Time: 5,000 years from the Prologue

A team of explorers have snuck into the Sol Kingdom, which has remained for thousands of years despite no public access to the monarchy ruling it.

The main purpose of the team was to explore the ruins left behind by previous dynasties to uncover priceless artifacts, even though it's illegal according to the law in the Sol Kingdom.

There were four notable individuals that were critical to the goal of reaching the heart of the tomb, unfortunately making everyone else who didn't make in the trip disposable.

The one leading the expedition was a tall figure wearing a hood over a special mask that concealed his face, claiming that he needed it to keep himself breathing. He had only one arm due to loosing the other in a previous accident, though he never mentioned what it was.

The most critical to the mission was a Manx cat named Tiara Boobowski, who had the agility and had a scepter that could help the trip through the place.

The strength of the mission was a black bear named Bopper, wearing his usual brown jacket and black boots.

And finally, there was a mystery person who was wearing some kind of mask and looked to be wearing the torn remains of a stray jacket, with the mask itself also covering quills to conceal them.

Bopper looks over and sees the strange hedgehog nearby, commenting to Tiara. "That guy gives me the creeps for some reason."

Tiara nods and says. "Yeah, but we got no choice in this but to work with them, so keep quiet for now."

Bopper looks at her and asks. "What got you here anyways?"

Tiara explains to him. "My father caught lycanthropy and has been using certain herbs and meds to hold it off, but he's running out of resources. The guy leading this promised me that I could unlock more power in my scepter so I can use certain spells to remove it."

"Why is a famous athlete like you here?" She then asks the strong bear.

Bopper rubs his neck. "I was kicked out of the league for one thing I didn't do and one thing I did do. Someone accused me of impregnating their wife, even though I don't remember meeting her. And I lost my last championship due to public pressure to resign bothering me. The league decided to cut their losses and fire me."

Tiara looks at him with empathy. "I'm so sorry, Bopper."

Bopper sighs and says. "I took this job because they kidnapped me.....and they offered me money. I plan to send the money as child support to the kid they said is supposedly my son, even though it hasn't been confirmed yet."

The masked man tells the team. "The entrance is opened now. Let's go quietly and carefully."

Everyone goes inside the old tomb, lights turning on as they observed the place and read some of the drawings on the walls.

It didn't take long until they encountered a few traps, the first few being obvious traps like wall spears and trapdoor pits that took out a few of the men by surprise.

But then the obstacles later became more of mind games, like going through a maze of lifelike painting that trick you into dead ends, putting the exact weight on scales and fog that obscured pathways.

By the time the last four obstacles were reached, the four important members and 5 regular archeologists were left.

The masked man reads the writing on a door. "Once the Trial of 4 Shadows is passed, you will greet one who was here before and will soon return. The heart is the true reward for bracing the dark."

He pulls out a small gem and chants an ancient language for a minute, the item glowing and causing the door to open. Obstacle 1 was now clear.

Next was an almost endless spiral of spikes, something that seemed impossible to run through.

The masked man gestures for the creepy hedgehog to go through it, the freaky being nodding before dashing off.

The mystery hedgehog runs along the outside of the spiral, managing to stay on without falling or having to use the spiky inside to cross and presses the button on the other end.

The next obstacle was a giant boulder blocking a round doorway perfectly, weighed down by several tons concrete chained to it.

Bopper smirks at this challenge and grabs the chains, crushing them in his hands before punching the boulder out of the door, pretty much making the third obstacle look like a joke.

The last obstacle was a large gap filled with short stretches of walls and ceilings, along with a huge pit below and the other side having a special panel.

The masked man tells Tiara. "This is the specific reason I need you for. The scepter you have only works with you, so I need you to get across and activate the panel on the other side with it. Do you believe you can pull it off?"

Tiara nods and gets in a starting position. "Too easy. I'll get this done before anyone can blink."

Taking off, she jumps off the ledge and runs along one of the walls, jumping off it to the other and running it, then jumping to a ceiling and quickly climbing across it.

The feline then lands on a fragile floor that started to give in, running quickly and jumping to the safety of the other side, climbing up the ledge and completing her run.

Tiara inserts her scepter into the panel and channels the power into it, turning on the platforms so everyone else could get across.

The stranger pulls out the gem again and opens the last door, revealing a room with a sarcophagus inside, the ancient coffin decorated in dark obsidian and shining with dark purple jewels.

The masked man approached the sarcophagus and dusts it off. "At long last, I have found the first one."

Bopper raised a brow in confusion. "First one? You mean there's more of these?"

"Yes, you dumb mortal, and you and your friend have let me reach the only one I could not get myself." The mystery stranger says as he opens the coffin.

"Wait, what?!" Both Tiara and Bopper say at the same time.

The skeleton remains of a corpse climb out of the decorative sarcophagus, flailing around the place madly as if in endless suffering.

The masked man waits until it gets close before he punches through the rib cage, pulling out a large gem from inside as if it was the heart.

The gem was pitch black that even the night sky was put to shame, a red pentagram appearing on it as soon as it was outside the skeleton, the bones falling to pieces on the ground and becoming ashes that blew away.

"What is that?" Tiara asks, feeling uneasy alongside Bopper after seeing the dead walking and being destroyed by their benefactor.

"A key to a new age." The masked stranger answered her, looking back at her menacingly. "And I have no longer need of either of your services."

The archeologists all point guns at Tiara and Bopper, with the hedgehog blocking the entrance.

They had been set up to be backstabbed when least expected!

Bopper glares at the man. "You lying, ice hearted, soulless freak! You promised to reward us for doing this for you!"

"Of course I'm giving you a reward.....your eternal reward." The man answered and gestures to his goons. "Put them in the sarcophagus and seal it tight. I want this tomb to be their new home."

Just before they could be forced in, a growling sound echoed around them before it moves around as if it was circling them.

The men were then nervous, the smell of fear obvious to whatever beast was watching them.

Suddenly, a demonic looking beast jumps out of the walls and attacks the armed men, their guns shooting wildly in the room from the triggers accidentally being pressed.

The main four of the party all flee the room as more demonic beasts come out of the walls and joins the first one in the slaughter fest.

All of the beasts see them escaping and chase after them, quickly dashing after them and starting to close the gap between them.

Tiara blasts some of them off the narrow platforms with her scepter, but they soon started dodging the shots.

Bopper gets an idea looks at her. "When I tell you to, duck!"

The bear runs over to the boulder and uses every bit of strength he has, calling out to her. "Now!"

Tiara ducks out of the way when he throws the boulder, the obstacle destroying the platforms and causing most of them to fall.

Unfortunately, three of them managed to leap up in time and reach the other side, forcing Tiara to blast a pillar onto them as a split distraction.

The pair runs across the floor that went through the spiral, hurrying towards the exit of the four trials before it could close.

Just before they reached it, the masked man and the hedgehog blocked their way, quickly helping the door keep the heroes in.

Tiara tells them as she and Bopper try to pry it open, but there was barely a crack left. "You can't do this to us! Please!"

"Goodnight, Tiara. See you in Hell." The masked man says as his farewell before the door closed completely, trapping Bopper and Tiara in......forever.

The heroic duo turn to see the demonic monsters reach them, snarling and glaring at them as they slowly walk towards them.

Bopper looks at Tiara and says. "Go find another way out and save yourself! I'll fight them off for you!"

She shakes her head and refuses to go. "No! I'm not leaving you here to die!"

"You have a better chance of getting out than me!" Bopper says as he gets his fists ready. "If you can escape, find my son and tell him I love him!"

Tiara had little time to react as Bopper threw her across the spiral, now being forced to see him desperately punching and kicking the monsters, only to watch the bear eventually get overwhelmed.

The young feline tears up and tries to flee the area, having no choice but to try to escape and keep her promise for Bopper.

The demonic creatures chase after her soon, following her all the way back to the place where the pit was, but it no longer had the walls, platforms and ceilings it had before.

There was only one escape left for her, but it wasn't giving chances to survival.

Tiara jumps off the ledge and falls down the pit, screaming as she goes down deep into abyss.

She hits the ground beneath with a loud thud accompanied by the painful sound and feeling of most of her bones breaking, leaving Tiara completely vulnerable on the ground.

Tiara was going die soon, either by her injuries or from the beasts arriving through the walls again.

The cat closed her eyes and braced for her death by mauling, but it never came that way.

The beasts were blasted by blue projectiles that blinded and hurt them, soon getting whipped by something from the shadows.

Most of the beasts were blown to bits, leaving only one left that pounced at the attacker, only to get hoisted into the air instead and be vaporized by the light.

Tiara looks to see whoever tried to save her, surprised at what her curiosity saw.

A male wolf came out from the shadows, blue fur that had black markings hidden underneath several wrappings, ocean eyes that had a hint of gold if looked deep into them and a bit of dark mist leaking out of his body.

Aside from the wrapping, he was adorned with a golden headdress that most pharaohs would have that was paired with a similar gold necklace and ring.

She was in the presence of some special kind of mummy!

The wolf mummy looks at her. "I am sorry I couldn't arrive on time to stop this from happening, the alarms were slow to respond from home."

He observed the injuries and tells her. "You don't have many minutes left until you die, but there's nothing I can do to heal you. You will die in any moment."

The mummy pauses for a moment and thinks. "Although....I could technically save you from passing away completely, but that would mean you have to be willing to condemn yourself to this  endless life I'll give you."

He puts an arm out for her, wrappings extending from his arm as if they were extra appendages. "The choice is yours, young lady. The afterlife or eternal undead."

Tiara would've wanted to refuse whatever offer he had after just being backstabbed, but her desire to avoid Heaven and Hell deciding her fate overwhelmed those thoughts.

She reached out for the mummy's hand weakly. "P-Please.....h-help.....m-me...."

Once she barely touched him, the wolf smiles and tells her. "I will make sure you never regret this, Tiara."

Her vision goes black at the moment, not sure if she was too late or not.

———————————————————————

Tiara's mind

She wakes up to find herself in some kind of fancy bedroom, looking almost like one a ruler would sleep in.

Looking around the room after she steps out of bed, she sees her body doesn't look injured, as if her adventure in the tomb never happened.

Tiara felt some sort of curiosity to go look herself in the mirror to see if she was alright, even though an adventurous type like her wasn't always concerned with looks.

She sees nothing looks different, finding herself unharmed from the past events.

A voice that sounded like the mummy's echoed around her. "How are you enjoying the Utopia I gave you in your mind?"

Tiara looks around for him. "Um...good. Are you saying this isn't real?"

The moment she looked back at herself, she was shocked to see her reflection had blue fur and ocean eyes like the wolf she saw.

The voice answered again, but this time it sounded like a perfect combination of hers and the wolf's. "No. I'm just making sure you never have any bad dreams ever again. After all, I don't deserve you as my servant if I cannot treat you right in return."

Tiara was confused enough to look around again after hearing the new voice, not sure why it sounded like hers if the wolf was male.

The moment she looks back her reflection, she saw she looked exactly like the wolf mummy in every way.

"W-What...?" She said in shock, soon stopping when she heard her voice sounded exactly like the wolf's in tone.

What really shocked her was what figure approached her from behind, turning around to be even more surprised.

Standing behind her......was herself?

Was this her subconscious encountering her?

Or did she just swap bodies with the wolf?

"Tiara" smiles at her and tells her. "Hope you don't mind if we trade memories for a short moment."

The real Tiara, now having the wolf's body, backs away and then accidentally falls through the mirror, as if entering a whole new reality like Alice.

Tiara then went through a rush of the wolf's memories, soon learning her master's name was Aura.

Wait....master?! That wasn't right! She wasn't a slave to some moving corpse!

No...he said he was going to make sure she never regretted it, and Aura always keeps his word.

But part of her felt she was still being violated by having his mind interaction with hers.

Though she wasn't being violated at all, just trying to keep her alive.

Tiara shakes her head to snap out of it, realizing Aura's thoughts were influencing her own.

She soon went through all of Aura's memories, from his birth and the death of his parents to the fall of his people, meeting new friends and joining them as a monster.

The cat also felt as if the real Aura was experiencing all of her memories as if he was really her, and for a moment, Tiara almost thought she really was him.

After they all ended, Tiara soon found she couldn't move, as if her limbs had no life to it.

Thankfully, she looked like herself again in this dreamscape, but she now saw barely visible strings on her body, like she was some kind of puppet.

The strings were attached to some brain that looked gray and lifeless, as if the thing controlling her was about to die.

It took about 10 seconds to piece together the haunting truth that she was deep within her very soul and subconscious, and that brain controlling her was her own mind, slowly dying and about to relinquish it's hold on her soul.

The moment that brain fades away, she'll be dead for sure and be judged soon for eternal paradise or forever punishment.

The wolf finally returned as himself again. "You on the last seconds of your life. This is where you choose one of 3 fates. Death towards Heaven for being selfless, Death towards Hell for helping evil or an extension of your life."

Aura gets close to her face, wanting them to look each other in the eyes to assure trust between each other.

"You have no reason to trust me since we just met, though I felt obligated to help you since you were tricked by evildoers. But I must warn you that if you pick my option, you lose part of yourself in the process. What is your final choice?"

Tiara was originally reluctant, but after being exposed to every second of Aura's life, she had reason to believe he had better intentions.

"Do it." She tells him, not sure if she made a deal with an angel or the devil.

In a swift motion, Aura cut all of the strings connecting Tiara's soul to her brain, the cat feeling empty now.

As Aura tries to grab and untangle the strings, Tiara could feel her limbs being torn apart and her head and neck being ripped from her body, as if the new puppeteer was taking joy in destroying her to bits.

But strangely......no blood at all....or any exposed organs, just empty black voids in her body.

The pain she had been feeling earlier was also replaced with a warm feeling all over, as if she was being bathed in hot tub.

Aura pulls her closer to him until they were face to face again. "Welcome home, Tiara."

Tiara slowly blacks out again, but she could feel herself being pulled into Aura before she closed her eyes.

———————————————————————

Sol Kingdom Palace

Tiara wakes up and gasps for air, stunned at having gone through a bizarre dream like that.

She looks to see Aura was there waiting for her to wake up, just sitting at a window nearby while looking out through it.

He looks to see her and smiles. "You're awake now. How do you feel?"

"Lightheaded, pain, hunger and strangely.....good." Tiara answered, feeling weird for her to say the last bit.

Aura gestures to a tray nearby. "My servants prepared food for you. I suggest you fix that 3rd part first before my wife arrives."

Tiara climbs out of bed, but then screams in terror when she sees her body is covered in wrappings with a few seems in between to see her own fur.

She was a mummy now like Aura!

Aura chuckles a little at that reaction. "Well you took it better than I did when I first saw the new me."

"How am I going around like this is normal?!" Tiara panics as she looks at him. "I should be going around mindlessly like a zombie right now!"

"Well if you can calm yourself, I'll explain." Aura answered her.

Once Tiara calmed her breathing, Aura explains to her in detail.

"When a mummy is usually made, the heart is all that's kept in the body since that bears much of what's the person inside. The moment I cut your soul free of your brain, I absorbed your mind into my own, effectively keeping all of your knowledge safe in me. I also merged your soul with mine, effectively preventing you from going to Heaven or Hell."

Tiara looks at her body and asks. "Why did you need to have my brain and soul to yourself and just let me keep my heart?"

Aura stands up to answer her, handing the cat her scepter.

"Because your body still won't be invincible, but you are immortal now through me. You can be vaporized, stabbed through the heart and broken to chunks, but I can respawn you in a new body."

Tiara thinks a bit before realizing. "So as long as you're alive, I can't die for good?"

Aura nods and replies to her. "Yes, but this also comes at the cost of having your free will in half. Tiara lives on, but you're also me in a way."

To demonstrate, Aura lifts his arm, only for Tiara to mirror him exactly when he did it, then doing a few other neat motions with his hands before letting her have control over herself again.

"So....um your highness, can you tell me what that guy was after? What even was that gem in the tomb?" Tiara asks him, wanting to know what everyone died in the tomb for.

"Something far dangerous than what we are right now." Aura answered before beginning a long story.

———————————————————————

Aura's narration

Long ago after the reforming of this world over the old world, pure evil tried to spread it's control while order was still unbalanced.

Dark Gaia was put to rest by Light Gaia, but the darkness had put too much control into the world.

Several cultists that worshipped the idea of eternal night decided to use all of the Dark Gaia energy between them to create the most unbeatable monster: The Dark Demon.

It was too powerful for any of monsters rebelling against Dark Gaia, forcing them to take drastic measures to make sure they never become slaves to him again.

The free monsters of the world reluctantly asked angels to come help them defeat it, though this monster couldn't be slayed by even them.

As a final resort, the goddess Aurora used whatever power she could muster to split the Dark Demon's essence into 6 gems that the echidnas made as a last resort.

These gems, the Apocalypse Emeralds, were put into various tombs of the 6 cult leaders that dared to cause chaos, forced to be forever tormented by their past sins.

Unfortunately, if someone were to gather these gems again and use them on a date where there's three 6's, the Dark Demon will appear again and try to make Dark Gaia rise from the core, ushering in an age of eternal darkness and evil.

———————————————————————

Back to Present

Tiara looks at him and thinks. "Do you think that masked man may have been the descendant of a cultist?"

"Likely yes, but that doesn't explain his partner." Aura tells her. "For now, we need some assistance to make sure that never happens."

The cat could look at a calendar nearby and see that the date was 06/03/13136, meaning they had only 3 days left before the masked man reached his deadline.

Aura decided it was time to form an unlikely alliance.

————————————————————————

Dusk Guard HQ

Fury Van Helsing was sitting on the floor next to his desk, having just finished ejecting two vials into himself.

The monster hunter wasn't exactly in the condition he was in centuries ago, and it felt like the years were taking their toll on him.

He soon heard ringing in his head, which oddly sounded more like a phone ringing.

Fury focused hard on reaching that voice and responds. "What is it? I'm busy right now."

'It's King Aura.' A voice told him in telepathy, causing him to almost instinctively reach for the nearest weapon. 'I know we haven't been on good terms since our last encounter, but for now, me and the other monsters need your help.'

"And why should I trust a walking toilet paper roll like you?" Fury asks sarcastic skepticism, remembering how the wolf sacrificed his humanity thousands of years ago.

'Someone is gathering the Apocalypse Emeralds.' Aura answered him. 'We need the best monsters and your Dusk Guard to put aside their differences if we want to avoid a beast worst than us.'

Fury almost dropped the phone in surprise at the mention of the emeralds, but kept it in his hands and answered back. "Fine. Get Sonic and the others here so we can get all intel to find those old rocks."

He felt Aura hang up on his end for now, the monster hunter questioning himself on his new allies being the guys he had to hunt.

Fury looks out at the night sky and says to himself.

"Whichever freak comes out of the grave next will be praying for Lucifer to come save them from what's coming."

———————————————————————

Author: Finally, it's done!

Hip: Took you more than a year to update, buddy.

Author: I can't help it, every time I try to update, these two kids keep coming and interrupting my progress.

Hip: Which two kids?

Skid & Pump: *comes in* It's the Spooky Month Before Christmas!

Hip: Spooky Month Before Christmas! *does Spooky Month dance*

Author: -_-

Hip: Maybe you should just make it to where this book can be updated any month.

Author: That's fair. See you guys later