Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh.
Demon Duelist Legacy-World Tour Arc
Chapter 39: The Final Score; Apocalypse had come
("My dear wolf, you've lost. This duel was over before it even began. The very second that Apocalypse Dragon hit the field, the fate of your family and friends was sealed. Now they will all die, and it is all your fault.")
("It's a trick...it has to be!")
("All hail the bringer of the end of the world...Valeus and Rikuo Amero...") The demon mage threw back his head and laughed, while the planet started to come apart around them.
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Everyone was now outside the plane, and they were all staring up at the sky, where the eye of the Apocalypse Dragon loomed.
"Please tell me that I'm imagining things...is that what I think it is?" Deondre felt a single drop of sweat slide down the side of his head.
"I'm not sure...but if it is..." Siegfried paled at the thought of what that meant.
Ryu was on his knees, eyes staring. "It's...the end. The world...is over..."
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Valeus crossed his arms and smiled slightly at Rikuo. "What's the matter? Why aren't you battling on? Don't you think you could at least try and save the universe?"
Snarling, Rikuo came to his feet. "I...will...not let your mind games affect me, Valeus!" He looked down at his hand. ("There must be something I can do.") He looked at the five cards in his hand and paled. ("None of these are of any use to me! They all require parts of combos that I don't have with me.") Bringing his gaze up to the sky, the wolf demon felt despair at the sight of the monstrous Apocalypse Dragon. "I switch Archfiend Soldiers one and two into defense mode!" The two purple horned demons fell to one knee. (1900/1500)
Taking another card from his hand, Rikuo placed it onto his disk. "And then I set one monster into defense mode! End turn." The face-down card appeared next to his other two.
Valeus, his steel-grey eyes watching Rikuo intently, smirked. "So that's it? No big come-back from the mighty wolf demon?" He drew. "That's too bad, because this duel is over in the next round."
Then Rikuo noticed something important. "You're right it is the end of this duel in the next round. You have one card left in your deck, meaning that shortly you will lose anyways."
"Don't be too sure, my little dog. I activate the special ability of Apocalypse Dragon!" The pupil of the eye widened. "By sacrificing my next draw phase, I may destroy one monster on the field!" Two beams of light shot out of the eye that vaporized the two Archfiend Soldiers. "And thanks to the effect of my Dragon, it also kills a monster normally."
Rikuo felt something else...something sinister. Thinking back on his opponent's words, he understood why. "How is this duel going to be over by the next turn?"
Valeus slid a card into his duel disk. "Thanks to this magic card, known as Divine Smite!" Taking the other card in his hand, the demon mage slid it into his graveyard. From within the pupil of Apocalypse Dragon's eye, a single mote of light appeared. "Next turn, my monster will now be able to attack your life points directly!" He cackled insanely, hurricane force winds blasting across the field. "In other words, next turn is game over!"
Rikuo felt pale...and tired. ("I just want this madness to end...I'm done battling, I left that behind when I died. Why do all of these decisions...these choices... have to be piled on my shoulders!?")
("Because you're meant to spend what's left of your miserable little life suffering. Since the world is about to end, I suppose you really won't have to be depressed much longer, now will you?") From across the field, Valeus crossed his arms across his chest and laughed.
Rikuo wasn't going to give up...there was too much at stake. ("However, what can I do to win? What's left in my soul that has the power to defeat the Apocalypse Dragon? Daniel destroyed it through the use of one of Deondre's cards but in this situation...there's nothing left that can defeat the Dragon.") "Valeus, I cannot allow this to continue. I will find a way to stop you from hurting people. I will!" Rikuo slowly stood up, his eyes tired but defiant. ("Is this is my last battle then I'll make sure it is the best damned battle any person has ever laid eyes on!") "It's my turn and now, here is my final draw!" The wolf demon snapped the top card off of his deck.
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From within the remains of the cave that had housed the theater where Sestros little hell show had gone on, something stirred within the rubble of the shaking complex. Underneath a pile of upturned chairs, wisps of smoke lifted from an unknown source. Suddenly the room was lit up in a blaze of orange and red flames. A single form of flames launched free of the pile of chairs and blazed up the tunnel, screeching towards the entrance.
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Rikuo looked at the card and nodded resolutely. "The magic card Pot of Greed lets me draw two cards!" He snapped the first card off of his deck. He started to reach for the second...
A screech broke through the air and a huge orange-red bird-like form exploded into the sky above the two demons.
Valeus stared in a mix of confusion and fear. "The Phoenix Wings!?"
Rikuo snickered as he remembered something that Ryu had said once. Looking down at Valeus, Rikuo held up his duel disk into the air. "It's hard as hell to make a demon stay dead, you should know that!"
The phoenix found what it was looking for and it slammed into the wolf demon's deck, disappearing in a flash of flames.
Valeus was being pulled back to the time of his first sealing...and that spoke bad for him. "No...not him...anyone but him!"
Rikuo drew, not surprised in the slightest by what card it was. "Let's end this now, shall we!?" Adding the card to his hand, he grabbed the first card he had gained from Pot of Greed. "This just reminded me of something important about how to defeat the Apocalypse Dragon. You don't go after the dragon, you go after the owner!" He held up the card. "I activate Hope of Faith!" His face-down monster exploded and a ring of light lit up the mountainside.
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All eyes were affixed onto the mountain, where the ring of light had appeared.
"Oh now what?" muttered CJ angrily. "What else could go wrong?"
Ryu understood what it was, and he slowly stood. "Nothing else could go wrong...it could only be going right."
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A pair of armored forms lowered onto the field.
The first wore black armor, wielded a sword, and had golden eyes. "I am Yami Knight!" (6000/0)
The second wore white armor, held a shield at its side, and had brown eyes. "I am Hikari Knight!" (0/6000)
Rikuo smiled to the two warriors of light and darkness. "It's good to see the two of you again."
They both nodded back to the wolf demon.
Valeus chuckled calmly, "What are these two pieces of trash going to do? Give Apocalypse Dragon a headache with their incessant chatter?"
Yami Knight looked over at Valeus calmly. "Demon mage of the past, we are not your enemies. You didn't terrorize our existence. We are only here for one reason."
Hikari Knight stepped forward. "We are here to bring about the power that defeated you before. It was a pleasure seeing you, but we're done here. Bye."
The two knights threw Valeus a wink.
Growling, said demon mage roared into the wind around them, "What do you know!? I have never been defeated!!!"
Rikuo grabbed the card that he had drawn after Hope of Faith. "Yami Knight...Hikari Knight...thank you for everything. Now, I have need of your services one last time."
They both looked back at their ally and nodded. "Do it," they said in unison.
Flipping the card around, Rikuo yelled into the gale, "Activate Phoenix Knight's Revival! I sacrifice 4000 life points and my two monsters to pay for its effect!" Both of the knights faded away.
Rikuo- 4000
Valeus- 66800
The ring of light faded and was replaced by a ring of fire on the ground. As it cleared, a knight wearing golden armor with silver and platinum inlays all across the shining surface. At the creature's side was a sword, and it opened its eyes to reveal a pair of crimson irises.
Valeus unintentionally shivered at the sight of the creature. "It's you....the one from before..." His features turned angry. "DAMN YOU, AGAIN YOU RETURN TO ATTEMPT TO DEFEAT ME!?"
Rikuo smiled from behind the new creature. "That's right, the warrior from the past had returned to seal you away once more. I summon Divine Paladin of the Phoenix in attack mode!" (8500/8000) Drawing its sword, the noble demon warrior prepared for battle against its two ancient foes.
Valeus calmed instantly. "You fool; he cannot defeat the Apocalypse Dragon."
"Oh, I think we've already established that your creature is invincible. However, we've also figured out the answer to that. You see, I go after the player who summoned the Apocalypse Dragon." Rikuo slid three of the remaining four cards in his hand into his duel disk. "I set three cards face-down and attack your Apocalypse Dragon with Divine Paladin of the Phoenix!" The warrior drew its sword and snapped the weapon back, divine flames lining the blade. "Phoenix Flame Blast!"
"Suicidal fool...Apocalypse Dragon, counter-attack!" The huge eye released a beam of energy that sailed downwards to engulf the Paladin where he stood.
"Suicidal eh?" Rikuo snickered as the Divine Paladin of the Phoenix snapped its sword up, catching the whole ray on the blade and creating an arc of energy that went back to the eye, slamming right into it. "That's your opinion. This is actually my winning play."
"Whatever you say Rikuo." Valeus looked down at his life point counter, expecting to see Rikuo's life points at zero.
Rikuo- 4000
Valeus- 66800
"What the hell!?" The demon mage had to cover his eyes as the arcs of energy intertwined and became on channel of power that was exchanged between the two creatures. "Why aren't you life points at zero?"
Sliding the last card from his hand into the graveyard, Rikuo smiled calmly. "Because I activated the effect of Divine Paladin of the Phoenix. By discarding one card from my hand, I can negate all damage done to me this turn."
That left a lot of things unexplained in Valeus' mind. "What about the fact that your Paladin is still standing? It doesn't have enough attack or defense points to hold against Apocalypse Dragon!"
Rikuo motioned to all three of his face-down cards, which were now facing up. "That would be thanks to my first card, which is called Warrior Undying! This will prevent one warrior monster on my field from being destroyed in battle this turn!"
"So what? That doesn't mean anything to my dragon. I'll just blow your monster away next turn!" Something was wrong though, because neither arc of energy was fading away. If anything, they were getting brighter.
Rikuo pointed at the next face-up card. "Secondly, I activated the quickplay magic card Endless Blows. As long as I have one monster on the field, that creature may continue to attack as long as you have a monster in play." The arcs were so bright now that they even made the destruction that was happening around the duel seemed small in comparison. "Oh, and Valeus? Take a look at your life points."
The demon mage looked at his life point total, and his confident features turned ghostly pale. "What trickery is this!?"
Rikuo- 4000
Valeus- 40000- 39900- 39800- 39700, etc.
Rikuo pointed at his last face-down card. "That would be thanks to my last card, which is a continuous magic card called Lucky Strike. As long as it is in play, even when I lose in a battle you will at least lose 100 life points minimum. And since I am attacking infinitely..."
Valeus- 34100- 34000- 33900- 33800
"...then you will lose infinite attack points! Face it Valeus..." Rikuo's expression was the very epitome of divine anger. "...this duel is over, and so are you!"
"NO!!! I will not be defeated like this!!!!" The demon mage charged forwards, blackness flowing around his claws as he intended to strike down Rikuo. "DIE!!!"
Something changed about Rikuo then. His eyes hardened slightly and an aura of black energy exploded to life around him.
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Everyone down by the plane was watching the exchange of energy between the Apocalypse Dragon and the Divine Paladin of the Phoenix. And then their attention was drawn to where a thunderclap of power so huge that the whole island shook had occurred.
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Valeus stared down at the hole in his stomach, and the arm that was protruding out of it. "Where...did this come from?"
Rikuo, his form lined with a pulsing black energy, smiled slightly. "Finally, my damned old powers have returned to me."
Valeus- 10000- 9900- 9980- 9970
Growling around the black blood that was filling his mouth, Valeus lifted his claw back to try again...
Valeus- 9000
Rikuo landed an uppercut so strong that both his and his opponent's feet left the ground.
Valeus- 8000
Grunting, Valeus charged again...
Valeus- 7000
Rikuo side-stepped the demon mage's charge and slammed his elbow into the side of Valeus' head, driving him to the ground.
Valeus- 6000
"I...cannot...die!" Leaping up, Valeus charged again.
Valeus- 5000
"You don't need to die," Rikuo said calmly, while catching Valeus' arm and breaking it with a single twist of his wrist.
Valeus- 4000
"But...I will return!!!!" Valeus charged up a ball of black flame within his remaining good hand. "Now come and join me for a stay in hell, Rikuo Amero!"
Valeus- 3000
The wolf demon general stood calmly and waited, watching the ball of black fire appraisingly. ("He's trying to kill us both.")
Valeus- 2000
Cackling through the buckets of blood that was spraying out of his mouth, Valeus cocked back his arm and prepared to hurl the attack. "This one will make Kilomet Sestros proud! Abyssal Sun!" He threw the attack.
Valeus- 1000
Rikuo lifted his palms up and caught the attack between them, sliding back until he almost was plunged over the side of the mountain.
Valeus- 900
"What!?" The demon mage stared in horror as his attack was sent flying back at him.
Valeus- 800
Rikuo, his palms burnt and blackened, met eyes with Valeus. "If there is one thing..."
Valeus- 700
"That you must remember about me....."
Valeus- 600
"It is that you are weak....."
Valeus- 300
Somehow, despite the apocalyptic battle that was being waged just feet away from them and the roaring winds that blew across the mountain-side, silence held between the two of them.
"And I am strong." Rikuo finished as the ball of black flame slammed into Valeus.
Valeus- 0
And then a scream echoed from the top of the mountain that was so hellish and pained that even Rikuo, who had seen the hells of the Torture King, had to flinch away.
With one last explosion of black fire, Valeus was gone forever as his soul was sealed in a place inaccessible by anyone of the earthly realm.
To be continued...