A Song of the Sleeping King
A collection of short stories that take place after the death of Prince Yuri and are a prelude to Book II of A Song from the Divines.
The Continent is on the brink of another long and bloody civil war. Hector and the House of Dragonheart have brought the first Termnnian Empire into power and send their troops to reclaim territory from Yugi and the allied kingdoms. But in the wake of Yuri's death, Termnnia's greatest heroes have started disappearing one-by-one, vanishing without a trace. And the plans of the boy with the visored mask are now coming to fruition.
The hum of neon lights buzzed all around him while he walked the streets of Domino City. The rain poured down on him relentlessly. Though shielded by his black flax jacket and his head kept warm and dry by his gray wool hood, he still felt an occasional chill from the wind and gave a shiver. There was not a soul in sight save for the occasional car or Duel Runner that would zoom by.
His boots splashed into deep puddles, soaking his dark denim jeans and freezing his ankles, but he kept walking, hands in his pockets, the right hand clutching his dueling deck. Lightning lit up the night sky and a smooth rumble of thunder followed. His chains, the zippers on his backpack, and the assortment of chrome bracelets on his wrists jingled with each step. He stopped at a bus stop with a Kaiba Corp advertisement one side and a hot-selling issue of Duel-Boy with Mai Valentine as the cover girl on the other.
The steel frames marked with graffiti which the figure couldn't help but to read. Some messages caused him to smirk under his hood. The relentless hum of the multiple neon signs hanging on the sides of every building did not bother him, for he had his headphones on listening to his favorite song as he read.
Tyranno Hassleberry Coming SOON! Aster Phoenix for Kaiba Dome Champion (Though someone crossed Aster's name out and wrote Kaito instead), and, HA! HA! You Lost the Game!
The lights began to flicker on the street causing the figure to worry. The clap of thunder in the heavens above did little soothe him.
He heard someone walking towards him. From the veil of heavy rain, a figure emerged, hooded and cloaked in black which was armored with plates of blackened steel. He held out his right arm. The steel vambrace over his wrist morphed into a black Duel Disk with glowing blue monster zones and a Life Point counter at the center of a blue orb illuminated by a blue liquid.
"Hand it over, thief!" shouted the Duelist in the black-armored coat.
"Hand what over?" asked the boy, stuffing his hands into his jacket.
"The map to Prince Yuri! Give it to me now. Or I'll take it by force!"
The figure in the jacket smirked and activated his Duel Disk. "Let's do it the hard way. It's more fun."
LP 8000
The Duelist in the black armored coat went first by summoning a monster in defense mode and then he placed a card face down and allowed his opponent to go with a gesture of his hands.
The figure drew his card and said nothing. He activated Trade-In which sent a Level 8 monster from his hand to his GY (Graveyard) and let him draw two cards. He then summoned Uraby Alpha, which was a new form of Uraby.
He was two meters tall and seven meters long, colored brown with black stripes and covered in black feathers tipped with red. The card allowed him to summon a regular Uraby from his hand.
Uraby Alpha
ATK/2100 DEF/1500
LV 4
Uraby
ATK/1500 DEF/800
The figure put a card face down and attacked the face-down monster. It was a Mystic Tomato. The card allowed his opponent to summon a DARK monster with 1500 or less attack points in attack mode.
His opponent searched his deck and summoned his monster. A Dark Summoning Beast, a fiend monster with 0 ATK and DEF.
The figure attacked next with Uraby, but the attack was stopped by a Negate Attack trap card.
It was the jacket-clad duelist's turn. He sacrificed his Dark Summoning Beast to call forth a dark monster, unlike anything Termnnia had seen in thousands of years.
The lightning struck all around their playing field. the clouds opened and let out a beast born from the darkness of Zorc.
Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder
ATK/4000 DEF/4000
He summoned the creature in defense mode and ended his turn.
"Fake God!" snapped the figure in the jacket and begun his turn. He flipped up his face-down card, Monster Reborn which allowed him to bring back a monster that caused his opponent to shiver.
"Black Tyranno, return!" the figure shouted, speaking at last.
The silence of the night was silenced when the prehistoric monster appeared on the field. His amber eyes glowing like a fiery pit.
"It's you!" shouted the figure in the armored jacket. He removed his hood to reveal himself. "Thief!" Ren shouted. "Those cards are not yours!"
"Say that to my beast!" Ren's mysterious opponent shouted. "You wasted my time you know that?"
He sacrificed his three monsters to summon something Ren did not expect. The storm clouds parted and allowed the three moons to cast their silvery glow on the world as a golden arcane circle appeared underneath the duelist's feet.
A metallic roar thundered from the storm clouds that remained in the sky.
The Winged Dragon of Ra heeded his master's call and rocketed down into the city streets to heed his master's call.
"NO!" shouted Ren. "It's can't be!"
The duelist controlling Ra then paid all his Life Points until he had 100. Then, he used a spell card called Upstart Goblin which allowed him to gain 1000 Life Points, but his opponent got to draw one card. Not that it mattered.
The Winged Dragon of Ra
ATK/7900 DEF/7900
The opponent then paid the 1000 Life Points he gained to allow Ra to destroy his Hamon, who was a dark replica of the Winged Dragon. The blast knocked Ren on his back and rolling violently for a few feet down the street. His Life Points went to 100 in the blink of an eye.
"IT'S NOT RIGHT" he shouted, as the figure walked towards him. "WHY DO YOU HAVE A DIVINE BEAST?"
He crawled towards the figure. His body was billowing steam. Ren coughed when he reached the opponent's legs. He reached up, trying to get a grip of his flax jacket to hold himself up.
"THIEF!" Ren shouted. "You must give it back to me! You must! If you don't hand me that map, Prince Yuri will be gone forever!"
"He'll never be found," said the opponent. "He's dead."
"You don't know what you are talking about!" shouted Ren. "Come on! For the sake of justice, give me the map!"
"No. The Prince will rest in peace. Winged Dragon of Ra. Destroy him."
Ren backed away, his arms hopelessly up in the air as if they were going to defend him from the inferno of the Divine Beast.