Author's note: Any cards highlighted in bold are not actual Yugioh cards.
Chapter 24: The Warden
When we entered the Warden's office, he looked like he was already expecting a Duel. At present, for some reason, I can't remember what he looks like exactly, just that he looked somewhat like a giant of a man, nearly double the size of Carnivore. "So, you got past my Overseers, eh?" he taunted.
"Indeed we have, Warden," Carnivore spoke. I have to say, I was put in awe by her bravery. To stand before someone who is twice your size (by which I mean my size) and talk down to them was something I found impressive, considering the fact that I somehow couldn't find words to say. "Now hand over the Guidance Key to the Satellite."
"How the hell did you… anyway, just because you beat my Overseers, what makes you think you can lay a finger on me?!"
"It's three against one, and our loss records are miniscule to boot."
"So what. I liked the way you crushed those who stood before you, Carnivore, and I was hoping you'd do the same to that whiny little brat! But instead, you have the gall to challenge ME?!" he shouted, activating his Duel Disk. In response, we all activated ours.
I went first, placing a card face-down. Carnivore was next, summoning a Miracle Jurassic Egg (0/2000) and placing two cards face-down. Rebecca followed with Polymerization, fusing the Maiden in Love and Succubus Knight in her hand to create Succubus Temptress (2000/1500), after which she placed a card face-down to end her turn.
The Warden drew, and played the Field Spell Temple of the Kings, allowing activation of his Traps the turn they were Set. His second card was the Special Summon of Vice Dragon (2000/2400), normally a Level 5, due to the fact that his opponents were the only ones who controlled monsters, in exchange for halving the cards ATK and DEF. The Level 2 Tuner Monster Magna Drago (1400/600) was summoned, and then the Trap Card Class Change, due to the Field Spell, was placed face-down and activated, increasing the Level of the Tuner to 3.
"I'm tuning my Level 5 Vice Dragon and my now Level 3 Magna Drago!" the Warden shouted as the monsters lit up to be replaced by one with the stats (2000/2000). "The True Dragon's hollow body will now arise. Experience the glory now of true emptiness! Synchro Summon! Rise, Flesh of the Overseer Dragon!" After the stars and circles erupted into the beam of light, a large white dragon-like form had appeared, with white scales, but strangely, it was completely hollow: no bones, and the skin looked like a deflated balloon of sorts
His new Dragon had apparently allowed him to draw one card, and upon seeing it, he grinned. His second move was to activate the Ritual Spell Card Dragon Blood Ritual, sacrificing a Level 8 Blue Eyes White Dragon in his hand and chanting "As the blood of a lesser Dragon is spilled, it boils with the fury of the True Dragon. I now Ritual Summon Blood of the Overseer Dragon!" as the monster appeared, a large mass of red blood in the same shape as the first dragon, with the stats (2000/2000). His last card was Card of Demise, giving him a five card hand in exchange for discarding his hand in five turns. From there, he activated Painful Choice, revealing five cards in his Deck to us and allowing us to choose one to add to his Hand. We saw the five pieces of Exodia, and we all settled on Exodia the Forbidden One (1000/1000), sending the rest to the Graveyard. One Double Summon later, and the card was on the field, before Altar for Tribute was played, destroying it and increasing the Warden's Life Points to 5000. Pot of Greed came in for two free cards. Contract with Exodia was then played, with him paying 2000 Life Points to Special Summon Exodia Necross (1800/0), setting one card face-down. With no cards in his Hand, the Warden had to end his turn there.
One thing about my past that I did remember, however, was the fact that, at one time, the Exodia cards intrigued me. So, after a bit of research, I happened upon Exodia Necross, and being young at the time, composed a few rhymes to remember its effects. What exactly they said isn't important, but I knew that Exodia's left leg stopped this monster from being destroyed by Spell cards, the right leg stopped destruction by Trap Cards, the left arm stopped destruction by Monster effects, the right arm increased the strength of Exodia Necross by 1000 after each battle, and the main Exodia card stopped destruction by battle.
When I drew, I placed two more cards face-down and ended my turn. The card I was looking for hadn't arrived yet, and until it came, I had to stall for time.
Carnivore drew, yet was also forced to end her turn as all she did was switch her Egg to defense mode. When Rebecca drew, however, she looked like she got something she could work with. She Special Summoned Grinder Golem (3000/300) to the Warden's side of the field, also Special Summoning two Grinder Tokens (0/0) to her own. From there, she activated Change of Heart, taking control of the Grinder Golem on the Warden's field. The Golem, along with the two Tokens, was sacrificed to bring out her new ultimate beast; Raviel, Lord of Phantasms (4000/4000). She chose to attack Exodia Necross, but was stopped by a set Negate Attack, forcing her to end her turn.
The Warden drew, and activated a second Pot of Greed, drawing two cards. I could see a slight smile on his face, as if he almost had something he wanted. The effect of 'Blood of the Overseer Dragon, allowed him to add a Level 4 or lower Dragon-type monster from his Deck to his Hand, but from there, all that happened was that a card was placed face-down and Exodia Necross attacked the Defense Position Miracle Jurassic Egg, dealing him 200 damage but increasing the monster's ATK to 2800. Martyr Curse then activated due to the Field Magic, forcing Rebecca's Succubus Temptress and Exodia Necross to battle with the former's abilities negated. The Succubus was destroyed, dealing Rebecca 800 damage to come to 3200, and the ATK of Exodia Necross increased again to 3800.
I drew, but could only end my turn again. When Carnivore drew, however, she placed three cards face-down and sacrificed those three Spell Cards to summon Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder (4000/4000). She attacked Exodia Necross with it, though I tried to stop her. Instead, she dealt the Warden 200 points of damage to come to 2600 and increased the ATK of Exodia Necross to 4800. Her turn ended there.
Rebecca's turn saw her use Pot of Greed for two cards, followed by her use of Monster Reborn to revive her Succubus Temptress (2000/1500) and use its other ability to return a Change of Heart from her Graveyard to her hand. She then used that card to take control of Blood of the Overseer Dragon and then use Raviel's ability, Tributing the monster to give it 2000 extra ATK. She chose to attack with Raviel, targeting Exodia Necross and shouting "Shimmering Slash!", and although not destroying it, the Warden was now down to a mere 400 points. This in turn made Exodia Necross stronger at 5800 points. She set the last card she had face-down and ended her turn.
The Warden drew, and activated Card of Sanctity, giving everyone a six-card hand. The ability of Flesh of the Overseer Dragon activated: since a Dragon was added to his hand by a card effect other than its own, he could Special Summoning it, bringing out Red Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000). He then proceeded to use Polymerization to fuse the Red-Eyes on the field with a Mammoth Graveyard in his Hand, chanting "The essence of the True Dragon is fused in the bones of all Dragons. Let the surrender of the flesh and blood bring forth this essence! I Fusion Summon the Bones of the Overseer Dragon!" as the monster, a large... bone dragon... appeared with the stats (2000/2000) and being a Level 8. The ability of this card soon activated, returning a Dragon-type monster from the Graveyard to the field in Defense mode, choosing Blood of the Overseer Dragon.
All three Overseer Dragon monsters were then removed from play via the effect of the Bones, and the Warden started chanting again, saying "The True Dragon's soul lies waiting to inhabit a worthy vessel. Now the flesh, blood and bones shall join as one to create the husk that shall contain glory. Rise, White Overseer Dragon of the Void!" as the monster appeared, this time a Level 12 monster with 5000 ATK and DEF, and looking much larger and more like a dragon with its white skin, sharp teeth and more pronounced features. The ATK and DEF, however, increased, as the card had an ability that gives it 1000 ATK and DEF for each Dragon in the Graveyard. So far, there was Vice Dragon, Magna Drago, Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Red-Eyes Black Dragon, bringing it up to 9000.
The Warden proceeded to use his Field Spell to activate another Altar for Tribute from his hand, targeting his Exodia Necross and regaining 5800 Life Points to come to 6400, although due to that one effect, the card remained on the field. The summoning of the Dragons, however, caused Rebecca to gain three Phantasm Tokens from Raviel's effect (1000/1000) as each time a monster was Summoned while Raviel was out, the controller gained a Phantasm Token. The Warden attacked Rebecca's Raviel with his new Dragon's 'Overseer Dragon Fire' attack, but I revealed my Nightmare Mirror, discarding one card to negate the attack and deal 1000 damage to him. That was when he turned Exodia Necross on me, but that was also when I revealed Back-Attack Ambush, ending the battle phase, Special Summoning as many Ambush Tokens on my field as he had monsters (in this case 2) and giving me the option to immediately Tribute them to inflict 500 damage per token. Doing so, I got him down to 4400 Life Points, after which he placed a card face-down and ended his turn.
My turn came, and I finally drew what I needed. I placed two more cards face-down and sacrificed three Trap Cards to summon Uria, Lord of Searing Flames (?/0), which gained 1000 ATK for each Trap Card in my Graveyard. So far, I had six Trap Cards there, which made my monster's ATK 6000. I next used Uria's Trap Destruction ability to destroy the set card he had, and attacked Exodia Necross with its Hyper Blaze despite my initial concerns about doing so. I guess I just wanted to feel like part of the team, and me not trying to help bring it down made me feel like I wasn't. His Life Points were reduced by a mere 200 to 4200, after which his monster powered up to 6800 points.
Rebecca must have realized something, because after Carnivore drew, she activated Soul Demolition. Now Carnivore realized what had to be done. She paid 2500 Life Points in intervals of 500 to remove the Exodia pieces in the Warden's Graveyard from play, turning the black monster back to its original dull gold color and returning its ATK to 1800. From there, she used Card Destruction to discard her hand of six cards and draw an equal amount, adding twelve counters to her Egg. This also, however, increased the power boost on the Warden's Dragon to 13000. She Tributed her Egg to summon Super Conductor Tyranno (3300/1400), Normal Summoned Babycerasaurus (500/500) and activated the ability of her Tyranno. The Babycerasaurus was Tributed to inflict 1000 damage to the Warden to put him on 3200, and in turn, that monster effect activated, allowing Carnivore to Special Summon a Tyranno Infinity (?/0) from her Deck. Her own Soul Release activated, removing five Dinosaurs in her own Graveyard from play, and increasing the ATK of her new monster to 5000. She attacked the now powerless Exodia Necross with Hamon, destroying it and dealing 2200 points of Battle Damage with the Lost Thunder attack, followed by 1000 points of Effect Damage from the Hell's Punishment effect, downing him for good. Personally, I wanted his ace monster destroyed, but then I guess you can't have everything. I was really glad that we had won the Duel though.
End note: Really enjoyed creating the Warden's Deck. I sort of wanted to convey a feeling that he had a power sort of like the three Summon Overseers rolled into one, hence his Overseer Dragon ace monster. The other monster, Exodia Necross, really seemed to fit as well considering the earlier days in the Void where the Warden, the tortures and general life in the Void were compounding, unstoppable forces that threatened to crush Toby.