Egyptian Lotus Part Fifteen

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Yu-gi-oh or any recognizable plot, affiliate, or characterization! TiffTiff, my bestie and sister, however, DOES own Omorose Mubarak and Lynn Haruno…so…hands off!

"This, my priests, is our finest hour." Atem spoke, turning his eyes up to find a sun he knew was hidden, but not lost, "When we stand together to combine our powers."

His eyes found Mahado's spirit and he told him, 'I will fight until my ba is extinguished and my soul is ripped from the mortal coil.'

'My Pharaoh, it is an honor to fight here with you. My soul, My King, my friend, is your eternal servant.'

"Pharaoh, there is nowhere else that I would rather stand," Mana said as she commanded her spirit to relinquish its power to her master, "Than here, with you."

The spirits of the two Magicians found each other in midair and crossed their staffs. Ignoring Akhanden's condemnations of their weakness, they forced the orbs of their magic together into a brilliant, glowing sphere of purple and black energy.

It exploded from the junction of their union and engulfed the creature in a swirling vortex of heat and light. But to the acute horror of those present, as the smoke settled, it revealed the smirking god of destruction.

"A little bit of fire at my fingertips." He growled, his eyes gleaming with evil intention.

'They're greatest attack…didn't even faze him…' Atem bit down hard on his lip and tried to summon what strength he might have left.

"Now, take this!"

The creature's arm swept down, trailing a concussive string of blasts that shattered the ground and threw the priests from their feet into the air.

Atem closed his eyes, blinded by the heat, and ready for his death when he heard a faint cry…someone leapt against him, wrapping him in their arms…He felt their blood spray across him and when he opened his eyes, he was holding the still-warm corpse of Shada.

"S-Shada…" Tears gathered in his eyes.

Nathifa flinched as a pain lanced through her chest; she stopped in her tracks, tears running from her eyes, as she felt a spirit depart from the mortal plane…a mere flicker of energy across the tumultuous darkness that was threatening to engulf them.

'Shada…Rest in everlasting peace, my friend.'

Wiping away her tears, she stepped into the Temple of Isis and knelt before her stone likeness.

She wore the attire of war-her bodice was gold plate, braided over itself. Red silk hung from her shoulders and was gathered in a skirt around her hips. Running down between her legs was a braid of gold that girdled her pelvis. Her hair was pulled back in a knot at the base of her neck and her fingernails were painted red in tribute of the blood she knew would be spilled-and she carried the offerings her goddess would require for a blessing upon the raging battle: a silver chalice of her own crimson life force and a strand of brilliant black and scarlet gems.

"Keeper of my Light and my beloved, I pray for your guiding hand." She began, pouring the goblet into the fountain that rested between the feet of the stone-rendered goddess. "I offer my soul, to you, Isis, and, to him, I offer my life. Bind us together in this mortal coil or beyond, for in unity there is strength…strength that is desperately needed now."

She dipped the ornate necklace into the burgundy colored water and set it down at her feet before rising and chanting the ancient spells.

She had tied her life to Atem's…to their victory.

"There are only two priests left," Akhenaden chuckled, "And your Pharaoh is badly wounded. Haven't you fools yet realized that there is no hope!"

"Bastard!" Seto demanded, "Why have you betrayed us, Akhenaden! Why have you sold yourself to the evil will of this monstrosity?"

The priest, even behind the shadows that cloaked him, felt something stir in his heart; he had seen such fear on Seto's face only once before…when he was a boy. After he had bonded himself to the Millennium Eye and Seto saw him for the first time as a Priest of the Sennen Items…He had looked at him like he was a monster trying to trick him into believing it was his father…But…he wasn't a monster…At least…he hadn't been a monster then…

"You were once my master!" Seto pressed, "But now that you dare serve the Evil One, I can call you nothing but my enemy!"

"I have fused with the shadows, Seto. Your ka cannot defeat me now!" Akhenaden warned him.

"For the first, and last, time, I rebel! I will defeat you!" He shouted, rage clouding his vision with red.

"You can never defeat me!" The former priest insisted, a malicious light beaming from the Millennium Eye.

Tendrils of evil snapped around him, sending hot, painful bursts of electricity through his already battered body.

"I will guide you with pain as one guides the slave with the whip!" The Sennen Eye holder told him icily, "With your ka will also die your pathetic notion of justice!"

A concussive blast threw him back, tattering his clothes and ripping skin. Blood and sand sprayed from the crater his body created.

"Don't you dare slip away!" Omorose cried, bolting to her feet and screaming into the darkness.

She had felt his soul slide just a little…it shifted ever so slightly and even that small movement was marred with pain and the cloudy haze of evil that infected the magic that flowed around them innately. But it enraged her, nevertheless.

"You are a Priest of the Pharaoh and bearer of the Millennium Rod!" She screamed, her fists clenching, "Seto! If you've nothing else to fight for, then fight for me!"

"Seto, watch my power!" Akhenaden snapped as dark vortexes opened up in the sand around him.

"I see nothing but your traitorous, rotted heart!" The man replied as he forced himself on his feet.

"My army of the dead is rising!" The Priest of Shadows called as more and more skeletal cadavers poured from the ground.

"So many corpses!" Siamun cried in alarm.

"They will destroy you all before you take even a stumbling step towards Zorc the god!" Akhenaden laughed.

"Fall back!" Siamun shouted, "Protect the Pharaoh!"

The Dark Magicians dropped down, forming a loose half-moon between their mortal god and the living army of skeletons that threatened to destroy their only hope.

As they pressed ever closer, the vizier called to the Millennium Tauk bearer, "Spiria alone cannot turn the tide of this battle!"

"I know." She allowed.

"Sacrifice your ba, then, for the sake of the Pharaoh!" The elderly man yelled.

He pushed back, kneeling beside the cooling corpse of his apprentice. His withered hand closed around the Millennium Key and he silently begged his forgiveness.

'I gave the Key to you as my successor…but now, I must take it back. Will it, will you, lend your power to this old man?' He wondered as he rose and called forth the demon guardian of the palace, his personal ka…

Exodia, the Forbidden One.

He couldn't see, couldn't breathe over the stench of the bodies and the dust kicked into the air…he couldn't hear over the deafening roar of feet and magic…and then, suddenly, it all fell away and Akhenaden was kneeling before him, protecting him, offering him his hand…

"Come, Seto," He said, "I'll give you power."

The sands suddenly washed away and he looked on in horror as the palace sank into the ground, destroyed by Zorc's rage and his limitless power.

"The…palace…" He stammered.

"I have brought you here to witness the coming of a new age. That stone altar of false gods and power is sinking beneath the sands and will be devoured by time. I know your thoughts: your mind flickers to the power you left beneath it, in the dank dungeons."

"Kisara!" He yelled, her face darted across his mind.

"Forget her! She'll be dead soon enough. But you, you, Seto, can have this great power! I will make you the new king of this world-a world that Zorc is cleansing now…My son."

Seto's stomach churned violently and bile flooded his already bitter mouth.

"S-son…"

"The previous king was my brother; you share the same royal blood that flows in the Pharaoh's veins. The Pharaoh's fate is to ours as light is to shadow. Kill him, and together you and I can rule this new world."

"You…" His gaze drifted back to the collapsing palace and to the sweet girl, alone and scared, there.

"Still thinking of that girl? Let her die and the god in her soul will take up residence in yours! Use its power, Seto, and become king!"

For a long moment, silence hung heavy between the two before Seto spoke.

"Even…if you were my father, I would never sell my soul to the darkness!" He shouted, spinning hard on his heel.

He ran past the dark priest and into the crumbling halls; guards followed after him, begging him to turn back, to stay away. But their cries fell on deaf ears.

He sprinted down the stairs and into the creaking darkness to throw open her cell door and demand of her, "Are you alright?"

"Lord…Seto? What is going on?" She asked timidly.

"There isn't time!" He yelled, grabbing her.

"Please! Lord Seto, did I do this? Is this because of the monster inside of me?" She begged.

He stopped for a split second, stuck between the crumbling walls of the palace and the fracturing walls of justice, "No; this catastrophe was caused by humans who were seduced by the darkness. Men are the monsters here."

"Lord…Seto…"

He glanced over his shoulder, "Don't worry. What lives in you is not a monster."

He grabbed her hand, and pulled up the stairwell. The walls of the palace had already caved, leaving nothing standing between her and the boundless desert.

"Get away from here as fast as you can!" He told her, "Travel as far away from here as you can, so that the fires of war won't taint you."

"Please…My Lord…"

"Go!" He snapped.

She flinched, turning slowly on her heel, her eyes locked on his until he finally spun around to face the horizon.

'You must not be caught by the shadows, Kisara. You must always run towards the light.'

"You fool! Why did you let her go?" Akhenaden demanded as he appeared from the darkness around them. "With the power of the Millennium Rod, you could have extracted her go and made it your own! My son, why did set her free?"

"You," Seto told him calmly, icily, "Are not my father. He died a long time ago. He gave his life bravely on the field of battle."

Something snapped inside the man, killing what small piece of him might still have been human, and he surrendered in his entirety to the darkness.

"Very well, then I shall use the power of the god!" He shouted as his gaze drifted over Seteo's shoulder.

Horror filled the priest and he cried, "Kisara!" even as she was struck by the light and had her soul ripped from her body.

'There are too many…we can't defeat this number…' Atem's thoughts raced across hundreds of strategies, all of them doomed to fail in his exhausted mind.

"My Pharaoh," Siamun said, meeting his gaze with his own, "Leave this to me. I shall protect you!"

"Siamun, no!" He protested.

'There is strength yet in these old bones…' He thought to himself as he brandished the Millennium Key in his hand.

"Demon god of the palace, of five sacred parts sealed in stone, I know release you!" He cried, gold light radiating from the conduit of ancient power in his hands.

The ground shook as a massive creature, larger even than Zorc, rose from the desecrated ruins of the palace into the air. The rattle of broken chains and the heat of fire filled the air and joyous cries rang high into the twilight.

"It's Exodia! The legendary guardian that defeated one thousand armies in a night!"

Siamun let their passion fill him as he cried, "Exodia! Burn our enemies with the hellfire of your wrath!"

A shimmering vortex of unnaturally colored light spun from the creature's hands, engulfing the field and the armies of the undead in fire pulled from another dimension and power not of their own plane.

"Am..amazing…" One of the guards watching over Shada's body stammered, "He…annihilated the entire army of undead in a single blow…"

"Don't let your guard down!" Atem cried, "We still haven't defeated Zorc!"

"You disgusting gnats…" The god spat, his eyes burning with hatred.

Siamun met his gaze evenly, "Exodia! Increase to Maximum Fire! Finish Zorc!"

The creature's skeletal lips pulled away, 'Don't make me show you my true power!'

Atem felt an icy chill run down his back as a thought flickered across his mind….and he sent his apology, all too short and too late, across the expanse that separated them.

TBC