Lord: Sequence Master

"This isn't a door you can force open," Rosen muttered, his heartbeat quickening.

If this resurrection pyramid were fake, it wouldn't have withstood hundreds of tons of force without even a scratch. This led Rosen to believe there was a high chance the pyramid was real—or at the very least, a near-perfect replica.

As Rosen pondered how to enter, Nia, who had been almost invisible like a ghost, suddenly teleported to the stone door. She flashed a dagger, sliced her palm, and pressed her bloodied hand against the surface. In an instant, she disappeared.

Rosen glanced at Baal, who looked utterly bewildered.

How had Nia known to use her blood to enter the pyramid? Why hadn't she brought him along? Wasn't she afraid of blood?

Questions swirled in Bal's mind as he turned to Rosen for answers.

"Why are you looking at me? Get your blood out and open the door," Rosen instructed, pointing to the stone entrance.

Realizing what he needed to do, Bal began bleeding himself. Rosen followed suit, pressing his bloodied hand against the stone.

But to their embarrassment, nothing happened—they were still outside.

Rosen paused to consider what had gone wrong and decided to consult Gray Mouse through their Nightmare Chain connection.

Pyramids like this, while rare, weren't unique. So why was Gray Mouse so sure this was Stulane's resurrection pyramid?

As expected, Gray Mouse had found records in the underground city that hinted this pyramid might be Stulane's. Bal's family heirloom included a warning to avoid the underground. But why leave such a cryptic clue?

The underground city beneath the oasis was so well-concealed that even spiritual senses couldn't detect it. Without the Void Eye Technique, Rosen wouldn't have found it. Bal's ancestor had likely planted that clue, knowing that humans are often tempted to do what they're warned against.

Still, this didn't explain why Nia could pass through the stone door, while Bal couldn't even enter the pyramid.

Rosen pressed his hand against the stone once more and quietly activated his Secret Study.

He swapped places with his Self-Portrait Clone, slipping out of the Void Gallery, while his clone entered the Secret Study. Through a window from the other side of the door, Rosen observed the world beyond the stone.

The Secret Study wasn't just a means of concealment; it also allowed Rosen to pass through barriers undetected.

Looking through the inward-facing window, Rosen was astonished by what he saw.

The pyramid's interior was hollow, with a space inside that seemed hundreds of times larger than the exterior. At the bottom stood massive fountains and water channels, while a grand palace floated in the midsection, radiating divine light. At the pyramid's peak, a Feathered Serpent God was chained, perpetually emitting sunlight.

Nia stood by the fountain, bleeding profusely from her wrist. She seemed to be using some spiritual technique to control the flow of her blood, squeezing out every last drop.

If she continued, she would die soon enough.

Sure enough, after her wrist ran dry, Nia collapsed into the fountain. The water, now stained red with her blood, absorbed her as if it were alive.

Within minutes, Nia rose again from the water, fully restored.

She looked up at the palace floating in the center of the pyramid, her eyes filled with sorrow and pain. Turning back toward the stone door, she left a letter at the entrance before resolutely heading for the spiral staircase leading up to the edges of the pyramid.

Using the Void Eye Technique, Rosen scanned the letter, bringing its contents into the Void Realm for examination.

After reading it, Rosen pieced together the situation.

Baal wasn't actually unintelligent—he had injured his soul while saving Nia, leaving him with permanent spiritual damage. This damage was slowly worsening, and eventually, he would become truly incapacitated.

The family heirloom's secret wasn't discovered by Baal but by Nia. She had erased part of their ancestor's message because the truth was too harsh. Their ancestor wasn't truly dead but slumbering inside the palace at the pyramid's center. To awaken him, someone from the bloodline had to take his place after thousands of years of slumber. In return, the ancestor promised to lead the family back to glory.

Unable to heal Baal herself, Nia placed her hopes on their ancestor.

"A touching display of sibling love, but will it really be that easy?" Rosen thought, recalling another part of the ancestor's warning—you must bring a Sequence 7 along to enter the pyramid and its spiritual realm.

Yet Nia had chosen to go alone, not bringing Rosen inside. This showed she wasn't inherently malicious.

With that realization, Rosen decided to see what Baal's ancestor was truly up to. The heirloom's concealed resurrection message seemed careless. What if the family bloodline had ended or the heirloom was lost over the centuries? How would the ancestor ever escape his slumber?

Rosen activated Shadow Step, instantly appearing in Nia's shadow.

Being only Sequence 9, she had no idea he was there.

He followed her into the palace, and the moment she entered, her eyes went vacant, and she moved like a puppet toward a coffin in the center of the hall.

Rosen noted that a skylight directly above the coffin aligned with the chained Feathered Serpent God at the pyramid's peak. The coffin, without a lid, contained golden blood, but no body.

As Nia, entranced, began to crawl into the coffin, Rosen emerged from the shadows, binding her with Nightmare Chains to halt her movements.

As a Sequence 9, she was as helpless as a normal person under his binding.

Rosen's teeth morphed into hollow, vampiric fangs as he bit into Nia's carotid artery, rapidly draining her blood. He wasn't a vampire but was capable of modifying his body structure as a Self-Portrait.

He drained her completely while administering Sequence 6 life potions to keep her alive. Extraordinary beings could regenerate even from the loss of a heart.

Soon, her blood was entirely replaced, though her spirituality remained under external influence.

Rosen stored Nia inside the Void Gallery, using his Greed talent to take control of the blood he had extracted from her. The blood, now mixed with the fountain's water, immediately began to affect his spirituality as it fused with his essence.

Next, Rosen entered the sarcophagus, allowing the golden blood within to seep into his body. As it flowed through him, an immense spiritual force invaded, consuming his own spirituality. Eventually, Rosen's body dissolved into the golden liquid, and his consciousness was drawn into an image engraved at the base of the sarcophagus.

The moment Rosen saw the sarcophagus, he had noticed the image at its base, hidden beneath the golden blood. It was a self-portrait—one crafted by a painter sequence.

Although Rosen didn't know all the details, he understood the basic premise of how Baal's ancestor intended to resurrect himself.

For painters, a self-portrait clone can serve as a second life if their original body perishes. As long as their supernatural essence remains intact and their spirituality isn't completely destroyed, they can resurrect through the clone. However, this method is rarely needed since painters have their Divine Domain to rely on. Only if their domain is destroyed would the self-portrait clone become essential for resurrection.

In Baal's great-uncle's case, he wasn't merely trying to resurrect—he sought to replace his supernatural bloodline with that of the more powerful Feathered Serpent God, intending to abandon both his painter sequence and his humanity altogether.

Inside the self-portrait lay not only the essence of Baal's great-uncle but also the ritual to transform into a Feathered Serpent God.

As for why Baal's descendant needed to come to the pyramid to complete the ritual, the details were still unclear, but Rosen was determined to find out.

Rosen's self-portrait clone now took Nia's place, entering the self-portrait and beginning to seize control. His Sloth talent allowed him to dominate any spiritual world below Sequence 3, making spiritual attacks at that level ineffective. His Greed talent enabled him to absorb all supernatural elements below Sequence 3, while his Gluttony talent allowed him to forcibly digest the Feathered Serpent God's supernatural bloodline.

Rosen wasn't just replacing Nia—he intended to take over the entire ritual for himself.

The spirituality of Baal's ancestor attempted to devour Rosen's essence, but instead, Rosen consumed it, causing his self-portrait clone's spirituality to grow and evolve.

Under normal circumstances, absorbing someone else's spirituality would cause contamination rather than strengthening. Even with his Gluttony talent, Rosen wouldn't normally risk such a move. But the sarcophagus, pyramid, and the ritual were designed to perfectly merge two spiritual essences. And since Rosen's real body was safely hidden in the Divine Library, he didn't fear any danger from this experiment.

As time passed, Rosen gained the upper hand. By continuously devouring the spirituality of Baal's great-uncle, he began unraveling the secrets of the pyramid.

This was indeed the Resurrection Pyramid of Stulane, but when Baal's great-uncle had acquired it, it had already been stripped of most of its treasures, leaving only the structure.

Baal's great-uncle wasn't celibate—he simply had no interest in women. His lover, a Sequence 6 sculptor, had lived with him happily. However, during a battle for the corpse of a Sequence 3 Feathered Serpent God, Baal's great-uncle's supernatural essence had been fatally wounded. His original body was destroyed, leaving behind only a damaged self-portrait clone.

Desperate to save him, his lover tried every possible method. When none of the human demigods capable of helping would intervene, the lover turned to otherworldly beings, aligning with dark forces.

Through them, he acquired a unique ritual for resurrection and transformation. Using the remains of the Resurrection Pyramid, the Feathered Serpent God's corpse, and Baal's great-uncle's damaged self-portrait, he devised a resurrection ceremony. But such a process would take thousands of years to complete.

However, aligning with otherworldly forces came at a steep price—his lover would have to serve those entities. And since even supernatural beings couldn't live that long without becoming demigods, his lover made ultimate sacrifices, leaving behind several contingency plans to ensure the ritual would be completed.

These plans included the heirloom, the underground city, and the mummies in the desert—all safeguards to ensure Baal's great-uncle would be resurrected.

Yet Baal's great-uncle had no desire to come back. In his near-death state, he had watched as his lover sacrificed everything by aligning with dark forces. Consumed by guilt, he no longer wished to live after so many centuries.

Quietly, Baal's great-uncle sabotaged all three contingency plans.

The desert mummies were designed to gather undead energy, stimulating the Feathered Serpent God's domain over life and death, ultimately resurrecting him. But Baal's great-uncle severed the pyramid's connection to this energy.

The people in the underground city weren't just future mummies—they were meant to serve as sources of faith. If the first resurrection attempt failed, Baal's great-uncle could still revive through the collective faith of the mummy pharaohs. But he cut off that avenue as well.

Finally, if both those failed, he could devour his descendants' bloodline, completing the ritual. This was the final plan—and why the heirloom had passed through the generations.

Over millennia, Baal's great-uncle's spirituality gradually awakened. Although he hadn't fully resurrected, he could influence the outside world in subtle ways.

Upon realizing that Baal's spirituality was damaged, the great-uncle decided to pass everything to Baal, so he could die in peace and reunite with his lover in the spirit realm.

That's why Baal's great-uncle had left the heirloom's warnings. But his messages had been misinterpreted by Nia. She thought the heirloom was a way to save her brother and restore the family's glory.

As for the instruction to bring a Sequence 7, that was intended to protect Baal and Nia from the rogue mummies in the desert. After thousands of years, some had become uncontrollable. Without a strong bodyguard, Baal and Nia would have been doomed.

The truth, however, was often the hardest thing to accept.

Baal's great-uncle's well-meaning warnings had been misunderstood by Nia, leading her down the wrong path. But with his energy spent, he had fallen back into a deep slumber and had been unable to correct her mistake.

(End of Chapter)