World 123: For the Pale Blue Dot

Hundreds upon thousands of duelists: they'd been here all along. The champions, the admins, the speed dueling league, the dueltainment clubs, the virtual duelists everyone in between, they waited outside the seven obelisks for the time to strike. For a moment it seemed like that moment would come too late, as the seven Obelisks came together and the orb of memories captured all of their thoughts. During that time they experienced nothing but darkness, a dreamless sleep. But then they heard her voice... The voice of Echo. She called out to them, asked them for help in this darkest hour. They reached out and grabbed hold of a golden light, the light of her gift. And just like that they were back on the other side of reality. The barrier between gods realm and earths realm finally shattered and they landed on the obsidian battleground in their avatar forms, behind the heroes.. And in front of the final enemy. Continuum. It loomed over them in its gigantic form, surrounded by a thousand chaos entities all equally as strong as the one they feared for so long. Despite their advantage in numbers, they were overwhelmed..

"Do not be affraid." But Echo was still there, speaking to them all at once. "This is the final battle. Peace is right around the corner." Her words carried a calming effect that quieted the masses. At the same time it enraged Continuum itself, as much as it could be. The entity used the Legacy crown on its head to command the chaos drones to attack the new duelist army. Chaos rained down upon them in the form of energy blasts. "We only have to show them that their power is nothing!" Echo immediately defended them. A single wordless command made the obsidian ground crack wide open and raised a thousand blocks of black stone into the air. Energy and stone clashed in the sky, painting it with explosions of black and white flames. "They are living on borrowed time!" Echo smiled as she quickly took control of the fire and directed it back straight towards Continuum. It only managed to protect itself by hiding itself behind the World Shield. Though several of its drones burned down to ash in the wake of the attack.

"Will you look at that!?" "What is even going on?" "Are we supposed to fight that!?" Echo's voice did not get everyone nerves to settle. Those on the frontlines felt the pressure and heat of their titanic showdown and their minds could not handle it.

"Yeah how is she even doing that? How are either of them doing it?" Never in her life did Jenna imagine she would be seeing this kind of spectacle, let alone from this close a range. "She must be able to manipulate the matter of the virtual world. Just like Olympia and Ishmael did." Charles'd seen Echo's former friends wield digital fire and digital water as if they were magicians, and right now the digital network of STHEREA covered the whole planet. "And Scarlet.. Continuum.. is using the legacy items.. Or at least the copies she made of those items." He saw the giant entity take out its world lance next, combining it with the shields power to create solid illusions of a thousand crystal shards. But Echo managed to blow them all back by summoning a massive tornado that also disoriented the entity's armies.. Much like Cierze did before her. "Something about this feels off." Charles did not know when and how she could have gotten those powers, and he also got a weird vibe from Echo ever since she met with them again inside the sphere of memories. "But we have to help her. We need to engage those chaos drones, I know we can defeat them. Continuum is weaker now than ever before. This is our chance."

"Yeah, he's right!" Dharma bellowed. "This is what you were all brought in for! Or did you forget all the speeches from before?! Dont get cold feet now, guys! If we lose, we're going straight back to amnesiaville! Do you want to forget everything that happened? Do you want to let some boring machine decide how to live your life! Isn't it much more fun when you dont know whats going to happen next? You deserve to be free, we all do! Lets show them what we can do!" Her speech roused the crowd, and even the most hesitant began to cheer in response. "Looks like they liked your speech better." Charles grinned. "Yeah well I was just yelling whatever I could think of. But hey if they wanna be heroes, they should go for it. I think we deserve a better title after this." Certainly the mob that stormed Pandemonium all that time ago paled in comparison to this. "Heh. I am sure they will think of something.. The Saviors of reality or something. Well, in any case, lets fight!"

And a duel certainly began. For each Chaos drone there were about a handful of duelists ready to take it on. And now with their skill cards in hand, dueling had never been easier. "Hoho! I activate Next from my hand when I control no cards! And fuse my monsters with the skill of Supreme Fusion!" Dyzanthium the fusion champion discovered that when she finally accepted her own delayed gift. Her handtrap card would summon the fusion materials from her hand: three random Neo Spacians and the Elemental HERO Neos. Then, before the chaos entity's Vector Breakdown skill could destroy them all, she revealed her skill which fused them all together into the Elemental Hero Cosmo Neos. Its effect negated Vector Breakdown and would also destroy it during the end of her very first turn. "Amazing. It feels almost too powerful." Acrates applauded her creation. Normally he would have considered this an act too cheap to perform as a champion, but right now there were more important things at stake than honor.

More important than past transgressions as well. "Veyron! You're back!" Sigment reacted with surprise when he saw the speed duelist standing at the front of the army. A lot of faces were surprise to see his and Asterisks faces again in fact. "Sigment. Yes. I came.. I had too. I wish I could have been here sooner, when this all began." Veyron apologized quickly, knowing that their last meeting had ended on a sour note. "Now I do not blame you for that, or for anything else. You were clearly already under the enemy's spell when we parted ways." The synchro champion considered it all to be water under the bridge. "Yeah, maybe we should focus on this whole new enemy instead!" And Heleil also helped remind them both of their own duties. They could sit this fight out for the first round, but then what champion would they be? "You are both right, what matters is where we are now. The past is the past." Veyron nodded and accepted it. He would be happy if he could just stand side by side with the champions in this climactic showdown.

"Wagner!" Another reunion took place between Crescent and Wagner before the chaos descended upon them. Aurora ran straight towards Wagner as soon as she saw him and hugged him tightly. "Ow, geez.. Aurora. Ease up a little. I just got back and all." Tighter than he expected. "Oh. Was that too much? I am sorry. I am not sure what came over me" Crescent released him. She did not normally embrace people, but somehow she could not stop herself this time. "No. I should be sorry.. I keep disappearing on you." He in turn did not normally apologize. Then again nothing made sense anymore. "But we're back together now. You and me, Aurora. So why dont we kick some ass?!" He switched on his dueldisk and stared right at the incoming enemies. "Yes. That is what matters. Nothing will stop us now." She followed suit. They would be dueling together at last, as equals. The chaos entities did not stand a chance..

All the heroes of Pandemonium would in fact lead the charge: Cherry and her Millennium friends, Therese Hansen and her admins, Donna/Giganoto and the dueltainers, and Nakana and Zanbatou by themselves. "Are you alright, Nakana?" Abigail watched as the lady took one of the chaos avatars on all by herself. "Yes, why would I not be? My only grievance is that I wish that I could be fighting that monster. But this is the best we can do." Nakana still acted and sounded like herself in spite of her brief disappearance into the orb of memories. Still, Abigail could not help but be worried. She did not know what effects that had on the zombie princess, or could still have. But she was also right. Neither of them could face their true nemesis right now. Nobody but Echo. The battle between the two entities seemed to go on as long as their duel before now.

After a while, even Echo could not stand it anymore. "Enough!" The voice of the lady in blue echoed across the obsidian horizon. "I am tired of this!" She flew up high and touched the clouds of the inverted planet above them. With one clenched hand, Echo turned the clouds dark and turbulent. In the blink of an eye, lightning escaped the stormcloud and shot straight down into the colorless giant. For one second all other noise defeaned, all duels ceased. Everyone watched in awe as the summoned thunder pierced the body of the the entity. "She got it! She smote it!" Jenna cried out in jubilation. Not even Continuum could ignore this kind of damage. "Huh?" And yet it did. The giant lurched forward and stared at Echo with its masked eyes. Soon enough the hole in its chest closed itself up again, as if it never got wounded in the first place. "Goddamn! What does it take to destroy it?" Jenna cursed out loud.

"What does it take? Why can it take so much punishment?" Donna growled. They could handle the chaos avatars just fine, but there wouldn't be any point to this fight if they could not defeat the main entity. "I don't know. We defeated it in a duel as well, but it just kept on going!" Charles felt equally frustrated. "That must have done something! Losing should not have kept them at the same strength as before!" The dueltainer however brought up a good point. "No, it should not have." The only thing he saw happen at time involved Continuum abandoning Lilah to absorb Scarlet Fever instead. "Lilah!" If anyone understood Continuums strengths and weaknesses, it would be the one who got possessed by it. Charles managed to run towards the spot on the obsidian ground where she still lied, and made another discovery. "The key!?" The eight legacy item sat right besided her, the blade that impaled the heart of the Creator. "Is that it? Is that how we should destroy Continuum? With the Creator's power?"

"Uhnn.. No. You cannot do it that way." Lilah rose with a groan. "Lilah? You're awake? How much do you remember?" He wondered just how much of her memories she'd regained, and if any of those included her experiences as Scarlet Rose. "I.. I am still lost in my head. But this is not the time to figure me out. I know what you have to do." The scarlet duelist grabbed the World Key. "Scarlet destroyed Him, made him just a normal man again. The Creator cannot help us anymore. The only one who can is you... you and Dharma and Aurora. You three were the ones who defeated him and inherited his 'legacy'. Continuum. And now that you have helped bring down Scarlet Fever, you have also inherited this." She took it, and handed the item to Charles. "The world key? What do I use it for? How do we use the power of the creator?" Charles could not even begin to understand. "The key will let you return the world to normal, so you cannot lose it. But Continuum itself cannot be destroyed as it is now. And returning the world to normal will not decrease its power either. Its current form must be contained, and then reversed into its initial state. Only then.. will it stop being a threat to us all. The only way to do this is.."

"Boss, look out!" Dharma shouted. Charles realized why all too soon. The entity had caught notice of him and Lilah and tried to crush them both with its hand. "!"

"Stop!" They were saved, by the lady in blue. "Leave them!" The very elements of Earth obeyed her commands to come to their rescue. Streams of water surged out of the oceans above to ensnare the arms and neck of the giant entity and pulled her all the way up to slam her down against the the surface of the other world. The impact could be heard in every direction for miles. "Unreal." A nearly slack jawed Dharma stared up as Echo pinned Continuum down with more chains of water and earth dug up from the soil of the planet. "Do what you have to! I cannot hold it for long!" With Echo holding her sibling back and the duelist armies slowly but surely burning through its chaotic minions: there would be no better time to enact their plan than now. "She's right! And dont think I didnt hear you mention my name, So what the heck do we do?" Dharma yelled while she raced over to Charles and Lilah's side as well. "I mean, we brought everyone here and we cut him off from the rest of the world. What else is there?"

"You returned everyone's memories, but this works both ways. Everyone knows of its existence, and our knowledge of Continuum feeds back into it. It has done so since its inception. It was born through the collective unconsciousness, and it can only be unmade through it. That is why he must be rejected by it. The people of the world must deny it ever was. And I see no other method to accomplish this, than to erase that memory from every mind everywhere." Lilah shook her head. She spoke of drastic measures and she did not agree with them for once. "What? Including us? No way. There has to be a better plan than that! Cant we just overpower it with some psychic energy or whatever? Or imagine a big enough monster to smash it?" Dharma did not like the idea either, though she did not really think her own suggestions were all that feasible. "Trying to overpower Continuum with your mind would be like trying to burn the sun with a match. It cannot be done. Static only lost its powers because it lost its focus on the whole world. Continuum has not. Its power is equal to that of a billion minds.."

"Then we have to get a billion minds to fight back." Charles spoke. "Huh. You... you have an idea, boss?" Dharma perked up. "A crazy one." Charles admitted as he stared at his skill card. "If we have the power of the creator, then we should be able to see them all.. This still technically His world we are in. And Echo is linked with the rest of them too. There's tens of thousands of duelists, but there's a thousand times more. They can all hear us." The other souls in the world were all blessed with the same card. It connected them all... it linked them all. "Are you going to ask them for help as well? Are you certain? Some of them probably dont even understand what is going on. Some cant understand even if you tell them!" Lilah had doubts about this plan even before she heard it.

"No. They will hear, and they will respond." Echo answered, her voice reaching them from far away. "Even if they do not understand because of their age or their environment, their subconscious will act. Those that are not awake will just see this as a strange dream, a dream that is shared by them all. But what will you tell them, Charles?" Even she wondered what they could possibly do. "Like Scarlet said, I am going to ask them for help..." Charles approached the cracked black throne of the Creator. Perhaps it would help him see what he could not see before. The Creator Himself did claim that he could do more than watch, he could influence the living in subtle ways.. That was the reason why he could come back into STHEREA in the first place. Even so, he did not believe that the Creator had planned this all along. "I am going to do what He should have done with his power. I am going to reach out!" He closed his eyes and sat down in the throne, holding the World Key in his right hand. At first it proved quite difficult to tune out the sounds of the war around him, he could not concentrate on anything beyond what he already knew.

Then he heard her again. "Just follow my voice." Echo's voice danced in the distant air, giving him a trail to follow through the shadows of the blind eye. "Yes.." Just like when he first broke through the barrier of dreams, here too did he enter a new state of reality simply by willing it to be so. As soon as he did the colors in the shadows became brighter. And there were so many colors, more than seemed physically possible. They were stars, each with their own unique sound. "There they are. Ask them what you have to, Charles Adami." Echo's own sound was closer and clearer, while the others were far away. But they all turned silent when Echo spoke. "Okay. I will." He took a deep breath. Even if these people would see this as a dream, he still did not want to mess this up. "Everyone, please listen and listen well! There is a power out there who is threatening to end the world as we know it. But we can stop it! That is why I am speaking to you now, and I only have one request! Imagine a being that would help you face this enemy, a monster or knight or dragon or whatever.. imagine it in your head and bring it out! Everything is possible now, all you need to do is summon it!"'

Everything Charles yelled, the duelists outside could hear as well. "Does that count for is too?" Bionis Khan wondered out loud, some of them were already dueling but not everyone. "You bet it does!" Dharma normal summoned her Blue-Eyes White Dragon anyway. Someone had to start the show.

The other duelists followed their lead, no matter how confused they were. "Well if you say so?" Bionis ritual summoned his Revendread Slayer. "He must have a plan. I trust him." Abigail called out the Infernoble Knight Roland. "Whatever it is, I cant wait to see what it does!" Jenna put down her Subterror Guru. "Same goes for me!" Donna already controlled her Gouki Suprex, while Giganoto brought in Dinowrestler Capoeiraptor. "Of course. I know what this is about.." Scarlet planted the Sunseed Genius Loci. "That makes one of us at least." Asterisk sent the SPYRAL Super Agent into the field. Vigionair followed that up by special summoning a Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon with a few spells. "Heh. I will leave it to them to figure it all out." Hydra chuckled as he unloaded a Magnarokket Dragon. "I am getting excited!" Veyron started with the Formula Athlete Sonic Meister. "This is the way, isn't it?" Nakana link summoned her Yuki-Onna Ice Mayakashi, and Zanbatou normal summoned one of his Six Samurai. "I think this will be beautiful." Finally Crescent added her own Weather Painter Aurora to the mix, and Wagner supported her with his Valhalla spell card and the Valkyrie Erste. "What will it be?"

The other duelists followed their lead, no matter how confused they were. "Why are we doing this?" Bionis Khan ritual summoned his Revendread Slayer. "He must have a plan. I trust him." Abigail called out the Infernoble Knight Roland. "Whatever it is, I cant wait to see what it does!" Jenna put down her Subterror Guru. "Same goes for me!" Donna normal summoned the Gouki Suprex, while Giganoto brought in Dinowrestler Capoeiraptor. "Of course. I know what this is about.." Scarlet planted the Sunseed Genius Loci. "That makes one of us at least." Asterisk sent the SPYRAL Super Agent into the field. Vigionair followed that up by special summoning a Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon with a few spells. "Heh. I will leave it to them to figure it all out." Hydra chuckled as he unloaded a Magnarokket Dragon. "I am getting excited!" Veyron started with the Formula Athlete Sonic Meister. "This is the way, isn't it?" Nakana link summoned her Yuki-Onna Ice Mayakashi, and Zanbatou normal summoned one of his Six Samurai. "I think this will be beautiful." Finally Crescent added her own Weather Painter Aurora to the mix, and Wagner supported her with his Valhalla spell card and the Valkyrie Erste. "What will it be?"

And so it went with everyone else. The first the duelists who materialized their favorite monster, from the Dark Magician all the way to the Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. . Then came everyone else. They imagined whatever card came to mind, whatever monster they could envision. Most did not even exist, but they were all welcome: from little gremlins to mighty behemoths. "Echo. Is that all of them?" Even with his enhanced senses, Charles would need his whole lifetime to count the number of monsters that appeared in the infinite skies. "Yes. They have all done it." But Echo could assure him that not a single soul missed the call to arms. "Then it's time now. I know what my skill is going to be!" Charles Adami stabbed his own skill with the Legacy Key and poured all of its power into it. The might of Echo and the Creator flowed into it and connected with every other delayed skill that existed. This was his plan. "I ACTIVATE A LEGACY OF SOULS!"

A Legacy of Souls, Skill Card
Link Summon 1 Link Monster using all monsters on the field.

In an instant, the billions upon billions turned to pure energy.. Their light slammed against a link circuit that spanned the entire globe, a link circuit that entered the third dimension by creating more and more link arrows to accommodate the near infinite amount of link materials. "!?" Even Continuum, who broke free of Echo's bindings, could not believe what it saw. The ultimate link summon, a creation that went far beyond LINK 8 or anything that could be contained within a single duel.

"Yes. This is my answer to your power, Continuum." In the end this link summoned monster could only take on the form of pure thought: a power big enough to surround the planet Earth like a veil of boreal lights. The billion link arrows appeared on the link monster's surface like little red lights, marking the areas owned by the souls that summoned it. "I do not know what to call it. I dont think I even get to, since it has the input of every last human on the planet! But you cannot deny the truth either way, the truth that they do not want you! This is our answer to you, Continuum! We do not want your perfection or your never changing world! We do not choose it!" Charles shouted, and a billion voices seemed to echo along with him. "We reject you! We reject the Continuum!" The world link monster's attack came through sound and force: through the countless unified screams and cries of the human race. The colorless giant buckled under the pressure, throwing its masked head back and forth.. until finally, it cracked.

"It worked!" Dharma's outburst silenced the world around her. Charles finally opened his eyes as well and saw the fruits of his labor. The attack toppled the giant, shattered its legacy items and disabled all chaos entities with one single wave. "Whew. Thank god." He let out his longest sigh yet. Using all of these powers took a lot out of him. He could not even maintain the form of the worldly link monster, the power dissipated and all the voices he linked with were laid to rest again. "Dont you mean you, boss?" Dharma snickered. "Please dont. I am the last person who should start a religion." He groaned and looked up at the planet again. The colorless entity began to dissolve. The fight was finally over. "Now.. we can finally use this..." He put his skill card away and grabbed the world key. "To bring everything back to normal again."

"No. Not yet."

The key vanished from his hand. "What?" It reappeared in her hand instead. "Echo? What are you..?!" It shocked him even more to discover that what she was doing at the same time. The lady in blue flew right up to the remains of the third entity and, with a single touch, destroyed it completely. Or rather, she destroyed the body.. and absorbed the essence of Continuum into herself. "What I was supposed to do from the beginning, Charles Adami. Creating my world."

"Your world? Do you mean.. that you want to create your own paradise? After everything that Continuum has done? Did you.. lie to us?" Crescent Aurora was left in a state of shock. "No. I never meant to deceive you. But I had to do this, for your own good." Echo replied, as a blissful smile crept back on her face. "I have the power of the Creator too now, and I can hear everyone's wishes." She revealed her own skill card, causing the skills of every duelist and every soul to light up again. "I cannot let you separate STHEREA from the Earth yet, not until I have fulfilled all of those wishes... Until everyone is happy."

(To Be Continued in World 124: To Have and To Hold)