Chapter 29: Stalking the Truth
Matt just stared at the two mysterious cards he possessed. Both were given to him by equally mysterious duelists and neither was recorded in any card database. Spenta Mainyu and Zurvan—The Absolute… They were obviously connected with the spirit Matt felt inside him; each time he felt the spirit's presence, the cards resonated perfectly. They made him feel stronger, but he verily feared that strength and wondered what would come of it.
Dr. Apple left the campus before that night even ended. He didn't tell Matt he was leaving, nor did he inform the Academy administration. Dr. West simply received an envelope bearing a letter—with Oscar's letterhead and a message saying "I don't need these anymore"—and a small pile of cards, all of which matched the cards various students reported stolen throughout the year. That was enough evidence to label Oscar as the thief, but his mission on the island was complete, and he had no plans to return.
Bryan stepped quietly into Matt's room and caught him staring at those two mystical cards no one ever heard of. It was clear to both young men those cards had something to do with the spirit inside Matt.
"I see you're being productive with your free time," Bryan mocked.
Matt didn't respond right away. "How much did Rubedo tell you about me?"
"All of it, I think. You're supposed to be the physical form of some god who's trying to revive. It sounds a lot like something from the Shadow Realm." With a smirk, he suggested, "Maybe Maya Kawamura is your mother."
Matt shook his head slowly, not in disagreement but in continued disbelief. "Dr. Houtz continued her research for me. She said that Dr. Apple didn't exist before fifteen years ago. His entire history was fabricated. That means I don't even know where to look for him now. He's the only one who can tell me about this dueling spirit."
"Yeah, about that… This spirit thing can actually make you duel better?"
"That's what he said."
"How?"
Matt hesitated, struggling with the pressing thought that he may not have won that duel entirely on his own power. "I think… he influenced the cards I drew."
Bryan's eyes widened as he tried to grasp that realization. He and Matt were together a long time, and he's the one who taught Matt how to duel. Having spent the last two weeks of school largely in solitude—trying not to talk to the spirit but contemplating its existence constantly—Matt was starting to consider the probability that another entity gave him the ability to win so often. After all, it was only weeks after his very first booster pack that he won a regional tournament.
And yet, Bryan managed to say something Matt hardly expected: "Then you've cheated all this time?"
"What?"
"You're saying it wasn't you dueling. Against Dr. Apple? Against Maya? Against Dave? Leona Moxley? Markeith Warrior? Me?" Bryan just named every major duelist Matt faced, including the regional champion Matt defeated to earn the right of application to Duel Academy.
"I didn't cheat…"
"But you didn't duel with your own skill," Bryan pointed out sternly. "You had someone else whispering the answers in your ear—someone whose power to communicate with card spirits can apparently help you stack the deck in your favor."
Taken aback, Matt argued, "That's not how it happens at all."
"Yeah, right." Bryan scoffed and stepped away from his sworn brother. "I can't… Just promise not to be in the Graduation Duel. I'd hate for Naoto's day of ceremony to end in a loss just because you felt like letting someone better than you knock him down a few pegs." With a scornful look in his eye, Bryan took two steps back before turning away.
"Bro?" But Bryan continued walking away, ignoring Matt's calls. Matt just stood there in Bryan's empty dorm room while Bryan slammed the door behind him. He sighed and stared at the closed door. "It's not like I asked for this. I don't even know if I'm who I think I am." The back of the door had a tall mirror; Matt stepped closer and examined his reflection.
"What if I'm just a homunculus, too?"
Perhaps the most anticipated duel of the year right behind the School Duel was the graduation ceremony. Guaranteed to be an exciting match-up, the duel always featured some of Duel Academy's prime candidates for professional dueling. Naoto Kurotsuki was set to join the professional duel leagues in only two weeks. As class valedictorian and top-ranked duelist on the island, he earned the right to select his opponent from anywhere among the student body. Half of the students expected him to select Matt because of the challenge, and the other half expected him to pick someone easy to cement his position.
But they were both wrong. Naoto did not wish to duel Matt again; he'd already beaten him once. Instead, he selected the challenger who was the only person in duel academy to defeat him in more than one, lucky duel. This was a challenger that was good enough for Dr. Lankford to accept him into the Blue Mansion, and even though he wasn't ranked in the top ten, he had the right deck type to make summoning Exodia or Exodius a challenge for Naoto—a bigger challenge than Matt could ever offer.
"His challenger," Dr. West announced, "graduating into a job in sportscasting for the International Duelist's Confederation, is the self-declared cowboy duelist: Kenneth Stewart!" Wearing a cowboy hat and tennis shoes with spurs on them, Kenny stepped out on stage and shook Naoto's hand, both duelists eagerly awaiting a true duel between experts.
And the crowd expected just as much. Even the graduating seniors who were disappointed not to be participating still liked watching the Graduation Duel more than listening to the commencement speaker, whose speech typically lasted about as long as a Wagnerian opera. At least a watched duel had some action.
Rory may have been pleased with either event, but she was only biased against Naoto because officially he was considered a better duelist than Matt, her favorite sleepyhead tutor. That's why she rooted for Kenny to pull off the upset victory.
Generally the students tended to segregate themselves in the convocation center. Specifically, more often than not, residents of the Red Dorm sat together, residents of the Yellow Dorm sat together, and residents of the Blue Mansion sat together, with only a few exceptions for interhouse dating. That's why she was a little surprised to see Matt, with his blue trench coat, wading through the crowd of red jackets in her direction. Eager to make an impression, she quickly adjusted her hair and straightened her jacket.
"Hey, Matt," she said excitedly. Her mind took her immediately to the flattery angle. "I can't believe you're not up there dueling Naoto. You deserve to regain your rank. You got the highest win percentage of the entire Academy, didn't you?" She also pointed out that Cary had the most wins, but she wasn't willing to admit the reality that Naoto may have claimed that achievement if not for his lengthy stay in the hospital.
"I don't want to duel," was all Matt said in reply. Rory thought he was just rationalizing at first, but the look on Matt's face was almost one of despair. It was actually painful for her to see it on him.
"What's wrong?"
Matt's breathing was slow and deep, but forced like he was trying to suppress his emotions. "I want to accept your offer."
With her heart speeding up, she asked, "What offer?"
"I just don't want to go back home to Avesta. I need to go somewhere different."
Now Rory remembered the offer. She casually suggested a few months ago that he could go visit her in Montana. She just did it as an off-the-cuff, friendly invitation, knowing he would decline but secretly hoping he might accept, which would indicate he liked her. But she never really expected Matt to accept. Whatever happened to him must have been devastating.
She suspected Matt found out who his clones were because he stopped talking about them, but he never said anything to her. He must have learned something awful. Even if he didn't want to talk, Rory wanted to be there for him, as a friend or whatever he needed. But…
"I'm not going to be home the whole time," she told him regretfully. "I was accepted as a camp counselor." Matt's face sank and he nodded slowly. It hurt Rory to see, and so she hugged him tightly. "Come with me, anyway. We'll figure something out. Maybe we can convince them to make you a counselor."
"I'll be a camper if it will get me somewhere new."
Rory laughed and enjoyed the fact that Matt's hug was extraordinarily long without questioning it.
Hayley Wilson wasn't planning to attend the graduation ceremony at the Hibiki Center. She didn't really know or care about anyone who was graduating, and even though the Graduation Duel would probably be exciting, she could just as easily watch it on Academy TV if she wanted to. But she did have one quick reason to stop by before she finished packing her things, and it was part of her therapy.
"Vic!"
Standing at the back of the convocation center, halfway out the door with his lackeys laughing at every crack he made at the expense of the graduating class, was Victor rocks. At first the expression on his hard face was one of excitement when he saw Hayley, but it quickly turned to one of confusion. That was understandable considering Hayley's issue with changing her mind even more often than the average woman, and much more drastically.
She walked right up to him, past Abel and in front of Ty and Clyde, and kissed him straight on the mouth. It wasn't a long kiss or a passionate one, but it was solid enough to ignite a few sparks. Hayley handed him a note card with ten digits written on it. "Give me a call this summer."
As she walked away, she heard Vic utter, "Now I'm more confused than ever."
One thing Hayley realized is that she did have a little bit of a thing for Vic. On the surface, he was a jerk and a bit arrogant, but she saw how hurt he looked when she denied him earlier in the year. Serpentina spent a good deal of time with Vic; as she acknowledged more and more that she and Serpentina were the same person, Hayley also acknowledged that attraction to Vic. Maybe she'd find out he was as much of a jerk as he seemed and wasn't worth her time, but she was going to give him a shot.
Going home for the summer, her flight was scheduled to leave Kazuki at six. She already started packing and had several hours to kill, what with not going to the ceremony, but she wanted to stop by Dr. Serdikoff's office quickly and get the name of that other doctor she recommended for the summer. After that, she'd probably head to the gym along with the other five people who realized the best times to go to the gym—defined as the times with the fewest people around—are during the Super Bowl or any major Academy event.
But just down the hill from the convocation center, she encountered one of those five other people. This one was dressed in black with a balaclava over his face, which may have helped him hide at night but just made him stand out during the day.
"What is this? Halloween?"
The man had no sense of humor, though. "Hayley Wilson. For your crimes, you will be punished."
"What crimes?" she asked. "I don't have time for this."
"For toying with the heart of men," he answered. Hayley couldn't believe he was talking about Vic; after all, she just gave Vic her number and basically admitted she liked him. "You are trying to hurt him again!"
The intensity of his cry startled Hayley. She could see from the way this man's body moved while he breathed heavily that he felt very passionate about this. He claimed that all women do nothing but hurt the men around them. "From manipulative flirting to broken promises, women build up dependence and weakness in men through false happiness and delusions of affection, and then they crush all those feelings and revel in men's pain."
It was clear this man was the one who attacked Sythia outside the Red Dorm and Lucy in the woods. He targeted women, but usually women who were dating someone; Hayley was notably single. But then again, she didn't have to date Vic for this guy to accuse her of hurting Vic. She saw that for herself after denying Serpentina's make out session and seeing Vic's reaction.
"I know I hurt him," she admitted, "but he's doing okay and I'm trying to make up for that."
"So you can hurt him again? You have done enough. I am going to take care of you right now." He reached for her but she slapped his hand away. With movements swift like a lion, the man lunged with his whole body, hoping to tackle Hayley and knock the wind out of her.
But Hayley was swift, too. She ducked forward until the man was on top of her, and then she pushed up and flipped him over her, listening to the heavy thud as his decent-sized frame slammed onto the pavement. Feeling a bit cocky—perhaps influenced by Serpentina's personality—Hayley approached slowly to assess the damage. Her attacker grabbed at her ankle, and though she stepped away from his hand, he reached her other leg and gave a strong yank. As she fell, Hayley turned over just quickly enough to catch herself before she hit the ground, and she kicked her held leg until she struck her attacker in the shoulder and he let go.
Both climbed to their feet, but the attacker had no desire to catch his breath. With size in his favor, one solid strike to Hayley should be enough to knock her out. He tried to get her from behind, but she was just baiting him; as soon as he touched her shoulders, she slunk backward and pushed her elbow into his stomach, and then slipped behind him while he was stunned. She wrapped her arm around his neck and ripped the balaclava right off his head.
"Romulus Malligan?"
If the marine-colored eyes weren't enough of a clue for Hayley to recognize a classmate, the graying hair sure was. As far as students go, no one's hair grayed faster than Romulus's. The look of hatred and disgust in his eyes was so much more intense than the general look of displeasure and indifference he showed in class. Now that she knew who he was and proved her point that she could defend herself, she let him go and looked deep in his angry scowl.
"Why?" asked Hayley. "Why would you attack people?"
"Women are nothing but evil, bossy, manipulative harpies who court men just long enough to feast on their blood and money and then rip out their hearts!" The strength of his accusation bordered on roaring.
Hayley flinched, but she held firm. Her response started defensively. "That's not true!"
"It is! Toying with men is in your nature. You flirt a little and teach him how to duel and spend a year accepting rare cards and gifts that cost his entire salary, and then you just up and abandon him the second some young hot shot comes walking by."
Even without some knowledge of the therapeutic process, Hayley knew his example was not descriptive of her behavior around Vic. It wasn't even true of Synthia with Clint or Lucy with Jason. "Who was she?"
"All women are wicked at heart," Romulus repeated. "It does not vary across race, religion, or socioeconomic status." Keeping his scowl, he lifted a Duel Disk that was strapped to his waist and armed himself. "Allow me to display my wrath for you." Hayley reached into her bag and armed her own Duel Disk, wondering why their short scuffle wasn't example enough of Romulus's anger.
"Who takes the first—"
"I do," Romulus commanded as he drew his cards. "I will summon Banisher of the Radiance (3/1600/0)." A white and gold creature, somewhat divine in appearance, appeared as if from another dimension. It held in its clawed hand a golden orb that shone with power. "Two set cards, as well."
Hayley drew with a lot less zeal. "I'll set one monster and a facedown card."
"Simple… and pathetic. Banisher of the Radiance will be replaced by Divine Knight Ishzark (6/2300/1800)." The white creature retreated to its dimension, and in its place appeared a tall, powerful knight dressed in blue tights and heavy, white armor, carrying a large sword by his side. The collars of his armor looked like wings sprouting from his shoulders. "Rainbow Veil will add protection." A stream of rainbow-colored light surrounded the knight and lent a shine to his sword. Ishzark raised his sword and lunged at Hayley's monster.
"Dark Resonator (3/1300/300) resists destruction in battle," she explained as her faceless fiend, whose body was hidden under heavy cloaks, blocked the sword using a tuning fork. But Ishzark's sword was imbued with the Rainbow Veil, which negated Dark Resonator's effect and made the blade sharp enough to shatter the tuning fork and pierce the monster.
"Rainbow Veil," Hayley remembered, "negates the effect of monsters in battle."
"And Ishzark removes Dark Resonator from play," Romulus added angrily. "Your turn."
Hayley had a little better idea now what she was up against. "I'll summon Fabled Oltro (2/800/500)." A purple, demon-like infant appeared on the field in a walker and began pitching a fit. "By discarding The Fabled Ganashia, I can summon Fabled Dyf (3/1400/1700)." A reptilian man with green scales and dragonic wings appeared on the field, but he was joined by a blue-skinned elephant demon. "When Ganashia (3/1600/1000) is discarded, I get to summon him automatically."
As Hayley pressed a few buttons on her Duel Disk, Oltro began swinging his toy and pitching his fit rhythmically, causing itself and the elephant to shine. "When Oltro tunes with Ganashia, I summon Stygian Sergeants (5/2200/1800)." The resulting monster was a two-headed, yellow-skinned dragon riding a powerful, double-wheeled motorcycle. "And I'll activate Battle Tuning by removing Oltro from play to increase Stygian Sergeants's (+3000) power by Oltro's attack power." The revving of the motorcycle got louder. "Now it's attack time," she said, fully expecting Romulus to activate a facedown card. But the motorcycle collided with Ishzark (2300) and destroyed him without a hitch.
"Giving up?" she asked.
"Shut up, wench."
Hayley laughed. "Fine. When Stygian Sergeants destroys a monster, he gains 800 points and gets to attack again." Oddly enough, Romulus let the second attack—a direct attack—go through uncontested. But that's when the fire struck.
"Inferno Tempest sweeps the entire game," he announced. Burning through each deck and both Graveyards, his Quick-Play Spell removed from play every monster that existed outside either player's hand. Romulus sacrificed a 3000-point hit in order to remove all those monsters from play.
"That's a bold move," Hayley suggested. "How'd you know I'd summon a monster powerful enough?"
"The evil festering inside a woman knows no bounds. It always grows before it is revealed," Romulus growled. "After losing my heart to learn the truth, it is a small price to pay Life Points in order to fight back. You now have no other monsters than those on the field and in your hand." And a ghostly image appeared on the field—a doll's head, broken by the hideous tentacles of an unknown organism living inside. Inferno Tempest removed Necroface from play, and so both players removed another five cards from their decks from play. Now neither player had many cards remaining, and Hayley had only two monsters.
"You are intense," Hayley commented. Feeling a bit of Dr. Serdikoff's influence rubbing off, she asked Romulus, "What happened to make you so angry with women? Who did this to you?"
Romulus snarled at her, "The wrath is mine. But it was a woman who showed it to me."
One thing Hayley learned from the way Dr. Serdikoff dealt with Serpentina is that compassion isn't always what angry people need; it varies with the person, and Romulus seemed to interpret compassion as weakness. She decided to be more forceful to get him to talk. She suggested:
"She must have been a real monster."
Romulus's eyes betrayed a brief expression of shock. Hayley's comment forced him to remember the events preceding his descent into darkness. "A woman cannot even fathom the evil that comes so naturally."
"Oh, come on," Hayley scoffed. "How bad could she be?"
Romulus took a deep breath and attempted to recall his story without allowing the words to upset his game.
"My first two years after high school, I worked in my family's business on the sea. As an Ordinary Seaman, I did the usual grunt work of cleaning and performing maintenance, but I also spent time as a helmsman. I worked in the bridge of a merchant ship during one voyage carrying a bunch of rich people across the Pacific when a young woman wandered into the bridge looking to speak with the captain.
"She was the most beautiful creature that ever graced a ship. Her eyes shone like pearls, her smile bright as the sun, her skin smooth as silk… It was impossible for me to lay eyes on her without falling instantly in love. She was just looking to meet the captain and lay down the ground rules for exactly how her trip was to go. She was very strong-willed. And she was furious when she found out I was not the captain, but just the man at the helm. She accused me of lying and demanded I be locked in the brig.
"And the look on her face when she saw me walking the deck? She hardly even noticed. She was playing a card game with which I lacked familiarity and soundly defeating her opponents. I asked her how to play, and she blew me off, claiming it was way over my head. And so I challenged her on the spot, borrowing cards from a high roller who decided losing was good indication his cards were worthless and hearing only the basic rules from a child who did not mind showing off over me. I was nowhere near victorious, but with my performance having zero experience, I caught her attention.
"She decided to teach me the game, and then she watched me defeat all other duelists she deemed unfit to duel herself. Even after the journey was complete, we continued contact. I knew how she cared about the game and her high class lifestyle, and so I spent every spare penny I ever had buying her gifts, but that was not enough for her. She held a special place in her heart for the heartbreaker duelists of the past: Seto Kaiba and Ryo Marufuji… To gain her favor truly, I had to become the best duelist. I fought constantly through wins and losses as I gained experience through numerous tournaments, each time improving my win percentage until it seemed I was nigh unstoppable. And when I finally reached the pinnacle of dueling ability, I was accepted into Duel Academy, and I was ready to give her the ring I bought.
"And that's when she saw him—a younger, handsomer man who inherited a big bank account and a large share of Kaiba Corp. She stood me up for a date at which I planned to propose. All at once, she stopped taking my calls. Just like that, she deserted me after a year of affection and intimacy. That is when I learned that women do not care about other people. They only care for themselves and the materials possessions they can obtain. Other men are too blinded by the seductions of women to notice the evil happening right in front of them. In the place of these broken-down, weak-willed men, my wrath will revenge these women."
Just like that, the fire sparked again inside Romulus and he was ready to finish the duel. Hayley knew that was likely to happen soon, too, because she didn't even have half a deck left. In her favor, though, she still had all her Life Points whereas Romulus just flushed more than half of his to activate Inferno Tempest.
"It's still my Battle Phase," Hayley pointed out, "and Fabled Dyf (1400) hasn't attacked yet." The dragonic man held his hands together in front of him, and visibly blue energy began collecting within his palms.
"Counter with Dimensional Prison!" A wrap hole opened in front of Dyf, and the gravitational force drew the man closer to oblivion.
"I'll counter that with Trap Stun," Hayley replied. The Trap in front of Romulus sparked and the void in the field disappeared. Dyf's spell continued unimpeded, and the blue energy blasted from his hands to collide with Romulus. "That will end my turn for now," she decided, confident that Fabled Dyf (1400) and Stygian Sergeants (-2200) were good protection.
Hayley 8000: Romulus 8000 – 700 – 3800 – 1400 = 2100.
Romulus growled at her as he drew. "You are the same as every woman I have ever met!" He pulled a card from his hand and slapped it onto his Duel Disk. A red beast with a mouthless face and a hardened, tailed body appeared on the field—small at first, and growing quite rapidly. "Gren Maju Da Eiza (3/+9200/+9200) will administer my wrath for me!" His winged beast dashed forward and impaled Fabled Dyf (1400) using its powerful claws, slinking quickly back to Romulus's field afterward.
"That's why you removed them all from play," Hayley realized. "For every card, your monster gains 400 points." Not to mention that even with her own monsters in play, very few monsters in the entire game could match 9200 points in battle.
With two cards facedown, Romulus ended his turn.
Hayley 8000 – 7800 = 200: Romulus 2100.
She couldn't believe in a single attack, Romulus took a decisive lead in this duel. Not only that, his monster was strong enough to be considered unstoppable, and he undoubtedly set a trap designed to protect Gren Maju from destruction. Was there anything she could do?
Nothing touched her, but Hayley felt as if she were suddenly smacked and berated. She felt somewhat dizzy and disoriented, but she saw no one other than Romulus and heard no actual voices. The way her heartbeat increased in speed, it must be…
That feeling came from inside her. Suddenly she felt a little bit angrier and infinitely cockier. She straightened herself out and laughed confidently. "A big monster and a Trap card? Anyone can fight back against that," she laughed.
But she didn't stop. Her laughing continued, and the visible anger Romulus showed grew. "You got all upset and swore off women because you met one total glory whore? It sounds like you need a good beating to snap you out of this."
"Mocking my pain does not alleviate your situation."
"No," Serpentina agreed, "but this does." She placed a card in her Duel Disk, and a massive cloud appeared on the field and whipped up a storm powerful enough to brush Romulus's Trap back into his hand. "And to follow up Giant Trunade, I'll summon Fabled Raven (2/1300/1000)!" This monster was a man wearing all black, including over his face, and with bladed feathers growing from his arms.
"You continue to mock me?"
"Not yet. This card lets me discard two cards from my hand, and by doing so, Raven (4/+2100/1000) gains two levels and 400 points per card." She smirked. "If you don't think that's a big deal, look again." A ghostly image of a small cat appeared on the field, one with a jeweled crown and a hardened tail. It darted around Gren Maju's tail, pawing at it like a cat playing with a mouse, but then suddenly the cat scowled and grabbed Gren Maju, causing the entire creature to explode. "When The Fabled Catsith is discarded, it destroys a face-up card on the field.
"And now, I'll mock you." She twirled her hand as she pointed from Raven (2100) to Romulus. "With nothing on your field, Raven can attack directly." Fabled Raven flew across the field and released his bladed feathers as if creating a rain of blades from above. When the rain stopped, Romulus's Life Points hit the bottom and his Duel Disk shut down.
Hayley 200: Romulus 2100 – 2100 = 0.
Serpentina chuckled to herself when Romulus fell to his knees. She looked upwardly as if talking to someone invisible: "You see, Hayley? You're weak and useless. You need to be more like me."
She looked over at Romulus and thought to herself, "I guess the campus is done with the Ghost Duelist, too. I'll pick out a spot on the quad for them to erect my statue."
But despite Serpentina's ignorance of Romulus, he wasn't simply kneeling in defeat. The energy once transferred into his body reached its limit and released from him during that duel. The rapid change in energy nearly caused him to pass out if not for the glimmer of compassion shown by the young lady who helped him to his feet.
"Come on, Romulus," Lili Von said as she pulled his arm around her shoulder and helped him move. "If you pass out here while dressed like that, people's speculation will run wild. It takes a certain kind of jackass to sleep under the sun while wearing all black."
Her attempt at humor fell short of Romulus at that moment. "Lili…" It was awkward for him to walk like this given how much shorter she was, but he didn't have the strength and stability to move on his own just yet. "Forgiveness…"
"Don't worry about your little hobby," she said. "I would never admit that I socialized with someone from the Yellow Dorm."
Romulus felt something of a relief that few would know about his attacking women who wronged men. But more than that, in his weakened state from the dispersal of the energy that intensified his feeling, he felt like a weight was lifted from his shoulders. The fury that once drove him to seek revenge against unethical women faded largely.
Romulus realized he still felt intense disapproval for women like Hayley; his emotions withdrew slightly, but they were still representative of his true opinions. "I still cannot forgive them." He paused when talking caused another wave of exhaustion wash over him. He recovered quickly. "Those women…"
"Not all women are like that," Lili told him. "There are all kinds out there. You know what I think you should do? When you go home, ask out the first girl you see. You're a decent-looking guy; she's bound to say yes. If she doesn't, ask out the next girl. Spend some time with real women and see how many of them are actually compassionate. I think you'll be surprised by what you find."
Romulus was speechless by that suggestion. The whole idea ludicrous, and yet a small part of him wanted to give it a try. After all, Lili was tolerable despite her apparent misanthropy. Perhaps he could give it a try.
As Romulus hobbled away with Lili, another figure peeked out onto the scene, hidden by the trees. Seeing the world differently from most, he watched as the energy that amplified Romulus's emotions over the past months exited his body every time he took another step and then dissipated into the earth. After accepting such a rare gift, Romulus expended the energy in a very short period of time.
His steel-gray eyes caught the sunlight and gave his eyes a soft glow. "This is an unfortunate event, but negligible in the grand scheme of my plan." He chuckled to himself as he glanced at the Hibiki building where the majority of the island's populace watched the graduation ceremony.
"Prepare yourselves, duelists. Wrath may have fallen, but the End of Days is only just beginning!"
Thus ends another segment of my story. I hope you enjoyed all or part of it. Within the next few days, I will post all the original cards seen during the arc, and I will follow that with an introduction to the next story arc. I know the basics of the next arc, but I have not yet settled on a title. You can expect to see that soon.
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