Qualifying Tournaments are still going on. Duels of all kinds are going on, and there's another happening right now.
"How is it going?!" M.C. announced. "We are coming to you live from Gore Valley!" He announced as there was a series of duelists gathered for this tournament through the valley. "Here, we have a total of one-hundred duelists against each other for the chance to win a total of 4000DP. Once this is over, only one will be left standing." All those competing were looking forward to this. They just need to be the last one standing. "Hang on. I'm doing a quick count to see... Wait! There's only ninety-nine! When is the last one going to show?"
"I'm here!" That was when an eerie voice was heard. Everyone looked to the sky and saw a helicopter came in...with it belonging to the Black Ace. Inside that helicopter was Raika himself with Henry and Sabaro.
"Uh... Hi there... There's only one spot left. Which of you three said you were competing?" M.C. questioned.
"Weren't you listening?! This guy here, and no one can beat him!" Henry said as he was referring to Raika.
"I'll get this over with quickly." Raika said as he was joining in the fight. "Go, Malicious Fiend: Life Destroyer!" All he did was play the card and the infamous Life Destroyer emerged from darkness. Just the very presence of that monster shook many to their cores as if they were staring at the embodiment of fear and darkness itself. "Destroy them all at once!" Life Destroyer unleashed some of it's terrifying power that many duelists were being attacked by it and the actual land was breaking apart.
"What is this?!" M.C. announced as he watched destruction unfold and all the other ninety-nine duelists were defeated like it was nothing. Raika took them all out in an instant.
"What a bunch of weaklings." Raika said. "Not a single one here could give me a challenge. Oh well... A hundred times zero is still zero no matter how you do the math."
"No way anyone could beat you, Raika. Well, might as well find some other tournament." Henry said as they were leaving.
'So that is the Life Destroyer I've been hearing about... This is Raika...' Sabaro thought as this was the first time he saw them in action. What astonished him the most was the fact that actual damage was dealt and some of the people down there looked hurt.
...
Yukina
"Attention to all duelists out there! This is a very important news!" M.C. announced as he was broadcasting to the whole country. "First, we have less than a month before Duel Battlers start! Sounds good, but I have some bigger news to share! Out of the shadows comes a new duelist named Raika!" He showed images of Raika and how he spread destruction in his wake. "Armed with a powerful and unknown card called Malicious Fiend: Life Destroyer, Raika has been taking on challenge after challenge. Everywhere he goes, the landscape quickly changes! He somehow leaves a path of destruction wherever he goes! Just recently, he took on ninety-nine competitors and took all of them down in an instant!"
"Raika!" Yukina said as she knew the truth. Everyone thinks he's just a skilled duelist, but she and her friends know the truth. The power he's generating is real...and it's dangerous. If he's finally making his move, a lot of people are in danger. It also means the final showdown will soon be upon them.
"He just keeps winning one challenge after another like it's nothing. If he keeps this up, he is sure to make it to Duel Battlers!" M.C. announced. "Can anyone stop him?!"
"This is bad. The more he wins, the more power Life Destroyer gains." Yukina said. This is what the Black Ace is really after. To regain it's power, Life Destroyer absorbs the power of those it faces and takes their power as its own. Yukina could tell just by watching the monitors that Raika is even stronger than the last time they saw him. "This can't go on. I've got to make it to Duel Battlers to stop him!" Reminded of her mission, Yukina hurries to get what she needs to beat him.
...
A Qualifying Tournament
"We are now coming to you live from another qualifying tournament. Word of caution, the dangerous Raika is in this as well." M.C. announced. "We also have two other contenders for this competition. We have the always sharp-eye Thomas wit him never missing a target! We also have the man who can read the stars: Takato! These two are about to face each other to see who will face Raika in the final round." As the tournament was going on, Sabaro and Henry watched from the crowd.
"Those two are pretty strong themselves." Sabaro said.
"Yeah, but they're nothing compared to Raika. Raika was even able to beat me, and I could beat those two easily." Henry said.
"He's really that strong?" Sabaro questioned as he didn't know Raika that well, but he's seeing more and more of what Raika is like. As for the match, Thomas and Takato were about to face each other.
"I've got my eyes set on you, pal!" Thomas said. "I never miss my target. They all go down the same."
"We shall see. The stars are what is guiding me." Takato said. The two of them put their duel disks together and were about to face each other.
"Here we go! They are about to start!" M.C. announced.
"Wait!" Everything was put on hold when Raika came walking out. "I don't want to wait! I'll take on both of you at once! It's quicker that way!"
"What's this?! Raika is issuing a three-way battle!" M.C. said.
"Taking on two targets at once? Why not? It will save some time." Thomas said.
"Challenging the both of us? Interesting idea. I too accept this challenge." Takato said as neither of them were afraid...when they should be.
"It looks like we're going to have a three-way duel! You know the rules in situations like this! You're not allowed to attack on your first turn!" M.C. announced. The three of them faced each other and it was now a three-way battle.
"Let's duel!" All three of them said as each of them had 4000LP.
"My move!" Raika said as he was making the first move. "I'm going to start by summoning Malice Ghoul to the field!" Raika started by summoning a black armored figured with it having horns and wore a green cloak with it having 1000atk points. "When Malice Ghoul is summoned to the field, I can summon the second one that's sleeping in my deck!" He said as he took a card from his deck and summoned the second one. "As long as I have two Malice Ghouls on the field, you can't target them with any effects! I place one face-down and that ends my turn!"
"My turn!" Takato said as he drew his card. "I'll start by summoning Constellar Algiedi!" He summoned out his monster as it came up with 1600atk points. "Thanks to it's ability, I can now summon Constellar Kaus!" He summoned out his archer with it emerging with 1500atk points. "Thanks to Kaus' ability, I can increase both of their levels by one!" He said as Kaus fired a couple arrows and they were now level five. "I now build the overlay network!" Once the X appeared, both monsters dived inside with a pillar of light shooting out. "I xyz summon Constellar Pleiades!" Pleiades emerged out on the field with 2500atk points. "I end my turn since both of your monsters are immune to Pleiades."
"My turn!" Thomas said as he drew his card. "I'll start by summoning Cannon Soldier to the field!" He said as his machine appeared with 1400atk points. "Too bad he isn't sticking around because I tribute him to bring out Cannon Captain!" He traded away his Cannon Soldier and his Cannon Captain appeared with it having 1800atk points. 'And once I activate Limiter Removal, he's in trouble.' He thought as he held the spell. "I place one face-down and that ends my turn!"
"It's been a mild duel so far, but I have a feeling that's about to easily change."
"It's now my turn!" Raika said as this was where the fun begins. "I tribute both of my Malice Ghouls to summon Malicious Fiend: Life Destroyer!" He said as he traded away both of his monsters and summoned out the fiend itself. The two monsters vanished and Life Destroyer emerged with it having 3000atk points. People were starting to worry now.
"You fool! I can now use Pleiades ability!" Takato said.
"Not if I use Life Destroyer's ability! You can't counter it!" Raika said. Life Destroyer grabbed a hold of Pleiades and started to drain power out of Pleiades.
"What is this?!" Takato said. Then, he started to feel something off with himself as it felt like his own strength was fading painfully. Sabaro noticed it himself and was shocked to see that.
"Now half of your monster's power is mine!" Raika said as Life Destroyer's power increased to 4250. "I now activate Doom Gaze! This card drains 500atk points from your monsters!" Thanks to his spell, both monsters lost power as they now had 1300 and 2000atk points. "I'm not done yet. I activate my trap: Destruction Wakening! This brings back one dark monster to my hand, but I can summon it again with the attack points doubled!" Life Destroyer returned to him only to be brought back with it's power rising all the way to 6000.
"6000atk points?!" Takato said with shock.
"No way we can stop that!" Thomas said.
"Especially not after I play Evil Enjoyment to allow Life Destroyer to attack twice." Raika claimed as he played a spell. "Attack!" Life Destroyer took it's weapon and generated a lot of dark power. It unleashed all that power in an explosion of darkness and destroyed both monsters and blew both of them away as both Thomas and Takato's life points dropped down to zero. What they all witnessed was terrifying.
"Uh... The... The winner is Raika..." M.C. said as he was pretty scared.
"Oh man. That hurt." Thomas said.
"What... What terrifying power." Takato said as he was really scared himself. Just then, Raika came over and stood over them. "What do you want?"
"You already beat us." Thomas said.
"I want you two to join me. You show promise." Raika said with both of them surprised he would make an offer like that.
"Told you. Raika beat them easily." Henry said. "With the power Life Destroyer has, I don't see how he could lose. I would like to have a card like that, but I think it's one of a kind."
"So the key is Malicious Fiend: Life Destroyer..." Sabaro said as he found that interesting.
"Well, off to the next challenge." Henry said.
"You go without me." Sabaro said as he started walking away. "I don't see why someone like Raika needs the likes of me to watch over him."
"That's true, but aren't you going against orders?" Henry questioned.
"Don't worry about it." Sabaro said and just kept going, but Henry had the sneaky suspicion that Sabaro was after something else.
...
Diego
"Everything appears to be going well." Diego said as he was checking the status of how things were going for Duel Battlers. "At the rate Raika is going, he'll have all the points he needs in almost no time. Now, that brings me to an issue you caused." He said as he looked right at Tasu who was being held by security and he was in a lot of trouble. "I've been monitoring Yukina's progress as well. She has been competing in every challenge she can. The weird thing is that she had nearly 50000DP and now she doesn't anymore. From what I understand, you were with her when that happened. Surely, you must know something."
"I swear that I don't!" Tasu claimed like he was begging for his life. "I had her DPA, but some guy that uses a firebird deck swiped it from me!"
"Why did you have her DPA in the first place? I don't remember giving you orders to go after her." Diego claimed.
"I'm sorry. I thought I was helping." Tasu said. "I thought that since you hold some disdain towards Yukina, I could prevent her from entering Duel Battlers and that would please you."
"You fool... Don't you understand that we want the strongest duelists in our tournament? That includes Yukina! It's all for Raika!" Diego said with Tasu feeling like he's in real trouble now. "Take him away!" Security did what he said and dragged Tasu out of there with him begging to be spared. "I'll deal with him later. For now, it looks like the annual updates to our system is... Hello? What's this?" As Diego was working on his computer, he spotted something with security. He spotted Sabaro looking around the halls when he knows he shouldn't be there. "And just what are you looking for my little diamond in the rough?"
...
Sabaro
Sabaro was roaming around the halls. He was looking for something. As he was roaming around the halls, he noticed the lights going off.
'Once a month, the system has to temporarily shutdown for annual updates to the system. This is my only chance.' Sabaro thought as he focused on what he needed to. What he did was gain access to the mainframe of the Black Ace. 'Here we are.' He thought as he took out a special device and hacked the passcode panel that allowed him to gain access to the mainframe. He went on inside and made sure to close the door behind him. "There's not much time before Duel Battlers start. I need to find what I'm looking for." He started hacking his way into the mainframe and looked for the data he needs. "Let's see who you really are, Raika. What is the true source of your strength." He pulled up Raika's file and looked over everything on it. "Nothing about where he comes from... Winning status looks great... This is all stuff that you would normally find on any duelists file. I know this just from watching him, but what I need is the secret to this strength and what Diego wants him for." He kept searching around until he spotted something.
"Malicious Fiend: Life Destroyer's File"
"What's this? A card with its own file?" Sabaro questioned. Curious about that, he opened it up to see what it all said. "Malicious Fiend: Life Destroyer. It's special ability is that it can absorb half of the attack points of an opponent's monster and make all of it's abilities useless. I saw that, but what about what I saw with Takato himself. It looked like his own power was being drained, not to mention the devastation he can use." Sabaro kept looking around until he noticed something else. "What's this? Life Destroyer possesses a dark power that makes it a forbidden card. It is the reason for why it was sealed away. Life Destroyer has that potential to...absorb a person's power! Is that what I saw before? It has the potential to absorb a person's energy?! It also says here that it started doing that. When Raika last dueled against Yukina, it could only absorb a little power. Each duel makes it stronger and stronger with more energy for it to steal and has begun absorbing it out of the very duelists themselves." Sabaro looked over everything he read and could now see it. "Basically, the more Raika duels, the more power he can gain and the stronger he gets! He's now begun absorbing power out of the actual duelists! How can card do something like that?!" He tried looking more into the origin, but there was no data on it. "This is bad."
...
The Roof
Sabaro got everything he could and was able to copy all of it on to a drive. Once he got that, he hurried up to the roof and planned to do what he was really there for.
"I better get out of here while I still can." Sabaro claimed.
"And just where do you think you're going?" Sabaro was surprised to hear voices. He turned around and spotted Henry and Diego. "I always thought there was something about you I didn't really like. I just thought you were obnoxious, but I didn't think you were actually a spy." Henry claimed.
"Did you really think you could sneak around and not go unnoticed?" Diego questioned. "I allowed the power to be shut off so I could see what you were up to. You wanted to know more about Raika and Life Destroyer. Why? Do you want that power for yourself? Not just anyone can wield the power that Life Destroyer has."
"I don't need to answer to the likes of you." Sabaro said. "What I do know is that your plan is to gather powerful duelists in one place so that Life Destroyer can absorb their power. Tell me, how is it possible for Life Destroyer to do something like that?"
"You want me to answer your questions when you won't answer mine? That's not very nice." Diego teased. "It doesn't matter. You won't be going anywhere...ever again."
"Sorry, but we can't have you spilling out secrets." Henry said as he was getting ready for a fight and it seems like Sabaro doesn't have a choice. Just then, they heard a helicopter. They all looked up and saw Raika in it as he dived down and landed down.
"What's going on? Don't leave me out of the fun." Raika said as this was trouble for Sabaro. It looks like that if he wants out, he has to get through the biggest threat first.