Beneath the Storm, Above the Stars

The ride didn’t last long. Soon, the buses rolled to a stop in front of a tall, wide hotel, its windows glowing warmly against the desert night. Students spilled out in a rush, chattering with excitement while the teachers tried to keep order, calling out instructions over the noise.

Sora stepped down more slowly, her gaze wandering as she tried to take in the unfamiliar surroundings. A faint chill brushed against her skin, and she paused. She had always imagined deserts as scorching and unforgiving — yet here, under the vast night sky, the air carried an unexpected coldness.

Her attention snapped back when Yuri called out, and the two of them headed into the hotel together. Each team was assigned a room of their own. Sora, Yuri, Nora, and two other girls from Class-2 — not very familiar faces — were grouped together. After a few polite greetings, they took the elevator to the sixth floor. Their room was number 606.

When Yuri opened the door, her eyes widened in amazement.
“Wow… it’s huge! Five beds, and look at those decorations!” she exclaimed.

Nora laughed, shaking her head.
“Yeah, I thought we’d be packed into some tiny place, maybe even sleeping on the floor. Guess I was way off.”

“Alright, let’s put our bags down first and take a little rest,” Sora suggested, gesturing toward the beds. They all dropped their belongings, settling down to relax. Minutes passed quietly until one of the Class-2 girls spoke up.

“Hey, maybe we should bathe before we get too comfortable. Otherwise we’ll just pass out, and trust me, waking up sticky and tired isn’t fun.”

“Good idea, Yoshino,” the other girl agreed. “And it looks like there are two attached bathrooms. We can take turns, so it won’t take long.”

No one argued with that. Soon, the sound of running water filled the room as they washed away the exhaustion of their twelve-hour journey. When they were finished, they sprawled across a bed, refreshed.

“Ahhh… so much better,” Nora sighed, stretching her arms. “Now I don’t even feel that sleepy.”

“Then maybe we should talk for a bit,” Yuri suggested with a grin.

“That sounds nice,” Yoshino replied. Her eyes brightened. “Actually, I’d love to talk about the pyramids. I’ve been fascinated by them since I was a kid, and now we actually get to see them ourselves. Honestly, it feels like a dream come true. Getting into Legacy High… it was really worth it.”

“Hey, hey, don’t get carried away,” Yuri teased. “You’re going to steal all the talking time.”

“Ooops, my bad. I just can’t help it whenever the pyramids come up,” Yoshino laughed, scratching her cheek.

“Umm… guys… I have something to tell.” The girl from Class-2 spoke up at last. Her voice was hesitant, almost trembling.

“Oh, Lily… I never thought you were the type to speak first. You really surprised me there.” Nora grinned.

“Umm… Sorry… I just…” Lily’s words trailed off. She was too shy to look anyone in the eye, her gaze darting to the floor and walls as if direct contact would burn her.

Yuri chuckled and gave Nora a gentle pat on the back. “Nora, don’t tease her so much. She’s really shy—I heard a bit about her earlier.”

“Haha, yeah, my bad.” Nora scratched the back of her head with an awkward smile.

Lily gathered a little bit of strength and said, “Umm… I was thinking… maybe it would be nice if we could discuss the origins of the pyramids.”

“Origins of pyramids?” Yuri tilted her head, intrigued. “That does sound interesting. And it might even help with our assignment.” She glanced at Lily, then looked around the room.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Sora said as she stepped out of the bathroom, drying her hair.

“Hey, Sora, you finally done bathing? Took you long enough,” Nora teased.

“No, I was just really tired. And the water was so refreshing… I couldn’t help myself.” Sora smiled faintly, then grew serious. “Anyway, that’s not important now. I think Lily’s suggestion is great. We should really talk about the mysterious origins and legends of the pyramids—especially the ones in Giza.”

“Th-thank you,” Lily whispered, her hands clasped tightly together.

“Don’t worry about it.” Sora leaned forward a little. “You seem really fond of pyramids, huh?”

Lily nodded, then began slowly, her voice soft but steady.

“My father… he was a great archaeologist. He loved the pyramids and the history of the Egyptians. He would often tell me stories and legends about them, and it sparked something in me ever since I was little. I dreamed of traveling with him one day, exploring the pyramids together. But… that dream shattered. On his first official trip to Egypt, after finally getting permission from the government to explore the sites, the plane crashed. He… never came back. His dream of solving the pyramid’s mystery was left unfulfilled.”

Her voice trembled.

“So I made his dream my own. I want to uncover the truth behind the pyramids—their mysteries, their culture, their traditions that might still be buried beneath the sands, waiting for someone to find them and show them to the world. That’s why… I enrolled in Legacy High.”

The room fell silent. Everyone listened to her every word as if they were anchored, drawn in by the weight of her story.

Then Yoshino broke the silence.
“That sounds amazing and very thrilling. I also love pyramids and all… but I really don’t know much about the history or the legends behind them. So… I don’t know if I’ll be of much help,” she said, her voice trailing off as her face sank into a gloomy little frown.

Sora, finally done with her clothes and drying her hair, walked over. She gently patted Yoshino’s shoulder, who was sitting at the edge of the bed, and then sat down beside her.
“Don’t worry,” Sora said with a small smile. “Lily gotchu, right lily?”

Then Lily blushed a little, speaking with slightly more confidence than before. “Y-yes!”

It seemed she had finally begun to get along with them and had come to believe they could be trusted.

“Okay, then. Lily will tell us about the pyramids, the legends, and the discoveries — which we’re all very eager to hear,” said Sora.

They were all getting ready to listen when a sudden gust of wind slammed the window open, filling the room with a chill and cutting the electricity at the same time. Everyone looked outside and saw lightning crackling across the sky. Rain began to pour, turning into a heavy, relentless downpour. The wind pushed the window back and forth, rattling it and making the walls groan.

“When did this happen?” asked Yuri.

“Yeah, it’s so sudden… and on top of that, it’s raining so heavily. The desert really is a mystery to us,” said Nora, holding out her hand to catch a raindrop.

“Nora, don’t put your hands outside in this kind of weather. It’s dangerous,” Sora warned.

But Nora shrugged it off. “Nah, it’ll be fine. I’m used to storms like this. It doesn’t sca—”

CRACKLE!

A burst of thunder rolled overhead, sharp and electric.

“Oh my god, please help me!” Nora jumped, clinging tightly to Sora. She trembled, her whole body shaking from the sudden blast of sound.

“Told ya, but who listens to whose words?” Sora said, gently freeing Nora from her hug. “Anyway, let me close and lock the window. That sound is really irritating my ears.”

Then Sora closed the window and returned to the bed. Yuri stood up, turning on the flashlight on her smartphone. “Wait a bit, I’m coming,” she said.

She went over to the wardrobe and came back holding a candle. “Look what I found. Now we can make our pyramid talk even spookier.”

Yuri lit the candle and placed it in the middle of the largest bed. Everyone gathered around it. Feeling the chill, they wrapped a blanket around themselves, huddling close as the flickering light cast long shadows across the room.

Lily hugged her knees to her chest, the blanket wrapped tightly around her. The flickering candlelight danced across her face.

“Okay… I… I’ll start,” she whispered. “As we all know, the pyramids of Egypt stand as one of the greatest architectural mysteries of humanity, right?”
Everyone nodded.

She continued, “Most people look at the pyramids and think: Alright, giant tombs, piles of rock, impressive but explained. That’s the surface story. But the deeper you go, the stranger it gets.”

Then she leaned closer, lowering her voice. “Do you know how much a modern crane can lift at maximum?”
“I think around… 10 to 20 tons?” Yuri guessed.
“Yes. A regular crane can manage that. But do you know how much one pyramid stone actually weighed?”
They all went silent, shaking their heads.

“The smallest are about two tons. But the largest? They go up to seventy tons.” She looked directly at them.
“What?!” Yoshino’s jaw dropped. “Seventy tons?! We can’t even lift that much with today’s technology—and you’re telling me they did it more than four thousand years ago?!”

Lily nodded slowly. “And it gets even crazier. These weren’t ordinary stones. At first glance they look like limestone, but when scientists analyzed them, they realized they’re nothing like the ones we have. They’re a lot of times stronger than normal rock. No known quarry on Earth matches them.”

Nora clutched Sora’s sleeve, her eyes wide. “What do you mean? If they’re not like any stone on Earth… then where did they even come from?”

Lily’s gaze darkened. “That’s exactly the problem. The scientists who studied them admitted they still don’t know. They couldn’t find a source, couldn’t even give it a proper classification. Some researchers, notably Joseph Davidovits, have proposed that the casing stones might not be natural limestone but rather a form of geopolymer concrete. This theory suggests that ancient Egyptians could have synthesized the stones using a mixture of lime, water, and natural silicates, effectively casting them in place. But some conspiracies say—” she paused, letting the silence weigh on them—“that it doesn’t belong to this world at all.”

The group sat frozen, the air thick with disbelief.

The candle flickered against the wall, casting shadows that danced and twisted, creating an eerie, uncomfortable atmosphere.

“But it’s just a conspiracy, so we really don’t believe in that,” Lily said, trying to reassure them.

“Oh Lily, you almost scared the hell out of me!” Nora exclaimed, her voice a mix of relief and lingering fright.

Sora shifted slightly, still feeling a bit uneasy. “Yeah… it almost made me kind of uncomfortable…”

Everyone laughed softly, easing the tension, though a shiver ran down their spines at the thought of the conspiracy.

Lily held up her hand, bringing their laughter to a halt. “But… there is something odd about the pyramids. Even after hearing it, I couldn’t completely dismiss the idea. I don’t really believe in the conspiracy, but… I’ve always felt a little uneasy about it.”

“What do you mean, odd?” Sora asked, staring directly into Lily’s eyes.

Lily drew in a deep breath. Just then, a draft slipped through the slightly open balcony door, making the candle flame waver but not die. Shadows trembled across the walls as she began.

“The pyramid isn’t just a mountain of stone—it’s a labyrinth of hidden passageways. Three main chambers have been discovered so far. Deep underground, carved directly into the bedrock, lies the Subterranean Chamber—dark, unfinished, like a wound beneath the pyramid. Halfway up sits the Queen’s Chamber, small and strangely empty. And above that, reached through a long, steep corridor called the Grand Gallery, lies the King’s Chamber—a massive granite vault at the very heart of the pyramid.”

She paused, letting the image sink in. “All of these are linked by a maze of shafts and narrow passageways. From the Queen’s Chamber, tiny tunnels snake upward. From the King’s Chamber, two ‘air shafts’ stretch outward at precise angles.”

Yuri frowned. “But what’s strange about that? Sounds pretty normal to me.”

“Yeah,” Yoshino added, “maybe they were just for ventilation. Workers building the chambers needed air, right?”

Nora nodded. “Makes sense. You can’t build a mountain of stone and not think about airflow.”

“Exactly,” Sora agreed.

Lily swallowed hard, her eyes darting over their faces before she continued. “That’s what people believed for a long time. Simple ventilation shafts. But the story changed once technology advanced. In the 1990s and 2000s, researchers sent tiny robotic crawlers with cameras up those shafts. And what they found completely shattered the ventilation theory.”

Everyone leaned in unconsciously.

“The shafts didn’t open to the outside,” Lily said, her voice low, almost trembling with excitement. “Instead, they ended in sealed limestone blocks. Perfectly cut, with little copper fittings—like handles. These blocks are often called ‘doors,’ even though they don’t actually open.”

For a moment, silence filled the room. The candle crackled faintly.

“What?” Yoshino broke it with disbelief. “Then how could it be ventilation? If it’s sealed, no air could ever pass through!”

Lily’s eyes gleamed in the dim light. “Exactly. You don’t build an air shaft… and then brick it shut. That discovery killed the ventilation theory.”

“Did they ever find out what’s behind those sealed shaft doors?” Sora asked, her curiosity peaking.

A faint gust swept through the balcony door again, lifting strands of her hair across her face. Lily’s eyes flickered toward her before she answered.

“Yes, they did. In 2002, a newer robot called Pyramid Rover drilled a small hole into one of those shafts. When its tiny camera slid inside, everyone expected to see an open space… but instead, there was yet another polished limestone block behind it. A sealed wall behind a sealed wall—like a chamber within a chamber.”

Sora blinked. “Another one?”

“Exactly. And it makes you wonder…” Lily’s voice softened. “If one hidden block leads to another, how many more chambers might still be waiting, completely untouched?”

Nora tilted her head. “So what does that mean? Were they trying to hide something? Or was it just bad design?”

Lily shook her head. “Not bad design. In 2011, the Djedi Project sent an even more advanced snake-like robot into the shaft. It discovered something strange—the back side of the so-called door was carefully smoothed and polished. That wasn’t an accident of construction. It was intentional. Almost… ritualistic.”

Yoshino leaned forward. “So they meant for it to be there? Then maybe they were hiding treasures and didn’t want people to find them.”

Lily’s lips curved faintly. “No. There’s no treasure.”

“Then what?” Yoshino pressed.

“That’s the mystery.” Lily paused, then added, “Oh—and I forgot to mention something else. The three chambers we know about—the Subterranean Chamber, the Queen’s Chamber, and the King’s Chamber—aren’t directly connected. You can’t travel from one to another through a hidden tunnel. Each has its own separate access from outside, like isolated worlds.”

Sora furrowed her brow, trying to picture it. “Wait… so you’re saying you can’t go from one chamber to the next at all? You’d have to leave the pyramid and re-enter from another path?”

“Exactly. The main passages we do know—the Descending Passage, the Ascending Passage, the Grand Gallery, and the shafts—are narrow, disorienting, and lead nowhere logical. The Queen’s and King’s Chamber shafts don’t even connect to other rooms. They angle upward, out into the stars. Some researchers say those tunnels are a misdirection, a labyrinth designed to confuse intruders. That the real passages—the ones leading to the pyramid’s true secrets—are sealed deeper within, hidden behind blocks or mechanisms we’ve yet to uncover.”

Nora shivered slightly. “So… you’re saying everything we see—the chambers, the shafts, the galleries—they’re just decoys?”

Lily nodded slowly. “Exactly. A façade. A riddle written in stone. Whatever lies at the heart of the pyramid wasn’t meant for us to find easily.”

Sora frowned, her voice uneasy. “But if there’s no treasure… then what’s the point of building such a massive trick?”

Lily looked up at Sora and said softly,
“Well… this is where logic ends. We don’t really have any further scientific answers to that question. But we do know for certain that hidden passageways and tunnels exist. Ground-penetrating radar and muon scans between 2017 and 2023 revealed voids and strange anomalies inside the pyramid.”

Sora tilted her head. “Void?”

“Yes,” Lily nodded. “One of them, the so-called Big Void, is massive—larger than the Grand Gallery itself. But no one knows what it actually is. A chamber? A hidden hall? Or maybe just an empty cavity. Egyptologists admit there are still unexplored passageways that might connect these chambers, but so far, no one has been able to reach them.”

Sora frowned slightly. “Okay… but then why did you say ‘logic ends’? Isn’t there some other explanation?”

“Well… there are some myths and legends behind the strange structures of the pyramids,” Lily said, her voice low.

“Really? And they explain all of it?” Yoshino asked, leaning forward with curiosity.

“Yes,” Lily nodded. “There’s something called the Star Shaft Theory that actually helps explain the unusual sealing of the shafts.”

“Wow… can you tell us about it?” Nora asked, eyes wide.

“Yeah. But first, let me tell you something interesting… and a little uncomfortable… that actually supports the theory even more. For that, I need to ask you all a question. Do you know why the pyramids were created in the first place?”

Yoshino laughed softly. “Well, I don’t know all the details, but we all know that they were built to preserve the pharaoh’s body in a mummy.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Lily smiled gently. “True. But did you know that no corpses or mummies have ever been found in any of the chambers?”

That revelation caught everyone off guard. They exchanged stunned looks, questioning everything they thought they knew about the pyramids.

“Not even a single one?” Yuri whispered, disbelief in her voice.

“No. Not a single one across all the pyramids so far,” Lily confirmed.

“But… how?” Yuri asked, her brow furrowed.

“Well, some researchers believe it was never meant to house a body at all.”

At that exact moment, a burst of lightning illuminated the room outside, perfectly timed with their shock and disbelief, casting eerie shadows across the walls.

“What do you mean?” Sora asked, trying to process what she had just heard.

Lily’s eyes darkened, and her voice grew hushed, almost reverent.
“This theory suggests that the pyramids were not tombs at all, but spiritual—or even technological—monuments. They were not graves, but gateways: machines of stone, designed so that the soul could ascend into the stars while the body was left behind elsewhere. The world calls them empty, but emptiness is merely another name for what cannot be touched by the living.

When the Pharaoh died, his soul would rise through these narrow channels, slipping between stone and star, crossing the veil of worlds. What people now call ‘air shafts’ were, in truth, the veins of a gate—paths through which a mortal could abandon the flesh and step into eternity. The shafts weren’t ventilation vents, as once believed, but symbolic portals, conduits for the Pharaoh’s immortal soul, to ascend. What men mistook for emptiness was actually the opening of a gate.

From this perspective… the lack of mummies isn’t a mystery. It’s proof that the pyramids were never meant to be burial places at all.”

Everyone was listening so intently that they seemed almost absorbed, as if sinking into the story itself.

“Ok… so is this just a legend?” Sora asked, her voice cautious but curious.

“I wouldn’t classify it as a legend,” Lily replied, “but rather a conspiracy theory built from ancient myths and stories. It contains elements of legend, yes, but this is more of a theory—an interpretation that ties together historical observations with speculation.”

“I see… that’s quite intriguing… But why the stars? How are they connected?” Sora pressed further.

“Good question,” Lily said, leaning slightly forward. “Actually, there’s another conspiracy theory called the Orion Correlation Theory. It connects the dots and makes the Star Shaft Theory more complete.” She paused, looking directly at Sora’s face, letting the weight of the revelation sink in.

Lily’s voice dropped to a whisper, almost blending with the sound of rain against the window. “So, the three pyramids of Giza… think of them not just as tombs, but as reflections of the stars. Here’s the theory—the Orion Correlation Theory—that says the three pyramids line up almost exactly like the three stars of Orion’s Belt. And it’s not random. In Egyptian mythology, Orion was associated with Osiris, the god of death and rebirth. When a pharaoh died, his soul was believed to journey through the stars, joining Osiris in the eternal heavens. The Nile wasn’t just a river—it was a mirror of the Milky Way, a cosmic path linking the land of the living to the world beyond. Ra, the sun god, guided the journey of souls across the sky, while Isis and Anubis protected them along the way. Now, imagine those shafts we talked about earlier, rising at precise angles through the stone—they weren’t for air. They were veins of a gate, pathways that allowed the pharaoh’s soul to ascend, to travel from the body on Earth, through the Nile’s reflection, and into the arms of the gods above. The pyramids, the stars, the Nile, the gods—they all connect, forming a bridge between the mortal world and eternity. That’s why the shafts are sealed, why the chambers are empty; it’s not emptiness—it’s the opening of a gate, a star-lit path to immortality.”

They were once more so absorbed in the story that they didn’t even realize it. Not a single word passed between them for a long moment, their thoughts buried as deeply as the pyramid’s own mysteries. Perhaps it was too much for them to take in all at once.

Then Lily suddenly noticed something—the storm outside had stopped. The wind had vanished, leaving the air still and quiet. She got up from the bed and walked toward the window Sora had locked during the tempest, reaching out to open it and let in the calm night air.

The electricity suddenly came back on, flooding the room with a faint hum. Everyone was snapped out of their trance as if shaken awake from a dream. It was already 1 a.m. They had been so absorbed in the mystery of the pyramids that not one of them had noticed how long the hours had slipped away.

Sora, sensing the heavy silence, tried to break the tension. “Okay, guys. We don’t need to think too hard about this. It’s just a conspiracy theory, myths and legends mixed together, right, Lily?”

Lily gave a small nod in response.

“See? Nothing to stress over,” Sora continued with a faint smile. “And look at the time—we have to wake up early tomorrow. So… let’s just sleep now, alright?”

The others agreed with quiet nods. They climbed into their beds, switching off the main lights, leaving only a single dim lamp glowing faintly in the corner.

Sora was the one who had told them to forget about those “rootless legends.” Yet as she lay down, pulling the blanket over herself, her body refused to rest. Something—she couldn’t name what—was clawing at her from deep inside, a subtle unease pressing against her chest. She shifted, closed her eyes, opened them again, but the feeling wouldn’t leave. It was as though the silence of the night itself was watching her.

She didn’t realize what it meant—not until the moment the event finally happened.
And by then, it was already too late.