Khnurn nodded. His voice took on a tactical tone and his brows furrowed, and he seemed to become lost in thought for a moment. "Going until first light would give us... eight hours? If nothing has made itself apparent by then, then I don't think we'll be able to reach it without further provisions. It'll make the first town much farther away, but there must be more near us."

Unfortunately, the gods had not given him a map. That would have come in handy, but perhaps this new world was changing too fast for the deities to keep track of it all. His last memories of the political map situation of Egypt, not to mention the world as a whole, were fragmented and meshed together with the ancient ones. In the freshest information he had, however, there seemed to be a complete lack of gods. Their presence was undetectable, or perhaps muted. He could not sense them, and recent events seemed to have suggested their slow faltering. Was that their purpose? To rescue the gods?

Were the gods dead?

Hah! Such a thought was laughable. The gods, the most powerful beings in the universe, could not be killed. Well... there had been Osiris... but no. No, they were surely still out there, waiting for Khnurn and Zahra to find them. They needed to fulfill prophecies, and in order to do that, they needed mentors, right? The gods had called the two on this mission; the gods would see it through.

"That would make this the most irritating game of hide-and-seek ever known to mankind," the young man grumbled, making a face. "And the most dangerous. But, if this is a test, then I suppose passing it will only help us on our way to becoming... whatever we are supposed to be. All the ancient legends go that way, right? The hero has trials to make them stronger."

Of course, the stories always omitted how many times the protagonist came close to death, sufficing only to say it had happened "often" or some other word like unto it. Khnurn figured that, if any of those stories had ever been true, he and Zahra were about to face them themselves. Maybe opening the tomb had been the first test -- although, it wasn't a very hard one. In fact, it was almost as if opening the door was supposed to have been... more difficult.

He remembered the fading runes of the ancient magics placed upon the walls. Magic was, theoretically, connected to the lifeblood of the gods. If it was fading, then --

"What happened to them?" Khnurn demanded, eyeing each creature. "You cannot tell me that you have no knowledge of it. Where are the gods?"

This time, not even the sphinx seemed willing to give an answer at all. The uneasy glances of the beasts, however, spoke volumes. Whatever had happened -- wherever the gods were -- it was nothing good. And yet... the runes had still been somewhat active, hadn't they? He turned to his companion. "Zahra... I think the gods might have forsaken this world -- either by their will, or through another's."

"Agreed." Zahra sighs. If they truly had to save the world, then they had little time to waste, especially on hide and seek games. The beast on the horizon proved that much. Whatever they were suppose to be. What were they suppose to be? Were they really heroes? Or had the ancient legend spoken been misinterpreted. What if her and Khnurn were nothing but immortal humans? No abilities, no legendary humans, nothing. Just plain humans who'd been turned immortal because they'd been assumed as children of a legend. Then the world was doomed.

"Trials... Do we even have time for trials?" Zahra muses. The stories were always twisted. The full truth was never told in stories. The readers, or listeners, never got to know the full truth. How hard it was to become said hero. Or how many times death had almost become the hero's fate. If Zahra and Khnurn were the hero's of this story. What would they face? How close to death would they come? How many times? They had no parts of their soul, could they die? Or would they simply suffer tremendous pain?

And once again, what of the gods. Zahra turns to look at the creatures as well just as Khnurn demands to know what happened to the gods. Even buried within the tomb with the two, the creatures must have some knowledge as well. How else were the creatures suppose to protect the two in a new world?

And yet, none of the creatures wanted to say anything. Simply giving uneasy glances. The gods... Zahra blinks at Khnurn, her face clouding at his words. Forsaken this world? The beast on the horizon was no being of the gods. Which meant one thing. If the gods were nowhere to been seen with such a evil being in the world. Then. "They're gone."

They're gone.

The two words tore through Khnurn's ears like the angry sounds of ripping linen. He felt as though he was going cold, and the feeling only grew as he saw the defeated expressions on their beast companions' faces. So. They were gone, then. Khnurn dared not imagine what kind of powerful creature could have overtaken every single deity; that would do nothing to reassure him. Their mission was daunting -- especially without the aid of the gods. If the most powerful beings in the universe could not take down a singular entity, how would he and Zahra, two humans without memory or guidance, be expected to defeat them? They were immortal, yes, but only until someone found their souls. This was hopeless. Unless...

"Do you think magicians still walk the earth? Priests, priestesses of the gods?" he asked, mainly directing his question towards Zahra. The lack of straightforwardness he was getting from the beasts had caused some level of irritation to be expressed about them, and he was done dealing with their riddles. "Nothing in my mind suggests they ever stopped practicing, and I feel as though I can't quite reach them -- but that they are there. Perhaps their locations are undisclosed?"

Magicians could, potentially, teach them both how to harness their abilities, whatever those were. This could in turn provide them the training and preparation they needed to defeat... whatever it was that had caused this. The enemy of the gods was Chaos, wasn't it? Apophis. Apophis was alive, right? Had he gained enough power?

These thoughts were interrupted as he crested the sand dune and looked out over the expanse with a soft, "whoa."

Dark shapes of demonic creatures writhed around the bottom of the slumbering mass. They were still a ways off, but Khnurn could make out their movements. They didn't seem to have any sort of shape to them. Just distorted blobs of chaos. "Maybe we should find that city now... Hold off on approaching. Unless you see a way around them?"

Khnurn's gaze flickered from the hoard of ungodly creatures to Zahra as she, too, took in the scene. His minuscule offering of potential hope seemed to kindle hers, so that was a small victory, and her words confirmed it. Even if they were in hiding, magic had a sort of scent trail, right? How else could Apophis have found every single god? Surely, as their numbers had dwindled, some had taken to hiding as well, perhaps even protected by these magicians. Or betrayed... but Khnurn decided to keep that particularly dark thought to himself. They were running out of options, out of allies.

"Right. A city. What say you?" His brown eyes found their companions who seemed relieved to have been given a much easier question. There is the one further back, or there is also a town to the east. Both are about the same distance from here. That came from one of the hybrids who had not yet spoken. He couldn't tell which, but he suspected one of the birdlike ones. The echo of the voice had something... chirpy to it.

"Okay. It wouldn't surprise me if the towns close by had been abandoned once that took up residence. Those who stayed are either on its side, deal with seedy business, or are extremely stubborn," he decided. Any good person who stayed so near to the enemy was borderline foolhardy, but that meant people he and Zahra could at least rely on.

Khnurn turned his back to the dark scene and began sliding back down the sandy mountain. It felt relieving to move away from the source of the evil that had killed the gods, but he was not sure if that was the right way to go. Where should they go? East, or back the way they had come? Those were their best options, it seemed. "Zahra? What do you want to do? We can either take the somewhat known path or explore further out to the east."

"That would be a blessing," Khnurn said. "The whole world looks dark near that thing. I hope it hasn't actually overtaken everything. Perhaps it has only recently showed itself?"

If the rest of the lands had not yet been affected by Apophis and his minions, then their chances of success would rise. At the same time, there were no armies lining up to stop the beast. There were no heroes, no kings, no warriors -- not even evidence to suggest that any had ever been there. So, either the creature remained undetected or it had a following. Khnurn prayed it was the former.

He trudged along in the sand back the way they had come, focused on the tracks that they all had previously made. His mind began to wander to other things, poking at faint recollections and setting several trains of thought on crisscrossing tracks. Khnurn's eyes narrowed as he honed in on one particular idea. Turning to Zahra once more, he asked, "Since you're the Moon, do you have cool abilities at night?"

He felt rather silly asking her such a thing. If he were the Sun, would he have daytime strengths? He didn't know. How would she? A few of the creatures seemed to be thinking the same, as mild amusement lit up their gazes. Khnurn refused to back down. He'd dug his grave; now he would lie in it.