Yu-Gi-Oh! Dissidia

Deep in the Valley of the Kings, Yugi and Atem make their way to the hiding place of Yami Bakura, the dark spirit of the Millennium Ring that was created when Zorc sealed a fragment of his soul into the Ring as he was defeated in the ancient past.

One last enemy awaits the Pharaoh, and his rest will be at hand.

Destiny Draw 11-V

Atem watched as Shark accelerated into the distance on his cycle, before turning back towards the valley and walking along the lip. First things first, he thought. I need to find a way into this valley – and a way to get to Bakura, he thought.

Look there!, Yugi called, pointing at a cleft in the valley's edge up ahead of them. That looks like a way down!

Atem nodded, and he headed for the apparent path. As he walked down the side of the canyon, he ran his hand over the stone. This place…, he thought. I know that it was brought together by Holactie and Zorc from fragments of our own timelines, but what does that truly mean?, he wondered. Is it a copy, or have moments frozen in time been transported here to serve as the battleground for this conflict? And what will be waiting at the end of this valley?

Eventually Atem and Yugi reached the base of the cliff wall, and they followed the valley away from the direction of New Domino City.

This place might be the Valley of the Kings, but there's something wrong about it, Atem thought as he looked at the cold, grey stone and the black sand beneath his feet. There was a warmth, a sense of…comfort to the Valley in Egypt. But this place is cold and uninviting.

It feels like we shouldn't be here, Yugi said.

We shouldn't, Atem agreed. This isn't our world, but it's almost over. Once we free Bakura from the spirit of the Millennium Ring and from Zorc's control, we can go home.

After over half an hour of walking down the canyon, they turned a corner, and Atem's eyes widened in shock as he beheld crumbling and ruined old stone buildings, ones that were all too familiar.

What is this place?, Yugi asked in surprise.

This is the village of Kul Elna, Atem explained. It's the place where the Millennium Items were created, where the bandit king Bakura came from, and where the darkness of Zorc was first born. This was where Bakura and Aknadin brought the Items back together and unleashed Zorc upon the world…and this was where the souls of ninety-nine of the villagers were sacrificed to create the Items.

Yugi looked at Atem in worry. They'd talked about what had happened in Kul Elna before, but there had been little time to properly discuss the matter before they'd been whisked away by Holactie. Are you gonna be okay?, he asked.

Yes, Atem replied. I've made peace with what was done in my father's name…and with the sacrifices that he made to protect me. And this only confirms what we suspected – Bakura is definitely somewhere here.

He headed deep into the village, looking for the hole in the ground that had led to the Millennium Stone where the Items had been birthed. There it is, he thought as he spotted the dreary stairs in the ground surrounded by a brick platform, and he walked towards them.

Was that where the Millennium Stone was?, Yugi asked.

Yes, Atem replied. This was where Bakura waited for me, he said as they walked down the stairs.

But as they reached the foot of the stairs, they gasped in shock. Instead of the room containing the Millennium Stone, they found themselves in a room covered in hieroglyphics with two large statues of serpents on each side.

But this-this is your tomb!, Yugi gasped. What's it doing here?!

My tomb?, Atem asked in shock. I thought it would be here, but when we found Kul Elna I expected to find Bakura with the Millennium Stone again.

Watch out for those snake statues, Yugi warned Atem. Get too close and they'll turn you into a pin cushion!

Atem nodded. "In that case, I'll be ready with this card," he said as he drew a card from his deck and walked forwards.

"That will not be necessary," the voice of Holactie declared in their minds, and they both gasped in shock.

Their deck suddenly rippled with light as six cards within it shone yellow. Atem held up his wrist and looked at the cards in surprise, and he drew the top two cards and gasped in surprise.

Obelisk the Tormentor!, Yugi cried.

And The Winged Dragon of Ra, Atem added. Which means that Joey and Kaiba – they won their duels! Joey defeated Marik and Ra, and Kaiba was able to use Obelisk to defeat Dartz!

I knew that they'd be able to do it!, Yugi cried. But what were the other cards that were glowing?, he wondered.

One of them must have been Slifer, Atem suggested as he withdrew another card, and he gasped in surprise. Ra's Disciple?, he asked in confusion, and he read the card's effect. I see, he mused. It's a gift from Holactie for the final duel to come.

He walked forwards with Ra and Obelisk in his hand.

Wait, Atem!, Yugi cried as he walked within range of the snake statues. Both serpent heads fired needles from their mouths, but the two Egyptian God cards in Atem's hand both glowed with light and the needles erupted into flames that burnt out before they got near Atem.

"The Egyptian Gods are with me," Atem declared. "And together with them, we'll take Bakura down, Yugi," he added gently.

That's right!, Yugi agreed.

They entered the next room, the maze of bridges guarded by jackal-headed statues wielding swords in each hand.

I know it's your tomb, but you still have to show respect, Yugi said. Remember Grandpa's tale?

Yes, now it's coming back to me, Atem recalled. He returned Ra and Obelisk to his deck, and then he stepped forward with his left foot, then he began to shuffle forwards across the bridges. He carefully clambered around one of the statues, keeping his cool despite the imposing appearance of the statues and their gleaming blades.

Soon they'd made it past the statues and to the other side of the room, and Atem looked back at the bridges. An ingenious defense indeed, he thought.

The next room shouldn't be a problem, Yugi said. It's the room that judges our hearts, but ours are all right!

"Ye shall now be judged by the creatures of stone," Atem read. "Only the pure of heart are permitted to pass. All others will lose their souls to the darkness. Yes, our hearts are true," he said.

He walked through the door, coming to a long stone bridge with monsters carved on the surface like the tablets in the Shrine of Wedju, and he came to a stop. "This might not be as easy as we thought Yugi," he said.

Yami Bakura was slouched on the other end of the bridge with his duel disk arm resting over his knee, and he looked up with a sneer on his face.

"Glad you could make it…Pharaoh," he said.

Atem stepped onto the bridge. "Your strongest allies have already failed, Bakura," he warned him as he held up his duel disk. "My deck is now at its full strength, and I have the will of my friends behind me," he said.

"Come now Pharaoh, you aren't truly that naïve are you?" Yami Bakura asked as he got to his feet. "You know that if you fail here the cycle of darkness will simply continue, and you and your clueless allies will simply be drawn into another battle to decide this one moment in time," he declared.

"What?!" Atem asked in shock.

So if we lose, we'll have to do this again, huh?, Yugi asked. But how do we know that we didn't already?!

We have no choice but to trust Holactie, Atem replied.

"Are you and your little partner trying to solve the existential quandary you find yourselves in?" Yami Bakura asked as he stepped forwards to meet Atem, calmly shuffling his cards as he walked across the bridge.

Atem walked towards Yami Bakura as well, withdrawing his deck from his duel disk and beginning to shuffle his own cards. "No, Bakura," he replied. "The solution is simple; by defeating you, this can all come to a close."

"Oh, certainly," Yami Bakura chuckled as they met opposite one another. He handed his deck to Atem and then accepted Atem's. "How strange," he commented. "In this moment alone, I hold the powers of the three Egyptian God monsters in my hand," he mused. He shuffled Atem's deck thoughtfully. "You know, the human side of me finds this rather appropriate," he commented. "We dueled each other during Battle City, and I took on your little vessel earlier in this very tomb, but there has never truly been a final duel between the two of us, has there?" he asked. "Think of this as a milestone in your life," he suggested. "A finale where you are at last conquered, and the darkness of Zorc is unleashed."

"Talk is cheap, Bakura," Atem replied as he shuffled Yami Bakura's deck. "In a duel, no matter one's words, you must ultimately be ready to back up your speech through your cards." He held out Yami Bakura's deck, and the dark spirit chuckled as he took it back and handed Atem's over.

"Be sure you remember those words, Pharaoh," Yami Bakura warned him as he turned and walked back to the other side of the bridge.

Atem likewise reclaimed his deck, and he and Yugi headed back to the entrance to the room, reaching the end of the bridge and then turning to face Yami Bakura as he did the same.

"This is it, Pharaoh," Yami Bakura declared. "The last battle this world will ever see, before darkness envelops all!" He activated his duel disk, the blades joining and sliding to the side before shimmering with light.

Atem activated his own duel disk, and Yugi mirrored his pose. "We'll defeat you together, Bakura, and put an end to your scheming once and for all! Not just Yugi and I, but all of our friends! They're with us even now, and with them behind us…we can't lose!"

Yugi thought of all their friends; Joey, Jaden, Yusei, Kaiba, Jesse, Jack, Crow, Yuma, Shark, Chazz, Kite, Astral, and all the monster spirits that accompanied them. Let's do this, Atem!, Yugi cried.

Yes!, Atem replied with a grin.

Atem and Yami Bakura both drew their five card hands, and their four-thousand life point scores flashed up beside them.

"DIAHA!" they both yelled.

"And let the Shadow Game commence!" Yami Bakura declared, and the pit below them began to seethe with shadows.

Just like we thought!, Yugi said.

Yes, Atem replied. A Shadow Game within a Shadow Game…

"I'll start things off, shall I?" Yami Bakura asked. He drew a card and added it to his hand. "I'll set one monster face-down in defense mode and then I'll end my turn," he declared, placing the card sideways on his duel disk. The backed image appeared in front of him.

"Hold on," Atem said. "You mean that's it? After all this bluster from you, I'd have expected more," he admitted.

"Oh, trust me Pharaoh, what I have in store for the two of you will make you long for the simplicity of moves like this," Yami Bakura said with a cruel sneer. "For now, I think you'd better remain concerned with yourselves."

"Very well!" Atem called as he drew a card.

He's definitely up to something, Atem thought. He must want us to attack his creature.

We could hold back, but since he placed his monster face-down, I bet he wants us to attack it and trigger its ability when it's flipped face-up, Yugi added. And if it's that Man-Eater Bug card of his, it'll destroy our monster anyway and leave us wide open to an attack from a stronger monster!

In that case, it might be better to destroy it, so at least our monster wouldn't be going down alone!, Atem declared to Yugi. He placed the card that he'd drawn onto his duel disk. "I call upon Skilled Dark Magician!" he called, and the dark-robed mage with an orb-tipped staff appeared in front of them. (4/1900/1700)

"Skilled Dark Magician", attack his face-down monster!" Atem yelled, and the mage charged forwards, bringing his staff down on Bakura's monster, a humanoid blue-skinned cockroach in orange shorts with a large satchel on his back, and 700 defense points.

"Why thank you Pharaoh," Bakura chuckled. "You've just activated the special ability of my Magical Merchant. You see, when it's flipped face-up, I reveal cards from my deck until I get a spell or trap card, and I add that card to my hand, while burying all the monsters I revealed in the graveyard," he explained. He held up seven cards – The Portrait's Secret, Doomcaliber Knight, Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, Necroface, Man-Eater Bug, Dark Ruler Ha Des and finally a spell card, Soul Reversal. "As you can see, I've uncovered the Soul Reversal spell card, so it's placed in my hand, while my six monsters are sent to my graveyard," Bakura explained, and he inserted the six cards into his graveyard slot. Magical Merchant then shattered into fragments, leaving a small glowing dent in the floor of the bridge as Bakura continued to smile.

Well, at least it wasn't Man-Eater Bug that he placed, Yugi noted.

Yes, but this troubles me, Atem replied. The Soul Reversal spell card allows Bakura to place a monster with a flip ability on top of his deck, and so if he wants to, he can bring it back for a later round. And this time, he can bring his Man-Eater Bug back to his deck. We'd best be ready for anything. He slotted a card into his duel disk. "I place one card face-down, and end my turn," Atem declared, and the backed hologram materialized at his feet.

"Excellent, now it's my turn," Bakura said as he drew with a grin. "You saw this coming Pharaoh…I activate the Soul Reversal spell card!" he called. "And I shall return Magical Merchant to the top of my deck."

What?, Yugi asked in confusion as Bakura withdrew the card from his graveyard and slotted it under the card holder. It's not Man-Eater Bug?

Bakura's planning something…or looking for something, Atem replied. Every time he uses that Magical Merchant's special ability, he sends a portion of his deck to his graveyard. If he doesn't draw the card he's looking for, he reduces the number of cards in his deck and increases the likelihood that he'll draw it later. He smiled. "Don't forget that your move helped me out as well Bakura!" he called. "Soul Reversal was a spell card, so it causes a spell counter to light up on my Skilled Dark Magician!" The yellow orb on Skilled Dark Magician's right shoulder lit up.

"In that case, you'll certainly appreciate this move," Yami Bakura commented as he slid another card into his duel disk. "I activate Graceful Charity!" he called, and he chuckled as he drew three cards, before discarding The Earthbound Spirit and The Gross Ghost of Fled Dreams. "And since I activated another spell card, your Skilled Dark Magician gets another spell counter," he noted as the orb on the mage's other shoulder lit up. "Next, I place a monster in defense mode, and another card face-down, and end my turn," Bakura declared, placing a card down, and slotting another into his duel disk. "After all, you can't expect me to do all of the work to help you summon your magician, can you?"

I'll bet he just played Magical Merchant again!, Yugi thought.

Atem grinned. If he thinks that monster can protect his life points, then he's in for a nasty surprise, he commented. He drew his card. "My move, Bakura!" he called. He frowned at his draw – Beta The Magnet Warrior. I don't have any spell cards in my hand, but I'll still be able to take out almost half his life points, he thought. He placed Beta down on his duel disk. "I summon Beta The Magnet Warrior!" he called, and the yellow Magnet Warrior composed of spheres connected by ribbed limbs appeared beside Skilled Dark Magician. (4/1700/1600)

"Beta, attack his face-down monster!" Atem ordered, and the Magnet Warrior charged forwards. Bakura's face-down monster flipped up – a skeletal figure in a purple robe that carried a scythe (3/300/200).

It wasn't his Merchant!, Atem thought in surprise. Beta landed a blow, but the small reaper monster blocked it with its scythe and withstood the attack.

His monster survived the attack!, Yugi gasped.

"How is your monster still on the field, Bakura?" Atem asked sharply.

"I'm afraid that my Spirit Reaper cannot be destroyed in battle, Pharaoh," Bakura explained. "With him in play, I possess an indestructible wall against any of your attacks."

"Just because my attacks aren't effective doesn't mean that I can't deal with him," Atem warned Bakura as he slotted a card into his duel disk. "I'll place this card face-down and end my turn."

"Ah, how kind of you," Bakura chuckled as he drew his card. "With Spirit Reaper guarding my field, I'm free to assemble the necessary cards to bring about your demise." He placed a card sideways on his duel disk. "This face-down monster shall do for now," he commented as the backed image appeared. He chuckled as he glanced at the pinpoint crack that had seemed to appear when Beta attacked Spirit Reaper. These fools have no idea what the final secret of this Shadow Game truly is, he thought.

This time he's got to have played his Magical Merchant, Yugi said thoughtfully.

Yes, that's likely the case, Atem agreed. He played Spirit Reaper last turn because otherwise he'd have been leaving his life points exposed to a direct attack after Magical Merchant was destroyed. This way, Bakura can safely keep sending monsters to his graveyard and adding cards to his hand.

"Cease your prattling strategies and take your turn, Pharaoh," Bakura said. "The spirits trapped in this tomb of yours hunger for your souls, and it would be such a shame to prolong their feast."

Atem smiled. "As you've just pointed out Bakura, a good strategy takes time to assemble," he chided. "Have patience; I'll come for your life points soon enough." He drew his card and smiled at the sight of the spell card. "Now I activate Pot of Greed!" he called, slotting it into his duel disk, then drawing two more cards. "And since I played another spell card, the third spell counter on my Skilled Dark Magician lights up, and you know what that means!"

Skilled Dark Magician burned away, and Atem plucked a card from his duel disk. "I summon Mahad – the Dark Magician!" he cried.

As he placed the card down, the dark-skinned, brown-haired, purple-robed mage rose from the ground, twirling his jade staff in both hands before bringing it to his side. (7/2500/2100)

Yami Bakura scowled. "Not that I should be surprised…but it seems you return to oppose me yet again, wizard," he commented. "I'll take pleasure in destroying you slowly," he vowed.

"You know that I will not let that happen Bakura," Mahad declared as he levelled his staff at Bakura. "By my life and my honour, I will protect my Pharaoh!"

"You'll perish trying," Bakura retorted.

"The only thing perishing now is your monster!" Atem called. "Mahad! Destroy his face-down monster with Dark Magic Attack!"

Mahad didn't even bother using his staff, he lowered it and then thrust out his hand, suffusing the room in glassy ultraviolet tones and blowing back the card hologram that concealed Bakura's monster – Magical Merchant. The insectoid merchant shattered into glassy fragments, which blasted past Bakura and embedded themselves in the wall behind him, leaving glowing scars in the rock.

Bakura smiled, and he began drawing cards from the top of his deck. "I assume that you still remember my Magical Merchant's special ability," he commented. He slid The Earl of Demise, Puppet Master, and Morphing Jar #2 into his graveyard, before holding up another spell card – Polymerization.

He's going to try to fuse his monsters together!, Yugi gasped. But his Spirit Reaper already can't be destroyed in battle, so what other abilities will its fusion have if he merges something with it?

I guess we'll be finding out, Atem replied as he frowned in frustration.

Yami Bakura chuckled at Atem's scowl. "From your befuddled expression, I take it that you have no moves left to make this turn," he commented. "Come now Pharaoh, you're making this far too easy…or could it be that my new strategies are catching you off-guard?" he asked. He drew his card and smiled. "Well then, let's see how you like this!" he called, placing a monster down. "I summon Nightmare Horse in attack mode!" he called. A horse that appeared to be composed of blue fire and wrapped in tattered bandages appeared on the field with a horrifying snort and neigh. (2/500/400)

"I know it doesn't look like much, but this monster can attack your life points directly," Yami Bakura explained. "So, it's a perfect candidate to combine with my Spirit Reaper, thanks to Polymerization!" he declared, slotting the fusion spell into his duel disk.

Spirit Reaper and Nightmare Horse swirled together, and the resulting fusion – Spirit Reaper riding a larger Nightmare Horse – emerged from the fusion portal, brandishing its scythe and leading on the bridge with a clatter of hooves on stone. (5/800/600)

"Say hello to the fearsome Reaper on the Nightmare!" Yami Bakura declared. "A fusion that inherits all of the special abilities of the monsters that formed him! Including the power to attack your life points directly, bypassing your monsters!" He swung his arm forwards and pointed at Atem. "Now, Reaper on the Nightmare! Attack his life points directly, with Leaping Scythe!" Yami Bakura ordered.

The fiendish horse galloped forwards, leaping over Mahad and Beta and swinging its scythe, emitting an arc of energy. The energy arc slammed into Atem and pushed him backwards, dropping his life points to 800. The remaining energy that hadn't hit Atem continued towards the wall, slicing into the rock and vanishing into the tomb's wall, leaving a pair of scars in the stone.

"Now that Reaper on the Nightmare has dealt you damage, its special ability activates," Yami Bakura declared. "And you are forced to discard a random card from your hand!" Reaper on the Nightmare, which had leapt back to Bakura's side of the field, delivered an uppercut of energy that slammed into one of the card's in Atem's hand, engulfing it in dark energy. Atem quickly slid the card into the graveyard.

"I think that shall do for now," Yami Bakura chuckled.

"Then it's my move!" Atem called, drawing a card.

If we don't take down his Reaper on the Nightmare quickly, we're going to lose more cards from our hand! We'll never win that way!, Yugi cried.

I suspect it won't be as easy as we'd like, Atem replied. Even though it can't be destroyed in battle, Bakura's Reaper only has eight-hundred attack points, yet he summoned it while we have Dark Magician on the field. Knowing him, he's got a card on the field that can stop our attacks.

We have to try though, Yugi said. The risk is too great not to.

Yes, you're right, Atem replied. He placed a new card down on the field. "I summon Queen's Knight in attack mode!" he called, and the crimson armoured, blonde female knight appeared on his field, brandishing her sword and shield. (4/1500/1600)

"Now, Dark Magician!" Atem ordered. "Attack Reaper on the Nightmare with Dark Magic Attack!"

Mahad charged forwards, but Yami Bakura was already touching a button on his duel disk. "You've just activated this trap card Pharaoh – Dark Spirit of the Silent!" he called.

"No!" Atem gasped as the trap card, bearing a horrifying ghost on it, flipped face-up.

"I know you remember this card Pharaoh!" Yami Bakura laughed. "Now your Dark Magician is possessed by the spirit of this card, silencing him and forcing another monster you control to attack!"

The howling spirit emerged from Yami Bakura's trap card, and it entered Mahad's body. The Dark Magician gasped in shock as he lost control over his limbs and he stopped dead mid-attack, frozen in place.

"Now your Queen's Knight is forced to attack me!" Yami Bakura reminded Atem, and Queen's Knight charged forwards with her sword extended, cutting across Reaper on the Nightmare's body. Her sword left a glowing rent in the air through the path that it had struck, and Yami Bakura barely reacted as his life points fell to 3300.

"Beta!" Atem yelled. "Attack him as well!"

Beta lunged forwards, delivering a solid blow with its arm that seemed to cause a crack in Reaper on the Nightmare, but when it moved away from the blow, the crack remained in place.

Atem frowned. What's going on?, he wondered.

Every attack that's been made so far has done that!, Yugi realized. Could they somehow be damaging the tomb permanently?, he suggested.

Surely it can't be that simple, Atem thought. I have a feeling that something else is at work here.

"If you're finished with your turn…" Yami Bakura commented, his life points having fallen to 2500. "I'd quite like to get on with your timely demise."

"Just go," Atem warned the dark spirit, and Yami Bakura chuckled at Atem's bluntness.

"Very well then…" Yami Bakura said. "But before I draw, the effect of my Dark Spirit of the Silent expires, freeing your Dark Magician from his possession."

Mahad, who had been hanging helpless in the air since the Dark Spirit possessed him, felt a cold rush as the spirit exited his body, and he gasped and faltered in the air, falling to the bridge and landing on his feet, before deftly leaping back to stand by Atem.

"First I play my own Pot of Greed!" Yami Bakura called, and the grinning pot appeared on his field and then exploded into shards. "I wouldn't get too comfortable there if I were you wizard," Yami Bakura commented as he drew his cards. "After all, you're about to serve a new master…or if you think about it, an old one." He slotted a card that he'd drawn into his duel disk. "I activate Change of Heart!" he called, and the card image appeared, bearing an angelic figure with a fiendish right side.

Bakura's favourite card!, Yugi gasped.

"And this time, you don't have my host to intercept this card's effect!" Yami Bakura crowed. "Possess his Dark Magician again and bring him to me!" he ordered, and the spirit emerged from the card, merging with Mahad and taking control of him. Mahad gasped as he was pulled away to Bakura's side of the field.

"Now feel your own servant's wrath!" Yami Bakura yelled. "Dark Magician – attack Queen's Knight with Dark Magic Attack!"

Mahad's arm was dragged up, his staff levelled at Queen's Knight – and then he was lowering his arm.

"What?!" Yami Bakura yelled in shock.

"Why so shocked Bakura?" Atem asked. "It's your own fault that I was able to stop your attack after all."

"Excuse you?!" Yami Bakura snapped angrily.

"When your Reaper on the Nightmare reduced my life points on your last turn, it also discarded a random card from my hand," Atem replied. "Unfortunately for you, that card was this monster; Electromagnetic Turtle," he explained. "And as it was in my graveyard, I was able to remove it from the game to end the battle there and then, not only saving my monsters from destruction, but also preventing the Reaper from attacking my hand again!"

"You've bought yourself a brief respite," Yami Bakura retorted. "But you don't yet realise the peril that you're falling into," he warned them. He slotted two cards into his duel disk. "I set two cards face-down, and I end my turn," he declared.

"And since you have, Dark Magician returns to my field!" Atem reminded him. Mahad leapt back over to Atem's side and he turned and glared at the spirit of the Millennium Ring.

"Are you all right, Mahad?" Atem asked.

"I shall be fine, my Pharaoh," Mahad replied. "However, I am eager to return the disservice that Bakura has inflicted on me."

"Sounds good to me," Atem said as he drew his card with a smile. "I summon Alpha The Magnet Warrior!" he called, placing the card down. The steel-grey mechanical soldier appeared on the field, clutching its own sword and shield. (4/1400/1700) "Now Mahad, attack Reaper on the Nightmare with Dark Magic Attack!" he yelled.

"As you command, my Pharaoh!" Mahad cried, and he leapt forwards with his staff outstretched, dark magics swirling at the tip.

"You shall not be touching my life points again!" Yami Bakura snapped. "I summon the spirits of Kul Elna to protect me – with this!" he cried, and a trap card flipped up on his side of the field. "The continuous trap card, Spirit Barrier!" he declared.

"Spirit Barrier?!" Atem gasped in shock.

Swarms of ghosts emerged from the trap card, seething around Bakura and Reaper on the Nightmare.

"Thanks to my spirits, you can no longer damage my life points as long as I control a monster!" Yami Bakura declared. Mahad's attack then struck Reaper on the Nightmare, and the spirits coalesced into a cohesive barrier between the two monsters, diffusing the attack. "In essence I am effectively invincible!" Yami Bakura laughed.

"That's not entirely true!" Atem warned him. "Your "spirits" are just a creation of that trap card, and it can still be destroyed!"

"But will you find yourself capable of doing so, Pharaoh?" Yami Bakura asked. He touched a button on his duel disk. "I activate another continuous trap – the all-powerful Destiny Board!" he declared. A ghostly board appeared on the field above the seething mass of spirits, and a flaming letter "F" ignited on the field.

No! Not that card!, Atem thought in horror.

Destiny Board? Yugi gasped. Oh great, now we have to get rid of this card!

"I assume that you're quite familiar with the terrors of this card," Yami Bakura commented. "As each of your turns pass, it spells out the countdown to your defeat! And would you look at that…unless you have any other moves to make, it seems that it's about to continue spelling out its message…"

"I place one card face-down, and end my turn," Atem said shortly, slotting the card into his duel disk.

"And there's the cue for the Destiny Board to spell out the second letter of your demise," Yami Bakura commented, and a spectral flaming letter "I" ignited about the Destiny Board as the mannequin arm operating it moved to the appropriate spot.

"Now that that's dealt with, it's time to continue whittling down your life points," Yami Bakura declared as he drew a card. "Ah, excellent. First, I activate Dark Sanctuary!" he called, and the field spell slot in the blade of his duel disk slid open, and he inserted the card into it. Rust-red and purple shadows began to spread from the space around Yami Bakura's feet, though the shining cracks in the walls remained. Creepy, eye-filled mouths opened in the shadows and leered at Atem and Yugi.

It's the same as my last duel with him, Atem reflected. First, he plays the Destiny Board to set a time limit on this duel, and now Dark Sanctuary to continue to limit our attacks.

And thanks to his Spirit Barrier, we can't even damage his life points anyway as long as he has a monster on the field!, Yugi added. Plus, Dark Sanctuary lets him play the Spirit Messages in his monster slots, so he can still keep Spirit Barrier on the field.

Of course, he doesn't know that we've already figured out a way to beat his Reaper, Atem reassured Yugi, and Yugi nodded.

Yup!, he said. Once that's out of the way, we just have to get enough monsters past Dark Sanctuary. He won't be able to fend all of them off.

"Now, I sacrifice the spirits of three fiends from my graveyard," Yami Bakura declared. "I call forth Dark Necrofear in defense mode!" he cried.

Black fog gushed from the floor in front of him, and a blue-skinned fiend resembling a mannequin, carrying a broken and battered marionette in its arms, emerged from the smoke. Her left arm and her legs were clad in purple leather with brass studs that flared at the cuffs, and her scantily-clad upper body was concealed behind an orange brassiere. (8/2200/2800)

That complicates things considerably, Atem thought. Even if I do get past Dark Sanctuary, I don't have any cards that can break past Dark Necrofear's defense points now.

"I'd suggest saving determining your strategy until after my Reaper on the Nightmare has claimed a card from your hand!" Yami Bakura declared. "Now, Reaper on the Nightmare, attack the Pharaoh's life points directly!" he ordered.

Reaper on the Nightmare galloped forwards, but Atem was already grinning. "I'm sorry to disappoint you Bakura, but I've figured out the weakness of your Reaper on the Nightmare!" he called. "Behold the trap card, Spellbinding Circle!" he declared, and as he touched the corresponding button on his duel disk, the trap card flipped face-up, bearing the magical hexagram that was brimming with energy.

"This trap card ensnares one of your monsters, stopping it from attacking or changing its battle position!" Atem explained, and the magical circle emerged from the card and captured both the horse and the reaper that rode it.

But that's not all it did, Yugi added. Now Reaper on the Nightmare's own special ability activates!

Reaper on the Nightmare hissed, and then it started to corrode away before suddenly exploding into fragments.

Reaper on the Nightmare can't be destroyed in battle, but if it's targeted by an effect then it automatically self-destructs!, Yugi explained. Now all we need to do is destroy Bakura's Dark Necrofear, and we have a straight shot at his life points!, he said.

Yami Bakura scowled angrily. This makes things considerably more complicated, he thought. Thanks to that move, he now has more chances to draw cards that can destroy the Destiny Board. He placed a card from his hand down on the field. "I set one monster face-down in defense mode, and end my turn," he declared.

"All right, now it's my turn!" Atem called as he drew his next card. I can't attack with Dark Magician, Atem thought. If Dark Sanctuary triggers on his attack, I'll lose a lot of life points. But if I can get rid of his smaller monsters and keep him from building his field, I can defeat him once I destroy Dark Necrofear!

"Alpha The Magnet Warrior!" Atem called. "Attack Bakura's hidden monster!" he ordered, and a howling spirit charged from Alpha's body and passed through Atem's.

"Too bad, Pharaoh!" Yami Bakura laughed. "My evil ghost had possessed that monster, so now you lose life points equal to half of its attack points!"

Atem groaned as his life points fell to 2500, equal to Bakura's. "Queen's Knight!" he called. "It's your turn!"

Queen's Knight charged forwards and she brought her sword down, splitting Bakura's hidden monster – a pulsating black and ochre creature carrying a sword.

"You've just slain my Goblin Zombie," Yami Bakura explained. "And since you did, I can now call another zombie monster with twelve-hundred or fewer defense points from my deck to my hand…and with one-thousand and fifty defense points, another Goblin Zombie certainly qualifies," he explained. He sifted through his deck and held up the second Goblin Zombie card with a nasty grin, casting his eyes aside at the rent left by Queen's Knight's sword strike.

This isn't going to work, Yugi said. Bakura will replace all of his monsters by the time we're ready to attack, and we can't afford to drain our life points at random when his evil ghost possesses them.

At this stage, we must hope we can draw the cards that we need to destroy his Destiny Board, Atem agreed. "I can't break through your Dark Necrofear just yet Bakura," he admitted. "It's your move."

Yami Bakura chuckled. "Not yet," he reminded Atem. "While it would be my pleasure, first the next letter of the Destiny Board appears on the field," he said as withdrew a card from his deck and placed it onto one of his monster zones. The arm moved to the "N" on the Destiny Board, and then the flaming letter "N" ignited in the air next to the other two. "And of course, I shan't waste any time in allowing the Destiny Board to progress," Yami Bakura added as he drew his card. "I'll place this monster face-down, and leave it at that," he said.

Atem placed his fingers on his deck. We need something now, he thought. I've got two turns left to either destroy the Destiny Board, or to defeat Bakura before it can be completed, he thought. All I can do is believe in fate…and the deck that Yugi and I built. And I have faith that it shall not let me down!

He drew his card, and he smiled at the sight of the trap card bearing a whirling tornado. That's more like it!, he thought happily, and he slotted it into his duel disk. "I place one card face-down, and end my turn," he called.

"Ah, so are you eager to see the Destiny Board complete itself?" Yami Bakura asked with a chuckle. The mannequin arm moved to the left of the board, moving the tile over the letter "A", and the corresponding spectral latter ignited.

"You drew something good, didn't you?" Yami Bakura chuckled. "That doesn't bode well at all…so I'd better be ready for your mighty comeback, destroying the Destiny Board, defeating Dark Necrofear, defeating me, and saving all of existence," he said casually, counting them on the fingers of his free hand. "Is that how you think this will go?" he asked as he drew his card. "Very well, I place another monster in defense mode, and one more card face-down, and I end my turn," he declared. Both backed holograms appeared on his field.

"Now go ahead, Pharaoh," Yami Bakura said quietly. "Make your move…will it be your last or will this have been mine?" he wondered. "It's only a single card away…"

"If you're trying to make me doubt myself or make me believe that the odds of failure are too high, it won't work, Bakura," Atem replied. "Destiny did not ensure my survival over thousands of years for me to fail now, and I think that deep down, you know it," he said firmly.

He swiftly drew his card and immediately placed it down on his duel disk. "I summon Breaker the Magical Warrior!" he yelled.

A blue-skinned warrior clad in crimson armour that resembled Mahad's robes appeared on the field. The golden edges of his armour glinted despite the shadows of Dark Sanctuary, his cloak billowed around his form, and he clutched a jade blade in one hand and a diamond-shaped shield in the other. Blue orbs dotted his armour and armaments periodically, marked with a symbol that resembled the Millennium Puzzle. (4/1600/1000)

"When this monster is successfully summoned, it gains a spell counter that increases its attack strength by three-hundred points!" Atem explained, and the orb on Breaker's sword lit up as it increased to 1900 attack points.

"However, his attack score isn't the most important part of his special ability," Atem explained with a grin. "By removing that spell counter, Breaker can destroy one spell or trap card on the field!"

"The Destiny Board…" Yami Bakura seethed.

"Go, Breaker, destroy Destiny Board!" Atem yelled, and Breaker's spell counter glowed brightly, expanding the radiance into its blade and all the way to the point. With a wild cry, Breaker brought his sword down, releasing an arc of energy that sliced through all four letters and the Destiny Board itself. The cut burned with spectral fire, and as the letters sputtered out and the fragments of the Destiny Board evaporated into smoke, the glowing rent remaining in the space above Bakura.

"And before you remind me that Dark Sanctuary still has the evil ghost around to limit my attacks, I activate the trap card, Dust Tornado!" Atem added, raising his hand after pressing the button, and the trap card rose in unison. "This card also destroys a spell or trap card on the field!" he declared. "Your Dark Sanctuary is no more!"

A tornado ripped its way out of the trap card, expanding around them to tear into the tomb and slowly stripping away flecks from Dark Sanctuary's shadows, then large rents in the shadows, and finally dispelling it completely, leaving the walls of the tomb behind.

"Now that your Dark Sanctuary is gone, you won't be able to protect all of your monsters from my attacks!" Atem warned Yami Bakura. "First, Beta attacks the monster on the left!" he yelled, and Beta charged forwards with its fist extended, connecting with a small brown-furred monster with green limbs and three eyes and leaving a small crack in the space it had occupied.

"You destroyed Sangan," Yami Bakura commented. "And as you well know, sending him from the field to the card graveyard activates his special ability, and allows me to move one monster from my deck to my hand with fifteen-hundred attack points or fewer," he reminded Atem. He held up a card bearing a spherical monster. "Morphing Jar ought to do nicely," he commented.

"Breaker! Destroy his other defense monster!" Atem yelled, and Breaker lunged forwards, carving the second Goblin Zombie in two and leaving yet another glowing scar behind it.

"With Goblin Zombie's special ability, I add a third one from my deck to my hand," Yami Bakura said as he sifted through his deck for the final monster, revealed it to Atem, and then placed it in his hand.

"That ends my turn," Atem declared.

Yami Bakura drew his card almost lazily. "If you think that this sets my strategy back, then you truly underestimate me," he commented. He slotted the card he'd drawn into his duel disk, and then placed one other card from his hand sideways. "I place one monster in defense mode," he declared. "Then I activate the continuous spell card, The Dark Door!" he called, and a spell bearing a monster standing in a doorway full of green energy appeared before him. "Thanks to this card, we can only attack once in a single turn," he explained. "And that shall conclude my turn."

Atem looked at his hand. I could sacrifice my monsters to summon Buster Blader, he thought. But since Bakura doesn't use any dragons, it wouldn't be of much use here. He's definitely placed his Morphing Jar face-down though, so perhaps I should summon Buster Blader now so that I don't lose it when he triggers its special ability…

Wait, Atem!, Yugi said. Buster Blader could be the key to defeating Dark Necrofear! We just need a monster with enough attack points to beat it, right?, he pointed out. But we don't have one in our hand just yet…but we might be able to get one from our fusion deck!

Of course!, Atem thought. That might be the key to surpassing Dark Necrofear!, he mused as he looked at the other card in his hand – Valkyrion the Magna Warrior. Thank you Yugi!, he thought as he drew his card.

It was Polymerization, and he slotted it into his duel disk. "I activate my own Polymerization card!" he called.

"Yes! The time is now!" Mahad called.

"I fuse Dark Magician with the mighty Buster Blader in my hand!" Atem declared, and the purple and gold armoured buster swordsman appeared on the field and then they swirled together into a portal of aqua light.

"Together they create the ultimate magical swordsman – the Dark Paladin!" Atem declared.

The aqua light shattered before them, revealing Mahad's fused form. Now clad in teal robes with golden edges akin to those on Buster Blader's armour, his skin had turned aqua and his hair a dark grey, while he wielded a massive, oversized halberd in one hand, the steel blade periodically separated by golden ornamentation. (9/2900/2400)

"Dark Paladin, destroy his Dark Necrofear!" Atem ordered, and Dark Paladin raised his weapon, emitting several shockwaves from it. They sliced handily into Dark Necrofear, and as the energy passed through her she went limp, dropping her mannequin on the bridge. The energy arced past Yami Bakura, leaving glowing scars in its wake as he laughed madly.

"All right Bakura, what's going on?!" Atem yelled angrily. "Every attack we've landed has been destroying the tomb around us! But this isn't normal at all, and those scars haven't faded! What are you up to?!"

Yami Bakura burst out laughing and he spread his arms wide. "Behold, Pharaoh!" he called. "This is truly the beginning of the end for this pitiful dimension that we find ourselves in!" he declared. "You're right, we are destroying this tomb with every attack…but it's not just the tomb, not just the rock, not just the valley. No, our Shadow Game is tearing into the fabric of this crude reality, every strike cutting a fresh wound in the space that Holactie and Zorc have drawn together to house our violent battles!" he crowed. "And very soon, we shall tear a hole in reality so fragile that it will bleed into the fault lines of existence, building on these until reality itself shatters around us! The clash of Zorc and Holactie shall spill into all worlds and continue until it engulfs the world in darkness for eternity! Time and space shall mean nothing, and mankind shall meet its ultimate end, the end it continues to relentlessly seek out for itself!" He brought his arm back to the center of the bridge and he pointed at Atem and Yugi. "Pharaoh!" he declared in the voice of Zorc as his eyes glowed a burning red. "Know that you are the vanguard for the sins of mankind, that created the gods themselves!"

Atem gritted his teeth. "I refuse to accept that!" he yelled. "I've told you time and again that this is not mankind's ultimate destiny! We strive for the light in our hearts, a glimmer than can hold back all that is dark and yet we accept that darkness as part of ourselves! It is the ultimate challenge of mankind to resist this time and time again! Because we know that there is hope, that we are better than this, and that we can leave behind a better world to come!"

He closed his eyes and held tightly to the Millennium Puzzle. "On my honour I swear, no matter what the future holds for me, that I will never lose sight of that goal, and never allow darkness to take root as you desire! You are my proof Bakura, not just you, the man who became so corrupted by darkness he became little more than part of Zorc, but the boy whose body you continue to usurp against his will, forcing him to do terrible things!"

"You're a fool, Pharaoh!" Yami Bakura snapped. "Remember; I am Zorc! I am the darkness unleashed by the Shadow Games, and like you I have continued to endure! So, conclude your turn in this duel, and allow me to unleash destruction upon this world!"

Atem closed his eyes, and he turned the other four cards on his duel disk. "I change all of my other monsters into defense mode," he declared. "And with that, I end my turn."

I'm sorry, Mahad, he said. But I promise, I will not allow him to continue to control you.

I know, my Pharaoh, the Dark Paladin replied. But know that even in the slumber of the graveyard, I am still by your side.

"Now that you've reached the end of your turn, the Dark Necrofear's cursed marionette is unleashed upon the field!" Yami Bakura declared.

The mannequin shattered and it released a howling spirit, which plunged into Dark Paladin's body. He went stiff as he was dragged across to stand by Yami Bakura, and rigidly turned to face the Pharaoh.

"Since it was destroyed this turn, Dark Necrofear's special ability allows the spirit of its marionette to lay its curse on one of your monsters, and as you can see, it bends it to my will!" Yami Bakura declared.

"Bakura…just go," Atem said angrily.

"If you insist!" Yami Bakura laughed as he drew his card. "I'll devastate all of your servants one at a time!" he declared. "Dark Paladin, destroy Queen's Knight!" he ordered, and Dark Paladin raised his staff again and unleashed a magical arc, cutting Queen's Knight in to and leaving a glowing scar in the wall.

"I place one monster in defense mode, and end my turn," Bakura declared, and another backed hologram appeared beside the other.

"All right. It's my turn," Atem declared as he drew his card, and he was pleased to see Gamma The Magnet Warrior. "I summon Gamma The Magnet Warrior!" he called as he placed the card down, and the pink, winged Magnet Warrior appeared on the field, striking a pose with its fists clenched. (4/1500/1800)

"Why would you bother with another weakling…" Yami Bakura wondered. "Unless…"

"And now I combine my three Magnet Warriors together, into Valkyrion the Magna Warrior!" Atem called. The three Magnet Warriors deconstructed, and then their parts came together; the feet and wings of Gamma attached to the body of Alpha, whose joints were replaced by those of Beta, and as it discarded its shield the three heads all came together into a new piece. The new warrior landed on the bridge with its sword at the ready (8/3500/3850)

Clever…, Yami Bakura thought. I knew he was up to something when he summoned Dark Paladin to destroy Dark Necrofear, and I was right. It's a good thing I have this ready…, he mused as he looked at one of his face-down cards.

"Now, Valkyrion! Attack Dark Paladin and free him from Bakura's control!" Atem yelled, and Valkyrion charged forwards with its sword extended.

"I'm afraid that won't be happening just yet," Bakura replied. "I activate the Call of the Earthbound trap card!" he called, and a trap card bearing several ghostly hands flipped face-up. "This allows me to choose the attack target of your Magna Warrior!" he explained.

Several ghostly tendrils emerged from the trap card and they wrapped themselves around Valkyrion's sword arm, dragging it sideways and away from Dark Paladin, and instead bringing it into contact with one of his face-down monsters, a jar of blue stone that contained a stretching cyclopean creature.

Morphing Jar!, Atem thought as Valkyrion cut it in two, leaving a glowing scar behind.

Yami Bakura chuckled. "Don't say that I never help you out Pharaoh," he commented. "Now that Morphing Jar has been flipped, its special ability discards all the cards from our hands and allows us to draw a fresh hand," he reminded him. He slid his cards into his graveyard slot, and then they both drew. Yami Bakura looked at his hand and he smiled at the sight of Diabound and Tragoedia.

"Don't forget that it's still my turn," Atem reminded Yami Bakura as he slotted one of his new cards into his duel disk. "I place one card face-down, and end my turn," he declared.

"Yes indeed, and now you will face the beginning of one of your worst nightmares," Yami Bakura replied as he drew his card. "For now, I shall sacrifice my Goblin Zombie in order to summon this monster – my Diabound Kernel!"

Yami Bakura's face-down monster burned away, and it was replaced by a strange, grey-skinned creature. It had a strange appearance, simultaneously demonic and holy at the same time, with small white-feathered wings on its back and a fiendish red-eyed face. In place of legs, it had the front end of a serpent with dull red eyes, and the creature simultaneously hissed and growled as it hovered above the ground. (5/1800/1200)

So his Diabound…it isn't just a monster spirit, Atem gasped. It's also a card, he thought in shock.

He never used this against me when we duelled in your tomb back in the world of your memories!, Yugi gasped. I don't know what it does!

Neither, but I can guess, Atem replied. When the bandit king Bakura used Diabound against me and my priests, it could turn invisible and inhabit the tablets of monsters, and it gained the abilities of any monsters it defeated, he recalled. It's possible that this monster has similar special abilities.

"To answer the questions that I'm sure you're burning to learn the answers to, I activate Diabound's special ability!" Yami Bakura declared. "It attaches to Valkyrion and weakens it!" he explained.

Diabound surged forwards, disappearing into the shadows as a dark mist smothered Valkyrion, causing its body to go slack as it fell to 1700 attack points.

"Now that your Magna Warrior has been sufficiently weakened, Dark Paladin can destroy it!" Yami Bakura declared, and the possessed Dark Paladin raised his weapon.

"Oh no he won't, Bakura!" Atem replied as he activated a face-down card. "Magical Hats!" he called. "Conceal Valkyrion from sight!"

Three oversized hats appeared on the field, and Valkyrion vanished beneath one of them.

"What?!" Yami Bakura snapped. "You're going to gamble on a game of hats?!"

"Not exactly," Atem grinned. "Magical Hats effectively places every monster concealed beneath it face-down in defense mode, which means that your Diabound can't be attached to Valkyrion any longer!"

A dark mist seeped out of the Magical Hats and it exploded in fragments, causing Yami Bakura to scowl angrily.

"Now you have Valkyrion's thirty-eight hundred and fifty defense points to contend with if you continue your attack," Atem said in satisfaction as he pointed across the field. "You won't take damage thanks to your Spirit Barrier, but there's no point in you attacking!"

"Well now, that wouldn't be entirely true," Yami Bakura commented. "But I'll take your advice, Pharaoh, and call off my attack."

Dark Paladin lowered his weapon, and then the Magical Hats exploded into fragments, leaving a single card behind.

"It's your turn, Pharaoh," Yami Bakura replied.

"Very well," Atem replied, and as he placed his fingers on the top card of his deck, he felt it pulse beneath his touch.

It's here!, he gasped. He drew his card, and he smiled at the sight of the red border. Now we'll be able to destroy Dark Paladin, allowing us to use spells again, he thought.

"And now that it's the turn after Diabound was destroyed while it was weakening a monster, it is resurrected!" Yami Bakura declared. Diabound Kernel materialized with its serpentine tail coiled defensively around it and its arms crossed.

That won't matter!, Atem thought. Diabound can't affect this card with its power! He flipped the card on his duel disk over. "I change Valkyrion the Magna Warrior from face-down defense mode into attack mode!" he called, and the backed image rotated and then pivoted up to reveal the Valkyrion card; Valkyrion itself materializing in a flash of light.

"Then I activate Valkyrion's special ability and sacrifice it to deconstruct it into the three Magnet Warriors that created it!" Atem continued. Valkyrion exploded into several fragments, and they joined back together into the three Magnet Warriors again.

"And now Bakura, I sacrifice all three of my Magnet Warriors!" Atem cried as he held up the red-bordered card. The three monsters burned away, and forks of lightning began striking through the roof of the tomb, piercing the stone and erupting into the depths below them.

"The heavens twist and thunder roars, signalling the coming of this ancient creature, and the dawn of true power!" Atem chanted. "Slifer the Sky Dragon!"

Thunder boomed through the tomb, and Yami Bakura looked up as a red glare began to radiate above them. A column of lightning shattered the centre of the tomb's ceiling, and from that lightning a sinuous red body emerged into the tomb, the giant spiked coils filling the space behind Atem. Spiked wings spread out behind him, and the monster's giant, two-mouthed head rose into the air and roared, buffeting both Yami Bakura and Diabound (10/X000/X000).

"All right! Looks like we got here just in time!" a voice called.

Atem and Yugi looked behind them to see Jaden leading everyone else behind him. Jaden had his arm around Yusei's shoulder, and Kite was helping up Shark, while Crow and Chazz were both supporting Joey. Jack, Yuma, Jesse and Kaiba all stood on their own behind them, battered but alive, and the Ojamas, Crystal Beasts, Neo-Spacians and Elemental HERO Neos all floated behind them with Astral.

"Everyone!" Yugi cried.

"You're safe!" Atem gasped. "You all won!"

Kaiba chuckled. "Yugi, you should have known I'd won when you began this duel," he replied as he held up his duel disk. "Your sword came in very handy, but it's been returned to the proper sheathe," he explained.

"An' I took down Marik's Egyptian God card!" Joey called. "Our Battle City got its proper semi-final after all!"

"Oh man!" Yuma cried. "That Egyptian God is so cool!"

"You know it!" Jaden replied. "That red looks just as good on me! Now show everyone what Slifer the Sky Dragon can do!" he cheered.

"It would be my pleasure Jaden!" Atem replied. "First things first!" he called. "For those unfamiliar with the powers of my Egyptian God monster, Slifer the Sky Dragon's attack and defense points are equal to the number of cards in my hand multiplied by one-thousand!"

Slifer roared at Yami Bakura again, and the watching spectators all shielded themselves behind their arms as best as they could, with the exception of Joey, whose arms were occupied, and Kaiba, who was no stranger to the powers of the Egyptian Gods. Slifer was brimming with power as it rose to 4000 attack and defense points.

"Now, Slifer!" Atem yelled. "Save my faithful servant from Bakura's control with your Thunder Force attack!"

Slifer opened the larger of its two mouths and began generating a ball of lightning in its maw. It leaned forwards and released the energy, breathing a massive pillar of lightning at Dark Paladin, who closed his eyes and smiled as the energy struck and blew him away. It continued past Yami Bakura and slammed into the wall, leaving a massive hole punctured in both the rock and in reality.

Yami Bakura just chuckled as the residual energy crackled around him, lashing breaks in the space surrounding him, though the barrier of howling spirits that surrounded him prevented the shocks from coming near him.

"Hold on, why didn't he lose any life points?" Crow wondered.

"That trap card!" Jaden gasped. "I've seen it before – it's called Spirit Barrier, and as long as he has a monster on the field, his life points are safe!" he explained.

"That's correct," Yami Bakura replied. "The Pharaoh will need far more than an Egyptian God monster before he can even think of harming me," he declared.

"In that case, I place one card face-down," Atem declared. "That ends my turn."

The backed hologram materialized in front of him as he slotted the card into his duel disk, and Slifer's attack and defense points dropped to 3000.

There it is!, Yami Bakura thought. He's dropped his guard!

"I know what you're thinking, Pharaoh," Yami Bakura commented. "You think that I'll try to summon a new monster to defend myself, only for Slifer's special ability to destroy it is that right?" he asked. "You think that Diabound can't harm your Egyptian God, and that you've practically won the duel?!" he snarled. "Prepare to learn how wrong you truly are!" he declared as he drew his card. He added the card to his hand and then he selected another.

"First, I change Diabound into attack mode!" he declared, and the grey-skinned fiend rose from its crouching position and let its arms hang limply to its sides.

"Attack mode?" Jack asked in shock. "He can't possibly be hoping to pit his creature against an Egyptian God, can he?!"

"But of course!" Yami Bakura declared. "That creature is only as strong as the cards in the Pharaoh's hand! So, my solution is of course to attack its source of strength!"

He slotted a card into his duel disk. "I pay one-thousand life points to activate the rare and almighty spell card – Delinquent Duo!" he yelled.

Kaiba's face went white as the blood drained from it. "No!" he gasped.

"Kaiba! Don't you hold out on us – what does Delinquent Duo do?!" Joey yelled.

"It's a rare card for a reason," Kaiba explained. "It doesn't attack a duelist's monsters, it attacks their hand!"

"He's exactly right!" Yami Bakura declared. "Thanks to the power of this spell card, the Pharaoh will have to send one card from his hand to the graveyard at random, and then chose another card to get rid of!" he crowed ecstatically.

Our cards!, Yugi cried.

Atem gritted his teeth in shock and he angrily shuffled his hand, sliding Witch of the Black Forest into his graveyard randomly, followed by Yu-Jo Friendship.

"You know what that means, Pharaoh!" Yami Bakura crowed. "Now you only have a single card in your hand, so you Sky Dragon only has one-thousand attack points!" He swung his hand forwards, the fingers crumpled unnaturally into a grasp. "Now is the time, Diabound!" he cried. "Attack his Egyptian God card and rid the field of its power with Helical Shockwave!" he screamed.

Diabound held up its hands and it began generating energy at its chest. Then it released the blast, a piercing column of energy surrounded by a spiral-shaped smaller blast. It impacted Slifer in the sapphire in its head and pierced through its body, impacting the wall above everyone's heads and blasting a hole in reality.

Slifer roared in agony, and it floundered before going limp. The massive serpentine dragon's body fell from above Atem, and it slammed into the bridge, then it tumbled into the depths below them, burning as it vanished into the darkness, leaving tiny glowing pinpricks.

Atem felt the wounds, and he clutched his forehead in agony and sank to his knees with a scream of pain and exhaustion as his life points fell to 1700.

"Yugi!" Joey screamed. "Talk to me pal! Tell me you're okay!"

"His condition should be the least of your concerns!" Yami Bakura declared madly. "My Diabound gains the abilities of the monsters that he defeats…and he's just defeated an Egyptian God, so he attains the special abilities of Slifer the Sky Dragon!"

"Say what?!" Jaden cried in shock.

"This is gonna get real ugly," Shark said with a wince.

Diabound growled and snarled as it shone with power and it began to swell to the size of Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Its wings enlarged in size and the horns and crests on its head lengthened, while the skin on its back became more defined and scalier, and the snake tail itself became thicker and stronger. Then its attack and defense points skyrocketed, rising to 6800 and 6200 respectively.

"Next I place one monster in defense mode, and end my turn," Yami Bakura declared. The backed image appeared next to Diabound as its attack and defense points decreased to 5800 and 5200.

"Well this is certainly a heck of a pickle Yugi's got himself in," Crow admitted.

"It's worse than you realize," Kaiba replied. "Diabound absorbed another ability from Slifer the Sky Dragon, so now whenever Yugi summons a monster, Diabound will attack it with two-thousand attack points, and if the monster isn't strong enough to withstand that blast, it'll be instantly destroyed."

"So it's too powerful for him to fight, and he can't summon any weaker monsters?!" Yuma asked in shock.

"It is a formidable adversary indeed," Astral agreed.

"Don't you worry," Jack replied. "Yugi – and Atem – aren't known as the King of Games for nothing," he noted. "They'll find a way to beat this thing."

"That's right!" Jesse agreed. "Don't forget, ol' Yugi still has two more Egyptian Gods in that deck of his somewhere!"

"Come now, Pharaoh," Yami Bakura said. "Were your earlier words but empty threats?" he asked.

"Never," Atem replied as he struggled to his feet.

"That's right!" Jaden cheered. "A duel's not over until the last card's played!"

"And this is far from my last card!" Atem yelled as he drew his next card. Perfect!, he thought.

"I activate the spell card, Swords of Revealing Light!" he called.

"What?!" Yami Bakura yelled.

"All right!" Yuma cheered.

"Thanks to this card, you can't attack me for three turns!" Atem explained as he slotted the card into his duel disk. "And the magic of the Swords also reveals your hidden monster!" he added.

Several swords of glowing light fell from the sky, slamming into the bridge between Yami Bakura and Atem. Then the face-down monster flipped up – Souls of the Forgotten, an aggregate of dark, howling ghouls in comparison to the whiter spirits that made up Yami Bakura's Spirit Barrier. Diabound snarled as well, and its skin turned darker as the radiance forced it back. Its claws lengthened, its serpent tail sprouted a cobra hood, and its face swelled into a monstrous maw with jagged horns.

"Wait, hold on a second," Chazz said with a frown. "Why'd that Diabound suddenly change forms?"

"Because Diabound is a monster fuelled by shadows and hatred, evolving based on the proportion of those in the owner's soul," Yami Bakura explained. "As the spirit of the thief's soul sealed within the Millennium Ring, there is that aplenty!" he declared with a nightmarish grin.

"All that darkness and hatred won't get you through the Swords of Revealing Light," Atem replied as he slotted a card into his duel disk. "So, I'll place one card face-down, and end my turn," he declared.

"Fine then. You have a few turns to struggle," Yami Bakura snapped as he drew, and Diabound increased back to 6800 attack points. "And I'll take advantage of my cards to put a stranglehold on yours," he vowed. "First, a gift for you with The Shallow Grave," he declared, and a spell appeared on the field depicting a spirit climbing from a gravestone.

"Wait, what's that do?" Yuma asked as the attack points of Diabound fell back to 5800.

"It allows both players to bring a monster back from their graveyard face-down," Astral explained. "Atem will gain a monster, but so shall Bakura, and no doubt he plans to sacrifice it."

"I shall resurrect Nightmare Horse face-down," Yami Bakura declared. "Now choose wisely, Pharaoh," he warned Atem.

"I'll revive Witch of the Black Forest in defense mode," Atem replied. Both backed holograms appeared on the field.

"Of course, my monsters won't be around for long," Yami Bakura commented. "Now, I sacrifice both of them!" he declared.

What's he summoning?, Yugi asked in shock as the monsters burned away.

"Watch out Atem!" Shark snapped. "I think I know what he's summoning, and it's bad news!"

"Silence!" Yami Bakura snapped as he placed a card on his duel disk, and the attack points of Diabound fell to 4800. "You're not fit to introduce the second survivor of Kul Elna – Tragoedia!" he declared.

With a mighty roar, a titanic green-grey monstrosity erupted into existence behind Yami Bakura. It had a spider-like abdomen, a crab-like claw on its left hand, and a demonic head with a lipless maw full of pointed teeth. (10/?/?)

"Tragoedia?" Atem asked. "I've never heard of this monster before!"

"Of course you haven't," Yami Bakura replied. "Even your father never knew of this monster. All he knew was that his astronomer vanished one night out of nowhere not long after the Millennium Items were created and the Shadow Games were unlocked."

He glanced over at Jaden and Chazz. "Those monsters you two hold, Jaden, Princeton," he said. "Your Winged Kuriboh and Light and Darkness Dragon contain the secrets to his power – Winged Kuriboh took his heart, and the Light and Darkness Dragon inherited the feather of Ma'at, an artefact of purity and light that is capable of defying destiny and repelling darkness. Your father's priests sealed him away – the spirit of a spy from Kul Elna whose rage at his hometown's destruction transformed him into a powerful monster! And now you face his wrath, for he shares the ability of your Egyptian God to gain attack points for every card in my hand-"

"I activate the Dark Renewal trap card!" Atem yelled.

"What?!" Yami Bakura shouted.

"Since you summoned a monster and I have a spellcaster on the field, I can sacrifice both that monster and my spellcaster to bring another one out from my deck or graveyard!" Atem explained. "So I'll sacrifice your Tragoedia and my Breaker the Magical Warrior!" he yelled, and a large maroon coffin appeared on the field. Both Tragoedia and Breaker were surrounded by blue light, and then they transfigured into magical energy, entering the coffin and causing it to glow with dark energy.

"Now be reborn, my faithful servant!" Atem yelled. "Dark Magician!"

Mahad erupted from the coffin and he twirled his staff as he landed in a crouch on the field.

Normally, Diabound would be able to attack him with Slifer's special ability, Yugi noted. But the Swords of Revealing Light prevent his attacks, so Dark Magician is safe!

And even if he could attack, Dark Magician is strong enough to endure his attack, Atem agreed.

Yami Bakura was still scowling at the destruction of his monster. "Enjoy the comfort of your sorcerer while you can," he snarled. "Soon, Diabound will wipe you from existence, and then time itself shall shatter. You can't conquer him with the power of an Egyptian God behind him, and as long as he's around, you can't harm me," he declared. "Now take your turn!"

Atem nodded, and he drew his card. Excellent!, he thought. I can finally use this combo! He slotted the card into his duel disk. "I activate Graceful Charity!" he called. "I draw three cards, and then I discard two!"

"Are you searching hopelessly for a card to save you?" Yami Bakura asked quietly. "Do remember that it's already been a long duel Pharaoh…and you're running low on cards."

Atem drew three cards, then slid two into the graveyard. "Now I reveal my trap card – Disgraceful Charity!" he called. "And I return the cards that I discarded to my hand!"

The two cards slid out of Atem's graveyard, and he placed one of them sideways on his duel disk. "I summon Big Shield Gardna in defense mode!" he called, and the long-haired, rough-clad tan-skinned man appeared on the field, crouching behind his massive shield. (4/100/2600)

As he did, Diabound began to snarl, raising its snake head, but the remaining swords still shone brightly, and their radiance repelled its movements.

"Then I place one card face-down, and end my turn," Atem called, slotting a card into his duel disk.

Yami Bakura scowled, and he drew a card. This won't help me at all, he thought. I need something that can destroy the Swords of Revealing Light! At least Diabound gets stronger… He cast a sideways glance at Diabound as it swelled to 5800 attack points. "Take your turn," he snapped.

"All right," Atem replied, and as he prepared to draw, he felt the card throbbing.

It's here!, Yugi cried. Now we can fight back!

Yes!, Atem agreed as he drew his card with a confident smile.

I lay myself down proudly for you my Pharaoh, Mahad said with a smile. Now call him out! The great god whose fist shall deal justice to Bakura once again!

Behind them, Winged Kuriboh hooted as it sensed the power of the card in Atem's hand.

"What's up pal?" Jaden asked.

"You're about to see my sword be unsheathed again, that's what's up," Kaiba commented.

"I sacrifice my three monsters – Witch of the Black Forest, Big Shield Gardna, and Dark Magician!" Atem yelled as he held up his card, and all three of his monsters burned away into blue light that entered the card in his hand.

"Oh boy boss!" Ojama Yellow cried. "This is gonna be big!"

Chazz grinned as the room began to shake around him, as did Joey and Crow.

"The second Egyptian God card…" Kite mused.

"The descent of this mighty creature shall be heralded by burning winds and twisted land!" Atem chanted. "And with the coming of this horror, those who draw breath shall know the true meaning of eternal slumber!" he cried as he placed the card onto his duel disk. "Obelisk the Tormentor!"

The ground shattered around them, and the space around it splintered. Atem fought to steady himself, and he watched in shock as the cracks spread through the entire tomb. The presence of a new monster caused Diabound to stir in rage, but the Swords prevented it from striking, leaving it helpless to prevent the massive blue-skinned, spiked winged giant from ascending into their broken reality. It raised its spiked head, red eyes gleaming in its skull-like face and it bared its chest and roared, sending out waves of power. (10/4000/4000)

Diabound snarled from both its monstrous head and its cobra-hooded tail, glowing with the stolen red aura of Slifer and radiating its own corrupted power towards Obelisk the Tormentor, and the waves of power began to clash. Everyone watching braced themselves in shock.

"What's going on?!" Jaden cried as his eyes glowed golden.

The Signers' Marks were all shining crimson beneath their sleeves. "I've seen this before!" Jack gasped. "When my Red Dragon Archfiend first faced a Nordic God, their power nearly tore our arena apart! Now that the powers of another Egyptian God are clashing with Diabound, it's doing the same here!"

"It's not just Diabound!" Kaiba gasped. "Remember, it absorbed the power of Slifer the Sky Dragon when it defeated it! So now the powers of two Egyptian Gods are clashing!"

"Mwha-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah!" Yami Bakura cackled. "You narrow-minded imbecile! Our Shadow Game has been tearing into the boundaries of this dimension all along! Every blow struck is a blow between Horakhty and Zorc, and the power behind the gods has shattered the space around us!"

As he said those last words, the power of Obelisk and Diabound intensified, and then glassy shards of existence erupted from the two monsters, and the Tomb of the Nameless Pharaoh vanished around them, replaced by a psychedelic mass of blue and green, or at least that was what everyone's minds could perceive. They all floated freely through space until glowing red energy spheres generated by the Signers' Marks enclosed them, while a golden sphere from Yuma's key enveloped him and Astral, and even Astral, Yuma, Shark and Kite, who had travelled in the spaces between dimensions, were shocked by what they were experiencing.

"Where are we Astral?!" Yuma cried.

"Everywhere and nowhere all at once!" Astral cried in shock. "The space in between dimensions, the void that consumes all! Reality does not matter here, and there is nothing beyond that which we brought!" he gasped.

"Yugi!" Joey cried in shock as Obelisk struggled against Diabound.

"This is crazy!" Jesse yelled. "Diabound can't even attack and it managed to do this much?! What kinda power do these God cards have?!"

"Such is the power of the gods that humans created,"Yami Bakura declared, his voice deepening into an echoing growl. "I no longer need this form!"

"That voice!" Kaiba gasped. "I know that voice!"

"Astral!" Yuma cried. "You don't think-!"

"Yes," Atem replied. "Bakura's true identity is Zorc!"

A massive winged figure swooped through the space around them as shadows engulfed Yami Bakura and his eyes glowed a bright red. The dark form of Zorc Necrophades roses behind Yami Bakura, and he drifted backwards into Zorc's body, whose eyes shone bright red as Yami Bakura vanished into his form.

"It's him!" Yusei yelled.

"Pharaoh!" Zorc declared. "Your ultimate failure is at hand! This dimension has been torn to shreds, and now my power will surge into the world of your memories!" he roared.

"Zorc!" Atem yelled. "Not only is there still hope, but that hope will be enough to defeat you once and for all!" he declared. "You've thrown everything you could muster at us within the rules of this battle, yet here we all stand! We are the living proof that the light of humanity will forever conquer the shadows, and that destiny will always give us the chance for survival!"

"This duel is still on!" Yugi yelled. "Atem and I will always oppose you and your power as long as we're together!"

"So, you refuse to accept defeat,"Zorc boomed. "Very well – I shall indulge your feeble struggles a moment longer and exact vengeance on your pitiful Gods,"he declared. "Continue this duel if you will, and I shall be your final opponent before your long overdue destruction!"

"Very well!" both Yugi and Atem yelled as Atem withdrew his deck from their duel disk. "Since Witch of the Black Forest was sent to the graveyard, I add one monster with fifteen-hundred or fewer defense points from my deck to my hand!" he declared. "And I choose Ra's Disciple!" he called as he held up the card.

"Ra's Disciple?" Jaden asked. "I've seen that before!"

"Yeah, me too!" Joey added. "Marik used it when he dueled me! Maybe when Yugi and Atem got The Winged Dragon of Ra back after I beat him, they got the Ra's Disciple cards too!"

"Then I end with this!" Atem declared, slotting a card into his duel disk. A single face-down card image appeared in front of him.

"Then I shall continue!" Zorc declared, and he raised his hand. Massive stone tablets materialized in the psychedelic space they inhabited, and then another fell from above them. At Zorc's feet, Diabound, now dwarfed by the master that commanded it, raged against the Swords of Revealing Light as it rose to 5800 attack points.

"I call upon Heaven's Lost Property!" Zorc intoned. "Now we both add three reinforcements to our reserves, and then discard two!"

Three more stone slabs fell in front of Zorc, and then two exploded. Atem likewise drew three cards, and then slid two into his graveyard slot.

"What was the point of that?" Yuma asked. "He didn't change the number of cards in his hand, so Diabound didn't get any stronger!"

"He is searching for a card that could destroy the Swords of Revealing Light," Astral explained. "Now we shall see if he was successful…"

"The round concludes here Pharaoh, and your feeble Swords of Light flicker out, with the darkness filling their void!" Zorc declared.

As the Swords of Revealing Light faded away, Crow slammed his fist into his hand. "I guess Yugi managed to avoid getting taken out early, but what's he gonna do now?" he asked. "Zorc can't be damaged, Diabound's too strong to destroy, and he's running out of cards!"

"It's not over yet," Joey said. "He's still got one more Egyptian God left, and it's the strongest one of all!"

"The strongest, yes," Kaiba noted. "But not indestructible."

"It's my turn!" Atem yelled as he drew his card. "I summon Ra's Disciple in defense mode!" he called, and the tanned man in white robes and golden armour shaped like The Winged Dragon of Ra appeared in the void in a crouch. (4/1100/600)

"Fool! Calling a monster has activated Diabound's special ability now that your Swords can no longer hold it back!"Zorc declared, and Diabound lifted its snake tail and fired a ball of lightning at Ra's Disciple!"

"Behold the Judgment of the Pharaoh!" Atem yelled as a trap card on his field flipped up. "By paying half my life points, I can activate a special ability based on the spells in my graveyard!" he explained. "And with Yu-Jo Friendship in resting in my graveyard, I can prevent you from using Diabound's special ability this turn!" he yelled.

His life points fell to 850, and the Eye of Wdjat shone on his forehead and on the Millennium Puzzle. Golden light radiated out from Atem's body and dispelled Diabound's lightning blast, and then reached even further, suffusing Diabound in golden light.

"Now Ra's Disciple activates its special ability!" Yugi called. "It calls out two more Disciples from my deck!" he explained, and two more Ra's Disciples appeared beside the first one. Diabound raged against its prison, but it failed to break the bonds of light.

"You thwart but one avenue of opposition, Pharaoh!" Zorc intoned. "This next card shall be your downfall!"

Zorc raised his hand, and a stone slab on his field flipped face-up inscribed with a fiend gorging itself. "I spring the trap of Just Desserts!" he declared. "Now for every monster you control, five-hundred points shall be ripped from your beating heart!"

"I activate the counter trap card Dark Bribe!" Atem yelled immediately, and a trap card bearing an image of a chuckling noble flipped face-up. "Your trap is cancelled, but you are allowed to draw a card!"

"How amusing!" Zorc laughed as the Just Desserts tablet exploded into stone shards. "You save yourself from defeat, only to dig yourself in even deeper!" A stone tablet fell to rest with those before him, and Diabound flexed as it increased to 6800 attack points.

"I end my turn with a face-down card!" Atem declared, and the card hologram appeared on his field.

"But why didn't he use Obelisk's ability?!" Joey asked. "He'd have destroyed Diabound!"

"No, not quite," Astral explained. "Ra's Disciple cannot be tributed at all – except for the summon of an Egyptian God. Therefore, he did not have the necessary cost to activate Obelisk's special ability."

"But he's gonna lose if Diabound destroys Obelisk!" Crow yelled.

"That is correct!" Zorc declared as a tablet fell to rest beside the others before him, and Diabound flexed and broke its prison of light as it increased to 7800 attack points. "Now, Diabound!" Zorc ordered. "Attack Obelisk the Tormentor! End this duel, end this Shadow Game, end this dimension, and erase the last dregs of hope for humanity!"

Diabound's serpent tail snaked around and opened its maw, blasting a column of lightning from its maw at Obelisk. Obelisk drew its fist back and met the attack head-on with a punch – and reality shattered again at the point where their blows made contact, thrusting them into a glowing green plane of space.

"Go, Negate Attack!" Atem bellowed, and another face-down card flipped face-up, disgorging three tornados that intercepted the lightning column. They struggled against it for a few seconds before finally dissipating it.

"Another mere delay of your ultimate destruction Pharaoh!" Zorc declared. "You've been duelling for so long that you've almost run your deck out of cards! You only have two left with which to challenge me!"

And then Atem smiled. "That's right Zorc. I do only have two cards left. And since I've used most of them, then I know exactly the cards that I have left, and the chance to draw the card I need is higher than ever."

"The card you need? What foolishness. Even your Egyptian Gods can't save you now Pharaoh, so there is no card you possess that can end this match in your favour!" Zorc retorted.

"We'll see about that!" Atem yelled as he drew his card – The Winged Dragon of Ra.

"I sacrifice all three of my Ra's Disciples!" Atem declared as he held the card up.

Zorc's massive red eyes narrowed as all three Ra's Disciples were surrounded by twisters and then they burned away, their energy seeping into the card in Atem's hand, which glowed with the bright light of the sun.

"Almighty protector of the sun and sky, I beg of thee, please heed my cry," Atem chanted as a massive sphere of golden metal appeared in the void above him and began to descend towards them. "Transform thyself from orb of light, and bring me victory in this fight. I beseech thee, grace our humble game. But first I shall…call out thy name! Winged Dragon of Ra!" he roared as the card slid into place. "Spirits sing of a powerful creature that rules over all that is mystic!"

The metal sphere began to expand and unfold into slabs of metal and rods, revealing the golden bird-like saurian dragon. It settled above Obelisk the Tormentor and it roared at Diabound. (10/?/?)

"Diabound! Strike it down!"Zorc ordered, and Diabound released a Lightning Blast from its serpent head.

"I'm afraid that won't work Zorc!" Atem smirked. "Diabound absorbed the power of an Egyptian God monster that is lower on the divine hierarchy, and as a result its special abilities are useless against the Winged Dragon of Ra!" he declared.

The blast slammed into Ra's chest harmlessly, and the golden dragon roared at Diabound, buffeting it back. Power began to radiate between the three monsters and reality began spitting glassy chunks around them.

"Ra's attack and defense points are inherited from the monsters that I sacrificed!" Atem yelled, and Ra roared as it powered up to 3300 attack points and 1800 defense points.

"It's useless! Utterly useless!" Zorc insisted, sweeping his arm backwards and sending a shockwave through the dimension.

"Now I activate the magic of Monster Reborn!" Atem declared as he slotted the final card in his hand into his duel disk. "And I revive a monster from my graveyard!"

The dimension began to shake again as a hole punctured in the space beneath them all, and a massive series of red coils began streaming through it as Slifer the Sky Dragon emerged onto Atem's field and roared at Zorc and Diabound.

The presence of the third Egyptian God shattered reality again, transporting them into the air over a golden desert. A massive pyramid hung in the sky above them, and below them was a massive table. Below them a titanic clash was erupting within the surface of the table – Zorc and Holactie were facing off, with rays of sublime light reaching for Zorc.

"Where are we now?" Yusei asked as the glassy fragments faded away.

"I think this might be Egypt!" Chazz yelled. "The pyramids kind of give it away."

"Not just Egypt!" Joey called. "Ancient Egypt – back in the Pharaoh's memories!"

The Zorc that hovered before them roared in anger. "Your Egyptian God monster was summoned with less than two-thousand attack points Pharaoh!" he bellowed. "Therefore, it will be destroyed by its own powers!" he yelled, and Diabound's serpent head breathed a blast of lightning at Slifer.

"Not exactly, Zorc!" Atem retorted. "Diabound will indeed strike Slifer, but its special ability only destroys monsters whose points it reduces to zero! And since I hold no cards in my hand, Slifer's attack and defense points are zero!" he called. "So Diabound won't destroy Slifer!"

The Lightning Blast hit Slifer head on, but the electricity rippled across its form harmlessly and it leaned forwards and it snarled at Diabound.

"Even so, it is still powerless!" Zorc declared. "Diabound is too strong for even The Winged Dragon of Ra to defeat! You cannot prevail! You have reached the end of your battle Pharaoh, and it is time for you to accept the darkness!"

"I have one chance left!" Atem yelled. "One face-down card left to play – Jar of Greed!" he yelled, and the trap card flipped face-up, depicting a grinning red and gold ovular jar. "This trap card allows me to draw one final card to defeat you, Zorc!" he declared, and he laid his fingers on the top card of his deck. The card began to shine, and he drew explosively.

"Now I sacrifice all three of my Egyptian God cards!" Atem bellowed as he played the glowing card.

"WHAT?!" Zorc screamed in shock. "YOU CAN'T BE! NOT AGAIN!"

"I can!" Atem yelled as each of the Egyptian Gods began glowing; Obelisk blue, Slifer red, and Ra yellow. They glowed brighter and brighter until the light became a pure white, and everyone covered their eyes, even Zorc.

"I give you…the Creator of Light herself!" Atem yelled.

The light seemed to explode, and Holactie emerged from the radiance, resplendent in white, god, and light blue, towering over Atem, Yugi, and the others to match Zorc in size, and the great evil god backed away in horror. (12/?/?)

"Holactie is a card!? A card that you possessed?! No!" Zorc roared.

"Yes!" Atem replied. "Holactie can only be summoned by sacrificing the Egyptian Gods, and her summoning cannot be stopped! But once she appears on the field, the duel automatically ends in my victory!"

"NO!" Zorc bellowed as Holactie raised her hands and began generating a titanic sphere of light.

"Darkness, begone!" Atem's voice yelled, and it echoed from below them as he commanded the Creator of Light to attack Zorc in the world of his memories. "Sublime Light Djeseru!"

Light radiated from the sphere in front of Holactie's hands, and as the rays hit Diabound and Zorc they pierced right through them. The two fiends jerked backwards and shuddered as the light suffused their forms, cracking them and slowly blasting them away, and with a final roar, the Zorc before them and the Zorc in the table below them were both disintegrated, vanishing before the light as if they were fleeting shadows.

Holactie lowered her arms, and she turned to face Atem and Yugi.

"Holactie…" Atem said. "…is it finally over?"

"Yes, Pharaoh," Holactie said with a smile. "Your battle against Zorc is finally complete. I regret that a moment which seemed so small could lead to such hardship for you – for you all."

"So…he did it," Joey realised. "We did it. All of us…"

"We did it!" Yuma finished for him, leaping into the air with a cheer. "I knew we'd take Zorc's duelists down, I just knew it!"

"Up high, Chazz-man," Crow grinned as he held out his fist, and Chazz snorted and tapped it with his own knuckles.

"Yeah sure, you weren't so bad either," he chuckled.

Jaden and Jesse high-fived one another as all of the duel spirits around them celebrated, while Yusei, Jack, Shark, and Kite all smiled at their companions' enthusiasm.

Atem sighed in relief, and he relinquished control of their body to Yugi.

"Ayyy, Yugi!" Joey cheered as he tried to run over to his friend, before realising that he was still in mid-air and flailing madly over to his friend and grabbing him in fear instead. "Nyaaagh!" he yelped. "Now that we've beaten the forces of evil an' all that, could we please get back on solid ground again?!" he asked.

"You shall have no fear of that Joseph," Holactie's melodious voice said as she turned towards her assembled chosen. "Your task is at last complete. You have thwarted Zorc's final efforts to engulf the world in shadow and fear, and thanks to all of your efforts, the Pharaoh can at last find peace."

Yugi smiled and he held the Millennium Puzzle in his hands.

"Am I to understand that we shall all be returned to where we were taken from?" Astral asked. "Us, and the duelists that Zorc summoned as well?"

"Yes, you shall," Holactie said. "You have earned your respite, and on behalf of all creation, I thank you for saving us all from the chaos and darkness that humanity has unleashed throughout history."

"It's not done though," Jaden said, and his eyes turned gold, then bichromatic. "There's always gonna be something else, another threat or evil plan to come, and it's our responsibility to be there to stop it."

"That's right," Yusei agreed. "We have to pass down the tools for future generations to preserve peace in the world, and we have to strive to keep it that way."

"Like my dad!" Yuma said. "He made it possible for Astral and me to become friends and save three worlds, and if it hadn't been for him, I don't know what might have happened," he admitted.

"And my father as well," Atem agreed. "He shouldered the sins of his generation to keep me safe, and as he did then, so I have for thousands of years."

"But there comes a time where we have to lay down our burdens, and trust in the future," Astral stated.

Kaiba smirked. "Finally. Someone here is making sense," he chuckles. "It's time to get back to the future," he declared.

"Indeed," Holactie agreed, and she held out a hand that shone with light. "Your worlds ache for your return, my chosen, so go now with my thanks and my eternal gratitude."

Light surrounded all of them, and Shark, Kite, Yuma and Astral all examined their hands.

"I guess…this is it for us," Shark said. "We saved all our worlds…but the battle isn't over."

"No, it isn't," Kite agreed. "But I'm ready to repent now."

"Final auxiliary observation," Astral noted. "Friendship and bonds can transcend even memory."

"And hey!" Yuma added. "Don't forget to feel the flow and high five the sky!"

As soon as he'd said those words, the light around the four of them intensified, and Yuma, Astral, Kite and Shark all vanished. Then the light around Crow, Jack and Yusei intensified as well.

"Catch ya later guys," Crow grinned. "See ya in the future thunder boy," he teased Chazz, and Chazz chuckled.

"And even if you forget us, never forget one thing," Jack added. "Who's Master of Faster? Who rules the Duels? That's right – it's me. Jack Atlas!"

"So rev it up into your lives once we're done here," Yusei said. "Because our future is what we make of it."

Light engulfed Yusei, Jack, and Crow and they vanished into its radiance. Then it was Jesse, the Crystal Beasts, Chazz, the Ojamas, Jaden, Winged Kuriboh, the Neo-Spacians, and Yubel's turn for the light to intensify around them.

"Be seein' ya'll!" Jesse said. "Been good ta know you, ain't that right guys?" he asked the Crystal Beasts.

"Indeed it has!" Sapphire Pegasus declared, and Ruby Carbuncle squeaked in agreement.

"The boss won't say it, but he's happy to have met everyone too!" Ojama Yellow chimed in, and Chazz smirked.

"Oh please," he said. "The pleasure in witnessing me Chazz it up was all theirs."

"And that's game!" Jaden cheered, pointing at Yugi, Atem, Kaiba and Joey. "See you in eight years!"

Light engulfed them as well, and they too vanished into the sands of time.

Finally, the light intensified around Joey, Kaiba, Atem and Yugi.

"No spoilers for ya last duel you two," Joey grinned. "I'll see you there!"

"The outcome doesn't matter," Kaiba warned them. "Pharaoh, regardless of what happens, I will find a way to settle things between us, and that's a promise."

Both Kaiba and Joey vanished in the light, and Atem turned to Yugi.

"The battle may continue, but our turn is almost over," he said.

"Yep! Only one duel left!" Yugi said. "And I don't plan on losing!"

Atem smiled, and he looked at the Holactie card in his hand as it dissolved into particles of light. "Let's go," he said.

Light engulfed Yugi and Atem, and they felt themselves racing into the sky next to each other. Other than each other, there was only the warm light, and then the light was gone, leaving the battered sands of Egypt behind with only Holactie hovering about them.

Holactie closed her eyes and smiled, and then she glowed with a bright light and she vanished as well.

DISSIDIA

And there we have it! A bit formulaic, but I did my best to add a bucketload of spice and pizzazz to the climax of this story! It's been over seven years since I first posted a snippet that I didn't intend to expand upon at the time, and it's a pleasure to finally finish this iteration of the story.

So much has happened since then! The ZEXAL villains have changed, and both Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V and Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS have began and concluded, with Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS next on the horizon (and me covering it on Yugipedia every step of the way). I'm still very keen to do a redux version of this story, especially with all of the legacy support that's been revealed since I began this fic and particularly in recent products, and this has only been bolstered by the announcement of the Master Rules April 1st 2020 Revision, which will make merging the styles of all six completed series much easier to accommodate! It won't be debuting for a while, and I'm more likely to post it in batches, but we shall certainly see.

Thanks to all of those who made suggestions (even if I might not have used a number of them), and to all who reviewed. I usually make it a habit to return every review over the history of my stories, but I might have to make an exception for this one considering it's been seven years. If you'd like to say anything in real time though, you can find me on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Custom Wikia Discord server, on Deviantart, where I posted versus quotes for many characters from Dissidia, or just send me a PM or review here on fanfiction.

Instead, to regular reviewers!

Permanently Inactive/sonofthetrigod: Thanks for being there from the beginning man. I do apologize for taking so long to finally finish.

jalen johnson: Thanks for being around for a good long while mate. Hope you liked the finale!

Zeladious: Thanks for your kind comments. I genuinely liked hearing from you every chapter.

PendulumWizard: Sorry that this took so long to finish my friend. Hope life is treating you well.

Peter Kim: Hope you're doing well. I'll admit I was a bit harsh when we talked, but I did appreciate the reviews.

D3lph0xL0v3r: Thank you for your exuberant support.

Spider-Man999: Apologies for the long wait! I hope this more than makes up for it!

Spyrofan777: Cheers for your suggestions regarding Jesse and providing me with motivation to cheekily tease the Crystal Pendulums many a time.

GearfriedTheSynchro: Thanks for peeking in every so often mate, and good luck with any fic you put your mind to.

VerdeSaiyan: Hope you enjoyed the conclusion mate! Thanks for checking this out on occasion.

Chenji251: Cheers for all the noted grammar fixes and errors in the duels that you noticed (though I admit that I'm not sure if I fixed all of them).

Jackpot 2: Thanks for your suggestions over the time of this fic, including the material for Yuma's emotional duel with Yubel.

Nico1302: As one of my first reviewers for this fic, carrying over from my work on the R fics, the immediate continuation of this story might not have happened had it not been for your review.

And to everyone else who reviewed, thank you! I bid you farewell for now, but if you want to see some of my writing that you haven't previously, in a manner of speaking, head over to Yugipedia to check out the episode summaries that I've been writing for Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS! That will likely take up most of my writing time for a while, but I'm hoping to post the prelude to the next iteration of Dissidia in tandem with the pilot to the newest Yu-Gi-Oh! series – Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS!

I post this just before midnight in New Zealand on December the 21st, so Happy New Year, and embrace the coming decade, no matter the adversary, just as the cast of this story have.

See you later everybody!

Sanokal