Chapter Twenty Two - Legendary Chaos
Critias struggled mightily to free himself. He thrashed his tail like a whip against the side of the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos and beat his wings, not to fly, but to buffet and try to escape. Chaos, for his part, had his jaws clamped around Critias' neck. His wings beat too, to keep the prey he had in his clutches off the ground. Even as Hermos and Timaeus transformed into their dragon shapes to go to the aid of their fellow lord, Chaos opened his maw and released Critias.
Critias plummeted as a dead weight from the sky, crashed into the ground heavily, and remained ominously still. Yugi started to run toward the stricken dragon, hoping it was just a ruse to get the Dread Lord to let him go, hoping he wasn't dead, somehow knowing, before he got there, that his hopes were in vain.
"CRITIAS!"
Light stabbed his eyes. Did the True Lords simply disappear into the Realm of Darkness with a flash when they died? He threw an arm up across his face to protect his vision from the sudden light. Someone grabbed his shoulder and hauled him to his feet. Wait. When did he...?
"I'm right here, you can stop shouting," Critias told him.
"A dream?" Yugi muttered.
"Oh, I can't wait to hear this one." Critias let him go. "It's before dawn, Hero. Even I don't rise this early. Hermos and Timaeus haven't even stirred." Critias smirked, then looked closely at Yugi. "I can see you aren't going back to sleep. Must have been a bad one."
Yugi nodded. "It seemed so real..."
"Nightmares usually do." Still looking at Yugi's face, he sighed. "And, you want to talk about it. Sometimes a nightmare is just a nightmare, Yugi. The Dread Lord said he would give you no more dreams."
Yugi shook his head. "No, he said he couldn't give the last line with a dream-sending. I think he's still tormenting me with dreams, trying to weaken my resolve."
By the time dawn started to creep across the sky, Yugi was in better spirits. Critias hadn't laughed at Yugi's terror, and hadn't acted as if Yugi were foolish to be concerned. He admitted that he would be severely outclassed by the Chaos Dragon if it came to a one-on-one fight - that's why he didn't put himself in situations where it was likely to happen - none of the True Lords did. They had learned their lesson long ago that they, individually, did not have enough power to defeat the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos. None of them would try to confront Chaos directly - it was suicide.
"Hey, I've struck a deal with Timaeus here," Hermos said as the other True Lords approached. "In payment for the Warriors who are likely to rise as Shadows, he's agreed to lend me the aid of some of his Shadows to restore my lands once the Dread Lord is defeated."
"That's not what..." Timaeus protested. "I'd offer to help anyway. I merely propose that we don't dissolve our detente until not only is the Lord of Blackness and Chaos defeated, but each of us restored, as closely as possible, to the state we were in before he appeared."
"You two are discussing that now? Isn't that premature?" Critias retorted.
"Th' Hero's here, we're back - it's only a matter of time. We beat him off last time, right?" Hermos replied.
Yugi shook his head. "No, he left on his own. We didn't beat him." Still, it seemed as if the end were in sight. Yugi could go home and be among family and friends, again. Maybe the loss of the friends he made on this adventure wouldn't hurt so much if he were palling around with Tristan again, but he knew that he had changed during the adventure. Those things that used to be fun before would seem very childish. Challenges from before his adventure would be laughable easy to him now.
Critias might not have perished facing the Dread Lord as in Yugi's dream, but he had reason to wonder if it were not in an obscure way prophetic. Critias was edgy the entire day, more short-tempered and sharp of tongue than Yugi had ever seen him. Toward dusk, when Critias' attitude had soured so much that he was snapping at Yugi as much as at his fellow lords, a shout went up from one of the sentry positions. Yugi's heart thudded in his chest as he ran, trailing the longer-legged True Lords, toward the commotion. It was not an enemy attack as he had feared. Rather, it wasn't their camp that was under attack.
A half-grown, and half-dead, dragon had limped toward their forces from the edge of the forest - that was why the sentries had sent up an alarm. Yugi almost couldn't bear to look at the shredded remnants of bone and flesh that had once been the dragon's wings. All three of the True Lords shifted to their dragon shapes to hold a draconic conversation with the youngling. Yugi wished that Vialla had not perished - not only because she had been a friend, but also because her healing abilities would have eased the dragonette's suffering. Once in a while the weak utterances that Yugi couldn't understand rose up in a keen of agony. When that happened, Critias would lean down and stroke his head alongside the younger dragon's head, cheek to cheek, in an oddly familiar gesture. It wasn't until the fourth time that Yugi realized the motion reminded him of how cats who are friendly to one another greet and communicate with each other.
The young dragon's strength gave out, and he slumped over onto his side. Critias seemed to take up the conversation now, and though Yugi didn't understand dragon-speech at all, something in the rise and fall of the tone conveyed the meaning perfectly. That Critias was proud of the young dragon, exceedingly proud, in his bravery in escaping, and flying as long as he could, then walking and limping along the ground, to bring the warning to them. That he, Critias, would take up the burden now, the young one had borne enough. That the young one was to close his eyes, and rest a while, without fear, for he had done his duty well, and he would be well-rewarded for it. That the young one was not to worry, he would surely fly again. Yugi looked at the ruined wings at that, and knew there was no way they could ever be whole again. That was when he realized the young dragon was dying, and Critias was doing all he could to ease that passing.
He wanted to turn away. He wanted to run from the pain and sorrow of it all. He wanted to shut out the sounds around him, but most of all, he wanted to shut out the sounds of his own heart, keening in its own voiceless way at one with the sorrow flowing all around them.
He stepped forward instead. One step, but it made the second one easier, then the third. Before he knew it, he was next to the stricken dragon, dwarfed completely by the three True Lord dragons, and his mouth was opening.
"I don't know if you understand human speech," he began.
All dragons do. Go ahead, Hero, Timaeus told him.
Yugi slipped the cord of the Hero's Heartstone over his head, cupped the purple gem in his hand, and reached toward the dying dragon. "This magic stone has given me comfort and eased my fears since my adventure began. I am sure it will do the same for you," he said, as he placed it against the breastbone protecting the dragon's heart.
To Yugi it seemed as if the dragon, at the touch of the Hero's Heartstone, turned into light. A great bugling cry of joy rang through not only his ears, but his entire being. The dragon, no longer dying, but no longer alive, at least not in any form that Yugi recognized, lifted pinions crafted of light, winged upward and disappeared into a sudden radiance in the night sky.
"Did I just - kill him?!" Yugi asked, horror lacing his tones. He looked at the stone still nestled in the palm of his hand and abruptly remembered the warning the Water Sage had given him so long ago, that if he were not the true hero, the Sage's Stone, as it had been known before, would kill him. Yugi realized that since he had claimed it, no other mortal had touched the stone. He had not realized his action would kill the dragon!
"No," Critias abruptly resumed his human form, and grasped Yugi by the arms. "Charvron was all but dead. No force of healing or magic could have saved him - he knew that - we all did." Hermos and Timaeus also returned to their human shapes.
"What - happened? What did I do?!" Yugi realized how close Critias' arm was to the stone in his hand, and started to pull away. "No! I don't want to kill you too!"
Critias lowered his chin and pinned Yugi with a half-hearted, and somehow half-familiar, glare. Of course, Lord Critias reminded Yugi of Seto, the Lord of Ice and Dragons, but this teasing memory seemed even older and deeper than that. Though it was not at all a friendly look, Yugi felt oddly comforted by it. Critias plucked the Hero's Heartstone from his hand. Yugi froze.
Hermos laughed. "He didn't go 'poof'!"
"There is no peril in this artifact. You wished to ease Charvron's passing and the Heartstone obliged," Critias told him.
"What happened to him?" Yugi asked.
A touch of awe sparked in Critias' eyes. "Transcendence. You transcended Charvron to the next plane. It is what all dragons hope for, when death claims them, though none of us has ever seen it before."
"But - what does that mean?"
Critias shrugged. "I don't know, like I said, we've never seen it before. But you heard, no, felt, that joyful shout. You saw how he lifted, whole in form once more, into the sky? Maybe he became a sky dragon, or a dragon of light. He has become something beyond our knowledge. Maybe he watches over dragons from the sky, or maybe he is free to wander to other stars. Transcendence. Whatever he has become, he is free of pain, and he is full of joy. What more do we need to know?"
Yugi nodded, then took a shuddering breath. Critias took the opportunity to place the Hero's Heartstone back where it belonged, draping the cord over Yugi's head, and letting the stone fall to its usual place over Yugi's heart.
"What happened to him? To Charvron?"
"Didn't I just explain...?"
"He means what happened to hurt him so much that he came here in such a wounded state," Hermos interrupted. Yugi nodded at Critias' questioning look.
"Oh, you weren't able to follow the discussion, and none of us echoed it mentally into human language for you," Critias realized. Sorrow, deeper than Yugi had ever seen, flashed across the True Lord's face. "The Aerie has fallen. The dragons are scattered, or dead. They bore many of the people away before the Lord of Blackness and Chaos descended with a horde of his forces, but..." Critias looked up and locked Yugi's eyes with an indescribable expression. "My people have fallen. The Dragonlands are no more."
"What?!"
"Except for the dragons with us here, Charvron told us the rest are dead, dying, wounded, or have gone into deep hiding. The Dread Lord is hunting the dragons." Timaeus' voice was soft. Whatever animosity the True Lords had held toward one another in the past, it was pushed aside now.
The enormity of what Timaeus said was too much. So, scenes like the one he'd just witnessed with Charvron were happening throughout the Dragonlands? Dragons were crying in torment, trying to fly on destroyed wings, limping along on the ground, doing their best to get away from...
"We have to help them!" Yugi cried out.
"It is too late, Hero." Timaeus shook his head. Though his words were implacable, his tone was understanding. "The attack was too sudden, and too overwhelming. Charvron told us the dragons split into two groups; the stronger ones fought against the forces of Chaos knowing the odds were against them to buy time for the weaker ones to help as many humans get away to safety as they could."
Critias shook his head, and assayed a fierce smile. "Lord Seto would be pleased that his plans were followed so obediently."
"You aren't?!"
Critias started at Yugi's vehement tone. "I didn't say that! Of course I am pleased - not that the dragons are all but destroyed, but that they fulfilled their duty so well. In my day, the order was the same; the strong hold off the invaders as long as possible, while the less strong help the weakest ones to safety. Lord Seto was not that different from me in that regard."
"What do we do now?"
No one had an answer. It wasn't until much later, when he was on the verge of sleep, that a truly horrific idea occurred to Yugi. He remember the True Lords summoning the Realm of Darkness to send the fallen to a different place. While this afterlife plane didn't seem like much of a reward to Yugi, some of the fallen would possibly rise again in the material world as Shadows, but most seemed to pass on, from what the Lords had said, it was better than the dreaded alternative - to be forced to rise again as one of Chaos' Shades, to fight against one's own previous comrades, or, remain on the field of death as a haunt.
Yugi's action was unconscious and instinctive. He reached up and grasped the Hero's Heartstone. His need for comfort was so great that he whispered aloud.
"Please, whatever power you might have, don't let that be the fate of the noble dragons - to become Shades or Drakors of Chaos' army! They would hate that more than anything! If I could, I'd transcend them all, but, I doubt that's possible. If there is any way to protect them instead, or send them to the Realm of Darkness... Maybe I should find the True Lords and see if we are in time, if we go there now, so they can summon it like they did before, but, the Lord Dragon of Chaos is surely watching, that would be walking right into our own deaths, oh, I don't know what to do, what the right action is..."
The stone pulsed with warmth under his hand. As always, the warmth comforted him, somehow soothing his worry. He drifted into sleep, and had a ghost of a dream drift across his mind.
He watched as Charvron flew toward the Dragonlands. The details were fuzzy, for which Yugi was grateful, but whenever Charvron flew over a suspiciously dragon-shaped mound, a ghostly dragon lifted from it to follow him. The shining dragon was careful in his flight, making certain that every area of the Dragonlands received his attention. Before long, the sky was filled with a ghostly parade of dragon spirits, all following the shining one in the lead. Once Charvron had overflown the entire land, and gathered all the spirits of the fallen, he flew straight up, leading them all away. Yugi wondered what Chaos would think when no new Shades or Drakors joined his army overnight.
Comforted by the dream, hoping it was a vision of reality and not wishful thinking, Yugi settled into a deeper sleep. Unfortunately, the nightmare of what happened to the Dragonlands continued, and deepened.
Yugi pushed his hair back from his eyes and assessed their situation. Things had gone from bad to dreadfully worse in the past few days. The Dragonlands had a plan in place if ever they were overrun, but the fire-locked Warrior Lands and the mountainous Shadowlands hadn't. Of the Dragons and Drakes who had been in Lord Seto's, then True Lord Critias' army, there were none left. They had been sent on missions to help evacuate the human populations from the the Land of Warriors and Shadowlands. The True Lords themselves would serve as the flying forces if they were attacked from the air now.
Likewise, most of the Warriors and Shadows had been detailed to guarding and guerrilla duties respectively. The Warriors would guard the refugees on their way to safety, and the Shadows would sneak attack any of Lord Chaos' forces they found to keep the Army of Blackness from interfering. It made good tactical sense, but, as Yugi looked around the severely depleted forces of their army, he couldn't stop a shiver of apprehension from traveling along his spine.
"Don't worry. We are striking camp now." Lord Hermos clapped him on his shoulder with enough force to rattle Yugi's teeth. "We've been in this situation before. We'll go to ground in the forests, and travel quick and light, until we devise our attack plan."
"Attack?" Yugi blinked up at the lord.
"We've been backed into a corner. There's only so long our scattered forces can keep protecting the innocent people from the Lord of Blackness and Chaos. If we don't figure out a way to take this battle to him, instead of reacting to what he's doing, we will lose."
"It seems..." Yugi looked at the massive field that only a few days before had been filled with Drakes, Dragons, Warriors, and Shadows and now had no Dragons or Drakes scouting from the air, only a handful of Warriors and one or two Shadows flickering about helping to strike the now-abandoned tents. "It seems as if we've already lost."
"Appearances can be deceiving. This conflict will not be resolved army against army - it never could be. It will come down to face to face. All the massive battles were merely preliminary moves in the war," Timaeus said as he too approached.
"'Face to face'?" Yugi repeated as he paled. "Whose face - exactly?" He recalled every instance he'd been 'face to face' with the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos from the very first time he'd met his fated enemy and thought to offer sanctuary under a bush from the very Chaos Storm the Chaos Lord created. Each encounter had been even more unsettling than the last, and the knowledge that the Lord of Chaos could send dreams and nightmares, with hints of things to come, dismayed Yugi more than he wanted to admit. That his own mind wasn't private...
"Don't be alarmed. The final conflict will have the Dread Lord, certainly, and you," Critias smiled gravely down at Yugi's worried face. "But us as well. No matter what, our role is to support the Hero. You are he."
Yugi nodded slowly. His hand crept up to catch the Hero's Heartstone for comfort.
"So, Hero, we meet again!" Yugi tried to blink sleep from his eyes and awareness into his mind, but only swirling black met his gaze. "No wretched dead knight to chase me away this time - even the Lord of Shadows is no more!"
Yugi's eyes cleared then. The blackness was creeping up along his body, and a face leered at him from within that writhing mass. His legs had already gone shockingly cold, then numb, and he could no longer feel them. The blackness flowed slowly toward his head. He tried to cry out but a tentacle of pure black wrapped around his mouth.
"None of that now. Wouldn't want any of your wretched 'True Lords' to interrupt before I've taken full possession and hidden within you, now would we? Be a good loser, Hero, and hold still. Once I've taken over, I'll lead the True Lords to their 'true' death, and my Lord Chaos will triumph once and for all!"
No!
Ah, strong enough to protest still? Good. I like it when my prey squirms and fights. It makes the battle more interesting, and the victory more sweet.
You're that shade, from before!
You recognize me? I'm flattered. You could have saved yourself so much grief if I'd only been able to do this when we met in the woods. That dead knight perceived me too quickly before.
You - can't - do - this! The cold and numbing effect had flowed all the way up to the bottom of Yugi's ribcage, and his hands and arms had gone numb.
I am doing it. The cold seeping up his chest paused. Head, or heart? Which is the seat of the true you? You will lose this battle, I will become you, the perfect double agent to end this silly conflict, when my cold overtakes your seat of individuality. You'd have a moment or two more if it were your head, but I suspect, Hero, you truly reside within your heart. Too bad, I rather wanted to torment you a bit longer. Ah well, no point in delaying... What?!
"Kwee-Eee!"
Yugi was propelled off his bed, and mostly out of the grasping attack of the shade. His rescuer coalesced out of the darkness into the familiar form of Shelleene. The kuriboh alternately batted at the shade-stuff still clinging to Yugi's feet and floated up into his face to encourage him to back away from the grasping shade. Yugi needed no convincing.
"Yugi!" Timaeus' voice bellowed outside his tent a moment before the True Lord, with sword drawn, swept into the tent. "I sense a shade!"
"You wretched blood-shadow! I'll get even for this!" The shade shrieked, then flickered out a moment before Timaeus' sword sliced through the space it had been in.
Yugi couldn't stifle a sob. His sudden peril, and equally sudden rescue, dropping him from the depths of sleep into the greater depths of terror rattled him to his core. He reached for the comfort of the fluffy-seeming kuriboh who accepted his hold and patted his head with her paws. Timaeus knelt and placed his hand on Yugi's back, offering his mute support and comfort. He waved the two other lords away when they peered in, alerted by the voices.
"Why is she so solid? And warm? She never was before," Yugi asked, forgetting that it was Timaeus and not Yami, Lord of Shadows, who was with him. An answer came anyway.
"Shadows, and shades for that matter, are solid at will, if that will is strong enough. I suspect she is warm because she wants to be warm to comfort you."
"Comfort..." An image flashed across Yugi's mind. It was of Yami's face, backed by the whirling shadow portal of the Point right before his expression washed blank and he walked through. A tiny smile had crossed his face in that moment when he met Yugi's eyes that last time.
"You, that is, Yami, did this right before..." Yugi looked up into Timaeus' face. Yami's crooked smiled flashed across it.
The True Lord nodded. "The Kindly one did leave a gift right before he entered that portal and embraced his destiny. He invested your blood-guardian with enough power to manifest if you were ever threatened."
"So, she will disappear again."
"Not so. I have reclaimed Yami's soul as part of my own, and inherited all his powers. I am the True Lord Timaeus, who among other things is the Lord of Blood and Shadows again. I was the first such lord, after all. Yami merely held the power for me until the time of the Hero."
"I - miss him," Yugi admitted, deepening his hold on Kuriboh. "And the Purple Knight."
"They are gone." Timaeus' eyes were flat and cold. Yugi shivered at his daunting expression. A smile, so like Yami's warmed across his face. "But, Shelleene, your blood-guardian, is still here. Yami and the Purple Knight, who you cared so much about, are gone, but Shelleene can remain." He placed his hand on the little shadow monster's head. "There. She is invested with some of my power. She can remain by your side openly, instead of hiding within your shadow."
"Timaeus! Thank you!" Yugi smiled up at the True Lord. "You are - different, but there is..."
Timaeus abruptly stood, turned his back, and shook out the folds in his cloak. "Don't misunderstand, Hero. Your blood-guardian serves as a means to keep you safe from attacks like the one you just suffered. We can't afford to lose you until we defeat the Lord of Blackness and Chaos." He left.
Yugi stared after him for a long moment. The dismissive attitude was somehow familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on why. "Yeah, but she could have done that from within my shadow as before, you big phony. You gave her power to stay if she wants just so I could have," He snuggled his face into the warm side of the little monster in his arms. "this."
"Kwee," Shelleene agreed sleepily.
The place that was not a place opened in the lacuna of realities again. A purple light floated patiently, waiting for something to happen. It took energy to open this space and while he had power, he did not have so much that he could leave this place open indefinitely.
He hadn't thought to need to do this. He had thought the path was obvious, and the roles clear. A separation had been necessary, but he hadn't seen any reason to be concerned - until now. The script had been open, after all. There was no way to know in advance every perambulation and motivation of all the players, as many of them were acting under their own slightly constrained, but still mostly free, wills. It had seemed best to craft it so that everyone could function under the same freedom.
But, one of them seemed to have slipped the constraints entirely, and was acting so completely on his own that the entire endeavor seemed to be in jeopardy. This would all be for naught if the lessons weren't learned. Worse, it could damage the very bonds and confidences it had been designed to strengthen. If the other one had succeeded with his latest ploy, the adventure would be over and have inflicted pain and loss to no purpose on one who might not be able to bear it.
The purple light wondered if his opposite number, even though he was the opposing side, had forgotten that there really were no sides at all between them. That, for them, there was no win or lose, unless the young ones lost. And he wondered further how well he really knew this one who he had trusted with far more than the critical outcome of this adventure.
How well does one really know one's self, after all? Especially me, when there are so many facets to consider. Chaos, if you don't answer my call, I will have no choice but to regard you - as an enemy.
Yugi dragged himself awake and groaned. He was tired. He was tired of the constant need to mollify the True Lords now that his prophetic dreams had stopped. Even though he suspected the portents and omens had been sent by the Dread Lord of Chaos, and that thought frightened him to the core of his being, he wished he still dreamed them. At least he could say something to quell the growing insistence of the True Lords that as the Hero he had to do something. At least he would have some idea what he was to do next. Each True Lord bore intermittent flashes of the personality of the prior Kindly Lord within, but their focus was painfully tight on defeating the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos. Whereas Yami, Seto, and Joey had regarded him as a friend, Timaeus, Critias, and Hermos, though they accorded him the title of 'Hero', seemed to view him merely as a means for toppling the Dread Lord. Their impatience with him was growing hour by hour. He hoped to find coffee and breakfast before encountering any of them. His hope was dashed when he left his tent in the temporary camp they had set up the night before and one of them verbally pounced on him.
"Well?"
Yugi stared dully at the set planes and curves of Lord Timaeus' face. Gone was the flash of understanding that only two days before impelled the True Lord to grant Shelleene the power to manifest from Yugi's shadow at the blood-guardian's will. "I didn't have any dreams that might..." He petered off as Timaeus turned on his heel and stalked away.
"Do you think I don't want to dream?" Yugi shouted at the dismissive back.
Timaeus turned and regarded him coldly. "You ran away from your dreams before - another had to dream for you - so yes, I think you are retreating from your destiny. I hope the world doesn't have to suffer for your cowardice."
"I still dream," Yugi growled.
Timaeus' eyes glinted coldly. "You just said..."
"I dream, but they aren't the dreams of before. Those were odd and frightening, but there was always some purpose I could figure out from them. The dreams I have now are all dreams of failure, despair and death - not a single line of the prophecy. No sense of where I should go, or what I should do, or who I have to find. You three are frustrated with me? I had to leave home, I've been terrorized by pretty much damn near everyone I've met along the way - including you three when you were the 'Kindly' Lords - and now that you've transformed into these 'True Lords' you are even more arrogant and uncaring than you were before. Power corrupts. If I didn't know that before, I do now, after watching you. The only reason I'm still trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do is..."
Critias and Hermos neared, drawn by Yugi's raised voice. "Why?" Timaeus demanded at Yugi's distracted pause.
"You've been in whatever space between time or dimensions or wherever you were for however many years. You left, and left this world behind. This is my world. My family and friends wait back home. Even if I could retreat as you three did, I wouldn't. The people of your domains, Shadows, Dragons, Warriors, and even just normal people like me are threatened by the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos. You might be callous and corrupted by your power, but he is even more so - and he's promised to destroy the world. So, don't act as if I'm not trying to do what I'm supposed to. It's been beaten into my head ever since I got pulled into this damned adventure. I'm the Hero. I'll see this through the the bitter end and either save my world, or die trying." Yugi glared at each of the three True Lords until one by one they looked away, unable to maintain his gaze. "Get out of my sight. Maybe without you three hounding me, I can figure out what I'm supposed to do."
Hermos lifted an eyebrow at Yugi's command. Timaeus seemed stunned into immobility. Critias' glare morphed into a tight, sardonic smile before he shifted to dragon form, lifted his wings, and took to the sky. Timaeus stared at Yugi a moment longer, then stalked off. Hermos assayed a mocking bow before he too walked away.
Yugi gulped down air and wondered if he'd pushed the True Lords too far. Singly or together, they could slay him without raising a sweat or tapping even one tenth of their power. But, I'm the Hero. For whatever reason, they need me - it's their stupid prophecy we're trying to figure out, after all.
The prophecy. He hadn't been given any new lines, and he didn't really expect any. Why was that? Oh, yeah, something the Lord Dragon of Chaos said. Something about being invulnerable until Yugi finished the prophecy, but also not giving him the last line.
Where am I supposed to find it? The Point? Weird, but he couldn't seem to recollect much about the Point - how it looked or really, what it was for. It had been important, but there wasn't any writing on it, and he'd solved its puzzle - twice - once to find the Kindly Lords' dragons, and again to release the True Lords.
It's a place of loss to me. Yugi realized. He'd lost the three Knights to release the Dragons. Well, sort of, or at least that's how it had seemed at first. The White Knight had been the soul of the White Dragon all along. Likewise, the Red Knight became the soul of the Flame Sword, and the Purple Knight resided within his Lord's Shadow.
There was no such reunion or redemption in the second encounter at the Point. He'd lost them all, Knights, Swords, Dragons, and Kindly Lords to free the True Lords. These haughty lords might be more powerful than all the forces that had been sacrificed to release them, but it still balanced to the side of loss as far as Yugi was concerned.
No wonder I don't want to think about that place. There's got to be something... Again, unconsciously, his hand crept up to touch the Hero's Heartstone. As always, the pulse of warmth almost seemed like the greeting of a faithful friend.
Yugi went very still. What had the Chaos Dragon told him? Something important, maybe a clue to find the last line...
"It is only within the heart of the hero that the last line, and the power to defeat me, dwells."
"Surely it can't be that simple!" Yugi lifted the cord over his head, cupped the Heartstone between both hands, and lost himself in the swirling depths of the deep purple gem.
As always, his heartbeat meshed and aligned in perfect harmony with that of the heart contained within the stone, and a touch of warmth, along with some sense of an unshakable belief in him, comforted Yugi. It had been the Heartstone and the mystic acceptance of the gem that convinced the Water Sage that Yugi was indeed the Hero of legend. As Yugi gazed into the gentle ebb and flow of whatever magic the gem contained within, for the first time ever, along with the comforting pulse, he seemed to hear it with his ears, instead of sense it only with his heart. In time to the beat of a heart, whether his own or that of the stone - they were so close he couldn't tell - there came a sense of words.
Claim their might - it beat out in counterpoint to the heartbeat rhythm as the Dread Lord told him this part of the couplet already.
You must fight.
"I must fight? What does that mean?" Yugi whispered, afraid to disrupt whatever spell had taken hold of him and connected his heart so tightly with that of the stone.
Claim their might,
you must fight.
Claim their might,
you must fight.
"What does it mean?"
"No idea." Hermos slid his gaze over to Yugi and grinned. "Have you decided we are on your side after all?"
"I never said..." Yugi sighed. "Give me a break, will ya? This whole Hero business has been a total pain."
Hermos reached over and cuffed him on the shoulder. "We have been kinda set on our goal, and forgot what you've been through. Clearin' the air the way you did isn't a bad thing - especially if it helped you figure out what to do - sorta."
"What's the prophecy, from the beginning?" Timaeus asked.
"Gather the Lords.
Claim their Swords.
Accept the Pain.
The Dragons Gain.
Release Legends Three,
To combat Me.
Claim their might,
You must fight," Yugi replied.
"Claim their might." Critias looked thoughtful. "How would the Hero go about that, I wonder?"
"The way things have been going, in some sort of weird, mystical way," Hermos said.
"The Point?" Timaeus asked.
"It seemed - inert, after the last time," Yugi ventured. He really hoped it wasn't the Point. He wondered a bit at the intensity of his antipathy of the place - almost as if he were being warned away from it. Where else could he turn for insight into mystical things?
"I hate to mention it, but - the Water Sage?" Timaeus said.
"Of course! That's really where all this started after all. He'd be bound to figure out what's got to happen next!" At least, that's what Yugi hoped. Anything to avoid going to the Point, and losing something precious, for the third time. Yugi shivered. He suspected it didn't matter where they went, that loss was still stalking him. "I really don't want to go," Yugi admitted. "The Water Sage is very kind but..." He shivered. "I think things are going to change, even more so than they already have, for the worse."
"It is always darkest before the dawn," Timaeus noted softly. "But as long as you still fight, that dawn will come. I am sure of it."
Yugi shook his head. "We've lost so many already, and I fear, there's more loss in the future. Maybe we've lost so much already the dawn will never come."
"Do you want to give up?"
"Not exactly. I don't want to meekly follow some sort of destiny, I guess. I want to protect everyone, but I don't want to have to sacrifice any one else to have that ability," Yugi replied slowly. Critias nodded.
"None of us knows what is about to happen. Not now, at any rate," Hermos said.
Yugi shrugged. "To the Water Sage's. I guess there's nowhere else to go."
The pool that contained the Water Sage's home hadn't changed at all. The surface of the water ruffled with random breezes, but soon regained its peaceful stillness, its serene depths untroubled by such ephemeral forces. The calmness worked its magic upon Yugi's troubled soul, bringing him the notion that they might be able to defeat the Dread Lord and spread this serenity throughout their world. Somehow.
The surface of the water rippled from below just as Yugi reached toward the triple-hung bell. After only a moment, the Water Sage stood upon his tail on the surface of the water, and nodded gravely to the four who had gathered at the margin to his home, though his comment seemed directed toward Yugi alone. "You return, Hero, in a most timely fashion. I have just completed my research and know what we must do."
"I... That is... Things have gotten bad, really bad. Are you sure we can...?"
"Young one, you travel in the company of the great lords of old. If you, the Hero destined for the task cannot stop the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos, who can?" As before, the Water Sage regarded Yugi calmly and kindly. "Still, it has been hard on you. I have done my best to keep track of you, whenever the magic forces swirling around you permitted. You've gathered ones with power to your side, then helped to consolidate that power in the manner foretold. But, I can see that though the strength of you heart is undiminished, in fact it glows with even more brightness and vigor than before, your soul is weary. You are welcome to enter my home, and take your rest this night. We should have time."
Yugi nodded. The walk along the bottom of the deep natural pool, this time in the company of the three True Lords as well as the merman Water Sage, was as quiet as before. A melancholy stole over him. The last time he'd been here marked the true start of his adventure. He'd been given directions to the Water Sage's home by Vialla and Celedor - though the reason he'd been so desperate to reach the Water Sage eluded him. Sorrow lapped at the shores of his heart as he recalled that his two elven friends, the first friends he'd met on this adventure, were now dead. Reluctance dragged at his steps the closer he approached to the giant shell that served as the Water Sage's home. The Purple Knight, the White and Red Knights; the Dragons; Yami, Seto, Joey - most recently Charvron and most of the denizens of the Dragonlands, and the rumors that the same devastation had reached both the land of Warriors and that of Shadows - it was all too much. There were too many people who had trusted in Yugi, who had followed him as the Hero, who were now - gone.
Suddenly, he couldn't see. Something wet and slimy covered his eyes and face. Odd that he'd think of something as wet since he was walking along the bottom of a pool completely under water, but he wasn't aware of the water surrounding him as 'wet' while under the effect of the Water Sage's water-breathing spell. This sudden wet thing assaulting his face shocked him into gasping, and just as suddenly he was choking on inhaled water, as if there were no spell in place to help him breathe it.
A moment later his breathing returned to normal - or at least the 'normal' of being able to breathe water and not drown in it. His vision cleared as a graceful hand scooped handfuls of brown muck from his face. A blink restored his vision fully, and Yugi found a smile creeping across his face.
The Water Sage floated before him and held the most miserable-appearing double handful of sopping wet fur that Yugi recognized as Shelleene. He felt a bit guilty, undoubtedly his blood-shadow responded to the sorrow of his thoughts and merely sought to comfort him, little realizing what she was getting into. The Water Sage smiled gently at the shadow-kuriboh and patted her head before tucking her under one arm and gesturing with the other that the party should proceed to the dock under his home.
"She's surprisingly powerful for a blood-shadow," the Water Sage noted as he stepped from the water going through his magical ritual of transforming his tail into legs, and leaving every drop of water in the pool. Shelleene went from being the most pathetic example of a drowned kuriboh to completely dry so quickly she blinked in alarm. Yugi laughed at her reaction. At the sound she dashed up to stroke against his cheek, held his face between her front paws for a long moment while she stared deeply into his eyes, then cooed softly before diving to her place in his shadow again.
"Yami - er, Lord Timaeus gave some power to her so she could manifest from my shadow more easily." Yugi stared down at his own shadow pensively. "I'm not sure she's going to be so eager the next time, though, after nearly drowning this time."
"Oh, no worries. She can't drown." The Water Sage assayed a negligently airy hand wave at the thought. "Lord Timaeus invested her with some of his power?" Yugi nodded. "It seems the millennia may have softened his heart, then." Timaeus stared then turned his back very deliberately to the Water Sage. "I could be wrong," the Water Sage continued. "It could just be that he trusts you, Hero."
Yugi watched as Timaeus' back stiffened, before the lord turned to see if he were watching. When he met Yugi's eyes, he nodded fractionally, once. It was the merest gesture of trust, yet, somehow it touched Yugi deeply, almost as if something of monumental importance had just happened.
"We all trust the Hero," Hermos spoke up. Critias nodded.
"I see. Things are proceeding according to destiny, then. Welcome to my home. May you find rest and comfort this night, and answers on the morrow."
Yugi, at least, found comfort. For the first time in many, many nights he didn't dream. Maybe the seaweed his bed was made of prevented it, or perhaps the Water Sage had placed some spell over his home that thwarted nightmares - Yugi didn't care. The completely untroubled sleep chased away most of his dark thoughts, and helped him set things into perspective. Vialla and Celedor had died, but he hadn't killed them. In fact, there was no way he could have prevented their deaths. They were caught up in destiny just as he was, just as the Kindly Lords had been, and the True Lords and Water Sage now - perhaps even as the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos was. Yugi rocked back at that thought. Was his destined enemy his enemy just because destiny ordained it? No. The Dread Lord relished his role too much. He wasn't a hapless innocent caught up by fate against his will. Unlike the rest of them trapped by destiny, he chose his actions. If not for him, there would not have been the first death, the first village driven mad by his presence, really, any reason for anyone to take up the mantle of 'Hero' and sally forth against him.
Yugi smiled at his own thoughts, and the mental images they produced. He was no dragon-slayer! Or, if he were, they were all in deep, deep trouble.
After breaking his fast with the Water Sage and the three True Lords, Yugi followed their host to the central room in his dwelling. He remembered it from last time, the chamber in the heart of the shell filled completely with water. Yugi reached up to touch the Hero's Heartstone. It was in this chamber that he had gained the artifact.
"So, we've come full circle, sage," Timaeus stated. "It was in this room that you told us our fate."
"Fate?" Yugi asked.
"That we would have to seal our power, our truest selves, and the Lord of Blackness and Chaos along with us, until the Hero were to be born," Critias said.
"Oh, yes. You did tell me about that before." Yugi remembered all too well the flight back from the Point when the three True Lords, each in dragon form, were mind-speaking with him. "But, the Lord Dragon of Chaos defeated us. Even the power of the True Lords isn't enough. Not that we've met him directly since I found the last line. At least, I think it's the last line."
"Ah, so you've recovered all of the prophecy?" the Water Sage asked. "How did you discover the last line?"
"The Lord Dragon of Chaos told me I had to look within the heart of the hero for the last line," Yugi replied.
"And what did your heart tell you?"
"My heart? Nothing."
The Water Sage smiled. "Ah, so you figured it out truly. What is the last line - as you understand it?"
Yugi smiled tightly in reply. "'You must fight'. It was the answer I 'heard' when I looked into the center of this." Yugi lifted the Hero's Heartstone. "I've never heard words before, just gotten a sense of warmth and comfort. This time, it was as if the stone were speaking to me."
"That is the same line I discovered through my scrying and research. For both of us to arrive at the same answer, I believe it must be true."
"How do I," Yugi gulped. "How do I fight the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos myself? I don't have the power the True Lords do - I don't even have the power the Kindly Lords or even the Knights did - I'm just a regular person."
Timaeus started. "You used the Gloomblade."
"What?" Yugi asked.
Timaus' eyes unfocused, even though the rest of his expression seemed to sharpen in concentration. "You wielded the Gloomblade. It accepted you as a wielder."
Yugi still didn't understand. "I found it for Lord Yami, just as I found all the swords for the Kindly Lords. Why wouldn't I be able to wield one of the blades?"
"They are tied to each of us. Spirit-bonded. That you could use one..."
"That is unusual," Critias agreed.
"Normally, if other than the correct soul even touches a spirit-bonded weapon, that person is killed," Hermos added. "Or at least badly wounded."
"So, is that the power of the Hero?" Critias turned toward the Water Sage. "To break spirit bonds?"
The Water Sage shook his head. "No, or at least that is not the power of the Hero that will enable him to confront the Dread Lord directly. In the Hero the power of the Three becomes one."
"Why do I have a feeling I'm really not going to like this?" Yugi asked no one in particular.
The Water Sage sighed. "I rather suspect you are right. Your adventure has been the seeking, amassing and consolidation of power, right? You've been content with the seeking and amassing parts of it, but all of the consolidations have been difficult for you."
Yugi thought about it for a moment. "By 'consolidation' you mean whenever I lose a friend, don't you?"
"That is one way to look at it. But, each time you lose a friend, you gain more power," the Water Sage pointed out.
Yugi shook his head. "I don't want that sort of power! I would never use my friends that way!"
The Water Sage was implacable. "You aren't using your friends, you are giving their sacrifice meaning. Would you have them lose their lives to no effect? Sometimes the best way to be a friend is to accept what is freely given and use it as intended." He sighed, and softened his tone. "We are all in this together, Hero. If you do nothing, the Dread Lord will win, and far more people will lose their lives that just those pre-ordained by destiny."
Yugi glared up at the Water Sage. "Was this your crappy prophecy?"
The Water Sage lifted an eyebrow at Yugi's language. "In part, I guess it is. But, I didn't come up with the terms of the prophecy. I merely discerned them from the ebb and flow of magic throughout our land. I did set the master spell in place thousands of years ago to preserve the True Lords and their power until you would need them, and trap the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos so he couldn't destroy the lands before you were born. In that regard, I am guilty."
Yugi sighed again. "So, it's not really your fault. You just did what you thought you had to do, at the time. What can you tell me about this 'master spell'?"
"What the True Lords told you before is correct. The Pendant of Pharaoh is an ancient, powerful artifact, perhaps the most powerful one in our lands throughout all of history. I used it, along with the power of the True Lords, and the balanced magic to be found only at the Point to unbind their full power from their souls, and send it into stasis in the weave of magic between dimensions. Up to the point they told you, their information is accurate. However, their memories of the rest of the events are hazy and incomplete," the Water Sage said. "It would be best for me to show it, as I was there." He swept his arm over the pool of water in the middle of the floor and a scene formed upon its surface.
The Point appeared in the center of the scene. Under the Water Sage's mystic direction, the image shifted to show Hermos, standing before the glowing red side of the Point, flowed around to focus on Critias before the icy blue side, and settled on Timaeus silhouetted by the purple side. Just behind each one was the lord's dragon. Yugi could see the signature swords of each lord embedded lengthwise in the pyramid at the Point.
"Now, focus all of your power into your swords," The Water Sage in the scene instructed. Yugi was fascinated to note how the Water Sage floated above the ground in a large bubble of water that encased him from the waist down. Timaeus reached forward and placed his hand upon the hilt of the Gloomblade, while out of sight the other two lords could be presumed to do the same. The Water Sage intoned the following spell:
"Until the destined Hero's birth to save our world
By the power of three Chaos's reach be furled.
Though the path be obscure, dangerous, and hard
The Three Lords' Knights will guide and guard.
Three Swords are the key in the Hero's hand
As he takes up his quest to save the land.
Dragons Three to aid when the time is right
His real need will be for the Lords' true might.
When at last to the Hero the truth is revealed
May his heart hold strong and our world be healed!"
Each True Lord, along with the syllables of the spell, lost definition, and started to glow in his signature aura. At the end, a wave of power flowed from each side of the pyramid into the proper land, and the Point glowed a very bright white from the mingling of the three energies with that of the Pendant. The view pulled back to show the glowing Point, the Water Sage, and three others standing back at a safe distance, witnessing the scene. Yugi's heart twisted a little as he recognized the now-lost Knights in the magical recording.
The three Knights opened their eyes from the dazzle to find only the Water Sage still with them at the Point. The lords, their swords, and their dragons were nowhere to be seen. The Red Knight, the most impulsive of the three, strode forward, reached out and touched the red-hot glowing impression of the Flameblade on the side of the pyramid.
"You fool!" The Water Sage remonstrated as he reached forward and hauled the Red Knight back. "Ah, there's nothing for it, now. You've seared your heart with the power of the Flameblade. A minor annoyance, but it can be worked around." He called out to the other two knights. "Each of you reach forward and touch the impression of your Lord's blade upon the side of the pyramid. What one knight does now, all must do. Freeze your soul to a Dragon's heart, White Knight, while you, Purple Knight, seal your spirit in the Shadows."
"Why are we still here, instead of guarding our lords?" the Purple Knight asked after he rounded the Point to where the Water Sage floated.
"You three are special. I know that despite the animosities between your lords, and the occasional order that forces you to fight each other, you are most reluctant to take up arms against your fellow knights. Such disdain for useless fighting and levelheadedness, not found in your lords, will be needed. The Hero might not be what you expect. My visions are hazy, at best, but I sense he will not appear to be a Hero. At first, he might not even act like a Hero."
"He will be craven?" The White Knight asked.
"No, far from it - I think. But he won't appear to be very - heroic. I must lay the hardest role upon you three. You alone will retain memory of the events that occur here - no matter how many times your lords, and yourselves, are reborn along the way. The power of the three True Lords is no more. It is locked away, so that their very souls may be preserved until the time for the Hero to confront the Lord of Blackness and Chaos. But, each of you knows how powerful his lord's spirit is. There is no way to shackle them into complete stasis as we have done with the Dragons. Therefore, their fate, and yours, is to be born, and reborn, and born yet again, in lesser forms, through the years, however many they may be, until the time comes for the True Lords to assume their full power again. You three will always recognize your lords, and each other - even though your lords often-times might not recognize you. It falls to you to keep them safe throughout their many lives. It is a hard fate..."
"But one we are willing to take on, in order to help our lords," the Purple Knight said slowly. The Red Knight and White Knight nodded.
"So - Seto, Joey, and Yami are..." Yugi interrupted as the scene dissolved.
"Were, Yugi. They were. You've been told already. The three Kindly Lords are no more. Each was the vessel-soul of one of the three True Lords, Critias, Hermos, and Timaeus, born into this time, to be on hand for the arrival of the Hero. You, Yugi. Only you, with their help, can hope to defeat the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos once and for all."
"But... how?"
"You wear the key around your neck, and the doorway to the power of Legends that it opens is the Point itself where it all began," the Water Sage told him.
"But, I don't have the key any longer." Yugi's hand crept up to clasp the Hero's Heartstone. "Somehow, when I lost - that is, when Hermos, Critias, and Timaeus arrived, I left the Pendant behind."
The Water Sage started, and his eyes widened. "How - odd. Your spirit was so tied to it before with the Geas of the True Hero. Perhaps the destined return of the Legends brought enough power to break that geas. Still, it must be where you left it. It is not as if the Point is a place where many ever go. The True Lords can take you back so you can retrieve it, while I gather what we need for the final ritual. I can meet you there."
"Wait. There's something I don't understand."
"Yes?"
"In the scene you just showed us, the three True Lords were at the Point along with their Knights, Swords, and Dragons. Yami, Seto and Joey," Yugi gulped. "they might have been only 'vessels' to contain the souls of the True Lords and we still have the Swords, but why have we lost the Knights and Dragons? They were with their lords, alongside of them, before - not merely part of them as the Kindly Lords were."
"You are quick as always, Hero. In part it was the Red Knight's action, that the other two knights had to follow. Their souls were altered by that contact with the residual effect of the full unbound power of their lords. Also in part, it is the sheer amount of time that has passed since the sealing. In order to recall their full power, nature, and souls from the magical weave, it used up the power that had been in the keeping of the dormant Dragons, and the active Knights throughout the eons. Eventually, if fate had been kinder to our efforts, as each True Lord gained in power naturally, he would have enough to release his Knight and his Dragon again. Perhaps in as short as a few hundred years. But now..."
"But now - what?" Yugi demanded.
His perceptions flipped inside out. A shock of pure terror insisted he had been turned inside out, too. Fire danced a frozen path across his tongue, while a creeping mass of ice burned along his spine. Shadows lit the phantasmagorical scene with a brilliance that put the noonday sun to shame. He reached up to clutch at his head, but stopped in horror at the sharp, deadly, and living flexible knives his fingers had become. Gold and purple energy writhed in agony in front of him, while Lord Critias sprouted dragon wings of all shapes, colors and sizes all over his armor. Of Lord Hermos there was no sign, only a brightly flaring sword seemingly trying to drown its own flame in the pool of water - which was recoiling and lapping up the surface of the walls to get away. A graceful hand reached down from above him, and drew him under the surface of a mass of water floating above his head.
Immediately, his vision cleared, showing him that his rescuer was the Water Sage. He was relieved to see his hands had returned to normal, too. Outside the pool of clarifying water, Yugi noticed Yami standing still, eyes closed, and quivering as if he fought some intense, internal struggle. Yami? Yugi blinked, and no, it appeared to be Lord Timaeus. Seto batted futilely at the wings erupting from his very skin. Before Yugi's mind could grasp that fully, his unsteady vision showed him Lord Critias instead. Likewise, for a scant moment, Yugi thought he saw Joey trying to douse the red flames that completely surrounded, yet somehow didn't burn, in water that avoided him like a living thing, before his perception flipped and he recognized Lord Hermos.
"What's happened?" Yugi asked. Only then did he realize that the Water Sage had once again given him the ability to breathe water.
"Magical chaos." The Water Sage looked stunned. For the first time, Yugi thought of the Water Sage as not 'venerable', or 'wise', but merely old, and somehow defeated. "The power of magic has been disorganized. You see how it affects the True Lords far more than it affects us. It can only mean that..."
"What? What does it mean?" Yugi insisted.
"The Point. The Point serves as the balance of magic. It is literally the fulcrum of our world. It's been destroyed." The Water Sage shook his head. "I can think of no way... Without the Point or the Pendant, I fear there is no way to defeat the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos and save our world."
Author's notes –
Next chapter teaser – Legendary Hero