Chapter 37: A God By Any Other Name
One might find a plethora of reasons for their opinion to shower in the morning or to shower at night. None of them medically validated, mind you, but a variety nonetheless. Some believe showering in the morning helps jar them awake and prepares them for the day. Some believe showering at night helps relax the body and prepares them for sleep. A lot of people get sweaty and acquire a powerful stench throughout the day and so shower at night to avoid taking those allergens and pathogens to bed with them, yet others with the same daily behaviors shower in the morning because the stench doesn't bother anyone at night.
Cary's choice was purely based on cosmetics: Her hair was easier to do after a shower, and she never did her hair for bed.
After awakening, checking her email, and reading a few headline stories, Cary put her robe on and walked from her room to the bathroom she shared with Kasumi and Lucy. It was never easier to find time for a shower than when one of her suitemates left campus for two weeks. Much as she wanted to see Lucy again, she wasn't interested in sharing the bathroom with a third person.
Except maybe this morning. The bathroom smelled slightly unusual, but not so much she really noticed. She turned on the water to let it warm before she stepped in. She immediately recognized the oddity: The water coming from the showerhead looked soupy. She stuck one finger in the stream and brought it near her nose to get a whiff and recognized the scent of bouillon. After shutting off the water and unscrewing the showerhead, she found bouillon cubes. Clearly someone thought it was funny to try to cover her and Kasumi in a frothy stench all day.
Matt wasn't that stupid. He knew that Cary could find a way to kill him without leaving any trace evidence behind. Someone else tried this potentially lethal stunt. And his sentence became worse with every passing minute Cary had to spend cleaning out the showerhead.
By the time she got back to her room, showered and ready to go, she had a message waiting from Tai Ishihara, the freshman enrolled after first spending a few years in the Navy as a fighter pilot. He was helping her search for clues to the Ghost Duelist's plans. They hadn't found much related to the Ghost Duelist—Officer Michael Potter, according to Matt—but they did find minor information related to the superstitious history of Duel Academy and the rumors of students disappearing years ago.
The best physical link they found was a reference to the God Cards. According to one of the documents found buried under the previously-called Abandoned Dorm, the God Cards were actually physical temples for fallen angels.
Currently, the only thing they knew for certain about the God Cards was that Bryan had one. He claimed not to have any more, but the hiding place was empty. Either that meant Bryan was lying, Matt was pulling a fast one, or someone else found the hiding place. Bryan had no reason to lie, and Cary was reasonably certain Matt wasn't lying to her this time. Tai wanted to talk to Matt and give his own assessment of the guy's sincerity and to find out the hiding place so he could try his own investigation.
"cant find him. gonna check the woods"
Apparently Matt disappeared again, so Tai was going to go search the hiding place, which he knew was somewhere in the woods near the Guardian House. Cary knew vaguely where the cards were buried and so where Tai was going. But Matt's disappearance bothered her a bit. Odds were good he was just wandering around being moody. (That was kind of his thing lately.) But there was a chance he was suffering from more ghost-hunting side effects.
Sure she worried a little bit about Matt's safety, but she had faith in him not to get himself killed. As prone as he might be to getting into trouble, he was just as likely to emerge from the ordeal relatively unscathed. Maybe there was something she could find online to help figure out what connected the God Cards to the Ghost Duelist. There was no way the God Card disappearance and a resurgence of the Shadow Realm via the Ghost Duelist was coincidence.
Beginning her online research with a site dedicated to Duel Academy superstitions, Cary found a story in which someone claimed new god cards appeared during the current GX Tournament. She remembered hearing that cards named after prominent figures from Norse mythology were played repeatedly by a particularly successful member of the Titus Industries team. But that guy lost and there were only two Titus employees left. Rumor was the Kaiba Corp. team was going to start dueling each other soon enough just to name a single tournament champion.
Someone in the forum provided a link to examples of god cards created as a result of talking to god. The linked page was a poorly-constructed video presentation—very cartoony—of some ritual in which five rectangular people fired a blue laser straight into the sky through an open door straight into the upstairs room, which was filled with pink music staves. The description said the ritual reached directly into an alternate system possessing a singular collective conscious and separated a small piece of the collective, sealing it into playing cards. The author also claimed a list of people involved in the ritual, including Pegasus himself—he even provided a group photo of the fivesome wearing luxurious clothing in front of a truly spectacular fountain, overall probably worth the GDP of Indonesia.
Somehow, the fountain looked familiar. But surely Cary would remember seeing such an ostentatious fountain had she ever laid eyes on it. A web search of the picture brought her to a photographer's portfolio, and the words: "At the Denkard Hotel and Casino in Gathas." The Denkard made sense: It was the only place she knew of where even the receptionists dressed in expensive jewelry. She browsed her CPU for the Pictures folder and brought up the digital photos she received from Bryan and Matt when they spent a weekend at the Denkard almost two years ago. Several pictures meant nothing—such as Bryan putting a quarter in a slot machine or Matt showing off his brand new Duel Disk—but one picture showed Bryan dangling Matt over the edge of the mezzanine, and in the background (the building's ground floor) was a large, decorative fountain identical to the one in the picture of Pegasus.
How odd that a group of card makers alleged to have reached into another world were hanging out at the same casino where Bryan and Matt participated in a dueling competition.
Statistically speaking, thousands of groups may have gathered at that location over the years, but something about the picture still bothered Cary. In addition to Pegasus, there were two attractive women wearing elegant dresses with low bust lines and high slits plus two men who wore tuxedos. One man was a dead ringer for Dr. Apple, a former professor who abandoned his post after last year's classes. In the picture he had more hair, but it was definitely him. And the woman in the red dress, who had Dr. Apple's hands around her midsection, looked strikingly familiar. Following her hunch, she searched through more of Bryan's pictures of the tournament.
Sure enough, one picture was a clear shot of a gorgeous woman, adorned in a perfectly form-fitting dress, taken in profile with a wink at the camera. It was the woman Bryan accused Matt of having a crush on—the one who organized the tournament and owned the Denkard Hotel and Casino: Leona Moxley.
"She knows Pegasus?" Cary wondered aloud.
Now Cary felt like she had a reason to contact Matt. Maybe he kept in touch with Leona Moxley. More likely that was just some fantasy Matt wished were true, but at least he had an in if they decided to call her to fish for information.
As she closed the picture of Leona and the web browser with the picture of Pegasus and caught sight of the "dangling Matt" in the corner of her eye, she noticed something else intriguing. In the corner of the picture, on the ground floor of the casino, Leona Moxley spoke with a man in a white tuxedo jacket. Zooming in just 120%, she recognized the man as Sebastian Arbus, the man who just recently assumed the role of Associate Professor to fill the gap left by Oscar Apple's disappearance.
Suddenly she found a new series of questions. How were Dr. Apple, Leona Moxley, and Sebastian Arbus connected to Pegasus and the God Cards? Scientific inquiry provided her the thought: Are they connected? It certainly would not be the first conspiracy manufactured by misconceptions on the Internet, but these were some interesting coincidences.
Thinking about how quickly Pr. Arbus derailed earlier questions about his connection to rebuilding the so-called Abandoned Dorm, Cary whispered to the screen, "What do you really know?"
She printed the picture and picked up her phone, hitting the speed dial for Matt. Several rings produced no answer but led to the stupid outgoing message on Matt's voicemail: "You found Matt. If you're part of the problem, hang up now! If you think you're part of the solution, I'll be the judge of that."
"What good is having a phone if you don't answer it?" she asked no one as she hung up. This time, she searched Maikeru's number from her Contacts list. As Matt's roommate, he might know where the wayward duelist was.
"Maikeru?"
"Who is this?" The voice on the other end didn't really sound like Maikeru. She didn't put his number in incorrectly: She'd called him before. Did someone else have his phone?
"Um, I was just looking for Maikeru, the guy whose phone you currently have."
"Oh, yeah. The douchebag you called is actually here, but he's screening his calls right now. You can leave a message and hope you're important enough to call back, but I wouldn't get my hopes up." With that, the voice on the other end disconnected.
Shocked, Cary narrowed her eyes at her phone. "Why would Thomas have Maikeru's phone?"
Getting inside the Yellow Dorm was easier than it should have been for a resident of another dormitory. One exiting resident simply held the door for Cary, possibly hoping she'd remember the chivalry if they crossed paths again. And the door to Matt's room was unlocked. Assuming caution as she turned the knob, Cary stood out in the hall as she pushed the door open.
"Thomas?" she said, surprised to see the enormous beard with a skinny guy growing out of it, seated leisurely in Matt's chair with his feet on Matt's desk. The file holder was on its side, the Dominos cup no longer held any pens, and the lamp lay on the floor with a broken bulb.
Beyond the desk, the room was a shambles. Clothes piled up in front of both closets, Matt's bed had one broken leg, the refrigerator door was off center, two wall posters were torn, and papers littered the floor. Matt was a bit meticulous when it came to putting his belongings in their respective places. Clearly he hadn't been here in a while.
"Where's Matt?" Thomas Estrada demanded.
"I don't know. Where's Maikeru?"
With a slight nod of his head, he answered, "He's sleeping."
Maikeru lay on his bed facedown. There was a small crack in the wall just over his head. With this new information, Cary got a closer look at Thomas. He had beads of sweat forming around his hairline.
"Is he okay?"
"I don't care about him. Where's Matt?"
"Well, I care about him. We'll talk when I know he's okay." Thomas popped out of the chair, allowing it to fall over backward and slam into the floor, but it didn't startle Cary enough to stop her from rolling Maikeru over and checking his breathing. It seemed unobstructed considering his nose had a slight stream of blood. It looked more like the result of a cut instead of a broken blood vessel. There was a bruise on his head that wasn't going to be pretty for the next few days.
"Why did you hit him?"
Thomas scoffed. "He's useless. He wouldn't tell me where to find Matt."
"Why do you want him so badly? Is it because he and Kasumi broke up?"
"No." He paused momentarily, seeming confused. "Wait. They broke up?" He clenched a fist in excitement, but he said, "It doesn't matter. Matt is the key to enacting the Ghost's plan, so I'm here to take it first."
With no discernible emotion in her voice, Cary asked, "What?"
"It doesn't matter if you understand. The End of Days is coming. The Ghost is trying to control the Rapture. I want to be the one pulling the strings instead. But to do that, I need to find Matt and mark him myself."
Cary stared silently for a moment, not certain how to interpret that. "Are you going to pee on him?"
"No! I'm going to duel him!"
There it was. A game of Duel Monsters was the ultimate battle of wills. In her third year, this still felt like a world Cary would never understand. But her lack of understanding did not constitute a lack of capability. And she fit into the world well, carrying her Duel Disk on her arm everywhere she went.
"How about you duel me instead?"
She might have expected resistance, but Thomas smirked instead. "Why not? That'll wile away a half hour while I wait for Matt. And you are one mark no one has been able to obtain."
"Better be careful how you go about marking me," she replied. "I kick, and I bite. So if you're up for it, let's just duel instead."
He lifted his Duel Disk and activated it, launching his hologram projectors straight into the heater on one side and the door frame on the other. Dorm rooms were not suited to the space normally required for a duel.
"I will set a monster and two facedown cards," Thomas said. "That's all I'll need."
"I'll bet."
Cary started by enabling the hologram projectors to turn the room into a valley between high-reaching, sheer cliffs on all sides, with a fading sunset in the backdrop. "Dragon Ravine's effect lets me discard Dragunity Phalanx to move Light and Darkness Dragon from my deck to the Graveyard. I'll summon Dragunity Aklys (2/1000/800)," a red dragon whose wings grew from its head, capped by a spear head. "When I Normal Summon this card, I can Special Summon Dragunity Arma Mystletainn (6/2100/1500) and equip it with Dragunity Aklys. Additionally, summoning Mystletainn this way equips him with Phalanx from the Graveyard." A tall, yellow-scaled, bipedal dragon with one set of scaled wings and one set of feathered wings appeared on the field, arming itself with the spear head of the red dragon on one arm and the twin-bladed bracer of a blue dragon on the other arm. "Equipped as it is, Phalanx (2/500/1100) summons itself to the field." The yellow dragon released its grip on the blue dragon, allowing it to position its muscular body in attack position.
"Do your turns ever end?" Thomas asked.
"The holograms make it take, like, eight times as long as it would on tabletop. Anyway, I'll force your card and attack." Mystletainn flew across the field and thrust its spear head weapon into Thomas's facedown Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu (2/500/500), an old man whose muscles were as tempered as the steel he forged.
"You flipped Kotetsu, so I can move Big Bang Shot from my deck to my hand."
"No wonder you let me attack. What if Phalanx attacks?" The smaller, blue dragon zipped across the field with greater speed and plowed its horns into Thomas directly. "I'll play Trade-In, letting me discard Leyvaten (8) to draw two new cards. And now I will set one card and then end my turn."
"And when you do that," Thomas interjected, "I'll activate Scapegoat." Four multi-colored Sheep Tokens (1/0/0) appeared on his field in defense mode.
"Why not save yourself the direct attack?" Cary wondered.
"I have my reasons."
Cary 8000: Thomas 8000 – 500 = 7500.
Thomas grinned at the field. "You are aware of my deck theme, right?"
"You're one of the few people who haven't changed a thing since freshman year, so yes, I have a pretty good idea what to expect."
"Then you recognize Armed Samurai – Ben Kei (4/500/800)." This samurai was a hooded man armed with more than a dozen weapons along his body. "For every card equipped on him, he gains an extra attack during this turn. I plan to end the duel immediately."
"How's that?"
"To start, I'll equip Ben Kei (+4500) with United We Stand to give him an extra 800 attack points for every monster on my field. In addition, I'll give him Big Bang Shot to increase his points by another 400 and give him the ability to inflict Piercing damage."
Cary shrugged. "Which doesn't really affect my two attack-position monsters. You just want three attacks."
"That's true," Thomas agreed. "So let's start with the first attack." Ben Kei (+4900) charged across the field, somehow adeptly wielding three spears simultaneously.
"Before that," Cary decided, "I'll activate Urgent Tuning." Suddenly, Phalanx began to resonate loudly. It perched itself on top of Mystletainn until both monsters resonated in unison and combined into Red Archfiend Dragon (8/3000/2000), a mighty, red-and-black dragon. "The Synchro Summon sent Aklys to the Graveyard, and so the effect activates to destroy one card on the field."
Thomas groaned. "Great."
The red dragon flew lifelessly across the field and skewered United We Stand, shattering one of Ben Kei's spears.
"Hey, wait. What gives? I thought you would target Ben Kei (-900)!"
With a nod, Cary said, "I know you did. But I'll bet your set card is one designed to protect your samurai without protecting your Spells, and United We Stand is far and away the most dangerous of them."
Thomas was not pleased with her level of intuition. Suffering a brief stun from losing his spear, Ben Kei missed with both assaults. The tall dragon reached out to the disoriented samurai with its powerful clawed hand, crushing him instantly.
"Next time, perhaps," Thomas grumbled. "I'll set one card and end my turn."
Cary 8000: Thomas 7500 – 1000 = 6500.
"Using the effect of Dragon Ravine," Cary explained, "I'll place another copy of Dragunity Corseca in my hand. By playing Dragon Mastery, I can equip Corseca in my hand to Red Dragon Archfiend (+3500) on the field." A pink-scaled dragun with a long, thin, sword-like snout attached itself to the taller dragon's forearm. "Then I'll summon Dragunity Dux (4/+2600/1000)." This new monster wore white robes and had almost mechanical wings on his back, and Aklys rose again almost instantly from the Graveyard, using its body to weaponize Dux's arm. "Dux can equip any Dragunity monster from the Graveyard. Now you'll lose your flock." Her mighty dragon reared up and reached out again, this time with a clawed hand accented by a spear head. It grabbed all four sheep simultaneously and crushed them together in a single, shocking clench. "Sorry, but when the Archfiend Dragon destroys a defense position monster, all other monsters you have in defense mode get destroyed with it. That leaves you wide open for attack from Dux." Whipping his cat-o-nine-tails, he struck Thomas repeatedly with only a single strike.
Cary 8000: Thomas 6500 – 2600 = 3900.
"I've been holding this card because I didn't think I'd need it," Thomas said as he laid Pot of Greed and drew two more cards. With a slight scowl, he uttered, "It seems the cards still aren't in my favor. I'll set one monster and another card."
"Then I'll be able to end the duel now. Using Dragon Mastery, I'll equip Dragunity Phalanx to Red Dragon Archfiend (+4000)." Her powerful dragon now bore a blue-and-gold, twin-bladed bracer on its arm. "Dragunity Dux (2600) will lead the assault."
As her monster pulled back his weapon, Thomas activated his facedown card. A powerful gravitational field expanded across the field and pinned both her monsters. The gravity was suddenly too intense for an attack to be possible. "Gravity Bind will protect me for the time being."
"Crap," Cary uttered. "Fine. You go."
"You used all your cards on the first half of the duel, and now you've stalled," he pointed out. "This is my perfect chance to resurge. I'll summon Sunlight Unicorn (4/1800/1000)," a white horse with blue flames in place of its tail and mane and a single horn upon its forehead. "With this effect, I look at the top card on my deck—" he picked it up— "and it is Mist Body. That means I get to put it in my hand. That's all for this turn."
Cary rolled her eyes as she drew another monster she couldn't play yet. "I think the duel really gets its pace from the slow turns, don't you?"
"It's what determines how well a duelist actually plays. I'll demonstrate, first by flipping Magical Merchant (1/200/700)," a small arachnid carrying a large rucksack on its back. Thomas began taking cards from the top of his deck until he drew a Spell or Trap; he discarded only two monsters before taking Mage Power into his hand. "I'll also use Sunlight Unicorn's effect again." He looked at the top card on his deck, but because it was a monster, he put it back at the bottom of the deck. "I'll end this turn by summoning Exiled Force (4/1000/1000)," a group of five men armed with only basic armaments.
"That's all you've got?" She drew her card, which was another Dragunity monster. "By removing Dux from play, I can summon Dragunity Arma Leyvaten (8/2600/1200) from my hand." Her winged beast disappeared and gave way to a large, orange-scaled biped with prominent feathered wings and lesser scaled wings, armed with a sword that had a hooked blade. As her dragon reared, a shadow grew behind it. Suddenly the dragon grew two additional tails and wings—one each white and black—as Light and Darkness Dragon from her Graveyard equipped itself to the Dragunity Arma.
"What is that monstrosity?" Thomas asked.
"Leyvaten equips any dragon from my Graveyard when summoned."
Thomas shrugged. "Does it do anything?"
"You mean does it give Leyvaten any special abilities? No, it does not. It just looks badass."
Pulling a card from his deck, he said dryly, "Alright." Thomas grinned like a kid at Christmas. "Are you ready for the big play?"
"I guess it's your turn to do something," Cary commented. "You are allegedly going to take control of the Rapture, right?"
"Exactly. So watch in awe as I destroy you. First, I'll play my facedown Blast with Chain." The Magical Merchant (+700) suddenly held a long chain, attached at the end to three sticks of dynamite that looked ready to explode at any moment by Red Dragon Archfiend's feet. "I'll play Heavy Storm." A powerful whirlwind kicked up all across the field, whipping all Equip Cards and Gravity Bind around while the monsters stood safely in the eye of the storm.
"You know what happens when you destroy Aklys while it's equipped," Cary said. "Your unicorn gets destroyed." The red dragon flew through the air like an errant spear, ultimately piercing through the majestic unicorn.
"The same thing happens with Blast with Chain is destroyed." The dynamite in front of Red Dragon Archfiend exploded, completely removing the mighty dragon in a single cloud of smoke.
"Annoying," Cary admitted. "But a waste of effort. When Light and Darkness Dragon is sent to my Graveyard, all cards on my field are destroyed. Then again, it does revive the copy of Leyvaten already in my Graveyard." Her orange dragon with the white and black wings and tails reappeared on the field.
"Well, keep watching. I'll play Monster Reborn to revive Ben Kei (500) from the Graveyard." But the reappearance of his hooded samurai was not the surprise tactic. "By sending Magical Merchant and Exiled Force to the Graveyard, I summon Gilford the Legend (8/2600/2000)." A heavy wind picked up, dropping a blinding veil of dust around the field. As the dust thinned, a shadow appeared, drawing into view a bulky man, cape billowing with the sands, decked in armor horned at the shoulders and mask. He held before him a single broadsword as large as himself, and carried yet two more swords on his back.
"Gilford the Legend," Cary said with assumed awe. "A warrior for whom armaments are at his beck and call. Few have matched his technique."
"And you never will. Upon summoning, he bestows Ben Kei (+2500) with United We Stand and Big Bang Shot." Armed with two new spears, Ben Kei seemed just as fearsome as earlier. "In addition, I'll give him Mist Body and Mage Power: Now Ben Kei (+4500) gains another 2000 points, and he's immune to destruction in battle."
"Yeah, that was a real possibility," Cary jeered.
"Ben Kei gets five attacks this turn, and you have no Traps," Thomas pointed out. "This duel is over." The hooded samurai leaped across the field and thrust his spear into Cary's dragon, sending it straight to the Graveyard. "And he's ready to attack again."
"Not yet," Cary said. "When Light and Darkness Dragon is sent to the Graveyard, all my cards are destroyed, and then Leyvaten (2000) is revived, this time in defense mode. And again, Leyvaten is equipped with Light and Darkness Dragon from the Graveyard."
Thomas's expression fell. "I see a pattern here."
"So do I," she replied. "What got you so greedy?" He didn't have an instant reply. In fact, he looked surprised. "You used to be a pretty great guy, from what Kas told me. You're smart, you got skills, you're actually fairly handsome. Do you remember how you met Kasumi?"
For just a moment, Thomas had a dreamy look on his face. "We were in prep school together. She was the prettiest girl around. All the guys wanted her, but I knew I was going to make her mine. She had the best hair, the tightest legs, and the biggest boobs."
"And how did you get her?" Cary asked, intentionally ignoring the shallow initial reasons for pursuing her best friend. "She wouldn't go for a guy who spends all his time focusing on himself. To woo her, you had to give of yourself, too. Selflessness goes a long way in a relationship."
"But she left me for that bastard friend of yours," he growled. He snapped a look at Matt's alarm clock on the floor. "Where is he, anyway?"
Cary didn't care right then. "You lost her because you stopped being sweet to her. You let Bryan threaten you and turn you possessive. She doesn't like being treated like property. She wants nothing more than to be an equal, to have what you have and to share everything."
Thomas's stern expression softened tremendously. It seemed as if he may actually be experiencing some internal battle with himself—his ambition versus his longing for Kasumi.
"She and Matt weren't right for each other. But if you aren't willing to let her come first once in a while, you won't have a chance with her, either."
"It's too late." Thomas shook his head and repeated, "It's too late for me to stop now. The Ghost Duelist is bringing the Rapture unless I do it first. I would have saved Kasumi already if she hadn't wasted her energy against that annoying bug with the Cyberdark cards."
That was when Cary realized the reason she couldn't tell what kind of power Thomas claimed to have is that he was keeping it all for himself. He was too greedy to waste it on a duel like the pawns of the Shadow Realm did. "There's always a chance for redemption," Cary reassured him.
Cary 8000 – 1900 = 6100: Thomas 3900.
"Do you really believe you can save me? Abolish my sin and protect me from the Rapture I wish to bring?"
"I know two things for certain: You are not the embodiment of evil, and our generation is not cool enough to be alive for the Rapture." She winked. "If you focus all of your greed into this duel—put everything on the line—then I will prove your greed can be beaten. What do you think?"
He sneered. "I think you're crazy. But I'm willing to see what you want to show me."
"Good. Here's a timely card," Cary said. "Advance Draw lets me send Leyvaten to the Graveyard to draw two more cards. Of course, that won't matter because the Leyvaten-Light and Darkness loop activates again to summon my monster back to the field."
"That monster still can't win alone. If you really want to prove something to me, this is your chance."
"Deal."
Cary drew her first card simply enough, but her second card brought a wave of warmth that disoriented her momentarily as a golden light flashed her vision and blinded her. She forced herself to blink a few times when her eyesight returned. "That was weird," she uttered.
But not as weird as the card in her hand. It was called Chrysopoeia, and the image showed a bar of refined metal—lead on one end and gold on the other. She recognized the card—it had helped her beat one of Dr. Apple's minions in a duel—but she hadn't seen it since then. What was the card, and where did it come from?
"Did your deck not understand the need to prove a point?" Thomas mocked.
"No, I'm good," Cary spoke hesitantly. She tried to hold tightly to the magic card while she played the rest of her hand. "I'll activate Dark Hole." A small, white mass appeared in the center of the field, generating a gravitational field powerful enough to draw all matter in a swirl as far away as the monster zones. When Leyvaten, Ben Kei, and Gilford hit the center, the mass imploded, disappearing into thin air. "But again, Leyvaten returns with the Light and Darkness Dragon. And now the field is set for an attack." Her multi-colored dragon swung his heavy blade directly into Thomas, delivering a devastating blow.
"Almost," Thomas said. "But almost only counts in horseshoes." He pointed to the Chrysopoeia card Cary clutched so tightly. "Are you planning to play that card to prove your point?"
"No," she replied after glancing at the card again. Its effect would let her transform a monster on her field into another monster. Essentially, she could have used it to turn Leyvaten into Ben Kei, thus granting her dragon an extra attack because of its equipped card, but she worried that the card might disappear again as soon as she played it. That's what happened last time. "I'm using this one instead." She played a card from her other hand. "It's called Mystical Space Typhoon." A powerful storm whipped up in the sky, and a single bolt of lightning struck Light and Darkness Dragon, sending it to the Graveyard. "When Light and Darkness Dragon is destroyed, it clears my field and revives a monster from my Graveyard."
"It can't revive Leyvaten. It was on the field at the time of the effect."
"Yes, but I have a second Leyvaten (2600) in the Graveyard." For the last time in this duel, her orange dragon sprouted two additional tails and wings. "Because this is a new monster, it gets a whole new attack." When this dragon dropped his heavy blade, Thomas felt the effects.
Cary 6100: Thomas 3900 – 2600 – 2600 = 0.
The air around Thomas turned black, like a veil of perfect shadow emerging from within his skin. It didn't spread like a mist the way Cary always heard the Shadows moved. After slowly spilling from Thomas's skin, the power erupted in a powerful explosion that rocked the room. Cary was shoved back into the bed and stumbled on top of Maikeru; papers and books swirled around the room; window panes rocked and one dislodged; and the hallway door blasted open and slammed into the wall, sharing the deafening howl with the other residents of the dorm. Cary braced herself on the bed for what felt like twenty minutes until all that darkness Thomas held for himself dispersed and faded.
Cary was awakened by a silver-haired boy who wandered into the room when he saw the broken door. Sean Bivins stood over her, offering her a hand up. He was fairly strong as he helped her. "Are you okay?"
"Mostly confused," she answered.
"What happened to Maikeru?"
"Thomas beat him up."
"What happened to Thomas?"
She looked at the overwhelmed young man who allowed his desire to take everything the world could offer wear him down and nearly break his spirit. He was bleeding from his cheek, possibly from hitting Matt's desk as he passed out. "He beat the darkness."
An hour later, Cary lay on her favorite couch in the airport lounge—a room in the registration building nicknamed for the general, sterile colors of the furniture and the multitude of flags presented along the walls, representing the nations from which students attended Duel Academy. She tried not to doze off as she lay there with her laptop, hoping to learn something about Chrysopoeia. Even though she didn't play it, her magic card had disappeared again by the time Sean awoke her.
"Are you okay?"
She looked up to see Tai Ishihara approaching her. He looked like he still had as much vigor as the day he got to Duel Academy. Apparently he wasn't being pushed hard enough. "You have an update?"
"Good to see you, too. I heard you had a tough morning."
"And it's over now, though I may ask you to kill Cain Valin for me."
"Why?"
"Soupy shower. What'd you find out?"
He accepted the brush-off and agreed to move on. "Well, I heard rumblings of a possible investigation into the shipping department of Titus Industries."
"Interesting but unhelpful. They'll need physical evidence before any kind of real investigation can be launched. What else?"
"Sgt. Baker said he'll do a little digging into Potter's history to see if there is any reason to believe Matt's claim, but I get the feeling he doesn't believe it's even possible Potter is the Ghost Duelist. As reluctant as he is, I wouldn't count on much police support. They do tend to give the benefit of the doubt to their own."
"Then we'll check his home directly. Anything else?"
Tai picked up his phone and emailed a link straight to Cary. "I may have found a clue about the God Cards. It's probably best for you to see it yourself."
Curious, Cary opened the link and watched the news webpage open up. The headline stated, "Legendary Card Played in National Tournament." She clicked on the embedded video and watched a low-quality video of a man holding a Duel Disk. When he placed a card on his Duel Disk, a large, black creature hit the field harder than any hologram—hard enough to knock over a podium on the edge of the stage. The creature was humanoid in shape and possessed godly muscular tone, but most catching was the Egyptian headdress on its head.
"At 2115 last night our time, someone out there," Tai summarized, "summoned Obelisk the Tormentor."
I'm finding it harder and harder to write duels these days. There are only three chapters remaining in this part of the story. By chance, is there anyone out there who would like to team up for the next part? I feel I can make more compelling characters if I can stop worrying so much about the cards and getting all the plays right (which I often do not. I hope I got it right this time). Something to think about.
Next chapter: The GX Tournament draws to a close, and Matt finds the elusive Ghost Duelist just in time to suffer a duel of another sort. Will Kaiba Corp. fall to Titus Industries? Will Matt give in to the sins of his past? Will I manage to write an entire duel without any technical mistakes? Find out next time.
Weekly Trivia: It is so much easier to write these one-character chapters, but I have way too many characters for everyone to get the spotlight.
Credits:
Cain Valin...FE96jAFFAR
Tai Ishihara...ZAFT Prime
Maikeru Stone...onyxshade7
Sean Bivins...DarkVestroia2