182 – The Game with the Nymphs and Darkness # 6
“It’s a treasure that can make anything into a card…! Truly wonderful…! I, Illinois, want to use this Ankh to make various things into cards…!”
Clink.
Illinois snatched the key necklace from the thief Ankh.
However, the key in Illinois’s hand did not grant any special powers or emit a mysterious light.
Soon, Illinois furrowed her brow and began to hit the thief Ankh mercilessly.
“How disgusting of a liar…! You must have lied to me…! Call in a lawyer…!”
“Let’s all hit him together…!”
“This Coris, not sure what’s going on, but I believe it would be very entertaining to join the Nymph sisters…!”
Dududududududududu.
“Ahhhh~”
The nymphs, who had their lives threatened, executed merciless justice, and eventually, Ankh curled up like a bug and declared surrender.
“I-I lost…! Stop it…!”
I stopped the nymphs, who were terribly excited.
And I addressed Ankh, who, after being beaten by the nymphs, seemed to have had a slight change of heart.
“Come on, return the people you captured to their original state!”
Pat.
I snatched Ankh’s cards.
Ankh’s deck was composed of the people who had been turned into cards using that peculiar ancient key.
“To turn the people back to normal, you need the key. Only those who possess a special chant can handle the five treasures of the seal. Unqualified individuals cannot use them…!”
According to Ankh, it seemed that the mysterious key couldn’t be used by just anyone.
I recalled hearing that artifacts with powerful effects distinguish their owners.
Just as there are compatibilities between people, there is a relation between tools and people.
“Seems like you aren’t lying…! If you mess around, this Inoi will hit you again…!”
Inoi seemed to trust Ankh to some extent.
Swoosh.
Ankh took the key from Illinois and pushed its bottom toward the cards.
Suddenly, the key fit into the card as if a hole had been drilled, making a clicking sound.
Shining—!
Finally, the card emitted light.
When the light faded, a person familiar to the area collapsed where they stood.
“I-I’m alive…!? My body has returned to normal! My body is back! Yes, it’s me, Kim Dal-geon! I won’t die like this!”
He was Kim Dal-geon, the missing person mentioned by Lee Jin-A.
Not an Awakened, but an ordinary person.
After that, Ankh freed all the people who were bound to his deck.
The number exceeded ten, and everyone expressed their gratitude to me.
“Thanks to you, I’m alive!”
“That was an incredible duel!”
“I thought I would be trapped in that card forever! It was so hot in there without air conditioning!”
Some people even shed tears.
I felt rather moved by this scene.
Is there a more satisfying moment than being thanked by those you saved?
There was also a concerning topic.
“Were you all living inside the cards?”
According to what the people said, those who had become cards did not have their lives halted or were merely preserved, but rather spent time in some sort of space.
“I was in a place like a hotel room.”
“I was in a place like a pension with a swimming pool.”
“In my case, it was a field.”
The revelation that the card itself was a space sparked something in me.
Could it be that this ancient key was a device that opened or created small “cracks”?
That crack must have taken the form of the cards from the Duel Stone!
This was merely my conjecture, but it seemed plausible.
At that moment, Illinois chuckled mischievously.
“Hmm, Freedom isn’t free…! Freedom comes with a price…! You all must pay the price for being saved…! You all must like the Nymph Foundation’s SNS…!”
# # #
The rescued individuals were handed over to the police.
Amidst the chaotic atmosphere, I questioned Ankh, who was sitting in a precinct chair.
“What’s the goal of your ‘Tomb Raiders’? Who exactly are you?”
“……”
Ankh remained tight-lipped.
Then, Inoi raised both of her clenched fists high.
“It’s clear you haven’t been hit enough…! Let’s all beat this Egyptian woman…! The nymph’s fists are sure to awaken the consciousness of any villain…!”
Though nymphs generally loved peace and tranquility, they were ruthless toward evil-doers. They believed that peace is a state that must be respected through strong might, not mere diplomacy.
“Alright, I get it…! Just tell me…! I just needed a moment to organize my thoughts…!”
It seemed hitting her had been effective, as Ankh, with her bronze skin, trembled in fear.
She seemed to be picking her words before finally speaking.
“I am the second daughter of the Cairo museum director. Our Sekhmet family has traditionally been responsible for managing Cairo artifacts…”
“Stop with the reminiscing…!”
“This Coris is starting to feel extremely sleepy…!”
The nymphs buzzed with anger like agitated squirrels.
Illinois, in particular, was half mad.
“You must be trying to evoke sympathy by talking about your unfortunate childhood to gloss over your crimes…! I, Illinois, will not let this slide…!”
Nymphs had a strongly negative view of criminals being seen as having sad backstories that justify leniency.
I also didn’t want the story to drag on too long.
“Just get to the point.”
“…After the cracks in the world, a gigantic pyramid was discovered underground in Egypt. Fortunately, our Sekhmet family was able to handle the stones and relics found in the pyramid!”
The ancient knowledge and spells discovered inside the pyramid.
Through those sealed stones, Egypt embarked on a rapid economic leap.
The Sekhmet sisters were said to have distinguished themselves the most in such Egypt.
Teto Sekhmet.
Ankh Sekhmet.
The elder sister was a woman known as the 4th S-rank, while the younger sister was an A-rank Awakened and a criminal.
“I felt inferior to my sister. She could handle artifacts without this hideous…tattoo. Darkness whispered to me, promising me power.”
The Demon God.
A being said to have been sealed within a stone slab found in the underground pyramid.
The crafty thieves sought to seize it and invaded this tournament to break the seal.
“Dangerous individuals have been appearing lately.”
I recalled the possessed demon Typhon, who claimed to be a destroyer and a god.
He was a powerful being, and certainly dangerous.
To think such a thing had appeared not just once, but twice in succession.
Was it mere coincidence?
“Delving into the human heart is troublesome.”
Ankh was overtaken by inferiority toward her sister. It seemed that the voice from the stone slab had tempted her to steal the “Treasure of the Seal.”
“The power of struggle brought by play is the key to unsealing the god. And it can manifest in the world through the soul of strong humans. Just so happens, there are many strong duelists in this tournament.”
Is this for real?
I could discern that, just as Typhon had seized Hex Pascal’s body, this god was also targeting the bodies of Awakened individuals.
While Hex’s rampage was minimized due to being inside a crack, what if such a thing occurred in Seoul, a city of 10 million people?
“…I-I can still stop it…. Let me help…! That would at least be the best atonement for me, who was in some influence….”
At that moment, Ankh spoke cautiously.
It seemed she was embarrassed about having succumbed to the temptation that said “I will give you power” due to the gap from her sense of inferiority.
Of course, Illinois growled, “I can’t believe this at all…!” but I could see sincerity in her golden eyes.
“Anyone can make mistakes. However, not everyone can repent and correct their mistakes. And I think your tattoo is pretty cool.”
I heard that Egyptian Awakened individuals tattoo hieroglyphs like the “Eye of Horus” on their bodies, similar to how Korean Awakened individuals implant chips.
Ankh’s left arm had such tattoos drawn like armlets, and I thought they looked quite nice.
Ankh herself seemed to want to hide it as if it was an embarrassing flaw.
“D-Don’t say such reckless things…! Anyway, we need to hurry! Those who realized Ankh and Atlas have failed may proceed with the ritual…!”
Ankh told me the coordinates where the thieves were staying.
And I was taken aback.
“The basement of the final match stage?”
The special arena where Teto and Seo Ye-rim declared the tournament’s opening.
To think the thieves were residing underground there.
# # #
“Even Ankh has failed. It was a mistake to entrust such an important role to a mere twenty-year-old girl. Now, we have no choice but to make a decision.”
“With what we have, we will unseal it. The souls are sufficiently gathered. Even an incomplete resurrection—”
Swoosh.
The two robed men placed a dagger and a scarab-shaped ruby on the stone slab.
There was no time to waste.
With Ankh and Atlas captured, it was only a matter of time before the secret organization “Tomb Raiders” would be exposed.
“O dagger of the dragon—.”
“O jewel of the scarab, I offer the struggles and souls contained within—.”
Crack, crack.
A stone slab depicting a vicious snake shattered, and dark gas began to seep out.
In an instant, it engulfed the two men.
“Ugh…!?”
“Apophis…w-why is our life…!?”
The two men, who had been well-built beneath their robes, now looked as frail as mummies.
As the dark gas began to coalesce further, it transformed into a snake resembling a shark.
“Hissssss….”
The domain of night, darkness, and the snake god Apophis.
The snake realized that the power it had just awakened was ridiculously pathetic.
To fully liberate its power, it needed to be released with the life of five sealed orbs, but it was currently using just a dagger and two scarab gems for this release.
Yet it didn’t matter.
The snake had already marked someone as its vessel.
By possessing that vessel and absorbing another’s will, its state would improve.
Ssssst-!
The snake slithered out like gas through the cramped space, brushing through the legs of countless people on the ground.
And finally, it spotted the marked vessel.
She was an excellent host for possession.
Apophis seemed as if it were the embodiment of darkness itself.
Perhaps she resembled a priestess or goddess of this world.
—Shaaaarrrk-!
A shudder.
A woman convulsed as the snake bit her nape.
“……!”
Clink, clink-. Clink, clink-clink-!
As the ropes and bells set up in the formation where the woman was seated began to ring in unison.
Whoosh-.
When the talismans stuck all around ignited, the priestess with the divination function of the “King’s Staff”—Teto spoke to Seo Ye-rim before her.
“A snake that has been resurrected imperfectly has bitten the bait. The snake has made a strong S-Rank Awakened its vessel. It’s all going according to the operation we promised.”
“What?”
Seo Ye-rim’s eyebrows furrowed at the unexpected change in the story and situation.
She somewhat understood that the resurrected snake god would take a nearby S-rank as its vessel.
That was why she and Teto sat facing each other.
So that they could immediately subdue if any one of them was possessed by the “snake.”
“Go according to the plan?”
However, neither Seo Ye-rim nor Teto had shown any signs of having been affected by possessed monsters.
Could it be that S-rank Cha Yura had disregarded the operation and entered Seoul today?
‘No, Cha Yura is currently in Jeju Island. The only S-rank Awakened individuals in Seoul right now are me and Teto. Just who….’
Suddenly, Seo Ye-rim seemed to recall something.
It was the existence of another S-rank Awakened individual rumored to exist in Korea.
Swoosh.
At that moment, Teto stood up.
“The only way to completely seal the resurrected god is to perform a sacred ritual, just as our priests did long ago.”
Swoosh.
In Teto’s hand glimmered a radiant rare card.
“I hope this artifact — ‘Card of the God’ does not have to be used….”
