Author's Note: War is deception.

Chapter Forty-Two: Art of War

Ammut nodded and picked up the top card of his deck, watching his opponent carefully. "Exactly! This is no duel; this is a war of two strategic thinking minds. All warfare is based on deception."

Opposite him Dalin began to speak, understanding what Ammut was speaking of. "Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."

The demon chuckled, continuing from there. "Hold out bait to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him."

Their eyes remained focused on the other person's eyes, trying to understand and follow based on the repetition of the words they knew and understood. "If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him."

"If you opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant."

"If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them."

Dalin spoke the final lines that they had been reciting. "Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected."

Ammut chuckled and fingered one of the cards in his hand. Dalin took note of it, filing it away to decide on the meaning of the move. "Yes, the words of Sun Tzu. The words of the first man to write a treatise on war. I knew him, Sun Tzu. He learned from two of the most brilliant strategic minds ever to have lived. But of course if you remember, and you should, only one general should know his words. What happens when both do?"

Dalin kept his gaze steady and unflinching, and then had his gaze shift to the left corner of his eyes, noting it when Ammut's eyes flickered with recognition. But whether Ammut drew what Dalin wished out of it couldn't be said yet. "At that point it is whoever follows out on his words with greater ability that wins the day. So, why not show me if you are superior to me? Or am I the superior general?"

Without giving a direct answer to Dalin's question the demon took a card different from the one he had been fingering and held it up. "Magic card activates, Minimum Sacrifice Output. For the rest of the duel whenever a sacrificed monster's number is related, such as their attack or defense, the minimum is always one thousand. So even a monster of no attack points can be thought of as a monster of one thousand attack points when tributed for an effect such as that of Mystik Wok."

Dalin didn't blink when the two germs flew at his assassin and covered it, keeping it from moving. "By sacrificing my two germs to Phantom Dragon's effect I reduce your monster to two thousand attack points, all thanks to the effect of Minimum Sacrifice Output."

Next Ammut snapped his fingers and his dragon vanished in a flash of light, giving shape to a tall and armored monster with a black crown on its head. "Meet Phantom Monarch(2400/1000). When tribute summoned he lets me draw one card for every monster sacrificed this turn, meaning I draw three cards."

Again Dalin noticed that his monarch was not the card he had been taking note of earlier, and he didn't seem to give as much notice to the three new cards. "Since Phantom Monarch is the stronger one, he will slay your assassin!"

A black streamer of energy shot from the armored monster's fist, catching the goo covered assassin in the chest and blowing him apart. Dalin didn't flinch, as the damage was still minimal. Instead he let one of his upper teeth drag lightly against his bottom lip. "Four hundred damage is nothing." (DLP: 5800)

"Perhaps you're right. I thrown one card down to defend my monarch, and then conclude my turn. With the end of my turn comes the renewal of my two germs and my dragon." His three monsters were restored to power, all their stats again set to zero. Dalin reached for his deck and drew.

Dalin then drew two cards because of the effect of his continuous magic card, giving him three in total. He fanned them out in front of them so he wouldn't have to look away from Ammut much. 'Which of us is the superior general; that is the question. Because if what Sun Tzu said about generals is true, then this is an important battle indeed.'

"Thus it may be known that the leader of armies is the arbiter of the people's fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril."

After looking at his three cards he held out one of them and his field started to glow. Two cards slid out of his cemetery and he showed them to Ammut. "Creation of Sacrifices allows me to remove up to four monsters from my cemetery to create Tribute Counters equal to their total level. By removing Titan and Assassin I gain eight counters."

The two cards burst apart in his hand, removed from play. Then from his hand came eight red orbs which floated up to join the other twelve he had in play. "Now I summon Priest of Obelisk(1500/1500) in attack mode."

His monster had tanned skin and no hair, but wore a dark blue robe similar to the shade of skin that Obelisk had. "Priest of Obelisk now attacks your weakened Phantom Dragon!"

The priest gestured with his left hand and a barrage of blue spears shot out of thin air at the dragon. The spears peppered the dragon's flesh and it blew apart, but since it was in defense mode no damage was done. "My continuous magic card generates six Tribute Counters to my field."

Another six orbs of light joined his other counters, giving him a grand total of twenty-six. "Rite of Strength increases Priest of Obelisk's attack points by one thousand, setting him at twenty-five hundred. And now I place a card face down and end my turn, regenerating your dragon and letting my Priest's effect activate. Two Tribute Counters are placed onto my field."

Two more orbs floated out of the priest's body, making the number now twenty-eight. Across from him the demon dragon shimmered into view, once again set at having no attack or defense points. Ammut sneered and picked up his top card. "Enjoy this little thing, the combination of my dragon's ability and my Minimum Sacrificial Output card."

All three monsters hurled themselves at the priest, blasting apart and making him shudder and fall to his knees. His attack point counter dropped rapidly until it reached zero. "Next since three monsters have been tributed for other reasons the sacrifice cost of this monster is removed, so I summon Phantom Magician(2500/2100)!"

His newest monster was almost identical in appearance to the Dark Magician, the only differences being that his hair was white, his skin a dark color, and a purple aura surrounded his body. "Reverse card open, Sacrificial Gain! This continuous trap grants me half the attack points of a sacrificed monster, meaning I now gain half of a total of three thousand!" (ALP: 7100)

Phantom Magician pointed his staff at Priest of Obelisk and Ammut smirked, enjoying what could happen. Especially when Phantom Monarch gathered dark energy into its palms. "Phantom Magic Attack!"

A blast of purple energy shot of the magician's staff and headed straight for Dalin's weakened priest. But before it could hit two red orbs shot down and absorbed the hit, shattering into a million pieces. "My own continuous trap card is called Tribute Defense, which lets me sacrifice tribute counters equal to half the level of a targeted monster in order to negate an attack."

Ammut snarled and immediately Phantom Monarch unleashed his own blast of energy. However, just like the magician's attack it too was blocked by two red tribute counters. "Quite the defense I must admit. I set up one magic or trap card and conclude my turn."

As the three eternal monsters began to reappear on Ammut's field Dalin glanced to his priest who raised one palm above his head and fired two red orbs into the air. "Priest of Obelisk's ability activates during each end phase, meaning if you only attack him with one monster each turn, I can always regenerate the Tribute Counters I have sacrificed."

Dalin drew, and then drew five more cards based on the effect of his continuous magic card. Ammut frowned, understanding the danger of the combo perfectly. As long as Dalin could generate Tribute Counters and had his Essence card then he would always have a full hand of resources. 'Clever, he's an excellent general.'

Fanning out the six cards Dalin took note of one in particular and looked up at Ammut. The demon's eyes widened as it felt a huge pulse of power and understanding hit it. 'He's drawn it…the tormentor!'

"Ammut, allow me to show you the true ability of Tribute Counters, the reason that they exist in this deck that revolves around the brutal power of the divine soldier. I may sacrifice four Tribute Counters in order to substitute as one tribute for summoning." As he spoke he took the one card that Ammut had felt the pulse of energy from and held it up above his head.

One by one Tribute Counters began flowing into the card and the air around them crackled with the intensity of the power that Ammut could feel coming from the card. "By offering up a grand total of twelve Tribute Counters I can bring forth the cornerstone of this deck, the Immense Divine Soldier…"

He slammed the card onto his angelic duel disk and a huge blast of lightning hit the ground in front of him. An enormous shape began to rise out of the moving coils of Osiris' body, taking shape into a hundred foot tall monstrosity of blue flesh and horns that formed a crown. "Obelisk the Tormentor(4000/4000) rises!"

Obelisk the Tormentor roared, shaking the field and ruffling the white robes that covered Ammut's body. "So your mighty Obelisk appears, the strongest beast in your entire deck. It will be interesting to crush it."

"Let's find out if you can crush Obelisk before he crushes you. I activate his effect, sacrificing eight Tribute Counters to count as a double sacrifice. Now he will deal four thousand points of damage to everything in play as if it were an attack, including damage to your life points!" Ammut threw up his arms as one of Obelisk's huge fists pounded down onto his field, smashing apart his five monsters and nearly knocking him off the platform. (ALP: 3100)

Ammut shook himself off and picked up his two Giant Germ cards and showed them to Dalin. "Since his effect counted as an attack my germs effect activates, dealing you a total of one thousand life points of damage." (DLP: 4800)

Dalin nearly smirked as a red aura surged around Obelisk's body and his attack counter began to soar. "In case you had forgotten, Rite of Strength now grants Obelisk a grand total of five thousand attack points, putting him at nine thousand."

Obelisk roared and then opened his clenched fist and a swarm of red Tribute Counters flew out of it. "In addition my Sacrifice for Sacrifice card grants me a total of thirty-one Tribute Counters."

As soon as those were in place the priest opened his own hands and released two more Tribute Counters, pumping up Dalin's number of Tribute Counters to a huge thirty-nine. He also knelt into a crouching position. "During your end phase your three monsters return."

Ammut smirked as he flicked a card off his deck, seeming almost unaffected by the fact that he was facing off against the god of Dalin's deck. "I'm really not frightened of your big oaf at all Dalin. In fact, I'm not worried at all about the outcome of this duel, because you are only a small part of the true self. Without your memory, what are you but a worthless shell?"

Dalin felt the cut across his palm itch as Ammut spoke but he pushed it down, ignoring it in favor of focusing on what he had to do for the duel. "Without my memory I am still Dalin Imaki Sumatin. This is no shell, but rather a piece of the whole. I am incomplete, but that will not stop me from defeating you."

The demon didn't even bother to hold back its snort of laughter. "You are Dalin Imaki Sumatin? Don't say things like that when you don't know what they mean!"

"I may not know what that name means, I may not know ultimately who I am, but I am still a person who has desires and wants. Perhaps the one who doesn't know what that name means is you." Ammut's eyes narrowed dangerously at Dalin and he swung his drawn card up into view.

"We shall see! Magic card activates, Phantom Chains!" Dalin frowned as spectral chains burst out of the ground and wrapped around the lower half of his body, keeping him in one place.

Ammut tapped the top of his two other cards, smirking the whole time. "Phantom Chains is a normal magic card that lets me select a target, you in this case, and that target cannot sacrifice for any purpose for the next three turns."

The demon tapped his cards against the side of his head, looking very smug. "According to Sun Tzu it is necessary to cut the opponent off from their resources in order to avoid a prolonged battle, for that is devastating and unnecessary. A prolonged campaign is detrimental, so it is best to defeat the opponent before attrition works upon you."

"Perhaps that is your intent in sealing my ability to tribute, and while it might seem to completely undermine my strategy you will be surprised to discover that it impairs me far less than you imagine." Ammut narrowed his eyes at Dalin and snapped up the second to last card in his hand. Dalin noticed that the only one remaining was the one that Ammut had been paying special attention towards.

A purple glow surrounded Ammut as his card came into effect, indicating that whatever it did would be beneficial to the demon. "My second card for this turn is Phantom Pangs, which places three counters on me. During each of your end phases one of them is removed. As long as I still have one of these counters on me I take no life point damage."

"Thus with these chains that bind you and the power that strengthens me I have given myself precaution in case your forces should surpass my own as well as taking effort to weaken those forces. Meaning I am perfectly prepared regardless of the outcome of my move." When Dalin merely nodded in acceptance Ammut understood that still his opponent was unworried.

"So be it, allow me to counter your own power with mine! Let me unleash the power of the demon that rests with Obelisk, a demon of unrivaled strength even amongst demons. In order to summon this monster I must tribute three demon sub-type monsters, which I have right here." Giant Germ, Phantom Dragon, and the second Giant Germ all turned into purple orbs of energy and converged in the air above Ammut.

Before placing his final card onto the disk Ammut gathered up energy from the tributed monsters, absorbing it into his body. "My own trap card gives me a total of fifteen hundred life points as gain." (ALP: 5100)

A solid purple bolt of lightning struck the coils at Ammut's feet much as blue lightning had struck when Dalin had summoned Obelisk. And as the energy gathered Obelisk himself seemed eager. "Come forth, God of Demons, God of Phantoms…."

The figure that emerged from the purple lightning was equally as massive as Obelisk and of a very similar appearance. Its wide wings were leathery and its hands tipped by enormous claws. Its face was similarly more demonic, with the horns more pronounced. "Phantom Emperor Ravel(4000/4000) rises!"

The two similar monsters faced off, Obelisk and Ravel both determined not to back down. However, there was a difference in power there. "Your calculations are off. Your hand is currently empty and your monster is five thousand points weaker than my own."

"My calculations are far from off, because I knew ahead of time that you would set up a large hand and leave it as such based on what I could intuitively tell from your features. In other words I prepared my face down card for just this purpose!" It flipped up and Dalin's hand of five cards started to glow.

"The card I had saved for this is called Reverse Reload which forces both players to shuffle their hands into their decks. Yet in a switch off from the Reload card each player draws an amount of cards equal to what their opponent shuffled in." Dalin frowned and shuffled his five cards into his deck while Ammut did nothing.

"In other words, since you shuffled nothing into your deck I draw nothing while you draw five cards since I shuffled five into my deck." Ammut smirked in response and drew five cards, completely restoring his hand.

Ammut fanned out the five cards and then held up one of them. "This card will undo the brutal power your Obelisk has gained. Min/Max switches the attack of the strongest monster on each player's field with the attack of their weakest."

Again Dalin seemed slightly bothered by the card. "I assume since you have only one monster that your Phantom Emperor is unaffected. Whereas Obelisk reduces to zero attack and Priest rises to nine thousand."

"Precisely, and since the alteration only lasts until the end of the turn, that's all I need! Phantom Emperor Ravel, attack and destroy Obelisk the Tormentor!" Ravel swung its claws in a downwards arc and slashed through Obelisk's chest. The god roared and then its chest returned to full position.

Dalin folded his arms across his chest as a card appeared, floating right in front of him. "At any point in time I can activate Divine Protection from my deck, which reduces all battle damage of monsters with the name of a divine monster in their own title to zero. In other words, even battle damage to Obelisk himself was reduced to nothingness."

The demon frowned and looked down at his hand, looking for a specific method to take in the next few turns. "Since I can't slay your monster yet I'll just set one card face down and end my turn, restoring my three immortal monsters."

As soon as his turn started Dalin began to draw card after card, until at long last he reached nine in total. "Thanks to the ability of my Essence continuous magic card because I have forty-one Tribute Counters I was able to draw eight cards."

Ammut smirked and pointed to his face down card. "Yes, that's exactly what I was waiting for. Because you now have more than eight cards in your hand I can activate Heavy Slump, which forces you to shuffle your hand into your deck and then draw two cards."

Wordlessly Dalin reshuffled his deck and drew his new and much smaller hand of cards. Then, without even the slightest word about it he held up one of the drawn card. "I activate Complete Collapse. To begin with all magic and trap cards in play are sent to the cemetery."

One by one all three of Dalin's continuous magic cards blew apart as well as his trap, followed by the two continuous traps on Ammut's field. Ammut blinked, his own intuition faltering. "Why would you destroy your combo like that?"

Dalin pointed over at the three monsters on Ammut's field aside from Ravel, the three that never died. "One of the basic tenants of war is if the opponent has a renewable resource you should cut them off from that resource, such as cutting off your infinite tribute resource in the form of those three monsters."

All three of them melted, their ooze slipping between the spaces in the coils and vanishing from sight. "You were right to guess that when my trap was destroyed the monsters it revived would also be destroyed. But that doesn't fully explain your reasoning."

"Perhaps then the superior general is myself, if your impressive intuition cannot understand my motives. Now, continuing with the effect each player gains one counter in their magic and trap zone for every card destroyed in this manner." Four blue cards formed on Dalin's field face down while two appeared on Ammut's.

"During each of our turns we may sacrifice one of these counters to draw a card, or they will sit and take up space on our field. However, due to your magic card's effect I cannot tribute any of my three counters for another two turns after this one." Ammut's brow furrowed in thought as he tried to figure out exactly how any of this benefited Dalin. Yet nothing was coming.

'He must want his field cleared for something, but what that might be I don't know. What in the world are you up to Dalin?' The blonde duelist ignored Ammut's scrutinizing gaze and instead focused on the single remaining card in his hand.

"I place one card face down, and then I will have Obelisk the Tormentor attack Phantom Emperor Ravel." The giant god clenched one fist and then threw a punch at its demonic counterpart, ready to knock the demon's head off in one blow.

Ammut smirked and dropped one card from his hand into the graveyard. "I activate the Duel Presence I gain from Phantom Emperor Ravel, allowing me to discard one card from my hand to create two Phantom Tokens(1000/1000) in defense mode."

Two miniature versions of Ravel appeared in front of the giant demon, their arms crossed over their bodies. Still Obelisk's fist bore down upon Ravel, intent on destroying it. "Thanks to my Duel Presence I can also activate Ravel's effect during my opponent's phase, letting me sacrifice any number of monsters to it in order to increase his attack points."

The two tokens shattered and purple light flowed from them into Ravel, boosting its attack to six thousand. Then it caught Obelisk's fist in one clawed hand and stopped it. "Now that I've undermined your strongest creature, Ravel will counterattack!"

Ravel thrust with the other hand and its claws tore into Obelisk's chest, ripping the god in half. It didn't even make a sound as its body shattered into tiny little pieces which rained down on the field. "You have successfully bested Obelisk the Tormentor with your demon." (DLP: 2800)

'None of this makes sense at all. He knew that even attacking would just succeed in destroying our best monsters. Yet he attacked anyways, and appears unaffected when I turned the situation to my advantage. What is he getting at here?' The harder he thought about it the less it made sense; there was absolutely no logical reason why he would have made any of those moves.

Ammut waited several seconds for Dalin to say or do anything else, but he did absolutely nothing. So Ammut drew a card and then glanced down at one of his two counters. It shattered. "I sacrifice one of the counters I gained from your magic card in order to draw once."

Before contemplating his own cards he made a careful count of the number of Tribute Counters on Dalin's field. Thanks to Priest of Obelisk, part of Dalin's only defense, that number was now forty-three. 'Perhaps he's waiting for something related to them.'

Without waiting for any comment from Dalin Ammut slid one of his four cards into his graveyard and two miniatures of Ravel appeared. "I sacrifice both of my tokens in order to summon Phantom Blader(2600/2300)."

His monster was a demonic version of Buster Blader, which had black spikes sticking out of its elbows and from its shoulder armor plates. "This monster gains five hundred attack points for every angel in the opposing player's cemetery. In this case that number is zero."

The blader shouldered his weapon and glared across the field at Dalin's priest, who seemed suddenly very vulnerable. "Phantom Blader will slay your priest!"

The blader's body flickered, but it didn't seem to move outside of that. All of a sudden the priest screamed and blew apart, cut in half by an attack that had been faster than the eye could follow. "How interesting, now the path is completely clear for a direct attack. Ravel, attack Dalin directly!"

Ravel's claws swung directly down at Dalin and slammed into the ground. Ammut's eyes widened when he saw that Dalin had caught the tip of one of Ravel's claws in his bare hand and was holding it inches from his face. "I'm sorry; did you assume that you were going to finish me off?"

"But, how is that possible?" Dalin shoved with his hand and Ravel's arm jerked back and away from the duelist. Without a care in the world Dalin folded his arms across his chest and calmly met Ammut's eyes.

"Much like your Ravel, Obelisk grants me a Duel Presence separate from my own. As long as he is in the cemetery I cannot take life point damage from a monster without more base attack points than Obelisk has. In other words, unless your monster begins with more than four thousand attack points it cannot harm me as long as Obelisk remains in my cemetery." Ammut frowned as he realized that the duel was far from over, and possibly more difficult than he had anticipated.

"Turn End." Dalin reached for his disk and drew as soon as his opponent's turn came to an end.

Carefully he placed it into his duel disk and a card appeared face down on the field, only it was horizontal and in front of him. "I set one monster in defense mode and conclude my turn."

As soon as the monster appeared Ravel opened its clawed hand and a Phantom Token hopped out and down onto the ground. "Whenever you summon a monster my Ravel will generate a Phantom Token to the field. Of course, now it's my turn to show you more of my power."

Ammut drew and tossed the card into his cemetery. Again two Phantom Tokens appeared on his field. Then he held up one of his other two cards. "I'll blast you even further with my magic card Phantom Drain, which lets me sacrifice as many monsters with 'phantom' in their name on my field in order to deal you five hundred damage for each I tribute. That will be four in total!"

His three tokens and the blader all popped like balloons. Instantly purple energy leeched off of Dalin's body, weakening him and burning away most of his remaining life points. "At this pace, regardless of your Duel Presence you won't be able to win this duel." (DLP: 300)

Dalin shook his head to clear it and then resumed watching Ammut. "Is that all? Or did you have something else you wanted to do?"

"Indeed I do! Phantom Emperor Ravel, attack and destroy his defense monster!" One sweep of Ravel's claws split the monster apart, briefly revealing it to be a woman in robes similar to the priest's.

"When Priestess of Obelisk(1500/1500) is destroyed I create one Tribute Counter for every level of the monster that slew her. In other words I now gain ten Tribute Counters." Ten more orbs of red light floated up to join the previous forty-three, bringing Dalin's total to fifty-three.

"Fine, my turn ends." Ammut bit his bottom lip, his fangs drawing blood as he tried to think through the situation and figure out exactly what Dalin had up his sleeve, what he was planning.

Dalin picked up his next card and glanced up at Ammut. With an almost cocky air he tucked the card into his hands and then refolded his arms over his chest. "End turn."

The chains around his body fell off, indicating that he was no longer limited by Phantom Chains. Ammut snarled and drew, then tossed his drawn card into the cemetery, generating an additional two Phantom Tokens. "I activate the continuous magic card Unfettered Strength, which makes all attack bonuses permanent."

Ravel reached down and picked up the two tokens and crushed them in the grip of his clawed hands. Their energy flowed into him, raising his attack strength all the way up to six thousand. "Thanks to his ability and my continuous magic card Ravel now has a permanent attack power of six thousand. However, since I can't deal you damage yet, I end my turn."

Dalin drew and tucked the card in with the other. Then he looked up at Ammut and the corner of his mouth quirked up. "Tell me Ammut, what is the fourth rule of tactical dispositions?"

The question took the demon aback, but he answered immediately without thinking. "One may know how to conquer without being able to do it."

"That's correct. You are an excellent duelist with a tactical mind and the ability to intuitively understand what a person is planning. However, having those abilities doesn't necessarily mean you can use them perfectly or always do." Ammut raised an eye, not sure if he understood.

"Are you implying that I'm not using my abilities of intuition and tactical thinking correctly or at all? I've been thinking through all of your actions throughout the entire duel, coming to an understanding of what you foresee in this duel in order to counteract it." Dalin shook his head and Ammut relaxed without thinking about it. At least until Dalin spoke again.

"No, I'm not implying it. Rather I'm saying that you are overusing them, misusing them. Earlier in this duel you came up with the question what must happen when two generals both knowing the rules of the art of war enter into combat. You assumed that it was the superior one who would win…but you forgot the nature of deception." Ammut's hands clenched tightly and above him Ravel's did as well.

"What are you talking about? War is deception and this duel is determined by the general who is superior at deceiving the opponent's critical ability. My ability to deceive your foresight with my insight and your ability to deceive my insight with your foresight. What could I possibly be missing?" Dalin held up his right hand in a fist and then held up his pointer finger.

"The critical thing that you are missing is that deception is a two-way street. In order to deceive someone with the ability of foresight you must not plan your strategy ahead of time. And in order to deceive someone with the ability of insight…" Ammut's eyes opened fully as realization struck him.

"You deceive yourself! Meaning that this whole time that I've been trying to understand your move, there really was no logical reasoning behind it. You ruined your own strategy in order to make me focus on that and leave yourself truly open to strategize!" The other end of Dalin's mouth quirked up, and had Ammut not known better he would have assumed Dalin was smirking at him.

"At long last you see it, but yet you have ignored the most obvious element of this deception. The fact that the focus of the deception lay in front of your eyes the whole time." Ammut jerked his eyes down and saw exactly what Dalin was speaking of. The card that he had ignored the whole time while trying to understand the strategy.

"No…your set card was the true strategy, and I discarded a counter trap two turns ago in order to deal you damage using my Phantom Drain card. How…how are you the superior general?" Dalin responded by pointing to his set card, causing it to flip up.

Dalin's card started to glow and the red Tribute Counters started surging into it. "He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated."

The trap card was by now glowing completely red and Osiris had lifted up its head to view the outcome of the duel. "Hence the skillful fighter puts himself into a position which makes defeat impossible, and does not miss the moment for defeating the enemy."

Ammut began to laugh, shaking his head as he did so. "Truly you are as masterful as ever Dalin. The ultimate strategist, superior to any other, a master of all strategies created and even those not thought of by any others. Watching the chess game of life that you played with him all this time has been delightful."

Dalin didn't understand what Ammut was getting at, all he knew was what was about to happen. "Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory!"

He thrust out his hand and a huge blast of red light issued forth from the trap card and engulfed Ammut. "The victory was determined ahead of time based on my destiny to recover my memory, this moment has been coming for ages and it has at last come! Hand of Destiny deals you one hundred points of damage for every counter I sacrifice to it, and by sacrificing all fifty-three hundred this duel is over!"

The red glow died out and steam rose from Ammut's body. He looked slightly weak, but he also appeared overjoyed. "Dalin…at last you've done it, just like you promised you would. I've been waiting for a long time for you to defeat me and release your memories. I've been waiting for the day when my purpose would be fulfilled. Come, recover your memories and let us become Sumatin once again." (ALP: 0)

Dalin approached Ammut and stood directly in front of him, less than a foot distance between the two. "What must I do from here to recover my memory?"

Ammut reached out and put his hands on the sides of Dalin's head and pressed their foreheads together. "You have walked through shadow and fire to achieve the recovery of your memories. Now all that remains is to suffer through them all."

Under Osiris' watchful eyes a towering column of silver energy engulfed the two, becoming a cyclone of pure power.

CHECK MATE.

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Author's Notes: Surprised that it ended up just a two-part duel? Well only a fool prolongs a campaign.

Next Time: Hidden from all eyes including the owner's. They lie beneath the surface, untouched for years but always waiting to be released and to be understood. For over six years Dalin has sought his memories, and at last he has found them. But are they what he was hoping for? With his memories will Dalin be the same person, or will he be changed forever? What is the answer to his question? Who is Dalin Imaki Sumatin?

See it all in, Memories Hidden in Shadow and Fire!