Author's Note: I'd like to take a moment to respond to the last review of my regular guest reviewer, SuperSaiyanGod53. I hate to tell you this, but Alnia's final line at the end of the last chapter was actually the catchphrase of Yuya from Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V. I guess I should've just said that in the last author's note instead of asking people to guess. Sorry about that. Anyway, on with the story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.
Chapter 28: Dragon of the Black Sun
"I activate the Spell card, Blazing Number!" Alnia announced. "This card lets me raise the ATK of a Number monster by 1000 points for each of its overlay units until the end of the turn. And since Lucifer currently has three overlay units attached to him, his ATK rises to 6600!"
The balls orbiting around Lucifer suddenly turned into balls of golden flame. The demon pharaoh threw his head back and growled while flexing his arms, and his body began to give off a golden flame-like aura.
"Lucifer! Blow that dragon away!" Alnia commanded. "Millennium Ruin!"
Lucifer aimed his Millennium Rod at Red Nova Dragon and a massive ball of crackling black and gold energy began to form at the end. When the sphere became large enough, it launched across the battlefield at the red dragon.
"How pathetic! I activate Red Nova's effect!" Cleo announced. "By banishing Red Nova Dragon from the field until the end of the turn, I can negate your monster's attack!"
Just as the sphere of energy came in range, a swirling pillar of crimson flames appeared around Red Nova. The sphere struck the twister of fire and exploded. When the smoke cleared, Red Nova was nowhere to be seen but Cleo's life points were untouched.
"Huh… so much for the straight forward approach." Alnia remarked. "Oh well. I guess I'll just set a card on the field and end my turn."
With the turn over, the aura faded from Lucifer and the fireballs orbiting around him turned back into normal balls of golden light. At the same time, Red Nova Dragon reappeared on the battlefield with a red flash.
"Lucifer's ATK has returned to 3600." Astral observed. "Meanwhile, Red Nova Dragon's ATK is still at 5500. Alnia only has 1400 life points remaining, which means that while an attack from Cleo's dragon wouldn't destroy Lucifer, it would still take Alnia's life points to zero."
"In other words, it looks like Cleo may win this one!" Yuma enthusiastically realized.
"If her next attack gets through, yes." Astral confirmed. "But I fear that it may not be that easy."
Cleo drew her next card. "Your Number may be invincible in battle to anything except other Numbers, but it won't protect you from losing! Red Nova! Attack Archfiend Pharaoh Lucifer and end this! Burning Soul!"
Red Nova roared in response and his body became enveloped in red flames. The dragon then flew across the battlefield at the demon pharaoh at full speed.
Alnia smirked. "Nice try! I activate my Trap, Negate Attack!"
Just as Red Nova Dragon came in striking distance, a swirling vortex appeared in front of Lucifer. The power of the vortex repelled the dragon back across the battlefield and the flames covering Red Nova's body faded. Many of the audience members protested at the dragon's attack being halted.
"You actually came pretty close there, Signer." Alnia told her. "But I'm afraid what you got just wasn't good enough."
"All you've done is use a basic trick to prolong your life for another turn." Cleo told her. "Since there's nothing more I can do right now, I'll end my turn here. But let me make one thing clear. This duel is all but lost to you."
"I figured that this duel wouldn't end as smoothly as we hoped." Kaito remarked up in the skybox.
"Cleo still has the lead in this duel though." Rio pointed out. "With the way things are, she should still be able to beat Alnia."
"I wouldn't be so sure, Merag." Vector told her. "Even though your scary girlfriend seems to have Alnia in a bind, there's one thing that all of us seem to be forgetting. We've seen the Chaos forms for Numbers of the other two Death Queens. Why haven't we seen one for Number 666?"
"You think Alnia's going to rank up Lucifer on the next turn." Shark realized.
"Since she's a Barian, it wouldn't be any trouble for her at all to do that on the next turn." Vector pointed out. "It looks like Alnia might've been stringing Cleo along this whole time."
The next card that Alnia drew from her deck flashed with a crimson light. "I activate Rank-Up-Magic – The Devil's Triad! Using Archfiend Pharaoh Lucifer, I open the gates of the underworld to rebuild the overlay network and summon a monster one rank higher! Arise, Number C666: Black Solar Dragon Lucifer!"
A massive pillar of crimson light shot up from the ground around the demon pharaoh and a horrid roar could be heard from within. The pillar of energy continued to expand outward and turned pitch-black in a matter of seconds. Cleo's Signer mark began to glow in response to the pillar of energy, as did Hikari's mark up in the skybox. After a few moments, the pillar of energy faded to reveal a massive sphere of black metal floating above the battlefield like a dark sun. Orbiting around the sphere were four balls of silvery-white light.
What appeared to be steam began to pour from the seams of the metal sphere as it began to open up. The steam subsided as the sphere formed into four metallic black wings. The wings were attached to the back of a skeletal dragon made of silver metal bones. Pieces of black armor with gold trim covered the dragon's torso, shoulder and waist. The head of the Millennium Rod adorned the tip of the dragon's boney tail, and the Millennium Ring was embedded in the center of the armor covering the dragon's chest. In the left eye socket of the skull that was the dragon's head was the Millennium Eye, and the right eye socket glowed with a fiendish red light. Large black curved horns grew from the sides of the dragon's skull, and from the back grew long red hair. The number 666 glowed in red alien writing on the armor covering the dragon's left shoulder joint.
"What do you think of me now, Signer bitch?" Alnia asked. "Still think I don't have a chance of winning?"
"I'll admit that dragon of yours looks… unsettling, but it only has 4200 ATK." Cleo pointed out. "In the end, my dragon is still the more powerful one."
"ATK wise your dragon is stronger, but it can't hold a candle to my dragon's power." Alnia told her. "I activate Black Solar Dragon Lucifer's effect! By detaching one of his overlay units, Lucifer sends all other monsters to the Graveyard!"
One of the balls of light orbiting the skeleton dragon entered the eye of the Millennium Ring on its chest. The dragon roared and his body gave off waves of silver light that radiated across the field. Upon being hit by the waves, Red Nova Dragon turned into a black mist that broke apart and faded away like a cloud. Soon after, Cleo's life points rose to 10900.
"But… that's impossible!" a stunned Cleo protested. "Red Nova can't be destroyed by the opponent's card effects! What sort of trickery is this, Alnia?"
"There's a difference in this game between a monster being destroyed and being sent to the Graveyard." Alnia pointed out. Lucifer's effect basically erases other monsters from the field without actually destroying them. If it's any consolation, the effect of your cousin's dragon would be just as worthless against Lucifer."
"Damn you!" Cleo cursed.
"Hey. It's not all bad you know." Alnia continued. "Both of us gain life points equal to the combined ATK of the monsters removed from the field by Lucifer's effect. I don't get any more life points since I didn't lose any monsters, but you got a ton of life points thanks to your dragon's 5500 ATK. Of course… you're not going to be enjoying those life points for very long."
Suddenly four skeletal hands burst up from the ground on Alnia's side of the field, noticeably startling Cleo. In moments, four floating legless skeletons with off-white bones had risen from the earth. Each of them wore pieces of black and gold armor with horned helmets, along with pieces of tattered brown cloth that hung down around their waists. All four of the skeletons wielded a sword in its right hand.
"What the hell are those?" Cleo asked.
"Underworld Soldier Tokens." Alnia answered. "After Lucifer's effect fully resolves, he lets me summon four of these tokens to my side of the field. Each of these bad boys has 1700 ATK. Add all of that to Lucifer's 4200 ATK, and I've got just enough power on my side of the field to finish you off."
"Oh crap!" Yuma exclaimed. "And Cleo's got no way to protect herself against all those monsters!"
"It's all over." Astral grimly stated.
"Attack her directly, my Underworld Soldiers!" Alnia commanded. "Cut her to ribbons!"
The skeletons flew across the battlefield and began slashing Cleo with their swords relentlessly. Cleo attempted to shield herself with her arms, but her life points still fell to 4100. When the undead soldiers finally ended their assault, they split up and flew back over to Alnia's side of the field. The color drained from Cleo's face as Lucifer loomed above her.
"End this, Lucifer!" Alnia ordered. "Breath of the Void!"
The skeletal dragon opened his jaws and breathed out a blast of black energy down at Cleo. Up in the skybox, a horrified Rio stood from her chair as the attack hit its target and completely obscured Cleo from view. The dark-haired young woman's life points dropped to zero in an instant. When the attack ended and the smoke cleared, Cleo was surrounded by a transparent bubble of crimson light. A few seconds later, Lucifer and Alnia's four undead soldiers vanished from the stage. The surrounding area returned to normal as the duel finally concluded. Soon after, the bubbled that had been surrounding Cleo vanished.
"Uh… and the winner of the duel is… Alnia!" the referee announced somewhat reluctantly.
"So, that dragon god of yours protected you in the end." Alnia observed. "Oh well. I'll just kill you later after I revive Lord Zorc. Thanks for the duel. I had a real laugh."
The audience was completely silent as Alnia walked off the stage, chuckling. Cleo seemed to be in a daze for a few moments before she finally left the stage as well and headed for the dugout. Yuma ran out to meet her half way with Astral following close behind.
"Cleo! You okay?" a concerned Yuma asked.
"I'm fine." Cleo answered flatly. "You better not lose to her as well."
"Don't worry. Astral and I will beat Alnia." Yuma assured her. "Count on it."
Cleo merely nodded and headed for the exit to the stadium floor. Yuma and Astral kept a close eye on her as she left.
"Astral, do you really think that Cleo's okay?" Yuma asked.
"Physically she appears to be unharmed, but to a duelist like Cleo I'm sure this defeat has been a hard one." Astral answered. "In the end, Alnia eliminated Cleo's strongest monster with barely any effort. To someone as prideful as Cleo, a defeat like that is hard to take."
The door to the skybox opened and Cleo walked in with a dead look on her face. Rio ran up to her and nearly knocked the taller girl off her feet as she wrapped her arms around her. Cleo hugged her back almost automatically.
"You nearly scared me to death!" Rio told her.
"I'm okay, Snowflake." Cleo assured her. "I just need to sit down."
Rio quickly guided her over to one of the leather chairs in the skybox. Once Cleo had sat down, Rio got onto her lap, causing Shark to roll his eyes.
Hikari approached Cleo's chair. "You sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine." Cleo insisted. "I just don't wish to talk right now."
"We finally know what Alnia is truly capable." Kaito spoke. "Now it looks like Yuma and Astral are our last hope of beating her."
"But how can they?" Anna asked. "That dragon Alnia used to beat Cleo earlier is one of the strongest monsters we've seen. It clears the field and summons its own army after it's done."
"If anyone can find a way to beat Alnia, Yuma and Astral can." Shark declared.
"I hope you're right, Shark." Kotori spoke. "I'd rather not think about what might happen if Yuma and Astral lose."
"The next and final duel of the semifinal round will be between Yuma Tsukumo and Samantha Warren!" the referee announced on stage. "The duel will begin in fifteen minutes!"
"Well Mitaka, looks like you're up next." Alnia told Samantha. "You had better not screw this up."
"Don't worry, Alnia. Yuma won't know what hit him." Samantha assured her. "Say. How do you want to handle the rest of the tournament once I beat Yuma and get the Numeron Code? I mean I suppose we could duel each other, but what would be the point?"
"Are you kidding? Screw the rest of the tournament!" Alnia told her. "Once we have the code, we'll revive Lord Zorc on the spot and plunge this world into darkness. But that's only if you can get the code."
"You needn't worry about a thing, Alnia." Samantha replied. "Before this duel is over, I'm going to make Yuma regret the moment he chose that green-haired little bitch over me."
Author's Note: I ended up having a really hard time coming up with the effect for Alnia's Chaos Number. Since Archfiend Pharaoh Lucifer had three effects, I had originally thought about giving its evolved form three different effects as well. They were either going to be effects similar to the three powers of The Winged Dragon of Ra or effects that mimicked the time manipulating powers Yami Bakura used in the Shadow RPG against Atem during the Millennium World arc of the original manga. In the end though, I decided that showing off three new effects might complicate writing the future duels in this story, so I decided to keep it simple and come up with a single effect. The Underworld Soldier Tokens that Alnia summoned are based on the skeleton creatures that Zorc and Akhenaden summoned in the Millennium World arc.
Please review and let me know what you think.