BXBX NOVEL Chapter 128: Set. Pt. 3
Chapter 128: Set. Pt. 3
“I thought you might come to find my son.”
Everyone looked at the owner of the elegant voice that was ringing throughout the stone chamber.
She was a woman so powerful to the point that anyone who couldn’t notice had to have been an idiot.
Baldur and Inebu both seemed to recognize her, as they both called out her name at the same time.
"Isis..."
"Isis..."
Lee Jun-Kyeong, having heard her title, looked straight at her.
He recognized the name Isis.
She was one of the powerful rulers of the Nile, and a pillar who supported the Heliopolis branch.
‘The wife of the Ruler of the Nile, Osiris…’
She was the mother of the owner of the sarcophagus, Horus. Isis looked at the party with a calm gaze.
"Do not advance further,” she declared.
"Lady Isis."
Inebi took a step forward despite Isis\' warning and opened his mouth.
Thud!
He dropped to the ground, kneeling with both knees. However, this time, he hadn’t done it because he had wanted to.
Isis had crushed him down with force.
\'It seems the Nile is a monster den too,’ Lee Jun-Kyeong thought on the inside.
It was a matter of course.
The Nile was an organization that was comparable to Asgard.
Moreover, Lee Jun-Kyeong was meeting with the leaders of such a powerhouse. so it was only natural that they would be this powerful.
Inebu, kneeling, raised his head and looked clearly at Isis.
His whole body was trembling as if pushed down upon by a great force.
"I beg of you, my lady."
“…”
Isis\' pupils trembled.
"I know well that my Horus cared for you. And you...”
Isis looked at Lee Jun-Kyeong.
Even beyond her title as the Queen of the Nile, her gaze was one of royalty, upright and almost piercing through him.
She was an arrogant and powerful Hunter.
“I heard that there was someone who could save Horus… I’m also familiar with the numerous times that they had discussed you.”
She looked at Inebu again.
"That\'s why I\'ve been here, waiting."
She walked out slowly, relaxed.
They could finally see her face, which had been hidden in the shadows.
She looked too young for someone to think that she was a mother.
She opened her mouth.
"Inebu."
"Yes, my lady."
"Do you really think this man can heal my son?"
Inebu spoke with all his heart, "Yes, my lady."
“You.”
Then, Isis’ gaze had drifted over to Lee Jun-Kyeong as well.
She spoke once again.
"Do you really think you can save my son?" she said, her desperate grief dripping palpably from her voice.
Her flesh and blood.
Her son had been sealed in this sarcophagus while he was still alive.
Her grief was clearly conveyed to Lee Jun-Kyeong.
However.
"No."
“…!”
Lee Jun-Kyeong responded quite simply, "I don\'t think I will be able to save him.”
He walked forward as Isis’ angry gaze fell down upon him.
Her terrifying aura bore down upon him without any intermediaries.
Hunters like her, they were the very monsters of their society. They were at the pinnacle of power.
Heroes among heroes.
Lee Jun-Kyeong opened his mouth, forcefully enduring her aura with his body, "I\'m just trying to see if I can save him."
He didn’t say anything he couldn’t take responsibility for.
Rather, he only spoke of the facts.
“…”
Isis trembled.
"I see."
Then, she stood aside.
Sometimes, it was easier to move a person\'s heart with sincerity than sweet nothings.
Now there were no more obstacles in his path.
Lee Jun-Kyeong walked forward while gesturing to Won-Hwa with his eyes.
"There won\'t be much time,” Isis said.
From this point forward, they would open the sarcophagus in order to treat Horus. Once it was opened, the sealed Horus would awaken.
Horus had been sealed alive into the sarcophagus, and the reason was simple.
It was because the man had been eroded by madness.
He had become a madman who had lost all reason, wielding enormous power that could destroy everything.
"The seal lasts 30 minutes. If you fail to treat my son...”
She conveyed her true feelings.
Her determination.
"...We will all die here."
If the seal was released and Horus\' treatment failed, then there would be no way to seal him again.
Before Horus could destroy the Nile, he would have to be killed.
Lee Jun-Kyeong wondered.
After killing the people who would have forced her into that situation, did Isis plan on dying as well?
He felt an incredible pressure upon his shoulders.
However.
"I don\'t intend to die."
Lee Jun-Kyeong approached the sarcophagus and unfastened the latch.
Shhh!
Soon, a red light began to leak through the crack.
***
“It seems it’s started.”
A man opened his eyes because of the energy he felt from afar. In the room he resided in within the Nile, dozens of men stood, holding their breaths.
“...”
All of them were dressed in black leather and carrying blades with heavily curved blades.
They each fell onto one knee and looked at the man who sat with his eyes open.
Smirk.
The man who had opened his eyes laughed.
He was also dressed in black leather and was the leader of these people.
Set.
The power of the red gem was emanating from the room where Horus was sealed, which was something he had already known would happen in advance.
It meant that the seal had been lifted and that the Underdog’s party had begun the treatment of Horus.
‘Isis. It seems she is there as well.’
There was something else he felt as well.
A strong aura was emanating from that place.
Isis.
The wife of Osiris.
‘My first love.’
She was the woman who Set had once loved. However, she had fallen in love with his brother, who was greater and more dependable, and not with him.
Set had thought that he had to give up on her because of that.
“It seems I still have a long way to go,” Set said with a bitter smile.
He couldn’t believe he had planned such a great rebellion because of some affection he had a long time ago.
Set closed his eyes again, still waiting for the right time.
‘You just want to be a dictator.’
He thought about what the Underdog had said when they had met.
The answer he had given when asked what Set would want to do after he became King of the Nile.
The Hunter had said that Set’s purpose didn’t matter. That he had simply wanted to be a dictator.
“He’s not wrong," Set mused.
He was planning on becoming a dictator.
After all, the people of Egypt were suffering from the tyranny of Hunters, and the Nile was an organization in the shape of an absurd pyramid of power.
However, none of that really mattered to him, as they were all excuses for his rise to power.
Set just wanted strength.
Authority.
The irrefutable power to make all kneel and take any and everything.
The rest was all just incidental.
If Set really worked for the people of Egypt, then he would have become an advisor, not a dictator.
He wouldn’t ascend to the throne of the Nile, but instead would have broken down the organization behind it. He would have abolished the absurd pyramid structure of power and ensured that all of their actions went transparently and fairly.
Moreover, he wouldn’t stand above the rest, but would have become an advisor who would advise them from the side.
However, he was different.
Although it was still true that he was still doing this “for the people,” he still didn’t intend to distribute any power to them.
“All everyone has to do is just obey only me and follow only me.”
Under the absolute power of one, everyone was equal.
As long as it was under the rule of Set.
And.
‘As long as that person wants it to be.’
The being had given him great power and had also given him the rare mineral called the red gem. Although this was Set, who had resolved himself to stand above everyone else, that being was much too difficult to even gaze upon.
Under that being’s rule were countless people like him, strong enough to become the fear of any and all Hunters.
That was why.
‘That being is a god.’
Set would become the king of men, and that being would be the God above all.
“War Jackals.”
Set opened his eyes, lifting his curved blade from the floor.
A still yet tense vortex encroached on the room.
"We will cleave the neck of the Pharaoh.”
The grand command of Set struck into the ears of the men in black called the Jackals.
As the Jackals bowed their heads low, they all began to shout.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Having undergone countless expeditions, they had sworn their lives to Set.
The time that they had waited upon for so long had finally arrived.
“We will sit upon the throne of the Nile today.”
Set stood up.
Boom!
The Jackals followed along, standing while striking their blades onto the floor.
A great tempest of mana began to circulate in the room.
All of them were Heroes.
Moreover, they were all Heroes with strength that couldn’t be ignored.
"It\'s the beginning of the war."
Set opened the door and stepped out.
***
Tremble.
Won-Hwa’s hands were shaking. The reason Lee Jun-Kyeong had brought him along wasn’t just because he had joined their party from China.
"Don\'t be nervous."
It was because he was essential for Horus\' treatment.
Won-Hwa was a master of medicine and an expert in internal qigong.
The medical skills and mastery in internal qigong would help to curb Horus\' madness.
Horus.
Inside the sarcophagus, he was wrapped in a red-colored bandage.
“...”
Everyone looked on as they began the treatment in silence.
There was much hanging upon the tips of those fingers.
[<The Great Representative of the East> sponsors you with increased focus.]
Even Won-Hwa’s Sponsor had come forward as if indicating how difficult this treatment would be.
Lee Jun-Kyeong also went to Won-Hwa’s side as the physician was conducting acupuncture and examined Horus. The Hunter’s mana was running wild like a crazy beast.
He could see the color of Horus’ mana, and all of the mana in the Hunter’s body seemed crimson.
‘Madness.’
Horus’ erosion was more serious than he had expected.
Madness was encroaching over his whole body.
‘To get to this extent, he didn’t just absorb part of the Madness.’
When Lee Jun-Kyeong had exposed Heracles to Madness, it had only been by introducing a small amount into a scratch.
The Hunter had awakened the erosion of Madness at that point only by using a small part of the Madness that was buried in Muspel’s Spear.
Horus, on the other hand, was in a much more serious situation.
‘He had swallowed the Madness itself.’
It was obvious from the state of Horus’ body that he had tried to absorb all of the large red ore by himself. However, the price of the great power was cruel.
"Mr. Won-Hwa, you have to restrain this man\'s strength as much as possible,” he instructed.
All Lee Jun-Kyeong wanted from Won-Hwa was for the physician to curb Horus’ power.
Although it wasn’t easy to suppress the enormous mana that seemed to have been amplified by Madness, Won-Hwa nodded in response, unable to even speak from the concentration.
He was someone who would give his all before anyone who was wounded.
His silver needles soon began to take over Horus’ body.
As for Lee Jun-Kyeong.
Shhh.
He began to attempt to infuse his mana into Horus through the inserted needles.
Boom!
However, his mana was just getting swept away.
Horus’ vast mana reserve was like a progression of tidal waves, while the mana injected by Lee Jun-Kyeong was like a stream of tap water.
It was quickly dispersed as if it was disappearing into the hurricane.
‘So it’s going to need this much.’
However, Lee Jun-Kyeong had only injected his mana to estimate how much mana would be needed to control Horus’ flow.
The preparations had been finished.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Right then, they began to hear explosions blasting about behind them.
“Lady Bastet…?”
Although Inebu seemed concerned that something had happened to Bastet, Lee Jun-Kyeong, Isis, and Baldur were focused on something different.
“...”
They looked toward the place where they saw the explosion with stiff expressions.
“Mr. Baldur,” Lee Jun-Kyeong called out to Baldur.
They had discussed his role beforehand.
Baldur, having had his name called, looked at Lee Jun-Kyeong with a steely gaze.
His eyes had a genuine and serious glint for once, as the Hunter knew what he had to do next.
“Can you really save him?” Baldur asked, his tone distorted by his informal speech.
Lee Jun-Kyeong responded, "I think I can."
Baldur walked out of the chamber with a nod after hearing that.
The person who was trying to enter the stone chamber had to be dealt with.
‘Set has made his move.’
It was imperative that Set was held back until Horus’ treatment was over.
Mr. Jeong,” Lee Jun-Kyeong also called out to Jeong In-chang.
His role was also clear.
If Baldur were taking on Set, then Jeong In-Chang would have to guard the stone chamber alongside Fenrir.
There was something else, however.
If there was something to be relieved by, then it was that there was one other reinforcement that Lee Jun-Kyeong hadn’t anticipated.
“...”
Isis.
She, having felt the energy of Set, slowly began exuding mana.