Last night, Seth went to sleep at the temple to restore his vessel. Wanting to visit him, you approach the temple, but everything seems to be shaking again today. You look down into the rift, terrified to see that it's moving. Rocks are falling, and the giant body of a snake is slithering in the darkness at the bottom of the rift. The shine of the scales and the embers of its body are very visible and very terrifying, because it makes you realise just how truly big the snake is. It's larger than a river, longer than the sky. This creature is absolutely monumental. The lava flowing in the rift doesn't harm it - it seems like it's only warming it up. Your throat clenches in fear as you look out into the distance, where the rift is opening yet again.

A giant pyramid pushes up from under the ground. It's being raised by the rift's movements, which are surely caused by the charging serpent. You clench your claws into the obelisk, so as to not lose your balance, as the ground growls like a wounded animal with another massive earthquake. You see it on the horizon: the Undying Serpent rising from the chasm. Its head, covered by the dust and clouds, opens above the pyramid and spits out a massive fireball, destroying the monumental construction into pieces. The explosion squeezes air out of your lungs. You grasp the obelisk, trying to reach the other side, but the Serpent notices you. It begins to turn back.

The Serpent rises its body to break the obelisk. You jump to climb onto the rift's cliff, praying to Seth that your claws will hold. Funny, almost, how that god became so easy to pray to in such a situation. You try to lunge yourself toward the temple, while keeping an eye on the approaching snake. You notice it's now growing wings, perhaps to reach the sun. This must mean the end is near. As you climb up onto a rocky shelf, the snake lowers its head above you. It's huge.

Barely alive, you begin to crawl. The Serpent is laughing. You hear a deep voice, causing the chasm to tremble even more. "Pathetic. You must not be the lion I seek." It speaks, moving toward you and smashing rocks with its giant body. You manage to crawl between fallen rocks onto the temple's floor, where the entrance seems to be partially collapsed. You get up and feel that your ribs are broken, making you wheeze with every breath. Every step is painful. You limp with a smashed wrist toward the altar, leaving a trail of blood behind you.

A previously-sealed chamber opens to reveal an altar to the sun. Seth is kneeling in front of it with a magnificent spear. He's speaking in a tongue you cannot understand, but when you approach, he's smiling - almost like he's proud that you made it here on your own. The temple is shaking, but it seems to be holding so far. He must have noticed what was going on. "I know you're in pain. I know you must think there's no way that you'll be able to inhale the Serpent's last breath in this state. But, I assure you, I will kill the Serpent, and so will you." He gets up and holds out his arm to touch your bloodied muzzle. The warmth of his hand feels good; it's minor relief from the pain of everything else that hurts so much. You feel like you just want to lie down.

Seth pets you gently, wiping dirt away from your eyes. Again, you're experiencing the nice side of him, the one that only appears when he needs something. As it turns out, he needs you. Your entire self. "You shall become one with me. Our bodies will unite into the being that was foretold to defeat the Serpent. This is how vessels are made." You look at him with disbelief. It's not ideal, and it's not how you imagined it would be. Is it like death? Didn't he say you won't make it?

"No, you won't die. You will be your fuzzy self when we're done, I promise. Perhaps even better than yourself as you are right now. The power of Ra will heal you. This is your last chance to choose your fate, mortal cub. It could be me, it could be Bast, it could even be my son, Anubis. You can go back in time as many times as you wish, but you cannot prolong the end. The end must happen, in whichever path it is that you choose. If you leave me now, my reality will warp. I will go back to my slumber. Do not worry about me. I will miss you, though." He pats you for the last time and nods his head toward Shai's altar. Indeed, this is your very last chance to go back in time, to do it all over. Do you want to?

Let me light the incense and go back in time.

(This option will restart the storyline from the very beginning.)

I have chosen you, Seth, my lord

"I knew you would. To be completely honest, I never had many friends, so... I am proud to call you one. I appreciate your choice and your faith. I appreciate your sacrifice. I will not disappoint you." He puts his hand on your shoulder, like a proud uncle. He leads you toward the altar of the sun and puts a torch against the shining disc. The room fills with light, reflecting the natural brightness nearly a dozen times, it seems. Seth puts his arm into the fire, but you cannot see what's going on - it's too bright. You close your eyes so that you won't go blind; then, you fall down, unable to stand any further. Your broken legs just hurt too much. Every breath hurts too much. You feel Seth's arms on your back. You're ready to succumb to anything that's going to happen. You just don't have the power to do anything on your own anymore. Suddenly, a powerful motion pulls you up into the air. A hot, burning feeling shoots down your back.

Your thoughts, your consciousness, everything that's yours twists into a chaotic swirl, as you start to experience the feeling that you don't control your body anymore. You feel unreal, like you're both in your body and outside of it at the same time. Like you're you, yourself, but you're also Seth. You remember everything he remembers. You are him, and he is you. You now understand the confidence that he had. You feel his emotions, and you embrace his memories. You understand everything. You also understand how amazing it is to be a lion. When you smile, it's unclear if it's Seth that's smiling at you, or if you just wanted to smile. You can't get up, though. It feels like you're in a very tight space. You crawl out of the temple, as if it was a small burrow for your new body. It feels so amazing to have hands. You have hands! Of course you do, you've always had hands. It feels amazing to have a lion's mane.

As you crawl out, the rift seems smaller. The Serpent is puny now. You're gigantic, actually - and your new hybrid body is glowing with the fire of Ra and cosmic energy. The spear from the Sun Chamber has grown with you, empowered by the same energy that made you so big. Your large, flaming claws hold the spear, and your long, red mane flows in the hot wind. You feel strong. "I told you," you whisper to yourself with a fierce smile. "I told you that I will be breathtaking and glorious when I stab his face." You jump toward the chasm, straight onto the Serpent's coils. Apophis notices you and shrieks, enraged. "This is NOT the lion. This cannot happen!"

You use your hind legs to hold the Serpent in place, as you begin to raise your arms. The Serpent's eyes look at you, penetrating every particle of your being, trying his best to hypnotise you. Everything that you've felt, everything you've done to everyone else, everything you remember as both beings in this body... It all crumbles down into an anxious guilt and lack of self-worth. You feel Seth forcefully taking over your body. He's immune to the Serpent's hypnotic powers. He stabs the Serpent in his head, penetrating the vile body and causing it to squirm in spasms.

"You have awoken much too early, Apophis. You tried to cheat fate. I know you'll try to rise again, but we will be here, every time, because this world is worth saving. Fate is something you cannot run away from," you growl, nailing the spear into the bottom of the chasm's surface. You roar, letting out a huge ripple of energy into the world, calling upon the desert wind. The clouds swirl above you, kicking up a red storm and burying the rift, the Serpent, and even you, under massive dunes.

You open your eyes, feeling like you've just woken up from a bad dream. You find yourself in Seth's temple, inside the Sun chamber, like nothing happened at all. Memories that you've shared with Seth begin to slowly fade away, and you have trouble remembering the events that just occurred - exactly as if you were dreaming. You get up, surprised that your body doesn't ache anymore. Seth's vessel looks normal, and he even gives you a hearty slap on your back. "I thought you'd never wake up! We were supposed to go training!" You shake your head. What the hell is going on?

"Oh, you don't remember how I defeated Apophis? That's okay, let me remind you. Hmmm. He beat you up, you know. Broke your ribs and your paws. I brought you here, and asked Ra to heal you in this chamber. Meanwhile, I went out with my spear and defeated him with a blow to the head. I buried him right after, under the sand for eons to come." Your forehead narrows so much that the wrinkles become a little painful. His look is so sincere that you *almost* believe him, but you also remember very well that he asked to be inside you, or something like that. You also remember seeing this whole scene through his eyes, but not that much more.

"I can't believe Horus, a god, was more gullible than you. Fine, fine. We became a very powerful hybrid vessel. We stabbed the Serpent and buried him. We... untwined under the sand. I pulled you out, and we laid there exhausted and unconscious for a while. But my vessel, thanks to you, is pretty strong, so I woke it up and brought you back here in my arms... somehow. You're very heavy. So, so very heavy. I just... don't want to sleep yet. I don't want to disappear again for centuries. Your companionship is nice. Do you think we could train some more? The minions are still slithering around. It would be smart to get rid of them." He questions you honestly, abandoning the idea of tricking you. You can't believe that everything is over now. You're still a little dazed, but... sure. You really like Seth when he's sincere like this.

Seth smiles and moves a little closer to you. You feel his arms hug you, and, just when you let your guard down and feel nice that he's become a good friend, he climbs onto your back. Oh, not this again. You rear up and growl. "Hey. I promised that you wouldn't regret this. Let me just... bless you. Thank you, [SNAME]." He places his hands on your head. You feel a pulsating warmth travelling through your body. You feel stronger. You also get showered with beetles. Fine, fine, he can stay. At least until the chthonic snakes are killed.