Chapter 19 - Raiya, Mistress of the Shadows
"No!" Raiya screamed with rage. Her servants shivered around her. The pair of hands that were damaged even quaked with fear. The servants bandaging them up stopped, dropping the cloth in horror. Raiya's face was shining with fury. Her usually pale cheeks were red. She narrowed her eyes.
"Fools!" she cried, knocking the crystal ball to the floor, breaking it in pieces. The servants took their cue and fled the chamber. The bandaged hands trembled as she walked toward them, radiating in fury.
"Can't you do a simple task?" she asked menacingly. The hands quivered and tried to gesture something, but they were shaking too much to make any sense. That was the last straw. In a blind fury, Raiya summoned her powers and used all her might to blow up the chamber. The castle groaned as the ground was blasted up in Dark flames. Raiya used more and more power, every time she used more another part of the floor shot up in a column of broken rock and dust. By the time she was done, the chamber looked much like a stone graveyard. Raiya wasn't satisfied.
"Argh!" Raiya slammed a fist into a nearby wall. It exploded in a shower of stones. Raiya herself was thrown back, hitting the floor with a groan.
I have left it to the fools long enough... it is time I faced Yasmine myself.
"No!" Crimson screamed. She tried to save Bakura but it was too late. Instead, she was met with three hands cracking their knuckles and preparing a deadly black orb of magic.
"Crimson!" Kaiba took Crimson's waist and pinned her to the tree trunk as the three energy blasts hit where she had been standing. She was still in shock from witnessing Bakura being blasted to pieces. Yugi rushed over to the two of them. All six hands cornered them against the tree trunk. One of them had Bakura's sword, another Yugi's, and yet another held Crimson's. Kaiba still held his sword, but it was chipped and blunt from being hit on the floor a million times.
"Kaiba..." Crimson whispered, "do something!" She clutched his collar in fear.
"You do something..." Yugi said. "Your Item... your Item..."
"I can't, it's too dangerous..."
"More dangerous than being faced with six giant hands, three with swords?" Crimson was spared the necessity of answering the question. Suddenly, lightening flashed into the area. Black bolts of energy hammered each of the six hands. They fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, smoking. Then, four more blasts of lightening emerged from the sky of black, hitting the middle of the grassy plain.
"What the...?" The ground split and rocks flew into the air. A tall woman with black tresses emerged out of a cloud of smoke. She held an air of boldness as she stepped nearer to Crimson.
"Well, well, Yasmine, it appears you are stronger than I have thought," she snickered. Her voice sounded even crueler with the blend of three voices, chilling the three teenagers to the bone.
"Raiya..." Crimson whispered, tightening her grip on Kaiba's collar. His eyes narrowed.
"So this is the Raiya of whom you speak," he said. He studied the Mistress of Shadows. He had to admit she had a strange resemblance to Crimson. After all, she had long dark hair, long lashes, and dark eyes to match. And, she had that look that made anyone who looked upon her shiver with fear. Crimson could do that too when she was angry.
"I was growing impatient..." Raiya said, hands on her slender hips and chin held high. "After all, Yasmine Motou, keeper of the Millennium Anklet, should be powerful enough to stop me."
"Tell me Raiya!" Crimson demanded. "Where are my friends? Mokuba, Grandpa, Téa, Tristan, Joey, and Bakura! How dare you kidnap them?" Raiya chuckled, and even the smoke around her seemed to shrivel in fear.
"They are lost in the Shadow Realm somewhere," she replied. "If you want them, you'll need to find the Sajuka Tree..."
"You destroyed it!" Crimson exclaimed angrily. Raiya clicked her tongue.
"Nope, that was a copy. A fake... a decoy." Raiya's voice became softer and more threatening. "Only an idiot would think I would destroy a tree I tended myself since I was a child. But then again, I killed my own mother so what chance would a tree have?" Crimson growled.
"You're evil."
"Of course... now why else would I be here? I am Raiya, Mistress of the Shadows. My very soul is corrupt with Darkness. You seriously didn't come here to just figure that out. I know what you want..."
"Then give it!"
"Tsk! Tsk! Not so fast... don't be a fool. I wouldn't make you go through all this to simply give them to you. There's a catch..." Raiya chuckled and snapped her fingers. The trees around the group vanished. A sea of black once again replaced the terrain. Still, it wasn't pitch black because each person could clearly see each other with no visible source of light.
Raiya snapped her fingers again and chains flew out of everywhere randomly, seeming to start miles in the distance. Crimson, Kaiba, and Yugi gasped as the links coiled around their legs, pulling them back from each other. When the chains stopped moving, they stood five yards away from each other, one in each corner of a square, Raiya being the last.
"It's nice that you know your shapes, Raiya," Kaiba snarled. "Now let us go!" Raiya simply chuckled, her dark hair flying in the absence of wind.
"Are you afraid?" she asked. Kaiba narrowed his eyes.
"Since when have I been afraid?" Raiya smirked.
"Good. Now, we are going to play a Duel Monsters game..." Kaiba smirked, Crimson groaned, and Yugi nodded determinedly. "Now, this will be fun. You three will go against me and the winner gets all six Souls. Deal?"
"Deal!"
"Okay, now here's the catch. It's not a simple you versus me game. That's why we're in a square. We're Dueling against each other, all four against all four. No teams here. Each player is against the other."
"That's crazy!" Yugi interjected. "Kaiba, Crimson, and I are a team. You can't split us up."
"I just did, Yugi," Raiya said. "Now, here are the rules. First, as I said, we are all playing against each other. I am going to make sure that is the case. Therefore, a rule of attack is that you cannot attack the same person twice until you have attacked the other two people."
"No!" Crimson cried.
"Second, a person may be attacked only once before their next turn. That will keep you all from ganging up on me after I lose a monster. Third, anyone may share cards with each other. That will keep your complaints to a minimum, I hope. Any other rules will be explained when the time comes."
"You are insane!" Crimson cried. "We will beat you regardless of how many rules you impose." Raiya snickered, a twinkle of her soulless eyes.
Try it, she thought. With another snap of her fingers, Duel Disks appeared on all four of them. Crimson inserted her Deck. In her mind, she could hear the roar of a monster deep within her deck. White shimmering scales and threatening blue eyes...the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
Raiya will be sorry she ever challenged me!
"Let's Duel!"