"Can't go back?"
"Yeah, can't go back."
Ethan rubbed his remaining half forearm with his intact left hand. Missing a hand was often inconvenient, but he couldn't restore it just yet. He wanted to thoroughly study the clump of death energy lingering on the limb. Since the arm was already lost, he wasn't willing to let it go to waste without gaining something from it, so for now, he had to endure being one-handed.
"At least not until I can beat Anubis."
These words left Evelyn and O'Connell in complete despair.
Defeat Anubis? It would have been less cruel to just say they could never return. Defeating the Egyptian God of Death was something they couldn't even imagine.
After Ethan explained the situation to O'Connell and the siblings Evelyn and Jonathan, their reactions were surprisingly calm. They weren't panicked about leaving their original world, and instead became curious about Ethan's ship.
Logan had some familiarity with O'Connell, so after the explanation, he took O'Connell and the others on a tour of the ship to help them get used to the environment.
Whether they would eventually live in another world or stay aboard the ship long-term, they had no choice in the short term and would definitely be living on the Dawn for a while.
As for Imhotep?
After Ethan helped him resurrect Anck-su-namun, the former Egyptian High Priest didn't care where they were. Leaving his original world and entering a completely new and unfamiliar one was actually a good thing for him.
Here, no one knew him or Anck-su-namun, and there were no annoying Guardians looking to cause trouble. He could start a new life with her.
"But I have to warn you, your current condition probably won't last long."
Just as Imhotep was envisioning a bright future, Ethan doused him with a bucket of cold water.
"Your form of existence is somewhere between living and undead. Although you appear to be resurrected, the elements maintaining this form have already left you. If you don't resolve this soon, you will truly die."
Imhotep's resurrection had originally relied on Anubis, the God of Death, and the curse left behind by the ancient Egyptians. Multiple forces combined to allow Imhotep to exist in the human world in this special state.
In this form, he was neither truly human nor entirely undead.
However, once he left the Mummy world, Anubis's power was the first to leave him. The only thing now sustaining Imhotep was the curse tied to his original body, but outside its native world, that energy would slowly deplete and couldn't be replenished. The curse was based on divine magic, and after leaving the world governed by its deity, the energy fueling the curse would gradually disappear.
At that point, Imhotep would die.
"But the good news is, this death would free you entirely from that curse."
Imhotep understood what Ethan meant. As the curse's energy vanished, the curse itself would be lifted. As for dying because of it, he didn't consider that a problem.
After all, the soul didn't immediately enter the realm of the dead—assuming such a realm even existed in this world. And Ethan, who had learned many soul-related spells, had more than enough ability to preserve his soul and resurrect him again.
He could even use this opportunity to break free of all past restraints and return to being a living person.
Although he would lose his powerful magic, once he regained a human body, he could retrain and recover his magic power. With enough experience, it wouldn't be difficult to return to his original level.
However, that would require Ethan's help. Imhotep thought about it and realized that his previous agreement with Ethan had only involved resurrecting Anck-su-namun. It hadn't included saving himself.
Imhotep was very pragmatic. Especially now that Anck-su-namun had truly been brought back and he was looking forward to a new life, he wasn't willing to die just like this.
"As long as you're willing to save my life, so I can stay with Anck-su-namun, I'm willing to offer my loyalty."
In fact, Imhotep even considered offering his faith, but he wasn't sure if Ethan had any use for it.
As a high priest, he naturally knew the method of drawing power from believers to enhance one's magic. He also knew that kind of power came with many complications. Even at his peak, he hadn't dared to use it directly. Instead, he had worked to build followers and have them channel their belief toward a certain deity, from which he could then borrow power.
This approach was clearly useless with Ethan. After spending time with him, Imhotep understood that this spellcaster didn't worship any god. So he didn't bring it up.
"That's not difficult. I can help you with that."
Ethan didn't say whether he accepted Imhotep's allegiance. He planned to observe him for a while longer.
After resolving Imhotep's problem, O'Connell and the others finished their tour of the ship. They familiarized themselves with its layout, picked out rooms, and were soon chatting about all the wonders of the Dawn.
At first, Evelyn had thought the Dawn was just a primitive sailing vessel. She expected they'd have to live in poor conditions.
To her surprise, the ship had many magical and convenient facilities. She was told these things used something called "magic stones" as fuel. Evelyn even took a look at one and couldn't believe that something resembling a gem could have such mystical effects.
After the tour, they felt that staying on this ship for a while wouldn't be bad. As for what to do next, they hadn't thought that far ahead.
Evelyn, O'Connell, and Jonathan were all surprisingly laid-back. Once they overcame their initial doubt, they no longer cared about different worlds, environments, or civilizations. They just focused on more practical matters: how to solve the issues of clothing and daily necessities?
Ethan glanced at Anck-su-namun and Imhotep, who were still wearing tattered rags, and at O'Connell and the others, whose clothes had been worn for days and were dirty and damaged.
This really was something that needed to be resolved first.
"Evelyn, go get some suitable clothes from Ada and Annette. O'Connell and Jonathan can pick something out from mine."
As for daily necessities, there was no need to worry. The Dawn was well stocked, with most supplies sourced from future Earth. They were far more convenient and efficient than anything from O'Connell's era.
By the time these matters were handled, night had fallen. With so many newcomers, the Dawn had suddenly become very lively. Ethan organized a group dinner to let everyone meet and get acquainted.
Whether it was O'Connell, Evelyn, or Jonathan, they were all incredibly talkative and outgoing. Only Imhotep and Anck-su-namun—still dazed from her resurrection—were relatively quiet.
In this setting, the dinner had barely begun before Evelyn started chatting with Loki.
The reason was simple. During the introductions, Ethan had directly said that this was Loki from Norse mythology, which Evelyn found hard to believe.
"Wait, I haven't ended up in some mythological world, have I?"
After being struck by Anubis and finding herself unable to return home, she was now meeting someone who claimed to be Loki? Evelyn started wondering if this was all a dream.
Loki couldn't be bothered to explain. In fact, he didn't want to deal with Evelyn at all. Her endless stream of questions was already driving him mad.
Ethan ignored the helpless Loki and continued with what he was doing.
He was wrapping his right arm in bandages covered in magic runes. He couldn't rely on Loki's frost to seal the death energy forever. That harsh cold would eventually harm him too. So before dinner, he had taken the time to prepare a roll of rune-covered bandages to seal off the death qi himself.
But with only one hand, wrapping it wasn't easy. Sherry, who had finished eating, watched for a while and wanted to help, but Ethan stopped her.
"This kind of power isn't something you can handle, so I have to do it myself."
Anyone could wrap a bandage, of course. But while wrapping, he had to channel magic to activate the runes. The death energy was far too dangerous for ordinary people. Among everyone present, only Loki could ignore its threat—and there was no chance Loki would come help wrap bandages.
After quite a bit of effort, Ethan finally finished. He patted Sherry's head, reassuring her, then looked around at the increasingly lively gathering.
"It's actually kind of nice... being lively."
He thought back to the time when he was completely alone. Back then, he had desperately wished for someone aboard his ship to chat with.
Just as he was reminiscing about those lonely days, Ada pushed her plate in front of him and took the untouched food from his.
Ethan looked down to see that the steak on the plate had been cut into bite-sized pieces, ready to eat with a fork.
"Taking such good care of me?"
"Well, you're currently disabled."
Ada didn't look up, continuing to cut the food in front of her. "Or you could just stick an iron hook on your wrist or something. That would suit your captain identity pretty well."
Ethan's face darkened. Why would he attach something like that? He wasn't some pirate captain.
Speaking of pirates, Ethan suddenly remembered that his plan to go to the Caribbean world would have to be postponed for a few days. He didn't want to show up there looking like this. It would seriously damage his image.
(To be continued.)
***
For every 200 PS = 1 extra chapter. Support me on P/treon to read 30+ advanced chapters: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves
(Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)