Egypt, Present Day...
Mark was with Makarov—a strange duo, but they were professionals.
As always, Makarov was operating under his call sign: "Undertaker."
While operatives in the Ascendancy were technically forbidden from revealing their identities, the rule existed primarily for their own safety. If someone still saw the risks, yet chose to share their name anyway... well, whatever happened next was on them.
In the past, enemy spies had infiltrated the organization. The fallout from those breaches was brutal—several operatives lost their lives. Some even had their families hunted down.
That's why Noah personally warned every member: "Your name is a weapon—if it falls into the wrong hands, expect to bleed for it."
Still, if you trusted your partner enough—if you were truly comfortable with them—it was your decision.
Your name. Your risk.
Mark didn't really care. He had no family, and all his friends were part of the Ascendancy.
But Makarov was different. He had people outside the organization—people he cared about. That's why he still used his call sign as his only form of identification.
So, Mark didn't know his real name.
And that was fine. It was Undertaker's choice, after all.
Cursing, he glanced up at the scorching sun with a grimace, adjusting his glasses as they trudged across the blistering white sand.
"Damn it… how much longer do we have to walk?"
The Undertaker gave him a brief glance, shook his head, and continued onward with steady determination. He wasn't much of a talker, unlike Mark—who was a world-class yapper. He sighed, pulling a cloth over his face to shield himself from the swirling dust.
"It's not that far. We'll be there soon."
Mark shrugged, taking a sip from his waterskin.
"Hey, wouldn't it be fun if we had camels right now?"
The Undertaker smirked, still not looking at him.
"Sure… They have a very... exquisite smell."
Mark nodded, pleased that he finally got a response. Then paused.
Wait—what is a camel again? And what did he mean by that? Do they smell like flowers? Hmm… curious.
Well, they were on a particularly nasty mission this time. While Mark usually preferred to work solo, even he had to admit the risks were too high to go alone. That's why he'd teamed up with Undertaker—quiet guy, but powerful. If lady luck was on their side, they'd finish the mission quickly and rake in a ton of points.
Mark had been eyeing that Echo for a while now. Wouldn't it be awesome if he had a unicorn? Of course it would. Badass, even.
He imagined himself riding a brown unicorn, galloping majestically as it pierced abominations right in the ass.
Hehehii!
Chuckling to himself, he shook his head and snapped out of the daydream.
He glanced at Undertaker and sighed. They wore loose-fitting, long, heavy robes with head wrappings. The loose cloth prevented sweat from evaporating too quickly while allowing air to circulate, helping their bodies retain fluids. These clothes also protected them from scorching winds and dust storms.
Not to mention, their skeletal mentor had enhanced the robes, making them even more comfortable. Having a sorcerer in the organization was a blessing. Where else could you find clothes that cool your body in the desert by infusing essence into their enchantments?
They also carried enchanted waterskins. This time, the enchantment was done by the Smiling Man, who claimed to have "widened the space" inside them. Mark didn't quite understand what that meant, but he assumed it was literal—since the waterskins could now hold 80 liters of water. So, they didn't have to worry about running out of it.
Their food was stored in dimensional bags with frozen time inside, meaning nothing would spoil or turn into smelly garbage, which was reassuring.
Still… they'd have to walk for a few more days. Apparently, that was Undertaker's definition of "it's not that far."
Geez, this fucker...
A few days later…
Mark looked around in disbelief.
What the fuck is this?
What he saw stunned him—pyramids.
Fucking pyramids. In the Western Desert…
So not all of them were destroyed, huh?
Wow, I feel like a tourist. Dope!
But Undertaker didn't share Mark's excitement. He observed the land ahead with a grim expression. There were thousands of people living in such a harsh environment, yet they seemed fine. As if the scorching sun, the lack of resources, dry air and the absence of water didn't affect them in the slightest.
More unsettling, though… was the statue they were worshiping.
He and Mark quickly blended into the masses, mimicking their zealous behavior and listening in on conversations to gather information.
Still, working together now felt inefficient. So, they decided to split up—cover more ground, learn what they could, and leave this disturbing place behind as quickly as possible.
Mark was an assassin and a spy—this mission had his name written all over it. It was too advantageous to pass up. After all, he could do things others couldn't.
He tightened the knot around his head to keep the cloth from slipping off his face, just as a gust of wind howled across the dunes. A small tornado began to rise, swirling into a localized sandstorm. Perfect.
The moment the dust cloud erupted, Mark vanished into it. The crowd's attention shifted toward the sudden commotion, though it wasn't dangerous—just inconvenient enough to cause panic. People began evacuating the area, shielding their eyes and mouths, fleeing to avoid the storm.
Exactly what he needed.
Slipping through the chaos, Mark snuck into the palace.
Holy shit, I'm in a pyramid! That's so cool!
He grinned.
Tiny angled shafts—probably meant for religious or astronomical purposes, or maybe just ventilation—became his path inside.
Still, things were getting dicey. Guards were everywhere. And not just any guards—these bastards looked like ancient Egyptian warriors, all decked out in golden armor and wielding those weird-ass sickles.
Bro, what are you gonna cut with that? The sand? Ain't no grass out here!
Mark shook his head, activating the enchantment on his bodysuit that silenced every movement he made. Total ghost mode.
While wearing those heavy desert robes was cool for traveling, they weren't ideal for sneaking around. That's why he and Undertaker had buried their waterskins, bags, and anything else unnecessary for infiltration just outside the city, safely hidden beneath the sand.
Time to get to work.
This place was called Oasis. People here worshiped a god named Set. Well—not an actual god, just a Transcendent human playing Pharaoh.
Set—also known as Seth or Suetekh—was the Egyptian god of war, chaos, and storms. Brother of Osiris, Isis, and Horus the Elder. Uncle to Horus the Younger. Oh, and apparently, he was also the brother-husband of Nephthys. Yikes, why are almost all of those mythological deities such freaky-ass motherfuckers? His other consort? Tawaret — a hippo-headed fertility goddess. Bloody hell...
So yeah… having a Transcendent human pretending to be that guy? Slightly alarming. Who knows what kind of lunatic he really was?
Mark shook his head, trying to clear it. No point thinking too hard about the name of some ancient evil god.
He had a mission to finish.
And after that? He was gonna sit on his badass unicorn, eat some ice cream, and feel like a damn king.
Now that was the real priority.
But well, Mark's mood soured quickly. He trudged through narrow, sloped tunnels that led deep inside the structure. Some passages went upward, others downward. Some were sealed off or hidden entirely.
Seriously, who designed this maze? Why did these Pharaohs have to make pyramids so damn confusing? Couldn't they just hang up a map at the entrance or something?
He cursed under his breath, licking his dry lips and pressing onward. The air smelled of dry stone and dust—sometimes even decay, like somewhere out here, bodies were rotting.
At least he was thanking the dead gods for making him smart sometimes. If he hadn't brought his cool-looking bodysuit, he'd be completely screwed.
Because in this motherfucking place, everything echoed. He could even hear conversations and footsteps of guards hundreds of meters away. And if they were nearby? He could hear their breathing.
Phew, this suit was a lifesaver.
He thought quickly, sneaking past the guards. Hmm... He frowned, eyeing the other guards protecting the gate. Now what? He grimaced—he was about to get discovered. Sure, his bodysuit had enchantments that concealed his presence, smell, sound, and everything else that could give him away, but it couldn't make him invisible.
And now, patrols were returning. There was no way out. Behind him, guards were closing in, and ahead, more were guarding the gate.
Heh, this could work. Mark smiled goofily, staring at his palm where a small tornado spun. He poured more and more essence into it, then hurled it up into the air shafts.
Seconds later, the tornado grew, whipping up a sandstorm near the pyramid that sent sand flooding the corridor.
The guards rushed toward the air shafts. Those shafts could be closed—it was clear from their design, with mysterious copper handles and grooves suggesting they were built that way intentionally.
While the guards were distracted closing the shafts, Mark slipped inside. The tornado masked the noise as he opened the gate, slipped in, and quickly closed it behind him.
He wiped sweat from his forehead with a wide smile, sighing in relief after closing the gate.
"Well, ain't I a genius, heh... Oh... hell nah!"
He groaned, not bothering to curse quietly—there was no need. The growls inside were more than enough to mask his voice.
Why the hell were those people keeping Nightmare Creatures inside the pyramid? Still, he was lucky. Thanks to his bodysuit and the fact that those beasts were busy devouring others, he hadn't been noticed yet.
And while he was grateful for not being discovered, he couldn't shake the feeling of unease. What crime had those people committed to end up as food for abominations?
He shook his head in disgust, sneaking past the creatures and moving deeper toward the heart of the pyramid.
After half a day of sneaking around, Mark finally found what he was looking for. By this point, he was exhausted and annoyed—he even regretted taking the mission. What the hell? He hadn't known he'd have to play Maze Runner!
He gritted his teeth in bitterness and stepped inside. If his memory served him right, this was the Queen's chamber. It wasn't very big.
The room was rectangular—about 5.75 meters long, 5.23 meters wide, and roughly 6 meters high. While those dimensions were somewhat unusual for a chamber, compared to the others, it was like a doghouse next to a cottage.
The ceiling was flat, constructed from large limestone blocks carefully layered to reduce the weight pressing down on the room.
The walls were plain and unadorned, completely devoid of hieroglyphs or decorations—an odd contrast to the rest of the pyramid, where every chamber and corridor was covered with images of Set in all his glory and scenes of devoted worshippers.
The room was dark, cramped, and deathly quiet—designed unmistakably for solitude.
Its austerity stood in stark contrast to the vast, imposing scale of the pyramid itself.
Mark was glad that Monica—the AI Driver had created—was providing Ascendancy's operatives with all the intel she had on the mission. Yes, the AI was she. A surprisingly cute girl, if you asked Mark. Okay, he didn't have a crush on artificial intelligence, but Driver made her pretty. That wasn't his fault, naturally.
He smiled to himself as he paced the chamber, searching intently. After a while, he chuckled softly, tracing his fingers over the floor's surface with an amused glint in his eyes. He could feel air slipping through beneath the stone.
Looks like I found it.
In his hand, another Memory sparked into existence—white sparks swirling as it took the form of a pickaxe.
Taking a deep breath, Mark infused both his body and tool with soul essence, then swung hard, shattering the stone beneath him. Without hesitation, he jumped into the hole he'd made.
***
I remember telling you guys we'd eventually see how the Ascendancy truly operates. We saw them in France, tearing through everything like berserkers. Most of those were under Diego's command, so that was expected.
As for Mark and Undertaker? They're part of the Phantom Company. one of Ascendancy's elite departments, made up of their best fighters.
Up until now, we've seen the administrative, scientific, and sorcery departments in action, along with a few smaller branches. But now it's finally Phantom Company's turn to shine.
Enjoy!
***