Author’s Notes: All right, folks – this story is undergoing massive reediting, so it’ll probably put “Sinister Resurrection” on hold for a while, but I just couldn’t bring myself to write SR until I’d gotten this out of the way. So here I am, reediting and stuff like that, and even though I’m only fixing up the stuff that I think really needs fixing up, I’m still leaving a lot of the original content in. For sentimental reasons, you understand. So, basically, you can tell which chapters are the new ones by not only the Author’s Notes, but by the chapter titles – if it has “The Mummy: A Final Rising” in big bold caps-lock letters across the top, then it’s a new one. So hopefully this one will be better than it was before, and thanks for reading!

Disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Stephen Sommers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

THE MUMMY: A FINAL RISING

Prologue

THEBES – 3 358 BCE

Long before the Scorpion King and his Anubis Army, there was something more sinister…

His normally steady hands were trembling unnaturally as he locked the last chain around the lashing woman’s foot, her high-pitched screams, begging for mercy, tearing away at his ears. Yet he refused to listen. No matter how intensely she writhed against the chains, jerked against the sacrificial stone tablet, neither she nor the other three thrashing people would get out of this alive.

It was well known that the God Seth craved to rule the world.

His dark eyes slid away from the four hysterical people, trying to block out their hoarse cries and yells and pleadings, and focussed on the two large books before him. Two very different books, yet equally powerful – one of the purest gold, intense and gleaming, and the other as black as the dead of night.

The Book of the Living, and the Book of the Dead.

They were in his grasp, and his grasp alone.

It appeared that High Priest of Seth was no different.

He was an ambitious young man, was what everyone around him said. Curious, even, Very quiet, and unwilling to mix with others.

Ambitious, he though grimly as his hand hovered over the Book of the Dead, was a little bit of an understatement. Picking up the Book and carrying it over to the altar, tearing off the octagonal puzzle box from its chain around his neck and snapping it open, he slipped it into the star-shaped lock and opened the Book. Ambition, perhaps, was even toomuch of an understatement.

Pure, passionate desire for domination, on the other hand, was probably closer to the truth.

The inscribed page glared at him when he ran his fingers

Teremun stopped at the page he was looking for. He gently brushed his hand delicately over the ancient text, looking over the words and incantations which would allow him to call upon the Cult of Seth.

The ancient Cult of Seth was more deadly and powerful than all the Anubis Warriors put together.

Teremun took a deep breath and started to read the incantation, the burning desire for domination searing in his eyes. The four people fighting against their chains screamed louder, begging him to stop, but he kept going.

The man knew no mercy, for why should he when he was ready to take over the known world?

A golden light filled the small sacrificial chamber. At first it was dull, but slowly brightened and surrounded all four captives. The shining mist swirled around them, getting brighter and brighter and more intense by the second. The woman and three men screamed and yelled in agonising pain. Their wails were so loud that Teremun’s ears were starting to hurt, to throb and ache. But he kept chanting the words.

Teremun, High Priest of Seth, desired power and superiority. In order to gain that power, he had to call upon the Cult of Seth to help him enslave the known world.

The golden light disappeared in the blink of an eye, and as it did, the screaming subsided. Teremun came to the end of the incantation and stopped reciting. The people on the sacrificial had stopped screaming, and that was because –

– They were dead. It was almost as though life was ripped from their bodies.

Nothing happened.

Granted, the High Priest of Seth wasn’t sure what should happen. Should the earth start to shake? Should he turn into some all-powerful dragon?

Then it came. The ground rumbled and the walls started to crack. Teremun looked around in worry. What was happening? That was answered soon enough for him. The wall directly opposite him cracked and crumbled down in a horrendous noise. Dust filled the room and Teremun coughed and spluttered, waving his hands in front of his face to enable himself to breathe. When the smoke cleared and he looked back at the fallen wall, he gasped.

The God Seth had accepted the four human sacrifices.

Through the fallen wall were close to twenty million figures. They were so…ugly. Spears, axes and scimitars hung from their waists and they were draped in the customary clothes worn to war. Their skin looked as though they had been torn apart then fixed back together about a million times. Their bones had obviously been splintered many times and somehow healed again. They were huge – huge, towering mountains of warriors.

But despite their revolting appearances, they looked to be a fully-trained army. The High Priest of Seth grinned madly. The Cult of Seth was his, and with it, he was invincible.

Teremun, the High Priest of Seth, commanded the Cult with ease. With their extraordinary power, Teremun had slaughtered the millions of people who had dared to stand up to him. The ones who didn’t stand up to him were enslaved and forced to serve the Cult.

As the ruler of Thebes – and indeed, the rest of Egypt – the High Priest had all but murdered the Pharaoh and his relatives.

The only way to end the time of disaster was to kill the person who controlled the Cult, a nearly impossible task. Only one person was permitted near his private chambers.

The High Priestess of Nephthys walked down through the golden gleaming halls of the palace. She was nervous and she didn’t want to be the one to do this, but no-one else was brave enough. Licking her lips, she approached his chambers. Two of the gruesome warriors of the Cult stood on either side of the door like bodyguards. She bowed low to them, avoiding any eye-contact with the foul creatures.

No-one was brave enough to kill the High Priest of Seth.

“I, the High Priestess of Nephthys, request entry to the High Priest of Seth’s chambers,” she said in a clear voice. The two warriors stood aside and allowed her to pass through the door. They trusted her, naturally. The Goddess Nephthys was the God Seth’s sister-wife, so, with their genius logic, they knew they High Priestess of Nephthys could be trusted.

All except one.

She closed the door behind her. She glanced around the chamber as she did so frequently. All around there were daggers, spears, axes and scimitars, on the walls and in the racks. All were encrusted with the royal family’s best and exquisite jewels. She looked quickly at the flapping curtains and saw that Teremun was out there, and quite oblivious to Amunet’s presence. As silently as she could, Amunet pulled out a scimitar from the rack of weapons beside her. Once again checking the room to make sure she hadn’t missed anything, she saw that the Book of the Living and the Book of the Dead were stacked – untidily – in the corner of the room. She wouldn’t be able to open either Book, however, without the key, which, coincidently, hung around Teremun’s neck on a chain.

The person to kill the one who controlled the Cult of Seth could either take over the Cult or banish the Cult to the Underworld, not unlike the Scorpion King and his Anubis Army.

She slowly walked towards the balcony, praying that he wouldn’t hear her and suddenly turn around, catching her holding a scimitar. She reached the transparent curtains and pushed them apart. Teremun turned. He spotted the gleaming, sharp scimitar in Amunet’s hand. He looked sharply at her, anger flooding his expression.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded. Amunet arched a delicate eyebrow.

“It’d have thought that to be rather obvious,” she said coolly. Not waiting for his reply, she lunged at Teremun.

There is only one cost of having to control the Cult.

The High Priest of Seth saw it coming, but there was little he could do. His arms were uselessly by his side and his own scimitar still in its sheath.

The controller remains mortal.

The scimitar plunged into his chest.

The controller is little more than a man.

Blood immediately gushed out of the deep wound. Teremun tried to scream but he found he couldn’t; his lungs were filling up with blood. He couldn’t breath. Blood dribbled out of his mouth as Amunet withdrew the scimitar. The High Priest of Seth collapsed to the ground in a pool of blood. He started to convulse, groaning and gurgling and choking on his own blood.

The High Priestess of Nephthys watched him die with satisfaction. The convulsing stopped. He had bled to death. Without further ado, she tore the key from his neck and ran over to the Book of the Living in the corner of the room. It was curious, she considered, how the Books had not been locked away…but then again, Teremun had always been a fool, and it was just her luck that he had been more foolish than usual. She fumbled with the key to open it – any moment now the Cult would know something was wrong.

In order to take control of the Cult, one would have to read from the Black Book of the Dead.

Amunet flicked through the shimmering golden pages hurriedly. With a jolt of horror, she realized that she hadn’t locked the door when she entered. She finally came to the correct page and started reading the incantations just as the two Cult warriors burst through the door, growling madly with saliva dribbling down their mouths.

In order to banish the Cult to the Underworld, one would have to read from the Golden Book of the Living.

They spotted Amunet reciting from the Book of the Living quickly. They took a step forwards and raised their arms. All the weapons in Teremun’s room rattled and shook as they started to hover and float. The scimitars and spears in the racks vibrated and slid out easily. The axes on the walls disconnected from their holding pins.

The High Priestess of Nephthys was only three-quarters of the way through. She sped up her reading, praying that she wouldn’t stumble over the words or she would have to start again – and she couldn’t afford that.

Every weapon turned in the air and pointed at Amunet, the sharp ends pointing lethally at her.

She continued to read. The words where coming out in a jumble, but they were all a little further…

One of the warriors of the Cult growled and threw its arms forwards. Every weapon in the room pointing at Amunet soared through the air at an incredible speed towards her.

Amunet finished the incantation and snapped her eyes shut, trying to block out the excruciating pain of more than fifty scimitars and spears piercing her body.

Only, no pain came.

She opened her eyes slowly and gasped in shock. The weapons had all stopped a fraction of a second before they had touched her.

The weapons shook and dropped to the ground. They hit the ground with a horrible clanging noise that vibrated through the room. Amunet peered at the two Cult warriors. Her eyes widened in alarm.

A binding white light filled the room, so bright that Amunet had to squint to see what was happening. The two Cult warriors screamed in agony until –

– The light disappeared slowly and Amunet opened her eyes. The Cult warriors had simply vanished into thin air, their immortal souls trapped in the Underworld.

The High Priestess of Nephthys had banished the Cult of Seth to the Underworld…

She stood there in shock for a moment before jumping hurriedly over the swords and spears and axes littered on the floor to the balcony. She stepped gingerly – and with disgust – over the Teremun’s body and peered over Thebes.

Before, the city had been teeming with these foul Cult warriors. But now, as she watched over the great city of Thebes, the city shone with the same blinding white light that had filled the chamber just moments beforehand. The Cult warriors were screaming in anguish until the same ‘swooshing’ noise swept across the city. The yells ceased and the warriors diminished into nothingness.

…Thebes and Egypt were freed from slavery.

The people were still afraid to come out of their houses. But when they did, they found that the Cult of Seth had disappeared – just like that – and instead of the High Priest of Seth issuing orders from his balcony in the palace stood the High Priestess of Nephthys, waving down on the city and holding up the Golden Book of the Living, gleaming gloriously in the sunlight.

The Golden Book of the Living and the Black Book of the Dead were hidden deep inside the palace. It was too risky for anyone to know about them.

It would have been against all beliefs to destroy the Books, so the High Priestess hid them instead.

Later on, though, it was discovered that the Books would be needed for various incantations and to banish evil to the Underworld.

But instead of bringing back the Books from their hiding areas, Amunet ordered the designing of copies of the Books, without the incantation to raise the Cult of Seth from the Black Book of the Dead.

Only Amunet knew where the original Books were hidden, and when she died her knowledge died with her.

The Cult of Seth remained banished to the Underworld…

…Until now.