When Yugi awoke, he was in a much darker space than his room. He groaned as he tried to sit up. As he lifted his head, he immediately hit it on something hard. The sound the surface made was wooden like he had just knocked his head against a door.
"Ow." Yugi groaned. He tried to reach up to rub his head but found there wasn't enough space to bend his arms. He seemed to be in a dark tube only big enough for his body. "Oh no," Yugi grumbled. 'Not now, not some other magical event. We just got out of the last one in India!' he thought.
Yugi let his head fall back to the ground with a frustrated sigh, which was equally as hard as the black ceiling. As he lay, he attempted to look down but found nothing but more blackness. Then he tried tilting his head up so he could see what was behind him. There he could see a bright light streaming in from a large hole. With not much else to do, he started slowly worming his way towards the exit. It was awkward since he couldn't even bend his knees, but with determination and a few choice words he was glad his family wasn't around to hear, Yugi pushed his head out into the light.
Above him were towering trees. The tree's bark was stark white, and their leaves a vibrant green with the sun's rays dancing through them. The air was much cooler than the summer air of Domino city. It was just comfortable enough with the wind ever so slightly blowing past. The birds were chirping. The leaves made their relaxing rattle. It was all the perfect picture, a little too perfect.
Something in Yugi's brain sounded an alarm. It was like one of Kaiba's unfinished holograms, perfect in execution, but somehow unnerving to even look at. Something about this land just didn't feel real. A shiver went up his spine as he continued to work at getting his body out of his prison. As he got his upper half free, he sat up to see he had been teleported into a hollow log. With how pristine everything was, he almost expected the log to be moss-covered with little mushrooms growing out of it, like in fairy tale books. However, as he studied his entrapment, he saw deep black scars running throughout the wood. As he studied at his surroundings, more marks stretched into the grass and led to ripped apart stumps. It wasn't a normal creature that had torn the wood apart. It was like someone had set off a bomb.
"Where am I?" Yugi asked as he freed the rest of his body and tried to stand. Right as he found his feet, the ground began to shake. Yugi has been in an earthquake before, but this was much different. He looked to his side to see the all so flawless trees fall left and right as a horde of monsters came charging towards him. Yugi found himself frozen. Those weren't just animals; they were duel monsters. Not even the translucent spirits he knew, they were full-bodied creatures, and he was smack dab in their path.
Yugi managed to take one tentative step backward before turning on his heels and running. Right then, Yugi regretted every gym class he had spent sitting on the bench instead of getting in the game. Sure, his classmates were a whole lot taller than him and a great deal more aggressive, but at least getting beat up in those school-approved activities would have prepared him better for failing to outrun a stampede. It was a perfect little tree root connected to a perfectly ancient tree placed perfectly in his path that led Yugi to kiss the ground. He knew he couldn't get up in time, so he frantically searched for a place to hide. By him was the old tree with tall and thick roots sticking out of the ground. He quickly crawled to a particularly large root and covered the back of his head with his hands, just as he had been taught by his dad. He closed his eyes and prepared for the worst.
Soon hundreds of feet and paws were racing past him, utterly oblivious to his huddled form. Yugi was planning on remaining hidden when he heard metal clanging. He opened one eye to see the Millennium Puzzle, chain and all, precariously hanging from another root. He hadn't even realized he still had the puzzle, much less that it had slipped off when he fell. He knew he couldn't leave it in the path of the stampede. He watched for when somewhat of a break in the monsters would come. He then moved to a crouching position and leaped for the puzzle. His hands gripped its familiar edges, and he pulled it close to his chest. While he was happy to have the puzzle back, there was something off with it. The puzzle now felt like it was made out of quartz instead of metal. It still had its trademarked shine, but it had lost its strength. It felt like it would shatter at any moment. What frightening Yugi most of all, however, was that there was no presence of the Pharaoh. The puzzle felt empty.
Right then, Yugi was run right into by a small, blue and white mage. Even though the mage was half his size, she was in such a rush she bowled straight into his gut. She sent him flying into the root the puzzle had been dangling on. When she got back to her feet, it looked like she would keep running, but then her eyes rested on the puzzle in Yugi's hands.
"What's going on?!" Yugi yelled over the rush. The mage didn't speak, only keeping her eyes on the golden gleam. As she stared, Yugi found himself doing the same. He recognized her from the card the Pharaoh had pulled earlier that day, though that picture had the mage being a full-grown woman. This mage was more of a shrimp than he was.
They both paused for a moment, just enough time for a stream of red light to blast overhead. The scorching beam barely missed and instead annihilated the ancient tree beside them. It didn't just destroy the tree. It made the tree completely explode in a shower of wood chips and falling branches. Both Yugi and the mage were blown away. As Yugi fell, he didn't put out his hands, needing to keep them on the puzzle. He hit his head with a resounding crack on another downed tree.
When Yugi opened his eyes, the world was painfully spinning, but the stampede was over. He tried to get up but found it made him nauseous. As he lay, he felt the ground start quaking again. It wasn't a constant shake; this was intermittent steps. In the side of his blurry vision, he saw a black clawed foot about as large as his own body step into view. Yugi knew he had to move but couldn't get himself to do so. Right as the foot turned towards him, Yugi suddenly felt very light. He slowly blinked as the ground drifted away from him, or to be more accurate, he drifted away from the ground. He turned to see he was being levitated by the white and blue mage.
"Wha-what are you doing?" Yugi asked woozily. The fog in his brain quickly disappeared though, as another red beam blasted by him and destroyed another perfect patch of trees. The heat alone from the attack caused his hair to singe. At that point, Yugi no longer cared where he was being taken. In fact, he cheered for the little mage to go faster.
As the mage ran away, Yugi tried to get a good look at what was attacking. The most his still ringing head could make out was a black figure about as tall as the trees. Soon enough, though, the devastation grew smaller in the distance, and the figure seemed happy to remain and destroy the all so faultless woodland.
As the mage took a sudden turn, Yugi saw a massive white castle surrounded by more picturesque forest. A location he remembered well.
"Wait, this was where Dark Magician Girl summoned the Pharaoh and me when we needed to wake Timaeus!" Yugi gasped. The mage glanced back at him with a half-smile and continued running. She went right through the throng of monsters trying to get into the castle's one open drawbridge. Inside, she tried to fight past the crowd of monsters, but she was just too short, so she threw Yugi into the main hall. With the levitation gone and still being hurt, Yugi went sliding along the marble floor without a fight. He clutched the Millennium Puzzle to his chest and never let go. Finally, he slowed down and gently bumped into a pair of blue boots.
"Yugi?!" A feminine voice yelped. Yugi recognized that too and slowly looked up into the green eyes of Dark Magician Girl.
"Hey… long time… no see." Yugi collapsed again on the ground as his headache was becoming skull-splitting.
"He's hurt! Stop working on me, Mystical Elf and help him!"
Yugi felt his body become light again, but this time he didn't lift off the ground. Instead, his headache slowly ebbed away. When he finally felt well enough to, he met the closed eyes of Mystical Elf. The womanly monster smiled and bowed. She floated back as to allow Dark Magician Girl to come forward.
"Let me help you up." Dark Magician Girl grinned as she put out her left hand to help him to his feet, hiding her right arm behind her back.
"Thanks." Yugi breathed. When he was up, he rubbed his head and found it to be completely healed. He then looked down at the Millennium Puzzle still tightly clutched. Immediately, he slipped the chain loop over his head and let the puzzle rest on his belly. Even without its usual power, it still felt relaxing to have in its place. For a moment, Yugi's gaze stayed on the eye of the puzzle. The lack of a presence behind the eye made Yugi's sour fears bubble back up his throat.
"Where is the Pharaoh? Where am I? How did I get here?" Yugi rattled off in one breath. Dark Magician Girl bit her lip and turned away from him. She then turned to the mass of monsters trying to get in to talk to her.
"Silent Magician, do you mind coming forward?" She called into the crowd. The duel monsters' gazes shifted between each other, no one moving. Eventually, the small mage was able to fight to the front of the crowd. She wildly waved to Dark Magician Girl before she was swallowed again by the large mob. Dark Magician Girl floated over and gingerly picked up the small mage with one hand, the little girl blushing at being carried like that by her leader.
"Silent, I saw you levitate him in from my window. I would have helped sooner if I could have believed my own eyes. I need you to start from the beginning if you please. Where did you find Yugi?" Dark Magician Girl asked. The little mage started flailing around like crazy, pointing at everything from Yugi, to the puzzle, to even herself. All without words. While this only made Yugi more confused, Dark Magician Girl nodded every other action.
"So…?" Yugi asked.
"Ok, you are in the Duel Monsters dimension, also called the Spirit World. This world is broken up into different realms, and right now, you are specifically in the Dominion of the Beasts. You remember being here before, right? When you had to wake the dragon? Or did we not heal your head all the way?" Dark Magician Girl asked as she led Yugi's gaze to the pedestals the crystalized dragons once stood.
"No, I remember that. It's just…Let's start with one question at a time. How am I here?" Yugi asked. Silent Magician started waving wildly around again, and Dark Magician Girl once again nodded to her.
"You understand what she is saying?" Yugi asked, not recognizing what the mage was doing as any form of sign language.
"No clue, I thought you knew, and I was just going along with it." Dark Magician Girl chuckled while rubbing the back of her head.
Silent Magician stomped her foot as her pale face turned a bright red.
"I'm sorry Silent Magician. I know you're low on magic, thanks to leading with the evacuation. I'm sure it doesn't help that your scepter is being repaired too. I'll do my best to translate from now on." Dark Magician Girl said.
Silent Magician nodded and then ran to the large space the dragons used to stand. She pointed at the space, then Yugi.
"I think I can understand that. You see, Yugi, the Legendary Knights, once you returned them to their regular forms, work as the gatekeepers of the Spirit World. They keep evil monsters from just waltzing into your world and are supposed to help keep the different parts of the Spirit World safe."
"Suppose to?" Yugi asked, knowing that wording didn't lead to easy solutions.
Dark Magician Girl sadly nodded. "As of late, an army of dragons have started taking over the Dominion of the Beasts. This land is for baby monsters and weaker cards. It's supposed to be a safe zone from the fighting going on in the other lands. We even have a barrier around this land, so nothing above 1500 ATK can get in without permission. Yet, if these dragons can just come in and start tearing things up…" Dark Magician Girl's gaze went to the horde of monsters around them. Yugi followed her gaze and saw the mob for what it was. A group of frightened creatures trying to find safety.
"Have you heard from the Knights at all?" Yugi asked.
Dark Magician Girl shook her head. "They don't have just one place they reside. I've sent messengers to them, but it might be a while before we hear anything."
"Missing knights and an incoming evil. Sounds a little too familiar," Yugi said as he let his hand rest on the puzzle, still feeling nothing from it. Dark Magician Girl turned back to him with a sympathetic expression.
"Please believe me when I say I did not summon you here. I don't know what did. I know I begged for your help only a little while ago, but that was different. I would never forcefully pull you here, especially if it required separating you from the Pharaoh." She said. Hearing this made Yugi's face go pale.
"Se-separate?" He stuttered, grasping the puzzle's chains.
"I can tell by your puzzle." She said as she pointed to the yellow pyramid. "All duel monsters know of the Millennium Puzzle and what it holds. We've been preparing for the Pharaoh to reappear for eons now. He was the one that reopened the portal to the human world after Atlantis's fall and the one that allowed us to freely travel between worlds thanks to defeating the Leviathan. However, I know specifically what the puzzle is supposed to look like, and that does not look right."
Yugi grasped the puzzle. At a glance it seemed fine. But just like the perfect forest outside, it felt deeply off.
"How?" Yugi asked.
"I'm guessing its power is split between you two." Dark Magician Girl said.
"Well, do you know where he is now?" Yugi asked, panic edging his voice.
Dark Magician Girl looked to Silent Magician, and they both shrugged.
"Most likely back in your home dimension. I'd send you back now if I could." Dark Magician Girl explained. Then, Yugi noticed that Dark Magician Girl's scepter was almost broken in half, only being barely held together with magic vines. He then saw the fresh burns and bandages traveling up her right side. He made eye contact with her, and she looked away, pulling her pink shoulder ribbon down in a vain attempt to hide the painful wounds.
Yugi then let his own eyes fall to the floor.
'There has to be a mistake. Whatever brought me here must have been trying to get the Pharaoh. I am not the type for this solo world-saving. I am not the kind of strong or brave that the Pharaoh is. What am I going to do? I'm not the hero these creatures need.' Yugi thought. He then looked back up at the scared monsters. They seemed completely hopeless. Even Silent Magician was losing her bluster and succumbed to the gloom the duel monster mob seemed to radiate.
Yugi straightened his back and hid any fears he had. "Well, I'm here now, and you guys need help. I can focus on getting home later. I swear to help you figure out this dragon problem." Yugi announced.
"Oh, thank you, Yugi! You don't know what kind of weight that takes off me." Dark Magician Girl squealed as she grabbed Yugi's hands and jumped up and down. She moved too fast however, and yelped, grabbing her burnt side with a grimace.
"Be careful. We don't want you injured more," Yugi said as he gestured for Mystical Elf. The elf came forward and made Dark Magician Girl sit and started healing her again.
"Nasty, isn't it? It was a gift from one of those dragons." Dark Magician Girl said with all the venom her voice could muster.
"Where did these dragons come from, and why are they here?" Yugi asked.
"Most likely from the Crags, there is a big war between Warrior and Dragon monsters going on over there. The dragons here aren't just random monsters, however. These are all from the same archetype, a race I thought died out long ago. They appear out of nowhere and crush everything in their path. Devastation is what they live for."
"Who are they?" Yugi asked.
"They are Gandora, the Dragons of Destruction."