Chapter 19: The Blackness of Duel Academy
Dr. Corbin West was sitting at his desk, hard at work editing his newest research article for the Journal of Educational Psychology. He and a colleague coauthored an experimental paper on the topic of rationality versus emotion in decision making during a high-stakes duel. The research spawned from the observation that people with perfectly respectable intelligence quotients—high numbers, even—still do foolish things during a duel and during life. It was the newest step in thirty years of Dr. West's research.
But being a prolific research professor and former editor to six different psychological journals, he was not one to obsess about housekeeping. The windows were blacked out by piles of backdated issues of twelve different journal subscriptions, leaving only a tiny sliver of natural light in the office. Piles of books, research paper drafts, and manila folders covered the bookshelves and overflowed from the file cabinets. Two computer screens sat side by side—one for his article and one for his email and a half dozen pages regarding Duel Academy administration—with three external hard drives to cover thirty years of research articles and data. The computer equipment comprised the only items in the office that didn't exist back in the '70s.
It was the first time Rory ever saw Dr. West's office.
"Dr. West? Are you in here?"
The jovial professor looked up from his desk to see the young student standing in the doorway, hesitant to enter lest she accidentally step on something important.
"Hi, Rory. What can I do for you?"
She continued looking around, pretending not to see the smiling, gray mustache. "I can hear you, but I don't see you."
He smiled and let out an amused sigh, which is what the majority of his laughing sounded like these days. Being old enough to be grandfather to Rory, Dr. West long since noticed a gap between his sense of humor and the students'. That, and students tended to be gentle when they made jokes around him, thus he didn't get to hear the really funny ones.
"I know; my office could use a little cleaning."
Rory sardonically said, "No. You just need to set up a call and locate system. The Marco Polo game comes to mind."
"That might work. How are your classes so far?"
"They're good. It's only been a few days, but it looks like it will be a good semester." She paused briefly to put on an expression of slight puzzlement. "I wanted to ask if maybe Matt could tutor me a little."
"Tutor you? Aren't you one of our freshman prefects?"
"Yes. But there are still so many students here doing better than I am, and I want to make sure I don't get stuck at this level. I don't need a lot of help, I hope; I just thought a little extra studying with someone else who uses Cyber Dragons would be beneficial for me and my skill."
"Well, Matt is certainly the best of our current Cyber Dragon users," Dr. West agreed. "You aren't taking my Game Theory class this semester, are you?" Rory said that was correct. "You don't have to be one of Matt's students to stop by his office hours. Have you tried asking him for help?"
"Not yet. I know he's really busy between work and Team OTK. I wanted to make sure you were okay with it first."
Dr. West smiled and shrugged. "I don't mind if he helps you as long as he can do it without anything else falling through the cracks. I can't imagine you need a lot of help, but maybe you could offer some kind of trade if he's really busy."
"What do you mean?"
"If he tutors you, you spend a little extra time in return helping him do a little of the research he needs to do. Don't feel like you have to help him, though; it's just a suggestion in case he's too busy."
"No, I like that idea," Rory said with a grin. "Thanks, Dr. West."
With that, she turned from the office and almost bumped into Nick Sims, an Armed Dragon user she recognized from her biology class the previous semester. He was fairly short, had round glasses on his round face, and had a Bieber thing going with his light brown hair.
"Sorry, Nick," Rory excused herself. Before she could walk away, Nick asked her, "Why do you need tutoring?"
"So I can get better," she answered vaguely.
"It wouldn't have anything to do with trying to steal Matt from Kasumi, would it?"
"That's none of your business."
He disagreed, though. "Kasumi is my friend. For whatever reason, she loves that dipstick and you're trying to spoil that."
"She's spoiling it all by herself," Rory challenged. Then she got curious: "What are you doing here?"
"I just turned in a Change of Schedule form to replace one of my classes with a different one. I just happened to overhear what might be the best freshman duelist asking to be tutored because she doesn't think she's good enough. I'm quick enough to know there was some kind of ulterior motive behind that. Especially considering that Taylor Swift song you sang for Matt."
Feeling herself blush, Rory asked, "How did you know about that?"
"Everyone knows. Three people can keep a secret only if two of them are dead." On that grim note, he added, "You'll be lucky not to be one of them if Kasumi gets really pissed with you."
What a way to start the semester.
"Pariah" wasn't an accurate description of the Locklear twins, Leila and Linear; that suggests being shunned by society. In reality, they tended to do the shunning. Each of them was short, had platinum blond hair, and had incredibly smooth, though relatively pale, skin. The only way to distinguish them, without knowing them better, was to recognize the body shape Leila slightly developed, or to assume that Linear kept his hair shorter because he was a guy.
As they sat at a table in the Yellow dining hall, Linear spent much of his time glaring at the other people who walked by the table. It was a warning for them not to get close.
"I wish we could just take the food back to our rooms," he grumbled.
Leila grinned. "I know. You say that every day."
"And I will keep saying it until it works."
The twins generally didn't like or trust other people, and so they kept to themselves. On the rare occasion they did socialize, it was only with someone they were forced to work with, such as a classmate on a project or a roommate, or someone they deemed in such a bad situation as not to be a threat. One example was anyone with a major mental disorder. A little depression didn't count, and neither did obsessive-compulsive disorder. Generally, the twins only approached if the disorder caused the person to suffer socially.
To wit, Hayley Wilson took a seat next to the twins.
"Password?" Linear asked without looking up from his macaroni and cheese.
"Hayley," was the reply.
Hayley Wilson was a perfect example of someone who was as uncomfortable with social interaction as the twins were. It wasn't that she didn't like people, but she was afraid of how much they knew about her. What really made her nervous was thinking everyone else might know something that she didn't. To sum things up, Hayley suffered from multiple personalities. Hayley's persona, generally considered her original persona, was unable to see or experience anything that happened while one of her alters had control; hence, she worried about how others viewed her. (As far as the password goes: The Locklear twins just liked to know what kind of personality Hayley was bringing to the table, and so whichever of the three alters was in control named herself as her password.)
"You seem especially upset this morning," Leila suggested. "Did something happen?"
Hayley shook her tired head. "I hope not." With a big sigh, she added, "I'm just getting tired of this—everyone looking at me like I could flip out at any moment and wondering what I might have said to them or done with them while unaware of it. And…" She trailed off, somewhat hopeful her friends didn't hear it.
"You might be the one attacking students late at night," Leila added. It was a little too blunt; Hayley looked ready to cry.
Duel Academy after hours was plagued by an unseen duelist who was powerful enough to overcome multiple duelists simultaneously. Only a few duelists saw him so far, and none suffered any documented negative effects. Because of this duelist's invisibility and secrecy, rumors referred to him as the Ghost Duelist. Rumors abound regarding the Ghost Duelist's identity. One of the prominent theories was that Hayley was the Ghost Duelist. (Nothing known about the mystery suggested whether the Ghost Duelist was male or female.) Though she had no reason to believe it, Hayley was convinced one of her alters took over her body while she slept and acted as the Ghost Duelist at night.
"I just wish I could get rid of them both."
"Didn't you take that psychology class to figure out how to fix it?" Linear could think of no other reason to study psychology.
"We didn't cover mental disorders," she replied. The basic psychology courses never go into such detail; they tend to cover the primary fields of psychology study, the biggest names in the various fields, and some of the most common phenomena. Mental disorders aren't covered without abnormal psychology, and occasionally clinical psychology. "Unfortunately, we don't have a clinical program so the Academy doesn't teach abnormal psyc."
"Have you tried the Internet?" Leila suggested. "Maybe there's information somewhere that can help you."
"Yeah," Linear scoffed. "Trust a place where anybody can post whatever they want without any credentials or knowledge whatsoever."
"That's a fair point," Leila conceded, "but someone still might have some good idea you'd never think of otherwise." Back to Hayley, she clarified, "Don't try everything they suggest, but just see what's out there. Maybe someone has a stupid idea that might work."
"They're all stupid ideas," said Linear.
"Anything is worth a try," Hayley countered. "I just wish it would end." She slumped on the table, having not eaten much from her tray yet. It was exhausting being crazy.
Suddenly a big pair of hands slammed down on the table. Hayley jumped as she turned her head to see who would try so hard to scare her. The man who plopped down in the chair beside her—and with as little elbow room as he could get—was fairly big and hard to miss. Logan Wilson's green eyes and light skin were nothing out of the ordinary, but his personal dress code made him stand out. First of all, he wore a jacket belonging to a resident of the Blue Mansion. He did not steal it; he was a recent transfer student to Duel Academy whose test scores were high enough to place him in the highest dorm. It was not often someone of such status was found in the Yellow dining hall.
But his dress code also separated him from the other Blue duelists. He ripped the sleeves off his jacket to show off his biceps; though his arms were no bigger than a fence post, his muscles were very well developed and nicely displayed his tattoo of a black-winged skull with two swords piercing it on either side. And that still wasn't the most noticeable part of him: He wore two, empty sword sheathes on his back. (They were designed for longswords, and they wouldn't be empty if he had his way.)
Logan put one hand on Hayley's shoulder, which she quickly shrugged off, and said, "Aw. Why's a beautiful girl like you look so depressed? Was there no one here pretty enough to date you before I showed up?"
"Who the hell are you?" Linear asked harshly.
Logan wouldn't avert his gaze from Hayley's perfect skin as he waved off her friends. "I wasn't talk to you, toots."
"I'm a guy."
Now he broke his gaze. With a closer look, Logan realized that Linear just had soft features that made him appear slightly effeminate. In fact, he looked a lot like his sister except for the length of his hair and other subtle differences.
"Oh, geez. Sorry, dude." He turned back to Hayley and asked, "Did you know he was a dude?"
"Yes," she snapped. "Who are you? Why is a Blue duelist eating here?"
He put on a big, lopsided grin. "I'm Logan Wilson, transfer student."
"Friend of yours?" Leila asked Hayley, referring to the identical surname.
She shook her head. "I've never seen him before."
"She'd remember me," Logan assured them. He grabbed his chair and scooted closer to Hayley. "How'd you like to go to the broom closet and get to know each other a little better?" He raised his eyebrows after he spoke, as if he were being subtle.
Hayley did not interpret his words the way she was supposed to. Thinking back to the time one of her alters made out with another student in a broom closet, she asked, "Are you making fun of me?"
"Can you recommend a better way to pick up a beautiful woman in an Academy dining hall?" Actually, it wasn't Logan's intention, but he had a philosophy of never apologizing; instead, he preferred to roll with the punches and make a joke out of the situation.
"Please leave me alone," Hayley requested with a groan.
"I'm fine with that," Logan said. He didn't back away; he actually moved a tad closer. "But I don't know what that means, so maybe we can be alone together for a few hours to give me some practice. What do you say?"
That's when another hand slapped down on Logan's shoulder. Victor Rocks, the Yellow Dorm's own arrogant personality, stood with a confident stance as close to Logan as he could without being uncomfortable; it made him look taller.
"I believe the lady wants you to leave her alone."
Logan glared at Vic's hand, but his gaze traveled from Vic to Abel Shinzou, the equally big and intimidating friend Vic stood with. Two guys may not be so hard to beat up, even with the help of Ty and Clyde right behind them, but Logan wasn't sure he could do it without getting hurt. As much as he wanted to show off for Hayley, he opted for a different approach.
"Didn't I spin you like a beanie propeller and leave you in a motel in Dubuque?" Vic thought that line sounded familiar, but he wasn't interested in bonding with the Blue-jacketed punk who was hitting on Hayley.
"I think you have me confused with Get-the-Hell-Outta-Here."
"Clever," Logan said with a fake chuckle. He stood up and puffed up his chest to compare himself to Vic. The two were the same height and even similar in size, though Logan had more tone to his muscles. Once again, he made a point of looking around at Abel, who was a little bigger, and Ty and Clyde, who were neither tall nor toned. He was mentally flipping a coin to decide if it was worth fighting all four of them here and now.
Finally, he decided against it. He chuckled loudly and slapped Vic on the shoulder. "Lighten up, man. You look like you could use a soothing cup of tea and a bracing enema." He turned slowly toward Hayley again, and he lifted one hand to his lips slowly and strongly enough to show off the size of his arms. He blew a kiss toward her and said, "See you later, beautiful."
Vic started to follow him with clenched fists when Abel pulled him back by the shoulder. "He's not worth it, man."
"No, but it'll make me feel better."
Hayley sighed loudly. "I don't want to deal with you or your chauvinistic chivalry, either. Please leave."
Vic was still bothered that Hayley continued to deny ever making out with him; it was a massive blow to his ego. But now that rumors were spreading about Hayley's multiple personalities, he understood a little better. What he understood was that Hayley was very attracted to him even if she didn't want to admit it. He was not generally a chivalrous guy, but he was definitely interested in a repeat performance if he could catch her at the right time.
"Don't worry, baby. I'm here to cater to your every whim."
"My whim wants you to leave."
Abel muttered to Ty and Clyde, "Is it a whim if she only ever has one request?"
Vic motioned with his head. "Let's go, guys. I've got something better in mind, anyway." When he and his boys were outside the dining hall and out of Hayley's earshot, Ty asked him what he had in mind. "We're going to find out where Hayley spends her free time."
Duel Academy was founded on the carefully selected Pacific island named Academy Island. (Seto Kaiba's imagination had its disappointments to match its high points.) The island hosted a widely varying ecosystem, though the terrain was primarily wooded. The woods surrounded the campus on the back side up until the base of the volcano. It was on the side of the woods farthest from campus, not too far from the southeastern cliffs, where Clyde finally revealed his darkest secret:
"I'm scared of the park."
"Shut up, you weenie," Vic commanded. He pointed toward the sky with his gloved hand. "There's no leaves on the trees and it's still only three o'clock. It's not that dark."
Abel calmly replied, "He didn't say he's afraid of the dark; he's afraid of the park."
"The park? Why?"
Clyde had himself in a self-hug designed to protect him from whatever might attack him in the woods. "Trees without leaves freak me out. It's like they're alive with dozens of fingers."
Vic stared at his follower for a moment. He wasn't sure what to say until he came up with: "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Of all time."
"Lighten up," Abel said. "It is a little creepy out here. There's snow on the ground, the sky is pure white, and we're out here in the cold because you think your psychotic girlfriend is the Ghost Duelist who scared these two badly enough to wet their pants."
"Hey!"
"What?" Abel asked Ty. "You're going to claim that wet stain on your pants happened when you fell in the creek?"
"No. I'm just a bit offended that you keep mentioning how scared we got."
Vic declared, "Hayley isn't the Ghost Duelist. That's why we're out here. You guys are going to help me prove it."
"Why? You think that will make her fall for you?"
He shrugged. "At least it should soften her up enough to get past second base." As he started picturing it in his mind, he got confused about something Ty and Clyde said. "Didn't you guys say the Ghost Duelist was a big, scary man?"
Abel mocked, "You just now realized the inconsistency?"
"Shut up." Back to the others, he asked, "How in the hell could you think Hayley was a man?"
Ty and Clyde nervously traded off excuses as they tried not to sound too pathetic, but also not to lie. "It was dark." "And we couldn't really see anyone." "The trees covered everything else in shadows." "And the Ghost Duelist's voice was stern and really scary." "Just like Hayley."
"You're scared of Hayley?" Abel confirmed. Ty and Clyde just exchanged glances, then began nodding vehemently. "Yeah, I can see that."
"Women aren't interesting unless they're a little scary," Vic said as he resumed thinking about Hayley, this time imagining her without her jacket on. He continued to look around through the brush and snow while he imagined Hayley with progressively less clothing.
After a full two minutes of silence, Abel asked, "What are we looking for, anyway?"
Vic said curtly, "Something to prove Hayley isn't the Ghost Duelist." He was annoyed to have his pleasant visions interrupted by Abel's deep voice.
Ty was confused, too. "What kind of proof?"
"Just look, nimbus! Find something to prove someone else is the Ghost Duelist." Why did other people not know what Vic was thinking when he talked? Didn't they know how annoying that was?
Abel shrugged at Ty and told him just to look for anything out of place. That's when Clyde suggested, "Maybe Matt knows something."
"Who?"
Clyde pointed not even ten yards away where Matt leaned motionlessly against a tree. He hardly stood out in this environment with the black Academy jacket wrapped around his torso. Even his hair was jet black to match. He simply uttered:
"Thanks for noticing me." There was no energy in his words. He hardly even twitched as he spoke. It was like it took all his energy to speak at all.
"Matt?" Abel recognized. "I didn't see you there."
Ty added, "What did you do to your hair?"
"I don't mind," said Matt. "After all, I can't complain. I have my friends. Just yesterday, someone spoke to me. And only last week, Valerie shoved me in the snow." He looked up and gloomily added, "It's snowing still."
Abel, Ty, and Clyde were all equally confused as they exchanged glances. "So it is."
"And freezing." With only the slightest amount of energy that amounted to worlds of hopefulness. "At least we haven't had an earthquake in a while."
Victor wasn't buying into the depressed victim routine, or that Matt's being out there—the place where Hayley's angrier personality surely spent her time—was a coincidence. It was weird that Matt dyed his hair black and the only other person on campus who wore a black jacket was one of the professors, and she had a clear Goth-style dress code.
He stepped up and grabbed Matt by the shoulder. "Why are you here? You know something about the Ghost Duelist, huh, Matt?"
Barely showing signs of life, he replied, "I don't really like that name." Vic wasn't sure what he meant by that. "I like Nigredo, like my hair."
"Oh, come off it. You're the Ghost Duelist, aren't you?"
Seeming to notice the Duel Disk on his arm for the first time, Matt/Nigredo asked, "Do you mean metaphorically? Like how people tend not to notice me when I duel?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Being more a fan of force than of speech, but still aware that Matt was a football player in high school, Vic lifted his Duel Disk and activated it. "Let's just duel, yeah?" He glared over at Ty and Clyde, two earlier witnesses to the Ghost Duelist's existence. "We'll prove through the cards whether or not you're the Ghost Duelist." Nigredo unenthusiastically agreed while arming himself with a Duel Disk he kept in a plastic bag to protect it from the snow.
Ty asked, "Was Vic wearing his Duel Disk the entire time?"
"That's what I like about you," Abel replied. "You don't miss a thing." He stared at Nigredo for a moment, trying to imagine him showing up later at night, or even later in the year when the trees were covered in leaves. He looked to Ty and Clyde and asked, "Is it possible Matt is the Ghost Duelist you guys saw?"
They both just shrugged. "It was pretty dark," Clyde repeated.
"Geez."
Vic and Nigredo set up their duel field using the most wide-open space they could find, which meant there were a couple of trees inside the bounds of the holograms. (Ultimately, they didn't matter, though, because the cards were holograms.)
"I could take the first turn, if you really wanted me to," Nigredo offered.
"Oh, no, you don't," Vice replied, not being taken in by fancy wordplay. "I'm not falling for that Cyber Dragon of yours. You go first." He caught himself as soon as he spoke. "I mean, shut up and duel!" Nigredo didn't laugh at him; Abel was the only one because Ty and Clyde didn't understand the conversation.
"Okay." Nigredo drew his cards and looked at them with despair. "I suppose a monster in defense mode isn't out of the question." A facedown monster card appeared on his holographic field and Vic's Duel Disk indicated his Draw Phase.
"That's it? I guess you really have lost your edge." With a smirk, Vic slapped a card onto his Duel Disk. "I'll play Element Dragon (4/1500/1200)!" The play revealed a pink-scaled dragon with large haunches, thin wings behind the shoulders, and a small head covered by a red mane. "This is my favorite card, and he has the ability to make himself even better when I equip him with the Scroll of Bewitchment." A long, blue parchment with runic symbols unwound in the air only to wrap around the Element Dragon's pink body. The air began to glow green. "With this, my Element Dragon is infused with the Wind attribute. Now go attack his monster!"
The Element Dragon lunged forward and bit down into Nigredo's monster, which revealed itself as Worm Cartaros (4/1200/500), a light-skinned, moth man-like creature.
"There goes the Flip effect," Nigredo mumbled. "I take a Worm monster from my deck to my hand."
"Don't get too excited," Vic said, not realizing how ridiculous that sounded considering Nigredo's monotone voice. "Because there is a wind monster on the field—even himself—my Element Dragon gets to attack a second time." The air around the dragon turned sharp as blades of wind sliced through Nigredo. "I'll throw down another card and end my turn."
Vic 8000: Nigredo 8000 – 1500 = 6500.
"I expected you might win," Nigredo mumbled as he drew. "I guess I could activate Transmutation Circle – Nigredo." A black ring encompassed the field, extending beyond the trees within the duel field.
Curious about this card he'd never heard of, Abel wondered, "You have a card named after yourself?"
Vic had another interpretation. "Nah. He just likes the name of this card so much he nicknamed himself after it. It's kind of pathetic, really."
Abel turned to Ty and Clyde again, fully aware that they were not exactly walking libraries of knowledge. "Does this card look familiar to you?"
"Not really," Ty replied.
"It was dark," Clyde reminded.
Abel laughed to himself. "Hey, Vic. I don't think he's the Ghost Duelist."
"Are you sure?" Ty and Clyde had a real tough time committing to an answer, but they finally settled on the fact that the worm monsters didn't look familiar, and they think they might remember a card like Transmutation Circle – Nigredo. Growling to his opponent, Vic asked, "Seriously now: Are you the Ghost Duelist?"
"I only just started dueling this week. I doubt if I'm any good."
Vic scoffed with disappointment. Whoever this guy was, he wasn't acting like Matt. He looked exactly the same, but he put on such a good show that he had everyone else convinced that he was a whole different person.
"Whatever," Vic finally said. He turned his back on Nigredo and started to walk away. "If you're not the Ghost Duelist, this is a waste of time." He walked through the hologram of his facedown card on his way off the field.
But something stopped him a few feet later. When he tried to pass the hologram of the Transmutation Circle, he found some invisible wall. Every time he poked, prodded, and punched the field, a black stream of energy rippled through the air like the surface of water.
"What's going on?" Vic asked.
"Oh, bother," Nigredo moaned. "Transmutation Circle – Nigredo has already begun the blackening process. Neither of us can leave the field until the process completes. That means we're stuck here together."
"That's messed up," Vic grumbled. He spent another eighty seconds pounding on the invisible transmutation circle, trying to find the way out of it. "Are you freaking kidding me?" He growled softly, then huffed loudly as he composed himself. He stepped back up to his previous position and squared off against Nigredo with a confident look on his face. "Alright, ya weenie. You want to duel that badly? Let's rumble."
"Okay. I guess we're still on the next step of Transmutation Circle – Nigredo: We pick up the top cards on our decks and remove them from play to fuel the blackening process." He picked up a card and showed Vic: "I lose Worm King."
"That's a good card," Vic commented. "That's a tough one to have removed from play."
"It's just as well. I probably couldn't use it right, anyway."
Vic made a face and said, "Yeah, whatever." He picked up his top card. "Aw, man. Elemental Mistress Doriado; my rarest card."
"That usually happens with Transmutation Circles." He paused for a solid thirty seconds before making a move. "I'll set a monster and end my turn."
"That's it? You are the slowest duelist I have ever seen." Vic drew his next card, eager to end the duel quickly. "I'll summon Gaia Soul the Combustible Collective (Fire-4/2000/0)." Flames popped up all along the field, and each of them drew toward a single spot on Vic's field, hardening as they gathered. When all flames created a single mound, an eye opened in the middle and perused the field.
Suddenly the air around Element Dragon began to burn, while still kicking up extra wind energy. "With the addition of a fire monster on the field, Element Dragon (+2000) gains 500 points. Now my supercharged dragon will attack your monster!" The pink dragon lumbered to Nigredo's field again and bit into the hidden monster, exhaling a burst of fire with it.
The monster that revealed itself was Worm Hope (1/800/1500), a small, white humanoid with no discernible face. "My monster couldn't measure up," Nigredo noted in his dry tone. "It's not a real surprise, though. When it flips, I draw a card. When it's sent to the Graveyard, I discard a card." He picked up a card from his deck, stared at it for a moment longer than any other duelist would, then placed a card in his Graveyard.
"God, you're boring," Vic muttered. "Element Dragon (2000) still gets the effect of a wind monster on the field, so now he'll attack you directly." The air around the dragon turned to sharp blades of wind, but each carried with it an extra flame as it struck Nigredo. "And Gaia Soul (2000) also gets to attack directly." The giant ball of molten rock turned again into fire and hit Nigredo's field; the scattered flames reassembled on Vic's field. "I'll set one more card and end my turn."
And then Element Dragon turned black. It wasn't that shadows overtook the monster; its body simply turned pitch black and the monster turned to ash.
"What the hell?"
"Blame the Transmutation Circle," Nigredo said. "In your End Phase, it destroys any monster that battled this turn and deals that monster's attack points as damage to the controller. It's bothersome, I know, but that's how the effect works."
"Troublesome is an understatement," Vic growled. "At least Gaia Soul is destroyed by its own effect at the end of the turn, and I get to decide the order of effects on the field. Your Nigredo circle doesn't get both my monsters."
Vic 8000 – 2000 = 6000: Nigredo 6500 – 2000 – 2000 = 2500.
"I guess it's my turn again," Nigredo said as he drew.
Immediately Vic activated one of his facedown cards. "Dust Tornado ought to even things out. It destroys any Spell or Trap on the field, and I pick Transmutation Circle – Nigredo!" A large whirlwind spewed from the card and began whipping across the field. It pushed up against the black ring for a moment, but then the wind dissipated without destroying anything.
"Transmutation Circles can't be destroyed. I'm actually a little surprised."
"What kind of crap is this? First your card creates some kind of force field, and now it can't be destroyed unless the duel ends? This is a load of crap. As soon as this duel ends, Abel and I are kicking your ass."
From outside the ring, Abel said, "I don't know if he's lucid enough to notice. He seems so depressed, he's probably numb from the neck down."
Nigredo just stood in silence for a moment. "Maybe you're right." He resumed standing without doing anything.
Feeling a shiver from the snow and the associated temperature, Vic finally shouted, "Hurry up and make a move, dumbass!"
"Okay. I'll play Viper's Rebirth to summon Worm Ugly (1/100/100) from my Graveyard." (Because all the monsters in Nigredo's Graveyard were reptiles, he was able to summon one of them.) Although it didn't resemble a worm, this monster was indeed ugly. It resembled a purple ball of snot with a round mouth directly between its eyes. "I'll probably send this monster away to summon Worm Warlord (6/2350/1800)." This one was a much bigger monster, but still wasn't very worm-like, except maybe in Picasso's sketch book: Its orange torso was symmetrical from the middle, where the mouth was, with one eye on either end of the body; a three-toed foot grew from each of two sides, and a powerful fist grew from the top and the bottom of the torso. It was arguably uglier than the previous monster.
Speaking of which, Nigredo pointed out, "Offering Worm Ugly (100) as a Tribute causes it to be summoned on your side of the field in attack mode." The snotball returned, but this time it left slimy residue on Vic's field. "I suppose Worm Warlord will attack now." The odd creature ambled across the field and planted its topside fist on top of the Worm Ugly. "It's a little like your Element Dragon was; when it destroys a monster in battle, it gets to attack again." Worm Warlord took another swing, this time hitting Vic directly. "I'll put a card face down and end my turn."
Vic 6000 – 2250 – 2350 = 1400: Nigredo 2500.
"Hey!" Vic pointed threateningly at the field. "How come your monster didn't get destroyed during your turn?"
"I wonder why," Nigredo said. "Maybe the Transmutation Circle only activates during your End Phase."
"That's a load of crap. What a stacked card." He roughly pulled his next card from the deck. "I'll summon Senju of the Ten Thousand Hands (4/1400/1000)." His monster was a card version of the Thousand Hands Buddha, with fifteen visible hands in holographic form. One of those hands held a Ritual monster. "Senju lets me take Elemental Mistress Doriado from my deck." He smirked and made a comment about how she was his rarest card, but that didn't mean he only had one. "When I activate Doriado's Blessing and sacrifice Senju (4), I can Ritual Summon Elemental Mistress Doriado (3/1200/1400)." His card appeared as an attractive, blonde priestess wearing blue robes and a red headdress. "I know she looks weak, but when I activate my card Fuh-Rin-Ka-Zan, your monster gets destroyed!"
Vic's Trap only activated in the presence of a monster of each attribute: fire, water, wind, and earth. Doriado's effect gave her the attribute of all four to complement her light attribute. Her body began to shine with the combined energy of all four elements, and the energy burst forth to destroy Nigredo's ugly monster.
"Now I'll play Fusion Weapon." One of Doriado's arms mutated into a small cannon. "This increases her power by 1500 points because she's a low level. And you know what that means, right? Get him, Doriado (+2700)!"
As Doriado aimed her arm cannon, Nigredo moaned and shook his head. Three robed women—the women of Waboku—appeared on the field and deflected Doriado's attack.
"I'm lucky this turn," Nigredo admitted. "Not everyone is. Honestly, I'm surprised things ended this way."
Slowly, Vic's priestess turned black and turned to ash, burning away his Life Points.
Vic 1400 – 2700 = 0: Nigredo 2500.
The black circle encompassing the field began to spin rapidly and Vic felt the energy build. Suddenly the circle burst and faded from sight, just like that.
"What happened?" Ty asked. Vic looked around for an answer, but even Nigredo disappeared.
"Where'd he go?" Abel asked. "And how'd he get away so quickly?"
Vic was just annoyed that he lost a duel because of a card he'd never heard of that stacked the odds tremendously against him. It wasn't fair, but at least now the duel was over and nobody had to know anything happened, unless Matt blabbed his big mouth.
"I wonder how he got that made-up card to work," Vic muttered as he put his deck back together in his Duel Disk. There was one problem, though: Both copies of Elemental Mistress Doriado were gone. "Hey! That jerk took my cards!"
Now he was really angry.
That was fun, although it came out longer than I expected. I like this style better. We'll see if I can keep it up for three consecutive chapters.
I hope everyone enjoyed the duel. Considering I only made up one card (intentionally, anyway), I will list it here (I'll list the rest at the end of this story arc):
Transmutation Circle – Nigredo
Continuous Spell Card
"This card cannot be destroyed by card effects. During the End Phase of your opponent's turn, destroy any monsters that battled this turn and inflict damage to the card's controller equal to the monster's ATK."
Next time, we'll listen as everyone discusses the similarities between Ouroboros and Nigredo.
Credits:
Darius Mantzios...tiramisu19
Jason Maxim...Maxim and Knight
Nathan Zislaw...Mavrik Zero
Hillary Delaney...Nodqfan144
Lili Von...Happy2BMe
Carter Jade...Jaden2010
Mitsuro Itachu...Titanic X
Sean Bivins...DarkVestroia2
Naoto Kurotsuki...Kurotsuki Haru
Hayley Wilson...TeamRocketDiva
Maikeru Stone...onyxshade7
Victor Rocks & Abel Shinzou...Iron-Arm-V
Alister Kazama & Jessica Parks...ZaneKazama001
Synthia Spencer...Madly Chessur
Leila & Linear Lockhart...Windraider
Romulus Malligan...Maximus1
Logan Wilson...MercWithTheMouth13
Everyone else so far...YamiRuss