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.

56. En Passant

Redux 35: En Passant

This was where it all began. "what is... this place?" The lady Nisell did not recognize this old abandoned village on a mountain road. But August had said yes, and this was where he wanted them to go. "I see. Alice and Eric's hometown.. in the other timeline. This is where we entered this world... This is where I landed in the other world too." Uno also had an inkling of why August chose this place. "Because of you, and because and the girl who should not exist, this is a place the dimensions are fragile. The power and reach of the crystal should be amplified here." August pointed at his own pendulum and at theirs. "You're right. You think we can find Marco like this?" Uno felt a surge of energy just from one touch of the crystal. "It will be easier, but there is no guarantee. I have a better reason to be here." The red duelist slammed his hands together. "If we charge the pendulums here, it might give December, June and January a point to focus on. Your duel separated us. I do not know in which world or on which day they landed. They might not even be stuck in regular time anymore.." He shook his head. "There is no helping them if they ran into a guardian of time. But, if they are alive.. they will find us."

...

"Awgh..it's not even sunset yet." One pleasant awakening was inflicted upon Eric, courtesy of a loud buzzing noise. "The communicator?" If it were anything else, he would have ignored it. But this had to be important, so he forced himself out of his bed. "Em.. Amelia?" For a second he thought he was talking to the Emily he knew. But that wouldn't make any sense. "Stonewell? Is that you? You sound different.." The feeling was shared. "Oh... ehr no. I am Eric. You know, from the other world?" Eric was hoping that she at least knew that much. "Oh.. yeah.. I still can't believe all of that happened." He heard her sigh. "But listen, I don't know what time it is over there." The sun was still up at her place, he realized. That did not make Eric feel less grouchy. "But Stonewell gave me this communicator and said I had to use it if I got worried. And I am."

"Worried? What about?" Eric panicked. "About uhm.. him. Stonewell, I just wanted to know if he got back alright. I thought your friend Uno would come pick him up.. with that.. beaming-up trick or something. Except Stonewell said he had something to do, and he just walked away. I haven't seen him since. Do you know anything about that?" The answer was of course 'no'. But Eric didn't want to make her freak out too, after everything she had gone through. "I think he got back, at least that's what I heard. So don't worry about it!" So he lied. "Oh thank goodness." She breathed a sigh of relief, which he was glad to hear. "Just keep in touch, okay? I will tell you more later." He said with a yawn, which she heard. "Oh, okay! Yeah.. have a good night? Morning.. See ya!" She hung up. "..Wow. Emily would never've fallen for that." Eric thought to himself, before he turned to the more pressing matters. "Stonewell, what are you doing? Did something happen with your friends?"

...

"Mister Adamant!" Shouted a palace guard as he entered the hallway. "Why the need for alarm?" The curious duelist responded. "It's your associate. The one who had yet to recover has finally done so and woken up. He claims to possess sensitive information that he does not want to share with anyone else but you. He is waiting for you at the infirmary." The guard explained. "I see. I thank you for notifying me." Adamant looked behind him. "I should tell the others, but this cannot wait." Adamant understood why this man wanted to talk to him alone. He was a soldier from the XYZ-guild, he would not trust anyone else nor would he know that Adamant already left the guild. "I will go, but I want you to monitor this hall and call for me as soon as anything happens." Alice was sleeping again, and he did not want to disturb her anyway. "Of course." The guard nodded. "Good." Adamant then went on his way. It was not far from the infirmary. He took the stairs. A feeling inside him told him the elevators were not as safe as they used to be. Allthough he could also just have been getting paranoid. "Tch, dont think about it."

Yet, his fear might have been justified. He was only halfway down when...

"The XYZ-champion."

He heard a voice he did not think he could run into here. "Martel!?" It was the puppet master's voice. "Me." His announcement was paired with a sudden electric blackout, turning of all lights besides one. "I wanted to wait, but I couldn't. This was too great an opportunity." The last light came from Martels dueldisk as he stood at the bottom of the spiraling stairwell. "You could not have broken in, you.. teleported?" He knew Martel could teleport due to the footage of the duels on the island. Except Martel shouldn't have been able to get to the palace unless he knew what it looked like. "Yes, just like the Nisells." Still, that was what he was claiming. "How?" The world outside and the network owned no inside images of the palace. "Because I can see what my friends see." Martel smirked as he turned his back on Adamant. "And you will be my friend too. We have to be careful, while Lord Uno is out of the house." Right on his cue, another light pierced the shadows. This one came from above. "!" It was the palace guard from before, he aimed his dueldisk at Adamant.

Adamant's LP: 8000 Guard's LP: 8000

"A trap." The news about the infirmary was the bait, and he fell for it. Martel was playing to eliminate his enemies one by one. "Are traps all you know, Martel?" If only he could drag the puppetmaster into this duel as well. Unfortunately, Martel was already walking to the exit. "I will see you again soon, my new Knight." The 'king' left the stairwell, while his pawn took the first turn. "Tch." He'd been careless. The enemy normal summoned his monster. It was a young kid(4/900/400) in a rubber suit with electric hair and hands. "Brohunder? A thunder deck..." The effect of Brohunder allowed the duelist to add a thunder-type monster, Denko Sekka, from the deck to his hand. And then the opponent activated Ties of the Brethren. "!" It cost 2000 lifepoints to use this spell, which special summoned two monsters from the deck with the same level and type as one monster on the field. But no further attacks or special summons could be made this turn. The opponent special summoned Lightning Rod Lord the skeletal thundergod(4/1800/100) and Zap Mustung the electrical black horse(4/1600/1500). Lastly, he placed a card down in the spell/trap zone.

Guard's LP: 6000

"Damn." Adamant was in a bind. His moves were all sealed now because of these unconventional cards. Lightning Rod Lord stopped both players from activating any spells in his first main phase. Zap Mustung meanwhile made it so that players could only special summon as many times as they conducted a battle in a turn. And it could not be destroyed twice each battle anyway. "I set a monster, and two trap cards." His intended opening turn would have involved Raidraptor Last Strix and Rank-Up-Magic Astral Force, which could have let him rank up all the way to the Ultimate Falcon in the first turn. Instead he would need to rely on his trap cards. "Wait.." But before he ended his turn, the opponent activated a quick-play spell card. "Quick Summon?!" It was an instant normal summoner card, and it summoned Denko Sekka the lightning-fast samurai(4/1700/1000) in snow-white armor. Her sword crackled with purple bolts, which streamed across the field. "As long as the enemy controls no spells or traps, my set cards cannot be activated!" Even that was accounted for, Martel chose this opponent purposefully.

Quick Summon, Quick-Play Spell
Normal Summon 1 monster.

Pawn's LP: 8000

And this 'game' of his left nothing to chance either. "Another?!" A second duelist wandered in through the same door Martel used before. "Two opponents.." This was a woman in her 30s; she looked like Martel simply picked her up from the streets. But her cards were no less threatening. "Machina Fortress." She already controlled the cannon-covered fortress machine(7/2500/1600) on her field, summoned by discarding a level 8 machine, Machina Megaform, from her hand. And the piercing spell Fairy Meteor Crush was equipped to it as well. "Of course. She prepared her field out of range of us, so Zap Mustings effect would not hinder her." The puppets only played by whichever battle royal rules suited their ambushes. The silent woman activated another spell during her battle phase as well, Limiter Removal, to doubled the attackpoints of her Machina(5000/1600). Machina Fortress then aimed its cannons at Adamant's Raidraptor Last Strix(1/100/100) and rended it asunder with lasers that had the force of a meteor.

Adamant's LP: 3100

"Guh..." Her attack was done, and during her endphase Limiter Removal destroyed the monster it had affected. But with Machina Fortress' destruction, Machina Megaform could be special summoned from the graveyard. The Fortress transformed into its upright humanoid form(8/2600/1500) by banishing the original Fortress. During the next turn it could repeat the cycle by sacrificing itself for another Machina Fortress in the deck. "This.." Not that it mattered, the guard retained the next attack and Adamant was without defenses. "Is this how it ends for me? Alone in the shadows?" He could not save himself..

"Stop it!"

Alice's LP: 8000

"Alice?" But there she was, like an angel from above. "Two against one isn't fair! So it's my turn now!" She dove into the duel immediately and summoned the Great Sorcerer of the Nekroz(4/1500/1200). "Attack!" The Sorcerer targeted Denko Sekka and discarded Nekroz of Decisive Armor from her hand during the fight. The Decisive Armor's effect added 1000 attackpoints to the Sorcerer(2500/1200), allowing it to freeze the samurai's sword with ice magic and to shatter her body as well. "...You followed me?" She came from the same direction as him and the palace guard. "I'm sorry, Adamant. I heard talking, and I couldn't go back to sleep after that." She didn't really know what was going on and it took her a while to find him in this darkness. "Do not apologize. I am glad you did." Not only couldn't this have been timed better, she had assessed the situation from just one glance and taken down the biggest threat with her only attack. "Its Martel, he is here." Still, Adamant had to warn her. He did not know how safe they were here.

Guard's LP: 5200

"Martel? Then we have to tell the others!" Alas, this duel was far from over. "Ah.. I'll use Nekroz Cycle!" Now that Alice was finished one battle, Zap Mustung granted her one special summon. She used it up on a ritual spell, sacrificing the Great Sorcerer on her field and a Cyber Angel Benten in her hand to ritual summon Nekroz of Decisive Armor(10/3300/2300) from her graveyard. Thanks to the sacrificed Great Sorcerer, Alice could add a new Nekroz spellcaster to her hand, another Nekroz of Valkyrus. Thanks to the sacrificed Cyber Angel Benten, Alice could add a light-type fairy monster to her hand; Cyber Angel Dakini. "I set two traps.. or spells! And that uh.. ends my turn." Only now was she noticing it was a bit pointless to announce actions to people who would not speak for themselves.

The enemies weren't very interested in talking back either. The palace guard just drew his next card and summoned Pahunder(4/1300/600), the father of the electric family. His effect allowed the duelist to normal summon another Thunder monster from his hand, Mahunder the thunderfamily mother(4/1400/700). "His own game plan is working against him now." Adamant figured his opponent wanted to do something with all those materials. But at best he could just attack Adamant directly, and special summon something afterwards. Of course, all five of his monsters came after Adamant. "Oh no! No you wont!" Alice quickly discarded Nekroz of Valkyrus from her hand. "I can activate this card!" Valkyrus sacrificed itself and banished the Great Sorcerer of Nekroz, to end the battle phase before Mahunder could strike with her electric punches. "And since no battles were actually conducted.." The guard couldn't ask its own Zap Mustung monster to give it a special summon. So it switched Brohunder, Zap Mustung and Lightning Rod Lord to defense mode. If neither of them could find a way to destroy the latter two, they wouldn't get anywhere.

"My turn.." Adamant drew a monster, which was fortuitous on its own. "I normal summon the Raidraptor Fuzzy Lanius!" By bringing out the headfeathered purple lanius(4/500/1500), he reached the starting point for his trap. "Icarus Attack!" So he flipped it. "I use my own winged beast to destroy two cards you control!" Fuzzy Lanius flew up the stairs and dipped its body in liquid fire. It stopped flying to send its burning body crashing down into Zap Mustung and Lightning Rod Lord.

"Yeah! Oh, but wait.. now you have no monsters again." Alice gasped. "I am not one to just take satisfaction from an inch of progress. Because Fuzzy Lanius went to the graveyard, I can add a second Fuzzy Lanius to my hand, and.." Adamant activated his second trap: Call of the Haunted. "I revive the first from the ashes!" The trap special summoned Fuzzy Lanius from the graveyard in prime condition. "When I control a Raidraptor, Fuzzy lanius can be special summoned from the hand!" And with the Mustung horse destroyed, Adamant could special summon the second Fuzzy Lanius(4/500/1500) and as many other Raidraptors as he wished. "Raidraptor Force Strix!" At last, his monsters were overlayed. He XYZ-summoned his metal owl Force Strix(4/0/2000) "But make no mistake. I would not have survived, without you. Alice, it seems fate smiles kindly upon me, through you." Adamant could activate spells again too. So he used Raidraptor Astral Force to evolve his monster up by two ranks. "XYZ-summon! Revolution Falcon!" The fiery Falcon let out a cry of war as its body came into existence. Revolution Falcon(6/2000/3000) ascended the spiral and loomed over the opposing forces.

"Adamant, you're not gonna hurt them too much are you?" Alice was impressed and concerned at the same time. "Normally I would not bother with a higher power for the likes of them. However, we need to be fast, so I will have to maximize my damage output!" Adamant activated Rank-Up-spell: Revolution Force as well. "XYZ-summon!" During this turn he could add another rank to Revolution Falcon. "Ah!? That's.." The XYZ-warbird transformed into a large winged carrier raptor(7/2500/2000). "Yes, the Falcon I intended to summon against you when we dueled, Alice. Raidraptor Arsenal Falcon! If raidraptors are attached to this XYZ-monster, he gains one attack for each overlayed XYZ-material!" The two Fuzzy Raidraptors, Force Strix and Revolution Falcon loaded themselves into the wings of the Arsenal machine. "Then I activate the spell card, Stoic Challenge! An XYZ-monster gains 600 attackpoints for each of its XYZ-materials!" He took a page from Roma's book of XYZ-tactics and equipped this spell to Raidraptor Arsenal Falcon(4900/1000). The equipped monster could not activate its effects anymore now, but it didn't need to.

"This is it, Alice.. and pawns of Martel." He moved to his battle phase. "With Stoic Challenge, Arsenal Falcon inflicts double battle damage to monsters!" The Falcon rose to the top of the stairwell, and launched its final attack from there. "Qaudruple strike! Its Raidraptor materials flew down and obliterated Mahunder and Pahunder, inflicting over 10000 damage to the guard. The third attack destroyed Machina Megaforce and delivered 4600 points of battle damage. The fourth attack hit the machina woman directly. "..." Even in defeat, the puppets uttered no screams and they collapsed on the spot.

Pawn and Guard's LP: 0

"They're out." Adamant checked the woman as he descended the stairs. "Do we.. do we just leave them here?" The palace guard was asleep it seemed, she could still hear him breathing. "They can't have been under Martel's control for too long, they should recover faster than the others." Adamant reasoned, even if there was usually little rhyme or reason to the after-effects. "Then.. where is Martel?! Can we stop him before he gets to anyone else!?" She yelled. "No. Chasing him would be unwise." Adamant stared down at his dueldisk. The lifepoint meter was not resetting. "Now that we've entered his game, we cannot leave it. We do not know how many Martel has taken over already. They could be anyone, we cannot trust the people we see." The palace guard talked to Adamant before, Martels puppets could hide in plain sight like any normal person and they wouldn't even be aware of his 'pulling their strings'. "Oh no.. dad! Eric!" Alice rushed back up. "Alice, wait! We should at least stay together! Do you still have the crystal?" If she could teleport them to the court, they could give out a city-wide warning right away. "No. Anastasia took it back.. that's why we should get Eric! He has a pendulum crystal too!"

"Okay. We will go to him, but we must proceed with caution." He did not know what waited for them out there. He only knew one thing, they had to stop this madness before it spread too far and turned into an actual war.

...

While all that was going up above, Iria was on her way to the templar control area. She figured there could be something she could do to counteract her counterpart's hold on the network. That was when she got intercepted by an unlikely person. "Gaaah!" It was a scream, a familiar one. "Stonewell?" It sounded like Eric, or Stonewell. But if it was the latter, when did he return? Stonewell was supposed to be on the other side of the world. "What happened?" She rushed over to to the source of the sounds, into one of the palace's many art galleries. "Stonewell?" It was him! She saw him lying down on the floor with his face away from her. "Security! We.." Before she could cry out for help, the door closed behind her and her dueldisk was switched to active mode. "What?" It was a trap for her now, set by this man in a business suit who came in. He did not have the appearance of someone who belonged her at all. "What is this?"

"Silver!" Fortunately, she would not have to face this threat alone. "Creffield, sir?" Zach and Dom rushed into the gallery through the other entrance, passing along the unconscious Stonewell to stand by Iria's side. "We heard Stonewell shout! And now my disk is acting not like it should! Just what's the deal here?" Dom did not get this scene at all. "It's Martel.." Zach only understood one thing, the reason why this silent man was staring at them with lifeless eyes "Martel.. It's an ambush, and he's part of it." Iria stared at Stonewell, who'd suddenly gotten up, showing no signs of injury at all. "You're one of his puppets now." She concluded, while his frown turned into a nasty smirk...

(To be Continued in Redux 034: Never Too Young)

New Cards used by Adamant
Raidraptor - Arsenal Falcon

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Stoic Challenge

Cards used by Palace Guard Pawn
Brohunder
Lightning Rod Lord
Zap Mustung
Denko Sekka
Mahunder
Pahunder

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Ties of the Brethren
Quick Summon

Cards used by Pawn 2
Machina Fortress
Machina Megaform

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Limiter Removal
Fairy Meteor Crush