Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh.

Legends of the Demon Duelist-Chaos Arc

Chapter 34: Stop Chaos before it is too late

"How are you going to do that?" Ichigo pointed at her and sneered. "I'm too tough for you to hurt."

Eri blinked at the confidence in Ichigo's voice. ("What happened while I was unconscious?")

Chaos winked, a little spark of prismatic energy at her fingertip. "That's quite true...however..." the spark turned into a ball...the ball turned into a sun...the sun grew. "We'll see how well you hold up, seeing as how you are made of flesh and blood."

Ichigo motioned for her to come.

Chaos let the attack fly...and it launched right past Ichigo's shoulder...and straight towards Eri.

Eri saw the sun of energy hurtling towards her...and though she wanted not to feel any fear, she did. It was the fear of death that all living things have in their hearts. And so she closed her eyes and braced for the worst.

"That's enough Chaos!" Ichigo kicked backwards and threw himself in the way of the attack, pushing his shoulder against the sun. It offered a moment of resistance and then started to lose momentum. ("Like I thought. It's just too easy.")

Chaos grinned and latched her full power onto the sun. "Gotcha!"

Ichigo understood his mistake now, he was stuck. The sun of energy bulged in size and began to force him backwards. Though he had the power to deflect the attack, he didn't possess the necessary leverage. And without that he was as good as dead, regardless of how strong he was. Because like Chaos had said, he was nothing but flesh and bone. And unprepared flesh and bone was easy to destroy.

Eri opened her eyes to see Ichigo just a few inches away from her, and he was slowly being forced back towards her, while the ball of energy started to overwhelm his resistance. It was beginning to sear against his skin, and he felt his body pushing more and more energy into him just to keep it from consuming him instantly.

Chaos' strength against the ball was a steady stream, and soon it would completely destroy the boy. "And when it destroys you the explosion will also destroy any mortal on this platform. So no matter what you do, the girl will die."

Eri's blood ran cold as she realized that there was nothing she could do to turn this situation around. Her life rested in Ichigo's hands.

And the half-demon knew it as well. "Chaos...I will not let you hurt anyone in this world!" He screamed, and his energy spiked into the ball. It shuddered for a few moments and then exploded with the force of a small supernova.

Eri was hurled to her back, and she threw her arms up to try and protect her face from the blinding light that was raining down onto her. When the light faded, the first thing she picked up with her senses was the smell of badly burnt flesh. Opening her eyes, she saw nothing but scorchmarks on the ground in front of her. "Ichigo..."

Chaos smirked. "And the mortal loses. Everything is as it should be." She blinked in surprise as her vision fully returned and she saw Eri. "And amazingly you are still alive. So he actually managed to block my attack well enough to protect you from it?"

Eri slid into a fighting stance, though honestly she doubted she could do much to Chaos. "Keep away from me..."

"But don't you want to play?" Chaos smiled sweetly and started to approach the demoness. "I just want to play with you. It should only hurt for a moment or so."

Eri stumbled back and growled low in her throat. "I said stay back!"

Chaos just kept walking towards her...until a foot slammed into the side of her head and sent her flying a few feet backwards.

Kenshin landed on his feet and frowned, cracking his knuckles. "So you're Chaos? You seemed bigger on the screen." He slid into a fighting stance and eyed the unfazed girl appraisingly. "Now then, let's see what you can do."

"So one of the Seal Holders wishes to fight me?" Chaos tilted her head back into a more suitable position, barely even acknowledging the fact that she had been struck. The little girl giggled and waved her hand, nearly blowing the Crusader off of the platform with a blast of force. "How trite..."

"He isn't alone!" Griff said from behind Chaos.

"Neither is he." Hitokage flexed his fingers. He didn't know what would happen if he tried to suck the life out of Chaos, but if it meant that she would be stopped he'd risk it.

"And I won't let you hurt these kids." Jared, along with Adriel, and Krieger now stood behind Eri. "You can't beat all of us and our Seals."

"Au contraire." Chaos stomped her foot into the ground and a shockwave of energy sent every to the ground. "I can take all of you times ten. Not one of you mortals can hurt me. The only one of you that had that power is currently ash." Her eyes rested on Eri. "And as for you, little child, you're living on borrowed time. And it's time to collect." She lifted her finger, a prismatic spark of light at the tip of the digit. "Your boyfriend, by the way, made a nice screaming noise of pain right before he was incinerated."

Eri's eyes narrowed and she stood up slowly. "Chaos. You think that we're afraid of you? Far from it. I'm not scared of you, and neither is anyone else." She started to approach the malignant spirit with a fire in her eyes that couldn't be faked or created through false bravado. "Like Ichigo said, you're nothing but a child!"

"A child?" Chaos pouted and lifted her glowing finger to point right at Eri's head. "Let me show you that compared to you, I'm a god."

Eri stood her ground, and waited for death. "I will not run."


Daniel shook his head out as he felt Rikuo awaken within his mind. ("Hi...")

("Who won?") The wolf demon's mental voice sounded incredibly low.

("So far...it looks like Chaos is going to win.") The half wolf-demon felt his other half look at the situation through his eyes, and Rikuo's spirits rose. ("Eri is alive! Oh my princess is okay!")

("Rikuo...") Daniel tilted his head slightly so that Chaos' image was in his line of sight.

("Chaos...if you dare to do what I think you're going to do...") Rikuo snarled within Daniel's mind...

Ryu rubbed his chin and looked up at the image worriedly. "And so it comes down to whether Chaos gets bored with us or not."

"What did you say?" Rikuo took over for Daniel in a heartbeat, ran over, and then grabbed the dragon demon by the collar. "Are you saying that there is no hope?"

"Exactly. Ichigo was our best bet of defeating Chaos. And now that he is gone, there is nothing we can do but stand here and pray that the random thought pattern of Chaos makes her forget about us. That will give us a chance to escape and plan some way of defeating her." Ryu brushed the wolf demon's hands aside. "And don't touch my suit. It's worth more than your life."

Siegfried rung his hands nervously. ("Krieger...please be okay.")


"I'll give you to the count of five to make your plea." Chaos smiled sweetly to Eri. "Get down on your hands and knees, and maybe I'll make your death slightly less painful."

Eri sneered and kicked a piece of damaged platform at her head. "Suck on this instead."

The rock bounced off of Chaos' forehead, and she frowned. "Fine. Die like a dog." The building ball of light on her finger fired and hurtled towards the demoness.

Eri watched it approach with full knowledge of the fact that she was about to die.


"Dodge!" Rikuo screamed at the image of Eri. "Don't just die!"


Chaos smiled and waved to Eri. "Good-bye."

"NO!"

Everyone turned their head to look at the edge of the platform. All they saw was something leap up from the side of the platform and then disappear.

Eri saw someone appear in front of her, and they snapped their whole arm in a batting motion. The ball shuddered and launched away from everyone into the open sky. There was a blinding flash of light that left everyone with spots in front of their eyes, but otherwise no one was hurt.

Chaos' eyes widened and she clenched her fists. "Why won't you die like other mortals?"

Ichigo coughed weakly and fell to his knees. "Trust me...I'm three steps away from it." And he meant it too. Even at a distance it was obvious that he was badly damaged. The explosion from the previous attack left him with only tatters of a shirt remaining, his jacket completely incinerated. All along his face and chest were numerous huge burn marks that showed raw muscle tissue under them. The worst damage though was that hisright arm was quite literally destroyed, with only slight remainders of muscle tissue remaining attached to his shoulder. "Eri...are you alright?"

The demoness stared at him in pure horror. "How are you even talking right now? You should be disabled because of pain."

"I should." Ichigo stood up weakly and looked at the damaged wreck of his duel disk. It was still operational, but only barely. He was amazed his deck didn't burst into flames when it was hit by the attack. "Now I have to win this...duel..." He started to fall, his vision slowly blurring away...

Except that someone was suddenly under him, giving him the necessary support to stand. "Adriel..."

The half dragon demon smiled to the half demon. "No one will defeat you until I've finished my grudge with you, Pilkington."

Ichigo started to feel faint, but a breath of energy flowed into his body as Hitokage helped Adriel prop him up. "Ichigo Pilkington, ever since you have arrived here at the academy nothing has been quiet." The blond-haired boy's lips lifted slightly. "For that I thank you."

Chaos growled and lifted her hand, another ball of energy at the tip of it. "Die!" She threw the ball, but Kenshin leapt in the way and slapped it aside.

"Ichigo," he glanced back at the half demon, trying to ignore the burns along the back of his hand. "Don't let Chaos think that she has won. I know that you possess the power necessary to take her out. Don't let the situation weigh down on you. We're with you every step of the way."

Ichigo felt even more revitalized.

Griff and Krieger both placed their hands on Ichigo's back, energy flowing into the half demon's weary body.

"Ever since I met you all I could think about was how I was friends with someone who is definitely going to make history," Griff started to say.

"And all I ever could think about was how you accepted me as a friend, even though I was quite obviously a threat to you," Krieger continued.

"I felt like I was simply helping you along at the side-lines, but then when the tag team duel came along, I knew that with your help I could prove my true worth as a duelist," Griff stepped in.

"And without you I never would have truly met Horus, who changed my life in so many good ways," Krieger whispered, his cheeks blushing as he was finally admitting to the fact that the voice of Horus in his head was truly real.

"Thank you Ichigo Pilkington," they both said together.

Ichigo smiled weakly, and then blinked in surprise as another hand touched the middle of his back.

"I'm still not sure what this is all about..." Jared couldn't really transfer energy, but he felt like every little bit would be helpful. "But I know that what you are doing is making a difference. Ichigo Pilkington...don't give up."

That little speech seemed the most important to Ichigo, just because it was by someone who was nearly a complete stranger to him.

Then a soft hand brushed against his cheek. "Ichigo Pilkington...I wanted to kill you originally. Then I defeated you and thought that my revenge was complete. After that you defeated me and left me with little more than shattered dreams and hopes of honor. However, when Negative was destroyed I started to see the truth. It took Octavian More and his sick methods of using souls to show me something I felt since the moment I laid eyes on you." Eri's hand turned his head to the side and she kissed him. And it was a kiss that lasted a good minute or so...


Rikuo's eyes nearly exploded out of his head.

Ryu snickered calmly and waited to see how the wolf demon was going to react.

Daniel took over for Rikuo, and threw his son a thumbs-up that would go unseen by the person it was directed to. "Now that's my boy!"


Eri pulled her lips away from Ichigo's. "Ichigo Pilkington, finish this duel."

Chaos looked disgusted. "Ewww! That's so sick. Mortals kissing is such a disturbing act."

Ichigo closed his eyes and smiled, no longer feeling pain from the horrible damage he had suffered. "Maybe so...but then again..." Adriel drew the top card off of his deck and held it up to him. "Now I've got some real motivation."

"So what?" Chaos pointed to her field. "Exodus has the power to quite easily destroy whatever you can summon." She blinked in mock surprise. "Oh wait, you removed all monsters from the game except for Exodus. That leaves you quite easily in the danger zone."

Ichigo closed his eyes and then opened them to look at the card resting in Adriel's hand. "This is the card...that will end this duel now."

"You have no monsters."

"That's about to change!" Ichigo's ruined disk whined and his face-down card flipped up. "Activate Return from the Different Dimension! At the cost of half of my life points I will special summon as many monsters from either remove from play pile that I can! Awaken now!" The sky above them all started to swirl and form into a huge vortex in the sky. And from within it emerged a trio of angry roars.

The first being to lower to the field was a huge silver-metallic robot that was built to slightly resemble a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Tossing back its hulking body, the machine roared and shook the platform. (Steel Titan-Rex (2800/2000)

The second was a green-armored bird-like robot with huge jets strapped across its body, along with numerous racks of missiles. (Steel Titan-Crane (2000/2500)

And the third was nothing but stream-lined fins. Splitting its mouth open, it screeched into the sky along with its brethren. (Steel Titan-Ray (2500/2300)

All of the collected Seal holders all gaped as the three Steel Titans formed an honor guard around them.

Chaos pointed at Exodus. "HAH! During this turn, the effects of all monsters on your field will be sealed. That means that Exodus cannot possibly be defeated by weaklings such as those three."

Ichigo pointed to a black metal cyborg and a little furball in a tuxedo that lowered onto his field. "I sacrifice Dark Mechanic (200/200) and Cyber Shadow-Kuriboh (300/200) to activate the effect of Mechanic! When I sacrifice two monsters I may special summon one machine fusion monster from my fusion deck." Something began to form in the air behind the platform. "Steel Titan-Arsenal!" (0/5000) A titanic bug-like robot as big as the Chaos Whale appeared alongside the other leviathan.

"Those won't be enough!" Chaos pointed at the blob of dark matter on her field. "Exodus negates all of their effects!"

"That it does." Ichigo nodded to Adriel. "However..." The half dragon demon held up the drawn card. "I play the ritual magic card Ultimate Composite!"

Each of the Steel Titans roared and lifted into the air, quickly disappearing from sight and into the cloud-cover. "This card requires I pay half of my life points and sacrifice all four of the Steel Titans from my field." Ichigo's eyes met the prismatic ones of Chaos. "However, now you will fall completely and utterly."

Chaos stomped her feet childishly. "Shut up stupid mortal! Your monsters have no effects!"

A screech that shook the air cut her off. The creature that lowered down to the field was twice the size of the Chaos Whale, and its steel body was perfectly polished to the point of being nearly blinding in shine. It didn't so much resemble a specific animal as it resembled a satellite.

Chaos stared at the machine in pure horror. "What...is that?"

Ichigo's hand pointed up at the looming satellite. "Steel Titan-Ultima!" (0/0) Screeching again, Ultima tilted its whole body to face Exodus and Chaos. "And now you're about to lose to the special effect of my ultimate Steel Titan!"

"But its effect has been sealed!" Chaos looked like she was going to throw a temper tantrum. "You can't win!"

"Ultima is immune to the effects of all cards!" Ichigo held his hand up into the sky. "For every card in my removed from play pile, Ultima gains 1000 attack points!" (16000/0) Huge solar panels opened up all over the moon-like machine, and light flooded the area.

Eri didn't feel blinded though...and neither did anyone else. They felt warm and protected.

Ichigo bit his lower lip and watched as particles of light were sucked into the panels. "Chaos, it ends here! Finish it Ultima!"

The satellite opened a panel at its front...and that panel revealed a single needle-point cannon. Energy gathered along the needle-point, and the machine started to hum rapidly. "Activate Purifying Rain." The glowing needle-point released the ball, and suddenly Chaos' field was being pummeled by beams of burning white light.

The spirit screamed in pure pain, while Exodus sizzled away instantly. "This can't be...you're just mortals...you're just..." Chaos stumbled backwards. "No! I don't wanna get sealed away again!"

"You don't have a choice!" Ichigo held up his hand. "Begone!" Releasing what remained of his energy, he braced himself as an explosion shook the platform.

Chaos cried out weakly...and then blew apart into dust.

The platform began to crumble around them. And with one mournful cry of pain the Chaos Whale came apart into bits of prismatic dust.

Ichigo knew he was falling now...but he was so tired... ("I hope Eri will be okay...sleepy time...") The last thing his eyes saw was a flash of gold scales right beneath him.

To be continued...

To Seeker of the Soul: I can see where you are coming from, but more or less Ichigo is a hero. At least for now.

To G.O.T. Nick: That will be the last time in a while that I use Eri for the role as damsel in distress. She's starting to lose her patience with my antics.

To Star: Done and done.

To Seth: I try my best to provide good work to my public.