Cryptomining Supervillain

Chapter 229 229: 229 THE PYRAMID TRAP

229 THE PYRAMID TRAP

Nicaesa and Damen stood before the ruins of Fortress Myrone and offered their final farewell.

There was nothing left to defend—only ashes, memories, and the scars of battle. Turning their backs to the fallen stronghold, they made their way toward the space rift.

The ridge above the rift had collapsed during the battle, burying it under tons of rock.

But clearing it posed no challenge for Damen now.

With his Level 7 Core of Kinetic activated, kinetism flowed through him as naturally as breathing. He no longer needed crafted skills or complex techniques—the force obeyed him instinctively.

He raised a hand.

"Aerokinetism."

The boulders shuddered, lifted, and peeled apart like dust swept aside by an invisible wind. In moments, the rubble dispersed, revealing the sealed space rift beneath.

"Your powers have improved again," Nicaesa remarked, a faint smile touching his lips.

Damen nodded. "Thanks to the meta artifacts I assimilated."

Nicaesa's gaze sharpened. "It is a rare gift—the ability to devour artifacts and extract their essence. You have no idea how difficult it was for us to process alien meta artifacts, to refine them into materials humans could safely use."

He looked at Damen with open admiration.

"Your future," Nicaesa said quietly, "cannot be underestimated."

Damen dismissed the praise with a shrug, but Nicaesa only chuckled.

"So… what now?" Damen asked. "Do we just walk through the rift?"

Nicaesa shook his head. "No. The rift has been sealed from the other side."

Then, after a pause, he added with quiet pride, "But Sienna left us a contingency—a small opening. Hidden and stable but invisible to the alien hordes. In case we survived."

"Really?" Damen's eyes lit up. "We can still return? Then why didn't Sienna tell me?"

"Opening a space rift is no child's trick," Nicaesa replied. "Even if she explained the method, you wouldn't yet have the power to turn the key."

He raised his hands and traced a strange sigil in the air, his meta power concentrating around his fingers. When he released it, an invisible force—something more than energy—drifted toward the sealed rift.

The force twisted, unfolded, and crystallized into shifting geometric shapes.

Damen watched, transfixed."What… is that?"

Nicaesa chuckled softly.

"The key," he said. "The one that will take us home."

-----

The desert of Anu roared to life.

A deep tremor rolled beneath their feet, shaking the dunes apart as if some massive creature stirred below. The sand beneath their feet rippled like water.

"What the hell is happening?" Damen shouted, bracing himself as the ground buckled.

Lord Nicaesa's expression darkened. "This is a bad omen. Something is very wrong."

Without warning, the earth split open.

Jagged stone shapes forced themselves up through the sand—first points, then edges, then entire faces of colossal structures emerging in perfect synchronization.

One after another, five titanic pyramids rose around the space rift, encircling them like a burial formation.

Damen's eyes widened. "Pyramids…?"

Nicaesa gritted his teeth. "I knew it. This entire place—is a trap. We must get through the rift now!"

But the warping key continued to orbit above the sand, its glow unstable, its energy still unfocused. The space rift was still unopened yet.

"How long until it opens?" Damen demanded.

"Too long, we can't wait for it," Nicaesa growled. "Prepare to fight."

A heavy shadow fell over them…then another, and another.

Damen looked up.

Towering shapes materialized atop each pyramid, enormous beings of shifting darkness and divine aura emerged. They were shadows wearing the forms of the alien gods.

Two Damen recognized instantly were Anubis, jackal-headed judge of the dead and Ra, the falcon-headed sun lord whose presence radiated oppressive heat.

But three others were strangers… alien shadow gods that he's not seen before—

The first was a serpent-headed goddess: Wadjet, with smoke curling around her like coils.

The second was a lioness-headed warrior: Sekhmet, her eyes blazing with fury.

The third was a ram-headed creator: Khnum, his muscles were sculpted from starlight and sand.

"Why are there so many of these bloody shadows here?" Damen whispered. "Every one of them… a Shadow of an alien god?"

Sekhmet's voice boomed down, shaking the sand.

She's heard Damen's question.

"We are here because of you, half-breed. You have disrupted the balance between humanity and our divine kind. You are not permitted to leave this world."

Damen snarled back, "What nonsense are you talking about?"

Khnum's deep, resonant voice replied, "For centuries, we tolerated your human fortress. So long as you humans remained weak, your trespass remained trivial, we allowed you to persist here by our grace. But now…. you have changed the balance. You, the half-breed who carries the blood of our kin has …."

His eyes blazed like molten gold before adding, "You have become a threat. Therefore, the fortress must fall. All of you must be eradicated."

Damen shot a look at Nicaesa. "What are they talking about?"

Nicaesa's jaw worked, tension etched across his face. "I suspected it… but never dared to believe it. The only reason Fortress Myrone still stands isn't because we're strong enough to defend it."

He lifted his eyes to the towering divine silhouettes.

"It's because the alien gods allowed us to stand."

The truth hit Damen like a physical blow.

The aliens with their impossible strength, their absolute numbers and their relentless pressure…had always held back.

Meta soldiers, armies, and weapons… none of them truly mattered. The fortress survived only because something higher had chosen to permit its existence.

Not until now.

Not until Damen arrived at Fortress Myrone.

Something about him, his cursed alien blood, had shattered the quiet balance the gods enforced.

And if the gods saw him as a threat…Then humanity's existence in Anu was already marked for extinction.

Damen stared at the five colossal Shadows encircling them, their gazes heavy with judgment. The weight of their intent, their fury, bore down on him like a sentence.

Only one thought formed in his mind.

"It's all my bloody fault."

-----

Suddenly, a radiant figure burst from the desert floor—an immense golden knight, its armor blazing like a newborn sun. It rose and rose until it towered high enough to meet the alien shadow gods eye-to-eye.

In its hand burned a colossal hammer of light, pulsing with divine force.

It was Lord Nicaesa's Anima Projection.

The Shadows recoiled…but only slightly.

Shadow of Anubis stepped forward, his jackal-head glinting with ancient cruelty. "One of you can never match five of us, Nicaesa… even if you bring the half-breed into the equation."

He had fought the human general countless times. He knew Nicaesa's power and his limits.

This battle was unwinnable for him.

Damen rose into the sky beside the gleaming titan, his Annunakin form erupting into full manifestation… his black halos sparking, plasma veins burning, the twin suns feeding his scaled armor with monstrous regeneration.

For the first time, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the only man he considered family…. His uncle Nicaesa.

"Go, Damen." Nicaesa's voice vibrated through his Anima. "You are not a match for these Shadows. I will hold them off long enough for you to cross back to our world."

Even Nicaesa knew this was suicide.

All he could hope for was to save Damen… even if he could not save himself.

"No." Damen's cry tore from his chest like thunder. "We fight together!"