Chapter 11: Open the Gates!
A whole year has passed since my arrival at the Void. I was still relentlessly tortured, but somehow, the Psychic Powers I had stolen from the guards and the others had somehow lessened the pain. I was still told to perform trials, yet my performance improved as time went on. Carnivore was also somewhat less forceful and more caring now. Rebecca was still here as well, also giving me comfort alongside her, and the two seem to have buried the hatchet. I was still harassed by Duelists from time to time, but I managed to defeat them. One thing I noticed was that, when I was possessed by whatever it was that possessed me, my Deck had changed drastically to depend on more monsters. Since coming back to normal, I was using my original Deck, and had still maintained my record of winning without ever making one attack.
What Carnivore said the previous year was making me feel a bit anxious today: "You have the option of declaring war in this place."
I remember instantly saying "In that case, I will do exactly that!"
"You, yourself, cannot take that action yet. You need to have been here for two years to be able to earn the right to declare war."
"I cannot wait that long, Carnivore!"
"You don't need to wait that long. You only have to wait half the time to be able to participate in war. Meaning, once you have spent a whole year here, I can declare war on your behalf! If we win the resulting battle, there's a chance we may be able to escape."
"Why do we have to wait for a whole year to just be able to participate in war? Why do we have to wait two years before earning the right to declare war?"
"The thinking behind that seems to be that, by the end of the first year, they will have stamped out your will to fight. If you are still capable of turning against the Void after that, then you can fight by someone else's side, but your own declarations of war will be dismissed as ramblings. If, however, your will to fight hasn't been extinguished by the end of the second year here, you can fight for your freedom."
"Why do that? Won't it encourage more uprisings?"
"That's the elegance of the system. Gather a whole lot of people who want to fight their way out of the Void, then unleash their best on them to, theoretically, permanently destroy their will to fight with much more effectiveness than any amount of torture could hope to achieve. What, after all, is the point of fighting when you have seen that you yourself are faced with such overwhelming odds? You may as well just stay in your cell like a good little failure."
"Did that happen to you?"
"No. I just chose not to get involved on the whole. But if you are truly serious about wanting to escape, hold out for one more year. If you need help doing so, you know where to find us. If your will to fight hasn't been snuffed out by this time next year, we will make a grand declaration of war."
I remembered that conversation, and today, Carnivore had gone to the Warden's office to make the declaration of war official.
"Attention, everyone in the Void," spoke the Multi Duel Voice Network on my Duel Disk, "All lessons are cancelled for today and tomorrow as Carnivore of Cellblock 7 has declared a War. All Cellblocks are to decide on their two key holders and are to meet in the War Arena tomorrow morning!"
Right then, Carnivore re-entered my cell and asked me. "You sure you want to go through with this?"
"A bit too late to ask now," I replied. "What did they mean having to select key-holders though?"
"Basically, selecting who will be Dueling. As you already know, only two people from each Cellblock can participate in War, and in a few cells, this causes some infighting as there are many people who want that slight hope. You don't need to worry, though: You told me beforehand that you want to be the one fighting by me in this, and in Cellblock 7, my word is law. All you need to do is make sure your Deck is ready. We are to go to the War Arena in the morning, so rest up."
"What do you mean by 'War Arena'?"
"It's a special Duel Arena. It is actually comprised of sixteen Duel Arenas as opposed to the thirty regular Arenas on each Duel Arena floor, and each Arena is arranged in a tournament ladder-style configuration from what I've heard. You'll see more tomorrow."
The next morning, Carnivore and I woke up early and were waiting in the War Arena. Earlier, we had arrived at the special 'War Arena' floor, and I saw booths numbering 4, 5, 6 etc. She took us to a booth labeled '7', and once we were inside, she pressed the 'Ready' button featured on the side of the booth wall. There was a screen showing numbers 1 through 16 in blocks, some colored red, others colored green. As she pressed the button, the '7' block turned from red to green, the door behind us locked, and a compartment opened, revealing a key.
Once all the blocks were green, an announcement began. "Welcome to the first War in about three years. You will have noticed that each of you has been given a key. That key is one of your seven Keys to the Future. Your objective is to Duel the other opponents to get their Keys. If you lose your Key, you lose the War."
"When the War begins, the door in front of you will open. However, you will see when you enter the Duel Arena that there is a locked door. That door can only be opened with a Key, which is acquired by defeating other Duelists. Each team of Duelists, when they Duel, has to use their Psychic Power, has to wager their current Keys and has to Duel as a Team. The rules for the Duels are as such: Each team will share a pool of 8000 Life Points. For the first Duels, there will be consensus on who takes the first move, and for all other Duels, the starting team is the one who had the highest number of Life Points at the end of their last Duel, with the individual Duelist's turn being based on a consensus within the team. The Winners will earn the right to carry their Keys with them to the next Duel, and the Losers will have to surrender any Keys they have accumulated and return from whence they came in shame. A key has to be left in the key hole for the door to stay open. To win this War, a Cellblock Team will need seven Keys"
"However, note that some locks require more than one Key. Notice how each of the Keys you have been given is marked '1'. You can only insert those Keys into Locks with corresponding signs. For the victors, you will be awarded higher number Keys as you progress through the doors. You can only win if you have seven different Keys."
"Once you have defeated your enemies in this war and used their Keys, you will proceed down the room to your next Duel, where you will Duel again. This will continue until one team reaches the Gatekeepers. That is where you will get your remaining three Keys, and one defeat results in forfeiture of the Keys you have accumulated."
"Of course," Carnivore spoke. "Limit the number of people who can participate in war, limit out of those the number of people who can declare war, limit them to two people per Cellblock, and if enough people want to fight, they'll theoretically fight amongst themselves first. Then make them continue to fight amongst each Cellblock so that only two people make it to the Gatekeepers, and those two are eliminated just before the finish line."
"That's far too complicated," I sighed. I couldn't understand this at all. "Why not just have everyone Duel the Gatekeepers and be done with it?"
"Oh, but there's the beauty of it, Toby. Why just let a mob of prisoners fight against what are probably three of the Void's top Duelists? Because it's too goddamn tedious, fighting Duel after Duel. If it was as easy as you said, we'd be at war day in, day out."
"Then why bother with this whole war system in the first place?"
"I told you part of the reason already: to crush the will to fight in those who still have it after countless periods of agony, but beyond that, if there wasn't this system, there would probably have been riots long ago because people who can still talk straight want out. So, they leak the fact that there is the system that can, in some way, grant them freedom, then they force a limited number of people to fight among themselves to earn it, then crush the last pair standing with their elite force, with losses on such a wide scale intended to snuff out the urge to rebel. After all, is there any point to continuing to fight when you know that, after all your struggles, you fail at the last?"
"Now that the rules have been laid down for the Gate-Burst War," the announcement continued, "…the time has come for it to begin! The Void Goes To War!"
With that, the doors opposite our entry point opened, and the two of us stepped out into a Duel Arena, standing on the end closest to our entrance. We were met with the Beast and someone else, looking like a long blonde-haired girl.
"Ah, the Beast and the Dancer," Carnivore spoke.