World 058: The Shadow That Wanted More
The opinions among the duelists of STHEREA largely sounded the same. "So wait, is the raid over? I dont get it! Do we win anything?" After an intense battle against hundreds, if not thousands of ADI opponents, they were forced to stand down by the champions and admins. "I dont know. I think we should count ourselves lucky that they didn't kick us out yet." They were confused and frustrated: a good deal of their avatars had already been rendered scarred and inoperable. "Maybe the price was the friends we made along the way?" One girl suggested jokingly. "Dont you start!" A guy cursed. "This his still ongoing, its all a campaign. First that girl in the wheelchair lets us in, then she sicks her minions on us. But we're still standing, so we still have a chance!" And another refused to believe that any of it mattered.
"You do have a chance." Said a gold-covered zombie duelist who approached this separated trio of duelists. "Bionis?" The third of them vaguely saw some resemblance between this mystery man and the duelist he knew from the forums. But Khan the Conqueror had distanced himself even further from his original look, letting his virtual body rot down to the bone in some places. "You know who I am. And I know you.. IlluminatorOfTheDeep, Samaelectric, Hollowcide." Khan recognized the other two as semi-popular duel streamers like Neo had been. "Geez, what happened to you? What is even going on? You told me to show up and help you fight. But instead you were fighting on the side of the ADIs!" IlluminatorOfTheDeep started yelling at his supposed online friend. "Maybe he got brainwashed? I heard some admins talking about that." Hollowcide was beginning to feel apprehensive as well. "Ha! I was not brainwashed, I just upgraded myself. The only ones being controlled here are you guys; Exeter is using you to stop us. They don't want everyone to know the truth that I do."
"And what is that truth?" Samaelectric inquired. "I can only show you if you take these." Khan responded by handing out a blank card. "Huh? It's empty? What is this? Another Millennium thing? You always said that they were just full of ^$*&!" Illuminator was the only one to accept the card, but even he had his reservations about this. "They were. I am not. That what you're holding there IS the prize. I already took it, and now Exeter cannot control me anymore with their lies and time limits. If you put it in your deck, you will be free too. And together we can fight back against the true oppressor! We are not the enemy, that is just what people want you to think. You have to think for yourself a little, Illuminator! You remember what we researched before! That was just the tip of the iceberg! Do you want to stop now and continue to be a sheep? Or are you a real champion of the truth?" Khan laid out every argument he could, knowing that it would convince his friend. "Heh, and you called me the dramatic one. Well fine, I wont let you call me a chicken!" So he inserted the card into his dueldisk. "Thank you, buddy."
As soon as he did, the disk exploded with a dark energy that spread out across the alleyway. "Gah! What the?" Samaelectric recoiled, but the pitchblack miasma surrounded him and Hollowcide as well. "Sorry, pals. You're coming along for the ride." Khan laughed out loud. "She did tell me to take at least three subjects! Time to see if the Fever does the trick!"
...
Mephistar's LP: 8000 Hieronymus' LP: 5800
Meanwhile, in a similar yet entirely different street, Mephistar faced his own demons in many ways. Judge Hieronymus came at him with a powered up Tindangle Acute Cerberus(6200/LINK 3) [Extra Zone 2]. "Since Tindangle Dholes was used as a link material for my monster, It can attack three times in one turn!" All three heads of the Cerberus would feast this battle phase. Mephistar only controlled the fire Twin Aruha(4/1500/1500) [Zone 3] and the Unchained Abomination(3000/LINK 4) [Extra Zone 1]. Both were in attack mode and both faced death, and Mephistar did not know whether or not to let it happen. Did he even deserve to exist instead of the judge, whose mind he'd been based on? "Mephistar! This is not a good time to space out!" Madam Blanche had to yell at him to snap him out of it. "I dont get whats going on or understand whatever he is.. But I know you, and you're a friend that I dont want to lose! I doubt you wanna lose either!" She'd seen enough loss for one lifetime already.
"A friend?" Mephistar flinched. "Rgh. You are right! I should not go back to being just a memory! I deserve to live!" Mephistar shouted at the cusp of defeat. "Then live on in me! Your will may still persist as part of my own!" Hieronymus offered. "If that's the case, then you shouldn't have any problems with me doing that to you! If you want to fuse with me or whatever, fine! But I will be the one in charge! Or is that gonna be problematic for you?" The chained duelist stared long and hard at his supposed double. The Judge gave no response.
"I thought so. You do not want to join me, you want to end me. Well, I am not the one going back to hell! I activate the Dark Spirit of Banishment!" A screaming two-headed ghost left his hand and haunted the field of battle with his own shield and sword. "It summons one level eight fiend from my graveyard, and redirects the attack towards it!" The gross ghosts transformed into a defense-mode Unchained Soul of Disaster(8/600/3000) [Zone 5], who intercepted the dark blact of Tindangle Acute Cerberus. "When it is destroyed, I can special summon one Unchained monster from my graveyard!" When the black flames were done burning the Disaster away, the defending water Twin Rakea(1500/1500) [Zone 5] had replaced it. And to add further insult to injury, the Dark Spirit of Banishment could add itself back to the players hand when a level 8 fiend died and entered the graveyard. "Damn you!" Hieronymus lost his chance to end the duel here and now.
"I already feel damned enough. Now since you destroyed my card, my link monster can destroy one of yours!" The Unchained Abomination lashed back at its would-be attacker. Tindangle Cerberus could not be destroyed while it was protected by Tindangle Returner(8/3000) [Zone 3], and that card could not die while Nagel's Protection existed on the field. So Mephistar destroyed the continuous triangle spell instead. "Then I activate Unchained Rakea's effect, and destroy one card I control!" On his side he caused the death of the Fire Twin Aruha, letting her bluer sister crush her inside chains of water. And since she'd been destroyed, Sundown could special summon the demon monk Abominable Unchained Soul(8/3000/1500) [Zone 3] from the deck to the field in defense mode. "No matter how many times you try to chain me down, the fact is that I am not going away, Sundown Mephistar!" The judge declared another attack with Acute Cerberus, finally killing the Unchained Abomination with unholy flames.
Mephistar's LP: 4800
"No matter how many parts of me you destroy, I will keep coming back." Mephistar laughed. Even if Hieronymus wanted to keep attacking, his destroyed monsters would just be replaced with more Unchained cards or they'd revive at the end of the turn. That's why the judge ended the battle phase before the third strike, placing only two cards face down in the backrow. "You're lying to yourself." The Acute Cerberus also created a Tindangle token(1/0/0) at the end of the phase, with its secondary effect. "Am I? I am more than a ghost. More than you. So what about you? The real Hieronymus may be in here somewhere after all, but he is not you. If anything, he is suffering because of you too. But I will set him free as well."
-TURN 05-
"You still do not get it. Your life is fleeting, your soul temporary. You will destroy yourself at this rate. Your only salvation lies with me." Hieronymus flipped his trap card: Gergonne's End. "The Gergonne triangle will make my monster immune to destruction and targeted effects! And when a third monster is summoned to his linked zones, I can destroy all linked cards and inflict 6200 points of damage to your lifepoints!" Already the Cerberus had two of its heads looming over two other monsters: Tindangle Returner and Jhrelth(3/0/1800) [Zone 3]. On the next standby phase the continuous Euler's Circuit spell would give control of another monster to Sundown, the Tindangle Token. One way or another, Hieronymus would fill the fourth column. Mephistar was running out of time. "I decide if how I will live and die, Hieronymus. I spent too much time in darkness already, I am not about to experience it again..." So he proceeded to activate his own Allure of Darkness spell to draw two new cards and banish one DARK monster (Dark Spirit of Banishment).
"..I summon Sarama, the Unchained Twin!" A bolt of purple lightning lit up the streets and revealed a horned demon child(3/1500/1500) [Zone 1] with purple hair, longsleeved open robes and red tattoos glowing all over his body. "There's a third one? Shouldn't they be called triplets then?" Blanche remarked. This twin belonged to the element of darkness, rather than fire or water. "Perhaps. I do not name the cards. I did not really name myself either. But we are all one happy family here. Sarama can set one Unchained card from my graveyard to the field, then destroy one card I control!" He used her effect to set the Unchained Disaster Soul [Zone 2], and targeted it for destruction in the same breath. "When Abominable Chamber is destroyed,.. well, you know the rest." Mephistar reactivated the destroyed Disaster's revival effect and resurrected the Unchained Soul of Rage(1800/LINK 2) {Up/Down} [Zone 2] this turn around. Only one monster zone remained open, but he did not have to fear Gergonne's End for much longer. "Then, I activate Link Burst! I can destroy my link monster and your card at the same time!"
"Argh!" Hieronymus recoiled as the Bursting spell detonated the Soul of Rage and Gergonne's trap. With it gone, Acute Cerberus was no longer protected. "When Soul of Rage is destroyed, I can add one Unchained Twin from the graveyard to my hand. Link Burst itself also lets me draw one card." And Mephistar's options were getting better and better. "Rakea's effect reactivates!" The aquatic twin claimed another life, her own dark sister. Much like the other Unchained Twins, a destroyed Sarama could also special summon one monster from the deck. So, the third and final Unchained Soul of Disaster(8/1800/3000) [Zone 1] left the deck. "Agin? And again and again?" Hieronymus could not save his link monster anymore. "Yes, I will never stop. Unchained Soul of Disaster absorbs Acute Cerberus!" With his one monster taking the enemy's Link 3 card as a material, the Unchained duelist could go straight to the 4th link circuit and link summon another Unchained Abomination(3000/LINK 4) {Up/Downleft/Down/Downright} [Extra Zone 1].
"Wailing of the Unchained Souls activates again! And so does the Abomination!" History would keep repeating. Mephistar's continuous spell destroyed Tindangle Jhrelth after the link summon of the Unchained, while the link monster itself could destroy Tindangle Returner after the death of another card. "The cycle never ends." Echo murmured. But despite her feelings, the duel itself seemed to be just about over. "Are you really going to do it?" She did not know what would happen to the judge if he continued his assault. "I cannot quit now. He would see that as a sign of defeat. There is always a loser in a showdown, Echo. We cannot both win, because we cannot be the same." Mephistar clenched his fist and tore off another chain from his arm. "But I will promis you and promise him that if any part of Hieronymus exists here, in front of me or somewhere else deep inside this emptyness.. then I will do my best to free him too! I owe him that much." He ordered the first set of attacks. Rakea decapitated the Tindangle token and the Abominable Soul bombarded the Judge with black phantom energy.
Hieronymus' LP: 2800
"So it failed. Hmph. But you will never find him, Mephistar! I activate Tindangle Delaunay! Since I took battle damage, I can special summon another Tindangle Acute Cerberus from my extra deck! I.."
Sundown's LP: 2400
"Too slow, partner. But at least know you do not have to pretend anymore." Mephistar snapped his fingers and revealed the card that cost him half his lifepoints: a counter trap that could also be activated from the hand. "Ah? Red.. Reboot?" Hieronymus's hand twitched when the trap got shot out of his hands. Red Reboot negated the activation of Tindangle Delaunay and forced it back face-down. "Yes. That card, the one that started me on my new road. That is my memory, not yours." The space between him and his opponent remained empty, clear of distractions. "My life. Not yours." And the Abomination set forth on that wasteland, raising its unchained claw above the judge's head. "Let go of whatever you have! So that we can both be free!" It came down with stone-pulverizing speed, leaving only a crater where once the judge of the law stood.
Hieronymus' LP: 0
"Did we.. do the right thing?" Echo asked with a timid voice. "Static will not let us do the right thing." Mephistar replied. He found no enjoyment in this victory. "But it's all.. going away again." The girl noted as she was forced back in her wheelchair while the dark streets around them were swallowed by the dreamfog, piece by piece. "Memories are memories, Echo. You should know that the ones you have do not take away from the ones that created them. I am not holding Hieronymus back anymore... Static is. I do not know if he had actually imprisoned that man's mind in this world somehow. But this was not him, this was a trap. He has set them wherever he can, to keep us from even coming close to finding the real souls. But he failed this time. Just like he could not convert Blanche he could not convert me. Which means that there is nobody left among us that he can block." The chained duelist smirked. Though he'd forgotten one duelist. "Oh no, Cherry!" Echo cried out her name.
"Cierze should have found her, right? And you can sense her, so we just gotta follow her trail. Besides, I am sure she could handle herself..." Blanche quickly reminded her as an assurance. "Maybe. But I want to be sure. And I know how we can move faster now." Echo sat down in her wheelchair and clapped her hands twice. Suddenly her chair transformed into a larger mechanical horse with six seats and two mobile wings. "Oh! Like a carousel ride! I get it!" Blanche jumped on board immediately.
The chained duelist hesitated. "Come on Mephistar. After all of that, you deserve to relax a little too." He looked too exhausted to move on his own power right now anyway. "Ha. This would technically be the first time I ever rode one of these.. Me and the other guy." He sighed and entered the mechanical vehicle as well. He did not know why that particular memory came to him right now, perhaps he'd managed to reconnect with Hieronymus just a little after all. "Well, let's go save those other two. And then maybe we can finally go somewhere in this nightmare." At this rate the others would be done with their mission before they could even save one hostage.
...
"I found another one!" Tycho shouted, holding up a wooden key. "That makes seven. Of course it does." Charles groaned. The next test of Shintaro Test turned out to be a simple fetch quest. Heleil came across the first key on a table inside one of the few houses that could be entered. More popped up across the inner city, hidden in climbable towers or inside hollowed out trees. Some like Heleil had more fun than others, but Charles and Tycho were glad that it was over. "You don't think there's any more of these?" Tycho found the last one burning inside a torch, which he had to kick over to safely retrieve it. They did not prove very challenging to collect. "It always comes down to that number. Either they generated seven keys because we arrived with seven people, or they are trying to teach us something." Not many people knew that seven legacy items existed after all, yet the Shintaros did. Each key also had a unique shape. And seeing all seven at once made it clear that those shaped mimicked those of the items in some way.
"Or maybe they wanted us to learn teamwork. If even one of us failed to make it through the gates, or if we turned on each other, we would not be able to proceed." The Fisherman pointed out and looked at Zettai. "That does not mean that they expected us specifically. Static also has more than enough allies. To me it feels more like they are trying to delay us. However, trying to understand the desires of these people is futile." Zettai clenched her own key with a tight fist. "Either way, they want us to use these..." She saw only one door that remained unopened, the one for the castle itself. Two great iron doors blocked the way to the inside, to the great stronghold connected with every wall and every tower. "Let us not keep them waiting."
Her conclusion proved to be accurate. As soon as the seven regrouped outside the castle gate, it opened the doors for them just like the gates guarded by the Karakuri Units. "Guh!" And inside, there were more of them. "Look out!" Heleil immediately snapped into a defensive stance. "Hold it." But Hydra made her lower her dueldisk. "They are not stopping us." He did not see a single one of them move. They just stood in every corner of the entrance hall, standing on the floor planks, in front of every staircase and around the great wooden column at the center. "Are they on standby or something?" Heleil did not get it; this number could easily overpower them if they wanted too. "Maybe they only react to threats. There are various ways we can go now, we need to pick the safest one. Remember, this is just a virtual barricade to slow us down. What we need to do is find the control hub. There has to be one section in this closed system from where Shintaro can enter this location."The Virtual Exeter building had one like it too. "Well, thank god its not a stealth mission at least. So do we go up or down?"
-TURN 01-
"Down." The Fisherman answered the fusion champion first. "Huh? Doesn't up make more sense?" Heleil figured that's where she would have hidden herself if she was the boss of this bizarre game world. "I think I know another reason why this place exists. Olympia.."
"Olympia? You think she is here?" Crescent gasped. "Where else could she be? Unlike Himiko, she cannot be held captive outside of a virtual space. At first I did not think that she could be here, no. Mephistar never saw anything like this. But now that we are inside, I feel her presence somehow. She is close by, beneath us." The Fisherman did not have a lot of experience with game worlds himself, but he could imagine the world below being a better place for prisoners than any place high on top. "A dungeon." Crescent shuddered. It sounded like they were going to the levels below then. The Karakuri machines allowed them to pass without incident, they only served as an unsettling backdrop as their many eyes always followed their movements. The stairs went down several twists and turns until finally they stopped in front of a set of screendoors. "..."The Fisherman carefully moved the folding doors sideways and encountered the one on the other side. He, unlike the others, had a pair of normal human eyes.
"Turn back. You are headed the wrong way." A sternfaced man in full samurai robes barred their path, sitting on a matras inside what appeared to be a dojo room. More doors were behind him, similarly blocked by Karakuri units. But all eyes were upon the human sentry. "Zanbatou?" Because everyone there recognized him. "We meet again, sir Void. No. I should address you by your true name now, sir Adami." Zanbatou bowed his head before the cyberse duelist. "I regret to inform you and your companions that the area beneath me is off limits. Shintaro commend you on passing the second trial, but the third trial waits for you at the top of the tower." He spoke with a polite yet unyielding tone, which was how they remembered him being. Still, this encounter seemed unlikely. Charles wanted to ask him what he'd gone through since they last saw him, which was weeks ago at the tagteam tournament. "Then what is beneath you?" Instead he had to know, what secrets were they keeping here? "I cannot answer that. Nor can I let you find out." The samurai duelist got up and revealed the dueldisk hidden in his sleeve. "If you continue on this path, then I will have no choice but to take you on."
"You? Or them?" Zettai scoffed at his declaration. Zanbatou could just as likely let the Karakuris take care of them if they tried to swarm him. "No. He would not want a machine to do the dueling for him. That is not his way. Yet I have no choice either, but to continue." The Fisherman stepped through the door opening. One Karakuri drone tried to intercept, but Zanbatou silently waved him off. "And yet you, a machine, chooses to be his opponent? Even if your Fire Princess is here, do you think he will let you see her if you win?" The ace duelist sneered. Just because one guess turned out to be correct, did not mean that Zanbatou would be lenient all the time. "I do believe that. He was once a man of honor. But I duel not just for Olympia's sake. I duel for Yoro-Himiko's sake as well, and for anything else that might have been hidden down here that they do not want us to find. So yes, I will be his opponent."
Fisherman's LP: 8000 Zanbatou's LP: 8000
"So be it." Zanbatou activated his dueldisk and started drawing cards. As did the Fisherman. "We are more alike than you think in fact, Zanbatou. Miss Echo met your lady Yoro-Himiko once, and heard about your devotion towards her. Because of that, I was born. I was made from such feelings." In truth Echo had based all of her new friends on the people she met before: and he did not owe his personality to just Zanbatou and Himiko alone. "So she made you just to serve her?" Zettai scoffed. "No. From the very beginning she gave me the freedom to choose. And I chose to be at her side. But now it seems he has chosen to no longer be at his friend's side."
-TURN 01-
"You are wasting your words." Zanbatou interrupted his opponent with the activation of a continuous spell: Gateway of the Six. The spell created wooden doors that sealed off everything behind him, literally forcing anyone to duel him to get through. The Gate would also accumulate two Bushido counters each time a Six Samurai got summoned. "This is what Shintaro demands." He normal summoned the first Six Samurai, the redheaded female samurai Hatsume(3/1600/1500) [Zone 3] of the water, and added two Bushido Counters to the symbol lock on the Gate spell. "There is nothing left to be said." Finally he tributed Hatsume to special summon a warrior of a different clan alltogether. This one(4/1000/1000) [Zone 3] had blue skin and orange hair and wore a long blue armor coat with white gloves and hornbolts.
-TURN 02-
"Silent Swordsman?" Charles did not expect to see such a classic monster here, now that they were standing in front of the samurai duelist Zanbatou. "Fisherman, watch out. This card can negate one spell each turn." The cyberse duelist warned Zanbatou's opponent, while Zanbatou placed a spell of his own face down near the end of his turn. "One spell each turn you say." The Fisherman noted a few other effects were also at play here. The Silent Swordsman(4/1500/1500) who Zanbatou had special summoned by sacrificing a warrior monster, gained 500 attackpoints during each standby phase as well. "You mean, like this?" So he activated the field spell of the Deep Sea City: Magellanica. "..." Zanbatou let his enemy experience the power of silence right away. Silent Swordsman lifted his overly large sword and cut down the spell card before it could visualize the deep sea and its city. "No lies so far then. But I can advance outside of my own terrain, mister Zanbatou! We shall see if your defense lasts!"
(To Be Continued in World 059: Redundant Loyalty)
New Cards used by Mephistar
Dark Spirit of Banishment
Unchained Twins - Sarama
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Allure of Darkness
Link Burst
New Cards used by Zanbatou
Silent Swordsman