Disclaimer: I do not own JCA or Yu Gi Oh.

Betaed by: The determined Zim'smostloyalservant.

AUTHORS NOTE ON CHAPTER: THIS IS NOT THE FINAL THIRD AGE CHAPTER AFTER ALL.

Third Age (Part 3)

The Villain

After Most of a Season of Clue Hunting, Riddles, and Confrontations Mostly Settled by Duels:

King grit his teeth, and had no time to contemplate how different it felt embodied. Or thinking he was embodied?

Point was, he had secured himself. Holding onto Trace's forearm with one hand, he prepared himself to pull the teen out of the chasm.

"King, the answers," Trace said. Even though he was the one dangling in the chasm, he seemed more concerned about the test. King ignored him, pulling him up. The ground seemed solid enough. But then so was he, for the moment.

The gongs rang again, but no bell followed. The vision faded, and sure enough, they remained in the courtyard. King made a fist, and felt the sensation of flesh fade away.

The five monks entered the courtyard, hoods raised and the distinct colors of their robes rich in the sunlight.

"You failed to reach the Spring of Renewal. You gave up a chance to return to flesh. Do you not understand it was only once you could try!?" the lead monk demanded, her tone shrill and demanding.

"I'm so sorry," Trace apologized.

"Don't be. Had you fallen, I am not sure what would have happened," King said. He smiled at Trace before turning his attention to the monks.

"What is certain is that you lost your chance," the red monk said in response.

"What of it? Was I to risk his life to get back something I had long lost? Even if he hadn't already lost so much to this ancient feud, and even if he weren't a friend, I wouldn't throw someone away so casually," King declared.

The bell rang. With its sound, a quality of light seemed to sweep over the courtyard and the monks.

"You are worthy. For though we can't reunite body and spirit, the temptation you overcame has proved you are indeed still the one worthy of our aid," The monks bowed their heads in respect.

"Enter the sanctum, and let your past be returned to you," they said, stepping aside.

Later:

Trace watched as King rose, looking solid and alive as the elemental energy streams lifted him into the air, the sword at the center of the specter lost to sight.

His friend emerged from the light, standing atop the rainbow spiral, crowned and robed in energy, pure white light coming from his eyes.

'Domino… this is what he wants to be. But he isn't. I can see why it would be a goal men would go mad with obsession to attain,' Trace thought. At once, he was both overjoyed for his friend and saddened for the Outcast Warrior.

"I… remember. My purpose, my time, my people. My name. I am Cheherazad! And my quest is not done yet!" his friend proclaimed.

With a great white flash, the energy vanished. King… no, Cheherazad, descended, once more semitransparent, the sword visible in his torso. But he was changed. His clothes were distinct from Trace's own, not ancient but perhaps at last to his own taste. And while he had always held himself proudly, now he seemed truly regal. As if a thousand flaws to small to spot had nonetheless been erased.

The High Monks rose from their meditative positions, pulling back their robes. They smiled brightly, despite the fatigue. King went to one knee and lowered his head to them.

"I am so sorry. Your predecessors trusted me, and I failed. And now I fear Yade Khan is more of a threat than ever."

"You risked all and lost much as well, Chosen of Old. As we were then, we armed you as best we could. This sword served its purpose by your will and light. For ages you held the shadows at bay," the Water Monk said, light catching on his glasses.

"But you are right. Yade Khan threatens us now with more than mere conquest. Brenner revealed the Sun Souls to her, and with them, she threatens the very nature of the world," the beautiful Fire Monk spoke up.

"But your part is done for now. The secrets we uncovered are a revelation only the living can experience," the elderly Earth Monk said.

"Man, who swept in here last? I was sitting on a pebble all through that!" the Wind Monk whined, still massaging her butt. In that very formfitting robe, with her back to Trace.

"Sorry, what was that last thing you said?" Trace asked, when Earth cleared his throat.

The Next Day:

"Shouldn't there in incense or something?" Trace asked Karaman.

"Only if you care about the smell," the monk said, holding up a monocle to inspect a section of the array Trace was sitting on.

"Ah. So do I need to recite a mantra spell or-?"

"Close your eyes."

SNAP

"And away you go." Trace opened his eyes again to look at the smiling monk as he took a seat.

"Away I go? What do yoOHHHH CRAAAAA-" Trace asked, before he shot through the ceiling which shattered like glass on impact.

Darkness awaited him, like a summer night without stars. Yet not imposing or threatening. A voice came, and lines began to form on the gentle darkness.

"There are more worlds than this one. Many versions of reality as we know it, variations subtle and grand, and worlds that seem to stand as contradictions to themselves even. And dimensions distinct as they are vast and varied. Even the wisest of our orders and the most homed perceptions can only glimpse parts of it. How it interacts, how it works. Our enlightenment brings both the humility of our smallness before an unfathomable multiverse, but also the responsibility to do our part, for each is connected to the whole. Some more than others.

"The Shadow Netherworld. Long ago, it brushed aside the Shadow Plane that was part of our reality's nexus to touch this world. An empty prison crafted long ago by powers we know not. And it could have passed unknown in its meeting by both sides. But the Shadow Walkers rose.

"A mere cult of magic and greedy malice then, to hear tell. Lacking vision or great numbers, but they had power, and they harnessed their own souls as wagers to grow stronger. And they stepped into the Netherworld in ignorance. And its sole inhabitant felt the intrusion."

Trace watched images drawn before him, white on the black, sculptures of otherworldly chalk lines.

"She could have destroyed them, but instead she saw opportunity. Arses, the first Himinion, bowed to her, and a bond was forged, and a disease of what should not be here unleashed on our world. And under a succession of Himinions, her reach extended unseen," the voice went on. Now it showed Yade Khan's tendrils going under villages, and at last worming their way into a city.

"But then she chose a follower for greatness. Boaz the Great, groomed by her to imperial ambitions," the images now showed the outlines of a powerful man, the image of him framed by Yade Khan's clawed hands, which then bestowed upon him a scroll, a spear, a cloak, and crown.

"And as her lover," Now the image showed a properly-scaled Yade Khan with the regal image of the ancient Himinion, and they…

"Oh my," Trace muttered, and found you could avert your eyes in a vision quest. After what seemed too long lingering on that, the narration continued, complete with images of Boaz's conquests and his unrivaled mastery of shadow magic and the monsters conjured. And his death, and being avenged by the Dark Goddess, who retreated into her own darkness.

Strange to include that. He would not expect the monstrous creature described here to mourn, much less to be shaken so deeply by a mortal's death.

He watched King's story play out, confirming what he had suspected, and even adding to it, with what King's visions had shown of his confrontation with Yade Khan.

So this was what they faced, but it told little of the modern Shadow Walkers, the descendants of Zaben's prized Old Blood. Or Brenner's modern patronage and edge, that pulled them from the periphery to the forefront of the hidden war for the world.

"Well, that was quite the show. Almost makes me wish I could eat some popcorn," a familiar voice said. Trace didn't want to, but he turned his attention to the final drawing of Yade Khan, which turned its head to grin at him. Shadows billowed like ink in the outline, filling Yade Khan in. Each limb filled jerked free of its pose until she was moving and stretching like an athlete warming up.

"Yade Khan, how are you here?" he demanded. She smiled wide as she circled him, her tail surrounding him.

"I had reason, that's why. These Sun Souls are so very useful — these barriers the monks are so proud of haven't been viable for a year or so. But they have been looser-lipped since you got here. Thanks for that. I know where the last unknown Sun Soul is now, and where Gragas has been hiding. Tick tock, even your defiance ushers me forward," she chuckled.

"Karaman!" Trace yelled out for the monk as Yade chuckled. Her darkness filled his vision, spreading over the dreamscape like spilled ink. Then he snapped open his eyes, back in the temple.

The kindly vision master pushed the glasses up his nose and held out a cup of steaming green tea. Trace ignored it.

"She knows," he told them.

Meanwhile:

Mildred reclined on the stone steps, and tilted he face up toward the sun. It was odd, she thought, that loosing her sight had not made her like sunny days any less. With how angry she tended to be now, she found the regular clothes sunbathing still calmed her a lot.

Still, a better seat would be nice.

"Any sign of anything?" she asked the boys. From the sound of it, they were playing dice, using the contents of a Cringles can as betting chips. That would have been her before, but dice were more complication than they were worth just now.

God, she missed recreational gambling like that.

"No, the hidden temple is still looking ancient and only slightly falling apart," Jon said.

"It's probably so people think it's deserted," Tai suggested.

"It's hidden. We had to go through that whole riddle cave deal after being guided by that creepy little boy to get here," Jon pointed out.

"He seemed nice and polite to me," Mildred said.

"Well, you didn't see his smile. I was like 70% certain he was going to shed his skin and try to kill us after leading us into the cave."

"You're doing it again," Mildred deadpanned, pushing her sunglasses back up.

"Huh?"

"Pulling statics out of the air to sound smart. Stop it. And gimme one of those chips," she ordered, leaning back into her lounging.

"You are the blind girl?" an old woman said. Mildred jumped and landed painfully at the surprise. Stupid ninja monks, they should wear bells. Mildred pushed her glasses onto her forehead and faced the voice.

"Nah, I just have the empty sockets as a fashion statement," she snarked.

"Heh," the lady monk gruffed, then smacked Mildred over the head. With two fingers? Who does that?!

"Hey, watch the hair," Mildred said the first protest to come to mind. Admittedly it sounded… stupid.

"With that green dye job, it's a bit late. But you might want to know there is more than one way to see, and here you can walk such a path while the Young and Ancient One that are Two, tend to their business."

"Seriously!? Sign me- Wait, my hair is green?! Who? When!?" Mildred sputtered, tugging at her brown locks. The grandmotherly-looking monk grinned and winked at the two stunned teens.

"Dang, they grow their grannies awesome around here Tai," Jon said.

Later:

"So, training to see again?" Trace asked, as the car carried them across the bumpy terrain. He was too tired to even be miffed at a road being used to get back to civilization. Apparently some kind of magic one-way unmappable road or something.

"Well, they didn't say yes to that question, so I'm thinking it's not exactly the cure for having no eyes?" Tai said.

"Yeah, might be some third eye deal. Or maybe seeing with her ears or something?" Jon speculated.

"Well, at least it's something to help her," Trace said. The creepy boy was driving; was he old enough to have a license? He glanced to smile at Trace. Egad, it wasn't as scary as Yade Khan, but more than Zaben.

"It'd be nice if she could see, so we don't have to hold her hand when rescuing her next time," Tai said.

"…Hey Trace. Tai and I say dumb things, and when they are too dumb you tell us to lay off. So, why is it not dumb for us to make light of what happened to Mildred? I mean, that was at least as sick as seeing people get their souls ripped out. More, cause that is either dead like, or okay. I mean, what Zaben did kept me up, right?"

"Because, it's what you do. And Mildred would take any coddling, real or perceived, as pity. And she's always hated that. What Zaben did has only made it worse. I think she worries she's like a token female character, just there to be there and drive the plot by being in peril. The least she feels she can do might be to own her slot by being defiant and unflappable. So treating her maiming like what it was, what it is… She doesn't want to do that just by raging on it, and she doesn't want to be thought of as the poor blind girl, even if the alternative is being seen as arrogant and aggressive."

"Dang, you kids are messed up," the creepy child said in a very deep voice.

"That does it! Stop the car, we are walking!" Tai demanded.

Sometime Next Season:

"Well, looks like all three of us are in a fine mess," Alonso said, pacing around the temple sanctum.

"Why did we bring him here?" Mildred demanded. She was shuffling through her deck, no doubt enjoying seeing the cards, if nothing else.

"Yeah Trace, if he hadn't sicced those fangirls of his on us, Kara might not be short a soul right now!" Jon shouted.

"Feel free to try and throw me out, loser," Gragas retorted.

Getting up from the wall bench, Trace ran the tip of the sword across the floor tiles, gaining the others' attention.

"Enough, all of you," Trace demanded, "With Kara gone, the Shadow Walkers now have all but the three Sun Souls gathered here. Alonso, I hope you realize that like Brenner, your own soul is on her list?"

"Heh, maybe not, creepy squid snake wants what's in my pants pretty bad-" Gragas chuckled, getting up from his bench.

"Poor girl, she should get out more. Just because she's old is no reason to settle," Mildred deadpanned.

"Ha, good one!" Tai said. He held his hand up for a high five; Mildred didn't notice, and he awkwardly put the hand back down.

"…Anyway, it's not like I am interested in seeing her succeed. I sicced those morons on you to give a visible effort, but I didn't think you would actually duel them. I mean, even he could probably break those scrawny morons in half," Alonso said, pointing to Tai.

"Wait, so you're not on the dark side in this?" Jon asked.

"Don't put words in his mouth," Mildred said.

"Well, Gragas?" Trace asked.

"Your girl is right. Just because I'm not serving Yade Khan doesn't mean I am on your side. I realized back in my tournament that whatever rewards she gave me, I would be throwing away my freedom and at best be a pampered slave. More importantly, I would have to force Gracia to live with me if I went that route, and I do have standards. But unlike you lot, I understand under the table gambling. Her fixation on her handsome dead boyfriend means she has overlooked the clear signs that I have been undermining her while pilfering magical knowledge, and convincing her to provide me with not one but three hyper rare cards to strength my deck. But now, it may be time for us to ally against a common enemy," Gragas admitted.

"Soooo, I have no idea what you might be doing?" Yade Khan spoke.

It was probably bad that, before sharing Gragas's terror at that voice, that Trace loved seeng his arrogance crumble to panic as he jumped like a rabbit having just realized a fox was present.

The shadows came from above, the corners of the ceiling already coated and billowing down like mist and forming into a windless cyclone.

"But, that's impossible! No duel is going on here! I covered my medallion in consecration! And this ground, you said yourself the four element consecration hindered you!" Alonso objected, as Yade Khan's projection formed out of the shadows before them.

"I would like to say I lied and you fell for it," Yade Khan said, "but the truth is that the new Sun Soul powering the Pool — well, I guess more a Well now — of Souls has let me weaken the barrier more. Imagine my surprise that my little attempt to drop in on you for a fun surprise caught you with your pants down."

"…" Gragas gulped, sweating, but took a breath. Dislike aside, Trace watched with interest as the billionaire seemed to breath out his anxiety and straighten. He took a few confident steps toward Yade Khan, every inch the champion Khanner who had never conceded his titles.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself, Alonso Dmitri Gragas?" Yade Khan asked. The cold had set into the room; several monks had arrived, but it seemed to make little difference.

Alonso shrugged in that way of his.

"What can be said now? I'm done with you. The power was worth some investment, but I'm not interested in being your Himinion, your Boaz, or anything of the sort. Sure, I might not be able to rule the world or master this magic entirely on my own. But you know what? I've pulled myself up to where I am from nothing. And I think I'd rather stay self-made and get less than take it all by conceding control of my life to another.

"And before you rub the cards and money you sent in my face, those were seeds. Others would have squandered them or gone as far as those could take them and no further. Making an empire out of that? Getting it back from Brenner and my treacherous cronies? Me, that was all me.

"And in case there is any doubt…" Gragas pulled Dark Queen's Favor from up his sleeve. He held it out before him, and while Yade Khan looked to the card, Trace glanced to Gragas' face. Something passed over it quickly. Gragas could hide his emotions well when he wanted, Trace reminded himself.

Gragas tore his one of a kind card in half and dropped the pieces. Trace had to bite his cheek to avoid crying out. The cards were innocent!

"Think. Very. Hard," Yade Khan commanded, her voice quite husky and her chest rising and falling quite visibly.

"I have, and just to be clear, let's get one thing straight," Gragas chuckled, "Even when I considered working for you, before Gracia laid her honest hand on the table, the greatest hitch as far as simple repugnance, was not moral. It was you. I mean, look at you. An overgrown snake with too many arms and a squid on your head? I would wash my hands after talking with a guy into that. I mean, did you give yourself breasts thinking that would make up for everything else completely wrong with you? This Boaz you're obsessed with must have been a very sick puppy. Or more likely just faking because he was that attached to eternal youth."

"Ouch," Mildred muttered, clicking her tongue.

"But of course, it's not just looks, as heinous as they may be. You smell like a chemical spill where nothing lives or wants to, combined with the grease trap overflowing," Alonso chuckled. Yade Khan watched him with slitted eyes. Jon coughed.

"Uh, dude, I hate ya, but maybe ya ought not to bare all regarding the eldritch abomination?" Jon called out nervously. Gragas ignored him.

"Just how deluded are you to think anyone, anyone in their right mind, or even their wrong mind would ever-" Gragas was practically laughing out loud, when stone cracked.

A shadow grabbed a pillar, wrapping around it and snapped it. They were writhing everywhere. Yade Khan raised her hand and snapped her fingers, and the roof exploded outward.

"The wards!" A monk yelled. Apparently the wards had not been completely bypassed, as more shadow sprang up now. Including one half dome, right behind Gragas.

Yade Khan slithered slowly forward towards him, as her shadows cut gouges into the stones, forcing everyone but Trace back, as his aura sprang up in defense. And of course Alonso, who had no path of retreat.

"Crush head. Tiny bits," Yade Khan hissed deeply, cracking her knuckles.

"Uhhh," Alonso said, backing into the shield.

"Gragas!" Trace called out.

"Can't we just leave the idiot to die!?" Mildred yelled from somewhere.

Trace wouldn't consider that, as much as it was tempting. He drew the sword, and pylons rained down. The shadows recoiled to Yade Khan, who stopped, looking at the five oversized spear things. A mobile version of what the monks showed him before?

"Well, when did you learn that?" Jon asked.

"I didn't?" Trace said.

The pylons flared, each elemental color blazing to life. Yade Khan stopped, twisting her torso around at the field around the broken chamber. Gragas seemed forgotten for the moment, though Trace saw the billionaire had not retreated any further, still watching.

"Really, what is this? A traitor to the monks? Well, A for effort, but this is too small scale for my purposes," Yade Khan said. And the shadows of her form dissolved, and there was something underneath.

The ancient was dark blue, almost black in places. Her shape was unchanged, but in flesh she was more real, and frightening for it. Her tendrils had a coiled pattern that brought moisture to mind, and her face was too human for comfort, her red eyes unchanged but far more unworldly in something living and breathing. Her chest did have a female shape, but the bare breasts had no nipples. Though naked, she was adorned with golden jewelry, including her unique limbs.

"So, I am here. Someone made the interstice — writ small, but perfect here," Yade Khan muttered, picking up a rock with one of her larger hands and casually crumbling it like a stale cookie. Hadn't that been marble?

"Yade Khan," a familiar voice called.

"Him?" Mildred said.

"Who?" Trace and the others asked.

"Someone weird even by our standards," Mildred said, and to Trace's surprise, she pointed to a spot, and a man dressed with too many bright colors touched down in a three-point landing on the broken floor.

"I, Maximus Domino, have called you here fully in the flesh. By these magics and power, you are here and there at once, bound and equally vulnerable both."

"Oh really? Well, if you wanted to chat, there are easier ways. I admit, we don't have cell coverage in the Netherworld, but hey, I prefer a good ol' fashioned wizard far talk myself."

"Indeed, no cards, and I have no need for games. Besides, how can you people not feel shame playing that game? Taking pride in a sport designed by the Dark Forces of old and reinvented to strip away the souls of the masses, spreading madness and obsession across the world?" Domino demanded, turning his glare to the teenagers and monks.

"I admit, I did not foresee the epic fashion fails. But hey, you can't conquer the world without, uh, doing something that makes people do… that? Oh, I don't know, I'm evil. So I don't even really need to explain, much less apologize," Yade Khan shrugged, scratching two of her armpits.

"I will strike you down like a true warrior. No games, no tricks. My power against yours!" he declared. Striking a flex pose, an aurora aura flared about him, and the wind kicked up in a whirlwind around him.

Everyone seemed stunned, but Trace looked to Yade Khan, who had stopped scratching herself, and grinned, straightening up her posture.

"Well! I can see you're packing more punch than Cheherezad and other would be slayers did. Alright kid, show me what you got!" Yade Khan said. She leaned forward, arms and tendrils curling inward, and darkness starting to swirl around her.

"HUAAHH!" She yelled, uncurling. She blinked; apparently the darkness around her evaporating as quickly as it formed was not expected.

Domino grinned and stepped forward, the ground cracking under his feet as he advanced.

"I have trained my whole life. It was foretold you would return. All those other horrors, I defeated them as practice. If power has number levels, the normal human can at best achieve one hundred perfection in only one of the three categories. My body has been trained to perfection, physical 100! My training in the mystic arts of Earth surpass even the Earth Sage in combat ability, magical 100! Over the course of a hundred years of life I have spent more than 10 years meditating and even longer incorporating spiritual exercise into the mundane; spiritual 100!

"And together those three compliment and bolster one another for a additional 100 of perfection! AND IN THIS SACRED GROUND, MY POWER IS FURTHER AMPLIFIED BY 50!

"AUOROA RAZOR!"

He blurred into a rainbow streak that cut past Yade Khan, who then clutched her lower left arm as it hung, bleeding, held only by a few strands of flesh. Her blood boiled and sizzled, bubbling black, white, and purple, shifting as they watched.

"Forget games and strategy or the ghost boy's ancient martyrs! Power, overwhelming power, is the key to defeating evil! Power brought to the highest level will prevail over any trick of tactics or scheming of strategy, like an elephant tearing through a spider's webs. Just as surely as the power of the sun banishes night and winter, I, Maximus Domino, am the unstoppable force that will end you for all time!

"EVIL-BINDING SHACKLES OF HARMONY!" He pointed with two fingers on each hand to the nearest pylon, and more of his tie-dyed light shot out like laser beams ricocheting over the array.

"Your spell-naming could use work. And does this really count as magical martial arts-?" Yade Khan said. She was cut off as threads of light shot from a pylon and wrapped like a lasso around her head. A tendril reached for it, but the thread was nimble, and the lasso tightened, pressing the flailing appendage to her neck.

"Hey now," Yade Khan said, reaching with her upper hand. The process repeated twice as fast and so on. Till Yade Khan's great tail was the only thing unbound, and she stood rigid in the center of the web of light.

"Are you quite done? Because there is something I would like to say," Yade Khan sad, seemingly unperturbed by her severed arms and the chains keeping her remaining limbs pressed to her torso.

"Begging for mercy, demon?" Domino asked, lowered his arms. The spell seemed self-sustaining now, Trace marveled, "It shall go unheeded! For the lives you took and ruined, the lines of family corrupted and twisted to your madness. As Hand of the Elements pure and uncorrupted, I smite you from the Earth!"

He leapt high through the broken roof, robe ripped away by a surge of power, leaving him only in tight rainbow… shorts? Trace blinked, before the energy in the warrior's hand burst bright and colorful such that no one could look.

"MAJESTIC WRATHFUL RAINBOW PINNACLE STRIIIIKEEEE!" Domino yelled, crashing down like a meteor.

Yade Khan screamed, and Trace wondered, and Alonso said it aloud.

"Did he do it?" Alonso asked.

"I doubt it," Tai spoke up from where the shockwave had knocked him down to the floor.

The dust cleared, and Yade Khan groaned, several of the bindings broken, but the arms were clearly broken, the tendrils torn, some looking ready to fall with a tug, and cuts and lacerations of orange were across her body.

"Well, not dead yet. But well done. Looks like you're not the mad idiot waste of space I thought," Alonso said, actually giving a thumb's up to Domino, who looked to him with a frown.

"Don't congratulate me. You willingly sided with her for greed and broke ways from her for pride and arrogance. And you are quite talented with shadow magic. You're next, leather pants," Domino said, before walking through the gap in the web to Yade Khan. Trace was stunned; Domino had threatened to kill Gragas while talking normally. It actually made him seem as dangerous as he apparently was.

"Hahaha! The mighty Yade Khan, feared for so long. And here you are, laid low and about to be returned to the cycle of life, death, and rebirth by a mortal. I hope the restless dead can witness and be humored by your fall," the man said to the ancient creature.

"I still have something to say," Yade Khan grunted.

"Speak then, and die," Domino said, raising a rainbow-shrouded hand.

"You were correct. While I can move through this interstice, it reduces my power to half what it is in the Shadow Netherworld. And this sacred ground, as you call it, reduces it by half again. But you forgot one fact. You may be a superman, Domino. But I am a god."

Yade Khan moved, and the threads binding her broke, flaring and fading from sight like burned out light bulbs. As the cuts across her body closed, she smiled and licked her teeth.

Domino leapt, "MAJESTIC WRATHFUL RAINBOW PINNACLE STRIIIIKEEEE!"

This time, when the dust cleared, Yade Khan was pristine, save for her first severed arm, where a stream of fluids was flowing back into her.

"Not bad, I actually felt that," Yade Khan chuckled.

"Impossible! WIND RAZOR!" He blurred out of sight.

He appeared behind Yade Khan, atop her tail. Filling his hands with his aura, he struck her back in a blur.

"HAIL STRORM OF RIGHTEOUS DEVASTATION!" Domino roared. The blows landed audibly, and Yade Khan finished sucking up her juices, and her arm reknit itself. Then she slumped forward.

"Oh yesss! Lower, right there, knead out those stress knots masseur," she groaned, as if pleasured.

Domino screamed and leapt away. Yade Khan turned to face him, dusting off her arms.

"How?!" he demanded. He even looked to Trace, his eyes wide with shock.

Yade Khan slithered toward him.

"Maximus! Your pylons! Deactivate them now!" Trace yelled. The warrior didn't seem to hear him though, only looking up at the ancient evil leisurely bearing down on him.

"Your power is 450, epic. My power, by your measuring, would be over 9000. Even halved twice, that is 2250 to your 450," she said. Shadow pooled under Domino, and a pair of shadow ropes seized his arms; his aura seemed to be snuffed out by the contact.

"You never cut me, I removed them. I made those 'injuries' in time with you 'attacking'," Yade Khan explained.

"Why?" Domino asked. The whisper carried to them all.

"Pity. Boredom. An iota of respect for having so much more cajones than sense to do what less powerful magic users have had the good sense to never try.

"Your mastery of a century's training is nothing to my control over my body. And if I have avoided direct confrontation, it is because the only worthy opponents are smart enough not to let me fight, and such easy victory is a bit of a bore.

"The Shadow Walker reports on you, said you called yourself Domino because it represents a force unstoppable once set in motion. But that is overthinking. In my ridiculously long life the simpler way is typically best.

"Dominos. Are made to fall.

"Fall."

She poked him in the head with the tip of a clawed finger. The man gasped.

BOOM.

The bonds dissolved, and the headless corpse fell to the ground.

Something thunked and cracked. Trace looked and saw Tai, Jon, and even Alonso were busting the pylons, with masonry debris, which now flickered out. Yade Khan chuckled as she faded back into shadows.

"Oh, party over for today? Fair enough. Another Sun Soul for me earlier, and now a memorable encounter. Yes, I will grant you a reprieve. And Zaben sends his regards — my gentle tutelage on the prices of failure has made him so, so motivated. He'll be calling on you lot very soon," With a wink and wave, she vanished, leaving them alone in the broken temple.

Silence stretched.

"Why couldn't Domino kill Alonso first?" Mildred sighed, sitting down on a piece of rubble.

"As if he could have!" Gragas said, already storming out.

"Oh shut up, leather pants," Jon snapped. He had taken off his jacket and was draping it over the fallen warrior's corpse.

Half a Season And One Midseason Epic Event Later:

Trace walked across the motel room, feeling the AC in the window hitting him. The cold was welcome — sleep was evasive, and if he was awake, better to be sharp. With two fingers, he parted the blinds to look out at the city as the hillside fell away.

So many people living their lives, unaware of what was coming. Bizarre weather patterns, scientists baffled…

Earlier that day:

"Inconceivable!" Gragas yelled, as the duel ended, his life points reaching zero.

Zaben just laughed, the facial scars pulled taut as he grabbed his chest. Alonso pitched forward, his chest starting to glow.

"Oh no," Zaben said, holding out a hand. The emerging Sun Soul went back into Gragas, but didn't settle.

"What?" Gragas said, clearly confused by the seeming mercy of a man whose goddess had scarred him for past failures. Zaben grinned widely, and extended two fingers toward Gragas.

"Yade Khan specifically told me to rip that Sun Soul out as slowly and painfully as possible. Let's see how much I can draw it out," Zaben laughed.

6.2 minutes later:

With a final inhuman shriek, the Sun Soul flew free, and Gragas' cries cut off. His body thunked onto the ancient dueling arena floor.

"And flop goes the dick!" Zaben declared with a snap of his fingers.

"Haha!" Mildred laughed. Everyone glared at her.

"Yeah, I know. Still, funny because it's Gragas, right?"

"…"

"Oh, come on! I was upset about Kara and every even mildly decent human being hurt in this quest," Mildred defended herself, as the happy Zaben took his prize back into the shadows.

"…So, guess we stuff that in the trunk?" Jon asked, pointing at Alonso's body.

They had lost Gragas.

Zaben was more dangerous than ever. He would have had Trace's Sun Soul, had Cheherezad not stepped in his place. And with Gragas gone…

He was the last. Not the ancient hero returned and prophesied to strike her down. Not saintly Kara. Not even Alonso Gragas, the irrepressible challenger who seemed incapable of conceding to odds and most reason.

Only him, only Trace, against Yade Khan, Zaben, and whatever other horrors would rise now that the worlds were beginning to merge. It would only get worse, and the sword on the nightstand was just metal and leather now.

Mildred was snoring peacefully; she had been insisting on sharing a room, to avoid further kidnapping.

After her training, she had asked him for a duel, first thing. The training that had granted her limited vision — she could see cards, monsters, and players in a duel of Yade Khan.

Through all the griping, she had smiled when the duel began. And it would mean nothing if Yade Khan destroyed the world trying to warp it fit her own forsaken dimension!

He was out the door before he knew it. Sitting back to the door, he began to meditate, searching for some answer.

Trace was quite surprised when one seized him quickly.

Though seized wasn't quite right, Trace thought, as his luminous form left his body. It was a guiding hold, he was certain he could break free now. And it held none of the ill intent tied with the shadows. But not the piquancy each elemental magic held, either. This was threaded by something else, older and stronger. Something that felt… balanced.

He emerged to a landscape of colors, a green sky above, and beneath his feet, a shifting surface of the elemental colors.

"I had hoped, there would be no need," a voice spoke, old and weary, yet strong as well. An image began to form, looming over him. It collapsed, and then reformed, settling into something else. A giant of green light, with a pulsing golden core with threads of black shining through its form.

"Who are you?" Trace asked the entity.

"A recording of sorts. A message to echo down ages beyond my time. What you see as a green barrier of some sort is my unfortunate masterwork. I have violated one of the great laws of chi and made something meant to endure forever, sharing in the hypocrisy of so many before me."

"You, you're the one who sealed Yade Khan? She is escaping. What can I- No, you're not here, as you said, right," Trace sighed. The giant pointed, and the landscape around them shifted, or perhaps they traveled. Now the ground and sky were joined by great black trees, shadow magic, and Trace saw the green sky was a dome, and beyond it boiled something like a sea of tar, if tar could convey a desperate hunger.

"She has exploited the flaw. While she cannot escape, she can drag others, even whole worlds, into her prison enough to be free upon them. I knew this. I watched over and studied my work long after my companions had all passed, into the days when I stood back and watched as mentor in my own right, my role fading. And I found this flaw. It is fixable. The hole cannot just be plugged, but the spell altered such that it will be a solid whole as if there was no hole to start with. Perfected."

"Why didn't you? Did she stop you somehow?" Trace asked.

"You wonder why I didn't fix it myself? I could say I was too old — my kind's power grows with age, but our ability to use it stiffens. And the circumstances to do so… None of it was beyond me, I confess it. Difficult as it would have been, I could have done it, a worthy final project with many resources built over my too long life put to good use. But I lacked one thing — ruthlessness. Ironic, for once I was a monster without remorse…" The giant recounted.

A vision swept over them; much was blurry, and the images fleeting, strange things. But he saw the giant, younger surely, black as malice, with only a faint, flickering core. A tyrant in service of a sickly green apparition. A tormentor, murderer, and thief. Then a sprite of living green crystal outwitted him. Escaped death at his hands and even cast him down.

He saw greater horrors, horrors so great that in answer to treachery, the giant turned his back upon darkness. And was ushered by the tiny lantern glow of the sprite.

There were others, horrors and battles that stretched and hurt his mind to comprehend. He was privy to events from before "before", and both wished to avert his eyes but also to drink down knowledge so privileged.

Time passed, and the giant became what he saw, and amidst other beings, the sprite grew into a regal figure of light and sharp crystal, enthroned over the forces of light.

Then along came a spider, who was the idea of poison given form. The final battle of an era. Decided when victory was plucked from defeat, the radiant green hero drinking a goblet of pure evil distilled from fallen foes.

Victory and defeat. Corruption, betrayal. Patricide? And at last, green turned to a virulent black, and all threatened to swallow, the being that had become Yade Khan was cast out by her kin and sealed away.

There was a sorrow that passed down through ages, regret for acts that, however necessary, were seen as a a betrayal, and abandonment, a damnation of the victim of a great sacrifice.

Trace raised a hand, surprised at the tears as the vision lingered on the magnificent prodigal giant fallen to his knees, as if it were any man driven to the night of the soul.

The vision faded, and Trace faced the giant's memory once more under the bleeding sky.

"I think I understand. But she is either gong to destroy everything, or ruin it to suit her and her alone," Trace told the recording.

"I had hoped that when it was found, she would in solitude have rediscovered something of who she was. That this flaw would not be the loophole to serve as a noose for others, but the means of her salvation. But if the spell has brought you here, it means she has endangered your world through my worse fears realized.

"I will not ask forgiveness for the suffering she has caused. I deserve the blame, and what I do now will not absolve me. But it may save your world, and keep her from further disgracing what she once was. Hear now, the words of Chi Master Tohru, the fool who imperiled you and yours for the love of a friend who believed in him when she shouldn't have, so many times over."

Trace listened, and learned.

Elemental Earth Hermitage:

Yade was swimming through the air above the Earth. It had seen better days, or perhaps her memory had made it more than it was?

But for all the scenery left to be desired, the sheer activity made her head spin like the best memories of drunkenness. So much was gong on, from butterflies to single-cells getting it on, yeah!

Regrettably, the mixing atmospheres were slowly killing a whole lot of things. The signs were only just starting to show, but she could feel how it would play out. As surely as even this demi-presence let her feeling stingy and itchy from the Earth's atmosphere.

Hmm, even if she could leave the old-fashioned way, she would need to maintain a line. The interstice on Earth's side made her start to feel… pain. So little shadow energy, and such a noxious atmosphere. Yes, to step forth from her realm into Earth ungarbed would be to both drown and do so in a some nasty chemicals.

No matter, it only confirmed her current course. If she couldn't leave, she would just bring everyone inside.

But here was her goal.

The simple stone structure, it looked like a site Jackie would have uncovered back in the day. But no, it was new, only a century-and-a-half, two tops, made old school simplicity.

The local ascetic mystic was waiting for her. She considered him as he considered her. He was not afraid, she could sense it. Neither afraid, nor reverent. It was a nice change.

"Child of another era, be welcome," the mystic of Earth greeted. Yade bowed deep, feeling polite.

"I am here to kill you. To speed the process along," she told him. He frowned. Well, that was only fair.

"Why?" he asked. Yade blinked.

"Uh, I just said. You five are slowing this down, and I want it as ASAP as I can get it. Granted, I need Trace's soul first, but still."

"No, why seek to steal the world? You have been made shaper of a universe of your own. Why do you neglect your field to steal a sprout from your neighbor's field?"

"…My field is barren," Yade hissed. Looking down the mountain at the vastness of the Earth, her stomach burned away at nothing.

"Are you certain?" he asked.

Her tail slammed into him, bones snapping against his home's wall.

"Ask a stupid question, die," she huffed. She let the barrier pull her back. She had seen enough for now. Soon justice would be done, and she would be free to walk the Earth that owed her so much once more.

Author's Note: This came as a surprise, certainly. I at first wanted to wrap this up in one more big chapter but decided the Final Duel warranted its own entry after this became more than expected. I have to say these characters have grown on me more than I expected when first planning the Third Age. Reminds me of my Original works, satires f various genres and such. Ah the memories. But the Third Ages while lingering longer too shall pass, next chapter Trace confronts Yade Khan in the duel to decide the fate of a world.

So, hope this was pleasant reading, and I hope to see you next chapter.

Long days and pleasant nights to you all.