1 Chapter 1
It was said that the world as it is, came about from a single card.
From that card came a myriad of possibilities, each of them a world.
In the world of DM, Duelist Kingdom has just been announced on tv with Yugi Mutou and his friends watching.
In the world of GX, it has been little more than a couple of days since the school year had started and Jaden Yuki was a fledgling first-year student.
Whereas Yusei Fudo was still planning his escape from Satelite in the 5DS world.
Yuma Tsukumo hadn't understood the gravity of the "Number" monsters in the world of ZEXAL.
ARC-V world has just seen the birth of Pendulum Summon and Playmaker in VRAINS has just become internet famous.
For the various worlds of the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game, their stories had yet to truly get started when a mysterious intangible screen began to hover over everyone's heads.
"Beginning broadcast. Beginning loading sequence for the best duels across all the worlds."
If that didn't spell out what the screen's purpose was, nothing else will. While regular civilians were mostly indifferent to the concept of dueling, that was not the case for their world's duelists. Many clamored, wanting to be on the list while the technological geniuses in their worlds tried to verify the validity of the screen's statements. If this screen truly existed across all worlds then the statement will hold a lot more weight.
With just one sentence, the various worlds came to a crawl as they waited with bated breath for the first duel to begin.
Soon the screen began to change and an ancient-looking room bathed in darkness entered everyone's sights. In the middle was an old sarcophagus with seven indents of various sizes.
Walking up to the ancient sarcophagus was a dark-skinned beauty in Egyptian attire.
"Before the ceremony can begin, you must return the seven Millenium Items for the Eye of Oja to read into your soul and the ceremony can start."
Puzzled noises rang out across all of the worlds. None of them had heard about Millenium Items as their own worlds didn't have them and DM's didn't advertise them to the non-believing populace.
The only ones familiar with Millenium Items were the current holders.
Marik Ishtar: What!? Did I lose the Millenium Rod? Impossible!
Maximillion Pegasus: Oh, does that mean I no longer needed the Millenium Eye? Interesting.
Ishizu Ishtar: Did the role of the tomb keepers finally end?
Shadi: The Millenium Items were always meant to return to where they were supposed to be.
Yami Bakura: Come on! I must still be there! This ceremony must not succeed! Where am I?
The only one among them calm was Yugi Mutou who watched with a growing sense of anticipation as another him walked up to the sarcophagus with a duffle bag and a strange metallic device on his arm.
Seto Kaiba had yet to create the first generation of duel disk so the world of DM had no idea that the duel was about to take place in this ancient room. Not even Seto Kaiba who was watching while currently getting over his defeat by the Pharoah.
On the screen, Yugi set the duffle bag down and started picking out various golden items and placing them in their proper spots on the sarcophagus.
On the side, Yugi's friends watched intensely with each of them having their own thoughts.
Solomon Mutou, Yugi's grandpa could be heard as his thoughts were shown to the viewers behind the screen.
"All of this began the day Yugi solved that puzzle and it will all end the moment he returns it."
With one last item to return, Yugi thought to himself about how he solved the Millenium Puzzle with a wish to make friends and will return his gratitude by returning it back to the place it belonged. One last look at his friends and Yugi was ready.
The Millenium Puzzle's return was shrouded in light as the seven Millenium Items resonated with each other and a golden light shone down on Yugi from the Eye on the wall.
A strange sense of mysticism filled the air and could even be sensed by the viewers across the screen.
"That's supposed to happen, right?" Joey asked, echoing the sentiments across the myriad worlds.
Ishizu then began to explain that the Eye was searching for the other soul inside Yugi and once that soul was pulled out the duel was about to begin.
Two pairs of shadows began to split from each other as two Yugis came into being beside one another.
Many gasps were heard as everyone doubted what they were seeing.
"Is it just me or am I seeing double?" Joey asked.
"It's the Pharoah!" Solomon cried.
"No way." Mokuba Kaiba involuntarily said next to his awestruck brother.
"Atem," Tea mumbled.
"Atem?" Yugi in front of the screen muttered. He had known there existed a spirit inside of his Millenium Puzzle but until now he had never put a name to it.
Inside the Millenium Puzzle, Atem himself was in shock as he had never known his name as he was still in an amnesiac state. Who knew this mysterious screen would give him the answers he has been searching for.
With the confirmation of Atem's name, the screen displayed the words, "(DM World) Yugi Mutou vs Atem."
DM World? Subconsciously everyone started to sort this information for later as one of the confirmed worlds they now know about. If any other duel says it's from this world, they can place the duels aside from each other to compare.
The two similar-looking duelists walked towards their respective corners, prepared to duel. On the sidelines, Yugi's friends were confused about who to root for when the true stakes of the duel were revealed to the viewers.
If the Pharoah Atem wins, he gets to stay in this world but if Yugi wins the Pharoah returns to the afterlife.
Everyone on the screen knew Atem is meant to lose this duel but if he does not fight with everything he's got the duel will have no meaning. Many people across the myriad worlds were charmed by his demeanor and subconsciously wanted him to win despite everything that says otherwise.
In a little card shop, Yugi and his friends were clenching their fists as they know the Pharoah was also their friend so it hurts to have to send him away like this. They also know though, that this is the right thing to do.
"I guess we are about to find out who the true King of Games is," Seto Kaiba said, watching the two set their decks into their duel disks.
"Are you ready for this?" Atem.
"I guess it's time to find out," Yugi.
[4000 LP][4000 LP]
"Best of luck," Atem said as he began his first draw. Some of the later-generation viewers from the myriad worlds gasped as their worlds had eliminated the ability to draw on the first turn on account of how powerful the first turn was but the DM world was different as they still played with this rule.
Atem started by discarding an unknown card and special summoning a monster to his field and setting a card.
The Tricky: [2000 ATK]
For other worlds, this was a pretty sub-optimal move but for the DM world that was barely out of the gate in terms of dueling a monster with 2000 ATK is a hard move to get over in an era where high-level monsters cannot be summoned at the drop of the hat.
Even current DM players do not know the function of this play since they were still playing the game by the power of word of mouth. Without Seto Kaiba and his Battle City rules, these duelists were still cavemen tossing rocks at each other.
Since he couldn't get over The Tricky, Yugi decided to stop it in its place by using Swords of Revealing Light to stop Atem's monsters from attacking for three turns. He then summoned Green Gadget, a handy little monster that added a Red Gadget to his hand.
Green Gadget: [1400 ATK]
For early-era duelists who didn't know any better, they would think of this as an odd move as two low-ATK monsters cannot get over a big monster like The Tricky. Mid-era duelists however know how good it is to always have another monster at the ready without wasting resources. Meanwhile, the late-era duelists are finding this duel to be pretty slow.
With a set card, Yugi ends his turn.
When Atem's turn began, he thought he had a way around Sword of Revealing Light by using Forced Rebellion to make Green Gadget attack Yugi directly but Yugi was able to block it with his trap card Stronghold the Moving Fortress.
Stronghold: [2000 DEF]
While Yugi didn't take a full 1400 points of damage, Green Gadget was still his monster so the clash between the two monsters dropped his life points down to 3400.
Seeing Stronghold the Moving Fortress and Green Gadget, Atem questioned when Yugi had them as the two used to be inseparable, and yet he has never seen them before. He wasn't going to worry about it though since his own deck has the three Egyptian God cards.
Hearing the name of the Egyptian God cards wasn't anything noteworthy to later-era duelists but for those who knew about the cards, a cold shiver went down their spines.
The Egyptian God cards are powerful monsters of legend that were hard to control and seeing that someone was about to face all three of them sounded like a daunting task to accomplish.
"I activate Ties of the Brethren to summon two level 4 monsters from my deck at the cost of 1000 LP. Come out Red Gadget and Yellow Gadget!"
Two more colored gadgets appeared on Yugi's side of the field in the defense position. Meanwhile, Yugi's LP dropped down to 2400.
With the three gadget monsters on his side of the field, Stronghold the Moving Fortress began to combine with them as its ATK points shot straight up to 3000.
Gasps of surprise could be heard from many duelists as 3000 ATK was ceremoniously agreed across a myriad of worlds as a high amount that was difficult to get over.
Stronghold the Moving Fortress wasn't able to make use of those ATK points though as Atem shifted control of Sword of Revealing Light using his set Bounce Spell spell card.
With nothing else, Yugi switched Green Gadget to defense mode before ending his turn.
Yugi thought he had the upper hand but he is soon about to realize how wrong he was. Atem sent The Tricky to the graveyard with his Tricky Spell 4 to summon four Tricky tokens
This was impressive for many duelists but the real purpose of the spell was the next card Atem was about to summon.
"I sacrifice three of my tokens to summon the Egyptian God, Obelisk the Tormentor!"
A crushing sensation exuded from the screen as three Tricky tokens turns into dust and a massive blue titan appeared on Atem's side of the field enshrouded in his divine majesty.
Obelisk: [4000 ATK]
Obelisk the Tormentor! An Egyptian God card!
Many duelists felt a surge of exhilaration at the sight of the majestic monster than commanded their respect. Even the high and mighty late-era duelists started to shed a drop of sweat at this moment.
Marik started to grip his Millenium Rod in excitement while Seto Kaiba's dead eyes started to come alive and Yugi watched his duel with the Pharoah with an intense fire in his eyes.
