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.

82. Closer than This

Annex 082: Closer than This

Getting out of a castle was surprisingly harder than it looked. The front gate was physically closed, and the walls were high enough to kill anyone brave/stupid enough to jump down from them. It was almost as if this place was a fortress of sorts. "What the hell?" But at least the night sky gave some comfort to Eric and Akai, until the earthquake and everything that followed happened. "Took the words right out of my mouth." The sky had gone purple. Not all at once; it looked more like a transparent curtain had been thrown over the lands. They could still see the stars and clouds, everything was just colored in differently. "You think this has anything to do with what is going on over here?" Each horizon had been affected, there was no saying where it started or ended. "No. No way. Even with all that crazy stuff Cassius said, I can't believe he'd do this. It must be .." Akai flinched as she saw something out of the corner of her eye. "Are those. helicopters?" There were black dots in the sky, loud ones. "Really? I hope so, we could use the army!" This was the best possible news. "Wait." It was the worst possible news. "It's.."

...

"The XYZ-Guild? What have they done?" Those down below had it even worse; they could not see. They could only go by what Cassius was telling them. "It appears to be some form of forcefield. Those 'bombs' that they placed have to be the cause. They're trying to seal us in and isolate us from the rest of the world." That was all he could figure out right now with their system crippled. The net and the local channels were probably all over this. "Why didn't our guy inside the guild warn us about this?" Gareth cursed. "I do not know. I... this is just the beginning. Gareth, take care of Dom. We must protect Vesper at all costs!" Cassius cut off the signal. "Hmph. You heard him. We have bigger problems on our hands now" Gareth and his cronies advanced on the gang. "We do not yield. You do not offer an equal partnership, not that we would have accepted that anyway." Iria stood her ground. And Uno was there to back her up. "The way I see it, you're just as bad as the XYZ-Guild. You should have worked together with everyone from the get-go!"

Doms LP: 4200 Vespers LP: 5300

"Hear hear!" With everyone backing Dom up, he himself found the energy needed to wrap this duel up. "What do you say, Vesper? Let's bring er up for round two!" The first of three Shadowmakers(5/2600/1000) came in for a second swing against the defending Psylord Zeta(7/2500/1800), thanks to the dual attack gift of Trapeze Magician. "Your ignorance is unparalleled, I say." Vesper retaliated with two effects. The first came through her flipped continuous trap. "PSY-Frame Acceleration. The cost of 500 lifepoints, and one PSY-Frame monster is removed for one turn," She paid the life and the Accelerator banished the yet to be flipped PSY-Lord Zeta from the field. "PSY-Frame Accelerator also summons one PSY-Frame from my hand, when a PSY-Frame monster is removed by an effect." The traps second effect chained to its first. It special summoned PSY-Framegear Epsilon(2/1500/0), the masked chariot of the Psylords, in attack position. "Multi-Threader can be summoned from the graveyard, when a PSY-frame tuner is special summoned." The younger version of the usual driver, the telekinetic Multithreader6/0/2500) returned in defense mode. "Summon synchro!" Thus the conditions for PSY-Frame Circuit were met. Vespers field spell could unite tuner with nontuner, to perform a PSY-Framelord synchro summon. Because the Multi-Threader treated itself as a PSY-Frame Driver.

Vespers LP: 4800

"Well you certainly have this all figured out. You probably can see everything coming.. except.." Dom shook his head. "I bet you didn't consider... Dimension Barrier!" He flipped his last trap. "I declare Synchro! This turn, all synchro monster effects are negated! Synchro monsters can't be summoned either!" The Barrier sealed Psylord Zeta's powers, and disrupted the union between the Multithreader and Epsilon tuner. "Dimension Barrier?" Vespers dead eye twitched. "Yeah. I made this for you, but this can also be used against you." This card could also seal XYZ and Fusion monsters. When Dom first created it with UNO's printer, he did not think it would be used on Synchro monsters first. "Now it's no time to slow down!" Dom ordered more attacks. The first Shadowmaker killed off the remaining Zeta Lord. Trapeze Magician came for the reborn Delta. "Initiate PSY-Frame Circuits second effect!" However Vesper could still could empower her monsters. "PSY-Frame Driver." She discarded the Frame driver, adding its 2500 attackpoints to the Epsilon(4000/0) on the field. It fired back and destroyed Trapeze Magician with its psychic lightning.

Doms LP: 2700

"Oh you'll wish you hadn't." But when Trapeze Magician died, it could special summon a Performage from the main deck. "Presto! Performage Mirror Conductor!" Dom called out the mirror-faced mage(4/600/1400), whose effect could be used instantly. "During either turn, he damages me a little but that is so he can switch the attack and defense points of a monster on the field!" The Conductor waved his baton to flip Epsilon around. "What." It(0/2700) had no use for its powers now. "Here!" The remaining Shadowmaker Performages attacked and destroyed the powerless Framegear along with Multi-Threader. "Your mistake was trying to be clever, Vesper!" Engraver of the Mark(4/1800/1200) and Performage Mirror Conductor finally attacked Vesper directly. "So, last time was 700 damage. I wonder how much you're gonna tell me when I take everything else?!" Vesper had nothing left, not lifepoints nor excuses.

Doms LP: 2200 Vespers LP: 0

"... You want answers, creator?" The woman cackled as she slowly moved her hand towards the console on her chair. She retracted the dueldisk and pulled out a keyboard. "You will get to see it all with your own eyes." She pushed several keys. "...No! Mister Dom, get away from her!" Alice was the first to realize something was up. But it was already far too late. "Wha.." The platform he stood on lit up and an energy barrier was put up to separate him and Vesper from the rest of the chamber. "Sir! Vesper, what are you doing?" Iria shouted at her. "Giving him what he wants. Cassius has told you about how we experimented with physical transportation, didn't he?" The lady said with a malicious grin. "!" Dom turned his head up and saw a bright light of unrecognizable colors stream down. "The other world.."

"My allies will capture yours, they will take whatever can stop my powers, and they will become part of the Circle. As for us, my mind will retreat to the other side. Where you will end up I do not know..." Vesper said, as her head fell backwards. Her mind had left the body. "Stop!" Iria yelled again, to no avail. She pushed against the barrier, to no avail. It could not be stopped. All the master could say was one word. "Iria.." And then the light reached its maximum intensity, swallowing the Master up. "DOM!" Iria now screamed as her master disappeared before her eyes. In those last few seconds they all got a glimpse of his blackhaired face and the look of despair it carried. He was younger than Uno had thought. The only thing the light left behind was his mask, which shattered as it fell to the floor. The barrier dropped now that Doms fate had been sealed. "I... can't believe..she did that." Uno had no words for this act that had gone beyond petty revenge. "He's just gone... ." Alice shook her head. This whole day seemed like a nightmare.

Team Uno/Iria's LP: 8000 Team Synchro's LP: 8000

"Lady Vesper!" Gareth was only paying attention to the woman slumped back in her chair. "Disciple, don't you turn your back on me!" Vesper was not with them anymore. He had been unable to help her, he and his friends were still entangled in duels against Iria and Uno. "Get them!" He shouted at his dueling partners who currently had their turn. "Yeah!" They both had summoned Frozen Fitzgerald(5/2500/2500) synchro monsters with their Infernity monsters. "Attack the disciple!" Iria had no monsters on her field, and traps and spells could not be activated when a Frozen Fitzgerald monster attacked. But Uno had a better defense. "Hold it!" Uno controlled both Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon(7/2500/2000) and two pendulum magicians; Xiangke and Xiangsheng. He sent the latter out to intercept the direct attack, per battle royal rules. "Performapal Raingoat, save Odd-Eyes!" By discarding the raincoat goat from his hand, he prevented the destruction of his monster. So while they both had equal attackpoints, only the Frozen pillar demon was killed.

"Fool! Frozen Fitzgerald can always special summon himself if he is destroyed!" The Circle-duelist discarded a card from his hand to activate his synchro monsters effect. Frozen Fitzgerald special summoned itself back in defense mode. "You think you can just barge in here and undo all we worked for? Your master payed the price for his arrogance, now you will follow.. Do you even have any idea of what you have done!?" The duelist ended their turn, their anger at Lady Vespers fate was self-evident. "Do you!?" But that feeling was like nothing compared to Iria's. "You took the master away, you.." She would crush them all if she could, but it was not her move to make. "Uno. This stops now." It was Uno's turn. "I couldn't agree more." Uno drew his next card. "Performapal Trump Girl!" He summoned a tiny jester girl with stars and ace symbols all over her colorful outfit. "Trump Girl, fuse yourself with Odd-Eyes!" The Trump Girl had the power to fuse herself with any monster, without the need for Polymerization. And she was a spellcaster monster. "I combine a spellcaster and Odd-Eyes to fusion summon Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Uno changed his odd-eyed dragon into the runic dragon(8/3000/2000) with the golden eyepatch.

"Rune-Eyes? The monster that defeated Meridian?" The two duelists looked a little worried once they saw what they were up against. "Don't waver! Rune-Eyes can only attack twice this turn! You have a total of three cards in your hand. He will not get a direct attack off." Gareth had studied Uno's deck enough to realize that Rune-Eyes full potential was only unlocked if a level 5 or higher spellcaster had been fused with it. Trump Girl was a measly level 2 monster. "You guys think you have all the answers. Well what do you think of this?!" Uno tapped both his pendulum cards. "Xiangke and Xiangsheng Magician, I use you both to pendulum summon Odd-Eyes from the extra deck and two Performapals from my hand!" The original Odd-Eyes rejoined the battle, while Performapals Camelump(4/800/2000) and Bowhopper(4/1500/1000) were the new arrivals. "I will XYZ-Summon Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon!" The grasshopper and camel overlayed into one dark portal so that the black dragon(4/2500/2000) of revolution took form.

"I know what you are going to say. So I'll save you the trouble.. this is not what I was building up to." Uno activated the spell effects of Xiangke and Xiangsheng. "This is! Xiangke targets my XYZ-monster and changes its rank into a level that can be used for XYZ-summoning!" The Rebellion Dragons black rank stars were inverted into red level stars by the male destruction mage. "Then Xiangsheng can raise the rank of the XYZ-monster to that of a level 5 or higher monsters level on my field!" The female creation mage shot shot her arrows through Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Dark-Rebellion XYZ Dragon(7/2500/2000). "So that means.." Gareth's eyes went wide. "This is it!" Alice remembered this sequence vividly. "The monster that you brought back?" Iria would witness it for the first time. "I overlay Odd-Eyes with Dark Rebellion and XYZ-summon Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon!" The room pulsed with power as the red and black dragon turned to pure force and opened a path the destructive and dark pendulum dragon(7/3000/2500).

"Wha.." This was more terrifying than anything they had seen Uno use before. "Odd-Eyes Rebellion destroys all level 7 or lower monsters on the field, if he was XYZ-summoned with an XYZ-monster as a material!" The dragonwings blades disconnected and the energy flowed through them. Raw electricity surged across the field and both synchro monsters. "Both duelists take 1000 points of damage for each destroyed monster!" The Frozen Fitzgeralds exploded. Their masters were thrown into the cloud of smoke, real smoke. "Kguh.. He's using solid vision!" They had to wipe the smoke away with their own hands, it was not an effect of the dueldisk. "Cheap tricks.. That's just something that UNO guy made for you." The two opponents werent't going to give up just to that. They both discarded a card from their hand to resummon Frozen Fitzgerald to the field in defense mode.

Team Synchro's LP: 6000

"Nope. This is something I made myself." Uno pointed three fingers to the ceiling. "That was part one of the Odd-Eyes Rebellion show. Part two.. lets him attack three times if he destroyed a monster this turn!" His other hand he pointed forward, with two fingers aimed at the defending synchro monsters. "Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" The Fusion-dragon used its two attacks to defeat the Fitzgeralds in battle. "Guh.." Only one of them could be special summoned from the graveyard this time. The other duelists was out of cards in his hand. "Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon!" Then came the triple strike from the XYZ-dragon. It spread its wings and came after the enemy like a bird of death. With its teeth it tore the last Frozen Fitzgerald into pieces. With its left wing it directly attacked the left duelist. The right wing took down the left duelist. "Gwaaahh!" They were both thrown off the field and smacked hard into the wall before falling back down. "Uh..ahhh.." Only Gareth was left standing. The others faded from consciousness.

Team Synchro's LP: 0

"Sir!" As Gareth had not officially started a duel yet, Iria was now free to run back to where her master had last been seen. "Wake up! Wake up!" First she tried to get Vesper to answer to her. When that didn't lead to anything she instead went to work on Vespers equipment. "This has to work. This is what caused the transport." She tried to repeat the sequence of buttons that she had seen the woman press, then other sequences, then other consoles. Nothing changed. "Iria..." While Uno watched her, he also kept his eyes on Gareth. "How can you be so strong? You are just one duelist, you are not part of any guild." Fusion-monsters, Synchro monsters and XYZ-monsters; The Circle had seen Uno summon all of them. "He is part of a guild. With me." Alice stood by his side now. "Uno.. I'm so sorry that I didn't come to help you." Though she had her own dueldisk, she did not join in their duel earlier. "Not that I didn't want.. but.. If I had.. Maybe Dom would still be here.."

"Hey. This is nobody's fault but theirs. And they can undo it too." Uno reshuffled his cards. If Gareth wanted a personal fight, he could come and get it. "Y-yeah." Alice seemed more determined to duel alongside him too now. "Oddball Guild, ha!Are you you seeing yourselves some great uniter, is that why you take something from all of us? The synchro guild will never work with other guilds, not even independents." He switched the transmitter on his dueldisk back on. "Cassius. Send in the reinforcements. All of them. Dom has been eliminated, we.." He stopped halfway, when he noticed that he was picking up a lot of static. "Cassius?" The channel was dead. No amount of finetuning cleared it up. "What is going on?" Gareth switched to other dueldisks. While he heard some sounds this time, they were not encouraging. "No!" There were explosions, roars and shots; like a war had broken out up above. "We're being raided!"

"That is correct." The duelists had company. "Adamant!" The former XYZ-leader emerged from the elevator shaft. "You! You did this, you started this invasion!" Gareth took no time to lay out the accusations. "I am no longer in control of my people, synchro-guild. I did not contact them to tell them about my whereabouts. And I doubt they came for me." He briefly turned towards the others, towards Alice in particular. "You are still well. That is good." He spoke with apparent sincerity. "... Is the noise above, what you were warn me about?" Alice asked. "Yes. This is phase four of our attack plan. The generators create a shield of energy that keeps almost everything solid trapped inside. We were saving them for when our forces headed into the other world, to help defeat the enemy. But they were instead planted here in each conquestzones, so that together they could cast a net wide enough to trap the entire land, from border to border."

"What? We're all stuck here now?" Uno gasped. "Was your goal to control the entire country? And shouldn't you be up there with them?" Iria said, verbally and fiercely attacking him. "No. This plan has Roma's touch, not mine. I do not know what he is aiming at." Adamant was as truthful as he ever would be. He walked over to Vespers chair. "Stop!" Gareth yelled. "So this is the face of the enemy." He bowed to stare her in her blank eyes. "While we were preparing to go to war with her world, she was infiltrating ours." Disdain was carved into his face. the true nature of the synchro guild was there for all to see. "If you touch her!" Gareth placed his hand on his dueldisk. "I have no interest in this woman, I can tell that her mind is far gone. If you desire to fight me, I will not stop you. But you and I would be fighting for a doll. I believe your people need you more up above." As Adamant told him this, the noise of the ongoing duels got loud enough to echo down the shaft. "I think you will find that your guild is outnumbered. It is not just the fury of the XYZ-guild that you have incurred. The Fusion Guild is there as well."

"Wh-what? No!" Gareth's will was finally broken by this news. He turned away and hurriedly climbed back up the ladder. "Was any of that true?" Iria inquired. "All of it. They are both here to crush this third wheel once and for all." Adamant took a deep breath. "But that is no longer my concern. I will assist you, until I feel my debt is repayed.. I would not be walking freely, were it not for you." They had opened all the doors after all. "I don't think that was more than a side-effect though." Uno claimed. The power shutdown was only meant to rescue him and his friends. "I respect your honesty, Oddball Guild. But incidental or not, I owe you my freedom."

(To be Continued in Annex 083: Die Kunst der Fuge)

New Cards used by Dom
Dimension Barrier

New Cards used by Vesper
PSY-Framegear Epsilon

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PSY-Frame Accelerator

New Card used by Uno
Performapal Trump Girl

New Cards used by Synchro Duelists
Frozen Fitzgerald