The following takes place during Shadow of a Duel, Lights, Camera, Duel, Let the Finals Begin! and the first part of The Dark Spirit Revealed.

LP Richard 750

LP Bakura 3400

I'm not happy that it's Bakura's turn. Sure, I destroyed the Ghost of Dark Sanctuary, but he still has Destiny Board on the field, spelling "FINA". Only one more letter left...

He draws his card silently and draws maniacally at the sight of it. "That's far enough!" he declares "So long as I have this card you can't stop me!"

"Say what?!"

He chuckles in response. "Too bad for you! I praise you for pushing me this far into a corner, but your defiance will end now! Prepare yourself as I activate Premature Burial!"

All of a sudden a giant crevasse opens as Dark Necrofear comes out of it (ATK: 2200). As the monster comes to the field, Dark Sanctuary suddenly disappears.

LP Richard 750

LP Bakura 2600

"It doesn't matter if Dark Sanctuary isn't on the field anymore, because I will end you now!" my opponent declares.

"Not if I step in!" I answer "Activate Trap Card! Torrential Tribute!"

A giant wave appears from the card, instantly destroying Dark Necrofear, but bringing Dark Sanctuary back.

Bakura laughs. "Now that Dark Necrofear is once again buried on my side, the effect of Dark Sanctuary returns... along with the Ghost!"

Tsk! After the effort I put in destroying it!

"There's no way to stop my Occult Combo!" my opponent declares laughing "Next turn the final letter of the Destiny Board will appear and you'll lose!"

I groan.

"Now I Summon Jowgen the Spiritualist and sacrifice it to mantain Dark Sanctuary!"

A priest with a yellow and purple vest appears on the field (ATK: 200). After a few seconds though, it disappears because of Dark Sanctuary.

"I only have one turn" I state while looking at my empty field "Thanks to The Dark Door I can only attack with one monster and the first monster I'll Summon will be possessed by the Ghost of Dark Sanctuary"

I look at my hand, which contains Water of Life, Magical Barrier and Giga Gagagigo. "I don't have any card that can turn the tables" I think.

"You still don't get it?!" Bakura mocks me "Your chance of victory is literally 0%!"

"If I end my turn, I'll lose... If I want to win I have to decrease his Life Points to 0 this turn" I think while looking at my Deck "I only have one card in my Deck that can help me right now. Everything depends on this card!"

I place my hand on top of my Deck. "I bet everything I have as a Duelist on this draw!" I declare drawing.

As I look at it, I place it aside and announce: "I activate the Magic Card Water of Life! This card brings back a monster from the Graveyard in Attack Mode! Unshaven Angler, come back!"

The weird fish appears again (ATK: 1500).

After said action I hold up the card I drew. "I now sacrifice it with its effect treating as two monsters!" I cry "I call forth Levia-Dragon – Daedalus!"

My ace monster appears on the field (ATK: 2600).

"Daedalus?!" Bakura parrots.

"Brace yourself, Bakura!"

"Not yet!" he declares "The Ghost of Dark Sanctuary still wanders the field! Now, possess Daedalus!"

However, a giant bubble-like barrier sorrounds Daedalus, preventing the spirit from possessing it.

"What?!" my opponent protests "The Ghost was dispelled?!"

I smirk. "I activated the Quick-Play Magic Card Magical Barrier, a card that makes Daedalus unaffected by card effects until the end of the turn. I win! Water Blast Cannon!"

My ace monster fires its attack and hits Bakura, who falls on the floor.

LP Richard 750

LP Bakura 0

As he gets up I see his body slowly disappearing. "I suppose I'll admit defeat this time..." he says "But remember this! I will be resurrected as I was born from the darkness!"

With a last laugh he disappears, leaving only the weird artifact that was on his neck and the Duel Disk on the floor.

I pick the artifact and a Locator Card. "I'll take this to Yugi once I get to the Finals"

After said so, I take my six Locator Cards and place them on each Zone in the Duel Disk. The holograms show me the map of Domino City along with a spot marked with a point: that's the place!

As I arrive, I realize the place is a giant colosseum, Seto being the first arrived along with Mokuba and their chopper.

"Richard..." he says as he notices me "It seems like you made it"

"Nice to see you too, Seto" I answer.

He looks at me with a smirk. "You do know that, even though I respect you as a Duelist, I won't go easy on you if we face each other, right?"

I make a smirk of my own. "Of course! And I'll do the same!"

All of a sudden I hear footsteps: Yugi, Joey, Mai, Tristan, Tea and the other two guys from before arrived.

"Welcome" Isono says "You have discovered the location of the Finals"

Another one of Seto's men takes four cards and handles each one to me, Yugi, Joey and Mai. "We recognize you as partecipants in the Finals. Please accept these I.D. cards"

"Where are the others?" Joey asks as we get the I.D.s.

"Currently only you and Seto have arrived"

So that means that only three remain... and one of them is probably Marik!

All of a sudden another Duelist enters the colosseum: is a dark skinned boy with long white hair and blue eyes dressed in a weird egyptian-like style. Is he Marik?

"Dat's Namu!" Joey declares "How're ya doin'?"

"Very well!" the boy named Namu answers.

"So that's not Marik..." I think as Tea introduces Namu to Yugi.

"Look! That's the seventh Duelist!" Namu suddenly says.

In fact, a tall man whose face and body is covered by a cloak is approaching. I have seen that cloak before! Either he's a Rare Hunter or...

"Are you Marik?" Seto asks.

"I am" he simply answers.

I found him! I'll make him pay for what he did to Rebecca!

"So we meet once more..." Marik declares looking towards me.

"As much as I want to kick your butt right here right now, I think I'll save this pleasure during the Finals" I answer keeping my cool.

"Marik, I'm free to disqualify you from this Tournament" Seto states "But instead of doing that, I'll beat you to a bloody pulp and take your God Card!"

He ignores him and takes his I.D. card.

"I have an announcement to make, so please listen" Isono declares "All of you have won the Preliminaries and assembled here at the final location. However, this will not be the location of the Finals"

All of us besides Seto, Marik and Mokuba look at him with a puzzled look.

"The real stage should appear before us momentarily..."

As said that, a giant blue and white blimp flies over our heads.

"The Finals will take place 3,000 feet in the air!" Mokuba explains excitedly.

The blimp finally lands and a door opens.

"Come on board" Isono says "We will take off once the eighth Duelist arrives"

I hear Mai and the others comment as I silently enter the blimp first.

After a few seconds the blimp takes off. This means the eighth Duelist arrived.

"Wow! You can see all of Domino City from up here!" Tea comments.

"You're amazing to be able to Duel all the way up in the sky, big brother!" the other girl follows up, referring to Joey. I guess she's Serenity, Joey's younger sister.

"I guess strong Duelists can even fly thru da sky!" Joey answers

"It doesn't take much to excite some people, you deadbeat" Seto comments, making me chuckle.

"D-deadbeat?!"

"I'm sure you'll freeze up when you face the more challenging Duels that lie ahead. You'd better enjoy the feeling of being a tourist while you can"

"I disagree" I step in "If he arrived here it's not just by dumb luck, even though we're talking about Joey"

"Yeah! Wait, what?!" Joey says before realizing what I said.

Seto simply walks towards Yugi. "Let me give you one piece of advice" he whispers to him "During the Battle City Preliminaries you left your God Card out of your Deck, for whatever foolish reason. I noticed it while working with you in that Tag Duel against the Rare Hunters"

His voice then turns louder. "Listen! I will not accept that during our fight! I'm sure you know that in this Tournament we're about to step foot into the domain of the gods! The winner will be determined with the three God Cards!"

Wait, does this mean Seto has another God Card?! And just before he said to Marik that... oh God! This means Marik has the third one!

"A fight that will go down in legend is about to begin!" Seto finally declares "I will beat you and Marik, obtain the three God Cards and become the world's strongest Duelist!"

After saying said words, he steps out. We then hear Isono's voice from a speaker. "We arranged eight rooms for the finalists. You may access them with your I.D. cards. The Finals will begin in one hour. The match-ups will be announced at that time"

After he says so, I reach my room and enter: it's very big but contains only a huge table, a bed and a mini fridge.

"I'll take this time to arrange my Deck a bit" I think " I need to prepare myself for Marik and his God Card!"

My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of my mini fridge being opened. I turn around and see Yugi approaching me with two Diet Cokes (Author's note: it's Yami Yugi). He throws one of them at me as I catch it and open it. "How's it going?" he asks.

"Better, now that I know that Rebecca's safe" I answer as I drink a bit of my Coke.

"Good for you. Best of luck"

"You too"

I then realize something. "Wait! I have something for you!"

He looks at me with a puzzled look as I handle him the artifact Bakura was holding. "How did you get it?" he asks me.

"I found Bakura in the graveyard and he challenged me to a Shadow Game"

He doesn't reply, so I continue. "I simply won the Duel and the only thing left of him was that"

He looks at me with a smile. "Thank you very much"

"Don't even mention it"

Yugi then leaves, so I sit with my Diet Coke and take my Deck. I shift through the cards and then take out one of them: Levia-Dragon – Daedalus. "I finally made it to the Finals" I think "I will beat Marik and make him pay for what he did. And why not, I'll also take his Egyptian God Card"

After a while, I finish modifying my Deck and I go into the main room, where I see everyone either eating or chatting. As I notice that everyone's having a good time, I forget all the worries and start picking up some food. As I do, a person hits me.

"Oh, Richard. Sorry 'bout dat"

I'd recognize that Brooklyn accent from a mile. "Don't worry, Joey, it's all right" I answer turning towards him.

"Yeah, it's dat I'm a bit nervous" he admits "By da way, how did ya manage ta defeat two people in dese few hours?"

"Simple! I went to the graveyard and beat both Bonz and Bakura, one after the other"

"What?! Both of 'em?!" he cries.

"Yup. It was pretty easy"

"'Pretty easy'?!"

I nod. "Let's do our best!"

He simply nods back and walks away, probably surprised for my quick victories.

All of a sudden the lights turn off and a spotlight focuses on a little stage, Isono and a weird machine standing on it.

"We will now draw lots to determine the first round match-ups" Isono declares "Each and every match-up will be decided in this format, starting with the first match"

He then points to the weird machine, which I just noticed it's shaped like a Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. "The match-ups will be decided using this Ultimate Bingo Machine. And when the winner of each Duel is determinted, the next draw will be held" he explains "In other words, you won't know who your opponent is until mere moments before the match"

This sounds interesting...

"This Bingo Machine was equipped with each of the numbers we assigned the partecipants, and it will randomly choose two of them"

My number is "2"...

"If all are ready, we shall begin the lottery for the Tournament's first match-up" Isono finally says.

The numbers inside the Bingo Machine start to spin until one of them enters into the mouth-shaped tunnel and comes out on the left side.

"The first person is Duelist Number 6: Joey Wheeler!"

Joey grins. "So I'm first, huh?"

"And the other is Duelist Number 3: Yugi Muto!"

"So it will be Yugi VS Joey" I think "Interesting. But I don't think I'll watch the match. I might as well go back in my room and get some sleep since I need to recover for my match, whenever it will occur..."

Fanmade cards:

Magical Barrier
Quick-Play Spell Card
Effect: Activate by targeting 1 monster you control; that target is unaffected by other card effects this turn.

OK, I have a couple of things to say: first of all I'm terribly sorry for not updating lately, but I'm stuck with my high school exams at the moment, so I need to study; second of all, I'm a little lazy, so I decided to send Richard to his room so that I don't need to do a Yugi VS Joey Duel (even though all of you know who's going to win, right?). I'll try to upload the next chapter as soon as possible. Until then, hasta la vista!