Ryou stared at his hand. Within his control were all the cards he needed to make a final move on the lord of the dead.
As much as the jackal-headed Anubis tried, he couldn't silence the thief's uproar. And although he was constantly being struck and beaten, Bakura couldn't silence himself.
"This is it, Osiris…" Ryou smiled, and slid a card into his duel disk. "I play this card face down, and then activate this magic card – Card Destruction!"
Osiris nodded. He knew the effect of this card. Both players had to put their entire decks in the graveyard. And at such a critical juncture in the duel, it could cause someone to lose an all-important monster or magic card.
"I discard my hand into the graveyard, and now… now that my monsters are gone, and I have a new hand… I… I activate the magic card I played on the field…"
Osiris said nothing.
"I play Monster Reincarnation!"
A light appeared above his graveyard. Ryou couldn't help but dwell on the irony that he would draw this card at this point in the game. It was a card very similar to the one that the pharaoh played in his ceremonial duel against Yugi, and it was the card that Yugi knew the pharaoh would play.
On the plane back from Egypt, Ryou remembered what Yugi said. He said that he chose that card, because it described what was wrong… that a spirit should not return to life, and it put the entire duel into perspective.
This time, Ryou thought to himself, it means exactly the opposite.
"And this card allows me to pull a monster back from my graveyard… as long as I discard a card from my new hand… And I choose a card that I just sacrificed in the last turn."
A heavy blue cloud appeared on the field. To Ryou, there was no better card to play on this, the last turn of the duel. A powerful jackal-headed beast appeared on his side of the field, adorned with layers of golden jewelry and funerary relics.
Anubis stared at the beast as though he were looking into a mirror.
"What is the meaning of this madness!" he gasped, releasing his tight grasp on Bakura's chains. The thief just smirked. His hikari must have had that planned from the very beginning. The beast responsible for bringing him here would be the one responsible for letting him go.
"I summon The End of Anubis!"
Osiris studied the monster carefully. Its attack strength was 2500, but it possessed no defensive strength at all. And as long as it remained on the field, no monsters, traps, or spells that targeted a card in the graveyard could be played.
"Take… take a good look at what's going to finish you off… Osiris. It has more than enough attack points to… to end this… and then you have to honor my… my conditions." Ryou added, as the massive fiend roared.
Anubis turned away, his eyes burning at the very sight of this wicked copy. Regardless, he could still feel its presence. The demon readied his claws, and pointed them at the Lord of the Dead.
"You will have to let my… my yami go free…"
"This duel is not over yet, mortal." Osiris answered quickly.
"Oh, I'm not attacking yet… I… I know you have two face-down trap cards… And one of those could be… could be something terrible." Ryou answered. "And that is why I have this."
Ryou held another magic card from his hand.
"Destroying my old hand… was a good idea. It allowed me to draw my second Mystical Space Typhoon. This lets me destroy one of those trap cards…" Ryou smiled. "And I choose the first one you set down."
The card Osiris had played was revealed. It was called Curse of Aging, a trap card that allows a player to decrease the attack and defense of all monsters on the opponent's side of the field by 500 until the end of the turn. With this monster, though, it would have made little difference.
"I was hoping you'd choose that one." Osiris smiled, watching Ryou Bakura ponder the consequences of his choice. "This duel is over."
"What?" Ryou gasped.
Bakura gasped as well. His words stuck in his throat, choking him for a moment. The irony would be something neither one of them could swallow.
"I activate my other face down card. The Judgment of Anubis."
Ryou blinked. The irony of this card far outweighed anything that came before it.
"This trap only works on spell cards that can destroy other spell or trap cards. And in order to activate it's effect, I discard one card from my hand." Osiris explained to his opponent. "This negates the activation of your card. But that is not all this trap can do."
Ryou only gulped.
"This card also allows me to destroy one face-up monster on your side of the field, and I can inflict damage to you equal to the attack of that destroyed monster." Osiris announced. Ryou couldn't find his voice to even acknowledge the card effect. "In your attempt to reincarnate the monster you call 'yami', you relied on bringing a creature back from the dead. Not only was that creature a mockery of the gods, but it is the same demonic beast that will ultimately destroy you!"
Ryou remained frozen. He tried to move, or to speak. But he couldn't even respond.
The End of Anubis, beaten by the Judgment of Anubis, simply lowered its head. The servant of Osiris had spoken. He bent down, bowing to the Lord of the Dead. A few moments later, the creature had disappeared from the field.
The total of his attack strength was taken out of Ryou's life points.
It left him with far less than zero, and Ryou collapsed onto the stone floor of the chamber.
"No…" Bakura gasped, lunging forward.
Feeling his prisoner move, Anubis grabbed the chains before the thief could reach the podium. He reeled the thrashing spirit back to his feet like a fish out water.
"No!" Bakura shouted again, but there was nothing he could do.
The duel was over. And as hard as he fought, as determined as he was… Ryou Bakura had lost.