(Cipher 45) 211: Bravery without Fear
Ruby's LP: 3400 Xanders LP: 5800
"So besides stalling, what else are you planning to do?" Xander placed a trap and a monster card face-down on his field and ended his turn. While the Swords of Burning Light spell card was active on Ruby's side, he could not declare any attacks. Not even with Chaosnumber 106 (5/2600/2000). "Oh, thanks for reminding me that I dont need to waste time talking anymore!" In her turn, Ruby activated an effect from her graveyard. "A Volcanic Shell is in my graveyard! By paying 500 lifepoints to activate its effect, I can add another Volcanic Shell to my hand!" Ruby claimed the second of her three Shells. "For what purpose?" It was a rather odd monster to insert into a deck that did not support its archetype.
Ruby's LP: 2900
"So I have some discard fodder!" Ruby eagerly declared. "I activate my trap card, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, by discarding a card! It can send a card, your Giant Red Hand, back into the deck!" Her trap was revealed and the flames of the phoenix were ignited when Volcanic Shell was sent to the cemetery. "I know your Cairngorgon can choose the targets of card effects. But my trap can only target your monster/spell or trap cards!" If Xander used the effect of his anti-knight(4/2450/1950) to redirect Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, it would have to choose a new target on Xanders side of the field. "So it does." Xander detached the last material from Cairngorgon regardless. The corrupted rock warrior deflected the phoenix and made the trap take Fire Hand(4/1600/1000) back into Xanders deck instead. "Ugh. What does it take to get a rise out of you?" Ruby placed two trap cards down and ended her turn.
"I am simply in control of my emotions and aware of my own limits. I think I know why Subito passed away." Xander normal summoned Gogogo Giant(4/2000/0). The effect of the Giant forced that Gogogo monster into defense mode, while it special summoned another Gogogo monster; Gogogo Golem(4/1800/1500) from the graveyard. "There are two stages of power Pandora granted me to help in my battles. One I should only use with extreme caution. The other.. I could use at any time. I xyz-summon Number 55: Gogogo Goliath!" Gogogo Golem with Gogogo Giant were overlayed; their blocks and metal reshaped to create a castle-sized and shaped goliath(4/2400/1200) made from stone and steel. Its powers added 800 defense points to all monsters on the field. (Giant Red Hand: 2800 def, Cairngorgon the Antiluminescent Knight: 2750 def, Gogogo Goliath: 3200 def)
"Number 55?" Ruby had been afraid of this. "So that is how she keeps you in enslaved!" She had heard about Clauds and Subito's additional Numbers from Azar and Korose. Undoubtedly Ariel and Ion would have their own new Numbers as well, so Pandora could focus more mindcontrol on them. "Ruby..." Xander just sighed. He was not going to touch that subject anymore. "Number 55 can add one monster from my graveyard to my hand." Xander detached one card from the Gogogo-Xyz monster... and from Giant Red Hand. "My Chaosnumber can then activate its own effect. When an effect is activated, Giant Red Hand negates the effects of all cards on the field!" The Chaos hand of magma unleashed a haze of frost. While this did temporarily negate Gogogo Goliath's effects, Xanders gain was that the Swords of Burning Light were no longer active either. "Crap." Xander was free to attack a wide-open Ruby.
"I flip summon a monster now, AbsorbingJar." Xanders face-down monster was flipped to face-up attack position. It was a metallic smiling jar(1/600/500). "Absorbing Jar destroys all set cards on the field, and prevents me from setting new cards this turn. But it also allows us to draw new cards for each card we lose." The Jar opened its lid and started sucking cards into its hollow body. Xanders trap was the first to go, and Ruby's two cards would quickly follow.
"Oh no you don't!" Ruby would only let one be absorbed by the Jar. The other trap she triggered just in time. "I activate Impenetrable Attack!" Of the two abilities this trap had, Ruby chose the second one. "This trap will negate all battle damage I take during this turns battle phase!" Waves of golden light surrounded Ruby, resisting the Absorbing Jars suction forces. "Oh and by the way. The other trap your jar took? That was Prepared Explosives! That card inflicts 1000 points of damage when you destroy it!" The second trap turned out to be a bomb, which exploded in front of the Jar and covered Xanders side in smoke. "Didn't see that coming, did you?" She gloated while Xander was coughing and waving the smoke aside. "No I did not." In the end both players had only lost one card to the Absorbing Jar, so they could only draw one new card from their deck. "That was it then." Xander could not set cards, nor could he inflict damage with his attacks, he might as well end the turn.
Xanders LP: 4800
"Didn't think so. You may be a smart guy, but you never had to struggle much in your life. You don't have a dueling spirit!" Ruby attributed her survival up until this point to that alone. "That is why I dislike 'your' world. It is boring if you can get anything you want without problems! You had me dancing to your beat for a while, so its that much sweeter.." Ruby smirked as she took one last look at the card she had drawn in her draw phase. "When I get something like this! I activate Dark Hole!" Her spell tore a hole in space, creating a massive black hole from which no monster could escape. "Die!" Both Giant Red Hand and the Antiluminescent Knight were pulled in by the singularity's gravity, vanishing beyond the event horizon. Xanders own continuous spell, Cracking, even inflicted 800 points of damage to him because his monsters were destroyed by a card effect. "Ygh. I discard XYZ Gardna from my hand!" Gogogo Goliath had a little more luck than them. "XYZ Gardna detaches Gogogo Goliaths last material to negate its destruction!" The Goliath was weighed down by a shield of rocks and black crystal. It outlasted the Dark Hole.
Xanders LP: 4000
XYZ Gardna, 4/1000/1000 Dark/Rock
If a Xyz-monster with Xyz-material(s) would be destroyed, you can send this card from your hand to the graveyard to detach 1 Xyz-material from that monster instead.
"You are fond of that Number now are you? I can guess why! But that's okay! I heard I only need to take care of your lifepoints to knock some sense into you!" She was starting to feel better about her chances. She could actually win this. "What am I thinking. Of course I am going to win!" Ruby placed a trap card down. Next she normal summoned her foxy spy lady in the red dress; Spy-C-Spy. Now that she controlled a monster, the Swords of Burning Light were removed from the field. "When Spy-C-Spy is normal summoned, she'll inspect the attackpoints of one random card in your extra deck!" The Spy gazed into Xanders extra deck, selecting 1 of its 11 remaining monsters. That monster was Soul of SilverMountain, a monster with 1800 attackpoints. "Hmm. If the monster has less than 2000 attackpoints, I gain lifepoints equal to that monsters attack." Eighteen-hundred points were awarded to Ruby. "That should be plenty... I activate another effect from my graveyard!" Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Buffalo(4/1700/1000) could summon itself back to her field in defense position by sacrificing her two Fire Formation Tenki spells. "My turn is over!"
Ruby's LP: 4700
"In part you are right, Ruby. I am not a fighter, but a thinker. Though that is an aspect of dueling as well." Xander had always preferred complicated tactics over Ruby's crude overpowering and burning style. "And I had a good life. But so did you. I have no idea what past Azar wanted you to believe to make you join his side. Yet it sounds terrible to me." Xander special summoned Power Giant(6/2200/0), a golem made from crystal blocks of all seven colors. "I reject the notion, like I reject your damage! When Power Giant attacks, he reflects all effect damage until the end of the damage step." Power Giant could summon itself by discarding a card from a players hand, and it(2/2200/0) level was decreased by the level of the discarded monster. In this case that was the level 4 Gogogo Gigas. "I fail to see what is wrong about wanting to give you your perfect life back!" In his battle phase Ice Hand grabbed Buffalo and crushed the fiery beastwarrior with its ice-cold grip. Then Gogogo Goliath raised its stone fists into the air and brought them down upon Spy-C-Spy.
"You fail to see it, because you fail to accept that my life was never perfect! I don't care if 'your world' is better. It'd be unfair to all to everyone who was damaged, if we pretend they never had any problems at all! Judith, Rita, Subito... Pandora did not care about who they were. Only about what she could turn them into!" Ruby sprung her final trap card, right before impact. "Doble Passe! I turn your attack into a direct attack and inflict damage equal to the attackpoints of my attacked monster!" Number 55's ground pound missed the Spy. "Gah!" Ruby was thrown to the floor instead by the resulting earth-tremors. "Ungh!" Simultaneously, Xander was shot at by the Spy who leaped over the Goliath to inflict 1200 points of damage. "Pretend?" The two struggled to stand up again. "You would rather keep those memories than be happy? For whose sake; the dead?" Xander groaned as he rose first and he put his turn to an end. "There is no point to it. They can not appreciate such actions.. Subito and Claud wont..."
Ruby's LP: 2300 Xanders LP: 2800
"Stop talking." Xanders words were hitting a little too close to her heart, for Ruby's comfort. "If you say one more thing about Subito, or Claud, or anyone who died to save lives... You want to know how Subito died, why he exerted his power? He died to save the life of Azar, Ann and his own brother! Are you telling me you would not have done the same?" With her hand Ruby wrenched the top card from her deck. "If I lose here, I will forget all of that. I will forget that he died, I will forget that I am alive because of him! He changed my life. He did, not Pandora!" " She activated the effect of the Volcanic Shell in her cemetery, paying 500 lifepoints to add the third and final shell to her hand. "Doble Passe has one more bonus! It lets Spy-C-Spy, the monster you tried to attack, attack directly in my next battle phase!" The blonde lady in the red dress fired another shot from her gun.
Ruby's LP: 1800 Xanders LP: 1600
"Tch. Ruby." Xander brushed the dust from the hit off. "You can not win this way. Surrender while you can. Can't you see that this is simply what Azar wants? Just like Subito, he wants you to lay down your life for him." Even with this few lifepoints, Xander remained in Pandora's world. On the next turn both his monsters would take away what remained of her life instead. "Enough!" Ruby shouted. "I dont know if its the Number that is keeping you brainwashed, or something else. But if I have to hit you a thousand more times, I will!" She activated a quickplay spell card from her hand. "When a monster finishes a direct attack and inflicts 1500 point of damage or less, I can activate this card from my hand by discarding all cards in my hand! I activate Berserker Soul!" Ruby took the top card from her deck. "If I can excavate a monster card from the top of my deck, I can inflict 500 points of damage this turn!" The card on top of her deck was revealed to be a Guerillakite. "Xander, Pandora.. this one is for Claud!" Berserker Soul inflicted its damage to Xander.
Xanders LP: 1100
"Not enough, Ruby!" Xander began to yell. "Did I say we were done?" Ruby silenced him quickly, as she excavated a second card. "Berserker Soul can repeat this process until I reveal a non-monster card! It can do it up to seven times a turn!" The second revealed card was Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Raven. "This one is for Thomas, the Masked Raider who died to stop the First of all Numbers!" Xander lost another 500 lifepoints to the Berserker spell. "!?" By now he could only watch as Ruby excavated her third card. "This one is for Kincaid!" Heavy Cavalry of the Karmatic Flames was shown to Xander, and the next blast was sent his way. "Ruby.." Now he only had a 100 lifepoints left. "You cannot continue..." Already his resistance has been wittled down to nothing. Yet she kept going. "No. This is not over, so many have died!" One more card was excavated, Fire King High Avatar Garunix. "Subito..this one is for him!" Berserker Soul fired its fourth shot. "The people in the stadium fire, the victims of the Numbers, the catalysts, Theo's brother." Ruby wanted more, there was more to do! They all had to be avenged! "RUBY!" Xander yelled again, snapping her out of her frenzy. "You won! You do not have to duel anymore!"
Xanders LP: 0
"! Xander?" Her opponent fell flat on the ground. "Ack! Are you.." The sigh of it looked so painful yet humorous that all her anger vanished into thin air. The next card she excavated would have been a random monster too.
"Ergh. Not my most graceful defeat." Xander groaned as he propped himself back up. "But I..understand that you had to do it. A victory must be... claimed." He nearly tipped back down again, when Ruby caught him. "Okay you are not all right!" A loss of balance was the least of his problems. "I suppose not. I gave everything, and lost everything." His eyeslids were getting heavy, his body needed to rest. "Ruby. I know what happened now, I know the truth. You.." He was finally free, yet could do little with that information. "Tell Ariel. Tell her.. Ut omnia operatu. She will understand..I.." Xander only get a few words out, before his eyes closed and body slumped in her hands. "Xander!?" She yelled and shook his body. The man was out like a light. "No, nononono! Dont you get the idea to die on me now!" She placed him down and checked his wrist. "Oh thank god." There was a pulse, he was still alive..
...
Azar and the others had meanwhile indeed passed Xanders barrier, which Rita could sense. Someone was dueling him, and they did not know it was Ruby until Korose resumed D-pad communications with them. It did not take them long to find the place they needed. There was little in their way, because the streets were empty. Even here all life had been put to sleep. The haunted mansion was the end destination. Korose, Dakar and the Echoes were waiting inside near the entrance, just through the door was Dakars illusion veil. "It is good to see you all again." Azar greeted them when they were let into the illusion. "Likewise." Dakar could finally smile. Though then he saw Rita. "Rita..I am.."
"We'll have time for that later." She snapped. Rita did not want to think about that. Besides, they had a timetable. "That is what they look like in the real world, eh?" Rita saw the shadowbeings for the first time. They were only slightly more blurry here. "There are so many left." Necara counted several dozen of them. Who knew who they were in their past lives? "Except they seem to only need one more trial.. Because..." Dakar paused, as something took place that had happened before. "!?" Before the eyes of Azar and the others, two of the Echoes fused together into one taller shadow. "They have been doing that for a while now; slowly merging together." Dakar assumed this would stop when they were all one being. "Their rules for the last duel could be anything, it could be every limit imposed all at once." Now that the rest had come back, there was just one question. Who would take it? "Will a challenge like this restore our life?" Neither Rita nor Azar had much lifepoints to spend at the moment. Korose did. "I believe so, it is a duel in their world, not ours. Dakar or I will have to take it otherwise." Only he and Dakar had all 8000 of their points. Whether that mattered or not was impossible to tell; the Echoes had no voice here. "I will do it. I should." Azar eventually spoke up. "I started this, I should be..."
"Where am I? What did you do?"
"Shin?" Azar turned around. He had put Shin down on a couch to let him rest. He was awake now. "Shin. We're back with our friends. You don't have to worry." Azar had not planned on keeping Shin unconscious for too long, but the kid had still woken up sooner than he expected. "I don't? But..Subito. That was not a nightmare, that really happened." Shin was aware enough to know the difference between dream and reality. "We heard. I am so sorry, Shin.. We will do everything we can to make sure it does not happen to anyone else." Dakar had seen his family do hundreds of intakes at the funeral home. Still he was unsure about what to say to Shin. In the end all he had were words. "You can't promise that. Not for Subito..not for Claud." Shin had no use for words. "Claud? You..knew?" Rita gasped. "I heard, I saw." No dreams had visited Shin, only premonitions. He saw everything that was 'inevitable'. "I dont want this anymore." Shin got up and walked towards the exit. "Shin, where are you.. Shin!" Azar shouted. "Wait!"
Too late, Shin was out the front door. "He can't go there, he will be seen!" Shin had gone beyond the veil. "Who could spot him? The city is only half-awake and nobody with an Overhundred Number is around to intercept him." Nobody had followed them, Rita was sure of that. "...!?" Right up until a large power surged just outside the building. "What!?" Dakar and Azar felt it too. "Where.." The surge was accompanied by a loud thunderous noise and a rain of golden light. "Its the 102nd!"
The arrows that pierced the walls and hit the floor were of the type that StarSeraph Sentry held on its bow. "Ariel, Ion!" Its master, and the master of the 101st Number, came through the hole in the wall. "Azar, Dakar, Korose, Necara, Rita. They are all here, as I figured they would lead us here. Shin got away though." Ion and his Seraph guarded the exits, while Ariel marched forward with her Dark Knight. "Let him go. This loss hit him the hardest, I do not want to pain him more." She spoke of him with a kind tone. She had none for the others. "First Subito, now Claud. When will you be satisfied, Azar? I swear, you will never hurt anyone again!"
(To be Continued in Cipher 212: Ex-Deus et Machina)
New Cards used by Ruby Irant
Volcanic Shell
-
Berserker Soul
-
Prepared Explosives
New Cards used by the Xander Carson
Absorbing Jar
Number 55: Gogogo Goliath
XYZ Gardna
Power Giant
