In a twist of fate, Laguna found himself dueling against Ijuna. Ijuna is the girl that has been assisting Shura, but seeing Laguna has made her want to take action herself. Now, the two of them find themselves on opposing ends. Laguna had all of his life points with him having his Crying Maiden Lv.3 at 1000atk points. Ijuna had 3800LP with her having her Maiden in Love with 400atk points, Healing Wave Generator had all of it's power drop to 0, and she had her Defense Maiden continuous trap on the field.
"I don't know if this is the work of fate or anything like that, Ijuna, but I'm afraid you won't win this duel." Laguna said.
"We'll see about that." Ijuna claimed. "I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. It's my turn now!" She drew her next card and went on with the duel. "I'll activate my Graceful Charity spell. My spell allows me to draw three cards, but I'll have to send two of them to the graveyard." She drew her three cards, and she appeared to be quite pleased with the cards she got. "I think I'll discard my Cupid Volley and my Cupid's Kiss."
"What?! I thought that spell was the key card you needed for your plan." Laguna said.
"I have other ideas in mind. Next, I'm activating another spell known as Memory of Love's Past." Ijuna said. "Thanks to this spell card, you get to look at the top three cards of your deck and show them to me. You also get to place them back in any order you wish." Laguna thought that was rather suspicious, but he had to go along with it. He drew his three cards and showed them being two monsters and a spell card. "Crying Maiden Lv. 7. Perfect. Place that one on top followed by the spell and your second monster." Laguna did just what she said, but he knew she's got something planned. "Now, I activate Crimson String of Fate."
"You've got to be kidding me." Laguna said.
"The red string of fate isn't a crimson color, I can tell you that." Ijuna said. "This is a different kind of string. I get to see the top card in your deck. If it's a monster, I get to take control of it, but I already know what monster you already have."
"So that's why you played that spell." Laguna said.
"Yes. Once again, fate works wit a twisted sense of humor. Your best monster is now mine!" Ijuna claimed. That's just what happened. Laguna's best monster is now on her side with 2800atk points. "Although, the drawback is that all of it's special abilities are negated. The other part is that I now lose life points equal to this monster's attack points." Ijuna took a serious shock with her life points dropping all the way 1000. "That's just fine. I activate Healing Wave Generator's ability to give me even more life points! I gain 100LP per level of one monster I have, and I choose my new Crying Maiden with it being level seven!" Ijuna regained some life points with her now holding 1700. "With that done, I now attack your weaker Crying Maiden with my own!" She used Laguna's own monster against Laguna. It attacked with a sonic cry that destroyed Laguna's only monster with his life points dropping down to 2200. "And now my Maiden in Love will attack you directly!" Her own maiden attacked Laguna as she hurried over to him and slapped Laguna across the face to have his life points drop to just 1800. "Almost tied up."
"Not bad. Perhaps you have improved." Laguna said.
"I knew for me to stand with Shura, I had to improve my game." Ijuna claimed. "I won't let him down, but I must end my turn. The way things stand, I have the advantage now. Even if you attack, my Maiden in Love will just simply will just block it thanks to my trap."
"That's only if I don't have a monster that can deal enough damage to end this, but you should have paid closer attention to when you rearranged my cards."
"Huh?" Ijuna didn't like how that sounded, but what did Laguna have in mind.
"My turn!" Laguna drew his next card and had everything set. "I set the Pendulum Scale with Scale 2 Crying Statue and my Scale 9 Crying Sculpture!" He set his pendulum scale with his two statues appearing.
"Your pendulum cards?! Why use them now?!" Ijuna questioned.
"It's so I can activate this spell, the one you set for me." Laguna said. "I activate Pendulum Wave! With this spell, I get to draw one card. If that card is a monster that has a level within the scale, I am free to summon it. I'm sure you already know what that monster might be."
"Oh no!" Ijuna said as she felt she was in real trouble.
"I draw!" Laguna said as he drew his card. "Tear of Sea, it's level eight. That means I can summon it." Laguna summoned out his new monster. It was a blue being wearing an elegant blue and white dress with a blue crystal tear sitting right on the chest with waving blue hair. She also had 2800atk points. "She has more than enough power to end this. Tear of Sea, attack and end this! Attack with Tearful Flood!" The tear crystal she had glowed and unleash a flashflood. It didn't matter of Maiden in Love could stop the attack. All of Ijuna's cards were swept up in the floor. After that, she got caught in the flood herself with all of her life points dropping all the way to zero. This duel was over, but it didn't really feel that good to Laguna.
"I guess I just wasn't good enough. I suppose this was fate." Ijuna said.
"Ijuna, you can't say this was all fate. What happened here was a result of a choice you made. You really think it's fate?" Laguna questioned. "It might be called the red thread of fate, red string of fate, or whatever you like; but those can be pulled and tugged by you. Fate is what comes of our choices."
"Laguna... This is fate." Ijuna said with her giving him a smile. "Just as it was fate that you and I became friends." She claimed before she was digitized like the others. She might have been an enemy, but she was also his friend once. Seeing what happened to her nearly brought tears to Laguna's eyes.
...
Jinn and Sylph
"Do you see anything out of the ordinary?" Jinn questioned.
"No." Sylph claimed. Everyone have gone separate ways as they searched around the castle, but Jinn didn't like the idea of his sister being out here alone. That's why he stuck with her. However, they weren't making much progress. "This place is huge. There's no telling where to..." Sylph leaned against the wall, but she apparently triggered a hidden switch. "What's this?" The wall opened up and revealed a hidden passage way. "Well, this looks different from the rest of this castle."
"Nice work." Jinn said. The two of them went to check it out. They both made their way down the set of stairs until they spotted something a little unreal. They stood before a massive ring with power and electricity running through it. "What is this thing? Is it the power source?"
"Maybe this could give us some answers." Sylph said as she found a control console and tried to gain access to it. "The All-Link?"
"Didn't Poseidon Nero mention something called that?" Jinn questioned.
"Yeah..." Sylph said. Even though they weren't there, they know all about when Demon King spoke with Poseidon Nero and Acnoella for the first time. "He said the All-Link was a system or a program that would allow people to go anywhere in the virtual world around the whole world."
"So we might be looking at the key piece of what Poseidon Nero is planning. That means if we can figure out how to bring this thing down, his whole plans come down." Jinn said.
"Well, I say we get to work." Sylph said. Jinn agreed with the two of them getting to work to try and mess with Poseidon Nero's plans.
...
Poseidon Nero
"Great. There goes Ijuna. That's it, I'm out of here." Shura complained.
"It also looks like someone just gained access to the All-Link." Poseidon Nero said.
"Say what?! That's it!" Shura said as he lost all bit of patience. "I'm going out there and I'm taking action! I have to do everything around here!" Not caring anymore about what his father thinks, Shura went on ahead to get in on the action. There was just one thing. Poseidon Nero didn't seem the least bit concerned that his associates have fallen, his son is disobeying him, or that the key to his plans is in jeopardy. What does he know that the others don't know just yet?
...
Aoneko
Aoneko was on her own as well, and it seems like she might have found something of interest. She was standing in front of a door, and with how elegant the door was, she just knew there had to be something important behind it.
"Well, this certainly looks like a door that holds something important." Aoneko said. She was going to check it out, but the door opened up on it's own. When it did, the one that came out was Shura. Aoneko was quite surprised to see him so suddenly. As he walked through the door, Shura was rather surprised himself to see Aoneko standing right before him.
"I know you. You're one of Demon King's gal pals." Shura said.
"Shura..." Aoneko muttered with her backing away with him coming out. She was a little nervous to face someone like him, but she steeled her resolve. She knows he has to be defeated, and if she has to be the one to do it, she will.
"Well, isn't this a funny way of things working out?" Shura said. "I was hoping to get Demon King himself, but I got his little girlfriend instead. I'm willing to bet that if I beat you, he'll come to me."
"You're still after Demon King? I thought you were helping your father with this little plan of his." Aoneko said.
"I can do two things at once. After all, he's trying to ruin what my father has spent a long time working on." Shura claimed. "It's my job to make sure you and your little buddies don't get in the way of that. Your friends seemed to have already defeated some of us, but that isn't really fair since we haven't taken down any of you. I think it's time I make it an eye for an eye. You were just unlucky enough to be the one to go down. I am a little rather impatient after being kept out of the action, so what do you say?" Aoneko that fighting Shura will be dangerous, but she has to do this to stop him.
"I'm not scared of you, Shura. I'm more than willing to take you on." Aoneko said.
"At the very least, it will be a good warm-up for when I take on Demon King." Shura said. "You should have tried to run." The two of them stood facing each other and were ready to face each other.
"Let's duel!" Both of them said. They were now going to start with them having 4000LP.
"Be enough of a gentleman just long enough to let a lady go first." Aoneko said. "First, I'm activating Beast Leftovers! By sending one beast or beast-warrior in my hand to the graveyard, I can draw two more cards." She said as she discarded her White Cat Lady and drew two more cards. "Then, I'm summoning Black Cat Lady to the field!" She summoned out her cat woman to the field with it having 1400atk points. "Next, I'm activating her special ability! It allows me to bring back the monster I discarded: White Cat Lady!" She brought out her other cat woman with it having 1400atk points. "With that done, I now build the circuit of fun and power! The summoning conditions are two level four cat monsters!" Her circuit opened up and both of her monsters dived inside to the arrows in the bottom corners. "I link summon Cat Leaper!" Aoneko brought out her best monster with her having 2000atk points. "I'm not finished just yet. When I have a beast or beast-warrior link monster on my field, I can summon this monster next to her link. Come out, Tiger Cat!" She summoned out another feline to the field. It may resemble a tiger, but it's body was shaped more like a common cat. It also had 1200atk points. "Now that a monster has been summoned next to Cat Leaper's effect, you lose 200LP!" Cat Leaper launched an attack from her legs and it slashed against Shura with his life points dropping to 3800.
"Is that really all you got?" Shura said.
"Not even close." Aoneko said. "From my hand, I activate the effect of Yellow Cat Lady in my hand. When my life points are higher than yours, I'm allowed to special summon her." She summoned out another cat woman with long blonde human hair and blonde fur. She also had 1500atk points. "Since another monster was summoned next to Cat Leaper's link, you take even more damage." Cat Leaper attacked again with it hitting Shura with his life points dropping to 3600.
"Is that your plan? Is it to whittle my life points down little by little? You'll have to do even better than that if you're going to beat me." Shura said.
"We'll see about that." Aoneko said. "I'm also going to activate another spell known as Cat-Astrophe Protection! Since I have at least three cat monsters on the field, my monsters are safe from your effects."
"Oh! Now I get it! You're well aware of what my cards and their effects can do, so you're trying to protect yourself from them, but that isn't going to last." Shura said. "You see, sweetheart, I'm the best duelist there is. I'm the one who is going to be standing at the top, and there's nothing you or your friends can do about it."
"Shura..." Aoneko growled. Now that she is faced with him, can she even walk out of it? Is it Shura's fate to be a destroyer of lives?