The Rise and Fall of History: A Past Unseen

by Medigo

The world of dueling has reached a standstill. Many stories have been told through these cards, and the final story pits every side against each other. It is a game no more. Duelists are divided, and an unknown enemy watches from afar. In the midst of all this chaos is one man who brings a new power that can forever end the conflict; a stranger to this world and to himself.

35. A Touch of Silver

Annex 035: A Touch of Silver

"How can that be possible?" Iria Silver did not like what she heard. The people who analyzed the duel logs of Cassius' dueldisk came back with a very contradictory report. "We are still working on that ma'am. This is all we came up with so far." They had told her that though there was no indication of a duel in progress, the dueldisk itself had been active in the few seconds before its duelist crashed against the pavement. "We do not pay you to give incomplete answers, doctor. Can you not provide a single conclusion?" All she got from him was a mystery, that was simply unsatisfactory. "No other dueldisk was in the area. Even an unregistered device would have shown up on the network if it connected with this one." And yet this mystery was just one of many that had haunted Dreamworld lately. It wouldn't have been such a pain if the accident hadn't conveniently happened somewhere out of camera range. "Are these scans comparable to those of August's duel?" That man had disappeared from the logs as we all, as soon as he summoned that retrained dragon of his. "Yes." The doctors reply reaffirmed a suspicion of hers. "Then., if the crash was deliberate, it could have been caused by one of them. They could have infiltrated the tournament.. as an independent guild."

The Oddball guild wandered the park, waiting for the next duel to be called out. While they did not want to leave Emily and Cassius alone, they had to be ready to move if their name appeared on the big screens. "I hope he gets better soon." Alice was thankful to be out of the hospital either ay. "...Oh.. Yeah." Uno responded after an awkward silence. "Were you thinking about something?" He had the gaze of someone who was trying to see where the horizon ended. "Yeah, again. Man, if I don't work on my pokerface, the next duel might kill me." Uno tried to laugh it off, but Alice looked at him with those concerned eyes of hers. "Ah. It's Cassius. You know, he forgot who attacked him. It's good that he did not forget everything else, but maybe he was attacked by the same person who attacked me. Except they didn't get to finish the job this time?" Uno knew it could have just been headtrauma that made Cassius lose some memories. But he did not want to overlook what could be a connection to his own problem. "Why would they want Cassius tho?" She wondered. "Good question.."

"YOU HAVE WAITED LONG ENOUGH. IT IS TIME FOR THE NEXT MATCH! DON'D MIND IF I HYPE IT UP A BIT, BUT THIS ONE IS A DOOZIE! THE LOVELY IRIA SILVER WILL FACE THE ODDBALL ENTERTAINER UNO!"

"Silver?!" That anouncement hit Uno like a wave of cold water. "This soon?" His face was placed against hers on the big screen. It was going to happen. "Oh no. Not her." Alice trembled as well. That Uno would have to challenge Iria had been part of the plan from the start. Yet neither of them could have predicted that this face-off would take place in the second round. "Dom must have been spooked by what happened to Creffield. Hmm.. Well guess I am not fighting the XYZ and Fusion guild next." There was at least one upside to this. Now if only he could believe he was ready. "That woman.. her cards.. they are scary. Can you do it?" The other oddball duelist did not envy his position. "I will have to. Don't forget, I am a pendulum user too. If I can't beat her.." Well than nobody could. Still he put up a brave smile for Alice.

That smile started to crack once Uno made his way to his dueling spot. A small ferry took him to an island platform in the middle of a great lake. This was usually where fountain watershows were held at the end of the day. They could make all kinds of shapes and colors. He was not here for that, he was here to meet the woman in black. Iria Silver arrived on her own ferry, and set foot on the platform. The instant he caught her presence, his expression broke. There was just something about this woman that took joy away. "Uno. Bob. Whatever your name is. Before we begin, I will ask you one question. Where were you today between 7 and 8 AM?" Though she came here to duel him, she still had her business in mind. "What? 5 AM? I was in my bedroom..." Uno answered her before he realized why she was probing him for info. "You think I attacked Cassius?" He was shocked. "Can anyone testify for you?" Naturally her follow-up was just another round of interrogation. At least he had Alibis. "Alice and Emily. They will tell you I was in my room at that time."

"I see. That will be enough for now." Iria opened her briefcase and picked up her dueldisk. "That's it? You're not gonna tell me what this is all about? Someone did attack Cassius, didn't they?" His frustrated outburst earned him a blunt stare. "Have you forgotten the purpose of this engagement? The Master deemed this necessary to test your honesty. Whether or not you are genuinely deserving of answers or merely the criminal we initially perceived you as, that all will be determined here." Her disk was switched on. Her deck, filled with the terrifying Qliphort, was inserted. "So you never believed in my innocense. You still think these are yours somehow." Uno also took his Performapals and placed them in his dueldisk. "The cards and the disk. They did not appear out of nowhere. Everything has a source and an explanation. You are no different."

Uno sighed. "Then..enough said. Let's duel!"

Iria's LP: 8000 Uno's LP: 8000

"Indeed." Iria drew five cards. She would begin. "My turn. I activate this spell card." She played Summoners Art, a normal spell that searched level 5 or higher normal monsters from the deck. "I add Qliphort Scout and set it in the pendulum zone." The first pendulum monster was activated, the scale 9 scoutship. "A pendulum normal monster. It only has a pendulum effect.." Not even Uno's Performapals were that direct. "I presume you remembered that effect." Iria paid 800 of her lifepoints to use Qliphort Scout's power to search Qliphorts in the deck. "I add Qliphort Monolith to my hand and set that in the other pendulum zone." On her other side a one-eyed monolith showed up. It was a scale 1 pendulum monster. "The scales for level 2 to level 8 have been set. Only Qliphorts can be summoned while I control these Pendulum cards. There is no need for anything else." Iria took two more cards from her hand and placed them on the field. "I Pendulum Summon the Qliphorts Shell and Carrier." The mechanical Shellfish(4/1800/1000) and Carriership(41800/1000) warped down through beams of fiery light.

Iria's LP: 7200

"As they have been special summoned, their powers and level were decreased. Of course, they are merely.. tributes." Qliphort Shell and Qliphort Carrier were dismissed. They served to tribute summon a new Qliphort spaceship, this one(8/2800/1000) had a disc-shaped shield covering its upper side. "Qliphort Disk. In this moment, where it has been normal summoned, it will special summon two Qliphorts from my deck." Qliphort Disk opened its topshield to warp in two more spaceships. These were Qliphort Helixes(4/1800/1000), vessels with a helix-coiled body between both ends. Their attackpower and level was cut down too by 600 points and two stars respectively. "Monsters summoned by Qliphort Disk are destroyed during the endphase." Iria said abruptly and her turn did not last much longer either. She placed a trap card down and entered the endphase. The two Helix Qliphorts selfdetonated once Qliphort Disk stopped charging them.

The duelists around went wild with speculation as to the reason for such a seemingly pointless move. Iria had wasted all her resources in a turn with no battle phase. "..." No theories came from Uno's end. "That face tells that, while you have never used pendulums like this, you understand what they can do. You know what is to come." Iria placed her hand on her deck and pulled two cards from it. "I gain these cards because of Qliphort Monolith. Each turn a Qliphort Tribute summon takes place, the Monolith allows me to draw once for each tributed Qliphort monster." Now her endphase was over. It was time for Uno to show off his deck.

"Yes. I can see how strong your cards are, Iria. But they lack something.. they are too cold and too mechanical. I prefer mine... Performapal Cheermole!" Uno normal summoned the cheerleading mole(2/600/1000). A move that did not fail to baffle Iria. "Is this a joke, Uno?" That thing was utterly helpless on its own. "Maybe..." He chuckled and tilted his head to the audience. "I think you can hear me, can't you? So why don't you tell me which ones you like more? After I give you a proper taste!" Uno did not have either of his Gazers yet, so for now this would be a Performapal-only show. "I set Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer on the left and Performapal Lizardraw on the right!" The zones received the scales of two and six, Uno could pendulum summon any monster from level 3 to 5.

"Salutiger!" Only one could be called from his hand right now, the army tiger(4/1700/500). "Previously the finisher, now the opener! Since I completed a pendulum summon, Pendulum Sorcerer will add a thousand attackpoints to all my 'Pals' this turn!" The magic of the sorcerer affected the Mole(1600/1000) and the Tiger(2700/500). "This time we have a little dance number to go with it!" Cheermole used her own effect to permanently increase power that was already raised by another effect. A thousand more attackpoints were given to Salutiger(3700/500). "Nothing is too big for them, Iria! Performapal Salutiger attacks Qliphort Disk!" His tigerwarrior gave Uno a salute, before he channeled all his newgained energy into a fierce punch that plowed through the underside of the Diskship. It blew to pieces. Salutiger's effect now met its conditions. It had destroyed a monster, so it could give Uno a Performapal card (Performapal Whip Snake) from his main deck. "And attack number two!" Performapal Cheermole swatted Iria in the face with her pompons. "How was that?"

Iria's LP: 4700

The woman was not amused, he could have predicted that. What Uno did like was seeing and hearing some excitement coming from the crowd. Alice herself was rather quiet tho. "Guess she knows too.." Uno shook his head. He had more things to do. "I activate the pendulum effect of Lizardraw!" Uno destroyed the scale 6 Performapal. "Since I have a Performapal in the other Pendulum zone, Lizardraw can draw one card!" Uno took the next card. The sight of it warmed his heart. "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" He wasted no time with placing it on the field in recently vacated red pendulum zone. "Time for the world to get to know you buddy!" Uno placed a trap card down and ended his turn. "During the endphase, I send Odd-Eyes away to add a Pendulum monster with less than 1500 attackpoints to my hand!" Uno exchanged his dragon for Stargazer Magician. Cheermole(600/1000) and Salutiger(2700/500) lost their powerboosts from the Sorcerer. "That was the end of act one!"

"Hmph. That was.. insuffucient, Uno." Iria scraped some dust off her suit. "Master Dom believed this mirror match would draw a reaction from your pendulum cards, similar to the one you exhibited during your duels with Stonewell and Boris. Yet no such thing occured. This leads me to conclude those events were errors caused by faulty coding." One turn was apparently all she needed to assess his entire deck. "Most damning of all, you have not grasped the full potential of the Masters creation. Uno, let me teach you what a real pendulum summon looks like!" Iria took five cards.. from her extra deck. "Qliphort Helix, Helix, Carrier, Disk, Shell!" All five Qliphorts(4/1800/1000) came back. It did not matter that they had been sacrificed, destroyed or killed; because they were all pendulum monsters. Their destruction sent them face-up to the extra deck, from there they could be resummoned thanks to Qliphort Scout and Qliphort Monolith. As long as Iria controlled those two Pendulum monsters, she could this every turn. "I activate Qliphort Scout." She could also add new Qliphorts to her hand each turn, for a mere 800 lifepoints.

Iria's LP: 3900

Unexpectedly, the card she added was not a pendulum monster. It could not be special summoned at all. "This is Apoqliphort Skybase, a monster that requires three tributes." Iria picked up the Qliphort Helixes and Qliphort Carrier. "These shall be the tributes." The machines were cast into the water, casting an unwordly glow on them. The water parted to reveal a massive city-base(9/2900/2500) that was kept afloat by a doube-ring structure. "With their tribute, their activation conditions have been met. Qliphort Carrier will remove one monster and return it to your hand. Qliphort Helix will destroy a spell or trap card you control." Iria targeted Performapal Cheermole, Pendulum Sorcerer and Erics face-down trap. "You missed one." Performapal Salutiger was left alone for some reason. Uno did not see that as good news. "Apoqliphort Skybase can take control of one monster for one turn, Uno." Iria explained. "What?" Which meant he would have nothing on his field and she would have a total of 9200 attackpoints to hit him with. "That is right, Uno. This test is over. Your defeat was designed from turn one."

"She is going to win in one turn again! How is anyone supposed to duel against that?" The crowd rambled on. They were all prepared to write Uno off. "No.." Alice could not bear to look either. She clasped her hands, hoping for a miracle to happen.

"I'd like to reveal a flaw in your design, Silver!" Uno shouted as loudly as possible. "Huh?" Alice opened her eyes again and saw him activate his trap card before it could be destroyed! "I can still chain my cards to yours! Go, Command Performance!" Bright beams were fired from Salutigers body, as if it were a lightbulb. "This trap switches all your monsters to defense when I control a Performapal!" The beams struck Qliphorts Disk and Shell, forcing them to take a defensive position. Those same beams however were could not reach Skybase as it flew high in the sky. "Eh? It didn't work on it?" The Skybase stayed in attack position. "Did you not read? Apoqliphort Skybase is immune to all spell and trap effects because I tribute summoned it. It also cannot be affected by monsters whose level is inferior to its own. This is in addition to its main effect." Iria clenched her hand as a signal to the Skybase. It shot a tractor beam down upon Performapal Salutiger and dragged it towards Iria's monster zones. "I enter the battle phase, and my monsters will attack." Salutiger had to strike his own boss. Then came the even more powerful attacks from the Apoqliphort machine. It bombarded Uno from above with explosions that covered the entire lake.

Uno's LP: 2400

"You secured yourself one more turn with your trap, I will commend you for that. Yet there is nothing you can do stop Qliphort. No matter how many you destroy, they will always recover." Two new cards were placed in her spell/trap zones. The old card was activated as well. "And they keep what they take. I tribute your Performapal Tiger to activate Tyrants Terror." Salutiger was offered to the tyrant of continuous traps. This one would make her monsters stronger each turn. With that move, Iria ended her turn. "I tributed three Qliphorts this turn." Qliphort Monolith opened the deck and enabled three draws. "I do not believe it is within your power to keep up, Uno." Apoqliphort(3900/2500), Shell(2800/1000) and Disk(2800/1000) were granted an attackboost each.

Tyrants Terror, Continuous Trap
Activate by Tributing 1 monster. Monsters you control gain 1000 ATK during each standby-phase.

"The show isn't over until the fat lady sings, Silver." Uno smirked. "You did not really think I would go down so quickly, did you? Being stopped at the door opening, after everything I went through.. now that would be a joke." Uno talked big. However his deck was not working along. He had no cards that could topple Apoqliphort Skybase, since it was immune to effects like Performapal Whip Snake's statswitching power. "But I can see we need to revise the act a little. This calls for Performapal Recasting!" He activated a spell with that name. "Recasting will trade Performapals in my hand with cards from the deck, with interest!" He shuffled Performapal Whip Snake and Cheermole back into the deck. Performapal Recasting then drew a card for each sent Performapal plus one more by itself. "Yes. This is the cast I need." He drew a spell, Performapal Spike Eagle and Timegazer Magician. "I set the scales!" With no monsters on his field he could place the scale 8 Timegazer Magician in the right zone. His partner, the scale 1 Stargazer Magician, subsequently appeared in the left zone.

"Pendulum summon!" Uno took five cards. "Performapal Spike Eagle, Thunderhino!" The spike-feathered eagle(2/900/900) and a rhinoceros(3/200/1800) with an electrically charged horn were summoned from his hand in attack and defense position respectively. " Performapal Lizardraw, Pendulum Sorcerer!" The orange lizard(3/1200/600) with the mantle of cards and the red wizard(4/1500/800) with the tophat were summoned from the extra deck in attack position. They naturally were not the only ones to escape from there. "And Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" His mighty red dragon(7/2500/2000) took the center zone of the stage, roaring loudly at the Qliphorts.

"Hmph. How predictable." That Odd-Eyes appeared was no twist in Iria's eyes. She had plans prepared for the dragon. "Trap card. Re-Qliate." A continuous trap revealed itself, another on-eyed monolith. "Level 5 or higher monsters that are special summoned will have their effects negated, and they will be banished when they leave the field." A purple glow captured the Pendulum dragon. Its damage-doubling effect was sealed. "You will not be returning that dragon once it dies, Uno."

"Is that so? Looks like I need a new main then! I activate the monster effect of Pendulum Sorcerer!" The special summoned Performapal magician took out a pendant from his sleeve and swung it around. "He can destroy cards I control, to add Performapals from my deck to my hand! He destroys himself and Stargazer Magician!" The pendants wire tangled around his wielder and around the white mage. Both were shattered. "The cards I add are Performapal Partnaga and Performapal Elephammer! They will take over for the two monsters I just lost!" Uno set Partnaga in the blue pendulum zone. Its scale of 3 did not complement Timegazer that well, now that the solo Gazer Magicians scale was reduced to 4. What was important was its attackboosting effect. "Elephammer I introduced last time. Back then he was only special summoned. This time, I will normal summon him... Which I can do without tributes when there are two or more Performapals waiting for him!" The vacant monster zone was given to the hammer-trunk elephant(6/2600/1800). "Here you go, Iria. My band of five against your band of three! Let's see how this goes!"

(To be Continued in Annex 036: No Law is Unbreakable)

New Cards used by Uno
Performapal Thunderhino

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Performapal Cast Change

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Command Performance

New Cards used by Iria Silver
Qliphort Monolith
Qliphort Helix
Apoqliphort Skybase

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Summoners Art

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Tyrants Terror
Re-Qliate