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.

130. New World 002: Lies Told by the Body

New World 122: Lies Told By the Body

While the final games were well underway, those not involved with the current match focused on the noise around them. "Well I just heard back from the company. Or rather the investigation team. They say they cannot even probe the network right now, let alone send in a CID or admin. They're completely blind as to the current situation." So too did Asterisk come in with news from the distant world... "How much did you tell them?" ..news which concerned Abigail. "I had to tell them the truth: that we have located what remains of project flute. That we are in the process of retrieving it while we are also working on a way to open the network again." The agent still left out a few details concerning their enforced methods. "But are we? Or did you just tell them what they wanted to hear?" Abigail knew the company would be very interested in this project. "I know what your stance is on this issue, miss Sterling. But I feel this is not a decision we can make on our own. We have to let the professionals weigh in. They requested that we deliver the Item to them, and I am inclined to agree."

"Inclined? Do you realize what you are saying? Exeter is nothing more than a fountain of corruption. You may trust someone like Therese Hansen, but people like her are too small in number to have any significant effect on the company. If we give them this item, they will use it as they have always done! They will turn it against us and the world! They cannot have it, we have to destroy it!"

"And then what? Do you think that would be the end of their power, Abigail? Do you think they would let us lead our lives unpunished?" Nakana suddenly joined the conversation with her icy demeanor. "Nakana? Do not tell me you are considering it as well?" Abigail flinched as the zombie princess approached her. "I would not destroy it, but I would not let them have it either. After all this time, you still think in terms of black and white far too often, miss Sterling. This power has to be used against them, to keep them at bay. Only then will we stop this corruption." Once she finished her speech, Nakana walked off again without giving Abigail a chance to reply. "You.." There would be time to settle this dispute later.

Cherry's LP: 4300 Charles' LP: 7400

For now the battle between Charles and Cherry continued. "Sounds to me like everyone has their own reasons for wanting to win." Cherry'd caught some of the lively banter outside the battle stage. "But mine is simple. I don't want any of this to disappear. So no hard feeling, Charles... I activate Contract with Don Thousand! Bit weird I know, never watched the shows. This spell would have been better to draw if I got my hands on Lycoris, since we both draw one card and reveal it when it activates.. but we also both lose a thousand lifepoints! Let's see if you can match my speed!" Cherry pulled her card (Trickstar Live Arena) at exactly the same time as Charles drew his monster, Cyberse Wizard. "Nice! But as long as we reveal a spell with this card, we cannot normal summon. Of course I can simply activate my spell..."

Cherry's LP: 3300 Charles' LP: 6400

Cherry looked over Charles' field and smirked. "But first lets have a little gamble." She would first use the Trickstar Light Stage on her field to block the activation of one of his face-down cards. "I pick the middle one!" The effect of the targeted card would be forcibly activated during the next endphase and not a moment sooner. "That was it for that stage! Now I activate this one: Trickstar Live Stage! Its effect lets me add one Trickstar back to my hand!" Cherry replaced the enclosed stadium of light with a wide-open stage in front of a giant pink-heart wall. The spotlights were not bereft of a star for very long either, as Cherry Anise used the field spell's first effect to retrieve Trickstar Candina. "I hope someone asked for an encore! Because Candina will add another Trickstar Lilybell to my hand!" Cherry normal summoned the trickstar blonde(4/1800/400) [Zone 4] and let the tiny Lilybell(2/800/2000) [Zone 1] summon herself to her field, right next to Trickstar Crimson Heart(2000/LINK 2) {Downleft/Right} [Zone 2]. "But this time, since a monster is summoned next to Crimson Heart's link, I gain two hundred lifepoints. Ehrm.. excuse me. We gain it!"

Cherry's LP: 3500

"It's gonna take a lot more to get in front of him again, Cherry." Jenna pointed out. "Like I dont know that! But I am not plannin' to nurse my way to the top. No, I am gonna drag him to the bottom! Trickstar Live Stage can special summon two Trickstar tokens! One because you have a trap card on your field and one more because I control a Trickstar link monster!" She summoned one winged heart token (1/0/0) [Zone 5] first to link it up with Candina and create the succubine Trickstar Black Catbat(2000/LINK 2) {Left/Right} [Extra Zone 2]. Then Live Stage placed another token (1/0/0) in the emptied zone. "Now what should I do? Foxglove? You do have a lot of cards on your field." She still controlled the fusion Trickstar angel Sweet Guitar(7/4400/1200) [Zone 3] which could double the damage inflicted by a linked Trickstar monster and gain the damage they inflicted as attackpoints. She saw only one problem with that, Charles' Secure Gardna(1500/LINK 1) {Right} [Zone 2] could negate one instance of battle or effect damage each turn, "Why did your life have to be so high, eh?" No matter how much math she filled her head with, she saw no way to turn 7400 into 0 this turn.

Not though effect damage at least.. "I'll bring her in instead! I link summon Trickstar Delfiendium!" Black Catbat and Candina left the field, becoming a rather dapper Trickstar and composer Delfiendium(2200/LINK 3) {Up/Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 2]. She wore a fancy blue suit and a large tophat on top of her short blue hair. "Now then.. Lilybell can attack directly!" The twin-braided trickstar started off her new musical warzone, darting past the link monsters on Charles' field to deliver a direct sonic blast with her large bell. "Going for battle damage huh?" Charles could not tell his Security droid which damage it should negate, Gardna would have to nullify the first hit from Lilybell even if that only saved him 800 lifepoints.

The bad news was that she could freely let the damage flow now anyway. "Yeah-heheh. Since Delfiendium points to another Trickstar, she will add one banished Trickstar card to my hand for each link monster you control when she attacks, Charles! That's a deal to sweet to pass up!" Delfiendium took off into the air from where she surveyed her many opponents: Secure Gardna, Binary Blader(2300/LINK 2) {Left/Right} [Zone 3] Binary Sorceress(2100/LINK 2) {Left/Right} [Zone 4] and Underclock Taker(1500/LINK 2) {Left/Down} [Zone 5]. "I take back four cards! Fusion, Nightshade, Reincarnation.. and another Reincarnation!" The four cards empowered Delfiendium(6200 atk) to the point of being able to blast Binary Sorceress into pieces with ease. Before she died, the Sorceress did move half of her(1050) attackpower over to the Binary Blader(3350 atk), instead of trying to make herself stronger. "Huh?" And even stranger, her death did not lead to any battle damage at all. "I activated Rescue Interlacer, Cherry! If I discard it, I do not lose any lifepoints when my cyberse monsters battle!"

"Oh you've got to be pulling my leg. Your cards are like cockroaches!" Cherry grunted and pointed her remaining starpower towards the weakest cyberse monsters. Trickstar Crimson Heart opened her left hand and let a flash of red light pierce the chest of the Secure Gardna droid. The Trickstar Band player Guitarsweet used her own instrument to create a burst of sound too painful for Underclock Taker to survive. "Whew, I almost thought I jinxed him there." Jenna sighed softly.

Charles' LP: 3000

"Nothing jinxes this guy. He's always been lucky!" With the difference between their lifepoints being less than 2000 points higher than Charles', the vampiric Trickstar Crimson Heart could only draw one card while discarding just one Trickstar (Nightshade). Charles would also draw one new card due to this effect, a worrying notion when two Trickstar Reincarnation traps awaited you. "Oh sure you look worried, but meanwhile I keep getting nothing for my trouble." Cherry still did not draw her precious Lycoris either. "But that does not mean I have to let this turn end without a climax!" She'd done link 2 and link 3, but she could still ramp up the volume. "I link summon Trickstar Bella Madonna! The grand star of stars!" Trickstar Lycoris and Delfiendium came together as one: as the greenhaired queen(2800/LINK 4) {Downleft/Up/Down/Right} [Extra Zone 2] of the Trickstars. "Once a turn when she is not linked, Bella Madonna inflicts two hundred points of damage for each Trickstar in my graveyard!" Nightshade, Candina, Lilybell, Black Catbat, Delfiendium, and the two Blooms joined Madonna in a chorus of power and noise. The offering could have been bigger and louder, but it would certainly be enough to bring Charles closer to the end.

Charles' LP: 1600

"So that's your best song." Charles never knew pain could sound so pleasant. He was in a lot of trouble though, no effect could touch Bella Madonna as long as she did not point to any monster on the field. "Heh, dont knock the classics I always say!" Cherry placed her two Trickstar Reincarnation traps face down. "Oh and by the way. During the endphase Guitar Sweet will pull of one last trick! Since she attacked, her attackpoints will go back down to normal. But she will also return one Trickstar to my hand who has that many attackpoints or less!" The long guitar solo of the bandplayer(2200/1200) came to an end, and her music lured the Trickstar Corobane back to Cherry's hand. The Light Stage resolved at this point as well, forcing the face-down trap of Breakdown Trap Hole to activate unsuccessfully. But there was another trap which Charles could activate now. "I activate Cyberse Beacon! During a turn in which I take damage, I can add one cyberse to my hand!" Charles used it to add the Cyberse Gadget card. "Bah. How convenient. You really were born lucky!"

-TURN 04-

"You aren't the first one to tell me that, Cherry." As the next turn began, Rescue Interlacer's second effect activated from the graveyard. The cyberspace siren skater(3/1000/1200) [Zone 4] could special summon itself from the graveyard if it landed there due to its first effect. "Quiet! I activate Trickstar Reincarnation!" Cherry immediately unleashed her handbanishing trap, removing the four cards in Charles' hand. "I'm affraid I cannot be quiet anymore, Cherry!" Charles lost his Cyberse Gadget, but one of the other cards she removed this time could use its effect instead. "Balancer Lord special summons a monster from my hand when he is banished!" He used the effect to summon the wyvern-like cyberse Firewall Guardian(4/100/2000) [Zone 2] from his hand. "I link summon Cyberse Wicckid!" Charles turned the Clock Wyvern and Interlacer into link materials for a different supporter: the hooded mage Cyberse Wicckid(800/LINK 2) {Down/Left} [Zone 4]. "Cyberse Wicckid adds one cyberse tuner to my hand! I choose Cyberse Synchron!" Meanwhile Firewall Guardian[Zone 5] special summoned itself once after its death, though it would be banished if it left the field again

"Trying to synchro summon your Quantum Dragon? I've seen it already, Charles!" Cherry gave her timely answer by activating the second Trickstar Reincarnation. Four more cards were banished from Charles' hand, making his deck look dangerously thin. "That was my plan.. until you made me draw this card." Charles normal summoned the Clock Wyvern, his cybernetic purple glass-plated dragon(4/1800/1000) [Zone 4] to his field. The Clock Wyvern's effect halved its(900/1000) own attack in order to create a clock token(1/0/0)[Zone 4]. "What? You're gonna go for the Renner special now?" Cherry cried out. "That's not what I would have called it, but yeah. I link summon Clock Spartoi!" The clock token combined with the Firewall Guardian and transformed into a cybernetic lancer(800/LINK 2) {Down/Downleft} [Extra Zone 1] covered in silver armorplates. Clock Spartoi's effect let Charles add the Cynet Fusion spell from his deck to his hand. "Bah! You're clearly in love with those cards. You're just like me! So how can you pretend like you want to get rid of STHEREA? How can you go back to your average normal life, when you can be a hero in this world! You are a hero! We all are!"

"If I can only be a hero at the cost of someone else, than it really is not worth it. I am not saying I have the best answers. And I am not denying that I've felt that same addiction. But I have to go with what I feel.. I activate One Kuri Way! This spell returns one of either graveyards Link 1 monsters to the field or extra deck!" Before the endless loop of damage could start anew, he would free himself with Secure Gardna(1000/LINK 1) [Zone 1]. "Gah. No fair!" No matter what, no effect damage could be inflicted this turn. "You say that. But I think part of you would be happier if you can get one more turn out of me. Well, I am willing to oblige! And so is an older friend of mine! I link summon Firewall Dragon!" Clock Spartoi and Cyberse Wicckid both vanished into the perfectly symmetrical link circuit, which burned with a hotred glow. The imposing dragon of the Firewall(2500/LINK 4) {Left/Up/Down/Right} [Zone 2] plowed through the flaming red circuit, taking in extra power by establishing a link with Secure Gardna and Binary Blader. "Firewall is co-linked twice, so he can return two cards from the field or graveyard to a players hand! I choose Trickstar Band and Rescue Interlacer! And since it is a link four card, I can also use my spell.. Link Hole. That one will destroy one monster on the field for each high link monster I control! I choose Crimson Heart!"

"You just keep going." Cherry mumbled. Trickstar Fes could not protect Trickstars not summoned from the extra deck or monsters threatened with bounce effects. Between the Hole swallowing her stars and the Firewall dragon scaring away her guitar player, she wound up with only the untouchable Bella Madonna who could not be powerboosted by Corobane. "Even if this was a friendly duel, I would still try to win.. Cherry. I wouldn't be a friend if I held back." Charles claimed. Though one part of him also wondered what the harm would be in losing now. He did not have to be the one to claim the orb of memories, he trusted plenty of his friends to make the same choice he would have. There were no risks involved, and yet he still felt like every move had to count. He did not know why. "Now! Cynet Fusion can take one link monster from the graveyard if I do not have a monster in my extra zone! It fuses Clock Spartoi, Binary Blader, Firewall Guardian with the Clock Wyvern... to summon Cyberse Clock Dragon!" He did not want to know why either.

Right now he only focused on making the ultimate fused cyberse: the crystal-covered temporal Cyberse Dragon(8/2500/2000). [Extra Zone 1] "What? Just one head?" Blanche saw this dragon for the first time now, and sounded a little underwhelmed. "One headache seems more than enough to me." He quipped and went on to trigger its effect. "Clock Dragon sends eight cards to the graveyard, since that is the total combined link rating of his materials! Then he gains a thousand attackpoints for each discarded card!" With his deck already precariously slimmed down due to all the reincarnation tricks, he risked a lot with this play. But seven more cards in the grave would make his fusion Dragon(10500/2000) better than anything Cherry could hide behind. "Clock Dragon! Attack Trickstar Bella Madonna!"

"Bah! I am not down for the count yet! Go, Trickstar Reincarnation!" While Cherry Anise did react quickly, her answer seemed to bit too indirect. Banishing the Reincarnation trap and reviving Trickstar Lilybell[Zone 4] would not save her from any attack. "That's definitely no good." Nevertheless Charles countered it with his final trap. "I activate Network Trap Hole! I banish one monster face-down, when she is summoned from the graveyard!" He opened a trap hole underneath the reborn Lilybell, which deleted her data and all.

"Gah.. Didn't see that coming. Good thing I can use my trap more than once a turn!" Anise shrugged and banished the second Trickstar Reincarnation to special summon Trickstar Candina[Zone 4] in defense mode. Of course Charles wouldn't let that stop him either and continued the attack. "Heehee.. I activate Dark Angel from my hand!" Not until Cherry revealed the reason behind her reincarnation spree. "Because you attacked my fairy, I can send it to the graveyard to add her attackpower to another Trickstar.. and that one will be attacked instead!" The white haired dark elf angel possessed the attacked Delfiendium, draining her soul away. Clock Dragon's attack instead struck down the defending powered up Lycoris(4600/400). "Aw man. You almost had her." Blanche sighed and snapped her fingers. "You could try to at least sound a little impartial. If he wins he might have to duel you next you know!" Cherry hissed. "Maybe.. and so what? Sounds to me like you want some of my Blue-Eyes action for yourself." Blanche retorted with a cheeky grin. "As if.."

"If it comes to that, I dont think there will be much conflict. This is between us, Cherry." Charles sighed. His current situation was no laughing matter, he just couldn't get any luck with his fusions. "I set one card face down, and end my turn." At least he still had Secure Gardna to negate battle damage once a turn. And Clock Dragon prevented anything from targeting the Gardna monster while he controlled the fusion dragon.

-TURN 05-

"I am tired of this, I will give you some kudos, you did last more than two turns.. But now I am ready to move on. There are plenty more like you I have to crush!" The trickstar duelist drew one more card. "Oh?" It put a big bright grin on her face. "Guess my Trickstars agree as well! Lucky you! You get to meet Trickstar Rhodode!" The final member of her band took the normal summon of the turn. Rhodode was a pixie-eyed fairy(4/1400/1900) [Zone 3] with an orange flower in her short purple hair and pink rose petals around her waist and boots. "Rhodode discards one card from my hand, and then she revives one Trickstar from my graveyard!" Cherry discarded the Trickstar Corobane spell, an easy trade to get Trickstar Delfiendium[Zone 4] back on her field. "I revive Trickstar Bella Madonna!" Rhodode opened a flowery portal for her queen[Zone 5], who rose to the field with all of her powers at her command. "Charles, lets end this with a bang!" Now there were eight Trickstars in her graveyard (Nightshade, Candina, Corobane, Black Catbat, Delfiendium, Crimson Heart, 2x Blooms). The trickstar beauty would inflict 200 times that much damage, exactly enough to defeat Charles.

"But since she is not link summoned, she is no longer unaffected by card effects, Cherry!" Charles shouted before he unveiled his first trap: Link Restart. "Link Restart negates one effect that would inflict damage, and then summons one link monster from my graveyard!" The trap rebooted the cyberse Firewall Dragon to the field, while Madonna was denied her powers. "What?" To add even more insult to injury, Firewall{Left/Up/Down/Right}[Zone 4] appeared right in front of Bella Madonna to negate her effects, and to use its own effect to send her all the way back into the extra deck. The Firewall Dragon could bounce another monster since it left the field since the last time the effect got used. Even if it had not, she could not attack Firewall Dragon anyway because Cyberse Clock Dragon prevented any link monsters from being targeted while it existed. "Why. I don't get it! I don't get why you have to be so difficult!" Cherry snapped and reactivated Trickstar Live Stage to place two more Trickstar tokens(1/0/0) [Zone 3 & 4] on her field. "I link summon Trickstar Foxglove Witch!" The tokens and Trickstar Rhodode transformed into her twin-hat pink-clad witch(2200/LINK 3) [Zone 3] who had the power to inflict 200 points of damage for each card Charles controlled.

Charles' LP: 800

"Oh you better watch out, Charles. If that monster is destroyed, you will take the same amount of damage again." Blanche warned her friend, having seen this effect play out before. The only reason Cherry did not use it right away was because battle damage would always resolve before the death of a monster. "Rgh. None of you want to be on my side huh." Only when Cherry Anise ended her turn, did Cyberse Clock Dragon(2500/2000) lose its massive powergains. "Cherry, you are the one making this an 'us or them'-thing. We can figure this out together. You just have got to trust us. I was hoping you already did.." The blue-eyed duelist said with a weary tone. "I want to! But its easier said than done. I already had two families betray me before.. I feel like the only thing I can trust.. is this world itself."

-TURN 06-

"But wouldn't that be lonely? Cherry? If you shut everyone out, you will only be living for yourself. Believe me, that is no fun either. What I was really addicted to was maybe not this virtual world, but the people that came with it. Now that I know what it is like to have friends, I would not want to go back either. So no matter what, I will promise you that we will try to help." Charles drew his next card, though he did not really need it anymore. "I will not make you or anyone else forget what happened here. I dont think that is the right answer either." The ingredients for his victory were already on the field. "I link summon Clock Lizard!" He used both Cyberse Clock Dragon and Firewall Dragon as link materials, and created a smaller crystal-covered cyber lizard(1200/LINK 2) {Downleft/Down}. "Huh? What are you doing that for?" Cherry did not see this as a valuable trade off at all. "Honoring what we've accomplished in this duel already. Clock Lizard tributes itself to return one fusion cyberse to my extra deck. Then it will fusion summon that monster by banishing its materials from the graveyard!"

"!" Cherry Anise witnessed the gathering of untold power. The Clock Lizard banished itself, Clock Wyvern, Link Disciple, Link Devotee and Cyberse Wicckid. The fusion pool accepted the materials with a combined link rating of 6, discarded all the remaining cards in Charles' deck and and gave that power to the newly fused Cyberse Clock Dragon(8500/2000) [Extra Zone 1]. "And when Clock Lizard is banished, my opponents special summoned monsters lose four hundred attackpoints for each cyberse in my graveyard!" There were far too many to count, Foxglove Witch(0 atk) would have dipped into negatives if the system allowed it. "You pushed me this far, Cherry. You are a great duelist. But you're also a great friend to have. I know you are. The duel ends here, but this is just the beginning!" No Trickstar could survive this, no duelist could. Cherry could not dodge the blasts any longer and took the full brunt of the Clock Dragon's crystal flames.

Cherry's LP: 0

"Gah! Oh my god.. I cannot.. believe this." At the end of the lightshow, Cherry let out a cry that sounded both horrified and relieved at the same time. "I.. You were right." An epiphany seemed to have struck her in that very moment. "I should just.. let this be." A great weight had fallen of her shoulders now, her stance relaxed and her eyes narrowed. "Cherry? Are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost." It was not quite the reaction Charles expected. "Heh. You bet I am. I feel better than ever! I dont know why." She started laughing again. "I guess I am glad to hear it either way." Charles smiled back. He then noticed one of the symbols on the ground fading, while another moved an inch closer to the center of the arena. One barrier went down, fifteen remained. "Well, from now on, I will leave everything to you. I think I need a break anyway." Cherry happily walked away from it all, and patted Charles on the back. "Bring on the next volunteer! Haha!"

"That was easy." Jenna remarked to no one in particular. "What was?" Hydra still overheard her. "Eh.. Charles changed her mind just by beating her. I thought she'd be a bit more stubborn than that." She'd certainly counted on it. "Perhaps this was all she needed, Jenna. She had to learn to let others in.. I had to do the same." He on the other hand did not seem very surprised. "I guess. A kick to the head can snap anyone out of their ego." Jenna shook her head. She did not know what she herself wanted. But she did know that she could trust everyone here...

(To Be Continued in New World 123: Demonstrable Truths)

New Cards used by Charles Adami
Clock Lizard

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One Kuri-Way

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Network Trap Hole

New Cards used by Cherry Anise
Dark Angel
Trickstar Rhodode

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Contract with Don Thousand