That chapter went a lot longer than I expected... I feel like long chapters will become a trend with this story because how much more enjoyment I have writting it compared to some of my other projects...
Thanks to CAD270895 and Starman 003 for being the first to both follow and favorite this story, with thanks going also to Zaconator and Zackis for favoriting it and to ThePLOThand for following.
Now a reponse to the review from last chapter!
ThePLOThand: What you said confuses me a bit because Destiny Gears was always supposed to be the sequal to Arc-Tracers and most likely my last main story with the Greysons in it. So even if there is a seventh YGO series and I choose to write a story about it, I'm most likely not going to include the Greysons in that one.
There is going to be more than just these three types of duels. For instance, I'm planning to introduce a new game called "Duel Warfare" in the next few chapters. I'm just not sure if it's going to be in Chapter 3 or somewhere after that.
And on the last comment about Evan... Well, I have to admit that he and Avice are the main reason why I think about changing this story's rating to M, but I will let you see for yourself first.
Before we start the chapter though, I wanted to point out something that I forgot on my last A/N. It's probably obvious, but story's name is "Tales of Light and Darkness" instead of "Tale of Light and Darkness" so it's going to have a more episodic approch to the smaller stories told in this fanfiction.
Evan leaned back against the old chair he was sitting onto with Avice right beside him and a metal table before them. He closed his eyes and focused, after getting caught be Security, the two of them were taken for interrogation and were put in this white room, which wasn't even soundproof. He could hear footsteps, several people running outside in a hurry along with some voices, but making out what they were saying was extremely hard with all the other sounds that came from outside the door. After taking it all in for a good minute, the boy opened his crimson eyes and looked back down to his wrist. The officers have done a good job putting handcuffs, they also took away his Wrist Dealer and deck, the latter of which could have made escaping from this facility easier than stealing sweets from a baby.
He sighed. This was the first time since he updated the AI of his D-Wheel that Security was able to catch him, thankfully not through defeating him in a duel as that would have made him want to commit suicide out of embarrassment.
Still, there was something off about how the Security behaved after managing to catch them. There existed something akin to a rule about officers not being allowed to confiscate a criminal's deck, unless it was connected to the crime committed. While it was true that he did use the deck to duel a Security officer, that wasn't viewed as a crime, so that leaded to two conclusions. Either the officers weren't following the protocol, or the so-called rumors about Valt Evernon were true to such a scale that even Security became to take away suspects' decks as security measures.
"Ah, such a bothersome experience." Evan thought out loud, catching his little sister's attention.
"They didn't even put us in a cell first, instead moved us straight to the interrogation room." Avice leaned her hands against the table in front of her and pouted. "Isn't it a little weird though. Valt Evernon has statically the highest amount of crime in the whole country, there must be a lot of cases for the Security to handle at the moment, and the hall which they moved us through was filled with suspects as well…"
"And yet they threw us into the interrogation room first, like we were top priority or something." Evan's 'this isn't exactly normal' senses were tingling, but his face didn't show to be worried about it. Perhaps, because he wasn't.
Neither was Avice. Overanalyzing things was something they tended to do on a regular basic when they faced a new situation. To them things that most other human beings would worry or be afraid about were irrelevant – emotionally hollow experiences as Avice would sometimes call them. Emotions such as fear were just the brain's response to a specific stimulus, or an expectation of a threat perceived as a risk to one's body or life. If one had enough experience, they could make their brain to ignore the perception of danger.
But in the end, it was all just the babbling of two fools, try to explain scientifically their own emotional hollowness. Such a pointless brain gymnastic…
Then, the metal door of the room opened and an officer walked inside. Unlike most other members of Security, who wore a pale grey uniform, the man that came into the room spotted a bluish-grey version of the outfit with a silver medal in the form of an up-pointing arrow was hanging from the left side of his chest. His hard facial features gave the man a look of extreme strictness. His hair was black and short in a military style haircut and his honey eyes were looking down at a folder that he carried around with himself.
"I'm Captain Denver." The man introduced himself before putting the folder on the table in front of the siblings. "I would say that it's nice to meet you, but I would be lying. Your names are Evan and Avice Greyson, correct?"
The siblings looked at each other and then back to the officer, nodding in response to the question. "Yes, that's us." Evan said.
"Your situation isn't a good one." Denver stated and opened the folder, which contained information about the two Greysons. "You are charged with speeding and resisting arrest, we tried to contact your parents, but there was no information about them in the database. Even what's written here about your birth place is rather… suspicious, so who are you two really?"
Avice scratched the back of her head. "What are you talking about? There's nothing shady about us I believe, no?" The girl leaned her head forward and reached out for the folder, taking it into her hands. "Our parents were never with us, so it comes as no surprise that you couldn't contact them. But look, there is actually a contact you can call right here!" The girl turned the folder toward Denver and pointed and a series of numbers that were written under 'Contacts'.
"The number written there has stopped existing four years ago." Denver sat down at the table, across from the siblings and crossed his arms. "We can't call your parents, but since you both are underage and according to the laws, you could get only a ticket for speeding unless you were actively endangering people's lives, so I will have to let you go soon."
At that, Evan's eyebrows knit. A Security officer wouldn't tell a suspect that they got nothing against them in such a simple manner. Captain Denver was going toward something else, so much was instantly clear to Evan, the way that he gave the siblings a folder that contained all of their information inside felt almost like he was handling them a key out of the situation. This gesture of kindness, if you could call a cop admitting their own powerlessness as anything but a white flag begging for peace, almost made Evan's lips raised up into a smug smirk.
"If there are no serious charges against us, then why did you take us in?" Evan asked the question directly. "Are you trying to slow our release as much as possible? Or was there something else that you wanted to speak with us about?"
"Yes, there's something I wanted to ask you." Denver nodded. "Are the decks we found on you… Your real decks?"
A deep sigh escaped Evan's mouth as he leaned back into the chair he was sitting onto. His eyes looked around the room while he thought about the question that the officer had just asked him. Why did it really matter if those were their real decks? In fact, he had heard many times in the news about Duelists who used more than one deck, so giving a correct answer to the question was hard. But more importantly that this little detail… How was Denver going to be sure that the provided answer was truth and not a lie? He wasn't a lie detector.
'So that's how it was?' Evan thought and turned his eyes to the metal table in front of him. The top surface, it was thicker than on most tables, the fact it was made from metal would also mean that it was very heavy. Why would the government waste money on something so troublesome to keep?
"You got a lie detector hidden somewhere in this room, don't you?" The sudden accusation caused Denver's eyes to widen.
"What makes you think that?" Denver asked sternly. His eyes focused on the table between him and the siblings. It looked completely normal, they couldn't have figured out that the detector was hidden inside…
"Come on, we are in the interrogation room." Avice pointed out. "I know that this doesn't exactly happen how the TV shows it, but you had bought everything we told you so far without questioning our answers or trying to pry any further. I mean, we could have easily lied to you about these decks, who knows, we might have stolen them from someone just before we got into the town. Saying 'yes' or 'no' is as easy as breathing, but the look on your face says that you trust us. So, you are either way too trustful, in which case you wouldn't have made a good Security Officer, or you don't have a reason to question us because you already know that this is the truth."
"I see…" Denver wasn't expecting that two kids would try to read so deep into such little details. "Then allow me to change the question. Why did you came to Valt Evernon? You are studying in one of the best schools the country has- Westview Advanced Secondary School, your D-Wheel isn't made from scrap either. It's plain obvious that you didn't came here to look for jobs."
That 'amused' Avice. Were they trying to outsmart each? Guess a security officer's pride wouldn't allow this man to accept that two 'kids' managed to read through his little tricks. She could really care less about the policeman's self-esteem, but since at the moment he was their only chance to become free, without having to stage a jailbreak. There was also that security took their D-Wheel, so once they escaped, the officers would just go after them and despite their experience and skills as duelists, and it would be just a matter of time, before she and her brother fell to sheer numbers.
In other words, playing along was the only real choice for long-term stability in this city.
"I'm making a wild guess with this, but I'm going to say that the reason why we came to Valt Evernon was the same, as to why you are so interested in our decks." Avice explained, having figured out the only possible reason why Denver might have asked them about the decks. "There are people playing Duel Monsters, who after duels leave their opponents in a state of coma, right? How many of your colleagues have you buried so far, Mr. Officer?"
Avice looked at the security officer - pupil constriction, raised eyebrows, open eyelids that expose the white sclera above and below the iris, all these details were a sort-of non-verbal response to surprise. She shouldn't have expected anything else though, who wouldn't be surprised when a little girl, which they met for the first time in their life, knew so much about the police case on which they were working?
"Ho- How do you know about that?" Denver asked. "This case wasn't disclosed to the public, only the government knows the details about it."
"Given the specifics of this case, I believe that Swords of Nine Stars came in contact with you, correct?" Evan asked.
Swords of Nine Stars was an organization whose members were the nine most influential Government Representatives, its existence is a secret for the general public and those who were associated with it know only that this group deals with the most dangerous and un-logical crises of the country. But the darker truth that none of these people realize was that Swords of Nine Stars acts more as a cult dedicated to researching evil spiritual forces and finding new forms of life.
They are responsible for many of the worst cases of manslaughter that the country had to face in the last few decades, but none of the other governmental organizations was able to make a connection, giving them the reputation of an all-powerful organization that controls all spheres of the government and public life of this country.
"Yes, I got a call from them." Denver nodded. There was no point in trying to hide it, they already knew so much about it. "This might the most stupid thing ever, but are you two actually agents of Swords of Nine Stars?"
"That's really a stupid thing." Avice sighed and leaned back into her chair.
"Swords of Nine Stars isn't going to help you out, so don't bet your hope on them." Evan stated and stood up from his chair, his crimson eyes staring down at the security officer who. "Their reputation as peacekeepers is just for show, the reality is that when it comes to cases like this one, they prefer to let things happen and just research the result of the crime. Was it successful? If not, why did it fail; and so on."
It was truly laughable that the organization was believed to be a protector of the people. Swords of Nine Stars was just a subdivision of the States' government organization 'REVISION' and the non-government Japanese group called 'Research Nine'.
"Who are you two then?" Denver asked. If they weren't connected to Swords of Nine Stars, then who the heck were these kids? And more importantly than that, how did they know so much? Worst of all was that the detector didn't recognize a lie in their words, which meant that everything the Greysons were telling him was truth. Or at least, they believed it to be so.
"You have most likely not heard about a group named CATHARSIS, have you?" Evan asked. He stepped toward the wall with his back toward Denver and continued. "Don't feel bad if you haven't heard about us, we aren't a government organization, or, an organization at all. We are a non-governmental group whose specialty are the kind of cases that your Security department is struggling against. What I'm going to tell you next might sound crazy, even delusional, but your men weren't exposed to a new form of poison or a chemical that causes death without leaving traces behind itself. The victims of these attacks have lost their souls."
"What?" Denver's eyes widened. "What kind of nonsense is that? Lost their souls?"
Evan glanced back at the officer. "Well, I told you that it might sound crazy."
"Given that you put all of your fate in a cult that loves black magic, I don't see why you might have trouble believing what we told you." Avice sighed. "Really now, you should think about what choices you have. Even if Nine Stars send someone to research this incident, how long will it take them to do so? Definitely move than a week. On the other hand, I and my brother are already here and ready to help you solve this crime, if the long-term survival of your men is your mine priority, then the choice would be obvious."
Denver hated to admit it, but Avice did have a point there. Even if what they said about Swords of Nine Stars being a cult was a lie, it would take time for the organization to displace an agent and by then many other inhabitants of the town might follow the same fate. The siblings were going to be let free after this interrogation either way, so the best choice he had at the moment was to trust their word and allow them to investigate the crime. At least they didn't have any parents to whom he would have to explain if things went sour.
"Very well, I will take you for your word." Denver nodded and stood up from his chair to move next to the door. "But I can't give you any support in your investigation, so you two will have to work on it on your own."
"That's even better." Evan nodded. After all, these were Security Officers, they were trained to deal with normal crimes, not supernatural forces – they were only going to get in the way. "All that we're going to need are our Duel Disks with the decks and my D-Wheel."
"Of course." Denver agreed. "But first, let remove the handcuffs."
"We should have probably taken a lantern with us." Avice commented, stretching out her, now free, arms while Evan followed behind her, pushing his D-Wheel.
After they were freed, the Security officers gave them back all of their belongings and let them leave the station. Unfortunately this town didn't have any hotels, and in order to be allowed to use a room, you had to be working in one of the multiple factories, so they would have to life in one of the half-collapsed buildings. This wasn't the first time that the siblings have traveled to another town, but all others places that they visited had a motel at the very least.
"That officer was really desperate to stop these attacks." Avice commented again and turned back to her brother. Only a man at the verge of despair would be willing to let children investigate such a dangerous case. At least Avice would give him credit for the desire to protect his own men from the danger that the captain displayed.
"A human's desperation can be a powerful tool." Evan pointed out. "The more desperate they are, the more willingly they submit."
"Should we look for someone to ask about directions?" Avice asked. Of course, that wasn't a necessary, they had no real end goal to look for, and so anywhere they went would be the same. What the siblings needed was information about the attackers, where they attack, are there any connections between their victims and so on. Of course, they could have asked the Security to give them this information, but when Denver told them 'I can't give you any support in your investigation' he was referring exactly to that – the Greysons couldn't use Security's resources.
But there were more than one way to learn about the crime. Currently it was time for lunch break, and Evan focused his attention on the people that walked out of the factories to rest for a bit before returning back to the poisonous atmosphere inside those four walls. Most of them were sitting in small groups or alone, eating a piece of bread and carrot puree.
At average, most workers were in their late twenties, early thirties, people who failed to build a successful career and out of desperation moved to work at this town. Despite what the laws said, there were also many children in these factories, their age varied from eighteen to twelve. Those were the ones whom you could ask for information. Naturally, children were immature, they enjoyed mysteries so they would be more willing to talk about it that adults.
"Target spotted?" Evan looked down at his sister after she asked him. He didn't respond immediately, looking at the children. The older ones, at the age of sixteen to eighteen would be smarter and ask for some big amount of money to talk, while the information they sold wasn't always accurate or useful. It was the younger children, at the age of twelve or thirteen that could be tricked most easily, even used as spies, if paid a good amount of money.
"How about on ten o'clock with the black hair?" Avice asked.
"The eleven years old?" Evan asked back and his sister nodded to confirm. "He isn't as dirty as the others, obviously he is still new to the factory work. Probably got moved here in the last week or so."
"That's not long enough to know anything significant." Avice sighed. While they didn't know the exact period of time through which these attacks have occurred, she could tell that at least a month or two have passed since it started. Otherwise the Nine Stars wouldn't have paid any attention to it.
"Little children don't have the most accurate information either, so we must keep that in mind as well." Evan just reminded Avice about that fact. Despite their labor being cheaper, kids often liked to add 'colors' to stories by adding their own imaginary elements. Thankfully, all that the siblings needed were the locations of the attacks and not details about it.
"Hey, you there!" a voice called out.
The siblings turned back and looked up toward the second floor on an abandoned hotel. Its windows were all, either broken, or stolen and sold out somewhere. Standing there, with one hand gripping the frame to keep her from falling, was a girl with long dark green hair the fell to her lower back. Her warm blue eyes looked down at them with a strange kindness that was completely new for the Greysons. People they have been at places such as this, often had cold eyes, looking at which was like looking at a black hole for the siblings.
The girl leaned forward, her entire upper body hanging from the window, giving them a better look at her. The girl was wearing a dark blue jumpsuit that had a single red stripe going down the middle. On her left arm was a rather heavy-looking circular Duel Disk attached to a Wrist Dealer. It was a model made to be portable with a D-Wheel, Evan silently observed.
"Is that a HDS-48x model D-Wheel?" The girl asked loudly.
Evan narrowed his eyes a little and glanced back at his D-Wheel, before turning back to the girl. The jumpsuit and Duel Disk that she was using showed that the girl was, most likely, a D-Wheeler. But the HDS-48x model models were very close in appearance to most other D-Wheels in appearance, so it wouldn't be easy to recognize one.
"Halfway there." Evan replied. "This is a hybrid model with an Atlas One engine, but its appearance is a lot like that of regular Forty Eight model, so it's easy to mess it up."
"Ooooooh…" The girl's eyes widened in excitement and she leaned even further. "I thought that it looked a bit asymmetrical, but it's because the Atlas One engine is two inches wider than the Forty Eight's engine. If it's not a secret, how much is your D-Wheel able to reach?"
"One hundred and eighty seven miles per hour." Evan crossed his arms. He couldn't tell why the girl was asking him that, nor why she hadn't left yet. Everyone else returned back to the factories to work, only she remained outside.
"Heh, who made your D-Wheel?" The girl chuckled. That made Evan smile as well, the 48x was one of the fastest D-Wheels out there and with the Atlas One engine in addition to that, its maximal speed should be around 210 mph, but he was never able to fix its underperforming, no matter how much he tried.
"I tuned it myself." Evan stated. "I tried to fix it and even drove it to several well-known engineers, but none of them was able to figure out the problem."
"It's a challenge then." The girl pulled herself away from the window and then pointed at the left. "There are several garages behind the hotel, if you are trustful enough, I might give it a look myself."
Ah, what a warm proposal. How could they turn it down and miss the chance of walking into an ambush? Well, maybe if they beat everyone, they would be able to ask some questions. With that in mind, they began to push the D-Wheel toward the location that this strange girl told them. Avice pulled her white and green Duel Disk, put it on her wrist, and began to walk ahead of her brother who followed from behind with a blank expression.
But much to their surprise, no one came after them. They reached the garages without a single soul showing up. It was only them, and the girl from before who waved at them while standing next to the fourth garage door, a blue one with yellow graffiti painted all over it. So she was genuine about trying to fix the D-Wheel? The fact that it wasn't some sort of trick surprised the siblings, was she planning to ask them for a lot of money, or was she just that naïve and well-meaning? It could be either, but her big smile and energetic nature was somewhat disarming for the siblings. When traveling they always had to be on guard for muggers and crooks in general, but this one had a friendly aura that just couldn't be fake.
"We didn't get to know each other's name. I'm Fujiko." The girl introduced herself and reached out for a handshake that Avice accepted.
"My name is Avice Greyson." The young Greyson said before gesturing toward her brother. "This here is my brother, Evan Greyson."
"I have to say, I didn't expect to find a free repair shop in this town." Evan muttered, pushing the D-Wheel next to the door.
"Well, I guess that I'm not feeding myself out of this, but still…" Fujiko ran a hand through her hair. Despite her working other things to make a living, she would be very thankful if they gave her some money for the service.
"Where is your D-Wheel?" Evan asked, thought, as soon as he finished that sentence, Fujiko tilted her head to the side in confusion. That alone was enough to give a definitive answer to the question. "You don't have one, huh? I'm surprised, given the clothes that you wear and this Duel Disk, I expected you to have something to put them in use with."
"It's a long story." Fujiko waved the commented off and kneeled in front of Evan's D-Wheel. "You two aren't from around here, I can tell by your clothes, and the fact that you got such a rare and expensive engine on your D-Wheel."
Funny, that Security captain whose name they already forgot told them something similar. If their visit to Valt Evernon was looked at from a third point of view, it really didn't make sense for them to come here. This was, after all, the town of the desperate, a place where those who failed in life could fine some sort of purpose and a way to sustain themselves in these hard times. It didn't make much sense for anyone to come and visit this town otherwise, it didn't have a value as a tourist attraction either.
"We were going on a small excursion for the weekend, and it just so happened that we ended up in this town for a small break." Evan explained. "I heard that some horrible things happened, so we plan to leave as soon as possible."
"Ah, so word about the incidents did spread to other towns after all?" Fujiko muttered and Evan looked at her. It seemed that the focus of her attention was the D-Wheel, but she still listened to what was being talked about. "Honestly, if I had a D-Wheel on my own and place to go, I would have left this town a long time ago."
"Oh?" So she wanted to earn freedom, how cute. With soul stealers running around no one would want to stay around this town, even if this was the only place where they could earn money. But, like Evan said before - a human's desperation can be a powerful tool. If he offered her something she was desperate for, in exchange for her help, there was no way that this Fujiko girl would decline.
First, however, he needed to make sure that she had something to exchange, to make their deal a fair one.
"Do you know by a chance anything about the incidents?" Evan asked.
"Not much, Security covers everything up. If you ask me, I think that they might be involved in all of this." Fujiko sighed and stood back up. "I figured out why your D-Wheel is unable to reach its maximal speed. By the way, did you ever try to get over one hundred and twenty miles?"
"I never had the need to, why?" Evan had the feeling that she wasn't asking just out of curiosity.
"Because if you did, you might have lost your front fork while riding." Fujiko pointed at the fork. "The screws are defective. Good enough if you drive within the speed limits, but try to be a speedster and next time you are going to wake up, either in the hospital, or…"
"Could you fix it?" changing the screws won't be hard, but finding actual spare parts will create some difficulties.
"I could. It will take me a few hours to get the parts, but everything here can easily be fixed." Fujiko stood up and opened the doors of the garage.
The siblings stepped back a bit to get a good look of the inside, there was some dried out oil on the ground and a small wooden table with instruments on it. No lamp or other source of light, which meant that people were able to work there only during the day. As Fujiko began to push the D-Wheel inside, Evan stepped after her and looked around the place. He ran a finger through the surface of the table, leaving a trace behind – the place was covered in dust, which, along with the dried out oil on the ground told him that this garage wasn't used often, probably once a year, if not less.
"If there are any shops selling spare parts, we could get them for you." Avice suggested. Since she was going to try and fix their only transport, getting the parts needed was the least that they could do for her.
"There are no such shops in the town." Fujiko shook her head. This place would have been a paradise if it had shops for anything.
The companies whose factories work inside this town make sure to give their workers food and life necessaries instead of a certain amount of their payment. Some people thought that this was a blessing, but most realized that the payment for the transportation of those products was coming from their paychecks.
"The factories in the city are very careful with their production and keep tabs on how much is being produced." Fujiko turned her back to the siblings. "Everything that is built in there gets accounted for, expect for the spare parts. All factories that produce something made from metal parts have a storage with spare parts, in case something breaks of a defective product is made. Since it would be too much of a bother to count all the spare parts, and keep tabs on everyone who takes them, the factories don't bother that much. It's actually not hard to sneak up and steal some."
"So, I take it that you have worked in the factories as well?" Avice asked. That not only made sense, but it also shone light upon the entire mystery.
"I still do, from time to time." Fujiko replied and looked away, gripping her left hand with the right one, a gesture that the siblings didn't miss. "Truth is, I came here with my father after his previous work messed up. It happened about seven years ago, back when I was just twelve. Unfortunately, his body was never very durable and the toxic air of this town killed him two years ago."
"Sorry for your lost." Both Evan and Avice muttered in unison. Too bad, they could never truly sympathize with Fujiko when it came to such tragic ends. The reason for that were many, but mainly it was because they never had any family in the first place. Fuller was the closes that the three Greyson had to a parent figure in their lives, but they always knew that he would die soon, they never bothered to care about him.
"I should be the one apologizing for bothering you with the story of my life." Fujiko laughed it off and forced herself to smile again. "If that is be everything, I will go get the parts right now."
Fujiko was in a hurry to get away from people, the siblings figured that out momentarily. She wanted to find something to vent her sadness onto and neither Evan, nor Avice, wanted to have anything to do with that. If they knew that the girl would start remembering sad memories and cry, Evan would have fixed the D-Wheel by himself. Sadly, there wasn't a way for them to see that one coming. Neither of them said anything else, nothing came to their mind, so the three just stood there in silence for a few moments until Fujiko finally ran toward the exit.
Unfortunately for her, Evan grabbed her arm before she could get out of the garage. Her warm blue eyes meet with his blank red ones, she wanted to pull her arm away, or say something about how this wasn't appropriate, but she just couldn't do that, for some reason. Maybe it was because she thought that he, a stranger she met not more than fifteen minutes ago, wanted to comfort her pain, or something like that, but she just couldn't gather the will to pull away from his arm.
On the other side, Evan wasn't very proud with this deed, he just pried, to whatever supernatural power was that looked over him, that this girl wasn't going to start crying on his shoulder. Damn it! The only reason he pulled her was because there was one more question that he needed an answer to before leaving, but his mind realized that facing her with such a question after an emotional moment was the most stupid thing one could do.
"About your payment…" Because directly asking her the question would only make him look like a complete douchebag, he was going to use a more indirect approach. "How about we make a deal?"
"A deal?" Fujiko repeated. Just after she told them about her father, he was going to try and bargain for his D-Wheel? Seriously?
"It's more of an agreement with mainly benefits for you." Evan corrected himself a tad too late. Nevertheless, the girl nodded, willing to listen about that so called 'deal' or 'agreement' of his. "When we told you that we are going on a small vacation, that was a lie. We came to this city to finish a job and thanks for your help toward us, I would like to suggest you a way out of this town. We had pretty big house at Easthaven that could use a few more residents. We can help you start a business there as well, have a normal life that your father definitely wanted you to have."
This time he went too far. Evan knew himself well enough, he was a complete fool, but also, a dreadful person. Only someone awful would use a girl's desperation to get free as a bargain chip. Only someone without morals would burden her with such a deal when she was most vulnerable and acting based on emotions. Only a shameless person would use the memories of her deceased father to trick her into accepting that offer. And finally, only a monster would do all of these things without feeling even a tiny bit of guilt over these horrible actions.
"Freedom…" As expected, Fujiko actually thought about it. "In return for my help, you are going to help me start a normal life? Is what I'm doing for you really that important?"
No – would be the honest answer in that situation, but who said that honesty always won people over? If she truly had skills as an engineer, it would be a waste to let her root in this shithole for the rest of her life. Despite how he worded it, Evan had no plans to give her true freedom. Giving her something that expensive for fixing a single D-Wheel? Laughable. If Fujiko accepted that offer, she will become his property, a skilled engineer that works for free and owns him her life, that latter part would be a constant reminder for her and a way to keep her in check. From being a prisoner to town, she was going to turn into a slave of her own desire for freedom, quite the ironic twist of fate.
"You have no idea how important what you are doing for us is." Evan replied and took her hand into his own. Her current work was meaningless, but what she could do for them in the future? That was worth a lot and all of it would come to him for free. "So, will you accept?"
"Well, you were honest when you said that agreeing on this would benefit me the most." Fujiko muttered and looked away in embarrassment. Sadly, she had no idea how wrong she was about the benefits of the offer. "My dad would probably want the best for me as well, so, I agree."
Despite agreeing, Evan could sense that Fujiko was still emotionally conflicted. Perhaps, she was still sulking for her death father? Perhaps he should have thought things through before making that offer to her, it would be troublesome if she let her emotion get in the way of work.
"W-well then, I will be going. Please, close the door if you leave the garage." Fujiko muttered and tried to pull her arm away from Evan. This time, he let go of her, something that not only surprised Fujiko, but disappointed her as well. She couldn't explain why, but she was hoping that he wouldn't let her go.
Without saying anything more, Fujiko walked away. Avice looked after the older girl, while she slowly disappeared behind the collapsed buildings. Evan on the other hand walked over to his D-Wheel and removed the Duel Disk from his Wrist Dealer. He didn't trust Fujiko, a human's desperation could be a powerful bargain chip, but it could also turn them into a wildcard. There was no guarantee that she was going to wait for them, instead of stealing the D-Wheel, to free herself.
That would be a good time to test the girl's morality.
Clicking a button on the side of his Wrist Dealer, Evan detached the Duel Disk and then put it on top of his D-Wheel, connecting them together. Now Fujiko would have both the vehicle and something to protect herself with if she choose to steal Evan's belongings. But how far was she going to get?
"Kitty!" Evan shouted and momentarily the spirit of his Link Monster, ChronoDevil Time Tamer Kitty appeared in front of him, bowing to her master. He never had to worry about calling out his monsters outside duels, since only humans with affinity to the spirit realm were able to see them, as long as he didn't give them enough dark energy to materialize their physical form, no one but Avice would know that a conversation happened.
"What is your order, master?" the spirit asked, bowing politely to her owner. Her eyes perked and the tail cat swung lively behind her as she waited to hear Evan's desire.
"I'm leaving you all to protect my D-Wheel." Evan stated and gestured at the vehicle. "If anyone expect the girl from before tries to steal either the D-Wheel or my Duel Disk, kill them. If the girl tries to steal the Duel Disk, scare her. If she tries to steal the D-Wheel, kill her. I don't care about the methods you use to protect what rightfully belongs to your master."
"Your orders will be followed to the letter, master." Kitty confirmed, trying to hide away her smile.
Unlike what many stories said in the past, humanity and the spirit realm didn't have a friendly relationship. There were expectations, but most often the two species were either neutral toward each other, or outright wanted to destroy each other. The ChronoDevils' clan failed into the latter category. Despite that, as an army, the devils of darkness had an extreme sense of honor, and would follow a brilliant leader without a question, even if it was a human. Because of that Kitty, and practically all of the spirits that lived inside Evan's deck, didn't know a bigger gift than the ability to serve their rightful owner, and leader.
And now, the ChronoDevils all hoped for a few fools to show up and try steal something from the garage, so they could kill them. No one would really care about these mortals for too long anyway, and they will also be able to eat the death fools souls afterward. There were only a few orders that could be better than that, but there was no chance for Evan to order them to destroy the entire town, was there?
"You should have ordered them to get rid of the corpses afterward, but perhaps your spirits are smart enough to know that this is a given." Avice commented, crossing her arms. Unlike her brother's spirits though, her Astral Angels acted more like machines and never bothered putting more energy in their tasks than necessary; because of that she always had to give them super detailed explanations. Such lousy servants they were.
"Since I'm going to be diskless for the rest of the day, I'll have to depend on your. Will that be ok?" Evan asked, stepping toward the door of the garage, next to his sister.
"It won't be a problem, even better, this means that you won't be able to leave my side for the rest of the day." Avice stuck her tongue out at Evan playfully, earning herself a few pats on the hair. "Also, that girl from before was clinging on you a bit too much for my likings. How sad must someone be to get attracted toward you, like toward a magnet?"
Evan looked down at his hand and clenched it into a fist. "She must be sorrowing deeply for her father, that's the only way I can explain why her emotions got linked so strongly to my negative affinity." If Fujiko's sadness was only superficial, Evan's negative affinity would have been able to absorb it all in a short period of time, to the point where she won't even remember why she was sad in the first place.
"Why did you have to be the one who inherited this curse?" Avice asked a question that, surprisingly, neither she, nor her brother, had an answer to. "If you had my positive affinity instead the negative you, I'm sure that your life wouldn't have been so miserable, brother."
"Nonsense." Evan replied and grabbed onto the door of the garage to close it. "There is nothing worse for a brother than to see his sisters being miserable. If I didn't get the negative affinity, then that would have been either you or Elizabeth."
Avice stayed silent, she didn't have anything to respond with. Of course, she didn't want to be the one stuck with the negative affinity, and a part of her didn't want Elizabeth to become its victim either, but as a sister, she just couldn't help but feel bad for her brother's fate.
"Anyways," Evan groaned, slamming the garage door closed. "We have almost figured out this mystery, there are just a few things that we need to research. If you call Roxy and Levant to do it for us, we won't have to waste our time with pointless details."
"That won't be a problem." Avice nodded and took her own Duel Disk, which was attached to the back of her belt until that moment. "What do you want them to look into?"
"I want Levant to try and find information about the spots where all of the attacks took place." Evan looked ahead to the huge cloud of smoke that raised above the factories. "As for Proxy, I want her to try and find as much information about Valt Evernon's infrastructure. Any old maps of the town, articles mentioning it, everything that holds even a bit of information about this place will be useful. This case will be resolved tonight."
"Understood." Avice nodded. "To be more exact, we are looking for underground tunnels and constructions, right? It was obvious that the collapsed tunnel you dueled into wasn't destroyed by Mother Nature. Someone collapsed it from the inside, sealing the place."
"Nothing escapes your sight as always." Evan chuckled and turned around, putting the hood of his jacket over his head. Immediately after he did that, Avice followed suit and gave him a nod to confirm that she was ready. The two of them ran off toward the place where the Turbo Duel took place.
After the long day that started with running from Security, getting put in jail and then talking to a wannabe engineer, it was already 7:45 PM, when Evan and Avice were finally able to do some proper investigation.
As the two of them walked into the tunnel, they found that darkness had already covered the interior of the structure, but that wasn't going to be too much of a problem for them. Pulling out her Duel Disk, Avice activated its green energy blade, creating some light that would help them get around the place without losing themselves, or slam face first into a wall. The two of them made their way to the collapsed area. Like they had thought previously, there was no way through, the wreckage had sealed the rest of the tunnel completely and the only way to get past it would be if a team with special equipment removed the wreckage first.
But there was something that caught Avice's attention. She kneeled down and found traces of a motorbike's wheel that must have left an imprint either when the rider took off or when they suddenly hit the brakes. Either way, the fact that it was still visible meant that it must have happened not too long ago and the imprint continued under the wreckage, which further proved that the tunnel had collapsed not more than two weeks ago.
"It definitely wasn't an explosion and I don't know what equipment could allow them to both collapse the tunnel, and then carry it away on a D-Wheel." Evan said simply. "Unless…"
"They used Duel Monsters." Avice finished the sentence for her brother. "One or two huge dragons would be able to get this thing down with zero effort."
As she said that, Avice's Duel Disk began to ring. The young Greyson looked over at it before handing it over to Evan, who gave it a look as well. The words 'Incoming Call: Levant' were written over the screen. Pressing the 'Accept Call' button, Evan moved the Duel Disk closer to his ear, while Avice stood nearby to hear what this was all about.
"I was starting to get worried that you will leaves us empty-handed." Evan immediately said, before the person on the other line could say a word. "Did you get anything?"
"I was able to get some more detailed information about the incidents." Levant answered. "I'm not sure what I was supposed to look for, though."
"Could you confirm that none of the attacks happened around the living quarters of the town?" Evan asked.
"Yeah I can… But why would they attack during midnight at places where normal civilians aren't likely to appear, at that time of the day?"
"What about the last incident? Can you give me a place where it happened?" That could be it. The last lead that would get them straight to the cause of all the attacks.
"Officially, the last incident happened when the Security forces tried to create an ambush for the attackers." Levant began to explain. "According to this, it happened at District Seven A and more specifically, on the subways in area Q-STAH-Seven-One-Three. I had to ask a friend to break into their servers for this information, so that's all I can tell you about the incident."
"That's all that we needed. You can come visit us at the mansion tomorrow around lunchtime to praise our detective skills." With that said, Evan pressed the 'End Call' button and handled the Duel Disk back to Avice. "Our new destination are the subways at District Seven A."
"And we got to walk all the way there on foot." Avice sighed. She already regretted that they left her brother's D-Wheel for repairs. "Though we got only four hours until midnight, so we better hurry up."
Evan had to agree with his sister. All of the previous attacks took place around, or after midnight, so it was expected for the next one to happen around that time as well. Only thing they weren't sure about was, if there would be an attack during tonight at all. The criminals didn't appear to have a schedule about the days of their raids.
"This whole thing is starting to suck." Avice sulked, already tired of all the walking they had to do for one day.
"Stop whining like a little bitch." Avice pouted at her brother's retort and turned to face away from him. Evan eyed her from the corner of his eyes, but said nothing.
It was already getting well past 9 PM and the two of them were walking through some more tunnels located under the city. It was a good thing that they asked Roxy to look up information about the town, since she was able to provide them with old maps for the subways and various other tunnels that were meant to be built before Valt Evernon got repurposed into… whatever the current Valt Evernon was supposed to be. Like with the previous tunnel, they found that many of the tunnels of the subways were collapsed as well, probably the same way as well. That caused the siblings to change their route many times. It was unmistakable that somebody was trying to keep outsides away.
But no matter how much they might try to hide what's on the other side of the tunnels, the Greysons knew that there was still at least one path that wasn't destroyed yet. The reason why they believed so? Because the tunnels were the best way to get away from Security when you are being chased. That was the reason why these attackers were never caught and that meant that they must have made their own, secret pathway.
After around an hour or more, they finally reached something. It was a small open area that connected to the rest of the tunnels. The siblings concluded that this must have been one of the spots, where the builders that worked on the tunnels and subways took breaks before the projects were cancelled, and Valt Evernon turned into a huge industrial area. Using the faint light of Avice's Duel Disk, the two of them looked around and found something strange.
There was a lamp hanging from the ceiling with its cables reaching the ground below, where they lied next to a three way movable trailing electrical socket. All of that was new technology as well, but no one should have visited that place in the last thirty-five years.
So that was where the fugitives hidden from Security during the day. Evan put the plug into one of the socket and the lamp immediately lighted the entire room. The area was mostly empty with only two sleeping bags at the corner and a small table in the center - Jackpot.
The siblings began to look through the 'room' for any clues as to where their targets were, or what they were up to. Evan thoughtfully scanned every inch of the area, finding an empty jar lying on the ground, next to the table's leg. Under closer inspection, he was able to deduce that it was used to store carrot puree. From what limited knowledge he had about this town, carrot puree seemed to be the main food that factories gave out to their workers. With that in mind, he continued to look for clues, it didn't take him long to find another lead either.
"There are ashes here." Avice looked at the black substance. "They must have burned something here earlier. Seems like paper, probably a message of some sort?"
"So someone else supported them from the outside?" Evan wasn't surprised to hear that. The ashes, the empty jar of carrot puree and what Fujiko told them earlier about the factories management – all of these pieces were coming together.
"Probably from outside the town as well." Avice deduced. From the look of it, they were going after the goons, not the mastermind. "If they used paper messages as a mean of communication instead of the communication system installed every Duel Disk, these people must be afraid of being spied upon. But there is no post office in this town, so someone must have come all the way to here in order to deliver the message."
"This place has been cleared recently, which means that tonight is most likely going to be their last hit." Of course, after getting the last part, they were going to depart from the town, using the unfinished tunnels as a way to get away. Since all but one of the entrances leading toward this spot were collapsed, it would take months, even years for Security to find out that this was their hideout. That was, if anyone in the Security even looked at the maps of the subway plans, but judging by how they were unable to figure out anything yet, that wasn't going to be the case.
"There is no time to waste then." Avice replied and walked over to the contact, pulling the plug out of the socket, covering the two of them in complete darkness. Since their sleeping bags and personal belongings were still there, the fugitives were most likely going to show up at the place one last time…
"Suspect was located in district Five V!" Denver sighed at the report, it was the same thing as two days ago.
No matter how hard they tried, how many of their comrades fell in the fight, they were never able to catch the criminals responsible for these attacks. The police officer made a gesture for his men to follow him. Despite how hopeless their situation was, despite the officers that he lost in the past few months, he just couldn't give up on the chase either.
The familiar sound of police sirens echoed through the empty streets once more with three police cards and several Security officers on D-Wheels began yet another chase with the infamous criminals.
The black D-Wheel didn't seem intimidated by its chasers, in fact, the rider wasn't trying to outrun the officers at all, something that confused Denver to no end. Were they trying to provoke the officers by driving just fast enough not to get caught? No, there was no time to think like that. Taking a deep breath, Denver pulled out his gun and aimed at the back of the D-Wheeler through the open window of the police car. His finger pressed against the trigger, when a sudden realization caught up with the captain.
The black D-Wheel had lead them toward district Seven A, the place of the failed ambush. It was a trap! Denver prepared to shot the D-Wheeler as soon as possible and end this before things could get any further, but he was already too late. Driving off the wrecked road, the black D-Wheel jumped into the air, toward the hole that Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord created two days ago. At that moment, the D-Wheeler put a card on his Duel Disk's blade and Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon flew behind him, roaring at the chasers.
"Stop! Stop!" Denver yelled at the driver, while the large undead monster opened its mouth and fired purple flames toward them. The fire, merged with dark magic, engulfed the entire Security force that followed the black D-Wheel, limiting the vision of the drivers while the cries of the unprotected Duel Chasers echoed through the abandoned streets. Unable to see anything at all, the driver was forced to hit the brakes and come to an absurd stop, feeling something slam against the back of the car.
"Fuck!" Denver cursed and kicked the door open, jumping outside. He looked back at his forces, all of the cars had crashed into one another while the Duel Chasers lied unmoving not too far away from the rest.
"Sir!" Denver turned toward his driver, who spoke up. "What should we do now?"
"Give up on the chase and call a medic team for the wounded!" Denver ordered him, before turning toward the other officers who were still able to do their duties. "Don't just stand there! Your colleagues might be in serious pain, help them out!"
The officers all nodded and ran back to help the fallen Duel Chasers, Denver's driver returned into the car to call for backup, leaving the Security captain to stand alone. What more could he do? No one that he called for help was willing to give it, none of the other Security stations in the region were willing to send reinforcements and there was no reply from the Swords of Nine Stars either. Although Denver didn't want to admit it, he felt so miserable, so weak and useless at the moment, that all of his remaining faith was in two kids, and his hope that they, somehow, would be able to overcome what he and his men were powerless against.
"I'm a fool." Being so desperate and hopeless that to seek help from children? Where was his mind?
"Look out!" the sudden yelling from one of his fellow officers snapped Denver back to reality. The Security captain turned toward where the Duel Chasers were lying, only to see two of his men crawling away as one of the Duel Chasers had grabbed an officer by the neck and was holding him above the ground.
"Stand down!" Denver ordered the Duel Chaser, but the man didn't even recognize his presence. "Put him down!" After a few moments the Security officer's legs stopped kicking and the Chaser threw the limp corpse away before turning to face the others. At that time, Denver was something that greatly disturbed him.
The Duel Chaser's eyes were covered by a purple mist. Noticing that there were still officers left, the possessed began to slowly walk toward them.
"Stand where you are! Don't make me shot you!" Denver shouted, aiming his gun at the approaching officer. He was really going to do it!
But then, he heard more noise coming from behind the approaching Duel Chaser. The other fallen officers, including the one that was strangled to death a few moments ago, were starting to stand up again. Eyes covered by the same purple mist, the bodies began to slowly approach toward the small group of survivors. How? How was Denver supposed to stop the men that he swore to protect?
"That was the last hit in our carrier!"
"That's nothing! Once we get out of here, we will become legends in the criminal world!"
Evan closed his eyes and listened to the voices below him. A black D-Wheel had stopped inside the dark tunnels under his hiding spot, and from what he could make out from their conversation, those were the criminals that the Security officers had so much trouble with. At least they turned the lights back on, giving him a chance to take a better look at them. Both duelists appeared to be in their late twenties, early thirties, wearing leather pants and jackets. By their builds and heights, he could tell that both duelists were males, but because of the helmets, he couldn't make out their facial features.
The only reason why he hadn't jumped on them yet was because he hoped that they would say something, give him a hint about who pulled the strings, but no such luck. All they were saying was how much money these incidents were going to get them once they escaped from the town.
"So you are the rats that I traveled here to take care off." Completely not following the plan, Avice stepped out of her hiding spot, revealing her presence to the henchmen. "I was expecting for something mildly entertaining, like a cult toward death gods or something. But you two ended up being just some foolish lawbreakers."
The men looked at each other confused. They had no idea where that girl came from, nor what she was talking about, but she was a witness and they couldn't let that slide.
"You choose to mess with the wrong people." One of the men said and pulled a knife from his jacket.
"Wow, you even sound like Saturday morning cartoon villains." Avice smirked a little to herself. "Heads up, chimps!"
"I'm not going to fall for-" Before the man could finish, the back of his head was met with the heel of a black and red boot, striking straight onto his head, causing the man to lost balance and fall face first into the concrete. The visor on his helmet cracked under the pressure, while Evan landed on the ground and flipped a few times to gain some ground between himself and the criminals, stopping once he was next to his sister.
"In the end, all of the Action Duels I participated into did pay off, huh?" Evan commented, pushing his sister on the shoulder.
Avice shook her head unimpressed by her brother's entrance. "Let's speak business. I and my brother here came to make a deal with the two of you. See, if you surrender right now, tell us the content of the paper that you burned and then beg for your lives, we might let you live."
"How about a different time of deal?" the second henchman asked, drawing his Duel Disk. "I will deal with these two brats, wait for me under district Thirteen A, got it?"
The first henchman groaned, standing back up. There was a bit of blood dripping from his lower lip, a wound that he received as a result of Evan kicking his head into the concrete ground below. He looked up at his partner and nodded in agreement, there was no need for both of them to waste any more time there. Putting his knife back into the leather jacket, the man jumped on his D-Wheel and drove into one of the tunnels, disappearing behind the curtain of darkness.
"Avice." Evan said simply.
"Take the tunnel on the right, go left, right, right, left, right, left and you will know the rest." Evan followed his sister's instructions and ran into the tunnel on his right, leaving Avice to deal with the second henchman.
"So I'm going to fight a little girl?" the henchman chuckled to himself, that was going to be way too easy for him.
"I don't expect a parasite like you to put too much of a fight, but at least try to entertain me." Avice sighed and put on her Duel Disk. "I just have to warm you that once we start, no amount of being will be enough to save you from the fate you choose."
"We are going to see who's going to beg at the end of this!" the henchman shot back, activating the yellow blade of his black Duel Disk.
"You believe that you can kill me? I'd like to see you try." Avice's smirk grew wider and two beams of light shot from her back, transforming into wings.
"What the?" The henchman gasped and took a step back. This girl, she just grew wings like some sort of angel?!
"Let's head the lullaby of your dying soul!" Avice shouted and threw her left arm upward, the green blade of her Duel Disk coming to life.
"DUEL!"
『Henchman LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Avice LP: 4000 Hand: 5』
"The first move goes to me!" Avice declared and took a card from her hand, playing it immediately. "I Normal Summon Astral Angel Wächter!"
On the field jumped a man wearing a long white robe that covered all of his body with a hood and a mask hiding all of his face, expect for his eyes which had light blue sclera and no irises. The monster pulled out two swords made from yellow energy and swiped them in the air before holding them by his side. A core of the same color as the monster's eyes in the form of a triangle glowed from the warrior's chest as he prepared himself.
Astral Angel Wächter
Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT EARTH/Type: Warrior/Tuner/Effect
ATK: 1900/DEF: 900
Effect: When this card is Summoned: If you control no other monsters, or all monsters on your field have LIGHT attribute, you can Special Summon 1 "Astral Angel Pfleger" from your hard or deck. If this card is in your GY, you can target 1 Normal or Counter Trap Card in your GY (Quick Effect): Banish both this card and that target; apply that banished Trap's effect. (You can activate this effect in response to Spell Speed 3 effects.)
"When he is summoned, Astral Angel Wächter can call its apprentice on the field!" A card popped from Avice's Duel Disk and she played it. "Come out, Astral Angel Pfleger!"
Wächter crossed his swords, opening a rift in space through which a young woman in similar white clothes, but with a short skirt to reveal her white boots, jumped through, holding a small knife in her left arm. The new monster flicked her red hair to the side of her face to show her eyes, which had yellow sclera and, like Avice's previous monster, no irises. Red lines began to glow over her white clothes, creating three large crosses, one on her chest and two on her shoulders. Finally, a yellow core in the form of a star glowed from her chest, the item being located between her neck and breasts.
Astral Angel Pfleger
Level: 4/Attribute: LIGHT WIND/Type: Spellcaster/Effect
ATK: 1400/DEF: 1200
Effect: If this card is Special Summoned by the effect of "Astral Angel Wächter", you can add 1 "Selig" Spell Card from your deck or GY, to the hand. If this card is in your GY, you can target 1 "Astral Angel" monster in your GY: Banish this card from your GY; Special Summon that target on either player's side of the field, but its effects are negated.
"Two Level Four monsters…" The henchman narrowed his eyes. One of the monsters was also a Tuner, so she could either go for a Rank Four Xyz or a Level Eight Synchro right off the bat… "But I'm not going to just stand here. When my opponent Special Summons a monster, I can discard one card to Special Summon Chaos Hunter (Lv.7, ATK: 2500) from my hand!"
Even though it was Avice's turn, on the henchman's side of the field appeared a woman in dark red armor with a mask covering her face and long white hair flowing behind her. The warrior pulled out a whip and slapped the ground with it.
"Due to Chaos Hunter I can't banish cards. What a hassle." Avice sighed and took another card from her hand. "First off, since I Special Summoned Astral Angel Pfleger, I can the Selig Transformation Spell from my deck to the hand. Next, I activate the Continuous Spell- Astral Call! With it, I can target two monsters on my field and Special Summon one from my deck with a level equal to, or lower than their combined level."
Astral Call (Spell) Continuous
If you have 2 or more monsters on your side of the field with a LIGHT attribute upon this card's activation: Special Summon 1 LIGHT Fairy monster from your deck whose level is less or equal to the combined level of 2 of the monsters on your field. Every time a card is banished, while this card is face-up on the field or in your banished zone, place 2 Astral Counters on this card. You can remove Astral Counters from the field to Special Summon 1 LIGHT monster from your deck, GY, or banished zone, whose Level is equal to the Astral Counters removed to activate this effect.
"Choosing Wächter and Pfleger to serve as the foundations, I can Special Summon Sola Starlit the Destruction Seraph from my deck!"
The two Astral monsters crossed their weapons in from of Astral Call and a beam of radiant light shot out of Avice's spell card, transforming into a path. Lightnings began to fly out of the card and transformed into wings made from energy connected to the outline of a human being. After a moment, colors began to fly into the outlines, forming a pair of glowing eyes followed by the appearance of a human girl.
Her eyes were blue with white stars in them while her hair was white and reached the ground while also floating a little sideways, leaving her back exploded. She wore a white and black one piece dress that reached only up to her tights. There was a bright blue gem adorning the center of the outfit, with several blue energy lines going across the shoulders and the skirt, specifically, where the skin met the dress. A single blue jewel was attached to the left side of the skirt portion of the outfit, framed in gold with a blade made from energy hanging from underneath it. Finally she wore white boots that reached her tights with black line separating the cloth from her skin and two red, triangular lines, pointing downward.
Sola Starlit the Destruction Seraph
Level: 6/Attribute: LIGHT/Type: Fairy/Effect
ATK: 2500/DEF: 1800
Effect: Monsters you control are unaffected by your opponent's Trap Cards. Once per turn (Quick Effect): You can banish 1 other LIGHT monster from your hand or GY, then this card gains ATK equal to the ATK of the monster banished to activate this effect, until the end of this turn, and if it does, this card can't be affected by your opponent's cards or destruction until the end of the current Phase.
"You could have gone for a Level Eight, but you choose a simple Level Six monster?" the henchman was confused by Avice's plays. Maybe she just didn't have any high level monsters in her deck, or something. "Or maybe you thought about using its battle oriented effects, but because it's the first turn, you can't attack me!"
"I already know that." Avice stated calmly and played another card from her hand "What kind of fool you are. I'm going to attack your monster in just a moment, but before that I'm going to activate the Equip Spell, Seraph's Titan Wings!"
Sola threw her arms to the side and the electricity that shot from her back in the shape of wings were replaced by large blades of metal that came together to create the monster's new wings. Afterward, small armor plates flew to the fairy's chest and cheeks, adding extra protection.
Seraph's Titan Wings (Spell) Equip
Can only be equipped to a "Sola" monster. It gains 300 ATK and DEF, also, change its form to "Titanic Destruction Seraph". If the equipped with this card attacks a defense position monster, inflict double piercing damage to your opponent. During your 2nd Standby Phase after this card's activation: Shuffle this card into your deck. When this card leaves the field, return the equipped monster to its base form.
"The effect of Titan Wings' not only gives the equipped monster three hundred attack and defense, but it also changes its form into Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph!" Avice raised the blade of her Duel Disk to show the henchman as her Sola Starlight card's appearance changed to match with her new form.
Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph (Form)
Effect: This form of "Sola Starlight the Destruction Seraph" can only be activated by the effect of a card with "Titanic Destruction Seraph" in its card text. This card can declare 1 additional attack on your opponent during the Main Phase. Once per turn, you can target 1 monster your opponent controls: Destroy it. If this monster destroys a card by battle or with a card effect, inflict 300 damage to your opponent.
"A Form change!?" the henchman stepped back. He had never heard of such a concept before. "Just… what's with this deck?"
"I activate Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph's effect!" Avice ignored her opponent's protest and continued with her turn. "I target Chaos Hunter and destroy it! Titanic Blades!" Sola flew into the air and then fired several blades at Chaos Hunter, piercing through the monster's flesh. The henchman grunted and looked down at his left hand, which was bleeding after one of the blades accidentally cut it.
『Henchman LP: 4000 – 300 → 3700』
"What the…" now he was beyond terrified. "That's real damage. How can your monsters deal real damage?! Only shadow cards can have this ability!"
"What are you saying?" Avice asked and leaned forward a little, looking at her prey with a devilish grin. "This, only shadow cards can hurt humans is a complete nonsense, but of course, should I expect anything more from a factory worker who's trying to get rich by stealing spare parts?" the henchman's eyes widened at the accusation – checkmate. "Honestly, both I and my brother thought that this entire thing was connected to some cult trying to revive an ancient evil spirit or something, but the more evidence we found, the more our disappointment grew."
"When learning that the spare parts aren't accounted for in the factories, we already had our first doubts, but then there were also the locations of your attacks." Avice continued to explain. "All of them happened around the factories, so while one of you was outside, scaring people and stealing souls to feed the shadow cards that you two possess, the other one would sneak into the factory and steal the parts you were ordered to steal."
"But how did you know that no one would realize if several spare parts went missing? The empty jar of carrot puree lying next to the table's leg gave the answer. Carrot puree is the food that factories give to their employ instead of part of their payment. The two of you were working in the factories as well, before changing professions, weren't you?"
The henchman narrowed his eyes. That girl was the real deal, everything she told him was correct. He couldn't leave this duel anymore, if he did, the men that paid him for this job would kill him for leaving a witness that knew so much!
"Now, Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph will attack you directly with Titanic Wings Charge!" The fairy leaped into the air and made a backflip before charging toward its target.
"But you can't attack during your first tur-!" Before the henchman could finish what he wanted to say, the blades on Sola's back grew and she slashed at him with an 'X' shaped attack. The exchange was instantaneous – the henchman could only scream from the force of the attack that launched him backward like a bullet, slamming into the wall that was several feet away from where he once stood. Blood slashed on the ground, from the large wound that Avice's ace dug into the man's chest.
『Henchman LP: 3700 – 2800 → 900』
"The official rules of the game never state anything about the player being unable to declare an attack." Avice pointed out. "All that the rules say is, that the first played can't entire their Battle Phase. However, due to Sola's effect, she is able to attack you during the Main Phase!"
"D-damn it." the man stammered, coughing blood from the amount of damage that this one attack caused.
"Now that I got your attention, I think I will go for a Link Summon." Avice stated and raised her arm in the air, a circuit opening above her head. "Appear, circuit of the universe! Arrowheads confirmed! Summoning requirements are two Astral Angel monsters! I set Astral Angel Wächter and Astral Angel Pfleger in the Link Markers!" the arrow on the left side and the bottom glowed as Avice's monsters flew into them and finished the circuit. "Link Summon! The holy pathfinder of purgatory! Astral Angel Extra-Stern!"
Out of the circuit fell a monster that looked like a fusion between a human and a machine. Below the torso it had a large glowing green jewel kept in a golden frame in the form of a blade, which was extended to the sides, in order to look like a cross. The upper part of the monster's body resembled that of a man with a muscular physique, but its pale skin and the lines that ran through its arms and stomach showed that this part wasn't organic either.
The monster's arms were black with green circuits on them, its shoulders were covered in golden armor with server also as pauldron that held small white capes, with golden borders and the blue drawing of two stars merging together in the center of the capes. The lower part of its face was exposed, while its eyes, and practically everything above them, were covered by a long pointy helmet, with a small arc coming out of the middle, curving above the top of the helmet.
Astral Angel Extra-Stern
Attribute: LIGHT WATER/Type: Machine/Link/Effect
L-Markers: Left, Bottom
ATK: 1900/Link-2
2 "Astral Angel" monsters
Effect: If a LIGHT monster is Special Summoned to your zone this card points to: You add 1 "Fusion", or "Selig" Spell from your Deck or GY to your hand. If this card is in your GY: You can banish this card and 1 other "Astral Angel" monster from your GY, Special Summon 1 "Astral Angel" Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck that has "Selig Transformation" in its card text (That Special Summon is treated as a Summoning by the effect of "Selig Transformation".)
"Now, since your Chaos Hunter is no more on the field, I can banish Astral Angel Pfleger from my Graveyard to revive her mentor right under Extra-Stern's Link Arrow!" A cross made of light appeared behind Avice's Link Monster and Astral Angel Wächter's arm tore through the ground to grab it. The cross began to glow brighter after this and flew upward, raising the monster's whole body onto the field. After his resurrection, Astral Angel Wächter put both of his swords in front of his body and fell onto his knees, a small hologram showing that it was in Defense Mode with 900 DEF.
"Because of Astral Call's effect, I put two Astral Counters on it when Astral Angel Pfleger got banished. I could finish you right here and now, but I'm going to let you entertain me for a bit." Avice said and took two cards from her hand, swiping them across the blade of her Duel Disk, setting the cards "One turn. That's how much you have to show me something noteworthy."
While Avice was dealing with the first henchmen, the second one seemed to have gotten lucky. Driving through the dark tunnels without realizing that his fate was sealed, the man was trying to get on the spot where his teammate told him to wait as soon as possible. Unfortunately, he was already overtaken and a glowing red dot was standing in front of him. Looking in the darkness, the man thought at first that this was some emergency light glowing in the distance, but then, the lights of the motorbike came to illuminate the body of the sixteen years old that stood in front of his vehicle.
The black D-Wheel came to a stop and the two glared at each other. Though the man remembered how easy that same boy was able to easily knocking him on the ground a few moments ago, they had already sealed all other tunnels. He had to go through Evan in order to continue.
"Why did you stop?" Evan asked, adopting a devilish grin. "You could just run me over, right? Or better… Kill me with the shadow card that you have!"
"W-what?" The boy knew about his shadow card?
"Don't be so surprised!" Evan shouted. The combination of the dark tunnels and the D-Wheel's front light, along with his hood, were giving the teenager a rather demonic look on his face, half of which was covered by shadows, with his right eye glowing in the darkness. "I could sense its presence from here! So use it! I got no Duel Disk or a Deck to protect myself with, a single blast would be enough to kill me off!"
This kid is crazy – was the conclusion that the henchman came to, but he had to pass anyways. Turning his D-Wheel around, the man drove off in the opposite direction to build a larger distance between the two of them.
"What are you doing?" Evan asked mockingly, standing still on his spot. "I thought we were just kids, so why are you running like you saw a ghost?"
But to Evan's surprise, the black D-Wheel suddenly turned around and charged straight toward him. Now he could see, the henchman wasn't trying to run away but catch a momentum. It was so funny! A twisted grin formed over Evan's face as he watched the D-Wheel coming closer to him. He was going to have so much fun dealing with this henchman!
"Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon!" The man shouted as he swiped the card over the blade of his Duel Disk and the familiar dragon flew above the D-Wheel, already holding a ball of purple flames in its mouth.
Evan made no tries to avoid the attack whatsoever and the flames flew over his body, consuming him whole. Taking a direct hit like that from a monster whose flames were known to steal souls, would cause instant death to anyone. Only someone who lost the will to life, or was insane would remain in the path of Dragonecro's fire and it seemed that Evan was the second type. Confident that his foe was gone, the henchman accelerated forward, but the purple flames that his monster shot out suddenly began to change their color and became pitch black.
"Not bad!" Evan's voice came out of the flames. "But now it's my turn! Phantomus!"
The moment Evan said that name, the black flames raised, turning into the shade of a demon with two red eyes. The creature threw its head back and cried out before flying straight into Dragonecro. The black flames consumed the nethersoul dragon whole, its desperate cries muted by the black abyss of 'Phantomus' body. Realizing that he was set up, the henchman quickly turned his D-Wheel to flee, but the game was already over.
Phantomus roared and flew toward the man, hitting him with full force, just like a bullet. The burning demon grabbed its victim with enlarged claws made of black flames and slammed him into the ground with such a force that his helmet broke into pieces, revealing the man's bald, covered in tattoos head. The black D-Wheel continued to drive straight for fifteen seconds after its rider was brutally slammed into the ground, before finally hitting the wall.
After finishing its attack, the burning demon flew back to Evan, who absorbed its essence through his palm. Although shadow cards were dangerous to deal with, a much more dangerous concept were Duelists who could sense, and had a one hundred synergy rate with their Duel Spirit. These individuals didn't need things such as a Duel Disk or a physical copy of a card in order to summon the monster that they had synchronized with!
"Come on, put a bit of a fight, mate." fumed Evan. He couldn't beat that man in a Duel because his Duel Disk was left at a garage, but for criminals that put the entire Security station on high alert, he expected something more.
"What the hell are you? You… You monster!" The henchman screamed. These words caught the boy by surprise. Oh, so he was the bad guy in this situation? Even though his actions were actually helping society, there were still people that would criticize what he did? No, that wasn't criticism, and he wasn't a bad guy. Evan took the words of the henchman as a compliment, monsters weren't humans, and they were one step ahead in the evolution. Monsters were stronger than humans, better than humans. He was better than humanity, therefore he was a monster as well.
"If I'm a monster, then why don't you try to destroy me?" Evan asked. Wasn't that what humans were supposed to be doing? "You still have that knife of yours, right? I'm not going to use Phantomus or any other tricks, so let us fight like humans!"
"You are finished!" The henchman roared and stood back up. Despite the damage that he took from Evan's spirit, the man was still able to stand up and move. He was unsure what his chances were at this point, but despite what his mind told him, the henchman rushed toward Evan and swung his knife toward the boy's neck. One clear hit would be enough to kill Evan. Even if the strike didn't finish him immediately, the blood lost would put the Greyson down within seconds.
Evan breathed in and focused on the incoming attack.
"First avoid the attack by ducking, then spin and hit him in the ribcage with the left fist. The moment gained from the spin along with the metal plating on by my left glove would be enough to make up for my inferior physical build and strength and fracture his ribs.
The pain will paralyze him for a moment after which he will try to slash at me again with the knife. Step back to create distance, then quickly respond with a jab from my left hand to break his nose and daze him. Use the moment to inflict several more hits to the body. Cornered, he will try to swing his knife again, employ armlock to right arm, then incapacitate by fracturing his shoulder. Use the moment when he is bent to finish with a knee to the face.
Results: nose broken, three ribs fractured, right shoulder dislocated. Physical state: incapacitate of entering combat. Metal state: traumatized."
Evan breathed out - everything was ready. He ducked, avoiding the knife attack and then delivered a hard hit to the ribcage with his armored glove, emitting a loud groan of pain from the henchman. The man didn't have up though and quickly swung his knife again, this time aiming lower to make sure that Evan won't be able to duck under this strike as well. But his attack came a moment too late, since the boy had stepped away from the reach of the knife before delivering a strong him to the face.
The pain dazed the henchman who stepped back to try and retrieve while blood spilled from his broken nose. Using the momentarily opening, Evan stepped in and slammed his fists into the man's body, prompting him to try and swing the knife again, only to have Evan sidestep and the wrap his arms around the henchman's locking it. A moment later, the Greyson put his weight on the man's shoulder and then pulled his arm, the sound of something snapping became audible along with a cry of pain from the henchman, who dropped his weapon as a result of the pain.
Finally, Evan threw his knee up, meeting with the face of the bent forward man. The power behind that kick was enough to throw the older opponent backward onto the ground. With his opponent now incapacitated, Evan stepped back and kicked the knife away before fixing the ends of his jacket.
"It seems like I win again." Evan sighed, disappointed by his opponent's performance. "I know, you probably think of attacking me from behind, but…"
He didn't even need to look behind himself, the noise that the henchman made while trying to move with these injuries was enough to tell the Greyson that his opponent was forcing himself to stand back up. He looked at the boy and then at the knife lying on the ground a few feet away. Afterward, he spun around and ran away as quickly as possible.
Evan sighed, the conclusion was obvious, his enemy was already too wounded for a second round, both of them were aware of this fact. Running away was the only viable option left and Evan didn't have any reason to follow him. That man didn't seem like the type that would admit who hired him for that job, instead it would be more effective if he let him get away. His wounds would be a good enough warning for his bosses to stay away from this region.
BANG!
The sound of a gunshot echoed through the empty tunnel. Evan looked down at the ground before slowly turned around, the henchman that he fought a moment ago was lying on the ground with a small puddle of blood already starting to form under the corpse. Evan scanned the area with his eyes, the echo inside the tunnel made it impossible to hear where the bullet came from. But no one else was in sight, there were no openings, no places to hide.
Slowly, Evan stepped toward the still warm corpse and kicked him on the shoulder, turning the body around. The bullet had hit right between the eyes of the victim, therefore the shot must have come from somewhere inside the tunnel.
"I guess you won't be needing this anymore." Evan said, more to himself that anyone else and slammed his boot onto the corpse's Duel Disk, breaking it. He reached out and took a card from the now exposed Extra Deck - it was Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon.
"Now you are going to obey me." Black mist formed into the palm of Evan's hand and flew into the card, causing it to glow as the air around it burst into black flames that consumed the Fusion Monster.
"Release!" Several moments after Evan gave that order, white light burst from the card and flew through the roof of the tunnel. The still unconsumed souls of the victims were freed, now it was up to them to return back into their original bodies.
Evan put the card into his pocket and then turned toward the black D-Wheel that lied next to the wall. Although he already had his own, it wouldn't be enough they were really going to help Fujiko get out of this town. Evan stepped toward the fallen D-Wheel and raised it. Thankfully the crash didn't caused any serious damage, it was still functional.
"My turn!" The henchman shouted, drawing his fourth card. He looked over at Avice, her field had a Link Monster, a 2800 beater that could also destroy a monster every turn, a defense position monster and two set cards. Despite that, he could win! As long as neither of her set cards could counter Counter Traps…
『Turn 2 [Henchman] LP: 900 Hand: 4』
"Come on, I will grow up while waiting for you!" Avice finally shouted, annoyed by how long it took her opponent. "If you don't have anything, then just fall on your knees and beg me for a painless death."
"You wish!" the henchman laughed maniacally. "I activate the spell card, Change of Heart to take control of your fairy!"
"What?! But that's a banned card?" Avice's eyes widened. All Duel Disks had a built in system to recognize the usage of forbidden cards and cancel the duel when such a card was used.
But that never happened. Instead of cancelling the Duel, the Duel Disks allowed that move and several ghostly arms flew toward Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph, capturing the monster. Avice couldn't do anything, but bit her lips while her ace was forcefully dragged to her opponent's side of the field and then forced to face against her.
"Why wasn't the duel cancelled when you used this card?" Avice asked her opponent.
"Because of the place where we are standing!" The henchman chuckled and pointed at the ceiling. "DL's system to enforce the latest banlist works through a satellite installation! Since we are so deep underground, the signal is unable to get to our Duel Disks and therefore there is no banlist to be enforced!"
"What a lowly trick!" Using banned cards to gain the advantage? Avice was going to make sure that the man's death was extra painful just for that.
"I'm going to activate the effect of Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph to destroy Astral Angel Wächter and inflict three hundred points of damage to you!" The fairy flew up and fired several blades toward Avice's warrior.
"I activate the Quick-Play Spell, Selig Transformation! This spell lets me transform destroy Astral Angel Wächter into a new monster!" As the spell flipped face-up, the warrior jumped away from the blades and his body began to glow.
Selig Transform (Spell) Quick-Play
Target 1 monster you control; send it to the Graveyard, also, after that, if it left the field by this effect, Special Summon 1 LIGHT Fusion monster from your Extra Deck whose Summoning Conditions are met by this card's effect.
"Transform your monster?" the henchman took a step back. He had never heard of such an effect before…
"Yeah, this is more like a Fusion Summoning with only one Fusion Material, which is why it's called Transformation Summon instead of Fusion!" Avice explained and threw her right arm forward. "Let's go! Astral Angel Wächter, transform!"
The warrior put his swords together and his body began to fade away, leaving behind only the core, which changed its color.
"The warrior with blades sharper than stars! Transform into the abridger of wild energy, desired by the very creation itself! Transformation Summon! Level Five! Sacred Pegasus running through the Milk Way! Astral Angel Azurblauer Pegasus!"
As the core's color changed from blue to yellow, pieces of white metal flew around it and merged to form its new body. A pair of gigantic metal wings with golden plating at the ends of the primary feathers and the alula. Its legs were large bended blades with yellow energy spikes coming out of its shoulders. The head followed a similar pattern with a sharp muzzle and no mouth. A golden arc came out of the monster's forehead with yellow jewels framed into the arc itself. The monster descended down and landed in front of Avice with stardust falling from its wings.
Astral Angel Azurblauer Pegasus
Level: 5/Attribute: LIGHT WIND/Type: Machine/Fusion/Effect
ATK: 2200/DEF: 1600
Effect: Must first be Special Summoned with a "Selig Transform" card by Tributing a Level 4 or lower "Astral Angel" monster you control. Once per turn, if an "Astral Angel" card you control would be destroyed by battle or card effects, you can destroy 1 card of the same type (Monster/Spell/Trap) your opponent controls. Once per Duel: You can turn 3 of your banished "Astral Angel" monsters face-down to target 1 face-up monster on the field; change the LP of either player to become equal to the current ATK of the targeted monster.
"So you avoided that? Doesn't matter! I will use Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph's effect to attack Astral Angel Extra-Stern during the Main Phase!" Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph's eyes glowed and she leaped into the air, firing several more blades toward the Link Monster.
"I activate my trap, Lumenize to negate the attack and increase Extra-Stern's attack by that of Sola!" A barrier of light appeared between the two monsters and pushed Sola away.
"Chain Link Two! I activate the Counter Trap Red Reboot from my hand! By paying half of my Life Points, this card negate your trap and reset it!" The henchman countered, shattering the barrier that protected Avice's monster. "Of course, you also get to set another trap from your deck, but neither of them can be activated during this turn!"
『Henchman LP: 900/2 → 450』
With the barrier gone, Sola Starlight flew through the Link Monster, piercing its body with her wings. Avice gritted her teeth and fell down on her knees, blood pouring from a small slice on the side of her cheek.
『Avice LP: 4000 – 900 → 3100』
"Ha…" Avice pressed her hand against the side of her cheek and looked at the blood on her fingers. "You were able to get a hit in after all, that was nice. But due to my Pegasus' effect, I can once per turn change the destruction to another card. So now, the Sola Starlight that you stole from me is going to be destroyed by her own attack!"
"Before that would happen, the effect of Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord allows me to Special Summon it from my hand, when a Counter Trap of mine negates one of your cards!" The black dragon flew onto the field and roared, holding 2800 ATK. "Along with that I'm going to activate Mystik Wok to release Sola Starlight the Titanic Destruction Seraph and gain Life Points equal to her attack power!"
"I'm going to make you pay for shaming my best monster like that." Avice swore, dropping her ace card into the Graveyard slot along with Astral Angel Extra-Stern. Since there was no other monster to be destroyed in place of her Link at the moment of Pegasus' effect's activation, the Link Monster was destroyed as well.
『Henchman LP: 450 + 2800 → 3250』
"Due to Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord's additional effect, I get to activate an effect based on the negated card." The dragon raised its head and fired a fireball at Azurblauer Pegasus, destroying Avice's last line of defense. "Now, attack her directly!"
The dragon roared and fired another steam of fire straight at Avice. Even if this wasn't enough to take away all of her Life Points, the fact that she was taking a direct attack from a Shadow card meant that she might get killed if the flames weren't stopped. Jumping back to avoid the first wave, Avice leaped back into the air and made a backflip before landing down.
The dragon turned its eyes toward her and fired another wave of flames to incinerate the girl. Without much time to thought, Avice slide under the table and kicked it down to hide her from the flames. She leaned against the other side of the fallen table and breathed in relief. Her heart was racing from the sudden surge of adrenaline and her breathing became deeper.
『Avice LP: 3100 – 2800 → 300』
"That was something." Avice breathed out in relief. Almost getting toasted by a dragon before she could finish the duel? Her opponent was probably too scared to lose, so he ordered his monster to finish her out like this. Such a dirty tactic. "Nice trick, but you are out of cards to use! It's my turn!"
『Turn 3 [Astral] LP: 300 Hand: 4』
Avice looked at the cards in her hand and then stood up. She stretched out her right hand and dropped all of the cards on the ground. She didn't need any of those. Her declaration about this being the last turn was a solemn one, she didn't need anything more than the few cards which were already put in play.
"Here I go!" Avice declared. "I activate Astral Angel Extra-Stern's effect in my Graveyard! By banishing itself and Sola Starlight the Destruction Seraph I can Special Summon one Astral Angel Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck! Come out, Astral Angel Erinnert Träger!"
A tiny humanoid monster with comically big hands and feet landed on the field in front of Avice. The little monster was wearing a heavy green armor with yellow shoulder and knee pads. Its head was covered by a matching green helmet with a yellow visor that hide its glowing blue eyes behind it. The monster's long blue hair floated behind it while it carried a large green lance with a flag wrapped around its blade.
Astral Angel Erinnert Träger
Level: 2/Attribute: LIGHT EARTH/Type: Fairy/Fusion/Effect
ATK: 1200/DEF: 0
Effect: Must first be Special Summoned with a "Selig Transform" card by Tributing an "Astral Angel" Effect Monster with 500 or less ATK that you control. Once per turn: You can banish 1 other "Astral Angel" you control or that is in your GY; Special Summon 1 of your banished LIGHT monsters. Once while this card is face-up on the field: You can turn 2 of your banished "Astral Angel" monsters face-down; until the end of your next turn, the ATK and DEF of all monsters you control become equal to the highest values on the field, and if they do, they cannot be targeted or destroyed by card effects.
"I activate Erinnert Träger's effect! I banishAstral Angel Wächter from my Graveyard to revive Sola Starlight the Destruction Seraph (Lv.6, ATK: 2500)!" The little monster hit the ground with its lance and a blue flag showing two yellow stars merging together appeared on its weapon as Sola Starlight raised from an interdimensional vortex in the ground. "Finally, I activate the trap card that you put on my field last turn! Meta-Universe Reclamation! By dropping the attack power of Sola Starlight the Destruction Seraph to zero I revive Astral Angel Azurblauer Pegasus (Lv.5, ATK: 2200)!"
Sola Starlight the Destruction Seraph, ATK: 2500 → 0
Meta-Universe Reclamation (Trap) Normal
Activate this card by targeting 1 LIGHT monster on your field: Reduce that target's ATK to 0, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Astral Angel" monster from your GY, whose ATK is equal to, or lower than the original ATK of the targeted monster. If this card is in your GY: You can target 1 of your banished "Astral Angel" monsters; Special Summon that target, but its ATK and DEF become 0.
"If that fairy is your best monster, why would you reduce its attack power to zero?" the henchman questioned.
"Simple." Avice closed her eyes for a moment to focus and then gestured toward the Azurblauer Pegasus that she just revived. "Because Sola's attack needs to be zero in order to defeat you. I activate Azurblauer Pegasus' other effect! By turning three of my banished Astral Angels face-down, I can target a monster on the field and make the Life Points of one of us to match its attack power!"
"E-Equal?!" the henchman's eyes widened. According to the rules, if a player's Life Points reached zero, they would lose. Sola Starlight's current attack points were zero, which meant… "W-wait! I can tell you what was written on the letter!"
"Heh, I told you that you will be begging for mercy by the end of this duel." Avice spat, disgusted by the man before her. "Too bad, you should have accepted my offer from the very beginning. Now it's too late!"
"Don't you want to learn what was inside that letter?" The man shouted at her and fell on his knees. "I'm going to tell you, I will tell you everything!"
This made Avice giggle, before she knew it, she had burst into maniacal laughter. Why were humans so pathetic, unable to accept the fate that they brought upon themselves? Even pigs were more self-aware that them. It was so funny, but also so disgusting to watch them fall on their knees, beg for mercy while crying out their eyes. Men, women, children, they always reacted this way and it became boring very fast.
But that satisfaction when she makes them shut up, watching the spark of life slowly leave their eyes, the last choking sounds they make before their bodies went limp. There pigs were so pathetic that they made her addicted to killing them! Just the thought how she was going to finish off this pathetic excuse of a living organism made her blood burn in excitement. It was so heated up, that she had to unbutton her white jacket.
"You think that I need you in order to learn what's inside that letter?" Avice finally asked her opponent. "The only reason why I suggested to spare your live at the start was because I wanted to show some mercy." She licker her lips like a predator about to jump on his snack. "The monsters that live inside of my deck, the Astral Angels, love to eat the souls of the death. In addition to that, they are very good at reading memories. The host's heart doesn't even need to be beating in order for them to learn all of the secrets hidden in the darkest angles of their mind. In other words, dead or alive, you are going to be of the same use for me."
"O-of same use… D-d-d-dead or alive…" the henchman fell on his knees, terrified by the little girl standing in front of him.
"Let's not waste anymore of my time then. May God's salvation burns your soul to ashes, before it reaches the gates of Hell!" Avice shouted and clenched her right hand into a fist. "Go, Azurblauer Pegasus! Spatial Distortion!" The Pegasus spread its wings and a large halo formed between them. Sola Starlight flew through the ring and fired a beam of hard light that pierced through the man's chest, carving a hole in the size of a watermelon where his heart was supposed to be. Or used to be.
『Henchman LP: 3250 → 0』
『Winner: Avice』
After the henchman's limp body fell on the ground, Avice collected back all of her cards and walked over to the corpse. She kneeled next to it and put her right hand on the man's forehead. The spirits momentarily went to work, absorbing the dead man's memories. Although the whole process took no more than three seconds, Avice's spirits had to look through every single moment of the man's life and then filter them, so that only the ones needed by their master was sent into her head while everything else was torn and absorbed by the spirits, including the man's soul.
A human would never know if souls were able to bleed, but this one definitely did while it got torn to pieces and consumed by all of the spirits living inside Avice's Duel Disk. She could see it from the dead man's perspective. How he was handled the already open letter by his teammate, the text in it. Two words from the message stood out for Avice.
...'Easthaven City'
After she finished with her 'research', Avice took the Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord from the corpse's Duel Disk and used her powers to free all of the souls that the dragon was unable to consume yet. She put the card into her pocket after every single soul was freed and then turned toward the tunnel on her right, where Evan was already waiting for her on top of the black D-Wheel.
"Took you long enough." Evan smirked.
"Well, I'm a busy girl." Avice shot back and walked over to him.
"How's everyone?" Denver asked.
He didn't know how, but just when the possessed Duel Chasers had surrounded them and were about to kill them, the entire group of possessed collapsed one after another and the mist around their eyes disappear. Was it a miracle sent by god that saved them? It might as well have been, given how close they were to actually dying.
"Bliz and Yonk are stable!" One of the Security officers stated, currently taking care of two collapsed Duel Chasers along with his colleagues.
"Colt is dead sir." Another officer pointed out. Unfortunately, none of the officers that were killed by the possessed and then turned into possessed themselves were going to come back. Guess God didn't care how you died, there were no second chances for those who fell once.
"As long as the others are fine, we will manage somehow." Denver sighed. It was never easy to hear that an officer, a man that he was responsible for, died. But he somehow managed to accept it and move forward - if he didn't then who would? As a Security Captain it was his responsibility to look not only after his men, but after the entire town.
"Something is coming from the tunnel!" One of the officers shouted.
Denver's eyes widened. Were they coming back for another attack? All of the officers that were still able to hold a gun moved to take cover and aimed their guns toward the tunnel. They couldn't see anything in the darkness, but there was an orb of light coming from somewhere inside the subway. This time they were ready to take whatever the enemy had to throw at them.
"What's with the scary faces?" Denver immediately recognized the voice and the black D-Wheel drove out of the subway, stopping under the moonlight.
"Don't shot!" Denver shouted at his men. "They aren't dangerous, put your guns down!"
The officers were confused by their captain's sudden change of heart, but they complied and lowered their guns. After making sure than everyone heard his order, Denver turned and looked down at Evan and Avice who were riding the black D-Wheel.
"Both of your fugitives were killed before we could get to them." Evan spoke up before the captain could. "One of them is in underground area BYOD-Nine-One-Four while the other is in the tunnel between districts Eleven B and Twelve C. Causes of death are a bullet in the head and a… huge hole where the heart was supposed to be."
"So we are empty handed again?" Denver asked. He was relieved to hear that these criminals were no more, but he wanted to interrogate them, learn why they were willing to take away so many lives. "I will send a team to look for the killers."
"I would advise you against that." Evan replied. "If someone was able to kill the men that your officers were unable to arrest, it's safe to believe that the killer is even more dangerous."
Denver could see the logic behind Evan's words. Those weren't men that you could just walk over to and shot them in the head. Only a professional would be able to get such a task done.
"So, as reward for sort-of solving this case, I'm going to take the D-Wheel." Evan pated the motorbike. "It's a fair deal, right?"
"Sorry, but that D-Wheel is a clue." Denver pointed out. "You can't take it."
"Oh don't worry, you can give it after getting a look at it." Evan shrugged and jumped off it with his sister following suit. "Just make sure to send it to the old garages at the center of the city, one of them belongs to a girl called Fujiko."
"Fujiko?" Denver repeated the name. Where has he heard it before… "Are you talking about Fujiko Itou? A Japanese girl? The daughter of Kyou Itou?"
"Kyou Itou?" This time it was Evan's turn to repeat the name.
He remember that name, there were some old articles mentioning that man. From what he these articles stated, Kyou Itou was a scientist, one of the highest regarded ones in his area of research. However, after an incident with the testing of a new Momentum Core caused an entire city to go under water, and more than ninety-three million died, he suddenly disappeared from the scientist circles and was never seen again. To think that Kyou Itou would come in this town of all places in order to escape from his past…
Fujiko's family tree only increased her value in the eyes of the siblings. As the daughter of such a well-known scientist, she might know a thing or two herself. Only time would tell, but it would be such a shame if her family tree had to end with her.
"That's exactly who I want you to send the D-Wheel to." Evan nodded and looked back into the dark tunnel that they came out from. "Also if you won't mind, tell Fujiko where to find us tomorrow morning."
"There you two are…" Fujiko sighed in relief. She had gotten worried when the Greysons didn't show up to look for their D-Wheel last night. Her worries increased when she heard that there was another attack and her mind began to think that maybe the siblings fell victims. She was relieved of her worries when a Security officer came to her early that morning to give her a black D-Wheel along with a message.
That message was to meet with Evan and Avice at the beach after Valt Evernon, and so she did. Fujiko stepped slowly through the soft sand, making her way toward a pile for large rocks, which were the seat of the siblings. Even when she spoke up to them, neither Avice, nor Evan, seemed to have noticed her presence, or, they simply didn't care enough to look at her. It made her curious as to what might have caught their interest so much, so she tried to climb up the rocks and join the siblings. It wasn't easy at first, since the rocks were slippery, but after three minutes of trying, she was finally able to climb up.
Breathing softly, Fujiko sat down next to Evan. The boy was sitting on one of the lower rocks toward the sea with his head leaning against one of the rocks behind him while his arms gently wrapped around the waist of his sister, who was sitting in his lap. Avice was lying lazily into her brother's arms with her head pressing against his chin.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Avice suddenly asked. Whenever that question was meant for Fujiko or Evan, the wannabe engineer was unsure, but she looked at the sea as well. Her eyes warmed up at the picture that formed in front of her, the dazzling light of the rising sun had coated the water surface, creating a pathway of light on top of it. Despite how close the breach was to Valt Evernon, there were no black clouds from the nearby factories to cover the sun and even the water looked clear, like a diamond.
"So…" Fujiko wondered how to say the thing that was on her mind. It would come out awkward if she asked them while they enjoyed the sunrise, but her curiosity got the better out of her. "Did you two have something to do with the announcement that the attackers were found?"
"Well, you helped us as well." Evan muttered. "But yes, we were the ones who found them. I have to say, I expected more than a group of petty thieves." He pulled the Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord and Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon from his pocket. "With the power of these cards there is so much more than they could have done instead of stealing parts from different factories."
"Stealing parts, huh?" Fujiko had to admit, that did sound pretty boring. "But what about the people that fell into a coma?"
"Most of them wake up already." Avice replied. Those whose souls haven't been consumed by the dragons already would life, and those whose souls were no longer would become the last victims of the monsters. "Apparently the attacks on people and security were just a side task."
"I see…" Fujiko nodded and leaned against a rock as well. "But what happened with the stolen parts? Were they ever found?"
"No, they were taken out of the city a long time ago by a third culprit." Evan closed his eyes. "It was obvious since we didn't find any parts in their hideout and carrying these items with themselves on the raids would be too troublesome, so a third person took the pieces before they fell into our ambush. The helper probably came into and out of the town through one of the unsealed tunnels to avoid catching Security's attention."
"And how can you be sure that this theory is correct?" Fujiko questioned him. "For all we know, they might have just hidden the parts somewhere else."
"Simple." Evan opened his eyes again and looked at the girl. "I know it the same way I know that right now you are wearing white panties with pink flowers."
Fujiko quickly wrapped her arms around her body and looked down. She was wearing a riding suit, not a skirt, so how could he tell? The extreme confusion that she felt was only matched by her embarrassment. All she could do was glare at Evan angrily while flushed from ear to ear.
SLAP!
"…Ouch."