Tournament of Souls: Darkness Falls

by LucienShadowMaster

Lucien was always just a smarter than average kid with one bad memory. But when he got better at dueling, things started happening. Strange things. As if life wasn't enough to deal with already.

16. Revealing Shadows

Tournament of Souls Chapter 16

Post-Outside Tournament

"The Coke formula had been the archeological find of the century, according to the Vegans. It was lost during the Three Days and recovered only a decade or so ago. There had been lots of simicokes around, but none of them have the same effect on the Vegan metabolism as the real thing. 'Earth's second contribution to galactic culture,' one of their contemporary historians had called it." – Roger Zelazny, This Immortal

"I'd be unstoppable if it wasn't for the law and physics." - Anonymous

The plane touched down at around 11 pm eastern standard time. Aliya, Lucien, and Raoul got off wishing that they had something other than red-eye flight tickets. The tournament which they had been attending had gone well. They hadn't won, but they'd come fairly close. There was a lot to be said about that when many of the other competitors were already widely recognized and all that they had under their belts was a region tournament. It made them wonder how many strings Mr. Dongard had to pull to get them there, and why.

As they waited for their luggage to come round, each of them thought about their deck's performance. Lucien and Aliya could think of a few small edits which could have been used to win key duels. Raoul was half asleep. All three of them had made significant changes to their decks. Lucien had used and entirely new one. For the most part, the three had decided to stick with their old decks (Lucien would be using the new deck which he had created for the state level). The lesser part that hadn't was the bit of Raoul which was currently asleep. Doubtless it would join the majority as soon as it was available. The state tournament was coming up and they wouldn't want to repeat their mistakes again there where it would count. Finally the luggage came round and they picked it up.

Then the trio met Aliya's mother just outside the airport. They had to walk quite a way to the car due in part to the design of the airport. They first had to walk from the 'foreign arrival' portion of the airport, through foreign departure section, then on through the national themed shopping section. Then there were the local arrivals and departures (the term is used loosely as it was mostly just within the country) and the local souvenirs. Never had it occurred to the ones constructing it do use anything other than a straight line. They appeared to think in one and a half dimensions.

Before you say how impossible this is, allow me to give you a closer look at the airport. Take a long rectangle. Now take one of the long lines. Cross out everything on one side of the line. What remains is what the architects seemed to see. Everything was stuffed on one side of the airport. The rest was used as storage space, and as a place for private planes. To the surprise of the architects and owners, there was a lot of space left for private planes. In the end, all the philanthropists for miles around who bothered to own private planes kept them there. It was one of the primary sources of income for the airport.

After getting in the car, it took all three other occupants to stop Raoul from setting the radio to an inordinately high volume. It was clear that there were certain things about home that he had missed. It helped that he had forgotten to pack his Walkman. Lucien pointed out that listening to rap and heavy metal at high volumes couldn't be conducive to the sleep that Raoul had been longing for not long before.

This earned him what Aliya called, "A well deserved knock over the head for paying too much attention."

Lucien had a retort ready. "Would you rather have you eardrums blasted into your brain by Raoul's music?"

"No, but that doesn't give you the right to pay attention to everything that Raoul says, does, and thinks."

"I'm not sure I want to know about everything he thinks and does."

This earned him another slap over the head from Raoul. Lucien responded indignantly. "Hey! At this rate I won't have any brain cells left when we get back to school."

Raoul chuckled. "Lucien, you have enough brain cells for all three of us. And for three more hits to the head." Raoul proceeded to deliver those hits and the backseat turned into a wrestling arena.

A few minutes later the combatants had reconciled and Raoul was dropped off. Lucien helped him carry his bags to the door, not because he needed help, but because he was afraid that Raoul would drop one of the bags by the door, open the door, and leave the bag. In his exhaustion, he would hardly be surprised. Raoul spoke before entering the house.

"Pity we didn't win the tournament."

Lucien nodded. "Yeah. We'll win next time though."

"What makes you say that?"

"I don't think we'll have a choice."

Raoul clearly wanted to ask what he meant, but his mother came to the door, greeted Lucien, and complained of the cold air that the open door was letting into the house. Being late spring, the air was warm and humid, but that was clearly beyond the point. Lucien set the bag just inside the door and went back to the car.

Next Lucien got dropped of in front of his house. The windows were dark, but that was to be expected. His mother usually went to bed around 11, so there was no reason for there to be lights on. First thing Lucien did after setting his stuff down in the hall was that he headed to the kitchen and flicked a light on. I don't know about the other too, but I'm too hungry to sleep yet. No doubt as soon as the food touches stomach I will be out like a light. His mother hadn't left anything out on the counter, stove, or in the microwave. He resigned himself to a yogurt and opened the fridge.

To his surprise, he found some left over chicken breast. Lucien didn't particularly like chicken, preferring the hardier red meats but decided that it was better than yogurt. He popped it in the microwave and got himself some juice. There was very little soda in the fridge, but that was for guests, and his mother's occasional whim. For one reason or another it didn't suit Lucien's tastes, mostly because it was too sweet. After he poured the beverage he added ice, not so much to keep it cold as to give himself something to do while the chicken finished being micro-waved.

A sudden beep in the otherwise silent house told him that his meal was ready. Lucien took a bite of the chicken and grimaced. Yogurt it would be. The chicken went back into the refrigerator and grabbed a yogurt. When he tossed the yogurt in the trash afterward he saw the packaging for the chicken. It was called someone or another's "Herb Roasted Chicken." That wasn't just herb roasted. That was herb stuffed, marinated lacerated, fed, fried, baked, soaked and bred. There must have been more herb than chicken. Nowhere could he find out exactly what herbs had been used. Or perhaps the better question would be which ones hadn't been used. If any.

Lucien picked up his bags and started up the stairs, watching the light from the kitchen bouncing off the metal zippers on his bag and playing on the walls and floor, but never reaching the ceiling. He hoped that wouldn't be his fate; stopped from reaching his apex by physics and shadows. Shadows… He manipulated a zipper to reflect light up the stairs until it stopped appearing and Lucien froze. Damn bloody hell. This can't be happening. Not here, not now. Not to me. Why are you so suddenly exempt from all pain? Oh, and on a side note, no cursing. I didn't say it out loud, it doesn't count. And… no reason. It would be a good habit for me to form; not cursing even in my mind… but this isn't the time to think of that is it? Damn straight.

Lucien set his bags down and searched through them for his deck. It was nowhere to be found. All he could find was the deck he'd been testing. The one he planned to use for the state tournament. It was then that he realized that he'd left one bag in Aliya's car; the bag with all his cards. It contained all of his cards except for this deck.

Lucien pocketed it. Maybe it was just a pile of paper and ink, but he toted it like a six shooter. It wasn't much, but it was all he had. It was his only weapon, his only shield. And he intended to use it.

She was waiting for him as soon as he turned around the corner at the top of the stairs. She stood there, wearing a duel disk. There was another one propped up against the wall by Lucien. He had expected that much. He had expected the all enveloping darkness. He didn't expect the faces in the darkness, part human, part something else. He didn't expect to see his family hanging in the air off to the side. His mother, his step father, step brother, his only uncle, cousin, aunt, even his cat and the dog. Evidently they had all come to hold a surprise party for him without knowing the surprise that awaited them.

He put on the duel disk. There was only one thing he needed to sort out.

"Why?"

The red haired woman looked surprised. She had expected him to be afraid, shaking begging for mercy. If not that, she had expected him to be heroic, offering his own life if she let the others go free. He was neither. Then again, it was better that he would ask a philosophical question than something along the lines of "So, how's this thing going to go down?"

"Why what?" She was trying to keep her voice low, and mysterious. Lucien was scared witless without loosing his wits. It a rather important point as witless people don't ask philosophical or rhetorical questions.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Power."

This was misinterpreted by Lucien. He assumed that she meant power over other people. He thought she wanted the same power that so many criminals and human rights violators seek. He couldn't have been more wrong.

Lucien gazed sadly at his family, arrayed on the wall, seemingly asleep. "I can't let you do this."

"I'm not here for them."

"Who then?" Lucien could have guessed. He wanted to understand why. Why this woman wanted to kill all those he held dear. He was nothing special. He knew it. Why him?

"You."

"Why? You've already taken my friend's brother."

"He isn't the only one, and you've seen too much." The woman had the cool attitude of a paid killer. No emotion toward or about her job. She simply carried it out. No joy, no pleasure, and no pain were on her mind. Only some perverted sense of duty.

"Did you kill Alexandra too?"

"I don't kill. Nor do I record names."

Now Lucien was getting angry. Before he'd just been sad, lost in the past and future, but now that she was denying what she had done, his ire had been roused. "What do you mean you don't kill? Have you forgotten? I watched you."

The woman chuckled. "So naïve. They are worse than dead. Well, not necessarily worse, just different. You will see soon. Before you wonder, your family is just in… well suspended animation would be the best way to put it." She laughed further at her own joke. If the situation had been different, Lucien might have laughed too. It was his kind of humor.

"Did you take Alexandra? You would have had to duel her. She used a fairy deck."

"Ah yes. That one." The venom in her voice was nearly tangible. "The trouble soul, yes, I defeated her."

"I won't let you take everyone. I won't let you make me lose everything."

"Of course you won't. You won't be here to have lost them. I rather suspect that you'll all be in the same place at the end of this duel." Before his duel with Alicia Lucien had predicted his victory; that his current opponent did the same worried him.

"Let's get this over with. For some reason you can't do whatever it is that you want to do with my and my family until you've dueled me. I doubt you'll tell me why. Will you at least tell me your name?"

She shook her head. "Names have power in a world with Internet searches."

Lucien chuckled. "You're too smart to be doing this. Why not get a nice job as a teacher, or maybe with the government. They need intelligent people like you."

"I would be wasted on them."

"True. Now are you going to tell me how we're going to do this? Whatever these shadows you've conjured up are, I've already learned that they stop most light. And stop duel disks from working."

The woman cracked a grin. "Truth be told, these aren't real duel disks. You might notice that they are already extended. They're cheap replicas, children's toys."

"Clever, and inexpensive; you must be on a budget." Lucien was sarcastic to the point of offense. He wasn't fooling anyone. She knew he was scared. He knew he was scared. Old habits die hard.

His opposite crowed her amusement. "It's something like that. Let's get started. Just so that you know, each time you lose a thousand life points, I'll take the soul of one of your family member's."

Lucien's eyes widened in shock. "That's not fair! You know I'm going to lose more than a thousand life points. It's practically guaranteed."

"Life isn't fair and that's the way we're going to play. Or would you rather surrender? Prepare yourself for the duel of your life; and for it. You may go first."

: 8000

Lucien: 8000

As Lucien checked over his hand he wished that he had played with this deck more. It was his, yet he didn't even know half of its inner workings. Some plays were obvious though. "To start the game off, I play Meteor of Destruction to deduct 1000 life points from your total." He placed the card into the duel disk, and then tripped a switch to make it slide into the graveyard. On a real duel disk it would have been automated. A meteor had appeared over Lucien's head, and came crashing down into his opponent.

: 7000

Lucien: 8000

"Then I will set a monster face down, and another card behind it. It is your turn." The cards appeared out of the shadows between the combatants.

The woman rose smoking from where the meteor had knocked her down. "If I didn't know better I'd think you had done that on purpose. That hurt, and you will pay for it. I summon Slate Warrior." The monster appeared on the field. It looked almost as if it had just stepped sideways out of the shadows.

The woman cocked her head to the side. "Unfortunately I can't make you feel my pain just yet. Attack his face down my fiend." Slate Warrior (1900/400) sprang forward and chopped down on the blue Stealth Bird (700/1700) that had appeared out of the face down card before leaping back to its side of the field.

Lucien watched the battle in confusion. "What is making the monster's appear? I know that my house doesn't have projectors. And the duel disks do nothing. Where are they coming from?"

"Where did you think they came from? The monsters in this place are real. Did you think Pegasus pulled all of this out of his imagination? No. He had an item of power that allowed him to see such things. He modeled the game after the real creatures that dwell in this place. We call it the Shadow Realm. They call it home."

Lucien puzzled over this. It did make sense in a way. But a few things still didn't make sense. "How did you bring this Shadow Realm here? Or to the observation tower?"

The red head adopted the tone of an artist explaining her work. "That's the beauty of it. It overlaps with this world. Once it's given a reason to come, it will be there. It is attracted by misery. Originally we all had to find misery in order to harness the shadows. We've been given that power. Now we have enough power to summon it on our own. We only got that recently. Now nothing can stop us."

"I will."

"Why would you do that? Not to mention how you'd manage it. We're going to change the world. You'd fit in well among our ranks. Unfortunately, we don't need you as a duelist. You aren't quite good enough in any case. Your soul will do just fine."

"What do you mean by my soul?"

"I mean what makes you work, your life essence. Are you religious?"

"No."

"What a pity, that would make it easier to understand. Well then, do you know about how a body loses weight when it dies, even in a closed system?"

"I have heard about it. It is my belief that it is the tension in a living body that increases the weight and then leaves the body upon death."

"That's closer to the truth than most get. What leaves is the soul. What I'm about to take from you. Whoever loses a duel here also loses their soul. After I set a card, I pass the turn to you."

Lucien hardly looked over his cards as he played them. "I play Fissure. That kills the weakest monster on your field, also known as Slate Warrior." A hand reached up out of the shadows and pulled the monster down.

Lucien continued. "Next I summon Giant Orc (2200/0). I will have it attack directly. Giant Orc's effect forces it into defense mode." The fiend smashed the woman over the head with its club before falling down asleep.

: 4800

Lucien: 8000

"I end."

The woman drew. The place where she had been hit by the club was bleeding slowly. "I will play the card I just drew, Premature Burial to revive Slate Warrior. I pay 800 life points."

: 4000

Lucien: 8000

"Then I will summon Twin-Headed Wolf (1500/1000). Normally it would negate flip effects when there is another fiend on the field, but I doubt that you have many. Twin-Headed Wolf will attack Giant Orc. Slate Warrior will take care of your life points."

Lucien flipped up a card, and the air shimmered in front of Slate Warrior as it leapt forward, and it disappeared. "I activate Dimension Wall. You take damage instead of me." The woman looked back in time to see Slate Warrior bearing down on her.

: 2100

Lucien: 8000

She wiped saliva from her mouth. The monster's were clearly hurting her, and badly. "I'll just set a card before I end my turn."

Lucien drew and placed the card on the duel disk. "I play Tremendous Fire, losing 500 life points to inflict a thousand to you."

His opponent's eyes widened and one of her set cards flipped. "I chain with Magic Drain. Unless you discard another spell card, it is negated."

Lucien frowned and pressed the lever to send the card to the graveyard. "If that won't work, I'll summon Goblin Elite Attack Force (2200/1500) and have it attack Twin Headed Wolf."

Another card was flipped. "I activate Bark of Dark Ruler. When I have a fiend on my side, I may pay life points to deduct attack and defense points from your monster. I must deduct in increments of 100. So now I will sacrifice 800 of my life points, to weaken your monster." The wolf decimated the armored fighting force.

: 1300

Lucien: 7900

Lucien grimaced. "I can do nothing but end my turn."

The woman drew with a flourish. "Now it is time to show you what it feels like to truly lose. First I will sacrifice Twin-Headed Wolf to summon Dark Ruler Ha Des (2450/1600)." The lord of fiends rose from the shadows drinking a red liquid that one could only hope was wine. "Now both my monsters will attack directly."

: 1300

Lucien: 3550

Lucien knew pain. First, Slate Warrior had come bounding across the field and punched him in the stomach. His eyes popped as he felt the fist make contact, and he was knocked sprawling, the bile rising in his throat. He stood only to see Dark Ruler Ha Des reach out a hand and mutter a curse. The world around him shifted and Lucien fell to the ground.

He threw up until he was dry retching. When he looked up, half of his family was gone.

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Aliya looked opened the trunk to retrieve her luggage. As she and her mother each took a bag, one was left.

"Mom! Lucien left his cards behind. Shouldn't we go back and drop them off?"

Her mother looked at the bag and massaged her temples. "I don't think so dear. We will drop them off in the morning."

Aliya responded irritably. She wasn't tired yet and was looking for an excuse to stay up just a little later. She sighed. "Alright. He won't need them tonight anyhow."