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.

53. World 045: Grey Area

World 045: Grey Area

Every enforcer saw Void and Echo force Renner to enter STHEREA, basically kidnapping his mind in broad daylight while leaving his body trapped inside a barrier of energy. The cameras caught every second. Even so, Charles and Cherry had a difficult time explaining that they were not responsible for any of this. "Why aren't you just getting this over with?" Charles grunted as the two duelists were led to the control room. "Because we still need you. And because we are under orders not to harm you." One scientist claimed. With their main researcher gone, he had to act as the new commander. Though they seemed to lack any authority at the moment. "Orders from whom? Shintaro?" As their restraint surprised him, Charles figured he could poke a little bit more. "No, Exeter. I do not know anything about these Shintaros you keep mentioning. Renner secured all of our financing but kept their names to himself." The second-in-command swore. "Uh-huh. Is that what you're gonna tell Exeter?" Charles did not believe that for a second.

But who could call them out like this, who had made them stand down their weapons? "Ah, Void! So there you are!" He heard his voice as soon as he entered the control room. "V?" He heard the voice of Vigionaire over the speakers.

He also saw Tycho looming over a researcher at the controls. "You know this man?" Tycho sighed. "That's Asterisks mentorfigureorwhatever. He tried to blow up Prospero, remember?" Cherry Anise muttered. "Oh. Well this is the guy that suddenly got on the line as I tried to call the police or whoever came to mind. He let me get into contact with Exeter, and they gave the order to standdown." In hindsight Tycho figured this was for the best, since it seemed likely that the local authorities would have been bribed by this institute to overlook whatever happened here.

"What? But how did you find us?" Charles could not believe this. "Elementary! I constantly monitor emergency calls across the globe. Thats a lot of data, but I only keep the transmissions with critical keywords. Fortunately your very vocal friend checked off a whole array of them with his erratic calling. I simply traced the call to this place! And now here we are." Vigionaire made it sound so easy, and for him it pretty much was. "Wow.. Thank you V." Charles let out a sigh of relief. "Dont thank me, thank Exeter for helping me out. Besides, now we are even! So.. that means we can begin our proper reunion!"

...

"Do we have to.. do it like this?" Crescent did want to find Therese, and Bionis Khan. But Echo and Scarlet Rose's way of looking involved events that she had not been there for.. private events. "I feel like I am trespassing." Images without proper context flashed by her in the world of the subconscious. Images of a thousand faces with a thousand different pasts all connected mentally. Crescent stared with the mind's eye, it would not do anything now to close her eyes. "I don't want you to feel bad about this, but we can find her quicker this way. I promise I will not look to much." Miss Echo made this all possible, she opened the core of project Flute to see all that had been recorded.. and that included the memories of duelists like Therese. "I should have asked them to tell me more about themselves. I don't even know Bionis' real name." Crescent sighed. They only had to pry into so many personal lives because they needed personal moments to locate the wandering souls inside STHEREA.

"Ah. I think, we have something." Echo shuddered. One face started to dominate the flood, one voice overpowered the others. "It's him." It was a voice Echo herself had heard many times: Evert Hansen's voice. "Her brother? Then we must be getting close to her!" Crescent got a little excited, though she realized Echo did not feel as happy as she did. "Oh. Echo. You do not have to come with me. Maybe we can take it from here?" She knew the girl would probably not want to go far from her new home. The Fisherman and Cierze were also still waiting back at Pandemonium, hoping to get a sign from Olympia or the other heroes. "No. I want to do this. Your happiness is just as important, Aurora. And so is Therese... no matter whose family she belongs too."

"I could not have said it better myself." Scarlet Rose chimed in. "You can only worry about so many people at the same time, miss Crescent. If contact is made with the others, I will be the first to know." She could multitask quite easily, monitoring Pandemonium and their own progress through the dreamworld at the same time. "And yes, these seem to be Therese's own memories. It becomes a lot easier to analyze the data once you narrow down the subject." The doctor nodded. "Okay. Then lead the way, miss Echo." Crescent relented. If this was what they wanted to do, she could not say no.

She could however get some of her other questions answered, since they had a lot of floating through the void to do. "Scarlet...Rose. You are the real Scarlet, aren't you?" She'd never gotten much of a chance to 'understand' this version of the scarlet duelist. "About 60 % of her at least." Rose said with a wide grin. "But I am more her than 'Scarlet Fever' is her. Are you asking this for Wagnerok's sake?" She could imagine that Wagnerok's attitude had been quite unsettling to Crescent. "No.. Yes, maybe that too. But I just wanted to know if you could.. go offline? You are the first one we saved and you never left STHEREA.." Crescent had a more immediate fear, that finding Therese would not be enough to free her. "I see. No I have not. But I am a bit of a unique case, trapped in this virtual body. I could try to separate myself here in this dimension, but I would likely come out as an incomplete spirit. And I would rather not risk it. However by my estimates Hydra should have been able to leave the network.. if he had taken the chance. But that is on him. It's pointless to mince what's done.."

"I see something." Echo said as she stopped the others' movements. "Is that... a beach?" They had come across a whole area hidden behind a veil of mist: an area of contrasts. One the left stood a tall ridge of grey mountainous rock that reached impossible heights. On the right were rough waves crashing down on a grey-sand beach. "Is this from her past?" Crescent was surprised to see something like this, it reminded her a lot more of the trips to the sea that she'd taken with her own family. Though this place did not resemble any part she had visited before. "This is where worlds come together." Echo and the others landed down on the sand, to feel it beneath their feet. "It's nice. It does not feel like a nightmare at all." The girl enjoyed the feeling while it lasted. At least in this world she could stand and walk. Though they had not come here for a trip to the beach. They did not even know if this was the right place..

"! Therese!" Until Crescent saw her. There she stood as clear as day, posed in front of the raging waters with her hands on her hips and a confident look on her face. "Huh? Who?" The girl turned around, wearing the single-eye ball mask and longsleeved sequined suit that Crescent'd gotten so accustomed too during their tag duels. "It's me! Crescent Aurora!" Crescent landed on the beach, bursting with so many happy feelings that she did not know what to do with them. "Aurora?" Therese managed to pierce them all with a single glance. "Yes.. that is.. who I am." Crescent's voice faltered when she realized that... Therese did not recognize her. "And you are Therese.. Therese Hansen!"

"Who the hell is that?" They were too late.

"It is as I feared: the avatar's identity has taken over the human ego. She is not Therese Hansen anymore, she failed and has become Arsis da Vinci." Scarlet Rose based that on Madam Blanche's own experiences. The white dragon duelist would have met the same fate if she'd failed her own tests in the nightmare. "Thats Ar-cis! With a hard 'K' sound! Why would I call myself arsis? That's too pedestrian!" Therese had unfortunately failed and become what Static wanted her to become: a duelist who acted the way she looked. "You've forgotten everything?" Crescent did not want to believe it, but Arcis did act as if the last 20 years of her life had been shelved away. "But that's not why you wanted to be a duelist." The youthful appearance of her avatar had been her solution to get closer to the heroes of Pandemonium. Crescent did not think that Therese would have literally wanted to be young again. "Everyone desires to be young again at a certain point, miss Aurora." Scarlet mused, while Echo stared contemplatively.

"Well, maybe we can fix that later. Arcis, we have to get you out of here." Crescent tried to approach the duelist, but she jumped back. "Hands off! I am not going anywhere! You're the ones disturbing my peace here! Who are you anyway?" Arcis had become rattled enough to manifest her cards and dueldisk as a defense. "We're your friends! I am your friend! We dueled together!" Crescent yelled and involuntarily got her own cards to show up. "Friends? I only allow my equals to call themselves that! And I have no equals! I am Arcis Da Vinci the universe duelist!" Arcis laughed out loud. "But if you want to try yourself against my arts of dueling, go ahead! I need some amusement!"

"There is no other way is there?" Echo moaned, while Scarlet shook her head silently. "I am not going to stop now." Crescent accepted the challenge.

Arcis' LP: 8000 Crescent's LP: 8000

-TURN 01-

"I would not want you to stop. What I want is for you to declare a level! I activate Reasoning!" Da Vinci started with a spell that excvated cards from the deck until she found a monster that could be normal summoned. "...Eight?" Crescent had no idea what cards she would see. But she still called the number that belonged to Therese's favorite monster. "You missed. I special summon Witchcrafter Schmietta!" Reasoning excavated two cards (Witchcrafter Patronus, Witchcrafter Unveiling) before finding a level 4 monster. Since that did not match Crescent's prediction, Arcis could special summon the redheaded firewitch Schmietta(4/1800/600) [Zone 1] could be special summoned from the hand and no effects could be chained to Witchcrafter monsters for the rest of the turn. "If she is using her new cards but her old persona, that means her merger is nearly complete." Scarlet Rose concluded.

"Or maybe she could not let go of her old self completely either." Crescent whispered. Though Arcis Da Vinci kept playing more like the duelist she could never have been as a teenager. "Schmietta sacrifices herself, and one of my spells, to special summon another Witchcrafter from my deck! Haine!" The witchy smith burned through the Magician's Restage card in Da Vinci's hand, and transformed herself into the dagger-slinging black-magic witch Haine(7/2400/1000) [Zone 1]. "Magician's Restage activates from the graveyard! Now I can draw a 'Magician' spell card from my deck! I choose.." Arcis posed with her left hand in the air. "Magician's Left Hand! As long as I control my spellcasters, I can negate the first trap you use each turn!" A disembodied demonic hand appeared at her side with its fingers poised to snap. "I also activate Magician's Right Hand! Now you cant use your spells either!"

"I then banish Schmietta from my graveyard, to send one Witchcrafter to my graveyard! Pittore! And then I banish Pittore too!" The witch of fire used her own spirit to send the witch of water to the next world as well. And she in turn could be activated from the graveyard to draw and discard a Witchcrafter card at the same time. Arcis gained a monster and discarded the Witchcrafter Potterie. "I summon Magical Broker! This card can't die as long as I have my continuous spells or traps!" A horned merchant goat(3/1500/200) [Zone 3] slowly walked into the battlefield on its cloved feet, carrying a magical staff and wearing many robes. "Since I do not have any cards in my hand anymore, I can banish Witchcrafter Potterie to take one Witchcrafter card back out of the the graveyard!" The witch duelist eagerly snatched the Witchcrafter Patronus trap and placed it down on her field. Finally, since she controlled a Witchcrafter, she could add all Witchcrafter spells that had not yet been activated this turn. She added Witchcrafter Unveiling back to her hand and ended the turn. "Enjoy."

-TURN 02-

"I wish I could." Crescent sighed. Once she could claim that duels gave her more fun than anything else in the world. "I.. activate Raigeki." But her opponent had her in a tight spot, emotionally and physically. "Oh, a thunderous type huh? Well that thunder must have made you deaf! I already told you what Magicians Right Hand can do!" The demonic hand made the snap, causing the spell of Raigeki to fizzle out before it could create the destructive storm of lightning. "I do not really know what type I am. I do not prefer any color.. or any weather. But I do prefer a certain monster type." Crescent let that spell go, so she could use another. "I discard Hecatrice from my hand, which adds the Hall of the Fallen to my hand." The first fairy descended into the grave, so that its master could draw and activate her heavenly continuous spell. "Valhalla the Hall of the Fallen is all I have left of Wagner now. I cannot save him yet, but I will save you."

"Save me from what? I dont see what I would need to be saved from! Or are you talking about me not having any cards in my hand anymore?" Arcis shouted while her continuous trap revealed itself. "Witchcrafter Patronus will fix that! It returns my banished spellcaster, that is Pittore, to draw a Witchcrafter spell from my deck!" The waterwitch escaped her dimensional exile, and pushed the spell of Witchcrafter Collaboration into the hands of the dazzling duelist. And a spell was just what Witchcrafter Haine needed, to activate her quick destruction effect. "Haine! Destroy Valhalla!" With a petty grin, Arcis discarded Witchcrafter Holiday and smashed the Hall of the Fallen to pieces. She seemed to enjoy it too.

"You cannot see it. But you will, because you have seen these cards before." Crescent moved on and readjusted her plans once again. She normal summoned the Weather Painter Snow, the blue-haired snow girl(3/0/2200) [Zone 1] in her white cloudlined robes. "When Snow is summoned, I can place a Weather Canvas card from my deck without activating it. I choose Rainbowed Canvas." The snowgirl would start painting with a brush of all colors, as the Rainbowed continuous trap [Zone 2] landed on the field and carved its arc from the middle to the left side of her field. "Now any monsters in its column and its adjacent columns can banish themselves to special summon another Weather Painter from my deck. This also does not count as a trap's effect, but as the monster's effect." Snow jumped up and disappeared behind the rainbow. And from the other side came a greenhaired maiden(6/2200/2000) [Zone 3] in a flowing long dress. "This is Weather Painter Aurora. If I control her, you cannot use any cards to destroy my spells or traps." Crescent used the Painter to attack the Magical Broker, though the Broker's effect allowed it to endure her blast of night lights.

Arcis's LP: 7300

"Oh? Now I get it. Your name is derived from your monster! Not very creative if I have to say." At this point Arcis realized her cards were in no immediate danger, so she had Magical Broker use its second effect. Each turn it could tribute a continuous spell or trap to draw one card, and in this case she sacrificed the Witchcrafter Patronus.

"Actually, Wagner gave me that name. Since I could not come up with one myself." Crescent perfectly remembered the day it happened. Nothing really happened besides Wagner just mentioning that felt sad about how he never got to see the northern lights. But even a moment as mundane as that felt special to her now. "Aurora will use the next Weather Canvas, Snowy." Aurora of the darkness took up the brush left behind by the icy painter. The Snowy Canvas [Zone 3] covered the center zone and the two zones next to it. "Any monster in the snowed in area can banish herself to add another Weather card to my hand." Crescent banished Aurora to add the Thundery Weather Canvas. She placed that trap [Zone 1] face down along with another trap [Zone 4]. Lastly she activated the continuous spell: Backup Squad [Zone 5]. "That was my turn."

-TURN 03-

"The Aurora Borealis. That is something everyone else wants to see, isn't it?" Echo suddenly spoke up. "Have you seen it already?" Crescent wondered. "I remember seeing it.. through many eyes. But that is not the same." The girl wanted to witness it with her own eyes, just like she would many other parts of the world. "Ah?" However her thoughts were still reshaping the world around them, as now the night sky showed off a faint trace of northern lights on the horizon. "Is that..." It looked just like her memory told her it would look like. "It's still not real, miss Echo. None of this is... That's why we all have to get out of here." Crescent waited for Arcis to draw her card. Because when the next turn started.. "...all banished Weather Painters return." The aurora borealis faded away again, after the Painters of Snow[Zone 2] and Aurora [Zone 3] took their new positions. "And I activate my Thundery Canvas."

"How unfortunate, Aurora! This time you've upset Magicians Left Hand!" The demonic hand and Arcis snapped their fingers again, and threatened to break the Canvas of the thunderstorm. But that was only the first trap of the turn. "There is no point in getting mad at a storm. I activate Heavy Storm Duster." The second trap could not be stopped, and it would destroy two spells or traps at once. "Ah? Hey!" Twin twisters ravaged the field and shattered the Magicians Right and Left Hands in one fell swoop.

"Ooh you are sneaky. I like that." Arcis adjusted her eyemask and flashed a grin. "But let's see how you handle this! I activate Spell Chronicle! Now I can discard my hand to banish five spells from my deck!" She first placed one card face down, so she only had to discard one card (Witchcrafter Unveiling) to open the a dragon scroll. Normally one would need to wait to start reclaiming the cards banished (Witchcrafter Creation, Draping, Holiday, Bystreet, Scroll) by the Chronicle continuous spell. "And then I can activate Witchcrafter Patronus from my graveyard: which adds all banished Witchcrafter spells to my hand! This is my latest genius combo!" But in this case she could draw all five in one go. "Not good.." Crescent had never seen Therese make a combo like that before. "Haine destroys Aurora!" Arcis discarded one spell (Witchcrafter Scroll) again, so that Haine could target the Weather Painter Aurora.

"Sneaky.. is not something I have been called before. Not even by you." Crescent deflected, both the words and the effect. The Canvas of Snow banished Aurora the monster for another turn, and Aurora the duelist added the Canvas of Clouds from the deck to her hand. "Well your cards disagree!" Arcis shrugged and moved on to her Patronus trap. This time it returned the banished Schmietta to the deck to add the Witchcrafter Draping spell card to her hand. "Whoever you are, you're a lot like me. I can never pick a favorite element either. But my type is definitely spellcasters!' Arcis activated the spell of Witchcrafter Creation, and used it to add another Witchcrafter to her hand from her deck. "I normal summon Witchcrafter Genni!" Wind would be the next element in her magical masterpiece, the wind of the bespectacled sorceress(1/300/500) [Zone 1] with long and curly blonde hair. "I activate Witchcrafter Draping! This lets me bounce spells or traps for each Witchcrafter on my field! I choose your two traps!"

"I can still.. use them." Before time ran out, Crescent used the Rainbowed-effect and banished the Snow Painter. "I summon the Weather Painter Rain! When she is summoned, I can activate one Canvas from my hand." The other side of the Rainbow saw the arrival of the water painter [Zone 4] with her long blue pigtails shaped like teardrops. "And the Cloudy Canvas lets me halve one monsters attackpoints if I banish a Weather Painter." Rain's effect placed that Canvas of Clouds [Zone 4] on the field, while the Rainbow and Thunder left.

"Confound it. You really have a brush for everything, don't you? And here I was thinking I could get my One Turn Kill." Arcis griped. If she had her damage would be less than fatal, she would have removed the Backup Squad instead. "I suppose I'll just attack with what I have!" Genni, like her siblings, could use one spell (Witchcrafter Bystreet) and her own life to special summon another Witchcrafter monster from the deck. That turned out to be the pale skinned witch doll Aruru(8/2800/0) [Zone 4]. "Attack!" The Magical Broker, Haine and Golem Aruru floated across the sandy fields. Before they could reach her, the Rain Painter banished herself and used the paint of the clouds to weaken the Golem(1400/0), so that the following triple direct attack would hurt a lot less.

Crescent's LP: 2700

"Aaaah!" She crossed her arms to shield herself from most of the spell blasts, and managed to not get knocked down. "I.. can draw four cards now." At the very least each time she took over 1000 points of damage, Backup Squad would draw a new card for her. "You are not falling behind yet? Good! My turn is over, but I get to draw my spells again too!" During the endphase all the unactivated Witchcrafter spells returned in one form or another. Witchcrafter Scroll and Witchcrafter Bystreet popped up on the field as continuous spells, while Witchcrafter Unveiling and Collaboration were added back to her hand. "I'll get you next turn. But until then, enjoy the Bystreet. It negates the first destruction of my spellcasters each turn!" During the endphase, the Witchcrafter Golem Aruru also returned to its owners hand, leaving only Haine and the Broker on the field.

-TURN 04-

"..." The next turn brought the trio of Painters back to the field: Aurora[Zone 2], Snow [Zone 3] and Rain [Zone 4]. The effect of the blue painter subsequently reactivated the Rainbowed Canvas [Zone 2] continuous trap card from her hand. "Crescent. Do you know what to do?" A concerned Echo asked. "Yes. I always do. When it comes to cards, they ar at least easy to understand." She added a new member to her current painting group: the portly mustachio-sporting Weather Painter Sun(4/1600/400) [Zone 1]. That she could control.

She could not control how her opponent would react however. "The Sun?! Wait... No that wont happen. I can sacrifice my Witchcrafter Scroll too! If I want to activate my witchcrafter's effects!" Arcis did not so much as give him a moment to settle. She immediately activated Haine's effect on him. "Therese?" Her counter caught Crescent off guard, though she managed to activate the Sunpainter's Rainbowed effect just in time. The Canvas banished him and special summoned the shorthaired stormsprite Weather Painter Thunder(3/1700/0) in his place. "You.. you do remember." Crescent could not see any other reason for Arcis to snap out like that, unless she could sense what was coming. What would come right now. "You knew it would be better if I did not have the Sun on my field, even if this only makes a little difference. You are in there.." Crescent activated the effect of Weather Painter Thunder, sacrificing a continuous spell (Backup Squad) to activate another Canvas from her deck. Crescent chose the Auroral Canvas [Zone 1], which covered the field in the boreal lights of the north.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Therese/Arcis Da Vinci hissed, as she activated Magical Broker's effect again. This time it sacrificed Spell Chronicle to draw. "You do, you are affraid. You understand what will happen if you activate an effect after I link summon my Weather Painter Rainbow!" Her materials were three Weather Painters. Crescent combined the yellow Thunder, the blue Rain and the purple Snow. Together they could shape the whole spectrum and its goddess: the serene white-dressed Weather Painter Rainbow(2400/LINK 3) {Downleft/Down/Downright} [Extra Zone 1]. "You did not want me to have the Sun, who can revive himself. Because the Rainbow gives each Painter the power to negate an effect after they tribute themselves! But I can bring a different color back instead! I activate Monster Reborn!" Before the Rainbow only pointed at Aurora. Now the resurrection spell gave her the Painter of Rain[Zone 3] to play with.

"I can tell, Therese. You are not gone, you are scared. But you do not have to hide anymore. I am here for you."

(To Be Continued in World 046: Renaissance into Decadence)

New Cards used by Arcis Da Vinci
Magical Broker

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Reasoning
Magicians Left Hand
Spell Chronicle

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Witchcrafter Patronus

New Cards used by Crescent Aurora
Hecatrice

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Blizzard