Chapter 5 - Dystopian hero's judgement
The members of Academia and the Heartland resistance help the survivors. They tend to the wounds of the injured, as well as unload crates of food and drink for them to live on. Some are reunited with friends they thought they'd lost. The sisters watch over everything as Edo and Yuya stand alone, looking over what's left of Heartland. "Zarc's returning Edo. At least that's what Reiji said. He's sent me to reform the Lancers. So he sent me here to collect Shun." Yuya looks back at the camp, seeing Dennis entertain those that are unable to help. "I got Dennis to join, so this trip won't be a waste. And I know with you and the girls, he won't stand a chance." Edo remains silent, allowing Yuya to talk. "Soon this will all be over, and we can put Zarc behind us."
"Yuya?" Edo finally speaks. "Last time we fought Zarc, he got smacked around. There were 10 of us, and it took Reira to give us an opening." "We beat him before, we can do it again." "No Yuya. We got lucky before." Edo looks across the city's ruined landscape. "Do you believe you have what it takes to defeat Zarc? I know you're strong. But, can you face something as evil as him?" Yuya looks at the ruins of the city too, and starts to doubt himself. "No. This time, I have control of myself. Yuto and I can defeat him if it comes to that." Edo raises a brow to this claim. "Only you and Yuto?" "Yeah, why?" Edo shakes his head and walks away from the edge. "Regardless, I can't allow you to travel to Academia."
As Edo walks away, Yuya turns to face him, with a determined look in his eye. "Well, regardless of what you say, I'm going." Before Yuya could set his disk to take him to the Fusion Dimension, a chain latches itself to his duel disk, switching it to duel mode. Yuya looks up to see Edo had activated his too. "If you can beat me in a duel, I'll let you continue on your mission. Otherwise, I'll send you back to Standard." Yuya nods his head, and tries to turn the duel into an action duel, to no avail. "My chain has disabled your action field spell, this will be a proper duel. I need to see if you can duel without relying on action cards to save your life." Slightly panicked, Yuya breathes in, and prepares to duel. With the terms set, they both declare "DUEL!" before drawing their opening hands. Their battle cry catches the attention of some of those at the camp.
Duel
Yuya 4000LP
VS.
Edo 4000LP
"I activate Polymerization." Edo starts his turn with his trump card right off the bat. "I fuse Drillguy with Dreamguy in my hand. Fusion Summon! Level 8! Destiny Hero - Dystopiaguy!" Using his heroes, Edo summons his faithful ace monster to the field.
[Dystopiaguy LVL 8 Dark Warrior Fusion ATK 2800]
"When I fusion summon him, I can target 1 of the materials used to summon him, and inflict damage to you, equal to its attack. I target Drillguy." Using the power of its material, Edo's hero hits Yuya head on with a blast of dark power. Yuya is pushed back towards the edge; only the chain that connects his disk stops him from going over.
[Yuya LP 4000 - 2400]
"I'll set 2 cards face down before ending my turn." Yuya gets back onto his feet after the attack. "Remember Yuya. Zarc won't be this forgiving, so why should I be?" Yuya draws from his deck, then looks at his hand. His hand lacks his signature Odd-Eyes, or cards to allow him to summon Dark Rebellion. "What's the matter Yuya? I thought you and Yuto were enough to beat the likes of Zarc, but you're struggling against me." "Wait." Yuya says to himself. He takes a deep breath, and closes his eyes. Everyone stops to watch the duel. They see Yuya standing there like a statue, doing nothing.
Inside his mind, Yuya tries to find someone. "Hello? If Yuto is here, then surely the rest are too." He finds himself in the dark void again. "Yuri!" He calls out the name of the duellist, to get no response. "Yuri! Are you there?" A blinding purple light appears before Yuya. As it fades away, he finds Yuri on the floor, arms curled up around his legs. "I'm to blame Yuya. I was a tool. And I was used as a weapon." "Yuri?" Yuya reaches out for the duelist, only for the flash of light to appear again.
Yuya opens his eyes, and returns to reality. "Well? Are you going to duel or stand there pondering your purpose in life?" Yuya looks at his duel disk, and examines his extra deck briefly. He closes his eyes again, and looks back. "Yuri! Please! I need your help!" Yuya's extra deck glows with the same purple light as in his mind. "Thank you." Edo looks surprised as Yuya takes his turn properly now.
"I set the pendulum scale with scale 1 Performapal Lebellman and scale 5 Performapal Coin Dragon. I pendulum summon Performapal Nightmare knight and Performapal Trump Girl." Yuya pendulum summons two monsters from his hand. They're both far weaker than Edo's hero, and at first glance, don't look useful on their own.
[Lebellman LVL 6 Light Fairy Scale 1]
[Coin Dragon LVL 4 Water Dragon Pendulum Scale 5]
[Trump Girl LVL 2 Dark Spellcaster Pendulum Scale 4]
[Nightmare Knight LVL 4 Dark Warrior ATK 1700]
"You summoned those 2? Did you not have a better scale? Are you going to tribute them?" Edo guesses what Yuya is trying to do with these bad monsters. "I'm going to use them, just like you did with yours." Edo is shocked, realising what he's going to do. "I use Trump Girls effect to fusion summon using her and Nightmare Knight." The small magician uses her power to combine her with the dark knight, and create something altogether, stronger. "Fusion summon! Level 8! Starving Venom Fusion Dragon!" Yuya summons Yuri's ace monster to the field, but unlike Yuto, it's just him in control.
[Starving Venom LVL 8 Dark Dragon Fusion ATK 2800]
"I activate the effect of Starving Venom. I can have it gain attack points equal to your Dystopiaguy." Starving Venom unleashes a toxic phromon that it later sucks back in through it's extra mouth to gain power.
[Venom ATK 2800 - 5600]
"I'm not done. Because I control a Dragon, I can special summon Coin Dragon from my Pendulum scale." Yuya takes his Coin Dragon from his scale, and then places it on the field beside Starving Venom.
[Coin Dragon Scale 5 - ATK 1700]
"While I control Coin Dragon, all my dragon type monsters gain 500 attack points, including itself." Coin Dragons coin glows, granting its blessing onto both of Yuya's monsters.
[Coin Dragon ATK 1700 - 2200]
[Venom ATK 5600 - 6100]
"Battle. I attack Dystopiaguy with Starving Venom!" The dragon sprouts its open mouths and bares its fangs while charging its attack. It blasts a high concentrated beam of pure venom at Edo's hero. Before it could connect, a barrier was created, blocking the attack. "I use Destiny Hero - Dreamguy's effect in the grave. I negate your attack, then summon him." Edo summons his weak hero to the field.
[Dreamguy LVL 1 Dark Warrior ATK 0]
"The downside is, your dragon can attack again. But I won't let you touch my heroes, or me. I activate my trap, D-Fusion. I fuse Dystopiaguy with Dreamguy." Edo isn't holding back as he combines his ace monster with his saviour monster to summon something new. "Fusion Summon! Level 10! Destiny Hero - Duskutopiaguy!" The shining hero appears as an angel in the sky as it descends onto the battlefield.
[Duskutopiaguy LVL 10 Dark Warrior Fusion ATK 3000]
"Starving Venom, attack Duskutopiaguy!" The ravenous dragon slams their tail into the ground, cracking, and breaking the surface as it charges for Edo's new hero. Arms crossed, the monster takes the full force of the attack, but doesn't flinch or even get pushed back. "Monsters summoned with D-Fusion can't be destroyed." "But you still take the damage!" "I won't when I use my monsters effect. I can target a monster on the field, it cannot be destroyed by battle, and the owner takes no battle damage in battles that involve it." The hero glows a radiate gold as it protects its master.
Yuya looks to his field. He still has one attack left, but it's not strong enough to defeat Edo this turn. Even his Knight's graveyard effect won't end the duel. "I end my turn." Yuya ends his turn. Starving Venom's attack points are reduced to their original, with the exception of the power given to them by Coin Dragon.
[Starving Venom ATK 6100 - 3300]
"Starving Venom has the power to copy monster effects. I remember this from when I fought Yuri." Edo speaks up about Yuri, Yuya looks up at him. "If you had copied Dystopiaguy's effect before taking his attack, you could've destroyed him, and won last turn before the need to summon Coin Dragon." Yuya's eyes widened. "You were so focused on winning quickly, that you didn't stop to think of a more effective way."
Edo draws from his deck. "You have Yuri, but it doesn't feel like he's with you. How do I know he's not working with Zarc?" Edo activates the card he drew, Monster Reborn. "I revive, Dystopiaguy." He summons his ace monster back from the graveyard. Yuri watches the duel from inside Yuya's mind, unspoken, and guilty. Behind him are two silhouettes, shrouded in different coloured auras.
"Battle! I attack Coin Dragon with Dystopiaguy!" The dark hero leaps into the air, before striking the small green dragon. They perform a victory pose, as the small monster explodes behind them. Without the small dragon, Starving Venom loses the only thing that's protecting them from Duskutopiaguy.
[Yuya LP 2400 - 1600]
[Starving Venom ATK 3300 - 2800]
"I attack Starving Venom Dragon!" The gold coated hero takes to the skies and illuminates the battlefield, catching everyone's attention. There's not a soul neither by that's not glued to the duel. The radiate force turns Starving Venom to dust.
[Yuya LP 1600 - 1400]
"Starving Venom's effect activates. I can destroy all your monsters, then burn you with their attack points." The fallen dragon releases their toxic venom onto the field. "I use my Duskutipiaguy's effect. I can choose a monster to survive destruction by card effects. And with my trap, D-Share, I can copy the effect onto another monster. So both my heroes are safe." Duskutopiaguy shares his light with Dystopiaguy. Together, they are protected from the venom, which fails to touch them.
"Starving Venom has failed you. Maybe Yuri isn't to be trusted. Maybe he's using you to get to Zarc." Edo continues to grind on Yuya about Yuri. Yuya starts to have doubts, as his board is almost empty. Yuri continues to watch the duel, the two silhouettes behind him watch over him. "He needs your help. Show him that you're on his side." Yuri looks away from the duel. "I can't. After everything..." One of the silhouettes reaches out, and touches his shoulder. The aura around them fades, revealing Yuto. "We can't change what we did. But what we can do, is try to move on for the better." Looking back at the duel, Yuro reaches his hand out, and starts glowing.
As Yuya considers surrendering the duel, his deck starts to glow. Looking at his disk, he can hear the call of Starving Venom. Edo looks in surprise seeing this. Yuya glows with an aura, yet remains in control. He smiles. "Yuri?" Looking at Edo with a determined look in his eye, he prepares his counter attack. "Draw!" Yuya pulls a card he's never seen before, and realises where it's from. He takes a different card from his hand first. "I activate Magical Sky Mirror from my hand. I target your Monster reborn in your grave, and replace my cards' effect with its. I use Monster Reborn to revive, Starving Venom!" Erupting from the ground, the venom fueled dragon pulls itself from the grave. "I activate Dragon's Rain! Because I control a level 8 or higher Dragon monster, I can pay 1000 life points, to draw 2 new cards."
[Yuya LP 1400 - 400]
Yuya pays his life points, Starving Venom drops a tear from their eye onto Yuya's deck. "Draw!" Yuya draws 2 new cards from his deck. With wide eyes, he smiles. "I summon, Predaplant Chlamydosundew." Yuya summons the small, plant based lizard to the field. It crawls out of the same hole Starving Venom came from.
[Predaplant Chlamydosundew LVL 2 Dark Plant ATK 600]
"I activate its effect to perform a fusion summon!" The lizard latches itself to Starving Venom before they both combine into one separate being. The venom fueled dragon grows in size and power, becoming stronger than its original. "Fusion summon! Level 10! Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon!" The dragon roars with fury. It echoes throughout the city.
[Greedy LVL 10 Dark Dragon Fusion ATK 3300]
"I activate the effects of Greedy Venom. I target your Duskutopiaguy. It's attack becomes 0, and its effects are negated." Toxic vines sprout from the dragon, and go to wrap around the golden hero. "That monster beat me last time, but this time, I'm prepared. I use Duskutopiaguy's effect. I target itself, so it cannot be destroyed, and I take no battle damage." "Now Yuri!" A voice can be heard in Yuya's head. He grabs the other card he drew, and activates it. "I play, Advanced Swift. It's a trap card that I can use from my hand by paying half my life points."
[Yuya LP 400 - 200]
"Now, I can change any target. I change the target of your monster effect to your original Dystopiaguy." To Edo's shock, the golden hero's protection affects the wrong monster, and the golden barrier is formed around Edo's ace monster. The vines wrap around Duskutopiaguy, and drain it of its power.
[Duskutopiaguy ATK 3000 - 0]
"Battle! I attack with Greedy!" The savage dragon grips the ground tight as it charges its power. Using its wings to gather the venom in the air, the dragon fires at Duskutopiaguy, destroying it. "I still have life points Yuya, that wasn't enough." "But this is. By banishing Performapal Nightmare Knight from my graveyard, I can inflict 1000 damage to all players that took battle damage this turn." The impact of the dragon's fire pushes Edo back, but the ball of black energy from the knight is what finishes the duel.
[Edo LP 4000 - 700 - 0]
The chain keeping Yuya in this dimension breaks, and he's free to leave if he wants. Yuya goes to put in the next location before he could be stopped. "Wait Yuya!" Dennis calls out from the camp, as he comes over. Edo stands up, and comes over as well. "Be careful at Academia. It's not the same as you remember." Dennis says to Yuya as Edo grabs his duel disk, and puts in the location to go. "Edo is here now, because he's in charge of all of Academia. The professor is missing." Yuya is in shock at that claim. "But he's the reason.." "I know. But be careful" Edo finishes the settings and lets Yuya leave. As Yuya disappears from the dimension, the sisters as well as Allen and Saya come forward. "Did you tell him?" Allen asks Dennis. "No. It's too early to say goodbye." Dennis's smile fades from his face, as tears fall down his cheek.
End of Chapter 5...