Chapter 58, Sacred beasts unleashed.
The group followed the helicopter to a strange location, they found themselves facing a large circular plate made of stone, and placed around this plate as seven large pillars.
"What is this place" asked Jaden, "This is where the Sacred beasts was sealed away" explained Sheppard who seemed very worried.
"Look, the Spirit keys" said Syrus, everyone looked up and saw the seven Spirit keys floating just above of the stone plate, then each key flew away and embedded itself into one of the pillars.
Suddenly there was an intense rumbling that caused some members of the group to fall over, then a stone pedestal rose up from the centre of the plate, and on this pedestal sat three duel monster cards.
"The three Sacred beasts, they've been freed" said Sheppard who was close to having a heart attack, "Well they won't be getting any further" said Robin who was about to run up and grab the cards.
"I wouldn't do that if I was you" said a voice from the helicopter, the helicopter descended until it landed just outside of the plate, then an extremely old man in a wheelchair got out and wheeled himself towards the Sacred beasts.
This old man looked extremely frail and perhaps also sick, he looked like he would break his own legs if he so much as attempted to stand, he was very thin and he had a long white beard that was rather unkept, and he was wearing a breathing mask on his face that was connected to a tank of oxygen.
"Kagemaru what are you doing here" asked Sheppard, "What do you think I'm doing, I'm here to collect the Sacred beasts" said the old man as he reached the pedestal.
"Back away from those cards old man, don't make me hurt you" warned Robin, "I don't think that you'll be able to do that" said Kagemaru as he raised his right hand which had a golden ring with an eye symbol on it sitting on his index finger.
Suddenly everyone felt a powerful force push them back it was as if there was a barrier between them and the stone plate, clearly that ring on Kagemaru's finger was a shadow charm.
"Kagemaru please don't do this" pleaded Sheppard, however this did little good as Kagemaru picked up the three Sacred beast cards from the pedestal, "I would just like to thank whoever it was that activate all of the keys for me, you saved me a lot of trouble" said Kagemaru as he held the cards in his hands.
"Chazz this is all your fault" said Robin, "Me, but it was Alexis who defeated me and activated the keys, if anything it's her fault" said Chazz, suddenly Alexis slapped Chazz in the face, "None of this would be happening if you hadn't stolen the keys in the first place" she shouted.
"This is no time to be fighting amongst ourselves, we have to stop Kagemaru now" said Zane, "Zane's right, we can kill Chazz later" said Robin.
Kagemaru was looking at the Sacred beasts hopefully, it was as if he expected them to do something, "Why isn't it working, why aren't you rejuvenating me" he said to the cards, "Hey guys, it looks like the Sacred beasts aren't working" said Jaden.
Suddenly Kagemaru heard a voice in his head, it took him a few seconds to realise that it was the voice of the Sacred beasts, "Yes, yes, I understand" said Kagemaru.
"It seems that the Sacred beasts require a sacrifice in order to fully regain their powers, luckily anyone of you will do" said Kagemaru, "What, this guy is going to sacrifice one of us" said a panicking Syrus.
"Don't worry, he'd have to defeat you in a duel first" said Sheppard, "So can't we just run now" asked Chumley, "Run if you like, but even without the Sacred beasts at full strength I can still cause untold destruction to this island" said Kagemaru.
"So the only way to stop the Sacred beasts is if one of us defeats him in a duel" said Bastion, "That is correct, and I think that I'll duel the short one" said Kagemaru pointing to Syrus.
"What, why would he choose Syrus, he's probably the weakest duellist here" said Chazz, "That's exactly why he want's Syrus, he's looking for an easy opponent" said Zane.
"There's no way that I'm letting you duel Sy, if anyone's going to duel it's going to be me" said Jaden, "I disagree, I'll only let the short one pass through the barrier, it's not like any of you can do anything about it" said Kagemaru.
Robin reached into his backpack and pulled out the Emerald tablet, "We can destroy your barrier" he said as he held the shadow charm in his hands, "Wait, that's Banner's shadow charm, why do you have it" asked Jaden, "After I beat Banner I had a feeling that this whole ordeal wasn't over, so I thought that I'd keep this in case of an emergency" explained Robin.
Robin held the Emerald tablet against the barrier, soon both the Emerald tablet and Kagemaru's ring began to glow brightly, then in a burst of light both shadow charms exploded and the barrier disappeared.
"Great, now we just have to decide who's going to duel his guy" said Jaden, "Isn't it obvious, Zane should duel him, he is our best duellist" said Crowler as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"No, there's only one duellist here who could defeat the Sacred beasts and that's Jaden" said Sheppard, about half of the group looked at Sheppard as if he was insane, although Jaden seemed it like this idea.
Jaden smiled as he stepped forward, "Alright old dude, it's time to get your game" however Jaden was interrupted by Robin elbowing him in the stomach knocking him to the ground, "Sorry Jaden, I might hate you but I can't let you get yourself killed" said Robin.
Robin stepped forward and activated his duel disk, "Robin Thorn what do you think that your doing" demanded a furious Sheppard, "I'm trying to save your lives, I've been in more shadow games than the rest of you combined, if anyone can survive this it's me" said Robin.
"That little twerp, I should expel him for this" said Sheppard, "To be fair, Jaden wouldn't have lasted two seconds against those Sacred beast" said Alexis, "Jaden is more skilled than that boy will ever be" thought Sheppard.
"I suppose that it doesn't really mater who I duel, you won't survive the Sacred beasts" stated Kagemaru as a duel disk extended from his wheelchair .
"Sheppard, is there anything that you can tell me about these Sacred beasts" asked Robin, "No, I have no idea what they can do" said Sheppard still annoyed by what Robin had done, "Thanks, you so helpful" said Robin sarcastically.
The duel started, "I don't know how powerful these Sacred beast are, so for now I should just set up some defences" thought Robin, "I summon a monster in defence mode, and I'll also place a card face down, I end my turn" said Robin.
Kagemaru started his turn, "I summon Chaos summoning beast in attack mode, now I use my monsters effect, by tributing this card I can special summon one of the Sacred beasts from my hand, now I'd like you to meet Raviel, lord of phantasms" said Kagemaru as Raviel appeared on the field and the pure blue sky turned dark and stormy.
Chaos summoning beast ATK 0 DEF 0 LV 1 DARK fiend.
Raviel, lord of phantasms ATK 4000 DEF 4000 LV 10 DARK fiend.
Suddenly something began to happen to Kagemaru, he started to breath much easier and his body become less frail, Kagemaru reached up to his face and remover his breathing mask.
At the same time Jaden noticed that there was something wrong with Winged kuriboh, "Hey little guy are you ok" asked Jaden, Winged kuriboh looked very tired, it was as if he was sick.
Ojama yellow was also showing signs that there was something wrong, "Boss, I don't feel so good" said Ojama yellow weakly, Chazz looked at the duel monster spirit with concern in his eyes.
"Now Raviel attack his monster" said Kagemaru, Raviel attacked and destroyed Robin's monster which that revealed to be Skilled white magician, "Next I'll place a card face down and end my turn" said Kagemaru
Skilled white magician ATK 1700 DEF 1900 LV 4 LIGHT spellcaster.
Robin drew his card and was very satisfied with what he got, "I play a monster in defence mode and end my turn" he said.
Kagemaru started his turn, "I'll attack your monster with Raviel" he said confidently, Raviel attacked and destroyed Robin's monster which was revealed to be Shaddoll dragon.
Shaddoll dragon ATK 1900 DEF 0 LV 4 DARK spellcaster.
"Excellent, by flipping Shaddoll dragon face up you've activated its effect, this allows me to return one card you control to your hand, so say goodbye to Raviel" said Robin as Raviel returned to Kagemaru's hand.
"It looks like the Sacred beasts aren't as powerful as you thought" said Robin, "I'll place two cards face down and end my turn" said Kagemaru.
Robin's turn started, "I summon Keeper of dragon magic, and when this card is summoned I can discard one card in order to add a polymerization to my hand" said Robin as he discarded Buster blader and added Polymerization to his hand.
Keeper of dragon magic ATK 1800 DEF 1300 LV 4 DARK dragon.
"I'm well aware of your monsters second effect, however you won't be using it, I activate Fiendish chain, this trap card with prevent your Keeper from attacking and negate it's effects" said Kagemaru, Robin was visibly annoyed by this.
"I'll place a card face down and end my turn" said Robin.
Kagemaru drew his card and smiled, "I activate the continuous spell card Opening of the Spirit gates, when this card is activated I can add one of the Sacred beasts from my deck to my hand, and I'll choose Uria" said Kagemaru.
"Now I'll activate my two face down cards, they're both continuous trap cards, one of them is Awakening of the Sacred beasts and the other is Imperial custom" continued Kagemaru.
"Now I'll send all three of my continuous traps to the graveyard in order to summon Uria, lord of searing flames, and Uria gains 1000 ATK points for each of my continuous trap cards in the graveyard" said Kagemaru.
Uria, lord of searing flames ATK 0 DEF 0 LV 10 FIRE pyro.
Uria, lord of searing flames ATK 0 + 3000 = 3000.
Kagemaru's body began to change, his beard shortened and changed from white to black, he became more muscular and his wrinkles disappeared, Kagemaru now resembles a man in hid mid to late forties.
"It look like he gets younger every time he summons one of those Sacred beasts" said Bastion, Winged kuriboh and Ojama yellow seemed to be even more weak than they was before, they was now both resting on their owners shoulders.
"Hey are you ok little guy" Jaden asked Winged kuriboh, "No he's not, the Sacred beasts are sucking the life out of all of the duel monster spirits, if Robin loses than they'll all die" said Sheppard.
Kagemaru stood up and strapped his duel disk onto his arm, then he picked up his wheelchair and throw it away, "Its so good to be young again" he said triumphantly, "So this is why you wanted the Sacred beasts, to make yourself younger" said Robin, "Yes, without the Sacred beasts I wouldn't have lived to see another year, but enough of my story, on with the duel" said Kagemaru.
"Next I use Uria's effect, once per turn he can destroy one of your face down spell or trap cards" said Kagemaru as Uria destroyed Robin's face down Dimensional prison, "Now Uria attack his monster" ordered Kagemaru, Uria destroyed Keeper of dragon magic.
Robin LP 4000 – 1200 = 2800.
Robin felt incredible pain run through his body as his life points went down, "It seems that the Sacred beasts are stronger than you thought" laughed Kagemaru, "Do you really think that I'm afraid of those god card knockoffs" said Robin as he recovered.
"Then let us continue, now I'll use another effect of Opening of the Spirit gates, since I control a level 10 monster I can add a continuous spell card from my deck to my hand" said Kagemaru as he added Cerulean skyfire to his hand, then he ended his turn.
Robin drew his card, "Perfect" he thought, "I place Black fang magician in my pendulum zone, now I'll use my magician's effect this will cut Uria's ATK in half for one turn, but this also causes my magician to be destroyed" he said.
Black fang magician ATK 1700 DEF 800 LV 4 DARK spellcaster.
Uria, lord of searing flames ATK 3000 – 1500 = 1500.
"However since my Black fang magician was destroyed his second effect will now activate, this allows me to summon a DARK spellcaster from my graveyard" said Robin as Shaddoll dragon returned to the field.
Shaddoll dragon ATK 1900 DEF 0 LV 4 DARK spellcaster.
"Now Shaddoll dragon destroy his monster" ordered Robin, Shaddoll dragon attacked and destroyed Uria.
Kagemaru LP 4000 – 400 = 3600.
Robin placed a card face down and ended his turn.
Kagemaru's turn started, "First I'll use the effect of Opening of the Spirit gates, by discarding one card I cand special summon a fiend monster with 0 ATK and DEF from my graveyard, and I choose Chaos summoning beast" said Kagemaru as he discarded Dark summoning beast to use this effect.
Chaos summoning beast ATK 0 DEF 0 LV 1 DARK fiend.
"Now I'll tribute my Chaos summoning beast in order to summon Raviel once again" said Kagemaru as Raviel was summoned to the field again.
Raviel, lord of phantasms ATK 4000 DEF 4000 LV 10 DARK fiend.
"Now that I have a level 10 monster on the field I can use Opening of the Spirit gates other effect and add a continuous spell card to my hand, but that's not all, I'll also banish Dark summoning beast from my graveyard in order to add Hamon to my hand" said Kagemaru as he added Hamon and Shard of greed to his hand.
"Now I activate Shard of greed and Cerulean skyfire, but they won't be staying long because I'm sending them both to the graveyard along with Opening of the Spirit gates in order to summon Hamon, lord of striking thunder to the field" said Kagemaru as Hamon appeared on the field.
Hamon, lord of striking thunder ATK 4000 DEF 4000 LV 10 LIGHT thunder.
Once again Kagemaru became younger, he became even more muscular and he grew long black hair, he now looked like a man in his early twenties.
Winged kuriboh and Ojama yellow became even weaker, they now both looked as if they was dead, all over the world everyone else who could see duel monster spirits was also noticing that their spirits was becoming increasingly weak and closer to death.
"Hamon attack his Shaddoll dragon and end this duel" ordered Kagemaru, Hamon attacked, "Not so fast, I'll use my face down card Shrink, this will cut Hamon's ATK in half" said Robin, Shaddoll dragon was destroyed.
Hamon, lord of striking thunder ATK 4000 – 2000 = 2000.
Robin LP 2800 – 100 = 2700.
"That hardly matters, Hamon's effect now activates, every time that he destroys a monster and sends it to the graveyard you lose an extra 1000 life points" said Kagemaru, a large bolt of lightning was fired from Hamon and struck Robin.
Robin LP 2700 – 1000 = 1700.
Robin fell to his knees in pain, suddenly he coughed several times bringing up blood, everyone was extremely worried about Robin's health, "He can't keep this up, those Sacred beasts will kill him" said Crowler, "I know, but there's nothing that we can do but hope that he wins" said Zane.
"Now Raviel attack him directly" ordered Kagemaru, "I activate my last face down card, Scapegoat" coughed Robin, Raviel destroyed one of the four Sheep tokens.
4x Sheep token ATK 0 DEF 0 LV 1 EARTH beast.
"I place a card face down and end my turn" said Kagemaru clearly annoyed that the duel hadn't ended on this turn, since this turn was over Hamon's ATK points returned to 4000.
Hamon, lord of striking thunder ATK 2000 + 2000 = 4000.
Robin wiped his bloody mouth on his sleeve and drew his card, "I'll play a card face down and end my turn" he said.
Kagemaru's turn started, "First I'm going to reveal my face down card, Hyper blaze, this card allows me to discard one card in order to special summon one of the Sacred beasts from my graveyard" said Kagemaru as he discarded Mystical space typhoon to summon Uria once again.
Uria, lord of searing flames ATK 0 DEF 0 LV 10 FIRE pyro.
Uria, lord of searing flames ATK 0 + 3000 = 3000.
"Now Uria, use your effect and destroy his face down card" said Kagemaru, Uria destroyed Robin's face down card which was Mirror force.
"Now all three of my Sacred beasts destroy his tokens and his last line of defence" ordered Kagemaru, Raviel, Uria and Hamon all attacked and destroyed Robin's last three Sheep tokens.
"And with that I'll end my turn" said Kagemaru.
Robin drew his card and started to laugh, "What, why are you laughing, have you gone insane" said Kagemaru, "No, but this duel's about to end" said Robin.
"I summon Breaker in attack mode" said Robin as his monster appeared on the field and gained a spell counter, "Since you just normal summoned a monster Raviel's effect activates, this allows me to summon a Phantasma token to the field in defence mode" interrupted Kagemaru.
Breaker the magical warrior ATK 1600 DEF 2000 LV 4 DARK spellcaster.
Breaker the magical warrior ATK 1600 + 300 = 1900.
Phantasma token ATK 1000 DEF 1000 LV 1 DARK fiend.
"Now I'm going to use Breaker's effect to destroy your Hyper blaze" said Robin, Breaker remover his's spell counter and Hyper blaze was destroyed, this increased Uria's ATK by another 1000 points.
Breaker the magical warrior ATK 1900 – 300 = 1600.
Uria, lord of searing flames ATK 3000 + 1000 = 4000.
"Next I'll use Monster reborn to revive Keeper of dragon magic, then I'll use his effect, by revealing my Dark paladin to you I can summon Buster blader back to the field in face down defence position" said Robin.
Keeper of dragon magic ATK 1800 DEF 1300 LV 4 DARK dragon.
Buster blader ATK 2600 DEF 2300 LV 7 EARTH warrior.
Finally I'll activate Polymerization" said Robin, everyone was confused, "Why is he doing that, Buster blader the dragon destroyer swordsman can't win him this duel" said Bastion, "Unless his summoning something else" said Alexis.
"I fuse Breaker the magical warrior together with Keeper of dragon magic, with these two Dark monsters I can create Starving venom fusion dragon" said Robin, "A what dragon" asked Jaden who had never heard of this card before.
Starving venom fusion dragon ATK 2800 DEF 2000 LV 8 DARK dragon.
"You fool, that monster isn't strong enough to defeat any of the Sacred beasts" said Kagemaru, "Yes it is, because this card has a few effects, first when my dragon is fusion summon it can gain ATK point equal to one of your special summoned monsters for one turn, and I choose Raviel" explained Robin.
Starving venom fusion dragon ATK 2800 + 4000 = 6800.
"But that's not all, next I use another of my dragon's effects, this allows him to steel the effects of one of your level 5 or higher monsters until the end of this turn, and I choose Hamon" explained Robin.
"Starving venom fusion dragon attack Hamon now" ordered Robin, Hamon was destroyed.
Kagemaru LP 3600 – 2800 = 800.
"Now the effect that I stole from Hamon activates dealing another 1000 points of damage to you" Starving venom fusion dragon fired a lightning bolt just like Hamon that struck Kagemaru.
Kagemaru LP 800 – 1000 = 0.
The lightning strike sent Kagemaru flying backwards while screaming in pain, as he lay on the ground his bode slowly reverted to that of an old man.
"Alright, he did it" said Jaden as he watched Winged kuriboh fly around his head happily now that his strength had returned, "Wow, I thought that I was a goner for a second there" said Ojama yellow who was also back to full strength.
"I don't believe it, how could that boy have defeated the Sacred beasts, he can't even see duel monster spirits" thought Sheppard completely bewildered by what he had seen.
Alexis smiled as she looked at Robin, but then she noticed that Robin was very unsteady on his feet and that he was having trouble standing up, "Guys, he going to faint" said Alexis as she ran up and caught Robin before he hit the ground.
"Is he going to be ok" asked Alexis as she held an unconscious Robin, Crowler ran up and checked Robin, "He's exhausted, but I don't think that he's hurt" he said.
"What about the Sacred beasts, we need to put them back" said Sheppard completely ignoring Robin, "Don't worry, I'll get them" said Jaden as he ran up to the downed Kagemaru.
"Sorry old dude, but it looks like you lose" said Jaden as he knelt down to retrieve the Sacred beast card, however as Jaden got closer he noticed something unsettling about Kagemaru.
"Hey, old dude are you alright" asked Jaden as he shook Kagemaru's shoulder but received no response, "Everyone this guy's not breathing" shouted Jaden in a panicked voice.
Sheppard ran up to Kagemaru and checked him, "He's, he's dead" said Sheppard as his face turned white, "Robin's attack must have been to much for him to handle" said Zane, everyone was silent for a moment.
Suddenly Jaden turned to the unconscious Robin with a hint of anger in his eyes, "He kill him, he just straight up murdered him" accused Jaden, "Jaden that's enough, you need to calm down" said Crowler.
"But he killed that guy" said Jaden, "And what choice did he have, Kagemaru was going to kill all of us and put the whole world at risk, Robin did what he had to" said Alexis.
"She's right Jaden, there was no other way" said Bastion, "I could have found a way" said Jaden, "That's enough, Ms Rhodes would you please take Mr Thorn to the infirmary" said Crowler.
"Of course" said Alexis as she started to carry Robin with some difficulty, soon Atticus joined his sister and helped her to carry Robin away.
"As for the rest of us, we should sort things out here, Mr Yuki please put the Sacred beasts back where they belong" said Crowler, Jaden did as he was told, however he promised himself that he wouldn't be forgiving Robin for what he had do for a very long time.
