Good evening.

Please enjoy.


Kai's POV

Again. It's happening again. They use a friend to beat us. I looked at Asaka as she had an evil smirk on her face, declaring her final turn. I doubted Ren would let it go so far, but I can imagine he's concerned for Asaka, since he was present for what happened to Miwa after his loss. But will he let his feelings overwhelm him?

"Ren-sama, this is the final act of the Pale Moon Circus, I'll hope you'll enjoy every second of it. I stand and draw. I activate Silver Thorn Dragon Queen, Luquier "Reverse"'s limit break! Counter Blast 1 and I lock Silver Thorn, Beast Tamer, Ana to superior call Silver Thorn Dragon Empress, Venus Luquier from my soul! And from the limit break, my Venus Luquier gets a sweet boost of +5000!"

That was amazing! Asaka really got a hold on her Pale Moon deck, however, I wonder if Ren will have the heart to beat her and risk that he would lose her, perhaps forever. Then she attacked with her rear-guard, Silver Thorn Dragon Empress, Venus Luquier, with the power of 23000 with the boost from her grade 1 rear-guard behind Venus Luquier. Of course Ren guarded, he was at five damage he couldn't effort to let an attack through.

"Now with the boost of Silver Thorn Assistant, Irina my vanguard is coming at you with the power of 20000, because I have Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier in my soul."

"Perfect guard! By discarding one card from my hand, I nullify the attack!"

"Twin Drive. First check, a draw trigger! Giving all the power to my Starlight Melody Tamer Farah and I draw a card. Second check, lucky me, I got a critical trigger! Giving all the effects to Starlight Melody Tamer Farah as well. Now attack and finish him!" exclaimed Asaka, looking happily at her rear-guard, who now had 21000 from the trigger boost.

"My Healing Revenger will protect me!"

"I-I guess, my turn is over," said Asaka, obviously shocked by Ren's ability to guard.

"Asaka, I told you once not to mess with me and this time it will have consequences! Final turn! I stand and draw. I ride, Revenger, Death Master Dragon! I activate his limit break! If I retire one of my units, he gets + 10000 power. Then to the empty place I call my avatar, Blaster Dark Revenger! I activate his skill as well, Counter Blast 2 and now I can retire one of your rear-guards and I choose Silver Thorn Dragon Empress, Venus Luquier!"

Then he attacked with Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom with the boost of Eloquence Revenger, Glonn. Since he activated Glonn's skill and put a unit from the soul to the drop zone the total power was 31000. Asaka guarded, but I could see on her face, that she probably won't stand a chance against the other two attacks of Ren. Then he attacked with his vanguard. Asaka guarded, Ren had still a Twin Drive and I had a hunch that he will draw at least one trigger, which is enough to beat her.

"First check, it's a stand trigger, Illusionary Revenger, Mordred Phantom stands once more! Second check, a critical trigger! Giving the 10000 power from the triggers and the +1 critical to my vanguard."

"Damage check. First, no heal trigger. The second, nothing," said Asaka, the sixth card falling into her damage zone. Ren was the winner, but I saw sorrow in his eyes, since soon enough the dark flames swallowed Asaka and there was nothing left but a dark burned spot on the ground.

I walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. It must have been a tough decision to do something like this. He looked at me with sadness. I wish I could help him somehow, but I was powerless. Since we got trapped in here, everything and everyone we love and cherish are vanishing and why? Only because some mad person thinks Earth needs to be restored. Fate was really cruel at times and this was such time.

"Kai, where are the Naoki and Leon?"

"I would like to know that as well, but Ren, Aichi has a high fever, we have to help him somehow. We can't just let him like this the whole way to the Palace of Shadows," I exclaimed, basically begging him to help me find a cure for Aichi's sickness. I would give him my health if I could, but that wasn't possible no matter how much I would try.

"But there's nothing here, but darkness and despair. How are we supposed to find anything useful for Aichi's treatment?" asked Ren. He certainly had a point, but I refused to believe there was nothing we could do for Aichi. There has to be a way to make Aichi feel better.

"We just have to keep looking. If Aichi won't get healthy again, we're in deep trouble, Ren," I said, looking at him with pleading eyes. He finally nodded and we made our way to... well we didn't know where we were heading.

I hope Ishida and Sorryu are alright. We reunited with Ren now, but still they could have got involved into a card fight and there wasn't always the guarantee that they would succeed in claiming victory. And Naoki, let's face it, he isn't that good of a card fighter. I respect him for his will and determination to win his fights, but he also needs strength in order to be among the best and he still didn't received the needed power and winning image. Still he has great potential like Aichi when he first started to play vanguard and now look at him.

"Kai! Look, I might have found something!" said Ren as he waved at me from the cave a few feet away from me. I checked on Aichi if he was alright and was happy that he was still sound asleep. He needed some rest. I walked towards the cave and peeked in to see Ren sitting on the ground with a wooden box on his lap. The box contained a few rolled pieces of paper. They looked very old and like they would fall apart any minute, but this was good, maybe this will finally give us a clue on how things work here in this strange dimension.

"What is it? Can you read it? Does it contain useful information about the dark thing, or I don't really know how to call it," I said, looking at the letters. It was Latin so much I could tell, but reading it is rather difficult for me, since I have never finished learning this dead language.

"Yeah, but these texts seem more like medical records, you see. But this isn't a waste, I bet I can find something in here to help Aichi," said Ren, looking through the paper and reading like for his life. I nodded and let Aichi lean against the wall of the cave. I checked his temperature and told Ren that I would be right back with some water.

I was surprised to see an actual lake here in these parts of the forest. But I noticed that if you would wash away the darkness this would actually be a nice and comfortable countryside. I kneeled down to get some water in the broken glass we have found and scooped up a little. But then I was met with a horrifying image. My reflection on the water surface looked different. It was me for sure, but there was something I still met in my deepest nightmares.

In the reflection I had the red reverse marks under my eyes.


REVIEW