Chapter 1: Awakening

London, 2003, 1 am GMT. Unknown to the people there, a war was going on. Only a few days earlier, the people of London watched in confusion as monsters from the card game Duel Monsters appeared in the city. A scene reported all over the world. The event passed and not much thought was put into it.

On Westminster Bridge, a man was crossing over to the north side of the river carrying one of the newly released Duel Disks purchased from a store that was holding a release event near the south bank of the Thames. It held a tournament that lasted late into the night. The sky above gave off lights like the aurora borealis. It had been like this a couple of nights before.

As he walked, he saw something on the floor. A shard of green crystal. He noticed that more were near by. Others on the bridge saw them and started to pick them up. He saw the one nearest him begin to glow bright green. There was something familiar about it to the man, so he picked it up.

As he grasped it, he felt an agonising pain. It was like something deep in his soul was being forcefully pried open. He knelt down but unable to let go of the shard. When the pain subsided he stood back up. He felt as though he woke from a dream.

He looked round and he saw that the other shards were summoning armoured, bestial humanoids. Many of the people fled in fear of these creatures. However the man stood there as memories buried deep in his soul flooded into his mind.

Soon the creatures approached the man. He did not run from them as had the others. He recognise them. He welcomed them and the bowed to him.

"To me, my soldiers! In the name of the Orichalcos," he cried out. "I am reborn!"

He pocketed his shard and equipped his Duel Disk. Blades on the left arms of the soldiers extended to serve the same purpose. One of the soldiers handed the man a new card. A spell card written in a text that the man would not have been able to read moments ago, yet now clear to him as English. The card's artwork depicted a circular seal in the same writing. In the centre a unicursal hexagram.

"Let those who defy the will of the Orichalcos step forth! If you are brave enough, come and challenge the King's warmaster, Symos!"

Thinking this was some promotion of the game or the new Duel Disks, those who had bought one stepped up to the challenge. They readied their decks and their disks and with cockiness duelled the Orichalcos army. Their cockiness soon turned to terror as they were outmatched by the new card, The Seal of Orichalcos. Each duellist that lost, their soul was forfeit.

The grim harvest continued on for hours. Perhaps even a whole day. It seemed like London would be overwhelmed very soon. Symos stopped in his tracks as does his army. He can feel drawn away. "Return to me." says a voice he recognises. "As you command, sire." Symos replies as he is engulfed in green light. The warmaster and the army is teleported away.

Symos found himself in a hall. With him were thousands of Orichalcos soldiers.

"Well, this is an unexpected surprise." says a man Symos never saw in this life, but knew very well. He knelt to the newcomer. "Rise, old friend." Symos stood up. "King Dartz, what is the meaning of all this? Last I remember was the battle, and then living a different life?" "Answers will come, but for now I have other matters to attend to. In the mean time, use the army and take the surrounding area."

"As you command, sire." replied Symos. "Before you go, use this." Dartz presents Symos with a new duel disk. Symos discards his KC one and equips it. A scythe like card tray unfolds from it. "I will join you in time. As I said I have some pests to deal with." and with that Dartz left the hall.

"Come, soldiers of the Orichalcos." commanded Symos. "We attack."

The army poured from the building. A large Orichalcos temple surrounded by the rubble of the facade that once surrounded it. As the grim harvest began on a scale not seen for ten thousand years, Symos noticed something as he looked out to the ocean.

He could see a large island rise from the ocean and into the air. He knew the island as Atlantis, his home in his past life. And he could see the shape of a large serpentine creature. He knew from it that final victory was at hand.

He watched as 3 new creatures appeared to challenge the Great Beast. To his horror they appeared to be beating it. Soon the Leviathan was defeated and soon after Atlantis began to fall again.

The army of the Orichalcos started to disappear. The bodies of the fallen began to get back up as their souls returned. Symos was alone. Disparate he fled but there was nowhere to flee too. He clasped at his stone. Seeking some form of intervention before he was engulfed in a light.

The next thing he knew he was back home, or rather the home of the life he had lived up to that point. Exhausted he undressed and fell asleep.

The next morning he woke up no better rested. He would of disregarded the whole thing as a dream if not for the duel disk he saw with his clothes. He went to the bathroom. As he washed his face he saw something in the mirror. His right eye had changed green. The other remained brown. "Like the king's" He said to himself.

He rushed back to his room and searched his cloths for the pocketed stone. It glowed, but faintly. A revelation hit him. The Orichalcos was weakened, but it still lived. He held onto the stone tightly. The oath he swore in his previous life was fulfilled, he gave his life for his king, and now he had a new life. Now he swore a new oath. Atlantis is gone, its king fallen, but there was still the Orichalcos. There was only the Orichalcos.

As long as there was still a spark, an ember of its power, Symos would work to ignite the raging inferno that will cleanse the world.

He could not do it alone. He needed help, an army. A legion.

"The new age of darkness will begin. Glory to the Orichalcos."