Yu-Gi-Oh! Terminal World
Chapter 1
"There was once a land of ice, my men.
There was once a giant empire the whole continent feared, a mighty force guarding the forbidden arts of the dark seas. One step into their boundary, and enemies felt icy cold seep into their souls and body. They wielded spells of various natures, and with their powers, guarded and expanded its territory.
As a ruler of millions, its system was perfectly organized. Perhaps it was unmatched in its sophisticated culture. Beasts did lurk near its cities, but they never harmed its inhabitants. The wizards instead tamed the beasts and fought alongside them for the greater good. Its leaders, known for being always thoughtful and fair, were well respected.
They were called the Ice Barriers. And they were one of the four high tribes that fought for supremacy, back in the history buried under layers of thick, white hoarfrost.
Even so, after years of ongoing war and invasion of the extraterrestrial beasts known as Worms, they had begun to weaken. Their warriors were powerless before them. Thousands of lives were lost. Eventually, there was only one way left for the Ice Barriers, and it was to use one of the two forbidden arts they had vowed to never unleash upon the planet again.
One of these two was the arts of the Aquamirror, a form of Summoning Spell that granted unthinkable power to its holder, in exchange for a large number of sacrifices. Another, the one they decided to let loose, was the Ice Barrier Dragons.
Perhaps you have heard of them; these powerful creatures, these incarnates of destruction that spread havoc wherever they went. Yes, they were extremely hard to control, and should they ever go berserk, the world itself would be at mercy. But the Ice Barriers decided they were skilled enough to handle these ultimate creations. Besides, most of them thought the Aquamirror, requiring tributes, was a cruel and evil art.
Of course, some of the Ice Barrier elders argued that even so the Aquamirror was the better move. They may require loss, but once that is paid, they have no need to fear. Compared to the Dragons which had the constant fear of going berserk, it was much safer. Despite all this, not many agreed with them, and the conferences always concluded with releasing the Dragons.
First Brionac was released. A single breath from its mouth reduced the invaders to nothing but statues of ice. Still the invaders kept on coming, and so the elders moved onto Gungnir. It, too, was ridiculously powerful. It defeated much of the Worms. Eventually, with the combined power of the tribes, the Worms were extinguished. The elders, relaxed, thought they would never be forced to release Trishula, the final and ultimate dragon. In exchange for wielding powers which seemed divine, it was almost impossible to control.
All changed when the Fabled also came into the game.
Even after the Worms were defeated, these forbidden deities of malice still thrived on. In the end the elders were forced to unlock Trishula herself.
Again, the ones believing in the Aquamirror argued that now was the time. One of them, at this time completely sick of the elders, declared independence along with several others, and left the Ice Barriers.
But the elders didn't listen. They believed in their powers.
Perhaps, they believed a bit too much.
Trishula certainly did succeed in wiping away the Fableds once and for all. She certainly did achieve her masters' goal.
The problem was that she went berserk, contrary to the elders' assumptions.
The mighty behemoth ravaged through the entire continent. Forests were reduced to nothing. Fire was covered in frost. The mighty empire of the Ice Barriers crumbled, collapsed, and disappeared into chaos. After seven days of spreading death and sorrow upon the universe, Trishula returned to the glacier where it originated from, and came to a long rest once more, leaving the entire world plunging into an ice age that lasted two millenniums.
Fools are fools. They will never stop being foolish, and we should never think about aiding them. Instead, we should go against them, crush them, and build our throne on top of their bodies.
I, Noelia, was one of the several elders that departed the thoughtless Ice Barriers and carved out my own empire for myself. No one realized when we broke the seal of the Aquamirror locked deep within the dark seas and took its powers for ourselves. I am one of the last of the Ice Barriers, but I have no intention to be like my ancestors and former allies.
Look! Now we, the Gishki, are one of the most dominant forces upon this planet. Now we are just as powerful as the Ice Barriers in their ancient days. The difference is, we have the knowledge they lacked, and we can still move on from here. We never rely on the unreliable. No matter how many fallen souls it takes, we will eventually dominate this continent, and turn this rotten world full of fools into a paradise of sophisticated intelligence!
Glory to the Gishki!"
And with that high cry, the queen stood up from her throne, and shook her fist to the heavens. Countless beasts, men, and those in between, roared in approval far below. With a sly smile, Noelia glanced down at her minions gathered in the underwater fortress of the Gishki she had complete control over.
Noelia turned her back on the deafening crowd, and snapped her bony fingers. A dimensional gate opened up in front of her; she slipped in, and the screams and echoes faded away.
Another step through darkness, and she was now in her personal chamber. This room wasn't submerged like the last one; being still half-human, Noelia preferred the ground when she was at rest.
Walls of perfectly carved marble, illumination cast by sorcery, and at least a dozen neatly arranged glass shelves that soared up and touched the ceiling. The queen stepped towards them, and with a dreamy look on her face, took her time to look through her collection of myriad spellbooks, ancient artifacts, and mysterious bottles holding body parts and the latter. She bent down to open a shelf and take out a certain crystal bottle she was particularly interested in. This canister was much larger than most; about the size of a human arm.
Inside it she kept a rather special specimen one of her servants had found on land. According to him, it was "crawling through the forests in its hundreds". He also reported that there was a much larger and similar creature with them, but it was much too bulky for him to track down and capture, so he had simply left it alone. Noelia had been disappointed at the fact he hadn't even made a memorize vision of this particular monster, but, rare for her, didn't punish the particular servant. She was happy enough with this specimen. It was something she had never seen, or even heard of before.
The sphere-shaped specimen frozen in green liquid perhaps resembled an insect of some sort, but Noelia was unsure. It had six spiny legs, black armor on its back divided into three plates, and a tiny face with two blue eyes and a round mouth full of jagged teeth. Its size was approximately that of a man's fist. But what made this so distinctively bizarre was the mark on its back, a mark that seemed to Noelia like a skull sprouting horns. One could even see it as an emblem or blazonry of some sort.
Emblem? Blazonry? Bugs didn't have such things. At least, they weren't supposed to. But this particular thing had one, and at least to Noelia it didn't seem like a simple mimesis or pattern in any way.
This was certainly a most interesting discovery. Noelia, feeling it may become important someday, softly placed the canister back into its place and shut the shelf. She would order her forces to research about it more. But today she had just made an important decision already – to attack and take over the opposing tribe living in the Mist Valley marshlands, commonly known as Gusto – and she thought she should focus on just that, at least for now.
Dark clouds were gathering over the continent. A storm was coming, and soon.
Appearing Cards:
-Gishki Aquamirror
-Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
-Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
-Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
-Gishki Noelia
-Steelswarm Cell