Mark 010: An Undying Hatred

"Yeah. Ow. That's not just light." Xavier said as he pressed his hand against the luminous energy that cut them off from the rest of town. "Then we can not get out?" The duelists tried but could not push through at all. "I found no openings myself. I can not even tell if this is coming from the ground or from the sky, but no natural phenomenon can explain this." The other duelist with them said. "Wait.." Yale was also closely examining the light and found something rather interesting. "It curves here, I can.." He walked through a part of the light where it was not as bright. "Oh. That is why." But what he found was not an opening, just a new pathway. "This is not just circling around us, it's a maze of energy." That implied there had to be one way out. "Guess we just have to follow the way the light bends." But Urizen was not hopeful. "That way just leads to more of the same. Following that will more likely take us to the source." But then again maybe they should go there. "The source of the problem, we might want to take care off."

Nate's LP: 4500 Zero's LP: 1900

"My.. what?" Nate was sure he heard what his opponent wanted to claim, but that could not be right. "Did you say.. soul?" This man wanted to get his soul as a price. The adversary did not answer, he just drew a card with Dark Ape's effect. "You heard him right." The restaurant keeper in the background spoke up. "And I do not know if he is just crazy or a fanatic, but this ends here. Tournament or not, this is not something to be settled in a game." He tried to rush the zero duelist, having had enough of just standing around doing nothing. "Wait." But before he could get anywhere near, a burst of invisible energy struck the man and sent him stumbling back. "Stay out of this. You do not decide influence here." He was knocked unconscious by the blast and quickly dragged back into the building by a waitress. "Argh. I told them to stay back." Nate wanted to ask how this kid pulled of that trick, but was worried he would just demonstrate it again on someone else. "The stupidity of your kind can never be underestimated."

"But you are our kind too. You really are nuts." He kept mixing up first person with third person referencing and now he talked as if he was no longer human. "I have been chosen for a higher purpose, we have.." He entered the battle phase at last and sent out Zeman the Ape King(2500/1800) to exterminate Junk Blader(1800/1200). "No traps can stop us now. Zeman is immune to them during a battle." The dark synchro destroyed the warrior with his accursed magic, leaving Nate with just Junk Warrior(3600/1300). But Zero was after that one too. "Ebikyo Drakmord." He equipped the synchro with a spell, which infected the warrior with a black dust virus. "Now your monster can not attack, and will perish in your second turn." Junk Warrior dropped to one knee, too weak to even stand up. "Your turns are numbered, your souls turns." And Nate drew a card again. "Okay, see... That is where I get confused. I mean I am not saying I do not believe in souls, but how are you supposed to get one? And what do you even want with it?"

Nate's LP: 3800

Once again the zero duelists found it more pleasing to watch in silence than to respond. "Well don't explain it then. I can already tell you I do not like the sound of this one bit." He summoned another tuner monster, a green racing machine called Turbo Synchron(100/500). "I will find a way to end this on a happy note. Synchro summon!" The level 1 tuner tuned together with the level 5 synchro. "Come forth, Turbo Warrior!" The result was a red mechanical warrior(2500/1500) that looked like someone had given a 19th century car a human shape. "It halves the attackpoints of synchro monsters it does battle with!" The warrior lunged forward with one claw. "Fool! Zeman can negate any attack with a sacrifice." The Monkey King offered Playful Possum(800/400), letting it technically take the blow for its ruler. "D'oh. I should have read the fine print." That was the problem with these monsters he did not even know existed, he was not used to having to actually read what a card did. "I end my turn." He sighed. "Of course you do."

"But what shall I draw next? A monster to prolong your futile struggles, a trap to nurture your fear, or.." He took the card from his disk. "... a spell that further clarifies the difference of power between yus!" He played it immediately, a field spell took over the square. "Closed Forest!" Not just holograms, but actual trees sprouted from the ground, roots literally bursting through tiles. "Okay. It's getting almost impossible to deny that magic is happening here.." Nate would have been impressed on any other day, but he had to see it first in a situation like this. "For every creature you slew or I have sacrificed, my beasts will grow in strength." There were five monsters in his cemetery (Possum, Yellow/Green Baboon, Ape Magician and Dark Ape), and Zeman(3000/1800) gained 100 attackpoints for each one. "Be gone!" It casted another magical curse which destroyed the red synchro warrior. "Now the same can be asked of you. Will your sad deck give you another trap, just to laugh at your already helpless state, or another monster to satisfy my cravings."

Nate's LP: 3300

It was up to Nate's deck indeed, only a spell could get him out of this mess. "Guess I woke up on the right side of bed then." And he was fortunate enough to get such a spell. "I activate Axe of Foolishness: it negates a monsters effect and adds 1000 attackpoints to it!" He did not have any monsters of his own to equip the axe too, but he did not need one. "It's yours!" Zerman(4000/1800) grasped the weapon with his free hand. "The controller also loses 500 lifepoints every turn." He continued explaining as he ended his turn. "Axe of Fools is right! Only a fool would give me this, the weapon I need to finish you off!" Zero lost 500 lifepoints, true. But he could now kill Nathan in one hit as well. "Yes. But Zemans effects are negated, do not forget that." He pointed at the trap he had set down two turns ago. "Suddenly your great king is not so invincible anymore, is it?" He could finally spring this trap, if Zero still decided to attack. "You think you can make me fear you, you? Nothing you can ever do will stop me from.." The Monkey raised his axe and swung it down. "returning to what we once were!" And the blow had not been stopped at all. But on the other hand, Nate was not down yet either. "I was hoping you'd still attack me.."

Nate's LP: 1300 Zero's LP: 1400

"Reanimation Wave!" He revealed his trap. A series of waves had weakened the axe blow, so he lost half of the 4000 lifepoints he would have lost. "This trap halves damage, but also reanimates a synchro monster whose attack is lower then the attacking monsters attack!" And he of course chose to revive Turbo Warrior(2500/1500). "You.. you will not succeed!" He placed a monster down in defense mode. "But you can not sacrifice any monsters anymore, the axe is still sealing off Zemans effects." Zeman had no means of stopping the next attack. "So I am liking my odds." He drew a card and placed it down in his magic/trap zone. "And I hope you don't have any other surprises, because here I come." Turbo Warrior used its effect to halve the attackpower of Zeman(2000/1800). "Accel Slash!" And it crushed the kings head with its mechnical hands, letting the rest of its body explode into fragments. "But I wonder if this is enough. Destroying his synchro is probably not enough to get him to quit." He ended his turn.

Zero's LP: 900

"He is strong too." Nate by now had gathered quite an audience, though most held their breath since they did not want to end up like the restaurant manager. "Is he like Artani?" But his most special guest was probably the black disk duelist, Ramirez. She had missed her chance to challenge him, but now she could see how capable he was. "But he does not feel the same. And.." The air around them grew colder as Zero drew his next card. "We are out of time." Whatever he had drawn, it removed the frustrated expression on the duelists face. "Eheh. I can end this.. at last." First he flipped his face-down monster, a Super Nimble Mega Hamster(1100/1800). "Well that's a mouthful." Nathan could chain his trap card to the summon of that beast, yet his curiosity got the better of him. And he did not want to activate it right away as it would leave him wide open. "The Hamster sets a lowleveled beast from my deck when flipped." He took out an Ape Magician and placed it down. "But it is not him that will destroy you..that will take too long" The duelist flashed a nasty smile. " It is this." Nate realized he was going for a tribute summon. "Why is he.." The Hamster and Magician were sacrificed and what took their place appeared high in the sky. "!"

"What is that!" It was so high up in the sky that every duelist and citizen could see it, an odd heart-shaped rock with yellow veins. "Ugh." Ada suddenly felt a strange pressure on her chest. "What's wrong?" Xavier asked, but he soon felt it too. His heart was beating like mad. "Is that thing the cause?" Urizen seemed less affected, or more resistant. He noticed the thing started to pulsate too, as if it were a real heart. " hey, what are you doing?" Meanwhile back at the square Nathan saw how everyone around was clutching their chest. "This is it. The release of god! Now all mortal souls are forfeit!" The beating rock started to draw in more yellow energy. "I thought this was between you and me!" He shouted at him. "You will be the last to be claimed, but Cusillu demands offerings." More yellow lines started to form around the heart, taking the frame of a gigantic monkey. "Then it is time to nip this in the bud. I activate my counter-trap card: Gravity Collapse!" Just then the beating stopped. "WHAT?" And the yellow energy started to fade.

"I sacrifice my synchro monster to negate the summoning of your monster, and destroy it!" Turbo Warrior literally imploded, leaving behind a tear in time and space. "No. You can not do this, you can take it away from me!" The hole started to suck in the Immortal heart. "I have to. This kind of crazyness just will not do!" The god disappeared, sent to the grave before it could take a solid form. The people on the square could once again breathe easy. "No..No..." Duelist Zero was reduced a whimpering sniveler, even the harshness had left his voice. "He has..left me. I can not hear Cusillu anymore." He dropped the card, the image of which blanked out before it hit the ground. "This is enough then." The duel was not over yet, but the fight had left his opponent. He did not say he ended his turn, but he could not do anything else anymore anyway. "Marauding Captain." So Nate summoned the troop commander(1200/400) to deliver the final blow. Two swords swung down to reduce his opponents lifepoints to nothing. He did not even feel it anymore.

Zero's LP: 0

"What was all that about?" The light barrier dissolved into thin air, the power was slowly restored to the city, and the duelists no longer felt that strange pain. "It was as if someone was clawing at my heart." Yale explained. "Yeah. What kind of weird trick did they pull on us?" The duelist with them complained. "You think the tournament hosts are involved?" Urizen did not think this was the doing of a mere man. "Well whatever happened, I think we need to ask him." Before the heart had appeared, they had gotten close enough to the center of the light maze to see who might have started it. "Ashworth dueled someone?" They saw Nathan standing over an unconscious man. "He checked out, that should not be possible." They had to get to bottom of this, so they ran to the square grounds. The people closest to the duel took longer to recover, so they were the first to approach him. Though by now Ramirez had once again left the area. "Hey, Nate. Do you have any clue what the hell happened?"

"Oh you're back. Well I don't have a clue, actually." He shrugged. "This guy came up to me, and forced me to duel him. And not a regular duel either, those holograms somehow did this." He showed off his more ragged than usual sleeves. Especially that last direct attack had done a number on him. "You're bleeding?" Ada was shocked to see a red stain on his shirt as well. "Oh? I didn't even notice that one." Nate laughed nervously. "Now I have even less of an idea of what went on. I just got lucky that I stopped him from summoning his big monster and after he lost his lifepoints he just dozed off." So for now they could not ask this guy any questions. "If this was a publicity stunt, it was a very scary one. The only other explanation I can think off, that there was something mystical taking place here. If you believe in that stuff." Now that the experience was just a memory, he found it harder to think of it as real. "I regard magic the same way I regard those phony psychic duelists everyone keeps talking about." Urizen grumbled.

At that time a loud screeching noise filled the air, which soon changed into a human voice. "People of North City." And Artani felt a shiver run down his spine, as he recognized that voice. "And duelists of this tournament." Someone was speaking through the PA-network, speakers were set in every major corner. "Do not be alarmed. What you just witnessed was a disturbance in the dueling network. An oversight in the connections between the hotspot and dueldisks caused a feedback malfunction, which might have sent shocks into nervous systems. The oversight is now under control. But if you still feel symptoms, you may report to the border guards to receive medical care." This was the explanation they gave, and most actually accepted it. "That's the story they are giving us?" Ada and company were more skeptic. "Hey. Urizen, you look upset." Yale however noted the odd look in Urizens eyes. "There is a reason for that." He replied with a grim tone. The speaker continued "At any rate, today's tournament will end at 5 PM, so stay tuned for another message from R-Tech. This was Gaunt Artani, your sponsor and host."

(To be Continued in Mark 011: Off Record)

New Cards used by Nathan Ashworth
Turbo Synchron
Turbo Warrior
Marauding Captain

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Axe of Fools

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Reanimation Wave
Gravity Collapse

New Cards used by Duelist Zero
Super-Nimble Mega Hamster
Earthbound Immortal - Cusillu

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Ebikyo Drakmord
Closed Forest