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.

136. New World 008: Discontinued

New World 008: Discontinued

Donna's LP: 5500 Scarlet's LP: 3850

"You do not have to do this. You are Lilah! You are your own soul!" Crescent shouted at the woman who saw herself as nothing more than an artificial entity now. That's how she looked, and that's how she felt. "Maybe I was once, maybe I had a soul. Not anymore, she took it from me. I am only alive because she wants me to be. I have to do as I am told." Her flowers were as fragmented as her mind. She controlled the White Rose(4/1200/1000) [Zone 2] and Red Rose Dragon(3/1000/1800) [Zone 3] along with a Dark Rose Fairy(2/800/0) [Zone 4]. "I have to salvage what remains of the experiment. I synchro summon the Garden Rose Maiden! This will set off two effects." Scarlet tuned the Rose Fairy with Red Rose Dragon, bypassing Charles' prediction by creating a white-haired and pale maiden(5/1600/2400) [Zone 2] in a white rose dress instead. "The Maiden adds the card of Black Garden to my hand when she is summoned. And the Red Rose Dragon special summons one Rose Dragon from my hand or deck if I use her as a synchro material. And if that synchro monster I summoned was a Plant or Rose Dragon monster, I can also add one of two special Rose cards to my hand."

The doctor spoke as if she took comfort in these simple facts: in rules that would always be true. In this instance it enabled the addition of the Black Garden field spell, the Blooming of the Darkest Rose trap card and the summoning of another tuner-type dragon(3/1600/1200) [Zone 4] with pink flowers and pink thorn-like claws. "This is Rox Rose Dragon. Its special summon adds one Black Rose Dragon support card to my hand." She further clarified before drawing the spell Basal Rose Shoot from her deck to her hand. Though as soon as she did, she felt a shot of pain in the tip of her finger. "..Ah? Of course, what do you get when you prick your fingers on the roses in your own garden?" She asked Donna, her opponent. "Scarlet? What.." Donna did not understand why it looked like it hurt her to even touch that card. "You get blood, Donna. I see it now.. And I see why she chose these cards for me." Scarlet placed her newest spell card down on her field.. one more card for the culling.

"But I am not very fond of what grows here now. But it is what I want.. what we want. But I also have to to burn everything I grew before and start anew." Scarlet ignored her opponent and activated the Sunvine Cross Breed spell. "!?" It tore her own Sunavalon Dryanome(0/LINK 3) [Extra Zone 1] to pieces just to special summon the Sunseed Genius Loci(1/0/0) back to the field. "I am a being of duality, Donna Monday. A mind split by a chaotic method. I believed that the light side of me would be the true side of me... By banishing two link monsters with a combined rating of four; Benghalances the Samsaric will special summon itself again. But it cannot use its other effect this turn." More and more she seeded her garden of destruction: this time regenerating the tree knight Benghalances(2500/LINK 4) {Left/Up/Down/Right} [Zone 5] from the ground. "In the end the darkness is the true me. And I am just another one of her creations, stuck in her shadow. There is so much of her inside me. But its not enough."

Scarlet activated the Black Garden field spell to entrap all monsters inside a dome of black thorned vines. Yet even this she would soon tear down "It's time to burn as well, Donna Monday. I activate Card Destruction." Scarlet's spell discarded one trap and Aromage Marjoram from her hand, while Donna had the unfortunate luck of having to discard her Goukis Suprex and Suprex. Afterwards they both drew two new cards, and Donna knew this what came next would be painful. "I synchro summon Garden Rose Flora." Scarlet performed another tuning with little fanfare: combining the White Rose Dragon with Sunseed Genius Loci. This created the happier light-elemental sister of Garden Rose Maiden: Garden Rose Flora the blonde(5/800/1600) [Extra Zone 1] in the white dress.." Garden Rose Flora destroys one field spell to create one rose token!" Rose Flora burned the entire garden to ashes with a smile, and reduced the garden cage to a single red flower(2/0/0) [Zone 4]. "But I wont burn everything, I will keep one piece of myself. I activate Blooming of the Darkest Rose from my graveyard! It is banished to banish one other plant monster until the next standby phase!" She chose her Samsaric Cycle lancer, though she did not intend to see the turn in which it would return.

"Now is when I synchro summon the Black Rose Dragon!" White Rose Dragons turn came to fall into the syncho hole: it and the Rox Rose Dragon tuner synchronized to create the greatest danger still lurking in her extra deck: the Black Rose Dragon(7/2400/1600) [Zone 3]. Its effect would destroy all cards on the field if left untamed. "Gah! Master Ogre!" Donna did the only thing she could in that situation; the Master Ogre(2800/LINK 4) [Extra Zone 2] sent Gouki Bearhug back to her hand to negate the effects of the deadly Rose Dragon. "Of course, I have disappointed her again." Scarlet Rose sighed.

"What is even.. Are you saying that everything you did was what she wanted you to do? I dont believe that! She's just trying to get in your head!" Dharma shouted from the sidelines. "Then why has everything I have done worked out in her favor? Why could I not beat her, as a duelist or as a scientist? It is because she gave me these limits." Scarlet claimed. "You can not doubt yourself, Scarlet. You're still you! She is not the real Scarlet, she is not Lilah! We have seen your true face, I know what you are." Even Charles tried to talk sense into her, showing some unexpected sympathy for the fevered duelist. "I do not know what to believe in anymore, Adami. Memories can be forged, experiences can be implanted. Even if all of this were true, it is too late now... I have to bleed for her hunger. I.. synchro summon Blood Rose Dragon!" Scarlet raised her hands towards the sky and reduced both Rox Rose Dragon the tuner and Black Rose Dragon to a waterfall of blood.

"Geez! Blood Rose?" Donna took several steps back to avoid the sanguine synchronization. Ten stars melted inside the crimson boiling pot. The dragon(10/3200/2400) of roses gained more wings of red and illuminated petals, more vines covered in thorns and a general increase in size. "Yes. I have to purge everything that came before. Blood Rose Dragon banishes all cards in either graveyard." The crimson flood seeped into the cracks of the floor, and began the corruption of the dead. Spells and traps, Sunvines and Sunavalons, Goukis and Rose Dragons; none were allowed to rest in the earth. "Then, Blood Rose destroys every card except itself! Blood Rose Dragon! Reap everything!" The living were torn to pieces next. Master Ogre, Gouki Twistcobra(3/1600/0) [Zone 3], Gouki Diver(2/600/0) [Zone 5], Garden Rose Maiden, Humid Winds and Sunavalon Force: the Rose left nothing. The latter two could at least each add one Gouki card to the hand upon their destruction: Gouki Rematch and and another Gouki Octostretch.

Though it did give something back. "Basal Rose Shoot activates when it is destroyed! It special summons one Black Rose Dragon from my graveyard or banished zone!' It took her less than a minute to reseed her garden of destruction, as the destroyed spell resurrected the destructive Black Rose Dragon[Zone 3]. "Blood Rose Dragon! Direct attack!" Meanwhile Donna controlled no monsters at all, she would face this battle all by herself. Though she could at least pull off one move to keep herself in the game for another round. "I discard Gouki Octostretch and halve the battle damage!" The strongest attacker, Blood Rose, would see its damage output split in twain as she gave Donna's shoulder ten lashes with her vines. "Ngh!" This time she really did feel the hit, it did not just tickle.

Donna's LP: 3900

"Ah of course, you have another damage halver. I could not be certain if you carried two of those cards." Scarlet stated calmly as she continued her offense with another ten lashes from Black Rose Dragons thorned vines. "Rgh! Lilah, you make me wish I was dueling the other you. At least then I would know that you were enjoying this!" The wrestler pushed through the pain, and through the bruises that appeared on her body. If it had not been clear before, she definitely knew now that they were not using their simple and painfree STHEREA avatars anymore. "Perhaps that would have been for the best. She is the true Lilah. Truer than me." Scarlet Rose placed two trap cards in her hand down on the field and finally put her turn to rest. Though Benghalances of the Samsaric Cycle[Zone 2] did return from the banished dimension during the transition of turns.

Donna's LP: 1500

-TURN 05-

"Damn it. How can you be so smart and so dumb at the same time?! I dont know how to fix that, but you should! Instead you're just letting her tell you what to think. Mybe this will snap some sense into you!" Donna could only deal with one problem at a time, and that would be this duel. "Now that I dont have any monsters on my field, I can activate Gouki Ringrainer! It special summons one Gouki link monster from my graveyard with five hundred less attackpoints, and then himself!" There weren't many Gouki warriors left in the grave. Fortunately her red-shaded wearing ogre coach(1/0/0) [Zone 1] found one suitable for the third round: Gouki the Master Ogre(2300 atk) [Zone 2]. Of course since it did not point to any monsters that could be returned to the hand, its uses on the field were limited. "Then I activate give Twistcobra and Octostretch a rematch revival!" Instead Donna gathered more forces by reviving the Goukis of the green serpent[Zone 3] and the octopus lock(1/0/0) [Zone 4]. "!" And as soon as she did, Scarlet Fever activated Benghalances' effect to target and return Octostretch to Donna's hand. "Huh? Oh.. I get what you're affraid of. The same card that Scarlet Fever is affraid of. But you really can't stop this either, Scarlet."

"I link summon another Jet Ogre!" Ringtrainer and Twistcobra became as one inside the link circuit and repeated the grand entrance of the jetpack flying ogre(2000/LINK 2) {Left/Down} [Extra Zone 2]. Since she sent Twistcobra to the graveyard, she could add one Gouki card to her hand. "Aha! I add Suprex! Come on out big guy!" That card, the saurian wrestler(4/1800/0) [Zone 4] would swiftly special summon another Gouki from her hand. Except entrance to the ring got barred. "I activate Sunavalon Bloom. While I control a link four monster, all the effects of monsters you currently control are negated! And when that link 4 monster battles another monster, it gains attackpoints equal to the monsters it points at. Planted in between the two Rose Dragons, Benghalances would gain 5600 attackpoints as soon as any monster neared it. "Bah. You have to make everything so difficult, don't you? But I am coming your way, whether she likes it or not!"

"I activate The Warrior Returning Alive!" Donna's answer was a spell that returned one warrior monster from the graveyard to her hand: the Fire Flint Lady. "You all know what she does!" She could special summon the cleaning fire lady(1/100/100) [Zone 5] because she controlled warrior monsters already. And she could sacrifice it to special summon one level 4 or lower warrior from her hand: Gouki Octostretch [Zone 5]. "Now here he is! I link summon Powerload Ogre!" Donna sent Octostretch, Gouki Suprex and the Jet Ogre into the graveyard and brought out purple plated wrestler giant: Gouki the Powerload Ogre(2800/LINK 4) {Downleft/Down/Right/Downright} [Extra Zone 2]. It(3600) gained 200 attackpoints for each link marker on Donna's current monsters. "Suprex and Octostretch add two cards to my hand: another Finisher and another Twistcobra! And Powerload Ogre himself can tribute a link monster with its many link markers to target and destroy the same number of a cards!" Donna declared. "This is.. but Blood Rose Dragon can tribute itself to negate an effect that would destroy my cards." Lilah tried to object. "Yeah nice try. But Powerload is unaffected by other card effects, Lilah! So here he goes, he sacrifices himself!"

"Himself?" Jenna saw that as a rather unorthodox move, though it still countered where it mattered. "Yeah. In a fight Powerload is not as useful as my Master Ogre, since he does accept my own effects either!" Four cards were destroyed at once: the blade on its right arm cut through Benghalances, Blood Rose Dragon, Black Rose Dragon and Scarlet's other face-down trap. However, that trap still got one chance to use its own powers. Scarlet Rose activated her Blessed Winds and paid a 1000 of her own lifepoints.

Scarlet's LP: 2850

"Donna. The blessed winds will special summon one Aromage monster from my graveyard in defense mode. I choose Aromage Marjoram." The rose duelist fell all the way back to her original programming and hid behind a darkhaired woman(5/2000/1600) [Zone 3] in a draping purple dress. "Marjoram stops all battle damage from going through while my life is higher than yours, Donna. There is nowhere left for you to go." While everything around up to and including the Powerloader died, the Aromage survived. "That stops piercing damage as well, eh?" Donna grumbled as she activated her Finisher spell anyway, giving the Master Ogre(6800 atk) another 1000atk boost for each of its link arrows. The Master already regained its lost 500 attackpoints on top of that back when Jet Ogre entered the graveyard too. But all of it would be for nothing; for a harmless damage-free strike. "I guess I need one more warrior for this battle phase then... And I know where to get one. I activate Reinforcement of the Army's Troops!" Donna played the last spell in her hands, a continuous one. "Reinforcement?"

"Yeah, when my warrior starts a fight, he can call for backup from my hand!" Donna jumped into the battle phase and ordered the Master Ogre to crush the Aromage Marjoram. "I special summon Gouki Twistcobra!" While the Master gave the defending plant monster a shattering spin kick, the green serpent(3/1600/0) [Zone 3] jumped into the ring behind him. "Twistcobra sacrifices my Gouki, and adds his attackpower to another.. to himself!" Only the original attackpoints of the monsters tributed by Twistcobra would be transferred, but he(4400/0) would not really need anything else. "I hate to steal your line, Scarlet! But it looks like there is nowhere for you to go instead! Twistcobra! Attack Scarlet Rose directly!" The Master was no more. The final blow came from his strengthened subject instead. "Aaah!" Twistcobra sent its many cobra-snake heads at Scarlet Rose and bit her in the arms and neck to drain the last bit of lifepoints out of her. "Ah.. I see. I was not good enough."

Scarlet's LP: 0

"Ugh. Are you still like that?" Donna roared. "Look at you. Look at what you did so far! There is no way the other Scarlet secretly controlled you all this time! She just knows how to get in your head since she is a part of you! I dont know anything about there being a thing like a soul.. Maybe she did take something of the real Lilah way from you, but you can take her back! You still have all her memories, dont you? And her knowledge! Just think of a way out of this! We will help you! And not just because we want to see that smarmy witch get what she deserves! But because you can still make up for everything you did! You can still be a friend! But you have to want to be!"

"Think of a way out of this? You do not know where you are right now, Donna. But you will soon.." Scarlet lowered her head. Her voice started to sound tired. "Lilah? What's wrong?" Dharma winced. "The experiment is ending. I am going to return to the greater whole.. The rest is up to them." The ADI started to sink into the floor of Dharma's house. The house that did not appear to be all that stable anymore. "What the?" Just like the arena before, the walls around the duelists were starting to fade away like like badly rendered backgrounds. "This is where you really are.. This is how they could create such a perfect replica of your own home. They pulled the image right from your memories. It would have been a perfect recreation, but nobody ever remembers the sky or the sea as accurately as it really is. I think I am glad that the simulation failed though, and I am glad that you could help them.. Asterisk." Scarlet Rose gave the wounded agent her last look, before she fully merged with the distorted reality around them. "Lilah!"

"She is gone, Dharma. There is nothing we can do for her anymore." Asterisk grunted. He felt a little better now, but his avatars functions were still severely limited. "Where did she go then? And where are we now? And why dont we remember how we got here?" By now the whole mansion had been erased and Juan did not recognize any of what appeared in its place: a starless pitch-black sky and a mass of clouds that were bent as if pressed up against a dome. "I've seen this place.. from the outside. It just looks like a big ball of darkness, floating between those obelisks. If what Scarlet.. said is true.. Then this must be.. Project flute itself. The Orb of Memories as it also called: that is what we are inside now. They likely used it to erase the moments... before this whole simulation started." The agent could not be sure. There was a lot to take in. "But who is 'they'? Is it just Scarlet Fever? And the Creator?"

"No. It was Scarlet Fever and me."

"! Echo!?" The duelist cried out her name which itself echoed across the gulf of memories. She stood at the center, her eyes burning with color and her hair swaying in the air. "You.. were doing this to us?" Abigail could not believe it. "I had to do this to you." Miss Echo answered with a content smile on her face. "It was the only way to keep Continuum from controlling everything."

"What? How.. why? We fought the Creator! We defeated him! Why would Continuum still be a threat! Echo, what really happened? Tell us!" Charles had enough of this. "You were there Charles. But you do not remember. I can tell you, and I can show you." Echo moved her hand through the clouds, swirling them around until a bolt of lightning flashed from one cloud to the next. Until finally the bolt reached him. "Gah!.." The blast did not hurt him at all, nor did it hurt Crescent or Dharma as the energy travelled through their heads as well. "Huh? What did you.. What was that?" They all saw the same ten-second visual: the creator sitting on his black throne while Scarlet Fever snuck up behind him and stabbed him in the back. "That was your memory. It happened just after your victory over the Creator and after Scarlet Fever defeated Lilah. Before he could remove the legacy items from the world, Scarlet Fever attacked. She took advantage of his weakened state and absorbed his powers and knowledge for herself. That is why STHEREA and the planet are still one. That is why everyone's thoughts are still trapped in here."

"Then all of that was for nothing? What about Wagner? Where is he now? And the others?" A horrifying realization dawned upon Crescent Aurora. They were looking at the collective consciousness of the entire human race. "Yeah, what can we do to save them?" Donna was too worried to even make a single wrong step.

"Everyone is in here as well. While you battled the Creator, I fought Continuum. I destroyed every single one of its drones and then turned on the orb of memories." Each sentence Echo spoke came with its own brief mental flash: showing glimpses of what happened to her. "I tried to free everyone Continuum trapped. But before I could finish it, Continuum continued its assault in a new form.. Scarlet Fever gave it a new body, more dangerous than before. Meanwhile they trapped all of you inside a simulation. Abigail, Wagner, Dharma, Charles and Aurora: all of you were still immune to the power of the legacy items. And you inherited the power of the Creator as well. Scarlet Fever wanted it. She could not become the new Creator without it. So she arranged for you to duel each other instead. You were still fighting for the chance to inherit control of the subconscious world. But you were never meant to win. I tried to stop her, I could also use the orb of memories. But I did not have enough time to free everyone.. only those who had never lost a duel in this new world: Veyron, Cherry, Nakana, Bionis, Jenna and Zanbatou. But most of them are gone now too."

"You were the one who pulled me into this? If you could do that, why didn't you just wake me up the normal way?" Jenna did not know whether to thank her or to question her logic. "Your mind was already inside the continuum. This the best I could do without losing my connection with the whole. Continuum is resisting my hold over this world right now. If I lose focus, it will win." Echo explained herself. The fact that she kept smiling as she spoke however made Jenna all the more suspicious of her. "I don't know about that. Scarlet.. the other Scarlet... the not evil one. She made it sound like this was supposed to be some test! A game! And if you ask me that fits with you as well. I know you like people to be happy and satisfied and all, and that is exactly how Nakana and Cherry were when they lost. They weren't emotionless zombies or anything. Plus, if they lose, then you can use your voice on them!" Jenna did not trust her at all. She could not even be sure they were looking at the real miss Echo.

"It was not a game, miss Jenna. It was my challenge to them. I wanted to show them that your friendship would win out in the end. Nakana and the others were not influenced by me.. their joy was their own. Scarlet believes that you would desire the power of STHEREA for yourself, that you would tear each other apart just to reach the top. Some of you felt that way at first, some of you just wanted to prove themselves. But in the end she was wrong; the bonds you created did not break. You chose each other before yourself. You were already on a path towards figuring out the truth, towards the realization that the tournament was both meaningless and deceptive. I did not count on your own interference, mister Asterisk. But it is good that you came. Now we can do what I wanted to do sooner."

"And what is that?" Charles inquired. "To finally destroy the Continuum." Miss Echo answered.

...

A new ruler sat on the obsidian throne: Scarlet Fever. "Heheh. Looks like our guests have arrived." She toyed with the World Key in her hands, the same Key that stabbed the creator in the back. Scarlet waited for the heroes to come down, having sensed their escape a while ago. "But not as many as expected." Her eyes gazed at the orb of memories in the sky, where two figures appeared. "Is it going be to just the two of you?" They were Charles Adami and Miss Echo. "Hello, Fever. I see you have done some redecorating." Charles noticed that the formerly smooth surface of the Creator's world had been changed into a makeshift graveyard with pure whit tombstones and blocky black trees. White spots were also all across the obsidian ground and sky. "I figured the time was right for it. But that is hardly the crowning achievement of my work, Charles. Let me show what I did to good old Lilah and what I did to Continuum." The red woman got of her throne, and another entity walked up from behind it. "!? That's... you are.."

"That is right. We are continuum." The second figure appeared with the same body and voice as the original Scarlet Fever, except all of her colors on her coat, hair and skin were taken away and replaced by white textures. And her face was covered with a version of same gasmask Scarlet used to wear: a mask with a dozen eyes. "This was our solution to Echo's continuous evolution, Charles Adami. Our drones were no longer effective as a combat unit. We also realized we were missing a human element. That is why Lilah Singleton and Continuum are now one: are now Me."

(To Be Continued in World 120: The Sunken Universe Fallacy)

New Cards used by Donna Monday
Reinforcement of the Army's Troops

New Cards used by Scarlet Rose
Rox Rose Dragon

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Garden Rose Maiden
Garden Rose Flora
Blood Rose Dragon

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Basal Rose Shoot

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Blossoming of the Darkest Rose