World 101: Closest Soul to the Dark
"Hey! Is is true?" Bionis shouted. It seemed like the whole world had gone mad while he and Tycho scoured the Hive. "Mister Rivers? Did you find.." He was supposed to report back to Nakana if they managed to track down their next clue. "No. There was nobody else in any of the pods and there was no computer or anything that we could find. But from the sound of things, we don't need to look hard to find Continuum."
"I am affraid not, no." Dharma pointed at the scene unfolding within the 3dimensional projection: at the war around Scarlet Fever's base. The jetfighters who were supposed to be on their side did more damage to the area beneath them, than to the Obelisk or Continuum. "I thought dueling was not its thing? Why did it change its mind? And why does it look like that?" Tycho growled. "It looks like that because Scarlet Fever gave it a new body. With Static is gone, she decided to join forces with the next worst thing." The blue-eyed duelist muttered. "She did? Kgeh! You are even more insane than I thought." Tycho turned towards Scarlet Rose, feeling very much inclined to blame for her being Fever's counterpart.
"I wish I could say that your accusation is undeserved, but it is not. Static found something in me that I did not know I had.. and even he paid the price for it. I though we could salvage the situation, but.." Her last ditch effort, sending in Mephistar, failed as well. "We have lost Mephistar, Cierze.. and the others are still in danger. We wont be safe if we keep hiding here either. Scarlet, let me do this. Maybe I can stop Scarlet Fever." Charles did not want to sit around anymore and wait for the next victim to be announced. Who knew how long the enemy would be distracted by the airforce strikes. "She will not be fooled twice, Charles. We need to fall back and regroup. Vigionaire has is already waiting for the right moment." Rose still denied him, despite her concerning declarations. "Waiting? For what? Is someone still in danger?" If anything, hearing that just made him want to jump in more. "Not necessarily. But Echo and the Fisherman are unaccounted for. They abandoned the rest of the group a few minutes ago."
"They did!?" Midsummer Nightmare gasped. "Hey. What are you so shocked about? Do you know something?" Bionis snapped at the uncharacteristically distressed duelist. "I only know what I fear: that she has seen too much. This amount of cruelty and hate is not meant for her. You should have shielded her from it. She is powerful, but she has no idea how to use that power. And now, I am affraid of what she will choose to do next, and what she will have to discard.."
...
"Echo? Where are we going?" The Fisherman did not like this. They were hidden in within the subconscious world, yet Continuum could easily find and attack them if it wanted too. "Miss Echo.. whose memories are we following?" He could tell that they were following a trail of images drawn from the past: faces like Charles' Scarlets and Hydra's passed him by. Even her own face lingered in the background of the void. "Please, just tell me. I want to help you. I cannot do that if you do not tell me what is on your mind." She'd never been this quiet before. Though he also understood that every recent loss hit her much harder than it could hit him.
"Static's." But finally she answered. "We're following Static's memories." And the empty world shattered around her to reveal the harsh red light of Static's own inner mind. "What!? You wanted to come back here?" The Fisherman vividly recalled how she could barely last a minute in here the last time she visited the true beyond. "It's alright, Fisher. Static is not awake or aware anymore." It appeared that the world did not hurt her as much now. Echo could freely move about, albeit she was confined to her own winged wheelchair again. "But why are we here? Can we stop Continuum from here?" The Fisherman did not think so himself. The third entity's power was tied with the Obelisk, not with what remained of the Arena Beyond. "We are here because I cannot keep going like I was before, Fisher." Echo sighed. She grabbed the orb of memories from her wheelchair and let it float in front of her. Then a second orb of light appeared, one glowing even redder than the world around them. "Lady Echo? What is that?"
"Static... What is left of him. I kept it with me, after he.. died."
"Static!? Why would you.. keep it with you?" The fisherman cried out. He did not want to question her judgment, but he did not know what else to say to this. "Because I could not leave it. No, that's wrong. I could.. and I wanted too. But I should not have to. There's still one part of me that wants to forgive him, and a part that wants to forgive the third.. But I am so tired of it now. I would not have to be this way, feel this way, if I could just learn to accept... it. That I can accept that I hate... hatred. That's why I kept this part of Static. So it could absorb the power of this world, this hateful world. And then I can use it against them, against Continuum. Then I can stop them from taking everyone's happiness away." She reached out her hand to the orb of red light.
"My lady. You cannot do this." And the Fisherman stopped her, burying the orb inside ten feet of pressurized water. "Fisher.." Echo pulled her hand back before the water could hurt her. "Fisher. You want to stop me?" This response did not seem to surprise her. "I want this. If you do not, there is only one way you can stop me." She took a few step backs and took out her cards. "Are you truly asking this of me? I will do anything to save you from what I see as evil, but I do not want to fight you." He reached out of his own cards, though he still hesitated to follow through on the implied challenge. "That is why you were created. To fight anyone for my sake. I see that you've developed your own sense of what is good for me and what is not. That makes me happy."
Echo's LP: 8000 Fisherman's LP: 8000
-TURN 01-
"But this is no longer about what is good for me." Echo started the duel, took the first turn.. and proceeded to do nothing with it.
-TURN 02-
"This is... My lady, I wish I knew what went through your head. Are you testing me? If so, I will do what I can." The Fisherman summoned a shark(4/1500/1300) with great big golden teeth, metallic armor, multiple dorsal fins but only one pectoral fin on the right-hand side. "When I normal summon Right-hand Shark, I can add Left-Hand Shark from the deck to my hand! And while I control Right-Hand Shark, I can special summon Left-Hand Shark from my hand or graveyard and raise its level by one! But it will be banished if it leaves the field!" The shark's left-finned twin(3/1300/1500) [Zone 4] swam in straight from the deck, equally armored and with jaws of silver. "And now I XYZ-Summon Number 37: Hope Woven Dragon Spider Shark!" Right-Hand Shark and Left-Hand Shark liquefied into XYZ-materials that swirled around a newly summoned white shark Number(R4/2600/2100) [Extra Zone 1] with eight spider-like fins and two great claws. An XYZ-monster that used these two monsters as materials gained new effects that made it immune to battle and effect destruction.
"You're getting more used to using those Numbers, aren't you?" Echo sighed wistfully. "Is that why you did not summon anything? Was that the test?" In that case, Fisherman would have XYZ-summoned Number 101: Silent Honor ARK to absorb any Marincess that might have stood in his way. "You misunderstand. This is not a test, Fisher. This is change." The way she spoke concerned him even more. The joy had completely left her voice. "...Change? Is this.. against your will? I wont let it happen, Echo! Even if it hurts me and you! I activate Torpedo Takedown!" The Fisherman revealed his second spell, which detached one material from Hope Woven Spider Shark. "This card inflicts 400 points of damage for each card in my hand. And then the monster I detached a material from gains the same amount of attackpower!" The Spider Shark warm upwards through the air and split the detached card into three torpedoes. Each one exploded right around the marince princess.
Echo's LP: 6800
"I am sorry! It will all be over soon!" 1200 attackpoints flowed into his Number(3800/2100). He declared his direct attack, knowing that her usual skill of destroying monsters that battled would not work on her. Even so he closed his eyes the moment before the attack landed, missing the moment where his Number drastically dropped her lifepoints. When he looked again, she appeared to be standing in the same place with the same unreadable yet gentle expression. "You.. let me do that?" He regretted his actions already. "Please, tell me I do not have to strike again." He placed two trap cards face down and ended his turn, causing Spider-Shark(2600/2100) to lose the attackboost from Torpedo Takedown. "That only depends on what you want, Fisher.. I do not want to hurt you either. I am glad that you tried though, Fisher. It shows that the love you had was real.. Or at least that you believe it to be."
Echo's LP: 3000
-TURN 03-
"My love is real too." Echo summoned her first monster, Marincess Blue Tang(4/1500/1200) [Zone 5]. The blue-haired maiden activated her effect to send Marincess Mandarin from the deck to the graveyard. "My lady.." Fisherman felt even more confused than before, as the Marincess duelist still played the same despite her new attitude. She used Blue Tang as a link material to summon her Marincess Blue Slug(1500/LINK 1) {Down} [Extra Zone 2]. The link materialized Blue Tang's second effect then excavated the top three cards from her deck and added one of the Marincess cards in there (Marincess Cascade) to her hand. Meanwhile Blue Slug could add the Marincess Blue Tang card back to her hand. She could also special summon Marincess Seahorse(3/1400/1000) [Zone 4] from her hand to link it with her Marincess link monster, and special summon Marincess Mandarin(1/00/100) [Zone 3] from her graveyard since she controlled two Marincess monsters already. All of these moves looked the same. They did not feel the same.
"Ha.. I summon Marincess Sea Angel. Her link material is a level four or lower Marincess." They were not all entirely familiar either. "Sea Angel?" The Fisherman saw the Seahorse transform into a new Marincess(1000/LINK 1) {Left} [Zone 4] wearing a white dress. Her hair was white and her wings made of sluglike material. "I did not show you everything I made, Fisher. Sea Angel adds one Marincess Battle Ocean card from the deck to my hand." Echo claimed her field spell and immediately activated it. The calming mists of the void quickly drowned underneath a torrent of water, submerging both duelists deep within the ocean which added 200 attackpoints to all her Marincess monsters. "I have a feeling you have not shown me a great deal of things, miss Echo. But I have to believe that this is all for a reason." The Fisherman insisted. The girl however calmly shook her head. "I only ever had one reason.. I wanted everyone to be happy. I thought there was an easy way to get that wish.."
"I was wrong." Echo immediately took both Sea Angel and Blue Slug away from the field, dematerializing them into the Marincess Coral Anemone(2200/LINK 2) {Left/Down} [Extra Zone 2]. "I was wrong to think I could get what I wanted, without ever doing anything myself." Coral Anemone activated her own effect to revive the water-monster Marincess Seahorse[Zone 4] to a zone marked by her. "I was wrong to think I could let you do everything for me." The Seahorse and Coral Marincess linked up into the next circuit: creating Marincess Marbled Rock(2700/LINK 3) {Left/Down/Right} [Extra Zone 2]. Now that Coral Anemone had been sent to the graveyard, Echo could redraw a Marincess card (Marincess Seahorse) from the graveyard. "I was wrong to ask that of any of you. Look where it led us."
"No matter where we ended up, I would have done it regardless! Nothing can break my devotion towards you, miss Echo! The others may have fallen! But I wont!" The Fisherman swore. "And that is your darkness, Fisher. That is not what I wanted from you. I have to get rid of that darkness inside you too, Fisher." Echo sounded almost delirious yet tearful. "...I summon Marincess Wonder Heart." She took Marincess Mandarin and Marbled Rock as the link materials, causing the former to be banished since she left the field after using her own revival effect. In return Echo gained control of the blue marine queen(2600/LINK 4) {Left/Downleft/Right/Downright} [Extra Zone 2] of the wondrous heart. "Marincess Battle Ocean will give her three Marincess link monsters from my graveyard as equipments." The spirits of Coral Anemone, Blue Slug and Marbled Rock floated up out of the depths and hovered around Wonder Heart. Their queen(4400 atk) gained 600 attackpoints from each equipped monster.
"Darkness? I have not been corrupted, miss Echo. I am the same man I was when you gave life to me!" He protested. "No. You are more than I made you. There is a shadow inside you now, one that wont let anyone else get close to me. I should have known it would be this way... because of who I modeled you after." Echo dejectedly declared her attack. Wonder Heart activated her own effect while doing so. She could special summon one of her equipped cards, Marbled Rock[Zone 3] back to the field. This did decrease her(3800 atk) attackpower a bit. But with a Link 3+ Marincess monster on her field, Echo could now activate Marincess Wave trap card from her hand to protect her current monsters from all effects and also to negate the effects of the Hope-Woven Spider Shark. "My lady, I do not know why you believe these things. I know who I was modeled after, and there is no darkness in him either." The Fisherman retaliated by activating his own trap: Resurgam XYZ. It added 800 attackpoints to all XYZ-monsters on the field. Nevertheless Wonder Heart easily carved up Number 37(3400/2100) with her coiled greatsword, now that it no longer was indestructible.
Fisherman's LP: 7600
Spider Shark could still activate its effects in the graveyard at least, to summon one other monster from there. Marbled Rock would certainly crush that monster; a defending Right-Hand Shark[Zone 2]. "Trap card! Fish Depth Charge!" Except the Fisherman killed Right-Hand Shark first, activating his second trap to tribute the fish. "I destroy one card you control and draw one card!" He could not harm either of her monsters, but he could destroy her field spell. "Ah.." The Shark exploded like deep-sea mine and cracked the Battle Ocean wide open. While this did give the Fisherman a new card, Marincess Marbled Rock(2500 atk) could now attack him directly with a pressurized blast of water. "Ugh.." The fisherman took the blast to the chest, and grimaced. "You've gotten better at attacking too.. We are both evolving, lady Echo. There is nothing wrong with that." He turned his grimace into a smile.
Fisherman's LP: 5100
"No. This is not how I wanted it.." The lady shook her head again and moved to her second main phase. Marincess Marbled Rock could add one of her Marincess cards (Marincess Wave) back to her hand. Then, during the endphase, Wonder Heart took back all unequipped monsters like Marbled Rock and returned them to her(2400 atk). She no longer gained attackpoints from them though. "No. I suppose not. But you did change... Ever since Static fell you've been different. Whatever caused you to lose your way, I will help you find it again!".
-TURN 04-
"When there are no monsters on my field, I can special summon Right-Hand Shark from my graveyard! And then I will also bring back Left-hand Shark!" The pair of metallic sharks [Zones 5 & 4] managed to find their way back to the surface. "Then I normal summon the Lifeless Leaffish!" With the effect of the grey lifeless seahorse(4/1500/1500) [Zone 3] he could send one WATER monster (Buzzsaw Shark) from the deck to the graveyard. "Now I link summon Eria, the Water Charmer Gentle! She takes at least one water monster as a material!" Left-Hand Shark would experience the role of link material this time, along with the Lifeless Leaffish. Together they turned into a female spellcaster that would have looked familiar to some. "Eria?" She was the same Charmer(1850/LINK 2) that Crescent once called out, and she could do a lot of damage to Echo as well. Her effect special summoned any one WATER monster from either graveyard after all. "I... activate Marincess Wave.." Echo decided to use her handtrap now before the Charmer could do just that. The Wave negated her powers and made Wonder Heart immune to all effects for the rest of the turn.
"You are still affraid.. my lady. You do not have to be. I am still me... I activate White Mirror! I special summon the Buzzsaw Shark in my graveyard and add a second Buzzsaw Shark from the deck to my hand!" With the mirror spell he could duplicate his fish monster. Returning the first buzzsawing shark(4/1600/500) [Zone 2] to the field also activated its effect. "Buzzsaw Shark special summons the Lantern Shark from my deck!" His fourth shark(4/1500/900) [Zone 1] appeared with its segmented lightgiving body. "When Lantern Shark is summoned, I summon one Fish-monster from my hand!" Now the second Buzzsaw Shark(4/1600/1500) [Zone 3] made its entry into the oceanic battlefield, joining its cousin for a quick XYZ-summon. "Echo, you know these cards as well as I do. But I shall keep saying it if only to make you remember yourself!" The Buzzsaw Sharks could treat themselves as level 5 monsters for a WATER-based XYZ-monster, which is why they could reshape themselves into the black armored deep-sea knight Valiant Lancer(R5/3300/1600) [Zone 3]. At the same time Right-Hand Shark and Lantern Shark became attachments for the deepsea-cave dragon Abyss Dweller(R4/2500/1400) [Zone 1].
"Abyss Dweller adds five hundred attackpoints to all my water monsters as long as It has XYZ-materials attached." Between that and the Resurgam trap card, the Fisherman possessed all the power he needed. Eria(2350 atk) powered up once, while Valiant Lancer(3800/1600) and Abyss Dweller(3000/1400) now possessed almost double their own attakpower. "And now.. I will use this card. The one you gave me, miss Echo. The Shape of the Ocean!" His last boost would come from the abyss of the dead. The Shape of the Ocean skill card revived the Spider Shark of Hope(3900/2100) [Zone 2], as its original ATK sat beneath the combined ATK of all WATER monsters on the field. "I cannot postpone this much longer.." The Abyss Dweller detached one of its materials (Lantern Shark) to negate the effects of all cards in the graveyard this turn. "The time has come. Abyss Dweller! My lady waits for us! Attack her queen, attack Marincess Wonder Heart!"
"You are serious to the end Fisher. But Marincess Wonder Heart can activate her power when she is attacked as well." During the damage calculation, the battling queen special summoned the equipped Marincess Marbled Rock [Zone 2] a second time. "And when she does, she cannot be destroyed by that attack, or take damage." Despite being the weaker of the two none of Dweller's blasts managed to bypass the barrier of wonder. "Yes, you've hardened your heart. In every sense of the word. But why?!" The Fisherman grimaced as he proceeded to detach one XYZ-material from his Lancer. "Valiant can destroy one monster on the field! I choose Marincess Marbled Rock!" He could only deal with one perfect defense at a time. Luckily Marbled Rock did not have any lingering effect protections. "Then I will save her." Luckily, for Marbled Rock, Echo could also activate Marincess Cascade from her hand. "I see.." The trap banished the Link 3 Marincess for one turn, and added 300 attackpoints to Wonder Heart(3300 atk) for each of the banished monster's link markers.
"You cannot shut me out forever, lady Echo. Just tell me what is weighing on your soul!" The Fisherman tried attacking again, sending Spider Shark to lash out with his claws. This time he did not look away. "You would not understand.." Echo defied him by reactivating Wonder Heart's effect, special summoning the Marincess Coral Anemone[Zone 3] to her field and shielding the marine queen from damage once more. "You cannot know that!" Valiant Lancer launched a stream of water from its lance, which Wonder Heart deflected by special summoning Marincess Blue Slug[Zone 5] to the field. Yet now there were no more equipped cards to save the wonderous Marincess. "Just look at what I can do already! How I can surprise even myself! I activate Resurgam XYZ's final power! I discard one spell, and rank my XYZ-monster up!" He discarded the Fury of Kairyu-Shin spell to turn Abyss Dweller into an XYZ-material for a new and chaotic number. "I XYZ-summon Chaosnumber one hundred and one! Silent Honor Dark!" The Shark of spiders became a black knight of sharks: the evolved Silent Honor(R5/3600/2100) [Zone 5].
"Chaos. That's.. how I would call it. Chaos is a darkness too." Echo did not expect this. She did not enjoy this. "My lady, I have to come to learn that we all need some chaos in our lives. Or else we would wind up becoming like the people Continuum enslaved. I do not seek the chaos Static desired. But I do cherish the chaos that led to my own creation... and my own freedom!" Fisherman declared two more attacks. Eria the Water Charmer(1850 atk) fired a series of bubbles towards Marincess Blue Slug to destroy her, while the Dark Knight of silence impaled Marincess Wonder Heart with a lance-shaped shot of pure water.
Echo's LP: 1450
"Please do not make me keep doing this, my lady." He hoped that these few attacks had snapped some sense back into the girl. Yet her eyes were still filled with a this cold and weary light. "What I want... wanted.. was for everyone to be happy. To be loved and to love. But I seem to be the only one who really wants that. And I cannot get that, unless I fight.. I was made to hate fighting, but also to need fighting to survive." Without dueling, she would have no way to use her powers on those that wanted to destroy her. And there were many. "That is why you have us, my lady! You have us to take on the darkness and the chaos of the world! It is good that you are able to defend yourself. But you do not have to push yourself even further!" Before he ended his turn, the Fisherman activated the effect of Chaosnumber 101. The Dark Knight could absorb one special summoned monster like Marincess Coral Anemone, and turn her into an XYZ-material. Then during the endphase of the turn, Resurgam XYZ sent the monster it XYZ-summoned back to the extra deck.
"Is that why? Is that something you cannot love? Would you love me even if I were less... like myself?" Echo inquired. Because Coral Anemone went to her graveyard again, she could add a Marincess card back to her hand. But it took her a while to retrieve the card (Marincess Wave) in question. During the endphase, Marincess Marbled Rock [Zone 2] also returned to her side of the field. "I would always love you, lady Echo. Few can say that. Perhaps none at all. If that is a failing of mine, than so be it. I do not wish to change that part about me." He boasted, showcasing more of that which she perceived as his darkness. "I do not wish to change either. But.. I have to, Fisher. I have to change even more than I already have.. The Creator made me like this.. and perhaps he could love everyone equally: love their darkness and their light. But I am not him. I am not God. I am just Echo."
-TURN 05-
"And that is not enough." Echo drew her next card, which surrounded itself with an unusually bright bronze glow. "I thought it would be enough to create friends, to make friends. But it never ends.. this dueling.. this fighting. I need more power too, better cards. Better monsters.." She normal summoned Marincess Pascalus, a pink-haired princess(4/1200/2000) [Zone 2] with a colorfully-finned white dress. "...She is not one of them. But she can help me get one. When Pascalus is summoned, I can special summon one Marincess from my hand." Pascalus bowed and placed the Marincess Blue Tang[Zone 3] card at her side. This time the blue-haired princess sent the Marincess Basilalima monster from the deck to the graveyard. "Lady Echo? What are you saying?" The Fisherman wondered if she planned to link summon something else besides either of her link 4 Marincess monsters, though he could not imagine what that would be. Nor would he be able to guess. "That I want to do more than defend.. And you have shown me how." ...that she would use Blue Tang and Pascalus as attachments. "An XYZ-summon?"
"Yes. I XYZ-summon Light Dragon AIgnister." WATER transferred to LIGHT, both level 4 cyberse monsters passed through the cosmic portal and came back out as a long golden dragon(R4/2300/1500) [Zone 1] with curved horn and red markings on its chest. "I always wanted to have a dragon as my next friend. And now... I do."
(To Be Continued in World 102: Last Breach to the Sun)
New Cards used by Miss Echo
Marincess Pascalus
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Marincess Sea Angel
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Light Dragon AIgnister
New Cards used by The Fisherman
Righthand Shark
Lefthand Shark
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Number 37: Hope Woven Dragon Spider Shark
Eria the Water Charmer, Gentle
Chaosnumber 101: Silent Honor DARK
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Torpedo Takedown
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Fish Depth Charge
Resurgam XYZ