The ground was found deep under the waves of sloshing foul liquid that surrounded him. Tutors boots and pants thankfully prevented the dingy water from seeping inward to his feet. The boat he had been in sat far behind him now, empty and forgotten save for four mariners that had said nothing to him. Tying the boat to the dock was a man dressed in only a headdress shaped like a hawk. He too said nothing when Tutor had asked after directions and only pointed into the darkness somewhere. He instead focused forward trying his best to find another vessel that would lead him to wherever this maddening necropolis ended. He had decided to head straight through the open area in between the two sections of reeds, he noticed that if he travelled too far to one side or another there was a noticeable ledge that marked the difference between what he stood on and where the reeds grew from under the surface. The creatures that seemed to be running frantically in between the dead plants must be huge, unless some other force kept them above the water. Yet the state of this city made it feel as if such a force existed it wouldn’t be held now. The decrepit and broken state of the buildings and aqueduct he stood on gave an ancient and terrifying feel to the scenery around him. As if he had been delivered into a realm older than any in the world, built by a people long gone and dead. Perhaps the souls and creatures hidden here were those people. Forever doomed to forage for deadened scraps of some plant that seemed distasteful and rotten.
He looked out for a moment at one that had reached up and pulled something from one of the reeds. For a moment it was ecstatic that it had anything at all before it noticed him staring at it. It lowered its hand and skittered off like some cockroach discovered in the kitchen. In the small amount of light trickling downward from the fire following the serpents winding along the roof, he thought he espied a twinge of colour in its hand. A green with a hint of yellow where the plant itself seemed mostly dead and rotten away. As it scampered off Tutor noticed a strange object in the water ahead of him along the side of the aqueduct. He began his way towards it and found himself facing a large craft like that of the boats he had been on before now. It had capsized within the water with its occupants inside, four men and a woman. Two still gripped in their skeletal hands the oars they used for rowing the craft. The pair that were likely married both had upon their heads a decrepit and withered away headdress shaped as a hawk. They were reaching towards each other with their hands while floating in the water, their remaining skin bloated and green with age. The last gripped in his hand a withered snake that had its fangs embedded in his wrist. The colour of black poison filled the mans veins as he held it away from the female hawk headed figure.
It would seem something terrible happened on their last voyage through the city. They ended up resting in this spot, their souls forever trapped within the field of decrepit reeds and foliage. Turning away from the sight he noticed a small light flickering not too far in the distance just before a bend in the aqueduct. It shown forth from a lantern tied to the aft of yet another craft that had come to rest upon the aqueduct. Making his way towards it he began to hear faint voices, whispers of some strange tale began to trickle toward him from somewhere up ahead. They spoke of traitors and battles fought in the waters of Net-Neb-Ua-Kheper-Aut. Fields of growth that fed the fair city of the Duat, this must be where he stood now. On an aqueduct used as both a highway of commerce and as an irrigation canal for this field of reeds. Then were these creatures surrounding him some form of tortured and lost farmer or laborer? And the bodies in that craft the lost souls betrayed by their allies? As he approached the boat with the thoughts of lowly farmers with nothing to their lives even being trapped by what happened here, something slithered across his foot under the water making him jump and follow the small ripple towards the boat. A small protrusion stuck out from the waters surface like fishes head.542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX8Ppupi2nO
A snake slithered its way from under the foul water and up the leg of a man standing upon the deck of the craft. Tutor noticed it to have started to list toward the waters edge into the field beyond. But barely held its way by the weight of the man that stood upon it which wasn’t much. He was dressed in naught but a brownish tunic held on by a greasy bundle that resembled nothing but slime. His skin held a rustic colour save for his right hand that seemed ethereal and skeletal. In it he held a pole that was dug into the ground of the aqueduct below him. His skin hugged his frame like he hadn’t eaten in ages. His face was haggard and rugged with a long unkempt and degraded beard hanging from his chin. His eyes stared down at Tutor with a gleaming fire of blueish-gray as the boy approached him. “You are not of the unliving young one.” Was the only phrase out of his mouth before the snake slithered back down from his side and over to something behind him on the boat. The mans eyes seemed to pierce into his soul as he stared at Tutor. “These lands are meant for the damned young one. Strange to see a living being here,” He leaned over and stared down at the boy with intense intrigue. “Especially one so young. The last to have been here was a man of giant stature.”
The snake hissed from behind the grizzly man to bring Tutors attention to a mummy that lay upon the floor of the craft. It sat upon the dead things head with a fierce look in its eyes. “I was once called the ferryman, Khenenurtf. It was my duty to see the body of Osiris safely into the city. But now it would seem I keep all others out.” He leaned back up and turned to the snake swatting at it with his rod. The end came to be an oar head like that of a normal paddle boat. “Journey them across Urnes and into the unknown, instead of resting here where they ought to they lay boundless and within chaos in Ament. But the question is.” He turned back to the boy staring up at him from the waters below. “What to do with one whom the water does not drown.”542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8er8FHrorZ
At that thought great roars escaped from within the thicket of reeds beyond the Ferryman. Something huge trudged through the water towards them with a steaming fervor. It tore whole sections of reeds down as it made its way. Tutor began to search for some other place to go with nothing in sight but another boat far off in the distance down a long slant in the aqueduct. “Khetra comes young one, you would do wise to follow along the trail away from him for he surmounted even Heracles of old in strength and stature.” The being stretched upward and swatted his oar off into the darkness and made contact with something there. A wailing of pain was heard shortly after as a ghostly figure ran towards the opposite edge of the aqueduct. A woman of the same height as his mother darted through the darkness where a visage of a smaller boat appeared to allow the being passage. Upon it was a mirror image of the ghastly man, only robed in thick, light-absorbing black. Instead of an oar he held a scythe in his hand and scooped at the spirit with it, hooking it and dragging the wailing creature into the boat. She reached for Tutor when she noticed him and cried out to him in pain and sorrow. He stepped forward seeing only his mothers eyes on the creatures outer shell. His hand barely missed hers as Khenenurtf pushed him away with his oar. “Many have fallen victim to the tricks of the dead. Stray not from the path laid out before you and forget the past that haunts you. Or you may never see the light of day again from this place.”542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtH8jGRLqvN
Ignoring the other spectre now staring him down he bolted, or rather trudged noisily, through the dense water to the form of the boat he found in the distance. The heavy footfalls through the deep water in the distance pushed his feet faster to avoid finding out what would happen to him if it caught up with him. Surely it wouldn’t be anything satisfactory. As he ran he found himself coming upon an area where the waters of the aqueduct began rushing faster down the slant the boat had been set upon. Great fires in the distance sat perched atop two spires bordering another great doorway that stood imposing a dead end upon Tutors track. But surely the waters sat too deep for him beyond the edges of the aqueduct, and the water too thick for safe swimming. Before he could find himself thinking of an alternate route something seemed to tug at his foot as he approached the point where the aqueduct began to slant. He fell headlong backwards as his feet fell out from underneath him and he began a full slide down the slope.542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW2j5mbX9zZ
The foul liquid washed over his face as he slid downward and almost reminded him of the slime that covered, and protected, the plants in Ptah's park. It stung his nose as he fell toward where the boat was. He expected to slam into the boat quickly and painfully but instead he felt something grip the collar around his neck and yank him from the waters torrent. It lifted him up onto the deck of the raft and set him down carefully. The boat was resting diagonally in the flowing water. Each end of the boat had become lodged in some sort of roots that intertwined around lion heads that sat upon the tips of the boat. The being that had grabbed him looked down upon him with painful eyes. He was small in stature but muscular and clothed only in a fauld that rested down to his knees. “One must be very careful in the dilapidated waters of Net-Neb-Ua-Kheper-Aut young one. They can turn even the mightiest of men into foul creatures to forever roam this corrupted land.” Tutor looked back up the slope to find nothing chasing down after him but the darkness. But many creatures had come to stare over the edge of the slope down at him. Some tall and others short and barely noticeable they had looks of curiosity on their demonic faces. Looking back behind the man that saved him there was the great gate with something new sitting at its base. On the boat was only one mummy that had been left on its side and decayed, its smell strong but not of death. More like the old dusty smell of a library.542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo1iPp6cRbM
He only nodded his head in response to the man standing over him. “We will take you to the gate that you seek, though beware the warder of the waters awaits you below, there.” as the man spoke a snake, different than the ones that he had seen before in colour, slithered over to one of the roots holding the boat in place. The forward lion head had been angled down toward the gate and when the snake bit at the root it moved to tutors surprise, it unwound from around the lions head and released it. The rear simply gave way and let go of the rear lion head to dangle into the waters edge below. The craft quickly but steadily pushed through the water toward the gate. He saw the mass before the gate move and stand tall. It was an immense being that stood to nearly the height of the gate itself and held in his hand a sceptre topped by an Ankh of life. He held it ready as if to fight something. What Tutor couldn’t place, perhaps that same enigmatic figure that made the previous door to give way so easily? “Khetra is his name and even the mightiest of the titans children failed to bring him down, he stands ready to defend the city against those looking to bring an end to the imprisonment held within.”542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoYIrOn2xFA
Tutor looked up at the great being as his small craft nestled along a stone dock that ran up to the gate he stood before. If he was to defend such a gate how was Tutor to get past him, especially since he already knew that he was here. He was pushed forward off the raft as it pushed itself away and somehow made its way back up the torrent of water. Almost as if the waters ran in the opposite direction now, indeed it seemed to Tutor he stood now at the top of the incline instead of the bottom like he knew he was. The being that had spoken to him paid no mind to the boy staring at him and guided the boat along to come to a rest back where it had been. Turning away from the confusing mind trick he watched the giant at the gate. He simply stood ready and waiting for the young boy that barely measured up to the man in any way. With nowhere else to turn except to try and swim back up the current of water he took a step forward. As soon as his foot hit the hard stone a great light reverberated through the walkway he was standing upon, he looked down to see his pocket that held the amulet glowing intensely for a moment before the light left his person and travelled through the stone. It reached a point, several of what would be the giants’ paces, in front of the giant Khetra and billowed forth a stream of light brighter than any Tutor had seen before. It shown forth like the light of day and felt as if, for a moment, that he stood before the sun itself.
When the blinding light dissipated he saw before him the same great being from before. The great being shown in a magnificent radiance that blinded the giant Khetra and forced it back a couple steps. He supported himself on the Ankh sceptre and turned towards the brilliant one. It raised the sceptre into his other hand holding it like a staff and bolstered itself against the coming strike from the other being. The odd curved staff in the hands of the shining one slammed into the side of the ankh with a loud clang that reverberated through the darkness. The sound reflected itself off of something in the distance and bounced back towards the scene where the two giants were now locked in heated battle. The Ankh sceptre flew through the air like a menacing mace and was met with equally tremendous force from the staff of its adversary. With each clang of metal and sceptre came a bright flash racing forward faster than the sound it carried in its waves. With each blast of light a new image appeared upon the doorway behind the fearsome sight.
As the first strike struck their opponents the two stepped back and through their massive structure Tutor espied the doorway light up from the top down. What was once only a smooth limestone now stood etched by the light of the two weapons meeting in heavy battle. The first images were that of two apes with their heads in the shapes of odd dogs, the first sitting upon a pile of sand in some form of meditation the second which seemed to be the same ape was sitting inside a coffer solemnly with a vaulted roof. Immediately Tutor was given the idea of some great person had been killed and left within the earth in some grave. The two beings continued to clash and the images continued to be revealed from the light flashing into the door. Next were two beings with jackal headdresses, they stood in some odd prayer and in unison some odd voice was given to the darkness. A solemn prayer of both mourning and anger welled up from the waters below. As the brilliant giant struck downward and slammed the other in the shoulder a third set of images appeared, a man and a woman both holding in their hands the same symbol Tutor had seen on the Medjay of the Pharaoh in Sphinx. An eye with a small underhanging curved line. They held them out as they stepped toward an altar of some sort.
With the giant Khetra raising up in defiance to the shining god he slammed the Ankh into his side making him step back in pain and raise his weapon for another strike. As they moved then three beings appeared upon the altar, just before it was a ram standing strong and menacingly. Atop it was a mummy with its hands stretched ever outward toward the floor approaching the altar. Just beside and slightly over this being was Anubis in all his might but almost spectral it seemed as he presided over the scene with his feet not touching the ground. The shining ones sceptre slammed into the knee of Khetra forcing him down on his knees revealing the next picture as it shined upon the surface of the door, on the other end of the altar kneeled a man with both the symbols from before in his hands. He sat raising them upward toward the altar in offering. Beside this man rested a scroll wrapped around a sceptre that appeared the same as the one used by the shining fighter above Tutors height.
The whole scene, as it came to be revealed to him, puzzled Tutor who had no idea what to make of it or why he was even being shown this. He stood upon a dock in the darkness surrounded by the wails of whatever lay beyond, a boy of no importance in life and a product of his age. He found himself perplexed by all this vivid imagery and to see the intense fighting above him. The fighting continued with Khetra raising from the ground striking the other across the chest of with the Ankh, it left a striking impression in its form. This motion brightened the next images where four men stood opposite that of four mummified men. Upon each head was a different image, the first held horns the, second two plumaged feathers, the third a symbol Tutor couldn’t recognize and the last was bare. Behind these eight men were four women who seemed distraught and upset, at the moment Tutor saw these women wailing and sounds of mourning broke the din of the darkness around him. three appeared after these women with a man in the centre that held a flag behind him, upon it was a hawk that matched the head of the shining one that now beat Khetra into wall beside the door, where Tutor noticed a huge hole already lay from a similar blow already happening.
The giant Khetra seemed infuriated to be dealt the same blow as what caused the gash in the stone and pushed back against his foe. The shining one whom Tutor came to realize, must have been Ra or Horus the god, raised the sceptre in his hand upwards and slammed it into the side of Khetra angrily. It seemed as if Khetra was supposed to have stopped on the wall and given up or died, but his defiance cost even greater pain as the giants bones cracked under the force of Horus’ blow. As the body of Khetra crumpled to the ground a grinding sound could be heard just next to Horus. The door finally started to grind open and swallow the images behind its walls. Horus took a stride toward it and did not disappear this time as he did before. Instead he turned and looked to Tutor as if waiting for him to approach. Tutor unsure why he was being waited upon by the gods of yore, stepped closer to the door way and began his stride toward it. As he did so he came to notice some odd glinting on the floor of the promenade he found himself striding across.
Images, much like those seen on the door, started to make out their shapes to him. Those nearest and slightly behind him now that he had started walking were of a man wearing ram headed headdress and a bearded man raising his hands above him in praise. As Tutor passed these to approach the next images a voice echoed downward from the giant Horus ahead of him, “O you whom I have made mysterious, whose souls I have hidden,” Tutor stopped and wondered if the god was speaking to him or some other beings around that Tutors young mind could not perceive. The voice was noble and smooth and much less aggressive then that of a fierce warrior like that of the being that just crushed Khetra below his might. With no further speking he stepped forward again to pass in between two sets of figures that rose from the ground as Horus’ light touched them. They materialized in the particles of the air like holograms and all four were seated on throne-like chairs. Two on his left and two opposite those each mummified with beards and odd white crowns. “Whom I have put after Osiris to defend him, and to escort these his images,”
An odd sound appeared through the darkness as Tutor watched these mummified lords appear. He stepped through the area in between them to come to an area now filled with fierce winds. As he pushed through them with his hand before his face blocking his eyes from the stinging sands carried by the drafts, five beings flew downward on great wings of the purest white feathers. Four hovered over him, two to either side and a single one ahead of him. Each one wore a headdress concealing their heads that was fashioned like a goose. Their wings beat intensely and pushed a vortex around Tutor forcing him to stop in his tracks cover his face from the cutting sand. They came to land with a simple form of majesty and drew out long knives as they approached him. The voice rolled down again in sleek majesty, “To annihilate those who attack him, so that the god Hon is yours.” An odd emphasis was pushed upon the word ‘him’ as Tutor looked up to see the five beings raise their weapons into the air and slash downward at him. With fear mounting quickly inside him he kneeled down and waited for the expected blows. But instead the wind simply stopped with a quick gale and sound like knives through a sheet of metal. It hurt his ears but he looked up to see them all slightly bowing before him.
“Hon is my name,” The one in the lead stated. “These are my charges; Neha-Hra, Akebsen, Atemti and Tuatui. We shall guard you from harm within the city proper young one.” With that they floated upwards and disappeared into the darkness yet again. With them gone stood now three lone figures, two women with their throats slit and one in between them, a man, holding up two knives with blood dripping from their blades. 542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSkR8g8NFRv
“O Osiris, behind you, they are set to defend your state, to escort thine images and annihilate those who would attack them.” The voice of Horus continued on as Tutor stepped past the bloody scene, also as he did he made out the faces of those that stood there silent and dreadful. One resembled his mother, with her smooth face and calm expression marred by the pain of death and sadness. The other woman was not familiar to him but her eyes pierced into his soul as if she was filled with hatred for him. The man’s face was hidden behind a cowl except for a thick and evil smile. Behind these stood a lone bearded noble looking man with an air of sorrow over the image. Tutor passed this image with Horus again following in suit with his voice. “Oh Khontamentit, for you the forms are stable, you whose right ensure existence itself, you who breathes air from your nostrils, and makes sight with your faces,”542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡglhbuNYtce
Four more Mummified beings rose to be seated in thrones. These wore a different crown hued with red light as their images faded away as Tutor passed. “Who listen with your ears, who are wearing your cuffs, who are dressed in stripes, who have offerings given through the priests on earth.” Two women appeared past these four lords each with a hand upon the sceptre that was in Horus hand as his weapon. They chanted in unison an ancient hymn Tutor could not understand.
“You who have fields upon your own domain, whose souls are not overthrown, whose bodies are not overturned, open your circles and stand in your places,” At this Horus began to stride through the now fully opened gate without Tutor who began chasing after him so as to not be locked without. A new woman appeared then holding in each hand one of the eye-like symbols from before, the two previous women lay on the floor as if suffocated. “For I have come to see my bodies, inspect the images that be in the world, and you sent for me to be able to help them, so that I may lead your souls to heaven. Osiris your soul to earth shall go.”
Tutor passed Khetra's massive body and realized how large the man actually was. Greater than any depiction of even a giant he had ever seen besides the one from the top of the beanstalk. Even those paled in magnificence and sheer power it would seem though. Horus’ huge footfalls rattled decorations on the walls and reverberated through the stone of the doorway. “I ascend into the earth and the day is behind me; I travel through the night, and my soul meets your forms during the day,” At the foot of the door, as Horus passed, appeared three figures each reaching downward to touch the ground and praise Horus. Not for a second did any of these make any notice of Tutor. “I created your souls for me, like he did mine, so that they may be behind me, and what I have done for them, keeps you from falling into the place of annihilation.”542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtfCSXLGKe6
The giant figure dissipated and vanished into the darkness that permeated within the doorway. It was a thick foreboding darkness so dense that the light from the area Tutor stood in now seemed to be devoured like a black hole. With reluctance Tutor decided to follow the long dead god into the darkness and reached his hand up towards the surface of the engulfing silhouette. It felt like an odd liquid as he touched its outer layer and ran his hand down it before pushing it inward. It seemed to suck him in and pull at him with some great force. In only a moment he found himself in a wildly different scene, one of much brighter colour and great contrast to the areas before this one. He found himself standing outside in the bright moonlight. The silvery moon glistened down through vestiges of clouds and flickered against the well polished stone around him. He found himself on yet another barge crewed by a similar crew of ethereal gods and goddesses. The barge itself floated down a causeway much like the one previous but instead of decrepit murky water it was a clear emerald green. The stone at the bottom could be seen clearly with a winding snake slithering down its centre as a mosaic.
He reached down and ran his hand through the water at the base of the barge. It was cool and clean with a crisp feel to it as it ran off his fingers. He followed the aqueducts curve to look at the tall buildings around him. They were of a smooth well kept stone and shone in the moonlight like a pearl. They were of classical Egyptian style architecture complete with grand statues and fanciful archways. He found himself winding through a neighborhood whose shadows were few as the torch sconces burned brightly an odd green colour. The barge then started to move and list down the waterway as the sounds of celebration reached his ears. The sounds were distant yet felt as if they originated from right underneath him and around the waterway. The sounds were both cheerful and celebratory but also mournful as if the people had lost someone very dear to them. He passed a greatly lit set of statues that began to line the promenade grandly. The first was a statue of a man great in stature and imposing, his pale green skin reflected magnificently in the torchlight that gave it a dire hue of malevolence. He reached across the waterway to where his crook sat perched against a column, golden and tall. It would seem whoever built this grand structure of a city really loved their statues and the people did as well. To the very point that the statues were kept pristine and brand new.
Past this were many others lining the causeway to a point where the waters began to rush and flow down a slant toward a lower section of the neighborhood. The following two were of Horus in his full stature opposing a man wearing a long-beaked bird headed headdress. Both held their hands upward and toward the centre of the causeways airshaft. The bird headed ones hands were held upward steadily as Horus held his wide with an odd symbol floating in the air above him through some unknown power. A bright golden glow shone off the symbol as Horus held it high. It emanated with some odd emotion as Tutor passed under it. A feeling of great regret yet extreme happiness and fulfillment. For a moment he thought of that strange experience with the colours of sound, as if activating some hidden attribute colours exploded toward him from all around. He found they painted a very different picture than what his normal eyes were seeing.
The area around him was awash in an odd pale grey colour that pulsed across all the scenery. When it touched something it pulsed into varying hues based on, what Tutor could imagine, the type of material it was. But when his enhanced vision met these coloured areas what he knew as exquisitely carved and polished turned into a decrepit old and unkempt version of the same. Like night and day the entire area was revealed to him through the spectrum of colour that shone through his vision. The great statues standing beside him on either side lay crumpled and broken in places and the water itself gave off a rotten brown colour as it washed through the scene. In some places it even ran through holes in the mosaic running along the side of the causeway. So the truth was as foul as the rest of this underworld whereas he was shone a falsehood, perhaps what this city looked like in its prime. Golden gilded and magnificent, full of life and splendour. He somehow convinced his brain to wash the colours away and reveal again the prior version of this damned place.542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6TyXvCTP7K
The boat had continued on its course past two figures, a man that wore a brilliant red crown with an almost menacing look on his face. He stared intently at the statue across from him which was missing its head where two long plumes of bandages rose from instead of flesh. At its feet was a great structure with a large steel bound doorway etched with numerous hieroglyphs. The truth was of a single half of the door missing and broken into a pile of rubble, inside was the statues head smashed and a broken body found within. Past this was another set, one green faced and angry with another that looked tauntingly back at him holding the same crook that was leaned upon the column before. Looking up from noticing light licking the statues surfaces in a different colour than the effulgent green that shone up from the torches, he saw that the symbol was following the boat along its course down the causeway. It came to float in the air before a series of four giant Ankhs that stood supported in the air by four beautiful women, the last of which held a beauty that was not attainable to Tutors young gaze. To him they all looked like women but the men carved at the statues base suggested that any grown man would come to lust for this gorgeous façade. The hoops atop each ankh overlapped the last with the final woman’s ankh bigger than the rest. The final also rested right over the very slant that led downwards from the raised causeway the barge currently rode upon.542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtgBfTpz31t
As the boat pass between the legs of the first two adjacent women the symbol in the air shot forward through the ankhs with blinding speed and a huge burst of energy. It disappeared into the night highlighting different structures and buildings along the way into the distance. The boat caught speed and rushed downward into the lower section of this circle of the city. The water splashed against the columns and open stone door of a gateway that led into a neighborhood proper. Myriads of homes stretched out into the darkness following different off shoots from side causeways that led along the outside of both sides of the main causeway the barge now sat upon. Each door that led into the well constructed and welcoming homes held upon it a symbol representing the household that lived there presumably. The first was of a woman sitting, suspended in the air, with a red crown upon its head. This being the second time seeing the woman’s likeness he paid closer attention to it and found a striking resemblance in it. It looked shockingly similar to the pictures he had seen of Neith-Meryt laying on the destroyed courtyards ground in the sepulchre. Drexx had indeed found a gorgeous and regal woman to marry, and now Tutor felt a pang of sorrow in his heart to have never met the woman that must have connections to the family that lived in this house when it was livable. Even though he saw a greatly adorned home complete with grandly embroidered silks and furniture, his vision bounced between what he saw and what was real.542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlNFCtKAuVt
In reality the symbol on the door could barely be seen as it lay buried in the muck at the base of a staircase that led up to it. The inside was tattered with naught but crumbling ruin and darkness. Signs of struggle long ago threw jars and decorations to the ground. He even espied the body of a man strewn across the floor, nothing but bones and worms now. A thick blade of gold shone from the only real light in the area, it stuck out from where its neck would have been. A doorway on the other side drew his attention from a hissing sound made by something inside. His vision once again showed the mirage before him. A human headed cobra stood upon two pairs of human legs and feet. Equally as adorned and coloured differently it sat slightly taller than the woman’s home across the way. This home held over itself a great viewing area that was revealed to him to be littered with bodies and old decrepit battle waste. Armours of great beings strewn across the ground and thrown over chairs that were once magnificent and carved of pure marble. The hissing noise was made once more as the boat slightly scraped across the edge of the causeway to lure Tutors vision to what was two great serpent mosaics painted across the edges of the water. They were slithering along their bellies never once touching the water they moved over. 542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxPMzFSpted
Coming up on him, standing along the edges and stabbing its pointed feet into the two snakes, was a great scorpion spanning a long way. Upon its back, held up by its tail tip, was a third snake that wound its way through the air overhead. It emanated the same glow as that of the symbol and was even carved along its belly with the same symbol. The eerie glow only followed along with Tutors barge yet again showing him that it was probably the same as before. As he flowed along the water and watched around him he espied more homes marked by their sigils. The first, from in between two of the scorpions legs, was of a man standing between two large vases. Across from this, in similar fashion to the woman and the snake, was another odd serpent. This held upon its body three heads and two pairs of legs. But it hovered over its base by use of its hawk like wings. A home of some great warrior sat down the way from the previous home, this one marked by a man holding a sceptre in one hand standing beside the snake that the New Pharaohs palace was named after. Nehebkau with his two heads on its forward facing end of his body and a third pointing down below the earth.
The direction of the mans sceptre pointed Tutors gaze outward over the city. The first time he actually looked this way, he found himself thinking; Never did he see such an interesting support structure for a cavern or any building for that matter. A giant man standing taller than any statue he had ever seen, held in his hand a great serpents head. It’s tongue seemed to be licking toward him angrily and hungrily with deep piercing ruby carved eyes. In the statues hand was a great curved mace casted of pure gold hovering over the city proper. The statues feet were hidden from him but he felt the piece must have been more, it felt almost lacking in completion without more below. Something almost sinister or depressing he felt was needed. The snakes head was connected to its body falling from the deep darkness above it, huge and heavy it would cause great harm to the city if it ever fell upon it. Possibly even bring down the cavern that it now came to rest inside. The whole city was at risk from this serpent menacingly snarling at the figure holding it back throughout the ages as the world above moved in tumultuous manners. The thought of the world above drove his mind to the thought of Drexx and his own revenge at hand. A lump rose in his throat at the thought of his parents lost and damned in a place like this, wandering for eternity until freed from some torment that wasn’t their doing. Regret of abandoning their child to a world as cruel as theirs surely would weigh their hearts too heavy for Anubis to allow them proper passage.
Fighting back a stream of tears he looked back forward with foggy haze in his eyes. Ahead of him was yet another gate that sat on the far end of some sort of intersection running along like streets. The gate was guarded on either side by a beautiful but threatening womanly figure. To his left was a woman that stood with an angry and heated expression on her face. Her skin was painted dark but slightly red tinted and painted with overlays of terrifying lines. The right was opposite in totality, not happy and welcoming but instead cold and sinister. Her fair skin beguiled her hidden presence of willingness to kill that shone in her eyes brightly. Their heads stood over the tops of the doorway now opening to his coming. In between was the head of the snake that had been running parallel to his crafts route till now. He watched the snake as he passed underneath its head and drifted through the gateway, the warm glow had been flowing through its body this whole time and came to be spit out of the creatures fanged and dripping mouth.
The distance between here and the next gate was very short leading under first the hands of two other goddesses that they held up where the glow now floated above Tutor. It shone brightly and washed away the hallucination and hypnotism of the area revealing the devastation and death around him. A lions roar pushed upward from the darkness below as a woman rose tall and menacingly ready to pounce. She was angry and divinely wrapped in war clothes. Opposite her was only an equally tall mummy wrapped in just as golden cloths. At both their feet were masses of bodies both decrepit and fresh as if a huge battle had just been waged as he approached. As she roared again two great serpents sprang forth from the waters below causing thick ripples through the water that splashed against the bodies of the dead. One was particularly more sleek and feminine in appearance. As the waters hit the bodies they began to stir and rise from their dead slumber, clamoring for their weapons and each others throats yet again. Full on warfare broke out around him as hundreds on both sides immediately ran towards the boat with angered ferocity all of the same ilk with symbols of Osiris painted on their persons they charged past their adversaries and attempted to reach Tutor. The lionesses warriors seemed at a loss for power in their time of need as their enemies pushed over them like a stampeded, she herself trudged through the deep muck and mire trying her hardest to reach the mummy in the distance with no care for the young ant on the boat.542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTsiJ6x4GHc
Only a short distance away was the gate he needed to reach, a triple headed snake with the middle holding open its mouth to allow him through. With so many around him trying to reach him they surely would soon, and he saw no beings in front of or on the boat itself hacking away at these dangers. They neared him and climbed over the aqueducts edge as he searched for a path to take to the gate, clearly not planned out for them to reawaken there was no defence for the rider of the boat like before. Or perhaps the only guard was preoccupied in her own grudge of a battle that she mustn’t lose. As they closed in around him and the boat continued on its path at a slower pace he looked up to the statue again hoping to be shown some escape route out. His thoughts again met with the face of Drexx and the overworlds beauty compared to this disgusting ancient swamp of a city. Foul odours wafted up around him as the unliving circled and enclosed him in a vortex of swirling death and metal.542Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡToPwxgTMxO
