A Legacy of Souls: Execute the World

by Medigo

The world is ever changing, and dueling changes with it. They have finally come to the point where they can create their own world, inside the reality of the dueling network. There the artificial meets the real. But not everything sticks to their program. What starts as small glitches soon grows into chaos, and the duelists are caught in the middle of a terrifying revolution.

121. We Cannot Create Artificial Imperfection

Last Line: We cannot Create Artificial Imperfection

The heroes reunited at the arena beyond for one last time. There were no enemies left to duel, no items left to find.. for now. For a brief moment they could relax. "So, you are chums with the champions now? Did I get that right?" The calm gave Void the chance to finally talk to a friend.

"Oh? Oh yeah that. Yeah I am kinda a celebrity too. Well more like a starlet. I didn't wanna talk too much about it, because.. well just because. I like it more when nobody knows who I am, when I am just little lady Blanche instead of someone who gets mugged for an autograph everywhere she goes." The white haired lady laughed awkwardly. "A star? Is that why you dyed your hair? And here I thought you just liked the color of white to an overly excited degree." Void laughed right back. "Hey! It is the Best Color! But yeah, that too. Also i am like, way too rich. I guess me not telling you is not really fair when you gave me your backstory. I promise to give you the full deets when I get back. When things are less busy.. it's not all roses and sunshine either.." Blanche stopped to sigh, as an uncomfortable feeling entered the conversation. "Eheh! Buuuut, that's an issue for tomorrow's me. My own time is almost up!"

"What? But.. Blanche you're a wielder of the item now." Void replied flatly. It took him longer than he wanted too, to figure out the joke. "Heheh, yeah I heard. But that tension desperately needed some pressure relief. I almost got you, didn't I?" Blanche's time limit passed her just a few seconds ago. Now she knew for sure that the ark provided her unlimited freedom. "And now you have like what, five items yourself? Man, if I didn't know you any better I'd get worried."

"Three. The chalice, the crown and the lance." Void took a deep breath. It did not need to be said that he felt uncomfortable carrying this much power around. "Maybe Melyria was right. At the very least, In that I do not think I should 'own' more than one item." He reached into his inventory and placed both the lance and the chalice on the floor besides the crown. "It should be divided." Then he turned his eyes towards Zettai, Hydra and the others. "I hope you are not suggesting what I think you are. You already know my stance." If it had been up to the ace duelist, she would have destroyed the items long ago. Then again she did not know how to destroy them. "Indeed. I know you said that you felt the chalice belonged to me. But I could not accept it now. I was not on the right side of history." Hydra shook his head as well. Even the armor, the one item that would help Millennium, had no more use for him now.

"Hear me out. I am not saying you should carry them with you. But I have seen that you can willingly transfer ownership of the items to another. That is how Static took the crown from me. What I am suggesting is that I pass two items on in name only, the objects themselves will be stored away. We can't trust Exeter to hold them. That is why I want to name you, Asterisk.. the new wielder of the lance." Void picked the lance and up and handed it over to the agent. "Ah. A remarkable plan indeed." Asterisk took it and held it in his hands. "Lighter than I expected it to be. I will make sure V locks it away in a secure place. Which at this rate is likely going to be this arena itself, he has taken a liking to it." Asterisk chuckled.

"As for the Crown. I give it you, Zettai. After all, I know you would never want to use it." Void placed the crown in the ace duelist's hands. "I certainly would not." She grunted and placed the item back down at Asterisks feet. "But I believe your strange friend might discover a method that could either eliminate or disable them." She gave the agent a grim smile, and he nodded back. "But of course."

"So you will keep the chalice then? And I have the ark. Crescent, what about you?" Blanche wondered, as the Mekk Knight duelist had earned her own item by defeating Ezra. "I.. want to keep the shield. I do not want to lose myself in it, but I still think.. it needs me. There is a voice inside of it. Not a godlike voice.. just someone who needs help." Crescent's gaze drifted from miss Echo in the distance, to Scura in the corner. "Huh? Why you looking my way?" The cloaked girl flinched. "Oh no. Don't even think about giving me that creepy armor! I already told Melyria that I didn't want it!" She muttered loudly while flailing about. "But you should get something, you helped too. Oh." Crescent quickly figured out a solution. "You can have these." If Scura would not accept the item, she could at least make use of Melyria's cards. "Ah? Those Krawler things? I have no idea.. Maybe. A flippers gotta flip." While initially hesitant, Scura eventually relented and accepted the deck of cards. "I am not used to getting gifts from.. non-family members." She could not help but snicker. If avatars could blush, she would be doing that as well.

"But you intend to keep that thing. Aren't you worried that it will influence you? For that matter, what about what Melyria did to you?" Therese gave Hydra a look as well. "What she did to all of you." After all this time, the power of the armor still coursed through their nerves. "The longer you stay like that, the more you will forget your past. You still remember Wagner, not the item itself. I can now control what I remember anyway, with the shield in my hand." Technically since she did have a Legacy Item of her own, she no longer needed the armor's blessing. But there were some who were not so lucky.

"Himiko. You have been rather quiet. Is there anything I can do for you?" Asterisk, once he secured the items, walked over to the silent zombie princess. "I doubt it very much." She rubbed her arms, as if the air around her had gotten cold. "They.. they went ahead with it. They let them shut down the network, with me still inside of it." This cold feeling spawned from recent events, from knowing that a certain group of people had taken control of STHEREA. "Your parents? Surely not. Exeter had many shareholders and investors. Any one of them could have tried to pull the plug." The agent tried to assure her, as he could not even conceive of a mother or father who would willingly risk endangering their daughter. "You do not know them. They are capable of that and more.. They would burn this whole world if it could teach me their lesson." Himiko snapped, her words becoming more venomously tinted. "And that makes you afraid, doesn't it? And angered. But miss Himiko, you do not have to fight them alone. You have us."

"That is a good point though! What are we going to do now? I would like to know since my time limit is almost up again." Donna hollered. She had no idea what to expect once she logged off after all. "We should check up on Neo. Maybe if Ezra is gone.. he can get better again!?" Bionis said with hope in his voice. "Maybe. But like Therese said, he is already taken care of. I have different concerns.." Void cleared his throat. "By now Exeter should now that their attempt to shut STHEREA down has failed, right? Therese, what do you think is more likely? That the company gave in to pressure and obeyed an outside order? Or that they wanted to cover up their crimes before that order could investigate." There were definitely places in the network that people in charge would want to keep hidden. "You are suggesting that they failed to shut down the place where.." Therese side-glanced at miss Echo. " where the cities were copied?" Void nodded to her guess. "Yes. The data Vigionair took from their archives may not be enough, we have to show the world tangible proof."

"Ah. So you're gonna visit that place. Well I'll keep myself updated on the real side. Good luck gang." Donna cracked her knuckles and pulled out her dueldisk. "Wait." She only managed to type in a few keys of the exit code, before Hydra interrupted her. "Yeah? What do you want?" The wrestler snarled. "I.. I wanted to extend my apologies... for what happened to Imperius. For what I did to him." The baron offered with a stiff bow. "Heh? What got into you all of the sudden?" That was the last thing she expected to hear from him. "A few epiphanies. I misjudged some of you, most of you. You have turned into a brotherhood after all. I might have learned this, if I had not been distant from the start." No longer seeing the heroes through the eyes of a proxy gave Hydra a completely different impression. "Aha! I knew you'd get that stick up your butt one of these days! It wont help Imperius, but.. I am still glad to hear it." Donna slapped the baron on the back for good measure and logged off while joyously laughing. "Right. So we were going somewhere?" Hydra moaned.

"We were, in a second. Echo." One more person. The girl in the wheelchair had waited on them diligently, and properly introduced to everyone now. But Void himself had not gotten around to talking to her yet. "We are headed back to the city. Your city. Do you want to come along?" He thought he was asking her a simple question. "Back there!?" But she lashed out as if Void had told Echo that her best friend had died. "Oh. You.. No you do not have to go back there if you don't want too. Nor do we want to put you back. But I figured we might find some clues there about what we can do for you. I want to help you too, Echo." In a way he understood her reaction. "Oh. You really mean it? I guess... I guess I can go then. It would be nice, to walk again." She put on a brave face and grabbed the wheelchair with both hands. "It's settled then. Let's see if that world still exists!"

...

Void, Crescent, Therese, Asterisk, Bionis, Scura, Zettai and Miss Echo all made the journey. And. not only did the copied city still look like how they had left it, it appeared to be a lot more populated this time around. "Veyron!?" And an old friend greeted them right at the proverbial front gate. "Void? Everyone?" The speed duelist shared the same look of surprise as the heroes who teleported into the busy streets. "You! Where the hell have you been all this time?! Do you know how much stuff you missed!" Bionis immediately started yelling at him. "Oh, you want the long version or the short version?" Veyron replied with a quieter tone, and nudged at the other people in the streets. "What!? Who are they?" Bionis and the others noticed their odd looks, they seemed to using basic avatars with no frills attached or even dueldisks held.

"The short version then. Well, this all began when I defeated my brother Victor. I could not leave him alone, so I found him in the real world and helped him get to the nearest police station. Though once we arrived, they could not let me go without answering a few questions. That took up the better parts of today and yesterday. Well, one thing led to another, and now I am here with these investigators to give them a tour of Exeter's greatest misdeeds." The racer seemed pretty pleased with how it turned out. "Wait? You are the one who got the law to finally come down? Damn, no wonder you were gone for so long." Bionis Khan saluted Veyrons results. "Well, it helped that Exeter came under attack and that Hansen tarnished their good image by attacking innocent duelists. But there is still a lot I do not know, so maybe you can enlighten me.. and them."

"Are you the 'heroes of pandemonium'?" One investigator took that as their cue to walk up to the group. "And which one of you is the one called 'Echo'?" He voiced a worrying interest in one of them. "!?" An interest that made Echo herself want to jump out of her wheelchair and run away to hide; something she could easily do in this part of the network. "If you have any questions, you can submit them through me. These children have gone through enough already." But Therese Hansen kept the man from getting too close. "Therese Hansen. Very well.." He seemed to respect her status enough to accept her as a mediator. "Let me start by giving my condolences for your brother."

"Well I guess someone has to." Scura mumbled under her breath. "Scura, sshh." Crescent whispered.

"Nevertheless there is to be an inquiry about several unlawful acts committed by your brother... It is a good thing we found you." The man continued. "Hansen? Just Hansen? What about the others in charge? What about the CEO and the shareholders?" But Void already heard things he disliked. "We have to start where we can. But we are not here to arrest any of you, or Hansens sister. Miss Hansen, your company is being dissolved as we speak and we could not reach any other employees. Even the branch's artificial intelligence system seems to be offline. So we would like you to tell us, if there are more unlisted locations like these on this network." The investigator made a decent proposal, one that Therese could agree with. "There is one location I can think off.." The sister of the CTO gave Crescent a quick nod to remind her. "You mean.. the place of memories?" They had both visited that strange area before. The sound of it got everyone else's attention as well. "Yes. Or as Exeter apparently calls it: Project Flute."

...

"Yo! V-man!" While everyone else had gone to the fake city, Madam Blanche made her way back to the hyperspace and the World Ark. "Find out anything new?" Vigionair had never stopped analyzing it in the last few hours. "First of all, you will never call me that again. Second of all, nothing directly. But there is one concern. Miss Blanche, you told me that this item opened portals for you during your duel with Hydra?" The encrypter asked with a troubled expression. "Yeah? It made portals to random parts of the game. But we can also quickjump anywhere we want, so I didn't feel like that was all that special.." The ark wielder shrugged. "It would not be if it were virtual space. But the data logs show no such activity, your duel with Hydra was never registered in those sectors. I would not make much of that, except there have been reports of unusual energy signatures over the Atlantic and the Gobi desert. Which can only mean one thing... some, maybe all, of those portals opened a path directly into the real world."

"Whaaaat? How!?" Blanche was stupefied. "I haven't the faintest idea. Apparently Static's arena also broke into the physical realm briefly. I do not know why. But now I believe that this ark is meant to be here, as a nexus of sorts. You do not move it, it moves the user." More answers Vigionair could not yet hand out. "Well that makes it easier for me I guess. At least we know what the items all do now." Blanche felt relieved now. "Not all of them. Ezra claims there is still one more out there. Who knows what it can do." Some days Vigionair wished he had never invested so much in STHEREA to begin with. No one could relax, not until the full legacy had been uncovered

...

"That was... interesting." The investigator concluded as he retracted his hand from the orb of light. One touch allowed him to see right into the activities of an Exeter employee. "But this location was on the official registry. Is this all you wanted to show me?" Though one could certainly call it strange that Exeter recorded memories of its workers and game users, it would technically be no worse than installing a camera in someone's office. "That is what I though at first too. Officially this is an experimental archive, people only record what they want to be seen. But we have reason to believe they have made more developments on this front, more than what we see here. And maybe.. you can help us see more, Crescent." Therese had seen the wielder of the shield recreate hidden areas before. "Yes." And she knew how. Crescent had no memory of what she wanted to find. But that did not matter, when the secret likely had her memories. She closed her eyes and focused on everything she never wanted to forget: Wagner, her friends, Arcis da Vinci.

"Ah!?" It worked better than she expected. The shield of legacy fired a wave of light in every dimensional direction, erasing the walls of the limited archive and creating millions and millions of strands in a void without gravity. Breaking through to her own thoughts opened the door to everything else as well. "What on earth!?" The investigator gasped. "That is.. how many?" No man could ever count the number of memories that even one strand held.

"Welcome to project flute." Asterisk exclaimed. "My friend discovered the data. But it looks even more haunting in practice. Each strand represents a single persons lifetime of experiences: from present to conception. In here Exeter can adjust the memories they do not like, or outright erase information they do not want the public to have. It is all an automated process, regulated by an algorithm that filters the negative out." A shiver ran down his spine as he imagined his own life laid bare for others to see and abuse. "But how? I could understand it affecting people inside this network. But how can it change the minds of those outside? I have never been inside STHEREA before! Am I in here too? How far back does this go?" The investigator felt like he had lost his mind. "I do not know for sure. But it may be that Exeter tapped into a whole realm of thought that extends to any conscious person." Void raised his voice. "They tried to terminate the game, but they could not. Because this is not a virtual reality or a game. This is.. something that has existed long before us."

"So. You can change bad stuff here?"

"Echo?" Void winced. He had lost sight of the girl. "What are you.." He saw her hover in front of a memory strand. "Who?" He briefly touched it himself just to see why she gravitated towards this one in particular. "Midsummer?" What he saw were glimpses of a train crash, a man putting on a mask, and a conversation between that man and the girl in the wheelchair. "What? What happened?" That last moment sounded the loudest, as the most recent experience.

"Midsummer left me. He told me we could never be together forever. But I wanted him to stay." Echo narrated what Void had just seen. "He said he lied to himself and to me. But I didn't care. I liked him. But he left anyway.. which made me feel. Broken." The girl clutched her chest. "I never want to feel that way again. I am not supposed to feel that way. But he.. hurt. And they hurt me." She suddenly pointed a finger at the investigator. "They hurt me, by keeping me locked up! By keeping me asleep! And now you want to take me back there! But I am alive! I deserve to live! To be happy! I should be happy! That's why, that is why I am going to make things better!" With the same hand, she reached into the strand.

"You? You are the one?!" The investigator yelled at her, realizing that this was the girl he had been looking for. "This place is going nuts!" Scura felt rumblings in the archive. "Echo! Think about what you are doing!" And Crescent saw beams of light pierce the network of memories. Nobody knew what would happen next. "Echo!" But they were all engulfed by the light. The memory archive and project flute disappeared in that moment, and Void had to close his eyes against the overpowering radiance.

...

When he opened his eyes again, everything had gone blurry. "Welcome back." A voice echoed on the other side of the hollow, a voice that felt somehow familiar and yet utterly alien at the same time. "Where am I? Where is everyone else?" The blast, what did the blast do? Why did he feel so weightless? "They are fine. The overload only temporarily kicked them out. They will probably be back before you know it. Then again you wont know it." He spoke again. Who was he? "Who are you?" Void had to know. "You should know that, of all people." He laughed at him! Why? Who.. "No." Void could finally see. He could see himself. It was like looking into a mirror, except the reflection was Void and the reflected.. was Charles Adami. "Thank you for the avatar, Charles." And the one inside his virtual body sounded nothing like him anymore. The way he talked, it reminded him of. "STATIC!"

"Bingo." 'Void' laughed out loud. Nobody but Charles heard him. "You can't be..here. I beat you!" Void shouted. "Did you? Did you really? Remember that one card I did not use?" Static replied with a sinister chuckle. "What? No! You would have used it if it could save you!" Void did not believe it, did not want to believe it. "You do not know that. And neither do the items. As long as that element of doubt exists, I could maintain the smallest of connections to their power. Of course, I would not have any use for such a link without a body. And your victory did destroy mine. I might have recovered over time, except there is one problem. You removed the greatest conflict from STHEREA. People are taking their anger out on the real world now, and that does not feed me nearly half as well. But I saw that coming, which was why I came up with this plan that you now see the results of." The Static in Voids avatar flexed his arm. "!? You're not." The arm Void could no longer control himself. "Was this your plan all along!? To take my avatar?"

"Somewhat. I knew I would need more than the items to escape the subconscious realm. I needed an avatar. There were plenty of duelists I could have chosen, minds suited for the virtual life. But look at the crop, see how many shining examples I reaped. And then there was you! Why did I choose you when you are so unremarkable? I did not even notice your presence until you defeated that Lightsworn ADI. But that made me realize how perfect you were! You blend in so well, I figured I could impersonate you easily once the time came for the possession. At least that is what I thought. But second drafts rarely make it to the practical stage. Sundown was my first draft, but he proved to be too unstable. You also almost ruined it with your sudden brazen attitude: joining Millennium and then even challenging me directly! If I had beaten you, who else would I claim: Bionis? Ha! No thank you. Fortunately I was able to leave some of my essential code inside you. And you never suspected because of one factor in all of this.. The way you escaped my realm in the first place, Charles. Remember how that happened?"

"You.. you let me." Void flinched.

"Yes! I let you! Your actual avatar was already banished by Ezra. Your mind remained as a pure form of thought, waiting to be pulled back to the real world. But... I made you that temporary avatar so you could duel me, a shell created from my own ribs as it were. I am simply taking back what was mine to begin with. Along with the Legacy items you held, for a while. Sure the setting has changed. People actually look up to you now, expect you to do noble things like giving the items away. That was a small setback, I cant really act out of character now. But I think I can still have some fun with them.." The man with Voids face let out another laugh. "You will never get away with this, Static! They will know its not me! I will tell them!" Even if Static forced him to go back to the physical world, he could send messages to everyone. He could...

"...tell Blanche? Dharma?" Static interrupted. "Ah?" Void forgot. His thoughts were broadcast everywhere in this place, Static could see it all. "I have plans for them. A little offline time can take care of a lot. By the time you even get in contact with just one of them, I will already be done with them anyway. I have a new game in mind, with new players. One that will give me all the energy I need. You could have joined the game too, but one of your recent exploits left you unqualified for a slot, heheh. You will have to find your own entertainment in that world of yours, while you still can." Their time came to a close, Static turned his back on Void.. on Charles. "Wait!" But he could not let it end like this. "I will stop you! I dont know what you are up to, but I will stop you!" He wanted to challenge him, to fight him. But he had no body to attack with, no cards to use. "You do not even have a clue of what I am going to do. Ha! But you will soon. Just a few more games and a few more legacy items, and I will have completed my arena of the beyond. Not even little miss Echo can stop me then."

"Echo?" Charles gasped. "What does she have to do with this? What did she do just now?"

"Everything. This game... my own game.. has only three players. Me, her, and the one you have yet to meet. She might not have wanted to play, but soon she will see the true nature of the mind. Your friend Midsummer already helped her on her way, made her feel more than just that joy. She's found a new toy too and that makes her dangerous. But I have new toys to fight her with now. Your friends. So I can feel more than just conflict. Not that I intend to lose this game. Because the winner.. gets to have this world and yours as well." Static finished with his loudest cackle yet. "And why am I telling you all this? Because you do not matter, Charles. Your role is over now. Goodbye." He waved his hand. "Static!" Charles leaped forward with all his might. But he would never make it. STHEREA left him behind..

Reality waited...

To Be Concluded in A Legacy of Souls II