An Ancient War
Prologue
5000 years ago, Pharaoh Akunumkanon of Egypt ordered his brother, the High Priest Akunadin, to perform a special ritual to help the Pharaoh protect Egypt from its enemies, who were currently invading. This ritual was for the creation of a group of items that would later be called the Millennium Items. However, unbeknownst to the Pharaoh, in order for the ritual to work, many lives were required to be sacrificed.
A group of about 100 chariots were riding across the desert land of Egypt. In the lead rode the High Priest. He was a strongly built man, about 35 years old with a head of jet black hair, with a few gray flecks, and was dressed in his priestly garments, white robe and purple turban blowing in the desert winds. A small town rose out of the desert sands in front of the riders. The chariots bumped to a halt and the High Priest turned behind him "Kuruelna, this is it, men. It is the Pharaoh's command that the scum here is to be annihilated. Leave none alive" Akunadin commanded the troops behind him.
One of the soldiers near the High Priest rode up to Akunadin and spoke to him in a low voice, "Your Eminence, why does the Pharaoh wish for the decimation of this village? They are just a bunch of bandits and assassins, not worth the trouble."
In response the man's statement, the Pharaoh's brother turned to him with a reproachful look in his eyes "Tutmosis, you may be my sister's son, but that doesn't give you the right to question the Pharaoh's commands, or mine."
"Forgive me, uncle. I merely wished to understand my position here," replied Tutmosis, bowing his head.
"You are forgiven, Captain. Just be careful what you say, especially around the Pharaoh. Now, lead the troops on foot through the town. It would be impractical to use chariots within the village," said Akunadin. At that, the Captain dismounted from his chariot, drew his sword, and started to walk towards the town. The rest of the soldiers followed their Captain into the town. "And so begins the counterstrike," whispered Akunadin to himself, as his nephew lead the warriors into Kuruelna.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the town, a young boy was practicing throwing knives at a large post intended for securing horses. The boy was about 9 years old with crimson eyes and ebony hair that was unusually spiky. He was tall for his age, being about the same height as most 12 year olds. His clothes were very simple, just a brown vest and matching pants. A smile formed on the boy's lips as the knife he just threw lodged into the centre of the post directly underneath another pair of knives. The boy looked over at the little girl watching him from an open doorway. She was younger than him, about 7 years old. Her hair was also black, thought it also had a few streaks of red in it. Her eyes were a dark ruby colour. Her clothes were a basic black outfit, similar in many ways to the boy's clothes.
All of a sudden, a lot of shouting and screaming sounded from the other side of town as the soldiers put Akunadin's command into action. At once, a man came running out of the house that the girl was standing in. He was a tall man with mahogany hair and water blue eyes. He was holding a long scimitar and looked ready to fight to the death with anyone who tried to harm him or his family. "Ahmed, take your sister and run for your lives. I have a feeling that whoever that just arrived in our town will probably try to kill everyone here," the man said to the boy who had been throwing knives a minute earlier.
"But what about you, father?" asked Ahmed of the man.
"I'll be fine, just take Kumori and go," replied the man. When Ahmed showed no sign of moving, his father gave him a shove in the back, "Ahmed, you cannot fight them, you aren't strong enough yet."
At that, the boy grudgingly grabbed the black and red haired girl and started running towards the outskirts of the town. When they had gone out of sight their father turned toward the increasingly louder screams and started walking.
It wasn't very long before the man, whose name was Ah'tepey, found one of the intruders. It was Tutmosis, the nephew of the High Priest and of the Pharaoh. Tutmosis' sword was very long and thin and was covered in blood all the way down to its golden hilt. "What's the Pharaoh's puppy doing here?" said Ah'tepey just loud enough for the Captain to hear.
Snarling at the thief's comment Tutmosis swung around to face him. Once he saw his opponent the Captain started swinging his sword around his hand in a casual fashion. "You've got a sword, have you, thief? I just hope you're as quick with the sword as you are with your mouth, or else this isn't going to be any fun at all," Tutmosis finished with a smirk.
"I'm quicker," Ah'tepey replied never taking his eyes from the Captain and his casually swinging sword. 'He's strong, and probably quite fast,' Ah'tepey thought to himself, 'I'm going to have to finish this quick, because when it comes to a long fight, he's definitely got the advantage'.
While his opponent was thinking this, Tutmosis was sizing him up, looking for any weaknesses. 'This'll be easy,' thought the Captain, 'I could probably beat him blindfolded.' With that, the emerald eyed warrior launched his first attack against the thief. Tutmosis leaped towards Ah'tepey, swinging his long blade down and to the left, aiming to bring it down on Ah'tepey's neck.
The attack almost succeeded, the Captain's sudden lunge had caught Ah'tepey by surprise, and he only just managed to bring his curved blade up in time to stop it. But when he did, he let the Captain's blade slide down his own, sidestepping as he did so. Ah'tepey then used Tutmosis' own momentum to spin around on his left foot and bring his scimitar down towards Tutmosis' chest. But it wasn't there.
As soon as he felt his sword slide off Ah'tepey's sword, Tutmosis knew what he was trying to do. With an overconfident smirk, Tutmosis dived into a short somersault so that he was just behind the thief, and then as Ah'tepey flailed wildly at thin air, the Captain got up into a crouch and swung his left leg at Ah'tepey's legs to topple the already unbalanced thief. Tutmosis sprung to his feet, ready to finish him off.
Tutmosis stabbed his long blade at Ah'tepey's back, but the thief rolled away just in time, swinging his scimitar at the Captain as he did. The Captain's blade stabbed into the sandy ground. Tutmosis raised his left hand to his cheek then brought it down so he could see. A dark red liquid was on his fingers, Ah'tepey's blade had connected.
Ah'tepey got to his feet and looked at his opponent. 'That was close. Too close.' Ah'tepey thought to himself. Tutmosis pulled his sword out of the sand with an animalistic snarl, and looked at his opponent with a look of unbridled fury.
"Well, thief, it seems you have some skill after all. But that won't be enough to save you. In all of Egypt, none are more skilled with the sword than I. And that means, thief, that you won't get any mercy from me," Tutmosis said to Ah'tepey, his voice dripping with hatred.
With that, Tutmosis launched another assault against the thief. He swung his gold hilted sword right and up aimed at Ah'tepey's right armpit. Ah'tepey brought his scimitar down to block and their blades locked together. But now, the Captain's greater physical strength began to show and Tutmosis slowly pushed Ah'tepey's blade up and across his body until it was on the left side of the thief.
After that, time seemed to speed up; first Tutmosis thrust forward slicing open Ah'tepey's left arm right above the elbow, then he spun his sword around so it was on the other side of the thief's weapon, then finally he drove his sword down, ripping Ah'tepey's left leg open just above the knee. After the quick, but deadly accurate, flurry of blows, Ah'tepey fell on his right side. Ah'tepey struggled to hold his scimitar now, the pain making it hard to concentrate.
But Tutmosis wasn't finished, he pressed on his attacks ruthlessly. He wanted to inflict great pain onto the thief before letting him die. Tutmosis swung his sword down at Ah'tepey, who managed to block the blow, but the Captain swung around and struck again. This time, he caught the underside of the scimitar and hooked it up and out of the thief's grip, throwing it about six feet away from the pair of them. He then quickly reversed momentum and sliced his sword down again. Ah'tepey tried to roll out of the way but wasn't quick enough and Tutmosis' blade came down on his right wrist. Ah'tepey almost passed out as he heard the sound of the bones in his wrist breaking.
Ah'tepey looked down at his right hand and immediately wished he hadn't. He no longer had a right hand; the Captain's blade had severed it completely. 'This is nice,' thought the thief, 'I now have two useless arms and one useless leg. It looks like this is the end for me. I hope Ahmed and Kumori made it out.' He then looked up at Tutmosis, who had a wicked grin on his face.
"What was that you said earlier, thief? What am I doing here? Well, thief, at the moment I'm fulfilling the orders of the Pharaoh by annihilating the scum of this village. And you are in that category, thief, so I'm going to kill you," Tutmosis said to Ah'tepey, while readying his sword for one more assault on the fallen thief.
Tutmosis' smile turned into a rictus snarl as he drove his sword into Ah'tepey's right thigh, cracking the femur and rendering the thief practically immobile. He then thrust his sword into Ah'tepey's gut. "I think I win, thief. Now let's find what you were protecting," Tutmosis said.
Tutmosis pulled his sword from the body of the thief and started walking in the direction that Ah'tepey had come from. He knew that the thief had been protecting something because of the way that he had been acting when they first met. But he didn't know what Ah'tepey was protecting.
On the other side of the town, just inside the boundary, Ahmed and Kumori were scuttling from house to house in an effort not to be seen. Soon, Ahmed had an idea, "Kumori, hide as best as you can. I'm going to go and find Father," Ahmed said to his little sister.
"Be careful, Brother," the black and red streak haired girl replied, "I don't want to lose you too, not after…" He knew what she meant, their mother had gone to Thebes two years ago to steal a few things (they were a family of thieves after all) but she had been caught and brutally executed by the new Captain of the Guard, Tutmosis. Neither of them knew much more than that about what happened back then, but Ahmed had made a vow to himself that if he ever met Tutmosis, he would kill him. Little did Ahmed know that he would soon have another reason to kill Tutmosis.
"I will," Ahmed promised his sister "Now go." With that, Ahmed went back the way they came and Kumori found a place to hide, inside a large pot. Ahmed made his way through the town, scuttling between the shadows of the houses. Eventually, he saw an unfamiliar man walking along the street. He carried a very long sword with a gold hilt; the blade was almost completely covered in blood. Ahmed now knew that his father's suspicions were correct. The man was tall and had emerald green eyes. He couldn't see his hair because he was wearing a Captain's headdress. Ahmed suddenly realized who he was looking at. It was Tutmosis, his mother's killer. Ahmed was ready to leap out at the Captain and try to make good on his oath, but just as he was about to do so, he was held back by a hand from behind him.
The hand belonged to an eleven year old boy, who was wearing a long red cloak that he stole from a silk merchant in Thebes about the same time as Ahmed's mother died. The boy was a little bit taller than Ahmed with spiked silver hair and amethyst eyes. His name was Akefia, Ahmed knew him as a lone wolf thief, rarely associating with others. "Do you want to be killed, baka? Come with me, there's something you should see," Akefia said to Ahmed in a whisper. Akefia lead Ahmed through the shadows, almost disappearing in them as he went. Eventually, they arrived at the scene of the fight between Ah'tepey and Tutmosis.
"Father!" Ahmed cried, running to his father's body. Suddenly, Ah'tepey coughed and looked at his son.
"I told you to go with Kumori, Ahmed," Ah'tepey said, his words interspersed with coughs that brought up blood.
"Who did this to you, Father?" Ahmed asked his father, his body starting to shake with suppressed rage.
"The same person as last time, Ahmed," said the dying thief, "Captain Tutmosis. But you must promise me something, Ahmed," he said, reaching his left hand to hold onto his son's shoulder.
"Anything, Father," replied Ahmed, grabbing onto his father's hand.
"Promise me that you won't go looking for Tutmosis, not until you're stronger," Ah'tepey pleaded with his son, his eyes starting to lose focus.
"Yes, Father," Ahmed promised his father. Ah'tepey managed a weak smile. His grip then relaxed and his breath came out in a sigh as he died. Ahmed let his father's hand drop to the ground and slowly stood up. "Yes, Father, I promise you that Tutmosis will pay for what he's done," said Ahmed, looking up at the sky. The sun was setting, covering the horizon in a blood red colour. "The night rises and so do I, I am Nightrise and I will destroy that murderer, Tutmosis."
As he said this, Akefia looked on with a big smile on his face. 'He's got the right idea, that kid, I should do the same but my target will be the Pharaoh. He's the one that ordered this and I'm going to make sure that he feels the same kind of pain,' thought the silver haired thief. "Come on, Nightrise, let's get out of here," he said to the ebony haired boy.
The newly christened Nightrise turned away from his father's body and followed Akefia back through the streets. Eventually, and without much incident, they made it back to where Kumori was hiding. "Well, kid, this is where I leave you. Got to look out for myself you know. Good luck," Akefia said to Nightrise before leaving through the shadows. Kumori emerged from her hiding place inside the large pot and went over to her brother.
"Are you alright, Ahmed? Where's Father?" asked Kumori of her older brother. She didn't like the look on her brother's face. It was a mixture of sadness and rage.
"Father's dead, Kumori," Nightrise told his sister, "That bastard Tutmosis cut him to pieces." After saying this, Nightrise punched the wall of the house next to them. The roughness of the rocks in the wall cut his fingers, but he didn't care.
"Come on, Ahmed," Kumori said to her brother, "we've got to get out of here." She tried to pull her brother away from the wall, but he wouldn't budge.
"My name's not Ahmed anymore," Nightrise said in a quiet voice, not looking away from the wall, "it is Nightrise. One day, Tutmosis, you shall feel the wrath of Nightrise, and there will be nothing that can save you." With that, Nightrise finally turned away from the house and led his sister out of the town and into the desert.
Later that night, in Thebes, High Priest Akunadin was in his secret chamber, hidden deep beneath the city. He had just finished performing the Millennium Ritual. In front of him on the ground lay nine Items. Each one had a different shape and, Akunadin supposed, a different power. They were all golden and were emblazoned with the Eye of Horus, a symbol known to all Egyptians as a symbol of great, almost godly, power.
There was a large Ankh like Item that had small protrusions on the bottom end similar to those found on a key, a set of scales that reminded Akunadin of the scales used to judge a man's heart when he died, a gauntlet that seemed to almost burst with hidden power, a thin necklace that had it's Eye turned towards the sky as though it was trying to see the future, a large ring shaped Item that had a triangular object in the centre and five 'pointers' along the edge, a thick necklace that seemed much more oppressive than the other one it seemed more like a collar than a necklace, a rod with two large spikes on either side of it's 'head', a box that contained what seemed to Akunadin to be pieces of a puzzle, and a small orb like Item that was about the same size as a human eye.
Akunadin walked towards the Items on the ground trying to get a better look at them. When he was about three feet away from them, the golden orb suddenly glowed and flew at Akunadin. The High Priest hardly had time to see the Item fly at him before it forced itself into his left eye socket. Akunadin screamed out in pain as his left eye was crushed by what Akunadin now knew was a golden eye, the Millennium Eye. As this was happening, the collar like Item started to glow as well and then released a blast of energy at Akunadin, knocking the High Priest back into the wall. When Akunadin recovered from this double blow, he tried to get up but found that he couldn't, he was bound to the rock wall by invisible bonds. "What in Ra's name is this?" said the brother of the Pharaoh. "Get in here, you fools!" he yelled to the Apprentice Priests that were outside the chamber.
The Apprentices hurried in when they were called by Akunadin. They were greeted with the unusual sight of the High Priest, who had blood running down his face from the left eye socket; where instead of his usual aqua eye was a gold metal eye. Across from him, the golden collar was still glowing. "Destroy it, you bakas," the High Priest ordered them. The three Apprentices worked together to create a large rock above the Collar and brought it down on top of it, followed by another rock then another and another. Finally, after the fifth rock, the Collar lay smashed into a large amount of pieces and Akunadin was released. "Dump the pieces in the desert. I don't want anyone to ever find them," said the High Priest to the Apprentices.
They bowed and did as they were ordered. When he was alone, Akunadin looked over at the other Items. "These Items must contain tremendous power. After all, I am sure that I read those fools minds as they left. I wonder what powers these others contain," the High Priest said to himself with a smirk on his face.