Chapter Six:

Yugi stared tensely at the TV screen. All four panels showed no movement. No sound came from the headset. From the viewpoints of the four avatars, all he could see were abandoned houses and a dusty, filthy kitchen. He was lost in indecision, unsure where to start to even begin to win this game. The answer had to lie in that locked room, but how to get there? Back in the manor house to find a key? Could it be that easy?

And the lack of presence by the demon worried him. He was sure it was because the demon was busy elsewhere. With Kaiba. Or with Den.

Yugi should not have let Tea go alone. What had he been thinking?

Her parting words replayed over and over in his head. Win the game, and there was nothing to worry about. Was that true? It had to be. Which brought him back to his next steps. How did he find the key?

Yugi took up a controller and moved a joystick. Joey's character moved closer to the cemetery. Arcanum. There had to be something in there. Some clue or helpful object. Graveyards were hallowed ground, right?

As the avatar approached, Yugi saw a faint, greenish radiance. It reminded him of the glow of the Orichalcos and a shiver ran down his spine. He turned the avatar to it and walked along the fence to the graveyard. There was the crumbled section of the brick wall. The A button had the avatar clamber over. Once inside, Yugi headed for the glow, which grew brighter as he approached. At the base of a spreading tree, the glow shimmered and pulsed. Abruptly the character's screen turned into a cutscene and the avatar approached cautiously, bending down to examine the source of the shine.

It looked like a stone obelisk. The tree had grown behind and around the obelisk, almost swallowing it in its determination to grow. A small etching stood on the face of the obelisk, its outline pulsing green. The avatar hesitantly reached out and touched the carving. Suddenly it detached from the stone and fell to the ground. The avatar picked it up and the shine faded. Controlled by AI, the avatar clicked on his flashlight and pointed it at the piece of stone. Held in his palm was a small, emerald green bird, wings drawn back, a small branch of some sort in its beak.

Knowing this had to be of some help, Yugi selected X to pocket the bird when prompted. Then control was given back and he clicked off the flashlight and turned the character around in a circle, searching for more glow. How many of these did he need?

Nothing. The cemetery was dark.

**Tea Gardner life-force draining**

Yugi looked over in horror. The demon had reappeared on the screen, holding Tea's avatar up by the throat with one hand, drawing back its arm with its claws extended to slash. Yugi blindly ran Joey's avatar around from his place in the cemetery back toward the hole in the wall. Then, knowing he wouldn't make it, he picked up Tea's controller. As the demon slashed her across the chest and stomach and her character screamed, prompts began to flash on the screen. He kicked and pounded on the demon's wrist. The demon opened more wounds in Tea's shoulder, her legs.

Frantic, Yugi looked at the other screens. Tristan's character was nearby. He snatched up his controller and ran for the demon. Just as the avatar passed a crumble of another stone wall, a prompt flashed, then disappeared. Biting his lip, Yugi hesitated, then took a chance and returned. The option to pick up a stone came. Doubting it would be any more effective than the knives, but desperate, he took up the stone, then turned back to the demon.

The avatar smashed the rock into the demon's shoulder. Tea's avatar fell to the ground and the demon turned to Tristan. Hammering the A button, Yugi watched the avatar bring the rock down on the demon's chest, on its shoulder, on its wrist as it reached for him.

Suddenly the demon was gone.

**Joey Wheeler life-force draining**

The demon had teleported to Joey's avatar just outside the cemetery's wall. It picked him up and flung him into the gate, then picked him up again and threw him across the road into the side of the house across the street. Yugi grabbed up Joey's avatar and tried to run, but as before, the injured avatar only stumbled. He was snatched up and thrown back into the cemetery gate.

A prompt appeared. Yugi hit it and watched as the avatar weakly picked up a broken stave from the top of the cemetery's iron gate. As the demon lunged for him, Yugi caused the avatar to jam the stave into the demon's stomach.

The grating, metallic screech of the demon seared Yugi's ears and he shut his eyes, gritting his teeth and clapping his hands to his head. Opening his eyes, he watched the demon stagger back. The stave stuck out of its stomach and for once something was happening. In the light of the moon, bilious black fluid poured onto the ground while what looked like white flames burned around the entry point of the stave.

The demon disappeared. The stave landed in the puddle of black blood, which ignited in white fire.

**Tristan Taylor life-force draining**

As if the stave hadn't hurt it at all, the demon was slashing at Tristan's avatar. Tea's was standing nearby in the hunched-over pose of injury.

The stave may not have killed it, but it had done something. However, Joey's character was unresponsive, up in the injury pose, and barely moving when Yugi tried to walk him to the stave. The white flames had gone out and not a trace of the black blood remained in the dirt.

Joey's avatar would not reach Tristan in time. The rock had only annoyed the demon. Tea's avatar was unarmed.

Yugi's eyes drifted to his own. The cross?

He picked up his own controller and started his character across the kitchen to the back door. Using the prompts to unlock and open the door, he raced out of the house and across the corner to the street. As the avatar approached, the demon looked up.

B prompted to Banish. Heart leaping, Yugi pressed B and the avatar raised the cross. Blue-white brilliance flared out of the cross and lit up the whole street. The demon screamed and reared back, raising its arms in front of its eyes. The blue-white light speared it in a dozen places and it suddenly shattered like glass.

Yugi's relief was short-lived.

"Is it gone?" Tristan's avatar asked.

"I don't think so," Yugi's said. "Can't you still feel it?"

"What do we do?" Tea's asked.

Joey's avatar stumbled over. "I found this just before it attacked me." He held out the green bird. "It was glowing."

"Who cares?" Tristan's avatar snapped. "We have to get out of here."

The cutscene stopped. Yugi stared at the four screens, at a loss. Did he try to leave the town? Could the demon follow them into the woods? The game said it wasn't destroyed and he was sure Banished only meant temporarily. A reprieve. They had to destroy it, and that locked room had to be the way. But was it the only way? Some games had multiple endings. What did he do? How did he protect his friends?

Yugi found himself reflexively reaching for the Puzzle, only to touch nothing but air. The Puzzle was gone. Atemu was gone. He was alone, empty inside his head, and it was all up to him. His friends' lives all came down to him.

Yugi chose his own avatar, the only one that had finished recovering and the one still holding the cross. He walked it down the path to the entrance to the town.

He was not surprised when an invisible wall kept the avatar from leaving. Dialogue at the bottom spoke of the avatar frantically wondering why he was unable to move. At last Yugi turned away and headed back to the others. Without relinquishing control, the game had his character inform the others they were trapped. Ignoring the conversation, Yugi turned his avatar in a circle, searching for something, anything that would provide the next move.

His eye fell on a well. It was an old-fashioned type, a stone cylinder with a bucket hanging from a winch under its little roof. It was the only other feature in the town that wasn't a house, wall, or the cemetery. It stood by itself to the right of the entrance to the town, when facing into the town itself.

Yugi approached it and tried to turn the crank. It wouldn't budge and a line that he wasn't sure if it was dialogue or a hint crept up on the screen, Perhaps there is a key…

Yugi walked around the well. There, in the side facing the town, was a impression of a bird. At last, maybe some progress. He picked up Joey's controller and walked his character over to the well. A prompt came up asking him to insert the carving while the characters talked it out. Yugi accepted the prompt and the carving was slid home.

The well shimmered green for a second. Yugi then tried the crank again and it moved. They pulled up the bucket and there was no water, but instead shimmering purple light. Inside was another carving, a fish of some sort. Yugi was vague on Christian mythology, but he was sure there was a fish in there somewhere. Like the cross and the bird.

Joey's avatar took up the fish.

The demon appeared. It slapped Joey's character to the ground and the animation showed the purple fish fly out of the avatar's hand and go skidding across the ground. The demon did not try to lay claim to the fish, but instead dodged Yugi's attempt to get it with the cross and kicked Joey's avatar into the street.

While the messages informed him of the life-force injuries, the demon teleported to Tea's and Tristan's avatars, seized both by the throats, and started strangling them. Yugi ran to help, brandishing the cross.

The demon teleported away, dropping Tea and Tristan, and picked up Joey's character by the leg and threw him into a wall.

It was no longer attacking Yugi. If he could put his character in a safe space where it couldn't get him from behind while he was immobile, he would have one less character to worry about. And maybe there were more crosses. Certainly there was the iron stave by the cemetery that at least caused pain if nothing else.

Yugi first had to help Joey's avatar. Only it would be better if he could get all four together, so instead of moving his own character, he took up Joey's controller and started for the others standing the road. As expected, the demon tried to prevent it. As red started pulsing on Joey's screen, Yugi ran his character forward until the demon teleported, then immediately seized Tea's controller and headed for his own avatar.

The demon was not stupid. It seized Tristan's character by the leg and ran down the road with him, towards the manor house. Being drug in the dirt couldn't be fun, but the game didn't register it as an injury.

Still, he couldn't afford to have the characters split up. His own couldn't be in three places at once, and someone would die.

What could he do?

Maybe he could lure the demon away. He had to get the purple fish, then find where it went. The bird went into a well, which yielded a fish. Did the fact a well contained water and fish lived in water mean anything? Or was it a coincidence? The problem was he didn't know much about Christianity, it was such a minor religious presence in Japan.

Taking a chance and hoping Tristan didn't suffer the consequence, Yugi left his avatar by Joey, who was the most injured, and took up Tea's controller. He headed for the fish, which lay gleaming in purple radiance in the grass. Tea's avatar reached for it

And was struck down by the demon. It did want to prevent them from having possession of the fish! Yet it didn't pick up the fish itself. Maybe it couldn't touch it.

Yugi took quick stock of Tristan's avatar. Thankfully they didn't appear to be able to be teleported by the demon, so he was picking himself up from the dirt road one house down from T section where the manor house and cemetery were.

The stave! It was on the ground not far away.

Tea's life-force was draining. The demon was strangling her.

Biting his lip, Yugi grabbed Tristan's controller and headed for the stave. As Tea's screen began to pulse red, he abandoned the attempt and used his own to bring the cross to bear.

The demon teleported to Tristan. However, Yugi had moved Tristan far enough that he made the stave just before the demon lay a hand on him. With the A prompt telling him to stab, he scored the demon in the arm.

The metallic screeching heralded the demon dropping Tristan and teleporting away.

Now two characters were armed. Joey was attacked, but Yugi was not far away and the demon had to desist. Tea's claimed the fish and pocketed it and while the demon tried to get her, Yugi drove it away. It tried Tristan again and was held back by the stave, which caused it far more pain than any of the knives ever had. However, it was not Banished as it had been with the cross and it still attempted to attack Tristan. Only Yugi's character seemed to be safe.

Yugi was able to draw Joey's and Tea's avatars together with his own. They were now almost on the opposite side of the little town from Tristan's avatar.

He had to think about what to do with the fish. What he needed was a vantage point to look around. He wouldn't be able to move all three avatars around the whole map so as to keep his own near enough to Joey's and Tea's to keep them safe unless he spent hours here.

Tristan's then. With the iron stave in hand, maybe he could find where the fish went and then Yugi could worry about how to move three characters at once and keep everyone safe.

tbc...

A/N: That's right! 2 chapters in almost as many days!