Last night, Anubis went to sleep at the temple to restore his vessel. Wanting to visit him, you approach the temple, but everything seems to be shaking again today. You look down into the rift, terrified to see that it's moving. Rocks are falling, and the giant body of a snake is slithering in the darkness at the bottom of the rift. The shine of the scales and the embers of its body are very visible and very terrifying, because it makes you realise just how truly big the snake is. It's larger than a river, longer than the sky. This creature is absolutely monumental. The lava flowing in the rift doesn't harm it - it seems like it's only warming it up. Your throat clenches in fear as you look out into the distance, where the rift is opening yet again.

A giant pyramid pushes up from under the ground. It's being raised by the rift's movements, which are surely caused by the charging serpent. You clench your claws into the obelisk, so as to not lose your balance, as the ground growls like a wounded animal with another massive earthquake. You see it on the horizon: the Undying Serpent rising from the chasm. Its head, covered by the dust and clouds, opens above the pyramid and spits out a massive fireball, destroying the monumental construction into pieces. The explosion squeezes air out of your lungs. You grasp the obelisk, trying to reach the other side, but the Serpent notices you. It begins to turn back.

The Serpent rises its body to break the obelisk. You jump to climb onto the rift's cliff, praying to Anubis that your claws will hold. Funny, almost, how that god became so easy to pray to in such a situation. You try to lunge yourself toward the temple, while keeping an eye on the approaching snake. You notice it's now growing wings, perhaps to reach the sun. This must mean the end is near. As you climb up onto a rocky shelf, the snake lowers its head above you. It's huge.

Barely alive, you begin to crawl. The Serpent is laughing. You hear a deep voice, causing the chasm to tremble even more. "Pathetic. You must not be the lion I seek." It speaks, moving toward you and smashing rocks with its giant body. You manage to crawl between fallen rocks onto the temple's floor, where the entrance seems to be partially collapsed. You get up and feel that your ribs are broken, making you wheeze with every breath. Every step is painful. You limp with a smashed wrist toward the altar, leaving a trail of blood behind you.

A previously-sealed chamber is opened, and inside you find a portal. The gate is opening to the abyss, swirling with stars and dark smoke. It causes you to remember that Anubis mentioned the Duat world before - the world of the dead. Perhaps he visited the underworld for guidance. Just as you arrive, he steps out of the portal, covered by a smoky veil and sparkling with light that reminds you of stars. He approaches you, clearly worried. "You must be in pain. You must think you won't make it. But, I assure you, your time has not come yet. Using your energy, I can devoid the Serpent of its soul for a long, long while." He smiles for the first time since you met. It's a minor relief from the pain of everything else that hurts so much. You feel like you just want to lie down.

Anubis looks deep into your eyes. You see his pupils dilate into an odd, almost endless cosmic reflection. It's quite fascinating to look at. If you weren't in such horrible pain, you could stare into this miniature cosmos for hours. "You shall become one with me. Our bodies will unite into the being that was foretold to defeat the Serpent. This is how vessels are made." You did not expect this. Does Anubis just have a habit of stealing other being's bodies? Permanently?

"Even if you do, I decide who can come back. If anyone deserves to be back as a hero, it's you. You decide everything, actually. This is your last chance to choose your fate. It could be me, it could be Bast, it could even be Seth, my father. You can go back in time as many times as you wish, but you cannot prolong the end. The end must happen, in whichever path it is that you choose. If you leave me now, my reality will warp. I will go back to my slumber, but I will make sure you're not wandering in the afterlife of whichever timeline first. I owe you that." He backs off and nods his head toward Shai's altar. Indeed, this is your very last chance to go back in time, to do it all over. Do you want to?

Let me light the incense and go back in time.

(This option will restart the storyline from the very beginning.)

I think we can do it, Anubis

Anubis nods and closes his eyes. He starts an invocation in an unknown language. His voice gets deeper, and the gravelly crackling transforms into a rhythmic staccato. From his mouth, as well as the portal, waves of black smoke swirl around you and cover the chamber in complete darkness. The void is so unbearably black. It makes you dizzy. You fall down, unable to stand any further. Your broken legs just hurt too much. Every breath hurts too much. You feel Anubis's paws on your back. You're ready to succumb to anything that's going to happen. You just don't have the power to do anything on your own anymore. Suddenly, a powerful motion pulls you up into the air. A cold, chilling feeling shoots down your back.

Your thoughts, your consciousness, everything that's yours twists into a chaotic swirl, as you start to experience the feeling that you don't control your body anymore. You feel unreal, like you're both in your body and outside of it at the same time. Like you're you, yourself, but you're also Anubis. You remember everything he remembers. You are him, and he is you. You now understand his doubts and his loneliness. You feel his emotions, and you embrace his memories. You understand everything. You also understand how amazing it is to be a powerful lion, to run through the savanna and be surrounded by cubs. When you smile, it's unclear if it's Anubis smiling at you, or if you just wanted to smile. You can't get up, though. It feels like you're in a very tight space. You crawl out of the temple, as if it was a small burrow for your new body, using your long werewolf arms and lion claws to pull yourself out. It feels so amazing to have hands. You have hands! Of course you do. Without them, you wouldn't be able to embalm mummies.

As you crawl out, the rift seems smaller. The Serpent is puny now. You're gigantic, actually - and your new hybrid body is covered with the smoking breath of death and cosmic energy. You're pretty slender for such a gigantic beast, but you don't need brute power to defeat the Serpent. This isn't about violence. "I'm ready," you whisper to yourself with a confident smile. "I can channel death into his body. His soul will take a long time to find the way back." You jump toward the chasm, straight onto the Serpent's coils. Apophis notices you and shrieks, enraged. "This is NOT the lion. This cannot happen!"

You raise your hands and begin the invocation. The Serpent's eyes look at you, penetrating every particle of your being, trying his best to hypnotise you. Everything that you've felt, everything you've done to everyone else, everything you remember as both beings in this body... it all crumbles down into an anxious guilt and lack of self-worth. You are there, inside. You cannot let Anubis give into this charm. You force the body to move and break the eye contact. Anubis gasps and roars the last verse of the invocation, as your hands turn completely black.

"You have awoken much too early, Apophis. You tried to cheat fate. I know you'll try to rise again, but we will be here, every time, because this world is worth saving. Fate is something you cannot run away from," you growl, touching the Serpent's body with hands so cold, they freeze the entire Serpent in its place. The darkness from your hands seeps into its body, crawling between the scales, smoke slithering and emerging from between its ribs and cracks in its skin like a small explosion. You fill its body with the breath of death, removing its soul into another dimension. The empty body starts cracking under your weight and collapses suddenly on top of you, covering everything in dark smoke and falling debris.

You open your eyes, feeling like you've just woken up from a bad dream. You find yourself in Anubis's temple, inside the portal chamber, like nothing happened at all. Memories that you've shared with Anubis begin to slowly fade away, and you have trouble remembering the events that just occurred - exactly as if you were dreaming. You get up, surprised that your body doesn't ache anymore. The god's vessel looks normal, as if he were never a gigantic werewolf. You stretch your paw out to touch his eyes - you liked when they were full of stars. "No, no, no more touching, we're done with the physical merging." A little embarrassed, Anubis sneezes and hurriedly steps back.

"You don't remember much, do you? It's normal, I suppose. We merged our bodies into a hybrid vessel, which was capable of using our energies combined like a... cold fusion. The energy output was a dozen times more than what we could have achieved while separated. I used everything I had to push his soul out far enough that the dimension string it travelled through broke from the impact. I hope it will take centuries before he can gather his body together again," he explains to you. You don't really feel that much more educated.

"The Serpent's body fell apart and buried us. You died, for a little while. I travelled back into Duat and found you, just as I promised! I restored your body with Osiris, and here you are, revived and healthy. Maybe not the same right down to the atom, but inside, you're all you. I am very grateful you trusted me, even though I had nothing impressive to show." He sighs and looks away. It seems like he's struggling to say something. "I don't want to go yet. I don't want to disappear again for centuries. I don't want to be forgotten already. Your companionship is nice. Do you think we could train some more? The minions are still slithering around. It would be smart to get rid of them." He pleads with you, as if the gods gave mortals a choice. Maybe some do. You can't believe that everything is over now. You're still a little dazed, but... sure. He should have more faith in his skills.

Anubis almost smiles again. Almost. He wags his tail, though, and that's just as good. "Listen. I promised you that I would make it up to you. Let me bless you. Thank you, [NAME]." He sits up and places his paws on your head. You feel goosebumps travelling through your body, along with a pulsating chill. You feel stronger. You also get showered with beetles, and he playfully starts digging in them to cover you up a little more. He's not such a bummer to be around, after all.