Flight 9: Abyss
Ten years ago...
"Albert, congratulations!" said Julian. "My father told me that you got the job."
"Thank you, old chap," Albert replied. "It was necessary – George and I can't keep living off your father's fortunes, correct?"
"A Duel Monsters card designer is impressive. Frankly, I didn't even know you could draw," Julian said, chuckling. "Well, draw anything other than machine parts, I mean."
"I'll need to brush up my anatomical drawings, agreed," Albert muttered. "It's a shame that I won't be able to spend as much time with George and your father in the lab, though. I probably won't understand some of the things they come up with without seeing it myself."
"Do you have a commission yet?" Julian asked.
"Yes, actually," Albert replied. "My first job is to design some cards for a future tournament. It's the Greek branch, though, and right now they really don't have enough players for tournaments. Could be years before the cards I design see the light of day, but the pay's good." He clicked open his pocket-watch. "Ah, I have a meeting with them in an hour. Good day to you."
"Good day, Albert."
Five years ago...
"Julian!" Albert roared, slamming open the door to the study. He ran over to the desk at which Julian was flipping through books. "Talk some sense into your father!"
"What?" Julian asked. "What happened?"
"He destroyed everything! He smashed the small-scale experiments with a hammer! Set fire to the blueprints! Dissolved the energy core in acid! Everything we worked on for fifteen years – gone!"
"I don't understand..." Julian said.
"He's gone mad!" Albert cried. "Please talk to him."
Julian leaned back in his chair. "I can't."
"What?"
"My father has told me nothing about the experiments," Julian said, continuing to write something. "I know nothing about what the three of you were building... but, my father promised himself – and me – that he would destroy any experiment at the first sign of being harmful to the world. He didn't want to repeat what happened with dynamite."
"He told you our invention was dangerous?"
"No, but it clearly was if he felt it necessary to destroy it," said Julian. "And I trust him."
Albert turned away from the desk. "It was going to save the world. Your father has doomed us all." He shook his head. "Obviously there's no reason for me to stay here any longer."
"My apologies, Albert," said Julian, as Albert walked dejectedly out of the study. "Goodbye."
...
CRACK! cried the sky, as the back of the Eternal Eclipse turned into fiery splinters. Demetria and Nephele watched in horror as one of the ropes suspending the main ship to the balloon snapped, sending it into a nosedive.
"I said you should divert your eyes," Albert said solemnly.
"What have you done?" Nephele screamed.
"Me? Very little," he said, patting the robot. "I simply had this little ABU here plant some dynamite on the Eclipse. Much safer than having either of you do it."
"But why?" Nephele corrected herself.
"I told you already, correct? We can't have them following us. They can't follow us without an airship," Albert explained, crossing his arms.
"You disabled their airship a thousand feet in the air!" Demetria yelled. "You've killed them!"
"No, they're alive," said Albert, flipping open an antique pocket-watch. "For a few minutes, anyway. Not to mention the possibility of them surviving..."
"It's not a possibility," Demetria said, grabbing her ornithopter. "Let's make it a guarantee. Nephele!"
"You read my mind!" Nephele said, climbing on her own.
"You're really going to save them?" Albert asked. "Risking your own lives to save people who would knowingly doom humanity to nuclear apocalypse?"
"We'll risk out lives to save the people who want to give humanity a choice," Nephele said. "I wish we'd realized they were right sooner. Demetria!"
"Let's go," Demetria agreed. With that, they wheeled their machines off the edge of the ship.
"Fools," Albert muttered, shaking his head.
-
"To think he would go so far..." Julian muttered, shaking his head. He, Lilith and Ray were clutching one of the remaining ropes to the balloon with all their strength.
"What do we do what do we do what do we do?" Ray demanded.
"There were ten emergency parachutes," said Julian. "However..."
"They were in the back of the ship, weren't they?" Lilith asked.
"Yes."
"How are you guys so calm?" Ray screamed. "We're going to die!"
Whatever happened to the infinite possible futures? Lilith asked. However, Ray's expression didn't change from absolute fear, and she didn't hear any mental reply. "Ray. There's a way out of this. If we calm down, we can find it."
"There is no way out of this!" Ray yelled. "I never wanted any of this! I just wanted to help get some cards. Was that really too much to ask?"
"Ray..." Lilith began.
"I'm such an idiot! George was crazy, and you said Albert was crazier. I should've left yesterday! We should've just given Albert the damn Eldricytes!"
"Ray!" Lilith said again.
"I always thought it was heroic to go out doing what you loved. But I guess that's impossible unless you die instantly. No one loves falling to their deaths, do they?" His face was covered in tears, from some combination of the turbulence and shaking his head as he yelled. "Is this... is this really how my parents died?"
"Ray, shut up!" Lilith cried. "We will get out of this! Just shut up and trust me!"
"What are you, a miracle worker?" Ray demanded.
"If it takes a miracle to get out of here," cried Nephele, as an ornithopter landed on the inclined deck.
"Then consider us miracles!" Demetria agreed, landing beside Nephele. The two machines began to flap beside the rope which Ray and Lilith were grasping.
"These things are designed for two people," said Nephele, "but we can get a third on here if we're light enough."
"So, Ray and Lilith, get on Nephele's," said Demetria. "Julian, you're with me."
"That won't hold three people," Julian said. He shook his head. "Lilith, get on Demetria's ornithopter."
"But..."
"I'm an old man," said Julian. "Your lives are worth more than mine. Besides... the captain has to go down with the ship, doesn't he?"
"This is ridiculous!" Lilith cried. "We can get everyone – " It was then that Julian began climbing up to the back of the ship, away from the ornithopters. "Where are you going?"
"There might still be a parachute," Julian cried back. "Get going!"
"We don't have time," Nephele said, as Ray fumbled onto the other seat of Nephele's machine.
"Julian..." Lilith muttered, as Demetria pulled her onto her own ornithopter. The two aircraft slipped off the front of the ship. Julian waved from the door to the lower decks, and then disappeared behind a cloud.
"Okay, how does this work?" Lilith asked, as the ornithopter began to nosedive.
"Pedal!" Demetria barked back. Lilith did so, and began to see how her pedalling turned a gear that pulled and pushed a wire attached to the wings. "Good, just keep matching my rhythm."
"Got it," said Lilith. Ray and Nephele's ornithopter fell beside them. "Oh geez."
"Ray! Pedal!" Nephele cried.
"I am pedalling!" Ray protested. "I'm pedalling as fast as I can!"
"Pedal with me!" Nephele said. "Screw it!" She began pedalling as fast as her legs would allow, finally matching Ray. The wings began to flap at ridiculous speed. The frame began to make unhealthy noises, but their descent did slow. The ground came into view faster than Ray would've liked. "Okay, stop pedalling!" Nephele ordered. Ray did so; the ornithopter gave a few last flaps before bouncing to a stop.
Ray rolled off the machine and onto his back on the comfortable grass. "We... we're alive," he panted.
"Damn straight," Nephele agreed. Lilith and Demetria landed much more gracefully a few feet away.
"Thank you... more times than I can count," said Lilith.
"We're so sorry!" Nephele cried. "We had no idea Albert was that crazy, we swear."
"What's done is done," said Lilith. It was then that all of them had the same simultaneous thought.
Julian...
-
"Those guys should be here soon," said Fritz, looking up from a communications system. "They left late last night, as planned."
"Good," said Otto. "But I have some bad news. Check this out." Fritz rolled his chair over to Otto, who was looking at the device he had used to hack into the Eternal Eclipse. "This is their altitude here."
"Zero," said Fritz.
"Yeah. All of their numbers were doing crazy stuff a while ago and their communications are down."
"Those poor kids."
"Let's get over there. They're just outside the city."
-
The crash site was not hard to find. Ray, Lilith, Nephele and Demetria followed a trail of smoke in the sky; it led them to a massive field of smouldering debris. Standing on the outskirts, on the last blades of grass that weren't smoking, Ray shuddered. "Julian!" He called out through the hell. "Are you here?"
There was no reply.
"Let's... let's start looking," Lilith suggested.
"He said he was heading to the back, so..." Demetria muttered to herself, heading off to one of the far regions of the debris. Nephele wandered off in the same direction. Ray stepped through the ashes. After a few steps, he picked up a piece of wood.
That's the table we were eating on this morning, Lilith thought, glancing over at him as he tossed it aside and kept tromping through the wreckage. Lilith herself pushed over a support beam that revealed broken communications equipment. What are we even looking for? Julian's body? She suddenly had the urge to cry, but fought it back. There's time for tears later.
There was suddenly a noise of racing wheels. "Mush!" Someone cried. Ray and Lilith cocked their heads to the origin of the noise. Otto and Fritz were riding a gurney pulled by seven presumably-robotic huskies. "Mush, damn you!" Otto cried. The dogs suddenly stopped, throwing Otto and Fritz into the pile of debris.
"Close enough," Fritz muttered, dusting himself off. He looked up at the astounded faces of Ray and Lilith. "Hey, you guys are okay! I guess we didn't need the gurney."
"Julian... Julian is..." Ray started.
"We can't find Julian," said Lilith. "Can you help us look for him?"
"Yeah," said Otto, oddly happily as he began rooting through piles.
"Ray! Lilith!" Demetria's voice yelled. "We... we found him!"
"Is he all right?" Ray asked as he, Lilith and the scientists darted over to her voice.
"He will be," said a man, facing away from them and crouching over a body. "Julian's stubborn enough for this to work."
"Albert?" Ray and Lilith demanded.
"Obviously," said Albert, not looking back. "My goal was just to disable your airship. I never wanted to kill anyone."
"You lying son of a – " Demetria cried.
"Okay, fine," said Albert, cutting off Demetria. "I'll admit this was a lot easier with Julian dead."
"He's... dead?" Ray asked.
"Not anymore," Albert said, rising to his feet. "This is some technology George Chapman invented. Brilliant thing," He poked with his foot a brass sphere sticking out of the back of Julian's bald head. "It's full of micro-bots that repair damage all across the body."
"You're saving him?" Lilith asked, somewhere between sceptical and grateful.
"I have already saved him," said Albert, as Julian slowly got to his feet. "Meet Julian Nobel 2.0."
"Stay away from him!" Otto yelled; Ray immediately took back the step he had taken towards Julian.
"But why?" Ray asked.
"Vocal systems reinitialized," said Julian, in an eerie monotone. "Central nervous system stabilized."
"Ah, my old friend, good to have you back," said Albert, patting Julian on the back. The others stared in horror and confusion. "What? Have you never seen a machine like this before?" He messed with the sphere sticking out of Albert's head some more and added idly, "Yes, this is a very impressive device. So easy to install, too, if you're familiar with the brain like I am." He closed a flap on the sphere. "Do you still really not understand?"
"What did you do to him?" Lilith demanded.
"What do the schools teach kids these days?" Albert asked himself. "My machine's taken over Julian's brain and body. He's now completely under my control." He looked at the group of faces in front of him. "Don't believe me? Julian... that's your Duality deck in your disc there, correct?"
"Yes," Julian replied.
"Give me Ordinatus Rex and throw the rest away." Albert said. Julian yanked the cards out of his disc. He riffled through them, passed one to Albert and tossed the remaining cards into the air. "Well, that was a bit more literally than I meant 'throw the rest away', but..."
"You freak!" Ray screamed, running at Albert with a random piece of metal.
"Temper, temper," said Albert lazily. "Julian?" Julian moved between Ray and Albert and wrenched the metal out of Ray's grip. "The machine comes built-in with a desire to protect whoever it's programmed for, so..."
"Julian, let me at him!" Ray pleaded. "Please!" Julian shoved him away with one hand, sending him flying back into Lilith and Otto.
"Enhanced muscle strength too," Albert continued. "George outdid himself on this one. Now, it's nothing to be afraid of if only a few people have them, but what if this were to be mass-produced? Imagine, an army of robotic zombie soldiers. This is another doomsday that will be prevented by the Lymph Nodes."
"It's not Julian anymore," said Otto. "I'm sorry, Ray."
"If you'll excuse us," said Albert. "Julian and I have something to start constructing."
"You honestly think we'll let you leave and do as you want?" Lilith demanded.
"I don't think you can do anything about it," Albert replied simply. "Can any of you fight Julian? I thought not." He looked around to the group. "Even five on one isn't good odds for you."
"Five?" Lilith asked, looking around.
"That red-haired boy ran off just now," Albert said idly. "This must have been a stressful day for the poor lad. Now, we really must be going. Come on, Julian, it's a long walk to the Belly..."
-
Ray ran. Even as his muscles screamed at him and his lungs demanded an explanation for his exertion, he kept running. He ran through a mess of trees, up and down a hill and finally to an uncrossable river. There, he sank to the ground against a tree trunk, crying. After a while, he heard footsteps. They found me already? He wondered. He had been intending to come up with a good explanation while he sat, but had spent all the time crying instead. He raised his head, expecting to see Lilith; instead, a red-headed man and woman who looked about mid-30s stood above him.
"What's wrong, kid?" The man asked. "You're too old to be blubbering like a baby."
"You'd be crying too after... after a day like today," Ray said, rubbing his nose with the back of his hand.
"We've had our hard days too," said the woman.
"Look, pal," said the man, pulling Ray to his feet. "We've got ourselves a five-year-old son who's never cried as much as you were just now."
"What does a five-year-old have to cry about?"
"Nothing. But they all do, don't they?" The man asked. "Personally, I just think they're scared. No one likes finding things they don't understand. Imagine being a little kid, where you don't understand anything. Must be frightening."
"Let him be scared," said Ray. "The future is going to be horrifying."
"No no no," said the woman. "You know what's horrifying? The past. The past is fixed. Think of it like a test in school. One that's in the past, you can't do anything about that. Your mistakes are done. But a test in the future? You can prepare for it. You can do well on it – there's no point acting like you've screwed it up already."
"And what if we have no impact on what happens?" Ray asked.
"Everyone has an impact on the future, boy," said the man. "Because the future is determined by our actions. And that means the future is determined by our hopes and dreams. If you want something to happen, or if you want to stop whatever it is that's so horrifying, you can. If you're willing to fight for it."
"Are you willing to fight for it?" The woman asked. "Will you fight against the future that scares you so much?"
"I can't!" Ray cried. "I'm just one guy. I can't stop – "
"Then get some help!" The man said.
"You don't have to do it yourself," said the woman. "Find someone who's willing to fight with you. You must have someone like that."
"Y-yeah..."
"So do you really want to be the person who lets your comrade down?" asked the man. "Trust them. Trust yourself. You'll stop whatever it is you're so afraid of."
Ray nodded. "What are you guys doing way out here anyway?"
"Looking for our son," said the woman. "I could've sworn he went this way."
"Ray!" called Lilith's distant voice.
"Well... it looks like I have to go," said Ray, rising to his feet. "I... I hope you find your kid." He turned towards Lilith's voice.
"We already did," said the man. Ray raised an eyebrow, and slowly turned back to the couple – who had disappeared.
"Ray!" Lilith called again, hopping out of the trees and onto the river shore. "Why the hell did you run away?"
"Because I'm scared!" said Ray. "I just saw what my parents saw before they died. Then I saw one of my best friends die and get turned into a zombie by a madman." He clenched his fists. "I want to run more. I want to get away from everything. I don't want to deal with all this." He sighed. "But."
"But," Lilith repeated, crossing her arms.
"We have a job to do," said Ray. "There's plenty of time to be afraid later. Lilith, I'm sorry. Let's go get those Eldricytes."
"Well, that was easy," said Lilith, as they walked back through the trees. "I honestly thought we'd have to duel again. Maybe hallucinate again, that sort of thing."
-
"Found him," said Lilith, as she and Ray emerged through the trees, atop a hill. The Ambrosia sisters, Otto and Fritz sat around some strange machinery.
"That was really fast," said Nephele. "Did you know where to look?"
"Yeah," said Lilith, tapping her forehead in a gesture that no one really understood.
"People who wander off directionlessly tend to go in a spiral," said Fritz offhandedly. "So you didn't really go that far, Ray."
"Obviously," said Ray. "Someone who runs off without a direction isn't going to go anywhere."
"Sounds like you're back," said Demetria. "Ready to hear the plan?"
"We have a plan?"
"I know, novel concept," said Otto. "Now. We've fixed the old communcations array from the Eclipse, and then hacked it to spy on Albert's ship. The Belly hasn't taken off yet. It's actually pretty close to where we are now, but Albert and Julian haven't reached it yet. We got there first, while Lilith was looking for you, and made sure to slow them down a bit."
"How?" asked Ray. The others answered his question as Demetria and Fritz tossed a couple important-looking bits of machinery onto the grass between them. "Oh."
"Now. That thing in Julian's head, it's not unique," Otto continued. "Yesterday or the day before or whatever, a couple of our former colleagues contacted us. Leo and Lise from Athens, actually, you should've met them. Anyway, apparently a couple of crazy people in masks dragged a woman in with the same sort of thing in her head."
Ray and Lilith glanced at each other knowingly.
"They were actually bringing over the part today," said Fritz. "They haven't shown up yet, but that's not the point. The point is, it's possible to disable and remove it." He inhaled deeply, making a weird sound through the gas-mask. "This is going to sound weird, but bear with me here."
"Okay..." Ray and Lilith said.
"The machines have no internal battery," said Fritz. "That's their weakness. That means they can draw power from only two sources. My heart and Otto's leg, for example, run off bits of sugar in our bloodstreams. It really is a neat system, but it's not one that can power something as complicated as an artificial brain. No, the only way it can get that much power is by drawing it from something electronic that the person has on them at all times."
"Such as...?" Ray asked. Then it hit him. "Oh, you mean – "
"The duel disc," said Otto, tapping his own for emphasis. "Julian's brain and duel disc share the same battery, and it's not a very big one."
"Stress the disc with a duel," said Fritz, "And there's a pretty good chance that his duel disc will sap all the energy that artificial brain needs."
"Won't that kill him?" Nephele asked.
"Honestly, probably," said Otto. "But – "
"Julian already died once to stop the Lymph Nodes," said Ray. "Right now, the only thing between us and getting those Eldricytes is Julian and his superhuman strength. We owe it to him to stop him."
"Well said," Lilith agreed.
"The hard part is going to be convincing him to duel," said Demetria. "He has the Eldricytes. There's no real need for him to duel at all."
"Well," Lilith said, looking at the machinery torn from the Belly of the Whale. "Only we know that."
-
"The airship has been disabled," Julian said emotionlessly.
Albert rubbed his brow.
"That would be our doing!" Ray announced dramatically, as he and Lilith stood atop a hill. They slid down and Lilith tossed a glowing piece of machinery onto the ground. "We challenge you to a duel!" said Ray. "Our duel discs are hooked up to this... flight disabling doo-hicky. As long as our life points are above 0, your ship won't fly."
"We wager your ship's ability to fly against the Eldricytes!" said Lilith.
"I see," said Albert. "That 'doo-hicky' of yours looks to me like a broken communications array. Correct?" He rubbed his brow again. "I am a scientist. Even if I can't create the Lymph Nodes from memory, I can recognize simple airship equipment."
"I told you this was a stupid idea!" Lilith hissed.
"It was your idea!" Ray snapped.
"I accept the terms of your duel," said Albert, loading a deck of cards into his disc.
"What?" Ray, Lilith, and their four hidden allies gaped.
"I am... impressed by your honour," Albert continued. "I wish to eradicate science. Why, you ask? It is technology that puts humans on uneven ground. A skilled, honourable man with a sword will lose against an unskilled liar with a gun. I want a future where skill and honour is rewarded." He spread his arms. "The two – or rather, six – of you disabled my airship, and you still wish to combat me with skill and strategy? That is truly commendable. I will give you your final chance."
There's something he can gain by this duel! Lilith realized. Duelling us is as much a part of his plan as it is ours. But why?
"Julian, my old friend," said Albert, as he stuck a second deck of cards into Julian's empty disc. "Join me in this duel."
"As you wish," said Julian; Albert's second deck shuffled itself in Julian's disc.
"Wait!" Otto and Fritz cried, leaping out from behind a tree. They threw something to Ray and Lilith – a small, rectangular box that fell between the two of them. It fell open and a couple Duality monsters spilled out.
"Julian's old deck?" Ray asked. He and Lilith each grabbed one and simultaneously threw them into Julian's disc. They stuck out at awkward angles, but then the shuffling mechanism took notice and reshuffled.
"Now that's interesting," said Albert. "What, are you hoping the sight of Julian's former deck can somehow break his consciousness free of my control?"
"It just wouldn't be right duelling Julian without Dualities," Lilith said. Ray, she thought. I'm not sure what Albert's hoping to get out of this duel. He's after something, but... we have to do this anyway.
"Lilith," said Ray. "Are you sure we should do this?"
We can't talk mentally anymore? Lilith wondered. "Yeah," she muttered. "Just... now we have to win."
"That was my plan from the start," Ray argued. "Now..."
"Let's duel!" The four of them announced.
"I'll begin," said Albert. "I activate Photon Veil. Now, I return three LIGHT monsters from my hand to my deck." Three holograms appeared above his head.
"Cyber Larva, Barrier Resonator and Watapon?" Ray asked.
Such random monsters. How much does Albert even play? Lilith wondered.
"Now, I can add from my deck to my hand three LIGHT monsters with the same name. The one I choose is Dendritic My'Loid." Albert continued; Ray and Lilith looked at each other and shrugged. "End turn."
"No monsters? No backrows?" Ray demanded. "What are you doing?"
"My turn!" said Lilith. I need to lay down some protection before Ray charges blindly into whatever those Dendritic things are. "I discard Stargazer of Lunanima to add Lunar Impact to my hand. Now, I activate Lunar Impact." The world around them turned pitch-black, except for the playing field which was fairly well-illuminated with just moonlight. "I summon Voodoo Princess of Lunanima," Lilith continued, as the young priestess emerged from her card. (1000 ATK) "Voodoo Princess' effect Special Summons the Stargazer I discarded." Lilith snapped her fingers as her monster dragged a zombified, mouth-sewn Stargazer from the dirt. (800 ATK)
"Two monsters on the first turn, hmm?" Albert asked.
He really doesn't know how this game works, does he? Dammit, we need to prolong the duel. But... if he's up to something, winning comes first. Lilith thought. "Next, I activate Crystal Mirror of Lunanima – with this, I Special Summon a second Voodoo Princess!" The dark-skinned woman cloned, and then the three girls became balls of light that flew into a galaxy. "I overlay my two Voodoo Princesses and Stargazer!"
"Awesome!" Ray cheered.
"Goddess of night, cast the world into eternal shadow! Xyz Summon; Gravity Queen of Lunanima!" Gravity Queen emerged from the light, holding her sceptre like a spear. (2500 DEF, 3 materials) "By detaching one material, I add a Moon Counter to Lunar Impact." Lilith said, as the moon came closer. (1/7) "Finally, I'll set a backrow and end my turn."
"A most impressive move," said Albert. "Hopefully my partner will match it, with his incredible duelling knowledge."
"My turn," said Julian lifelessly. "I set three cards in my Spell or Trap zone. Turn end." Ray shook his head in disappointment and Lilith sighed sadly.
"Look at what you've reduced him to," said Ray. "If you left him with his regular brain, he – "
"I'd blame the deck, actually," Albert said, stroking his chin. "Still, I do believe those backrows will be useful. I don't think it was a bad move."
"I do!" said Ray. "Against me, you need monsters!" Well, normally, anyway... He looked solemnly at his hand, which at the moment contained only one monster. "Oh well, this will work. I activate Monster Reborn to revive... what did you detach, Lilith?"
"Voodoo Princess," said Lilith, as one appeared on Ray's field.
"Okay. And now I'll summon Solanimus Shining Star!" Ray announced, as his brightly-glowing humanoid appeared. (1500 ATK) "I tune Solanimus Shining Star with Voodoo Princess of Lunanima!" The two flew into the air, impacting and exploding into rings and stars. "Master of destruction, burn down everything in your path! Synchro Summon!" From the explosion descended a giant orange serpent with flames down its back. "Solanimus Raging Dragon!" (3000 ATK)
"Another powerful monster," said Albert. "Most impressive."
"That wasn't even a good move, was it?" Nephele asked dully.
"No, now he can't use Shining Star's effect," Demetria replied. "I'm starting to feel bad about how good Albert thought we were."
"Solanimus Raging Dragon attacks!" Ray declared. The dragon released a stream of fire.
"When a direct attack is declared," said Julian. "I can Special Summon Battle Fader and end the Battle Phase." A pendulum-like demon appeared; its gong released a shockwave that cancelled the fire.
"Fine. I set one card. End turn!"
"Oh, then it's back to me," said Albert. He drew a card.
"During Albert's Draw Phase, I activate Scapegoat," said Julian. Four fluffy goat tokens appeared.
"Thank you, my old friend," Albert said. "I summon Dendritic My'Loid." A hideous mess of fibres appeared; it had a vague face in the dead centre that looked like it was screaming. (0 ATK)
"So that's the card he picked?" Ray asked. "It doesn't look too – "
"Ray!" Lilith cried. "Its effect..."
"Its effect is that its Level counts as 0," Albert explained. "Meaning, I can tune it and Julian's Battle Fader for a Level 1 Synchro!" The demon turned into a star that spun in place, having no rings to move through. "Creature dwelling within a mortal soul, the caller of abyss! Synchro Summon!" He spread his arms triumphantly as a column of light encompassed the entire field. "Eldricyte – Lymphos the Summoner!"
"So... where is it?" Ray asked.
"There," said Albert. He pointed to Nephele.
"What?" Nephele demanded. Suddenly, fingers appeared on her arm. They pried a gaping hole in her flesh. "What the hell is..."
"It's just a hologram," Albert said nonchalantly as two entire arms pulled their way out of Nephele's own. They flew over to Albert's field, still trailing muscle and vein all the way back to Nephele's holographic wound. The various parts twisted around each other and formed a giant mouth in between the two floating arms. "That," said Albert. "is Lymphos the Summoner." (2500 ATK)
"It's... creepy," said Lilith.
"No, really?" Nephele shrieked. "I hadn't noticed!" Albert began to chuckle. "What?" Nephele asked. "Am I that funny?"
"It has nothing to do with you," said Albert. "I was just pleased that my plan is working this well. Julian, please translate Lymphos' movements. ABU!" He called to the ABU on his ship, which quickly wheeled itself to the field. "Please transcribe." The robot nodded and one of its hands spun in its wrist until it became a typewriter.
"The core of each Lymph Node is a network of quadrupole magnets," said Julian, as the ABU copied down his words. "Six of these are arranged to create a cube, and six of those are arranged to form a hypercube. This amplifies the electromagnetic pulse produced by a factor of thirty-six, giving each node a maximum magnetizing field of three hundred forty eight meters at a power of 450,000 Gauss."
"Fascinating," Albert said, stroking his chin. "I'm sure you didn't catch that, so I'll explain. The Eldricytes' physical card contains the blueprints of the Lymph Nodes. However, I wanted more information. So, I set up recordings of the meetings between George and Alfred while I was away. All of the data they gathered is stored, not in the Eldricytes themselves, but in the holograms they project."
"I still don't follow," said Ray.
"It means that he's teaching himself how the Lymph Nodes work!" Otto cried. "If he has Julian decode all five..."
"Then I won't need the blueprints anymore!" Albert declared. He laughed briefly. "Oh, but there's no time to celebrate now. I activate Lymphos' real effect – once per turn, I can Special Summon a Level 1 Tuner in my Graveyard; however, it's Banished when it leaves the field."
"But you only have a Level 0," said Ray.
"Those effects are only active on the field!" Albert argued. "Be reborn! Dendritic My'Loid! But, before we go too far, I tune My'Loid with a Goat Token!" The Goat Token turned into a star. "Creature dwelling within a mortal coil, the torturer of the damned! Synchro Summon!"
"Goddammit!" Demetria screamed, as a demonic claw burst out of her stomach.
"Eldricyte – Basos the Flayer!" An arm, shoulder, and a mass of spiked tentacles made entirely out of bubbling blood flowed over to Albert's field, still connected to a holographic pool of gore at Demetria's feet. (500 ATK)
"Julian!" said Albert. "Translate Basos' movements. Teach me the second fifth of the Lymph Nodes' true secrets!"
As Julian rambled on about sciences that probably made sense to Otto and Fritz, Ray and Lilith looked at each other in horror. We can't call off the duel... They thought simultaneously, though neither heard the other. But...
We're all doomed if he keeps summoning these things!
To be concluded in the next Flight!
