Author's note: Any cards highlighted in bold are not actual Yugioh cards.
Chapter 28: Fight against Arcadia part 2: Within the aura
With my Duel with the Arcadia woman, I had three Bowganian (1300/1000) on the field, along with two Copy Tokens of that monster, while she had two Evil Thorns (100/300) and an active Closed Plant Gate. I actually stumbled a bit after feeling the new power on the tip of my tongue as it arrived. "Wow, that is rich!" I found myself gasping. I'm not sure I was used to receiving the power as a substantial amount in such a condensed form.
My turn came, but a voice inside me urged me not to do anything, so I ended there.
The Arcadia Woman drew, and did not summon Yubel, as predicted. Instead, she summoned Twilight Rose Knight (1000/1000) and used its ability to Special Summon a Dark Verger (0/1000). The Level 2 Dark Verger, the two Level 1 Evil Thorns and the Level 3 Twilight Rose Knight were tuned to Synchro Summon Black Rose Dragon (2400/1800). Its effect then activated, destroying all cards on the field when successfully Synchro Summoned, with the Arcadia Woman shouting "Black Rose Gale!"
All five of my Bowganian monsters were lost, but my Trap in my Field Spell Zone remained, even as my opponent was without any monsters.
"How did your Trap card survive?" she asked.
"If you saw my Duel with your oh so precious leader, you will know that he tried to destroy it with a Spell Card and failed. Well guess what: it's also immune to destruction by monster effects!" I retorted. "Nothing can destroy it!"
My turn came, and I played two cards. The first was the Continuous Spell Card Sad Story – Harbingers of the Chapters. The second was Sad Story – Sorrowful Memories. Due to my first card's effect, when I played my second card, I also Special Summoned a Harbinger of Tragic Endings – Suffering (0/0). This gained 500 points for each card that had 'Sad Story' in its name, bringing it to 1000. My second card forced any player who drew a monster in the Draw Phase to shuffle it back into the Deck. I also activated my Nightmare's Steelcage Spell card, stopping her from attacking for two turns.
The Arcadia Woman drew, and what she drew was a Spell Card and not a Monster Card, meaning that my Sad Story cards on the field didn't activate. She instead summoned a Wall of Ivy (300/1200) to her field and ended her turn. She had a very strange way of operating, as it was quite obvious to me that she was going to send me and my friends back to the Void if she won. I couldn't let that happen. For some reason, though, she seemed to be holding back.
I drew a Spell card as well, and played it: Sad Story – Unwavering Truth. This forced us to, if we drew a Spell Card, shuffle it back into the Deck. In addition, this Special Summoned a Harbinger of Tragic Endings – Inevitability from my Deck to my side of the field due to Sad Story – Harbingers of the Chapters. Both Harbingers, since there were now three cards with 'Sad Story' in their name, got 1500 ATK and DEF. I ended my turn there.
The Arcadia Woman drew, drawing a Trap Card and dodging my Sad Story cards again. Strangely, she just ended her turn there. After that, Nightmare's Steelcage wore off.
When it came to my draw, I also drew a Trap. I activated the Spell Card Pot of Greed that I picked up a turn ago for two cards, then activated my final Sad Story card, Sad Story – Dreadful Day. This forced each player, if they drew a Trap Card, to shuffle it back into the Deck. Due to my Sad Story – Harbingers of the Chapters, this also Special Summoned a Harbinger of Tragic Endings – Victimization from my Deck. All of my Harbingers now had 2000 ATK and DEF, and a fourth effect of Harbingers of the Chapters was now active: as long as I had all three Harbingers on the field, I wasn't targeted by Sad Story during the Draw Phase. However, I activated a second Pot of Greed to draw two cards, followed by Gold Moon Coin. Now, I had to hand over all cards in my hand to the Arcadia Woman, and I could draw the same number of cards I handed over. I only had my Heavy Storm and third Pot of Greed to give her, but once I handed my cards over, I activated one of the cards I drew: Card of Sanctity, giving everyone a six-card hand. I ended my turn there.
The Arcadia woman's turn came, and finally, she got hit by Sad Story. She drew Monster, and was forced to shuffle it back into her Deck due to Sorrowful Memories. The effects of my Harbingers, however, activated. 'Suffering' caused her to take 500 points of damage as she was targeted by Sad Story, 'Inevitability' banished the card targeted by Sad Story instead of returning it to the Deck and 'Victimization' destroyed a card on her side of the field that was of the same type as the card targeted by Sad Story, meaning that her Ivy Wall was gone. Now, she was on 2300, and I was on 5700 Life Points. Again, I was stunned by just how rich the power I received was. Rather predictably, she used Heavy Storm to destroy all four Sad Story cards and reduce the attack of the Harbingers to 0. She ended her turn there, presumably in the vain hope that I'll surrender and return to the Void quietly.
I drew, and I got the card I wanted. Since I had fulfilled its activation requirement of having Aura of Life Transfer in play, I activated the Ritual Spell Card Soul Draining Ritual, sacrificing my three Level 4 Harbingers to Ritual Summon my strongest card, the Level 12 Haisui Kiri no Hime (0/0). Basically, imagine a pure, snow-white-skinned princess with waist-length purple hair, dressed in a reddish-pink gown, emanating a dark purple/pink aura. Another thing was, as long as I had Aura of Life Transfer in play, it couldn't be destroyed or have its effects negated.
"Toby. At last, you have summoned me," the monster spoke, in the same voice that I kept hearing inside my head. "Now that you have done so, I can fully protect you to my last breath from those who would seek to see you oppressed."
The Arcadia woman drew again, summoning another Wall of Ivy, and Tributing it to summon Rose Tentacles (2200/1200). She attacked my monster, but it's ability activated: since it was targeted by a monster, the attacking monster lost attack and defense equal to half its original attack and defense, and mine gained that as its own attack and defense, an ability called 'Soul Draining'. With that, Rose Tentacles was now (1100/600), as was my monster. She used the Pot of Greed I handed to her, used Double Summon for an extra Normal Summon, summoned Copy Plant (0/0) in defense mode, and, since it was a plant-type Tuner, Special Summoned a Dark Verger in her Graveyard.
My turn came, and I attacked the Rose Tentacles with Haisui Kiri no Hime. Normally, it would have been a draw, but this card was disallowed from dealing any damage short of a direct attack. Instead, I shouted 'Soul Draining', activating the ability to reduce Rose Tentacles' ATK and DEF by half of its original ATK and DEF. A second part of the ability activated; if a monster has its ATK reduced to 0 by this effect, it is sent to the Graveyard with a Soul Drain Counter, meaning that now my monster could use her monster's abilities as if they were its own. It stats were (2200/1200). I ended my turn there.
The Arcadia woman used her turn to summon her Violet Witch, and made the level of Copy Plant equal that of Dark Verger. With that, she Tuned the Level 4 Violet Witch and the now Level 2 Copy Plant, now having Synchro Summoned Splendid Rose (2200/2000). She still attacked my monster. Again, its ATK and DEF were halved and added to my own monster, making mine (3300/2200) and hers (1100/1000). She ended her turn with a face-down card.
I drew, played Foolish Burial to send a monster in my Deck to the Graveyard, and the ability of the Rose Tentacles with the Soul Drain Counter in the Graveyard allowed my Haisui Kiri no Hime to attack one additional time for each Plant-type monster my opponent controlled. Again, I drained Splendid Rose of its power, this time sending it to the Graveyard with a Soul Draining Counter on it, meaning that I had gained its abilities and my monster was now (4400/3200). With my first additional attack, I drained Dark Verger of 500 DEF, and with my second additional attack, I drained the last 500, destroying it and coming out with my monster as a (4400/4200). Finally, I activated the ability of Splendid Rose that Haisui Kiri no Hime drained: I could remove one plant-type monster in my Graveyard from play, choosing the Lord Poison I got rid of using Foolish Burial, to halve my monster's ATK and grant it an additional attack to, this time, attack directly with its Draining Fury attack. Now, with 2200 points of damage going at the Arcadia woman would have put her on 100 Life Points and me on 7900. However, she activated the Trap Card Nutrient Z, gaining 4000 Life Points before damage calculation, and losing 2200 of those instead, and gaining the remaining 1800 of those to form a total of 4100, bringing me down to 3900 and severely weakening me as blue mist streamed from me towards her, turning red along the way.
The Arcadia woman drew, summoned Witch of the Black Rose (1700/1200) and used its effect to draw one card on condition of destroying her monster if the card drawn wasn't a monster. She drew Rose Fairy (600/1200), which was Special Summoned since it was drawn by a card effect. Her third action was the card Fragrance Storm, destroying her Plant-type Rose Fairy to draw one card, revealing it if it was a Plant-type Monster card and, if doing so, drawing one additional card. Her first card drawn by this effect was another Rose Fairy, which was Special Summoned, and I think the second card was what she played next.
"Toby! Please! Open your eyes!" she shouted. For some unknown reason, tears were trailing down her face. She played the Field Spell Card Black Garden, which in turn was destroyed, but triggered the destruction of my Trap card in the Field Spell zone and the normalization of our Life Points.
"No! No!" I could hear my monster shouting as the purple/pink mists faded away. "My power… is draining! I'm sorry, it doesn't look like I can do much more!" I could see that the aura of light around her was fading, and with the Aura gone, it could now be destroyed or have its effects negated. The Arcadia woman then used the Spell Card Shining Rebirth, essentially Synchro Summoning a monster from her Graveyard, tuning the Level 3 Rose Fairy and the Level 4 Witch of the Black Rose to resurrect her Black Rose Dragon (2400/1800). The 'Black Rose Gale' effect of that monster activated, destroying all cards on the field, but due to Shining Rebirth, it itself would not be destroyed this turn. With that, and a scream from my monster, Haisui Kiri no Hime was destroyed. Upon its destruction, the last ability of my monster activated: the destroyer could draw one card for each Soul Drain counter on a monster. This resulted in the Arcadia woman drawing 3 cards, as 3 monsters were affected.
I actually felt devastated by that. Although I didn't realize until its reappearance, I knew that, somehow, this creature was always protecting me, ever since I got my Psychic Powers. It was my Guardian Angel, essentially. It protected me from the abuse of all of those people. I would often call on its company when I suffered. I don't know why I forgot until its destruction. But now, with it gone, I felt defenseless, as if the whole world was now going to… I don't even want to think about it. She played Wonder Clover, discarding Lord Poison from her hand to have her dragon gain an extra attack during the Battle Phase. Once that was done, proceeded to attack me directly with her Dragon's Black Rose Flare, bringing me to 1600 Life Points, but since my Trap was gone, her Life Points remained at 4000. Finally, she used her dragon to attack me directly a second time.
The blast from the second attack actually sent me flying back until I collided with something. Everything was quite fuzzy from then, my vision blurred such that I didn't know what was going on. All that I knew was that something bad was going to happen to me soon now that I had lost. I not only lost the Duel, but I also lost the one thing that protected me. When everything came back into focus, I found the Arcadia woman standing over me, yet strangely, there was a glowing red mark on her right arm. It vanished, but then her back glowed with that same red color as she knelt down over me.
"No… no… don't…" was all that I could say. I was, somehow, left too weak to put up any act of resistance against the inevitable punishment that would follow, and I could feel tears flowing down my cheeks, symbolic of the pain I would soon feel.
"Toby… please… remember me," the Arcadia woman sobbed. For some reason, she was also crying. I didn't understand; wasn't she the one who was going to visit a whole world of pain on me now that I had lost?
End note: I'd say inspiration for Toby's main monster in this chapter (Haisui Kiri no Hime) came from the aftereffects of Duels using the Aura of Life Transfer Trap Card, where the Psychic Powers were drained. 1 found it also an interesting concept, to have a monster that, by itself, doesn't have any major strengths to speak of, but instead drains the strength of others and uses those against them. The monster's name is intended to mean 'Princess of Draining Mists'