H37 Messenger of the Cat Goddess

Book Cover

**Messenger of the Cat Goddess**, the 37th book in the The Golden Age of Adventures series was published in September 2021. It is the English language edition of the original Chinese comic, **猫神的使者**, which was published in August 2021.

## Synopsis

BECOMING THE BEST! SEARCHING FOR CLUES TO UNDO LULU'S CURSE!

With the Adventure King successfully dealt with, Commander Steel Fang of the Global Alliance for Humanity announces his retirement and appoints Alex captain of the X-Venture Xplorers. Alex's first mission, investigating Lulu's curse, takes the team back to where it all started - Egypt. There, new discoveries swiftly make themselves known...

## Cast

* Alex
* Lulu
* Samara
* Ali
* "Desert Scimitar" Aligon

## Plot

***Spoiler warning!** Plot and/or ending details follow.*

### Chapter 1: Captain

Though Steel Fang has announced his retirement, the ban on adventuring remains. Many Adventurers are quitting the field. This might be the end of the Golden Age of Adventures.

Alex, Cammy, Marie Wright and Lulu are in Axe's hospital room. Robert enters, announcing the World Adventure Union is forbidden to continue their activities due to not regaining the public's trust. However, Shambhala's entrances remain a threat, and only experienced Adventurers can locate them. The Alliance has accepted Robert and Steel Fang's proposal. They have picked a captain that can move freely with less then ten companions to investigate Shambhala's remaining entrances and other places he deems a threat. The captain is... Alex!

Steel Fang approved Alex for defeating Adolf Hitler and Sigurd Bodon and apprehending Major Roger and Lieutenant Graham. Alex isn't a threat anymore since he doesn't have the IBYon cells anymore. Robert gives Alex the X-Venture Xplorers captain's identification card.

The next day, Lulu has escaped from her sister's hands. She is currently on Alex's jet pack. Alex flies to where Lulu got cursed.

### Chapter 2: Return to Egypt

Alex crashes into Amon's tavern like last time. After that, Alex shows Aligon Akhazane's map of Shambhala's entrances. There is one in between Cairo and the desert. Lulu takes the map to the pyramid she got cursed from under the tavern. Saifya doesn't want her daughter to go due to the trauma from the Adventurer Test. Amon agrees. Ali convinces them that he has learned first aid skills since the incident. Alex managed to defeat Sigurd, so Aligon joins him to see his capabilities. Safiya lets Samara go because Alex and Lulu helped saved their tavern and Lulu's part of their family.

Lulu got the map from a hooded man in Cairo's adventure street. The team reaches the pyramid Lulu recognises. Since it's night, they camp. Two cat mummies stalk them.

### Chapter 3: Desert Scimitar

Down the staircase, the team find the statue that cursed Lulu. At the time, the place was dark, so Lulu stepped on a pressure plate and got cursed. A wall rises, unleashing mummies. Aligon slices them. These mummies were weaker than the ones Samara encountered before. Alex finds a plate of hieroglyphics, saying this pyramid is for the body of Ramesses II's wife. Ali and Aligon find a boat in the room where the wall rose.

### Chapter 4: Wrong Answer

There is no water for the boat to descend to the lower part of the room, so everyone uses Alex's rope. They enter a room with a sphinx in the center. It asks how many piles would there be if a 7 kg rice pile, a 5 kg wheat pile and a 3 kg salt pile if combined together. Lulu tells it it must be the other sphinx's sibling from before. The two Anubis statues awaken because of the wrong answer. Samara thinks of making them fight each other. Alex and Aligon jump on each statue's head, then jump to each other. Alex, with Luminus' flames, blast downwards, and the statues destroy each other.

### Chapter 5: Cats

For defeating the statues of Anubis, the sphinx tells the team they can become Bastet's messenger. Also, a staircase emerges. Down below, the team is surrounded by cat mummies. Lulu asks one if it knows about her curse. The cat walks into a hole, takes Lulu in and shuts it with bars. A cat mummy warrior appears. Lulu sees the cat sitting on a cup with hieroglyphics. Alex and Aligon fight the cats. Ali protects Samara.

### Chapter 6: Wound

Aligon fights the cat warrior, and discovers his wounds have not fully healed. Alex calls him to come back. Alex burns his rope and surrounds the team, so the cats can't get them. Lulu reads the hieroglyphics: it asks for something as small as a seed that can swallow a forest. Alex burns a ball and ties it to his rocket drill to give to Lulu. Lulu puts the ball into the cup, lighting the room. The cats stop fighting. The door opens, and they bow down to Lulu. The lit torches reveal Shambhala's entrance near the stairs.

### Chapter 7: Serpent of Chaos

In the room Lulu was in, there are three murals. The top depicts the conflict between the water entities and the worms that came for Gaia's energy against the realm guardians. The water entities are shown to be born from a serpent. The serpent resembles Apep, who desires to blanket the world in darkness in Egyptian mythology. The myths also tell of Bastet slaying it. Tempesta, Luminus and Akhazane are hibernating, so no point asking them.

The middle depicts Bastet turning people into cats and Anubis turning people into jackals. Lulu thinks the jackals are the Tomb Guardians. Shambhala's map is between the two Egyptian gods. The bottom depicts cat people battling the serpents. It also depicts Ramesses II's wife gaining a blade from Bastet. Alex concludes Bastet originates from another world and gave warriors superpowers to fight the serpents.

There is also a place that has a dead worm. Alex looks at the cups, which resemble the cup of holy water Lulu drank. Lulu reads a tablet of hieroglyphics that tells the reader to drink the bodily fluid of the Chaos Larva to break the beast's shackles. Alex realises Lulu couldn't read ancient Egyptian before.

### Chapter 8: New Minions

Back at Alex's house, Lulu mentioned the curse made her literate in ancient Egyptian text. While cleaning the basement, she found a book about Egypt, but couldn't read the text. Alex shows her text to see if she can read them. She can't, even though Alex copied it from the tablet. Samara thinks the texts have magic that allows the cursed to read it. Aligon found nothing with Shambhala's entrance, thinking it must be broken. A cat mummy gives Lulu a blade. The warrior and the other cats, except six, leave. Lulu now has six minions.

On the surface, all the stuff from the pyramid have all been packed. Samara, Ali and Aligon can't go on Alex's next adventure. Smith arrives with Susie, Steel Fang's secretary. Susie reports to Alex that a batch of the Union's secret files have fallen into the hands of two Dark Adventurers that are hiding in Mongolia. Axe and Benny are injured, so Alex is willing to help.

In the subspace that connects all worlds, Sigurd sees a giant serpent resembling Apep. He begins to fight it.