"Why is it my force is comprised of bumbling idiots, though, Hjathor? So far, most of these so-called 'S-list' duelists have fallen." Lantash sighed with frustration.
"Well their hatred was strong, even if their decks were not." Hathor sighed as well.
"I suppose this goes to show the total superiority of the masterful Chaos deck." Lantash sat back.
"Perhaps."
-O-
Kaomi stood opposite Hoshi in the arena.
"Well, well, well... let's have a show." Hoshi drew her hand, "Activate Share the Greed, making both players draw two cards during their Draw Phase, and also play Graceful Charity. And thanks to these Spell Reproduction cards, play it two more times." She watched her Graveyard pile up.
"Draw!" Kaomi drew, "Set three cards and summon Dark Blade. Blade, attack!"
Hoashi braced herself. Her Life Points fell to 2200. She drew two cards, "Activate The Cheerful Coffin. This raises my Graveyard by two more cards. And activate one more Spell Reproduction, this time on Spell Reproduction, then on Graceful Charity. Just for added insurance. Now, I can reveal the trap, Exchange of the Spirit!"
"No! Activate Trap card Trap Bind!" Chains ensnared the Exchange of the Spirit. "As long as my trap is on the field, yours remains out as well, and without an effect."
-O-
"Tell me we'll have more competent duelists guarding the alpha site." Lantash sighed watching the sad display below.
"You and Set are in charge of that." Hathor watched, "We have to prevent her from getting in out way this time."
-O-
"Offer Dark Blade for Kyriu, and activate my spell card Rush Recklessly. Kiryu, Reckless Fire, obliterate!" the fires of Kyriu knocked Hoshi back, defeating her.
-O-
Roy Sinclair and Raven Vaniver faced off. Roy was slightly aged, and had one of the heavier French accents Raven had ever heard.
"Summon Gemini Elf." Roy smiled, "Set and end my turn."
"Let's see how your Elf handles this. Set one card and summon my Kanan the Swardsmistress in defense mode," Raven smiled.
"Gemini, attack!" Roy smiled, "Set two more."
"That it?" Raven drew, "Summon Sangan and activate the Pyro Cock, allowing me to offer it for Marie the Fallen One in attack mode. Now, with Sangan I retrieve my King of the Swamp. Here comes Polymerization! This fuses my Dark Magician and my King of the Swamp to get the Dark Paladin!" The Paladin stood next to Raven's fallen angel, "Now, to seal the deal, Heavy Storm!" A great storm blew away Roy's three face-down cards. "Paladin, destroy the elves!" The Dark Paladin shattered the Gemini Elf. "And Marie, his Life Points!" Raven set two cards as his Fallen One attacked.
Roy drew, "Viva la France!" He summoned a Spear Dragon, "Dragon, destroy his Marie!" The Spear Dragon attacked, defeating Raven's monster.
"Did you forget, Sinclair? Not only is my monster a full thousand points stronger, it is raised by five hundred points of attack for each Dragon on the field and in the Graveyard." Raven drew, "Paladin, obliterate!"
"Ah, ah, ah!" Roy smiled, "My Spear Dragon must defend." The Paladin's blade sliced clean through the Dragon. Roy drew, "I set three cards and play my Skilled Dark Magician in defense mode."
Raven drew, "Activate the Cost Down spell card, and combine it with Soul Exchange, offering your monster for the Tyrant Dragon. Tyrant, attack!"
"Mirror Force!" Roy smiled.
"Card Guard combined with Disgraceful Charity!" A shield with four cards blocked the Mirror Force, then the four cards flew back to Raven's hand. The blast from the Tyrant consumed the Skilled Magician. "My Plaldin is raised 500 more by my Tyrant, putting him at 3900, way more than enough to destroy you." Raven drew his hand back, "Attack!"
"Magic Cylinder!" The Card Shield blacked the returned fire.
"My Card Guard is in effect for a full turn." Raven watched the Paladin make its final strike.
-O-
"Do we need to worry about him?" Set asked, as Raven's match concluded and Illarya went up against Rose Faye.
"I doubt it." Hathor watched the new match intently.
"I wouldn't be so sure, Lady Hathor." Lantash interjected, "Raven seems calm and collected, but his darker side has a nasty temper. And if anything happens to the girl, he goes Yami and seeks out vengeance. It happened to Illarya's Yami form."
"So we make sure he can't find it." Set smiled.
-O-
When Illarya reentered the antechamber, Kaomi gave her a high-five, "Nice work!" Kaomi watched Serenity head out. They were now the only three, as the rest had headed to the stands.
"I can't believe this." Raven sighed, "I've had dark spirits try to kill me, and taken down self-proclaimed God-Kings bent on global domination, and took part in a classic good-versus-evil battle! Not to mention had my brain supercharged by an ancient Egyptian box for a day or so! After all of that, I come here, and these idiots can't be bothered to put up a decent fight?"
"I know. It does seem almost too easy." Kaomi sighed. "Somehow I doubt the Brothers Yami will be easy, though." She paused, "Set and Lantash are both in the semis with us."
"True. They've put up a decent fight so far." Illarya sighed.
"Something wrong?" Raven asked.
"Lantash." Illarya became angry at just saying his name; "He keeps making passes at me. But I do have information. He works for some 'Lady Hathor' and plans to take over the world. She sickens me. Sounds a lot like the old me, actually."
-O-
Ardrea stood at a vender just outside her section of the stands, "I'll take a Mountain Dew and... what did Mister Pegasus want?" She sighed, "Somehow I doubt you have red wine spritzers here..."
"No." the vender replied.
"Just a Dew, then." Ardrea took her drink and turned to see Lantash blocking her path.
"Hello, little Pegasus wanna-be." Lantash smiled.
"What do you want? I beat you fair and square." Ardrea opened her drink and took a sip.
"My dear friend, I am not here asking for a rematch. I'm here to recruit you." Lantash approached her.
"Sorry, I have enough superiors already." Ardrea tried to step past him, but he remained in her war.
"Who said you had a choice?" Lantash laughed.
-O-
Raven stood having defeated Kaomi a good hour and a half later awaiting the final round. He looked at the Envoy he had won. He wouldn't use it. It was hers.
"Now, for the finals. First, it's Raven versus Ste, then Set versus Lantash, and finally Raven versus Lantash." The plesent announcer woman called to the audience.
"Let's get this show on the road, gents." Raven smiled.
"You don't trust your dark saide to handle this for you? Shame." Set stepped forward, shadows like an aura around him.
"Duel!" Raven called, launching his disk.
-O-
Hathor stood before Kaomi in the hall outside the main arena.
"If I remember my mythology, Hathor was supposed to be nice." Kaomi scowled.
"Well, five thousand years makes one a little sour sometimes." Hathor replied as shadows engulfed her arm and formed a Duel Disk. The pyramid around her neck glistened.
Kaomi launched her disk, "I heard the Pharaoh broke that little toy."
Hathor launched hers, "A definite advantage to having unwavering supporters. They can rebuild it. They have the technology. They can make it better than it was before. Better. Stronger. Faster."
"Oh, just go to hell." Kaomi drew her first hand and looked at it, "I summon my Witch of the Black Forest in defense mode! And set this!"
"Oh, Itai, you talk so big every time. This has to be our third or fourth time going through this. I'm a God. I may have some diminished powers thanks to that campaign five millennia ago, but with the Pyramid of Light here, well, I have a hell of a lot of power." Hathor smiled, "Some forth and serve me, Dark Blade!" A dark night came forth and flew at Kaomi's monster.
As the witch shattered, Kaomi smiled, "Reveal Monster Reconstitution!" the Witch returned to the field in defensive position.
-O-
"Sphinx Teleia, attack the defensive monster!" Set screamed.
The defensive Kanan shattered. Raven drew, "I remember how to take these things out, Set. First, summon Sangan and activate my Pyro Clock allowing me to summon my Rocket Warrior, and then add Polymerization with Dark Magician and my King of the Swamp to summon the Dark Flare Knight. Now, offer my three monsters to summon the great and powerful Gilford the Lightning!" Bolts of electricity surrounded the field and from the bolts was born a great warrior. The warrior unsheathed his sword and shot from it an electrical blast destroying the Sphinx. "Gilford, obliterate!"
-O-
As the Millennium Shield stared Hathor's dark armada down, Kaomi smiled, "Looks like I'm unbreakable."
-O-
Theimen the Great Sphinx and Chaos Emperor Dragon lit the field ablaze in their power4 struggle leading to Set's defeat.
-O-
"I sacrifice Dark Blade and the Skilled Dark Magician for my great Egyptian guardian, the Valliant Sphinx, Protector of Thebes!" A giant sphinx rose from the ground. It leaped at the shield, destroying is, "Adding my Great Sphinx, Emissary of Thebes to my hand and end my turn."
-O-
Lantash and Raven stared eachother down. Lantash at too little Life Points to use his Emperor Dragon's effect and Raven lacking field control.
"Emperor, attack the defensive monster!" Lantash called.
"Reveal Negate Attack!" Raven drew and smiled, "Activate Enemy Controller, offering my monster to take CED and activate it's effect, finishing you!" Raven called.
-O-
"Now with my two Sphinxes on the3 field I play Thebian Triad summoning the third and sacrifice all three to summon my Millennium Sphinx, Master of Thebes! Millennium Sphinx, obliterate!" Shadows began to close in on Kaomi.
-O-
Lantash knelt as Raven held the Chaos Emperor Dragon, which burst into flame. Lantash laughed in a demonic harmony of voices more bone chilling than any before. "So what, Vaniver? You won the tournament. Lady Hathor won something as well. A soul close so very to your own. Surely your bond is so that you can almost sense it. Kaomi Itai has left the building!" Lantash laughed manically, "She's ours now, Raven. All ours. And we'll keep her in the shadows so she can't get in our way this time. It's game over."
Raven did not respond. He did not take his trophy. He simply ran to the hall outside the antechamber. "Kaomi!" He screamed. But he saw only one person. A woman he did not know, but assumed was Hathor, by her possession of the Pyramid of Light. "Where is she!"
"I don't know, Raven. Where does one go after losing a Shadow Game?" Hjathor smiled. Raven charged at Hathor, an Eye of Anubis shining on his forehead. Hathor simply waved her hand and flung Raven in a wall. "Did you think that would work? I'm a God with a pyramid around my neck. I'm a little out of your league, little boy."
"I'll get you." Raven struggled to his feet.
"Nice. You try that." Hathor walked away from him.
-O-
Raven sat in the hall as the others, who came to congratulate him, discussed he situation.
"This Hathor sounds powerful." Pegasus said matter-of-factly.
"We have to save her." Raven said.
"It may be impossible." Sevanos said simply.
"I can't accept that." Illarya said, siding with Raven, "You spared nothing to save me. Although that wasn't your goal, you risked a lot. And I owe the same to Kaomi. Besides, I think this was meant to happen to get us involved. This is destiny knocking at our door."
"Let's not answer!" Shuyin said loudly.
"We must. We have no choice." Aura said.
"We do. We have the choice to live." Serenity said.
"Cowardice!" Ardrea screamed.
"I'm too busy to help, what with coming out of retirement and all. But I will let Ardrea take time off to help you." Pegasus nodded.
"Thank you."
"Look, it's simple! If you want to go back to Japan and leave Kaomi to a miserable end, than do. If you want to go and face the same fate, than do. I'm going to search for a third option." Sevanos said to the group. "If you're heading back or with me we'll go to the Stars New York branch. If you want to rush into things like Illarya, the jet is all yours at the airport."
Reluctantly, everyone nodded.
"I ask that the people heading back do research into Hathor and her plans and all that. We need to be prepared for the next step. We have one month of summer left, and Kaomi probably has far less time, so we need to work fast." Raven said, "I'm going to work with Sevanos. Not because I agree with him, but because I think Illarya can lead the first wave. I'll come in as soon as Illarya finds Hathor."
"Where do we start?" Aura asked.
"Egypt." Koji Isamu approached the group, "Shikeru Ryou and I had done some look into her. I'll help you, Miss Eden, so I can finish what I started."
"Then let's go." Raven nodded.