Anubis

"First step, be swallowed by quicksand…"

Adam found the quicksand pit Tuya had mentioned and let it swallow him without resistance. Wrapped in protective magic, he drifted through the sand for half an hour before suddenly feeling the ground vanish beneath his feet.

A magic circle flashed through the air and disappeared. Silver-white wings, close in color to his Animagus fur, spread wide. After beating twice to steady himself in midair, Adam released glowing orbs from his hand to illuminate the dim, lightless underground palace.

Stone steles were inscribed with symbols praising the gods. A towering statue of Anubis stood at the edge of his vision. Looking up, Adam saw flowing yellow sand held back overhead by an invisible force.

This was the first underground level of Hamunaptra. In the past, Egyptians had come here in reverence of death to worship the gods of the underworld. Now, it had long been abandoned, and the grand, solemn complex had become ruins buried beneath yellow sand.

"Second step, activate the mechanism."

He landed before Anubis’s statue and folded away his wings. Adam found the mechanism Tuya had described. After activating it, Anubis slowly rotated half a turn around one foot, revealing a flight of stairs leading downward.

Adam followed the stairs down. After walking for about a minute, lights finally appeared ahead. By their glow, Adam saw a Stone Gate—and an enormous monster.

"Third step… pass through the gate guarded by the Sphinx."

One hand resting on the ground was nearly as tall as Adam. This Sphinx was not much smaller than the statue beside the pyramid, and it fit Adam’s image of Anubis far better than that previous little Mao Tuan.

Remembering Uther’s Mao Tuan, Adam’s lips curled slightly. He held the Wand of Darkness in one hand and summoned a Clow Card with a fish depicted on its face in the other.

"Answer my question. What—"

"Release the seal—"

The towering Sphinx was frozen into a block of ice in an instant, then shattered into ice crystals that filled the air the next moment.

This Sphinx was not a real magical creature, but a construct created by ancient magic. Its weakness was low temperatures. Even if it was killed, it would reappear a few days later, so Adam did not feel the slightest bit sorry for Uther as he dealt with it.

"Fourth step, avoid the magical creatures along the way and find the passage."

He pushed open the massive gate and continued onward. The passage marked on the map Uther had left behind was in the southwest corner. Along the way, he might encounter magical creatures such as Runespoors and Scorpiontails, but Adam was not worried in the slightest.

"Raise snakes for a thousand days, use them for one moment."

Adam twisted open a glass bottle, released the Basilisk, and dispelled the shrinking magic on it.

"Mo Du, go clear the way ahead."

"Hiss…"

The Basilisk moved its body, opened its eyes, and glanced at Adam. After letting out a meaningless hiss while flicking its tongue, it obediently slithered off in the direction Adam had pointed.

Don’t ask. If you had to ask, it was because Adam had shared a bowl of Basilisk stew with it before, and it had also watched from the side while he roasted Basilisk Eyeballs.

One side offered meat at every meal and three filling meals a day; the other offered snake meat soup and roasted eyeballs. The Basilisk now named Mo Du knew perfectly well which one to choose. Besides, it believed in survival of the fittest.

The Basilisk’s scales scraped across the grit on the ground with a rustling sound, setting off similar noises all around them. Yet those sounds were all moving away from Adam. Clearly, the Snake King’s might was enough to frighten off even Runespoors.

As for the packs of Scorpiontails crawling toward Adam, their spider-like eye structure meant that one look at the Basilisk killed them instantly. The ground was soon densely carpeted with Scorpiontail corpses.

The path remained unobstructed. Adam stepped over the trail crushed open by the Basilisk, Scorpiontail shells crunching beneath his feet.

Normally, he might have considered how to eat these things, or whether to bring a few back to raise. But he was clearly in no mood for that now.

At last, he reached the passage marked on the map. Adam looked at the wall covered in Hieroglyphs.

"Final step. The Eye of Horus marked by Uther on the map… but he didn’t write how to activate it."

Adam examined the three Eyes of Horus on the wall but could not spot anything unusual, so he reached out and touched them one by one.

"Hm?"

There was actually a protrusion on the last Eye of Horus? But it clearly looked normal…

Adam tried to pry it loose, but it would not move. He then pressed down hard.

Rumble—

The wall suddenly split along the lines separating the Hieroglyphs and slowly receded into the walls on either side, revealing a dim passage.

The glowing orbs floated into the passage. At the entrance, Adam could see new Hieroglyphs written on the wall.

Their general meaning was that ahead lay the underworld. Any living person who entered would never be able to return to the world of the living.

"The underworld…"

He put away Mo Du, ran his fingers over the Hieroglyphs representing the underworld, and resolutely stepped into the passage with the Wand of Darkness in hand.

Boom—

The moment he entered the passage, Adam heard the mechanism activate behind him. The walls that had retracted to either side began closing together again. With quick reflexes, Adam pulled out a candy cane and thrust it forward—

Crack—crack…

The candy protected by defensive magic was indestructible. It wedged firmly between the closing walls, then, under the magic of the big card, forcibly pushed both walls back apart.

After securing his escape route, Adam continued forward and discovered a piece of linen hanging down from above at the end of the path.

Adam remembered that when he had last come to Egypt, Uther seemed to have mentioned this mechanism. Behind the false door of the pyramid—anyone other than a descendant of the Pharaoh who passed through it would fall into the underworld, never to return.

It felt a little like the veil in the Death Chamber of the Department of Mysteries at the British Ministry of Magic?

Adam lifted the linen with the Wand of Darkness and stepped directly through it.

The protective magic around his body activated in an instant. Adam could clearly feel the environment around him change.

"Is this the underworld?"

"Strictly speaking, this is not yet the underworld. It is the place of judgment, the boundary between life and death, the kingdom ruled by the god Anubis."

The sudden voice did not startle Adam. He nodded in realization.

"Fengdu City, Mili Mirage, Erebus…"

In an instant, the boundary between life and death seemed to have transformed from a Divine Kingdom ruled by Anubis into a crowded shared apartment packed with gods.

The voice in the darkness fell silent for a moment, then continued as though nothing had happened.

"Come forward. Living creature who has entered the underworld, accept the trial of judgment…"

Adam’s gaze turned cold. Tightening his grip around the Wand of Darkness, he continued onward.

This time, he truly reached the end of the passage. Beyond the doorway, the path led to a circular platform, surrounded by an immensely vast space with no visible boundaries. At the center of the platform stood a golden scale. Its two sides were currently balanced—the left side was empty, while an ostrich feather stood on the right.

"Living one who has entered the underworld…"

A gigantic Jackal Head emerged from the boundless darkness. It slowly spoke.

"I am Anubis. Surrender your heart, and I shall judge whether you may continue onward…"

As the self-proclaimed Anubis finished speaking, the protective magic on Adam activated. Apart from that, nothing happened.

For a moment, the scene became somewhat awkward…

"Did anyone else have their heart taken out by you for judgment a few days ago?"

Adam looked at Anubis and spoke loudly.

"Ah… that rule-breaker."

Anubis frowned at Adam, whose heart had not been removed, but did not refuse to answer.

"Geb’s protection cannot shield him forever. His soul will eventually fall into the Lake of Fire and be devoured by Ammit, just like another rule-breaker… his time of death is near."

His fists clenched.

"How do I retrieve his heart and soul?"

"Blasphemer, you shall be eternally damned in hell!"

Taking a deep breath, Adam slowly raised the Wand of Darkness…