Mai is still gaping at Slifer, frozen with terror. She has a seen a God Card in action before (when she played Obelisk against Rex), but this is the first time she has seen a God Card against her. There is something about those divine monsters. It is not just their power. It is the aura of fear they emit.

'And now, allow me to elaborate on my God Card's powers,' Strings talks again. 'His ATK and DEF points are equal to the number of cards in my hand multiplied by 1000. In other words, now that I'm holding three cards in my hand, he has 3000 ATK points and the same number of DEF points.'

The hologram of a sign with Slifer's stats written on it momentarily appears, as if to confirm what Marik has said.

Mai laughs. 'Is that all? For a God, he's sure not very independent,' she comments. 'If his power depends on the number of cards in your hand, I can render him practically powerless if I find a way to force you to discard cards.'

'Easier said than done, girl,' Strings chuckles. 'Besides, unless you defeat him soon, I will keep drawing cards and, in the end, my divine monster will be unstoppable.'

'Darn. I have to admit that this asshole is right,' Mai thinks, a bead of sweat trickling down her cheek.

Strings points forward. 'And now, Slifer, attack,' Marik commands the monster, speaking through Stringses body.

The giant dragon opens his upper mouth and starts gathering energy, which coalesces into an azure ball. Finally, he fires a blast surrounded by sparks.

'Trap card activate,' Mai cries, turning over her face down card. 'Mirror Wall!'

The Mirror Wall appears, extending across Mai's field from side to side. Slifer the Sky Dragon ends up hitting his own reflection in the indestructible wall. He whimpers as his ATK points drop to 1500.

Mai bursts into laughter. 'Even a God is not invincible after all,' she remarks. 'Now that he's weak as a kitten, I will attack him next turn and...'

Marik makes his mind slave laugh. Mai raises an eyebrow.

'It seems you don't know as much about Gods as you thought, Valentine,' the madman comments. 'Spell and trap cards affect them only for one turn. And now that my turn is over, his ATK goes back to 3000.'

Slifer regains all his power and lets out a roar, feeling rejuvenated.

'Darn,' Mai inwardly curses. Well, at least the Mirror Wall can still protect her monsters. And it will remain on the field as long as she has at least one female monster on the field.

'My turn,' Mai cries and draws a card. Unfortunately, it is nothing that can help her.

'Pass. I do nothing,' the woman declares with a sigh.

'My turn,' Strings draws, with Slifer's ATK and DEF points automatically jumping to 4000.

Marik looks at his new card, through the eyes of Strings. There is no point in attacking again for the time being, since the Mirror Wall will just stop his attack. But this card he drew could help him later.

'I set 1 card and end my turn.'

Slifer's ATK and DEF points decrease to 3000 as Strings places a face down card on the board.

Mai gets an expression of concern. This face down card is definitely not a bluff. After all, Marik willingly reduced Slifer's power by setting it from his hand.

'This card is the Jam Defender, girl,' Marik thinks with a grin. 'A permanent trap card. Every time you attack, it will switch the attack target to the immortal Revival Jam, which is still on the field. Now, even if you find a way to overpower Slifer, you still won't be able to defeat him!'

'My turn,' Mai declares and draws. Well, whatever that face down card is, she will destroy it right now!

'I play the Harpy's Feather Duster.'

Marik spontaneously makes Strings gasp.

Four greenish wings appear on the Cyber Harpy's back. The monster raises her body in the air and, with each of her hands placed on the opposite shoulder, creates a whirlwind which destroys Marik's face down card.

'Curses,' Marik thinks. Oh well. In a few turns, Slifer will be unstoppable anyway, so he will need no protection.

'Turn end.'

Strings draws. Marik looks at the new card through the eyes of Strings and then makes the latter smile. 'Remember when you destroyed my face down card, Mai?'

Mai rolls her eyes. 'Yes. Maybe because that happened literally a few seconds ago,' she answers.

'Well, two can play that game,' String cries, ignoring the sarcasm. 'I activate from my hand the Mystical Space Typhoon.'

The aforementioned quick play spell card depicts exactly what its name says. The typhoon appears on the field and shatters the Mirror Wall.

'NO!' Mai shrieks, with her eyes widening.

'And now, Slifer, attack,' Strings points a finger forward.

The Sky Dragon (current ATK 3000) opens his mouth and fires another blast, which hits one of the two Cyber Harpies on the field. The lady monster is annihilated and Mai's life points decrease to 2800.

'Your turn,' Marik makes Strings laugh triumphantly.

'Not good!' Mai thinks, with a bead of sweat on her forehead. 'Without the Mirror Wall protecting me anymore, I need to find a way to destroy that divine shit before it becomes too strong. That is to say, right now!'

She draws. She looks at the card. She tentatively smiles. This might help!

'I play the Amazoness Trainee (1500/1300) in attack mode.'

A tan skinned female warrior appears on the field. She is lightly dressed in a blue loincloth and another cloth the same color that covers her chest. She's wielding a golden chain. She has purple hair tied in a ponytail. She looks pretty young and docile. In fact, she looks more like an anime loli than like one of the tough Amazoness warriors. But who cares?

Mai has the Amazoness Spellcaster spell card in her hand. Now that she has an Amazoness monster on the field, she's going to activate this spell card in order to switch the ATK of the Amazoness Trainee and that of Slifer. And the God will go down! Easy pea... Huh?

Slifer opens his lower mouth and begins charging another blast.

'WHAT THE...'

'Sorry, Valentine,' Marik makes Strings chuckle, 'but you have just activated Slifer's special power: his second mouth! Every time you summon a monster on your field, Slifer automatically deals 2000 damage to it. In other words, it loses 2000 ATK points, if it is played in attack mode, or 2000 DEF points, if it is played in defense mode. Which means that, if that monster has fewer points than that, it is destroyed!'

'WHAT?' Mai shrieks, eyes bulging.

The blast fired from Slifer's second mouth hits the Amazoness Trainee, reducing the poor girl to ashes, before Mai can activate the Amazoness Spellcaster.

Mai is gaping. Little by little, she realizes that, essentially, she cannot summon any of her low level monsters without it instantly being destroyed. Oh, God (no pun with Slifer's title intended), how is she supposed to attack or even protect her life points now?

Tea and Tristan are walking on the Battle City streets. Tea is wearing her summer clothes: an azure sleeveless shirt, a denim skirt, white high stockings and blue sandals. Tristan is wearing a red jacket and blue jeans.

'Darn. I'm so bored,' Tea moans, placing her hands behind her lovely head. 'All our friends are out there dueling right now and, as for us, we have nothing to do.'

Tristan nudges her with a meaningful smile. 'Let's play tennis,' he suggests.

Tea realizes right away that this is a reference to 'Friends with Benefits', that sappy, American rom com they watched a few days ago. She rolls her eyes. 'Haha, very funny, Mister Taylor,' she says sarcastically. 'Not even with a thousand condoms!'

'Chill, I was kidding,' Tristan laughs. 'Besides...'

Before continuing, the boy takes a more serious expression, places his hands behind his head and sighs. 'My heart is elsewhere.'

'Serenity, huh?' Tea casually asks.

'Yeah,' Tristan admits. 'Even though I have seen her only in photos Joey has shown us, I feel as if I had known her all my life. It's a shame she finally went permanently blind after all.'

'You should be thankful. Now that she cannot see what you look like, maybe you have a chance with her,' Tea was about to say, when she realized that it would be too callous to make such a comment about a girl who will never regain her eyesight. Though she still cannot understand why Joey's sister did not go through with the surgery her brother had paid for.

That moment, Yugi passes by them, running like crazy.

'Hey, Yu...'

'NOT NOW!' Yugi screams, almost pushing his friends out of the way!

The two flabbergasted teenagers stare at their friend quickly getting lost from view.

'Are we sure that was Yugi?' Tristan scratches his head.

Tea closes her eyes, annoyed by her love interest's rudeness. 'Probably, it was Kaiba, who switched bodies with Yugi!'

'Come on, Mai. It's still your turn,' Strings reminds the desperate girl.

'I-I...' Mai stutters. Should she switch her monsters into defense mode? No! They have only 1400 and 600 DEF points respectively. If she switches them into defense position, Marik might attack with the Revival Jam too (1500 ATK).

'I end my turn.'

Strings draws, with Slifer's ATK points automatically jumping to 4000.

'Slifer, attack the Cyber Harpy.'

The Egyptian God turns the last Harpy into ashes. Mai's life points decrease to 600. And so, all three Harpy Ladies are now in the graveyard. Her three favourite monsters. Her three best friends! Dead!

'Well played, Marik,' Yami Mokuba congratulates his partner with a smile. 'The Harpy's Brother is Mai's last defense. When you destroy it, her life points will be wide open to a direct attack from the Egyptian God.'

Marik chuckles. 'And if she summons another defensive monster, it will be immediately destroyed outside the battle phase, thanks to Slifer's second mouth,' he feels the need to add. 'It's checkmate!'

'It's your turn, Mai,' Strings points at her. 'Make your move or give up.'

Mai looks at her deck and sighs. Essentially, she cannot summon any more monsters. The Harpy's Brother is the last thing left between the God and her life points. Either she finds a way to miraculously defeat Slifer with the Harpy's Brother as the only monster on the field or... (gulp)...

But, you know what? She can do it! The Harpy's Brother is the only creature she needs to send that God to Hell!

Mai smiles!

Marik spontaneously causes Strings to raise an eyebrow.

'Draw,' Mai says and draws. She looks at the card. She smiles. She knew she could draw this!

'I activate a spell card from my hand. The Harpy's Wardrobe!' (ORIGINAL CARD; FIRST APPEARED IN CHAPTER 3)

This card allows Mai to take up to two equip spell cards from her deck and equip them to a Harpy monster on the field.

Marik snickers, sure that, no matter how much Mai powers up her male Harpy monster, it will still be no match for Slifer the Sky Dragon.

'First, I equip him with the Cyber Shield.'

The aforementioned armor appears on the body of the Harpy's Brother, increasing his ATK points to 2300.

'This is far from enough,' an amused Marik makes Strings shake his head.

'And now, the second equip spell card,' Mai cries, forcefully placing it on the board. 'The Harpy's Sword of Vengeance!' (ORIGINAL CARD)

A sword with a dark brown grip and a blade a lighter brown color appears in the hand of the Harpy's Brother. The monster immediately starts gracefully swinging that weapon in the air, as if to display his fencing skills.

Marik suddenly has a bad feeling. 'Wha-what is that?'

'This card can be equipped only to a level 4 or lower Harpy monster,' Mai explains. 'To activate it, I have to pay half my life points.'

With her life points decreasing to 300, the woman carries on, 'Also, the monster equipped with this card is the only monster on my field that can attack. And that monster will be destroyed at the end of this turn. Because, let's face it, desire for vengeance kills, above all else, the one who feels it!'

'Just tell me what this fucking sword does!' Marik snaps.

'The wielder gains ATK points equal to the sum of the ATK points of all level 4 or lower Harpy monsters in my graveyard,' Mai answers.

'NO WAY!'

The spirits of the three Cyber Harpies lost in battle (the one sacrificed when Mai activated Female Solidarity earlier and of course the ones that Slifer the Sky Dragon slew by himself) appear around their brother, who is looking at the giant dragon with a more and more spiteful expression. Eventually, the spirits are absorbed by the sword, raising the ATK points of the Harpy's Brother to 7700!

'THIS IS CRAZY!' Marik screams through the vocal cords of Strings.

That moment, Yugi shows up.

'MARIK!' the boy cries. 'Leave her alone.'

Strings turns his head. 'Pharaoh!' he yells. 'What do you want here, motherfucker?'

'Leave her alone,' Yugi demands, ignoring the expletive. 'It's me whom you want.'

Marik makes Strings point at himself. 'I decide whom I want and when I want them,' he quips.

'Yugi!' Mai cries, irritated. 'Stay out of this. This is my battle!'

'But, Mai...' Yugi tries to insist, knowing full well that it's futile. Darn, this woman is so stubborn!

And how does she think she's going to win anyway? She has only 300 life points left whereas Marik has 3600! Slifer is on the field and has 4000 ATK points. The Revival Jam (a blue, shapeless monster made of slime) is there too. As for Mai, she has only one monster on the field: the Harpy's Brother. What is she supposed to do with such a weak mon...

Huh? Wait a minute. What is this sword the Harpy's Brother is holding? Is it some equip spell card?

'Harpy's Brother,' Mai cries determinedly. 'Avenge your Harpy Lady Sisters. SLAY THE GOD!'

And slay the God he does! Literally! The very next moment, the Harpy's Brother, a monster that, as far as Yugi knows, is a vanilla monster with 1800 ATK points, charges at Slifer the Sky Dragon and, with a supernaturally high jump, strikes him with his sword, cutting him into two!

The God monster breaks into a million tiny pieces, as if it was an ordinary monster! And String's life points decrease from 3600 all the way to zero!

'WHAT IN THE NAME OF RA?' Yugi cries, his eyes bulging in a manner that would be comical if the current situation wasn't so serious.

Strings falls on his knees. The holograms disappear.

Mai walks over to her opponent. 'It's over, Marik. I won,' she says, arms crossed. 'Now hand over the locator card and of course the rarest card in your deck: Slifer the Sky Dragon!'