Veil Of Greed: Hunt For The Numbers
Chapter 13: Forged Alliances
Date: August 28th, 2022
Where we left off in this story, the fight continued against Yappa Yappa. Swiftdrawer volunteered to personally battle him until his powers came back. They almost died when those powers did but then, friends and allies en masse intervened. Swiftdrawer was as good as dead when Bray and Julia saved them after they went to extreme lengths to hold Yappa Yappa back and exhaust him, even risking death from destroying their own body. But now, the battle against Yappa Yappa was finally coming to an end. Abstractoa appeared, stated some information and allowed Swiftdrawer to gain back a connection to magic and the Miitopian warrior class thanks to Miitopia's Guardian. After that, it was more and more fight until Swiftdrawer reluctantly got ready to kill Yappa Yappa once and for all. With the help of many others, they stopped Yappa Yappa from resisting. It took a lot of willpower to pull off but they worked through the sadness in order to end Yappa Yappa who died with a wicked grin on his face. But now they wanted to be alone and went off on their own until the battle got their attention. Their side was losing and Crooler, Razar, and Scorm were all possessed by numbers plus the Crawlers and Raven Tribe were on the UMC's side. Swiftdrawer defeated Scorm and managed to get him to change the side of the Crawlers. But still, they were outnumbered and outgunned. Mungus and Crooler were still fighting so Swiftdrawer went to help Mungus out. The two kind of became friends and forced Crooler to go to the Crocodile Swamp. But Swiftdrawer and Mungus through Swiftdrawer's duel runner got there first. Now, the finale of the whole battle happens now in that swamp with Incinerate joining the fight against Crooler.
"We'll stop bothering you when we feel like it, Crooler! I see that you are barely hurt or drained at all. And yet Mungus and I fought so much. Oh well, keeps my mind off of what I had to do for longer. With us and Incinerate facing off against you, I don't think you will last much longer." "How dare you underestimate me! CRAGGER! Where are you? He still won't answer! Fine, you leave me no choice! Hehe." She starts powering up, the number symbol on her glows much more brightly. We hear her laugh loudly as her muscles shake and then, a orange aura surrounds her and her head scales end up changing to that orange: "Did you just go Super Croc? I thought only sayians could do crap like this. Dang it. Mungus, Incinerate, we are in for the fight of our lives." The fight continues with a bang. It's a long and painful battle for the 3 of us. Crooler knocks all of us back and we hit back with our best moves possible, they do nothing to her. Mungus tries bashing her head but it ends up going very poorly and he gets tripped over: "Ow! Mungus fell! Not happy, not happy! Mama! Mama! Where are you?" "Your mommy isn't coming! With my allies all overwhelming the others, there's no way help will arrive!" She then leads us deeper into the swamp by mocking Mungus and Incinerate. We almost fell for the trap but I knew better and use the parkour skills I've learned from hanging around a lot in Minecraftia in the past year or so to get up the trees of the swamp: "Crooler! You won't trick us into drowning ourselves! You may know this swamp like the back of your hand but that won't earn you the victory or an overwhelming advantage! I'm not the best at parkour so I'd like to get down from here soon."
I led us back to more shallow ground and refuse to move until Crooler begrudgedly came back. When she did, she was furious: "Why do all of you have to be so annoying? If Cragger just listened to me, I wouldn't have to deal with any of you and would instead be ruler of all of Chima!" I don't bother replying, I'm more focused on just defeating her and settling this fight. 5 Extremely Risky Spin Slashes do no damage to her, she just absorbs them like it's nothing. Incinerate is getting worried as his attempts at biting her are failing too: "Just how strong has Crooler become because of that number? Not even Freddie the anti wolf wasn't immune to the level of attacks we are sending out. I JUST WANT TO TEAR HER SMUG ATTITUDE TO PIECES!" "I'm with you. I can't use many more of my risky slashes. Going to have to go a bit old school with just swings and slashes. But of course, that means that this fight will only take longer. It may be 3 on 1 but it feels more like 3 on 30 right now." "Mungus no like mean crocodile! Mungus want to bring the hurting to mean crocodile! Happy! Happy!" Crooler suddenly rushes us and fires energy blasts from her hands. Before they can hit Mungus or Incinerate, I run forward and extend my arms out: "You won't hurt my comrades. Not as long as I'm around. My armor can take these energy blasts with ease. Try harder to beat us. You may be winning but that doesn't mean we're necessarily on the verge of total defeat just yet! Haaaaaa!" To add to that, I even hold my sword out in front of me to add extra protection for them. Just as I thought, the energy blasts are something I can take because of my gear. "Why can't this be easier? My allies should have destroyed the others by now but here I am, stuck fighting a couple of losers." As the fight dragged on, it intensified. So much so that now, we're fighting while preventing the entire swamp from burning.
And then there's the fact she is easily pushing us back since none of us are adept at moving in swallow swamp water. I don't care that it's all over my boots and leggings, that can be dealt with after this is all finally over. When things got particularly difficult and rough, we were backed to a tree with a cackling Crooler ready to beat us once and for all. By this point, I had had no choice but to completely wear out my muscles again. I didn't break them or anything this time at least. That's when Incinerate whispered to me: "Hey, I know something that could help us get out of this mess. I'd love to make Crooler scream as I viciously bite her but that just isn't going to work." "I believe you, what's the plan?" "Can you distract her for me? I'll take care of the rest and it will be delightfully aggressive!" "Don't worry, that will be easy. I'll keep her focused on me while you do whatever it is you want to do." "Thank you, you won't regret it!" We spring into action. I run toward Crooler at full speed and force her to change her battle tactics by swinging at her with my exhausted muscles. It burns and hurts quite a bit but as they say, no pain no gain. I keep this up while Mungus randomly starts throwing things at Crooler without even trying. The mammoth is so big and strong that he was the main source of attack power for the Mammoth Tribe when their hearts were ice. It doesn't take much effort for him to throw a lot of things pretty hard. Anyway, Crooler just couldn't get past me, she may be a Super Croc apparently but power isn't everything. When you combine intellect with power, teamwork, defense, and dexterity, that's when things get really good for you in a battle. Sadly for Crooler, nobody wants to help her. Incinerate shouts, my queue to stop distracting Crooler: "Crooler! I will tear you apart! Tormenting Tearing Pounce!"
Just like that, Incinerate opens his mouth as wide as possible and jumps down from a tree to land right on top of Crooler. It's a good thing for us that he's heavy because once he lands on her, she falls right over and screams as Incinerate bites her as hard as possible. He then moves away following the moment of bite. This is the opening we have needed. She's knocked over and stunned from that sudden surprise attack: "Incinerate, that was awesome! Now, let's give her a taste of our own pain! Haaaaa!" The 3 of us get close up to her and begin using close ranged attacks to deal serious damage to the crocodile. Once I stop due to sheer exhaustion, I speak to Crooler who has just come to her senses: "Crooler, we don't have to keep fighting. When the Illumination touched your heart, your bitterness and lust for power vanished. But now, the number card inside of you has reawakened all of that. I understand your resentment towards your parents for how they have treated you but you don't have to take it out on others. You need to confront your parents and talk to them about your feelings instead of using others such as your own brother Cragger." She acts like she didn't hear me: "You will pay for all of this right here right now!" I eat another HP banana really quickly before taking off and putting away my armor for now in the blink of an eye: "I don't think so! Haaaaaa! My strength has returned and now, I have sacrificed most of my defenses for greatly increased speed!" Incinerate is stunned as I move twice as fast as I did when I wore the armor. The tide of battle is not pushing either way anymore. We are even once again and just keep battling it out as Crooler loudly complains, Incinerate growls a lot, I yell a bunch, and Mungus cheers enthusiastically.
It just keeps going with neither side winning or losing until, I hear the sounds of 6 dragons. Topologic Bomber Dragon. Topologic Gumbler Dragon. Borreload Dragon. Borreload Furious Dragon. And 2 others. They roar and flap their wings right before numerous explosions are heard that ring out all across the swamp. Revolver did it. About time. A few seconds later, Crooler stops attacking us to react to Revolver riding Topologic Bomber Dragon and being followed by the other Borreload and Topologic dragons: "What?! Dragons? But those aren't real! And who are you up there anyway? As the future ruler of Chima, I demand you tell me!" Revolver has the dragons move closer to the ground and stop: "I am the leader of the Knights Of Hanoi. I am Revolver. My goal is to stop the threat of artificial intelligence and tyrants like you. I'm aware that the others can take care of your friends themselves. Those ravens aren't doing so well. It's almost like you have failed to account for all of us and your side is paying dearly!" "How many more strange non hairy apes are going to ruin my plans today? Scorm was already defeated and now he and those Crawlers are fighting against me and my allies! Ugh!" "That's too bad for you. Go, my dragons! Attack that crocodile! Next, my field spell Boot Sector Launch grants them an additional 300 attack points. First up, Topologic Bomber Dragon!" I yell: "Let's get away, you two! But not without making sure Crooler cant get away too. Incinerate, do that cool paralysis attack you have! Mungus, please follow me. We're going to go on a little joyride if it's okay with you." Incinerate smirks and bites Crooler again at a immensely high speed. The shock of that freezes her in place as the rest of us get out of the way. I lead Mungus to my runner and we hop on only to stop right as Crow speeds in.
He excitedly exclaims: "My little rugrats at home are going to love hearing about this! Go, Blackwing Dragon and Blackwing Armor Master! Attack Crooler directly!" I look in the direction he came from and only see a whirlwind of destruction and feathers. Crooler is freaking out as the attacks as if in slow motion come right at her. Myself, Mungus,and Incinerate add to the destruction, increasing her odds of defeat: "This wasn't supposed to happen! Noooo! I can't rule over Chima now!" The attacks come and go, leaving behind one burnt and defeated crocodile. I ride to her and extract her number with the powers of Regnes. She wakes up: "What am I doing? Why am I burnt?" Revolver, still riding Topologic Bomber Dragon comes to us and Incinerate with Crow closely behind him: "I had to help you. I thought you could handle yourselves but I guess I was wrong." Crow replies: "Don't be like that! They tried their hardest man, there's no shame in that!" "I wasn't asking for your opinion, Crow Hagan." Crow has spiky orange hair, piercings, several criminal marks, gray eyes, light skin, a green headband, a orange and yellow shirt, brown jacket, and more: "I know but you should chill a little. We just took down someone possessed by a number card! It's so hard for me to beat someone in a duel who uses one of those after all!" "That's your problem. We have a conflict to resolve. This isn't as bad as when the light Ignis declared war on all of humanity but I still won't back down." He flies off on Topologic Bomber Dragon with the rest of the dragons following right behind them: "Sorry that you had to hear that. I fought alongside him a lot today and the enemy made him really mad. They wouldn't let him even summon Magnarokket Dragon. When he finally summoned his most powerful dragons, the battle was over for some of our enemies immediately as you heard. Anyway, what should we do with Crooler?"
I give it some thinking while panting from all that fighting: "Reunite her with her family. It's too bad we don't have a healer to instantly heal the injuries. Oh wait, Edyn. Have you seen her lately, Crow?" "Last I heard, she was busy fighting the ravens in the trees." "Well then, I guess there's no choice. Before not that long ago, I thought I ran out of these but no, there was another pocket with some in them. Crooler, I know you're a crocodile but please eat this banana *gives banana*. It will heal your injuries sustained while you were possessed and attacking us. We'll explain more later, I promise." "Why are you helping me? I'm a crocodile and you're strangers!" "You were manipulated and neglected. Need I say more? Come along, Crow'll get you to your family, you look so much better since you have decided to eat that banana. Crow, you will take her, correct?" "Don't worry, I will and then be ready to fight once again!" Sometimes I wish I had invited Specter to join us but Specter is busy stopping a deforestation project that was put into motion by a time traveler. He and his monster comrades would have been right at home here. Oh well. I take Mungus to his mother and Incinerate heads off elsewhere as Crow finds Crooler to Cragger and her parents. I tell what went down to Mungus' mom real quick before speeding off to find the ravens. They are many in number but are losing badly. Edyn is fighting really hard against them, dodging their blasts with Ugger's help as Ugger swings around in the trees that tower over the swamp. So far, I have managed to avoid deep water, that's good. But now that I'm not fighting for my life, I realize how stinky this place is. The unpleasant odor coming off the swamp is not really registering with me but it is just enough for me to be a little bit disgusted. What can I do, though? Anyway, I looked away for one second and the next, nearly all of the ravens are frozen in ice.
Edyn gives a threatening smile: "Is that it from you? If not, I will make things much less fun for you! Surrender and make this easy, I really don't want to hurt you. After all, you are all kind of cute." The ravens put their still free hands up in surrender, one of them even holds up a white flag: "Good, now go home and think of how ashamed of yourselves you should be." Edyn unfreezes them and they immediately flee in terror. But there is still one raven in the fight and this could get messy. Razar is still possessed and watched all of his fellow ravens get totally humiliated: "Customers aren't supposed to hurt us! You will pay for this! Even if you gave me lots of trinkets and treasures, I wouldn't forgive you!" Edyn smirks again: "Wanna bet? I cast Transportation Spell!" A bunch of stuff from probably a random junkyard shows up and begins falling from the sky: "Ugger, go get that stuff! Root Reach!" "You got it, Edyn!" Ugger uses his vines to catch the stuff and Razar flies to them in his ship in fascination: "Random trinkets and treasure?! How could I say no to that? You are one smart customer. Or would be if THAT TRICK HAS NO EFFECT ON A THIEF LIKE ME!" He takes all of the stuff and dumps it gently nearby before flying his ship right toward Edyn and Ugger. Before an impact is made, I hear Ginga yell: "Go, Samurai Pegasus! Galaxy Nova!" The spinning legendary bey reasonates with Ginga's heart, a blue light radiates from their face bolt as Samurai Pegasus jumps up and catches Razar off guard, causing him to crash his ship in the trees in the process. Now flying with his own wings, he is pissed like never before, a faint green aura radiates from the number symbol on him. Lavertus and LaGravis happened to be nearby so they come to see what's going on. Lavertus is a dark skinned Lion with blonde hair, yellow eyes, black headgear with a white paw print, and torn clothing.
LaGravis, the king of the lions is a sand colored lion with yellow eyes, a golden crown, grey mane and beard, bare chest, and royal blue and gold clothing including a cape. "What in Cavora is going on? Is that Razar? Why is he so angry?" I sigh: "It's a long story. As far as I'm aware, you have no idea what is happening to him. Also, my apologies for not properly introducing myself. We are in a time crunch considering just how much of the enemy is left. In short, he's possessed and his natural raven greed is being increased to new heights." "Aren't you the one who killed that horrible enemy? Here in Chima, we never kill our enemies, it is important for the balance of nature to remain in place." Lavertus says: "LaGravis, this is no time for that. We have to stop Razar! Look at him, he's crazier than I am!" "You're right. Everyone here, can we rely on you to help us protect Chima from Razar's anger!" We in various means indicate that we can. We outnumber Razar but he must have so much power inside of him because of that number so this might not go smoothly at all. In fact, I highly doubt it will go smoothly in the least. This is going to be a pain. "I cast Freezing Spell!" "My friend, you will have to do much better than that! The customer is always right except when they aren't! I will destroy all of you so I can make you into trinkets and treasure to sell to other customers! You will not get in the way of us selling merchandise ever again! Customer Crush!" The energy around him intensifies in time for him to somehow create large gold coins that begin falling from the sky. Not even my best attacks would be able to easily take down a single gold coin. Damn it. But Ginga knows what to do.
His appearance featuring crazy and pointy big red hair, a long white scarf that is so long it's almost like wings, gray shirt and pants, blue outer shirt, brown eyes, blue headband with the symbol for pegasus just like on Samurai Pegasus' face bolt, and blue/red belt like thing for his bey equipment is overshadowed by the blue aura that is around him and Samurai Pegasus: "We won't let you take all of us down so easily! Isn't that right, Pegasus? *Pegasus shines a little as if replying* Alright! Let's go! Through the bonds I have made and my Blader's Spirit, we will succeed! Pegasus! Here's one from so long ago! Go! Storm Bringer!" Pegasus begins to spin around in a circle and accelerate, generating a whole bunch of blue flames in a ring that rises up into the sky. As a result of this, the gold coins are simply blown away by the tremendous amount of force that was generated. LaGravis is speechless: "How did you do that without chi or the Phoenix? That was one of the greatest things I have ever seen." Ginga smiles briefly before getting serious again as Razar is even more angry: "You'll find out later. Right now, we have to defeat this raven. He is controlled by a power far older than any of us." Oh good, we might make it out of this okay without having to spend hours explaining stuff just yet. What a pain, the bigger BRAINS gets, the longer it takes to fully explain everything to new allies and friends. Now, Razar shows off insane speed as he flies around, evading any attacks we try. "I can't get a clear view of him! Even if I fought while moving around with my runner, it would still be difficult to get a precise aim on him. This is just fantastic. He's already begun going beserk because of the number. I wish my biggest problem was whether or not I should see this movie or that movie at times. It would be so much better if the only problems around were mild and mundane problems but that's just wishing for too much. I guess we'll have to eliminate the amount of places he can fly and move around through. In that case, we could destroy the trees or draw him out to the Croc Cave. That area is the least packed with trees of all the areas around here."
Lavertus is impressed by my analysis: "Wow, for someone so young and not from Chima, you sure know what to say. I'm impressed." "Oh this is just the surface of what I can do with my mind. Now then, Razar has lost nearly all sense of reason and is attacking all of us rapidly with no plan whatsoever. He's still obsessed with treasure so we could lure him. I'm going to get some treasure really quickly and put my armor put on. I will be right back. Try to survive please." Before anyone can reply, I teleport to Twisted Land. Once I'm there, I make sure that I'm in the closed off part of the attraction Robot Overlord Escape in Sector Infinity for the moment. I am so I put my armor back on and teleport far below most of the park into a secret network of mining tunnels that were originally dug by villagers many years ago in Minecraftian time when the world was first created. They are abandoned mineshafts which we have extended in our hunt for resources such as gold and iron. Now, we've gathered so much gold, we could make money in all of Minecraftia become rightfully worthless and lure enemies into traps by using their own greed against them. Perfect, a few of these should do nicely. I take some gold blocks out of a chest before teleporting back to Chima. Once there, I hold the blocks of gold in my hands upon seeing how much everyone is struggling against Razar: "Hey Razar! You want treasure?! Well, come with me and I will let you have it for free!" Razar stops beating up everyone: "I will return to destroy you naughty customers but for now, FREE TREASURE!" I speed on ahead with my runner after getting back on it. He's close enough to keep following but far enough to not know that I'm setting up a trap for him. It doesn't take long to get to the Croc Cave and the clearing around it. Once there, I place down the gold blocks, activate my duel disk, and set up trap cards like Bottomless Trap Hole, Mirror Force, and Torrential Tribute around the blocks(the ones that went unused were picked back up later).
I'm amazed that Minecraftian blocks still retain their forms and are small in the hands of life forms even outside of all Minecraftian universes. Anyway, Razar keeps up at the perfect pace and I finish up the trap just in time for him to fall right for it. He finds himself falling down a deep hole that closes right behind him as he accelerates due to the force of gravity. Bottomless Trap Hole. The others arrive shortly thereafter. LaGravis asks: "Where's Razar? He's not anywhere to be seen." I smirk: "I took care of him with a trap for a little while. He'll get out soon so let's use this time to prepare and rest up in order to beat him. Once he's defeated, I will extract what's possessing him personally and we'll help out the others with defeating the United Mining Company's forces." So there we go, we got to rest up and prep for a bit until Razar bursted his way above ground: "I've been tricked! You didn't want to give me treasure, you just wanted to fool me! That's what I'm supposed to be doing to you!" The sun in this world has already crossed more than halfway through the sky, evening is drawing closer. We've been battling for hours and morale is definitely not good. I see it in the eyes of my allies, they don't want to fight anymore but will because it is necessary to. Edyn sighs: "It feels like we've been fighting for days. So many enemies. I just want to go home." "I feel that so hard right now. My trap worked but now, Razar is even angrier than before. Beating him will take a while but we can do it." And that's what we did. But everything happened so fast that it's hard to describe what happened up until around the point we finally turned the tables on him. A typical technique of letting the enemy tire themselves out greatly worked out really well.
But after so much fighting, I was the only one still able to fight Razar. LaGravis didn't last long in the fight, Edyn collapsed from overdoing her spells and dream creature summoning, Ginga and Pegasus both ran out of stamina, and Lavertus got all worn out. I'm all worn out too but at this point, I've been worn out so many times lately that I have naturally increased my limit by quite a bit for the moment. "It's just down to you and me, Razar. No one can help either of us. This is it, we are both reaching our upmost limits. But I've been holding back this whole time a bit. After having to kill my biggest enemy, I chose not to exceed my reasonable body limits again. But now, I'm going to do it again in a different manner. It's time for some martial arts." I take off my armor and put it away again before putting my sword away too and balling my hands into fists. Razar's anger is preventing him from replying: "No words? Okay then. Witness a lesser known facet of my strength. I may be deeply intertwined and connected to the path of the sword but that's far from everything about me. Watch this! Haaaaa!" I pin Razar onto solid ground without warning and he is no match against me in this kind of bind. Sucks to be him, his number didn't grant him glorious eye lasers. If he had eye lasers, he would have defeated me for sure. But since he doesn't, it's time to do as much as I can before he breaks free of my grip. I just keep attacking with a logical mindset in play to deal as much force as possible without going completely overboard. This goes on for several minutes even though my muscles burn and hurt again.
*Same moment, Annihilation Council* "Everything is still going according to plan with a few minor exceptions. Yappa Yappa's first death will once again spawn a world of hurt for these foolish mortals. I can't wait for the looks on their faces when I get to tell them that they've been manipulated all their lives in some way by me! Some associates of mine were responsible for ensuring that Adam is sent to the town of Fun Land and that the mii half of the SDL is born during every cycle. I won't allow time to deviate too far from how it was when the first chance for me to rule over everything came. The more cycles I go through, the more I learn. I'm certain that this cycle will be the final cycle and that I will finally win! I've waited so long that there's not a single possible number any mortal could invent that could truly describe how long it's been!" The SDL walks into the room: "Tell me, what is the date I finally get my revenge?" "I can't ever remember to remember it at the top of my mind but I will give you a rough idea! Sometime within 2026 and 2027 if we're going by you know who's world's calendar. It'll be centuries for us here but it will be worth the wait if all goes well. I warn you that your first try at revenge will end in failure and your death. Then, I will bring you back and let you have another go." "Why are you telling me that?" "I'm getting so confident I almost fear that I'm getting too cocky. We're going to win this time, I have used all of my previous successes and failures to finally complete a documentation of what to manipulate to ensure my victory." "Have you ever said this before to me?" "It's a wonder how reasonable someone like you can be when you learn patience. I've never said this before. I also know that your enemy Adam is able to see into some of the future. It's always been troubling but now, I know how to make sure Adam can't even try to screw up my victory. Adam will be dead as soon as the final battle starts."
*Another time, Akatsuki hideout* "Pain, I have a concern to express." "What is it, Itachi? You're never troubled like this." "Something strange happened in Konoha recently. But no one there remembers a thing. Beings from other worlds crossed into ours." "That is troubling but don't worry, as long as everything goes to plan, we will be unstoppable. This world will bow before us. An issue like that will mean nothing once we have sealed away all of the tailed beasts and harnesses their chakra." "Oh, Itachi, you forgot about something else, remember?" "Kisame, your attempt to mock me is not working. But yes, there is something else. We found something out of this world. A blank card with extraordinary power. If it weren't for my Sharingan, I would have fallen under its influence. If it had, Sasuke's future would have gone down a path it shouldn't have. I had one of my shadow clones pick it up and put it somewhere no one can find it. Pain, even you wouldn't have been able to resist it's influence easily." "I doubt that, I am a God far above any mortal after all."
*Goha Enterprises, after Seatbastian's disappearance and return* The Hexagon are having a meeting and the topic is other worlds and dimensions. "So, the spyware we installed into Seatbastian was a success?" "Yes until it was somehow destroyed by some pirates singing sea shanties." "How is that possible?" "I have no idea." "Back to the topic, you two. We received some interesting information from it. Now, we know that there are other worlds and universes out there. With that information, we could expand the company and eliminate Rush Duels forever."
*Following Yappa Yappa's death, secret virtual base for the Knights Of Hanoi* "Link VRAINS may be better than ever and we have Playmaker back but now, all of the Ignis are back too. I hate to say it but Lightning and Windy are traveling throughout the entire network and are building something alarming in the space of a dead online server that shut down after Kaiba Corp fell, years after the Agami situation." "I've seen it too, Faust. It appears to be some sort of portal but where does it go? I can't treat my patients as best as I can with this weighing down on us. We can see it but we can't get anywhere near it much less hack it."
*Back to Swiftdrawer* Okay, I can't do this anymore. It's time for me to just stop. I release Razar who is glaring at me, it's like his whole entire original personality has been overwritten to be replaced by something much more dangerous than thievery. It's like the silent but deadly killer type of personality. Creepy. Now that I'm all worn out, he inflicts so much pain on me without mercy until he gets zapped by something. Is it storming now for some reason because I think that was lightning. Apparently, it fried him up real good because now, he's just standing there and staring blankly. I cough heavily and take a breath before returning to panting again: "Did his entire brain just get fried? What an anticlimactic way to end a fight. Oh well I guess. Hopefully extracting the number will return him to normal and we can finally finish off the United Mining Company's forces." If I had to guess, the time is around 4 pm here. After a little bit, the others get up and I extract the number, leading Razar to return to normal and flee without even yelling as much as a small scream. That's just odd. I sweat drop as I explain to everyone how he got defeated. After that, we decided to just go ahead and use whatever we got left from losing consciousness or whatever for finishing the battle. But by the time we got to the main battle area, we just saw the others standing victorious. I put my armor back on and get my sword out to put it in its rightful holder attached to my leggings. Then, I noticed a bunch of UMC troops have been captured. After I left Chima, Dr. Bonesbane took them to Kohnanix for peaceful interrogation. LaGravis speaks up: "Tribes of Chima and our new allies, we have done it. The threat to Chima is finally over. It was a long, difficult, and exhausting battle but we stand here today triumphant! For Chima!" Most of the members of all of the tribes shout: "For Chima!"
Following that, Crow approaches the leaders of Chima who have gathered together in the middle of everyone who fought today: "Before we have any celebrations, some of us have a interesting idea for you. That and we have lots of explaining to do." Lava replies: "What is it?" I take over, standing right alongside the Blackwing duelist: "I think I can explain better than you, Crow. Sorry. We propose you join a collective alliance of sorts. It's called BRAINS. Let's not get into what each letter stands for. There's a lot to explain and I for one am exhausted. Although we could just give y'all the short version and guidebooks about BRAINS. Let's just do that. The short version is that this world is far from the only world where dangerous and extraordinary things happen. We are from different worlds and came together for the purpose of stopping cruelty from spreading even further than it already has and stamping it out wherever it has already taken root. BRAINS members are from all sorts of places and carry the responsibility of only interfering in other worlds if whatever is happening there wasn't supposed to happen and won't be able to be solved without much damage without outside help." I go on for a bit longer and for a while after that, the tribes including the ravens who have returned peacefully are in deep thought and discussion. They accept the proposal though we decide to limit the amount of members for obvious reasons. As I take my leave once Chima BRAINS is officially established, Laval taps my shoulder: "Hey, aren't you going to stick around for the celebration. You did a lot to save Chima after all."
I shake my head: "I'm too exhausted and quite frankly too deep into subconscious despair to go. Parties are great but I just can't today. You have barely a clue as to how worn out I really am. It's so bad, I actually consider going on a cruise somewhere to be a reasonable and relaxing choice instead of seeing it as kind of a waste of time when I could just chill at home. I also have too much to think about. But don't worry, if you want me to come to your next get together, you will be able to reach out to me pretty soon. I need to go home now, tell everyone I said goodbye. My only complete regret was not fighting more alongside you and your friends, you all have remarkable skills and fighting spirits, it's something that is so great and interesting. See ya, Laval. Take care. I really need space right now." Without many more words, I say goodbye to as many as I can before heading back to Miitopia. Upon my arrival, I am ambushed by the biggest group hug ever. "Hey uh thanks everyone but I really need my space." Austin replies: "What's wrong?" Dominic speaks up: "It's about Yappa Yappa." "Yes, yes it is. In that battle for Chima, I not only made myself even more exhausted and worn than I already was but had to bear the weight of having to kill somebody with a conscious and complex mind. It may not be visible but it's eating me on the inside. I just need to be alone for a while. Once I feel better and work it out a bit with myself, I think I will feel comfortable enough to talk about it with at least one of you. But now, we can count on the tribes of Chima to be our friends and allies in the future. They captured a lot of UMC troops and took back all the stolen chi among other things. I get the feeling that the UMC just failed to invade a world for the 69th time, just a hunch."
No further words between us have to be said, the facial expressions of the others speak volumes because they show an acceptance and understanding that runs deep. I head to my room and lay on my bed with my armor still on after I took a quick shower trip to wash it all off. Once in bed, I pull out my sword and hold it for some comfort. Ever since that day several years ago, my life just hasn't been the same. Instead of one, I lead two different lives. Each is more dangerous than the other in some aspects. And as I've gotten closer to those I once thought were just my fictional video game OCs among others, the world I come from has visibly gotten harder and harder to live in. Forget the dangers of the Australian Outback. Forget the rattlesnakes and the scorpions and the venomous spiders. We are on a collision course for the deaths of countless living organisms in the first artificially caused extinction event in recorded geological history. There, I feel pretty powerless and stuck in a loop of much thought and little action to do something about all of this. And now, I want to reflect more on this 2nd life of mine. At first, we just had random assortments of kind and cruel life forms showing up to the Town of Fun Land. I found myself not just managing the town as mayor from my 3Ds device, I found myself managing and defending it while inside the body of my character in the game too. And that was all after I had dreams that I thought were real of a Miitopia that as far as we know was just a dream world. It was kind of strange, the way the enemies acted screamed a dream but I just didn't realize it.
Anyway, I got together with the mii Austin, we remained a happy couple for quite a long time until we decided to be just friends. Note to self: never condone marriage at age 15 or 16 again in any shape or form. It may have been fine for us but overall, it's a really fucking bad idea, too soon. Yes, I don't want to think about Yappa Yappa just yet. And of course, I got chosen by the main Yugioh timeline's Egyptian sun god Ra. Looking back, it seems so kind of random that that happened and that I just got gifted a over 107 number card and sword just like that. But nevertheless, I became stronger, so much stronger in this 2nd life of mine. Due to this and the bonds I forged, the random villains that showed up until 2019 didn't last long. As that was happening, a lot of us began attending a magic school. The strangest part is that it's like I have memories of going to 2 different magic schools where practically identical events happened at the same time. But for one of them, the memories are so much more vague and fuzzy. That's the one that's not supposed to be in my mind and must have came about due to what we did while taking down Gorganan and The Shadow. Anyway, magic school was very interesting. We had and made our own dorm, overthrew the magical government, took down a cult of blood purists, took down a cult of personality who was actually manipulated by the SDL and led a greater good faction, rocked out with a bunch of Earth bands, and more. Kaiba was even becoming nice for once only for that to completely reverse by this year. But I didn't expect to see Kaiba, Yugi, and others be kidnapped and coerced by force into joining the school. That was crap and the main reason we overthrew the magical government. We also made many allies such as a whole group of vampires and I was a student teacher who taught about non magical culture.
And we got into a bunch of fights and eventually brought peace to that school and the surrounding area. But now, it's in turmoil again or at least was until some comrades took care of it not that long ago. For some time roughly around that time of attending the school, Fluffy Afro and the Wacky Clowns got into all sorts of crap and I ended up getting dragged along to hear the Wacky Clowns argue with each other over a fart sound. Then, the SDL crashed a music performance by them but didn't stay long. Speaking of, the SDL rose and tried to ruin my birthday early 2019. What an asshole he was, the fact that he's returning for revenge one day is such a pain. He wasn't some asshole who went through so much shit that he became one as a result. He's like a natural asshole. We fought that villain multiple times with an increasing amount of strength and number of allies for much of 2019. The SDL was just plain horrible, we even worked with a giant multiversal supernation to bring him down, it got that bad. Miitopia was in bad shape due to his rule. And if it weren't for him, Yappa Yappa would have never left his homeworld and become an asshole himself. Anyway, things calmed down in most places after the SDL was defeated. But then, Blaze came home in Kohananix's wooded Waldbosque region to find a party and a new arch nemesis. The SDL had a son who turned against him and joined our side.
His name is Freddie. Freddie was eventually captured and cast away his powers and memories so the SDL couldn't gain any intel on us. It was one hell of a sacrifice to make but he did it anyway. What we didn't know was that because of that, Freddie would be cruel and become Freddie the anti wolf. Blaze and so many others went through a lot to stop him and dissolve his Molcolian Empire. When he was being a jerk, Freddie literally forced others into becoming cyborgs through a cruel and painful assimilation process. After that was over, things got seemingly peaceful and quiet for about 6 months. That was until I woke up on my homeworld to find the house I live in never existed and the neighborhood I reside in was never ever there. Instead, there was a giant factory on a Earth ruled by a tyrant. And for 10 months after that, myself and others banded together with more others to undo changes to countless timelines. A future version of Fluffy Afro who caught Covid-19 and started down a road of loneliness and despair as a result became a robot in the year of 3018 or so. He built a time machine and became both cruel and powerful, his intellect was immense and he stole the name of someone else and applied it to himself: Gorganan. What Gorganan did to timelines was really really bad. I can't believe most of this and what has happened since can be traced all the way back to Melvin the banana worker in Miitopia getting possessed and turning into Dark Lord Melvin who then stole the faces of countless miis and put them onto monsters.
Back on track, Gorganan caused Count Venamous to almost succeed in taking over and later destroying Earth in the Supernoobs universe, brought the SDL to greater power than ever, caused the Earthbound Immortals and Zorc to devastate the main Yugioh timeline, and so much more. But we beat him only to find out the embodiment of all cruelty The Shadow was manipulating him the entire time. Gorganan let himself be erased to help us win once he suddenly reformed, it was beautiful. Soon after that, BRAINS was formed and things kind of quieted down again for a while. That was until a popcorn monster ate the galaxy my home planet is located in. Similar incidents started happening and now, we deal with random incidents like Shingo Sawatari somehow ending up in Konoha when he's from the multiverse in which 4(actually 5) dimensions split from one because a duelist got way too greedy with extremely advanced technology. There was also that time some incidents and odd things combined to cause Beerus, Goku, Vegeta, and Whis to crossover into Equestria, far from their multiverse. And the cherry on top, my Miitopian counterpart signed with Boogaloo International Music(BIM) and the United Mining Company started invading worlds for numbers, money, free exploited labor, power, and resources. We had started to hunt for all those 875 or so over 108 number cards that had gone all over after the Shadow was split up but now, we had competition and it was mean competition at that. There's Yappa Yappa and Pmurt Nedib, two not fun individuals to be around. They're at the heart of UMC's cruelty and capitalist imperialism.
Yappa Yappa showed up while myself and others were trying to stop number possessed McLeish and rouge ex Kennel Kittens from destroying their world in the Pound Puppies universe. He nearly killed me and Blaze without much effort on his part. Since then, we've also battled the UMC in Link VRAINS, UA High School, and Chima. Each time, it's been wild and dangerous though in VRAINS, not so much. And of course, I just helped stop Agram's 4th attempt at conquering the Moonlands in the Magi Nation universe. There's a lot more to all of that but that's the gist. Bray comes into my room and sits down on my bed: "Hey, you feel ready to talk about what you had to do." Now that I felt a bit better from reflecting on what I helped make happen, I nod while staying in my position: "Thank you so much for supporting me so much. Too much is weighing down on me. I stabbed my own enemy right through the heart and watched as he died with a wicked smile on his face. I had no choice but to end his life. If I hadn't, we'd have all died and so many universes would have gone to ruin in seconds. Yappa Yappa murdered his way to ridiculous amounts of powers such as One For All, Rinnegan, Saiyan power, and teleportation. And yet still, I killed someone." "I remember the day I had to do that for the first time too. I shall never forget it." "You've been through this too? In that case, you can understand my pain completely.. I hate Yappa Yappa for his horrible beliefs and actions but still, taking a life just isn't something I can stomach that easily. There's one commonality between the two worlds I reside in in 2 different lives that's relevant here, they have a vocal minority who actively want to kill queer people like us. So because so many people by default want us dead as soon as possible, I can't help but be horrified of the reality that I had to take Yappa Yappa's life. For so long, I have believed in never doing as much harm to my enemies as they do to me."
She lays down on my bed too because why not: "One of the first lessons I learned as a Sage was that that we have to make painful decisions sometimes that are as complicated as choosing between ending and saving someone who has done harm." "I'm glad that's how you began learning it all. For me, as the terrifying reality of my home world has set in, that vow I've had in some aspects began to morph. Having to take someone's life remains an absolute no unless it's the only way but now, it's changing in other ways because we are left with no choice both on Earth and in Miitopia. The hate has gotten worse here as well after all. I just want to be truly free and happy. I want to make this agonizing existence much better for myself and others, especially those who bear pain that is far greater than my own pain which is meager by comparison. I want to survive." "You're far from the only one who feels this way. The death threats against me intensify by the day. I've seen things no one should ever have to in all my years." "I'm not thriving in my original body and 1st life. I'm not, I'm coping and making sure I don't lose myself to the despair that comes with knowing what's really going on. It's not that bad for me here because at least I can stand my own ground with the strength I have built up over time. Here in this body, an average Earth person could not hope to defeat me in battle nor kill me. The painful truth is that there's a cycle of pain and hatred that runs alongside the circle of life for most intelligent civilizations I can think of." "I can't think of any intelligent civilization where the cycle of hate doesn't come with it myself."
"That's a bad sign. Because we have emotions, we can choose to love and accept those different from us or embrace a selective love packaged with deep hatred and bias that comes from the refusal to understand those who are very different from us. I don't really know what's next for me but what I do know is that I will never have general true happiness or peace. Not as long as the societies around me choose to embrace greed, fear, and hatred over what's really important." "Dominic has told me something similar. We are burdened with this terrible truth. It will haunt us forever so we just have to do what we can to reduce the cycle of hatred." "I agree. And this cycle of hatred is why I kind of agree with Hero Killer Stain. Hero society in that universe is full of heroes who have acted like their looks or money or whatever are more important than saving the lives of innocent people and creatures. It's a nearly mirror image to media celebrities on the Earth I'm from. But the villains are targeting the wrong people. If they truly want to change society to stop glamorized hero stuff, they need to battle the actual politicians and businessmen in charge of their world. But of course, they actually just want to hurt people at the end of the day so what good is my point? Villains are just like billionaires if they aren't also billionaires. The only difference between them is that villains are much more willing to get their actual hands dirty and stained with the blood of those who suffer, billionaires pay people to do that and starve others to make sure that happens."
"I shall confess that I've never believed that being a hero is as black and white as it's said to be. You can't always spare your enemies and you can't always save your friends. My social life was gone for years because it took a long time for me to become a Great Sage." "Thank you so much again, I'm feeling better now, I'm accepting what I had to do was painful but necessary to prevent worse pain later. I hope everyone in Chima is having the party of their lives. I fear that Miitopia will soon divide before we know what hit us. We have to be ready for the worst, even blatant genocide of individuals like us. Also, I'm still so exhausted, I might go to bed early. Right now, I just want to rest and think about what we have to face right now and in the future. I don't mind if you tell the others about what we talked about. It's important that it is shared after all. I'm sure Dominic has already prepared for a scenario in which we anarchists have no choice left but to rise up all over Miitopia. The current system in place rewards selfishness and greed with even more of it plus so much needless suffering. The existence of wealthy miis implies inequality right off the bat." "Yes, I sense that the tense peace that keeps Miitopia together is slipping away. Miis everywhere are becoming more aware of who they believe when it comes to everything. But at the same time, more and more lies are tarnishing so much. One of the miis in line for the role of Great Sage is affiliated with a transphobic hate group based in Neksdor."
"Damn it. A Miitopian civil war would inflict so much pain and suffering. But if it doesn't happen, there's a 100% chance of more pain and suffering that harms more Miitopians, mii, monster, you name it. Please have someone let me know when it's dinner time, I'm going to read a book to temporarily take my mind off of how dire things actually are. We are safe here as long as the base is never found but we can never be too cautious." She nods and gets up: "Don't worry, you deserve a rest. I shall have one as well soon. I'll tell Blaze to get you when it's dinner time." The rest of the day, I rest, relax, read, eat dinner, take care of daily things, and get a hug from Blaze before they go home and I go to bed.
*Greenhorne castle, same day* "My king, it's an honor to have you back on the throne. Why did you decide to restore the royal family of Greenhorne even though your daughter has run away from home?" King Luis replies: "I realized I don't get along with the heroes who have saved Miitopia anymore. They have become rouge governmentless radicals." "Is that all to it?" "Yes. Now fetch me more meat, tell the Greenhorne Food Bank that they're lucky to get 100 gold donations once a month from this kingdom. I couldnt care less about the poor. I want everyone to do everything for me." "Right away but remember that your meeting with the Royal Council is in 30 minutes." "I know, I know. They can come here early if they want. As long as they obey me, I don't care." "I will be back soon." "Make it snappy! I haven't eaten in 10 minutes! I'm starving! And I wish I didn't have a split personality! When I next return to Pizza Island, I will become somebody else who looks and sounds just like me! It's so annoying!"
*Literally the same time right below King Luis* Mel, the leader of the Knights Of Miitopia is thinking outloud: "I just wish I knew who to trust in this organization and who to not trust. Now that I have learned about the truth of what's going on in Miitopia, I am troubled. Time is running out, there are plans to raid and destroy the homes and bases of so called radicals who don't like the current system. And yet, many of us here have come to align with them, myself included. Membership in this group skyrocketed after we lost some of our best knights due to the SDL crisis. But now, we have so many members I barely know personally." "Don't worry, Mel. It's lucky we're the only ones in here right now. The rest of the knights including your protégé are out on missions helping with things such as requests from travelers at the Travelers' Hub." "I know, I just almost want to send Swiftdrawer another letter to move up our scheduled meeting date." "I do not think that's the best course of action. After all, we are swamped with things to do all around the original date. That and we need to use our spare time to determine who to trust and who not to trust. This organization leans towards where we're aligned and it needs restructuring before we finally officially take a side in the coming war. I've been in contact with the leader of The Union Of Miitopian Mages. They are having the same problems as us. Let's just hope Swiftdrawer joins us and Great Sage Bray joins them. But for now, let's focus on making some dinner. It is our off day after all." "You always know what to say, my wonderful wife." "I thought we agreed I'm the one who gets to say that!" "Hahaha! Oh, we so needed this laughter."
*Beyond Link VRAINS, dead server space* "Lightning! When will this portal be finished already?! I want to use Bahamut Bomber on someone already and get revenge on Revolver and Soulburner in the real world!" "Give it time. We must be patient, Windy. The humans must never know what we're up to. Before we destroy all humans in the world they link into our digital world from, we're going to go somewhere else first, somewhere we can test out what we can do in the physical world. That's because there won't be SolTech, Playmaker, or the Knights Of Hanoi to stop us there. It's a shame that bringing back Boman would not do us any good. He has chosen to believe in Al and Playmaker instead of us."
*Unknown room, unknown location* A strangely familiar person surrounded in a pink aura speaks to seemingly no one in particular: "So far so good, no unexpected deviations from any timelines. Our pasts have not changed again. The day of the final battle is approaching. My amazing scientist friend, how much longer do we have to be in here again?" "Until you finally master the next stage of your power or until The Overlord virus which has infected networks all across many universes is erased. To think that of all the major enemies of members of BRAINS, the ultimate enemy we have to beat chose to bring him back in that way." "True and thanks for the reminder."
*A certain connected set of 2 worlds where 2 similar but different types of people have fought each other using Tai Chi cards* "Rai!" "What is it, Sena?" "Remember how we were ordered to evacuate here? Well, I just found out why! Some dead Dragonoids have returned from behind the grave and are now zombifying other Dragonoids. And get this, Diga is one of the revived!" "Zombies? We'll handle them together with our team, right?!" "Not until your parents have more information on what's going on." "Aww man! But I want to fight! It's been a while since I have because we're in peace now." Find out what the zombie is up with that next chapter in Veil Of Greed: Hunt For The Numbers!
Outro: I'm really sorry that this isn't as action packed and the battles are kinda rushed. I just didn't want to write that much when it comes to battles. On the upside, that allowed me to further explore what else is going on besides the main adventure even more. There's teasers for future chapters of this story and A Collection Of Other Adventures, and future stories all here. Now to figure out which story to start next. I'll worry about that another day. For now, I hope you found this interesting and entertaining. See ya next time!