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.

71. World 063: Inside a Black and White Box

World 063: Inside a Black and White Box

"What have you done? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

They were not moving. Her mother and father were not moving anymore. They just lied there, their bodies limp and their eyes blank. "Yoro-Himiko. It is done." She had done this, Zettai the ace duelist. She cut them both down in front of their daughter, she wielded the sword that ended their lives here in their own home. "How could you!?" Himiko did not believe this. Years of frustration and resentment towards her parents paled in comparison to the hatred and shock created by this one act. "I understand your feelings, but it had to be done. They would have replaced you with a mindless automaton and called that their daughter. They were not alive anymore, they did not deserve to live anymore. Now you are free." All the while Zettai seemed nothing but sympathetic towards the one whose family she had just slaughtered. This Himiko understood least of all. "How can you say that What is wrong with you!? Do you not feel the slightest regret for your actions at all?"

"This is... not the Zettai you know anymore, Himiko." Charles spoke up. Like everyone else, he'd been stunned into silence by this horrifying act. Even Tycho Rivers felt that Zettai had gone too far, though he never looked away from the two bodies on the floor. "You are not Zettai anymore. You are just a rabid dog created by Static." And Charles himself wanted to curse his own ignorance. For just a moment he'd been thinking that some of Zettai's better aspects were in control. But he had under-estimated how thoroughly twisted the duelists mind had become because of Static. "No, she is not. First the Valkyrion Warrior, now these two. Whatever madness ailed them, they did not deserve this. This is not the way." The Fisherman too felt no more sympathy for the ace duelist in her current form. Echo would never have allowed it, and none of them could forgive it.

"I do not care what she is." Nakana Shintaro least of all. "Himiko?" Crescent gasped as the daughter of Shintaro suddenly changed her appearance. The virtual clothes and longer hair of Yoro-Himiko the zombie princess manifested on top of Nakana. Her real-life self and her avatar were merging back together, to sync up with this fused virtual/solid world. A dueldisk also appeared on her arm. "I only want to know how to destroy her." She could only think of one way to take revenge, and she would have it. "Fight me, Zettai!"

Yoro-Himiko's LP: 8000 Zettai's LP: 8000

-TURN 01-

"What?" Zettai hadn't counted on this. She did not get the first turn either. "How many cards are in your deck, Zettai?" The zombie princess asked coldly. "Why do you ask me this?" Even the ace found this question too surprising to answer. "Because I intend to take it all from you. There is one way to find out either way." Himiko revealed her first spell: That Grass Looks Greener. "That card?!" Only the most elite of duelist could afford a card as limited as that spell, and Zettai knew it would lead to nothing but problems for her. "Only forty. Good." The Green Grass would discard cards from the top of Himiko's deck until their decksizes were about the same. Including the cards that were already drawn, Zettai's deck counted 40 cards total while Himiko's held 60 cards. This meant that she would be sending 20 cards to the graveyard all at once, some of them cards that could activate their effect from there. But it would not be her own cards that Himiko wanted to see fall into the grave. "Now, I summon the Soul Absorbing Bone Tower." Instead she would climb into the skies, with a monstrous tower(3/400/1500) [Zone 1] made from the bones of the undead.

"You're going to discard cards from her deck?" Crescent gasped. The Bone Tower would send two cards away from Zettai's deck each time a zombie monster got special summoned. "No, I am going to Destroy All of her deck. To destroy her before she can even lay a finger on it!" Yoro-Himiko possessed the one deck that could feasibly do enough special summons in a single turn, especially with her own graveyard already prepared.

"This is foolishness. If you truly want to fight, then you must face the consequences. One way or another, you will see what I am trying to do for you." Zettai was not entirely helpless however, she could still activate her Infinite Impermanence trap card from the hand since there were no cards on her field. "No, you will be the one to face the consequences for what you have done! You cannot run away from this!" Unfortunately one of the many discarded cards in Himiko's graveyard was the trap of Shiranui Style Success. She could banish it to target her own zombie monster, the Soul Absorbing Bone Tower, and make it immune to any and all card effects besides its own. "Argh. Why do you judge me? What I did was right! What I did was just!" Zettai cursed as the Infinite trap failed to affect the deck destroying monster. "What you did was murder! You killed my father! You killed my mother! There can be no forgiveness for that! There can be no justification for that!" All that remained to her now, was vengeance..

"Yasha!" And it began with the element of darkness. "I discard one Mayakashi, to special summon him!" The first zombie to stir the restless Bone Tower was the bald corpse priest Yasha(5/2000/0) [Zone 3]. He discarded the Mayakashi Hajun to summon himself, while two souls (Evenly Matched, Sky Striker Ace Roze) were absorbed from Zettai's deck. "Then I can banish Mezuki from my graveyard to special summon Hajun!" What had been discarded soon rose from its fresh grave. Mezuki's zombie revival effect targeted Mayakashi Hajun the ravenhaired necromancer(1/600/400) [Zone 2]. Hajun himself could then special summon another Mayakashi from the deck: Dakki the nine-tailed fox woman(2/1000/0) and tuner monster. "That was two more special summons." Crescent kept track of every instance.. ""Her deck has shrunk down to twenty nine cards." ..every time the Bone Tower would reap two more cards from the top of Zettai's deck, while she could only watch helplessly. "That is not good enough! I wont be satisfied til she is bled dry!"

"I link summon Yuki-Onna the Ice Mayakashi!" And so the reaving cycle truly began. Yasha and Dakki were used as the link materials for the ice ghost princess Yuki-Onna(1900/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 1]. And since a monster had been summoned from the extra monster zone, Dakki[Zone 1] could bring herself back to life. "Twenty five cards left." Crescent whispered as the Bone Tower reacted to both the link summon and the tuner's summon. "Synchro summon! Oboro-Guruma!" It would be the same for the next several minutes. Dakki synchronized with Hajun to summon the flame-wheeled demon carriage Oboro-Guruma(5/2000/1800) [Zone 3] and linked up with Yuki-Onna. Dakki herself got special summoned back to the field afterwards, and the Bone Tower ate four more souls. "Twenty one cards left." Immediately after that, Himiko synchronized Dakki with the synchro monster to climb to the fifth level. "Synchro summon! Tsuchigumo!" Thus creating the poisonous black spider(5/2000/1800) [Zone 3] of the earth. "Seventeen cards left."

"Stop! You do not know what you are doing!" Zettai began to feel desperation, when there seemed to be no end in sight. "Did you know what you were doing? When you ended my parents lives?" Himiko demanded to hear her excuses as she simply performed another synchro summon between the still reviving Dakki and Tsuchigumo. This time Tengu the Winged Mayakashi(7/2600/1500) [Zone 3] emerged from the extra deck. "They were going to kill you! They were going to replace you with a mindless servant! They did not love you!" The ace duelist screamed. "What could you know about my family? What would you know about loving parents?" The daughter asked cruelly, and tuned Dakki with Tengu to create the Nine-tailed fire Mayakashi Yoko(9/2900/2400) [Zone 3]. "You do not need a family that does not love you! You do not need them! The world does not need them!" Zettai insisted, feeling more and more personally involved. "That still does not give you the right to decide their fate!" Himiko retorted as she performed her final synchro summon: creating Gashadokuro the Skeletal Mayakashi(11/3300/2600) [Zone 3] with Yoko and Dakki as the synchro materials.

But now it seemed like the synchro loop had reached its natural conclusion. "Five cards left." Crescent had seen the Bone Tower absorb twelve more cards. "You mean she cannot make it to the end?" Charles did not like to see Himiko get consumed by anger, but he knew it would only be worse for her if she were to lose this duel. And if she came short now, she would face an ace duelist with a monumental amount of power already added to her graveyard.

"I activate my spell... Ghost Meets Girl - A Mayakashi's Manuscript. I can special summon one zombie monster from my graveyard if it has the same attribute as a synchro monster I control." Gashadokuro the giant armored skeleton bore the symbol of Darkness, so her quickplay spell would resurrect the DARK Corpse priest Mayakashi Yasha[Zone 4]. The Soul Absorbing Bone Tower devoured two more cards, leaving Zettai with three. "And I link summon, Yuki-Onna the Absolute Zero Mayakashi!" Yuki-Onna, Yasha and Dakki disappeared into a frozen link circuit. The sound of shattering ice filled the room as the pure white-skinned Yuki-Onna used her extra link materials to evolve into her Absolute Zero form(2900/LINK 4) {Left/Downleft/Right/Downright} [Extra Zone 1]. Her hair grew longer and part of it became braided, her dress and skirt became more ornate. She covered her legs in black stockings, wore black wedge sandals and wielded a large ice crystal staff. But the nature of her or her powers played no role in this duel. "She's out."

Because her link summon, and Dakki's subsequent revival summon forced the last three cards off of the top of Zettai's deck. "You... If you do this, you will not only condemn me. But you will condemn her as well.!" If a duelist could not draw a card during their drawphase, they would lose the duel instantly. Zettai knew this and made one last ditch plea for survival. "Condemn who? The real Zettai? I do not care to see the difference." Himiko scoffed. "I.. she.. we .. it is all the same! We all suffer from reality! I did for you, what she wished could have been done for us!" The ace duelist cursed. She would never feel regret for what she had done, not her. "You will never do anything like this to anyone else again, Zettai. Go back to whatever hell you came from." Himiko could not wait a second longer, she ended her turn to let the ace duelists fate play itself out. "Himiko!" As soon as she did, Zettai felt the consequences. The body that she called her own lost its tether to the physical world and faded out of the room.

Zettai's LP: 0

"Is she dead?" Nakana asked as she let out a deep long breath. "Himiko..." Charles was at a loss for words, still reeling from the shock of what happened before and now this incredibly fast defeat as well. "I.. don't think she is. But you did.. separate Zettai from her real self." Facts he could easily tell her. "I.. am sorry for what.. happened." He felt far less equipped to deal with the feelings she certainly experienced right now. "Sorry is not..." Nakana Shintaro got her revenge, sooner than even she wanted it. "I..." Her anger could go nowhere else now, this victory only made her feel tired and empty. "..Why did this have to happen?" Only anguish got left behind.

"It appears I was wrong. She still has affection for us after all."

"!?" His voice. She heard His voice. "It is as I said, there is still too much weakness in her." Her voice too, she heard them both. "Father?! Mother!" Her parents were talking to her! And from the look of things, the others could hear them too. "But that would mean.." She spun around to look at their bodies again, the bodies that turned to glowing dust before everyone's eyes. "No!" They had never been there in the first place? Their voices came from somewhere else. "This is impossible!" They came from above. One figure entered the office room through the hole in the ceiling: Continuum. The Third Entity in turn sent two wire thin beams of light down to the ground and re-assembled the glowing matter into Mr and Mrs Shintaro. "Nothing is impossible anymore, not to us." They both claimed in unison.

"What the hell? You died! We all saw you die!" Tycho not so tactfully pointed out. "Do you need to be told this again: mister Rivers? We have conquered death. Continuum and Project Flute allow us to preserve minds and memories in perpetuity, including our own. That is what it means to be immortal." Mrs. Shintaro chided the duelist for under-estimating them. But then none of them could have made estimations for this. "You mean... that even though your bodies were destroyed, you can live on in the network?" The Fisherman could make some sense of it. Though if this were true, it would make them less like their own kind and more like his. "Do you think we would risk our lives if we did not have to? Of course not. We ended our mortality years ago and had our physical selves absorbed into the network soon after we came into contact with Continuum. What Zettai destroyed was merely another virtual construct. You can kill us as many times as you wish, but we will never cease to be."

"But you still, let me think that you were dead.. You allowed her to kill you..." Himiko shivered. It was all too much, all of this. "We had to test to see where your loaylties lied, Nakana. We did not know how you would react. For the last few years we have tried to prepare you for this future, for our new world. Why did you think we allowed you to venture into STHEREA in the first place? You had to see with your own eyes what kind of world you would inherit. But in the end you squandered it on meaningless sentiment, forming bonds with rebellious factors people like Starling or factions like Millennium." Mr Shintaro could not have sounded less than a caring father would. Neither of them did. "She was right though.." And Himiko finally saw why things were this way, why her parents had become so cold and distant. "You did trade in your humanity, you've become machines. That is not a way to live." She did not know whether to cry or laugh anymore. The only feeling that stayed clear was also the one that had grown strong again... Anger. "You did this!" She draw one of her cards and projected it to make an immediate attack. Mayakashi Gashadokuro rose up and slammed its fleshless fist down into the Continuum entity.

"How pointless." The attack failed almost instantly. Every facet of Continuum's body lit up and covered the giant Mayakashi skeleton in a colorless aura. First his fist disappeared, then the rest of its bones and armor. The elliptic entity seemingly devoured it whole without ever having to move or touch its target. After that Himiko herself faced retribution for her indisgression. "Ah!? Kyaaah!" The entity lashed her down to the floor with a whip of invisible energy, before retracting the glow back into the body. The blow knocked her out easily. But Crescent quickly rushed to their daughter's side and the other duelists huddled together. It seemed like they would have to get through all of them if they wanted to collect her

"Stop!" Charles had had enough of this either way. "Oh, you would defend her? You would suffer because of the bond she built up with you? What can you do,that we cannot?" Mrs. Shintaro laughed again with her eerily stilted voice. "I can do the best I can! I would do that for anyone! This is wrong and you know it! You cannot blame her for what happened! She is just reacting like a daughter would! She did not join us to betray you! She joined us because of Static! That she bonded with us afterwards is just what is to be expected of her! Of a human!" They could not have forgotten what that was like, not unless the Shintaros had erased every part of them that made them 'human'. "It is true, we did not expect the second entity to involve her with serious matters like the Legacy Items. Of course we quickly realized his connection to our daughter anyway." Mr. Shintaro claimed. "If you know about Static. Than you must also know what he is plotting! Shouldn't you be doing something about him? Here is here right now, outside your doorstep! And your plan to weaken him with Continuum's own powers are clearly not working!" Charles shouted. "We simply miscalculated, mister Adami. But these current conditions can still lead to the desired outcome."

"Desired outcome? What would that be? I can tell you what he desires. I have heard him say it. He wishes to merge this world with ours, much like he has done already with your home and your own network. He is strong than you realize." Hydra spoke up. "Don't you dare say we should team up." Tycho interrupted the invisible duelist before he could suggest something even remotely close to that. "I would never help them, I just want to know what they intend to do about this new crisis." Hydra explained himself and he hoped the Shintaros would follow that example. "Hmph. You seem to be laboring under a misapprehension: that a union of worlds is not what he also sought after. The opposite is in fact true." Instead they revealed a more shocking truth. "What?" Hydra was horrified to learn it. "Yes. We were merely biding our time. But if the second entity wishes to do it for us." The third entity released another shockwave of transparent light. "SO BE IT!" And it disappeared along with Nakana's mother and father.

"They're insane. They're actually gonna let Static win?" Hydra was left in a state is disbelief. It seemed impossible to get back control of the situation now. "Not if we get to the chalice first." But Charles would damn well try. "Hikaru has to know where it is kept! Lets hope Zanbatou has beaten him by now."

"Charles? What about Himiko?" Crescent cried out before he could leave the room again. The daughter was still unconscious, and she definitely would not be safe like this. "I don't know what we can do with her. If we take her with us, does her physical body stay behind in this place? It may be dangerous.. But I suppose we should at least watch over her until she gets better." Someone would have to carry her for now. "I agree with that plan." And the Fisherman appointed himself to the role, having more strength in his body than most of the duelists. "Yes. Thank you." Crescent allowed him to pick her up. Now they could finally get out of here. Though Charles did not yet know if a way out of this entire sector also existed.

"Hey!" At the very least they managed to find the samurai duelist where they'd last seen him. "Lady Nakana? What happened?" He immediately noticed lady Himiko's unfortunate state. "Her loving parents happened. She'll be fine in a few minutes." Olympia replied dismissively. "Are you telling me her parents attacked Nakana? That is not possible." Zanbatou shook his head, he still seemed to be in denial over his masters.

"Forget about that for now. Where is the Chalice! If the enemy is here, they are going to be searching for that item. Do you know where they have it stored?" Charles asked hurriedly. "I do. It's in an isolated part of the mansion system. Mister Hikaru in fact broke off our engagement halfway just before you arrived, forcing a tie. He must have considered Static's forces to be a greater threat. He may be headed there this very moment." Of that the bodyguard could not be certain. "I do not know my masters intentions, but I cannot imagine they would want to see the item in the wrong hands. Use this key card on the second door at the end of the left hallway, it will lead you to the Chalice. Let me take care of lady Nakana." He handed Charles the key while he picked Himiko up with both of his arms. "Right. We will do our best." This situation got stranger and stranger, but Charles did at least trust Zanbatou to speak honestly. "Let's go!"

They followed Zanbatou's directions as quickly as possible. Sadly, it proved to not be quick enough. "The walls.." Every part of the hallway had been pried open, every Karakuri guard unit broken into pieces. No doors were closed and no keys were needed anymore. "They beat us to it!"

"Yes, and now its back with the rightful owner." Several figures walked out of the torn open room which resembled an in-door hydroponics garden. "Khan? Wagner?" They were the Eldlich and Generaider duelist, with the former holding the World Chalice a special containment bubble. "Heh. It was too easy." Wagnerok boasted. The latter's presence and his World Shield explained all the damage. "Who are they?" The fact though that Khan and Wagner were surrounded by other duelists felt less explainable. "Just some fans of mine, Charles. And right now, they're here to help me get away with my new trophy." Khan nodded at two of them: who activated their dueldisks and targeted both Tycho and Charles for a duel. "What the?" While he got stuck with this duelist, Khan and Wagnerok and the remainder of his crew teleported out of the area. "No! Why are you doing this."

"I am doing this because Khan told me to. He said you possessed powers that would hinder our new glory. I asked for this task myself, to bring you down again." This duelistt, a blackhaired man dressed like a fallen angel, looked rather familiar. That's because he was Samaelectric: Charles had only seen him on one of Neo's streams once. But clearly he'd gone through a bit of a personality shift since then, just like many others. "That's not what he asked!? Why are you working for Static! Do you even know what is going on!" Tycho cursed at his own opponent. Though he would rather let the dark angel duelist do all the talking. "Yes! The end of the old world! Armageddon! And you dared to interrupt it! Therefore, we shall punish you!"

"Uh, this is starting to sound familiar!" Heleil winced. "These guys, what if they've gone insane like your friends?" The pendulum champion cried out. "Like? You mean Static's affecting more duelists now? Is that why..." Only now did Charles figure out, why Static sent them on this detour at this time and space. "If he fuses realities now, he could.." If Static got access to the real world, he could reach everyone with his brand of madness. Every human would turn into a monster without morals or compassion. "Everyone, you have to stop him! You have to get to the tower before he uses the power of the seven items! This could be the worst case scenario." These two were delaying him and Tycho specifically because they were the only ones who could travel to the top of the tower the safest way: through the subconscious realm.

"Yes, this could be the worst case scenario. Our only option is to confront him head on before he finishes the ritual. It will take him time." Hydra explained what little he remembered from his time as Schwarzwald's soul prisoner. "I agree. Charles and Tycho, join up with us as soon as you can." The Fisherman was confident that both they would be able to finish off their opponents. It would just take time: time they could not afford to lose. "We move out now!"

...

Things were in motion again. "No." Miss Echo noticed it before anyone else. "I can sense him, Static." The void within the void felt closer than ever. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Cherry would prefer any news at all. They'd been wandering the field of flowers for what seemed like an eternity. "I don't know. It's as if his power is going elsewhere. But power is also coming here.. it's difficult to explain." She could sense it in ways that humans simply could not. "This power is not his though. It reminds me of... Zettai. Her mind is here, like Khans and Scura's. Her memories.. I think I can follow them."

"Zettai? You mean she got defeated or something?" Blanche gasped and wondered who could have done that. "Are you saying we can find them now? What did Static forget to close the door when he tossed Zettai into his nightmare prison?" Sundown had his own questions which could not be answered. "Maybe." Echo feared the answers that were possible. "Or maybe he needs his power for something else now. Maybe it's not important anymore, to keep his hostages..."

(To Be Continued in World 064: Paradise Lost)

New Cards used by Yoro-Himiko
Soul Absorbing Bone Tower

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Yuki-Onna the Absolute Zero Mayakashi

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That Grass Looks Greener
Ghost Meets Girl - A Mayakashi's Manuscript

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Shiranui Style Success