AN: I only realised while writing this chapter that I capitalised "sandworm" in the previous chapter. Capitalising race names is generally incorrect, and I've been trying to avoid this so far. I'll have it uncapitalised from now on.
Also, when reading this chapter, bear in mind that I am not an expert on ancient Egypt, and made no particular attempts to be accurate here.
Upon entering the Pyramid, Lilith was initially tense, as she was expecting a trap of some sort. Fire erupting from the walls, boulders falling from the ceiling, the floor giving way to a pit of spikes… the sorts of traps in the stories she'd heard as a child. But nothing happened.
"That barrier from before didn't trigger when we came in…" Lilith said. "It must be designed to trigger when something big approaches the Pyramid… maybe also if it's attacked by powerful spells. It must let smaller things, like us, through… that would also explain how the Pyramid got buried over time."
"But that doesn't mean there's nothing deeper inside," Adam said.
Lilith nodded and conjured up a magical light, illuminating their surroundings.
They were in a long corridor, the end of which was shrouded in darkness. The walls were lined with sockets, each of which held a small white crystal. Large cracks lined the walls and ceiling, and pieces of rubble dotted the floor: unsurprising for a structure so old.
The crystals were what drew Lilith's attention. Crystals could store and discharge large amounts of energy, making them useful components in spells… including magical traps. Just by looking at the crystals, Lilith could picture them shooting out bolts of lightning to vaporise the two of them. Alternatively, the crystals could just be simple light sources. That was actually the more likely possibility.
But we can't afford to take any risks, Lilith thought. Not when there's just two of us, we're missing most of our supplies and we know almost nothing about this place.
Lilith pointed out the crystals to Adam, who agreed that they might be dangerous. After some discussion, they decided to test them. They first crawled back out through the gap in the sand, which would hopefully put them outside the range of any trap. Then, Lilith aimed carefully and shot a weak fire spell through the gap.
There were no falling boulders or spike pits. Instead, when the spell struck a crystal, it caused that and all of the other crystals to light up.
"Well, that was…" Lilith began.
"Anticlimactic?" Adam finished. "Perhaps, but it's better for us if there aren't any more traps."
The two of them crawled back through the gap. Lilith dismissed her light spell, since there was no more need for it.
"That's true… if I had to spend one more second out there, I would melt," Lilith said, while brushing the sand off.
"Speaking of which… how are we going to make it back to civilisation?" Adam asked. "We've lost our mounts and the supplies they were carrying. We can draw water from the sand, but that still leaves the problem of food."
Lilith stopped in her tracks. "Ugh, I forgot about that… must be the shock from actually finding what we were after."
"It's fine, I was also shocked by… all this," Adam said. "Regardless, we can't give up hope. This Pyramid is a remnant of a great civilisation, and—judging from the fact that these crystals are still here—it hasn't been looted even once. Who knows what treasures we might find inside?"
With those words, they decided to proceed further inside.
The corridor soon widened into a large hall, one tall and wide enough for three ogres to walk through, shoulder-to-shoulder, with room to spare. Every surface of the hall was covered in art. The walls bore carvings of what seemed to be the ancient kingdom that had built the Pyramid. The ceiling was painted to resemble the sky in various states, ranging from sunny and clear to overcast and stormy. Even the floor wasn't exempt, being composed of coloured stones that were arranged in abstract patterns: red lines giving way to green circles and blue spirals.
Lilith and Adam were struck dumb from the sight. It seemed that with each step they took, they would encounter yet another reminder of the grandeur that had once existed in this land.
They walked forward slowly, paying close attention to the art on the walls.
For most of the hall, the walls displayed scenes of a mighty and prosperous kingdom. Instead of barren sand and rock, there were grassy plains, forests, rivers and lakes. Thousands upon thousands of human figures represented the inhabitants of this kingdom. These were each barely taller than a finger, yet they were so detailed that it was possible to discern their professions; a testament to the skill of the artists. Numerous buildings were also on display: most were small huts and shops, which looked remarkably similar to those of the modern age, but there were also triangles of stone blocks that utterly dwarfed the other buildings.
"So even that story is true: there's more than just one Pyramid," Lilith said. "Unless all these are meant to be carvings of the same Pyramid, but I doubt that. They all look slightly different."
"It makes sense, if the ancient kingdom included all of what is now desert," Adam said. "These Pyramids, judging from their size and defences, are equivalent to castles. There's at least ten Pyramids on the walls here. A kingdom this large would be able to afford that number, and would need that many to defend all of its territory."
"Though if there are multiple Pyramids, then it's even stranger that none of them have been found until now," Lilith said, touching one of the Pyramid carvings. "They can't all have been buried in sand."
"It's possible that others have found them, but they succumbed to the desert or the monsters," Adam pointed out. "After all… we nearly died, and only survived because we were lucky enough to stumble across a Pyramid."
These words caused Lilith to recall their recent encounter. She was well aware that there were many monsters in this world who were stronger than her—this was a lesson that succubi were extremely diligent at passing down to their children. But when she saw that enormous tooth-filled mouth rushing towards her, about to devour her and Adam in a single gulp…
Lilith looked down at the spear in her hand. It was a simple weapon, with a design that had barely changed after countless centuries of war. It was still lethal enough to kill a monster if it pierced a vital point. But against a sandworm, it was nothing more than a toothpick. And even sandworms weren't the apex of monsters: if the stories about baphomets were true, then any of them could easily crush a sandworm with their bare hands.
No… now's not the time for this.
Lilith lifted her head and continued walking.
In the last stretch of the hall, the art changed. It was much rougher and, in some places, outright unfinished. Now, monsters were present in the carvings as well. These included types suited to the desert, like ghouls and girtablilus, and types that Lilith was more familiar with, like lamias and harpies. There were scenes of humans being captured and devoured, fields burning, buildings being razed.
Lilith and Adam looked at each other. They didn't say anything, as no words were needed at this point. They did, however, tighten their grip on their weapons.
Finally, they reached the end of the hall. This contained three doorways, one in front and one each to the left and right. The door in front was conspicuously larger than the other two.
The moment they approached the doors, the door to the left opened slightly, revealing an eye.
It can't be—not after this place has been buried for so long—
The door opened and a human girl emerged. She had the same dark skin and black hair as the other inhabitants of the desert, but was dressed in a simple tattered dress. She was also injured: she moved with a limp and her right leg was stained with dried blood. Her face was filled with a mix of surprise, confusion and curiosity.
Lilith felt her breath catch in her throat. She wanted to run up to the girl and tend to her wound, to bring her out of this ruin and to civilisation. But the rational part of her realised that the girl gave off no spirit energy, or even demonic energy… she was just an illusion.
"So this is the approach they took with the traps," Adam said. He was holding his sword high, ready to fight at a moment's notice.
"Based on those carvings back there, this must be meant to bait monsters," Lilith said. "Most monsters would attack it straight away and get caught in the trap."
The two of them backed away down the hall. The illusion made no attempt to follow them. Lilith cast a fire spell at the illusion, causing it to disappear and a torrent of flame to shoot out from the door. The flame lasted several seconds, after which the door slammed shut.
After waiting for ten seconds to be certain there were no more traps, Lilith and Adam walked forward nervously. The air around the doors was stiflingly hot, and the door and wall on the right were glowing red in several places.
That's the last time I'm disappointed at a lack of traps, Lilith thought.
They then tested the other two doors. Once it cooled down, Adam used his sword to slowly push open the door on the right.
Behind this door was a large storage room filled with all sorts of items, including clothing, jewellery, tools and—most importantly for the current situation—weapons and armour. The two of them explored the room while continuing to watch out for traps.
Adam found a set of armour made from a metal resembling bronze. It didn't have any enchantments, but it looked well-crafted even to Lilith's inexperienced eye.
"It doesn't fit perfectly, but it's the closest to my body shape out of all the armour here," Adam said. "And it's better to be uncomfortable than dead."
There was also food and drink in this room, stored in ceramic vessels of various shapes and sizes. Of course, all of it was no longer fit for consumption, so their supply issue remained unsolved.
They returned to the hall and stood before the one door remaining. Judging from its size, it clearly led to something important—and therefore something that would have even stronger defences. But there was no turning back now.
They opened the door to find a staircase, extending up for a height of several storeys.
Still vigilant, they climbed the staircase. They encountered several more rooms along the way, which contained art and items similar to before. However, they didn't spend more than a minute in any of these. Time was limited when they had little food or water, and in any case they were curious about what lay at the top of the stairs.
Finally, they arrived at a set of double doors. These were decorated to a far greater extent than anything else in the Pyramid, being covered in carvings of animals, humans, and humanoid figures with the heads of animals. The last of these were seemingly not monsters: they didn't resemble the previous carvings of monsters and weren't shown as aggressive towards the humans. All of the carvings were coated with gold and small gemstones were used for the eyes.
After checking the doors for traps, Lilith and Adam each placed their hands on a door and pushed them open.
Beyond the doors was a large and square-shaped room, filled with even more items than any of the previous rooms. There were golden cups, statues, masks, ceremonial weapons. There were gemstones of all kinds, the smaller stones decorating other objects while the larger stones were arranged in piles. A particularly large stone was embedded in the ceiling, where it glowed like a miniature sun. An entire chariot occupied one corner. And in the centre of the room was a rectangular block of stone similar to a bed, though it was too tall to comfortably sleep on. The upper surface of this block was carved into the shape of a reclining human figure. All in all, it was a display of wealth greater than any that the succubus or hero had ever seen before.
Lilith and Adam entered the room and walked around slowly. With every step, more treasures came into sight.
And there's supposed to be more of these Pyramids? Lilith thought. Did the people of the ancient kingdom somehow get their hands on all the gold and jewels in the world?
Lilith bent down and carefully touched one of the larger gemstones. As soon as her finger made contact, she sensed a massive quantity of energy within the stone, a quantity several times larger than what she could store in her own body. But she didn't dare try to use this energy—at least not immediately—as she had no idea what the original purpose of the stone was.
Eventually, the two of them approached the stone block in the centre of the room. It seemed to give off a presence greater than anything else in the room, despite its relative lack of decoration.
"What is this?" Lilith wondered. "My first thought was that it's a pedestal of some kind, but the carving would make it hard to put anything on it." She leaned down and examined the side of the block. "There's a groove here… and it runs all the way around the edge… could it be some kind of treasure chest?"
Adam frowned. Looking at the stone block, he said, "Now that I've had a closer look, I recognise this… the appearance is slightly different, but this is almost certainly a coffin."
"A coffin? Aren't those usually buried in the ground?" Lilith asked.
"Usually, but sometimes they're left in special buildings that are for storing the dead," Adam explained. "But I've never seen or heard of one this… elaborate."
"But this is the only coffin in the Pyramid," Lilith said, looking around and confirming that there weren't any other doors leading out of the room. "Would any kingdom build something so big, fill it with countless treasures, and protect it with barriers and traps, just so that one person has a good place to—to be dead?"
"It sounds strange to me as well… but we don't know much about what these people were like," Adam pointed out. "All we have are those carvings on the walls, and old stories. If we were scholars and had a few years to examine this information, we might gain a proper understanding of what the ancient kingdom was like. But we don't have that, so for all we know, they were the sort of people who would do such things."
Lilith looked at the coffin, at the figure carved into the surface. It was extremely lifelike, with even the finest details of the face painstakingly reproduced.
For a moment, Lilith was overcome by curiosity, and she reached out to touch the coffin. She immediately pulled her hand back, but a moment of incaution was all it took.
The coffin emitted a pulse of spirit energy, orders of magnitude more powerful than anything that Lilith had ever felt before.
"I-I'm sorry, that was—" Lilith began.
"Never mind that, we have to move!" Adam shouted back.
Lilith whirled around and saw, to her surprise, that the doors to the room were still open. It seemed that this was not another trap… but it would still be foolish to take risks.
The two of them ran out of the room and pressed themselves against the walls on either side of the entrance. While keeping their weapons in hand, they peered into the room.
The upper surface of the coffin, the lid, disintegrated into sand. The sand flowed sideways and disappeared into thin gaps in the floor. Finally, a figure rose out of the coffin.
Lilith gathered demonic energy within her left hand, but she had no idea what spell she should cast. Considering its origin, the figure was likely an undead and hence vulnerable to fire. On the other hand, Lilith had already encountered undead without this vulnerability, and the sheer power she could feel suggested that nothing she could do would hurt it. She eventually allowed the energy to disperse, deciding that the best option—or rather, the least terrible option—was to avoid seeming like a threat.
The figure rose to a sitting position. It was thin, almost emaciated, and dirty bandages covered its entire body. Its face was covered by an elaborate mask: this was made of gold and inlaid with various gemstones, and included a headdress resembling the folded wings of a bird.
For a few seconds, the undead—for it could not be anything else—remained in a sitting position. Lilith almost allowed herself to believe that it was not hostile.
Then Lilith was lifted into the air by an invisible hand. Out of the corner of her eye, Lilith saw that Adam was in a similar position. They both struggled, and Lilith also tried every trick she knew to negate the spell, but they might as well have tried to break free of a dragon's grasp.
Still floating in the air, the two of them were drawn back into the room. The undead was raising a single hand, which glowed with white light.
A booming, masculine voice came from the undead. Though the words were of a long-dead language, the voice held a power of its own, resounding throughout the room and immediately crushing Lilith's hopes of escape.
The undead paused momentarily. Then he lifted himself out of the coffin and stepped down to the ground. He removed his mask and set it aside, then peeled off the bandages from his face, layer by layer. Beneath was a visage that could be described as a skull wrapped in dried skin. The eyes, however, remained in their sockets, and these glared at the two intruders with an unmistakeable anger.
The undead raised his hand again, this time glowing a deep blue. Lilith clenched her teeth, expecting the worst. A wave of magic washed over her and Adam, but neither of them was harmed.
Wait… this feeling… it's not exactly the same, but it's like my own—
"I am Thutmose, fifth of his name, pharaoh of Thoth's domain," said the undead. "Now… how was a monster able to enter my Pyramid?"
