"Think about how your people looked just now! Amon, remember everything from the past!" Sophia said in a low voice, watching as Amon's expression gradually twisted in pain.
Amon withstood the combined power of Lora and the others, while the shaking within the Mausoleum of King Deshret grew more and more violent. From the outside, cracks began spreading across the enormous pyramid. The people stationed outside had no choice but to withdraw to a safe distance.
Time passed second by second, and Amon's hands slowly clenched.
Lora noticed the movement of his hands and immediately shouted, "Careful!"
The moment she shouted, Amon let out a furious roar. An even more terrifying power erupted from his body. Although it did not injure the three of them, it still blasted them all back.
The enormous shockwave directly destroyed the Mausoleum of King Deshret.
A terrifying explosion swept through the entire mausoleum from where they stood. In an instant, the massive pyramid was destroyed by the power of a god. Yellow sand scattered in every direction under the impact, and the immense pressure and heat turned the sand around the Mausoleum into glass.
Lora and the other two steadied themselves in midair, watching the center of that chaotic power.
"How could such a huge burst of energy occur?" Apep frowned, staring at Amon, who was wrapped in that immense power.
"That is the power of the Ley Lines. No... wait." Sophia sensed the power erupting from within Amon and suddenly frowned. "There is another power mixed in. This is..."
"The power of the Abyss."
Lora looked at Amon and sighed. "As expected, the Abyss would not simply stand by and watch the Ley Lines change without making a move."
"Is it the Abyss Order?" Sophia asked.
Lora shook her head. "Not them. This is the Ley Lines themselves being contaminated by the Abyss."
As they spoke, Amon, whose eyes flashed scarlet, charged toward the three of them. He swung his scepter, controlling countless grains of yellow sand and reshaping them into all kinds of weapons to attack them.
Lora glanced back at the sages of the Akademiya and the Eremites who had not yet escaped, created a defensive water mirror for them, then focused fully on fighting Amon.
Sophia controlled plant roots to link together underground, stabilizing the entire area.
Amon, invaded by Abyssal power, had completely lost his reason. To calm him down, they would have to purge every trace of that power from his body.
If another god had faced this, it might have been extremely troublesome.
But for Lora and Sophia, one phrase summed up their current situation perfectly.
This was their specialty.
Whether it was Lora or Sophia, both had more than enough experience with this kind of cleansing.
"Apep, keep him from moving!" Lora said to Apep nearby.
"I am not your hired muscle!" Apep shot back, then charged forward without complaint and began fighting Amon.
Sophia drew upon the resources of Irminsul. The power of the Abyss was not the same as Forbidden Knowledge. She did not need to worry that Forbidden Knowledge would contaminate Irminsul again, and even if it did, Lora was right there to help.
Lora also began drawing upon the power of the Primordial Sea.
Apep did not manifest her true form. Her true form was far too enormous. If she really fought in that state, all of Sumeru would be affected. However, she was not very familiar with fighting in human form either, so at first, she was actually unable to keep Amon under control.
Very soon, however, Apep grew accustomed to this state and began suppressing his movements.
Terrifying shockwaves burst one after another around Apep and Amon. Apep seized an opening, grabbed Amon by the head, and drove him down from the sky, slamming his head into the mirror-like glass below.
The terrible impact caused countless cracks to spread rapidly through the vast glassy surface.
At that same moment, Sophia and Lora controlled their immense power and washed it over Amon's body.
Dust still drifted through the air.
Lora stared at the center of the dust and muttered, "I refuse to believe this still won't wake him up."
Between heaven and earth, only the wind howled.
When the dust finally dispersed, Apep and Amon stood face to face at the center of the shattered mirror-like ground.
Apep looked at Amon with a grave expression. If he made even the slightest unusual move, she would react at once.
Lora and Sophia stopped in the air as well, both ready at any moment.
Under their wary gazes, Amon let out a long sigh. He slowly opened his eyes, glanced at Apep standing before him, then looked up at Lora and Sophia.
In the silence, Amon said slowly, "This was not a very pleasant reunion, Gusion, Egeria."
"Just call me Sophia," Sophia said, letting out a breath of relief when she heard Amon's words.
Lora landed together with her and said to Amon, "Same for me. Just call me Lora. I don't use the name Egeria very often."
"What about me? You don't plan to greet me at all?" Apep looked at Amon strangely. She was clearly standing right in front of him, while Sophia and Lora had been farther away, so why had he greeted those two first?
"If my memory is not mistaken, you were the one who swallowed me in the end," Amon said, looking at Apep. "Although that was the agreement we made, being eaten is hardly a pleasant experience, is it?"
"Oh! I understand. You really hold a grudge, brat!" Apep said in sudden realization.
Amon laughed.
Sophia and Lora came up to Amon, and Lora quickly asked, "How do you feel? Does anything hurt?"
Amon shook his head. "Nothing serious. I only wish you had hit me a little more gently."
Hearing that, Sophia smiled and replied, "If we had gone easy on you, it might not have worked."
Amon nodded in agreement. He looked around at the Mausoleum of King Deshret, now reduced to ruins. Before he could say anything, Lora quickly cut in, "Hey, hey, your tomb was blown up by you yourself! You can't make us pay for it, right?"
"I am alive now. What would I need a tomb for?" Amon replied.
Then he looked at the three of them and bowed solemnly. "Thank you. You kept me from doing something I would have regretted for the rest of my life."
Sophia looked at Amon, then suddenly said to Lora, "Perhaps after the other gods revive, we can do the same for them and make them remember their past."
"No."
Lora shook her head and said to Sophia, "Amon was able to wake up after we hit him because he had already responded to the calls of his people. Many of those gods no longer have any people of their own. Waking them is impossible."