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.

19. Cold but not Lonely

Redux 72: Cold but not Lonely

Flake expected to be rescued from his barrier prison. Yet the form his rescuer took was more than he bargained for. "Yes, one of them did carry your appearance, inquisitor." The grand inquisitor herself marched into the station to shut off the dueldisk that imprisoned him. "Then it was the same group from yesterday. Where did they go?" Silver interrogated the duelist, while she studied her counterpart's unusual dueldisk. "They went down the stairs to use the subway tunnels. I don't know where they went after that. I am sorry." Flake groveled at her feet. "I know you are, don't waste my time on apologies. Or you will be punished again." She spat. She had already demoted him all the way down to scale 1. "Yes, my Inquisitor." Flake bowed to her and let himself get escorted out of the hall. "Hmph. They wouldn't be foolish enough to use the main tunnels. So where are they going?" Her one eye glared into the lower levels. "Secure all exits. Nobody gets in or out." She yelled at the templars and enforcers around her. These people were not as simple as she at first assumed.

...

Stonewells LP: 8000 Queen's LP: 8000

"I don't know who you were, miss. But I've got other places to be." Stonewell was locked in a battle with Martels apparently favorite mindless puppet, the Crystron duelist Tara. She controlled her accel synchro monster Crystron Phoenix(9/3100/2300) and the tuner Crystron Quan(1/800/800). Both were powered up by the crystal cave field spell Crystolic Potential. Stonewell had to make do with no monsters at all, and two set trap cards. To make matters even worse, Crystolic Potential allowed Tara to replenish her hand. The field spell gave her a draw during his endphase for each Crystron monster she had synchro summoned; three in total "If you're going to attack. Just hit me!" Despite him ending his turn already, she did not rush hers. First she summoned the crystalline bird, Crystron Rosenix(4/2100/1300). Then she banished her Crystron Entry trap from the graveyard to activate that card's secondary effect. That effect sent a Crystron monster to the graveyard and placed the discarded card's level on Rosenix(3/2100/1300). The discarded Crystron Thystvern (level 3), had its own effect while it was dead and buried. Tara banished Thystvern to add a new Crystron to her hand, Crystron Sulphafnir. "Fine, take as long as you want." The worst part was not knowing how far his opponent could take it. Stonewell's life was in her hands.

Cryston Sulphafnir possessed a special summon effect. The golden crystal dragon(5/2300/1800) called itself in defense mode, and destroyed one card on the field immediately afterwards. Tara destroyed the Quan tuner. Crystron Rosenix likewise owned a destruction and summon effect. The rose bird destroyed the Sulphafnir dragon, to special summon a Crystron tuner from the deck. At the same time, a destroyed Sulphafnir could special summon any Crystron monster, but in defense mode. Crystron Citree(2/800/800) and a second Crystron Smiger(3/1300/2100) were special summoned. "She's got some good moves, annoyingly.." Crystron Smiger has the same powers as Rosenix. Tara activated an Iron Call spell to revive Crystron Quan with its effects negated. And she and allowed Smiger to destroy it, just so it could special summon a Crystron Quan tuner(1/800/800) from the deck that had all of its abilities unlocked. "Here we go." Immediately Tara tuned the Citree tuner with Smiger to synchro summon a second Crystron Ametrix(5/2800/1800). Now she had enough attackpoints to end things. So the fight began. And when the first attack declaration came, Stonewell literally fired back with a trap. "I activate Scorched Earth!"

Scorched Earth, Normal Trap
Return all face-up field spells to the top of their owners deck. Then add 1 'field spell' from your deck to your hand.

"Your cave goes away, and I add Ignition Phoenix to my hand!" His trap caused a napalm eruption in the Crystolic cave, setting off a field-wide purge. Crystolic Potential left the board, leaving the Crystrons with 300 less attack and defense points. Phoenix(2800/2000)'s rain of burning crystals hit hard nonetheless. "Hgh!" But Stonewell weathered the storm. Ametrix(2500/1500), Rosenix(1800/1300) and Quan(500/500) struck first with shards of amethyst, rose quartz and clear crystal in turn. "Geheh!" His coat was torn up, and cuts formed on his hands and face. "Was that all you got? Ha!" It was survivable. He would endure much more just to get to the City.

Stonewell's LP: 400

Of course. Surviving was one thing. Fighting back would take a lot more. If he even dared to set new spells this turn, Tara would retaliate with an accel synchro summon of another Crystron Phoenix. He needed a way to stop her. "Draw!" Someone up there apparently heard him. Because his deck gave him a solution. "..Heh. Too bad your Crystrons can't use their effects during the standby phase." The very instant the main phase came, his card was played. "Spell card; HeatWave! From the start of the main phase, until my next turn; neither player can special summon effect monsters!" The air in the tunnels got a lot hotter as the Heatwave took effect. "How about that? No chance for your tuner to summon something. No floating from your synchros! You can't do anything! Meanwhile all my Igknight pendulums are.. normal monsters! I can summon as many as I want!" He gloated. Tara had nothing to add. "I am sure your master wouldn't find it funny either. I think you'll be much happier if I win."

"I activate my field spell, Ignition Phoenix.. and my permanent trap card, Igknight Burst!" Stonewell brought his own phoenix, made from flames of magic. "My field spell can spell destroy Igknight cards and trade them! I destroy Igknight Burst and take another Igknight Cavalier! No need to confuse you with my nicknames I suppose." The phoenix of flames flew through the continuous trap and reduced it to ashes. "When Igknight Burst is destroyed, It can also return one of the Igknights in my extra deck to my hand!" As a result of both effects, Stonewell claimed the Igknight Cavalier from the extra deck along with the Cavalier from his deck. "I set them in the pendulum zone and destroy them!" The Igknights (scale 2) used their self-combustion effects to search a different Igknight. "I take Igknight Paladin. Or as I like to call him, Igknight Musket!" Stonewell grabbed the musketeering Paladin (scale 2) from the deck and placed him on his right side. "I set him and my Sky Dragoons of Draconia pendulum monster!" The left pendulum zone was taken by a saurian archer riding a pteranodon beast (scale 7).

"Pendulum summon!" All the Igknights in the extra deck were brought to the field; two Igknight Cavaliers(6/2400/1200) and one Igknight Gallant(6/2100/2200). While they stood in front of the ignited phoenix, their attack and defense went up by 300 points. "You will thank me for this later. I attack your tuner!" Gallant(2400/2500) fired first, blasting through Crystron Quan with his gatling gun. "When a normal monster inflicts battle damage, Sky Draconia can destroy one card you control. Obviously, that's your accel synchro monster!" The Sky dragoon temporarily left the pendulum zone to circle around Crystron Phoenix. He released several arrows into the crimson crystal machine, until it burst like heated glass. "Now your other monsters!" The two Cavalier knights(2700/1500) threw their throwing knives into the bodies of Crystron Rosenix and Ametrix until they turned into a pile of gem dust. "I hope that gets us somewhere. Don't you?" Stonewell didn't know why he was talking to her still. Maybe he hoped that her real self could at least hear him.

Queen's LP: 5000

"..." But Martels hold was too strong, her lifepoints too high. As Stonewell was literally out of cards to play, she forcibly started her turn. The deck returned Crystolic Potential to her hand, which she reactivated. Then she banished Crystron Smiger from her hand to add a Crystron trap from her deck to her hand; Crystron Impact. "What are you up too this time?" His opponent placed two cards down in the spell/trap zone and did nothing else. He got his real answer as soon as the next turn started. It was not his turn. "Whatthe.."

Martels LP: 8000

"You? You came back?" Martel emerged behind him, with his dueldisk's lights revealing his presence. That slippery bastard snuck up on him again! "I changed my mind. I want this Pawn now." He stroked that damn creepy doll of his again and drew a card from his deck. "It's your turn? The hell? Where did those monsters come from?" The shadowduelist already controlled a set monster and a fusion monster(7/2450/1950) on his field. "It is my second turn. Everyone has had two turns." He claimed. "And I'm supposed to take your word for it?" Stonewells protests were all in vain. Martel flipped his face-down Shaddoll Falco(2/600/400) and activated its flip effect. "Take Shaddoll Dragon in my graveyard; summon it face-down." The dark bird pulled the corrupted corpse of a Yangzing dragon out of the cemetery with its own strings and set it down. Meanwhile Tara the Queen activated her Crystron Impact trap. "Queen, give me Crystron Thystvern." Crystron Impact was a special summon trap for one banished Crystron. The amethyst wyvern(3/1500/1500) was fully re-assembled. "Why that one?"

"There is a reason I am one and six. There are six colors. Her color is blue. All Crystrons are water." Martel continued.. and activated El Shaddoll Fusion. "A Fusion spell for Shaddolls?" Shaddoll Dragon and Thystvern were merged. "The materials are Shaddoll and Water! FUSION SUMMON! El Shaddoll ANOYATYLLIS!" A large construct formed at the center. On its body limbs, arms and an emotionless womans face were attached. Then it gained infernal armor and a dragonic aura of purple energy. "That looks like.. his card?" The armor made Stonewell think of his counterparts Infernoids; specifically Infernoid Devyaty. "While the other Eric was my puppet, we crafted this fusion." Martel then pointed a finger at Ignition Phoenix, and it suddenly exploded into a rain of embers. "Damn, that dragon!" Shaddoll Dragons destruction effect had gone off because it went into the graveyard again. Now Stonewell lost his field spell and his Igknights lost their powerboosts. "No!" El Shaddoll Grysta and El Shaddoll Anoyatyllis attacked Igknight Gallant(2100/2200) and Cavalier(2400/1200). "Welcome." The two attacks resulted in two deaths, and the extinguishing of his remaining life.

Stonewell's LP: 0

"Guaaah!" The flames and thunder of the fire Shaddoll and water Shaddoll pushed Stonewell to the edge of the hole in the tunnel. "Now you are mine." Martel advanced on him, with his dueldisk lights glowing red. "You think.. I will just do what you want?" If it was a choice between being a slave or taking the fall, he knew which option he'd pick. "You already cannot escape." But he was hesitating. Something about that mans voice numbed him, made him tired. "No.. No damn it." Martel was right there, the last thing he saw. "You wont get away with this! You'll pay for.." Stonewell fell unconscious. "Better." Martel placed a trap and a monster face-down and ended his turn. "Sleep..and wait for.."

"?" Martel was interrupted by a low rumbling. "Which is this?" The puppetmaster and the Queen glared to their left. The noise was getting louder and louder until.. The floor and walls broke open further, and a hapless duelist was thrown upwards by the blast of a Dragon. The duelist was Bishop, the dragon was Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon. Its controller rode him like a steed, and flew into the upper tunnels. "That's enough Martel!" Uno shouted.

...

Adamant's LP: 5400 Pawn's LP: 2400

"Rank-Up-Magic Revolution Force!" Adamants battle cries could be heard at the end of the shadows, as he settled matters with his opponent. "Raid Raptor - Satellite Cannon Falcon!" His rank-up-spell took the enemy's rank 7 Mecha Phantom Beast XYZ-monster and evolved it into the space cannon falcon(8/3000/3000). "Direct attack!" As the turn passed the opponent lacked cards to put in between him and the overwhelming blasts from the winged Satellite. The Pawns lifepoints dropped to zero. And his body dropped to the ground unconscious. "Rest now, soldier."

Pawns LP: 0

"I didn't think I would find you first." That was when Iria Silver made her unexpected entrance. "You.. also succeeded in taking down your adversary?" Adamant saw her and Zachary Creffield, the latter was carried by her. "Yes." She didn't want to talk about that. "I followed the sound of your voice. The others are scattered.. and outnumbered." She could see everyone's location on the dueldisk map, and things did not look good for them. "Then we will help them. And we wont be slowed down."

...

Uno's LP: 6900 Bishop's LP: 7200

How Uno got to that point was the easy part. Uno already controlled all the materials; Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon(7/2500/2000) and Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon(7/2800/2500). "Xiangke Magician!" He also had the pendulum magician that could change an XYZ-monsters rank into a level with its spell effect. Absolute Dragon turned into a level 7 monster, which could be overlayed with the Pendulum dragon. "I XYZ-summon Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon!" By attaching an XYZ-monster to the supreme XYZ-dragon(7/3000/2500), its full destructive power was unlocked. "Destroy all monsters with a level of seven and below!" His opponent controlled five targets; Triamid Hunter(4/1900/1100), Triamid Master(2300/700) and Triamid Dancer(4/1100/1900) were the ones who could not avoid the Rebellion Dragons effect and were struck by arced lightning. That just left the two Triamid Sphinxes(10/4000/4000). "You take 1000 points of damage for each destroyed monster!" The following explosion was what opened the path to the upper tunnels and allowed Uno to see how he needed to fly. Bishop and him took their turbulent ride all the way to Martel.

Bishop's LP: 4200

"I am not letting you turn Eric into your slave.. again!" Odd-Eyes Rebellion now hovered over the unconscious Stonewell and made sure Martel kept his distance. "The Odd-eyed one. I wanted to see you." Martel stared at both him and his monster with an almost 'awake' expression. "My Bishop." First however he walked over to his fallen puppet. "You aren't done yet." Martel made him rise with a simple flick of the finger, like he was pulling Bishop up with an invisible string. "You want him to go through more of that? It's over!" Uno could not lose this duel at this point. And Bishop looked injured already. "I am not hurting him." Martel smiled. "But you are okay with me doing it. You're making me!" Uno could not turn off the solid visions in this battle royal. Somehow the king could turn all holograms into real monsters in this game. "It is not done. End the turn, if it hurts to see him in pain. Either way. You must finish him first." The King jumped back, hiding behind Bishops monsters.

"Argh." Uno did not have a choice. "Odd-Eyes Rebellion, attack!" The XYZ-dragon charged. "I activate Performapal Odd-Eyes Unicorns effect too! She adds the attackpoints of a Performapal to my attacking Odd-Eyes for this battle phase!" The Unicorn siphoned energy from Performapal Bubblebowwow(5/2300/1000) and placed it on the Pendulum-XYZ(5300/2500). "Odd-Eyes Rebellion gets three attacks since it destroyed monsters with its effect!" It released two massive thunder shots at the Triamid Sphinxes. ".." Though Bishop could not save his monsters, he could punish Uno for his action. He flipped a continuous trap that created a sphinx statue. "Dimension Sphinx?!" This trap targeted one attack-position monster and inflicted damage to the opponent if the target was attacked by a stronger monster. The damage would be equal to the difference between the two monsters attackpoints. "You're letting him get hurt, just to get to me?" Uno felt his body seize up as the Sphinx sapped 2300 of his lifepoints away. "You will not.. stop me with guilt!" Uno continued his triple strike. The first two blasts obliterated the Triamids. The third electrified Bishop. He was not even allowed to scream.

Bishop's LP: 0 Uno's LP: 4700

"You stopped him. He was not a very good puppet." Martel gave his fallen slave a scowl as he was knocked out by the pain. "He was more than that!" Uno growled. "Do you know that? He is nothing to you. I took him from his home in this world to give him purpose. There is no greater purpose than to be one of mine. Now you disconnected him." One of the human cards in Martels dueldisk burned up, the card with Bishops' face on it. "I did it?" It looked like Uno had at least freed Bishop from being mindcontrolled, but the worst wasnt over yet. "Wait. Did you say that you got him from this world? Does that mean that.. you're from this world too?!" It was a wild assumption, but it would clarify a great deal of things. "Yes. That was me too. Thanks to me, the fusion guild could enter this world." Martel was happy to exposit on his accomplishments at least. "You did that? How?" The XYZ-guild created their portal, the Synchro guild used synchronization. What did his guild use? "I will tell you, if you give me something." The puppetmaster pointed a finger. "Give you.. my dragon?" He was pointing towards Odd-Eyes Rebellion, specifically towards one of the XYZ-materials circling it. "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon? Why would you.."

"Oh." It all came together now. "The fourth dragon. You need the fourth dragon!" The guilds already collected the original Starve Venom Fusion Dragon, Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon and Clear Wing Synchro Dragon. All of those used his Odd-Eyes as the template. "But why? You already have the code to decrypt Doms data... don't you?" The decryption key was only divided three ways. That was what the cardmaker claimed. "..Maybe, you don't? Of course!" Dom did have control of Uno's deck for a brief period during the tournament. It would have been easy for that man to insert some data into Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon too. "He tricked us all along. Good thing too." The guilds did not have the cards of legend yet. That was why they were chasing him.

"All of that is true. We desire it, and we will have it." Martel made another pulling motion with his hand to call his Queen back to the frontline. "Ugh. I forgot about her." Uno grunted. "Bowwow!" He made a direct attack against her with his Performapal to decrease her lifepoints further. But the Queen activated her face-down quickplay spell: Magnet Reverse. Said spell could revive any a machine or rock-type monster that could not be normal summoned. "Oh boy." She special summoned Crystron Phoenix(9/3100/2300) from the graveyard. With Crystolic Potential powering it up, it was a match for Odd-Eyes Rebellion(3000/2500). "Ugh.." Uno had to end his turn, and also let his Refine Oscillation trap card destroy itself. "All we need is to control it. Then we will have the code. First the dragon needs to be free." Martel stepped back while Phoenix attacked. Streams of ruby-red flames assaulted the XYZ-monster and scattered its ashes. Afterwards Tara banished the second Thystvern from her graveyard, to add a Crystron Rosenix monster to her hand. Then she placed a trap card and ended her turn. "In time, it will be mine. And so.. will you. I want you, Uno. You are special like me; one of a kind. I cannot wait to have you."

Uno's LP: 4600

(To be Continued in Redux 071: What Smiles may Hide)

New Cards used by Stonewell
Igknight Paladin
Sky Dragoons of Draconia

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Heatwave
Ignition Phoenix

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Scorched Earth

New Cards used by Queen 'Tara'
Crystron Rosenix
Crystron Thystvern
Crystron Sulphafnir

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Iron Call
Magnet Reverse

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Crystron Impact

New Cards used by Martel
El Shaddoll Anoyatyllis

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El Shaddoll Fusion

New Cards used by Bishop
Dimension Sphinx