My name is Khonsu, the Egyptian Moon God. I was sealed inside a pyramid by a mutant thousands of years ago. Thousands of years later, I met a dying tomb robber, a strange adventurer, and most importantly... he robbed my tomb.
I gave my power to this unlucky tomb robber and signed a contract with him, making him my avatar in the mortal world. Our two spirits became connected. After being imprisoned for thousands of years, I was finally able to see the Earth as it was now, with its countless lights and towering structures.
Things flying through the sky, things running across the ground, things swimming in the sea... Mark clearly understood all of it with his eyes, and then displayed it before mine. This was also the first time I had ever yearned for the outside world.
Soon after, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that as my strength weakened, the seal became less stable. It could even be shaken, crumbling as though it might collapse at any moment.
So I escaped!
With such a weak body, I transformed into a shadow and slipped out of the pyramid. I then went to check the seals of the other gods. To my surprise, they didn't know this method.
After spending the past two years safe and sound, I was finally preparing to leave this place and see a larger, newer world, to find out whether there were still gods in this world.
Coincidentally, I met a little witch as soon as I went outside. She looked about twenty years old, with a disdainful expression on her face. She had a graceful figure, and her hair was as red as flames dancing in the wind.
This person was trouble!
The witch didn't say a word. Her violent spiritual power instantly overwhelmed my soul. Red-and-black Chaos was as viscous as fresh blood, mixed with the foulest resentment in the world, and attacked me, an old god who had existed for tens of thousands of years.
I resisted... but to no avail. I was eventually controlled by Chaos, preparing to kill everyone according to the witch's will!
But another figure stopped me, and claws wrapped in purple-black energy nearly tore through my beak. The vast desert was like boiling water, churning and surging before my eyes as wave after wave of sand struck my body.
Golden sand pierced into my body and through my bones, then transformed into dozens of chains under the pull of the jackal's power, imprisoning me within my Moon Temple.
It was as though nothing had happened.
I was back where I had started.
This place, where I had long grown tired of staying, had become a prison that contained my nightmares and resentment from tens of thousands of years.
I raised my head with great difficulty.
The jackal was like a king, sitting solemnly upon the throne that belonged to me. His dark fur appeared even more sacred beneath the moonlight above him.
Silver light fell gently over us like feathers.
Unfortunately, one of us was kneeling, while the other was sitting.
...
Anubis opened his wolfish mouth, yawned lazily, and stuck out his tongue like a dog. The desert was always hot, and the God of Death retained some canine habits. When neither gods nor mortals were paying attention to him, the majestic God of Death would occasionally stick out his tongue to cool himself.
The Jackal was cunning and cruel as well. After assuming the position of the God of Death, he had become even more cold-blooded, yet he possessed an astonishing degree of rationality and composure, making him more famous and, in some respects, more formidable than Osiris.
The Ennead was a symbol of the Egyptian pantheon, but that didn't mean its members were the most powerful of all Egyptian gods. Anubis was not inferior to them in the slightest and could even surpass gods whose authority depended heavily on their lineage and established position.
The wolf-like pupils shone with an icy light. The mad god beneath him had obviously become his treasure.
He needed a sharp sword.
A sword sharp enough to cut through the mortal world.
The duty of the God of Death was to receive the dead. If he wanted to become stronger, he needed to receive more dead!
Khonsu's once-sharp but now weakened sword had fallen into his hands.
"That witch's black magic is beyond my imagination. It can actually affect the mind of a god."
Anubis was filled with unease toward Wanda. He had never seen a witch with such terrifying power and temperament, far beyond what their priests and pharaohs could match.
She was like a queen, a crown upon her head, her eyes cold and proud. She was arrogant and regarded everything with indifference, even treating gods as playthings and manipulating the world in the palm of her hand, unleashing destruction according to her own desires.
Wanda truly possessed the temperament of a queen. She was unwilling to remain trapped within a small corner of New York, so she turned her gaze toward the entire world, toward all seven continents. She divided the Earth into her territory, and she was its ruler.
But first... she needed to get rid of all the pests causing trouble within that territory.
Anubis raised the golden scepter. A black gem was set into its tip, capable of swallowing all light, and brought it down hard against Khonsu's head.
The crow's head took a heavy blow, and the scepter smashed it against the ground. Even his thoughts, which had been eroded by Chaos, became clearer, and a trace of lucidity appeared within his empty eye sockets.
Gods were gods, after all. Their divine nature did not allow them to be completely controlled by any outside force. Even after being infected, Wanda did not believe she could fully control these ancient gods.
Balder was different. The Child of Light from Northern Europe was still relatively young. He remained powerful and full of vitality, and his mind was focused on leading Asgard toward strength and prosperity rather than greedily ruling the world or gathering treasures and slaves.
How could an innocent child who was only a few thousand years old compare with a group of ancient beings who had existed for tens of thousands of years?
With nothing more than his experience and cunning, Khonsu could easily manipulate Balder, a warrior.
So Wanda allowed these ancient gods to act.
After all, they already harbored deep resentment toward the world. Perhaps letting them destroy cities according to their own desires would be much faster than controlling their minds and directing them herself.
Khonsu was beaten into a terrible state. His tattered gray robe could barely conceal his battered body. The power of death surged through him with every strike of the scepter, forcing him to endure immense pain and cold.
He seemed to see the other side of the underworld, with Ra waving to him...
Anubis wouldn't kill him, of course.
But he needed an obedient weapon, not a sinister strategist with a mind of his own who was constantly looking for an opportunity to stab him in the back.
Everything was stable.
"Reclaim your power and let the Moon God return to the world!"
Anubis shouted, his voice passionate but incomprehensible. The obscure words clearly reached Khonsu's ears.
He raised his head with difficulty, and the crow's skull cracked apart beneath another blow from the scepter.
"Mark... he will feel it... the knight is coming on the moonlight... he will not abandon his father..."
"How hypocritical!"
Anubis stepped on Khonsu's head, his voice filled with contempt.
"You only used him. You never regarded him as an equal contractor. He gained his life, but became your lifelong servant. All your talk of equality and trust was nothing more than a god's calculation."
Anubis knew the true nature of gods. He understood their hypocrisy and knew how to read people's hearts, understanding exactly what kind of people needed what.
Mark had been manipulated by Khonsu while dying, signing a seemingly "equal" contract at the cost of his life. He gained the power of the Moon Knight and, in return, gained his life.
But what was the price?
Never assume that a god is selfless. Gods could be among the most selfish beings of all.
Mark had surrendered his freedom and soul and become a nominal "avatar" but, in practice, a slave.
Khonsu always pretended to understand him perfectly. His tone was calm and trustworthy. Over the past two years, he had deceived Mark and the naive Steven.
But in reality?
Anubis had seen straight through that hypocritical face.
Even he was just as hypocritical and cruel.
"This is merely a gift from a god," Khonsu taunted Anubis, and Chaos returned to his eyes. "What about you? Are you looking for a dog to acknowledge as your son? Or... your father?"
Boom!
His mouth earned him the reward he deserved.
Anubis smashed his beak-like face into the ground. The scepter seemed to be inlaid with gold, sparkling brilliantly as it flashed before Khonsu's eyes.
In all the time since his birth, Khonsu had never suffered such a brutal and humiliating beating. Even when the other gods had come, they had merely stepped him into the ground. Those ten-thousand-meter giants had never taken him seriously.
But Anubis did.
...
Renzo arrived outside the Moon Temple in an instant.
Purple and silver divine power intertwined, brushing across the surface of the pyramid like paint, and the radiance nearly blinded Renzo's eyes.
Only gods could normally see the aura of other gods. Although Renzo wasn't a god, the Soul Stone allowed him to see through people's true nature. Through falsehood and deception, he could directly perceive the cowardly yet brutally honest core hidden within their souls.
Without wasting time on pleasantries, he sensed that Khonsu's presence was growing weaker and weaker.
He was dying.
The moonlight was too murky, and the surface of the sea could not reflect the moon's phantom. Only a vague shadow collided with the rocks, stirring up layers of white foam.
Anubis stopped what he was doing.
He sensed a more powerful and completely undisguised aura, but strangely...
There was no scent of life.
What a surprise.
It was the first time he had ever seen an inanimate object, an inanimate object that could move.
"Doghead, can you return the crow beneath your feet to me? I need him to save one of my comrades."
"How fascinating!"
Anubis exclaimed in surprise. The enormous jackal's head opened slightly, rows of sharp teeth reflecting fragments of light beneath the silver moonlight.
"What kind of strange race are you? An alien visitor? A human from some distant place?"
The jackal stepped forward and gently sniffed Renzo's body.
"There is no sound of breathing or heartbeat. Not even the most basic biological scent. I can smell the rotten meat in a vulture's mouth. I can smell Khonsu's cunning lies. But I can't smell anything from you. Not even the slightest trace."
Anubis's expression completely changed to one of shock.
"Don't you have a soul? Is the thing standing before me merely a body controlled by gems?"
"I'm sorry, but I can't answer that. Everyone has a few secrets."
Renzo walked directly past Anubis. He wasn't in the mood to talk with these gods.
At first, he had thought gods were like Thor—young, passionate, and straightforward. Later, he discovered that there were also cunning and jealous gods like Loki, or serious and unsmiling kings like Odin.
He had once believed that the worst a god could be was someone as shameless as Zeus, or perhaps someone as reckless as God Lapu, who cared about little beyond eating, drinking, and having fun.
These Egyptian gods had truly opened his eyes.
He didn't want to stay here for another second. He only needed to take Khonsu away. Under the combined suppression of the Mind Stone and divine power, Khonsu would be fine, and Mark would be fine as well.
Whoosh!
"Ha! I knew it."
Renzo had no choice but to lower his outstretched hand.
It was only half a meter from Khonsu.
"I really don't want to fight you anymore. I've already killed eight of the Nine Pillars. Maybe you're not missing one, but... can you understand what I'm saying?"
"You don't want to kill anyone anymore."
"As expected of the God of Death."
Renzo patted the Jackal on the shoulder, though his hand was actually suspended in midair.
Anubis was three meters tall under normal conditions, nearly two heads taller than the Hulk. Renzo was only 1.8 meters tall, reaching about the Jackal's chest. He could only touch Anubis's shoulder if he raised his hand.
Perhaps this was simply another way in which gods differed from mortals. Their forms varied according to their divine nature and origins.
"Are you going to weigh my heart against a feather?"
"Oh~ brother, I don't think you can do that. I don't have a heart."
Renzo nervously folded his arms. He wanted to see what Anubis intended to do by dragging him into this judgment.
It wouldn't work on him anyway.
Anubis fell silent.
Perhaps he realized that what he was doing was useless, but he still followed the procedure and brought out the scales of judgment.
"If your heart is lighter than a feather, I will let you go. Of course, if your heart is heavier than a feather..."
"Amit will tear your body apart, rip open your abdomen, and chew you to pieces. You will witness the entire spectacle with your own eyes."
Anubis continued carrying out his duty and attempted to extract Renzo's heart from his chest.
Boom!
As expected, he failed.
Vibranium blocked his movement, as did the power of the Infinity Stones. Renzo controlled them and knocked the jackal-headed hand away.
"Amit. I know him. Crocodile..."
"There is no way out!"
"I'll cut them into pieces!"
Renzo raised his arms and shouted, crocodile and Amit, jackal head and Anubis. He was so excited that he seemed to have returned to the nights when he worked at an Internet café, shouting as he fought alongside his teammates.
Anubis only felt that there was something wrong with this man's mind. Suddenly, he had become extremely excited, his eyes filled with tears of excitement and a strange sense of nostalgia.
There were no tears in the biochemical man's body.
Renzo was excited for a moment before calming down.
With his abilities, creating such a game would not be difficult. He could achieve a perfect one-to-one recreation, and perhaps even do it better.
"Life and death are endless reincarnations. We live, they die!"
Renzo lowered his head, his eyes fierce and cruel.
"Nice line."
Anubis felt that this sentence was much cooler and more philosophical than the previous "I'll cut them into pieces."
"But I still can't let you go."
The Jackal assumed a fighting stance and smiled coldly, his white fangs reflecting the moonlight.
"I'm also familiar with other methods of judgment. The one I know best..."
"Is physical judgment!"
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