Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 308 The Birth of the Millennium Items!!

I'm betting on that labor having been pure HELL. I've never had babies, but I know a few women who have, and it's not exactly a pleasant process to begin with (at least the way we do it in a lot of modern societies). Giving birth to pure evil scratching and tearing their way out of the birth canal? Terrifying, even knowing there's no lady involved in this case. I pity the hell out of that tablet or mold or whatever the hell had to bring these asshole items into the world. 

My only comfort here is the thought that whatever evil is awakening will probably be banging into the walls as it thrashes around in the dark until Yami wakes up. Serves it right. Jerk.

Apparently, Akhenaden is taking a little stroll down memory lane as he snoozes through the terrifying pitch-black period. We jump back to 15 years before the current replay of events, where two armies are clashing in a battle. One side appears to be the same soldiers/guards we've seen wielding their spears up until this point, and the other is made up of men in a single pauldron strapped across their chest with anywhere from one to several strips of jagged leather. They slash and stab at one another, grappling and drawing blood. It's your typical chaotic battle scene.

At the palace, robed figures surround a figure on the throne, which is also fairly familiar, until we see that the person sitting on the throne isn't Yami, but a stiff-looking old-ish man with a sharply manicured beard. He's the same man from the fragment of memory Yami had of his father - a kneeling figure in front of him calls him King Akhenamkhanen, delivering a panicky report that the foreign armies have crossed their borders and they have no more troops to fight back. Sounds like this conflict was HORRIBLY mismanaged. 

The messenger gives the dour news that they have seven days until the enemy forces reach the palace. Akhenamkhanen hangs his head, asking if there's any way they can protect the kingdom, but the messenger isn't done handing him unhappy news. He says this isn't JUST an invasion, their enemies knowing exactly what they have. Hint: it's not an iconic strut.

Oooh, I LOVE ancient spellbooks! But not enough to ignore that we're starting to trade ONE mysterious origin for another that KT is hoping no one is going to ask for an explanation to.

The messenger is finally given a good profile shot, and I'm surprised to find (though I probably shouldn't be) that it's a much younger Akhenaden! His hair is dark and his face is... smooth-er as he says that even foreigners have heard the legends of their powerful spells that can summon gods and monsters, using magical powers that can bring mundane armies to their knees. Akhenaden just vagues about how it will give the invaders even greater power if the book falls in their hands and the entire continent would be theirs.

Akhenaden doesn't explain why he and Egypt's armies aren't using the tome to fight back the invaders themselves since it has that kind of power, so it falls to Akhenamkhanen to morosely mumble that even THEY haven't been able to decipher the book in the hundred years they've been trying. Akhenaden falls silent a moment before admitting that they've actually JUST finished the translation of it. Aw, and illiteracy was a perfectly valid reason not to use it too. 

Akhenamkhanen is blow away, asking for confirmation in awe and disbelief. Akhenaden does not seem stoked to disclose that the tome describes a process called "shadow alchemy" that changes worthless objects into precious metals, also providing instructions for creating seven treasures which grant mysterious powers. The pharaoh continues to gape, turning the phrase "seven treasures" over in his overheated brain. 

Akhenaden gestures to the three robed figures behind him, saying that together they have set up the shadow alchemy procedure, so I guess he's not looking for excuses now. He's still not looking particularly happy about it, either. Might have something to do with the "shadow" in this variety's name. It doesn't register with Akhenamkhanen that Akhenaden is being super somber and vague about all this, asking how long this alchemy will take. Akhenaden says seven days, which I'm sure everyone in the room has realized is exactly the time when they should expect to be under siege. 

The pharaoh hangs his head again, considering how unleashing a such a great power, even one he has been told virtually NOTHING about thus far, could bring disaster. Siamun, looking exactly the same as he does in Yami's memories, urges Akhenamkhanen to hurry it up with his orders on what to do, because there's no time.

How many more secret relatives does this guy have? 

Outside the palace, Akhenaden sits on horseback in front of a formation of soldiers, whom he instructs on their impending trip to Kul Elna near the Valley of the Kings. One soldier makes a disgusted face over the destination, saying that people call it the "village of thieves". Another next to him complains that there's nothing there but grave robbers, descended from the royal tomb-builders but gone very very BAD. He asks why they're going THERE of all places, and the first soldier says he heard a rumor that they're off to perform a magic ritual, a strange expression on his face. Another confused man points out that they're soldiers, not wizards. 

Akhenaden isn't paying any attention to their grumbling; he looks over his shoulder at a kneeling woman and a small child staring at him from a distance. 

Even as a baby, this kid looks emotionally constipated as all hell.

Anyway, Akhenaden is riding away as he thinks about being fated to walk in his brother's shadow ever since he took the throne, concluding that neither he nor Seto will ever become king. Don't know what this has to do with SHIT, but okay, be weirdly resentful of how you won't ever sit your sad ass on a particularly fancy chair and dictate EVERYONE else do shit. He wishes his tiny uptight son farewell, a sentiment that is strangely final, given that we know he comes back at some point. While he and his soldiers kick up dust on their way to Kul Elna, Akhenamkhanen stares straight ahead while his own infant son is being cradled in the background by (I'm guessing) his nameless mother. Don't know when she showed up, or why.

As he travels, Akhenaden thinks seriously about the dark cost of the shadow alchemy he's read about: mass human sacrifice is needed to turn base substances into gold. 99 lives are required to produce seven treasures, in their creepy tablet mold looming in the panel above. Akhenaden knows that the king always frowned on cruelty, but he thinks what pharaoh doesn't know won't hurt him. I'm starting to see why he was comparing Priest Seto's plans for human experimentation to this, but there is still one difference that I can see so far...

Akhenaden doesn't look AT ALL pleased or excited about this ritual sacrifice. 

Doesn't waste any time when he gets to Kul Elna, though.

Get a load of THAT freak reveling in murdering a whole bunch of people who just "stole" things that no one was even using.

Next we see the sarcophagus-shaped tablet laying in a tiered circle ringed with alchemical symbols of every level, and it's smoking at the points where the newly minted Millennium Items are embedded in it. A narrative dialog box informs the reader that these magicians made a contract with gods and devils through their shadow alchemy, Akhenaden staring intently at the Millennium Eye in the tablet in particular. Five silhouettes stand looking down at their steaming treasures, more narration saying that the villagers of Kul Elna died and the Millennium Items were born. The next panel shows the items all displayed against a dark background, telling of the conspirators deciding who would get which item when they got back to the palace - six priests taking an item each and giving one to the pharaoh. Sharing is caring, I guess? Just be sure not to tell the guy where his shiny new pendant came from. Like a kid who first finds out that their meat isn't just grown out of the supermarket shelves, I don't think he'll take it well.

You've already got a close relative as the pharaoh, dude. It's not as though this would be a major overhaul of your family's station or anything. 

According to the narration, it's seven days later that the opposing army arrives on the edge of the city, from a very similar overlook to the one thief!Bakura was just hanging out on in the last chapter. But I thought the whole process of creating the Millennium Items was supposed to take seven days, from what Akhenaden said? They were supposed to be cutting this real close with their return, right? Are we experiencing time dilation?

The leader of the enemy is a husky guy with a marvelous mustache on a horse, grinning down at the palace. He says he PLANNED for them to build a mountain of corpses, but there aren't even any guards at the palace gates that he can see. Too bad my imagination has to conjure up the image even though it won't be drawn. Ew. The enemy leader declares they'll have the throne in no time, leading his army in a charge to attack. He shouts permission to kill anyone they find alive, since this is their land now and all. They could really benefit from getting their kicks elsewhere - somebody should go back in time and hand them some video games.

As they approach the gate of the palace at a full gallop, the leader sees a set of silhouettes standing outside, and he makes a confused noise at this. 

They won't make a mountain, but maybe you'll at least get to make a molehill? Right?

I was afraid of that.

The leader asks aloud if it's some kind of joke that these dudes are confronting their whole-ass army with seven men, but as he and his soldiers ride closer, those seven don't even flinch. Wearing the Millennium Puzzle around his neck, the pharaoh asserts silently that seven treasures protect his country and people, the latter of which have probably been suffering immensely under the invasion for the past seven days, but we'll try not to think about THAT. The portraits of the other six wielders of the items are clustered after his, most of which we don't recognize, except for Akhenaden of course, and HEY, Siamun used to have the Millennium Key! No shit!

Akhenamkhanen raises his fist to the sky and implores the spirits to give them their power, and it's not long before the incoming army looks up in alarm and disbelief at a blinding light emerging over the palace. The leader's eyes practically pop out of his HEAD in shock. 

That's an understatement for sure.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I made fun of it earlier, but I do think it's pretty interesting that Akhenaden resents and is jealous of his brother for getting the throne, to the point where he would make a wish on the Millennium Eye to make his son the pharaoh instead. I think these feelings could have been elaborated upon just a little; perhaps Akhenaden could blame Akhenamkhanen for the invasion, considering him a weak leader for his soft policies and shying away from violence, as he mentioned in the chapter. In any case, I do like how this jealousy is a little reminiscent of the story of Osiris and Set, the latter murdering and dismembering the former in retaliation for some slight and assuming the throne. It's clear that (future) Priest Seto is named for Set, so that seems to speak even more to how sore Akhenaden is that he and his son will never get to be pharaoh, and his distant hope that MAYBE Seto will usurp the throne one day. 

But given how uncomfortable he is with Priest Seto's bent toward torture in order to build a match against Diabound, reflecting his own dismissal of how much his pharaoh would hate that he's going to be hurting people to achieve victory, I wonder if he truly understood how much Priest Seto would grow to resemble his namesake, the god of chaos and violence and death. As he's grown older, he's grown to REALLY regret what he did to create the Millennium Items, and even more, what he's done to create his SON as he has turned out. He's clearly grown to fear the fulfillment of his wish on the eye, made out of resentment, not the reflection on whether a path of death/destruction would really create a good ruler. He's lived long enough to realize that violence only begets more violence, and that's not going to limit itself to just "enemies" of the throne. 

Took him long enough.

I only have one complaint about this chapter, and that's the obvious one - how much of the creation of the Millennium Items fit within that deadline of seven days kept shrinking as the chapter went on. At the beginning, Akhenaden made it seem like they'd be cutting this pretty close just by MAKING the things, but by the end, they had enough time to get to Kul Elna, kill (nearly) everyone there, make the items, bring them back to the palace, and assign them to seven individuals to use, all before the clock even starts TICKING. There's not even any mention of LEARNING how to use them, so those must be some pretty intuitive mystical objects. Granted, Yami didn't really LEARN his way to summoning a god when he first showed up here either, but that makes me scratch my head even more. Akhenamkhanen mentioned that it took them 100 years to even translate their ancient spellbook, and the products of its magic just work instantly without any study? Seems WAY too easy to me.

But, I guess MOST things that the elite and fabulously wealthy do seem way too easy to me, so I should probz be used to it by now.