Rise of the Fallen Princess (Ahmanet - The Mummy)

Chapter 18 - Wrath of the Princess part 1

After Doctor Henry Jekyll gave his orders, teams from Prodigium began preparations for future expeditions to the city aimed at tracking down the escaped monsters. But while the men prepared their equipment, one of them moved away with a light and discreet step, checking that no one was looking in his direction before sneaking behind a corner of the wall. Once he was sure he was out of sight and earshot, the Prodigium man took a small transmitter from his pocket and secretly made contact with someone.

_"This is Mole 1, on report." the man whispered. "Doctor Jekyll has given his orders, Prodigium is going to start moving."

_"Very well." then replied a voice in the transmitter, modified so as not to be recognized. "Then there's not a moment to waste. Send the signal to Team Doppelganger. Let them take action."

************

Mathias didn't know what to think of what was happening around him. The air was heavy, charged with a macabre aura that made his senses shudder unpleasantly. For very long seconds now, he had been wandering, after leaving a metro station, lost in the streets of what he recognized as Paris. But everyone he met had the same unusual and disturbing behavior: motionless, like statues, expressionless, their gazes fixed and lost in vagueness. Several times, Mathias tried to talk to them, to make them react, passing his hand in front of their faces or snapping his fingers right next to their ears to hope for a reaction. But nothing was happening.

Then it was when he wanted to touch a person that incomprehension turned into horror. Barely had he placed his hand on a man's shoulder when Mathias saw the latter collapse into a pile of sand and dust just at his feet. Surprised, the young man gasped and took a step back, not understanding what was happening. Suddenly, a scorching and increasingly violent wind began to rise over the city, and the arid breath transformed everyone it touched into piles of sand which collapsed and were quickly dispersed by the infernal gust. Feeling the hot air burning his eyes, Mathias tried in vain to protect his face, but what he saw paralyzed him with shock and fear.

At the end of the avenue, a gigantic sandstorm rose, covering the entire horizon, rising like waves more than kilometers high and engulfing everything in their wake. The Eiffel Tower, symbol of the capital, also disappeared in the storm, which then took the form of a gigantic head and howling like a furious wind. And this head looked like... Ahmanet!

Opening his eyes, Mathias woke up, panting and with a sweaty forehead, sitting up slightly to see that he was still in this crypt, lying on this mattress. His heart still beating, the young man exhaled heavily, passing his face in his hands and managed to calm down by realizing that it was only a nightmare he had. As he gathered his senses and came back to reality, he noticed with confusion that the room was plunged into total darkness, the lights of the candles having been deliberately extinguished. Unable to see around him, Mathias fumbled around a bit to finally find his cell phone, which he picked up and activated the flashlight function. The beam of light cut through the darkness and Mathias was finally able to see and notice, with surprise, that Ahmanet was not lying next to him. She wasn't even in the room with him anymore.

_"Ahmanet?" he called, lighting everything around him but seeing her nowhere.

Where had she been? Did she let him sleep? As an undead, the notion of sleep no longer really concerned her, but in this case, where was she now? The question kept repeating itself in Mathias's head as he dressed and walked out of the small annex crypt and into the stone corridor. But as he approached the main crypt, the young man could hear voices in discussion, and among them he identified that of Ahmanet. Without first revealing himself completely, Mathias remained behind the corner of the wall and took a quick look. Sitting near a fire in a makeshift hearth, Ahmanet was there, and with her all the other monsters living in the lair, gathered around the flames like a secret meeting. Marya, the vampire, however, stayed away from the flames due to her vampiric nature and listened from a distance, hidden in the shadows, leaning against a wall. The amphibious humanoid creature from the Black Lagoon remained near its watering hole, not wanting to come near the fire which could dry out its skin. Lawrence, the werewolf, with Jack the Invisible Man and the little undead girl named Frankenstein, sat around the fire. Standing up, Ahmanet looked at them all one by one as she began to speak with darkness but also conviction.