Chapter 30- Across the Shadow Realm
"What are you talking about, Flynn?" Drake asked.
"Watch." Flynn pulled the card he had picked off the dead corpse of the guard fiend out of his pocket and walked over to a wall, which was covered in chains and blood. "Matt told me something. The Shadow Realm isn't spherical, like our world, but its flat. So, to eliminate inefficiency…" Flynn inserted the card into an almost unnoticeable slot in the wall. The wall slid down, revealing a small room with a small purple square in the center. "…teleporters. They can take you across the Shadow Realm in an instant."
"Really?" Keith said. "Well, that's good. I'd hate to have to walk all the way across the Shadow Realm."
"Yeah, find more fiends, almost get killed again and again, I know how you feel." Drake said.
"There's only one problem with these teleporters." Flynn said, and frowned. "Supplying power to them. They're not powered by anything like our electricity or something like that, they have to be powered by the people who use them."
"Oh. How do we do that?" Drake asked.
"You have to burn away a small portion of your soul."
"Ugh! Wouldn't that kill you?"
"Not entirely." Keith said. "It would hurt a lot, obviously, but it won't kill you. It'll just…" he thought for a moment, trying to phrase it correctly. "…destroy a part of you. Make you somewhat less human, or something like that. I can't really explain it, I saw an article on theory about souls once in some obscure magazine and read it. It's kind of vague, I'm not sure exactly what it'll do."
"So, who wants to go first?" Flynn said. No one spoke for a full five minutes. "Well, don't all volunteer at once. So, I pick… Drake to go first."
"What? Why me?" Drake asked.
"Because no one else is volunteering and I'm Sarge!"
"Damn." Drake stood facing the teleport pad for a while. Then, in a moment of stupid courage, he stepped forward. There was a rush of wind past his face, and he felt as if his energy was being slowly drained. The blood was rushing away from his face. All was dark around him. Then, light began to filter back into his senses. He could see a similar room to the one he had just left, except there was nothing in it. Flynn appeared behind him.
"It worked?"
"Either that or we died and went to the same place."
"Good. Keith and Julie are coming next." At that moment Keith appeared next to Flynn, still supporting Julie. He seemed exhausted.
"Ugh. I think I had to support both of us, Julie doesn't have much left." He said. She had fallen unconscious again. Drake couldn't blame her, he had only been shot once, and look what it done to him!
"We should get moving." Sarge said, resuming his role of command.
"Can someone else take Julie?" Keith asked. Drake threw Julie's other arm over his shoulder and pulled her off of Keith. Sarge checked his 203 and threw open the door to the hallway. A fiend was there to greet him. They decided to trade to get past him. He got a fair deal- a nice shiny grenade round. Several more were attracted by the generous offer. They too were given fair trades- somewhere around 55 SAW rounds. The noise finally attracted an intelligent fiend, who confronted them.
"Alright, you fools, you have defeated the brute force squad-"
"As usual." Flynn muttered.
"But you shall not pass me! I choose to duel… her!" The fiend pointed to Julie.
"You asshole, she can't duel." Drake said.
"I know! That means I win! And since I won, I get your souls!"
"Do the rules say that?" Keith said. "I thought you couldn't challenge an unconscious person to a duel. It's in the rulebook."
"Ah! But here's the rules of the Shadow Realm!" The fiend pulled a small manual, titled "Shadow Games and Shadow Duel Rules for Dummies," and flipped through a few pages. "See? Right here." He moved a little closer and let Keith read over his shoulder.
" 'In the event that the challenged duelist cannot duel, the duel is automatically won by the challenger and the challenger can therefore take his prize.' Damn, he's right." Keith said. "We're screwed."
"What? Let me see that." Flynn took the book that the fiend handed him and showed it to Drake. Sure enough, the rule that Keith had read was right there.
"So, I'll just take all of your souls now!" The fiend, who had stood patiently while they had checked the rules, now made a dramatic gesture with his hands. Julie lifted her head off of Drake's shoulder moments before he could do anything.
"Wait… I… I can duel." She said, very softly, almost inaudibly.
"Julie, you can't. You can barely speak, much less duel!" Drake said.
"I… have to. I can't… I can't let you lose your souls without me trying to do something about it."
"You could die! Don't be a hero!"
"N..no. I have to do this." She pulled her arm off of Drake and stood up. Her legs shaking from weakness, she slowly hobbled over to the fiend. "Let's duel…"
"Heh. So you can try to duel, but you won't win! Let's go!"
Julie: 4000Fiend: 4000
"I'll go first!" said the fiend, and drew a card. "Let's see… so many cards. I think I'll play Ookazi, to do 800 damage to your life points!"
Julie: 3200Fiend: 4000
"Then, I'll play Poison of the Old Man, to further hurt you- 800 more points of hurt!"
Julie: 2400Fiend: 4000
"Damn… he's playing a burn deck. He's going to drain her of her life so she can't fight." Keith said. "And he's off to a great start." Julie was already swaying on the spot, the Shadow Game already greatly weakening her.
"Heh. You can't win. I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn."
"Okay… my turn." Julie drew a card. "I summon Zure, Knight of Dark World (Dark/Fiend, 1800/1500) in attack mode." She winced as the pain of the Shadow Game overtook her. "A…attack…"
"Ha! That was my Giant Germ! And when he's destroyed, you lose 500 more life points!"
Julie: 1900Fiend: 4000
"Then, I special summon two more Giant Germs in attack mode (Dark/Fiend/Effect, 1000/100)!"
"I… set a card. Then… I'm done."
"Ha! It will be all you can do! I activate Restructor Revolution, which does 200 damage to your life points for every card in your hand! And since you have four, that's a further 800 damage you have taken!"
Julie: 1100Fiend: 4000
Julie clutched at her heart, swayed on the spot, and fell face down onto the ground. She lay there for a moment, then slowly, and with incredible effort, pushed herself to her feet. "I… can't stop fighting. I…have… to protect my friends."
The fiend began to laugh- a high, cold cruel laugh that Drake could have sworn he had heard before. "You fool, you are hardly alive, and you think to fight and win? I can win right now! And I think I will! I summon Gravekeeper's Curse (Dark/Spellcaster/Effect, 800/800), which now does 500 more damage to your life points!"
Julie: 600Fiend: 4000
Yet again, Julie grabbed her heart and began coughing up blood. Her legs gave out and she was on the ground again, still spitting up blood. She made an effort to stand up, but her arms gave out and she was again on the ground, but this time did not try to get up again.
"NO!" Drake shouted. "Julie! Get up!" She did not respond.
"No…" Keith said. "This isn't good…"
"Damn right about that." Flynn said. "With her down like that, there's nothing left to stop him from taking our souls…" Julie looked up from her position on the ground. Drake thought he saw something that looked like a blue mist hovering in front of her. She made another effort to get up, but her arms gave out again and she remained face down on the ground.
"Give it up!" The fiend said. "You cannot win! You are too weak to win this." A miraculous change came over Julie. Her labored breathing became easier. She stopped coughing. Then she stood up without any kind of difficulty. Drake saw a new light in her eyes- literally. There seemed to be something blue swimming around just behind her pupils. The fiend looked stunned. "What the…?"
"Let's finish this." Julie said. Her voice was steady and sure. The fiend, despite his initial surprise, regained his composure.
"Fine! I'll be winning soon anyway. Giant Germ, attack Zure!"
"What the hell is he doing?" Drake asked. "Zure is much stronger!"
"That's what he wants." Keith said. "When Germ is destroyed, Julie will take 500 damage. And since he has two…"
"He can do at least 1000 damage by ramming into Zure. The damage that he will receive is negligible, so long as he can survive it physically. He will defeat Julie without even destroying her monster." Flynn finished.
"Oh. Crap." Drake said.
"Now that they have shut up and stopped discussing, Giant Germs, ram into Zure and end this!"
"I play Negate Attack. Now you won't win this turn." Julie said.
"Fine then. There's no possible way that you can win this turn."
"Hm. Not quite." Julie drew her card. "I play the Ritual Spell Card End of the World! Now, I can sacrifice eight star's worth of monsters in order to summon a monster, either Demise, King of Armageddon, or Ruin, Queen of Oblivion. For this situation, I'll need Ruin. I send Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World and Sillva, Warlord of Dark World from my hand to the graveyard, and special summon Ruin, Queen of Oblivion (Light/Fairy/Ritual/Effect, 2300/2000)."
"Wow, when did Julie get so good?" Keith asked.
"I… I don't think that's entirely Julie." Flynn said.
"What are you talking about?" Drake said.
"How do you think she suddenly got all this strength? I can't really explain it. But I think that somehow, someway, Matt has taken possession of Julie. As if he was just a ghost, or something like that."
"…But that would mean that Matt is dead." Drake said. "I guess that kills our hope of finding him…"
"Yeah, I guess your right." Keith said. Even though he was now faced with a huge battery of strong monsters, the fiend laughed.
"You still can't win in one turn! No matter what you do, I win!"
"Not quite. I play Pot of Greed. Now I can draw two more cards." She did so. "I play Tribute to the Doomed! Now, by discarding one card, I can destroy one of your monsters! So, I discard this…" She slid a card into her graveyard. "…and I'll destroy one of the two Giant Germs! And because it was not destroyed in battle, its effect does not activate. And now, because he was discarded from my hand, I can special summon Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World (Dark/Fiend/Effect, 1600/1300) in attack mode! Now, Ruin, Queen of Oblivion, destroy Giant Germ!"
Julie(?): 600Fiend: 2900
"You forget, now you take 500 damage!"
"So? I'll kill you long before you can hurt me again."
Julie(?): 100Fiend: 2900
Julie didn't even react to the damage. "Because Ruin destroyed a monster, she can attack again, so she'll attack Gravekeeper's Curse!"
Julie: 100Fiend: 1600
"And since she destroyed another monster, Ruin can attack again! So now, Ruin, destroy him!"
"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…"
Julie(?): 100 Fiend: 0The fiend exploded like his compatriots before him. The miraculous strength left Julie, and she fell to the ground. Drake managed to catch her, like Matt only a few hours earlier, before she hit the ground.
"You have terrible luck." Drake whispered. "Take a break."
"We need to get moving again." Flynn said. "If it's true that they killed Matt, then our job just got a lot harder."