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.

86. World 078: To No Choice At All

World 078: To No Choice At All

His home had been burned down, his belongings turned to ash.. but Charles Adami could not even begin to think about that. More important aspects of his life were at risk. "Dharma. Find Echo. Tell her to find my parents. She will know who and where they are. Static may be going after them next!" Charles had to act quickly, lives were at stake. "Wouldn't they already be protected? Didn't you tell them to watch Echo's interview?" Blanche asked him back. "I don't know if they did. If they accepted her gift. Please, go." Even if they did, it would not be enough to protect them against Static if he attacked directly. "Right. It will be okay, Charles. You'll see." She nodded and teleported away, leaving him and Tycho/Cherry to deal with another life Static corrupted.

Charles' LP: 8000 Primrose's LP: 7500

-TURN 03-

"Forget about your parents, Charles. You wont be running home to them. Not until you've felt my wrath! This time I will do the attacking" Primrose started her turn and re-normal summoned the Appliancer Socketroll(1/100/100) [Zone 1] in her hand. "I can target and Appliancer to special summon Appliancer Copybokkle from my hand, and give the targets name to Copybokkle!" Like any good copier, the Copybokkle machine(1/0/0) [Zone 4] could scan its target and print out a piece of paper with Socketroll's scanned image on it. And by pasting that paper on its body, it could pretend to be 'Socketroll' as well. Having summoned 'another Socketroll' monster, the first Socketroll activated its own effect to special summon the third Socketroll(1/0/0) [Zone 5] from the deck again.

"I link summon Appliancer Kappa Scale! Its material is an Appliancer too!" The first Socketroll turned into a green kappa-based robot(0/LINK 1) {Up} with a spiked scale on its head. At the same time, thanks to the Electrilyrical World field spell, Primrose could add an Appliancer (Copybokkle) back to her hand. "A co-linked Kappa Scale can be tributed to special summon one different Appliancer from my graveyard!" The Kappa flipped its entire body upside down into the graveyard to find and pull Laundry Dragon(500/LINK 2) {Upright} [Zone 4] back to the field in a different zone. "I will also link summon Appliancer Vacculephant and Dryer Drake! Their materials are the same." The Socketrolls crafted the fourth major appliance in Primrose's household: a vacuum-based orange-shaded wearing elephant machine(500/LINK 1) {Upright} [Zone 2] and another Dryer Drake(500/LINK 1) {Upright} [Zone 3]. "Vacculephant can destroy any monster if I discard one card from my hand.. I think I know which loss one would upset you more." The Vaccuum-appliancer lifted its piledriver-armshands and fired green energy from the radio-active symbols on top of its arms. "I will target Masquerena!"

"That leaves me no other option than this! I activate IP Masquerena's effect! I can perform a link summon during your turn!" The cybercat girl(800/LINK 2) [Extra Zone 2] took herself and the Boot Staggered(2400/2000) [Zone 1] away before either could be felled by the radio-active attack. They were replaced by a link monster that could better deal with Primrose's offense: the dynamite stick throwing cyberknight Detonate Deleter(2100/LINK 3) {Left/Downleft/Right} [Extra Zone 2]. "Detonate Deleter automatically destroys any monster it battles with at the start of the damage step, unless they are Link 3 or higher link monsters! And since it was summoned with the effect of IP Masquerena, no effects can destroy it!" Against her deck there could be no better weapon, no Appliancers could break the Link 2 barrier.

"No other option? You have all the options in the world, Adami! Even your deck is filled with too many of them! My tools are limited.. But even then, they are more than enough for someone like you!" The appliancers sprung into action. "When Laundry Dragon is not co-linked. Instead of banishing a monster, it will inflict damage equal to that monsters attackpoints and destroy it! So he attacks Threshold Borg!" Once again her cleaning machine opened its laundry compartment to bury its opponent in rags and towels. Laundry Dragon and the cyberborg blew up at the same time, but only Charles lost his lifepoints since Laundry Dragon absorbed all the battle damage. "Ugh." The departure of Threshold Borg also meant that all other Appliancers (Vacculephant: 1000 atk, Dryer Drake: 1000 atk) would get their attackpoints back.

Charles' LP: 5600

"Tch. What a pain in the neck." Tycho grunted along with the cyberse duelist. "Maybe that was painful for him, mister Rivers. But to me it felt oh so good!" Because she'd lost another unlinked Appliancer in battle, Primrose could also reactivate the effect of Celtopus to draw a new card.

"And I am not done with you yet,, Adami!" Primrose declared another attack with Dryer Drake, reactivated the Electrilyrical field spell to move Vacculephant(0 atk) [Zone 1] one zone over. "I activate Magnet Reverse! With this I can special summon one machine from my graveyard, if it cannot be normal summoned!" Much to the duelists continuing dismay, Laundry Dragon(1500/LINK ) {Up} [Zone 2] returned in a brand new body. This would allow Celtopus to give the plugged in Dryer Drake the full 2000 ATK powerboost. "And! I can banish Appliancer Breakerbuncle from my graveyard to negate the destruction of my Appliancer!" Her machines would simply plow right through any explosives thrown by the Deleter. "I do have many options remaining, I suppose. Now I can also do this: activate the effect of Cluster Congester in my graveyard when my link monster is attacked! It banishes itself and the link monster to summon one Congester token for each link monster on your field!" Charles split his link monster up into four more Congester tokens(1/0/0) [Zones 1, 2,3 & 4]: one for each of her Appliancers.

"That is what I thought. You always find a way to worm yourself out of a situation. You've got that devils luck. But you will run out at some point!" The Dryer Drake redirected its attack towards one of the Congester tokens and blasted it to pieces. "During my battle phase, a co-linked Dryer Drake can switch the places with another Appliancer in the main zone! And the Appliancer whose position changes can attack twice in the same turn!" The Dryer Drake took the cable of Celtopus plugged it into Vacculephant{Upright} [Zone 2] instead, leaving itself(0 atk) {Upright [Zone 1] without a powercharge. Dryer Drake's attack even dropped down to zero as long as it was not linked. "Attack!" The vaccuum elephant fired at two Congester tokens with its vacuumpowered blasters, while the revived Laundry Dragon destroyed the remaining tokens with its claws.

"Feh. Even after all of that, you're still looking at me like I am a victim. Stop it! You never asked me a single thing about my life! And why would you start nw? Why care about little old me, eh?" Primrose switched over to the second main phase and placed one trap card face down. "..I guess you're still right. I didn't care. But not because I disliked you. I was just... comfortable not getting close to anyone." Charles did not really hate people. Though he certainly had come to distrust and feared a lot of them. "But you made an exception for your dueling friends eh, for people of your age? Well even if I can make myself as old or young as I want now, I will never become your friend! Now take your next turn, so that we can finish this!" She screamed as her turn came to an end. "Whatever I might have done before, I know it did not drive you to this. This hatred is fueled by Static. This energy and freedom he gave you comes with too steep a cost, miss Primrose. And right now I am the only one who can save you before it gets worse."

-TURN 04-

"That was a nice speech and all. But can you even do anything?" Cherry wondered out loud. "I can not afford to pull my punches against her, that much I know now." He inspected his hand and came up with a plan. "I can normal summon Prompthorn! And when there's a field spell active, I can also special summon Grid Sweeper from my hand!" The first cyberse took was a blue and white-haired goat(1/200/400) [Zone 1] with cybernetic limbs and horns. The second was a triangular roomba droid(4/100/2000) [Zone 2] that spun around on the floor. Charles then activated the effect of the Pinpoint Landing spell, drawing one card thanks to Grid Sweeper's summon from the hand. "Prompthorn can tribute my level four or lower cyberse to summon as many normal cyberse from my deck as possible! But their levels cannot exceed that of the tribute!" A flash of light from the goat's horns divided the Sweeper into three tiny cyber sprites: Protron(1/0/0) [Zones 4 & 5] and Digitron(2/1500/0) [Zone 3].

"Heh, a Sweeper and now these little bugs: they like it could fit in right with my appliancers." Primrose cackled. "Maybe, but my cards came first! I Link summon Link Spider and Security Dragon! The link materials are one normal monster, and any two monsters!" His first link monsters would be less on the mechanical side: as one Protron turned into the black cyber spider(1000/LINK 1) {Down} [Extra Zone 2], the other joined Prompthorn to create the miniature barrier dragon(1100/LINK 2) {Up/Down} [Zone 4] "I suppose you can one of these more proper bugs. Speaking of which.. when I control at least two link monsters I can special summon Cross Debug from my hand." Next to the more popular Lady Debug, the cyberse also had a more masculine counterpart. Cross Debug(2/900/600) [Zone 2] had a darkblue cyberbug body with yellow markings and wore sporting goggles over its head. "And now, I will activate Security Dragon's effect! Since it is co-linked, It can bounce one card you control! Laundry Dragon!" He pointed at the opposing mechanical dragon, and forced it back into the extra deck.

"Heh, nice going." Tycho nodded. "I am surprised that worked for once. But to borrow a phrase, that was just the appetizer! I will use both of my monsters to summon Shootingcode Talker! Its materials are two or more cyberse!" Honeybot and Cross Debug buzzed their way into the link circuit.. They came back as the more humanoid blue archer Shootingcode(2300/LINK 3) {Left/Up/Down} [Extra Zone 1]. "Primrose, I guess you can call this one of my ace cards. One of six code Talkers. I always choose the best one for the job! Shootingcode can attack one more monster for for each monster he is linked with!" Currently there were two: Link Disciple and Digitron. "There is something else you should know. When my link monster attacks, I can banish Cross Debug and another link monster from my graveyard, to give that link monsters attackpower to my attacker!" As soon as Shootingcode loaded up its first arrow, it(3400 atk) gained the power of Security Dragon through a surge of crossed wires, more than enough to overpower anything in its way.

"Digitron! Attack Dryer Drake!" Yet the honor of the first attack would go towards the normal cyberse on his field, since Charles knew that the currently not co-linked Appliancer could negate one attack each turn. "You smarmy.." The Electrilyrical World did switch Dryer Drake(1000 atk) [Zone 2] {Up} back to a co-linked position, so that it could gain its 1000 ATK boost from Celtopus again. However, Primrose did not activate its effect. Digitron slammed into Dryer Drake without any form of interference and broke it into pieces.

Primrose's LP: 7000

"Huh?" Tycho was a little confused at first, until he realized what Charles had tried to do. "Tch. She saw through you." Shootingcode could only attack monsters. "Yes, thank you for spelling it out." Charles groaned. The plan had clearly been to make Primrose waste her negation effect on a weaker attacker. "Well, I will take what I can get! Shootingcode! Attack Vacculephant and Celtopus!" Merely Two shots were released in a row: targeting both remaining Appliancers. The arrows of light pierced right through the machines, and destroyed both a marginally powered up Vacculephant(2000 atk) and Celtopus. Shootingcode(3000) did however lose 400 attackpoints whenever it attacked the last monster on the field. "You think you can push me around with your fancy tricks?" Primrose's lifepoints kept dwindling. "Nothing fancy about it, miss Primrose." Lasly, Link Spider sped across the field on its wheeled eight legs and knocked the landlady down to the ground.

Primrose's LP: 1600

"Now, at the end of the battle phase. Shootingcode lets me draw one card from my deck for each monster it destroyed." Charles said as he replenished his hand with a spell and a trap card. "..I summon Honeybot. The materials are two cyberse." He used his remaining time to take Digitron and Link Spider off the field to link summon another monster: Honeybot the cyborg honeybee girl(1900/LINK 2) {Left/Right} [Zone 4]. As long as she pointed towards Shootingcode, Shootingcode could not be destroyed. "... I set two cards face down and end my turn."

"Tch, and here I was thinking you'd be able to close the deal. But no, you still cannot concentrate. Not if you keep seeing her as a friend!" Once again, Tycho yelled at him. "How is this helping him?" Cherry wondered. "Tycho. I refuse to see her as an enemy. I don't know a lot about her, but it does not make a difference to me. To the world she matters just as much as anyone else. She does not deserve this."

-TURN 05-

"Shut up Adami! I've had enough of you trying to tell me what I deserve. I've had enough of all of you! Just shut up!" Primrose started her turn by normal summoning the Appliancer Copybokkle[Zone 1] in her hand, with its own name this time, and targeting it for a spell. I know how to wrap things up! With Machine Duplication!" The spell that duplicated a machine with 500 attackpoints or less. "!" Copybokkle itself got copied two more times, giving Primrose the right link materials(1/0/0) [Zones 2 & 3] to recreate her Appliancer network. "I link summon Appliancer Celtopus! Again! And then I can activate my spell: Appliancer Test! It lets me special summon two Appliancers from my graveyard to the field, if they can be linked to an Appliancer already on my field!" The field filled up with another parade of appliance machines. The second Celtopus(0/LINK 2) {Downleft/Down} [Extra Zone 1] sent out its tentacles and plugged them into a reconstructed Vacculephant {Upright} [Zone 3] and Kappa Scale {Up} [Zone 2]. "Just like that, Adami! Just like that, I took back what you destroyed!"

"And I will take what little you have left! Your room is gone, now your cards will burn as well! Since Vacculephant is co-linked, I can also destroy one card in your main zone! Vacculephant, destroy Honeybot!" Once again used its powers of destruction to end life. This time the honeybee cyborg perished in the light of its nuclear effect. "One to go!" Appliancer Kappa Scale reactivated its own power to sacrifice itself and revive the Laundry Dragon Appliancer(1500/LINK 1) [Zone 4] in an unlinked position. Meanwhile Primrose took Vacculephant and the last Copybokkle and used them as link materials for another Dryer Drake(1000/LINK 1) {Upright} [Zones 3] and a whole new kind of Appliancer. "I link summon Appliancer Propelion!" This one appeared as a robotic lion(1200/LINK 1) {Up} [Zone 2] with a wind propeller instead of a mane. "Now! Attack!" The landlady rushed into battle, with Laundry Dragon making the first impact. At this rate it would mummify the archer and crush its original attackpower out of Charles' lifepoints.

Appliancer Propelion, 1200/LINK 1 {Up} Wind/Machine/Link
1 Level 1 "Appliancer" monster
Cannot be used as Link Material the turn it is Link Summoned. This card can attack directly while it is not linked.
Once per turn, during damage calculation, if your monster is attacked by an opponent's monster while this card is co-linked: You can halve that opponent's monster's ATK during that damage calculation only.
Once per turn, during damage calculation, if this card is attacked by an opponent's monster while it is not co-linked: You can halve that opponent's monster's ATK during that damage calculation only.

Unless he did something to astonish her. "I activate my spell, Link Bound! I can return one link monster on my field to the extra deck! Then I draw and shuffle back cards equal to its link rating!" Shootingcode Talker retreated, leaving Laundry Dragon to attack Charles directly instead. "What did you do?" But since neither player could take battle damage from that Appliancer, his lifepoints stayed the same. "Save what little I have left, ms Primrose." Dodging the attack waould be the only benefit of this spell, because Link Bound returned everything it drew. His hand started empty and ended empty. "It's just us now. This is what you wanted, I believe." Charles was also ready to accept whatever direct attack came his way. "You ruined it. It does not count if you get to keep something!" Primrose clenched her hand and activated Dryer Drake's effect to switch it with Propelion's position. After that she could order three direct attacks. Dryer Drake blasted Charles with a stream of hot wind, while Propelion sliced into his avatar twice with the spinning blades of his propeller mane.

Charles LP: 2200

"She does not look happy." Cherry stated. Primrose looked absolutely livid in fact. "Oh you are so funny, aren't you? But you know why I am this way. Why is He that way?! Why is he clinging on to you? Why are you all in this together?" She could not even do anything about her increasing anger, her cards were all spent. "Becaue we're friends, lady. I wouldn't have come all this way otherwise." The white-haired duelist snapped. "Friends?! Do not make me laugh! Charles ran from his own family because he could not handle it! Probably because did not even love him! Just like your parents did not love your friends! The world did not love them! Now look at yourself, Charles! You've surrounded yourself with people who despise you as much as I do. How can you possibly know what real friendship is? How can you believe that something like that even exists? They will all turn on you in the end, Adami. You will all turn on each other."

"That is enough!" Charles shouted. "What's the matter? Am I wrong, Charles? Well you were wrong about me, so now we are even!" Primrose wanted to laugh at him, at his rage. "?" Except she could not detect any such emotion on his face at all. "Why are you still looking at me like that?" That solemn expression could mean nothing else but contunuing pity. "Because you are right, miss Primrose. Maybe I cannot understand you because I am simply have not had enough experiences yet. I never thought about my future like that to begin with. But even if it is naïve of me, I would rather see the people around me as friends. Even Tycho. Sure he has a bit of an attitude problem." Charles said with a barely hidden grin. "But I get why. Everyone has a reason for their anger, even you... even me. But if Static wins, that's all there will be to it.. Anger for anger's sake. Hate to feed hate. I cannot allow it. Not as long as I can channel my anger into something better" Charles waited long enough, it was time. "I activate my trap card: Limit Code! Since there are cyberse link monsters in my graveyard, I can special summon one Code Talker from my extra deck! I choose Decode Talker Heatsoul!"

"Heatsoul?" Tycho flinched when he witnessed a fiery miracle: a third form of Decode came into existence right in front of him. "It looks like.." Decode Talker Heatsoul(2300/LINK 3) {Downleft/Up/Downright} [Extra Zone 2] looked like a fusion of both the black code knight and Tycho's Heatlio. The claws of the Salamangreat were added to Decode as gauntlets, while a mane of flame blazed behind its head. "Wait? Did you make a new link monsters just to prove you like him? What's next, a Trickstar Code Talker?" Cherry would actually have liked to see that. "... I don't exactly decide how these new cards come out. It depends on my mood." For a fusion heavy duel, his mind naturally came up with a fusion monster as a defense. For this fight, he desired something hotter. "Decode Talker Heatsoul can draw one card if I pay a thousand lifepoints!" So hot that it burned him to use it.

Charles's LP: 1200

-TURN 06-

"Now it's my turn! I normal summon Segmental Dragon!" Charles could summon his electric robot dragon(7/1300/1200) [Zone 1] without tributes, if half of its attack and defense points were cut off. "Segmental Dragon can be tributed to destroy all monsters with less attackpoints than it had on the field!" Half of 2600 was still more than any of Primrose's current monsters. "This doesn't prove anything, Adami! You cannot force bonds with cheap gestures like these!" Primrose shouted defiantly as she banished Appliancer Breakerbuncle from the graveyard and blocked the electric discharge in every corner. "Well it can't hurt either. Especially since Heatsoul has another effect that I can use.."

Charles' LP: 200

"But first.. I need another link monster." The link materials would come naturally. By banishing a cyberse monster from his graveyard he could special summon Degrade Buster(7/2500/2500) [Zone 2] from his hand. This summon triggered Pinpoint Landing's effect as well, allowing Charles one more draw to improve his odds. "Cyberse Converter!" With a cyberse monster under his control, he could also special summon the conversion cannoneer drone(2/1000/1000) [Zone 1] from his hand. "I can and will use my two non-token monsters to link summon Binary Sorceress!" Degrade Buster and Cyberse Converter would set the circuit towards victory: with the cyber-skater sorceress(1600/LINK 2) {Left/Right} [Zone 3] at the center. "And now, I activate Decode Talker Heatsoul's effect again!" Charles declared as he burned even more of his own life away to draw the final card from his deck. This time however, the fiery aura did dissipate. "It's time. When my lifepoints are lower than two thousand, Heatsoul can banish itself after using its draw effect! And if it does, I can special summon a certain monster from my extra deck!"

"I choose Shootingcode Talker!" In an instant, the flames consumed the Salamangreat/Code Talker warrior and replaced it with the same blue code archer(2300/LINK 3) {Left/Up/Down} [Zone 4] from before. "It can summon any Code Talker?" Tycho gasped. The shooter formed a co-link with the Sorceress {Left/Right} to extend the winning path. One link remained. "I activate Monster Reborn too!" Honeybot{Left/Right} [Zone 2], special summoned by the revival spell, completed the setup by appearing on the other side of Binary Sorceress {Left/Right}. "Here I go. Since Honeybot is linked with her, Binary Sorceress cannot be destroyed by effects! And you cannot move your Laundry Dragon back to a co-linking position!" The Sorceress at the center of the chain made the first strike. She jumped into the air like a lightning bolt and kicked the dragon straight through its laundry-filled chest. Neither player took damage from this exchange, but only Primrose's Appliancer would face destruction. "Adami.. This is not how it is going to end!"

"This is not an ending for you, miss Primrose. Just for this duel." This would be it. "Honeybot attacks Appliancer Dryer Drake!" There was no way out for Primrose. "No you don't!" She could block his attacks, but Dryer Drake's effect would only activate once a turn. "Then shootingcode attacks Propelion instead! And Binary Sorceress can transfer half the attackpower of one monster to another!" The Sorceress used her own twin co-link to take Honeybot(950 atk)'s power away and add it to Shootingcode(3250 atk) instead. "No... No wait. Propelion can still..since its not co-linked it can halve your monsters power!" She might want to weaken his link monster, but.. "That effect only works if I am attacking Propelion, miss Primrose." Neither Appliancer could power itself up without the proper co-link, or switch to the other zone. "The attack continues." Dryer Drake suffered the first arrow. Shootingcode's attack connected and shattered the Appliancer. "Argh." Primrose clutched her chest as the arrow pierced her next. "Heh.." The hole in her body grew, as did her smile. "No, and this is not an ending for you either... Charles."

Primrose's LP: 0

"..." Charles winced when his opponent got consumed by the emptiness right before his eyes. "What happened to her?!" Tycho flinched as well. "She's fiiiine. That was just her avatar.. sleepwalking I guess. Ulysses also disappeared when he lost. The real landlady should be here somewhere right?" Cherry shrugged. The same thing had happened with Ulysses after all. "Yes, she should be. Let's go."

"Wait. What about your things?" Tycho asked him and pointed to his burned down room. "It's just stuff. It can wait." He replied.

It did not take them long to find her, at the ground floor. The door to her room had been forced open and inside they found the landlady sprawled out across the floor. "Still breathing." She appeared to be fast asleep, nothing worse than that. "We should probably give her Echo's card. I don't know what will happen next, but I will have to deal with that when it comes." If the people really did think he caused this fire, he could not stick around here for much longer anyway. Hopefully she would remember something of what happened when she woke up and speak on his behalf. "He wanted Primrose... because he wanted to hurt me." Charles took a deep breath as he realized what this meant. "Static has changed his plans. He is coming after us personally now. This is the last straw." He clenched his hand, as his anger finally crept up on him again. "We have to attack him now, with everything we got."

(To Be Continued in World 079: A Tab on Family)

New Cards used by Charles Adami
Cross Debug

-
Decode Talker Heatsoul

-
Link Bound

Cards used by Primrose
Appliancer Copybokkle

-
Appliancer Vacculephant
Appliancer Kappa Scale
Appliancer Propelion

-
Magnet Reverse
Machine Duplication
Appliancer Test