So this isn't the first time that I've used this excuse to bring everyone back to life, but seriously it's a staple of Yu-Gi-Oh! since Duelist Kingdom that beating the guy who defeated all of the other characters in a Shadow Game saves those characters, even if it hasn't always been automatic as this is.
Chapter Twenty-SixThe Enemy’s True Form;
The Chaos Phantom!
“My ultimate card is finally here, finally on hand,” said Armityle, “and I already have everything in place to summon him. I tribute three Fiend-Type ‘Martyr Tokens’,” the small demons dissolved into shadows and melded together, forming a massive blue demonic figure with broad fan-like wings with transparent membranes, and ridiculously long, sharp claws, “to summon ‘Raviel, Lord of Phantasms’!”
The blue Beast let out a terrible roar (ATK: 4000).
“So first it was a pale copy of ‘Osiris’,” I taunted, “and now it’s a pale copy of ‘Obelisk the Tormentor’? Wanna try something original for a change?”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” said Armityle. “You beat ‘Uria’ pretty easily, but ‘Raviel’ is much stronger than ‘Uria’. And in case you forgot, I have one more Demon God to play!”
I frowned, That doesn’t sound good.
“I reveal ‘Card of Sanctity’, to refill my hand,” Armityle continued, looking over his cards even as he drew them. “Next I activate the Continuous Spell card ‘Triangle Force’, which lets me play two more ‘Triangle Force’ cards from my deck, and I send these three Spells to the Graveyard,” Armityle declared, the Spells disappearing from the field as quickly as they had appeared, “to summon the final Demon God, ‘Hammon, Lord of Striking Thunder’!”
Lightning rained from the sky and struck the ground outside. Clouds built in the sky overhead. From them descended a giant yellow demon with a beak-like snout and similar fan-like transparent wings to the others(ATK: 4000). Despite its demonic features, its nature was clear.
“And ‘The Winged Dragon of Ra’’s Mirror Universe counterpart joins the party,” I said. “Two Sacred Beasts at once. This should be interesting.”
But as I spoke, I was calculating moves in my head. I came to a conclusion, One of these things was easy enough to beat, but these two are more powerful, and they’re out together, complimenting each other. I can’t determine a way to defeat them until I know their effects.
This could be tricky.
“You won’t find anything ‘interesting’ soon enough,” said Armityle. “‘Hammon’, attack the warrior stupid enough to stand against us Gods!”
This isn’t good, I thought. ‘Hammon’ rained lightning down on my warrior, vaporizing him. Lighting rebounded from the dying warrior to me, making me jump and singeing my clothes (7500+3000-4000=6500).
“‘Hammon,” Armityle commanded, “activate your effect, Wicked Lightning!”
Lightning lanced down from ‘Hammon’’s wingtips and struck me. I was caught off guard. I screamed as my body was heaved from the ground. I was tossed backward and collapsed. When I finally rose back up to my feet, my clothes were smoking, and Armityle was laughing hysterically.
“When ‘Hammon’ destroys a monster,” Armityle explained, “he deals you an additional one thousand damage (6500-1000=5500).”
“Now you tell me,” I complained.
“And the best is yet to come!” Armityle continued. “‘Raviel’, attack directly!”
‘Raviel’ swung his mighty claws.
He could kill me right now, I realized, if those claws are as realistic as that lightning!
I forced my tired, stiff, aching body to move, and I dodged to the side, avoiding all but a glancing blow to my left shoulder. A glancing blow that that still knocked me fifteen feet into the wall behind me, tore open my shoulder, and knocked my shoulder out of its socket. My arm went limp midway through my tumble and I dropped my cards. Blood ran from the wound in my arm, soaking my shirt.
I sat there, against Kagemaru’s wall, for several minutes. Just sat, and allowed myself to recover, until finally I decided two things: I needed to stop bleeding, and I needed to relocate my shoulder. So I gritted my teeth and summoned two shadow tendrils out of the darkness surrounding us. One wrapped around my arm and became a black bandage that held my wound closed. The other gripped my arm and, in one sharp motion that was nearly as painful as the wound itself, thrust my shoulder joint back into place.
I stood up carefully and tested my arm. It moved very uncomfortably, “Well, that was unpleasant.”
I looked down at my Life Point display, Fifteen hundred Life. Only fifteen hundred.
“I draw,” I declared, facing my astonished opponent yet again. I drew my newest card, and then I bent over, picking up the cards I’d dropped and putting them all together. I hadn’t really looked at my hand since last turn, when I’d drawn cards for the effect of my opponent’s ‘Card of Sanctity’.
“Would you look at that,” I said, “it looks like I’m gonna destroy another of your Sacred Beasts this turn.”
“Impossible,” Armityle objected, but he didn’t look quite as confident as he was trying to sound.
I ignored him, shifting my Duel Disk and wincing at the pain in my shoulder, “I remove ‘Stygian Street Patrol’ in my Graveyard from play to recover five hundred Life Points (1500+500=2000), and to Special Summon a Fiend from my hand. The Fiend I Special Summon is ‘Djinn Presider of Rituals’.”
The stout, portly, scantily-armored demon swordsman appeared (ATK: 1800).
“Next I tribute ‘Djinn Presider of Rituals’ to summon the ‘Summoned Skull’!”
The ‘Djinn’ was enveloped in lightning, and promptly replaced by the skeletal demon, lightning rolling down his body, lancing between his massive claws (ATK: 2500).
“Activate,” I continued, “the Spell card ‘Quick Summon’, tributing ‘Summoned Skull’ for the ‘Great Maju Garzett’!”
‘Summoned Skull’ dissolved into smoke, which reformed into the brown-skinned demon, the orbs in his shoulders and forehead gleaming with power. The demonic Sacred Beasts loomed over him, an inescapable force of pure power, but my demon stood before them, at his full height of twenty feet, completely unafraid. He flexed his claws threateningly, and roared.
“Let’s see which is stronger,” I said, “your Demon Gods, or mine (ATK: 5000).
“You Normal Summoned two monsters,” said Armityle, unshaken in the face of my demon, “so my ‘Raviel’ responds by summoning two ‘Phantasm Tokens’ to his side.”
Two smaller, human-sized demons resembling ‘Raviel’ appeared to either side of the blue demon, hanging in the air unmoving (ATK: 1000 (each)).
“And because your ‘Raviel’ resembles ‘Obelisk’,” I said, finishing my opponent’s thought, “he will have the ability to absorb the power of him servants, increasing his own power. Well no thanks. I equip ‘Great Maju Garzett’ with the Spell card ‘Sword of Dark Rites’.”
An evil-looking sword appeared in my monster’s claws (ATK: 5000+400=5400).
“‘Great Maju’,” I commanded, “make ‘Raviel’ your target before he can attack you, Vile Energy Blast!”
‘Great Maju’ summoned dark energy into his palm and released it, firing a wide beam of pure shadows. The beam passed over ‘Raviel’, sheering him in half (5000+4000 -5400=3600).
“In my next turn,” I declared, “your ‘Hammon’ will fall, your Beasts will be defeated, and you’ll have lost.”
“No,” said Armityle frankly, “you’re wrong. My Beasts may have failed to defeat you separately, but together they will triumph!”
And that’s when I finally understood the nature of my opponent, Oh man! But if I’m right, then there may be nothing I can do!
I looked over my hand, I only really have one move left.
“I set a card and end my turn,” I declared. I really hope this works!
“I draw,” said Armityle, “and I begin with the Spell card ‘Sacred Revival’!”
There was a flash of golden light, and ‘Raviel’ reappeared, as good as new.
“Next,” Armityle continued, “I summon the ‘Phantom of Chaos’. This formless creature can take on the form of any one effect monster in my Graveyard!”
A cloud of living smoke appeared, billowing out, stretching until it was long and thin. It solidified into a paler-looking version of ‘Uria’, the third Sacred Beast.
“And now,” Armityle declared, his voice filling with excitement, “because all three Sacred Beasts exist on the field at once, I can merge them, body and mind, into their most supreme form.
“I can merge them into me!”
I smiled, I thought so.
“I didn’t quite get it when you were explaining yourself earlier,” I said, “but I understand now. You are the mind of the Sacred Beasts in their fused form, and up until recently, you didn’t have the power to merge them together in a duel. But now you do, and you need to. You need to fuse them into your true form and win a duel to regain the power to achieve that form outside of one. Until you do, all that you can do is command the power of the individual Beasts, who have no real minds of their own.”
“Exactly,” Armityle replied, his voice growing deep and fierce, growing beastly, “but knowing that won’t save you! I remove my Demon God cards from play to merge the Demon Gods on the field!”
Wisps of violet energy poured from Kagemaru’s mouth into the three enormous monsters behind him, and Kagemaru’s eyes grew blank, his voice echoing in his open mouth as he spoke. The three Beasts moved closer together, and in a flash of light, they merged into one.
I stared, awestruck, at the figure before me. It had the humanoid body of ‘Raviel’, its chest colored violet, and his sides colored red, like ‘Uria’. Its body from the waist down was ‘Uria’’s, with a violet underbelly rather than the usual black one. It had ‘Raviel’’s head, and ‘Hammon’’s broad, yellow wings. Its right arm was a regular, humanoid arm, colored violet. Its left arm was made up of the neck and head of ‘Uria’. Its two heads roared in unison.
“This is my true form,” said Armityle, his harsh voice echoing from both the throat of his human host, and from the ‘Uria’ head on the monster’s left arm, “‘Armityle the Chaos Phantom’! In terms of your little game, I have no attack points, but I am also so far above all other monsters that I cannot be destroyed in battle, and once per turn, I can attack any target on the field for ten thousand points of Battle Damage! You may have recovered two thousand Life Points this turn through the effect of you ‘Soul Absorption’ (2000+2000=4000), but I am still powerful enough to destroy you with a single strike!”
He raised his more normal-looking right arm up over the head, and summoned up a massive black and violet orb of swirling, churning energy.
“Die, human,” he called, his tone echoing with the taste of victory, “Transmigration Wave!!”
He threw the orb (ATK: 10,000). ‘Great Maju’ rose up, his hand outstretched, catching the oncoming attack. He strained, holding it back just long enough for me to execute my plan, and then he was ripped apart, reduced to ashes.
“Reveal, the Trap card ‘Skull Lair’. I can remove a number of monsters in my Graveyard from play to destroy monsters of the same level. But since I can’t destroy your Phantom, I’ll remove ‘Summoned Skull’ and ‘Red-Eyes’ to destroy your ‘Tokens’!”
Two dark orbs launched from my Trap, destroying his ‘Phantasms’, and my Life Points rose (4000+1000=5000) just before I was hit by the ‘Phantom’’s flashing orb (5000+5400-10,000=400). The Shadows moved to protect me, but I was still sent flying, painfully. I managed not to fall, or to drop my cards, but I was still hurt. The air had been knocked out of me, and I was breathing hard, trying to recover.
“I’m not out of this yet!” I exclaimed.
“You survived?!” Armityle roared.
“I’ll always survive,” I said, choking on my pain momentarily. “I’ll always survive, until I defeat you!”
Armityle let out a low, fierce growl. “Then I set one card,” Kagemaru, his face still blank and lifeless, placed a card on the Duel Disk on his wrist, “and pass.”
I swallowed, nervously, and struggled to lift my Dark Disk. I pulled a card, my vision blurring momentarily. I examined my card, ’Pot of Greed’? This will come in handy.
“This is where you lose, Armityle,” I said. “I play ‘Pot of Greed’ to draw two cards.”
I drew, but I couldn’t bring myself to look. I’d tried to call on the power of the Soul of Darkness to summon up a Destiny Draw, but I hadn’t had the strength.
These cards could be anything, I thought, but I believe in my deck. I have to believe that it’s given me what I needed.
I turned the cards over in my hand, and smiled, Bingo!
“I play,” I declared, “the Spell card ‘Namesake Summon’, removing ‘The Fiend Megacyber’ in my Graveyard from play (400+500=900) to revive ‘The Fiend Omegacyber’!”
The white warrior descended from a portal formed in the air above me. His feet touched the ground beside me, his arms crossed defiantly, and I felt his power spread out from him, washing over me, and I felt my wound begin to heal. I flexed my arm. Only a dull pain remained. I even felt my energy returning. I removed my bandages. All that remained of the claw mark was a long, ugly scar.
Revitalized, I smiled and selected a card from my hand, “I equip ‘Omegacyber’ with ‘Fusion Sword Murasame Blade’,” the warrior’s armor stretched out over his hand, becoming a long, strong white blade (ATK: 3000+800=3800). “You only have thirty six hundred Life Points. This attack will finish you off!”
My monster began to strike, but before he could make his move, a long black cord embedded itself in his chest, and he stopped cold.
“I reveal my ‘Enemy Controller’,” Armityle announced, a giant game controller appearing on the cord’s other end, “to change your monster to defense mode and prevent your attack.”
“Then,” I countered, “I activate my last card, the Spell card ‘Guard Penalty’, targeting my ‘Omegacyber’, allowing me to draw one last card.” My monster ceased his attack, lowered his weapon, and crouched down between myself and my opponent. As he did, I began to sweat.
I placed my hand on my deck, prepared to draw, but I hesitated. I couldn’t think of a single card left that could win me the duel this turn. To summon any more monsters, I’d have to end the Battle Phase. There was just nothing I could do. It was hopeless. In theory, my own ‘Enemy Controller’ could have saved me, but it had already been destroyed by ‘Uria’ early in the duel, and any Traps I set would be useless, since ‘Armityle’’s ability to deal ten thousand points of damage once per turn isn’t an attack.
And for the first time, I really wanted to give up. I really wanted it all to end. Until, suddenly, I felt something coming from my Soul, and from the card atop my deck, and I knew, I knew that I would win.
I drew, and I turned over the card. At first it was nothing, just a blank slate, and then its face took form, becoming an Effect Monster with a golden border. In that moment, without reading even a word of the card’s text, I knew exactly what it was, and what it could do.
“During my Battle Phase,” I declared, my characteristic façade smugness returning, “I can tribute ‘The Fiend Megacyber’ to summon him in his most powerful form, as the ultimate speed summon monster!”
‘Omegacyber’ rose into the air, glowing bright white. His armor shattered, exploding outward in every direction. The shards of that armor fused together in the air and reshaped into something sleeker and more futuristic-looking. Then it surged toward him, reattaching to his body, fitting together so perfectly that no obvious openings were left, save for a gap in the chest. An almost space-age green light filled that gap, and flowed in stripes down his arms and legs. His eyes flickered and then shone the same color. He shot up into the air in a burst of green and black static, did a flip, and landed at my side, his arms crossed in his characteristic gesture of defiance.
“Introducing,” I announced, “’The Fiend Megacyber – Advanced’ (ATK: 2200)! My monster can’t attack directly during a turn in which he is Special Summoned during the Battle Phase, but as you pointed out earlier, your monster doesn’t have any Attack power, and my ‘Fiend Megacyber – Advanced’ gains three hundred Attack times the Level of any monster he attacks!”
“No!” Armityle roared.
“Oh yes,” I replied. “I end this with Megacyber Flash!”
My monster shot forward, faster than I could follow, and tackled the massive phantom demon. There was a flash of yellow and black static (ATK: 2200+(300x12) =5800), and both ‘Megacyber’ and the demon shot high into the air. Inertia carried the demon higher than my warrior, where he threw open his wings and hung in the air, right above the possessed form of Kagemaru, with my monster between them. He discharged more energy, creating a pillar on light that struck the demon, as well as its master far below, and the demon was destroyed (3600+0-5800=0). My monster, and the card that had summoned him, disappeared.
I watched as Kagemaru fell to his knees. Armityle’s essence poured back into him, and he looked up at me angrily. The darkness swirled around us, expectantly.
“You’ve threatened countless lives,” I told Armityle. “You have no right to exist, but sadly your nature prevents me from destroying you completely. All I can do is give you a fitting penalty, one so severe that you will never threaten anyone again.
“Penalty Game,” I declared aiming my palm at the villain’s stolen form, “Mind of an Animal. I destroy your intelligence, and split your remaining psyche amongst the three Beasts. Never again will the Beasts act on their own, at the urging of the powerful mind of which you are so proud, and never again will the Beasts form the ‘Chaos Phantom’ under their own power.”
As I spoke, the essence of Armityle poured from Kagemaru, joining with the shadows all around us, and Kagemaru collapsed into my arms, unconscious. I lowered him gently to the ground. Then I noticed the Sacred Beast cards hanging slightly out of his pocket where he’d placed them when they'd been removed from play. I picked them up, and I felt strong magic emanating within them.
Even without Armityle’s intelligence controlling them, they still have so much power, I realized. I can’t destroy them, and I can’t let anyone hold on to them either. Not even me. They won’t be able to act on their own anymore, but if they can ever manage to work their way into a Duelist’s mind again, they could manipulate him into acting in Armityle’s place. They have to be hidden away.
The shadows of our game faded completely, Thomas, Ria, and Professor Sheppard appearing from them, still dazed. Sheppard looked up at me and asked, “You beat them?”
“Yeah,” I answered, turning to face him. “I’m glad you’re awake, Professor. We have a lot to talk about. But first we should get out of this building before it collapses on top of us.”
My Soul flashed, the Shadows wrapped around the five of us, and we were gone.
Card(s) of the Day:
Armityle the Chaos Phantom
and
The Fiend Megacyber - Advanced
Played by: Armityle and John
I'm cheating again, because I wanted "Megacyber - Advanced" here, but I also wanted to show of my version of the Fusion monster "Armityle the Chaos Phantom". Check both of them out. They're both pretty self-explanatory between their effects and their roles in the chapter.
Original Card in This Chapter:
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