Mummy Evolution

"What?" Shining Yellow shouted in disbelief, jumping through the roofs of the city. "Lord Burrhen was murdered?"

Shining Grey nodded, running along with him. "White and Black are on the assailant's heels, but he apparently ran into some alley and vanished along with the two women with him."

"He escaped White's pursuit, after killing Lord Burrhen?" Yellow stopped in place. "Exactly why are we running towards him, to die?"

Grey shook his head. "He attacked before Lord Burrhen had the chance to use any of his Axiom's powers. And forget about revenge, if we don't capture this guy, we will have to answer the Pharaoh with our heads."

Yellow nodded and ran forward, taking a different path from Grey.

They both entered the alleys and began their search.

…

Meanwhile, Sett looked down from the top of a building, half of his face hidden in evening shade. A projected map floated in front of him, showing him the entire city's engineering and hidden paths.

Sett had taken an uncanny shortcut to escape White's pursuit, using the map that had appeared in his mind—which consisted of the entire city's hidden alleyways, to escape the man's attention for a short time.

The girls stood on both his sides, panting in exhaustion.

Sett wished he could let them off of this, but he couldn't. Even if he hid them somewhere, it would be incredibly dangerous if they were found by the enemies. On the other hand, he couldn't store them inside the Tomb within him either, as it couldn't take in any living being.

Shining White still seemed hot on their heels, too.

Sett raised his palm, holding it towards the city squire.

He clenched his fists.

Not good, Sett thought, walking back into the shadows and running away with the girls in his arms.

A while later, a puff of smoke materialized above the building, Shining White stopping for a moment there. For a second, he didn't move, looking towards the center of the city instead.

He clenched his fists, bit his lips, and after a moment of deep hesitation, chased after Sett again.

No matter where they ran, he could sense their rough direction.

…

The first of Burrhen's other subordinates reached the restaurant, their movements swift and precise.

Shining Gold was at the forefront, a man of honorable build clad in golden armor. He paused for a moment, taking in the scene—the broken window, the bloodstained floor, the lifeless body of Lord Burrhen. Shining Gold, a man of the desert, paled.

There was a word written boldly on the floor with blood.

Magic.

"Wasn't White chasing the assailant?" Gold growled. "Where'd he go?"

Silver, an invisible creature in black robes, slowly undid his robes.

"I do not know," he said. "But the enemy will not leave the city, I assure you."

A pile of clothes fell on the bloody floor, then there was no trace of Silver.

…

Sett walked out of an alleyway, his face underneath the brown hood—completely cold. The moment he walked out, he checked the map again. He could see a charged energy moving towards him in the map, fast and irritatingly accurate.

Shining White!

Just as Sett was about to run away once more, his expression changed.

He turned to the side, arms guarding his head.

A punch, incredibly strong, slammed into his arms—immediately crushing bones and sending Sett rolling through the floor like a thrown rock.

He crashed into a garbage pile nearby before stopping.

The metal trash bin exploded, stinking like piss and shit.

He groaned, standing up with broken arms again.

"To think that you will end up in my hand," Black moved like a flash towards Sett. "The world really is a funny place."

Sett threw a black bag of garbage at the man and jumped to the side, running sideways on the walls to dodge Black and reach beyond him. But before he could run far, he felt a hand grip around his heel, pulling him back.

Slamming him to the floor.

Indeed, a Tier 2 Tomb Raider was too much for Sett's Tier 1 body to handle.

Shining Black loomed over Sett, a black longsword in his hand.

"Wait, I can pay-!"

Unhesitatingly, Black cut down.

Slash!

One of Sett's arms flew into the air, him having dodged at the last moment with his neck.

Slash!

Sett's other arm flew into the air.

"You really did a number on our plans," Black said with a sneer, Sett's cold blood staining his face. "Mummy."

Sett stared at him with a venomous expression.

Black didn't give a shit about the hatred and his sword fell again, cutting away Sett's legs this time.

"Ah, I forgot mummies can't experience pain unlike Ghosts," he said. "But you can experience humiliation, too, right?"

Sett's golden eyes, covered in blood, looked at Black.

"What are you going to do?" he asked, heaving.

Black looked around. "Where are those women?"

Sett coughed a mouthful of blood and sat up, only to get his head stomped by Shining Black. But this time, underneath the boots, a cold grin arced up on Sett's face.

"Three," he said.

Black frowned. "What?"

"Two."

Black removed his legs, backing up.

"One," Sett sat up, staring at Black coldly.

"What—What are you counting down for?"

"Zero."

Sett slowly stood up, a new pair of arms and legs growing on his body out of nowhere. They were slimy with body fluid but they were just as useful as his earlier limbs.

He smiled.

Axiom of Reincarnation—Life Share.

Black's face morphed into one full of horror and confusion.

As Sett walked towards him, Black felt an immense pain wrack throughout his body.

He touched his face with his hands, finding blood all over his palm.

Then, his palm vanished.

His arms tightened, as if something were squeezing it.

His legs shriveled, as if something were sucking it dry.

Argh!

Argh! Don't—Don't kill me.

By the time Sett loomed over him, Black was lying on the floor, missing a pair of arms and legs. Bleeding from all his orifices.

Argh!

Arrrrh!!

Black screamed.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHH!

"I forgot that ghosts can feel pain unlike mummies," Sett said, tilting his head.

He took the longsword, piercing it into Black's eyes, then into his mouth and throat. That soon made him shut up.

It wasn't easy to hurt a person like Black who had a body as dense as titanium. Thankfully, he was too injured to be that unkillable anymore.

Black stopped moving.

Sett turned towards the alley he had come out of and seeing that the battle was over, the girls walked out. They had been told to stay there and not act until Sett was completely wounded, and till now, they had been struggling with that decision.

Zarah said, "I thought you were done for, Big Brother Sett…"

Zainah also stood, watching him worriedly.

Sett spat to the side. "Had to fall into that garbage dump exactly, damn it."

Zainah couldn't help but feel relieved at his annoyed words. If he was worrying about his smell, it meant everything wasn't lost. He was still in control.

Sett sniffed, thinking.

This was Sett's Axiom's most battle oriented ability.

Life Share.

It was the ability to exchange all the wounds he was inflicted in the span of one minute after the activation of the ability. After that one minute ends, all the wounds in his body will be transferred to the ones who wounded him in that period.

But if he died in that one minute period, he would really die.

This ability had once been too famous to be very useful. Everyone would be wary of hurting him too much in the span of one minute since everyone knew about this ability.

But to an unsuspecting enemy, this ability was the blade of death.

Sett might consider his Axiom of Reincarnation weak in a true battlefield in comparison to more battle-oriented Axioms, but that was not in battlefields like this. This was merely the low level battles, in here, his Axiom was far from useless.

After all, it was the Axiom that belonged to a Pharaoh.

Unfortunately, his best ability, Life Share, could only be used once a day.

Sett smirked.

It was enough.

He looked at Black's glitching status window.

[Total Tier 2 Tomb Hearts: 1]

Absorb.