The Rise and Fall of History II: Opposing the Present

by Medigo

The world of dueling has reached its climax. Many stories have been told through these cards, and the final story brought everyone together. People are united and yet, an unknown world suffers in their shadow. The fallen one returns in the midst of their peace, pursued and still a stranger to those around. There is not much time to save both his home and his friends.

13. Desire on Display

Redux 78: Desire on Display

"Mr. Adamant... Why did you want me to go with you?" Alice suddenly found herself wondering this out loud, while she and Adamant were driving through the streets to look for Uno. "You and I are the only ones with no counterparts here. We don't need the protection of the pendulum." Adamant explained in his usual serious manner. "Is that all?" She'd hoped for less of a 'logical' reason. Adamant didn't do a lot of talking either. "Are you sure you're the only Adamant? You look.. uhm.. older than most of your guild." The older you were, the more chance you had of being born in both timelines. That's what she remembered. "My age is nineteen." He flatly revealed. "Oh! I'm sorry.. I didn't mean to.. And I am not asking because of.." She stumbled for an apology. This got awkward. "I know you didn't. You are just curious, like I once was." The duelist sighed. "Once I wondered what it would be like to meet my other self. But I now know that he does not exist here. Either he died or he was never born." He looked back and saw Alice stare at him with those big eyes of hers. "Don't feel sorry for me. My destiny was simply not the same as his. All I can do is make sure that others have a destiny of their own."

...

Silver's LP: 2150 Uno's LP: 8000

Uno was in the lead, with five monsters on his field to counter her empty field.
So why didn't it feel like he was winning?

"I pendulum summon!" It might have been the fault of Amorphage Greed (scale 3) and Amorphage Gluttony (scale 5) who were negating his traps and monster effects. "Amorphage Greed, Pride, Wrath!" Or the fact that his opponent could easily regain her lost pendulum monsters, Amorphage Pride(4/2450/700), Greed(4/700/2650) and Wrath(4/2350/700), from the extra deck. "I tribute summon Amorphage Goliath." None of his monsters could match her, not now that she tributed Greed and Wrath for the great dragon; Amorphage Goliath(8/3350/600). Meanwhile Amorphage Infection powered up all her monsters while Amorphage Lysis powered his monsters down. Six Amorphage cards added 600 attack and defense points to Goliath and Pride(4/2350/600). "Attack Performapal Springoose and Salutiger!" Six Amorphages took 600 points away from the targets. Goliath trampled Uno's warrior tiger(4/2100/0) and Pride slaughtered the springbodied goose(5/1300/1800). Thankfully Performapal Dramatic Theater had been giving them some power in return. But that boost decreased each time a type of monster left Uno's field. Right now the attack decreases and increases evened out; as only only Odd-Eyes(7/2500/1400), Performapal Trampolynx(2/300/0) and Skeeter Skimmer(4/500/1000) remained.

Uno's LP: 5700

"Whatever your goals are, you will not distract me from this duel." All this time Silver's eyes were on her counterpart; the disciple Iria. "We have no goals but to preserve our world. Does your government know nothing about this, about another world that is threatened by yours?" The other Iria knew that someone on this side managed to discover the other side, someone besides UNO. "If I had, I wouldn't share such information with the likes of you." But the Inquisitor was acting obtuse, deliberately perhaps. "I will determine for myself the validity of your words, once I have apprehended and examined you." Silver placed a spell card down and ended the turn. "I will pass. I have seen how you 'examine' people." Normally Iria would be willing to cooperate, but she couldn't do much as a prisoner.. or a card. "You have at least gotten my voice down." The Inquisitor was a little weirded out, but not enough to stop the fight.

"Well, how about we do the opposite; I defeat you and you work with us!?" Uno proposed as he drew his card. "As if you can." Silver chuckled. "Oh I have my ways with people." He normal summoned a Performapal, the Skullcrobat Joker(4/1800/100). Already he(1200/0) was powerdrained by Amorphage Lysis. "Do you? Then what is this now? You know you cannot use that card's effect." Amorphage Gluttony blocked the Joker's ability to search Performapals in the deck. But that was not why Uno summoned him. "It's called a band. And this one needed at least three members." No traps or monster effects, but spells.. were back on the table. "I activate Performance Hurricane! Each Performapal on my field can return one card to your hand!" Skullcrobat Joker, Skeeter Skimmer and Trampolynx grabbed some instruments and played their music. "Hit it!" The musical storm that arose affected three of her cards. Amorphage Lysis, Goliath and Pride were blown off the field. "Kgeh!" Without Lysis on the field, Uno's Performapals regained their lost points. And more importantly, Uno could activate monster effects again.

"Go go go Springoose!" First Uno banished the spring bird from his graveyard, to bounce two pendulum performapals from his field back to his hand. "I take the Skullcrobat Joker and Monkeyboard in my pendulum zone! Then I will reset them both as spells!" Monkeyboard returned to the zone he had sprung out of. The Joker claimed the other side. As Uno reactivated Monkeyboard, he could grab a new Performapal from his deck; Performapal Splashmammoth. "Now you might be thinking I'm going to pendulum summon again. You'd be going too fast. First.." He reached into his extra deck. "I will special summon Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon by tributing a beast monster and a dark-dragon! Call it a free fusion!" Trampolynx the cat(900/300) and Odd-Eyes the dragon(3100/2000) were thrown into a purple vortex, to create the bone-covered beastly dragon(8/3000/2000). "It has been a while, hasn't it?" He claimed while his dragon(3400/2000) powered up thanks to the theater and filled the area with roars. "Now there's illegitimate fusions too?" Silver rasped.

"You got that right! Want to see another!?" The fusion materials were now in the extra deck, which meant.. "Pendulum summon part two!" Uno could re-summon Odd-Eyes Pendulum(3500/2000), along with Performapal Lizardraw(3/2200/600) and his newest card; a pink elephant(6/2900/2300) with long mop-like hair. All were in attack mode. "From the hand comes Splashmammoth! This guy can start a fusion between himself and another monster, without fusion spells! And there is one dragon who can be made with Odd-Eyes and any pendulum monster. And that is Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon!" The mammoth activated its power, spraying water all over itself and Odd-eyes with its trunk. The two monsters disappeared into the pool and merged into one. Odd-Eyes Vortex the green dragon(8/3300/3000) of negation was recreated. "Awesome, two fusions in one turn!" Eric saw no way Silver could save herself now, not when Vortex Dragon could negate the activation of cards once each turn.

"Heh." But Vortex Dragon was too late. Silver's face-down spell was flipped before Vortex Dragon hit the field. "Scapegoat?!" It was the quickplay spell that created four sheep tokens(1/0/0) of different colors. They were summoned in defense position naturally. "Did you think I wouldn't see it coming the second time? I don't know how the info got there, but the network is now showing information on your fusions." One second told her all she needed to know on how to avoid Vortex's powers. "Someone put that info up? Rgh!" Uno shouldn't have shown off with a second fusion. "Well then.." He couldn't let those tokens stay around as tributes for her pendulums either. "I will attack all four!" Performapal Lizardraw(2000/600) and Skeeter Skimmer(1300/1600) pummeled down the red and blue sheep. Odd-Eyes Vortex incinerated the yellow one up with a thunder blast. Beast-Eyes(3800/2000) swallowed the pink one whole. "When Beast-Eyes destroys a monster, he does damage equal to its beast-material's original attackpoints." The spirit of Trampolynx dropped by to snarl at Silver for an extra 500 points of damage. "Then.. I end my turn."

Silver's LP: 1650

"I thought that would never end." Silver scoffed and drew her card. The sight of it brought a toothy grin to her face. "Then again.." Her standby phase followed. With nothing to tribute, her Gluttony/Greed pendulums decayed and died. Consequently, Amorphage Infection responded to the destruction. "I use Infection to claim another Amorphage Gluttony from my deck." She placed that gluttonous dragon in one pendulum zone. "Not so fast! Vortex negates it!" Uno countered with his fusion monster. It returned Trampolynx from the extra deck to the main deck, to cancel out Gluttony's activation and send it to the graveyard. "Yes, as I knew you would. You had no choice." Her smile was still there. "But you will get one soon." She revealed another spell; Draco Face-Off. "With this spell, one pendulum Dracoverlord and one pendulum Dracoslayer are selected from the deck." The Inquisitor chose Lector Pendulum the Dracoverlord and Luster Pendulum the Dracoslayer. "You may choose, at random, which one is given to me. I may either summon that card, or set it as a pendulum spell. The card not chosen is added to the extra deck, face-up. So choose wisely." She held up both cards with their backs towards Uno.

"Choose?" He had no idea which was which, or which one was worse. Both were scale 3 pendulums. Lector Pendulums spell effect would negate the effects of all of Uno's pendulum monsters. Luster Pendulum would let her move more pendulum monsters into the extra deck. "Left." Iria urged. "No, right!" Eric insisted. They were not certain either. "Nhh.. Left!" So he went with his first instinct. "Good!" Iria saw that it wasn't Luster pendulum that he picked. So it went into the extra deck. "Good indeed." To Uno's surprise, she did not even use Lector as a scale. She special summoned the dark dracoknight(4/1950/0) in attack mode. "I normal summon the pendulum monster; Rescue Hamster." Then a hardhat-wearing hamster(4/500/100) hobbled into the theater. "What the.." This cute critter seemed totally out of place in her deck. "After I tribute this monster I can target one pendulum monster in my extra deck and summon two of the same from my main deck. But their effects will be sealed. I choose Amorphage Wrath." The Rescuing pendulum monster poofed away, making room for the two remaining Dragons of Wrath(4/1950/300). Once that was all done, she placed Amorphage Pride (scale 3) and Goliath (scale 5) from her hand in the red and blue pendulum zones. "Pendulum! Summon!"

Luster Pendulum the Dracoslayer(4/1850/0) and Rescue Hamster were special summoned from the extra deck. "Why is she summoning those two?!" Eric scratched his head. Even with the powerboosts from Amorphage Infection, the Amorphages could not defeat all his monsters or deplete his lifepoints this turn. Silver had plenty of Amorphages in her extra deck. "What is she up too?" Uno was worried too, the Inquisitor was doing this for a reason. "Don't tell me.." Only Iria realized her intent. "At least one you has some wits." Silver snatched both Luster Pendulum and one Amorphage Wrath. "Synchro! Summon!" Those two monsters, were tuned to form one. "Synchro?! That means.. Luster Pendulum was a tuner monster!" Uno overlooked that part of the Dracoslayer's text. It was a tuner that could only be used as a material for Dracoslayers. "I summon Ignister Prominence the Blazing Dracoslayer!" Luster transformed into a masked blonde-haired dragon knight(8/2850/0), he carried heavy weaponry and wore fierce red armor. "It looks like an Igknight." Eric stammered.

"But of course. I am a director of Templars, their image is reflected in my greatest monsters. Would you like to see Ignister's effect? It allows me to summon one Dracoslayer from my deck when it is synchro summoned, though that monster may not be used for synchro summons and it is summoned in defense mode. My choice is Master Pendulum the Dracoslayer!" Ignister created a path flanked by flames and a dragon paladin(4/1950/0) in gold and white armor flew in on that path. "That's why you only summoned Amorphages who had their effects negated! So you could summon from the extra deck!" Pendulum summoned Amorphages would negate extra-deck summons of anything else. These Wraths could not even do that. "But of course, again. You people do like to state the obvious." The Inquisitor tapped the second Amorphage Wrath and Master Pendulum, dragging one on top of the other. "Wait, you can't be.." She was attaching them. "Oh but I can.. Uno. XYZ! Summon! Majester Paladin, the Soaring Dracoslayer!" Two level 4 pendulum monsters were the materials necessary for this rank 4 dragon-paladin(4/1850/2000) who rode a very familiar majestic unicorn.

"Majespecters." The wind-Templar archetype was represented through XYZ-summon. If there were any more, Iria wouldn't know about it. "Majester Paladin can summon one Dracoslayer from the extra deck by detaching one of its XYZ-materials. That monster cannot be used for XYZ-summons. I choose, Luster Pendulum!" The soaring slayer used up its Master Pendulum-material. Earlier, the tuner dracoslayer was added to the extra deck after the first synchro summon. It was ready to be summoned back. "No.." And there was no rule that said you could only use one Ignister each turn. "Yes." The Inquisitor synchronized the resummoned Luster Pendulum and Rescue Hamster to synchro summon a second Prominence Dracoslayer(8/2850/0). "Very much." The second Ignister's effect special summoned a second Luster Pendulum(4/1950/0) from her deck. "And then!" She twisted the Luster Dracoslayer together with Lector Pendulum the Dracoverlord. "Fusion! Summon! Dinoster Power, the Mighty Dracoslayer!"

One dracoslayer and one pendulum combined into one fusion monster. A water-elemental dragon(8/2000/2950) in mechanical blue armor. This archetype they hadn't encountered yet. "Dinoster summons one Dracoslayer from my hand or graveyard. Of course, that monster cannot be used for fusion summons. I choose Master Pendulum." The previously detached slayer was reborn to fill in the last zone on the Inquisitors side. "But his monsters are still stronger!" Eric insisted. "Strength is not just a number, brat." Silver laughed as she double-tapped both her synchros. "Ignister Prominence may destroy one pendulum card on my field, to destroy a card of my enemy!" The two Blazing Dracoslayers burned Amorphage Goliath and Pride down and absorbed the flames. The refocused energy was unloaded upon Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Performapal Skeeter Skimmer. They screamed as they vanished in a blaze of dragonfire, leaving just two. "When a monster is destroyed, Lizardraw can draw one card for each Performapal on my field!" Only that effect could save Uno now, and he could only draw one card once.

"And was it worth it?" The Inquisitor asked him her final question. "..." What he drew could not save him. The battle phase was upon him. "Well look at that, you have nothing to say for once. Marvelous." The attack from the first Ignister Prominence reduced Performapal Lizardraw(1600/600) to a pile of ashes. "I know why. You have met your superior." The second Blazing Dracoslayer seared a hole through the chest of Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon(2700/3000) with its gun. "You finally understand your place in this world." Dinoster slammed his shield into Uno. "Gwah!" He was knocked against the bars of the carousel. "You understand that you are nothing." Majester flew across Uno and the unicorn slashed into his shoulder with its horn. "Argh!" There were so few lifepoints left. "This is.. too much." Iria could not believe it, her counterpart was crueler than she ever could have imagined. And she was not letting up. "And you never will be anything again." The Inquisitor stepped in front of Uno, looked down at him and declared the last attack. Luster Pendulum swept his sword across Uno's body. "..." He was in too much pain to even scream at this point. "We're done." Silver turned on the red light of her dueldisk.

Uno's LP: 0

"Stop!" Out of nowhere, a monster appeared and flew at the Inquisitor to scratch into her dueldisk. "What!?" It was a solid vision hologram of the Nekroz of Trishula. "I won't let you. Not again!" The summoner of that card came from their left. "Alice?" Uno was stunned. He didn't know Alice could even do something like that. "Heh, another friend?" Iria placed a finger on her eyepatch. "I see, the scream records matches your voice. That was you, not the other." The girl held her undivided attention now. "You.. you can't scare me! Just leave him alone. He's done nothing wrong!" She understood the consequences of her action, yet she remained defiant. "He's done plenty, he broke the rules of the Union... of the game." Silver tossed her broken dueldisk away and clapped her hands. "But I appreciate all of you showing up at once. It saves me some time." The templar drones swarmed around her, switching to active-mode. "Yeah well, I am with her!" Eric stepped up to join Alice. "If you want Uno, you will have to go through us!" He activated his dueldisk. "As if you can save someone who has already lost. I.."

But Eric was not the only one to come to Uno's defense. "no." A purple shadow blurred into view. "You?" It was her, the darkhaired girl from before. "Milady!" And, it seemed, she was no stranger to the Inquisitor. "i can't let you harm this man, Silver." She spoke with a stronger tone and did not even blink once at the sight of two Iria's in the same area. "Milady. I must. He has taken from the Union and he has ties with a resistance cell. He must be brought in." Silver actually sounded off-balance; this girl was making her nervous. "he is one of us, inquisitor." The girl retorted, as she briefly glared at the pendulum around Eric's neck. "One of.. you?" Uno didn't get it. What did she mean with that? "I do not believe that. It is all a game of deception, milady!" But Silver would not listen. She was moments away from giving her templars their orders... "then..." .. when the girl extended her arm and spun around in a half-circle. "go to the city, Uno, to the control bridge. i will wait for you there." She said to him with a warm smile and vanished. "Cease.." The Inquisitor and all her drones disappeared along with the mystery girl; whisked away to parts unknown.

"Whawhawhawhat just happened?" Eric sputtered. "A teleport." Iria guessed. What they witnessed was comparable to January's tricks. "Uno! You're.. are you.. We came as fast as we could once we saw you on the network!" Alice meanwhile rushed to Uno's side, as he lay there on the pavement all scratched and bruised up. "Nothing's broken, but I've been better." He groaned. His body was in too much pain to handle standing up. "Uno. Who was that woman?" Iria asked Uno. "Don't know. Don't remember. But she has to know something about me." Something brought her back; the sight of the pendulum crystal perhaps. "Don't know how long she can keep Silver off us. We need to find her. She said something about a bridge. Which was in the control city?" They had to be careful now that the Inquisitor knew who they were. "It is." Adamant took Uno's words as his cue to enter the scene. He dropped the maps from the guildbase at Uno's feet. "And we know how to get there."

(To be Continued in Redux 077: The Road less Traveled)

New Cards used by Uno
Performapal Splashmammoth

New Cards used by Inquisitor Silver
Amorphage Goliath
Rescue Hamster
Master Pendulum the Dracoslayer

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Ignister Prominence the Blasting Dracoslayer
Majester Paladin, the Ascending Dracoslayer
Dinoster Power, the Mighty Dracoslayer

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Scapegoat
Draco Face-Off