We saw a tribute to Jun Manjoume in the form of the girl who used Ojamas, and a tribute to Sho Marufuji in the form of the Vehicroid kid who battled John at the exams, and now we get a tribute to Judai in the form of the Shadow's second, more powerful deck. Looks like that covers everyone...
Chapter EighteenAn Unexpected Deck;
The Ultimate Demon!
John
“You’re going to be quite surprised when you see how my power has grown,” the Shadow growled, darkness enclosing us. The darkness at his feet took form, pouring like smoke to his arm and forming an oversized Duel Disk with greater detail than the one he’d used previously. It was gunmetal grey and looked scraped and dented. A deck full of cards poured from the shadows into the creature’s deck loader. I felt an unusual power radiating from that deck, but I ignored the feeling.
I’ve learned a lot this year, I thought. My deck is mostly the same, and my style isn’t any different, but I’ve learned how to be myself again. I’ve remembered how to take things seriously, on and off the duel field. My whole attitude is changed. No matter how strong the Shadow has become, I will win.
I don’t know why I said it. Maybe I just wanted to brag. Maybe I was more afraid than I thought. Afraid that, as soon as I’d reached a place where I felt that I could return to Karen, the Shadow was going to take that all away from me again. Either way, I wanted the Shadow to know just what it was up against.
“Maybe you’ve had awhile to prepare for this duel, monster,” I declared, “but so have I. Maybe you’ve gotten stronger, but I have too. A couple years ago, I was a completely different person. A person who really cared about fighting the good fight. Who truly valued the time he spent with the people closest to him. When you’re not a wicked shadow demon, it’s those values that make you strong. I’ve spent every moment of every day since our last battle learning how to be that person again.”
“Let me tell you something, human,” The Shadow responded, speaking the last word as if it tasted fowl in his mouth, a deep rage gleaming in his shallow eyes. “My realm is full of horrors and beings and powers beyond your wildest imagination. Things that your limited mind cannot comprehend with its pitiful three dimensional understanding. As powerful as I am, I am nothing compared to the sheer magical forces and the greater beings that exist there. The only refuge a being like me can hope for is to hide and stay hidden, but that was not enough for me. I wanted freedom. I deserved it! So I waited, and I watched your world, using the magical words inscribed in an ancient human book as a bridge. I waited for the day when a mind malleable enough for me to influence might find my book.
“For centuries I waited in the darkness, every year in your world feeling like a hundred years to me, until I was almost ready to give up, but then, finally, success! An ignorant, stupid human found my book. I whispered to him how to open the door to my realm, convincing him that he would be granted great power. He opened the door for me, and I consumed him, mind, body and soul, using his energy to grow closer to your world, my destined world. But it wasn’t enough. So I consumed his friend as well. Still my goal eluded me. Their Ba, what you humans now call Duel Energy, was not enough to bring me here in my complete form. Again, I nearly gave up.”
“Are you about finished?” I asked, feigning boredom. The more of the Shadow’s story I heard, the worse off I felt. I didn’t intend to hear more.
The Shadow had other ideas.
“YOU WILL HEAR ME!!!” the Shadow roared, nearly knocking me off of my feet with the force of its rage.
“As I was saying,” the Shadow continued, so tense now that it was shaking, “I almost lost hope. Then, what luck! I’d been summoned onto an island full of Ba-filled humans upon which I could feed. And better yet, none of them even knew I existed! I could take my time and grow stronger at my own pace. It was clear that ruling this world was my destiny.”
The Shadow focused its intense eyes right on me as its story reached its climax, “And then you came. You, the human I wanted most but could not have. You, the one human with the power to grant me my goal, and the power to send me back to the horrible world from which I came! I clawed my way through my Hell of a dimension, back through the barrier between our worlds, against the grain of my realm, no longer because I desired to rule. No! I put myself through the most painful, the most difficult struggle of my very horrible little life with only one thought in my head. I returned here wanting only to kill you!
“And now, now that I’ve siphoned off enough energy from the humans here on this island to emerge in my completed form,” the Shadow explained, drawing his opening hand, “that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
The Shadow drew a sixth card, not waiting for a single word from me.
“I begin,” he declared, “with the Spell card ‘Fiend’s Sanctuary’, summoning a Token Monster.”
A glowing ring appeared on the ground near the Shadow’s feet, remaining just long enough to spawn a small creature that resembled a few small silver orbs stacked on top of each other (ATK: 0).
“I tribute the Token,” the Shadow continued, “to summon the ‘Legendary Fiend’.”
A tall, muscular demon appeared, it had black wings and four upper limbs, two like normal arms and two like long necks, each one ending in a monstrous head (ATK: 1500).
“I set a card,” the Shadow declared. “Make your first futile move.”
“I’d be glad to,” I said in a mock cheerful tone. “I’ll start off with one of my favorite opening moves, the powerful ‘Giant Orc’.”
A huge, gray-skinned goblin appeared at my side, standing nearly as tall as the Shadow itself, carrying a giant bone club in his right hand (ATK: 2200).
“I attack your ‘Legendary Fiend’,” I commanded, “before it has a chance to use its effect and grow stronger.”
My goblin charged, his club raised.
“You’re too slow,” the Shadow countered. “My face-down card is ‘Turn Jump’, a Spell which moves time forward a total of six turns, allowing my monster to mature as if three of my turns had passed.”
As he spoke, the air around us seemed to ripple, as if time and space were changing before our eyes. The ‘Legendary Fiend’ grew, and grew stronger (ATK: 1500 +(700x3)=3600) until it towered over my monster. It brought its clawed hand down on my monster, crushing him with ease (8000+2200-3600=6600).
Well this isn’t good, I thought. Why do I always take the first hit?
“I set two cards,” I said.
I really should have gotten my card back from Karen. I’m sure she has it with her. At first it was only a passing thought, but soon that thought turned to near panic. I’d only been able to defeat the Shadow the first time around because I had that card, ‘The Fiend Omegacyber’. What if it came down to a similar situation again? Right then, without that card in my deck, I felt alone.
But I couldn’t let my revelation dishearten or distract me. If I do, I thought, I might as well surrender now.
“I end my turn.”
“Then you have come one step closer to your destruction,” The Shadow declared with pride, “and I have come one step closer to my ultimate freedom. I draw, and my monster grows seven hundred points stronger once again.”
‘The Legendary Fiend’ grew even larger (ATK: 3600+700=4300).
“I equip ‘The Legendary Fiend’ with the ‘Sword of Dark Rites’,” A wicked, twisted, evil-looking blade appeared in the demon’s outstretched hand, “raising his power even further (ATK: 4300+400=4700).
“I attack directly,” the Shadow declared, and the demonic monster raised its sword and prepared to strike.
I smiled…
…and the attacking demon exploded!
“Reveal,” I declared, “the Trap card ‘Blast Held by a Tribute’, destroying your monster and dealing you damage.”
Smoke and flames from the explosion of the Shadow’s monster assaulted the Shadow. Its chest began to dissolve, but it regenerated quickly (8000-1000=7000).
The Shadow snarled, “You can’t defeat me so easily.” He placed two cards on his Duel Disk, “I summon a monster, face-down in defense mode, and set a card face-down.”
I could see a figure, the Shadow’s hidden monster, moving in the darkness near the Shadow’s feet.
“As your turn comes to an end,” I declared, pressing forward, “I reveal the Trap card ‘Call of the Haunted’, reviving my fallen ‘Orc’.”
The fully revived goblin appeared at my side. He hadn’t enjoyed being killed, and he was ready for some payback.
“Now I draw,” I continued, “and I summon the ‘Djinn Presider of Rituals’.”
The squat demon in his characteristic, less-than-adequate armor appeared as well, his sword raised (ATK: 1800).
I need to be careful and think things through, I thought. I can’t afford to underestimate an opponent this strong. But at the same time, past experience has shown me that it would be a serious mistake to hesitate against him. This guy can summon massively powerful monsters in an instant. If I pause for even a second, he might crush me.
I have to attack.
“My ‘Orc’ attacks your hidden monster,” I commanded. The ‘Orc’ charged forward, his club raised, and squashed the defending monster, a giant tomato with a demonic face. The ‘Mystic Tomato’.
Ah crap!
“When my ‘Mystic Tomato’ is destroyed,” the Shadow explained, a wicked glint in its red eyes, and a cheerful tone to its chilling voice, “I can summon any monster from my deck.”
A card in the Shadow’s deck melted into darkness and reformed on the beast’s Duel Disk. On the Shadow’s field appeared a monster that’s difficult to describe. A monster I’d never seen before. It was a humanoid demon, its body made of black, gray, and red patches. It had black devil wings and a large, green eye, turned vertical, embedded in its forehead. It was difficult to tell if the figure was meant to be male or female, or even something else.
“Behold,” the Shadow declared, triumphant, “the greatest demon to exist in this modern form of dueling, the great beast ‘Yubel’ (ATK: 0)!”
I shuddered. This monster has a dark power. So dark that even my Soul of Darkness doesn’t like it. And to make things worse, I have no idea what the Shadow plans to do with it, or what it can do. I have to destroy it, fast!
I was about to attack, and thinking back to that duel, I’m glad I wasn’t able to, because if I had, I might have died. Instead, the Shadow activated a Trap.
“Reveal,” the Shadow announced, “the Trap card ‘Torrential Tribute’, destroying every monster on the field!”
Water bubbled up from nowhere and washed over the field, drowning all of our monsters and washing them away.
What?
“And,” the Shadow continued, “when ‘Yubel’ dies outside of battle, it is reborn in its second, more monstrous form, ‘Yubel – Terror Incarnate’!”
‘Yubel’ reappeared and grew into a massive beast, just taller than the Shadow itself. It was a mighty-looking, two-headed dragon in ‘Yubel’’s black and red, but without the gray. It had a larger, yellow version of ‘Yubel’’s third eye on its chest, broad wings, and long, curved, razor-sharp claws (ATK: 0).
“I’m having trouble seeing what’s so threatening about some monsters with zero Attack,” I taunted.
“You’ll understand my monster’s power soon enough,” the Shadow replied, laughing gruffly. “I draw, and I play ‘Card of Sanctity’!”
The Shadow and I proceeded to refill our hands.
“I set a card,” the Shadow announced, “and play ‘Spell Economics’. This lets me play Spell cards without the need to pay Life Points.”
I bit my lip in frustration, This can’t be good.
“Activate ‘Delinquent Duo’,” the Shadow declared, “calling in the twin demons. One steals a random card from your hand, while you must give the other a card from your hand willingly. Both are then discarded.”
Two small, fluttering demons appeared. One snatched my ‘Dark Core’ from me, and I handed the other my ‘X-Head Cannon’. The demons fed my cards into my Graveyard and then disappeared in a puff of black smoke.
“But I am not finished,” the demon said. “Oh, I am far from finished! I set another card and play ‘Thunder Crash’!” This card destroys all of my monsters and deals three hundred damage to you for each monster destroyed.”
‘Yubel’ exploded into a burst of lightning that hit me, causing me to cry out, singing my clothes, and leaving my body throbbing (6600-300=6300).
“And when ‘Yubel – Terror Incarnate’ is destroyed, it is reborn one final time as a creature with no peer!”
Darkness swirled all around us, collecting into a massive form that dwarfed even the Shadow. It stood over twenty-five feet tall. It had two draconic heads, each with a human face atop it, between the eyes. It had eyes on its knees, and a massive humanoid face on its chest, with a yellowish third eye on the forehead of said face. Again, this incarnation of ‘Yubel’ possessed no Attack, but even I suffered no illusions that such a creature could be weak.
“This,” the Shadow declared, “is the greatest demon of all, ‘Yubel – The Ultimate Nightmare’!”
I swallowed hard, This duel might be even trickier that I thought.
The Shadow smiled cheerily, its wicked, animalistic teeth bared, “It’s your turn. But be careful. We wouldn’t want it to be your last!”
Card of the Day:
Yubel
Played by: The Shadow Demon
Because Judai Yuki homage!
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