Chapter 30: Return to the Movement
This new realization that memories were being sealed not only angered Yuina, but also me. Them having sealed the happy memories with my sister away was completely unforgivable, and that's saying something considering how willing I am to forgive usually. If you stole a cuddle toy from me, it wasn't really a big deal, nor was it a huge problem if you swiped my drink off the table. I can put up with a reasonable number of thefts, but memory theft was one area way past where I draw the line! I wanted to go back to the Void and release the Seals just as much as Yuina did, and that meant finding the Warden again. The sun was setting, so we didn't have much time to act as we also needed to secure lodgings.
"Gatekeepers, come in!" my, Yuina and Rebecca's Duel Disks sounded. Judging by the voice, and the words used, the speakers were our predecessor Gatekeepers.
"This had better be good," Yuina warned.
"During the crash, the Warden managed to wrangle free, and we lost him in one of the hangars. We spotted a hangar bay closing after an aircraft flew out."
"Where has it gone?"
"We have just finished acquiring the flight information. It looks like it was headed towards the Arcadia Movement!"
"What about the Summon Overseers?"
"Gone too. The guards, however, are dealing with a mass uprising. Word of your actions has spread around, and the other prisoners are attacking the guards and other overseers with everything they've got."
"Can you meet up at the Arcadia Movement? I think things are about to get ugly."
"Right. You two, we're hijacking the other plane. Oh, signing off!"
"Security officer, Arcadia girl, you're coming with us!"
"Why?" I heard Akiza ask.
"Judging by the way Toby called you Sayer's majordomo, you've probably got a good idea where his office is. Now get in the officer's car."
Once we were all in, me positioned in the back between Akiza and Rebecca while Yuina rode shotgun to guide Trudge in the right direction, we took off to the Arcadia Movement. I was quite surprised to find some of the areas destroyed as we got closer. These areas, in fact, were getting more destroyed as we got close to the Arcadia Skyscraper. The only thing moving there was a plane soaring over the building, with three parachutes falling down to its roof. The plane itself looked like it was going to crash-land somewhere else, but now I'm getting distracted.
Once we arrived, we saw that the place was horribly damaged. There was debris everywhere, and there wasn't anybody around. After a while, we managed to find one working lift, and rode that all the way to the floor indicated by Akiza. From there, we were guided to a series of other corridors until we found one destroyed area. Entering it, there was a mess everywhere. The whole room was practically rubble, and there was a hole in the right wall of where Sayer's office would be. Walking through that hole, we discovered a whole stack of files, along with a computer terminal. I began looking through the files, and I saw many people's details. After some time, I even found someone who resembled the Sky Fairy quite a bit: one 'Yukino Saito'. Continuing to look through the files, I came across, in that order, Yuina Woods, Rebecca Scarlet and, eventually, me, Toby Tredwell. It hit me then, prompting me to speak. "Guys, I think everyone in these files was banished to the Void!"
"From the looks of what I'm seeing on here, it gets worse," Yuina announced from the terminal. "Come and see."
Walking over to where she was, I could see a card displayed on the monitor: the Seal of Orichalcos. The effects were quite interesting, but what shocked me the most was the part that said 'The loser's soul is forfeit to the winner'.
"That isn't even the worst part. Look at the following document," my friend continued. What I saw then was intriguing at first: if a certain card was inserted into the Ener-D reactor of the Void, the entire station would be affected. The next part was a history of the battle with a creature called The Great Leviathan, and a key part of survivor's accounts was that, in order to weaken the beast, they focused on 'powerful positive memories'. After that, it got ugly: there were notes saying that, for a resurrected Leviathan to be indestructible, the positive memories would have to be erased. There were also notes saying that as long as Sayer could keep the failures coming, there would soon be enough bodies to fill all of the Cells. All 16 Cellblocks, with 2 people per Cell, and… how many Cells per Cellblock? That led to… already I lost count of the number of people the Void could hold.
True to Yuina's predictions, things did get worse. The plans specified that, once all of the Cells were full, the Seal of Orichalcos would have been inserted into the Ener-D Reactor, all souls would have been consumed, and the Great Leviathan would have garnered enough power to be reborn and 'break the seal in which it was imprisoned'. From there, it would proceed to 'the final frontier', although details of that were sketchy. There was even a demand for Sayer to bring in more failures, as time was somehow precious, which in turn cross-referenced another document on the terminal specifying covert kidnapping operations.
What was more was that, according to the latest update, the prisoner count for the Void had reached a high number (not sure even I could believe it, but it is in the thousands), also specifying that this wasn't due to the Arcadia Movement alone. There were apparently four other groups working under the Void, but the document didn't name them.
"So, you got your grubby little paws on our plans, did you?" a female voice sounded from the other side of the room. A wall had retracted there, and revealed by it were the three Summon Overseers. The one that spoke, the blue-robed, blue-haired Aoi, seemed to be looking at me with a death-glare.
"You know of our plans now. We cannot let you live. You will die by the hands of our Wicked Gods," the white-robed, white-haired Overseer Shiro continued.
"And you will also pay for your humiliation of us earlier today!" Purple-robed, purple-haired Murasaki concluded their entrance.
"You will have to go through the three of us first!" a fourth voice shouted from behind us. When I turned to look, I saw the former Gatekeepers. The blue Gatekeeper tackled Shiro, with the yellow tackling Aoi and the red tackling Murasaki. "Magician! Carnivore! Succubus! Black Rose! Go! Angustia must be further in!"
Bypassing the pinned Overseers, we ran into a lift. Using Sayer's access card, we opened it and, after Yuina, Rebecca and I entered, looked at the only other option: Penthouse. Selecting it, the lift closed, and we began moving upward, though it felt somewhat slow and clogged.
"We won't have much time," Yuina spoke in the lift. "The Gatekeepers can only hold back the Overseers for so long. Their Decks, from what I've seen, are nothing without the Sacred Beasts."
"Does that mean that only one of us can Duel the Warden?" I asked, downhearted. I couldn't see myself winning against that kind of power alone. Then again, after knowing what exactly he brought upon us, I didn't care how I faced him, just so long as he was made to answer in kind.
"Unfortunately, yes. Two of us are going to have to go back and hold the Overseers back from interfering in the Duel."
"Why two? There are three Over- wait, so will Akiza hold back the third?"
"Hopefully, yes."
"In that case, when you two get back down there, tell her I wish her good luck!"
"Are you saying what I think you're saying, Toby?"
"The Warden inflicted pure horror upon all of us. I cannot forgive him for what he has done! He will suffer, by my hand!" I was very close to shouting. While I was still quite scared of the Warden (to put it lightly), my fear was being surpassed by my rage.
"Toby, take this," Rebecca told me, holding out her Raviel, Lord of Phantasms card.
"Why, Rebecca? Isn't this card yours?" I couldn't believe the request.
"I can just feel that you'll need Raviel's power to beat the Warden."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Bear in mind, though, the use of Raviel comes with a price."
"What is it, Rebecca?"
"I knew you were snogged by Yuina before we crashed this thing, and I saw this Akiza girl steal another one when we were engulfed by that fire. I'm sick of people pushing in line!"
"Okay, I don't really think I'm in a position to argue, so I will try."
"In that case, you may use Raviel with my blessing, Toby-kun."
"Take Hamon as well, and don't screw up. As long as you have that card, know that I'll be by your side during the Duel," Yuina told me, holding out her Sacred beast.
"Alright. Wish me luck, everyone!" I said. I noticed that the red 'Flame' Kanji had started glowing on my left hand. I took Hamon from Yuina, and her yellow glowing 'Light' Kanji vanished. After taking Rebecca's Raviel, her blue glowing 'Oni' kanji also vanished. Looking at my own kanji, I could see it had reduced in size, and the other two had appeared in such a way as to make it look like points of a triangle.
Just then, the elevator opened, revealing a room in perfect condition, with a recently opened wall safe, computer and you-know-who. The giant of a Warden was looking directly at me, and I stepped out, ready to confront this… monster wearing the form of a man.