Rin and Laura were able to find Mila's body and get it out of the cell. Ryu showed up as well and were able to get them out of there. At the moment, the three of them ran up some stairs to escape as Rin carried Mila on her back. What they aren't completely aware of it was the Evil Ryu helping them out.

"Hey, Ryu. What did you do back there with that trap?" Rin asked.

"Never mind that now. Just keep going. More guards could be coming after us." Evil Ryu said.

"Up ahead, a door!" Laura said as they could see one ahead.

"Perfect!" Rin said. She ran right through the door, but it actually led outside with them being nearly a hundred feet in the air. Rin nearly fell out, but Laura was able to grab a hold of her and kept her from falling. "A door that leads directly to a fall?! What is this?! A cartoon?!"

"Nowhere to run now." All three of them looked and saw more guards were able to find them.

"Now what?" Rin said.

"It seems like we'll have to fight our way through." Laura said as she was ready for one.

"We can't fight through these guys." Rin said.

"Don't need to. These fools clearly haven't had enough." Evil Ryu said as he walked down the stairs.

"Just hand over the girl and we might go easy on you, or not."

"That's just fine with me." Evil Ryu said. "I never liked the idea of mercy in the first place."

"Ryu, what are you going to do? You can't take on all of them alone." Rin said.

"I don't need to. They're just going to take a little trip." Evil Ryu said. None of them really understood. He pulled out another one of his cards, and the girls were getting a bad feeling about this. "I play Tribute to the Doom." When he played that, he added power to it as his pendent began to glow. When it did, the floor the guards were standing on became a sand whirlpool. Bandages emerged from it as it wrapped around the guards and were pulling them down.

"What's going on?" Laura said.

"What is that?" Rin said. They watched in horror as the guards were dragged down into the sand. Then, the sand just vanished with the guards with them.

"There they go. More poor souls lost to the darkness." Evil Ryu said. Laura and Rin couldn't believe what they just saw. It was horrifying.

"How did Ryu do that?" Laura said.

"I'm beginning to think that really isn't Ryu." Rin said. If they don't do something, they could end up like those guards.

...

The Duel

Ichika might have found a way to beat Peggrin's mind reading ability, but the duel is still a tough one. Peggrin had 6300LP with Luminous Spartacus having 4400atk points and Luminous Coliseum. All Ichika had was Infinite Stratos Akatsubaki at 2400atk points and his life points at 2100. Luckily, it's Ichika's turn.

"You might have found a way to out smart me for a moment, Ichika, but you still won't win." Peggrin said. "I refuse to be defeated."

"Why, Peggrin? Why are you going this far?" Ichika said. "What is this all about?"

"I don't need to explain myself to you." Peggrin said. "You just need to understand that I have no intention of losing. Now, continue with your turn."

"You asked for it!" Ichika said. "I activate Atmospheric Break! Thanks to this, Akatsubaki can attack you directly with only half of her attack points. That's exactly what she's going to do! Attack!" Akatsubaki flew past Peggrin's warrior and slashed against Peggrin himself as his life points dropped to 5100. "Don't forget that whenever she deals damage, my life points increase by the same amount." Ichika's life points rose back up to 3300.

"Yes. He's almost back to full power." Houki said.

"That's good, but Peggrin still has many life points." Charlotte said. "By the way, where are the others? They're missing everything."

"They better get here soon. Ichika needs our support." Cecilia said.

"I place one monster facedown, as well as one other card." Ichika said. "That ends my turn."

"You might have tricked me once, but I can still use my powers." Peggrin said. He tried to read Ichika's mind, but he still couldn't tell what his cards were. "What?! I still can't tell what they are!"

"Of course you can't because I don't know." Peggrin looked and saw Ichika switched places again with the spirit. That's how they're able to prevent Peggrin from telling what cards they have. "As long as Ichika and I switch our minds, you can't tell what cards we play." Peggrin was starting to get annoyed.

"You can switch your minds all you like, but it still won't save you. It's my turn!" Peggrin said as he drew his next card. "I summon Luminous Marcus to the field!" Peggrin summoned out a new white armored warrior with it holding an axe and had 1300atk points. "I think it's time I get serious! Luminous Spartacus, destroy Akatsubaki! Champion Lightning!" Spartacus generated lightning and was able to blast Akatsubaki this time. Akatsubaki was destroyed and the spirit's life points dropped to 1300. "It's your turn, Marcus! Destroy that facedown monster of his!" Marcus went on the attack as he jumped in the air and was going for the attack. However, it ended up being Firewall Blockade with 1500def points, more than Marcus' attack points.

"Look at that. It's Firewall Blockade." Ichika said. "Since your monster is weaker, you're taking damage."

"Think again, Ichika." Peggrin said. "Thanks to Luminous Marcus' ability, I can just send one card in my hand to the graveyard to take no damage." Peggrin discarded a card like he said and lost no life points because of it. "There's more. I just discarded Luminous Blight. That means that it comes back to my hand." The spirit was glad Ichika came through with some defense, but this duel still isn't over."

'Hey! Activate the trap now. Trust me on this.' Ichika said. The spirit trusted him and went with it.

"I activate my trap!" The spirit said as he revealed what it was. "It's the trap known as Divided Outcome. By sending one monster in my deck to my graveyard, I can draw one card for every two levels. The monster I discard is Schwarzer Regen, level six. That means I can draw three more cards." The spirit drew three more cards and had his hand ready.

"You think that will save you? Think again." Peggrin said.

"We'll see about that." The spirit said. This is far from over.

...

Rin and Laura

Rin and Laura were now keeping their guards up around Ryu. They know that this can't be the real Ryu, but they needed to handle this carefully.

"Okay, Mr. Creepy." Rin said. "I think it's time you tell us who you really are and what you really want? You can't be the real Ryu. I know Ryu and you are not him."

"I think I've had enough setbacks. Just hand over the girl." Evil Ryu said.

"Mila? Why do you want her? We're not doing anything you say until you give us answers." Laura said.

"We know you're not really Ryu. Tell us who you really are." Rin said.

"Who I am is someone who wishes to survive to obtain all that he desires." Evil Ryu said. "You two may have escaped me before, but you won't be so lucky this time. Ichika isn't here with his charm to protect you."

"Say what?" Rin questioned. They didn't understand what he was talking about until they remembered something. "Wait a minute. I remember a dream where Ichika and Ryu dueled each other, but we were the duel monsters."

"As do I. That was no dream, was it?" Laura said. After experiencing Peggrin's power, they're realizing what happened that night with Ryu was real.

"IF it was real, I thought Ichika got rid of the evil that took over Ryu. How did you come back?" Rin asked.

"I have my ways." Evil Ryu said. "I attempted to take Ichika's charm, but he was stronger than I expected. If things don't go well for me, I need something to hold on to. I'm just a mere spirit, but I can spread and divide my power to ensure my survival, my returns. What better vessel than a body that has no spirit."

"You want Mila." Rin said as she was beginning to understand. Mila's soul isn't in her body at the moment. That means that she could be just what this guy needs. "No way."

"I don't think you have much of a choice." Evil Ryu said. "You can either hand her over or join those fools. You saw what happened to them. Do you want that to happen to you?" Rin and Laura couldn't hand Mila over to him, but they also don't want to be dragged into darkness.

"Laura, come here." Rin said. Laura moved closer as she whispered something to her. Whatever it was, Laura agreed to it.

"Well?" Evil Ryu said.

"Fine. You win." Rin said as she moved Mila into her arms and was about to hand her over. "Think fast!" She tossed Mila over to Evil Ryu. He caught her, but Rin and Laura moved fast as they attacked Ryu with all they had and knocked him out. "I sure hope the real Ryu is okay."

"I'm sure it will be fine." Laura said like it was no big deal. "What are we going to do about that evil spirit that seems to be controlling him?"

"I already know." Rin said as she stared down at his pendent. "That evil spirit must be inside Ryu's pendent. That means that thing has to go." Rin was able to grab the pendent and took it to the door. "So long, evil spirit. Don't ever come back!" She tossed the pendent as far as she could with it being lost in the trees. "Good riddance to that thing."

"We should hurry back to the others." Laura said.

"Yeah. I want to see how Ichika is doing." Rin said as they grabbed Mila and Ryu to get back as fast as they could.

...

The Duel

'Ichika, our plan seems to be working. Peggrin is getting anxious and is on edge.' The spirit claimed. 'Let's keep up the pressure and switch again.' Ichika and the spirit switched again with Ichika taking control.

"It's my turn, Peggrin!" Ichika said as he drew his next card. "I activate Premature Launch! By negating their special abilities, I can summon a level five or six monster. I'm summoning out Infinite Stratos Rafale-Revive to the field!" Rafale-Revive came out with her having 1800atk points. "That's not all. Premature Launch also allows me to tribute summon a level seven or higher monster for one less tribute. That's why I'm releasing Firewall Blockade to summon Infinite Stratos Byakushiki!" Ichika released one monster as his ace took to the field again with 2500atk points.

"So you summoned your best monster again. Spartacus is still stronger." Peggrin said.

"I'm aware of that, but I actually know the weakness your monsters." Ichika said.

"Weakness?" Peggrin questioned.

"That's right. I've studied up on what I saw from when you dueled Peggrin." Ichika said. "This whole time I've been targeting your monsters, when I should have went for something else." Peggrin seemed like he was getting nervous with what Ichika was doing. "I activate Jetstream Impact! Since there's at least one Infinite Stratos on the field, I can destroy one spell or trap card on the field."

"Oh no!" Peggrin said as he knew what card he was targeting.

"That's right. I'm bringing down Luminous Coliseum!" Ichika said. The coliseum fell apart from the power of the spell.

"But the weakness to my coliseum is that when it's destroyed, my warriors are destroyed too!" Peggrin said. The whole field was shaking as it fell apart. The décor of the area changed back to normal with Peggrin's warriors falling with the field spell.

"That means you're wide open for a direct attack by both of my monsters!" Ichika shouted. Both of his monsters attacked Peggrin directly as Peggrin's life points dropped all the way to 800. The girls loved seeing that. He's just one attack away from winning now. "It's almost over Peggrin."

"Almost over?" Peggrin said. "Yes. It will be for you." Ichika didn't like the sound of that. "Ichika, I've made it clear that I will not be defeated. I've had about enough of this. I think it's time we change the game."

"Change the game?" Ichika questioned. He didn't get it until he noticed something strange. Darkness was coming from Peggrin and was enveloping the field. "What are you doing?!"

"Ensuring my victory!" Peggrin said as he and Ichika were taken into darkness. Light was gone and darkness has taken it's place. What has Peggrin done now?

To Be Continued...