CHAPTER FORTY-SIX: Pride Cometh Before A Fall

Holy shit.

I've been gone a while and goddamn I did not expect this kind of reaction.

I am well and truly touched at the response you kind readers have given me. Really, it's overwhelming.

As a present, here's an extra long chapter. It's thirty pages, nearly fifteen thousand words. The longest chapter since October 2009. The last two were kinda short, this one is nearly as long as those two combined. Hope this makes up.

Special thanks to my friend Master of the Library, he mapped out most of the duel for me in this one. He did a great job, as you will soon see.

Reaver72: Appreciate the kind words, sir. Hope you enjoy this.

GearfriedTheSynchro: Thanks a lot, man. It's done, finally, hope you enjoy. Yes, they are. I have his permission.

Clevercookies: Actually, my friend Metal Overlord 2.0 is completely responsible for most of the Mordor deck. He did a great job.

RenaKounelaki: Maybe ;)

Sanokal: Thanks a lot man, I really appreciate your kind words. They, among others, helped me get this done.

The pair of duelists stood strong against the high winds that whistled by them.

They really were the oddest pair of 'card game buddies', as Max mentally put it to himself. A slightly crazed, hyperactive private detective going up against a green-skinned reptilian extraterrestrial?

Where did these situations come from?

Suddenly, the trooper retrieved another object from the same place, a kind of sphere. It split into two half spheres, which suddenly hovered into the air. Without warning, one of the half spheres flew out towards Max, morphing itself into a kind of wristband as it went. He swore as it slammed onto his wrist, firmly attaching itself in place. The other band, meanwhile, was firmly attached to the creature's wrist.

His mind momentarily flashed back to the old Battle City DVDs he had watched.

Marik Ishtar and his Rare Hunters used to engage in the vile practices of causing physical harm to a duelist for every life-point lost. He did not know what the Legion was intending, but it couldn't be too far off.

"Well, I'll just have to make sure I don't lose any life-points then."

(Trooper: 8000, Max: 8000)

"As the challenger, you shall play second."

Max rolled his eyes and fired off his holo projectors, which neatly settled on the very ends of the camper. He drew his first six cards, and was suddenly barely able to contain his expression of glee. Thankfully, members of the Legion did not seem very adept at recognizing the various human emotions.

"Normal summon, Legion Warrior (1800/1400), offensive position."

An almost mutant-like, silvery creature outfitted with black armor materialized in the constantly changing degree of space between t. It was roughly as big as a large rhinoceros, with disproportionately large hands and feet, each about as big as a desk. Its eyes were like a pair of deep, hollow black voids. A thorny frill framed its head, with green stones embedded in its chest cavity and each shoulder. Its claws had spinning laser edged teeth like futuristic chainsaws.

"A spell card is activated, Double Summon. One additional reinforcement may be called upon. Legion Surveillance Craft (1000/600), defensive position."

A long, thin fighter ship appeared next to the monstrosity, made of advanced alien machinery. It had a pair of gun turrets sticking out from the back end, with a green stone nestled between them. It had large, dome-like structures on each wing, and was surrounded by a semi-invisible energy field.

"The turn is ended."

Max could barely contain his excitement, even as dust stung his eyes and he heard distant screams, roars and explosions from other battles.

"I-… whoops."

He ducked just in time to avoid a strangely low branch. He peered up just in time to see that same branch slamming into his opponent about fifteen feet behind him. The length of wood simply splintered against his glowing green armor.

Mentally muttering about his style being cramped, Max proceeded with his opening move.

"I activate Trap Booster! By discarding one card from my hand, I can activate trap cards from my hand until the end phase!"

The Trooper did not respond, so Max continued.

"Then, I normal summon the strongest level four monster in the game: Giant Kozaky (2500/2400)!"

A portion of the ground behind him suddenly collapsed to reveal a drill attached to a chrome, light-violet arm; similar, cuff-like arms, one grappling a large mallet, soon joined it. The white, dome-shaped body of the machine resembled a laboratory jacket. A pink tie was painted on its front. Several cardboard patches were on the front and sides. The block-like head of the design had grey sides and a white center. Misshapen, glass panels served as eyes.

"A suicidal move indicative of the ability of the Legion to instill irrational fear-…" droned the Trooper automatically as the creature began to vibrate almost instantaneously upon its appearance.

"Gee, you catch on quick, don't you, iguana-boy?" muttered Max through raised eyebrows. "Obviously, you are correct. Since 'Kozaky' is not in play, Giant Kozaky is destroyed instantly and I would be dealt damage equal to his rather large attack score."

As his sentence finished, the suited machine exploded and consumed the field in smoke and flames.

"However," came Max's voice above the explosion. "Remember Trap Booster? That ensures I can chain Barrel from Behind the Door from my hand, dealing you all those hundreds of points of damage instead. So, how do you like that boyo?"

(Trooper: 5500, Max: 8000)

Even as the smoke began to clear, he could see sparks of green electricity buzzing around his opponent's wrist. A small groan was audible.

"Then I activate this normal magic card: Last Will. When a monster on my field is destroyed, I'm allowed to special summon another one from my deck, but only if its attack score is fifteen hundred or less. That's a moot point for me, because I'm getting out none other than the man himself, Kozaky (400/400)!"

A purple skinned, human like creature in an opened white lab coat with black slacks, with a pink tie around his neck, glasses, and lower neck length black hair appeared just a few feet ahead of Max. The creature had small purple spikes sticking out of his coat on his back and elbows and pointed ears.

"Next up is Monster Reborn, which allows me to once again special summon Giant Kozaky (2500/2400) from my graveyard!"

Reappearing right next to the demonic scientist was the massive beast, drilling its way out of the ground and balancing against the edge of the camper.

"This time, he's going to stick around for a bit longer since his buddy is in play. That means your Legion Warrior is going to feel his total destructive force: Giant Kozaky, Cybernetic Phantom Fist!"

The white-coated scientist beckoned to his partner, who leaned down. Kozaky whispered something in his ear, and received a nod in reply.

With a growl, the titan rushed across the field and delivered a tremendous punch to the green-skinned beast. At first, it seemed like it had no effect. Then, however, the armor cracked and the Warrior exploded into green shards.

Once again a grimace was brought to the trooper's mouth as the green electricity appeared.

(Trooper: 4800, Max: 8000)

To Max's shock, a second monster appeared on the Shocktrooper's field, identical to the first, except that it was larger and more muscular (2600/1400).

"When Legion Warrior is killed, key information concerning the enemy is relayed to a reinforcement that is instantly called upon. A second copy is special summoned, whose offensive statistic is increased to one hundred points greater than that of the original murderer."

He then robotically drew, increasing his hand size to four.

"When special circumstances lead to additional reinforcements from the Legion mother ship, Legion Surveillance Craft permits a marginal increase in resources."

Max rolled his eyes. This lizard's strange speech patterns were beginning to annoy him.

"All right, if you want to draw, so can I. I activate the continuous trap Appropriate from my hand! Whenever you draw outside of your draw phase, I can draw twice. So load up on the cards all you want iguana-boy, it just makes things easier for me!"

Even as he drew two more cards, Max came to realize it was still his battle phase.

"Is it realistic to try and First Turn Kill this guy?" he wondered.

With a shrug, he then lifted slid one of his cards into the spell and trap card zone.

"I activate the quick-play spell card, Kozaky United! In doing so I can increase Kozaky's attack points by the combined total of all the other Kozaky monsters in play until the end of the turn. Since there's only Giant Kozaky, that means he's up to nearly three thousand!"

The white-coated man began to glow and a maniacal grin appeared on his face (2900/400).

"Now, attack his Legion Warrior!"

Kozaky shoved a hand into his pocket and somehow produced a massive bazooka, one which he could barely balance on his shoulder. With a ridiculous grin on his face, he pulled the trigger and unleashed a sizzling missile which slammed into its target and left only a pile of ashes in its wake.

(Trooper: 4500, Max: 8000)

Even as the second Warrior disappeared, a larger, more freakish looking one appeared in its place (3000/1400).

The trooper drew once, Max, twice. As he looked at his new cards, he could barely contain his excitement.

"I move to my second Main Phase, and here's an oldie, but a goodie: Mystic Box! This lets me perform a magic trick with you."

He received no response from the trooper, but regardless, a grey box with gold trim, three sections with each having a blue question mark in the middle and a small patch of red surrounding it, appeared onto the field. The door to the box soon enough opened, revealing an empty box within.

"Now, one of my monsters enters the box. I choose Giant Kozaky."

Nodding, the large, mechanical digger stepped into the box, and the door closed.

"Then I need a volunteer from your field: how does your big bad Legion Warrior sound?"

A larger version of the black box encapsulated the howling and struggling green armored beast.

"Now for a little magic trick: your monster is destroyed, but as compensation, you get mine!"

The two boxes glowed momentarily, and a bunch of swords materialized in mid-air, slicing through the black material of the box on the trooper's field. The thrashing within immediately ceased, and green fluid began to leak out.

The boxes glowed again, and then opened. The one on Max's field revealed the decapitated remains of the Warrior, while a somewhat all right looking Giant Kozaky waddled out of the one on the trooper's field; somewhat because it was vibrating again and seemed ready to blow up rather soon.

"By giving you control of one of my monsters, I can destroy one of yours!"

His grin broadened.

"And since you don't happen to have Kozaky in play, Giant Kozaky goes boom-boom and you lose the life-points!"

The metallic monster once again exploded and showered shrapnel and debris all over the Trooper's field. He was brought down onto one knee as powerful waves of electricity coursed through his body.

(Trooper: 2000, Max: 8000)

Max paused and bit his lip as he observed the suffering that his opponent was forced to go through.

"Hey…" he called out tentatively. "Look, this doesn't have to end badly."

As it struggled to bring its writhing under control, the trooper cocked its head upward to meet his gaze.

"We can call it a tie," managed Max. "Go back in and tell your boys that we agreed to go our separate ways-…"

His words were interrupted by the harshest of crackling hisses.

"The Legion would never submit to a lowly weakling such as yourself."

Max paused as the venom continued to spew out.

"Humans are inferior, hence it defies logic for them not to serve the Legion. Hence it defies logic for the Legion not to stop until complete subjugation has been achieved-.."

"You're getting on my nerves," said Max frankly, and flipped around a card in his hand.

"I activate the trap Give and Take, which allows me to special summon a monster from my graveyard to your field, and in turn increase the level of one of my monsters by that of the summoned monster. The second part doesn't matter, because we both know which monster I'm giving you."

Scarcely had he finished speaking did the huge metallic visage of Giant Kozaky appear on the trooper's field for the final time. Again, it stayed for all of five seconds before it exploded.

The explosion this time was larger than all the previous ones put together; in fact Max was surprised it didn't take out part of the vehicle that the trooper was standing on. The electricity from the band continued to wrack its body. It let out one final shriek before its flesh began to literally wither away into nothingness.

All that was left was a lingering trace of a green gas, which seemed to get absorbed by the green stone which was originally set in the beast's chest: as it were, the stone seemed immune to destruction by the electricity. Within seconds, the creature was completely incinerated. The band which seemed responsible for its destruction clanked to the ground, along with the stone.

(Trooper: 0, Max: 8000)

Max paused momentarily, a bewildered look on his face.

Suddenly, a hatch opened on the top of the truck. A gnarled green hand sprung up and groped around, before dragging the band and glowing stone in.

Max was snapped out of his stupor by the sound of the blades beginning to whirr even faster. He began to take nervous steps back when the trap door behind him flipped open and David popped his head out.

"Get in," he hollered. "I saw your duel from a camera, they're not going to stop just because you beat him! We'll have to outrun them."

Max was only too glad to obey as he scampered, a term used in the loosest sense since one could not 'scamper' in gravity boots, back to where his partner was leaning out and grappled his way down the ladder.

The moment his feet touched the ground he was serenaded by shouts of "Stylishly done, mate!" (Bakura), "Are you insane? You could've gotten yourself killed!" (Aaron), and "You lunatic take the goddamn wheel I'm tired of manning this hunk of junk!" (Rikuo).

Poor Max somehow made his way through the back-slaps and punches toward the driver's seat, where a fuming Rikuo seemed only too happy to leap off the controls and let the MADness agent collapse in his seat.

"So, what's the plan, boss-man?" he mumbled to the Wolf Demon General. He had no idea if Rikuo would reply verbally or by carving his insides into a cannibal's banquet.

"Just drive, let me think-…"

He stopped talking at that instant because they all heard the unmistakable sound of air hissing past a projectile as it left a launcher.

Everyone turned around at that very instant, to see through the window at the back that a gray jeep had drawn halfway level with both them and their pursuers.

In the driver's seat was Diablo, behind him was James, with a massive grenade launcher mounted on his shoulder. He had just pulled the trigger and unleashed a combusting shell upward, at one of the attack craft that had been on their tail.

The effect was incredible. Even as it just about completely left the launcher the grenade began to ignite. By the time it slammed into the underside of the aircraft it had pretty much consumed the entire thing in flames. It hovered around momentarily in the air for some time, teetering this way and then that. Without warning, it then began to spiral downward.

Max swerved sharply to avoid the wreckage, which landed conveniently right behind them, blocking off the pursuing vehicle. It seemed too large to make a fast move around the burning debris. Diablo and James, however, were able to.

The redhead continued to take potshots at the pursuant fighters, disrupting their formations and sending their lasers all over the place.

"That was…. lucky," muttered Deondre loud enough for everyone to hear before Max swung the wheel wildly to his right to avoid more than half a tree that collapsed across the road due to one of the green lasers that cut across the road.

Before everyone had even gotten to their feet, Rikuo had more or less taken charge. It was almost a de facto event, since with Eizan dead he was the only one with the experience and the ability to back up his authority to handle such a messed up tactical situation.

"Get us to Eppley Airfield," he grunted to Max. "Hopefully the fighters will be too busy using those two morons for target practice to notice us."

David made his way over.

"Great plan, chief," he mumbled. "So if we don't get burned up on the ground, then we just take our chances and hope they don't blow us out of the sky?"

The Demon Lord's fury began to spark once again. "If you can think of something better-…"

Aaron intervened, wading forward.

"How about this?" he snapped, and flicked a lever on the wall adjacent to the steering wheel and other controls. A small hatch opened in the wall, revealing a crimson button which had the word 'stealth' emblazoned on it.

He pushed his palm down on it, and instantly, the entire camper went dark. Metal sheets fell across each and every window, including the windscreen and every light went out.

Max yelped and screeched to a halt.

"What the hell did you just do?" he howled.

Aaron ignored him, instead busily punching a few keys into a keyboard which also seemed to be inside the hatch.

By the time he was done, the car was humming again, and a screen had slid up out of the dashboard. On it was what seemed to be the road ahead, but in different color tones. It was mostly black and green.

"To answer your question, just a few adjustments here and there," said Aaron finally, in a conversational tone as he folded up the keyboard and put it back in the hatch.

"A few adjustments that you neglected to tell us about?" deadpanned David.

"Hey, this was just a couple of weeks ago. Remember when you two had gone over to the Murmansk police headquarters to help them investigate that mass check forgery affair? I had the camper to myself for a few days, and I knew a guy who'd been experimenting with electrical engines. I had him fiddle around a bit, convert this baby into a hybridized vehicle, and then just for the heck of it I added a night vision monitor. Never thought we'd ever really need it, but since we're not running on fuel and there's not a single light on the camper right now, we're practically invisible both to the naked eye as well as to thermal radars."

He had somehow managed the entire statement in a single breath.

Max whistled. "Nicely done, I must say."

Rikuo interrupted. "Just shut it with your tech talk and get us to the damn airport!"

"Yessir, charge d'affaires," mumbled Max sarcastically before flooring the accelerator.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The trio of duelists stood momentarily motionless and stared each other down. Lilith and Haou had Evil Hero Malicious Devil (3500/2100) and Samyaza the Proud (2100/1300), and Evil Hero Black Thunder (2900/2800) on their fields respectively, while Zerato had merely a set monster and facedown card in his spell/trap zone.

"You have forgotten something, little King," hissed Lilith finally.

The Second Horseman turned his gaze from the two Evil Heroes to the snake's animalistic yellow eyes.

"What might that be?"

"You have put a lot of resources into summoning your own Evil Hero fusion but the fact remains that Malicious Devil is not only stronger but I also have the power of Hell backing it! So do your worst, but you will not overcome me."

"A truly accomplished general knows which battles to fight and which to avoid," replied Haou stoically. He flipped one of the cards in his hand around.

"Quick-play spell, De-Fusion, activate."

Lilith let out a raspy hiss of shock as the towering demon on her field vanished into a ball of black energy. The ball split into two smaller ones, and both drifted over to Haou's field. One continued to become smaller and smaller and eventually disappeared into his graveyard slot, while the other began to expand and change color into a very tall, but thin, blade-winged fiend with a demonic mask over his face, and nearly skin-tight, dark-blue armor all over his body. Spikes were littered as designs, attached by accessory rings to the arms and kneecaps of his armor; it reached all the way to his hands, which contained deployed, knife-like claws at the ends. A dark-blue belt was around his waist, with a golden buckle on the front.

"By the effect of De-Fusion, Malicious Devil is return to the Extra Deck, and its fusion materials are summoned to their owners' fields. Raviel may not be special summoned by effects other than its own, hence only Malicious Edge (2600/1800) is called upon."

Zerato watched on, slightly impressed. He had not expected Haou to turn the tables so quickly.

"Now, battle phase. Malicious Edge targets Samyaza the Proud."

The massively clawed creature let out a snarl and tore across the field. The blonde demoness let out a squeal of terror, but before she could react, Haou's strongest non-fusion Evil Hero had already buried the entire set of claws on his right hand into her torso. She turned a pale white and coughed up some black blood. With a look of nonchalant disgust, he withdrew his hand. She looked down at the wound, which was practically a waterfall of blood, in terror. Then, she exploded into pixels.

(Haou: 3800, Lilith: 5700, Zerato: 3900)

"Now, Black Thunder initiates a direct attack against your life-points."

The green haired man turned to look at Lilith. Crimson eyes could be seen glowing through his black visor. The sphere glowing in his hand began to expand, and he then began to draw it back. Looking almost like a Major League Baseball pitcher, he then released it in Lilith's direction at a terrific velocity. Just as it seemed to reach the snake, a card next to her flipped up.

"Seventh Circle of Hell – Pit of the Killers, activate!" she snapped.

Popping up out of the small smattering of ground around her were endlessly deep holes of lava. Within them were screaming individuals who were being whipped by demons at the same time as lava cascaded over them.

Black Thunder paused in front of the holes, seemingly put off at the prospect of having to come within such close proximity of such disgusting creatures.

"What have you done?" demanded Haou.

"Rather simple, Little King," hissed Lilith. "This quick play spell may only be activated during my battle phase. Monsters on any player's field may only attack those placed on a slot directly opposite to them. And if Eternal Sin – Rage is in my graveyard, which it is, no monster may declare direct attacks."

It took Haou a split second to calm himself sufficiently to speak.

"Your cowardice is all that can be expected. If you possessed power that was even a fraction of mine, you would realize that running and hiding is not a strategy that is sufficient to be victorious in a battle."

"These preachy intonations of yours are beginning to annoy me," snarled back Lilith. "I will make you suffer greatly for your patronizing attitude. Move on!"

Haou glared at her. "Very well, my actions shall speak for themselves. Main phase two. I activate Spell Sanctuary, now each of us may add one spell card from our decks to our hands."

Zerato narrowed his eyes. "What devilry is he trying to pull this time…"

Nonetheless, he was compelled to slide his deck out of its slot and locate his desired spell card. Haou did the same. Lilith's massive deck shifted to a vertical position and the multitude of cards fanned themselves out around her. One of them glowed and added itself to her hand.

"My choice is immediately activated: Immortal Class. Two monsters are tributed, one level seven or higher target is special summoned from the graveyard. If that monster is a Legendary Demon, its summoning conditions are ignored. Malicious and Black Thunder are tributed, Raviel is once again special summoned from my graveyard."

Zerato swore out loud, and Lilith let out a shrill shriek of anger as the both the demons dematerialized instantly. The ones in the seats began to cower again as a black rip appeared in the air and the gargantuan form of the Phantasm Lord appeared once more. Its towering blue body cast a shadow over the entire field, obscuring the forms of Zerato's facedown cards (4000/4000).

"Two cards are set, this turn is ended."

The top card slid off Lilith's deck and hovered over to her.

"You made a fatal mistake by allowing me to search my own deck, Horseman," she hissed. "Activate, One for One. By discarding one card, I am allowed to special summon a level one monster from my deck. I send Eternal Sin – Hubris (2500/0) from my hand to my graveyard in order to summon a second copy of Original Sin (0/0)."

Appearing on her field was a simple black orb. In the background were fleeting images of all the various sins; a seductive looking woman, a man greedily shoving food down his gullet while holding a bag of money, and another soaked in blood while screaming out loud with an axe aloft in his hands.

"This wench is playing right into my hands," thought Haou maliciously.

"Quick-play spell, chain, Demise of the Land. When the opponent special summons a monster, I activate one field spell from my deck."

He quickly slid a card out of his deck and then tapped his Duel Disk, opening the field spell slot. He placed the card in it and then shut it.

Even as he did this, the area around them began to crumble. Zerato cursed and was just able to dodge a massive block of debris that nearly crashed right next to him. The demons in the stands were frantically trying to escape, but to no avail. They were literally being crushed alive by falling rocks, which upon crashing let lose a large wave of dust which began to obscure the fiery skies.

Haou continued to watch on stonily as their surroundings began to go from a furious shade of red to a deep, evil black.

The rocks seemed to be falling in a pattern, not flying off in different directions but one on top the other, resulting in the construction of towers in the place of the coliseum. Appearing near the top of the tall buildings were the dark silhouettes of various demonic warriors, their crimson eyes shining shiftily in the darkness.

"Dark Metropolis, activate. Hell is destroyed."

"Just you wait, Horseman, this is not going to last long," Lilith crowed in reply, interrupting her opponent.

"I tribute Original Sin in order to summon Fallen Angel – Izuael the Guard (2200/1500)."

Vanishing from the field was the small black orb, and appearing in its place was a demon a bit different from the ones Lilith had resorted to playing earlier through the duel. It was a tall, muscular humanoid figure, with crimson and black tattoos all over its body. The upper half of its torso, namely the shoulders and head, were covered in leather mail. Its head resembled that of a ram, with two horns twisting outward on either side.

"Raviel's effect allows the special summon of a Phantasm Token (1000/1000) when you perform a normal summon," intoned Haou, which Lilith basically ignored, as the miniature version of the Legendary Demon materialized.

"When tributed, Izuael allows me to add one field spell with 'Hell' in its name from my deck to my hand."

Haou cocked an eyebrow. "You will play another copy? How-…"

"No!" shrieked Lilith, as a card exploded out of her deck and spun around, giving off a different kind of darkness to the one of the Dark Metropolis.

The evil of Haou's field spell seemed to be one of thieves, villains who committed crimes for personal gain and nothing more.

This new darkness was absolutely unspeakable. It seemed to be something that even the most powerful beings possible preferred not to speak of. The temperature began to plummet, and the buildings began to freeze over.

"NINTH CIRCLE OF HELL - ICE TOMB OF THE TRAITORS!"

Zerato looked down in shock as the ground beneath him began to crack. Instead of flames erupting like with Lilith's first field spell, he could see the blood of the lake of the Succubi. It began to freeze over and turn a sinister dark color, until once could no longer see their reflection in it.

The buildings crashed down, and rubble began to pile up asymmetrically, taking the shape of cliffs hanging over the field.

The ground all around them was turning to ice. The main event, however, took place on Lilith's field. A massive crack opened in the ground in front of her, but nothing came out yet. There was a pulsating thud, however, and a sense of impending dread began to fall over the field.

Zerato's chest was seizing up.

"Dear God, please, no…."

Even Haou seemed a bit surprised by this turn of events. Even though he didn't visibly show any fear, he did at least look disconcerted by the circumstances.

Lilith's voice had changed into a harsh drawl.

"Mind Control, activate. Raviel, Lord of the Phantasms is taken."

Haou swore angrily as two yellow hands appeared in the darkness above Raviel, grabbing its shoulders and shoving it over to Lilith's field, where it stood next to Izuael.

"Then, Fiend's Sanctuary."

Glass-like, chrome wings spread out, bringing the rise of a long, thick bird with a human face. Its skin was reflective and silver; rather than arms, tentacle-like attachments were all around the magnificent creature. It was a Metal Fiend Token (0/0), which would leave the field unless Lilith paid a thousand life-points later on.

Zerato, however, had an uneasy feeling that it would not come to that.

"Now, gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to your maker. I tribute all three demon-type monsters."

Raviel, Izuael, and the Metal Fiend Token all vanished.

For a moment, nothing happened. It was, however, the calm before the storm.

The crack in Lilith's field began to expand. For a moment, it split wide but then collapsed on itself. Zerato felt a temporary burst of hope but then each side was shoved back all the way. The tips of two spiny horns made their way to the surface, and a resounding groan was heard echoing through the field.

The snake was almost balancing itself on the tip of its tail, moving its head from side to side in sheer excitement.

"Come, my love, come, join me soon…!"

Another massive groan was heard and suddenly the crack quadrupled in size, and a massive thing erupted out.

It took a moment for Haou and Zerato to realize that the 'thing' was just a head. Its skin was the color of ash, with a dull tint of copper. On the top of his head was a crown of sorts, seemingly made of a searing gold, with a trio of short spikes. Two massive horns, like those of an ox, curled their way out of the side of his head. Runes of an unspeakable language were inscribed over its skin.

Its eyes, however, well, were not present. In their place were merely glowing orbs of fire, which began to leak wisps in either directions once exposed to the freezing wind.

The face turned to look at Zerato and Haou, and let out a blank roar again. The gap expanded again, and the upper half of its body seemed to follow.

Its skin was reptilian in nature, black with more runes inscribed. Its muscles were very well defined. Every detail seemed visible since the creature's horns were probably grazing a point well over fifty feet off the ground. Blood leaked from a dozen wounds, and an armlet in the shape of a hissing serpent was wrapped around its right arm.

It lacked wings, but at one point it clearly had not, for two massive bumps on its back were indicative of appendages that had clearly existed at one point and probably been chopped off.

The creature shifted in the now hole, unable to bring its legs out with it.

It then settled to look at the Supreme King and angel. Both felt a growing sense of unease.

"The Beast…" mumbled Zerato.

"Dark Heaven Lord – Lucifer Morningstar (4000/4000)," echoed Lilith, almost lovingly.

"What have you done?" whispered a mortified Zerato.

"I have merely been a good wife, ensuring my dear husband has the opportunity to rise out of his prison so we can take back what is rightfully ours."

Zerato caught Haou's eye. The two held the stare for a moment, and then dropped it.

"There is no way I can still trust him after that stunt he pulled with Raviel…" thought the Archangel unhappily. "I will have no choice but to deal with this insane creature myself. She is digging up things that should remain buried for an eternity, in doing so, she leaves me no choice but to do the same."

A resounding roar shattered his soliloquy. He turned to see the red orbs that were supposed to be Lucifer's eyes glowing even brighter. His hands began to twitch, and his jaws moved as if they were not his own.

"Soon you two will be left alone at the hands of these horrors," murmured Lilith. "After this triumph, we shall be able to leave this terrible place and take our rightful places in Paradise, King and Queen of all existence!"

"Bah!" snarled Haou, speaking up for the first time. "You are utterly insane. A mere card holds not the key to-…"

"SILENCE KNAVE!" she screeched. "YOU SHALL NOT SPEAK."

Haou's own aura began to expand. Although it did not match that of Lilith and Lucifer, the truth remained that Haou was still a very powerful being and his presence could counteract that of just about any entity in existence.

"Proceed, so that I will have the opportunity to send back this false hellion from whence it came."

"You shall regret such impudence," she spat. "Lucifer's effect activates. Once per turn, I declare the name of an angel or demon type monster. If it exists in either graveyard or hand, it shall be special summoned to my field without its own effects. I call Raviel, Lord of the Phantasms (4000/4000)."

There was another ear-splitting crack, and the ground next to Lucifer split. His massive bulk turned to one side, and he reached down and pulled the struggling, heaving form of the blue Phantasm Lord out of the ice.

It was a sight to behold. Raviel itself was normally always the biggest, most powerful and most frightening monster in play whenever summoned. Right now, standing next to Lucifer, one could be excused for mistaken it as a large blue bat.

Haou said nothing.

"Now, Raviel will commence your end. The Phantasm Token is targeted; Ultimate Judgment Fist."

The blue giant took a massive step forward and aimed a low blow at its offspring. The token almost never knew what hit it, and exploded almost instantly. Haou had, however, summoned it in defense mode. Therefore he lost no life-points.

Considering, however, that he had no other monsters in play, he seemed about to.

He reacted fast. "Trap card, activate, Hero Signal. When a monster is destroyed in battle on my field, I special summon a level four or lower Elemental Hero from my deck."

Forming onto the field instantly, a warrior made of what looked like crystal that was mostly light blue with green on his chest, hips, and head. On the warrior's back was a pair of crystal wings.

"Elemental Hero Prisma (1700/1100)," observed Zerato.

"Another bug to be squashed!" fumed Lilith. "Very well. Lucifer my love, feast on his flesh!"

The Beast cocked its head up, and a deathly silence fell upon the field. Shifting again against the restraining forces on its legs, it held its hands around the front of its chest slightly apart. A sphere of black energy began to glow between them and soon expanded. With a hellish cry, Lucifer drew his right hand back and then threw the sphere at the shining warrior.

Haou's reaction time was next to zero, as he smiled faintly and flipped the one card in his hand around. It depicted an angelic woman dressed in a long flowing gown, with large wings flaring out behind her.

Zerato's breath caught. "Honest (1100/1900)? Where did you get that?"

Haou ignored him.

"Honest is discarded during the battle phase. A light attribute monster gains attack points equal to that of the monster it does battle with until the turn's end."

Suddenly, the Hero looked back up at the incoming blast, fire in his eyes (5700/1100).

"Counter."

Just as Lucifer's black sphere was about to slam into him, Prisma's aura burst outward, and reflected the blast right back toward Lucifer.

"You shall not take my love away from me…!" screeched Lilith. "I activate Lucifer's effect, tributing a monster he summoned to protect him from destruction!"

Just as the titanic Devil's blast slammed right back into him, he reached out with a flailing arm and dragged a straining, roaring Raviel in the way of it.

The impact was tremendous, and Raviel's destruction was truly a sight to behold. The massive blue demon was hovering in the air, enclosed completely by the truly evil fire, roaring in such agony that the very foundations of the garden were shaken to their core.

Finally, the flames died down, and a massive skeleton collapsed on the ground in front of Lucifer.

Regardless, Lilith was hissing with exertion, for life-point damage was still done.

(Haou: 3800, Lilith: 4000, Zerato: 3900)

"Very well, Supreme King, you are delaying your end by but a few more turns. I activate my facedown continuous trap, Deal with the Devil. When Lucifer is in play, I may remove one Eternal Sin monster from my graveyard to activate an effect."

The card behind her flipped up to reveal a tall shady looking angel whispering into a confused man's ear.

"I remove Eternal Sin – Gluttony, to draw two cards."

Haou merely grunted as Lucifer glowed. The demonic cerebrus (0/2000) that Lilith had played earlier rematerialized on her field. Before anything could happen, the Beast swept it up in one swift motion and somehow stuffed it down its own gullet.

She looked at her hand once again.

"I set both, and end this turn."

Zerato exhaled and drew. This was not a good situation to be in.

"I play Short Term Gain. By removing a Synchro monster in my graveyard from play, and paying life-points equal to its level multiplied by one hundred, I can draw two cards. I remove Felicia, Lightsworn Prophet."

He grimaced as his life points dipped, but nonetheless snapped the top two cards off his deck.

(Haou: 3800, Lilith: 4000, Zerato: 3100)

"I did not want to tread into this, but you have left me no choice, demon."

"Stop being so self-righteous and just give Lucifer a fight!" hissed back Lilith. "It's what he wants!"

"Well then, he's going to get one," murmured Zerato, sliding a card into his spell and trap zone. "I activate Monster Reborn, special summoning from my graveyard the monster I discarded earlier to Trade-In: Darklord Superbia (2900/2400)!"

Appearing on the field was a hovering, almost robotic figure. This was because its entire upper body was covered by sheets of black armor that seemed to be perfectly smooth all over. Two tiny hands, like those of a Tyrannosaurus rex, stuck out of its front, disproportionate in size to the rest of the body. A banshee like head was visible just outside a narrow enclave near the top of it, covered in a red helmet with large, extra sharp bared teeth.

Its lower half did not consist of any legs, but instead a sort of bizarre metallic skirt which looked like a wheel of spikes in every direction. Two large white wings flared out in both directions, attached to the top of its shoulders.

"When Superbia is special summoned from the graveyard, I am allowed to special summon one other angel type monster. I choose a monster that had been milled earlier by my Judgment Dragon's effect…"

He took a breath, and closed his eyes.

"Darklord Zerato (2800/2300)."

Superbia let out a shriek, and the ice next to her began to glow.

Appearing out of it was a gray skinned muscular warrior wearing a red loin cloth and guards on his calves and arms up to his elbows. On the creature's back were a pair of red skinned wings that formed a collar around his neck, and on his head was a red helmet with black horns coming out the sides of it. In his left hand was a powerful sword with jagged edges on the backside of the blade.

He looked a lot like the duelist who had just summoned him, but far more sinister.

Lilith let out a dark laugh.

"So… Archangel. I must say I never thought you had it in yourself."

Zerato ignored it, but the words still came, pricking holes in his otherwise impenetrable armor.

"You've delved into the darkness yourself now. So much for the upholder of all that is right, the Council's golden boy. Where is he now?"

"Your pathetic, twisted mind games will not work on me," growled Zerato. "I am merely doing what is necessary to carry out the task that the Council has given me, and nothing you say or do can convince me otherwise."

"You can keep telling yourself that, Zerato," hissed back Lilith, refraining from referring to him by his title (Archangel) for the first time. "The fact that you have brought yourself down to this level, perverting your own angelic powers into a dark manifestation, makes it all too clear. You're on the same track as us. One day you will be cast out too, just another Lucif-…"

"SILENCE DEMON!" Zerato roared, his aura expanding, his eyes glowing with rage.

Lilith began to cackle out loudly.

Zerato's breath was coming in quick, short bursts, fury evident all over his eyes.

Haou continued to watch, a somewhat interested look on his face, his mind carrying out a brief analysis.

"This has now become a battle of dark angels. It is evident that the Archangel was reluctant to make use of the darker side of his deck. The conjecture is that he has a history regarding it, and it something that he is certainly sensitive about. For an angel to resort to outward displays of anger, it is certainly not something he would want brought back to the surface. I wonder if it is a story that is known only to angel-kind, for if that were not the case, Apocalypse would surely have gleaned some knowledge of it and used it against the Council."

"I am going to bury you," snarled Zerato, picking a card out of his hand and holding it up.

"I activate Darklord Zerato's effect. At the cost of discarding one dark attribute monster from my hand, I can destroy all monsters controlled by my opponent."

He flipped it around. "I discard my final Necro Gardna (600/1300). Crimson Oblivion!"

Releasing a loud yell, the gray skinned warrior spread both red wings so they were facing the white hero on Haou's field and the towering behemoth on Lilith's. Both wings glowed with a dark red aura for a moment before suddenly thousands of needles came flying out of its wings. There were so very many of them that they simply kept coming, obscuring the vision of all three duelists and peppering the fields of Haou and Lilith.

Their vision remained obscured for some time, until finally the needles began to crumble into dust.

On Haou's field, Prisma lay dead, many needles sticking out of various parts of its body, blood leaking painfully.

Shockingly, Lucifer was unharmed. The embodiment of evil simply remained still in its place, a look of fury building on its face.

Obviously, the Beast did not appreciate being attacked.

Still, Zerato demanded at once, "What is this? Why has your heathen gone unharmed?"

"Merely another one of his abilities," hissed back Lilith. "Lucifer, being the prime of the original Angels, and now the lord of Hell, cannot be affected by the monster effects of any angel or demon types that have a level less than that of his. Since he is a level ten, you're going to have to dig very deep to find something that works."

She broke off into an insane cackle again.

Zerato frowned. She was right, he presently had access to no one single monster that fit that bill. He'd have to destroy Lucifer through other means, if that was the case.

He then turned his attention to Haou.

"Payback time for what you did to me earlier…"

"Superbia, attack his life-points directly!" he hissed.

The hovering, dark angel let out a shriek and then shot off across the field, seeming ready to slam right into the Horseman and then skewer him to death.

"Negate Attack," responded Haou coldly. His facedown card flipped up, and the familiar spinning vortex seemed enough of a deterrent for Superbia to return to her master's field.

"Also, I am sure that you remember the catch to Darklord Zerato's power. On the turn that you activate its effect, it is destroyed," he added smugly.

Zerato ignored him. "I move to Main Phase Two. Superbia and Zerato are tributed. I normal summon Darklord Asmodeus (3000/2500)."

The two dark angels vanished, and were replaced by an even more sinister looking one.

Asmodeus wore a white robe, but from the chest up was covered with a dark armor which had dual shades of black as well as purple. Its arms were again white until the elbow, from where a gauntlet was visible until his wrist. He had two massive purple wings flaring out behind him, and a purple monkey mask which revealed only an oddly sharp nose and two glinting black eyes. His hair was wild and black, and a scepter was visible in his right hand.

"Upon his summoning, Asmodeus allows me to send one angel type monster from my deck to my graveyard. I choose Athena (2600/800)."

Haou and Lilith both seemed barely interested as he located the necessary card in his deck and slid it into his graveyard. Lucifer growled with impatience.

"I set one card facedown and end my turn."

Haou drew.

"I play Pot of Greed."

Quickly drawing two cards, he held up another spell. "Then, Pot of Avarice. Evil Hero Jetstream Razor (2000/2000), Malicious Devil (3500/2100) , Lightning Golem (2400/1500), Black Thunder (2900/2800) and Malicious Edge (2600/1800) are all returned back to my deck. Two further cards are drawn."

"Why would he not return Raviel… Leaving it in the graveyard gives Lucifer an easy target to summon," wondered Zerato.

"Dark Calling, activate. Fusion materials for an Evil Hero are banished from my graveyard. Begone, Elemental Heroes Clayman (800/2000), Sparkman (1600/1400), and Burstinatrix (1200/800). Come, Evil Hero Magma Crasher (2500/2100)."

The trio of normal E-Heroes materialized onto his field in spectral forms and then slammed into each other.

The entities combined, forming a tall, cyclone-like creature that had dark-red armored arms, and dark-blue-armored legs. Golden spikes stuck out the backs of the elbows. The head of the monster resembled that of a volcano, and had ominous, unattached, glowing golden eyes embedded near the center of it. The main body was the formation of a combination of fire, rock and visible wind, twisting together in a ring-like pattern.

"Twenty five hundred?" began Lilith mockingly, but the Supreme King cut her off again.

"Magma Crasher is unique from other Evil Heroes in that it can only be special summoned by the effect of Dark Calling. By returning a banished fusion material to my graveyard, it allows me to target and destroy one monster on the field."

"You are not only reckless, so called Supreme King, but also idiotic!" cackled Lilith. "Did you not hear that Lucifer is immune to the effects of angels and demons of a lower level than him?"

"Not quite," shot back Haou, sliding another card into his spell/trap zone. "Code Change is activated. If there is one card in play with an effect which relates to a particular monster type, I may change that type to any that I desire until the end of the turn."

He slid the removed from play Burstinatrix back into his graveyard, and the tall fusion's eyes glowed even brighter, finally expelling out a huge wave of flames in the direction of the titan of darkness on Lilith's field.

"I change Lucifer's immunity from demon type monsters to warrior types. The Supreme King's will shall be served."

The flames continued to wash over it for a moment and then finally dissipated. However, there was no visible damage.

Before Haou could angrily demand an explanation, Lilith replied rather smugly as a pink card flipped up in front of her.

"I activate Class System. Until the end phase, if a particular monster has a lower level than mine, it cannot target it by an effect or attacks."

Haou frowned, processing this bit of information, making a conjecture which he then stored away, discarding it, modifying his plan and moving on.

"Clayman is returned to my graveyard, Darklord Asmodeus is targeted."

The Magma Crasher flared up again and belched out an avalanche of lava and rock which spewed all over the ice and seemed to bury the dark angel on Zerato's field within seconds. The Archangel scowled in disgust as soon it was reduced to nothing but ash.

"Now, Magma Crasher declares a direct att-…"

Haou stopped short as he noticed that out of the mess of lava and ash were materializing two smaller versions of the monster he had just destroyed. Both looked identical to Darklord Asmodeus, but were about sixty percent smaller in all proportions, and neither held scepters.

"What is this?" snapped Haou.

"Quite simple," replied Zerato. "When Darklord Asmodeus is destroyed, I can special summon one Asmo Token (1800/1300) and one Deus Token (1200/1200). I've called upon the both of them in defense mode."

Haou gritted his teeth. "Sparkman is removed, the Asmo Token is targeted."

Another explosion of flames and searing rock exploded toward Zerato's field and covered one of the two tokens. Once it began to disappear, the miniature version of Asmodeus, although burned and injured, was still standing.

Contenting himself with Haou's rising level of irritation, Zerato revealed, "The Asmo Token cannot be destroyed by card effects."

Haou seemed to immediately move on; it was not in his nature to dwell on failed maneuvers, he was already planning his next one.

"De-Fusion, activate. Burstinatrix, Sparkman and Clayman are special summoned in defense mode."

Magma Crasher materialized into a large sphere of light, which further split up into another three. These took the shapes of the flaming lady in a red jumpsuit, the white armored hero, and the large rock-like beast (1200/800) (1600/1400) (800/2000).

He held up the last card in his hand.

"Hero Gift. For every normal Elemental Hero monster in play, I draw one card."

"He is truly a masterful strategist…" thought Zerato grimly as Haou replenished his hand. "He knows how to plan an attack without overextending, or, if he has to, then always has a back up to re-expand his options."

"Dark Fusion, activate. Sparkman and Clayman fuse."

Dark thunder strokes began to spread down in a tripod-like fashion, as a dark, round, bulky figure began to rise from the insidious darkness below. It threw its arms out in a V-shape, as black lightning flowed throughout its dark-gray-painted, metallic body. Part of its upper-body was exposed, its armor only reaching down to above the abdomen area, which was covered with dark-violet cloth. Red bulbs were implanted on the tops of the gray-topped, violet-bottomed gloves on its hands. Four yellow, wing-like streaks shot out from its shoulders, two on each side. The visor of the monster's helmet was light-blue, and had two yellow-painted lightning bolts coming out the top.

"Come once more, Evil Hero Lightning Golem (2400/1500)."

Lilith hissed in shock, as she realized what Haou was planning to do.

"Lightning Golem is a demon type, and thanks to Code Change, Lucifer is not immune to its effects until the end of this turn."

Thunder and lightning energies immediatley started to drain from the rest of the body, forming as a black-yellow sphere in the right palm of the monster. It reached back and tossed the energy ball in the direction of Lucifer.

The gray skinned horror widened its eyes in shock and reached out with one hand, in an attempt to block it. It was in vain though, as the sphere continued on and burned through the accursed flesh. Lucifer let out a truly horrifying cross between a wail and a scream, one which would've made the hair stand up on the back of any human being. The energy continued on until it exited the other end and slammed into the ice behind him, leaving a large gaping hole in both Lucifer's stomach as well as the ice.

The corpse of the Devil soon began to tremble, and then crashed down on the ground, black blood spewing out and its arms flailed in all directions.

For some reason, Lilith seemed relatively calm. Zerato would have expected her to flip out completely at the destruction of Lucifer.

"Lightning Golem attacks directly."

The fused Evil Hero charged up another ball of lightning which it then flung directly toward Lilith. It smashed into the snake with such force that she was thrown up in the air momentarily, writhing wildly as she was electrocuted at thousands of volts of energy.

(Haou: 3800, Lilith: 1600, Zerato: 3100)

Before Haou could continue, he then noticed that appearing on Lilith's field were four human figures. They were much smaller than the other monsters on the field, and in truth, were barely recognizable as humans. Their skin was colored almost purple due to the freezing cold, and injuries were visible all over their bodies. However, every one of them retained a sense of malice and arrogance on their faces.

"Whenever I sustain direct damage…" panted Lilith, just regaining her breath. "Ice Tomb of the Traitors allows me to summon four Treachery Tokens in defense mode. Each Token has statistics equal to one fourth the damage I took (600/600) (x4)."

Haou grimaced. "An even greater amount of time until I can end her…."

"Two cards are set. Turn end."

Lilith hissed, and in reply the top card off her deck slid off and joined the lone one hovering in front of her.

"Card of Sanctity is activated."

Zerato's cold concentration almost gave way to a laugh of scorn as well as relief.

"How foolish is she… With a veritable wall of monsters ready, why would she ever decide to allow her opponents to expand their options so easily? She can't possibly already be planning to go on the offensive again."

Nonetheless, both him as well as Haou gladly filled their hands.

Lilith spoke in a strained voice. "You may consider me foolish, Archangel, but you'll have an eternity to rethink that when I end this duel. I activate Monster Reincarnation, discarding one monster from my graveyard to my hand."

Zerato's breath caught. "No…!"

Lilith broke into her insane bout of cackles once more.

"I tribute three Treachery Tokens; so rise up once again, Dark Heaven Lord – Lucifer Morningstar (4000/4000)!"

Three of the wretched men began to panic, looking around frantically. However, they were not fast enough. The hulking, giant massive form of Lucifer began to stir. It seemed as if black magic was slowly healing the wound in its chest. Suddenly, its head cocked up, those terrible flaming eyes blazing for all those to see. It snatched the damned souls up and opened its mouth.

Zerato couldn't stop himself from looking away as an audible scream followed by a crunch echoed through the field.

"Now, I shall bring back an old friend!" sang Lilith's voice, a terrible symphony above the roars, screeching wind and other sounds of battle. "By Lucifer's will, Raviel, Lord of the Phantasms (4000/4000) shall rise up again!"

Haou's graveyard glowed, and once again, Lucifer stuck a massive hand into the ground and bodily ripped the roaring and trashing Phantasm Lord from the ground.

"Back where we started," groaned Zerato to himself.

"That's not all," continued Lilith. "I play Lullaby of Obedience. At the cost of one thousand life-points, I may declare the name of a level eight or higher monster. If it exists in either of your decks, you must add it to your hand."

(Haou: 3800, Lilith: 600, Zerato: 3100)

"What could be worth those life-points at this stage…"

"I call Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder."

A dark look crossed Haou's face. Nonetheless, he was forced to retrieve the requisite card and add it to his hand.

"What are you planning, wench-…"

"You will know that all too soon, little King," she hissed back in glee. "The effect of Ninth Circle of Hell – Ice Tomb of the Traitors allows me to tribute a Treachery Token in order to utilize Lucifer's effect once more during this turn. So, join your rightful brothers-in-arms, Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder (4000/4000)!"

Even as a despairing Zerato called out, "No…!", another blazing thunderstorm formed overhead, raining down violently on the other side of Lucifer, with the blade-like gold claws of the monster lowering alongside the sharp, white clawed feet, golden tail and golden legs. Draping its wide, dark-brown, bat-like wings over the sides of its body, colored similarly as the legs, it moved its claws from the skeleton-like center body and revealed the open ribs that connected to the plated and thin arms. It had a type of open helmet on its head, worn in a V-shape, with two blue orbs embedded at the top sides. The body's back was protected with long, sharp spikes, with two extra extensions above the shoulders, leading to two pointed, white nails. The monster commanded for its thunder, as it flowed into its body.

The Archangel wrapped his hand into a fist, despair and frustration coming onto his features. "Three monsters with four thousand attack points…!"

"Now do you understand the true power of Hell?" shrieked Lilith over the roars of Lucifer, Hamon and Raviel.

Haou meanwhile, had a look of great anger creeping into his features. For the first time he looked out of his depth.

"Fall first, Archangel! Hamon, attack the Asmo Token!"

Lifting its head and roaring loudly, the dull yellow creature opened its jaws, releasing a powerful stream of yellow lightning straight for the miniature Darklord on Zerato's field. The moment the attack hit, the weaker creature let out a mournful wail of agony and then vanished into nothingness.

"Raviel, destroy the Deus Token," she hissed on.

The blue phantom emperor took a couple of gigantic steps forward and threw a massive bunch, one which completely obscured Zerato's only remaining monster. The fist remained pressed against the ground for a few moments, but even as it arose, the Deus Token still remained alive, somehow, injured but intact.

"My Deus Token cannot be destroyed by battle," muttered Zerato, though at this stage he knew it was a small victory.

Lilith scoffed. "Hide behind your pathetic excuses for demons all you want, Archangel. Until then I'll treat the Supreme King to some true pain. Lucifer, KILL HIS LIGHTNING GOLEM!"

The Devil let out a dark laugh, and a black sphere began to form in its right hand. With a shrug, it tossed the energy ball toward Haou's fused Evil Hero. The Supreme King swore, but it was lost in the general explosion as the darkness impacted the creature of rock, sending shrapnel in all directions, scratching the surface of the ice they stood on.

(Haou: 2200, Lilith: 600, Zerato: 3100)

"This duel is going to end very fast," hissed Lilith. "I suggest you both make prayers to whatever Gods you believe in, because soon you will no longer have any faith left."

Zerato's knuckles were white, sweat pouring down his brow.

"I set one card facedown and end. Take your final moves."

Zerato drew and he grimaced.

The card he had just drawn would probably help destroy one of Lilith's titans, but in doing so he would be sacrificing an opportunity to make a decent defensive play and bide some time.

On the other hand, he could take a risk and maybe hope that Haou would have enough options in his hand to turn the duel further.

He mentally berated himself at once. "Don't trust him for a second…. He's a Horseman."

Still, even if he played defense, he could only see himself holding out so long. Especially against such an un-Godly powerful trinity of hellish monsters.

He felt like smacking himself.

Finally, he decided.

"I tribute my Deus Token in order to special summon Darklord Desire (3000/2500)."

A sinister angel appeared on Zerato's field. It was clad in black armor with gold filigree inset along its arms and legs. Each of its arms were like the massive pincers of a scorpion, and two blood red wings flared out behind it.

"Once per turn, I can reduce Desire's attack points by one thousand, and destroy a monster in exchange."

He pointed at Lucifer. "And since Desire is a level ten, your heathen's immunities will not protect it!"

Lilith's eyes flared as crimson energy began to build up in Desire's claws.

"I will not allow you to take my husband from me again! Magical Trick Mirror, activate!"

The infamous trap card flipped up in front of Lilith.

Zerato and Haou were both taken aback.

"Which of our spells could she possibly want to copy…?"

"I choose Super Fusion."

Both Haou and Zerato stopped right there. Haou in particular was a little too shocked to say anything, unsure if he heard right.

"Super… Fusion…?"

"Yes, Supreme King," hissed Lilith, almost sweetly. "Is it not the infamous quick-play spell that allows me to fuse any monsters on the field by merely discarding a card from my hand?"

A swirling storm of black and yellow energy materialized behind Raviel and Hamon, slowly drawing in the world around it like a vacuum, distorting the nebula's clouds and stars. Lightning surged at the center of the rotating core, flattening the Phantasm and Thunder Lords' bodies as they neared.

The frightening vortex then moved onto claiming the one remaining monster on Lilith's field, but unlike the others Lucifer had a higher resistance; the Beast angled its hands at the storm, pitting its own might against the lightning. But even with its physical prowess, Lucifer could not hope to fend off the raging winds.

"Impossible…" murmured Zerato, rubbing his temples, bowing his head. "How has it come to this?"

"Now, regain your former glory, and take back what is rightfully yours!" shrieked Lilith.

From within the storm, a new figure was materializing. Marble steps were materializing at the mouth of the vortex, and the figure was stepping down them.

Slowly, very slowly, it came into view.

The fusion was absolutely nothing like its materials. It was a tall, almost regal looking man, with long white hair flowing down the sides of its head down to its shoulders. It was clad in heavy white-gold armor on the upper part of its body, and had a long red robe flowing down below its waist. A long red scarf hung around its neck.

Most impressive, however, were not one, not two, but the three pairs of wings which flared out behind its back. Each one was more majestic than that of the finest bird of prey one would ever see. They seemed to be radiating a ridiculously bright light, one which seemed to be melting the ice around it and increasing the temperature to a bearable level. Everything about the creature was so… holy.

Zerato knew better, however.

He knew far, far better.

"Archangel Lucifer (0/4000) returns to the world of the living," whispered Lilith. It seemed as if she was ready to burst into tears.

Zerato's head was ready to explode. Seeing the Devil himself in his element of darkness was bad enough. But, being confronted by the one who split the angels apart, was responsible for the deaths of so many of them, turned a group of others to the darkness, Zerato's own brother-… His train of thought snapped then.

"You… You slime…" he uttered.

Lucifer gave him a condescending look of utter superiority.

Somehow, Lilith found her voice again.

"When summoned, Archangel Lucifer allows me to special summon two demon or angel type monsters from either graveyard. I choose Raviel, Lord of the Phantasms, and Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder (4000/4000) (x2)."

Two towers of flames simply shot out of the sky, on either side of Lucifer. After a minute or so, they began to dissipate.

The first creature to arise was a large dull yellow creature with massive thin skinned wings, thin arms with large clawed tips on it's hands, red glowing eyes, two large horns and a chin like horn on it's head, a long powerful tail, and sharp claws and fangs. The creature roared loudly, sending out several shockwaves.

Rising up from the ground was a thick purple fog, which seemed to be forming a cloud. Through the cloud came two massive blue wings with thin see-through skin, large blue horns at the top, and powerful sharp talon like claws attached to purple hands came out of the darkness. Slowly, the cloud diminished, and the rest of the creature came into view.

"That can't be it. If Archangel Lucifer is actually a more powerful version of the original Lucifer card she used, then it can't just allow her to keep special summoning more monsters, it surely-…"

"Archangel Lucifer gains the combined attack points of every monster on my field," continued Lilith, almost as if she read Zerato's mind.

Haou remained silent through all this, even as the robed man raised up his hands, energy flowing toward him from the two roaring demons (8000/4000).

"That is not all. Recall, my continuous trap card, Deal with the Devil. During my opponent's turn, I may send it to the graveyard and banish all Eternal Sin monsters that are already there in order to use Lucifer's effect during my opponent's turn!"

A malicious smile spread across her prized monster's face.

"Come to me, Athena (2600/800)."

Zerato's graveyard glowed, and appearing as a veritable dwarf in comparison to the other monsters on Lilith's field was a woman dressed in a flowing white robe. She had a silver crown-like helmet fixed on her head, and flowing silver bangs of hair. She had a pearl white shield on her left arm, and held a long sword in the other.

Meanwhile, the Archangel Lucifer (10600/4000) was almost trembling with power.

"It's over nine thousand!" observed Haou to himself.

"Now do you see our true might? Do you see the reason we were cast out of Heaven? It was because my husband's power was feared!" crowed Lilith.

Zerato's head was bowed, his hair covering his eyes.

Haou looked at him suspiciously. "Has this fool given up?"

Zerato finally looked up, and for the first time since Lilith had played her first Lucifer card, that natural angel's calmness returned to his face.

An easy smile was almost present.

"Pride cometh before a fall."

Lilith cackled. "The fool has lost his mind; he is mad with fear!"

Zerato shook his head. "This was the lesson humanity was to learn from Lucifer's expulsion from Heaven. Pride is the worst sin that one can commit, and one will always pay for it. Really, one would think his own wife would learn from that."

"Stop with your nonsensical prattling!" snapped Lilith.

Zerato shrugged. "Very well, I'll show you. By choosing to resummon Athena from my graveyard, you've won me the duel."

"I will believe such drivel when I see solid proof!"

"If you insist," retorted Zerato. "Just know that your own showboating cost you this duel."

He flipped one of the cards in his hand around. "I activate Double Spell. By discarding one card from my hand, I can target one spell card in my opponent's graveyard, and use it as my own. I choose Monster Reincarnation, which I activate immediately."

He discarded another card from his hand and pulled a card out of his graveyard. He flashed it to Lilith.

"Now, behold, the pride of the Lightsworns: Judgment Dragon (3000/2600)!"

Appearing on Zerato's field was the towering wyvern. Completely covered in feathery scales up to its chest, which stuck out like spikes, it had a fringe of long feathers, like those of a peacock, extended down from the top of its neck. Its eyes were a deep crimson, while massive, eagle-like wings spread out from its back. Despite its reptilian origins, its limbs did not have scales, and looked like that of an elephant, while marked with three, large, red claws.

"A valiant effort," cackled Lilith. "However, Archangel Lucifer not only retains the abilities of his previous version but also builds upon them. He cannot be affected by the effects of any light attribute, dark attribute, demon, angel or zombie type monster of a level that is lower than is."

As if to accentuate her point, Lucifer shook his head in that same, infuriatingly condescending manner.

"Perhaps if you spent less time ranting and more time allowing me to continue, you'd see what I had in store for you," retorted Zerato, holding up another card.

"A quick-play spell card, Instant Replay. At the cost of a thousand life-points, the effect of Instant Replay becomes that of any one normal spell I used during this turn. I choose Double Spell, meaning I can discard one card to take another one of either of your spells."

(Haou: 2200, Lilith: 600, Zerato: 2100)

He smirked scornfully at Lilith.

"I think I'll take a page out of your book."

For a moment, the she-demon could not comprehend what Zerato was implying. When it hit her, she nearly had a seizure.

"No..!"

"Yes. I will take Super Fusion from your graveyard, Supreme King."

This drew no reaction from Haou, but Lilith's eyes had widened in absolute fear.

"I discard one card to fuse Judgment Dragon, Darklord Desire, and my Athena which you stole!"

The entire area was beginning to shake as he spoke. The feathered dragon began to glow, and let out a tremendous roar as storm clouds gathered above it. The white goddess on Lilith's field allowed herself a smile of relief before she dematerialized into a sphere of energy, which then floated upward until it vanished into the cloud. Desire did the same, and soon only the Judgment Dragon was left, continuing to roar as its body began to twist and shake violently.

A huge spotlight fell upon it from the opening in the clouds, completely obscuring it from the view of all three duelists.

Loud, distant trumpets were heard.

Lucifer looked very shocked. He turned around and looked accusingly at the snake, as if to say, "Do something!"

There was nothing that could be done, however. The trumpets grew louder and louder, and the winds picked up all over the field. The huge column of light on Zerato's field began to thin, especially tapering down toward the middle. It was taking a humanoid shape.

As the light cleared, one could further make out the image of Zerato's newest creature.

It was a man, on the face of it, but no one who had ever stepped foot on Earth could mistake this being for a regular human. Unlike Lucifer, who seemed highly laid-back and comfortable, the image of a string-puller instead of a fighter, Zerato's fusion seemed like the ultimate hero. His body was very toned and well-built, muscles rippling everywhere. He wore a bronze chain-mail piece of torso armor, which left his arms bare. Also like Lucifer, he had a robe flowing from the waist down, this time a light gray in color.

A black belt held it in place, hanging from which was a crimson scabbard. The being had spiky blonde hair that blew backward wildly in the wind, and three sets of wings which had him hovering a few feet off the ground. While Lucifer's wings looked like something you would see on a well-kept pet bird that never ventured out of its cage, the new angel's were wild and huge. Its eyes were a fiery blue, looking at Lucifer with unspeakable hatred.

"No…" mumbled Lilith, almost slithering backward in horror.

"It's time for you and your husband to meet the being that sent him out of Heaven," whispered Zerato.

A flaming sword materialized out of thin air in the fusion's right hand. The handle was long and made of a bright gold, while the blade itself had no metal: it was just tongues of flames that had taken the shape of a sword.

"Archangel Michael, Lord of Reckoning (0/0)."

Lucifer (8000/4000) was beginning to tremble with rage as he gazed upon Michael.

Of all the shocks of this long and convoluted battle, the biggest came as the would-be Devil spoke. "Hello, brother."

The most powerful Archangel met his stare.

"You are no brother of mine."

Lucifer's fists clenched and he began to tremble. "You cast me out of Heaven. You tore my wings off. I have waited eons for this opportunity."

"I merely did my duty," replied Michael coldly. "You stood against our Father, you turned so many of my brothers and sisters against themselves. I have no regrets over what I did, and will do so a thousand times over if I was so commanded."

He looked expectantly at Zerato, who nodded.

"When he's summoned, Michael will destroy all dark attribute, demon type and zombie type monsters in play! Since Michael is a level twelve monster, Lucifer will not be protected this time!"

Michael swung his sword upward, and let out a cry of rage. From the storm clouds above, a bolt of lightning struck it. Somehow, Michael coaxed even more energy into the blade, which resulted in the lightning being reflected outward in all directions. Haou's field was spared, as he had no other monster but Burstinatrix.

However, three bolts formed and lanced directly toward Raviel, Hamon and Lucifer.

"I activate Lucifer's effect!" panicked Lilith. "Raviel is tributed to protect him!"

The blue giant let out a roar, knowing his fate was sealed. Nonetheless, he vanished into a sphere of blue energy which then spread itself over Lucifer into a large force field. The lightning bounced off and caused an explosion somewhere else on the ground. Nonetheless, Hamon was electrocuted instantaneously, letting out a shrill screech before it exploded into millions of pixels. (Lucifer: 0/4000)

Zerato shook his head. "Then, I am allowed to special summon as many angel type monsters from my graveyard as those demons or dark attributes that were destroyed. Come forth, Darklord Superbia (2900/2400)!"

The mechanical looking hovering fallen angel appeared next to Zerato's field, its darkness in sharp contrast to Michael's holy appearance.

"Since Superbia was special summoned from the graveyard, I can special summon another angel from there as well. I choose Athena (2600/800)!"

The shining goddess, wielding her customary shield and sword appeared as well; Zerato's army of angel growing by the second.

"I activate Athena's ability. By sending one angel type monster from my field to the graveyard, I can special summon one from my graveyard! So I'll send Superbia, but resummon it straight away. This allows me to make us of its effect again, meaning Darklord Zerato (2800/2300) will be joining us!"

Superbia vanished, but then Athena glowed, and it appeared again. Next to it was the gray skinned warrior, his jagged blade raised above his head and a cool, determined look on his features.

"Since Athena deals you six hundred points of damage every time an angel type monster is special summoned, you're finished!" cried the Archangel.

The white robed woman raised her shield, which caught some of the blinding light and reflected it straight in Lilith's direction.

"Not so fast," hissed the demon. "I discard Harlot of Hell – Succubus (1500/1700), which reduces any effect damage done to me down to zero but instead deals it to my opponent, or, in this case, my opponents!"

Suddenly, the light from Athena's shield seemed to be bend, and somehow was redirected to slam into both Haou as well as Zerato.

(Haou: 1000, Lilith: 600, Zerato: 900)

The Archangel shrugged it off. "That's no matter. This duel is finished anyway. I discard Darklord Edeh Arae (2300/2000) from my hand to use Zerato's effect. All monsters other than mine are destroyed! Crimson Oblivion!"

The dark angel raised its blade, and red energy was expelled outward.

"You fool, Lucifer is a level ten, immune to your pathetic imitation's cheap parlor tricks!" screeched Lilith in a strangled voice.

It was true, the energy bounced of Lucifer, and instead all convalesced around Burstinatrix, strangling her before she exploded.

"I knew that," retorted Zerato. "I just needed a clear field. Now, it's time to end this! Athena, attack Lucifer and END THIS!"

The angelic woman seemed all too glad. She let out a cry of righteous anger, and her sword began to glow. She then charged across the field, watched emotionally by the other monsters and duelists.

Lucifer took a step back in trepidation, looking desperately at Lilith.

"You're finished, Archangel!" shrieked Lilith. "Once per duel, I can discard my hand to use Lucifer's effect during either duelist's battle phase! So I send all these worthless cards to the graveyard to special summon Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder (4000/400) in defense mode!"

That infuriating grin of arrogance came back to Lucifer's face as the clouds began to part above him again, and the by now familiar golden form began to start pushing its way through.

"When in defense mode, all attacks on my field are redirected toward Hamon! The difference between its defense points and Athena's attack points is sixteen hundred, and since you have only nine hundred life-points left, this duel is finished!"

Haou stopped short in absolute shock. The moment Zerato had played Super Fusion, the thought that Lilith could still win had not even entered his mind.

Lilith's wild cackles were cut short by a loud explosion. She turned around in surprise to see that Michael was standing coolly in the middle of Zerato's field with his sword extended in the direction of the gap in the clouds, flames issuing forth toward it. The fire continued to spew forth, drawing shrieks of pain from the as-of-yet not having arrived Hamon. For a moment, this exchange of power continued, until it had completely stopped and the gap closed.

The demon looked at Zerato, unable to find words.

"Archangel Michael allows me to negate the summon of a dark attribute or demon type monster at any point during the duel."

Lilith looked away. "That means…"

Zerato nodded. "Lucifer is destroyed. The duel is over."

Everyone turned their attention back to Athena and Lucifer. The goddess swung her sword once, a strong, determined blow. It caught him on the stomach. She encountered some resistance, but continued to follow through with the swing, pressing harder until her sword came free on the other end.

Lucifer looked down at his waist, which was slowly coming away from his legs.

He looked back at Michael, a pleading look on his eyes. He got no reply.

Then, he vanished. His body simply evaporated into thousands of tiny pearls of light, which disappeared into the sky.

(Haou: 1000, Lilith: 0, Zerato: 900)

Lilith remained where she was for a minute. Then, slowly, very slowly, she looked up.

"This… This cannot be."

She did not get time to utter another word.

The light in the area was beginning to disappear. First, their surroundings were beginning to revert back to the icy underworld lake. It didn't stop there; they were soon back in the coliseum of Hell, although this time it was empty, as no demons were present in the stands. Finally, everything disappeared completely, and they were now where they started: that same lowly island in the middle of the blood lake in the Garden of Eden. Only this time, there was no blood in the lake.

They were literally standing on a raised platform of ground, with tens of Succubi corpses spread over the lake bed around them.

Lilith looked around one more time, and seemed ready to speak again. However, the atmosphere was growing darker again. The darkness was seemingly concentrated around the snake, and kept on contracting toward her.

Without warning, it seemed as if she was engulfed in a massive, pure black sphere. A distant shriek of horror was heard before the darkness within seemed to crush her, and the ball disappeared.

Silence reigned momentarily.

The quiet was broken by a single phrase.

"You're wrong."

It was Haou. Zerato turned to look at him.

"Excuse me?"

"It is not over."

Zerato let out a sigh of frustration.

"Just leave, Supreme King. More than enough blood has been spilt today."

Haou's expression remained stony.

"Finish your turn, or I will take mine immediately."

The Archangel rubbed his temples in pain.

"Very well, you're signing your own warrant. Darklord Zerato, attack his life-points directly."

His dark counterpart nodded to him, and raised its sword. With a low grunt, it set off across the field toward Haou, drawing its blade back.

"Raigeki Break. Uria, Lord of Searing Flames is discarded, a monster is destroyed. I choose Archangel Michael, Lord of Reckoning."

Zerato's eyes suddenly shot wide open as the powerful angel on his field suddenly dropped his sword and began shaking violently. Crimson energy shocked his body, and he let out a slow groan of pain before he finally exploded. It didn't end there: the energy continued to spread, one by one bringing Zerato's army of angels to their knees and causing them to explode one by one.

"I thought as much. When your Archangel Michael is destroyed, it takes all monsters on your field with it."

Zerato said nothing. He looked too shocked to respond.

"If that is all, then-…"

"No," managed the Archangel. "I set one card. End."

Haou shrugged. "Nonetheless, your fate is sealed, Archangel. I activate Fake Hero. One Elemental Hero is special summoned from my hand; it cannot attack. Come, Elemental Hero Avian (1000/100)."

The familiar green feathered man materialized in front the Supreme King.

"It is tributed. Come, Dark Summons God (0/0)."

Materializing onto the field was a strange looking creature that had large red wings with grey in them, a red kilt wrapped around it's waist that stretched to the ground, a mostly dull black looking skin, long arms, a strange head with a pair of horns that stretched up and down, and a pair of thick shoulder pads.

Zerato raised his head up in minor curiosity.

"Dark Summons God is tributed. Raviel, Lord of the Phantasms (4000/4000), Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder (4000/4000) and Uria, Lord of Searing Flames (0/0) are special summoned from my graveyard, ignoring summoning conditions. However, they cannot attack."

Slowly, the dull black creature disintegrated, but immediately upon his disappearance, the ground began shaking, the sky darkened with lightning flashing brilliantly, and a tower of flames came shooting out of the ground.

The first creature to arise was the large dull yellow creature with massive thin skinned wings, thin arms with large clawed tips on its hands, red glowing eyes, two large horns and a chin like horn on its head, a long powerful tail, and sharp claws and fangs. Next to it was the towering blue creature, with its long claws and sinister black eyes, that had already appeared in the duel so many times.

The final creature soon began to appear from within the tower of flames. Out of the flames came a set of large red wings that had thin skin covering them that appeared to be attached to arms. Slowly, a red snake like body with a grey underbelly appeared from the flames that had many scales. The head of the monster had many spikes, and it had a massive set of sharp teeth. It let out a loud roar, making the ground shake from the power of it.

Zerato simply looked on, not saying a word.

"As they cannot attack, I shall resort to another method. Spell card, activate. Death by Dimensional Fusion. Uria, Hamon and Raviel are removed from play."

All three large creatures on Haou's field instantly vanished from the field while lightning began to stir within the sky, striking the field in front of him. Towers of flames instantly began rising around the lightning strikes, while a thick purple fog formed as well.

Slowly, rising from the fog with lightning striking it was a set of yellow nearly see through wings like the large dull yellow creature had had, a set of blue and yellow horns, large red shoulder pads with spikes sticking out, an arm that had the red dragon like creature on it, the other arm corresponding to the large blue and purple creatures, and the rest of the body appeared to be a blend of the three creatures combined into one. Once fully upon the field, the new creature let out a horrendous roar, shaking the entire island.

"Come, Armitael the Chaos Phantom (0/0)."

Zerato continued to say nothing.

"During my main phase one, Armitael gains ten thousand attack points."

The horrendous creature let out a loud roar as it glowed with dark energy (10000/0).

"Direct attack, Henseiha…!"

A lavender and black orb began to form at the base of the being. With an Earth-shattering cry, it let lose the energy, which headed directly for Zerato.

"Trap card, activate. Magic Cylinder."

A pair of hovering cylinders materialized in front of him. "The requisite damage is done to you."

The orb was sucked into one cylinder, and then disappeared. Armitael roared in trepidation as the other cylinder began to glow brightly, seeming ready to fire the orb right back at it.

Haou closed his eyes for a moment, and then opened them again.

"I have won this duel because I believe in neither Heaven nor Hell. The only thing that is absolute in this existence is my power."

Zerato said nothing.

Haou tapped a button on his Duel Disk, and a trap card flipped up.

Trap Jammer.

Zerato nodded, closed his eyes, and spread his arms out as the energy broke out of the cylinder and washed over him.

(Haou: 1000, Lilith: 0, Zerato: 0)

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Phewwwwwwwwww.

I have nothing else to say.

I'll try and update as soon as possible, Craig's kickass duel outline helped me get back into it.

Till then, don't stop reviewing!