Disclaimer/Author's Note
Okay, so this chapter marks the evolution of the story summary, because the plot is finally open. Uhh...read on I guess!
By the way, I know that this plot sounds like the Orichalcos theme from the show, but it's not.
YuGiOh: Hallowed Darkness
The Hearts of Men
A burst of blue light ended the duel between Adriel and Ryu. "What are you waiting for...take my soul." said Adriel in a somber voice.
"No..." said Ryu. "You are a worthy duelist. And a worthy avatar. But you've been terribly corrupted by the hearts of men. And therefore, you don't have a strong connection with your creatures. All that can change if you are still willing to follow me." offered Ryu.
"I am..." said Adriel.
Ryu cracked a smile and the room vanished. His form melted, and the image of a powerful dragon replaced him. "Excellent. The only thing left to do now is to invoke the ritual and summon your spirit monster."
Tendrils of golden energy leapt out of Ryu and into Adriel, who began to morph. His lithe frame twisted into that of a dragon. His eyes flashed gold, and were soon black with golden irises. The spikes on his head grew and seemed to solidify, two large black horns jutting out of his now golden hair. The bones of his hands cracked and became angular, ten golden claws replacing his fingernails. The golden frame of two dragon wings erupted from his back and the gaps between the bones were filled with black skin. At waist level, a black tail shot out of his back and grew golden barbs that ran along its length. Finally, his skin turned black and hardened, fracturing into individual scales.
Through this, his cloak exploded into shreds. His robes remained intact, although a golden emblem appeared over his heart. "Your spirit..." said Ryu, "Is the Golden Chaos Dragon. It is up to you to bring it to life in a duel. When you wake up, you will not be a dragon. You will find yourself in a room filled with cards. They are all yours now. I am with you, and invoking my name will call me into the duel. You are now the Avatar of Dragons."
Darkness consumed Adriel and everything went quiet.
Adriel woke up in a fancy bed, still in his black robes. "Was that all a dream?" he asked himself. Sitting up, he realized it wasn't. In front of him was a glass display case filled with cards. Behind that was a bookshelf filled with binders labeled with card types and strategies. Climbing out of the red satin sheets, Adriel took his deck from the nightstand next to him and brought it to a larger table next to the display case. He spread his deck in front of him and began to work. Any card... said a voice in his mind.
"I know, Ryu." replied Adriel, opening the glass door of the container and pulling out a few cards.
Look in the seventh binder to the right... whispered Ryu's voice.
"Why?" asked Adriel, switching three cards out for three new ones.
"Would you just do it?" Ryu said, exasperated.
"Wait, what? I thought you didn't have a body!" Adriel shouted in surprise. Ryu was standing right next to him.
"I'm a spirit. Only you can see me since you're my avatar. Now just look in the binder, will you?!" Ryu shouted.
Adriel obliged and grabbed a gold binder. "Ryu, there's nothing here but a blank card." However, Adriel couldn't help but notice that this card was strange looking. The square where the monster's picture was supposed to be was completely transparent, and the card itself was a holographic black.
"Put it in your deck. And always keep this binder with you." Ryu said.
Sighing, Adriel tossed the card onto his deck table and slid the binder, which was only the size of an address book, into a pocket inside his robes.
"Thank you. Was that so hard? Anyway, I should tell you now that the best cards are in the binders. The glass case of cards that you're building from is mainly a collection." said Ryu.
"Will do. Now can you stop bothering me?" asked Adriel. Ryu snorted in return, but vanished.
"Now then..." Adriel said, pulling out a binder labeled "Dragons-Tribute".
A bit later, Adriel had his entire deck ready, as well as two spares in case anything should happen. "Ryu? I'm ready. Now what?" called Adriel.
Ryu's form materialized next to Adriel. "Now we get you your new DuelDisk." he said.
"What? Why? The one I have is practically brand new!" sputtered Adriel.
"You need a new one because you're not the only avatar on the planet. The particular disk you'll be getting is a trademark, per se. And you'll be getting new clothes, too." Ryu said, trying to remember where exactly he was going.
"What, are we going to the supernatural mall?" joked Adriel.
"You could say that..." replied Ryu.
Adriel was being led by Ryu all throughout the city. "Ryu, what's the point? I'm sure we've passed that shop before." he said.
"Shut up. It just looks the same. We need to go to the top of that building," Ryu said, pointing towards a skyscraper.
"You know that the upper third of that building is empty, right?" asked Adriel.
"Yes, I know. But that's the spot that the others chose to use as our base of operations."
The pair continued walking, and Adriel gained a couple awkward stares as he talked to Ryu, who was still a spirit more than anything else. Plus, no one walked around in black robes anymore.
"Okay, we're up as far as the elevator will take us." said Adriel. "Where are these 'others'?" he demanded.
"They're up here," said Ryu. He closed his eyes and concentrated, turning completely black and losing form. This dark blob shot through the ceiling while Adriel stood rooted to the ground in shock.
"Hurry up!" shouted Ryu from the upper floor. "I don't have all day."
"Sorry for not knowing how to fly through ceilings, especially since humans can't fly!" Adriel shouted back.
"You idiot, I told you that you have a spirit monster now! Call upon it and get up here!" Ryu screamed.
Sighing, Adriel pulled the black card out of his deck. He focused on the card and willed the image of a giant black and gold dragon to appear on its transparent surface. Slowly, a combination of different shades of black, white, and gold seeped into the card as if Adriel had spilled something on it. The card began to glow gold, and that glow extended into Adriel, who felt his body leave the ground. He reflexively braced himself as his head neared the ceiling, but was mildly disturbed as he passed through it effortlessly.
"Took you long enough," said Ryu. Adriel didn't hear him. He was too busy looking at his surroundings. The room he was in looked very sterile. The floors were tiled with a shale-colored stone and the walls were, of course, all windows. As Adriel looked closer, he could see that the floor was carved with some sort of design, and that there were several pedestals lining the rounded walls.
"Where are we?" asked Adriel.
"Headquarters. I told you. Now we just have to wait for the others to get here..."
Ryu disappeared and reappeared behind one of the pedestals. Soon, several other strange-looking individuals appeared behind the remainder of the platforms. "Ryu, who have you brought here today?" asked one of the sovereigns.
Ryu didn't answer him, and Adriel took it upon himself to answer. "I'm Adriel. Adriel Touchstone."
"And?" asked another sovereign.
Adriel looked to Ryu for help, but his guardian's stony gaze gave him no help. "Uh...Ryu made me the avatar of dragons."
"Why did he do this?" demanded a shadowy looking figure to Ryu's right.
"We dueled and I lost, but Ryu said that I was still a good duelist."
"Is this true?" asked a sovereign across the room.
Ryu didn't answer. "Yes," replied Adriel, feeling kind of stupid.
"Very well. We will test you to see if you are truly worthy of the power that the position of Avatar holds." said a voice to Adriel's immediate left.
A test? wondered Adriel. He didn't have to wait long as each sovereign placed a card on their pedestal. Monsters from at least a dozen representative types of creatures in the game of Duel Monsters jumped out at him. Adriel recognized Infernus charging at him before his body went rigid and he lost control. He morphed into the Gold-Eyes Chaos Dragon, dragonoid form, and activated his disk. He quickly grabbed a glowing silver card from his deck and threw it into his field card slot. An orb of energy materialized around him and began to rapidly spin, blocking all attacks. The ground around him cracked and melted; a spiked rock mountain shooting up beneath Adriel and propelling him into the air. "Dragon's Keep prevents me from taking battle damage as long as there's a dragon on the field. And guess what? I'm a dragon."
Adriel quickly summoned five monsters to the field. Ryu recognized them as the parts of Rahu. "My five monsters gain 700 attack and defense points from my field and I no longer have to pay for their effects. Now I meld them together."
The pieces of Rahu swirled in a halo around Adriel and shot to the ground in a beam. Rahu the Dragon Monarch erupted from the ground in front of Adriel and leapt into the air, resting behind its master. "Rahu, Dragon Legend Impact!"
Rahu opened its jaws and let off a burst of energy that crackled with dragonic lightning. It blasted through a fiend-type monster and exploded, the shockwave wiping out three other monsters. In the wake of the attack, Adriel had already summoned out Infusion Dragon and mimicked the attack of Levia-Dragon Daedalus and the effect of Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. A monster launched itself at Adriel's Infusion Dragon and was destroyed through Zaborg's effect as Rahu eliminated Levia-Dragon Daedalus.
"You can't win," said Adriel as he summoned an all-too-familiar monster, the Blue Eyes White Dragon. "Burst Stream!"
The Blue Eyes shot off a stream of energy and eliminated four monsters as Rahu and Infusion Dragon continued their rampage. Soon, there was nothing left but Adriel's triumphant dragons.
Adriel returned his monsters to his cards and pulled out his field spell card, causing the landscape to return to normal. The silver card went blank, and Adriel returned to human mode, the black card that housed the image of the Gold-Eyes Chaos Dragon going transparent once more.
Ryu smiled in a way that only Adriel could see, and the other sovereigns began to applaud Adriel. "You are worthy," said the sovereign of the ocean. "And we accept you as the destined Avatar of Dragons."
Adriel felt energy swirl around him. His DuelDisk transformed into a much more advanced piece of technology, and his robes transformed as well. They were now sleeveless and midnight blue, and Adriel was wearing a longsleeve black shirt underneath them, accompanied with black cargo pants and steel-capped black boots. His hands were garbed in black fingerless gloves.
On his left hand was a small, round, black disk. It had two slots directly across from each other. One had Adriel's deck, and the other was for his graveyard. It was held in place with a black band that gripped his palm and four black leather finger loops that slid over his four main fingers. On the top was an engraved image of the Gold-Eyes Chaos Dragon, protected with a glass bubble.
On his right hand was another small, round, black disk, attached to his hand the same way. There were no card slots, but two bulges signified the presence of holographic projectors. The top of the disk showed two LED screens for life point tracking, and they were also protected with a glass bubble. On his forearm were five rectangular items, which were the card pads. They were also black, but the actual rectangle where the cards were placed on was the same shade of blue as his robes. They connected to Adriel via a metal ring that closed around his forearm. These five items and the black disk on his right hand were connected by a thin wire.
"Thanks...but what now?" Adriel asked.
"Now you go to find the other avatars." replied a shadowy sovereign. "Ryu shall remain here. We need to discuss something." he added, looking directly at Ryu. The dragon sovereign avoided eye contact.
"Right...how will I recognize them?" Adriel said quietly.
"You will be able to sense them. They do not have the hearts of men." explained the sovereign of the ocean.
"Oh...right." said Adriel, transforming into his spirit form and shooting out of the window.
"He learns fast..." said Ryu.