Back at the base, everyone was cooing at the little fox, even Brock who kept trying to feed it food from the cafeteria.

“Where did you get him?  He’s absolutely adorable.”  Zariah exclaimed, holding the fox in her ams.  The fox had its eyes closed, almost purring in contentment as she combed its fur with her fingers.

Kai nodded towards Ryu.  “Little guy seemed to follow us out of the tower before we knew it.”

Zion was shaking a large steak in front of it, making cooing sounds.  “We can keep Bijoux right?”

“As if you already named him.”  Gia mused, also reaching out to pet the fox.

Ryu watched the group with a smile, still thinking about what the God said.  “According to my stat screen, it already has a name.”  

Everyone looked at him expectantly.

Ryu rubbed the back of his neck.  “The name is Muga, Mu for short.  And…it’s actually a girl.”

Ryu noticed a flashing line at the bottom of the screen:

Note: Muga is the direct descendant of Set, the God of Chaos

The screen closed and he it quickly slipped his mind as they all renewed their attentions for Mu.

“That’s my girl!”  Zion boomed, feeding her another choice bite of the steak in his hand while his sister produced a little bell collar from her duffel bag.

Once the collar was locked in, Mu licked her paw and pressed her nose against Zariah’s cheek  before hopping out of her arms.  She hopped up to do the same to Zion before padding her way towards Ryu and bumped her head into his leg to pick her up.  

Ryu carefully set her over his shoulder as everyone immediately took out their phones to snap pictures.  Even Brock somehow acclimated in the small time he’s been in their world and had his own phone he was trying to figure out how to unlock.

“I can’t believe this.  I hope she stays with us forever!”

Kai just shook his head with a smile and scratched the fox under her chin.

“Okay guys, let’s get down to business.”

His words were met with boo’s even as they started to settle back down into their seats in the boardroom.

Zion raised his hand, batting his eyelashes.

“Yes, Z.”  Gia smirked, folding her arms and already guessing what he was about to ask.

Zion glanced innocently at Gia and Kai.  “Since we have Brock and now Mu, can we maybe do this outside where Mu can run around a little and stretch her little legs?”

Zariah immediately nodded, her eyes sparkling.  “I second that!”

Brock stopped filming the yawning fox and raised his hand.  “Third!”

Kai rubbed his forehead while Gia nudged him in the shoulder.  “Let the kiddies have their fresh air.  They’re still wired from the tower run.” 

Zion was mouthing to Ryu to raise his hand too, who raised Mu’s paw instead.  

Everyone melted again and a few minutes later, after getting stuck in the hallway with other people cooing over Mu, the group finally made it to the inner garden within the complex.

There was a large zen garden, complete with a small bubbling brook in the corner and koi pond. They all sat in a large open space gazebo while Mu was content to lay over the small bridge and dangle her paw over the pond where the fish were lazily swimming.

Kai cleared his throat.  “Ahem.”

Everyone put away their phone and made an effort to turn from the sight of Mu’s adorable figure as she started squeaking and conversing with the fish.  Ryu could see that Zion was practically tearing up from not being able to give Mu attention and hid a smile.

“Alright, as I was saying.”  Kai managed a control panel that popped up from within the large table and a holographic screen popped up in the middle of the table.

“So the tower Gia and team went through was as per usual.  Typical creatures and slightly higher up dungeon creatures but no Gods, stars or survivors.”

Zion nodded, crossing his arms.  “Confirmed straightforward tower type.  No casualties and no particular intel about this prophecy we heard from the Sphinx.”

“We retrieved a few items but nothing of interest.”  Zariah added, typing into the panel on the table and zooming in on particular items like minor spears and sword weaponry and a few mana stones.

Gia flipped the screen back to zoom into the tower Kai and Ryu entered.  “Seems like you guys ended up with the short end of the straw.”  The screen pulled up information about Set, his profile blinking across for all to see.

“Lucky.”  Zion groaned, stretching his arms in the air.  “I would have loved to battle a God.”

“I doubt that’s the last time we’ll have that chance.”  Kai flashed him a wry smile, changing the screen to add other details in the report for all to see.

“He’s mentioned that there will be other battles and we’ll be needing the weapons we were gifted in the tower with the Sphinx.”

“He seemed to think that Anubis was expecting it and that’s why he had the Sphinx let us pick.”  Ryu recalled, patting Mu on the head as she returned to curl up in his lap.

“Well all the better for us.  We knew we’d be fighting but now we have a better idea who.”  Zariah piped up, casually spinning a small blade through her nimble fingers as she thought aloud.

Zion sat back in his chair.  “If it is one God, then that is probably doable.  If it is multiple Gods, then we are definitely going to need more firepower.”

Gia glanced at Brock.  “You mentioned there were stars and the chosen one,”

Everyone glanced at Ryu for that and he tried to ignore the weight of their stares as Brock slowly nodded.

“But what about these Gods?  Are they friend or foe?  Anubis and Set seem to be playing with sides.  Is there one among them we need to be wary of?”

Brock had a distant look in his eyes but he leaned forward in his seat, his hands clasped on the table.  “The Gods are neither good or evil.  They have so much power that when they choose to exercise them, it is just their will.”

Zion shook his head in disgust.  “We had myths about these Gods in our world and they all but disappeared.  To think they possibly used these towers to simply reign over other worlds.”

“But if you were a God, why would you choose to live in those towers when you used to have the whole world?”  Ryu countered.  

“Maybe they had no choice but to escape into the towers.  Maybe there was a God who betrayed them?”  Zariah asked, before glancing to Brock.  “Is there anything in your people’s history that can give us a clue?”

Brock shook his head to everyone’s disappointment.  “My people worship the stars as our Gods.  These others you call Gods in your world suddenly came upon our world and took it.  But they’re not the same Gods who currently reside in the towers.”

Kai was quiet the whole time, absorbing the information before he finally spoke up.  “To Ryu’s point, what if these current Gods are taking shelter in the towers while other Gods are using those very same tower structures to invade other worlds like Brock’s?”

Everyone sat in silence, mulling over the question.  Kai answered for them.

“In our world, there are more sets of Gods in our mythology and cultures.” Kai glanced at each and every one of them.  “What if another set of Gods have found a way to invade other worlds?”

There was brief silence before Gia spoke up.

“It makes sense.  Some of the towers we’ve been in across the globe had totally different mythologies tied to them. Mind you, we’ve never come across actual Gods in them so this is kind of a big deal.”

“I’m surprised the executive director isn’t here.”  

At the mention of Kai’s aunt, he pointed to the holographic which shifted to other towers across the globe.

“They’ve been popping up more and we only have so many hunters who can manage these.”

Ryu caught the hopeful look on Brock’s face before his face fell when he realized Kai’s aunt wouldn’t be joining us.  

“It’s tough to determine whether other Gods from other myths are active at this point.  We’ll work with what we do know, and that is the Egyptian Gods have some effect in all of this.”  Kai continued.

“Whether for good or bad intentions, that’s for us to figure out as we encounter more towers.”  Gia added, bringing up the rest of the profiles of the Gods.

Ryu glanced at the profile of Anubis beside Set, the head of a Jackal so similar to the one on the sceptre from earlier.  His mind recalled something he had seen on his stat screen but he couldn’t quite recall it.

While the others discussed strategy, Mu opened one eye which gleamed brightly and glance up at the screen.  For a moment, the screen flickered and flashed a small picture of a piece of script in hieroglyphics before it faded into the background.  Mu yawned and curled deeper into Ryu’s lap and fell asleep.