"The Seal of . . . what?"
Before the pharaoh could answer her, the blackness shot up like a wall in front of Celestia. Celestia galloped forward but quickly realized that he and Twilight were no longer in front of her. She halted her step and frantically searched the surrounding blackness for any sign of her faithful student. She saw none. Furious, she stomped the ground as hard as she could and stared upward.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH TWILIGHT!!!" she screamed, using the Royal Canterlot Voice for the first time in centuries.
Aza waited a few moments before answering in a clearly surprised tone of voice. "I've done nothing to your faithful student. I merely separated the two of them from everyone else; they're currently on the other side of me from the three of you."
Celestia turned her head to see that SpongeBob and Frank were striding toward her, concern plainly evident in their eyes; especially the former, what with his eyes being extra-large.
"Anyway," Aza continued, to which Celestia instinctively returned her gaze upwards, "there was nothing you could do to help either of them, for the Orichalcos will only disappear upon the duel's completion. Though, the loser will forfeit their soul to the seal's power."
Celestia gulped. The pharaoh had mentioned such a condition when explaining about shadow magic, and it had done nothing but worry her to no end for her student's safety. And to make matters worse, Twilight had only just learned about Duel Monsters from Yugi, who was clearly a master of the game; to have to fight against him with her soul on the line . . .
"Why can't we watch them?"
Celestia was pulled from her thoughts by SpongeBob's question to Aza. The sentient universe wasted no time in answering him unlike with Celestia. Her use of the Royal Canterlot Voice had undoubtedly been unexpected to the omnipotent entity.
"Because you're to meet up with the next three participants in this grand experiment of mine and fill them in on everything that's happened, happening, and going to happen."
"Okay, two questions," Frank said. "One, what do you mean 'going to happen'? And two, why can't you have them meet us the same way we met each other?"
"I've already explained what's going to happen, Frank, just not any specifics. And it'd be pointless to have everyone I select be roped in without an accompanying challenge. To that end, the three of you will be further split up for this task. Try not to die, as I'd rather not have blood coating my precious solidity."
Before anything else could be said, three plumes of blackness shot up around them. Celestia watched as, in an instant, Frank and SpongeBob were shielded by a tall, black curtain leaving her by her lonesome. Having managed to recompose herself, Celestia silently prayed for Twilight's safety. She wished for no harm to befall anyone, of course, but given the choice Celestia would always choose her faithful student over any other single person. And as far as Celestia could tell, she had been given such a choice.
"Remember your friends, Twilight; the magic of friendship will keep you safe as long as you do."
"Celestia? Where'd you go?" The pharaoh searched the blackness beyond the seal frantically for the white alicorn princess. When it became clear she was no longer there, he stared upwards and scowled. "Aza, what's going on!?"
Silence.
"Where did the Orichalcos come from!? We haven't started the duel, so how could it have been played?"
More silence.
"ANSWER ME!!!"
Still nothing.
The pharaoh breathed a sigh and looked at the lavender unicorn across from him currently sprawled on the ground face down, her hooves stretched out in front of her and her duel disk laying next to her barrel. It was then the pharaoh noticed that Twilight's duel disk was the same model as his. While this in itself didn't strike him as unusual, he couldn't help but feel that he was missing something important about that fact. It was then that Twilight stirred a bit, to which the pharaoh breathed a small sigh of relief.
"Twilight," he called over to her. "Are you alright?"
Twilight groggily got up on all fours, head still lowered as her horn flared to life and she levitated her duel disk in front of her. Before the pharaoh could ask again, she slowly looked up at him. He took a step back in shock upon spotting the mark of the Orichalcos on Twilight's forehead, just below her horn.
"Twilight," he breathed, "what's going on?"
Instead of answering, Twilight just chuckled lightly. Her chuckling soon turned into giggling, which then turned into laughing, which finally turned into a full blown maniacal, howling bout of ecstasy that sent a sleuth of shivers down the pharaoh's spine. Eventually, Twilight ceased and answered his question.
"I . . . feel . . . great," she stated, her tone one of amazement. "Never before have I felt power like this; even the Element of Magic pales in comparison to this."
The pharaoh grimaced. "Twilight, the Orichalcos is nothing but pure evil. It was responsible for the annihilation of an entire civilization in my world; don't fall victim to its allure like everyone else who comes in contact with it."
Twilight smirked. "Like you did, pharaoh?"
". . . How?"
Twilight's smirk spread across her face, resulting in a wicked smile that further chilled the pharaoh's spine. "I can feel traces of the Millennium Puzzle's magic within the seal's grasp."
And just like that, the pharaoh instantly realized where the seal had come from. Twilight's duel disk had been taken from the duel between himself and Rafael, where he'd played the seal out of desperation after receiving it from his opponent through Exchange. The Orichalcos was currently active in the field spell slot on the duel disk, but Yugi's own cards had been left behind to make way for Twilight's deck.
"Once the seal is played, it can't be removed . . . "
Twilight's smile settled into an angry frown. "This is your fault, pharaoh. I refuse to pay for your mistakes, and with the Orichalcos' power I'll guarantee it." Twilight levitated the top five cards of her deck in front of her.
The pharaoh drew five cards himself. "Twilight, we need to make sure our life points hit zero simultaneously. That way the Orichalcos won't take either of our souls."
"Wishful thinking." She placed a card onto the monster card zone. "I summon Magic Swordsman Neo in attack mode."
Appearing on the field was a young man with blond hair and green eyes, wearing a bluish-gray suit of armor with red gems embedded in gold carvings adorning each shoulder blade, a long blue cape, and red sleeves covering both arms entirely. In one hand he held a medium-length sword with a depression on both sides. Upon being summoned, the mark of the Orichalcos appeared on his forehead and his eyes gained a crimson tint.
Magic Swordsman Neo
Atk/Def: 2200/1000
Lvl: 4
"I end with one face down," Twilight said as she inserted a card into her spell/trap zone. An image of said card materialized by her hooves.
Twilight's hand: 3
"My turn," the pharaoh said as he drew a card.
We can't let Twilight fall victim to the Orichalcos, so until we can end this duel in a draw we need to hold back.
Agreed, Yugi, but with such power at her disposal we can't lax our defenses.
Right.
"Alright, I activate the spell card Fusion. With it, I'll merge Gaia the Dark Knight and Curse of Dragon in my hand-" he inserted the respective cards into the duel disk's cemetery slot, "-to fusion summon Gaia the Dragon Knight."
A knight wearing red and blue armor with a reddish-black lance in each hand appeared riding a grossly disfigured yellow dragon with deep, crimson eyes. Both let out their own battle cries in preparation for the obvious upcoming frontal attack.
Gaia the Dragon Knight
Atk/Def: 2600/2100
Lvl: 7
"How strange that my opponent's master appears to be a horse; a unicorn from the looks of it."
"Now Gaia!" the pharaoh shouted, "attack Magic Swordsman Neo!"
Gaia commanded the dragon to charge as he readied his lances for attack. The wicked yellow creature shot forward straight at Neo, veering a little to the left to allow its rider a clear strike. At the right time, Gaia thrust a lance straight into Neo's chest, to which the swordsman screamed in pain before being destroyed. Twilight hardly reacted to the damage she received from the attack, maintaining a stoic expression the whole time.
Twilight: 3600 LP
"I'll place a card face down and end my turn." Said card's image materialized in front of Yugi.
Yugi's hand: 2
"My turn," Twilight said as she drew a card, "and unless you truly deserve the title King of Duelists, you won't last through a couple more of them. I activate the spell card Spiritual Operation, allowing me control over your monster for the rest of this turn."
Several large puppeteer strings descended from the blackness and hooked themselves into Gaia and his dragon. They were then forced to move across the field to Twilight's side, upon which they turned around to face their former master. A pained look adorned Gaia's face.
"I've failed my master."
"But you can't attack with or tribute any monster gained with that card," the pharaoh stated. "What do you hope to achieve by taking control of Gaia?"
"You'll see in a second," Twilight replied. "Right now I'm activating my face down card."
Twilight's face down card flipped up revealing itself as Large Tornado of Dust. "Now, your own face down card is history."
A large funnel cloud emerged from above and proceeded to engulf the pharaoh's entire field. The face down card he played was swept up into the storm where it was revealed to be Holy Barrier -Mirror Force-. The trap shattered and the funnel ascended back up into the blackened sky.
Twilight smirked. "Now you're wide open, and while I can't attack with or sacrifice your knight I can still destroy him."
"What?"
"I activate the spell card Thunder Crash, destroying Gaia and inflicting 300 points of damage to you."
A rumbling of thunder sounded above the field, followed by five simultaneous explosions in each of Twilight's monster card zones; Gaia screamed out in pain as he was destroyed. A small blast of electricity then shot from the resulting smokescreen towards the pharaoh, striking him and causing him to shout in agony for a brief moment before regaining his composure.
Yugi: 3700 LP
"Next I summon Aqua Madoor in attack mode," Twilight said, placing the respective card in her monster card zone.
What appeared was a humanoid creature with spiky blue hair and a white mask adorned with teardrops running above and below both eyes. He wore a green cloak with yellow underlining and had extra-long red nails. The mark of the Orichalcos appeared on his mask, and his already crimson eyes gained a deeper shade of the color.
Aqua Madoor
Atk/Def: 1700/2000
Lvl: 4
"Now, Aqua Madoor, direct attack!"
With a wave of his hands, a wall of water appeared in front of the masked spell caster and started barreling towards the pharaoh, to which he chuckled.
"Is something funny?" Twilight asked, half-sarcastically.
"Just how foolish it was to assume I'd be defenseless with no cards on my field." The pharaoh took one card from his hand and sent it to the cemetery. "By discarding Kuriboh from my hand, I can reduce one instance of Battle Damage to 0."
Just as the giant tsunami was about to reach him, a giant version of the furry little fiend appeared to block the attack from connecting. Kuriboh took the full force of Aqua Madoor's attack and shattered as a result, leaving the pharaoh completely unharmed.
Twilight scowled. "I play my last remaining card face down and end my turn."
Yugi's hand: 1
Twilight's hand: 0
"Then it's my turn," the pharaoh said, drawing a card. "Twilight, if we're to both come out of this unscathed we'll need to cooperate."
Twilight snorted. "And I suppose that's what you proposed to your opponent after you activated the seal? Why should I care what happens to you when you clearly don't extend the same courtesy to your opponents?"
The pharaoh grimaced. "Twilight, what happened with me and the seal has long since passed back in my world. I activated the seal out of desperation because I let pride cloud my judgment, but I eventually overcame the darkness plaguing my soul and managed to set things right in the end."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "And how many souls did you have to hurt before that?"
The pharaoh said nothing to that. Being forced to remember all the pain and suffering he caused was hurting him in turn. But he knew he had to fight through the emotional turmoil if he was to help Twilight overcome the darkness in her own soul. His only other option was to end the duel in a draw, but that option seemed unfeasible on account of the lack of cards in his deck that could make such an outcome happen. Twilight's deck could have such cards, but she'd made it clear she didn't care what happened to him.
Pharaoh, let me take over.
What? Yugi . . .
Twilight's more angry at you than me. Maybe she'll listen better if I explain my side of the story.
But . . .
Trust me, I can do this.
. . . Alright, good luck.
The Millennium Puzzle once again activated and switched control back to Yugi. Twilight showed no reaction beyond a raised brow at the change.
Yugi looked determinedly at his opponent. "Twilight, you can't dwell on things that you weren't even a part of. You need to overcome the darkness in your soul to escape the seal's grasp, and the only way to do that is to forgive the pharaoh for what he did. I know you can Twilight, after all, I was the one who's soul was claimed by the Orichalcos in the duel and I forgave him in the end."
Twilight raised both eyebrows in surprise, then shook her head as if clearing her mind of unwanted thoughts. "Try saying that when you're at such a huge disadvantage. I'm up against not one but two opponents, one of which being the King of Duelists, and I've only just learned about the game's existence. I'm doomed without the se-"
"NO!" Yugi shouted, to which Twilight flinched. "You don't need anything other than your friends' support to make it safely out of this."
Twilight scowled. "My friends aren't even here!"
"What about Celestia?"
Twilight blinked. "Celestia?"
"Is she not your friend?"
"She's my teacher! My friends are all still in Equestria, and I doubt Aza has the courtesy to bring them all here right now to support me." Twilight looked up into the blackness, hoping for a denouncement of her assumption. When silence followed, Twilight hung her head and sighed. "Just make your move, Yugi."
Yugi frowned; this was going to be harder than he hoped.
"Alright," he said, inserting a card into the spell/trap zone. "I activate the spell card Ancient Rule. With it, I'm allowed to summon a high level normal monster without tribute." He placed his last remaining card into the monster card zone. "I summon the Black Magician in attack mode."
Twilight watched with indifference as Yugi's ace monster was summoned to his field. Though, she had to admit his appearance reminded her of herself; his purple costume paralleled her lavender coat, his purple hair to her darker purple mane, and his conical hat even reminded her of her horn. She wasn't the only one to draw comparisons, however.
"Is my master's opponent an equine doppelganger of myself?"
Black Magician
Atk/Def: 2500/2100
Lvl: 7
"Black Magician, attack Aqua Madoor!"
The Black Magician held up his staff and took aim at the opposing spell caster. He channeled his magic through it until enough power was built up, upon which he fired away at Aqua Madoor.
Twilight sighed. "I activate my own Holy Barrier -Mirror Force-."
Twilight's trap card flipped up revealing itself to be just that. Black Magician's attack reflected off the resulting force field and sailed straight back at him. Black Magician screamed as he took the full force of his own attack and was destroyed.
"Forgive me, master!"
Twilight glanced back up at Yugi with a resolute expression. "It's over, Yugi. If I draw a strong enough monster next turn, you'll lose."
Yugi grimaced. "I end my turn."
Yugi's hand: 0
"And with that," Twilight said, "I draw."
Great. Just great. Right when stuff starts happening Aza decides to be a jerk and separate me from everything and everyone else because it's too lazy to put the newest victims right in front of us.
Frank had no idea how long it'd been since the group was split up, but he'd been walking through never-ending blackness for longer than he knew was necessary; i.e. it wasn't necessary at all. He'd been keeping any and all foul language regarding Aza in his head out of fear for what the omnipotent entity might do to him, but he'd long since run out of vulgarities to call it by and was now just sulking to himself as he trudged onward through the black nothingness.
At one point, when Frank glanced up, he spotted what looked to be a structure through the blackness. Squinting, Frank saw that it was a dome-shaped building about fifty meters directly in front of him, with a lot of green visible from where he was.
Finally. That must be where Aza's next victim is; I wonder if they've already figured out they aren't home anymore? At least, wherever home is for them.
With a destination in sight, Frank began lightly jogging towards the building. At about halfway there, he realized the structure's wall was transparent, and that the green he saw was a combination of the grass and a large oak tree growing inside. Once he was three-fourths the distance there, he saw something else inside that baffled him; a giant hamster wheel.
Well, at least I know whoever lives here isn't human. Though, why does it seem familiar?
Once Frank approached the transparent tree dome he made his way around to its only entrance. He turned the crank to get in and opened the door, only to find another door in the way. Next to the second door was an intercom and in the middle of the chamber's floor was a drain. Again, the familiarity of everything confused Frank to no end. That is, until realization came in the form of a flashback.
-----
" . . . there's Sandy Cheeks who's a squirrel from Texas living in an underwater tree dome . . . "
-----
Frank wasted no time in crossing the chamber and pushing the intercom's button. It took no more than a few moments for a feminine voice with a southern accent to reply back.
"Hello?"
"Is this Sandy Cheeks?" Frank replied, already sure of the answer.
" . . . Yes, and who might y'all be?"
"I'm Frank West; a friend of SpongeBob's." Frank took a moment to prepare himself for any loud screams that occurred within the next ten seconds or so. "Listen, you might wanna spare a glance outside your tree dome; there's something you need to see."
"O-kaaay," came the reply.
A few seconds passed, during which time Frank imagined the squirrel walking over to a window inside her tree, looking outside, squinting through the glass dome, and then . . .
No scream came.
Instead, another couple of seconds passed until Sandy resumed speaking over the intercom. There was no panic whatsoever in her words, just surprised curiosity.
"What 'n tarnation's goin' on outside? I know it ain't nighttime already . . . wait, did SpongeBob get himself into a heap o' trouble again?"
Interesting conclusion to make.
"That's the thing, Ms. Cheeks, not only is SpongeBob in trouble, but so are you, me, and everyone else that's currently inhabiting this universe."
" . . . Pardon?"
Frank sighed. "Just come on out here and I'll take you to SpongeBob."
"Alrighty then, just hold on a second."
Instantly, Frank heard the sound of machinery activate below his feet accompanied by the telltale sound of an alarm sounding off over his head while a bright red light flashed repeatedly throughout the chamber. Frank realized this was for draining the chamber of water so as not to flood Sandy's tree dome.
Only there's currently no water to drain.
About a minute after the draining process had completed, Frank saw the crank on the second door turn and open to reveal Sandy Cheeks wearing what Frank could only assume was an underwater version of the stereotypical space suit seen in children's cartoons. Sandy herself gawked at Frank for a moment before holding her squirrel hands up in a combative stance.
"Y'all had better not be tryin' ta pull mah leg now, ya hear?"
Frank lightly face-palmed. "Look lady, I've already told you we're both in trouble. The last thing we need is infighting if we're on the same team."
"Same team against what?" Sandy asked without lowering her fists.
Frank was about to retort when something began moving out from behind Sandy's oak tree house. He craned his neck slightly upwards to get a good look at the thing, but it hadn't even fully revealed itself when Frank realized what it was and froze in silence. Confused, Sandy allowed herself a glance over her shoulder only to mirror Frank's reaction to the new arrival; a purple pterodactyl-like creature with claws, a devil tail, and blank yellow eyes. It flew out from behind the tree and, upon spotting Frank and Sandy, mirrored their own reactions before rushing towards them; its face doing nothing to hide the hungry look it was giving them.
"That for starters," Frank finally said.
The two of them proceeded to jump out of the creature's way as it reached their position.
Celestia trotted through the endless blackness in silence, the only audible sounds being the clops her hooves made as they struck the solid black surface underneath her. Not once did she bother estimating how much time would've passed since being separated from the group if time existed there. Time's flow had never mattered much to her anyway, being immortal and all. Additionally, Celestia's mind was too preoccupied with worrying for Twilight's safety. She had wanted to question Yugi more about how the seal worked and whether she could hope to break through it with her own magic; she didn't want to believe what Aza had said about how the seal only disappeared after claiming a soul.
Celestia was feeling something she'd never felt once in her long reign as Equestria's solar monarch; useless. In Equestria she was responsible for raising and lowering the sun every day, seeing to the well-being of her subjects as well as the country as a whole, and keeping good relations with the many lands outside of Equestria which looked up to her just as much as everypony under her rule did. To say Celestia was important back home was a gross understatement; she, along with her sister, essentially held the fate of all living things in their hooves. Nightmare Moon was a shining example of the potential both of them had to annihilate their world.
Now, however, all of that power and importance was non-existent. When Aza wanted to relocate her it could do so without any trouble whatsoever because Aza was everything. Not only that, with such omnipotence Aza could strike her dead at any given moment if it so wished, or it could send her back to Equestria no worse for wear. Not only was Celestia feeling useless, but the realization of being at such an entity's mercy began to frighten her. For continued safety she'd have to stay in Aza's good graces, which currently meant locating one of its three new victims.
Now I know how all my subjects feel when they're around me.
At one point in her walk, Celestia could've sworn she'd heard what sounded like the rumbling of thunder somewhere ahead of her. Tired of walking aimlessly through the blackness, she followed the rumbling as it continued sounding off once every few seconds, giving her a good approximation as to its location. Eventually, Celestia reached its source, and it took all her willpower to keep her composure upon seeing what it was.
There, no more than twenty meters in front of her, was a large craft of sorts with an orange paint scheme and a green cockpit window shaped like a helmet's visor. All around the craft was a bright green force field that was currently being used to protect from the source of the rumbling Celestia had heard; an enormous storm cloud with an eye in its center. The cloud's eye stared down at the craft in a seemingly emotionless gaze as it let loose bolt after bolt of lightning to strike against the shield protecting it.
Gulping nervously, Celestia resumed walking forward, horn alight with golden magic as she racked her brain for a suitable spell to deal with the sky-born monstrosity.
Well, at least I've found my assigned victim . . . I hope.
SpongeBob skipped through the blackness while singing a merry little tune. He didn't question how long he'd been traversing the endless black void around him, or whether Aza had just sent him on a wild goose chase and no new victims had been added to his experiment. SpongeBob had learned over the course of his life that dwelling on fears about what "could happen" would only make him grow conceited and shy, whereas he'd find true strength in meeting a challenge head on and keeping a positive attitude all throughout.
That wasn't to say SpongeBob had no concern over his own well-being. There was once a time when he'd be naïve enough to always expect the best from everything and everyone, but now he was wiser and fully aware of the perils life could (and usually did) throw in one's way. That was why he'd chosen his karate gloves when Aza asked which items everyone wanted; next to his most prized jellyfishing nets, his karate gloves were his weapon of choice when dealing with sinister forces. And SpongeBob had but one thought when dealing with such a thing.
I'M REA . . . dy?
SpongeBob was abruptly pulled from his self-encouragement when the scenery around him began to change. SpongeBob watched spellbound as the blackness faded away and was replaced by a multitude of bright colors, except for the ground which took on a more grayish hue. The colors took on definitive shapes as they appeared, eventually forming what SpongeBob figured was a large indoor amusement park. This was supported by the fact that, just up a set of stairs directly in front of him, was the entrance to what was clearly a roller coaster ride of sorts.
Ascending the staircase to the ride, SpongeBob noticed the car stationed at the ride's entrance was shaped somewhat like a space rocket. To his left was the control panel for operating the ride, but SpongeBob's attention was drawn to something inside the car's seat. Cautiously, and with his gloves at the ready, SpongeBob approached the car and peered inside. He tried to throw a hand over his mouth to keep from throwing up at what he saw, but was unable to on account of his water helmet. Sitting next to each other in the seat were two children's dolls with bloodstains dotting the entirety of their stitched bodies.
Suddenly, SpongeBob heard a revving sound from somewhere behind him. Readying his karate gloves, he turned around and his jaw dropped at what he saw. Standing there just ten feet from him was a human clown holding a pair of blue chainsaws; one in each hand. He looked lazily around in front of him almost as if he was lost in a daze. That didn't last long, however; he quickly perked his head up and stared right into SpongeBob's eyes. The yellow sea sponge felt a wave of chills shoot down his spine as he stared into the clown's eyes; there was no sanity in them, only pure, maniacal madness.
"The ride's stopped," he said with a slight chuckle.
SpongeBob gulped and was about to take a step back when the mad clown lunged at him.
"DIE ZOMBIE!!!"