Next chapter and next shadow game. This will be the sixth shadow charm, so after this one will be two more to go. The reveal of what Nightshroud plans with the Shadow Charms by giving them away will be revealed very soon. This chapter should give some clues to what's going on. Review please!
Syrus walked into his dorm room, organizing his paperwork and cleaning up the place. When he began straightening up his bed, he couldn't help, but stare at the bed his former roommate slept in. Chumely hadn't stayed in Duel Academy for very long before his dad came to pick him up. Chumely was a bit disappointed that he couldn't graduate from this school, but didn't care much. He didn't have very many friends here and Syrus already had responsibilities of his own to protect the school. He supposed it was for the best. He enjoyed having the room to himself anyways.
It would only be a matter of time before Syrus would be able to move up to Ra Yellow. Maybe he could room with Bastion or something. It'd be nice to room with friends for once. He just didn't feel like Slifer Red was a campus that he would fit in. Sure, he was a powerful duelist, but he never lazed around and always studied hard. The only friends he made that were in the same campus were girls, and that didn't bold well for Syrus. He needed to be with male friends his own age.
Syrus left his room, and made it his mission to check and see if Bastion was available. He's always been an excellent study partner and easy to hang out with. Chazz was fine too, though a bit eccentric. Syrus decided to keep him in mind anyways.
Bastion was seen in the courtyard when Syrus arrived. He smiled and waved as Syrus returned it with a wave of his own.
"You up for a duel?" Syrus asked.
"Well, there's no homework today, so of course," Bastion grinned.
The boys sat on one of the tables with their duel layouts. They shuffled their deck, looked at the bottom to decide who would go first, then drew five cards. Even though everyone at Duel Academy could use duel disks, not everyone wanted to. Tabletop duels were always easier and less of a hassle, since they didn't have to carry around their duel disk everywhere they went until their arm hurt.
Bastion and Syrus played for about two games. During the second game, Syrus began noticing something outside of the Abandoned Dorm, behind the fence. He noticed the door of the dorm opening and a figure coming out.
"B-Bastion..." Syrus almost squeaked.
"Yes?" Bastion asked as Syrus pointed toward the Abandoned Dorm.
Bastion turned his head and saw the figure behind the fence from afar. The duo immediately took their decks, and headed quickly toward the Abandoned Dorm as fast as they could. There was no doubt that trouble was coming from Nightshroud again. They had to protect the school by whatever means.
When the boys reached the fence, what they saw was enough to make Bastion want to barf. Syrus swallowed a bile as he saw was the remains of a teacher with burnt flesh all over his body that was bloody red mix with black patches. There wasn't much of a figure left in him, except his burned clothes and boots. It surprised Syrus that he could move at all. Then again, he was being controlled by Nightshroud.
"Oh my god," Bastion whispered.
"This is a surprising choice you made, Nightshroud," Syrus glared.
"You'd be surprised how long it took for this body to heal up enough to move around. That bitch is a demon, just like the Dark Queen herself," Nightshroud smirked.
"Bitch? Dark Queen? That's Titan's body you're controlling!" Syrus realized in deep shock. He knew Jaylin burned Titan up, but he didn't expect it to have been that brutal.
"That is the price you pay for losing to a Shadow Game."
"Then, maybe I should join the fun," Syrus glared, getting out his deck.
"Very well, but it won't be Duel Monsters, I'm afraid," Nightshroud smirked as the darkness engulfed him and Syrus.
Nightshroud immediately summoned a Red-Eyes Black Dragon as Syrus quickly began feeling a wanting desire. Suddenly, a monster appeared before him that looked like some sort of bug with blades as hands and horns on its head. It was Man-Eater Bug. He was a weak monster, but Syrus had enough practice to know how to put this bug to good use. At least, he hoped Man-Eater Bug would be put into good use.
"Defend!" Syrus commanded.
"Attack!" Nightshroud commanded as Red-Eyes Black Dragon unleashed its powerful blow.
"Dodge!" Syrus commanded as Man-Eater Bug avoided the attack quickly. "Counter attack!" Man-Eater Bug slashed its blades across the dragon before returning to its previous place.
"Is that the best you can do!? Attack!" Nightshroud shouted as Red-Eyes Black Dragon began firing again.
"Dodge!" Syrus shouted as Man-Eater Bug avoided the attack again. "Counter attack!" Man-Eater Bug attacked the red-eyed dragon once more.
"That will be enough defenses and counter attacks. Attack, Red-Eyes!" Nightshroud shouted as Red-Eyes Black Dragon fired once more with orange flames engulfing the field.
"Hide!" Syrus shouted before taking the attack, feeling the burns forming on his skin, making him scream bloody murder.
Nightshroud laughed mockingly, asking rhetorically, "is that the best you could do!?"
"Ability," Syrus muttered before Man-Eater Bug appeared from behind Red-Eyes Black Dragon, biting it on the neck, then destroying it completely. The attack from Syrus' Ka made a few scabs break from Titan's body, blood beginning to pour out, making Bastion vomit for real this time.
"Oh... my... euh..." Bastion moaned sickly.
"I must admit, I'm impressed with your skills, young one. Though, that was only the first round. Nonetheless, I shall reward you... A little hint, if you will," Nightshroud smirked as darkness engulfed Syrus until he could see nothing, but darkness.
"Hey!" Syrus cried out, panicking for a moment before realizing the darkness turning bright. He suddenly found himself among tall grass. "Huh?"
Syrus searched through the tall grass, barely since he was still feeling the burns from the recent attack, seeing a huge river. On the other side of that river were three preteens. One of them looked like Yugi when he was younger, only with tan skin, a white skirt of some sort, some gold jewelry all over him, and a crown upon his head. Another was a young male that looked like a younger and tan Jesse Anderson with longer hair, dark blue tunic, long red cape, and a crown with a turquoise jewel upon his head that matched his eyes. The last was a girl that looked like Jaylin when she was 12 without the pigtails. She wore an awestruckingly gorgeous dress with a ebony purple top with white lace sleeves and gold trims and a darker purple skirt that was laid out. She wore a gold crown upon her neatly brushed hair.
"Wow," Syrus whispered at how beautiful this Jaylin looked. Not in a weird way, but in admiration.
"Father says he's taking me to the gods. He says that all this power I have will keep me from being Pharaoh and having the embodiment of a god, since I will be that of a demon," The Ancient Egyptian looking Yugi said. It occurred to Syrus that this was Atem, meaning the other two were probably the Supreme King and Dark Queen before they took the throne.
"Why do you want to take away this power? Does it even matter? Just because we were used for evil doesn't mean that every action we do with these powers has to be evil," the Supreme King argued. "The people look to us as future gods anyways, and who is going to argue with that?"
"It's not that easy. I can't control them and I almost hurt Mana," Atem replied, looking insecure. He was also angry. "This is all those kidnappers' fault!"
"I feel something," the dark queen said. It shocked Syrus that the woman he once saw possess Jaylin with such a demonic and lustful look in her eyes, the woman that was to be feared, looked so timid and fragile. Even Jaylin didn't look that breakable when she entered the Junior Grand Pix.
There was a man ahead of the children with dark shadows almost covering his being. The only thing Syrus could make out from this man was the beard and some tan skin that proved he was Egyptian. The boys hopped on their feet, while the young to-be queen almost trembled behind the boys.
"If you think you're going to take us again, you've got another thing coming, jerk!" The to-be Supreme King glared as the man showed a smirk, laughing darkly.
"I've already got everything planned. I'm only here, because I was curious. Such great power, yet non of you can control it. It makes me wonder how you will ever plan on using them to defeat me, as you so plan on doing," the man smirked.
"You dare to spy on us!?" Atem growled in deep hate. "I won't forgive you for any of this, Nightshroud!"
"So intimidating for such a child," Nightshroud replied before striking at the children, making them fall to the ground.
"Let's run!" The young to-be queen cried, trying to get herself up.
"No way, Jezerel. It's my job to protect you," the to-be Supreme King vowed, getting himself up and placing two fingers on the jewel on his crown. Immediately, a mighty tiger appeared that looked exactly like Jesse Anderson's Crystal Beast Topez Tiger, who attacked Nightshroud before a Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon appeared, then fired at the Crystal Beast monster until it was ash. The to-be Supreme King screamed in pain as Atem immediately ran to his aide.
"Yubel!" Jezerel cried in fear, looking back at Nightshroud, who began growing closer to her.
"Aren't you gonna fight, little girl?" Nightshroud dared as Jezerel slowly backed, fear shown in her eyes that Syrus could certainly not understand. He stepped closer until Jezerel was at the edge of the river. "Oh, that's right, Babylon coops little girls like you at home, don't they? Such a fragile little thing, aren't you?" He barely touched her face with his fingers as tears began escaping down Jezerel's cheeks.
Just then, the darkness around Nightshroud's body began closing in more on him than usual and his body instantly froze. His body immediately jerked from Jezerel, then thrown right into the river next to the rock.
"AHHHHHHH!" Nightshroud had cried as Jezerel gasped, covering her mouth before staring at her hands.
"Jezerel?" Atem almost whispered.
"Please! Enough!" Jezerel screamed, more tears bursting as Nightshroud's body began twisting.
"So, that's how it's gonna be, huh little girl?" Nightshroud smirked, revealing himself from the water, as his darkness began escaping, revealing his true form, which Syrus could barely see, due to the tall grass. Then, it surrounded Jezerel, who screamed bloody murder.
"JAY- YAH!" Syrus screamed before gasping, realizing that the illusion was gone. He began panting, wondering what that was. Was that really Jezerel? Did the Supreme King really look like Jesse Anderson?
"Syrus!?" Bastion cried in concern, now focusing his attention on his distressed friend. Syrus began remembering the pain again, seeing the redness on his skin.
"Were you satisfied, because the next turn will be much MUCH harder," Nightshroud smirked as he instantly summoned Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon. "Attack!" Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon sent waves of heat directly at Man-Eater Bug before a Nine-Tailed Fox appeared in front of Man-Eater Bug, taking the damage as Bastion cried in pain.
"I volunteered to be in the game. Besides, I figured it'd be unfair for you to be able to unleash two monsters, while Syrus can only unleash one," Bastion smirked, still trying to hold in his stomach.
"You're annoying," Nightshroud glared.
"Hide!" Syrus commanded his Man-Eater Bug, trying to ignore his second degree burns.
"Is that how you're going to play?"
"Yes, it is. Unleash special ability!" Syrus commanded as Man-Eater Bug appeared and destroyed Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, Nightshroud grunting in pain as more scabs burst and blood poured out.
"So be it," Nightshroud growled before his control was released and a scream of bloody murder was heard from the man.
"OH MY GOD! IT HURTS! IT HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURTS! PLEASE KILL ME! AHHHHHHH!" The real Titan screamed in dire pain as Syrus stared at him in pity. At that moment, he really didn't know what to do.
