Near Giza, Cairo Metropolitan region, Egypt!

ROAAAAAARR....!!

A roar suddenly tore through the clouds.

Not sound alone but pressure, a vibration that scraped against bone and soul alike. The quadcopter shuddered violently the moment it crossed into the skies above Cairo.

What should have been midnight in Egypt—

Was not night at all.

The heavens were split open.

Jagged seams of sickly green light tore across the sky like fresh wounds, violent aurora-like beams writhing and colliding, bathing the land in an unholy glow. The moon impossibly large and brilliant, bleaching the desert white as bone.

Below... Nothing.

Only dark locusts.

A living ocean of black wings swallowed the lower skies, enough to blot out the land entirely. Whatever was happening on the ground was hidden beneath millions upon millions of crawling shadows.

Then—

BANG!!

The quadcopter slammed to a halt midair.

Not slowed, but stopped entirely.

"…!"

Everyone lurched forward, restraints snapping tight as the craft froze in place, rotors screaming at maximum output.

Red warnings flooded the cockpit.

"What...?!"

"Engine's at full thrust!"

"We're not moving-at all!"

The pilots' voices quivered as systems screamed back errors that made no sense.

Wang Xueying unbuckled and rushed forward, gripping the back of Isabelle's seat.

"Are we under attack?!"

Isabelle's eyes flicked rapidly across the monitors.

"No impact damage… no lock-on signatures…" She paused, then raised a hand sharply. "Don't fire anything."

The weapons officer hesitated. "But-"

"If this is what I think it is," Isabelle said coldly, "firing might tear us apart first."

Wang Xueying followed her gaze.

The external feed shifted to a full 360° view.

Above them... A sky in convulsion.

Below them... An endless, writhing sea of locusts.

They were suspended between heaven and hell.

"…Are we in some kind of apocalypse?"

Wang Xueying whispered, a mix of awe, fear, and faint excitement in her voice.

No one answered.

She turned.

Yuriko remained seated, legs crossed, expression faintly displeased, as if someone had tracked mud into a sacred hall.

Ning Xue had woken up at some point. She stood near the side hatch, silent, eyes glowing faintly as she stared downward.

Unlike the others, she could see.

And what she saw made her breath cold.

"…This is bad," Ning Xue muttered. "It's like a battlefield…."

"Not hundreds… not thousands… not millions…"

Her eyes widened.

"…Hundreds of millions."

Energy signatures layered atop one another like stacked corpses, clashing, devouring, collapsing. Entire armies, living and dead, were grinding against each other below the locust veil.

Madness.

And then... she felt it.

A pressure?

Something looking back.

"…We're being held," Ning Xue said slowly.

The hatch camera adjusted, and everyone froze.

Two eyes opened within the swarm!

Each one as large as the quadcopter itself.

Fiery, ancient... Intelligent. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

The locusts parted as a colossal head rose from the storm, dark scales, fangs curved like scythes.

Far below, in the outskirts of Giza... A titanic serpentine body coiled around the Great Pyramids.

The monuments looked like children's toys trapped in its grasp.

Even from this distance, its gaze pierced through metal, glass, and flesh-

Fixing on one person.

"…How," Yuriko murmured, standing abruptly, "is it not dead yet?"

In this world, that thing shouldn't exist anymore!

Her kimono fluttered as if caught in an unseen current. For the first time since boarding, worry touched her ageless face. Her grey eyes seemed to dim, weighted by memories older than empires.

The beast's gaze burned with hatred.

Pure, focused, patient hatred.

For her.

Yuriko exhaled, slow and measured, yet her eyes betrayed her.

They kept drifting, once, twice, toward the sealed metallic door Wang Xiao had entered.

Whatever was happening inside, it was none of their business… and yet she questioned... did he already knew as he claimed?

Was this why he dragged her halfway across the earth?

Across the cabin, Wang Xueying showed none of that unease. The initial shock had burned off fast, replaced by a familiar hunger.

She had already opened half her equipment cases, sensors blooming like metallic flowers, screens flooding with chaotic data streams.

Energy density, spatial distortions, temporal interference. Her fingers trembled, not with fear, but excitement.

"Heavens…" she muttered. "This place is a dream for disaster researchers."

Isabelle saw her, frowned deeply, then looked away.

There were bigger fires than academic curiosity.

"What do we do?" Xueying asked finally, lifting her head. Her voice was steady, but her eyes flicked briefly toward the closed door.

She didn't dare knock.

Disturbing Wang Xiao now felt like volunteering to be assassinated.

Yuriko didn't answer immediately. Her gaze remained fixed on the door, if they were going down, if blood was about to be spilled, only he would decide.

A light tap touched her shoulder.

Yuriko turned, mildly surprised.

Ning Xue stood there, posture relaxed, eyes sharp and restless. She didn't look scared. If anything, she looked irritated, like a cat forced to watch a hunt through frosted glass.

"Can I go down?" Ning Xue asked, pointing vaguely toward the warzone beyond the hull. "That serpent's field is locking the airspace. Flying forward might not even be an option."

There was a glint in her eyes.

Excitement... Curiosity.

The itch to stick her foot into hell.

Yuriko frowned at once. "That thing is stronger than you."

She pointed through the glass, toward the distant silhouette coiled around Giza Pyramids, its presence crushing even from afar.

"I know," Ning Xue replied without hesitation. She pointed lower, toward the unseen battlefield. "I'm not interested in it. Something else is happening down there... A lot of something."

Normally, she would've already jumped.

But when she woke up, Wang Xiao was gone, and Yuriko had made it very clear she wasn't leaving the aircraft. Velkhara she could joke with Ning Xue, however...

Yuriko?

Even Athene treated her like an ancient judge, so Ning Xue kept her tone respectful, if strained.

Yuriko scanned the cabin. Xueying wanted to descend. Isabelle wanted to but would follow orders. Ning Xue was practically ready. Yuriko herself could stall the Serpant if needed, but the ground below was crawling with undead signatures, ancient energy clashing like tectonic plates.

And Aisha's signal…

It pulsed faintly, unmistakably, from beneath the Pyramid.

A trap layered atop another trap.

"…Go get him," Yuriko said at last, gesturing toward the door.

Ning Xue stiffened like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

"…Me?"

She stared at the door as if it might bite.

She had heard two women moaning inside that room for hours. There was no way she was walking in there. The last thing she wanted was to see Wang Xiao naked.

She was still salty.

Not just about being taken down in a single strike, but about being stuffed into a quadcopter like excess luggage and flown halfway across the world without so much as an explanation.

At least Yuriko was here.

With her here, Ning Xue felt safer. Strangely so.

They had only met a handful of times, yet every encounter left the same impression, this woman carried an invisible pressure, as if reality itself bent slightly around her presence.

Athene had once admitted it plainly: among all beings she knew, only two stood above her.

Yuriko.

And the Eighth Prince.

That alone was enough.

So when Yuriko told her to go wake him, Ning Xue was confused.

If anyone could call the shots here, it was her. Why involve that man at all?

The thought was still forming when the ominous click sounded.

Screeeech.

The metallic door slid open.

A tall silhouette stepped out, shadows clinging to him like a trained hound. The air shifted instantly, not oppressive, not violent, just… bowing.

The first thing Wang Xiao did was point straight at Ning Xue.

"You," he said calmly. "Big-breasted, brainless woman, what are you doing here?"

"Eh?" Ning Xue paused, caught off guard. A faint trace of offense flickered in her eyes. "I… I'm not brainless."

Wang Xiao stopped in front of her, gaze sliding lazily down her chest, long enough to be unmistakably insulting, before drifting back to her face.

"Why are you only disputing about the brainless part?" His amused eyes hooked her.

Her face burned.

Because one part was true. Her chest was big. She knew it... And it wasn't like she could just take them off and put them aside.

How the hell was that her fault?

She followed his gaze despite herself, realized exactly what he was judging, and clenched her fists. Before she could snap back, he had already moved past her, interest gone.

"What are you all doing here?" he asked coldly. "Where's my Yin Yue?"

Only then did Ning Xue realize, he wasn't talking to her.

Someone stood behind them.

Quiet and still.

Hands folded neatly in front of her lower abdomen, posture soft and obedient, almost wife-like. White-silver hair flowed down her back, red eyes lowered modestly. Her thin clothes did nothing to hide the full, pressing curves of her chest, drawing Ning Xue's attention despite herself.

Another big-breasted…

"…She's sleeping," the girl said softly.

Wang Xiao turned sharply "You can speak now?"

She nodded faintly, cheeks tinged red. "She taught me."

One body.

One soul.

Two consciousnesses.

Wang Xiao stared at her for a long moment, then sighed, rubbing his temple. "Troublesome."

This had been the body he originally created for Yin Yue. Now it housed two existences sharing flesh and soul. He finally understood the pattern, when the hair was white, it was this girl: mind simple, instincts pure, IQ barely above a child's, but with the body of a grown woman.

When it turned black, Yin Yue took over.

It was… interesting.

And mildly irritating.

"All of you," Wang Xiao said suddenly, voice flat. "Go down."

The command landed casually, like suggesting a walk after dinner.

Yet no one questioned it.

Someone had dared to resurrect an entire Egyptian undead army, including a quasi-transcended existence. If this were before, when he was merely a Transcendent, it might have been troublesome.

That serpent could distort time itself.

As for the undead army below? Irrelevant. He had brought Yuriko to handle obstacles, Ning Xue to witness a real battlefield, and Isabelle and Wang Xueying to observe undead itself.

He had already assigned them a "small project."

This knowledge would be useful.

One by one, they jumped down.

Soon, only Wang Xiao and Yuriko remained in the air, both facing the distant serpent's burning gaze, each with different emotions.

"He seems to hate you," Wang Xiao remarked casually.

Yuriko was silent for a moment before sighing. "Do you really need me to go down?"

Wang Xiao nodded. "Yes. Go deal with that… past lover of yours. I'll find out who drew this array."

Yuriko's lips twitched. She wanted to say the serpent was not her lover, but knowing Wang Xiao's personality, she swallowed the words.

He had already mapped the entire region.

The array resurrecting the undead army fascinated him more than it threatened him. He wanted to see it up close, understand it, before destroying it.

And find the one who created it.

And kidnapped Aisha.

He glanced at the torn sky above. That phenomenon wasn't part of the array. It was something else entirely, the first sign of universal boundaries weakening. The merger had already begun.

Before long, the Netherworld would slam into this universe.

Earth wouldn't survive that impact.

Fortunately, Wang Xiao already had an idea.

With a faint smile, he grabbed Yin Yue's hand and stepped into the battlefield below, where someone was already waiting.

He did not take Serphaina or Josephine down with him. Their presence would instantly reveal his identity to Ning Xue.

He didn't want her to know yet.