Yu-gi-oh- Queen Of Games

Chapter 73- Capsule Monsters Chapter 8

Well this was certainly the most amazing and most beautiful place the group had ever seen.
Having walked through the brightly lit door, they now found themselves in a stunning fruit-filled forest.
Near enough every single tree was barring fruit; from apples, to oranges, pineapples, bananas, grapes- the list goes on.

Starving for food, Joey gathered a large pile of fruit and began chowing down, but just as he was going to bite into a banana, it transformed into a scroll.

"Hey, check it out" Joey noticed.

Mr Mouto proceeded to take the scroll from Joey and began to translate it.

"We've found our next challenge" he started.
"Choose the apple that gives you a raise, then offer it up in the sacred maze" he read aloud.
"Well that was a short one, but none too reassuring" Ana observed.

The group then began walking through the forest.

"Gosh this place is full of apples, but which is the right one?" Tea asked.
"What do you think it meant by the apple that gives you a raise?" Joey added.
"I don't know Joey, but I'm sure we'll know it when we see it" Yugi responded.

Suddenly Joey stopped dead in his tracks as his head vanished into an invisible barrier.

"What on earth..." Ana trailed off.

Curious everyone did the same and saw before them a boundless abyss, potentially revealing that this part of the map did not go beyond this point.
Avoiding any chance of getting hurt the team ventured back, but as they did so, they decided to split up. Tea, Tristan and Joey went off in different directions, leaving Ana with Yugi and Mr Mouto.

"So, Yugi...I was wondering...how is the Pharaoh since well since the KC Games- has he been alright?" Ana asked concerned.
"Um yeah I think so, why don't you just ask him?" Yugi responded.
"I just wanted to know what you thought is all, you two are close and if anything was bothering him, and he didn't wish to speak about it. I imagine you would be a better person to ask" Ana said with a smile.
"Oh, well I think he's alright, but I have to say I think he's happier having been able to spend this extra time with you" Yugi added.
"Oh really...?" Ana said and lightly blushed.
"Hey you guys- I found another one of those barrier things back there" Tea explained as she came running over.
"Me too" Joey also said as he came to join the group.
"Well that's good, it means this jungle is a lot smaller than we thought, so finding that apple just got a little easier" Mr Mouto observed.
"I just hit the motherload dudes!" Tristan called out in joy.

Everyone then rant o his location and saw him standing before what appeared to be a gigantic melon.

"Wow..." Ana gasped.
"Isn't is beautiful?" Tristan cried.
"A melon?" Yugi questioned.
"It's always been a dream of mine to eat a gigantic cantaloupe!" Tristan wept.
"Alright, that's the most disturbing thing I've ever heard" Tea remarked.
"I was the president of the national melon lovers club to 4 years" he cried into his sleeves.
"Not something you wanna say out loud" Joey commented.

Unable to pull it from the ground and worried someone would run off with it, Tristan drew his face on the melon, branding it as his.

"Well in spite of this, we need to press on-"Ana began.
"Hey!" Tristan yelled.

Suddenly the melon began sinking into the ground and appeared to be running away.
Not wanting to lose his prize, Tristan chased after it without a moment of hesitation; with that everyone else followed, it appeared that the melon had lead them into an underground tunnel; as the group continued walking, they eventually saw a light at the end of the tunnel.
As they got closer, and walked through they found themselves in a large temple like room with a long set of stairs leading upwards.

"Where are we supposed to find an apple in here?" Joey asked.
"Up there!" Tea pointed out.

Looking up they saw three very stall stone pillars, and atop each one was a single glowing gold apple.

"Only problem is there are three" Tristan observed.
"And we only need one" Yugi added.
"Well maybe if we just take one" Ana responded.
"But how will we know if they will give 'a raise'" Joey questioned.
"I have no idea, but the apples appear identical" Ana answered.
"Maybe there's another clue around here, like up those stairs" Joey pointed out.
"Worth a try" Tea said.

Then took a step forward, but was stopped by Yugi.

"Wait a sec- see anything familiar?" Yugi said.

Looking at the base of the stairs on the left, they saw it was the melon that Tristan had found.

"That's my fruit!" Tristan screamed.
"I don't think that thing was a melon" Ana observed.

The melon then moved and crawled forward, it turned out to be a giant bug, like a caterpillar, it then stood defensively and fearful of what it would do, Tristan summoned his thunder kid, but as soon as he did, the earth beneath them began shaking, the entire room began shifting.
Walls shot up from the ground and separated everyone from each other, tiles appeared over head blocking them in and all they could hear was the shock gasping of their friends around them.

Ana had also been separated and was on her own.

"Oh great, a maze...huh, that was mentioned in the riddle so maybe this is part of the test" she observed.

In realisation of this, her only choice was to walk through and try to find those apples again, maybe in getting them she would be able to find a way to help complete the challenge.
This was not going to be easy as most of the corners she turned were dead ends.

"This is becoming aggravating" she groaned in frustration but pressed on.

Suddenly Ana could hear growling from behind her, look back she saw what appeared to be a centaur.

"Well, well you're bold" Ana smirked.

She then raised her arm.

"Load capsule- now fired- Dark Magician girl, lend me a hand!" Ana called out, and in seconds the creature was gone.
"Thank you" Ana gratefully said.

The two ladies then began to continue on their way through the maze.

"I wonder where everyone else is" Ana said.

Suddenly her monster stopped her from taking another step forward.

"Something wrong?" Ana asked.

Seconds later the wall completely smashed in and what appeared to be a monster barrelled its way through all the walls, leaving rubble behind it.

"Good grief" she gasped, and when she peered through the damaged wall she saw Yugi and his friends were on the back of the monster.

"Guess they found a way through the maze" Ana observed and turned to Dark Magician Girl, who then vanished into her capsule.
"Thanks girl" Ana said and began to run through the gaping holes in the walls in hopes of catching up with the group.

It did take a bit of time, and by the time she made it back to the head of the room, she saw that Tea and Joey- who both had dragons were helping Yami but had failed and the two of them needed to fall back.
As for Yami the creature attacked him and sent him flying into a wall then falling onto his front.

"Pharaoh!" Ana called out and ran to his side.
"Are you alright?" she asked, concerned.
"I'm fine, but that monster is far too strong" Yami explained.
"Hey what happened to one of the apples, did you get it?" Ana asked, confused.
"Wait that's it, that small bug from earlier, it must have eaten one so it could transform, it was given a 'raise' in power" Yami realised and flew up to the apples, swiftly he grabbed one and took a bite from it.

As soon as he did the whole area was blinded in gold light, and from that light emerged the Magician Black Chaos, upgrading Yami and his monster.
Fusing with his monster- well he did look just as if not more handsome.

"He figured it out!" Joey called out.
"His Duel armour evolved also" Ana stated and went towards Tea and Joey.

As Yami descended down with the other apple in hand, Tristan and Mr Mouto had finally joined them; so, everyone was back together again.

"You figured out the meaning behind the apples" Mr Mouto rejoiced.

Yami then explained everything, in terms of the monster had its power raised and how he had to eat one himself in order to defeat it, so the apple remaining would be the one to offer up to the maze.
Yami transformed back to normal and switched with Yugi, who then lead the way up the stairs from earlier.
At the top was a stone alter, and upon it, Yugi placed the apple; as soon as he did there was a gold flash of light, and stairs of silver appeared leading up to another glowing doorway.

"Hey, another part of the necklace lit up, guess it's onto level 5" Tea beamed.
"1 more to go" Tristan sighed with relief.
"Well what are we waiting for, let's finish this thing and go home" Yugi encouraged.

So once more the group made their way up the stairs and through the glowing doorway.