Radiance and Redolence

Despite the leisure offered by him lodgings, Syrus remained awake for several hours into the night. He had spent the night recreating his duel with Thompson in his head. Where on earth had he gotten these cards from? It seemed as though Thompson knew Pegasus Crawford and had an entire deck made just for him.

And, another important thought bothered him. Why had only three of the four people been elimnated? Kaiba announced that the Duel King himself was to be tested, so that meant Yugi was participating in the final 8 elimination round. This meant, that someone had dropped from the tournament. Who would drop after coming this far? Who in the world would ever...

A knock at the door followed by the familiar voice, "Syrus?"

"Bro...brother?!" Syrus ran to the door and opened it to find Zane Truesdale looking down at his younger sibling with an air of pride.

"Syrus, I want to have my duel with you."

"What?" Syrus replied, "Why now? Why not wait until the finals tomorrow?"

"Because, I lost yesterday. I resigned my duel to Pegasus when I saw you were about to lose. Syrus, you played a game greater than I would have ever expected from you. So, now, I want you to show me I have made the correct choice. Duel me, brother."

Syrus was stunned, but without hesitation, he pulled his cards out. They played without holograms, without duel disk. They played without technology or prying eyes. There was an honor and a brotherhood to be formed here. A bond of the older brother teaching the younger. Only the echo of a time long past, when this type of play was typical in the days that Zane played the young novice Syrus. The only thing to change from that time is the victor.

Jaden Yuki dashed down the halls, barely making it to breakfast before Kaiba began his announcements for the day's duels.

"The manner of dueling in this final phase of the tournament is simple, each player must beat there opponent in order to advance toward the finals. The winner of this competition will become the new King of Games, unless of course, Yugi manages to hold on to his title. No matter the case, the pairings have been decided by the randomizing computer."

As he began listing the competitor's order in the brackets, they appeared on an enormous screen behind him:

"First match will be between Yugi Motou and Ray Dolussgen.

"The second match is a contest between Maximilian Pegasus and Joey Wheeler.

"Next, we have Jaden Yuki versus Lyndon Thompson.

"The final match will be between Syrus Truesdayl and myself. That is all."

Kaiba left the dining hall without another word. The referee stood up to announce, "The first match of Yugi Motou and Ray Dolussgen will be fought in exactly thirty minutes. Good luck to all."

Yugi stood and left immediately. Jaden grabbed food from the table and dashed after the Duel King. He could not pass up the oppurtunity to speak alone with his idol. Syrus sighed, realizing Jaden's intention to grab an autograph and speak to the king about some obscure strategy.

Joey was, of course, friendly enough. He spoke loudly of comical incidents that occurred in his dueling history. However, in the middle of the story of Bandit Keith running from the duel only to fall into a literal Trap Hole around Pegasus' chair, Syrus realized that neither Ray nor Lyndon had come to the breakfast. Curious, he asked the referee about informing the contenders, and the referee replied by saying, "A notice has been sent to each of their rooms."

"What a boring way to start a tournament." Kaiba griped, "According to the duel disk usage history, Ray Dolussgen has been using a fake Ra the Sky Dragon card in almost all of her duels, and she has been removed from the island and this tournament. Now that my tournament staff finally managed to catch up, I can officially announce the change in the brackets. I replace Ray Dolussgen with Zane Truesdale."

Yugi remained calm as Zane appeared through the door behind the awaiting duelist. "Zane!" Syrus called out, "I thought you were out brother."

Zane simply smiled in response and stated, " I suppose I was kept around for reason."

Kaiba ordered for Zane to make his way to the duel field, and as asked, Zane mad his way to the center of the stadium roof.

Similar to his battle city tournament, Kaiba held the finals on the roof of the mansion in a form of coliseum. The eager duelist watched for the match to begin, some becoming anxious and excited. Despite his desire to fight Yugi, Jaden even cheered Zane on.

"Think nothing of this Zane! I know you can put all your heart into this and win!"

Yugi finally moved, uncrossing his arms. He opened his crimson eyes and looked at his opponent with confidence. "Zane Truesdale, it is an honor to finally duel you. I have heard of your many victories in tournaments. However, I will not hold back."

"I would expect nothing less." Zane responded cooly, "Now...Let's duel!" Both Duel disk shifted into place.

Yugi drew his hand, "I'll start, draw!" Yugi glanced at his hand, taking a moment to consider his move.

"To start, I summon the monster Skilled Dark Magician(1900/1700) to the field. Next, I will play two cards face down, and end my turn."

"Draw!" Zane declared to start his turn. He looked at the mage across from him, and figured out a way to beat it with his Cyber Dragon. However, he knew that Yugi must have at least heard of his Cyber Dragons because Yugi had heard of the past tournaments he had won. So, Zane concluded that a trap was hidden among the face down cards. "Too Easy Yugi, I already know you have hidden a trap for my Cyber Dragon, so I play my spell Heavy Storm."

Immediately, both of Yugi's face down card were wiped from the field, revealing them to be Holy Barrier Mirror Force and Soul Line.

Zane continued, "Now, I Special Summon the monster Cyber Dragon(2100/1600)! And to follow, come forth Bomber Dragon(1000/0). My Cyber Dragon will attack you Skilled Dark Magician." The Cyber Dragon, with it long steel body, flung itself at the Mage who let out a scream before exploding under the dragon's might.

"Now my Bomber, attack him directly." Yugi took a hit as the dragon slammed into him. Yugi didn't flinch as the hologram passed through and returned to Zane's side.

"Hm, my move then." Yugi (2800) pulled a card sharply from his duel disk declaring, "I draw. I activate the spell card, Magical Academy! With this card, I can special summon the Dark Magician(2500/2100) from my hand to the field. I am not allowed another summon or set this turn, but my mage's attack is increased by 500 and he gains two start levels (NOTE: 7 goes to 9 stars). So now, my Dark Magician attacks and crushes your Cyber Dragon."

The magician flew upward, taking his staff back before thrusting it forward to unleash a black orb of magic at the mech, which combusted on impact.

"Finally," Yugi announced, "I set a card face down to end my turn."

"Draw," Zane declared, "I summon Hell Dragon (2000/0) to the field. Then, I will have the Bomber Dragon attack the magician, and now that my dragon attacks a monster and dies, he destroys the opponent's monster also. Additionally, I will take 0 points of damage."

"As I thought," Yugi declared, "And so I reveal my counter, Zero Gravity. This will switch the position of all monsters on the field to the opposite of the current state. Therefore, all of your monsters go to defense, along with my Dark Magician."

"Fine by me. I will just activate this spell card from my hand," Zane began.

"Oh no." Yugi stated stunned to be outplayed.

"I activate Shield Crush, and target the defensive Dark Magician. There goes the best card in your deck, huh Yugi?"

"I can still beat you, I draw," Yugi pulled his next card, "I have managed to pull the spell card Card of Sanctity. Now, we each draw six cards, and one of the cards I pulled is Watapon. And fortunately, another card I pulled is Berfomet. I sacrafice Watapon to bring Berfomet (1400/1800) to the field. With his effect, I can bring Gazelle, King of Mythical Beast to my hand. I follow this with my spell card, Polymerization, to fuse the two together in order to bring for Chimera, the Flying Mythical Beast(2100/1800)! Go now, attack the Bomber Dragon!"

"Ha, I have you now Yugi, by attacking my dragon, his effect activates sending your Chimera to the graveyard."

"Exactly."

"What?"

Yugi smirked, "By using this combo, I am able to send Chimera to the grave, and with his effect, I can bring back one of the monsters used to fuse him. So come to the field, Gazelle the King of Mythical Beast(1500/1200)! Kill the Hell Dragon."

The dragon screamed as Gazelle's lion claws tore through his body.

"With two cards face down, I end turn."

Zane drew with his usual declaration. "It is time to end this! I activate my spell card polymerization to fuse the Cyber End Dragons in my hand. Come forth, Cyber Twin Dragon(2800/2600)! And with him, this game is over. Go, kill Gazelle!"

The lion was crushed under the incredible strength of the twin dragon, reducing Yugi's life points to 1500.

"I execpted more of you Yugi. But this is the end, attack now Twin Dragon, wipe out his life points."

"Not yet, I reversed my trap card, Soul Line. Now, I discard my entire hand in order to bring back Gazelle with 800 more attack points."

"Then once again, your monster falls and you lose 500 life points. With that, I set one monster in face down defense mode and end turn."

"Draw." Yugi (1000) smiled, "This is the last turn for you Zane. I reverse my second face down card, Monster Reborn, to resurrect the Dark Magician of Chaos (2800/2600). And, with his magic, I bring Monster Reborn back to my hand. And now, I bring back the other monster sent to my graveyard by Soul Line, Obelisk the Tormentor (4000/4000)."

"Too bad your tactic will only work for one turn, and you can't wipe out my life points, even with your strongest monster, thanks to my defense." Zan continue with a thought, 'And then, I can make my counterplay.'

"That, Zane, is where you are wrong. For you see, the card I drew is Brave Attack! Now, Obelisk' attack points are increased by the attack of Dark Magician of Chaos, bringing him up to 6800. Now, with God, attack his Twin Dragon and wipe out his remaining life points!"

Zane flew back from the God's wrathful attack and his life points dropped from 4000 to 0 in a single turn.

"The winner of the duel is Yugi Motou!" Seto Kaiba announced in his unsurprised voice.

Yugi walked over to Zane and assisted him in returning to his feet. "Zane, you played an amazing duel. If I had not drawn Brave Attack, I am certain that I would have lost."

As the two conversed, the other duelist talked in amazement and fascination at the incredible duel they witnessed, along with the appearance of the real and amazing God Card Obelisk the Tormentor.

"So Jaden," Syrus teased, "Do you really wanna face someone like him?"

"Are you kidding!? I just know it will be the most awesome duel I have ever fought in." Jaden said, completely unfazed by the overbearing strength of the God card.