Hello people!

In this chapter, we have the punishment game! And we get to see the Dark Pharaoh in action!

Rage of the Pharaoh

"Mott." I said darkly, glaring at him. "You have been judged. It is time to receive your punishment."

"Wh-what in Brimir's name is this?! I've never felt such intense magic power before! What exactly are you?"

"The one being in all of existence that you should never have crossed." I cracked my knuckles. "Now, let's begin."

Insert opening – "Kirifuda" by cinema staff

[Saa ima da, kazaseyo kirifuda. Kono mirai wa kimi no mono sa] Carlton looks up from the ground, followed by Louise. He draws a card, and places it on the duel disk. A streak of light cuts across the screen, revealing the opening title screen.

[Giragira moeteru. Samenai yume demo miteiru you ni.] Carlton stretches as he wakes up. Sunlight peeks through the window of Louise's room. He picks up his duel disk, places it on his arm, smirks, and walks out.

[Karada ga motomeru. Tsuyoi yatsu ga iru basho wo.] Louise tries to transmute some rocks into brass, and they explode. Kirche, Guiche and Montmorency laugh, while Tabitha cracks a slight smile.

[Kurakura yureteru. Tashikana mono nado koko ni wa nai kara.] Carlton strolls across a black background, with visions of his Duel monsters fading in and out in the background.

[Tadatada motomeru. Chikara no afureru basho wo.] He stops when he meets the Super Quant team standing in front of him. He smirks and gives Red a fist bump.

[Tsugi no tatakai ga boku wo matteru.] Many battles play out, with spells being cast and people falling. A giant visage of Cromwell appears in the sky.

[Atarashii hibi no aizu ga kikoeru.] Pharoah Atem opens his eyes and looks to the right. Carlton opens his eyes and looks to the left. Their eyes lock, and Dark Magician clashes with Red Layer.

[Saa ima da, kazaseyo kirifuda. Kono mirai wa kimi no mono sa.] Carlton's fists set alight, and he runs at several soldiers, performing punches and kicks to take them down. Kirche points, and Flame sends a flamethrower. Tabitha flies overhead on Sylphid.

[Sono egao de sekai wo yuraseba, sono ato wa jibun shidai dayo.] Guiche creates a landslide, with Verdande jumping out, surrounded by Valkyries, and Montmorency shoots a jet of water at some soldiers. Princess Henrietta looks longingly out of a castle window.

[Egaki dase, sono monogatari wo. Kimi koso ga shujinkou darou?] Carlton reaches out to Siesta, who's far off in the distance. Louise's eyes glow white, and Carlton's glow gold as he stands in front of her, sword raised against oncoming foes. She raises her wand, and a flash of white overtakes the screen. The final screen shows Carlton, Louise, Guiche, Montmorency, Kirche, Tabitha, and their familiars, all rushing towards a shadowy figure.

As I glared at Mott, I took notice of his facial expression. It was one of simultaneous confusion and fear. Good. I wanted him to stew in his uncertainty.

I bent my knees slightly, and blitzed forward. I was immediately in front of Mott, and hit him in the chest with a devastating right cross, with my fist ignited in dark flames. He went flying backwards, hitting some shrubbery along the way, which prevented him from hitting the wall of his house. I raised my hand towards him, and his body tensed up. Partially clenching my hand into a fist, I saw a look of pain spread across Mott's face. I pulled my hand towards me, bringing Mott right in front of me, with his hands out to the ides, and his legs split apart slightly.

"Don't worry Mott. I'm not going to kill you. But when I'm done, you'll probably wish I had."

I punched Mott in the face, knocking him out. Wow, he really is weak. I healed him with 'Blue Medicine', and decided to bring an end to this.

"Hey Mott."

"Yes..." he whimpered, clearly done with this situation.

"I'm going to let you go now."

"Thank you, kind sir. Your mercy is apprecia-"

"Hold up. Who said anything about mercy? I'm just doing it to make this next part sporting."

"Whatever do you mean?" he asked, as I dropped him to the ground.

"You are going to suffer true fear. Consider it penance for your sins against Siesta. You were going to defile one of the purest people in this world, and you aren't even truly sorry for it. You just want to save your own skin. Don't worry, by the end of this, you'll feel apologetic about every action that you've ever taken." I stared deeply into his eyes, subtly beginning the process.

3...

2...

1...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! SOMEONE HEEEEEEEEELP! PLEEEEAAAASE!"

I decided to give Mott a taste of the 'Experience of Death'. I projected an illusion of the Shadow Realm into his consciousness, where he experienced being brutally killed by all manner of duel monsters. Dragons burnt him to a crisp and ate him, Golems crushed him, Beasts tore him apart, Machines peppered him with artillery fire, Spellcasters blew him up, and many more visceral deaths. Even though he wasn't physically getting hurt, to him it sure as hell seemed like it. After about 2 minutes, I released the illusion, since Seto Kaiba did find evidence that prolonged exposure led to insanity. Once his mind was free, he fell to the ground, cowering in fear. "Wh-what was that?"

"A taste of true fear. I have decided to be somewhat merciful by ending your torment there. However, if you ever try something like this again, you will experience trauma far worse than that."

"Su-surely you jest..."

"Are you really willing to risk it? Control your libido, or I'll control it for you. Now, one last question Mott."

"Of course, what is it?"

"Do you surrender, or shall I knock you out without healing you, just to make it official?"

"Ah! I surrender! I surrender! Take the girl and go! Just please... don't hurt me..."

I brought Derf to my hand with my telekinesis, and raised him up to strike Mott, but just as I was about to bring the sword down on him, I smiled. "Good choice." Turning to Siesta, I saw that she was unconscious, and was lying on the floor, her head supported by my last sheep token. My dark aura dissipated instantly upon seeing her, and I walked over to her, gently shaking her to wake her up. "Come on Siesta. Wake up. It's time for us to go home."

She slowly opened her eyes. "I'm not dreaming... am I?"

"No, Siesta. This is real. I saved you. I'm so sorry I wasn't there to protect you in the first place. Can you ever for-mmph?!" My speech was muffled by a set of soft lips pressed on mine. Wait, what? What's happening?

Focusing on the situation, I saw Siesta's face much closer to mine than it had ever been before, and her eyes were closed... wait. Is she kissing me? She is!

I didn't know what to do, so I let instinct drive me. I kind of melted into the kiss, closing my eyes, and bringing my hands behind her back, pulling her closer to me. It was a very enjoyable sensation, especially from someone who I cared about so deeply. I felt all the emotions she poured into it: admiration, gratitude, joy, and most of all, love.

Eventually we had to pull back, as we needed to breathe, and I rested my forehead against hers. "Siesta," I began.

"A victory kiss, Carlton. You're my hero." She spoke softly, with a smile gracing her features.

"Hehe. Good job partner." Derf said.

I nodded. "Let's go home."

"Okay."

Thankfully, I had enough mana left to summon Expressroid, and get us back to school. We didn't speak much on the journey. I just held her, as she slept. I had to be awake, so that Expressroid wouldn't de-materialise on us, but that was fine. Or so I thought.

Once we got back to the academy, I walked Siesta back to her maid quarters. All of the other maids were so happy to see Siesta back that they got me in a big group hug, which the perverted side of me definitely appreciated. I left them to help Siesta get settled back in, and made my way to Louise's room. Knocking softly on the door, I entered, and saw that Louise was still awake.

"Evening Louise."

"Good evening Carlton. I trust that you were able to successfully recover the maid?"

"Yes. The battle was hard fought, but I managed to pull out a victory."

"Battle?" Louise raised an eyebrow at that.

"Yeah, I challenged Mott to a duel. I was able to beat him."

"Are you crazy?!"

"What? What's wrong?"

"You challenged another noble to a duel, and not just any noble, but an imperial messenger! You idiot! This could have extremely severe repercussions!"

"Okay, calm down. There's no need to get so flustered about- ack!" My speech was interrupted by a sharp pain in my chest.

"Huh? What's wrong Carlton?"

'I guess I took more damage than I thought.' I thought to myself, as my limbs started to feel heavy, and I fell to my knees.

"Louise, we'll talk... in the... morning..." I managed to say, before the darkness completely overtook me, and I passed out.

It was just like the situation from before, where I woke up in my dreamscape, with my ancestors all in front of me. "Hey grandpa!" I greeted, seeing him in the front of the crowd, just like last time.

"Hey there son. Listen. We need to talk again."

Guessing what it was about, I asked, "It's about what happened to me when I defeated Mott, isn't it?"

Grandpa nodded.

"So, do you have any idea of what actually happened?"

At this, grandpa shook his head. "Unfortunately, this is the first time something like this has ever happened. We have no prior records of anyone going through what happened to you. We were able to get some understanding of it whilst you were in that state, however. It seems to be triggered by extremely strong emotions, and it seems as though the fact that you were so fatigued made you even stronger when you actually changed."

"Interesting..." I said, with my hand to my chin. "On the note of fatigue, is that another reason why I'm here?"

"Yeah. Your fight with Mott drained you completely. You were out of stamina before you used the Decode End."

"Seriously?! How was I able to stand up again, then?"

"Your mana substituted for your stamina. You were running on pure magic, which may have been a contributing factor to your transformation."

"But even with that, I should've burned through my mana before I finished punching Mott. There must have been something else, since I still had enough power left to summon Expressroid afterwards..."

"Ever the observant one, eh Carlton? It's true, given how much mana you had left, you should've completely run out of energy before you used the illusion magic on Mott. So we analysed the aura you were giving off, and the power wasn't entirely mana."

"If it wasn't mana, then what could it possibly be?"

"Ba. The energy of the Shadow Realm itself."

I froze. "I used the energy of the Shadow Realm to fuel that transformation? But that's impossible! I have no way of accessing the Shadow Realm!" As soon as I said that, it hit me.

"You may not do, but someone in this world does. From what I can gather, that 'Battle Ox' you fought not too long ago was summoned, but I'm not completely sure of the circumstances."

If 'Battle Ox' was summoned, that means that someone is either a duelist with realisation powers like me, or there is a mage with access to the Shadow Realm. Either way, things were not looking good.

"You also have to remember that all duel monsters originate from the Shadow Realm as well. Simply being near them may expose you to some of the Shadow Realm's power, although for your summons, it would be quite diluted. But for a monster summoned straight from the Shadow Realm, that may be a different story... simply touching it would be enough to leave an imprint of ba energy in your body."

"That makes sense. My summoning is more like Solid Vision, where I basically create a body with my magic power, and the spirit of the duel monster controls it, whereas if someone summons the traditional way, then the body that has been exposed to the Shadow Realm will be in this world, and the Ba will be free to infect anyone who comes into contact with someone infected with it. It's probably quite weak, so it would only infect from certain forms of contact... Wait, that means... Oh no!"

"What! What's wrong?"

"Siesta's in danger! She'd have been exposed to Ba as well! I need to find some way to suppress it!"

"Why would Siesta be in danger?"

Forcing down a blush, I said "Does it really matter? I need to wake up and check if she's infected, and if she is, I need to seal the Ba within her until I can figure out a way to extract it!"

"Calm down. You have plenty of time. She doesn't use magic, so she won't have any reasons to tap into the Ba. You'll have time to devise a strategy, and make sure it works. Trust yourself."

Taking a breath to calm myself down, I calmly said "Thanks grandpa. I really should be going now. I think I've been asleep for long enough."

"Fair point. Be prepared for a shock when you wake up." He said, waving me off as my vision went completely white.

Hey guys!

The Dark Pharaoh makes his debut!

To be honest, I wasn't sure whether to make the end to the fight funny, or brutal. I went with brutal (as brutal as you can get with Yu-Gi-Oh), since I think it fit the situation better. He turned into a raging psychopathic illusionist magician. He had no reason to hold back. The experience of Death worked quite well there. Carlton also originally beat Mott to a pulp before healing him, and then used the 'Experience of Death'. I made it a simple punch, because Mott wasn't really evil, just selfish, and conceited.

Also, there was a kiss! I've diverged from canon, but there won't really be much in terms of relationship progression in the short term between Carlton and Siesta. I'm open to her becoming the main girl, but I want to give the others a chance first.

Also, just to clarify, yes I know that in canon Yu-Gi-Oh, Ba is life energy, and not the energy of the Shadow Realm, but I couldn't think of a name, and Ba worked well enough.

Anyway, we'll be moving on to the Familiar Exhibition Tournament next chapter, so stay tuned!