New Testament 036: Consequences

"So... You are 'the boss' around here?" Elias and company had returned to the headquarters and there he met with Marcus Simmons. "Guilty." He extended a hand. "And we are very pleased to meet you, honored even." Elias did not immediately accept it, he looked around first. "This is your hideout.. underneath a film studio. Which looks pretty busted up there.." And nobody wanted to tell him why. "That's a long story for another time. Anyway let us introduce ourselves properly." So he was given the names of everyone there, one in particular stood out to him. "Hey are you.." He noticed the fortune teller Prospero, and what was around his neck. "Aye, welcome fellow comrade of the Millenium." He said with great pride. "You mean to tell me there's more of these things? Do they all have a ghost inside them?" Not that he did not like it, but at least he thought he was special. "Not as such no. This is just one of the seven items. Look." Cable approached and showed him his; the Millenium Key. "They are of the Pharaoh's servants."

Another explanation followed, which was not just for his sake, but Prospero and other apprentices needed to hear about it too. "Priests huh. I am assuming the original owned of the Tauk was a diviner like me." That only added to Prospero's sense of self-esteem. "Yes, but after the collapse of the Egyptian kingdom, the items must have been buried in tombs like the pyramid. Only then came the grave robbers and national treasure folk, who did not see the connection and scattered them across the globe." Cable turned to look at Elias. "Your ancestor was the one who found the Puzzle, yet for some reason it too was broken into pieces. Perhaps he found it that way, as a test of the host." He took the puzzle in his hands, which began to shiver. "To become a doormat for this great spirit? I do not have to like that.." Raness did save his life, but endangered it in the first place. "No point in complaining about it now." He sighed and let it go. "Well enough story time, we still have a fearsome foe to deal with."

"So what do we know about this fellow? His name appears to be Archon, and he calls himself the Silver Pillar." Why he could not tell, other than the fact that his armor was actually made from that material. "The one I defeated, Zakarias, was called the Iron Pillar." She could not be certain, but it sounded like they had a theme going on. "Only he was able to steal souls from people, their entire bodies consumed as energy. Archon on the other hand only had to kill one man." That being Elias of course, who just nodded uncomfortably. "He seems to have a magic spell for every situation, he set up that barrier and he can create astral projections. Who knows why he has not showed up here yet." Perhaps Obelisk had damaged that magic. "Well we have recordings from your duel, Rose, and from the duel at the orphanage. It will tell us about his strategy, his cards." They needed all information they could get. "Wait, you mean the makers of the card game do not recognize his cards?" Cleo asked. "No.. these Pillars use their own cards. I can honestly tell you that I never made any cards about Valkyries, or Paradius the Unredeemed One. We could assume these are just extensions of their master, the Magus Ka.."

"That is all well and such, but I want to know how to break through that barrier." Nero fumed, pacing around the room impatiently. "Ah yes, our finest scientists are examining it now. Or whoever we could find after the previous round was de-souled." Marcus seemed to find it funny yet inconvenient at the same time. "We have extended the perimeter, installed more guards, ordered all flights to be rerouted. Yet the government can only do so much, sooner or later people will find out about it." Technically they already were, but internet rumor sites were never a big source for reliable information he thought. "It seems nothing solid can proceed, and any attempts to damage it have been unsuccesful so far. It may take supernatural methods." He looked at the puzzle, the key and the tauk. "What do you have in mind?" Colin wondered, with caution since this was Simmmons he was dealing with. "Nothing right now. Our best bet is to concentrate on finding the remaining items: The Ring, Rod, Eye and Scales. My computer will do that work."

So he dismissed everyone, to allow them some well-earned rest. Cleo walked up to Elias and Prospero. "By the way, word of advice to you two. Stay away from Marcus, he is bad news." She handed them an old newspaper, with an article about his trial and Tum'aga's 'disease outbreak'.. "I just thought you'd like to know what he has been up to." However unknown to her Marcus was still up to things she would not approve of. He looked at his monitors and grinned. "So there is a way into the barrier after all. I never would have thought it depended on human error. The death of William will serve its purpose after all."

"Hey Colin." Meanwhile Christine approached the other diviner. "What was it like... when Turner took.." She could not quite finish the question. "Oh.. well." He understood regardless, though if he could answer.. "I do not know really. It was like being in a dreamless sleep, no sight, no sound, no experiences. But I do not know if that's what William is undergoing right now." He had also correctly guessed the true purpose of Christine's question. "I see... Thank you." It did not put her at ease, yet it was all she could do right now. But the place that Colin's soul had been stored was not exactly the world in which Carter found himself...

Elsewhere....

"Relax Will, Relax.. there is an explanation for everything." He told himself as he was alone and trapped within a dark void that seemingly had no end. "What I remember is.. that duel.. with the enemy. And I... lost that one." Suddenly it sunk in. "Oh.. this must be their 'home'." All the darkness around him, it was part of the shadow dimension, the place where evil spirits were sent. "I wonder if this a version of hell. Grrr, I do not want to think about that!" He shook his head and tried to keep himself distracted by pacing around. "But where is everybody else? Did I wake up alone here? For that matter how did I manage to sleep standing?" Suddenly he could not move any further, even though there was a clear space ahead of him. "What is this?" It felt like pushing against an invisible wall, very smooth one at that. "Wait." Yet he found there was one section he could push through. "C'mon.." After exerting a little force, he came through. Though the other end of the unseen wall was even less pleasant. "Oh lord."

Gone was the dark fog, gone was the featureless void, only its endless reach had not been fabricated by his 'prison'. He stood on a single mountaintop in the middle of a vast nightmare-ish land. The skies were blood-red, its clouds releasing occasional burts of black lightning. Down below were rivers and swamps filled with what looked like ink and oil. There seemed to be no plantlife, or any life for that matter. And behind him he saw what kept him from seeing the true horror. It was a crystalline cocoon, one of many. "These are.." He counted seven all in all. "It can not be, this is where the souls end up?"

He inspected another crystal, but it was a black on the outside as it had been on the inside. "They have got to be in there.." He tried to open them up, yet neither searching thoroughly, nor kicking the damn thing seemed to do the trick. "I have to do something." He saw that the crystals were attached to chains, which were going all the way up. "The portal!" Five chains headed into a tiny glowing crack in the sky. Yet he could think of nothing to help the other four souls, the chains did not budge at all either. "Their sleep is deeper than mine.. what makes me so special?" There was nothing for him here, he had to escape somehow.. The clouds above seemed to part only in two areas, one was the bright portal that the pillars had created and anchored into this world. There was another spot, in the distance. The tallest mountain in this world seemed to lie directly under it, as if that was the best way of escaping. "..." He knew he would not get anywhere by staying here, and he saw a way to climb down this mountain. He just hated leaving them behind.

A few minutes later, or hours, he had descended all the way down. He could not really tell in this world, what the time was. He was not hungry or tired yet, but then could he even receive those feelings anymore? So many questions ran through his mind. "How long did I sleep in that crystal? Why were there only five of em, did they stop Zakarias after all?" Come to think of it, why could he not see any of their kind anywhere. Would the servants of the Magus not want to safeguard their doorway to the human world? In fact he expected to see more creepy things in this underworld. Sure he felt as if he was being watched at all times, and he could swear that certain sounds echoed in the background, yet he never saw any concrete evidence of entities living here. He did not like to think, it did not help keeping his fears at bay.

At any rate, he found it easy to traverse the moist and oily pits, until he came across a large waterbed in the middle of an opening. The stench of it was something he had never smelled before, so at least his nose worked here. "That can not be good." He saw a narrow way around it, which would be faster than backtracking and finding another path towards the large mountain in the distance. "No time to waste." He took the first step in the ash-like substance encircling the lake, nothing happened yet. It was only halfway that the dreaded moment occurred, the water started bubbling. "!?" A light shone at the bottom, a strangely patterned light. "Guah!" William tried to run for it, but a long slithering claw emerged and reached out. "No!" Ales he could not get away in time, he was pushed against the ground.

"Whaaaaat is thiiissss?" A voice came from the depths, soon the owner of it arose. Within the lake he had been waiting, a sickening wire-thin shadow. "A fresh spirit.. Where did you come from little one?" The head of the creature came up close, as if he expected an answer. Even if Carter was in the right mind to respond, he could barely breathe pressed down like this. "Too scared? Ahhh well... you don't need to answer.. I will know.." Without warning the claw jerked up and dragged him into the blackness. "When I have feasted on your soul, your memories will become a part of me!" The light returned, now he could see what was actually lurking down below. He heard moans, and he saw bones... it was a graveyard. "Fresh Ba, human Ba, rahaa rahahahah!" The monster shouted excitedly. Carter could feel his strength fading, he was getting sleepy again.. hard to keep his eyes open.. "So it is possible to get tired here after all.." Was his life going to end here, his afterlife? He just did not understand..

"Let go of him!"

A blast came out of nowhere, it hit the creature right in the arm, causing him to release Will. "Hsss, who else is here!!"Before it could reach out, something swooped passed and grabbed the body of the duelist. It deposited him on the side of the lake, next to three figures. "This is bad, he is already been drained." One voice said, it was a female. "He will keep losing Ba energy unless we get it back." Another spoke, this one was a young man. "Then we have to defeat it, to save him." The third was also a man, a bit older and angrier sounding. "Wait, you want to challenge him? I know is a human and all, but this is a lake-dweller we are talking about here." The younger one started to panic. "You do not understand, this is not just a human." The girl said. By now Will regained enough energy to open his eyes and focus on his surroundings, he could see who had rescued him. He saw a demonic-looking monster fading as if it were a virtual image, he saw himself sitting in a strange cloud. "Yes, that is my brother.."

But what he saw most of all, was someone who flooded his thoughts with memories. "Andre.."

It was him alright, the same long unkempt hair, the same bright eyes. His clothes were different though, while familiar at the same time. "Don't move little brother, I will be right with you." He even had that smile he always used when he was actually very sad. "Wh-what is going on?" Now he finally saw who else was here, though it was almost impossible to fathom it. "V-venice?" She was there too, the girl that had been taken over by the demon Illya and subsequently killed. The third character he did not recognize. "Stay calm, do not try to talk. It will just speed up the... process." She seemed to remember him too, and talked to him gently. "Raaaaaaaaaah!!! Humans! More ba! Why were you hiding from me?" Andre now stood at the edge of the lake, and revealed a dueldisk on his wrist. "I am not here to become your sustenance, nor will I run away. I challenge you lake-dweller! To regain the life you stole from my brother!" The disk was activated. "That's a laugh, if you and him shared blood once! Like any of that matters here!" It shuddered with laughter, but froze up suddenly. "Very well!" It too created a sort of appendage in which it placed cards seemingly torn from its own melting skin. "I will stake his Ba against yours!!"

(To be Continued in New Testament 037: Hell is Other Duelists)