Songs of Aurelius Chapter Fifteen
Sorry for the super long wait but it's finally here, new chapter!
Alright, there are still some things that are needed to take care of before Battle City so here we go!
Also I will be cutting a lot because I don't really like put lots and lots of basic recap of what actually happens in the series. I didn't create Ailis and Aurelius for no reason after all so please bear with it.
Songs of Aurelius
"Go dice roll!" I dropped the dice and it rolled around the board landing on four. "Alright, chance card…" I picked up the card at the top and read, "Move your piece eight spaces forward and collect $5 from each player." I smile as Yugi and Joey paid me. "Man, you're too good at games Ailis…" Joey groaned and Tea laughed, "Didn't you say you were going to win this?" I glanced back at the board game and moved my piece eight spaces forward. "Chance card again?" I took another chance card from the pile, "Congratulations you have earned $20," I blinked and Yugi handed me the fake money. "That means I win! I got all $1000!" I grinned and Yugi and I cleaned up the board as Joey slumped on the couch. "I just got beat by another girl… and she's shorter than Yugi!" I put the board game back in its box as Tea had informed Joey, "Ailis is a national duel champion in both Europe AND Australia AND she almost beat Yugi at Duelist Kingdom if she didn't pass out. That reminds me, why did you pass out back there?" I hummed as I tried to recall that day.
"I guess you can say my body can't handle heat even though I was born back in Egypt. In Egypt, I had to stay away from the sun's strong rays so my family and I lived underground. Soon, I guess they got tired of me weighing them down and sent me to Domino City to live with my cousins." I smiled and we all heard the front door open from downstairs. Curious as to who would come at this time of night, we all ran downstairs to greet, "M-Mokuba!?"
"So you're saying the only way Kaiba can escape is by winning the game?" Yugi asked as I handed Mokuba a cup of hot cocoa. "But if those creeps reprogrammed the entire adventure to keep Kaiba trapped there, how is that possible?" Tea asked as well and Mokuba simply replied, "I-I don't know but I thought maybe you could help…" "Calm down Mokuba, now tell us how those virtual pods work." Mokuba explained what he knew so far and I hummed, "Prototypes… so there are other ones?" Joey asked and Mokuba nodded, "We'll go to his lab and use those prototypes to go to the virtual world and save him, don't worry Mokuba. We're here to help!" I smiled and pat his head.
SOMETIME LATER
"There they are…" In the dim light, I could see four pods in the room and I squinted to get a better look. "Only four pods, I guess someone's staying here. I say Tristan," I stifled a laugh and went back to checking the pod I was currently looking at.
"Wait so me, Yugi and Mokuba are going but there's still one pod left…" Joey trailed off as I immediately raised my hand, "I want to go too!" Joey stared at me for a second, "Are you sure girly?" I slightly pouted and retorted, "I'm a national champion you know, maybe you could use a few tips from me…" I teased and plopped myself down onto the seat. "Sorry Joey, she's got you there." Tristan commented.
IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD
"This place really does feel pretty real," I glanced at the scenery and back at my deck. "Good thing my deck's with me or I might… wait are those life points? Now that makes me pretty nervous…" I sighed out as we walked around and reached, "C-C-Cemetery!?" I hesitated as the group walked a few steps ahead. "Here Ailis, take my hand." Yugi gently grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the cemetery. I bit my lip trying not to look at the gravestones, "AH!" The ground started to crumble over by Joey and I froze, "Zombie alert!" Joey yelled as I quickly hid behind Yugi, "Wait a minute; these zombies are nothing but duel monsters! So if I draw a card… I don't really know what." That's right; this is just a game…!
"I summon the Rude Kaiser (1800 ATK) 1600 DEF)!" "I summon the Dark Magician (2500 ATK 2100 DEF)!"
'Alright Ailis, get ahold of yourself!' I quickly breathed in and out, "I summon the Silent Swordsman (2300 ATK 1000 DEF)," "ATTACK!" I watched the three monsters destroy the zombies epically, naturally somehow I high fived the Silent Swordsman… somehow. Suddenly, the three zombies had come back again and I realize that they'll just keep coming back and back… like real zombies.
"So if I activate Shield and Sword…" The ATK and DEF of the zombies had switched as Joey shouted, "Alright you two, it's your turn!" "Dark Magician, attack with Dark Magic Attack!" "Silent Swordsman, slice them up!" The zombies disappeared and didn't return and we all cheered. "Hey, check it out!" I picked up a card that had shown a five and some kind of coins. "This must be some type of scoring system," I blinked and replied, "Well if I remember right, in most games you usually get some kind of currency when you win a battle." They nodded and Joey had exclaimed, "Why aren't my life points going back up?" Suddenly, we heard a petite sound come from behind a gravestone and walked to it. It was a fairy, "Hey I bet it's one of them fairies that help the players out,"
SOMETIME LATER
After a comical situation, we split up to ask the townsfolk about Seto's whereabouts.
"You guys, I got a great lead! You see that mountain there; an old woman said she saw a man with a prisoner head up there earlier this morning. Supposedly, there's some kind of ancient temple at the top and the only way to get there is by crossing this desert." Suddenly, Mokuba started running for it and instinctively we followed.
"I gotta hand it to your brother, this virtual sand tastes like real sand." Joey commented as I smiled, "Are you implying that you've eaten sand before?" "N-NO!" "We should go back; it's getting pretty rough…" Yugi suggested and Mokuba had refused. "Look, it's a sand twister!" We all looked at the twister of sand heading right towards us.
AFTER THE TWISTER HAD HIT… SOMETIME LATER
"Hey you two lovebirds, sorry to ruin your moment but wake up!" I blinked and felt a weight on my back. Turning my head I saw a shade of violet, "Y-Y-Yugi!?" "S-Sorry Ailis!" I stretched my limbs and removed the sand from my eyes as I glance at Mokuba's sulking form. 'We're definitely getting Seto back Mokuba,'
"No card stands have the Niwatori card… although that elder said it was a-" I felt the shockwave of realization hit both Yugi and I, "Prized, that's it!" Yugi and I ran off to a sign that signaled what we wanted at the time.
AFTER SOME WALKING
"One of you as a coliseum warrior… I don't know, this city kept its gladiator matches quite seriously but if it's a shot at the champion you desire- one moment," The toad-frog-man-thing shot his tongue out to and unsuspecting fly and swallowed it before continuing, "Here, your battle mask and combat cape." He handed a pig mask and a green cape to Yugi. "If you're going to lose all of your life points then you may as well look like a hero."
"Give that stuff to me Yug," Joey stepped up and we all look at him. "What do you mean Joey?" "I'm not letting you risk your life points for this pal, I'll fight that champion." Yugi tried to argue but Joey had insisted, thus having him to fight the champion.
SOMETIME LATER
There were cheers heard from all over the stadium and the toad-frog-man-thing introduced the combatants, I could only shove my laughter down my throat as Joey entered the coliseum. Insults were shouted to Joey and I could only frown, that was kind of mean. Then, the champion came… sitting on a throne. I squinted to get a better look, somehow that woman seems familiar. Her hairstyle is definitely familiar, if only I could see the face behind the mask. 'Who do you think it is Hikari?' I mentally asked Hikari who I sensed shrugged.
"Huh, I knew guys could be dirty as pigs; didn't know they dress like one. Hope you duel better than you smell you slime," The woman remarked as I hummed, that voice is kind of familiar too. "You know what I like about butterflies? They don't' talk," Joey shot back and I sensed Hikari slap her hand to her forehead. "Flame Swordsman," Joey summoned and the woman summoned Harpy Lady. "That monster really reminds me of Mai," I murmur as Joey called an attack with his Flame Swordsman activating a trap, "Mirror Wall reminds me of Yugi's and Mai's duel too…" I puffed out my cheeks and I came to a theory, the champion IS Mai… no doubt about that. The cards and the attitude is exactly the same! Mai activated the spell card Rose Whip and her Harpy Lady was about to attack the Flame Swordsman then all of a sudden, Joey had taken off his pig mask along with Mai cancelling Harpy Lady's attack. "What are you doing here Mai?" I hear Yugi ask from my right as both Mokuba and Yugi jumped over the railing. I glanced down and paled,
"W-wow these s-seats are uh, r-really high…" I stammered and glanced down at the arena. "Ailis, are you afraid of heights?" Yugi asked in concern as I struggled to put on a poker face. "Haha, o-of course not! T-This is n-nothing, I'm n-not afraid of a f-few f-feet above g-ground!" I bit my lip and closed my eyes and jumped over the railing, "Here I got you," I landed in Yugi's arms and he gently lowered me to the ground. "A-ah, thank you…"
ACROSS THE DESERT
I drifted off into thought on our way to the supposed temple that was all the way across the desert. 'I wonder if I'll ever see Amunet again, although the chances of that are really low.' I sighed as Hikari appeared in spirit form behind me on the Niwatori. 'It's fine if we don't find her right away Ailis, we still have to find Seto Kaiba for Mokuba. Think about the task at hand,' I exhaled and closed my eyes, 'I want to help you Hikari, you seem really confused and lost because of those recent memories you know?' Hikari frowned and replied, 'It's not exactly lost but more like… I don't know, some memories hurt and all are very confusing. All of which never answers the question, who am I?' I frowned as well and quickly answered, 'That's easy, you're Hikari. A spirit in a mirror and a songstress, also my best friend,'
Suddenly, a large sandstorm flew by and cracks began to expand to reveal another monster. "Alright, I'll kick over this sand castle with my Red Eyes Black Dragon!" Joey commanded an attack and the monster was gone thus clearing the way. "Look through the dust; do you see what I see?" "Some sort of ancient temple; that must be what we're looking for,"
INSIDE
"This isn't so bad," I comment as we walked up to a door. "I don't know Ailis, this place looks kinda creepy." Joey replied and opened the door, only to find a labyrinth. "It's like when you two dueled those ParaDox brothers huh Yug?" Joey remarked and the door behind us had closed, "It's alright, it's just a game and we'll never reach the end of the game by going backwards anyway. This means, we gotta go through that maze in order to find Kaiba." Suddenly, a scream erupted from the labyrinth and Joey charged in. "Wait if this is Labyrinth Wall then… where are Wall Shadow and Labyrinth Tank?" I asked out loud and a crash came from behind us. "Oops," I cringed and the four of us sprinted into the Labyrinth Wall.
"Joey watch out!" I narrowed my eyes to see Joey trying to choose between two paths. He turned around and shrieked in surprise so we ended up running to the left with another Labyrinth Tank right in front of us. I grit my teeth, we had three possible directions to go but Labyrinth Tanks are coming from every path. "I'll use my Magical Hats!"
"Ouch Joey, that's my foot…" "Sorry," The Magical Hat wore off and we ended up safe and in one piece. I could hear a metallic clink from the other side signaling they were changing direction and heading after us. Suddenly, the fairy from the cemetery came from above and gestured towards a direction. Not having much of a choice, we followed the fairy to see a girl… version of Mokuba. "Check it out Mokuba, looks like that fairy's turned you into a girl." I glanced back between the girl and Mokuba; did Seto really have Mokuba become a princess in this game? Sure basing a character off a relative is okay but switching genders is kind of odd.
Eru the fairy tried to lead us to the exit only to find… the Gate Guardian, "Looks like I'll have to summon something… but what?" "Ailis, the Dark Sorcerer Girl!" Yugi shouted and I shook my head in response, "I have to have spell-caster monsters in my graveyard in order to have her accumulate the right amount of ATK points!" I bit my lip and widened my eyes in realization.
"Alright, I summon Magical Girl Alice (1600 ATK 1000 DEF) and I activate Magical Chainsaw to summon Magical Girl Kyoru Chainsaw (2300 ATK 1000 DEF)!" I exclaimed as Kyoru Chainsaw appeared in front of me with a grin, "That girl doesn't have enough ATK points Ailis!" I hear Mai say but I brushed her off, "Now I activate Chainsaw Queen Ritual, if I have a Magical Girl Kyoru Chainsaw on the field I can sacrifice her to bring out… Magical Girl Chainsaw Queen (3300 ATK 1000 DEF)!" A small girl in a princess dress that was half torn and a tiara appeared onto the field wielding a large chainsaw. "Now finally I activate another card, Magic Power, for every card that has Magical Girl in its name the monster I equip this to gains 500 ATK points! Now Magical Girl Chainsaw Queen has 4300 ATK points, attack with Royal Ripping Chainsaw!"
"That's amazing; you're all so brave; much like the heroes of legend." The princess kindly complimented as a large group of villagers came from the exit with torches.
THE CARRIAGE RIDE
"Well I don't know what to make of this crazy game world but I like this part better than that maze." Joey spoke as Mai also remarked, "I like Edina, at least she knows how to travel in high style." "That's true, Mokuba you should be flattered that Kaiba based such a cool character on you." Yugi had said and I glance at the scenery outside. "This place is a lot more beautiful than that maze," I pointed out as the others looked out the window.
As we were walking on a red royal carpet, Eru decided to sit at the top of Yugi's bangs. I suppressed the urge to giggle and glanced at the interior, 'It's a nice material don't you think Hikari?' 'A nice color for a nice place and its friendly villagers,'
THE DINING ROOM
I watched Joey gobble up all the food he could fit into his mouth and picked at mine slowly munching on the desert that was sent for me.
"Well, I didn't want to say this before but many people disappear when it is time for the offerings." I quickly snapped my eyes towards Edina when she had spoken. "Every year at this time, offerings are collected from this and another kingdom so the Mythic Dragon can be resurrected. The other kingdom has already put up their offering, some stranger from a distant land." I bit my lip as Edina revealed Seto's location, "He's in a Dark Castle floating in the sky," "The Castle of Dark Illusions?" Yugi asked and I remembered back at Duelist Kingdom when Yugi had dueled Panik. Panik used the Castle of Dark Illusions then but in the end, Yugi was victorious.
"That painting tells the tale; we have passed down the legend for many generations. Long ago, a hero escaped that dreaded castle on a flying machine. It is said they hid its vessel in Simlow a thousand years ago; his ship was never found and there's no other way to reach the Dark Castle."
"We could fly there on Joey's dragon," Mai suggested and Edina immediately replied, "A magic barrier protects the castle; no duel monsters can penetrate it." Mokuba's expression darkened and Mai tried to cheer him up, "Don't you worry just keep telling yourself this is just a game; we can solve it." The maid and Edina's eyes widen but Mai quickly covered up her mistake, "I mean life's a game! So what are you going to do about your kingdom's offering?" The two had visibly saddened and Edina meekly replied, "I volunteered…"
"Don't worry about my fate for with the legend comes a prophecy and epic heroes will come to Simlow from beyond the distant mountains. It is these great heroes who united will create a power that is strong enough to destroy the Mythic Dragon." Edina explained. "Are you saying that's us?" "Are you saying… that we're the epic heroes from the prophecy?" "Yes!"
"Alright, Super Joey is here to save the day!"
"To properly prepare you, we will adorn you in the manner of our greatest heroes."
SOMEWHERE IN THE PALACE
'This outfit is really tight,' I walked around a bit behind the curtain trying to get used to the costume Edina gave me. 'Don't forget to tie your hair,' Hikari reminded as I nod and neatly tied my long black-violet hair up in a ponytail leaving my bangs untouched and the Millennium Mirror at the side.
"But Joey, this is the garb of our bravest legendary hero!" I heard the maid say to Joey and I paused. 'I guess I'm last to be shown huh,'
"Come on out now Ailis, don't be shy." The maid's arm reached for mine and pulled me out from behind the curtain. "W-Wait," It was too late, I really wasn't ready to be shown in this kind of outfit. "Wow Ailis, if I were a guy than I would so date you!" Mai complimented and gave me a pat on the back. "Y-You think so?" I turned in my outfit and glanced to see Yugi and Joey.
What was I wearing you ask? Well, it was really tight that's for sure. I had on a black leather skin tight sleeveless turtleneck top that cut off right below my chest showing my stomach. If that wasn't embarrassing enough I also had on black mid-thigh jean shorts that had two belts hang loosely on both sides showing nearly my whole legs. But shoes were shoes; there were simple black ninja sandals and obsidian/silver shin guards and gauntlets to match. To finish off I had dual blades strapped behind my back, although I don't think I'll need them.
"So what do you guys think?" Mai asked and Joey was the first to reply, "Almost as revealing as my battle armor!" I blink and glanced at the suit Joey was wearing, "Pfft…" I covered my mouth to hide the laugh that bubbled in my throat. "Hey I know you're laughing there!" We turned to Yugi who stared with a red face, "So how does Ailis look Yugi?" Mai smirked and pushed me forward. "U-umm well… ah uh…" Yugi stuttered and I tilt my head with my hair trailing behind me. "Y-you look great…" He murmured and I felt my face heat up immensely. Suddenly, thunder had roared throughout the skies from the window.
END OF CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I decided to start the Legendary Heroes arc right after Duelist Kingdom just to get it out of the way just saying. Also, the next chapter will wrap everything up for the rest of the arc because it isn't too long so yep.
Anyway, date between Hikari and Yami… anything anyone requests to happen because it might be the longest chapter I'll write because we need some Hikari/Yami action around here!
Battle City is just around the corner… it will be waiting!
PREVIEW OF CHAPTER SIXTEEN
"I summon Crystal Mirror Dragon (2400 ATK 1900 DEF)!"
"Lead us to victory…Yami."