The nations of Teyvat were on high alert as they prepared for the gods' imminent awakening.
Even though their leaders were doing everything in their power to keep the matter from spreading, the oppressive atmosphere was still enough for people to sense that something was wrong.
No one knew exactly what had happened yet, but travelers and merchants moving between nations were always the quickest to catch a shift in the wind. With sharp instinct, they sensed that a storm was coming.
Rumors that the world was about to be destroyed began spreading from some unknown source, carried across the nations by those same merchants and travelers. By the time the authorities of each nation realized what was happening and tried to stop it, the impact of the rumors was already impossible to erase completely.
The people of Sumeru's desert felt this even more deeply, and they believed the rumors all the more.
Under Alhaitham's leadership, the Akademiya's authority continued to extend into every region of the desert. Wherever resistance appeared, if it was inconvenient for the Akademiya to act directly, the Eremites and Dehya did not mind teaching them who truly held power in Sumeru.
Under Sophia's orders, the Aranara also left the rainforest and entered the desert.
Then, from within the Mausoleum of King Deshret, a series of sounds like heartbeats began to echo.
Some people went inside to investigate, only to vanish without a trace. Not a single one came back out.
In the end, even Rahman and Dehya entered, and no word of them ever came out again.
The heartbeat continued.
The incident immediately put the Akademiya on alert, and the matter was reported to Sophia.
Nahida had originally planned to accompany Sophia to the Mausoleum of King Deshret, but under these circumstances, the Akademiya could not be left without a god presiding over it, so Nahida had to remain behind.
Besides, while the situation was still unclear, the Akademiya was the safer place to be.
Sophia was not planning to take the risk alone, either. She had also informed Lora, and the two of them went to the Mausoleum together.
"Ah, the Mausoleum of King Deshret!" Lora looked up at the magnificent pyramid and sighed. "I don't think I went inside the last time I came here. This time, I really will be disturbing Amon."
Beside her, Sophia seemed a little hesitant.
"What's wrong?" Lora noticed her mood. She stopped and turned back to look at the downcast Sophia.
Sophia looked at Lora and said quietly, "I still haven't quite figured out how to face Amon. If he really has forgotten everything from the past, I honestly don't know what I should do."
Kill him completely?
Unless there was truly no other choice, Sophia still did not want to do that.
"I'm here. Don't worry." Lora took a few quick steps back to Sophia's side, slipped an arm around her shoulders, and said, "If he really isn't himself anymore, I'll help you stuff him back into his coffin."
"You..." Hearing Lora speak as if she were joking, Sophia felt much better.
"Oh? You sound rather confident."
Suddenly, a voice came from beside them.
Lora jumped in fright. She stared in shock at Apep, who had appeared beside them at some unknown point, then frowned and asked, "When did you get here? Why don't you make any sound when you walk?"
"I am the Dendro Dragon Sovereign. Sumeru is vast. Where within it can I not go?" Apep glanced at Lora and said in a low voice, "You, on the other hand, have seen me before. Why are you still so surprised?"
"Uh... I'm just saying, whether we know each other or not, suddenly appearing like that is scary, all right? Not scary to people. Scary to gods," Lora said helplessly as she looked at Apep.
"You scare that easily? That must be karma for all the guilty things you did to those adepti during Lantern Rite," Apep said, looking at Lora with a mocking smile.
"I don't really feel guilty about that..." Lora shook her head, not thinking for a moment that anything she had done during Lantern Rite counted as something worth feeling guilty over.
Sophia patted Lora on the shoulder, then looked at Apep and asked, "Apep, why did you suddenly come here?"
"I merely came to see that fellow Amon! Back then, I swallowed him in one bite. Now that he has revived, I want to see what he has become." Apep's gaze fell on the enormous Mausoleum of King Deshret.
"You two little girls, there is a tremendous amount of divine power buried inside, far stronger than Amon was back then. You had best be careful."
Apep kindly reminded Lora and Sophia, though of course she knew that with their abilities, the two of them had long since noticed the abnormality inside.
But when Lora heard her say that, she laughed. "Hey, hey, Apep, are you worried about us?"
"Nonsense! How could I possibly be worried about you two?" Apep glanced at Lora, snorted, and said, "The two of you are among the hardest to kill in all of Teyvat!"
"Hehe." Lora smiled, walked over, and patted Apep on the shoulder. "If you're worried, just say so. We won't laugh at you! Seriously, you're terrible at lying. Why not learn from Venti someday?"
"Hmph!" Apep took a step to the side, avoiding Lora's hand, and said, "What are you still standing around for? Aren't you going in?"
"Oh, right, right!" Lora nodded with a smile, then turned back to Sophia. "Let's go."
"Mm."
Sophia nodded. Behind them, the sages of the Akademiya bowed respectfully to the group and said, "Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, Mistress of Amrita, we will await your return here! Please be careful."
After bidding farewell to the people stationed outside, the three of them entered the Mausoleum of King Deshret.
The moment they stepped inside, a vast surge of divine power pressed in on them from every direction.
Sophia's gaze sharpened. She raised her hand and drew upon the remaining divine power of life still lingering in this place, using it to neutralize the pressure.
"It really is incredibly powerful divine energy..." Lora lifted her head, looking at the ceiling of the passageway, and sighed.
That scene also told them that the god who had once been willing to sacrifice himself for Sumeru and for his own people was no longer who he had been.
The deeper they went, the heavier their hearts became.
The Mausoleum of King Deshret had been fitted with many mechanisms meant to keep outsiders from intruding, but to the three of them, those mechanisms might as well have not existed.
Before long, they reached its deepest part and saw the revived King of the Desert.
Seated upon a golden throne of flowing sand, King Deshret, Al-Ahmar, looked down at the three who had entered his mausoleum.
Between them stood Rahman, Dehya, and the others, all controlled by divine power.
They stood before Amon like ministers loyal to their king, their faces expressionless and their eyes empty.