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.

54. World 046: Renaissance into Decadence

World 046: Renaissance into Decadence

Static Void returned from the nightmare realm with his fears confirmed. Tellingly, he came back alone. "The Shintaros. They have the Chalice. There is no doubt about it." It was a far that existed ever since Zettai came to him with the news of Hikaru's actions. "Of course. I did not lie." The ace duelist sounded insulted that he would even doubt her after she came back in the first place. "Feh. It is not your honesty but your conviction which I doubt... Zettai. You are thinking right now that I did not need to torture the man. But humans are our enemies too. And he had so much more to tell. These people use their own closed virtual realms that are not connected to STHEREA, they build them for people like Himiko's family. That is how Charles found his way back into my world. Even when he is not aware of it, he gets in my way!" These people seemed to know exactly what they still needed and could come by to extort him at any moment. They understood the Legacy more than Exeter ever did. "Then why are we still focusing our power on Void? On Charles? We should point the ark towards them!"

"Yeah! We should take action!" Donna backed the ace duelist up with a mighty shout. "We might even convert Himiko to our side that way." Wagnerok joined in on the bellowing. "I agree. People like these do not deserve to share in our legacy." Veyron nodded. He simply wanted to see the seven items come together. Most seemed to be on the same page.

"I do not think so." Except for Scarlet Fever. "What?" Donna snapped at the former doctor. Yet Scarlet ignored the angered, now enraged, wrestler. "We are not ready yet to confront an enemy we know nothing about. Static I propose that we postpone our attack until my work is done." She gave her suggestion straight to Static instead. "Yes, that is good." To everyone else's shock and dismay, he accepted it after a scant few seconds of consideration. "Void!? Why!" Donna demanded an explanation. "There is more to these people than what we can see. I have been blind to their entire operation until now, and that should not have been possible. We wait until we have the army with which we can strike." Static did not like this new feeling, a feeling of not knowing or understanding. What else had he been blind too? It did not matter. In the end the whole world would be his enemy...and each other's.

...

Crescent's LP: 2700 Arcis's LP: 7300

Therese found herself in a pinch. Crescent controlled a monster that could negate effects and the two Painters that made it possible: Rainbow(2400/LINK 3) {Downleft/Down/Downright} [Extra Zone 1], Aurora(62200/2000) [Zone 2] and Rain(3/1200/1400) [Zone 1]. She also controlled four Canvas cards: Cloudy [Zone 1], Rainbowed [Zone 2], Snowy [Zone 3] and Auroral [Zone 4]. "Magical Planter can sacrifice one continuous trap to draw two cards." Crescent turned the trap of Auroral Canvas away, since she could get more use out of the cards in her deck. However it changed little for the most immediate part of her plans: the battle phase. "Aurora attacks the Magical Broker!" She battled with streaks of boreal light. Aurora's elements beat Da Vinci's Magical Broker(3/1500/200) [Zone 2] down, thought the Broker still could not die while Arcis controlled her continuous spells (Witchcrafter Bystreet).

Arcis' LP: 6600

"Then I activate the Cloud Canvas again!" The Painter of Rain wrapped herself up in the clouds, and covered Witchcrafter Haine(7/1200/1000) [Zone 1] with them. The Cloud Canvas made it so that any Painter could banish themselves to halve a monsters attackpower. "That does not mean anything! I am just reading what your cards do! And my monster still cannot be destroyed!" Arcis protested. Though her handtraps could not be played, she could still hide behind the continuous effect of Witchcrafter Bystreet. "Maybe you are right. Maybe I am still bad at judging your expressions. But I do not feel that way anymore... I activate Blizzard! This spell negates the effect of yours!" Crescent dropped a quickplay spell from her hand and started a fierce but localized snowstorm. The Witchcrafter Bystreet froze up completely, which prevented it from saving Haine from the Rainbow's prismatic laser blasts. Afterwards Crescent placed three trap cards face down and ended the turn.

Arcis's LP: 5400

-TURN 05-

"Gah.." As the next turn started, the Weather Painters Rain [Zone 1] and Sun(4/1600/1000) [Zone 3] special summoned themselves back from the banished dimension, and linked up with the Weather Painter Rainbow(2400/LINK 3) {Downleft/Down/Downright} [Extra Zone 1]. Those two, along with the already linked Weather Painter Aurora(6/2200/2000) [Zone 2] had been given the ability to negate one effect or card. "A rainbow triangle? Heehee..There is no pattern that I cannot overcome." With the six cards in her hand, Arcis felt pretty confident in her ability to wring the rainbow dry. "I activate Witchcrafter Unveiling and special summon Golem Aruru from my hand." She could do it with just one card if Crescent did not look out, because the Unveiling spell also made it impossible for the opponent to chain to Witchcrafter's and their effects for the rest of the turn. "...Thunder banishes herself." Crescent activated the first negate, sending the yellow painting fairy to the other world to stop Unveiling before it could summon the Golem witch. "One.."

"Yeah, one down! But not the only one! I can activate Witchcrafter Genni from my graveyard! She banishes herself and another Witchcrafter spell card from my graveyard to become that spell! I'd planned to use this on a different spell last turn, but I am glad I saved it now!" In essence Arcis got two shots at trying the same lockdown strategy. "Sun banishes himself." Crescent would prevent that at all costs. The painter of orange made himself scarce and cancelled out Genni's graveyard effect. "Two." She only had one more negation in reserve, and she knew Arcis could run that through as well. "Heh. I activate Witchcrafter Holiday and special summon Witchcrafter Haine from my graveyard!" She still did not have a better option, though she would make Arcis waste as much resources as possible. "No chain? In that case, Haine destroys the Rainbow!" It cost a spell to activate the power of Haine(7/2400/1000) [Zone 3], a discarded Witchcrafter Collaboration in this case. "Aurora banishes herself." Crescent removed her final linked painter, and destroyed the destructive witch before she could start throwing her daggers.

"And that makes three. Which means it is finally time to get real. Because you keep saying you know who I am, you know what my cards are. But I do not want to know you, so maybe I should not know these cards either. I am starting to feel like I don't have a favorite type at all! Why should I let even one label chain me down? I am Arcis Da Vinci, the universal duelist!" Arcis flipped her spell card, the SpellBook of Knowledge. It sent the spellcaster Magical Broker to the graveyard, to draw two new cards. And this.. this will be my new art. The art of invocation!" Arcis struck a dramatic pose with her hand on her chest. "I summon Aleister the Invoker! His normal summon comes paired with the acquisition of Invocation the spell!" Suddenly, it seemed like summoning magic instead of witchcraft would be Da Vinci's magical domain. Aleister(4/1000/1800) [Zone 3] was a famed occultist, painter and many other things; displayed here as a silverhaired wizard in a white/green hooded white coat. His effect meanwhile allowed Arcis to draw one spell from her deck: Invocation.

"Aleister? Was that.. the card you used to duel with in the past?" The Invoked predated the Witchcrafters, and Aleisters design fit more with Da Vinci's aesthetic. Their haircolors matched and where she covered her left eye with a mask, he covered his right eye with a monocle. "If that is true, then this is a bad sign. It means Therese is regressing more into her persona. Her deck and cards are adapting along with the changes." Scarlet Rose feared that she would become like the rest of Static's crew at this rate. "No.." Crescent had to stop this, but she could do nothing yet.

"Hee, Invocation takes materials from my hand or either graveyard, and Aleister will always be one of them! But I can summon one of the Invoked Beasts for free right now! I activate Instant Fusion! I can instantly fusion summon one level 5 or lower fusion monster from my deck at the cost of 1000 lifepoints!" The first Invoked leaped out of the extra deck, a silver green-caped knight wielding thunder through his sword. "Invoked Raidjin! Each turn he can switch one monster to face-down defense position!"

Arcis' LP: 4400

"No. Rainbow can block a special summon by giving her own life away." Crescent had to activate this effect sooner than she expected, but if she could stop even one Invoked she would do it. "Hmph. That would have worked if I was not already lightyears ahead! I activate Called by the Grave! It banishes your monster from the graveyard and negates her powers!" Alas, Da Vinci's quickplay spell assaulted the Rainbow Weather Painter immediately after she tributed herself, preventing her from using the effect she had died for. Her link monster joined the others in the banished dimension, while Invoked Raidjin(5/2200/2400) [Extra Zone 2] finally showed up on the field. "Now, Aleister is a Dark-Spellcaster and Raidjin a Wind-Warrior, I can use them both as link materials to summon Aleister the Madness Invoker!" By combining two monsters with different types and elements, Aleister would evolve. The alchemist removed the invocation wand from Raidjins back and stabbed himself with it. Aleister(1800/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} removed his hood and glasses and put on a manic grinning expression. His hand now glowed red with the power of the Invokers.

"Now we can have a real Invocation! I will use Aleister and a Light monster as materials to fusion summon Invoked Mechaba!" The first element of fusion would be LIGHT taken from Crescent's graveyard. "Ah." The wand of invocation stabbed the ground and banished Hecatrice the angel along with the original Aleister. The endresult was a silver knight(9/2500/2100) [Zone 3] rising on top of a mechanical armored beast with wheels. "When a monster is fusion summoned, I can discard one card to let the mad Aleister add one Invocation or Book of Law spell to my hand!" Arcis used the effect to add the Book of Law quickplay spell and discard her Witchcrafter Golem Aruru: the last vestige of her old self. "As for Mechaba, it can negate one effect depending on what card I discard. I am in need of a new monster so I activate Invocation from the graveyard! I may send it back to my deck to add Aleister the Invoker back to my hand!" Once Arcis recycled and reset the cycle of Invocation and Invoker, she had one of each card (Invoker Aleister, Witchcrafter Collaboration, Witchcrafter Masterpiece) in her hand. "Mechaba! Attack Crescent Aurora!"

"One.." Crescent defended herself quickly with the first trap. "Quaking Mirror Force. All attacking monsters will be returned to the hand." The sea itself acted as her barrier, creating a massive flood that would remove Aleister and Mechaba. "The weather itself cannot stop us now!" Naturally Therese negated the trap by discarding Witchcrafter Masterpiece from her hand. "Two." But her opponent had plenty more weather disasters in her arsenal. "Blazing Mirror Force. All attacking monsters are destroyed, and we both take damage equal to half their combined attackpoints." Now the sun came down with an immense heatwave. Scorching flames rose up in front of Mechaba and they spread out across the beach.

"Than you leave me no choice but to activate the Book of Law! I can exchange my Invoked monster for one other! I summon Invoked Cocytus in defense mode!" Arcis opened a quickplay spellbook and dismissed the Mechaba summon. From the book a new summon was born from the element of water: Cocytus the horned dragon(8/1800/2900) [Zone 5] of ice. "Cocytus cannot be destroyed as a result of battle! And it can attack with its defense!" On the other hand, Aleister the Madness Invoker had no means of escape. Though it did have the effect to add the 'Omega Summon' trap card to Arcis' hand if an effect made it leave the field. And because a new monster had been fusion summoned in the brief moment that it still lived, Arcus could discard Witchcrafter Holiday to add another Invocation to her hand. "Two." With just one casualty, the Blazing Mirror Force could only inflict 900 points to damage to Crescent and Da Vinci. "What were you saying those numbers for? Are you counting how many moves you have left?!"

Crescent's LP: 1800 Arcis's LP: 3500

"I was counting the chain links. Your monster was the second.. this card will be the third. At chain link 3, I can special summon the Winged Kuriboh Level 9!" The winged Kuriboh(9/7500/7500) [Zone 5] wore red magic armor that seemed far too large for its tiny body, but it did have two extra sharp claws to battle with now. "Winged Kuriboh?" Echo's eyes widened with astonishment. She knew all about Kuribohs of course, but she would never have expected Crescent to hold on to this one. "It was supposed to be our secret weapon against Zettai. I never realized.. how well it would do against Therese as well. Winged Kuriboh Level nine gains 500 attack and defense points for each spell in your graveyard, Therese. And there are fifteen." Crescent had counted them (Reasoning, Magicians Restage, Magicians Right and Left Hand, Spell Chronicle, Called by the Grave, Spellbook of Knowledge, Book of Law, Instant Fusion, Witchcrafter Collaboration, Scroll, Draping, Holiday, Creation and Bystreet) all.

"Curses!" Arcis had to hold Cocytus back. None of the Invoked could put a dent in this card. "You have robbed me of my elemental coup de grace! Your defeat could have been majestic! Now it will be miserable!" She placed two cards face down. "Your elements are at their end, while I possess many more! I could call upon the earth and flames, but in the end only the darkness prevails! I summon the Invoked Caliga with Invocation!" The Invoking spell took Aleister from the graveyard and banished it along with the Magical Broker. Black bolts of lightning shattered the silent sands and revealed a azure-haired and crimson-fleshed devil(4/1000/1800) [Extra Zone 2] underneath. "Now each turn, we can only activate one monster effect and only attack with one monster!" Caliga crawled across the floor with its draconian claws, emanating shadows of fear and terror. The beach calmed down again, but the bright lights of the rainbow had left the sky.

-TURN 06-

Only the Weather Painters Aurora [Zone 1], Sun [Zone 2] and Rain [Zone 3] returned at the start of the turn. To even their numbers, Arcis would call out one of her own. "I activate Witchcrafter Masterpiece from my graveyard! I can banish it to banish as many spells from my graveyard as possible! Then I special summon one Witchcrafter from my deck with a level below the number of banished spells!" Arcis raised her hands to the sky and ten beams of magical energy blasted upwards besides her. She banished ten spells, everything besides the Witchcrafter cards, to call out the queen of witches: Madame Verre(8/1000/2800) [Zone 4] on her crystal throne. "Verre can negate all monster effects by discarding one spell from my hand! So even the effects that don't activate will go unused!" Verre's effect could not negate the powers of the Painters, as their selfbanishment counted as a tribute and the effect itself activated off the field. But her arrival alone did cost Winged Kuriboh(2500/2500) most of the spells it drew power from.

"She has... every Invoked monster in there... Did your extra deck start out that way?" Crescent could not imagine that being the case, though she could not prove it. "It is theoretically possible that decks get adjusted in the middle of a duel here. Though I would not know how to replicate that phenomenon." Scarlet Rose offered what little advise she could. "I think it is. I felt that way when I still had.. the power. This is not the same and yet.." Crescent activated her drawn card: Awakening of the Possessed. Then she gently moved her hand across her dueldisk to remove two cards: Weather Painter Sun and Weather Painter Rain. "I link summon.. Eria the Water Charmer, Gentle. The materials are two monsters, including one Water monster." For her new piece she would mix the flames of the sun with the light of the angel Kuriboh. Yet together they created a spellcaster rather than a fairy: Eria the blue-haired waterwitch(1850/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 1] with her green sweater, black skirt and oversized brown coat. "The Charmers? How amusing. Is that your addition now?" Scarlet smiled at the sight of such a recognizable card.

"No. They've been a part of my deck for a while now. But I never got a chance to use them until now. Only their spell, Awakening of the Possessed. That one lets me draw a card when a spellcaster with 1850 attackpoints is summoned. And Eria can special summon one Water monster from my opponents graveyard " Crescent drew her card, but failed to find a revivable target. "That is your choice?! There are no water monsters in my graveyard!" Arcis still saw no reason to let her opponent get away with this. "No, but now there are water and fire monsters in mine, Arcis. I activate Dragoroar. When one card of each four elements are in my graveyard, I can banish them to return one card on the field to the hand!" Another tremor took over the land, and four beams of earth, fire, wind and water energy ruptured the sand to shape a dragon of all four elements in the sky. "I return Invoked Caliga!" The elemental let out its powerful roar and scared Caliga off, forcing the demon to retreat to the extra deck.

"Now you can use all your monsters effects again!" Echo excitedly pointed out. "Yes. That was my first goal." Crescent turned to her field and removed another card: The Cloudy Canvas. "My second is this. If I sacrifice one continuous spell, Weather Painter Sunny can special summon himself and set another Canvas from my hand." The clouds above broke away to reveal the warm sunlight, and the jolly Sunpainter [Zone 3] landed back on the field. However he did bring a rather stormy cloud with him: the The Weather Canvas Thundery [Zone 4]. "The second effect of Possessed Awakening gives my monsters 300 attackpoints for each element I control! And like I said, I have one left." From her hand Crescent normal summoned the last painter: Cloud(3/1500/1000) [Zone 4] the fancily dressed silverhaired boy with his green inkpen. His Wind Attribute added a fifth powerboost to himself(3000/1000), Aurora of the Darkness(3700/2000), Sun of the Flames(3100/400), Gentle Eria of the Water(3350 atk) and Winged Kuriboh LV9 of the Light(4000/2500). "This is it, Therese. This is where it ends."

"What? That is how it ends? It cannot be that easy! I just started making my greatest moves ever! I did not even get to prepare the Omega Summon yet! This is not the climax!" Arcis Da Vinci did not want to acknowledge the reality in front of her. But there was no looking away. "It is. Sorry." Crescent halfheartedly apologized as she sent her monsters into battle. "I hope this wont hurt too much, Therese." The Water Charmer Eria drowned the Witchcrafter Madam Verre, and the painters of Weather circled around the universal duelist. "You. Who are you?" She asked in her final moments of clarity.. "You should be asking that of yourself. I already told you who I am. A friend.."

Arcis' LP: 0

"Did it work?" Echo gasped as the attacks finished off Da Vinci. The sound of solar and boreal storms deafened the defeated duelist's final cries. "I.." Crescent waited for the light to abate. And when it did, she saw Therese Hansen lying on the beach... unconscious. "Did it?" She rushed to her side and try to check for signs of life. "I don't. feel anything." Though the woman now looked the way she had done before, like her true older self, she could not get a pulse from her. "Ah! Therese?!" And as she reached out to her, the woman disappeared like a ghost in the mist. "What happened?"

"You freed her, Aurora... We are dueling in her own subconscious, and this idealized version of her younger self kept her asleep. Therese left because she's gone back to the waking world." Scarlet Rose approached and examined the situation with her eyes. "This world will soon be no more." The world around them was starting to grow dim, the water receded from the beach as if to prepare a landcrushing tidal wave. "But what do we do? How will we know if she is really alright?" Crescent had wanted to say so much to her, wanted to apologize for hurting her. "You can tell her when you go back. You have done enough for her for now, trust me. Thanks to you, we now know what we have to do to save everyone else Static victimized.. And few can say that."

...

"Hey Boss? Is that you?"' Dharma knew that getting in contact with a friend on the other side of the globe was very easy these days. But she never imagined that she'd be talking directly to someone inside a supposedly top secret facility. "Did you forget my real voice already?" Yet Exeter handed her the call, and Charles was right there, acting like his usual chagrined self. "Of course not! Heck the less you sound like 'Void' the better. I just thought we'd meet again inside STHEREA. Instead of you know... over the phone." She could only hear his voice, as no visual recording was allowed over at his location. "What's it like there anyway?" Naturally that made her a little curious. "Sterile, plastic and white. You'd like that last part." Charles said with a chuckle. He could not wait to leave, but that would take a while. "What about you?" It did at least feel good to finally talk to Dharma in person. "Oh ehrm.. You'd hate it." The white-haired duelist motioned at the room around her. "I mean, a personal fridge, a bubble bath, a gajillion TV channels? Its downright awful."

"..Just kidding. I'm back at Exeter HQ. Its a lot easier to pester them inside their own building." She started to laugh. "Ha. I imagine it is. You know.. I did miss you Dharma." He appreciated the joke anyway. "No need to get all sappy boss. That goes without saying. But I'm glad to hear it. Because really, I had to poke these Exeter people a lot to even get this done. This one guy just keeps watching me to keep me from touching all the neat stuff. I also had to make sure that they would inform everyone's families." Dharma mentioned rather casually. "Families? Including mine?" Charles took it less lightly. "Yeah? Is that a bad thing? You didn't have one of those dramatic breakups or something, did you?" She wondered. "No. I just.. I've been living on my own for a while now. I usually just send them text messages.. but I dont have my phone anymore." Asking them for help had occurred to him, but he did not see what they could do for him now. "They're nice people. What you'd call normal people.. like me. They haven't done anything wrong. I don't want them to get involved in this mess too."

"Alright, alright I get ya. But you should probably at least get in contact and tell them you're fine at least. Plus it sounds like I'd trade your folks for mine any day." She laughed. "Yeah I know." He sighed. "What about your other new best friends?" Dharma noticed his apprehension and changed the topic. "Cherry and Alpha? They are also fine. I wish I could say the same for the ones inside the network." Thanks to Tycho and Vigionaire, he knew about every bad thing that had happened since he got ejected from the network. And people like Veyron and Himiko did not have a 'nice' family to fall back on. "Yeah its rough. Sigment's in a bad shape, plus STHEREA is kinda a mess right now. I.. Huh?"

"Hang on Boss, my 'watcher' just waltzed in." She stopped to let the Exeter employee say whatever got him in such a rush, though she did put the phone on speaker. "It's Therese! Therese Hansen! She's recovered; she got out of the network fifteen minutes ago!" He let out the joyful news. "Therese? When? How? Did Echo do it?" Dharma guessed. "We do not know who got her out yet, she has not woken up. But her condition seems to be stable. The government team is planning to keep her under the same quarantine as the ones the champions. So I am affraid you cannot see her yet."

"Typical." Charles let his frustration out over the phone. "The only way to prove anything to anyone is to drag Static out into the spotlight ourselves." He had to go back online, he needed to. "Sounds like a plan... Is there a plan?" Dharma listened intently. "Well, me and Vigionair did come up with something good. We just need to get in contact with Echo first. Then the fun can begin.."

(To Be Continued in World 047: The Placebo Effect)

New Cards used by Arcis Da Vinci
Aleister the Invoker

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Invoked Raidjin
Aleister the Madness Invoker
Invoked Mechaba
Invoked Cocytus
Invoked Caliga

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Instant Fusion
Invocation
Book of the Law

New Cards used by Crescent Aurora
Eria the Water Charmer

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Blazing Mirror Force