Let me tell you, I am as surprised as anyone that Monty and Lawrence are actually doing something proactive. Whether or not it amounts to anything at all is still to be seen.
Chapter ThreeThe Duel Force on the Attack
Monty
Tucker and Sarah stepped back into the room. I waved them over to me and the others. Once they reached us I said, “Okay, so Sarah, Jen, Kris, and Kimi, head to the waiting room in the front of the hospital. Tucker, Max, Rocky, and Amanda, stay here in the back. Keep an eye on things.”
“What about you and Lawrence?” Sarah asked.
I smiled, “We’re gonna check something out. Even though it's not likely, it's still possible that whoever is in charge of the Order now is interested in the Souls and wants to weaken us. If they’re strong enough, they might be able to put a spell on John, and eventually all of us. So Lawrence and I are going to use our Souls to locate a source of power within Order controlled areas that’s strong enough to pull this off. Chances are whoever wields such a strong power will be the current leader of the Order. We’ll confront him. Even if he’s not attacking us himself, chances are he’ll know who is.”
“If anyone is,” Tucker argued. He doesn’t like Lawrence much, and he doesn’t often seem to have a very high opinion of me because I do. He also didn’t seem to like the idea of us leaving.
“As much as I genuinely and wholeheartedly hate to say it,” Sarah added, “Tucker’s right. The last time this happened, the Order was as surprised as we were. Yeah they attacked us, but only after the fact. There’s no guarantee that picking a fight with whoever’s in charge these days will do anything but hurt us long term.”
“Listen,” Lawrence snapped, “it’s not a perfect plan, but it’s better than all of us sitting on our hands here, doing nothing.”
Without another word he turned toward the door. “You're right,” I told the others diplomatically, “but it's possible that someone thought that Yami was the one who knocked John out last time and decided to try again. It's too likely for us to ignore.”
With that I turned and followed Lawrence, and as soon as we were out the door and out of sight there was a flash, and we were gone.
John
I drew, and I got a card that, though it would have been more useful last turn, might help lead me to victory. After all, someone whose deck only leaves you with Traps to play will have that card to use to disarm them. This card will be my defense against it. I looked over the cards in my hand. They were both Traps of course. I hadn’t set them last turn, because last turn I couldn’t use them, but thanks to Darkness they were the cards that would save me.
“I place three cards face-down, and I end my turn.”
“It doesn’t matter how many cards you set,” said Darkness. “I’ve already won.”
“We’ll see.”
My opponent drew, examining his hand, “I summon my ‘Decayed Commander’, which allows me to Special Summon my ‘Zombie Tiger’ as well.” A living dead samurai appeared alongside a mummified and decaying tiger. The samurai jumped up onto the tiger’s back as Darkness declared, “I unionized my monsters together (ATK: 1500).
“Next I reveal my ‘Violet Crystal’ Spell card, increasing the power of my ‘Decayed Commander’,” Darkness continued. A purple jewel appeared, sinking part way into the ‘Commander’’s chest, and he was surrounded by a purple aura (1500+300=1800).
“Attack,” Darkness commanded. His monster ran past me, the samurai slashing with his sword, and the tiger slashing with its claws as it did. I held back a painful yelp and grabbed my side and then my shoulder. I was bleeding, but not badly. Still, it hurt. A lot (7500-1800=5700).
“Now,” said Darkness, “I play ‘Combination Attack’, splitting my monsters and allowing them to attack again once each.” ‘Decayed Commander’ jumped down from the back of his mount, and Darkness placed his Spell in the Graveyard.
Bingo!
“As soon as your Spell card hit the Grave,” I said, wearing a wide, confident smile, “I activate ‘Zombie’s Jewel’, allowing me to add your card to my hand.”
“Which allows me to chain ‘Royal Decree’,” said Darkness, wearing the same smile. “This paralyzes all of your Traps, making your deck absolutely worthless.”
“Unless I pay one thousand Life Points (5700-1000=4700) to counter with ‘Seven Tools of the Bandit’.”
My opponent’s smile faded, his trap card was destroyed, and his ‘Combination Attack’ card turned to smoke, floating over and reconstituting in my hand.
“Because a card belonging to my opponent was added to my hand,” I explained, “I can activate ‘Card Retrieval’, allowing me to add one card from my Graveyard to my hand. And thanks to you, that’s nearly my entire deck.”
“No!”
A card ejected from my Graveyard, and Darkness regained his composure. “I can still attack,” he said, and ‘Decayed Commander’ (ATK: 1300) and ‘Zombie Tiger’ (ATK: 1400) struck again. Claw marks appeared across my chest (4700-1300-1400=2000).
Darkness smiled again. “I’ll defeat whatever card you chose,” he said. “After all, I am superior.”
I only smiled.
Monty
Lawrence and I arrived at the location of the strongest source of Shadow Magic in areas controlled by the Order, or at least ones that we knew of. We were in a massive stone room, like a man made cave, or maybe some sort of dungeon. The walls were smooth and decorated with gold. I looked over my shoulder. The only exit was a massive, gaping archway behind, leading to a stone corridor. Opposite the exit were two seats, like thrones.
There were two figures waiting for us. They were twins, indistinguishable except that one had bright red hair, and one had bright blue hair. They were both tall, both wore white t shirts, gray over shirts, and khaki-colored pants, and both wore matching Shadow Pedants, heavily decorated with gold. The power coming from those two pendants together rivaled the power coming from my Soul, though it was different. It was almost as strong as the energy from the Soul, but much more dependent on the Duel Energy of the wielder.
“Are you the guys who’re in charge of the Order these days?” I asked.
“Yeah,” said Red Hair.
“When we sensed your leader’s spirit leave his body, we anticipated a visit from members of the illustrious Duel Force,” Blue Hair continued. His voice and that of his brother were nearly identical: not-too-deep monotones.
“Did you separate his body and soul?” Lawrence demanded.
“No,” Red Hair answered.
“And neither did anyone in our organization,” said Blue Hair.
Lawrence looked over at me as I filtered the twins’ words through my Soul of Knowledge. I looked back at Lawrence and said, “They’re telling the truth.”
“Well then,” said Lawrence, “we’ll be going.”
“Not so fast,” said Red Hair. “We had no intention of taking on the Duel Force. The Duelists Elite is enough of a bother on its own. But we do like your Souls.”
“So since you’re here,” Blue Hair continued, “we’re going to take the opportunity to take your Souls for ourselves. With your Souls and the power of these Shadow Pendants not even the full force of the Elite and the Duel Force will be a match for us.”
Shadows formed around us like a cocoon, and a wicked expression spread across the twins’ faces.
Lawrence looked over at me, the same wicked expression on his face. “You know,” he said, “I was hoping it wouldn’t be that easy.”
Karen
I found myself in a strange place. Everything was dark, and I was floating in a vast void. The only thing I could see was a white plane above me and to my right. I didn’t even have to activate my Soul. I could feel it right away.
John! He’s here, I thought. He’s fighting in a Shadow Duel. I have to find him!
I concentrated on being able to move, and suddenly I was standing on the white plane. After checking that the plane really was solid, I broke into a run.
John
“I draw,” I declared, looking down at my newest card. It was just what I needed, but statistically speaking, with only nine cards left, I was pretty likely to get it. “I remove ‘The Fiend Megacyber’ and ‘D.D.M. – Different Dimension Master’ in my Graveyard from play to Special Summon the monster that I returned to my hand. My most powerful monster.”
Light and darkness combined, merging and taking the form of a large dragon in shining armor.
“You should be honored,” I told my dark side. “I’ve never found it necessary to use this card before. I’m glad, too. It’s far too powerful. Much too powerful for a normal duel. No matter how ‘superior’ you are, you cannot defeat my ‘Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End’.”
The dragon’s eyes flashed red, and it roared at the utterance of its name (ATK: 3000).
“‘Chaos Emperor Dragon’, attack his ‘Decayed Commander’ with Burst Chaos!”
My monster breathed a mighty beam of light and darkness. It poured over the dead samurai, incinerating him. Darkness lost Life Points (6600+1300-3000=4900).
I paused, and thoughtfully I said, “You know, Darkness, you have so much power that I can’t believe it, the Soul of Darkness can feel it rolling off of you in waves. Compared to you my magic, the magic of our ‘front soul’ is nothing! I could do so much good with that much power. I could…”
I paused again, because there were just so many options that I couldn’t put them into words, “I could do so much. But you, you only want to further your own goals even if it causes people pain, I can feel that too. You’re also so arrogant, which has made you weak today, but makes you unpredictable overall. All of this, it’s why I can absolutely never let you out. I can never let your power out. I have to seal you away, forever.
“Now,” I declared, continuing the duel, “I activate my ‘Chaos Emperor Dragon’’s special attack ability.” I paid the cost of one thousand Life Points (2000-1000=1000). “Go,” I commanded as my dragon became wreathed in light, “use Chaos Detonation!” My monster exploded, his energy engulfing everything, including myself and my opponent. Everything was destroyed, including our hands.
“My monster’s special attack also deals you three hundred damage for every card that it destroyed.”
“I’ll live,” said Darkness as his Life Points fell (4900-2100=2800).
“No,” I said, “you won’t, because the last card in my hand was the Trap card ‘Monster Grenade’. Because ‘Monster Grenade’ was sent to the Graveyard by a monster effect,” a small but sinister-looking living grenade appeared, running at Darkness, jumping up, and latching onto his chest, “you take damage equal to that monster’s Attack.”
“No, this can’t happen!” Darkness cried out.
The grenade exploded, throwing Darkness through the air and into the sea of shadows behind him (2800-3000=0). As he began to melt into the darkness, he began to laugh. “Do you think this is over?” he asked. “I’m not gone! And there’s an even stronger darkness here than me! Our duel served its purpose, that darkness has been awakened. Without me to control it that darkness will consume you. It will consume everything!”
He laughed even harder as he faded away completely, receding back into the deepest recesses of my heart.
Card of the Day:
Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
Played by: John
Do I even need to explain myself? This is literally the most broken card in the game!
Original Cards in This Chapter:
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