While he slept peacefully, Mathias was suddenly awakened from his sleep by a most strange and unpleasant sensation, like a shiver having run through his whole body and having the effect of a discharge, a bad presentiment, as if his instinct were absolutely trying to warn him.

Yet he was in his hospital room, dressed in his hospital patient shirt, his thigh bandaged and day had dawned outside, the sun filtering lightly through the shade but Jonathan was obviously not not arrived yet. However, several details tickled the young man, and he noticed the first one as he got up from his bed and took a few steps. At first, the small clock hanging on the wall opposite the bed...the hands were completely frozen on midnight. Weird, maybe a malfunction.

He also had a strange feeling on his body, as if hands had touched him without his knowing it. And also, this heavy, macabre atmosphere, mixed with this absolute silence of death which reigned. Even outside, not a single sound. Mathias left the room, to find himself in this large hospital corridor with immaculate white walls, floor and ceiling and this series of doors leading to other rooms. No one seen, no sound, not even the buzzing of an insect. Mathias did not understand, taking a few hesitant steps down the hall. Such a silence was not normal and above all where had all the people gone?

_"Hey?! Is there someone?!" he asked, his voice echoing a little in the hallway, but getting no response.

Then, as he walked, sometimes passing stretchers or empty wheelchairs, Mathias jumped up in surprise when the ventilation grille in the wall to his left gave way with a sudden metallic noise and let what was pouring in front of him, what was... sand?!

Mathias raised an eyebrow, but was also surprised to see the other ventilation grilles further down the corridor, giving way one after the other and in turn vomiting up piles of sand covering the floor. What the hell, thought the young man, more and more uncomfortable. His concern grew as from heaps of sand that grew bigger and bigger and began to emerge moving shapes, thin and elongated, reptlian and obsidian skin... Cobras, dozens of Egyptian cobras, hissing and exposing their fangs sharp, and all heading towards Mathias, who swallowed and started to back away.

A cobra fell from the ceiling onto his shoulders, startling the young man with fear, who in a panic grabbed the poisonous reptile and threw it away.

Then, at the very end of the hallway, the neon lights on the ceiling began to crackle, as if dysfunctional, and one after the other burned out, total darkness invading the hallway and slowly approaching Mathias as it went. Mathias continued to retreat faster and faster, and that's when he saw her... Ahmanet... Emerging slowly from the growing darkness, the Egyptian princess now sported pale, silvery skin like death, her wavy black hair falling over her shoulders. Her cheeks, forehead, and chin were covered in small black hyeroglyphs, almost like scarifications. Her eyes, each now possessing two monstrous and captivating irises, stared at the young man. She was half-naked, her body now wearing nothing but the residue of linen bandages, like mummies.

Opening wide eyes, both surprised and bewitched, Mathias had stopped moving back, he and Ahmanet looking at each other and separated by only twenty meters. Time was like frozen for a moment. She didn't seemed hostile to him, but neutral. Slowly, she raised one arm and held out her pale hand towards the young man.

_"Setepai..." she said again with her ethereal voice.

_"I don't understand... What's going on? What is all this? What do you want from me?" Mathias then asked, overwhelmed by incomprehension and the questions that were jostling in his lost mind.

_"Come to me... or die." she said simply.

After this most sinister last word, she firmly closed her fist, and from the darkness behind her arose a dozen withered and rickety undead, who in an atrocious concert of guttural and monstrous howls rushed like degenerate beasts towards Mathias. Gasping with intense fear, the young writer, ignoring his injured thigh, turned around and ran as fast as possible down the hallway, chased by the zombified creatures who showed extraordinary speed, all under Ahmanet's gaze. The princess then, with a simple wave of her hand, sent the wave of absolute darkness breaking one by one the neon lights of the ceiling and gradually engulfing the corridor.

Mathias never thought he would run so fast in his whole life, to burst his heart and lungs, sometimes throwing quick glances over his shoulder. The group of undead were gaining ground, as was the darkness that seemed to swallow everything in their path. Worse still, Mathias saw, with amazement and dread, the hallway begin to disintegrate, the white of the walls, floor and ceiling crumbling and falling to pieces like dead leaves, giving way more and more to ancient stone, torches on columns and walls covered with ancient Egyptian paintings. I'm going mad, or else it's a nightmare, I'm going to wake up, thought Mathias' panicked mind as if trying in vain to reassure itself.

Within seconds, he was no longer in a hospital hallway but in what looked a lot like the interior of an old Egyptian palace or pyramid. Despite the shock of the unrealistic phenomenon he had just witnessed, Mathias did not slow down his run, still pursued by the creatures who were now only a few meters away from him. He could almost feel their foul breath on the back of his neck and their rotting fingernails brushing the tips of his hair. From cracks in the walls, several cobras leapt out of the darkness, fangs forward, trying to bite Mathias, but each time, driven by reflexes and an instinct for survival he would never have suspected on his own, Mathias managed to avoid them while not slowing down. If he fell, he was dead.

Suddenly, the ground in front of him seemed to give way, like a huge trapdoor opening in two. In a reflex, Mathias leapt forward as far as possible and narrowly managed to cling to the other side with his fingertips, noting with horror that below him, about ten meters, was a pit filled with sharpened stakes. One of the undead had also fallen and impaled himself violently at the level of the torso, showing no pain and continuing to move around, grunting, immobilized. The other creatures, unable to move any further, became perfectly calm and silent, just watching Mathias who struggled to the other side and resumed his run.

After minutes of running through this labyrinthine maze of corridors, Mathias arrived in a larger space, but unfortunately for him it was not the exit from this hell. The room he hesitantly entered was huge, rectangular, and imbued with a majestic yet intimidating majesty. The walls, covered with frescoes of Egyptian paintings telling a thousand and one stories. Columns, thick and perfectly sculpted. In the center of the room, steps led to a kind of great altar, itself surrounded by imposing statues, almost twenty meters high, representing several of the great gods of ancient Egypt. Anubis. Osiris. Horus. Set.

This place, whose appearance really resembled a temple, left Mathias speechless as it seemed unreal as he gazed, feeling so small in front of so much grandeur. The statues of the gods, weathered and covered in dust, seemed almost to watch and judge him with their lifeless eyes.

Suddenly, the two large and heavy doors of the room closed as if by magic, surprising Mathias who then found himself stuck here. The large braziers arranged in a square around the steps also flared up without explanation, great throbbing red flames rising and casting their dancing, searing glow over the walls of the sanctuary and illuminating all its past splendor.

Mathias' worried gaze then turned towards the high altar. Appearing from behind and climbing the steps step by step to finally come to the altar, Ahmanet was there, upright, solemn, all-powerful, lit by the dance of the ardent flames and her piercing gaze seeming almost to scrutinize the slightest particle of the soul of the young man who immediately felt the powerful and overwhelming aura of the cursed princess encircle him like thousands of invisible arms.

_"You have shown your ability to escape death..." Ahmanet proclaimed firmly.

Then she threw something she was holding and which fell at Mathias' feet. An ancient Egyptian sword, a Khopesh. The young man, perplexed, looked at the weapon then back to Ahmanet.

_"Now show me your strength to fight it!" shouted the Egyptian Princess again, raising her arms above her head and then clapping her hands in a single, firm clap that echoed throughout the room.

Immediately, from dark recesses of the ancient sanctuary, or from side passages, came other undead, but these were different. They moved more humanely, though their skins remained necrotic and parched. But above all, they were dressed in tunics and the remains of worn armors and remains of strips, like warriors of ancient Egypt. They also held ancient weapons like Kopeshs, axes, shields... Their faces were hidden by some kind of dirty golden masks representing sphinx faces.

Mathias swallowed and a drop of sweat beaded on his temple. He was totally surrounded by a dozen of these monsters who were slowly but sure heading towards him. Ahmanet meanwhile, remained perfectly erect and static on the high altar, observing with a firm but neutral air what was happening. Mathias was beginning to panic, seeing no way to escape, then his gaze fell on the Kopesh at his feet. The first undead warrior came close enough and with a bestial growl delivered a violent blow of the blade towards Mathias, who, in a reflex, grabbed the weapon from the ground and succeeded in parrying, awkwardly but surely, the blow which resounded with a metallic noise. The monster then growled guttural words in an incomprehensible language, as if expressing great frustration.

Holding the weapon firmly with both hands, Mathias was shaking, frantically looking everywhere and unable to adopt a defensive posture, he who had never used a weapon in his life, let alone an ancient sword. From behind, a monster tried to decapitate him, but Mathias miraculously managed to feel it coming and narrowly avoided death in a somewhat messed up rolling move to the side, but which saved his life all the same. Mathias began to move quickly, doing everything not to be cornered. These things were smarter than he might think, moving in such a way as to try to surround him. Mathias blocked or dodged several more brutal attacks, each blow from the monsters made his bones tremble. But one of the warriors managed to give a violent blow of his shield which threw Mathias several meters back, at the foot of the steps of the altar, but fortunately he did not drop his weapon. Although stunned by the shock, Mathias had the reflex to block in extremis the ax of a warrior with his own weapon, the blade having stopped only a few centimeters from his face.

Leaning over the young human trapped on the ground, the monstrous warrior emitted an inhuman growl and pressed harder and harder. Feeling the colossal strength of this monster, Mathias gritted his teeth, trying to resist as much as possible but seeing the ax gradually approaching his face. His hands hurt, he felt like his arms were going to break but he had to hold on, he didn't want to die like this.

_"What are you waiting for?" then said Ahmanet's calm but cold and stern voice towards Mathias. "Fight... or die. There is no room for weakness or fear. Kill or be killed. Life or death. There is no other choice."

Weak... scared... yes, he was... he always had been... belittled, dominated by others, an easy prey that predators reveled in seeing the fear in his eyes... But no, all of this was the past... he had sworn to himself that he wouldn't let it go any longer. He would live, according to his own convictions!

The edge of the ax was only a centimeter from Mathias' eye. Then, as if galvanized by his heightened desire for survival, the young man kicked the monster in the belly, causing him no harm but making him recoil and destabilizing him a little. Mathias hurriedly got up and, his gaze filled with a new fury, as if possessed, he violently decapitated the warrior in front of him. The head rolled to the ground and the body, without squirting blood, fell backwards. The other undead looked a bit confused. Mathias then turned this new look and raised it towards Ahmanet, who had not moved and again their eyes met. He then raised the blade towards the princess, as if to threaten her, but she showed absolutely no fear and did not back down. _"We always have a choice, and I made mine. I will never let another decide my fate!" said the young man.

Although keeping a cold and firm gaze on him, Ahmanet let a slightest hint of a smirk appear on the corner of her lips, as if showing some admiration for the strength and courage shown by this young mortal in defying her thus. With a wave of her hand, she ordered the warriors to retreat, which they immediately did. Then, she spread her arms, as a challenge to a duel and her expression and her smile, clearly encouraged the young man to attack and show what he was capable of.

Hesitating at first, Mathias ran up the stairs and tried to strike a blow with his sword. But Ahmanet's hand stopped the blade without effort and broke it like a twig. With her other hand and with superhuman speed and strength, Ahmanet seized Mathias by the throat, lifting him in the air to block him violently on the altar. The princess immediately climbed on top of him, blocking him and locking both of his arms. Mathias tried to struggle but felt this absolute strength she demonstrated nailing him to the altar, and soon he stopped struggling uselessly.

Sitting astride him to keep him lying on the altar, showing a look and an amused smile, Ahmanet bent down, bringing her face close to his. Mathias, though intimidated by her great strength, did not look away and continued to stare at her defiantly, and this seemed to please her even more.

_"Yes... that look... that anger, that pain... I know them very well..." she said with a certain perversity in her voice.

With one of her hands, she touched and caressed, in a rather sensual way, the chest of Mathias, who did not understand. She then came to touch and caress his hair, his face, then with the tip of her sharp nails, lightly lacerated Mathias's neck, who winced in pain. Ahmanet tilted her face to the side and Mathias felt her press her cold but soft lips to the skin of his neck and suck the thin trickle of blood. He would have liked to protest, to struggle, but nothing helped, he let it happen, as if bewitched. Once done, Ahmanet raised her head, smiling and still licking her lips with the blood she had just tasted.

_"An open and convinced mind..." she breathed. "A pure and strong blood, worthy of kings and lords... Yes, you please me more and more. You will be perfect."

Mathias looked at her and listened to her, still not understanding what she meant and the interest she might have for him. He was just a simple writer without an extraordinary past. Suddenly, he felt that his whole body was paralyzed, very weakened and that his senses became blurred. Ahmanet smiled then with a gesture, gave an order to her creatures.

_"Take him away, without hurting him and make sure he doesn't escape." ordered the princess.

The undead warriors obeyed without question and two of them took the half-conscious Mathias by the arms and began dragging him out of the temple. Ahmanet remained, surrounded by the rest of those undead servants, a dark, cruel smile forming on her lips and a blazing sparkle in her eye.

_"The hour of our advent has finally come." she said forcefully. "Once, my own people wanted to erase me from history, but from now on and for eternity, all will learn, all will fear and all will remember this name...Ahmanet."

Raising her arms slowly, the princess let loose her powers, the flames of the braziers intensifying and nearly exploding and the darkness invading the place with shadowy, deformed, shrieking figures dancing on the walls, while the undead warriors bowed in reverence before her whose name would never be forgotten again.