Chapter Six: The God Of Magicians
"It looks like you don't have a leg to stand on Rikuo. Maybe you should use your tail. Now watch as I show you the ultimate in power. In this turn I'm going to unleash upon you the power of my strongest monster. In moments you'll witness the god of all magicians!"
"Now, I'll begin this turn by declaring something new. Monster! Draw your five cards Rikuo!" The wolf demon did so, and finally picked up his cards and discarded three of them. Right in front of him the magic wielding duelist did as well. On the other hand Drake was now holding a total of eleven cars as opposed to Rikuo's measly five.
The demon duelist gulped as he felt something flicker through Drake's cards. Like a heart beat. Something was calling out to him from his deck and his hand, somewhere from Drake's cards it was coming. Some deep and hidden power waiting to be released. "This is it Rikuo. I'll begin by activating Call of the Abyss! I'll discard my two new monsters in order to place two monsters from out of play into my hand."
When Drake pulled the two cards out of his pocket Rikuo knew for certain. The pulsing was coming from those two cards, and it was echoing with Drake's own energy. Those cards were calling to his own heart, to his very soul. And there was a great power flowing between the three. "Now I've got all I need to defeat you. But first I summon Guardian Magician of the Night(1900/1400) to the field."
The new monster wore a robe of a pitch black night with stars on it, but Rikuo's attention wasn't on it at all. He could still feel that energy flow between the two cards and Drake, and he was awaiting the moment when that power within the cards would be unleashed. "The time is now Rikuo! I'll create my God right here and now, with this magic card: Chaos Fusion!"
A giant vortex appeared on the field, swirling around as the powers began to combine. Rikuo could already feel the swell of power and Drake hadn't even combined his monsters yet! Whatever this fusion was, it wouldn't end well for him, that he was sure of. "Combine yourself together my two ultimate monsters! The dark power of chaos, Black Magician of Chaos! The surging joy of light in chaos, White Magician of Chaos! Fuse yourself together and bring order from that chaos! Unleash the ultimate power of the God of Magicians!"
The two named magicians appeared on the field and leapt forwards, into the mass of energy. The pulsing came from within that vortex as the two powers joined forces, creating something of enormous power. This monster was something primal that he couldn't explain, an ancient force unleashed in Duel Monsters form. "Arise my greatest magician! I now unveil the Supreme Sage of Balance(4000/4000)!"
Now Rikuo understood why he had such a feeling of primal fear at the energy he was sensing. It was this mighty creature that had been considered only a legend by demons and humans alike in this time. A monster with the power to purify the hearts and souls of anything it touched, or purify them out of existence. It was like killing, only nicer. If something like that could be said. 'I can't believe it...the creature exists.'
The creature standing before him was humanoid in shape, but seemed to be formed of pure light. Either that it or it was shining so brightly that he couldn't distinguish any specific features. It stood about twenty feet tall, and though it wasn't the most massive of creatures he'd ever seen, it seemed to tower over the field. And its gaze seemed to be judging him. 'Why the hell is it looking at me like that? Is it really a hologram or something more?'
"Amazing that this mighty magician resided inside my very soul isn't it? Now watch the power of my supreme magician. Scholarly Magician, Guardian Magician of the Night, and Sorcerer of Dark Magic will offer themselves to him!" The three named magicians vanished and turned into balls of light. One black, one blue, and one teal. The three balls of light flew towards Supreme Sage of Balance and were absorbed into his body. He grew in size, and his light blazed up even more.
"His effect allows him to absorb attack points equal to one hundred times the level of monster he absorbs. He must be the only monster in play. He gains the special effects of any monster he absorbs. So watch as his power rises. Supreme Sage of Balance(5600/5600) has more power than your avatar did, and it will just continue to grow. Of course you'll learn its full power soon enough." Rikuo grimaced, realizing that this monster could quickly surpass even his strongest monster if he didn't stop it.
'It just absorbed Sorcerer of Dark Magic so it can cancel out my trap cards. Because of Scholarly Magician he can still play magic cards from hand, and I don't have a clue what that other magician does. Sheesh, how am I supposed to defeat this thing?' He was going to think about the situation more, but Drake cleared this throat, bringing his attention back to the actual game.
"If you're done daydreaming, it's time for me to purify your machine. Supreme Sage of Balance, cure Gatling Dragon of the taint that corrupts it! Purifying Touch!" The sage raised one arm and gestured, causing a divine glow to surround the mechanical monster. Its entire body seemed to fade away, leaving nothing in its wake. Rikuo grimaced as his hard earned life points drifted away. (RLP: 850)
"Supreme Sage of Balance took the common effect of its components. Any monster destroyed by it is removed from play. It also prevents the out play pile from ever being accessed again by either of us." Drake smirked wickedly, and Rikuo began to wonder just how many effects this damned thing had. He also wondered how it had been so easy to summon. It had just need three cards to play.
"How in the hell did you get that thing anyways? Two monsters and one special fusion card for a monster of that type of power? There has to be some kind of draw back!" Drake sighed and nodded his head, causing Rikuo to silently cheer. He had known there had to be a draw back, now he just needed to find out what.
"The fusion components and any monsters it absorbs are removed from play and can never be put back into play in any manner. I also must offer a magician to it each turn or it will die. But I don't think that's going to be a problem. You won't last long with it in play." With that Drake's turn was at last over, and now he had eight cards in his hand. He didn't even need to set cards to protect his magician god, it was that powerful.
'Okay. Think Rikuo. You've faced a lot of challenges before and you've beaten them all. Hell, you defeated Valeus' Apocalypse Dragon. Of course you don't have Fenrir right now, so that's pointless. What would Daniel do in this situation?' Rikuo's eyes widened suddenly with the insight, and he smirked. It was a smirk of evil, one that said he knew exactly how do defeat his opponent. All he had to do was draw the right card.
"This is my one chance! Draw!" Drake's eyes widened as he felt a huge surge of power from his opponent. It was beyond anything he'd felt from the demon. It had to be his true power, the ultimate energy that Rikuo possessed. A true duelist's power. 'Top deck...'
"I activate Monkey Wrench! It would cost one thousand points, but your Effect Economics saves me from paying the cost. Now I can take three machines from my cemetery and add them to my hand." He ejected his cemetery and searched through it. He had plenty of monsters to choose from, but he had three specific ones in mind. It took him a little searching to find them all, but soon enough he had them.
"Next up I discard Mecha Technician(300/500) from my hand to special summon up to three level four or lower machine sub-type monsters from my hand. They can't attack at all or be sacrificed. Generally they are just around for defense. But the monsters I brought back and am summoning are X-Head Cannon(1800/1500), Y-Dragon Head(1500/1600), and Z-Metal Tank(1500/1600)!" The three alphabet monsters appeared on the field, ready and able to take the battle to Drake.
"X, Y, and Z will combine themselves into one creature and form XYZ-Dragon Cannon(2800/2600)!" The three monsters came together to form the mighty behemoth that was the combination of the three. Similar to Valkyrion and Gate Guardian in how they combined, this monsters effect was what made all the difference. Hopefully it was an effect that would allow Rikuo to destroy Supreme Sage of Balance.
"I'll discard a card to activate XYZ's effect. Now blow up his sage and burn its ashes into the ground!" The combination monster armed itself and launched a missile barrage at the towering magician god. However at the last moment the missiles simply blinked out of existence and the Sage was perfectly fine. Drake flipped a card from his hand around and revealed it, Negative Morality.
With his chance at victory shot down Rikuo lowered his head. Drake sighed, knowing that without the power of XYZ-Dragon Cannon Rikuo had no way of winning. And since XYZ was in attack mode it would be easy prey for his Supreme Sage of Balance. "Sorry Rikuo, looks like this duel is coming to a close. There's nothing left you can possibly do."
Drake leaned in closer as he heard a strange sound. It was like...something shivering or something. It was too quiet for him to hear. "Rikuo, is that you? What the hell is that noise?" The noise grew louder, and Drake recognized it, though he didn't understand. The wolf demon was snickering, and it was growing into a chuckle, then into all out laughter.
"You've done it again Drake! You outsmarted yourself in the same way you did last time! You wasted Negative Morality when the real thing I wanted to do wasn't use XYZ-Dragon Cannon. I just needed it on the field for this next card. I activate the ritual magic card, Hope of Faith! This requires a single monster as sacrifice, so say goodbye to XYZ-Dragon Cannon and hello to the cause of your demise!" The union monster shattered into thousands of pieces, only to be replaced by a shimmering column of energy of a red color.
The red beam of energy suddenly separated and moved to each side of Rikuo. One column of black energy, and one of white. Slowly the lights dimmed to reveal two warriors, both handsome. The first wore black armor and held a sword in his hand. His eyes opened to reveal a similar gold color to Rikuo's. "I am Yami Knight(6000/0)!"
The compatriot of the powerful knight opened his own eyes, showing a brown color. He wore the opposite of Yami Knight's armor, as he was dressed all in white. The warrior held his sword out in front of him and declared in a commanding voice his identity. "I am Hikari Knight(0/6000)!"
"Drake, your Supreme Sage of Balance is powerful, but the warriors of light and dark have descended into this duel! Together they will be the defeat of your monster. Cross your blades my knights, and prepare for battle!" The two warriors did as he said, and the moment their blades touched Drake felt a power extraordinarily similar to the power of his Supreme Sage of Chaos. These monsters were just as real as his own!
"Impossible! How could one single ritual card with such a small cost summon monsters of such incredible power! These two must have a draw back of their own." Rikuo smirked and shook his head, revealing that they had no draw back. Drake backed up a step, realizing that his Supreme Sage of Balance was weaker than Yami Knight. If it successfully completed an attack his ultimate magician would be defeated, and he had no idea how he would recover from that.
"With the presence of these two knights your monster is doomed! Yami Knight, cut down his Supreme Sage!" The knight started to raise his blade, but suddenly a piercing sound filled the air. The two knights grimaced, covering their ears to shield themself from the sound. Meanwhile the wolf-demon with his sensitive ears was crouching with his hands pressed to his head, desperately trying to block out the sound.
Drake grimaced, not wanting to inflict pain to his opponent. He wanted a clean duel. "Cut the sound! Damn...sorry Rikuo, I didn't think of your hearing. I played Command Silencer from my hand, so your monsters couldn't hear your orders. It also lets me draw a card...but I had no intention of doing that to you." The wolf-demon shook himself and rose back to his feet, ready to continue.
"That's fine Drake. I assume since Command Silencer was played I can't continue attacking." The punk duelist nodded, and Rikuo accepted this. Finally Rikuo placed a card down on his field, showing that his turn was over. And last but not least he drew two more cards from his rapidly dwindling deck. Hopefully he'd be able to finish off Supreme Sage of Balance soon, otherwise he was in trouble.
'I've still got another chance here. If Drake can't draw a monster he'll be in serious trouble. So long as he doesn't get lucky he'll have to sacrifice his own Supreme Sage of Balance. With Destiny's Way he has a better chance of drawing one, but if he can't summon it then I'm fine. All I've got to do is hope.' He stood at the ready, waiting for Drake to take his move and show him if his destiny was strong enough to maintain the god magician.
The magician duelist looked at his newest card in his hand of eight and then back up to the field. Finally he made his declaration, just as Rikuo had suspected. "I declare monster. Time to draw our five cards." The two duelists grabbed their next five cards, and after a bit of examining they each tossed four of them aside. Rikuo just had to hope that the monster Drake had drawn was a high level monster or had a special summoning cost.
"Before I continue I guess I'll just have to play this card. Last Ditch Recycling Efforts. I must take four cards in my hand and remove them from play. And thanks to Supreme Sage of Balance those cards will never be accessible again." He picked four cards out of his hand and shoved them into his pocket, then watched his field carefully. This was his moment of truth, he just had to make it work.
"Its effect makes me flip a coin. If the outcome is heads I get to shuffle all cards in my cemetery back into my deck. If not, my life points are automatically cut in half. So let's see what happens!" He picked his coin up and instead of flipping it he threw it directly at Rikuo, sending it spinning at great speed towards the wolf-demon. Using his superior reflexes Rikuo caught the caught, holding it in his palm, unwilling to open it.
"Well, here goes nothing." He slowly uncurled his fingers in order to reveal the outcome. And when he did he wished he hadn't opened them. The coin was facing him with heads up, and that meant Drake's entire deck was about to be restored. "Go ahead Drake, return your cemetery back into your deck." The punk duelist did so, and then drew his next card.
"I almost forgot to mention this. Once during each of my turns I must remove the first monster in my deck from the game. My monster gains that removed monster's abilities, however, it doesn't count as the offering to keep it in play. It happens to be the second form of payment for my monster. But since only a few monsters of mine are out of play, I've got lots of options. Let's see what the first one is shall we?" He picked up cards off his deck until he reached a monster. Then he showed it to Rikuo.
"Chaos Magician Girl. That means my monster gains the special effect of increasing its attack by three hundred for every removed card. Pretty devastating isn't it? Now let's start counting shall we?" The two duelists took their removed from play piles out of their pockets and counted up the cards. In the end it was revealed that Rikuo had nine cards removed from play. X, Y, Z, and all the cards that Drake had removed. Drake had ten cards. A total of nineteen.
"With nineteen cards removed from play my monster gains quite a bit of attack power. Watch the energy of my Supreme Sage of Balance(11900/11900) grow!" Eighteen spheres of energy flowed out and entered the sage's body, increasing his size and brightness. The worst aspect was that his attack power had more than doubled in a single turn. It was easily strong enough to defeat Yami Knight.
"Oh yeah, did I neglect to mention that when Supreme Sage of Balance has a monster removed for this upkeep effect I gain that monster's attack points? Plus during each turn I gain twenty-five life points for every card that is removed from play. Meaning in this turn my life points are increased my a total of two thousand four hundred and fifty points. Watch it rise!" Rikuo gasped in shock at seeing his opponent's life points raise yet again. With that many abilities Supreme Sage of Balance truly was a god! (DLP: 14175)
"Let's not forget the sacrifice shall we? I summon Skilled Chaos Magician(1800/1600) to the field in attack mode! Now I offer it to keep my sage in play and increase his attack power! Since he's removed from the game, that means more life points for me next turn. That is, if there is a next turn!" The golden robed magician that Drake summoned quickly became a glowing sphere of light and was absorbed into the now giant form of Supreme Sage of Balance(12300/12300).
Rikuo stood strong, just waiting for Drake to attack. The punk duelist saw the confidence that Rikuo held and he felt that he knew the cause. Rikuo was going to accept his defeat like a man, and that was fine with Drake. "I'll give you a man's defeat! Supreme Sage of Balance, use Purifying Touch to remove Yami Knight from the game!"
The sage raised on arm, and a holy glow started to surround Yami Knight. Suddenly Hikari Knight shoved his brother out of the way and absorbed the rays of holy energy. His pure holiness seemed to keep him from succumbing, and when the light faded Hikari Knight was still standing. "You cannot defeat my brother so easily! As long as I am here I will take any attack that you throw at him!"
The dark armored knight stood up and stepped beside his brother, raising his blade to cross it with Hikari Knight's. Then he sneered and spoke up. "And as long as I empower my brother you cannot defeat him in battle, regardless of how powerful your monster is! Together we are unstoppable!" Rikuo smirked at hearing his own knights explain their effects for him, and couldn't help but be happy about the dumbfounded look on his opponent's face.
"I guess your monsters are stronger than I would have thought. Considering that Supreme Sage of Balance requires he be the only card I can play on the field, that means my turn is over. The only card that will remain is my set card and Effect Economics because they were in play before Supreme Sage of Balance hit. But luckily the effect of Scholarly Magician will allow me protect the sage since he has that power. You're still stuck Rikuo, and my magician cannot be defeated!" He picked up two new cards, and now it was Rikuo's time to shine. He had to hope he could find a way to eliminate this ultimate monster or he would lose.
The wolf-demon duelist placed his fingers on his deck, ready to draw. And then he began to have doubts. He could imagine a way to handle this situation. Short of something like an infinite loop, which he had no way to form in his hand, there seemed to be no possibility of defeating the insanely powerful monster. Every turn it just got stronger, and Drake's life points were reinforced.
It wasn't just that either. He knew that he could stall for quite some time with the abilities of Yami Knight and Hikari Knight active. But Drake had just restored his deck, and only the cards in his hand, field, and out of play were no longer there. Meanwhile Rikuo only had nine cards left in his deck. So on his third turn after this one in the end phase he would lose because he'd have to draw two cards and wouldn't have a deck.
He'd been in a similar situation against Sestros. He had gotten down to his final cards, and in the end he had managed to win simply because Sestros had imbued his monster with the soul of Daniel. Had he not done so there would have been no way for Rikuo to have won. But this wasn't a darkness game, and no technicality was going to get him out of the hole he was in.
Everything in this duel was going to have to come down to one moment and one draw. Although in reality it didn't matter if he won or lost, Rikuo felt that this duel was the challenge that he had been needing to revitalize him. If he could win then he'd feel ready to reenter the world and start really dueling again. He had decided to stop dueling after his match with Daniel, just because of one reason. That match had been a parting gift between the two of them and Rikuo had been tired of duels with insane stakes.
'Who am I kidding. A challenging duel isn't what's been holding me back from reentering the dueling world. It's been me the whole time. I've been too worried about the potential threat, that somehow the moment I did so something terrible would happen. All along I've been afraid of that.' The wolf demon raised his head and stared proudly across the field at his opponent, his body radiating confidence and his energy on the upsurge. Drake felt the wolf's power stirring.
"I've been cowering from myself for far too long! Now the time has come for me to change that, so I'm going to keep dueling until the very end. Despair is meaningless, because even if I lose I'll have come out of it a better duelist. Now is my moment to see everything I've ever done in a duel come together. DRAW!" XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Author's Notes: Damn...that Supreme Sage of Balance really is broken. So please, don't complain because I know that. On the other hand it has just as many costs as it does powers, although one of those costs, a life point upkeep, is being negated by Effect Economics. Hope you enjoyed the story so far, because I believe only two chapters remain.
Wolf General: And that going and going is going to come to a close within two more chapters. Ciao.
Time Mage: Yeah, I know that. But honestly this duel is not entirely scripted. I have a list of both decks and most of the cards they draw are random, so the combos become pretty impressive. There are certain situations where I've had to force something, but eh, you know how it is.
Original Cards(same again)
Drake: Call of the Abyss, White Magician of Chaos, Chaos Fusion, Guardian Magician of the Night, Scholarly Magician, Supreme Sage of Balance, Last Ditch Recycling Efforts, Chaos Magician Girl, Skilled Chaos Magician, Negative Morality
Rikuo: Monkey Wrench(DMGirl7113), Mecha Technician(mine), Hope of Faith, Yami Knight, Hikari Knight
Anime Original Cards
Drake: Command Silencer