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.

108. World 100: Mad Minute

World 100: Mad Minute

War finally came to the world beyond. "Well... I guess this proves that not every country leader has been in league with Continuum." Vigionaire's meager expectations for this world were halfway met when a squadron of jets came soaring through the sky, and they made their intentions crystal clear. "I think we should cover our ears." The first wave fired a barrage of missiles straight at the top of the obelisk. Dozens of explosions rocked the sector and terrified the duelists below. But when all was said and done, their firepower left not a single mark on the tower. Still, their activity drew the attention of the Continuum. All but one of the chaos drones flew off into the air to engage with the airforce. "Gah! Now is our chance!" With Continuums attention taken up by the invading forces, the other duelists could retreat safely. They did not want to be near anywhere near this kind of fight. "Why didn't all of that, do anything?" Cherry complained. "No manmade weapon can harm a virtual construct. They have the right idea in spirit, but their intelligence is lacking. Their chances against Continuum are less than stellar as well."

"They are going to get hurt.. or worse." Echo said with a shudder in her voice. Already jets were blasted out of the sky by the third entity, and the falling pilots scooped up and absorbed by sweeping beams of light and darkness. "It's even converting real people of flesh and blood into data!?" The Fisherman gasped. "It must be the same thing that happened with Nakana's parents. But how is this possible?" It was a loud and horrifying sight, and there would no end to it as long as the world's armies could send in more forces. "This has to stop." Destroying Static only made the situation even worse by tipping the scales more in Continuums favor. "But what can we do?"

"Well. I guess all of you lucked out." Closer to the tower, the baron Schwarzwald enjoyed the show. "Rgh. I will kill you for this!" Wagnerok would now be spared Continuums wrath as well, and the blonde duelist saw this as a chance to destroy the traitor before him. "Should you? Neither of us can harm each other even if we have ourselves a duel. You can try to challenge Scarlet of course. But your loss will just result in you being erased from existence. You could also try to get in her good graces again, but I doubt that she has need of your services." The red-eyed duelist chuckled. "Tch. This thing between us is not over! I will get what I need first, and then I will finish what you started!" Wagnerok grunted and teleported out of the sector. One second later another missile exploded a little closer to the ground, causing more panic among the remaining followers of Static. "Hrm. Miss Fever? I think I will be heading back now... Scarlet?" Even Schwarzwald felt a little too hot for comfort. Unfortunately, Scarlet Fever did not respond to any of his messages. "Tsk tsk. This could be a problem after all.."

...

Scarlet Fever's LP: 8000 Mephistar's LP: 8000

At the top of the obelisk, the duel between the mad scientist and one of her 'monsters' began. "Well, this should be fun. It will be the first time you see my true dueling skills."

-TURN 01-

"Feh. You've had so many faces and decks. I don't really care which one you're hiding this time." Mephistar got the first turn and normal summoned Rakea the Unchained Twin(3/1500/1500) [Zone 3]. "I know you've already acquainted yourself with my deck, so I'll be skipping the explanations on my end too!" Rakea activated her first effect to destroy one card on the field and chose to strangle herself with her own chains. The water twin could then activate her second effect, special summoning a new Unchained monster from the deck upon her destruction. "I summon Unchained Twins Sarama!" He declared. However, Scarlet Fever sprang her own trap in response to Rakea's selfdetruction. "Hmm.. then I activate Soul Levy." It was a continuous trap whose latent effect became effective as soon as the Unchained Twin Sarama(3/1500/1500) [Zone 3] appeared. "Every time you special summon a monster, the top three cards of your deck are sent to the graveyard." Mephistar did not even get to do the discarding himself. Sarama's summon shaved the next three cards from his deck.

"One little trap aint going to scare me!" Still, Mephistar could go ahead with Sarama's effect to set one Unchained card from the graveyard to his field and then to destroy a card. Mephistar picked the same target for both effects, the Escape of Unchained trap discarded by Soul Levy. "I special summon Abominable Unchained Soul!" Destrying Escape of the Unchained let him summon another Unchained monster from his deck, the demon spirit monk(8/3000/1500) [Zone 4]. At once Soul Levy responded by discarding another three cards from the top of his deck. "See if I care! Sarama, attack her face-down monster!" Losing six cards would not hurt half as much as a direct attack to her face, he figured.

"Oh my. I am affraid you will need a lot more special summons to get through to me, Mephistar." The attack only gave Scarlet Fever more chances to laugh at her opponent. The card Mephistar destroyed was Scapeghost, the zombified version of Scapegoat. "Zombies?" When destroyed, the undead goat split up into five black sheep tokens(1/0/0) [Zones 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5]: bleakly colored ghosts with wide white eyes. Each one was summoned in defense mode, so Abominable Unchained Soul's attackpower hardly mattered. "You've chosen the most rotten type there is? Figures.." Mephistar grit his teeth and blasted the middle token away with the monk's spiritual blasts. "I link summon Unchained Soul of Rage!" Sarama and the Abominable one turned into link materials for the blue spectral beast of Rage(1800/LINK 2) {Up/Down} [Extra Zone 1]. At the very least Mephistar would ready himself for whatever hell these tokens were going to unleash next, no matter how many times Soul Levy would punish him for it. "I set three cards and end my turn!"

-TURN 03-

"Ah yes, the infamous Rage. Schwarzwald had some trouble with it, but any problem can be circumvented if you force it to strike prematurely." Scarlet fever claimed and demonstrated by using two of the Black Sheep tokens as link materials. "With two zombie monsters I can make my Vampire Sucker.." The ghostly sheep turned to mist and re-solidified as the winged pink vampiress(1600/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 2]. If she were to have her way, she could turn the Unchained beast into a zombie and sacrifice it for one of Scarlet's many cards. "She wont be sucking any blood today, Fever!" Mephistar had no choice, but he enjoyed doing it anyway. The Soul of Rage activated its effect, targeting the special summoned Vampire Sucker and turning them both into link materials for the next unchained spirit beast: Unchained Soul of Anguish(2300/LINK 3) {Downleft/Up/Downright} [Extra Zone 1]. Even in her turn however, Soul Levy would continue to discard cards from Mephistar's deck for each special summon. "Hee. Be careful that you don't bleed to death before I am finished, Mephistar."

...

Back at Exeter HQ, the duelists could were following Mephistar's every word and move. "What did she say? She's using her desk destruction strategy again?" Charles involuntarily winced as memories of his own duel with Scarlet came rushing back to him. "She must believe it to be the best strategy against him. It's the deck I would have chosen." Rose sadly concluded. With a strategy like that, Mephistar's own deck thinning skill card did not have a lot of use. "How many cards are in his deck. How long can he keep this up?" Charles wondered. His infiltration had been a great success, but it would all be for nothing if he lost now. "He started with forty-four.. Now he is down to Twenty-two." Rose did not have to wonder. She saw all the data. "He's already half gone?" The cyberse duelist cursed. At the same time though, he wondered why Mephistar's deck did not have the standard size of 40 cards.

...

"I summon the Vampire Retainer.. and then the Wee Witch Apprentice." Fever of course could special summon as often as she desired. Once she normal summoned her vampiric black/white hound(2/1200/0) [Zone 2], she took the Retainer and one more black sheep token as two DARK link materials for the link summoned Wee Witch(1400/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 2]. From now on all monsters of the DARK element would gain 500 attack and defense points: monsters like the witch(1900 atk) but also demons like Unchained Soul of Anguish(2900 atk). "And then I summon the Retainer again. Which will allow me to pay 500 lifepoints to add a Vampire spell to my hand." By discarding one Vampire (Vampire Red Baron), Scarlet could resurrect her two-tailed hound [Zone 3]. The Retainer immediately jumped at its master to bite her in the neck and drain 500 of her lifepoints. "What the.." Tycho shuddered. The fevered duelist transformed the blood spraying out of the wound into a brand new spell card; Vampire's Desire. "You should already be familiar with the way I duel."

Scarlet's LP: 7500

"Nobody is gonna have to get familiar I send you to an early grave, Scarlet! Since you activated an effect, Dark Spirit of Malice will bring back one level eight demon from my graveyard!" Mephistar discarded the last card in his hand, the malicious spirit, to special summon the Abominable Unchained Soul [Zone 2] back to the field. Shortly afterwards, Soul Levy buried another 3 cards from the deck. "Oh so many nice monsters to have. I should not be tempted to take one.. But my needs and wants seem to cross paths often." Scarlet Fever suddenly switched the last black sheep token(500/0) to attack mode and activated her new spell. "Vampire's Desire sends one monster to my graveyard, to special summon one Vampire from my graveyard!" A swarm of bats devoured the Vampire Retainer and flocked together into a black humanoid shape. Scarlet Fever resurrected the black knight Vampire Red Baron(6/2900/1500) on his red-maned nightmare horse. "Red Baron can switch control of our monsters once each turn!"

"Keep your crosses to yourself!" Mephistar activated the Unchained Soul of Anguish, possessing the Red Baron before the Soul could be possessed itself. "Unchained Abomination!" The Anguished demon threw itself and the noble vampire into the link circuit, and link summoned Unchained Abomination the fully materialized demon hound(3500/LINK 4) {Downleft/Up/Down/Downright} [Extra Zone 1]. "Oh but I am.." Even this deviation, the vampire duelist could quickly correct. "I activate my trap card, Vampire Takeover. I revive one Vampire and set the Vampire Kingdom in my field zone" She did some redecorating, reviving the Red Baron[Zone 3] while also placing the gloomy Transylvanian town of the Vampire Kingdom up on her field. The only night now came from the bloodred moon in the sky "I always get what I want, Mephistar. No matter the cost." The cost in this case would be a 1000 lifepoints. The Red Baron gently bit Scarlet Fever's wrist to suck the lifeblood out and used his powers.. to switch the black sheep token with the Unchained Abomination. "What? Why that one?"

Scarlet's LP: 6500

"Because... When I control a leveled monster that I do not also own, I can treat it as a level 6 monster for the XYZ-summon of Sheridan the Vampire Dhampir!" This time the vampire bat storm emerged from the extra deck and swallowed Vampire Red Baron and Unchained Soul of Disaster. Terrifying cries emanated from the shadows and were suddenly silenced. He inevitably floated out of the darkness: Sheridan the blonde vampire(R6/3100/1500) [Zone 5] who wore a white nobleman's suit and a golden monocle. "Your other demon wont be alive for much longer either anyway. Sheridan sends one card on the field to the graveyard by detaching one of its XYZ-materials!" The Dhampir raised his cane and pointed it towards the Unchained Abomination. With just that one gesture, he could command the demon to turn to black dust. It appeared that Scarlet controlled every aspect of death and destruction in this duel. "I think you've had enough, Scarlet! I activate Destiny Board... and Sentence of Doom!"

Yet Mephistar came up with a third method altogether. "The Destiny board?" Charles gasped. He'd never seen any duelist try to use that card. A Ouija Board appeared on the field and one demonic puppet arm moved the planchette towards the first letter of the killing word: F. "Yes, we'll get to see who dies quicker! My deck or your heart! Sentence of Doom can add one dead or banished demon back to my hand, when I control Destiny Board!" The unchained duelist snatched the fiendish Dark Spirit of Banishment. "Then I activate my trap card: Call of the Archfiend. I can special summon one highlevel demon from my graveyard each turn!" Mephistar quickly discarded the Banishment spirit, and used it to revive the Unchained Soul of Disaster(8/0/3000) [Zone 4]. That demonic hound spirit(5900/3500) gained 300 attackpoints for each Unchained card in the graveyard. Once Soul Levy buried another 3 cards from the deck, there were 18 Unchained cards in the graveyard. However...

"A-ha. You had a surprise for me after all. However, when a card is sent from the deck to graveyard.. Vampire Kingdom can send one vampire to my graveyard to destroy one card on the field." The red moon field sent the Vampire Familiar card into a deep sleep. But as they entered the grave, they dragged the Disaster Soul down with it. "And Sheridan can take control of any monster that dies!" The Dhampir turned its last XYZ-material into a bloodred mist, and let it rain down on the ground where the Unchained Disaster perished. Scarlet resurrected it[Zone 2] back to her side of the field. She could use its effect too, targeting the Black Sheep token to instantly link summon a DARK link monster with the two cards as materials: the Beatcop from the Underworld(1500/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Zone 3]. "But since my level eight demon still went to my graveyard, I can add the Dark Spirits of Malice and Banishment back to my hand!" Mephistar yelled as he added both spirits. He could not activate the Malicious one again this turn, but the Banishing spirit would trigger as soon as Scarlet dared to attack him. "Hee, Sheridan. You know what must be done." Nevertheless, Scarlet Fever declared her attacks anyway. Letting the Dhampir prey on Mephistar directly

"I get the feeling you have a surprise for me too! In that case, I summon Curse Necrofear in defense mode!" Mephistar discarded the Banishment spirit, sending the two-headed ghost knight into the graveyard to resurrect a different kind of fiend. A blue-skinned bald demoness(8/3300/2700) [Zone 3] in spiked gear, holding a baby doll with a cracked skull, rose from her coffin. Soul Levy activated its own effect in turn, dropping Mephistar's decksize to just 10 cards. "Oh I do not need many surprises." Vampire Kingdom added 500 attackpoints to any battling zombies, so Sheridan(3600/1500) would have been strong enough to kill Necrofear regardless of her position. "I do not need to hurt you at all in fact. But it does not hurt me either." The Beatcop of the Underworld and Wee Witch Apprentice made the second and third attack, hitting the infernal duelist with blasts of dark magic and hellfire. Any other day, the irony of this would have made him smile.

Mephistar's LP:4600

"Of course I know you have another surprise for me. During the end of a turn in which Necrofear died, she can be reborn and destroy one card on my field for each spell or trap I control. Certain clearly measures need to be taken." Scarlet snapped her fingers and turned the Dhampir vampire into a puddle of blackened blood. "I tribute my Vampire to revive the Vampire Familiar in defense mode, allowing me to add a Vampire monster from the deck to my hand." Her black pool became a swarm of eyeless bats(1/500/0) [Zone 2]. And though their power, Scarlet obtained the Vampire Fraulein monster. "Then I set one card face down, and end my turn." The scarlet duelist felt secure behind her new vampiric fortifications.

"Hmph.. One way or another, this turn is your loss, Scarlet." During each of her endphases, Destiny Board would place one of the four Spirit Messages on the field. "So that's why.." Crescent realized what the extra 4 cards were, extra Spirit Message spells. Thanks to this redundancy, he could still activate one Spirit Message from his deck even though Soul Levy had already discarded plenty of others. "It still feels like.. you're taking an enormous risk by dueling this way though." After the message grew another letter to spell FI, the Curse Necrofear[Zone 3] made her body corporeal again. The Demon puppeteer loomed behind the Destiny Board, Sentence of Doom and Sprit Message cards. She moved her hand across the field instead of the board, and swept away the Beatcop from the Underworld, Wee Witch Apprentice, the Vampire Familiar and the Soul Levy continuous trap card. The destruction of the Apprentice did however allow Scarlet to add one DARK monster (Scapeghost) from the graveyard to her hand.

-TURN 04-

"I like it this way, Crescent. That's something I learned when I dueled that bastard over there." Mephistar glared at the black baron. "You cannot win if you duel without taking risks!" The chained duelist drew his next card, reducing his deck down to 8 cards. "Of course, she's being risky herself by adding more cards to my graveyard! One of those being the Dark Spirit's Mastery spell! If I banish it, I can send all the Spirit Messages in my hand or graveyard back to the deck to draw cards equal to those I returned!" In one fell swoop Mephistar shuffled six Spirit Messages back into his deck (I, 2x A, N, 2xL). In return Mephistar drew six new cards: including three more Spirit Messages (N & A & L). Overall Mephistar's deck retained the same size after this draw. "Heh. Call of the Archfiends special summon Unchained Soul of Disaster!" So did his graveyard, once he discarded a demon (Unchained Twins - Aruha) to reactivate his continuous trap and special summoned the Disaster demon. Even without the Wee Witch, it(5700/3000) was a force to be feared. "Unchained Soul of Disaster! Necrofear! Attack!"

"Hmm." Unfortunately Scarlet Fever could special summon the Vampire Fraulein(5/600/2000) [Zone 2] to her field in defense mode whenever a monster declared an attack. That way she could absorb the greater part of Mephistar's damage output this turn. "Bah! Let's see if you are still smiling after this!" Once the Soul of Disaster finished crushing the vampiric woman Fraulein, Curse Necrofear could target the vampiric duelist. She fired two hot-red beams of energy from her eyes and blasted Scarlet square in the chest. "Of course, I dont even need to destroy your lifepoints to win!"

Scarlet's LP: 3700

"Oh? But you do seem to have another problem, Mephistar. You need three more empty zones to finish the word of death, and you only have one." Schwarzwald took great pleasure in pointing that out to the chained duelist. "Heh. I only need one.. my field zone." Mephistar took even greater pleasure in correcting the Baron by activating the Dark Sanctuary field spell. "Oh? What a wonderful palette." The baron saw red clouds coming in from the east, filling the skies with hundreds of disembodied eyes. "Dark Sanctuary makes it so that I can activate the Spirit Messages as monster tokens, which cannot be destroyed!" The Dark Sanctuary, a black spire citadel, rose on the opposite horizon of the Vampire Kingdom. It would solve the problem of Mephistar's limited spell and trap zones. "Then I activate the Doom Sentence's second effect! If I tribute it, I can activate one Spirit Message from my hand, deck or graveyard as if Destiny Board itself activated it!" The Destiny Board took the Spirit Message N in his hand and channeled it through the board and the dark sanctum to summon it(1/0/0) [Zone 4] in defense mode. Now the board of destiny spelled out FIN. The chained duelist then set two traps down and ended his turn.

-TURN 05-

"Your method is certainly unorthodox, Mephistar. You are correct in assuming that I have no proper strategy against the Destiny Board. Luckily my deck is very adaptable." Scarlet Fever started her turn with a rather lucky draw, the Allure of Darkness spell. She used it to banish Scapeghost from her hand and to draw two new cards. Afterwards she activated the Book of Life to special summon a zombie from her graveyard: the Vampire Red Baron [Zone 3]. "Oh no you don't! I activate Warning Point! It negates the effects of your monster! It cannot attack or be used as a material for anything!" Mephistar declared. He would not be going through the same routine all over again. "I see. As you say. in that case.. I will sacrifice my monster." On the other hand, Warning Point did not say anything about tribute summons. Scarlet used her Vampire Baron as the tribute, and normal summoned the Scarlet Scourge(6/2200/2200) [Zone 3]. "And bring my Red Baron back that way." The silverhaired vampire prince drained 1000 of Scarlet Fever's lifepoints, all to resurrect the very same Red Baron to the field.

"What is... She is going to XYZ-summon Pilgrim Reaper!" Charles cried out. The Red Baron and Scarlet Scourge poured into a bright red XYZ-portal and constructed the scythe-wielding pilgrim ghost(R6/4800/4800) [Extra Zone 2]. The number of DARK monsters in either graveyard determined its power: 200 ATK and DEF per card. There were too many to count, and its true threat did not even lie in that effect. "Pilgrim Reaper discards 5 cards from the top of the deck!" Charles had to warn Mephistar, for this was this very card that brought him down in the end. Even if Destiny Board placed the final letter on the field before the next draw phase. One could not finish the word if the letters were all in the graveyard. "Point taken! But I can still bring back one certain monster!" Mephistar activated the Call of the Archfiends one final time, discarding the Dark Spirit of Malice to revive Abominable Unchained Soul[Zone 4]. "When Abominable is summoned, I can discard one card to destroy one card!" He discard one more Spirit Message to target the Pilgrim Reaper. "End of the line, Scarlet Fever!"

Scarlet's LP: 2700

But in the end... only one would die. "What is.. that?" Before Mephistar now floated a new vampire: a silverhaired dark-coated woman(5/2000/1400) [Zone 2] with a red-eyed mask and crimson hood covering her face. "This? This is Vampire Grimson. I activate my trap, Vampire's Awakening, to special summon it from my deck. And by paying a thousand lifepoints, Grimson can undo the destruction of one of my monsters." The grim vampire lady sliced right through Scarlet's shoulder with her own scythe and turned the spray of blood into a shield of crimson. The Escape of the Unchained could not kill Pilgrim Reaper, only the Unchained Disaster Soul. "I am affraid the end of the line was meant for you and not me, Mephistar." Scarlet Fever switched on the effect of the Pilgrim Reaper, and shredded the remainder of Mephistar's cards. "No." He stared down at his own remaining cards, which included a second Sentence of Doom. That trap could activate another Spirit Message from his hand or graveyard. But Destiny Board itself would still need to activate the final spell, and it could only do so from the deck. "You.. got me."

"Hm. You made it close, for what it's worth." Scarlet Fever mused. "Don't mock me. I don't have use for your compliments where I am going." The chained duelist resigned himself to his fate with a weary grunt. "Everyone has a place inside Continuum, Mephistar. Your knowledge is knowledge as well, I will not let it go to waste." The doctor was about to end her turn. "Brag all you win, you will not win. People like you never do." But he had to get his last word in. "Ho." To which Fever could only grin. She entered the endphase and let Mephistar's empty deck cause his own demise. No matter what however, Mephistar went down smiling... knowing that a part of him at least would still be safe out there...

Mephistar's LP: 0

...

"!" One more time, a shot of agony tore through Echo's heart: Mephistar's agony. "Miss Echo?" The Fisherman saw her kneel down as if in pain. But the pain was not hers. "No. He was finally.." Even down here, amidst all the noise and chaos, she could feel his loss. She could feel what Mephistar felt as he... became nothing. And this was after he'd learned to live his own life. "Enough." It made something snap at last. "ENOUGH!" It made her scream out loud: sending the power of her voice across the whole sector. But nobody heard her, because she sent herself and the Fisherman back into the realm of thought. "!? "What did you do?" Everyone else appeared to be moving at a slower rate. "Not enough. I did not do enough. But I have had enough. This is all.. going to stop."

(To Be Continued in World 101: Closest Soul To the Dark)

New Cards used by Mephistar
Dark Spirit of Malice
Curse Necrofear

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Trade In
Spirit Message "I"
Spirit Message "N"
Dark Spirit's Mastery
Spirit Message "A"

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Destiny Board
Sentence of Doom
Call of the Archfiends
Warning Point

New Cards used by Scarlet Fever
Scapeghost
Vampire Grimson

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Dhampir Vampire - Sheridan

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Vampire's Desire
Vampire Kingdom
Book of Life

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Soul Levy
Vampire TakeOver