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.

55. World 047: The Placebo Effect

World 047: The Placebo Effect

"What are you doing here, skulking about?" Donna gave the wandering Schwarzwald a sporting snarl, as the two encountered each other in the halls of the arena beyond. "Just minding my own thoughts, dear Donna. One could ask you the very same thing. I expected you to be out there, finding people to beat down and turn into enemies. You must have heard.. Echo managed to free Therese from the nightmare as well before she could become one of us. Maybe you could have prevented that.." The black baron jabbed back, while Donna hardly felt his words. "I would have, if Static listened to me! And If you keep talking like that, I will fight you instead!" She came closer, towering over him. "Oh I am hardly worth your time, weak as I am." He replied with feigned humility. "Can the sobstory. I know what really got you on edge. Your other half. He is down there right now, having those wicked sisters do all kinds of nasty things to him. Do you feel sorry for him, baron?" The wrestler snorted. Schwarzwald getting all gloomy took all the fun out of tormenting him.

"Sorry? No. I made clear to him that there are no feelings left. I only care about my future. And you should care as well, Donna. Indeed, I assume the reason you are not out there yet is because you fear the same fate as mine. What if you lost the human part of you, and what if it got destroyed? What happens then? If Hydra were to be lost, I would not mind. But do you worry losing your human past? Or worse, your human past taking back everything that you are?" Schwarzwald gave her a lot to think about. "As if I can lose!" She wanted to brush it all off, but it clung to her mind. "Maybe not, but anything is possible. Scarlet Fever is working on my other half to prevent that. But who is to say that she will share her findings with us when she is done with them? You have seen her, she clearly expects to gain favors without ever having to risk her own hide. She's even got Static eating out of her hand."

"Is that what she said to you?" And Donna finally took the bait. "Not exactly, but you know that Static listens to her more than she does us.." He spoke with a bitter tone, but it had all been embellished. "We will see about that." Donna finally stormed off, heading down into the depths of the arena. Schwarzwald stayed behind with a subtle grin on his face.

...

"Yes? Can I help you?" Scarlet Fever met Donna as she marched into her main control room. "I.." Donna got distracted by the presence of her remaining ADIs: Madolche Puddingcess and Shaddoll Construct. "Tch, it's always those two." She could not stand to look at them. "Did you come here to complain about them?" The confused Scarlet inquired. "No. Maybe! They're part of the problem! Rgh. How far are you on that Hydra project? The one where you can prevent our human sides from getting out!" Donna did not spot Hydra in her testing rooms anymore, which had to mean something. "I will spare you the ins and outs and just say that I am making progress. But I have yet to do a proper test with my prototype."

"Then what is taking you so long?" Donna grunted impatiently. "Well as you can imagine, there is plenty of other work to do. Now that I am done with Hydra, I can give this task a lower priority." Scarlet casually explained. "Lower Priority!? What kind of crap excuse is that? Sounds to me like you're just procrastinating so you can stay in here and be lazy! If you have a prototype! You can also have a test subject! Me!" Donna stomped her foot down and held out her hand. "As much as I would love to, I need more material. I cannot just hand in my only sample." Scarlet Fever refused to back down. "Cant? Or wont? You just wanna keep it all to yourself! You want to look good in front of Static! But not this time! If you wont give it to me, I will take it from you!" She finally snapped and activated her dueldisk to send her the challenge.

Fever's LP: 8000 Donna's LP: 8000 -TURN 01-

"Oh." Scarlet recoiled briefly, while her ADIs snapped into action. She managed to keep both calm with a single gesture. "A duel is a waste of my time, Donna." She admonished her opponent. "A duel is never a waste of time! But if you do not want to fight, you might as well let me have the damn thing!" The wrestler snarled. "Oh I am not giving up. I have simply calculated that my current setup is more than enough to keep you from winning." Scarlet placed one trap card down and ended her turn.

-TURN 02-

"Is that a fact?" Donna spat through gritted teeth. "Oh yes, quite so. See I have this card, Ghost Sister and Spooky Dogwood." Scarlet quite happily revealed her handtrap: the silverhaired nun with her ghostly puppy. "Now that I have activated this card, I will gain lifepoints equal to the attackpoints of each monster you special summon this turn. But if I gain no lifepoints at all through this effect, I will instead lose half of it at the end of the turn. So you would be better off not summoning anything at all." The choice was hers. "Ha! As if I'd settle for just taking half of your life when I can take it all! I never skip a battle, Scarlet! Unlike you!" Donna chose to continue as if the effect did not exist at all. "I summon Gouki Twistcobra! Then since I control a warrior monster, I can also special summon Fire Flint Lady!" The greenskinned serpent wrestler(4/1600/0) [Zone 1] would be one of few summons to not trigger the Ghost Sister. At the very least the Fire Flint Lady, a masked cleaning woman(1/100/100) [Zone 2] in blue robes, did not have a lot of attackpoints.

Scarlet's LP: 8100

"Hm. So did you improve your deck like Khan has, or did you keep your old cards like Chiaroscura? At the very least it seems you did not overhaul everything like Wagnerok." Scarlet studied the cards before her. Even that ticked Donna off. "I am not your damned labrat, Scarlet! This is a duel, not an experiment! The only data you should care about is what my cards can do! The Fire Flint Lady tributes herself to special summon another level 4 or lower warrior monster from my hand!" Donna's monster banged her flint pieces together to start a small fire, and in that fire she got replaced by Gouki Guts the redskinned and flame-haired ogre fighter(1/800/0) [Zone 2]. "Oh do not mind me. I find it difficult to switch my mind off." Fever claimed and let the next special summon heal her some more.

Scarlet's LP: 8900

"That's your problem! Not mine!" Donna snapped. Now that she controlled two Gouki monsters, she had the correct link materials for her first link monster. "I link summon Gouki Heel Ogre!" Guts and Twistcobra combined their powers and formed another demonic warrior bursting with fire: the masked Heel Ogre(1000/LINK 2) {Up/Down} [Extra Zone 1]. "But maybe your brain is good for one thing! It lets me skip all the explanations and get right to the good stuff!" Since Gouki Twistcobra and Guts had entered the graveyard, Donna could draw two Gouki cards (Gouki Rematch, Gouki Headbatt) from her deck. Meanwhile Scarlet's life gained another average 'ghost' boost.

Scarlet's LP: 9900

"I summon Headbatt!" Donna did not care. She did not care when she discarded Gouki Octostretch to special summon the Bat-themed Headbatt wrestler(2/800/0), or when she activated Gouki Rematch to special summon Gouki Twistcobra [Zone 1] and Octostretch the octopus-hide wearing Gouki(1/0/0) [Zone 2] back from the graveyard. Two more special summons added 800 and 1600 lifepoints to Scarlet, who simply observed her opponent with folded hands. "It would seem your tactics have not evolved much at all."

Scarlet's LP: 12300

"Pfah! I dont need to evolve any further! Also, this is the last lifepoint boost you will get! I link summon Gouki the Giant Ogre!" The materials were three plus Gouki monsters: Octostretch, Headbatt and the Shadow Ogre with its two link markers. When they combined they formed the Gouki that stood above all others: the Giant Ogre(3000/LINK 4) {Left/Downleft/Right/Downright} [Extra Zone 1] with his golden champions-belt, billowing cloak, red striped/fur-lined armor and six-horned mask. On her side, Donna could now add two more Gouki cards (Serpent Slash, Finisher) to her hand with the effects of Octostretch and Headbatt. On her opponents side, Scarlet Fever upped her lifepoints with the greatest increase yet. "That is a strange suggestion, Donna. Evolution never stops. You are in fact asking me to advance your own progress right now."

Scarlet's LP: 15300

"That is different! Strength is not evolution! Strength is something I can use right now to crush my enemies! I activate Gouki Finisher, Giant Ogre will gain 1000 attackpoints for each of his link markers! And he can inflict piercing damage! And the Giant Ogre himself can raise his attackpoints by another thousand if his attackpoints were altered!" With a single spell, Donna more than doubled the attackpoints of her Giant(7000 atk). And as he took in this aura of pure power, Giant Ogre(8000 atk) increased his own muscle mass the very next moment. "TwistCobra also activates his effect!: his power will be added to Giant Ogre too!" The green cobra wrestler tributed himself to target the link monster, passing over 1600 attackpoints to Giant Ogre(9600 atk). "And now, I can activate Gouki Serpent Slash! I skip my next battle phase, to deal damage equal to my monsters increased attackpower instead!" The aura around the Giant Ogre became violent, and he jumped up to strike Scarlet directly from above with a high impact bodyslam. "Oh?" Scarlet narrowly dodged at the last second, though the damage shockwaves caught up to her anyway.

Scarlet's LP: 8700

Gouki Serpent Slash, Normal Spell
Target 1 "Gouki" Link Monster you control whose current ATK is higher than its original ATK; inflict damage to your opponent equal to the difference.
Monsters you control cannot attack this turn. You can only activate 1 "Gouki Serpent Splash" per turn.

"Oof.. You have changed your style a little after all." The old Donna would never have resorted to effect damage. In fact Serpent Slash was a card that did not even exist for any official Gouki player. Creating her own cards was just another way for Donna to change up her fighting style. "Damage is damage. And I am not content with just that, Scarlet. No ma'am.. " Scarlet placed one trap card face down and played with another spell card in her hand. "Despite my Serpent Slash. I am gonna attack anyway! I activate Dark Match! Since you don't control any monster, my monster can hit you directly and do damage that way!" The Giant crawled back up from the floor and prepared a second diving impact attack.

Gouki Dark Match, Normal Spell
1 "Gouki" Monster you control can attack, regardless of other card effects. Other monsters you control cannot attack this turn.

"I would rather not. So I activate Vampire's Awakening, which special summons one Vampire-monster from my deck. To me, my familiar!" Pale moonlight and a cold wind emerged from Scarlet's activated trap, and a swarm of eyeless devil bats(1/500/0) [Zone 1] emerged along with it. "The Familiar can take 500 of my lifepoints to add one Vampire monster from the deck to my hand." The bats surrounded Scarlet Fever and one of them sank its teeth into her arm to drain some blood. "Vampires?" Donna did not know what troubled her more: this display or the fact that she'd changed her deck entirely. "As I told Void long ago, I was not always a doctor. Then again I was not always a duelist either. Before I developed a taste for the infective, I studied the sanguine arts." Scarlet wrapped up her little blood transfusion by adding a Vampire Fraulein card to her hand. Afterwards the Dark Match skill could finally resolve, with Scarlet selecting the bats and letting them get crushed by Giant Ogre instead. "Hmph. It sounds to me like you are regressing rather than evolving!" Donna ended her turn with a snarl.

Scarlet's LP: 8200 -TURN 03-

"Well, it's not as if Vampires have not undergone their own evolution. But I suppose this is not so much evolution as it parasitism. And I am under no illusion otherwise." Scarlet sent one card (Vampire Retainer) out of her hand. "The Vampire Familiar can special summon itself by discarding one Vampire-card, and that reawakens its powers." Scarlet paid another 500 lifepoints as the horned bats [Zone 1] swarmed back to the field. Because of that she could add the Vampire Scarlet Scourge to her hand.

Scarlet's LP: 7700

"And the Retainer is just as loyal as the Familiar." Scarlet discarded another Vampire (Vampire Scarlet Scourge), to activate the selfrevival effect of another night creature. normal summoned her next creature of the night. Vampire Retainer(2/1200/0) [Zone 2] was a zombie wolf with its body perfectly split down the middle into a black furred corrupted half and a white furred living half. Instead of monsters, the Retainer would drain 500 of Scarlets lifepoints once each turn to add a Vampire spell or trap card to her hand. Mere moments after the previous payment, the Vampire duelist exchanged more of her blood to add the Vampire Domain spell. "A parasite? Ha, thats a better title for you than 'doctor'." Donna knew Scarlet Fever could only afford these payments because of the life she'd been given.

Scarlet's LP: 7200

"It is a title that fits us all, Donna Monday. But we are in my domain now, and I am the one who will feast here. I activate Vampire Domain! Each time a Vampire inflicts damage, I gain the same amount of lifepoints!" The spell placed itself on the field permanently, casting the light of the bloodmoon down on top of the two duelists. "Come Vampire Duke!" Scarlet's silhouette disappeared in shadows, leaving only glowing red eyes exposed. She tributed the Vampire's Familiar to summon the draculian vampire lord Vampire Duke(5/2000/0) [Zone 5]. "When Vampire Duke is normal summoned, one Vampire will be reborn in defense mode!" The Duke expanded his cape, and two more glowing eyes pierced the darkness within. They belonged to the silverhaired nobleman Vampire Scarlet Scourge(6/2200/2200) [Zone 3]. "Furthermore, when Scarlet Scourge is summoned, I can pay an additional thousand lifepoints to resurrect another Vampire from my graveyard." . Once he withdrew the Vampire could special summon the Retainer [Zone 2] from the graveyard a second time.

Scarlet's LP: 6200

"Now, a link summon! The link materials are two zombies! Vampire Retainer and Vampire Familiar, become Vampire Sucker!" The undead beasts were replaced with an undead human, one that looked far more harmless than she actually was. The Vampire Sucker was a blonde woman(1600/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 2] wearing a colorful dress, a bright-colored hat and heeled sportboots. "The Vampire Sucker can draw one card each turn, whenever a zombie monster is resurrected. Ergo.." The Vampire Sucker possessed another power: she could special summoned one dead monster back to the field in defense mode as a zombie-type. The undead Fire Flint Lady(1/0/0) [Zone 4] looked even paler than usual. "..Here we are." Scarlet drew a card afterwards. "Vampire's Domain can take five hundred of my lifepoints to normal summon another Vampire from my hand." She sacrificed one more monster, the Scarlet Scourge, to tribute summon Vampire Red Baron the black knight vampire(6/2400/1000) [Zone 2] on top of his black horse.

Scarlet's LP: 5700

"The Red Baron? I've heard about that card! Each turn the Redbaron can switch control between your monster and my vampires. Is that your big plan? Tough break, Fever! My Giant Ogre cant be affected by monsters with less attackpower than him! No fancy moves will get him to betray me!" Though all the powerboosts had worn off by now, the Giant(3000 atk) still outmatched the Vampire army in terms of attackpower. "I was not going to target him, Donna." Scarlet allowed the Red Baron to claim her blood, 1000 points of it, so she could trade the Fire Flint Lady for the Vampire Sucker. "That one? What will that even do?"

Scarlet's LP: 4700

"Wait and see, Donna dear." The duelist in the dark smiled wickedly as the battle phase commenced. "You see, when a monster attacks, I can special summon Vampire Fraulein from my hand in defense position." From the shadow of the attacking Vampire Red Baron came a new shape: a vampiric blonde woman(5/600/2000) [Zone 4] in a gothic black and red dress, holding an umbrella to stave off the light above. "And I may pay up to three thousand lifepoints to add the same number of attackpoints to my fighting vampires." Fraulein extended one hand and pulled a string of crimson energy out of Scarlet Fever, taking the maximum dosage. The red string got absorbed by the empowered Vampire Red Baron(5400/1000), who drove his lance into the heart of the Vampire Sucker.

Scarlet's LP: 1700 Donna's LP: 4200

"And now... thanks to Vampire's Domain, I reap what I sow." The Red Baron pushed his weapon even further, impaling Donna's left shoulder. "Gah!" Her own blood got drawn out, spilled out all over the floor and trailed towards Scarlet Fever. Her life went up by the amount that Donna's went down. "And that allows me to activate my skill card: A Life of Harvest. And its target is Vampire Duke" So too did the Duke(5800/0) gain attackpoints at an equal rate.

Scarlet's LP: 5500

A Life of Harvest, Skill Card
Activate only when you gain Lifepoints: Increase 1 monsters ATK or DEF by the same amount.

"Still using kills? Bah! Then this was your plan all along eh?" Donna winced. Scarlet weakened her along with her monsters, softening them up for a final blow. "Indeed. Strength is not much use if others can take it away just like that, now is it?" Scarlet pumped another 3000 lifepoints into the effect of Vampire Fraulein, who powered up the Vampire Duke(8800/0) further as he made his own move against the Gouki Giant. "Strength does not bend so easily! Rargh!" Now, with her back against the wall, Donna had to pace her hopes in her trap. "I activate Back to the Front and special summon Gouki Twistcobra in defense mode! Then Twistcobra can sacrifice himself to add his attackpoints to Gouki Giant Ogre again!" Twistcobra returned briefly to repeat its previous move of power transference. Once the Giant(4600 atk) claimed his attackpoints, he could also boost himself back up with an additional 1000 attackpoints. And as the Giant Ogre(5100 atk) could not be destroyed as a result of battle, he and Donna both made it out in one piece despite the Vampire Duke slashing them both with his razorshap cape.

Scarlet's LP: 4900 Donna's LP: 900

"Hmmm. You managed to squeeze some power out at the last second. I am impressed." Scarlet let the Vampire Domain restore her life for each point of blood Donna lost in the last attack. Any monster her Vampire Red Baron had killed would also come back at the end of the turn, so she special summoned the Vampire Sucker[Zone 2] to the field. "But as you can see, you are clearly not as invincible as you were led to believe." Donna now sported two major wounds which did not heal. "You cannot be Donna's parasite forever either, if you keep going like this." The vampiric duelist placed her last trap card face down and ended the turn.

-TURN 04-

"And you would have let it happen? Just to see what the results would be? You are the monster! Not me! I will never lose I will never let her go free! You cannot beat me! Nobody can!" On the last turn she managed to draw a second Gouki Rematch from her deck when Gouki Twistcobra fell back into the graveyard. She immediately activated it to special summon Twistcobra[Zone 1] and Guts[Zone 4] back to her field in defense mode. "Link summon! Gouki Jet Ogre!" Twistcobra and Guts both combined into the jetpack fencing ogre(2000/LINK 2) [Zone 2], allowing Donna to add two cards (Gouki Octostretch, Gouki Headbatt) to her hand. "You seem to be caught in a loop, dear Donna."

"All that matters is the endresult, even if every road towards it is the same!" Donna immediately discarded a Gouki Tagpartner card to special summon Gouki Headbatt [Zone 2] from her hand. Headbatt's effect also added 800 attackpoints to a Gouki on the field: Giant Ogre(3800 atk). Finally, Donna normal summoned Gouki Octostretch(1/0/0) [Zone 4]. Now she had all the power she could ever need. "I link summon, GOUKI THE POWERLOAD OGRE!" The materials were two or more warriors: Heel Ogre, Headbatt and Octrostretch. A warrior wrapped in the flames of fury emerged from the burning link circuit: Powerload Ogre(2800/LINK 4) [Zone 3]. He was another large horned brawler in black spandex and purple armor with bloodred spikes. On his right hand he carried a blade-gauntlet, on the left a massive steel ball. "Powerload gains five hundred attackpoints from Jet Ogre! And two hundred attackpoints for each link marker on my other monsters! And he can also tribute one Gouki on the field to destroy a number of monsters equal to their link rating!" The Giant Ogre would be his partner this turn, giving Powerload(4100 atk) four more powerboosts than usual... and four targets to wipe away.

"Oh?" Scarlet flinched a little when the Power Ogre hurled the Giant Ogre at her army of vampires. The Gouki slammed down on top of her field, turning Vampire Duke, Frauilein, Red Baron and her face-down trap card (Call of the Haunted) to smoke and mist. Only the zombified Fire Flint Lady and Vampire Sucker remained on the field. "Then the battle is lost." Scarlet had not failed to notice that Donna added some very helpful cards to her hand back when Twistcobra and Headbatt went to the graveyard: Gouki Faceturn and another Gouki Finisher. She would not stand a chance against Powerload(3300 atk) once it attacked with its 'finishing' piercing hold. "I still have much to learn." She would not even try. "You win, Donna Monday."

Scarlet's LP: 0

"Eh? You're throwing in the towel already? You coward!" Donna wanted to finish the fight properly. But Scarlet had placed her hand on the dueldisk as a sign of surrender and the holograms of her monster were already defragmenting. "Alas I do have to rob you of your satisfying final attack. But I see no need to risk direct damage." Scarlet Fever mockingly apologized. "I don't think that counts! You lost! Just like Schwarzwald and Khan! Was this just another fieldtest for you? Did you use that program on yourself!" Donna did not get this woman who spoke like she'd gotten what she wanted after all. "I would never test something on myself first, Donna. Besides, I would not make for a good test run as my ego was already released when my first extension broke apart." Fever grinned along with the still standby Shaddoll and Madolche ADIs. "But since you won, I see I have no choice but to give you the first dose instead." Scarlet opened her hands and produced a vial with crimson liquids inside. "If that is still what you desire.."

"Of course it is!" Donna snatched the vial away. "So what do I do? Inject it into my body? Drink it?"

"Hmm?" Rather than answer the question, Scarlet sat back down in her chair and diverted her attention to one of her screens. "Hey! I asked you a question! What's got you scared this time?" Donna walked up to lean over her chair. "Well, see for yourself." The vampire duelist pointed at the screen, showing countless duelists flooding into the castle courtyard. "Eh? They're on our doorstep? Wasn't Khan supposed to keep them in line? Do they want to pick a fight?" Donna cracked her knuckles to show that she would not mind a brawl if it came to it. "It would Therese's return has turned the the mood of the crowd against us." Scarlet zoomed in on the three duelists who stood in front of the mob: the three champions. "Of course, Static had foreseen this possibility. Which is why he gave me the work I was supposed to do." The former doctor turned towards the Shaddoll ADI. "So, you will do what we do best, Donna. Inject that serum into your body, and it will make sure you are as invincible as you claim to be. And I.." She clapped her hands and the Shaddoll activated..

Transforming herself into a a lifelike duplicate of Miss Echo. "I will do what I do best."

(To Be Continued in World 048: You Eat What You Are)

New Cards used by Scarlet Fever
A LIFE OF HARVEST

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Vampire's Retainer
Vampire's Familiar
Vampire Duke
Vampire Red Baron
Vampire Fraulein

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Vampire Sucker

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Vampire's Domain

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Vampire's Awakening

New Cards used by Donna Monday
Fire Flint Lady

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Gouki the Powerload Ogre

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Gouki Serpent Slash
Gouki Dark Match