"Where is it?" a man barked as thunder rumbled in the background. He wore a pitch-black three-piece suit, and from his shoes to his hair, he looked like money followed him wherever he went.
The man stood over six feet tall, his lean body clearly packed with power. His neatly trimmed beard and slightly graying hair gave him a mature and sophisticated appearance. His blue eyes pierced the darkness of the corridor with such intensity that they seemed to be the only sources of light in this place.
He was followed by a group of men and women, all of whom had solemn expressions on their faces. He had directed his question at these people, who were clearly his to command, but none dared speak.
Not that he expected them to answer—he knew even he would have hesitated in their position. Right now, he was truly angered. He had spent hundreds of years searching for something, only for these people to tell him they had lost it within mere hours of acquiring it. He had spent a fortune and a lifetime searching for this treasure, only for all his work to be flushed down the drain.
He soon reached a large metallic door.
He said nothing, but his subordinates knew what had to be done. One of them rushed forward and began fumbling with the lock. He tried three different keys, but the door remained shut. The handsome man lost his patience and lashed out with a kick.
The young man attempting to unlock the door moved faster than the human eye could track, leaving a black blur in his wake. He barely got out of the way before the kick ripped the metallic door off its hinges and sent it flying into the large room beyond.
The man did not pause to check on his subordinate. He entered the room after snorting in displeasure.
The space was some kind of storage room, filled with strange, old-looking artifacts scattered across the place. His attention was immediately drawn to five ancient Egyptian sarcophagi in the center.
These sarcophagi appeared to have been crafted from the finest gold of their time, their surfaces adorned with intricately detailed carvings.
The man hurried toward them, utterly unconcerned with preserving these priceless relics of the past. Without hesitation, he began prying open the lids of the sarcophagi with his bare hands. The metal resisted his strength, but he was truly powerful.
The first sarcophagus he opened contained a mummy. A single glance confirmed this.
"You better hope it is still here," he said in a calm voice. Though still clearly furious, he was beginning to regain his usual composure.
He moved on to the second sarcophagus—it also contained a mummy.
He opened the third, and this time, he paused for a few moments.
Inside lay a statue of a man dressed like a noble from thousands of years ago. This gray statue had been carved with such skill that one might mistake it for a real person. The man couldn't understand what this statue was doing inside the sarcophagus. Its attire suggested it depicted a European noble, yet here it was in an ancient Egyptian tomb—a contradiction that made no sense.
Intrigued, he considered investigating it later. But it was not what he sought.
He opened the fourth sarcophagus, and his disappointment deepened. The people accompanying him were already scrambling in their minds for an explanation that might save their lives.
This museum had been their last hope.
The man they all feared was Harald. Their master. His word was law.
Their king.
In the modern era, this might sound absurd to most—but not to those present.
For hundreds of years, their king had spent a fortune searching for a buried treasure. He never revealed what it was, only his relentless determination to possess it. He had funded archaeologists all over the world, enabling them to unearth incredible discoveries that reshaped human and Other history. But King Harald had never been satisfied—he continued financing excavations even now.
A few days ago, the king was informed that the treasure he sought had finally been discovered in an ancient tomb buried beneath the sands of the Black Desert for centuries.
He had been overjoyed—until he received word that there had been a mix-up, delaying the shipment of his prize.
Harald was not one to sit idly and wait. He had systematically searched every possible location where his treasure might have been sent. Every museum on his list had been combed through—this was the last.
If the treasure was not here, there would be hell to pay.
The king reached out and opened the final sarcophagus.
For a moment, he frowned—before his expression shifted into a wide smile.
All his followers exhaled in relief.
They moved closer, eager to see what kind of treasure had made their king react in such a manner.
King Harald possessed all the wealth in the world—he lacked nothing.
For him to behave like this, the treasure had to be something especially rare and valuable.
When they saw what lay inside the sarcophagus, they were left shaken.
Harald was decisive and cunning. He understood that something like this could not remain a secret for long. He needed time to lay out his plans—and that meant ensuring the world did not learn of his ambitions too soon.
Without warning, he waved his hand in a horizontal motion, releasing a crescent-shaped blade formed from water. It struck the wall behind his followers, leaving a thin cut.
Then he turned back to the sarcophagus, his eyes glowing with desire.
"The things we do for the world," he murmured.
At that moment, one of his followers—a thin man of extraordinary height—stepped forward, his back bowed at a ninety-degree angle.
Without waiting for orders, he closed the sarcophagus, lifted it, and carried it over his left shoulder as if it weighed nothing.
The king left the room, his loyal follower close behind. The others remained in place.
As Harald disappeared down the corridor, the heads of the followers who had stayed behind fell to the floor with sickening thuds.
They were already dead.
The fact that they had perished without making a single sound was a testament to the swiftness of their demise.
A few seconds later, their standing corpses began to decay. Pieces of flesh sloughed off, dropping to the ground. Within moments, there was nothing left but piles of dust.
It was as though their bodies had undergone thousands of years of decay in mere seconds.