Mystery of the Pyramid (Full Story):  Written by Exodus, Original Story by Exodus  

In the southern kingdom of Furen Terre, were many tales, legends, and truths of 
demons from other worlds aiming to conquer it.  
In the Ranphoan desert, was a mysterious pyramid that appeared on rare 
occasions, and when it did, people and rare artifacts went missing.  
The Resistors were here today, asked by the people of Ranphoa to investigate the 
mystery.  
“So you think the phenomena of the pyramid is linked to your daughter’s 
disappearance?” asked Edwina to Nathan, the village leader, and a former member 
of Freedom Force.  
“Yes Princess, she disappeared around the time that the pyramid was here and-”  
“Please Sir, don’t call me that...” said Edwina sadly, pointing her head towards 
her friends outside the tent.  
“Whyever not?...  Oh...  Its because of those people who killed your father, 
isn’t it? They’ve forced you to hide your identity.  Rogue princess rumour, 
wasn’t it? But surely those freedom fighting friends of yours should-”  
“No, I can’t.  They might not trust me yet, if I’m ever to tell them of my true 
heritage, I need to know that they trust me totally.  Please don’t tell them...”  
“You have my word, Pr-  Edwina.”  
In his younger days, Nathan was known to call Edwina’s father, Edward, by his 
title, despite Edward’s protests, but he broke the habit this time because it 
was vital that he didn’t call Edwina by title and reveal her true identity.  
“So, your daughter...  Her mother was Gaian, wasn’t she?”  
“Yes, and my daughter has earth magic powers as a result, as do I, I’ve always 
believed that her magic would make her a target.  I Have tried to get inside 
that pyramid, but it cost the lives of my wife and some of my friends, I could 
only think to contact you for help after that.”  
“You did the right thing, I’m sure we can handle whatever’s inside.”  
“Please Edwina, be careful.”  

It took a couple of hours to travel through the desert, towards the mysterious 
pyramid, on the party were Gear, Ross, Edwina and Naga, Gear was leading, rather 
than Edwina even though she proved invaluable in demon related missions, but she 
had talked with Nathan because she knew him well.  
Besides, Gear’s mind would probably be needed to navigate the apparent traps in 
the pyramid.  

But within the darkness, a horned demon peered through the upper area of the 
pyramid and grinned darkly, “Oh goody, more puppets, if they can survive my 
course, then I will enslave them forever!...”  

Outside, Gear was checking the ancient writing on a pedestal, and walked towards 
the door with an inquisitive look.  
“Hmmmm, according to the hieroglyphs, the door will probably open by-”  
As soon as he approached the stone door, it slid upwards with a slight rumbling.  
“Walking up to it?” questioned Gear.  
“This is a trap, right?” asked Naga firmly.  
“Probably.” answered Ross, “But we have no choice but to risk it...”  

The Resistors spent a lot of time navigating through the spooky corridor, 
careful not to step on any obvious switches or traps.  
Gear took a lot of time reading each inscription on the walls, translating them 
with his P.A.D.D, but Naga was growing increasingly anxious and restless, and 
when the apparent end of the corridor was in sight, she charged forward, tired 
of how slow things were going.  
“Okay, so this one will-  Naga! Stop!” shouted Gear, sprinting after her and 
grabbing her arm.  
As her foot touched the slightly differing tiles, a large section pulled away to 
reveal a bed of spikes, Gear fell back and pulled Naga with him, she landed on 
Gear and cursed herself for not sensing the danger.  
“Gear...  Thanks, I guess I owe you one.” said Naga genuinely, picking herself 
up and carefully crossing the path to the side of the deadly points.  
“I should think so.” lectured Gear, “You can’t go running off like that, this 
situation calls for rational thinking, taking the time to read the ancient 
writings, being careful and...”  
Naga rolled her eyes as Gear and the others crossed past the pit, Gear still 
rambling on.  
Two snake statues were placed up ahead, their gaze pointing across the centre of 
the corridor, suddenly, the incredibly thin red beams that were targeting the 
centre crossed by Naga’s eyes.  
She immediately scowled, and turned back to Gear with angry eyes.  
He didn’t notice, but Ross and Edwina did, and kept their eyes on her, as if she 
would attack them or something, it seemed like it too, when she quickly drew her 
whip and tangled Gear’s leg, before lifting the whip up and causing him to fall 
back while retracting the weapon.  
“Naga! What’s got into you?!” shouted Gear, before two large stone slabs flew 
from the sides just ahead of Gear, and crashed into each other.  
“Oh.” sighed Gear, climbing over the hard blocks, “The writing said nothing 
about this...”  
“Don’t believe everything you read.” commented Ross.  
“I guess we’re even now.” smiled Naga.  
“Yeah.” agreed Gear, “But I didn’t think you’d be paying me back so soon!...”  

The Resistors finally reached the end, and entered another corridor, but with 
only left and right turns, a hill going upwards from left to right.  
“What’s it gonna be?” questioned Ross, before a loud rumbling sound occurred 
from the upper hill.  
The doorway in which they’d passed through slammed shut with a stone slab, and a 
large boulder was rolling down from the top of the hill.  
Everyone screamed and charged downwards as fast as they could go.  
“I guess the only way is down!” shouted Ross, before his eyes widened as he saw 
what was up ahead, a huge gap in the path, and a long drop.  
Ross made a quick decision, and started to run forward, “Everyone! Stop right 
there!”  
It was hard, but they managed to slow themselves down in time.  
Ross made an impressive leap, but would not cross the entire length of the pit.  
But on closer inspection, he was fiddling with his metal arm, and used its 
stretching ability to grab onto the roof of the cavern and swing to safety, but 
he couldn’t stop there, and retracted it and fired again, towards the other side 
so that the Resistors could one by one, grab hold, have Ross retract the arm, 
drop them off, and go for another.  
The boulder was closing in fast and Edwina was left, with little time to wait, 
and not enough time to change into Energen.  
She panicked and took a big leap, cursing for not having learned any non-Energen 
plasma spells to help her fly in these situations.  
“Edwina!” shouted Ross, pushing his metal fist into the floor and dropping off 
the edge, the arm stretching out until Ross caught Edwina.  
“Thank you Ross...”  
“No time!” he replied, shooting them upwards, they barely flew out and onto safe 
ground as the boulder crashed down, falling down the pit that barely fitted the 
huge rock which surely would have crushed them if they hadn’t got out in time.  
He didn’t make the most heroic of landings, and both were sent rolling into Naga 
and Gear, sending them spiralling down what was left of the hill.  
The group ended up in a messy heap at the bottom, in a new room, another stone 
slab closing down behind them and sealing them in.  
“Naga, is that you on top of me again?” questioned Gear.  
“I’m sorry, okay? Just don’t go thinking I like you or anything.”  
“Hu hu hu hu hu hu...” chuckled a creepy voice.  
“Huh?”  
Several torches lit up around the large room, revealing several tombs standing 
up, and a mummified demon in the centre.  
Certain parts weren’t bandaged up properly, revealing black demonic flesh, and 
claws, spikes, horns and fangs stuck out of the demon’s face.  
Spikes poked out around his joints, and he wore dark black triangular armour 
around the shoulders, and under the waist.  
Small glowing eyes could be seen through a gap in the demon’s bandaged face, the 
eyes seemed to communicate a sense of confidence and joy in a dark sense.  
“Congratulations on surviving my traps, you not only possess intelligence, but 
agility too, not many people can accomplish what you did, hu hu hu!”  
“You’re sick.” growled Ross, thinking of those this demon had killed with his 
games.  
“And now you have the honour of being my slaves, to carry out my plans and take 
over the kingdom, possibly the world.”  
“We are serving no one!” shouted Ross.  
“Calm down Ross.” said Gear, “Let me handle this...  We’re not serving anyone.  
Just who are you anyway?”  
“Me?...  I have many names, but Pharage is as good as any.  I am the master of 
this pyramid, and a powerful sorcerer, I don’t particularly care of your roots, 
only your abilities, and soon, your wills, powers and abilities shall be mine to 
control.” explained the demon.  
“Trust me, we’re more than you can handle...” grinned Naga darkly.  
“I should have known you wouldn’t give in willingly, so my apprentice will soon 
put you in line.  Pharra?...”  
A selection of red circling waves spiralled around, as a person appeared within 
it, a girl with caramel skin, wearing a yellow dress with red and green short 
sleeves, she wore ancient shoulder pads coloured orange and gold, and a green 
skirt and boots, she wore a lot of silver bangles, rings and bracelets, all with 
strange lettering carved into them.  
Her hair was a little strange, it was jet black and a little puffy, it stuck out 
of her head and closely looking like a pyramid missing some sides, and similar 
to a sphinx’s helm.  
Six white stripes with pointed ends were a natural part of it, two vertical ones 
in the centre, and a pair of horizontal stripes on both sides, the girl stared 
with emotionless eyes, and held a gold staff with four red gems at one end, 
shaped like triangles, but placed next to each other to form a oval split into 
quarters.  
“This is Pharra, powerful little Gaian child I’ve been watching for some time, 
lots of people have attempted to free her and lost their lives, I suppose that’s 
why you ventured here, but Pharra doesn’t want to leave, do you Pharra?” 
explained Pharage.  
“No Master, I like it here, serving you means everything to me.” she spoke 
without real expressions.  
“Let her go!” shouted Edwina, “You’ve taken away her free will and made her your 
slave.”  
“Yes yes, I know, I Have been doing this for some time.  Pharra, I’d like you 
eliminate these people, do not kill them though, I wish to make them like you.” 
Pharage continued before making the order to his apprentice.  
Pharra glared at the Resistors with a lot of focus and concentration on them.  
“Er, I like you?” joked Naga with a nervous grin, but knowing this was unlikely 
what he meant.  
“We’re heroes you know.” said Ross, “You’re not going to beat us all with one 
girl.”  
“Heroes?...” said Pharage with intrigue, “You are indeed worthy of becoming my 
slaves.”  
“And we’re capable enough to take Pharra, and change her back.” added Ross.  
“Its very doubtful, but just in case...” mused the demon.  
Pharage outstretched his hands and red lightning shot into three of the tombs, 
opening them, and shooting into three decrepit corpses and rejuvenating them, 
they slowly walked out and approached the good guys, leaning from side to side 
occasionally.  
“A trick I picked up from my old employer...” boasted Pharage, as he simply 
stood and watched the battle.  
Gear threw his boomerang forward, cutting off a zombie warrior’s hand, it simply 
crouched down, picked up its weapon with the other hand, and continued forward, 
Naga was busy hurling knives at her zombie, it swayed from side to side, bending 
beyond the limits of a living person to avoid them, Naga squinted her eyes 
darkly, and hurled the last one at the centre of its head, but it simply bent 
backwards, because it didn’t have a firm spine, it leaned all the way back, 
while still standing.  It then rose up, and brought its face close to Naga’s and 
glared at her.  
She retaliated with a firm kick that left a hole in its old bone structure.  
Edwina was using her arrows over her magic, Pharage had enslaved Pharra because 
of her Gaian roots, if he discovered she was the same, but capable of much more, 
then he would surely turn everyone on her.  
Ross had been picked by Pharra to eliminate first, she fiercely swung her staff 
at awkward angles, and Ross was soon outsmarted and lost his sword, so using his 
metal arm to block was the only option.  
“I wonder how good you would be without the staff!” shouted Ross, grabbing a 
hold with the metal hand, Pharra kept her grip, as if the staff was a part of 
her, before twisting it to the right angle, so that the end with the red gems 
clearly pointed towards Ross.  
A red energy sphere followed, and blasted Ross back, rolling and tumbling into a 
wall.  
“You want to see my weapons besides my staff, so be it.” said Pharra, holding 
the amulet hanging around her neck with one hand, a ghostly image of a snake 
started to ooze out of the green gem, before slowly forming into solid matter, 
it slithered and swayed towards Ross, growing to an immense length and 
constantly remaining attached to its source.  
“You’ve got to be kidding me...” said Ross tiredly, before the snake lunged at 
him.  
“Wrap him up well Viper...” ordered Pharra to the snake, as it swiftly caught 
Ross’ leg and caused him to fall to the floor.  
Ross was quickly entwined by the long snake, but the head had enough room to 
manoeuvre, and it could bite Ross with its pointed fangs at any time it wanted.  
“Tighten Viper, now boy, give in to Pharage, and the pain will stop.” ordered 
Pharra.  
“Nev-  Agh!!!”  
Ross couldn’t breathe, he coughed, and then screamed weakly as the snake slowly 
tightened its grip.  
Edwina noticed and gave up on hiding her powers, before shooting two lots of 
plasma magic:  An exploding sphere at the zombie, and a continuous burning beam 
at the snake.  
“Gaian...” smiled Pharage darkly, “Pharra!”  
“I’m all over it.” she said, before the snake loosened and dropped Ross to the 
floor and went for another target.  
Ross needed a moment to catch his breath, while the snake opened its mouth and 
lunged at Edwina, but a green glowing shield went up, repelling the snake and 
defeating it.  
Pharra quickly recalled it back into her amulet, before placing the staff under 
her arm and using both hands to cast a spell.  
The ground rumbled underneath Edwina and exploded, sending pieces of the floor 
into the air, Edwina hesitated for a moment as she rose on a large rock, Pharra 
took full advantage and leapt across the pieces with agility and speed.  
“You Will join us!” she shouted as she leapt over Edwina and raised her staff.  
“Or vice versa...” muttered Edwina, before throwing a small fireball upwards and 
catching Pharra off guard, she flew upwards, but before she could hit the 
ground, more pieces of earth rose up, and formed two large rock hands which 
caught Pharra and brought her down safely.  
“Let me guess.” groaned Edwina, “You’re going to give me a hand...”  
Pharra nodded, and sent the two hands forward as fists.  
Edwina concentrated, and leapt into the air as the first one flew by, the second 
one rose to her height, and Edwina sent a beam of plasma at it, but it swayed to 
the sides, and continued aiming at Edwina, swatting her side and causing her to 
plummet.  
Pharra didn’t show signs of fatigue, or mercy, as she had the hands come down on 
Edwina, crush her a little, raise her high into the air, and then squeeze her 
more until she submitted.  
Naga picked herself off the broken zombie she had literally beat to death and 
saw what was happening, Pharra had her concentration on keeping the earth hands 
intact, and crushing Edwina, her arms were in an awkward position, what with the 
staff she had to keep secure, obviously it meant a lot to her, and taking it 
away might be enough of a distraction.  
Naga flung her whip, which wrapped around the staff, before pulling it away.  
As soon as she did, red waves of energy shot out of her eyes, the rocky hands 
crumbled to nothing, and Ross leapt up to catch Edwina as she fell.  
Pharra screamed out in pain, and Pharage gasped, “Pharra! Retrieve that staff 
Now!”  
She clenched her teeth and ran at Naga, energy still bursting out of her eyes.  
“Gear! Catch!” shouted Naga, throwing the staff as Pharra pounced on her.  
She didn’t stay to punish Naga, and immediately ran at Gear.  
“You and Pharage seem pretty interested in this, probably because its what 
allows him to control you.” explained Gear.  
“Raaaar!!!” screamed Pharra, so Gear threw it back.  
But two red energy beams cast by Pharage hit the staff, and brought it back to 
Pharra, the glow in her eyes faded immediately.  
“You can’t free her so easily, and you can’t keep this up for long, you forgot 
to take something very important into consideration, there’s a reason why this 
pyramid only appears once in a while, I have the power to sink it, and as long 
as its underground, you’ll be trapped in here, I will have enough time to subdue 
you heroes, and take control of your minds!” explained Pharage with a dark 
smile.  
A lot of red lightning erupted from Pharage’s hands as he raised them into the 
air, hitting the walls, ceiling and ground of the room, and by the sound of it, 
the whole pyramid was being immersed in the spell.  
A booming rumbling sound followed, as the pyramid slowly began to sink into the 
sands, there were obviously ways of breathing, eating and living down here, as 
Pharra’s existence proved, but Pharage would have the upper hand, the Resistors 
would surely be caught and transformed into his slaves if they did not escape 
right now.  
Gear quickly modified the P.A.D.D, and scanned the room with it.  
“There!” he shouted, “Ross, punch right through it!”  
“Whatever you say, bossman!” replied Ross, pulling his metal arm back and 
punching a hole in the wall, more and more light piercing through as Ross made a 
big enough hole for the group to escape.  
Naga went first, making an impressive leap and dive out of the pyramid.  
They were in a pretty low room, and so, didn’t have too far a height to fall 
down.  
“Pharra! Get the Gaian!” shouted Pharage, eager to capture her at least.  
Ross panted, charged in front of Edwina and punched Pharra to the floor, he 
tried to drag her out with him, but she wouldn’t have it, and knocked him over 
with her staff.  
“Ross! What are you doing! We have to leave!” shouted Gear.  
“But what about Pharra! We can’t just leave her here!” argued Ross.  
“She’ll be fine! I promise we’ll come back for her later!” Gear replied.  
Ross groaned as Pharra loomed over him with the staff pointing at him, “I’m 
sorry...”  
“For what? Leaving me here?” she questioned.  
“No, for this!”  
Ross lifted his leg and knocked Pharra back, and into Pharage.  
Gear and Ross leapt out just in time, as Pharage was obviously using his magic 
to fix the gap in the wall perfectly, so that sand wouldn’t pour into the 
pyramid.  
Pharra ran forward to follow the Resistors, but Pharage spoke, “No Pharra, let 
them go, they have escaped me this time but I will make them my slaves in due 
time.”  

With a continuous rumbling that started to fade, the pyramid disappeared into 
the sands.  
Naga exhaled, “That was close, but we all made it out.”  
Ross sighed, “Not Pharra, this feels like such a failure...”  
“No Ross, we did our best, at least now we’re aware of what we’re up against.  
We’ll get Pharra back, someday...” comforted Edwina.  
“Of course Ross, Pharage will make sure she survives, and when they return, 
we’ll do our best to give back her freedom...” added Naga.  
The four Resistors returned to the desert town to report their efforts, they had 
tried their best but it wasn’t good enough this time, they swore that they would 
prepare for the next time Pharage rose, they would vanquish the heartless 
monster, and return Pharra to her home...  

End  

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