Mummy Evolution

In the ancient past, Central Continent.

"Have you ever seen a Tomb's birth?" Ismera looked sideways from atop camelback, looking at Sett, who was on a camel of his own beside her.

The sun hung low in the sky, casting a golden glow over the endless dunes. Waves of heat shimmered above the sand, and the occasional gust of wind sent ripples through the surface, shaping and reshaping the desert like an artist sculpting clay.

Sett placed his hand against the sun, head wrapped in a turban.

Ahead of them, half-buried ruins peeked from the dunes, their weathered stones standing as a testament to time's slow, inevitable erosion. The scent of dust and age lingered in the air—a smell older than history itself.

"Tomb's birth. There is such a thing?" he asked.

"Yes. Myths say that Tombs are a gift from Gods to us mortals, but I think that is not the case. I think Tombs are a way for this chaotic world to gain some order."

Sett blinked. "I don't understand."

"You don't have to. It is just my belief, not the truth. Come to your own conclusion about things like this. Don't listen to me, to your mother, or anyone. Be you. I will be sad if you lose that spark due to other people's teachings."

"..."

Sett shifted uncomfortably atop his camel, the beast swaying gently beneath him as it plodded through the shifting sands.

He didn't like such serious conversations coming from nowhere.

"Today, I will show you the birth of a Tomb." She changed the subject. "It is going to happen nearby."

"How do you know it's going to happen?" he asked, his voice rough against the dry air.

Ismera's eyes, keen and unreadable, flicked toward the ruins ahead before returning to him.

"The signs are there if you know where to look," she said cryptically. "The wind shifts differently. The sand hums a deeper tune. And the world… it feels heavier like it's holding its breath."

Sett put on a sagely face.

"That is true, there is the smell of broken tears in this wind." He took a deep breath, rustling the camel's leather. "I can feel it. It's there." His face contorted in effort. "It's raising within me!"

His grandmother ignored him.

He stared at her. "What else do you expect, cryptic old woman?"

She was still silent.

Sett frowned, tilting his head to listen. The desert was alive with sound—the soft crunch of camel hooves, the whisper of sand grains tumbling over one another—but he couldn't hear the hum she described. Not yet. He clenched his fists, feeling the familiar frustration of being just out of reach of something greater.

"..."

The camels slowed as they approached the ruins. Up close, the stones were more than weathered—they were scarred, ancient, and long forgotten.

Sett dismounted, his boots sinking into the sand as he stepped closer.

"Leave the camels here, we have to walk a bit further."

So they just walked in silence, observing the ruins as they did.

And soon enough, they reached Ismera's target location.

The air here felt thick, charged with an energy that prickled against Sett's skin.

"This area experienced some large-scale destruction in the past," she said, "and so, it had been a chaotic zone till recently. Many after effects of destructive Axiom use remained after many years."

"Is this it?" he asked, turning to Ismera.

She walked beside him, curiously looking at Sett.

"Watch," was all she said.

Sett turned back to the ruins just as the ground beneath his feet trembled. It was subtle at first, a vibration he might have mistaken for the wind. But then it grew—deep, resonant, like the echoes of some deep abyss.

The sand around the ruins began to shift, swirling inward as if drawn by an unseen force. The clouds in the air started to churn, wind began to roar. Chaos seemed to be on the way.

"What's happening?" Sett shouted over the rising howl of the wind. He stumbled back, instinctively reaching for Ismera, and she held up a hand to stop him.

Ismera grasped Sett's wrists, steady and firm. Then, without letting go, she wrapped her arm around his neck. It was an intimate embrace.

"Watch, don't miss it," she said.

With her against his back, Sett was no longer so panicked.

He watched with intent eyes.

The trembling intensified, and the ruins shuddered as though the earth itself were rejecting them. Then, with a deafening crack, the ground split open.

Sand poured into the fissure like water down a drain, revealing a void so black it seemed to swallow the light around it.

A void. An utterly dark hollow in the world.

Sett's heart pounded in his chest, a mix of fear and exhilaration flooding his veins. He couldn't tear his eyes away.

Ismena retreated with Sett in her arms, both moving kilometers away in just a second.

But with their eyesight, they could still see the sight clearly.

From the black hole in the ground, the void, something began to rise.

Slowly, deliberately, a structure emerged—sharp angles of obsidian and bone-white stone, twisting into a shape that defied reason.

A pyramid, something that normal humans couldn't dream to create.

Its surface shimmered with an otherworldly sheen, and the air around it crackled with power.

The sandstorm stilled, the wind dying as abruptly as it had begun, leaving an unnatural silence in its wake.

The pyramid stood there as if it had always been there, to begin with.

"A Tomb," he said excitedly.

"An A-Tier Tomb," she said with a smile.

Back to reality, they both walked up to the Tomb's entrance but they didn't enter. Instead, Ismera checked something with eyes closed.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

She smiled. "Not all Tombs are the same. D-Tier tombs are just that, Tombs of ancient figures with traps and such. But the higher a Tomb's ranking, the more complex it will be inside."

"Ah, I've always heard about that but I don't know exactly how it works."

"D-Tier Tombs are simple, but from C-Tier Tombs onwards, there will usually be a whole world within these Tombs. They are pieces of ancient history, time carved out and reenacted in that Tomb Space."

Sett blinked. "A world?"

"Yes. And that world will have inherent missions inside it which you must complete, and only then can you enter the Guardian Rooms. Only if you kill all the Guardians inside can you leave the Tomb."

"What about A-rank Tombs like this one?"

"They are even more complex. For example, this one. It can only be entered by two people at a time—you cannot enter if you have more allies on your side."

"What if we still enter with three people?"

"The third one cannot enter, as long as they are mortal, they will have to obey the rules of the Tomb."

Sett rubbed his nose.

"Come on, let's set up camp first," she said. "We should rest for the night."

Sett nodded, still looking at the Tomb and its grandeur.

It was so tall.

Then, they began setting up camp. Tents with mats as bed.