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.

20. What Smiles may Hide

Redux 71: What Smiles may Hide

Alice's LP: 8000 Dame Phoebe's LP: 7000 Knight's LP: 8000

Two against one; two turns before Alice could take hers again. It wasn't fair. They didn't care. The synchro-duelist and Knight puppet summoned his first monster, Shiranui Spiritmaster, the Shiranui clans fire priest(4/1500/0) that could special summon undead spirits from its masters hand if those monsters had no defense points. The Master special summoned a Shiranui Solitaire, the clans hermit(4/0/500). "Fire against water and ice. Seems like a good match-up to me!" Phoebe twirled as Shiranui Solitaire activated his own ability. It could be tributed for another Shiranui. Solitaire gave his life and Shiranui Spectralsword; a haunted blue-flame sword(2/800/0) was summoned from the deck. "A tuner." The fact that Alice was dueling someone from Emily's guild was painfully obvious. The spectral sword tuned with Shiranui Spiritmaster to form a level 6 synchro warrior, Shiranui Samuraisaga(6/2500/0). It attacked immediately. The Samurai grabbed the fire sword and decapitated the Nekroz of Brionac(6/2300/1700). However the battle damage was nullified by Alice's Ritual Cage. "Not my preferred summoning method. Buuuut Martel loves what he loves!" Dame giggled while she waited for the Knight to end things.

His turn was done as soon as he placed two trap cards face-down. "My turn!" And the dame took over. She shuffled her dueldisk to her right wrist. "Ooh I have so many toys to show you, Alice!" Dame's fingers danced across her cards and pulled one out. "First my Fluffy Bear. I send him on a trip to get the Toy Vendor!" Discarding Fluffal Bear was the cost for its effect; setting the Toy Vendor continuous spell on the field. "Gogogo!" The fusion duelist flipped that spell up and activated it. Toy Vendor discarded one card, Edge Imp Chain, to draw one from the deck. "Yay! It's Fluffal Octo!" Since the drawn card was a Fluffal, Toy Vendor could special summon it. A capsule rolled down the toybox's tongue and popped open to reveal a stuffed pink octopus(1/800/800). "When Fluffal Octo is summoned, I can recycle one of my old toys..""Or my old Edge Imps!" Phoebe switched the disk back to the other arm as she reached into the graveyard to grab Edge Imp Saw. "And since Edge Imp Chain was sent to the graveyard." She greedily pulled another card, from the deck this time. "Frightfur Fusion is added to my hand!"

"Why do you do that? Why are you still acting like you're two different people?" Out of everything, this schizophrenic personality of hers confused Alice the most. "Because we are! And not in the weak way, like Cassius and Aaron! We are one in flesh and blood! Me and the Dame!" She clenched her right hand and touched a card in the graveyard with her left. "Anyway. I didn't forget you, Fluffal Wing! I can banish this little guy and another Fluffal from the graveyard, when I control Toy Vendor!" The angel wings and Fluffal Rabbit were removed from the graveyard. "I can draw one card! And if I destroy Toy Vendor too, I can draw another!" Phoebe drew two cards from her deck with Fluffal Wing's effect. In that same chain she added Edge Imp Sabres to her hand, since Toy Vendor could search that card if it was destroyed. "Of course, we are the strongest when we combine.. when we fuse." She chomped her teeth and activated her fusion spells. "I and I will fusion summon with Frightfur Fusion and Frightfur Factory! First, Frightfur Sheep and then Frightfur Sabre-Tooth!"

Frightfur Fusion banished Edge Imp Chain and Fluffal Bear from the graveyard to create the fused chain death-toy, Frightfur Sheep(5/2000/2000). Frightfur Factory then banished the Frightfur Fusion spell to start its own fusion between Frightfur Sheep, Edge Imp Sabres and Fluffal Octo. Frightfur Sabre-Tooth(8/2400/2000) escaped the extra deck once more. It(2800/2000) used its effects to give all Frightfurs 400 attackpoints while resummoning Frightfur Sheep(2400/2000) from the graveyard. "Since you interrupted his dreamworldy meal, I will let him eat your heart out instead!" Phoebe entered the battle phase. "And you can't activate effects while Frigtfur Sheep is attacking, so there is no stopping this direct attack!" The sheep unwound its gears to fire its chains and saws away. "Aaaahhh!" Though Alice ducked underneath the projectiles, one chain grazed her leg.

Alice's LP: 5600

"What a cute scream! I wish I could hear that over and over again! Oh well, one more time will do! Direct attack!" The Sabre-toothed Frightfur ran across the tracks and made a slashing pass at the unfortunate girl. "Eeeh!" She covered her face, but the teeth purposefully missed her. "Hee. Don't worry. You're much too adorable to damage. I want to keep you whole and stuff ya!" Phoebe cackled as she ended her battle phase and then her turn. "I..don't.." Alice couldn't even stand anymore, her leg hurt too much. "What's that? Are you going to cry about it again? Cry how you can't understand?"

Alice's LP: 2800

"I don't want to understand!" She yelled back. "I don't want to know what turns someone... into something like you!" Alice drew a card. "That's right. There's a lot of bad people out there, and I am just one of them. I had to be!" Phoebe glared at her subordinate. Knight reacted immediately with a continuous trap; Sealing Ceremony of Katon. "Nobody gets anything done by being nice!" The Sealing Ceremony banished one fire monster from the graveyard to banish one card from Alice's graveyard as well. "Ah!" Katon banished Shiranui Spiritmaster to remove Nekroz Cycle before she could use its effects. "Also your magic cage wont protect you either." Shiranui Spiritmaster would destroy one other card if it was banished. Since the Ritual Cage protected Ritual monsters, it had to be shattered first anyway. Still, Alice stood up. "I am not scared.. And I am not..going to cry!" Alice activated Moray of Greed, sending two water monsters (Nekroz of Catastor, Dance Princess of the Nekroz) from her hand to the deck and drawing three new cards. "I can discard Nekroz of Unicore to get Nekroz of Brionac back! And I can discard Brionac to get Great Sorcerer of the Nekroz!" She used the two Nekroz effects in a row to prepare her field for.. another ritual. "Nekroz Cycle!" Thanks to the Greed spell, another ritual spell came to her. "Nice things can always happen!"

"I summon Unicore!" By tributing the level 4 Great Sorcerer, Nekroz of Unicore(4/2300/1000) was ritual summoned from her graveyard. The tributed Great Sorcerer also nabbed a Nekroz spellcaster card, Nekroz of Valkyrus, from the deck. "Now your fusion summoned monsters effects are negated!" Unicore took away the powerboosts from Frightfur Sheep(2000/2000) and Sabre-Tooth(2400/2000). "Hmph. You want niceties?" But that was when the Knight activated his other trap. "Huh?" It was Shiranui Style: Swallow's Slash. To stop her ritual monster, the Knight was willing to tribute his Shiranui. Shiranui Samuraisaga gave his lifeforce to his sword, to make one last strike. The Swallow's Slash could destroy two cards at once. "Nekroz of Gungnir!" But Alice wouldn't let her monster die. Nekroz of Gungnir was activated from her hand and discarded to make Unicore immune to destruction. "I'm sorry, mister Knight. I don't know how much this will hurt." Alice apologized in advance, and activated her field spell Ritual Stage. "But I'm going to attack you first." Ritual Stage powered the Nekroz caster(3300/1000) up, as it launched a direct attack at the puppet.

Knight's LP: 4700

Ritual Stage, Field Spell
Ritual monsters you control gain 1000 atk during the batlle phase.
While you control a ritual monster, your opponent cannot target non-ritual monsters for attacks or with effects.

"You hate me and yet you're going after him? Are you trying to save him? I don't know whether to laugh or cry!" Phoebe sounded like she was doing both at the same time. "You will regret your pity." With a smirk she displayed the Frightfur Fusion card that had returned to her. "A-ah no!" Alice noticed too late that her continuous Factory spell had been Swallows Slash' other target. A destroyed Frightfur Factory placed a banished Frightfur Fusion back in the players hand. "No I.." She made a mistake. She should have taken down one of her Frightfurs while she could. Not that it mattered now. "I..I end my turn." There was nothing left anyway. "That's right. Just let it all happen. Poor helpless child."

The knight Luther leaped into action not a second later. He activated the continuous spell, Shiranui Style Synthesis. As the Knighte controlled no monsters, the spell could send Shiranui Samurai from his hand to the graveyard. Synthesis also returned the banished Spiritmaster to the graveyard with its second effect. Then, to activate Sealing Ceremony of Katon again, the Knight banished Shiranui Swordmaster a second time. "Not even that stays.." Spiritmaster destroyed another card of Alice as it exiled itself into another dimension. Nekroz of Unicore was the exorcised victim. Meanwhile Katon banished the second Nekroz Cycle from the graveyard. "I see it is time for another synchro." Phoebe clapped when the Knight activated the grave-effect of Shiranui Spectralsword. "From the graveyard?" It tuned itself with the spirit of Samuraisaga. The two cards were banished to synchro summon Shiranui Shogunsaga the fiery god of war(8/3000/0). "Oh we're having fun now, arent we?" Two more effects were triggered. Shogunsaga banished Shiranui Samurai from the graveyard to absorb that monsters 1800 attackpoints into his(4800/0)'s swords. Consequently, the effect of a banished Samurai returned a dead Shiranui monster to its masters hand. The Knight targeted Shiranui Solitaire, took it and normal summoned it once more.

And of course, Solitaire used its selfsacrifice power to send itself to the grave. It special summoned Shiranui Smith(4/1000/0), the forger of the clan, from the deck. "If you thought you could survive one turn without your Nekroz. Here is that hope smashed into the ground!" The Knight collected everything he needed, so he declared two direct attacks. "No. No!" Everything Phoebe said was true. Alice had to activate Nekroz of Valkyrus now. "I discard it, and banish my Great Sorcerer of Nekroz!" Nekroz of Valkyrus ended the battle phase, at a minor cost. However, this was the last defense Alice could put up. "No." Her hands were empty. "Hope is a foolish thing to have anyway. Nice things don't happen if you just wish for them. You act like a good kid and look where it got you!" The Knight placed another trap card face-down and passed the turn to the next player. "Now it's all coming to an end. You, your life, your dreams. You won't even know yourself anymore. There is only darkness and the void." The twofaced girl kept taunting Alice. "Stop it!" She did not want to listen. She was making her remember what happened eight years ago. "I am giving you one last chance, Alice! Join us! It is the only way you will ever do good again!"

"Don't listen to her, Alice!"

Eric's LP: 8000

"Eric?!" A heartwarming voice reached the three duelists. "You made it!" It was Eric, her Eric. "Of course I did! Just in time to put an end to her crap. Nobody wants your stories, Phoebe!" He spat her name, that was how much he loathed her. "Two against one.. against Alice? You're even worse than I thought! It's my turn!" He drew his card, delaying Phoebe's next turn. "Oh that's so nice of you to drop in, Eric. I had wanted to see you again, this version of you." Dame greeted him all politely. Eric wasn't buying it. "I already suffered you in my head for weeks. I can see through your act now! That's why I'm not afraid to use this either!" Eric activated Void Imagination. "Eric?" With that spell Eric could fuse his Infernoids. And since she controlled a monster summoned from the extra deck, he could send Void Imagination to his graveyard to fuse Infernoids in his deck. "I fuse Lilith, Nemehoth and four others!" Six Infernoids merged into one, creating the ultimate hell serpent; Infernoid Tierra(11/3400/3600). "Hoho. You went back to fusion monsters after all."

"Eric, I thought.." Alice was stunned. Eric wanted to stop using fusions, didn't he? "I figured, a card is just a card. That's what you said, Alice." He remembered her duel with Zenshin, and he took those words to heart. "Since more than five Infernoids were fused into Tierra, he will send three cards from the top of each deck to the graveyard!" The fused Infernoid shaved three cards from all decks. "Anyway, I still had this in my graveyard." Next, Eric banished Breakthrough Skill to negate the effects of one monster on the field. "I negate Frightfur Sabre-Tooth! It cant be destroyed by card effects when it's made with three fusion materials. But now I can kill it! So I activate Harmonic Waves, to change my monsters level to 4!" Normally Infernoids could not summon themselves if the player controlled more than 8 levels on their field. With the Tierra(4/3400/3600)'s level lowered, Eric could summon whatever Infernoid he wanted. Like the Infernoid Antra(1/0/2000) in his hand, which banished one Infernoid from his graveyard. "Beelzebub can handle your Sheep, the rest will be for Nehemoth!" The demon of the second sin targeted Frightfur Sheep for its effect, pushing it deep down in Phoebe's extra deck.

"Aw. You want revenge then? I get that." Phoebe began to say while her partner in crime activated another trap; Painful Escape. "Oh no!" The trap tributed one monster, Shiranui Smith, to place one with the same level, type and attribute in the Knight's hand. All Shiranui were fire zombies, so the Smith was exchanged for a second Shiranui Solitaire(4/500/0). "Eric, he's gonna.." Then the Knight reactivated Sealing Ceremony of Katon to banish Shiranui Smith from his graveyard, and Infernoid Onuncu from Eric's graveyard. "Ooh. So much for your scariest demon." Phoebe let out another laugh. Thanks to the banished Shiranui Smith, none of the Knight's monsters could be destroyed in battle this turn either. "You love talking, don't you? You should try listening for once. I said I'm not letting you fool me anymore!" Eric revealed his final trap card, Fiend Griefing. "Fiend Grieding moves one of your dead monsters to the deck, to move one of my decked fiends into the grave!" His trap targeted the first Shiranui Solitaire in Knight's graveyard, and a second Infernoid Onuncu in his deck. "!?" Phoebe cringed.

"Looks like you didn't see that coming! Good!" Eric slammed his hands together. "Then it's time to send them all packing! I banish three Infernoids from the grave, to resurrect Infernoid Nehemoth!" He raised his hand above his head and performed the special summon of the mighty hell serpent(10/3000/3000). "Once Nemehoth is summoned, all others will die!" Onuncu spread destructive hellfire across the tracks. Fire spirits or not, even the Shiranui could not withstand such heat. Onuncu killed Antra, Shogunsaga, Frightfur Sabre-Tooth. Tierra would have died too, but Eric banished a spell that Tierra discarded earlier. It was Void Seer, which negated the destruction of one of his Infernoids this turn. "Kgh." Both Phoebe and the Knight were wide open. "Surprised?" Eric could attack either one. "Wait, Eric. I know how you feel about her.. But.. I think you should attack him first." Phoebe's lifepoints would survive the assault. The Knight would not. "..I know. I was going to. You want to save him as much as I do." Eric looked at this man and sighed. He never had it that bad. "Phoebe. Have some of your own medicine!" Tierra and Onuncu blasted the Shiranui duelist from both sides. "Now it's one against two. Or should I say two against two?!"

Knight's LP: 0

...

Uno's LP: 4500 Martel's LP: 8000 Queen's LP: 5000

"Not exactly what I hoped for." Uno was in a bind. Martel and his Queen were teaming up on him, and his deck was not giving him quick answers. He could not retreat, or he would put Stonewell in harms way. "Pendulum summon!" Uno tried a revival of his Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon. "That will not happen." Sadly, since Martel controlled El Shaddoll Grysta(7/2450/,9150) he could counter this. "I reveal my Shaddoll, and discard one card." The Shaddoll of fire revealed a Shaddoll Hound card and discarded a random spell, to negate the summon of the Rebellion Dragon and destroy it. "And to ensure it stays there." Since it was not properly summoned, the destroyed Odd-Eyes could not use its own recursion effects and it stayed in the graveyard. "Guh." Uno had one last shot, his trap card Pendulum Reborn. "I set a trap card!" With that he could at least revive Odd-Eyes on the next turn. But he didn't even get that chance. The Queen activated her Sealing Ceremony of Suiton trap. "Shoot!" That trap banished one water monster from her hand, Crystron Rosenix, to return Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon to Uno's extra deck face-down. "Then..." Uno switched Performapal Bowwow(5/2300/1000) to defense mode and placed a trap card down. "I guess it's your turn now." Uno did not know how many turns had passed for everyone else. Either way, it was bad news.

"No it is not!" And it was good news.

Adamant's LP: 5400 Iria's LP: 2400

"Adamant, Iria!" The XYZ-duelist and the disciple walked on to the scene. "The others." Martel let out a yawn. "We face each other at last, puppetmaster." Adamant did not give him any kind words either. "We 'helped' your puppets..." Iria said and pointed at Adamants Satellite Cannon Falcon. It carried both the Pawn and Zach on its wings. "Two more lost to me. Just two remain." The puppetmaster almost sounded saddened. A leery grin was still etched into his face however. "Uno, we will assist you. Iria used a third turn. I did not. So I will take it now." Adamant drew a card. "Your tactics are disgusting, puppetmaster. You only strike when you outnumber your enemies. You are a coward who hides behind unwilling servants." Adamant was forced to deal with the Queen first. He activated the effect of Satellite Cannon Falcon(8/3000/3000) by detaching one XYZ-material from the beast. It would drain Crystron Phoenix(3100/2300)'s attackpoints by 800 for each Raidraptor in his graveyard.

"Meaningless words. You do not understand, what we have." Martel placed his hands on Tara's shoulders and made her activate Crystron Impact from her graveyard. "She will protect me, forever." Banishing the Impact trap negated the effect of the Satellite Falcon, who dared to target a Crystron monster. "You cannot call that a bond just because you can make people do what you want!" Iria hissed. "What do you know of bonds, of my Rook?" Martel talked to her like he was accusing her of something. "She knows enough, more than you can!" That got to Uno, so he yelled back. "I know what friendship is. You can't just steal it!" Alice, Eric, Emily even Adamant and the disciples. He considered them all his friends. "We help each other because we want to!" Adamant and Iria coming to save him proved that. "Indeed. And we are together in another way. In this battle royal, we share fields the closer we stand." That was how Martel could use his puppets monsters as fusion materials. "What are you saying?" Martel sighed. "Just this." Adamant looked to his left and right. "I will need your scales, Uno, for a Pendulum summon!"

(To be Continued in Redux 070: The Light at the End)

Cards used by Knight
Shiranui Swordmaster
Shiranui Solitaire
Shiranui Spectralsword
Shiranui Samurai
Shiranui Smith

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Shiranui Samuraisaga
Shiranui Shogunsaga

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Shiranui Style - Synthesis
Foolish Burial

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Sealing Ceremony of Katon
Shiranui Style - Swallows Swipe
Painful Escape

New Cards used by Dame Phoebe
Fluffal Octo

New Cards used by Alice Brandt
Moray of Greed

New Cards used by Eric Stonewell
Fiend Griefing

New Cards used by Queen 'Tara'
Sealing Ceremony of Suiton