AN: Hurray! Finally I'm back with another update and a brand new chapter of A Distant Embrace. God, it literally took me ages to finish it. There was so much to do at work, I was too exhausted to even think of writing.
But it's done now and I guess it turned out quite well! :D
Enjoy & make sure to review.
CHAPTER IX
Fire Down Below
Marik had ordered his servants to make all necessary preparations for the upcoming test duel with Carter, who was quite unlucky to be chosen for a fight against an Egyptian god card which power was still unknown. Nobody knew if a defeat would mean more than just loosing a card game. I was certain that Marik would duel without mercy and won't leave him any chance to win, not caring about the consequences for his opponent. All that mattered for him was studying and testing all the powers of The Winged Dragon of Ra.
"Do you really think that's a good idea, Marik?" I questioned him, keeping my voice low. We stood alone on the corridor while all the other members of the organisation were probably already waiting for him in the salon. The lightning was dim and painted an artistic edge light to his face, enhancing his masculine jawline and triangular earrings. His expression was stern as his lavender pools met mine.
"If I want to fulfil my destiny I will have to use Ra sooner or later. And Carter has just qualified as the perfect first victim to test it on since he dared to call my leadership skills into question." He said and leant his shoulder against the wall and crossed his arms in front of his chest, eyeballing me carefully.
"Aren't you afraid something could go wrong? I mean, what if he gets hurt or killed? You don't know what powers this card could set free if you summon it. Even Pegasus wasn't able to control them and was scared about their might." I urged, concerned about the damage that could be caused.
"No." Marik sighed arrogantly. "Not at all."
"Of course not." I said and swung my hands up in the air for emphasis. "If you don't stop sending your footmen to the shadows or risk their lives in a duel like that for the tiniest mistakes you'll suffer from a lack of personnel sooner or later. Don't you think?"
He shook his head slowly and his golden earrings jiggled elegantly with the motion. "That doesn't matter at all. The organisation will always have enough footmen thanks to the millennium rod."
"Fine." I exhaled slightly annoyed by his lack of insight. "Then… Aren't you afraid you could get hurt like all of Pegasus' employees who had worked on the creation of the egyptian god cards?"
"I'm absolutely certain that my heritage will give me the power to control and play Ra safely." Marik reassured me and narrowed his eyes a bit. I knew he was dead serious.
"Alright… I hope you know what you're doing." I sighed.
A chuckle left his throat and then his lips formed into a little smirk. "You are anxious about me, right?"
I was silent for a short moment and bit my bottom lip. "Well… yes. Don't tell me you're surprised that I do care about you."
Marik then stepped closer to me until our noses almost touched. "Not surprised. But cute." He whispered as his smirk turned into a gentle smile. His thumb stroked softly over my left cheek when our eyes locked with thrilling intensity. "Don't worry, everything will go well. I've studied Ra well and know how to use it right."
I only nodded. His touch was too hypnotising for me to say anything. Although he reassured me that everything will be fine there was still a part of me that was scared he could get hurt. What if the god cards only obey the pharaoh his… our family was waiting for for so long. My thoughts were cut off my his lips meeting mine for a brief moment.
"Let's go." Marik then said under his breath and walked away into the direction of the salon, where the duel was about to take place. After a moment I sighed then I started to follow him.
I entered the salon right behind Marik, another big room in our headquarter which was used for duelling and training by our organisation. It also had that luxurious marble floor and a panorama-balcony on the second floor where our organisation members used to watch the ongoing duels from. In the middle of the salon stood a massive, marble and gold coloured duelling table with an engraved duel monsters gaming field - it had monster and spell/trap card zones, such as a sport for the deck and graveyard on both sides.
As Marik walked in the crowd separated just like the red sea when Moses freed his people and helped them to escape from Egypt. His servants all looked frightened and scared as they watched their sandy blonde leader walking past them. I always wondered how his footmen felt when they took commands from Marik - he could easily be their son for sure.
"Where is Carter?" Marik's stern voice cut the silence in the salon as the echoes of his footsteps fell silent. His lavender gaze travelled over the threatened faces of his servants. Then the crowd separated again and Carter stepped forward. I could tell from his almost pale face that he was scared, not sure if this might be the last hour of his life. His knees were trembling and his body language told me nothing but deadly terror.
"Master Marik." He said with a shaking voice and bowed in respect. "Please, rethink this duel, my Master. I can't tell you how sorry I am for my disrespectful behaviour earlier."
"Guard your tongue and prepare yourself for the duel." Marik hissed back and placed his deck on his side of the marble duelling table. Carter bit his lips fearfully, finally excepting that there might be no other way out. Then he shuffled his deck and also placed his cards in the deck area.
I positioned myself beside Odion in the first row and all others of Marik's servants took a step back to put a little more distance than usual between them and me. It seemed like Ilias' punishment for harassing me already showed results. "I hope Marik knows what he's doing." I said under my breath to Odion and glanced up into his olive coloured eyes.
"Master Marik always knows best." He said and I rolled my eyes mentally. Odion won't ever doubt Marik's decisions or opinions in any way. Sometimes I thought his endless loyalty towards him burned his common sense. Wasn't he afraid that things could also go wrong for Marik?
I sighed and said nothing more as my gaze drifted back to Marik and Carter. He didn't have the slightest chance to win this - Marik always turned things to his advantages and wasn't afraid to play dirty to get his will.
"Since I'll win this little test duel anyways I'm granting the first turn to you, Carter." Marik chuckled in utter confidence of his victory. Carter nodded and drew his first cards. His hands shivered like aspen leaf and I somehow felt sorry for him.
After checking his cards cautiously he made his first turn. "I summon Infernity Necromancer (0 / 2000) in defence mode and place one card face down on the field. Your turn, my master."
Marik smirked as Carter ended his turn. "So you're playing on defence. But that won't help you at all. I summon my Revival Jam in defence mode (1500/500) and also place a face-down card. And then I'm playing my Jam Breeding Machine, which will produce one slime token every turn. With that I end my turn." He explained after his fingers elegantly placed the cards on the field.
Revival Jam was one of Marik's favourite monsters since it couldn't be destroyed by another monster. It was part of his signature strategy and he usually used it to prevent his life points from damage. His face-down card was without a doubt Jam Defender, which forced his opponent's monsters to attack Revival Jam instead of Marik's other monsters.
Carter drew his next card and summoned Armored Bee (1600/1200) in attack mode, which had the special effect to reduce the attack points of one of Marik's monster down to a half. But it didn't matter anyway since Revival Jam was in defence mode. "I end my turn."
"That's all? I expected a little more duelling quality of yours." Marik taunted and drew a card. "My Jam Breeding Machine is now producing the first lime token (500/500). Besides that I summon Chiron The Mage (1800/1000) in attack mode and activate his special ability by sending one of my cards to the graveyard and destroy your face-down card. Byebye." He chuckled arrogantly.
Carter clenched his teeth and growled slightly, then he removed his face-down card from the field.
"Chiron now attacks your Armored Bee." Marik announced and watched Carter moving his monster to the graveyard. His life points dropped from 2000 to 1800. "Your turn again. Maybe you should start to make this duel a little more entertaining, Carter. I'm getting bored."
He remained silent and drew a card. "Now I summon my Hieracosphinx (2400/1200) by sacrificing my Infernity Necromancer and attack your slime token!" Carter announced confidently and pointed his finger towards Marik's monster zone.
I swallowed hard. 'If this attack goes well it will cost Marik almost all of his life points.' I thought to myself and bit my bottom lip, hoping Marik had just the right card in stow to block this attack.
"Nice try, Carter. I activate my face-down card Jam Defender and thanks to this trap card my Revival Jam will block your attack and then reform again." Marik chuckled and gave Carter a triumphant grin.
"I knew you would use this same old strategy against me, Master Marik." Carter murmured and narrowed his eyes in resentment.
"If you expected it why didn't you prepare your deck to beat this same old strategy of mine, Carter?" Marik taunted using air signs for more emphasis. "In case you didn't know but I expect brilliant duelling skills from servants. By now I'm highly doubting that you even know how this game works."
'Touché.' I thought to myself. Carter's face became more pale then before and beads of sweat started to form on his forehead. Without saying anything in return Carter ended his turn.
"You are playing like a little kid, Carter." I frowned at Marik's mean comment, but this was how he always daunted his servants. And it worked - always. Marik had this special charisma that let him appear untouchable and dangerous - even without his millennium rod. Oh where did that innocent and gentle side of him go? But I was thankful that he showed a little bit of what was left to me. "Jam Breeding Machine is giving brith to my second slime token what means that I'm in control of three monsters by now. Do you know how many monsters one has to sacrifice to summon an egyptian god card?"
Marik's lavender eyes were focused on one card in his hand as his index finger playfully stroked over the edges of it. His lips formed into a grin.
Carter swallowed and cleared his throat and fear made his face go pale. "Three?" I asked with a weak voice. His green eyes widened in terror of what might come next.
My pulse started to race. 'So that's the moment… Oh Ra, please have mercy…' I said a silent prayer and focused on Marik.
"Exactly." He said. "I sacrifice my Revival Jam and my two slime tokens to summon the almighty Winged Dragon Of Ra." Without even hesitating or fearing the god card's power Marik removed the monsters from the field and placed Ra into his monster zone. Suddenly the aura in the salon changed and a breeze tickled my face. Goosebumps rose on my skin underneath the purple cloak as the air began to feel somehow electrified. This was different from everything I've witnessed before. Something powerful and dangerous was going on and I hold tight to Odion's arm beside me. The crowd started to whisper behind us - they also sensed that something was wrong.
Marik's sandy blonde hair and earrings started wave elegantly in the breeze that started to intensify to a wind. I couldn't explain it to myself where the wind came from, there was no plausible explanation for it since the salon didn't have windows. It had something to do with the Winged Dragon Of Ra - that was for sure.
Carter didn't move. He only started at his Master with pain-filled, widened eyes as he realised that the moment he had feared the most was finally real.
"The Winged Dragon of Ra gets his attack points from the monsters I scarified to summon it. That means that it had now total attack points of 2500." Marik explained sneering.
"B-But that doesn't s-sound a lot f-for an Egyptian god card, Master." Carter stammered and was struggling to not drop the cards he held in his trembling hands.
"That's true. But Ra has a special ability that allows me to transfer my life points to his attack points to strengthen him. And that's exactly what I'm doing now, dear Carter. With exception of one single life point I give the god enough power to destroy you and wipe away the rest of your life points."
My eyes shot wide open at Marik's words. I never heard of such a powerful effect. 'That gives Ra a total attack strength of 4499!'
"M-Master M-Marik, please. I-I…" Carter was lost for words as the wind intensified once more and it was hard for him to keep his eyes open.
"Shut up! You fool! Now I will show you the endless power of an egyptian god card! Ra will now attack your Hieracosphinx and wipe away all of your life points! You loose!" Marik declared loudly in a dangerous tone that shot a shiver of fear down my spine.
Suddenly his Hieracosphinx card caught fire out of the blue. But it didn't just burn like it would do normally. It was a literal inferno that started to burn on the marble table. The flames bursted into Carter's face and set his deep purple cloak on fire.
Marik's lavender eyes shot wide open - he didn't expect THIS to happen. Carter screamed in pain and tried to wave away the flames in panic, but to no avail. My palm met my mouth in horror as I watched how Carter's hair started to burn. I won't ever forget his grief-stricken screams of his agony.
"What are you fools waiting for!?" Marik hissed to his other servants, who watched the horrible scene panicking. "Get a fire extinguisher before the floor tiles get ruined!"
That was the Marik I knew for the last couple of years since his initiation. Cold and without empathy towards his loyal servants.
One of the Rare Hunters ran to find the next fire extinguisher while Carter still tried to win the fight for his life. It was horrible to witness how the flesh in his face turned red and black from the heat. I felt so sorry for him. The fire extinguisher just came right on time and Carter tumbled to the floor after the fire was slacked. The rest of his purple cloak was still reeking and one half of his face was completely and severe burned. Those scars would last for the rest of his life. A few Rare Hunters rushed to his side to help him before Carter lost consciousness.
I could tell from Marik's face that he was shocked too from the outcome of the duel. But he tried to cover it with his perfect skills of manipulation. He held the millennium rod tightly in his hand as he stepped closer to Carter.
"M-Master M-Marik… W-Will you…?" One of the Rare Hunters spoke up with a shaking voice and looked up to his youthful leader.
His expression remained cold as ice, although his hands were slightly trembling too. "…Send him to the shadow realm?" He finished the question. "No. I guess that disgusting rest of his face is punishment enough for questioning me. Take him to our medical room and try to fix what can be fixed. I don't care." With those heartless words Marik left the salon without looking at me or Odion.
I watched three of Marik's Rare Hunters and Odion carrying Carter out of the salon. The shock was profound and it was hard for me to move. I felt like my limbs were made from stone. Everything felt so heavy. Never did I expect that The Winged Dragon Of Ra could cause such a damage. It almost killed Carter and who knows what would have happened if Marik hadn't that ancient heritage? But at least I was glad that he didn't get harmed at all.
But now I knew why Pegasus never wanted the god cards to see the light of the day and get open to the public. They were dangerous and unpredictable.
And there were still two more of them out there.
AN: If you're also reading the sequel "Shady Origins" you now know where Carter got his face burned and why he wants to take revenge on his former leader after Battle City. :-)
I hope you liked it. I didn't want to make that duel a never ending story, so sorry if it wasn't super exciting and fancy!
And now: Review!