Ichika and Senshi walked right into the clutches of another one of Meldrick's servants named Arcane. Senshi ended up trapped in a cage and the two of them started the duel. Only later did he learn that the field was rigged. Every time Senshi's life points drops, he loses life points. Arcane doesn't get that pleasure.
"What's that matter, Ichika? Aren't you enjoying my performance?" Arcane taunted. He had a powerful monster with with Evil Magician at 2700atk points, some power thanks to his Mystic Dark Arts continuous spell, and 4100LP. Senshi had nothing on his field with 2300LP.
"We might not have paid, but I like a refund." Rin said.
"Ichika, he's not playing fair! Get out of there!" Cecilia said.
"I'm afraid I can't get out of this cage without getting that key." Senshi claimed.
"Well, since it's the end of my turn, my Malice Jester of Evil's special ability activates. Since he was sent to the graveyard from a spell card, he comes back." Arcane said as his jester came back. His jester gained some power as his attack points rose to 1200. "Make your move. It could be your last."
"It's my turn!" Senshi said as he drew his next card. It was just the monster he needed. "I summon Infinite Stratos Ushigane!" He summoned out another Infinite Stratos as she came up with 800atk points. "Next, I activate her special ability! By tributing her, I can summon one Infinite Stratos from my hand! I summon out my new one: Infinite Stratos Mysterious Lady!" He released his first monster and summoned out a new lady with mecha armor as it came out with water flowing from the back and carried a lance. She also had 2300atk points.
"That's not enough to defeat my magicians!" Arcane taunted.
"That's about to change. By sending one card in my hand to the graveyard, her special ability activates." Senshi claimed as he discarded a card. "I place an aqua crystal counter upon all monsters that are not water attribute!" When that happened, both of Arcane's monsters had a floating crystal-like device placed over them with them both having a blue aura around them.
"And what exactly do these counters do?" Arcane questioned.
"One thing is that they change your monsters into water attribute monsters." Senshi said. "You're about to see what else they can do. Mysterious Lady, attack his Malice Jester with Tidal Surge Strike!" He ordered his monster to attack as she gathered water around her lance. She charged right in and smashed her lance against the jester. It ended up destroyed and Arcane's life points dropping to 3000. "That's where Mysterious Lady's other affect comes in! When she destroys a monster with an aqua crystal counter, you lose 500 more life points!" Mysterious Lady fired a blast of water and hit Arcane with it as his life points dropped down to 2500.
"Is it rotten of me that I wished he would get shocked as well?" Cecilia questioned.
"Nope." Rin said.
"Now that we've reached the end of my turn, I activate the ability of the card I discarded: Drone Flyer." Senshi said. "When this monster is discarded to the graveyard from an effect, it flies out on the field." He was able to bring out a robotic dragonfly as it came out with 2000def points.
"Is that it? I was expecting something with a little more pizzazz." Arcane said. "I don't want this to be a disappointing show."
"Arcane, why are you doing any of this in the first place?" Senshi questioned. "Look at what we're doing. We're trapped in a cage, dueling for our freedom, and your opponent is being electrocuted. How can you duel and take pleasure in this?"
"So, you now wish to hear my story? Very well, I'll tell you." Arcane said. "You see, I was once a regular magician. I performed for the crowd, gave great shows, and wowed the crowd. I could have been one of the greats. Sadly, it seemed like it was not meant to be." He said as he reached for his mask and hat, and lowered it. What they all saw was something too gruesome to be seen. "You see, I attempted to perform a daring act. As you can see, it did not go well. I was left horribly scarred, spent months in the hospital. Even I can't look myself in the mirror." He claimed as he put his mask and hat backed on. Arcane could have been a wonderful magician, but it was all taken away from him.
"And you dropped down to serving a madman?" Senshi said.
"You don't know how much I had to struggle to get where I was! Do you have any idea how hard it is making in show business?!" Arcane shouted as he clearly didn't recover mentally. "Then, in less than a minute, just one thing going wrong, I lost it all. Even after I was discharged from the hospital, I couldn't find work! Magic was all I had, and it was gone!" He had a lot of pent up anger as he took some deep breaths, but he soon calmed down. "I thought it was over for me, but I soon caught a break when someone was in need of my work."
"Meldrick." Senshi said as that had to have been him.
"Master Meldrick gave me a new purpose. As long as I serve him, I still have something to live for." Arcane said.
"Senshi, can't you see you practically sold yourself to him?" Senshi said.
"Master Meldrick lifted me up when I was down! For him, I will destroy you!" Arcane claimed as it seemed like there was no reasoning with him. "I believe it's my turn now!" He drew his next card and looked that he only had a spell and trap, but he can work with that. "You should have done a better job of protecting your Mysterious Lady. Go, Evil Magician!" He ordered his magician to attack and that's what he did.
"Actually, I did to a well done job! Drone Flyer's special ability redirects your attack to him!" Senshi said as his little robot redirected the attack to it. Drone Flyer got hit and was destroyed. Since it was defense mode, he took no damage.
"That's not going to protect you as much as you think! I activate the spell: Frightening Magic!" Arcane played. "When a spellcaster that's level five or higher destroys a monster, you take damage equal to it's attack or defense points, whichever one is higher! Your little toy had 200atk points, but 2000def points! This is going to hurt!" Senshi got electrocuted hard again as his life points dropped to a mere 300.
"Oh no..." Cecilia said as she couldn't watch. Senshi dropped to his knees and took deep breaths, but he wasn't giving up.
"You're not giving up? Good!" Arcane said as he placed his trap facedown.
"Arcane, you might think you have this duel won, but someone like you will never truly know victory." Senshi said as he stood back up and drew his next card.
"You're only saying that because I'm about to win. I activate my trap: Fiendish Chain!" Arcane said. Just then, chains came around and bounded Mysterious Lady. "I just put your strongest monster out of commission! Now you can't attack or change her battle position! You were planning to win this with her, but you can't do that now." The girls didn't like how this looked, but Senshi himself wasn't worried.
"Who said I was relying on her to win this?" Senshi said.
"What?" Arcane said as he didn't get it.
"I summon Stratos Synchron!" Senshi said as he busted out a new monster. He summoned out a metal ball with glowing blue eyes and had rings around it that made it look like an atom. It also had 1000atk points. "Next, I activate Stratos Improvement! Your trap card might prevent me from attacking with Mysterious Lady, but I have other uses for her. Stratos Improvement can change the level of an Infinite Stratos from one to eight, so I change Mysterious Lady from level seven to just five." His spell still worked on her as her level dropped down to five. "Next, I tune my level three Stratos Synchron with my level five Mysterious Lady!"
"You're doing what?!" Arcane said as he didn't like this. Both of Senshi's monsters molecularly broke apart and gathered into a circle. Then, the one circle became eight with a ray shooting through. "The boarder between chaos and order is broken from a shooting star! I synchro summon Stratos Sniper!" Senshi summoned out a new monster with it wearing white hi-tech armor that made it look like an astronaut with a blue lens in the helmet. It also carried a railgun-like weapon with it having 2600atk points. "You can synchro summon?! I was not told of this!"
"I activate Stratos Sniper's ability! Your Evil Magician loses 400atk points for every card that I'm holding, and I'm currently holding three! That's 1200atk points!" Senshi said. "Discharge Warning!" Stratos Sniper fired three shot and blasted Evil Magician with his attack points dropping to 1500.
"No! My magician!" Arcane shouted as he didn't like this.
"Finally, I play my Ryoku spell! This drains half of your monsters attack points and transfer them to Stratos Sniper!" Senshi said as energy transferred between the two monsters. Evil Magician's power dropped to 750, Stratos Sniper's was 3550. "That's just enough to end this! Stratos Sniper, attack and end this! Shooting Star Destructor!" His sniper gathered power in its weapon and fired a powerful blast of light. It blasted Arcane's magician and destroyed it with Arcane loosing the last of his life points. Arcane was blown back and hit the bars of the cage.
'You did it!' Ichika thought as he spoke with Senshi. 'That duels was a little crazy. How about you let me take over while you rest.'
'Good idea.' Senshi thought as the two of them switched places. Now that Arcane lost all his life points, the metal box on top opened and the key fell out. Once that happened, Ichika took it and could finally leave.
"Glad that's over." Ichika said.
"No! This has to be a mistake! I can't be defeated!" Arcane said. Suddenly, he felt a sharp sense of pain in his head that he screamed.
"Arcane?" Ichika questioned as he wondered if he was okay.
"No, not Arcane." Meldrick took control of Arcane's mind and was speaking through him.
"Meldrick. Why won't you show your face, you coward?" Ichika said.
"In time, Orimura. The time may come when we face each other, assuming none of my minions are able to defeat you." Meldrick claimed.
"This happened last time, didn't it?" Rin questioned.
"It did. That man is being controlled." Cecilia said.
"Why do you want the power of my charm so badly?" Ichika asked.
"If you must know, it goes back to generations." Meldrick said. "You see, my people were entrusted with the Mystic Gauntlet, one of the eight artifacts like your charm. That is also how I'm able to control the minds of others. We were just meant to protect it, but that meant we had to cut ourselves from the rest of the world. A life of solitude and isolation, taking in stray children and teaching them our ways. I, on the other hand, decided to take matters into my own hands. I decided to claim the power and use it as my own."
"But what does that have to do with me?" Ichika questioned.
"Not really you, per say. You see, it's the spirit of the Great Hero inside your charm, and you were the one unfortunate to own it." Meldrick stated. "According to the legends, the Great Hero was blessed with great powers that saved the world from evil. A power like that could reshape the world with the power of two cards."
"Izanami and Izanagi!" Ichika said.
"So, you already know about that." Meldrick said. "That's right, the power of those three forces could create an unstoppable force. However, I can't just take the power you hold. I must claim it by defeating you, and I shall. I have minions like Arcane everywhere, but I now see my mere underlings isn't enough for the likes of you. I have something else in mind."
"What do you mean?" Ichika said as he didn't like the sound of that.
"One of my minions is in the city, and he possesses one of the two god cards!" Meldrick said. Someone holding one of either of those cards could be a real threat.
'I've got to find that card! It could be a key to unlocking Senshi's past!' Ichika thought.
"Eventually, your power will be mine, and the world will be mine for the taking." Meldrick claimed.
"Never!" Ichika retorted.
"We'll see. When the time is right, I will send my minion on you and you will be crushed!" Meldrick said. That was all Meldrick said before releasing Arcane and Arcane dropping to the ground, another mind banished. Arcane thought he had nothing when he got in this mess, and now he really has nothing. Ichika has a real fight on his hands. Ichika took the key and freed himself from the cage.
"Ichika, are you okay?" Cecilia said.
"I didn't quite get what all that was about, but that all sounded like heavy stuff." Rin said.
"I'm fine." Ichika said. He looked down at his points and saw it jump to about 2050. "My points also made quite the jump. I'm already halfway to my point total." Ichika found some pleasure in this, but Meldrick's warning had him going. 'If Meldrick gets his hands on Senshi's power and both those cards, he'll become unstoppable. One of his minions has Izanami or Izanagi. I need to find that person and get that card.' He thought. Somewhere out there is a minion holding a powerful card. Ichika still has great challenges ahead of him, but he needs to win all of them if he and his friends are going to survive this.