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.

77. World 069: Offroad and Offscript

World 069: Offroad and Offscript

"If you want my legacy, you can have it. I have my own to cultivate now, and it will surpass the limits of your imagination." That is what his own dear brother told him, as Juan sprung Victor from his confinement and gave him Fever's card. He called it a last favor from brother to brother, a chance to start a new life. Victor did not understand, until he accepted that card. Then he learned what it felt like to be free.. and to be strong. But it came at the cost of his own sense of closure, and reawakened all feelings of resentment. And though he could never measure up to Juan, he did not have to be Victor anymore either. He would be the new 'Veyron' and he would prove it by taking down every duelist that carried even a little bit of fame.

Giganoto's LP: 7500 Victor's LP: 5100

-TURN 03-

"You will defeat me in two turns? Ha! You should have done it while you could. There will be no second turn, Meteor!" And his latest challenge was Giganoto X the Meteor and dino duelist. "I summon my next Speedroid: Terrortop! When it is summoned, I can add one Speedroid from the deck to my hand!" He used the effect of the spinning-top snake(3/700/100) [Zone 3] to claim a card all too familiar to Giganoto: a second Speedroid Taketomborg. Victor special summoned the second Taketomborg(3/100/700) and immediately tributed it. "I special summon the pendulum monster: Speedroid Domino Butterfly!" At the very least he had to use a new tuner for this turn: a domino-stone winged robot butterfly(2/0/0) [Zone 2] floated down very close to Kendama.

"Bah, you think you're the fastest duelist alive? Too bad I can still see you coming. I've watched all of Veyron's public duels, so I know all of your moves too!" Giganoto knew that Victor was headed for another synchro summon. It did not take a rocket scientist to figure out the math intended there. So he acted Ultimate Tyranno(10/3500/3200)'s effect again. "You know nothing! You're a third rate duelist, known only by a select few! I have reached millions with my skills!" Unfortunately for Giga, Head Judging could also be reactivated. "Heads!" And the coin that Victor tossed this time landed down with the head face-up as well. Thus the permanent trap card negated the effect of the Conductor. "Again?" That was not the worst part, Head Judging also took control of whatever monster had its effect blocked. The conductor dinosaur betrayed his own master and It [Zone 5] stomped over to Victor's side and his armada of Speedroids. "Meh, maybe its good that you don't have that big of an audience right now. Because I am pretty sure they'd start to question your 'good luck'."

"Luck has nothing to do with it anymore, no program alters my fate and no invisible hand sets my course. I make my own destiny, my own hand decided my fate! Synchro summon! Hi-Speedroid Kitedrake!" He would express his anger with the fury of his fastest machine: created from the synchronization between Domino Butterfly and Kendama. "Kitedrake can negate the effects of all monsters you control!" A metallic snake-like dragon(8/2500/2300) came flying out of the extra deck on neon-lit kite-wings. Those same wings released a wave of green light down towards Giganoto's assembly of monsters. "Yeah well I prefer an effect that I can depend on without a coin toss! Like Evolzar Dolkka!" The dinowrestler duelist detached one material from his own dragon, and forced the neon energy to flow back towards the Speedroid dragon. Head Judging could not be activated again this turn either. Kitedrake's wings were blown to pieces and the many segments of its body crashed down to the ground. "See he gets to negate your monsters effect just like that!"

"Hmph. But now you are out of materials too. Every move you make just furthers my own path to victory! When Kitedrake is destroyed, I can add one Speedroid from the deck to my hand." Victor quickly recovered and drew a Speedroid Carturbo from his deck. "This card I can then special summon as long as I control a machine of the Wind-attribute!" His latest machine took on the form of a racing car engine(3/300/700) [Zone 4] embedded in a metallic plate. "And I can use both my Wind-attribute monsters as link materials for Hi-Speedroid Rubber Band Shooter!" The Terrortop and Carturbo speedroids gave their opponent an even bigger surprise, when they blasted off into a link circuit.

"Wait? You have Speedroid link monsters?" This card, a futuristic blue/white spaceship(500/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 1] modeled like a rubber bullet gun, had definitely not been a part of Veyron's initial speed duelist routine. "They exist in the new world, so they are mine to summon as well! Yet I see that you have failed to evolve, Meteor! And it is too late to forge a new beginning on your own! Your deck is already set in stone, and so is your defeat! Rubberband Shooter will reveal one Synchro monster in my extra deck! And then I take the materials that could summon it from my deck! You will get to choose which one I keep!" Victor proudly revealed a level 7 synchro monster, the Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, and took a tuner and nontuner speedroid from his main deck: the level 3 Den-Den Daiko Duke and level 4 Block 'nRoll. "Where is this going now?" Giganoto grumbled as he had to make his selection randomly and managed to pick the nontuner of the two cards. He could no longer see Victor's movements coming. "You will see." Victor laughed as he added BlocknRoll to his hand and discarded the Speedroid Duke.

"You will see that I am master of more than one art! I set the pendulum monster: Speedroid Hexasaucer, and pendulum summon my speedroids!" At last, Victor completed his pendulum pair. The Marble Machine could swing the virtual pendulum towards a hexagon-shaped flying saucer (Scale 6) [Pendulum Zone 2] with a mechanical eye at the center. Any speedroid between level 1 and 6 would be special summoned from the hand.. or extra deck. "Ergh." Giganoto winced, he'd forgotten that dying pendulum monsters went to the extra deck instead of the graveyard. Victor pendulum summoned Domino Butterfly[Zone 1], Marble Machine[Zone 3] and the spiked electric guitar Speedroid BlocknRoll(4/1000/1800) [Zone 2]. "And then I will link summon Mecha Phantom Beast Auroradon!" At least two machines had to be used for the next Link 3 monster: Rubberband Shooter and Marble Machine. It would not be a mere toy this time, but a bird of war. "Auroradon can create up to Mecha Phantom Beast tokens, and destroy one of them to destroy one of your monsters!"

"Tokens?" Giganoto's eyes lit up. Auroradon(1600/LINK 3) {Left/Down/Downright} was a black aurora aircraft that resembled a pterasaur as well. The irony was not lost on the dinosaur duelist, but he found the tokens(3/0/0) [Zones 4 & 5] that the Mecha Phantom Beast created far more interesting. "As in effectless tokens?" Because any token counted as a normal monster in the end. "Oh buddy, you shouldn't have done that. Heheheh. I activate my trap: Survival's End!" And his trap could destroy all normal monsters on the field at once to replace them with level 4 dinosaurs from the deck. "What!?" The Mecha Phantom Beast tokens froze up, fell down to the ground and shattered into a thousand pieces. "You heard me! So thanks, now I can special summon Miscellaneousaurus and Beatraptor too!" The ice age trap placed two survivors on the field: another skeletal triceratops(4/1800/1100) [Zone 4] and a velociraptor(4/1400/2000) [Zone 5] with green feathered arms and a black feathered body. "Beatraptor negates the effects of all monsters in the extra monster zone! So good luck using Auroradon now!"

"You pest. You dare take advantage of my winning strategy!? I do not need my monster's effect, I only needs its markers!" The speed duelist rattled on while he banished Speedroid Denden Daiko Duke from the graveyard. That activates its effect to special summon a tuner, Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice(1/0/0) [Zone 4], back from the scrapyard. "Synchro summon! Hi-Speedroid Chanbara!" The golden dice tuned itself together with the guitar speedroid. "When Block N Roll is used as a material for a synchro monster, he creates a token with the same level as that synchro monster! So I synchro summon Speedroid Chanbara!" Again the machine that left the extra deck moved almost too fast to be tracked with the human eye. Chanbara(5/1500/500) [Zone 3] only slowed down briefly to show off its body: a golden cyberchariot fused with a giant curved blade and a robotic twin swordsman. A token duplicate(5/0/0) [Zone 2] of this machine appeared on the field along with the real Chanbara. This token would be the nontuner, while Domino Butterfly underwent its second synchronization. "Synchro summon! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" And thus Victor called out his own true dragon: the white and blue Synchro Dragon(7/2000/1500) [Zone 1] with its wings of cybernetic light.

"You know you don't even sound like Veyron. You'll have a hard time fooling the big leagues, Victor." Giganoto remarked, not feeling very intimidated by any of these cards while his Lost World field spell kept them depowered. "What do you not understand? Veyron never existed, not in the way Juan wanted it to be! I am not Victor! And I am not Victor anymore either! I am all that remains, and all that will remain! I activate Hi-Speed Relevel!" Victor would force him to change his tune a little, when his spell resolved. "!?" HiSpeed Relevel banished a Speedroid from the graveyard, Kitedrake, to add its level to another still functioning Speedroid: Chanbara(8/5500/500). And that speedroid would also get 500 attackpoints extra for each of its current levels. "And I activate Speedroid Carturbo from my graveyard!" The banished Turbo engine added even more power to all of his WIND monsters: 800 attackpoints to be exact. (Clearwing: 2800 atk, Chanbara: 6300 atk, Auroradon: 2300 atk) "Get out of my sight, Meteor." It would be the multi-attacking Ultimate Conductor Tyranno however, who'd deal the killing blow to all of Giganoto's monsters.

"Yeah well I got bad news for you! Survival's End has another effect! I can banish it from my graveyard to destroy one of your cards and one of mine! Though I guess in this case they're both mine!" Giganoto sprung the trap at the very start of the battle phase and targeted Evolzar Laggia along with Ultimate Tyranno: freezing them both. "Tch! You.. you actually think you can survive this?" The angered speed duelist pushed through, literally sending Clear Wing Synchro Dragon crashing through the frozen Tyrannosaur to fire an attack against the Beatraptor. "I am doing pretty good at it so far! Especially since Beatraptor can special summon another Beatraptor when it dies in battle!" A second feathered raptor(4/1400/2000) showed up to defend the dinowrestler and to avenge the one that got destroyed. "Why is it so hard for you to see that it's your time to die!" Mecha Phantom Beast Auroradon slaughtered the second Beatraptor. Unfortunately for him he would have to waste all of Chanbara's attackpower on Giganoto's remaining defensive monsters: Petiteranodon and Miscellaneousaur. "Dunno. But either way it looks like you do need another turn to get me down to nothing!" Giganoto reveled in his succesful survival.

"Hrm.. is this a bad time." And at that time the two duelists found themselves with a surprise visitor to entertain after all: Scarlet Rose. "Who the..." Needless to say neither of them knew what to say about this frankensteined Aromage/Melodious/Evil Eyed woman. "We havent been introduced yet. Scarlet Rose, at your service." The scarlet duelist made a formal bow. "Scarlet? You! Why are you here? Haven't you done enough?" Giganoto began shouting at her, once he remembered how Donna got put into her coma in the first place. "No, I do not believe I have. But you are confusing me for someone else, Giganoto. I am her better half.. And I would love nothing more than to undo the damage Scarlet Fever has caused." She claimed with utmost sincerity. "Then what took you so long to show up? Why do you look like that? How are you even here?" He would have accepted that, if this did not just raise more questions. "I had to prepare something. It would take too long to explain. For now all you need to know is that I arrived in the hope of seeing you defeat this man."

"Then you came all the way here for nothing!" Victor growled. "He is out of monsters, there is no way he can win this duel in a single turn. Only defeat awaits him! As for you, you are not even worthy of my time! Now stop talking, so he can get done with his turn!"

-TURN 04-

"Oh, it's my turn then?" Giganoto noticed that his dueldisk asked him to draw a card, which he did. "Heh. Well, I did promise.." The spell he got made it obvious on how to proceed. "I activate Space-Time Transcendence and banish two dinosaurs to special summon a dinosaur with their combined level! But it cant attack this turn!" A plan of spells: the first of which banished the level 2 Petiteranodon and level 2 Baby Cerasaurus to revive one of the Beat Raptor[Zone 3]. "I can also banish two more monsters with my Double Evolution Pill, two different types this time, to summon a highlevel dinosaur from my deck! I choose Overtex Qoatlus!" The next spell removed Giant Rex the dinosaur and Evolzar Dolkka the dragon to evolve them into a gigantic winged pterasaur(7/2700/2100) [Zone 2] with four claws and a dark purple hide. "Oh and when Giant Rex is banished, I can special summon it to my field instead!" The smaller but no less ravenous spinosaur[Zone 5] crawled out of the graveyard as well. "What are you trying to accomplish with all these cards, Meteor?"

"Oh they're just here to build up the main star. Just like Miscellaneousaur is. I can banish that one from my graveyard, and a few other dinosaurs, to summon a dinosaur with the same level as the number of banished cards!" Giganoto chose to banish four dinosaurs (Miscellaneousaur, Ultimate Conductor Tyranno and the two Beat Raptors) for a level 4 dinosaur in his deck. "And I choose Tyranno Infinity!" That dinosaur proved to be even more worthy of the title 'king of the dinosaurs', because the attackpower of Tyranno Infinity(8000/0) [Zone 4] proved to be far superior to that of any other monster. "Infinity?" Victor did not even recognize the card, much less understand where it got all this power from. "The Number dont lie, Vic! Tyranno Infinity gains a thousand attackpoints for each banished dinosaur! That's eight times!" Frankly all the other monsters were overkill, Tyranno Infinity could decide the duel by itself. "I told you. Two turns! Tyranno Infinity, make it official and destroy Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

"Then this is where I come in." Scarlet Rose pulled a rather large thorned whip out of her sleeve and wrapped it around Victor's midsection. "Hey! What are you doing? This is not your fight!" He protested. But he could not touch the vine without getting hurt, much less pull himself free. "Oh this is not to interfere with the duel. This is merely my method for ensuring your continued presence. I cannot have you wake up just yet." Scarlet did not let go of him, even as the Infinite Tyrannosaur bit off Clear Wing Synchro Dragon's head. "What? No.. This is not a dream! This is reality! My reality! You won't steal it from me! You will.." Victor kept raging at his own fate throughout the erasure of his remaining lifepoints. But when the counter reached zero, he could speak no more. The rose vine released a static shock of red energy to paralyze every part of him and to let him drop to the floor like a human statue.

Victor's LP: 0

"Geez, you kinda took the fun out of that win. What was that for?" Giganoto winced. "That was to secure him as a test subject. Or rather to secure his avatar. We recently learned what happens to the people affected by Static and Scarlet Fever's mania: their avatars are deleted and their minds return to their original bodies. This made it difficult to study the effects of this madness. Now we can. You do not have to feel sorry for him, the real Victor will not feel a thing." Scarlet Rose retracted her vine and walked up to the motionless Victor. His eyes were wide open and entirely lifeless. "Well.. it's not as if he doesn't deserve it. But still.. Also who is this 'we' you are talking about?" The dueltainer struggled to picture anyone willingly teaming up with her. "Pretty much everyone. You may not believe it, but I am on your side. I will be taking Victor with me to Exeter HQ, and you are welcome to come along. You should probably bring Donna too. I imagine you are not willing to leave her alone."

"Of course not. Not even if you told me she would be waking up right now." Giganoto would only listen to a request like that if it came from someone he trusted. "But.. at least this means we should be able to fix everyone by beating them down?" At the very least that would be a 'cure' he could hand out with his own abilities. "On the contrary. When Victor wakes up, he will probably still be under the same delusions as before and he will simply create a new avatar. We need a proper antidote. And hopefully now we can make one. I may even be able to help Donna herself this way." Scarlet Rose stared at the door to the next room, knowing she'd be sleeping in there. "You took a big risk by the way. If you had lost this duel, he might havemade you into one of Static's devotees."

"Ha. I don't think so. I never had any lofty dreams or big hopes to begin with. But hey, yours sounds pretty good. So I wont stop you. Just hurry, I don't want to lose any more friends."

...

It was only when she came back to her hometown that Crescent Aurora realized how much the world changed for her. Because as soon as she arrived with the usual feeling of ending a simple quickjump, she stared at her own room with brand new eyes. Crescent got up where her real body would have sat down. Just like what had happened to Himiko/Nakana, she became one with her human self. "This is.. weird." What could she even do in this state? Dueling for one: given the dueldisk that her arm carried. "Hopefully it wont come to that yet." When she looked outside the window of her house, she saw that everything there looked the same and everyone acted the same. It was a pretty quiet town after all, the news could not have reached them yet, or worse... the enemy. "I have to warn them." Her appearance would definitely confuse the people out there because she'd not changed her avatar's look much from her real life self. Not like Wagner...

Not like Wagnerok. "Still talking to yourself, Aurora? You must have missed my company."

"Wagner!?" He was already here. "You came.. all by yourself too. I guess that means you're ready..ready to ask for my forgiveness." Wagnerok sat in the chair of the living room, alone. "I.. of course I came back. I live here too." She'd nearly forgotten just who owned this house, this large mansion which seemed far too big for just two people. "Only because I allowed you, Aurora." Wagnerok sneered. In reality his mother and father bought this place for him; two wealthy careermakers who doted on him whenever they found time away from work. "Wagner.. Where are..." She did not see either of them at the moment, just him. "The folks? Not here. What did you expect?" He laughed in a way the real Wagner would have, whenever he got into a rotten mood. That seemed to be his temper at all times now. "That they would care about you! Like they cared about me! I told them about you! I promised them both that I would get you back!"

"You promised them... in person? Or did you just call them? Because they may not even have heard your message, Aurora." Wagnerok stared her down with an accusing glare. "I..I called them." She did not want to lie. "Just as I thought. You still don't have the nerve to talk to them directly. Well, you didn't have to anyway. I am done with them too. They can do nothing for me anymore. You however can." He finally got up and turned to face her. "Me? Why?" She backed away instinctively. "Do you have to ask? Because you belong with me, Aurora! Where would you be without me? Nowhere! I gave you a place to live in! I took you way from those incompetent fools you call parents. You dont need them either! You need me! You need this!" Wagnerok lashed out. In his hands the World Shield appeared and fired a beam of light at the door behind Crescent. "!?" The shield took the door away, took the exit away. He could repaint the very matter of this reality as well. "You were stronger with the shield. You need it even more than I do!" His voice got louder, too loud. "Why are you doing this?" She did not understand what he wanted anymore.

"I can answer that." The black baron... did. "!? You!" Now it was Wagnerok's turn to react with surprise as the duelist entered his house. Though he shared this sensation with Crescent. "Schwarzwald?"

"None other." Schwarzwald bowed before the two. "What are you doing here? How did you get inside?" Wagnerok impulsively reached for his dueldisk and shield. "I've been following you for some time now, Wagnerok. I got in soon after you arrived here. Surely you did not think that Static would let you go unsupervised, did you? Especially when you keep dragging that precious item everywhere you go." He let out his sinister chuckle. "Static? Did he send you? I do not believe you!" Wagnerok responded, roaring. "Believe whatever you desire, I remain nonetheless. Now then, miss Aurora. You were wondering about your former friend. You are in luck, I am willing to tell you why he is here. You see, Wagnerok here cannot accept any flaw. And he sees you as one of them. Not because you dared to be independent from him. No.." The baron pointed his gloved finger at the World Shield. "It is because he is unsure of how much power he has. Because he did not win that shield legimitimately. You surrendered it to him. You saw it, we all saw it."

"That is why?" Crescent gasped and looked at a startled Wagnerok. "What utter nonsense! I won that fight! She lost because of her own weakness! So did Zettai, Chiaroscura, Donna, Khan and you! But I have never lost! I have no weakness!" He shook his head and pointed back at Schwarzwald. "Oh no? Then why did you spend so much time trying to figure out who you are?" The baron retorted. "You don't know what you are talking about! I am Wagnerok!" Wagnerok protested loudly. "There is someone in here who begs to differ." Schwarzwald finally played his trump card. He opened the door to the next room and revealed the person inside. "!? Wagner!?" Crescent's eyes went wide with shock.

"No." In spite of everything, the original Wagner had never left the eerie comfort of his STHEREA barrier. His real body sat in there, under a dome of light, while Wagnerok walked about freely. "Yes this proves it, does it not? Crescent here has fused with her avatar. Yet you and he remain separate. Of course I already came to terms with my nature when I looked Hydra in the face. But you were in denial. This is your true weakness. The proud Wagnerok just cannot accept any reality but his own. It is pathetic really. No wonder Static has been thinking about getting rid of you.."

"You lying bastard! You are not here because of Static!" Wagnerok fumed, turning his back on Crescent entirely. The walls of his house were loosening up as well, giving her a chance to run away. "..." But she could not, she could not leave this behind. "Why would I want to lie to you? You have nothing to fear from me, and everything to fear from her. Really, I am doing you nothing but favors here." The baron played innocent just to tick Wagnerok off more. "I do not fear either of you! You want what she wants: my shield, my power! But you will not take it from me! You had your chance to leave us! You wasted it!" He went over the edge of aggression and activated his dueldisk. "I will show you who the weak one is!" In turn Schwarzwald activated his own dueldisk and met the challenge. "Heh. You said it better than I ever could.. Wagnerok."

(To Be Continued in World 070: Advantages that Stray from Victory)

New Cards used by Giganoto X The Meteor
Beat Raptor
Overtex Qoatlus
Tyranno Infinity

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Spacetime Transcendence

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Survival's End

New Cards used by Victor
Speedroid Terrortop
Speedroid Domino Butterfly
Speedroid Carturbo
Speedroid Block 'n Roll
Speedroid Denden Daiko Duke

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Hi-Speedroid Kitedrake
Hi-Speedroid Rubber Band Shooter
Mecha Phantom Beast Auroradon
Hi-Speedroid Chanbara
Clear Wing Synchro Dragon

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Hi-Speed Relevel