M-Sama: Heyo all. Once again, here's another chapter. Finally. I had no idea how I was going to write this part, but I found it. It's a relief.
Light at the end of the tunnel; I think I know how I'm going to end it. A few more chapters…Everyone, thanks for your patience.
Chapter 13: Gods Descending
Alex, Sarah, and the professor stared numbly at the wall. It was almost two days, and they could no longer feel the passage of time, so entranced were they by the tale blooming from the stone hieroglyphs. Which made it all the more shocking when they came to the commencement of the duel…
"It's gone," said the Professor.
"It can't be…" breathed Sarah, hands over her heart.
But it was. That portion of the wall was gone. The tablet depicting the battle between the Pharaoh and the treacherous Seto had been pried from the wall. That entire panel was missing…
Naturally, this irked me. And I was too caught up in the tale of the tale of the crowned sleeper to let it rest at that. I searched the shadows, reaching back with my inner eye to see what I could…
I found the tablet. It was safe, wrapped in a cloth and guarded night and day. This puzzled me, for I could find no reason that a stone should be guarded.
Stone. I got a good look at it, for no amount of concealment can deceive me, who's eye has trained over millennia to see the hidden. There was the king and the sorcerer, hands outstretched as if each was trying to ward off the other. Seto's Blue-Eyes White Dragon sprang from carved coils above his head, even as did Pharaoh's Dark Magician.
I couldn't see what had happened. I have not that gift of vision, though sometimes I wish I did for simplicity's reasons. But looking at that tablet, my heart was both slowly and suddenly filled with the emotions that had transversed the souls of the two duelists.
Turmoil. Searing heat and air charged with magical energies. A ferocious exchange of attack and counter-attack, neither side able to completely overcome the other. Occasionally one of them would gain the upper hand, but the other was always clever and skillful enough to come back from behind. It was violent. Both sides were giving their all, knowing this was it, the last chance for them both. If they failed now it would be all over for them forever; even if they escaped the shadow realm, Pharaoh would become one of Seto's slaves, condemned to a live a slow painful life of constant torture; Seto would be executed in the most gruesome fashion for betraying his king. Sweat rolled down their faces. Both would die before they would let their opponent win, knowing at the same time there could be only one winner.
There was chaos in their minds and souls. I could feel it just by looking at that carving. Heat, sweat, hate, desperation, will to dominate and the desire to destroy…And just when their emotions reached the breaking point, a huge swell of red energy surged and there was a tremendous explosion before the whole impression was whipped out…
Strange…what was this power? What had blotted out the emotions of the two, so all that was left was a vague despair? I scanned the rest of the stone for more clues…
There were more clues. Above the two dueling figures was carved three beasts, at ends of a triangle-shaped marking with an eye in the middle. Come to think of it…yes, there was the same design around the Pharaoh's neck! How odd. What was that pendant? Why had I not read about it before now?
Carving…pendant, surrender your story. I desire to know…
It was the Thousand Years Dark Puzzle, one of the seven items originally used to open the way between the shadow world and the real one. This item was considered the symbol of the royal family, and was kept by the king as one of the crown jewels. When the king had donned his royal finery in preparation for facing the traitor Seto, he had donned this as well, little knowing how fateful that small act was.
The Thousand Years Puzzle was one of the items used to unlock the magic. As such, it acted as a sort of amplifier, resonating to the emotions of its master and making the darkness resonate as well. Combine this with the degree to which the scion-blood of the king already influenced the darkness, the intense ferocity of the duel, and the desperation and power of both duelists, and it was just too much strain. Something had to give, and it did.
Crouched in the sands and burnt by the dead sun, the golden herald of destruction threw back his head and laughed. He also held one of the treasures used to unlock the magic. The stick that transformed into a knife. He had found his manipulation of the magic much easier after acquiring that stick. Those who guarded them had become very careless, as now that the magic was released the items were presumed useless. Little did they know…
Everything was going according to plan. Everything.
The world simply ripped apart. The fabric of reality ruptured between the two duelists, creating a yawning gap pulsating with the red-black energy of the shadow realm. And from that gap came three beasts that had not walked the real since the night Mentuhotep I first placed all seven items in the lid of Narmer's coffin and set the shadows loose on the world.
The huge red dragon came first. A swipe of it's giant head, a clash of teeth from it's two jaws, and the King and Seto fell. Ten minutes after the huge crimson head appeared out of the rip the palace was leveled, gone with a couple thrashes of the huge beast's tail. Another immense golden animal descended from the sky, reducing the sturdy stonewalls of the temple to rubble with a couple claw strikes. A giant blue monster strode across the desert, stomping villages flat with each giant step.
It was pandemonium. Tears were opening up everywhere. Untamed duel beasts were entering the real in the hundreds, as solid and real and deadly as anything in this world. No sorcerer-summoned creature could stand against them.
The stricken king was bleeding down his forehead. He was half buried among the rubble. Tèana found him, and Jono strained at holding up the stone that pinned his friend while Tèana grabbed him under the armpits and heaved him out of the way. They gathered around him, peering anxiously into his face, waiting…
Although unconscious, the Pharaoh had still been all-too aware of the rifts opening all over his land. He felt the openings as if they had been slashed into his soul, a pain made all the more keen by the sudden knowledge it was all his fault. He was suddenly sure of it. More sure than he had ever been before about anything. The world turned black around him, and he despaired.
"I feel it…I feel these terrors pouring from wounds in my soul. I've done this. Even my duel monsters cannot help me now. I've doomed my people…"
"Doom it may be," came a familiar voice from the depths. "You were sent to this world to do what you did, scion of the shadow magics. If you had avoided the duel with the champion, you would only have delayed the inevitable. You were made one of the three heralds of doom. But there is still hope."
"…hope? How can there be hope?"
"You are not the type to despair. Your fire is too strong. Stop making yourself pathetic. There is a way to undo what you have done, but it must be done quickly, and there is great danger involved. Find the other two scions of magic, the heralds of destruction. They have each already claimed one of the Thousand Years treasures. Follow these instructions exactly."
The king lay floating in the darkness, listening. Finally he said. "I see. I must correct the mistakes I have made, and make it so the world will be free from repeating it."
"Have courage. My son." A familiar face swam into view before his eyes, almost near enough to touch before fading away entirely, back into the darkness.
The king's eyes opened. "Father," he murmured.
"Jono! He's awake!" Tèana's face swam into view above him.
"Pharaoh! Are you alright, man?"
"Duh, he got hit on the head by a huge dragon tail and a couple dozen rocks," Tèana's voice was a bit shriller than normal. "Would you be alright?"
Pharaoh's head felt heavy against the broken flagstones. The familiar beloved bickering of his friends seemed far away. He had to get up. There was so much he needed to do…
The last chance…