A Legacy of Souls: Terminate the Dream

by Medigo

The virtual world of dueling has survived many threats, but the worst has yet to come. New entities born from the minds of millions seek power to shape the destiny of living. Heroes will be turned against each other as it becomes impossible to trust anyone. And in the middle of it all, one duelist struggles to return to his friends to save them from the one who has stolen his life.

9. World 006: Lossless

World 006: Lossless

The Ark, the core of hyperspace through which all virtual duelists traveled unknowingly; it was a sight to behold. "The agents are going to want to see this soon, mister V." And it could lead to many more sights. "So it might be prudent to confirm your hypothesis before they arrive." Or so Therese Hansen had been told. For once she could get the authorities off her back to briefly visit Vigionair at the Ark. "Yes yes yes. This would be a lot easier if Blanche were here. But if she cannot control this device, how do you expect me to?" And the encrypter for once felt out of his depth. Nothing he tried got a response from the massive Legacy item. "But I can assure you that she and Hydra did cross over into the physical world by using the Ark. The implications of that alone are staggering. Information such as this should only be released at an appropriate time. I have already arranged for one of them to see the other items at the Arena Beyond. But this.. this is dangerous." He was affraid, affraid of what one could do with this Item. "I agree, but sadly that is not up to me." Therese sighed.

"I suppose it isn't... " V knew Therese had little power in Exeter. The company was transitioning, their CEOs pretending to be ignorant on every matter, and the CTO took the fall for everything. "Say, have you heard from Neo?" So rather than broaching the subject of her own brother, Vigionair asked her about another recent loss. "Neo? I am sorry. It's too soon to tell when he will recover. And I all I was really told that he had been sent to the hospital. I wish I could say more." She apologized, which put a smile on V's face. "There is no need for that. We all do what we can. And sometimes too much. I couldn't help but wonder. It feels strange to work without that kid making noise in the background. Or any of them really. Even Asterisk is doing so much on his own now." Perhaps that was the missing element: noise. "Wait. Hold on.. that's it!"

"What is it?" Therese recoiled as the encrypter suddenly flung his hand to the hyperspatial sky. "The way to find the seventh Legacy item! The last one!"

...

Matters were never dull at the Arena Beyond. Every time the heroes reconvened with wild stories. "Sundown? You're absolutely sure?" Bionis, who finally logged back in after much prodding from others, got a taste of it as well. "He said he was not Sundown, but I am pretty sure he was being metaphorical." Even Veyron, who saw the man with his own eyes, had difficulty coming to terms with it.

"Excuse me, what was the deal with Sundown again?" On the other side there were those who had missed a lot of context. Either due to absence like Wagner... "Same." ..or sheer neglect like Scura.

"Sundown Mephistar is... a combination of things. Static combined a Crown-controlled ADI with the memories of Hieronymus: that admin that got taken down here. He's not human, but he is not a mindless AI either." 'Void' could explain it with ease. After all: He made Sundown to be his spy. Though now it appeared as if Scarlet made him added some upgrades of her own. "We should not think less of him for it, we have no way to comprehend his perspective. The one we should be worried about is Scarlet, and what he can do with him." The agent Asterisk cursed. "Not to mention that she seems to be trying to replicate the miracle that is Sundown."

"Meh. Still sounds to me like he betrayed us. Either way, we wind up with nothing! Scarlet is gone and so are all her goons. Hey Crescent, how did you find Scarlet the last time? Can't you do that again?" Bionis Khan asked with a demanding tone. "I used the shield, yes. But she must be using a new hideout, because I cannot repaint her old lab anymore. I cannot trace her steps either, so many colors besides scarlet-red follow her." The girl of the spectrum sighed deeply. The doctor somehow found weaknesses in her power that she did not even know about. "You gotta try something!" That answer was still not good enough for the undead duelist. "Cool down, Khan! Can't you tell its exhausting her to even use the thing?" Wagner objected. He would not tell his friend what to do anymore, but he would not let others direct her either. "It's fine. I can keep going.." She insisted anyway, only showing off some minor fatigue through her stilted words.

"We have other means at our disposal. In theory we should be able to monitor any quickjump movement, now that we have access to hyperspace." Hydra pondered. "Yes, yes I see. But we will need the proper tools for that." Asterisk nodded, already thinking on how to make it work. "Then you focus on that angle. I will see what I can do from mine." And the black baron took that as his cue to leave.

"Hey wait! Where.. andhesgone." Donna's outcry synced up with Hydra quickjumping out of the arena. "Maybe we should track his movement in hyperspace too." The wrestler groaned. "I trust him. He seems to have gotten the Millennium out of his system." Asterisk said, while keeping in mind that Hydra had never received the Chalice-treatment. He could still stay inside STHEREA for as long as he wanted too. "Well maybe he's gonna go back to work on fixing his cloak settings, which can be handy too." Donna would allow it.

"Never mind whatever you were talking about! We have more urgent concerns!" Another duelist entered the arena with a determined stride. "V?" Asterisk did a double-take when he saw Vigionair, Yoro-Himiko and Therese appear. "What is more important than locating Scarlet right now?" Was the question that came to the agent's mind immediately. "Locating the seventh Legacy Item!" V replied.

"The seventh? You found it, on your own!?" Scura gasped. "Regrettably I cannot claim full credit. Ezra blathered about it first when he claimed the final dimension was sound. Back then I assumed this meant that the item was hidden in STHEREA's audio files: that there would be a trail of glitch-shaped crumbs leading to the item, just like with the Crown. My automated programs scoured the system and found no errors like that. But just now I realized my methods were wrong. The items bury themselves with their own power; the code rewriting Crown created characters that should not exist, the environment repainting shield painted an entire world for itself. So this seventh item must be making its own sounds. But its getting buried by our own noise. That is why... we should just mute STHEREA!"

"Mute, the whole network? Can that even be done?" Void had to admit, the idea sounded interesting as hell. "And if you do, we wont be able to talk?" Wagner thought out loud. "Oh yeah you would hate that, wouldn't you?" Donna laughed.

"It is possible to do it on a sector by sector basis. Certain judges and admins have the ability to mute players and the environment." Therese revealed one of the perks of being an upper level duelist. "You what? Man I could have used that long ago." Scura knew a dozen duelists she would like to silence. "What are you glancing at me for?" Bionis Khan snapped.

"Okay that's enough you two. Vigionair, are you sure about this?" Asterisk asked his friend yet again. "I know I have had my off days, Asterisk. But I have absolutely confidence in this plan. We should be able to narrow down locations if sound still exists in a specific sector. The item right now exists as pure sound, it cannot be silenced. If we hear something, we are close! And some among us can sense the item better than others. So we should split up to cover more ground." He gave specific winks to Crescent, Zettai, Asterisk and Void: the current wielders of several legacy items. "Yoro-Himiko and Hydra would also have been of great assistance, if they were here. But you will do. Now we only need the permission to adjust the volume!"

"Then it's a good thing we arrived!" Hollered the familiar voice of Madam Blanche and a couple of other world-familiar voices. "Blanche? And.. Dyzanthium, Sigment, Heleil!?" Veyron gasped with utter delight as the white lady and three of the five global dueling champions walked in from the arena concourse. "So that's where you have been." Void realized what made Blanche take so long to show up; the famous duelist orbiting her real life location. "Yeah I figured we could use more help. So I told Dyzanthium everything and she got the rest on board. We'd have walked in sooner, but how can I resist making a dramatically timed entrance like that? Heheh."

"Yes. If you need a duelist with special privileges, we can be of assistance." Dyzanthium bowed before the heroes, drawing a derisive snort from Zettai. "What? What makes you think we'd work with you? You're just actors on Exeters payroll!" She was not about about to forgive them for trying to shut down STHEREA either. "Hey, we are not working for Exeter anymore. And for the record, I was against them early on!" Heleil protested. Without her, Blanche would never have been able to stop the first shutdown to begin with. "Not early enough." Sigment stated bitterly. "I'd like to remind you that I did almost suffer consequences for siding against the company. But Exeter is done, and from what I hear so is Millennium. So I should probably consider myself lucky. That just leaves this problem you are having with the ADIs and the Items, correct? We can help you find this item, just tell us where to go." Sigment spoke for all three of them, the champions would follow the heroes this time. "...I suppose everyone deserves a shot at redemption." Zettai relented

"Yes, I say we go for it: we should split up into teams with both a champion and an item user. Though I do have to ask, is this everyone? What about Acrates and.." Void counted two missing champions. "Vitruvear wont be coming. He was in to deep with Exeter and got arrested for it a while ago. We were lucky to get off with a warning for now. And Acrates, you should know what happened to him." Heleil rasped, giving Scura and Void a glare. "Oh yeah, 'that'." Scura guessed the Pendulum champion had not forgotten her or gotten over the whole 'Ezra destroyed her friends avatar' thing. "...I am voting to be on a team that is not her team by the way."

"Acrates was banished by the armor, wasn't he?" Crescent spoke up. "Aurora?" Wagner let out a cry of alarm when he saw his friend light up like an X-ray photograph. "Don't worry, Wagner. This is just the power of the World Armor. I'll warn you next time." She said rather calmly for a girl with a glowing nervous system. "I was just thinking I could try to undo the damage that Ezra caused. The Chalice wont work until I bring him back, so I will." She gave Heleil a reassuring smile. "You would do that? You can do that?" Both her and Dyzanthium were overjoyed to hear it. "Yes. But I will need to go back to the scene where he disappeared: the sanctuary in the sky sector. We can search for the seventh item at the same time." It would be a good way to strike two birds with one stone. "Yes, this can work. Crescents team will head there, Void, Zettai and Blanche can systematically check other parts of STHEREA for signs of the item or more of Scarlet's ADIs. V, you should stay here in case those investigators show up." The agent decided and nodded to himself. "Oh yeah that will be fun." Vigionair groaned. "And what are you going to do?"

"I am going to look for Scarlet herself.."

...

The teams were settled on quickly. Dyzanthium would go with Wagner and Crescent to the Sanctuary in the skies. Zettai took Sigment, the champion she trusted the most, along with Veyron and Bionis. Blanche added Heleil, Donna and Giganoto to her group. Finally Void, Scura, YoroHimiko and Therese returned to the dark lands around Pandemonium. "..." For the Exeter employee, turning off sound only required her to use a toggle programmed into her dueldisk. Everything went quiet, even their own voices. Scura had a lot of fun with that. "...and Wagner is still a pompous son of a.. Hey! Give me a signal before you start turning things on again!" Until Therese undid the muting. "Sorry. But I think we've done an adequate test for now. I did not hear anything, did you?" Therese asked and only Void shook his head. "...Himiko? Do you sense something?"

"What? No it's not that." She muttered back. "If something on your mind?" Therese inquired. She'd noticed that Himiko had not said anything in a long time now. "Someone. I've been waiting for a good time to talk about him.. Now is good a time as any. I don't think that investigator can be trusted, miss Hansen."

...

Elsewhere Zettai, Bionis, Sigment and the starstruck Veyron investigated their own sector: the ocean zone. "Uhm.. did you do the thing already?" But when they arrived to one island, they heard none of the usual atmospheric jungle noises anywhere. "Or is this a trap?" Bionis Khan immediately assumed the worst. "I did not do anything yet. But we can still hear each other, so this is not someone using the settings." Sigment had no explanation either. Luckily, and unluckily, the answers were around the corner. "!?" On the beach, groups of duel monsters faced off against each other without making a single sound. Natives like Amazons and Volcanics dueled immigrant ADIs like Phantomknights and Blackwings. "I take it that this is the other problem you were talking about." The synchro champion concluded. Even he knew ADIs were not supposed to attack each other.

"You are oh so correct!" A melodic voice applauded the duelists for their insight. "You!?" Zettai glared upwards. "Is that them?" Bionis saw them too: Mozarta the Melodious Maestra and Medusa the Evil Eye witch. "Two of them. Including the one that got away." Veyron muttered.

"We thank you for bringing uss closer to the itemss! Thanks to my friends special powerssss, we found the right zone pretty quickly!" Medusa taunted them with her usual lisp. "Closer? How! How did you know? Did you spy on us? Do you have someone on the inside? Since when are you interested in the items?" Bionis started shouting, only for Mozarta to silence him with a wave of her baton. "!? !" No matter what he tried, he could not speak up. "Settle down!" She sang. "You are sstill one of those, aren't you Bionisss? Paranoid to the point of sseeing rats everywhere! Or what was it? Lizsard people? Its precisssisely thoughts like those that give them strength. Of course I ssaw what you were doing! It was sssso easy to sneak into your arena while you were dissstracted!" She then clapped her hands together. "And of coursse, maybe reptiles really are everywhere!" Two more monsters popped up from the sand, the Reptilianne Lamia and Alien Mother. "Now this will be a worthwhile experiment. You two.. you know what musst be done!"

"Hey!" Bionis could finally speak again when Mozarta and Medusa flew off into the jungle. But the other ADIs ganged up on them in a team formation. "Watch out!" Veyron in turn covered for the zombie duelist as Reptilianne Lamia slithered towards him. "It seems they have found their prey." Sigment meanwhile intercepted the Alien Mother before she could challenge Zettai. "Leave this to us, these are clearly just more failed experiments of Scarlet. The real threats are those two. Especially if the Legacy Item is somewhere around here." Veyron shouted. He did not know how these ADIs were supposed to help Scarlet find the legacy item, or why she went back on her previous declaration of not desiring one, but this activity had to mean something..

"I am well aware!" Zettai activated the eagle booster jetpack and grabbed Bionis by the arm. "Wait, I can ruuuuuun!" The two blasted away after the fleeing monsters, with Khans screams trailing not far behind.

"Huh.. I did not think I would be doing this today." Veyron finally realized what was happening, a tagduel with the synchro champion as his partner. "Me neither. And I still can't say I really get the whole story yet." His opponents did not seem very talkative either. "But finally being able to duel again, almost makes it worth it." Sigment turned on his dueldisk. "Hear, hear. I'd go as far as to consider this an honor, Sigment." Veyron activated his disk as well. Their lifepoints pooled together, and the turn order was set with him as the third duelist. "It shouldn't take us long, especially not for you." He could not help but hype him up. "Please. I do not deserve all that credit. I cheated my way to victory many times ever since I joined Exeter. That is why.. you wont be seeing my deck from those days anymore." Sigment would start the duel and he drew his five cards. "Sigment, trust me. I understand how that feels." Veyron tried to explain. "But wait.. if you discarded your deck, does that mean..."

Team Synchro's LP: 16000 Team Reptile's LP: 16000 -TURN 01-

"When I control no monsters, I can special summon the tuner Tech Genus Striker! And when I special summon a Tech Genus, I can also special summon the nontuner Tech Genus Warwolf!" Sigment started with a double summon from his hand: placing a cybernetically enhanced warrior(2/800/0) [Zone 2] in black spandex and a cybernetic werewolf(3/1200/0) [Zone 3]. "The Tech Genus! The gladiator opener!" Veyron immediately recognized the starter combo from the champion's live tours. "Yes, it means the Tech Genus are back, Veyron. But now in this era their combos come with a fresh new coat! I link summon Crystron Halqifibrax!" Two link materials, one of them being a tuner, allowed the synchro duelist to create the azure crystal-covered visor robot(1500/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 1]. "And new combos to boot! Crystron Halqifibrax special summons a tuner from my deck: Tech Genus Screw Serpent! And for my normal summon, I will bring out the nontuner Tech Genus Tank Grub!" The next pair of cyborg beasts were a blue metal snake(4/1300/500) [Zone 4] with tiny wings and a shelled plowtruck larva(1/0/0) [Zone 1].

"Screw Serpent, tune with Tank Grub and Synchro summon, Tech Genus Hyper Librarian, in defense mode!" Five stars collided and one zone marked by the Crystron's link arrows got claimed by a cyborg scholar in white robes: the Hyper Librarian(5/2400/1800) [Zone 2]. "You remember what this card can do, don't you Veyron? But before we get to that, I activate Tank Grub's effect! It creates a token upon it turning into a synchro material! And I can special summon the tuner Tech Genus Gear Zombie from my hand by reducing a Tech Genus' attackpoints by 1000!" The silver bug left an even tinier cyber larva(1/0/0) [Zone 1] behind. And even a monster with 0 atk could be used as a platform for the undead cyborg(1/600/0) [Zone 2] with gears sticking out of its torso. The T.G. token lost no attackpower at all naturally. "Gear Zombie, tune with the token and Synchro summon Tech Genus Recipro Dragonfly, in defense mode!" The second synchro, formed from two stars, linked with Halqifibrax: the mechanical spinning-wing dragonfly Recipro(1/300/300) [Zone 1].

"Ah, now you can draw a card!" Veyron exclaimed. Each synchro summon triggered Hyper Librarians effect to draw a card for its user. "Correct! And I wonder if they knew that as well! Blanche told us that these ADIs have our memories now, so essentially they should be my fans too!" Sigment drew the card and placed it face down. "So, dare to guess what comes next as I relinquish my turn?"

-TURN 02-

"Ooh! ooh! Your ultimate technique: delta accel synchro summon." The Lamia girl giggled excitedly. "Ha! So you do know! Then let me give you what you came for!" Sigment waited for the next ADI to enter their main phase, during which he could activate Crystron Halqifibrax's second power. "I just need one more synchro, so Halqifibrax tributes itself to synchro summon a synchro tuner from my deck! Tech Genus Star Guardian, in defense mode!" The extra zone exploded into a rain of glass needles. The glass formed a path all the way to the extra deck, allowing the newest T.G. synchro to join the battlefield. The Star Guardian(5/100/2200) [Extra Zone 1] looked like a more armored evolved form of T.G. Striker: with a red visor, energy blades shooting out of its hands and a large hoverwheel strapped to his back. "This card add a Tech Genus from the graveyard back to my hand!" Sigment explained as reclaimed T.G. Screw Serpent and also drew another card thanks to Hyper Librarian. "And This card can perform a synchro summon during the opponents turn! So, tune with Hyper Librarian and Recipro Dragonfly to form Tech Genus Hal.."

"Heeheehee. No."

"No?" The synchro champion stumbled before the finish line. "No. My Gnomaterial says No." Because the laughing Reptilianne had targeted Star Guardian with a handtrap that could be activated while she controlled no other cards. "Gnomaterial keeps monsters from being used for extra deck summons? Tch. I guess my deck is still not fast enough for today's duelists." The little miner gnome monster popped up in front of the Star Guardian with a sign telling it not to become a synchro material. "Just because we know you, does not mean we are fans. We only worship our true mother." Lamia snickered.

"But you're not the only ones with quick effects, Sigment! So allow me!" Veyron activated his own hand-effect monster. "I special summon Hop Ear Squadron from my hand by targeting a monster I control!" Though Veyron controlled his own field, as a tagteam partner he technically also controlled the T.G. monsters. So his squad of blue wing-eared bunnie scouts(2/300/600) [Zone 6] could target Tech genus Hyper Librarian despite the distance between the two. "I see! It is your time to shine. Then go ahead!" Sigment knew the Hop Ear Squadron could also initiate an immediate synchro summon between it and the targeted Librarian. "Oh I will! I synchro summon Formula Athlete Dawn Dragster!" Fortunately his formula 1 racecar synchros could take any synchro materials: thus Veyron managed to bring out his ace in white: the Dawn Racer(7/2100/2100) [Extra Zone 3]. Now each turn, he could negate one spell or trap activated by the opponent. "I mean, I have got to help a fellow abbreviation appreciator out, don't I?" The TG champion shared a laugh with the FA speed duelist.

"Enough! This is not a game!" The Alien Mother snapped. This was technically her turn after all. "You should behold your enemies more!" She revealed a quickplay spell. "Ugh." A spell that she'd chained to the effect of Hop Ear Squadron, resolving it before Dawn Dragster could appear on the field. "A Cell Recombination Device! I send one of my Aliens to the grave, to spread its cells to your cyborgs!" The Mother discarded her own Alien Kid from the deck. For each of the Kids levels, the Recombiner spell attached one A-Counter to the Star Guardian (4 counters). "Then I summon Alien Ammonite! To special summon an Alien from my graveyard!" A horrifically mutated ammonite shellfish(1/500/200) [Zone 4] flopped down on the ground. Its barbed tentacles impaled the grave to dig up and resurrect the green-skinned Alien Kid(4/1600/700) [Zone 5] with his toy laser gun. "And they will become the Cosmic Fortress Gol'gar!" The Alien Ammonite, a tuner, synchronized with Alien Kid through a pool of grey alien goop. The pool grew into a massive fortress with a gelatinous texture. And on top of the fortress sat a giant barnacle-covered slug(5/2600/1800) [Extra Zone 2] with thin and thick tentacles.

"I always wondered. Is this what aliens are supposed to look like? How they live?" Veyron would think even extra terrestrials would enjoy softer comforts. "You cannot know. Can you? But for centuries people have dreamed of life beyond the stars. Such dreams are good fuel for monsters such as us." These ADIS sounded like they were after something else. "I did not think you could dream." Veyron quipped. "We do not need to, we only need to feast on your nightmares. So be kind.. and fear us.. Juan."

(To Be Continued in World 007: A Sinful Asymmetry)

New Cards used by Sigment
T.G. Striker
T.G. Warwolf
T.G. Screw Serpent
T.G. Tank Grub
T.G. Gear Zombie

-
T.G. Hyper Librarian
T.G. Recipro Dragonfly
T.G. Star Guardian

New Cards used by Veyron
Hop Ear Squadron

New Cards used by Reptilianne Lamia
Gnomaterial

New Cards used by Alien Mother
Alien Ammonite
Alien Kid

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Cosmic Fortress Gol'gar

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A Cell Recombiner Device