Chapter 8

So much blood was spilling from Yami that it was dripping out of his hand from between his fingers and at the ends. He had not expected this to happen, and it was not so much the pain from his wound that was hurting him, but shock was getting the best of him. How could this have happened? Why is this happening? These questions could not stop ringing in his mind. Worst of all, Seto did not believe he was truly injured, nor did he seem to care. He was going to continue with the duel regardless. Turn was to Yami, and he removed his bloody hand from his stab to continue to duel, much to his distress.

"I play Dark Valkyria (1300/1400) in attack mode," called out Yami in a much weaker tone than before. "Attack his clown!"

Dark Valkyria, looking much like the Dark Magician girl, swung her wand around and pointed it at the eccentric clown. She blasted a dark force of energy directly at the clown and the clown was destroyed. Kaiba's Life Points were down to 2000. Kaiba was about to call out his next move when he felt something quite odd and painful. His back began to feel numb, as if it had lost some strength. He started to crouch down and showed a face expressing some kind of pain, but quickly got back on his feet. Still in some pain, nothing could stop Seto's next move.

"Well, since you've attacked, I guess it would be a good time to reveal my face down card," Seto laughed, though still hurting. Yami noticed Seto's expression from a moment ago, and knew something was wrong. "Deck Destruction Virus!"

The trap card on the field was lifted and a large, gooey hand reached out and zapped Yami's deck. Sparks flew from his deck and the top ten cards on top of his deck were removed. He was well aware of this continuous trap card: it would take ten cards out of his deck every turn. It was unfortunate, because just from the first loss of cards he lost all three magnet warriors and a few effective trap and magic cards.

"You're losing it, Yugi," Seto taunted him. "You're losing ten cards every turn, you're losing Life Points, what could be worse at a time like this?"

Yami was undoubtedly hurting, but he wished to show no signs of weakness to Kaiba. He ended his turn, but again placed his right hand over his wound again. The bleeding continued and did not look like it was going to get any better without medical attention.

"Seto, I saw you, when you lost Life Points, you felt pain, didn't you?" argued Yami. "Don't think I didn't notice."

Seto was surprised he noticed, but felt as if he could show no pain in this duel. His back was still hurting, but he simply laughed it off.

"Do not be so ridiculous," he told him. "Maybe I did, but don't think that's going to stop me from defeating you. A little bit of pain isn't that bad for anyone."

Seto began his turn. Everything was going as he had planned. He continued to draw the right cards, and his strategy was going as he had laid it out.

"I'll summon Hitotsu-Me Giant (1200/1000) in defense mode and place one card face down," Kaiba sighed, wanting to move along.

"Fine," mumbled Yami as he drew his card. "Attack, Dark Valkyria!"

Dark Valkyria went to attack, but Seto had activated his trap card, Castle Walls, right after he demanded so. Castle Walls gave the Giant an additional 500 defense points for one turn, long enough to cancel out Dark Valkyria's attack. Yami growled in frustration as he ended his turn.

"It's just like I stated, Yugi. You're losing it, 'cause watch as you lose more of your Life Points," commented Seto after drawing his card. "Servant of Catabolism (700/500), attack him directly!"

It happened so quickly that Yami wasn't even sure what this monster was. A snail like critter appeared and lunged its body forward. It's thick body crashed into Yami's, knocking out not only seven hundred more Life Points, but possibly breaking a few ribs in the process. With its special ability, Yami's Life Points crashed to 2800, and his already wounded body crashed to the ground. The attack inflicted much more physical damage than expected. Again, the attack from the monster didn't just hurt the area it hit, but his entire body had felt like it had lost life. More blood squirted from the wound as Yami barely stood back on his feet, his breathing becoming heavy.

It had occurred to him then that the loss of Life Points meant the loss of life. Strength was descending within him, and he felt as if all his bones were going to collapse and shatter. He had not felt this kind of pain before, at least as far as he could remember.

"This creature is puny compared to the other monsters I have in my deck, so if you can't handle this thing, wait until my Blue-Eyes gets on the field, and I assure you it will come," Kaiba explained as he placed another card face down. He switched his Hitotsu-Me Giant to attack mode, and ended his turn.

If the duel was going to continue at the rate it was going, Yami would not be able to continue much longer. His mind desperately ran through ideas that could end the duel as quickly as possible. With his body vanquishing by the minute, or by the loss of Life Points, he felt he would not be around much longer to see the end of the duel, no matter what the outcome was. He drew his card to begin his turn, which was one of no use at that time. He figured if Kaiba was going to attempt to summon his Blue-Eyes White Dragon next turn, he had better have another monster to defend himself.

"I will summon Gazelle, the King of Mythical Beasts (1500/1700) in Defense," Yami made his move and proceeded to attack with Dark Valkyria. "Dark Valkyria, attack Hitotsu-Me Giant now!"

Dark Valkyria lifted her wand in preparation for attacking again, but Seto shook his head.

"Not quite," he stopped the attack. "I'll use my magic card: Malevolent Nuzzle! And now my Hitotsu-Me Giant gains 700 attack points, making 600 points stronger than your Dark Valkyria! You've called your attack, and now you'll pay for it!"

A large axe appeared in the hands of his green giant. Its attack points rose to 1900 as it leaped into the air, holding the axe above its head. When in striking range, Hitotsu-Me Giant swung down the axe, hitting Dark Valkyria directly. Dark Valkyria was then destroyed as Yami lost six hundred more Life Points, leaving him with 2200. Again, he felt a great loss of energy and strength. His sight worsened and breathing became heavier. He bent over, using the hand not holding his stab wound to hold him up on his knee. His turn had not been over yet.

"Oops, I almost forgot, ten more of those cards go to the graveyard," cried Seto as the gooey hand returned to zap ten more cards from Yami's deck to the graveyard. Summoned Skull and Buster Blader were among the heavy losses this round. "Are you done now?"

He nodded his head. He had a monster in Defense Mode on the field, so his Life Points would be protected for the moment. Losing Life Points was unaffordable for Yami, who was on the verge of collapsing.

Though not in his best physical shape, Seto could not have felt better. He drew yet another card that played perfectly into his strategy. Soon his ultimate beast would come to the field. As long as he kept drawing the right cards, he would easily be able to summon it.

"It's time to bring a piece of my great beast to the field," warned Kaiba. "I play White Dragon Ritual!"

A knight in white armor came to the field from the activation of the magic card. The warrior raised his sword high and a sky of swirling dark clouds soared above Kaiba's side of the field. The two monsters Seto had played were sacrificed, being consumed into the sky as lightning struck. The knight leaped into the air and disappeared for a moment. He would return to the field not long after, only this time riding a dragon that looked similar to a Blue-Eyes White dragon, only smaller and with duller claws.

"Meet the Paladin of White Dragon!" Seto said. "Too bad he isn't going to stick around for very long, because now I use it as a sacrifice for my Blue-Eyes White Dragon."

The Paladin of White Dragon had a special ability that let him sacrifice it to summon one Blue-Eyes White Dragon to the field. The Dragon taming warrior disappeared as a stronger Blue-Eyes (3000/2500) appeared into battle in attack mode.

"Beautiful, isn't he?" Kaiba adored his dragon. "Looks are quite deceiving these days. Blue-Eyes, attack!"

A white ball of negatively charged energy grew in its mouth. A stream emerged from the ball once it was taking up most of the space in the dragon's mouth. The stream of dangerously powerful energy hit Yami's Gazelle, blowing it up right as it hit. While it was not on the top list of his concerns at that time, Yami had no monsters on the field, which meant he was open to a direct attack next turn that would wipe out his Life Points.

"You don't seem to be saying much," Seto noticed. "Are you just in a state of shock as you stare into defeat?"

Kaiba's confidence had grown to the maximum. With everything going accordingly, he thought he was unstoppable, and nothing could save Yugi from such a situation. He placed a card face down, one in which he would use soon as long as he could draw his third Blue-Eyes White Dragon from his deck next turn. Yami remained silent as he begun his turn. He had drawn a monster card to protect his Life Points, but his situation seemed to remain helpless.

"I summon another Dark Valkyria in Defense Mode," Yami called out his move. He could do nothing else but play defense until he could think of a strategy. "I'll end my turn"

"It's not over yet. Deck Destruction virus!" Seto reminded him of his continuous trap card. The virus took yet another ten cards from his deck, this time he lost his Dark Magician Girl. "Now it's over."

Seto was almost positive he would draw his final Blue-Eyes this turn. He already had one Blue-Eyes in his hand, which he could have easily summoned by sacrificing his giant and Servant of Catabolism, but decided to summon the Paladin to take one from his deck instead so that he would not have to wait to summon his fused Blue-Eyes White Dragon. He pulled the card atop his deck and looked at it. It truly had been his lucky day. He now had two Blue-Eyes White Dragons in his hand and one on the field. Now he would be moments away from summoning his fused Blue-Eyes.

"It's amazing. I have no belief in the heart of the cards, yet here I have the precise cards I need in my hand," mentioned Seto. "Reveal face down card: Polymerization!"

He revealed the other two Blue-Eyes White Dragons in his hand. All three Blue-Eyes appeared on the field. The three dragons flashed into a bright light and the three lights shaped in the shape of a White Dragon came together. A massive body became of the three Blue-Eyes as three heads emerged from the top. The fusion was complete. What now stood on the field was the obscenely powerful Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon (4500/3000). Yami was too familiar with the strength of this beast.

"As I'd thought, your ultimate beast, the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, is the supposed key to my defeat," Yami grumbled. "I'm assuming you know that I've defeated this beast on several occasions."

"Maybe so, but don't underestimate him and his 4500 attack points!" Seto said as he played another card. "I'll use the Magic Card, Quick Attack, so you don't have to wait to feel the power of my Ultimate Dragon! Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, attack!"

With no traps, magic, or spells placed on the field, Yami was practically defenseless with his Dark Valkyria on the field. All three Blue-Eyes heads shot a blast of white, negatively charged energy at his only monster. The Spellcaster-type monster was destroyed at first hit.

"There goes your only monster, and just wait until next turn, when my Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon aims for you!" warned Kaiba, almost promising Yami his Life Points would be gone by his next turn. He signaled the end of his turn.

Yami continued the duel, though hardly by his own will. He drew a card and suddenly had an idea to destroy Kaiba's Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. He looked at his card, contemplating whether he should play it or not, fearing Kaiba could end up in a worse condition that he was in. He had no choice, especially when his Life Points seemed to be decreasing by the turn and his chances of winning becoming slimmer. With all the cards he needed in his hand, Yami began putting his plan into action.

It seemed as if they had been asleep for hours, but they had only been knocked out for a few minutes. Tristan and Joey arose from the stone hard ground, rubbing their heads. They looked around the dark puzzle, unsure of where they were or what had just happened.

"I swear I hate eyes!" Joey complained. "First we had Pegasus' Millennium Eye to be afraid of, and that Marik creep, or at least his evil side, who had eyes that made him look like he was always stoned. And now we get sucked into wherever the hell we are now because of some giant eye!"

"I'm not gonna disagree," Tristan concurred. Him and Joey had never been in the puzzle before, so it didn't look at all familiar. "Have any idea where we might be?"
"Hell if I know. God it looks like someone was trying to make this place as confusing as possible. Just look at it. So complex, oddly shaped, stairs all over the place, who would make something like this, and how?"

Looking up, they noticed the ceiling was longer than the floor they were on. It seemed to get narrower the farther down it went. While it was harder to tell from the inside, this dark chamber looked like an upside-down pyramid, though neither of them recognized it.

"This place creeps me out!" Tristan screamed.

"You're telling me. I've never seen a place with so many doors. Someone's gotta be in here though. We can't be alone."

"I guess we got no choice but to look around."

Randomly, the duo walked up and down stairway after stairway in search of Yugi or anything they could find.

"What do you want from me?" Yugi yelled to who he thought to be Anubis.

"It is not you I desire, but you were in my way, so therefore I had to dispose of you somehow," he summarized. "But I believe I have told you far too much already."

The caskets scattered around the room began to open on their own. The tops of the coffins fell off and wrapped corpses began rising from the inside. Each undead body sat up slowly, moaning as they began standing. These living dead fiends were mummies!

"Devour him," demanded the voice of the mummies.

Yugi knew he was in trouble, especially when the mummies began waddling their way towards him. Yet he wished not to leave just yet. At the same time, the larger fancier coffin resting in the back of the room on the platform began to open. Not paying attention to the mummies at all, Yugi watched as a big hand crept out from the gold coffin, grabbing the side of the coffin. The other hand came out of the coffin, and both pulled up the body inside. The sight of such a body was quite grotesque! The male body was wide, yet the skin was all wrinkly and dirty. It looked muscular for an old rotting corpse, the arms and legs rather wide. The dirty, knotty hair hung from his head, and his eyes were blood-shot red. He grinned at Yugi, showing his rotting yellow teeth and evil smile. As disturbing as the body looked already, it looked as if its looks and health were improving. The skin color was cleaning, his hair slightly detangling, and muscles regaining strength. As the body went through what looked like a revival process, Yugi noticed the eye hanging on the back wall glowing brightly with a red light. The reflection of the light shined on the rebuilding body, which continued to improve to its old physique.

A bony hand grabbed Yugi by the arm, trying to drag him down from the doorway. Yugi finally stopped watching the rise of an old body, which suddenly had a look as if he had no soul and the red light from the eye stopped glowing. The voice had stopped whispering in the atmosphere as the mummies crowded their way towards Yugi. With nothing better to do, Yugi dashed out of the room and down the stairs that he came from. The slower mummies followed him, coming in a pack of at least thirty of them. Hoping they were no where near him, Yugi continuously looked back as he continued to run forward, even up and down stairs and around sharp corners. On several occasions, he almost tripped or fell, which helped the mummies catch up to him.

When he was looking back, Yugi smacked right into Joey and Tristan, knocking them over. Normally, Joey would have been upset to have someone run into him and knock him down, but since it was Yugi, he found it quite a relief. Tristan and Joey had been looking for someone for what seemed like hours.

"Yugi!" exclaimed Joey, helping him up. Yugi looked behind him to see the mummies were gone. He panted hard, leaning against a nearby wall.

"What were you scampering away from so quickly?" Tristan asked him. "And what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be dueling or something?"

Yugi did not want to answer questions he did not even know the answer to. He said nothing as a reply and kept looking back in the direction where he last saw the mummies chasing him.

"Anyone there?" Joey waved his hand in front of Yugi's face.

"Oh, sorry," he apologized for his lack of attention. "How did you guys get in here?"

"An eye, what else?" whined Joey. "We saw that pyramid thing go around the dueling field, so we ran to another side of it trying to see if we could look in. And we run to this side with this giant eye on it, and the next thing we knew we were being sucked in. And that's about all I remember."

"Have any ideas on where we might be right now?" Tristan asked.

"Yeah, my Millennium Puzzle," told Yugi. "I've been here before, and this is definitely it. No one could make a building this complex."

Joey and Tristan scratched their heads, but believed him.

"Listen, we have to go back there," Yugi said, though Joey and Tristan had no idea where he was talking about.

"Back where?" they asked.

"I found this room with a whole bunch of caskets and hieroglyphics in it," began Yugi. "It was weird, because there was this one coffin where it was like a pharaoh's coffin, designed specially and everything. And then some body started rising out of it, but I swear that I think it was lifeless for a time. It was as if it were being brought back to life. And there was this voice..."

He fell silent.

"This voice, whispering to me, accusing me for the one being responsible for everything that's happening," he continued, but talked more softly and slower. "And then he demanded mummies to kill me. That's what I was running from."
"Whoa, you're sayin' there's actually an unvacant room in this joint?" Joey asked. "Where?"

Yugi pointed back to the direction he came from before running into them.

"It was that way and up a few stairways. It's not hard to miss, 'cause it's the only one with light shining from it, and it's the only room on top of the staircase," he explained. "I remember most of the way, so we should be able to find it."

"But there's mummies!" Tristan reminded them. "I don't wanna go near them living dead dead guys."

Tristan backed away and Joey went to join him. Fearing the worst, neither of them wanted to go anywhere near that room. Yugi sighed and began walking on his own back to the room he came from.

"Yug, you're not really goin' back, are you?" Joey cried to him.

"I am," he said with confidence in his voice. "For one thing, whatever's going on in there is probably the cause of all this. And if we want to get out of here, we don't have a choice but to go back. Most importantly, if I really am responsible for all this, then I have to deal with it."

Yugi walked on his own, away from his friends. He thought that he would be doing this alone, but not long after, Joey and Tristan accompanied him. They definitely did not want Yugi going on his own if it were perilous. In such a time, they would not abandon their friend. Yugi smiled at them as the three walked back to the nonvacant chamber, where they hoped to find answers.