Author's Note: I'd like to respond to an observation made by SulliMike23, who in his last review noted how I seem to bring back Zorc in a lot of my Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfics in some form or another. A big part of the reason for that is Zorc is pretty much the ultimate evil in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. A friend of mine and I once even compared Zorc to Sauron from Lord of the Rings. Because Zorc is kind of this ultimate evil, I've made it a small goal of mine to do a fanfic for each Yu-Gi-Oh! series where its main protagonist faces off against an incarnation of Zorc. Of course I'm not sure how I could do that with ARC-V at the moment, since ARC-V seems to be its own separate continuity.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.
Chapter 27: Cleo vs. Alnia
The final day of the Millennium Tournament finally came to Heartland City. The stadium had once again become filled with spectators who were eager to see the duels that would soon decide the tournament's champion. Many of Yuma's friends had taken their place up in the skybox to watch coming duels, some of them with great concern. For they knew that what remained of the tournament was going to be the final battle against the Death Queens. Yuma, Astral and Cleo were the only ones in their usual dugout, as all of their other friends had been eliminated.
"Hey Cleo. You be careful out there." Yuma told her. "Alnia's a really dangerous duelist."
"I appreciate your concern, but there's no need to worry." Cleo assured him. "I will crush Alnia under my heel in this duel and put an end to this madness."
"The first duel of the semifinal round will be between Cleo Atlas and Alnia!" the referee announced. "Will both duelists please step onto the stage?"
Alnia emerged from the other dugout at the same time Cleo headed up to the stage. As the two duelists prepared to face off, many of the audience members were rooting for Cleo to win. It had become clear that Alnia had gained a bad reputation among the fans.
"Looks like I'm finally going to be up against a decent opponent." Alnia remarked with a mad grin. "You'll make a good warm up for me in case Mitaka screws up and I have to face Tsukumo and the Envoy."
"That arrogance of yours will be your undoing, Death Queen." Cleo told her. "I'm nothing like the two you dueled before."
"That's what I'm hoping for." Alnia replied.
"Let the duel… begin!" the referee announced.
With that, Cleo activated her D-Gazer and duel disk. At the same time, Alnia's left eye changed color and her left arm changed to its Barian form and her duel disk appeared. Once the audience members activated their D-Gazers, the color of the surrounding area took on a slight change.
"I'll be starting this duel off." Alnia declared as she drew her first card. "I set one monster on the field and end my turn."
"I don't mind saying that I'm a bit nervous about this duel." Rio confessed to the others up in the skybox. "Alnia ended up sending poor Michael to the hospital. Who knows what she could end up doing to Cleo?"
"Don't worry. Cleo's pretty tough." Hikari assured her. "Plus she has Red Nova Dragon to call on. Alnia might just end up losing this one."
"Even so, Alnia is a pretty dangerous opponent." Kaito pointed out. "She may have already set a trap for Cleo with just that monster."
Cleo drew her first card. "I summon Dark Resonator in Attack Mode!" Cleo's faithful Resonator demon appeared on the field. "Next I play the Spell card, Over Tuning! With this card, I special summon the Tuner monster, Phantom King Hydride from my hand!"
Materializing on the battlefield was a knight on the back of a black horse with a blonde tail and mane. The knight was clad in silver armor and long blonde hair peeked out from beneath his helmet.
"And just what are you gonna do with two Tuners?" Alnia asked. "You gonna thrill me with an Xyz Summon?"
"Hardly." Cleo answered. "Even though Hydride is a Tuner, I can use him as a non-Tuner monster when performing an Xyz Summon! I tune the level three Dark Resonator into the level three Phantom King Hydride for a level six Synchro Summon!"
Dark Resonator clinked his tuning fork and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled the silver horseman and changed him into three white stars.
"The crimson souls shall become one! All shall tremble before the might of the empress!" Cleo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear, Red Wyvern!"
The stars flashed and became a pillar of crimson flames that shot into the sky. When the flames subsided, Cleo's flaming red dragon appeared on the field.
"Red Wyvern! Destroy Alnia's face-down monster!" Cleo commanded. "Crimson Flare!"
The red dragon shot a blast of flames from his beak-like mouth at Alnia's monster. As the attack came near, the monster was revealed to be a familiar clay jar with an animal skull for a head. The jar shattered upon being hit, and a dark mist drifted across the battlefield. The flames burning on Red Wyvern's body suddenly went out and all of his body fat seemed to waste away. Red scales had even started to fall of the dragon's body.
"The monster you just destroyed was my Cursed Canopic Jar." Alnia informed Cleo. "Now your monster loses 600 ATK and all of its effects are negated while it's on the field."
"That's one of the monsters that Alnia used against Gauche!" Yuma recalled.
"I set two cards on the field and end my turn." Cleo announced.
Alnia drew her next card. "I activate the Spell card, Shifting Darkness! I shuffle three Dark monsters in my hand back into my deck to add three new Dark monsters to my hand. Now I discard three cards to summon Archfiend Sphinx!"
Appearing on Alnia's side of the battlefield was a large sphinx with hairless dark-grey skin and a face resembling a human skull with blood red eyes. On its head was a red and gold headdress like that of an Egyptian pharaoh, and on its back was a pair of large scaly bat-like wings with red membranes.
"Now Alnia's just summoned a monster with 2900 ATK!" an alarmed Yuma observed.
"Yes, but she discarded three cards in order to do it." Astral noted. "And before summon Archfiend Sphinx, she used Shifting Darkness to change the cards in her hand."
"So… you think that Alnia summoned that sphinx thing to set up an Xyz Summon later on?" Yuma asked.
"That would probably be a safe assumption." Astral confirmed. "I fear that Alnia might be toying with Cleo in this duel."
"I activate Archfiend Sphinx's effect!" Alnia announced. "By banishing a Dark monster from my Graveyard, Archfiend Sphinx can deal 800 points of damage for each of my opponent's Spell and Trap cards. So I remove Cursed Canopic Jar to take off 1600 life points!"
Two beams of red light shot from the eyes of the cobra decorating the demon sphinx's headdress and struck Cleo in the chest. The dark-haired woman nearly dropped to one knee and her life points fell to 2400.
"I activate my Trap, Shapesister!" Cleo announced. "When activated, Shapesister is summoned to the field as a level two Tuner monster!"
Appearing on the field next to Red Wyvern was a blob of silver liquid metal. The metal quickly changed shape and formed into the top half of a female figure with red eyes. Growing from the back of her head in place of hair were long thick silver tendrils that each ended with a sharp point.
"A Trap Tuner, huh? Interesting." Alnia remarked. "Too bad you're not gonna have the chance to use it! Archfiend Sphinx! Wipe that blob off the field! Howl of Destruction!"
"Not so fast!" Cleo interrupted as red light began to gather in the demon sphinx's jaws. "I activate the Trap, Urgent Tuning! With this card, I tune the level two Shapesister into the level six Red Wyvern for a level eight Synchro Summon!"
Shapesister's body flashed orange before becoming two rings of green light. The rings quickly encircled Cleo's withered wyvern and transformed it into six white stars.
"The ruler's heartbeats will now file through here! Take witness to its creation-shaking power!" Cleo chanted. "Synchro Summon! My very soul, Red Dragon Archfiend!"
The stars flashed and became a pillar of white light that shot up into the sky. The light quickly died down and Red Dragon Archfiend appeared on the field with a roar. The audience members began to cheer upon seeing the legendary red dragon. With Red Dragon Archfiend's appearance, the red light in Archfiend Sphinx's mouth quickly went out.
Alnia began to chuckle. "Okay then. In that case I activate the Quick-Play Spell, Blessings of the Shadows! Since a Dark monster has just been special summoned to the field, Blessings of the Shadows lets us both draw four new cards."
"That's awfully generous of you." Cleo remarked as she drew her new cards. "You realize you're giving me something of an advantage."
"Hey. Don't get the wrong idea. I'm mostly doing this to help me, since I just use up most of my hand this turn." Alnia pointed out. "Besides, I want you to come at me with everything you've got before I turn you into a bloody smear on the stage."
"You should be careful what you wish for." Cleo told her. "You're soon going to realize that I'm too much for you to handle."
"Don't make me laugh." Alnia scoffed. "If you and that cousin of yours had been smart, you wouldn't have gotten involved in all this in the first place. I realize that you both kinda got sucked in because you both were shacking up with a couple of Don Thousand's former pawns, but you both should've pulled out when you had the chance. Neither of you have what it takes to even come close to taking me out."
"We shall soon see about that." Cleo responded.
"I guess we will." Alnia agreed. "I'll just end my turn now. Give me everything you've got, Signer bitch."
Cleo calmly drew her next card. "I activate the Spell card, Resonator Call to add a Resonator monster to my hand. Next I summon Red Resonator in Attack Mode!" The crimson Resonator demon that Cleo used in her duel with Shark appeared on the field. "Since I just summoned Red Resonator, I summon a second Red Resonator from my hand!"
The second of Cleo's two crimson Tuner demons materialized on the battlefield.
"When Red Resonator is special summoned, I can increase my life points by an amount equal to the ATK of one monster I control." Cleo continued. "The monster I choose is Red Dragon Archfiend! Which means I gain 3000 life points!"
The second Red Resonator glowed with a red aura and fired sparks of red light from the orb on his rod at Cleo. Cleo's life points rose 5400.
"I tune both my level two Red Resonators into the level eight Red Dragon Archfiend for a level twelve Synchro Summon!" Cleo announced.
The little fiery demons clinked their tuning forks and changed into four rings made of crimson fire. The rings encircled Red Dragon Archfiend and began like a small burning sun.
"The Empress and the Devil shall here and now be as one! A Raging Spirit! Lift up the very cries of Creation itself!" Cleo chanted. "Synchro Summon! The power to smite the gods, Red Nova Dragon!"
Red Nova Dragon burst from the miniature sun with a roar. The audience cheered with approval upon seeing Cleo's ultimate monster. Many of the audience members began chanting Cleo's name.
"Red Nova Dragon gains 500 ATK for each Tuner monster in my Graveyard." Cleo continued. "There are currently four Tuners in my Graveyard, which means Red Nova's ATK is now 5500! I now play the Field Spell, Domain of the Earthbound!"
As soon as Cleo activated her Field Spell, dark-purple clouds covered the sky and began to flash with lightning. The stadium floor turned grey and large lines that appeared to be part of some massive shape that could only be fully seen from above appeared on it.
"This is the same combo that screwed me up when I dueled Cleo." Shark recalled up in the skybox.
"We can only hope this combo will be just as affective against Alnia." Durbe remarked.
"While Domain of the Earthbound is on the field, Red Nova Dragon can't be targeted by my opponent's card effects." Cleo announced. "Red Nova! Attack Archfiend Sphinx! Burning Soul!"
Red Nova became covered in flames and flew at full speed towards Alnia's monster. The demon sphinx was blasted apart upon being hit and Alnia's life points took a heavy drop to 1400, much to the approval of the audience.
"There's now a 4000 point difference between Alnia's life points and Cleo's." Astral observed. "The duel seems to be going in Cleo's favor."
"Not bad." Alnia praised. "But since Archfiend Sphinx was destroyed, I can summon three monsters from my Graveyard. I summon the three Tomb Specters I discarded last turn to summon it!"
Three shadowy phantoms appeared on Alnia's side of the battlefield. They were transparent and had black bodies with a purplish tint. They had tails instead of legs and floated in the air. Each phantom's face was featureless except for two glowing red eyes. All three of the ghosts wore a gold bracelet on each wrist and a gold collar on their necks.
"When each Tomb Specter is summoned from the Graveyard, its ATK is doubled to 2400 and its level rises from three to six until the end of the next turn." Alnia announced.
"Just as I thought. That sphinx of yours was merely a way for you to set up the summoning of your Number." Cleo deduced. "To bad that Number of yours isn't going to do you much good now."
"True. That dragon of yours is practically indestructible, which means Lucifer's Millennium Ring effect is no good." Alnia responded. "And with this Field Spell of yours in play, I can't take control of your dragon with Lucifer's Millennium Rod effect. I could use his Millennium Eye effect to equip him with a monster from your hand, but that's too much of a gamble."
"It seems I've tied your hand then." Cleo assumed.
"Don't be so sure." Alnia told her. "You have set up something of a challenge, but the last thing you are is unbeatable. I'm still gonna murder you in this duel."
"Then go ahead and try." Cleo dared. "I end my turn."
Alnia grinned as she drew her next card. "You know what comes next! I use my three level six monsters to build the overlay network and summon my ultimate monster! Arise, Number 666: Archfiend Pharaoh Lucifer!"
A red vortex in the form of a galaxy appeared in the center of the field and pulled in the three Tomb Specters as balls of red energy. The tablet of the Millennium Items rose from the center of the vortex moments later with three balls of gold light orbiting around it, only to explode and take the form of Alnia's demon pharaoh.
"Get ready, Signer bitch." Alnia spoke. "The real fun is just getting started."
Author's Note: Some of you reading might've noticed that Alnia stole a certain Yu-Gi-Oh! character's catchphrase at the end of this chapter. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed the first half of this duel. In the next chapter, things should start to get interesting.
Please review and let me know what you think.