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.

84. World 076: Open-Ended Confessions

World 076: Open-Ended Confessions

Abigail's peace was once again disturbed. "I thought I told you to..." Not by any friendly face. "You!" The shadow that now hovered outside her window, painted against the midnight sky, bore her own digital face. "You mean.. us." Zettai spoke. She pulled the window open and hovered into the room. "Get out!" Abigail fled to the corners, picking up a chair to keep 'Zettai' at a distance. "Why are you like this? I could never hurt you and you cannot hurt me either. Put that down." It did little to intimidate the ace duelist. "Because I want nothing to do with you!" Abigail could do little else. "It does not work that way... . You have everything to do with me. You created me. You need me. Look at you now, have you even left this room since we separated? I doubt it. We may not be the same deep down, but we have the same memories. And we both know we were better together, we were unstoppable together. I do not hate you. Why would you hate being me?"

"Because of what you did! What.. I did." Abigail shuddered and let the chair fall out of her hands. "We.. we almost killed someone. Himiko's mother and..." This womans face only reminded her of that exact moment. "But we didn't. They were not alive in the first place. And they are still out there, they still need to be stopped." Zettai came even closer to the terrified girl. "That's not.. That does not make it right! Just because you did not get to end life, does not mean you did not intend to!" But that girl slowly came to rediscover another emotion: anger. "You are overreacting. They deserve it whether or not they were still human. Do you disagree? How many times have you thought to yourself that the world would be a better place if some people just disappeared?" She could name many, including her next of kin. "Right now I only want you to disappear!" Abigail could not deny it, she could only curse the fact. "And I will, once we rejoin..."

"Abigail." And she could curse her. "What did you say?"

"Abigail. That's my name. Why aren't you using it?" She noticed that Zettai did not take well. "Why would I.." The ace duelist stammered. "Because that is who I really am: Abigail Starling. Why do you want to be back with me so badly?" the more Abigail thought about this, the less sense it made to her. "You are affraid,. Is it that you're unable to live with yourself the way you are now? No.. it's something else, something you figured out recently. I would know if it was something else." Zettai needed her more than she needed Zettai, that's what it sounded like now. "You know how I think, of course. Something did happen.. to Khan and Scura. I felt it. The same could happen to you." Zettai snapped back and took a more aggressive stance. "Or to you." Abigail felt a little nervous, but kept pushing. "Do not make me force this upon you. I do not want it to be that way." Zettai activated her dueldisk. "I am not.. helpless." Abigail in turn created her own dueldisk with a single command, a fact that surprised even her. "What is.." Instinctively, she'd summoned the device.

"Are you going to actually fight me? You and I both know that you cannot win." Even if Abigail owned her own disk now, she could not use the same cards that Zettai possessed. She would not want to either. "No. I can run..." But she reasoned that if Zettai and Echo could teleport in the real world now, so could she. "Don't!" Zettai shouted in vain as Abigail activated the quickjump switch of her dueldisk and teleported far away, using whatever coordinates first came to mind. She could have gone anywhere. "Come back! You don't know what you're doing!" Zettai could not follow her anymore. "You will regret this! You will!"

...

Echo's LP: 8000 Live Twin's LP: 8000

Marincess Great Bubble Reef(2600/LINK 4) {Left/Downleft/Down/Right} [Extra Zone 1]: if any card resembled Echo the most, it would be this one. "When a monster is banished, Great Bubble Reef will gain 600 attackpoints until the end of the turn." That first condition was already met when Marincess Mandarin got used as one of her link materials. That card was always banished if she left the field after special summoning herself, but her spirit would briefly live on inside Great Bubble Reef(3200 atk). "And she can special summon one banished Marincess from my graveyard." The second effect cost her a card in her hand: Sea Archiver. In turn the princess of the Reef revived Marincess Mandarin [Zone 2] through a ring of water.

"Sea Archiver?" Charles of course recognized the discarded card, he used one just like it. He also knew that when a monster got special summoned to a link-marked zone, the seahorse cyberse(3/300/2100) [Zone 3] would special summon itself from the graveyard. "Yes, I did not just want to use cards that I made up. That felt too selfish." Echo stopped to look at Charles briefly. Then she glanced towards the Fisherman. "I want to honor all my friends.."

"I link summon Mistar Boy." Sea Archiver and Marincess Mandarin left the field again, and this time Sea Archiver wound up being banished due to its own effect instead. In return Echo gained the mustachio-sporting red seastar(1400/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Zone 1] and its effect to add 500 ATK and DEF to all WATER monsters on the field. "But now what do I do?" Echo could no longer delay the inevitable choice. She placed one trap card down, but after that there were no more excuses to put off the battle phase. "This is a duel with no stakes involved, miss Echo. There is no harm you can do here." The Fisherman tried to assure her. No matter what she ended up doing, nothing would go wrong. "I know. But I have to learn.." Even she knew she could not remain passive at all times. She only survived the last duel with sheer luck. "...Here I go." She swallowed the bitter feeling in her throat and declared her first attack with Mistar Boy(1900 atk).

"Heheh. Looks like you're the first target, Lilla." Ki-sikil began to laugh. "Yes, but you're the one in attack mode. So this wont hurt me. Besides.. when she attacks, she loses 500 lifepoints." Lil-la revealed the second effect of her own card, inflicting damage each time their enemy declared an attack. "Yeah, well thanks to me we gain 500 lifepoints!" Ki-sikil's own effect added 500 lifepoints to the live twins for each attacking opponent's monster. They bathed in a warm light, while a cold draft struck Echo's hand. "Oh and our field spell can negate one attack each turn, if we tribute one of us." Lil-la only gave a brief explanation before she abruptly sacrificed Live Twin Ki-sikil to block Mistar Boy's effect. "Hey! What's the big idea!" Ki-sikil cried out. "Would you rather have taken the hit instead of me?" Lil-la shrugged.

Echo's LP: 7500 Live Twin's LP: 8500

"These two are strange. They act more like cards than people." Olympia said with an exasperated tone. "People can be strange in general." Mephistar claimed. "It is not strange. They are only doing what they do love to do." Echo felt like she could understand them, a little. Nevertheless she had to keep attacking them, even if Great Bubble Reef's attackpoints would be wasted on the defending Lil-La, whose damage inflicting effect would triger all over again.

Echo's LP: 7000

"Oh, I died." She eventually reacted to the attack, letting it happen since Live Twin Channel could only be activated once a turn. "Yeah, those were some sweet moves! Echo! But you were better off not doing anything at all! Heheh." Live Twin Channel on the other hand could reactivate a different effect during the endphase, recycling one Ki-sikil or Lil-la monster. Since they did not control any other monsters, they could even add that card (Live Twin Ki-sikil) to their hand.

-TURN 03-

"They have a point, miss Echo. You only hurt yourself with those attacks. Please be more careful." The Fisherman interjected. "She knows how to be careful, she knew what those cards could do." Nakana Shintaro spoke up as well, with a little more venom in her tone. "What are you saying?" The Fisherman gasped. "I am saying that she made those attacks go to waste on purpose because she still does not really want to inflict damage. She just does not have it in her to hurt anyone around her." Nakana could tell that from just one look at her. "No that is not it. I just wanted to see what their cards could do too." Echo protested as she waited for the next standby phase. "And I can still do a little more too. My Marincess has another power. Each standby phase, she banishes one Marincess from my graveyard, so that I may draw one card." The effect banished Marincess Coral Anemone, adding 600 attackpoints to herself(3200 atk) again in the process.

"Well we were just worried that you just wanted to lose to us to look good. But either way its our turn!" Ki-sikil activated a new spell: Secret Password. "Now I can add one Live/Evil Twin spell/trap card to my hand! Haha!" Ki-sikil claimed another spell, which Lil-la snatched away and activated by herself. "Heh. Live Twin Home discards one card to special summon one Lilla or Kisikil monster from my graveyard." She threw away one monster (Evil Twins Ki-sikil & Lil-la) to bring herself, Live Twin Lil-la[Zone 5] back to life. "Anyway before we go on, we should do a round of superchat questions for our guest. What do we got, Lilla?" The twins turned to one of the many screens projected by their studio field spell which listed all comments made by viewers in the last ten minutes. "Oh, a lot of them want to know if you really look like that?" Lil-la said with a yawn. "What? Those cheeky brats. Do they think we're old bats or something?!" Ki-sikil shouted. "I think they are talking about her, Kisikil. Not every question is about you." Her partner rolled her eyes. "Oh. Yeah..right."

"What do I really look like? I..I don't know. I've always looked like this." For such a simple question, it did give Echo a lot to think about. "I was born like this.. not human."

"Oh, we got a little to deep here. Don't sweat it, Echo. They just want to get to know you better. I think its time you get to know us better too!" Ki-sikil normal summoned herself[Zone 2] once more, and activated her effect to special summon a Lil-la monster from the deck. "And we summon Live Twin Star Lilla Treat!" This time though they called out a more pink-haired/halloween-themed version of Lil-la(2/500/0) [Zone 4]. Batwings were added for her coat, mummy wrappings for her legs, and her long sleeves gained jagged teeth. "Oh, that's me too. But that's not the form I am after." Lil-la the duelist promptly removed both monsters from the field, to start up their own link summon. "I summon me: Evil Twin Star Lil-la!" One could call it a makeover. The up until now cartoonish girl transformed into a more an older darkblue-haired woman(1100/LINK 2) {Left/Down} [Extra Zone 2] who wore glasses, a black dress and leggings. Two transparent devil wings also grew out of her back, a trait of her new fiend-typing. "Thats right, we have link monsters too! These are our true forms, as thieves of the night! Each Evil Twin can special summon their partner Live Twin if they dont have a partner on the field already!"

"That was supposed to be my line." The actual Lil-la growled as she activated the effect of the Evil Twin to special summon Live Twin Ki-sikil Frost(2/500/0) [Zone 4] from the deck: this upgraded version of the pinkhaired star wore a white priest uniform and had icecreamcones covering her head. "My turn! We link summon Evil Twin Star Ki-Sikil!" The two cyberse girls opened another link circuit, one with a more magenta tone. It took Ki-sikil Frost and Live Twin Lil-la as link materials and created the fiendish form of Ki-sikil(1100/LINK 2) {Down/Right} [Zone 4] wore a feathered hat, black bodysuit, red skirt and purple vest-coat. Her demon wings were bright pink, while her red hair grew long and wild. "Lilla is already on my field, so I cannot summon another. Instead, my evil twin card can draw one card if she is summoned while we already control a Lilla monster!"

"Now comes superchat question two! Why do you like dueling?"

"Why do I like it? Because.." Echo did not want to say that she actually disliked it overall, because there were aspects she enjoyed. "Because there's so many cards, and so many people playing. I get to meet so many new friends.. and make them too. That is all I want." She answered while her eyes fixated on her friends: the Fisherman, Olympia and Cierze. "Ah. Well this might be sad for you then. Because we're gonna take some of your cards away!" Ki-sikil shouted with a pointed finger. "Eh? Eh? C'mon, Lilla. Do the thing!" With an eager expression, she waited for her partner to follow her movements. "Sigh. Fiiine." Lil-la pointed her own finger forwards as well, though she rolled her eyes while doing so. "Yes! Our final combo move! We can sacrifice two link monsters to summon 'Evil Twins Kisikil and Lilla' from the graveyard!" Though this special summon used both link monster evil twins as tributes, visually not much changed. The two thieves simply merged together into one card(82200/2200) [Zone 3], with Ki-sikil holding Lil-la in her arms.

"We now gain 2200 attackpoints if both Lilla and Kisikil cards are in our graveyard! And we can also send all but two of your cards to the graveyard, miss Echo!" The Evil Twins raised their hands to the sky and summoned the light of the moon itself down upon the field. "So what will it be?" Their opponent would lose at least one of her three cards now. "I..." And Echo chose her second link monster: Mistar Boy. "That is one down!" Ki-sikil and Lil-la activated their second trap card. "Evil Twin Star Challenge can summon one Kisikil or Killa card from the graveyard!" The pinkhaired holoduelist yelled, while the bluehaired holoduelist selected the card to be special summoned. "I did not get to use my power yet. When Kisikil is on my field, my special summoned evil twin form will destroy one card." The blue-winged Evil Twin Lil-la(1100 atk) [Zone 4] returned from the graveyard and immediately released a blast of energy shards towards Great Bubble Reef.

"Then I have to.. activate Marincess Snow." As soon as the fiend girl's attack destroyed the Marincess, her body turned into crystals of snow. "When my Marincess dies, I can special summon a Marincess with a lower link from the extra deck, and that monster is unaffected by other card effects. I choose Marincess Crystal Heart." The snow crystals came together to shape a deep-blue glass heart, haunted by a spirit of mist(0/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 1]. "A monster with zero attack? Are you sure about that? Well whatever! Lilla, attack her!" The battle would begin here and now. Kisikil could not want to wait a second longer. "It's not gonna woooork." The Evil Twin Lilla attacked first, despite her namesake's lack of enthusiasm. That feeling was warranted, as Echo handily stopped Lil-la with a single gesture. "That's right. My Crystal Heart can negate one attack by discarding one monster from my hand." She discarded her Marincess Sea Horse.

"Oh yeah? Can you do that again?" Ki-sikil attacked as well with the superpowered Evil Twins Lil-la/Ki-sikil. "I can." Echo negated that attack by discarding a Marincess Pascalus from her hand. "Ha, well you are pretty good at defending. But we're not gonna get anywhere like this!" The cyber girl placed one trap card down and let the turn come to an end. "Does it have to go anywhere? Why can't we just keep doing this?" Echo felt perfectly content with this current stalemate. "Because the goal of a duel is to win. Duh." Lilla snapped, rolling her eyes once more. "That's what the audience expects. Nobody wants to watch a show that lasts forever."

-TURN 04-

"Maybe this was a bad idea after all." Nakana sighed from the sidelines. "No, the odds are still in her favor. The problem is that she is still holding back." Charles countered. "Holding back? How can you tell? She is just staying true to herself." Midsummer did not see what the cyberse duelist supposedly saw in her. "Because I know what it's like to want to go through life avoiding every confrontation." He answered and turned his head towards the duel. "Echo! It's alright to go all out! It is all just another part of the game! Just because you beat someone, does not mean they will hate you! That can also be another way to make a friend! We're just stubborn like that sometimes!" Charles learned that from experience as well.

"I could make a friend by overpowering them?" His words made Echo wonder: could it truly be as simple as that? "Well winners always get a special prize. But friendship is free! First you have to beat us tho!" Ki-sikil activated another trap card. "Evil Twin Star GG EZ! I can sacrifice one Lilla or Kisikil monster to add her attackpoints to my other Kisikil or Lilla monster!" The trap took the Evil Twin link monster and incorporated her power into that of the Evil Twins Lil-la & Ki-sikil(5500/4400): making two become one again. "I will allow it. I didn't feel like watching my monster die again anyway." Lil-la snickered. Between their attackpower and lifepoint total, Echo had a lot of work cut out for her. "Anyway, since we will be here a while, lets do some easy questions, like whats your favorite color. It better not be blue!"

"Oh. I cannot pick a favorite, actually. I like all colors." Echo replied. "Even mustard green?" Ki-sikil muttered. "I also only want one thing if I win, to get to talk more with your friends." Echo normal summoned Marincess Blue Tang [Zone 3] again. While Blue Tang sent a Marincess Sea Star card to the graveyard this time, the rest of the turn played out almost the same as the last. Blue Tang turned into a link material for another Marincess Blue Slug(1500/LINK 1) [Zone 3] and added another deck-excavated Marincess card (Marincess Battle Ocean) to Echo's hand. Subsequently, Blue Slug added Marincess Blue Tang back to the field. "Heh! Seen it! But thanks anyway! Since you added a card to your hand, I can banish Kisikil Frost from my graveyard to draw one card!" Ki-sikil declared as she added a spell card to her hand. "Heheh. This one will be fun! Cant wait for our next turn!" She snickered as she showed the spell off to Lil-la.

"Oh I'm sorry, you want to see something new. There is Marincess Seahorse's other ability. If I banish her from my graveyard I can special summon a Marincess from my hand to a Marincess-marked zone." The Seahorse princess let her link the same Marincess Blue Tang [Zone 1] with Marincess Crystal Heart's left marker. After that Blue Tang and Blue Slug dematerialized to link summon another Marincess Coral Anemone(2000/LINK 2) {Left/Down} [Zone 3], whose effect special summoned Mistar Boy(1900/LINK 2) [Zone 4] from the graveyard once again. Finally, Marincess Mandarin could revive herself [Zone 2] to be linked with Marincess Coral Anemone.

"What now? Great Bubble Reef again?" Lil-la yawned again. "No, not her. I activate Marincess Battle Ocean and link summon Marincess Wonder Heart!" The second most powerful Marincess also required at least two WATER Monsters as link materials: Mistar Boy and Marincess Crystal Heart. Wonder Heart(2400/LINK 4) {Left/Downleft/Right/Downright} [Extra Zone 1] took on a decidedly more marine appearance: with smooth blue skin, fin-like darkblue hair and full red eyes. She wore a dress of translucent azure, and wielded a spiral longsword. "Marincess Battle Ocean adds 200 attackpoints to all my Marincess cards! And when a Marincess is link summoned, she can equip three different Marincess link monsters in the graveyard. And she will gain 600 attackpoints for each!" Water came pouring into the battle field, flooding the Live Twins' studio. "Hey!" They were even more shocked to see the power of Wonder Heart(4400 atk) rise four times as she equipped Marincess Blue Coral Anemone, Marbled Rock and Great Coral Reef to herself.

"This is bad." Cartoonish sweat drops appeared on Ki-sikil's face. "Real bad." Things looked even worse when Echo linked Marincess Mandarin up with Coral Anenome to link summon another Marincess Marbled Rock(2600/LINK 3) {Up/Downleft/Downright} [Zone 3]. Because of Coral's graveyard effect and Marbled Rock's on-field effect, the girl in blue could add two Marincess cards (Sea Star & Wave) from her graveyard back to her hand. "Marincess Sea Star can add eight hundred attackpoints to my monster, if I discard her. And Marincess Wave, can also negate the effects of one of your cards. So I am sorry, but it's gonna target the Evil Twins." Because she controlled a Link 3 Marincess, the Wave could also be played from the hand again. Without their effect, Evil Twins Ki-sikil & Lil-la(3300/2200) lost their own powerboost. Meanwhile Wonder Heart(5200 atk) obtained more power thanks to the effect of the young marine princess with the seastar-helmet. "And there is one more thing.."

"One more?" Ki-sikil gulped. "Yes. Wonder Heart's own specialty. I gave her the ability to special summon one monster equipped to her each turn, when she battles another monster. So I will.." Wonder Heart jumped into the battle. "Summon Great Bubble Reef!" At the least second the reef princess(2800 atk) [Zone 1] jumped out of the blue aura that surrounded Wonder Heart, making her(4600 atk) slightly weaker once her sword connected with the Evil Twins. Ki-sikil and Lil-la's monster selves let out a cry of terror before their holograms shattered. "Ow! She hurt us!" Ki-sikil cried out. She could not have stopped the attack, since Marincess Wave made Wonder Heart immune to the effects of Live Twin Channel as well.

Live Twin's LP: 7200

But not all monsters were immunized. "We asked for it, Kisikil. But she did too! Now I can activate the effect of Lilla Treat from my graveyard! Since our cards took damage, your monster will lose the same amount of attackpoints!" Lil-la could still affect Marincess Great Bubble Reef(1500 atk), stripping 1300 of her attackpoints away. "You are strong. There are so many strong duelists I want to meet. But I also hope.. I do not have to do this to all of them." Echo silently declared another attack with Marincess Marbled Rock. The spine-haired princess raised her hands into the sky and gathered a whirlpool of water between her nails. The ball of water struck both Lil-la and Ki-sikil dead on, knocking them down with a great splash. "Do what? Make us all wet?" Ki-sikil cursed as she wrung the water out of her hair. She did not even know that they could get drenched.

Live Twin's LP: 4600

"No. This.. When I control a Link 3 Marincess, I can activate Marincess Cascade from my hand." Echo played the last card in her hand; a trap card. "This card banishes one or more of my Marincess link monsters. And then one monster on my field will get three hundred attackpoints for each link marker on those link monsters." Great Bubble Reef took the hands of Marbled Rock and Wonder Heart. Both of them disappeared behind a large waterfall, while the Reef Marincess(4800 atk) increased her power many times over. "She gains seven times that, and six hundred attackpoints for each banished card too. Amazing." Midsummer cheered her on once again. Her victory had been assured. "I hope, you were impressed. Do not hate me for this." Echo took a deep breath and sent out the final attack. Great Bubble Reef gathered a torrent of sea-water with her wand and directed it towards the Live holostars. They were soaked all over again, as the last of their lifepoints drowned into the depths.

Live Twin's LP: 0

"We're doomed!" Ki-sikil on the other hand splashed around violently. "Stop being dramatic. If she wanted to control us, she would have done so already." Lil-la shook her head. She sounded more serious now. "You are clearly not as bad as everyone keeps saying you are. But do you really need us to help you?"

"Yes, everything I said was true. I need you, because you are everyone's friend." Echo took a step back and pulled out an oddly blank card. "What is that?" Ki-sikil changed her own tune immediately and stared at the card with sparkles in her eyes. "This is the gift of Echo, the delayed skill. It can be whatever you want it to be. We all have that power." The Legendary Fisherman explained. "A special skill card? That sounds a lot like what Millennium did." Lil-la's eyes narrowed. "Yes. But I want to give this to everyone, not just to duelists. Energy is energy and thought is thought. I can send this to anyone who talks to me. What the others said is true, something terrible is coming. And we have to stop it before it is too late. But with this, we have a way to protect ourselves.. and our friends."

(To Be Continued in World 077: From Choice Overflow..)

New Cards used by Miss Echo
Sea Archiver
Marincess Seastar

-
Mistar Boy
Marincess Crystal Heart
Marincess Wonder Heart

-
Marincess Battle Ocean

-
Marincess Snow
Marincess Cascade

New Cards used by Lilla & Kisikil
Live Twin Lil-la Treat
Live Twin Ki-Sikil Frost
Evil Twins Ki-sikil & Lil-la

-
Evil Twin Lil-La
Evil Twin Ki-sikil

-
Secret Password
Live Twin Home

-
Evil Twin Challenge
Evil Twin GG EZ