Yu-Gi-Oh x Familiar of Zero Chapter 3 – A lesson in history
I was in the courtyard, washing Louise's underwear.
"All this stuff is needlessly lacy. It's almost impossible to wash it."
I gave a long sigh, thinking back to earlier that morning, when I was sent to do Louise's laundry.
I had woken up from my blackout the day before. Since I wasn't injured, I wasn't at risk of a coma or anything, but I had used up all of my mana, so I was completely exhausted. I had slept for two days before I woke up. Nothing interesting happened the day I woke up, there were just classes, and Louise tried to blow me up again for talking back to her. The usual.
The next morning, after I had woken up from my sleep, on my straw bed, Louise was already awake.
"You overslept. My familiar should be there to wake me up every morning." Louise said.
"Sorry, I guess I'm still somewhat drained from the duel. My mana takes a while to recharge."
"I decided to leave you yesterday, because you'd just woken up, but, now that you're awake, I want some answers."
"Sure thing. Ask away." I replied tiredly, still feeling a little bit groggy.
"Who are you?"
"Carlton Johnson."
"No, I mean what noble family do you belong to?"
"I don't belong to a noble family."
"You're lying! You can use magic, therefore you must be a noble!"
"Didn't I tell you I was from another world? There's no reason to assume that just because I can use magic, I'm a noble."
"But Founder Brimir made it so!"
"Does it look like I give a damn?"
That shut her up. I then decided to explain my powers, embellishing slightly.
"In my world, there is a country called Egypt. Many thousand years ago, there was an empire in that country. It spanned far and wide, and gave birth to many stories and legends. But there is one that stood out among all of them. It is about the Shadow Games."
"Shadow Games? What are those?"
"Please save all questions until the end of the story."
"Shadow Games were events in which people would summon monsters, known as ka, from the Shadow Realm, an alternate dimension of endless darkness, in order to do battle. Shadow Games were played far and wide across the empire, the most skilled gaining massive respect and followings, but the very best was Pharaoh Atem, the King of Egypt.
However, nothing good lasts forever. The Pharaoh's uncle, brother of the previous Pharaoh, decided to create the millennium items, artefacts of great power, in order to make Egypt an even stronger military power. But they came at a terrible cost. In order to create the millennium items, the blood of 99 people was required, in order to perform a ritual to infuse the items with great power. So, the pharaoh's uncle went to a bandit village, called Kul Elna, and had his soldiers slay everyone in the village, for their blood to be collected."
At this Louise gasped. Yu-Gi-Oh really did have a disturbing origin, but I couldn't tell her that it was just a card game.
"Once the village had been slain, the ritual was performed, and seven items were imbued with great power. They were the Millennium Pendant, the Millennium Key, the Millennium Necklace, the Millennium Ring, the Millennium Eye, the Millennium Scale, and the Millennium Rod. The power in these items was used in Shadow Games, raising the stakes, as well as in war, but the universe has a way of punishing unforgivable acts.
There was actually a survivor of the Kul Elna massacre. His name was Bakura, and he wanted revenge for the genocide of his people. The souls of his slain brothers and sisters all merged together, into his own ka, known as Diabound, and with it, he sought to claim the Millennium items, and punish the royal family, who he blamed for the genocide.
He scoured the kingdom, participating in Shadow Games in order to increase his strength. Whenever he won, Diabound would absorb the powers of the ka he defeated, growing stronger with each battle. Eventually, he confronted the Pharaoh, but by this point, he had lost sight of his original goal, and merely sought destruction. This was due to the trauma, and the dark powers of the Millennium items. Luckily, the Pharaoh defeated him, but not permanently. They were in their own war, and many sacrifices were made to stop the darkness from spreading, including the Pharaoh's trusted friend, Mahad, who sacrificed himself in order to become the Dark Magician, ka of the Pharaoh.
As Bakura grew stronger, he grew darker as well, and even more evil and twisted. It turns out that the Millennium items were actually created by borrowing the power of a demon, and that demon's power was strongest in the millennium ring, which Bakura wore. Slowly, he started to become the demon, but didn't fight it, instead embracing the darkness. When he finally succumbed to the demon completely, the demon was born into my world. He was known as Zorc, the Dark one, and wanted to drive the world into eternal darkness. Luckily, Atem managed to stop him, by using three legendary monsters to weaken Zorc, then sacrificing himself to seal Zorc into the millennium ring, and sealing his own soul into the Millennium Pendant, which later shattered, becoming the Millennium Puzzle.
Millennia later, the Millennium Puzzle was solved by a teenager named Yugi Moto, infusing him with the soul of Atem. However, Atem had lost his memories. Upon his emergence, one of Yugi's friends found the Millennium Ring, infusing him with the combined souls of Zorc and Bakura. Their paths would not converge until much later, but until they met, Yugi and Atem went in search of Atem's memories, and went through many trials and tribulations. There was a card game, known as Duel Monsters, which was the next generation of Shadow Games, drawing power from the shadow realm, and this was the battlefield in which Yugi and Atem made their stand.
They duelled expertly, as though their lives depended on it, because in some cases, it did, and if they lost, they would have died.
Eventually, they entered the world of the Pharaoh's memories, but it was limited by what the Pharaoh remembered. Yugi and his friends managed to restore the rest of the Pharaoh's memories using their bond with Atem, and this allowed them to defeat Zorc permanently. Using the three legendary monsters, Atem used all of their light at once, and this was enough to overwhelm Zorc, and destroy him forever."
"Okay, that was an impressive story, but what does that have to do with you?"
"The cards I use are the duel monster cards, which draw on the same powers as those used in the Shadow Games."
Louise's eyes widened in fright.
"But don't worry. Zorc is destroyed, and there is no way of accessing the Shadow realm from this planet." Since there was no way of duelling, as I was the only duelist in this world, there really wasn't any reason to worry.
"Ok. Anyway, onto the next order of business," Louise said, pointing at a basket full of clothes.
"What are those?"
"Dirty clothes that piled up whilst you were out cold after your stupid duel with Guiche."
"All of these?!"
"Yes. Now get to work," Louise said, pointing to the door.