After some quick thinking, Alex managed to avoid losing the match and the Shadow Game to Verace’s evil counterpart. After Alex lost the duel, they had one victory each, and therefore had to lay one last duel to decide who would end up winning the match. They shuffle their decks and place them into their duel disks and draw 5 cards.
“Since I lost the last duel,” Alex starts, “I’ll go first.” He draws and says, “I place one card face-down and place Ruby Carbuncle in attack mode, then end my turn.”
In a glow from the ground, a bright red ruby appears before flashing once more to make Ruby Carbuncle appear, appearing in a similar form to Carbuncle in Final Fantasy 11, only red instead of green, with 4 ears and a small jewel on its forehead and a big, round ruby at the tip of its tail, does a front-flip and lands poised for attack saying, “Ruby! Ruby! Ruby!” in a high-pitched voice (300 ATK).
Greed Verace stares in a confused manner at the beast and thinks to himself, (There’s no way he’d place a monster that weak in attack mode unless his face-down was a trap… He may be scatterbrained at times, but he’s not stupid.) He draws his card and thinks for a bit before saying, “I place Forest Wolf in attack mode, and attack your Ruby Carbuncle!”
Forest Wolf appears from a glow in the ground (1800 ATK) and rushes up to Ruby Carbuncle. It tries to take a bite, but as it chomps down, Ruby shatters and in an aura of light, a ruby appears in Alex’s spell and trap zone. “What!?” Greed Verace yells.
“Your monsters can’t devour my Gem Beasts… They go to my spell and trap zone regardless of how they get destroyed or where they’d normally go. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.” Alex explains with his arms crossed. “Now, Forest Wolf has 1800 attack power, so my Life Points go from 8000 to 6500. Nice blow.”
Greed Verace growls and thinks to himself, (He’s not stupid… he’s taking the blow for some reason. And because those damn Gem Beasts can’t be eaten, he’s shut down a major strategy of my deck. Top it all off with the fact he doesn’t care he just lost a significant amount of Life Points. What could he possibly be hiding in that face-down?) “I place two cards face-down and end my turn, then…” he finally says.
“In that case, I’ll draw,” Alex said as he did so. “I place this monster in face-down defense mode, and I-“
“Wait!” Greed Verace interrupted. “I activate the trap card Acid Trap Hole! Should your monster have less than 2000 defense, it is destroyed.”
As soon as the face-down card appears on Alex’s side, it flips to reveal Emerald Turtle. “Sorry Greed, but Emerald Turtle has exactly 2000 defense, so it’s safe. Anyways, I activate the spell card Gem Guidance. I take two gem beasts from my deck and place them into my spell and trap zone, making the total amount there three.” He then pulls out his deck and takes two cards before shuffling it and placing it back into his deck slot. He says, “I choose Sapphire Pegasus and Topaz Tiger,” as he places them into his spell and trap zone. 
Greed Verace growls once he hears that Topaz Tiger was one of the monsters. “Typical…” He said to himself.
“And now I activate Rare Value,” Alex continues. “You choose one of my Gem Beasts that you can’t stand the sight of, and it gets discarded. In return, I get to draw two cards.”
Greed Verace makes a “Hmph,” sound before saying, “I think you know which one I want you to discard… Get rid of Topaz Tiger.”
“Heh, I knew you would…” Alex said as he discarded it and drew two more cards. “I place this card face-down in my spell and trap zone, and with that I’ll end my turn.”
Greed Verace draws and smiles before he says, “You’re finished already… I activate Mausoleum of the Emperor!”
And with that, the ground shakes and after a while, the duelists are once again standing on top of a large stone bridge in front of a large mausoleum, with tons of eerie stone statues below them. “And I sacrifice 2000 Life Points, making my total 6000, and my Forest Wolf to summon… SLIFER, THE SKY DRAGON!”
Two statues come out from the pit, and they vanish along with Forest Wolf as the sky darkens and the giant, red serpentine-like dragon appears in coils on top of the mausoleum (3000 ATK). “Oh no…” Alex says in complete surprise. “Th-that’s… an Egyptian God Card! How could you be able to use it?”
“Simple, I activate one of my face-downs: Terraforming! I lose Mausoleum, but in return I get to play Mound of the Bound Creator from my deck, which allows me to use Egyptian God Cards without feeling their judgment!”
And with that, the ground shakes and the entire arena breaks down into a desert before large poles shoot up from the ground and fire chains around Slifer. Greed Verace then continues, “Don’t forget bro, Egyptian God Cards are immune to spells and traps, so don’t bother activating a face-down. And should you summon any monster, Slifer will take away 2000 of whatever stat corresponds to what mode it’s in, and will destroy them if it hits 0. Now Slifer, destroy his Emerald Turtle!”
Slifer opens its bottom moth and fires a burst at the Emerald Turtle, destroying it and making it appear in Alex’s magic and trap zone. “My turn is over now, bro. Don’t worry, the pain will be over soon…” Greed Verace says with a smirk.
Alex draws and says, “You’re not the only one that can use legendary cards…” He lifts his finger into the air and declares, “I sacrifice Ruby Carbuncle, Sapphire Pegasus, and Emerald Turtle in order to special summon… HAMON! LORD OF STRIKING THUNDER!”
The sky is already dark from Slifer’s summoning, but that doesn’t stop it from getting darker, and this time, thunder cracks from the clouds, and a giant bolt of lighting strikes the duelfield, and in that instant, the draconic Hamon appears (4000 ATK). Greed Verace is flabbergasted at this, and says, “B-but… Hamon is a Sacred Beast… a Phantasm Demon… How could you control one of such great power? It should devour your soul!”
“Normally you’d be right,” Alex explained. “But I’d expect you of all people, considering your host, would know that I have a very powerful soul. Hamon deemed me worthy of using him in battle, and I will make good use of his immense power…”
“Be that as it may, Slifer still takes away 2000 of its attack with his special ability. Go Slifer! Use your second mouth to weaken it!”
Slifer opens its upper mouth and fires a red blast at Hamon, but the demon knocks it away with a bat from its wings. “Nice try Greed, but you won’t be dealing with Hamon so easily,” Alex says with a smile. “As you know, the Egyptian God Cards are ranked among themselves so that the powers of lower ones don’t affect the higher ones. They go Slifer, Obelisk, and Ra, from lowest to highest.”
“Yes, but you don’t have a single Egyptian God Card in your possession, let alone your deck!”
“No, but the Phantasm Demons follow a similar class system. It goes Uria, Raviel, and Hamon, in the same order. In other words, Hamon is on par with the Winged Dragon of Ra, so Slifer’s ability won’t do squat to him. And now Hamon, destroy Slifer the Sky Dragon!”
Hamon cried out as lightning bolts crackled and struck all around it before making a giant one crash onto Slifer, destroying it, lowering Greed Verace’s Life points down from 6000 to 5000. “And what’s more,” Alex continues, “Hamon’s special ability makes it so with every monster he destroys, you lose 1000 Life Points!”
Greed Verace cries out as a giant bolt of lightning strikes him, further lowering his Life Points from 5000 to 4000. (I… can’t believe it…) Greed Verace thinks to himself. (Hamon is more powerful than even Avarice! I need to get rid of it… I know I have cards to stop it, but right now even if I put up a defense, he’ll still use Hamon’s ability to chip away at my Life Points…)
“Now that Slifer is out of the way, I summon another Ruby Carbuncle in Attack Mode.” In a flash, a large ruby appears and then flashes brightly again before making Ruby Carbuncle appear, poised to attack as it says, “Ruby!”
“And with that, I’ll end my turn,” Alex finishes with a smirk.
Greed Verace draws and says, “This card…” as he looks at what he just drew. “Okay, I activate my face-dawn: Scapegoat! With this, I get 4 Sheep Tokens.” As the sheep tokens appear, he continues, “But none of them will be staying long, as I sacrifice them all to summon… Destiny Hero Plasma!”
A tidal wave of what looks like some thick, red liquid appears and splashes down, and once it settles, the demon-like Destiny Hero Plasma appears (1900 ATK). “Destiny Hero?” Alex asks as he cocks his head to the side. “Why would you have such a monster in your deck?”
Greed Verace grinned and said, “Well, first of all it’s because Destiny Heroes were specifically created to be better than Elemental Heroes, and obviously, Elemental Heroes are what I thought was your main deck type. And second, it can devour souls, but although souls can’t be broken down into anything, they’re just the perfect tools to use against people like you...”
“Just what do you mean, Greed?”
“Just take a look for yourself…”
From Plasma’s wing, the soul of the real Verace breaks out and says, “What are you doing, bro!? Seal him away with your power! Don’t waste your time on this card game!”
Alex is horrified at the sight of this, but maintains his control and says, “I can’t do that, bro! If I do, your body will get sealed away, and I can’t allow that to happen! If I beat him, his spirit will be too weak to resist, and I can seal him away while keeping your body intact.”
“I don’t care!” Verace says in tears, “I’d rather lose my body than let him wreck havoc on the world, not to mention I can’t stand being trapped in here…”
“Don’t worry Verace, Hamon has more than enough power to set you free!”
“Is that so?” Greed Verace interrupts. “In that case, I better remove that threat… I place D-Force on the top of my deck, and activate Plasma’s special ability: First, all face-up spells, traps, and effect monsters are negated. Second…”
Plasma spreads open its wings and a vortex appears, and creates a suction effect, from which Hamon can’t avoid being sucked in. “No…” is all Alex can say in response to this.
“And although only one monster can be equipped to him at once, he gains half their attack power, which increases his attack power from 1900 to 3900, seeing as how your Hamon had 4000 attack power.”
“What!?”
“YOU’RE FINISHED! Destiny Hero Plasma, destroy Ruby Carbuncle! Acid Rain Strike!”
Destiny Hero Plasma jumps up and fires its attack on Ruby Carbuncle, which cries out as it is destroyed and goes into Alex’s spell and trap zone. Alex covers his face as the attack continues one to him, but in a moment of quick thinking, he says, “Activate trap card!”
“Oh, did I forget to tell you? Darn my memory… Destiny Hero Plasma is immune to any spell and trap card that specifically targets him.”
“Heh, good thing this doesn’t target him, then…”
“Huh?”
“My trap card is Dimension Wall… The target is you! For this battle, you take the damage instead of me!”
“What? NO!” Greed Verace yells as his Life Points drop from 4000 to 400. He falls onto his hands and knees and pants heavily. “That half-breed… I should have known something was up with that face-down!”
He gets up and brushes himself off before saying, “Nice move bro, but Plasma is still alive, and because he absorbed Hamon, he gains his ability. After that is activated, I’ll end my turn.”
Alex stands his ground as he takes the hit from the lightning bolt, lowering his Life Points from 6500 to 5500. He then draws his card and smiles before he says, “Okay, I activate the spell card: Instant Fusion! It takes a fusion monster level 5 or less from my fusion deck and special summons it to the field. It also counts as a fusion summon, so I can call out just about any one I want, though it can’t attack, and is destroyed at the end of the turn.”
“Pah, what’s the point, then?”
“You’ll see… I summon Elemental Hero Mariner in attack mode!”
A cup of what looks like instant noodle appears in front of Alex and floats there for a minute before the top pops open, causing a blur to fly out of it, before Elemental Hero Mariner lands (1400 ATK). “WHAT!? An Elemental Hero!?” Greed Verace cries out in surprise. “But… I took your Elemental Hero deck!”
“Indeed,” Alex says in a serious tone. “You took away my deck, but you neglected to take my fusion deck along with it!”
“Pah, still, it can’t attack and won’t last beyond this turn. What could it possibly do for you?”
“Simple… Now, I tribute my beloved Elemental Hero in order to summon Gravi Crush Dragon!”
“A dragon? I thought you hated dragons.”
“I normally don’t care for them, but hating them without giving them a chance to shine would be shallow.”
And with that, Elemental Hero Mariner gives a last salute and vanishes from the bottom up as Gravi Crush Dragon falls from the sky and lands with a large THUD! (2400 ATK) “And now,” Alex continues, “I activate the last card in my hand: Book of Moon! Your monster changes into face-down defense position, and therefore loses its ability!”
The card Plasma stands on slips out from under his feet and falls on top of him. “Now I activate Gravi Crush Dragon’s special ability: At the cost of a continuous spell card… such as what Ruby Carbuncle counts as right now, I may instantly destroy one of your monsters!”
Alex discards Ruby Carbuncle, making the crystallized monster in his spell and trap area vanish. “W-wait!” Greed Verace says, “Plasma may be face-down, and I don’t get to flip him since you’re using a card effect to attempt to destroy him, but that doesn’t change the fact that you destroy his equipped monster instead!”
“Don’t worry, I realize that… Hamon is lost, sadly, but where he left off Gravi Crush Dragon will continue! I attack your face-down Plasma, and since it only has 600 defense points, it dies!”
Gravi Crush Dragon dashes up to the face-down card and attacks it by slamming down its fist, destroying Plasma. “Wait a minute!’ Greed Verace interrupts. “If you do that, where will your brother’s soul go? I won’t let him back into this body. He’s going to be lost as a wandering spirit here in the Shadow Realm without a place to go!”
“He’s got a place to go…” Alex said as he spreads out his arms before yelling, “Right here!” as the real Verace’s soul enters his body.
Afterwards, Verace appears behind him in an astral form and said, “You didn’t need to do that, bro…”
“Yes, I did…” Alex argues. “I’m going to be winning your body back, and I don’t mind sharing mine with you until then.”
“What if you should fail? You will both then be trapped within the Shadow Realm forever…” Greed Verace says in an ominous fashion.
“There are others… If I fail, another will merely take my place to stop you… Anyways, Plasma was in defense mode,” Alex continues, “So your Life Points are safe, but don’t expect to be so lucky next turn… Anyways, you can go now.”
Greed Verace draws and says, “I activate Pot of Greed. With this, I draw two cards. Greed is good, I would know this, after all…”
“Wait a minute, Pot of Greed is banned!” Alex said in an annoyed fashion.
“Brother, I played Slifer, the Sky Dragon… Since when were we playing by the Advanced Format rules?”
Alex growls and thinks to himself, (This is bad… That means I’m at a disadvantage since this deck was made with Advanced Format in mind… It doesn’t have all the normally banned cards that are allowed outside advanced…)
“Anyways, I place this card face-down and I place this card in face-down defense mode. Your turn.”
Alex draws and says, “Okay, first I pla-“ when suddenly, Verace’s face-down flips and a giant house of what appears to be candy jumps up and lands on Gravi Crush Dragon. “What the he-… I certainly hope you aren’t planning to make any Ruby Red Slippers references, because so help me if you do…”
Then, the house jumps up and lands on Verace’s side of the field, revealing Gravi Crush Dragon was now fat, and had gained 600 attack power, making it have 3000 attack power. “Huh?” Alex said in confusion before his monster burst right before his eyes.
“They just don’t make them like they used to, eh bro? Gingerbread House was originally added to fatten up meals for my monsters, but since you run primarily gem beasts, it’ll serve its original purpose of adding 600 attack to one of the monsters on your side of the field, and should their attack power meet or exceed 2500 from this effect, they are destroyed and I gain 500 Life Points, so I now have a total of 900.”
“Hmph, regardless, I place Amethyst Cat in attack made!”
In a flash, an amethyst appears before it flashes again, making Amethyst Cat appear, ready to attack (1200 ATK). “And I activate her special ability: by halving her attack power, she may attack you directly!”
And with that, Amethyst Cat jumps over Verace’s face-down and slashes with her claws, lowering his Life Points from 900 to 300 before jumping back to Alex’s side of the field. “Almost there… Your turn!”
Greed Verace draws and says, “During my standby phase, Gingerbread House has no choice but to activate.”
The Gingerbread House jumps up once again, and while Amethyst Cat tries to run, it lands perfectly. It gets up after a while, having had its fattening affect on her and upping her attack to 1800. “But she won’t be enjoying it for long, as I activate the flip effect of my Cyber Jar! Normally it sucks in your monsters, but since Amethyst Cat is a gem beast, she only gets destroyed.”
Amethyst Cat and Cyber Jar are both destroyed as the jar creates a giant torrent, though when Amethyst Cat appears in Alex’s spell and trap zone, a much larger than normal gemstone appears, which Alex can’t help but stare at for a moment before shaking his head and looking forward and saying, “And I know the rest of its effect… We both pick up 5 cards from our decks and special summon all level 4 or lower monsters added to our hands with this effect!”
They both draw 5 cards. Greed Verace summons a Forest Wolf (1800 ATK), Mirage Dragon (1500 ATK), Jowls of Dark Demise (200 ATK), and a Proto Cyber Dragon (1100 ATK), all in attack mode. Alex summons Amber Mammoth (1600 DEF) (which looks like an ordinary brown mammoth with 4 tusks, but with a large amber stone on its head), Sapphire Pegasus (1800 ATK) (selecting a Topaz Tiger from his deck to place into his spell and trap zone), and an Emerald Turtle (2000 DEF), all in defense mode except for Sapphire Pegasus. “And now,” Greed Verace continues, “I tribute my Jowls of Dark Demise, Proto Cyber Dragon, and Mirage Dragon in order to summon the one, the only, the Avarice you’re so fond of!”
From the ground a crevasse opens, and a giant hand comes up and draws all the tribute monsters in before Avarice climbs out (3100 ATK). Greed Verace chuckles a bit and says, “And as you know, every monster tributed to him gives him an additional 600 attack points, bringing his total up to 4900! Sorry bro, but there’s no Electrum to save you this time! He can’t attack you this turn, but Forest Wolf can, and I target your Amber Mammoth!”
Forest Wolf dashes ahead and bites Amber Mammoth, causing it to shatter and go into Alex’s spell and trap zone. “Hmm…” Alex said softly, “Good choice, seeing as how you can only target Amber Mammoth while he was on the field…”
“Indeed, and the last thing I want was for you to summon another one and create a lock similar to your Marauding Captain one in your Elemental Hero deck. Anyways, I place one card face-down and end my turn.”
“Before I draw… Avarice represents you, doesn’t it?”
“Huh? What are you talking about? It certainly looks like me, but…”
“I wasn’t asking if you were Avarice, I was asking if it represents you and your hold on my brother… After all, you’ve gone out of your way to summon him in every duel, and aside from trying to cop a cheap win out of Victory Dragon, it seems you intend to finish me with him…”
Greed Verace says nothing and Alex draws his card. After he does so, the Gingerbread house jumps again and lands on Emerald Turtle, than jumps back with Emerald Turtle clearly stuffed, despite being in its shell. Alex smirks and says, “Congratulations, you powered up my walling monster! You must feel proud…”
“Shut up and play your cards,” Greed Verace said, clearly annoyed.
“Okay then… I activate the magic card Graceful Charity. I draw two cards, then discard two from my hand.”
Alex then proceeds to draw three cards, discarding Yu-Jo Friendship and Emergency Provisions before saying, “I place this card in face-down defense mode and attack your Forest Wolf with my Sapphire Pegasus!”
Sapphire Pegasus attacks as Forest Wolf lunges forward, causing both to get destroyed, although Sapphire Pegasus goes into Alex’s spell and trap zone. Alex continues, “And that will be all for this turn.”
Greed Verace draws and his Gingerbread House jumps on Alex’s face-down, which turns out to be Cobalt Eagle, which is brown with cobalt gems on its wings and chest, (800 DEF) and raises its attack power from 1400 to 2000 while overstuffing it in the process. “I grow tired of merely smashing gemstones, brother… I place this card face-down and activate the spell card: Fairy Meteor Crush! Now the difference between my monster’s attack and your monster’s defense comes out of your Life Points!”
“Oh, no…”
“And I summon Niwatori in attack mode, but only to sacrifice it to make Avarice even stronger!”
The fat bird, Niwatori appears briefly in attack mode (900 ATK) before being tributed to make Avarice gain 600 attack power, bringing its total to 5500 attack power. “And now,” Greed Verace continues, “attack his Cobalt Eagle! Firebane!”
“Hold it! I activate a trap card I’ve been saving especially for Avarice: Nightmare Wheel! Not only can Avarice no longer attack or defend you, but you take 500 Life Points every turn!”
“Nice try, but I activate my face-down: Trap Stupidity! Your trap card is not only stopped, but spit right back at you!”
The Nightmare Wheel appears on Alex’s side of the field, and straps Emerald Turtle to it, the monster still hiding in its shell. Avarice inhales sharply and fires a stream of fire at Cobalt Eagle, making it go into Alex’s spell and trap zone like all the other gem beasts, bringing his total to 4, and lowering his Life Points from 5500 to 700. Greed Verace laughs and says, “You see? This is why people always say to never give up! Go ahead and draw your final card, bro...”
Alex stares blankly at his deck. The real Verace appears behind him and says, “It’s not too late bro, you can stop him without having to rely on luck!”
“Don’t worry Acey, I know I can beat him…”
“Please, I don’t want to risk losing you…”
“I’ll be fine… after all, I don’t just have your support… The Gem Beasts represent my close friends, and I know they’re supporting me, even if they’re not actually here with me…”
“In that case, I support you, too…”
Alex reaches for the top card of his deck, and as he does, Verace does as well. Then, what looks like transparent, spirit-like hands of the rest of his friends seem to grab it with them. He smiles and draws his card, after which the Gingerbread House feeds Emerald Turtle once again, bringing its attack power to 1800, and making it appear to be even more stuffed inside its shell. He looks at the card he drew and almost goes to tears upon seeing it. Greed Verace cocks his head and says, “What’s wrong, bro? Drew a useless card? Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon… Very soon…”
“You’re right, Greed… It will be…” Alex says with a smile.
Greed Verace is confused by this, but shrugs and says, “Don’t forget, Nightmare Wheel takes away 500 of your Life Points, so I’m afraid you’re down to just 200 now.”
Alex continues unphased, “Behold! All seven Gem Beasts are in either on the field or in my graveyard, and because of that, I can activate this card…”
He raises the card to the sky and announces, “I special summon Ultimate Gem Lord: RAINBOW DRAGON!!”
“WHAT!?” Greed Verace yells in surprise. He thinks to himself, (It requires all of the Gem Beasts to have been used… What kind of attack power could such a card possibly have!?)
This time, when Alex places the card on his duel disk, the entire ground around him lights up, multicolored beams seem to be coming up from it, spreading to engulf the area. And then in a blinding flash, a giant serpentine-looking dragon with angel-like wings appears (4000 ATK). Despite its name, it is almost entirely white, save for the colored gemstones lining the sides of its body, one stone for each Gem Beast existing. Greed Verace wipes his forehead and says, “Whew, for a minute there I thought I was in trouble… sorry bro, but Rainbow Dragon is still not strong enough to take on Avarice.”
Alex folds his arms and smiles before saying, “You’re right, I guess I have no choice but to end my turn, then… Once I activate the special ability of Cobalt Eagle, that is…”
“Huh?”
“His affect has nothing to do with combat, so he retains it while he’s a continuous spell card. And what it does is that it takes a card on the field and places it on the top of its owner’s deck, and I’ll have him use it on your Gingerbread House. After that you’re free to go.”
After Gingerbread House is placed on the top of his deck, Greed Verace draws it and says, “Heh, what’s funny is that I could just end my turn right now and your own Nightmare Wheel would finish you, but I can’t be having that… I’m not even allowed to target your Emerald Turtle, so I guess I have no choice but to end it now since even if I didn’t, it’d end on your turn, anyways… Avarice, destroy Rainbow Dragon and end this!”
Alex’s eyes sparkle a little and he says, “Hold on there, Greed…” He points his finger into the air and continues, “I activate Rainbow Dragon’s special ability! You see, for every Gem Beast on my side of the field, I am allowed to discard them. For each Gem Beast discarded this way, Rainbow Dragon gains 1000 attack points. And by my count, there are six total on my side of the field…”
And with that, the Gem Beasts in Alex’s spell and trap zone, as well as his Emerald Turtle, all glow and seem to fly into each of their corresponding gems which flow along Rainbow Dragon’s body, increasing Rainbow Dragon’s attack power to 10,000.
“What? N-no… Th-there has to be something I can do…” Greed Verace says nervously as he checks his hand.
“IT’S OVER!” Alex yells as he jumps up and stands on the top of Rainbow Dragon’s neck. “Rainbow Dragon, attack Avarice with Rainbow Overdrive!” Alex commands as he points it to Avarice.
At his command, Rainbow Dragon fires an incredibly powerful and multicolored beam of energy at Avarice, causing a catastrophic explosion, destroying Avarice and lowering Greed Verace’s Life Points to 0.

Although the duel was over, Greed Verace wasn’t going to give up, despite being tired. The area around them was enveloped in light, with multicolored beams all over the place. Alex puts his deck away and performs some had movements while on top of Rainbow Dragon and fires a blue shot of energy. He jumps down to follow the attack, his duel disk melting away into water again, and puts his open fist into the attack and says, “Now to finish you! I call this move: Traces of the Blue Flame!”
Greed Verace counters by making a short energy aura, knocking Alex back before he dashes at the cabbit and says, “I’m not going to the Shadow Realm alone!”
Alex lands on all fours, in a pose similar to that a runner would start out with, and dashes at Greed Verace. They come close, but Alex is faster to knee Greed Verace in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He puts his hand in front of Greed Verace’s face and fires a magical orb of water, blinding him and making him step back a little. Alex takes advantage of this opportunity and says, “The Door to Darkness has opened…” as the surrounding light fades.
Greed Verace wipes the water from his eyes, but is suddenly stricken by an unknown force, and his spirit is pulled from his body. As his body falls, he looks around and says, “No, this can’t be…”
After his body hits the ground, the cards scatter across the ground, and a golden charm comes off of what looks like a bracelet on his wrist. Afterwards, the monsters seemed to come to life from their cards. They surround Greed Verace and slowly drag him down, screaming not in agony, but in disbelief, before they all vanish into the ground. Alex walks up to the charm and says, “So this is the cause behind all this trouble… Well, I’ll put a stop to it,” as he forms a golden chakram in his hand, decorated with the symbol for Saturn around the ring, and tosses it at the charm, destroying it. He then stretches out his body and says, “There you go, brother… It’s all yours again...”
And with that, Verace’s soul shoots out and goes back into his body. Alex helps him up and they start to pick up the cards on the ground, putting their stolen decks back together. After a while, Verace asks, “Hey bro, how were you able to stay confident throughout the duel? Even when things started to get worse and worse?”
Alex turns to his brother and smiles, saying, “Honestly, I did a little… But then I… I don’t know how to describe it, but somehow, whenever I was losing my confidence, I felt like some unseen force was driving me to keep going… There’s no other explanation for it except that my friends were with me and keeping me going, even though they weren’t physically there…”
“Well, you ARE able to manipulate souls, can’t you? That would explain how we’re here for you, even if we aren’t physically with you…”
“I don’t think that has anything to do with it… I mean, as you know, when you become good friends with someone, they leave their ‘mark’ on your heart, so to speak.”
“Indeed, it’s how I know I’ll never forget them, even if they were to somehow vanish off the face of the planet.”
“Exactly! I don’t need any special powers to have a piece of each of my friends with me at all times… I didn’t know how the duel would end up, but I  knew that even if I did lose, and even if my soul was lost, I myself wouldn’t be, as I would still exist within the souls of those who cared most about me. Because of this, I guess you could say that you can never truly lose someone, since they’ll always exist within the heart of the people they were close to…”
Verace nods and smiles back before saying, “So… How are we going to get home?”
Alex shuffles his deck and says, “Easy, we’ll just get ourselves a little help…”
He forms his duel disk on his arm again and places his deck into the slot before he draws a card and places it on the duel disk. Then in an instant, an angel-like monster with six golden wings appears. After it does, Alex says, “Shinato, King of a Higher Plane, grant us a way out of this mysterious world!”
Shinato extends his hand and points to what appears to be nothing before saying, “Certainly!” and fires a beam from it, tearing open a hole to their world.
Shinato goes back into Alex’s deck, and he walks into the portal with his brother at his side, knowing that their closeness was key to defeating the evil entity which had stolen Verace’s body, and winning it back in one piece.

THE END