Okay, last chapter was kinda strange, but I was in one of those moods. If you knew me personally, you'd know I get mysterious like that on occasion. Anyway, expect these next few to take a little while. School schedules are made by monkeys and I don't have much time to write. Right now I'm expecting maybe one more chapter after this then it will be over…or will it? Creepy, huh?
Chapter 16: Final Battle
"How long is this thing?" Yami's question echoed through my mind. After leaving the Shrine of Trials, we found the bridge outside had been magically rebuilt. I had been running down the length of it for thirty minutes now. The bridge seemed to stretch on for miles and there was no end in sight. There were no land marks of any kind on either side of the bridge, and now we couldn't even see the shrine behind us.
"This is ridiculous!" I shouted. I came to a halt and sat on the ground, breathing heavily. "This is getting us nowhere…"
"We can't give up," Yami told me. "Everyone who was taken by Marik is counting on us, not to mention our friends back home."
"I know, but I wish it wasn't this hard," I replied. I knew I was whining, but what else could I do? Nothing that Yami and I had accomplished so far had brought us any closer to even finding them. For all we knew, Marik could be back in the real world tormenting the others. The thoughts running through my mind frustrated me to no end.
"Well, try to keep moving. I'm sure we'll find them eventually," he encouraged me. I pulled myself to my feet and continued walking on my original course. Another hour passed and we finally caught sight of the end of the bridge.
"It's about time," I said a little angrily. "I wish the person who created the Shadow Realm was here so I could hit him with something…hard."
"There's another building up ahead," Yami pointed out. "That may be where Yugi and the others are."
"That's what you said about the Shrine of Trials," I sighed. "Ah well, let's go in anyway."
We wandered inside the structure and found the walls decorated in hieroglyphics. The main chamber appeared to be designed to resemble an Egyptian burial chamber, except there was no sarcophagus. We examined the room before moving on to another where we found what we were looking for.
"Yugi!" Yami cried out. I rushed to his side and examined his unconscious body.
"I think he's alive, but just barely," I reported.
"Hurry, put the puzzle around his neck," he commanded. I complied and soon Yami had taken control of the body. He checked his deck and duel disk and found that both were still intact.
"Here, take these," I said. I handed him Obelisk and Slifer from my pocket. "They're too powerful for me to use safely. Besides, neither of them are dragons."
"But you won these cards, they're rightfully yours," he told me. I denied the offer several times before he agreed to take them back. "Alright, now lets find the others and get out of here."
"That won't be so easy, Pharaoh," came an all too familiar evil voice. We turned back to the entrance of the room to see Marik standing in the doorway blocking the only exit. "You pulled quite a stunt getting the Millennium Puzzle away from me, as well as two Egyptian god cards. Both of you have been quite the thorn in my side. Now it's time to remove that thorn."
"You think you can beat both of us?" I challenged. I felt a wave of determination come from my companion and I knew we were thinking the same thing, one final duel to save the world.
"Dueling you two is merely a formality," Marik laughed. At that instant, all three duel disks activated simultaneously. "Now say good bye once and for all!"
"My move first," I declared. "I summon Kaiser Sea Horse in attack mode and set one card face down. That's all for now."
"I summon Feral Imp in defense mode and place two cards face down," Yami stated. By the look on his face, his hand wasn't very good.
"Well then, I will set one monster face down and activate The Dark Door to prevent any of us from attacking with more than one monster," Marik said as he made his move.
"For my next move, I play Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress in defense mode," I informed them. "And I'll play Stamping Destruction to destroy your magic card and inflict 500 points of damage to your life points. As for your monster, Kaiser Sea Horse will wipe the floor with it!"
"Exactly what I wanted you to do. You've activated my Morphing Jar's effect!" Marik laughed. "Morphing Jar forces all of us to discard our hands and draw five new cards."
My attack gave me a better hand, something Marik probably wasn't expecting. "Before I end my turn, I'll play Graceful Charity."
"Now you'll suffer, Marik. I sacrifice Feral Imp to summon Curse of Dragon!" came Yami's next move. "With no monsters to protect you, you're wide open for an attack! Curse of Dragon, attack with Dragon Flame!"
I grinned as the attack brought Marik down to 5500. Everything was working in our favor and, if our luck held out, we would soon win.
"I'll set one card face down and summon Makyura the Destructor in attack mode," Marik said with an evil grin. I could tell he was planning something. "Now Makyura will rid me of that Winged Dragon."
I had lost one monster but my Kaiser Sea Horse held a strong presence on the field. After drawing, I held my Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon and my graveyard had Winged Dragon, which had just been destroyed, and Element Dragon and Koumori Dragon that had been discarded earlier. Summoning my dragon of darkness would be impossible at the moment though. I did, however, have another ace that I could play.
"With my Kaiser Sea Horse's effect I can summon a light monster with only one tribute," I explained. "I'll use that ability now and summon my Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
"Too bad such a powerful monster can't be used," Marik said. "Activate Gravity Bind!"
"My turn now," Yami declared. "I play Swords of Revealing Light!"
"Stalling won't help you Pharaoh," Marik cackled. "Your Egyptian god monsters won't help you, even if you could summon them. Hmm…I'll play Jam Breeding Machine and finish this turn."
"I hope Yami has some sort of plan," I thought. "That Gravity Bind is holding everyone's stronger monsters in place, but Marik is also affected by it and his Winged Dragon of Ra won't do any good. Neither will Obelisk or Slifer, if Yami can summon them. If Marik wants to win he'll have to use his god card, but it can't attack…unless he knows something we don't."
"Hurry up you foolish mortal!" Marik snarled. "You're only delaying the inevitable."
"Fine then, I summon Masked Dragon in attack mode!" I proclaimed. Masked Dragon wasn't strong enough to be held my Gravity Bind, but Marik's monster had a higher attack power. "I'll finish without anything more."
"For my move, I summon Kuriboh in defense mode," Yami said with a grin. I gave him a funny look and wondered why he was playing such a weak monster in such an important duel. "Then I'll end my turn."
"Look at the Pharaoh hiding behind a furry rodent," Marik commented. "I'll sacrifice my Makyura and the newly created Slime Token to summon The Masked Beast Des Guardia!"
"Marik has something up his sleeve, I can feel it," I thought. I looked at my hand and saw that I was one step closer to summoning my Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, I had drawn Red-Eyes Black Chick. There was nothing I could accomplish yet so I passed my turn back to Yami.
"For my turn, I use my two face down cards," Yami explained. "First, the magic card Multiply will make copies of Kuriboh, then I'll use the Black Luster Ritual and sacrifice three Kuribohs and Curse of Dragon to call forth the Black Luster Soldier!"
"Well, I guess he did have something planned," I thought to myself. But I was surprised even more when he sacrificed his last Kuriboh to summon Dark Magician Girl, which gained 300 attack points from the Dark Magician he discarded to his graveyard when I attacked the Morphing Jar.
Marik passed his turn easily enough, only letting himself draw a card and his Jam Breeding Machine spit out another Slime Token. For my turn I placed Armed Dragon LV3 in defense mode and switched my Masked Dragon to the same.
"For my turn I'll play Card Destruction," Yami declared. I looked into my hand at my Darkness Dragon and greatly wished he hadn't played that card. "Now I'll play Monster Reborn to revive Obelisk the Tormentor!"
I watched the giant come forth from the shadows, a former enemy was now my best friend in the world. "Way to go, Yami!" I cheered to my comrade.
"It's a shame that you summoned a useless creature, you fools," Marik laughed. "My Gravity Bind holds any monster whose level is four or above and keeps them from attacking. Obelisk the Tormenter is level twelve!"
"Don't worry Yami," I said after looking at the cards in my hand. "I have a plan."
"Your 'plans' won't work," Marik said. "I play Double Spell. All I have to do is discard one magic card from my hand so I can activate any magic card already in my opponent's graveyard. I choose to use the Pharaoh's Monster Reborn. And now watch as I call upon the unstoppable power of The Winged Dragon of Ra!"
"Nice try Marik," Yami said. "Your god monster draws its attack and defense from the monsters you use for the summon. You didn't use any and that means it has no strength at all."
"I see you paid attention to our last duel," Marik retorted. "But Ra has an ability that you haven't seen yet. Activate Point-to-Point Transfer!" We could do nothing but watch as Marik's life points dropped to 1 and his god grew to 5499, stronger than any other monsters on the field. "Now I'll use its ability of Instant Attack! This allows me to attack all of your monsters and your life points at the same time!"
The god attacked blasting away all of our monsters and inflicting enough damage to finish Yami and leave me at only 2 life points. I looked down at my hand after I drew my next card. There was only one choice to make, and I hoped it would work.
"I admit, Marik, you've almost won and right now I'm at a disadvantage," I said semi-calmly. "But I still have one more trick to show you, a monster that is the signal of the last move. I remove my Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Red-Eyes Black Dragon from the duel to call forth Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End!"
"Ha! That monster is worthless compared to my Winged Dragon of Ra," Marik sneered. "It's also held by my Gravity Bind."
"That's correct, but I don't plan on attacking with my new monster," I stated. "I'll play Dian Keto the Cure Master to increase my life points by 1000. Now I'll use those 1000 life points to activate Chaos Emperor Dragon's effect. It destroys all cards on the field and in both of our hands."
"Now all I have to do is summon another monster and finish you off," Marik laughed.
"Wrong," I told him. "The effect also gives you 300 points of damage for every card that was destroyed. You only had 1 life point left and that means you lose!"
"No!" Marik cried. "I was winning! You cheated! There's no way you could have beaten my Winged Dragon of Ra!"
"You lost Marik," Yami told him. "Now you're going to give up your Millennium Items and your Egyptian god card as well as all the souls you've taken."
"You'll never get them!" Marik yelled. He opened a portal to try to escape but I trapped him with my Millennium Bracelet. He struggled against me but I held fast.
"Marik, you're going to pay for everyone you've hurt," I said. I felt a surge of power welling up in my bracelet. Six blue pentagon shapes grew from the bracelet and glowed brightly. Every other shape stopped at about a foot and the others grew to at least three feet. I figured this was the new power I had received earlier.
Yami approached Marik and took the Millennium Rod and Ring from him and pulled the Winged Dragon of Ra from his deck. As soon as Yami was out of the way, a beam of white light shone from my hand and connected with Marik. He struggled against it and yelled out in pain but it wasn't long before his body became unconscious. A few seconds after he fell, I too slipped into darkness.
