Inside his soul room, Yami Bakura's anger had melted into pure terror. Although he wasn't sure how he understood, he somehow knew those chants by heart. And with each word that fell from Isis' tongue, he could feel the life being choked within him.

"Ryou!" he shouted, clawing at the floor of the millennium ring.

The voices were growing. A second one had now joined in, echoing the first, and stealing the breath out of his staggering chest. He wasn't sure how he knew it, but he knew that he didn't have much time.

Yami Bakura pulled himself slowly to his feet. Already his legs felt like spiderwebs, helplessly fragile to the slightest touch. They could barely support his weight.

"Ryou! No!" he shouted, wondering if the teen could still hear him. He couldn't feel him. "Ryou! Stop this! Let me out of here!"

He struggled to take a breath.

"You insolent whelp!" he screamed, as loud as he could muster. "Let me out of here this instant!"

Again, there was no answer from his hikari. But the chanting voices were growing louder.

"Oh Ra…" he finally gasped. The pain was incredible. "Ryou! Stop!"

He could barely feel the light's presence. But it was there, faint, and in the background.

"Ryou!"

Panic-driven, Yami Bakura ran at the wall again, crashing into it with his right shoulder. He could feel the now brittle bones snapping against the gold as he fell back down in a twisted slump.

"Ryou! No! Oh Ra… Ryou!" he screamed, his free hand clutching the shattered shoulder. If this were any other time, he would have reacted with violent rage. But now, he knew he was outmatched. "Ryou!"

He trembled on the ground, trying to stand up again. But no matter how hard he willed himself, he couldn't pull his body up. Instead, his eyes glanced down. Blood was everywhere. Dark blood, tinged with a black so encompassing it could only be found in the shadow realm. There was no mistaking it. It was his blood.

"Ryou!"

Yami Bakura's left hand quivered as it moved along his face. There were cuts and scratches there. It didn't take long for him to notice that there were open wounds everywhere else as well. One for each soul he banished to the darkness. And a few more for the souls he only threatened.

"Ryou, stop! It burns!" he screamed, his agony bombarding the ring. The chanting continued, scraping through his mind like a desert sandstorm. "Oh Ra… stop it… stop this! I give up! I'll do anything!"

In the distance, the door to his soul room finally became visible. Of course, in his state, he wondered if it had always been visible, and he had just been too contorted to notice.

"Ryou! Open it!"

There was still no response from his hikari. But the chanting was growing faster, much faster.

"Ryou!" he threw his body over, listening to ribs buckle beneath his spine. He stretched his neck, watching a small trail of light peek under the soul room door.

He coughed as he screamed, a mouthful of blood spewing from his bowels. He didn't have much time left.

"Ryou, please!" he finally shouted, his commands turning to troubled pleading. But again, there was no response.

Yami Bakura slowly pushed his body forward, crawling against the cold floor. Each mere inch lasted an eternity, waves of anguish crashing down on his fragile body as it wasted away.

"Please! Stop!" he screamed. "I… I can't…"

His outstretched arm was nothing more than a white stick. A burned husk of a limb, scorched from the desert sun.

"I… I can't take… Ryou… Oh Ra… stop the pain… just… please…" he gasped. His chest was like an empty tomb, old air trapped and clinging to its walls. "Anything… stop the pain… Ryou… please…"

He pulled himself forward again. Blood was everywhere. His hair glistened a dark shade of pink. His eyes sunk back in his melting skull.

"Ryou…" he choked, finally collapsing on the ground.

The chanting continued, faster and faster. His heart pounded against his broken ribs with every beat of the Egyptian prayer, until he could literally feel it bursting.

"…Ryou…"

He shut his eyes, but all he could see was the light. The bright sun overwhelming all of his senses, until there wasn't any place that his mind could hide.

"… oh Ra…"

The light coiled like serpents around him, slithered through him, and bit into him. Its poison leaked through the holes in his skin, devouring everything it touched, and leaving something else to be devoured in its wake.

"Ryou… please…" he gasped, feeling nothing but pain, and knowing nothing but light.

The voices continued, still growing faster.

"please… aibou…" another spasm shook the ring, and his body with it.

The chanting wouldn't stop.

Ryou was there, wasn't he?

"No more…"

The light burned. It burned more than Yami Bakura could have imagined. His flesh was nothing but hot wax, slowly melting from a ceremonial candle.

"… Ra…"

The darkness. He would have given anything for the confines of the darkness. Anything for the shadow realm.

The voices kept chanting.

"…aibou…"

He couldn't move. There wasn't much left for him to move.

"… please…"

Just a few scattered thoughts, a few leftover emotions had yet to be seared away. A few strands of white hair scattered the ground, bursting into small coils of flame as the light reached them.

"… Ry…"

The voices stopped for a moment... And suddenly, there was nothing.