Oh yeah, right, these things. Advanced monsters. I planned one for each Soul Bearer to have one, but only Rocky's and John's ever appeared before I abandoned them, realizing that these things would be really mean and unfair in a non-magical duel, really limiting where they could be used. Maybe I'll post the others at some point. They were pretty cool.
Chapter Nineteen
Bonds, Part Three
I’ve set myself up with a good defense, I thought, and I can even hurt him right now, but as things stand, I’m not going to be able to defeat Emperor. Not unless everything goes just right. I’m going to need a lot of luck to pull off what I want to pull off, and with no cards in my hand, luck is pretty much all that I do have.
It was then that it occurred to me that I had one other option. Any Duelist with enough experience and heart can shape the outcome of a duel to fit their subconscious will. But Duelists who control the Duelist’s Souls can go beyond that. Once per game we can use our magic to consciously shape the outcome of a duel. With this power, the power of Destiny Draw, I could draw literally any card in my deck.
The power of Destiny Draw was too powerful, too immoral, to use in any fair duel against a normal opponent, but against someone like Emperor, it was perfectly acceptable, right? I nodded to myself, having made my decision. Emperor wanted to take away peoples’ right to choose for themselves. He wanted to oppress the world. I’d already been more than fair to him, giving him a chance to defend himself. I had no reason to hesitate. I gripped the top card of my deck and called out, “Destiny Draw!” I pulled the card, just as my Soul flashed brightly. When I turned the card over, I wasn’t surprised to see that it was ‘Card of Sanctity’, just the card I needed.
“I activate ‘Card of Sanctity’,” I declared, playing my Spell. Letting Emperor draw five cards would be a risk just to draw six cards myself, but that’s where luck came into it. I looked over my newest cards and I knew right away that my risk had yielded more than the desired reward.
“I follow up,” I continued, “with ‘Magical Stone Excavation’,” I sent ‘Giant Soldier of Stone’ along with another monster to the Graveyard, and a Spell ejected from my Graveyard, “to return ‘Monster Reborn’ to my hand. I play ‘Monster Reborn’ right now to revive my ‘Criosphinx’.”
The goat-headed sphinx returned, his human arms crossed defensively across his muscular chest (DEF: 2400).
“I tribute Heiracosphinx,” I declared, “to summon the living form of my Duelist’s Soul, the god of defenders, ‘Exxod, Master of the Guard’!”
The falcon-headed lion disappeared, and from the stone floor behind me rose a golden statue resembling the legendary ‘Exodia’. The knuckles of his massive hands were held together and sealed in place. He stood there, unmoving (DEF: 4000).
“Additionally,” I said, “I play the Continuous Spell card ‘Curse of the Exiled’. For the next three turns, after a card is returned to your hand, that card is moved to the bottom of your deck. And any time you would have to discard a card as part of an effect, that card must be discarded at random. You know a lot about cards, and you know what cards I have in play, so I’m sure you know what this means.”
I smiled when I saw realization flash in Emperor’s eyes and sweat for on his brow. He did know, and he wasn’t happy about it.
“I flip-summon my two monsters,” I continued, “my ‘Guardian Statue’ and my ‘Golem Sentry’!”
The large-armed living statue appeared next to a massive living stone door with equally massive arms affixed to its frame, carrying a staff in one hand.
“Both of my monsters share the same ability,” I explained, “to return one monster on the field to its owner’s hand when they’re flip-summoned.”
‘Raiza’ and ‘Kuraz’ turned into orbs of green and golden light respectively, and they returned to their cards.
“The monsters that were returned to your hand are now sent to the bottom of your deck,” I explained, “via, ‘Exiled’’s effect, and because monsters were returned to your hand, the effect of ‘Criosphinx’ activates as well. You must discard two cards, and due to the secondary effect of ‘Curse of the Exiled’, those discards must be random.”
Wearing his now-familiar scowl, Emperor discarded two cards without looking, his ‘Samsara Kaiser’ and a monster that he had obviously just drawn, else he would have already used it against me, ‘Zaborg the Thunder Monarch’.
“Each time I flip-summon a monster,” I explained further, “‘Exxod’ deals you one thousand damage.”
‘Exxod’’s eyes flashed, and he fired twice from them, hitting Emperor with dual beams of light. The beams left Emperor’s chest smoking (6500-2000=4500). I thought that the tides had finally turned, and that Emperor was near defeat, but I was wrong. Emperor looked angrily at me and said, “I was trying to go easy on you, to make your inevitable death as painless as possible. I’m not a bad guy after all. But I see that I made a mistake. My mercy has run out!”
I smiled defiantly, “Your words mean nothing, because whatever it takes I will stop you here. Just like my next Spell will stop all of your monsters. I activate the secondary effects of my ‘Statue’ and my ‘Sentry’, returning them to the shadows of face-down defense mode, and I play ‘Swords of Revealing Light’! Your monsters will be unable to attack for three turns, leaving me free to reuse my monsters’ effects.”
Swords made of solid light rained from the sky, entombing Emperor’s monsters. Meanwhile ‘Guardian Statue’ and ‘Golem Sentry’ sunk back into the darkness, lying in wait, and perfectly able to use their effects again should I need them.
“I end my turn.”
Emperor prepared to draw. Having long since abandoned the façade of controversial hero, his expression showed nothing but hate.
“You aren’t the only person with the power to affect the outcome of a duel,” he told me gravely. “I control six of the seven Shadow Millennium Items, and with them, my destiny!”
Darkness built around the deck loaded into Emperor’s duel disk. He reached into the darkness and pulled a single card, calling, “Destiny Draw! I tribute ‘Mobius the Frost Monarch’ to summon my spirit, ‘Caius the Shadow Monarch’!”
The blue Monarch disappeared, and in its place appeared a black-armored Monarch wearing a devilish helm and a long, tattered black cape. Darkness clung to him (ATK: 2400).
“When ‘Caius’ is Tribute Summoned,” Emperor explained, “his ability activates, allowing him to remove one card on the field from play! ‘Caius’ removes the Spell card, ‘Swords of Revealing Light’.”
‘Caius’ summoned up a bolt of dark energy in his hands, and released it. It engulfed my Spell, and it and the swords of light disappeared, swallowed by darkness.
“My monsters attack and destroy your face-down monsters,” Emperor declared. ‘Thestalos’ loosed a fireball on the ‘Guardian Statue’, who appeared just long enough to be burn to ash. ‘Caius’ summoned a bolt of dark lightning that struck the ‘Sentry’, shattering him and reducing him to rubble.
My impenetrable defense had failed.
“Go,” Emperor spat, “but know that by next turn, I will have found a way through your Guardian God as well, and you will be at my mercy.”
It would be a lie to say that I wasn’t afraid as I drew my next card, but I still had hope. That hope was what gave me the strength to even begin my next turn.
“I pay five hundred Life,” I declared, “to maintain my Spell card, ‘Curse of the Exiled’ (2200-500=1700).
It was then that I actually looked at the card I’d just drawn, and I was pleasantly surprised.
“I play ‘Bottom Draw’,” I declared, “to draw the bottom two cards of my deck.”
Two cards slid part way out from beneath my deck, waiting to be plucked up into my hand, but I found myself hesitant to take them.
What am I supposed to do? I wondered, my hands shaking. Looking at my hands, I saw that my skin was pale. The duel was affecting me more than I’d realized. Emperor was right! I may have power over Emperor outside of a duel, but in a duel, he’s the powerful one. In a duel, I’m powerless against him!
I was going to give up. It just felt like it would be so much easier than fighting. So much easier that it would really be worth it to die and let everyone down. But everything changed when I made the mistake of thinking about Kimi. Until then I’d felt like maybe it’d be okay, that if I gave up, maybe someone else would step up and defeat Emperor later. Someone stronger than me. But when I thought of Kimi, I thought about what might happen to her in the time that it took for that other person to rise to the challenge, and I came to my senses.
What am I doing? I demanded of myself. If I give up now, Emperor will gain power over everything! My friends, in the Elite and in the Duel Force, will all try to stop him, and for all I know they’ll all die! Who knows how many others Emperor will kill during the subsequent conquest!
No, I have to keep going. I have to fight.
I reached down and drew my cards, and as I did, there was a blinding flash, not from my Soul but from one of the cards I’d just drawn. I turned those cards over, and I noticed immediately that one of them was something that I’d never seen before. In that moment I knew everything about that card. I knew that it was a reward from my Soul for my conviction, I knew what it could do, and I knew that it would help me to win!
I smiled, “This duel is about to go a whole different direction. I remove my favorite card, the ‘Giant Soldier of Stone’, in my Graveyard from play to summon my monster in his ultimate form, the ‘Stone Soldier – Advanced’!”
“What?” Emperor wondered a bit fearfully.
Stones broke away from the ground beneath our feet and formed the massive ‘Stone Soldier’, his giant stone swords sheathed in their shoulder holsters. The stone making up the monster’s body began to crack, and he rose into the air. Light shone from the cracks, and finally his stone body exploded away, revealing a new figure beneath.
The new creature fell to the ground where he stood by my side. He stood nearly nine feet tall and had an almost human appearance, except that his skin looked like it was made of living rock. He wore animal hide clothing that one might expect to see on a barbarian or mountain warrior, and he carried a sword nearly as long as he was tall (ATK: 1300/DEF: 2000).
“Wow,” said Emperor mockingly, “for a second there I was worried.”
“And you will be again,” I countered, “because this monster is more dangerous than he looks. Once per turn I can send a Rock-type monster from my hand to the Graveyard to send any Earth monster from my deck to the Graveyard. I discard the weapon monster ‘Stone Sword’ from my hand to do just that.”
I fanned out my deck and selected a card, discarding it along with ‘Stone Sword’, bringing me one step closer to victory.
“I activate the effect of ‘Stone Sword’,” I declared. “By removing from play an Earth monster in my Graveyard, I can equip ‘Stone Sword’ to one of my Rock monsters as an equip Spell card and draw one card.”
A pillar of stone rose up from the ground before my ‘Soldier’. Bits and pieces fell away from the pillar until it formed a massive sword made of stone. ‘Stone Soldier’ sheathed his sword and took his new weapon in hand (ATK: 1300+900=2200).
“And I follow up with the effect of a monster discarded to pay the cost of ‘Magical Stone Excavation’,” I continued. “I remove another Earth monster from play to equip my ‘Soldier’ with ‘Stone Armor’.”
Plates of stone armor formed from chunks torn from the ground all around my monster. The armor came together over his arms, shoulders and chest (DEF: 2000+200 =2200).
“While my monster is equipped with ‘Stone Armor’,” I explained, “he isn’t destroyed as a result of battle. And I follow up with the Spell card ‘Giant Strength’,” I declared. “I discard two random Rock monsters from my deck to increase the Attack of my ‘Stone Soldier’ by fifteen hundred until the end of this turn.”
‘Stone Soldier – Advanced’, and all of his new armor and weapons, grew to an immense size (2200+1500=3700).
“‘Stone Soldier’,” I commanded firmly, “destroy ‘Caius’.”
‘Stone Soldier’ stomped, crushing the ‘Shadow Monarch’ beneath his feet (4500+2400-3700=3200).
“I end my turn,” I declared, and my monster returned to his original size.
“This isn’t over,” said Emperor, but his certainty had been shaken. My monster had changed things, and he could tell as well as I could that this duel was going to end soon, one way or another.
“Draw,” Emperor declared, “and I activate ‘Revival Summoning’, the only card in the game that allows me to Normal Summon from the Graveyard.” He smiled, “I pay five hundred Life and tribute ‘Thestalos’ to Tribute Summon ‘Caius’ back from the dead (3200-500=2700)!”
A black vortex rose from the ground and swallowed up the fiery Monarch. From the vortex emerged ‘Caius’. He summoned a wave of darkness, ready to release it.
“‘Caius’,” Emperor commanded triumphantly, “remove the pesky ‘Stone Soldier’ from play!”
‘Caius’ unleashed his special attack, but it was absorbed by a turtle-shell-shaped shield that formed from sand and grains of rubble, situating itself in my warrior’s free hand. The shield was blasted apart, but my monster was unharmed.
“I remove from play ‘Stone Shield’ in my Graveyard,” I explained, “to protect my Rock-type monster from one effect that declares a specific target.”
“Then ‘Caius’ attacks!” Emperor demanded, acting out of desperation.
“No thanks,” I told him. “I remove another card in my Graveyard from play, my ‘Stone Face-Mask’, increasing the Attack of my monster by seven hundred during the Damage Step.”
Stones rose up and formed a mask over my monster’s stern face. He charged at ‘Caius’’ darkness attack, shouldering it, and continued through, cleaving ‘Caius’ in two with his massive sword (2700+2400-2900=2200).
“This duel isn’t over,” Emperor insisted. “It won’t be over until I win! I set two cards before ending my turn.”
I drew, “In that case, I play ‘Giant Trunade’ to return every Spell and Trap on the field to the hand.”
My opponent’s Trap cards disappeared, along with my monster’s stone weapon and armor.
“I discard ‘Stone Sword’,” I declared, “to send ‘Alpha the Magnet Warrior’ in my deck to the Graveyard, and I remove ‘Alpha’ from play to re-equip ‘Stone Sword’ to the ‘Stone Soldier’.”
The sword reformed, and my monster took it in hand (1300+900=2200).
“My monster attacks!”
‘Stone Soldier’ charged forward, and everything seemed to slow down. I looked into Emperor’s eyes, and I saw real fear there. My monster grew closer, and I saw Emperor’s eyes dart as he surveyed his surroundings. He was preparing to run, to risk facing a penalty from the Shadows, but he would never get the chance.
The moment passed, and an instant before the cowardly Emperor could even turn, he was slashed fiercely across the chest (2200-2200=0).
Card of the Day:
Stone Soldier - Advanced
Played by: Rocky
Of course this was going to end up here. The Advanced series of monsters was the first archetype that I created that I included in my stories at all, even if I didn't include all of them. They were a strange concept, because they literally wouldn't work in any player's deck other than the character that they were created for. But that's the point: the will of those characters to win literally created these cards from nothing.
Original Cards in This Chapter:
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