Chapter Forty-Two: Evil Unleashed

"Well then Kaiba. What are you going to do? Are you going to attack my dragon?" Yugi asked calmly.

"Of course I'm going to attack your dragon! Why'd you ask?" Kaiba replied heatedly.

"Isn't there something you need to do first?"

"Not that I can think of."

"Of course there is! You have to summon a monster to the field first."

"How do you figure that?"

"It's all thanks to Joey that's how I figure it!" Yami pointed his thumb at Joey's remaining trap card, "Thanks to Joey's trap card, you must pay 500 life points and summon a monster to the field right now!"

"Fine! I summon La Jinn, the Mystical Genie of the Lamp (1800/1000) in attack mode!" Kaiba replied, summoning his genie.

"Thank you! Because of Joey's trap card, I'm about to win this duel!"

"What do you mean?"

"Kaiba, has the evil around your heart gotten so thick that you can't see my move? I'm going to use Slifer's special ability to drain 1800 attack points from your monster and transfer those attack points to my dragon!" Yami declared, Slifer firing a blue fireball at Kaiba's genie.

"No! If that connects, my genie will be gone!"

"Too late for that! Slifer, drain Kaiba's monster of its power!" Yami commanded. The fireball connected with its intended target and Slifer's body glowed as its attack power grew to 6800 points.

"Kaiba, Ganondorf is now weaker than my sky dragon. It's over!"

"Not so! La Jinn did his work. He gave Ganondorf another spell token, raising his attack power by another 1000 points!"

"Then what are you waiting for?"

"For you to let me play my facedown card, the Axe of Despair! This magic card will increase the attack power of my warlock by 1000 extra points, making it stronger than your sky dragon!"

Oh no! That means my dragon will lose in a battle by 200 attack points! We've got to do something! Yugi exclaimed to the spirit.

There's nothing we can do. We're finished. Yami admitted.

"Ganondorf! Attack Slifer the Sky Dragon! Clear him from the field!" Kaiba commanded, pointing at the enormous dragon. But instead of attacking, the monster glowed a dark purple color.

"What's going on?" Kaiba wondered, "Attack Yugi now and wipe him out!"

"Something's wrong," Yugi declared, "Both of our monsters are glowing." Indeed, Slifer was glowing the same dark purple. It was then the two monsters shook out of their trance-like state and lunged at one another. The clashing of the monsters generated a large white light that enveloped the island and everyone around it.

IN THE COURAGE X...

"What in the world is going on?" Commander Matson demanded.

"I don't know," stuttered a crewman, "The two monsters attacked and now the entire area is enveloped in dark magic."

"I know what's going on." Lance admitted, "Those two monsters were not meant to clash. So much energy is building up around here. I can feel it."

"What does that mean?" Teá asked.

"It means this island might go up and in a big way."

"But what about Yugi and the Floyds? What'll happen to them?"

"I'm not sure but we better do something and do it now!" Lance then turned to Ashley, "Teleport me down to the dueling arena." Ashley nodded and Lance vanished in a green ray of light.

I've got to act fast if I'm to prevent an inter-dimensional disaster! Lance thought as he raced to the arena. The first thing he noticed was Mr. Floyd climbing up Slifer's body to the upper level. Lance quickly scaled the dragon and joined his friend's side.

"Lance? What are you doing up here?" Patrick asked.

"Helping out!" Lance replied. He and Mr. Floyd charged into the dome of light that enveloped the arena only to be forced out as a magic-based explosion erupted throughout the sector. Lance and Mr. Floyd were tossed into the water like rag dolls. It was then the light energy gathered and formed a single infrared beam that shot into the sky turning the cloud-ridden sky into a dark mix of black and crimson clouds.

"Lance, what's happened?" Mr. Floyd asked as he helped his friend onto the now hovering Courage X.

"A lot of magical energy has been gathered, that's all I can say," Lance replied, breathless.

"Lets worry about that later. Right now, we have to save the kids!" Mr. Floyd declared. The two turned and ran into the Courage X.

BACK IN THE ARENA...

Yugi and Kaiba were lying on the cold steel arena, both exhausted from the combined power of their monsters' attacks.

"Kaiba, it seems your plan to destroy me backfired," Yugi grunted as he pushed himself to his hands and knees. Yugi looked up and saw that Kaiba's body was floating in midair.

"Foolish mortal. You are wrong, very wrong," Kaiba said, his voice sounding different, "It's thanks to you I got what I wanted."

"Who are you? You aren't Kaiba!" Yami demanded.

"Very perceptive. It's thanks to the Ganondorf cards that I exist and now I finally have full control over that fool Kaiba. He thought he could control the overwhelming power of the Triforce Destiny Cards when it was I who was controlling him. Until now, I was unable to do anything but poison his mind with ill thoughts. I knew that I stuck close to you, I might gain complete control. I must really express my gratitude," Kaiba grinned, "But now that I know you possess a card that can beat Ganondorf, then I guess I better make sure you aren't around to use it on me again!" Kaiba's body glowed as he summoned an energy sword to his hand. Yugi gasped as Kaiba pointed it at him.

"Sorry to disappoint you then evil spirit!" Yugi taunted. Kaiba threw the sword at Yugi only to see him disappear in a green ray of light before it connected.

"What? Farore's Wind? Who did that?" the evil Kaiba demanded.

"I did!" Kaiba turned to see Mr. Floyd and his Master Sword pointed at his throat.

"It's been too long my old nemesis but now your reign of evil is over!" Mr. Floyd declared coldly.

"I beg to differ on that one hero. I still have one last army under my control."

"What army?"

"That army!" Mr. Floyd looked to the sky and gasped as thousands of flying shadows littered the sky.

"My demon army has returned thanks to your friend Yugi and soon all will be under my control!" the spirit boasted. He then vanished in a ray of dark light only to reappear as a large silver dragon.

"My demons! Gather the ones of light and lets proceed back to the base!" the dragon called. The dragon turned to the cliffs and stopped. Standing on one of the high cliffs was Ryan, Tristan and Ashley.

"Not so fast!" Ryan and Ashley challenged. The three teenagers leapt off the cliff and onto the roof of the hovering Courage X.

"Ha! The new hero got free? Well, too bad you won't be saving your sister!" the dragon boasted. His words were born out as several of the demons shattered the shield around and Saria grabbed her.

"Stop!" Came Sabrina's voice. She sat in the Courage X's gun controls and was firing lasers at the demons. However, the lasers did no visible damage.

"Fools! Live in fear for soon all will be under my control!" The dragon said. It was then the demons and Saria vanished in a ray of dark light that encompassed the island.

LATER IN THE COURAGE X...

"I can't believe this! We were so close to beating him and then this happens!" Mr. Floyd bellowed. No one answered.

"Well, it doesn't matter now. Right now, we have to find those demons and find a way to stop them," Mr. Floyd said, calming down.

"Yeah, but what I'd like to know is where did they came from? And who was it that possessed Kaiba?" Joey wondered.

"Don't we all?" Ashley scoffed.

"Actually, I have a suspicion about what happened down there," Lance admitted. Everyone turned and looked at him.

"OK Lance. What do you think happened to Kaiba?" Mr. Floyd asked. Lance stood up and began to pace.

"Well, when Slifer and Ganondorf clashed, it generated a lot of magical energy, both light and dark. However, since Slifer was weaker than Ganondorf when they attacked, the dark energy overpowered the light and that's why the evil inside Kaiba was loosed," Lance explained.

"Are you implying that this is Yugi's fault?" Yami asked, appearing in his semi-transparent form.

"In a way, yes. If Slifer was stronger than Ganondorf, then the light would've overridden the darkness inside Kaiba and that might have destroyed the evil spirit." Yugi and Yami took in the former warlock's words.

"I refuse to believe that Yugi caused any of this!" Teá cried out.

"No Teá. They're right. I caused this to happen. If I had done things differently, then maybe we would've avoided all of this," Yugi said, grabbing Teá's arm. He then turned to the two Floyds.

"I don't blame you if you hate me," Yugi added, regret in his voice.

"Yugi, I have absolutely no reason to hate you. In fact, I should thank you," Mr. Floyd replied, catching the boy off guard, "If it wasn't for you distracting Kaiba, we might have never rescued Ryan from the cliffs."

"Yeah, but Saria and Mom are still in danger," Ryan pointed out.

"Yeah but not for long. Since our enemy has called in reinforcements, I'd say it's time for us to do the same," Commander Matson put in.

"Where in the world are we going to get reinforcements? We're facing demons, not an army of flesh and blood humans," Tristan asked. Mr. Floyd smirked.

"Ever heard of the Sages of Hyrule?"

MEANWHILE, ON AN ISLAND ENCASED ENTIRELY IN SHADOW...

"Master! It is good to see you after all these years!" Came the voices of several men. The dragon had turned back into Kaiba and was greeting his men, who were garbed in pure black.

"It's good to see my minions are alive and well. Guess what I brought you?" Kaiba grinned.

"Another playmate for the torture rooms?" Asked one of the men.

"Yes and I want you to have as much fun as you want so long as you keep her alive," Kaiba replied, pointing to the still unconscious Saria. The men walked down the hall.

"Is everything ready here?" Kaiba continued.

"Yes, those mercenaries you were looking at are here and they're currently retrofitting the island with your latest technologies."

"Excellent. What of Mokuba?"

"He's a little suspicious of what's going on but he hasn't shown any signs of resistance."

"Good, keep it that way."

"And what if he does resist?"

"Kill him."

"As you wish sire."

BACK IN THE COURAGE X...

"So you think the Sages can help us huh? Well, I hope you know what you're doing. What if these guys can't find them?" Lance asked uncertainly.

"Lance, will you stop worrying? They volunteered for this and so I'm going to let them help. Besides, if we wait for the Courage X to be refueled, who knows what might happen? We have to be fast and splitting up the group is what we must do," Mr. Floyd replied.

"Let me get things straight one more time. You and Ryan are heading to the Kokiri Forest to get Saria, Yugi, Ashley and Joey are heading to River Village to get Jennifer, Aeris and Zoran, Teá, Serenity and Sabrina are going to Gerudo Valley to find your cousin..."

"And you're going north to find Darunia and Soukan..."

"But what about Michael?"

"He's preparing to take a leave of absence at the castle."

"And what of our Sage of Light? Rauru died three years ago remember?"

"I'm well aware which is why when Michael is through at the castle, he can take up the search for our next Sage of Light. Understand?" Lance nodded.

"I know but can we trust Yugi and his friends?"

"I trust Ryan and Saria's judgment and judging by their past adventures at Duelist Kingdom and Battle City, I'd say they're trustworthy beyond reproach."

"I hope so. For the sake of humanity, I hope so."