The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 154: Anubis’ Father

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“Oi, just what the hell is going on over there?!”

Ahmed screamed as he swung his blade, slashing through a giant Divine Machine and piercing through its defenses with even more ease than before.

The young berserk of Egypt had never felt this powerful before until he gained the Ki from Bing Xue. He had never felt so invigorated before!

“It seems that not only Merneith, but that woman had some sort of ultimate form? An Awakening?!”

A burly man muttered, and as he swung his bare fists against the machines, enormous golden hands surged as the image of a divine golden statue materialized from his back, crushing its foes with their mere palms.

“Can that brat really handle that? I know she’s being helped by that other girl, but still…!”

Ahmed, despite being a brute, was concerned. As he leaped from Divine Machine to Divine Machine, sometimes there were also non-piloted robots shaped like eagles or other beasts—Machine Beasts.

“We’ll have to trust them… Ahmed, careful!”

Heba called for Ahmed, who suddenly found himself surrounded by dozens of Machine Beasts attacking him at once, their electromagnetic auras releasing thunderous attacks that he couldn’t properly match at their lightning speed.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

However, giant hands made of sand grabbed the Machine Beasts and crushed them with tremendous force, the desert surrounding Alejandria having already become Heba’s domain.

Her magic was enhanced even further through the Ki gifted to her by Bing Xue; now she was able to control the sands from even farther away and bring them here at incredible speeds.

Against all logic, Heba had brought hundreds of long, snake-like arms made of sand with long fingers to catch and then crush any foe within her range.

“You saved my ass, thanks…”

Ahmed sighed in relief, quickly imbuing more Ki into his Dragon Bone Blade.

“Time to go all out!”

As he saw more Machine Beasts and Divine Machines approaching, Ahmed hypercharged his body and sword with his Mana and Ki, unleashing dark red flames shaped like dragons that coiled around his body.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

Several slashing attacks reached the nearby mechanical foes, piercing through their defenses and electromagnetic shields and shattering them before their bodies were split apart.

At the same time, Sara remained close to Heba, protected by her sands; she conjured buffing magic to make her friends stronger.

However, she also...

“{Glistening Sunlight}”

Her magic, which was of protection and healing, evolved, as she was now able to harness the sunlight above the skies and turn it into a weapon.

FLAAASH!

A bright wave of pure sunlight washed over her foes, and the electric circuits within the machines started to malfunction as the light entered them and temporarily stunned or paralyzed them.

It only lasted a couple of seconds, but it was enough for Heba to finish these rapid foes with large punches made out of hardened sand fists.

BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!

As the four Egyptian Hunters battled to protect Alejandria, in the distance, they saw Bing Xue’s various Doppelgangers fighting as well.

She divided them by the dozens; even if that meant splitting their stats, it didn’t really matter, as these robot foes were so weak that even 0.01% of her power was enough to absolutely destroy them.

They moved in unison, resembling stars shaped as beautiful women. Swinging their hands, Soul Blade attacks slashed foes. And with a mere wave of their arms, large beams of Photon Essence blew them up into pieces.

“Bing Xue was trapped inside that red crystal, but her clones made of light are fighting just fine?” wondered Ahmed. “What the hell is going on?”

“It’s quite clear; she’s simply pretending to be captured,” said Mohamed. “She wants Merneith and her adoptive daughter to solve this issue and maybe grow stronger out of it... She’s like a parent who doesn’t want to make it unfair for their children, perhaps.”

“Maybe with Hekita I can understand, but why Merneith?” wondered Heba. “She just met her!”

"Well, didn’t she just meet us too, and look how much she’s helping us!” Ahmed said. “Well, whatever, let her do whatever she wants! We’re winning, and that’s what matters to me anyway.”

As the berserker swung his blade and tore apart his foes, far away, the battle between the machines reached its climax as Neferteri channeled her Golden Bloodline Powers and combined them with Set’s abilities, unleashing Set’s “Ultimate Form”.

Although they weren’t compatible enough to achieve Set’s Awakening Form, this Ultimate Form was perhaps even stronger, as it absorbed all the crimson sand that Set could create endlessly, and through her Golden Bloodline Ability, energy was endlessly replenished to create more.

Essentially, she and Set merged into an immortal titan made of red diamonds, endlessly growing, and endlessly regenerating!

Merneith, using Ra’s Awakening form, had been completely left speechless, even more so when Set was so strong already.

“Do you think that you’re powerful just because you’ve awakened Ra?! Awakening is not everything!” laughed Neferteri. “Sometimes, simple synergy can create invincible results! Hahahaha!”

The Empress of the Empire of the Sun laughed as the titan of three hundred meters that Set had become swung its massive red diamond fists against Ra.

Merneith gritted her teeth, combining the power of her Golden Bloodline and manipulating the weather above her.

Winds and lightning gathered around Ra and fused with its Awakening form, granting it greater explosive power and flight speed.

Materializing two spears made of burning plasma, Merneith clashed against the massive fists head-on.

CLAAASH!

An explosion of flames and burning, boiling diamonds as they melted into transparent liquid erupted as the massive bird pierced through it all.

“Don’t think that getting bigger will help you win!”

Merneith roared, harnessing the sunlight produced by her ability to boost Ra’s power even further. She was piercing through the indestructible diamonds at lightning speed.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

As she moved around Set’s enormous form, Neferteri smiled, harvesting even more ethereal crops using her golden bloodline ability and healing Set while recovering its energies.

“Not so bad; you’ve become amazingly strong. Perhaps even better than your mother at using Ra. However!”

Unfortunately for Merneith, all the damage she had dealt instantly regenerated as thousands of red diamond spears materialized around Set, who suddenly moved its many arms towards Ra.

By attempting to “hug” Ra, it tried to crush the bird-shaped Mechanical God with tremendous force, all while thousands of spears attempted to pierce its body through every angle.

“Aahh!”

Merneith panicked, screaming as Ra was hit not once but dozens of times from many angles she couldn’t detect in time, tearing apart pieces of metal out of her machine friend!

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

“No!”

Merneith panicked, combining the two spears of plasma and melting them around her body, creating a temporary armor.

“{Plasma Armor}!”

The spears of red diamond melted as they touched her, but the amount of energy the plasma required to keep up was simply unsustainable, especially because to produce more sunlight, Merneith had to spend her own stamina.

“Uuuggghhh!”

As she screamed while trying to tank the hits and swing Ra’s claws and talons to release waves of heat, the red diamonds gathered together into harder and tougher shields, defending against her attacks.

“Hahahaha! Try all you want! You’ll die anyway, Merneith!”

Set gathered the powers of Neferteri and fused them together with its red sand, gathering a giant sphere of red diamonds around Merneith and trapping her inside.

The red diamonds made of red sand constantly gathered together and compressed even further, beginning to quickly fill the sphere with diamonds tough enough that not even plasma itself could pierce through them easily.

“Ra…! Please don’t let me down now!”

Merneith cried, harnessing the powers of the Golden Bloodline and constantly grinding through the red diamonds. Her spears managed to pierce through and shatter it, only for more and more to continue growing endlessly.

Giant spears of red diamond emerged, hitting through Ra as it barely managed to evade, constantly making things even worse for her.

“Ohhh, I’ve waited for this moment for so long!” said Neferteri. “Finally, seeing you struggle in agony, you bastard child! I want nothing but you to die, so the last remaining bloodline of that detestable woman is gone!”

Merneith continued pushing herself harder and harder, and Ra resembled a small sun as it clashed against the ever-growing diamonds, trying to somehow breakthrough!

“Shut up…! I will never die against you! I will avenge my mother!”

As she cried, suddenly…

“What an awful thing to say to someone! You’re a really bad person!”

The voice of Hekita echoed behind Neferteri as Set quickly twisted its entire body, growing four more arms and attacking Anubis before he and Hekita could surprise him.

“And you’re nothing but a filthy thief that took my son’s robot!”

Hekita intercepted the incoming blows with Anubis arms, which she rapidly reinforced with her powers and imbued with Mana, Spirit Energy, and Ki combined together.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

Anubis arms grew to a disproportional size, ten times as big as their main body, somehow managing to hold on against the incoming blows for a couple of seconds.

“Anubis is not your son’s property! He’s not just a robot either!”

“What?! Mechanical Gods might be venerated as deities, but at the end, they’re nothing but machines for us to use!”

Neferteri grew more furious and frustrated after hearing Hekita try to lecture her, rapidly releasing a powerful storm of crimson sand against Anubis.

“They aren’t objects! They’re friends!”

With Hekita’s innocent words, suddenly, Anubis aura grew ten times larger, expanding like an endless world of darkness.

This was the same technique Akhenaten had used before to trap Merneith and Bing Xue, but now it was even more improved, fusing Mana and Spirit Energy together with Ki!

Therefore, it didn’t just create a large cloud of dark matter and Anubis reduced to nanobots, but it created a space-distorting domain!

“{Dark Underworld Domain}!”

TRUUUM!

The darkness expanded everywhere, engulfing Set and Ra inside a world of pure darkness, which quickly took shape as thousands of phantasmal spirits emerged.

“W-What is this?!”

Neferteri grew confused and began to rapidly grow colder! The phantasmal spirits bypassed her defenses and entered her machine, groaning at her and touching her body.

They couldn’t physically harm her, but their cold touch made her feel tremendous fear!

“You killed us!”

“Why?! Why did you destroy my village?!”

“What did we do to deserve what you did to us!”

“You monster! YOU MONSTER!”

They were all ghosts of the aliens that Neferteri had slaughtered in the past in the many world conquests in which she had participated.

They weren’t the real ghosts of these people but were formed out of her own memories; this was the power of Anubis new and improved Domain.

“N-No! Get away from meeee! I didn’t…! I didn’t commit any sins! You were just… Aaaahhh!”

Neferteri started to scream as she lost control of Set, who was also growing confused with its Artificial Intelligence. Although it was loyal to her and desired to protect her, it couldn’t do anything to help her right now.

As it lost control, the red sand and the red diamonds it could summon and manipulate began to shatter apart and dissipate. Set was trying to calculate what to do, but with Neferteri going insane, it could hardly do anything!

“See?” suddenly, Anubis spoke. “You’re… only letting HER… decide what to do… Set! You must… wake up! Don’t let her… control… you!”

“RAAAHH!”

However, despite Anubis trying to solve things peacefully, Set didn’t hesitate to roar and attack once he found him close by.

“Careful, Anubis!”

Hekita tried to dissipate Anubis into the domain and escape, but Set imbued his energies into this single attack, reaching Anubis faster than he could disappear.

CLAAASH!

With a powerful punch made of red diamonds, Anubis was sent flying, gaining countless cracks across his body.

“Guggh…!”

“Don’t… speak… like… we’re friends… ANUBIS!”

However, Set did have a mind of his own, roaring back at Anubis with anger!

“But… you are… my father!”

Anubis screamed as he tried to reason with the furious Set.

“I have no… son…!” Set roared. “Traitor…! DIE! RAAAHH!”

Gathering electromagnetic energies within his chest, Set released a gigantic beam of crimson light against Anubis.

“ANUBIS, MOVE!”

Hekita tried to help Anubis, but after hearing those words, Anubis’ developing emotions were impacted, leaving him slightly speechless.

BOOOM!

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