Nexus 028: Brightest Yin

Emily's LP: 2300 Phoebe's LP: 4100

"Let's get this over with. That smile of yourshas overstayed its welcome!" Emily began her turn against the mad girl. "Because you control two monsters and I don't control anything; I can special summon Superheavy Samurai Scales from my hand! And Scales can special summon one Superheavy Samurai monster from my graveyard!" The green-armored samurai(4/800/1800) spun its scales and held the heavier one out in front of it. It was weighed down by a newly summoned monster: Superheavy Samurai Transporter(5/1200/1800). "Then I normal summon Superheavy Samurai Flutist who can trade places with one Superheavy Samurai in my hand! I And once Flutist is in my graveyard, I can negate your monsters effect if he tries to target my samurai!" Right now Phoebe controlled a weakened Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon(10/0/2500) and Predaplant Dragostapelia(8/2700/1900). The latter negated the effects of all monsters with predator counters on them. And it could create predator counters at the same time. Flutist(3/500/1000) would render both effects obsolete.

"Heh." Phoebe anticipated this however, so she made Dragostapelia infect the Flutist(1/500/1000) with a predator counter, and negated its powers. "Nice try, Phoebe! I activate Superheavy Samurai Soul Peacemaker and equip it to the Scales!" A two-headed and four-armed shoulder armor attached itself to Superheavy Samurai Scales, giving him four extra arms. "I can tribute a monster equipped with the Peacemaker to special summon any Samurai from my deck. And the one I choose is.. Battleball!" The Scale-warrior and his Soul armor disappeared. In their place, a small round tuner samurai(2/100/800) popped up. "Oh! Now you can use her monsters as synchro materials!" Eric yelled excitedly. "Yeah. And guess which one I want." Emily pointed her finger at Dragostapelia. "I tune Battleball with your fusion!" Phoebe seemed less amused at the sight of her own predaplant dragon synchronizing with the Battleball. Their ten levels summoned the greatest of all samurai lords, Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo(10/2400/3800), in defense mode.

"And now that your Dragostapelia is gone, I can tribute Samurai Flutist to special summon Superheavy Samurai Bujin Fudomyo'o from my hand!" The masked monk and flutist(3/500/1000) could its mechanical life to call down the deity Fudomyo'o(8/1000/3000). Its body was adorned with stainless steampowered armor and a solid plate styled like flames. But at the same time Phoebe used the effect of Predaplanet and the removal of the counter-infected Flutist to add a Predaplant Flytrap monster to her hand.

Superheavy Samurai Bushin Fudomyo'o, 8/1000/3000 Earth/Machine
During either player's battle phase, you can tribute 1 monster you control and special summon this card from your hand.
This card can attack while in face-up Defense Position. If it does, apply its DEF for damage calculation. Once per turn, during either player's turn:
You can target up to 2 monsters on the field; until the end of this turn, they cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects while this card is face-up on the field.

"It's working, Emily! You can take her lifepoints out in one turn!" Alice shouted. "No. Not yet. Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon can revive itself if I destroy it." Killing that dragon once was just going to bring it back to full power in time for the next attack. "But.." Emily could special summon another card, because her graveyard still lacked spells and traps. "I do have a cure for that, heheh. I special summon Superheavy Samurai Trumpeter!" The tuner(2/300/600) immediately sounded his trumpet of war and transformed into synchronizing energy. Superheavy Samurai Transporter dove through the rings and united his five stars with the Trumpeter's two. "I Synchro summon Samurai Destroyer, in attack position!" The endresult was not a Superheavy samurai, but a samurai nonetheless. Carrying a sword on its back, and a cannon on its right arm; the red armored warrior(7/2600/1400) was ready for battle. "Samurai Destroyer?"

"Yep! When this card attacks, my opponent cannot activate any effects. And the effects of the monsters it fights will be negated too! Your dragon's death will be final, Phoebe!" Emily entered her battle phase with gusto. "Can she do it?" Both the defensive and the offensive samurai would attack. Uno dared not say it out loud, but he did not think Phoebe could survive this. "..No?!" All that hope shriveled to nothing, as soon as Uno noticed the look on Nephilim's face. Even with eyes as black as the night, he could tell that she was anxious. "Fine! Fine.." And Phoebe was not, though she seemed to be angered. "You want to play! Let's play!" She flipped the Magical Hats trap. Two cards (Fusion Substitute, Polymerization) were taken from Phoebe's deck and placed face-down as monsters(1/0/0) hidden underneath hats. "This is what you have earned, Emily!" Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon vanished beneath a third hat and shuffled in between the other two. "It's all up to you now! If you can guess where my dragon is, you win! If not, you lose!"

"Oh no.. You can attack all three hats, but then.." Right now Greedy Venom was defending itself, any of Emily's three monsters could kill it. "I know. It has to be Samurai Destroyer who kills it." If Susanowo or Fudomyoo destroyed it, it would come back with 3300 attackpoints. Samurai Destroyer's effect was of no use without the attackpower to back it up. "Go for the left one!" Eric shouted. "Yeah. No.. maybe the right! That's what she used last time!" Alice yelled. "Nephilim. Do you know?" Uno asked her. "I do.. but I cannot tell you. It would be against the rules." She shook her head. "Ergh. Damn it." Uno cursed. "Still can not do anything to save her, Uno? You turned out to be a very poor hero after all, didn't you! Didn't you?! I guess Nephilim was right to groom Martel and me instead." It was up to Emily alone. "Shut up. I attack." Her choice was made and accepted. "The middle hat!" The way she saw it, Phoebe favored setting cards based on what act she was putting up. And right now, she did a mix of both. Thus the Samurai Destroyer pierced the middle Magical Hat with his sword...

Polymerization was sliced in half. "No.."

"Aha.. ahahah.. You missed?!" Phoebe could barely believe it. "Shut up!" Emily activated the effect of the Bushin warrior, targeting itself and Susanowo to make them destruct-proof for the rest of the turn. "Bushin! Attack the left hat!" The flame lord samurai burned the second hat to ashes with its blade.. and destroyed Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon along with it. "That one?" Eric gasped. This was the one time he hated being right. "Hahahahaha!" Phoebe, naturally, activated the effect of the Greed dragon to destroy all of Emily's monsters. Her two superheavies were protected, but Samurai Destroyer sank into the pool of black venom. "When Samurai Destroyer is sent to the graveyard by a card effect, I can special summon one machine from my graveyard!" She re-summoned Superheavy Samurai Trumpeter in defense mode. "AHahHaha!" And Phoebe re-summoned Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon(10/3300/2500) back in attack position, after she banished Predaplant Dragostapelia. "Susanowo!" The Warlord ignored the third hat and destroyed Greedy Venom outright with a powerful cut.

Phoebe's LP: 3600

"Heh." Unfortunately, as long as there were level 8 dark monsters to banish from the graveyard, Greedy Venom could revive itself as many times per turn as it wanted. This time she used Starving Venom Fusion Dragon's corpse to special summon the Greed dragon from the graveyard. "This is not over. Not by a long shot!" Emily moved to her second main phase. "I.." She special summoned another monster from her hand thanks to her spell/trap-less graveyard; Superheavy Samurai Big Waraji(5/800/1800). "I synchro summon Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" The sandal samurai and the warhorn blower synchronized, forming another level 7 synchro monster that was not a Superheavy card. "Clear Wing?" It was the third of odd dragons, the white speedster Clear Wing(7/2500/2000). "Yeah. Cassius made copies and gave them to anyone who wanted to use them. I did not take it at first, but now I am glad I changed my mind." She then activated the effect of Susanowo to set one of Phoebe's traps down on her field. She chose Magical Hats. "I end my turn!"

"Ha. Haha. Hahahaha!" Only one sound passed Phoebe's lips. "What's with her now?" Deranged laughter. "I don't know, Eric. Maybe this is her way of giving up?" Emily was sure that Phoebe could not turn the tables anymore. "I don't like this." Yet Alice knew that nothing was more dangerous as a cornered duelist. "Haaha!" Phoebe normal summoned Predaplant Flytrap(2/400/800) and activated its effect which targeted Superheavy Samurai Susanowo. "That's all you have to say?" Emily countered and banished the Flutist samurai to negate the effect and destroy the Flytrap monster. "Heehehehee!" Phoebe followed it up with the activation of a Predaplast spell card. "What?" For each Predaplant card in her hand, one predator counter would be generated. Phoebe revealed one monster, Predaplant Banksiogre. "That's.." Predaplast resolved and placed its counter on Superheavy Samurai Bushin Fudomyoo(1/1000/3000). "Ahahahahah!" Fudomyoo was immediately sacrificed. Banksiogre the many-eyed banksia cone(6/2000/100) could be special summoned by tributing one monster with a predator counter. And.. "It's a tuner?"

"Nephilim.. Was this..." Uno already knew what she was going to say. "It was part of our plan.." She said it anyway. "You formed the spirits of the four dragons to combat the qliphort. When they weren't enough, we thought.. that we needed more than their powers combined. We needed to magnify them with each other... through fusion." She explained everything that he already knew to be true in his mind. "This is all my fault." Uno shuddered. To merge two worlds in different timelines took more than just the ultimate fusion magic, it took the power to overrule the guardians of time itself. "I already have them all, Lord Fortuno Nisell! Hhahahahaha!" Banksiogre used its second effect if it left the field for the graveyard. One Predator counter was placed on each of Emily's monsters: the Warlord(1/2400/3800) and the other dragon(1/2500/2000). "I am more than Phoebe now, I am all! We owe all to you! She activated the effect of Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon and targeted her own Clear Wing Synchro Dragon. "Ha-haah Fusion and synchro will become one!"

"Not so fast!" For once Emily needed to move before her opponent. Her Clear Wing Synchro Dragon activated its own effect, to negate and destroy a monster who targeted a highlevel monster on the field. "Hee! I counter with my dragon!" Clear Wing dragons could also negate activated effects of level 5 or higher monsters on the field, and Phoebe's dragon attempted to stop Emily's. "Not if I do it first!" Of course, that effect was also available to Emily. Her Clear Wing negated both Greedy Venom and the opponent's Clear Wing in the same chain, destroying them both and adding their attackpoints to itself(8300/2000). "Wait, Emily!" That victory came with its own defeat. "Greedy Venom is destroyed! It can destroy all monsters on the field!" The final death of the fusion dragon was at hand. Its black pool spread and dragged both Susanowo and Clear Wing Synchro Dragon into the graveyard. "So we are both out of monsters." At the very least, Greedy Venom could not bring itself back to life with no more highlevel dark creatures in the graveyard.

"Eheheh. Yes.. we are." The dark pool rippled. "Are we?" A trap card slipped out of the black. "I activate...Call of the Haunted! Come back to me, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" The trap cried out, waking the dead and choosing one to return to life. "Ah." Phoebe could have selected anything, yet Clear Wing was chosen to end the duel. "Emily!" She would lose the duel... and her sister would lose her. "Aren't you glad, Emily? I picked the dragon most dear to your heart!" Phoebe entered the battlephase. "You did so very well. You could have stopped me, if not for fate. So I will give you the choice. You can go painlessly and surrender now, or suffer the full heartache!" Either way, the end would be the same. "Emily, please.." Either way, it was an outcome Alice did not want to see. Emily knew that. "I do not surrender, Phoebe." She could only make herself look as strong as possible. "I'm sorry, Alice." Her only hope was that someone stronger than her could do what she could not. "Very well." Clear Wing Synchro Dragon fired its blast at Emily. "Join your friend!" She would fade away...

Emily's LP: 0

"NO!"

"What?" He would not allow it. "Uno?" He would not stand by and watch this happen. "What are you doing, Fortuno?" Uno stood in the way of the attack, taking its force with his body. "Even if the power is yours, the right is not! You do not decide the fate of both worlds or even just one friend.. by yourself!" Though Emily lost the fight, he would make sure she would not lose anything else. Not now, not while they were so close to each other. "Then would you take her place? Lord Fortuno?" Phoebe laughed. The price for defeat was undeniable, the dragon hungered. "Uno! No you can't! Not now! You're the only one who can use me!" Nephilim tried to stop him, tried to pull him away. "This is my choice. I made a promise." Uno's body made this decision before his mind even knew it. Though he could not resist this power, he'd been prepared for that possibility. "There is still hope. I am not the only one who can use your crystal. And I am not the only one you can touch. Nephilim, please help them.. Please."

The blast reached the end of the area. "Emily?!" Alice's sister was still standing. "She made it! But where.." Eric felt both joy and pain when the truth came out. "No way!" Uno was not standing in between them anymore. His presence was wiped clean in the blink of an eye, leaving nothing but a card with his image, a one-eyed doll and a purple crystal. "NO!" Emily was saved, in the worst way she could have imagined. "Hahahaha! What a fool! He was the only one who could have been my better, and now he is gone!" Phoebe flew down to the spot where Uno once stood and reached out with her long claws. "Don't touch him!" Emily tried to grab Uno's items before her. But Phoebe was just too fast. "Ahahahaha! Ha?"

"Huh? She stopped!" Eric was not sure if he could believe it, but Phoebe froze in mid-air. "Hnrgh! You?" They could not see the cause; the spirit girl who held Phoebe back with the thread that connected them. "I wont let you take Uno like you did with all the others. We are connected, and you have no power over me!" Nephilim possessed enough strength to keep the dragon girl in check, for now. "Ah!" Emily took this chance to pick Uno's card and pendulum up from the floor. "Run." As soon as she did, she could hear a faint voice. "What? Who.. is that.." The fact that the voice belonged to the spirit of the crystal, was not one she could make certain on her won. "Give me, to your sister." But the voice's wishes were clear as day. "Alice!" Still bewildered beyond reason, Emily handed the crystal over to her sister. "Why.. oh!" She quickly figured out what was asked of her. "Everyone, stay close!" Once before she used this crystal to teleport, she only hoped that she could do it again. "Please." She did not need more strength than what she already had. The blessing of Utopia made it all happen on the first try.

"NO!" Alice, Emily and Eric warped out of the area. "You think you can run!?" Leaving Phoebe alone, shouting and tearing the doll to pieces. "You can't!" She rushed into the room beyond, towards the controls for the Dimension Breaker. "HahahahaHAHAHA!"

...

The three duelists re-entered the land just outside the casino lake. "Whoa.. you're back? What happened? Where is Uno?" Zach expected Uno to be at the center of all the increasingly more common teleport flashes. "He's gone.. He.." Emily only needed to show them his card to make them understand what happened. "Oh.. my god." Zach was at a loss for words. "Uhm." There was sadly no time for grieving. "We will all be gone too if these readings are correct." Every gizmo and gadget around Marie was going haywire with impossibly high readings. "She's activated the Breaker!" The next instant, a pillar of raw energy ruptured the roof of the casino, devouring everything in its wake. "No. It's.. she's using her super fusion spell!" The process had begun, the effects were rapidly spreading across the building and did not stop there. "We have to get out of here! Whichever one of you can use that pendulum, I suggest you do so!" Marie shrieked. "But I cant save everyone!" Already dozens of soldiers around her were taken by the light whether they were Phoebe's enemies or not. "Now!" But there was no choice..

"Gah!" The only ones Alice could bring along were Eric, Zach, Marie and her sister. "We.. we're safe." And the synchro guild castle was the only place she could think of going to on such short notice. "But everyone else..." They were here, they alone escaped. "You have returned?" August, June and Neter were also present at the courtyard on which they landed. "Something bad is happening isn't it?" Even they could tell the situation of the world changed for the worse. "You're here too now? Tch. Yes something bad is happening, something catastrophic!" Marie dramatically raised her hand towards the sky. "Phoebe has started fusing both worlds! See? The dimension breaker is warping the forcefield itself!" The purple barrier that colored the clouds was weakening, letting gaps of the blue sky through. "She has the power to do that? Uno never told us.." June froze. "Where is Uno? He is not with you.. and.." She suddenly felt very weak herself. "My connection with him is gone!"

"It's my fault." Emily answered her. "Em? What? What are you saying?" Eric asked, flustered. "I had her. I could stop her! But I let her get away! I made mistake after mistake! And then.." She punched the grass. "And then Uno gave himself up just so I could run away from her!" Uno was gone, because of her. She could not see it any other way. "No. Nonono, Emily. He wanted to do it, it's not your fault. He just.." Alice came to her, touching her for the first time in an eternity. "He did it for us." She could not stop herself, she hugged her sister as tightly as she could. "Alice.." They were together again. "No matter what happens, I am not letting you go again! Alright!" Alice swore. "You.. " Her sister was stunned, when did she become the one who could cry on Alice's shoulder?

"Excuse me. What are we going to do now?" Touching a scene as it was, Marie wanted to address the danger around them. "I know." Alice held out Nephilim's crystal. "You have it? Do you think that is wise?" August figured someone with experience should take it. "Hey! Uno gave the crystal to her, August." January did not know what she planned to do. But if Utopia was blessing her.. then he knew she would lead them well. "Yes. I know what we can do, because we can do it. We're going back to the other dimension, with the other gateway." The Dimension Breaker was lost, but not the XYZ-Guild's machine. "What? Why? Phoebe is fusing both worlds! Were just as much at risk over there!" Marie protested. "No, we are not going there to run. We are going there to stop her. And we are gonna go to the Monument... to bring Uno back. Before it is too late."

(To be Continued in Nexus 029: An Element of Surprise)

New Cards used by Emily Brandt
Superheavy Samurai Soul Peacemaker
Superheavy Samurai Bushin Fudomyo'o (+)

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Samurai Destroyer
Clear Wing Synchro Dragon

New Cards used by Phoebe
Predaplant Banksiogre

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Clear Wing Synchro Dragon

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Predaplast

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Call of the Haunted