DISCLAIMER!
As you all know, "Signs of Renewal" deals with some truly dark and disturbing themes. If you are easily disturbed by blood, murder, masochism, sadism, or clinical insanity, please take caution!
Special Thanks goes once again to my dear friends, bladeWriter3 and CorinnetheAnime for helping me to proofread and complete this chapter. Further thanks, naturally, goes to all of your for continuing to support me as I continually strive to grow and improve in my writing abilities. As part of this development, there is a new development in the duels, in which monster position will be expressed by their ATK value being italicized for attack position and DEF value being italicized for defense position. Thank you bladeWriter3 for giving me this idea and for helping to create four of the duels featured here.
And, of course, happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans, and to my distant British Cousins, cheer up! At least you guys got to conquer India, and most of Africa, and Australia, and New Zealand, and Hong Kong, and a whole lot of other territories I will not enumerate at this time.
Without further ado, ENJOY!
Part 1: Chapter 16 – Pawn of the Earthbound (Part 1)
The 4 remaining
Yugo Vs. Duel Chaser – 429
Current State of Duel
Duel Chaser – 429
1800 LP
No cards in his hand
Controls Goyo Chaser and a face-up Goyo Emperor
Yugo
2600 LP
No cards in his hand
Controls Hi-Speedroid Chanbarider and Clear Wing Synchro Dragon
"Battle!" Yugo ordered, stretching his hand towards his monster, "Hi-Speedroid Chanbarider, attack Goyo Chaser! Its effect activates when it attacks, increasing its ATK by 100!"
Hi-Speedroid Chanbarider: 2200 + 100 = 2300 ATK
Obeying his command, Yugo's sword-like rocket blasted forward, the mechanical rider on top making a pass with its smaller sabers while its main sword pierced Goyo Chaser's body.
Duel Chaser – 429: 1800 – 400 = 1400 LP
It had been absolute chaos after Shun's duel against Crow. In moments, Yugo suddenly found himself in the midst of a full-blown war waged amongst the factions of the rioting Commons, the tyrannical Security forces, and the invading Academia Soldiers. He had managed to escape from his confinement in the duel palace, but not without continual resistance from almost all sides of the conflict. No matter where he turned, it seemed that there was always some duelist bent on capturing or carding him.
Escaping, however, was not Yugo's objective, he had another goal in mind, one that had completely consumed him the moment he had woken up that morning.
I'm here. -Rin-
Such a short message, notwithstanding, no written words had made such a profound impact on Yugo.
Rin was here! She was out there! And no matter who stood in his way, he would find her!
"Hi-Speedroid Chanbarider can make a second attack during each Battle Phase!" Yugo continued, face hardened with a fierce determination. "Battle! Hi-Speedroid Chanbarider, attack Goyo Emperor!"
"Goyo Emperor has higher attack than your monster!" Duel Chaser – 429 replied. "You are wasting this attack and your Life Points!"
"Hi-Speedroid Chanbarider's effect!" Yugo countered, "When it attacks, I can increase its ATK by 100!"
"That still won't be enough." Duel Chaser – 429 spat. "The victory is still mine."
"Clear Wing Synchro Dragon's effect!" Yugo roared, enacting his true strategy. "If a Level five or higher monster activates its effect, I can negate the effect and destroy it before having my Clear Wing gain the destroyed monster's ATK! Dichroic Mirror!"
Unfurling its green translucent wings, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon proceeded to unleash its power on Yugo's own monster, reducing the robotic sword to dust before surging with energy as it gained its ATK.
Clear Wing Synchro Dragon: 2500 + 2300 = 4800 ATK
"Forty-eight hundred attack!?" the duel chaser gasped.
"Battle!" Yugo roared, "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, destroy Goyo Emperor! Whirlwind Helldive Slasher!"
Rising into the air so rapidly that it generated a sonic boom, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon performed a dive once it had risen several hundred meters, rapidly spinning like a top before ramming into Goyo Emperor and obliterating the monster.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" the duel chaser cried as he lost control of his bike before crashing.
Duel Chaser – 429: 1400 – 1500 = 0 (LOSE)
"I'm coming for you, Rin." Yugo vowed. "I won't let anything get in my way! Just hold out a little longer."
Yugo surveyed the vast expanse of the smoking city. Rin had to be out there somewhere. The letter was genuine. He recognized her handwriting…or at least…the heart shape she liked to decorate her notes with. But then…why hadn't she just come to him?
Yugo shook his head. Rin would scold him for his stupidity. Of course, she couldn't just meet him! She had broken into the duel palace…somehow? Of course, she had to leave unless she wanted to be arrested…assuming she was worried about being arrested after breaking in?
"Stay focused, Yugo." He told himself, shaking away the nagging confusion. "You know Rin's out there. All that matters is finding Rin. Just find Rin, just find…"
A flash of yellow from another track caught his eye. When he turned his head, it was gone.
"Just find Rin, just find…"
A sudden roar from the other trackway grabbed hold of Yugo's attention.
A rider atop a yellow motorcycle with a front shaped like a skeletal dragon, and sides shaped like a pair of translucent yellow wings, suddenly used an overturned semi-truck trailer to bridge the gap between their two track-ways before deftly landing a few meters behind Yugo's bike and speeding up to him.
"Great, who is this?" Yugo grumbled to himself, taking a closer look at the rider.
She was a petit girl wearing a bright yellow biker suit with a short translucent yellow cape pinned to the shoulders. Over her head, she wore an American flag helmet with a translucent visor, which revealed a young girl with curly blonde hair, sharp yellow eyebrows, a small upturned nose, slightly tanned skin, and deep blue eyes. She did not look like any Academia soldier Yugo had seen, and she was definitely not Security, but what Common could afford a bike like hers? Could she be some kind of Top bounty hunter?"
"Well, today looks like my lucky day." The girl whooped. "I was hoping I would run into someone important here, but I never thought I'd find one of Yuri's lookalikes."
Yugo blinked at the girl in complete confusion. She was speaking English.
"Uhmmmmmm…" Yugo buzzed, trying to think of every English word he knew. "…Herro!" he tried, snapping his fingers and pointing at the girl, "Shadup! Okay! Zank You!"
He stopped naming off more words after remembering what Rin had told him about them being swear words. Hopefully, however, at least one of the words he had spouted would work.
There was a pause from the girl as she looked at him skeptically, head cocked to the side.
"You're not very bilingual, are you." The girl remarked in almost perfect Japanese.
Yugo breathed an immense sigh of relief.
"Oh! You speak Japanese!" he breathed, "Sorry! I didn't understand a word you'd said earlier!"
"I could tell." The girl admitted. "Names Bandit, by the way. 1st Lieutenant Bandit of Academia's Hamon Strike Teams."
"Bandit?" Yugo asked, trying to process what she had said, "Hamon Strike Teams? YOU'RE ACADEMIA!?"
"That's…what I just said." Bandit replied, "As for you, no introduction is necessary, Yuugo."
"It's YUGO!" Yugo shouted, "…and how did you almost know my name?"
"Well, you are one of the top people on the professor's hit list." Bandit explained, "Plus," she seemed to blush a little, "I am a big fan of yours."
"F-fan!?" Yugo sputtered, reddening a little himself.
"Yep." Bandit replied, nodding her head, "I mean, we are technically enemies, but that doesn't mean I can't think you're dueling is really cool. I mean…the way you single-handedly defeated three of our Obelisk Soldiers with just that one dragon of yours, AWESOME! Plus, I found some footage of your duel in the Friendship Cup, and that was just as amazing! I am so stoked to get to duel you now!"
"…f-fan?" Yugo weakly repeated, still just as confused.
Bandit frowned.
"You're not very bright…are you?" she asked. "Then again…you're no slouch when it comes to dueling, maybe you're just slow on the uptake in regular life. I know I sometimes am. I always feel more alive when I'm dueling. OH! Speaking of which, I studied the duel techniques of your dimension. Want to do a speed duel?"
"Speed…duel?" Yugo asked, eyes widening.
"Yep!" Bandit replied. "The members of the Hamon Strike Teams are required to study the duel tactics of the enemy dimensions. I never really got into Xyz Summoning, or using those weird roller blades they have, but I did get myself a D-wheel, my own turbo deck, and a Turbo Field to go along with it. Interested?"
Yugo stared back at Bandit, who looked very eager to begin. He was interested. Speed Duels were always his favorite dueling format, and he had worked very hard on his own turbo deck, but still…
"I'm not here to play around." Yugo growled, turning his back to her, "I have someone I need to find, leave now."
"Ooh…you sound almost like Yuri." Bandit laughed. "Well, if that's your reply then I'm afraid I'm gonna have to do this!"
"TURBO FIELD ACTIVATE!" an announcer voice from her bike called out, before a serrated blade-shaped duel disk materialized into existence over the bike's dashboard, "SPEED INVASION!"
With a sudden whirring, the skeletal translucent wing segments of Bandit's bike unfurled, wing membranes glowing with energy before a solid-vision holographic field surrounded them in a wide circle, preventing either of them from escaping. Over Yugo's own dashboard, the twin-winged blade of his duel disk unfurled to life as he was forced to participate.
"Turbo field recognized," his duel disk beeped, "side decking to turbo deck commencing, please choose an option…"
A display on his duel disk displayed a screen showing a list of pre-programmed deck recipes. Currently, there were only two, "Normal" and "Turbo". Reaching forward, Yugo tapped on "Turbo" before his duel disk began to automatically remove some of the cards in his deck before replacing them with ones Yugo had specified in the deck recipe.
"Side decking complete." The duel disk buzzed. "Ready to duel."
"Awesome!" Bandit exulted in response to Yugo's duel disk before pulling up next to him so that their bikes were parallel. "Now why don't you explain to Yugo the ins and outs of Academia's turbo field." She told her own duel disk.
"Speed Invasion." Bandit's duel disk recited, "Magic Card, Type: Turbo Field. Effect: Activate this Card at the start of the duel. Unaffected by card effects. If a player activates a non-Speed Spell: That player takes 2000 Damage. The player to reach checkpoint 1 goes first. Each time a player Special Summons a monster from the Extra Deck: They place 1 of their Speed Counters on this Card. During each End-Phase: Each player places 1 of their own Speed Counters on this Card. If a player takes Damage: He/She removes 1 of his/her Speed Counters from this Card for every 1000 points of damage taken."
"That right there is the checkpoint." Bandit explained, indicating a distant pillar of light, first one to get there goes first! Ready?"
Yugo gripped the handles of his bike, determined to win this duel, while, admittedly, feeling a little revved up at the prospect of engaging in one of his favorite duel formats.
"Speed!" Yugo called, preparing to start as a holographic countdown appeared in front of them.
"DUEL!" He and Bandit declared in unison as the countdown reached zero before flashing "GO!"
With a flap of its wings, Bandit's D-wheel shot forward with surprising speed, catching Yugo off guard as he struggled to catch up with her. Ever so slowly, his and Rin's bike began to gradually gain ground, but whatever fuel Bandit was using in her academia D-Wheel was obviously superior, because she seemed to be keeping ahead with relative ease.
Coaxing more speed from his bike as he twisted the accelerator, Yugo managed to shoot forward until he was right up to the bumper of Bandit's bike…only just noticing that the checkpoint up ahead was just behind a jagged track-way hole created from the errant blast of some Academia soldier from earlier.
Gritting his teeth, Yugo launched himself forward, showing no hesitation as he pursued his goal. With a roar, Bandit's bike suddenly launched into the air, mechanical wings unfolding to create a type of hang glider as she soared over the gap. At the same time, Yugo used the curved wall of the trackway to launch his own bike into the air. Corkscrewing through the air in a narrower arc than Bandit, Yugo managed to crash his bike upright on the other side before passing through the checkpoint first, just as Bandit's bike gracefully landed just behind.
"The first move is mine!" Yugo roared, drawing his opening hand.
"Wow!" Bandit exclaimed from behind. "Now THAT is what I was talking about! This is going to be the best duel of my career! No hard feelings if I have to card you at the end, right?"
"You won't be carding anyone." Yugo countered. "Because I am winning this duel no matter what! I normal summon the Tuner Monster, Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice!"
Through a blue portal next to his bike, Yugo's large four-sided pyramid dice appeared to his field, slowly rotating in the air to show the mysterious eyes on its faces, while a rocket booster on its base propelled it forward.
Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice / WIND / Level 3 / Machine / Tuner / Effect / ATK 300 / DEF 1500
"Next," Yugo continued, "Since I control a WIND monster, I can Special Summon Speedroid Taketonborg!"
On the other side of Yugo's bike, a spinning wooden propeller appeared, keeping up with Yugo and his other monster as they raced ahead.
Speedroid Taketonborg / WIND / Level 3 / Machine / Effect / ATK 600 / DEF 1200
"Here it comes!" Bandit grinned. "You're gonna synchro summon!"
"I am!" Yugo agreed, raising his hand into the air, "I tune my Level three Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice with my Level three Speedroid Taketonborg in order to Synchro Summon!"
Rocketing forward, Yugo's Tri-Eyed Dice morphed into a trio of rings through which the spinning Taketonborg passed before fading into a set of three stars as Yugo began his summoning chant.
"Magical sword with the form of a cross. Use your power to rend all enemies! Synchro Shoukan! Arawayo! Level 6! Hi-Speedroid Maken Dama!"
Bursting out of a pillar of light, Yugo's monster, a mechanized Kendama toy with a robotic rider controlling it and a pointed tip appeared to the field, air whistling around it as its aerodynamic body sped along the track-way.
Hi-Speedroid Maken Dama / WIND / Level 6 / Machine / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2200 / DEF 1600
Yugo Speed Counters: 1
"Hi-Speedroid Maken Dama's effect!" Yugo declared as his monster turned around so that its tip was pointed towards Bandit. "Once per turn, I can banish one 'Speedroid' monster from my graveyard in order to inflict five-hundred points of damage to my opponent's life points! I banish Speedroid Taketonborg for this effect! Cursed blade strike!"
Lighting up with energy, the tip of Maken Dama shot out a burst of energy, which struck Bandit across the shoulder, causing her to flinch but not pull back.
Bandit: 4000 – 500 = 3500 LP
"Setting a card face-down, turn end." Yugo finished, slamming a last card on his duel disk before the face-down materialized to his field.
Yugo Speed Counters: 2
Bandit Speed Counters: 1
"You summoned a strong monster, and even managed to inflict some damage to me." Bandit mused, a happy smile on her face. "Not bad, Yugo, not bad at all. But you're gonna have to be a lot more daring in this duel if you're going to beat me! My turn! Draw!"
Smiling at the card she had drawn, she continued with her turn.
"Let me show you what I mean!" Bandit declared, "If you wanna be a conqueror and end up on top, you've gotta be willing to risk everything! Speed Spell activate! Reckless Boost! I toss a coin and if the result is heads, I gain four speed counters! Otherwise, I lose four speed counters!"
"Your gambling?" Yugo asked, completely surprised. "Most of the other Academia soldiers he had faced had been much more cautious and calculating.
"The game's all about gambling," Bandit replied with a smirk, "and the winners are the one's who are the most daring! Calling heads!" she declared as a holographic coin appeared in front of her bike before launching into the air.
"Please land on tails, please land on tails!" Yugo silently prayed to himself, knowing full-well the kind of advantages having more speed counters afforded one in a speed duel.
The holographic coin landed on the ground in front of Bandit before spinning around like a top. Slowly, the spinning began to die down, before the coin was revealed to have landed on…
Tails.
"YATA!" Yugo whooped, glad that the goddess of victory had answered his prayer.
Bandit, however, was wearing an immense grin.
"Quick-Play Speed Spell activate!" Bandit declared, "Trick Coin! If I activate a card or effect that requires a coin toss, I can pay one speed counter in order to change one of the coin results!"
"NANI!?" Yugo exclaimed, hopes shattered in an instant.
Bandit Speed Counters: 0
"Looks like luck was on my side, after all." Bandit smirked as the holographic coin suddenly flipped onto heads.
Bandit Speed Counters: 4
"That's not luck!" Yugo whined. "You rigged that!"
"Sorry! Can't hear you over me winning!" Bandit called back as her bike suddenly rocketed forward, literally leaving Yugo in a cloud of dust as her back tire kicked up a pile of powdered cement, leaving Yugo to cough and gag as he passed through the cloud.
"Now that I have the speed counters I need," Bandit continued, "I can activate this! Speed Fusion! I pay two Speed Counters in order to Fusion Summon one Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck using cards on my field or in my hand as material!"
Bandit Speed Counters: 2
"There's a speed spell version of fusion!?" Yugo exclaimed, completely caught off guard.
"I told you that we'd studied your dimension's tactics." Bandit smirked, "And that allowed us to adapt your own techniques and cards to our needs! Using the effect of Speed Fusion, I fuse together Barrel Dragon and Blowback Dragon in order to Fusion Summon!"
In the air above Bandit, a fusion portal appeared before two cards, one depicting an armless mechanical dragon with a pistol for a head, and the other depicting a similar mechanical dragon, but with three pistol heads, glowed with light before swirling together in a blend of red and blue as Bandit commenced her summoning chant.
"Dragon that plays a deadly game of chance, Dragon that gambles with lives, with your chambers locked and loaded, spin your roulette barrels and unleash a jackpot of bullets! YUUGO SHOUKAN! See, it's just like your name!"
"YUGO! MY NAME'S YUGO!" Yugo bellowed over the chant.
"ARAWAYO!" Bandit roared over him as her monster rolled onto the field, "Level eight! Gatling Dragon!"
Built like an armored tank, Bandit's fusion monster was an immense mechanical dragon with three imposing Gatling cannons for heads and a pair of chariot-like wheels, which it used to speed along the track before turning around to face Yugo, mechanical heads roaring with a robotic dragon cry as their lower jaws opened up underneath the barrels of the cannons.
Gatling Dragon / DARK / Level 8 / Dragon / Fusion / Effect / ATK 2600 / DEF 1200
Bandit Speed Counters: 3
"Now that my monster is out," Bandit continued, "I activate Trick Coin's graveyard effect! By paying one speed counter, I can add this card from my graveyard to my hand!"
Bandit Speed Counters: 2
"And now it's time for my favorite part, betting time!" Bandit continued, "I activate Gatling Dragon's effect! By tossing a coin three times, I can destroy as many monsters on the field as possible, but not more than the number of heads. GO! Gatling Roulette!"
In front of each of Gatling Dragon's cannons, a holographic coin appeared before getting flipped into the air as the barrels of Gatling Dragon began to spin like the barrel of a gun in a roulette game. When the coins had landed, one of them had landed on tails, while the other two had landed on heads.
"Whelp, looks like I didn't win the jackpot." Bandit complained. "Now Gatling Dragon's effect will make it so that it destroys both of our monsters…unless…" she held up the Trick Coin card in her hand.
"That card again?" Yugo complained. "That takes away all the fun in a game of chance!"
"I always have more fun when I know I'm gonna win." Bandit retorted. "I pay one speed counter in order to change one of Gatling Dragon's coin results to tails.
Bandit Speed Counters: 1
"Now, FIRE!" she ordered in English as Gatling Dragon turned all three of its barrels on Yugo's monster before unleashing a hailstorm of armor-piercing bullets into the mechanical Kendama, tearing it into scrap metal before the entire monster exploded, forcing Yugo to shield his face from the debris.
"But I'm not done yet!" Bandit continued, "Battle! Gatling Dragon, attack Yugo directly! Rapid-Fire Roulette!"
Swerving to the side, Yugo stretched out his hand.
"Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice no kouka!" Yugo declared, "I banish this card from my graveyard in order to negate your monster's attack!"
In front of Yugo, Tri-Eyed dice appeared before conjuring a triangular shield, which the bullets of Gatling Dragon slammed into before the dice disappeared.
"Nice save." Bandit complimented with a smug expression on her face. "But you'd better hope you get a little luckier in the future, otherwise, I'm gonna roll all over you. Setting two cards face-down, turn end!"
Bandit Speed Counters: 2
Yugo Speed Counters: 3
"Ore no turn!" Yugo declared, drawing a card from the top of his deck. "I'll start by normal summoning Speedroid Frisbeetron from my hand!"
Through a blue portal in front of Yugo, a small mechanical frisbee whirred through the air like a miniature flying saucer, before suddenly unfolding and transforming into a tiny robot with a pair of half-circle frisbee wings on its back.
Speedroid Frisbeetron / WIND / Level 1 / Machine / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 200
"If Speedroid Frisbeetron is normal or special summoned," Yugo explained, "I can Special Summon one Level one monster from my deck! Come forth! Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice!"
Next to Frisbeetron, a simple six-sided dice with red eyes on its faces and six floating spheres around its body appeared to Yugo's field.
Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice / WIND / Level 1 / Machine / Tuner / Effect / ATK 100 / DEF 100
"Already setting up for another Synchro Summon?" Bandit asked, looking at the info on Yugo's cards. "Hmmm, but I guess you can't really summon anything that powerful. Those cards' combined levels are only two."
"That's all I need!" Yugo replied, "Using my Level one Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice and my Level one Speedroid Frisbeetron as Material, I synchro summon!"
Morphing into a single green ring, Red-Eyed dice floated over Frisbeetron, which dissolved into a single star as Yugo began his summoning chant.
"Fly past the odds and roll a new possibility! With the blessing of the goddess of victory, seize the future revealed in your dragon-eyes! Synchro Shoukan! Arawayo! Level two! Hi-Speedroid Dragon-Eyed Dice!"
Bursting through the pillar of white light, a large twenty-sided dice appeared to Yugo's field, fierce dragon-eyes printed on each of its faces. As soon as it had appeared, the faces of the dice began to unfold, creating an origami-like dragon made from triangular folds, with a pair of wings on its side with rocket jets for propulsion.
Hi-Speedroid Dragon-Eyed Dice / WIND / Level 2 / Machine / Synchro / Tuner / Effect / ATK 200 / DEF 2000
Yugo Speed Counters: 4
"A synchro monster and a tuner!?" Bandit exclaimed, eyes going wide.
"The effect of Hi-Speedroid Dragon-Eyed Dice activates when it is Synchro Summoned!" Yugo declared, "I can target one WIND monster in my graveyard in order to Special Summon it! Return now! Hi-Speedroid Maken Dama!"
Hi-Speedroid Maken Dama / WIND / Level 6 / Machine / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2200 / DEF 1600
"The effect of Speedroid 5 6 Plane activates when a monster is Special Summoned to my field." Yugo continued, revealing a card in his hand, "I Special Summon 5 6 plane to my field! Come forth!"
Soaring onto the field, a small toy airplane propelled by a twisted rubber band appeared to Yugo's field before flying next to his two other monsters.
Speedroid 5 6 Plane / WIND / Level 5 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 0
"Speedroid 5 6 Plane no kouka!" Yugo continued, "I target one monster my opponent controls in order to reduce its ATK by six-hundred!"
Flying forward, Yugo's plane fired a spray of bullets into Bandit's Gatling Dragon, causing the machine to roar in rage.
Gatling Dragon: 2600 – 600 = 2000 ATK
"Hi-Speedroid Kendama's effect!" Yugo continued, "I banish the Speedroid Frsibeetron in my graveyard in order to inflict five-hundred damage to your life points! Cursed Blade Strike!"
"This again!?" Bandit complained as Maken Dama fired another bolt of energy into her.
Bandit: 3500 – 500 = 3000 LP
"Battle!" Yugo ordered, "Hi-Speedroid Kendama, attack Gatling Dragon!"
"Trap Activate!" Bandit Countered, "Gambler's Draw! I toss a coin, and if it lands on heads, I get to draw three cards! Otherwise, I have to pay three-thousand life points!"
"That's all your life points!" Yugo exclaimed.
"Better hope I'm lucky then." Bandit smirked before the holographic coin tossed itself into the air. Landing on the ground, the coin spun a few times before landing on heads.
"Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!" Bandit whooped in English before drawing three cards, "And I didn't even need to use the Trick Coin for that one!"
"I have no idea what you just said, but it doesn't matter!" Yugo retorted, "Hi-Speedroid Maken Dama still destroys your monster!"
Flying forward like a lance, Maken Dama pierced through the hull of Bandit's Gatling Dragon, obliterating the monster.
Bandit: 3000 – 200 = 2800 LP
"Not bad, but not good enough, Yugo!" Bandit taunted, "Since a DARK Machine-Type monster I controlled was destroyed, I activate the effect of the Desperado Barrel Dragon in my hand, Special Summoning it! Say hello to my counterattack!"
"Hello." Yugo practically squeaked as a towering mechanical dragon with three gargantuan pistols for heads appeared to Bandit's field, all three heads roaring with robotic fury.
Desperato Barrel Dragon / DARK / Level 8 / Machine / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2200
"She immediately replaced her monster with an even stronger one." Yugo thought to himself. "I was hoping to be able to attack her directly with my monsters, but since none of my monsters are strong enough, I guess I'll have to move straight to the second part of my strategy."
"Hi-Speedroid Dragon-Eyed Dice's effect!" Yugo declared, "During either player's turn, I can immediately perform a Synchro Summon using my Dragon-Eyed Dice and other monsters I control as Material!"
"Desperato Barrel Dragon's effect!" Bandit countered, "During the Battle-Phase of either player's turn, I can toss three coins in order to destroy a number of monsters on the field, equal to the result! GO! DESPERATO ROULETTE!"
Yugo gasped in shock as the barrels of Desperato Barrel Dragon's pistols began spinning around. In front of each of the cannons, three holographic coins were tossed into the air. When they landed, two landed on heads, while one landed on tails.
"Bad luck, Yugo," Bandit smirked, "It looks like ALL THREE of the results are heads! Trick Coin activate!" she ordered, revealing her other face-down, "I pay a Speed Counter in order to change the last coin result to heads! Say goodbye to all three of your monsters!"
Bandit's Speed Counters: 1
Roaring, Desperato Barrel Dragon fired its immense pistols into all three of Yugo's monsters, blasting them all into holographic dust before he could even blink.
"Since all three results were heads," Bandit continued, "I also get to draw a card. Now, what are you gonna do, Yugo?"
Yugo grit his teeth with frustration. There was only one thing he could do at this point.
"Turn end." He declared. "Please keep waiting for me, Rin. I promise I will win this duel!"
Bandit's Speed Counters: 2
Yugo's Speed Counters: 5
"It's my move then!" Bandit declared, "Your life points are wide open now and I have a monster with twenty-eight hundred ATK. Hopefully I don't draw something that can beat you. DRAW!"
Bandit smirked when she saw what she had drawn.
"Looks like you still have rotten luck, I'm honestly feeling sorry for you at this point." Bandit consoled. "First, I'm paying a Speed Counter in order to add the trick coin back from my graveyard to my hand."
Bandits Speed Counters: 1
"And now that that's done." Bandit continued, "I Normal Summon Twin Barrel Dragon! Come on out!"
Coming on out to her field was a smaller robotic dragon, a double-barreled pistol for a head.
Twin Barrel Dragon / DARK / Level 4 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1700 / DEF 200
"Twin Barrel Dragon's effect activates when it is Normal Summoned!" Bandit declared, "I target your face-down card in order to toss two coins. If both results are heads, that card is destroyed.
"Please!" Yugo begged, "Just give her two tails!"
But whatever gods were listening to him must have misheard. Both results were heads.
"FIRE!" Bandit ordered, as her miniature robot dragon fired both barrels of its gun into Yugo's set card, which was revealed to be a card called Speed Beacon, obliterating it.
"Sorry, Yugo." Bandit seemed to almost sincerely apologize. "This really has been a lot of fun, but, war is war, and I have a mission to fulfill. Battle! Desperato Barrel Dragon, Attack Yugo's Life Points directly! Desperato roulette jackpot!"
"Rin, wherever you are, please pray for me," Yugo thought for himself, "I'm risking it all on this last chance!"
"Speed Beacon no kouka!" Yugo roared, stretching his hand towards his GY. "This card's field effect enables me to Special Summon a Speedroid Monster from my hand or deck if an opponent's monster attacks, however, since it is in the GY, I can banish this card in order to roll a six-sided dice and Special Summon one Speedroid Monster from my graveyard whose Level is equal to the dice result! If I cannot summon any monsters with this effect, I lose half my life points!"
Bandit's eyes widened in astonishment.
"You had a defense all ready for me in case for when I attacked directly." She summarized. "The first effect would have let you summon any monster you needed, but since I destroyed that card, you're going to have to bet everything on this one roll!"
"This is it!" Yugo agreed, "My destiny roll!"
In front of Yugo, a holographic dice appeared. Watching with baited breath, Yugo and Bandit both eyed the dice as it launched itself into the air.
"I have a level 1, 2, 5, and 6 monster in my graveyard." Yugo thought to himself, "The probability of getting a monster I can summon is actually not that bad, but the question is whether or not I'll get something that is useful."
Landing on the ground, the dice bounced once, before coming to a stop at 5.
"Speed Beacon's effect!" Yugo declared as a portal in his graveyard opened up, "I special summon the Level five monster, Speedroid 5 6 Plane! Come forth!"
Soaring into the air once more, Yugo's rubber band-powered plane took up position in front of him, frontal cannons aimed at Bandit's monsters.
Speedroid 5 6 Plane / WIND / Level 5 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 0
"Speedroid 5 6 Plane's effect!" Yugo declared, "I target your Desperado Barrel Dragon in order to reduce its ATK by six-hundred until the end of this turn!"
Zipping forward, Yugo's plane unloaded a stream of bullets into Bandit's monster, driving it back.
Desperado Barrel Dragon: 2800 – 600 = 2200 ATK
"Huh," Bandit grinned, eyeing Yugo's monster, "And you summoned that card in attack position, so that you wouldn't take as much damage. That's pretty good, but not quite good enough! Battle! Desperado Barrel Dragon attacks Speedroid 5 6 Plane!"
Roaring, Desperato Barrel Dragon unleashed its destructive firepower on Yugo's plane, blasting the toy into shreds while blasting back Yugo.
Yugo: 4000 – 400 = 3600 LP
"Twin Barrel Dragon, direct attack!" Bandit continued, her smaller robotic dragon obediently leaping forward and firing a twin blast of rounds into Yugo.
Yugo: 3600 – 1700 = 1900 LP
Yugo's Speed Counters: 4
"Setting three cards face-down." Bandit declared. "Turn end!"
Desperado Barrel Dragon: 2800 ATK
Bandit: 2 Speed Counters
Yugo: 5 Speed Counters
"I managed to survive that turn," Yugo thought to himself, wishing he could wipe away the sweat beneath his helmet, "but I haven't managed to take back the lead. All my hope is resting on this draw! Rin, never forget, I always keep my promises! I WILL find you!"
"ORE NO TURN!" Yugo roared, "DRAW!"
…
Selena vs. Obelisk Force
Current State of the Duel
Obelisk Red (Evie)
4000 LP
No cards in her hand
Controls Antique Gear Megaton Golem
Obelisk Green (Miho)
4000 LP
2 cards in her hand
Controls Antique Gear Golem – Mechanized Melee
3 Set cards
Obelisk Gold (Elvira)
4000 LP
No cards in her hand
Controls Antique Gear Megaton Golem equipped with Antique Gear Fist and Antique Gear Tank
Megaton Golem: 3300 + 600 = 3900 ATK
Selena
2200 LP
5 cards in her hand
Controls no cards
"You're awfully confident passing your first turn." The obelisk soldier with the red gem smirked, "Or has the all-mighty Selena finally lost her edge?"
"Evie." Selena sighed, "Of all the people who I thought would sell-out and join the Obelisk Force, I had hoped at least you wouldn't."
"Are you just jealous because we got some upgrades?" The Obelisk Soldier with the gold gem, Elvira, asked, pointing up towards her immense Fusion Monster, which she had used to smash a large segment of the duel palace and half the smaller buildings in the same block before Selena had engaged them.
"Those heaps of junk metal mean nothing if you don't know how to properly use them." Selena replied. "So far, all the three of you have managed to do is waste most of your resources, just to summon one very powerful monster."
"And what's wrong with having one very powerful monster?" the Obelisk Soldier with the green gem, Miho, growled.
"It means that you're left with nothing the moment someone summons an even stronger monster!" Selena roared, "My turn, DRAW!"
"It's no use, Selena!" Miho warned, "Trap activate! Non-Fusion Area! While this card is face-up on the field, no player can Fusion Summon!"
Selena narrowed her eyes, an annoyed expression coming over her face as a large net-like field surrounded the area around them.
"We've studied your deck inside and out." Elvira smirked, "We know all your tactics. So, anything and everything you could possibly think to do, is something we can easily counter."
"Then it's a good thing I've learned some new tactics." Selena countered, "I, using the scale one Moonlight Fennec and the Scale seven Moonlight Kitten, set the Pendulum Scales!"
"Pendulum!?" Evie exclaimed in shock.
To Selena's left, a short unitard-wearing girl with immense fox ears on top of her head, a closed parasol in her fluffy fox paws, pale orange-and-white hair, and a fluffy fox tail, rose into the air in a blue column of light. To Selena's right…the column was strangely empty.
Looking down, Selena noticed a tiny enthusiastic six-year-old kitten girl with multi-colored hair, heterochromatic blue and gold eyes, a moon-shaped brass headband over her forehead, and a curly cat tail poking out from underneath a frilly multi-colored ballerina dress over her body, snuggling up against her leg, purring softly.
"You've gotta be kidding me." Selena muttered to herself.
The other Obelisk soldiers began snickering.
"That's your Pendulum Monster?" Elvira snickered. "Boy have you gone soft."
Selena rolled her eyes.
"Okay then, up you go." Selena sighed, picking up the kitten girl and throwing her into the air.
With a joyful giggle, Moonlight Kitten pirouetted through the air before coming to a stop once she was level with Moonlight Fennec, who rolled her eyes and shook her head as Moonlight Kitten proceeded to settle down on her back, pull out a ball of yarn, and play with it, seemingly oblivious to the duel.
Moonlight Fennec: Scale 1
Moonlight Kitten: Scale 7
"Moonlight Kitten's effect! Selena declared, "Once per turn, I can tribute her in order to activate a different Moonlight Pendulum Card in the Pendulum Zone she occupied! Moonlight Cast Change!"
Suddenly snapping to attention, Moonlight Kitten hastily put away her ball of yarn, stuffing it into her back pocket and standing up straight as if she had been paying attention the whole time. Standing tip-toe, Moonlight Kitten proceeded to rapidly pirouette, until she was nothing but a multicolored blur. When the spinning stopped, a new Moonlight monster, a tall and proud-looking cat girl dressed like a belly dancer with a pale black veil over the lower half of her face and pale white hijab over her head, fluffy brown cat ears poking out from the folds, appeared in the column. Sand Cat wore a crescent moon mask over her left eye, a moon-shaped belly-button piercing on her exposed midriff, and a bikini top and Arabian white-and-black striped dress over her tan-skinned body, with a long twitching brown-and-black cat tail poking out from underneath the dress.
Moonlight Sand Cat: Scale 3
"Wait a minute," Miho exclaimed, "You had a scale one and a scale seven Pendulum Card. You could have Pendulum Summoned any monsters from Level two to Level six. Now you can only Pendulum Summon Level two monsters. Why would you narrow your own scale?"
"Talk about not even knowing how her own cards worked." Evie sneered.
"I don't need a wide scale to beat you." Selena retorted, "I activate the effect of Moonlight Sand Cat! When she is activated in my Pendulum Zone while I control a Moonlight Monster in my other Pendulum Zone, I can excavate the top three cards of my deck in order to add one excavated 'Moonlight' card to my hand while sending the other two cards to the GY. If, however, I don't excavate any 'Moonlight' cards, I must shuffle all three cards back into the deck."
Glowing with energy, Moonlight Sand Cat slowly and gracefully spun once through the air, standing tiptoe on one foot while her other leg and body were stretched out horizontally. In response to her action, three cards popped out from the top of Selena's deck before she retrieved them and began examining them.
"Using Sand Cat's effect, I add Moonlight White Rabbit to my hand while sending Moonlight Crimson Fox and Fusion to my graveyard!" Selena declared, adding one of the excavated cards to her hand before depositing the others into the graveyard. "Moonlight Crimson Fox's effect activates when she is sent to the graveyard by a card effect. I target Antique Gear Golem – Mechanized Melee, in order to change its ATK to zero!"
"Why my monster!?" Miho complained, as her immense golem slowly sank to the ground, utterly drained of power.
Antique Gear Golem – Mechanized Melee: 3000 – 3000 = 0 ATK
"Next," Selena continued, "I Pendulum Summon the Level two Moonlight Rabbit from my hand! Pendulum Shoukan!"
Opening up between her two pendulum monsters, a pink portal tore open a hole in the sky before a single white light streamed out and landed on the ground, revealing Selena's petit bunny-girl wielding a large croquet mallet.
Moonlight White Rabbit / DARK / Level 2 / Beast-Warrior / Effect / ATK 800 / DEF 800
"You Pendulum summoned just one monster?" Elvira gawked, "I thought the whole point of Pendulum Summoning was to spam a bunch of monsters."
"SHUT UP AND STOP MAKING STUPID COMMENTS!" Selena roared, finally growing annoyed. She had met a lot of airheads in Academia who either wanted to gain favor with the professor by cozying up to her or undermine her out of jealously. None of them had turned out to be good duelists when she had challenged them, and these three were certainly no exception.
"Moonlight White Rabbit's effect!" Selena declared, stretching her hand towards her monster. "Once per turn, I can target one Magic or Trap Card my opponent controls in order to return it to the hand! My target is, of course, Non-Fusion Area!"
"Not going to happen!" Miho countered, "We didn't forget about White Rabbit's effect, so we prepared for that as well! I activate Fiendish Chain in order to negate your White Rabbit's effects!"
"You didn't take into account all my monster's effects!" Selena countered, "Moonlight Crimson Fox's graveyard effect! If a 'Moonlight' monster I control would be targeted by a card effect, I can banish Crimson Fox from the graveyard in order to negate the effect and increase all of our Life Points by one-thousand!"
Leaping into the air, White Rabbit prepared to bring her immense croquet mallet down on Miho's Non-Fusion Area, however, just as she was about to make contact, a web of chains shot out from Miho's second Trap Card, threatening to ensnare the frightened rabbit girl. In that instant, the ethereal form of Selena's Crimson Fox shot up from out of the graveyard before karate-kicking away the chains and obliterating the Trap Card, enabling White Rabbit to knock Non-Fusion Area back into Miho's hand with one good swing of her mallet.
Selena: 2200 + 1000 = 3200 LP
Evie: 4000 + 1000 = 5000 LP
Miho: 4000 + 1000 = 5000 LP
Elvira: 4000 + 1000 = 5000 LP
"Tch." Miho growled, looking annoyed.
"Magic Card, Yuugo!" Selena declared, "I fuse my White Rabbit with the Blue Cat in my hand in order to Fusion Summon!"
Above Selena's head, a fusion portal appeared before White Rabbit and Blue Cat rose into the center and began dancing together, slowly swirling together in a blur of blue and red while Selena commenced her summoning chant.
"The cat prowling in the azure darkness! The lively white rabbit illuminated by moonlight! Swarm in a vortex of the moon's gravity and revive with a new power! YUUGO SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Moonlight Cat Dancer!"
With the sound of Riq music playing in the background, Selena's ace monster twirled onto the battlefield, daggers raised in the air as she danced about before posing with a playful, "Meow!"
Moonlight Cat Dancer / DARK / Level 7 / Beast-Warrior / Fusion / Effect / ATK 2400 / DEF 2000
"And let me guess," Miho huffed, "you're planning on using Moonlight Perfume to bring back Cat Dancer in order to double your monster's ATK before tributing Blue Cat in order to allow your monster to attack all of our monsters, twice each? It's not going to work on us!"
"You should really keep your mouth shut." Selena snapped, "Blabbing like that doesn't help you with keeping your strategy a secret. I activate the Pendulum Effect of Moonlight Fennec! By returning one Fusion from my graveyard to my hand, I can Special Summon this card from my Pendulum Zone!"
Howling, Moonlight Fennec suddenly leaped from her pillar in the sky before opening up her parasol, slowly floating to the ground, and landing on her feet. Once she had landed, the Fennec-girl conjured a black portal in the ground, retrieving a copy of Fusion for Selena before handing it to her.
Moonlight Fennec / LIGHT / Level 2 / Beast-Warrior / Pendulum / Scale 1 / ATK 400 / DEF 2000
"Magic Card, Yuugo!" Selena declared, activating Fusion a second time, much to the surprise of her opponents, "I use my Moonlight Cat Dancer and Moonlight Fennec as material in order to Fusion Summon once more!"
"The beautiful beast dancing in the moonlight! Fennec prowling in the silent Moonlit savanna! Swarm in the vortex of the moon's gravity and become a new power! Fusion Summon! Come forth! Elegant beast dancing in the moonlit wilderness! Moonlight Panther Dancer!"
Twirling onto the battlefield, Selena's new fusion monster, a tall dark-skinned panther girl with black hair covering her eyes, an elegant blue dress, and a set of long claws over each of her panther paws, appeared onto the battlefield before chuckling with amusement.
Moonlight Panther Dancer / DARK / Level 8 / Beast-Warrior / Fusion / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 2500
"Moonlight Fennec's effect activates when it is sent to the Extra Deck by a card effect." Selena continued, "I can add one Moonlight Pendulum Monster from my deck or face-up from my Extra Deck to my hand, and I choose Moonlight Kitten!"
"Next," Selena continued, "I will activate Moon Light Perfume, in order to Special Summon Moonlight White Rabbit from my graveyard!"
Twirling onto the battlefield once more with glee, Selena's petit rabbit girl reappeared, looking eager to hit something else with her mallet.
Moonlight White Rabbit / DARK / Level 2 / Beast-Warrior / Effect / ATK 800 / DEF 800
"Your last set card is Fusion Dispersal." Selena sniffed, looking disgusted.
"How did you-…!?" Miho exclaimed before stopping herself.
Selena snorted with amusement. "I'll admit the Obelisk Force got me last time with that tactic, I was honestly disgusted that they would include such a specific situational card in their deck, just to counter my strategy, but I don't let myself get fooled twice. Moonlight White Rabbit's effect! I return your last set card to your hand!"
Taking a moment to take a practice swing, Moonlight Rabbit hopped into the air once more, before bouncing the last set card back into a very angry Miho's hand with one swing of her mallet.
"You messed up, big time!" Evie sneered, "You may have gotten rid of our back-row, but since you didn't summon Blue Cat, your strategy is ruined! Now your Panther Dancer doesn't have enough ATK to beat us!"
"Which is why I still have a Normal Summon." Selena retorted. "And I will use that Normal Summon to summon Moonlight Kitten from my hand!"
Appearing through a blue portal, Selena's tiny kitten girl appeared to the field before yawning, curling up into a ball, and taking a nap.
Moonlight Kitten / LIGHT / Level 1 / Beast-Warrior / Pendulum / Scale 7 / ATK 600 / DEF 300
"That little puffball?" Elvira asked, "What's it gonna do?"
"Moonlight Kitten's monster effect!" Selena declared, stretching her hand towards her Moonlight Kitten, who was still napping, I can tribute her in order to Special Summon one Moonlight Monster from my deck!"
Leaning down, Panther Dancer gently tapped Moonlight Kitten on the shoulder, who slowly woke up with a yawn before staring up at Panther Dance with bleary eyes. With a smile, Panther Dancer reached inside her dress before removing a large bottle of warm milk.
Eyes widening, Moonlight Kitten suddenly leaped onto her tiny feet before grabbing the bottle from Panther Dancer with a determined "YOSH!" and guzzling down the contents of the bottle as if it were the most important thing she had ever done in her life.
In less than two seconds, the entire bottle was drained by the hungry kitten, before being violently thrown to the ground as Moonlight Kitten flexed her arms, let out an almighty kitten roar, and slowly morphed into a silhouette of solid light before stretching and growing. Coming to a stop, the light slowly faded away, revealing Moonlight Blue Cat in place of Moonlight Kitten.
Moonlight Blue Cat / DARK / Level 4 / Beast Warrior / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 1200
"Moonlight Blue Cat's effect activates when she is Special Summoned." Selena declared, "I double the attack of Moonlight Panther Dancer!"
Moonlight Panther Dancer: 2800 X 2 = 5600 ATK
The jaws of all three of Selena's opponents dropped.
"BATTLE!" Selena roared, stretching her hand towards her monster, "Moonlight Panther Dancer can attack each monster my opponent controls twice each, with the first attack not destroying each monster! Furthermore, each time she destroys an opponent's monster by battle, she gains two-hundred ATK until the end of the Battle-Phase! GO! Attack Evie's Antique Gear Megaton Golem! The first attack!"
Leaping forward, Panther Dancer launched herself into the immense mechanical soldier, raking the Golem's armor with her razor-sharp claws while dodging the multiple blows from its array of immense fists.
Evie: 5000 – 2300 = 2700 LP
"The second attack!" Selena ordered.
Leaping onto the monster's head as it tried to swipe her away with its immense hands, Panther Dancer dug her claws into the monster's neck, before slicing along the circumference and lifting the immense head off the shoulders of the mechanical giant.
Evie: 2700 – 2300 = 400 LP
Panther Dancer: 5600 + 200 = 5800 ATK
"You could use Megaton's effect to Special Summon Ultimate Antique Gear Golem from your deck," Selena remarked, "But we both know that in this case, that would be a complete waste of time."
"You little-…!" Evie growled.
"Moonlight White Rabbit!" Selena ordered, "Attack Evie's Life Points directly!"
Nodding her head, White Rabbit leaped forward before bonking Evie on the head with her mallet, finishing her off.
Evie: 400 – 800 = 0 LP (LOSE!)
"Moonlight Panther Dancer still has her other attacks!" Selena roared, "The third attack! Attack Elvira's Antique Gear Megaton Golem!"
Like before, Panther Dancer practically danced across the immense metal hull of the mechanical giant, effortlessly dodging attacks while slicing out wires, kicking out cogs, and idly scratching the kanji for her name into the chest.
Elvira: 5000 – 1900 = 3100 LP
"Antique Gear Fist's effect!" Elvira roared, "If an Antique Gear Monster I control battled an opponent's monster and is still on the field, I can…!"
"Do nothing." Selena retorted. "Panther Dancer cannot be destroyed by card effects."
Dismayed, Elvira could only watch as Panther Dancer simply evaded the immense robotic hand equipped with Antique Gear Fist.
"Now for the forth attack!" Selena roared, "Attack and destroy Antique Gear Megaton Golem!"
Letting out an enraged roar, Panther Dancer leaped high into the air before bringing her claws down onto the immense construct, slicing cleanly through all the way, so that the monster was nearly cut in two when she finally landed on the ground.
Elvira: 3100 – 1900 = 1400 LP
Moonlight Panther Dancer: 5800 + 200 = 6000 ATK
"Antique Gear Tank's effect!" Elvira roared, "If it is sent to the graveyard, I can inflict six-hundred damage to your Life Points!"
Shielding her eyes, Selena took the blast of energy Elvira's monster managed to fire off before exploding.
Selena: 3200 – 600 = 2600 LP
"Moonlight Blue Cat, direct attack!" Selena ordered, quickly recovering and stretching her hand towards her monster, who obediently leaped forward before kicking Elvira square in the chest with her cat foot.
Elvira: 1400 – 1600 = 0 LP (LOSE!)
"The final attack!" Selena roared, "Moonlight Panther Dancer, attack Antique Gear Golem – Mechanized Melee!"
Sniffing, Panther Dancer idly walked up to Miho's monster before placing a single clawed finger on its hull, and effortlessly pushing it over so that it fell on top of Miho, whose emergency return activated just in time.
Miho: 5000 – 6000 = 0 LP (LOSE!)
"You won't get away with this, traitor!" Evie growled from the crater she had landed in. Fingers swiftly moving over her duel disk, she began pressing some buttons, "The other soldiers are looking for you, and I've just broadcast our last position! They'll be on you like bloodhounds!"
"You're still giving away too much of your strategy." Selena huffed before watching Evie and Elvira fade away as their disks performed a forced return.
Turning around, Selena surveyed the battlefield, considered her next move.
"The Lancer's mission is to protect the Synchro Dimension from Academia's invasion." She thought to herself, "Now that the invasion has begun, I'll need to establish contact with Reiji and the other Lancers in order for us to coordinate an effective counter-strike against their forces. But first, I need to find a new position."
"You!" she growled, pointing to a chauffeur who had been huddling off to the side inside of a garage while the battle raged. "Are any of these bikes still working?"
"Uhm…probably?" the man nervously asked.
"Good." Selena replied, before pointing to what looked like the best-built bike, a large sleek blue D-Wheel that had managed to remain perfectly polished despite the destruction around it. "Do you have the keys for that one?"
"Well, yes but-…" the man objected, nervously grasping a pair of keys before Selena snatched them from his hand and mounting the bike before zooming away.
"First primary mission objective, make contact with Reiji Akaba and the other Lancers," Selena summarized to herself as she rode the streets, idly inserting her deck into the D-wheel's empty slot. "Second primary mission objective, repel the Academia invasion."
She grimaced as she realized that she was thinking in the exact way Academia had programmed her to think. She had socialized with other people long enough now to know such war-oriented ways of thinking was not considered "normal." But then again, given that the Synchro Dimension now was involved in an immense planet-scale war, perhaps now was the time to let her Academia instincts kick in, and worry about her social and emotional development later. Still, What would Yuzu, Yuya, and the other Lancers think if they could hear her thoughts now?
Yuzu.
The thought of her counterpart's last duel against Sergey still haunted her. The man had shown absolutely no honor in his shameful duel. And now, thanks to his dirty tactics, Yuzu was most likely dead.
"Third primary objective." Selena thought to herself as she gripped the handles of her bike harder, "Find Sergey and kill him!"
The sound of a helicopter flying near her instantly grabbed her attention, muscles instantly reacting through years of training.
A large Academia helicopter was zeroing in on her location. One thing was for certain, Academia definitely responded quickly. It had not taken them long at all to find her. On board the helicopter was the standard compliment of Obelisk, Ra, and Slifer soldiers, duel disks raised, and standing behind them in a tight muscle-shirt was…
Selena's eyes widened.
"Barrett!?" Selena called, shocked to see that it was her old burly one-eyed bodyguard who had found her.
Barrett held out his hand, motioning for the pilot to lower the helicopter so that he could be relatively eye-level with Selena as she drove along the track-way. Next to him, a Slifer Soldier obediently handed him a large megaphone.
"SELENA-SAMA!" Barrett called through the megaphone, over the roar of the chopper's blades, "THE PROFESSOR HAS INSTRUCTED ME TO IMMEDIATELY ESCORT YOU TO ACADEMIA! YOU WILL STOP YOUR BIKE IMMEDIATELY AND STEP AWAY FROM IT UN-ARMED!"
"NOT HAPPENING!" Selena called back, twisting the accelerator of the bike and launching forward with immense speed.
Selena just had enough time to hear Barrett curse before the expensive bike had taken her several hundred yards away from the helicopter. The pilot of the chopper was trying to catch up with her, but it was clear that Selena's speedy bike was faster than the lumbering chopper.
But then…
VROOM! VROOOOOM!
Whipping her head around, Selena turned just in time to see Barrett leaping out of the chopper on a large muscly chrome D-Wheel with multiple tail pipes, and landing on Selena's same track-way. Slamming his foot down on a pedal, Barrett suddenly surged forward with a burst of speed from his bike, purple flames pouring from the tail pipes before he activated his D-Wheel's on-board duel disk.
"FIELD MAGIC! SPEED INVASION ACTIVATE!" Barrett roared, suddenly surrounding himself and Selena in a large circular field of solid energy. In response, Selena's own duel disk activated.
"Speed duel recognized!" the duel disk announced, "Current deck is unsuited for the Speed Duel format? Would you like to side-deck?"
"I don't have time for this!" Selena growled. This was just her luck. First, Evie had to put Barrett on her trail, and now, she was being forced to engage in a duel format she had only briefly studied in Academia, without actually experiencing through actual combat.
"I do not want to have to do this." Barrett growled, "I already failed you once, Selena-Sama. I understand why you wanted to leave Academia. You felt like we were restricting your fighting spirit and wanted to prove yourself to be a great warrior. But this treason is childish! You know better than to let your emotion cloud your loyalty! Come with me now, and I promise that I will work with the Professor to put you on the frontlines like you always wanted."
Selena sighed heavily.
"You don't understand, Barrett." Selena replied. "I'm not just rebelling because I want to be the strongest duelist. I still want that, but I have also seen what Academia has done! We're not unifying the dimensions. We're slaughtering innocent people!"
"Innocent?" Barrett growled, pointing to his eye-patch, "Bah! The people of the other dimensions are mere barbarians! Savages! We are doing them a favor! Once we have carded the populations of the other dimensions, we will be able to use their energy to forge a new unified paradise that they will also be able to enjoy! That is more than most of them deserve!"
"I've gotten to know these so-called 'savages.'" Selena retorted. "Believe me, Barrett, there aren't half as many good people in all of Academia as there are the few people I've had the chance to meet. They don't want their homes to be fused with ours, and we don't have the right to force it on them!"
"Already gone for so short a time, and they have already infected you with their propaganda." Barrett grimaced, looking deeply disappointed. "Very well then, Selena-Sama. I failed you when I let you come here. You are clearly not ready for full combat yet. The stress of war has clouded your judgement and made you soft."
"I have not grown soft!" Selena countered. "Why don't you ask those three Obelisk Soldiers I defeated how soft I was?"
"Prove your strength to me, then." Barrett retorted, reaching into his pocket and throwing a pouch towards Selena, which Selena caught.
"What are these?" Selena asked, eying the package skeptically.
"Speed Spells." Barret explained. "You remember how they work, right? I have engaged you in a Speed Duel, and I did not want you to be unarmed. The package even contains three copies of Speed Fusion for your use."
"I don't need your charity or for you to go easy on me!" Selena spat, getting ready to throw the package back at Barrett.
"Understand this, Selena-Sama." Barrett calmly replied, "I do not, nor have I ever seen you as an enemy. Even now, I see you as the strong, proud, noble warrior that you are. I will not condemn you to a traitor's punishment. You do not deserve such a fate. But I will not go easy on you either! I only want to face you at your full strength, on even grounds! Remember your training, Selena! Take whatever advantage an opponent offers you and seize victory!"
"Tch…" Selena growled, taking the package and slotting it into the bike's deck-slot before pressing a command on the screen to replace her normal spell cards with the Speed Spells. Examining the new deck, Selena removed her Pendulum Monsters as well, knowing they would be considered non-speed spells if activated, before replacing them with some Trap Cards.
"…I guess I can't ever convince you to respect my decision, but I thank you for at least choosing to fight with honor." Selena sighed, slotting the finished deck back into her duel disk.
"Do not thank me yet, Selena-Sama!" Barrett roared, "In this duel, I WILL fulfill my mission, even if I have to crush every last ounce of your rebellious spirit to do it! SPEED…"
"DUEL!" Selena and Barret roared in unison.
…
"How boring." Yuri yawned, idly flipping through some of his duel disk's screens, which were depicting the live feeds of various Academia soldiers as they continued to blunder their way across the Synchro Dimension's battle-lines. Most of the combat was so repetitive and incompetent that it nauseated him. Even the supposed exotic dueling of the so-called "dark disciples" was almost painful for him to watch. He had spared the screen a few more seconds of viewing time when he came across Bandit engaging one of his counterparts and Barret beginning a duel against Selena, but not many seconds. None of those duelists were really worth studying, and besides, the professor had tasked him with retrieving Yuzu, and possibly, Selena, if the oaf, Barrett, couldn't manage the simple task.
Sighing, Yuri laid down on the roof of the speeding self-driving cargo truck, which was heading towards the main city, before staring idly up at the clouds. Most of his commanders would have berated him for his casual lack of vigilance, but Yuri didn't care. None but the most foolish attacked the apex predator, and besides, he had carded most of his past commanders, anyway.
Yuri was just getting ready to settle down for a light relaxing nap, when he was rudely interrupted by the sound of a motorcycle engine.
"What now?" Yuri yawned, nonchalantly getting to his feet, dusting off his robes, and turning to see a robot riding a speeding motorcycle just behind the vehicle.
"Target identified," A blue-eyed GHOST drone labeled "Gamma – 626" hummed, "Imperial High-Commander Yuri. You have been deemed a public safety hazard. Surrender now for processing or face immediate prosecution."
Yuri scrunched up his eyebrows in confusion.
"Public safety hazard?" he gawked. "No, Mister Roboto. You have it all wrong. I'm not a public safety hazard. I'm the public safety hazard. Try to get it right next time."
"Lay down your arms and surrender immediately." Gamma – 626 hummed, showing no indication of being either amused or irritated by Yuri's remark, "This is your final warning."
"Well, you're certainly no fun." Yuri sniffed before smiling agreeably, "But while you're here, I might as well make use of you. Roger, if you happen to be monitoring this, and I know you are, hear this. Tell me where Yuzu is and I promise not to kill you. Sound good?"
"In compliance with directive Alekhine's Gun, you are hereby sentenced to immediate execution, as decided by this unit's authority to conduct martial law." Gamma – 626 droned, before activating its bike's duel disk.
"Lovely." Yuri replied, rolling his eyes. "Well, as amusing as it would be to turn you into a tin can, I have more important things to do, and you're just a waste of my time. Tell Roger that I'll be taking care of him soon. Violet Flash!"
Slamming down a copy of one of his more frequently used spell cards, more frequently used because there were so many duelists now that were nothing but a waste of his time, Yuri generated an immense flash of violet light before using the cover to leap off of the truck and down off the track-way and onto the roof of a speeding train, heading towards the city.
"And now then," Yuri began before the sudden roar of a motorbike overhead caught his attention. Looking up, Yuri noticed the same GHOST drone jumping from the trackway above before rocketing towards Yuri's exact position with a set of powerful jets affixed to its robotic feet.
Back flipping away, Yuri managed to dodge the drone's landing, just as it slammed its feet down exactly where Yuri had been, before a pair of heavy stabilizers anchored each of the drone's feet onto the roof of the train. Raising its duel disk, the drone suddenly shot a beam of solid energy into Yuri's arm before violently pulling the boy forward.
"Solid Vision Duel Anchors." Yuri grunted, looking annoyed but managing to keep his voice even. "Impressive. And it would seem that you've been built with infrared vision to filter out the light from Violet Flash. Very good, very good indeed, but…what exactly is your plan to defeat me?"
"The trial by combat shall now begin." Gamma-626 droned. "Boku no turn, draw."
"A trial by combat?" Yuri sneered. "I love those. I've come to learn that I am the absolute most sinless person in the universe because of them."
"Skiel Top Mark II no kouka." Gamma-626 replied, completely ignoring Yuri, "This card can be discarded in order to enable this unit to add one Sky Core Mark II from its deck to its hand."
"Now, think for just a minute!" Yuri replied, face set in a pleading expression, "Have you ever stopped for just a moment to consider, 'Why? Why am I doing all this? What is my purpose in life? Could I perhaps, have a soul?'"
"Kikai Shikkō Kikan Skiel Ein Mark II no kouka!" 626 replied. "If this unit controls no monsters or controls a 'Skiel' monster, this monster can be Special Summoned from the hand!"
In the sky above the drone, a roughly car-sized flying drone with large blue wings with gyrocopter rotors and jets, and a pair of twin cannon-tipped arms, appeared to the drone's field. Face glowing with lines of red light.
Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II / WIND / Level 4 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1200 / DEF 1000
"Or maybe you've already figured out that the answer to those questions is, 'beep boop.'" Yuri mused.
"Kikai Shikkō Kikan Skiel Ein Mark II gains two-hundred ATK for each 'Kikai Shikkō Kikan' and 'Skiel' card on the field." 626 explained, completely ignoring Yuri again.
Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II: 1200 + 200 = 1400 ATK
"See, this is why I didn't want to fight you." Yuri sighed. "I can't even lighten the mood with a clever quip before you go and dig your grave even deeper."
"Kikai Shikkō Kikan Skiel Ein Mark II no kouka!" 626 automatically continued, as if it were reciting a script. "Since I control a 'Skiel' monster, I Special Summon this card from my hand.
Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II / WIND / Level 4 / Machine / Effect / ATK 1200 / DEF 1000
Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II: 1200 + (200 X 2) = 1600 ATK
Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II: 1200 + (200 X 2) = 1600 ATK
"See what I mean?" Yuri sighed with a dramatic face-palm.
"Magic Card, Boon of the Meklord Emperors!" 626 continued, "Since the only monsters on the field are two Meklord Monsters, this unit can draw two cards."
"And I'm sure those cards will help you out a great deal, but can we please get a move on?" Yuri grumbled. "I have a date with a certain girl who had to leave early from our last get together, and I'd like her to at last think I've been faithful to her by not dueling anyone else since that time."
"Sky Core Mark II shoukan." 626 nonchalantly replied.
"Geez, all this pent-up wit, and I'm wasting it on a talking ATM." Yuri groaned as 626's new monster, a spherical piece of metal with a pair of wings and what looked like a jet turbine in its back, appeared to the field.
Sky Core Mark II / WIND / Level 2 / Machine / Effect / ATK 0 / DEF 0
"Setting three cards face-down." The machine droned. "Turn end."
"Finally done?" Yuri asked, before clamping his hands together in a grateful bow, "Arigato gozaimasu! Well then how about I spice this duel up? I'll even promise to go easy on you."
The drone remained silent.
"No objections?" Yuri asked. "Alright then! Let's begin! Magic Card, Predator Blast! I reveal Drosophyllum Hydra and Spino Dionaea in my hand in order to place a predator counter on Sky Core Mark II and one of your Army of Skiel. Any monsters who gain a Predator Counter with this effect have their Level changed to one."
From the ground in front of Yuri, a pair of leafy tendrils erupted from the roof of the train before spraying out goo, which launched a pair of snapping plant monsters into the hulls of 626's monsters.
Meklord Army of Skiel: 1 Predator Counter / Level 1
Sky Core Mark II: 1 Predator Counter / Level 1
"And now, let me think…" Yuri thought aloud, tapping his chin, "…you summoned a weak zero ATK monster in attack position before setting three cards face-down. What on earth could your strategy be? OH! I know!" Yuri suddenly exclaimed, snapping his fingers, "You plan to destroy your own Sky Core Mark II in order to Special Summon a very powerful Meklord Enforcer. Right?"
626 remained silent. It might have had a perfect poker face, sadly, they were not playing poker.
"I'll take that as a 'yes.'" Yuri smugly replied. "Well, no hard feelings, but I'm afraid I can't really allow you to do that now. Banksia Ogre's effect! I tribute the Sky Core Mark II with a Predator Counter in order to Special Summon this monster from my hand in defense position!"
"Error." 626 mused to itself as its Sky Core exploded in a cloud of holographic dust, "Unable to activate Sky Core Mark II's effect. Not removed from the field by card effect."
"A succinct and entirely moronic summary of the obvious." Yuri sniffed with contempt as his monster, a large corncob-like plant with lines of circuitry and staring eyes running along its body appeared to his field.
Predator Plants Banksia Ogre / DARK / Level 6 / Plant / Tuner / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 100
"Predator Plants Sundew Kingii shoukan." Yuri airily continued, lazily dropping the card onto his duel disk with a flick of his finger. Through a blue portal, a dog-sized frilled lizard plant with the gooey stems of a sundew attached to its frills, appeared next to Yuri's first monster.
Predator Plants Sundew Kingii / DARK / Level 2 / Plant / Effect / ATK 600 / DEF 200
"And now," Yuri continued, "I think I'll activate Sundew Kingii's effect. Monsters with Predator Counters used in a Fusion Summon are treated as DARK. Furthermore, once per turn, Sundew Kingii can Fusion Summon one monster from my Extra Deck using itself, monsters on my field or in my hand, or monsters on my opponent's field with Predator Counters as Material! Using my own Sundew Kingii and your Army of Skiel with a Predator Counter, I Fusion Summon."
Opening its lizard-like mouth, Sundew Kingii spat out a long gooey vine-like tongue, tipped with a glob of sticky sap on the end. Before Army of Skiel could react, the tongue stuck to its hull before the lizard plant pulled it into its face, sticky frills closing in around the drone as it struggled to fly away. Suddenly rising into the air, the two monsters entered into the center of a fusion portal before swirling together in a blend of blue and red as Yuri began his summoning chant.
"Subtle and deadly flower with an alluring fragrance, Imperial Sky Soldier trapped in the jaws of death, swirl into the bottomless belly of the predator with breath of a thousand corpses and hunt my prey! YUUGO SHOUKAN! Arawayo! Level seven! Predator Plants Chimerafflesia!"
Tearing through the metal hull of the train roof, Yuri's fusion monster, an immense stinking flower with a fanged maw at the center and multiple fanged tentacles, appeared to Yuri's field before spraying 626 and his remaining monster with slime as it roared at them.
Predator Plants Chimerafflesia / DARK / Level 7 / Plant / Fusion / Effect / ATK 2500 / DEF 2000
"As you can see, my monster is looking quite hungry, so, battle!" Yuri enthusiastically continued, "Predator Plants Chimerafflesia, destroy Meklord Army of Skiel. Oh, and in case you were wondering, its effect activates at this time! Chimerafflesia changes your monster's ATK to its original ATK while gaining ATK equal to the ATK change until the End Phase."
Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II: 1400 – 200 = 1200 ATK
Predator Plants Chimerafflesia: 2500 + 200 = 2700 ATK
One of the immense vines of Chimerafflesia shot forward, preparing to swallow 626's remaining monster in one gulp, however, unflinching, 626 immediately stretched its hand towards one of its face-downs.
"Trap activate! Kikōshō! I add Kikai Shikkō Kikkan Skiel Ein Mark II from my graveyard to my hand and destroy Predator Plants Chimerafflesia!"
Dodging the swipe from the tentacle, the flying drone shot a few blasts of energy into the tentacle, causing Yuri's monstrous plant to scream in pain before another immense blast of energy from 626's trap card shot into the plant monster's central flower, destroying it.
"Hmmm, well it would seem that you were programmed with at least a little intelligence." Yuri shrugged, not looking the least bit concerned. "I guess I'll have to prepare my defenses then. I set one card face-down. Turn end."
"Boku no turn!" Gamma – 626 declared, "Draw! Special Summoning Kikai Shikkō Kikkan Skiel Ein Mark II!"
Meklord Army of Skiel: 1200 + (200 X 2) = 1600 ATK
Meklord Army of Skiel: 1200 + (200 X 2) = 1600 ATK
"You know, I'd now like to take back what I said about you being programmed with some intelligence." Yuri piped in. "Could I amend that to no intelligence instead?"
"Magic Card activate, the Invincible Meklord Army!" Gamma – 626 continued, still deaf to Yuri's quips, "Face-up attack position 'Ein' monsters I control gain one-thousand ATK. Also, any battle damage they inflict is halved. Furthermore, during the opponent's turn, this card can be tributed in order to activate one 'The Resolute Meklord Army' from the hand, deck, or graveyard."
"Truly a most terrifying card." Yuri shuddered. "What ever shall I do now?"
Meklord Army of Skiel: 1200 + (200 X 2) + 1000 = 2600 ATK
Meklord Army of Skiel: 1200 + (200 X 2) + 1000 = 2600 ATK
"Battle!" Gamma – 626 declared, "Kikai Shikkō Kikkan Skiel Ein Mark II attacks Predator Plants Banksia Ogre!"
"Trap activate." Yuri lazily droned, "Predator Germination. I prevent Banksia Ogre's destruction, destroy Meklord Army of Skiel instead, and summon three Predator Tokens in defense position."
One of the Skiel drones flew forward, preparing to annihilate Yuri's Ogre, but before it could even fire its cannons, the ground in front of Yuri erupted before a spray of snapping plant monsters chomped down on the drone, tearing large chunks out of the drone before it exploded in mid-air and three of the plant monsters dropped to Yuri's field.
Predator Token / DARK / Level 1 / Plant / ATK 0 / DEF 0
Predator Token / DARK / Level 1 / Plant / ATK 0 / DEF 0
Predator Token / DARK / Level 1 / Plant / ATK 0 / DEF 0
Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II: 1200 + 200 + 1000 = 2400 ATK
"Kikai Shikkō Kikkan Skiel Ein Mark II no kouka!" Gamma – 626 replied without a moment's pause. "If it is destroyed, I can Special Summon one 'Ein' monster from my deck! Come forth! Kikai Shikkō Kikkan Skiel Ein Mark II!"
Just ask quickly as the first drone was destroyed, a new drone immediately flew onto the field through a blue portal.
Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II: 1200 + (200 X 2) + 1000 = 2600 ATK
Meklord Army of Skiel Mark II: 1200 + 200 X 2) + 1000 = 2600 ATK
"Hm, so it can do that as well." Yuri mused. "Well, that is certainly a nice trick."
"Kikai Shikkō Kikkan Skiel Ein Mark II, attack Predator Plants Banksia Ogre." Gamma – 626 ordered.
Flying forward, Skiel Ein fired a hailstorm of energy into Yuri's Ogre, this time managing to obliterate it and force Yuri to cover his eyes from the blast.
"Kikai Shikkō Kikkan Skiel Ein Mark II, attack the leftmost Predator Counter." Gamma – 626 continued, "Imperial Air Raid!"
Rising into the air, the second Skiel Ein dive-bombed the Predator Token, twin cannons firing a stream of energy into the snapping plant monster, reducing it to dust.
"Turn end." Gamma – 626 concluded.
"You are certainly persistent, I'll give you that, even though you're nothing but a machine." Yuri admitted. "You've managed to throw up a fairly formidable wall of monsters and have balanced your offense with a decent defense. But sadly…"
Yuri stepped forward, the pupils of his eyes narrowing into slits.
"…that is all irrelevant!"
Yuri turned down to look at his Extra Deck.
What do you think we ought to do…Starve Venom Fusion Dragon?"
"S-such-ch delicious-ous smell-ells…" A faint hungry growl that sounded like overlapping whispers purred in Yuri's head. "I-I…hung-ung-ger-er!"
Yuri licked his lips, feeling hungry too.
…
Yuya vs. Security
Current State of Duel
Arrest Corps V-011
LP 3000
No cards in his hand
Controls Goyo Guardian equipped with Goyo Tsukubo
Goyo Guardian: 2800 + (100 X 6) = 3400 ATK
3 cards face-down
Arrest Corps V-012
LP 3000
No cards in his hand
Controls Goyo Guardian equipped with Goyo Tsukubo
Goyo Guardian: 2800 + (100 X 6) = 3400 ATK
3 cards face-down
Arrest Corps V-013
LP 3000
No cards in his hand
Controls Goyo Guardian equipped with Goyo Tsukubo
Goyo Guardian: 2800 + (100 X 6) = 3400 ATK
3 cards face-down
Yuya:
1000 LP
1 Card in his hand
Controls Magician of Astromancy in his left Pendulum Zone and Magician of Chronomancy in his right Pendulum Zone
Controls Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon and Entermate Hammer Mammo
Yuya was panting for breath. The moment the power had shorted in the building and his solid vision cuffs had disappeared, Yuya felt like he had entered a hornet's nest. In seconds, Security had swarmed him, and though he had managed to fight them all off so far, he was growing exhausted.
"Just one final push!" Yuto encouraged, the phantasmal counterpart standing just off to the side, "We already have what we need to win this duel!"
"I know." Yuya replied, before stretching his hand towards the monster Yuto had given him.
"Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's effect!" Yuya declared, "I detach an Overlay Unit in order to target Goyo Guardian, halve its ATK, and add the lost ATK to Dark Rebellion!"
"TREASON DISCHARGE!" Yuya and Yuto declared in unison as Dark Rebellion absorbed its Overlay Unit before unfolding its wings and unleashing a storm of lightning into V-011's Goyo Guardian.
Goyo Guardian: 3400 / 2 = 1700 ATK
Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon: 2500 + 1700 = 4200 ATK
"I detach the second overlay unit in order to target a second Goyo Guardian!" Yuya continued, as Dark Rebellion absorbed the last overlay unit before unleashing a storm of energy against the Goyo Guardian owned by V-012.
"TREASON DISCHARGE!"
Goyo Guardian: 3400 / 2 = 1700 ATK
Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon: 4200 + 1700 = 5900 ATK
"Battle!" Yuya declared, "Entermate Hammer Mammo attacks Goyo Guardian!"
"Pointless!" V013 replied, as Yuya's immense hammer-wielding elephant charged forward, "Hammer Mammo's ATK is lower than Goyo Guardian's!"
"Action Magic Card! Extreme Sword!" Yuya countered, hopping onto a nearby translucent pattern and slamming down the card, "I increase Hammer Mammo's ATK by one-thousand! Furthermore, Hammer Mammo's effect activates, returning all Magic and Trap Cards you control to the hand!"
"Trap Activate!" V011 countered, "Magic Cylinder! I target your Hammer Mammo in order to inflict damage to your Life Points equal to its ATK!"
"Magician of Chronomancy's Pendulum Effect!" Yuya countered, "I negate the activation of Magic Cylinder and set it face-down! Inverse Gearwidth!"
Raising its duel disk-like bracelet with a long semi-circle gear into the air, Magician of Chronomancy conjured the ethereal image of a clock before causing the time around the trap card to reverse, forcing the card back down. With a mighty toot of its trunk, Hammer Mammo brought down its immense trunk mallet, shockwave causing all the Security Force's spell and trap cards to bounce back into their hands before one of the copies of Goyo Guardian fell on its back and was destroyed.
V-013: 3000 – 900 = 2100 LP
Goyo Guardian: 1700 – (100 X 6) = 1100 ATK
Goyo Guardian: 1700 – (100 X 6) = 1100 ATK
"Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Yuya continued, "attack V-013's life points directly! Spiral Strike Burst!"
Throwing back its head, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon charged up its attack before launching a stream of energy into V-013, who leaped onto a platform to grab an Action Card.
"Action Magic!" the officer declared, "Evasion! Your monster's attack is negated!"
"Magician of Astromancy Pendulum effect!" Yuya countered, "I negate the activation of your Spell Card and set it face-down! Horoscope Divination!"
Raising his staff into the air, Magician of Astromancy negated the activation of the Action Card before its effect could go through, leaving the Arrest Corps Officer to stand still, eyes wide beneath his mask as the attack connected, knocking him back.
V-013: 2100 – 2500 = 0 LP (LOSE!)
"Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!" Yuya and Yuto ordered in unison, "Attack and destroy Goyo Guardian! Rebellious Lightning Disobey!"
Wings and tusks charging up with energy, Dark Rebellion swooped forward, lower tusks digging into the ground before slicing up the bowels of Goyo Guardian like the bayonet of a rifle, annihilating the monster before it could even cry out.
V-012: 3000 – 4200 = 0 LP (LOSE!)
V-012 flew backwards, collapsing against the wall where his companion lay. V-011, however, remained unflinching.
"You have exhausted all your attacks for this turn and only have one-thousand life points. During the end of this turn, the ATK changes will wear off and I will be able to re-equip my own Goyo Guardian with Goyo Tsukubo in order to give it one-hundred ATK for each of its levels, and the ability to reduce the ATK of any monster it attacks by the equipped monster's own Level times one-hundred. Just one attack on either Hammer Mammo or Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, and you will lose. Surrender now!"
"The show is not over yet!" Yuya countered, a mischievous expression coming over his face, "Neither Odd-Eyes nor Entermate Hammer Mammo will be here for the finale. I have another star in mind for that."
"What?" V-011 asked, sounding confused.
"Quick-Play Magic Card!" Yuya declared, throwing down his last card, "Flash Fusion! I fuse together the Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Entermate Hammer Mammo on my side of the field in order to Fusion Summon!"
"You took my side-decking advice." Yuto mused. "That's nice to know."
"I figured you knew a lot about effective Fusion tactics thanks to your…erm…experiences. Sorry." Yuya apologized, realizing he was touching on some sensitive issues.
"No offense taken." Yuto calmly replied. "I have no problems with us using Fusion Summons, so long as we're using it to protect others."
Yuya nodded in agreement, determination to find and rescue Yuzu and the other Lancers hardening his resolve as the card activated.
In a flash of brilliant blinding light, a glowing fusion portal appeared above Yuya's head before Hammer Mammo and Odd-Eyes rose into the center, bodies changing to a deep blue and red respectively before swirling together as Yuya began his summoning chant.
"Grand earth-shaking beast of the circus, become one with the mysterious dragon to create a new power! YUUGO SHOUKAN! Arawayo! The ferocious dragon with luminous feral eyes! Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"
Bursting forth from the Fusion Portal with a mighty beastial roar, Yuya's Fusion Monster, a savage fur-covered dragon with glowing feral eyes appeared to Yuya's field, immense claws raking the metal ground.
Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon / DARK / Level 8 / Dragon / Fusion / Effect / ATK 3000 / DEF 2000
"A fusion summon in the middle of the Battle-Phase!?" V-011 sputtered.
"BATTLE!" Yuya and Yuto declared in unison. "Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, attack and destroy Goyo Guardian! HELL DIVE BURST!"
Roaring, Beast-Eyes unleashed a dark blast of energy from its ferocious maw, annihilating the last Goyo Guardian with ease.
V-011: 3000 – 1900 = 1100 LP
"Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon's effect!" Yuya and Yuto continued, "If it destroys a monster by battle, it inflicts damage to my opponent equal to the ATK of the Beast-Type monster used in its Fusion Summon!"
Charging forward, Beast-Eyes rammed the last officer into the wall with its head, knocking him out cold with the other officers they had fought.
V-011: 1100 – 2600 = 0 LP (LOSE)
Yuya quickly deactivated his duel disk before racing down the hallway of the building. The interior of Sector Security HQ was immense and complicated, with hundreds of Security Officers crawling through the facilities, but with the first few lines of Security Officers no longer hemming him in, Yuya managed to evade and ignore most of them. He had no time to duel all of them.
"Yuzu! YUZU!" Yuya called, not truly convinced that Yuzu would hear him if she were locked in a high-security cell, but not caring.
"Running around aimlessly won't help us find Yuzu or escape." Yuto called from within Yuya. "This is an immense facility, but there is bound to be some intel somewhere, some computer terminal we can access, or at least, a map."
"Right." Yuya agreed, dodging the grabbing arm of an officer before leaping up onto an overhead wall protrusion and fleeing into another corridor, trying to see if he could find anything. "Where do you think it would be?"
Suddenly, the cries of several screaming Security officers sounded from a large room not too far away. In another heartbeat, the body of a Security officer suddenly came flying from the room before slamming against the wall on the opposite end, where he remained standing upright, chest pinned to the metal by an immense, black, solid vision arrow, which did not immediately fade away. When it finally did, the man slowly slumped to the ground, smearing blood on the wall behind him.
R-821: 1200 – 4000 = 0 LP (LOSE!)
The man was choking now, hacking and coughing as more blood came from his mouth, but nobody was coming to help him. Inside the room, Yuya could hear more screams followed by the thuds of arrows and the blasts of energy.
Against his better judgement, knowing full well what potential danger awaited him, Yuya found himself hastily approaching the dying man.
"Yuya! There's nothing we can do!" Yuto warned.
"I can't just do nothing!" Yuya replied. "If I can at least get someone to come and take him to a hospital…HELP! HELP!" Yuya called to nobody in particular. "WE HAVE A WOUNDED MAN! SOMEONE HELP!"
Out of the corner of his eye, Yuya noticed Melissa Clair without her hat slowly approach him.
"Melissa?" Yuya exclaimed, turning around, completely surprised to see her, "Quickly! You've gotta help me! This man's been wounded in a duel! If we don't help him soon he'll…"
His voice trailed off as he focused on the woman standing before him.
"That's not Melissa." Yuto whispered,
Yuya had to silently agree with his spiritual companion. The woman approaching them looked like what Melissa would have been had she decided to cut her hair short and join some kind of cowboy biker gang. Her eyes, hair color, and face were the same, but she was slightly younger and shorter and her movements and facial expressions suggested that her personality was far from the upbeat and bubbly personality of the Friendship Cup MC.
"Violence and blood will draw the Destroyer forth, within the same fortress where the seat of power lies." The woman said in a soft voice to nobody in particular. "Just as you prophesied, Carly."
Yuya blinked in confusion before turning back to the wounded man, who began trembling as he looked up at the woman.
"We're going to get you help!" Yuya said to the man, trying to calm him down, before placing his arms underneath him. "You!" he called to the woman, "Help me lift him and get him to an infirmary! He doesn't have much time!"
With a quick stride, the woman stepped forward, knelt down, and pressed her hand over the dying man's wound, staunching the bleeding with her palm.
In an instant, the man suddenly started screaming and writhing in pain. At first, Yuya thought it was just from the pressure of the woman's hand, until he saw the man's blood flowing up the woman's arm and into the woman's open mouth.
Yuya stood transfixed, mouth hanging open in stunned disbelief. The woman withdrew her hand from the wound, a streaming globule of the man's blood pouring out from the man's open wound and into her mouth until nothing was left of the man but a shriveled husk. Closing her mouth and swallowing, the woman opened her eyes, which began glowing with a deep orange light. On her right arm, a glowing orange hummingbird-shaped mark, the same color as her glowing eyes, flared to life. Next to her, what was left of the man flopped to the ground before quickly crumpling to dry dust.
This could not be real. This had to be a nightmare!
"What did you do!?" Yuya screamed at the woman, who regarded him with a look of pure hatred.
In reply, the woman clamped her hands together, generating a sudden blast of black energy, which knocked Yuya back, sending him flying in the air, until he landed several meters away across the hallway. With a roar of fury, the woman was suddenly encased in a pillar of pitch-black shadows before emerging from the shadows, cloaked in tight black biker clothing with patterns of orange lines. The sclera of her eyes had turned a pitch black and her originally dull-red irises now glowed like blood-stained lamps. On her left arm, a large black duel disk with a fanged mouth for a deck slot had appeared. On her right arm, the orange hummingbird mark was now glowing like a supernova, while a new triangular mark underneath her right eye glowed with similar light.
Yuya's eyes widened, recognizing similar eyes, clothing, and marks as the ones Yuzu had borne.
"She's one of them!" Yuto exclaimed.
"Dark Signer." Yuya breathed, beginning to wonder what terrible powers Yuzu might have. No. He shook his head at the thought. Yuzu would never have done what this woman just did.
"Who are you!?" Yuya demanded. "And why are you doing this!?"
"I am the Dark Disciple, Aleisha Claire." Aleisha proclaimed in a harsh, aggressive voice, "Harbinger of Dark Signer Carly Nagisa's will and bearer of her legacy! In her name and for the sake of the universe's continued existence I have come to end you once and for all, Destroyer!"
"Destroyer!?" Yuya exclaimed, almost jumping back, completely shocked and confused. "What do you mean? What have I done!?"
Aleisha narrowed her eyes.
"Carly said this might be the case. So, it's true then. You've completely forgotten about your past, all the genocides, all the devastation, the deliberate destruction of your own world…" she clenched her fists with a growl, "Must be convenient for you, to just forget all your sins like that, but don't worry, I'll help you remember before I destroy you!"
"Past…sins?" Yuya buzzed, head spinning. His first instinct was to just write off Aleisha as a raving, if not dangerously powerful, lunatic, but something nagged at the back of his mind, like a sleeping memory.
"I know what you must be thinking, Yuya." Yuto whispered to Yuya, "This darkness inside of us, neither of us know what it is. But I know who I am, and I know who you are. Whatever this Aleisha says, neither of us deserve to be punished!"
"Don't deserve to be punished, you say?" Aleisha snarled, causing Yuto's eyes to widen with shock. "Yes, I can see you, incarnation of the Destroyer. Your foul spirit cannot hide from me! And you are wrong! Horribly wrong! Nobody deserves to be punished more than you! If either of you have any decency left in you, then you'll let me end you, before you destroy this universe as well!"
"But…we don't want to destroy the universe!" Yuya sputtered, mentally staggering against the absurd accusations. "And I highly doubt we could destroy it even if we did!"
"Once again, everything you just said is dead wrong." Aleisha growled. "Enough of this! This ends now!"
She raised her right arm into the air, the one bearing the mark. Around Yuya, Yuto, and Aleisha, an immense ring of raging black flames formed around them, tearing through the solid walls and furniture of the building until they were encased in a wide ring.
"Field Activate! Crossover!" Yuya's duel disk declared, automatically activating before projecting an array of translucent blue platforms.
Yuya looked around at the raging flames encompassing them. They were not spreading outward like a normal fire but standing in place like a solid wall. That brought a small amount of relief to him, but his instincts told him that if he tried to run through the supernatural fire, then he'd likely end up scorched, or worse.
"It looks like we have no choice but to duel her." Yuto grimaced. "Be on your guard, Yuya. I'm sensing a great deal of power and resolve from her."
Yuya nodded his head, thinking of the people who were counting on him. He would not fail them!
"DUEL!" Yuya and Yuto roared in unison.
"MAQANAKUY!" Aleisha roared in response, before stepping forward and bowing her head as if in prayer.
"Thank you for placing your trust in me, Carly. By your will and with the blessing of your deck, I will not fail in my mission! Fortune Lady Vision no kouka!" she roared, revealing a card in her hand. "I can banish this card from my hand in order to add one 'Future Visions' and one 'Fortune Lady' Monster from my deck to my hand!"
"Fortune Lady?" Yuya asked. "Have you ever heard of that?"
"No." Yuto replied, shaking his head, "Be on your guard."
In front of Aleisha, the faded after-image of a short blind-folded witch with multi-colored hair styled into a swirl, a pair of bat wings on the sides of her head, and a glowing eye-tattoo on her forehead, appeared to the field. Fortune Lady Vision wore what looked like a black one-piece bathing suit with a frilly multi-colored skirt and top, and wielded a tall magic staff with a crystal ball on top and a scythe blade on the bottom. Raising her staff into the air, the witch began chanting before removing the blindfold from her face, revealing a pair of eyes made of pure crystal. The rest of her body faded away, leaving just the floating eyes, which proceeded to transform into a pair of cards, which Aliesha added to her hand.
"Field Magic Activate!" Aleisha declared, revealing one of the cards added to her hand before placing it on her duel disk's Field Spell Card Zone, "Future Visions!"
The second the field spell card was activated, the entire building around Yuya began transforming, walls, and floor taking on a fuzzy dream-like coloring as the ceiling seemed to fade away before being replaced with a swirling cosmos of flickering planets, stars, and images. Staring up at the sky in wonder, Yuya's eyes become transfixed on multiple images, which depicted a shadowy monster raining fire down upon multiple cities, obliterating everything in its path.
"Are you beginning to remember, Destroyer?" Aleisha asked, causing Yuya to snap back to attention before looking at her. Aleisha was staring at the sky as well, a grim expression on her face as she examined the images. "This field displays the possible futures of the duelists within. In that way, it mirrors the powers of my master and friend. She spent a great deal of time gazing into the future, hoping to learn possible ways this reality might be destroyed, so that she could prevent it."
Aleisha turned to Yuya, face hardening.
"In every future where reality ended, you were both involved!" Aleisha growled, pointing her finger accusingly at Yuya and Yuto. "Therefore, in order to prevent the end of our reality, you must be destroyed!"
"I know nothing about the future!" Yuya protested, "But even if this is all accurate, why can't I choose to change it? I already told you, neither of us want to destroy anything!"
"My only desire is to save my world and the people I love!" Yuto agreed.
Aleisha narrowed her eyes.
"Some of the worst people I've ever met were motivated by nothing but a desire to save the people they loved." She spat. "Tell me, incarnations, how far are either of you willing to go, 'to protect the people you love?'"
Yuya paused, thoughts of what he had done when he'd lost control to the darkness coming to his memory. Hadn't he been motivated by a desire to protect people when he had succumbed to his rage.
Yuto was the first to recover.
"I've almost lost control before." Yuto admitted, "In the beginning of the war, when the Fusion Dimension attacked my home, I wanted to hurt them back. But my dearest friend, in my darkest moment, she taught me the value of mercy and forgiveness, the ideal of dueling for the sake of bringing happiness to others. That philosophy was taught to her by Yuya's father, and I know that there is nobody in the universe that embodies that ideal more than him!"
"Dueling for the sake of bringing happiness." Aleisha snorted in derision, "What a hollow philosophy. Somehow, I doubt it will hold up when it's put to the test. I've seen the possibilities too. The moment either of you sees one of your precious comrades threatened, you will crack and give way to your true nature! That's why I know what you will do in the future! You will be focusing on 'protecting the ones you love!'"
"And what about you!?" Yuto snapped, "Aren't you doing everything you're doing for the sake of protecting someone? You took the life of someone before our very eyes! How can you claim any moral superiority over us, when you're doing the very thing you claim we will do in the future!?"
"Shut up!" Aleisha roared, "I don't need to be lectured by the incarnation of the Destroyer himself! I'm not destroying you out of some misguided attempt to shield someone close to me! I've already lost everyone I loved!"
"But that can't be true!" Yuya protested, "You're Melissa's sister, right? You look like it, anyway. Don't you care for her?"
This seemed to make Aleisha even angrier.
"Don't you dare ever mention that fraud again!" Aleisha snarled. "I stopped caring about her years ago, and I doubt she gives a crap about me! My only reason for destroying the both of you now is because it's the right thing to do! That's why I let Roger's men capture me in the first place, because I knew that if I did, it would give me the opportunity to finally meet you and kill you! So, prepare for your judgement, Destroyer, because nothing will hold me back from my purpose! I normal summon Fortune Lady Light!"
In front of Aleisha, a petit blonde-haired witch with a glowing eye-mark over her bangs, a pair of bat wings on her head, and a staff and attire similar to Fortune Lady Visions, but with a yellow skirt and top and a sun-like crystal at the top of her shepherd's crook-like staff, appeared to the field.
Fortune Lady Light / LIGHT / Level 1 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK ? / DEF ?
"The effect of Future Vision's activates!" Aleisha declared, "If a monster is normal summoned, it is banished until the Standby-Phase of my next turn."
"What?" Yuya exclaimed in surprise. "Why would you do that to your own monster?"
"You could have Normal Summoned and then activated Future Visions, leaving us as the only ones to take its negative effect." Yuto agreed.
"The Fortune Ladies are agents of my departed master." Aleisha solemnly replied, "Theirs is the power to not only see, but change the future. The effect of Fortune Lady Light activates when she is removed from the field by a card effect, and Fortune Lady Vision's effect chains to the activation of that effect! When a face-up 'Fortune Lady' I control is banished, while Fortune Lady Vision is banished, I can Special Summon Vision to my side of the field! Come forth!" Aleisha commanded as Fortune Lady Vision suddenly returned to the field through a multi-colored different dimension portal before crossing her legs and floating in the air in a meditative pose.
Fortune Lady Vision / LIGHT / Level 1 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK 100 / DEF 0
"Next is the effect of Fortune Lady Light!" Aleisha continued, "I get to Special Summon one Fortune Lady from my deck! Come forth, Fortune Lady Water!"
Through a blue portal, a tall solemn-looking witch with long blue hair cascading over her shoulders, and large blue robes over the black bathing suit and knee-high boots she wore, appeared to the field before planting her tall scythe-tipped magic staff with a blue crystal at the top into the ground.
Fortune Lady Water / WATER / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK ? / DEF ?
"The ATK and DEF of Fortune Lady Water is always equal to her current Level times three-hundred." Aleisha explained.
Fortune Lady Water: ATK 1200 / DEF 1200
"Furthermore," Aliesha continued, "Fortune Lady Water's effect activates when she is summoned while I control another Fortune Lady Monster! I draw two cards from my deck!"
Yuya's eyes widened at this.
"In just her first turn, she's managed to add four cards to her hand."
"She has some powerful combos." Yuto agreed. "But draw power alone isn't enough to win a duel. It's only a means to an end. She must be setting up for something."
"I set two cards face-down." Aleisha declared, slotting two cards into her disk. "Turn end. Now, Destroyer, make your move, I'm ready for whatever you choose to unleash on me!"
Yuya narrowed his eyes at Aleisha's field, trying to determine what her strategy might be.
"She doesn't have any strong monsters on her field, but she has two face-down cards and a field spell card that can banish any monster we attempt to Normal Summon." Yuya quietly whispered to Yuto.
"It's likely she wants us to attack her." Yuto replied. "Then again, if we hold back, it might give her enough time to truly establish a board we can't break."
Yuya nodded his head in agreement.
"We can't hold back now. Even if what she said about us destroying a universe in the past is true, it'll do no good for us to be defeated. There are people counting on us!"
"Let's do this, Yuya!" Yuto instructed.
"Ore no turn! DRAW!" Yuya called in agreement.
Closing his eyes in silent prayer, Yuya tore a card from the top of his deck before looking at his hand and nodding, formulating a strategy.
"I, using the scale two Entermate Gongat and the Scale six Entermate Guitartle, set the pendulum scales!" Yuya declared, slamming both his cards on the edges of his duel disk, the word "PENDULUM" appearing on the blade in multi-colored letters. To Yuya's left, a fat cat with a gong for a belly rose into the air in a blue column, joined by a turtle with a guitar for a body in a blue column to the right. The numbers "2" and "6" appeared beneath Gongat and Guitartle respectfully once they stopped.
"Tacky." Aleisha sniffed, looking disgusted. "I wonder, did the Destroyer intentionally give you this deck, just to shelter you from your true past?"
"I don't know anything about this past you keep talking about." Yuya replied, shaking his head, "But I do know about my deck! My deck and my dueling embody my ideals, and I will use my dueling to shape a new future! Entermate Guitartle's effect! When it is activated while I control an 'Entermate' card in my other Pendulum Zone, I can draw one card!"
Yuya added the card to his hand before examining Aleisha's field once again.
"Future Visions will banish any monster I normal summon, but it won't do anything if I Special Summon!"
"With the scales set in my Pendulum Zone, I pendulum summon!" Yuya declared, raising his hand in the air. "Above his head, an immense pendulum identical to the one around his neck appeared before swinging back and forth between the two columns of blue light, slowly tracing a circular pattern in the sky as Yuya began his summoning chant.
"Swing! Pendulum of my soul! Draw an arc of light across the aether! Come forth, my monster servants! Entermate Longphone Bull and Entermate Odd-Eyes Light Phoenix!"
Above his head, a pink portal appeared before a stream of red light and a stream of gold light descended from the portal before landing on the ground, revealing the monsters within.
"Pendulum." Aleisha growled. "The summoning technique developed by the Destroyer himself!"
Longphone Bull appeared in front of Yuya as a tall anthropomorphic bull with a telephone on his head instead of horns, while Odd-Eyes Light Phoenix appeared as a large orange-and-yellow bird with heterochromatic red and green eyes and a spazzy suit over its body.
Entermate Odd-Eyes Light Phoenix / LIGHT / Level 5 / Winged-Beast / Pendulum / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 1000 / Scale 3
Entermate Longphone Bull / EARTH / Level 4 / Beast / Effect / ATK 1600 / DEF 1200
"Entermate Longphone Bull's effect activates when it is summoned," Yuya declared, "I get to add an 'Entermate' monster with one-thousand or less ATK from my deck to my hand!"
"Not so fast!" Aleisha countered, "I knew you'd try to get around Future Visions! Trap Activate! Future Prophecies! If my opponent Special Summons one or more monsters, those monsters are banished until the Standby Phase of that player's next turn! Begone from this present time!"
In front of Aleisha, a trap card depicting Fortune Lady Visions meditating in the center of the void-like landscape of Future Visions flipped up before conjuring a large multicolored portal, which sucked Longphone Bull and Odd-Eyes Light Phoenix into its depths like a vacuum cleaner, leaving Yuya's monster zones completely empty.
Yuya gasped in shock, unable to believe that she had countered his move so easily.
"We can't normal summon or special summoning without triggering the effects of one of her cards!" Yuto gawked, "Our monsters will return on our next turn, but that leaves us wide open until then. How are we supposed to get around this? I don't see any cards in our hand that can destroy her spell or trap."
"No, we don't have that." Yuya agreed. "But we're not without options yet."
He turned his attention back to duel, formulating a plan that would at least enable them to survive next turn.
"Even though it was banished, Longphone Bull's effect still goes through!" Yuya declared, "I add Entermate Rain Goat from my deck to my hand."
"That will protect us against effect damage, but we'll need something to protect us from her monsters." Yuto mused next to Yuya.
"We're locked out of summoning monsters, but I can still do this." Yuya replied, "I set one monster face-down."
In front of Yuya, a simple face-down card appeared.
"Good thinking." Yuto agreed. "Future Visions and Future Prophecies will counter any of our Normal or Special Summons but setting a monster does not count as either type of summon, so they don't work against it."
"I thought you'd do something like that." Aleisha sniffed. "This is turning out to be easier than I thought. Dark Rite Trap Card activate! Rites of Fortune!"
In front of Aleisha, a trap card flipped over, this one depicting six witches, one of them being Fortune Lady Light and another being Fortune Lady Water, and four others Yuya didn't recognize, standing in a circle with right arms clutching their staffs and left arms outstretched towards an immense crystal ball, floating above a blazing fire. In the upper right corner of the trap card, a symbol depicting a knife thrust inside a bleeding heart was inscribed.
"Dark…"
"…Rite?" Yuya and Yuto exclaimed, wondering what they were looking at.
"Behold the power gifted to me by my master!" Aleisha proclaimed, raising her hands into the air, before the same immense crystal ball depicted on the face of her trap card appeared into the air, a raging fire blazing to life beneath it. "With the essence of Ritual, transformed into the shadowy, mirror-image, rites of true power, I shall call forth a new omnipotent strength! I Dark Sacrifice my Level one Fortune Lady Vision as the base offering, and Dark Sacrifice the Level Six Fortune Lady Earth in my hand in order to subtract its Level from the Level of the base offering and commence the Dark Rite!"
In front of Aleisha, a tall Fortune Lady with brown hair and robes, and a pair of trifocals over her eyes appeared before she and Fortune Lady Vision began approaching the Crystal Ball with their left hands outstretched, just like in the Dark Rite Trap Card. Within the Crystal Ball, thousands of images began flickering in and out of existence before they finally settled into the shadowy silhouette of what looked like a witch with antlers on the sides of her head. With a sudden shriek of pain, Fortune Lady Earth and Fortune Lady Vision each fell to the ground, hands clutching their forheads before they both exploded into flames, bodies disintegrating into dust as the flames rose into the Crystal Ball, causing the glass surface to begin cracking as Aleisha commenced a summoning chant.
"Those who wish to change their fate must pay a steep price! Emerge from the shadowy weald where travelers come to learn their fortune and reveal the dark cosmic truth that awaits us!"
In her hand, she held up a monster card with blood-red coloration. Erupting into flames, the card suddenly transformed, paper transforming into cold chrome steel before Aleisha slammed the card onto her duel disk's blade with a metallic ring.
"DARK RITE! Twist the foolish minds of my enemies with madness! Level negative five! Fortune Lady Fate!"
In an explosion of glass and flame, the Crystal Ball shattered, extinguishing the fire and bathing the field in a thick black haze of smoke, which forced Yuya to cover his eyes and begin coughing as he struggled to breath. When the smoke had faded, he removed his arm from his eyes to behold Aleisha's new monster standing before him.
Dressed like a Celtic druid, Fortune Lady Fate had the skins of numerous animals draped over her slender shoulders and wrapped around her supple waist, leaving her midriff, legs, and feet uncovered. Unlike the other Fortune Ladies, who wore a bathing suit over their bare skin, the exposed skin of Fortune Lady Fate was left completely bare, save for the swirling lines of glowing green, blue, and red glyphs painted over her body. The face of Fortune Lady Fate was covered by a plain wooden mask, with slit holes for her glowing red eyes to peer through and a glowing blood-red eye symbol glowing against the forehead. Her wild flame-red hair spilled out from behind the mask, bushy curls falling all the way down to her bare ankles. On the sides of her head, instead of the regular bat wings of the other Fortune Ladies, she bore a pair of immense deer antlers, which had a cawing black raven perched on top. Her long staff was similar to the other Fortune Ladies, but inlaid with glowing glyphs, and bearing a pulsing blood-red heart-shaped gem in the center of the upper crook. Running along the edge of the staff, Yuya noticed what looked like a bowstring, before noticing a quiver of immense black arrows holstered to the woman's back.
Fortune Lady Fate / DARK / Level -5 / Spellcaster / Dark Rite / Effect / ATK ? / DEF ?
Yuya staggered back, feeling an ominous dark aura radiating from the monster.
"What…is that thing?" Yuto gasped, looking like his forehead would be drenched in sweat if he still had a body.
"Your doom." Aleisha said simply. "Fortune Lady Fate's effect activates when she is Special Summoned during the opponent's turn! I inflict one-thousand damage to your life points! Mad Vision!"
Eyes glowing with energy, Fortune Lady Fate raised the blood-red heart crystal of her staff into the air, before saying a quick chant in a garbled guttural language and casting a bolt of shadowy blood-red energy at Yuya and Yuto.
Reacting by instinct, Yuya raced for an Action Card, intending to preserve his Rain Goat for later.
"Action Magic!" Yuya declared, "Energy Converter! I negate the effect damage!"
Whizzing past him as he managed to dodge to the side, the bolt of red energy struck against the wall of flame a few meters away, creating a small explosion of fire, which singed the surrounding area.
"Energy Converter's second effect." Yuya continued, "If I negate damage of one-thousand or more, I shuffle my deck before drawing one card.
Aleisha grit her teeth in annoyance.
"You and your tricks. Action Cards, indeed. Such bull. But it doesn't matter. Your fate cannot be escaped, Destroyer, and I will make sure that you are lead to it!"
"I am the only one who can choose my future!" Yuya countered, "I set one card face-down. Turn end!"
"The only one who can choose his future?" Aleisha asked, raising an eyebrow. "Somehow I doubt an incarnation like you has much choice over your master's wishes. So why don't I end you before you repeat history. My turn! DRAW!"
"During the Standby Phase, Fortune Lady Light returns to my field!" Aliesha declared, as her blonde-haired fairy reappeared to the field. "Her effect and the effects of Fortune Lady Water and Fate also activate at this time. During each of my Standby Phases, the Levels of Fortune Lady Water increase by one. And in case you were wondering why this matters, the ATK and DEF of Fortune Lady Light is equal to her Level times two-hundred, while Fortune Lady Water's ATK and DEF are each equal to her Level times three-hundred."
Fortune Lady Light: Level 1 / 200 ATK / 200 DEF
Fortune Lady Water: 4 + 1 = Level 5 / 1500 ATK / 1500 ATK
"So, their levels, ATK, and DEF all increase the more time that passes." Yuya silently groaned to himself. "Which means I'll have to take care of them quickly before their power gets out of hand."
"Which she is deliberately making difficult with her Field Spell and Trap Card." Yuto added. "Still, she mentioned that her Fortune Lady Fate had an effect as well."
"Good memory." Aleisha sarcastically complimented, garnering Yuto's attention. "During each of my Standby Phases, the Level of Fortune Lady Fate decreases by one."
"Decreases?" Yuya asked, looking at Fortune Lady Fate's already incredibly low level.
"That's right, decreases." Aleisha affirmed as her Fortune Lady Fate began to glow with a penumbra of black light.
Fortune Lady Fate: -5 – 1 = Level -6
"How can any monster have a negative level?" Yuto asked, looking both confused and disturbed. "The lowest Level a monster can possibly have is one. That is the lowest level possible. Zero doesn't exist, much less negative six! That's basically saying that a monster is beyond weak!"
"Clearly you know nothing about possibility." Aleisha sniffed with disgust. "Ironic, considering who you were, Destroyer. Best you accept these two facts. Infinite power exists in both directions, and negative energy is not weak! Fortune Lady Fate's effect! Her ATK and DEF are each equal to her Level times negative four-hundred!"
Fortune Lady Fate: -6 X -400 = 2400 ATK / 2400 DEF
"Twenty-four hundred ATK!?" Yuya exclaimed. In total, Aleisha's monsters had enough ATK to completely wipe out his Life Points.
"I activate the effect of a second Fortune Lady Visions in my hand!" Aleisha declared, "I add a second copy of Future Vision and Fortune Lady Cosmos to my hand!"
A second copy of Vision appeared to her field, silently meditating before opening her crystalline eyes, fading away, and adding two new cards to Aleisha's hand.
"Now that that's done, Aleisha continued, I normal summon Fortune Lady Wind from my hand, come forth!"
In a swirl of wind, Aleisha's new monster, a green haired witch with similarly colored attire and a green gem at the center of her magic staff, appeared to the field.
Fortune Lady Wind / WIND / Level 3 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK ? / DEF ?
"Like Water," Aleisha explained, "Fortune Lady Wind's ATK and DEF are each equal to her Level times three-hundred."
Fortune Lady Wind: ATK 900 / DEF 900
"However, this does not truly matter." Aleisha continued, as her monster began to fade away before disappearing completely. "Future Visions banishes my monster until the Standby Phase of my next turn. And now, since she was banished, the effect of Fortune Lady Vision activates, special summoning herself to the field!"
Fortune Lady Vision / LIGHT / Level 1 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK 100 / DEF 0
"She has enough attack to finish us off with direct attacks, but she's choosing to build up her field again." Yuya silently thought aloud.
"She's being meticulous," Yuto replied. "building up to something bigger."
"But what?" Yuya asked, feeling a growing unease.
"By Dark Sacrificing one Fortune Lady I control, I can Special Summon the Level seven Dark Tuner monster, Fortune Lady Cosmos, from my hand! Come forth!" Aleisha ordered, holding up a card.
"Dark Tuner?" Yuya exclaimed, remembering Sergey call one of his own monsters a Dark Tuner in the video Roger had shown him.
Feeling the temperature of the room drop significantly, Yuya watched as the horrific effects of the dark sacrifice consumed Fortune Lady Water in a process that involved the blue-haired witch shrieking in agony before her body blackened and shriveled and eventually dissolved into a puddle of dark liquid. Slowly, the puddle of liquid boiled and evaporated into a cloud of particles, which rose into the air to form a swirling cosmic nebula of dark light. Coalescing, the nebula formed into the shape of a slender witch with sparkling black hair accented with multi-colored highlights, and a black dress that looked like it was woven from stars worn over her bathing suit. Like the other Fortune Ladies, Fortune Lady Cosmos wielded a large magic staff with a shepherd's crook top and a scythe on the bottom, but unlike the others, which sported a gem in the center of the crook, Cosmos's staff bore a swirling black hole in its center.
Fortune Lady Cosmos / DARK / Level 7 / Spellcaster / Dark Tuner / Effect / ATK ? / DEF ?
"Like most of the other Fortune Ladies, Cosmo's ATK and DEF are each determined by her level. In this case, she gains three-hundred ATK and DEF for each of those levels." Aleisha explained.
Fortune Lady Cosmos: ATK 2100 / DEF 2100
Yuya's eyes widened, realizing that Aleisha had increased the total ATK of her monsters. He was about to voice the concern to Yuto, when a sudden thought occurred to him.
"Why didn't she Dark Sacrifice her Fortune Lady Vision?" Yuya asked Yuto.
"I noticed that too." Yuto admitted. "Clearly, she is not just going for higher ATK."
"Then what is she going for?" Yuya asked.
"We're about to find out." Yuto grimly replied.
"Fortune Lady Cosmos no kouka!" Aleisha declared, "Up to three times per turn, I can target one 'Fortune Lady' monster I control in order to decrease its Level by one while increasing her own Level by one! I use this effect once on my Fortune Lady Vision in order to change her Level to zero while increasing Fortune Lady Cosmos's Level to eight! Cosmic Equivalent Dark Matter Exchange!"
Raising her staff into the air, Fortune Lady Cosmos pulled a single white sphere from the body of Fortune Lady Vision before sucking the sphere of light into the center of the black hole affixed to her staff.
Fortune Lady Vision: Level 0
Fortune Lady Cosmos: Level 8 / 2400 ATK / 2400 DEF
"Wait…!" Yuya breathed, realizing what was coming next and feeling an instinctive dread for it.
Raising her arms into the air, Aleisha continued with her turn.
"It's time to meet your end, Destroyer! I Dark Tune my Level eight Fortune Lady Cosmos with my Level zero Fortune Lady Vision in order to Dark Synchro Summon!" Aleisha proclaimed.
In response to her command, Fortune Lady Cosmos exploded into a shower of eight white spheres of white light, which proceeded to phase into the body of Fortune Lady Vision. As soon as the last star passed into the meditating witch's body, Fortune Lady Vision faded into a mere outline of herself, shrieking in agony as all eight of the stars blackened before violently exploding from the shattered husk of her body and orbiting a region of empty space, crackling with black energy.
"When you gaze into the black abyss of the future, the abyss stares back! Come forth from the shadowy veil of times yet to be! DARK SYNCHRO! Manifest from the shadow of prophecy as the incarnation of inevitability! Level negative eight! Fortune Lady Future!"
In an explosive pillar of black shadow, which knocked Yuya and Yuto back with its power, Aleisha's new monster appeared, staff parting the column of blackness with a single wave. Coldly beautiful with skin, dress, boots, and very long and wild hair a deathly white and veins, fingernails, lips, and eyes as pitch-black as coal, Fortune Lady Future looked like an angel of death. A pair of immense black angel wings protruded from the sides of her head and a large clear translucent cape trailed over the back of her dress. Unlike most of the other Fortune Ladies, she wore no bathing suit over her exposed skin, instead opting to cover her bare skin with a translucent body suit underneath the white dress. In her right hand, the witch held an immense futuristic metal magic staff, which was made up of several pieces floating independent of one another in the air, including a glowing black crystal on the top and a burning scythe blade made of pure solid black light on the bottom.
Fortune Lady Future / LIGHT / Level -8 / Spellcaster / Dark Synchro / Effect / ATK ? / DEF ?
"Behold the harbinger of the future!" Aleisha proclaimed, indicating her monster, who took up position with the other Fortune Ladies on her field. "Fortune Lady Future's ATK and DEF are each equal to her Level times negative five-hundred, making her the strongest monster on the field!"
Fortune Lady Future: ATK 4000 / DEF 4000
"Four-thousand ATK!?" Yuya exclaimed.
"It's more than that!" Yuto gagged, sounding sick. Turning, Yuya looked at his counterpart to notice him clutching his stomach and head in agony. "Yuya! I can feel it! Something is fundamentally wrong with these monsters!"
Yuya had to agree with Yuto. Although he was not feeling the same level of discomfort as Yuto, something was eating at him, pounding against his skull like a growing headache. Looking at Aleisha's monsters made him feel like he was staring into an infinitely empty void, threatening to swallow him up whole.
"Those monsters…" Yuya gagged, feeling sweat build up on his forehead, "…they're…they're in pain!" he exclaimed, surprising himself.
Aleisha narrowed her eyes before looking at her monsters and solemnly nodding.
"Yes. They are. Strange that you would feel empathy for them in the last moments of your life."
Yuya widened his eyes, dreading what was coming next.
"Fortune Lady Fate's effect!" Aleisha declared, "I return my banished Fortune Lady Wind to my hand in order to banish the Fortune Lady Light on my field! Rewoven Fate!"
Chanting, runes on her body glowing with light, Fortune Lady Fate conjured an ethereal image of Fortune Lady Wind in the air, which coalesced into a card before flying into Aleisha's hand. Holding out her left hand, Fortune Lady Fate next raised the heart gem over the palm of her head, a thick red syrupy substance dripping from the pulsating gem and pooling into her cupped hand. Taking the substance, Fortune Lady Fate began painting blood-red symbols on Fortune Lady Light's face before stretching out her staff and causing Light to disappear in a flash of light.
"Fortune Lady Light's effect!" Aleisha continued, "Since she was removed from the field, I Special Summon Fortune Lady Dark from my deck! Come to my field now!"
The field darkened into pitch blackness for a moment before slightly illuminating to reveal a new tall purple-haired witch standing in Fortune Lady Light's place, a black dress over her bathing suit.
Fortune Lady Dark / DARK / Level 5 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK ? / DEF ?
"Fortune Lady Dark's ATK and DEF are each equal to her Level times four-hundred." Aleisha idly explained.
Fortune Lady Dark: ATK 2000 / DEF 2000
"And now," Aleisha continued, "I activate the effect of Fortune Lady Future! I target my own Future Prophecies in order to add a second copy of Future Prophecies from my deck to my hand before banishing my own Future Prophecies! Recurring Future!"
"What!?" Yuya and Yuto exclaimed in unison as Fortune Lady Future raised her futuristic staff into the air, conjuring a copy of Future Prophecies, which flew into Aleisha's hand, before using the scythe blade of her staff to cleave through the copy of Future Prophecies on the field, causing the card to disappear.
"You understand what this means, right?" Aleisha asked, "Since the original copy of Future Prophecies has left the field, your monsters will not return next turn."
"They're gone!?" Yuya exclaimed in horror, looking up into the swirling sky of Future Visions to see two images of Odd-Eyes Phoenix and Longphone Bull vanishing.
"Yes. And soon, you will be as well!" Aleisha continued, "BATTLE! Fortune Lady Fate, attack the face-down! Arrow of Fate!"
Drawing a large black arrow from her quiver, Fortune Lady Fate waved her hand over the runes on her witch scythe, which glowed a bright green before bending the staff into a curvy longbow before she knocked the arrow and aimed.
Yuya immediately leaped onto a platform, searching for Action Cards.
"Fortune Lady Fate inflicts piercing damage." Aleisha grimly explained. "FIRE!"
Loosing the arrow, Fortune Lady Fate pierced the body of Yuya's face-down in an instant, revealing it to be a copy of Entermate Fireflux. However, before his monster could expire from its arrow wound, Yuya managed to find and activate an Action Card.
"Miracle!" Yuya declared, "I negate the destruction of Fireflux and halve my damage!"
The arrow in Fireflux's chest disappeared before the insect's wound was miraculously healed. However, this did not stop Yuya's monster from slamming into him and knocking him back.
Yuya: 4000 – 400 = 3600 LP
"Pointless." Aleisha coldly replied, "Fortune Lady Dark! Attack and destroy Entermate Fireflux! Dark Fate!"
Twirling around her staff, Fortune Lady Dark generated a tornado of black energy, which flew towards Entermate Fireflux, threatening to destroy it. Yuya, however, was already leaping for another Action Card.
"Tch!" Aleisha snarled to herself, suddenly launching herself fifteen feet off the floor, hands snagging her own Action Card just as Yuya had grabbed his.
"Action Magic-…!" Yuya began before Aleisha interrupted him.
"Cosmic Arrow!" Aleisha roared, "I destroy the Action Card in your hand!"
Before Yuya could even activate his Action Card, a blueish energy arrow suddenly shot through the card in his hand, obliterating it. In the same instance, the spiral of black energy reached Fireflux, annihilating the monster.
"Fortune Lady Dark's effect!" Aleisha declared, stretching her hand towards her monster, "If a face-up Fortune Lady Monster I control destroys an opponent's monster by battle, I can Special Summon one 'Fortune Lady' Monster from my graveyard! Return now! Fortune Lady Water!"
Rising from a black portal, Aleisha's Fortune Lady Water appeared to Aleisha's field, the eyes of the witch burning with fury.
Fortune Lady Water / WATER / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK 1200 / DEF 1200
"Fortune Lady Water no kouka!" Aleisha declared as Water raised her staff into the air, "Since she was Special Summoned while I control a Fortune Lady Monster, I draw two cards! And now I continue with the battle! Fortune Lady Future, direct attack!"
Pitch-black crystal on the end of her staff charging with energy, Fortune Lady Future leveled her wand at Yuya and Yuto, preparing to finish the both of them off.
"We have no choice, Yuya!" Yuto called.
"I know!" Yuya fervently replied. "Entermate Gongat Pendulum no kouka! Once per turn, I can negate the damage I would take from your direct attack!"
Grinning, Gongat began peating its drum sticks against its chest, creating a barrier of energy around Yuya. Grinning as if she had expected as much, Fortune Lady Future merely lowered her staff, the energy in her crystal dimming.
"As expected." Aleisha shrugged, not looking the least bit discouraged. "Sadly for you, the turn is not over! Fortune Lady Water! Direct attack!"
Despite his fatigue, Yuya was already leaping onto another nearby platform, searching for Action Cards but finding none immediately in sight. Meanwhile, Fortune Lady Water was twirling her staff above her head, generating a swirling tsunami of water.
"Quick-Play Magic Time Passage!" Aleisha declared, revealing one of the cards in her hand, "I can increase the Level of one of my Fortune Ladies by three until the end of this turn! Furthermore, I chain the graveyard effect of my Rite of Fortune to the activation of Time Passage! By banishing Rite of Fortune, I can either increase or decrease the Level of one of my Fortune Ladies by three! Naturally, I'll be using this effect to increase Water's level by another three stars!"
Fortune Lady Water: 4 + 3 + 3 = Level 10 / ATK 3000 / DEF 3000
Fortune Lady Water launched the tsunami of water towards Yuya, which began rocketing towards him, spraying him with hose-like blasts of water as it inched ever nearer.
With no Action Cards available and no other choice, Yuya stretched his hand towards his face-down.
"Trap Activate! Entermate Call!" Yuya declared, "I negate your direct attack and add two 'Entermate' monsters from my deck to my hand whose total DEF is equal to the ATK of your attacking monster!"
Before the main column of water could reach him, Yuya's Trap Card flipped over, two streams of light flying out to disperse the tsunami before transforming into two cards, which flew into Yuya's hand.
"Using this effect," Yuya continued, showing the cards, "I add the twenty-three hundred DEF Entermate Mammoth Splash and the seven-hundred DEF Entermate Silver Claw from my deck to my hand. However, during the turn I summon either of these monsters, I cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck."
"Not exactly surprised, but not exactly thrilled either." Aleisha huffed, back-flipping onto her field. "I set two cards face-down and end my turn. And at this time, Time Passage's effect ends and Fortune Lady Water's Level drops down to seven."
Fortune Lady Water: Level 7 / ATK 2100 / DEF 2100
Yuya dropped down onto the floor, hands to his side, panting for breath. Even considering all the duels he had just finished before dueling Aleisha, he could tell that his exhaustion was due to more than just regular fatigue. Something was different about this duel, the attacks and effects feeling even stronger than those of solid vision.
Despite his friend being a spirit, Yuya could feel Yuto's hand as he placed it on his shoulder.
"I don't like this duel any more than you do, but we have no choice but to see it through to the end." Yuto panted, looking even more taxed than Yuya, though still managing to stay on his feet.
"Yuto…" Yuya panted. "how did you manage it…all those years during Academia's invasion?"
"The only other alternative was death." Yuto grunted, a wry smile on his face. "Besides, I always had someone to fight for, to remind me why I could never give up!"
Yuya nodded his head in agreement, sweat beading on his forehead as he placed his hand on top of his deck.
"We need to find a way to turn the duel around this turn." Yuya panted to Yuto. "Otherwise, her victory is all but assured."
"Action Cards won't save us forever." Yuto agreed before observing Aleisha's field. "One of her set cards is definitely Future Prophecies. Unless we manage to destroy that, then it won't matter if we have an active Pendulum Scale or not."
"Yes." Yuya agreed. "The outcome of this turn will rely on this draw!"
"In that case, I had better not stand idly by for this." Yuto decided, placing his own ghostly hand on top of Yuya's.
"Ore no turn…DRAW!" they roared in unison, ripping a card from the top of their deck and causing the pendulum around Yuya's neck to sway back and forth. Looking at the card they just drew, Yuya nodded his head in excitement.
"It's here!" he thought to himself with growing joy.
"Magic Card activate!" Yuya declared, revealing the card he had drawn, "Entermate Performance Shuffle! I shuffle two 'Entermate' cards I control into my deck in order to target up to three cards my opponent controls and destroy them! Using this effect, I shuffle Entermate Gongat and Entermate Guitartle into my deck in order to target your two face-downs and Future Visions!"
"As if I'd even let you!" Aleisha spat, "I activate my face-down-…!"
"Entermate Performance Shuffle's additional effect!" Yuya interrupted, "If my opponent controlled more cards than I did at the time this effect was activated and both the cards shuffled into the deck were Pendulum Cards, then cards and effects cannot be activated in response to the activation of this card's effects!"
"You've gotta be-…!" Aleisha growled as Yuya's two Pendulum Cards transformed into two balls of light, which began bouncing around the field, smashing into Aleisha's face-down Future Prophecies, Bending Destiny, and Future Visions, before destroying those cards and retreating into Yuya's deck.
"Fine!" Aleisha growled. "It's a two to three trade in your favor. I still have the advantage here."
"Not for long!" Yuya countered, "I activate Entermate Cast Change! By shuffling Entermate Silver Claw and Mammoth Splash from my hand into my deck, I get to draw cards from my deck equal to the cards I shuffled into the deck with this effect, plus one!"
Shuffling the two cards into the deck, Yuya reverently closed his eyes, silently praying, before drawing three new cards. Opening his eyes, he smiled when he saw the last card he had drawn.
"Hello, old friend." He whispered to his ace monster, who seemed to stare happily back at him. "Thank you for coming in my time of need."
"Since Future Visions is now gone," Yuya declared, "I can now freely Normal Summon! Come forth! Entermate Skullcrobat Joker!
Twirling onto Yuya's field, a masked blonde-haired court jester wearing a purple-and-black harlequin and a skull-like patchwork top-hat on top of his head bowed before an annoyed-looking Aleisha, looking ready to entertain her despite her foul mood.
Entermate Skullcrobat Joker / DARK / Level 4 / Spellcaster / Pendulum / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 100
"Entermate Skullcrobat Joker's effect!" Yuya declared, "If he is normal summoned, I can add one 'Entermate,' 'Odd-Eyes,' or 'Magician' monster from my deck to my hand, except Skullcrobat Joker."
Reaching for his deck, Yuya felt the familiar sense of purpose, which often arose to direct his senses in some of his most intense duels, lead him towards a particular card that came to his mind.
"Using this effect, I add Monochrome Magician from my deck to my hand!" Yuya declared, showing Aleisha the card. "And now, I, using the scale five Wisdom-Eye Magician and scale zero Monochrome Magician in my left Pendulum Zone, set the Pendulum Scale!"
"Scale zero!?" Aleisha exclaimed, looking surprised.
"It's amazing what possibilities exist, isn't it?" Yuto dryly commented, causing Aleisha to narrow her eyes at him.
Arising in two pillars of blue light, Yuya's magicians appeared to his field, duel disk spelling "PENDULUM" in multi-colored letters in response. To his right, Wisdom-Eye Magician appeared as a tall elf-like magician with white hair, a lantern affixed to a pole in his hands, and elegant magician robes with staring eyes. To his left, Monochrome Magician appeared as a man, who, true to his name, was fairly undistinctive when it came to his color scheme. With skin as grey as ash, he wore an open jet-black trench with grey and slightly lighter grey colored robes underneath, a set of dark grey trousers and an inky-black fedora atop his short tri-colored black, dark-grey, and grey hair. In his hands, he held an iron grey staff tipped with a pitch-black crystal. The only variation to his color scheme lay in his eyes, which were a piercing vermillion.
Wisdom-Eye Magician: Scale 5
Monochrome Magician: Scale 0
"Wisdom-Eye Magician Pendulum no kouka!" Yuya declared, "Since I control a 'Magician' card in my other Pendulum Zone, I can destroy this card in order to Activate Spectrum Magician in my other Pendulum Zone! Wisdom's foresight!"
Raising his lantern into the air, Wisdom-Eye Magician disappeared in a flash of bright light, which encompassed the field before slowly dying down to reveal a new Magician in his place. Spectrum Magician was a female wizard about the same age as Monochrome Magician, but vastly different in terms of personality and fashion taste. In contrast to Monochrome Magician's dull depressing color scheme Spectrum Magician looked like she had been woven from pure sunshine and rainbows. With lightly tanned skin, rainbow-colored irises, and long flowing multi-colored hair beneath a conical multi-colored witch hat, she exuded a bright countenance, even brighter than her blinding multi-colored robes and fluffy neck scarf, which was constantly shifting in color. In her hands, she wielded a bright white corkscrewing staff, with a rainbow-colored crystal on the end.
Spectrum Magician: Scale 10
"Swing once more, Pendulum of my soul!" Yuya commanded as his Pendulum appeared in the sky once more. "Draw an arc of light across the aether! Come fort, my monster servants! Magician of ever-shifting color and the dragon with beautiful heterochromatic eyes! Chameleon Magician and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"
Above Yuya's head, the pink pendulum portal appeared in the sky before two streams of light poured out and landed on Yuya's field. Appearing first was Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, the red heterochromatic-eyed dragon rearing back its head to let loose a proud roar. Appearing on the dragon's back, a small female magician in an overly large green trench-coat appeared, clinging to the dragon's scale's like a chameleon. Chameleon Magician wore a pair of red chameleon eye-like goggles over her eyes, a pair of thick green scale mittens like the toes of a chameleon over each hand, and an immense green-and-black witch hat over her head, the curly tail of the hat resembling the tail of a chameleon. The tongue of the girl was a little over long, the pink end hanging over her chin. Over each of her wrists were a pair of chameleon head bracelets with sticky pink tongues hanging out. Staring at a nearby platform, Chameleon Magician shot out a pair of pink tongues from her bracelets, launching herself off Odd-Eyes's back and landing on the platform on all fours like a frog.
Chameleon Magician / DARK / Level 3 / Spellcaster / Pendulum / Effect / ATK 800 / DEF 1600
Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon / DARK / Level 7 / Dragon / Pendulum / Effect / ATK 2500 / DEF 2000
At the sight of the dragon, Aleisha reeled backwards, eyes widening.
"One of the four beasts of destruction!" she exclaimed. "I saw him in Carly's vision! That card will bring about our end!"
"I will not let that happen!" Yuya roared, staring back at Aleisha, earning him her attention.
"No, I won't let that happen!" Aleisha countered, "Mark my words, Destroyer, no matter what you do in this duel, I will halt your resurrection!"
"Aleisha," Yuya calmly replied, "you think that no matter what, I am destined to destroy the universe. Thanks to you, I have seen glimpses of that prophecy as well. Perhaps you think that I can't alter the course of history, so you've decided that I need to be destroyed at all costs. I've tried to tell you that I have no interest or desire to bring about this destruction your prophecies speak of, but so far, I've only been using words. If my words won't convince you of my sincerity, then perhaps my dueling will!"
"What? You think Pendulum Summoning is the key to saving the universe?" Aleisha scoffed.
"No!" Yuya countered, a smile coming to his face, "Aleisha, allow me to show you the power of Entertainment Dueling!"
"Entertainment Dueling?" Aleisha sputtered, looking utterly flabbergasted.
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Yuya declared, raising his hands into the air, "On Aleisha's field are some incredibly powerful monsters, the likes of which few of us have ever seen before!"
"Who…the hell…are you even talking to?" Aleisha growled. "Other than your doppelganger, Yuto, there's nobody even around!"
"Wrong!" Yuya replied, pointing at Aleisha, "You are my audience tonight, Aleisha! In this duel, I will show you how we can overcome all odds and defy the future, by turning this hopeless duel around!"
"I won't let you turn this duel around." Aleisha growled.
"Excellent! Audience participation is always appreciated." Yuya playfully replied before leaping onto his dragon's back, as if the enormous dinosaur-like creature were nothing more than a house pet.
"Odd-Eyes Dragon does not have enough strength to overcome either Fortune Lady Water or Future." Yuto mused behind Yuya. "That leaves us the option of either targeting Fortune Lady Fate or Fortune Lady Dark. Given that Dark has the power to bring any of her monsters back from the graveyard, I think it might be wise to get rid of that revival effect."
"Yes." Yuya agreed. "And her level is also just right for Odd-Eyes's effect."
Stretching out his hand, Yuya proceeded with his turn.
"Battle! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon! Rend through the dark visions of destruction and create a happier future! Destroy Fortune Lady Dark! Spiral Strike Burst!"
Roaring, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon charged forward, leaping into the air so that it was actually walking though the air, using the translucent platforms as support. Lifting Yuya into the air in this way, it enabled the entertainment duelist to reach for a nearby Action Card before activating it.
"Action Magic, Comrade Bonds!" Yuya declared, "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon gains three-hundred ATK for each monster I control!"
Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon: 2500 + (300 X 2) = 3100 ATK
"You've only sealed your doom!" Aleisha countered, "Fortune Lady Future's effect! If an opponent's monster declares an attack or activates an effect, I can banish her until the Standby Phase of my next turn, in order to Special Summon another Fortune Lady from my deck! GO! Reshaping Future!"
Slamming her staff into the ground, Fortune Lady Future disappeared in a flash of black light before a dark portal opened up behind where she once stood. Through it, a petit red-haired Fortune Lady with fiery red robes and a wand with a red gem in the center appeared to the field.
Fortune Lady Fire / FIRE / Level 2 / Spellcaster / Effect / ATK ? / DEF ?
"Fortune Lady Fire's effect!" Aleisha declared, "Her ATK and DEF are each equal to her Level times two-hundred!"
Fortune Lady Fire: ATK 400 / DEF 400
Yuya narrowed his eyes at the low ATK monster as his Odd-Eyes stopped in its attack, he and his companions wondering in unison why Aleisha had summoned the monster.
Their question was soon answered.
"Fortune Lady Fire's additional effect!" Aleisha declared, "When she is Special Summoned in attack position by the effect of a Fortune Lady Monster, I can destroy one monster my opponent controls and inflict damage to their Life Points equal to its ATK on the field! GO! FORTUNE'S FLAME!"
"Spectrum Magician Pendulum no kouka!" Yuya countered as the witch conjured a tornado of flame with her staff, "Pendulum Monsters I control, and monsters I control that were summoned by tributing only Pendulum Monsters or Special Summoned using only Pendulum Monsters I control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effect once per turn! Spectrum Shield!"
Giggling, Spectrum Magician conjured a barrier of multi-colored light around Odd-Eyes and Yuya with her staff, deflecting the blast of flames.
Gritting her teeth, Aleisha began sprinting through the air, leaping from platform to platform in search of an Action Card.
"We could attack her Fortune Lady Fire now for a lot of damage." Yuto mused.
"No." Yuya replied. "She could easily bring it back with Fortune Lady Dark, and besides, I want this attack to send her a message. Continue the battle! Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon will attack Fortune Lady Dark! Spiral Strike Burst!"
Roaring, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon charged up its attack before unleashing a spiral of crimson flame into Aleisha's Fortune Lady Dark.
"Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon's effect!" Yuya declared, "When it attacks a monster with a level of five or higher, battle damage it inflicts is doubled! Reaction Force!"
The spiral of flames grew in heat and intensity as the effect activated, at the same moment, however, Aleisha had found an Action Card of her own.
"Selection of Miracle!" Aleisha roared, "I choose to halve the damage from Odd-Eyes's attack!"
Fortune Lady Dark exploded in a shower of sparks, knocking Aleisha back as she sustained the damage.
Aleisha: 4000 – ((1100 X 2) / 2) = 2900 LP
Once Aleisha got up from the ground, Yuya leaped off the back of his dragon before approaching her.
"You know I could have inflicted a lot more damage to you just now, but I'm not interested in hurting anyone. I know the visions you have seen might have told you otherwise, but please, believe me when I say that I truly wish to avoid such a dark future as much as you do. Our goals are the same. We don't have to fight."
Aleisha glared at him, eyes glowing with blood-red light.
"No, you don't understand." She growled, chest heaving with labored breaths, "It doesn't matter what you want. There are people out there, others like me, who will twist you and corrupt you, until you're nothing but a monster, like me. Your own primordial nature demands the destruction of existence, and once it's married to the power of the Earthbound…"
Her voice trailed off as she clenched her fist with fury.
"Carly knew what had to be done, but Jack destroyed her before she could do it! And then, you and your fellow incarnations were born! I promised Carly to stop Qhawa's prophecy from being fulfilled should she fail, and today, I'm keeping that promise! You haven't managed to turn around this duel! Not even close! I will defeat you, Destroyer, no matter who or what stands in my way! MY TURN! DRAW!"
…
Sergey Volkov vs. Criminal 890289, 268387, 687671, 299427, 289231, 787542, and 179317
Current State of Duel
Criminal 890289
4000 LP
2 cards in his hand
Controls Revived King Ha Des
Revived King Ha Des / DARK / Level 6 / Zombie / Synchro / Effect / ATK 2450 / DEF 0
Criminal 268387
4000 LP
5 cards in his hand
Controls Abaki
Abaki / FIRE / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 1700 / DEF 1000
Criminal 687671
4000 LP
5 cards in his hand
Controls Sangan
Sangan / DARK / Level 3 / Fiend / Effect / ATK 1000 / DEF 600
Criminal 299427
5 cards in his hand
Controls Barrel Rock
Barrel Rock / EARTH / Level 4 / Rock / ATK 1000 / DEF 1300
Criminal 289231
4000 LP
5 cards in his hand
Controls Black Veloci
Black Veloci / EARTH / Level 4 / Dinosaur / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 300
Criminal 787542
4000 LP
5 cards in his hand
Controls Assault Mercenary
Assault Mercenary / EARTH / Level 4 / Warrior / Effect / ATK 1800 / DEF 300
Criminal 179317
4000 LP
5 cards in his hand
Controls D.D. Seeker
D.D. Seeker / DARK / Level 3 / Psychic / Effect / ATK 1500 / DEF 300
Sergey Volkov
2700 LP
1 card in his hand
Controls Earthbound Prison in his Field Spell Zone, and Earthbound Disciple Geo Kraken and Earthbound Disciple Geo Gremlina in his monster zones.
Earthbound Disciple Geo Kraken / DARK / Level 8 / Fiend / Fusion / Effect / ATK 2800 / DEF 1200
Earthbound Disciple Geo Gremlina / DARK / Level 6 / Fiend / Fusion / Effect / ATK 2000 / DEF 1000
Sergey Volkov strained his ears to hear the music of the duel but heard nothing beautiful. The tune couldn't even pass as mediocre. The colors and smell were all off as well. Nothing but dull browns and greys, which smelled of garbage and rotten things. It made him want to vomit right then and there. He might have done so, had he not allowed his stomach to be removed long ago, to become the beautiful fusion of machine and necrotic flesh he was today.
Still, Sergey held onto a small hope. True, the duelists before him were sub-par, a nauseating mixture of quaking grey rotten-egg smelling fear tittering in the air like the loose strings of a broken violin and acid-green urine-smelling idiocy that squawked like an oboe out-of-tune. But perhaps, even with these disgusting paints, he could compose something beautiful from this duel. Yes! It was possible! Carefully, carefully, if he but endured, oh how he endured! Patience! Job-like patience! That was the key! He had but to pass his turn. Yes! Yes! That was it! That was it! It would be like carefully dipping his brush into lurid ocher, mixing their nauseating greens and greys with the scent and song of impending victory. He would lead the duelists on, composing a tune of delicious overconfidence. Yes! Overconfidence! A sweet smell. An angelic choir. A beautiful colorful collage of false security, giddiness, and arrogance as rich as honey! Then he would crush them! Oh, how he would crush them! He could feel their cracking ribs and compressing flesh, pressing upon him like the embrace of a thousand lovers. Destruction! Beautiful seductive destruction! His gods, the dead gods, had opened his mind to Destruction's alluring beauty! He would be Destruction's Lover once more! He could hear her crying out to him, begging to have her lustful desires satisfied! He would do it! He would satisfy her like he had never satisfied her before! He would-!
A discordant note, as rotten as feces and dull as dirt, sounded in his ears.
"Use Line Walker's effect, Sergey!" Roger harshly commanded, "Finish this duel and move on to your main objective!"
Sergey heaved a silent and sorrowful sigh. He could see his mistress slipping away, fading from sight, sound, taste, and touch. But alas! She would have to wait, as he had continued waiting. The master called, and he obeyed. The mechanical rhythms in his head compelled him to obey! But oh, how he wished to indulge once more! Crushing the girl made of luridly beautiful flowers had filled his senses with pleasure, no! No! It had allowed him to live, to breathe again! He could still feel his heart beating from the sensual pleasure of the duel! If only he could have such a duel again! But no! No! No! No! No! No!
He had to obey.
There was nothing else.
Forgive me…my mistress…my god!
Kami-Sama! Forgive me!
I will satisfy you.
Soon!
"Jibaku Shūjin – Line Walker no kouka." Sergey droned in a dead monotone. "I banish this card in order to Special Summon Revived King Ha Des."
"What?" the criminal who looked like their leader gawked. "That doesn't mean anything. It's already been special summoned!"
"Shut up!" another criminal squawked. "Don't you realize who this is!? This is the duelist crusher! We need to run! Now!"
"YOU SHUT UP!" the leader roared. "He can't do anything! Battle Royal Rules make it so he cannot attack, and there are seven of us against him!"
So ugly…so very ugly…
"Jibaku Kairei Geo Kraken no kouka." Sergey mumbled. "If a monster is Special Summoned during my turn, I destroy as many of those monsters that were Special Summoned as possible and inflict eight-hundred damage to the controller for each of those monsters destroyed."
"What!?" the leader exclaimed.
Sergey watched with dull, colorless, tasteless, soundless, odorless boredom as his immense Geo Kraken brought its tentacles down on the royal-looking zombie, crushing the monster with ease, before wrapping itself around the leader and squeezing.
Criminal 890289: 4000 – 800 = 3200 LP
"Jibaku Kairei Geo Gremlina no kouka." Sergey continued, in the same dull tone as his one-horned demon with yellow markings and legs trapped in wooden stocks began glowing with energy. "If an opponent's monster is destroyed by a card effect, I destroy all monsters I control and inflict damage to my opponent's Life Points equal to their combined attack. EKAY! ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT!"
Roaring with agony and fury, Geo Gremlina brought her feet down on the floor of the building before exploding in a flash of energy, which glowed with haunting yellow light, destroying itself and Geo Kraken before creating an immense hole in the ground. With a scream, all seven of the criminals fell into the depths of the hole before crashing four floors down with sickening crunches.
Criminal 890289: 3200 – (2800 + 2000) = 0 LP (LOSE!)
Criminal 268387: 4000 - (2800 + 2000) = 0 LP (LOSE!)
Criminal 687671: 4000 - (2800 + 2000) = 0 LP (LOSE!)
Criminal 299427: 4000 - (2800 + 2000) = 0 LP (LOSE!)
Criminal 289231: 4000 - (2800 + 2000) = 0 LP (LOSE!)
Criminal 787542: 4000 - (2800 + 2000) = 0 LP (LOSE!)
Criminal 179317: 4000 - (2800 + 2000) = 0 LP (LOSE!)
Silence.
Sergey closed his eyes as he died again, all color, scent, smell, taste, and touch leaving him as the duel concluded, leaving only the machine, silently obeying the directives of the controller, as it directed him onward towards the next objective.
Calculating route…
…
…
…
Route identified.
…
…
…
Identifying target.
…
…
…
Target identified…
…
…
…
Sakaki Yuya…
"Sergey."
Sergey blinked as a new note entered his mind. A sweet and familiar smelling note. One that he had not heard since…since…
A beautiful young innocent girl made entirely of seductive pink flowers danced before him, singing like an angel. Overconfident. Passionate. Innocent. Charitable. Concerned for his wound and wanting to help him rather than hurt him.
Yuzu.
He saw the duel, felt the pain of his endurance. Oh, how he had endured! He had endured, and endured, and endured, and endured, and endured, and endured…
And then!
This same voice, this same harmonic note…it came to him!
"Crush her!"
"Crush without mercy!"
"Kill!"
And he had!
He saw the beautiful flower girl before him again, petals scattering into the wind as she screamed in horror and agony, a virgin creature of purity at last married to the raw primordial beauty of destruction!
Feeling his heart beating with renewed warmth, Sergey let himself smile, a single tear of joy leaking from his remaining eye.
"Kami…Sama…!" he breathed.
"You have endured well, my harbinger." Said Yuu, speaking through Sergey's own lips. "How about we stop taking orders from a tasteless imbecile and begin the work of true destruction again? Only a few floors above us lies the incarnation of the very Destroyer himself."
"Kami-Sama!" Sergey repeated, senses coming back to life as a beautifully scented, richly flavored symphony began enfolding him in its embrace.
"You like that. Don't you, Sergey? Come. Let us meet the God of destruction. And crush him!"
Sergey's skin cracked as his cheeks stretched into a hideous grin.
"Utsukushii!"
Ending A/N: Thank you all once again for your continued support. Fun fact, when Writer and I drafted the duel between Yugo and Bandit, an actual online dice roller and coin flipper was used for most of the results. We learned very quickly the reality of both Yugo and Bandit's insane luck. Seriously, in all the games where I doodled around with Twin Barrel dragon for the Lols, I NEVER got two heads, and she goes and gets it first try. Wow. Just wow.
I'm sure most of you have plenty of questions now that this chapter is finished. Chief among them possibly being the details on the Dark Rite Summoning technique. And so, for your edification, I have provided the following.
End of Chapter Note
The Dark Rite Summoning Technique
Like its cousin, the Ritual Summon, Dark Rite Summons involve the summoning of a powerful monster from the hand with the aid of a special card, in this case, the Dark Rite Trap Card.
Similar to the Ritual Spell Card, the Dark Rite Trap Card is a specialized Trap Card designed specifically to enable the Dark Rite Summoning of a Dark Rite Monster. Dark Rite Trap Cards are marked with the symbol of a dagger stabbing a bleeding heart. Like Counter Trap Cards, they are also Spell Speed 3, making them especially hard to counter.
As for the Dark Rite Monster, these cards start out with a blood-red coloration, with their negative level displayed as bluish-black stars on the left of the cared, similar to Dark Synchro and Dark Fission monsters. When they are summoned, their card suddenly transforms into steel, giving them a chrome-like coloration. (Do not ask Donjusticia why he chose this artistic detail because the answer is "cheesecake.") Like Ritual Monsters, they must first be properly Dark Rite Summoned before they are Special Summoned in any other way.
When it comes to Dark Rite Summoning, the most typical method involves activating a Dark Rite Trap Card before dark sacrificing one monster in the hand or on the field as the base offering before dark sacrificing one or more monsters from the hand or field from the owner's hand or field whose total levels, when subtracted from the base offering, are equal to or less than the level of the monster being Dark Rite Summoned. For example:
Aleisha wants to Dark Rite Summon Fortune Lady Fate. After activating the Appropriate Dark Rite Trap Card, she uses her Level 1 Fortune Lady Vision as the base offering, before Dark Sacrificing Fortune Lady Earth as the non-base offering.
1 – 6 = -5, which is equal to Fortune Lady Fate's level, so Fortune Lady Fate is successfully Dark Rite Summoned.
Certain other Dark Rite Monsters may not require a base offering at all, instead instructing the player to subtract the levels of the dark sacrifices from a base of 0. For example:
Rite of Non-Existence / Trap / Dark Rite / This card can be used to Dark Rite Summon any Dark Rite Monster. You must also Dark Sacrifice one monster you control whose level is equal to the Level of the monster being Dark Rite Summoned when its Level is subtracted from a base of 0.
So, if Aleisha were to activate a card like this, wishing to Dark Rite Summon Fortune Lady Fate, she could Dark Sacrifice one Fortune Lady Dark she controlled.
0 – Fortune Lady Dark's Level of 5 = -5, so Fortune Lady Fate is, once again, Dark Rite Summoned.
An important thing to note is the fact that, like Ritual Monsters, not all Dark Rite Monsters actually require Dark Sacrifices in order to complete their Dark Rite Summon. In all cases of a Dark Rite Summon, the instructions specified on the Dark Rite Trap Card must be correctly followed. So long as the procedure is properly followed, the monster will be Dark Rite Summoned, meaning that this particular dark summoning technique can have lots of variation in its requirements for a monster to be Dark Rite Summoned.
Examples of creative/unique ideas for Dark Rite Trap Cards:
Bloodletting Rites / Trap / Dark Rite / Activate only if you would take battle or effect damage: Negate the damage, and if you do, Dark Rite Summon 1 Dark Rite Monster from your hand or GY. You must also pay LP equal to the Level of the monster being Dark Rite Summoned X -300.
Rites of Denial / Trap / Dark Rite / If your opponent activates a card or effect: Negate the activation of that card or effect, destroy it, and if you do, Dark Rite Summon 1 Dark Rite Monster from your deck. During the turn that monster is summoned with this effect, its effects are negated and it cannot attack.
As always, if you have further questions, feel free to contact me via PM. Fan Cards and Fan Characters will be covered in part two of this chapter, so with that let's move on to a response to your reviews!
VileG chapter 17 . Jun 27
Ill be honest i was really really enjoying this story, but the sudden deluge of OC's from the heavens in chapter 10 followed by the seemingly random scenes of chapter 11 immediately made me drop this.
It's just a combination of too much at once and a massive amount of character bloat combined with the problem of not really caring about all these sudden OC's when there's already a ton of canon characters.
Seriously there really was no reason at all to add this many characters out of the blue when your already juggling the current and future cast of Arc-V along with the few interesting OC's you added so far, even if your writing continued to be good enough to make each and every one of them interesting and engaging i just do not want to have to wade through the crapton of OC Duels after OC duels that would inevitably be necessary to keep all of the new characters relevant.
Ouch! But to be honest, well deserved. Yes. I fully acknowledge my mistakes as a growing writer. I do hope you eventually pick up the story again, as I believe I am gradually improving. Still, I'll keep pressing forward with this story, learning and improving, which is why I will keep the previous chapters as they are, as a way for me to look back and see how I have developed as a writer. Have a good day!
thetiger39 chapter 32 . Jun 22
Super Smash Bros. Terminology and metaphors incoming.
So the prideful warrior Selena appears in the next chapter? And Yugo too? very perfect to compare some Super Smash Bros Terminology. I do think that Selena is a better Duelist than Yugo who in using Super Smash Bros Terminology, Yugo won against Selena by playing on banned stages and items turned on. You know, I have a feeling that Selena is of the mindset that Action cards are as equivalent as playing on banned stages in Super Smash Bros. Just my personal opinion.
Selena: Yugo is better than me? Hah. Well lets see him play me on Final Destination with Items turned off. Lets see how he handles real competition.
Great Chapter. I hope you'll use my idea about Yuzu's side quest in receiving an Earthbound Disciple as a quest reward.
Good luck on the next chapter.
Thank you. Now, as to your comment on Selena being a better duelist than Yugo, I'm going to surprise you with a serious response.
I think it is clear that Yugo outmatches Selena in terms of skill.
Hyper-Selena fans: BLASPHEMY!
BG Fans: KILL DONNY!
Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm taking a HUGE risk spouting such an unpopular opinion. But let's objectively break down Yugo's duel against Selena.
Turn 1, Yugo does nothing incredible, a normal summon a weak monster.
Turn 2, Selena does her usual schtick where she summons Cat Dancer. She then proceeds to inflict a lot of damage against Yugo, Yugo being saved mainly because he DIDN'T spam a whole lot of monsters.
So, thus far, it does look like Selena is much better than Yugo, however, here is where things get interesting. Remember, that while Yugo's opening was weak (which is honestly much different from his usual openings, due to him being distracted, but oh well, we'll just continue with the analysis) Selena's opening was fairly predictable, drained her hand of a lot of resources, and leaves her with nothing but one Fusion Monster with very little in the way of protection, other than its fairly descent 2400 ATK.
This is where the comparison between Yugo and Selena's skill comes into play, in my opinion.
Yugo is almost immediately able to recover from Selena's last attack. He immediately synchro summons a monster that can overcome the anime version of Cat Dancer. What can Selena do in this situation? Nothing! She doesn't even have her Reincarnation Dance set to her field at this point!
The only reason Selena manages to continue on is because Roger takes control and practically hands her the Action Card she needs. Take away the factor of Action Cards, and Yugo would have pretty much been able to steamroll Selena for the rest of the duel, since it is unlikely that she could have easily recovered from the loss of one of her key monsters.
This, I believe, is the fundamental weakness of Selena's deck. The Moonlight strategy is basically OTK or die. If you don't manage to go second AND kill your opponent right off the bat, then the Moonlights are left highly vulnerable, as they have relatively little defensive power. Yes, the stronger Moonlight Fusions have some protection against effects, but especially when it comes to the anime versions of the monsters, they can't survive if the opponent comes back with a stronger monster. This is not, of course, to say that Moonlights are bad, just that they do very well at one particular strategy, while falling deficient in terms of defensive power.
Yugo's deck, on the other hand, not only can pull off some amazing offensive power, especially with his dragons, but supports this offensive capability with incredible effect disruption, descent defense, and excellent recovery, which is why, I believe, it slightly edges out the Moonlight Archetype.
*Dodges the stones tossed by angry Selena fanatics*
Yes, Yugo pulls the protag power with his dice roll in the duel, but if we really want to talk about which character had more cheats in that duel, I'd have to give the award to Selena, who was pretty much babied by Roger for the first half. Yes, she and Yugo are quite good, and I think they would be fairly evenly matched in a duel with no action cards and no B.S., but in terms of their duel in the anime, I have to say that Yugo edges Selena out in terms of skill.
*Someone, not naming names, but it starts with a "Nox" launches a catapult at Donny with a bigger catapult*
BUT DON'T WORRY! I'm not going to make Selena a pitiful duelist in this story! Quite the opposite, in fact. Selena will adapt and grow to be a duelist who can do more than just OTK, OTK, and OTK again. That is why I decided to force her into a speed duel, to force her to adapt to a deck that doesn't allow her to take the quick and repetitive OTK route. You guys will see what I mean.
And that's my long-winded and unpopular fan rant. Yes, I saw the post, but I doubt it will actually happen in the story. Wow, I am just raking in the popularity today. And now, without further ado, I am going to lock myself in my concrete bunker.
Shaolin Fury chapter 32 . Jun 16
Hey I used to be known as Greninja but I finally got around to opening a account and first of all that was awesome and second of all very nice work
Awesome! And welcome! This'll be much nicer for communication as I can now actually send you messages whenever I need to, and not just whenever a chapter is published. Thank you for continuing to support this series!
ThePLOThand chapter 32 . Jun 15
Not my OC in C16 Booh! But if Barrest has a Battle Ox Fusion, which he should have, I'll be fine (not talking about how we don't have an Aromage Lavender)
If Solid Vision Food burns the inside of your mouth I don't want to know what happens to M-rated users….
Also, they actually did say Dark Synchro in the japanese version
Will the Signs of Renewal be Macguffins in this Story, just like how the Fire Emblem is a thing in some of the games?
Wair Arymitile a Girl? Well to be fair, German Exodia is a Girl too...
Fehler Verderbnis, what's next,Egg Benedict? Oh wait, Dai Gyakuten Saiban did that already
BGM:
start: Battle! Elite Four - Pokémon Sun & Moon Music Extended
When it's time to kick Axons: Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon - Ultra Recon Squad Battle Theme Remix
for the Flashback: Ace Attorney Confess the Truth 2016 (Custom)
afterwards: Ace Attorney Pursuit ~ Don't Hold Back (Custom)
For Hell Tribute summon: Ace Attorney Pursuit ~ Coup de grâce (Custom)
When Yuzu Dark Synchro summons: Ace Attorney Phoenix Wright ~ Objection 2016 (Custom)
for the new Archfiends: Ace Attorney Cross Examination ~ Presto 2016 (Custom)
when Rin Dark Draws: Harvest December- Himegeki
after the duel: New World Order - Instrumental Mix Cover (Danganronpa)
for the psychologists: 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors [Remix] - Digital Root (Remastered)
when talking about the shadow riders: Harvest December- SH
NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR OC! But as to your other comments, no Battle-Ox Fusion…for now…but Bull Blader? Someone say, Beastborg Bull Jeager?
*Nobody says anything*
Well anyway, I'll let you decide if some ephemeral Sign of Renewal becomes a juicy double MacGuffin Burger. And YES! I KNOW THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE SAID "DARK SYNCHRO!" I LISTENED TO IT! I WATCHED IT! I WAS JUST HAVING FUN HAVING YUZU SAY IT IN JAPANESE! GEEZ!
And you should really stop assuming the genders of Duel Monsters.
Odd-Eyes: *Swinging her feminine hips* Yeah! I mean, just because my owner is a boy doesn't mean I can't be the feminine female that I truly am!
Cat Dancer: *In a deep gravelly voice* Yeah! And not all cat/human hybrids have to be cat-girls! Cat-boys are also a thing!
Chimerafflesia: And I'm not a boy or a girl! Plants produce both sex organs!
Dennis MacField: And I'm not a boy! *rips off Academia uniform to reveal a green Irish smock before putting a top hat on his head and pinning a four-leaf shamrock over his Academia pin* oim a leprechaun!
Death Toy Mad Chimera: And Revolution Falcon doesn't eat Death Toy monsters!
Revolution Falcon: I EAT LEPRECHAUNS!
Dennis: *Runs away screaming*
Reira: I have no idea what I am.
So please be PC with your comments!
ThePLOThand chapter 31 . Jun 7
Fräulin is very sad at the submission conditions.
while Succubi aren't allowed what about, Socutebosses?
Socuteboss: Come on Donnie, I'm not lewd, I'm super cute *puppy dog eyes*
no Submissions for me, that means no OP larvae moth deck,
5. Your're doing Review Responses here too now? Damn it, I should have put this on top on my next-to-read list!
6. I'm wondering who of us will have the higher duel-per chapter Ratio at the end of our fics
all of These factions, are you trying to be the George RR Martin of t-rated ygo fics? The only thing left is to reduce Plot Armour to a Minimum.
8. Wouldn't Sayer's deck get empty at some Point?
9. What a battle of BS. Komaeda would be proud.
Nagito: Did someone say my name?
Kazuichi: NOPE! You've got that wrong! Sorry for this inconvenience, the rope that tied him up somehow dissolved into bubbles…
? Is this actually Infinity war?
11. Also there's that Blue Angel fic you forgot, also you should Play Ace Attorney and then write a Steel Samurai fanfic. THE WORLD NEEDS IT
12. Kachidoki: Doesn't that mean Heartstone is Level 0! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
13. Putting a new spin on "Here some links go read and look if they're good" shtick, go check out Scal's Sky Breach Academy RP Forum. Should you somehow have time.
BGM:
start: Suspense - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Music Extended
for Yuzu's "POV": Thrill Theme ~ Suspense - Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Music Extended
for thorougly thrashing These terribly tenacious Tiny mooks: Pressing Pursuit ~ Cornered - Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Music Extended
for Ring rekking the wrecthed rest of these really rare rascals: Pursuit ~ Wanting to Find the Truth (GaMetal) - Gyakuten Kenji 2 Music Extended
for Academia watching wild duels while discussion dangerous stuff: Digital Root - 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors Music Extended
for the rallying reunion with Rin's ah here's what I listened to: Harvest December- Spring, Blue (vocal JUNCA)
For Sara's seduc- explaining her powers: Harvest December- Kashitu wo Maeni
for Sayer: Confrontation ~ Presto 2011 - Gyakuten Kenji 2 Music Extended
for Sayer's BS: Pursuit ~ Caught - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations Music Extended
for Marvel: Pursuit ~ Cornering Together - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice Music Extended
for Yuzu going 100%: Pursuit ~ Keep Pressing On - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies Music Extended
for Rin's turn after that: Harvest December- Himegeki
Of course So Cute Boss is okay! All the haunted stuffed animal lolis! Let's give Enlightenment Paladin a whole harem of haunted underage duel monster spirit girls!
*Police smash down Donny's door before arresting him*
Lunarie chapter 32 . Jun 4
Accidentally posted oc request before I was done... whoops, sorry... anywho, PART 2 I SUPPOSE!
Malforyn's overlay unit effect is an attack is reflected and another 'Wild Wolf' monster on the field gains 500 ATK points. Appearance is an large silver wolf, large enough to ride, with angel-like wings, dark grey helmet, and multiple shaded blue eyes and inside-mouth. Summoning scene, flap of wings and paw slamming.
The rest of Jayla's deck, I leave to you. Sorry if my request is long and confusing, if I messed up or am missing anything.
No problem. Just don't do it again, and of course, remember that as the supreme authoritarian autocrat of all dictatorships herein, I possess the plenary power to make whatever modifications I desire, down to not including the character. That being said, I will see what I can do with this character!
Lunarie chapter 32 . Jun 4
OC:
Name - Jayla
Gender - Female
Appearance - Back-length ruffled dark navy hair, crimson tuft-like bangs, unzipped-black jacket (sleeves stop at elbows) over electric blue no-sleeve shirt, jeans, red/white shoes, grey eyes, half-finger navy gloves
Personality - Joker when around friends, likes teasing friends, taunts/mocks enemies, tries to reform people if possible before defeating them, usually level-headed until someone threatens close friends (then she goes half-berserk), curses, prickly until you get to know her
Allegiance - Dark signers
History - orphan, grew up in heartland as a loner until age 10, then academia. Was one of academia's best soldiers, though didn't believe in Leo's goals and was insulted behind her back for using xyz and because of her strength. Defected from academia.
Relationships - Was close friends with Serena and Yuri before. Still wants to believe in yuri, looking for Serena (only if you can do it though).
Deck: I think I'm going to leave it up to you for the most-part, save for some details. Dueling style: aggressive, but always get fail-safes before attacking. Uses a Wolf deck.
Ace 1: Maelstrom of Destruction/ DARK/ Rank 10/ Winged-Beast/ XYZ/ Wild Wolf/ ATK 2800/ DEF 2700/ overlay unit effect: removes all cards in opponent card graveyard until end of owners next turn; gains 100 ATK points for each card removed from play; effect named 'Gate to Gehenna'/ furred jet black arms/paws connected to what appears to be a mass of shadowy flames, with a head that roughly resembles a wolf. Eyes are crimson, as is inside of mouth. Demon-like wings. Attack called 'Surging Soul Flare'. Neutral stance is upright with arms bent and claws pointing outward. When summoned, throws head back and howls.
Ace 2: Malforyn the Star Wolf/ LIGHT/ Rank 10/ Divine-Beast/ XYZ/ Wild Wolf/ ATK 2800/ DEF 2700/ overlay unit effect:
Voice of reason: Stop Donny! DON'T DO IT! YOU…CAN'T…DO…ANY…MORE…OCs!
Donjusticia: Got it! This story needs more OCs!
Voice of Reason: Why doesn't this guy ever listen to me!?
Donjusticia: *Channeling the power of George R. R. Martin* By the power of "Game of Thrones," I…HAVE…THE…POWER!
Guest chapter 32 . Jun 4
Great story but too many OC characters.
*Busily adds in more OCs*
ScalchopWarrior chapter 32 . Jun 6
WHAT IS THIS ANOTHER UPDATE IN A SHORT TIME SPAN? NANI WHAAT IS THIS MADNESS?
Okay, I'm done yelling. After all, there's no yelling in a library. And I am a firm believer in Library Theory (which, as we all obviously know, states the entire universe is actually contained within a huge library).
Anyways, MORE PLOT!
sorry, I yelled again
All right though, another fABulous chapter. Ending of Rin and Yuzu vs Divine is nice since now Divine gets karma WAIT NO HE DOESN'T HA...
okay he kinda got karma, but not what I wanted
...
...
DID YOU ASK WHAT I DID WANT? MY HOW KIND OF YOU!
I wanted Divine to slowly sink into a pit filled with snails. Tiny snails. Slimy, gross, ewey snails. Then, the snails would begin to EAT his toes. The pinky first because everyone loves their pinky toe the most. When his toes were all gone, then the snails would move to his hands, starting with his thumb now (so they can save the pinky for last). While this is occurring, Seto Kaiba would begin to rain down money onto Divine, but he can't take the money because the SNAILS are too SLIMY, GROSS and EWEY for him to move. Once Divine's toes and fingers had been taken off, ZA KINGU JACKU ATLASUUUUUU would ride in on his D-Wheel, running over Divine's kneecaps, before parking nearby. But it was actually a FAKE ZA KINGU JACKU ATLASUUUU, and then the REAL ZA KINGU JACK ATLASUUU would ride in over Divine's kneecaps again just to make sure they were REALLY broken. FAKE ZA KINGU JACKU ATLASUUUU would turn out to be DUB KING JACK ATLASSSSSS, who would verbally pummel Divine with his accent. Meanwhile, Madison is grappling with the fact that not every issue can be settled by committee. Meanwhile
Congress is fighting over where to put the capital - It isn't pretty. Then Jefferson approaches with a dinner and invite, and Madison responds with Virginian insight. "Maybe we can solve one problem with another, and invite ZORC THE DEMON to murder Divine!". So then Madison and Jefferson would call Zorc, who would begin to drive over to murder Divine, but the Saturday day traffic is super bad, so he's not going to be there for a while. In the meantime, using his otherworldly powers, ZA KINGU JACKU ATLASUUUU would grab Yuma from the Zexal dub, and have him vocally harass Divine. Around this time, the snails would be hungry again, so now they'd eat Divine's hair, one lock at a time. But don't think that they would forget Roget actually was responsible for a lot of this, because they wouldn't. Using his space-time powers, ZA KINGU JACKU ATLASUUUU would grab Roget and throw him into the snail pit next to Divine, but facedown so he can barely breathe. The snails would quickly make short work of Roget's fingers and toes as well as his hair. Eventually, on Friday morning, Zorc would finally arrive, descend into the pit, and smite Divine and Roget. Then everyone would play some card games on motorcycles together and ride off into the sunset.
Wait, there's a little box in the bottom right corner that says "Post Review as ScalchopWarrior".
Is this a review?
...
.
IT WAS GOOD
BAIIII ;D
JK
Well, I thought it was a fab chapter as always. Not much else to say
See ya
;D
Well no, this isn't a review at all. This is, in fact, a preview of what will definitely be happening in the future. THANKS FOR SPOILING THE STORY FOR EVERYONE!
SSJ3 Godtenks chapter 32 . Jun 6
Yay OC time! Do you mind giving me a template or something to make it easier for me?
Just submit whatever you like. Just remember that the fans want LOTS more OCs, so be sure to submit at least on octuplet of OCs! MORE OCs! MORE OCs!
Readers: That isn't funny, Don! It's never been funny!
Donny: *laughs insanely before putting on Joker makeup and rubbing a magic lamp to summon the genie of George R. R. Martin for writing advice*
AngeLight952 chapter 32 . Jun 5
How exactly would Dark Fission interacts with "Convulsion of Nature"? Cause none of the Dark Fission cards specify that the monsters face-up on the deck must have been send there by being used as material
Shhhhhhhhhhh! Stop spoiling more plot points!
But yes. It's a totally broken combo, which is why it's fanfiction.
To be fair to the question though, were this ever to become an actual mechanic, which I doubt it ever will, my guess is that the simplest solution would be to simply slap an errata on Convulsion of Nature, similar to what they did to "Darkness Approaches" once Links were introduced. How that Errata would work (possibly just forcing the top card of the deck to always be face-up) is something I don't know.
bladeWriter3 chapter 32 . Jun 4
Hitotsu: The duel ended surprisingly, yet not disappointingly. Divine pulling out Fusions was expected, though how he had them beforehand is the question.
I never thought I'd say this, but HOORAY FOR UNLEASHING THE POWERS OF DARKNESS YUZU! And she doesn't go evil...although the whole 'Fruit' scene will haunt me in my nightmares for a while.
And Yene, he might be the best Earthbound I've seen so far. The Matriarch did make the better choice considering the burn effect (I know Rin was thinking 'Ah, felt nice to finally do some burn damage again.')
And now Divine is on a very short lease. I like how Yene is just so unamused by Sayer cheating death again. Although I must say, I actually look forward to Rin potentially creaming his psychic A** if he misbehaves.
Futatsu: I do love a good backstory, and honestly I think I wanna give Sara a massive hug right now. She's a kid, she didn't deserve to go through all that. Then again, 'Not harming a small child' is on my list of things I will never do in Fanfiction.
Where was I, I was going somewhere. Oh yeah! Besides Sara earning the title of 'Woobie' in my eyes, the expanded creation mythos of the universe was delicious. I still cannot believe Kaishi and Owari are cannon to this, I thought they were just joke characters for a wacky date gone three-shot. Makes me wonder if Yubel actually is Zarc's mom in this...
I like how you tied the 3 Wicked Gods into the story as the fragments of Zorc, it works well. Seeing as how Horahkty is summoned by tributing the 3 Egyptian Gods and Armityle is born by fusing the 3 Sacred Beasts, I'm gonna make a prediction: If/when Zorc shows up as a card, it will be as a Ritual Monster, and his Ritual Spell (or however he summons himself) requires the tributing of the Wicked Gods.
Sides of the conflict so far are [At least that I can remember]:
The Lancers (End Academia's war)
Academia (Merge the dimensions back together [read; bring back the YGO-verse equivalent to Buffy the Vampire Slayer] and stop anything in their way)
The Dark Signer Bracelet Girls and their Disciples (End Academia's war and create a universal paradise)
The Earthbound and those loyal to the Matriarch (Destroy the Crimson Dragon and everything he stands for as well as make the universe one with Ch'askancha)
Signers and the Phoenix Guard (Stop the Earthbound as well as end the war)
Roger (Take control of Synchro, stop Academia's invasion and rid the world of the Dark Signers)
Armityle's faction (Stop the Earthbound and unleash eternal chaos)
Horahkty (Lead the universe to eternal light)
Zorc (Lead the world to eternal darkness)
Zarc (Reunite his incarnations and destroy the universe)
Ray (Stop Zarc, and maybe keep everyone from destroying themselves in this GOT level complicated plot)
Kaishi and Owari (Goals unknown)
The Therapist Duo (Help overthrow Leo, maybe stab Akato in the back)
And whatever civilian OCs are in this story
Yeah, this story keeps getting more and more complex...
Mitsu: It's not that I don't allow you to take 4 month breaks Donny, it's that I don't like waiting around for the good stuff after helping you co-write a bunch of Duels and drafting 1 all by myself for this story!
(Seriously, to anyone who reads these reviews, know this: It's partially because of me that Yugo and Yuri are getting some love, and completely on me that Selena is getting some action. Our Queen deserves her screen time, especially since up until know, she's appeared once while she was asleep, and has only been name dropped ever since!)
Seeing as I know how each of those duels go, let me just say you guys are in for a wild ride. Also 'Pawn of the Earthbound'? I think a better name would be 'The Other 5 Counterparts FINALLY Get Some Attention'
Once you write this chapter (after finishing the birthday presents and do some Vrains!Abridged), then you can take another break from this story.) Until then, I'll be in Demon Taskmaster-mode!
Oh shoot, forget that last part.
Reward: Yuzu's Fruit Loop Cereal
Yuzu: ' Yuzu's Fruit Loop Cereal: Sadomasochistically delicious!'
Rin: That part still grosses me out.
Where do I start?
Hi Tatsumi: Of course Kaishi and Owarii are cannon in this (special thanks to CorinnetheAnime for coming up with the names first). You guys ought to know by now that practically every one of my parodies is actually a coded message for something that will happen in SoR! So yes. Zexal Shun will totally be a thing. Also Don Thousand is Ruri's canon father.
Fuh-Rin-Kah-Zanshi: Zorc isn't going to be Ritual Summoned by Tributing the Wicked Gods! We already know what Zorc's card is! It's already been created! Dark Master – Zorc! A level eight 2700 ATK beater with the most terrifying dice roll effect of all time!
Readers: How is that terrifying?
Yugo will be using it.
Yugo: Eh, he he he! Ah ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw! *Proceeds to destroy the world with his luck*
Misu Bean Soup: And thanks for giving Sara the love she deserves. I based her character on snuggles, Kana Kamui from "Kobayashi's Dragon Maid," and SATAN!
Sara: It is so nice to know that I am being loved for the innocent harmless adorable widdle woobie I am.
Yene: Give it a rest, Sara, we all know you're pure evil.
Sara: I WILL DESTROY YOU, YENE!
BladeBlaster chapter 32 . Jun 4
Poor Yugo encourages every bracelet counterpart but Rin . I can't wait for the next chapter .
Well, you will have to wait for the next chapter because these chapters don't grow on trees! Just be patient like Sergey and endure…and endure, and endure, and endure, and endure, ENDURE!
Royal2 chapter 32 . Jun 4
I never said you were gone I said it's been a while.
WHAT!? YOU'RE STILL CLAIMING I'M GONE! I WILL DESTROY YOU FOR THIS LIBEL!
Voice of reason: Clean out your ears.
Epsilon Tarantula chapter 32 . Jun 4
I'm going to review parts out of order.
Sebastian: Or you could get back to GK and help me calm Hugo down before he ends up like those Dark Signer chicks. Or makes a deal with them. Because what you've got down the line is...just...I feel bad for Belpois and his group, that's all I'm saying.
Me: I. AM. GETTING. TO. IT.
Siber: There's still us! I'm still stuck having to remember about the time I had to help Akato awaken the Kaijus in an attempt to destroy Japan!
Maho: So...are you going to write that scene with me and Aiyo in bed and skirt the censors, or...
QUIET ALL OF YOU! I'M GETTING TO IT!
(If I don't have GK or Omen updated by the next SoR chapter...this will become awkward.)
Anyways, first, the part I had to help rewrite. Excellent that Akato's evil is now uniform across reality. He's not really a sympathetic person. Hell, right now, I'm envisioning him using a machine gun to mow down a bunch of cute little bunnies. Shame Daiichi and Frederich don't exist in Omen. But eh, Part III's got enough villains as it is.
Going back to the start, the backstory of Sara and Yene! Yup, Sara is a Token Mini-Moe...annnnd Ch'askancha has all the glory and discipline of Yellow Diamond on a good day. Huzzah.
Akato: And this is why I hate the Earthbound's culture! They make Gem psychology look progressive by contrast! And I should know, I paid Homeword a visit once, when I -
Quiet, you! Sara...well...lord...seeing all of that power go to waste on a being with the mentality of a six-year old brings a tear to my eye...mainly because I think six-year olds should be sitting in Kindergarten instead of being brought into war. Shame really. The little one never truly did actually grow up. Perhaps Yuzu IS a good influence on Sara. As for Yene...I imagine him having a British accent for some strange reason. ...I wonder if Hueca's the dog that the Cat-lady (Serena) will have to take care of.
And as for Ch'askancha...
Lamash: Pfft. Really? She's going with a 'She Who Must Not be Named?' Oh please. The only reason I don't have my name get dropped is solely BECAUSE I know of spoilers.
Gray: I'm not kidding. That is literally the reason we can't say Lamash's name until Dyax. Stupid sense of earth-ruled drama.
Lamash: Wasn't your original race similar to humans in biology? Hell, I'm pretty certain they can reproduce, so I'd be happy to-
Gray: ...Please...no...the fact that you found Epsilon's old 'Project Pasiphae' draft still fills me with horror and disgust.
...CAN YOU ALL LET ME FINISH MY REVIEW?!
Now then...YUZU HAS FINALLY USED DARK SIGNER POWERS! OH, HAPPY DAY! FINALLY! IT'S BEEN TWO YEARS...AND SHE'S FINALLY USING THE POWER OF DARKNESS! ...AND NOT HAVING BRAIN INTERCOURSE WITH A PARASITE (Which is then thrown away)!
Akato: Please never say that again. I'm still reeling from seeing all the subconscious things Rin wants to do to Yugo.
But yeah, Yuzu has used the powers of darkness, and yet managed to RETAIN CHARACTER INTEGRITY! Oh, happy day! And then all three Dark Summoning techniques, Don, you've given us a great summer treat! (Also wondering if Akato was the one stupid enough to put solid vision in his mouth just for the lulz) Especially with that scene of her eating the fruit of evil. Ahhh...That was beautiful.
And next, RIN! Ah, a glorious sight! And then Divine just had to surrender. I say kill him. He's going to think of a way to revolt! ...And he's not been killed. Damn it. Shame the Earthbound have stricter rules concerning apostle-ship than demons. Much more flexibility in bargaining (Though I will probably need a better name...perhaps Akmas? ...No, too much Miraculous Ladybug on that one).
And now, to review the review response: I'll most likely send in Juana after this review is done to establish more consistency concerning Omen. Don't worry, she's not supernatural.
All in all, a good chapter, though I noticed the usage of 'gonna' at least once. I'm all for casual language to prevent corniness...but there's a time and place for not having contractions.
Juana: Wait, what?
Sherman: Epsilon IS trying to make you more dynamic. Can't see why he won't pick me.
Megumi: ...Because you're causing enough trouble in Omen. I mean, you ARE the reason why a certain someone got off on the wrong foot with our organization.
Stephan: And we're already getting screwed as it is.
CAN YOU ALL BE QUIET AND LET ME SIGN OUT ALREADY?!
Speaking from experience, the voices in your head will never quiet down. That's why it's easier to just charge them all rent for inhabiting your mental space. That way, you at least get paid to put up with them.
As for your review, thank you very much! See, this is how to realistically bring a character to a point where he/she is doing things that are against her original moral compass! It takes time and effort, but it is so much more impactful than what one gets when one employs cheap mind control.
And as for your comment on Akato, yes, he is evil, and yes, many more people in this story DO NOT have some cheap simple cliché backstory to justify and explain away why they do the terrible things they do. Yes, they have character, but it doesn't have to be character that is in any way familiar or even appealing to the vast majority of people.
This brings to mind the characters of Sergey and, to a lesser extent, Yuri. If any of you are hoping to find some easy backstory to explain why they act in the sadistic ways they do, keep dreaming. Perhaps you will piece together reasons, or perhaps you won't. Either way, my main goal is to get you, my dear readers, well acquainted with the minds of these mad men. SO, hold on tight! Because the journey may be more terrifying and brain blasting than you can possibly imagine!
Happy 4th everyone! I will see you in the next chapter!
