Meanwhile, in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.
Within a pitch-black, enclosed space, a flashlight’s beam cut through the dust of a millennium, illuminating murals on the tomb walls that remained vibrantly colored.
The paintings depicted the hawk-headed sun god, Ra, holding a diamond-shaped gemstone that emitted a faint golden light as he looked down upon all living things.
X stood before the stone sarcophagus in the center of the burial chamber.
The lid had long been moved aside, revealing complex stellar patterns carved within.
The focus of these patterns was a fist-sized, diamond-shaped gemstone hovering in the air—the Eye of Ra.
It rotated slowly, its interior appearing as though molten gold flowed within, yet it remained eerily silent.
“Boss,” the girl said, bumping her shoulder against X’s while scanning the surroundings with her device, her tone carrying a hint of dry humor.
“Does this count as… grave robbing?”
X didn’t look back, his gaze fixed on the gemstone.
The corner of his mouth curved into a joyless arc.
“You don’t exactly prioritize the School’s regulations or the international Secrecy Pact during your usual missions.”
“That’s different. The Pact is just a patch on the rules, but this is digging up someone’s ancestral tomb…” the girl muttered under her breath.
“That’s enough,” X interrupted.
Her instrument emitted a faint *beep*, and the readings stabilized.
“The energy radiation from the Eye of Ra is stable, its divine fluctuations are quiet, and the awakening level is confirmed to be below 50%. Since everything is in order…”
At that moment, an extremely subtle *rustle*, like the sound of dry sand rubbing together, drifted from the deep shadows in the corner of the tomb.
The sound was light, but in the deathly silence of the crypt, it was piercingly clear.
X and the girl moved almost simultaneously.
X instantly pivoted, his right hand already pressed against the weapon at his waist.
His gaze, sharp as a blade, swept toward the source of the noise.
The girl quickly switched her scanner to life-sign and abnormal energy detection mode, and the data stream on the screen began to jump frantically.
“Something’s here,” the girl whispered, her previous playfulness vanishing.
*Cr-crack…*
The sounds grew more frequent, accompanied by the light snapping of something hard.
At the edge of the flashlight’s beam, near the shadows of the wall, dust began to fall from several funerary figurines or desiccated corpses leaning against the stone.
Suddenly, one of the ‘desiccated corpses’ jerked.
The linen bandages wrapping it made a gut-wrenching tightening sound in the silence.
Its stiff, charcoal-black head turned extremely slowly, notch by notch, until two points of eerie green flame ignited within its hollow eye sockets.
It wasn’t just one; three ‘corpses’ in the corner began to move at the same time!
They struggled to push away from the wall, the sound of bone grinding against bone echoing from beneath the ancient bandages.
A scent of decay immediately filled the air.
“It’s the Ehekha tomb guardians!” the girl identified them quickly, her voice tense.
“They’re awake!”
“Stop them. Don’t let them near the altar,” X’s command was concise and cold.
The first mummy to move had already broken free from the wall.
It let out a hoarse low growl that sounded nothing like a living creature, waving its withered, black arms with long, sharp nails.
It stumbled toward the altar—or rather, toward X, who was in the middle of retrieving the Eye of Ra—at a surprisingly fast pace.
*Bang!*
A muffled gunshot shattered the millennium of silence.
X now held a handgun equipped with a long silencer—a Glock modified by the School’s Equipment Department.
The specialized bullet struck the mummy’s chest with precision.
The massive kinetic energy caused it to stagger, sending decayed fabric and black fragments of flesh flying.
A hole the size of a bowl appeared in its chest.
However, the mummy only paused for a moment.
The green flames in its eye sockets flickered wildly as if it were thoroughly enraged, and it lunged forward once more.
“Their cores are the green flames in their eyes or the residual divine power in their chest cavities. Shatter them!” the girl shouted.
As she spoke, she pulled a fist-sized, spherical device flickering with blue electric arcs from her tactical belt—a Pulse Shock Bomb.
The other two mummies had also fully ‘awakened,’ closing in from the sides to flank them.
X’s gaze turned cold.
Instead of retreating, he stepped forward, dodging the first mummy’s clawing hands with movements as swift as a ghost.
In the moment they crossed paths, his left hand shot out like lightning, pressing firmly against the back of the mummy’s neck—right where the cervical vertebrae should be.
*Sizzle!*
A visible gust of air erupted from his palm.
The airflow instantly surged through the mummy’s entire body, causing the air to crackle.
The mummy’s movements froze instantly, and even the green flames in its eye sockets solidified and dimmed.
X didn’t hesitate.
His right leg swept out like a battle-axe, kicking the mummy heavily in the waist.
*Crack!*
The mummy shattered upon impact, turning into a pile of wrapped fragments on the floor.
The green flames in its eyes were completely extinguished.
Meanwhile, the girl threw the Pulse Shock Bomb.
It traced a graceful arc through the air, landing between the other two mummies.
*Vrummm—!*
A powerful, silent pulse of blue energy expanded in a sphere.
As the energy wave swept over the two mummies, the bandages on their bodies instantly charred and carbonized.
Their movements became extremely sluggish and distorted, and the green flames in their eyes flickered violently like candles in the wind, as if the energy field sustaining them had been severely disrupted.
X did not waste the opportunity.
His figure blurred as he moved, the handgun firing in rapid succession.
*Bang! Bang!*
Two bullets, as if guided by eyes, were fired precisely into the flickering eye sockets of the two mummies.
*Thud… thud…*
Like puncturing two balloons filled with rot, the green flames exploded and vanished.
Losing their support, the two mummies collapsed like puppets with their strings cut, falling into piles of ancient remains.
Silence returned to the tomb, leaving behind only the strange mixture of gunpowder, charred fabric, and decay, along with the motionless heaps of wreckage on the ground.
“Boss, did you ever see the movie *The Mummy*?”
The girl took a breath and holstered her sidearm, glancing at the fragments on the floor and then at X with a shrug.
“When I saw it, I thought these things were kind of cute—wrapped in white cloth, all fragrant and clean. I didn’t expect them to be so disgusting.”
X ignored her banter; his eyes never left the Eye of Ra on the altar.
Once he confirmed the threat was neutralized, he stepped toward the altar again.
“The energy readings are fluctuating slightly. Did the battle just now disturb it?” the girl asked, looking at the twitching curves on her scanner with concern.
“It’s possible,” X said deeply.
He reached out again with his hand, which was covered by an insulation glove, and moved toward the Eye of Ra with extreme stability.
This time, the moment his fingertips touched the gemstone, the flowing light inside accelerated noticeably, and it even emitted a vibration like a humming bee.
X’s hand remained as steady as a rock, without a single tremor.
He firmly removed the gemstone from its hovering state and quickly placed it into a metal storage box lined with runes and a flickering blue energy barrier.
This was a device developed by the School’s Equipment Department, specifically designed to seal and suppress Divine Artifacts.
*Click.*
The lid closed, completely sealing away the anomalies, light, and vibrations.
The unsettling pressure and energy fluctuations in the tomb subsided instantly.
The god Ra on the wall murals seemed to lose its spiritual essence entirely.
X pressed his earpiece, his voice calm, as if the brief skirmish had never happened.
“Calling Director Carter at the Command Center. Mission report. Encountered a small number of tomb-guarding living corpses; they have been cleared. I have successfully retrieved the Divine Artifact recorded in *Fragment: Underworld*—the Eye of Ra—from the KV-65 Hidden Tomb. Its awakening level is below 50%. It has been securely contained.”
Director Carter’s voice, carrying a hint of approval, came through the earpiece.
“Well done, X. I expected no less from you.”
Her tone turned slightly excited.
“With this, along with the Fates’ Spinning Wheel you obtained in Switzerland, we have already acquired two of the seven Divine Artifacts recorded in *Underworld*. This is an unprecedented milestone.”
X looked around the tomb, which had suddenly become ordinary and mundane.
The god Ra on the mural seemed to have lost its luster.
“Mission complete. Preparing for extraction.”
He took one last look at the empty stone sarcophagus and turned away with the girl.
Their figures quickly vanished into the dark tunnel from which they had come.
The burial chamber returned to silence, with only dust dancing slowly in the fading beams of light.