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.

114. World 106: Devils Proof

World 106: Devils Proof

Deep within the Obelisk, Scarlet Fever monitored the world which was hers to reap. The Continuum expanded, while its subjects hid in their bunkers. Though communications with those bunkers did not always go as planned. "I assure you mister Hikaru. At our current rate we will have the whole globe scanned in a manner of hours." There were some who would question why this one woman could speak for the entity now, when It never selected a specific spokesperson before. "But how do I know I can trust you? Why would I leave this place? That was never a part of the plan!" One of those was mister Hikaru, a man left in the dark for too long. "Because it is necessary. We no longer have the luxury of time. This project must be completed today. And when it is, the Shintaro family will be returned to us." But she knew what he wanted and needed to hear. "I do not have a choice then, do I? For your sake I hope you are correct. Because I wont be able to stop myself, if anything happened to them."

Hikaru turned off the screen on his end. "You sound pretty certain of yourself." At which point Baron Schwarzwald let himself be heard. He stood by her side; taking pretty much the same role as he did with Static by letting her bounce her thoughts off of him. "But success is not assured, is it? Not with her out there." He could see the same things Scarlet did: Echo fighting with everything she got, never tiring and never losing. She'd defeated a dozen Continuums by now. "As long as I can keep her occupied, there will be no threat to our main plan. That leaves just a few more loose ends to tie up. Speaking of loose ends... I dont think this will come as much of a surprise to you, but the two Wagner personalities have been reintegrated. With Wagner as the dominant half." His fate too, she could observe from this secure distance. "Hah. Wagner won then? To be frank I did not know what the outcome of that would be, nor did I care."

"I know you like to lie, Schwarzwald. But you most certainly did care. You were the one who goaded Wagnerok into attacking Wagner in the first place." Scarlet pointed out. "I only gave him a suggestion. I cannot help his foolishness. May he rest in peace." He let out a noncommittal chuckle. "Just like you suggested Donna to come to me for a treatment, or how you tempted Tycho to look into my past. You have a habit of giving out advice with dangerous results, Schwarzwald. And now you're the last one of your kind. Just like you wanted." Everyone else Static ever corrupted no longer existed in that capacity, even his lesser minions were now absorbed into Continuum. "My kind? Do you consider yourself to be something more?" Knowing that, he still prodded her to satisfy his bottomless curiosity. "Perhaps I am. But I am not saying this to discourage any treacherous tendencies you may still have. I will test your loyalty soon enough. Not that you would want to take me out of this network. You would have to deal with Continuum itself and there is no bargaining with that."

"How did you do it then? How did you strike this deal with It?" Schwarzwald posed one more question. "Because Continuum has one weakness... one desire. To escape this game we are all in. And I am going to help it do that."

...

With a simple quickjump, the trio of Hydra, Scarlet Rose and Charles Adami made their way to the research center. But they were greeted by an ominous silence. "It's like a ghost town." Hydra remarked. The usually busy recroom was now empty and as silent as a morgue. "Yes. Nobody is here at all.." Charles looked into the halls where he could not even see the usual enforcers. "Maybe they were warned and evacuated?" Charles hadn't been here in a while, but he knew the people still worked here half a day ago. "That would be the optimistic conclusion. This is a closed system, it's likelier that Continuum already absorbed everyone here. I will investigated the outer area. You do whatever you need to do, Scarlet Rose." The unseen duelist made his voice disappear as well, leaving the doctor with the cyberse duelist. "Well, lead the way mister Adami. The control room is what I need." She smiled at him again. "Erhm yeah." He wished she would stop that.

As they wandered the halls, Charles could not help but be curious. What happened here? Were they making a mistake by going here? But he had to stay focused. If anyone remained in hiding, Hydra would find them and take care of them. Hopefully everyone got away just fine.. "What the!?" What he did not take into consideration was the fact that someone could have been holding out inside the control room itself. Except that certain someone did not belong here either. "Tycho!?" They found the missing duelist, alive and well.

"Adami?! Scarlet.." He practically seethed when he saw his company. "What are you doing here?" Charles asked him. "No. What are you doing here? And why is she with you?" He tensed up and reached for his dueldisk. "Tycho? What the hell? Calm down! It's us!" Charles did not know why he reacted this way. Did he think they were illusions? "Adami, get away from her. Listen to me Adami. It's her. She's the insider!" He started yelling. "Insider?" Yelling so much that Charles could barely get a word in. "She and the other Scarlet are working together! Heck, maybe they are one and the same! Maybe this one is just another ADI made to trick us all!" He activated his dueldisk to emphasize his distrust. "What!? Where did you get this from? She's been helping us this whole time!." Charles did not trust Scarlet at the best of times, and even he found this story hard to believe. "Are you taking her side now? You of all people? She only helped us because she needed us to bring down Static, that's the only reason!"

"When did... Where did you go before, you were missing when Continuum attacked us? Is that when you heard this? Did Scarlet Fever tell you this? And why were you here?" There were too many questions for Charles to just immediately accept this at face value. "She might have, if she wanted to plant the seed of suspicion in our ranks. Though this sounds more like the work of Schwarzwald." Now Scarlet Rose finally joined the conversation, accurately guessing the name of Tycho's initial source. "And what if I did?" Tycho sneered. "Schwarzwald? You listened to him?" Charles gasped. "Hmph. I wouldn't have made anything of it, he just mentioned something about a girl named Lilah and pointed me to this place. But I suspected you long before that!"

"Lilah?!" Scarlet's eyes widened briefly, that was all Tycho needed to see. "So you know who I am talking about? What were you going to do here eh, Scarlet?! Sabotage this place? Hide something that would prove where you came from? Then again it doesn't really matter, since you're fake anyway!"

"Fake? I do not know who you think I am, mister Rivers. I only have the body of an ADI, but my mind is human. Vigionaire should be able to prove that." Scarlet asserted. "Then why do you stay in that body? You've gotten all your pieces back, your voice and eyes and whatever.. You should be able to use your original body too right?" Tycho turned off his bracelet and reverted back to his own 'human' appearance. Only to switch back to his avatar by reactivating the bracelet. "There is nothing stopping you from doing what I just did! But you wont, will you? Because you ARE hiding something!" He pressed further, while she refused to answer him. "Fine then. If you refuse to talk, you will fight!" Tycho activated his dueldisk. "I am glad you came. Because when I confront my enemies, I do it in person! Scarlet Rose! I challenge you to a duel! Do you accept?" If she declined, it would only make her look more guilty in his eyes. She had no choice. "If that is what it takes.."

Tycho's LP: 8000 Scarlet's LP: 8000

-TURN 01-

"What? What is even going on?!" Charles cried out when he saw Scarlet Rose activating her down dueldisk. An argument wasted enough time by itself, a duel would just take attention away from where it was really needed. "It is the only way to learn the truth, Adami! If I beat her, she will be forced to leave her avatar. Then we will know the truth about her! Though even if she is not fake, she's still a monster!" Tycho got the first turn and activated Salamangreat Circle to add Salamangreat Gazelle from the deck to his hand. "But how would that prove if she's the traitor? What is this really about?" Some parts of this did just not add up. Charles could tell Tycho was not being completely honest with his intentions. "If I tell you, I'll just give her more chances to talk her way out of it! No, she will have to start answering on her own. She knows what this is about!" Tycho glared her right in the eye as he normal summoned his next monster: Salamangreat Coyote the steel cyberse hound(3/1000/200) [Zone 2] with a spike-covered tail.

"I Link summon! Salamangreat Almiraj!" The first link monster took a normal summoned monster with 1000 ATK or less as its material: transforming the Coyote into the flame-horned cyberse rabbit(0/LINK 1) {Downright} [Extra Zone 2]. "When I send a Salamangreat to my graveyard, Salamangreat Gazelle can be special summoned from my hand! And Gazelle sends one other Salamangreat to the graveyard!" The field grew hotter once the flame-tailed cyberGazelle(3/1500/1000) [Zone 2] galloped down from Tycho's hand. First it discarded the Salamangreat Zebroid X from Tycho's deck, then it sent itself to the graveyard as another link material. "I link summon Salamangreat Balelynx! And then Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf!" One level 4 or lower Cyberse (Gazelle) became the fiery Salamangreat lynx(500/LINK 1) {Down} [Zone 3] whose effect added the Salamangreat Sanctuary to his hand. Next: two FIRE effect monsters (Balelynx, Almiraj) became the fire-pelted Salamangreat wolf(1800/LINK 2) {Up/Down} [Extra Zone 2].

"Scarlet, are you just going to let this happen?" Charles meanwhile turned to the other part of this dueling equation, hoping to get more sense from her. "I sadly see no better way to end this confrontation. I do not doubt his convictions, but his strength is lacking. This will not take us long."

"Lacking? Is that what your algorithms told you? You'll get to update your data pretty soon, Scarlet!" Tycho activated the Salamangreat Sanctuary and used it to reincarnation link summon another Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf(1800/LINK 2) {Up/Down} [Extra Zone 2]. "Since I used Sunlight Wolf as its own material, I can add a Salamangreat spell back to my hand! And if a Salamangreat monster is summoned, I can special summon Salamangreat Fowl from my hand!" Finally, the flame-feathered cyber peacock(4/1800/200) made its appearance. This triggered Sunlight Wolf's first effect to add one Salamangreat monster from the graveyard back to his hand: allowing Tycho to take both Salamangreat Circle and Salamangreat Gazelle out of the graveyard. "And now I link summon Heat Leo!" Fowl and the second Sunlight Wolf, 2+ FIRE effect monsters, were enough to create the blazing cyberse lion king(2300/LINK 3) {Downleft/Up/Downright} [Extra Zone 2]. It would be his main attacker, supported by one card set down in the spell/trap zone. "During the endphase, Salamangreat Coyote activates in my graveyard and summons one other Salamangreat back to my field!" Tycho ended his turn with one more graveyard retrieval: reviving the Salamangreat Fowl [Zone 5] in defense mode. "Your move.. whatever you want to call yourself."

-TURN 02-

"Tycho Rivers. I do not need data to tell that you are a capable duelist, especially now that you've obtained the power to create your own cards. But your dueling is still too functional and single-minded, much like you are. Every turn works towards the same endgoal. Which makes it easy to dismantle.. with my own endgoal." Scarlet Rose revealed her unexpected spell, Unexpected Dai. "With this I can special summon one normal monster from my deck when I control no other monsters. I choose Sunseed Genius Loci." This first act planted the fruit for her entire strategy: the sacred tree seed(1/0/0) [Zone 1] held up by a golden claw-like pitcher ."And I can use this plant as a link material for Sunseed Dryas." Genius Loci sprouted immediately, growing up into a large sacred tree(0/LINK 1) {Down} [Extra Zone 1] with two seedsacks and an eerie face in its bark. "If I link summon Dryas with the Sunseed Genius, I can add one Sunvine spell or trap card to my hand." One of the sacks popped and dropped a spell in the doctor's waiting hand: Sunvine Cross Breed.

"Feh. You sound just like the other one. You may be dueling with different cards, but you are still the same duelist aren't you?" Tycho accused her. "That is only natural, mister Rivers. We have the same mind, just a different personality." Scarlet Rose ignored his remark and normal summoned her next monster: a blue and pink sprite pair(2/800/0) [Zone 2] wrapped up in thorned vines. "This is Sunseed Twin. When it is normal summoned, I can special summon one normal plant monster from my graveyard. I choose Genius Loci of course." The Twins joined hands and sent their vines into the ground to dig up the sacred Sunseed[Zone 1] again. "And when I control a normal plant monster, I can special summon Sunseed Shadow from my hand." Another pitcher claw appeared, holding now a seed but a coiled up plant with an eye underneath the leaves. "And then I use both seeds to link summon Sunavalon Daphne!" The Genius Loci and its Shadow buried themselves inside the graveyard again, only this time they did not create a simple tree.. they created a woman who'd been nearly completely transformed into a green laurel tree(0/LINK 2) {Left/Right} [Zone 2] with several curved branches.

"Now then, I can banish Sunseed Shadow from my graveyard.. Its effect special summons another Sunvine or Sunavalon monster, if I already have one on my field that is linked!" She used the Shadow on the linked Sunvine Daphne, bringing a copy of the tree woman(0/LINK 2) {Left/Right} [Zone 3] out into the field without the need for a seed. "And then, I will link summon Sunavalon Melias! Its materials are two plus plants, including one link monster!" The original Daphne joined her branches with the Sunseed Twins' vines, and wrapped them both up into a new tree-like humanoid. Sunavalon Melias (0/LINK 3) {Left/Up/Right} only grew leaves around its neck, while its hair and claws were made of long thin branches. "Are all these trees going anywhere, Scarlet?" Tycho grew impatient with her excessive link summons. "Not literally. But there is a destination involved and we are almost there. Melias can summon one Sunseed Genius Loci from my graveyard when it is link summoned." The tree nymph dipped its roots into the ground and it too found the Sunseed[Zone 1] intact and well. "And I can use a normal plant monster as a material for Sunvine Thrasher!"

"That card?" Despite not knowing who to root for, Charles felt himself flinch when he remembered the card that went with that name. The Genius seed transformed into a plant monster that could actually attack this time: the leaf-sword Sunvine knight Thrasher(800/LINK 1) {Down} [Zone 1] "Yes, Charles. You probably will remember that it gains eight hundred attackpoints for each marker on another Sunavalon link monster. But what your friend should also know is that Melias can target that monster to give it an attack for each Sunavalon monsters I control!" The Thrasher used the energy within Melias' roots, and quadrupled the size of his(3200 atk) sword, while making sure that it could attack three times in the next battle phase. "This might hurt, Tycho. But you have only yourself to blame. Sunvine Thrasher attacks Salamangreat Heat Leo!"

"If you think you can treat this duel as a joke, you have another thing coming!" Tycho would fight back with tooth and nail. "I activate Salamangreat Circle again!" For starters he could get himself a Salamangreat Raccoon from the deck and activate it from his hand. That would make Heatleo indestructible for this turn and also give Tycho lifepoints equal to the attacking monster's attackpoints. "Do I now? I am not sure you know what you are talking about." Unfortunately for him, Scarlet Rose could simply special summon the Sunvine Maiden(1/0/0) [Zone 5] from her hand. The plant pixie in her coiled vine dress blocked any effect that targeted a Plant summoned from the extra deck, which included the Raccoon's healing power. "What? Gah! I activate Balelynx!" Tycho could still banish his link 1 Salamangreat, to negate the first death of his Salamangreat Heat Leo. That only stopped the first swing of the Thrasher's blade however. When it made another pass, it cut down the cyberlion for good and delivered another 900 points of battle damage. "And Thrasher takes control of what it kills.."

Tycho's LP: 6200

In death, Salamangreat Heatleo discovered a new master. It[Zone 4] returned to the field, linked up with Sunavalon Daphne and joined the direct assault by slashing the defending Salamangreat Fowl to pieces. "Don't get clever with me! Your math is off, Scarlet. I thought you wanted to end this quickly?" Even a fully defenseless Tycho would not have lost all of his lifepoints to just this one monster, and she should have known that. "She is going to, Tycho." But Charles, being a lot more familiar with link summon patterns, recognized the one Scarlet planned to draw on her field. "Huh?" Tycho heard him just in time to see the Thrasher landed a direct hit on him with its leafsword, leaving a gash in his avatar's arm. "Argh. Don't distract me, Charles!"

Tycho's LP: 3000

"But he is entirely correct, Tycho. My aim was not to reduce your lifepoints. A victory like that would only hurt us all. Rather, I intend to cripple your resistance." Scarlet moved on to the second main phase, activating her spell. "Sunvine Cross Breed tributes one link monster, and brings another back from the graveyard." Roots and branches burst through the soil and entangled the mindcontrolled Heat Leo. The spell buried him deep, and let the Sunavalon Daphne tree [Zone 4] regrow in his place right next to the first Daphme. "I will link summon the second Sunavalon Melias." Sunvine Maiden paired with the Link 2 monster, transforming that Daphne into another clawed tree nymph(0/LINK 3) [Zone 4]. "Wait. It can use its effect more than once?" Tycho did not like seeing what happened, the new Melias reviving the same Sunseed Genius Loci[Zone 5]. "Yes. And so can the third." Scarlet Rose used Genius Loci and the first Sunavalon Daphne as materials for the third Melias(0/LINK 3) [Zone 3], linking it with the other Melias trees while also summoning Genius Loci[Zone 5] one more time. "No. You're kidding me! It's happening again?" Only now did Tycho understand..

Scarlet Rose was building an extra link. "She did it.." Charles felt it coming, and now it became a fact. "Yes. I link summon Sunavalon Dryas again." Scarlet said as she took the Sunseed away for its last link summon this turn, creating the same great canopy tree(0/LINK 1) {Down} [Extra Zone 2] . Their link markers formed a chain all the way from the right to the left Dryas {Down}, through the Melias trio {Left/Up/Right} {Left/Up/Right} {Left/Up/Right} towards this new one. "Dryas can also activate its ability multiple times, as long as it uses Genius Loci as the link material." Rose further explained before she claimed a continuous spell from her deck. "I choose this card, Sunvine Shrine. I must discard one card to activate it, but from now on I can special summon one normal plant monster from my graveyard each turn." The card she discarded, Rose Girl, could also be added back to her hand as long as she controlled a plant monster. Essentially the spell cost her nothing and gave her the defense-mode Sunseed Genius Loci[Zone 5] in return. "That ends my turn."

-TURN 03-

"You.. you really think this will keep me at bay? Ezra tried this crap with me, and I broke out of his extra link too!" Tycho shouted. "But.. you still lost that duel in the end, Tycho." Charles reminded him. "I've gotten stronger since then, Charles! I wont be beaten the same way twice! Though this does remind me.." The fiery duelist drew his next card, a spell card. "You were not there when it happened, you only showed up to join Millennium afterwards. Why did you wait? Just to avoid me? You weren't at the tournament either. What were you running from!?" He already knew the answer, yet he still wanted to hear her say it. She did not, she did not speak at all. "You know I am right! Ragh! I activate Burning Draw! Since you have more cards than me on the field, I can draw cards for each marker on one of your link monsters!" Tycho targeted one of the Melias Sunavalons, leading him to draw three new cards... including the spell of Fusion of Fire.

"Ahah! Even my monsters want to see you burn, Scarlet!" First though, he normal summoned Salamangreat Gazelle [Zone 3] again and used its effect to send Salamangreat Falco from his deck to the graveyard. Doing this triggered Falco's effect to reset one Salamangreat spell (Salamangreat Circle) back on his field. "There's more than three Salamangreat monsters in my graveyard, so I can special summon Salamangreat Beat Bison! And for each Salamangreat link monster I return to the deck, he negates the effects of one of your cards!" The gold-horned cyber Bison(8/2800/1000) appeared in defense mode, and kindled the ashes of the Salamangreat Heat Leo and Sunlight wolves. Their cards returned to the extra deck, while their flames encircled two of the Melias trees and Sunavalon Dryas. "Looks like your Sunavalon monsters can normally not be targeted for an attack. But your extra link is not so untouchable anymore!" Gazelle could clear the extra zone by itself. But Tycho would not be satisfied with just one kill..

"I activate Fusion of Fire! Which can take fusion materials from anywhere on the field!" He would break her link by more than half of its chains. "Like Salamangreat Violet Chimera, which is the fusion between a Salamangreat monster and a link monster!" The spell unleashed a vortex of flames upon the right Sunavalon Dryas and Salamangreat Beat Bison, and fusion summoned the twintailed cyber phoenix(8/2800/2100) [Extra Zone 2] with its purple armor and raster-like blue-flame wings. Violet Chimera(4200/2100) gained half the attack of its fusion materials: a sum that the disappeared Dryas did not add much of anything to. Its death did start a different chain reaction though.

"Hm, that is unfortunate. When a Sunavalon leaves the field through an effect.. Sunavalon Thrasher is destroyed. However.." Scarlet Rose flipped her quickplay spell. "When I activate Frozen Rose, I can tribute a plant monster. And during the endphase I will draw two cards and discard one plant from my hand." Rose froze her own plant knight before it could selfdestruct, saving the draw for later. Tycho would have to finish his battle phase first. "You are so confident that you will even get a second turn!" The Violet Chimera and Salamangreat Gazelle picked their targets, the effectless Melias Sunavalons. Blasts of blue and red fire struck them at their base and burned the tree nymphs down into a crisp black mess. Since Dryas' effect was also negated, Scarlet could not heal the damage nor could she summon a new Sunvine monster from the extra deck. "Ha.. haha. I don't care how much life you've got left. That still felt great." Destroying her monster let him draw Salamangreat Raccoon from his graveyard as well. "You could have saved yourself this pain if you had just told me the truth!"

Scarlet's LP: 2300

"I can also tell you the truth." The fourth duelist suddenly spoke up. "What? Hydra? Were you here all along?" Charles shouted. "I witnessed the start of this, yes. And I got curious about what Tycho was saying. So I looked into the personnel records myself. The data is all deleted, but physical papers still exist. That's where I found what he was talking about." Hydra tossed a stack of papers down at their feet. "It's all in there. The profile of a worker who joined this operation several years ago and created a test avatar for herself with a certain decktype.. Vampires. And her name was Lilah Singleton."

"What?" Charles gasped, he picked up the file first and skimmed through it. "Your credentials, your list of accomplishments. You worked here?" Tycho soon snatched the file away from him though. "Ha! I was right, you are Lilah! I was just looking in the wrong place! This proves it! You are not just somebody, you helped make STHEREA itself! So why did you hide it all from us, Lilah? What else did you do that you are not proud of? Forget the duel, you can answer us right now!"

(To Be Continued in World 107: Forgotten but Not Forgiven)

New Cards used by Tycho Rivers
Salamangreat Coyote

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Burning Draw

New Cards used by Scarlet Rose
Sunseed Genius Loci
Sunseed Twin
Sunseed Shadow
Rose Girl

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Sunavalon Daphne
Sunavalon Melias

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Unexpected Dai
Sunvine Crossbreed
Sunvine Shrine