"Chapter 15- Darkness"
By: Agent Baron
In the distance, Marron could see a helicopter flying low to the ground. Zooming in, he saw Lighty aboard a motorcycle, riding toward him. He began to let up on his jets to conserve fuel, as Baron Von Stupor stalked him from the ground, pacing.
Von Stupor noticed the motorcycle approaching and watched it. Noticing Von Stupor's distraction, Marron landed and waited for Lighty to arrive. As he pulled over on his motorcycle, he stared at Von Stupor with mortified curiosity.
"Who… are you? You're not Baron Von Stupor… are you? Your mask is different than his," Lighty asked him.
"Me? No…" said Von Stupor, approaching him.
"You're not Baron Von Stupor? So you're an impostor!"
"I don't pretend… to be anybody."
"Marron, what's going on here? Where'd this guy come from?"
"Baron Von Stupor had lost his soul. I stood by his body. Long after you left, he stood behind me, and his mask had turned black. There was a black-colored energy signature coming from him at the time. If this is not Baron Von Stupor, then a possibility would be that something is controlling his body," Marron postulated.
"If you're not Baron Von Stupor, then who are you?" Lighty asked Von Stupor.
Von Stupor began stepping toward him, tapping his mask lightly.
Lighty and Marron stepped away from him, keeping their distance.
"You're… the mask?" Lighty asked him. He simply chuckled in reply. "Are you a spirit from the mask?"
"No… I am nothing…"
"You have to be something."
"Duel me… you will see…"
"Duel you…?"
"Duel me now… Try to take my soul… Ha ha ha…"
Lighty was rather shaken. He didn't quite know what to do.
"Duel me now… or die… I don't mind whatever choice you make…" Von Stupor continued.
Lighty did not take his eyes off of Von Stupor for an instant.
"Marron… this is one of those times when you wouldn't want to be living," Lighty said to Marron.
"Why?" asked the robot in reply.
"Because honestly, Marron, I don't think this is Baron Von Stupor, but I do think this is Baron Von Stupor's body… and whatever is controlling it is scaring the shit out of me."
"Duel, now!" shrieked Von Stupor.
Jumping, Lighty very shakily readied his duel disk.
"If I can beat this thing, we can get back on plan…" Lighty said, still watching Von Stupor firmly.
"He has no soul," Marron informed him. "The seal of orichalcos might not work."
"Right now, it's our only choice. Something about this thing gives me butterflies in my stomach, but I have no choice but to fight him."
"Haaaah…" Von Stupor exhaled, sounding pleased. "I will set one monster… Set one M/T… and I play 'Shadow of Orichalcos'."
Fear and shock struck Lighty as a purple light surrounded them, looking just like the seal of orichalcos, but emitting a purple haze. The seal lowered itself and shoved Marron away.
"What is this?!" Lighty cried in fear. He ran to the seal's boundary and pounded on it in an attempt to escape.
"You're my prisoner… Ha ha ha…" Von Stupor responded.
"How did you get this card?! I've never seen it before!"
Von Stupor simply tapped his mask.
"You… you made this card? So… you made your deck?"
"Ha ha ha… You will not leave here…"
"What have I done? What have I done???"
"Take your turn…"
If I beat him… he'll lose his soul instead of me… relax, this is just a copy of the seal of orichalcos… you can do this, Lighty thought to himself. "Alright, I'll play 'Pot of Greed' to draw two cards… and then I'll summon the Hysteric Fairy and attack your face-down monster!"
The Hysteric Fairy picked up a large book to slam down on Von Stupor's set card. The Man-Eater Bug was squashed, but its guts splattered onto the Hysteric Fairy, melting its skin away.
"Flip effect… destroy one monster…" Von Stupor said to him with a chuckle. "I summon a Man with Wdjat… I can look at a set card once per turn… but I don't need to. Heh, heh… He will attack your Life Points…"
A man in a red robe appeared. The eye of Wdjat glowed on his forehead. Holding a blue flame in his hand, he threw it at Lighty, striking him for 2100 total points of direct damage.
"Agh… I don't have a strong enough monster to take it down…" Lighty said to himself as he set a monster and ended his turn.
"'Change of Heart' on your set monster," Von Stupor said to him. "I control it for a turn, to sacrifice… I summon Cosmo Queen."
As the Cosmo Queen appeared on the field, Lighty stared up at it in fear.
"Be careful, Lighty. I said that he is somehow cheating," Marron reminded him. "He brings out strong cards unnecessarily fast, as if his cards could be anything he wants at any time."
"Cosmo Queen attacks you… 3400 damage…" Von Stupor said, as the Cosmo Queen fired a green blast of energy at Lighty. He was struck hard, and dropped to his knees.
"I will set one monster and end my turn…" Lighty said, forlorn.
"Draw… Cosmo Queen attacks your face-down monster…"
The Cosmo Queen used immense gravity to crush the card, from a Kelbek burst and shot the Cosmo Queen prior to exploding. The Cosmo Queen turned to light and shot back to Von Stupor's hand.
"Hm…" Von Stupor grunted. "Main Phase Two… set monster… Then I activate 'Ultimate Offering'… paying five hundred Life Points for an extra summon, I pay 500 to set a second monster… then 500 more to tribute both of them for Cosmo Queen…"
"Now it's my turn…" announced Lighty. "There is still hope for me yet! First I play 'Heavy Storm' to destroy all magic or trap cards on the field! Next, I'll play the ritual magic card, 'Shinato's Ark'! By sacrificing monsters from my hand whose stars equal eight or more, I can ritual summon Shinato, King of a Higher Plane! Shinato, take down his Cosmo Queen!"
Shinato appeared before Lighty and charged a mighty bolt of energy. He shot it, and it bore straight through the Cosmo Queen's magical defense and severed her upper torso.
Von Stupor growled loudly and clenched his fist, his fist emitting a dark aura. Von Stupor himself must have been surprised to see this. Examining his hand, he clenched it again and strained himself, and before long, a dark aura appeared before his hand.
"Oh…?" he pondered. "Hmmm… memories…?"
What is he thinking? Lighty wondered to himself.
"Shadow Games… lovely fun… destruction… pain… torment… darkness," Von Stupor said to himself. Tapping his mask, he said to Lighty, "More than just a mask. I like it. Millennium Eye."
Lighty simply watched him in confused and frightened silence. Suddenly, he felt a prodding feeling in his head.
"'Mystical Space Typhoon'… 'The Sanctuary in the Sky'… your hand?" Von Stupor asked him.
Lighty was horrified.
"Not a good hand… you won't win," continued Von Stupor. "Stop calling for your brother… he's gone. I think… with the eye in this mask… I can separate you two forever…"
"W-what…?"
"If you brother's soul comes back… you won't be in the same realm anymore…"
"H-how?"
"I can make this a Shadow Game… and the loser is banished to the Shadow Realm… Combined with orichalcos seal…? Who knows?"
As Von Stupor said this, a dark fog erupted from the mask and engulfed Von Stupor and Lighty. Marron was nowhere to be seen.
"I set one M/T… end of turn…"
"H-how are you doing this?! Why now?!" Lighty asked, panicking.
"Just now figured it out… Need time for adjusting to life… just exploring the body's memories… important information there… ha ha ha…"
"Sh-Shinato… attack the face down card…" Lighty said, his voice shaking. "Oh, god… I got lucky when I fought Engar… but no one can save me from this… I should have never joined Dartz… if only I hadn't met him… then Zombie…!"
"A trap… 'Mirror Force'," stated Von Stupor. "Attack negated… and all attack position monsters are destroyed."
"If I ever get out of this… I swear I'll never try something like this again…" Lighty cried.
"'Monster Reborn'… I bring back the Cosmo Queen. Next, 'Shinato's Ark'… I sacrifice two monsters from my hand… appear, Shinato, King of a Higher Plane…"
Shinato appeared before Von Stupor and stared down Lighty.
"M-my card… you copied it…?" Lighty asked.
"Ha ha ha ha…" Von Stupor laughed. "I like this… Monsters, attack…"
Shinato sent a ray of light through Lighty's set card, igniting it. It turned out to be a Mask of Darkness. Von Stupor's Cosmo Queen then sent a green blast of energy at Lighty, wiping out the rest of his Life Points.
"I… lost…" Lighty moaned.
The purple seal of orichalcos closed in on a petrified Lighty and extracted his soul from his body. Rather than blasting off to Dartz in a ray of blue light, it instead remained as a luminescent purple sphere, floating in the air. The shadows that engulfed the two duelists faded, taking the sealed soul of Lighty von Light-Light with them as Lighty's body lay lifeless on the ground.
"Lighty is gone… forever…" Von Stupor said to Marron who had been sitting nearby, yet unable to watch the duel.
"Has Lighty been killed?"
"No… but his soul is on a permanent… hiatus."
Marron and Von Stupor stood, staring each other for a moment. Suddenly, Marron barked and spat something from his mouth onto Lighty in all of a fraction of a second. Then, in a flash, Marron turned and ran, activating his distress signal once more. As Marron ran, he saw Von Stupor merely standing in place, watching him.
Would you believe me if I told you that these matches are more difficult to do than other duels? It's hard to make someone get their ass kicked in a dramatic manner without the duel being too short. I really needed to think about this one, with help from RadicalR, of course. It gets kinda complicated, what with the cheating. A question to ponder, what do you guys think is going on with Baron Von Stupor?
Another note... we're approaching that time in the story where the chapter themes come into play! There is a musical theme I have arranged for the next chapter. I didn't dress it up to make it loop or anything, nor did I with any others. Send me an email with the subject 'fresh piney scent' and I'll send you the chapter theme song when I post the next chapter. Prepare for all hell to break loose!