The Rise and Fall of History: A Past Unseen

by Medigo

The world of dueling has reached a standstill. Many stories have been told through these cards, and the final story pits every side against each other. It is a game no more. Duelists are divided, and an unknown enemy watches from afar. In the midst of all this chaos is one man who brings a new power that can forever end the conflict; a stranger to this world and to himself.

33. One Bad Turn

Annex 033: One Bad Turn

Iria was here, she had visited Cassius. That was his dueldisk in her arms. "You were questioning Cassius? Are you looking for a culprit." Uno pointed out. Iria did not deny it. "This tournament is hosted by our company. If someone got injured under our watch, it is our duty to find out what went wrong. This is a matter of security now and we are not ruling anything out." Iria bagged the dueldisk and handed it over to one of the guards that came with her. "So was it a duel that got Cassius hurt? Was it August? Did one of those people attack him?! Did cameras pick anything up?" If anyone would know what happened on the dueling network, it would be Dreamworld Emily wagered they were also monitoring every corner of the theme park. "What we know and what we saw is not something we need to share with you. All you are required to know is that we have no suspects as of yet. Now, if you will excuse me." Iria brushed her off and left the building with her security entourage.

"...Aaron." Emily let that encounter fall from her mind and went through the door to find Cassius' room. The unfortunate duelist lied in his bed, halfconscious. "H-hey there big guy." She did not really know how to talk to someone like this. She was hoping for some kind of reaction. "Can you hear me?" The best she got was a flutter of his fingers which could have just been an involuntary twitch. "Can I look?" Alice and Uno entered the room as well, the former with her hands over her eyes. "He doesn't look too bad." Uno said. Cassius only had a few bandages over his head and arms. Nevertheless Alice got quest after one peek. "Ehh.. I think I'll wait outside." She had never been too good with hospitals. She only managed to stick it out this long because she wanted to be there for her sister. And Emily planned to stay for a long time if she had to.

"THE NEXT DUEL WILL BE BETWEEN EMILY BRANDT AND ERIC STONEWELL! WILL THE CONTESTANTS PLEASE COME TO THE HAUNTED MANSION!"

Fate, shaped like a person named Dom, had other plans for her. "Not now!" Emily cursed. "Eric!?" Uno was more amazed by the opponent they selected for her. "I can't duel now. What are they thinking?!" Emily protested, for all the good it could do. "Maybe we can tell them to postpone the match?" Alice suggested from the other side of the wall. "If they did it for Aaron. Maybe.. But if that can't be done... what should I do?" Emily knew she could not let the rest of her guild down, but she couldn't duel at her best either if she was distracted like this. She would ask Cassius for help, if she could.

On some level he must have felt that. "!? Aaron?" Cassius grabbed Emily by the hand and looked right at her. "Emily. You have... to fight... The Fusion.. They.." Eight words were all he could utter before he passed out again. A nurse immediately rushed into the room to check up on him and asked the trio to get out for now. In the background Dom repeated his announcement. "Fusion." Emily could only hear Cassius' fragmented request echo in her own head. "Did they do this?"

...

Since there was nothing more they could do, and since Cassius himself had seemingly implored Emily to keep dueling; she was left with no choice. "I can't believe you're going to have to fight Eric. I don't know what I would do." Alice was more hesitatnt about the upcoming battle than the one who had to go through with it. "Em?" Emily was simply and silently marching onward. "Are you angry?" Alice had seen her sister when she got mad. Her fury tended to be tranquil and hard to notice unless you were had seen it before. "Is it because of what Aaron said? And because Eric is working for the fusion guild?" She was worried Emily would start to link the two together. "No. I'm not mad. Not with Eric." Emily eventually noticed what Alice was saying and tried to calm her down. She wished she could calm herself down too. "But..I can't lose to Eric. I can't take it easy on him." She clenched her fist. She was determined to win no matter what cost. "Oh.." Alice sighed. She stopped while her sister kept on walking. This was exactly why she didn't wanted to stay away from guilds in the first place.

Emily arrived on time. The haunted mansion she would duel in was less of a house and more a recreated castle. On the inside was a path of long wide hallways, with long transparent walls on each side. Beyond the glass was a castle courtyard, and usually the glass would project ghosts and zombies with the kind of emitters that were used by dueldisks. It was a rational extension of the already existing technology. Alice and Uno would watch from the halls with the rest of the duelists. Emily was allowed to set foot inside the castle area beyond the glass, where she would face Eric. She saw Eric before that though, in the room that led to the next area. He was talking to someone on a phone. "I don't know why I can't just say what you said to me. If you believe in me you can believe.." She managed to overhear a little before Eric got wise to her presence. "Oh hey Emily." He quickly shut off his phone and shoved it in his pocket. "I heard about what happened with Cassius. That sucks. How's he doing?"

"Stable." Emily answered, with a bit more hostility than she wanted to give. "Nice phone. Did the fusion guild get you that one?" Eric Stonewell could definitely not afford a thing like that. "Ehr yeah.. It beats having to talk to someone over a dueldisk. Anyway, so Cassius is fine? Great. I was worried you wouldn't come here to duel me at first. You are here to duel, arent you? I am ready to go." Eric sounded entirely ready to go through with the fight, which took Emily a little off-guard. "You're not upset that you have to do fight me?" She asked. "No? I mean I didn't think it would happen, but I see this as a chance to see how strong we've gotten. I have to know which one of us is better. Don't you want that too?" He wasn't being callous or inconsiderate, he was just eager to see what their duel would look like. They had dueled so many times in the past, and they were always even. "Maybe. I'm not just dueling for myself anymore. It's..complicated now. All I know is that I don't want to lose. So I guess.. yeah. Let's go." She passed Eric by and opened the door to the courtyard. "Right." They moved to their positions and activated their dueldisks.

Emily's LP: 8000 Erics LP: 8000

"And so we have the duel of the moment, Emily against Eric. Two friends torn apart by their guilds, like Romeo and Juliet in reverse!" Of course Dom was there too, his voice at least. Emily could not tell whether he was in a control room somewhere here or still back at his cubicle in the theater. Either way she wished he wasn't saying so much. It was clear that he only wanted to sell the 'drama' of this duel. "I get the first turn this time. Nice!" Eric gave it no attention. He drew his cards and set what he wanted; a trap and a monster. "..Your move, Em!" His turn moved to hers. "..." Emily looked to her left, to the glass window separating the stage from the seats. Even in such a small area, hundreds of people were staring at her. And thousands more were seeing this on the big screen from the comfort of their hotels or homes. It no longer phased her. "I...I will set these cards." She also placed a trap card and a monster down. "End turn.."

"It's like they don't want to fight each other." Uno rarely saw a duel start out this way; with defense matching defense. "But they fight all the time." Alice said. Though this was quite different.

"No attack? Did you draw a bad hand?" Eric was used to Emily always going for defense first, but she was not playing with the same old Eric now. "You can't afford to just let the hits come at ya. You know!" Eric flipped his trap card, Needlebug Nest. It discarded the top five cards from his deck. Three Infernoids were among them. "I can banish three Infernoids from my graveyard to special summon two Infernoids from my hand in attack position! Astaroth needs one." In zone one he placed his new metal-faced red dragon/demon; Infernoid Patrulea(4/1800/0). "Adramelech needs two!" His trusty old Infernoid Attondel the blue steel dragon(8/2800/0) arrived next, while Eric still controlled monsters with less than 8 levels. "Astaroth can skip out on his attack this turn to destroy a spell or trap card instead!" Patrulea cut Emily's facedown trap in half with the mechanical spike on its left arm. The card he destroyed was Skill Prisoner.

"Oh? You have one of those too!" That card was a real hit with decks that milled themselves a lot. It could negate the effects of monsters that targeted other monsters, even from the graveyard. "Haven't run into mine yet, so I can't let you keep yours! Astaroth!" Eric activated the other effect of his demon. By tributing a monster it would burn a card in the opponents graveyard. Patrulea drew blue fire in the canisters on its legs after burning down Eric's set monster. It then redirected the blue flames towards Skill Prisoner and banished it utterly. "Sweet. Here I come!" The greater demon shot hellfire out of its jaws. Emily's defending Superheavy Samurai Soulpiercer(4/1200/0) was incinerated on the spot. "Remember. He can attack again if he destroyed something!" Infernoid Attondel prepared a second blast. It came straight for Emily and she took it without flinching. Though he took the first chunk of her lifepoints away, Eric was not satisfied. "Come on Emily. I want a real duel. Snap out of that funk!"

Emily's LP: 5200

"Oh? Oh! That was.." Emily realized she had matters to attend to. "My Soulpiercer." Because of Erich the Piercing Samurai went to the graveyard and she could use its search-and-retrieve effect. ".. adds Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei to my hand." With things going bad, she turned turn to the big guy. "That's more like it." Eric could end his turn now. "My turn." Emily drew a card. "I'll.. special summon Superheavy Samurai Big Waraji!" When a player had no spells or traps in the graveyard, they could freely summon Big Waraji, the Samurai(5/800/1800) with a sandal-shaped body. Though the controller could not summon anything but Superheavy Samurais for the rest of the turn, Emily still had a normal summon left. "Waraji counts as two tributes for machines, so I tribute him to tribute summon Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei!" And so she managed to bring out Benkei. The great samurai warrior(8/1000/3500) switched himself to defense mode as soon as he appeared. "I equip Superheavy Samurai Soulshield Wall to my monster!" The green-scaled shield fastened itself to Big Benkei's arm to bolster his(1000/4700) defense points. "He attacks Infernoid Patruleal!" With his new shield, the Samurai rammed the Infernal demon against the walls and crushed it.

Eric's LP: 5100

"That went better, right?" Uno was not sure whose side he wanted to be on. But he did know he did not want to see Emily struggle. "Maybe. Em is going fast now. Too fast." Alice figured her sister wanted to get back to Cassius quickly. That was why she left Attondel alive, to inflict more damage. Acting like this could hurt her more in the long run.

It was Erics turn again. "Now we're talking. I'm sure Cassius would like to see you fight back too. I don't know him as much as you do, but that sounds like something he would say." He drew his next card and frowned. He had been looking forward to seeing new Infernoids in 3D, instead he drew one he had already used last time. "Oh well.. I banish Infernoid Astaroth/Patrulea from my graveyard to special summon Infernoid Beelzebul in defense position!" But functionally the many-legged demon also known as Infernoid Antra(2/0/2000) would work. "Well. The next move is not gonna shock anyone..Beelzebul targets Big Benkei!" Antra's effect made the Superheavy Samurai go back into Emily's hand. Soulshield Wall was only good for negating attacks not effects. The equipped Superheavy Samurai broke into pieces without anything to hold it. "Now! A direct attack!" Infernoid Attondel lobbed a ball of fire straight at Emily.

Emily's LP: 2400

"!" Of course she did not feel the attack itself. It was what Eric had said that riled her up. "You're right, you don't know him as much as I do. So you don't know what this feels like." She couldn't only think about the duel anymore. "Eric. What do you know about your guild?" It would not help Cassius. She had to find out who had done this to him. "Huh? My guild?" Eric, for his part, did not understand why she was bringing this up now. "You talked to someone over your phone. That was someone from the guild, wasn't it? Did they say something about the attack?" That was what she called it now. It was not an accident. Cassius wouldn't drive so recklessly. "Emily. I haven't heard anything like that. Can't we talk about this after the duel?" Eric's voice cracked a little. He was nervous about something. He set a card in the spell/trap zone and finished his turn. "Are you afraid to say it in front of all these people?" Her eyes narrowed. Emily could see her from the corner of her eye. Dame Phoebe was watching the duel along with the rest of her party

"My turn! I summon Superheavy Samurai Scales!" Because Eric controlled two monsters, Emily could special summon the scale-carrying samurai(4/800/1800) from her hand. She could also make use of Scales' other effect. "Scales special summons Superheavy Samurai Soulpiercer!" The scales tilted one way, as the samurai prepared to revive a card in her graveyard. "I can see what you're up to, Em!" Unfortunately the grave was Erics specialty. "I banish Soulpiercer by letting one Infernoid sacrifice the other!" Infernoid Antra absorbed the flames of Infernoid Attondel into its two canisters. Then it targeted the Superheavy Samurai Piercer in the graveyard and removed it before Scales could special summon it. "That wont stop me!" Emily called out another machine Samurai, a tiny guy(2/300/600) playing a trumpet. "Because I have no spells or traps in my graveyard, I can special summon Superheavy Samurai Trumpeter from my hand. Now I'll use both Samurais to tribute summon Big Benkei!" Trumpeter and Scales were tributed and Benkei the Samurai(8/1000/3500) regained his physical form.

That same moment, Superheavy Samurai Trumpeter brought itself back to the field. "Eh?" Eric checked with his disk. "That thing can revive itself if it is sacrificed? Wait.. it's a tuner monster? You're going to synchro summon?" Emily could not summon anything but Superheavies a turn in which she used Trumpeters first effect, but the materials she had were enough to bring out her synchro monster. "Yes!" Emily tuned Trumpeter with Big Benkei. The ten level stars collided and the great Superheavy Samurai Warlord Susanowo(10/2400/3800) was summoned in defense mode. "Aaron gave me this card. I will win this duel for him with Susanowo!" The Warlord attacked and cut down Infernoid Antra with his sword. "I take your trap, Needlebug Nest." After its attack, the synchro monster utilized its effect. Susanowo could take Erics used up spells and traps and set them on Emily's field. In this case Needlebug Nest was taken from the graveyard and placed down at Emily's side. "Eric, I didn't want to put you between all of this. But if you know anything, you have to tell me. You are my friend, but so is Aaron.. and if I have to choose. I choose him!"

"I'm telling you; I don't know anything!" Eric insisted. "What do you think the guild did? They attacked Cassius so they could knock him out of the tournament? No way the fusion guild would do that. That's not how you win duels. They know that. You have to defeat someone with your own strength!" Eric flipped his trap. "And I still want to win too! I activate Fiend Comedian! It flips a coin to gain one of two results. Heads; I banish everything in your graveyard. Tails: I discard as many cards from my deck as there are in your graveyard." Eric tossed a penny into the air and he made it land with the tails-end up. "Ha!" That was the better of two results. Emily had four cards in her graveyard (Soulshield Wall, Scales, Trumpeter, Big Benkei). Eric could send four Infernoids from his deck to the grave. "You have shown me your trump card, Em. Time to show mine!" One of the cards he sent was Infernoid Onuncu, a highlevel demon with a costly summoning requirement. "I have to banish three Infernoids to special summon..." Eric removed Antra, Patrulea and a random Infernoid from his graveyard. "Infernoid Nehemoth!".

A titanic dragon from hell burst through the ground, emerging from the depths of hell. It(10/3000/3000) had no legs or arms, just spike-like appendages and red armor plating all over its body and spiked rings across its neck and ribs. "Behold my new monster! When Infernoid Nehemoth is summoned, he will kill all other monsters on the field!" The wheel on the back of the Infernoid began to turn counterclockwise. It was building up energy for the total destruction of the field. "Emily, you have no traps left. This is the final blow!" Eric unleashed the devastating effect and filled the entire courtyard with explosive blasts. "Emily!" Alice cried out. It looked like this would be the end of the duel. One clean blow would hand Eric his victory.

"No." Yet Emily walked out of the blast smoke, with her monster. "I told you. I cannot lose." The Samurai warlord(2400/3000) was only weakened, his armor had been cracked. Emily had activated Superheavy Samurai Soulfire Suit from her hand to negate her Samurai's destruction. Though by discarding the Soulfire card, she had to subtract 800 defense points from her monster for this turn. Still, Infernoid Onuncu could not take advantage of that. "I do believe the fusion guild attacked Cassius and I am saying it loud enough so that everyone can hear me! This dueling world is not as innocent as you think it is, Eric! Maybe it would have been better if you did stay home, and away from them." The guild, Dame Phoene. They were the true enemy. The sooner Emily beat Eric, the sooner she could get to that person.

(To be Continued in Annex 034: Weighing Sins)

New Cards used by Emily Brandt
Superheavy Samurai Big Waraji
Superheavy Samurai Trumpeter

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Skill Prisoner

New Cards used by Eric Stonewell
Infernoid Patrulea
Infernoid Onuncu

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Fiend Comedian