Destiny: The Fate of the Ancients
Prologue, 5000 Years before the time of Pharaoh Atem
He stood on the cliff looking at the expanse of desert below him. It was a sea of yellow hills stretching forever in front of him. In the distance he saw riders on camels coming towards the cave. Hurrying back into the cave, he went into the cluttered room filled with primitive jars and cauldrons and books laying around on the tables and other scientific equipment. The young man approached his master, an older man, an experienced magician.
"Master, the Pharaoh and his army approaches," the young man told his master. In response the Master picked up a small reliquary from the table and ordered, "Stay here and guard the rest of the reliquaries and make sure they remain safe from anyone else."
The Master got up and out of the cave and once out of sight of the young man, opened the reliquary and swallowed its contents. Meanwhile, the Pharaoh and his army approached the cave, slowly and carefully. Pharaoh called out, "Necrophidus, I know you are in there, we've come to destroy your evil magic. You can come quietly to your execution or you will be killed right here and now."
The Master slowly sauntered out of his hiding spot in front of the cave, "Pharaoh, how nice to see you. Do you think that I'm scared of your idle threats or your silly, pathetic army? I am Zork Necrophidus, the most powerful magician ever. Do you think your silly powers will be able to defeat me?" And with that, Zork released the power of the reliquary, the created Ka of the god Set.
Storms erupted suddenly as a great dragon exploded through the clouds; this dragon had great black wings and flew around in circles, whipping up fierce winds. Zork laughed, "Think you can win? I give you no chance. Set was created through the sacrifice of many souls, something you would never do."
Pharaoh replied, "You'll never win," and he summoned his Ka, the great mythical beast, Hapi. Zork just laughed and ordered Set to attack Pharaoh, "Set, use Nightmare Flame." Set mouth opened as gouts of black flame erupted towards Pharaoh. Pharaoh ordered Hapi to block the attack, but Set's evil flame was too powerful and Pharaoh was badly hurt. The four priests ran towards Pharaoh and dragged him away.
Zork bragged, "See the power of Set, you'll never win." Meanwhile, the young man in the cave was watching the battle unfold outside. He thought to himself, Master is winning and soon those bad people will be gone. Outside, Pharaoh had sufficiently recovered and was in conference with his Priests. He told them that Zork's new Ka was too powerful to defeat alone and that if they were going to overcome Set and destroy Zork, they would have to combine their powers and Ka's to summon the legendary Exodia.
The five men strode back confidently as they summoned the five parts of Exodia and combined their powers to take on Set. The eruptions and shockwaves from the battle rocked the interior of the cave. Slowly but gradually, the battle between Pharaoh and the four Priests and Zork began to move away from the cave entrance.
Seeing an opportunity the commander of Pharaoh's army moved a few of troops forward to enter the cave and destroy its contents. Caught by surprise the young man had little time but to grab the three reliquaries which held completed Ka's of three gods. There was nothing he could do about the three uncompleted ones; there just had not been enough time to gather the necessary amount of souls to sacrifice. The young man ducked out of the cave through the back exit just as the Commander's troops came in the front. The young man now stood on top of a cliff overlooking the battle.
Pharaoh and his priests, using Exodia were slowly beating the evil flames coming from Set. Suddenly, with a burst of power, one of Exodia's punches landed squarely in the centre of Set's body, doing a great deal of damage. Zork flew backwards at great speed and slammed into a wall of stone and fell over, bleeding in various places. Exodia moved in to kill Zork. One final punch from Exodia was all it took; Zork's body shook violently and exploded in a rain of blood, spraying a fine mist over Pharaoh and his four priests. With its host gone, Set was free and immediately disappeared. Turning away the Pharaoh and his four priests relaxed and their Ka dissipated.
Standing on the cliff top watching his Master die in such a horrible way the young man became mad with grief. Taking all three reliquaries out from under his cloak, he poured the contents down his throat. He felt his body convulse wildly as the power of 3 god Ka's flowed through his body. He knew that he had to take revenge for his Master's death, but had to prevent the Pharaoh and his priests from combining their powers again. He slipped quietly down the cliff and hid as Pharaoh and his priests approached. As they passed he jumped out and unleashed his Ka, Horus. "Horus attack with Shining Blade Storm,"
Suddenly, a falcon headed god appeared from the sky and blades started to fly in the direction of the priests, impaling one of them and killing him instantly. The remaining priests and Pharaoh stared at the young man as he jumped out from his hiding place, a look of vengeance in his eyes. The Priests said," Pharaoh you must escape, without the power of Exodia we cannot win. We will hold him while you escape." The young man voice seemed to resonate with hate and malice as he said very slowly and deliberately, "He's not going anywhere; no one is going to get out of this place alive." With this the young man launched Blade Storm through his Ka, killing all the priests.
Meanwhile inside the cave as the commander and his troops were destroying the contents of the cave, the commander was attracted to a book with a symbol of an eye on it embossed in pure gold. While no one else was watching, he slipped it under his uniform and went on destroying the things in the cave. Abruptly, three jars within the cave began to shake violently as they reacted to the carnage taking place outside.
Outside the cave, the young man held Pharaoh, who was severely injured, by the scruff of his cape. "You can watch your whole army out here die by my hands before I finish you off," With this he summoned his second god Ka, Anubis. A jackal-headed creature appeared through the clouds in a blaze of lightning. "Anubis, use Sickle Tempest to kill the pathetic army." Anubis made a sweeping motion as a wave of energy incinerated the front ranks of Pharaoh's army. Even as the army was being destroyed a new one sprang in its place, but this time it was of jackal-headed Anubites who held smaller sickles but were furiously cutting their way through the rest of the army. As more people died, more Anubites sprung up and soon the desert was covered in a sea of red blood interposed between the yellow dunes.
The young man turned to the bleeding Pharaoh, his eyes a blazing red fire, "And now it's your turn to die, you evil man." All of a sudden, Pharaoh kicked at the young man, momentarily surprised he let go and Pharaoh stood up a few metres away. The Pharaoh said, "I work for the good of the kingdom, good always triumphs over evil, even if I die you will suffer a worse fate." The young man walked towards Pharaoh and gloated, 'don't you know, I hold all the power and you none, you should be on your knees, begging me to let you live. You will die now." With that, the young man summoned Anubis again and ordered it to use Sickle Tempest on the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh summoned Hapi to defend himself but Hapi was shattered and dissipated and Pharaoh was on the brink of death. Stepping over Pharaoh's body, the young man the fire of vengeance and anger still running through his body, "I'll finish you off, with my bare hands." As he stood over the Pharaoh's battered body, fist cocked ready to land the finishing blow, a light suddenly appeared from Pharaoh's body, as the body slumped and a wispy image of Pharaoh appeared.
This wispy image spoke, "Even though you have destroyed my body and I am dead and now just a spirit, I cannot let you stay here and ravage the kingdom with your power. So I'm using the last of my magic to banish you from the physical realm. I am trapping you between dimensions, you will be wondering alone forever, lost in the conscience you will receive until the time that you are needed to save the world. I pity you; I will be happy forever in the afterlife, while you are forced to wonder with nothing but the faces of the dead haunting you, forever. I cannot think of a worse fate." Then, the spirit faded away and the young man was left alone on the dune.
Suddenly, he began feeling strange. He looked at his hands as they started fading away before his eyes. His feet and legs were disappearing. As his body disappeared altogether, leaving only his head, a plaintive cry of "Nooooo," in the far ends of the kingdom.
With the banishing of the young man and his Ka, the Anubites vanished, and the souls of the dead soldiers were released. Back in the cave the three jars containing uncompleted Ka's started shaking violently and glowing as it received the souls of the dead. The commander and his troops remaining inside the cave, quickly evacuated the cave, as three shafts of light released hit the three jars and three Ka's were released, The Winged Dragon of Ra, Saint Dragon – God of Osiris and Obelisk the Tormentor.
The commander and his remaining men quickly rode away back to the kingdom's capitol, the commander with the book safely tucked under his uniform. The storm whirled behind them as the three new Ka's were given life.
Meanwhile, between dimensions the young man found himself stuck in an infinite darkness. The faces of the dead soldiers and people whom he had helped kill stared back at him from all sides, the line of dead seemed to stretch on forever. Their faces stared blankly at him and then the dead seemed to speak, "Why did you kill me?" The words seemed to echo in his ears and it was all his mind could think of. The young man clutched at his head and screamed for the voices to stop. Tears started to stream down his face and he fell to his knees. The dead Pharaoh's voice started to echo in his ears, "I pity you. You will wonder alone..."
A month later, the three gods that had been born ravaged the kingdom. The teenage son of the dead Pharaoh now crowned as the new Pharaoh used his power to subdue the three god monsters and captured them in stone blocks and his rule was just. And the book sat in the royal library on a shelf.
Notes (Will contain spoilers of Yu-Gi-Oh! the anime and manga)
Ka is a spirit which can live inside a human's body. Usually Ka can be stored into stone tablets and when needed, the Ka can be summoned to aid the user of the Ka.
Pharaoh Atem – i.e. The Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. So the story takes place 5000 years before his reign.
The book taken by the commander is the book which contains instructions on how to make the millennium items.
Zork Necrophidus is the major bad guy in the Memory Arc of Yu-Gi-Oh! manga which talks about the Millennium Items and their magical powers. Here I am just extrapolating it backwards and writing about the backstory.
At the behest of my friend, (thanks for the excellent research), I'm renaming Pharaoh's Ka from Phorcys (something I made up) to Hapi, the ancient Egyptian God of the Nile (though it won't feature as a God Card per se).
The three god monsters, Osiris, Obelisk and Ra were captured by the new Pharaoh and thus, when the game Duel Monsters were created only those three appeared as Pegasus based the card game off the stone tablets, and the other 4 god monsters were never entombed in a stone tablet.
The other 4 god monsters are Set, Anubis, Horus and the last one won't be revealed yet...