Mummy Evolution-Chapter 26: Ghosts

After eating at the restaurant, Sett paid the bill and left with a rather gloomy face. The bustle and life of the city couldn't amuse him anymore.

Not when he couldn't taste anything.

Nothing.

How sad was that?

Feeling gloomier at that thought, he began observing the current world. This was no longer his empire. A lot of things had changed.

The empire had passed through multiple rulers and they had all left their mark.

What is it like now to be a citizen here?

Sett watched the people's faces as he walked through the throng.

No, something is wrong, his heart clenched.

What was it, he couldn't tell.

But something was definitely wrong.

"Did you know sis, something incredible happened earlier," said Zarah. "You remember Scar Face and Bulbockon?"

"You met them?" Zainah frowned.

"Yeah, I was going to the restaurant when they appeared out of nowhere. They wanted to coerce me into giving out big brother Sett's information. Also, they tried to get my money from me."

Zainah took a deep breath. "Then?"

"Usually, I would have run. But meh..." The girl shrugged. "When I crushed the flooring with my legs, those people ran away like scared dogs."

Sett said, "Of course they would. They wouldn't want to die. But you two really have bad connections. What were those two?"

"Nothing but street thugs," Zarah said calmly. "They used to take a quarter of our money as 'protection' fee. But well, without protection of course."

Sett nodded and then suddenly paused.

A smell passed by his nose.

It was a familiar smell, a dangerous smell, but it vanished before he could get a complete sense of it.

He turned around and watched the crowd move around him.

People in all sorts of clothing and fashion, men and women, old and young. Smiling, crying, indifferent people. Thieves and beggars.

Where did that smell come from?

Sett felt his nerves grow tight.

"Something is wrong," Zainah said, growing alert. "Sett, why are you so nervous?"

Sett backed away from the crowd, pulling the sisters with him.

"Don't you feel it?" he asked. "Something is not right with this city."

"Why are you repeating what that masked person just said?" Zarah asked curiously.

Sett whirled around. "Masked person?"

Zainah also stared at Zarah intently.

"Wh–What? That person who just gave me this balloon," Zarah showed them a crimson balloon floating in her hand. "He said th—"

The balloon popped with a small pang.

Sett turned around stiffly and stared at the street.

He could smell blood.

"Someone just got wounded," he said. "We're leaving this place!"

...

In seconds, Sett and his trio were outside the city squire and in a dirty alley. Sett's eyes were grim and cold, he was seething with rage. Both Zainah and Zarah couldn't help but feel afraid as Sett sizzled.

Why was he so angry?

"What do you know about the current Pharaoh?" he asked.

Zainah was the one to speak. "He is a tyrant. A hedonistic lord. Any woman, any land, any riches he wants becomes his. He doesn't care for the common people and ha—"

"I don't want to hear such nonsense," Sett said and stared up at the skies. "That can be said about almost all the Pharaohs to ever exist. People benefitting from the rule will call him a bad ruler and people having losses will call him good. I am talking about more solid information."

A young voice echoed from outside the alley. "The Pharaoh, Lon Ronsales Yuhuem, has an army of ghosts that he used to conquer the world. And he now resides in the land of Ramz as the sole lord of all under the skies of Ehyut."

Sett turned around to see a young man with completely white eyes staring down at him from the top of a small building's roof.

"Who are you?" Sett asked coldly.

I can't sense his power from this distance, he thought.

"Shining White," Zainah said from the side. "He is one of Lord Burrhen's subordinates."

"You are well informed," said White, looking at Zainah coldly. "Thief who entered the Ron mansion."

Both Zainah and Zarah paled.

Sett stood protectively in front of them.

Shining White looked at him and then looked back at the city squire, where a commotion was slowly unravelling. He turned to Zarah and said, "Do not mention that you saw the masked man to anyone else."

With that, his figure vanished into a puff of smoke.

Sett just watched him leave, feeling cold inside.

That masked man that Zarah spoke about, if his guess was right, was most probably a ghost. It was no wonder that he felt the smell was familiar. It was no wonder that he and Zainah hadn't noticed the ghost at all.

Only Zarah had noticed because the masked creature only wanted her to notice.

"Follow me," Sett said. "And don't go anywhere I can't see you."

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He melded into the crowd and the girls followed, using the instinct and movement of a thief to keep up with him.

Sett, on the other hand, was deep in thought.

Ghosts, when he himself was the Pharaoh, couldn't enter cities. Because every city wall will always be blessed using multiple Axioms to protect the normal people.

After all, if a ghost possessed a normal person, no one could even tell them apart!

And all ghosts thirsted for blood like wolves.

None of them was not a murderer.

Luckily, Tomb Raiders and Axiom Holders couldn't be possessed.

But that didn't mean that the ghosts couldn't just possess normal people and then become Tomb Raiders.

The problem in all this that made Sett incredibly worried was that ghosts—of all forms—liked to possess people with energy.

They loved possessing people like Zarah or Zainah who were Axiom Holders or Tomb Raiders, but of course, due to the fact that they will die if they tried and failed, they never go after Tomb Raiders or Axiom Holders.

They cannot succeed due to the protection that Tomb Hearts provided its hosts.

But what about Sett's other family members who were still not found?

His daughters, the Queen, his mother, his concubines.

They all had the energy of the Crimson Flower Marking on them and they might not be Tomb Raiders or Axiom Holders yet.

They had just reincarnated and most of them might not even possess their full memories yet.

They were the favorite dish for Ghosts!

They had energy and no protection against possession.

If ghosts could indeed enter cities in this era...

Sett, for the first time after reincarnation, felt fear.

And immense anger at the current Pharaoh.

If he couldn't even protect his own people to this small degree, how dare that incompetent trash call himself the Pharaoh?

Soon, Sett was standing at the top of the city walls and staring down at the entire city.

He heaved a sigh of relief.

This city did have protective fields covering it from ghosts. The earlier event was, most likely, some sort of exception.

But still, Sett felt disgruntled as he returned the way they had come.

When he reached the container home, his face became even more gloomy.

He had made a mistake in his thinking.

The current pharaoh has an army of ghosts, he thought. What if the ghost earlier was not the pharaoh's enemy but ally?

As he was walking down the road, he looked around and scanned everyone's status.

He took in a deep, cold breath.

More than 50% of the people in this city were already ghosts. Surprisingly though, most of the people in the slums were still not possessed.

Even ghosts mustn't have wanted them.

That meant that this had just begun to happen.

Thankfully, his system made him capable of seeing ghosts for who they were.

They must be waiting to make this city a slaughterhouse.

When he reached near their container home, Sett's face faltered again.

If the Pharaoh really is behind this mass possession, he wouldn't want the people to know about it before the whole thing is over.

Since Zarah had seen the masked ghost earlier, she would obviously be silenced. Since Sett and Zainah had also been part of the entire situation, they wouldn't be spared either.

Sett knew how an emperor functioned.

The city lord of this place, Lord Burrhen, must be working on the orders of the Pharaoh!

Shining White must have come to silence them after overhearing their conversation earlier.

Why didn't White silence us immediately?

If Sett's thoughts were right, that person had been strong enough to do it.

He hadn't attacked most probably because he had been worried about something.

What had he been worried about?

Sett's mind worked on overdrive.

Shining White must have been worried about making a commotion which might make me and the others shout the secrets outloud.

That means there is an assassin on the way, Sett immediately understood.

He just hoped they wouldn't send any Tier 2 level powerhouses. For the current him, they were too much to fight against. He would be easily killed no matter how cunning he is.

But he didn't stop walking or hide.

They must already be getting watched.

In this entire city, there was most probably no place to hide.

They are worried about people finding out about it, Sett thought. What kind of conspiracy did I walk into?

Maybe Zainah was right that good things will always be followed by bad things.

As Sett reached the container house, he stopped. He stood infront of the sister's—his face grave. The girls had also long become taut with survival instinct.

There, on the container's roof, sat a man with completely black hair and eyes. His eyes were so black, they resembled an abyss.

This guy is strong.

Sett's body became taut.

He is not Tier 1.

Tier 2?