Within the ancient laboratory found beneath Lescatie, the rest of the archaeology team alongside Etail and Thea had gotten to work.

Etail, groaned as he looked at the mass of ancient tablets and books on his table. Thea came over to see what he was upset about, "Those the texts the others found in the vault?"

"Hm?" Etail quickly looked over to see who it was before looking back at his desk, "Yeah, and as usual they have me do all the translating."

Thea patted him on the back, "Well you are the best at it."

"Sometimes I wish I wasn't" Muttered Etail.

"Very funny." Spoke Thea with a slight chuckle, "Anyway, I gotta get back to that chamber. For some reason, everyone thinks I can get that bug man to talk."

Etail turned to look at Thea again with a confused look, "Doesn't it already talk?"

"Well, yeah, but it keeps saying the same stuff about some 'enslaved undead'. They are hoping I can help get it to at least answer their questions or say anything else or at least to-."

Etail interrupted her, gesturing for her to stop, "Ok, ok, I get it. Maybe, you should get to it then."

"Fine, I'm going. But, promise me that you will tell me what all that stuff says."

"Will you please go?" Spoke Etail in a fast agitated manner.

"Ok fine!" Spoke Thea as she left. Etail began to sigh in relief, now he could focus on the task at hand. She always had a habit of getting on his nerves as he worked.

He looked back to the mass of texts in front of him. Etail found it strange that there was another room other than the one with that 'thing'. From what the rest of the team could guess, it was just as old and probably was of the same building before it was built over to make Lescatie. But that was a different matter, for now, he would try to translate whatever language these things were in.

He started out with a stone tablet, he did not expect it to take very long but it did. For hours he tried to find any sort of similarities between the written words in the text to any of the known ancient languages. He didn't have much progress, that is until he found some very slight similarities to the Vatic language. The Vatic language was what the original Order Scriptures were in, and was argued to be just as old as the language of the desert kingdoms.

If that was the case, then just how old were these? Also, what sort of civilization existed before The Order?

After another hour of work, he finally made progress in translating it. With a bit of pride in his accomplishment at finishing the translation, he read the stone slab...

(-)

("You who are undead, worthless before the gods.")

One of the sphinxes guarding the wall groaned, "Really wish a man would come here, haven't seen one since forever." A thunderbolt landed near the sphinx, causing her to yelp in shock before regaining her composure.

"When is this storm gonna clear? It's been like this for two days!" Spoke one of the other sphinxes.

"Hey look! Who's that in the distance? Looks like a man!" Perked up another sphinx, causing all the others to get excited. That is until they could make out more of the figure ahead of them.

("You who's curse, your unforgivable sin, has made you lesser.")

The figure slowly walked towards them, his large size becoming all the more clearer to the sphinxes. Originally they thought it was a human, but the giant heading towards them was anything but that. A dreadful sense of fear came upon the mamono. "S-STOP RIGHT THERE! COME ANY CLOSER AND WE WILL HAVE TO -" Yelled out the head sphinx, but stopped as she turned to see a white sign forming behind her.

She was so confused as to what it was that she was not able to react to the giant forming out of it and severing her in two. Her body falling off the wall in two, the rest of the mamono stared in fear.

("You who are fated to become decrepit, charred, and twisted.")

Some of the sphinxes tried to attack Gael, some started to pounce, others began to cast magic, and some tried to flee. It was all for nought as they were all severed into pieces by a single golden disc, the wall making them all perfectly lined up for it. A succubus watched this from the streets, screaming, "WE ARE UNDER ATTACK, EVERYONE HELP, WE NEED TO-" The succubus was silenced by a single crossbow bolt through the skull, but even still everyone heard the warning.

("In the bleakest of battles shall you fight and die for your masters.")

The Red Hood lept off the wall and onto the ground. Already other defenders had come, all of them trying to get into defensive formations. The defenders thought they had a chance with their numbers, but that was soon proven wrong. Gael leapt into the air and seemed to almost glide over them. A wave of red skulls forming from the trail of humanity behind him coming down on the defenders.

Many of them were killed, others were disintegrated by the lightning that then came down. The few defenders that survived were soon finished off as the Red Hood turned in mid-air and severed them with a horizontal strike.

("In your duty shall you never be relieved, even beyond death.")

The storm above the skies grew worse, more lightning coming down from the sky. With how few mamono were left, even before the Red Hood's assault, the battle outside the tomb itself was very short. The few remaining mamono either tried to enter the tomb hoping for safety within or trying to leave the city hoping to escape the slaughter.

Their hopes of safety, or of escaping were tarnished as when they got to the entrance or almost left the city's borders, they were either struck down by thunder, shot down by a crossbow, killed from one of the skulls, or where crushed underneath the Red Hood's giant blade.

None would escape.

("But in servitude, armour, and hood shall you be honoured.")

"BARRICADE THE DOOR AND HOLD THE LINE!" Commanded Inpu to her fellow anubis and mummies. Inpu's legs shook, betraying the brave look she was giving, "This was not supposed to have happened, her highness Hehoteb was supposed to be here by now."

The barricaded door bursted open, smoke bursting everywhere making it impossible to see who was on the other side. Skulls flew out, instantly killing many of the mummies. The Red Hood then lept out of the smoke and crushed an anubis with the weight of his blade.

Inpu's eyes widened in fear as the Red Hood then rushed forward and swung his blade down at her. Inpu was frozen in place, unable to move, "Its...Its him...does that mean her highness is..." Before the blade came on her, one of the mummies pushed her aside, sacrificing themself to save her. A few of the mummies jumping on him to buy Inpu time.

An anubis came over and quickly helped her up, "Mistress Inpu! You need to leave now!"

"But I can't leave you all to die here-"

"GO!" yelled the anubis, gesturing for her few remaining mummies to escort her. Before the anubis could turn to face the monster, she was severed from the top-down by the Red Hood's blade. The last few mummies soon got in between Inpu to hold him off. The other mummies escorted Inpu to the throne room, at the top of the pyramid.

("So stand tall slave knight...")

It did not take long for the Red Hood to catch up as they got to the throne room, the last door in his way destroyed, smoke once again bursting out.

Inpu looked around for someplace to hide, but could only find the back of the throne to hide behind. The mummies prepared themselves for what was to come, ready to die if need be. Inpu could hear the sounds of battle as she hid for a few moments until the sound of metal ripping flesh was heard.

Inpu was panicking and was confused, Her mind was filled with questions. Why was this happening? How could this be? Would she never see her husband again? What did they do to deserve this?

Her answers were never answered as she saw the Red Hood slowly walked in front of her. He raised his blade to finish off, Inpu closed her eyes, accepting her fate.

("Stand tall, serve and die for your masters.")

With the sound of metal crushing stone and flesh, both Inpu and the throne were destroyed, leaving behind nothing but a pile of flesh and rubble.

And so the Lahara desert was cleansed of all life, both man and mamono, the Red Hood leaving nothing in his wake. The once glorious oasis known as Hehoteb's tomb had become nothing but ruins once again.

(-)

Etail finished reading the stone slab, wondering what he had just read. Once again something involving slaves had come up in this place, it had to be all connected but they still didn't have any clear picture as to why.

He rubbed his eyes with his hands, he felt tired. Etail yawned, "Man, how long was I translating that?" He pulled out his small pocket watch and was surprised to see it was rather late. He should probably get some rest soon, maybe tomorrow he could tell Thea about this. For now, though, he needed some well-deserved sleep.

(-)

"So many souls! Yet we cannot find us anywhere! Where is it!" Screamed the mass of humanity in Gael's mind. His dark soul's desire to be whole again was just as strong as ever. 'Maybe it's in one of these creatures!" Came one of the voices. Another voice interjected, "Yet why can we not sense it!?"

Gael spoke in a quiet voice, "Stop... this won't get us anywhere"

"What do you mean?" Asked one of the voices.

"We are in unknown territory, we are going to cause too much attention to us."

"So? We can just kill them all as we did long ago."

"And yet, in the end, we were slain." The voices went quiet for a moment or two, which surprised Gael.

A voice spoke up, "Then what do you suggest?"

"Let me have control again, and I promise you I will find our fragment without causing too much attention."

The voices discussed amongst themselves, which didn't really matter as Gael could hear them all. Eventually, they all quieted down, save for one. "Very well. WE will allow this just once, but if we think things are going terribly... We will not hesitate to do it OUR way."

With that, the voices quieted down completely. Gael could almost feel them disappearing as he regained control, but he knew they were still there, and he knew that they meant what they said. He had to play this right. Which now would be a very difficult thing to do.

Gael left the ruins of the tomb as they started to crumble behind him. He walked past the ocean of corpses he left in his wake. He could see some of their lifeless eyes glaring at him. When he was a young man he would've felt terrible for the deaths he had caused this day, but now such things were as easy as taking a step to him. He had known this his entire life, even when he thought he was finally at peace in the painted world.

He pushed open the gate of the city and walked out. Looking up, he could see the skies begin clear up as his dark soul started to let go of its control over it. When the clouds cleared he could see it was night time by the countless stars, and a full moon up above. It still felt strange to him that the sun and moon still existed even after a month of being here.

Gael walked for hours after leaving the city until he made it to his cave. At first glance, one would hardly notice it which was what made it perfect for him. Very few would be able to find it, giving him time alone.

As he went into the dark cave, his good eye adjusted to the dark. Either it is of his humanity or some other power he found himself able to see in the pitch blackness.

He eventually found his small bonfire and relit it, its flames providing comfort for his weary mind. Gael then placed his sword and crossbow on the wall.

Gael turned and stared at the bonfire before sitting down to relax. Even though he was undead and did not require it, he still wanted some form of rest. A moment of silence after all the killing he had done. It was a reason for him to at least close his eyes and be at peace for once, but only just for a little while.

Slowly, he closed his eyes shut and began to let his mind wander...