CHAPTER TWELVE: SHEUT DI ANKH DJET – SHADOWS GIVEN LIFE FOREVER
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They reappeared on a dark doorstep, Diabound still wrapped around them, and they quickly fumbled open the door and entered the house. A few minutes later they were all collapsed in the kitchen. Diabound was clearly visible in the light and the trio was staring at the monster in disgust.
"Thank you Diabound!" Ryou smiled up at his soul beast before the Ka faded away back into his soul.
"What was that thing?" Harry asked; repulsion evident in his voice now that the monster and danger were gone.
Ryou looked at him sharply and said coldly, "Please watch your tone. I do not appreciate insults towards my Ka."
"Ka?" Ron asked.
Ryou sighed and said, "That which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person - Diabound is a part of my soul. Unlike soul shards though, if Diabound is destroyed I'll die." Ryou said evenly, "My existence depends on Diabound, just like everyone's existence depends on their Ka."
"whoa, wait - we don't have Ka, but we exist!" Harry exclaimed.
"Of course you have a Ka. Not being able to summon it doesn't mean you don't have one. Only Shadow Mages can do that." Ryou replied matter of factly.
"Look we have more important things to worry about right now!" Hermione stepped in, "How did those Death Eaters find us?" She asked Ryou.
Ryou laughed hollowly, "Because you," he pointed at Harry, "Summoned them. In your idiocy, you said the Dark Lord's name. "
"But… A name is just a name isn't it?" Harry asked, confused.
"You really are ignorant," Ryou mused quietly, much to Harry's anger.
"Well then enlighten us!" He growled back.
"A person's name, their Ren, contains more power than many things, similar to Ka; it's a part of the soul. Normally it only works with a person's birth name, at least traditionally. But from what Fred and George told me, the Dark Lord was reborn a few years ago. Which could mean his chosen name became his new Ren. It means this - the Dark Lord is using soul magic to signal him to anyone using his name."
Ryou paused, he'd realised something!
"Oh no…" He whispered, his eyes wide.
"What? What now?" Ron asked.
"The idiot… I should have realised!" Ryou looked at the trio, "The Dark Lord is using powers he can't control only using Dark wizards magic! Only the Shadows can be used to manipulate the soul without permanent harm. This explains why he had to kill to create those Horcrux things - he's bastardised the magic!"
Ryou was angry now. Voldemort was messing with the Shadows; as a Shadow Mage he was a part of the Shadows. That meant he couldn't let this go. To hurt the Shadows was to hurt him, and his friends.
"I've got to destroy these Horcruxes and stop him. He's tainting the Shadows balance by doing this!" He stared at the trio, "Stand back!"
He raised his hands and pulled a hole in the Shadows. The trio shivered; it felt almost like Dementors were surrounding the room, drifting out from that one point.
Focusing on the hole he called out for the one item, since that would be easier than manually searching the Shadows for it. The locket shot out and he caught it in his hand. He then summoned up the Shadows around him and pulled a card out before calling;
"Dark Necrofear!" The blue woman cradling a doll walked out the Shadows into the Shadowed room.
The trio gasped in shock, the feeling of dread given off by the Shadows had been enough to make them forget to even draw their wands, but this creature woke them up.
"What the hell is that?" Ron yelled, fumbling for his wand and pointing it at the fiend. The doll in Necrofear's arms swung its head around to face him and gave out a high pitched giggle; in his surprise, Ron yelped and dropped his wand, which he grabbed up quickly and gripped tightly.
Ryou ignored them, "Necrofear, I need your help." He lifted up the locket, "I know I left this in your guard, and I must first apologise for any suffering that has caused you. It was my fault I didn't realise what it was sooner. Please help me destroy it."
Dark Necrofear nodded her head mutely and Ryou smiled. Both of them focusing, the locket lifted into the air. After a minute Ryou frowned and leaned in to look at the locket as it spun around slowly in midair. Nudging it with his finger his eyes suddenly shot wide open, he pulled back and looked up at the Shadow Monster who nodded before he looked back at the snake pattern on the locket.
"It needs to be opened…" He murmured.
The trio didn't move or say anything, instead choosing to stand still watching what was happening with baited breath. It didn't go unnoticed that the last word was hissed however, although Ryou blinked in surprise when he saw the locket suddenly click open.
Before he could react, Necrofear shot her gaze at it and there was a loud crack that flooded the room. The locket broke in half and fell to the ground with an anticlimactic thud.
There was a collective gasp from the onlooking trio.
Ryou himself suddenly felt lighter than he had in months.
"Thank you." Ryou smiled up at Dark Necrofear and let the Shadows fade. The Shadow Monster placed her free hand on his head affectionately as she faded away.
Harry was gaping at the broken locket. Bakura had just destroyed a Horcrux in seconds! How could anyone be that powerful? If he could do that…
Harry realised something in amazement; did that mean the snake Bakura killed really could have been Nagini? Was Bakura the one who killed the snake from his vision? Did that mean they'd actually been that close to a location Voldemort had been only a short while before they'd gone to the Hollow? Things started to fall together in Harry's head, and he looked at Ryou in amazement.
Ryou turned to face the three, "I'm sorry about that. I couldn't let you have the locket, it was too dangerous. That wasn't something that should exist; using that magic on the soul is just too unstable." He shivered and whispered to himself almost like he was reassuring himself, "No part of me would ever be that foolish."
"T-that's fine," Harry said in surprise, still staring at the broken locket, "That's what we were going to do anyway."
"How did you do that? What was that creature anyway?" Hermione asked.
"Dark Necrofear is a friend who I've known for many years. She's a Shadow Monster."
"A what?"
"Well… True Shadow monsters are souls that were once human, but instead of dying, they chose to combine their Ka and Sheut, normally out of the need to protect someone. It basically makes them immortal, but they can only live in the Shadow Realm, except when summoned to help. You also get the more common types, which are just Sheut that have been extracted from a soul and sealed."
"What was that piece of paper you used to summon it – her?" Hermione asked curiously.
"A Duel Monster card. Have you heard of the game?" Ryou asked, fingers fluttering over the edges of his deck.
She gasped, and her hand moved to the bead bag she carried. Moments later, she pulled out a magazine with a dramatic picture of Yugi – no, the pharaoh, on the front. She passed it to him and he smiled.
"We found this; you're one of the top duelists in the world right?"
Looking at the worlds on the front he winced, "Battle City? That was a painful event."
"What, why?"
"I was stabbed by the possessed half of my soul, forced to send relatively innocent people to the Shadow Realm, manipulated by a mind-controlling idiot - friend or not - and finally sent to the Shadow Realm myself to endure unending agony until I was finally released," Ryou said.
"What? How did all that happen? I thought Duel Monsters was a Muggle thing." Ron interjected in surprise.
He laughed, "Hardly! Duel Monsters are a Shadow Mage thing; the creator himself was a Shadow Mage, before he… well" Ryou trailed off as he thought unhappily about Duelist Kingdom.
"What! And they sell it to Muggles?" Hermione gasped.
"Of course, the cards are only dangerous in the hands of Shadow Mages. They're just normal playing card for everyone else." He looked thoughtful for a moment, "Well... most of the time."
"But wasn't Battle City a Muggle event?"
Ryou laughed nervously, "You'd be hard-pressed to find a non-Shadow Duellists in the finals of Battle City!"
They were quiet while this sank in.
Harry's scar pained him slightly, but it felt numbed and far away. At the same time that Harry rubbed his scar, Bakura's gaze swung towards Harry, his eyes wide with that same unstable look as earlier that day. When he spoke, it was cold with realisation.
"I just recalled something," Ryou looked at Harry, "When I first met you at the café you gave off this weird twinge of magic."
Ryou picked up the broken locket from the floor at his feet, "I noticed it again now, just before you rubbed your forehead. This time I recognised it though." He clenched his hand around the locket.
"You're covered in Dark soul magic."
A/N:
Ren: the name a part of the Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul.
Sheut: the shadow, a part of the Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul.
edited 2018