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.

127. World 119: With God or Good Intentions

World 119: With Good or God Intentions

"What was that?" Distractions were not something Lilah Singleton could afford right now, it took her every ounce of concentration to keep matching Scarlet Fever turn by turn. "Oh? The next phase in the fight against the Creator perhaps?" But it would be impossible for either of them to ignore the explosion of light that happened in the skies of the obsidian realm. "No. That's not it." They'd lost sight of the heroes and the ruler of this realm some time ago, but Lilah would have known if this energy outburst involved any of them. "It came from.. your Obelisks?" Instead she tracked the source of the blast to the world above, where this realm intersected with the real world. "My obelisks?" Even Scarlet could not maintain her focus after establishing that fact.

"Project flute!" Least of all when she noticed what went wrong; the readouts of her own constructs were hinting at a massive power outage. "Where is she?" The one being who could have messed up with her project now would be Her. And she could not see miss Echo anymore. "She destroyed the last Continuum drone?" Only the original hive-body of the third entity remained visible, and It could not duel in that form. She came to this world with a limited amount, and Scarlet could not make more right now. "Where did she find the power? How did she access the memories of the world again from in here?" None of this went according to her plan anymore. "I guess Echo proved to be a bit more creative than you anticipated, Scarlet. That is something your entity still lacks. You cannot win this anymore. You have to stop this." Lilah hoped that this would finally lead to a conclusion in this endless fight. "Creative?" But Scarlet saw it differently. "Perhaps you are right, it is lacking the will to evolve. But It will have to, Lilah. Because we cannot stop now. Not before we have our answers.."

...

"You've done it, Midsummer. I will forever be grateful." Miss Echo arrived inside the main obelisk, where the World Chalice was stored. "I still do not quite understand what I have done." When he showed up here earlier, he only did so to follow her wishes. He used her orb of memories and tossed it into the larger orb of energy hovering just above the open rooftops. At first nothing happened. It was only when the larger orb exploded that he knew his act had brought about a great change. "You helped me get inside, you helped me connect with all the souls and minds that Continuum wiped clean. It's just like you said I could. And not just children and the kindhearted; I touched so many more wishes and hopes. My younger sibling could not fight back against me after that." It could not keep her out either, not after she destroyed the last of Its bodies. "Then you are saying we can now.. we can help those he hurt. We can bring the memories back the way they should be, not the way It wants them to be." Midsummer let out a sigh of elation. It seemed like they were finally going to return the world to normal.

"No. Not yet."

It was never what it seemed. "Not yet? What does that mean?" Midsummer winced as a hundred fears flooded his mind. "Nothing like that, Midsummer." Fears that she could seemingly feel. "Nothing like.. what you see in my mind?" Fears she could read right now, as opposed to memories she could read later on. "Beyond that. What I mean is that when I am done, there will be nothing like what you feel right now. There wont be any reason to be affraid, to be sad.. to be angry. I am going to remove it all. I am going use the memories that were happy to tell them a new history.. I am going to make them all better, I am going to make the world better." Miss Echo stretched out her hand and made a crushing motion with her fingers. The orb of memories started to shrink and float back down to her. "This was you desire from the very beginning? You would rob the people of their anguish and turmoil? That is not natural. There will always be a source of pain in our world!" Midsummer for one did not want to lose this kind of emotion. "Not if I remove pain itself. If I remove death itself."

"!?" Things were worse than Midsummer thought. "I felt it Midsummer, I felt it all. Your pain.. their pain..! I know I shouldn't have. But I wanted to. And I could barely handle it.. It is not right for something so cruel to exist. It is not fair for people to lose everything they ever created, everything they ever loved." She nearly spat out the words.. "But Echo. Death is a part of life.. loss is a natural part of life. I regret what happened to my family every day, and sometimes I even wondered if it would not just be easier to end it all for the chance of seeing them again. But I know that they would not want me to do that. They would want me to use the life that was given to me to the fullest. But with that comes both the good and the bad. What you propose would eliminate all of that. Worse, it would eliminate my hopes of reunion. Nothing we can do will bring them back, and I have accepted that now. But if there is a life beyond what we can see and feel right now, I would want to find out on my own. And I cannot do that if death never comes." Midsummer knew what he wanted to do. He did not want to die in any foreseeable future, but he did not want to live forever either.

"Then are you going to stop me?" Echo asked him, calmly. This would be his only chance. The orb of memories would soon be under her complete control, and that included his own memories. "You can see the answer better than I." In his mind he still felt undecided. But he also knew he could not let her do this. He could not let her decide the fate of the world, no matter how kind her intentions were. "You can not win, Midsummer." No matter how powerful she rightfully perceived herself to be. "And I have everything to lose. That is the reason why this has to be." Midsummer took out of his cards. He did not have a choice, the alternatives were simply... unacceptable. "Lady Echo. I invite you.. to a duel."

Midsummer's LP: 8000 Echo's LP: 8000

-TURN 01-

The first turn went to the unmasked duelist. He slammed the first monster down on the field, the cyberspace mermaid Altergeist Meluseek(1/500/300) [Zone 3]. "So that is why.. this is happening." Using Meluseek and the Altergeist Pookuery in his hand, which could be activated to become a link material before ever hitting the field, Midsummer managed to release the centaur cyberwitch Hextia(1500/LINK 2) {Down/Left} [Extra Zone 2] from his extra deck. Using Meluseek as a link material allowed him to add an Altergeist monster (Multifaker) from his deck to his hand. He could also return Pookuery to his hand once a duel after she herself became a link material. "You really are going to duel me? I thought you wanted to help me." Echo reacted not with the hurtful tone of betrayal, not this time. Her voice exuded only a chilling calmness about it all. "I do. But this is not what I wanted. I did not set out on this path to join dream and reality, just so you could make the dream the only thing that is real." He ended his turn by placing two trap cards face down.

-TURN 02-

"Then why did you do it? Why did you stay with me for so long?" She asked him almost accusingly, while smiling at the same time. "Because you gave me hope, even if you weren't what I thought you were. It is my fault that I had that delusion in the first place. That is not who I want to be anymore. However I do not believe that this current version of you is who you want to be either, Echo." He gave her a straight and honest answer. "You sound exactly like Fisherman now, Midsummer. He also said that I had become different. Someone else.. but I am still me." Echo replied. "I just made myself stronger." She activated her field spell AIgnister AILand As long as it existed and no monsters occupied her main zones, she could special summon her AIgnister monsters to the field. "That I believe. I just do not believe that it is right to forget the past. I already told Static that I would not let him replace my grief with anger. I will not let you replace it with joy either!" Midsummer reacted immediately, activating his Imperial Order continuous trap. No spells could use their effects while the trap persisted. Activating his trap meant he could also special summon Altergeist Multifaker(3/1200/800) [Zone 3] from his hand, which would in turn special summon an Altergeist Marionetter(4/1600/1700) [Zone 2] from the deck. Hextia(3100 atk) also gained the attackpoints of any monster she linked with.

"You want one thing.. you want me to be one thing. This is not about just you anymore, Midsummer. I know you want your grief to stay, but what about everyone else? There are so many who would gladly forget their pain. What should I do about them? I cannot choose who suffers and who doesn't. I do not want to play god." Echo sighed. The Imperial Order forced her to move the AIgnisters in a different direction. "But there is too much evil for me to ignore. And too much I lost already. I tried to make everyone happy, but the bad always came back.. I have to extinguish the very flame of negativity."

Her left eye glowed crimson as she normal summoned her newest AIgnister cyberse: a red blob(2/800/800) [Zone 4] with flame-like spikes, tiny soft claws and grey/purple markings. "When Achichi AIgnister is summoned, I can add an AIgnister monster to my hand." She claimed a cyberse of the WATER: Hiyari AIgnister. "And when I control AIgnisters, both Hiyari and Doshin AIgnister can be special summoned from my hand!" The Fiery AIgnister invited his earthen and aquatic friends: the cubical Doshin(1/100/800) [Zone 3] and the pink-finned curled-up blob Hiyari(1/300/400) [Zone 5]. "Link summon! Fire Phoenix AIgnister! The materials are two cyberse or more!" The element of Fire dominated the link circuit which absorbed Hiyari, Doshin and Achichi. In turn she created a mechanical red phoenix(Left/Down/Right} [Extra Zone 2] with foldable golden claws and red wing plates. Those wings shot out jets of bright yellow flames to keep the phoenix flying in the air.

"The Phoenix? You really did create cards for each one of your friends.. for each of their elements." Yet unlike the immortal phoenix, it did not seem like the Fire Princess would rise from her own ashes. "This is because of her too... I never experienced loss before it happened with Valkyrion. No matter what I do, I cannot reverse that. I cannot save Cierze... and I cannot wake Olympia up. I know this feeling is only a fraction of what you experienced.. when you lost your family. But it was enough for me to know, that I never want to feel that way ever again! When Fire Phoenix AIgnister fights, you take damage equal to her attackpoints! And if she is destroyed by a card effect, she destroys one other monster on the field as well!" The phoenix launched into battle and struck down the defending Altergeist Marionetter. "And my skill can destroy all monsters I control, to draw a card!" Echo shouted as her six-sided skill blasted the Fire Phoenix to pieces. The resulting explosion spread out to include Altergeist Hextia as a victim of the flame.

Midsummer's LP: 5700

Ignition Assault, Skill Card
Activate 1 of these effects based on the attribute of a cyberse-monster you control.
FIRE: Destroy all monster cards you control, draw 1 card for each FIRE monster you destroyed.

"Then permit me to activate Altergeist Failover! When an Altergeist is destroyed by a card effect, it will special summon one Altergeist from my hand!" Altergeist Fifinellag the horned red cyber-gremlin(2/0/1000) [Zone 5] appeared out of the blue. In addition to this, Midsummer got to draw a new Altergeist card from his deck due to the death of Altergeist Hextia. He added Altergeist Fijialert. "Hatred is not just a consequence, Midsummer. It existing at all is wrong. It has to be destroyed.. and now I finally know how." Echo placed two trap cards down and ended her turn. Just like she said, Fire Phoenix[Zone 4] returned to the field during the endphase. And as the next turn started, Midsummer immediately payed the cost to maintain Imperial Order.

-TURN 03-

Midsummer's LP: 5000

"You've seen so much in such a short time. You were not ready, I brought you into the real world too soon. This is all my fault too. It was then and it is now." Midsummer somberly shook his head. "But you have to see the contradiction within your own words. Hate cannot exist without love. How would you know what you liked, if you liked everything and everyone? It is not natural. You would also have to hate something to want to be rid of it. Even if you hate hatred itself." To start his new turn, Midsummer special summoned a new non-Altergeist spellcaster.. the Magicians Souls. "That card?" Echo's perpetual smile faltered, when the disembodied dark magician soul(1/0/0) made its appearance by discarding a level 6 spellcaster from the deck. "Yes the same card that Asterisk used against me once, back when I hated him so for trying to drive a wedge between us. Between you and me. But I realize now that there is beauty to it all, a serene purpose." He activated the effect of Magicians Souls, removing two of his traps on the field (Altergeist Failover, Imperial Order) to draw two new cards.

"No. There is no beauty. You still do not see it, Midsummer. You can't see it. But I did. I've seen a million victims of hatred, a million cries of pain. Why should I let it continue?" Echo asked him with a slight tremor in her voice. "I know it is tempting to want to get rid of it. I am guilty of that feeling as well. But I would dishonor my family if I pretended they never existed, if I replaced them with false images and dreams. I only learned that when I reached the peak of my own hatred and saw what damage I could do to others. I know not everyone can find this wisdom, but you have to give people a chance. Just like they gave me.." Midsummer activated his next spell, Wonder Wand. He equipped it to the Magicians Souls, just so he could sacrifice the spellcaster and draw another pair of cards. After that he normal summoned the caped demon knight with a glowing slit eye for a head: Dark-Eye Nightmare(4/1700/1700) [Zone 3]. By banishing one trap card (Imperial Order) from the graveyard, Midsummer could draw one new card and shuffle another back into his deck. "...I am giving you the chance too. It is not wrong to feel what you are feelings right now. But you cannot let it control you." Finally Midsummer activated his spell card of Mind Control.

"Ah?" With that card he could take control of her monster: her Fire Phoenix AIgnister [Zone 3]. Though he could not attack with it and the mindcontrol lasted for one turn only. "I link summon Hextia again!" He threw himself into the duel fully now, envisioning the perfect arrangement of fantastical creatures. First he linked Multifaker up with the Pookuery in his hand and recreated Hextia(1500/LINK 2) {Down/Left} [Zone 4]. She did not get a lot of power from Fifinnelag, but she could tribute it if Echo tried to spring her traps. "And when I link summon an Altergeist, I can special summon Altergeist Fijialert from my hand. She will then turn one other link monster into an honorary Altergeist!" Fijialert appeared as a smiling cyber-waterwitch(4/1400/1200) [Zone 3] attached to the body of a bigtoothed and four-legged deepseaworm as if she were a centaur. Her tail zapped Fire Phoenix AIgnister to treat the Phoenix as an 'Altergeist'.

"I synchro summon Altergeist Dragvirion! And I link summon Altergeist Memorygant!" Within the same minute, his deadly Altergeist triad came out in full force. Dragvirion the four-armed and greenhaired cyberbeast wizard(6/2200/1200) [Zone 5] was born from Fifinnelag's and Dark Eye Nightmare's synchronization, while the reaper Memorygant(2800/LINK 4) {Left/Downleft/Right/Downright} [Zone 3] took 'Altergeist' Fire Phoenix and Fijialert as her link materials. Dragvirion's positioning meant that Hextia(3700 atk) would gain more attackpower as well. "Here they come, miss Echo." It went without saying that the combined attackpower on his field would have put an end to their game. But she would not go down without a fight. "I activate AIdle Reborn." Her quickplay spell would revive the Fire Phoenix all over again. "Please, do not fight this. There is no shame in turning back now." But of course, Hextia used her own effect to negate the spell. She tributed Dragvirion, and that synchro monster special summoned herself[Zone 5] back to the field once a turn after being sacrificed. "Your hatred is justified, but so is theirs.. there are other ways to help you with those feelings." Altergeist Dragvirion prepared the first attack..

"The only justified hate is caused by more hate. Even my own.. my.. disgusting weakness." She activated a second trap: Get Out. "What is this?" This trap chose two monsters summoned from the extra deck and returned them to their place of origin. With a single gesture, Echo dismissed the Altergeists Hextia and Memorygant, leaving only Dragvirion to attack her during this battle phase. "It was all around me, Midsummer." She stood perfectly still despite Dragvirion's wand magic hitting her from up close. Her speech went on as if nothing happened. "Inside my friends... trying to get inside me. It tried to break me. But I cannot let it win. I will break it first."

Echo's LP: 5800

"Then there really is no talking you out of this path you are on... But how long have you felt like this? Why didn't you tell anyone? Why didn't you.. tell me?" In the middle of his asking her, Midsummer reached the epiphany on his own. "Because... It was me. I was the first one you hated.." He activated Altergeist Failover from his graveyard, which allowed him to add one other Altergeist card from the graveyard to his hand: Altergeist Multifaker. He kept that card close, placed a trap card face down, and ended his turn. "Because I abandoned you. Because I put myself before you..."

-TURN 04-

"Midsummer.. You were the one, I loved second. The one I loved first.. was Him. But the Creator... did not love me. Not like you did. Either way, no matter how they felt about me, someone chose to leave me behind. He chose to lie to me, Static chose to imprison me, Hansen chose to ignore me. But I do not hate any of them for it. I refuse to." Echo tried to start her turn by reactivating her A. field spell. However an Altergeist player always stayed on their toes. "I activate Altergeist Camouflage!" He revealed his final defense: the trap of Camouflage equipped itself to Dragvirion so that the synchro Altergeist could not be attacked anymore. Once a turn Dragvirion could also negate one attack anyway. And having used another trap, Midsummer could special summon Altergeist Multifaker for the second time. The Faker [Zone 3], and the Altergeist Kunquery(5/0/2400) [Zone 4] she special summoned, both appeared in defense mode. "I am sorry, Echo. But Kunquery negates the effects of one card on the field!" The redtailed cyberspace centaur targeted AIgnister A. and prevented it from summoning anything this turn.

"You have nothing to be sorry for. Your emotions are making you act this way. That is why I have to change everything from the ground up. I want to make a world where the people wont know what it is like to miss their loved ones.. what it is like to miss being angry or sad. Where everyone only wants to put a smile on another person's face... that is the only world I will accept." Echo normal summoned her magical-hat cyberblob Pikari AIgnister(4/1200/600) [Zone 3]. With its effect she could simply add another A. field spell from the deck to her hand, which she then immediately activated to restart the lights and wheels of her funfilled theme park. "By making them all immortal, right? Because that is the only way for this world to will have to deal with loss at one part in their life, whether through tragedy or natural causes. They will feel sad eventually unless you force eternal life upon them. That is exactly what Continuum wants to do.. And say you succeed? What then, where will new life come from? Where will everyone live? What about the world itself? You cannot control everything."

"I can.. as long as this world and the virtual world remain together." Echo used Pikari as a link material for her Linguriboh monster, summoning it to the extra zone to awaken AILand's powers. "I summon Doyon AIgnister!" The cyberplasm of darkness(4/400/1600) [Zone 3] took root on the field next. Doyon's effect returned one other Ignister from the graveyard to the field: Hiyari AIgnister. Like the last turn, Echo special summoned the aquatic AIgnister[Zone 4] to her field with the help of Doyon's presence. "Hiyari can tribute one cyberse monster to add one level five or higher AIgnister to my hand! And if she sacrificed a link monster, I can also add a ritual spell!" Hiyari took Linguriboh off the field, replacing it with the ritual card pair of AI's Ritual and Water Leviathan AIgnister. This effect also raised Hiyari(4/300/400)'s level to the fourth stage. "A ritual? Of course.. the missing element and technique. This card is all that remains of the Fisherman, isn't it?" Midsummer now truly understood that she'd lost every thing she ever created. But which parts did she have her own hands in?

"He had to leave me. He cannot come back, until I am ready.. until the world is ready. Otherwise they would never accept him..." Echo took a deep breath and activated the ritual spell. "If I control an AIgnister monster, I can also banish monsters from the graveyard as tributes for the ritual monster." AI's Ritual registered the presence of Hiyari AIgnister and bypassed her to tribute Pikari, Doshin and Achichi AIgnister in the graveyard instead. Seven stars flowed up into a river of energy which solidified as a blue seaserpent(7/2300/2000) [Zone 2] with yellow eyes and transparent veils extending from its headfins. Its appearance immediately caused a wave of water to rise up behind her and wash over the field. "My Altergeists?" The tidal wave swept Dragvirion, Multifaker and Kunquery away all at once. "Yes. Water Leviathan returns all your monsters with less than two thousand and three hundred attackpoints to the deck."

"Maybe I did resent you, Midsummer. Because even though I could... I never used your memories to model one of my friends after. I used Zanbatou, Tycho, Cherry and even Neo. But never you. And when I created my AIgnisters, I even included Blanche and Charles' monsters into my deck, but still not you." Echo turned against her own monsters by using all three as link materials. Hiyari, Doyon and the Leviathan disappeared through the link summon circuit of Dark Templar AIgnister(2300/LINK 3) {Downleft/Down/Downright} [Extra Zone 2]. "But that will all be over soon as well." Using Doyon as a link material let her reclaim one A.I. spell from the graveyard: AIdle Reborn. "Come back to me, Fire Phoenix." This time the spell of rebirth would succeed, the cybernetic phoenix [Zone 4] reincarnated and linked up with the Dark knight. "Templar revives my other monsters!" Templar's own effect targeted two more level 4 or lower AIgnisters in the graveyard to link with, Hiyari(1/300/400) [Zone 3] and Doyon(4/400/1600) [Zone 5]. "Because this is it. This is what I told you would happen."

"I still had to try. But my words were as lacking as my skills." The duel'd been decided. "Will you surrender, Midsummer?" Attacking him now would only cause more needless pain, pain she hated to inflict. "I think, my ending should be more severe than that my lady. I failed you. And in doing so, I failed those around me." Pain he wanted to suffer, if only to show her that it would not be the end. "No, you saved them all. You will see." The battle phase began with and ended with her smile. The lesser AIgnisters slammed their tiny bodies into Midsummer, while the Dark Templar slashed through the air around the Nightmare duelist. She took care to minimize the brutality of her attacks, but she could not avoid hitting him entirely. Not when the Fire Phoenix itself descended. "And you will see me again soon as well." Descend it did, like an infernal comet. Midsummer kept his eyes wide open, as the curtain of flames fell down upon him.

Midsummer's LP: 0

...

In a different part of the dark world, another duel came to a close. "I cannot believe it. Just when my final trial was about to be decided, this happens.." The Creator lost his throne, his legacy shattered due to the relentless assault of three kids. "What are you talking about?" Charles Adami, Dharma Bonnet and Aurora Dahl; they did what he deemed to be inconceivable. "This, all of this! Look at what you have done! I had so many grand plans for you, and you ruined it! You ruined the grand final battle as well, you with your anticlimactic, ill-fitting and outdated cards!"

"Sounds to me like you're just sore that you fell for the oldest tricks in the book." Dharma smirked. She felt pretty good about herself. Defeat turned the once mighty and self-important Creator into the same petulant loser that most people could be. "Creator. It is not too late to stop what went wrong, you have to see that it cannot continue this way. The items of legacy are your creations, their destruction and chaos is your responsibility. You must have the power to undo all of it. And if you refuse to use it, we will force it."

"You would turn back the clock now? The war between Echo and Continuum will end if you wait just a minute longer." The Creator revealed that he still possessed some power over his world, as he shifted away the black walls around the battlefield and showed off the scene above. "Huh? What are we looking at?" Charles saw the orb of memories, brighter yet smaller. "Echo?" He saw the lady in blue and he saw the third entity, rushing towards her. "Even I cannot say who will win this, nor can I avert whatever may come. It is already out of my hands." The Creator laughed to himself. "No. It is not. All of this is happening because your legacy is letting them do this!" Charles did not know what Echo was doing, but they could not risk her losing to Continuum now. "We beat you! You will do what we say! STHEREA cannot be destroyed, I know that. But you can destroy your own items! You can defuse the two worlds! Do it!" He demanded.

"Is that is your wish. Then I will..."

(To Be Continued in the New World)

New Cards used by Miss Echo
Achichi AIgnister
Hiyari AIgnister
Water Leviathan AIgnister

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AIdle Reborn
A.I's Ritual

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Get Out

New Cards used by Midsummer Nightmare
Altergeist Fijialert
Magicians Souls
Dark-Eye Nightmare

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Mind Control

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Altergeist Failover