In the ten days since the meeting between Mindy, the Tenma brothers, and Pegasus, life at Duel Academy had settled back into something that vaguely resembled mundanity.
For Syrus, the days had been just the same alternating rhythm of attending his classes and crossing swords with the occasional student who wanted to take on the best of the best that the school had to offer. As of late, he had experienced a bit of a petering-out when it came to their number, which he was happy with.
For Alexis, the high note of the near-two-weeks was her series of duels against Chazz on the twenty-third day of that february.
On the arcane front, there were more news to be processed than there was actual activity around the island. Most major was the update that Midori had been promoted to Hell's ruler, a revelation that for Mindy was mixedly exciting and boring; though she'd have liked to slam-dance with the legions of hell sometime, she suspected that this meant it wasn't gonna happen anytime soon. For most of the others, the revelation was calmly accepted as merely another day's curveballs. Sora, though, had... well, to put it nicely, flipped her feces over hearing that a human was supposedly the new ruler of Hell, and soon came to the conclusion that they were lying their asses off.
The tidbit of information that was that Jasmine had acquired a card with a Duel Monster Spirit in it didn't really get the lion's share attention, though - partly because it wasn't a world-shaking revelation, partly because it was not quite the strangest they had yet heard, partly because Chazz didn't feel like giving Sora or Jasmine the satisfaction of having rattled him.
For Mindy, the evening of that day had been one spent on griping and discussing the particulars of Master Pegasus' info to Lex and Jas, then her making a resolution and going off to trade with Chazz - her Metallizing Parasites for his Emissaries of Darkness cards - and then, spending the late-night hours on revising her deck's lineup. She didn't get any sleep that night, though.
Come the here and now, there was seemingly a cosplay festival-slash-tournament at Central Duel Academy, for whatever bizarre-ass reason. Asgardian gods only knew why.
Outside the Slifer Red dormitory building, a cyan-haired and bespectacled teenage boy - dressed in the costume of a Slifer Red student - was walking. Nobody accompanied him at the mo, not a material person, and not spiritual person either.
A distance away, past the stairs of the dorm and out on the adjacent cliff, Syrus saw her stand. His walk over to his recent opponent was brief and uneventful. "Hey," greeted the bright-haired teen, bashfully.
The astral entity turned her head his way, wordlessly shooting him a greeting grin. That expression buggered right off, replaced with surprise, when it dawned on her that he had spoken to her.
"That's weird," she thought aloud.
"Play it cool, Syrus," he advised himself. "What is?"
"Oh, Holy Beasts devour me, that sounded rude, didn't it?" fretted the Spellcaster-type, consciously keeping her smile going. "Well, I wasn't really expecting that people around here could see me in spirit form, not that, well, I'm an expert when it comes to humans."
Syrus hadn't expected that she would say that, either. "So you really are a Dark Magician Girl," he voiced. "Way to go with playing it cool, Syrus," he chided himself mentally.
"Yuh-huh," she affirmed, matter-of-factly, the smile relaxing detectably. "Alaya's the name of yours truly, by the way. Nice to officially meet you, Syrus."
"Nice to meet you too, Alaya," he wondered if he should offer her a handshake. Then, the idea of asking why she had paid the Academy a visit occurred to him.
Alaya looked like a sigh was brewing in her throat. "As much fun as it's been to hang out here and Duel with you, I kinda have to go," it really was a shame, thought Alaya - somebody with Dueling skill like him was definitely a good candidate for a lover.
"Oh," murmured Syrus, a smidge disappointed to hear that.
"I think that came out wrong," bemoaned the blonde, lightly. "It isn't really that I hate this plane, but," she paused for a moment, "well, it's kinda complicated."
The Truesdale's face turned somewhat stern. "Actually, I think I'm up to speed," he replied. Alaya's face scrunched over with confusion. "Correct me if I've got any of the details wrong, but you're using some kinda spell or ritual or something to be in our world, and now you're running out of magical energy to keep it going."
Alaya stared, her face quickly shifting from befuddlement to a coy grin. "Are you actually a mage or just guesstimating here?"
Syrus gave a shrug of his shoulders. "Both, I guess," he scratched his head's backside. "All I really know is the basics, which I kinda guess is obvious..."
"I kinda figured," replied the six-star spirit, sounding amused, "from the part where you talked all vague," the brightness of her face dimmed just then, "but yeah, the mana's definitely the bigger problem," Syrus noted that word, "that, and I have school tomorrow. If I had enough, I could probably astral-project between the two planes all I wanted," liar, called a voice in her head, "and-" she paused, lips moving in a bashful pout.
"Something wrong?" queried Syrus.
"I just noticed something," she disclosed to him. "How come we're chatting like a pair of old friends?"
Syrus made to answer, then paused, then pensiveness washed over his features. He scratched his temple's left side, an iota of uncertainty in his body language.
"I... actually, that is weird," admitted the Slifer Red. He hadn't really thought about that. Hanging out and talking to her just felt... he didn't really know how to best describe it, but he felt comfortable around her, like he could tell her anything.
He decided to change the subject.
"But, if you just need more mana, you can use mine, if that's possible," he figured it was; by all logic, inter-dimensional teleportation should be more difficult than just sharing this energy. "If you want to stay around, I mean."
Alaya looked mixedly amused and knowingly weary.
"Thanks for the offer," free mana was never something to turn down, "but it's not that simple, either. Nothing personal, but I don't really think you have enough mana to field the costs for that," a curious look formed on his face. She decided to elaborate.
"The ritual I'm using is called a Third-Generation Classical Horakhty-Method Planeswalking, and the relevant stuff's that it takes about three-hundred mana units to keep it going just for six hours," she disclosed. "Equivalent Exchange, and all that. Not to sell you short or anything, but do you have that kinda much?"
Truth be told, he didn't really know; that magic even could be measured like that was news to him.
"Maybe," he answered, after a pause. "How much mana does it take to open a portal between our dimensions?"
"Geez," fretted the blonde in her head, "how did this turn into me giving a spiritual-science lecture?" "That's kinda above my pay-grade, probably Reality Marble stuff or something, so about four-thousand units to keep it working. I'll have to ask an expert. Where're you going with it?"
"Well, I've done that before," disclosed the Slifer, a smidge hesitantly. Surprise flashed onto her face. "Not to sound full of myself or anything, but I think I can do the upkeep for that spell. If you want me to," he hastened to add, "I mean."
The smile on her face turned a tinge uneasy, almost so little that Syrus missed it. He wondered if he had said something wrong.
Either he was just a really nice guy, or he had an agenda. Alaya preferred to think the first, and it seemed like him, as far as she knew.
The blonde extended her hand to him, fingers stretched. Syrus stared uncertainly and a bit flushy-faced at her.
"It's for the mana-sharing pact," she explained, affecting her best teacher's tone. "Once I cast the spell, and we both agree, we'll be sharing all our mana."
The situation reminded Syrus uncomfortably of a marriage proposal, even as weird and magical as it was. He told himself that that wasn't what it was - he and the others were already doing this magic-sharing thing, and (he hoped) that wasn't a group-marriage. As wonderful people as Atticus and Doctor Crowler were, he would rather not be married to them.
Silently, he raised his hand to meet her fingertips.
"Let now the gates between our soul-rooms be opened," murmured the witch, "and our spiritual power be freely shared.
Syrus surmised he was supposed to repeat that. "Let now the gates between our soul-rooms be opened, and our spiritual power be freely shared."
Their hands began to shine darkly, and both felt a warmth course through their own hand. Steadily, the umbral radiance grew in intensity. Thin dark lines that both zig-zagged and intersected at certain points grew down from their fingertips, onto the back of their hands where they touched on the symbol forming there - a rectangle, surrounded by a hexagram.
The bluenet inspected the sigil, and the fading of it, with a hint of surprise etched on his face. The blonde watched, silently and smilingly. Alaya didn't really think that it was going to be a big help, but free mana was always good.
Their arms dropped to their sides again. Alaya took a look at the ocean, openly pleased with the sky's colors. She couldn't remember any time in her life where she'd gotten to see an ocean-side sunset. "All in all, today's wonderful."
A simple silence settled over them. Syrus looked away from her, unsure of what to say next. He hoped he'd made a good impression so far.
Alaya's next statement broke in his thoughts. "Syrus, I want you to be my lover."
As soon as he translated that last bit into words he knew better, his brain almost short-circuited trying to process that, and his face reddened. Slowly, his head moved back towards the spiritual girl, incredulous eyes meeting hers. On her face, a pensive half-frown formed.
It took a minute, or thereabouts, for the cyan-haired human to compose himself enough that he could string a sentence together, and it ran as follows - "I'll be honored, but, well... why, exactly?"
The smile grew back into her eyes. "Well, it's basically because I've wanted to be in one of those couples where I can count on someone to cover my back in a fight or a Duel," she explained. "You fit the bill, and it helps that you seem like a really nice human too."
She paused, for a moment, before continuing, with a clear note of anxiousness in her voice. "Interested?"
He wasn't really sure; on the one hand, he wasn't comfortable with the idea that maybe he hadn't, at heart, gotten past his kid self's card crush on the Dark Magician Girl. "On the other hand, this isn't the card, Alaya's a real person."
He opened his mouth to speak.
At about the same time as Syrus and Alaya were chatting away by the Slifer building, Mindy - in the guise of a Harpie Lady - and a Ra Yellow student (who had chosen a Ra Yellow student at Duel Academy for his costume) named Rohan were wandering across the beach.
"Yes," he stopped, apparently speaking to the air and/or himself, breaking their silence, "here'll do," he then turned to her, raising his Duel Disk.
Mindy the Harpie Lady grinned. "No idea who you are, but I'm always up for it," with that, she activated her own disk.
"DUEL," called both students. The polished-golden panels popped into view on both sides of the field, with the number four-thousand and a colorful bar in either one of them, as they moved to draw their opening hands.
"Crap," was the length and breadth of Mindy's assessment of her hand.
"Go on," called Rohan, his tone jovial; by the looks of it, he suspected that she had a bum hand, "draw your sixth card, and let's get this started,"
Silently, Mindy drew the card. On the monster card's picture was depicted a blue-skinned, neck-lacking, yellow-armored demon. Her face broke into another smirk at the sight. "I place a monster face-down, in defense mode," she declared.
A brief-lived flash of gold light ushered the brown-colored card onto reality, in the gap between the two of them. Rohan studied it quizzically. "And here I thought she was about those Evil Hero things. A new Elemental Hero of hers, or something else?"
"Next, I'll place two more cards face-down," behind the concealed monster, two more cards appeared. They were mainly distinct from the monster-card, because of their vertical placing on the battlefield. "That's all."
Almost as an after-thought, the brunet drew, then he inspected his hand. A smile graced his face, his brain formulating tactics busily. "Do you know why I picked you for this little match?"
"Nope," responded Mindy, "but I've got a hunch you're gonna get me up to speed on that."
"It's all because of the deck you're using," he disclosed to her, pointing at her Duel Disk. "It's filled with demons, straight from Hell, while I," he grinned, now pointing his thumb at himself, "have plenty of angels and gods to bring to this little showdown, so, let's see who's gonna win this, Hell or Heaven!"
A sheepish smile formed on her face, and in her mind, the question of whether he really had to be dramatic. "Come to think of it, I could really use a sandwich right now."
"To start things off," Rohan held a card out to her, "the ability of Hecatrice is that I can take one particular card out of my Deck," he picked it up, and with adroit fingers, managed to simultaneously hold his hand of cards in his left hand and his deck of cards in the other one. Then, the Ra put the larger stack back in its slot, now one card lighter. With a grin on his face, he slid the card into his Duel Disk.
Beneath the angelic and the demonic Duelists, the ground began to rumble audibly. With no other warning, a mass of marble rose up from the beach sand, and soon surrounded them. Behind Rohan was an empty throne, and then a silky red curtain. Flanking him on both were the pillars, sleek and shiny like pure silver, that were adorned with flower-sprouting vines.
Rohan looked around the hall, admiring the sight, before looking back over to Mindy. "I trust that I don't need to explain what this means?"
"Actually, I've never gone up against this kinda thing before," she responded, "so, yeah, would appreciate getting caught up."
He gave a wry smile. "What this means is that I can summon any angel I want, free of charge, from my hand," he moved to take a card out from his hand, and held it for her to see, "so let's give a warm Duel Academy welcome to Tethys, Goddess of Light," with that, he placed the card onto the disk.
From the opening in the ceiling shone now a golden light, so bright that Mindy had to cover her eyes. The radiance illuminated a single spot upon Rohan's field, and there, a few globules of the sanctified light began to shape themselves into a humanoid white-glowing silhouette.
As the light from above died down, so did the light around the angel, and color appeared on the hologram.
Before Rohan stood now a human woman, her card in the air between them, who well deserved to be called angelic - for she met practically every check-point of that motif. Her garments were pristine, a silvery-white hue like her long hair, and sporadically decorated with bits of gold. At her back, white-feathered wings floated, separate from her body, almost as long as she was tall and positioned in defense of her. Upon the dual-sided panel that then appeared, the number 2400 was presented to them.
Mindy's attention was on the card form of the angel, the effect box section, though. She gave a hmm, then darting her eyes up to meet his face. "That all, dude?"
"No," he smirked almost alarmingly, "because I just need one last thing. Look around," she looked uncertainly at him; his smirk didn't waver an iota, "we're in the hall of the norse gods, but there's not even one of them around, so let's fix it," he declared, "I summon Frey, Spirit of Victory, in defense mode!"
First, the card appeared beside the angel, and the card's image, name and effect text were visible to Mindy. The ground beneath it glowed with the same golden-white light, and the norse god himself appeared - a human with violet-tinged grey hair, garbed in a varyingly black-and-blue suit that covered everything of his body from neck to pelvis, but left his arms and legs bared. Rings of orange light were around his wrists and ankles, and a pair of fuzzy red pom-poms in his hands.
The one-star's power meter appeared once the summoning brouhaha was over, with a reading of just one-hundred attack points. The attack-meter for the angel appeared again and rose by four-hundred points, accompanied by a cheering routine from the god.
"Let's get this cooking," grinned Rohan, and pointed to her face-down monster. "Tethys attacks now! ANGELIC RADIANCE!"
The angel raised a hand, a ball of white flickered to life and crackled with electricity. Mindy shouted the activation of her face-down card, Negate Attack. A blunt scraping noise sounded when the divine-energy orb was sent against the concealed demon.
"Shit," cursed the Ra. "I end my turn, now."
Mindy moved to draw. The card, she saw, was Stairway to The Underworld, and it was placed in her hand.
"So, I'm curious," she called to Rohan, a grin on her face. "According to your little metaphor, we represent Hell and Heaven. What's that make us, the Devil and God?" she was pretty sure that they were a part of Christianity.
"Nah," he answered, eventually. "It woulda been tons of fun to say something all blasphemic, though."
"Well, either way, I'm gonna mess this up for ya, angel boy" replied Mindy. With a quick gesture, she flipped her card around and then put it back on. "I switch Slate Warrior to attack position," as she spoke, the demon materialized on the field. Well, this one might be called colorful, for its skin was blue, its armament were yellow and blue, and its garments were red and green. The power measuring panel appeared, with a reading of 1900 that then rose to 2400, before it went away.
Rohan smirked. "Just as I expected, a simple but effective combo, but we both know that's not enough, so what else you got?"
Mindy responded by holding a Spell card out to him. "Activate Horns of the Archfiend, to raise Slate Warrior's attack strength even further," almost as soon as she slid it into her disk, a noise like cracking bone sounded in the area. After a moment, the top of the demon's head began to crack apart, like a piece of rock, as a pair of horns made of pale-white bone came out. The power meter appeared once again, rising to 3000 this time.
Rohan frowned.
Slate Warrior charged forth as soon as the command was given. Tethys fired a ball of holy energy at the demon, who halted in its tracks, but only momentarily. The demon swung its staff, unleashing a burst of dark energy and electricity down upon the angel. With a deafening boom, Tethys was defeated, the event marked by Rohan's life-points dropping by two-hundred and by him putting the card into his graveyard.
"And as an added bonus," announced Mindy, with a grin on her face, "the equip spell gives me another card fresh from my deck whenever Slate Warrior wins a fight," she drew, inspected the one-star demon's card briefly, and wordlessly added it to her hand. "Next down, a face-down card," she slid the Trap-Spell into her disk. "My turn's done."
Rohan conducted his next drew, grinning widely at his drawn card. After putting it in his hand, he spoke, "What say we continue the norse mythology lesson?"
Mindy shrugged, not all that interested.
"Great," said Rohan, taking a card and holding it up with two fingers. "See, in the myths, Frey has a sister named Freya, so guess who's coming to join this party?"
He placed the card on the disk. The monster that appeared on the field was, in appearance and in attire, much like the one that was already present. She made a cheerleadery gesture toward her summoner, to mark her arrival. Before the norse-pantheon siblings, their respective panels of power measurement were rendered. The sister's attack power rose from one-hundred to nine-hundred, the brother's from five-hundred to the same value.
"Okay, they power each-other up," commented Mindy, unimpressed, "but if you think I'm gonna be spooked by nine-hundred points, you must not know who I am."
"Oh, I've heard of you," refuted Rohan. "You're Mindy Hamaguchi, and your dueling tactics are all about using your Evil Heroes for an unparalleled amount of brute force, which is why I've come prepared. Care to remember, or read, just in case you don't know, what the abilities of my two gods are?"
Mindy's face scrunched over with confusion. "If I remember right, they both raise the attack points of other Fairies and also-" her confusion morphed into surprise. "So that's what you're going for."
"Yeah," he smirked. "Correct me if my observations are wrong, but you only have two cards in your arsenal that can really do anything about my lock," he stated. "Lightning Golem and Spellbinding Illusion. Well, if you still got 'em, I guess. Hard to tell what you've got with all those new tricks up your sleeve," Mindy looked uncertainly at her left arm. Rohan scratched his cheek bashfully. "I meant metaphorically."
She half-wanted to tell him she had just been joking. "Okay, we've got it established you have a good combo going, but what're you actually gonna summon and beat Slate Warrior with?"
He responded by sliding a card into his Disk. The image of Monster Reborn appeared over the sibling deities. An ankh manifested, and shone upon all that surrounded it. He announced the return of his fallen angel. As soon as Tethys was restored fully, the gifts of the two norse gods were imparted upon her, raising the angel's attack power to 3200.
"Let's try this again," announced the Ra. "Tethys, Goddess of Light, attack with Angelic Radiance!"
The angel raised her hand once more, and the sphere of divine light and electricity appeared. It surged towards Slate Warrior, and made impact squarely in the demon's mid-section. An explosion followed that event. The ebony-haired teen's points dropped by two-hundred.
She moved to remove the monster and the equip card from her card zones. To Rohan's surprise, the attack power of the angel dropped just then, by five-hundred points.
Mentally shaking it off, he verbally commanded Frey to attack directly as well. Striking a pose, the asgardian swung his arms and pom-poms at Mindy. A cold wind swept over her, and her life points dropped to 2900. She hurried to click the activation button.
"I activate my face-down card, Stairway to the Underworld!" announced Mindy.
Mixed surprise and recognition flashed on Rohan's face. "Isn't that Princeton's card? How did she get a hold of one? Meh, not a hard question, she probably traded for it."
The card sprang up; its front was mixedly the green of the Spells and the violet coloration of Trap cards, and its image was of a spiral staircase that led into the ground and the guard stationed atop it. From the guard, trails of borderline-coherent shadow emerged while Mindy shuffled through her deck for the two seven-star monsters. Then, they began to take on solid form, and ones more familiar to both Duelists.
On the right side of Mindy, there stood now a human woman taller than her, garbed in armaments reminiscent of a ballgown, carrying a silvery sword in her hand. Before her, there was a panel that read 2500.
On the left side of Mindy, there stood now a human man, as tall and as lean-figured as his companion, garbed in deeply-dark blue leather outfitted with silvery platings and a pair of blades attached to wrists. Before him, the panel presented the number 2700.
"Isn't that kinda a downgrade?" commented Rohan, a coy smirk on his face now. "Both of them have less attack power than your Warrior did, and they still can't attack my monsters, so what's-" he paused immediately, as a thought occurred to him. "What, did you just summon them to slim your Deck down? What're you hoping to draw?"
"Maybe I did," Mindy shrugged, grin wide. "Maybe I didn't. Either way, I think it's my turn now."
Rohan blew at a lock of his hair. "I guess. End turn."
Mindy cast an uncertain look at her deck. Then, she moved her hand, drawing with only a scant pause in the motion. She looked, befuddled, at the seven-armed demon in the image."Wow, I can actually pull this off," she said, with almost a triumphant laugh.
Rohan decided he didn't like the sound of that one.
"I summon Seven-Armed Fiend, in attack mode," she announced. Upon the field, a humanoid demon with grey-black oily skin, three arms on either side, a long neck, and a head with fingers sticking out of it appeared. The power panel appeared, this time with a reading of six-hundred-and-sixty-six. "Next, I'm sacrificing my Seven-Armed demon and the Emissaries of Darkness to Evolution Summon this thing," as soon as she declared so, all three monsters dissolved into umbral energy.
The three monsters began taking new shape, drawing hexagrams in three layers before Mindy. The middle one remained motionless, the first one moved sluggishly towards the left, the third spun rapidly towards the right. Between all three arcane circles, lightning arced and raced, and noises neither one of them had ever before heard in their life filled the air of the beach.
Then, a terrible jubilant screech cried out, as a single hand that came from nowhere grabbed hold of the hexagram in the middle, and seemed to hold on for dear life. Then, another taloned hand appeared and held onto the third hexagram.
The air around it seemed to blur, almost appearing in pain somehow to Mindy's eyes (and she was pretty sure that was impossible), as the monster finally appeared - identical in every regard, Rohan observed, to the level-one demon who had been sacrificed to call it down.
Before Mindy's new demon, the power meter appeared with another measurement of six-hundred-and-sixty-six.
"Okay, a few things," Rohan folded his arms. "One, I've heard of demon summoning, but come on! Two, 'Evolution Summon' is not a thing in Duel Monsters, no matter what Hikibi likes calling it when he summons Poison Rose. Three, three sacrifices for a monster with less than a thousand attack points? This one has sure as actual Hell gotta be good."
"Oh, it is," smirked Mindy. "You see, the Lord of the Ars Goetia has seven abilities," "Wonder what 'Ars Goetia' means? It's probably just some demon thing."
"Gee," mock-wondered the Ra, "why would a demon have seven different special abilities, how does that make sense?"
Mindy looked sheepish. "Anyway, I'm going to activate the first of its abilities. That lets me draw two cards," she drew. What she got were a spell card, Flames of the Archfiend, and her second Sparkman. "Not, good. Not good, not good, not good, not good," she fretted internally.
She looked over her hand again - Sparkman, Dark Calling, Flames of the Archfiend, Sparkman. There was only one possible move for her to make.
"Now, I activate the third ability of my Seven-Armed Archfiend," on both sides, a plume of lava erupted spontaneously. They lingered for a bit, and when both died down, a burly beast with deep-red eyes and a coal-black hide stood upon the beach. For both of the Evil Tokens, the the number 2500 was presented on the panels.
"First Pot of Greed's effect, now Pot of Pride's," noted Rohan, studying her copy of the monster. "It really does go the whole nine yards with the hell-symbolism."
"Next, I'll activate the Spell, Flames of the Archfiend," declared the Obelisk. "Both players and any monsters that aren't demons lose one-thousand points!"
A sinister glee shone on the many-armed demon's face. Before its gaping maw, a ball of flame ignited, and was shot towards the opposing forces. It grew quickly into a torrential flood of hellfire that washed over both the creatures and their summoners.
Once it died down, the meters for life points and battle-strength appeared before all but two of the combatants. For Tethys, the attack points went down to 1700, while both of the norse gods were left with no attack points. Mindy was left with nineteen-hundred points, while Rohan was down to 2800.
Then, the Blue declared the activation of her face-down card, with almost-a-shout and a pointed finger at it. Around Freya, the arcane circle appeared, and the angel's attack-strength lost the bit the goddess conferred. Both of Mindy's demons went to battle - the Evil Token trampled the angel down, the other seven-star demon devoured the goddess - and Rohan's Life Points fell to nine-hundred-and-thirty-four.
Rohan shot her a grin, while both players moved their destroyed cards from the card zones into their respective graveyard.
"Great job, you almost had me," complimented the Ra. "I think we both know, though, that I've got this in the bag."
Mindy frowned. "Oh yeah? Explain that, genius."
"How quickly we forget," said Rohan, pointing to her Duel Disk. "As I said before, Spellbinding Illusion was the only one of your cards other than Lightning Golem that can break my attack-lock, and that trap's gone now, which means," his grin turned predatory, "I can just summon my other Freya, and take my time to wipe you out."
Mindy glared indignantly. "Oh yeah? Then just try it. I end my turn."
Rohan drew. He looked, befuddled, at the card he'd drawn, before laughing. "I activate the card I've just drawn, the Spell that's called Vitamancy," he slid it in, and the holographic version appeared on the field - a card whose image depicted a sunlit cemetery where a sorcerer stood, hands alight with spiritual power, and zombies were rising from the ground. He paused, to let her read the card.
Mindy's eyes studied the text box. "Send up to four monsters you control to the Graveyard. All monsters your opponent controls loses 600 ATK for each until the End Phase," she frowned, displeased. "Great, so it's Necromancy but backwards."
"That's right," affirmed the Ra, "so by sacrificing the demon you gave me," as he declared this, the holo-projection of the fiend become ethereal, and then vanished altogether, "well, you know," the demon reappeared, still spectral, around its twin and conjurer. Then, their individual power panel reappeared, and dropped to sixty-six and nineteen-hundred. "I'll follow that one, with this! I summon Seraphimon Blaster, in attack mode."
The monster that appeared very much matched the twenty-first century's common perception of an angel - the ambiguously-gendered figure stood with a human form, covered from neck to toe in white and gold garbs, and white-feathered wings grew from the angel's back. The only weapon that the angel carried was a bloody over-sized pistol, and the winged being's attack power was presented first to be 1800 before it rose by seven-hundred points.
It was with a single focused shot that the angel felled the demon lady, and wiped out the remainder of the Obelisk's Life Points.