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.

111. World 103: For My Third Wish

World 103: For My Third Wish

It was not going well for the heroes of Pandemonium, Continuum matched their numbers and their moves turn for turn. Any of them losing would result in them losing their avatars, their cards, their ability fight back and their ability to run away. "Damnit!" They already could hardly fight back in their current states. They certainly tried, Charles thought he could abuse the loophole in the entity's Decomposing skill by using the Null tokens as materials for link monsters like IP Masquerena, or using his trap cards to help bring out monsters quickly like Excode Talker. But not matter what he tried, every monster wound up dead. In the end he depleted his entire extra deck and was left with just his original Decode Talker and a few drops of lifepoints. The others fared just as badly. One by one they would fall under the shadow of the Obelisk, helpless to strike back. "Fever! What is it that you want!" He could only lash out at the one in control.

"I thought I made myself clear already. I want your knowledge, I want your thoughts.. I want everything you know and love." Scarlet Fever responded calmly, her voice broadcasting down from the great obelisk. "But why? Our thoughts are ours alone! What good will it do to take them for yourself? Why would you help Continuum do this?" Charles did not want to believe that her goals aligned with the entity to this extent. "Because what good is knowledge in the heads of the weakminded? I already know you and I are very much alike in this regard, Charles Adami. You yourself have often lamented the fools of this world, the ones in charge and the ones trying to bring down those in charge. It's all a cauldron of misery created by their own uncontrolled egos and desires. They do not deserve what they know. There should only be one in control of this world, the one genius who rises above the rest. And now such a being can exist.. Come now, Adami. Just submit.. and I will leave your body intact. I only need your mind, to make a better world."

"At what cost?"

In response to that very statement, she appeared. "Echo?" Charles almost didn't recognize her. The girl in blue hovered in front of them, in front of the Obelisk. Her wheelchair was nowhere in sight, and her hair flowed wildly in the air. "That is who I am." She overlooked the dueling field, staring at Charles in particular and his current monsters. "Mister Adami. You helped me survive once before. I will forever be thankful for that. But now at least I can repay you, by saving you and your friends." Echo extended her right arm and revealed a new dueldisk, a curved model that was painted with every color of the spectrum.

"Lady Echo? What are you saying?" Midsummer Nightmare naturally noticed her arrival as well, and met her words with a mixture of wonder and horror. "That I will duel Continuum." As soon as she spoke those words, every Continuum automaton inside and outside Exeter HQ froze up. "Did you.. do that?" Midsummer gasped. Even the entity right in front of him ceased all movements. "No. I did not tell it to stop. But I will stop it." Echo simply demanded its attention by calling the entity. And Continuum could not risk any flaws in this upcoming duel by dividing its concentration across the lesser targets. "You can, can't you?" The masked duelist could tell that something was different about her, not just in appearance...

Continuum's LP: 8000 Echo's LP: 8000

-TURN 01-

"Now this is a treat, miss Echo. Your interference came sooner than calculated." Doctor Scarlet Fever herself deemed this confrontation important enough to weigh in on as well. The entity itself betrayed no such emotions however. It made its moves while she talked: normal summoning the Batteryman Solar(4/1500/1500) [Zone 3]. The card's effect sent the Thunder monster Thunder Dragonroar to the graveyard. "I look forward to seeing your responses. You might recognize some of these cards, but you will find them to be quite difficult to handle." Scarlet mused while the entity special summoned the Chaos Valkyria(4/1800/1050) [Zone 4] in defense mode. She was the silverhaired and dark-purple armored version of the winged valkyrie Dunames, and she could special summon herself by banishing one DARK or LIGHT monster from the graveyard. In this case she banished the DARK Thunder Dragonroar monster, triggering its own effect to special summon a Thunder Dragon, Thunder Dragondark(5/1600/1500) [Zone 5] from the deck. Finally, having successfully summoned another Thunder monster allowed the Solar Batteryman to create a Batteryman token(1/0/0) in defense mode.

"I feel no love for those cards, Scarlet. None at all." Echo declared. Continuum used cards known to duelists worldwide, and yet it only cared about them in a cold clinical sense. Even when it summoned the quite goofy-looking pun-named Some Summer Summoner(1600/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 1], by using two thunder monsters (Thunder Dragondark, Batteryman token) as the link materials, the entity exhibited no shred of an emotional reaction. It felt hollow on the inside in spite of its great power and intelligence. "Oh tut tut. Love is not something you can quantify." Scarlet Fever shrugged. Her digital drone could now also use the effect of Thunder Dragondark to add a new Thunder Dragon card to the hand. Continuum added the Thunder Dragon Fusion spell, and activated it to fuse the banished Thunder Dragonroar and Thunder Dragondark into a Thunder Dragon Colossus(8/2600/2400) [Zone 3]. That fusion monster would prevent Echo from adding any cards in her deck to her hand. "I want to see you deliver me something that is quantifiable."

-TURN 02-

Echo played two spells: a continuous spell called 'You and A.I.' and a field spell. "This is my Ignister AI Land." That card set the tone for the rest of the duel. Her field spell did not just surround the two duelists, but claimed miles and miles of the land around them as well. And it used that land as terrain for her very own theme park: complete with a bright and colorful castle, a rollercoaster that looped around the entire area and a Ferris wheel that spun endlessly. Fireworks went off in the sky, and an invisible crowd cheered the duelist on. "This is the world you imagined yourself to be in?" Charles surprised to see her choose such a happy-go-lucky appearance while her own expression seemed to match none of those feelings. "I always wanted this, even when I was trapped inside of my own home.. my fake home. But I guess I have to destroy something first, before I can start building my own world. Ignister AI Land lets me special summon one AIgnister monster from my hand, if I control no monsters in my main zones. But a monster with that element cannot be summoned again that way, and only cyberse monsters can be summoned this turn. I special summon Bururu AIgnister."

"AIgnister?" Scarlet sounded a little impressed, when a green cyberse blob appeared before the Chaos armada, taking the shape of a patterned cat-like cloud(3/600/1000) [Zone 3]. "Your creations seems to have regressed by themselves. Fascinating. Is this what you once looked like yourself, miss Echo?" She imagined that there would not be much difference between this cyberse and the Null token it would eventually turn into, once Continuum activated its continuous skill of Vector Breakdown. "I don't know. Maybe it is.. These shapes came to me, and their powers too. Bururu is a tuner monster, and it can send one other AIgnister monster from the deck to my graveyard." The shivering AIgnister's effect would go off before it could be destroyed, sending the monster Doyon AIgnister to the graveyard. "But they are only there to help me bring back what I really need... and love. I activate my skill and synchro summon Wind Pegasus AIgnister!" Her eyes began to glow green.

Ignition Assault, Skill Card
Activate 1 of these effects based on the attribute of a cyberse-monster you control.
WIND: Target 1 monster in your graveyard, special summon it:
immediately after this card resolves, Link, Fusion, Synchro or XYX-summon 1 Cyberse monster using the summoned card and other cards you control

Doyon Ignister(4/0/1600) reappeared on the field to summon a dark green winged horse((7/2300/1500) [Zone 3] with cybernetic silver armor. Its mane and feathers were made of green flames. Naturally the entity immediately tried to destroy this new cyberse before it take any action. Except the Vector skill would not go off. "Ahah.. Your skill wont hurt anyone again, Continuum. When I summon a cyberse with two thousand and three hundred attackpoints, and it is a wind monster, my continuous spell can negate the effects of one card on the field!" Echo pointed towards the You & A.I. card, which targeted Continuums continuous card just in time. With its powers sealed, the Pegasus would not meet its colorless null-state fate. "This is the monster you created to honor Cierze?" Cherry blinked. The card reminded her a lot of Echo's transforming carousel wheelchair as well. The WIND-effect of her multipurpose delayed skill clearly drew its inspiration from Cierze's own newest skill too.

"I have created a card to honor everyone one of them.. Every element, even the darkness that Mephistar brought." Echo returned Doyon AIgnister, the rounded purple blob [Zone 3] with near shapeless hands, red markings and a coiled tail, back to her field. "When Bururu Ignister is used as a synchro material and enters the graveyard, it can special summon one of the other synchro materials back from the graveyard And when Doyon AIgnister is summoned, I can add one AIgnister from the graveyard back to my hand!" Doyon of the darkness reclaimed her Bururu AIgnister. "Even the earth that Valkyrion wished to climb." Echo activated her third spell, AILove Fusion. With it she could fuse her own AIgnister of the Wind Pegasus with another link monster anywhere on the field. "Oh?" The fusion spell took Some Summer Summoner and threw thunder and tempest together to mix an earthen brew: creating the cybernetic rock warrior Earth Golem AIgnister(8/2300/1500) [Extra Zone 1] "When I summon an earth or water cyberse monster with these attackpoints, You and AI will halve another monsters attackpower!" The Golem punched the floor and created a large fissue underneath Thunder Dragon Colossus, dragging it(1300/2400) halfway down into the ground.

"Earth and water? Do you have one for the Fisherman too? What.. what happened to him?" Crescent could no longer ignore that burning question. As far as she and everyone else knew, he'd been alive when he left with the lady in blue. "He could not go where I had to go. He will be back.. when everything is done." Echo normal summoned her next monster: the same Bururu AIgnister. "I link summon Dark Templar AIgnister. His materials are three monsters with different names!" Earth Golem, Bururu AIgnister and Doyon AIgnister all disappeared into her first link circuit, which colored itself dark.

"That looks like." The monster that came out, Charles could not help but compare it to his own Decode Talker. The Dark Templar(2300/LINK 3) {Downleft/Down/Downright} [Extra Zone 2] was a black armored cyberknight with his own large sword. "That is because I wanted to remember you too. You were there for me time and time again. This is the least I could do in return." Echo snapped her fingers and special summoned another monster from her hand through the effect of the AIland. This time she brought in a gold cyberse blob(4/1200/600) [Zone 3] with two tiny hands and a white wizard's hat. "This is Pikari AIgnister. She can add any AI spell or trap to my hand. But you would deny me that. However, when I summon a monster that becomes linked with Dark Templar, Dark Templar can special summon more AIgnisters to its other link markers!" The Templar took both Doyon AIgnister [Zone 4] and Bururu AIgnister[Zone 5] from their resting place and summoned both back to the field with their effects negated. "Link summon! Linguriboh!"

"A kuriboh too now?" This time Dharma did the gasping as the Bururu token turned into a near exact duplicate of Charles' own Linkuriboh. Linguriboh(300/LINK 1) {Downleft} [Zone ] however had a crooked tail to mirror its link marker, and a more serious expression. "Kuriboh.. That was another creation which the old me would have liked to meet, miss Blanche. Though.. you should approve of this one. I XYZ-summon Light Dragon AIgnister!" Pikari and Doyon compared their levels and opened an XYZ-portal, transforming themselves into the white and gold dragon(R4/2300/1500) [Zone 4] of holy destruction. "Oh, a cyberse dragon eh? I definitely like that more.." Dharma said out loud, before wondering why she would raise her voice so much.

"Now, see what kind of power you invited. Light Dragon AIgnister can destroy one monster on the field for each AIgnister I control!" This time there were three on her field, meaning she would be smiting up to three of the entity's monsters. The bolts of thunder rained down on top of the Chaos Valkyria and Solar Batteryman. "And now I Attack Thunder Dragon Colossus!" With no hesitation in her voice, she proceeded with her battle phase. "When Earth Golem attacks a monster summoned from the extra deck, I can double its power!" Echo first sent in the earth, adding the original attackpower of Earth Golem to the fusion AIgnister(4600/1500) that clashed with the weakened fusion Thunder dragon. "You actually damaged it!" Hydra shouted. Unfortunately Colossus could still negate its own destruction by banishing one thunder monster (Some Summer Summoner) from the graveyard. And with plenty more Thunder monsters in the graveyard, it would be impossible to put the dragon down permanently.

Continuum's LP: 4700

"I knew it would do that. But when my monsters inflict damage, Light Dragon AIgnister can revive one AIgnister from the graveyard!" Echo used the energy of light to resurrect the AIgnister of the wind, the winged Pegasus[Zone 2]. "Impressive. You have mastered all four summoning arts in such short time, and you can wield all four of them at once." Scarlet Fever did not think it would be enough to stop the entity completely, though without a complete set of data she could not be certain about the odds. Especially when Echo kept making rather unpredictable moves. "Wind Pegasus! Attack!" At first it seemed like the girl just wanted to do as much damage as possible, even if Thunder Dragon Colossus would keep shrugging off the destruction done to it, whether it be a rock-hard punch or a searing wind blast.

Continuum's LP: 3700

Except then Echo decided to send Linguriboh into the fray, ramming it against the Colossus to pulverize her own tiny cybercritter. "Hm?"

Echo's LP: 6900

"Scarlet, Continuum. When a monster is destroyed, I can banish Wind Pegasus from my field or graveyard! And when I do, one card on the field is returned to the hand!" The storm of green flames and electric winds grew across the entire field, ravaging the theme park. Pegasus banished itself at the eye of the hurricane and targeted the Thunder Dragon Colossus, sending it all the way back to the extra deck. "Oh!" Finally, all the variables and numbers painted their picture. And that picture did not look good for the third entity. "I tried to reason with Static. I wont do the same with you.. because I know what you are. You are something that cannot love, that cannot know joy and does not want to know it! You do not deserve happiness... and you do not deserve to take it away!" With combined forces, the Light Dragon AIgnister and Dark Templar AIgnister delivered the final fatal direct attacks and cut right through the being of light and darkness with their own crossing thunder beams and shadow sword slashes. The entity broke apart completely...

Continuum's LP: 0

"Now you will do whatever I want you to do!" The victor's voice echoed across the city. "You will abandon your attack on my friends, and surrender this duel!" The command connected with every other aspect of the Continuum, miraculously forcing it to not just stand down but also to terminate the duel by giving up... whether they were winning or not. "Unbelievable." If the entity felt any form of shock at this development, it could not show it. Vocalizing those emotions would be left up to Scarlet Fever. "One entity should not be able to influence another, and yet you accomplished it. Now I understand what you did to achieve this kind of power. You've absorbed the core of Static." She could not have known that this possibility even existed. "Nevertheless, this is Continuum." It would not last. The Chaos entities were slowly regaining their mobility, twitching and flickering with black and white energy. "Your command cannot contain it for long, miss Echo. You are facing a foe you cannot defeat. You are alone, while Continuum becomes stronger with every avatar you destroy."

"Then I will become stronger still." Echo flashed the skill card in her hand, reverting it back to a a blank card. "Oh? I see. As long as you are connected to the voices of the world, you can turn their imagination into any type of weapon. We will just have to see which entity tires out first." Scarlet Fever laughed madly as she disconnected with the chaos avatar and let another Continuum machine slowly step towards her. "Everyone. Run, while you still can." Right now she could keep the army of chaos at bay, but pretty soon they would all break free. Even so she did not betray a hint of fear in her voice; only confidence and sympathy.

"You heard her! Let's scram!" Bionis cried out. "Where would we run too? Any jump we make will take us through hyperspace. If Scarlet has the Arks functions at her disposal, she can track us anywhere we go!" Vigionaire countered. "Any place they have not recreated in the network would be good. What about your place? I bet you have a lot of equipment there that you can use." Bionis callously suggested. "I cannot be certain that my location qualifies, but at this point I don't think we have much of a choice." Vigionaire would normally have rather died than to let anyone see any aspect of his private life, but the time for reservations had come and gone. Still, the idea made him uncomfortable.

"Maybe we don't have to actually.. I have a good spot in mind too." Which was why Dharma chimed in. "Everyone form a chain! I will be the one making the start jump!" She could only bring them along if they were making contact with each other. "Where are you going?! What about my family?" Charles shouted. "Right! Almost forgot! You go to them. I will take these guys away first and will come right back! Trust me! I know what I am doing!" Charles could not say no to her., he immediately rushed down to the guestroom before Continuum could take notice. Meanwhile, once the other duelists were all physically linked, Dharma activated her dueldisk and concentrated on where she wanted to be..

...

"Woo! Okay! Be right back!" Dharma dropped off every duelist and immediately quickjumped back to Exeter HQ to fetch Charles.

Almost everyone else made it to the other side of the jump: the heroes, the champions, Vigionaire and Therese. "You can let go now." Cherry immediately retracted her hand, as she got the unfortunate task of holding on to Midsummer Nightmare. "We ran... why did we run? Why did we abandon her?" He would not have come along at all if she had not grabbed him. "Get a grip, Midsummer. What good were we going to do?" She argued back. "How much longer do you think Echo can hold out against a force like that? She's changed her very being just for us, but she still needs our assistance. We have to call for spread her word, and cry out for reinforcements. There's a million souls with dueling in their heart who would give their life for her, I know it." Midsummer made his impassioned plea anyway, at her and anyone else willing to hear. "Yeah I am sure we will, when we've recovered from nearly losing everything!"

"Okay! We made it!" Dharma teleported into the room again, this time with Charles, his still unconscious parents and a very startled puppy. "Where?" Charles took a while to adjust to the brightness of this new locale. Though he quickly realized where he and everyone else ended up. "Dharma. This is your home?" One could see the wealth expressed in every corner, along with various aspects of her starstruck childhood. "Yeah well, it wouldn't have been my first choice. But if that Obelisk can visit any local Exeter hotspot, my hotel would be a little too close to that horizon. Just.. don't pay attention to whatever you see on the walls. I've been meaning to redecorate forever ago, but yaknow.. lazyness always wins." Dharma let out a moan when her eyes crossed one poster of 'Petit Bonnet' in the main living room. Besides that there several TVs, bizarrely shaped statues and wide couches and all sorts of big green plants. "I suppose we could have gone anywhere, but this is a big place.. like three floors and a nice view. I am sure brainiacs like you two can make it work." Dharma said, referring to both Vigionair and Scarlet Rose.

"Hmm, yes. Well, It's definitely doable. I will need to pick some things up from my own place, but we should be able to provide this location with better access and security measures." Vigionair nodded to himself. Unlike Scarlet, most of his tools were stored back in his own mainframe. "Hm? Well I guess you know the way back now." Dharma smirked. "I've known about this address for a while now actually, at least network-wise. And I took the liberty of translating the coordinates into numbers a dueldisk can understand. If you use the secure channel, you can send a message to any duelist that may still want to fight. I am sure Midsummer would also approve of that." This would also give people like Jenna and Crescent the chance to either show up with their loved ones or to go out and collect them.

"But what are we going to do now? What is Scarlet going to do? The other one I mean.." Crescent looked to Scarlet Rose for a chance of answers. "I have no idea. Honestly her actions as of late have left me nearly speechless. We have to reorganize, catalogue all our strengths and her weaknesses. She has a blind spot through the subconscious realm, that much we tested already. People like Cherry, Charles and.." Rose almost spun off into analysis mode, but one fact distracted her from completing her thoughts. "Tycho. Where is he?" She did not see the Salamangreat duelist anywhere in the crowd. "He was not with us?" And as far as Crescent or anyone else could say, they had not seen him since the attack began either.

...

Tycho went his own way, as he always did. He managed to escape notice from the very beginning by phasing into the very earth as soon as the Obelisk appeared. Then when Echo took all attention upon herself, he saw his chance to sneak into the Obelisk. If Mephistar could turn all ghost-like to get inside, he certainly could as well. He did not care if Scarlet Fever saw him coming, he always challenged his opponents head on. Perhaps she and the Continuum machines would still be too distracted to intercept him, he could very well end this whole ordeal by himself. He only failed to account for one thing... "Unfh!" One red-eyed black dragon and its rider. They blasted him as soon as he reached the second top floor within the obelisk, and forced him all the way back out. "Damn it!" Tycho had to make himself solid again to keep himself from falling all the way down the subconscious realm and crashlanded on one of the surrounding rooftops.

"Hey now. You weren't trying to sneak in, were you?" The black baron emerged from the side of the Obelisk, flying over the spot where Tycho recovered. "Rgh. Get out of my way, Schwarzwald! You're not the one I want!" Tycho snarled and gestured angrily. "You think I am less worthy of your time than Continuum? Is that any way to talk to your old partner? Believe me, you are lucky that I caught you before It did." Schwarzwald chuckled and checked his left and right to make sure they hadn't been noticed yet. "What? Like you're doing me a favor? I don't need favors from you! You're on its side too now; a traitor to the whole human race! Why would I care about dueling you when I could go straight for the source instead?" Tycho would fight the baron if he decided to keep blocking him, but he could not imagine him being much of a challenge. "Oh betrayal is just in my blood. But who I betray depends on the side that's losing. And it actually looks like you and your friends have a chance after all. I have to be honest, I would not mind it if Continuum were to lose either."

"Huh? What are you trying to say?" Tycho cursed. "I am just giving you some tips for your quest of truth. I know deception when I see it, and you have a double-crosser in your group right now." Schwarzwald revealed with a lurid grin on his face. "A double-crosser? Who? Midsummer!?" Tycho's mind immediately went to the masked man. "Oh, try to think about this now would you? No it's not him. That's all I will say for now, the guessing game has to stay fun after all. But here's the second tip.. You have Renner's records, don't you? Check the personnel records in there and look for the name Lilah. That will set you on the right path. Good luck, Alpha." Schwarzwald saluted his former tagpartner and flew away on the black dragon. "Lilah" Tycho had no idea what to make of this. He did not trust him, yet he could not deny that his words.. made him curious.

(To Be Continued in World 104: GotterDammerung)

New Cards used by Miss Echo
Bururu AIgnister
Doyon AIgnister
Pikari AIgnister

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Wind Pegasus AIgnister
Dark Templar AIgnister
Linguriboh

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Ignister A.I. Land
You and A.I.

New Cards used by Continuum
Batteryman Solar
Chaos Valkyria

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Some Summer Summoner
Thunder Dragon Colossus

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Thunder Dragon Fusion