Wicked Arc

“Battle City is history and Yugi is the undisputed Duel King in possession of the three most powerful cards. But evil enemies arise from the shadows, willing to take away everything that is precious to him. Yugi and his friends will be tested like never before, in a thrilling battle that is centered on the evil counterpart of the Egyptian Gods, a series of monsters called: The Wicked Gods.”

Author’s Note: First and foremost i wanted to partially adapt “Yugioh R” from the spinoff manga, an interesting story that a lot of people may not know. It was heavily adapted here so it received a lot of changes, but it gave me the opportunity to continue the story of Pegasus and also tie it pretty well with the Orichalchos storyline on the second half. In there, i wanted to streamline it and lower the scale of power/danger so it wasn’t as conflicting with the original mythos. It is a thrilling story that definitely deserves a spot, so i was happy to include it. Sadly, i had to cut the Grand Championship as I didn’t had room for it and i feel that it works best in a future chapter.

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List of Episodes

Episode 91 - A Wicked Shadow

The events of Battle City have just concluded, and Yugi now owns all three Egyptian God cards. The problem is that he has become a celebrity, and a mob of duelists is waiting outside his house to challenge him for the God Cards. Jonouchi and Honda take on the task of distracting them by challenging them to duels, while he escapes with Anzu to go to school.
At Kaiba Corporation, the computer system is being hacked, while screens flash “danger” all around. The officers try to inform Seto Kaiba (who is in America) but the communication access lines are off. They can’t even cut power supply.
A hologram of a long haired man in expensive clothes appears next to Isono, who is in charge of those Kaiba Corporation employees, and declares that Kaiba Corporation now belongs to Industrial Illusions.
Back at Domino High School at the end of the day, Yugi and his friends are about to leave when all of a sudden the hacker (in a realistic hologram) starts to come out of a desk causing Jonouchi to freak out. He announces his name as Yako Tenma and that he is with Industrial Illusions. He states that he would like to challenge the current champion, Yugi, on the rooftop.
Yako reveals that he is there as a projection created by Kaiba’s solid vision system and the duel begins. The battle is tense and goes back and forth. Yako is a powerful duelist, and even forces Yugi to play Osiris on the field. At that point he summons a black colored version of Osiris, to everyone’s surprise.
Yako says that the card is called the “Wicked Avatar”, and is one of the “Wicked Gods” created by Pegasus himself to combat the Egyptian Gods.
In a flashback, we see Pegasus having tea with Yako a day before the Duelist Kingdom Tournament. Then, the flashback moves to Yako standing in Pegasus’ room after the duel title, with a Duel Monsters card featuring Pegasus’s lover, Cyndia, splattered in blood. Then, Yako is right besides Pegasus bed in the hospital, asking Croquet who was responsible for this, who in turn replies that everything happened after his duel with Yugi.
At that point Anzu disappears into thin air to everyone’s shock. In order for Yako’s plan to work, he captured Anzu moments ago and was using Kaiba Corporation solid vision system so that nobody would notice her absence. He says to Yugi, Jonouchi and Honda that if they ever want to see her again, they will have to come to Kaiba Corporation and duel all of Yako’s duelists in the tower. After this, he also vanishes into the air.

Episode 92 - Battle at Kaiba Corporation, Start!

After dueling Yako Tenma on the rooftop, Yugi, Jonouchi and Honda all rush to Kaiba Corporation headquarters to duel their way to Anzu.
However, upon arrival, fog surrounds the entrance and a woman in black clothing steps forward. She introduces herself as Tilla Mook, the first card professor. She gives Yugi a “Soul Prison” card which contains Anzu’s soul. Tilla welcomes them to Kaiba Corporation and starts explaining that there are 10 Card Professors scattered throughout the block areas of the tower, each holding a security key card that they need to advance through the tower and get to Anzu. There is also a 100.000 dollar reward for defeating Yugi. Jonouchi wonders how much he is worth, and she dismisses him with a snide reply of 10 dollars.
She then challenges Yugi to a duel with the ante being Anzu’s soul card for the key card they need to get into the building.
Meanwhile, Yako Tenma sits in front of his monitors looking at the scene. A shadowed figure sneaks up behind him, their right hand reaching for “The Wicked Avatar”, but without looking Yako tells them to keep their hands off his card, and they simply laugh at being recognized. They ask about Yako’s plan and asks him about why is he doing this. He replies that “Project R.A.” requires the battles to proceed, as the duel disk that the card professor wield were modified to redirect the duel energy from the strongest duelist, the wielder of the three gods, directly to the Kaiba Corporation server. The shadowy figure smirks, and it is revealed to be Bandit Keith.
Yugi defeats Tilla and takes her security key.

Episode 93 - To Each His Own Battle

Honda now has a duel disk, as Jonouchi asked the reluctant Tilla if she could lend him her own Duel Disk. The three of them proceed down a hall.
Upon entering another room, Jonouchi spots a card on the ground, running over to pick it up. He discovers that the card is trap card, and seconds later the floor opens up into a slide underneath him. His friends both dive after him, but Honda shoves Yugi aside, telling him to go on ahead and assuring him that they’ll catch up. Yugi yells as Honda also vanishes through the gap in the floor, which closes behind.
Below the ground, Honda finds Jonouchi starting a duel against a man that introduces himself as Pete Coppermine, the card professor of that block, who admits that he didn’t expect anyone to come tumbling down there. As the duel starts, another man appears from a second door. He presents itself as Kirk Dixon and says that he didn’t wanted to miss the fun as his block was even further separated from the main route so he thought that no-one would ever get to that point. He challenges Honda to a duel, and he hesitantly accepts, thinking on buying at least some time until Jonouchi can defeat his opponent and deal with this guy.
The two card professor mock them at first, treating as they are just a couple of losers that would only serve as momentary entertainment. But Pete is quickly outmatched by Jonouchi and promptly defeated. Kirk is surprised by that and makes some mistakes that Honda takes advantage of, managing to pull an unexpected win. Jonouchi and Honda pick up the security keys from the defeated professors and leave, looking to find a way to reunite with Yugi. As they pass through the weird Solid Vision labs, Jonouchi congratulates Honda on his very first win.
Meanwhile, Yugi gets to the next block and finds a restaurant. He can’t advance any further so he looks around and see an old lady in a wheelchair drinking tea. He walks to her and asks her if she saw anyone wearing a duel disk around. To his surprise, she activates a mechanism in her wheelchair and a modified duel disk appears. She is the next card professor he must face: Maico Kato.
The two of them have a good and honest duel that shows that she has the skills to be a card professor, but ends up being defeated by Yugi in the end. As she gives him the security key, she says she is glad to have dueled him, and that her grandchildren’s will love this story.
As Yugi takes the key, he is surprised to see Yako Tenma sitting near them, watching the duel.

Episode 94 - The Showdown, and then…?!

Seeing Yako Tenma sitting on the floor above, Yugi thinks that he is no hologram this time as he can sense his duelist’s aura.
Yugi reaches Yako’s floor and asks why is he here, as this isn’t the top of the building. Yako, who is accompanied by Mr. Croquet, agrees (they’re only halfway up), and remarks that he’s been watching Yugi. He praises him for being a brilliant duelists and says that there are only six Card Professors left. Yugi thinks in satisfaction that Jonouchi is also winning his way up the building.
Yako says that he wants to test a new strategy, reasuring Yugi that the duel will have no effect on his progress up the building and telling him that he will let him see Anzu if he wins. But if Yugi loses, he will have to give out his Egyptian Gods. They duel, with Yugi taking the upper hand but quickly being surpassed by Yako, who is able to set everything in place to summon his Wicked God. To Yugi’s surprise, instead of summoning “The Wicked Avatar” Yako summons “The Wicked Dreadroot”, the second Wicked God.
Meanwhile, in another area of the building Jonouchi and Honda hear a noise that they think is one of Yugi’s God cards. Honda is shocked that Yugi’s opponent is of the strength that would force Yugi to Summon one of the God cards, and they decide to hurry up and get up there.
Yako Tenma, wearing his normal attire, laughs as he stands in front of Anzu’s body, trapped in a machine and glowing with light. He comments on the energy, stating that the Project has just advanced to the next stage.
Back in the theater where Yugi is dueling, “The Wicked Dreadroot” emerges from a blaze of power behind Yako. Yugi struggles to defend himself. At the sideline, Croquet claps his hands, thinking that this is perfect. Yugi may have conquered Duelist Kingdom and Battle City, and is truly an elite Duelist, but of all the Duelists raised by Pegasus, Master Tenma was the only one he called “perfect”. He thinks that the outcome of the Duel is clear.
Yugi is pushed to his limits but he refuses to lose, he has to beat him and save Anzu. He pulls off a great fusion combo and manages to slash through the Wicked God. A second Tenma (like a projection) emerges from his body, thinking that he doesn’t believe it: to think a non-God could defeat a “Wicked God”. No matter though; he’s already achived his objective. His image fades away, as he thinks to himself “see you later, big brother.”

Episode 95 - The Tenma Brothers’ Secret…!

Tenma falls to his knees and Croquet rushes up to him, telling Yugi that he is no longer in any condition to fight. Suddenly, Yako Tenma appears on a videoscreen, congratulating Yugi for his victory. Yugi asks if this is a recording but Yako replies that it’s live. He has been on the top floor of the building the entire time, and the person defeated by Yugi was someone he was mind-controlling: his twin brother Gekko Tenma.
Gekko begs Yako to stop all of this, but Yako thanks him on advancing the R.A. Project to the next phase. He shows Yugi Anzu’s body connected to a machine, and he is horrified to see that Anzu’s eyes are blank. Yako caresses her head, telling Yugi that this is the former Anzu Mazaki; thanks to the energy emitted by “The Wicked Dreadroot”, her body and soul have been separated. She’s now a vessel for the next soul: Pegasus’ soul. His right eye bulges as he explains that the purpose of the “R"ebirth of “A"vatar Project is to summon Pegasus to him once again. Soon, he will begin the procedure to transfer Pegasus’s soul into Anzu’s body. He wonders if Yugi can stop him, and cuts the feed with a laugh.
Gekko rips apart the Wicked Dreadroot card and explains to Yugi that Yako is using the power of the Wicked Gods to achieve his objectives. He controlled his mind because he opposed to his plan, and the next stage of that plan was unlocked moments. The amount of duel energy released was enough to separate Anzu’s soul from her body. Gekko apologizes, and reminds Yugi that he said he’d let him see her if he won, and explains that her spirit is as of now trapped in the Duel Ring Server, so if he puts her card in his Duel Disk, she’ll appear.
Yugi places Anzu’s Soul Prison card in his duel disk and Anzu appears in front of him as a hologram, gasping in surprise. She dives forward, her image passing right through him. She is sad, but tries to put a brave face as Yugi assures her he will rescue her. Then, Gekko continues to explain what is going on.
Yako and Gekko were orphans, adopted by Pegasus, who trained brilliant kids from all over the world as game designers and duelists. But everything changed after the Duelist Kingdom tournament. Pegasus was injured after his duel with Yugi, he lost his golden eye and ended up in a coma.
In a flashback, it’s shown that the two brothers were at the side of Pegasus bed, when one night Shadi materialized from thin air. They recognized him from a painting, and while Shadi barely looked at them, he gave the unconscious Pegasus a long look before turning around to leave. Yako jumped in front of him and asked if there was a way to save Pegasus, but Shadi replied that he was lost, as he was attacked by someone who had taken his eye and put his mind in torment. Without his Millennium Eye, Pegasus’ mind would wander in the shadows forever, in an eternal desert without escape.
After that, Yako turned into research, looking at anything that might help him. He began researching the application of mystical energy present in the millennium items and the god cards, and ended up completing the work that Pegasus started by crafting the Wicked Gods: artificial god cards created from data Pegasus had left behind.
These were cards of great power, relative to that of the Egyptian Gods and made to try to keep them in check if needed, but cursed as a result, filled with evil intent. And so, the evil within those cards poisoned Yako’s mind, damaging his psyche, and setting in motion his “Rebirth of Avatar Project”. With it, he aims to restore Pegasus mind into Anzu’s body as a vessel.
Yugi and Anzu are shocked to hear this, and they ask why they are using her for this, why are they all involved in this. Gekko answers that according to Yako it was due to three specific conditions. They needed to use Kaiba’s central computer to properly control the required amount of duel energy, so they took the opportunity now that Kaiba was currently in America after Battle City. Second was that they needed a host to be mentally and physically healthy to withstand the duel energy, as they couldn’t move or use Pegasus real body. The third condition was that the host needed to be someone whose possession would inflict a great pain to Yugi Muto, who was in Yako’s eyes responsible of what happened to Pegasus. Anzu protest that Yugi wasn’t the one that put Pegasus in that state, but Gekko replies that someone told Yako that he did. That someone was Bandit Keith, a revelation that shocks Yugi and Anzu.
In his mind, Yugi and his other self briefly talk about this. They know that the real attacker was the evil persona of Bakura hidden in the Millennium Ring, something Ishizu told them back during the events of Battle City.
Gekko then tells how Yako first tested this project in Keith himself. They found him lost and confused, his mind completely gone after being mind-controlled by someone else. Yako had detected that it was a power similar to the one that put Pegasus in a coma, although not as severe, so he took the opportunity to test his theory. By using the power of the Wicked Gods and a modified duel disk, Yako had constantly dueled his card professors and barely managed to end up generating enough duel energy to restore Keith’s mind. Bandit Keith, who was originally the first ranked card professor, thanked Yako and told him that back in Duelist Kingdom he had seen Yugi leaving Pegasus’ room with his Millennium Eye after the finals.
Yugi and Anzu reply that that was a lie, as they argue that Bandit Keith was expelled from the castle before the finals, to which Gekko agrees. He did assume that it was most likely a lie, but when he confronted Yako about it it was too late, as Keith had already poisoned his brother’s mind with revenge. After confronting him, Gekko had fallen under his brother mind control since then and was only freed when Yugi destroyed the Wicked Dreadroot.
At this point, a cackling laugh resonates in the place as the real Bandit Keith appears.

Episode 96 - Jonouchi… Helpless?

As Honda and Jonouchi climb some stairs they stumble upon a girl with a Duel Disk grabbing a soda from a vending machine. Jonouchi shouts that he finally found the next card professor and challenges her to a duel, but she runs away. They run after her but she is really fast. They split up and Honda manages to find her first. He asks why is she running and she timidly replies that she is a little scared of duelists. He asks if she is really a duelist and she says that she is, in fact, a card professor in charge of that block: Reiko Kitamori. With his newfound confidence after beating the previous card professor, Honda challenges her to a duel.
In the previous area, Yugi and Gekko were just interrupted by Keith, who arrived with another card professor called Ted Banias. He is the card professor of the next block, but was bored of waiting so Keith dragged him along to that place. Ted challenges Yugi, but Gekko stands in his way and duels him instead. After a back and forth duel, Gekko shows why he was called a “Perfect” duelist by Pegasus and wins the duel. Keith beats up Ted for losing. Yugi asks him for the security key but Keith says that he will lead them right to Yako himself.
Jonouchi, who got lost, arrives moments later only to find out that Honda has been utterly defeated in just a couple of minutes. The girl is super shy though, and Jonouchi senses almost no fighting spirit in her. He assumes she must be a beginner, and that Honda lost because he is also a beginner.
The duel then begins, and Jonouchi is surprised to see her reading her own cards after drawing them. Reiko confess that she only began playing duel monsters around a month ago. And yet, somehow, she gets the upper hand in their duel. Jonouchi is pushed against the ropes as her strategy proves to be really efective, but he senses that she is fighting scared so he talks and shows her a different approach to what actual dueling is all about, on how the duelists clash their souls against each other. By making a bold comeback, he manages to win the duel (while also letting out a sigh of relief). Reiko is no longer scared of the duelists, and is a bit excited after discovering a new side of herself during the duel.
But when Honda asks her for the security key, she tells them that she doesn’t have any. She was there only to buy time, as the route they came down is a dead end. They are frustrated by this, as it seems they cannot get to the top of the building from that place. And just at that moment a computer screen nearby flashes up and Mokuba shows up, calling for them.

Episode 97 - Pegasus’ Prodigies!

Yugi and Gekko follow Keith through the building and get past the security blocks until they stumble upon two Card Professors. Gekko recognizes them as Pegasus proteges, and says that they were also trained by Pegasus like him. They are the top rank members of the Card Professor guild: Richie Merced (rank 1) and Scott Depres (rank 2).
Richie confronts Keith for altering the plan and beats him up, stating that he is no longer relevant. Yugi stops him and Richie threatens to punch him too. Gekko intervenes, and he is called a traitor. He replies that this project is wrong but they pay no mind to his words, stating that bringing back master Pegasus is the most important thing for them. They then lead Yugi and Gekko towards the next area to duel, while Keith stays behind, apparently unable to move.
Scott challenges Yugi to a duel. But in the place of his other self, Yugi decides to take up the challenge. He says to his other self that he has been dueling non-stop, he needs some rest and that he also want to help rescue Anzu. He doesn’t want to just stand around and watch. He takes out his own deck for the duel.
As the battle unfolds, Scott proves to be incredible strong. At one point he calls out Yugi, having figured it out that it was his “weakest” self the one dueling, and demands to fight “the other yugi”. But the spirit in the puzzle shows up just for a moment to clarify that his partner is in no way weak, and that he doesn’t need his help to destroy him. Back at it, Yugi performs a great combo to take back the initiative and win the duel.
Richie steps up and challenges Gekko to a duel, showing his unique black duel disk, proof of being the first ranked Card Professor. He says that he cannot forgive Gekko for being a traitor, for betraying everyone raised by Pegasus. In turn, Gekko replies that he will take up the challenge and that while he also wants to see Pegasus again, they can’t drag Yugi or Anzu or Kaiba Corporation into this.
The duel starts and they are evenly matched. Richie then says that there was a time when Pegasus called Gekko a “perfect” duelist, as the other kids weren’t able to beat him. But that was long ago, and while Gekko stood still he trained to become the number one Card Professor. Richie then outplays Gekko by taking advantage of his rush to save Anzu, and defeats him, much to Yugi’s horror.
As Richie turns out to leave, Yugi yells at him to wait. Richie reminds Yugi of his promise: they had agreed to have Gekko fight for him. “This is as far as you go, Yugi” he says, as the door closes behind him. Gekko scream in frustration and a crying Yugi runs to the door, begging someone, anyone, to open it. They have to get to Yako, otherwise he won’t be able to save Anzu…

Episode 98 - Turning the Tides

Jonouchi and Honda each land a punch as the elevator doors open, knocking out one of the guards. They are advancing through the building by taking out the Industrial Illusion employees they find by force. Mokuba is guiding them using a communication device, as he is still in America with his brother. The Kaiba brothers learned about the breach a few hours ago, and they were trying to get everything under control once again. After understanding the situation, Mokuba had decided to guide Jonouchi and Honda to the server room so they could try to speed up the processs.
Richie walks down the hallway and an Industrial Illusions employee congratulates him on his victory. He asks what the situation is like, and the man says that according to Yako the final phase is about to begin. There is a slight problem though, as Mokuba Kaiba is guiding the other two that came up with Yugi to the Duel Ring Server.
Richie decides to deal with them himself, but he is stopped by Keith who had just overheard the conversation. Keith punches him as payback for before. Richie insults him, saying that he is nothing more than a guinea pig for Pegasus’ summoning, and Keith replies that he doesn’t care about any of that. His only purpose here was to get revenge of those kids that made a fool out of him. Now that one is out of the picture, he’s got one target left: Jonouchi. And he is not giving him to Richie so he challenges him to a duel.
As they battle, it becomes clear that Keith is holding up a trump card, and when Richie pushes him to the edge Keith brings forth the third Wicked God: “The Wicked Eraser”, to Richie’s surprise. “I hate to break it to you Richie, but i’m the number one Card Professor” he says as he launches his final strike.
Meanwhile Jonouchi and Honda managed to get to the Duel Ring Server where they found a group of Kaiba Corporation employees. There, they follow instructions to let Mokuba access remotely. The place is really cold due to the external cooling needed to keep the servers operating, but the temperature is dangerously rising. If this keeps up, there’s no telling what could happen to the servers. Isono explains that the Industrial Illusions people input data for some new cards, and it’s been using all its processing power to perform strange calculations ever since.
Jonouchi angrily asks “what about Yugi, where is he? Did he actually lose?”. He begs Mokuba to find Yugi, and Mokuba nods. Still where he was before, Yugi has failed to open that door, when he hears Anzu’s voice. He quickly puts her card onto his Duel Disk and she appears in the air. Yugi asks her what is wrong, and she replies that she’s scared, something is rushing into her. She begins to fade, asking Yugi if she’s going to disappear, and they reach out for one another as she fades fully. Yugi screams her name with tears in her eyes.
Jonouchi’s voice sounds out from the videoscreen at the wall, and Yugi answers. Tearing up, he tries to tell Jonouchi about Anzu, but Jonouchi tells him that this is no time for crying. Yako’s started his Project, so things aren’t looking so good. One employee suddenly tells Mokuba that all the data in the Duel Ring Server is being downloaded to one place: Anzu Mazaki, who is on the floor above them. Jonouchi contacts Yugi to tell him that he’s found Anzu, telling Yugi to leave her to them. He should just hurry and get up to the roof where Yako is. Mokuba opens the way for Yugi.
Wiping his tears away, Yugi agrees, and turns to Gekko, who still kneels defeated on the walkway, telling him to come on. Gekko says that he lost so he mustn’t go any further, but Yugi convinces him to keep going to save his brother.

Episode 99 - Rematch! Keith vs Jonouchi

Honda and Jonouchi are in the ventilation ducts trying to get to where Anzu is, when they see Yugi and Gekko in a corridor. Jonouchi jumps out and attacks Gekko, thinking that is Yako. Yugi stops him and after a brief explanation Jonouchi calms down and apologizes. Honda leaps down from the ducts and sees Bandit Keith standing there looking at the group.
Jonouchi deliberately ignores Keith and pushes Yugi and Gekko on, convincing them to keep going to find Yako. He then tells Honda to go save Anzu. Keith, furious that Jonouchi is ignoring him, challenges him. Jonouchi gives him a snarky comment and Keith warns that he came from the dead to destroy him. Just before leaving, Gekko explains what the black duel disk in Keith’s arm means and tells him to be careful. Honda also leaves, but tells him that Anzu is heavy and that he needs his help carrying her back there. Jonouchi mutters that he’ll tell her he said that, but Honda snaps at him to hurry up and come find them.
Jonouchi gets serious and asks if Keith is Tenma’s pawn now, but he replies that this has nothing to do with it. He wanted revenge after Duelist Kingdom, but he got his mind twisted by that Marik guy. Yako healed him but Pegasus was in a coma so he couldn’t get his revenge against him. Instead he redirected Yako’s anger by telling him that Yugi was responsible for Pegasus fate, which he knew would lead him right to Jonouchi once again. Jonouchi asks if what he’s saying is that Keith wanted to Duel him, so he made Tenma target Yugi and Anzu. He clenches his fist, for that, Tenma nearly killed Anzu? Yeah, he’ll fight Keith, he yells furiously. He’ll kick him right back down to hell, and their rematch begins.
The battle is intense. Keith is playing to his very best but Jonouchi is not losing ground. At one point Keith is both surprised and horrified to see that Jonouchi uses his own Time Machine card against him. It’s his card, and he’s been looking for it. Jonouchi points out that after he beat him at Duelist Kingdom, Keith got mad, threw his Deck down, and ran off, remember? He figured Keith didn’t care, so he helped himself to the card.
Jonouchi admits that at Duelist Kingdom, he didn’t really have tactics, so he guesses he was an amateur then. But while Bandit Keith was wasting time being mind-controlled, he met all sorts of Duelists and he’s grown. Keith is now seeing the new and improved Jonouchi. He laughs, adding that Keith lost to him while he was an amateur, so there’s no way he can beat him now. Keith isn’t happy, but simply thinks that Jonouchi should go ahead and be overconfident.
Keith takes a card from his wrist and attempts to place it in his duel disk, but suddenly an alarm begins ringing: the black duel disk prevents cheating. They continue exchanging blows until Keith manages to summon the third Wicked God to the field. Jonouchi is surprised that Tenma’s “The Wicked Avatar” wasn’t the only Wicked God, and tries to defend himself as the god overpower his defenses. Eventually he find a way out and defeats The Wicked Eraser.
But the dying god starts to take every card with him due to its effect, and it also seem that is affecting Jonouchi himself, who feels completely covered in darkness. He manages to shake it off and thinks that that was too close, Keith almost got him. Somehow it felt like he was getting swallowed up, sucked down into the darkness. And it felt like he was never going to be able to come back. Looking at Keith, he thinks that he is just like Tenma: they’re both possessed by the Wicked Gods.
Keith asks Jonouchi why he won’t die. Why he resist. He tears his Wicked God card in half and drop the rest of his cards, clutching his head in pain. He starts asking if he is going to disappear again. If Jonouchi is going to hunt him all the way into the jaws of death. Jonouchi tells Keith that its his turn, and not to be afraid: he is going to save him now. He make a final move and wins the duel, dispelling the darkness.
Removing his cards from the Black Duel Disk, Keith unclasps it and throws it to Jonouchi. He tells Jonouchi to fight him one more time and put on the Black Duel Disk. Jonouchi promptly refuses. Keith uses his fist in fury, but he’s too weak and his hand falls to the ground.
Jonouchi explains that he’s not going to Duel Keith while he’s like this. Right now, he’s like some demon of vengeance. But even Keith must have been different when he first picked up a card, back when he Dueled just for the fun of it as he looks at Keith’s “Barrel Dragon” card. He chuckles, admitting that he can’t imagine Keith ever being like that. Then he tells Keith that he’s giving this back to him, and places the “Time Machine” card in Keith’s hand, telling him to use that card, remember how it feels to Duel for fun and then come and find him. As he runs off, he tells Keith to face him as a Duelist instead of a demon, and he’ll Duel him anytime he wants.

Episode 100 - Rebirth of Avatar!

Yako has gone to the very top of the building, the place called “Apex Arena”. In there he summons his Wicked Avatar and watches as it starts to accumulate more and more power. Now that they has gained enough duel energy, the process is in motion and it cannot be stopped. He calls for Pegasus and a shadowy figure of him actually appears, while at the same time a beam of pure energy hits Anzu.
As Yugi and Gekko race down a corridor, a man leaning against a wall is shocked that they made it up to this floor, calling them losers. He hadn’t heard anything about losers getting a second chance, but he can’t just ignore them. Gekko grits his teeth, realizing that the man is a Card Professor called Willa Mette, but Yugi rushes forwards as the Millennium Puzzle glows. Yugi orders the Card Professor out of the way and defeats him in a one-turn kill combo using Osiris.
Anzu wakes up in a dark place. For a brief moment she sees herself in the machine, but then her vision is obscured once again. She realizes that this is her own soul and that she is wandering in the most absolute darkness. There is nothing here. Scared, she calls out for her friends but there is no response.
Suddenly, somewhere far away she hears a faint noise. She tries to focus on it and gets a glimpse of a small light that is slowly getting bigger and bigger. The light is approaching her, and transforms. It’s no longer a light, but a mist that takes human form. It takes the form of Pegasus but it has no mouth, and only one empty eye. She screams as the shadow extends his arms towards her. And then it vanishes.
A sphere of darkness, even darker than everything around her, is formed where the mist was. And then, it passes through her. Memories and feelings invade her, rage and fury. But behind all of that a sensation of fear and pain. Of an artificial creation grasping for its own right to exist. A black sustance then start to cover Anzu from the feet up, and even though she tries to scream there is no one to hear, until she is completely swallowed and then… there is only darkness.

Episode 101 - Apex Arena

Honda stands by Anzu’s body, still trapped in the machine. The door opens and Jonouchi runs in. Honda asks if he won and Jonouchi replies that of course he did. Noticing the black Duel Disk on Jonouchi’s arm, he asks what it is, and Jonouchi explains that it means he’s the number one Card Professor.
Anyway, they try to free Anzu but Mokuba shows up in a computer screen and warns them that they cannot take her out of there yet. She is still linked in to the Wicked God cards, and her spirit has become detached so unless they cut their link to the Wicked Gods, her spirit will never return to her body. Jonouchi is furious that Anzu is right there but they can’t save her. Mokuba explain that there’s just one way: they have to defeat the Wicked Gods. The three of them think of Yugi.
At the Apex Arena, as the stream of lightning passes through “The Wicked Avatar” through the floor, Yako declares that the resurrection has begun, laughing. Yugi and Gekko arrive and he welcomes then. He asks if they see, if they hear. Each card contains a piece of its creator’s soul and now those pieces are shimmering with the power of the duels.
Right now the Duel Ring Server is distilling that power and pouring it into Anzu Mazaki. Yugi yells at him to stop, but Yako holds up a card bearing the image of Pegasus and declares that he “summons Master Pegasus”, placing the card in his duel disk where it flares with electricity.
Yugi has a brief vision of Anzu’s body covered in black shadows. The Wicked Avatar sends out a final wave of power, swirls… and then begins to vanish. Yako cries his master’s name in vain, but the result is clear: The project has failed.
Yako sinks to his knees and Yugi yells his name, asking what is the meaning of this. Gekko says that the R.A. Project has failed, and Yako stands up and looks at his brother with hate in his eyes. Gekko, the traitor, has no right to be there, he says. Gekko admits that he is right: he lost, he is powerless. He can’t fight anymore but Yugi can. Sneering, Yako says “how the Perfect Duelist has fallen”.
A “Perfect Duelist”, Gekko muses. Yes, he admits, Master Pegasus called him that. It made him so proud, but over the course of many Duels, he realised something: Master Pegasus never meant that he was the Perfect Duelist. Yako is shocked, and Gekko explains that when they were with Pegasus, he did win his Duels with Yako and the other Pegasus prodigies, by a small margin. But every time they Dueled, their difference in skill diminished. He couldn’t help but realise his opponents were getting better. Gekko explains that he is “perfected,” and he will never grow.
Yako is shocked, and Gekko continues, explaining that he thinks Pegasus must have seen with his Millennium Eye that Gekko’s Duelist level was as high as it would be. Yako angrily asks Gekko what he’s saying, grabbing him by the collar, and Gekko finishes that he thinks the one Pegasus saw potential in, the one he thought would become a first-rate Duelist, was Yako.
Floored, Yako furiously yells at Gekko not to tell him that, not to dare say that to him. He shoves his brother back and says that the R.A. Project isn’t over. He still has the vessel, Anzu Mazaki, flooded with all the power of the Wicked Gods. He just needs to find Pegasus’ soul. And to do that, he needs a final push of energy: Yugi’s god cards will be the final sacrifice.
Yugi says that his fight with Pegasus was a battle between two Duelists. He tells Yako to release Anzu, as their fight has nothing to do with her. Yako replies that that’s no longer possible, as she has become part of the Wicked Gods and if they take her out of the Duel Ring Server she will die. He laughs, his right eye bulging, asking if Yugi likes the divine punishment of his gods. Gekko steps forward, telling Yugi to duel him. The only way to save Anzu is to smash his last god into pieces.
Yako wonder what does he mean with “last” god, and shows that he has the three Wicked God cards with him, even though Gekko is sure that he ripped the Wicked Dreadroot in half. Yako explains that what Gekko used and then destroyed was a fake version of the card that was only working in the duels because they had modified the duel disks. The hidden benefit of having control of the Duel Ring Server was to let him cheat those cards by having Yako himself in the Apex Arena with the original cards in his modified duel disk while both Gekko and Keith used the fake versions in the tower. He never gave Gekko or Keith the original Wicked God cards after all.

Episode 102 - Voice of the Avatar

The final duel between Yako and Yugi at the Apex Arena begins. They quickly swarm their own fields and fight back and forth. When Yako summons “The Wicked Avatar” he gains the upper hand and the Duel Ring Server starts performing strange calculation again much to Mokuba’s surprise.
Meanwhile, the machine imprisoning Anzu’s flashes with a bright light. Jonouchi and Honda turn in shock as Anzu’s body arches, electricity flowing over it and her mouth open in a silent scream.
At the Apex Arena, Yako has just successfuly summoned “The Wicked Avatar” and makes him take the form of Anzu Mazaki to torment Yugi. Yako comments that it looks like his precious friend is already being absorbed by the Wicked God. Then, the god take the form of another monster and the duel continues.
Soon after, Yako plays a different strategy and makes The Wicked Avatar take the form of Yugi himself. Looking at the Wicked God, the other Yugi whispers “partner” in horror, realising that the Wicked God took his partner’s shape and is attacking him. Yako gets into his mind, saying that while he, “the other Yugi” was dueling in Duelist Kingdom and Battle City, his other self, the real Yugi, secretly hates him and this is the way it is going to get revenge.
But then Yugi takes control of his body and puts Yako in his place, making it clear that he does not hate his other self, that he is his partner and that he has gained all sort of important things since meeting him.
The duel continues and the gods clash against each other in a struggle of absolute power that shakes the ground beneath them, and causes a massive shockwave of energy to erupt from the top of the building and brighten the sky. The server can barely contain all the duel energy and Anzu’s body is once again shocked by electricity.
Within the beam of light, Yako sees a vision of Pegasus walking away from him in the light. He begs and calls for him but there is no response, and then Pegasus fades away. Yugi, meanwhile, sees Anzu standing before him. She tells him that it’s okay, and smiles, reassuring him that she’ll be back before he knows it.
As the light fades, Yugi smiles. Back in the machine, Anzu wakes up and Honda and Jonouchi celebrate. They take her out of the machine and help her get on her feet. The three of them go up to the Apex Arena to meet with the victorious Yugi now that the duel is over. Mokuba also confirms that the Duel Ring Server has returned to normal.
As tears leak from Yako’s eyes, Yugi tells him that it’s time he let go. Yako replies that he’s gone, Master Pegasus is gone, it’s all over. He is about to surrender but Gekko stops him and tells him that he must keep dueling, for himself and not for the evil gods. Yako becomes resolute and he and Yugi clash one last time. After the dust is settled, Yako had regained his own duelist spirit, but Yugi raised even further and ends up winning the duel.
Yugi tells Yako he was a mighty opponent, and he is surprised at the praise. Finally free of the influence of the gods, Yako throws the three cards to the wind just at Yugi’s friends arrive to the arena. At this point Anzu, still being carried by Jonouchi and Honda, tells them what happened to her while her soul was detached while in the machine: she says that she actually met with Pegasus soul.
Everyone is surprised by this, and she narrate the conversation they had in the place full of darkness. Pegasus told her that his mind was originally trapped by the spirit of the Millennium Ring and he was cursed to wander the darkness forever. And he did, for what seemed to be years although there was no point of reference to use.
But at some point, one time, he had felt a change. It was as if the power of that spirit had vanished. The darkness around him started to change and he found himself in an immense desert at night. He could see the sea of stars again above, but he was alone and there was infinite kilometers of sand in every direction.
From that moment on he had wandered the sands in random directions, and it wasn’t until seeing a bright light that he had found what seemed to be the way home. That light was Anzu, and finding her allowed him to finally see a path to come back.
She then concludes that Pegasus’ soul should probably be okay after all. Yako and Gekko are shocked to hear this, and quickly get in touch with the people back in Industrial Illusion headquarters, who confirm that master Pegasus has opened his eyes and has returned to the world of the living. Apparently he can’t speak just yet, but is responding well as of now.
Yako and Gekko start crying and Yugi smiles. He thinks that the moment the darkness vanished must have been the night of the duel between Bakura and the evil Marik, when the dark spirit of Bakura was beaten. His shadow magic must have weakened at that point, and it wasn’t until Pegasus met with Anzu that he found an anchor to come back to the real world. In the end, even if the Project R.A. had failed, Pegasus had returned after all.
The following afternoon, Anzu, already recovered, returns to the street of the Kaiba Corporation building. Alone, she muses over the fact that she omitted telling Yugi and the rest something important that happened while her soul was in the dark place: She had met another being in there apart from Pegasus.
The being was scared and tried to attack her, but couldn’t really hurt her in the form that she was in. As Anzu had approached it, she had felt that the being was in pain and suffering, its own existance being artificial, lacking purpose or direction, only filled with a mix of the most absolute fear and the desire to have the right to exist in the world.
As Anzu walks down the street, she bends over some bushes and picks up a card, The Wicked Avatar card, muttering “Don’t be afraid, I found you”.

Episode 103 - Invitation from Pegasus

A few weeks have passed and Pegasus seems to be back in business as always. He is hosting a small tournament in Domino City and a lot of duelists and kids have gathered to play.
At sunset, a visibly bruised Yugi arrives and meets him behind the duel arena. Pegasus asks what happened to him and Yugi laughs awkwardly, saying that he had an intense duel a little while ago. Pegasus comments that it must have been quite a battle if Yugi ended up like that, but Yugi brushes it aside and changes the topic.
Pegasus apologizes for what transpired back in Duelist Kingdom and they end up in good terms. As they say their goodbyes, Pegasus happily comments that he has some big plans for the game going forward, and that he is flying to America that night to set up those things in motion.
A couple of days later Yugi is in his house with his friends when he gets a card and a VHS tape from Pegasus addressed to him. This freaks out Jonouchi, who reminds them of what happened the last time they got a videotape from that guy. Yugi plays it: it’s a message from Pegasus asking him for help. He can’t specify what is going on through this recording, but he asks for him and his friends to come to America in a private plane to discuss this directly with him, with all expenses covered.
The group is happy to go on a small vacation but Yugi is a bit worried as Pegasus looked to be hiding some distress. Outside his house, through a wire bug, Insector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki hear that conversation and decide to follow them no matter what, convinced that Pegasus is going to give Yugi and his friends some super rare cards.
The following day, Yugi, Honda, Jonouchi and Anzu board the private jet. Meanwhile, Haga and Ryuzaki manage to smuggle themselves onto the plane in a big bag to camouflage along the cargo. The trip is uneventful, and while his friends are having a good time, Yugi is worried.
They arrive in San Francisco early in the morning, and some employees welcome them with instructions to get them first to Industrial Illusions main headquarters and later to their hotel. A familiar face is with those employees: Otogi, who has been working with Industrial Illusions designers and traveled here the previous week for his own project. He learned that they were arriving and decided to give them a bit of a surprise.
As they drive through the city, they get to see some of the big tourist attractions. They finally arrive to Industrial Illusions but as they enter the building the gate closes behind them. They are then confronted by Kujaku Mai, who wears a strange duel disk. Right next to her is Pegasus, unconscious.

Episode 104 - An Unexpected Enemy

The group ask what happened to Pegasus and why is she in there. Mai reveals in a flashback that the previous night Pegasus was in his office visibly in distress. She showed up and they had an intense duel. She defeated him, and took his soul into a card which he shows to Yugi and his friends.
Brashly, she challenges Jonouchi to a duel and when he refuses, she activates a card called the Seal of Orichalcos that traps them both in a hexagram of green light that pushes his friends away. Neither of them can leave the duel area now. After this duel is over, she says, either Jonouchi or her would have lost their soul to that card.
Jonouchi asks what happened, why is she doing that. In turn Mai reveals that after Battle City, she fell to loneliness and despair. What Marik did to her broke her mind, even though she tried to hide it. She lost all confidence, she lost all attachments and drifted away. But they found her, and gave her a new purpose and a new strength.
Jonouchi asks who are “they” and two men introduce themselves as they are watching the duel from the second floor. They introduce as Valon and Rafael, and are spectators of the duel to see Mai’s progress. She then tells Jonouchi on how Valon found her at her lowest point, and how he guided her to Dartz who was the one that showed her the true path forward to become strong again and to leave all that pain behind.
Mai pushes forward in the duel but Jonouchi is not fighting back because the card would take Mai soul if she loses. Meanwhile, the other Yugi tries to break the magic of the Seal of Orichalcos with his Millennium Puzzle but it does not work. Valon tells him to not waste his time. There is no denying that Mai is determined to fight Jonouchi with all her strength. It is at this point that he realizes Mai is not to be won back with timidity. He is still determined to help her, but his Dueling spirit will have to keep back her rage. Meanwhile, Haga and Ryuzaki have gotten out of their cargo bag and are watching the duel from outside, wondering what is happening.
Backed into a corner by Mai’s powerful new strategies and anger, Jonouchi notices a bright light coming from his deck. As he draws, he gets a vision of a strange world and a crystalline statue of a dragon with a sword stuck in it. He is floating in the air, but there is no one else around. Without knowing what to do, he removes the sword, freeing the dragon and bonding with it. In the real world, the card he just drew is revealed to be the figure of that very same dragon, it’s called “The Claw of Hermos” and opens up new possibilities for his deck. Rafael and Valon have orichalchos fragments with them that start to shine in response to that card, making them both nervous as they realize that it must be one of the “Legendary Dragons”.
With that card, Jonouchi takes the advantage once again and Mai starts to behave erratically. Rafael mutters that she is losing her composure. Valon jumps out of the balcony and uses the orichalchos stone in his ring to break through the barrier projected by the Seal, interrupting the duel. The magical barrier explodes, and when the smoke clears, both duelists are inconscious. Valon clutches Mai to him and pays no heed to Rafael’s scolding. Rafael tells Yugi he’ll be going after him next. He raises his own stone, projecting a light which makes everybody shield their eyes. When they look again, the three are gone.

Episode 105 - The Shadow of Dartz

Far from San Francisco, in Duelist Kingdom actually, Kaiba lands with his Blue-Eyes White Dragon Jet and meets up with Yako and Gekko. Kaiba scolds them for what they did a little while ago when they stormed his building, but he says that he is not in there for them but rather to talk with Pegasus. They reply that Pegasus is not there, which makes Kaiba angry.
They tell him about some recent events that happened in the island a few days ago. A hooded man, who went by the name Dartz, showed up and beat them both together in a duel. He had amazing skill. Afterwards, he used the Industrial Illusion facilities in the island to create some cards with the help of his goons. Pegasus was in their headquarters in America when it happened, and he stayed there investigating the issue ever since.
Kaiba says that he received a message from Pegasus himself inviting him to the island to talk about certain things regarding the upcoming KaibaLand, that’s why he is there. Yako and Gekko are confused by this, but then the door behind them opens and Pegasus himself appears, smiling and inviting Kaiba to a duel. They go inside the castle and get to the main duel arena.
Kaiba questions what were the issues that he couldn’t discuss by phone that forced him to go in there in person, as he is really testing his patience now. They are business partners, even after everything that happened, only due to Duel Monsters popularity, but he won’t tolerate stupidity or being ordered around. Pegasus plays the innocent and says that everything will be revealed after the duel.
The battle begins and Pegasus favors his Toon Monsters, which his opponent despises. Kaiba hasn’t been dueling for a while as he chose to focus on KaibaLand after Battle City, so he wants to end this quickly. He uses his powerful dragons to take the advantage and destroys his toon combo. At this point, Kaiba asks who is he and why is he impersonating Pegasus. Yako and Gekko are confused at what he means.
Kaiba says that the Pegasus he knew wouldn’t have been bested so easily. At this point “Pegasus” smiles and his face flickers revealing it was a hologram. Kaiba’s opponent is in fact, a man named Amelda who was disguised as Pegasus. He then activates The Seal of Orichalcos. Gekko and Yako recognize that card as the one that the man named Dartz created in there. The power of the Seal pushes them both away, and Amelda says that whoever loses the Duel will lose his “soul”.
Kaiba demands an explanation. Amelda holds out a charred action figure from his pocked, and tell him that it belonged to his brother. He grew up in a war zone with his little brother Miruko as his only family. When the fighting grew worse, the two of them had to surface from shelter and move elsewhere.
For a moment, their side gained an advantage, bringing out a fleet of recently-purchased Kaiba Corporation tanks. But when Amelda helped Miruko into a tank so as to escape, he had to go back to pick up Miruko’s dropped locket of their mom. The tank was bombed, and Amelda was faced by a fleet of enemy choppers, knowing by the flames of the tank near him that his brother was dead. Picking up the burnt toy that was all he had left of his brother, he looked and saw a man in a red suit shaking hands with the enemy troops.
Later, he met Dartz with his mantle on, who explained to him that the man in the red suit was Gozaburo, the president of Kaiba Corporation, and the true killer of his brother. A terrible man who sold weapons to both sides of the conflict for field testing. Amelda vowed to take revenge on Kaiba Corporation, and now that the old man was gone, he was focused on Seto and Mokuba as the heirs of that corporation. Even if they made changes to turn it to a gaming company, their whole empire was built with dirty money so he would not stop until see it collapse.
Seto remains silent and the duel continues. Amelda tactics prove to be strong and Kaiba is pushed back. Just as his options seem to dwindle to nothing, his deck responds with a bright glow which transports him to a vision of another world. He arrives before a crystal statue of a dragon with a sword thrust in it. He removes the sword, unlocking “Fang of Critias” from its prison and bonding to it. With his new card, he takes the advantage and is about to win but Amelda activates a card which forces the duel to end in a draw. A beam of green light shoots up from the depths of the Seal of Orichalcos, knocking Seto back. When he looks up again, Amelda is out of sight, but fires a parting shot that he will have his revenge.

Episode 106 - The Seal of Orichalcos

Meanwhile in Industrial Illusions headquarters, the real Pegasus is unresponsive so his employees take him to a medical center. Haga and Ryuzaki saw the duel and were fascinated by the power Mai was displaying. Since they were outside, they saw Rafael and Valon exit from a side door riding motorcycles and decided to follow them.
Yugi and the group go to Pegasus office to look for any clues. In there, Yugi unlocks the door with that card that he got with the VHS tape and finds a Toon-decorated room with a recording from Pegasus: He tells them about Doma, a financial organization with a ton of capital and influence that has been interested in Duel Monsters as of recently and managed to infiltrate Duelist Kingdom to print their own cards, a series of powerful spell cards called “The Seal of Orichalcos”.
He tells them that their leader, Dartz, is dangerous and very skilled as he defeated Yako and Gekko together. Finally, Pegasus tell them that he made a card to help Yugi fight this new threat, and has it hidden in the room. They search for it and find it within a Pot of Greed replica, although it is empty and has no text.
That night, they are at the hotel and there is a mix of sorrow and tension in the air. Jonouchi is worried about Mai and doesn’t understand how could this have happened. Anzu tries to comfort him while Otogi and Honda went to buy something to drink for all of them. Yugi, in the meantime, has just finished taking a shower when a hooded figure breaks into his room and takes the Egyptian God Cards that were laying in the table. They all rush behind that man and stop them in the roof of the hotel.
He stands near the ledge and introduces himself as Gurimo, one of the members of Doma. Then he challenges Yugi to a duel by using the Seal of Orichalcos. As they battle, Gurimo explains the full power of the seal. On how it is an ancient relic from the fabled Atlantis, and has now been turned into a card in modern times. The power of the seal is too strong and Yugi finds himself in a terrible position. At that moment, his deck shines and just like Jonouchi and Kaiba, Yugi has a vision of another world.
He and the other Yugi are floating above a high castle. They see Kuriboh looking at them and guiding them inside. Upon entering, they see a giant dragon sealed in ice, having a sword stabbed in his eye. Suddenly, Dark Magician Girl appears and starts talking to them. She tells them that this is the Duel Monsters Spirit World, and as of recent there is a “Dark Sun” in the sky which is assimilating Duel Monsters and growing, slowly covering the whole sky.
They saw it briefly just moments before, a gigantic yellow eye surrounded in darkness and covering a huge portion of the firmament. Dark Magician Girl begs upon both Yugis to save their world, and tells them to unseal the final Nameless Dragon. They approach the crystal and pull the sword, freeing the dragon and somehow learning its name: Timaeus. Yugi then has another vision of himself, Jonouchi and Kaiba using the three cards, with dragons coming out of the cards.
Awakening from his vision, Yugi finds in his hand the card “Eye of Timaeus” and uses it to win the duel. Rafael, Valon and Mai, who were watching the battle from the rooftop of the neighboring building, make their escape taking the Egyptian God cards with them.

Episode 107 - The Darkness Within

The following morning, Yugi and his friends now unsure on what to do, decide to go see professor Arthur Hopkins who lives nearby. After hearing what Gurimo said about Orichalcos belonging to Atlantean mythology, Yugi thought about asking the professor as he was not only an expert in ancient history, but was the one who discovered the alleged ruins of Atlantis a year ago. They get in contact with him and he lets them know how to get to where he lives, in a rural area.
Otogi drives them there while Anzu is the navigator. It takes them almost the entire day but they get there before dark and find not only the professor but also Rebecca. She has grown since their last encounter, and is super friendly with Yugi, even calling him her boyfriend, something that bothers Anzu quite a bit.
They talk with Arthur and he explains what he knows: that the ruins he found trace Atlantis to be a civilization dated to roughly 2600 years ago, and not 9000 like some historic texts said. Apparently they did had a special mineral called Orichalcos (or orichalcum) and were pretty advanced for their own age. The civilization was wiped from the face of the earth by an unknown phenomenon, most likely a series of volcano eruptions.
Arthur tells them that he doesn’t know about Doma or Dartz, but he shows them something interesting. In the ruins that he personally found, there were large murals not that different to the ones found in ancient Egypt. Murals depicting giant monsters that bear a resemblance to duel monsters. Yugi and the rest are surprised by this, and the other Yugi says to his other self that this is most likely connected to how ancient civilizations dealt with the monsters back in the day. Now that Pegasus has recreated those games in a card form, it makes sense that they can uncover more information from these types of findings.
Later that night, Yugi calls Kaiba Corporation and after some time he manages to get in contact with Kaiba himself, who has returned to America. Kaiba asks what does Yugi want, and he says that they need to meet in San Francisco. He briefly explain what is he doing there and everything that happened. Kaiba is about to hang up when Yugi asks if he also got a new dragon card with a strange effects appear out of nowhere in his deck.
Kaiba says nothing and ends up hanging the phone, thinking about what he just heard. What catches his attention is that he has heard the name Doma, as a hermetic organization with a lot of influence. If they are messing with duel monsters and have attacked Industrial Illusions, it’s probable that they will come after his own company next. He calls Mokuba and tells him to find where Yugi is.
The guys rest, but in the middle of the night Rebecca wakes Yugi and silently asks for his help, with tears in her eyes. Moments ago some hooded men got in the house and captured the professor, taking him hostage. She shows him a message recorded in a Duel Monsters Card and signed by Rafael: he demands Yugi to come alone to the Death Valley. He must not wake or bring anyone else, otherwise the professor would die. Yugi decides to comply and tells Rebecca to keep it a secret. He takes her horse and rides to the location drawn on the card.
In there, he finds Rafael but there is no sign of the professor. Rafael says that he already freed him and was just waiting for Yugi to arrive. Yugi demands to know why are they “carding” people, but he says that he doesn’t need to know. Denying Yugi’s accusation of being “evil”, Rafael questions what he understands for “justice” instead. He claims that history will decide if the road taken by Doma is evil or not. They duel, and Yugi finds out pretty quickly how skilled Rafael actually is, and what great connection he has with his cards.
Rafael tells him his backstory, of when he was shipwrecked on an island for years as a child after losing his family. His sole companions back then were the characters in a comic book that he had with him. When he was finally rescued from the island, he found the normal world depressing. That was when he was approached by Dartz and joined Doma, hoping to find the answer to “fate” itself. The only joy he found was when he discovered that the Duel Monsters game had turned the characters in that comic into real cards. Ever since then he had treated those cards with the utmost respect, and even pays any cost to prevent them to be sent to the graveyard, as he doesn’t want to lose anyone else.
Meanwhile, Jonouchi has woken up and discovered what happened. They are all awake now and Anzu tells him not to be harsh on Rebecca, as she was only trying to help her grandfather. Jonouchi leaves the house only to find Arthur walking towards them, visibly bruised. Anzu and Rebecca take care of him while Otogi, Honda and Jonouchi drive to where Yugi went.
As they duel, Rafael words begin to sting in the most vulnerable side of the other Yugi. As the nameless pharaoh that he is, was he a fair king back then? Or was he a tyrant who oppressed people? What is the reason of his return to this era? Why is he so linked to the Millennium Items, objects that have proven to be extremely evil? The other Yugi is unable to answer any of that and thinks back to the vision he had with Kaiba in the duel tower.
At one point, through the effect of “Exchange” Rafael gives the card “Seal of Orichalcos” to Yugi. He doesn’t really have to use it, but he feels that he needs to, ignoring the protests of his partner. When he activates it, the Timaeus card abandons him and although he gains the upper hand momentarily, Rafael actually outplays him and takes the win. The pharaoh drops to his knees, in horror of what just happened, on how he fell to his own dark thoughts. But before the seal can take his soul, Yugi appears out of the Millennium Puzzle and pushes his other self out of the way at the last second. The seal then takes Yugi’s soul and not the one from the Pharaoh.
Rafael, unaware of what actually happened, departs the area in a chopper with his men. Jonouchi and the rest, who managed to see the final turns of the duel, approach their defeated friend. The Pharaoh cries in regret and frustration upon the loss of Yugi.

Episode 108 - On the Wrong Track

The conclusion of the last duel has a heavy price: the other Yugi is crushed as his actions and recklessness have resulted in the loss of Yugi’s soul. Rebecca cries in sorrow and blames it on him. They get in contact with Kaiba trying to get some help but after hearing that Yugi lost, Kaiba insults him and hangs up.
Without much of a plan, they decide to return to the city and search for Doma headquarters directly. Jonouchi, Honda, Anzu and Yugi will get there in train while Otogi stays for a bit with Rebecca and Arthur as the professor makes some more research on the topic through all of his books, and then follow them shortly in the car.
Meanwhile, within Doma’s headquarters, in an underground secret temple, Rafael report his success on taking down their biggest threat. However Dartz corrects him as the soul he took was the one of Yugi instead of the Pharaoh, explaining to him about his dual persona. The walls around them are filled with small stone slabs, each containing a human figure. These are souls, and among them are Yugi’s and Pegasus’ souls.
The group gets to the train, with the other Yugi still being depressed. At one point he excuses himself and goes into the inter-carriage space, hitting a wall in frustration. The train makes a stop in a station and Jonouchi gets off the train for a moment to buy some snacks with Honda. When they are about to get back on, Ryuzaki stops them and forces Jonouchi to a duel using the Seal of Orichalcos, making them lose the train.
Back at the train, Anzu is a bit worried that neither Honda nor Jonouchi have returned, and Yugi has been gone for a while so she goes to search after him. Yugi, meanwhile, has encountered Haga who is wearing the same duel disk that Rafael and Mai did, and says that he’ll wait for him on top of the train. Yugi climbs up and Anzu, who sees him from the other end of the wagon, climbs after him. On top of the train, Haga uses his Seal of Orichalcos card and duels Yugi.
In a flashback it is shown that Haga and Ryuzaki, after seeing the Mai vs Jonouchi duel, followed the antagonists to their headquarters and asked their help to become strong, pledging their allegiance to their cause. Dartz showed them a room filled with strong cards. He improved their decks and gave them the orichalcos cards. Afterwards he assigned them on the task of defeating the Pharaoh and Jonouchi. As they departed, Dartz smiled and Rafael said that he’d prefer if those two manage to win but if they lose their souls could still be offered to their god.
During the duel, Jonouchi shows that he has learned quite a lot and manages to beat Ryuzaki, even after he has upgraded his deck. Ryuzaki himself confess that at first he didn’t wanted to do all of this, but ended up being convinced by Haga, as he felt for a while that he has been on a losing streak and that his last moment to shine was back when he got second place in the national championship, and all of that seems too distant now.
On the other hand, Haga toys with the other Yugi and makes him really angry by destroying a fake card after saying that it was Yugi’s soul. The Legendary Dragon card is not working for the Pharaoh, as if refusing to help him after he fell to his dark thoughts in the previous duel. In the end, out of pure willpower, the other Yugi manages to comeback and defeat Haga with a brutal combo that has Anzu begging for him to stop.
The other Yugi shakes Haga and demands that he reveal how to find Yugi and free his soul. Alas, it is too late, as the “The Seal of Orichalcos” has already done its job. Both Haga and Ryuzaki lose their souls, leaving the gang without any leads just as before.

Episode 109 - The Avenging Amelda - Duel in the Sky

Dartz receive the souls of Haga and Ryuzaki and offers them to his god. He says that they are close now to finishing the ritual. The three Egyptian God cards are also there, alongside all the souls in the walls that his men have captured.
Mai and Valon arrive in motorcycles to the house of professor Hopkins. She demands to see Jonouchi, but after Otogi says that he and the rest are gone, she storms off before Valon can stop her. Rebecca challenges Valon as payback for Yugi, and Otogi joins her in a two-versus-one duel, but he proves to be really strong and defeats them both before going again after Mai. He didn’t use the seal of orichalcos card against them, so Otogi’s and Rebecca’s souls are safe for now.
Anzu and Yugi reunite with Honda and Tristan in the city station, after they boarded a second train some time later. In the meantime they were trying to find out how to get to Doma headquarters, but don’t really know how to get there and neither could they because they have the unconscious bodies of Haga and Ryuzaki.
Meanwhile Kaiba and Mokuba are traveling to San Francisco too in a Kaiba Corporation plane, when Amelda’s voice booms out through the speakers. He lures them to the cabin, where the auto-pilot is on, and the pilots are unconscious. He then challenges Kaiba to a duel and he accepts.
As they battle, Amelda uses the Seal of Orichalcos which makes part of the plane’s ceiling disappear, showing the sky directly. During the fight, Amelda pours every single bit of hate that he has towards Kaiba Corporation, but Kaiba endures it stoically.
Since the moment he took over Gozaburo’s position he has changed his company from its old days. Transforming a military company into a gaming one, focused on bringing up smiles and not suffering. But he cannot deny the past and he will endure the hate and suffering that Gozaburo’s choices have caused. Mokuba then shows up, talking about what his brother has done to turn the company in a new direction, on how he was the one who did the most to undo the evil of the past, but Amelda doesn’t want to hear it and drives Kaiba to the edge. As he hears Amelda’s talk about his lost brother, Kaiba claims that if he had been in his place, he’d definitely have done the impossible to save his own brother. But he also says to Mokuba to stop defending him, because when he took over Gozaburo’s company he also took over his sins.
In the end, Kaiba manages to turn the duel around and defeat Amelda. Surprinsingly, it is Mokuba’s encouragement, empaty and support of his older brother that makes Amelda regain his own humanity once again, stopping his blind rage for a second to understand how similar both he and Seto are, and that he has been trying to undo the faults of his adoptive father. As the seal of orichalcos claims his soul, he smiles after a final look at Mokuba, seeing instead the brother that he protected so long ago. As his eyes closes, he lets go of his rage and his soul is taken by the seal.
Kaiba manages to take control of the plane once again and they arrive at San Francisco that afternoon. There, Kaiba buys a car and gets in contact with Yugi and the rest. He tells them the location of Doma’s headquarters and that he is going there to settle this. If they want to do something about it, this is the time.

Episode 110 - Clash! Jonouchi vs. Valon

Otogi, Rebecca and Arthur reunite with the group and tell them about what happened with Valon and Mai, which pisses Jonouchi off. They all get to the building where Doma supposedly operates, and Kaiba and Mokuba arrive in the new car shortly after, with Kaiba briefly confronting Yugi about losing a duel.
The professor then reveals what he has found: that Doma is most likely connected to Atlantean mythology, and that there is a possibility that they are gathering souls for an ancient ritual of summoning a powerful wicked creature to the world, just as old stories said. Yugi assumes that it must be the evil creature he saw back in the Duel Monsters Spirit world, and if that thing gets turned into a card it could be incredibly powerful.
The building is closed and they cannot get in. A bunch of police officers that were nearby come up to them, wearing the mark of the seal of orichalcos in their foreheads. They start summoning monsters and attacking them, so the group splits up. Rebecca leads Kaiba, Mokuba and Yugi to the building by hacking the servers and finding an alternative entrance, while the rest stay to fend off the officers.
Jonouchi sees Valon in the distance and runs after him, while Anzu, Otogi and Honda duel against the threat. Jonouchi yells out to Valon but he rides away on his motorcycle. Jonouchi picks up a motorcycle from one of those police officers and chases after him. Valon stops in a vacant lot nearby.
Jonouchi tries to confront him about Mai, but Valon questions his right to ask, as she isn’t on Jonouchi’s side anymore. Even when Jonouchi says he’ll get her back, Valon claims Jonouchi doesn’t understand the pain Mai’s gone through. He claims that as long as Jonouchi is around, Mai won’t stop suffering and to prevent that he’ll take it on himself to defeat Jonouchi.
And thus, a duel begins. The fight is intense, as Valon uses his powerful armor cards to take part of the battle himself. Valon says that his deck has nothing but attack cards, as opposed to any unnecessary things. He reflects on the fact that he’s been that way “ever since I was a brat”.
When he was younger, he lived in a church, though he often got into fights (even against groups much bigger than him). Despite his rough streak, a kind nun looked after him and helped keep him grounded. One day, when a gang of thugs showed up to drive the nun out because their boss had bought the church, she tried to protect the children living there. They ignored her pleas and shoved her aside. Valon immediately moved to defend her, but she stopped him before he could fight.
That night, he came running to the church, only to find it engulfed in flames. Behind him, he heard the cruel laughter of the thugs, mocking that the fire saved them the trouble of tearing the place down themselves. Minutes later, Valon staggered into a dark alley, breathless and gripping a pipe that slipped from his hands as he stood over the thugs’ beaten bodies.
He was arrested, and even in prison, he got into massive fights with other prisoners and guards. The warden called him from solitary confinement to offer a way to get out of his sentence. If he won a series of Duels, he would be free.
Without a word, Valon accepted, and he was taken to an island, where he unflinchingly used the Seal of Orichalcos on other prisoners. When the guards returned for him, he had defeated everybody, and Dartz revealed himself to be the one who had set up the deal. He accepted Dartz’s offer of employment in Doma and the chance to fight stronger opponents, although he warned Dartz that he might end up beating him.
Back in the present, he explained to Jonouchi that what had been most important in his life had been gone for a while. He, Rafael, and Amelda were different from Jonouchi. They didn’t have to shoulder burdens. He was able to fight for his own goal, which was victory. Jonouchi considered these words, which he might have agreed with in the past, back when he had enjoyed fighting. But after all he had been through, he knew there was more to what he did than just winning, and he said so. He affirmed that he wouldn’t lose to someone like Valon, and Valon invited him to go ahead and try if he really thought he could beat him.
As their fierce duel drew to a close, Mai arrived just in time to witness the ending. Both duelists were battered and bruised from cards that forced them into physical combat, leaving them gasping for breath. Despite the pain, Valon’s eyes lit up with excitement: he had never faced anyone like this before. With a grin, he declared how glad he was to be in such a duel, and Jonouchi, equally worn down but smiling, agreed.
Mai tells Valon off for challenging her rival and demands to switch with him, but he refuses, saying that he finally understands why she’s so drawn to fight Jonouchi. He has something the two of them don’t have; a simple and direct passion, one that goes beyond Dueling. With that, he and Jonouchi go back to their Duel.
As they clash one final time, with one last yell, Jonouchi sends Valon flying back. His life points drop to zero and he admits his defeat, dropping to one knee. As the seal of orichalcos encircles him, he turns to Mai who is very shaken by the outcome and tells her not to look like that. Even though she saw the awful side of him and he still lost, he has no regrets. She moves closer to him, stepping within inches of the border. Valon then turns to Jonouchi and leaves Mai in his care. Just after Jonouchi nods to this, Valon slumps to his side, and Mai calls out his name. But he is already unconscious, and the Seal closes in on him, beaming to the sky before leaving his body.

Episode 111 - Bitter Victory

Dartz is monitoring everything. He sees Yugi, Kaiba, Mokuba and Rebecca climbing up the building trying to find him. He also has cameras outside looking at Honda and rest dueling against the police officers. And finally he has a camera in the parking lot nearby watching the duel of Valon and Jonouchi that has just ended. In the walls of the temple, a new tablet with the image of Valon appears. Dartz announces that it’s Mai’s turn next, and challenges her to show him the darkness in her heart.
Mai bends down and hugs Valon’s body, crying and whispering his name. After a moment her eyes clear up, and she regains her breath, setting him down in the ground. She calls Jonouchi stupid for talking about duels like they can be shared, when they are really for oneself, grinning and saying that that’s why Valon lost. Jonouchi insists that Valon gave his best for that fight, and seeing as the seal glows briefly on her forehead, he realizes that there is only one way to reach her feelings and challenges her to a duel.
Mai begins with a big offensive and Jonouchi struggles in response, still feeling the injuries from the previous duel. He now understands that, in his duel with Valon, they talked a lot, and not just with words. In doing so he sensed Valon’s heart, and that is why he also wants a serious duel with her. He hopes that she will understand him by the end of it, and he wants to understand her too. Speechless for a moment, Mai laughs at the idea he could understand her and keeps going. As they fight, the duel becomes more and more tense and Jonouchi is pushed against his back.
Just as Mai was about to strike the final blow and condemn Jonouchi’s soul forever, she faltered. Her attack froze midair, confusion washing over her. She had believed that victory would prove she had finally escaped the shadows of her past and moved beyond her suffering. Yet deep down, she realized the truth: Marik had shattered her spirit, and though Dartz and the others offered her a distraction, she had never truly healed. Unlike Jonouchi, who fought while leaning on the support of his friends, she had been trying to carry her pain alone. Overcome by exhaustion, Jonouchi collapsed to the ground and, with a weak breath, declared Mai the winner.
Mai rushes to him, memories of their friendship washing over her, and declares that she will not let his soul be taken. But Jonouchi says it’s too late and, still protecting her, pushes her out of the ever shrinking circle. In the process, his hand catches on Mai’s Orichalcos fragment and it gets removed, crumbling as the seal passes over it on its way to claim Jonouchi.
As Mai’s fragment shatters, Dartz senses a powerful soul has been captured and the preparations are finally complete.
Meanwhile, “Timaeus” and “Critias” materialize from Yugi’s and Kaiba’s decks and cry in lament and mourning. In the duel monsters spirit world, Dark Magician Girl and other monsters are seen praying and suddenly the evil eye in the sky vanishes. But the sense of fear is even stronger now.

Episode 112 - Fighting for a Friend

Mai cradles Jonouchi in her arms and starts crying, truly regretting what she’s done. She realizes that blaming Jonouchi and the rest for the loneliness and abandonment she felt was wrong. Now free of Dartz’s spell, she decides to go challenge him directly. As she leaves the place she picks up the “Hermos” card from the ground.
Honda and the rest have dealt with the officers and run in the direction Jonouchi went, only to be stunned then they see Valon’s and Jonouchi’s soul-less bodies sitting propped against the fence of that vacant lot. Honda takes him on his back and they all go back to the building.
Mai goes on her motorcycle to the Doma building and enters with a special security key, going directly to the top floor looking for Dartz. There she encounters Rafael instead, talking with Dartz who is in a computer screen.
Mai is angry at them for manipulating her mind, for increasing her evil thoughts with the orichalcos stone and card, and wants revenge on Dartz. He says that he only pushed her a bit in the direction that she desired, ensuring that doing so would make her strong. But she replies that it wasn’t strength what she gained, only hate. He ignores her anger and instead congratulates her, saying that due to her defeating Jonouchi they have finally concluded preparations and the god is about to be revived.
She dismisses that and demands to know where he is. Rafael steps up, seeing that she is not listening to what they say, and challenges Mai to a duel. The two of them exchange blows and use their decks to the fullest.
At one point Mai sees an opening and tries to go for the win by using the card she took from Jonouchi, but Hermos doesn’t respond to her summon. Rafael takes advantage of this to turn the duel around and win. She cries, asking Jonouchi for forgiveness. The seal of orichalcos encircles her.
Yugi and the rest arrive and open the door only to have Mai’s soulless body collapse on him.

Episode 113 - The Fated Duel! Yugi vs. Rafael

Rafael stands before Yugi and the rest. He tells them about what happened to Jonouchi, Valon and Mai. He is not moved by the losses of his companions, as he affirms that everything is part of fate. Dartz, from the computer screen, welcomes them to his building. Kaiba snaps up, demanding him to stop messing with his company and with Industrial Illusion. Dartz replies that he only did that to get him involved in this, as he needed strong duelists for his goal. But now, ever since acquiring Jonouchi’s soul, the task has been completed.
Rafael accuses the other Yugi of using his “other soul” to escape fate, but he won’t do it again, and challenges him to a duel. They battle, and this time the other Yugi is more calm and focused. He says that he won’t fall to the darkness and that he will bring back his partner.
Rafael is the one to use the seal this time, gaining the upper hand. Kaiba knows that there’s more to the power of the “Seal”, and wonders if Yugi will be able to win back the lost title of “King of Games”. Rafael monsters, who he took so much care before, are now corrupted by the seal and way stronger. Yugi is pushed back but resists and fights back.
At one point, Rafael’s treasured ace card is destroyed and replaced by a creature of darkness. He says that it is the personification of his own dark side.
In this moment the other Yugi reflects on himself, on his actions. On how he may have been more ruthless in the past, having an actual dark side. But meeting Yugi and walking alongside him had changed him. After losing him, he first thought that he wasn’t able to know right or wrong without Yugi, but Yugi had taught him that he needed to learn compassion by himself and actually see the pain their opponents have. He can’t judge people by a single trait they have and has to see the bigger picture.
It happened back in duelist kingdom with his duel with Kaiba, and it had happened again in his first duel with Rafael. It is in human nature to repeat mistakes, but he didn’t want it to repeat it anymore. That ruthless side of him was something that he didn’t want to have, that he rejected, and he would fight against fate itself if needed to be the person his partner trusted.
The cards respond to the Pharaoh’s determination, and he uses both Hermos and Timaeus to defeat Rafael, bringing the duel to a close. With this, Yugi have regained the title of “King of Games”.
When the seal is about to take Rafael’s soul, the stone on his neck breaks and the seal also vanishes.

Episode 114 - The Tragedy of Atlantis

The soul of Rafael has not been taken by the seal, something surprising to them all, including Rafael himself.
He tells them how to reach Dartz: they need to get to the ground floor and then to a secret elevator that would lead them to a secret underground floor of the building. They go to the ground floor once again and they find Anzu and the rest there. Yugi looks at Jonouchi and promises that he will save him. Otogi, Arthur and Rebecca stay with Mai and Jonouchi while the rest go to the hidden elevator.
They get to a large room containing tablets depicting the imprisoned souls. The other Yugi sees the tablets of Pegasus, Valon, Mai, Jonouchi and even Yugi himself, so he rushes forward but then Dartz’s shows up, welcoming them to his temple. Yugi replies that all his subordinates have been defeated, he is the only one left, but Dartz looks unfazed.
He says that he always planned to have them be sacrifices to the seal. At this point he makes the whole set of torches light, thus revealing the whole room. Yugi and company gasp; the floor, walls and dome-shaped ceiling are filled with tablets of sealed souls. Dartz explains that he and his people has been busy, taking down duelists all over the world ever since invading Duelist Kingdom and creating the “Seal of Orichalcos” cards.
Yugi demands to know who he really is, and Dartz smiles. He reveals that he is like him, like the Pharaoh: a ruler from the ancient past, the last king of Atlantis. He was dormant in the shattered pieces of the orichalcos for hundreds of years, and only regained conscious a year ago when the ruins of Atlantis were discovered. When a wealthy individual made a purchase of the stones in a black market auction, he possessed that man and took control of his business named “Doma”.
Dartz narrates the history of Atlantis: it was a peaceful city in which harvests were copious, there was no greed or vanity. People lived in harmony. They had learned from the ancient Egyptians and other civilizations about the Duel Monster spirits and managed to comunicate with them, living in peace and learning from one another. Dartz, who had a wife and daughter, became the king when his father, Ironheart, resigned due to age. However one day a volcano erupted and stones rained down on the city: Orichalcos was born.
Dartz shows them a vision of all of this, explaining that it the orichalcos was a treasure granted to them by Earth itself. The mineral could become energy, and thus great technological advances were made in the city. But as quickly as they evolved they also met their demise. The orichalcos poisoned people’s hearts and chaos ensued. The inhabitants started to become “monsters”. Even Dartz was forced to slay his wife once she became an ugly beast. Countless blood was shed that day.
Confused, Dartz sensed a powerful energy coming from an Orichalcos fragment: it turned his left eye into its current turquoise color and shown a vision of a gigantic serpent-like creature pulsating inside of the Earth itself. He claims that he then understood everything: Orichalcos wasn’t a miraculous material. It was a test issued to them from the Earth itself, no, from the monsters on that other world, and they failed it. It was meant to amplify the ‘Dark’ inside of humans. He claims that the humans would end up self-destructing themselves.
He then took control of the army and started slaying all the corrupt humans. He didn’t stop there, that night he and his men controlled by the power of the orichalcos stormed every house in the city, killing everyone they deemed “corrupt”. His goal was simple: the Duel Monster Spirit world and the Human world should stay separated. So he needed to purge all existing connections between them.
His father Ironheart escaped with his granddaughter and requested help from the world of Duel Monsters Spirits, which led to the battle that involved the three legendary dragons and the defeat of the Orichalcos God. However that battle destroyed Atlantis in its entirely, and the powerful volcano eruptions that came after it resulted in the city being buried in the ocean.
Dartz tell them that when Atlantis fell, even when his body crumbled his own spirit endured in the last remnants of orichalcos. Once he resurfaced, he learned about how the powerful games of old had been recreated into Duel Monsters, and so in turn the bridge between worlds had been open once again. So, he decided to bring back his Orichalcos God within that game and use it to destroy it from within.
But he needed something first: a way for the orichalcos mineral to influence the Duel Monsters game itself. That’s why he stormed Duelist Kingdom and created the “Seal of Orichalcos” cards using his own soul for them. He also decided to split those orichalcos fragments and gave them to an army of duelists that would follow his orders.
Dartz then comment on something else he discovered: Pegasus had already turned his god into a card. This comment actually shocks Yugi and Kaiba. Dartz says that instead of being one card, Pegasus had used his god’s strength and created multiple cards out of it, something he called “Wicked Gods”. Artificial creatures that were incomplete forms of the true power. He only learned about this after hearing from Yako Tenma’s actions against Yugi and his friends. He used the attack on Duelist Kingdom to also prove himself against these false atlantean gods, but apparently neither Yako nor his brother had them anymore so they weren’t a challenge to him after all.
Then, with the “Seal of Orichalcos” cards already made, Dartz dispatched duelists all over the world, led by Rafael, Amelda and Valon, and they started to capture duelist souls into the cards. In doing so, they would feed the necessary duelist energy to resurrect his god.
The final step of the plan was to use the actual most powerful cards in existance: the Egyptian Gods as the main source of energy for the ritual, which is why he left Yugi and his friends as the final targets of his plan. Stealing those cards was the only way, as a direct confrontation would have resulted in a loss. Dartz then smiles and claims that now he has succeeded, and the card of the orichalcos god lies in his deck, ready to devour his next victim.

Episode 115 - The Decisive Battle! Dartz vs. Yugi & Kaiba

Kaiba announces that he shall be Dartz opponent, but Yugi refuses to let him go solo. They do a tag duel and Dartz agrees. During the fight, Dartz proves to be an incredibly skilled duelist and shows them the true strength of the orichalcos, powering the seal up. Their teamwork is not ideal but they are both really skilled too, so the match is even.
At one point Dartz uses the souls he captured as puppets in the duel, creating “Mirror Knights” with the faces of Yugi, Mai, Pegasus and Jonouchi. The Pharaoh is unable to fight them in fear of hurting them, but Kaiba snaps out of it and the two of them together manage to get the advantage. But Dartz deck was well prepared and made a counter to the attack.
It is at this point that Rafael finally breaks into the room and pleads of Dartz to stop this: he doesn’t see a point on it anymore. Dartz looks amused, while Rafael claims that Yugi helped him get rid of the “dark” in his heart. Dartz laughs, claiming that is impossible, as some darkness will always remain. He says that humans are, generally, evil. And they must be kept separated from the powers from that other world. While he doesn’t really need to keep capturing souls, he is happy to do so to further fuel the power of his god card.
Rafael joins the battle against Dartz and makes an impressive initial move, but Dartz simply says that the seal of orichalcos hasn’t taken his soul yet because he wasn’t filled darkness or hate anymore. Then asks, what is he feeling now towards him? The seal forms on Rafael’s foreheads and turns his cards into a dark version. The energy suddenly goes out of control and Rafael’s collapses, his soul seized by the seal. A slate fills up with Rafael’s picture and Dartz laughs.
The battle continues and Dartz proves to be too strong. Kaiba falls but not before he does a move to help Yugi. Kaiba’s soul is seized and appears on the tablet, while Mokuba screams his brother’s name.
Within a strange space, countless bubbles containing seized souls float down towards an ominous eye. Yugi and Jonouchi awaken. They are greeted by Pegasus. Jonouchi realizes that if Kaiba is with them, then he must have lost. Yugi trusts that the Pharaoh can defeat Dartz, but Jonouchi is rather unsure.
Pegasus claims that there’s one hope left: the card he gave to them. He narrates about how he’d researched a lot of ruins across the world when creating the Duel Monsters game. When he originally made the concept for the Wicked Gods, and specially after learning from Yako what happened during the R.A. Project, he started his research and ended up learning about the legend of Timaeus, Hermos and Critias. He heard of the three Legendary Dragons and thought it to be very mysterious. After researching their origins, Pegasus had come to the conclusion that the dragons had once been human, and they held the secret power to face that ancient threat.
Dartz finally manages to summon his god, the powerful “Wicked God Gê”. A giant serpent with infinite attack. It seems that it is too much for even the Pharaoh to handle, but he draws the nameless card that Pegasus left for them, which transform into “Legend of the Heart” and in turn changes the three legendary dragon cards into human form. The knights are strong and are designed to work against the Wicked God, but they need time and Yugi doesn’t seem to be able to last one extra turn.
It is at this point that Anzu of all people joins the duel, to everyone’s surprise. She says that her deck is calling her to intercede, and summons “The Wicked Avatar” to the field, which shocks Yugi and the rest even more.
She tells them that she felt a connection with that card ever since the incident in the Kaiba Corporation building, and ended up recovering the card and keeping it to herself. Due to the weird things that happened back then, she became attuned to the wicked card and could hear it. Even talk to it.
Yugi warns her that the card is evil, but she insists that it is not anymore, and that she will use it to help him win the duel and rescue their friends together. The two Wicked Gods clash, and the Wicked God Gê proves to be stronger. But that clash has given Yugi enough time to use his Legendary Knights. With a combined strike, he overcomes infinity and delivers the final blow to the Wicked God, to Dartz horror.
The orichalcos barrier breaks and Dartz himself starts to crumble, dissolving into dust. The stone tablets in the walls start to become empty as the souls of the people return. Kaiba wakes up while Mokuba cries in relief. Haga and Ryuzaki wake up and hug each other while crying. Rafael, Valon and Amelda also wake up, having watched the duel through that strange space. Jonouchi and Mai do the same, smiling to each other.
Yugi reunites with the Pharaoh and talk with him in his mind. Dark Magician Girl appears before them within his mind too, along with the three Legendary Knights Timaeus, Hermos, and Critias. She thanks them for their help: with the destruction of the wicked god their world has been saved.
Yugi goes to the ritual platform and finally recovers the three god cards. After that, the whole group steps out of the building to see a new dawn.