Herman was deep in thought about how he should address Magneto.
If he called him "brother," wouldn't that make Wanda call him "uncle" when he got back?
Time, he mused, was a truly fascinating thing.
Just as the thought amused him,
"This..."
Evelyn's expression wavered with uncertainty, clearly thrown off by Herman's words.
Looking at his calm, confident demeanor—coupled with the impossible things she had already witnessed—her once steadfast belief in "science above all" began to crumble again.
When a worldview collapses, it happens either once or infinitely many times.
And right now, Evelyn was caught between both.
Could there really be a group of people in this world with superhuman powers?
If so, why had she never met any of them in her twenty-some years of life—except for this impossibly handsome man beside her?
Was it sheer bad luck that she'd never crossed paths with one, or did such people live in isolation, hidden from the rest of the world?
Her thoughts spun wildly, and before she realized it, she was already accepting Herman's words on some instinctive level. Otherwise, she wouldn't be entertaining such questions at all. Her world—the tidy, rational world of science and logic—had been completely overturned.
The world, she realized, was far more complex than she'd ever imagined.
"You're not searching for the City of the Dead, Hamunaptra, just for its gold, are you?" Evelyn suddenly asked, her tone thoughtful.
Someone like Herman, mysterious and impossibly powerful, hardly seemed the type to risk so much for mere treasure. Considering how easily he'd spent gold when preparing for their journey, she doubted that gold or jewels held any real value to him.
"Of course not. Gold alone... hardly seems worth the trouble. What I'm after are two ancient texts said to rest within the Necropolis of Hamunaptra."
Herman didn't bother hiding his true intent. Both books were steeped in the power of death—power that would greatly aid him in mastering the laws of mortality.
The Book of the Dead could resurrect the deceased as undead—not living humans, but spirits endowed with immense magical power.
Of course, such resurrection came at a terrible cost: losing one's humanity to become an immortal abomination.
That was a power Herman himself had yet to master.
The Book of Amun-Ra, on the other hand, could restore undead souls to true life—reviving them as normal humans once more. That, at least, was within his reach.
"Your goal... is the Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra!"
Evelyn's eyes widened in shock. Her deep understanding of ancient Egypt instantly told her what those names meant.
"Good heavens! I always thought those were nothing but legends! Could those scriptures actually exist?"
It was no surprise she doubted their reality.
Throughout Egyptian history, the Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra were said to be sacred tomes of unfathomable power—texts that bridged the realms of life and death.
As a woman of science, she had always dismissed such things as myth.
But now... hearing their names from the mouth of a man who might very well be a true sorcerer—someone who had already defied her understanding of reality—she couldn't help but wonder.
Could it be that these legendary scriptures... really existed?
"They exist," Herman said evenly. "And they lie within the Pharaoh's resting place."
He raised an eyebrow, his voice calm but firm—his resolve to claim both the Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra utterly unshakable.
"If they truly exist," Evelyn breathed, "then their discovery would shake the world! They'd become the most brilliant treasures in the entire history of ancient Egypt!"
A flurry of emotions welled up within her, finally escaping as a breathless sigh.
Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright with excitement.
"Your goal is those two books? No! You can't take them! They belong to Egypt!"
Her voice trembled with conviction, her moral righteousness flaring to the surface.
To Evelyn, artifacts like the Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra were not meant for private hands—they belonged to Egypt itself, the heir to that ancient civilization's legacy.
Herman, of course, had seen this coming. In the Mummy films, Evelyn had always been this kind of woman—brilliant, brave, and unshakably idealistic.
Watching her now, face flushed and full of passion as her camel trudged alongside his, Herman already had his response prepared.
He schooled his expression into one of grave seriousness.
"Both the Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra are supernatural relics. Your understanding of them is correct—they truly possess the power to commune with the realm of the dead."
"Such scriptures should never fall into the hands of ordinary forces. Only a powerful 'sorcerer' like myself can control their power."
Herman declared this with perfect seriousness, as if proclaiming himself a sorcerer were the most natural thing in the world.
Evelyn blinked in astonishment.
"So you really are a sorcerer!"
Her focus, as always, zeroed in on the weirdest thing. It was like she'd just caught Herman red-handed, blurting it out with a mix of excitement and barely contained thrill.
"..."
Herman could only sigh inwardly, though his expression remained solemn. "Since you already know about the Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra, then you should also know—they carry the power of Anubis, the god of death. If such artifacts were to appear in the mortal world, the results would be catastrophic."
"Politicians would seek resurrection. The rich would crave immortality... this world would collapse into chaos, overrun with monsters and abominations."
Herman spoke vividly, painting a chilling image of a living hell.
Evelyn, recalling the ancient legends of the Book of the Dead, knew that those resurrected by its magic were said to become monstrous beings with immense power.
For a moment, the girl who had been so firm about turning the books over to the Egyptian authorities hesitated. She understood that Herman wasn't merely trying to frighten her—his words made too much sense.
No one wanted to die.
Given the chance, those in power would certainly try to live forever. And if the Book of the Dead fell into the wrong hands, the world would indeed become a wasteland of the living and the dead.
Under Herman's calm yet persuasive tone, Evelyn found herself subconsciously believing in the books' power.
"Anubis... the god of death..."
Her gaze flickered, thoughts racing.
Having studied Egyptian history all her life, she knew exactly who that god was.
If the Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra truly held the power he described, then perhaps... they really were artifacts of Anubis himself.
The realization made her heart race.
"Good heavens! This world is utterly mad!" Evelyn could barely find the words. Her emotions were a tangle of awe, disbelief, and excitement.
The world she thought she understood—its rules, its logic—had already been overturned. And yet, she found it strangely easy to believe Herman's words.
Perhaps it was his extraordinary charm that made him so persuasive, or perhaps, as the reincarnation of an Egyptian princess, some deep instinct within her resonated with what he said.
However insane his descriptions sounded, a part of her couldn't help but think, if the world really were this way... it wouldn't be so surprising.
"Madness, you say? Then maybe I should tell you the origin of mutants." Herman's smile carried an unmistakable hint of mischief.
With nothing but endless dunes around them, teasing Evelyn had become his only form of entertainment.
The desert stretched endlessly—an ocean of golden sand, silent except for the slow plodding of their camels. Here and there, scorpions and tiny insects stirred beneath the surface, while the only patches of green were the stubborn cacti that refused to die.
For someone like Herman, who could appreciate such desolation, even the slow rhythm of travel held its own charm.
And with Evelyn beside him—stubborn, proud, and full of contradictions—it was all the more amusing. Every now and then, he delighted in shaking her worldview just a little more.
"You're about to tell me something outrageous again, aren't you? Something that'll completely upend everything I know?" Evelyn narrowed her eyes, half-expecting it by now.
"That depends," Herman said lightly. "Would aliens scare you? Because mutants originated from aliens."
His tone was calm, even playful, but there was laughter hidden beneath it.
"Aliens...?!?"
Evelyn's reaction was as adorable as ever—her amber eyes widened like saucers, her lips parting slightly in disbelief.
She turned toward him, studying his face intently. Seeing no trace of jest, her expression faltered; she looked almost dizzy from the shock.
Aliens were a popular research topic of the era, though Evelyn had always stood with the skeptics. She firmly believed humanity was alone in the cosmos.
But now... she wasn't so sure.
She wanted to believe Herman was joking, yet his expression was calm, sincere—even amused.
"You can't possibly think humans are the only civilization in the universe," Herman said with a teasing smile, his eyes gleaming with quiet amusement.
Fortunately, he didn't mention that the aliens responsible for creating mutants were the Celestials. If he had, Evelyn might have fainted right there on the camel.
"Isn't that the case?" she asked hesitantly.
Her understanding of science—of extraterrestrial life—was shaped by the thinking of the World War II era, as narrow and self-centered as the old belief in a geocentric universe.
"Of course not," Herman replied with an easy smile. "Humans aren't the only ones in the cosmos. In fact, several alien civilizations have already visited Earth."
He was referring, of course, to the Kree and the Asgardians.
But in Evelyn's ears, his words sparked a very different kind of imagination.
"You mean... the pyramids were built by aliens? And there's an alien base in the Bermuda Triangle?"
Clearly, she'd been reading too many popular rumors.
Herman stared at her for a moment, momentarily speechless.
Then he couldn't help but laugh, shaking his head in exasperation before finally replying.
"Is it possible that aliens build houses without using stones at all? And as for Bermuda... there's nothing particularly special about that place."
Herman felt obliged to debunk such pulp-fiction nonsense before it got out of hand.
"I knew it… of course I know that. I just thought you were going to start talking about those ideas," Evelyn replied, her cheeks faintly flushed.
Still, she lifted her chin with confidence. "Anyway, I don't believe in folk legends. I only trust what I can see with my own eyes."
After saying that, she turned toward Herman.
But the "scary talk" she'd been expecting from him didn't come. Instead, she noticed that Herman's attention was fixed somewhere deep in the desert, his expression thoughtful, almost wary.
"What's wrong?" she asked curiously.
"Are you sure you didn't take the wrong path?" Herman's tone carried a hint of doubt, his gaze still trained ahead.
"You can say you know more than I do—but you can't question my expertise!" Evelyn shot back, her tone indignant. "If the information you gave me was correct, then my navigation is correct! This is the right way! We'll reach the City of the Dead, Hamunaptra, by dawn—just like you said!"
Her face was flushed with frustration, her voice full of certainty. The idea that Herman might doubt her professional skill clearly offended her.
"I believe in seeing, too," Herman replied evenly. "But what I'm seeing… isn't the City of the Dead."
A faint light flickered in his eyes as he peered far across the sea of dunes.
Several kilometers away, half-buried in the sands, a massive pyramid was being excavated—its golden tip gleaming faintly beneath the morning sun.
Activating his superhuman vision, Herman saw through layers of sand and stone—and within that grand structure, he caught sight of a figure that completely defied his expectations.
"What are you talking about? There's nothing out there!" Evelyn protested, squinting into the distance and craning her neck.
"You were just talking about whether the pyramids were built by aliens..." Herman withdrew his gaze and glanced at her with a faint smile as she fumbled with her binoculars.
"Aliens might not have built the pyramids," he said lightly, "but soon, we might see one built by mutants."
His words froze Evelyn in place.
"Mutants? You mean those genetically altered humans you talked about?" Her mouth fell open in disbelief. "There were mutants in ancient Egypt? And they built a pyramid?"
The thought alone shattered her worldview more than talk of Anubis or aliens ever could.
Could it be true that superpowered beings had once shaped the course of Egyptian history?
"If we're lucky," Herman said with a faint smile, "you might even get to see a mutant who's lived for thousands of years."
The image of a blue-skinned figure flashed in his mind. Things were taking a turn far stranger—and far more interesting—than he had anticipated.
He had originally come here searching for the Pharaoh's tomb, hoping to obtain the two sacred texts imbued with the power of Anubis.
But who would have thought...that his path would once again drift back into the rhythm of the Marvel Universe?
He hadn't found Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead—but he had stumbled upon the ruins of Egypt's Mutant Dynasty.
Yes—the Mutant Dynasty.
And within that distant pyramid slept a mutant monarch from millennia past, perhaps the most powerful mutant in history—the self-proclaimed god… Apocalypse.