Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.
Chapter 30: Shining Hope
"Break through to the real me?" Samantha repeated with a cold laugh. "I don't know if one of my last attacks broke your brain or if you're just being a moron like usual. Either way you don't know the first thing about me. For right now, I'm just going to end my turn. I suggest you just shut that mouth of yours and get ready to die like a good boy."
"Astral and I aren't giving up, Samantha! Our comeback starts now!" Yuma declared. As he drew his next card from the deck, it gave off a golden light. "I activate the Spell card, Number Release Wave! By sacrificing a Number, I can destroy all Spell and Trap cards on the field! So I sacrifice Zombiestein to destroy all the Spell and Trap cards you have out!"
"What!" Samantha exclaimed.
Zombiestein began to glow orange and suddenly exploded with a blast of orange-yellow light. The light sent a shockwave across the battlefield that vaporized the trees of the silvery elf forest, burning them to ashes in an instant. The shockwave also shattered the large Trap cards on Samantha's side of the field. When the light faded, Gogogo Golem was the only monster that was still on Yuma's side of the battlefield.
"Now that Mitaka's Xyz Punisher Trap is gone, Yuma can Xyz Summon another monster." Alit noted from up in the skybox.
"Yeah, but he'll have to summon a monster that can take on all those elves." Shark noted. "Those Dark Elf Tokens are easy enough to take down, but their empress still has 3000 ATK."
"I switch Gogogo Golem to Attack Mode!" Yuma announced. His faithful brick monster changed from red to blue. "Next I summon Ganbara Knight in Attack Mode!"
Yuma's shield bearing knight appeared on the field next to Gogogo Golem.
"Using the level four Gogogo Golem and Ganbara Knight, I build the overlay network and Xyz Summon our most faithful monster!" Yuma announced. "Come forth, Number 39: Utopia!"
A galaxy-like vortex appeared in the center of the field and pulled in Yuma's two monsters as balls of gold energy. Moments later, a familiar white and gold sword with two balls of gold light orbiting around it rose from the vortex and changed into Utopia.
"That's your big comeback strategy? Summoning Utopia?" Samantha asked with a raised eyebrow. "You have as much of a chance beating me with that annoying warrior of yours as you do breaking through to the 'real me' like you said you would."
"I know I can break through to who you really are, Samantha!" Yuma declared. "That's because I believe that there really is a good person inside you! And I'm not giving up until I reach that person!"
Suddenly Astral's body turned gold and began to give off a dazzling light. The light was so strong that even the spectators watching the duel could see it. Many of the audience members were murmuring amongst themselves trying to figure out what it was they were seeing.
"Hey Astral. What's with the lightshow?" a surprised Yuma asked.
"Yuma. Your ability to believe in others has allowed me… allowed us… to awaken a new power." Astral explained. "Let us use that power to end this duel!"
Suddenly a golden light began to shine from within the Extra Deck holder attached to Yuma's belt. Yuma opened the case and saw that a new card had appeared inside.
A smirk quickly formed on Yuma's face. "Let's do it!"
With that, Utopia's body began to give off a golden light of its own. The light was so strong that Samantha and Thomas were forced to shield their eyes.
"Using Utopia, we rebuild the overlay network and Xyz Summon a new monster!" Yuma and Astral announced together. "When disorder claims the cosmos, a ray of hope descends to light the chaos! Come forth! Number S39: Utopia Prime!"
A pillar of golden light shot up from the ground around Utopia. When the light faded, the Number Warrior's appearance had changed greatly. His armor was still the same color, only most of the armor covering his torso had become gold. The large piece of armor covering his right shoulder had vanished, but the piece that was covering his left shoulder remained and still bore the number 39. Utopia's armored wings had been replaced by eight diamond-shaped pieces of gold armor that floated behind him and were arranged by the rays of the sun. His helmet had lost its original horns and had taken on a sleeker shape that resembled Kaito's normal hairstyle. Hanging from Utopia's back was a single sword, and orbiting around the warrior were three balls of golden light.
Alnia stood from her seat in the dugout with a look of horror on her face. "What… the hell? How could the envoy have gained the power to summon one of those damn Shining Numbers?"
"That's one flashy Number." Vector remarked up in the skybox. "But it only has an ATK of 2510. Not only is that a weird amount of ATK points, it's still not enough to take down Mitaka's elf empress."
"Do not underestimate the power of a Shining Number, Vector." Mizael told him. "This may be just what Yuma and Astral need to turn the tide of this duel."
"I activate Utopia Prime's effect!" Yuma announced. "When I have at least 3000 or less life points than my opponent, I can pay all but ten life points and detach three of Utopia Prime's overlay units to banish all my opponent's specially summoned monsters! And for each monster taken out by Utopia Prime's effect, my opponent takes 300 points of damage!"
With that, Yuma's life points dropped down to a mere ten. At the same time, the three balls of gold light entered the green gem embedded in the center of Utopia Prime's chest. The Number warrior then gave off a massive blast of golden light that shot across the field at Samantha's elves. All five of the dark elves screamed as the light vaporized them. The light continued on and hit Samantha, nearly knocking her off the stage. When the blast finally faded, Samantha's life points fell to 5300.
"Utopia Prime! Attack Samantha directly!" Yuma commanded. "Hope Sword Shining Slash!"
Utopia Prime drew the sword hanging from his back as he dashed across the field at the redhead. When he came in range, the Shining Number slashed Samantha with his shimmering blade, dropping her life points to 2790.
"I'll set two cards on the field and end my turn." Yuma announced.
"Dammit!" Samantha cursed as she recovered from Utopia Prime's attack.
"I totally get why you're angry, Samantha." Yuma calmly told her. "But this isn't the way to solve anything. Let's just stop this right now."
"Will you SHUT UP!" Samantha shouted.
Suddenly a pair of black-feathered wings appeared on Samantha's back. A blast of crimson energy shot up from the ground around the redhead, surprising the audience. When the light faded, Mitaka had changed to her true Barian form.
"You don't have the first idea about who and what I really am!" Mitaka told Yuma in a cold hate-filled voice. "I am Mitaka of the Barian Death Queens! And I'm going to shut you up once and for all!" The next card that the redhead pulled from her deck flashed with a crimson light. "First I play the Spell card, Witch's Call. By banishing a Spellcaster from my Graveyard, I can summon another one from my deck. So I banish the original Dark Elf to summon Blood Red Witch!"
The red-clothed witch that Mitaka has summoned in her duel with Thomas appeared on the field.
"When Blood Red Witch is special summoned, I can summon another one from my deck." Mitaka continued. A second crimson witch appeared on the battlefield. "When my second Blood Red Witch is summoned, I can summon a third one from my deck!" A third crimson witch appeared next to the other two. "Now I activate the effect of all three Blood Red Witches and raise their levels from three to five!"
"Here it comes. Mitaka's Devil Number." Anna spoke up in the skybox.
"And she'll probably follow that up with the monster she used to defeat me." Alit added.
"Using my three level five monsters, I build the overlay network and Xyz Summon my ultimate monster!" Mitaka announced. "Arise, Number 665: Witch Queen Agatha!"
A large vortex in the form of a red galaxy appeared in the center of the battlefield and pulled in Mitaka's three witches as balls of orange energy. Rising out of the vortex moments later was the black orb with the pin through the center that was the Number's sealed form. Three balls of flame orbited around the orb as it burst into flames and took the form of Witch Queen Agatha.
"I now activate the Spell card, Rank-Up-Magic – The Devil's Triad!" Mitaka announced. "With Devil's Triad, I use Witch Queen Agatha to open the gates of the underworld and rebuild the overlay network to summon a monster one rank higher! Arise! Number C665: Witch Goddess Agatha!"
A pillar of crimson light shot up from the ground around Agatha and a terrifying shriek rang out. The light quickly faded to reveal the witch in her unmasked crimson form. Four balls of flame orbited around the scarred witch as she looked down at Yuma with an evil grin.
"I activate Witch Goddess Agatha's effect!" Mitaka announced. "By detaching one of her overlay units, Agatha can destroy an opponent's effect monster and deal 400 points of damage times its level or rank. But since you only have a mere ten life points left, you'll lose the moment Utopia is burned to ash! Say goodbye, Yuma Tsukumo!"
One of the fireballs orbiting Agatha entered her left eye. A fireball appeared in the witch's right hand and she threw it across the field at Utopia Prime as Mitaka cackled with delight. But before the flaming projectile could hit, a barrier of golden light appeared in front of Utopia Prime and caused it to simply fizzle out as if it had struck the surface of a pond.
"What! What the hell did you do?" an angered Mitaka asked.
"I activated my Trap, Desperate Hope!" Yuma explained. "When a Number monster of mine would be destroyed by a card effect, Desperate Hope negates that effect and saves my monster. And since the monster Desperate Hope protected was a Utopia monster, I get to draw another card."
Mitaka's left eye twitched in annoyance. "You may have protected Utopia from Agatha's effect, but she still has an ATK of 4000! More than enough to destroy you! Agatha, burn Utopia Prime to Ashes! Vengeful Firestorm!"
"I activate my Trap, Negate Attack!" Yuma quickly announced. "This card cancels Agatha's attack and ends the Battle Phase!"
Agatha let loose a massive storm of crimson flames across the field at Utopia Prime. But before the tidal wave of fire could strike, a vortex appeared in front of the Number warrior and sucked all of the flames in. It took several seconds for the vortex to do its job before it finally vanished.
"It's not going to be that easy to stop us, Samantha." Yuma told her. "I told you, I'm not giving up until I reach the real you."
"You are going to feel so much pain before you die!" a frustrated Mitaka told him. "For now, I'll end my turn."
"Yuma, this will not end until we break the curse of Mitaka's Number." Astral told him. "As I hoped we would, we have gained the means to do just that."
"I know. The Shining Numbers are somehow able to break the curse of the Devil Numbers. We saw that when Alit beat Chitose with his Shining Number." Yuma recalled. "But Utopia Prime isn't strong enough to take down Witch Goddess Agatha."
"We already have the solution to that in our deck." Astral told him.
"You mean that card you had me put in before this duel?" Yuma asked.
"Indeed. I had you put that card in the deck in preparation for this duel." Astral revealed. "That card, along with the Number I added to our Extra Deck, will break the curse of Number 665 and finally bring this duel to an end."
"Okay, but… if this works, than the same thing that happened to Chitose will probably happen to Samantha." Yuma pointed out.
"There's no helping that now, I'm afraid." Astral gravely replied. "We'll just have to revive her after we defeat Alnia in the final round."
"Well… okay then. Let's do it!" Yuma decided.
With that, Astral turned into a blue ball of light while Yuma turned into a ball of red light. The two balls took off into the air and collided with each other, exploding and changing into Yuma's orange-haired armored form. Then, as the newly transformed Yuma pulled the next card from his deck, it gave off a brilliant flash of golden light.
"I equip Utopia Prime with the Spell card, Number Armor!" Yuma announced. "By discarding four cards from my hand, Number Armor lets me equip Utopia with another Number from my Extra Deck! I equip Utopia Prime with Number 88: Gimmick Puppet of Leo!"
Suddenly appearing behind Utopia was a large mechanical monster with a blue and gold humanoid body. It had a head resembling a lion with a white mask-like face and a gold mane. In his right hand, it held an ornate gold and silver sword with a spherical green gem fitted into the front of the guard. The creature had on a white toga with red fringe, and hanging down from its back was a long white cape with a red underside. The armor that adorned the monster's right shoulder bore the number 88 in blue alien writing.
"Wh-what the hell?" a shocked Mitaka asked. "Don't tell me that's…"
"This is one of the Numbers that Thomas used during the Number War." Yuma confirmed, finishing the redhead's thought. "Astral figured out that the memories from Thomas's past life are embedded in all three of the Numbers he used, so he put Gimmick Puppet of Leo in our Extra Deck hoping that we could somehow use it to break through to you."
Gimmick Puppet of Leo turned into a cluster of gold lights that flew about and struck Utopia Prime, causing him to transform. Utopia Prime's helmet had changed to look like the head of Number 88, with his masked face appearing through the lion's open mouth. The piece of armor that had been covering Leo's right shoulder had appeared on Utopia Prime's right shoulder. The fringed toga that Number 88 wore appeared on Utopia Prime's body, and the sword he normally wielded changed to that of Leo's.
"Thanks to Number Armor, Utopia Prime gains Gimmick Puppet of Leo's ATK." Yuma continued. "Which means his ATK goes up to 5710."
"So… so what?" Mitaka asked, trying to seem unconcerned. "You might be able to take down Agatha with, but I'll still have a few life points left after your attack ends."
"Sorry, but you're wrong." Yuma told her. "When a monster equipped with Number Armor attacks another Number, it gains that Number's ATK during the battle. That means when Utopia Prime attacks Agatha, his ATK will jump to 9710."
Mitaka's eyes went wide with terror. "This… this can't be happening!"
"Utopia Prime! Attack Witch Goddess Agatha!" Yuma commanded. "Hope Sword Leo Slash!"
With his sword raised, Utopia Prime charged across the battlefield and slashed Agatha across the chest. Mitaka suddenly clutched her chest as if she had been slashed as well. As Mitaka's life points dropped to zero, cracks of gold light began to form all over Agatha's body. Those same cracks began to form all over Mitaka's body as well. Mitaka screamed, as both she and Witch Goddess Agatha appeared to explode with a blinding flash of white light.
Author's Note: I really had to change my plans a lot when it came to having Yuma and Astral's Shining Numbers show up in this story. Originally, Utopia Prime was going to show up during Yuma's duel with Hikari. But when the time finally came to do the outline for that duel, I had a lot of difficulty figuring out how to work Utopia Prime in. Plus I realized that since the duel between Yuma and Hikari was a very friendly one, it would've been the wrong place for Utopia Prime to make his debut. I had also originally planned for Yuma to use a Shining form of one of the Gimmick Puppet Numbers to beat Mitaka, but I had a really hard time to figure out how that was going to work with Yuma's deck. When the time came to outline the duel between Yuma and Mitaka, I had a vision of Utopia wearing Number 88 as armor, and that's where the Number Armor card came from.
Please review and let me know what you think.