DISCLAIMER: I own absolutely none of the properties you will see here. All rights go to their respective owners.
Mystic Wars
Chapter 10
Marik remained silent as he faced off with the titanic serpentine form that Bakura had taken on in a last-ditch effort to kill him. The Sorcerer Supreme stood defiantly against the beast as it let out a screech down at the spellcaster in an attempt to put fear into him, but to no avail. This was it. This was the final stand against the dark wizard. Marik knew that if he failed here, then Bakura would lay claim to three more Millennium Items and be all the closer to unleashing his master upon this world. Not only that, but his failure would mean the deaths of his family and friends as well, for Bakura would leave none alive in his quest to free Mirage from Morbia. So, knowing that everything was on the line here and now, the newly dubbed Master of the Mystic Arts stood his ground and prepared for battle.
"Do you really think you can stop me, Marik?" he mockingly asked. "Your powers are nothing compared to the magic I possess!"
"Strong words coming from a coward, Bakura," Marik answered. "Now, let's see how well you handle yourself in a fight you can't con your way into winning!"
With a monstrous snarl, the giant cobra lunged forward with his jaws wide open. Marik teleported out of the way of the oncoming jaws and reappeared in mid-air behind the massive snake. He then unleashed a powerful blast of magic at the back of the serpent's head, making Bakura stagger from the surprise blow. The cobra spun around and again struck at the former villain. Marik quickly created a barrier around himself just before the snake's jaws could close around him. The snake's fangs tried to puncture the magical bubble as it shook its head violently from side to side. Seeing his chance, Mark expanded the bubble enough to force the serpent's jaws to release its hold on him.
Once free, the young spellcaster shifted the bubble into his hands before blasting Bakura in the face, making him cry out in pain as he was pushed back from his attack. The dark wizard then swatted Marik out of the air with his tail. The Master of the Mystic Arts tried to get back to his feet, but Bakura pinned him down with his sheer size before entangling him in his coils. Marik let out a cry of pain as the coils began to squeeze his body tightly, making it feel like his bones and organs could be crushed at any second. Suddenly, Marik's cape flew off of his shoulder and threw itself at Bakura's face, blinding him. As the cobra attempted to shake the cape off of his person, he loosened his hold on Marik enough for his captive to escape. Once free, the cape returned to its master's shoulders so he could continue the fight.
With his cape returned to him, Marik blasted out a window before jumping out of it as he flew out out the building to get more space to fight. He was also hoping that he could get Bakura's attention enough to get him out of the building and keep him from deciding to go after Ishizu and the others. As the wizard had hoped, Bakura exploded out of the side of the building. Half of him now hung outside of KaibaCorp, roaring as he did. Marik flew out of the way of the snapping jaws once more. After evading the snake's fangs, the Sorcerer Supreme formed a magic circle in mid-air before sending it at the serpent. As the circle went toward Bakura, golden hands reached out from it and grabbed Bakura's monstrous form. The hands then formed into golden chains that began to hold down the beast in place.
As Bakura tried to free himself from the magical binds that now held him down, Marik then created a sword made from mystic energy before flying toward his enemy, ready to end this fight. But just before he could land the killing blow, Bakura's yellow reptilian eyes began to glow with a strange dark form within them. Suddenly, twin beams of black energy shot out from his eyes at his rival. Marik quickly changed his sword into a shield in order to protect him from the beams. The blast of dark magic began to push Marik backward as his shield started to crack apart from the onslaught of the attack. The former villain was forced to teleport again out of the beams' path and reappear out of its way. Once he rematerialized, Marik started to cast another spell. But before he could do so, Bakura managed to break free of his mystic bounds and unleashed a blast of black fire from his mouth that Marik once again had to create another barrier to protect himself with.
The dark fire forced Marik back, but rather than try to teleport again since it was taking up much of his energy to do so, the Sorcerer Supreme instead used his magic to form blades out of the barrier that shot out of it and toward Bakura, striking him like a swarm of hornets that forced him to stop his attack. As his enemy was reeling from the attack, the young spellcaster fired another magical blast that started to knock back the serpent. Bakura retaliated by sending another shot of his eye beams, which this time collided with the magic beam Marik was blasting him with. The collision of the two mystic attacks caused an explosion that knocked them both off balance. Before Marik could properly recover, Bakura used his tail to swat him out of the air and send him falling to the ground. Fortunately, the young spellcaster's cape moved Marik's falling body so that he would break his fall.
"Did you honestly think you could stop me?" Bakura mocked as he looked down at his rival. "Your magic is nothing compared to mine!"
Marik blocked out the monster's words. He knew that he had to keep fighting, or the entire world would burn. However, it was becoming painfully clear that fighting Bakura in this form was only get him killed in the long run, so it was high time that he fought smarter and not harder. But how could he take out such a massive foe? It was then that he thought of one way to bring the serpent down. When Bakura transformed, he had to abandon his staff. The source of much of his power. If Marik could find and destroy the staff, then Bakura would not only lose most of his power, but would also be forced to change back to his human form. However, that was much easier said than done.
It was then that the cobra's eyes began to surge with power yet again. But as it charged up for another attack, a swarm of bullets and small missiles struck the monster's face, making the transformed wizard roar in pain as it relented. Confused by the sudden rescue, Marik looked up to see a strange sight. Gliding down next to him was a mechanized suit in the form of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon with several machine guns and missile launchers mounted on it. The dragon's face parted to reveal who was piloting the suit of armor. It was Marik's brother-in-law, Seto Kaiba. The Master of The Mystic Arts wasn't shocked to see that the billionaire had built himself a suit of battle armor, no doubt wanting to compete with rival businessman, David Xanatos, and his own armor. Seto had obviously gotten word that his building was under attack and rushed to protect his family, but more importantly, his company. Before Marik could speak, however, his brother-in-law aimed one of his wrist-mounted guns directly at the spellcaster.
"You have five seconds to tell me what this is all about, or I'm going to splatter your brains across the pavement!" he demanded.
"I don't have time to explain, but that thing is Bakura, and if we don't stop him now, then Ishizu will die!" Marik answered. "You have to help me, Kaiba!"
Kaiba was silent for a moment before retracting his gun away from Marik and letting the dragon faceplate cover him once more.
"How do we kill him?" the billionaire questioned.
"There's a staff that's giving Bakura this power. If we can find and destroy it, then he'll be weakened," the spellcaster explained.
"I've heard enough of this magical nonsense from Ishizu and Yugi," Seto scoffed. "I'm just going to shoot that thing until it stops moving."
With that, Kaiba's rockets came to life as he flew upwards to face the serpent head-on.
"Wait, Kaiba, you can't just-" Marik tried to explain. "Damnit!"
With an angry growl, Marik followed his brother-in-law into battle, hoping that Seto wasn't going to get himself killed in the process.
Janna and the others huddled closer together for better protection as the Shadow Walkers began to close in on them. Their numbers were great, and there wasn't much room within the stairwell to move around much. Janna had faced many dangers during her short time with Marik and had come out usually unscathed, but this time, the odds didn't seem to be in her favor. True, Odion had magic, Ishizu had an axe, and John had a gun, but what Janna had in terms of weaponry was a fire extinguisher. Then again, the occult girl had been more of a threat with much less. The first El Khatib to charge at them was blasted in the face with a stream of white gas from Janna's makeshift weapon, blinding it long enough for Ishizu to bring her axe down on its head, killing it instantly.
With a collective shriek, the other Shadow Walkers charged at the group. Odion fire a blast of magic energy, killing two more. Another El Khatib climbed up from the shaft and took a swipe at Janna, who managed to dodge its claws and bash it across the face, thus making it fall several stories down to the ground.
"How do you put these things down for good?" John asked.
"The El Khatib have very little weaknesses," Odion answered as he blew away another creature.
The chief of security then fired his pistol several times into another Shadow Walker's chest, killing it instantly.
"Looks like they got a weakness to lead," John noted before opening to fire on the monsters.
As the four heroes continued to fight the demons, Janna began to feel light-headed as if she had been struck by some sudden sickness. In her mind, there were flashes of several rapid images, some of joy and happiness, while others were of fire and death. Soon, the occult loving girl began to feel dizzy as she began to fall to her knees. Attempting to seize this opportunity, an El Khatib lunged at her, only for Ishizu to decapitate it in mid-leap. She then tended to the girl's side, who had now fallen completely to the ground.
"What's wrong with her?!" John called out to his boss as he gunned down another Shadow Walker.
"I know what is happening to her," Ishizu replied as she picked the teen up. "We must get her to the Millennium Necklace, now!"
Though they did not understand the reasoning behind Ishizu's words, neither her adopted brother nor her guard were going to question her orders. With the man-servant and the former cop getting in front of the billionaire's wife to act as a shield, the group began to force their way down the stairs, all the while Ishizu silently thanked the gods that someone had finally come to take her place.
Though Marik was unable to convince Seto to stand down from his plan of attack, he wasn't going to let him get killed. Bakura rained down another wave of dark flames down upon the unlikely allies, forcing them to split up and begin to attack from separate sides. Marik fired another blast of magic at the cobra's face while Seto unleashed another volley of missiles at the same time. The two-pronged attack hit the massive serpent at the same time, clouding him a sea of pain as he roared in rage and agony. As Bakura reeled from the combined blow, Kaiba activated another weapon that he had recently installed in his armor. The armor around his arm began to transform into a miniature rail gun.
But as the armored warrior's weapon charged up, he was blasted down by a direct attack from the dark wizard's eye beam, knocking him out of the air and sending him to the ground below. Marik quickly cast a spell that created a magical hand that caught his brother-in-law before he could hit the ground. However, as he focused on saving Seto's life, he left himself open to being attacked by his enemy, who breathed out another wave of fire that Marik barley had time to guard against with a quick shield that he created with a free hand. As the flames began to beat back the Sorcerer Supreme, Marik tried to keep his hold on Seto as he hoped that the billionaire's armor would reboot and allow him to refocus on using his full power on fighting the dark wizard.
Thankfully, that moment came right when the former villain needed it most. The second Seto's armor reactivated, the armored businessman aimed his rail gun up at the cobra and fired. A beam of blue plasma shot upwards and sliced into the left side of Bakura's face, making him let out an inhuman screech of pain as he was forced to pull back from his attack on Marik. Now seeing his opportunity, the Master of the Mystic Arts made several rapid gestures to form a wave of magical arrows that he launched at his enemy. The arrows struck Bakura's body, cutting into his serpentine flesh. From the pain alone, Bakura lost the hold he had from within the building, causing him to fall from the building and down to the ground. Once he collided with the ground, a massive plume of dust shot up into the air, blocking Seto and Marik's sight of him.
"You think he's dead?" Seto inquired.
"Not even close," Marik answered.
No sooner had Marik said those words did the giant serpent lunge out at the dust cloud with his jaws wide open. Before either of the allies could move out of the way, Bakura snatched up Seto in his mouth. Marik quickly created more magic binds to grab onto the cobra once again to keep Bakura from getting away. As Marik attempted to pin down the serpent, Seto, protected from Bakura's fangs thanks to his armor, began to fire his machine guns directly at his attacker's face in an attempt to make him let go. Calling on his power, Marik used the chains to tighten their grip on the monster until Bakura was finally forced to let go of his would-be prey. Once free, Seto got enough distance to release a barrage of missiles at the entrapped cobra. However, as the two brothers continued their combined assault of science and magic at the dark wizard, Bakura had reached his limit.
"Enough!" he shouted furiously. "I will not be denied my destiny by the likes of you!"
With a roar, Bakura's monstrous form began to twist and morph yet again. This time, four legs with clawed feet formed out from his underside as a pair of massive black wings sprang out of his back. The serpent's body then began to enlarge and become more muscular as it grew wider. The snake's hood retracted into his body as his head began to become more elongated, and horns grew atop his head. When the transformation was complete, Bakura had cast aside his cobra form for that of a giant dragon.
"Do you have a plan B?" Kaiba questioned.
Janna was in and out of it, as was the rest of the group as they fought their way through wave upon wave of the El Khatib that came at them. In her mind, the rapid visions continued to plague her like a flood raging from a broken dam. As Ishizu carried the punk girl, John and Odion kept them covered as they moved deeper down into the building in order to reach the Millennium Necklace. Though Odion was doing the most to fight against the servants of Mirage, John was putting up a good effort in his own right with only his gun.
"These things are starting to piss me off!" he declared as he put a bullet through the skull of another El Khatib.
"In that, we agree, Mr. McClane," Odion added as he blew a hole through another Shadow Walker's chest.
Another El Khatib leaped down from the ceiling and managed to get the drop of the chief of security and pin him to the ground. Before Odion could turn and aid his ally, another pair of Shadow Walkers tackled the spellcaster and knocked him off balance. As John tried to keep the creature's jaws from tearing into his face, he tried desperately to reach for his gun, which he had dropped when he was ambushed. Unable to get a hold of his firearm, John instead went the more direct route. Said route was punching the Shadow Walker in the face in order to knock it off of his person. As the El Khatib stumbled back, John grabbed his gun and fired at least three bullets into its chest, making the Shadow Walker stumble backward and fall over the railing and down the shaft.
As the former cop picked himself up, Odion called on his magic to create a magical wave from his body and vaporized the monsters that were trying to maul him into ash. As the two men regrouped with Ishizu, they knew that they had to move fast if they were to reach the Necklace.
"If you don't mind me asking boss, why ain't you using some mystic mumbo-jumbo like tattoo face over here?" John inquired before saying to Odion "No offense."
"I must agree with John," Odion noted. "Why not use your own magic to help us?"
"Because I never learned, Odion," his sister admitted. "Our father forbid me more than you or Marik from studying magic, saying that a woman has no business with such matters."
"What a guy," her bodyguard sarcastically noted.
"Any power I had came from the Millennium Necklace," Ishizu continued. "But those powers are gone now that the Necklace has rejected me as its owner."
"Look, I don't understand a lick of what's going on," John began as he reloaded his pistol. "But what I do know is that if we don't get to that vault before those ugly sons of bitches do, then I'm gonna take a wild guess that we'd be in a world of shit. So, we gotta keep moving, or we're fucked."
Ishizu nodded in agreement at that. It was then that the group heard a cacophony of growls and snarls. They looked up to see a wave of El Khatib crawling down from the upper levels.
"Let's move!" John commanded as he opened fire at the oncoming creatures.
Bakura let out an earth-shaking bellow as he began to unfurl his wings. He then launched himself upwards at the two allies. Seto and Marik managed to fly out of the way of the beast's oncoming jaws. The young spellcaster quickly cast another spell. This time, Marik created six walls around the dragon, boxing him in as he began to close the walls in on the beast Bakura had become before entrapping him in a cube of energy. Marik then began to squeeze the box tighter around the dragon, hoping to either contain or crush Bakura in his trap. Sadly, however, the dark wizard managed to smash the trap he had been ensnared in.
The Master of the Mystic Arts quickly put up a barrier as a wall of flames was breathed towards him by Bakura. But as the dark wizard focused his rage and power solely on Marik, Seto thought he had the perfect shot on Bakura's back, but a swing of the dragon's tail knocked him out of the air and sent falling straight into his building. Marik began to create several blasts from his barrier, making Bakura break off his attack from the rival wizard. The Sorcerer Supreme then changed the barrier into a knight's shield with an Ankh on it while he formed a scimitar in his other hand. With his newly created weapons, he then began to summon copies of himself. Now with an army of himself, Marik charged into battle with the monstrous dark wizard.
Bakura let out a roar as he swiped his claws at several of his rival's copies, causing them to vanish upon making contact with his claws. But there were other copies along with Marik himself who began to clash with him with their swords. Like a swarm of wasps, the copies of Marik started to stab and slash at the dragon's body, making Bakura begin to furiously try to get these gnats away from his body. Meanwhile, as the two spellcasters waged war in mid-air, Seto managed to pick himself up from the floor. As he did, he noticed something floating not far from him. It was Bakura's staff, which was encased in a golden bubble pulsating with black sparks of mystic electricity. It didn't take long for the billionaire to remember what his brother-in-law had told him about this item being the source of much of Bakura's new powers. If he could destroy it, then the servant of Mirage would be greatly weakened, and his family and company would be safe.
Knowing that shooting at the bubble would be a foolish move, Kaiba used his armor to scan the mystic force felid for any signs of weakness. Unfortunately, he could detect none. It was then that Kaiba decided that if he couldn't shoot his way into getting through the field to grab the staff, he instead opted for a more...direct approach to getting what he wanted. Not knowing if his armor could sustain the amount of damage that it was about to go through, Seto reached out toward the magic bubble and attempted to pierce the field in order to take hold of the staff. As expected, the bubble's energy began to push back against Seto's armor as he continued to force his arms through the barrier.
But Seto's efforts were all for not when the bubble's mystic power threw the armored warrior backward several feet away from it. Seto growled in frustration as he got back to his feet. He then looked at his arms to see that his armor was scorched and damaged from the attempted theft of the staff. As he inspected the damage to his suit, El Khatib began to phase through the shadows as they began to encircle the billionaire. But rather than be afraid of the demons, Seto Kaiba was not the run from any sort of creature.
"Good, I needed something to kill," he said as he activated his suit's weapon systems.
John's chest was heaving as he and the rest of the group continued their downward race toward the vault. He was running low on ammo, and he could tell that his allies were starting to become as exhausted as he was. Odion, now no longer blasting away the El Khatib, had created a barrier around the group as the Shadow Walkers attempted to bite and slash their way through the force field. As for Janna, she had passed out in Ishizu's arms, no longer able to stay awake from the onslaught of images that raged through her mind. Though the demons could not break through the barrier, it was clear that Odion was straining from the pressures of keeping the shield up while John shot back at the creatures attacking them.
"I'm on my last clip!" he told the others. "Shit, these things just don't stop!"
"Just hold out a little longer, John, we're almost there!" his boss called back. "Just keep as many as you can away from Odion!"
"No disrespect, boss, but what's it look like I'm doing?!" her bodyguard shot back.
John had to place his shots carefully with every bullet that he fired from his weapon. But even as he dropped one, three more seemed to take its place from the shadows. As for Odion, he continued to pour everything he had into the mystic shields as the servants of Mirage slashed away at the only thing protecting everyone from being torn to shreds. As they kept going down the stairs, the man-servant saw a large steel door at the bottom of the staircase, obviously the vault that they had fought so far to get to. Once they got to the door, Ishizu quickly typed in the code and opened the door.
"Get inside!" she commanded.
"I'm sorry, sister, but if we don't keep these creatures at bay, then they'll follow us in and kill us all," Odion denied. "At least this way, you and Janna may live."
"Get inside, ma'am, we'll hold 'em off," John added. "We can take care of these assholes."
There was nothing Ishizu could say that could change her friends and family's minds. So, with a heavy heart, she typed in the code to close the door behind her as she and Janna stepped inside the vault, sealing Odion and John out and leaving them at the non-existent mercy of the El Khatib. At the center of the vault and sealed under a glass case was the Millennium Necklace. The very item that once belonged to her. Once they were close enough, Janna slowly opened her eyes to the object that had been flooding her mind with images.
"That's it, isn't it?" she asked as Ishizu set her down. "That's the Millennium Necklace."
"It is," Ishizu confirmed. "You can feel it's power, can't you?"
"I...I do," Janna replied. "But why did it choose me?"
"I don't know. The Millennium Items are fickle in whom they choose as their masters," Ishizu admitted. "Perhaps it saw the potential that is seeded deep within you."
"I hope it saw past the mountains of porn I've watched over the years," Janna mentioned bluntly.
"I'm...not sure," Ishizu said, clearly unsure how exactly to unpack that subject. "But regardless, it has chosen you as its new bearer."
"So, what do I do?" the young oculist inquired.
"You need only reach out and take the necklace," the billionaire's wife simply explained.
Suddenly, the entire building shook from a blast that came from the outside. It made Janna remember that there were greater things at stake here than herself. Marik was outside right now fighting for his life and the safety of this world. And just outside this very vault, there were two men battling wave upon wave of demons in order to protect her and Ishizu from them so that Janna could accept her destiny. So, with a steady sigh, she reached out and took hold of the Necklace. The second she placed the Item in her hand, the Necklace began to glow brightly, making its new owner look away from the blinding light. As the Necklace continued to glow, Janna placed the Millennium Item around her neck. The moment she did so, she felt a surge of mystic power race through her veins. It was like every inch of her body had become energized with this ancient force.
"Ishizu..." she began slowly. "Open the door."
Ishizu, happy to see her former Item now in the possession of a worthy bearer, opened the vault door. On the other side of the door was an exhausted and weakened Odion and John, who were on their last legs of their defense of the vault. As the swarms of El Khatib charged at the group like a demonic wave, Janna unleashed a bright flash of golden light from the Necklace, incinerating the Shadow Walkers in a matter of seconds. Once the demons were wiped out, Janna had only one question left.
"What's the fastest way to get outside?" she asked.
Marik watched as the last of his copies were burned to ash by Bakura's flames. He was alone again, but he refused to cut and run. Marik had spent much of his energy during this battle, but he refused to relent. Bakura bellowed furiously as he flew directly toward Marik, who flew back at him with spell circles in each hand. The servant of Mirage breathed out a wave of black fire that the Sorcerer Supreme blocked with his spell circles as he continued to fly forward through the dark flames. Once he was close enough, the circles around the Master of the Mystic Arts' hands spread down the length of his arms, becoming a pair of massive golden hands that reached out and grabbed Bakura by the throat, effectively stopping his flames.
With everything he had, the young spellcaster threw the dragon back to the ground. Bakura shook the ground upon impact, creating a large crater as he did. As Bakura began to pull himself up, Marik created a massive magic circle over his head. The circle then began to rain down a flurry of mystic comets that came down upon Bakura like a hail of bullets. As a final maneuver, Marik threw down the circle at his enemy, but as it fell toward Bakura, it began to form into a giant golden falcon that exploded upon contact with the Thief King. Marik panted as he looked down at the massive dust cloud that his attack had created, hoping that this massive assault was enough to put down his rival for good this time. But his hopes were quickly dashed when a set of claws reached out from the dust cloud and snatched the Sorcerer Supreme out of the sky before pinning him up against the building, the rest of the dragon's body emerging from the cloud of debris.
"You little fool," Bakura snarled. "You thought that you had the power to challenge the likes of me?"
"I...won't let you win," Marik panted out defiantly. "As long as I live...I will keep fighting you!"
"Then let this be your end," the Thief King mocked. "Goodbye, 'Sorcerer Supreme!'"
Bakura began to charge up his flames once more to put an end to this battle. Marik didn't scream. He didn't struggle. He only looked down in despair. He had failed. After everything he had done, he did not have the power to defeat his enemy and protect the world. He knew that the moment after Bakura killed him that both the Rod and Key would be taken from his body before the dark wizard claimed the Necklace, killing Ishizu, Odion, and Janna in the process. He wanted to keep fighting, but he could feel his strength starting to fade away the longer he fought, whereas Bakura's powers were far from being exhausted thanks to the staff. And once Bakura took the Millenium Puzzle from Yugi, he would be able to free his dark master from her prison and into this world, which she would plunge into darkness and chaos.
Then, a bright light began to shine from the ground level. The unexpected light made both Marik and Bakura look down to see who or what was creating this source of brightness. There, standing below the two wizards, was Janna, now having the Millennium Necklace around her neck. Before Bakura could react to the sight below him, a beam of energy shot from the Necklace's eye, striking the dragon in the face. As Bakura reeled from the blast to the face, his grip on Marik loosened enough for him to blast free from the dragon's claws. The young spellcaster then flew down to Janna's side, obviously confused by all this.
"Janna...how?" he asked in a stunned voice.
"No time to explain, just roll with it," the punk girl answered quickly up to the sky. "Because we got company!"
Marik looked back up to see Bakura flying downward toward with his fangs and claws at the ready to tear them to shreds. Just then, a swarm of missiles struck the dragon's side, making the Thief King break off his attack. The duo looked up to see Kaiba, now covered in the blood and gore of the Shadow Walkers he had slaughtered, standing in a hole on the side of his damaged building.
"His staff is up here!" he called down to them before flying out to face the dragon. "I'll hold him off while you destroy it!"
Wasting no time, Marik scooped up Janna in his arms before taking off into the hole that Kaiba was standing in before he flew out to face off with Bakura. The moment they landed on the upper level, they discovered Jafar's staff suspended in the mystic bubble. Already knowing that his staff was in danger, Bakura flew past the oncoming Kaiba in an attempt to stop the only two people who could break the barrier to his only safeguard to the source of much of his power. But before he could reach them, he felt something grab the end of his tail. The servant of evil turned around to see that Kaiba was pouring everything he had into his suit's thrusters to pull back the dragon.
"Let me impart some wisdom on you, Bakura," the billionaire said fiercely. "I am Seto goddamn Kaiba! With a single word, I can have Satan himself on bended knee before me! And above all else, I am the Master of Dragons!"
To prove his point, Kaiba unleashed a flurry of missile and machine-gun fire from his suit, burying the Thief King in a barrage of gunfire. While Kaiba held Bakura at bay for the moment, Marik and Janna returned their attention to the staff.
"Any ideas, boss man?" Janna asked.
"I think the power of the Millennium Items can break the barrier," Marik reasoned. "But I don't know if only two Items are strong enough to pierce through it."
"Then it's a good thing that we got three of them," Janna mentioned as she gestured to the necklace that she was wearing.
Marik was still unsure if Janna was ready to use so much of the Necklace's power in so little of a time frame. When Ishizu wielded the Necklace, she used its power in only small increments, fearing that its true power would overwhelm her. But the spellcaster didn't have time to refuse her help, for if they failed here and now, then everything and everyone on this planet would die. So, with a nod to Janna, he took out the Millennium Rod and pointed it at the bubble as it, the Key, and the Necklace began to glow with light. Suddenly, three beams shot out of the Millennium Items as they struck the bubble in unison. The barrier's defenses instantly went into action, sending out waves of energy and magical lightning back at the duo.
"Keep going! Don't Stop!" Marik shouted to the teen as they continued their attack.
The mystic blowback the bubble was pushing back at them was great, but neither refused to falter, not with everything that was at stake. Back outside, Kabia avoided and evaded the flames and fangs of Bakura as they continued their battle. Kaiba had no idea what Marik and the girl were doing, but they had better finish this quickly before he lost the rest of his building to all this insanity. Not only that, but he still had no idea if Ishizu was still alive or dead during the siege on KaibaCorp. If she was even so much as scratched, then he would split open Bakura from his belly to his brain, and that was a pleasant death compared to what he'd do to Marik and John for letting anything happen to her.
That mental distraction was all Bakura needed to swat Kaiba out of the air and down toward the ground. With the billionaire out of his way, the Thief King flew toward where his enemies were. However, Bakura was suddenly stopped when he felt something latch onto his leg. He looked down to see Odion, who had cast a binding spell around the dragon's ankle. Roaring in anger, Bakura tried to break from the man-servant's mystic hold on him as Odion struggled to keep his grip on Mirage's servant as long as he could so Marik and Janna could end this. Meanwhile, Ishizu and John raced to Kaiba's side, who was laying on the ground in a heap of damaged armor.
"You okay, boss?" his bodyguard asked as they helped up.
"What do you think?" Seto spat back before looking to his wife. "Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine," Ishizu assured. "Marik saved us."
Back with Marik and Janna, they still unleased everything they had as the magic bubble tried to push back from their joint attack. Janna could feel her knees buckling from the pushback they were getting, but she remained on her feet, refusing to back down. She looked at Marik, who stood firm against the bubble, his focus zeroed in on seeing this through until the end. To keep her balance, she held onto him as she poured on more power as the barrier began to crack apart.
Finally, with one last push, the barrier holding the staff was shattered, leaving the staff defenseless. No sooner had they managed to break through the staff defenses did Bakura manage to get free of Odion's spell, allowing him to fly toward the building. Once he reached the floor he was hiding the staff in, he transformed back into his normal self, now scared up from his battles in his monstrous forms. But just as he reached it, he found Marik and Janna standing before him, now with the Master of the Mystic holding the source of his increased powers.
"I told you this was over, Bakura," Marik sternly reminded his foe.
Before Bakura could try to stop him, Marik broke the staff in half over his knee. With the staff now broken, Bakura let out a painful cry of defeat and agony as he felt his increased magic leave his body. Bakura fell to his knees, his power now greatly diminished as Marik and Janna approached him.
"Surrender, Bakura," the Sorcerer Supreme ordered.
"I still have the power to fight you!" Bakura shot back.
"Would you care to try?" Marik inquired as he pointed the Rod at him.
Just then, a horde of El Khatib emerged from the shadows, surrounding the three spellcasters.
"Kill them!" their master commanded.
The Shadow Walkers looked amongst themselves. They then began to snarl at hiss as they readied to attack. However, it wasn't Marik and Janna they were looking at as they did.
"I think your boss is pissed off," Janna noted coyly with a smirk.
Suddenly, the Shadow Walkers lunged at their now former master. Bakura screamed in horror as they began to drag him away into the shadows to no doubt face his master. Neither Marik nor Janna offered any aid to him as they dragged their enemy, who had caused so much pain, off into the darkness. But just as Bakura faded away into the shadows with the El Khatib, the shadows morphed into a massive cat-like figure with piercing green eyes looking down at the duo in contempt. Marik had no doubt in his mind that his creature was, in fact, Mirage.
"So, your the one who has caused me so much grief," the mother of evil surmised coldly.
"Mirage..." Marik sneered back.
"Ah, so you know of me," Mirage answered. "Then you know what I can do."
"More like what you can't do," the Master of the Mystic Arts refuted. "So long as you're trapped in Morbia, your powers are limited."
"My, my, you are a brave one," the dark goddess noted in an almost playful voice. "It will be a great pleasure to kill you, boy."
"I'm no 'boy,' Mirage!" Marik denied. "I am the Sorcerer Supreme!"
"And you won't be the first Sorcerer Supreme that I've killed," the mother of evil said.
"Maybe..." Marik began as he glared back up at her. "But I will be the one who kills you."
Mirage narrowed her eyes at the young man as she sneered at him. With a hiss, Mirage faded back into the darkness, ready to begin her plans against her newest rival. As she did, the pieces of the staff were pulled out of Marik's hands and into the shadows.
"Holy shit..." Janna commented in total awe by everything that had just happened. "Dude, you were off the fucking chain!"
"Well, I don't know about that," Marik replied. "But now she knows that this world is protected."
He then picked up Janna and flew back down to the ground level to meet with the others. After putting the goth down, Marik approached the one person he had been trying to avoid since the start of this journey: His sister. But she approached her, Odion called out to him.
"Master Marik!" he shouted as he pointed outward. "Look!"
Marik looked out to where his adopted sibling was pointing to. There, gathered just beyond the gates in front of KaibaCorp, was a mass of media groups, all of whom had cameras and reporters all looking at him. Marik had to flee, for he knew that the authorities, or worse, the Infinity League, were on their way right to arrest him for his past crimes, and he couldn't defend the world from a prison cell. Kaiba could hold off the media from trying to incriminate him in all this, but he wouldn't be able to keep Marik and Odion out of prison. Odion was already opening a portal, all the while Marik was left looking back at her sister, unable to say or do anything.
"Go..." she told him gently.
The young spellcaster could only nod before he, Janna, and Odion raced into the portal before closing it behind them.
"Goodbye, brother," Ishizu said. "And good luck."