Yu-Gi-Oh! DF Book One: Gather the Duel Force - Chapter Twenty-Five

And here it is, the final chapter of book one! I tried to set it, and the previous couple of chapters, to post automatically over the next couple of days, since I'm going out of town, but I couldn't get it to work. So I posted them all now instead.

You're welcome.

As for the book itself, in retrospect, re-posting it here has been the first time in a while that I've really taken a close look at it. I think it holds up okay, though my writing has really improved over the years.



Chapter Twenty-Five

Guardian of the Souls;
Souls Released!


John


With the defeat of the Order, my team and I made our way toward the entrance to the Burial. We weren’t sure what to do from here, but we each felt like something was drawing us inside. We stepped across the threshold together, entering a large stone inner chamber.

My team and I stepped slowly across the wide, open floor. As we passed them, several torches along the inner walls lit up on their own, as if by magic (which didn’t surprise us at all by now). With our path now illuminated, we were able to see the contents of the chamber; a stone pedestal with twelve round indentations, each as large as one of the Soul crystals, eight of them with darkened crystals still resting within them.

“This must be where the Forgotten Duelist sealed the twelve Souls,” I said, running my fingers over the surface. As I did, I began to feel as if we were being watched. I would not have given the feeling any thought, except that I realized after a few moments that it was coming from the Soul of Darkness. “Everyone, stop,” I said. “We’re not alone in here.”

“Do you think the Order followed us in?” Sarah asked.

“No,” I said, concentrating hard on the feelings emanating from my Soul. “Whoever it is, they feel different. Almost familiar.”

We spread out, and I concentrated even harder until I could feel where the presence was located. “They’re near the pedestal, whoever they are.”

I walked back over to the pedestal, and out of the darkness in the back of the room, stepped a young man in white with brown hair with blond bangs, wearing a golden shoulder dress, a golden cape, golden bands on his un-sleeved arms, and wooden sandals on his feet, his hair obscuring his face. He was maybe two or three years older than me. As weird as all of this was, it got weirder. The boy was transparent, as if he were some kind of spirit, and I was the only one reacting to his presence. In fact, I thought, looking back over my shoulders, my friends aren’t even moving!

“What did you do to my friends?” I asked the young man, feeling my anger bubbling under the surface, fueling my desire to protect my friends from harm.

“Don’t worry,” he replied. His voice was similar to mine, only a bit deeper and carrying with it more experience. “I am the Guardian of the Souls. I draw my life force from the energy of your Soul of Darkness, so I thought it best to speak to you alone. I need your help.

“You see," the young man explained, "I am all that is left of the legacy of the bearer of the original Soul. My job is to see to it that the Souls survive until The Forgotten Duelist’s return. I understand that it is the job of you and the other Bearers to keep the Souls, but I know that I can help, too. I am not The Duelist himself, but I am the last remnant of his immortal soul, bound here by his spell’s energy. I am bound to the Duelist, and until Blackheart is defeated and the Duelist finally finds rest, I cannot move on from this world.”

“Okay,” I said, “makes sense, I guess, but what can I do?”

“I need your permission,” the young man said, “to retain my dwelling within your Soul of Darkness. But that is not all. I cannot leave this ruin, unless I have a body, so I would like to ask that I be allowed to use yours. I will remain in the back of your mind, never interfering, and in exchange I will offer you assistance whenever I can, or whenever you ask.”

I thought for a second, to keep up appearances, but my Soul had already made my decision for me. The Soul trusted the young man, and I, in turn, trusted him as well.

“Alright,” I told the young man, “but if we’re going to be roommates, I’m gonna need to know what to call you.”

The young man looked up, his face revealed. He didn’t just sound like me, he looked a lot like me too. He thought for a moment, and then said, “I’ve never even known if I had a name, but I’ve always been partial to…Hiro.”


For whatever reason, the others had not been aware of Hiro’s presence, so he and I decided to keep his existence a secret for the time being. When I’d asked him why they couldn’t see him, he’d only answered that they weren’t ready. He returned to the Soul, and my team started moving again as if nothing had happened.

“I don’t think anyone else is here,” Tucker said. “You’re paranoid dude.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I must still be shaken up from the duel. Come on, let’s do this.”

My team stepped up close to the pedestal again.

"What do we do?" Tucker asked, looking at me.

"How should I know," I told him.

You shouldn't, said a voice in my head, Hiro's voice, but I know what you have to do. You bear the Soul of Darkness, so all other Souls answer to you. Just touch the pedestal and wish, and the seal will break over the others.

I nodded, reached up, and placed my hand on the surface of the pedestal, and the darkened crystals lit up, each a different color. They shot through the open doorway into the world outside.

“Did we do it?” Jen asked.

“Yeah,” I said, “we did it. We released the Souls. But I get the feeling that our fight isn’t over yet."

I paused. Hiro's words in my mind had reminded me of something.

"Pegasus’ account of the legend said that I would be the point upon which all of the Soul Bearers would converge," I told my friends, "and if the other Bearers are gonna converge on me, and in turn us, we can only expect that the Order won’t be far behind.”


After we released the eight remaining Souls out into the world to find their bearers, my team and I left the Burial. We noticed that the Order was already gone, leaving little reminder of our battle. I scanned the landscape, and I noticed that the sand where Tucker had been standing during his duel had been turned to glass by an intense heat. I thought of asking him what had happened, but since I already knew about his past, I had a good idea what his answer would be, and I let it drop, signaling to Odion in the truck that it was time to go. He didn’t once ask any of us what had happened.

I sat in the back of the truck this time, leaning my head back and closing my eyes.

Soul of Darkness, I asked silently, I need to speak with Hiro.

I’m here, I heard Hiro think back, and suddenly I saw him in my mind’s eye.

I have some questions for you if you don’t mind. I was respectful, but it wasn’t a question. He wanted to use my body as a condo, then the least he could do was answer my questions.

You say that you are the last remnant of The Duelist, but that you aren’t The Duelist?

Yes and no, Hiro answered. Over the millennia, since I appeared in the Burial of the Soul, along with the Souls, I’ve watched the events of this world, using the strength of my will to manipulate the magic around me to this end. I already wasn't entirely The Duelist, and I’ve developed into an almost entirely new being from the one I was then. In fact, most of the memories that I had of the Duelist’s time have faded.

Alright, I said, satisfied with the answer, then here‘s another one. Were you the one that caused those excavations to lose their way when coming here?

Yes.

Even the ones that never returned?

In a way. I could not let them find the Burial, but they were stubborn, unwilling to return home. Eventually it was their own foolish desire for knowledge, or treasure, or adventure, that caused them to perish.

This would have bothered me a week ago, but now I found that I understood. I didn’t know exactly what the Soul of Darkness could do just yet, but I could feel how much power it possessed. It couldn’t be allowed to fall into the wrong hands, ever.

Only one more question, I said. Are you good at games?

Hiro smiled, Very.

Good. Then we should get along just fine.


That night, my team and I caught a jet home. I sat in the plane and watched the sun set through the window, wondering about my future. I tried to go over in my head all that Pegasus had told us about the legend of the Duelist. I wanted to know what was in store for us. In spite of all of that, however, the only thing I could think about was what Christopher had said what seemed like a lifetime ago.

“John, forget this, I’m gonna make you my rival. Promise me that you’ll get as strong as you can, and next time we meet, we’ll show everyone which one of us is stronger, once and for all.”

Even with all of the things going on in my life, the question that kept running through my mind was, would my quest to protect the Souls help me keep my promise to Christopher?

I put those thoughts aside and I began to wonder, instead, if I had no choice but to protect the Souls, what would I learn in the process? What kind of person would I become?

But most importantly of all, as the jet flew us toward home, reflecting the glint of the sun, I steeled myself against the fact that, despite all of the uncertainty and all of the unanswered questions, my battle had still only just begun, and I kinda liked it.

Continue to Book Two >>