(Location: Inner chambers of the Scarab – Vision plane, between memory and soul)
Adam sat in the dark.
Not real dark—but the kind that lives behind your eyes when you're alone with too much silence.
He touched the stone.
And the stone touched him back.
The hum returned—low, like ancient breath.
Then the light.
Then the fall.
And suddenly—he wasn't in the Scarab anymore.
He stood in a desert that was not real, yet more real than anything he'd ever felt.
Before him stood ten warriors, encased in the armor of a thousand lives past.
Their eyes glowed faint gold.
Their forms flickered like smoke given shape.
Ra. Bastet. Osiris. Sekhmet. Anubis...
And behind them, the wind carried the scent of sand and regret.
Ashur's battalion.
One of them stepped forward—Thoth, or whatever he had been before time renamed him.
"Why are you here, boy?"
Adam's voice was steady.
"I didn't call you. You called me."
Another answered—Hathor, eyes like a mother who's buried too many children.
"You're bound to the Scarab now. It opened your heart. And through you... we remember."
They circled him.
Not hostile.
Not kind.
Judging.
"We fought once. For love. For the innocent."
"We were betrayed. Not by enemies. By him."
Adam knew who they meant.
"Ashur."
Anubis's voice was like gravel.
"He left us."
Sobek growled.
"He let her die. Let us die."
"And now he walks again. With a dog and a purpose. But we are still buried. Forgotten."
Adam stepped forward.
"You're not forgotten. I saw what happened. I felt it. And I know he feels it too."
Ra's form flickered.
"The High Gods cannot be defeated. Their strength is not of muscle or mind. It is time. It is fate."
Horus folded his arms.
"The humans above chase peace as if it were owed to them. But death is natural. Maybe extinction is a mercy."
Adam clenched his fists.
"You sound like them. The priests. The ones who think they decide when we vanish."
"We're not perfect. But we love. We fight. We try. My father is still fighting. My mother too. I won't let them down."
"And neither should you."
They looked at one another.
Silent.
Still.
Adam's voice softened.
"He didn't run because he was a coward. He broke. That's what people do when they lose everything. But he came back. Isn't that worth something?"
Bastet stepped forward.
"And if we rise... we die again."
"Then die standing. Die with your blades out."
They were silent again.
Then Thoth spoke.
"Let us think."
The wind shifted.
The desert began to fall apart.
Hathor touched Adam's shoulder.
"You remind me of someone."
"Who?"
"Hope."
And the world turned to sand—
—then light—
—then stone—
And Adam woke up.
Tears on his face.
The Scarab humming louder than ever.
They were listening.