Chapter 132: The Merciless Egyptian Prince
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Merneith, the princess of another parallel timeline from Earth, who had appeared from the gray gates formed by the Grandfather of Time to hasten the destruction of Earth, ended up revealing her identity and her secrets to the Hunters of the city of Cairo.
Despite her being rather shy about it, once they opened up to her and she realized they weren’t actually bad people, she confessed to them where she came from, while the hunters also shared their opinions and views about it.
“So you truly come from a much more technologically advanced society, a parallel world.” Mohamed Khaled muttered, the association chairman of the city.
“We’ll have to keep this a secret. Other countries could try to kidnap Merneith and steal her technology if more of her becomes public.”
However, Ahmed Mostafa, known as “The Blood Beast Berserk”, an S Rank Hunter, laughed at the chairman’s words.
“Don’t you think that’s a bit too late now, Mohamed? Miss Princess over here can’t get away from the journalists, always showing her face on TV!”
The thug-like hunter wasn’t as respectful as the rest and often voiced his opinions and words without holding back.
“Ugh, okay, I admit I shouldn’t have done that!” Merneith sighed. “But for now, I suppose most things are cleared, right? I don’t really have intentions of going back, so I hope you could let me stay for a bit more.”
“Of course, I guess there’s no helping it then,” Heba Marwa, often known as “Queen of the Dunes”, an S Rank Hunter, seemed to like Merneith. “Maybe you could.”
Yet…
RUMBLE!
This civil conversation filled with revelations was suddenly interrupted as something above the skies suddenly emerged.
Or, well, it seemed as if it had materialized out of thin air! The people of El Cairo pointed at the sky in fear and awe.
A giant golden pyramid floated above the skies as several smaller silhouettes started flying off of it, going down into the city.
They were all huge mechanical constructions—piloted robots!
Merneith looked at the scene through the building’s window.
“Ah, this is bad.”
Her eyes seemed to have widened as she saw what happened.
The ghosts of her past were finally coming for her.
The other Hunters panicked.
“What’s going on?!” Heba asked.
“That’s the pyramid?!” Mohamed asked.
“Don’t tell me they’re looking for you?!” Ahmed wondered.
“Merneith!”
Sara Asmaa, “The Sacred Child”, the fourth S-Rank Hunter of this city and the youngest, glanced at Merneith, her face full of concern.
“T-This is all my fault… I have to take responsibility.”
Merneith gritted her teeth, grasping her hands tightly.
“Eh? What do you mean with…!”
FLASH!
She suddenly jumped out of the window, making the hunters panic.
“Merneith?!”
However, as she fell, her Golden Bloodline activated.
An aura of gold and silver light surged from her body as a giant mechanical god materialized around her body.
Ra, the God of the Sun!
It was never there to begin with, but just through a mere command, the entity made of metal emerged out of nowhere.
The Hunters couldn’t help but wonder if it was either stored in dimensional storage or if it simply materialized from magic or nanobots generated from Merneith’s body; nobody knew how it even worked.
“I have to take responsibility for bringing them here…!” Merneith thought. “I can’t let them do as they please, this city that welcomed me… these people that understood me…! I must protect them!”
She flew into the skies with her fiery wings, confronting the group of dozens of mechanical soldiers.
The group was led by a larger mech, one resembling her own in detail and height.
Yet this one was black and gold-colored, with its head resembling a jackal, wearing black armor, and holding a large, golden balance.
It emanated a powerful aura of Darkness, the complete opposite of Ra.
Indeed, there was only one God of Egyptian Mythology that fit such a being.
And Merneith immediately recognized it!
“T-That’s Anubis?!” The princess gasped. “Big brother Akhenaten... is it you?”
Akhenaten was Merneith’s big brother, someone she both feared and hated.
A man ordered the princess around as if she were his slave, and he envied her for living without as many responsibilities as he did.
“Who else than me, Merneith?!”
His voice echoed from inside the mechanical god, sending shivers down Merneith’s spine all the way down to the tip of her tail.
It was indeed him.
“I have finally found you... You little brat. We’re going back home, and you’re marrying that Roman prince!”
“No… I’ll never marry a Roman!”
She roared furiously; the princess wasn’t going to let others decide her life ever again.
“I am going to be free, and I will not follow your insanity anymore!”
Hearing his sister’s bold words, Akhenaten immediately lost his cool, if he even had one to begin with.
“You’re really bold to say such blasphemy. You don’t deserve the power of the gods. The power of Ra would do much better in my hands!”
With a furious roar, her big brother rushed towards her, materializing a huge black and gold scythe.
The princess gasped, incapable of believing her brother would just come to kill her in cold blood!
“Are you really going to fight me?!”
Merneith had no time to think, materializing a spear made of flames and sunlight to defend.
CLAAASH!
An explosion of flames and light erupted as her brother was pushed back slightly. The might of Ra was greater than he had imagined, charging furiously at his sister might not have been the wisest decision.
“The flames of Ra are too strong!” he thought. “Anubis Dark Aura is rapidly decreasing…!”
The Dark Aura that Anubis, the Mechanical God created was a protective layer of dark matter that helped Akhenaten easily become immune to most attacks, both physical and energy based.
However, it wasn’t invincible; Ra’s sunlight, in fact, was its worst match! Composed of a star’s plasma itself, it burned through the dark matter, vaporizing it.
“We don’t need to do this!” said Merneith. “Please, let’s not fight! We’re both stranded here! We can’t go back home yet, so it’s useless to fight between each other!”
"Useless, you say?!” laughed Akhenaten. “Has the lesser beings living in these sand lands weakened your heart? Or perhaps you were always this foolish, my sister? This is the perfect opportunity for me to take Ra with me! I’ll just pretend you died in an accident! Hahah!”
“E-Eh?!”
Merneith was shocked by what her brother had said. Although he had never shown a speck of love to her through their entire lives, at least she imagined he was still a decent human being and that he wouldn’t go as far as killing his own sister.
But she was wrong; the corruption of their family had even reached the princes and princesses, and with many heirs inheriting the Golden Bloodline, the only way to truly obtain a Mechanical God was simple.
To eliminate one another!
“You already have Anubis! Why do you want Ra too?! Isn’t one enough?!”
“It’s never enough! Also, Ra is not yours! You stole him when you ran away! He actually belongs with my mother! Therefore, it belongs to me as well!”
“T-That’s not true! Ra was piloted by MY mom!”
Although they were siblings sharing a single father, their mothers were different mistresses of the King. Merneith’s mother had died several years ago, and Ra once belonged to her.
However, after her mother’s passing, her brother’s mother took Ra as her trophy, which, unlike Merneith’s mother, was barely used for battle and only used as a trophy she showcased around her palace.
“Your mother only used the Mechanical God as a trophy! Ra is made to fight and protect its people!” Merneith cried, and her blazing spear continued to pierce through Anubis dark matter veil.
However…
“Mechanical Gods are our tools, you foolish brat!”
With a furious roar, the Egyptian prince unleashed his Golden Bloodline’s Ability, infusing it into the Mechanical God Anubis, whose entire body started to tremble, releasing sparks of electricity.
“{Golden Bloodline}: {Ma’at Insurance}”
RUMBLE!
Anubis exuded a white aura combined with its black aura. Merneith gasped. She realized her brother used the Golden Bloodline Ability, a power everyone who held this bloodline could unleash within Mechanical Gods.
Unfortunately for her, she had no idea what her brother’s power was, and to make things worse, she had yet to awaken her own!
“Insurance, what does that mean?!”
As she was confused, Anubis rushed towards her, swinging its giant scythe at the same time as its dark matter aura transformed into large jackals, barking, and trying to bite and attack Ra.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
“Aah!”
Merneith panicked slightly, stepping back as she used her blazing spear and Ra’s mighty wings for protection. The barrage of blows was intense, although she noticed Anubis had not grown any stronger.
“Was he just bluffing?!”
As she thought so, she rushed forward, swinging her spear and destroying the jackals one after another. Explosions of flames and darkness erupted in the sky.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Akhenaten smiled as his large scythe was pushed back and cracks appeared over the futuristic mechanical weapon. As Anubis was pushed back, its greatest power, the Dark Matter Veil, was useless against Ra’s Sun Plasma.
Yet… he smiled!
“Heh! Thank you! I’ll be adding that to the insurance cost!”
“Insurance…?!”
Merneith didn’t understand but quickly realized that something, a mysterious power, manifested itself, encompassing her entire body and that of Anubis.
Suddenly, she felt as if Ra had become slower and heavier, while at the same time, Anubis grew stronger, faster, and swifter.
Then, she noticed a large number above Anubis.
[Ma’at Insurance: 1 Points]
The number kept increasing, she noticed it did based on her own attacks against Anubis.
[Ma’at Insurance: 10 Points]
[Ma’at Insurance: 20 Points]
[Ma’at Insurance: 30 Points]
[Ma’at Insurance: 40 Points]
[…]
At the end, it ended at a staggering number!
[Ma’at Insurance: 100 Points]
“Huh?!”
And then…
[Subtracting Insurance from target. 100 Points of Power have been taken and granted to the affected party.]
FLUOSH!
And then it was when Ra’s powers weakened even further!
“Ra?!”
Merneith gasped, as she had realized too late that she had fallen for her brother’s scheme all along.
The power of his Golden Bloodline allowed him to create an insurance he would have to be paid based on the damage he received.
The more damage he takes, the more insurance the attacking party must pay!
It weakens his foe while granting him strength.
This was the power of Ma’at, the God of Truth and Justice of Egyptian Mythology.
“C-CRAAAHH…!”
Ra groaned. The Mechanical Gods were sentient beings of their own, groaning in pain. The gigantic bird god seemed to be growing weaker; its flames turned smaller, and its radiance flickered.
“Hahaha! HAHAHAH!”
Akhenaten laughed maniacally as he saw the city of El Cairo being attacked by his troops, almost a hundred Mechs piloted by his soldiers continued destroying buildings, the people below panicked, screaming, and running away.
“Look what you’ve provoked, Merneith! This is all your fault! Now all these rats are going to die because of YOU!”
“N-No…! Leave them out of this, brother!”
Merneith cried, rushing towards her brother with all her machine’s strength, which had been reduced to half. Her giant blazing spear moved towards Anubis.
“If you attack me, you’ll only make me stronger!”
“I know.”
“Huh?!”
FLASH!
Akhenaten suddenly gasped; the blazing spear Merneith sent towards him actually missed him, flying towards a group of piloted mechs, resembling humanoid sphynxes and black jackals.
And then…
BOOOMMM!!!
They blew up into pieces, the spear exploding and disintegrating them all.
The prince’s eyes widened.
“You dare kill your nation’s soldiers?! Are you insane? How much of a traitor have you become?!”
“They’re not my soldiers; they’re yours!” roared Merneith. “And if they dare kill these innocent people, then, as you said, I’ll take responsibility! Even if I must declare my betrayal against you all, I shall! These people... had been nicer to me in these few days than any of you bastards were for years! I hold no bonds with you, brother!”
“Hah! So you’re finally showing your true colors, always hiding behind that façade of a cute and innocent princess! You’re nothing but a snake, Merneith!”
Her brother rushed towards her as both Mechanical Gods clashed above the skies, explosions of flames and darkness erupting with each blow.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Both siblings clashed against one another; Merneith simply defended, while Anubis constantly went on the offensive.
Her sharp eyes weren’t as foolish as her brother thought; he couldn’t trick her, making her believe his power was invincible.
With each powerful blow she received from him...
[Ma’at Insurance: 100 Points]
[Ma’at Insurance: 97 Points]
[Ma’at Insurance: 94 Points]
[Ma’at Insurance: 91 Points]
[Ma’at Insurance: 88 Points]
The insurance count went down, and she gained a tiny bit of power back!
“So that’s how it works,” she thought. “Still! It’s such a cheat!”
Thankfully, Ra was among the three toughest Mechanical Gods in her world, and it could withstand even the blows from a powered Anubis with ease.
She quickly flew across the skies using her fiery wings, rushing down and destroying the mechs from her brother’s army, managing to stop some of the destruction.
“Stop that, you snake!” With a furious roar, Akhenaten unleashed an ability from Anubis.
“{Shrouding Death}!”
FLUOSH!
The mechanical claws of Anubis conjured endless Dark Matter, wrapping around Merneith completely.
“W-What…?!”
The princess was caught off-guard and unable to escape before she was captured within a black bubble.
“Hahaha! I got her!”
As the brother celebrated, suddenly.
CRASH!
“Ungh?!”
A giant fist made of the sands of the desert surrounding El Cairo emerged, punching his gigantic mechanical god away.
“Let that girl go, NOW!”
A furious black woman emerged; the sands of the desert were her domain.
And while being carried by her sands, several other figures emerged.
The hunters in El Cairo were not going to just sit down and watch.
“Pathetic lesser ones... Your death shall be swift!”
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Illustration Time:
Ra's Concept Design
Anubis' Concept Design:
Merneith Concept Design + Bing Xue New Outfit: