Chapter 14: The Power Within

"Whereas the Egyptians sealed their gods within stone, the Sumerians thought the gods could be sealed within the flesh." The slide Salman presented depicted a human with a larger, almost ghostly entity looming overhead as a shadow. "The belief was that a king earned his role through divinity—specifically from the body of a god becoming one with the body of a host. The priesthood interpreted the words of the gods and selected hosts to become the earthly body for each divine spirit.

"You may wonder why the gods needed hosts for a little foray on Earth. Rather than worshipping the gods as concrete objects or beings that could be seen and interacted with as the Egyptians did, the Sumerian gods were anthropomorphic entities representing cosmic and terrestrial forces. Anu, Lord of the Heavens and the Constellations, for example, lacked any sort of substantive body and could only witness human behavior from the realm of divine beings unless his priests completed the ritual and provided him with a host."

Salman's next slide presented a stone statue of a man as big as a lion, and alongside a number of other, more modern representations; Bryan even recognized the one that had orange robes, blank eyes, and four arms each wielding unique and legendary swords.

"King Gilgamesh was a powerful man but a tyrannical king. To prevent his fall into the underworld, Anu inhabited the earthly body of Enkidu; he became a match for Gilgamesh in every way. After an initial battle against one another, they became friends and Gilgamesh was returned to a righteous path.

"Through their journeys of battle and discovery, Anu lost his original way and his mind essentially merged with Enkidu's. But the host-god was seen as a threat to the world order by the other gods, and so the gods communicated to him through a series of dreams that tormented and sickened his human host that one of the heroes must die as penance for killing Humbaba, the Guardian of Cedar Forest. After twelve days, the host Enkidu died and Anu's spirit returned to the greater realm."

Speaking more openly and slightly less related to the subject, Salman closed with, "I highly recommend reading the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is a wondrous story full of adventure and intrigue that fascinated me from the time I was a young boy."

Hillary seemed oddly eager as she raised her hand with a question. A fan of adventure stories, she asked, "Do you believe the gods can really communicate with us through dreams? Or do they only communicate with one another?"

"It is difficult to be certain," Salman admitted. "No reported communications from any gods were ever substantiated, but that does not mean the possibility does not exist by some stretch of the imagination. In fact, the idea of gods inhabiting humans to make them stronger is what inspired the idea of Tuning in Duel Monsters."

Bryan noted the Epic of Gilgamesh. He would have to be careful when he read it, though, or else he might find himself referring to Enkidu as "Matt" instead.

Elaine hummed softly as she reached for her deck. "When you destroyed my Witch of the Black Forest, you gave me the ability to retrieve a monster from my deck."

"I know," Hillary commented. "I was excited when you played that card because now I can activate Drastic Drop Off." On the field, the robed Witch with the third eye in her forehead jolted in the middle of casting her summoning spell; the card she was sending to Elaine's hand suddenly fell from the air and hit the Graveyard instead.

"I certainly hope you have a plan," Elaine commented. "It won't do any good at all if you can't manage to defeat Destiny Hero – Dogma (8/3400/2400)." Her monster was a massive, winged Hero whose solid skin armored his body as he rent Hillary's previous monsters asunder with complete ease. "You should at least be able to cut me down past halfway or else this duel wasn't even worth it."

With a smile, Hillary answered, "I hope to do more than that. When a Counter Trap resolves, I can send my monster to the Graveyard to summon Voltanis the Adjudicator (8/2800/1400)." As the golden body of Harvest Angel of Wisdom disappeared from her field, an explosion of blue light heralded the appearance of a shielded archangel wielding a judgment staff.

"Perfect," Elaine confessed. Blue lightning struck her Hero with the enormous lightning rod protruding from his arm. The Hero instantly transformed into a pile of ash and blew away from the field. "Now I'm wide open. Maybe you have a strategy to kill me in one turn?"

"Unfortunately, no," Hillary confessed. She checked her lap and wheelchair next to her Duel Disk again as she explained, "If I hadn't lost that other card, I might be able to pull something together."

"That's a real shame. I keep hoping one of you from Duel Academy can make me really suffer, but so far, the Greek guy, the Navy girl, and the girl with the enormous rack haven't done anything significant to me. I do hope you can do better."

And Voltanis gave a tremendous effort; casting a spell of light from his its staff, the angel blasted Elaine for a powerful direct attack.

"I'll end with… Hey!" Hillary searched her Duel Disk again for the card Bountiful Artemis gave her before leaving the field. It was a Counter Trap called Solemn Judgment that would basically assure her protection against anything Elaine could play the next turn, but it was no longer in her hand, nor did it rest on her Duel Disk tray.

"What's the problem? Have you suddenly lost the will to fight?"

Hillary couldn't believe this happened twice in a duel. All the time she spent working on her deck and working to win as many duels as possible in order to prove that being crippled in the legs didn't mean she was worthless… It felt wasted now that she couldn't keep a hold on her cards during a duel against an international champion.

At least she still had Voltanis on the field and Van'Dalgyon in her hand. "I guess that's the end of my turn."

Hillary 1300: Elaine 7800 – 500 – 2800 = 4500.

Elaine clicked her tongue a few times. "It's a shame you fell short on your goal of deducting half my Life Points." Her field contained two black flames that eyed Hillary eerily. At the end of Hillary's turn, she activated Fires of Doomsday to summon two Doomsday Tokens (1/0/0) before her turn began. "Do you remember when I used Destiny Hero Diamond Dude to send Monster Reborn from my deck to the Graveyard? Now the effect activates and summons Diamond Dude (4/1400/1600) back to my field." The magical ankh brought to her field a warrior cloaked in green and studded all over with diamonds; his entire skeleton was composed of diamond and not bone, and he could cause the diamond to emerge from his skin at will.

"The last time I had three monsters on the field, I used them all to summon a bigger monster." She instantly changed her expression from a pensive frown to an over-the-top smile. "I think I'll just do that again! But this time, I'll make it Destiny Hero Plasma (8/1900/600)!"

This monster was difficult to describe. It looked like a human wearing a suit that should be much too heavy to carry: The wings were thin like green sails, one arm had claws the size of swords while the other was like the mouth of a beast, and the back possessed a long tail and capped in a crest with three additional claws. Without a word, the man reached out with his demonic hand and engulfed Voltanis.

"Plasma (+3300) absorbs one of your monsters and gains half its power to use his own way." She chuckled to herself. "It's too bad you don't at least have a Trap set for me to worry about, but with your field wide open like that and you with so few Life Points remaining, I think it's safe to say: You lost." Without a moment's hesitation for small talk, Plasma spread his wings and began to shine with a deep, red light; when the light burst, a piercing rain of blood pelted Hillary relentlessly.

Hillary 1300 – 3300 = 0: Elaine 4500.

Plasma's imposing figure loomed over her for a moment before the holograms shut down and faded. When it did, Elaine flipped her hair behind her back in a cocky way. "Well, that was disappointing. Isn't anyone at Duel Academy worth their reputations?"

Hillary wouldn't let Elaine's words bother her. "We have a few," she confessed, "but you are proof that not all the good duelists enroll each year." Despite the compliment and Hillary's effort to lose graciously, Elaine still was not impressed and only scoffed as she drifted back to her seat in the back corner of the lab room.

"Okay," Starza said with more excitement than seemed warranted. Her effort to display enthusiasm was curbed by her undertone of sarcasm, however. It seemed pretty obvious to Hillary that Starza was less interested in dueling and teaching than she was in her own research.

As soon as Hillary parked her wheelchair where she wanted it, Kusuma leaned over and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey. I think that was a good duel. You almost had her there at the end."

"Don't let her smugness get to you," Lucy agreed. "Even Mitsuro lost to her."

"I didn't lose," Mitsuro repeated for the umpteenth time. "My cards vanished from my hand. If they didn't, I would have beaten her."

Hillary knew the feeling, but she didn't let herself go crazy worrying about a duel that was already over. "I just hope my cards aren't completely lost. It took me years to get my deck the way I like it."

Kusuma smiled at her. "I wouldn't worry too much. They'll probably show up in your deck again later on."

"I sure hope so."

When Starza realized they weren't going to get another duel out during the period, she opted to let the students work on their projects. "At this point, you have exactly one week to finish them. Although the tests tomorrow and next week will make your grade, this project will determine course credit you get back at your schools. So use this time wisely. I will be right here if you would like to use me as an extra resource."

A few of the students left the lab to go work on their projects alone. Each student had to produce a separate project, which meant teamwork wasn't an issue, and research wasn't a requirement if knowledge was abundant. Of course, when research was required, the electronic interference made landline internet connections mandatory; wireless internet connections were abysmal at best.

"This might be the most creativity-intensive project I've ever been assigned," Lucy groaned. "I mean, how are we supposed to design a card or rule that can completely change the way people duel?"

"I'm sticking with my motorcycle idea," Bryan declared. "I don't care what the traffic laws say; one of these days, people will have street duels at high speeds, damning the risk. That reminds me… I need to invest in a motorcycle repair place."

Lucy sighed with jealous amusement. "That's great for you that you have an idea to work with. Unfortunately, the best I can come up with is a one-card Exodia."

Kusuma laughed. "A one-card Exodia? That's probably not the kind of change Starza meant."

Rinny agreed, "Unless the change you're trying to effect is to make everybody run Time Seal and Mask of Darkness." The combination Rinny referred to involved using Time Seal to force the opponent to skip his or her Draw Phase, and then using Mask of Darkness to return Time Seal to the player's hand.

With a sigh and a flip through her sketchbook, looking at the pictures of armored warriors and magic spells, Lucy commented, "I'm so much better at designing card artwork than I am at creating effects."

She continued flipping through her book when Mitsuro stood up—her stuff packed into her bag—and reminded her, "Staring at those pictures won't help. You'll have to think about the way you play and how things could be easier or harder for you."

Noticing the bag on her shoulder, Lucy asked, "Where are you going?"

"I'm headed to the park to work from there. The bland walls of this room stifle my creativity."

"Do you already have an idea?"

"Not really. But the sound of the ocean always helps me relax and get the creative juices flowing." With a quick, two-fingered salute, she turned and headed out of the room with a bit of a skip in her step.

Hillary smiled. "How much do you want to bet her project has a Navy theme?"

"It definitely does," Rinny agreed. She corrected herself with, "I mean will. Anyone want to bet the other way?"

Lucy laughed and looked at her boyfriend, who was scribbling down rules for speed dueling. "Even Bryan wouldn't take that bet."

She sighed again and stared at her blank page of ideas. Mitsuro said to think about how she plays, but that wasn't helping. One-card Exodia was obviously too easy and incredibly ridiculous. Pay Life Points instead of using Spell Counters? Maybe that would help Lucy in certain occasions, but it was certainly not thinking big enough to change anything outside of a Spell Counter deck. At the very least, she wanted something reasonably significant that people might actually use. And Starza already said designing a series of monsters based on copyrighted material was not acceptable; that meant replicating Sora's Kingdom Hearts idea on something like Mega Man or The Legend of Zelda was out.

"I suddenly hate this class."

Simpler is better. As Mitsuro leaned in the shade of the Thelemic Pantheon's towering walls, she looked pensive, as if she were waiting for someone to meet with her before heading away from the shade and perhaps onto the beach.

All she really wanted was for the passersby to look somewhere else for a bit. Everyone outside had other activities to occupy them—swimming, dating, roasting marshmallows, selling useless trinkets, purchasing useless trinkets—but any one of them might be alarmed if they saw what she had in mind. An appropriate distraction might give her the chance to slip through the window into a room for which she did not have a key. She did, however, have a hacksaw blade and a reasonable understanding of window anatomy. With only a moment of freedom, she might wedge the window open.

Suddenly a loud popping sound came from the marshmallow roasters. The first one caused everyone to flinch, but the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth pops caused a slight panic as some people worried they might be victims in a drive-by. When the popping stopped, the roasters noticed oysters that burst open. Apparently, someone dropped them into the fire, and when they reached the boiling point, they burst open and created a loud popping sound. But why would someone do that?

It didn't matter anymore; Mitsuro was already inside Starza's office. The room looked exactly like the office of someone stationed here for only a two-week course: The desk was incredibly neat and tidy, hardly one-third of the shelf space was in use, the walls and floor were devoid of color and personality, and the floor was clean enough to eat off. That was going to make cleaning up after her spelunking mission extra important.

First on the list was the computer on the desk. Maybe she'd get lucky and it wouldn't be password-protected. A quick shake of the mouse spoiled that hope, though. Unfortunately, Mitsuro didn't know nearly enough about Starza to be able to crack her password. Was she the kind of person who came up with a challenging, impossible-to-crack password? Password difficulty is directly proportional to the need to write down the password, so it might be somewhere in the room if that's the approach she took.

But most people use a password that has some personal relevance, and that's where knowing so little about Starza and her interests became a tremendous problem. Realistically, using a personal password was much more likely, but it put Mitsuro in a no-win scenario. At least hoping Starza wrote her incredibly difficult password down somewhere meant a small chance of success.

And so she started looking.

Starza had a reference calendar. Starting with the first pages—the ones with instructions and copyright information most people just ignore—she flipped through the pages. There were names were dig sites in the Middle East, dinner dates, phone numbers, lists of errands, and a series of calorie counts, but nothing that resembled a password. The notes became more extensive during a few week-long blocks; excessive addresses, names, and phone numbers that didn't fit the format of the US suggested time spent in the Mediterranean region, probably related to research. But then when she went back home, the day planner notes were sparse and predictable. Judging from the day planner, Starza led a pretty boring life when she wasn't out of the country.

Maybe there was something in the books. There weren't many, but few serious researchers can take even a two-week trip to teach a course without bringing reference texts and personal research documents to keep her knowledge sharp. Excluding the books and articles with either Starza or Salman listed as an author, the variety of books was wide: The Book of the Law, Ancient Egypt: Nuit, Bacchanalia, Religious Eschatology, Life of Pi, and First Blood.

"Wouldn't have pegged her as a Rambo fan," she uttered.

Mitsuro began flipping through the books not authored by either instructor. She didn't get far before she heard sounds at the door. She quickly put the book back on the shelf and slipped into the corner of the office between two unused bookshelves. Huddled tightly to make herself as small as possible, Mitsuro watched carefully with plans to exit the room quickly.

"You try my patience, Death," Starza grumbled as she opened the door with Sora close in tow. "If you cannot retrieve Uria in a duel, then do so when he is not dueling."

"Doesn't stealing the card spoil the meaning of it?"

With a sigh, she quoted, "There is no law but 'do what thou wilt.' The purpose of your ability is to locate the icons of the gods and provide for the ritual. No earthly quantity of power will open the gates."

Sora cocked an eyebrow and looked to the corner of the room for a moment.

Starza emphasized, "To discover your True Will, you must disconnect from your conscious desires and follow the thoughts within your subconscious. The reason you struggle now is your reluctance to follow your true path. As soon as you align yourself with the universe and pursue the path for which you were born, the universe will aid you." She placed her hand on his shoulder. "You once wished for more power. This is how you will obtain it."

Sora took in a deep breath as if to meditate on his feet. When he opened his eyes, he pointed to her desk and asked, "Any chance you figured out a way to get me to Duel Academy? The other god cards are still there."

"That will not be necessary," she explained as she walked to her desk. "Each card is a single portal to the collective conscious of the Shadow Realm. Just one will be sufficient to draw the magicks the ritual will require."

Sora nodded. "Very well. I guess I'll go figure out how to sneak into Bryan's Duel Disk."

"Use the twins. They can be very distracting."

"That's what Pestilence suggested."

"What did I say? The universe will assist you. Now go."

With a somewhat hesitant step, Sora backed away from Starza and left her office. He walked around the bend of the hall and stopped abruptly two doors down. That's where he startled Mitsuro, who slipped silently out of Starza's office the moment she looked away from the door.

"Thanks for not giving me away," she grudgingly offered.

He smiled brightly at her. "I bet that hurt to say."

"You have no idea."

With a boastful grin, he asked, "Care to tell me what you were doing in Teach's office?"

She glared back. "Don't you already know?"

"Yeah. I think you should try checking into the Eschatology book if you want to figure out her password."

"Why? What's in the book?"

"Well, eschatology is the study of the end of the world. Every religion has its version of the end, and it seems Starza has some interest in how it's going to happen." He patted her on the rear just like a football player and said, "I hope that helps." With a quick wink, he took off down the hall toward the dorms.

"Wait," Mitsuro called, ignoring the violation of personal space. "How can I take you seriously? You and Starza seemed awfully buddy-buddy in there. Why would you help me spy on her?"

"There's just something endearing about you," he confessed with his hands crossed over his heart. He pointed to her and added, "I will give you this one piece of advice to aid your oh-for-the-century duel record here: If you ever want to beat Elaine Bouldin in a duel, you need to play your cards incredibly close to your vest. Cards have a way of disappearing around her."

"I noticed. Why is that?"

He huffed. "Ask Einstein. And while you're at it, steer clear of the twins."

"The twins?" That didn't ring a bell. "Who are they? Do they have some kind of mind control power like you do?"

"No. They're just really creepy."

I fixed the formatting issue with the previous chapter. Not really sure what happened, but the brief excerpt at the end was replaced into the chapter.

On another note, this isn't my favorite chapter, but it does contain information that will expand over the next several chapters. The next chapter will finally see a big duel that is not part of the class, and then things will speed up considerably. My goal for posting is two Mondays.

I spent a long time thinking I would give the Destiny Heroes to Bryan, but with all the talk of True Will, it fit better symbolically to give them to someone else. I chose Elaine for reasons that will be more obvious the next time she duels. Rest assured that Bryan will not end up using a Destiny Hero deck.

Credits:
Darius Mantzios...tiramisu19
Jason Maxim...Maxim and Knight
Nathan Zislaw...Mavrik Zero
Hillary Delaney...Nodqfan144
Lili Von...Happy2BMe
Carter Jade...Jaden2010
Mitsuro Itachu & Sora Mikano...Titanic X
Sean Bivins...DarkVestroia2
Ivy Roaks...Mental Panda
Hayley Wilson...TeamRocketDiva
Maikeru Stone...onyxshade7
Victor Rocks & Abel Shinzou...Iron-Arm-V
Alister Kazama & Jessica Parks...ZaneKazama001
Synthia Spencer...Madly Chessur
Leila & Linear Lockhart & Azure Windwalker...Windraider
Logan Wilson...MercWithTheMouth13
Allen Tebaro...Nouva17
Tai Ishihara...ZAFT Prime
Cain Valin...FE96jAFFAR
Kusuma Megumi & Ringo Takagame...VStriker
Rachel Avila...Amourenvie
Everyone else so far...YamiRuss