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.

97. World 089: God's Scapegoat

World 089: God's Scapegoat

Four great rivals were vanquished, three champions risked their own minds to make it this far. Now for one last time, Static's dimension twisted around. The path extended slightly towards a wide open theater which resembled an arena but also a courthouse. "Vitruvic is not here." The rival that the guardian entity transformed into this time, appeared in golden armor and with hieryglyphs tattooed all over his muscular arms and face. "No he is not. We will do, Unas." Only Dyzanthium and Madam Blanche remained to face this final threat, and he called himself Unas. The true Unas was the one who fought with Vitruvic in the first ever grand finals of the worldwide championships. The one they saw here was just another face for this nightmare.

Unas's LP: 8000 Dyzanthium's LP: 600

-TURN 010-

"You will do, Dyzanthium." He would go up against a powerful foe in Dyzanthium, who controlled five heroes powered up by the continuous D-Tactics trap card: Xtra Hero Dread Decimator(3400/LINK 3), Destiny HERO Dystopia(8/3200/2400) ,Elemental HERO Brave Neos(7/3900/2000), Nebula Neos(8/3900/2500) and Elemental HERO Sunrise(8/6000/2000). "I commend you for taking down the three sacred beasts and getting this far, champion!" On the other hand he now controlled Fury Phantasm Armityle(12/0/0) [Extra Zone 1] the great fusion of Raviel, Hamon and Uria. Elyzion managed to summon it with his dying breath, and left it behind for Unas to use. Control of it could be given to the opponent. And at the end of that turn, all of its new master's cards would be banished.

"But there will be no more false gods! I summon Reactor Slime! It creates two slime tokens!" The final showdown started in a rather auspicious manner, with the normal summoning of a breeding machine possessed by a metallic slime mold(4/500/500) [Zone 3]. The machine part spewed out two smaller slime blobs(1/500/500) [Zone 5] to the field in defense mode. "Now you will see a true power." Unas only now activated the effect of Armityle.

"But when Dystopia's attack is altered, I can reduce that alteration to nothing to destroy one card on your field!" The fusion champion would not stand for that. Dystopia targeted Armityle before it became on of her cards. "If it shall not be your martyr, it will become my tribute! I activate the spell, Exchanging Souls! I can sacrifice monsters on either field to tribute summon the divine god!" The spell crossed the souls of the two slime tokens with Armityle and carved the very clouds into pieces. "Rise, Osiris the Sky Dragon!" Like a lightning bolt, the first of three divine beasts descended. Osiris the Sky Dragon(10/3000/3000) gained its long red draconian form in the realm of duelists, unleashing a terrifying roar with its two mouths.

"What? He didn't tribute your monsters?" Madam Blanche realized that Exchanging Souls could have tributed three of Dyzanthium's monsters instead. Him not doing so could not have been a display of mercy. "I did not, because I will judge them instead with the spell of Thunderforce Attack! Osiris's true power is unleashed! All monsters on the field are destroyed, and I will draw one card for each monster that falls! This effect cannot be negated!" It would be a display of power. The crimson dragon opened its lower mouth and swept the field clean with a massive beam of concentrated thunder. It did not matter how strong they were, the five remaining Heroes were all wiped out in the blink of an eye. "Rgh Elyzion gained five cards for all his troubles and it was not even the battle phase yet. "Goodbye, Dyzanthium." Only one monster could attack the turn Thunder Force Attack resolved. "I set one card, and attack!" But Osiris(6000/6000) gained 1000 attackpoints for each card in a player's hand. The Sky Dragon could have killed ten Dyzanthiums like this, but it only got to fire one burst before the champion's time ran out. "Dyz!"

Dyzanthium's LP: 0

"Do not be affraid, Madam Blanche. You can do this. He may be Vitruvic's opposite, but I know.. you are a better duelist than he could ever claim to be. And a better person.. " The fusion champion submitted herself to her fate, letting the mist of the dreams claim her consciousness slowly. "I wish I could see the end with you." She had done more than what her fellow champions would have asked for and then some. Even then, she wished things could have gone differently. But it was too late for her now, she fell into a deep sleep.

Unas waited for this. "She must have felt miserable. The forces she thought would save her, have only brought about her doom and the doom of those that come after her. Though that feeling has to be a hundred times more powerful inside you, as you will not leave behind anything." Only to mock her right afterwards. "Hey! You don't get to say things like that." Blanche instantly snapped at the duelist of god. "But I do, because I still stand while they fell. They were never meant to challenge the guardians of god, to mess with the order of this world. You were not meant to be here either. You were never even a champion." Unas proclaimed with his smug look on his face. "Neither are you! I've done this hate and nightmare tango before and you aren't terrifying at all compared to that! I'm all you got, so let's see how you compare!"

Blanche's LP: 8000 -TURN 11-

"My turn!" Madam Blanche activated her Dawn of Blue Eyes skill card to add Blue-Eyes White Dragon to her hand. "Sorry Echo, but I am sticking with the classics. Then again Dyz and Heleil didn't use her skill either.. Anyway!" She then activated Trade in, discarding Blue-Eyes White Dragon to draw two new cards. One of those cards she normal summoned: Seyfert the Starliege Dragon(4/1800/0) [Zone 3]. "Echo? You should have prayed to a better creation! Even if you had used her power, you would not have stood a chance against might like this" Unas howled as this summon triggered the power of Osiris. "Summon Lightning Shot! Each monster you summon shall lose two thousand attackpoints!" The second mouth opened up to release a burst of destructive lightning straight at Seyfert. "And if that monsters attack drops to nothing it will be destroyed. Yeah yeah, I know how it works. But you know, a god is not as impressive as you might think it is."

"I activate Successor Soul!" The summoned lightning struck nothing but empty space, as Seyfert got tributed and fled to the graveyard. "Vitruvic's card?" Unas recognized the spell and its effect, which in this case special summoned a second Blue-Eyes White Dragon(8/3000/25000) [Zone 3]. "Oh yeah he uses this too? Well I guess I am a fit replacement for him after all!" Successor Soul would also send one opposing effect monster to the graveyard: the great Sky Dragon straight. "Hope you werent counting on it to last, Osiris does not even have immunity to targeting or destruction effects! I mean, this one was neither of those... but you get the point. I'm affraid the gods are outclassed!" With the god blasted into pieces, Blue-Eyes White Dragon could set its sights on attacking Reactor Slime.

Her attack would prove a touch too slow. "There is more than one god in my heaven! Reactor Slime can tribute itself to set the Metal Reflect Slime trap card from my deck! And that trap card can be activated his turn!" The Reactor broke into pieces while the slime briefly shrunk into a flat face-down surface. One second later the transformed card activated again as Metal Reflect Slime(10/0/3000) [Zone 3] a silver slime that mimicked the form of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. "Typical." The impassable wall cancelled out the mighty dragon's stream of destruction. "Well, score one for you." Blanche begrudgingly moved on to the next main phase and placed one trap card face down. She could also banish Seyfert the Starliege Dragon from her graveyard to add her highlevel Blue-Eyes White dragon back to her hand. "But you're down one god card at least."

-TURN 12-

"You are right, the god cards are not the same as the gods themselves. And a god is only as strong as the souls that pray and give sacrifice to them. Or in this case, as strong as the warrior that wields them!" Unas fiercely drew his next card: Obelisk of the Tormentor. Fate had chosen for it to descend next. "I can tribute one level ten monster, to summon the Egyptian God Slime from my extra deck!" For that fate to become reality, he transformed Metal Reflect Slime into a new fusion slime monster (10/3000/3000) [Extra Zone 1] that assumed the shape of a colossal grim giant who looked like he'd been carved out of stone. The Egyptian God Slime was an omen of things to come. "God Slime is treated as three tributes for a divine beast! I sacrifice it to tribute summon the God of Obelisk!" The silver god mold split into three separate blobs and disappeared within the holy vortex of sacrifice. Now the true Tormentor(10/4000/4000) [Zone 3] would dominate the field. Unlike Osiris, Obelisk could not be targeted by card effects. "I activate Fists of Fate!" And it possessed its own unique spell. "The Fists of Fate destroys one monster on the field, and then all your spell and trap cards as well! This effect cannot be negated!"

"Just like Thunderforce Attack eh? Well.. what if I don't need to negate the destruction? What if my dragon can just tough it out?" The Crushing hands of god came for Blue-Eyes, a confrontation that Madam Blanche would have enjoyed seeing any other day of the week. "I activate the Ultimate Creature of Destruction! One Blue-Eyes monster cannot be destroyed or affected by other card effects this turn!" Still, turning her Blue-Eyes into a shield that not even the Fists of Fate could dent, felt like an impressive feat on its own. She did lose her spells and traps however; D-Tactics and the two cards set down by Dyzanthium that she herself had not yet been able to find a use for. "The Ultimate Creature? This is blasphemy." Unas entered the battle phase and sent Obelisk's fist straight into the body of the White Dragon. "Ugh... Oh yeah? well I am still standing." Attacks could not break her dragon this turn either. On the other hand she and her monster did share the pain of getting punched by a 50-foot god giant.

Madam Blanche's LP: 7000

"Not for much longer. You may have defied the first and second god. Nobody survives the third.." Unas placed another trap card face down on his field and ended his turn and then activated a specific spell card, Forbidden Necromance.

Forbidden Necromance, Continuous Spell
Send all 'Monster Reborn' cards from either players deck to the graveyard.
During your next standby phase, special summon one monster from your graveyard regardless of the summoning Requirements.

-TURN 13-

"Wha? If you're pulling that stuff. We must be getting close to Ra-o-clock. Well if you're gonna bring out the big guns. So am I! Meet the Keeper of Dragon Magic!" A familiar knight came to town, the dragon armor spearman(4/1800/0) [Zone 2]. "This is another Vitruvic card, so I guess you wont need the explanation here either!" The Keeper discarded her Blue-Eyes a second time, to claim the classic fusing spell of Polymerization from the deck. That same Blue-Eyes would then be saved. The Keeper revealed the Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon to set one [Zone 4] of its three components, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, face-down on the field. The final material still waited in the deck, but not for long. "I activate Sage with Eyes of Blue!" By discarding her blue-eyed sage, she could send one effect monster to her graveyard and special summon a Blue-Eyes monster from her deck. The Keeper of Dragon Magic transformed by literally breaking out of its armor and becoming the third true White Dragon(8/3000/2500) [Zone 2]. And as she special summoned a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the Ultimate Creature of Destruction trap could also set itself backdown on her field.

"Here we go! Isn't math fun? I activate Polymerization, and fusion summon Neo Blue-Eyes!" If a better example of fusing existed, Blanche could not think of one. Her three majestic white dragons, face-down and face-up, all merged to form one gigantic three-headed dragon(12/4500/3800) [Extra Zone 2]. "So you would fall back on brute force?" Unas scoffed. "Well yeah, Four thousand attackpoints is not all that scary either!" Neo Blue-Eyes knew what she asked of her when the battle phase dragon. The dragons three heads combined their bursting breath of energy into one tidal wave of light which not even the God of Obelisk could push back. It let out a mighty grunt as the towering giant got toppled by the ultimate blast and disappeared within its light. "That's number two! Let's see if you can make it to number three! Because I have a trio of my own now!" Her Ultimate Dragon could still make two more attacks this turn since she controlled no other cards. She had to send a Blue-Eyes fusion monster (Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon) from the extra deck to the graveyard as well.

Unas' LP: 7500

"You will not deny Ra! When I am attacked, I may summon the Guardian Slime from my hand!" Regrettably for her, the second attack would not be a direct attack. Unas could activate his new slime monster which took a form(10/0/0) [Zone 3] which resembled the black jackal god Anubis. "When Guardian Slime is attacked, its defense will rise to match the power of its attacker!" Though the second head could readjust its aim, the black slime briefly transformed into the three-headed dragon(0/4500) to absorb the energy of its blast and bounce it back as harmless light particles. "Of course you I guess you can only do that once a turn!" Blanche would have to send another fusion Blue-Eyes (Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon) from the extra deck to get rid of Guardian Slime permanently with the third Neo attack. "Then I will activate the trap of Dark Spell Regeneration! It sets one of your spells down on my field during one of your attacks!" With that trap he placed the Monster Reborn spell from her graveyard to his side of the field.

"That's what's that was all about?" Blanche shrugged and continued her attack. The dragon's third head found its target(0/0) in a weak enough state to scatter its black body across the altar. That also suited Unas' purposes however. "When Guardian Slime is destroyed, I can add one card that would support Ra to my hand." He used this death to claim the spell: Ancient Chant. "Good for you. But I get to do something neat too now! See Dyzanthium did leave me something after all! I can banish her Fusion Substitute spell from my graveyard! Then I return one of my fusion monsters to the extra deck to draw one card!" This would not have worked on any of Dyzanthium's HERO cards, since they never came from Madam Blanche's extra deck. Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon on the other hand, would neatly fit in so that she could add a third card to her hand. "I set two cards face down on my field and end my turn!"

-TURN 14-

"That you would rely on the remnants of better duelists proves that you have no right to be here." Unas scoffed as he resolved the Forbidden Necromance spell to special summon Obelisk [Zone 4] back from the graveyard for one turn. "Hey, you were using your friends cards too." Blanche pointed out, grumbling that she would have to deal with that god all over again. Though perhaps things were going to get worse than that. "We are here because we have the right! We are the last defenders of creation! I activate Ancient Chant and add the Winged Dragon of Ra to my hand!" Much worse, since Unas finally got his hands on the third god card. "I then activate the Millennium Revelation! I can discard Ra, to add Monster Reborn from the graveyard to my hand! And by sending Millennium Revelation to my graveyard, I can special summon the Winged Dragon of Ra with the spell of Monster Reborn!" Ra was often considered quite weak in its in-game form, it could not even be special summoned by any method. But the continuous millennium tablet spell bypassed those conditions and placed Ra exactly where He needed to be.

"Rise, my immortal phoenix! I summon the Winged Dragon of Ra!" Unas activated Monster Reborn again, leading to the rebirth of the great sun god. The golden dragon Ra rose from the ashes and immediately transformed into an immortal phoenix(10/0/0) [Zone 3] of pure flames. "And assume your full power! I activate God Blaze Cannon and Sun God Unification!" Things would heat up even more with the combination of a quickplay spell and a flipped trap card. "Blaze Cannon makes it so that none of your effects can touch Ra for the rest of the turn! And when Ra strikes, all monsters will die regardless of their might! It also allows me to sacrifice other monsters and add their power to god! However that power shall pale in comparison to what the Sun God Unifier can create! I pay all but one hundred of my lifepoints, to add it as attackpower to the Winged Dragon of Ra!" As Unas resolved his trap, something bizarre took place. His body turned to mist, every part of him except his right eye floated to the top of Ra's head. There a now one-eyed Unas merged with the divine beast(7400/0), while his one eye stayed down below to represent his lifeforce.

Unas' LP: 100

"This.. is not gonna be fun." Blanche could not take any chances now. She reactivated the Ultimate Creature of Destruction to protect the Ultimate Dragon. That would be enough for the dragon. If only the same could be said for her lifepoints. "If you desired fun, you should never have come here!" Unas declared as he entered the battle phase. The flames of the Ra phoenix spread around Obelisk and consumed his entire body to add His 4000 attackpoints to those of the unified Ra(11400/0) and Unas. "I know why we came here! Do you? You act like you believe you're guarding the gates of heaven or something!" Of all the guardians so far, this one sounded the most insane. "Not heaven, but creation! You see It as an enemy, but our lord is a sacred force of nature! A god in his own right! And if you cannot even conquer Ra, then you can never meet god!" Ra fired its attack off at last, releasing a cannon blast of solar flames from the ring on its back. The intense blaze of god clashed against the Ultimate Dragon and its user. "Ghaaaah!" This must have been what the surface of the sun felt like, Blanche nearly collapsed due to the heat.

Blanche's LP: 100

"You survived only by an inch!" Unas laughed out loud. "Heh.. same to you." Madam Blanche grinned back as she forced herself to ignore the pain. She had to keep telling herself this was just a very complicated nightmare. "If you think we are equals, you are wrong! The life Ra took from you will never return. Whereas I... can unfuse my own lifeforce!" Unas switched on the second effect of Sun God Unification, allowing him to tribute the Winged Dragon of Ra to regain lifepoints equal to its attackpoints. The special summoned god would have returned to the graveyard during the end of the turn anyway. "Gah. No fair." But this way Unas gained back more than the life he put away, since he also absorbed the attackpoints from the sacrificed Tormentor god. "That is what they all say.. that life is not fair. People seek to blame god for their misery, but in truth they only have themselves to blame. God is just a way out; a receptacle for both love and hate. Is it any wonder that he abandoned you and turned against you?" Unas placed one trap card down and ended the turn.

Unas' LP: 11500

-TURN 15-

"No life is not very fair. I know that part already. But I never saw that as the work of any higher power or a twist of fate. Some people are just dealt a bad hand." Blanche countered as she drew her next card. "And what of your bad hand? Your luck? You are the last duelist standing because of a mere coincidence!" Unas snapped and activated a trap card from his graveyard. "Dark Spell Regeneration activates the Monster Reborn set on my field to special summon the Winged Dragon of Ra once more! And then once monster on the field is sent to the graveyard!" Of course, he would set his newly revived god phoenix(10/0/0) [Zone 3] out against the Neo Ultimate Dragon. "I think my hand is looking fine from here!" And Blanche revealed her face-down spell: De-fusion. The fused dragon avoided Ra's wrath at the last second by splitting back up into its three fusion materials: three Blue Eyes White Dragons[Zones 2,3 & 4]. "Hmph. Ra demands a death regardless!" Dark Spell Regeneration turned the left Blue-Eyes into the new victim and allowed Ra to burn her into cinders. "You are wrong, Madam Blanche. There is a higher power, one whose designs you could never understand! He gave you this world, and look what you have turned it into!"

"Yeah I know who you're talking about. And now it just sounds like this creator guy is whining about things he should have taken into account himself. Maybe it's god who wants a way out, not us." Blanche would end the duel this turn, she had to. "I summon Primal Dragon the Primordial Dragon! He can absorb the attackpoints of one monster in my graveyard!" A dragonic entity(4/2000/2000) [Zone 1] made from pure cosmic matter appeared, its body barely contained by golden scales and plates. The Primal Dragon absorbed the soul of Blue-Eyes White Dragon into his own being(5000/2000) to grow in size, however it would not be able to inflict damage with these attackpoints. "And now this card.. the real lucky draw. I can special summon him by tributing monsters with a combined attack of ten thousand or more! Say hell to Ten Thousand Dragon!" The two surviving white dragons and Primordial could combine into a pool of 11000 attackpoints, more than enough to shape.. a longer greater dragon(10/10000/10000) [Zone 3] of pure gold. "Ten Thousand Dragon?"

"Yup! Ten Thousand! As in he gets ten thousand attackpoints if I special summon him like this! I dont know what they call ten thousand years, but it sure beats a millennium!" Blanche entered the battle phase and turned the Dragon with its black flame aura against Ra and its solar prominence. "You will never reach the divine! I activate the Absolute Divine Beast!" Unas could only pull out one last defense: a continuous trap that cost him a card in his hand. "It special summons one Divine Beast from the graveyard and turns that into your attack target instead!" The trap resurrected Osiris the Sky Dragon(10/0/0) in defense mode and placed it around Ra as a coiled shield. "Is that so? I have some bad news for you then! But a monster that used Primordial Dragon as a tribute gets to attack twice in one turn!" As the first salvo of black flames turned Osiris into a spiral of scorched flesh, Ten Thousand Dragon flew back around to prepare a second bombardment. At which point Unas reactivated Sun God Unification. "Then you leave me no choice!"

Unas' LP: 100

"!" The blue-eyed duelist took one bewildering moment to appreciate how far her enemy was willing to go. "You are a fool! Your shortsightedness will cost you everything! You never think ahead!" Unas unified his 11400 lifepoints with Ra(11400/0) once more, ascending beyond the dragon of the ten thousand. "No. That's all I have been doing right now. Because that's what keeps me going." Blanche recovered just in time, activating her second face-down card during the damage step. "Concentrating Current adds the current defense of my monster to its attack! Turning ten thousand into twenty thousand dragon!" The golden dragon(20000/10000) received a jolt of energy right as the two dragons clashed. "Twenty? How is this possible? How could even Ra lose to you? You are nobody!" Not in a thousand years could Unas match this kind of destructive output. "Even a nobody can get a little lucky. Maybe you want to blame god for that too?" She just had to sit back and watch the black flames eclipse the divine radiance of the sun god and send everything into total darkness.

Unas' LP: 0

"Ah!?" Despite that, clearing the final obstacle provided Blanche with some much needed clarity. "Guys!?" For one thing, the champions were still unconscious, but no worse for wear at least. "Ah, right. I know what I have to do! Leave it to me!" Still, largely due to them she could finally see what lied at the heart of this void.. There were no more illusions or bad dreams to get in the way, nothing that could hide its true nature anymore. The battlefield was reduced to just a smooth flat rock..laid out in the form of a 9x9 grid. "Hello there." This is what Charles saw before, what Unas claimed to guard; this strange board. Could this have been the base form of the Arena Beyond? Blanche saw nothing else to use Scarlet's program on and she could not exactly ask for more instructions. All she remembered was that Scarlet gave every one the same antiprogram. "Well, here goes nothing." She moved to the center tile and pushed a button on her dueldisk to activate Rose's addition...

"!" The dueldisk promptly released a blade of red light into the board, which Immediately lit up with black and white light. "I hope that's what was supposed to happen." Things were about to change..

(To Be Continued in World 090: Who Gets to Decide Fate?)

New Cards used by Dyzanthium
Keeper of Dragon Magic
Primal Dragon the Primordial Dragon
Ten Thousand Dragon

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Successor Soul
Defusion

New Cards used by Dyzanthium
Fusion Substitute

Cards used by Unas
Reactor Slime
Slifer the Sky Dragon
Obelisk the Tormentor
Guardian Slime
The Winged Dragon of Ra

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Egyptian God Slime

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Exchanging Souls
Thunderforce Attack
Fists of Fate
Forbidden Necromance
Ancient Chant
The Millennium Revelation
Monster Reborn
Blaze Cannon

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Metal Reflect Slime
Dark Spell Regeneration
Son God Unification
Absolute Divine Beast