The regular light and shadows are good enough for me. Call me simple, but I'm perfectly happy with my predictable day-night cycles, rushing around completing tasks by daylight and slowing down to chill out once evening falls. I don't need them to be in constant conflict with each other, since there are PLENTY of power struggles in the strictly human sphere that I'm side-eyeing. Besides, the almost religious morphology of the "battle" between light and dark never rose to the level of cosmic horror for me. You know, given that we're aware the universe is going to collapse into eventual heat death and dark is the ultimate victor there.
Scientifically speaking.
Anyway, on to happier topics! Human kings deliberately dragging everyone else into their dipshittery!
Thief!Bakura wants to make a game of it; he calls back to Yami, challenging him to save as many fools he can save, labeling it a game of death. Yami growls in response. He leans forward over his horse's neck urging it on, the giant monsters flying above.
Diabound hovers low, startling the populace below. Someone remarks in alarm on the giant monster in the sky, another counters that they don't see anything, and another just yells for everyone to run. Thief!Bakura commands his glorious spirit Diabound to destroy the city and slaughter the people with its Magic Blast, and Diabound pauses only a moment to build up a sufficient aura before letting loose a series of blasts at the buildings lining the street they're following. Yami groans at the scene of his subjects fleeing as their shops and homes explode around them, crying and screaming and running for their lives, while continues to chase after the menace razing everything around them. He passes a man diving out of the way, with no time to slow down and check after his condition.
Slifer absorbs the blows on its back, Yami's teeth grind from the pain this causes him as well. The fact that Yami is portecting everyone by taking the damage himself seems to amuse the shit out of thief!Bakura, who asks how long Yami can keep that up. Slifer keeps itself between the common folk below and Diabound above, but thief!Bakura just laughs off this supposed "barrier".
Man, the EASE with which those without a conscience can just throw gigantic tantrums until they get their ways, I swear. It would be enviable if it weren't so despicable.
Yami growls through a clenched jaw, fuming over thief!Bakura forcing him to use Slifer as a shield by attacking his people. Thief!Bakura is still speeding along too, laughing that Diabound only really needs one shot to kill Yami's so-called god. I guess we're ignoring the blows Slifer took to protect the city-folk? I guess Diabound didn't really need to let loose particularly powerful shots to take out regular people. Thief!Bakura commands a Spiral Wave out of Diabound, and its aura starts to magnify again, holding out its hands to power up a swirling energized wind at Slifer's back.
Yami realizes that even Slifer can't survive such an attack from behind, considering his ONE chance as Diabound's glowing ball of death grows between its hands, if Yami can be FASTER than the monster of course. There are still people flailing around nearby while Yami orders Slifer to fire a Lightning Strike from its bigger mouth, straight at the ground. The force of the blow starts to propel upward, much to thief!Bakura's consternation.
Seems to me that Diabound is too SLOW if it can't get off one shot while its opponent gets off two in quick succession. We see who the REAL gunslinger is here.
Thinking he has to take the battle somewhere safer, Yami yells to Slifer to pull Diabound higher. Slifer whips around its long body/tail, coiling it around Diabound's wrist. Shocked beyond belief, thief!Bakura watches Slifer drags Diabound away from the street.
Yami claims that now thief!Bakura's attacks can't reach the city, but I'm not so sure. Thief!Bakura does seem a bit put out by the distance of the fight now, though. Yami also asserts that Diabound can't utilize its ability to walk through walls in the air, even if this doesn't appear to be thief!Bakura's biggest concern. It's more that fact that Slifer's lightening should be all the stronger in the air that's got his jaw locked as he glares anxiously into the sky.
With an order to attack from Yami, Slifer begins to charge up that lightning laser in its open mouth - the bigger one, of course. But as the ball of crackling energy expands in Slifer's jaw, thief!Bakura cackles that Slifer might be be able to control the heavens, but Diabound can control the night. The blast is released, named "Thunder Force" by Yami, though it doesn't LOOK any different from Divine Lightning. It rockets toward Diabound.
... And keeps on going.
It seems to be a shock to Yami that Diabound appears to be just GONE, but we've seen this song and dance before, dear readers. A grinning thief!Bakura reminds Yami that Diabound has a new power to blend into its surroundings, becoming one with the darkness. Yami is in horrified disbelief over Diabound being able to hide itself no matter where it is, like it's invisible. Slifer hangs in the air, in limbo as thief!Bakura ominously says that this raises the difficulty level of the game.
A boom sounds, smoke billowing up from the city to the right of Slifer. Yami looks around, wild-eyed, thief!Bakura laughing that he'd better find Diabound before there are more victims. Unless that building was in a vacant part of the city, I'm guessing it's a bit too late. Thinking he has to stop this slaughter, Yami is nevertheless aimless in his hurry to help - with Diabound invisible, where's he going to head? Thief!Bakura waxes poetic about his attacks coming unseen from the dark, and implying slyly what his next target is.
I'm not convinced that the peek-a-boo attack from behind is going to take this thing down, but even if it does... you haven't defeated Slifer until you've trapped it into a never-ending loop of attack-and-draw. Every other method is illegitimate and I refuse to acknowledge it.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? There were a couple of instances where I had to tilt my head and squint, as usual. I'm not certain I understand how Slifer's propelling itself upward with one attack to the ground was better than just twisting around and using that shot on Diabound from where it was. The information that Slifer has more power in the air gives this decision a LITTLE credence, but the amount of air gained with the propulsion move didn't seem to be much, and didn't seem to really impact the strength of the next attack either. It also didn't appear to give Slifer much of an advantage when dragging Diabound higher up. I get the feeling that KT just did it for how cool it looked rather than anything practical it added to the way the fight was progressing.
Which isn't WRONG - it did look pretty cool, as did the rest of the chapter in a comparable way to the last. I just question the utility of the aesthetic when there's an implication that it exists.
Otherwise, I'm very much intrigued by the smaller implications of the chapter. At the beginning, there seemed to be SOME people who could see Diabound and Slifer, and others who could not. I wonder, with the comments Isis made a few chapters ago on Mana's magic not being powerful enough to see her master's spirit and Priest Seto's certainty that he could find plenty of test subjects with promising ka in the city, what subset of the city's population has a talent for spirit/ka stuff or if that will be used as a plot point later on. It would be interesting to see if the people Yami is trying to protect play a more crucial role later in their own protection. Though, even if they don't, it's a nice detail that I find very grounding and helpful in establishing just a touch of diversity in the otherwise somewhat monolithic "thing to protect".
Also, if Slifer is really out for the count here, I'm anxious to see what happens to Yami. It's been established that one's ka getting ganked is a death sentence itself. Though it doesn't appear that the gods are Yami's PERSONAL ka, which are more closely linked to a person's vitality and soul, he IS pharaoh. Considering the consensus in this time and place is that the pharaoh is an incarnation of god, solidifying the divine right, Yami's connection to the gods might be analogous to a spirit ka, even if they didn't originate from HIS soul.
Due to being the focus, I know he can't DIE... at least not yet. Still got a few chapters yet before how he croaked in the first place gets to be a concern.
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