1990
Pegasus finally arrived at the Valley of the Kings, but not even this ancient place full of history could give him inspiration.
The blank canvas in his heart couldn't be filled by anything that wasn't his beloved Cyndia.
Ever since his lover died at the tender age of 17, he was never the same. They were born in wealthy families, but all the money in the world still couldn't cure her leukemia.
The young man went to Egypt after reading about their beliefs about life after death, maybe believing that her soul would live forever in the next world would help him move on?
It didn't.
Pegasus wandered through the Valley lost in his thoughts until he found a small village, "A village in the middle of nowhere…" His thoughts were interrupted when a running man being chased by 4 men in black fell and dropped the object that he was carrying..
"P-Please! Let me go, you can have it back!" The man begged, but his pursuers didn't care. They grabbed the man and carried him away. Pegasus looked at the object that he was carrying, it was some kind of ornate golden ring, maybe it had ceremonial purposes?
"Wait! Please, let him go! If he stole that ring, I'll pay for it! Take everything I have!" Pegasus didn't know what possessed him to try and save a random thief, but something in the situation made his stomach turn, "It's what Cyndia would do."
Another man walked in as the men in black opened the way for him. He looked a little older than Pegasus, maybe mid to late twenties? His sharp eyes made Pegasus feel like the desert had frozen. But what drew Pegasus' attention was the man's necklace.
An ankh tied with a string.
"If you wish to stay, do not flaunt your wealth. The ring that man stole is a sacred artifact. The ring's monetary value is irrelevant, he is being punished for the act of theft itself," The egyptian man looked at Pegasus, "Are you a traveler?" The american nodded, "This village is called Kul Elna, it was created by grave robbers. Thieves are not uncommon here, this is not a place for a visitor. You must leave at once!" He turned around and left with his underlings, but not before a final message, "What you seek is not here, this is not a place that can heal the sadness of losing a loved one."
"He read my mind!" Pegasus followed the group in secret.
They entered a small house, but the small building led to a place that Pegasus could never imagine. It was an underground temple.
"P-Please! D-Don't kill me!" The thief begged.
"I do not intend to kill you, the ring itself will judge you." The mysterious man put the ring on the thief as a necklace, and the ring's spikes immediately punctured his chest. Flames started coming out of all the thief's holes, carbonizing him from inside out.
Pegasus covered his mouth to prevent any noise from coming out, he never saw something so terrifying before. The smell of burnt flesh entered his nostrils, he felt sick.
The mysterious man frowned and removed the ring from the corpse.
"When will the chosen ones appear? Without them, we can't find the missing items!" One of his lackeys said.
"There is no hurry, the millennium items are drawn to each other, like the pieces of a puzzle. When the time comes, they will be reunited." The man put the ring in a stone tablet that looked like a sarcophagus lid. In the tablet there was the ring, an eye and a scale. There were 4 missing spaces, no doubt they were for the missing items.
Suddenly, a man grabbed Pegasus from behind and yelled something to his leader.
The mysterious man frowned, "I thought I told you to leave…You saw something that you shouldn't, now, the only way of leaving is either by being chosen by a millennium item…or dead."
"P-Please! Spare me! I'll not tell anyone!" Pegasus struggled against his captor.
The man took the eye out of the tablet, "You will be tested by the Millennium Eye. If you are deemed worthy, you will have your greatest wish granted."
Pegasus thought about his beloved Cyndia, if he could see her one last time…
He stopped struggling.
One of the mysterious cultists carved his eye out with a knife, it was the most excruciating pain that he ever felt in his life, but he endured it. After his eyeball was removed, the leader pushed the Millennium Eye into the socket.
As soon as the eye was in place, Pegasus dissociated. He felt like he was floating in an ocean of light. A door appeared in front of him, and from the door, she came flying like an angel.
"Cyndia…" Pegasus tried to reach her, but she vanished.
The light disappeared and Pegasus regained his senses, he was kneeling in front of the mysterious man.
The man simply said, "You are worthy," and turned to leave, his lackeys escorted Pegasus out of the temple.
The rest of his stay in Egypt was spent looking into local legends and ancient rituals. This is how he heard about ancient Egyptian magicians who battled each other using monsters sealed in stone tablets. Maybe this ritual would be able to bring his dear Cyndia back?
Pegasus quickly recreated what was known as the Shadow Games, the ancient battles between magicians. He turned it into a card game that he named 'Duel Monsters'.
The game was a success, but Pegasus wasn't satisfied. He traveled all around the globe, looking into ancient ruins of dead civilizations. His travels revealed a strange and disturbing fact to the young man.
Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Aztecs, Babylonians, Chinese…
All ancient civilizations had their own version of Shadow Games with minimal differences. The Egyptians used stone tablets, the Aztecs used small plates made of gold, the Egyptians used magical artifacts to harness power, the Norse used magical runes.
How the same ritual was used all over the world was still a mystery, perhaps aliens created it and brought it to Earth?
No, that would be stupid. It was probably a coincidence.
1991
Pegasus stared at a map.
He created so many cards, but his game was still incomplete. During his study of the egyptian stone tablets, he learned about 3 powerful creatures, servants of the gods Osiris and Ra and the divine soldier that served the pharaoh, he named them the 'God Cards', but he couldn't find their stone tablets!
It was Pegasus' third trip to Egypt, he was about to give up when a mysterious voice called him from behind, "The gods' stone tablets are protected by gravekeepers, you will never find them…But I have the power to show them to you," It was the mysterious man who gave him the Millennium Eye.
"H-How did you enter my room? I-I mean, please! Take me to them!"
Shadi pointed at a location in Pegasus' map, "I will meet you there."
Pegasus looked at the location, recording it in his mind, "Why can't we go together?" The man lifted his head, but the mysterious figure had disappeared as silently as he had appeared.
Pegasus took his camera and headed to the marked location.
When the rich man arrived with his helpers, he found the mysterious man waiting for him beside a well.
The group made their way down the well, Pegasus was not surprised to learn that it was the entrance to another underground temple.
The mysterious man used his black magic to make them invisible to the guards. Eventually, they found themselves in front of a stone door, "The door is about to open, the gods will break their 3000 years of silence and awaken."
Pegasus stared at the door with determination as it slowly opened. Inside the dark room, there was a large stone tablet illustrating an epic duel between two figures, one backed by the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and the other by the Dark Magician. Above the figures, there was an upside down pyramid with three figures hovering over it.
"Those three figures…the gods…I finally found them…" Pegasus and his group took pictures of the tablet, dozens of pictures from many angles to not miss any detail. When they were done, the mysterious man took them out of the temple and disappeared. Pegasus quickly booked a flight and went back to America to start the design of those powerful cards.
Pegasus didn't know that the following months would be the worst of his life.
In the next 6 months, all the people involved with the God Cards died mysterious deaths. Pegasus knew that he needed to do this alone.
One night, Pegasus was finishing the art of the final god card, The Sun Dragon of Ra. He felt painful headaches and nausea when designing The Celestial Dragon of Osiris and the Divine Soldier of Obelisk, but Ra had an even worse effect on him.
Pegasus cleaned the blood that was dripping from his nose, "I guess my Millennium Eye is protecting my life."
The man finished the last brush stroke and felt a weight lift off his back. Too tired to move, he leaned back in his chair for a nap.
Pegasus opened his eyes, he found himself floating over Egypt. The three gods were rampaging, destroying everything in their path.
"W-What is this?"
"Duel Monsters is not just a game, Pegasus. It's a shadow game with the power to destroy the world." Pegasus looked up, the mysterious man was hovering near him.
"No…I will finish my game, even if I have to sell my soul!" Pegasus' Millennium Eye shone brightly as he tried to bring the gods under his control.
"You can not control the gods, Pegasus. Only their true master is able to tame their power." With that said, the man disappeared, leaving Pegasus alone as the three beasts approached him.
The gods blasted him with their divine power.
Pegasus' single eye shot open, "What have I done?" The man asked himself as cold sweat ran down his forehead.
1992
Pegasus tried to destroy the cards in every possible way.
Ripping them? The cardboard wouldn't tear.
Burning them to ashes? Fire couldn't damage them.
Flushing them down the toilet? The cards appeared on his bedside the next morning.
Pegasus couldn't destroy the cards and every time he tried his Millennium Eye felt like it was burning and the headaches were strong enough to knock him out, it was like the gods themselves were punishing him for the heresy.
The man did the next best thing: He got rid of the cards without damaging them.
He left the cards in the care of the gravekeepers and ordered them to be sealed apart from each other deep in the Valley of the Kings, where no human could get them. He only hoped that this would be enough to protect the world from his error.