Chapter 14: Under A Spell
Their eyes widened as the Pharaoh walked forward. He sneered as he grabbed his sword and walked towards them.
"Wha...how can you...walk?" Anubis asked, shocked.
"That's impossible!" Cream shrieked, dodging a swing from the Pharaoh's sword.
Tails frowned as he too dodged the sword.
Anubis growled. "The Pharaoh has been put under a spell," it told them.
"Mephiles!" Cream shouted. "He must have done this!"
The Pharaoh swung at them again, barely stabbing Cream. She fell back and looked at the others, wondering what to do. Clutching her shoulder, she charged and rammed into the Pharaoh, sending him flying.
"Run!" she yelled.
Anubis grabbed Tails and swung him onto its back, and ran off. Cream followed them. Sonic groaned as he hit the floor. He grabbed his sword and tried to get up.
"What is happening to me?" he asked himself.
At that point, Mephiles walked in. He chuckled and looked at the fallen Pharaoh, then walked up to him. "Oh my Pharaoh, you are just a perfect little slave yourself aren't you?" Mephiles sneered.
Sonic glared at him. "So they were telling the truth. What do you want, Mephiles?"
"Your head, Shadow's head, and that pathetic little girl of a rabbit's head. And you are going to help me!" Mephiles laughed.
"I will never aid you!"
"We shall see about that," Mephiles said darkly.
The Pharaoh glared at him. Mephiles chuckled and snapped his fingers as Sonic held his head in pain and screamed.
Cream, Tails and Anubis were running across the sand, looking for Mephiles. Cream turned to Anubis.
"How long are you going to take over Shadow?" she asked the jackal.
"As long as I need to," Anubis said. It growled. "We need to defeat Mephiles."
"What we need to do is prepare," Tails said, frowning.
"That is true. Mephiles has taken control of the Pharaoh, and we need to think of some way to stop him."
"I'm assuming he can't die naturally, since you brought him back," Cream asked, raising her eyebrows at Anubis.
"That is correct; he is now immortal, a demon. And only an immortal can kill another immortal. I can do that, but first we need to weaken him. There is an ancient artifact called the Scepter of Darkness that I created. We can seal his soul in that and I can bring him back to the Underworld."
Cream shouted at the jackal. "Then why did you bring him here if you knew he'd be unbeatable?! He was already dead so what was the point of bringing him back if you weren't going to HELP HIM!?"
"Cream, that's enough!" Tails shouted.
Anubis snarled at the slave and spoke in a threatening manner. "You watch your tongue young woman," it said, menacingly, but Cream was still shouting.
Tails had had enough. He walked over to Cream and looked at her. "What is your problem?" He shouted. "You don't talk to the god of the dead like that!"
"One of the people I care most about is being hunted by a crazy person! I want to know why Anubis brought him back if it wasn't going to help him! Is that too much to ask for?" she snapped back.
"He has his reasons," Tails said, and turned to Anubis. "Why did you bring Mephiles back?"
Anubis thought about how to word its decision, and finally settled on the hard truth. "He made a deal with me."
"What kind of deal?" Cream asked him.
Anubis hesitated. "He promised me Shadow's soul if he killed him."
Tails nodded. "Why are you trying to stop him, then?"
"Yes, please, enlighten us," Cream added with a snarl.
"Enough, Cream," Tails said.
The jackal growled at her and began to explain. "I'm a god of death. It is my job to make sure people pay for their bad deeds when they die and reward them for their good deeds," said Anubis, pacing back and forth.
Tails nodded. "That makes sense."
"His bad deeds outweighed his good. After seeing all his bad deeds I'm surprised he had any good at all," Anubis added. Cream laughed a bit, which she tried to hide with a cough.
"So then why did you let him come back if you were going to stop him anyway?" she asked.
The jackal turned to her. "Because of the deal we made. It was a test for him to see if he would do any more bad deeds or not."
"I'm guessing you didn't expect this to become as difficult as it did," Tails said.
The god of death shook his head. "Nay, I did not."
Cream was still glaring at Anubis, but had calmed down a bit. "Okay. I think I get that much. But still, what do we do now?" she asked.
"We stop Mephiles and kill him before he kills the Pharaoh."
"Umm, or we could deal with the Pharaoh that's running at us right now," said Tails, looking behind Cream and Anubis.
Sonic was running full out towards the three of them, with no signs of stopping. "You will all perish!" he roared.
"Just what we need, a crazy Pharaoh," Tails said.
"Split apart," Anubis ordered. Tails and Cream nodded and went separate ways. Anubis stood in front of Sonic and roared. "If you want to fight me, then do so with honor," Anubis growled, to which Sonic laughed.
"Honor? There is no such thing." Anubis jumped at the Pharaoh with a snarl. Sonic smirked and dodged the attack. The jackal growled and lunged at him again. "For a god, you are quite weak," said Sonic, swinging the sword that was in his left hand.
Anubis growled. "Mephiles has corrupted you."
The Pharaoh laughed and shook his head, then attacked Anubis again. This time, he stabbed Anubis in the stomach as the god pounced on him. Anubis howled and backed away as the two circled each other. Blood dripped from Anubis's wound as Sonic chuckled. Just as Sonic was about to attack again, he felt something hit him in the back. He flew forward, and turned his head to see Tails behind him.
"Who the heck are you?" He yelled.
"Name's Tails. I'm sorry I don't recognize you. I thought the Pharaoh was suppose to be kind, not bat-crap crazy," said Tails with a smirk.
"Well you thought wrong!" Sonic shouted, and swung his sword at Tails.
Tails jumped back, dodging Sonic's blows with ease. "You aren't the kind Pharaoh of old," he said. "What happened to you?"
"Mephiles has opened my eyes to the weakness of this world, and we shall shape it to the way it should be together," Sonic said, his eyes glinting.
"Oh heck no!" Cream yelled, suddenly rushing at Sonic out of nowhere.
Sonic smirked. He swing his arm and hit her in the chest. She gasped and fell to the ground. Sonic raised his sword above her chest. "I should have killed you long ago," he said, and was just about to kill her when Anubis pounced on him.
"This mortal's life is not yours to take!" It snarled, shoving the hedgehog onto the ground.
The Pharaoh glared at it. "Why not?" He said.
Anubis growled and clawed Sonic, scratching him across the chest. A few seconds later, a loud laugh could be heard and Mephiles stood nearby.
"Tut tut Anubis. As the god of the afterlife, I expected more from you," Mephiles sneered.
"You," Anubis growled. "I should have known you would do this..."
"With your help, of course. I could never have done this without you sending me back."
"You tricked me! We had a deal!"
"Are you really that surprised? I thought you could see everything about me! Surely you never thought I intended to keep my deal?" Mephiles sneered.
The god of death snarled at him. "I'll defeat you, and send you back to the Underworld."
"You would love that. But you do have a problem to deal with at the moment," Mephiles smirked, looking over at Sonic who was swiping at Cream.
Anubis growled. It glared at Mephiles before crouching, and pounced.