Chapter 7: - Seeking Destruction
The ruins made Yami uneasy.
Even without his Puzzle the Shadows weaving throughout the area were all too easy to sense, and with them came a presence of pain and fear that weighed heavily on the group as they rode through what at first Yami took to be dilapidated buildings, only to realise that some of the remains showed charring, as if an incredibly hot blaze had occurred within.
The villagers hadn’t left. They had been driven out.
The Pharaoh wondered if it had been Bakura who had done the deed or whether there had been invaders who had been driven out of Egypt, but not until they’d already done some damage, and what had happened to the people who had once lived here.
It didn’t help his nerves that he had a feeling that someone, or rather something, was watching them, stalking the group as they made their way through the ruined village, haunting them as they picked their way through the remaining stone work.
They split up as the terrain grew more difficult, so that Kalim and the men explored the more intact buildings, while Yami and Shada hung back. Not that Yami had wanted to, but when he’d tried to join the men on foot, they had actually, supposedly out of concern for his safety, asked him not to. The Pharaoh supposed that, in his current state, he would slow them down.
“My Pharaoh,” Yami was drawn out of his thoughts by the return of Kalim, who had dismounted and was now offering Yami a hand to do the same thing, “There’s no one up top, but we did discover a hidden stairwell. The men are exploring it now.”
Yami nodded as he dismounted, cringing slightly as his right leg hit the ground, and followed Kalim and Shada towards the stairwell, only to dart forwards when he heard the cries of the men, reaching the top as one of the guards reached the bottom.
“P...Pharaoh! D...Don’t come d...down here!” The guard called up, struggling to get his words out, as dark energy swirled around him, “It’s a...” He didn’t get to finish his sentence as a purple light erupted from his mouth, nose and eyes and he crumpled to the ground.
“Pharaoh!” Bakura’s voice echoed up from the depths, sounding far too pleased with himself, “If you want your Pendant back you’ll have to come down here!”
Yami’s hands balled into fists as anger coursed through him and he darted down the stairs, only to find that the six men he’d brought with him had already been killed. “Bakura!” Yami snarled, glowering at the far, far too amused thief who was stood next to a huge stone tablet and wearing both the Ring and the Puzzle.
“Welcome, Pharaoh.” Bakura smirked at him, well aware that he was holding all the cards, “It’s about time you got here.” He waved his hand as the same dark energy that had surrounded the guard swirled around Yami, giving the Pharaoh a taste of what his men had gone through as the spirits, for that was what the energy was, transferred a touch of their anger, their malice and their pain to the Pharaoh, tearing at his mind and soul as they rushed past.
Yami only just managed to avoid letting out a pained cry, desperate to avoid letting Bakura known how much it hurt, recognising it as the same sort of pain that Yugi had suffered before in the Shadow Realm and letting the memories of his hikari standing fast help now.
“Feel that, Pharaoh?” Bakura demanded, “Those are the spirits of those who dwelt here, in this village before your father’s men came.”
“W...What?” Yami gasped out as more spirits joined those swirling around him, tightening the vice around him, leaving Yami little time between the attacks.
“How did you think these were created, Pharaoh?” Bakura snarled, holding up the Puzzle as he did so, “Your father sent his men to my village and killed almost every single man, woman and child to create your precious ‘Millennium Items’.”
“My father... wouldn’t...” Yami tried to get a firmer footing but his legs gave out under him and he went crashing to his hands and knees.
“Your father slaughtered my entire village! I was the only one left! And you, Pharaoh, you will pay for his crimes as the spirits take their revenge!”
A tidal wave of hatred and pain crashed over Yami, almost crushing the Pharaoh under its weight causing untold agony to course through his entire body.
Yami screamed.
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When Hermione had told Sera that they were searching for the Pharaoh’s name, the archivist had been dismissive and a little wary. After all, why would a group from a foreign country be searching for the Pharaoh’s name unless it was to cause him harm?
That had been until she had realised that she, who been living in the palace before the Pharaoh had taken the throne and had spent time with Mahado while he had been on duty, guarding the young Prince, couldn’t remember what his name was.
And that no one who had been around before he had risen to the throne knew it either.
Then she had been more willing to listen to the girl.
In a display that had shocked Sera, Hermione had summoned a Ka beast to her aid from a stack of thick papyrus like objects that the Priestess called ‘cards’ without the use of a Millennium Item. A Ka Beast that had, in fact, looked rather shockingly like her own and as Hermione had explained why they were really there, the Millennium Witch had, under Hermione’s direction, gone to stand guard over the door into Sera’s bedroom and protect Kisara.
From what the Priestess had said someone had tried to cast a similar spell on Prince Yugi, to wipe him from the memory of the people in an attempt to over throw the current monarchy, but, even if it had worked that way, it had failed at the critical step and, when the caster had been questioned, they’d found out that the spell had previously been cast on the Pharaoh of Egypt.
At which point Prince Yugi had asked for permission from his Grandfather, to come to Egypt to try to correct this problem and since it had coincided with Seto’s need to hunt down Bakura, King Solomon had agreed to let him come as long as he brought Seto with him.
When Sera had asked about the presence of the other two within the group, Hermione just chuckled and said that both she and Joseph, who was apparently a close friend and bodyguard of the Prince, had refused to be left behind.
Sera would have questioned this further, if she hadn’t been so busy being absolutely furious that someone had dared to try to wipe the Pharaoh’s name from living memory. Especially considering that, without his name, the Pharaoh would never reach the afterlife. She knew the spells that would help a person through the afterlife, she had read them many times and almost all of the incredibly important ones required that the person who was taking the journey knew their name.
And she’d continued to be just as mad when they’d gone through the scrolls that should have had the Pharaoh’s name written on them, only to find that they too had a blank space where the Pharaoh’s name should have been. It was like it had been wiped from existence.
Now Hermione was pacing, trying to think. She’d almost been certain that the Pharaoh’s name would have been here somewhere and now she wasn’t certain where to look.
It didn’t help the nerves of the two lookalikes that the priests had left in the company of Seto, Mana and what little troops they had left a few hours ago, leaving the palace unguarded. Nor that Prince Yugi and Joseph had vanished before that and still hadn’t turned up at the palace. Understandably Hermione was concerned that something might have happened to them.
“Stop and think for a moment.” Sera told the Priestess, understanding her ire all too well, putting an understanding hand on her shoulder. “You won’t be able to help anyone if you’re worked up like this.”
Hermione nodded, letting out a deep breath and allowing Sera to direct her to the balcony to get some fresh air, trying to sort everything that she’d found out in her head. For some strange reason she’d never considered the possibility that Yami had had siblings other than his little sister, yet alone that he’d had three older brothers and two younger siblings and that that was considered a ‘small’ family by the standard of Egyptian monarchs.
Not that it mattered now. Yami’s brothers had gone to war and never come home, leaving little choice but to put a fourteen year old boy on the throne when his father had died. She, of course, knew that had happened to Yami’s little sister. That had been one of the few memories the Pharaoh had managed to regain, but she hadn’t known that his little brother, who had only been a year younger than him had been killed during the attack of the Sorcerer who had had the audacity to call himself Anubis. This of course being the same Sorcerer who had nearly killed Yugi and Yami five thousand years later when he’d tried to make his comeback.
She couldn’t help wondering what would happen when Yami died. Without any siblings the throne should pass to his half siblings or cousins, but not only was Yami now an only child but no one knew what had happened to his only cousin either, which meant that there would have been a brawl over who had risen to the throne behind him when he had sacrificed his soul and his afterlife to save the world.
“...something we haven’t thought of.” Sera was saying when Hermione snapped back to the conversation, causing the Witch to berate herself for not listening. “There has to be something the spell missed.”
Hermione tried to consider everything. She had thought that things like scrolls would have been immune to the problem, but then if it had been that easy to find, Yami would have found it by now and he wouldn’t have needed them to enter the game.
The question was, if the scrolls in the library had been effected too, was there anywhere in the entire game world that was protected enough from magic to stop the spell that had erased Yami’s name from history? Unless...
“You’ve had an idea?” Sera asked as Hermione stepped away from the railings and tried to think through everything she’d read on the Egyptian afterlife over the last few years.
“I think... has Ya... the Pharaoh’s tomb been built yet?” She asked, correcting herself for the sixth or seventh time.
“Of course...” Sera paused as she got what the Priestess was thinking. The tombs were protected from all kinds of magic in order to protect the person whose body rested inside from the threat of ending up as a restless spirit doomed to wander Duat for all of eternity. If there was anywhere that would have been sheltered from the spell that appeared to have affected everyone in the palace, it would have been there.
Except... “The Pharaoh’s tomb is heavily protected. No one is allowed in or out.” Sera said, thinking things over, “Even if the Pharaoh’s name is there, unless we can convince people that this is the complete truth, we would never been allowed to go in.” She watched the Priestess’s shoulders sink, “And even if we did get inside, the tomb is protected by the ultimate Shadow Game. Only those who can pass all three trials can reach the inner sanctum. We’d never manage it.”
Hermione had to agree. She was alright at games, but this was the first Shadow Game she’d ever been in. She had no idea if she would be able to pick up the rules quickly enough to get through them safely.
She knew who would though. In fact she had a horrible feeling that she knew where the one person other than the Pharaoh himself who would be able to get through those games was right now.
“What’s wrong, Hermione?” Sera asked, concerned when the younger version of her blanched slightly.
“Nothing. Nothing.” Hermione tried to wave it off. “I’m just feeling...” Hermione trailed off as a purple light shot out of one of the obelisks in the courtyard below, and out into the desert in the direction that the Priests had gone. “What was that?”
“Someone is calling a Ka beast.” Sera replied, quickly trying to work out whose tablet shrine that had been. Then she let out a relieved sigh. “That Pharaoh must have the Millennium Pendant back.”
“Pendant?” Hermione wondered for a moment, before Sera’s words sank in properly. “Wait, that’s good, right?”
Sera, who was well aware of the outcomes of the recent fights between the Pharaoh and the tomb robber, just didn’t answer.
It was going to be close.
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It took him a moment, as he’d never heard that tone from that voice before, but he knew that voice.
Even as the Priests turned towards the sound, Seto, who hadn’t long arrived in the ruined village, darted for the stairs, towards the source of the screaming.
“Yes! Yes!” He could just about hear Bakura cackling over Yami’s agonised screams, “Soon the pain will drive you insane!”
“Yami!” Seto reached the bottom of the steps, Seth just moments behind him, to find Yami on his hands and knees, crying out in pain, surrounded by a black aura which blazed like flames and danced around the Pharaoh.
A burst of purple light shot past the dopplegangers and settled around Yami, scaring off the black energy and allowing the Pharaoh to draw a breath that wasn’t to be used up in screaming.
Seto moved between the shaking Pharaoh and the tomb robber, Seth just a little bit faster than him.
“Seth?” Yami asked, his voice horse. Seto cringed at how weak he sounded, how confused, how uncertain.
“I’m here, my Pharaoh.” Seth told the Pharaoh as he summoned Duos.
“Get up Yami.” Yami’s head shot up at the sound of his name, only for his confusion to grow when he saw two Seths. Except that one wasn’t Seth. One was Seto...
“Seto?” Yami asked weakly, his voice strained from screaming.
The CEO didn’t have a chance to reply as the ghosts launched an attack on the pair of lookalikes, throwing them into combat they weren’t prepared for.
My Pharaoh.
Yami, whose head had sunk again in sheer exhaustion, whimpered slightly at the voice. He knew it. He knew it well but it was just one more confirmation of something he hadn’t even wanted to consider. ‘Is it true, Mahado? Is what Bakura said...’
My Pharaoh, believe me when I say your father didn’t know how the Millennium Items were created. Just hearing that from Mahado relaxed the Pharaoh. He knew the Dark Magician, he knew him far too well, and he knew that he wouldn’t lie to him. Still...
‘But...’
I knew the truth of the Millennium Items from the moment I put on the Millennium Ring. Mahado admitted, And I confronted your father. Yami sensed grief and guilt from his guardian as the purple light surrounding him slowly drained into a ball and then formed into the Dark Magician, who stood between him and the pair of Setos. My Pharaoh, I’m sorry. When I confronted your father, he was struck with the same pain that haunts you now. It was because of that pain that he grew sick and died. If I hadn’t told him...
In a flash, Yami remembered that sickness, the disease that that had hit his father so quickly that they had thought for a while that someone had managed to poison him. No one had ever considered that the Pharaoh had been suffering from a soul rending wound caused by someone telling him the truth...
It was Akhenaden, your uncle, who created the Millennium Items. If your father had known what it was that would create them, he would never have allowed it.
Yami nodded, struggling to his feet, accepting a hand from his partner monster. ‘Mahado, I...’
I am your servant, my Pharaoh. From now until eternity. The Dark Magician scowled at Bakura, whose Ka beast was a little busy trying to take out both Duos and Kaiser Seahorse. You must fight. Bakura cannot be allowed to complete his plans.
‘But...’ Yami glanced at his diadum. The Ba meter on it had slipped even further when Bakura’s spirits had attacked, taking him below a quarter of a bar.
You have the strength and you will not need to summon anyone else. I will fight for you as long as I am able.
Seto snarled something rather rude as his Kaiser Seahorse was blown away and his life points dropped by about a grand. When Diabound went to take advantage of this fact, Mahado and Yami were ready, backing Seto up and blasting the demon Ka back.
“Bakura,” Yami still had trouble forcing the words out, but he placed himself firmly in front of the twin Setos, backed up by his most trusted monster, “I don’t know what you’re planning but I cannot let you win. Mahado!”
The Dark Magician loosed a Dark Magic Attack that struck Diabound and caused it and Bakura to let out a bellow of pain as the serpent like Ka beast crashed into one of the support pillars, taking it down and causing the ceiling to crumble, letting the light shine through.
“Diabound!” Bakura’s snarl startled those fighting him until they saw the Diabound had caught the falling pillar before it could land on the huge stone tablet that Bakura had been stood by, tossing it aside carefully before disappearing into the remaining darkness.
“Seto, Seth...”
“I saw.” Both Priest and CEO said in the same moment, glowering at each other for a moment, before Seto summoned one of his newest creatures, a card Yami had never seen before.
“Come forth, Lady of the White Dragon.” Seto summoned the creature, a tall, willowy woman with long white hair and blue eyes, who appeared out of nowhere, glowing brightly, casting a protective light around herself, her Duelist and anyone nearby him.
That turned out to be a mistake though, while she protected Seto, Seth and Yami from attack, since Diabound couldn’t travel through her light without being spotted, Diabound went after the Priests in the group behind, striking out at them directly and catching Shada off guard.
The bald priest hit the wall hard and crumpled into a heap at the bottom of it, the Millennium Key going skidding across the floor.
“Mahado!” Yami, having an idea, pointed towards the ceiling. His friend got it, blasting holes in the ceiling that revealed where Diabound was hiding in the darkness, which would have worked great if the stupidly large Ka beast hadn’t just disappeared into the stone surrounding them, like the Wall Shadow whose powers it had absorbed back when Bakura had first attacked.
Yami scanned the area, trying to work out their best tactic only to come to a decision he knew no one would like. ‘Mahado?’ He asked the Dark Magician, who glowered at him, disliking Yami’s plan immensely.
Someone had to do it though and, when the Setos weren’t looking, Yami darted out of the protective light and, while Bakura was distracted by the others, darted towards a nearby pillar. Diabound, of course, couldn’t resist the chance to attack Yami, taking a swipe at the Pharaoh, who dodged out of the way and was pulled back into the light by a rather angry looking Seto, who only didn’t rant because Diabound had to catch the pillar that it had chopped down and had nowhere to throw it, meaning that it could no longer ghost through the walls and floor.
“Now we’ve got you!” The Ka beasts of the Priests attacked, striking Diabound, who bellowed back at them before building up an attack that Yami recognised all too well.
“Call them back!” Yami yelped, wishing he had his deck on his as Seto did, before knocking Seto down as Diabound let loose with a Thunder Force attack.
“Is everyone alright?” Yami asked as he blinked away the flash blindness, the dust that had been created when the roof collapsed in the attack causing him to cough heavily.
Seto shoved him off, coughing as he did so. “Thanks.”
Yami would have asked if the CEO was feeling alright, except the Priests were beginning to answer him. Seth, Akhenaden and Isis spoke up, causing concern to course through Yami as Kalim didn’t answer.
“Kalim?” The Pharaoh demanded, getting to his feet and looking around, only for and odd combination of fury and grief to course through him when he saw his priest was motionless on the floor.
“Kalim!” Isis darted over to her fallen comrade as Yami and Seto wheeled on the tomb robber who looked far too impressed with himself.
Right up until Seto, who had only not done so before because there hadn’t been enough room, summoned Kisara, his partner monster, to his aid. Diabound, who had used his own body as a shield to protect both Bakura and the tablet, shook himself off, the rubble falling off of his back and bellowed at the huge white dragon, who roared back.
Seth watched in shock as ‘Kisara’ blasted Diabound, who retreated into the floor to avoid her White Lightening Attack.
“Damn it, Pharaoh.” Seto snarled, startling the High Priest out of his shock, “If you had your deck...”
“I know.” The Pharaoh snarled back, surprising the High Priest, as he’d never seen the Pharaoh allow anyone to talk to him like that, yet alone retort in that manner, “Watch out...”
Yami didn’t get to finish his statement as Diabound leapt out of the floor and struck at the pair of them. Seto shoved him aside and, even as his dragon blasted the serpent like creature, the blow struck, sending Seto crashing into the rubble.
Diabound let out a bellow that was an odd combination of victory and pain and then shattered into about a million tiny pieces.
The thief King, Bakura, coughed up blood and collapsed to his knees as the white dragon disappeared and Yami darted to his friend’s side.
“N...No...” Bakura whimpered, panicked as he realised that it was over and that he, the last living member of the village of Kul Elna, was dying, “No... It can’t end like this.”
Even as relief coursed through the Pharaoh at the sight of the CEO’s chest rising and falling, the desperate thief put the Ring and the Puzzle into their respective grooves in the tablet before collapsing over it.
“Kalim! Shada!” Yami and Seth turned to look at the fallen priests, only to watch in shock as the pair turned into sand and faded away.
“What?” Yami gasped, looking to the fallen thief who was going much the same way.
“Seth, go and...” Yami paused when Seth didn’t even respond to him calling his name and attempted to get to his feet, only to find that he was frozen at Seto’s side.
In fact all of his priests, including Mahado, who had narrowly escaped the Lightening Strike loosed by Diabound and slipped to his side when Seto had summoned his dragon, were frozen in time, unable to act or talk... all except...
“Akhenaden?” Yami demanded, unsure how he was able to talk when none of the others were and confused by the fact that the eldest of the priests, his own uncle, had taken the remaining Millennium Items from the priests and was putting them into the tablet, filling the remaining slots.
Then it hit him. The memories that had been knocked out of his head by the fall, of that brief moment when Yugi had been at his side and they had defeated Diabound together. Of Hermione’s words... “There’s your Game Master, Joey.”
This was a Shadow Game, he had already worked that out, but suddenly he was aware of all the rules. This was a variant of the Monster World RPG that Bakura had put them through years and years ago, based on his memories of events that had happened over five thousand years ago...
And Akhenaden was no longer his piece to move.
Even without his Puzzle the Shadows weaving throughout the area were all too easy to sense, and with them came a presence of pain and fear that weighed heavily on the group as they rode through what at first Yami took to be dilapidated buildings, only to realise that some of the remains showed charring, as if an incredibly hot blaze had occurred within.
The villagers hadn’t left. They had been driven out.
The Pharaoh wondered if it had been Bakura who had done the deed or whether there had been invaders who had been driven out of Egypt, but not until they’d already done some damage, and what had happened to the people who had once lived here.
It didn’t help his nerves that he had a feeling that someone, or rather something, was watching them, stalking the group as they made their way through the ruined village, haunting them as they picked their way through the remaining stone work.
They split up as the terrain grew more difficult, so that Kalim and the men explored the more intact buildings, while Yami and Shada hung back. Not that Yami had wanted to, but when he’d tried to join the men on foot, they had actually, supposedly out of concern for his safety, asked him not to. The Pharaoh supposed that, in his current state, he would slow them down.
“My Pharaoh,” Yami was drawn out of his thoughts by the return of Kalim, who had dismounted and was now offering Yami a hand to do the same thing, “There’s no one up top, but we did discover a hidden stairwell. The men are exploring it now.”
Yami nodded as he dismounted, cringing slightly as his right leg hit the ground, and followed Kalim and Shada towards the stairwell, only to dart forwards when he heard the cries of the men, reaching the top as one of the guards reached the bottom.
“P...Pharaoh! D...Don’t come d...down here!” The guard called up, struggling to get his words out, as dark energy swirled around him, “It’s a...” He didn’t get to finish his sentence as a purple light erupted from his mouth, nose and eyes and he crumpled to the ground.
“Pharaoh!” Bakura’s voice echoed up from the depths, sounding far too pleased with himself, “If you want your Pendant back you’ll have to come down here!”
Yami’s hands balled into fists as anger coursed through him and he darted down the stairs, only to find that the six men he’d brought with him had already been killed. “Bakura!” Yami snarled, glowering at the far, far too amused thief who was stood next to a huge stone tablet and wearing both the Ring and the Puzzle.
“Welcome, Pharaoh.” Bakura smirked at him, well aware that he was holding all the cards, “It’s about time you got here.” He waved his hand as the same dark energy that had surrounded the guard swirled around Yami, giving the Pharaoh a taste of what his men had gone through as the spirits, for that was what the energy was, transferred a touch of their anger, their malice and their pain to the Pharaoh, tearing at his mind and soul as they rushed past.
Yami only just managed to avoid letting out a pained cry, desperate to avoid letting Bakura known how much it hurt, recognising it as the same sort of pain that Yugi had suffered before in the Shadow Realm and letting the memories of his hikari standing fast help now.
“Feel that, Pharaoh?” Bakura demanded, “Those are the spirits of those who dwelt here, in this village before your father’s men came.”
“W...What?” Yami gasped out as more spirits joined those swirling around him, tightening the vice around him, leaving Yami little time between the attacks.
“How did you think these were created, Pharaoh?” Bakura snarled, holding up the Puzzle as he did so, “Your father sent his men to my village and killed almost every single man, woman and child to create your precious ‘Millennium Items’.”
“My father... wouldn’t...” Yami tried to get a firmer footing but his legs gave out under him and he went crashing to his hands and knees.
“Your father slaughtered my entire village! I was the only one left! And you, Pharaoh, you will pay for his crimes as the spirits take their revenge!”
A tidal wave of hatred and pain crashed over Yami, almost crushing the Pharaoh under its weight causing untold agony to course through his entire body.
Yami screamed.
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When Hermione had told Sera that they were searching for the Pharaoh’s name, the archivist had been dismissive and a little wary. After all, why would a group from a foreign country be searching for the Pharaoh’s name unless it was to cause him harm?
That had been until she had realised that she, who been living in the palace before the Pharaoh had taken the throne and had spent time with Mahado while he had been on duty, guarding the young Prince, couldn’t remember what his name was.
And that no one who had been around before he had risen to the throne knew it either.
Then she had been more willing to listen to the girl.
In a display that had shocked Sera, Hermione had summoned a Ka beast to her aid from a stack of thick papyrus like objects that the Priestess called ‘cards’ without the use of a Millennium Item. A Ka Beast that had, in fact, looked rather shockingly like her own and as Hermione had explained why they were really there, the Millennium Witch had, under Hermione’s direction, gone to stand guard over the door into Sera’s bedroom and protect Kisara.
From what the Priestess had said someone had tried to cast a similar spell on Prince Yugi, to wipe him from the memory of the people in an attempt to over throw the current monarchy, but, even if it had worked that way, it had failed at the critical step and, when the caster had been questioned, they’d found out that the spell had previously been cast on the Pharaoh of Egypt.
At which point Prince Yugi had asked for permission from his Grandfather, to come to Egypt to try to correct this problem and since it had coincided with Seto’s need to hunt down Bakura, King Solomon had agreed to let him come as long as he brought Seto with him.
When Sera had asked about the presence of the other two within the group, Hermione just chuckled and said that both she and Joseph, who was apparently a close friend and bodyguard of the Prince, had refused to be left behind.
Sera would have questioned this further, if she hadn’t been so busy being absolutely furious that someone had dared to try to wipe the Pharaoh’s name from living memory. Especially considering that, without his name, the Pharaoh would never reach the afterlife. She knew the spells that would help a person through the afterlife, she had read them many times and almost all of the incredibly important ones required that the person who was taking the journey knew their name.
And she’d continued to be just as mad when they’d gone through the scrolls that should have had the Pharaoh’s name written on them, only to find that they too had a blank space where the Pharaoh’s name should have been. It was like it had been wiped from existence.
Now Hermione was pacing, trying to think. She’d almost been certain that the Pharaoh’s name would have been here somewhere and now she wasn’t certain where to look.
It didn’t help the nerves of the two lookalikes that the priests had left in the company of Seto, Mana and what little troops they had left a few hours ago, leaving the palace unguarded. Nor that Prince Yugi and Joseph had vanished before that and still hadn’t turned up at the palace. Understandably Hermione was concerned that something might have happened to them.
“Stop and think for a moment.” Sera told the Priestess, understanding her ire all too well, putting an understanding hand on her shoulder. “You won’t be able to help anyone if you’re worked up like this.”
Hermione nodded, letting out a deep breath and allowing Sera to direct her to the balcony to get some fresh air, trying to sort everything that she’d found out in her head. For some strange reason she’d never considered the possibility that Yami had had siblings other than his little sister, yet alone that he’d had three older brothers and two younger siblings and that that was considered a ‘small’ family by the standard of Egyptian monarchs.
Not that it mattered now. Yami’s brothers had gone to war and never come home, leaving little choice but to put a fourteen year old boy on the throne when his father had died. She, of course, knew that had happened to Yami’s little sister. That had been one of the few memories the Pharaoh had managed to regain, but she hadn’t known that his little brother, who had only been a year younger than him had been killed during the attack of the Sorcerer who had had the audacity to call himself Anubis. This of course being the same Sorcerer who had nearly killed Yugi and Yami five thousand years later when he’d tried to make his comeback.
She couldn’t help wondering what would happen when Yami died. Without any siblings the throne should pass to his half siblings or cousins, but not only was Yami now an only child but no one knew what had happened to his only cousin either, which meant that there would have been a brawl over who had risen to the throne behind him when he had sacrificed his soul and his afterlife to save the world.
“...something we haven’t thought of.” Sera was saying when Hermione snapped back to the conversation, causing the Witch to berate herself for not listening. “There has to be something the spell missed.”
Hermione tried to consider everything. She had thought that things like scrolls would have been immune to the problem, but then if it had been that easy to find, Yami would have found it by now and he wouldn’t have needed them to enter the game.
The question was, if the scrolls in the library had been effected too, was there anywhere in the entire game world that was protected enough from magic to stop the spell that had erased Yami’s name from history? Unless...
“You’ve had an idea?” Sera asked as Hermione stepped away from the railings and tried to think through everything she’d read on the Egyptian afterlife over the last few years.
“I think... has Ya... the Pharaoh’s tomb been built yet?” She asked, correcting herself for the sixth or seventh time.
“Of course...” Sera paused as she got what the Priestess was thinking. The tombs were protected from all kinds of magic in order to protect the person whose body rested inside from the threat of ending up as a restless spirit doomed to wander Duat for all of eternity. If there was anywhere that would have been sheltered from the spell that appeared to have affected everyone in the palace, it would have been there.
Except... “The Pharaoh’s tomb is heavily protected. No one is allowed in or out.” Sera said, thinking things over, “Even if the Pharaoh’s name is there, unless we can convince people that this is the complete truth, we would never been allowed to go in.” She watched the Priestess’s shoulders sink, “And even if we did get inside, the tomb is protected by the ultimate Shadow Game. Only those who can pass all three trials can reach the inner sanctum. We’d never manage it.”
Hermione had to agree. She was alright at games, but this was the first Shadow Game she’d ever been in. She had no idea if she would be able to pick up the rules quickly enough to get through them safely.
She knew who would though. In fact she had a horrible feeling that she knew where the one person other than the Pharaoh himself who would be able to get through those games was right now.
“What’s wrong, Hermione?” Sera asked, concerned when the younger version of her blanched slightly.
“Nothing. Nothing.” Hermione tried to wave it off. “I’m just feeling...” Hermione trailed off as a purple light shot out of one of the obelisks in the courtyard below, and out into the desert in the direction that the Priests had gone. “What was that?”
“Someone is calling a Ka beast.” Sera replied, quickly trying to work out whose tablet shrine that had been. Then she let out a relieved sigh. “That Pharaoh must have the Millennium Pendant back.”
“Pendant?” Hermione wondered for a moment, before Sera’s words sank in properly. “Wait, that’s good, right?”
Sera, who was well aware of the outcomes of the recent fights between the Pharaoh and the tomb robber, just didn’t answer.
It was going to be close.
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It took him a moment, as he’d never heard that tone from that voice before, but he knew that voice.
Even as the Priests turned towards the sound, Seto, who hadn’t long arrived in the ruined village, darted for the stairs, towards the source of the screaming.
“Yes! Yes!” He could just about hear Bakura cackling over Yami’s agonised screams, “Soon the pain will drive you insane!”
“Yami!” Seto reached the bottom of the steps, Seth just moments behind him, to find Yami on his hands and knees, crying out in pain, surrounded by a black aura which blazed like flames and danced around the Pharaoh.
A burst of purple light shot past the dopplegangers and settled around Yami, scaring off the black energy and allowing the Pharaoh to draw a breath that wasn’t to be used up in screaming.
Seto moved between the shaking Pharaoh and the tomb robber, Seth just a little bit faster than him.
“Seth?” Yami asked, his voice horse. Seto cringed at how weak he sounded, how confused, how uncertain.
“I’m here, my Pharaoh.” Seth told the Pharaoh as he summoned Duos.
“Get up Yami.” Yami’s head shot up at the sound of his name, only for his confusion to grow when he saw two Seths. Except that one wasn’t Seth. One was Seto...
“Seto?” Yami asked weakly, his voice strained from screaming.
The CEO didn’t have a chance to reply as the ghosts launched an attack on the pair of lookalikes, throwing them into combat they weren’t prepared for.
My Pharaoh.
Yami, whose head had sunk again in sheer exhaustion, whimpered slightly at the voice. He knew it. He knew it well but it was just one more confirmation of something he hadn’t even wanted to consider. ‘Is it true, Mahado? Is what Bakura said...’
My Pharaoh, believe me when I say your father didn’t know how the Millennium Items were created. Just hearing that from Mahado relaxed the Pharaoh. He knew the Dark Magician, he knew him far too well, and he knew that he wouldn’t lie to him. Still...
‘But...’
I knew the truth of the Millennium Items from the moment I put on the Millennium Ring. Mahado admitted, And I confronted your father. Yami sensed grief and guilt from his guardian as the purple light surrounding him slowly drained into a ball and then formed into the Dark Magician, who stood between him and the pair of Setos. My Pharaoh, I’m sorry. When I confronted your father, he was struck with the same pain that haunts you now. It was because of that pain that he grew sick and died. If I hadn’t told him...
In a flash, Yami remembered that sickness, the disease that that had hit his father so quickly that they had thought for a while that someone had managed to poison him. No one had ever considered that the Pharaoh had been suffering from a soul rending wound caused by someone telling him the truth...
It was Akhenaden, your uncle, who created the Millennium Items. If your father had known what it was that would create them, he would never have allowed it.
Yami nodded, struggling to his feet, accepting a hand from his partner monster. ‘Mahado, I...’
I am your servant, my Pharaoh. From now until eternity. The Dark Magician scowled at Bakura, whose Ka beast was a little busy trying to take out both Duos and Kaiser Seahorse. You must fight. Bakura cannot be allowed to complete his plans.
‘But...’ Yami glanced at his diadum. The Ba meter on it had slipped even further when Bakura’s spirits had attacked, taking him below a quarter of a bar.
You have the strength and you will not need to summon anyone else. I will fight for you as long as I am able.
Seto snarled something rather rude as his Kaiser Seahorse was blown away and his life points dropped by about a grand. When Diabound went to take advantage of this fact, Mahado and Yami were ready, backing Seto up and blasting the demon Ka back.
“Bakura,” Yami still had trouble forcing the words out, but he placed himself firmly in front of the twin Setos, backed up by his most trusted monster, “I don’t know what you’re planning but I cannot let you win. Mahado!”
The Dark Magician loosed a Dark Magic Attack that struck Diabound and caused it and Bakura to let out a bellow of pain as the serpent like Ka beast crashed into one of the support pillars, taking it down and causing the ceiling to crumble, letting the light shine through.
“Diabound!” Bakura’s snarl startled those fighting him until they saw the Diabound had caught the falling pillar before it could land on the huge stone tablet that Bakura had been stood by, tossing it aside carefully before disappearing into the remaining darkness.
“Seto, Seth...”
“I saw.” Both Priest and CEO said in the same moment, glowering at each other for a moment, before Seto summoned one of his newest creatures, a card Yami had never seen before.
“Come forth, Lady of the White Dragon.” Seto summoned the creature, a tall, willowy woman with long white hair and blue eyes, who appeared out of nowhere, glowing brightly, casting a protective light around herself, her Duelist and anyone nearby him.
That turned out to be a mistake though, while she protected Seto, Seth and Yami from attack, since Diabound couldn’t travel through her light without being spotted, Diabound went after the Priests in the group behind, striking out at them directly and catching Shada off guard.
The bald priest hit the wall hard and crumpled into a heap at the bottom of it, the Millennium Key going skidding across the floor.
“Mahado!” Yami, having an idea, pointed towards the ceiling. His friend got it, blasting holes in the ceiling that revealed where Diabound was hiding in the darkness, which would have worked great if the stupidly large Ka beast hadn’t just disappeared into the stone surrounding them, like the Wall Shadow whose powers it had absorbed back when Bakura had first attacked.
Yami scanned the area, trying to work out their best tactic only to come to a decision he knew no one would like. ‘Mahado?’ He asked the Dark Magician, who glowered at him, disliking Yami’s plan immensely.
Someone had to do it though and, when the Setos weren’t looking, Yami darted out of the protective light and, while Bakura was distracted by the others, darted towards a nearby pillar. Diabound, of course, couldn’t resist the chance to attack Yami, taking a swipe at the Pharaoh, who dodged out of the way and was pulled back into the light by a rather angry looking Seto, who only didn’t rant because Diabound had to catch the pillar that it had chopped down and had nowhere to throw it, meaning that it could no longer ghost through the walls and floor.
“Now we’ve got you!” The Ka beasts of the Priests attacked, striking Diabound, who bellowed back at them before building up an attack that Yami recognised all too well.
“Call them back!” Yami yelped, wishing he had his deck on his as Seto did, before knocking Seto down as Diabound let loose with a Thunder Force attack.
“Is everyone alright?” Yami asked as he blinked away the flash blindness, the dust that had been created when the roof collapsed in the attack causing him to cough heavily.
Seto shoved him off, coughing as he did so. “Thanks.”
Yami would have asked if the CEO was feeling alright, except the Priests were beginning to answer him. Seth, Akhenaden and Isis spoke up, causing concern to course through Yami as Kalim didn’t answer.
“Kalim?” The Pharaoh demanded, getting to his feet and looking around, only for and odd combination of fury and grief to course through him when he saw his priest was motionless on the floor.
“Kalim!” Isis darted over to her fallen comrade as Yami and Seto wheeled on the tomb robber who looked far too impressed with himself.
Right up until Seto, who had only not done so before because there hadn’t been enough room, summoned Kisara, his partner monster, to his aid. Diabound, who had used his own body as a shield to protect both Bakura and the tablet, shook himself off, the rubble falling off of his back and bellowed at the huge white dragon, who roared back.
Seth watched in shock as ‘Kisara’ blasted Diabound, who retreated into the floor to avoid her White Lightening Attack.
“Damn it, Pharaoh.” Seto snarled, startling the High Priest out of his shock, “If you had your deck...”
“I know.” The Pharaoh snarled back, surprising the High Priest, as he’d never seen the Pharaoh allow anyone to talk to him like that, yet alone retort in that manner, “Watch out...”
Yami didn’t get to finish his statement as Diabound leapt out of the floor and struck at the pair of them. Seto shoved him aside and, even as his dragon blasted the serpent like creature, the blow struck, sending Seto crashing into the rubble.
Diabound let out a bellow that was an odd combination of victory and pain and then shattered into about a million tiny pieces.
The thief King, Bakura, coughed up blood and collapsed to his knees as the white dragon disappeared and Yami darted to his friend’s side.
“N...No...” Bakura whimpered, panicked as he realised that it was over and that he, the last living member of the village of Kul Elna, was dying, “No... It can’t end like this.”
Even as relief coursed through the Pharaoh at the sight of the CEO’s chest rising and falling, the desperate thief put the Ring and the Puzzle into their respective grooves in the tablet before collapsing over it.
“Kalim! Shada!” Yami and Seth turned to look at the fallen priests, only to watch in shock as the pair turned into sand and faded away.
“What?” Yami gasped, looking to the fallen thief who was going much the same way.
“Seth, go and...” Yami paused when Seth didn’t even respond to him calling his name and attempted to get to his feet, only to find that he was frozen at Seto’s side.
In fact all of his priests, including Mahado, who had narrowly escaped the Lightening Strike loosed by Diabound and slipped to his side when Seto had summoned his dragon, were frozen in time, unable to act or talk... all except...
“Akhenaden?” Yami demanded, unsure how he was able to talk when none of the others were and confused by the fact that the eldest of the priests, his own uncle, had taken the remaining Millennium Items from the priests and was putting them into the tablet, filling the remaining slots.
Then it hit him. The memories that had been knocked out of his head by the fall, of that brief moment when Yugi had been at his side and they had defeated Diabound together. Of Hermione’s words... “There’s your Game Master, Joey.”
This was a Shadow Game, he had already worked that out, but suddenly he was aware of all the rules. This was a variant of the Monster World RPG that Bakura had put them through years and years ago, based on his memories of events that had happened over five thousand years ago...
And Akhenaden was no longer his piece to move.