Histoires de fantômes

Chapitre 65

"If you leave the camp now, does that mean you're giving up on the 'Eye of the Moon'? How do you explain that to Commander Watanabe?" I always thought that all of Tanino's actions in Egypt were supported by the Japanese government, and that all the results of his actions had to be reported to the government.

Tanino smiled calmly: "In your eyes, the 'Eye of the Moon' is the beginning of all mysteries, but in my eyes, it is the end of all chaos and strife. You may take it if you want, but once the gem is no longer revered and worshipped, what difference is there between it and an ordinary pebble?"

I touched my chin, not quite understanding what he meant, but I could vaguely sense that he seemed to know a lot about the "Eye of the Moon." So many strange things... I really wish Suren were here too, so we could listen and think together. It would be better than me wandering around in a fog all by myself.

"Like you, we are both pursuing the secret of unlocking the 'Great Seven'—the ultimate limit of Earth's destruction. The only difference is that you have just begun, while the research at Fuuki-ji Temple in Japan has been going on for over seventy years without anyone noticing. If you really want to know those unknown stories, come to Fuuki-ji Temple. I believe you will find it worthwhile..."

"I have so many questions to ask, even if I stayed up all night asking them, I'm afraid I still wouldn't be able to finish exploring them all. But at that moment, a sharp alarm suddenly sounded from the watchtower outside, and at the same time, the alarm emitted one mournful red light after another."

"Oh no, the mutiny has begun—" That was my first reaction. I stepped to the door and saw Tina leading Robert and the group of soldiers rushing toward Natura's large tent.

The guards outside the large tent automatically stepped aside, allowing the group to enter smoothly. They then closed up again, sealing the entrance to the tent tightly.

Tina is a well-trained military genius; surely she wouldn't disregard such a major taboo as "going deep into enemy territory alone"? If she rashly enters the heart of Natura, it might be easy to get in but extremely difficult to get out.

The gunners on the watchtower all lay low, only the corner of their camouflage caps peeking out from behind their scopes. The guards in the military vehicles surrounding the camp also quickly went on high alert. On the surface, everyone was drawing their weapons, but no one could find the trigger to cause a crisis.

"Mr. Tanino, I have to go out first. Please wait for me to come back!" My concern for Tina far outweighed my concern for Tanino and Fujika.

After leaving the tent, I darted into the shadows of the tent on my left, then crouched low and moved quickly sideways, carefully avoiding the sight of the soldiers on the watchtower. Within minutes, I quietly reached the back of Natura's tent.

"High Priest, I have a handwritten edict from the President here. Would you like to take a look?" It was Tina's voice, cold and stern.

“What? Is the president going to remove me from my post?” Natura replied.

"Yes, the president's orders are twofold: first, to relieve you of your position as high priest; and second, to send you far away from Luo City to the upstream reservoir to be in charge of water management for the entire Egypt, and to begin execution immediately from the moment you see the edict."

There should still be a scalpel in the tent, but it remained completely silent, and no sound could be heard from him.

I crouched even lower, peering towards the military vehicle behind me. Ten meters away, there were two machine guns and two gunners on the roof. Below the vehicle were four soldiers standing in a crisscross formation, pointing their guns at the tent. There was also a man in the driver's cab, who looked like their squad leader.

It's unclear whether the mutiny was launched by Natura or simply a purge of dissidents by Tina. In any case, the current troop strength in the tents suggests that Tina has a 99% absolute advantage, making my arrival seem completely unnecessary.

“Brother Feng, you…you still don’t trust Tina…” Suren quietly followed, holding a pistol in each hand, the muzzles pointed at the soldiers near the military vehicle. Every time Tina was mentioned, her voice carried a hint of sour jealousy.

I smiled apologetically and looked toward the tent where Gu Ye was, still wondering what shocking way he would leave in.

Part Six: The Divine Appearance Revealed

— Chapter 5 - The Sudden Mutiny —

"Haha, hahahaha, hahahaha..."

Natura burst into laughter, slamming his fist on the table with a loud bang: "What? You're dismissing me? Do you know that the Desert Legion's light infantry is only five kilometers away? A fifteen-minute forced march could raze this place to the ground! General Tina, I am now formally informing you that from this moment on, I am no longer under the leadership of the Presidential Palace, but rather under the direct command of the Desert Legion. Therefore, for your safety, please leave the tent immediately and take your trusted men with you from the camp, otherwise… don't blame me for not giving the President any face…"

The Desert Legion is indeed a massive and terrifying military force, but unfortunately, it's too far away to solve an immediate problem. In fifteen minutes, Tina's bullets could kill Natura ten thousand times over.

At this moment, everyone seemed to have forgotten their true purpose in entering the camp—there were snakes beneath the pyramids, the "Eye of the Moon" gem among the snakes, and a mysterious world above the tomb chamber… Humanity’s greed, hatred, and arrogance gradually took over, and they all made seizing military power their primary task.

"Brother Feng, since Tina is alright, let's leave. It's too dangerous here..." Suren suggested in a low voice, his body pressed completely against the ground, afraid of being noticed by the gunmen on the watchtower.

Suren is right. Getting involved in a duel would not only be pointless, but could also lead to our deaths. This is a power struggle between two factions within Egypt, and whoever kills whom is none of our business as outsiders.

“Natura, you’re under arrest. Kounon, go outside and inform all the soldiers that Natura has been convicted of treason and defection to the enemy, and will be placed under isolation and investigation effective immediately.” Tina issued the orders methodically.

A young soldier responded and strode out of the tent, carrying a megaphone. He loudly repeated Tina's words: "All soldiers, listen up! The President has ordered that Natura has committed treason and defected to the enemy..."

In my opinion, this soldier had absolutely no experience in a mutiny environment. He recklessly went out and exposed himself to the guns of hundreds of people who didn't know who was friend or foe. He was simply playing with his life.

Sure enough—the words were barely out of his mouth when suddenly, four muffled thuds rang out in succession. The young soldier named "Kou Nong" was thrown backward, falling straight out with a gaping hole in his chest, the size of a bowl, and died instantly. He had only been hit by one bullet; the other three had accurately killed the other three soldiers at the tent entrance.

The gunmen's sudden attack was completely unexpected, because I had always thought they were under Tina's leadership and would definitely be on her side. Who could have predicted that they would be so ruthless, as if they had already received a sniper order from someone else.

The soldiers at the tent entrance erupted in commotion, scattering to the left and right, quickly taking cover in the shadows behind the tent. Even so, as the four sniper rifles took turns firing, they mercilessly claimed the lives of six more soldiers. The muzzle flashes were brighter than the fireworks set off by the government on National Day, and their marksmanship far exceeded my expectations, almost every shot was fatal.

This sudden change seemed to disrupt Tina's plans, and a sudden silence fell inside the tent.

All the soldiers responsible for perimeter security have taken cover and are hiding, not daring to show their faces. On the one hand, in medium- to long-range firefights, the range and accuracy of light weapons cannot compete with the heavy sniper rifles positioned at a higher vantage point; on the other hand, after infighting broke out among members of the same unit, soldiers who had not received clear orders could only hide to protect themselves and dared not launch a rash attack.

In an instant, a true deathly silence descended upon this vast camp.

The sand was icy cold, but Suren and I still tried to huddle together, concealed in the narrow shadows behind the tent. The terrifying sniping effect of the exploding shells chilled everyone to the bone—

“General Tina, now you should know who the real master of the camp is, right?” Natura laughed smugly.

Tina's voice remained cold and stern: "High Priest, don't be too smug. Let me tell you the truth—below the camp, I've already ordered fourteen TNT bombs to be planted. Once the button is pressed, we'll all be wiped out. I die, and you die too! Robert—"

Robert agreed and yanked open his backpack.

Natura cried out, "No, no..."

Suren suddenly sighed, "Brother Feng, do you still think General Tina needs your careful protection?" His words carried both deep jealousy and heartfelt admiration. Both were girls in their early twenties, but Tina's cunning and scheming far surpassed Suren's; no wonder she could easily lead the elite troops of the Egyptian army.

The power struggle within the camp was like a game of chess that changed in an instant. Natura, who thought he had the upper hand, suddenly found himself in a precarious situation.

Before Natura and the scalpel entered the camp, Tina had already laid out a very comprehensive military takeover of the camp. Therefore, her mention of "TNT explosives" was by no means a bluff. In the fierce fighting at fixed locations, high explosives are the ultimate killers that destroy everything.

“You are…lying? I don’t believe it…you can be so heartless as to…commit suicide in a self-destructive manner…” Natura still clung to a sliver of hope.

"Hehe..." Tina sneered, offering neither explanation nor roar.

"You're lying! There's no explosives at all! As long as I send out a signal flare, the Desert Legion will be there in fifteen minutes. Hehe, then..."

Just then, a bright signal flare suddenly rose from the watchtower, soaring more than forty meters into the air before exploding with a bang, bursting into red, white, and black fireworks. In the center of the fireworks was an earthen-yellow, ancient-style shield, which remained suspended in the night sky for a full six seconds before slowly falling.

The red, white, and black stripes along with the ancient-style shield were exactly the design of the Egyptian flag. Nathura must have had a wireless communication device with him; while shouting at Tina, he had already used some kind of code to notify the rebels on the watchtower.

With the overwhelming army pressing in, the camp will be reduced to nothingness under the fierce attack.

To be honest, even knowing about the "International Citizen Protection Act," a globally accepted principle of warfare, I still can't be sure I'll receive special protection in the midst of war. In recent years, countless journalists, civilians, and peacekeeping troops from various countries have died in the flames of war in Africa, and even official observers stationed by the United Nations have been affected.

Stray bullets don't have eyes; who knows when they'll sneak up on you?

Suren strained to turn his neck, surveying the surrounding situation. In this predicament, the only way to protect himself was to break through the encirclement of military vehicles around the camp and escape to the west.

After crossing the Turkham pyramids, traversing forty kilometers through the desert, we will enter an area densely populated with pyramids, where there are thousands of passageways and valleys for hiding. The key question is, will the desert legion have any weak points in the encirclement? The escape routes we can see, the strategic commanders in the legion must see even more clearly than we do.

“Impossible, Suren, we can’t escape. My opinion is, we should—” I pointed towards the derrick. There was no one guarding it, and there were tents nearby that could provide cover during an escape. Even though there was the threat of venomous snakes from inside the pyramid once inside the tunnel, it was still better than dying from stray bullets.

Once the battle is over, we can easily crawl out and reveal our identities...

Suren frowned: "No, Brother Feng, if an explosion occurs in the camp, causing a chain reaction of underground collapses, it will be like a natural tomb. We'll be left with nothing but snakes for the rest of our lives..."

In the darkness, my face flushed red. My idea of escaping underground stemmed from the belief that "Tina wouldn't detonate the bomb," because I didn't believe Tina was so wicked and ruthless. In my mind, I always placed her on the scales of "excellence and wisdom," and even if she possessed a little "cunning," it was merely a helpless act when facing the rebels.

Suren sighed inwardly, and many things were revealed in that sigh.

Since ancient times, "even heroes cannot resist the charms of a beautiful woman." Tina is undoubtedly a standard beauty, but am I a hero of great wisdom and courage?

“Robert, that watchtower is useless now—” Tina sneered, as if Natura’s firing of the signal flare was something she had anticipated.

“Yes, sir,” Robert replied in a deep voice.

Less than a second later, just as I was pondering the meaning of their two sentences, a huge fireball suddenly rose up in the camp, right below the watchtower.

The physics concept that "the speed of light is many times greater than the speed of sound" was once again demonstrated. We saw the fireball, the watchtower soaring into the sky, the snipers flailing about like wooden puppets—only to hear the deafening explosion. The snipers, who were just moments before Natura's deadly weapon, were destroyed by Tina in a single second.

The aftershocks of the explosion lingered, causing the ground beneath me to tremble and the tent beside me to rattle and rattle violently from the rapidly spreading shockwaves.

After the explosion came an even deeper silence.

As the watchtower's wreckage flew out of the camp, shattering into countless pieces and crashing down, a massive crater, six meters in diameter, appeared in the center of the camp. The enormous explosion served as a powerful, even more dazzling, signal flare, likely carrying far and wide across the vast desert.

"Very good." After a long while, I heard the approving sound of a scalpel, accompanied by soft applause.

Natura was stunned, his voice trembling: "I...we might be able to...have a good talk..." The bomb that sent the watchtower flying was only one of fourteen. God knows how spectacular it would be when the other thirteen bombs detonated at the same time.

“Talk? Fine, but we have to go outside and talk in front of all the soldiers!” Tina took the initiative, and two minutes later, she and Robert had each taken Natura by the arm and left the tent.

In his other hand, Robert held a delicate remote control, not much larger than a regular TV remote. Everyone is afraid of death; Natura, hunched over, had lost all his arrogance, looking like a mangy dog with a broken spine.

Holding a megaphone, Tina loudly announced: "By order of the Egyptian President, effective immediately, Nathula himself is removed from his position as High Priest and will be sent to a military court for trial. All soldiers, regardless of any connection with Nathula, will be granted a presidential pardon, their past actions will be forgiven, and this act of treason will never be investigated."

Behind her were seven fully armed soldiers, their guns pointed at their comrades beside the military vehicles on either side. In battle, each side fought for its own cause, and at this moment, they wouldn't hesitate to kill their own comrades they had spent so much time with. It was believed that a large portion of the soldiers surrounding the camp had already been either bribed or coerced by Natura, and Tina's promise of "amnesty" would undoubtedly quell the fears and anxieties of these rebels.

Robert let out a sharp whistle, and the soldiers beside the military vehicle erupted in a commotion. More than sixty men quickly stepped forward, carrying their weapons, and lined up in two rows on the open ground to Robert's left. These were his trusted confidants, the most reliable men in the camp at that moment.

Natura raised his head, looked at most of the soldiers who remained motionless, and then lowered his head in dejection.

I never saw the scalpel appear; it was as if he had become invisible during this mutiny, and no one cared about him or disturbed him.

Suren and I stepped out of the shadows and walked towards Tina. We should all be happy for her ability to turn the tide and quell the rebellion in time.

Suddenly, five plumes of dust rose up from the north of the camp, and five pairs of bright headlights lit up in the night.

"It's an armored vehicle! It's an armored personnel carrier from the Desert Legion..." someone whispered.

The headlights appeared rapidly in the darkness, and within minutes, the armored vehicles came into view. There were five vehicles in total, each with five menacing heavy machine guns pointed menacingly forward from their roofs. When they were 500 meters from the camp, the searchlights on the roofs simultaneously illuminated the scene.

"Ready for battle! Ready for battle!" Robert shouted. The sixty-odd men around him quickly took up advantageous concealed ambush positions. Unfortunately, their light weapons were practically useless compared to the heavy machine guns on the troop carriers. Even more terrifying was that the troop carriers were merely the vanguard of the desert legion; who knew how many larger troops would arrive in an instant behind them?

Tina didn't seem too flustered, as if Natura, whom she was holding hostage, was a safe enough shield.

I had a vague feeling that something was wrong, because Robert had a gloomy smile on his face the whole time—with a formidable enemy at hand, what he needed to do most was to quickly hide and direct the Rainbow Warriors' counterattack, so there was no way he could be showing such a smile.

With a soft click, Suren gently released the safety of her pistol, her hand in her pocket. We'd always felt a connection, but when I sensed danger, she was alert at the same time.

"Robert, you are in command of the battle. Make sure to keep the camp's defenses intact and wait for reinforcements from Cairo..." Tina's words were simply a fantasy. With only sixty-odd men and limited light weapons around Robert, how could they possibly withstand the desert legion's large force that would arrive in an instant on the troop transport vehicles?

At this moment, the soldiers who had been standing still silently retreated and returned to the military vehicles. Now that Natura's rebellion had failed, this leaderless group would likely put up a last-ditch effort. If Tina had been tough enough, it would have been entirely necessary to shoot them down first.

The excavation of the pyramids turned into a massive mutiny of the Egyptian army—something perhaps even the scalpel could never have imagined. In the midst of this powerful regime change, all the legends about gems and "mysterious weapons" faded into the distance, leaving only the impending bloody massacre.

“I understand, sir!” Robert’s smile deepened, and he quickly pointed a short pistol at Tina’s temple. The cold gun gleamed with a chilling light, reflecting the smug smile on his face, making his triangular snake eyes appear even more sinister.

At that moment, Suren and I were standing about fifteen steps away from Tina, and there was no time to make any rescue response.

"Robert, what do you mean by this?" Tina sneered.

Robert burst into laughter, tossing the remote control in his hand into the air before catching it with a flourish: "What I mean is, from this moment on, the Rainbow Warriors are completely under my control. And you—my beautiful General Tina, and your muddle-headed president father—will become sinners in Egypt, ultimately being led to the execution ground..."

My hunch was absolutely right, because from the first moment I saw Robert, I had a gut feeling that he wasn't a good person, and now I finally couldn't help but confront him.

The situation in the camp took another sharp turn for the worse, with control falling into the hands of the unassuming little man, Robert. The retreating soldiers remained silent. The change of leadership had little impact on them. As long as they were alive, they could survive regardless of who led them. That was the only advantage of being an unknown soldier—they could switch sides like a reed in the wind at any time.

Natura roared with ecstatic joy: "So... Robert, the hidden expert the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defense were talking about was you? That's great, that's great! Give me the remote control... give it to me..."

He started gesturing wildly, like a clumsy tap dancer, leaping and bounding as he tried to snatch the remote control from Robert's hand.

At this moment, having the power to detonate the bomb is the key to ultimately controlling the camp. Neither Tina nor High Priest Natura's personal prestige or charisma are worth anything in the eyes of the rebel groups.

"Three, two, one..." Suren moved his lips and counted down softly.

With a loud bang, Natura's body was suddenly thrown backward, like a giant frog struck by a left hook, falling backward with a trail of blood in mid-air. In that instant, Suren suddenly shifted two steps to the right, increasing the distance between us from half a meter to nearly two meters.

When Natula landed, a small bloody hole had already appeared on his forehead.

"Go to hell with your high priesthood! I'm the commander of this operation now—" Robert cursed contemptuously, and quickly moved the muzzle of his gun back to Tina's temple, stopping her from drawing her gun and firing angrily.