Hello once more. Glad that everyone liked the results of the last duel. I thought I'd have that duel as kind of an intermission, but like with Illidan vs. Marie, there are a few things in between the duels. So, sadly, the duel won't officially start with Yami till next week. At any rate, onto the reviews now.

Tomb Robber Vicky: Yep, silver platter and all for Seto's butt, hehe. And don't worry, that duel is coming up soon.

pink-kiss-candy: Soon he will face the Pharaoh. Raises eyebrow at the bi comment. Oh Marie… Gets smacked in the back of the head. Sorry dear… Forget I said a word, hehe. ROFL! Poor Ryou. I can fix your problem though Ryou. Pulls out a baseball bat. Stand still for a few minutes. This may hurt, but it'll make you uglier.

Isis the Sphinx: Yes, a nice intermission, but like I said earlier, the duel between the two is coming soon. It won't take all week to get to it, but it'll be another two or three chapters I believe. Like with Marie vs. Illidan, I'll post it all the same week.

thehyperactivecow: Indeed, being owned by Illidan is always great, lol. The next match is the four way duel, but I kind of just gave the results rather than run through it.

Metal Overlord 2.0: Lol, yeah, I thought it'd be ironic if Seto lost to Keith. Here Seto calls himself a world class champion, where he was just beat by a world class loser, hehe. But yeah, the upcoming duel will be intense. I just first have to run through some other things, but that duel is coming.

By the way, my fiancé is working on putting another chapter out of her story. I'll let everyone know when it's up. Also, I'm working on a one-shot of the end of Yugioh, mostly to explain what happened. It'll take place at the end of the final duel, so it'll explain quite a few things. I'm going to try and explain the gaps that my story has between the show, but we'll see how that goes. I know the show decided to take a nice tour through the past, but I've thought of a few things, so I'll just have to write it down.

Other than that, nothing else much left for me to say. So, till tomorrow, enjoy.

Chapter 72

Once the 4-way duel was over that night, a new number one contender for the World Championship was decided. The first in the match to be eliminated was Marik. Then Yugi and Marie had turned their attention to one another. The fatal mistake was leaving Joey completely alone. He had not been attacked the whole duel. Finally, when Yugi used Slifer to take down Marie, Joey took full advantage. Both Slifer and Marie's powerful The Agent of Force – Mars were both destroyed due to Joey's help. Then Joey went in and finished both off in one final swoop. Both were shocked that Joey had caused them both to lose in a few simple moves. Still, the duel stood, and Joey was declared the new number one contender for the World Championship. Like the duel for the Intercontinental Championship, it would be on the tenth day of dueling. Now Joey had the chance to duel for both the Intercontinental and World Championship in his duel with Illidan.

After the duel, everyone retired to their rooms for the night. Illidan entered his and flung himself down onto his bed. He was exhausted from the tough duels.

Sighing his thoughts began to ramble within his head. "Man, what a tough set of duels I had today, but it only gets worse tomorrow. Today, I had to defeat Marie in a singles duel, and then Seto and Keith in a triple threat duel. Tomorrow, I have to defeat Yami in a singles duel, but can I? The prophesy Marie made said that most likely the one to face Gozaburo would be known due that they were undefeated throughout the tournament. Me and Yami are undefeated in singles action, but he lost in tag team duels and three or more way duels. So, does that mean he isn't part of the prophecy anymore, or does that mean he's still in it? I'm so confused on what it means."

Finally, Illidan got up, deciding he'd let fate take it's course, one way or another. He quickly prepared for bed and in moments, was asleep when his head hit his pillow.

While he slept, a vision came to him. He found himself once again in ancient Egypt. Sighing inwardly, he thought "Great, what memory is it now?"

He then saw his past self walking through the palace. He followed closely, knowing where his former self was headed. His past self was walking to the courtyard where the Shadow Court constantly practiced their Shadow Duels.

In the courtyard, there stood Yami, who smiled, saying "It's about time slow poke. I was beginning to wonder if you'd show up or not."

Illidan's past self only smirked and lightly said "Sorry, but I was busy. Yeah, very busy."

Past Illidan kind of blushed at his own comment. Suddenly, it dawned on Illidan why. "Ah, I remember now. Me and Marie were busy doing something before this duel. No wonder I was blushing."

Yami only laughed, saying with a taunting voice "I know that you and Marie were rolling in the sheets, and that's alright. I just wanted to duel you today."

Past Illidan blushed even deeper now at the pharaoh's comment. Yami knew him and Marie were deeply in love and already married. Ever since they were married, Illidan had been spending any time he had to spare with her during the day. The two were the talk of the palace since both would constantly disappear during the day after all the serious work had been done.

Yami's face then turned serious, as he said "Come Illidan, I wish to duel you."

Illidan's past self looked up and his blush disappeared. He nodded and the two moved to their positions on the field. Soon enough, their Shadow Powers flared out of their Millennium Items as they summoned forth monsters.

Eventually, their duel boiled down to where the two had their favorite monsters out. Yami's was a powerful mage in purple robes with a powerful green staff. This monster was known throughout the kingdom as Dark Magician. Illidan's monster was a mage as well, but this one wore black armor and had blue skin with odd eyes. His eyes had yellow corneas and red irises, which made the mage seem so odd. This mage wielded a powerful black staff and was just as strong, if not stronger than Yami's mage. This monster that Illidan wielded was known as the Dark Magician of Chaos.

The two smirked at each other, for the duel had gone both ways till they had gotten to this point in the duel. Then, in one final assault, the two decided to see who was the strongest at that point. Each then called out their final orders to their monsters.

"Dark Magician, attack with Dark Magic Attack!" commanded Yami.

"Dark Magician of Chaos, attack with Chaos Scepter Blast!" ordered Illidan.

Each monster then pointed their staffs at their opposition. They then each fired their attacks, which met in the middle of the field. The two blasts struck one another, each trying to overpower the other. Illidan and Yami then started pouring more power than ever from their Millennium Items and into their monsters. Each had sweat drenching their faces and body as they poured their powers into their mages.

For a long time, the two were evenly matched. For nearly ten minutes, neither could move the beam one way or another. Illidan was starting to weaken though.

Ever since Illidan and Yami had known one another as children while they had been training, the two had been nearly even in power. Illidan eventually had gotten slightly stronger than Yami at the age of eight, which coincidentally frightened Yami's father, the Pharaoh Raijin. This fact had forced Raijin to try an attempt on Illidan's life, but Illidan's father, Shando Stormrage, had caught wind of this and saved his son's life by sending him to live with a group of roaming nomads that were strong users of Shadow Magic. But there was a price to pay, and that was the life of Illidan's own father.

Of course, Yami's father had died due to this attempt when others of his Shadow Court had found out, which put the young pharaoh in charge at the age of eight. Illidan and Yami would not see one another for eight years after this. This was due to Shando's request to the nomads. He had asked them to teach his son all that they could in eight years, so that he might be able to return to Cairo one day. True to their word, the group had taught Illidan for eight years, and when Illidan had turned sixteen, he sent word to Yami that he was returning.

Upon his return, he was asked to teach a young girl with Shadow Powers, who was sixteen as well, named Marie. Over three years, Illidan had taught her all that he could, and amazingly, she learned rather quickly. In three short years, she had achieved a power level that had taken Yami eight years to reach. Of course, during those three years, Illidan had found himself falling in love for the girl, but was afraid to admit it to her till after her final test where she won her freedom form slavery and was granted permission to join Yami's council known as the Shadow Court.

During the three years though, Yami had grown stronger. Due that Illidan was no longer pressing hard to grow more and more powerful, Yami had overtaken Illidan in strength, setting himself up as the strongest that was known of in the country with Shadow Powers.

Even though Illidan had lost ground to Yami, Illidan did gain some power. He had gained some strength, but not as much as Yami. Due that he wasn't focused on training himself as hard as he had been anymore; he just gained power in smaller spurts. In a way, Illidan didn't care too much either due that he had gained something better than power. He had in the end gained the love of Marie, and was now happier with spending time with her than fighting or dueling.

As the attacks continued to grind away at one another, Illidan was finding it more and more difficult to keep up this level of an attack. He had always been the strongest between the two, but Illidan also had known Yami had gotten stronger during the past five years. He only smiled inwardly, knowing it had only been a matter of time till Yami had overtaken him in strength.

Slowly, Illidan was running out of strength. Yami's mage was pushing his mage's attack back, and Illidan was running out of energy. At long last, his last bit of energy failed him, and the attack came flying towards Illidan's mage, instantly crushing it. Illidan collapsed onto his knees, panting hard as sweat poured off of his body.

Yami's monster then faded as he too fell to his knees, panting hard. He lightly laughed, saying "I didn't know how long you'd survive. I was amazed I held out that long as well. Excellent duel Illidan."

Illidan's past self slowly tried to stand, but found himself out of energy. After resting a few more moments, he finally stood and smiled, thanking Yami. He then excused himself and slowly made his way back towards his quarters.

His past self flung himself onto the bed, for he was totally exhausted. He quickly fell asleep, only to be awakened soon enough by Marie's past self kissing him. She casually asked him why he was sweaty and so tired. Jokingly, she asked if he'd visited the royal concubines.

Illidan only laughed as he remembered his answer had been "Is that a problem?" He then saw his past self getting a small punch from Marie, but only laughed. Shaking his head, he thought "I should have known better than to say that, but I couldn't help myself. She made it an easy target."

He then noticed Marie had begun talking to his past self about Gozaburo's persistent gestures of love towards her. Sighing, his memory then flared up. "I remember this day now. This was the day before that whole mess began. I told her I'd talk to him again, which I did, and she also talked with him. But that did nothing to stop him as usual."

Then suddenly the vision moved to the next day, right to where Marie was walking away from Gozaburo. "No, not this again!"

Gozaburo got off the ground and pulled his dagger out of his cloak, and then stabbed Marie right in the back. She screamed out in pain, awakening the unconscious version of Illidan.

He screamed mentally "Please, make this vision stop! Please!"

Suddenly, Illidan awoke in a cold sweat. Not only was he in a cold sweat, but he was crying as he had usually been when he'd had that certain vision. He looked down at the Millennium Key, which was still glowing.

In a sad, yet demanding voice, he said "Why do you continue to show me these visions? I know what happened, and I know I couldn't stop him. So why do you continue this! Answer me!"

The Millennium Key just simply continued to glow with a golden aura, seemingly ignoring him. He growled, placing a firm hold on the key, yelling "Answer me! I want answers now!"

"Silly Illidan, you should know that key can't talk to you, let alone answer you." came a stranger's voice from across his room.

Illidan nearly jumped out of his skin. Looking around, Illidan quickly noticed a figure in the dark. Inwardly, he thought "That voice sounds so familiar. But who is it?"

Pulling his key into his hand, he pointed it towards the stranger, saying "Show yourself, or I'll use this Millennium Key on you!"

There was only a laugh from the shadows where the stranger stood. Slowly, the figure walked closer to Illidan. Finally, Illidan made out the stranger's face, saying in a shocked voice "Shadi?"

Lightly laughing, Shadi stepped into the moonlight, saying "Yes my friend, it's me. I've returned to check up on you."

Illidan quickly climbed out of bed and hugged his friend. He then directed him towards the couch and sat down beside Shadi, asking "So, you came to check up on me? Why?"

Shadi only smiled, replying with "I heard from a friend here that you were undefeated in this tournament so far. I also heard that the pharaoh was as well. So, I knew that your final test was against him. I figured I should come back to make sure you was ready for this duel."

Illidan's brow furrowed with concern. "What do you mean ready for this duel?" he asked, unsure of what Shadi was saying.

Shadi only smirked, and replied with "All your opponents so far have been tough, but not as strong as the pharaoh. Don't forget, he is one of the most powerful duelists still in the world. Not to mention, he has a great power still lying dormant in him, along with his memories. He will not be the typical opponent you've grown used to dueling."

Illidan only frowned, saying "I've defeated Millennium Item duelists before. Don't forget, I beat Bakura, Marik, and Marie all so far. I don't think that Yami's Millennium Puzzle will make that much of a difference in our duel."

Shadi only looked at Illidan and slightly sighed, saying "Illidan, it will make all the difference. You forget, it is the pharaoh that you will be dueling. In ancient times, you never defeated him after he got stronger than you. True you defeated the others, but never the pharaoh after training Marie. And don't forget that he controls the Egyptian God Card, Slifer the Sky Dragon."

"But remember this one Shadi, I have defeated all of the God Cards so far. I defeated Slifer on my own in a few duels with the pharaoh, as well as the other two in single action, so I'm not that worried about his God Card." interjected Illidan.

Shadi nodded, but then replied "But the pharaoh is much stronger than you realize Illidan. He will be tough to beat. You must focus your mind and body on the task ahead. I have no doubt you can do it though. You are after all the reincarnation of Illidan Stormrage from ancient Egypt, who helped bring so much peace to Egypt. You can do it, I know you can."

Illidan then looked at Shadi and realized Shadi looked different. His face was showing wrinkles, and his skin looked much more wrinkled in places. Curious, he asked "Shadi, what is happening to you? You seem older now, or at least look it."

Shadi only lightly chuckled, saying "Can't you remember? It was the power of the Millennium Key that kept me immortal. Now that you possess it once again, my immortality is fading. I don't know if I'll age to what I should truly look like or not. If I do, I will more than likely die when I hit 100 years of age."

Illidan suddenly realized what he'd done in ancient times. He had linked Shadi's immortality to him wearing the Millennium Key. It was the only way to keep Shadi from aging. Now there was a problem with that plan. "Now what do I do? I can't give back the Millennium Key. But at the same time, I can't let him die. He's too good a friend to let die this way. There must be a solution. But what is it?"

Waking from his thoughts, Illidan slowly started in a sad voice "Shadi, I…"

Shadi only shook his head, saying "It's alright my friend. I knew I couldn't live forever. Really, in some ways, I wish I had died long ago. Guarding the tombs was my duty, and I still don't mind that. In fact, I have no real true regrets for doing it all these millennia. I only regret that I never got to help when I should have. I could have done much for the world probably, but I was destined to guard the items instead. That was a destiny I embraced long ago, and will till the bitter end."

Looking at his friend with sad eyes, thoughts started swirling within Illidan's mind. "There has to be something I can do for him. But what? Wait, I can do something!"

With a mischievous smile, Illidan said "Shadi, you don't have to die just yet. I have an idea."

Shadi didn't understand, but shook his head, saying "It is alright my friend. Let me die in peace."

Illidan placed a hand on his friends shoulder and shook his head, saying back "But it is not yet your time for death. Your destiny maybe fulfilled, but you have so much to live for as well. I have an idea to save you."

Shadi only looked at Illidan, curious to what Illidan meant. "What do you have in mind?" he asked.

Illidan only smiled back, knowing what to do.