//------------------------------//
// 46- Phanuel 
// Story: Bound by Scales 
// by FrostTheWolf 
//------------------------------//


Bound By Scales- Phanuel




        The flight back to the temple was a lot smoother than dad and I originally anticipated, all things considered. Personally, I would have thought that my father would still seem a bit timid when it came to flight after Revaan did a nose dive straight towards the ground and almost made him sick, but this time, he seemed to actually be enjoying it. He wasn’t clinging onto me for dear life like last time, but I still felt him hold onto me for balance as we flew through the morning clouds and the open air. A cool and comforting breeze as we were approaching towards the entrance to the Obsidian Hollow.

        Upon landing, Revaan took the chance to excuse himself and return back to his quarters. Leaving Dad and I by ourselves and taking a chance to walk around for a bit. Unlike that of Mom, who had taken the chance to get herself familiar with a lot of the different rooms and facilities in the Hollow, dad had only been here for about two weeks. So in my mind, a grand tour of the place seemed to be the right kind of idea so he could at least know a few of the things that the hollow had to offer.

        We first started with some of the homes where some of the residents of the hollow lived, including where Dr. Cross had his medical facility as well as where Shayne, Aaron and Tina would be at, but it appeared as if they were not home. Which, seemed normal for Shayne and Aaron… but not in the case of Tina. If she was quiet, it either meant that it was nap time or that she was testing one of her newest ‘experiments’ out in the badlands. But given that we did not hear any explosions on the way here, the first one seemed the most likely.

        Though, as we were taking a break by the training grounds, that was when we heard someone else speak up. “Well, I’ll be damned… I didn’t think you would be up so soon, let alone moving,” Turning my head, I noticed that Mom was not that far from where I was sitting on the steps as she walked over. “You had us all worried, Ken.”

        “M-morning, Thea.” Dad stuttered. One thing that I might’ve forgot to mention that within the last two weeks, I had to re-introduce mom to dad in his new form. At first, she mistook him for one the animals that Fluttershy keeps at her cottage. But after a while, it began to sink in that it was him. Though, one thing now though is that mom kind of intimidates dad. Especially since he’s the size of a house pet.

        “Hey mom,” I told her, looking back towards her as she gave me a hug. I returned the hug with one of my own as I looked back at her. “Sorry if I made you and everyone else worry about me. I…”

        “Don’t say anymore,” she interjected, looking back at me with a fierce gaze. “Revaan told us what happened. And Pinkis gave us a rundown of what you’re dealing with-” Stopping for a moment, she sniffed the air, before extending a hand and pinching part of my shirt as a dark colored residue was on her fingers before the gaze was fixed on both dad and I now. “Where were you two this morning?”

        I took the chance to let out a deep sigh. If there’s one thing about my mom, if she suspects something, there’s no point in trying to lie to her. If anything, lying is just denying the inevitable. And given that she’s a gladiator with a shield that could send me flying to a wall if she wanted too, I opted for telling her everything about the expedition that I took this morning. Dad even vouched for me when I told her that I didn’t even have to fight or anything, which surprised Mom at first. But after a few moments, all she did was let out a sigh.

        “And just when I thought that you would try to do something reckless,” The gladiator responded, before smirking as she looked at me. “Glad to see that isn’t the case,” Of course, it was a few seconds after saying that when she decided to switch the topic and something else instead. “So, how do you feel? Anything… out of the ordinary?”

        “Not necessarily, though I’m trying to easy and not overdo it,” I shook my head in response, before thinking of a different question to ask now as I looked back at her. “Hey, did anything happen while I was… resting? When I was showing dad around, I noticed that Tina was not in her workshop.”

        “Oh right,” She let out a deep breath, before taking a seat next to us. “Well, you see, we were trying to find a way to get Tina out of the hollow so she didn’t happen to find out what happened to you and try to intervene in the recovery process. So, Twilight decided to host a sleepover at her castle and allowed for Shayne, Aaron, the two ponies he always has following him and Tina to come over.”

        “That doesn’t seem too bad, right?” I heard Dad respond now.

        “Well, there was one moment that kind of threw us all off guard,” The gladiator admitted as she turned to face us now. “You see, Tina decided that they should play some of that game that she likes… what was it called again?”

        “Bunkers and Badasses?”

        “Yeah, that’s the one,” Mom nodded her head. “So, they were all doing a side quest to collect these crumpets that are hidden in different sections of the world she had set up. However, it was when Spike asked her a simple question that things got a bit complicated.”

        “How complicated are we talking about exactly? I mean, this is Tina we’re talking about.” Dad asked.

        “Well, at one point, she had kind of let it slip that the only thing that she’s been eating since arriving here has been crumpets and cookies,” She told us. “And when Twilight got concerned for her health, she offered part of the salad that she was having for lunch. But… it lead to her freaking out and saying that it looked like the devil.”

        Upon hearing that, both dad and I just stared at mom in disbelief. “So wait… This happened because Spike asked what a crumpet was and then when Twilight offered her a salad, she had a freak out?” Dad’s question only lead to mom just simply nodding her head in response, which in turn, had him respond with a follow up question. “Didn’t she used to like salads back home before we all came here?”

        “She did,” I took a turn to speak now as I looked back at both of them. “I remembered one thanksgiving where she dove into a salad that mom made so she could clear her plate for more mashed potatoes and gravy. How this is remotely possible is beyond me.”

        “Just be glad that you weren’t there for what we had to do next,” We now heard her say, adjusting herself before she continued to speak. “We tried to get her to cooperate several times in order to try and get her to eat it. But after about ten minutes, we decided to take some drastic measures.”

        A small shiver went down my spine when I heard the ending of that sentence. Prompting me to ask her the only question that came to my head at the time. “How d-drastic are we talking about here?”

        “Well, we first tried asking her nicely to eat some of the salad, out of concern for her health. But she was being rather resistant, so I had to have Aaron hold her arms down while his two weapons were holding onto her legs and Shayne needed to get her mouth open so we could actually get her to eat the salad while she was screaming at us and calling us ‘food fascists’.”

        Okay, that in itself was a lot to picture. And most of it made me think that I was really thankful that I wasn’t there at the time. “Was… that all?”

        “Apparently not,” Mom shook her head. “She actually liked the salad, but she still saw it as a problem because she thought that having a salad meant that she was becoming an adult. And Shayne had to explain to her that… to quote her directly… ‘She was talking to a princess, a dragon, a meister and a teen with a djinn tethered to her torso who were gathering imaginary crumpets because they thought it would be fun’. Followed up by explaining to her how there’s no such thing as adulthood.”

        All that did was just made me stare at her with a pair of shocked eyes as it took me a few seconds in order to process all of that properly. All before I finally found the words to speak. “Well, damn. I’m sorry that Tina caused you guys all that trouble-”

        “There’s no need to be sorry, Ken. Heck, I remember when you did the same thing with your father and got me out of the house so that he could get everything ready for when I came back home on mothers day,” She chuckled, placing a hand on my shoulder. “The point is that Tina and the others are out of the hollow and you’re just starting to get back up on your feet. Everything should be okay right around now.”

        “As long as I take it easy and don’t do anything drastic?” I then asked her.

        “That would be wise… but probably optimal considering the situation you’re in.” She told me, her tone changing to one of brutal honesty. “You should wait a little while before even considering fighting anybody. It took us a long while in order to close those wounds that you have, so it would be best for you to not try and accidentally open them up again.”

        That may be true, but in my mind, there was still a lot that I think could be done in order to be better prepared for the likely possibility of facing the Brotherhood again. But that right now was just a bit of an afterthought. Because as I was getting up and attempting to follow Athena out of the arena, I felt a certain force attempt to pull me back. The same kind of force that would happen if I were getting summoned. However, right now, I was in no shape to be summoned for anything. Especially considering that it was trying to pull me back while I was climbing a set of stairs.

        I was able to pull myself forward and muster some strength to just brush it off, but it did not go unnoticed. “What was that all about, Ken?”

        “Hunh? Oh, right,” I stretched out my shoulders and looked back at mom for a moment. “I think some Displaced wanted to summon me since I felt the same pulling sensation from the last couple of times. Though, I resisted given how you wanted for me to not be doing anything crazy anytime soon.”

        “Okay… could you be a bit more specific on what you meant by ‘pulling sensation’ though?” She then asked me, before briefly looking back at dad. “Because I’m not sure if I entirely get what you’re implying.”

        At that moment, I could only really think of the first metaphor that came to mind as I looked back at both of them “When you’re being summoned, it feel as if you are using a grappling hook. Either it will pull you towards where it will take you or it will instead pull something towards you if you pull too much. Honestly, it’s the best kind of comparison that I could think of right now.”

        For a moment, both mom and dad looked at one another and for the most part, they seemed to understand. Though, that was when Dad spoke up and asked something. “So wait, if what you say is true… and that you resisted someone trying to pull you to their world… doesn’t that mean that you might’ve pulled them to us instead?”

        THUD!!        

“… Aw Sh-.” 

Immediately, I turned around towards the center of the training grounds to see two figures standing there. One of them looked to be that of a griffon, given that I could see its wings, talons and beak. The other though… I could not tell what they were at first glance. If anything, it looked like a demon that just crawled out of hell.

        “Bayek! Calm down!” The griffin shouted as she tried rushing him with the twin daggers she held. The demon didn’t respond, outside of blocking the daggers with a great axe and then uppercutting her with a punch, knocking her towards us.

        “Death comes not for you yet,” the demon, who was called ‘Bayek’, said with a deep demonic voice.

        “Oh great, that’s the second guy I’ve seen that makes me think of death incarnate,” Dad, now’s not the best time in order to be talking about that. “So, what exactly is the plan here-”

        Not two seconds after asking that did we get a response. Not from the two in the center of the ring, but from Mom. She had just pulled out the sword that was sheathed around her waist and motioned her hand to tell us to stay back. “You’re in no condition to be in combat just yet. Let me handle this.”

        And before I could object, she charged directly into the fray.




Point of View: Athena




        If the circumstances were different, I would have my son try to clean up his own mess. But right now, I had to rely on instinct. Charging into the ring, I armed myself with my sword and aegis, activating it as the infernal being in the ring attempted to bring his axe down on the griffon.

        Using the chance, I pushed forward. Parrying the axe with my aegis and kicking him in the chest to throw it off balance. All before turning towards the griffon on the ground and offering a hand. “Are you alright?”

        “I’m okay, but we need to focus on-”

        “GET OVER HERE!!!” Quickly turning back towards the enemy, I raised my shield around my head as a chain deflected off of it. The energy of my aegis began to build up from the attack as the red energy underneath began to circulate.

        “Should I assume that he’s a friend of yours?” I asked the griffon again.

        “Yes, but something happened when we were summoned that must have triggered him to the point of… this just before we arrived,” she said.

        “That… might be my son’s fault,” I groaned, deflecting a second chain as I looked back at her. “He was trying to not have himself get pulled away since he’s recovering, but from the looks of it, he happened to accidentally pull you here instead,” In that moment, I digistructed my ‘Hard Reboot’ pistol and began to fire off a series of slow moving orbs that detonated once they got close to him. “Would you happen to have some kind of idea as to how to… well… snap your friend out of this, miss?”

        “If we can manage a ‘killing blow,’ it should be enough for Anubis to clear his mind and he’ll reform back to normal...mostly,” she said, standing back up and twirling her daggers.

        Hearing that gave me an idea as I looked back at her. “Can you get him to try and attack my aegis?”

        “I’ll try.” The griffon sheathed her daggers and pulled out a bow and began to somehow fire it as fast as a slow firing smg. The arrows got the guy’s attention and he started lashing his chain at her rapidly. To which, I took it as the chance for me to intercept the chains and store more power to my aegis. The inner mechanics beginning to charge up now as I looked back to the griffon. It was almost at maximum capacity, but I only had a few more seconds to hold onto it before it was going to be sent flying.

        “Death comes for all!” The demon shouted before pulling his axe out and running forward, his axe ready to swing downward. All I did was charge straight towards him, readying my aegis again as I blocked his attack. The blades that were hidden in my shield now began to surface and spin around at a dangerous rate as I parried his attack and leaped into the air. Firing off my aegis as it hit our opponent directly in the head and sent him into a wall, causing him to shatter like a glass pane. All before returning back to the armguard on my left wrist.

        “Well, I think that takes care of that,” I sighed, before turning to the griffon. “I don’t think I got your name though.”

        “I’m Senu, Bayek’s companion.” she said.

        “Athena… Though, I think it’s my son you should talk too instead of me.” I told her, pointing directly towards where he was as he slowly began to walk down the stairs and towards where we were standing.




Point of View: Ken




        Holy crap. Out of all the possible things that honestly could have happened, I did not expect for mom to be leaping into battle head first like that. Heck, I think her downright ferocity is the reason why dad’s trembling on my shoulder right now. Though, it could be that or the fact that mom’s pointing in our general direction. Giving me the expression that usually means ‘come over here’ as I began to walk down the steps.

        “Mom? Is everything okay?” I asked her.

        “Yeah, everything’s alright,” She said, before turning to the griffon. “Senu, this is my son Ken. Ken, this is Senu.”

        “It's nice to meet you,” Senu said, extending a ‘hand’ to shake. In turn, I extended mine. Though, personally, I was not so sure how she would react when she saw my dragon arm. Because almost anytime that either I met a displaced in their world or had a new one come over, it was the first thing they would notice. And right now was no exception. “Huh, armor piece or real deal?” She gestured to my arm.

        “Real deal,” I told her. “It’s a bit of a long story. And part of it involves my soul being bound to that of a dragon.”

        “Sounds similar to how I'm bonded to Bayek,” she said. “He can see through my eyes and I can relay ‘recon memories’ for him to review.”

        “Just trust me on this one, it’s much different than just that,” I let out a sigh, before looking behind her at the guy that was on the ground behind her. “Speaking of which, is he gonna be alright?”

        “He should be okay,” Senu said with a slight wave of a talon. “He's been impaled and shot so many times, I probably won't be surprised if he gets numb to those feelings. So being knocked out won't be too bad for him.”

        That just had me blink for a second. Impaled and shot so many times that he barely feels anything? When I got impaled by Zero, that hurt like a b*tch! How the hell can this guy just walk it off unaffected?

        Though, as I was thinking this, it wasn’t long before we heard the one that was on the floor slowly wake up, asking something from his position on the dirt floor around the center of the training grounds. “Has anyone seen my two front teeth?”

        “I think I’ll let you handle the rest. I’m gonna go check on Tina and see if she came back yet,” Athena told me, before proceeding to leave. But not without telling me one last thing. “Don’t do anything reckless while I’m gone!”

        “Who's Tina? She a cousin or sister of yours?” Senu asked as I walked a bit towards the guy that was on the ground and trying to see if he needed help getting up.

        “She’s my cousin and… well, she can be a bit of a handful,” I tried to explain in the simplest way that I could think of. “Word of advice, if you two do meet her, don’t make any sudden movements around her. It’s probably for your own good.”

        “I'm just going to make a bit of a guess,” The guy on the ground spoke up as he slowly sat up and coughed up some sand. “She’ll overreact and end up beating the snot out of whoever or whatever scared her or whatever… right?”

        All that did was made me sigh for a moment, before looking at him and offering a hand for him so I can pull him to his feet. “Think a teenage girl with a twisted sense of imagination to the point that she sees objects as people and weapons as ‘damsels’, add hyperness to that and then take into account that she has a specialty in making explosives,” That statement alone was enough to get a bit of a shocked reaction from Senu as I let out a sigh. “Not to mention she has a habit of saying whatever comes to her mind without thinking things thoroughly.”

        “So… it's best to avoid her?” Senu asked, concern practically written on her face. Of course, all I could really do was just shrug as I looked back at the two of them.

        “Depends… Last I heard, she was playing a game with some friends, but she might be coming back later,” As I said that though, I now finally had the chance to say something else that I was meaning to do earlier. Yet, I found myself sidetracked. “Oh, where are my manners? I’m Ken. Ken Ahkrin. You’re… Bayek, right?” Of course, I was only guessing on the name since I only heard Senu say it once, so it was more than likely that this was who she was talking about.

        “Correct,” he said, nodding his head in response to my question. “Servant of Anubis, and the head of ‘Interdimensional Relations’ for the Brotherhood of Assassins, as it is currently called in my world… for the time being… hopefully.”

        Well, with that, I guess I should at least introduce myself now. “Pleasure to meet you. Name’s Ken Ahkrin. Scalebound. Welcome to the Obsidian Hollow, you two.”

        “Thank you,” Senu said with a grin. “Is there a way for me to fly outside and do some recon? I gotta stretch my wings a bit.”

        I just sighed for a moment, before looking back towards the stairwell as I looked back at them. “How about you follow me for a moment? You might be surprised a bit at where you’re at.”

        “Sounds fair,” Bayek said, shakily standing up. After the both of them got up, I had them follow me up the stairs and out to the courtyard where the temple was, overlooking the rest of the obsidian hollow. Several of the residents in town, whether they were ponies, dragons or some changelings, were out wandering around and minding their own business from where we could see them as I looked back to them.

        “This is the Obsidian Hollow. It’s our home and its hidden inside one of the cliffs in the badlands. It used to be a place for just dragons, but now, the locals are rather diverse,” I explained to them. “I would show you around, but most of my friends are out and about, so they aren’t here at the moment,” As I said that though, I felt something shift as I looked up to the temple’s entrance and let out a sigh. “Though, the one being that is here is my partner.”

        “What’s his or her name?” Bayek asked, pulling a spear out of somewhere and using it as a walking stick.

        “Revaan,” Almost as if it was on cue, I heard the sound of dragon claws against the floor as he stepped out of the temple. Walking to where the rest of us were standing as he looked towards where Bayek and Senu were.

        “So you two were the ones I felt earlier,” He said, before turning to me. “Wasn’t Athena with you two earlier?”

        “She was, but left to go check on Tina,” I explained, before looking back to Bayek and Senu. “Anyways, we kind of have some guests. Bayek and Senu, this is my partner Revaan.”

        “It is nice to meet you, Sir Revaan,” Bayek said with a bow. “I hope my rage from earlier wasn’t bothersome to you or your home.”

        I saw Revaan shake his head as he looked back towards Bayek. “It wasn’t. Though, there is no need to be so formal in my home. Revaan is fine.”

        “Dragon…” I heard Senu squeak before she briefly vanished in a whirlwind of sand and an eagle replaced her and then flew off.

        “I guess, outside of Barbra, Senu has a fear of dragons,” Bayek said. “No offence towards you guys.”

        “None taken. Besides, Revaan already seems to see you two as good guys, so there’s no need to fear him.” I replied back, before a different question began to appear in my mind. “Though, if I may ask, who is Barbra? Is she someone from your world or something?”

        “She’s a purple dragoness with green accents that is just barely shorter than I am,” Bayek explained. “Raised by my Twilight, if I’m remembering correctly.”

        “Sounds like that of my son, Zeik,” Revaan commented. “Or Spike as he’s usually called by his friends.”

        “Birth name vs. known name…” Bayek muttered. “Anywho, did you summon me for something? Where’s my token?”

        For a moment, I looked back at Revaan. Slightly puzzled by what he said before letting out a sigh. “Actually, I didn’t summon you. One of you intended to try and summon me, but since I kind of ‘resisted’ it, it pulled you guys here instead of pulled me to your guys’ world,” I tried to explain in the best possible way, while also fumbling a bit with the stuff in my pockets as I pulled out my own token to show them. “Does this look familiar to you at all? This one’s my token.”

        “It looks familiar, but I can’t-” As he was speaking, that was when something fell on his head, which turned out to be my token… that belonged to him. He picked it up and looked up briefly. “Be careful where you’re dropping stuff, Senu!” He turned back to me. “Apparently, when Senu first discovered her griffin form, she had to cobble together some clothes to start, and that scale token was part of the outfit as a necklace she decided to make for fun.”

        That honestly made me blink in surprise. Out of all the things that I’ve heard tokens being used for or possibly thought they could be used for, using one for jewelry was very low on that list. And yet, look where we are now. “Hunh… alright. Makes sense.”

        Bayek then pulled out what looked like part of a spear. “My token is a copy of an Isu artifact...if you’re familiar with Assassin’s Creed, some of the later installments in the series makes a spear that King Leonidas used as one of those artifacts. His grandson or granddaughter inherited the spear head and it acts like it has magic on it.”

        “Hunh… never knew they would go to Rome,” I now heard dad speak up on my shoulder now, adjusting himself as he looked to Bayek. “Last I heard of that series, they took a break for a bit and then brought it back with Egypt being a setting. Though, I never really found out where they went from that point after ending up here.”

        “The Egypt one was Origins,” Bayek explained, almost seeming to not notice him. “After that was Odyssey, which takes place in Greece before Origins. The next one is rumored to take place either in Rome or Scandinavia…” Of course, at that point, it appeared that Bayek noticed the fact that Dad finally broke his silence and then looked back specifically at him. “Who are you and why does your voice make you seem bigger than you actually look?”

        “Yeah, funny story about that,” I heard Dad explain as he looked back at us. “For your first question, I’m Ken’s father. Though, nowadays, Tina just calls me… ugh, Syrup. Secondly, unlike that of my wife Thea or my son, I ended up turning into this after buying a stuff animal that I was giving to my niece.”

        “Huh, that’s better than my situation,” Bayek said, his body seeming to flow like sand into a partially mummified form with a golden mask. “This mask was what got me to my world...and it made me an undead servant of the Egyptian God of Death, Anubis.” He then shifted back to his ‘live’ form.

        And now there was no possible way that I cannot unsee that… Brilliant. “What about your friend?” I heard Revaan ask. “How did you meet her?”

        “She and I kept another Displaced from getting assassinated by some thugs hired by a Canterlot noble in her world,” he said. “As a matter of fact, Senu is from that world.” He pulled out an interesting choker. “Her name is Yang. I think that’s from RWBY or something.”

        That was indeed a bit surprising. Yet, if I were to be completely honest, the only kind of displaced that I knew in that category was that of Sun Wukong. But I think it would just be a bit off topic to bring that up right now. Matter of fact, I was still trying to think about what exactly we could do while they were here.

        Though, it was after a little bit that I think he noticed me stuck in my train of thought. He lightly tapped my dragon arm with his token, getting my attention. “You get stuck in your head for a moment?”

        “S-sorry, I was just thinking a bit. Kind of hard to do that after all the crap I’ve been going through recently.” I let out a deep sigh, scratching the back of my neck and readjusting my shirt.

        “How did you get those scars?” He asked, pointing towards a scar that was somewhat visible. “And why did that sound like a reversal of that Joker question?”

        Oh great. Well, I can’t exactly avoid this conversation now. “That’s a entirely different story…” For the next ten to fifteen minutes, I took my time in explaining a bit about my encounter with that of Zero and Mikhail, how she gave me the injures that I have now and that Brotherhood that she was apart of. It was definitely a lot considering that there were still things that even I did not know about when it came to the brotherhood as a whole.

        “Sounds like the opposite of the Assassins...and I still think that name can be taken the wrong way, which is what I liked about Origins,” Bayek commented. “So, did you explore more of the crypt or whatever before you encountered that deadly duo?”

        Again, I blinked a bit. Surprised by that statement as I looked towards Revaan. Though, he was the one who chose to speak now. “Come to think of it, we did not have the chance to explore the ruins of Sonsu Gaard at all. We were only in their briefly before our… encounter,” He then narrowed his eyes for a moment as he looked back at Bayek. “Why do you ask?”

        “There could have been a reason behind that location where those two revealed themselves to you,” he said. “Not only that, but any additional clues or equipment there might come in hand in fighting this Dark Brotherhood and any other enemies.”

        I began to scratch my chin for a moment, thinking to myself what I just heard as I looked back at Bayek. “I think its more likely that we might find clues there on the Dark Brotherhood there. Right now, there are a lot of things that we still do not know about them. Maybe if we go back, we could find something.”

        “Okay, look… I know that this may sound good and such, but am I the only one that thinks that this is a bit of a stretch?” I now heard Dad ask. “Besides, you’ve been up for only a few hours. What happened to resting?”

        “I said that I was going to take time to rest,” I told him, “I didn’t say though that I was going to be doing it all day.”

        All that did was just have Dad do the equivalent of facepalming himself with one of his wings as he just groaned a little. “So you’re actually going through with this?” My only response was a nod of my head, though Revaan also did the same thing. While assuring that if dad did not entirely feel comfortable with me going alone that he could come with us. Which in turn, had himself groaning again. “No wonder you remind me of your mother sometimes.”



        Coming back to the place where I was fatally stabbed was not exactly something that I planned on doing today if I were to be completely honest. But, Bayek did make a point earlier. With Zero no longer here, it was now possible for us to be able to look around inside the ruins without having to fight anyone or get cornered in close quarters. If there was any possibility that there could’ve been something inside here about Zero, then why pass that up?

        Yet, as we approached from the air, Revaan took us in a different direction. Setting us down on a ledge overlooking the entrance instead of directly in front of there. “Revaan? What’s the big deal?”

        “Something’s going on at the front? I can’t see what it is, but I can feel the presence of several beings there.” Revaan told us, which had me look back towards Bayek.

        “As far as what Senu can see, roughly half a dozen mercenaries outside,” he said, pulling out his bow. “There could be more inside.”

        “Does she see anything else?” I then asked her, taking a moment to summon SulKren as I looked back at him. “Can she make out what exactly they’re doing?”

        “They’re loading something bleach white into a series of carts,” he answered. “She can’t see what they are loading, but they’re doing it.”

        Hearing that made me look back at Revaan as I grit my teeth. After everything that we’ve seen before, there could only have been one possible thing that they were moving. “Dragon bones. When we were in there, we saw the skeletons of many dragons inside. That must be what they’re pulling out.”

        “What the heck do they want the bones for?” I heard Dad ask. “Because something tells me that this isn’t an archeological expedition.”

        “I don’t know,” I told him. “But if we’re wanting to get inside the ruins, we need to move and get past them. Are you guys ready?”

        “If we can get them just under the ledge we’re on, I can jump down and give them a surprise,” Bayek said, replacing his bow and pulling out his spear token. “Any suggestions on how to get them there?”

        Hmm… now that I thought of it. There was one thing I could try. Switching out my weapons, I now summoned forth Velstrun and threw it forth. Using a free hand to guide the weapon as it flew over their heads before coming back around and hitting a rock in the ledge under us. Loud enough to get their attention, but only attracting some of them over.

        “Would that be enough?” I asked him. He held a finger to his mouth and then held up three fingers. ‘Three are investigating the noise.’ After a few seconds, he then leapt off the ledge while holding his token up. As he fell, the spear started glowing until he landed and slammed the spear head into the ground, causing a golden energy explosion and throwing the three mercenaries back, one of them dying by landing head first and snapping his neck.

        Sliding down the edge and leaving Dad with Revaan, I soon joined up with Bayek. Before looking back towards the other mercenaries as they caught our attention. Coming at us, armed with swords and spears while a couple of them had bows. “Get the archers,” I told him, conjuring up my new weapon as I looked back at the enemies in front of me. “I’ll handle these ones.”

        Bayek nodded and engaged the archers with his bow, firing arrows like Senu did when she fought him with her bow. As for me, I fought off against my opponents with my newly forged blade. Using it to block and parry incoming attacks and to take them down. Though, as I fought them, I began to notice something. Whenever I switched between different pulses with my dragon arm, a faint glow of the same color could be seen for a few seconds from the weapon. But that was not the highest of priorities. We needed to get inside.

        Though, just as we defeated the last of them, that was when we heard a new voice emerge from the ruins.

        “My, my, my~! I guess she wasn’t just fretting over nothing after all!” Turning, I noticed a humanoid woman with long blonde hair that went down to her hips sauntering out from the ruins. She had golden eyes that were several shades darker than her hair, and very revealing clothes. Her figure looked… more than Moxxi’s. God, I can’t get that out of my head now. Over her shoulder was a large metal cross that’s base was tipped like a pike.

        “Who are you exactly?” I now asked.

        “And why are you desecrating the dead?” Bayek added, shifting to his mummified form.

        She ‘tsked’, shaking an index finger disapprovingly. “Is that any way to talk to the new Goddess of the Sea~?” She gestured to herself with a proud smirk. “As for my name, you may address me as Five.”

        “Well, I hate to break it to you Five, but if you’re going to be a Goddess of the Sea, it’s best to not set up shop in a desert.” Bayek stated as he drew a dagger from his belt.

        I took a moment to glance at the bones in the carts that she was standing next too, before asking her a question that came to my mind. “Why are you after the bones of the deceased?”

        “Mother null wanted them. I don’t really care about them, to be honest… How about we play a game? I’ll answer any five questions you two have truthfully, before I kill you both?” Five suggested. She sounded like a spoiled child. Which, to me, made me think that she was kind of acting a bit cocky or overconfident. “And that was question one! Four more~”

        As I stretched my neck, I looked back at her and prepared my next one. “Who is this ‘mother null’ that you speak of?”

        “Hah! What a waste of a question. Zero, the Intoner mother~!” Five giggled in a sultry manner. Hearing Zero’s name and it being spoken like that did not really settle easily with me. But with it, I came upon a new realization. If she was with Zero, then Five was part of the Dark Brotherhood as well. 

        “Intoner? What in the Duat is an Intoner?” Bayek asked.

        “I’m an Intoner. We are immortals that sway the hearts and minds of mortals, and control magic beyond Equestria. Are you done with the boring questions?” Five faked a yawn, and pulled something out from behind her back. I couldn’t see it well. 

        “When the questioning is over, can you not kill us, please?” Bayek asked, looking hopeful. Although, something told me that hope was misplaced given everything we’ve been seeing so far.

        “Hahahah! You are a very humorous one indeed! Perhaps I won’t kill you… just so I can keep you as a pet.” Five grinned playfully as she just stared at Bayek for a few seconds, before turning to me. “One more question, and you better make this fifth one interesting. I will not have you waste my time like the first three.”

        “Hmm…” I asked, scratching my chin as I looked back at her now. If there was anything I remember from when I met Zero, it was that she had Mikhail. Could it be possible that she would have a dragon companion like that too? “Would you happen to have a dragon with you, like how Zero has Mikhail?”

        Immediately, Five’s mood went from bored, to absolutely seething. “How dare you!? I don’t need a dragon to destroy you!” She let her cross down off of her shoulder, and began twirling it with inhuman strength. “I’ll kill you, and once I do, everyone who cares about you will lose their will to face the Brotherhood! Because of me!” The moment she finished, she shot forward and rammed me with as much force as a car. Knocking me backwards as I rolled onto the ground, trying to get up before she could attack me again.

        “Enough! This ends here!” Bayek shouted as he tried to ram her with his shield. She jumped out of the way, and threw the strange item in her hand into the sky. To my shock, it exploded into a blue and white wormhole, before a flock of what looked to be white birds began to swarm around a single point. The ground began to freeze as the birds slowly faded away, only to reveal the one who was inside. A lone woman, wearing a blue and white trench coat, with pale skin and cold blue eyes stood stiffly, wielding a dueling sword in her hand.

        “You didn’t think you were the only ones who could summon, did you~?” Five teased, “Winter, take on the rabble while I tear dragon boy a new one.”

        ‘Winter’ simply nodded, before rushing forward to engage Bayek, her blade going for an overhead swing. As for me, I got back up on my feet and took up a combat stance. Holding onto my newfound blade with a tight grip as I looked back towards Five.

        “Let’s keep this between us, I’m not in the mood for a threesome~!” Five cackled.

        Oh god, she even sounds like Moxxi. “Are you going to try and intimidate me with words or are you going to actually fight?” I then asked her. Wait, she was a lot closer than I- and she hit me in the face with the blunt side of her cross, before thrusting the tip towards my stomach.

        Using my arm, I grabbed hold of the weapon and used my pulse to change the angle of where she was stabbing. I was not going to have myself get hit twice now, as the weapon missed. Before firing off another blast from my hand to push her backwards. As she was being pushed back, I fired off a couple of blasts from my arm as I took the chance to attack. Swinging forward as my blade clashed with hers. Acting on instinct as I carefully tried to find a weakness of any sort that I could exploit.

        Five was focused on wearing me out with heavy hitting attacks that were vastly slower than my own. But any attack I’d get in would be shrugged off and I would take a far worse hit. At one point, I backed off and summoned Hawkmoon, firing off a series of shots from the hand cannon from a distance to buy some time. Of course, personally, I thought that she would try to move out of the way. But instead, she used her oversized cross to deflect my shots.

        That bought all the time I needed though, because as soon as the last shot was deflected, I took on my dragon armor form. “Revaan, to me! Let’s make this quick!” I shouted, shortly before he flew up into the air and landed right beside me. However, when I looked back at Five, all she did was just grin. Like she expected for me to do this.

        The second after I finished, Five opened her mouth and belted out a strange tune that sounded multilayered and filtered through an auto tuner. An aura of gold surrounded her, causing the ground around us to shake. The area between us started to sink as water erupted from the ground between us like a geyser. Several more repeated this process as the canyon began to flood with water, forcing me to leap onto Revaan’s back as he took off and began to float in the air.

        “What in the ancestors was that!?” Revaan asked.

        “Don’t ask me! I have no clue what this is,” I told him, before looking around. “Where’s Bayek?! Did he get out of there in time?”

        A chain was suddenly flung up out of the water, heading towards where we were in the air. Revaan noticed this and quickly flew over to grab it with a claw, before using his wings to pull it upward and throw it back to the ledge we were originally standing on earlier. At the end of the chain, Bayek came with it and was flung out of the water and onto the cliff, his normal form washed away from the sudden bath.

        “Oh thank god.” I let out a sigh of relief, before turning back towards the pool of water that filled the canyon. Five was standing on the rising water as if it were solid ground, and finished her melody. Was this what she meant earlier with her banter on being a goddess of the sea? Or was there more to it then that?

        “Hahah! Are you afraid of a little water?” Five teased mockingly. This wasn’t like before, there was venomous intent in her voice. “Mother will surely praise me for delivering your head on a platter!” The water began to shift, and before I had the time to react, two giant black, metal spikes the length of Revaan protruded from the water, sending a tunnel of water wider than us in our general direction. Splashing us and knocking us back, but luckily, it wasn’t hard enough to knock us out of the air. Though, getting hit by it felt like getting hit by an oncoming truck.

        On the top of the cliffside, I spotted Winter, who had been standing next to the carts filled to the brim with bones. How’d they get up there? Nevermind that, what the hell was it that just hit us right now?

        “Oh~ Good work, my angel~!” Five cooed in excitement as the spikes submerged back into the water. A noticeable disturbance on the surface of the water, like a jetski almost, showed me just how fast this thing was, moving from one section of the canyon to another in a few seconds before it emerged again and fired at us from a different angle. Barely being able to dodge as it tore apart the trees that were behind us. Turning them into nothing but mere splinters.

        Which begged the question… how the hell were we going to fight something like this. If this continued on, we’ll just be nothing but target practice for whatever the hell was lurking down there. “Okay Revaan, any ideas of how to try and get whatever the hell this thing is to come out?”

        “Only two… and yet, both of them seem kind of impossible,” He grit his teeth, folding his wings in front of him to block an incoming water blast. “One, try to get the water levels to lower, but I don’t see how that can be done. Two, fire off something that has lightning into the water to force whatever’s in there to come out.”

        That made me think for a moment, before summoning SulKren as I looked at him. “I think I can do the second… but I only got one shot. I didn’t bring a lot of shock arrows with me, so I only got one. How close can you get me to it?”

        “Not sure, but we don’t have a lot of options. Hang on!”

        You didn’t have to tell me twice. Revaan took this as a cue to fly forward, rolling out of the way of incoming water blasts as I knocked my arrow on to my bow. Readying it for when it was the right moment. Upon getting closer, the metal spikes shot out at us again, prompting Revaan to retreat backward but also having me fire off the arrow towards the center of the pool of water. A small current of electricity began to crackle along the surface before quickly spreading as it lasted for a few seconds. Five was barely able to jump into a dry tunnel, but the beast under water wasn’t so lucky.

        “Baby!” Five cried out, genuine worry filling her voice as a metallic crab-like structure emerged from the water, screeching in animalistic agony. On its back was a platform which ended with the two spikes that paralleled each other, it’s body was entirely made up of black metal, except a few areas where there was a strange yellow glow. It had eight short and stubby legs, but what really caught me off guard was its sheer size. It was almost three times taller, four times as wide than Revaan and I felt like an ant as my dragon armor was gone now.

        “Holy sh*t…”

        “Behold the fifth song: Grand Light of Antiquity! The great power made manifest... The ceremony of glorious arrival... Burn into thine eyes the punishing lance of divine retribution! Phanuel, obliterate them!” Five commanded as Phanuel sent another torrent of water, this shot clipping Revaan’s left wing. The ‘angel’ then grabbed ahold of the wallside of the canyon and… launched himself right at us!

        “Revaan, move-!” Unfortunately, my command came too late as Phanuel rammed into us at full force. Knocking the wind out of me as the two of us both crashed onto a ledge on the edge of the water.

        “Ken!!” I heard Dad cry out, getting out from behind a nearby bush and trying to run to me.

        “N-no! Stay back!!” Around now, I attempted to stand back up, but my body was sore. Even with the amount of rest that I had, Phanuel’s strike really took a lot out of both Revaan and I as we were barely holding our own right now.

        “Ken, are you crazy!? You’re in no shape to fight! We need to run, now!”

        “That won’t work,” Revaan groaned again, “She’s not going to let us get out of here after everything we’ve done now-”

        As I heard him say that, my attention immediately went to dad as he stood in front of me, unaware that Phanuel was preparing to fire off another breath in his direction. Without thinking, I just leaped out to him and grabbed hold of him. Holding onto him as my body got soaked by a blast of water with enough force to break a cement wall. At this point, I felt my muscles begin to weaken as I let go of him.

        Wait… why is he looking back at Phanuel-? Oh no… not this again.

        “How… DARE YOU!!” He growled, an orange colored glow radiating off his body. “HOW DARE YOU HARM MY SON LIKE THAT, YOU MONSTER!!!!” The glow began to burn brightly as his form began to change once more. Taking on the same form that I saw him transform into before as his newfound wings began to illuminate in color along with the ring that was around the back of his head.

        “W-what in-?” Revaan just stared in shock and disbelief as he looked back at me. “Is that… your father?”

        “Y-yes…” I groaned weakly. All dad did was just float there, before dashing forth as his claws began to glow with the same kind of energy that was coming from his wings. As Phanuel fired off another blast of water, dad unleashed a blast of light that moved faster than the eye could see. Striking the outside of Phanuel’s hardened shell and causing the creature to stagger.

        However, Dad was not done. In fact, he immediately raced towards the creatures head, smacking it with the blunt end of his tail. Sending it into the water. Wait… what is he doing?

        “WHAT MADE YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST HIDE FROM ME, COWARD?!”

        A swipe of his claws sent chunks of rock flying into the air, slicing at some… eel like creatures that resided within the walls. He continued to do this until there was not much of the caves left as he swung forward again, only to be stabbed by Five’s weapon, the cross piercing his chest.

        Yet, he remained unfazed, grabbing it and pulling it out as he picked it up and threw it towards Phanuel instead of at Five, the mostly blunt weapon bouncing off of the metal titan’s metal carapace. 

        “S-stay back, you mongrel!” Five backed up. I could barely see what was going on as Phanuel shot water at Revaan and I again. Only to get blasted from another one of dad’s attacks before he glared at Five.

        “Either leave now… Or stay and REGRET IT!!” He growled, looking back at her as he gave her the choice. “I am NOT going to repeat myself.”

        Phanuel picked up Five’s weapon with it’s two front appendages, then began turning towards Dad and Five, before jumping straight into the cave. He didn’t fit, but his head reached far enough in to bite Dad and yank him out, dragging him down into the water while leaving Five’s cross for her. I just watched as I looked on, before looking at Revaan.

        “Revaan, we got to help him!”

        “We can’t! I can barely see either of them from over here!!” He told me, as I looked back up in the air. Now though, I was getting an idea as I brought out my sword again and looked back at him.

        “Just get us in the air. I got an idea,” Without even asking, Revaan did what I told him too as I got on his back, getting us into the air as I saw Phanuel pinning dad against a wall in the gorge. The creature was entirely focused on him and paid no attention at us, providing us with an opportunity. “Now… Throw me at Phanuel.”

        “What? Are you serious-?”

        “Just do it, Revaan!” I snapped. Without even questioning it, Revaan began to spin himself backwards in the air, before having me be on the end of his tail as he launched me towards Phanuel. With Revaak Gron at the ready, I used my dragon arm to pull myself towards the beast before striking it in the eye, causing it to wail in pain as it loosened its grip on dad and had him get out of the water.

        As quickly as I struck it, I had Revaan rush over. Pulling myself back up onto his back with my arm as we backed off from where Phanuel was. It might have not been any kind of killing blow, but I could tell that I definitely did some damage. And Five… well, safe to say, Five was not happy at all, as she had leaped up to our level and knocked me off of Revaan with her cross. Though, I was able to actually land properly this time and not crash into the ground like before.

        “You’re ruining everything! Just be a dear, and die already!” Five shouted, right before she charged with the sharp end of her cross. I didn’t have time to react, and the tip pierced me in my abdomen. It felt like my earlier wounds were reopening all over again, as I grabbed hold of her hands with one arm.

        “Two words…” I glared, before giving her a taste of what I felt as I slashed her chest with my blade. A scar running down the middle as I forced her backwards with a kick to her ribs. The blade coming out of me. “F*ck… you.”

        “While I’d love that, mother would punish me if I slept with the main target~!” Five jested as she used the side of her weapon to hit me over the head, knocking me to the ground. “I am getting aroused with hurting you though~ Maybe I’ll pay one of your friends a visit afterwards~!”

        Yeah, not happening. With the rest of the energy that I could muster, I fired off a blast to her face to blind her before stabbing her in the chest. Driving my blade in there as I grabbed onto her shoulder and faced her towards the rampaging waters below. “Let me ask you a question in the only language you seem to understand… Is this hard enough for you?”

        “N-not… hard enough…” Five coughed up blood as she spoke.

        “Maybe this will help then.” Without hesitation, I yanked the blade out of Five and then kicked her off the edge as she plummeted into the rapids below. All before falling back as I let out a deep breath. All of that way a rather huge ordeal… and I barely survived it. I’m glad I survived it… but still, that was way too close for my liking.

        Of course, only a few moments later did I turn to watch dad revert back to his original form, before stumbling around as he was walking all over the place. “W-what happened? Why is the world s-spinning?” After a bit though, he shook his head and regained focus, before noticing me and hurrying over. “Ken, what happened? Did you beat that lady?”

        “Yeah…” I just sighed, looking out at the canyon that was still flooded before groaning a bit. “But it doesn’t really feel like a victory.”

        “Come on, now. What makes you say that?”

        All that did was just have me look back at him with a raised eyebrow as Revaan now joined up. “This feels less like a victory and more like the phrase ‘one step forward, two steps back’. We might’ve beaten Five, but we originally came here because we were hoping to explore the ruins to find clues on the brotherhood. So not only have we not found anything on that regard, but because of the fact that Five flooded the entire canyon, it would mean that anything that was once in there would be either damaged or washed away.”

        “Oh…” That had dad’s attitude change immediately upon realizing everything I just said. “Crap, you’re right… W-what about Bayek and Senu? Do you think they might have something?”

        “Only if Bayek has the ability to somehow pull out a rabbit out of his hood… no offense,” I grumbled again, shrugging my shoulders as I looked back at him. “Otherwise, I don’t know. Where are they anyways?”

        Suddenly, as if to answer my question, a sand covered and dismembered body fell into view. A golden masked head then rolled into view shortly thereafter groaning as it rolled. “Dizzy…” It said.

        “Hello Dizzy, I’m Kota.” Wait, what?

        “Dad, I thought your name was Axel.”

        “Axel was the name I changed it too. Originally, it was Kota… and to be fair, it’s a better name then that of what Tina wanted to call me.” Okay, he had a point there. Matter of fact, where’s Senu? Wouldn’t she be with Bayek right now?

        An eagle then flew down and in a swirl of sand, transformed into Senu’s griffon form. “Bayek, you just had to get ‘ahead’ yourself, didn’t you?” She said.

        “Bad timing on that joke,” Bayek’s head said. “And I just had to stop myself from making a head joke.”

        “Not to sound rude,” Revaan now spoke up. “But are you here bearing some form of good news or just bad jokes? Because with the face that the canyon’s flooded, anything in the ruins will get flooded and washed away too.”

        “Two bits,” Senu said, holding what looked to be a ivory colored tome that had a silver piece of cloth coming out from within the pages and a latch that held the whole thing together. “One we’re alive. Two, I managed to snatch something from one of those griffon jerks and I don’t know what to make of it.”

        Well, at least that’s something I guess… wait a minute. “Bayek… what happened to that woman you were facing? Winter, was it?”

        “Winter Schnee, to be precise.” I turned, and over the canyon stood the white haired woman, standing atop a blue glyph. I immediately got back up from my seated position on the ground with blade in hand, thinking that she was here in order to finish what she started earlier when facing Bayek. “So the bimbo is gone… I’m not too surprised, she’s the weakest I’ve worked with.”

        “Weakest? That angel or whatever she called it fired off blasts that felt like you were getting run over by a train,” I told her.

        “Hold on, Ken,” Revaan ushered, raising a talon. “Your words give off the impression that you’ve worked with others like her. Is that true?”

        “Yes, I suppose it is. What is it to you?” Winter smirked, which made me feel unnerved. While also making me wonder why Revaan asked that. Though, it didn’t seem like he was going to tell her directly to her face.

        “I was just curious,” He said. “Though, what are your intentions now? You once followed what Five told you to do… are you going to see that through still given that Five has been defeated?”

        “Why ask? Are you hoping that I’d submit or offer my services?” There was a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

        “I honestly wasn’t even thinking that,” I told her in response. “Personally, I would think that you would be wanting to face a different opponent since your last one… well… doesn’t exactly have his head in the game right now.”

        “Oh, ha ha,” Bayek ‘laughed’ with heavy sarcasm. “That’s so funny, I forgot to laugh for a moment.”

        “Who said that I was intending that as a joke?” I then asked him, before returning my gaze to Winter.

        “You’re not exactly what I’d call ‘worth fighting’. In fact, I think you’re vulnerable.” Winter stated matter-of-factly while looking me up and down. Did she notice my injuries? Or was there something else that I didn’t even notice?

        “Well, if you’re not wanting to fight and you’re certainly not wanting to help us, then what are you here for? Just to mock us?” I now heard Dad chime in.

        “Mostly. Plus I’m waiting until Five finally perishes or you try to kill me, either works for me. This has turned into such a waste of time.” Winter rolled her eyes in aggravation.

        Hold up… finally perishes? Are you telling me that after kicking her off the edge of a thirty foot high canyon wall that she isn’t dead?! “It does sound like a ‘goddess’ would have a hard time dying… much like me-” Bayek said.

        “How is that even relevant here?” Dad, did you really have to ask him that?

        “I’m an undead servant of Anubis, a God of Death and Burials,” Bayek almost growled. “I’m pretty sure that and the fact that Five proclaimed herself as a ‘goddess’ could easily place us in a similar boat of being unable to die or be hard to kill.”

        All I could do was roll my eyes at that. “Guys, I highly doubt that relates to-” At that point, something else began to click when I looked back towards Winter. Earlier when Five had first flooded the canyon, I saw Winter bringing up one of the carts that carried the dragon bones. Now… they were nowhere in sight. “Son of a b*tch!!”

        “What? What’s wrong?”

        “It’s a diversion! The carts with the dragon bones are gone,” I cursed, letting out a painful groan. “And we completely fell for it.”

        “And with that, I’ll bid you all adieu. I have other, more important matters to attend to.” Before any of us could do anything, another glyph emerged under the first one as a flurry of white birds began to swarm all around her. And just as quickly as they arrived, they disappeared afterwards. Leaving nothing behind as I put my sword away as I sighed deeply.

        “And with that, another step back…” I looked back to Bayek (or what was currently left of him), Senu and the others, before posing a new question. “Should we just take our losses and head back to the hollow for now? I’m beginning to think that the book Senu found is the only thing we’re lucky enough to find all things considered.”

        “Okay, but how are we going to bring him back?” Dad now asked. That just had me thinking for a bit, before I turned to Senu and asked a question.

        “Would you happen to have some rope?”



        By the time that we got back to the hollow, things had settled down a bit since Aaron and Shayne were still not back yet. However, it meant that Bayek and Senu got the chance to meet Tina in person upon touching down. And right away, Bayek was not entirely amused. “Ooh… Where did you get that fancy headpiece for Revaan, Kenny? Because that looks badass!”

        “Is this Tina?” Bayek asked. “If so, can you clarify my status to her as undead, not dead, not alive, and definitely not inanimate.”

        “Yes, that is Tina,” I told him, unhooking him off of Revaan’s horns as I held onto the ropes that were tied to him. “And given that she sees objects as people a lot of the times, I highly doubt that trying to ‘clarify’ anything to her would change anything.”

        Senu landed in her eagle form and gave a mirthful sounding cry. “Don’t encourage him!” Bayek yelled at her. “As for you, Tina, please don’t push me. I’ve had a bit of a bad day, so being called a headpiece won’t help.”

        Poke!

        Tina, did you just poke Bayek on his nose? Really?

        “Young lady, I would recommend removing your finger from my nose, unless you want me or Senu to remove it from your hand,” Bayek growled, smoke starting to seep out from under his golden mask.

        “Aw man, you’re no fun,” She said, pouting in response as she followed through on Bayek’s request.

        “I’ll wait on fun until my body reforms… by the way, why did you decide to only take my head?” Bayek asked.

        Senu changed to her griffon form. “Your body was a bit mangled and soggy,” she answered. “Plus, I think you would prefer having your body made of dry sand, not that soggy mess.”

        “Just…” Bayek sighed and just gave up. “Words fail my frustration, depression, anxiety, and any lingering anger.”

        “Aw, come on huggabutt. It won’t be that bad… Besides, it would be better if you don’t look like you came from Davy Jones's locker!” Tina, that doesn’t even relate to what Bayek is talking about. What are you even trying to say?!

        “Just dunk my head in alcohol infused with crocodile blood and leave me there for an hour,” Bayek said with some sorrow in his voice.

        “Might not even have the time for that depending on how soon your body comes back.” I sighed.

        “Humor him for a bit,” Senu said. “He’s had several ‘fatal’ blows on him since he’s been displaced and outside of his rage moment, he hasn’t had anyway to vent his frustration.”

        “We could get him a bucket of ice water and some of the apples that we still have from Sweet Apple Acres,” I heard Revaan say. “It’s not alcohol and Croc blood, but it can be a close second.”

        “Maybe… Though, I feel that he needs something a bit heavier than that,” I looked towards the temple, before looking back to Revaan and going inside. After looking around in the kitchen, I was lucky enough to come across something that might do the trick as I poured it into a big bucket and brought it back out. Just before dunking Bayek’s head in it. “Ice cold Apple Cider. Apparently, AJ had the recipe and ingredients in the kitchen, so here’s a batch. Careful though, first time I made this stuff.”

        When his head was pulled out, Bayek took a breath and somehow shook the golden mask off of his face. “Again,” he said, to which I obliged. When his head came back out, his speech started to slur a bit. “Oh, that...that’s…” He then devolved into barely intelligible rambling.

        “Woo!! You go girl!!” All I did was facepalm when it came to Tina’s cheering. But it also made Senu a bit curious as she scratched her chin with a claw.

        “What’s the alcohol content of that stuff?” She asked.

        “Ever heard of Apple Cider?” I asked her.

        “Yes, I’ve even drank some, but when Bayek drank some, he wasn’t affected...at least visibly,” she said. “Just dunking his head into this Cider got him hammered instantly. Whether it’s because of his reduced size or the alcohol content is up for debate.”

        “Yeah… I kind of just… added all the apple cider that we had…” I admitted to her, which got surprised looks from both dad and Revaan. “Hey, I’m no bartender. Moxxi’s better at that stuff than me.”

        Senu dipped a talon in the cider and sniffed it, recoiling after she did. “I think there’s enough alcohol in this cider to kill a regular person,” she said, mild agitation in her voice. “It’s both perfect and concerning.”

        “Hey, I never said I was an expert,” I told her, just letting out a groan. “I just hope it would help Bayek. I’ll help make sure you guys can go back to your world once his body has returned. In the meantime, I need to rest… and wait for a canyon to drain out.”

        “And when we get back, we’ll see if we can get you some materials to you so you can build a shrine to send any overly-strong cider you make to the Duat for Anubis and his subjects,” Senu said, pulling out a copy of what I assumed to be Bayek’s token. “Also, here. This token is a good weapon supplement, giving you a few boosts to your natural strength and reflexes, and it’s able to coat your weapons in either fire or poison.”

        “I kind of already have arrows for fire and poison, but the strength and reflexes could help me out,” I replied back. “I might need to consider asking Athena or a few of my other companions if they’re up for sparring practice. That way I don’t have any close calls like that with Five today.”

        “Sounds fair,” Senu agreed. The then looked at Bayek, who was being held by Tina as they both were singing something in some garbled and made up language. “In the meantime, I’m gonna do a flight. Please keep Bayek from killing himself...not that he currently can, but it’s the thought that counts.” She then changed back to her eagle form and flew off.

        Well, guess I just need to sit around for awhile and rest up. Can’t be that hard, right?



???

        Zero watched as beaten and bruised mercenaries dragged warped wagons, wheezing in exhaustion. In front of them limped Five, drenched and livid. The blonde fell to her knees when she noticed Zero, bowing silently.

        “What happened…?” Zero asked, looking down at the ‘Goddess of the Sea’.

        “The target attacked us, so I flooded that damn canyon, but he-!” Five ranted, but was silenced by an angered roar. She looked up, and saw Mikhail clinging to the ceiling.

        “You cur, tell me you acquired the remains before you destroyed my home!” The dragon snarled, his eyes glowing dangerously. Five gulped in fear, eyes widening.

        “Y-yes, they’re right here! They were the last ones salvageable, I swear!” The dragon huffed out a column of smoke, before jumping down next to Zero. He wanted to taste the young Intoner’s fear of them more.

        Zero narrowed her red eye dangerously, “You’re an idiot, Five. One warned me you’d find some way of screwing up, and you did. You even used one of my tokens.”

        “I-I-I’m sorry, mother, but I-!” Five began to defend herself, only to be cut off by the white haired woman.

        “Silence!” Everyone, even Mikhail, froze at that. Zero rarely rose her voice, especially towards one of her daughters. “You’ll be working under your sister, One, from here on out. If you fail her, you fail me. Got that, you little shit?”

        Five shrank away from her mother, “Y-yes ma’am...”

        Zero left the silence eat away at her child, before walking over towards the wagons. With a single gesture, the mercenaries unloaded the bones unceremoniously to the ground. “What of the Nacht Codex?”

        “I-I think th-the target got them…” Five whimpered. Zero didn’t react, but her dragon sure did.

        “Hahah, you really are a moron! At least your incompetence didn’t destroy the only history left in those ruins!” The pale drake cackled.

        Zero gave him a disapproving glance. “You’re not much better. Remind me, again, how you used half of our tokens as firewood?” That got Mikhail to shut up, but he looked very upset at the reminder. “Either way, it’s of little concern.”

        Five raised her hand, “Um… don’t mind me asking, but what’s with taking these old bones? I mean, I guess it upset the target and his associate, but… yeah, just why?”

        Zero ignored Five, noting a skull in the nearest pile of bones. Bending over, she whispered into where it’s ear would be, her voice seeming almost multilayered. “Slen, Tiid, Vo.”

        The bones began to magnetize toward each other, locking in their correct placements. When there were missing bones, there seemed to appear new ones, and when the entire thing was together, flesh began to materialize.

        Five and the mercenaries stared at the scene, absolutely mortified- no, horrified. The resurrected dragon reared its head, and let loose a torrent of blue fire into the ceiling.

        Zero stared blankly at the now thrashing lizard, unphased by it’s blind rage. “The past always comes back to bite, right Zero?” Mikhail snarked pridefully, “They’ll think twice before forgetting us again.”




End Chapter 46