Lanly Gormo, the benefactor, gave the order. Several strong members of the expedition team immediately stepped forward, pushing the heavy lid of the stone coffin with all their might.
With a dull grinding sound of stone against stone, the coffin was forced open. The members of the team leaned in, their eyes filled with intense curiosity as they peered inside.
"It's truly lifelike!" Lanly Gormo couldn't help but exclaim as he looked at the figure lying within.
Thousands of years had passed, yet the corpse in the stone coffin showed no signs of decay. Aside from the skin and muscles being significantly more shriveled than a normal person's, the body remained perfectly intact.
"How can a corpse be preserved so perfectly? It's unbelievable. This ruin is definitely older than any of the Egyptian pyramids. Those Egyptian mummies only survived for thousands of years because of complex chemical treatments and storage in specific environments. This body shows no sign of treatment, and the container is just an ordinary stone coffin—there are no conditions here to create a vacuum or seal out the air," one team member noted in amazement.
As the team opened the coffin, the "plot" was triggered. Daguva, the King of the Gurongi created by Dan Kuroto was jolted from his slumber. A dangerous aura began to wake and permeate the chamber.
"Why do I feel like it's getting harder to breathe?" someone in the team asked, sounding confused.
The killing intent from the newly awakened Daguva was only the tip of the iceberg—not yet fully unleashed—but it was enough to cause a strange, subtle shortness of breath among the humans.
"It's nothing major. We've got a lot of people crowded in here; it's normal for the oxygen to get a bit thin. We tested the air with instruments before coming in—there are no toxic gases, so don't worry," a companion replied with a smile.
While Lanly Gormo was discussing with the experts how to handle the ancient corpse and the coffin, a sharp cry rang out.
"Did... did the fingers of the corpse in the coffin just move?!" a team member suddenly shrieked.
"Impossible. This ruin is at least several thousand, maybe even ten thousand years old. No human can live that long. You're just overexcited; your eyes played tricks on you in the dim light," others laughed off the comment.
The person who thought they saw the "corpse" move rubbed their eyes and stared unblinkingly at the body. Finally, they sighed softly: "I must have been mistaken."
"Mr. Gormo, I believe we need to transport this ancient body back to the laboratory for thorough research."
"If we can find the secret behind this, it will be a monumental discovery."
Lanly Gormo, however, felt a stir in his heart. He looked at the belt around the waist of the "Kuuga" corpse, which was embedded with an Amadam spirit stone, and compared it to the drawings on the walls. Sensing that the belt might be the source of the immense power recorded in the murals, he impatiently reached out and stripped the belt from the body.
The moment Lanly Gormo removed the belt, the person in the stone coffin suddenly raised a trembling hand, clawing toward the belt in Gormo's grasp. But as the belt left the body, the flesh rapidly shriveled away. The raised hand had barely reached outside the coffin before it fell back, powerless.
The expedition members were horrified. For a long time, the altar chamber was deathly silent.
"That corpse... it just raised its hand, didn't it?!" someone finally stammered, their face pale.
"Does that mean the man in the coffin was actually alive this whole time?!"
"How is that possible? If that's true, he lived for thousands of years."
"But he definitely moved! Everyone here saw it!" The group broke into a frantic discussion.
"Well, he's definitely dead now," a bold member said, approaching the coffin. He looked at the remains, which had now turned into little more than skin and bone. He took a metal rod and cautiously poked the body.
Upon being touched, every part of the corpse except for the skeleton turned directly into ash, leaving behind only a crystalline, jade-like frame.
Seeing that he was finally, truly dead, the crowd breathed a sigh of relief. After all, they had literally "flipped his lid." If an ancient man who had lived for thousands of years suddenly woke up, there was no telling what the consequences would be.
"It was the belt on his waist. As soon as Mr. Gormo took it off, the man shriveled up. Maybe that belt is a high-tech alien creation with an advanced life-support system we can't understand, allowing the wearer to enter a long-term hibernation. Perhaps he has been sleeping in this coffin all this time, and only when Mr. Gormo removed the belt did he finally die," the archaeology professor speculated excitedly.
"If that's the case, the immense power of the warriors in the murals can be explained. This belt contains advanced technology that grants the user great strength."
Whether it's advanced alien tech or an ancient treasure with special powers, this belt allowed a man to live for thousands of years, Lanly Gormo thought with intense greed, his eyes gleaming as he stared at the Kuuga belt. This means this belt has the power to break the limits of human lifespan and grant longevity.
The others looked at the belt in his hands with a mix of awe and suspicion.
"It seems this expedition team failed to grasp the only sliver of survival in the script," Dan, who was monitoring the events, sighed softly.
The game plot Dan Kuroto designed didn't necessarily lead to an absolute dead end. If the expedition had not removed the belt from the ancient Kuuga, then when Daguva awakened, the residual will of the ancient Kuuga would have used its final strength to repel Daguva. This would have allowed most members of the team to survive, inherit the belt entrusted to them by the ancient warrior, and leave the ruins. From there, the story of Kuuga and the Gurongi would have continued in modern society.
However, because Lanly Gormo removed the belt, the team could no longer escape their fate at the hands of Daguva. Of course, either way was simply a different way to start the story; the final outcome wouldn't be affected.
Just as Lanly Gormo was about to examine the belt more closely, a series of blood-curdling screams echoed from outside.
"What's happening?" Everyone's heart sank as the screams reached them, a chilling premonition of doom washing over them.
Outside the ruins, a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were collecting the bodies of the expedition team and verifying their identities.
"Is this the ruin from the video?" the newly arrived Coulson asked, looking at the image data on the screen in his hand as he spoke to a nearby agent.
"Yes, sir. This video was recorded by the expedition team while they were exploring these ancient ruins. According to the images from their equipment, they found a stone coffin. Shortly after opening it, a mysterious humanoid creature suddenly appeared. This monster killed every member of the team, seemingly displaying supernatural powers during the slaughter. The team members were killed effortlessly; no one survived," the agent replied.
"The video didn't capture the monster's true face..." Coulson frowned, studying the footage carefully. "In the end, it seems the belt the team found released a strange energy, and the mysterious monster appeared to be wounded and retreated."
Coulson then asked, "The belt the expedition found in the video—has it been located? And have you found any traces of that mysterious creature nearby?"
"The belt has been recovered. However, we have searched the entire surrounding area and found no trace of any strange creatures," the officer in charge replied promptly.
"Take the belt back first. Have the researchers look into it."
(End of Chapter)