Chapter 16: Gate of Greed

As the Life Points of Nightshade and Hunter-killer reached 0, the latter spoke, saying "It appears you are a lot stronger than we gave you credit for."

"Indeed," Nightshade continued, handing over the four Keys they had acquired. "Now that you have proven your strength to us, you may defeat the Gatekeepers with our blessing. Just be warned, they are exceptionally tough to beat."

"We'll keep that in mind," Carnivore told them as she inserted their Keys into the Locks. From there, we walked through the Door with our own four Keys in hand, although this time, the corridor split into three passages at the end. Coming to the end of the black-colored part of the corridor, we saw a screen. On the screen, we saw the exact same progress chart as before. This time, there was only one square, and it was bisected from the top-right hand corner to the bottom left. The top-left hand corner was colored green, while the bottom-right was red. There was something else, what seemed like a grey horizontal/vertical cross, with a diagonal cross cutting the section into 4 from the center, on top of the square. At the left end of the horizontal cross was a blue square, at the top end was a yellow, and at the right end was a pure red square, not like the lightish red used for the other squares. Below all of that was a black text box with words typed on it.

"Congratulations for acquiring your first four Keys. These four Keys give you the right to challenge the Gatekeepers, the holders of the last three Keys you need to acquire. Challenge the Gatekeepers as you see fit, but know that one defeat will still result in the surrender of all Keys you have acquired and your subsequent declaration of Defeat. Should you defeat all three Gatekeepers, you can declare Victory. Your Duels will now be conducted as 2vs1 Duels, giving you separate Life Totals."

From there, the corridors branching off to our left, ahead and right were colored blue, yellow and red respectively. "So, what now, Carnivore?" I asked.

"I don't know," she replied. "This is the first time I've fought in one of these Wars, much less reached these Gatekeepers. I assume that the opponents we fight are on the other side of each door."

"Should we perhaps start with the Blue corridor then?"

"It's as good an idea as any at this stage."

So, we were walking down the blue corridor, and found that it led through a door into a blue-colored Duel Arena. A man dressed in a blue cloak was waiting for us. "So, I finally get to battle, eh?" he spoke, yawning. "Since you are the challengers, you guys get to go first."

I started the match, placing two cards face-down on the field. Carnivore summoned a Miracle Jurassic Egg (0/2000) and also placed two cards face-down. The Blue Gatekeeper played Dark World Dealings, forcing everyone to draw one card and then discard one card. Due to the monster being discarded to the Graveyard by a card effect, Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World (1600/1300) was Special Summoned to the field. Also, the card Carnivore discarded was a monster, causing her Egg to gain two counters. From there, he Special Summoned Grinder Golem (3000/300) on my side of the field, and Special Summoned two Grinder Tokens (0/0) on his own. For his third action, he Tributed his Grinder Tokens and Beiige to summon Raviel, Lord of Phantasms (4000/4000). To end his turn, he Normal Summoned Doomcaliber Knight (1900/1800).

When it came to my turn, I wasn't sure what to do. Carnivore had, before declaring war, told me rumors of the Sacred Beasts of the Gatekeepers, and how they were very powerful monsters. I didn't know what effects Raviel had, so I just placed one more card face-down and ended my turn.

Carnivore drew, Special Summoned a Gilasaurus (1400/400) from her Hand, and used Polymerization, fusing it and the Kaitoptera in her Hand to form Horned Saurus (2000/1000), adding four counters to her Egg in the process. This, however, also activated Raviel's ability, Special Summoning two 'Phantasm Tokens (1000/1000). She then used its ability to attack directly on the turn it was Fusion Summoned, bringing the Gatekeeper down to 2000 Life Points. Her turn ended there.

The Gatekeeper drew, and activated another effect of Raviel: by Tributing any number of monsters, he could add their combined original ATK to Raviel's total ATK. The monsters sacrificed were the two Phantasm Tokens, bringing Raviel up to 6000 ATK. I could guess what would happen then: the Gatekeeper had Raviel attack Horned Saurus. If Carnivore took the hit, she was gone. Right then, however, she activated her face-down Depth Amulet, discarding one card to negate the attack, also adding two counters to her Egg. After this, the Gatekeeper summoned Phantom Skyblaster (1100/800), also Special Summoning two 'Skyblaster Tokens' (500/500) as a result of its ability. Its other effect activated, dealing 300 damage to his opponent for each Skyblaster monster he controlled. In this case, he chose to deal 900 damage to me, bringing me down to 3100 Life Points. After that, he ended his turn.

As my turn arrived, I revealed the face-down I placed last turn: Altar for Tribute. This destroyed one monster on my field to give me Life Points equal to its ATK. Since there was only the Grinder Golem on my field, it was destroyed, bringing me to 6100. So far, I was relatively happy with what I had face-down, although I was worried about what else the Gatekeeper could do. I ended my turn there. One of my two face-downs, Draining Shield, would hopefully help me survive Raviel's attack should it come after me.

Carnivore drew, and activated the ability of her Miracle Jurassic Egg. Since it had eight counters, she could Tribute it to summon a Level 8 or lower monster from her Deck. She Summoned her Super Conductor Tyranno (3300/1400) and activated its effect, destroying Horned Saurus to deal 1000 damage to the Gatekeeper and put him on 1000. She ended her turn there. That was perfect; if he attacked now, he was a goner.

The Gatekeeper drew, and activated Card Sanctity, giving everyone a six-card hand. For his second move, he Tributed a Skyblaster Token to summon Caius the Shadow Monarch (2400/1000) and activated its ability, banishing Carnivore's Depth Amulet. Another Skyblaster Token was Tributed to Summon Doom Shaman (2400/2000). His Phantom Skyblaster was then Tributed to Summon Sillva, Warlord of Dark World (2300/1400). That strategy completely eluded me, why was he rounding up so many monsters? If he somehow succeeds in destroying one of us, then the other would just take him out.

He attacked Carnivore's Super Conductor Tyranno with Raviel, not activating its ability. I, however, activated my other face-down; Nightmare Mirror. By discarding a card, I could negate the attack and deal him 1000 damage, enough to defeat him.

"Aw, damn it, kid, I could have won that turn!" he shouted. "You sure know how to snatch a victory right out from under people!"

"How did I stop a victory?" I asked.

"Once I destroyed Carnivore's monster and used my other monsters to knock you out the game, I would have activated my Impact Revive to restore her monster with 500 extra ATK and grant me a second Battle Phase. Then I could have used Raviel's ability to knock her out the game! That's the price I pay for not Dueling nowadays, eh?"

"Okay, now that we have won…"

"Yes, here is the Blue Key," the Gatekeeper handed us his Key, which was a deep blue color. "Since we came, this is the first time any of us has been defeated. But, like I said, I guess that's my punishment for taking it easy and grabbing all of the comfort offered to me. A slight word of warning: the other two Gatekeepers are quite vicious. I don't think you can expect the same easy ride you got from me."

The Door through which we came in reopened at that point, and we exited back into the corridor.