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.

89. World 081: To He Who Waits

World 081: To He Who Waits

Scarlet Rosemary did not have an easy task before her: managing an offensive from several angles while also maintaining direct contact with each individual duelist. "Scarlet. How are things looking? Is anyone inside the tower yet? What about Blanche?" And the questions she got were often all the same. "A bit chaotic. Vigionaire has gone on ahead with Echo, Mephistar, the Fisherman and Crescent. The others decided to stay behind to make sure Static's forces are not getting in their way on accident. As for Blanche, she's managed to deliver the assets and is now heading out to join the others. V's theory about nonduelists also being transportable turned out to be correct, even for animals. I would love to record their experiences for posterity."

"Stay on topic, Scarlet. Static's forces.. Are there going to be more of them like Skylander? Why didn't we get a heads up about them?" Because the heroes had now come across former members of their own less than merry band. "This seems to be a very recent project, Hydra. Unlike the copies I created before, they are quite real. There may be more, I will alert you if they show up on my map."

Team Reborn's LP: 11700 Home Teams LP: 10000

"I suppose that is the best news there can be right now." Hydra sighed as he turned off his communicator. No info would get them through this tag battle any faster, but his partner certainly tried. Charles Adami's Cynet Fusion spell banished Inverted Code Talker in the graveyard and fused it with both Transcode Talker and Clock Wyvern. The latter card formed the basis material for the purple crystal cyberse: Cyberse Clock Dragon(8/2500/2000) [Extra Zone 3]. "Clock Dragon discards cards from my deck equal to the combined link rating of his fusion materials!" There were five link markers in total, leading Charles to empower the fusion dragon(7500/2000) to new and unseen heights. "You have had your say. Not its time to put this to rest. Clock Dragon! Direct attack!"

Unfortunately, because he'd reserved his hatred for the one above, he knew too little about the enemies in front of him. "Thanks for proving your stupidity. I activate my skill card: Absolute Zero Mirror! I take your monsters attackpoints away and gain the same amount of lifepoints!" The Clock Dragon's advance got blocked as it crashed into a mirror of ice that inverted all of its power into healing energy. "You would have served yourself better by sticking to what you know. Not everyone can branch out." Cryomatic mockingly suggested. "Ugh, I knew something like this would happen." Charles' other monsters like RasterLiger(2000/LINK 4) could not attack during a turn in which Cyberse Clock Dragon used its effect. But at least he did not regret keeping it on the field now.

Team Reborn's LP: 14200

Absolute Zero Mirror, Skill
If an opponent's monster declares an attack: Target the attacking monster; reduce its ATK to 0, and if you do, gain LP equal to it original ATK.
The targeted monster takes no battle damage this turn and cannot be destroyed as a result of battle.

-TURN 05-

"And there your turn ends? Not soon enough.." Gigasavior turned back to her Ritual Sanctuary field spell and its two effects. The first discarded another random spell (Ritual Cage) to add a ritual monster (Cyber Angel Benten) to her hand, the second shuffled both spells in her graveyard (Machine Angel Ritual, Ritual Cage) back into the deck to special summon two-starred fairy from the graveyard. "Revive, Cyber Egg Angel!" The cybernetic winged egg(2/200/300) [Zone 1] had its own effect of adding a Machine Angel spell card to the hand. "Appear, Cyber Angel Izana! Take Benten and the Egg as your sacrifices!" She claimed the ritual spell, Machine Angel Ritual. And by tributing her egg and the level 6 Benten, she could ritual summon Izana the metallic-skinned warrior goddess(8/2500/2600) [Zone 2] with four arms. "Izana sends one of your foul traps or spells to the grave! Be gone!" One of her many weapons was a silver throwing axe, which she hurled at Charles' face-down trap card... "Now, that is taken care off..." ...Waking the Dragon. "Wait.."

"No, you saw it correctly. The card you destroyed is Waking the Dragon. And when it is destroyed I can summon one monster from my main or extra deck! I choose Texchanger and summon it in defense mode!" He could have called out anything from the mightiest Firewall Dragon.. to a low-polygon green frog(1/100/100) [Zone 10]. "Why.. why would you pick a card like that. Why do you even have that trap?" Cryomatic protested. "Presumably because he takes after his partner. His other partner I mean.." The slightly less surprised Hydra had seen another duelist use a trap like that: Madam Blanche. "Yes. Though this time it was my idea. I am sure she would have told me to drop something bigger. But I think I should be conservative in this case.." Charles knew what lied in store for him ever since Cyber Angel Benten's tribute. Savior used her effect to add a new LIGHT Fairy to the hand.

"Call as many as you wish, my angels will slay them one by one" She selected the one angel above all others: Cyber Angel Vrash. "Come, Vrash and smite the nonbelievers! Come through the Ritual of the Absolute." Thus the ritual duelist revealed the Machine Angel Absolute Ritual, a spell that asked for an exact level match. But the Absolute ritual could take its tributes from the graveyard as well if they were warrior or fairy monsters. It shuffled Benten and Manju back into the deck and gave body and strength over to Vrash. The ultimate angel(10/3000/2500) [Zone 3] was graced with golden bracelets for her four arms, with six pixie-like wings and pixie-like red eyes, purple skin and a cone-tipped crown. "When Vrash is ritual summoned, all monsters summoned from the extra deck are destroyed! And you take one thousand points of damage for each destroyed card!" Holy light erupted from the golden gear ring hovering behind her head. It fired twice, and definitely ended the life of Cyberse Clock Dragon.

Home Teams LP: 9000

"I banish Cynet Refresh from my graveyard! My cyberse link monsters are unaffected by other effects this turn!" His RasterLiger on the other hand would be save for at least another moment, shielded by the activated Cynet trap. "And when Cyberse Clock Dragon is destroyed, I can add one spell from the deck to my hand!" he used that final power to claim the Pot of Avarice spell. "Your defenses were stronger than we thought, but this will not be without pain! Behold, the Magnificent Machine Angel! Last turn your monster had simply too much strength for this spell to be of use, this time it will be different!" When her quickplay spell came up, it sacrificed another Cyber Angel in her hand: Idaten. "The Majestic angel that this spell targets will gain two hundred attackpoints for each level on that sacrifice! And if Idaten herself is sacrificed, all ritual monsters gain an additional thousand attackpoints!" An over-abundance of attackpower got distributed between Izana(3500/2600) and Vrash(5200/2500). "Cyber Angel Vrash destroys RasterLiger!"

"Then Texchanger activates its effect! It can negate one attack by special summoning one normal type cyberse monster from my hand, deck or graveyard!" Before Vrash could come close to her target, she ran into heavy resistance in the form of a large cybernetic hammer. "I summon Suppression Collider!" Texchanger chose the strongest of all normal cyberse: a silverhaired ribbon-caped cyberknight(8/2800/2600) [Zone 6]. "I said that Vrash would destroy your monster!" GigaSavior kept her offense up regardless. Vrash' second effect allowed her to make two attacks if she had already destroyed one monster with her effect this turn. Additionally, Cyber Angel Izana could make two attacks on monsters each turn if her first attack proved successful. "And I meant it!" Vrash fired another beam of light, which Texchanger could not block this time. The blast turned the Liger to light particles.. Not too long after that, Texchanger and Suppression Collider were both carved into bits of data by Izana and her many axes. "You may have made me feel the same frustration as you, but that does not lower me to your level!"

Home Teams LP: 5800

-TURN 06-

"I don't care how frustrated you are. You are taking it out on the wrong man, at the wrong time and wrong place!" Charles let out another cry of anger. All of these attacks were only causing more damage to the house around him. He hardly recognized the place anymore with all the holes in it. "Ha! That's precisely why! He told us that doing this would make you mad! We want you to feel like we felt!" Cryomatic growled.

"Even so. This has gone on long enough. Nobody deserves to lose both homes on the same day, let alone a single one." Hydra took his turn, intending to do as much damage to them as he could. "I activate Boot Sector Launch! For each monster on the opponents field, I may summon one Rokket from the graveyard. For those keeping count, that means two summons." His opponents might have taken his link monsters away, but they would have been better served by removing the likes of Rokket Tracer(4/1600/1000) [Zone 2] and Exploderokket Dragon(7/2000/2000) [Zone 3]. "I presume this next part requires no explanation." The Tracer bullet dragon destroyed his card, Boot Sector Launch as well, to special summon a new Rokket Dragon, Magnarokket Dragon(4/1800/1100) [Zone 4], from the deck. "This is simple as well: Squib Draw destroys one Rokket to draw two cards." The spell targeted Exploderokket to make it, well, explode. As a result, Hydra drew a monster and a spell card. "...Hrm. This is also interesting. For you and me, Charles. I activate Monster Reborn on your fallen monster!" And he used the latter to special summon a monster from the graveyard: the RasterLiger(2000/LINK 4) {Left/Up/Down/Right} [Zone 3]

"You went with that one?" Charles blinked. "What can I say? I have a preference for the fourth link."

"Your sinful tastes will not save you, Hydra! That monster cannot destroy my angels as long as I control Vrash! And if you dare to target my angels, Izana will destroy your cards as well!" GigaSavior laughed as well, but only to mock him. "Oh I did not summon it for that reason. Behold.. I link summon Overburst Dragon. The materials are two Rokket Dragons." Magnarokket and Rokket Tracer blasted off into the linking circuit. Their linking created a yellow/blue steeled and spike-chinned dragon(1800/LINK 2) {Left/Right} [Zone 2] whose wings were made of light and guncylinders. "Overburst can reload one Rokket from my hand to the field as it were. Special summoning that Rokket Dragon to another link monster's marker. First however, I need to reload my own hand." Hydra said as he normal summoned a blade-winged computerchip dragon(3/600/1500) [Zone 4]. "Fortunately, this Hibernation Dragon can take one level four or lower dark dragon from my graveyard." With a swift hand he retrieved Magnarokket Dragon from his graveyard and let Overburst Dragon place it[Zone 4] back on the field, right next to RasterLiger.

"You only needed the links?" Cryomatic winced. "That and its power... But more importantly, I need my own link 4 monster. Since I special summoned a Dark Dragon, I can special summon Noctivision Dragon from my hand." The four-eyed night stalking dragon(7/0/2800) [Zone 5] emerged from Magnarokket Dragon's shadow, giving Hydra the last component for his own link summon. "Link summon! Borreload Dragon! The materials are three monsters!" Overburst, Noctivision and Hibernation Dragon crossed their own paths as they formed a fourway circuit. The extra deck exploded with the energy of the released hellish red gundragon: Borreload Dragon(3000/LINK 4) {Left/Downleft/Right/Downright} [Extra Zone 2]. And whenever Noctivision Dragon ended up in the graveyard after helping link summon a DARK Dragon, the duelist could draw one card.

"Ugh, what demon is this?" The cyber angel duelist stammered. "I just told you its name. And its power is this, when Borreload attacks, I can take control of its target!" With gunshot-like speed, Borreload slammed into the Cyber Angel Vrash. Because this effect did not target, Izana could not retaliate and Vrash[Zone 5] could not save herself.. from flying over to Hydra's side. "You poisoned her!" She cried out, as her ruling angel betrayed her. "I only did what I had to. Your sanctum is not as secure as you thought it was. Borreload can also target my monster, to weaken its attackpoints. But if I target Magnarokket, it will turn into a bullet itself." The Borrel Dragon did not see any reason not to target the Rokket. And doing so caused the magnum dragon to go through the Borrel Dragon's body and come back out like a missile. Magnarokket pierced the heart of Cyber Angel Izana and sent her far far away. "Now then.. you owe us some damage. Borreload, Crash, RasterLiger! Direct attack!" The time for onslaught was now. Borreload Dragon made the first strike with the cannon hidden between its teeth. "Gyah!" The impact clipped GigaSavior's wings and pulled her back to the ground.

Team Reborn's LP: 11200

"Rgh. This wont add up to our defeat." Cryomatic stated defiantly. Even though Hydra could also reactivate RasterLiger's effect, these attacks would not deplete all of their lifepoints. "Not yet. But it will do." RasterLiger targeted the Transcode Talker in Charles' graveyard anyway to add its 2300 attackpoints to the white cyber beast(4300 atk). The Liger and Cyber Angel surrounded the Ice Barrier duelist and caught him between a barrage of light and dark energy beams. "Argh!"

Team Reborn's LP: 2900

While Cryomatic writhed on the ground, his partner slowly managed to get back up. "He is too strong.. too vile. Static was right to be wary of you as well, Hydra." GigaSavior said while she stared wistfully at her own broken wing. "Static fears me?" Hydra had a hard time believing that claim. "He does not fear you, but he knows what you are capable of. We do too, Hydra. You cruelly ended Imperius' experience, robbed him of his future. It should have been him to challenge you once more. But now we see that he would just have failed again." The woman sighed. "Of that I have no doubt. I have become even stronger since then in fact." Hydra stated as he activated his spell, Allure of Darkness. With it he could draw two cards and banish one DARK monster (Tiamation the Iron Dragon) from his hand. "Then why are you stronger?" GigaSavior hissed. "Because I am not alone anymore." Hydra replied as he placed his other card face-down in the spell/trap zone. "I am part of a team." His turn ended afterwards, and the two destroyed Rokket Dragons in his graveyard summoned two new Rokket Dragons from the deck: Metalrokket(4/1900/100) [Zone 1] and Autorokket Dragon(4/1900/100) [Zone 5].

-TURN 07-

"Heh, teamwork? You really think you've formed a bond like that? How convenient that it only happens after we are already gone! Imperius took me down, and you took him down. All of you are alike! You did not do it to get revenge for me, you did it to prove your own strength! But I do not care how much you think you have improved! You can never beat me! I normal summon the Mirror Judge of the Ice Barrier! And when I control an Ice Barrier monster, I can special summon Vessel Miko of the Ice Barrier!" The ice barrier clan revealed two more of their many members. The Mirror Judge was a violet-longhaired swordswoman(4/1800/900) [Zone 3] who wore a white battle dress with her right shoulder and arm exposed. The Vessel Miko meanwhile appeared as a younger grey-haired girl(4/1000/1800) [Zone 5] in darkblue robes. "The Mirror Judge can return two Ice Barrier monsters from my graveyard to send back two cards from your graveyard!" He chose for each duelist, returning the Ice Barrier Frost Spirit and General Wayne to reshuffle two of his opponents cards as well (Hibernation Dragon, Cynet Refresh).

"Then my Attendant of the Ice Barrier activates its effect from the graveyard! It targets a level three or higher Ice Barrier card and reduced that level by two. Then the Attendant is special summoned!" The Mirror Judge raised her sword, and a shadow of ice formed behind her(2/1800/900) with its own sword. That would be the Attendant(2/500/300) [Zone 1] "In that case Borreload Dragon's effect activates!" Hydra had a bad feeling, one he would like to shoot down. "What? Why now?" It caught Charles off guard as well, when Metalrokket got targeted to have it destroy the Ice Barrier Attendant.

"Because I remember which Generals he has yet to play, Raiho. If he summons that, I would not be able to activate any effects unless I can discard my cards." And Hydra did not have any of those. "Hoho. Your intuition is sharp. But I accounted for that as well. I activate the Calm after the Ice Barriers Storm! I will sacrifice my current Ice Barriers to special summon new Ice Barriers from my deck!" The snow hurricane came back in force as soon as Cryomatic unveiled his spell. But the blizzard dispersed just as quickly, once the Mirror Judge and Vessel Miko had been buried underneath the snow. In their place two level 4 Ice Barrier monsters could be summoned: another Mirror Master(4/1700/1000) and... another Attendant(2/500/300) [Zone 1]. "I activate Rapid Trigger! Destroying two Dark Dragons to fuse them!" The third of the three targets arranged its own disappearing act.

"A fusion summon?" The quickplay spell blew up Borreload Dragon and Autorokket Dragon, fusing the two DARK Dragons into a new form of Borreload(8/3000/2500) [Extra Zone 2] with spiked black plates a trident's tail. "Borreload Furious Dragon's effect can destroy one monster on either side of the field!" The fusion dragon fired two shotsfrom the magnetic cannons on its claws and blew RasterLiger up along with the Ice Barrier Attendant. "Bah! So you made up a new fusion just because you're so scared of my General? But you could not even imagine anything that would not hurt your friend as well!"

"I can banish the first Mirror Judge from my graveyard, if I activate an Ice Barrier monster's effect that would cost me a card in my hand!" The dead could still help the living. The Mirror Judge on the field banished the first to special summon another Ice Barrier tuner from the deck, another Frost Spirit(1/400/200) [Zone 2]. This time the Frost lizard spirit(4/400/200) discarded a level 3 Ice Barrier monster (Strategist of the Ice Barrier) to assume its level. "And... I can banish Vessel Miko of the Ice Barrier, to create one token! It was that simple to get the essential materials once again!" With the creation of the Ice Barrier Token(1/0/0) all the frozen pieces were in place. "Now, I synchro summon Trishula the Dragon of the Ice Barrier!" The Mirror Master, token and Frost Spirit all tuned into one three-headed terror: the original Ice Barrier Dragon(9/2700/2000) [Extra Zone 1]. "Now say farewell to your cards!" Each Trishula head would banish one card: Transcode Talker in the graveyard, the spell card in Charles' hand Borreload Furious Dragon on the field. "Direct attack!" The next attack salvo used the icy breath of all three dragon heads at once and covered the field around Charles and Hydra in great sharp icicles.

Home Teams LP: 3100

-TURN 08-

"Static played you from the very beginning. But it is not too late for you to do what you really wanted to do.. after we are done here. You may even get a chance at revenge.. Though I don't intend to let Him torment us for much longer!" Charles entered his main phase. With Cynet Optimize still on his field he could normal summon two cyberse this turn. "I summon Cyberse Wizard and RAM Clouder! The latter can tribute one monster to special summon one cyberse from my graveyard!" The electric white sheep(4/1800/1000) {Zone 1] chose to sacrifice the Cyberse Wizard(4/1800/900) [Zone 7] himself in order to resurrect RasterLiger(2000/Link 4) [Zone 7]. "Then I will link summon Progleo! Its materials are two non token monsters!" While the white Liger guarded one side, a smaller white cyberlion(1000) {Left/Right} [Zone 6] popped up next to it: made from RAM Clouder and Silverrokket Dragon. "Progleo can banish itself and one of the monsters it is linked with, to special summon any link monster from the graveyard!" Charles declared. "Wait? You're giving up your link monster just after you summoned it?"

"Think again, Cryomatic." At first one could believe that Progleo only pointed towards RasterLiger. However... "What? You cannot do that!" It technically also pointed at Hydra's Anesthrokket Dragon. "I do not see any rules that say I cannot. It is our combined field, even if we use our own zones." Indeed, the dueldisk did not stop him. He did not even have to go through the steps this way, but he wanted to prove something. "Hydra is a part of us now, and this is our victory!" Progleo banished itself and the Rokket to bring back one of Hydra's link monsters: Borreload Dragon [Zone 6]. "I see. Then you know what to do!" This move put a big smile on Hydra's face. "I do! Borreload! Attack Trishula of the Ice Barrier!" Charles had seen this effect enough times by now. The Borrel dragon reached out towards the three-headed Ice Dagon with its claws and took control of the synchro monster[Zone 8]. "But.. our revenge."

"I am sorry, Cryomatic... Savior. I am sorry that Static made you do this. But it is not too late for you.. We may meet again once this is all over. But not like this. This all stops now! RasterLiger! Trishula, direct attack!" Both monsters took advantage of their wide-open defenses. Borreload blasted Cryomatic with an infernal breath and RasterLiger fired its cannon into GigaSavior's body. "No!" The attacks damaged the two avatars beyond repair, and made them vanish like spirits in the wind.

Team Reborn's LP: 0

"It's done. They returned to wherever it was they were sleeping." Hydra nodded, thanking Charles for their decisive victory. "It is never done.. not for him. Static is just going to keep sending people until he gets what he wants. Because he is too much of a coward to risk himself." Charles cursed. "So.. do we join the others or do you want to check up on your family?" There was no telling which way Static had fled. "If I go to my parents now, Static may find out where they are hidden." Charles shook his head. He trusted Blanche to have said the truth about them being safe. "Tell Scarlet Rose and the others, we're going in as well." Charles looked over the wreckage of his own family home. "If Static wants to destroy what I care about, I will destroy what he cares about..."

...

"Hey hey! I thought you'd be in deeper by now!?" Blanche yelled as she and Cherry caught up with V's group inside the castle. "Also Geez, what's up with this place?" They were not yet inside the actual tower, but their cloak got them all the way into Scura's old nightclub already. "Not so loud." Mephistar would like them to stay hidden for the rest of their climb. "Geez, relax. These programs hide our sound too, don't they?" Cherry just laughed it off. She'd wished she could have gotten a mute button for life a long time ago. "Why didn't we do this the subconscious way again?"

"If you'd paid attention, you would know that it is impossible to warp across the tower through the subconscious realm. Charles only scraped the surface and my scanners could not penetrate the outer layer either. So we had to go inside to break the first barrier and also to accurately pinpoint the core's location." Vigionaire explained with a frustrated tone. "Did we do something wrong? Is everyone still alright out there? Maybe we should ask Scarlet?" Echo did not have a good feeling about any of this. "No. The simple fact is that no plan survives long when its put to practice. But we have enough margins for error. Scarlet Rose will call us if anything goes against the plan.. anything more that is. We have to stick to our own roles." Vigionaire did not want to rock the boat when everything had gone smoothly so far. The few stragglers they did encounter in the castle were unable to challenge them due to Echo's power. "Now keep your guard up.. because the next level is..."

Scarlet's laboratory. "What in.." Mephistar snarled. The lab looked a little different. "Are we in the right place?" Gone were the torch lit hallways and the dark tomb cells. Gone were the many coffins. It all looked like one giant enclosed theater carved out of stone. "I don't know. Scarlet and I never bothered to map out this area since Scarlet Fever always rearranges the layouts. But I do know there's never been a room like this before.." Vigionaire let his scanners sweep through the room to check for an exit. Instead he detected significant power sources embedded in seven pillars. "These signatures... They match.. But that can't be!" He had to see them from up close. The pillars were actually made of light and held certain items within. "It is!" Crowns. "They all are!" Lances, Shields, Chalices.. each pillar contained multiple copies of the legacy items. "These cannot be the real thing! She made copies of them! But why!?"

(To Be Continued in World 082: The Nonexistence of Violet)

New Cards used by Hydra
Overburst Dragon

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Borreload Furious Dragon

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Rapid Trigger

New Cards used by Charles Adami
Catche Eve L2

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Progleo

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Waking the Dragon

Cards used by GigaSaviorSefirot
Cyber Angel Izana
Cyber Angel Vrash

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Machine Angel Absolute Ritual
Magnificent Machine Angel

New Cards used by Cryomatic
ABSOLUTE ZERO MIRROR

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Mirror Judge of the Ice Barrier
Vessel Miko of the Ice Barrier
General Raiho of the Ice Barrier

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The Calm After the Ice Barrier's Storm