(Cipher 43) 209: Transcience
"You do not have him anymore? How?" Rita was not sure she had heard Pandora correctly. Pandora had 'lost' Claud? What did that even mean?! But Rita, for all her grief, was not the only one to have been dealt a great blow. "I do not know. I do not understand. He was here, and then he wasn't." There was something in its world, in this universe, that the Infinite could not explain.
It was a bizarre sight to see confusion written on 'her' face, to hear fear in Its voice. It almost looked like Pandora could break down at any moment. "You tried to hold him back, didn't you?" It was an edge that Azar would use. "When you saw how I dueled Subito, you gave everyone new Numbers to strengthen your control over them. When that failed for Claud, you made him summon the Pandorian Hope card so he would have to deny his own death. That did not work either." There was a reason for everything that had happened to Claud, and Pandora had not been it. "Somehow the real Claud came back, not the one you made. You could not keep that Claud in control anymore." Wherever Claud was, he was free from Pandora.. forever. The Infinite would not be able to recreate him or his Overhundred Number. The card of Number 105 lied on the rooftop, withered and grey. That entity had disappeared to who knew where. It had not found a new host.
"No I.." Pandora had no response, another phenomenon new to it. "This was a freak occurence. A flaw in the system." Once that episode passed she started to search for answers, and forgiveness. "Rita. I know what you are feeling right now. I did not want this to happen either. I can make him better, I can! I just need time. You trust me. You do.." It pleaded, holding Rita's hands with its own. "Stay away from me!" Rita wanted nothing to do with it, she did not even want to be touched. "Stay away from us! Everything you do is... is wrong! You don't know a single thing about love! Just get the hell out of our life!" Rita screamed until she could scream no more. Whatever control Pandora had tried to assert over her during the duel had been broken with Clauds last words.
"You mean it." The Infinite did not respond with anger, or intimidation. There was only a slight hint of pain. "This is nothing. Everyone will see.. I. I..I will not let death win." Yet it defied Rita's wishes. Pandora grabbed Claud. "NO! Give him back!" Rita tried to take back Claud, but she was pushed back by an invisible wall of energy. "Pandora! You cannot control the whole universe! This is how it always has been!" Azar shouted at her to stop as well. "Then that has to change, and I will change it. I can change it!" Pandora swore, before teleporting away. "No! You can't.." Rita's arm stretched out to where Claud had been moments ago. He was gone, this was not how it was supposed to be.
".. There is nothing more we can do, Rita." Azar yelled. Had it been any other time, he would have tried to be less forceful. Yet with Pandora distracted, they had to use their time well. Azar knew that Rita was stronger than she thought she was. "You..want me to let go? How dare you!.." Getting her angrier was a necessary step as well. "Whatever Pandora has, it will not bring Claud back. Wherever Claud is now, it is beyond Its reach. If we are lucky It will focus all attention on this problem. We would be free to defeat the remaining overhundred numbers and save Ariel, Ion and Xander! Nobody else needs to be hurt!" Subito had died because he had pushed himself beyond his limits. The others should not pass away just from losing their Numbers, Azar reasoned. "Nobody but Ion." There was a gap in that logic, which Necara reminded Azar of. Ion was the same as Claud. He was one of Pandora's revived. "We will cross that bridge when we get there."
"You are right." To Azars surprise, Rita had calmed down already. He did not think he would get this result so quickly. "That is how you feel?" He could not tell if she was lying to him, not without reading her thoughts. Azar did not want to go that far. "Yes. Claud is not here anymore. I get it now." She smiled slightly. "Call the others already."
...
Dakar was in two places at once. Ruby and Korose had passed their trials, he could now undergo his of the remaining Echoes was chosen by Dakar; a thin figure in concealing robes. He was dragged down into the subconscious world. Whoever this Echo was in his previous life, the mindscape of his choice was no sight for sore eyes. It was a large building in ruins, set ablaze. They stood outside in the blackened gardens. The only safe fixture was the small platform of debris that Dakar stood on. "You chose the right man!" A cackling gleeful voice came from underneath the hood. "Like you, I am an agent of death. We know Him intimately!" A boney withered hand emerged from one of the cloaks sleeves. If it had not been for his youthfulvoice, Dakar would have thought this man was as a century old. "Agent of death?" Ignoring that, his words did not sit well with Dakar either.
"You are in the funeral business, aren't you? Your family has seen plenty of corpses and heard plenty of wails. In another world, some of those people might have been my victims." The cloak laughed again. "What?" As if Dakar was not unsettled enough yet. "Oh come now, don't be squeamish. My past does not matter to me and you! The trial does! I was simply saying that, in another universe, we would have been the perfect pair! Like me you have to keep your true self hidden, but deep down you like death." Cracking noises came from under the robe as the man moved his head from left to right. "So for this trial, things will be different for both of us! We like things to end, but it never will. Life will never deplete, nothing but a full measure of death can end this fight! The deck will never run out, no deck destruction tactics work here! Those are the demands of your opponent, the Dueling Reaper!"
Dakars LP: 8000 Reapers LP: 8000
After the Reaper placed one monster down, Dakar could begin his turn. "I enjoy death? You have gotten the wrong impression." He did not have to alter his deck much, but he was wondering how far this handicap went. "And no life can be taken?" He summoned Gravekeepers Spear Soldier(4/1500/1000) and activated Necrovalley. The Valley boosted the Soldier(2000/1500)'s powers. Dakar made that monster attack the enemy's face-down monster. "Indeed!" The soldiers spear snapped as it hit the body of a tiny white rabbit(1/150/2050) with bloodshot red eyes. It was a Bunilla monster, and Dakar could not kill it. "Tch." Dakar should have lost 50 lifepoints during that attack, but... his lifepoints remained unchanged. "I can't take damage? No, that isn't it." Dakar had noticed a very quick drop of points that was immediately cancelled out. "Any damage is immediately undone?" To win, to make his life stay down, he would need to inflict 8000 points of damage or more, in one go. "..I set a card in my spell/trap zone and end my turn."
"You get it. Now, of course, I am not going to wait around for you to die like that." The Reapers turn started and he activated the card he drew in his draw phase. "Heart of the Underdog! Now what could this mean, hmm?" He chuckled as he placed another monster face down and ended his turn. "There are few reasons to run a card like that, Reaper." If he took the opponents preference for defensive monsters into account, Dakar could only come up with one conclusion. "You are an Exodia user." An alternate win condition was another method to break through the limit of this trial. "Bingo! I am the Dueling Reaper, the king of the One-Turn Kill. And I have killed many. You should feel honored to be my last victim! You will finally get to experience death for yourself!" Dakars opponent erupted into another fit of laughter. "You will have to forgive me for rejecting your offer. Everyone dies, I know. But I intend to go peacefully. Not like this." Dakar activated the spell card, Card Destruction. "Hm?" Both players had to swap the cards in their hands with new cards from their deck.
"Oh no! You got me!" The Reaper discarded four cards, including a piece of Exodia. His Left Leg. "..is what you would like to hear, right? Remember what I said? The deck does not run out! During each endphase, the cards we discard will return to our deck! Necrovalley cannot stop this condition! And thanks to you.. " The Reaper happily revealed one of his new four cards, the Head of Exodia the Forbidden One. "You drew the only effect-monster out of the five parts. Damn." Depending on how many spells or traps the Reaper had in his deck, he could draw all four remaining pieces in his next draw phase already! Heart of the Underdog allowed a player to keep drawing during his draw phase if the drawn cards were normal monsters. All of the Reapers monsters had been normal so far. Heart of the Underdog was probably his only spell card too. "It's more like he chose this challenge to maximize his profits." Dakars standard style did not work well in this situation, while the Reaper gained a lot from it.
"I know what to do." As he controlled a field spell he could special summon Malefic Stardust Dragon, the armored sinful dragon(8/2500/2000) from his hand by banishing the original Stardust Dragon from the extra deck. "I also summon Plaguespreader Zombie from my graveyard by placing one of my cards on top of my deck." Dakar returned a random spell to his deck, and brought out the carrier zombie(2/400/200) that he had discarded before with Card Destruction. Necrovalley did not stop cards that took themselves out of the graveyard. "And now.." Dakar flipped his trap card, Aegis of Gaia, gaining 3000 lifepoints while that continuous trap stayed on his field. "You realize restoring your life will not save you from Exodia either?" The Reaper was curious why Dakar would use such a card
Dakars LP: 11000
"What is it, to you? This card is not breaking your rules, is it? You will understand.. now. I have three monsters, precisely what I need to tribute summon one of my Divine Beasts!" Malefic Stardust was tributed along with the Gravekeepers Spear Soldier and Plaguespreader Zombie. "Divine Beast? What is that thing!?" The Reaper for once was not grinning, as the trio of sacrifices formed a golden sphere(10/0/0) in the air. "This is the Winged Dragon of Ra, the third of the three god cards. It demands three sacrifices to be normal summoned and can not be special summoned. But.." Sounds came from within the sphere. The outer shell was folding outwards like a pair of wings. "When it is summoned, I can give up all but 100 of my lifepoints. Those lifepoints will be added to Ra as attackpoints!" Dakar disappeared from his place on the duel field, like a wisp of smoke. "My life will become his power!" Dakar shouted as his body re-emerged on top of the dragons head. The mighty sundragon(10900/0) had revealed his true golden dragonic form.
"These are not the extents of its powers, Reaper!" The 10900 lifepoints that Dakar had payed were immediately returned to him. "By paying 1000 lifepoints, the great Ra can destroy any living monster!" Dakar payed 1000 of his lifepoints twice to target Bunilla and the other face-down monster. "You are.." A phoenix of flames was formed from a golden ring on the gods back. "Not joking?" The Phoenix wiped out both of the Reapers monsters. The life Dakar had to pay to do so was also immediately replenished. "This is what you wanted, Reaper! The full measure of death!" Now Ra collected divine sun-fire to attack the enemy with. "Direct attack!" The Reaper was given 10900 points of damage, more than he could heal back. A One-Turn Kill had been made.
Reapers LP: 0
"I don't understand." The hooded duelist was physically unharmed by the flames. Mentally, he had difficulties coming to terms with his loss. "Why bring me back, if I do not get to add another name to my list. Who was supposed to die, if not you!?" His boney hand stretched out. "The goal of these trials was not to kill us, was it?" Dakar dismissed Ra and kept his distance from the Reaper. "And this should be.. ?!" That was when Dakar felt a tremor that ran through this entire hellish wasteland. "No, not this." This sensation was not new to Dakar, it was terrifyingly recent. A similar pulse had hit him, when Subito had died. "Oh. If not you then..heheh. Someone else?" The reaper enjoyed the emotions displayed by Dakar. "Send me back, I must return now!" Dakar demanded. It could have been anyone who died, even.. "If that is what the victor wishes. But you should know..." The reaper raised one finger. ".. there is one more trial. The last Echo is waiting for any of you who has succeeded before. If you do not come, you will not get what you want and you will forever lose.."
...
"Ariel!" The first word that came out of Dakars mouth when he returned to the real world, was uttered out of sheer horror. "Dakar? Dakar it's okay!..its not her." Ruby immediately came to him. Oddly she already seemed to be aware of what troubled him. "How..what do you know?" Ruby and Korose were not connected to the Seven, so how could either have found out one more of them had died? "Azar messaged us. He reached Korose on the D-pad network and opened a private chatroom. It was Claud who.." Ruby stopped to listen to what she was saying herself. "No. That's not okay, is it. I'm sorry, I thought any good news would be welcome." It did not matter that it was not his sisters death, it was still a tragedy. "Claud? He..why?" Dakar refused to feel any relief. "I have no specifics to pass on from Azar." Korose approached. "He explained to me how Claud and Subito died. Subito fell because he pushed himself too far, to save the others. Claud realized he was never meant to be brought back, and passed on." Korose wished it could have been better news, but that was what Azar had said. "I know this is not much of a comfort, but I believe this does not mean that Ariel and Xander will suffer the same fate. I only fear for what will happen to Ion..real or not." Either way there was nothing they could do for Claud and Subito.
"Wait. How can Azar be talking to us, wasn't he saying that Pandora would be monitoring every network?" Dakar changed the subject. "He says something happened with Pandora that allowed him to call us. He was hoping we had all finished the trials and that we could reunite some place else. We should not duel anyone but the Seven now, because our lives and theirs are connected. We lose lifepoints, we will not gain it back after a duel." There were four of them now, and four opponents remained. They had to take good care of their lifepoints. "Is he online right now?" Dakar asked. Korose nodded. "Tell him.." Dakar looked at the shadowy figures that were still around them. "The Echoes demand one more trial. I don't think Azar can open the portal before then. I also know a place where we can meet.."
"I shall." Korose started typing on the pad. "I..hrm." His first message got through. That was not the problem. "I can not get a signal anymore." The fact that the D-pad lost its connection to the network right after that was. "Can't? The D-pad is glitching out on us now, of all times? I find that hard to believe." Ruby said with a grumble. There were coincidences and then there was this. "We were cut off." Korose also understood very well that this was not random error. There was a form of technology that could shut down long-range communications, a technology the agency was fond of using. "A barrier."
"They are here." Too late, Dakar had checked for signs of other Numbers too late. "Some of them are." Two Overhundred Numbers were nearby, there was no mistaking his senses now. Even the Echoes stared off into a distance beyond the walls of the haunted house. They felt the same power. "Do you think they spotted us? Maybe your illusion wore off too quick while you were doing that trial?" It was not as if Ruby could tell when an illusion was on or not from the inside. "No. It's not that. Pandora might still have been listening in on us after all. Or the Seven already suspected us to be here and put up a shield around the entire region to cut us off. Xander can pull something like that off if he has enough time. If the barrier is that big and strong, I wont be able to teleport through it." Azar would not be able to get inside either. "And what if Xander is dragged into a duel? Would that kind of distraction make him less focused on keeping that cage of his up?" Ruby asked. "It would weaken it over time. But what are you saying, Ruby?"
"I am saying maybe we need to make our stand here." Ruby activated her D-pad. "I did the trial, so now I can challenge one of them, right? Let me take care of Xander right now."
...
"Damn it!" Azar shouted as he noticed the connection had broken off on his end. "They know they're there. A barrier closed them off!" He had not gotten the time to ask Korose where they would meet. He did not think they could escape anyway. "If this is about Xander and Ariel, I can tell you where they are." If Korose and the others had been found, then Rita could simply point Azar to the 'finders'. "That is the only course we can take now, yes. Where.."
"Azar."
"?!" Before Azar could shut his D-pad off, he received a new message. It was a vocal one. "..Darcy?" He was surprised. This voice belonged to miss Lawless. He had also nearly forgotten about her. He did not think she was included in the overall trial, though he still expected her to be see them as an enemy. "Everything has gotten out of hand. Pandora will not... I want to help you." She sounded sincere, to Azar. "What? You think we are gonna trust you after all you did?" To Rita, not as much. "There is no time to argue. I don't know when she will stop me..if she will stop me. But she got to everyone else, all the guards here are... They aren't dead, but.. It's better if you come see yourself."
(To be Continued in Cipher 210: Six Ways to Five figures)
New Cards used by Dakar Serin
Plaguespreader Zombie
The Winged Dragon of Ra
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Aegis of Gaia
Cards used by the Reaper
Bunilla
Exodia the Forbidden One
-
Heart of the Underdog
