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.

72. World 064: Paradise Lost

World 064: Paradise Lost

Hydra and the others hurried towards the Tower Beyond, running through the Shintaro gardens. Remains of the virtual castle lingered in various places, and it seemed like the Tower Beyond would not be going away any time soon. "Does everyone have a speedboard?" Hydra shouted. The duelists would have to make quite the leap to reach it. "I have a better idea! This may get rough!" To that end the Fisherman manipulated the virtual water in the castle moat, bringing it up as a massive swell that lifted everyone upwards. This bumpy ride got on the elevated platform connected to the Beyond tower. From there they could see the streets just outside the walls, and the hundreds of panicked citizens were standing around it, screaming or taking pictures with their phones. "Can they see us?" The fisherman asked after everyone recovered from their wet landing. This was not how he expected his first meeting with mankind to go after all. "I don't know. We don't have time to find out." Hydra figured only a virtual duelist could get this close in the first place.

"No we do not!" The Fire Princess looked up at the top of the tower, where storms and thunder gathered. They had several dozens floors to scale, and no entrance was in sight. "Ha!" So she simply blasted an opening into the side of the wall and rushed off inside. "Hey! Wait! We should stay together!" Hydra shouted. He did not know what exactly had gotten into her, but they had no choice but to follow her. Inside they saw the familiar dungeon walls of the arena basement and a set of stairs to take them to the next stage.

That next stage however brought back some bad memories for Hydra in particular. "Hey! Did I invite you?!" Said a familiar voice. "Scura!" They were back inside Chiaroscura's party club. Apparently Wagnerok had rebuilt it for her as a permanent part of the tower Beyond. "Chiaro-scura! If you cant get my name right, you definitely arent cool enough to join us! Charlie-boy!" And this time she was not alone. "Join you?" Dozens of duelists were there with her, dancing or drinking and all-around partying it up. "Yeah, join our end of the world party! As soon as Static is done, we can go out there and let the real fun begin! But I am betting you're here to put a stop to that eh? Well, first you gotta get past my new bouncers! Heehee! Hey fellas; show them the door!" A handful of the people around turned towards the invading duelists with activated dueldisks. "Urgh." They were outnumbered, Hydra'd miscalculated severely and he could not retreat anymore. "Well I am not leaving, Scura!" He turned his own dueldisk on as well. "I dont care much about revenge, but I wont hesitate to fight you if it comes to it!"

...

Charles' LP: 8000 Samaelectric's LP: 8000

-TURN 01-

Back inside Shintaro estate, Charles and Tycho got left behind with their own opponents. Samaelectric dueled the cyberse duelist in the hydroponic garden, while Tycho and his adversary took their fight elsewhere. "It's my turn!" Charles would have to end this quickly. At the very least the virtual algorithms were kind enough to give him the first turn. "I activate Cynet Mining!" In this chaotic setting he would let his cards do the talking. The mining spell discarded one cyberse monster (Dotscaper) to add a level 4 or lower cyberse (Armored Bitron) from the deck to the hand. And since Dotscaper got sent to the graveyard, Void could special summon that green-eyed droid(1/0/2100) [Zone 1] made of blocks back to the field. "Link summon! Linkuriboh!" The level 1 monster served as the material for the cyberspace Kuriboh(300/LINK 1) {Down} [Extra Zone 1], while the Armored Bitron hoverdrone(2/500/0) [Zone 2] would get the normal summon of the turn, it could be sacrificed to special summon any level 3 or lower cyberse from the deck.

"These are the first cards the mighty Void is bringing into this fight? How pathetic!" Samaelectric laughed at the tiny critter before him. "I do not have time for the usual trashtalk, Samael." Charles grunted. "How unfortunate then that this duel is not just about you!"

"It is not about you either! Armored Bitron summons Flame Bufferlo! And I special summon Backup Operator!" If the blue-flamed horned cyberse buffalo(3/1400/200) [Zone 2] were to leave the field, Charles could discard one cyberse monster to draw two cards. And the magenta-haired call lady Backup Operator(3/1200/800) [Zone 3] could return one monster linked to his link monster to the hand, if he special summoned her. So the Bufferlo linked with Linkuriboh disappeared, and activated his effect with another cyberse (Salvagent Driver) as the discard. In return Charles drew one trap and one monster card. "Backup Secretary!" The latter, Operator's shorter purple-haired sister(3/1200/800) [Zone 2], could be special summoned since Charles already controlled cyberse monsters. "And I XYZ-summon Cyberse Reminder in defense mode!" The Backup pair transformed into a pair of XYZ-materials, and orbited around the now summoned silver/purple humanoid robot(R3/1800/800) [Zone 2] with mining piledrivers attached to its arms. By detaching one material, the Cyberse Reminder could dig up one Cynet card from the graveyard. "I take back Cynet Mining! And I set one card face down! That ends my turn!"

-TURN 02-

"How impatient you are. You are not even looking at me! You believe yourself to be of great importance, Void. But you have fallen from grace!" Samaelectric sneered and played his own first spell: Banishment of the Darklords. It let him add a Darklord card from the deck to his hand. "What are you even talking about?" Charles groaned while his opponent claimed an Indulged Darklord. "Heaven is opening up for us, but not for you. You will be trapped in this hell we call earth! Left behind! While the angels are coming to take us away! I summon the Indulged Darklord!" A female one-winged angel(4/1600/0) [Zone 1] descended from the grey clouds. Grey was her skin, black her feathers and dress. And her eyes and horn were as red as the bloodmoon. "Indulged Darklord! Summon one fallen angel to his side of the field, so that I may claim one of my own!" Her powers were those of pleasure. She gave Charles one defending Darklord to control: the shaved-horn darklord kid Ukoback(3/700/1000) [Zone 3], while he could draw one (Darklord Ixchel) from his deck.

"Your angels are not on the side of heaven, Samael!" Charles referred to both his cards and the man he now seemingly served. "Darkness or light will not matter where we are going! We will keep rising! I summon Darklord Ixchel! and Darklord Amdusc!" The next Darklord effects activated from the hand. Ixchel discarded herself and another Darklord (Nergal) to draw two new cards. Darklord Amdusc in turn could discard himself and another Darklord (Superbia) to retake one Darklord card (Darklord Banishment) from the graveyard. "And now we will make contact with the fallen! Rise again, Darklord Superbia and Darklord Nergal!" Samaelectric's next spell, Darklord Contact, succesfully special summoned one Darklord from the graveyard. He chose the winged black vase with a face, Darklord Superbia(8/2900/2400) [Zone 2], because its effect would special summon yet another Darklord from the graveyard. Darklord Nergal(8/2700/2500) [Zone 3] emerged from Superbia's hollow body: materialized as an armored hooded angel with a body made of black flames and a face like a skull.

"Appear as well, Condemned Darklord! What was once forbidden is now celebrated!" Immediately Samaelectric used Superbia and the Indulged Darklord as materials for a link summon. This turned the fallen maiden into her true complete self: the Condemned two-winged dark angel(1600/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 1] with large red horns and long white hair. "Condemned Darklord can send one card to my grave to add a Darklord to my hand again!" He discarded his Darklord Banishment spell and added the monster Capricious Darklord. "Now, you will rise again, Darklord Superbia and bring back Ixchel!" The shared power of all Darklords came into play at this point. Nergal could extract 1000 lifepoints from his master to activate one Darklord card from the graveyard. "Not good." Charles winced. Darklord Contact shuffled itself back into the deck to recycle its revival power on Superbia[Zone 2]. This time the vase Darklord released the darkhaired female angel(10/2500/2900) [Zone 4] with six wings from the graveyard.

Samaelectric's LP: 7000

"We are ready! The power of Nergal crushes all opposition! Even those who cower in defense will be forced to take damage!" Samael considered himself ready for the war, and his fallen army invaded with the Condemned Darklord leading the charge against Linkuriboh. "Tch. In that case.." Charles could tribute Linkuriboh of course, to render the one-winged dark angel(0/0)'s attackpoints down to zero. But those that came after her remained regretfully unaffected. Superbia crushed the defending Darklord Ukoback while the lord Nergal himself decided to end Cyberse Reminder's life, and turned the mining robot to slag and cinders with an onslaught of pitchblack hellfire. "But when Cyberse Reminder is destroyed, I can special summon two level 4 cyberse monsters from my deck with their effects negated!" Charles weathered the infernal assault and dropped down to more defending monsters: the hardware-melded robot Cyberse Gadget(4/1400/300) [Zone 5] and the cyberwhite wyvern Firewall Guardian(4/100/2000) [Zone 4] in defense mode.

Charles' LP: 4200

"More lambs towards the slaughter. Flesh or steel, it does not matter anymore in the new world of the soul!" Samaelectric declared one more attacks with Darklord Ixchel. "This new world will have to wait a while longer! I activate Universal Adapter! All monsters attackpoints become the same as one of yours! And I target Condemned Darklord!" It turned out that Linkuriboh's power had not been wasted after all, since Charles could now update every monster on the field with the same attackpoints as the powerdrained maiden. "What is this?" Samaelectric could not recall his attacker and had to watch the downpowered Ixchel(0/2900) get pushed back by the defending Cyberse Gadget(0/400). "Were it any other time, I would say how much that is a fitting number for you.. Samael." Charles cursed with a tired grin.

Samaelectric's LP: 6600

"You dare label me?" Samael overheard him and jumped and acivated Ixchel's own spell reactivation effect. He paid 1000 lifepoints, to let her return Darklord Banishment from the grave to the deck and add the trap 'Darklord Rebellion' to his hand. "This curse will last but a moment! Our future is forever! I set two cards and end my turn!" At the end, Universal Adapter and Linkuriboh's effects wore off and all the Darklords returned to their original full power (Ixchel: 2500 atk, Nergal: 3000 atk, Superbia: 2900 atk, Condemned: 1600 atk). Charles' monsters (Cyberse Gadget: 1400 atk, Firewall Guardian: 100 atk) went back to their meager attackpoints as well "You labeled yourself. What happened to you? Do you even remember who you used to be? Who you used to duel? Do you remember Neo?"

Samaelectric's LP: 5600

"Neo? He is already lost. But the great future may find a place for him as well! He can save him, while you could not!" During the endphase Condemned Darklord would also use her final power to restore 500 lifepoints for each Darklord the fallen angel duelist controlled.

Samaelectric's LP: 7600

-TURN 03-

"Save him?" Charles wished he hadn't asked. "Neo has been through enough! If this 'he' is who I think it is, HE will leave him alone!" If Neo were ever to wake up again, Charles would make damn sure he'd be safe from people like Static. "The one who needs to be saved is you!" He normal summoned the Flame Bufferlo[Zone 3] again and quickly used it as a link material along with Cyberse Gadget. "I link summon Restoration Point Guard!" The link materials were two cyberse monsters, both of which managed to unlock their abilities after going to the graveyard. Flame Bufferlo discarded one cyberse (Latency) to draw another pair of cards, Cyberse Gadget left a small gadget token(1/0/0) [Zone 3] behind on the field. And the extra deck released its link monster: the strong-armed floating guardrobot(1000/LINK 2) {Left/Downleft} [Extra Monster Zone 1].

"You would let us all rot in the old world! What you see as salvation is merely damnation! You do not get to decide our fate, Void! You do not even get to decide the outcome of this duel! I activate Darklord Rebellion!" Despite it being their opponents turn, the Darklords were not going to patiently wait around. The trap Darklord Rebellion stirred Darklord Superbia into a destructive rage. Samaelectric sacrificed him to destroy Restoration Point Guard. "Then I activate Shield Handler! Since we both control link monsters I can negate your link monsters effect, and make mine immune to destruction effects!" The rebellious blast of darkness bounced off of a four-colored gem cybershield equipped to the Point Restorer. "Damn you!" Samael's own Condemned Darklord lost her powers as well, making him regret not using her as the sacrifice. "You cannot stop me, Samael." Void reactivated Cynet Mining, discarding one cyberse to add the Micro Coder to his hand. "The Micro Coder in my hand can be used as a link material for a Code Talker! I link summon Excode Talker!"

Charles took Micro Coder along with the Link 2 monster and created the Green Armored cyberknight(2300/LINK 3) {Left/Up/Right} [Extra Zone 1] of the wind. Since Micro Coder had been used as a link material for the Code Talker, a Cynet spell or trap could be added from the deck to the hand. Void claimed the continuous Cynet Storm card. His opponent however still showed little peace. "I told you already that you will not get to do as you please! Ixchel!" But of course, the Darklords could recycle the effect of Darklord Rebellion for the cost of a 1000 lifepoints. Ixchel channeled the trap's destruction without the need for a tribute and sent it straight at Excode Talker. It sadly did not inherit its material's Shield and blew up into pieces.

Samaelectric's LP: 6600

"I do not ask for much, Samael. If I do not get what I want, I just move on to the next step! I special summon Restoration Point Guard!" Charles struck back with an effect from is graveyard, he could special summon the Point Guarder, and it[Zone 5] special summoned itself from the graveyard as well. "Now I can link summon Recovery Sorcerer, who brings one destroyed link monster back to my field!" The Gadget token joined up with the Firewall Guardian, two more cyberse link materials, and transformed into yellow-clad cybermagician(1500/LINK 2) {Left/Down} [Extra Zone 1]. Naturally Charles pointed the Sorcerer's recovery powers towards Excode Talker and brought the Cyberknight[Zone 3] back to the middle of his field. "Also, when Firewall Guardian is used as a link material, I can special summon him back to my field!" He gave zone on Excode's left to the reborn Guardian wyvern(600/2000) [Zone 4]."Are you just going to keep undoing everything? You are a slave to the old world, Void! A servant of the corrupted powers that we are trying to destroy!"

"I would tell you that you are serving your own corrupted power, but you wont listen. Truth be told, I do want my world to stay normal. And I know that is selfish of me. But your solution benefits no one!" Charles said while he took more steps to complete his plan; combining both his Link 2 monsters into his ultimate form of protection. "I link summon Firewall Dragon!" Recovery Sorcerer and Restoration Point Guard disappeared into the link circuit and made it glow bright red. Flames erupted from the extra deck and wrapped around the wings of the white cyberdragon(2500/LINK 4) {Left/Up/Down/Right} [Zone 2]. Since Excode Talker{Left/Up/Right} could establish a co-link with it, Firewall(3000 atk) would gain 500 attackpoints and it could return one monster on the field or graveyard back to the hand. "Firewall Dragon! Send Darklord Nergal to his hand!"

"You are too late! Nothing can bring your old world back! We are already ascending! We, of the Daklords!" Samaelectric cancelled out the cyberse's momentum with his second trap, Darklord Uprising. It sacrificed Nergal a cost instead. "Darklord Uprising fuses three Darklords on my field or in my hand to fusion summon the First Darklord! And I also gain lifepoints equal to the sacrificed monster!" The targeted Darklord Nergal joined hands with the Condemned Darklord and the Darklords Capricious and Morningstar in Samael's hand. The latter formed the basis of this trinity, taking on their dark powers to fuse himself into the First of all Fallen. The white-haired pale-faced angel once known as Lucifer(10/4000/4000) [Extra Zone 1] wore armor as black as the night and had ten dark wings behind his back: one for each of his fallen comrades. "Since I used the Morningstar as his material, The First will destroy all cards you control, Void! Ahahahaha!" The Morningstar angel raised a sword above his head and filled it with an unholy deep blue glow. The blade cut across the field and left behind a path of devastation. "Ha?" Yet the sword got stuck on Excode Talker's body and only tore it to pieces.

Samaelectric's LP: 9600

"Excode Talker protects all linked monsters, Samael." The Firewall Dragon and Firewall Guardian on either side of the destroyed Talker could not be destroyed themselves. "And now I can special summon Salvagent Driver and Armored Bitron!" There were more cards in the graveyard waiting for the destruction of a link monster, like the cyber-rider(6/2200/2100) [Zone 1] and its futuristic bike. Alink 3 monster's destruction also triggered the effect of Armored Bitron [Zone 5] and it special summoned itself back to the field in a similar fashion. "Then, once per turn, Firewall Dragon can special summon one monster from my hand if a monster it was linked to went to the graveyard! I special summon Flick Clown!" The flames and smoke drifted away to reveal the last open zone and its new occupant: the four-armed cyborg wizard(4/1000/1400) [Zone 3] in his blue and purple coat. "I activate Cynet Storm! All linked monsters gain 500 attackpoints!" The cyberse were starting to push back with, with virtual clouds consuming the dark skies of the darklords. Now that Charles' hand held no more cards and his field contained plenty of cyberse, Flick Clown could also pay 1000 lifepoints and draw one card.

Charles' LP: 3200

"No. You cannot fight back! I've sent Capricious Darklord to my graveyard, so his monsters lost 500 attackpoints for each angel on my field!" Samaelectric countered. At the time there'd been two fairy monsters, so Firewall Dragon(2000 atk) and Firewall Guardian(0/2000) lost more power than what they gained from Cynet Storm. "You under-estimate me... I link summon Underclock Taker!" Salvagent Driver and Armored Bitron combined into the spinning disc-headed cyberse Underclock Taker(1000/LINK 2) {Left/Down} [Extra Zone 2]. "Power draining? Is that the plan now? I am pretty sure The First Darklord has made all his angels immune to targeting effects." Khan taunted Charles regardless. But she did not see his intentions yet. "I XYZ-summon Firewall Exceed Dragon!" Firewall Guardian and Flick Clown were perfect as XYZ-materials for Firewall's black and purple-plated counterpart: the XYZ-Firewall Dragon(R4/3000/2000) [Zone 3]. Each link monster that pointed towards it, added 500 attackpoints times its link rating to the XYZ Firewall Dragon(5000/2000).

"Ha! That is nothing! He may be able to destroy The First, but he will always rise back from hell!" Samael mocked him. "Then I just gotta make sure you go down with him! I special summon SIMM Tablir!" What Charles really needed was some empty space. He could summon SIMM Tablir the cyberse mole(5/500/1800) [Zone 1] from his hand to the zone marked by his link monster, and by targeting one lowlevel cyberse in the graveyard. The targeted card (latency) would be added to his hand afterwards. "And Latency as well!" Latency the hourglass robot girl could also special summon herself, if she were to was moved from the graveyard by an adding effect. Once summoned this way, the Latent cyberse(1/0/0) [Zone 5] would draw one card for its owner whenever she turned into a link material. "I use her and Underclock Taker to link summon Transcode Talker!" And Void succeeded at that by creating the Code Talker of the earth: Transcode the cyberknight gunman(2300/LINK 3) {Up/Down/Right} [Extra Zone 2].

With its power he could revive Excode all over again, and form a Cynet Storm-boosted co-link between Excode(3300 atk) {Left/Up/Right} and Transcode(3800 atk) {Up/Down/Right}, which added 500 attackpoints to them both. The presence of Excode also added 500 and 1500 attackpoints to is other linked monster: Firewall Exceed(7000/2000). The presence of Excode also added 500 and 1500 attackpoints to its other linked monster: Firewall Exceed(7000/2000). "Battle.." Void directed his XYZ-monster towards the First Darklords. Mighty though his black flame might have been, he could not oppose the supercharged Exceed Dragon. Blue fire flared up across its mechanical wings and radiated out towards the angel of the morning and incinerated him wing after wing.

Samaelectric's LP: 6600

"That accursed number again? It keeps chasing me! But right now my life still exceeds what you can inflict in damage! Charles!" One Darklord remained, Ixchel the six-winged angel. She would at the very least block enough of the following attacks to give Samaelectric a chance to reach another turn. "No. You wont get in my way anymore, Samael." But now that the First Darklord had died, Void could target her with his card effects again. "I activate Cynet Crosswipe! I tribute my cyberse and destroy your monster!" He let his quickplay spell literally cross out SIMM Tablir and Ixchel at the same time. "No! That was.." The last angel that could have saved him had been sent back to the underworld. "The end." Charles had nothing else to say anymore, Excode Talker, Transcode Talker and Firewall Dragon joined their forces and obliterated the remainder of Samaelectric's lifepoints with a triple direct strike.

Samaelectric's LP: 0

The last blast of the Firewall Dragon sent Samaelectric flying out into the walls. "Tycho! I am going on ahead." Charles did not have the time to enjoy his victory or to check up on his friend. He activated his own speedboard as soon as his mobility returned to him and used it to fly through the halls of the mansion and out into the garden. He soon realized that it would be impossible to ascend the tower beyond from the outside. The storm above it had grown too fierce to fly through. But Static delayed him for a reason, he knew what else Charles could do. So he focused his mind and dove back into the subconscious realm, plunging straight into the walls of the tower beyond.

On the inside, everything felt different.. more intense than any dreamworld he visited before. Harsh red lights and the sensation of glass in the air stung at him, the inside of the beyond felt extremely inhospitable. Charles had to weather through it, he would just need to reach the top where Static would be. Now that he'd seen the madness of Statics 'new world', it was more important than ever to stop him. This had to work. The storm likely counted as a sign of the legacy items power, but there was still time to stop their ritual. He could not be distracted by anything else, not even the strange pure black substance at the heart of this hateful realm. "What is.." There seemed to be an object in the far distance. The mystery of it tempted him, but Charles ignored it. First this, first Him.

There he was... Charles reached the top before he knew it. He reached the top because he wanted to be there. And there he was. Static...Void... The avatar that used to be his stood at the center of the arena, surrounded by seven legacy items. He seemed to be completely focused on this ritual, gathering visible energy inside himself and channeling it through the World Ark. That was what caused the rumbling storm and trembling earth. The reality merger spread along the clouds, and would engulf everything. He still had time to stop it. To stop him. Static was not moving, he could run away or hide himself. He could not deny Charles his challenge, his revenge. "Static!"

"You?!" Static received the shock of his life, when that man unexpectedly appeared right in the middle of his ritual. "Yes! Me! Static! This ends today! I challenge you to a.."

The last words of his sentence were cut shot by the sound of thunder. The storm above their heads put out a blast of lightning at maximum volume. "NO!" This could only mean one thing. "Yes!" Static looked up with excitement, Charles with fear, the thousands of humans in the city below with terror... as the energy of the seven legacy items spread out like a global wave... and the realities became as one...

(To Be Continued in World 065: We're Finally Awake)

New Cards used by Void
Firewall Guardian

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Cyberse Reminder

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Cynet Mining

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Shield Handler

New Cards used by Samaelectric
Indulged Darklord
Darklord Superbia
Darklord Nergal
Capricious Darklord

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The First Darklord

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Darklord Contact

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Darklord Rebellion
Darklord Uprising