Chapter 246: Sands of Time (Edited)

Tom furrowed his brow, looked at the familiar room in front of him, turned to the four behind him, and said, "This is the treasure room we just left, and we've come back."

The faces of Dr. Hunter, Sara, and Yushadu changed. They didn't want to believe it was true, but the layout of the room told them that it was indeed the same one they had left twenty minutes ago. Hermione couldn't understand it. How did they return?

They had exited through the back door of the treasure room, the passage was straight, with no turns. How on earth could they have gone straight and ended up back in the same place? It seemed unbelievable to Hermione. The only explanation was magic! The five of them must have unknowingly fallen under the spell left by Pharaoh Narmer.

Hermione's analysis was that it was either a confusion spell or the treasure room had been relocated to the front of the hallway. The key was figuring out how to break free from the trap they found themselves in.

At that moment, Tom approached her and nibbled on her ear.

"We're trapped by Narmer's magic!"

"Yes."

"Do you see what kind of magic it is?"

"No, I suppose it's a confusion spell or something. Do you see what it is or know of any magic that can instantly move a room?"

"I don't know."

Hermione looked at him. "And why don't you find out how to break it?"

Tom shrugged and said, "We have to be prepared for the worst, which is being trapped here for the rest of our lives."

"Are we going to starve to death here?" Hermione grimaced at the thought of sitting here, in a room full of gold and jewels, starving with a vast fortune.

"Not exactly," Tom patted his backpack. "It's filled with food. We can still magically get water, and as for food, the phoenix's regenerative ability should suffice. I can make you eat a bird leg a day..."

"Don't say that!" Hermione punched Tom. While Tom and Hermione were talking, Sara jumped and pulled out Alyosha's relic: the AK47.

"I think we've involuntarily fallen under the pharaoh's spell, but people can be deceived, but bullets cannot. If I remember correctly, AK bullets have a maximum range of two kilometers, and from here to the arena, even in a round trip, the distance is not greater than the effective range of the bullets. I just have to take a shot, and we'll find out what's happening. I can determine the nature of the problem we're facing."

She had come up with a very clever idea.

"Reparo!" Tom expressed his support with actions and restored the twisted barrel of the gun.

She stood at the back door, aiming the weapon down the hallway.

"Let's see, we'll soon know the truth." She pulled the trigger, and a loud thunderclap echoed through the hallway.

Tom felt his scalp tingle from the sound. If the space of the hallway had miraculously folded, the bullet would have flown back into the treasure room! It wouldn't have landed where the shot was fired, but it would have been a stroke of luck, and everyone present would have been hit by the rebound.

Sara may have been desperate after the series of blows, and she acted recklessly. But Tom still wanted to live. So he immediately cast a Protego Charm.

But several seconds passed, and apart from echoes, they saw no trace of the bullet. Sara smiled in relief.

"Indeed, someone tricked us." Suddenly, her mental state improved.

"Let's go again!" Sara suggested, and Dr. Hunter wanted to traverse the passage once more, saying that this time they would observe any changes closely.

Tom felt somewhat powerless. Can you find the problem by looking closely? Stop, please. The problem they encountered was related to magic, and I'm afraid it wasn't that easy to detect.

But it was necessary to go over it again.

Before setting off, Tom carefully recalled all the details of their previous journey. Suddenly, a flash of light engulfed him, and he had a general idea and a guess about the "mechanism."

The five of them walked very slowly this time, touching every tile, and when they reached the arena, they all knew it was this arena that was responsible. This arena, like the previous one, had only one set of footprints on it.

But they had already stepped on this arena once.

Geese leave their voices, people leave their footprints, why do the footprints disappear?

The group walked on the sand suspiciously, and when they looked back, their footprints had vanished as soon as they touched the ground! Unbeknownst to them, the trail of footprints they had left had turned in their direction.

"The space has inverted..." Dr. Hunter said incredulously, "Is this magic? It's unbelievable."

Tom shook his head, "I don't think it's space. It's time that has changed!"

Now Tom understood. The city of Thoth, the god of time, how could it live up to the title of the god of time without playing a little trick with time?

So, in front of the four, Tom ran toward the arena and stamped a footprint on it.

After stepping on it, the five of them moved forward, with the exact same door and the exact same treasure room. This time, they didn't linger but went straight through the house and arrived at the arena.

This time, in addition to the previous set of footprints, there was an additional one left by Tom.

"Well, now it's easy to break the loop. We just have to fly over this arena." Tom took out a glass jar and filled it with sand from the bottle.

Dr. Hunter and the others wanted to say something more, but Tom didn't want to keep talking with them. He would slowly study the infinite mysteries of this arena after bidding farewell to the three of them. Now the first thing was to get the Doctor and the others out.

Tom transformed into a phoenix and carried the four through the arena; unfortunately, what had previously been a round trip was now a one-way journey.

This time, the treasure room did not appear before them. After landing, they walked for a while and reached the end of the corridor.

At the end, there was a round stone sphere, and through the liquid inside the sphere, they could see the outside world: ruins of an ancient city covered in hazy yellow sand. As Tom approached the round stone sphere, he could feel an attraction.

"You can exit through here." He took a step to the side, indicating for the three of them to approach, and when they were close, he pulled out his wand. "Obliviate!"

He used the Memory Charm to alter the memories of the three, then pushed them toward the round stone sphere and watched as they were absorbed back into the normal world.

"All memories of us were erased from their minds. We were just two abandoned children on a field trip in Cairo... and the memories of the underground city, naturally, were also erased." Tom let out a sigh of relief. The three Memory Charms had also weighed heavily on him.

"Well, the real, final, and exclusive adventure is about to begin." Tom told Hermione.