New Testament 054: Cain to his Abel

"You need me.. ?" Carter asked the one pretending to be his brother. "Heh." But he suddenly ran off, into the cave. "Wait!" Was that guy trying to escape? He could not allow that. "Stop!" He followed him into the mountain, up the stairs. Only to reach the same dead end he had seen before. The stairs only lead to an opening underneath a light in the ceiling. A ceiling that was a good few miles above them. "Where..are you..going?" Will at least had him cornered now, or so he thought. "To your world of course. I can not use the gateway made for Ka.. but the inside of this tower is a far older connection to the human world. This platform." He stepped on it. "Is like an elevator.. the last failsafe. I thought I could use it, but apparently.." He waited until Will himself had his feet on the platform. Then it started rumbling. "It only reacts to someone who has a body waiting for him on the other side." The elevator was moving. "So it is a good thing you came back so quickly. I am going to become the new soul in that body of yours."

He promptly materialized a dueldisk from his arm, only it looked more twisted and organic than the one he used as Andre. "You want to fight me for it? What makes you even think you can pull off being me?" Will did the same, producing the sleeker original version. "I have read your memories, haven't I? And it does not matter much, whatever friends you have wont be alive much longer." The platform was now steadily rising up towards the light above. "What? Do you mean what you did to those souls.." He now realized that the other two bodies had disappeared. "Yes, the Magus has been released from this world already. I finished the tasks of Zakaria and the portal of the one you call Turner. You did not even realize you were leading two more anchors to your world... " He cackled. "That reminds me, I have not even given you a name to remember. Gerard might do, but he was just another victim in the end. Instead I think I shall go with the title the Egyptians gave me all that time ago..I am Facade. And soon I will be William Carter."

Williams LP: 8000 Facade's LP: 8000

".." The duel was on, both players drew their cards. "Your deck." William was curious however, right now this Facade person had the face of Andre. "You wonder what I will use? Heh it could be anyone couldn't it?" He suddenly took on the appearance of Venice Gray. "Your old friends." Then he looked like Nero Jacobus. "Dead or alive.." He even imitated the loathsome appearance of Edgar. "I could even be a villain. To make it easy for you.." Yet in the end he shifted back to his brothers image. "I think this will be my choice. It aggravates you the most, and the deck I crafted for him suits me best. My inner spirit has always been a little demonic." He drew five cards. "But enough mincing the past. This lift to the mortal plane will not wait forever. You can make the first move, William." Now Will knew what to expect, but in a way he had hoped for it. "I set one monster card facedown and end my turn." In his hand he had some combos already, but he had used them all fighting side by side with 'Andre'. They would not surprise that one..

"Hmm. A set card, what could it be? Nova Summoner is one choice.. something with high defense does not seem likely. You tend to think about long-term advantages.." Facade drew a card from his fleshy dueldisk. "Let's see if I know you as well as I should. I summon Mad Archfiend!" From his hand came a redhaired demon that had teeth and a skull instead of an abdomen(1800/0). "Mad Archfiend can pierce the enemies!" The archfiend released a hail of bone bullets on Williams defender. "Aha!" What took the blow was a pair of gel-like fairies(1700/0). "Gellen Duo, the angels that will not die in battle." Despite that explanation, Duo died anyway and Carter suffered 1800 piercing damage. "But it dies when I take damage through other means." Will grunted in pain. "That is not the worst, look behind you." Abruptly the platform started to crack. "!?" Pieces fell all the way down. "This platform depends on lifeforce as well. Remember what the sentinels said. If you can not prove your strength, you do not deserve to leave!"

Wills LP: 6200

Facade placed two trap cards and ended his turn. "Then does that go for you as well?" Wills could now attack him. "You can try. But when attacked my Mad Archfiend will switch to defense position. You wont hurt me this turn I reckon." The mouth of Andre twisted into a smirk. "I do not want to damage you randomly, Facade." He summoned part one of his combo, Chaos End Master(1500/1000). "That trick?" He had indeed seen it before. "You know what will happen." He sent the twilight spellcaster to attack the demon. It switched to defense mode like Facade had told him. "When it kills a monster, the End Master I can call out the Chaos Sphere." Mad Archfiend died, sending bones and teeth all over the place. After that the black glowing orb (1600/0) came from his deck. "Main phase 2: I will Synchro Summon a monster!" He tuned the Chaos tuner of the 3rd level with the level 5 sphere. "Come out, Light End Dragon(2600/2100)." The angelic serpent dragon approached the dueling platform, floating upwards at the same pace.

"I knew you would do that! So I prepared a trap!" Facade flipped a card, Tuner Capture. "It does exactly what it says on the tin, Will. This trap will capture the Tuner you used for that Synchro!" From the graveyard Chaos End Master was pulled. He flew over to his fake brothers side. "Tsk. Dark End Dragon I presume?" He could not attack anymore. He placed two trap cards down instead. "You know me well too. Or rather who I pretend to be." The enemy started his turn and wasted no time. "I wont even need to use his effect to get it out. I summon this." He called out a skeletal archfiend, whose body was somewhat foggy. "Mist Archfiend. A level 5 monster that can be normal summoned without tributes." It would be destroyed in the endphase if summoned this way, but it would not live that long. "Synchro Summon." Chaos End and Mist were combined into his level 8 Synchro, the Dark End Dragon(2600/2100). "I saw this confrontation coming, the symbolism is rather nice." The Dragons mirrored each others positions.

"Let's see how prepared you are. I use the effect of Dark End Dragon!" He was about to sacrifice 500 attackpoints of his dragon to destroy Light End. "Trap card: Shadow Imprisoning Mirror!" But will used one of his traps, a mirror that sucked in the dark energy the Synchro was invoking. "Gheh. That card." It was a continuous trap that absorbed all effects of Dark-type monsters. His Synchro would be useless with it on the field. "Then I shall let you proceed." He passed the turn to the duelist. "..." He also wasted no time and charged straight at Dark End Dragon. "I sacrifice 500 attackpoints!" He too came close to using the effect, but found himself in an eerily similar situation. "Light Imprisoning Mirror!" Facade had used the opposite of Wills trap, a Mirror that negated effects of Light monsters. "I guess both monsters will have to die in battle!" The two were about to crash into each other. "I do not think so, I use Trap Stun!" His second trap was flipped, which petrified the opponents mirror. "!?" Light End Dragon powered down(2100/1600), weakening Dark End at the same time (1100/2100). The divine fire from destroyed the wicked dragon. "One step ahead.." He grunted as he took damage. "I will set two more cards and end my turn."

Facade's LP: 7000

"Nice. But Trap Stun only works for one turn." He said as his side of the platform began to crumble. "And the duel of light and darkness ends?" He drew a card and smiled unpleasantly. "I do not think so.. Recall this?" He showed the fiend Trap Eater(1900/1600). "I special summon Trap Eater, by destroying your trap." It ate the Mirror of Shadows. "Your trap can not block his effect, because its eating habits are a requirement rather than a skill." Then he summoned another level 4 monster, an Intercept Archfiend(1400/1600). Will did not know which dragon he would call out. "Synchro summon." The Tuner Eater was combined with the Interceptor, and from the light of the stars came the demon that had blasted him off the mountain before. "Red Dragon Archfiend(3000/2000)." With the Shadow Imprisoner gone, it could unleash all of its demonic powers. "But for now, I will settle with killing that divine pest." With a Light Mirror in place, Light End could not counter an attack. "Powerforce!" The demon dragon punched right through it. "So much for the dragons from your memory. This one I like the most anyway." But suddenly Will activated a trap. "Cosmic Blast!" And a huge blast engulfed the enemy and the platform. "What the?"

Facade's LP: 4400 Williams LP: 5300

Cosmic Blast, Normal Trap
Activate only when a dragon-type synchro monster you control is removed from the field. Inflict damage to your opponent equal to its ATK. This turn, you cannot special summon.

More of the platform fell into the abyss below. "You.. you wanted me to kill it eh?" Facade suffered 2600 effect damage from that one trap alone. "But what will you do now? I do not remember any monster destruction cards in your deck." He laughed as he placed one trap card down. "There is one more monster." Carter waited for his turn to activate his last trap. "Hmm?" It was a card called Descending Lost Star. "This trap revives one dead Synchro; with its defense reduced, its level lowered by 1, and its effect negated." He of course ressurected Light End Dragon(2600/0). "No effect, what can it do then?" Facade was not impressed. "Nothing. It is just a stepping stone." Andre smiled as he summoned a new monster. "Hanewate? But that's.." It was cute winged watapon critter(200/300). ".. a tuner. Yes. I am going to Synchro Summon the monster that saved me before!" Hanewata the level 1 fairy was tuned together with the now level 7 Light End. "Come out, level 8 Dragon Synchro: Stardust Dragon!" And from the light came his savior.

The army, or what remained of it, chose to regroup at the original portal site. There Nero and company rejoined with Colin and Cleo, and also the Pharaoh. Most soldiers kept a close eye on Marcus, while Jackson was waiting for Cable to recover. "Okay. Let me get this straight." And the poor troops had some trouble understanding the concept of a Magus from another dimension bent on taking over the world. "This Ka-person. He was an enemy from your past?" Not to mention the fact that this kid was possessed with a millenium-old Pharaoh. "And he created these underlings to help him. But then you stopped him, and sealed him in another place." To all of these questions Raness merely nodded. "You'd think someone who had seen a one-eyed ten story tall demon emerging from the sea would be more open to things." Colin said under his breath. "Then can you tell us how you defeated them, because so far conventional weaponry seems to have no effect." The second-in-command would accept any shred of good news.

"It will not be easy to replicate that victory, as they seem to have created a steady opening between both worlds now. And I do not like to say this, but my memories are not all present. The moments leading to the downfall of Ka are incomplete." This was disappointing news to say the least. "These foes are not like people you have dueled before. They are not just mere demons or darklings, nor are they corrupted humans. The pillars of Ka are seemingly immortal, and their abilities translate into well beyond the limits of a normal game." He then put an object on the table, it was the lamp that Archon had left behind after he was destroyed. "You kept that?" Ceasar found it a bit dangerous looking. "You want to join your friends, or do you wanna stay quiet?" Cleo hissed. He chose the latter. "This I believe to be their medium. When Ka returned to this world, he summoned his servants with four other items." Christine gasped suddenly. "And that other guy, Zakaria. He had a medium too." In his case it was a small key.

"I can not say much about them, even in the past few knew how Ka made these creations. My missing memories might or might not know more. But the pillars seem to name themselves after the metal of their object." In this case, Archons lamp was made from silver. "But one of them had a compass, did they even invent something like that back then?" Colin did not know enough to be sure of that. "I believe the current tools to be recently remade, as we should have destroyed the original forms back in my time. At any rate, I do not intend to destroy this just yet." He placed both hands on the lamp. "What then?" Everyone took a step back just to be safe. "These things are a medium for Ka's underlings. If so, he might still be communicating with the ones we have already vanquished." He intended to intercept whatever Ka might have to say. "So be calm, I must focus."

He closed his eyes and allowed darkness to overtake his senses. His spirit seemed to leave the body, heading towards a boundless space. At first there was only static, nothing too confirm his theory. But he waited for a while longer, and his patience started receiving rewards. But they were not words, they were images. The void started growing in color, in vibrance. The more he looked around, the more he saw. Until all the images seemingly zoomed out. He saw the entire world before him; countries, oceans and mountains. And just when the force behind the interference reached its peak, he was slammed into the shadows by a strong pull. "Guaah!!" He snapped back into the real world, and shook his head, trying to shake off the headache. "What, what happened. Did you pick up something?" They had never seen Raness this unnerved.

"I saw.. I saw all the Millenium Items.."

(To be Continued in New Testament 055: Lonely Star of the Night)

New Cards used by William Carter
Hanewata
Stardust Dragon

-
Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
Cosmic Blast (+)
Descending Lost Star

(+) Based on a trap used by Yusei in episode YGO 5D

New Cards used by Facade/Andre
Mad Archfiend
Mist Archfiend

-
Tuner Capture
Light-Imprisoning Mirror