Secrets of the Tomb Main Story 4-4: Between Secrets
Overview
- Hepharet will come back to life. I'll bring her back myself!
- Stage Cost: None
- First Clear Rewards:
Astral Memory x10
- Attribute:
Null - Recommended Power: 34230
Guide
- Hover to view spoiler content.
Script
Temple
Go behind the hidden stone door and investigate the hidden secrets in the underground ruins.
The lowermost part of the ruins is not as dark and shabby as you imagined.
Two human-shaped gold coffins are displayed side-by-side in the center, surrounded by exquisite murals. It is an elaborate and dazzling sight.
The place looks like a hidden underground palace that takes one back to a distant time and place, dating a thousand years ago.
Only the test tube rack displayed in the corner abruptly destroys the atmosphere in the tomb, adding a sense of anomaly to the big picture.
???: Heh. I can't believe you actually found your way down here. How surprising.
A stubbled man walks out from the back of a gilded coffin...
His lab coat doesn't seem to have been replaced in a long time, stained a greyish white.
This man is the target you are looking for - Ralph.
Luke: It looks like our speculation is correct. Ralph has been hiding there all this time.
You: He knew that the police were holding back on their searches because they were afraid of damaging the ruins! He took advantage of that! He's been hiding here this whole time!
Ralph: Unfortunately, you are wrong...
Ralph: I never intended to hide. Those brainless cops simply never had the guts to come after me.
You: Why did you create a story around Hepharet's resurrection to swindle other people?
Ralph: Who said I was lying to those people? I was speaking nothing but the truth!
Artem: You used fake holy water to swindle other people. That's the nail on your coffin. Do explain to me how you aren't engaging in fraud.
Ralph: Heh, the holy water I gave them was a cell culture solution. It's not like they'll die if they drink it or anything.
Ralph: Besides... As long as those people believed me, then I'd grant their miracle for them. It's a business transaction, not a fraud.
You feel a chill running up your spine at his words.
It's as if Ralph saw himself as something beyond and above humanity. Something, or someone. that sought to make other people a stepping stone for his wishes.
Artem: But Hepharet can not be resurrected. The miracle that you mentioned is nothing but a magic show.
Ralph: Nonsense! Hepharet will come to life. I'll make her do so myself!
Marius: All the lab gear here...
Marius: looks like we came at the wrong time, and ended up hindering Professor Ralph's experiments.
Ralph: No, you've come at the perfect time.
Ralph: If the data he gave me is correct, my experiment today will be successful...
Ralph: And you... will be the witness of the construction of this bridge being between the ages!
You: He? Who is he?
Ralph: Hahaha, all the people that supported me will be showered in endless rewards, for I am the god that created it all!
Ralph ignores your question and talks incessantly about his delusions that are outside a normal person's comprehension.
He was either a mad man that was trapped in his own delusions, or purposely ignoring your question.
Ralph: When I open the gilded coffin and successfully extract Hepharet's DNA from the mummy...
Ralph: I'm confident that I'll be able to replicate her complete genetic sequence and make a fully usable receptor cell!
Ralph: I'll prove to the people who looked down on, laughed at, and humiliated me. I'll prove that they were all wrong!
Ralph: I will use scientific theories to bring them into submission!
Vyn: Science? Your science is to preach the theory of resurrection without factual evidence?
Vyn: Is this science, or superstition? Professor Ralph, you are really contradicting yourself.
Vyn takes a meaningful glance at the coffin.
Vyn: How are you sure that Hepharet must be in one of the two coffins here?
Vyn: How can you ensure that you can disprove the inferences left by our forebears? You are thinking too highly of yourself.
Ralph: My judgment will not be wrong. The two coffins are my best proof!
Ralph: All the marks and traces here prove that this coffin is left by Hepharet, for herself and Musen.
Ralph: If she didn't choose to be buried with Musen, then why did she spend so much effort to build this underground crypt?
Marius: We also found the information you mentioned. Those are indeed Hepharet's love letters to Musen.
Marius: Even if the love letter mentions that she wanted to be buried with her lover after her death, so what?
Marius: No one knows if she actually went through it it in the end.
Marius: The letters found in the burial chamber can't serve as direct evidence.
Ralph: Hmph! Of course I have more direct and concrete evidence!
Ralph suddenly puts his hand on the golden coffin, making a pushing action.
You realize that he has a tool in his hand that looks suspiciously like a crow bar.
The end of the crow bar had tightly inserted into one of the corners of the coffin. And then, he brings his arm down.
The coffin makes a light metal scraping sound, opening with a creak...
Ralph: Finding the mummy after opening the coffin, will serve as the most powerful evidence!
You: He wants to open the coffin. Stop him!
Just as you yell, Luke has already rushed forward to grab Ralph's crow bar.
The others follow close behind, trying to stop Ralph. However...
Ralph: Guess... what happens if you all stop me?
Ralph hasn't stopped his movements, only watching all of you with a provocative gaze.
You: Wait!
A chill runs down your spine, and you quickly halt everyone without another thought.
Ralph looks too confident, having faced your arrival without even a single trace of fear.
This is highly unusual. It's very likely that he has something else up his sleeve. A getaway card.
Ralph: You're a very smart young lady, I'll give you that.
Ralph lifts his other hand to stretch his palm outwards to us.
You see that he is holding something resembling a remote control in his palm.
Ralph: I have buried explosives all around this level of the ruins...
Ralph: If you want to fight me, then I can't let you continue witnessing my miracles anymore.
Artem: !!!
Luke: Are you crazy?
Marius: If the explosives explode, the ruins will collapse, and you will also be dead!
Ralph: Shut up! You wish for me to go out there, with nothing, to spend the rest of my life in prison! That's a worse fate than dying!
You: (Does he really mean it...? Could he be lying?)
You can't help comforting yourself, but you viciously squash that thought down as soon as it comes.
Because for Ralph, realizing his arrogant obsession takes importance above all else. He is fearless in the pursuit of his ideals.
But for you, it's a gamble of life and death.
None of you know for sure whether there are bombs around the place. He could be lying, or he could have actually planted the explosives.
He's gambling on whether you'll act rashly.
Vyn: What a crazy gambler.
Vyn: You can bet on the Pharaoh you believe in to see whether he favors you or turns his back on you.
Ralph fiercely presses the crow bar down, and the lid of the golden coffin tilts to one side.
Ralph: Only people will betray others, God... never will!
With one more push, the coffin lid eventually moves away as it opens a noticeable gap.
Ralph throws down the crow bar. Unable to wait to pounce on the coffin, he stretches his thick gloved hand into it.
Ralph: My Pharaoh, my god, my...
Ralph: My...
Ralph's body falls as he suddenly slumps to the ground.
He froze..
You catch sight of the open coffin. It's empty. There's nothing inside.
Ralph: No! Impossible!
After a few seconds of silence, Ralph lunges at another coffin and pries open its lid as well.
But this time, he has clearly lost his calm.
When the coffin lid is barely opened, he gets impatient enough that he uses his hands to push it until a gap is made.
And peering down at it in the dim light, you find that there is indeed a mummy inside this golden coffin, but it is by no means female.
Vyn: Disappointed?
Ralph: Impossible! I can't be wrong. This is impossible!
Ralph cries out hoarselt a few times, slumping down from where he stood. Tears stream down his flushed cheeks...
Vyn: Nothing is impossible. From the moment I set foot in this stone room, it was clear to me that your plan could never be achieved.
Vyn: Because you indulge in stroking your own ego and make your own ideas the guideline for your actions.
Vyn: This is bound to fail, and the truth is...
Vyn looks around, and his sight eventually fixes on you.
Vyn: [Player], do you think... we should tell him?
You: Yeah. I'll do it.
You: Actually, the truth is very simple: Hepharet did not choose to be buried with her beloved in the end.
You: If you'd carefully examined the mural on the upper level of the ruins...
You: You'll be able to clearly see that the thing you are pursuing is wrong, right from the very beginning.
You: I don't want to talk to him. It's better if you do it...
Vyn: That is fine as well. The truth is very simple, Hepharet ultimately did not choose to be buried with Musen.
Vyn: If you have understood the content of the murals in the upper layer of ruins. you will find that your quest is a ridiculous mistake.
Vyn: The mummy in the Rubis Museum is the real Hepharet herself.
Ralph: Mural? What the hell are you talking about!?
Artem: There is a special mural in the upper stone room, on the wall behind the altar.
Artem: After special treatment, the mural will reveal the words hidden under the pattern...
Artem: And those words are the message that Hepharet really wanted to leave to future generations.
Ralph: Cut the crap! Get straight to the point!
Artem: As you said, Hepharet could not disclose the secret love affair with her vassal to her own people because of her identity as Pharaoh.
Artem: After Musen's death, she built this underground temple and even considered a future burial with her beloved.
Artem: But... during the construction of the temple, her ideas gradually changed.
Artem: The responsibility to her people eventually made her give up on acting on her own emotions.
Ralph: ...
Ralph: Impossible! she's clearly buried here! This coffin, these traces! It can't be fake!
Vyn: After following her for such a lengthy time, you still appear to know nothing about Hepharet's persona.
Vyn: From the day she became Pharaoh, her life did not just belong to her alone.
Vyn: Except for her own personal emotions, Hepharet also had the rationality of a Pharaoh.
Vyn: So, she finally chose to leave this place and continue fulfilling her duties as a Pharaoh.
Marius: ...
Marius: However... she eventually abandoned the pyramid of the Pharaoh's specifications and took her perpetual rest in a small chamber in Rubis instead.
Marius: I think this may also be a decision that she made after facing her emotions.
Ralph: ...
You: This was all engraved upon the mural. You just didn't notice.
Luke: Hepharet placed her obsessions down and returned to her own life.
Luke: But you are still trapped in your own obsessions, refusing to face the truth.
Ralph: Ha... Haha...
He seems to be spurred on by it.
Shock, surprise, reluctance, humiliation... A variety of complex emotions appears on Ralph's face, one after another.
Eventually, these emotions morph into an uncanny smile.
Despite living muscles being responsible for the corners of his lips rising upwards, the resulting movement was stiff and in-organic, almost as if he were a marionette controlled by strings.
Ralph: I don't care anymore. Let's end this.
His arm makes an arc before your eyes. A white object detaches itself from Ralph's hand.
That was the controller that Ralph had been holding tightly in his hand before!
You: Watch out!
As you yell, Luke, who is closest to Ralph, lunges over to catch the controller before it hits the ground.
Marius and Artem step forward almost simultaneously and take firm hold of Ralph.
Luke: There's no chance to flip this around, so just give in.
You: Luke, the controller...
Luke: Intact! Don't worry!
Luke raises his hand to show the controller he just caught.
You breathe a sigh of relief. No matter whether the controller is real or not, everything's fine so long as you don't push any weird buttons, right?
Vyn: I have informed Yehya of this. The Khaimit police will soon send specialists to handle things.
You: Well, how about... we take Ralph away first?
You: There are many precious artifacts in this chamber. We can't let it be damaged again.
Everyone promptly agrees with your suggestion.
Artem and Vyn continue communicating with the police who are stationed on the upper levels of the ruins.
Marius and Luke are monitoring Ralph every move from the sidelines in case he struggles or poses any threat once more.
No one comes up with any action plan, but everyone works together extremely well.
You: (That's teamwork, right? Awesome!)
It is only then that your heart gradually settles down after a long while of hanging from a thread...
Ralph: Nothing that you say will help! Don't try to stop me!
You: (No, I have to find a way to calm him down and buy us more time.)
Summary
Character(s)
Debate Details
- Enemy Name: Ralph
- Turn Limit: 15 turns
Wave 1
Logic
Empathy
Intuition
Wave 2
Empathy
Logic
Wave 3
Null
Player Counterarguments
These phrases are triggered when a player uses a card. The phrase depends on the attribute of the card selected.
As a scientist, you should know better!
Is your miracle just an unscientific theory?
Life has its own natural pattern. You can't force things like this!
Resurrection goes against the principles of the world. Being stubborn won't change that!
Your plan was destined to fail from the beginning. Surrender now!
We've already contacted the Khaimit police. There's no escape!
You're suspected of fraud and many other crimes. You can't escape legal punishment!
