The battle in the museum reached a critical point. Anubis and Victor Stone exchanged magical blows, destroying the exhibits around them. Display cases exploded, statues crumbled, and the floor cracked under the strain of ancient forces.
But Anubis felt his strength draining. He'd been a mere bartender for too long, suppressing his divine nature for too long. And Stone, fueled by dark magic, seemed only to grow stronger.
The portal in the center of the hall grew, almost a meter in diameter, and from it oozed the chill of nothingness, the smell of sulfur and darkness.
"Three minutes, Guardian!" Stone laughed, repelling another sand attack. "Three minutes until the end of the old world!"
Eric pressed himself against the wall, still holding the phone to his ear.
"Jane's not answering!" he shouted. "What should we do?!"
Anubis dodged a wave of dark energy that shattered the display case containing the mummy behind him.
I can't defeat him like this, he realized. Not in this form. Not with myself on a leash.
He was afraid of this. Afraid of completely letting go of his divine essence after centuries of living among mortals. Afraid that if he became a god again—completely, without reservations—he would not be able to return to a simple life.
But there was no choice.
"Eric," he called, blocking another attack. "Close your eyes. Now."
- What?
— CLOSE YOUR EYES! And don't open them, no matter what you hear!
Eric obeyed, closing his eyes and covering his face with his hands.
Anubis straightened, lowered his arms, and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and allowed all the barriers, all the limitations he had imposed on himself over the centuries, to crumble.
Power rushed through him like a bursting dam.
A golden light exploded from his body, so bright that Stone recoiled, shielding his eyes. The entire hall was bathed in the radiance of Egypt's ancient sun.
As the light began to dim, a completely different person stood in the place of the bartender Andy in jeans and a shirt.
Anubis in his true form was the embodiment of divine might. His body had grown taller, more muscular, every line spoke of strength and power. Black skin covered him, smooth and perfect. A jackal's head—not a masked man's, but a true beast's head with pointed ears and powerful jaws—crowned his broad shoulders. His eyes burned with a golden flame, ancient and inexorable.
The regalia of a god materialized upon him: a wide golden uskh-collar inlaid with blue gems, golden bracers on his wrists and biceps, a white shendit on his hips, decorated with gold. An ankh hung on his chest, pulsing with the power of life and death.
A staff materialized in his hand—not the simple one he had brought from the bar, but a Uas-scepter, a symbol of divine power, with a jackal's head on top and a forked base.
The air around him vibrated with power. Sand rose, forming a vortex around his feet.
When he spoke, his voice echoed off the walls, filled with the power of millennia:
"I am Anubis, son of Osiris and Nephthys, guardian of the dead, opener of the ways, lord of the sacred land. I have judged pharaohs and beggars. I have stood at the gates of the Duat since the beginning of time."
He raised his staff, pointing at Stone.
— AND YOU, A MORTAL, DARE TO VIOLATE THE ORDER THAT I GUARD.
Stone, for the first time in the battle, looked frightened. He backed away, his spells trembling on his lips.
- You... you can't... I am protected by the dark magic of Apop...
"APEP IS NOTHING BEFORE ME," Anubis thundered. "I JUDGED THE SOUL OF THE SERPENT HIMSELF WHEN RA CONQUERED HIM THE FIRST TIME. I KNOW HIS TRUE NAME. I KNOW HIS WEAKNESSES."
He slammed his staff onto the floor, sending a shockwave through the hall. The portal trembled, its growth slowing.
"NO!" Stone screamed, releasing a desperate wave of dark magic.
Anubis didn't even dodge. He simply raised his free hand, and the sand formed a shield that absorbed the attack effortlessly.
Then he began to walk forward. Slowly, inexorably, like death itself.
With each step the sand rose higher, forming behind him the image of a giant jackal made of golden grains of sand, a ghostly guardian of the afterlife.
"You wanted to free Apophis," Anubis said, his yellow eyes glowing in the sockets of his beastly head. "You wanted to bring chaos to the world. But you forgot one important thing, mage."
"What?" Stone croaked, pressing his back against the wall.
— CHAOS MUST BE BALANCED BY ORDER. AND I AM THE ORDER OF DEATH.
Anubis raised his staff, and the true power of the god began.
Sand erupted from every crack in the floor, every crevice in the walls. It filled the hall, swirling in perfect geometry—circles within circles, symbols of power thousands of years old.
The portal began to shrink, Stone's dark magic crumbling under the pressure of divine power.
"NO! NO!" Stone tried to cast a counterspell, but his voice was lost in the whirlwind.
Anubis raised both hands, and the sand whirlwind took shape—a giant scale materialized in the air, an exact replica of the scales of Maat on which he weighed the hearts of the dead.
"YOU WILL BE JUDGED," he proclaimed. "NOT IN THE AFTERWORLD, BUT HERE. NOW."
On one side of the scale rested a feather—a symbol of truth and justice. On the other, Stone's invisible heart, weighed down by his crimes, his madness, his thirst for destruction.
The scales tipped. My heart was heavy. Unbelievably heavy.
"Guilty," Anubis whispered, his voice heavy with grief. "Guilty of desecrating the sacred, of invoking darkness, of attempting to destroy the order of life and death."
He lowered his staff, pointing at Stone.
— The sentence is exile to Duat. Immediately.
The sand curled around Stone, forming a sarcophagus. The mage screamed, trying to break free, but the power of the god in his true form was unstoppable.
"Wait!" Stone cried out at the last second. "Wait! It wasn't me! I'm not alone! Someone taught me! Someone showed me the rituals!"
Anubis paused.
- Who?
"I don't know his name! He came to me in my dreams! A dark figure with red eyes! He said the old gods must return, that the world needed cleansing! He gave me power! He..."
The sand sarcophagus closed, muffling the screams.
Anubis performed the banishing ritual, and the sarcophagus crumbled, taking Stone's soul to the afterlife, where it would be judged according to all the rules.
The body fell to the floor - empty, lifeless. The soul was gone.
Anubis turned to the portal. It was still open, though smaller. A roar came from within—the voice of Apophis, sensing the nearness of freedom.
"Not today, Serpent," Anubis whispered.
He began to chant in an ancient language—a language so ancient it hadn't been spoken since the fall of the first dynasty. Words of power that had been written on the walls of the first temples.
The sand formed seals—complex, multilayered, impenetrable. They wrapped around the portal, compressing it, sealing it.
The portal resisted. Apophis growled, trying to break through. For a second, a huge, scaly head appeared from the portal, red eyes blazing with hatred.
"ANUBIS!" the Serpent's voice thundered. "YOU CAN'T HOLD ME FOREVER!"
"Maybe not," Anubis replied, strengthening the seals. "But I can hold you long enough for you to regret trying to break free."
The final seal snapped into place, and the portal collapsed with a roar that shook the building. A shockwave reverberated through the hall, shattering the last remaining display cases.
Silence.
Anubis stood in the center of the ruined hall, breathing heavily. Even in his true form, it took a tremendous amount of effort.
He looked at his arms—black, muscular, covered in gold jewelry. He looked at the reflection in the broken glass—a jackal's face, golden eyes.
This is who I really am, he thought. Not a bartender. Not Andy. The god of the dead.
"Andy?" came an uncertain voice.
Anubis turned around. Eric slowly opened his eyes, squinting.
— Can I watch?
"Yes," Anubis replied, his voice still deeper than usual, filled with echoes of power.
Eric opened his eyes fully and froze, looking at the divine form of Anubis.
"Oh, my God," he whispered. "You... you really are a god."
"Yes," Anubis replied simply.
They stood in silence for a second, then Eric took a step forward.
"Thank you," he said. "For saving the world. For saving me."
Anubis nodded. Then he closed his eyes and began to slowly return to his human form. The light enveloped him again, but this time softer, quieter.
When he opened his eyes, Andy was there again—a tall man with dark hair and golden eyes, dressed in casual clothes. But something was different. His aura was stronger, his presence more noticeable.
He could no longer completely hide who he was.
"We need to go," he said. "Security will be here soon to check out the noise."
They headed for the exit, but Anubis stopped near Stone's body.
"What's wrong with him?" Eric asked.
"His soul is in Duat. The body..." Anubis waved his hand over the corpse, and the sand enveloped it. When the sand cleared, the body disappeared. "It was returned to the earth. Dust to dust."
They emerged from the museum into the pre-dawn darkness. The city slept, unaware of how close it had come to disaster.
"What now?" Eric asked as they walked through the empty streets.
"Now," Anubis looked to the east, where the sky was beginning to brighten, "I'm trying to figure out who that figure was in Stone's dreams. Someone is manipulating events. Someone wants to free the ancient powers."
— Need help?
Anubis looked at him in surprise.
"You're a physicist, Eric. This is a world of magic and gods."
"Maybe," Eric shrugged. "But I'm also someone who almost witnessed the end of the world. If I can help prevent it from happening again, I want to help."
Anubis smiled for the first time since the battle began.
- Okay. I'll accept your help. But first, you need protection.
He took off one of his bracelets, a thin gold band with hieroglyphs.
"Wear this. It will protect you from dark magic and allow you to see things hidden from the naked eye."
Eric put on the bracelet and it adjusted to the size of his wrist.
- Thank you.
Anubis walked him home, then returned to his bar just as the sun was rising over the city.
Sarah was already there, preparing the opening.
"Boss!" She turned around, seeing him. "Where have you been? You look..."
She fell silent, studying him. Something was different. He stood differently, moved differently.
"What happened?" she asked quietly.
"I remembered who I am," Anubis replied, walking behind the counter. "For real."
Sarah nodded, accepting this.
- And who are you?
Anubis looked at her, and for a second his eyes glowed gold.
— God. Protector. And, apparently, the only thing that stands between this world and the ancient horrors that want to return.
- It sounds hard.
— Yes.
— Need help?
Anubis smiled.
"I've already been offered that twice in one night. It seems I'm surrounded by the brave and the foolish."
"It's probably the same thing," Sarah said, starting to arrange chairs. "So, is the bar open today?"
"The bar is always open," Anubis replied, taking out glasses. "The world may be descending into chaos, the ancient gods may rise from oblivion, but the Eternity Bar will remain open."
And when the first customer walked in at nine in the morning, he was greeted by the usual bartender Andy, making coffee and smiling.
But now Anubis knew he couldn't simply hide any longer. The battle with Ammut, Stone, and the near-liberation of Apop had shown him the truth.
Old forces were awakening. And he needed to be ready.
The god of the dead has returned.
And the world will never be the same.