The final two walked together down the trail away from the little town. The town was no longer in sight as Seto and Yugi walked quietly on the trail. Having lost most of his friends, Yugi was quite saddened by the situation. He could not bear the fact that they were dead, and he had witnessed them all fall. With every person lost, he seemed to feel emptier inside, as if going on without a purpose. Seto on the other hand was much calmer, and hadn't let such tragedy get to him. He knew that if he did, it would hurt him from getting done what needed to be done.

Randomly as the two were walking, Yugi stopped in the middle of the path and fell to his knees. He stared at the ground, trying to hold back the tears from falling. He had Kaiba left, but nothing else. Seto turned around and watched in frustration as his companion sobbed.

"Only one left," Yugi mumbled to himself. "How will I go on...if…?"

Annoyed, Seto stood in front of him and kicked him in the face. Yugi fell back and stared sadly at Kaiba, unsure why he was just kicked.

"You," Kaiba began, "shut up! You can shed as many tears as you want, but that won't change anything that happened! Only bloodshed will! Don't you see? There can never be an easy way! Suffering is always involved, but those who break through that suffering are bound to be victorious. Now be a man and stop with this nonsense!"

Yugi sat on the ground, still recovering from the kick. He was aware however that Kaiba was right. He was letting Anubis get to his mind, and it was affecting him greatly. Yugi remembered his vow to his partner; how he promised to avenge him. In order to keep that, he knew that he had to heed Kaiba's words and not get distracted. Eventually, he picked himself up from the ground, and he and Seto continued on.

The path led them from the little town to the big city. With buildings tall enough to reach the sky, it lacked the commotion and traffic a normal city had. This made it easier to admire the beauty of the tall buildings. The air and environment was as clean as it had been elsewhere, making it even more perfect.

Walking through the streets of the city, Seto and Yugi saw a billboard. Rather than an advertisement painted or stuck onto it, hieroglyphics that they had seen before was on the front. This time, three more of them had been crossed out with a red X. The medium sized figure with the head of a dog, the figure with the friendly yet dark face, and the one with which stood on the shoulders of two of them, were now marked off. Only two did not contain the red X.

Remaining on the path, they were brought to the center of the city, which contained a dome. It looked like the same Dueling Dome that had been in Domino, where they first encountered Anubis. Both had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen, but were confused as of why he'd choose to battle them at something they were both quite skilled at. Yugi hoped it would be a handicap duel, as he had fought before alongside Kaiba.

"What was once a strong group of seven as collapsed into a weak duo," Anubis laughed at their lack of numbers.

Neither Yugi nor Kaiba responded.

"One more shall go, and then it will all be even," he told them. "Who will it be now?"

Yugi had gotten used to not walking ahead when at this point. He glanced over at Kaiba, whose eyes, staring back into Yugi's, indicated that he would take upon the next challenge. Yugi made no effort to stop him. Kaiba stepped forward.

"I will," Seto said with a bold voice.

Yugi went to take a seat in the audience. It had almost become a routine for him to leave once the challenger was decided. He was able to relax a bit more this time around, knowing that Kaiba was an excellent duelist.

You can beat him, he thought to himself. Save us.

Seto and Anubis faced towards each other. Seto could only give him a cold stare while Anubis seemed to give him a friendly welcome.

"So," Anubis began, "my little pawn, how have you been?"

Seto snarled at him. He remembered too well how he had been tricked last time.

"Don't take me for some kind of a fool," he said.

"But I cannot help it. Your selfishly corrupted mind is just too tempting to not toy with," he gave an evil giggle. "Oh it is people like you that I just love to kill."

Kaiba started laughing.

"You know, I've grown tired of your 'I hate the goddamn world' crap," he told him. "You can just skip over it and go straight to the part where I start kicking your ass."

Anubis' laughter immediately stopped, almost insulted.

"Have it your way. If you wish death upon you sooner, then that is your choice," he began. "This game should be easy for you, for this game…is duel monsters."

Kaiba was a bit shocked as a duel disk appeared on his left wrist, along with a deck of cards in the appropriate slot. He walked to the other side of the field.

"Seto," he yelled, "You and I are going to have a duel! A shadow duel! You are familiar with such games, I know. The loser goes straight to Hell!"

Seto couldn't help but grin. Dueling was a strong point of his, and had great confidence in victory. He held out his left wrist and allowed the portable duel disk to set itself up, as did Anubis.

"Duel!" the two of them yelled.

Both players drew five cards. Their life points were set at 4000, and the duel was underway. Anubis took the first turn. He drew one card from the top of his deck.

"I summon Ogre of the Black Shadow (1200/1400) in defense mode," he told Seto. A large image of a horned, dark red monster stood on his side of the field, kneeling on one knee and holding its two muscular arms across its chest. "Turn end!"

Kaiba laughed, thinking he could come up with a much better first move than playing cowardly a monster in defense mode. He drew a card to begin his turn.

"I will summon Devil Dragon (1500/1200) in attack mode," he said. "Attack his Ogre now!"

The long dark purple dragon appeared on the field. Glaring its yellow eyes at its target, it shot a burst of white flames at it. The beast in defense mode was then destroyed.

"Your Life Points are safe now, but not the next time," Kaiba threatened. "I will place one card face down. Turn end!"

Anubis drew again. He had no worries about this duel, no matter how bad of a situation he could get in.

"I summon Dark Blade (1800/1500). Attack now!" he declared.

"Ha! Reveal magic card: Dragon Nails!" Seto surprised him.

His monster was then equipped with a set of glove like covers on its hands containing deathly sharp claws. Better yet, it increased its attack to 2200, which was more than high enough to destroy Dark Blade. The dragon slashed the warrior as it came, and Dark Blade was destroyed. Anubis' life points were lowered to 3600.
"You're going to have to do better than that," Seto told him.

"This is only the beginning. One card faced down, and my turn is done," he said, trying to keep a straight face.

Seto drew again. He drew nothing of use to him at the time, but saw his opponent wide open for a direct attack. Without hesitation, he sent his dragon to attack him directly. Anubis had been prepared for such an event. His face down card, Wall of Darkness, prevented a direct attack on him for that turn. Seto knew his opponent had gotten lucky, and ended his turn.

Turn back to Anubis. He had drawn the card he needed.

"First, I will summon Gargoyle Powered (1600/1200)," he began. A red, wide yet short beast was now on his side of the field. "And I will now use De-Spell, stripping your Devil Dragon of its power up! Its attack returns to normal now. Attack!"

With its attack points back to 1500, Gargoyle Powered was able to strike down the dragon. Devil Dragon was tackled and destroyed, and Kaiba's life points were down to 3900. As Kaiba lost life points, he felt a sharp pain in his gut. He merely grunted it off, assuming it to be nothing.

"I will place one card face down. Turn end!" he said.

Seto drew.

"Luster Dragon (1900/1600) in attack mode!" he had drawn a strong, four starred monster. A sapphire dragon with no wings appeared. "Attack and destroy his Gargoyle!"

The dragon spat a blue flame and Anubis' monster was destroyed. Anubis now had 3300 life points.

"I hope that all of your cards in your deck aren't this shitty," Kaiba mocked him as he ended his turn.

Though he was down and in a bit of pain, Anubis still did not drop sweat of concern. He calmly drew his card and prepared for his next move.

"I will use this: Commencement Dance! By sacrificing two monsters from my hand, I can summon the monster Performance of Sword (1950/1850)," Anubis made his move. Two monsters from his hand were sacrificed and a red headed lady containing blades on her arms appeared on the field. "Attack his Luster Dragon!"

The woman slashed her atrociously sharp blades at the dragon. The blue dragon was chopped to three pieces and then it was destroyed. Kaiba lost a small 50 life points from the attack.

"One card faced down will end my turn," he said.

"Draw!" Seto began his next turn. "I will sacrifice a monster from my hand and summon Luster Dragon #2 (2400/1400)."

He put one monster in his graveyard as the large, beautiful green dragon appeared on the field. This was among the better six starred monsters in his deck.

"Attack now!" he demanded of his dragon.

"Reveal trap: Reinforcements!" Anubis declared a counter.

The trap allowed his monster to gain an additional 500 attack points for this turn, making Performance of Sword 2450 attack points strong. With it powered up, the female warrior cut straight through Luster Dragon's beam and struck it down. The dragon's head fell off as it disappeared, being defeated. Kaiba's Life Points still stood tall at 3800.

"Only a loss of 200 life points…how pathetic. I've seen amateurs do better than you," Seto tried to put him down, but obviously it didn't work.

"It is all in the matter of slowly bringing you down," Anubis said. "Tell me, why do you defy me? Why do you even bother defending people such as him? He is nothing but a scoundrel guilty of acts of injustice."

He pointed to Yugi in the stands. Yugi stood up in anger.

"And you think everything you've done is for righteousness and goodness?" Kaiba laughed. "Idiot, we're all guilty of something, so what makes you think you're the only one that's sin free?"

"There are some things that cannot be forgiven or forgotten," he told him. "For all those things, only severe punishment can make up for them. For you and the rest of them for that matter, that punishment is death and suffering."

"Behind every act are reason, emotion, and an amount of equality. Reason is the motivation why the act was done, emotion is the will and desire of doing it, and the amount of equality is what is gained or lost as a result. It is not necessarily for the one person, but to anyone it may effect. If you have no motive behind these acts, then you have no reason to go through with it. If you lack emotions or your emotions control you, then your act will go out of control. If the losses outweigh the gain, then it is pointless to do it. For you, you incompetent fool, your emotion, your hate, makes your action an unnecessary failure," Seto explained to him.

He stopped talking for a moment. He remembered having a similar conversation with Yugi after losing to him at Battle City, he being the victim of such an argument. The word hatred ran through his mind.

"Hatred," he began, "will only drag you down. You can't accomplish anything running on hate and anger. It's the monster that must be defeated first. When that happens, the road…to a better future will open."

Yugi smiled at Kaiba's comments. So you did listen to me, Kaiba-kun.

Anubis had opposite feelings towards that.

"A fire cannot start on its own," he argued back. "It needs a spark to get it started. Once it begins, it can grow even larger to a point that it may be unstoppable. It just needs the right material. That material is hatred. That hatred keeps it burning strong, and only until I become old and die will it be put out."

Kaiba looked away, smiling.

"I'll be the water to put you out," he promised him. "I'm not going to let you burn everything that is on your path, because it doesn't deserve to be turned to ash."

"You are nothing more than dry grass to set aflame. You will burn, too, just like everyone else has," Anubis assured him right back.

"Shut up and duel. It's your turn."

Anubis drew a card to begin.

"Kojikocy (1500/1200) in attack mode!" he summoned a short warrior with a large beard. "I have two monsters on the field, and you nothing. You're open for a direct attack. Just to add on to your humiliation, I will add this: Invigoration, a magic card to increase all Earth monsters' attack by 400 and their defense by 200. Both of my creatures are that of Earth, so now they will be boosted to 2350/2050 and 1900/1400 respectfully. Attack!"

He knew Seto wouldn't let him win so easily, so he was unsurprised as Kaiba revealed his trap card, Earthquake, to change all monsters into defense mode.

"Avoiding death, are we?" he asked of him. "Turn end!"

"My turn! Draw!" Seto declared as he drew another card. It was a fine, four starred monster. "Spear Dragon (1900/0) in attack mode! Destroy his Kojikocy!"

A pterodactyl looking dragon appeared on the field. It flew high in the air then dove straight into Kojikocy's chest with its sharp, beak-like mouth. The warrior, holding a short sword, disappeared after coming in contact with the flying dragon. Because it was in defense mode, Anubis' life points were safe for now.

"Spear Dragon is shifted to defense mode after it attacks with its ability," Kaiba stated as his dragon landed on the ground and put its two wings in front of its body. "I will place one card face down and end my turn."

With Kaiba's turn at an end, Anubis' turn began. He drew just the card he had been waiting for, one which would likely give him full advantage.

"Gods' Forsaken Tomb!" he played the card.

Seto was stunned as a large almost black pyramid surrounded them. He recalled this card. He had used it on Yugi to destroy the God Cards. Even though that was one of its effects, Seto knew there was another effect, one which he could not use because he did not have the appropriate cards. Anubis however, did. The pyramid surrounded the field, turning everything dark. Inside the pyramid, Seto could hardly see, his eyes adjusting to the little lighting in the room.

From the outside, Yugi was blind to the duel inside Gods' Forsaken Tomb. He knew that there was no way to get inside of it, or to break it open. Only Seto could deactivate it. Impatiently, Yugi sat, wishing there was some way he could see how the rest of the duel played out. He hoped Seto could break through the darkness and emerge victorious in the duel of life and death, possibly the most important duel for him and everyone else.

Back inside the pyramid, Seto and Anubis were completely surrounded in darkness. Kaiba asked no questions, because he knew what was going on, but he had the feeling that everything had just turned against him. Still, he would duel on.

"You are trapped in my game now, Seto," he threatened him. "This will be your first glimpse of Hell!"

"Keep in mind that I'm still beating you. This card doesn't change anything," Seto said.

"Oh but does change things, and not for the better of you," he told him. "Now I control this game. Watch as I play this: Ritual Weapon! This card allows a six starred or lower, ritually summoned monster to gain 1500 attack points. Now my Performance of Sword, which had 2350 attack points after Invigoration, has 3850 attack points."

What was only a fairly decent card was now a monster with a whopping amount of attack points which almost all of Kaiba's monsters could not stand up to. Kaiba began to worry.

"Attack his Spear Dragon, my lady warrior!" Anubis demanded of his monster.

Using her blades on her arms, she slashed and cut the dragon up easily. Spear Dragon, luckily being in defense mode, was destroyed.

"Seto Kaiba!" he called his name. Being so dark inside, Seto could hardly see his opponent across the field. "You battle well, but can you navigate yourself through the darkness? We shall have to see."

The duel had hardly gotten underway. Seto still had his best cards to play, and his best moves to make. Only now he had another challenge in his way: pitch black.

Author's Note: Alright so I'm not too hot at writing duels (Elizabeth, don't reply to that). A warning now that some of the card effects and rules have been bended a bit, as some of you skilled duelists will probably notice. An example being this: trap cards have to be on the field for a turn before they can be activated (I think the anime bends that rule sometimes, too, either that or they change trap cards to magic cards). Just made sure you knew. Also, I generally try to stick with the names of the cards in Japanese, but some of them I simply do not know, so I use the English names. Sorry if that confuses you.

Sorry this was late. I actually had most of this done last week, but I was unable to finish it before I went to Kentucky, a trip that lasted for five days. The next one will hopefully be out soon, or at least won't be as delayed as the last one, because you just don't know how this duel's going to turn out! evil grin