Yugi opened his eyes. He found himself lying on his stomach on cold brick floor. He looked around. There were stair cases leading to nowhere, doors lying sideways on the wall and on the floor and ceiling. "This place looks kind of familiar," he commented. "Of course, this is where the Pharaoh's spirit lives, inside the Millennium Puzzle. I better find him so we can reconnect." He looked around and started heading up a stair case.
Joey and Tristan also awoke inside the Millennium Puzzle but in a different location than Yugi. "I feel as bad as you look," Tristan cracked.
"Tristan, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," Joey said.
"It looks like we're in some kind of maze," Tristan observed. "And I think we're the guinea pigs."
"Hey, where're Harold and Yugi?" Joey wondered.
Harold was slumped against the wall but a reflexive kick of his leg was enough to wake him up. "Weird, somehow my Armlet mixed it up with that eye and now I'm here. I wonder if Joey and Tristan are here too. I better find them so we can blow this M.C. Escher painting. But first…" He looked down at his school uniform. "I think it's time for a costume change." He held his hand with his Armlet up. The symbols appeared around him and started descending. As they descended, Harold's clothes changed to a red shirt with a white diamond, blue stretch pants, white boots and a red cape. "There, now I'm ready to save some people." He turned and ran off in a direction.
Kaiba was still jabbing Yami. "It hurts, doesn't it, when you put your faith in the gods and the gods let you down. If I were you, I would start praying for mercy. Because from here on out I'm planning on taking you apart piece by painful piece until there's nothing left of you, not even memories."
Kaiba has no idea the true power the Pyramid of Light holds, Yami thought. I have to make him see the truth, I just hope I live long enough to do it.
"So let the torture start with this, the torrential magic of Mystical Space Typhoon!" Mystical Space Typhoon was a magic card that could destroy one magic or trap card that's on the field. A large cyclone destroyed Yami's only remaining face-down card. And if you like that, then you'll love what's next. I summon Peten the Dark Clown (50). But don't let his name fool you, he's no laughing matter." Peten suddenly vanished. Yami frantically looked around wondering from which direction Peten would attack from.
Peten attacked from behind.
"Bloodlust Slash!" Kaiba cried as Peten stuck a dagger through Yami's back. Yami let out a blood-curdling scream.
Tea felt a chill inside her and that literally caught her off guard. She fell to the ground.
"Tea, are you all right?" Amara asked as she helped the other girl up.
"Yeah, I just fell," Tea said. What was that chill I felt? It felt like someone was getting killed. I hope it isn't Yugi.
Yami fell to his knees as his life points went down.
(K: 3400)
(Y: 3500)
"And to top it off, I place this face-down on the field."
Yami was still trying to recover. It really felt like he was being slashed for a moment. He had to destroy that monster so he summoned one of his new spellcasters, a female dressed in exotic blue robes and holding a scepter with a curved top and three jewels in the center. "Magician's Valkyria (51), attack with Mystic Scepter Blast!" The Magician's Valkyria unleashed a blast of green energy which destroyed the clown.
(K: 2300)
(Y: 3500)
Kaiba felt drained for a moment but he shrugged it off. "Nice try, Yugi, but I knew you were going to make that move which is why my face-down card is…" It was flipped up. "Deck Destruction Virus! You set off this crippling trap when you destroyed my clown and now its viral tentacles will infect ten random cards in your deck sending them to the graveyard."
"Oh no!"
"Oh yes, now say good-bye to 25 percent of your deck!" The tentacles lashed out from the card and wrapped around Yami's Duel Disk. Ten cards disappeared. "I hate to be the bearer of more bad news but when you destroyed my Dark Clown, you triggered his special ability allowing me to summon another Dark Clown to take his place." A second Peten appeared. It tipped his hat then gave Yami a raspberry before resting in defense position. Kaiba then drew a card. "I summon Des Feral Imp (52) and next I play a magic card called Card of Demise. It lets me draw five new cardsd from my deck but if I don't use them in five turns, I lose them in five turns. Now I'll sacrifice my Feral Imp in order to activate White Dragon Ritual to summon Paladin of White Dragon (53)! Attack with Ionic Spear Burst!" A silver-armored warrior flying dragon-back plowed right through Magician Valkyria."
(K: 2300)
(Y: 3200)
Why is it that every attack I receive feels like its real, Yami wondered. Could this be a Shadow Game? But Kaiba doesn't have a Millennium Item, he can't issue a Shadow Game. But what else could it be?
"And now I summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Kaiba sacrificed his Paladin to summon his favorite monster. "Take a good look, Yugi, it's the monster that has been the bane of your existence ever since our first match. Now he's back but he's not alone." He placed a card face-down. "Any last requests?"
After trying his twenty-fifth (or was it twenty-sixth, he lost count) door, Yugi was out of options. He was beginning to think he would never find the Pharaoh.
Then he saw him.
A ghostly image of Yami was walking around a corner. "Hey Pharaoh!" Yugi called but there was no response. Yugi followed the phantom around the corner just in time to see it walk right through a door. Yugi stepped up to it. "I'm pretty sure this isn't his room."
Yugi turned the handle and opened the door.
Yugi found himself in what looked like a crypt. A sarcophagus was placed at the other end and multiple capsules were spread around the floor.
Yami was standing by the sarcophagus.
"Pharaoh," Yugi called again but the phantom-Yami faded away. Yugi could hear chanting, deep chanting in a language he didn't understand. Suddenly the capsules started to open and mummies climbed out all clamoring towards Yugi. Yugi backed up out of the chamber and ran off with the mummies in hot pursuit.
Joey and Tristan heard screaming in the distance. "Did you hear that?" Joey asked.
"No, I'm deaf as Beethoven," Tristan replied sarcastically. "Of course I heard it that sounded like Yugi." The two started to run. "Yugi!"
"Hey Yug, yell if you can hear us!"
Yugi actually did yell but it wasn't in response to Joey's request, but in response to the mummies that were chasing him. "Talk later, run now," he said running by them.
Joey and Tristan understood when they saw the mummies chasing him. They too joined Yugi in running from the mummies.
Harold heard a lot of screaming in the distance. "I think I just found the others." He started leaping from wall to mismatched wall.
Amara, Tea and Solomon entered the Duel Dome and noticed the rubble. "It looks like an earthquake hit this place," Tea commented. They then noticed the large pyramid. "And what in the world is that thing?"
"That's what I want to know."
"Mokuba!"
"Mokuba, tell me, is Yugi really inside that thing?"
"Yeah and so is my brother."
"But would someone tell me what the heck that is?" Amara requested.
"It looks like the artifact we saw at the museum only this one's super-sized."
"But how is something like that possible?"
"Anubis."
"You mean like the Egyptian God?" Mokuba asked.
"There's no way that's possible!" Tea protested.
"Whether it's the real McCoy or just someone with a huge ego, I don't know, but I do know one thing for sure: whoever was imprisoned in that sarcophagus tried to destroy the world using the Pyramid of Light and now it looks like he's doing it again."
"Rewind a sec.," Mokuba said. "All of this insanity started when Seto played a card that was called the Pyramid of Light."
"But I never heard of a Duel Monster card called the Pyramid of Light," Amara said.
The more I think about it, the more I believe this is all connected to the mummy that was in that sarcophagus," Solomon said. "Call me crazy, but I think that mummy is trying to start the same trouble he started some millennia ago and he's using Yugi and Kaiba to do it."
Amara ran towards the Pyramid but only ended up in bouncing right off of it. "Well going inside of it is out; we're going to have to find a way to break that overgrown snow globe."
"I don't know what dark magic is at work here but I can't let it go unchecked," Yami ranted. "I play Premature Burial to raise Valkyria from the graveyard and I'll boost her strength with Mage Power!" The female magician reappeared with the magic card in back of it.
(MV: 1600-2600)
(K: 2500)
(Y: 2400)
"But now my Valkyria gains 500 extra attack and defense points every time I play a magic or trap card… like these two." Yami placed two cards face-down.
(MV: 2600-3600)
"This makes my Valkyria more than a match for your Blue-Eyes. Attack, Valkyria, with Mystic Scepter Blast!"
"Not so fast, you fool; Attack Guidance Armor will save my Blue-Eyes!"
Peten suddenly found itself wearing a demonic-looking chest plate.
"A trap!"
"Very observant, now your attack is diverted!" The green energy blast angled downward and destroyed Peten. "And since my Deck Destruction Virus card is still in play, it infects ten more cards in your deck!" Once again the tendrils lashed out and grabbed ten cards.
This time Yami heard a scream come from his Duel Disk, a female scream.
His Dark Magician Girl (54) had been taken away from him.
"I've lost half the cards in my deck already."
"And soon you'll lose them all. But first I'll bring back an old friend who just hates to say good-bye. Peten the Dark Clown, come to me!" A third Dark Clown appeared who waved to Magician Valkyria. "And next I'm going to summon up your worst nightmare because if you couldn't defeat one Blue-Eyes…"
Yami gasped, knowing what was coming next.
"Then there's no way you'll defeat three," Kaiba continued. Especially when they're combined as the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" Kaiba's three-headed dragon towered over Magician Valkyria. "And if you think he's scary before, just wait until he attacks. In fact, don't wait. Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, White Neutron Blast!" Magician Valkyria could only watch in horror as she was disintegrated.
(K: 2500)
(Y: 1500)
The force of the explosion threw Yami into the wall of the Pyramid. Energy tendrils emitted from the pyramid and stabbed at Yami causing him to scream.
Kaiba looked like he was enjoying seeing Yugi in pain.
Yugi, Joey, and Tristan were still being chased by the mummies. The mummies had cornered them at a cliff that led into a void.
"Oh man, we're trapped," Joey complained.
"Looks like this is it," Tristan said.
"Duck!" A voice cried. Yugi, Joey, and Tristan dove to the floor as a ring of archaic symbols plowed into the mummies sending them over the edge. Harold ran up to them. "You guys all right."
"We are now that you're here," Joey said.
"Thanks, man."
"Yeah, thanks, Avatar," Yugi said calling Harold by the code name given to all the bearers of the Armlet.
"No problem, guys, now all we have to do now is figure out…" Harold looked up. "What the heck that thing is." He pointed up and behind the other three. They turned to see a giant golden eye peering down on them.
"What the heck is going on?" Joey asked.
"Somehow we've all been drawn into the Millennium Puzzle," Yugi explained. "And that thing up there is somehow responsible."
Joey asked another question, "So why didn't it waste us?"
"I think that was its intention, Joey," Harold said. "But when I put up my Armlet's shield, it interfered and somehow we all wound up in here."
"And speaking of here what's down there?" Tristan asked. The others followed Tristan's glance and saw two pyramids. One looked like the Millennium Puzzle and the other was blue with a brass eye with a red bead at the center.
The blue one was half-inside the Millennium Puzzle, it looked like the Millennium Puzzle was being destroyed by it.
"That blue pyramid looks like the Pyramid of Light I saw at the Museum."
"Well it looks like it's beating the crap out of your Millennium Puzzle," Joey pointed out.
"Fighting pyramids and creepy floating eyes, can this get any weirder?"
"When you hang around with Yugi, this is par for the course," Harold said. The others didn't see Yugi's head lower in shame for a second.
"Anybody have any idea what we're up against?" Tristan asked.
"Maybe," Yugi said. "I think this all has to do with an Egyptian sorcerer."
"I knew it had to be something insane," Joey cracked.
"Joey, not the time," Harold said.
"He's called Anubis. Centuries ago he tried to destroy the world and I'm starting to believe he's making a come back."
"What?" His friends asked at the same time.
The eye displayed an image of Magician's Valkyria being destroyed for a second time.
"Looks like the duel's not going too well for your friend the Pharaoh," Tristan commented.
"No joke," Harold agreed. "We need to get out of here and save the Pharaoh from Kaiba." The other three all turned to look at him. "Call me crazy but we do need to do something."
"All I can think of for now is going back to Anubis's tomb. Perhaps the answer lies in there."
"You mean back towards the mummies?" Joey said nervously.
"Relax," Tristan assured him. "Harold's Armlet can take care of them."
"I didn't destroy them, Tristan, I just sent them away."
"Oy-vey."
Kaiba was still barding Yugi. "Does it hurt? Because it only gets worst from here."
Yami felt his back which was still smoking from the attack by the Pyramid of Light. His jacket had more than a couple of holes in it and his back felt sticky which meant that he might be bleeding. "Kaiba, we can't continue this, it's too dangerous for both of us! There's another power at work!"
"Oh please, that's getting old."
"I'm serious! That Pyramid of Light you played has created a deadly Shadow Game. Somehow it's feeding off of us. I know you sense it!"
"The only thing that I sense is your fear not that I blame you, but I came here to win and stopping is not an option!"
"But not stopping could mean the death of both of us!"
"Like I care what happens to you! For all the times you humiliated me in a duel when I should've been the clear winner, for all the times I had to listen to your worthless speech about the heart of the cards! I will send you to the gates of Hell with my Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" That last attack must've still been ringing in Yami's ears because he thought he heard Kaiba's voice change.
"Kaiba, once again your over inflated ego has blinded you to reason! I am far from beaten! If I have to journey to the brink of death to convince you of the truth then so be it!"