Leo: 3200 LP
Devack: 4000 LP
Devack's field: Magician Ape, Morpthronic Magnen.
Leo's field: Morphtronic Magnen Bar, two face-downs.
"It's my move boy. And I shall activate Magician Ape's special ability. By sending a card from my hand to the graveyard, your monster becomes my property," Devack explained as his monster fired a beam of blue energy from its staff, dragging Magnen Bar to Devack's field.
"At this rate, Devack's gonna take Leo's entire deck," Trudge commented, thinking Leo was in over his head. "Not quite," Yusei responded, realizing what Leo had been planning. "You walked right into my trap!" Leo shouted.
"What are you talking about?" Devack asked. "Due to Morphtronic Magnen Bar's special ability, since he's in defense mode, none of your monsters can attack, and since the monsters taken by Magician Ape's effect can't change battle modes, he's stuck in defense," Leo explained as the monster Devackjust took began emitting electromagnetic waves, keeping his monsters in place.
Trudge praised Leo for thinking that far ahead, but Devack just laughed. "It hardly makes a difference. I sacrifice Magnen Bar to summon Fighter Ape in attack mode," the Dark Signer declared.
Level 5/Dark/Beast
ATK 1900/DEF 1200
"And since you're defenseless, Fighter Ape can attack you directly!" Devack shouted as Ape Fighter beat on its chest before leaping at Leo. "I play the Remake Puzzle trap card! By destroying a Morphtronic monster on the field, even if it's on your side of the field, the battle phase is canceled, and I get to bring back a Morphtronic with a lower level than the destroyed monster, so Magnen is destroyed and Magnen Bar is revived," Leo explained.
"All you've done is prolong your misery boy. You don't really think you'll win do you? You can't defeat me. And when I'm done with you, I'm coming after your sister next," Devack promised. Meanwhile, Mina had stopped her car. "Looks like the shadow duel is still going," she commented, but Akiza was still feeling uneasy.
"Yeah, but something feels different about this one. My dragon sign's not glowing," she said. Jack had also stopped and noticed his mark wasn't glowing. "Luna is supposed to be dueling, but I can't feel our Signer connection. It's like she fell off the face of the Earth," he commented.
Back in the spirit world, the monkey soldiers had finished their search of the alley and didn't find Luna. "Come on, she's gotta be around here somewhere," their boss said before they walked off. Once they left, the stone Luna disappeared under lifted up and Luna and two spirits came out from under it.
"Looks like we're safe now," Jinzo said as he set the stone back in place. Luna thanked the spirit for saving her, but Jinzo assured her it was his pleasure. "How did you know I was in trouble?" Luna asked. Jinzo told her that Alex had contacted him and asked him to watch over Luna. "Alex really does care about me," Luna thought to herself, a small blush crossing her cheeks.
"Luna, I would like for you to meet an old friend of mine, Torunka, also known as Dark Sage," Jinzo introduced as he gestured to the smaller spirit. "He's a lot younger than on his card," Luna noted, seeing that Torunka had the appearance of a child possibly even younger than herself.
"That is because of the Minus Curse," Jinzo explained. "So is she the one from the legend?" Torunka asked, to which Jinzo responded he was sure she was. "Wait, what legend? And what's this Minus Curse you're talking about?" Luna asked, feeling very out of the loop at the moment.
"All in due time my lady, but for now we must find a safe place to hide. Once we have accomplished that, I shall answer any question you ask," the cyborg spirit promised. They found an abandoned house and ducked inside, closing the curtains on the window.
"Okay, now what's going on? And what was the legend you were talking about?" Luna asked once they were sure they were safe. "There's an old legend where a little girl, a Signer, appears and saves us all from a terrible evil," Torunka explained. "So what is this terrible evil? And what's the Minus Curse you talked about?" Luna questioned.
"I'm sure you've noticed things happening around town in reverse," Jinzo assumed, which Luna confirmed she had. "Yeah, balls bouncing up stairs and leaves rising up off the ground and back onto trees," she said. "The Minus Curse rewinds time, causing things to happen in reverse. Torunka has also been affected by the curse, which is why he appears to be no more than a child, when in fact, he is far older than I," Jinzo explained.
"It's not contagious, is it?" Luna asked, scooting a little farther from Torunka. "You are safe my lady. This curse only affects duel spirits. I believe," Jinzo responded, hopeful he was correct. "Jinzo, why do you keep calling her 'my lady'?" Torunka questioned. "For she is the significant other of my lord Alex, the heir of the Supreme King," Jinzo informed.
"Wait, you're friends with the son of the Supreme King?!" Torunka exclaimed in shock. "Um, yeah. Why?" Luna asked, wondering why it seemed to be such a big deal. "I assume this boy is the heir of the king's reincarnation?" Torunka assumed, considering the original Supreme King lived millenia ago.
"Yeah. Is there a point to this?" Luna asked. "Luna, if the boy you know happens to be the reincarnation of the original Supreme King's son, you could be in great danger," Torunka warned. "What?! There's no way Alex is dangerous!" Luna defended before both Jinzo and Torunka reminded her they were hiding.
"Torunka, what do you speak of?" Jinzo asked. "You don't know Jinzo? Well, you weren't around then, and only a select few know the story," Torunka said as he realized how few people from back then were still around. Luna asked him what story he was talking about, Torunka answering it was the story of the Prince of the Netherworld.
Torunka began to tell the story while back at the duel, Leo was just starting his turn. "I draw. Sweet, I play Morphtronic Celfon in attack mode!" he declared.
Level 1/Earth/Machine
ATK 100/ DEF 100
" And now I play his special ability. Once a turn, a number is chosen at random from between one and six, and then I get to flip over that many cards from the top of my deck and summon a Morphtronic I find," Leo explained before lights on Celfon's chest flashed, stopping on the number three.
Leo picked up the top three cards of his deck and saw one he had been hoping for. "Alright! I summon the tuner monster Morphtronic Remoten in attack mode!" he shouted.
Level 3/Earth/Machine
ATK 300/DEF 1200
"Next, I play the spell Level Mirroring. With it, I can change the level of one monster on my field to be the same as one monster on yours until the end of this turn, so Magnen Bar's level is changed to be level 3, just like your Magician Ape," Leo explained.
Magnen Bar: Level 1-3
"And with that done, I tune Magnen Bar and Cellfon with Remoten in order to summon Power Tool Dragon!" he shouted as he summoned his ace.
Level 7/Earth/Machine
ATK 2300/DEF 2500
"Alright, with a monster like that, Leo's got the edge in this duel!" Trudge exclaimed. "It's a good start, and I know it's only gonna get better," Yusei agreed. "Is that the best you can do? Because if so, yours is a future bathed in shadow," Devack warned. "We'll see about that. I activate Power Tool Dragon's special ability! Once each turn, I'm allowed to add a random equip spell from my deck to my hand," Leo informed as his duel disk shuffled his deck and ejected a card from it.
"And lucky me, I got the Break Draw equip spell. By equipping it to my Power Tool Dragon, every time he destroys one of your monsters in battle, I get to draw a card, but this card is destroyed at the end of my 3rd turn after playing it. Now Power Tool Dragon, attack Magician Ape!" he shouted as Power Tool Dragon rushed forward and brought his shovel claw down on Devack's monster, destroying it and dealing a lot of damage.
Devack: 2500 LP
"Talk about a vanishing act. Anything else you'd like to say about my dragon?" Leo asked, but Devack just stayed silent. "What, dragon got your tongue?" Leo questioned as he drew a card with his spell's effect. "Joke all you want, but it's my turn now, and your dragon's about to meet his match. I draw. And I summon Dark Tuner Dark Ape," Devack explained.
Level 2/Dark/Beast
ATK 0/DEF 0
"And now I play the Dark Wave spell card. This will allow me to treat my Fighter Ape's level as a negative number during this turn, which means I can tune him with my Dark Ape. The one born from the darkness, become the supreme ruler who shall lead all of creation into the negative world! Dark Synchro! Appear now, Zeman the Ape King!" he shouted.
Level -7/Earth/Beast
ATK 2500/DEF 1800
"Due to Zeman's special ability, you can't activate any spells or traps when he attacks," Devack explained. "So what? I can beat you without them," Leo responded. "We shall see. Due to the effect of my Dark Ape, since I used him to summon Zeman, I can draw one card from my deck. I now play the Closed Forest field spell," Devack declared as a grove of dead, withered trees sprouted around them.
"Now Devack has everything he needs to summon an Earthbound Immortal against Leo," Yusei commented. Back in the spirit world, Torunka had just finished telling them the story of the original Supreme King's son. "Did all that really happen?" Luna asked, barely able to absorb what she had just heard.
"Yes. I may have been young at the time, but I was there, and I remember it very clearly," Torunka assured. "The time for stories is over. Now we must focus on rescuing the Ancient Fairy Dragon from her prison," Jinzo reminded. "So what do we do?" Luna asked.
"We must find Regulus. From what I've heard, we should find him in the forest, but we must approach with caution. Ever since the soldiers have arrived, he's been acting strangely. Violent even, attacking anyone who draws near. But fear not my lady, for I swear I shall defend you," Jinzo promised.
Luna thanked the spirit, but Jinzo just assured her he was fulfilling his oath to Alex. The three of them then left the house and began to run towards the edge of town. Unfortunately they were spotted by one of the soldiers, and soon were being chased by many more. "They found us!" Luna shouted as they all began to run.
"Really, I hadn't noticed!" Torunka responded sarcastically. "Remind me to reprimand you for speaking to my lady in such a brash tone later," Jinzo said. "Less talking, more running!" Luna ordered, but they then heard the sound of a duel runner approaching. "You have duel runners in this world?" Luna asked.
"What's a duel runner?" Torunka asked in confusion. "I play Hinotama!" a voice shouted as a fireball came out of nowhere and struck the ground in front of the soldiers, causing them to run away in a panic. Suddenly, the duel runner they had heard jumped down a nearby stairwell and landed next to the three of them.
"Alex!" Luna exclaimed, glad to see him. "Looks like I got here just in time. Sorry I didn't get here sooner, but I wound up in the wrong dimension at first, and then I had a hard time tracking you down," Alex apologized. "Well I'm glad you showed up when you did," Luna responded.
"So this is the son of the Supreme King?" Torunka thought to himself before he snapped back to the matter at hand. "I hate to break up this little reunion, but they'll be back any minute!" he shouted. "Right. Luna, put this on and get behind me," Alex said as he handed Luna a helmet.
Alex then pulled out a spell card, The Legendary Ebon Steed, and placed it on his duel disk. A black armored horse appeared out of the shadows and stood in front of Jinzo and Torunka. Jinzo got on the horse and grabbed Torunka's wrist, pulling him up onto the back of the horse. Once he was on, Torunka wrapped his arms around Jinzo's waist.
"Where to?" Alex asked, and Luna answered "To the forest." Luna wrapped her arms around his waist before he drove off, Jinzo and Torunka following close behind. They made it out of town safely and stopped on a large hill. "You okay Luna?" Alex asked. "I'm okay. That's the first time I've ridden on a duel runner before," Luna admitted.
"Well once this whole thing is over, maybe you and I can take a ride together sometime?" Alex offered. "Are you asking me on a date?" Luna asked. "Maybe," Alex responded playfully, having picked up flirting from his uncle. "Well, let's just make sure we save the world first," Luna responded as she tried to settle her heart so it didn't jump out of her chest.
She then remembered about Leo. "Alex, is Leo okay?" she asked. "Why do you ask?" Alex inquired, hoping he could lie to her, although he really didn't want to. "I thought I heard Leo dueling. He didn't take my place against Devack did he?" Luna asked, hoping her brother was safe.
As much as Alex wanted to tell her Leo wasn't in danger, he couldn't bring himself to lie to her. "He did take your place. Yusei and I drove to check on you, but when we got there, he was already dueling against Devack," Alex admitted. "Oh no! We've gotta get back and help him!" Luna shouted in concern for her brother.
"Luna, you need to have faith in him. He's a great duelist, and I know he can win," Alex assured. Luna calmed down and said he was right, and that she believed in her brother. "So where do we go from here?" Alex asked. "To the forest to meet with Regulus," Torunka answered.
Alex nodded and asked Luna if she was ready, and she nodded. After driving for a few minutes they arrived at the forest. The trees were too close together, so they proceeded on foot. "Regulus lives here?" Luna asked as they walked into the woods, surprised at how dark it seemed.
"This forest used to be so beautiful, and it gets even worse than that. With the forest withering and spirits being kidnapped, King Regulus went mad," Torunka informed. Luna brought her hands to her mouth, calling out for Regulus.
Torunka ran in front of her in a panic. "Quiet! He's mad, not hard of hearing." he warned. "I know what I'm doing. After all, I have a kitten at home. Here kitty, kitty, kitty. I've got a nice treat for you," Luna yelled out, much to the embarrassment of the others. "Luna, somehow I don't think that's going to work how you think," Alex said, thinking this might do more harm than good.
Suddenly a white blur rushed by and landed on a nearby rock. The newcomer was a beaten up lion with slightly broken armor growling at them. "Um, hi," Luna greeted nervously. "He came for a treat alright, but I think it's gonna be us," Torunka said as he cowered behind Luna.