Chapter 8: The Child Both Fortunate and Doomed
For Hikigaya, breaking a curse from the ancient Egyptian era was honestly not difficult at all.
Magic is also a kind of technique.
Any technique can improve over time; it's just a matter of speed.
The magic from three thousand years ago might have some lost skills that vanished in later eras, but over three thousand years, even if there were periods of stagnation or regression, later innovations would have more than made up for it.
It's true that the ancient Egyptians could borrow divine power, but that doesn't mean they could use divine power like their own innate magical energy.
Otherwise, how could a godslayer be called the king of magicians?
To put it in modern terms, the Egyptian sorcerers were like franchise owners of a 4S (car sales and service) dealership—the divine power given by gods was a finished product, not raw material.
Borrowing divine power simply meant using their bodies as gateways to manifest divine abilities.
In contrast, later Egyptian magicians, due to the massive loss of divine magic, imitated divine magic through human magical energy.
At first glance, it might seem less powerful than divine power, but it was far more practical.
No need to say more, what Hikigaya was seeing now was clear proof.
The infant girl before him was cursed in such a simple way that even a half-skilled magician like Hikigaya found it pitiful. If it weren't for the fact that the cursed person was a very fragile baby, Hikigaya could break the curse with just his own magic power.
This level of curse technique would be considered a beginner's exercise by the Nine Gods' circle in later generations.
But it did have one advantage: the caster left absolutely no traces.
Although the curse was simple, it had deeply penetrated.
Breaking such a curse was just a matter of time. To be honest, having such a weak target for his show-off moment made Hikigaya feel a bit irritated and dissatisfied.
But to fully show off—being one of the strongest show-off practitioners in the world three thousand years later—Hikigaya did have some principles.
Suppressing the urge to pinch his nose, Hikigaya pretended to randomly touch the face of Ramses' daughter, then started considering which of his powers to use.
Currently, Hikigaya controlled five divine powers, according to his understanding of the nature of gods:
From Set, he usurped Destruction. From Osiris, he usurped Life. From Kuafu, he usurped Mimicry. From Dijun, he usurped Order. From Poseidon, he usurped Tremor(Sismic).
Additionally, he had a weapon, not exactly a divine power but nearly so: the Thunder of Zeus, revealed through Athena.
For this situation, only the powers of Osiris, Kuafu, and Dijun were applicable; the others were not.
Within seconds, Hikigaya reached his conclusion in his mind.
Using just one power wasn't enough!
If he wanted to show off, he had to do it thoroughly! The feeling of half-heartedness was the worst.
Hikigaya first used the power of Osiris.
From the spot where his fingers touched, the baby's skin gradually turned green.
Among all his powers, Osiris's Life power was the gentlest, and only this power could be tolerated by the infant's body and help her endure the more violent parts that would come afterward.
But Hikigaya wasn't just using this power to look impressive.
Ramses would have over a hundred children in the future; anyone could guess how much affection he could realistically distribute to each child, not to mention his vast harem.
Coupled with Ramses' notoriously chaotic personality from history, Hikigaya knew this girl's future life would definitely be tough.
Since fate had brought him here, at least he would help her live longer and suffer less illness.
"Osiris…" Hikigaya heard a low whisper from behind—it seemed to be the priestess.
But he didn't turn around and continued channeling the power of life into Ramses' newborn daughter.
Because he used Osiris's power, the tiny amount of Set's power he released earlier in the room was naturally neutralized.
Although Horus and Set are opposed but can coexist, there was no such coexistence between Osiris's and Set's powers, even as divine powers.
But that woman probably wouldn't dare stop him again—since she recognized the power of Osiris worshiped by the Egyptians, she should understand the implications.
Even without looking back, Hikigaya could feel the spirits of the ancient Egyptians behind him rising in intensity.
In his "vision," the curse power inside the infant's body was being pushed out by the power of life, much like how Osiris causes the deathly aura buried deep underground to overflow to the surface.
The curse had been cast early, surely before Ramses' wife was even pregnant, so this curse was nurtured alongside the child in her mother's womb.
No wonder these ancient Egyptian priests were completely powerless to remove it.
Without divine power, their own magical skills were limited, and borrowing divine power from the gods would just destroy both the curse and the baby together, since they were one and the same.
The gods wouldn't bother to differentiate.
Suddenly, Hikigaya reached out and lifted the baby.
Her body had fully turned green, like the resurrected Osiris from myth.
Hikigaya held her and walked toward the door.
The huge palace was not entirely enclosed; it was a complex of different buildings, filled not just with scattered small buildings but mostly gardens with fig trees and other plants, plus pools connected to the Nile River.
The water channels' entrances were fenced with metal bars to prevent crocodiles and other creatures from entering the palace.
From the queen's bedroom to the opposite building was a large square pool, crossed by a broad stone walkway wide enough for three people side by side.
The night sky overhead was completely different from three thousand years later—clearer, and the Egyptian land knew no cold.
The breeze gently stirred the night air, carrying moisture from the Nile.
For Hikigaya, this environment was perfect.
He reached the center of the walkway, with pools on both sides. The originally calm water surface seemed to ripple because of his arrival.
Soon, the ancient Egyptians trailing out of the queen's room noticed this was no illusion.
The water was rising.
Under the influence of some invisible force, drops of Nile water were lifting out of the pool, floating in the air one by one.
What happened next left them almost no time even to think.