Set met with Osiris in his stone chamber, something else was occurring in a different part of the pyramid.
“Grahh!!! This…! This…!!! This is impossible!”
There was a strange scream coming from the stone chamber where Horus slept. It was coming from Anubis, who had turned into a Jackal.
Although he had stolen away the power of Isis and his body had deformed into a monstrosity for the sake of power, for some reason, he was still left screaming in pain and helplessness.
"Argh!"
The balance of the battlefield that had carefully been maintained had finally collapsed.
However, the side that collapsed had been Anubis and Set’s Jackals.
Anubis had been forcefully pushed back through the engagement of Fenrir and the princess, as Lee Jun-Kyeong, Won-Hwa, and Jeong In-Chang hadn’t been the only ones to grow by this point.
[<The Prince on a White Horse> supports the promotion of the princess’ growth, eagerly anticipating her performance.]
The aura emanating from the princess was rising by the minute, and The Prince on a White Horse seemed to have been waiting for her to make her mark on the battlefield.
Moreover.
[<The Sky of the Apocalypse> sponsors Fenrir with some pets. Pat pat.]
Although Lee Jun-Kyeong didn’t know what the Sky of the Apocalypse was doing, it seemed to work as well.
“Grow!!”
Fenrir’s energy also rose. Whenever the wolf shifted his weight and swung with his front paws, Anubis’ black energy would burn away from the flames.
The deformed Anubis was powerful, but the cooperation between Fenrir and the princess was more than enough to push him back.
There was one other aspect to the change in the Familiars as well.
“Thank you!”
The situation on the battlefield on Jeong In-Chang’s side had also improved due to the added participation of the monsters in this war. Every time Fenrir swung his front paw, the wolf wasn’t just attacking Anubis.
The Jackals were also affected by the force of the blows, and Jeong In-Chang didn’t miss the openings that the flames provided.
Cleave!
The sound of something being ripped apart, rather than being cut or sliced, rang out through the air.
The greatsword was cleaving through bodies.
Alongside the addition of the Familiars and the changes to the battlefield they provided, Inebu’s performance was also worth noting.
“Ha-a-eup!”
He engaged in the battle in almost a warlike manner. In fact, he grew rapidly as if he was receiving some form of support from his Sponsor since he was battling for the sake of protecting someone.
At this point, the only thing left was for Lee Jun-Kyeong to finish what he was doing.
“Can you please hurry it up?” Jeong In-Chang remarked again.
However.
"Be careful!" Bastet exclaimed as she, having treated her wounds, was trying to break through the seal placed on Isis.
"Anubis has completely changed sides!"
The party couldn’t figure out why the Hunter was repeating something that they all already had noticed.
However.
“...!”
Inebu and Isis, who had been trapped on the Scale of Hearts, suddenly seemed to realize something.
“He can now use his forbidden power!”
"Forbidden power...?"
As Jeong In-Chang repeated their words in confusion, Anubis, in the form of a jackal, stood on his hind legs and shouted.
“Death!”
“Souls!”
Every time he shouted, the stone chamber rang.
There was a huge tremor of mana in the wake of his bellows.
“My instruments of harvest…!”
When he finally finished shouting, the jackals that had only just fallen began to rise from the ground once more.
“Huh…?”
It wasn’t just that either.
The black beads that were emanating from Anubis’ body suddenly multiplied, almost as if they had been propagated as the result of a child blowing soap bubbles. After multiplying, the beads soon began to change, twisting into a demonic shape.
Twisting into a human figure.
No, a monster.
The stone chamber had been broadened and expanded by the battle of the three monsters, but was now beginning to fill up again.
“Sunder my enemies!”
The monstrous things that had been revived at Anubis’ commands began to rush forward, and Anubis also began to exude more power than before under their influence.
Boom!
Finally, Anubis had managed to drive Fenrir and the princess into the wall with his long, clawed arms.
Everyone was exhausted from the continuous battle, with the balance shifting back and forth like a tug-of-war.
However, at that moment, the sound of Lee Jun-Kyeong’s quiet voice traveled over the battlefield.
“I’ve finished.”
Even though everyone had been fighting, they all stopped and looked at Lee Jun-Kyeong.
They had no choice but to look in his direction as the terrifying aura laced into his voice seemed to run wild, as if to consume them at any moment.
Lee Jun-Kyeong stood using Muspel’s Spear as a cane with eyes the color of blood.
And.
“Horus…!”
Next to him stood a bandaged man. His body was still wrapped in bandages, but in a small gap between the bandages on his forehead was a little jewel.
A red gem.
As it spewed out light, the entire pyramid reverberated.
Rumble!
“Anubis, you dare…”
As a dry voice crackled out from between the man’s dry lips, the Scale of Hearts, which the party had been unable to destroy with their greatest efforts, suddenly crumbled and spewed out Isis once more.
She had almost fallen to the ground, but managed to land upright and stand on both feet.
Drip.
A drop of water was running down her cheek.
She opened her mouth as her tears ran indiscriminately down her face, falling through her lips.
"My son...”
Horus.
It was at this moment that the prodigal son had awoken.
***
"Hyungnim."
Set slowly approached the throne.
He had been alerted by the shaking that had just happened.
"I think Horus just woke up," he said to his brother.
The Underdog had done what he was supposed to do.
Set was genuinely curious as to what Lee Jun-Kyeong had done with the enormous power and poison that the red gem had contained.
He continued, “It seems my nephew has grown considerably.”
Apparently, Horus’ power had grown under the influence of the red gem. While it didn’t seem like the Hunter had absorbed all of the power held within the gem, Set could sense that Horus had still woken with a great increase in strength.
The entire pyramid of the Nile was shaking and crying under the burden of Horus’ power.
Rumble.
Set knew that it would be fortunate if Anubis, that brat, could hold out until he could get there.
Nevertheless.
Thud.
Set walked forward leisurely.
Although his men tried to stop him, saying it was dangerous, he continued forward.
How long had it been since he had been waiting for this very moment?
Even though his men warned him of the danger, he still didn’t want to ruin this moment, the moment when he would finally be able to enjoy his dinner.
The elderly man sitting on the throne looked so old and weak that no one could believe that he was actually middle-aged.
“Hyungnim.”
Set came close, right up to his face and called out to him again, “How did you become like this?”
Osiris was the Nile’s strongest Hunter and Hero and was also his brother, whom Set had admired so.
He was someone who, just a moment ago, had absolute influence over the entire Nile.
The man who had consolidated the Nile, which had been divided into Heliopolis, Memphis and Hermopolis, and reigned supreme over them all.
"How did you come to this?!!" Set asked again, shouting this time.
“My little Set.”
Osiris’s dry voice whispered into the ears of the emotional Set.
He was gasping for breath at every moment.
"I have no regrets…”
It hadn't been long since Osiris had changed into this weak form. The timing was close to when Set had firmly determined to fight for the throne.
Osiris had changed then.
He had morphed, not only on the outside to this debilitating and decrepit appearance, but also down to his very core.
The man who had claimed reign over Egypt, declaring his rule using the power of the Nile, had all but disappeared.
Everything he held, his domain, had all disappeared into the great flow.
As the Nile began to persecute the common people, or when the conflict between its factions began again, Osiris had just sat on the Pharaoh’s throne and watched as if he wasn’t interested in what happened below.
“I have to take this from you.”
That was why Set had been determined to win the throne.
“Oh, did you become like this because of me, Hyungnim?” Set asked, taking a step back and thinking about his brother’s state.
Osiris.
Set wondered if the reason his brother had changed like this was that he had also sought extreme power.
“Am I the reason why you still tried to take the power that you almost lost your son to?” he asked again.
The red gem.
Even though his son had become engulfed in it and was almost destroyed, left on the brink of death, Osiris had still tried to absorb the power of the red gem.
That was why he had changed so drastically.
.
He had been so strong that rather than losing his sanity and sense of self like Horus and needing to be sealed, he had instead been deprived of his power by the red gem, stripped of his youth and appearance.
Set was curious about what such a dominant figure had wanted to become stronger for.
"Answer me."
Although the end result wouldn’t change regardless of the answer, he still wanted to hear what Osiris had to say.
Set looked at Osiris while he mused on the situation.
"Don't be conceited…” came the quiet reply.
However, Osiris only spoke dismissively toward Set.
“There are many terrifying figures hidden in this world, and some of their purposes and desires will never be for the sake of mankind…”
"What?"
Set raised his eyes as if he had grasped something at his brother’s words.
He shoved his face into Osiris’.
“Is it, maybe…”
He had made a single inference.
He had one guess as to why Osiris had felt as though he had to pursue power.
“Did you perhaps meet that being?”
“That…being…?”
Set showed his pearly white teeth and brought his face even closer.
“That being. The man dressed in black.”
“...!”
Osiris’ pupils enlarged, and Set didn’t ask him any further questions.
Instead, he burst out in laughter.
“Ha… Hahahahahaha!”
To think, it was that person.
That person, the being whom he served.
Set had also met him, and also had many things he had understood and felt because of that being.
However.
“You’re just trash!”
He was different from Osiris.
Instead of seeking unobtainable strength with the intention of taking that being down, almost in a sense of defeat, he chose a different route.
He exclaimed, “I follow that being!”
“Wh… what…”
Set had knelt down to that powerful force and wanted to worship it in all its glory.
That was the difference between Osris and himself at this point.
Then.
“And this is the power he has given me in return!”
Red and black mana sprang out of Set's body.
“…!”
Osiris' eyes widened again, almost tearing at the seams.
"That…that’s…!”
From a distance, Osiris hadn’t been able to feel it because he had grown senile and lost his strength, but he could feel it clearly now because they were in the same space.
That was the power that had destroyed Osiris.
The power that had taken away his son.
“The red gem…!”
He could feel the power of the red gem in Set's body.
Set slowly gathered up his strength and extended his hand. The sword in his hand slowly morphed into a different shape. It was almost like the jaws of a jackal.
“Hyungnim.”
The jaws of a jackal, filled with sharp teeth.
His blade headed for Osiris, fangs bared.
“This is the power you had wanted, Hyungnim. But you’ve chosen the wrong side. I…”
Chomp.
“I will follow that being and rule the whole world, not just this tiny little Nile and Egypt.”
Chomp.
The jaws of the jackal ripped through flesh and tore through bone.
Osiris murmured with his eyes closed from the pain he was enduring, “Horus…”
His son had awoken.
While Set was said to have chased after power due to fear, Osiris and Horus were different.
Sacrifice.
They had sacrificed everything in order to attempt to fight against the coming great evil, even at the cost of sacrificing their own bodies.
“Even now, I just wanted to see you just once…”
With his final murmur, the jackal’s jaws seemed to move incessantly.
Chomp.
The jackal’s jaws moved as if it was preying on its feed.
No, they weren’t jaws. They were a set of hands.
Flicker.
In Set’s two eyes, the flames of madness began to rage.
***
The red gem in the center of the bandaged man was glowing. Even at a glance, it was easy to see a huge force emanating from within it.
“…”
The surviving jackals took a step back without even realizing they had.
“…!”
Even Anubis was shivering.
If there was something the side of Anubis and the Jackals could be relieved by, it was that the reapers of death that Anubis had summoned could feel nothing.
“Grah!!!”
Therefore, they rushed in without recognizing the terrifying being that had appeared before them.
Flicker.
A flame suddenly appeared.
“Mr. Lee…” Jeong In-Chang said, thinking that it had been Lee Jun-Kyeong to manifest the blaze due to Lee Jun-Kyeong’s domain over fire.
However, Lee Jun-Kyeong shook his head with difficulty.
“Grah!!”
Lee Jun-Kyeong wasn’t the one who had dealt with the reapers of death with a burst of fire.
Now that Jeong In-Chang had noticed, it was Horus.
“...”
Horus, the Hunter, was reaching out and manipulating the blaze.
Saint Fire.
The combination of light and fire devoured the source of death.
"I'll be right back,” Horus took a step forward and said. Then, he turned to Lee Jun-Kyeong.
"Thank you."
The bandages on both of Horus’ hands began to unravel.
1. Set’s manner of speaking changes here. He’s been very courteous to Osiris up until now, speaking respectfully like a younger brother to an older brother. From this point, though, he drops all formality.