Hello! I'm a day late, yes, but it is Christmas and all, and I figure that you're all not too worried. I hope that everyone enjoyed their holidays!
"Here we are. Finally…" Yugi said, dismounting and tying his drederstein's reins to a nearby desert tree. Even after his brief respite, the heat was still taking a hard toll on him. Hopefully, he would be in good enough health to fight the Midgard Serpent without killing himself.
Tea looked up at the majestic arch that was carved into the rock wall. It were inscribed with pictures of mighty Kryllians fighting against the fragile-looking Poya. She wondered if the Poya remembered that battle as a day of victory for the Federation, or a day of defeat for Senmar.
"Are we ready to go?" Atem asked, placing a ready hand on his sword hilt. "The sooner we defeat this Lilitum, the sooner Yugi can get out of this weather."
Yugi smiled gratefully at his concern. "I'll be fine, Atem. And you're right; we should hurry up before the snake eats too many treasures."
He walked cautiously towards the entrance. There was no way that getting into the Tomb would be easy, considering the number of tomb robbers that roamed the worlds. He picked up a rock and tossed it into the arch. Hundreds of darts flew out from either side, darts that would have skewered them if they had walked in on their own.
"Nice call, man," Tristan commented. He was happy that he wasn't full of holes right then.
"Alright, I think it's safe to go inside now…" Yugi said, stepping beyond the arch and into a grand hallway paved with deep red stone. Yugi looked curiously at it. "This is good stuff…"
"Yugi, back on task, please," Tea said, looking around fearfully for any more traps. "You seem to have a pretty good idea of what's going on down here, and I don't want to be a human shish kabob any time soon."
Yugi nodded, regaining his focus. "I think the hallway is trap-free, so we can get going." They walked for a while down the empty antechamber until they passed through another arch and found themselves in another ridiculously huge room.
"Holy crap!" Joey said eloquently as he saw the room the size of the Taj Mahal laid out before him. "What kinda dead person needs a joint as big as dis?"
"It's the way the Kryllians honor their history, Joey," Yugi retorted, observing the enormous room with its exotic stone with an inclination to start eating the floors. "Etherstone is so rare…"
"Yugi," Atem said sternly.
Yugi winced at his tone and walked down the tall steps into the underground. "Sorry, sorry…" As he reached the last step, he stood completely still and didn't move. "There's something strange about this."
He took his Getya sword out of its hard leather sheath and gently tapped the ground in front of him. A large spearhead shot out of the floor and loomed dangerously over him. "I'm glad I checked that," Yugi mentioned, and began wondering how to get across the enormous floor.
"It's so wide…" Tea noticed. "I would be almost impossible to get all the way over there without touching the ground."
Yugi remembered his history, though. Back in the first age, almost all Kryllian kings would set up a floor like this. In order to get across, the tomb keepers would press hidden switches somewhere on the stairs. Yugi began searching the railing.
"What are you looking for, Yugi?" Tristan asked.
"There are supposed to be hidden switches to disarm the trap… somewhere…" he responded distractedly. His hand brushed against something oddly smooth beneath a vat of fire. He pressed it and something beneath him shifted. "Guys, check beneath the other lights! I think the rest of the switches are there!" he called out.
They pressed the switches beneath the other three lights and the same shifting sound was heard. "Do ya think dat was it?" Joey asked.
Yugi took out his sword again and tapped the floor. No response. "It looks like we did it!" Yugi said happily. He stepped out and began the long walk to the other side.
A few minutes later, they entered the next room. The gang collectively gasped. The room was filled with shining, sparkling gold of all shapes and sizes. Sculptures made of the rare metal and chests overflowing with coins were stacked throughout the entire cavern. Even the uncut walls were sparkling with untold amounts of rare jewels. Joey and Tristan's eyes filled with dollar signs. They could buy Earth with all of this.
But among the treasure was a dangerous foe. A titanic snake coiled itself among the gold, its midsection bulging with devoured goods. "It's the Lilitum," Atem said softly.
"It's asleep. If we hurry, we can kill it before it ever wakes up." Yugi whispered, sneaking into the cavern lightly and quietly. Atem and the others followed him, and they surrounded the serpent's head. Atem decided not to wait any longer and drew his sword. With a swift and powerful blow, Atem brought his sword down and lopped the head clean off of the snake.
Yugi grimaced as the black Lilitum blood sprayed violently out and covered Atem from head to toe. Atem flicked the snake flesh off of his blade and spit the dark fluid out of his mouth. "I wasn't expecting that," Atem said grimly.
"Well, our quest is over," Yugi said, bending down to better examine the body. "But it's strange…" he murmured quietly. "Lilitu are supposed to evaporate after death…"
At these words, the corpse started to twitch. The gang leaped back. "Are you tellin' me it ain't dead?" Joey asked. On cue, the bleeding neck of the snake sprouted a new, light-green scaled head, complete with perilous fangs.
"I guess ya are!" Joey yelled, jumping aside to avoid a lightning fast strike from the fat serpent.
"Why didn't it die?" Tea asked, quickly nocking an arrow. "Atem cut off its head!" She shot the arrow at the snake's eye, and it glanced off harmlessly.
The serpent wrapped the end of its tail around Yugi's waist, trying to choke him to death. Yugi squirmed, but that wasn't going to help him. He transformed into his Loramyshan form, and the sudden cold of his skin caused the snake to recoil and loosen its hold. "Every Lilitum has a weak spot!" Yugi called out to the others, who were all hacking ineffectually at the Lilitum's scales.
Tristan screamed valiantly and made a particularly vicious dent in the serpent's side. The serpent reared up in rage and prepared to strike Tristan down. But Tea noticed something. There was a glowing red crystal in the snake's underbelly. "Every Lilitum has a weak spot…" she recalled. She realized what she had to do. She nocked another arrow and sent it straight toward the center of the gem.
It hit home, and the gem cracked and shattered. The Midgard Serpent screamed as no ordinary snake could, and its tissue crackled and burned down to ashes in a spectacular exhibition.
"Guess we won," Joey commented, looking over at one of the treasures that had appeared when the snake dissolved. He might be able to take one… as compensation for their efforts, of course.
"Now all of these artifacts can be returned to their rightful tombs," Yugi said. That officially shattered Joey's hope for sneaking one of the especially glamorous golden pendants home.
Atem noticed a heavy-looking black cube in the midst of the shining plunder. "Yugi," he said. "What's that?"
Yugi picked it up with ease. "This is a karkesh. Uh…" What did they call them in English again? "Right, karkesh means 'shadow blood', but they're usually called "lilithim". Whenever you kill a Lilitum, one of these pops up. That's our proof for the success of our mission."
Tristan snatched it out of Yugi's hands and peered at it. "A lilithim, huh? It looks like a big rock."
Yugi smiled and shook his head. "Trust me, if it was a rock I would have eaten it by now. I'm not too interested in eating that, though."
"So, uh, Yug'," Joey mumbled. "Do ya dink it would be alright if we… uh… kept some things behind… for ourselves?"
Yugi glared at him. "These are historical artifacts, Joey! We're going to submit them to the authorities, so that they can return them to their resting places. We'll get paid, don't worry."
Joey shuffled his feet. "Just checkin'."
"Let's get out of here, before Yugi melts," Atem said, winking at the young half-human.
Yugi nodded. "Happily."