Tournament of Tears
Chapter 31: Team effort; Game of the Gods part one
Midnight brushed back the hanging parts of his robes and smiled at Ichigo coldly. "It has begun…can you stand the force of the Dark children of Bahamut?"
Ichigo only had one thing to say in response to that. "Duel!"
Ichigo- 4000
Midnight- 4000
Midnight watched as Ichigo poured over the cards in his hand like it was his first time seeing them. "Are you trying to figure out a way to make those foolish Final Shadow monsters somehow be able to stand the fury of my deck? Don't bother, such weak creatures alone won't be able to beat me."
Ichigo looked up at Midnight questioningly. "Did you say something?"
The dark god felt a small vein on his forehead bulge slightly at the fact he was just ignored. "How exactly did you defeat my earlier duelists?"
Ichigo shrugged. "Oh, and about your whole 'the Final Shadows can't win' spiel…all I have to say to you is that I believe the exact same thing about your deck compared to mine!" Grabbing one of the cards in his hand, he threw it down onto his duel disk and grinned as a spotlight lit up on the middle monster zone of his field. "I summon Final Shadow God Moonlight Romancer!" A man wearing a tuxedo, top hat and mask appeared on his field and bowed to Midnight. "Pleasure to meet you." (1400/1200)
Midnight stood there and stared at the monster for a few moments before he started to laugh. "You must be joking…such a weak monster can be crushed by the normal monsters in my deck. How can it possibly hope to defeat the power of the three dark children of Bahamut?"
Ichigo pointed at Moonlight Romancer, who started to glow bright white. "I activate the effect of Moonlight Romancer! Gentleman's Aura! You draw one card, and I gain 3000 life points."
Waving his hand, the dark god watched as a sixth card appeared in air amongst his other five.
Ichigo- 7000
Midnight- 4000
Glancing once more at his hand, Ichigo shrugged innocently. "That's it for now. End turn."
Midnight waved his hand and another card appeared in air above him. "Boy, I will send you to meet your maker very soon. Even though it is the first turn you will feel the wrath of the first of the children!" Three of the cards above him flipped over to reveal pictures of strange metal devil statues surrounded by pentagrams. "I activate three Devil's Sanctuary magic cards, special summoning three Metal Devil Tokens to my field!" A trio of gangly metal dolls appeared on his field. "These three will be your undoing, because I offer them as a sacrifice!" A burning twister of black and red flame exploded up around the three Tokens, instantly melting them away. The tip of the tornado reached to the ceiling of the giant chamber and started to tear away at the stone it was made up of. "Awaken from your dark prison of fire and lava!"
A horrendous symphony of screeching roars filled the room and cracked the stone, as the giant pillar of fire shuddered and split into multiple lines near its top. Then in one explosive blast, the entirety of the creature's body hardened into a solid red and black form. The summoned creature had dozens of heads, all of them writhing from its main serpentine body.
Ichigo could feel the heat of its molten skin from all the way across the room, and he knew that the first test had begun. ("This is the power of the first dark child.")
"Though he needs no introduction to you, allow me to introduce him to the world! Ladies and gentlemen…this is the dark child of fire and destruction! Hell Nova Dragon; Kifunsuiryu!" (XX00/XX00) Midnight slowly lifted his hand up the giant hellish dragon that filled his side of the room. "Kifunsuiryu's attack and defense are equal to the number of cards in my graveyard times 500. However, the minimum number that its attack and defense can be is 4000, so even though I only have three cards in my graveyard its power is still far stronger than your pitiful Final Shadow!" (4000/4000)
Ichigo could feel it, the purest fear coming from the viewers of this duel. The dark child of fire and destruction was one of the most dangerous because of its appearance and its overwhelming aura of violence.
"And that isn't its only ability, isn't it Ichigo?" Midnight snickered to himself. "You've possessed this card before, would you like to tell the audience all of its powers?"
Ichigo pondered ignoring this insult, but he knew better. "Kifunsuiryu is a tier four God Card, meaning it is immune to the effects of all of my magic, trap, and monster cards. Also, its own unique powers are that by discarding a card from your hand you can allow it to attack twice during that turn's battle phase. Thirdly, by discarding two cards from your hand and skipping your battle phase, you can destroy all cards on my field. However, because of its violent power it cannot attack or activate its effects during the turn it is summoned."
"You forget Hell De-Birth. Any monster you summon while Kifunsuiryu is in play is targeted and destroyed." Midnight looked at the three cards in his hand and smirked at Ichigo's distressed expression. "You cannot win against this creature so early in the duel, Ichigo. You need time to prepare, but now you cannot summon a monster and your only creature is one that simply lets you gain some paltry life points that Kifunsuiryu will quickly blow away! End turn!"
Ichigo felt it…an overwhelming depression that seemed to fall upon the population of the earth. ("Kifunsuiryu's very prescense is like the sign of the coming apocalypse to them. And I have to admit, at the moment things don't look that good for me either.")
"What's the matter, Ichigo? Are you unsure what to do? Maybe you should consult with Halo, I'm sure he has a plan. Well, he might if he wasn't using your pitiful deck. All of your magic and trap cards won't work on the Hell Nova Dragon!" Midnight threw back his head and laughed in derision at how pitiful his young enemy seemed now. "Truly, I cannot see how you will get out of this one."
Ichigo suddenly smiled calmly. "You just reminded me of something. The Dark Demon God Cards aren't invincible." He drew the top card of his deck. "Let me show you what I mean. I activate the equipment magic card Moonlight Cane!" A thin black gentleman's cane appeared in the hands of the Moonlight Romancer. "The power of the equipped monster increases by 500!" (1900/1200)
"You can't actually expect that to frighten me, can you?" Midnight snickered darkly. "You cannot win, give up."
"Moonlight Cane's special ability allows me to once per turn send one level four or lower Final Shadow monster card from my deck to my graveyard. That monster's attack points are added to the attack of Moonlight Romancer for the duration of the turn!" Ichigo removed a card from his deck. "I send Final Shadow Smash Brute (1800/1500) from my deck to my graveyard to power up Moonlight Romancer by 1800 points!" (3700/1200)
Midnight continued to snicker. "As the humans say it, 'close but no cigar."
Ichigo tilted back his head and howled, the sound perfectly mimicking that of a wolf's cry.
This left the dark god confused, until he realized that up in the air above Ichigo's field there was a blood red full moon floating. "What in the nine hells is that?"
"Moon of Legend's special ability increases the attack power of one monster I have in play by 700 points for the turn!" Ichigo pointed at his Moonlight Romancer, who took a bow as his body was surrounded by a red aura of light. (4400/1200)
All across the world there was a sudden uplifting of the spirit, as the audience of the Game of the Gods saw that Ichigo wasn't so easily beaten.
Midnight just stood there calmly, watching as the Moonlight Romancer appeared in the air above Kifunsuiryu. "That's rather hard to believe…"
"Moonlight Romancer, attack the Hell Nova Dragon!" Ichigo braced himself as his struck one of the dragon's heads with his staff, sending a resounding crack noise across the room and the whole of the planet. The whole titanic monster started to wobble, and then crashed to the ground, each of the heads having little swirly marks where their eyes should have been. Then in one poof of smoke Kifunsuiryu was gone.
Ichigo- 7000
Midnight- 3600
Ichigo snapped his hand out as his Final Shadow God returned to his field. "I activate the effect of Gentleman's Aura once more." His body was surrounded by a white aura as he gained life points.
Ichigo- 10000
Midnight- 3600
Midnight waved his hand as he drew a card because of Ichigo's effect.
Inserting a card from his hand into his duel disk, Ichigo and Moonlight Romancer gave a bow to their invisible audience and to their opponent. "I place one card face-down on my field and end my turn."
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In the duel room where Eri had battled Sestros, everyone had stopped dead in their tracks and stood in silence at what had just happened.
Ryu was the first to speak. "Well that was surprising…I didn't expect him to take down the Hell Nova Dragon that quickly….or to make it look quite so stupid."
Rikuo was digging faster and faster now. "Damn it all to hell, stupid rubble!"
Everyone else was mostly still stunned over how quickly Ichigo had dispatched a monster they had originally thought close to invincible.
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Midnight let out an angry roar that snapped every viewer out of their stupor. "Draw!" Looking at the drawn card, he sneered darkly. "Very nice play Ichigo, but let's see you deal with this! I play the magic card Pot of Greed to draw two cards!" He slammed three cards into his duel disk. "I place three cards face-down on my field and activate the magic card Heavy Storm!" A powerful storm of wind tore across the room, tearing apart his thee face-down cards and hurtling itself towards Ichigo's field. "All magic and trap cards in play will be destroyed, you'll be defenseless!"
Ichigo gasped as that powerful blast of air blew across his field and shattered his Moonlight Cane. "I chain my face-down Tomb Raid quickplay magic card! I select one card in your graveyard and place it on top of my deck!" A card appeared in his hand and he placed it onto his deck. "I choose your Pot of Greed." Then his two cards were destroyed. (1400/1200)
"That's fine, I'll still send you to hell!" Midnight snapped his hand out. "Emerge, my trio of Wicked Tokens!" Three screeching golden snakes appeared on his field. (1000/1000x3) "My face-down cards were the trap card Statue of the Wicked, which when destroyed by an effect allow me to special summon a Wicked Token to my field."
Ichigo could hear it now. It was a quiet and wicked melody that reached through his very soul and tried to draw it out. "That sound…" He wished he could channel that music out of his thoughts, because it was dangerous to anything human.
"That's correct; allow me to give you a proper burial, poor boy!" Midnight pointed at his three tokens, which screeched in terror as a trio of rotten dragon claws exploded out of the ground and pulled them into the earth. "I tribute my three Tokens to summon the Graveyard Melody Dragon; Hakabasenritsuryu!" (5000/5000) A melodic roar shook the room as a giant black and blue dragon lifted itself out of the dirt, flapping its wings and exhaling a grey mist everywhere around itself. "The graveyard of the damned calls for you, Ichigo!"
Ichigo watched as the rotten undead dragon snarled at him, and then it let out a harmonious song that tried to tear his soul to ribbons. He felt his strength failing him for a moment, and then the effects were warded off. "Dirty tricks…you can't beat me by dueling, so you resort to using the killing powers of the dragons?"
"I'm hurt you would say such a thing, Ichigo." Midnight clutched at his robes where his heart would be. "Hakabasenritsuryu just wishes to sing you a little lullaby. And of course, the rest of human world can share in its song as well…"
Ichigo's eyes widened in horror. "No…you wouldn't…"
Placing a cupped hand to his ear, the dark god cocked his head to the side as if he was listening to a far-away sound. "Can you hear it Ichigo? No? Then let me turn up the volume for you!"
Ichigo could hear it clear as day now…the terrified sounds of the entirety of the human race as they had their souls sucked right out of their bodies by the power of the Graveyard Melody Dragon's song. "No! Stop it Midnight!"
"I activate the effect of Hakabasenritsuryu!" Discarding the single card in his hand to the graveyard, Midnight watched as a rotted fist punched free of the dirt at his feet. "By discarding one card from my hand I can special summon one monster from either player's graveyard. It is reborn as an undead type, and its attack is doubled! Awaken and obey, Finals Shadow Smash Brute!" A juggernaut of a humanoid appeared on his field in front of its mistress, the Graveyard Melody Dragon. (1800- 3600/1500)
Ichigo felt his hackles rise at the mere sight of his monster returned as a servant of Midnight's evil. "You bastard! Stop the song now! Otherwise you'll kill the whole human race!"
"I know…that's the point." Midnight brushed his robes of some dust, looking rather disinterested. "Sestros can think of it as an after-service. Once I'm done, the whole human race will be dead!"
"I won't let you!" Ichigo knew it wasn't his turn, but he couldn't let this continue.
"Don't worry, you have your own problems to worry about! Smash Brute, attack Moonlight Romancer now!" The hulking zombie hurled itself across the field and tackled the masked gentleman. Moonlight Romancer let out a gurgled cry of pain as its neck was snapped by the cannonball-sized fists of the Smash Brute.
Ichigo- 7800
Midnight- 3600
Clutching at his throat, Ichigo felt as if his neck had been snapped as well. ("No…it's just the power of the Game of the Gods! Shake it off…shake it off!") Slowly, air started to return to his lungs. "I…is that the best you can do?"
Midnight laughed maniacally and pointed at his defenseless foe. "Hakabasenritsuryu, direct attack! Song of Eternal Damnation!" The undead dragon snapped its jaws open and let out a cacophony of powerful waves of sound that slammed across Ichigo's body. For a few moments the boy felt as if his soul was in a million screaming pieces, then it was a single soul that was aflame…and finally the torture ended, leaving him a trembling wreck.
Ichigo- 2800
Midnight- 3600
Midnight watched as Ichigo's eyes, which reflected the kind of fear that a child in the middle of night terrors would experience, rolled back into his skull and he collapsed to his knees, clutching at his skull. "Unlike that annoying daughter of Rikuo Amero, I let you taste the Graveyard Melody Dragon's soul-destroying song. I doubted its fires would do much to you anyway."
Ichigo cried and wept as the horrid scars etched into his very soul throbbed, giving him pain that he had no way of countering. His physical and magical powers were at their peak, but his spiritual energy was only slightly stronger than that of a normal human being's. That single blow had placed him on the verge of utter removal from existence.
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Rikuo looked like a dog rabidly digging a hole to bury something in, the only visible part of him being his tail as he tore through the solid stone wildly. ("Damn it, I knew this was going to happen!")
Ryu extended what little remained of his power to create a barrier against the soul-consuming song that played just a few dozen feet away from them. He and Rikuo could easily repel the song's call, but the others were quickly on the verge of succumbing. They all were collapsed on the ground, breathing shallowly as they tried to gather what little willpower was left in their spirits to resist a siren's call that was pulling their lives out like water through a straw. ("I cannot keep this barrier going forever! If the Graveyard Melody Dragon is not silenced, then the human race and everyone here will be consumed! Ichigo, fight it and destroy that monster now!")
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Ichigo could hear the familiar voices of Halo, Splinter, and Alahandra calling for him. However, his mind was in a state of turmoil that made it impossible for any of them to replace him in the duel. All he could was lie dead and unmoving as his gutted and bleeding spirit died in the cold emptiness of his mind.
Was this where he died? Should he have let Halo duel instead? Or perhaps he should have let Splinter go? Rikuo? Did it even matter anymore? As soon as the Graveyard Melody Dragon's song finished, there wouldn't be a humanity to save anyway. All that would be left is the demon race, which would return to a horrible age of war and destruction up until Midnight destroyed the whole of this plane's reality. ("I can't go on anymore. Though I want to fight, I am dead now…")
"Pain of the soul is but an illusion…something you cannot defeat by mere willpower, but something that cannot defeat one who knows its true form." A calm and familiar voice echoed in his head, and he felt strangely cool. The fires in his soul were calming, and he could think again. "Ichigo, I know how to fight against the soul-destroying power of Hakabasenritsuryu…now stand and fight!"
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Midnight sucked in his breath as Ichigo suddenly stood up. "How?" The boy's eyes slowly opened to reveal a pair of emerald-colored irises. "You?"
Ahran Amero smiled calmly, and flexed the hands of Ichigo's body carefully to make sure he wasn't physically injured. "Your attack against the soul cannot harm Ichigo anymore, for I have completed the training I underwent to strengthen my spirit. In his compound spirit form, Ichigo's biggest weakness if battle is now gone!" Then his eyes faded, meaning Ichigo was back.
"Damn you, insolent Amero dog!" Midnight pointed at Ichigo. "It doesn't matter, the song is almost over!" He pointed at Hakabasenritsuryu. "The last part of its song is here, and that means in but a minute the human race will be consumed!"
Ichigo snapped the top card off of his deck and flipped it over. "I play your Pot of Greed!" Drawing two cards, he looked at them both. "An old friend wishes to say hello Midnight, let me bring him out for you! I activate Polymerization!" A swirling vortex appeared in the air above him. "I fuse Final Shadow Void Mercenary, Night Slasher, and Ebony Ninja together!" Three black humanoid forms appeared in the air and were pulled into the vortex. A mighty battle cry erupted from the portal and a trenchcoat-wearing warrior slowly lowered onto the field. "It looks like it's my turn to show my power."
Midnight grimaced at the fusion. "Damn it, another of these babbling buffoons of yours?"
"Buffoon?" Both Ichigo and the fusion said this at the same time, and then Ichigo spoke alone. "This is Final Shadow Lord of Knives (2800/2300) and he is the key to defeating the Graveyard Melody Dragon!"
Midnight snickered darkly. "Take a look at its attack points. Considering its attack power is so low, and its effects cannot affect Hakabasenritsuryu, you are most likely incorrect."
"Sure." Ichigo snapped up the last card in his hand. "I activate the magic card Spirit of the Warrior!" Energy flowed out of his graveyard and into his Lord of Knives. "I transfer the attack of one warrior type monster in my graveyard to my Lord of Knives for the turn! My choice is the 1400 attack points of Moonlight Romancer!" (4200/2300)
"Still not enough, and you're out of hand cards!"
"Lord of Knives, Infinite Knife Barrage!" Ichigo watched as his warrior snapped its trenchcoat open to reveal row upon row of throwing knives. "When Final Shadow Lord of Knives attacks a monster with more attack points than himself, his attack power increases by 1000 points during the damage step!" (5200/2300)
Midnight watched in horror as his mighty Graveyard Melody Dragon was covered from head to toe with over a thousand throwing knives almost instantly. Letting out a weak screech, the creature's song ended as it exploded in one explosive blast. "That means…"
Ichigo- 2800
Midnight- 3400
"When Hakabasenritsuryu is destroyed the monsters it has special summoned are removed from the game!" Ichigo watched as the undead corpse of his Smash Brute transformed to dust. "When Lord of Knives destroys a monster as a result of battle, you send the top five cards of your deck to your graveyard! For every monster card amongst those cards, you take 500 points of damage!"
Above Midnight's head five cards appeared. There were three dragons (Spear Dragon, Guard Dragon, Blackwing Dragon), a magic card (Stamping Destruction), and a trap. (Call of the Haunted) All of those cards exploded into dust, spraying Midnight with shards of hard energy.
Ichigo- 2800
Midnight- 1900
Ichigo could feel the souls of humanity slowly recovering from the damage the Graveyard Melody Dragon had caused. "I am five in one, Midnight, don't forget that! Each of my weaknesses are covered by one of the others."
Midnight snarled in frustration. ("Was he always this strong? No…he's right. Alone I would beaten him, but those other four souls within his are protecting his frail human weaknesses. Damn them all!")
Ichigo took a deep breath. ("Don't cut it so close next time, Ahran!") "End turn."
To be continued…