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.

129. New World 001: Euphoria Bias

New World 121: Euphoria Bias

One more game, the duelists would have to play one more game. And the power to control the thoughts and memories of the whole world would be the trophy for the ultimate winner: a ludicrous reward. "A tournament? He wants a tournament? For what? For who? Him? Is that what he told you?" Charles could not accept it. "He told me nothing. I am basing this on what is shown to us here and now." Yet that was the story Crescent Aurora presented, the story she believed in. "There are sixteen of us, and only sixteen of us. Sixteen is also the number for a tournament with four rounds.. There will be eight in the second round, four in the third.. and just two for the final duel. The symbols on the ground mark each of us, and they protect the prize. If we duel each other, eventually those barriers will break until only one remains. The Creator wants one of us to be his heir." Everything she said could be backed up with one look at the arena around them. There were sixteen forcefields surrounding the orb.. nothing they tried to do could penetrate them.

"Tsk. Why us?" Abigail cursed as she tried in vain to blast the barrier open with one of her cannons. "There were more of us.. Skylander, Imperius, Gigasavior, Cryomatic, Midsummer.. Mephistar. Did they get excluded simply because the Creator demanded a nicer number?" The more she heard about this man, the more she wished she'd elected to go with Charles and the others.. if only to give Him a piece of her mind. "Who knows what he is thinking. I only know that none of them have shown up on the system. We could try to call them, but I presume they will run into the same difficulties that V and Giganoto have. He wants us, and only us." Agent Asterisk could only offer theories. "Well I do not want him! Why would any of us want to be his heir? We should reject his power outright! It is too much for one to hold! The fate of this whole world is too great for us to decide!" The ace duelist would not play this game, not for His sake or for the sake of STHEREA. "We cannot do nothing either, Abigail. This world will stay in limbo until we act in any way." The agent countered proposal.

"Then why don't we do this? We just stage some quick duels and throw them right away. Maybe we can open the network for everyone else that way?" Wagner came up with his own plan. "Oh? That's surprisingly clever, Wagner. Lets try it out!" Blanche immediately challenged him to a duel. "Surprising? Hey! I didn's say you could test it with me!" He did not actually feel like surrendering to anyone besides Crescent. "Relax, Wags. I dont really care about winning this. I'll be the labrat in this match-up." Blanche drew her cards but immediately put them aside so she could place her hand on the deck to make herself lose. "Well?" Wagner waited for one the barriers to shatter. But in spite of their rigorous adherence to proper duel procedure, no changes actually occurred within the arena. "No good. Figures it wouldn't be that easy."

"No. We will have to duel each other with the intent to win. That is the only way to see who can truly inherit the network. At least in his mind." Crescent did not exactly agree with His mindset either. She just could not reason her way around it. "But why would we want to beat each other up? We're all on the same page here right?" Donna cried out. "I am not sure if we are." Crescent replied as she looked around the arena. "What would some of you do, if you were the last duelist standing?" She asked them all. Not everyone had an answer ready.

"I think its obvious." Charles decided to speak first. "We have all seen what STHEREA can do in the wrong hands... Even in the right hands. We have seen how it can exploited, how it can create a force of pure hatred or cruel domination. Sure we defeated Static, but who is to say we wont get another entity like him down the line? Continuum will also keep on existing as long as the network exists. We cannot destroy this world or shut it down, but we can at least make sure that nobody has access to it anymore. I think this is what we have to do with the power that He left us. And if we are all in agreement here, I do not see why it has to matter which one of us wins. As long as we do the right thing in the end." He saw some people nodding along with his words; Donna, Blanche, Abigail and Veyron. Others looked a bit more apprehensive.

One of them came up with a response. "Is it the right thing though?" Cherry Anise stepped forward. "You say you're going to take all of this away? Is that really the best thing we can do here? You know it wont be easy.. you know people will keep trying to go after the one who has that power. The winner will have to do the same thing this creator bozo did and isolate himself from the rest of the world so that nobody can stop him! And I know you, you cannot do it.. Charles. You would only have one other option, to erase the existence of STHEREA from everyone's minds!" She yelled and pointed at him. "What? I would never do that! Cherry, what is this really about?" He shouted back. The trickstar duelist clearly had given this more thought than he did. "You can't! I wouldn't let you either! I do not think this is a good plan at all. We cannot bring this world down, it's given us so much! I know I am not the only one who thinks about it this way!" She saw several duelists share her enthusiasm for one reason or another: Hydra, Bionis, Yoro-Himiko and Scarlet..

"You would choose to maintain STHEREA?" Asterisk glared at the doctor in particular, though he himself sounded undecided on the matter for now. "I would. I believe even Vigionair agrees with me that it is too shortsighted to end it all." The scarlet duelist claimed. "He does. But I am inclined to disagree with him just because you are the one suggesting this. Either way it seems we are split after all." The agent counted those against the end of STHEREA, those for it, and those that did not even know what to do like Jenna and Neo. "I suppose in the end it would have to come down to this regardless. We cannot share this responsibility, and none of us can choose the best candidate." Each of them would have their own reasons to prefer one outcome or another.

"No. But I know who the best candidate isn't." Cherry Anise spoke up again. "And I am getting tired of waiting for you to get the obvious clue, Charlie." She activated her dueldisk. "You're serious about this then." He could not be entirely surprised... by her challenge. "A little bit yeah. But it's nothing personal. I am simply doing you a favor."

Cherry's LP: 8000 Charles' LP: 8000

Once she said it, there would be no way back for either of them. "Whoa." Two of the symbols on the arena floor lit up and expanded the forcefield to cover both Charles and Cherry. The two were seperated from the rest, who were herded back to the outer ring. "Geez. I guess this place doesn't want any interference at all.. Who is doing this anyway?" Jenna wondered if the Creator Himself sat somewhere nearby to observe everything they did. "I'll try to have Vigionaire analyze the area and also to warn Therese about what's happening here. He can at least do that much. In the mean time, I don't think we can do much more than let this play out." Asterisk asserted and sat down. As far as they could tell, they were not stuck here. But few were particularly inclined to let each other out of their sight.

-TURN 01-

"Heh. Well, you will all get your turn! But this is my time to shine! So let me catch you up to speed with these familiar beats! I activate the spell of Rotation and you know what that means!" Cherry Anise pulled two spell cards from her deck and flicked one of them towards Charles. "I set two field spells both my field and yours! And as long as one is face-down, they both cannot be destroyed!" She gave her opponent Trickstar Light Arena, while she added the Trickstar Light Stage to herself. "I think I do know where this is going yeah. I bet it starts with candy.." Blanche chuckled. Once she set Trickstar Lightstage, she could add one Trickstar from the deck to her hand. And once she summoned the monster she added, the blonde Trickstar Candina(4/1800/400) [Zone 3], Cherry Anise could add another Trickstar card from the deck to her hand. "Don't spoil it for everyone now!" The trickstar duelist claimed the Trickstar Lilybell. The darkhaired fairy(2/800/2000) [Zone 1] could be special summoned when added to the hand.

"At least not until the big star arrives! Holly Angel! her materials are two Trickstars!" Both Candina and Lilybell overlayed into the platinum blonde angel(2000/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 2] in the blue dress. "The hits can really come in after this! Heehee! I activate my skill, Fata Morgana! I special summon one monster from my hand, and then we both draw one card!" The skill also robbed the attackpoints of whatever it miraged unto the field: which would be the pink-curled fairy with the tiny top hat: Trickstar Nightshade(1/0/0) [Zone 3]. "Now for those not yet aware! Holly Angel is supported by any of her costars! And she unleashed 200 points of damage whenever one of them shows up to her linked zones!" In what would certainly only be the first of many times, Holly Angel unleashed a blast of light from her hands which knocked Charles in the torso. "Ngh..And then Trickstar Light Stage inflicts 200 more points whenever a Trickstar damages me." Charles braced himself for a follow-up beam blast, fired into his shoulder by the field spell. "Don't step on my lines." Cherry grumbled.

Charles' LP: 7600

"Let's do that again!" Cherry rushed through several more summons. "Link summon! Trickstar Bloom! Her material is one level 2 or lower Trickstar!" She used Nightshade to bring out the flower-wand wielding fairy(100/LINK 1) {Down} [Zone 3] with twin braided orange hair. And she did so twice. Nightshade revived herself[Zone 3] the first time after leaving the field as a link material, and she dematerialized to link summon another Trickstar Bloom(100/LINK 1) [Zone 5] to Holly Angel's other marked zone. Nightshade banished herself afterwards however. "Tch, this is more annoying than I thought it would be." Even so, both link summons and the Nightshade revival triggered Holly Angel and made her and the Light Stage damage Charles. Each time a Trickstar monster inflicted damage, Holly Angel(2800 atk) would also gain the same amount of attackpoints.

Charles'LP: 6400

"Now for my next star! With two Trickstars I can create Crimson Heart!" The Blooms transformed into the bloodred dress fairy Crimson Heart(2000/LINK 2) {Downleft/Right} [Zone 3], which set off another wave of damage as sung by Holly(3000) on the stage of Light. And now that her lifepoints were 2000 points higher than this, Cherry could unleash the effect of her Trickstar in its totality.

Charles'LP: 6000

"Heehee. Crimson Heart lets me discard one card to draw two! And you get to draw one as well! You're lucky I didn't get my hands on a Lycoris, Charles. You'd be worn down already otherwise!" Cherry discarded the Trickstar Bouquet spell from her hand, and gave herself a spell and a monster. The audience would not be in the dark about those two cards for long. "Heheh. New direction. See I got tired of you making up all the cool stuff for yourself. So I gave myself something neat too! I activate Trickstar Fusion!" As the name implied, the Trickstar Fusion spell took two appropriate fusion materials and mixed them together. In this case she took Crimson Heart and the Trickstar Corobane in her hand and she created a guitar-carrying punkrock spike-haired Trickstar(7/2200/1200) [Zone 5] in a darkblue flower dress. "This is Trickstar Band Sweet Guitar! As long as she's on the field, any Trickstar monster linked with her inflicts double damage!" Sweet immediately performed a damaging duet with Holly Angel(3400), backing up the platinum star's song and Light Stage's energy with a burst of guitar riffs. "Well, that's certainly a new genre." It almost sounded like music to Charles now.

Charles' LP: 5400

"Everyone's a critic." Cherry frowned. Sweet Guitar(2600 atk) also gained attackpoints equal to the damage inflicted by a Trickstar monster, and she was far from done. "I activate Trickstar Fes! It summons two Trickstar tokens for the price of pretty much zilch!" Two angel-winged cartoon hearts(1/0/0) [Zone 4 & 3] joined the cast of tricksters, bringing out another burst of musical mayhem from Holly Angel(3800 atk) and Sweet Guitar(3000 atk). "I can tell you're getting impatient. But we're almost there, Charles!"

Charles' LP: 4800

Cherry Anise placed one trap card face down, and activated the second effect of Trickstar Fusion. "I can banish my fusion spell too, to add one Trickstar monster back to my hand! All the other kids love a good floater these days!" Cherry reclaimed the Trickstar Corobane with the help of this card. Meanwhile, with their level being that low, the Trickstar tokens could be used as link materials for the next major player. "Link summon! Divaridis!" To contrast her singer in black, Anise brought out the six-winged fairy in white(1800/LINK 2) {Downleft/Down} [Zone 3] with silver hair curled like horns. "And she inflicts two hundred points of damage if she is link summoned. Add all the other fun stuff that and you get... Gee I dont even know." Cherry left the math in the hands of her dueldisk. Divaridis herself unleashed a singular blast yet still Stage-enhanced shot of light energy, while Holly Angel struck with a guitar-boosted blast of holy energy that Trickstar Light Stage also enhanced. The 600 points of monster effect damage than translated into another attackboost for the Holly Angel and fusion Trickstar(3600 atk). "Now you can go!" Holly Angel(2000 atk) would lose her attackboosts at the end of a turn, but Sweet guitar could keep hers.

Charles' LP: 3800

-TURN 02-

"I think I know why you are so adamant on this duel, Cherry. You've clearly taken more from our adventures than just pleasant memories." Charles said out loud while he was forced to admire her fusion monster. "I thought we would be going back to dueling the normal way after this. But clearly we have plenty of excitement left to go around." His own extra deck still contained all of his specially created Fusion, Synchro and XYZ-monsters: proving that not every part of the virtual world had gone back to its original standards. "That said, I would like it if you slowed down a little." He knew Trickstar Divaridis would inflict damage each time he dared to special summon a monster. Then again most of her cards would burn if he so much as breathed. Fortunately he got time to prepare for this duel, and he got the cards to do so. He discarded one card (Sea Archiver) from his hand to activate another spell. "Cynet Mining adds Defect Compiler to my hand!" The Defect droid could negate one instance of effect damage, which would get him a lot closer to where he wanted to be.

"Nice try, pal-o. But you did not think I'd let you go without giving you my favorite sendoff!? I activate Traptrick, which will activate Trickstar Reincarnation!" Then she put him a lot further away. The trick trap banished one other tricky trap from the deck: Trickstar Reincarnation. Then Cherry could set a second copy of Reincarnation down on her field, and activate it within the same turn. Of course that trap would banish and replace the opponent's entire hand. "My entire hand is banished huh? But that does mean that you've triggered Dotscaper's effect!" Charles lost seven cards, yet one of those seven could be special summoned if another effect banished it: the block-built dot droid(1/0/2100) [Zone 1]. "Yeah but my show is still going strong too!" Trickstar Divaridis and the Light Stage punished Charles right away, sending two beams of sacred light his way.

Charles' LP: 3400

"Man, she's really going for that death by a thousand cuts huh, boss. You sure this is worth it?" Blanche commented from the sidelines again. "I can deal with a few more cuts, Dharma. And yes, I want to keep going.." Charles would need to special summon a few more times before he could break the Trickstar cycle and before he could reach out to Cherry. "I activate Link Apple! It banishes a random monster in my extra dek. And if it is a link monster, I can special summon it! Otherwise it is discarded and I draw one card!" The effect revealed the Transcode Talker, a link monster. "Eesh. Now I remember why I stopped using this card." He could at least special summon the cyberse, a red cybernetic apple with a smiling face on a screen. But he lost one of his best Code Talkers in the process, along with another 400 lifepoints due to the Trickstar Divaridis.

Charles' LP: 3000

"Guess winning wont be easy eh, Charlie?" Cherry laughed out loud. "It never is, Anise." Charles would take even more punishhment after he used both his monsters, level 4 or lower cyberse, to link summon the Link Disciple(500/LINK 1) {Down} [Extra Zone 1] and Link Devotee(300/LINK 2) {Down} [Zone 2] to his field in a co-linked position. Those link summons triggered the effects of Divaridis and Light Stage as well. And all the while, Sweet Guitar(4400 atk) and Holly Angel(2800 atk) kept adding more of that damage to their own attackpoints.

Charles LP: 2200

"But that was the last shot you get from me, Cherry! Because now I link summon Secure Gardna!" The next move made all the previous painful steps worth it. By using a link monster like the Devotee as the link material, Charles could bring out a cyberse whose sole purpose consisted of cancelling out damage. "Aw really?!" Cherry let out a groan as the white and blue android Secure Gardna(1000/LINK 1) {Left} [Zone 2] deflected Divaridis' effect damage and would continue to do so even if it left the field. "My weakness is also my strength, Cherry. I may be limited to what I put in my extra deck beforehand, but I have a lot more choices than most. I suppose I am more of a wizard than a sorcerer in that way." He laughed to himself, while his opponent rolled her eyes. "I hate that I got that terrible joke."

"Anyway, Cherry. I plan to take back the lifepoints I lost. Like this, I normal summon Cosmic Compass!" It felt good to not have to fear any reprisals. Certainly not when the compass pendulum machine(1/0/0) [Zone 1] used its effect to special summon a number of compass tokens (1/0/0) [Zones 3,4 & 5] to the field; a number that matched the current number of monsters on Cherry's field. "I can use two normal monsters to link summon Binary Blader! And I can take two non-token monsters to link summon Binary Sorceress!" The leftmost tokens would start the binary chain with the dual wielding cyberknight(1800/LINK 2) {Left/Right} [Zone 3] of gold and purple metal. That chain then extended into the monster created by Cosmic Compass' and Link Disciple's own circuit: the neon blue and white cybersorceress(1600/LINK 2) {Left/Right} [Zone 4]. At the same time, since Charles managed to link his special summoned monster, the Sea Archiver cyber seahorse(3/300/2100) [Zone 5] in the graveyard could special summon itself back to the field as well.. "And now I link summon Underclock Taker with two monsters as the materials!" The spinning cybertop(1000/LINK 2) {Left/Down} [Zone 5] would cap off the co-link by appearing on the Sorceress' left side.

"Oh That's a cute selection of toys you got there, Charlie. But my Trickstars are kinda all strong than them." Cherry happily pointed out. "Right now they are yeah. But. What if I do this? I activate Link Party! It activates one effect for each link monster element we control!" The Trickstars were all LIGHT, the Binary adventurers were EARTH, Underclock Taker possessed the DARK attribute: all of this would bring the Link Party spell halfway down. "Effect one: my link monsters gain five hundred attackpoints! Effect two: your link monsters lose twice as much! Effect three: I gain three times as much life!" Charles' 'toys' would hold a merry little dance with themselves, forcefully dragging the Trickstars Divaridis(800 atk) and Holly Angel(1800 atk) into the chaos to weaken them and strengthen themselves (Secure Gardna: 1500 atk, Binary Sorceress: 2100 atk, Binary Blader: 2300 atk, Underclock Taker: 1500 atk). At the end Charles gained a neat sum of 1500 lifepoints to boot. "Bah, you're turning this duel into a chemistry class. Stop it." Anise cursed.

Charles' LP: 3700

"I will, soon. Underclock Taker still has its own little subtraction to show you." The underclocking top targeted the Binary Sorceress and subtracted her attackpoints from another monster on the field: Trickstar Holly Angel(0 atk). "Now we can dance. Binary Blader can make two attacks when it's co-linked with at least one other link monster! Its attacks wont kill monsters, but he can banish them if he's co-linked twice!" Of course he could not lose track of wat else his opponent could pull out of her sleeve, like her handtraps. An effect like this would render cards like the Trickstar Fes in the graveyard harmless as well. And thanks to their own co-link, the Binary Sorceress could add half of her own attackpower to Binary Blader(3250 atk). "Binary Blader attacks Trickstar Divaridis first!" Another bonus would be Binary Sorceress' second effect. Any monster co-linked with her would turn its damage output into healing energy, causing Charles to gain the points that Cherry lost while the Binary Blader slashed Trickstar Divaridis in half. The attack sent the Trickstar to the next dimesion, while the swordsman revved up its second blade.

Cherry's LP: 5550 Charles' LP: 6150

"Oh now I get it. But you wont get back everything. No siree!" Cherry waited for the second attack to come to spring the Trickstar Corobane trap. She could activate that card from her hand to add the original attackpoints of the attacked Holly Angel to herself(2000 atk). This of course did not let her escape Binary Blader's killing slash, but it did minimize the loss and drain of lifepoints. "I suppose you did."

Cherry's LP: 4300 Charles' LP: 7400

"I wish I could take care of your fusion too, but by herself she cannot do any harm. And with these lifepoints I feel a little bit more comfortable about the next turn. I know how quickly you tend to resolve things once you get started." Charles called off the rest of the battle phase and placed three of his cards face-down on the field. Something told him he would not want to leave too many cards in his hand. "Heh. Most of the people I go up against can't even last more than two turns. Not even Asterisk.. You think you can do better?" Cherry immediately took over the duel flow even before her next turn began. By banishing Trickstar Reincarnation from the graveyard she could special summon a Trickstar back from the graveyard. "They did know you very well yet. I do." Charles smiled. His plans already paid off, since now Cherry could only revive Crimson Heart[Zone 5] instead of the more deadly Divaridis. "Heh. Fine, you can get away with saying that. We did spend a lot of time together. More than I bargained for really. Though now I wish it didn't have to end.."

"But that is what this is all about, isn't it? You do not want to see STHEREA disappear. But even if this world disappears, it does not mean our bonds will disappear too. There are other ways to stay in touch. We will always be friends, if you want us to be." Charles placed three cards from his hand face down in the spell/trap zone and ended his turn. "That is easyfor you to say. You have a nice home to come back to now, and a nice family. I never had any of that.. And I am not the only one." Cherry did not deny his claim, but she did not like what he suggested either. "Ever since I got into this, I never once thought about having to leave.. I was hoping for things to stay that way. But now the end of everythinh suddenly seems like a very real possibility. I dont know if I can let this go, I dont see why I should have to. And I tried you know.. I tried to kick the habit. But even one second in that house felt like agony. This world is just too good.. and I could make it even better. That is why I do not want to lose. That is what this is all about!"

(To Be Continued in New World 122: Lies Told By the Body)

New Cards used by Charles Adami
Link Apple

New Cards used by Cherry Anise
Trickstar Band Sweet Guitar

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Set Rotation
Trickstar Fusion

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Traptrick