Chapter 161: A Problematic Family
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Neferteri lived a life of deceiving others and always plotting someone else’s demise. Since her young age, her mother always told her that she had to hit first before others were to hit her.
She learned that if she wanted something, she would always have to ruin someone else; it was simply the law of how the world and even the universe worked.
“If you want something, take something from someone else.”
“There is nothing you can do but steal what someone else has.”
“If they fight back and you can’t beat them down, then plot their demise. Kill them and take what you want.”
“This is the only way we can survive in this world, Neferteri. Never forget it. Never forget what you want and take it no matter what. And no matter how many people cry or beg you to stop. You must always live for yourself and nobody else.”
She lived with those laws in her mind since she was as young as six years of age and slowly ascended the harsh and long ladder of nobility, seizing the throne after having taken the lives of many in her schemes.
Did she ever feel sorry for such things?
Did she regret it now that she died by Merneith's hands back then?
“So that’s what happened,” she muttered. “I died… And you revived me? Hah… Hahahah…”
She couldn’t help but laugh.
When she died, she felt utterly frustrated, and now she was revived out of pity?
It was simply… ridiculous!
She never thought she had any pride to be hurt.
But right now?
She felt her pride was finally hurt.
“Just how much do you look down on me, Merneith?” she smiled. “You damn brat. You think I’ll ever regret what I did?! No… NEVER! I’ll never regret anything I did! I killed your mother, so what?! I would do it again and again and again as long as it gave me what I wanted!”
“I see…” Merneith glared at the Empress with indifference. “That’s good.” She smiled.
“Eh?” Neferteri felt surprised Merneith didn’t break down in tears. “What?”
“It’s good you don’t regret,” Merneith smiled. “It’ll make it all the more painful for you once we reveal to my father everything you’ve done. All your crimes… And then you’ll suffer even more when you’re jailed and then executed by the law. Because you’ll never regret anything, then you’ll never feel like you deserve the punishment. And it’ll be nice to see you cry and beg.”
“A-Ah…” Neferteri suddenly started sweating coldly. “W-What with this brat? Her eyes… What’s wrong with her? Did she… change?”
Something within Merneith had changed as she smiled at the one that killed her own mother. After having killed her with her own hands, after having seen her corpse corrupted and turned into a monstrosity.
She had been satisfied for now… This is why she decided for her to be revived. Bing Xue would have quickly killed her again if she asked for it. But she nodded, saying this was perfect.
She will get her punishment, she will be judged, and she will be executed in front of the entire Empire.
That… is the proper way for Merneith.
“I’ve killed you once, so… I don’t really feel anything else,” shrugged Merneith. “Your Set, by the way, is dead. And you’re a powerless woman.”
“Powerless…?” Neferteri asked. “I-I…! Set is dead?! No, he’ll surely regenerate back and come to save me!”
“He’s dead and crushed into bits,” said Merneith, smiling calmly. “Nobody will save you, and you will simply pay for what you’ve done. Congratulations, Neferteri; you lived the life you wanted. And you were happy, now it’s time for you to pay for living such a life.”
“A-Ahhh…” muttered Neferteri, feeling a chill behind her back. “S-Shut up! My love would never judge me! He’ll understand that I loved him! He’ll get it! You’re going to see! You will see, Merneith!”
“Aha, keep yapping,” Merneith giggled. “And about the rest…”
She glanced at the other three others: Neheb, her uncle; Hatshepsut, her aunt; and Nebmaat, her grandfather’s brother, technically her grand uncle.
“You… did you conspire with Neferteri on helping her kill my mother?” Merneith asked.
“M-My little Merneith! We would never do such a thing, girl!” said Hatshepsut, smiling nervously. “W-We are just victims here, you see? We’ve been dragged here by that despicable woman!”
"Yes, that’s right!” nodded Neheb. “We've only been victims here! We have no alliance with her! I wouldn’t have forgiven her if she did… such a thing!”
“Really?” Merneith squinted her eyes. “Hmm…”
Bing Xue was about to inspect their minds and memories and see for herself if they were saying the truth, but then…
“Kehahaha…”
The old Nebmaat laughed, his dry voice echoing behind the two siblings.
“You guys are terrible at lying,” the old man said. “Stop pretending you’re innocent bystanders. I know very well what you conspired with Neferteri. You’ll never be able to lie to that woman. She’s a goddess beyond all gods we’ve ever worshiped. She will simply extract the truth out of your heads one way or another.” He glanced at Bing Xue.
“Indeed,” Bing Xue nodded.
“W-What are you talking about, stupid old man?!” Neheb screamed.
“S-Stop talking nonsense! We would never conspire against my brother’s wife!” Hatshepsut said, crying. “R-Right?!”
“All three of us helped her, Merneith…” said Nebmaat. “Without our help, it wouldn’t have been possible for Neferteri to poison your mother. We are also criminals that are to blame.”
“W-What?!”
“No! You’re just lying!”
The siblings kept denying it to the very end.
“Let me check then.”
Bing Xue released a wave of golden light that entered their minds and then generated projections of their memories, of their knowledge, and of what they had seen.
There, it showed images of the trio conspiring with Neferteri, how they helped her secure poison, and then how they even infiltrated the servants of their own families inside of Merneith’s family.
This way they poisoned Merneith’s mother despite the strong security over their meals—it was because three whole other family members helped her.
“A-Ah… No, that’s… fake!” cried Neheb.
“No way! How did you?! Get out of my head!” screamed Hatshepsut.
“Just cut it out, you two; it’s hopeless,” laughed Nebmaat.
“Hahaha… Hahahah! You got caught too, huh?” laughed Neferteri. “Did you think that you would get away with it?! Hah! If I go down, all of you are coming down too! Should that old man have not said anything, I would!”
“I can’t believe it… All of you did this,” sighed Merneith. “At the end, the only family member that actually didn’t conspire was my brother? Even though he still bullied me, at least he’s not a murderer. I guess, though he did try to kill me. Ah, this damn family is rotten to the core.”
“Indeed,” Nebmaat nodded. “We’re all rotten—our society, the family rules, how everything was formed. All these old laws that had almost never changed since ancient times… It just made everything so unfair… The only way to ever get something done is by getting our hands nasty with the blood of relatives. To take down the competition, that has been the regular practice for thousands of years, Merneith.”
“This is… pure insanity!” said Merneith. “I just can’t. I can’t believe how insane all of you are. I was right in running away… It makes me want to never return.”
“What are you going to do with us?!” Neheb asked. “W-We regret what we did! Please don’t kill us, princess!”
“Dear, you know how much I’ve always loved you, right? Your aunt always brought you gifts and sweets!” Hatshepsut kept crying. "Please, I don’t want to die twice!”
“What will happen to you will be decided by the law of our country,” said Merneith.
“Hah! The law can easily be bent anyway,” smiled Neferteri. “You should have kept us dead… Don’t think your father will take your side so easily.”
“I know,” smiled Merneith. “But even then, I must try. Because if Father shows that he is as corrupt as you, then I will reform my country. Until the law gives you all a proper punishment.”
“Hah, so the cycle repeats,” smiled Nebmaat. “A daughter overthrowing her father; the same thing has happened many times through history. You’re not changing anything by doing this, Merneith.”
“I know, but this’ll be the last change,” she said. “I promised my mother I would help that country flourish and protect its people… So that’s what I’ll do.”
Bing Xue noticed Merneith’s fiery golden eyes, full of resolve.
“Hmm…” Nebmaat nodded. “Those are the eyes of a tigress ready to fight to death… You truly remind me of your mother.”
“Hmph…” Merneith ignored him. “We’ll need to find jails capable of holding them back somehow…”
“Don’t worry,” smiled Bing Xue. “There are jails within my Golden Pagoda where their supernatural powers will be completely sealed. They will not even be able to move. They will be given terrible tasting yet nutritional food. And they will only be able to admire the intricate patterns in the walls and ceiling as their only way of having any fun.”
“That sounds like a terrible thing to do to a princess such as myself! Don’t do thaaaaaat!” Hatshepsut kept crying.
“Wait, we could negotiate this, right?!” asked Neheb. “We could even…! Do whatever you want!”
“There is literally not a single thing I want from you,” Bing Xue said coldly. “Now, begone!”
With a wave of her hand, golden light engulfed them all and made them disappear, as they were teleported inside of the golden pagoda’s jails.
“It’s done,” nodded Bing Xue, sighing in relief. “Now, let’s quickly regroup with everyone, shall we? We should take a break and celebrate; no more fighting for a while, okay?”
“Okaaay!” nodded Hekita, climbing over Bing Xue and sitting over her shoulders.
“Thank you for everything, Bing Xue,” sighed Merneith. “I still have a lot to process, but… I’m grateful for your help so far. Without you, anything of this would have been possible.”
“Ah, it’s fine; I was simply protecting my planet from them,” Bing Xue smiled. “I'd have fought them either way. Well, you should be grateful to all my disciples instead; they did all the work here.”
“You’re being too humble again!” Merneith said, crossing her arms. “You should be more proud of what you’ve done instead of acting so humbly!”
“Hahah, should I?” Bing Xue giggled.
After an hour, the groups finally regrouped within Alejandria, where they had a huge celebratory feast over the defeat of all the invading forces in a huge building Heba rented.
News of what had happened in Egypt crossed all over the world—not just the country itself, but America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and more—all got to know of yet another of Bing Xue and her sect’s achievements.
However, while Bing Xue decided to take a break in the following days before continuing her climb of the tower, destiny always had other plans for the world, and perhaps even the worlds of the tower.
RUMBLE!
A huge white crack suddenly emerged on top of the tower as a gigantic divinity beyond the levels of the gods of the tower’s top began to slowly materialize.
Clouds of many colors began to descend, distorting space and time as massive arms that could grasp the moon itself descended, followed by a completely white, scrawny body.
“So this is the tower connected to the world she came from?”
His endlessly spiraling, rainbow-colored eyes glanced through one hundred different worlds, and at the very bottom, not even a floor yet. He found it.
Earth.
“Aahh… Bing Xue!”
However, before he could even reach her, the dimensional walls and the formation in front of him had to be overtaken or destroyed.
“I might not be able to get to you yet. But I sure can do something else, right?”
As his gigantic hands made of pure white light touched the tower, its entire dimensional structure started to tremble lightly.
TRUUUM!
“And who might you be? Daring to touch my precious tower?”
However, the voice of a young woman echoed before him as a wave of pink light surged from within the tower he was trying to overtake.
FLASH!
And a small yet infinitely powerful being materialized.
“You must be the Tower Master! How small you are.”
The monstrosity beyond dimensions smiled; its face, made entirely out of white light, twisted, opening a gigantic jaw full of sharp teeth and a long red tongue.
“I’ll enjoy eating you!”
“Monstrosity beyond dimensions… begone!”
CLAAASH!
Unbeknownst to everyone, a battle between Cosmic Beings began on top of the Tower.
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