Chapter 47: The Gathering Storm
"Like this day could get any worse…"
Bandit Keith grumbled to himself as he traversed the halls leading to Montalban's office. Not only had his Neo Ghouls lost out in numerous battles against the newly revived Spirit Dragons, but now even his neck was on the chopping block after their brutal failures, his own now included. If it wasn't for his silver tongue, they likely wouldn't even be getting paid.
So it was probably good he got the payment upfront.
Still, he was going to need to talk Montalban down from taking back their newfound wealth, especially with it helping to fund their increase in powerful rare cards. With their targets only getting stronger, they were going to need to find some new tools to utilize to fight against them. Keith thought back over the various strategies they incorporated - hand destruction, tag dueling, combinations and brute force, nothing had played out the way he was hoping it would. Were they simply getting unlucky? Or was there something else?
His thoughts raced through his mind as he opened the doors to the main office, walking into the unusually dark room. "Hey, Monty," he greeted with a sly gesture. "Hope you're not too upset about what happened there! Don't worry, I've got a whole new strategy cooking up that's guaranteed to wallop that punk."
"Is that so…"
Keith paused, the sound of Montalban's voice rather different than usual. It was less severe or harsh and more calming, mellow. It wasn't the usual frustrated anger he'd been dealing with, as though someone was pressed for time. Now it was the quiet serenity of someone who has found peace, whether due to their salvation having come…or their frustration having broken through their spirit.
"Yeah, I figured if you'd give me a crack at him one more time, I can definitely get him this time around."
"That…may not be necessary."
Slowly Montalban stood up from the desk, his back facing towards Keith as he looked out the window. It was night outside, the clouds of the day now radiating their purple glow beneath the moon. Montalban stared out at the sky for a while as he thought about his next words. Keith watched him, curious like a mouse about to get caught in a trap.
"Bandit Keith…" Montalban turned now to face Keith head-on. "How would you like to become part of a…demonstration?"
Keith's eyebrows furrowed. "What, like you want me to help show something off? Forget it, I'm not a sales flunky-"
"Oh, it's not that kind of demonstration. Not entirely, at least."
The door behind Keith slammed shut, alerting his attention to another figure in the room. At first, Keith thought he might be seeing a ghost, given the man's pale complexion and gaunt appearance, but the briny smell of the sea and the thunk of the wooden leg against the floor showed that this man was just as real as anyone else in the room.
"Will he suffice?" Montalban asked this particular guest, a grim smile spreading across his face.
The man leaned forward to look at Keith, who stood in place, staring back at this graven face. The man nodded, "He'll suffice."
Keith turned to look at Montalban, not catching sight of the creeping shadow slowly moving towards him from the floor. "Hey, what's the big idea? I thought we weren't involving any other party in our arrangement!"
"Oh, well, our arrangement hasn't been too satisfactory, all things considered," Montalban remarked, watching with a sinister fascination as his eyes trailed the slithering shadow up Keith's robes. "I believe we're looking to…renegotiate the terms of our contract. Now that none other than Adolf Rommel has decided to partner with myself."
Keith's face drained, along with any cheer in the situation. "Adolf…Rommel? Wasn't he the guy…"
"That we weren't going to talk about our arrangement with? Well, I'd say that that previous contract has been invalidated, seeing as you've failed to keep up your end of the bargain. Fortunately, I've a new task for you that will be much more lucrative and exceedingly valuable to our cause."
Keith's retort was caught in his throat as the writhing shadow reached his neck, pulling itself inside of his mouth. He flinched and twisted as the shadows poured down his throat before finally letting out a pained scream of torment! He fell to the floor, clutching his body, his eyes bulging from his skull. Montalban watched as Keith draw several labored breaths, heaving deeply before he was able to stand up straight. He looked back up at Montalban, a twisted glee on his face, a shimmering purple shade in his eyes.
"Alright then," Keith asked, "what's the job?"
"You're kidding me."
Andrew was surprised upon hearing Matt's side of things. The pairs had managed to rendezvous back with the ships, with Matt having claimed the Spirit Dragon of Darkness at last. However, just as Andrew and Kari had returned from their venture, Matt's face alone showed that much had transpired in their absence, and his retelling of his duel against Marduk in possession of Bonesman spoke volumes. There wasn't much to be done in the wake of Bonesman's death; without a body to bury, there was nothing to mark down, and with nothing to mark with, there was no grave to be made. Matt and Shannon had remained at the sight of his final duel, staring up at the stars. They didn't even acknowledge the ever-familiar streak of light that accompanied the key, landing itself perfectly into their claimed chest and opening up the final Spirit Dragon for Matt to claim as they rode away.
Their ultimate triumph rang hollow.
"Who knew Rommel even had someone like that in his crew..." Andrew murmured, still taking in the news.
"Aye, Bonesman never deserved his fate, least of all this," Willaby chimed in.
"But we got the final Spirit Dragon, right?" Creighton piped up. "With that, we can-"
"Read the room, Creighton," Izzy interrupted.
Creighton huffed. "I know, Bonesman dying sucks," he said. "I don't wanna take away from that, but this was what we were hoping to get! We all knew the risks of this journey, even Bonesman, and he still supported all of us till the end! After everything he's done to help us, even in death, I don't want his sacrifice to just be in vain."
"His sacrifice? He was forced against his will to duel Matt to the death!" Shannon exclaimed. "What kind of sacrifice is that?!"
There was a hushed silence that fell over the deck with that. Creighton shrunk into the closest corner of the ship he could find, while the rest of the group lingered for a quiet moment.
"No, he's right."
The entire crew turned towards Matt, who hadn't spoken up since he informed them of Bonesman's death. "Bonesman wouldn't have wanted to sour the mood, even if it was because of his death," he continued. "I won't let what Rommel did to him go unpunished."
He turned to the group and looked them over. "Every one of us knew what we were getting ourselves into, and that goes especially for Bonesman. And he suffered through a lot to get us to this point, more than anyone else ever needed to. I can assure you all, that no matter what happens from this point forward, we will not look back on this as a moment of weakness. We will look to this moment as one of strength, of courage, of determination."
Matt moved over to one of the barrels, picking up a small mug and pouring a small brew into it from the barrel. He looked back over the crew and raised his mug into the air. "To Bonesman."
"To Bonesman!"
The crew echoed back their captain's remark, toasting to their fallen friend. Matt nodded his head and took a swig, drinking down the mug readily. Some of the crew pulled out a band of instruments and began to play an upbeat song of celebration, a dreary jubilance taking over the somber mood. Matt looked up at the stars once more, raising his mug to the sky and toasting to his former first mate before setting the mug down and pulling out the Spirit Dragons.
The legends he had long pursued, the tales he had followed, the clues he had seen, they had all led to this moment. And now they were here, the six Spirit Dragons, each radiating with their own elemental aura, in his very hands. He couldn't help but smile to himself, basking in their mellow glow. Andrew came up beside him and looked at the cards.
"So these are the Spirit Dragons, together at last," he remarked.
Matt chuckled. "Funny that after all these years, we should finally have them all in one place."
"Indeed..."
Matt looked over at his brother, who tilted his head curiously. "Something on your mind?" Matt asked.
"Yeah...Jack had told me a lot of things about the Trinity's past. But when he showed me that vision of the Trinity in Elam, there was only the one dragon."
"Right."
Andrew looked back at his brother. "None of these looked like that dragon."
"...right."
Andrew raised an eyebrow. "So then there's a seventh Spirit Dragon?"
Matt nodded his head in affirmation. "It's not over just yet."
"Because we have to track this one down too?"
Matt looked down at the Spirit Dragons and nodded again. Andrew rolled his eyes before sneaking a look at the crew.
"So how long do we wait to tell them? And for that matter, how are going to even find the seventh one?"
Matt looked back at the crew, jovially celebrating and mirthfully dancing about. "Let them be for tonight," he answered. "We could all use the rest."
He made to walk back towards the captain's quarters before he stopped himself in front of his brother. "As for finding the seventh Spirit Dragon..."
Matt turned and smiled. "We just found all six of the keys."
"THERE'S ANOTHER ONE?!"
Matt looked over the group of friends, a pleasant smile on his face regardless of what he had just told them. "I know that this might come as a shock to most of you," he said as though nothing had changed. "Luckily, we've done all the heavy lifting already. The Spirit Dragons do indeed have a seventh member, but it could only be obtained by someone who had gathered the other six."
He held up the six Spirit Dragons above his head, showcasing them to everyone. "Now that we have obtained them, their power in combination with the Compass Medallion will lead us to our final destination, where the seventh one lies."
"I get it," Joey remarked. "We couldn't find dis one unless we got all da rest!"
"Thank you for repeating exactly what he just said," Tristan sneered, much to Joey's chagrin.
Matt set down the Spirit Dragons, placing them in a circle with the Compass Medallion in the middle. Then he stood up, looking down at them all. The whole crew looked down at the circle, waiting patiently for...something...
"Sooooo...what exactly are we waiting for?" Creighton asked.
"Well, I figure we're waiting for the Medallion to point the way!" Willaby remarked.
"So why isn't it doing anything?"
The group continued to stare down at the circle. Andrew leaned over to Matt, muttering, "You do know what you're doing, right?"
Matt furrowed his brow. He looked at the Spirit Dragons, the medallion, the placement – it was all right here, wasn't it? Wasn't it all...right? He poked at the Dragons, the Medallion, he swapped them around.
"You don't know what you're doing..."
It came out less as a question and more as a plain statement. Regardless, Matt stared down at the circle he had made. Then he rushed back into the captain's quarters, a flurry of papers and trinkets moving about being the only sounds echoing out of it. Then he came back out with a small paper, looking back and forth between his placement and the parchment.
"I...I don't get it. It's all right here, there's nothing else missing..."
Matt looked over the parchment, then he groaned, smacking himself in the forehead. "Of course, that would be the one thing I'm missing!"
"Missing? What could be missing?" Andrew asked.
Matt sighed. "We can't just be performing the ritual anywhere, we have to do it in an area of concentrated energy," he explained. "And it can't just be any kind of energy, it has to be the energy that comes off from the intensity of battle."
"So like a duel?"
"Not a duel, many duels, an inordinate amount of duels! Battles, conflict as far as the eye can see! Dueling on the same scale as the Battle of the Titans tournament!" Matt shook his head. "If I'd known that, I would have hosted it after I got the Spirit Dragons!"
Matt picked up the Compass Medallion, holding it in his hands as he looked back at the parchment. Andrew looked back and forth between the Spirit Dragons on the ground and up at Matt again.
"You mean to tell me we went through all those fights for these dragons, and we can't even perform the one ritual that would help us find the last one?!"
"Why not just start dueling everybody?" Joey asked. "We've got some of da best duelists here!"
"It's not that simple," Matt explained, waving his hands about. "Dueling energy radiates off of people who are in the midst of a duel. It's not about how good you are or how powerful a duelist you may be, there's no one person who could generate such an amount. We're talking quantity here, not quality."
"So we'll just duel a bunch of times real fast!" Creighton suggested.
"You expect to complete a thousand different duels in the next five minutes?"
"...well when you put it that way..."
Yugi, who had remained fairly quiet for the time being, raised a small hand. "If I may...there could be a place that we could go to that would be able to do it."
The crew turned towards Yugi, looking at him curiously. He continued, "Domino City has a lot of duelists in it already, so it may be possible if we can find a way to get them to duel each other."
Andrew shrugged his shoulders. "He's got a point," he agreed. "Domino City would definitely be one of the dueling hot spots in the world. I could come up with a way to reach out and get in touch with Kaiba-"
Matt shook his head. "There's no way we'd be able to coordinate things over there. Montalban will be watching Domino City like a hawk. If we end up making contact and sailing over there in the next few weeks, he's likely to have a battalion at the ready, and he's already got Rommel and Keith to back him up."
"What about the gems that Auntie gave us?" Izzy chimed in. "We could use their power to get there more readily."
Matt gave it some thought. "Possible, but then we'll have to figure out how to coordinate a bunch of duelists to fight almost simultaneously and on short notice."
The crew all huddled together in thought, trying to figure out their best plan. It wasn't until Willaby gasped that the group turned towards him.
"The Dragons!" he yelped, pointing at the circle.
The crew collectively looked down at the Spirit Dragons, glowing in tandem with the Compass Medallion in Matt's hands. The dragons rose up and encircled his hand, gently guiding it to have his whole arm pointing in a single direction. Matt looked out in the same direction, and a broad smile creeped over his face.
"Well I'll be damned," he exclaimed. "The Spirit Dragons are showing us the way!"
"To the seventh one?" Andrew asked.
Matt shook his head. "They're pointing towards Domino City! It's like they're agreeing with us on our plan. I think that means..."
Matt paused as his eyes briefly shimmered with a mystical light. His smile and humor slowly faded from him, as the crew gathered around him.
"What is it?" Shannon asked.
"I...I see...Domino City..."
"Wait, you can see Domino City?" Yugi asked.
Andrew's eyes widened. "The Spirit Dragons are showing you a vision?"
"It must be, but I...I see...people running about...and...purple robes? And..." Matt grimaced. "Bandit Keith."
The group collectively gasped. "What's dat sleezeball up to?" Joey growled.
Matt shivered as he looked at the others. "They've taken over Domino City."
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Wait, there wasn't a duel in here? Well, not yet, but there will be more duels!
Admittedly, this is the part where things are both clear and unclear for the story going forward. While we never really completed much further in our roleplaying passed this point, we did have an outline as to what would happen down the road. As I've given thought to this story over the years, new ideas developed that could ultimately make the story all the better, and I started implementing a lot of those ideas into this story even recently. You may have noticed some subtle clues strewn about here and there, but the previous 2-4 chapters in particular - which delve more deeply into the lore of the Trinity - were some of the hardest to write, especially considering the additional details added into the backstory. It's been a long time to start bringing it all together, and I'm almost sure it'll be a while longer!
The quest for the Spirit Dragons is not quite over, so stay tuned! There will be more to see!