Mark 029: Their Tangled Webs
The helicopter flying closest to the ground had a man in it who shouted at the gods themselves. With his straight blonde hair and pristine white uniform he might as well have been a paladin or angel coming to save them all. "That is Ansoni?" This was the first time Xavier and Ada saw him in person, or at all really. "No mistaking him." Other duelists were more familiar, especially Urizen. "Our leader has sent him to assist us. Gaunt be praised." Macbeth was relieved, for reasons that soon became clear. "You are trespassing, mortals!" Said the still looming giant spider, as it flared up its red aura. "You will leave them be, immortal!" And just then barrier of the same color wrapped around each chopper, shielding them from the gods energy. "What?" This shocked the posessed ones enough to make them gasp. "He is marked too!" They saw it now, the mark of an organic heart shined through his sleeve. "He is marked too now?" Urizen grew even more agitated, now all that talk about his talents seemed to make actual sense. "You.."
Upon closer inspection it appeared that it wasn't him alone that saved the rest of the helicopters, each vessels pilot was outfitted with another talisman which deflected the negative energy of an immortals presence. "Of course." Kein/Chacu Challhua looked down at the crushed gem under his foot. "They had to have drawn a signers power from somewhere. So this lot had a signer in their pack all along." Then most helicopters scattered, heading off towards the hotel and the gardens. "Look for survivors! There may still be some people outside the lines!" Ansoni ordered through the megaphone. "Now take us down!" While he descnded, the pilot landed the vehicle in the backyard. "So, another signer graces our presence." Uru was amused enough to discard his monstrous form and shift back into the body of Psyche. He and the other immortals regrouped and circled around the newcomer. "One who has far more experience with what makes him unique." Ansoni stepped out and glared at this vile gathering. "So everyone is here."
"This is all you and Gaunts doing isn't it?" Urizen broke up their big staredown. "You started this phony tournament, with empty promises, just to make the surface look appetizing for these freaks. And now you come here, late I might add, to swoop in and play 'knight in shining armor'!" A few good years of pent up frustrattion was slowly slipping out. "Because you are the damn glorious King. I get it all now, you have that mark. You are truly special, while I am just his son. Of course he would discard me at the first sign of someone more promote-able! A champion who does not need technology to look good." Ansoni just let the words come out, and spared him a quick glance. "You left us, Artani. It was not the other way around. And your father would have wanted to explain to you, why he did the things he did. But it would have put your life in danger." He stroked his glowing wrist. "Let's just say that there you and I were chosen by sir Gaunt for similar reasons. But it is not my place to tell you the whole truth. And right now we have more important matters to tend to." Urizen grit his teeth. "I suppose you have a point." He could set aside his anger for now, because they were far from safe yet. In fact the champions life was on the line just as much as theirs now.
"The wing, and now the heart. Perhaps we should press the signer for further information, it sounds like he knows more than he is letting on." Ccapac Apu cracked his knuckles. "Tsk. They got one of ours." One of Ansoni's escorts grumbled, he knew that body from work. "We can still save him." Ansoni gestured the men to stand down. "So we should not harm them." Some had already loaded their guns. "As if your metal shells can even disrupt the tiniest fragment of our essence." Aslla cackled, bullets would only do damage to their hosts. "But it seems you do not absorb the memories of those you take over, at least not immediately." If Chacu Challhua had claimed everything from Kein, he would not have been surprised by the fact that Ansoni was a marked duelist too. "In time we shall. In time all souls are repurposed. But as we have clarified to the other." The old lady pointed at Sarah and then at Ansoni. "It is you who who are of greatest relevance." He still looked the enemy right in their eyes. "Then you can have me, if you can defeat me."
Nobody thought he would give in that fast, neither mortal nor immortal. "Under one condition, you will not endanger anyone else during our duel." The possessed ones froze up, as if they were all thinking it over at the same time. "We accept. However nobody shall be allowed to escape the earth we have carved." Chacu Challhua swept his hand across the field, and released energy from his own barrier. "Gah!" It shattered the rotor blades of the helicopter, rendering it inoperable. "If anyone leaves, we will call off this arrangement." It ordered. Ansoni sighed and nodded. "Now then my brothers will hold back, while I shall take you up on that proposition." Psyche/Uru stepped up to the challenge a second time. "Our brother always gets the best." Aslla Piscu griped, since now she could not go after Sarah either. "If we did not let him have his way, we would be waiting even longer." Ccarayhua rasped. "Very well. Take the children back inside the palace." At least that building was still within the zone limits they had established. "Do not return here, until I say so."
The soldiers obeyed and started taking the duelists away, using their talismans to force a way through Challhua's light lines. "I said everyone had to leave." Ansoni repeated his order, because both Macbeth and Urizen stayed behind. "And let you have all the fun. No. If our lives depend on your skills, I want to see how you fight." Urizen explained, feeling this was only fair after all he had been through. "And I want to see this fiend face justice as well." Macbeth meanwhile still felt guilty about not aiding the rangers earlier, and wanted their souls to be freed from the spiders insides. "Do not think about using your cheat again to join him in battle, this will be a true duel between marked ones." Uru referred to the hack Ada and Xavier had inserted in Ranger E's disk. "I was not going to suggest that. I am just looking forward to your demise!" He snapped back at the immortal. "Unlikely." Uru just sneered at him and reshuffled the cards in his hands. "Ready?" By now all others had withdrawn. "I spent years preparing for this day, Immortal. I am ready."
"Does he even stand a chance?" Yale, Sarah, Xavier and Ada were escorted into the palace by Richard and the guards. "I feel bad for letting him duel alone." Xavier walked up to the window, but could not see the duel from there. "Do not even think about helping him now, Ali." Ada dragged him away. "But he is.. like me then?" Sarah looked at her hand, the mark was gone again. "It is a long story.." Richard was about to clear up a few things, when they heard footsteps coming from another hallway. "Who is there!" One officer drew his gun. "Wait!" But the source of the sound was someone the others knew. "Ramirez! You're alive!" The infernity duelist stepped into the room. "Was I.. supposed to be dead?" She asked, sounding rather calm about the whole situation. "Well, that big spider came and swallowed up all souls." Yale thought she would have been a victim too. "I found protection." The girl shrugged and showed off a talisman. "Oh. Those would have come in handy. Actually why didn't you guys mass produce them and hand them out to everyone?" Yale asked Richard. "The Talismans are fused with the DNA of signers and draw power directly from them. They can not provide for more then a dozen at a time, and a talisman has has less range than a signer himself. Of course the problem is that we were betrayed by someone who knew this technology all too well."
Ansoni's LP: 8000 Uru's LP: 8000
"You speak of years as if they matter on a large scale." Uru drew five cards. "Do not speak to me as if your experiences compare to mine." He let Ansoni draw six, giving him the first turn. "You are not invincible, I know one of you was beaten already." He placed a card down. "Cusillu was wounded during his summoning, but he will eventually recover. Only one like you can permanently bind us, and even then we shall not die. All you can do is buy your kind more time, so stop stalling and show me what spirits you wield, duelist of the heart!" Even the lord of spiders grew impatient with talking. "Very well. I summon Koa'ki meiru Wall!" He called out a literal walking wall(1900/1200). "The iron core? How archaic." Wall was one of many monsters whose lifeforce was fueled by a special core. "I activate the permanent spell: Core Transport Unit, I discard a card to add the iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru to my hand!" Ansoni threw away a Magic Hole Golem, to add the core of his entire deck to his hand. "I show Koa'ki Meiru Boulder in my hand to you, to keep Wall on the field." During the endphase, Koa'ki Meiru monsters had to consume the core to stay alive, unless you showed a certain monster in your hand. In Walls case it was a rock-type monster. "That is it."
"Spiderweb." Urur's first move was to cover the entire area in webs again. "I know what the field is for! My Wall can sacrifice itself to negate any spell!" The wall however tackled the card itself, and dragged it along with itself into the graveyard. "Hmph. I can already smell your fear." Uru did not sound upset. "I have eaten every soul I can in this realm. I do not require my true form for this fight." He activated Verdant Sanctuary instead, raising the great see of trees. "In fact it is you who need to push me that far, as it is the only way for you to free your kind." He summoned Ground Spider(0/1500), but did not attack with it because it had no offensive strength anyway. "Is that true?" Urizen wondered what exactly needed to be done to defeat these things and release what they had absorbed. "It is. Destroying their true form weakens them and frees their victims. It is not enough to win the duel before they even summon a god, Richard found that out. Only the power of a mark can bind a defeated god." That was at least what Macbeth had heard.
"I activate Transport Unit again!" Oddly, Ansoni discarded his core to add a second core to his hand. "I know what that spider does. As soon as I summon a monster you can switch it to defense position." Despite knowing this, he summoned a rock monster(1200/1000). "Koa'ki Meiru Boulder." And the Ground Spider immediately shit its webbing at the Boulder to ensnare it. "That is why I set up for this!" He countered with his trap. "Nega-Ton Corepanel! When I control a core monster and have a core in my graveyard, I can negate any monsters effect!" The web was absorbed by a panel, which reflected it back at the spider. "I believe I will score the first hit in this confrontation!" Ground Spider was destroyed, leaving Uru wide open. Though he was allowed to add a level 4 insect to his hand due to Verdant Sanctuary. In this case he chose a Spyder Spider. "Direct attack!" The Boulder rolled over to the possessed psychic, and punched him in the face. "Ah. So that is the pain of a mortal." Again the immortal did not seem to mind
Uru's LP: 6800
"You better not damage this body too much, Marked One. The soul may not be able to return if you do." He chuckled. Ansoni did not answer. "Out of words to say? Such a cowardly male." Aslla Piscu giggled. "Quite. But he will break before the end of the hour." Uru activated a spell card. "Earthquake! All spirits on the field shall tremble and bow before me!" The spell cracked the floor, sending tremors throughout the backyard. "Whoa!" Even inside the palace the shocks could be felt. "All that for such an effect?" Urizen nearly fell into an opened fissure, while Boulder was merely switched to defense position. "Spyder Spider." Uru called upon out an arachnid(1500/1200) with sniping goggles equipped. "Destroy." The spyder crawled over to the other side and melted the stone monster down with an acidic spray. "When Boulder is destroyed, I can add another Core monster to my hand!" Ansoni added a Koa'ki Meiru Guardian to his hand. "That is fine. In return, when Spyder feasts, he can regenerate another insectoid." Uru revived the Ground Spider(0/1500).
"I do not intend to swayed by your words, immortal." He summoned Koa'ki Meiru Guardian he had added to his hand earlier, who looked like a guardian statue(1900/1200). "This one can be tributed to negate the activation of monster card effects." Uru heard this, yet activated Ground Spiders effect anyway. "As I have told many before you, you do not seed fear here." The two monsters killed each other. "Right back at you!" But Ansoni then special summoned a rock monster. "By banishing two rock monsters in my grave, the Earth Giant can be formed." He removed Koa'ki Meiru Guardian and Wall, their rocks formed the body of a bigger golem(2800/1000). "Gaia Plate will halve the points of any monster he battles with! You could call it a different kind of intimidation!" Gaia overshadowed the spyder spider(750/600) and crushed it under its feet. "You will have to do far more, signer." Verdant sanctuary activated for both kills, allowing Uru to add two level 4 insects to his hand. "Until now, you have not proven yourself worthy of that mark."
Uru's LP: 4750
Elsewhere the only other survivor if this disaster was securing his way out of here. "Oho." Lincoln ran to the parking lot, where a limousine was waiting for him. "Fancy that." The door was opened for him, and a man was waiting inside. "Come in, my boy." It was a rather old man, wearing noblemans clothing. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you, sir Malcean." The ex-ace stepped inside, taking a seat opposite of the man. "I trust everything proceeded smoothly." The man said with a halfhearted tone. "It could not have gone better, in the end good old Kein was the best host to start the chain reaction." Lincoln chuckled. Meanwhile Malcean gestured for the driver to take off. "I trust you were not followed. And that you have taken care of the eyes in the sky." He pointed to the roof of his car. "You can rest assured, my oldest friends rest in higher places than my newer friends did." He was certain they had nothing to worry about. "Indeed. But then I hope, your newest friend will be your best friend." The old man chuckled, and the two drove off into the distance.
(To be Continued in Mark 030: Rotten to the Core)
Cards used by Ansoni
Koa'ki Meiru Wall
Koa'ki Meiru Boulder
Koa'ki Meiru Guardian
Gaia Plate the Earth Giant
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Core Transport Unit
Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru
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Nega-Ton Core Panel
New Cards used by Uru
Ground Spider
Spyder Spider
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Earthquake
