Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh!, and all affiliated characters, etc, are property of Kazuki Takahashi.
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Duel for the Souls
IN THE BEGINNING I:
Prologue
The Story:
It is a year after Seto Kaiba's Battle City tournament, with Yugi Muto hailed as champion. After returning the Egyptian God cards and the Millennium Necklace to Ishizu Ishtar, he goes back to a normal teenage life, about to start his junior year in high school.
Marik Ishtar, freed of the dark spirit inside him, tries to reunite his Rare Hunters to get revenge on Yugi and his friends, but is betrayed—by the dark spirit inside the Millennium Puzzle he won from Bakura Ryou. The spirit uses his body to return to Bakura, and takes with it the Millennium Rod and Eye.
Now, the spirit of the Millennium Ring, with three Millennium Items at its disposal, is preparing to take the rest of them, including Yugi's Millennium Puzzle . . .
Seto Kaiba awoke with a start. He looked around the room he was in. It was his office, with papers and tools scattered around. On the floor was a machine—or what would someday become a machine.
Kaiba shook his head in disgust. He hated when he fell asleep at his desk. It showed weakness of body and mind. At least no one else had noticed it. Kaiba didn't need to lose any more support from his company.
Losing to Yugi Muto at his own tournament had been humiliation enough.
Over the past year, it dominated Kaiba's thinking. How was it that Yugi had beaten him, time and again? The first time had been two years ago, after Kaiba took and ripped up the Blue-eyes White Dragon card belonging to Yugi's grandfather. Yugi was on the verge of losing, as Kaiba played all three of his Blue-eyes.
But then, Yugi did the impossible. He assembled the only unstoppable card in the game: Exodia the Forbidden One. Not even three of Kaiba's precious Blue-eyes could stand in its way. Exodia completely destroyed Kaiba.
The second time, it hadn't actually been Kaiba. It was an impersonator hired by Maximillion Pegasus using Kaiba's deck. Kaiba was presumed dead at the time, at the hands of some of Pegasus' henchmen. They took his deck, for the soul purpose of using against Yugi Muto.
Yugi would have lost, had Kaiba not created a computer virus to weaken the Blue-eyes so that they couldn't attack. Yugi managed to revive one of them, and used it to defeat the imposter.
The third time he faced Yugi, Kaiba was victorious. He played an expert strategy, using a variety of debilitating combos to weaken Yugi's deck. First, it was a Crush Card virus, delivered by Saggi the Dark Clown. It destroyed Yugi's deck, obliterating all of his monsters with more than 1500 attack points. Yugi was forced into using his weakest cards—cards that could not compete with his monsters.
Yugi put up an amazing defense. He used a Griffore/Horn of the Unicorn combination assault to destroy a few of Kaiba's monsters, but then Kaiba created the ultimate east, a monster beyond compare, with no peers. A creature that had no rivals. He fused his three Blue-eyes White Dragon cards and formed the Blue-eyes Ultimate Dragon. With it, he decimated Yugi's deck further, until Yugi was forced to make desperate moves that could not topple the Ultimate Dragon.
Things then turned on Kaiba, as Yugi fused his zombie monster Mammoth Graveyard with the living Ultimate Dragon. Bonded in that way, the monsters rejected it. And, with each passing turn, Kaiba's ultimate beast lost power, until it had next to nothing.
Yugi continued his defense, playing a weak monster called Kuriboh. But, using a magic card called Multiply, one Kuriboh became a thousand. They absorbed the Ultimate Dragon's every attack. And, for each one Kaiba destroyed, two more took its place. It was an impenetrable wall, and Kaiba was on the verge of losing his monster.
Yugi then played Celtic Guardian. The weakened Blue-eyes Dragon couldn't fend off an attack, and one of its three heads was destroyed. Kaiba lost the life points, and his creature was too weak to continue. Next turn, he was through.
And he had failed his brother, Mokuba.
Pegasus had kidnapped Mokuba, with the intension of taking over KaibaCorp Technologies, Kaiba's company. Only a Kaiba family member could make executive decisions, and Mokuba was Kaiba's younger brother. If Pegasus could get rid of Seto, permanently, he could use Mokuba as his puppet, doing things for him.
And Kaiba had made a deal with Pegasus. If he could defeat Yugi Muto, then he would be able to face Pegasus, and duel to free his brother. He had failed, and now Mokuba would be that twisted, sadistic fool's prisoner forever.
But the former Duel Monsters World Champion had one last trick up his sleeve. He backed up, and stood on the edge of the tower he and Yugi dueled on.
"If you attack, the resulting shock waves may cause me to lose my balance and fall," Kaiba had said. He knew that Yugi would never risk injuring Kaiba. He knew that Yugi didn't have it in him. He wasn't willing to do anything to save the ones he loves. But Kaiba did. Even if it meant risking his own life, he would do anything for Mokuba.
As Kaiba had predicted, Yugi relented. He didn't attack. So, on his next turn, Kaiba revived the Blue-eyes head Yugi had destroyed, and used its restored power to finish Yugi off. Kaiba had won, barely.
But he didn't manage to save Mokuba. He lost to Pegasus, and then Yugi beat him, freeing them all.
Kaiba's last face-off with Yugi had been at Battle City's finals, last year. Kaiba thought he would win easily, for he had the power of an Egyptian God card on his side. The Battle City rules were made specifically for Obelisk the Tormentor. But Yugi also had an Egyptian God card, Slifer the Sky Dragon.
Kaiba took control of the match, finding a way to get Slifer into his own deck. But Yugi's trap cards were frustrating, and he managed to keep Obelisk out of the game for a while. It was a race for the God cards.
Once they got their respective cards out, things got interesting. The two monsters clashed, in a dazzling display of explosions. But neither was destroyed. Kaiba knew he needed to come up with some way to defeat Yugi, so he managed to sacrifice his Egyptian God and bring out all three of his Blue-eyes.
Yugi's Slifer's effect was that its attack power was 1000 multiplied by the number of cards in the controller's hand. Yugi only had two cards in his hand, so Slifer only had 2000 attack points. Whereas the three Blue-eyes Kaiba had played had 3000 attack points each.
With Slifer out of the way, Kaiba fused his three Blue-eyes once again, creating the Blue-eyes Ultimate Dragon. Yugi, on the other hand, could only play a weak Red-eyes Black Dragon, a card he won earlier in the tournament. Yugi also stalled for time, playing Swords of Revealing Light to paralyze Kaiba's monsters for three turns.
It was all the time Yugi needed to turn the duel around. He played his favorite card, the Dark Magician, and a card face down. When Ultimate Dragon was freed from the Swords, he attacked, and Yugi sprung his trap: Magical Hats. For two turns, Kaiba attacked the hats, but then Yugi played a new monster, fusing his Dark Magician with Buster Blader forming Dark Paladin, the Ultimate Magician Knight.
When Kaiba declared his attack on the weaker monster, Yugi activated his De-fusion card, breaking the Ultimate Dragon back into the three Blue-eyes Dragons it was composed of. Then, Kaiba learned of Paladin's ability: its attack power was raised 500 for each dragon on the field. It destroyed Kaiba's dragons with the aide of Diffusion Wave-Motion, and lead to his defeat.
It had been humiliating.
And the support of KaibaCorp was slowly being sapped away with each defeat. Kaiba needed to earn back their support . . .
Suddenly, his eyes widened. Something was wrong, not just that he had fallen asleep in the wrong place. Something was terribly, terribly wrong.
Kaiba jumped up from his deck, knocking over the leather swivel chair, and ran from his office. The office was in the apartment he shared with Mokuba, past the bedrooms and living chambers.
Kaiba passed by his room, and arrived at Mokuba's. He pulled open the door and burst inside, instantly surveying the room. The sheets and pillows were scattered all over the room, and the mattress was on the floor. Toys and Duel Monsters cards were all over the place. And the window was open.
He leapt over the clutter, landing by the window in time to see a rope pull away towards a shadow-shrouded building nearby. He also saw three people, concealed in the shadows, duck away, holding a Mokuba-sized sack.
"No!" Kaiba grunted, pounding his fist against the windowsill. Pain shot up his arm, but it was nothing compared to the turmoil inside.
Once again, he failed the one person who meant more to him than Duel Monsters, KaibaCorp, or anything else in the world.
But I will rescue him, Kaiba vowed silently. No one will get in the way of me. Not ever again.
Not Yugi, or any of his pathetic friends.
No one.
"Yugi! Tea and the others are here!" came the call, as usual. Also, as usual, Yugi Muto was still getting ready for another summer day. He pulled on a shirt, and cracked open his door.
"Coming, Grandpa," he called back. He continued getting dressed, pulling on jeans, shoes, and, most important of all, the Millennium Puzzle. The Millennium Puzzle was an artifact from Egypt, five thousand years old. It was made of gold, and shaped like a four-sided pyramid, inverted and hanging from a metal chain.
It also had magic properties.
The Millennium Puzzle was one of seven Millennium Items, created from magic five thousand years ago by the Egyptian ruler, Yami. In Egypt, games of great power were played back then, similar to Maximillion Pegasus' Duel Monsters game. In fact, Pegasus had based his card game on these "Shadow Games." In ancient times, these games had gotten out of hand, since they were played with real magic and real monsters, and threatened to destroy the world.
An Egyptian ruler had risen, and locked the powers of the games inside stone tablets. Over time, sorcerers and priests began to learn how to unlock the creatures. The Shadow Games were reborn. Before long, the game once again brought the world to the brink of destruction. A group of priests, led by High Priest Seto, revolted against Pharaoh Yami.
The final clash took place in the pharaoh's throne room, as those still loyal to Yami battled against the priests. Soon, it came down to Yami and Seto, to decide the fate of the world. It was unknown how that battle went, but it was easily assumed, since the world was still in one piece, that Yami was victorious.
To finally defeat the Shadow Game's power, Yami locked the magic away in the seven Millennium Items: the Puzzle, Eye, Ring, Key, Rod, Necklace, and Scale. Yami sealed his spirit, in his final act, inside the Millennium Puzzle.
That was the only thing that Yugi did not understand. If Yami was victorious, why had he been forced to seal his soul away? And, why was the spirit of Priest Seto also sealed inside a Millennium Item, the Millennium Ring?
That was the Millennium Puzzle's magic power, though: it contained the spirit of an Egyptian ruler. Whenever Yugi needed help, Yami was there. Their spirits fused, and they shared Yugi's body. They were a formidable team, as anyone they have ever faced learned the hard way.
Yami and Yugi had a long history together. Yugi hadn't known it for a long time, though. First, Yugi was the reincarnation of Yami, his modern-day form. They were united when Grandpa brought Yugi this strange artifact from Egypt. A puzzle. Yugi assembled it, after having a small misadventure with one-time bullies—and now two of Yugi's best friends—Joey Wheeler and Tristan Taylor. He felt a strange, mystical energy inside the assembled puzzle.
His first experience with the spirit inside was when he and Joey learned that Tea Gardner, a girl from school, was saving up money to go to a dance school in America. Yugi located an old warehouse she could use as a dance studio, and went there to meet her after school one day. When he got there, he found her being mugged, and blacked out.
Later, he learned that Yami had saved Tea, defeating the thief at a variation of Duel Monsters.
His next major experience with Yami was the duel against Seto Kaiba, right before Duelist Kingdom kicked off. When Seto had won Grandpa's cherished Blue-eyes card, and ripped it in half. The stress had given Grandpa a heart attack. Yugi dueled Kaiba, using the infamous Exodia set to destroy all three of Kaiba's Blue-eyes. He didn't remember much, other than what his Grandpa had told him, and had a vision of him.
"To this day, no one has been able to assemble all five special cards," he had remembered Grandpa telling him.
"Like the pieces of a puzzle, Yugi!"
Just days later, he faced Maximillion Pegasus in a Shadow Game, where more information about the Puzzle and the Shadow Games of old came to the light. Also, it started Yugi's Duelist Kingdom adventure, when Pegasus used the magic of his Millennium Item, the all-seeing Eye, to steal Grandpa's soul.
During the Duelist Kingdom tournament, he finally learned of Yami, and many things about his past. But he also learned that Yami was determined to win, sometimes at any cost. Like in their third duel against Kaiba.
"If you attack, the resulting shock waves may cause me to lose my balance and fall," Kaiba had said, smugly. "You wouldn't want that, would you?"
Yami ordered the Celtic Guardian to attack, but Yugi resisted. He managed to get control of his body, to tell the guardian to stop.
"I couldn't control it; this other spirit inside me. It was willing to go all the way against Kaiba.
"I'm scared—so scared that I will never duel again."
And he hadn't trusted the spirit again. It almost cost him his grandfather.
It was Mai Valentine who brought him out of that, in the semifinal match of Duelist Kingdom. She, in her own way, brought Yugi and Yami together, made them join and unlock a power unlike anything either had experienced.
They managed to pull victory out of defeat in that duel, turning the tide on Mai. And what a victory! Mai, when Yugi and Yami joined forces, hadn't been touched—she still had 2000 life points. Yugi, however, only had 200. And still, he managed to take down her Mirror Wall, destroy her Harpie's Pet Dragon, and summon the ritual monster Black Luster Soldier.
Then he had to reach a new level of understanding with Yami. To beat Maximillion Pegasus, they had to trust in each other's abilities alone. They had to give each other total control of Yugi's body for periods of time, to block Pegasus' mind reading abilities.
After defeating Pegasus, Yugi met Shadi, an Egyptian man who told him about the powers of the Millennium Items, even using the powers of his own, the Key, to peer inside Yami's soul. In that time, he learned more about the ancient war for power.
Over the next year, he learned more than ever. It started when Bandit Keith, being controlled by another Millennium Item, stole his Millennium Puzzle. Then, Yami and Tea went to the Domino City Museum, and met Ishizu Ishtar, who told Yami a little about his past, as pharaoh, and his destiny. In fact, she was the one who urged Yami to join the Battle City tournament.
If he thought he learned a lot from Ishizu, he was wrong. The person who had been controlling Bandit Keith made himself known during Battle City. Marik Ishtar, Ishizu's brother, pitted mind-slave after mind-slave against Yugi, and taught him many things, such as Yami had great powers as pharaoh, and that there was a trio of behemoths from ancient times that had been reincarnated as Duel Monsters: the Egyptian God cards.
In that tournament, Yami was to face his destiny, and save the world once again. Not just the destiny of defeating Kaiba—the reincarnation of the priest who led the rebellion against him. No, he was to save the world from a rebirth of the Shadow Games. To stop the one person with the power and will to do it.
He had to stop Marik Ishtar from achieving his goals.
His first opponent had been a Rare Hunter who used Exodia the Forbidden One, and had three sets of it. He was also the one that took Joey Wheeler's Red-eyes Black Dragon. Yugi beat him to get that card back for his friend. When he tried to give it back to Joey, though, his friend realized that he'd need all the help he could get.
Next, he faced Arkana, a former magician who had fallen in with Marik in hopes of being reunited with his lost love. He had been assigned with getting rid of Yugi and taking the Puzzle. He learned the hard way that Yugi was the true master of the Dark Magician card.
Yugi's first run-in with an Egyptian God card was in his next duel, against a mime named Strings, who was being completely controlled by Marik. Strings set up a purely defensive strategy, relying on a mix of Revival Jam, a monster that could reform itself each time it was destroyed, and a card that switched any of Yugi's attacks to target it. Once Strings sacrificed three monsters to bring out Slifer the Sky Dragon, it seemed that Marik would indeed take the Millennium Puzzle.
Slifer had two special abilities. Its attack power was 1000 multiplied by the number of cards in the controller's hand. And, whenever its opponent summoned a card, it automatically attacked, lowering the target's scores by 2000 points. Yugi had no way to defeat it, and soon despaired.
When Kaiba arrived, Yugi regained his composure, and set defenses against more of Slifer's attacks. He revived Buster Blader, and attacked Revival Jam. Then, he activated Brain Control, to take control of the Jam before it could fully reform. Slifer attacked it once it was fully restored, and it . . .reformed, on Yugi's side of the field. Slifer attacked, again and again, a continuous cycle.
And, thanks to Strings' Card of Safe Return, each time the Jam was revived, he drew three cards. Slifer and Revival Jam were caught in an endless cycle. And, with each revolution, he drew three cards. The biggest weakness in Slifer was that the number of cards in the controller's deck limited his power. And, Card of Safe Return caused him to draw until he could draw no more.
Yugi claimed Slifer, taking the God card from Marik. He only had one, now, and Kaiba had the final of the three. But Marik still had the power to control the minds of anyone he pleased. Such as Joey and Yugi's other friends.
And that was Marik's plan. He kidnapped Joey and Tea, and Kaiba's brother Mokuba, and forced Yugi and Kaiba to duel for their freedom. Though they did not work well together, Kaiba and Yugi defeated the Rare Hunter tag team Umbra and Lumis. But it didn't free Yugi's friends; Kaiba only got Mokuba back because Tea sacrificed herself so he could escape.
Once Umbra and Lumis were defeated, Kaiba used a helicopter to take Yugi to where Mokuba had escaped from the Rare Hunters. On the ride, Yami tried to explain to Kaiba what was going on, and the power Marik possessed—as well as the magic he was after. Kaiba didn't believe any of it, but that would change, when they arrived at the Domino Harbor.
Of all people, Joey Wheeler was there. Marik had used the Millennium Rod to control his mind. And Tea's, too. Both of them were there, and Marik, through their bodies, challenged Yugi to a duel, for Slifer and the Puzzle. And, for Yugi's very life.
Both duelists were strapped to an anchor, which, thirty seconds after that duelist's life points hit zero, would drop into the ocean. So, whoever won would be responsible for the death of a friend. And, if Joey was the winner, it would mean that Marik would succeed in gaining the Millennium Puzzle, and the power of the pharaoh.
The duel started, and Yugi was amazed how Joey's deck had been beefed up. In his first move, Joey played one of the rarest magic cards in the game. Then he weakened Yugi with direct attacks and powerful direct-damage magic cards like Hinotama.
The duel kept getting worse and worse for Yugi, as Marik outdid his every move. But then, Yugi got an idea. The only way to get Joey to resist Marik's control was to show him the Red-eyes Black Dragon card. Because Joey had told Yugi he would never take that card from him.
Yugi played Exchange, so that they could swap one card in each player's hand. Yugi had the Red-eyes Black Dragon, and Joey, remembering his promise, didn't take it—and resisted Marik's control!
The duel continued, and Yugi finally played the Red-eyes. By that time, he had asked Yami to sit the rest of the duel out, and then Joey had taken a piece of the Puzzle and threw it into the harbor. It was the same one that he and Tristan threw into the river, before Yugi had finished it. Back when they were a pair of low-class school bullies, of course.
Now, Yugi was on his own, and Joey played Rocket Warrior, weakening the Red-eyes. He managed to turn the tables on Joey, destroying both Rocket Warrior and Panther Warrior. Soon, though, Joey played a third Hinotama, which would destroy the last of Yugi's life points.
Yugi activated the trap card Magic Refpanel. Since the fire-based meteor attack targeted Yugi directly, Refpanel could send it to target Joey instead. Joey, like Yugi, had less than 500 life points. But Yugi had to wonder: should he kill his own friend.
But, Joey broke free of Marik's control, and found himself in a duel to the death with his best friend.
As the counter reached the end, Yugi decided to take the attack. His life points dropped to zero, and he had thirty seconds before death claimed him.
He told Joey to take good care of the Puzzle. Joey, instead of freeing himself, had Yugi's Red-eyes attack him and finish off his life points. Both of them would be dragged under.
Joey's sister Serenity saved him, and he saved Yugi and the Puzzle. Then they realized that both of them, and their friend Mai Valentine, who came with Tristan, Serenity, and gaming storeowner Duke Devlin, had the six required locator cards to enter the finals.
Soon, Yugi found himself in the Shadow Realm, facing his friend Bakura Ryou—under the control of the spirit inside his Millennium Rod and working for Marik Ishtar. Bakura, as in his last duel against Yami, played a defensive strategy, relying on powerful magic and trap cards to weaken Yugi, and win.
Yugi conquered, when he summoned Slifer the Sky Dragon. The mighty God destroyed the last of Bakura's monsters, before the Destiny Board could create the four ghoulish Spirit Messages.
Next, Joey faced a man named Odion, posing as Marik—right down to having a fake of the God card called The Winged Dragon of Ra. Joey won by a mere technicality—both duelists had been electrocuted by the might of the fake God card. Joey barely won, but he had.
Kaiba faced Ishizu Ishtar, the head of an archeological institution based in Egypt, and the possessor of the Millennium Necklace. She was the one who warned Yami that he would face the reincarnation of his age-old nemesis, Kaiba—along with a new evil, which turned out to be Marik.
She prophesized that Obelisk would be Kaiba's undoing, in that duel. It almost came true. She inserted a virus into Obelisk—if Kaiba attacked with it, the attack would backfire and destroy Kaiba. The dark spirit of Marik, surfacing after Odion's injury, warned him, and Kaiba sacrificed it to summon his Blue-eyes White Dragon, winning the duel.
Next, Marik finally made his appearance as the leader of the Rare Hunters—until that time, he had been disguised as a young duelist prodigy named Namu. He faced Mai Valentine, and used the power of his Millennium Rod to destroy her memories of her friends, one at a time.
She tries to, as a last resort, use The Winged Dragon of Ra she swiped from Marik through the effect of a magic card. But, as all of those watching soon learn, only an Egyptian can control its great might. The monster strikes her down, and Marik uses the Rod to lock her inside her own mind.
The Battle City finals were interrupted by some of Kaiba's ex-employees and newfound enemies: the Big Five, the former members of the KaibaCorp Executive Board. Kaiba had defeated their plots twice, with Yugi's help. The first had been the whole purpose behind Pegasus' Duelist Kingdom tournament, trying to take over KaibaCorp. The other time had been the attempt at revenge, within the Virtual World.
It took time, but, eventually, Yugi and his friends escaped their return adventure into the virtual world. And the Battle City's final rounds began.
It started in a four-way Battle Royal, with the first two people facing each other, and the two winners dueling each other again. Marik and Kaiba teamed up to take out Joey, but Yugi and Joey united against Marik, and Kaiba, seeing him for what he was, joined them. Much to Yugi's dismay, he then proceeded to take out Joey.
Joey was okay with that; he wanted to get revenge on Marik for what he did to Mai. He soon realized that he was in deep, with Marik turning the duel into a Shadow Game. Joey put up a valiant fight, and would have won, if the trial hadn't been too much for his weakened body. Marik won, but barely. Marik would face Yugi, or Kaiba, and claim both of the God cards.
Yugi, on the other hand, wasn't so happy—he now had to face Kaiba, to claim Kaiba's God card, Obelisk the Tormentor.
It was, literally, a clash of titans. It started as a race for the God cards, with Kaiba managing to snatch Yugi's first, then Yugi getting it back and playing it. Then, Kaiba summoned Obelisk. The two monsters collided, but nothing happened. The God cards had no effect on each other.
Kaiba sacrificed Obelisk to get out his three Blue-eyes White Dragons, but Yugi's Slifer was too weak to fend off an attack from them. He managed to summon Joey's Red-eyes Black Dragon. Joey recovered from his match with Marik by that time, urging Yugi to play it.
Kaiba played Polymerization, fusing his three Blue-eyes into the Ultimate Dragon, and destroyed the Red-eyes. Yugi activated Swords of Revealing Light, paralyzing the three-headed behemoth. He summoned Dark Magician, and played Magical Hats, to conceal it. Kaiba attacked twice, and both hit empty hats.
Yugi played a Polymerization of his own, to combine Dark Magician with Buster Blader, and created Dark Paladin. Kaiba, not realizing its power, attacked, activating Yugi's De-fusion card. The one Ultimate Dragon became three smaller ones, each increasing Paladin's power by 500 points. Yugi won, claiming Kaiba's Obelisk card, and was now going on to face Marik.
The same Marik who banished Mai and Bakura to the Shadow Realm, who manipulated Yugi's friends, and who was bent on destroying Yugi and ruling the world.
But then Marik turned the Battle City's final duel into the largest Shadow Game since the time of Priest Seto and Yami. Marik's dark spirit trapped Yugi's, Mai's, and the real Marik's souls. Yami would have to face Marik's dark spirit, and, if he lost, Yugi, Mai, and Bakura—whom Dark Marik promised to release if Yami won—would all be banished to the Shadow Realm for all eternity. With the soul of the real Marik, no less.
But, should Yami win, Yugi and the others would be freed, except for Marik's soul.
The duel began, and Yami sacrificed the three Magnet Warriors to summon Slifer the Sky Dragon. Dark Marik also summons his God card, the Winged Dragon of Ra. With 5400 attack points, it easily destroyed Slifer. Marik then summons a monster and sacrifices it instantly.
But no other monsters appeared on the field.
Marik explained another of Ra's unstoppable abilities: by sacrificing monsters, its power could go up. Marik continues to do this, until Ra has the highest attack points of any monster Yugi has ever faced. It was stronger than Blue-eyes Ultimate Dragon, stronger than the Legendary Five Gods Dragon, more powerful the Dragon Master Knight. Nothing could stop it.
Yami manages to destroy the Winged Dragon with the Devil's Sanctuary card Kaiba gave him. Then, he summoned Obelisk, and attacked Marik directly.
And Marik declares that he was waiting for that attack. He played a monster that took on Obelisk's stats, and then fused it with a Revival Jam to create the God Slime. Soon, he also revives Ra, and Obelisk attacks, doing . . . nothing.
Dark Marik explains that God cards have little effect on each other, especially when it comes to their special abilities. He prepares to attack, and wipe out the rest of Yugi's life points . . .
. . . As Yugi uses his Dimension Magic card to bring Dark Magician to the field, and then—with the combined powers of Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl—destroyed Ra with the card Raknarok. And, somehow, the destruction of Ra released Marik from the Shadow Realm, switching his spirit for the dark one. He forfeits the match, destroying the dark spirit and releasing Yugi's friends. He also hands over the Winged Dragon of Ra to Yugi, who gives it, Slifer, Obelisk, and the Millennium Necklace back to Ishizu.
Now, a year later, Yugi and Yami are both happy to have saved the world from a rise of evil, and Yami has spent much time brooding over what he and Yugi learned from the Necklace.
Yugi finally bounded down the stairs, and saw his friends waiting for him. "Hi, guys," he said, trying to suppress a blush. He was a half hour late! "Sorry I'm late. Where to?"
"Well, since you ain't givin' us any directions," Joey Wheeler, a blond teenager with the looks of a wannabe thug, said in a slow drawl of a southerner, said. "How about Duke's place?"
"Sure, why not?" Tristan said, and Tea nodded.
"See ya later, Grandpa!" Yugi shouted into the door, and he and his friends walked down the street.
"Follow them, my mind slave," a man shrouded in darkness said. "Soon, I will have all that I desire. As I took the Millennium Eye from Maximillion Pegasus, and the Rod from Marik Ishtar, I will soon own Yugi's Millennium Puzzle!
"The world shall bow before me, as it should have five thousand years ago. I will not allow Yugi and his friend The Pharaoh to defeat me again!"
TO BE CONTINUED . . .