Mark 026: Down-Hill from Here

Nate's LP: 5300 Keins LP: 2300

"My fault?" Nate heard the accusation, but did not get it yet. "That is correct. If you had not intervened, my reputation would not have been tarnished." Kein scoffed. he had just summoned a new type of ritual monster: Evigsihki Soul Ogre(2800/2800). "Are we talking about the time I beat you at regionals, or the duel against that zero duelist?" Nathan meanwhile had Forterss Warrior(600/1200) in defense mode and Road Warrior(3000/1500). "Both!" He flipped his trap card at this point; Ritual Buster. "But if you must know, the latter is far more topical right now. I would not have let that duel come that close, you nearly let him summon it." It was a trap that prevented the opponent from using spells or traps until Keins next turn, if a ritual summon had been performed this turn. "I discard a water monster from my hand to activate Soul Ogre's power!" He threw away Mother Grizzly. "One monster on the field is sent back to the deck!" Soul Ogre stomped once in the pool, creating a tidal wave which swept Road Warrior off of the marble floors.

"I end my turn." He could do nothing about Fortress Warrior yet, as it could resist battle damage and death once every turn. "But he came to me. That zero duelist. And what is it anyway?" Since he could play neither of his spells he had in his hand, he had to stall for one turn. he placed one monster faced down, and one trap card as well. "He came to you, because you defeated him. His feelings drove him towards you, and were the perfect fuel for it. That is why it you had to be kept in ignorance, if you knew what would attract them, you would resist those feelings." He looked at the duelists on the sidelines. "But now it is too late, isn't it? Even so, if I can make at least one of you feel despair by crushing the shouldbe Ace, I will!" It was his turn again. "Salvage!" Kein activated the spell card which took two water-type monsters with less than 1500 atk out of the grave. "I reclaim Vision Gishki (700 atk) and Mother Grizzly(1400 atk)." He then discarded the former for the effect of Soul Ogre, to push back the walking Fortress with more water waves.

"Now then. I can banish this card from my graveyard." He revealed Ritual of Destruction, Garlandolfs spell. "To send any monster Soul Ogre slays back to your deck. If it was set, it must be useless. Heh. Here I go!" He tried to throw the card into the banishing zone, but it refused to accept it. "I can not let you do that. I activate Imperial Iron Wall!" Nate erected a large virtual wall, which blocked off all banishing effects. "You had that card?" Nathan nodded. "Would have liked to draw it earlier, coulda been useful against your Djinns." And while Djinn Disserere stopped traps from hurting Soul Ogre, it allowed traps that affected other places. "I had this trap just in case I ever wanted to spam Quillbolt Hedgehog." Since it was normally removed from the game after you revived it once. "Tsk. You annoy me with every last little card in that deck of yours." Kein summoned Mother Grizzly(1400/1000). "Double attack!" Soul Ogre drowned his facedown monster, a Junk Defender(500/1800), while the water bear used his claws on Nate directly.

Nate's LP: 3900

"Junk Defender?" The other Aces knew about that card. "Guess that shows just how helpless he is." Lincoln said, as normally a player could special summon it to absorb a direct attack. But now special summons were again forbidden thanks to the Djinn Releaser. "Now I feel sad for the other kids." Macbeth felt like Kein had this duel in the bag. "Heh, your turn. Ashworth. Are you gonna keep defending or return to attacking?" Kein smirked. "You will find out now." He summoned a new warrior, one that wielded a two-pronged spear(1800/800). "Max Warrior! He attacks other Grizzly!" His monster gained 400 attackpoints when it attacked a monster. But after Max(2200/800) slammed its weapon into the bears head, it would lose the powerboost and more. "You played that monster of all things." Max Warrior(900/900)'s attack was halved and so was its level. "Stop.. joking.. around!" Of course at the same time, when Mother Grizzly died another water monster with 1500 atk or less ould be called out from the deck. Kein summoned another Grizzly(1400/1000). "Everything you do is just a waste of time. No wonder you gave up what I took over!" Nate then placed another card down and ended his turn. "Yeah and seeing how stressful it is making you, I am glad I did."

Keins LP: 1500

"Feh. I do not even need to send that thing back to your deck." Kein did not want to discard this time. "Die, just die!" Soul Ogre punched the weakened warrior and scattered its body parts all over. "And now.." But Kein held himself back, and his Grizzly. "No. You are doing it again." Instead of directly attacking he switched the bear to defense mode. "I remember now. This is how I lost last time. I neglected my own lifepoints and focused only on yours. That mistake I will not make again." He also placed a monster card face down. "Well, I would have been screwed if I had not drawn Doppel Warrior at that exact time." That card had been critical to his Junk Warrior combo. "Yes, you always show up in the right place at the right time, don't you?" Kein ended his turn at this point. "Seems that way." He activated the spell card, Reinforcement of the Army. "I add a level 4 warrior, Junk Blader, to my hand." This time he drew a keycard as well. "And I summon it." Junk Blader(1800/1000) had an ability too, it could banish 'Junk' to make itself stronger.

Nate's LP: 1900

"It's a good thing you switched it to defense mode, because with three monsters removed, killing Grizzly would win me the game." He smirked, but then so did Schiver. "Did you forget something Ashworth? You can not use the effect of your Blader, your own Imperial Wall prevents it!" Thanks to the wall, no cards could be removed after all. "Oh I know, I had Reinforcements in my hand for some time. My lucky draw.." He activated Mystical Space Typhoon. "..was this." The tornado destroyed his own card. "Now!" Junk Blader(3000/1000) powered up its sword by absorbing the spirits of Junk Defender, Synchron and Archer. "I escape your seals once again!" The blader jumped into the air and sliced straight through Soul Ogre, cleaving it right down the middle. "Grrr.. I have forgotten how good you can be." The turn switched back to him. But all he could do was place a trap card and end his turn again. "He has him on the run." The turn was already back to Nathan. "No. It can not end like this.' Kein said to himself. He managed to control his anger, but he could still feel it build up. "Kein.." Nathan did not know what to say. So he just summoned a Speed Warrior(900/800). "It can not end like this!" But that action let Kein spring his trap: Torrential Tribute.

Keins LP: 1300

"This tournament was not supposed to be one you can win. We have to summon them first!" This trap summoned another water wave that sank all monsters on the field at once. "Gah." However one of Keins monsters was a certain fish that thrived in wild waters like these. "Nimble Mantas?" When his set Manta(800/100) drowned, two more(800/100) were special summoned from Keins deck. "Why would you want to summon them in the first place? Whatever they are, they sound dangerous." Ada yelled at him. "Because it is the only way to stop them permanently of course! The Day of Games was not a certain thing, we were hoping the disaster would not repeat itself. We were just there if the worst were to happen." He pointed at himself and his fellow Aces. "We do not know much about them, but we knew they could show up again, and they did. Richard won against the duelist possessed that time, but that did not destroy the entity itself. I can not let you win yet, Ashworth. You will not mess this up, not for Gaunt and not for me!"

"This rage is so not like him, so unbecoming." Macbeth said, thinking the boss was going crazy. "Ashworth brings out the worst in him." Lincoln seemed to find it amusing. "Wait, did you just say this happened before?" Sarah focused more on the first few sentences. "Is he talking about the dueling reaper?" And Xavier recalled that old story. "The Reaper? That was just exaggeration of an unrelated incident. What I am talking about was covered up perfectly, it happened two years ago. That was when these things first appeared." That was before his time as an Ace, but during Urizens time as a champion. "I do not remember that." If Gaunt was involved in that event too, he had not been made aware. "Your father would have liked to include you, Urizen Artani. But you never showed the required talents." Richard explained. "Hmph. Talents? Is that why Ansoni is the new champion? What does he have that makes him.." He paused, a memory just struck him. "Ramirez. She said something about the marks... Is 'he' the one she seeks?"

But during all this talking, nobody noticed that Kein had fallen silent. "Ehr, Schiver. Are you.." Nate had already ended his turn, and Kein had drawn a card. "This." A card which apparently rattled him to his very core, he just stared at it. "Gaaah!" Then he reached for his head and screamed out loud. "Kein! What is wrong!" He was in pain, but nobody knew why. "No. No..not this. Not me." He rambled in between his cries. "It can't be!" Richard's caught a glimpse of the card. "It is here." And at that time, she showed up. "Ramirez?" The pale girl stood just outside the palace, looking down on them from the balcony. "And it has chosen.." She pointed her finger towards the agonizing Ace. "..him." Everyone gasped and looked back to Kein, who had gone quiet again, but was now gasping for air. "Now..I understand. But this is not..how I wanted..it. Not how I wanted to win!" And then lights appeared from the ground, purple energy shot up into the sky. "Again?" It was just like in North City, a maze of light came from a possessed duelist.

The energy spread out, covering half of the gardens and trapping all the duelists and visitors that were present. "What the devil is going on now?" It barely missed the hotel itself, though they were in spitting distance of the light. "I have seen this before." Kai recognized this, this was just like the blackout two days ago in her city. "What is it supposed to be?" It was even more radiant this time, you could see the shape the light carved into the earth reflected in the sky. "Looks like a fish to me, a shark or a whale even." All the lines assumed another figure of the Nazca grounds. "Whatever it is, we need to get out of here."

Everyone outside the palace was trapped as well, except for Ramirez who was outside the range of the light. "Deja vu.." Ashworth found the scene familiar, the holograms of the monsters looked more fleshlike and he again he stood at the center of it all. "I better defend myself." He activated his trap card Reinforce Truth, to re-special summon Fortress Warrior(600/1200) from his deck. "I won't, I won't." Kein still struggled, but he could not even get his body to throw the card away. "But he can't summon it, can he? Those things require field spells and.." Macbeth's eyes widened. "No." Closed Forest was still on the field, its roots and trees growing through the marble tiles. "I did not expect this." The Ace of Clubs would not have played field spells if he had known the entity would take over his partners body. "How could this have happened. I thought you had this under control!" The Rangers panicked. "How you ask? That's simple." In fact only two people remained calm in this situation. "This was what Kein wanted." And one was still smiling "Lincoln?"

"Heh. It's obvious. The immortals are drawn by mortal desires. And Kein Schiver had the best combination of the two: he wanted to win and he wanted to summon them. Now he accomplished both, just not in a way he would have liked." He spoke with a smug tone. "How do you.. know all this?" Macbeth asked. But the answer was clear. "He was right, there was an insider all along." Lincoln drew his head back and let out a howl of laughter. "Ahahaha, that is easy to say now, isn't it? I no longer have to pretend or hide." He slowly walked backwards, actually forcing himself through the light barrier. " Lincoln." Kein managed to grunt one last word, before he froze up completely. "Stop!" Macbeth and Richard tried to follow, but were repulsed by the energy. "What?" This was not supposed to happen. "Looking for these?" Lincoln dangled two talismans from his hand, before slipping them back into his pocket. "You.." It appeared that was what he used to get through, the other Aces could not follow. "Settle down now. You are out of time anyway."

"No.." They saw Kein, with a new expression on his face. "Free..." Gone was his tempered rage, it was just absolute terrifying glee which had etched itself on his face. "Don't." Nathan knew bad things would happen if he would do what he feared he would do. "Why not?" The new Kein spoke with a heavier echoing voice. "You who have wounded one of my brothers, you make no demands." He removed the two Nimble Mantas from his field. "It ends, all of your souls are forfeit!" He tribute summoned the monster in his hand. "Farewell, old friends." Lincoln waved at them from the other side. "Say hello to Chacu Challhua for me!"

(To be Continued in Mark 027: Thin Dead Line)

New cards used by Nathan Ashworth
Max Warrior
Junk Defender

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Reinforcement of the Army
Mystical Space Typhoon

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Imperial Iron Wall

New Cards used by Kein Schiver
Mother Grizzly
Nimble Manta

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Salvage

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Ritual Buster
Torrential Tribute