Uchiha Madara: Reborn As Cao Cao

* * * * *

Cao Cao stepped out from the magic circle and what appeared before him, was a great desert plain.

Where is this place...?

Endless stretch of desert spread out before him and the blazing sun from above made him sweat profusely.

This isn't Greece--

Cao Cao wandered aimlessly around for awhile.

Did I mess up?

At that moment--

Cao Cao witnessed separate groups of people carrying wooden cases while travelling across the desert plains, in the direction towards the west.

One of the wooden case was inlaid with gold and troops of servants and mourners carried the wooden case while bearing various gifts.

Many priests walked in front and behind chanting hymns to the gods and reciting various great names and words of power.

The second group of people was much simpler.

Two males carried a simple wooden case while a few women mourned beside.

This should be a funeral...

Cao Cao followed behind.

Very soon--

The two groups of people were heading towards a long stretch of water running just like a river.

Cao Cao watched as the wooden cases were gently laid on the surface of the water, and the water currents carried it along.

This is...

The River Nile!

Cao Cao knew exactly where he was.

Egypt!

Why did the Longinus send me here?

Cao Cao thought inwardly.

Cao Cao left the scene and he traveled a distance away, before releasing the True Longinus and creating another magic circle below him.

- - - - -

Egypt has always been a land of mystery and magic - a land different from all others, difficult to understand, apart and alien, yet strangely fascinating.

When the ancient Greeks 'discovered' it in about 500 BC and began to write about it, Egyptian civilization was drawing towards the end of it's three thousand years of existence. The first Greek historian whose works survived, Herodotus, visited it in about 450 BC and found that only the priests could still read about the ancient hieroglyphs in which inscriptions had been carved or written on the monuments since the days when Menes, the first historical Pharaoh, united the 'Two Lands' in about 3200 BC.

After the time of Herodotus, Ancient Egypt was preserved almost artificially by its Greek conquerors - Alexander the Great and the descendants of his general Ptolemy. It faded under the Romans and was stamped out completely by the Arab invaders of AD 639 - 46.

It has only been rediscovered during the last hundred and fifty years, when the hieroglyphs were interpreted, the ancient language was translated and the tombs, temples and pyramids excavated and preserved.

'Egypt is the gift of the Nile'.

- - - - -

Cao Cao stepped out of the Magic circle again and this time--

He found himself within a temple.

Flames lit up around the sanctuary of the temple and there was an altar in the center.

Atop the altar, was a large statue.

It was a handsome man in royal dress wearing the crown of Upper Egypt as a plumed headdress and carrying the crook and flail, symbols of kingship.

Cao Cao recognized this figure.

Osiris...

The Egyptian Lord of the Underworld and Judge of the dead.

Ra, or, as he later became, Amen-Ra, the Sun-God, ranked as one of the strongest beings in the world, was the first and most important of deities in Egyptian Mythology - and the River Nile itself came second, sometimes worshiped as Khnemu, but more usually as part of the whole principle of life and reproduction which came to be enshrined in the person of the Goddess Isis.

But Osiris, God of the world of the dead, was the brother and husband of Isis, and he was the greatest god of all - for all the dead would return to earth when he, the first human Pharaoh of Egypt, came back to be the eternal Pharaoh.

On the walls of the temple, were painted and carved not only scenes from this world, but also from the next - so that he who dwelt in the tomb should know what to expect and what to do when he 'went West' into the Duat, the Land of the Dead.

Why did he end up here?

Cao Cao was clueless.

Round the altar on which the statue of Osiris stood, a small fire of cedar wood was burning.

Cao Cao approached closer.

Below the wood that lay atop a stone table, was a single text.

What it this...

Cao Cao wiped away the dirt that covered the text and tried to read it out.

At that moment--

The whole temple rocked and the flame on the altar leapt high--

And then, everything sank into darkness.

But, the Temple of Osiris was not dark.

Cao Cao turned to see whence the light came - and the silence pressed upon him like a weight that held him paralyzed.

Standing on one side of the altar, he saw himself, only suddenly, he knew that it was not his real body, for his body lay in the shadows cast by this form.

What the hell?

The temple roof seemed to open to let him through and a moment later, without warning, Cao Cao was speeding into the West swifter than an arrow from the Ethiop's bow.

Darkness lay over Egypt, but one red gash of sunset shone through the great pass in the mountains of the Western Desert, the Gap of Abydos.

Cao Cao was now on a boat. Splendid was the boat, glorious on it's trappings and it's colors were of amethyst and emerald, jasper and turquoise, lazuli and the deep glow of gold.

Am I heading into the Land of the Dead?

Cao Cao was starting to panic a little.

Does this mean I'm dead as well?

Cao Cao looked around him to find many other individuals on the boat.

He clearly wasn't alone.

The Boat drew along the ghostly River of Death with golden towing ropes; the portals of the Duat were flung wide and they entered a Region where six serpents were curled on either side.

Cao Cao tried to release the Holy Spear again when the Boat moved through another Region.

Cao Cao turned his head.

This was the Kingdom of Ra, and the Gods and heroes of old who had lived on earth when he was king dwelt there in peace and happiness, guarded by the Spirit of the Corn who make the wheat and barley flourish and cause the fruits of the earth to increase.

Yet, not one of the dead who voyaged in the Boat of Ra might paused there or set food on the land : for they must pass into Amenti, the Third Region of the Duat where the Judgement Hall of Osiris stood waiting to receive them.

I need to see this--

Very soon, after passing through another Region, Cao Cao and the others disembarked in the outer court of the Judgement Hall of Osiris.

But the Boat itself continued on it's way through the nine other Regions of the Night until the re-birth of Ra from out of the mouth of the Dragon of the East brought dawn once more upon earth and the rising of the sun.

Yet, the sun would not rise unless each night, Ra fought and defeated the Evil Dragon , who seeks to devour him in the Tenth Region of the Night.

Cao Cao remembered this legend which he heard from Mary before.

- - - - -

The Evil Dragon Apophis...