Chapter 4: Gods and Their Shadows
Bryan and Matt were greeted inside the atrium by the sight of a duel already underway. The sight of the holographic chamber gave Matt a start. A massive dragon towered over the field on its hind legs, its whole body coated in powerful armor teeming with Shadow energy. Its roar unleashed a shockwave that rattled Matt to his bones as he recalled the last time.
"The Wicked Eraser (+3000/+3000) gains attack and defense points equal to 1000 times the number of cards on your field. That makes my monster the strongest on the field. But as powerful as this god is on the field, it is his removal that brings me the greatest advantage. The Wicked Eraser can destroy itself, and when it is destroyed, it takes with it every card on the field!" Maya's third god card began to focus all of its energy into its center; an eruption of such focused energy would result in a massive explosion.
Matt stared at the Duel Disk as it offered him the chance to activate his facedown card. He debated playing Waboku; doing so would protect him for the turn, but what was the point?
"What happens if you win this duel?" he asked Maya.
Excited that she thought she already did, she told him, "I will ascend into a higher plane of existence where I will gain power unimaginable by human minds. I will become a true god!"
The Wicked Eraser (+2000) was just as imposing as last time. Maybe more so because of the context. Maya's intention had been the completion of a ritual regardless of what the Shadows did with her opponent. But the man on stage who stood behind The Wicked Eraser had a much darker nature about him. He didn't seek so lofty a goal as to improve himself and become a god. All his energy focused on destroying his opponent.
But his opponent was Ren Bacon, the man who held Obelisk the Tormentor (10/4000/4000), that towering body of muscle comprising the darkness itself. Obelisk's fierce expression was unchanging in its ferocity since the last time Bryan saw that card in the hands of his fiancée, yet this was the first time he truly feared its power.
Obelisk and the Egyptian Gods were said to be the physical incarnation of the collective consciousness known as the Shadow Realm, made real by the legendary Maximilian Pegasus. The Wicked Gods were created by the same man. Seeing this duel was as if looking at a god and his shadow. Which of the two would prove more powerful?
"I recognize Ren Bacon," Bryan said, indicating the holder of Obelisk. He was not a tall man, but his girth was difficult to judge beneath the pile of snow gear he wore to keep himself warm. That smug grin, the short and curly hair, and the hideous way he chuckled at just about everything made him come off like the type of guy who tried to talk big and pick fights to make up for his lack of height. In other words, a little prick.
"But who's the other guy?" Matt finished the question. Ren's opponent was also a short man whose hairline receded halfway across his scalp. He had a crooked smile, revealing teeth so perfectly white they betrayed the fact that they were surgically implanted to replace the chipped teeth he obtained in many schoolyard brawls, as a kid with a short temper was apt to participate in. "I believe that may be Leo Gambini. If I'm right, he was recently accused of defrauding his patrons in his Las Vegas casino."
Even beyond what Matt knew about, Gambini effectively owned half of the enterprise of Las Vegas. In his civilian life, dozens of dummy corporations and subsidiaries of his company purchased the lands and established casinos along the Vegas Strip, giving him a network in which all casinos provided money directly to his coffers—an overall enterprise in excess of ten billion dollars per year. By controlling all avenues of gambling, he assured that the flow of money was under his control alone. He assumed a similar approach in a duel.
On the field, Ren laughed at the sight of The Wicked Eraser. "You may have summoned a god card, but your scrawny little beansprout of a god doesn't have as much power as Obelisk does."
"You are wrong there, my friend," Leo replied cordially. "While my god card may have less attack power than yours, mine is still a more destructive force. Watch this, okay?" The body of The Wicked Eraser began to darken until it became nothing more than pure shadow, held in place by shadow-forged armor. "It can sacrifice itself whenever it wants. You know why?" Leo's expression hardened. "Just to wipe that smug look off your face."
A white light the size of a pinprick appeared in Eraser's abdomen, and then the god's body exploded. The blast struck Ren with such force that it blinded him to the room and shoved him violently against the back rail of the duelist platform on which he stood. The entire dueling field was cleared of monster and spell alike. Even the audience felt the shockwave jolt their nervous systems.
The duel paused until the deafening effect of the blast faded. Leo grinned. "How does that feel, you pompous little jerk?"
As Ren peeled himself off the rail, he moved with a noticeable limp stemming from a severe crick in his lower back. "You hit like a girl," he replied. Leo growled in reply, but his reaction turned to shock when he saw the monster appear on Ren's field. Though with a simian essence in its appearance, the big and stout monster more closely resembled a green-furred troll, equipping hard shell armor and lugging a wooden club.
"You summoned Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest (7/2600/1800)," Leo grumbled, watching Ren's Life Points fall by 1000 to do so. "But that can only be summoned if I destroy a beast-type monster. Obelisk was a Divine-Beast."
"Ojama King was a beast," Ren replied. He finally recovered enough from the pain of Eraser's blast to resume his smug expression. "What are you going to do now that you have no cards on your field?"
"My plan doesn't change," Leo told him. "It's just unfortunate that it doesn't end the duel. I'll play Monster Reborn to revive Felgrand Dragon (8/2800/2800)." The field began to shimmer brightly as a second dragon rose from the underground, covered in golden scales as bright as the sun. Felgrand was smaller than Eraser had been, but those golden scales began to teem with the same Shadows that came from the fallen god. "Felgrand (+4800) gains power from any monster in my Graveyard, specifically equal to that monster's level times 200 points. Your little troll is dead meat!"
Felgrand spewed a stream of golden fire wrapped in black wisps of energy. Powered by The Wicked Eraser, Felgrand's attack incinerated Green Baboon instantly. The fire also scorched the platform where Ren stood as he took cover behind the display board. Again, he was slow to recover, but he managed to brush himself off and get back up.
Ren 3500 – 1000 – 2200 = 300: Leo 3000.
"Obelisk is not indestructible," Ren admitted through clenched teeth, "but he's the most powerful god you'll ever lay eyes on. Monster Reincarnation will let me take Obelisk back into my hand if I discard." The Shadows burst across the field, very briefly taking the form of Obelisk the Tormentor. "In addition to that very spectacular fact, I discarded Ojamuscle, which means I can put three more Ojama cards in my hand.
"But an Ojama in the hand is worth three in the Graveyard," he continued. "Tri-Wight lets me revive Ojama Yellow, Green, and Black (2/0/1000)." Three small imps with scrawny bodies wearing nothing but bikini briefs bounced out of the card Graveyard. Even Leo held his breath for a moment in fear. He knew what happened when the opponent held a god card in the hand with three monsters on the field. "I'll send all three Ojamas back to the Graveyard to summon Obelisk the Tormentor (10/4000/4000) once again!"
The three Ojamas just summoned to the field weakened immensely and immediately, their bodies becoming transparent as they clung to one another for strength against the pitch-black backdrop. Spiritually transformed, they drifted into the air over the residue gold flame. Suddenly the backdrop shifted and presented a pair of eyes. It was as if Obelisk's massive form existed on the field all along. The enormous face focused down and shrank to the size of the field. The three Ojamas disappeared in a flash of darkness that gave physical form to the enormous god of darkness.
A slight tremble betrayed Leo's true feelings, but his confidence held firmly. "What good will that do you? Obelisk is weaker than Felgrand Dragon is, plus Obelisk can't be targeted by the types of effects that can make him stronger." He tried to laugh and sound superior. "You're stuck!"
"We'll see." Ren subtly placed a card face-down on the field.
"I got ten times your Life Points," Leo laughed. Staring down Obelisk wasn't so bad when the god wasn't attacking. "And you've got no way to attack me. That means I've got the upper hand. Not only that, my dragon has the power of The Wicked Eraser inside him. This duel's in the bag. Go get 'im!" Felgrand unleashed another wave of golden fire coated in Shadows, but the flame parted when three sorceresses appeared in front of Obelisk and protected him. Each of the sorceresses dissolved in the attack, but their sacrifice was enough to defend their towering god.
Ren avoided a direct attack thanks to his Waboku trap, but he still felt the heat of the attack. As cold as it was, sweat poured from his forehead.
"Waboku," Leo scoffed. "I thought only grade schoolers used that card."
"It figures you learned how to duel against grade schoolers," Ren mocked. He finally stood up as tall as he could and pretended he felt no effects from the attack. "What else have you got?"
Leo glowered at Ren for several agonizing seconds. Finally, he broke into a little grin. "Okay, okay, okay. You get one more turn, you lucky schmuck. I'll just place this one itty-bitty card face-down and end my turn."
"I hate it when you try to be cute," Ren grumbled.
"I hate it when you talk."
Ren growled with a little bit of hatred for himself. I should have said that instead!
"I'll summon Ojama Red (2/0/1000)." Wearing red bikini briefs and a yellow scarf, a cartoonish imp appeared on the field and began dancing around, gyrating wildly among the Shadows that poured off Obelisk's body. Soon Ojama Green and Black appeared on the field beside him. "You want to see how powerful Obelisk is? Watch him eat Green and Black!" The two Ojamas panicked as Obelisk reached down and grasped them like they were no bigger than reeds. He held them tightly as their bodies dissipated into Shadows, giving each of Obelisk's arms a stronger sheen, filled to the brim with energy eager to escape.
With a single, bracing step forward, Obelisk swung both arms wide and clapped them together with the force of a storm. The collision snapped like thunder and the resulting shockwave carried hurricane-level winds. Felgrand and Leo both struggled to resist the intensity, but the attack ultimately proved stronger than Leo and he fell from the platform—or so Bryan thought. Leo collapsed in place, but it looked as if a shadow of him was ejected from his body during Obelisk's attack. All the Shadows circling Felgrand's body extinguished right away. With his power dwindling at his feet, Felgrand Dragon succumbed to Obelisk's assault and vanished within the swarming Shadows.
"Now I can think of no better punishment for a blasphemer like you than to perish at the hands of the Ojama family!" Ren mocked. Activating Ojama Country from his hand, he discarded Ojama Yellow to revive Ojama King (6/+3000/-0), a creature resembling an egg with limbs, wearing red bikini briefs and a green cape. "An empty field is the only thing the Ojamas are good for." With Ojama King shouting orders through song, Ojamas Yellow (1000) and Red (1000) shuffled across the field, largely hidden by the Shadows until the moment they struck directly at the location of the arena where Leo would be standing had Obelisk not thrown him down.
Ren 300: Leo 3000 – 3000 = 0.
The holograms faded, the duel platforms lowered to the ground, and the station powered down as the duel came to a close. Ren stepped off the platform and returned to a small group of the room's guards, one of whom wrapped him in a warming blanket and began massaging his shoulders while the others began checking his vital signs. Nobody rushed to Leo Gambini's aid until one tall woman finally spoke something in Italian to a guard. He hoisted Leo off the snow and carried him over one shoulder into the receiving hall of the citadel. The woman didn't even follow.
"Ren Bacon is a ruthless opponent," Matt commented gravely. "And his Ojama deck seems to work very well alongside Obelisk. Our only advantage lies in our extensive knowledge of the card. Fortunately your fiancée was the former owner of Obelisk so that affords us a bit of insight not commonly available."
"Doesn't mean it will be easy," Bryan pointed out. "You just feel confident because you took down all three Egyptian Gods last time."
"Yes, but Eden McCain was no Ren Bacon."
"McCrae."
"What?"
"Eden McCrae was the girl who worked with Maya Kawamura to control the Egyptian God cards."
"Who did I say?"
"Eden McCain was a fictional character from Heroes. She was the mental persuasion girl, I think."
"Hmm. They looked similar, though, right?"
"Not after the Shadow Realm consumed her body." Though Matt was the only one who saw Eden's charred body, blackened and turned inside out when overdosed with Shadows, Bryan saw a similar sight when he defeated the Sacred Beasts and the Shadow Realm consumed Eden's dueling cohort. Neither opponent experienced an easy death in confrontation with the Shadow Realm. Their horrid screams were drowned out only by the roar of Shadows as their bodies were rent and left in shambles. When Maya tried to enter the Shadow Realm, her body disintegrated. She was luckier. Even Leo Gambini got off easy.
One young man nearby approached Bryan and Matt. He was dressed in a black coat with a high collar that covered the lower half of his face, yet because he wore no hood, his features were still visible. His face was thin but hairier than the two guys' combined efforts. A full beard connected his dark hair from one sideburn to the other, wrapping his mouth in such coarse hair as could be a reverse cowl. He wore a woolen headband to keep the heat along his forehead and ears. His overall weight was difficult to gauge with the winter clothing, but Bryan sized him up to be a thin guy, even shorter than Matt by a couple of inches, but possibly a few years older.
The young man said, "I'm surprised to find other people my age here. Then again, I'm not too surprised that someone represents Duel Academy at this place. Are you here to reclaim your cards?"
Bryan stared in silence for a moment. "You look familiar to me. Did you play football back in high school?"
"No. It was a duel," Matt argued. He smiled slightly as he pointed a finger at the young man. "Garry Daher, I believe. You came to Duel Academy as Godwin University's representative for the School Duel during my freshman year." He looked back at Bryan and reminded him, "You'll remember him as the sneaky opponent—the one touted as being a 'first-year student' even though he was a senior transfer student."
"Oh yeah," Bryan remembered. "I believe you won that duel."
"He did," the young man Garry agreed. "I almost had him, but that Dark Magician deck snuck out the win at the last minute."
"He does that a lot."
Seeing Garry sent Matt briefly down memory lane. "The Dark Magician deck? Boy, it feels like ages ago when I last used that deck."
"You don't still play it?"
"No. I gave it to my sister, though I don't think she really uses it much. Probably more of a paperweight in her hands than anything else. She's much too brainy to get involved in the world of dueling. I'm not sure why I gave it to her."
"Then I hope your current deck is at least as powerful," Garry spoke. "I don't know how much of the duel you just saw, but you must have seen how deadly the god cards are. And some of the people here do not look like friendly types."
With the duel over, this was the first time Bryan really took a good look around the room. The crowd seemed diverse in culture and background, with some wearing jackets bearing sports logos and some wearing jackets that cost more than Zambia's GDP. He definitely recognized Joseph Titus from videos regarding last semester's GX tournament. But everyone carried themselves well and with a great deal of confidence. Holding a god card gave anyone that kind of boost, but the air shifted decidedly with Ren's victory as he claimed Cusillu. A second god card gave him a clear advantage over any and all opponents. Whoever dueled next would deal with the mounting tension that came with the desperate need to obtain a second god card in order to stand a chance against the excitable billionaire.
"You're probably in the best position to win right now," Bryan commented to Matt.
"Why's that?" asked Garry.
"He's referring to my god cards," Matt answered, but his reply triggered a realization within him. "Garry, why were you invited here?" Bryan couldn't believe he didn't think of that, either. Both guys stared back at Garry, eager to learn what he could share.
Garry was pleased to announce, "I have Raviel, Lord of Phantasms." The last time he and Matt met, he ran a deck full of fiend-type monsters—Infernity monsters, specifically. In a world where coincidence was commonplace, this alignment was almost too perfect. And how had it come about? Raviel was among the god cards buried in the ground at Duel Academy before its sudden and nearly miraculous disappearance. Someone would have noticed if a graduated student from another school had come to the island and started digging around in the woods.
Bryan was the one to ask, "Have you been to Duel Academy recently?"
"Not since the School Duel. Why?"
"Because the last time I checked, I was the one who earned that card and am its rightful owner. Where did you get it?"
"I know you're probably expecting a convoluted story about how I ventured into the mythical Shadow Realm and returned with a powerful card representing my strength," said Garry as he read the eager faces before him, "but the fact is the card was in my mailbox one day."
"Your mailbox?" Bryan repeated loudly.
Matt added, "That does seem rather anticlimactic. Was it addressed to you?"
"Not in an envelope. Just sitting there among the junk mail. At first I thought it was a fake or some kind of picture postcard with the holographic image, but after I played it in a duel a few times, I recognized it as the actual card that used to be at Duel Academy, and I verified it with Headmaster Charleston from Godwin University. It took me long enough to get the card away from him, but I always figured someone from Duel Academy would come looking for it again eventually."
Bryan caught the implication. "Unfortunately, the only thing we had to do with this gathering was my invitation. We're just hoping to collect the god cards while we're here and return home without getting ourselves killed. In my experience, there's not a lot of chance of recovering when the Shadow Realm takes you." With thoughts of what happened to the last people who lost a duel to the god cards, he opened his hand toward Garry. "Any chance you want to turn that over to me without the risk?"
Garry withdrew a few steps, so much that Matt told him, "No. Forget him. We're not going to take the card from you by force. He was just trying to warn you that by using that card, you put yourself in the kind of danger that may be particularly difficult to escape unscathed. Think of the stories, the legends of the Shadow Realm and what it does to people."
"I get what you're saying. You should understand where I'm coming from with this. My first instinct is to say 'you're both crazy' and move on, but I've seen what these cards do to people. Videos of them get pulled from the Internet because of their association with police investigations. They may just look like cards, but normal cards don't sparkle when touched." He searched his deck quickly and produced Raviel, Lord of Phantasms. As he held the card for Bryan and Matt, they saw what he meant about the card shimmering in his grip. It was the same as when Bryan held Uria—much energy but few Shadows. Garry seemed to have good control over the spirit of Raviel. The sight, oddly enough, reassured both guys. Raviel accepted Garry, and that must mean he was strong enough to use it well.
"I understand what you guys want here," Garry continued. "And I can help. These people can't keep the god cards. It's only been one duel so far, but I can already see that half the people here are only interested in one-upping each other. All of this use of the Shadow Realm is the same as watching them gun each other down, only this way…"
"…they get everyone else's god cards, too," Matt finished the thought. "And all in one place. The circumstances do sound dire, indeed. If you won't protect yourself by leaving now, then we'll be lucky to have your help, Garry."
Garry smiled and gave a curt nod. "Now we're on the same page."
"So who decides who duels who?" Bryan asked, ignoring Matt when he corrected with "who duels whom."
"Unknown. I was in here with the others for about ten minutes when suddenly one of the servants announced that Ren Bacon was dueling Leo Gambini first."
There were men and women diverse in cultural backgrounds around the edges of the keep, but not very many of them. All of them bore a behavioral similarity to the Eight of Spades—the guard Bryan befriended out front. None really stood out, much like they were trained to blend in when not needed. "Which servant?" Bryan asked as he looked around the room.
"Probably the one with the telephone to his ear," Matt suggested. One man held a cell phone to his ear for just a moment when he hung up and stepped up to a pair of servants and spoke softly to them, pointing toward Bryan and a Chinese woman. "I believe it's your turn, my friend."