Vol 5: Chapter 4-2.
The three Americans walked over to Zheng with the glass bottles. An old professor took the black book into his tent then tried to open the book.
“Hi, O’Connell. How much do you think these are worth? Haha, I heard you found a moist mummy. That’s so funny. Maybe you can dry it in the sun and use it for a fire…” One of the Americans laughed out loud.
Zheng knew that the plot was moving normally when he saw the three Americans here. Evelyn took out a few beetle shells from her bag with a sly smile. “Look at what this is. The remains of the scarabs. They are a meat eating insect. We found them inside the mummy’s coffin. These scarabs can live for several years when they have a body to consume… That mummy friend of ours was eaten by these scarabs. Oh and he was alive when he was being eaten.”
The Americans swallowed and felt goosebumps all over themselves. But since they were the ones that came over to initiate the conversation, it wasn’t easy for them to leave. So they could only keep listening to Evelyn.
O’Connell understood her intentions and said. “Someone throw the scarabs into the coffin and let him die slowly?”
“Very, very slowly. He could feel the scarabs crawling inside his body before he died… From what I know, this punishment was called the Hom Dai curse, the most vicious curse in Egypt. They were used on the worst sinners. I never heard of it used on anyone in Egyptian history…”
One of the Americans asked in curiosity. “That’s quite something. Why didn’t they use this punishment? Don’t you think it is… cruel?”
Evelyn rolled her eyes. “The reason they don’t carry it out is because of the consequence from the punishment. The Egyptians used to believe that if the victim arise from the dead, then they would bring forth the Ten Plagues of Egypt. The revived sinner will have unparalleled strength and bring distruction to Egypt.”
The Americans suffered another round of verbal violence and went back to their tents. Of course, Evelyn had her attention on that book in the professor’s hands the whole time. She lay down and faked going to sleep. The other people also went to sleep soon after. The players looked at each other, they all knew what was going to happen. Evelyn would steal the Book of the Dead and accidentally read it out, reviving Imhotep.
Everyone was feeling contradicted. On one hand their mission was to eliminate Imhotep so they had to revive him first, but once he was revived, they had to face both the mummy and the other team. This feeling of knowing they were putting themselves in more danger yet they had no other choice was horrible.
As time came to midnight. Evelyn sneaked toward the professor’s tent, took the book from his hand then sneaked back.
“Do you know this is called stealing?” O’Connell muttered with his eyes closed.
“But… you and my brother call this borrow.” Evelyn laughed. She took out the puzzle box from her bag and placed it against the book.
O’Connell got up and asked curiously. “I thought the Book of Amun-Ra is gold colored… Never expected it to be black.”
Evelyn shook her head. “The Book of Amun-Ra is gold colored but this isn’t it… This is the other book, I think it’s the Book of the Dead…”
O’Connell became serious. “Book of the Dead? Then why are you playing with it?”
Evelyn laughed. “It’s only a book. There’s no harm from reading a book…”
Zheng suddenly said from closeby. “Then you must know how to read hieroglyphics. Tengyi, you also know how to read it right?”
Both Evelyn and O’Connell were shocked. They immediately gestured Zheng to lower his voice then they heard Tengyi said. “If it’s reading the characters and understanding their meaning, then I know how to do it… as long as the characters aren’t too uncommon.”
Evelyn roller her eyes. She flipped open the book. When she did so, a chill wind swept through them, flickering the bonefire.
Evelyn didn’t pay much attention to it. She read in a low voice. “……….”
Right as she finished, Zheng, Zero, and Yinkong immediately got up. They couldn’t calm down due to a sense of danger. This sensation was so strong it was making them anxious. One part of the danger came from below and the other part from the hills to the west.
The old professor also woke up and shouted. “No, you can’t read them!”
Zheng was the first to respond, he pulled out his knife and quickly climbed up a nearby pillar. He looked out to the west and could faintly made out a bunch of people standing on a hill. Yet due to limited vision at night, he couldn’t make out how many people were there.
Pah!
Zheng instinctively moved the knife in front of his face and a rock hit the dagger. The force coming from that rock numbed his arm a bit and he fell off the pillar.
Luckily he reacted in time and kicked the pillar when he was still midair. He rolled on the ground when he landed, avoiding any injury.
The rest of the camp also woke up but before they could ask what happened, they heard the sounds of insect wings flapping from afar. Several seconds later, they finally saw what made the noise. It was a group of countless locusts flying toward them. Just the sight of it was enough to give them goosebumps.
O’Connell picked up Evelyn and followed everyone else into the tomb. Zheng was staring at the west, that sensation of danger was preventing him from even turning his head. Fortunately Jie and Zero saw it carried him into the tomb.
Afar from Hamunaptra, that sensation slowly moved away…
