Normally, I post a chapter every six days. However, this chapter was so… pivotal, I decided not to wait…
Read on if you dare… This chapter will answer many questions… But will open the door to many new ones…
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CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
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Yumi versus Rasputin!
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Battle For the Final Shadow Charm!
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Cassandra shuffled her deck, and took the top card.
It was the High Priestess. Yumi's card.
She looked at the rest of the deck nervously. She felt a strange sense of foreboding from the card resting on the top of the deck.
But she knew she had to draw it.
Slowly, she drew the card…
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Yumi and Rasputin looked at the Rod of the Ancients for a few seconds. Then they looked at each other.
"Scared, Yumi?" asked Rasputin.
"Oh, please…" replied Yumi. "I've seen butterflies that were scarier than you."
Rasputin's smile quickly changed to a frown.
"I'm waiting…" he growled. "I never start a fight if I can help it. But as soon as you try to get it…"
"Wait…" said Yumi. "Before we start something that we can't stop… I want you to tell me something…"
"Where'd I get my good looks from?" asked Rasputin.
"No…" said Yumi, rolling her eyes. "Why did you decide to devote an immortal life to… wickedness?"
Rasputin glared at her.
"I mean, think of it, Rasputin…" she said with a frown. "With your knowledge of alchemy, you could have found a cure for cancer… You could have made famine-stricken countries lush and fertile… But instead, you used this knowledge on an insane quest to usurp the powers of the gods, because you rejected them…
"Why?"
"It's a long story…" said Rasputin.
"We have nowhere to go," said Sam, butting it. "And I'm curious myself."
Rasputin chuckled.
"It's a long… and very interesting story…" he said.
"Oh no…" muttered Nicholas. "He's gonna tell 'it' again… He just loves talking about himself…"
"Hey, they wanted to hear it, blame them!" snapped Rasputin.
"You think I'm all bad, Yumi? Do you know how I survived when the Nazis took over Austria? I pretended to take interest in their Aryan breeding project, and hired myself out to their geneticists – I use that term incredibly loosely, by the way – and invented formulas that I claimed would help advance their plans of a master race."
"And that was a good thing?" shouted Yumi.
For anyone who was born and raised in Japan, the Third Reich was a very touchy subject. Suffice to say it was the most shameful part of Japan's past.
"Please, everything I gave them was completely worthless," replied Rasputin. "I gave them formulas and compounds composed of chemicals that they had never heard of, and they never realized that they didn't do a thing. Lemonade was more potent.
"None of their research to perfect the chimerical Aryan race was meeting with any real successes anyway. The only difference between my research and theirs was, mine was failing on purpose.
"The fools paid me a king's ransom for all my 'discoveries', and I donated every bit of it towards the resistance that was fighting the Third Reich. Those deluded goons had no idea that their money was helping oppose them."
Yumi paused.
"Okay…" she muttered. "Maybe that WAS a good thing…"
"I'd have thought you'd have sided with the Nazis," said Chelsea. "If they had won, a major world religion would have been eradicated."
"I may not believe in the ideals of Judaism," said Rasputin with a scowl, "but I will admit that their ideals, unlike those of Nazi Germany, aren't based on absolute lunacy…"
He paused.
"Not that this is any of your business, Yumi," he said, "but I wasn't a heretic all my life. There was a time when I thought that the higher powers cared… When I thought that faith and prayer actually had some bearing on a person's life…
"When I was about a year older than you, a young man growing up in Seventeenth Century Vienna, I not only studied alchemy, but divinity as well. And I not only attended church, but the greatest church in the world at that time.
"Stephansdom… St. Stephen's Cathedral. When it was built in the Sixteenth Century, it was the tallest building in the world… It even dwarfed the Vatican in terms of size."
Rasputin sighed…
"It was – and still is – a grand cathedral, whose spires seemed to touch the sky… You could lose yourself in its gothic beauty… Its soaring towers, its twenty-three bells, and its eighteen altars… Its stained glass windows that reflected light in every spectrum of the rainbow, and the elaborately carved gargoyles that stood watch on the roof, protecting the building both from rainwater, and some said, from evil spirits as well…
"Life was good, and I prayed daily… I was empowered by the sermons that the Archbishop gave… I lost myself in the beautiful music of the choir…
"And then, one day, fate proved a rascal. A woman appeared in Vienna. A woman of unearthly beauty, buxom and blonde, wearing simple clothes, and holding a Bible in her hand. She told everyone who would listen that her name was Claret, and she was the emissary of an Archangel named Malafare.
"Now, folks were skeptical at first, of course, but Claret started doing some things that people saw as miracles. She held a dead bird in her hands and it was restored to life. She gave a gentle hug to a child who was stricken with scarlet fever, and within minutes, his fever broke.
"Several of these miracles later, the congregation of Stephansdom were listening to her. Even the Archbishop was following her, like a man entranced, and she was speaking at every mass.
"I alone was suspicious. I started to notice odd things. For one, Claret's sermons started to reference this Malafare even more than they referenced Christ. And I noticed that when Christ or any major Saint was referenced, Claret looked a little uncomfortable. The untrained eye couldn't see it, but I noticed it.
"I got even more suspicious when Claret convinced everyone to stop ending the prayers with 'Amen' and start using a different term, one that no-one knew the meaning of. I won't say the word here… It's not something that should be said out loud.
"Eventually, my father, a man with a great deal of influence but not much common sense, said that he was going to donate his whole life savings to the church. It was an enormous amount of money, us being a family of aristocrats. I guessed that Claret was now accepting charity. I begged my father to postpone it for a few days, telling him that I needed to do some research. He was a little surprised by my… lack of faith, but he nonetheless said he would give me three days.
"So, for those three days, I poured over every book of divinity I had. I could not find even a reference to an Archangel named Malafare. This entity was a strange one…
"Finally, I found a reference, in an unlikely place… A book of demonology. Malafare was no Archangel. The name was an alias used by Malcanthet…"
Anastasia appeared next to Yumi with a look of shock on her face.
"Malcanthet…" she whispered. "The Demon Queen of Succubus…"
Rasputin paused.
"Malcanthet is a powerful demon noble," he said. "She's one of the greatest seducers in the universe. She rules a kingdom of lust and debauchery in the Abyss, where the succubus are masters, and anyone who enters risks becoming their playthings… Or even worse, becoming Malcanthet's plaything.
"Anyway, I continued to read about this demon, and I discovered more. I found that the succubus in her service often conducted ascension rituals to transform themselves into a more powerful type of temptress demon. The ritual involves seducing a whole church, and eventually sacrificing the congregation by burning the whole church down in a fire fueled by the flames of one of the most infernal layers of the Abyss.
"It was obvious what Claret's true intentions were now. I had to stop this! But I didn't know what to do at first… She was a demon… She commanded powerful evil magic… And she had almost all of Vienna eating out of her hand.
"Slowly, I formed a plan…
"After a night of work, on a Sunday morning, I stormed into the cathedral, interrupting Claret's sermon. I spoke out against her openly right there, calling her and her patron imposters. Everyone listening gasped. Claret smiled, and told them to let me speak. She asked why I thought such things.
"Then I asked just how powerful she believed she truly was. I challenged her to prove that she was the messenger of an angel.
"I produced two bottles of wine, and said that one of them was laced with a deadly poison. My challenge was as follows: I'd pour two cups, one from each, and she'd choose one. Then we'd both drink. If she was truly the herald of an angel, she'd easily be able to tell which was which.
"Of course, everyone watching called me a monster, and pleaded with her not to accept. Some considered restraining me, but Claret herself ordered them to back down. She simply smiled, and said she wasn't afraid of my challenge.
"So, the dangerous contest began…
"…little did she know, while she thought she had the upper hand, she had fallen into a trap.
"You see, demons are immune to earthly poisons, a fact that I was well aware of. That was why she was so eager to accept. She figured that if I died from the poison, she could call it a divine punishment. If she drank the poison and was unharmed, she could boast that her patron had protected her. She would win either way.
"What she didn't know was that both bottles were laced not with true poison, but with a special alchemical formula called a ravage. Ravages are similar to poisons, but they are lethal to creatures of supernatural evil, like demons. This particular ravage was called Tears of the Couatl, and it was particularly effective against demons. Since ravages didn't harm mortals, I was completely safe.
"The plan worked. She took one sip, and gagged before collapsing into convulsions. And as she died, her body underwent a horrid transformation, turning into her true succubus form – still beautiful, but plainly evil to everyone witnessing.
"It was over…"
"I thought you weren't a killer," said Ren. "You said so yourself."
"Only as far as humans are concerned," replied Rasputin. "She was an unholy abomination. I had no moral objections about slaying her."
"So…" said Yumi. "Let me get this straight… You saved a church from a demon? I'm gonna go out on a limb here, but… Some folks would have called you a hero."
Rasputin paused again.
"Yes, that they did…" he muttered. "They called me a hero. The Archbishop told me that I had more faith than anybody, including him, because I was not deceived by the beast's trickery. He told me that the divine rewards I would get for it would be great…
"But eventually, I did some thinking…
"Hundreds had almost been sacrificed to a ritual of pure evil. A demon had targeted the biggest church in the world. I kept thinking… Why did I even have to stop it?
"If the higher powers truly cared about their flock, why hadn't a real Archangel's messenger been sent to face that succubus? Why were they going to allow this horrid act to occur?
"I looked around at my small part of the world, and saw things I didn't like… Children forced to steal food to feed themselves… Elderly men begging because they had no other way to get money. All around me there was suffering… All under the shadow of the greatest church in the world, where an Archbishop grew fat from the donations of the worshippers...
"I came to the conclusion that my church had been abandoned by its true patrons in its darkest hour. Simply put, I discovered that for all our faith, the powers that we prayed to did nothing for us in return, and didn't care.
"THAT is why I rejected them. They were willing to turn their backs on us and let hundreds suffer a fiery death. They didn't deserve the respect we gave them."
"Nonsense!" shouted Yumi. "Did you ever stop and think that they chose YOU as their champion? That you were the one chosen by them to defeat that demon? God moves in mysterious ways, Rasputin, and more often than not, His ways are subtle."
Rasputin paused.
Yumi looked into his eyes. For the briefest moment, it seemed as if her argument might have reached him…
"That's not true, and I know it!" he shouted. "I did it all on my own!"
He looked at the Rod of the Ancients.
"Enough talk…"
He lunged for it.
Yumi lunged for him. She caught his arm as he made a grab for it…
Then, the unexpected happened. The whole ground erupted in flames, and both Yumi and Rasputin were seemingly consumed by them.
Everyone looking gasped, but only for a second. Then, the flames erupted around them too…
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Yumi opened her eyes, and was greeted by the smell of smoke and brimstone.
She looked down, and screamed.
She was standing a few feet over what looked like a lake of boiling lava.
When she got over the shock, she realized that she and Rasputin (who was in front of her) were standing either on a layer of either magical glass of some sort, or a floor of solid, transparent energy. They were in the center of a crater made of black stone, under a pitch-black sky.
"A volcano," said Rasputin. "It seems our host, whoever he is, doesn't care for subtlety…"
"Yumi!" shouted Ren's voice.
Yumi turned around, and saw Ren, Chelsea, Sam, and Erik standing on a rocky ledge behind her. Then she looked behind Rasputin, and saw Nicholas and Olga there on another ledge. Nicholas had a stern expression on his face that was hard to interpret.
"So…" said Yumi. "It's down to you, and it's down to me…"
"Indeed…" said Rasputin, raising his Disk. "The time for talk is past, the time for action is now. And I must admit… I've been looking forward to this…"
"So have I…" said Yumi.
The two Disks activated…
"Game on!" they shouted.
(Yumi: 8,000) -------------------- (Rasputin: 8,000)
"Beat the pants off this guy, Yumi!" shouted Erik, leaning forward.
"Be careful, Erik!" warned Sam. "This lava is hotter than your five-alarm chili."
A geyser of magma shot up, forming a flaming arch over the two of them, as both of them drew their opening hands.
"Let's see what we have here…" said Rasputin, drawing his first card. "I think I'll summon… Stay Asmodian, in Attack Mode."
He played the card, and a column of flame erupted out of the lava in front of him. A creature formed out of it that looked… weird. It was a Fiend of some sort, hovering over the ground, wearing a purple robe, with no limbs, except for four small, black, feathered wings. Its head had three ugly faces, and was topped by some sort of smokestack that belched out black soot. (1,300/1,700)
"That will do to start," he said.
"Humph," said Yumi, drawing a card. "Your Stray Asmodian may look scary, but it's weak enough for me to blow to pieces…
"I summon Gemini Elf!"
She played a card, and the attractive elf sisters materialized, their arms around each others' waists. They gave dirty looks towards Rasputin. (1,900/900)
"All right!" shouted Ren.
"Crush that creepy Monster!" shouted Chelsea.
"Attack!" yelled Yumi. "Destroy it!"
Gemini Elf shot a volley of lightning bolts. Stray Asmodian exploded in a burst of smoke and ash.
Then, to Yumi's surprise, both she and Rasputin were glowing with a fiery aura. But it didn't hurt… It felt strangely invigorating.
"Thank you…" said Rasputin. "When Stray Asmodian dies in battle, it gives both of us a gift… It's called the Fires of Renewal, and it takes the form of 800 more Life Points.
"Fire may harm, but it has an upside… When a forest burns, it takes a while to grow back, but it grows back fuller and more lush than before. So even a flaming disaster has an upside… Renewal."
"Yeah, well, that helped me more that it did you, Rasputin," said Yumi. "I'll end my turn…"
(Y: 8,800) -------------------- (R: 8,200)
Rasputin drew a card.
He looked at the Field Spell.
We'll soon see about that, Yumi, he thought. Destroy my Monsters if you wish… Every one that dies brings you closer to your own doom… Because Renewal is a very minor part of the element of Fire…
His Field Slot opened.
"Time to switch locations, Yumi," he said, placing a card in the slot. "Take us to… The City of Brass!"
With a rumbling and a shaking, the volcano's crater was transformed. Buildings rose, and the fiery surface turned into a metal street…
Yumi looked around. The city that the Spell had conjured up was Arabian in architecture, with buildings made – naturally – of brass, with a hellish, fiery theme. Overhead and around them were flaming, demonic, horned creatures, watching the spectacle from their vantage points.
"Behold, Yumi…" said Rasputin. "The City of Brass, one of the greatest wonders of the planes. This marvelous metropolis on the Plane of Fire is the ancestral home of a race of genies called the Efreet, an ancient race known for their warlike nature and their ability to beguile and mislead… Not to mention their cruelty and hatred of servitude."
"Yeah, yeah…" said Yumi. "So, what does your Field Spell do?"
"Heh, heh…" chuckled Rasputin. "What does it do, she asks. What it does is give all Fire Monsters 200 extra Attack and Defense Points. It also downgrades their Level by one."
"So basically, it's a Fire version of A Legendary Ocean?" asked Yumi.
"More or less," said Rasputin. "And that means that Level Five Monsters that were once considered useless, now become quite useful."
He took a card from his hand.
"I summon one right now… Mr. Volcano!"
A plume of lava erupted in front of him, and a man in fancy clothing with a blue cape and fiery red hair appeared from out of it. He threw back his arms and laughed as the aura from the City started to fuel him. (2,100/1,300) –) (2,300/1,500)
"Rasputin is right…" muttered Sam. "Mr. Volcano has become practically useless in today's meta… But with that Field Spell, it becomes a powerful Monster that needs no sacrifice to summon."
"Mr. Volcano…" ordered Rasputin, "roast her elves with volcanic blast!"
Mr. Volcano raised his arms, and flames appeared in them. He threw a stream of fire forward, and the two elves screamed as they were burned alive.
(Y: 8,400) -------------------- (R: 8,200)
"You'll pay for that…" muttered Yumi, drawing a card.
She looked at it, and chose another one.
"I summon my Blast Magician," she said.
She played the card, and the fiery, red-robed mage appeared in a burst of flame. He bathed in the light of the City of Brass and grinned. (1,400/1,700) –) (1,600/1,900)
"What?" said Rasputin, crossing his arms. "I'm supposed to be worried because you managed to summon someone who benefits from my Field Spell? He's still no match for Mr. Volcano."
"I'm not done," said Yumi, taking another card. "I play Magical Dimension.
"Now I'll sacrifice Blast Magician, and summon Magician's Valkyria."
Blast Magician vanished, and Valkyria appeared in his place. (1,600/1,800)
"Now I can destroy one Monster," continued Yumi. "Guess who…"
Mr. Volcano groaned, and then shattered into pieces.
"Valkyria… Attack him directly!"
Valkyria leapt up into the air and aimed her staff…
"Uh oh…" said Rasputin.
An explosion of magical energy centered on him, and he staggered backwards.
"Well…" said Nicholas. "He asked for it…"
(Y: 8,400) -------------------- (R: 6,600)
"So, now what do you have to say?" asked Yumi.
Rasputin chuckled.
"I must say…" he said. "This is quite… invigorating. Reminds me of the old days, actually, when I was a young man, and mortal combat was more common…"
He drew a card.
"But it's time for me to bear my claws…"
He placed a card in his Disk.
"I play… Fire Fever. And I Equip it to your Valkyria."
Magician's Valkyria groaned, as if in pain, and held her sides. Her cheeks turned beet-red, and then a fiery aura appeared around her.
"Rasputin…" gasped Yumi. "What did you do to her?"
"I inflicted her with a disease called Fire Fever, Yumi," said Rasputin. "It's an illness that sometimes strikes mortals who come to the Plane of Fire. She should have known better than to such a dangerous place unprepared.
"An interesting bit of planar knowledge… The efreet have been known to make willing slaves out of mortals who contract this disease. They give them a serum that puts the disease into remission, but only for a short time. The disease only stays gone if they continue to take the serum. The afflicted mortals have a choice: They can either stay and serve the efreet, or they leave and die from the disease when the serum wears off."
"He wasn't kidding…" muttered Chelsea. "Those creatures are cruel…"
"What did your Spell Card do to her?" demanded Yumi.
"In game terms, Yumi," said Rasputin, "she'll lose 400 Attack Points every time you start your turn. If her Attack Points fall to zero because of it, she dies. Best of all, when that happens, the card itself goes back to my deck.
"In the meantime, I'll set a Monster in Defense Mode…"
A facedown Monster appeared.
"And then, I'll remove Stray Asmodian from play, to also summon Inferno in Defense Mode."
The Stray Asmodian card slipped out of his discard slot, and he placed it inside his jacket. In a burst of flame, a Monster best described as a huge bonfire with eyes appeared next to the facedown Monster. (1,100/1,900) –) (1,300/2,100)
"Your move…" he said.
Yumi angrily drew a card.
Valkyria groaned as the flaming aura got worse, and her Attack Score fell to 1,200.
"Well, Valkyria…" said Yumi, "you aren't in any condition to attack, but at least you can defend…"
Valkyria crouched in Defense Mode.
Yumi placed two more cards in her Disk, and a facedown card and a facedown Monster appeared.
She glared at Rasputin.
"I take it that means you want me to move…" he said, drawing a card.
He chuckled as he looked at it.
"I summon Darkfire Soldier #1 in Attack Mode," he said.
He played the card, and another fiery figure appeared on his side of the field. It looked like a warrior with bronze skin and a bare chest, holding a large scimitar. He bathed in the light of the burning city, and grinned. (1,700/1,150) –) (1,900/1,350)
"I'll also flip my facedown Monster into Attack Mode…" he said. "Reveal… Abaki!"
His facedown Monster flipped, and there appeared a nasty, red-skinned ogre, with a bald head with two small horns and a toothy mouth, carrying a spiked metal club. (1,700/1,100) –) (1,900/1,300)
"Well, let's see, Yumi…" he said. "I could simply wait for the Fire Fever to run its course and your Valkyria to be consumed by flames… That might be amusing…"
He chuckled.
"But I'm growing impatient… I'll be merciful and grant her a quick death…
"Abaki, attack Valkyria!"
Abaki roared, and charged at Valkyria with its club raised high.
"Oh no you don't…" said Yumi. "I activate… Dust Tornado!"
Her Trap Card flipped up.
"And my target will be… Your Field Spell!"
Rasputin gasped as the Tornado tore across the field, and the buildings of the City of Brass started to tumble. Within minutes, the City had collapsed into shards, and they were back in the crater of the volcano.
"Too late to call off your attack," said Yumi, "but without the boost from your Field Spell, Abaki isn't strong enough to beat Valkyria's Defense."
Abaki tried to hit Valkyria with its club, but she whacked it with her staff, and it toppled backwards.
Rasputin was clearly angry.
"Congratulations, Yumi…" he muttered. "You have managed to bring about the fall of the City of Brass. Since the beginning of recorded history of the Plane of Fire, no enemy has ever so much as breached the city's walls…
"Enjoy that small accomplishment while you can…
"Darkfire Soldier, attack her facedown Monster!"
Darkfire Soldier raised his flaming scimitar, and rushed at the facedown Monster. The Morphing Jar appeared on the card, and he sliced the shadowy snake in twain.
"Ho boy…" muttered Olga.
"Now we have to dump the cards in our hands and draw five more," said Yumi.
Rasputin looked at the cards in his hand and growled. He discarded them, and drew five.
He gave them a look.
"My turn is over, Yumi," he said. "Valkyria may have lived that round, but she's three rounds away from a fiery death."
(Y: 8,400) -------------------- (R: 6,500)
Valkyria closed her eyes and started to tremble. Yumi drew a card.
Valkyria groaned and fell to an Attack of 800.
"Wrong, Rasputin," said Yumi. "She'll be spared that fate. I'm going to sacrifice her before that happens."
Valkyria smirked at Rasputin, and then vanished.
Then Chaos Command Magician appeared in a flash of light. (2,400/1,900)
"Destroy his Abaki!" she shouted. "Chaos magic!"
Chaos Command Magician blasted his lethal spell, and Abaki howled before exploding in a burst of flame.
Then Yumi cringed as an aura of much more painful flames licked at her skin.
"What happened?" she gasped.
"The Fires of Renewal are only a minor part of the element of Fire, Yumi," said Rasputin. "Even more powerful are the Fires of Destruction. Abaki is the polar opposite of Stray Asmodian.
"When it dies in battle, both duelists lose 500 Life Points. I guess that came as quite a shock to you…"
(Y: 7,900) -------------------- (R: 5,300)
"Fine…" said Yumi. "I'll end with this facedown…"
She played a card, and a facedown card appeared behind Chaos Command Magician.
"Ren…" said Chelsea, "did you notice something different about this Yami no Oujou?"
"Other than the pit of molten lava?" asked Ren.
"I just realized it…" said Chelsea. "No-one told them to start at the beginning… No instructions, and no house rule… Whoever is running this thing doesn't care, apparently."
"Yeah…" said Ren. "Maybe not all of the Sorcerer Kings survived…"
"I noticed something else…" said Sam. "Where the heck did Anastasia go?"
Rasputin drew a card.
"Time to get serious, Yumi!" he shouted. "I sacrifice Darkfire Soldier and Inferno…"
The two Monsters burst into shards, and the shards spun around, forming a flaming tornado…
"…to summon Infernal Flame Emperor!"
In an explosion of flame, a ten-foot-tall, fiendish demon made totally out of fire appeared, gazing at Yumi with blazing eyes. (2,700/1,600)
"Now I activate its effect… I can remove up to five Fire Monsters in my grave from play, and destroy an equal number of Spell or Trap Cards. So I'll get rid of Darkfire Soldier, and destroy your facedown card.
Darkfire Soldier fell out of his discard slot. Infernal Flame Emperor threw a fireball, and Yumi's Mirror Force was incinerated.
"Now, attack!" shouted Rasputin. "Destroy her Chaos Command Magician!"
Infernal Flame Emperor lunged, and punched Chaos Command Magician with a fiery fist. The mage shattered into bits.
(Y: 7,600) -------------------- (R: 5,300)
"I'm still in the lead…" said Yumi.
"But not for long…" said Rasputin. "You didn't forget the huge, flaming demon on the field, did you?"
"I didn't forget," said Yumi. "And I already have a way to destroy it…"
She drew a card.
"I summon… Injection Fairy Lily!"
She played the card, and the cute, winged nurse carrying her huge syringe appeared hovering in front of her. She gave Rasputin a dirty look. (400/1,500)
"You know how Lily works, right, smarty-pants?" asked Yumi. "I pay 2,000 Life Points, and her Attack Score goes up by 3,000…"
Yumi glowed with a red aura, as Lily rose to an Attack of 3,400.
"Lily, give Infernal Flame Emperor a checkup!"
Lily lifted her syringe above her head, and hurled it forward, striking the huge, flaming beast in the center. It howled, and exploded into a blaze of flames.
"That cost you more Life Points than it did me!" exclaimed Rasputin with a laugh.
Yumi glared at him.
"I'll place two cards facedown," she said, "and end my turn…"
Two facedown cards appeared, and Lily fell back to an Attack of 400.
(Y: 5,600) -------------------- (R: 4,600)
Rasputin paused. He drew a card.
When he saw what it was, he looked rather surprised. He just looked at it for a minute. He didn't do anything except look at it.
"What's he doing?" asked Sam. "It looks as if he's surprised to see one of his own cards…"
"Rasputin?" asked Yumi. "Hello? Are you gonna move or not?"
"Good moves take time…" said Rasputin, adding it to his hand. "Especially for a man like me. You ever try a fancy recipe, that takes all day to prepare, or even has to simmer all night?"
"Sometimes…" said Yumi.
"Well, for an alchemist," replied Rasputin, "a powerful formula might take a week – or more – to prepare. It isn't a craft you can undertake if you aren't patient. Alchemic formulas aren't things you can simply cook up over the kitchen stove."
"Well…" said Yumi, "while I'm waiting…"
One of her facedown cards flipped up.
"I activate Life-Absorbing Machine."
"Fine," said Rasputin, choosing another card. "And I'll play Pot of Avarice."
He played the card, and the goofy, pink jar appeared in front of him. Five cards – Mr. Volcano, Inferno, Little Chimera, Abaki, and Infernal Flame Emperor – slipped out of his discard slot. He quickly shuffled them into his deck and drew two cards.
He looked at them, and added them to his hand.
"In the study of alchemy," he said, taking a card, "I have studied many tomes and manuals, all of them containing powerful arcane knowledge, some of which so revealing, they would make lesser men tremble in fear. Here's a similar one… The powerful Book of Moon. Now, I can move your Fairy Lily into Defense Mode."
Lily gasped, and then vanished, replaced by a facedown card.
"Next…" he continued, "I play Premature Burial, to raise a creature I kept in my Graveyard… Molten Zombie."
He played the card, and the lava in front of him bubbled and burst. A humanoid creature that seemed to be made of melting, runny, gloppy lava appeared in front of him. (1,600/400)
"And, when Molten Zombie is summoned from the Graveyard, I get to draw one card…"
He made one draw. He looked at it and added it to his hand.
"Next…" he said, playing a card, "I summon Hiita the Fire Charmer…"
He played another card, and a young girl with red hair, a brown cloak, and a fiery, red fox on her shoulder appeared. (500/1,500)
"Now I can activate a special effect," he continued. "By sacrificing Hiita and one other Fire Monster…"
Hiita and Molten Zombie burst into flaming shards.
"…I can summon Familiar-Possessed Hiita from my deck."
A new female figure reappeared on the field. She looked like the previous Hiita, only somewhat older, her fox was fiercer, and she carried a staff tipped with a flaming ruby. (1,850/1,500)
"Hiita, attack!" shouted Rasputin. "Fire sorcery!"
Hiita twirled her staff, and shot a blast of flame. Lily appeared on the card, and screamed before she was incinerated.
"And because I summoned her with her effect," said Rasputin with a grin, "you lose 350 Life Points."
(Y: 5,250) -------------------- (R: 3,800)
"Brilliant…" muttered Yumi. "Anything else in your bag of tricks?"
"I think I'll set these facedown, and end my turn…" said Rasputin.
A nervous look was on his face as he played the two cards, and they appeared behind Hiita.
"Then I'll go…" said Yumi, drawing a card. "And due to Life-Absorbing Machine, I gain Life Points equal to half of what I paid on my last turn…"
She glowed with golden energy, and looked at the card she had just drawn.
Dark Magician Girl. It was time for her to get serious.
"I activate Call of the Haunted!" she shouted.
A dark coffin appeared on her side of the field, and it opened, Magician's Valkyria stepped out.
She gave a dirty look towards Rasputin. (1,600/1,800)
"But she won't be here long…" continued Yumi. "I sacrifice her… To summon Dark Magician Girl!"
Valkyria vanished, and in a flurry of stars, Dark Magician Girl appeared. (2,000/1,700)
Rasputin scowled.
"Oh, I forgot…" said Yumi. "You don't like her, right?"
"Don't like her?" asked Rasputin. "Would you like someone who ruined a plan that had taken you a year to put together? The deck I had used to face your grandfather had one goal… Using his own God Cards against him, and I built it with tireless care… Only for that harlot to ruin my plans and cost me the most powerful cards in the world…"
"Cry me a river, build me a bridge…" said Yumi, taking another card. "I play Sage's Stone!"
She played the card, and in a flash of light, the Dark Magician appeared. Dark Magician Girl smiled, and nodded to him. (2,500/2,100)
"Ha!" laughed Erik. "Yumi has her king and her queen out. It's gonna be checkmate soon!"
"Dark Magician…" ordered Yumi, "attack Hiita! Dark magic attack!"
Dark Magician twirled his scepter, and fired a lethal blast. Familiar-Possessed Hiita screamed, and shattered into shards.
"Okay, Rasputin…" shouted Yumi, "here's a direct attack courtesy of my best Monster.
"Dark Magician Girl, get him!"
Dark Magician Girl flew at Rasputin, her staff glowing.
"I activate… Power Wall!" shouted Rasputin.
One of his Trap Cards lifted, showing a frightening image of a warrior in royal armor in a castle courtyard, holding his hand up, as a titanic dragon loomed overhead.
As Dark Magician Girl flew towards him, Rasputin reached for his deck, and grabbed a handful of cards, he hurled them in front of him, and the cards formed a barrier, blocking Dark Magician Girl's advance.
Everyone stared at him. The tossed cards vanished one by one, until they were gone.
"Rasputin…" muttered Yumi. "What… what did you do?"
"Power Wall is a Trap Card that I can use if I'm threatened by battle damage," replied Rasputin. "For every card from my deck that I throw away, the damage is decreased by 100. And since I just threw away twenty of my cards, your blond minx's attack didn't hurt me at all."
Everyone was speechless. They stared at Rasputin in disbelief.
"He… he… He threw away twenty of his cards?" shouted Sam. "That was the stupidest…"
"Hold on…" said Nicholas. "Hold on one second… He's had six turns so far… That's eleven cards… Then there was the Morphing Jar… Pot of Avarice… Subtract five then add two… Hiita… Molten Zombie…
"Great McGregor's ghost! That leaves him with only five cards in his deck!"
"Rasputin, have you lost your mind?" shouted Olga. "Why did you even put that card in your deck?"
Yumi stared at him.
"You threw away half your deck…" she muttered. "Threw away half your cards like they were garbage…"
"And what if I did?" he replied. "They're my cards, Yumi. Who are you to tell me how to use them?"
"Rasputin…" said Yumi, with a snarl.
"Oh, please, Yumi," said Rasputin, rolling his eyes, "let's not bore us both with the tired old 'a duelist should respect his cards' speech, because that sort of thing got old fast."
Yumi looked down.
"Okay, you don't want speeches?" she said. "Fine. I won't bother with any speeches. You know why? Because you doing that helped me make a decision I was trying to make.
"See, when you told me that story, I thought for a minute that there might be a small shred of decency left in you… Some small, minute spark of the moral and virtuous man you used to be… I thought that maybe, just maybe, there might still be hope for you…
"But now… I know for sure that there isn't…
"I'm through trying to reason with you, Rasputin… It's clear to me that no matter how much I try, I'll never get though to you. So I'm not even gonna bother any more.
"Make your move…"
(Y: 6,250) -------------------- (R: 3,250)
Rasputin drew a card.
"I remove Molten Zombie from play," he said, taking a card from his Graveyard, "in order to summon Spirit of Flames in Defense Mode."
In a burst of fire, a fiery demon with horns on its forehead appeared, and crouched in defense. (1,700/1,000)
"That's all," he said.
"Then look out!" shouted Yumi.
She drew a card.
"I summon Skilled Dark Magician!" she shouted.
She played the card, and the mage in the bulky robe and flat skullcap appeared next to the other two Spellcasters. (1,900/1,700)
"Skilled Dark Magician… Destroy his Spirit of Flames! Black magic blast!"
Skilled Dark Magician cast a powerful spell, and the spirit burst into an explosion of fire.
"Face it, Rasputin…" said Yumi, "it's over! Dark Magician Girl…"
"I activate my last Trap!" shouted Rasputin. "Skull Lair!"
His facedown card lifted.
"Now, I can remove the cards in my Graveyard from play, and destroy Monsters on the field with Levels equal to the number I remove. So I'll remove seventeen cards from play, to destroy all three of your Monsters!"
Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl, and Skilled Dark Magician were surrounded by a fiery aura…
And then they all burst into shards.
Yumi collapsed. She fell on one knee and bowed her head.
"No…" gasped Ren.
"This is just what happened to Holly…" muttered Chelsea. "When her Mermaid Knight was destroyed… Yumi just took the same blow…"
"And that's why he tossed half of his deck…" gasped Sam. "So he'd have enough… make that MORE than enough cards in his Graveyard to use Skull Lair and destroy practically anything…"
Yumi lifted her head, panting for breath. Sweat was pouring down her face.
She slowly got up.
She had one card left in her hand, and it was Buster Blader.
"Okay, fine…" she muttered. "I have to end my turn… But what more can you do, Rasputin? You only have four cards left in your deck, and due to that last move, you hardly have any left in your Graveyard either."
"I also have three in my hand…" replied Rasputin, with a sinister look on his face.
He drew a card. He looked at it and shrugged.
"You see, Yumi…" he said. "You probably thought that this was a Fire Deck… Well, you were only half-right. This deck actually represents a certain… aspect of fire.
"There's a lot to be said about fire… When you control it, it can be your best friend…
"But if it goes out of control, it burns… It runs rampant and devours everything in its path, destroying and laying waste to what man and nature alike has created.
"In case you didn't notice, Yumi… The creatures in my deck weren't very nice… They were wicked creatures who used fire as a weapon…
"My deck represents the dark side of fire… The side that represents destruction and death…
"Remember what I said about the Fires of Renewal and the Fires of Destruction? There is one more aspect of fire that most people don't know about… The fire that the world was created in, in the primordial birth of the cosmos, when no order existed…
"The Fires of Chaos…
"Now, I summon a creature born in those same ancient fires… The true lord of my deck…
"I summon Gren Maju Da Eiza!"
He played a card, and a roaring inferno appeared in front of him…
A creature stepped out of the inferno. It was hard to describe. Its demonic features suggested that it was a Fiend, but it wasn't humanoid – more bestial in shape. It had a typical fiendish face, with knobs on its skull, a red, bloated exoskeleton, two huge claws, a barbed tail, and huge, dragon-like wings.
"Meet the Lord of Chaos," said Rasputin. "For every card that I've removed from play so far, its Attack and Defense are 400. And I've removed twenty cards from play so far…
"Multiply it…"
(8,000/8,000)
"No!" screamed Ren.
"Yumi!" screamed Chelsea.
Rasputin chuckled.
"So tell me, Yumi…" he asked. "Where are your so called gods now? Still believe that they're watching? Still believe that they give a damn about you?"
Yumi looked at him.
"Yes," she said, softly. "Yes, yes, I do."
Rasputin gave a look of shock.
"Attack me if you want, Rasputin…" said Yumi. "I can't stop you. But my stance won't change. You won this duel because you dueled better than I did, nothing more. It wasn't because I was abandoned by anyone.
"No matter what you do, I'll still be a believer…"
Rasputin gave her a cold glare.
"So be it…" he growled.
"Gren Maju Da Eiza… Attack directly with Chaos Flames!"
The Chaos Fiend's eyes glowed, and a super-intense blast of white-hot flames shot at Yumi. Her friends screamed, and they heard her screaming in agony as the blast hit, and the world seemed to come undone…
(Y: 0) -------------------- (R: 3,250)
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Cassandra looked at the card next to The High Priestess.
It was The Tower.
"The prediction I showed Yumi has come to pass," she said, sadly.
She bowed her head.
Then she lifted it with a start.
"Wait…" she said. "There's something new… The cards are telling me to draw again…
"Something unexpected has come to light…"
She reached for the card at the top of her deck…
Yumi has fallen… Will she rise again? Perhaps… Perhaps not…
Stay tuned…
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POWER WALL (Trap Card)
Normal Trap
Image: A man in royal armor in a castle courtyard, holding up his hand as a titanic dragon looms overhead.
Card Description: You can activate this card when your opponent declares an attack. Discard any number of cards from the top of your deck to the Graveyard. For each card discarded in this manner, reduce the battle damage done from the attack by 100.
Note: "Power Wall" was first used by Zane in the "Yu-Gi-Oh GX" episode "The Darkness Within". Creative credit goes to the writers of that episode.
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CITY OF BRASS (Spell Card)
Field Spell
Image: A magnificent Arabian city, sitting atop a brass sphere and under a burning sky.
Card Description: Downgrade all FIRE Monsters in both players' hands and on the field by one Level. Increase the ATK and DEF of all FIRE Monsters by 200 points.
Note: "City of Brass" was created by Man Called True for his fanfic, "Yu-Gi-Oh! Tilting the Balance". Creative credit goes to him.
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FIRE FEVER (Spell Card)
Equip Spell
Image: A man in broken armor, surrounded by an aura of flames.
Card Description: This card cannot be Equipped to a Pyro-Type or FIRE Monster. The Monster Equipped with this card loses 400 ATK during each of its owner's Standby Phases. If the Monster Equipped with this card is reduced to zero ATK by this effect, destroy the Equipped Monster and shuffle this card into your deck.
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To be continued…