World 032: Return From Void
"The truth?" Schwarzwald fell under her thrall the moment he lost. And now her voice compelled him to answer. "About Void. About what he really did, and what we did. About what you did to us. You can start by telling her what happened to Blanche and to her friends." He could not reinterpret her wishes or bend the facts, he could not do the very thing hat normally came as easy to him as breathing. "Blanche was.. imprisoned in a nightmare by... the Lance. Then he.. attacked most of the heroes of Pandemonium, including me, and removed our inhibitions."
"What!? is this true?" Heleil turned towards Wagnerok and Khan. "Of course not! It's just a trick! She is clearly controlling him!" The latter cursed.
"Yes. Yes she is." Schwarzwald could still repeat whatever truth suited his purposes. He was slippery like that. "But did I tell you use all those words you said just now?" So Echo narrowed things down. "Urgh.. No.. you did not." The baron did not have any wiggle room there. "Yeah but what if she's feeding him a script through his head?" Khan countered. All of Schwarzwald's answers would be useless if that were the case, even ones that denied this very possibility. "Then why don't you ask him something, Heleil? Something I could not possibly now. If you want to." But Echo prepared for that too. Because Schwarzwald had to give an immediate truthful answer from the baron, she would know if Echo was putting words in the barons mouth.
"If this is all true, then where are the legacy items now? Besides Sigment, who else has one?" And the Pendulum champion came up with a good riddle, one not even Echo could solve. "Argh. The.. items. The duelist you know as Void, has the Lance, the Crown and the Ark. Wagnerok took Crescents shield, Scura owns the Armor. And I.. had the Chalice." The baron had something else to submit, a trophy for the ones that defeated him. "It is now hers." The World Chalice fell out of his sleeves and rolled towards Echo. "Damn!" Wagnerok winced. Of all the items to lose, it had to be the one that could counter the other six. "I cannot believe it." Heleil was given a lot to think about but not enough to make her confident about Echo herself.
"He knows." Schwarzwald's words made Charles came to a startling conclusion as well and made him consider new possibilities. "Echo! Ask him about Void! Ask him who he really is!" For one, Schwarzwald clearly knew more about 'Void' then he let on, since he always avoided mentioning his name directly. And for the other, he had come to wonder why Echo could see her and the others could not. It had to be because they knew him, they had memories of him as Charles Adami as well as Void. Mental blocks dictated the rules of this world. Perhaps he could not return to STHEREA while so many believed Void to be someone else. It was a long shot, but he'd been making a lot of those already.
"Baron. One last question. Who is Void?" Luckily, Echo did not need all that much explaining to fulfill his request. She wanted to hear the same thing. "Void? He is.." Her power did not even let the black baron choose how to interpret her question, he could not be coy with answers like 'he is a duelist, he is the wielder of the lance'. Those were not the first answers that came to his mind. "I believe he is Mister Static. He took over Void's avatar from whoever originally used it." And this time he shared a secret that had belonged to just him and Static.
A secret that was new to Khan and Wagnerok both. "Static? Void was Static all along?" Their reaction betrayed that they fully believed what Schwarzwald was saying. "Wait." This proved to be the final straw for Heleil, who immediately distanced himself from the Black baron. "Look what you did, Schwarzwald! You messed it all up. Gah whatever. Get out of my way! We will take care of your mess!" Heleil would still be in her post-loss disabled status for a while. Wagnerok and Khan had plenty of time to challenge Echo by himself and snatch the Chalice back from her. "Let's see you win without your partner!"
"It's not enough yet." Void felt a small pulse inside of his chest, so the revelation did have some effect. But he needed more influence, he had to find a way to get noticed. "Wait. Echo! Let me duel him!" And he had to find a way to defend Echo and the Fisherman, who were likely too exhausted to duel again so soon. "Duel? How?" The Fisherman was willing to accept his help, he just could not envision how. "The Chalice! Let me have it! Khan will have to fight me to get it back. He will have to realize that I am here!" One more shot in the dark. If anything could exist in the conscious and the subconscious network at the same time, it would have to be the Legacy Items. And though the Fisherman did not think it could work, Echo wanted to give it a chance. "Okay." She picked the chalice up and handed it over to Charles. "I name Charles Adami the new owner of the World Ark." She had no idea if this would work and neither did he. He tried to grab the handles of the chalice, but his hands phased right through... at first. He kept trying to hold on.. And in the end, he could touch it.
"Charles?" Schwarzwald and Khan did not know what to make of Echo handing the item over to an invisible man. They certainly did not expect that man to become visible in a flash of light. "What!? Void!?"
"You can call me Charles Adami." He stepped out of the light, wearing the same kind of haphazard outfit he used to have as 'Void'. The cape, cyberglove and shoulderpads were the same. But his face, his face matched that of the real Charles Adami. "You're... like me." Echo took a step back to marvel at the man in all his details. He marveled at himself as well. "I guess I am." He was no longer an avatar of STHEREA, he was the manifestation of a human consciousness. And he was wide awake. He never felt this alive or good before. On any other day he would have reveled in this breakthrough. But he had a lot of work to do today. "Hello guys! Is this what you wanted?" He smirked at the duo as he lifted the World Chalice with one hand. "Come and get it!"
"Void. The real one? Ahehehe." Khan looked at the fresh meat before him with excited fingers. "I guess I should have known. Someone like you could never bring that much fun! Ha! Well I am glad we have all that smoke and mirrors crap out of the way! Now I can get a real trophy! And the Chalice can get a more deserving master!" Khan activated his dueldisk again. "Hey! You already had a duel just now!" Wagner protested. "And you already have an item! This one is mine! Besides, he is my original rival! It should just be between us two. You and me, Void! Lets duel!"
"Yes I ... I will leave this to you, Khan." Schwarzwald took his chance before Echo issued any more commands and teleported away. He had no reason to help Khan and no desire. "What is even going on?! Where did you...come from?" Meanwhile Heleil only knew that she definitely had too little information to pick any fights even if she wanted too.
Khan's LP: 8000 Charles' LP: 8000
-TURN 01-
"Heh, I don't need to know that. All I care is that you're here now, Void!" Khan took the first turn and activated the PrePreparation of Rites spell card, adding the Revendread Origin ritual spell to his hand along with the Revendread Slayer ritual monster. "I hope you haven't forgotten how to duel while you were gone! Heheh..." He also activated the continuous Vendread Nights spell, discarding Revendread Slayer from his hand to add Revendread Battlelord from the deck. "Or that you've forgotten the card that would have destroyed you last time! I ritual summon Revendread Slayer!" Now the Revendread Origin spell started its ritual: using Revendread Battlelord as a sacrifice to summon the Revendread Slayer(6/2400/0) [Zone 3] from the graveyard. "And that is not even my strongest ritual monster! I hope you can keep me entertained for at least a few turns! Hahahaha!" He ended his turn after two traps dropped down behind the Slayer.
-TURN 02-
"My name is Charles, Khan. You know I would like to say someone as violent as you could never be the Bionis I remember, but you're still every bit as frustrating." Charles sighed. "Still, there is a better version of you that you can return too! I activate Cynet Optimize! Now I can normal summon two cyberse in one turn!" With his continuous spell, Void could bring out the pinkhaired and yellow-dotted ladybug droid(4/1700/1400) [Zone 2]. Her searching effect would net Charles the card to be used for the second normal summon. "Lady Debug adds Garbage Collector to my hand! This card can return one cyberse to my hand, to special summon a cyberse from my deck with the same level!" Void normal summoned the trashcollecting bin droid(2/100/1900) [Zone 1] and had it recollect Lady Debug. In her place, he could special summon the greenhaired and white-coated Cyber Wizard(4/1800/800) [Zone 3]. "Cyberse Wizard sets one card you control to defense mode, and allows my monsters to pierce it when they attack it!"
"What?!" Khan let out a chuckle of disbelief while the Wizard zapped Revendread Slayer into defense mode. "Meanwhile that monster of yours looks like it really does only fetch garbage! I was almost gonna give you credit for using some new tricks, but then you bring that piece of trash. You can't even attack directly if you use the Wizards effect!"
"This is about what does the most damage, Khan. This is the same card I used against you in our first duel, maybe his attack will shake your memory a little. If not, then I also have other cards for you to react to." Charles moved on and opened a two-way link circuit. "I link summon Cyberse Witch!" The link materials were two cyberse: the Wizard and the Garbage Collector. Together they transformed into a magical cyberse of the opposite gender: the redheaded and redcloaked Cyberse Witch(800/LINK 2) {Downleft/Down} [Extra Zone 2]. "When I special summon a Cyberse to a zone marked by her, she banishes one spell to add two cards to my hand from the deck: Cynet Ritual and a cyberse ritual monster!" By activating his One-Time Passcode spell, he could hit two birds with one stone. The spell itself created the Security token(4/2000/2000) [Zone 4] and then got banished in the graveyard by the Witch. Of the two ritual monsters he possessed, Charles selected the lower leveled Paladin of Storm Dragon. "Rituals? Don't tell me you are trying to call yourself the best ritual duelist now too! I already destroyed one idiot like that!"
"That is Valkyrion you are talking about! You do not have the right to refer to him that way!" The Fisherman shouted. "He wont listen, Fisher. He never does. Not until you humble him. But the old Bionis would have at least thought twice about deleting Valkyrion." Charles claimed and brought the Cyberse Wizard[Zone 3] back to life. "When I use Cyberse Witch's first effect, I can also use her second effect and special summon one cyberse back from my graveyard. But that's not what you wanted to see, right?" Charles dangled the ritual spell over his dueldisk. "No. You want this! I sacrifice the Token to ritual summon the Paladin of Storm Dragon!" Four levels poured into the Cynet Ritual, turning a simple security bot into a silver and gold-armored paladin riding on top of a firewall winged cyberdragon(4/1900/900) [Zone 4].
"So what, is this meant to honor Valkyrion'? I can't believe you actually care about that thing. What does this weak looking ritual even do?" Khan asked with a sneer. "Two things, the second of which is what will matter to you. I can tribute it, to summon any kind of highlevel cyberse monster from my deck. I choose Dual Assembwurm!" Another transformation followed, the Storm Dragon ditched its paladin to become a greater mechanical electrical-winged dragon(8/2800/1000)[Zone 4] who was colored red on one half and colored blue on the other. "Dual Assembwurm! Attack!" It received the honor of inflicting the piercing damage towards Revendread Slayer, blasting the mutant away with its twin shoulder cannons.
Khan's LP: 5200
"Oh no, you killed my Slayer." Khan mockingly reacted to the death of his monster. "Do you think I give a crap about that card now? It's just another pawn!" It was not as if it cost him much besides lifepoints. When the ritual summoned Revendread Slayer died, he could move one Vendread spell (Revendread Evolution) to his hand and one Vendread monster (Vendread Core) to the graveyard. "I have something far better now! I activate the Scarlet Sanguine Eldlixir! I can special summon one zombie from my deck! Eldlich the Golden Lord!" Khan made this the moment to reveal his trap. "That's.." Echo recoiled slightly when the Golden Lord(10/2500/2800) [Zone 5] reappeared in defense mode: the monster that killed Valkyrion. "Nice try milking nostalgic drama out of that attack! But it wont work!"
"It seems that way. Then maybe I should destroy the source of your new mania. I link summon Cyberse Enchanter! The link materials will be Cyberse Witch and Wizard: two monsters!" Both male and female cyber mages joined wands and split up into three twisters that slammed into the link circuit. The Wizard side took most of the power as he created his more armored enhanced form: Cyberse Enchanter(2400/LINK 3) {Left/Down/Right}. "Each turn he can negate a monsters effect and switch its position, during my turn or yours!" Then before he gave control back to Khan, he placed one trap card face down.
-TURN 03-
"Source? What like a card made me us this way? Guess again! We were always like this! Voids... Statics power just helped me see that!" Wagnerok shouted from the sidelines. "Right you are. And it's not as if we are the only ones! There are billions of people like me! Like us! People that are herded like sheep by those at the top! But soon we will all be awake! And I will lead them to a world where everyone can take revenge on their masters!" Khan flipped his other trap, the Guardian of the Golden Land. It was both a trap and a monster and moved towards the front row as a purple-haired sabretooth tiger(8/800/2500) [Zone 4] with a golden armor and fanged helmet. "When the Guardian of the Golden Land is summoned, I can reduce your monsters attackpower to zero!" The beast jumped towards the Dual Assembwurm with its jaws wide open and golden claws spread out.
"Tch." Charles had to activate the Enchanter's effect early, and forced the tiger back down to the ground with a blast of cyber energy. "So what? You're going to the noble hero of the downtrodden? Do you believe that Static thinks that way? Or do you two just want to tear down anyone that you don't like? To take everything they have!?" Charles only heard excuses to cover up Khans real desires. "Are you gonna tell me they deserve it more than us? Bah! You're just one of them, Charles! You're one of the blind who does not see anything except the status quo! This world is built on lies and corruption! And before we can fix their mess, we have to expose them all!" Khan turned back to his cards, and activated Vendread Core's effect from the graveyard. The writhing mass of black rotting flesh and eyeballs consumed one zombie (Revendread Slayer) from the graveyard to special summon itself(1/0/500) [Zone 3] to the field. "I Link summon Avendread Savior! The materials are two zombie monsters!" The Core melted down on top of the Golden Land Guardian beast, and created a new undead hero.
The Avendread Savior(1600/LINK2) {Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 1] looked very much like the Revendread Slayer, with his red tattered cape, dark bodysuit and horned armor. Unlike the Slayer however, Savior had two wings made of bone as well, and a mask crowned with four spikes. "Heh, too bad this Savior cannot save you.. Charles! Avendread adds one Vendread card from the graveyard back to my hand! Revendread Origin! Now I can ritual summon two monsters at once!" With the previously claimed Revendread Evolution, Khan could sacrifice the Revendread Executor and its 8 levels to resurrect the Vendread Battlelord(7/2700/0) [zone 5] from the graveyard. With Revendread Origin, he could sacrifice Eldlich the Golden Lord to ritual summon the evolved slayer mutant Revendread Executor(8/3000/0) [Zone 3] from the graveyard. "If you saw what I did to Valkyrion, then you also know that Eldlich can special summon himself!" Khan destroyed his spell, Vendread Nights, to bring the four-eyed zombie lord back from the dead, and eventually out into the field with more power (Eldlich: 3500 atk) [Zone 1] than before.
"Don't count on your traps either." The Battlelord's powers, activated by banishing the Vendread Core, sealed the effects of all of Charles' traps for the rest of the turn. "Avendread! Kill his Assembwurm!" Finally, Bionis could begin his long-awaited assault. "?" Charles briefly wondered what the trick was going to be, before the Savior eventually revealed its second power. "Ha! When my Avendread Savior battles your monster, yours will lose 200 attackpoints for each level on the zombie monster I choose to throw away!" Khan sent another Eldlich from the deck, and its spirit drained the dual cyberse dragon(800/1000) ten times. Assembwurm buckled under his own weakness and offered no resistance when the Avendread flew by him and cut his body in half: separating the red from the blue with sharp wings.
Charles' LP: 7200
"How did that feel? Is it good to be back to pain? Charles?" Khan laughed it up while he made the Revendread Executor strike down Cyberse Enchanter. "I've gotten used to it before this, Khan!" Charles winced again, his link monster did not survive the attacks either...
Charles' LP: 6600
...not in its enhanced form at least. "When Cyberse Enchanter dies, I can special summon Cyberse Wizard!" The lesser cybermage[Zone 5] emerged from the explosion and jumped down in front of the undead legion to defend his master. "Ha! Prepared for the worst eh? Good! It wouldn't be any fun if you died right away!" Khan finished his relentless assault with the Battlelord and Golden Lord. The first crushed the Wizard with its blade of bone, the second delivered a direct punch in Charles' gut. "Ghuah!" He could not just shrug that one off. The blow sent him back against the walls of the cliff.
Charles' LP: 3100
"That's enough! Are you trying to kill him!?" Heleil shouted. "Stay out of this, champion! You're just as much a blind puppet as he is!" Khan snarled. "You'll get your turn soon, all of you will." He moved to the second main phase and placed a trap card down while Charles still lay on the ground. It did not even occur to Khan to give his opponent the common courtesy of waiting. "But first, my Scarlet Eldlixir activates from my graveyard to set a Golden Land trap card down on my field. And when my turn ends, my Golden Land card in the graveyard can set one Eldlixir from my deck!" Charles could not have stopped Khan anyway. The conqueror banished the Sanguine spell and Guardian trapmonster to set two new cards of the opposite category: Golden Land Forever and the Eldlixir of Black Awakening face down on the field. "I hope you can do a little better than last turn, Void. Or else you should not have bothered to come back!"
-TURN 04-
"I did not come back just to settle a score with you, Khan. I never even saw you as a rival." Charles grunted, as he drew his next card. "That's funny. Too bad I never forgot my hatred for you! How could I, when you think you are so much better than me?" Khan yelled back. "Maybe that's because it is all you have now, Khan. Static took everything else away from you. But there must have been things you once liked. People you liked. So yeah, maybe I do think I am better than you. Because you are not even half of a man right now." The cyberse duelist activated his next spell. "I banish Cynet Ritual from the graveyard to create two tokens!" Two tiny electric tadpoles(4/0/0) [Zones 1 & 2] magically appeared. They could only be special summoned while Charles controlled no monsters. "And I summon Lady Debug!" Meaning that now he could perform the same normal summon from last turn: that of the cyberse-searching Lady Debug[Zone 5]. "I add Cyberse Synch.."
"Sync.. Synchron?" Echo's eyes lit up when she figured out Charles' plan. Unfortunately it never got off the ground. "Seen it." A yawning Bionis countered Lady Debug's effect with a golden trap. "Golden Land Forever will shut her up. As long as I control Eldlich, I can negate your effects and destroy them! Heheh." The counter trap tributed a zombie, Avendread Savior, to smother both the effect and the Lady herself.
"Well then it's a good thing I already have what I need right here! I normal summon Micro Coder!" Though the effect of Cynet Optimization, a tiny warrior(1/300/0) [Zone 1] made of black cybermatter appeared. The Micro Coder was covered in silver armor plates and looked through its winged helmet with two glowing yellow eyes. "When I use Micro Coder as a material for a Code Talker, I can add one level 4 or lower cyberse to my hand! So I link summon Link Disciple and Code Talker Inverted! The link materials for the floating red-probe disciple droid(500/LINK 2) {Down} [Extra Zone 1] was a single link 4 or lower cyberse like Lady Debug. While any two cyberse, even the two tokens, could function as materials for the white plastic Code knight(1300/LINK 2) {Left/Right} with its trident. "Code Talker Inverted can summon one cyberse from my hand once its summoned, and lucky me. I just got one.." Charles called out the card he added with Micro Coder's effect: a simple acorn-styled dongle(1/0/0) [Zone 3]. It was the Datacorn, a cyberse that could create a token copy(1/0/0) [Zone 1] of itself when it got special summoned.
"You changed your mind?" Echo realized he could have added Cyberse Synchron to his hand this time too. Yet he did not. "Plans change. I know what my mistake is. What Bionis Khan wants is to know how our battle would have ended, our first battle. I cannot replicate the exact same circumstances. But I can get close." Charles used up both Link Disciple and Code Talker Inverted: two cyberse link materials. "I summon Decode Talker Extended!" If Khan could still recall the Cyberse Wizard, then he would certainly also be able to recognize the Decoding swordsman(2300/LINK 3) {Up/Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 1], even in its inverted colorized form. "Oh, there's more than one of them?" Khan did not notice a major difference effect-wise though. This Decode Talker(3300 atk) also gained 500 attackpoints for each monster it pointed towards, which were just Datacorn and its token for now.
"God.. How many times is he going to say that? You can't bring us back to senses with something as stupid as sentimental flashback-triggers! We are our true selves! There is nothing to back to!" Wagnerok shouted once more. "Oh really? Then how do you explain us?" Then a new voice made both him and Khan turn their gaze to the left. "What? You?"
"It's Madam Blanche, Wagner. Come on, it hasn't been that long." A girl in white showed up no worse for wear, with several friends too like the champion Dyzanthium and Cierze the Harpie Lady. "Dharma!" Seeing her, Charles could not help but happily blurt out her name. It felt so good to meet her outside of a dream. "Void? Whoa.. what the heck happened to you?" The feeling was mutual. "Wait a second. What happened to usernames, Charles?" She jeered, playfully so. "I think I am done with being called Void for now." He explained, disregarding whatever Khan wanted to call him right now. "How did you get here!? When did you break free!? When did you.. And why.. Why are you hanging out with an ADI?!" Charles had many questions, and at first he wanted to ask her about when and how she managed to convince Dyzanthium to join her. But his eyes were drawn towards the other member of her companionship first: a fairy that looked like a cross between a Melodious and an Aromage monster.
"Who cares about that thing, Void! You're dealing with me right now!" Khan yelled. "Oh but I am about to say pertains to you as well, my dear Bionis Khan." Yet the ADI spoke.
"Scarlet?" With a voice that sent a shiver down Charles' spine. "Perhaps. That is still a theory at this point." The Aromage stated with a whimsical tone, while everyone but Blanche stared at it with wild bewilderment. "Oh you must be wondering 'how could there be two Scarlets'? I will get to that. And I like to start with a strong hypothesis: that being that I am in fact the real Scarlet.. and the one you know is not. That leads to another conclusion of course... You, Wagnerok and Khan. Are not Wagner and Bionis Khan either. You never were."
(To Be Continued in World 033: The Rich Get Richer)
New cards used by Charles Adami
Micro Coder
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Cyberse Enchanter
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Cynet Optimization
New Cards used by Khan the Conqueror
Avendread Savior
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Guardian of the Golden Land
Golden Land Forever
