Star Clusters VII: Shadow of the Oncoming Chaos
After the duel, Tobias picked up the unconscious Yufa and took him to a discrete location far away from where the Duel had taken place. By now, he'd expect that the bodies would have evaporated. After all, he'd seen it all before. A few minutes after the melting process, the soft tissue would lose viscosity, and become a water-like substance, before evaporating into the air. The idea of that was disgusting, however; the idea that any water he could be drinking was one of his deceased enemies…
To shake his mind off the disturbing thought, he focused on trying to wake Yufa. He'd been out for a good half an hour, and despite the run-down area he'd chosen to converse being dangerous in terms of foundations and construction, the area was almost completely overrun by gangs. At any moment, they could be assaulted, even if he was sure that they were no threat to him, Yufa was possibly an easy target. He couldn't even take out one Cultist, after all. How was he supposed to prevent the return of The Embodiment? Even if he was The Descendant…?
About twenty minutes later, Yufa awoke; a large inhale was followed by Yufa's attempt at opening his eyes, before rubbing them in hopes of aiding his blurred vision. "W-What…?" Yufa looked around. From what he could make out, he could see a sort of run-down building, like a restaurant, that went out of business decades ago… Next to him, he could make out a kind of voice. As time passed, it became clearer.
"Yufa…? Yufa…?!" The voice spoke, and because of the tone in which it called his name, he immediately assumed it was Shirumi.
"Alright, alright…" Yufa sat up a little, his face showing a jaded expression, most likely caused from the Cult.
"Who's Shirumi? One of your buddies?" A man in a white lab coat, and some shirt with various symbols on it, walked in front of him, sat opposite him, and took a swig from an energy drink. "Want one?" Without waiting for an answer, the man took another drink and threw it over to Yufa, to which Yufa sluggishly caught it, before realising it wasn't Shirumi and jolted upright.
"Who the hell are you?!" He immediately began interrogating the man and pointed a finger right at him. "You're not one of them Cultist freaks, are you?! What happened to your buddies?! What happened… to that… duel…?" Yufa slowly lowered the finger and looked at the man with an intense stare. The man wasn't wearing a hood, nor was he trying to kill Yufa like previous encounters with the Cult had shown.
"No. I'm not a member of the Cult of Chaos, and between me and you… You nearly lost that duel. Lucky the intrusion penalty was allowed, so I could intrude and defeat the Cultists for you." Tobias took another swig from the drink, depleting it, and getting another. "There was three in total." He took a swig.
"And you defeated them all? When I couldn't defeat one? Don't make me laugh." Yufa smiled and looked back at the man. "I asked for your name." Yufa's smile faded into a serious expression, as he demanded an answer to the question he asked twice.
"My name is Tobias Winchester. I came to this City to look for someone important. Someone I fear doesn't quite realise their own importance within this war for peace." Tobias sighed as he knew what Yufa was going to ask next.
"Tobias, then? You have any idea who you're after? I could try to help you, if they're that important in trying to fight the Cult." Yufa began to take sips from his own drink.
"It'd be easier to explain everything from the beginning. But it's a ridiculously long story. You sure you want to listen now? It's pretty late, won't your aunt be worrying about you by now?" Tobias frowned.
"Wow. You're a real stalker, huh?" Yufa said half-jokingly, but in all honesty was creeped out by how much the man knew about him. "Fine. If I am going to be helping you to find this person, tell me everything. Besides, I usually stay out late nowadays, especially with the Cult lurking around. Somebody has to step in their way, right?" Yufa gave a massive grin, empowered with self-righteousness – but above all – egotism.
"Don't act too high and mighty. You did just get your ass handed to you by one of them. You're lucky to be alive, Goyami."
"Aaaanyway" Yufa coughed. "This, uh… Story? About the Cult?" He continued to grin, despite Tobias' frown.
"Right." Tobias took a deep breath. "The whole thing begins millions of years ago. The exact year is unknown, since it predates the Earth itself. There were two separate entities, with names lost to time. As a result, we dubbed them two aliases: The Embodiment of the Future, and their greatest enemy; The Embodiment of Chaos. These two were near identical in both power and intellect. Their only difference was what they hoped to achieve. Whilst the Embodiment of the Future wanted a prosperous universe with trillions of species and worlds, the Embodiment of Chaos wanted nothing but to rule it as a supreme tyrant. The two went to extreme lengths to outwit the other, starting a feud that lasted well over 6 billion years…" Tobias stopped to take a sip.
"A six-billion-year battle? Sounds intense." Yufa blinked. He genuinely couldn't believe what he was hearing. Was this man insane? Or was he part of a cult at war with Chaos'? He supposed that, either way, there was no way there could be any kind of proof to his story.
"I can tell you don't believe me at all, Yufa." Tobias sighed. He wondered if there was any point in continuing at all. Yufa wasn't about to help him or any of his friends out and would likely continue his own course against the Cult and get himself killed regardless. But, as if something was forcing him to go on, he continued telling the story. "These two began to focus on a planet. One in which walking apes had become something new; one that had evolved. And they saw the potential evolution could provide toward their victory."
"So, they used us to fight? If that's true, how come we didn't know?" Yufa crossed his arms, as if trying to show Tobias there was no way he was buying anything he was telling him, and that Tobias couldn't convince him otherwise.
"Because we didn't know. See, they didn't use our living body. They waited until after our deaths and used our souls instead. See, The Embodiment of the Future had thought that The Embodiment of Chaos had no idea about Earth, and so the Embodiment of the Future used the souls that held the most 'good'. More specifically, the ones that had hope. Of course, no single organism contains purely hope, and so they would extract the despair from them and toss it into the endless space. Eventually, they used the rocks that they had smashed together into a planet, and the hope from human souls, to create their own species, which even today we still don't know the name of. Regardless, little did they know, the Embodiment of Chaos was collecting the discarded despair, and used it to create their own other species on a planet they also forged out of flames and willpower. This planet was home to this species, which was unlike any other. As it came to the end of the war, roughly two hundred thousand years ago now, their two armies fought endlessly in a tiresome battle. It was only when The Embodiment of the Future came up with an idea to destroy all of their opposition, to which their army agreed." Tobias stopped, as if the next part of the story was somehow difficult to say. Not necessarily to explain, but as if it hurt him directly.
"Um… What did the Embodiment of the Future do, exactly?" Yufa whispered, not sure if he should push Tobias any further to say it. If the uneasy expression on his face had anything to say, it'd definitely be some kind of warning to Yufa.
Instead of lashing out as Yufa expected, Tobias instead shook his head slightly and blinked, as if he had merely zoned out, and looked at Yufa. "Sorry, um… They absorbed their entire army into their one being, and in a great outburst of power, tore the Embodiment of Chaos to shreds, and caused their entire army to burn up and disappear in gaseous forms. Naturally, such a large outburst of energy came at a price. Their life. They slowly died not long after, their mission complete, and leaving no regrets behind. At the end of it all, they left one gift, in the form of a gene. This gene would pass down from generation to generation, and as a disguise, could not be inherited. This means anyone in any family on the entire planet can hold this gene, and it means that it can't be passed down to the next generation to stay within a family. We call them The Descendent."
"But that's… Impossible. Scientifically, that can't happen. Unless the gene itself spreads out, you can't-" Yufa tried to speak, but was quickly interrupted.
"Yes. Normally that would be impossible. But the thing is, this entity that created this gene isn't a typical being. Their abilities were on par with what most beliefs would consider not far off God-Level."
"But that's also impossible. For any one being to be nigh-Omnipotent… It can't happen. Right?" Yufa didn't know if it was just the way Tobias was telling his story, or If there was some genuine truth to this story, but Yufa was afraid. As if he was actually believing it.
"Fortunately, and unfortunately… It's not. In fact, the method in which they became so powerful in the first place is so terrifying, any being could actually do it, if they know how." Tobias sighed.
"Oh, really? And how do they do this, exactly?" Yufa didn't care if it was all truth or not anymore. He wanted to know this. He deserved to know.
"There's this… Power. A kind of… Force. One that predates everything. Not just our universe, not just any potential parallel universes. It quite literally predates the multiverse as we know it. Everything that exists, everything that has ever existed. We call them… HYPERFORCE." Tobias paused.
"HYPERFORCE? So… What are they, exactly? I mean, in more detail, if you have any…" Yufa was intrigued in this HYPERFORCE.
"There is very little we know of them. We know that as one part of HYPERFORCE exists, there must be an opposing force; as if they are constantly trying to balance themselves. We believe some may be HYPERFORCE but are unsure. For example, we think Numeron may be a part of HYPERFORCE. We also think the very essence of Life is bound to HYPERFORCE. If that is true, that means Death must also be a part of it…"
"…Constantly trying to balance themselves out. You speak like these forces are sentient? Besides… If Life and Death are a part of this HYPERFORCE, doesn't that mean it's possible for someone to control both? If they happen to get control of them? That's kind of… terrifying." Yufa gulped, but quickly to avoid Tobias thinking he was afraid, even though he was. Looking down for a moment, he shook his head and looked at Tobias. "Wait, so… How exactly does the Cult of Chaos tie into all of this?" Yufa was hoping to return to the original focus of their conversation, to stray away from the horrific ideas Tobias was talking about.
"Right… My apologies." Tobias coughed, catching onto Yufa's hint to change the subject, to which he was more than happy to do. "The Cult… And I can't believe I would even need to say this… The Cult are hoping to revive The Embodiment of Chaos." Tobias shook his head, to nobody in particular.
"They're trying to revive The Embodiment of Chaos? What the hell for?" Yufa frowned, partially angry, and partially confused. "How would they even go about it?"
"We're not sure. We don't even know it's possible… But if our theory on the HYPERFORCE of Life is correct, then… They may have figured out a way to control its vast power. That's assuming they even know where it is, and how to get to it. It could literally be anywhere in the entire universe." Tobias crushed the can that originally contained the energy drink and threw it beside him. "Even so…" He whispered before leaning forward. "A one in a trillion chance is still more than zero percent. And if all we know, the Cult may even go beyond this planet, or even the Milky Way. If it's really bad, it could even go beyond the Andromeda… But that's just a bit of speculation. The fact is, we don't exactly know what they're doing, but from their recent actions, it does seem like their harbouring souls for something. Why else would they be killing innocents, if not for the very essences the two Embodiments used to build their army, right? Who knows…" Tobias lay back and sighed, before rubbing his face with the palms of his hand and looked up. "It's all just so complex. And far beyond anything anybody could have imagined. It can't just ever be a simple solution for once, can it? It's all just too damn much all the time!" Tobias realised he was talking to himself by this point and looked right at Yufa. "Uh, sorry."
"Yeah… No worries." Yufa gave a weird look to Tobias. He was talking to a genuine madman. But nonetheless, he was also confident that the madman we was speaking to knew what he was talking about.
Not too long after, Yufa decided it was time to leave. "Well, enjoy your hunt, Tobias. I'll help out in any way I c-"
"Well, well… What do we have here?" Two larger men, definitely not Cultists, but evidently looking for trouble, walked out behind a pile of scrap metal and looked directly at the two young men.
"Looks like fresh meat, boss. They are in our territory, after all!" The smaller one let out a high-pitched laughter and posed an eerie grin that was meant to intimidate Yufa and Tobias. Instead, Yufa sighed and shook his head, before looking at the two gangsters.
"This place is actually unmarked, and we were here first. So, if anything, it should be ours." Yufa retorted. He'd had a rough day, and the last thing he wanted to deal with was a couple of guys with large sticks up their asses. "Besides, y'got any names I can refer you by? I can't be scared of a few guys I don't even know."
"This kid is really lookin' for a fight." The smaller one once again let out a high-pitched laughter.
"Yeah, we do. Johnny and Sonny. Now if you don't scram, we're gonna put'cha through one hell of a rough time." The taller man, whose name was apparently Johnny, let out his own short laugh, before realising Yufa wasn't going to leave. "Alright, then I guess we're gonna have'ta-"
"You know, that's really not a nice way to talk to someone who could easily beat the hell out of you." A familiar voice echoed from behind them and demanded the attention of the four guys in the middle of the room. Yufa couldn't believe what he was seeing…
"Ryou!" Yufa called out to him, whom had shortly walked out into the light.
"Evening, Yufa. I was just on my way home myself, when I saw you lot in a bit of deep heat. I take it these fellas are causing you guys some trouble… So here's a deal. We'll have a Tag Duel. The losers have to clear off, and accept the winners' superiority, alright?" Ryou walked over to Yufa and looked back at Johnny and Sonny.
"Heh. You talk a big game kiddo, you'd better know what you're doing, because when we're through, we're doin' what we were planning to do from the start… To the three of ya's!"
"So be it. Let's go!" Ryou activated his disk, and Yufa realised there was no getting out of this one now. Following Ryou's lead, he activated his Duel Disk also.
"Duel!" The four duelists called out in unison.
JOHNNY 4000 SONNY 4000 – LP – 4000 RYOU 4000 YUFA
"I'll be takin' the first move!" Ryou looked at his hand. "From my hand, I'll summon Gaia Spirit Aqueon!" The monster formed from droplets in the ceiling, its claws and spectral body taking shape rapidly.
ATK: 1700
"I'll activate Aqueon's effect! When he is Normal or Special Summoned, I can discard a Gaia Spirit from my hand, to gain a Nebula Counter for every 2 levels of the discarded monster! I discard Gaia Spirit Raidka!"
RYOU'S NEBULA COUNTERS: 2
"Then I'll activate the Cometshower Spell Card, Gaia Sprit Reformation! This card gives me a Nebula Counter upon activation, and by banishing a Gaia Spirit from my grave, I can Special Summon a Gaia Spirit from my deck, so long as its level matches the banished monster's, but it can't attack this turn! I banish Raidka, to summon Gaia Spirit Hydrospire!"
RYOU'S NEBULA COUNTERS: 3
"When Hydrospire is Special Summoned, I can tribute another Gaia Spirit I control to gain 2 more Nebula Counters, and then draw a card!" Ryou tributed Aqueon, before drawing a card.
RYOU'S NEBULA COUNTERS: 5
"Now, I offer up my 5 counters, and I'll be using my Hydrospire as Constellation material! Great powers of the ancient world, be revived in this time and aid my fight here and now! Constellation Summon: Star Clusters 5, Gaia Spirit SHADOW – Dracon!" The Giant Spirit climbed out of the portal formed by the Constellation Summon, and climbed out, its dilapidated head continuously changing form, before letting out a distorted and disturbing laughter.
ATK: 2500
"When Constellation Summoned, you both take 300 damage, for every Gaia Spirit in my graveyard! And since one of his effects are resolving, his other effect inflicts 500 damage to you as well!"
Johnny and Sonny braced, before taking the damage.
JOHNNY & SONNY 3200 – LP – 4000 YUFA & RYOU
"With that, I throw down a face-down!" Ryou smirked. "Just try to counter these!"
Next time, on Yu-Gi-Oh! HYPERFORCE!
As the duel between the boys and the gangsters heat up, Yufa decides he's had enough of the fighting for one day.
"Constellation Summon!" The enraged Yufa threw his fist into the air. "Star Clusters 8…!"
All next time, on Yu-Gi-Oh! HYPERFORCE!
Hey duelists! In the last chapter I asked you what the four types of trap card there are, and the answers are: Normal, Continuous, Counter, and Cometshower! For the next chapter, I will ask you what type of monster Elite Starlegion Swordmaster is! See you then!