(Listen While Reading: Army of Fears Theme

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  “Anubis’ Dark Matter Veil… It’s gone?!”

  Akhenaten was shaken, seeing as his Dark Matter Veil was destroyed and absorbed by Yanisse’s bare hands, Anubis, even though still powered by his Golden Bloodline Ability, had now grown much more vulnerable without its near invincible prote.

  “It looks like you aren’t as invincible as you thought.”

  Yanisse’s cold eyes pierced through Akhenaten’s soul. The prince had never faced someone capable of maniputing su energy as void itself without the help of a Meical God.

  “The humans of this world… They don’t need Maes to trol the elements of the world…!”

  His eyes widened as he quickly attempted to attack Yanisse. He gritted his teeth, swinging Anubis cws against her repeatedly, unleashing a barrage of sshing waves made of Dark Matter.

  SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

  Yanisse quickly flew away, evading the attacks as she gathered more Void in her hands, dividing it into several spheres of deep darkness, her eyes glowing with purple ic light.

  “I simply have to buy some time…!” Akhehought. “Dark Matter is naturally produced by Anubis. In a couple of seds, his veil will be remade!”

  He quickly gathered Dark Matter from Anubis cws, which produced it as naturally as the rest of the Meical God body.

  “I still have the advantage of Ma’at’s Insurance! I do this!”

  fident that he could pull through this, Akhenaten cshed against John, Francisco, and Ya the same time. The power of his Golden Bloodline Ability allows him to not fall behind in terms of power even when fighting all three.

  “Hm…”

  And above all, Yanisse was rather surprised; her Void Essence had somehow grown weaker out of thin air, a strange curse-like force irength and weakening her.

  “Is this reted to that number over there?”

  Although she was dealing great damage to Anubis and was rapidly spreading cracks through its “iructible” metal, things suddenly slowed down once she fell victim to Ma’at’s Insurance.

  “What’s wrong?! Yrowing sluggish!”

  Akhenaten ughed, g against Yanisse.

  CLAAASH!

  Yanisse sighed.

  “What a troublesome power...”

  Yet, despite how she looked slightly annoyed, she couldn’t help but smile lightly.

  Through Bing Xue’s training, Yanisse has grown to like fighting a bit.

  Especially fights that pushed her to her limits, where she could develop and grow the most.

  “She sent us and isn’t directly helping us for a reason.” she smiled. “I won’t disappoint you, Katherine.”

  .

  .

  .

  (Listen While Reading: Pain and Sorrow )

  Merh found herself trapped in endless darkness, in a cage made by her brother through Anubis’ Dark Matter Manipution. She felt alone, desote, and exhausted. This cage slowly began to sap away the energy of Ra, which was sunlight, and rapidly weakened her Meical God.

  “Ra! Please respond…!”

  She kept trying to call the Meical God, yet Ra wouldn’t respond as he always did. Among all the Gods, Ra was the most vocal of them all. Since she was a child, the Meical God would g her eyes and make little bird-like sounds; it was a friendly mae.

  Most other Meical Gods were silent and cold, like a mae was expected to be. Yet there was something special about Ra—a e between him and her mother, which passed down to her as well.

  “Ra…”

  The light of the mae’s interior rapidly began being dimmer as Merh caressed the etal, tears falling from her eyes.

  As the Egyptian Princess felt alone and powerless, she sighed, gng at the darkness beyond her mae’s exterior.

  Her golden eyes grew sadder as she recalled many memories of her life so far.

  Of the loneliness she felt and of how it felt like she didn’t even belong in her family anymore.

  Since her mother died and Ra was taken away from her, everything has bee dim and dark in her life.

  Before that, every day seemed full of life, possibilities, and hope.

  Her family loved her, and her mother was there for her.

  Yet…

  “Well, this pce... It doesn’t feel so different than back then, huh?”

  The Egyptian Princess smiled bitterly.

  "Since my mother died, everything has been so miserable…”

  The love her father showed her disappeared every time he would g her with a cold expression on his face, as if she wasn’t even his daughter anymore.

  Ra, who would bicker and talk with her all the time, was gone, forcefully taken away despite her having ied the Meical God, and now used by her aunt, Akhenaton’s mother, who was an abusive, mog woman.

  She wasn’t even a warrior like her mother, and she used Ra simply to show off how amazing it was without ever using him for anything meaningful.

  New deals were made with the vassal Roman Empire, and even though her father had promised Merh she could marry anybody she wanted, he ended up arranging a marriage between her and some Roman man she had never seen in her entire life.

  “Merh, in a year from now, you’ll be marrying Julious,” her father told her. “You will undergo special training to bee a pt and submissive woman. You will also go live with him on the vassal empire, and you must have a child within the first year of your marriage. Uood? It is all part of our tract. To keep retionships peaceful with the Romans, you will tribute treat Empire of the Sun’s prosperity. The gods will bless you with many children.”

  “W-What…” Merh couldn’t believe what her father had told her before. “What nonsense is this, father?! Y-You promised me I could marry anybody I wahat I rincess, and that I could-”

  “SILENCE!”

  “Eep!”

  Her father’s tall figure gred down at her. The Pharaoh was a strict man, albeit soft to his childre now, he was just as cold with her as anybody else.

  “Don’t speak bae,” he said. “You will do as I say.”

  “B-But… I don’t like men-”

  “Nonsense! Every woman must love a man, and every man must love a woman,” said the Pharaoh. “You’ve pyed enough since you were a child, Merh. Now you’re an adult. You will give me grandchildren! This is what your mother would have wanted of you.”

  “N-No…! Mother wouldn’t have wahis!” She kept g. “Mother was a warrior… She said I would i Ra and bee a warrior princess, proteg the Empire… You promised me I could marry anyone! Yet after her death, it is as if... as if I am not even your daughter anymore. You lied to me. You betrayed my mother’s words... and you took Ra from her!”

  “This girl…” the Pharaoh grew impatient, sighing. “Take her away from my presence! I have no time to be paying attention to the bickering of a spoiled brat.”

  “Yes, Great Pharaoh.”

  The guards forcefully took Merh back to her room, throwihere and leaving right afterwards.

  Despite being a princess, they treated her shly…

  “Ugh…” Merh cried over her bed for the whole day, thinking about her mother all the time. “Mother… Why did you leave me?”

  The more she thought about her mother’s death, the more it felt like it wasn’t just because she was sick or something.

  Her mother before everything happened seemed so fine, yet from one day to the , she grew sid pale, her skin growing purple in color.

  And then, a day ter, she died.

  “Did they poison her? Did someone... pn her death?”

  Her eyes grew furious at the thought. She had grown protected by her mother and her father before he became cold to her, uo truly grasp how dangerous it actually was to be a member of royalty, even more of such a huge imperial family.

  When the Pharaoh had so many women to sire many children that could pilot the Meical Gods, it was obvious that envy and jealousy would fester between such a huge family.

  And that they would begin targeting one another, especially the more talented and most preferred ones of the Pharaoh.

  “My mother… They targeted her because her father loved her more than any other woman,” she sighed. “But now that she’s gohat love for her, which he also gave to me, is gone… He never loved me, only my mother…”

  She stood up in the middle of the night, gng at the beautiful imperial city, tless flying vehicles moving everywhere, and futuristic, tall buildings made of gold glistening brightly below the sun.

  A gigantic Oasis rested in the middle of the city, which was built around it. Large golden pyramids surrouhe city, f a huge protective barrier.

  This enormous futuristic metropolis—the pce her mother wao protect, the home her mother loved—means nothing to her now.

  “A family that kills each other… A father who doesn’t truly love his children…” she ched her fists tightly. “This entire pce is rotten… This empire, once glorious, has fallen… Disgusting!”

  She gritted her teeth, her resolve growing stronger.

  “Merh, you’re free to do as you want, my daughter! The world is yours to visit as you fit, meet people, visit pces, learn new experiences… Don’t let others force you to bee part of their pns. You’re yourself, and the only one who has any say over what you’ll do with your life... Is yourself!”

  The words of her mother resonated within her heart as Merh did the impossible. With her little talkative robot, she stole Ra, who responded automatically to her call, and broke through the barrier around the city, esg into the Vast Deserts.

  [Princess! Are you sure this is the right thing to do? You’ll bee a persecuted criminal! Ra is too important to the Empire; they will not stop until they find you!]

  “I don’t care! I’ll do whatever I want from now on… And I won’t let anybody tell me what I have to do with my family! Giving birth to the children of some ugly Roman? In your dreams, father!”

  As the princess boasted her trol over her owiny…

  RUMBLE!

  The sky and the earth shattered apart, the empty air twisted, and as spad time itself opened and shattered, a giant, gray-colored portal emerged in front of her.

  “Huh?”

  And with a pulling force s she couldn’t fly away, she ulled into the enormous wormhole, nding in a simir yet pletely differe.

  And this is where everything truly began for her—after she met the people of El Cairo, after she helped them, after she earheir trust and love.

  But even then, at the end, she was caught.

  “What I’m going to do now...” she sighed. “Is everything just... over?”

  [It indeed is princess Merh! I told you that this would bring a great disaster! You should have listeo me when I told you to!]

  The annoying pyramid-shaped little robot by her side kept annoying her.

  The truth is, he was her only friend, a guardian her mifted to her when she was only three years old.

  He had been taking care of her ever sind only wahe best for her. As a robot, he khat the best thing for her was to survive and live prosperously.

  Marrying that Roman Prince, giving birth to his children, and maintaining the peace between both Empires was something that would lead to her surviving and living without many problems.

  Yet… Merh went against this “logid this eime, the artificial intelligence has been uo uand why she did this.

  “Don’t you get it?” she sighed. “I don’t want to. I would rather die… Than do what my father wanted.”

  [B-But why! Princess… I rogrammed by your mother to…]

  “I know, and thank you for taking care of me so far, but...”

  Merh smiled bitterly.

  “I think I’ll just accept my death... I ehis little time. I did what I wanted, and now... I’ll just die.”

  Her words were shog for someone who was so cheerful to readily accept her death.

  Did she even value her life?

  [Princess… I’m sorry. I wish… I wish I could have the power to ge anything, but I am simply a robot—a small, assistant robot at the end…]

  “I know your pany here is enough; thank you for always being by my side.”

  [Princess…]

  Merh hugged her panion as she closed her eyes and simply waited for her inih.

  Yet…

  FLASH!

  Ra suddenly began glowing.

  “Huh?!”

  And Merh noticed something, within her entire body, golden particles started to emerge, rapidly expanding like an aura of glistening light.

  “This is…?!”

  [Princess! T-That’s… Yolden Bloodli is resonating with Ra!]

  “But how?! I’m fairly sure that I... Unless?”

  Yes.

  Merh’s body exuded the power of her Golden Bloodline for a reason.

  Her powers emerged, rapidly enpassing the Meical God.

  Each golden particle was a small nanobot produced by her own body.

  The truth behind the Golden Bloodline was something her mother had oold her.

  “In the past, this family was fed the blood of the gods. Hence, we developed the Golden Bloodline. Not only giving us the power to pilot the Meical Gods… but also to develop special Abilities.”

  The ability of her brother [Ma’at’s Insurance] was one of them.

  Her mother, too, had the ability…

  “CRYAAAH!”

  The cry of a hawk echoed as Ra started moving again, as if it had regais energies pletely out of nowhere.

  “My body is… exuding sunlight?”

  The fuel for Ra’s body.

  Sunlight.

  “This is my mother’s…”

  [It’s your mother’s ability, princess!]

  Both Merh and her little robot gasped.

  “[Horus’ Domain of the Sky]”

  Horus, the Great Grandson of Ra.

  Acc to Mythology, he was the son of Osiris and Isis, the God of the Sky.

  It was said he had some resembh Ra, and that he would bee the true ior of Ra’s throually.

  The God of the Sky, who naturally governed not only the weather but also sunlight itself.

  Merh’s ability developed, givihe power to release sunlight and feeding Ra with infinite energy.

  The same occurred with Merh…

  Yet perhaps even strohan that.

  RUMBLE!

  Winds gathered around Ra, water, and cold; everything began breaking through the orb made of Dark Matter.

  And at the same time, suddenly, Dark Matter began to tremble as a giant bde of light sshed through it all.

  SLAAASH!

  “Huh?!”

  And then Merh met her—someone who had e to personally free her.

  “It looks like you’ve awakened, princess,” she smiled. Her glistening rainbow eyes and her body, made of light, sent shivers down the spine of Merh.

  Never had she seen such a beautiful woman.

  “Are you a goddess?!”

  “Oh? Hahahah!”

  The woman ughed as she quickly broke opeire sphere of Dark Matter, freeing Ra and Merh.

  “I suppose some call me that,” she said, as the winds made her long, silvery hair flutter. “But my name is Bing Xue... o meet you, princess Merh.”

  And this was the moment that Merh’s entire life ged.

  “Merh! I’m so gd you’re okay!”

  And little Sara was also at Bing Xue’s side.

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  Pach