YGO CoP 2: A New Dawn

[MewMew3]

Enjoy voting!

 

[MewMew3]

Will definitely post new chapters this weekend. But here's a small rant:

 

Why are YGO characters so unoriginal in deckbuilding and dueling? I liked the older characters though because they combined different archetypes to make unique decks. This was probably because so few complete archetypes existed back then so they had to get creative. Atem used Dark Magician, Magnet Warriors, Poker Knights, and control strategies. Kaiba used Blue-Eyes, many brute force cards, and Viruses. Joey used Red-Eyes, low level warriors, and gambling. Bakura used many different decks. His first deck was a disruption deck. His Occult Deck used weak vanilla fiends as fodder for Occult combos (Destiny Board was just one of them)*, and his last deck was a Zombie Mill/Lock deck. Yugi squeezed all sorts of archetypes together. He put Dark Magician, magician girls, magnet warriors, rock monster support, and toys in one deck. 

 

*Bakura's other strategies were using Puppet Master to swarm the field. He used Poltergeists in the manga. He used cards that screwed up his opponent's tactics while filling up his Graveyard. And who knows what else he had lurking in there.

 

But since GX things went screwy. Way too many characters had decks devoted to one archetype. Crowler used Gear Golems, Bonapart used toys, Camilla used Vampires, Johan used Crystal Beasts, Edo used Destiny Heroes etc. It's like they were structure decks. There were some cool duelists like Yubel, Amon Garem, and Mr. X (Sartorius' skeevy lawyer), but they were exceptions. 5Ds fought the cancer a bit. Yusei and Jack used all sorts of synchro tactics to get out their boss monsters. Lotten was pretty interesting too. Team Unicorn was the coolest as they fully took advantage of Team Duels. Too bad the writers didn't keep them.  

[MewMew3]

Duel 30 - Survival Duel

 

 

Lumis just had to disclose his ingenious idea to the whole world. “I outfitted your bomb collars with an extra kink. But,” Even he had the restraint not to tell everything. “I won’t tell you what the twist is.” You have a little surprise coming your way, I tell you.”

 

Yukio remarked, “I didn’t have German dungeon porn in mind.”

 

“Hey Cornholio!” Maya called out Lumis. “You better prepare your anus because you’re gonna’ get the biggest teepee you ever saw straight up your bunghole.”

 

Yukio concurred with his partner. “We mean it, Dumb and Dumber. You’ll have prolapsed bastards for life after we’re done with you.”

 

Lumis fumes at our heroes’ insults while Umbra takes the trash talk in stride. The larger Ghoul says, “Looks like we got ourselves a pair of jokers. But we’ll have the last laugh.” He makes a terrible, sinister smile. “You’re both in for a very bumpy ride.”

 

“What’s with this tournament and sex?” Yukio exclaims in genuine bafflement. “Can we start the duel already!”

 

Team Dynamic Duo: 16000 || Team Baby Blast Furnace: 16000

 

YUKIO’S TURN: “I’ll start the duel with Spell Economics. I don’t pay any Life to play Spell Cards. Like this one, A Hero Lives! I Summon Elemental HERO Shadow Mist from my Deck.” The dark vigilante in black leather leaps into play from nowhere. “I add Mask Change from my Deck to my hand. Next, Instant Fusion!” A large sealed can appears and opens on stage, the released mist forming a masked, stocky man in a lab coat. “Elemental HERO Bubble Scientist lets me call forth Elemental HERO Bubbleman from my Deck.” And another stocky man, but in a blue, cyborg suit, appears.

 

Umbra looks intrigued. “A Masked Treatoad combo?”

 

“You got it! I overlay Bubble Scientist and Bubbleman for Bahamut Shark!” The two heroes fall through the overlay network and a dinosaur-shark fusion falls out on the other side. “I use its effect to Summon Treatoad right from the Extra Deck!” And a pair of pale toads swims up from a watery hole to the surface, one on top of the other. “I set one. My turn ends.”

 

MAYA’S TURN: She and Yukio have no idea what strategy the two Ghouls have up their sleeve. They should build a wall, wait this turn, then kill them. She thinks, “Sophia, I’m coming for you.”

 

Out loud, “I play Soul Absorption! Each time a card is banished we gain 500 Life. I play Pot of Cupidity. I banish my top 10 cards to draw 2.” Her Spell glows a bright teal as the team gains 5000 Life. “I Summon Necroface and activate it.” The cracked, corrupted baby doll face appears. It’s tentacles reach out, drawing forth energy from another dimension, growing in strength. Maya shuffles all her banished cards back in her Deck.

 

“Next, Fire Mountain!” Her side of the field transmogrifies into a part of the earth in its earliest days, a molten volcano looming behind her. “I use its effect to banish a FIRE monster in my Deck; D.D. Velociraptor. I then use its effect to banish another Velociraptor from my Deck. I activate Ghosts and Stars. I bring back a banished monster. I Summon D.D. Velociraptor and with its effect Summon the second one.” Two fiery red dinosaurs emerge from the volcano.

 

“Go time! I overlay them to Xyz Summon Evolzar Laggia!” The dinosaurs dissolve into balls of flame as a fiery white dragon emerges from the overlay wormhole. “I set a card facedown. My turn’s done.”

 

She allows herself a moment of personal reflection. Everyone evolved so much over the years, not just her. As Rex said, she is far from the only antimeta duelist. She must push further or the trendsetter herself will fall behind. But how?  

 

LUMIS’ TURN: He laughs with menace. “No boss monsters can stop us, least of all yours. We designed our Decks so no one can sit on their favorite cards. Observe. I tribute YOUR Laggia,” He points at Maya. “to Summon Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju on your field. Try negating that!” True to Lumis’ words, there is nothing Maya can do. He didn’t activate anything. Her monster simply vanishes, replaced by a monstrous creature from the ocean’s depths.  

 

“Now you have a Kaiju, I get one too. I Summon Thunder King, the Lightningstrike Kaiju!” A huge thunderous bird appears on Lumis’ field. “One for you. One for me. Now Yukio’s turn to suffer. Thunder Kind, kill Treatoad!” His creature of the heavens flash fries Yukio’s key monster. (Team Baby Blast Furnace LP 21500 à 20400)

 

Both Maya and Yukio feel a terrible pain in their necks, like nails were being drilled in at all sides. To their horror they see blood trickle down their necks into their shirts.

 

Lumis jumps up and down with glee, as if it was his birthday. “Surprise! Each time you lose Life, you lose a little blood. Lose all your Life and the drills destroy your spine, but it may hit an artery bore then! It’s our gift, just for you!”  

 

Yukio burns with hatred at them. What dirty cowards! But he breaths deep, calming down, or trying to. He says, “Since Treatoad died I return a WATER monster, Bubble Scientist, to my Extra Deck.”

 

Lumis ignores the play. It is irrelevant. “I play three spells. Mask of Dissapointment to negate Maya’s Soul Absorption, my Soul Absorption, and Kyoutou Waterfront.”  A large, gloomy mask covers Maya’s Permanent Spell while Lumis gets his own. Furthermore, skyscrapers and a huge water tower sprout from the sand and rock behind him. “I end with a card facedown.”

 

He gestures to Umbra. “Your turn, partner.”

 

Yukio warns his own partner, “We must be careful to not banish cards so easily. They’ll gain Life too.”

 

UMBRA’S TURN: “Gladly, friend. I play Soul Absorption!”

 

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Maya shouts in outrage.

 

Lumis says, “You think this is a mothergrapein’ game? We know your strategies so of course we took countermeasures. Got it?”

 

Umbra chuckles, “Well said, partner. Allow me to bury them. I play Pre-preparation of Rights. I add a Ritual Spell and Monster to my deck.” Lumis’ Waterfront gained a Kaiju Counter Umbra’s used up Spell went to his Graveyard, a bright star appeared on top of the water tower.

 

“Not if I can help it!” Yukio counters. “I play my facedown Mask Change. I tribute Shadow Mist to Summon Elemental HERO Dark Law!” His hero puts on a new mask, transforming into a larger, darker creature. “And since you put cards in your hand, I use its effect.” The new warrior of the night fires a blast at Umbra’s hand, hitting one card.

 

But it isn’t any of the Ritual cards. Yukio curses. Umbra smirks, “Big gamble, kid. But you lost! And we gain 1,000 Life!”

 

Maya is furious. “You just told me not to banish cards! Now you’re doing it, you damned hypocrite! Thanks for giving Bush and Cheney over there extra Life!”

 

Yukio realizes his mistake. He tries to explain, “It could’ve stopped Umbra’s combo.” But Maya hears none of it. She heaps even more blame on him.

 

Umbra talks to Lumis incognito, using a small microphone in their masks. “We got them fighting. Now there’s no chance they’ll win.” Lumis nods eagerly. He could drink to that.

 

Umbra says, “I play Curse of the Masked Beast, offering a monster in my hand to Summon Masked Beast!” A Level 8 monster, a queen of the End of Times, descends into a savage cauldron. A bicorporal monster wielding a cudgel emerges, a hideous mask nailed to its face. “I equip it with Mask of Savagery and Stellar Scattershot!” The ugly beast puts on an even more frightening mask while it dons starry silver armor to cover its bare chest. “Its ATK doubles and it can attack all your monsters.”

 

“Uh-Oh.” Maya and Yukio are in for a wicked beat down.

 

“Masked Beast, kill everything in sight!” Umbra commands. His malformed creature obliges, smashing all of its opponents with its cudgel. The wrath of its assault throws our heroes up in the air. (Team Baby Blast Furnace 20400 à 8400) Meanwhile, Lumis’ Waterfront gains 4 more Counters.

 

“Thanks for ruining our game.” Maya hisses like an angry goose. “I built my strategy for US but they turned it against US. And you helped!”

 

“No, you built your strategy for YOU!” Yukio shouts back. “You are the most selfish and manipulative person I’ve ever met!”

 

“Those are bad things? What are you, Christian?”

 

“Read too much continental philosophy? Because you’re so edgy right now!”

 

Umbra and Lumis enjoy every minute of our couple’s quarreling, so much so they would popcorn if they could. Mission accomplished. Took just two turns and they already divorced. But what’s this? Yukio is making his next move.

 

Umbra whispers to Lumis over their mask mics, “Attack Maya directly each time you can. She’s the more bruised of the two.” Lumis nods in agreement.

 

YUKIO’S TURN: “If Maya won’t help me beat you, then I’ll do it myself. I play Brilliant Fusion!”

 

“Uh-uh!” Lumis wags his thick, short finger at him. “I activate Mask of Exile!” A huge, voodoo mask, embedded with large jagged teeth, appears above him. He spoke slowly, sternly, as if his enemies could read his lips. “No one. Can play. Any monsters. From. The. Extra Deck.”

 

Yukio and Maya are devastated while Umbra and Lumis ridicule their misery. Yukio shakes his head in disgust. He sets one monster facedown, ending his turn.

 

MAYA’S TURN: As she enters her Stanby Phase, Lumis wags his finger at her.

 

“Uh-uh! You lose 700 Life each Standby Phase, got it!” He reminds her.

 

Maya would’ve liked to bite that little sheet’s finger off more than anything in the world. But she is utterly powerless. She can win the Duel on their own, but it is a risky move. She sets a card facedown, ending her turn.

 

LUMIS’ TURN: “I pay 3 Kaiju Counters to add a Kaiju from my Deck to my hand.” Three stars vanish from the top of the water tower. “I activate Masked Doll. We can’t take any damage from “Mask” cards.”

 

“Thunder King, destroy Yukio’s monster.” His mighty lord of thunder showers the wrath of the skies on Yukio’s poor creature, a warrior carrying many swords with him. “I end my turn.”

 

UMBRA’S TURN: “Thanks to Lumis’ Masked Doll, I don’t pay half my Life. But my monster still gets to double its ATK!” Nothing happens, puzzling Umbra. “Why?”

 

“Read the fine print, Butthead.” Maya rebukes him. “You can only double its ATK after you paid half your Life.”   

 

“You won’t be so feisty after I thrash you some more. How are your burns by the way? Matthew really did a number on you.”

 

Maya didn’t feel anything during the Duel until now, when Umbra reminded her. She winces in pain, now painfully aware of her injuries. And she is about to receive more.

 

“Masked Beast, attack Maya!” Umbra’s creature born from nightmares unleashes its assault. Yukio tries to block its path but he is too slow. The beast slams Maya with its cudgel. Maya would double down in pain over her injured stomach if she could, but she landed on her back. Her burned back hurt even more against the rough sand. (Team Baby Blast Furnace LP 7700 à 1300)

 

Yukio rushes to pull her up, asking if she’s all right, but she pushes him away, still angry at his blunder. She wastes no time springing her trap, her anger fueled by her pain. “I activate Mass Extinction!” She sends 6 Dinosaur-Type monster from her Deck to the Graveyard as she lost over 6000 Life. Every dinosaur Maya milled appears above her, engaged in flaming meteors. “SMASH THEM!”

 

Hell rains from the skies, barraging the Ghouls’ field in a storm of fire and brimstone. The Masked Beast perishes, as does the Ghouls’ Soul Absorptions and Maya’s own prehistoric field, while Mask of Exile breaks into pieces and burns to ash. But the meteors bounce off Lumis’ Mask of Dissipation and Kyoutou Waterfront.

 

Lumis explains, “My Mask can’t be destroyed by card effects while my Waterfront lost a Counter to stay safe.”

 

Maya groans. This Duel will last a long time. Suddenly, she and Yukio feels the drills of the bomb collar dig into their necks, releasing more blood.

 

Yukio approaches her. “We have to work as a team if we want to win. They’re doing a splendid job at it. Can’t say the same thing about us.”

 

Maya took a moment to lean on Yukio for support. She says, “I’m so sorry I got mad at you. I wish I didn’t get angry so often.”

 

Yukio leans on her too, shielding her from harm. “I’m fine. Use your anger to pummel Ren and Stimpy over there. We must work as a team, no matter what.”

 

“But if we do, they may figure out our strategies.”

 

“But there is a way we can go beneath the radar.”

 

Maya understands what he means. “I set things up for you. Make it count.”

 

The couple resume their positions. Yukio says to the Ghouls, “Now you will feel my righteous anger you cowardly scum!” He says to Maya. “Together we will reach the skies with our wings.”

 

YUKIO’S TURN: “I play Monster Reborn to revive Maya’s Celestine Ptera from her Graveyard.” The largest of all pterosaurs emerges from the grave, spreading its 30-foot wings to their full span.

 

This move startles Umbra and Lumis, but before they can process what just happened, Maya interjects, “Yukio’s move triggered my Quickplay Spell, Infernal Reckless Summon! I Summon two Celestine Ptera from my Grave!” Two more pterosaurs join the first.

 

“I activate Celestine Ptera’s effect.” Yukio resumes. “I bounce Maya’s Soul Absorption to bounce Lumis’ Waterfront.” The great dinosaur flaps two gusts of wind and sand, one with each wing. The first rids the field of Maya’s card, the second sweeps away Lumis’, returning the Ghoul to the desert. “And since Soul Absorption left the field, Mask of Dissipation dies.”

 

Lumis’ temper begins to rise as his Mask vanishes. They figured out to get rid of it!

 

Yukio orders, “Ptera, strike Umbra!” The pterosaur crashes into Umbra, forcing him down on the ground. (Team Dynamic Duo LP 19000 à 17700)

 

MAYA’S TURN: “I activate Soul Absorption again. This time it will help us. Next I play Extinction Record. I choose to banish 1 Dinosaur-Type monster, 1 Celestine Ptera.” The large dinosaur vanished. “And draw 2 cards. I play Dragon’s Mirror! I banish the other Celestine Ptera and 10 other Dinosaur –Types from my Graveyard to Summon Red-Eyes Black Berserk Dragon!”

 

A purple, jeweled mirror rose behind Maya while each of her dead monsters rose from her Graveyard as specters. Her living dinosaur flies into the mirror and her dead dinosaurs follow suit. An awesome black dragon bursts from the other side, shattering the mirror. Her Soul Absorption glows, blessing the team with 5,500 Life!

 

Lumis fumes, jittering with anger more while Umbra scowls in worry.     

 

“Hey Bart and Milhouse! Principle Skinner’s coming for you!” Maya calls out. “Red-Eyes strike down the weakest link!” Her huge, black, undead dragon breaths the black flames of the underworld straight at its target. Lumis cries in terror, running wildly in circles like a chicken with its head cut off. The black flames hit him dead on, blasting him ten feet in the air. He luckily falls on his butt on the sand. Otherwise his neck would have snapped. Umbra can only look on in terror. (Lumis & Umbra 17700 à 6700)

 

Maya concludes, “I was a bully at school. I gave the shrimp the biggest wedgie in his life. If he ever attacks me again I’ll dunk his head in the most diseased toilet he can imagine.” She sets a card facedown. “I end my turn. Let’s see Kim and Kanye make a comeback.”

[MewMew3]

Duel 31 - War Inc.

 

 

Team Baby Blast Furnace: 7300 || Team Dynamic Duo: 6700

 

Umbra desperately rushes over to his bruised comrade. Thanks to their trickery the two Ghouls felt no drills penetrating into their necks but the damage done from their opponent’s attacks shook them more than any foul play could. Umbra slaps the face of small friend, “Wake up, shrimp!” He cries. “Wake up! Wake up!”

 

Maya laughs, a high, cold, cruel cackle, enough to make even Yukio’s hot blood run cold. She eyes them, grinning like a crocodile about to devour its pray. Yukio always knew Maya was a difficult person; she is hot-tempered, rash, manipulative, jealous, and greedy; but he always knew she was a creature of light at heart. But he didn’t think that a bright light casts a dark shadow. At this moment he finally sees, understands, how dark that shadow could be.

 

She counts with her fingers in cruel ridicule, “This little piggy went to the market. He got butchered; so this little piggy went wee, wee all the way home. Now tell me where Sophia is, you dorks, or I’ll make you two rue the day you were born.”

 

Umbra glares at the cruel, spiteful woman, too hurt and afraid to even be angry. Egyptian mythology spoke of a lion goddess named Sekhmet who nearly destroyed the entire human race in a blood-soaked fury. He was agnostic throughout his life but he does wonder at this moment if gods could become people.

 

He slaps Lumis’ face again. “Come on, wake up, you shrimp! Please don’t die on me! I-“ The grown man, the hardened criminal, cries as a baby. Anything is possible. He whisperers, chokes, “I-I l-love you.”

 

Lumis gags, wakens, and hits Umbra in the face. “Don’t call me a shrimp!” He berates his partner but Umbra doesn’t mind. He is so glad his partner in crime is safe he hugs him.    

 

“Trouble in paradise.” Maya mutters to herself in disgust. She tells her opponents with a murderous tone, “Siegfried, Rory, this is not the backstage of an Elton John concert. Get on with the duel already, you pathetic cowards.”

 

Umbra helps his small friend up, which Lumis gladly accepts. They speak to each other, not through secret mics, but face to face. “We have to max out our teamwork to beat them. Nothing can beat us when we work together.”

 

LUMIS’ TURN: “I activate Kyoutou Waterfront again.” And again his coastal city takes form behind him. “I Summon Kaiju Embryo.” A larvae only half of Lumis’ size takes form and floats in the field, a dramatic contrast to the massive Kaijus.

 

“So the shrimp forgets how small he is.” Maya taunts him. “Come at me, bro.”

 

Yukio honestly wonders who the bad guys are. Umbra and Lumis look like angels next to the barbaric tiger next to him.

 

UMBRA’S TURN: “You’re move will not be in vain, partner. I play Pre-Preparation of Rights to search for a Ritual Monster and Ritual Spell. Next, my Ritual activates; End of the World. I sacrifice my Motley Masked Madman in my hand and Lumis Kaiju Embryo.” The two monsters vanish into a dark void made manifest. “Now arise, Demise, King of  Armageddon.” A terrifying tyrant emerges from the black void; the giant’s head but a skull.

 

“I pay 2000 Life Points! Demise, blow up the field!” The king swings its ax, carving a blazing gorge on the field, wiping out all monsters in sight but itself. “I banish Masked Madman from my Grave to Summon Melchid the Four-Faced Beast from my Deck, and I Tribute him and Armageddon to Summon Masked Beast Des Gardius!” A fiend of four floating heads fused together appears but soon it and the dark king vanish in black smoke, trading them for a giant scarred beast with three heads.

 

Maya growls. She knows what’s coming to her.

 

“Des Gardius, attack Maya!” And the masked beast slashes Maya’s chest, drawing huge amounts of blood. (Team Baby Blast Furnace 7800 à 4500) Maya falls to her knees, grabbing her chest but stands up again. Her face shows nothing but contempt at the two men.

 

“Talk about a tough cookie.” Umbra grumbles. He ends his turn.

 

YUKIO’S TURN: “Don’t think I’m a pushover just because I’m nice. You’re still the bullies here, Crabbe and Goyle. I play Foolish Burial, sending Performage Trick Clown from my Deck to the Grave. And since he went there, I Summon him.” A bright red clown jumped to the field with its bright red and orange ball. The clown’s appearance burned 1000 of Yukio’s Life but it’s a price he has no problem playing. Especially since, “I Summon Thousand Blades from my Grave.” The wielder of many swords stands next to the clown.

 

“I play Xyz Change Tactics. Get ready for a bumpy ride.” He overlays the two creatures to Summon Number 39: Utopia from another universe, quickly evolves it Number S39: Utopia Prime, and finally Summons Number S39: Utopia the Lightning. He pays 1500 Life and draws 3 cards throughout the ordeal.  

 

He faces Maya, stern. He must make his points clear. “I will only work with you if you stop being so cruel.”

 

“I want Sophia safe.” Maya answers. “Don’t put their lives ahead of hers.” And Maya means it more than ever. Sophia is the most sensitive soul Maya ever knew, an angel; a woman like her long lost mother, but stronger, holding an immeasurable inner light. The two cockroaches across her do not deserve the time of day.

 

Yukio says, “I understand but you can’t duel with hatred in your heart. You won’t truly win anything. Promise me you will duel with a calm and clear mind. Please trust me.”

 

Maya sighs, breaths in and out, concentrating on Sophia and the warm, positive light she brings. The poison of her hate leaves but the volcanic anger remains but it sharpens her senses instead of dulling them. “I trust you.”  

 

“Good. Utopia Lightning, clock out Des Gardius.” As his space warrior charges at the black beast, Yukio activates his monster’s effect, doubling its ATK, giving it the power to shatter its enemy. (Team Dynamic Duo LP 3000) But all is not done. The beast’s three heads remain. They dissolve in black mist, mixing together to creating a gruesome mask. The Mask of Remnant snatches Yukio’s monster, putting it in Umbra’s control.

 

Yukio Sets two cards facedown, finishing his turn.

 

MAYA’S TURN: She understands Yukio’s strategy. It all makes sense now. Let this be the killing move! “I activate my Set Nanosaur Invasion.” She banishes a card in her hand, letting three red, dragon-like Lizardon tear through dimensions. “And I overlay all of them to Xyz Summon Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!” The dinosaurs fly high above, merge in a place beyond space and time, allowing a bright blue dragon descend from the cosmic plane to the worldly.

 

“And I use its effect.” But the Xyz orbs from Umbra’s monsters vanish, not hers! In fact, her dragon absorbs them. “I absorbed 2 Materials, so I can attack 2 more times. You ready, Thing One and Thing Two? Galaxy-Eyes, break them to pieces!” Her dragon charges straight at Umbra’s only monster –

 

But Lumis acts quickly. He banishes his dead Kaiju Embryo, and before Maya knows it, her dragon vanishes, replaced by Lumis’ Gameciel. Maya’s disappointment is immense. The old sea turtle returned from the grave just to bother her.

 

Maya’s anger rises but she keeps it under check. “I Set two cards. You’re move.” She holds another risky strategy in store. She took one direct hit too many. Could she endure another one? Hopefully she won’t find out.

 

LUMIS’ TURN: “I pay 3 Kaiju Counters,” Three stars vanish from the top of the water tower behind him. “To add a Kaiju to my hand.  I Summon Dogoran, the Mad Flame Kaiju.” A lizard burning its own flames emerges behind him.

 

Yukio points to huge monster in mock horror. “WOOK! IT’S GODZIWWA!”

 

Lumis chuckles. “You’re racist self-deprecating jokes won’t save you. Not in a million years, I tell you.

 

“I summon Graydle Cobra.” A new kind of creature joins the arsenal, a grey alien slime taking the form of a snake. “Gradyle Cobra, take out Gameciel.” The cobra clearly is no match for the sea turtle. It gets easily crushed. (Team Dynamic Duo LP 3000 à 1800) But there is a catch, as our heroes suspect. The alien slime does not die. It seizes the huge turtle, stretches around it until it wraps it all around. Possessed, the turtle joins Lumis’ side. “Now Dogoran, attack Maya!” The fire-breathing lizard fires a shot at her.

 

Yukio counters, “I play Quaking Mirror Force.” The desert sand of Egypt blocks the monsters’ assault as a wall, the overpowers them as a blanket, forcing them facedown.

 

Lumis Sets a card facedown; his greatest and final trap.

 

UMBRA’S TURN: “I play Pot of Avarice, shuffling 5 cards from my Grave to my Deck, and drawing 2. And I activate Fulfillment of the Contract.” Umbra loses 800 Life, reviving The Masked Beast. “I’ll make you pay for how you treated my partner! Strike Maya directly!”

 

The beast gathers all the hatred and sorrow of the world into a dense ball of black energy and blasts it as a beam straight for Maya’s chest. The attack meets her head on, driving her many feet back. She collapses, her burned back on the rough sand. The drills in her bomb collar drive themselves so deep in her neck they nearly paralyze her. (Team Baby Blast Furnace 4500 à 1300)

 

Yukio recovers from his drills and rushes to her aid. He grabs her in his arms, asking if she is okay. “You shouldn’t have been in this duel. You took too much damage before it even started.”

 

Maya laughs, joking, “I wouldn’t trade dueling with you for all the coked up Wall St. buttsex in the entire world.”

 

Yukio chuckles at her black humor. “I love you.”

 

Maya kisses him in return. “I wanted to get attacked, not just to show my love.” She tries to stand, failing. Yukio helps her up. She makes her way back to the field, wobbling a bit, but strong as ever, her smile truly wicked. “Get ready, Laurel and Hardy. This is your last slapstick. Go, Inferno Tempest!”

 

Umbra and Lumis gasp in horror as a hellish wildfire swamps everyone’s field, banishing every monster outside the Extra Deck. Maya’s Soul Absorption kicks into overdrive, gorging our heroes up to 20,000 Life!

 

“I-I set a…” Umbra can’t even finish his sentence.

 

YUKIO’S TURN: “Witness our power together! I play my greatest trap, Utopia Achieved!!” The team lost all their Life, all 20,000 points until only 10 points remained. “I can play any Utopia monster and attack ALL monsters outside my Extra Deck as Materials!” No less than 22 stars circle the arena before falling through a wormhole. Yukio’s greatest monster, Number S0: Utopic ZEXAL, bursts forth with 22,000 ATK!”

 

“Prepare yourself, Umbra! Lumis can’t defend you! Utopia, direct attack!” The space warrior flies at him, sword ready to strike the killing blow.

 

“I defend myself with Mask of Invincibility!” Umbra counters, his mask deflects the massive strike with its two open palms. “I banished my Melchid from the Grave to block the attack! We’re safe!”

 

MAYA’S TURN: “Sure, but for how long?” Maya rejoins. “You’ll go for 22 whole turns without doing anything.” She strikes a predator’s gaze at Lumis. “How long can you last, shrimp?”

 

Lumis heats white in anger, a temple bulges dangerously on his bald head. But he feels fear, even in this state.

 

Maya continues, “As Yukio ends his turn, I bring back 3 banished Fish Styx!” Three large, prehistoric fish return. “I don’t draw this turn but during my Standby Phase I bring back 3 banished Dinosaur-Types to my hand. I overlay all three Fish Styx to Xyz Summon Nanosaur Infinity!” Her three fish disappear to reveal a small, fiery orange sentient raptor aiming its two large gums at the Ghouls. “I detach all 3 Materials to Summon my 3 Celestine Ptera from my hand.” The three great pterosaurs once more grace the field.

 

“And I overlay all of them to Xyz Summon Number 92: Heart-eartH Dragon!” Her monsters fly to their zenith, collapsing together, allowing a large silver dragon to descend. “I activate my trap, Nanosaur Invasion!” She banishes a card in her hand, bringing back 3 fiery, deadly Lizardon to her field. “I overlay 2 of them to Xyz Summon Galaxy-Eyes Full Armor Photon Dragon!” Her great dragon of the stars arrives, but Maya is far from done. She mercilessly continues her rapid evolution, Summoning Number 95: Galaxy-Eyes Dark Matter Dragon, advancing to the massive spider Number 84: Pain Gainer, finally to an even deadlier arachnid, “I Summon Number 77: The Seven Sins!”

 

Lumis shutters at the sight of such awesome creatures. Never does he feel so small and weak. If only they struck her one more time directly! One more time! But all “ifs” from the past are in vain.        

 

Maya commands, “Monsters, attack!” God of dragons and god of spiders throw their blackest magic, blacker than any Dark Game.

 

Lumis shouts, “I activate Mask Catastrophe!” 7 cards float from the Ghouls’ Graveyards to the field: Curse of the Masked Beast, Masked Beast, Masked Beast Des Gardius, Mask of Savagery, Mask of Exhile, Mask of Dissipation, even Mask of Invincibility. “I banish every “Mask” card we have to destroy your whole field! Better yet, you can’t counter it!” All their masks fuse into one final mask, depicting a god of all evil, darkness, and chaos in the universe. The wicked mask bursts, shattering every card on our heroes’ fields; every monster, Spell, and Trap gone.

 

But a small hole in space-time remains on Maya’s field. “You destroyed Heart-eartH dragon, so I can bring it back!” The hole widens to a chasm, her dragon slithers back into play, now surrounded by innumerable stars above. “It gains 1000 ATK for every banished monster in this game!” The stars fall, merging into the godly dragon, making it grow until it dwarves the Egyptian Gods themselves. “90,000 ATK!”

 

Umbra is struck dumb at such a sight. “T-This can’t be r-real!” Seto Kaiba’s Obelisk the Tormentor, the strongest monster that ever defeated him, was puny in comparison. Lumis desperately cries for his mother to rescue him.

 

Victory sings through Maya’s entire body. Victory was hers and Yukio’s! But she pauses. Attacking would mean their deaths, wouldn’t it? Her outstretched arm begins to shake. Could she be a killer?

 

She steels her mind. She is not. Umbra and Lumis would die by their own hands, by the rules of their own twisted game, not hers. She shoots her arm to the sky, the general giving the final salute to her troops. “Heart-eartH Dragon, finish this duel!”

 

Her greatest monster strikes with its blackest power, blacker than any Dark Game, shattering the Ghouls apart.   

  

Team Baby Blast Furnace: 510 || Team Dynamic Duo: 0

 

Maya let go. She would have fallen on the ground had Yukio not caught her. Umbra and Lumis recovered, running to each other for comfort. They snapped their bomb collars with ease, displaying their cowardice for the last time.

 

Yukio scoffed at their craven ways, “Some game of death his turned out to be.”

 

“Oh, it is!” A voice rang out, low, raspy, depraved.

 

The two Ghouls huddled together in fear. “Who is that?” Lumis called out, his voice close to trembling.

 

Our heroes witnessed a fiery shade gather into the form of a man they had never seen before; a large, monstrous, obese man fattened and callous over decades if not centuries of cruel indulgences.

 

The fiery shade of the man seemed to smirk. He lifted his right hand, putting his thumb down. Umbra screamed, his head inflating as a balloon, the final moments of his life filled with unbearable terror and agony. His head burst in a bloody shower, the large corpse brought to the ground.

 

Lumis screamed at the ghastly sight. The flaming projection of the fat man thrust his left thumb down. Lumis wailed for his mother in the last moments of his life before meeting the same wretched fate as his dear friend and partner. They would remain together in death forevermore. Our heroes couldn’t even scream. They froze numb witnessing such terror and cruelty.  

 

The burning shadow of the fat man laughed at their foolishness and weakness. He said with finality, “War is a business. If the stock drops you cut your losses and plan the next investment. The wars of the world are but films in a theatre, you fools; the powerful of this world witness the deaths of infantry and generals the way you witness death on television. If Fate bestows you, dear foot soldiers, with her favors this day you may live to discover the true art of war.”

 

The man vanishes, leaving our heroes alone. Yukio didn’t know how to feel about Maya. He hated her for ending the duel but doubted he ever had the courage to act as she did. Maya didn’t know how to feel about anything. Only Sophia’s safety was clear to her.

 

The theatre of war around them died down. The smoke cleared, revealing the victors. The Saints, Stella, her crew, Hassan, his superior, and their soldiers all arrived.

 

“Thank God you are safe!” The Saints said to our heroes.

 

Yukio gave a fracture of a weary smile. “We had a rough day.” He was right. He and Maya suffered black bruises all over their body. Deranged, Maya called for Sophia one last time before fainting.

 

FOR CREATED CARDS CLICK ON THIS LINK:

http://exodia.gg/topic/94486-ygo-cop-2-a-new-dawn/?p=1846906

[MewMew3]

Duel 32 - The Final Duel

 

 

Keith dragged Sophia by the hair to an arena just for them, a rocky part of Valley of the Kings near a steep cliff. He flung Sophia against the rocky wall, nearly cracking her head, and kicked her duel disk at her.

 

The scoundrel threw away his Ghouls cloaks, revealing his entire face and body. “Bandit” Keith Howard looked gaunt as if years of torment eroded his body. His small, sharp blue eyes had a vicious hungry look about them while his body was tall and lean with broad shoulders. He looked as a hyena always searching for its next carcass to survive.

 

Keith said, “I could take you right now and do with you as I wish. I don’t need to duel a little whore like you. But hey, all whores are useless after the thing between their legs.” Noticing the hurt in his prey’s eyes, he took in all the delight such a sight brought him. “But know this, I’m hurting not only you but Pegasus. Once I beat you I’ll cut you up into little pieces and put you in the next dumpster I find. I’ll even send some pics right to Pegasus’ Facebook. He’s gonna’ love that.”

 

Sophia could not fathom how one person could be so hateful. She could only wonder what horrible thing happened to bend him so out of shape. “Why do you do this?”

 

“WAAH! Why do you this? WAAH!” Keith jeered at her. “You think I got some complex motive behind all this? I don’t.” He gestured his studded sleeveless jacked and combat boots. “I’m no Hannibal Lecter, kid. I’m the nastiest, meanest motherfucking bad boy you’ll ever want to have sex with. What you see is what you get. Now get dueling before my dick loses patience.”

 

Sophia had no choice but to beat him in his own deadly game. She accepted his challenge.

 

Sophia: 8000 || Bandit Keith: 8000

 

SOPHIA’S TURN: “I activate Future Visions!” A portion of her terrain morphs from the black clouds of a dark game to a celestial realm full of stars. “I Summon Fortune Lady Light and banish her,” A small witch in bright yellow clothes and black tights appears only to vanish through a wormhole. “And Summon Fortune Lady Earth.” A larger, more robust witch appears with dark green clothes and staff to match.”

 

“I activate Pre-Preparation of Rights to search for my Ritual cards, which I’ll use. Go, Hymn of Light. I Tribute Lady Earth.” Her witch shatters and falls through a painted glass window. “To Ritual Summon Saffira, Queen of Dragons.” The window itself shatter, the pieces come together, transforming into an elegant blue dragon on its hind legs. “I use her effect to draw 2 cards and discard 1.”

 

This is bad. She has no back row. “Turn End.”

 

KEITH’S TURN: Sophia’s opponent laughs at her. “You’re the most pathetic girl I’ve ever seen! Didn’t draw the card you needed. Let me help you. Card Destruction!” Both players discard their hands and draw anew. “Now Junk Dealer.” Keith revives Cyber Dragon Core and Proto Cyber Dragon, both rusty and dented. “I now play Infernal Reckless Summon, calling out 3 Cyber Dragons!” Sophia looks on in awe and fear as his three cyborg serpents come into play so easily. “Then Level Equalizer! I make all monsters with the same Attribute and Type the same Level.” His will is done, as all his monsters are LIGHT Machines.

 

“I overlay my 2 Cyber Dragons to Xyz Summon Cyber Dragon Nova.” Two white metal snakes vanish to give way to a dark one. “And use its effect to revive a Cyber Dragon.” One white snake returns. “And I overlay my Dragon Nova make Cyber Dragon Infinity.” The black snake morphs into an even larger and more dangerous one. “I repeat this twice over. I overlay the rest of my monsters to make 2 Cyber Dragon Nova and 2 Cyber Dragon Infinity!” Two more formidable black snakes appear.

 

Keith laughs in glee over his creations. “There’s no way you’ll survive this! Infinity, absorb Saffira!” His snake spread its wings, hundreds of tendrils reach out to snatch Sophia’s dragon, but fail to draw her towards it. Keith blinks. “What?”

 

“My Saffira has to be in Attack Position for you to absorb it.” Sophia states. It is why she Summoned her monster to defend, not attack.

 

“Shut your mouth, kid!” Keith violently explodes. “I’ll pound you to oblivion! Infinity, destroy Saffira!” His machine obliges, sending Sophia’s dragon to a quick death. “The rest, attack her directly!” His two remaining machines smash Sophia hard against the wall. She tumbles to the hard ground, head first, scraping her face against the sharp rocks. (Sophia LP 8000 à 2600)

 

SOPHIA’S TURN: She clasps the hurting wound between her eyes, stemming the blood from flowing down her face. ”Here we go again…” Sophia moans to herself, realizing the familiar peril she is in. “The designers should really make a caveat. Like making it so you can Summon only 1 Infinity per turn.”

 

But at least she has a way to fight back. Her knees tremble against such a heavyweight opponent. Her friends are nowhere to be found. She almost falls to her knees but steels her resolve. No one can help her anymore. Now she must stand for herself.

 

Fortune Lady Light reappears from a portal. It effectively travelled to the future, which is now. “I shift Lady Light to Defense Position and set 4 cards facedown.” Sophia ends.

 

KEITH’S TURN: “I Summon Cyber Grater.” An imposing machine sporting drills and grinders appears.

 

Sophia triggers her trap. “I activate Dark Renewal.”

 

“Can’t get past Infinity, kid.” Keith reports, his dragon prepares to blast scorchinh heat from its mouth.

 

“I play Solemn Warning!” Sophia counters, as her Biblical sages appear and call the wrath of Jehovah to incinerate Keith’s monster. Her black coffin of Dark Renewal draws her Lady Light and Keith’s Cyber Grater inside itself, shutting the lid. The coffin vanishes. A tall and aloof witch takes the field, adorned in black robes and tights. “And since Lady Light left the field I Summon Fortune Lady Aeter.” A taller witch of white appears beside the witch of darkness. (Sophia LP 2600 à 1100)

 

Keith smirks. She wants to play rough? She’ll get it! “Cyber Dragons, kill her Fortune Ladies.” His machines fire two pillars of scorching flames at their targets.

 

“I play Quaking Mirror Force.” Sophia responds.

 

“And I chain with my second Infinity.” Keith shouts.

 

“And I chain with Solemn Judgment.” Sophia reacts. Three Biblical patriarchs appear and smite the second infernal machine. With its obstacle removed, Sophia’s barrier of sand and glass blows over the field, burying Keith’s last monster facedown. (Sophia LP 1100 à 550)

 

SOPHIA’S TURN: “Now I’ll strike back!” Sophia declares. She has had enough of Keith’s abuses. “Lady Aeter, kill Keith’s facedown!” And her witch burns Keith’s card away. “I use her effect to banish her to Summon Fortune Lady Water and Fortune Lady Mist from my Deck.” Two witches of water take the avatar of light’s place, one more transparent than another. “I draw 2 for Lady Water. Lady Umbra, attack Keith directly!” And her avatar of darkness strikes Keith in the heart with a curse, making the rouge double over. (Keith LP 8000 à 6700)

 

“I tune Lady Mist with Lady Water to Synchro Summon Samsara, Dragon of Rebirth.” The two fortune ladies replace themselves with an ethereal dragon with no feet. “I set 2 cards facedown. I end my turn.”

 

Keith glares up at the woman he hates, his eyes burning with anger yet with sorrow. His hands tremble. “Kid, you have no idea what I’ve been through.”

 

“Excuse me!” Sophia rebukes him with almost as much venom. “I don’t care what you have to say, not after all the crap you put me through!”

 

“You don’t know what real suffering is like, kid, you who lived in a posh mansion under Pegasus your whole life. But I’ve never had it good. You know, I grew up poor in Texas and had to bake meth to get some cash. But when Yugioh came around I had a chance to make it big, which I did. That’s why I’m called Bandit Keith, because I won all the prizes. But fruity little jabroni Pegasus took all that away from me.

 

“That Michael Jackson jabroni kicked me back to the world of crime I tried to get out of. And now, my life is nothing but violence, murder, gambling drugs. Being Matthew’s right hand man as a Ghoul is my last chance, my last chance of a normal life.”

 

He clasps his shaking hands to get them under control. His eyes dodge left and right and his muscles tighten as if a wild animal stalks him. Sophia almost whispers, “Are you…?”

 

“Yes, shell shock.” Keith laughs ruefully. He continues to tremble, tense as a screw, in what Sophia knows is a panic attack.

 

Sophia offers her heart. “I wasn’t always Pegasus’ protégé. My parents died when I was young and I was a baby prostitute, which is why I never have sex anymore.” Sophia concludes more to herself than to Keith. “I only got adopted because I stole a fake Millennium Puzzle Pegasus displayed and solved it before they found me. Pegasus vowed to adopt a child who solved it, who was me.”

 

Sophia’s story catches even her by surprise. She never tells this deep, dark secret to anyone. Why did she give her heart to the man who is trying to destroy her? “I’m sorry, Keith. For everything.”

 

Keith relaxes, his episode over. He looks at his hands, contemplating his life over and over again. He sighs in utter sadness. Then he gets mad. He looks at Sophia, then his hands, back to Sophia, back to his hands. He clenches his fists. He wants to strangle her and everything she represented! Pegasus would die afterwards but first he would destroy his heart!

 

Keith roars, standing tall again. He is so ferocious he takes Sophia completely aback. Sophia’s heart crushes, her sympathy and grief burning into hatred.

 

Keith laughs at her anger and sorrow. “Good, kid! Get mad! If you wanna’ life, little whore, you’d better hit me with everything you got!

 

KEITH’S TURN: He slyly takes six cards from his right wristband and puts them on top of his deck. His move is so fast, so slick, not even someone with preternatural sight like Mathias can see it. “Oh boy am I ready for a god draw right now!” He draws. “Whoops, there it is! I play Psychic Sanctity! I toss away my hand and guess five cards!” Which he does. He then draws five cards to inspect them, guessing them all right!”

 

“You cheat.” Sophia snarls at him in disgust. Her opponent doesn’t even try to hide his dirty ways anymore.  

 

“Blame Kaiba for not installing anti-cheating software. I next play Pot of Avarice.” He returns 3 Cyber Dragon nova and 2 Cyber Dragon Infinity to his Extra Deck to draw 2. “Next, Benediction! You tribute your monster to summon my monster to your field. Now choose!’

 

“I choose to offer Samsara Dragon of course.” Before Sophia can even react, her dragon vanishes, replaced by a golden giant of a king, Zaborg the Mega Monarch.

 

Keith explains, “And as you know, you gotta’ destroy a monster and we both toss away our Extra Deck based on its Level.”

 

“I know the rules.” Sophia says, “I choose Zaborg to kill itself.” Her monster destroys itself in a discharge of lightning. And both players send 8 cards from their Extra Deck to the Graveyard.

 

“Now things get good.” Keith says. “I activate 2 Elder Entity N’Tiss from my Graveyard. Goodbye, back row!” Sophia’s cards shatter. “And I activate my 3 Novas from my Graveyard, letting me summon 3 Barbaroid, the Ultimate Battle Machine from my Extra Deck!” Three colossus titans appear behind Keith, all with drills bigger than both duelists’ bodies combined. “I play 2 Right of the First Night from my hand.”

 

This is nothing good to Sophia. As long as Keith has higher Level monsters, Sophia can’t destroy any of them with card effects. And while Barbaroid can’t attack her directly, it can kill her Fortune Lady, winning him the duel.

 

“Barbaroids, attack!” Keith commands, victory in sight. His machine tyrants lung at the witch to grind it to dust but all attacks glance away. Three female emissaries appear, creating a barrier with their spell. Sophia had activated Waboku just before Keith destroyed it. Grumbling, Keith set a card facedown.

 

SOPHIA’S TURN: “I activate Pot of Avarice. I can recycle cards too.” And she does so. “I set 3 cards facedown. Come and get me, big guy.”

 

KEITH’S TURN: “What trap could possible save you? Barbaroids, attack!” His machines lung again.

 

Sophia repels him, “I activate Crumbling Earth and Turn Jump!”

 

“Like that’s help! I play Royal Decree! You’re trap is gone!”

 

“Not if I can help it! Mystical Space Typhoon!” Her little tornado sweeps Keith’s trap away, leaving him fuming. How could she outsmart him again! A large pocket watch floats above the entire field, winding itself and time forward by 3 turns. Sophia’s witch of darkness grows ever more powerful while cracks appear beneath Keith’s titans.

 

And now it was time! “I release Crumbling Earth!” Sophia’s trap disappears and Keith’s monsters collapse on the fissure below them, weakened, felled on their own weight. “Lady Umbra, counterattack!” The witch struck a fatal blow at one Barbaroid, causing it to blow up. (Keith LP 4300 à 3200)

 

SOPHIA’S TURN: “My turn! I Summon Fortune Lady Wind and use her effect.” Her witch in bright green appears and takes the assistance of Lady Umbra to obliterate Keith’s two Spells.

 

“Lady Umbra, destroy the next Barbaroid!” The witch destroys the next Barbaroid. “And with her effect I destroy the last one!” And Keith’s last monster bursts. (Keith LP 2100 à 1200) “I set a card facedown.” Sophia ends her turn.

 

Keith’s hands and legs tremble, his face contorts into terror, then rage as he fights his inner demons. He resumes his assault! He will tear Sophia down no matter the cost! He tears six cards from his left armband, not even trying to conceal his crooked ways anymore.

 

KEITH’S TURN: “I set a card facedown and play another Psychic Sanctity.” He discards his hand. Guesses 5 cards and calls them all right. “I play Power Bond and chain it with my facedown Cybernetic Fusion Support.” Keith loses half his Life but it is a small price to pay to banish his dead Machines to summon his most powerful monster ever. (Keith LP 1200 à 600)

 

“I Summon Chimeratech Overdragon!” A coiling mass, a hydra of metal snakes takes his field. As Keith banished not 10, not 15, but 17 Machines to Summon it, his monstrosity has 17 heads, each with 800 ATK, not doubled from Power Bond to 1600 ATK. The entire creature held 27,000 ATK en masse.

 

“I play Battle Fusion!” Energy transfers from Lady Umbra to Chimeratech as it gained 3600 ATK, reaching 30,800. “I play 3 Limiter Removal! Each one doubles my monster’s ATK!” His metal beast overloads with power, going on overdrive, almost ready to break down from the immense pressure, its ATK jumping to 246,400!

 

Keith screams. He lifts his trembling hands to sky as if challenging the sun god Ra himself. “Take all of my hatred, all of my rage, Sophia!”

 

“Don’t!” Sophia pleads. “Hatred will only kill you! Please, end this duel! I beg you! I’m not saying this because I’ll lose! You won’t life past this turn if you attack! Please, no!”

 

Keith has none of it. “Chimeratech, attack! Blast her to bits! I WIN!” All 17 heads hurls their hottest white flames at Keith’s target.

 

“No!” Sophia has no choice. “I play Jauk Dance!” Her trap reveals itself. She banishes Lady Light and Lady Aeter from her Grave. The two ghostly witches of light join the witch of darkness. They raise their staffs together, gathering just enough power to strike back. “Destroy Chimeratech!” The witches receive Keith’s savage attack, accept every ounce of hatred he bottled up inside for the last decade, and throw it back at him. Keith’s monster shatters under its own attack.

 

Now Power Bond’s other effect kicks in. The burning pieces of Keith’s monsters crash into their owner. Keith’s own hatred smashes him backward unto the dirt. (Keith LP 600 à 0)

 

Sophia: 550 || Bandit Keith: 0

 

The duel was done, but hungering darkness surrounding them was not. Keith watched in horror as a bullet muzzle grew out of his right hand. He clasped his hand, desperately trying to steer it away from his head but it was no use. His hand moved by its own will. It pointed to his temple, then fired a bullet. Keith collapsed on the floor dead.

 

Sophia screamed on horror. She collapsed on her knees, sobbing from seeing a sight so terrible, burying her face in her hands. The deadly magic of the dark game finally ended. The black clouds over Luxor faded away, revealing the fairest, most radiant daylight. But Sophia did not see any such light.

 

All surviving duelists found her, including the Saints, as well as Yukio, who carried Maya on his back.

 

“Thank God you’re okay!” Mathias crossed his chest in thanks to his deity.     

 

Maya, who was awake at this point, climbed off Yukio. Both staggered to Sophia and embraced her. The young Sophia buried herself in her friend’s arms, sobbing her heart out. Maya hushed Sophia, holding her like she was her child, saying over and over again, “It’s okay, sweetie… It’s okay… It’s okay…”

 

CREATED CARDS FOR THIS DUEL ARE HERE:

http://exodia.gg/topic/94486-ygo-cop-2-a-new-dawn/?p=1846998

[MewMew3]

Duel 33 - Death of a Hero

 

 

DAY 8 : 3:37 PM : LUXOR

 

Hassan and his troops gathered together once more, resuming their positions. Hassan said, “All the Ghouls have died or fled. But we have many casualties. Only two hundred of our thousand troops remain. As for duelists,” He paused to count every team that remained, which was barely any. Our heroes and Saints remained, as did Stella and her crew, and only a few more. Hassan was shocked at the gravity of their losses. “Maybe duelists survived in other cities.”

 

He felt two little dogs tugging his legs. He looked down, seeing the creatures hugging him were not dogs but Rex and Weevil!

 

“Please don’t leave us!” Rex bleated. “I refuse to die a virgin!”

 

Weevil bawled like a baby, “I want my mommy!”

 

“Rex and Weevil survived? The Ghouls got rusty.” Maya remarked, and the Saints laughed with her.

 

Hassan did not but instead pointed to the top of the hill. “Heishin and his overload are right there. Let’s take them!” He then pointed to each team, giving them strict orders. The Saints were to join him in his capture of the two tyrants while every one else was to stay put, guarded by a faction of his troops. He gestured at Mathias, leader of the Saints, and they marched on.

 

On top of the precipice, Heishin and Gernand looked at the battlefield below in dismay. They lost. Because the Saints helped their foes. This news bode ill to Heishin in other ways. His private scheme was to sacrifice Maya in the emerald tomb beneath his feet, as Gernand’s apprentice instructed. Only then could he get the Book of Isis and use its powers to dominate Egypt and all the Middle East. But Maya’s massive power stirred, just awakening. And she had friends to defend her who were just as powerful.

 

Gernand dropped the saucy meats he held in his greasy hands, his gourmet ruined by the Ghouls’ defeat. And his enemies were after his head. He stammered in fear, falling over his stool, and ran as far away as he could. He stumbled down the steep slopes, protected only by the enormous fat in his body, but kept running as far away as he could.

 

Heishin didn’t bother to run to his aid. Gernand’s cowardice disgusted him so much he was even willing to concede victory to his son; even he was far manlier than his master. He picked up his walkman, receiving a call from Gernand’s apprentice. She instructed him to regroup his forces down the Nile to create a new plan. She would save her craven master then arrive to his camp to aid him.

 

Heishin accepted her directions. He cast a dark spell over his body, turning himself into only a shadow, then slithered away.

 

Hassan spotted the obese overlord stumbling his way down the dirt roads that lead to the pharaohs’ tombs. “Over there!” He cried. His crew advanced to seize the tyrant.

 

Then Gernand’s two strong servants, Matthew and Alexis, dropped on the scene, weakened but determined to defend their master. Matthew summoned his ka, the black dragon Horus, while Alexis summoned hers, the ice dragon Trishula. They threw themselves at the army in a desperate attack.

 

Their wrath of fire and ice mercilessly destroyed some of Hassan’s men but the Saints conjured a dome of white light to save the rest. Mathias and Ivy stepped into battle, summoning their own ka; Matthew’s own black dragon and Ivy’s chimera dragon of fire and ice.

 

All dragons threw their breaths at their opponents; the battle ignited! Their columns of fire and ice clashed at a crucible in the middle, smoldering their attacks in a fiery fountain so strong it melted the stone and sand beneath it. All warriors grunted in strain as they pushed against each other in their battle of wills. Matthew and Alexis pushed the Saints on their back foot, gaining a brief advantage. Mathias and Ivy saw the deadly potential their enemies truly had, so they pushed their willpower further. Their dragons destroyed the crucible they created, pushing the blast at their foes. They destroyed the enemy dragons, wounding Matthew and Alexis, and shoved them back by the power of their strength.

 

The vanquished duelists fled, leaving only Gernand left. Hassan ran after his target in a fury, his troops and the Saints following him, and seized the tyrant. Hassan himself bound his quarry by cuffing his hands and feet. “You are an enemy of the people in Egypt!” He declared to the defeated man. “I, the son of Heishin Mubarak, arrest you for your crimes and hereby jail you until your imprisonment.” With his command, his troops dumped Gernand deep in a nearby cave and stood guard lest he escape.

 

“We’ll go check up on the duelists.” Mathias told Hassan. All the Saints except Ivy remained.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

DAY 8 : 5:28 PM : LUXOR

 

Heishin secured his troops at a secret location near the Nile bank. Though safe, his military training wouldn’t let him rest. He kept vigilant, always peering over his back in case his son arrived to capture him, or even kill him! – Such a thought was almost unthinkable. – It was a great surprise to him when Gernand’s veiled apprentice caught him completely off guard. She was such a strange creature, like she was able to appear and disappear at will.

 

His troops aimed their arms at the cloaked stranger but restrained from firing. The apprentice laughed at their fear and Heishin’s worry. She tore her veil and cloak off, revealing a petit Asian woman with long hair as black as the Nile, skin white as alabaster. Her forehead and head were somewhat large which, combined with her small body, made her look like doll.

 

“Call me Xiaoyi.” She addressed to Heishin. “And you should learn you manners. I fattened your golden cow so you may slaughter her and gain the powers of darkness you so deeply desire.”

 

Heishin’s assed her words with his tactical mind. He knew exactly what she was talking about. “You got Maya and her team to join the tournament?”

 

“Exactly. Forgive me if she gives you a little hassle. No docile prey is worth capturing. The stronger she is the more worthy her sacrifice will be to the darkness. Forget Gernand. I will deal with him. From now on, I am in command.”

 

One of Heishin’s lieutenants laughed at the idea. “You are an unarmed little woman. How dare you defy the will of Allah and make man obey you.”

 

Xiaoyi gazed at him with a sweet comely smile and coyly whispered a few simple words. Her spell planted a bomb of flame in the man’s heart, which then exploded. The lieutenant set ablaze, vomiting flames, his brain melted in a second. He collapsed into a flaming heap on the sand; he died instantly. Heishin and his troops trembled at the ghoulish sight. Even the dictator knew that whatever powers he had, whatever magic she lent to him, was powerless against her.     

 

“My authority is now unquestioned. Good.” Said Xiaoyi to Heishin. “This is our plan. I rescue Gernand and massacre Hassan’s guards. This will cause the Saints to return. Then we go together to take Maya to the emerald tomb. After you gain the dark powers you want you can do as you please.” The plan sounded good to Heishin. It wasn’t like he could refuse her.

 

She darted across the desert on her own to free her master. By nature small and agile, she seemed to barely touch the hot bright sand under her feet. In no time she arrived at the cave, confronting the guards at its mouth. “Who goes there?” Cried one of the soldiers, raising his rifle to snipe the small woman in sight. Before he or any of his comrades knew it they were all dead, their bodies flailed to bloody pieces scattered everywhere. Her attack mauled the cave mouth with gashes so large and deep it looked like a dragon attacked it.

 

Only Ivy remained, barely dodging the dragon’s attack. She could not believe a person with such a strong ka existed. She rushed back to Luxor. She had to warn Mathias and Maximus right away.

 

She helped her master out of the cave mouth. He didn’t bother to thank her. Instead, he snorted at her. “Well done, I suppose.” He scrubbed dirt from his clothes. “Where have you been, as I have become most suspicious of your whereabouts? I expected you to come aid our Ghouls in battle yet you did not. Did you intend the Ghouls to lose, to suffer the most humiliating defeat in their existence? How can I excuse your deplorable negligence, careless little girl? You cost us any chance we had of seizing the Book of Isis. Very well, for your ineptitude and suspicious motives I will subject you to my worst punishments.”

 

Xiayi had no time to deal with this old man’s lecture. “Bro, I got somethin’ fresh on ya’.” She deliberately spoke in a crude, simple way just to annoy him. “Don’t be usin’ words with more than three syllables. You aint’ no class act. And you ain’t never gonna’ be no pimp. Look,” She resumed her normal voice. “How many times do I have to rescue you? It would help if you weren’t such a dirty coward.”         

 

Had Gernand not been old, tired, and weakened, Xiaoyi would not have been alive to regret her ridicule of him. He seized Xiaoyi’s head with his giant hand, lifting her two feet in the air. Xiaoyi winced in pain, tempted to defend herself with her powers but refrained to, knowing better than to overpower him by revealing her true strength. Seized by the head, her skull in risk of being cracked like a walnut, she clenched her teeth together to not make a sound. She would never satisfy him by giving signs of pain.

 

Gernand proceeded to lecture his student. “How dare you resist me, silly little woman. You must have forgotten that I have little preference for women at all. Indeed, stricter colleagues of my generation would have nothing to do with such a vile sex and would not think twice of refusing a jabroni no matter how sweet or small. I had male apprentices whose prepubescent sweet asses I perforated in succession from generation to next generation, but who lacked any power to match my own, so I followed the only logical action and dispatched them all.

 

“Only you had the innate powers to make you worthy apprentice, which persuaded me to take you in my company despite your foul sex and advanced age at thirteen. Indeed, what is a woman? What is a female and what merits does she have, if any? At an instant examination to the male you notice her inferiority, decidedly weaker of body and mind, decidedly lacking in intelligence and innovation. She is naïve and easily manipulated, timorous and cowardly. I say; has woman led any great civilization in history? I say, obviously not.

 

“Indeed, we see woman has been nothing but enslaved, prostituted, bartered, bought, and sold throughout history. A burden on mankind, but nevertheless man has found ways of dealing with such redundant flesh. The Mongols raped their wives and captives with impunity. The Egyptians locked their wives with chastity belts and subject her to beatings if she stepped out of lines. And the Bedouin tribes in the Sahara would execute all females until only the bare minimum to sustain the race, which they would banish such objects to distant caves, visit them only to make sexual use of them.

 

“And what is a modern woman? Naught but a child given a license. Do you suppose her heroic or strong in any way? No idea could be more ridiculous. The modern jabroni smugly sits in her office built by men, the clerkess writes on Internet tabloids on machines invented by the male sex, sells her childish crafts using men to deliver her products in machines build by men. In all woman you see petulance, childishness, shallowness. But, if I say so, though all women be miserable and pathetic creatures the Western male is not to be blamed for courting women of mongoloid ancestry such as yourself, Xiaoyi, for she is intelligent, at least as much as a woman is capable of having intelligence, docile, and obedient to the master. Her quiet contentedness produces peace in the household for her man and ensures the succession of a next generation of men.”        

 

The tyrant’s voice grew hoarse from expounding his polemical thesis. He threw Xiaoyi on the ground as if she was trash. Though Xiaoyi’s head ached from her master’s grip she took his abuse in stride. If only he wore a fedora things would way funnier. He was edgy as he could be. She even called him Mickey Mouse de Sade in private. But all fun and games would end soon. She had rescued him for the last time, but she planned things far in advance.

 

Xiaoyi regretted that her white clothes were now dirty but shrugged. What could she do? She spoke to her master, “Heishin still has many troops. I can join him and if we attack smartly we will get the Book of Isis. I promise you. I only need your permission.”

 

Gernand waved his hand to dismiss her. “Get out of my sight. Your punishment will await you.”

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

DAY 8 : 7:15 PM : LUXOR

 

Ra the sun once more descended to the west of the Nile. Maya, Yukio, and Sophia, bruised from their battles today, paused to look at the setting sun. They wondered what they would do after the tournament, whether they won or lost. Yukio thought of finally getting his band off the ground. Sophia thought of where to go after she turned eighteen and left Pegaus. She wanted to do more than duel all her life. As for Maya, she still had no clue. Perhaps she should let go and let fate decide, or at least point in a direction.

 

Fate indeed found a direction. She had done so long ago. Hassan and Ivy rushed to Mathias and Maximus. “Gernand escaped!” Ivy panted, breathless.

 

“Crap!” Mathias and Maximus followed Hassan and Ivy down to the Valley of the Kings, leaving the duelists exposed.

 

Heishin came with troops, guns blazing. Hassan’s remaining troops valiantly fought back but there were too few and they were far too weak. Heishin shot most of them down himself as he had a strong aim since childhood. The duelists had no guards to protect them. They fled in all directions.

 

Maya tripped on the ground from her extreme fatigue and pain. Yukio and Sophia ran back, trying to protect her. “Go! Go! Leave me! Get out of here!” Maya shouted over the sound of fired bullets. “I’m not worth it!”

 

Yukio and Sophia shouted in denial, wanting to help their dear friend. But a stray bullet bit Yukio in the calf. He screamed, grabbing his leg. Stella and Willow violently pulled Yukio and Sophia by the arms. “We don’t have time!” Stella shouted as she and her crew dragged two of our heroes away.

 

“Maya! No!” They cried over the desert.

 

Heishin threw a black hood over Maya’s head. She squirmed to fight back but Heishin hit her in the stomach in a powerful blow, rendering her still. Maya twitched as suffocation took its toll, blacking her out.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

She woke up deep underground, her senses struck by the largeness and glittering wonders of the chamber she was in. The room was huge, a tomb with walls of emerald, guarded by sculptures of fantastic beasts. Maya guessed they were the greatest monsters in all Yugioh.

 

Heishin towered across the chamber; even distance did not diminish his height. He brandished his black hand, the hand that gave him his powers. “Get up! We will play a dark game.”

 

Maya realized she didn’t have her duel disk on her. “No.” Heishin rebuked her. “We will play a true dark game, the way it was meant to be played.” He waved his arm, calling forth a massive tripartite monster of three bodies and three elements, one of water, one of air, another of thunder. It was Gate Guardian.

 

Maya heard a deep gnawing sound behind her. She turned around, seeing a hidden gate slowly open behind her, sucking in air. Behind the door was nothing but blackness.

 

She toughened her nerves. She had no choice but to fight. She summoned her black, skeletal dragon, ready to fight. But already Maya was faltering. Her body was burned and bruised all over. She was exhausted.

 

“Attack her, Gate Guardian!” Heishin commanded. His monster fire three deluges from their mouths, one of water, one of air, and one of thunder. They collided together to form a large typhoon that spun its way straight at Maya and her dragon.

 

“Attack!” Maya struck back. Her dragon fired a beam of white-hot flame. The two attacks smashed into each other. The tug of war was on! But only briefly. Their strengths seemed equal but Heishin’s attack crept closer and closer to her. He slowly gained ground, inch by inch. Maya pressed on with all of her might, as did Heishin, but though she stood strong she slowly gave way, inch by inch. She struggled, squirmed, pushed with all of her might but Heishin’s attack crept ever closer.

 

Heishin reached the other side. The full force of Heishin’s power and Maya’s own power hit her dragon with their combined strength. The dragon burned and roared, as did Maya, and shattered from the blast. Maya collapsed on the ground, coughing blood. She was done.

 

The open gate pulled her through as if the darkness behind it caught Maya in its snares. She plunged into the abyss, blackening out while still falling. Heishin could see a faint flashing light deep into the darkness but had no idea what it was. It didn’t matter. The darkness ate its victim. The gate shut in a resounding din.

 

Mission accomplished. Heishin would’ve jumped in victory if he weren’t old. He too was tired. His rule as Egypt’s dictator was for only two months, but it was already two months too long.

 

The tomb floor opened, revealing a hidden chamber, where a large golden bull came from the ground. The idol clenched in its mouth a set of thin, unbreakable emerald tablets in its mouth bound together by gold strings. Heishin greedily tore the tables from the bull’s mouth. At last the Book of Isis was his! The darkness granted him the power! It granted him the world!

 

He opened the emerald tablets, eager to see what dark secrets slumbered within. He saw nothing. All the tablets were blank. Heishin screamed in despair. He threw the tablets at the wall, breaking them into emerald shards.    

[MewMew3]

Duel 34 - The Oaks of Mamre

 

 

Am I alive or dead? I float in blackness, I could not tell – All senses gone. I see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing. – I smell something; dirt, clogged up my nose, taste it too. I cough in spurts. Dirt and blood come from my nose and mouth. – I feel a terrible pressure over my entire body, and I realize I’m buried under a mountain of rock and dirt at the bottom of a tomb. My ribs are broken. Each breath stabs me in the chest.

 

I realize I will never leave this place; the pit is my grave. Despair swells in my heart and I shed quiet tears. The world of light is forever gone. I see it, maybe even somehow put things in it, but never touch it again, never bask in the sun’s innocent glow. And despair gives way to a sinking feeling of cold ash. All flame is gone.

 

I’m tired of living. I give up. I would take my own life but I can only move my arm at this state. I hold my breath as long as I can to suffocate myself, only to gasp for air. I swallow clods of dirt so I may choke but I cough and vomit it all out. I can’t even kill myself. That is how pathetic I am. I can only lay back to dwell in my gloom.

 

I am so stupid, to weak to ease my life’s burdens and too timid to end my time on this earth. I once believed in Allah as my mother did, I dropped him, and now I think of the old Egyptian Gods. Did they too send suicides to a lake of fire? Does giving up the will to live and letting yourself die count as suicide? If so to both questions, may the old gods forgive me for my sins. May my heart, good deep down, not betray me in their presence. May Thoth judge my life with dispassion, may Khonsu defend my case as a just lawyer to calm Osiris and the forty-two gods who stand in my trial, may Isis hear my complaints as calm me as my mother and Sophia would, as the burden that crushed me in life is finally lifted in death.

 

My name has no worth. I am hated for causing my father and mother grief as a wild, wicked child. I am hated for bullying my little classmates at school as my father hit me and I filled with the rage to hit someone else. I am hated for causing my mother’s death; my antics and pranks weakened her, letting lung cancer take her. I am hated for becoming withdrawn and obstinate, for giving up my musical talents when my father needed them most, for joining crowds from the street my father hated. I am hated for betraying both JC and my father, for not being black enough and not being white enough. I am hated for hurting Sophia, the one I love most, the one I should never hurt.

 

There is no one I can ever talk to. To whom can I speak? No friends are sincere, families hate each other, and the rare people you meet you can trust will always vanish in due time. To whom can I speak? Evil is rewarded while no good deed goes unpunished; all groups of people are corrupt while too little people are good too few times. To whom can I speak? I can’t trust anyone, and with such good reason, while they can’t trust me, and with good reason. No one can be truly honest with another. To whom can I speak? I will never be able to truly touch another person. The barriers of the physical make being intimate impossible. To whom can I speak? I will always be alone. I will live this way, die this way, be this way for all time.

 

I become delirious as hunger pains me and thirst dries me; my mind loses its chains. I travel far in the darkness to some distant star, and I see the truth. I exist in a five novel series, the first two revealed, the remaining three still obscure. I see that my entire life, the entire lives of everyone else, is only one timeline, one dimension in many. The different dimensions reveal themselves to me as infinite branches on a tree.

 

I can only make out a few of them. One branch is mine; I see the pharaoh Atem’s life three thousand years ago, his journey in the mid nineties and my journey in the two thousands. The rest is dark. I see an alternate timeline, one even stranger than the first; I see Atem’s modern journey, then the pointless duels of a boy named Judai at a Duel Academy, then Yusei battling his rival, Jack Atlas, in a duel while on motorcycles, then Yuya going to a Barian dimension, then Yuya travelling through four dimensions? This has gone too far!

 

Each of Yuya’s four dimensions is a timeline in itself. The first one I already described to you, the Standard Dimension. The second is an alternate “GX Dimension” or Fusion Dimension, the third an alternate “5Ds Dimension” or Synchro Dimension, and the fourth a “Zexal Dimension” or Xyz Dimension where the mad scientist Z-one defeats Yusei, banishing Synchro monsters. Still there are others. I see a “Dark Dimension” where the archfiend Bakura destroys the Pharoah, shrouding the world in darkness and hellfire. And yet another, a “POVerse Dimension” that, like mine, follows Atem’s journey, then follows the exploits of three Saints; Mathias, Maximus, and James, and later Ivy. Did the Saints I know travel dimensions? And for why?

 

To even more insane revelations: I discover all the dimensions I envisioned are titled “Yugioh” in other dimensions, and in those dimensions they’re fictions, franchises created to sell children’s trading cards to stupid boys. Not unlike the way Yugioh cards are sold in my domain. Is there an overlord of dimensions? Yes! I sense a strong guiding force behind all “Yugioh dimensions”. I see a light above the tree. I climb to reach it, eager to see the face of the most sublime being of creation.     

 

I arrive at a small, dank basement. A fat, foul-smelling man sits behind his outdated computer. He is pale as death, his face covered by blistering pimples and an unwashed beard that looks like untrimmed pubic hair, his unwashed long hair tied back in a ponytail. The beast wears a large black shirt with a ThunderCats logo, drenched in his armpit sweat and dotted with Cheeto crumbs, and khaki shorts. On his feet he wears two thick knee socks and sandals. The basement is as repulsive as the man. His desk is strewn over with empty Dorito backs and empty soft drink cans he peed in to avoid leaving his basement to go to the bathroom. His basement was littered with action figures and other collectibles, but most strikingly with an entire plush collection of My Little Pony toys. And did they have holes in their butts similar to those in flashlights?

 

This man is Orochi the Basement Dweller. He is our dimensional overlord. Nothing in my life is more horrible than this revelation. Orochi keeps all the Yugioh dimensions as an online game he plays with his friends, all as disgusting as he is. I ponder if I have free will as a kind of NPC or if I am Orochi’s puppet but I did not solve this mystery. Something distracts Orochi from his game. Some random women online criticized him for his sexist views. Orochi tips his fedora, squints his small, mean-spirited eyes, and clenches his small mouth. He throws an invective at her, hammering away at the keyboard with stubby fingers tainted orange.

 

So this is my revelation. I turn to you, dear reader, to speak to you for the first time. I am an odd person, I never had an easy life, and I don’t like many morals. I try my hardest to be as strong as I can. You may not agree with what I believe in or my methods but you must at least respect me for my will and effort. You cannot deny those things. I often feel I must justify my actions, justify my entire life, and even justify my existence in some way, even though I’m very good at pretending otherwise. I am brash but I conceal much. How much? Maybe you will find out.

 

 

I am almost at the end of my life. I am ready to expire. – A light approaches me, so bright, sweet, and warm. I see her: her body, her face, and her radiant soul most of all. Sophia! I reach out to her with my one free arm but she floats one inch too far away. She sings to me, and at last I understand. I must still fight, if not myself than for Sophia. And for Yukio. I won’t let Sophia be harmed. She will live, not die like my mother did. And somewhere down that path I will be able to fight for myself again and things, I hope, will work out.    

 

Sophia sings to me, hope ignites inside of me. I push against the rock and dirt above me. My body strains and collapses. I am so weak from hunger and thirst. I am ready to give up but I repeat Sophia’s music in my head over and over again, letting the same melody play at different times, letting them collide together. I push against the rock and dirt again, straining with all might. I push – my strength and Sophia’s song swells, doubles over itself again and again as an infinite canon – I never look back.

 

I pushed just enough rocks out of the way and I slither out from under the ruins. You do not have to be a great person, just a person. I am free.

 

--------------------------------------------------------

 

Maya blindly crawled through a small tunnel, scratching her already battered body terribly. She wanted water more than anything else but she found only ancient dead dirt in her mouth. She pushed through a tiny door and entered.

 

A whole new chamber opened to her. It was as vast as a cathedral, and alive! Strangely, the entire tomb was full of lush plants and moss, full of the murmur of insects, and in the middle a sparkling wide pool over forty feet wide and thirty feet deep. The pool was so clear you could clearly see the bottom. She saw a large streak of light from high above, light that passed from the surface through an extremely long thin tunnel to light up the entire chamber. This was a “living” tomb.

 

Before Maya could do anything she felt her body nag her acutely since she had not relieved herself in three days. Seized this pressure more than anything else, Maya relieved herself of her load in a bush. “You, reader, may be offended.” Maya explained to you. “Yes, I soiled an ancient tomb but I would’ve exploded if I didn’t piss and sheet just now. The needs of the living are greater than the needs of the dead.” I hope the reader will be mature enough to at least consider her extreme situation.

 

Done with her absurd philosophy, Maya stripped naked and jumped into the sparkling pool. She swallowed all the water she could while she swam to wash herself clean to the point she almost drowned. Then she saw a chest at the very bottom of the pool. She dove into the deep, only to resurface. It was too deep.

 

She felt an urgent need to get the chest below at all costs. She had an idea. She tied herself to a heavy stone with a vine, then hurled the stone into the pool. She sank deep down with the stone, untying herself at the very bottom. She seized the chest, which was felt as light as air. Maya dragged herself and her treasure to the surface, bursting on shore, coughing out the water in her lungs.

 

After a rest, she opened the chest. Inside laid a single book. The cover was blank, made of cheap leather. How odd. She opened it, the pages inside glittering as emerald; perhaps they were razor thin sheets of women emerald? She saw the hieroglyphs inscribed in each page, which could be hieratic text. It was the Book of Isis.  

 

Maya couldn’t believe it. It was hers. Seized by more curiosity, she explored the tomb some more, approaching an open sarcophagus of limestone. No body or coffin lay within. The Book of Isis was the real body, the real find, as it were. But how did Pegasus ever find this place to dispose of his precious book? Maya imagined he didn’t find it at all. He probably at most read a few cryptic instructions of where to dump his Book. He must have found what looked like a dried up well and simply tossed it all the way down here. No one really knew.

 

She felt the walls of the tomb for a way out, and find one she did. She crawled through another tiny tunnel, then climbed up that tunnel for over thirty feet, then fell down a secret door from the ceiling. She noticed it was the emerald tomb she dueled Heishin. She noticed another tiny door, and crawled through it, reaching the very bottom steps of another tomb.

 

She climbed up the large but very steep tunnel above, electric lights now leading her the way. The rocks and dirt were very loose. A dislodged stone almost broke her leg. She ascended the one hundred and ninety four meter tunnel, reaching near the surface in the tombs large chambers. She realized she was in the tomb of Seti I, the father of the Great Ramses. She climbed to the surface, meeting the sun’s delightful rays and the sweet air at last, oblivious to all the tourists she frightened. She offered Sophia, or rather the love she felt for Sophia, her thanks.

[MewMew3]

Duel 35 - Setting in Haran

 

 

DAY 11 : 6:18 AM : LUXOR

 

Our remaining heroes felt great pain over the loss of their friend. Yukio, Sophia, and the Saints, knowing Maya was captures, spend three days looking for her, scouring over the barren deserts of Egypt. They found no sign of her.

 

Our heroes had no choice but to accept that she died. Mathias suggested they mark a cross over the bank of the Nile overseeing the rising sun. Yukio objected, saying Maya was like JC, an edgy atheist who wanted a violent, glorious death. They met a compromise; Yukio secured a large line leaf over a mound of rocks. The pine leaf symbolized immortality to both the Old and the New faiths, the New indebted to the Old.

 

Yukio, Sophia, and the Saints made a silent prayer for their fallen friend – which broke as disturbed tourists fled Luxor as if they ran from the plague. “What in Ra’s name?” Yukio asked an American woman fleeing with her little boy what happened. The mother screeched of a dirty, crazy, naked woman running shamelessly across the desert. “I did not pay my health insurance to have my child scarred for the rest of his life!” The soccer mom declared. “I will sue Trafalgar Tours for damages as soon as I return home!”

 

“Sweet Irish Jesus bless my immortal soul! Miracles do happen!” Mathias pointed at a naked woman caked with dirt laboring her way across the desert, too weak to walk but plodding on as hard as she could. She sometimes stopped to dance with joy in the warm sun.

 

She rushed towards Yukio and Sophia, they ran after her, embracing each other in gratitude. Their friend was alive! Maya devoured Yukio in kisses and kissed Sophia on her cheeks and forehead. She plucked the pine leaf from the stone mound and tore it to pieces. “I’m not dead yet you idiots!” She collapsed on the ground, almost ready to lose her consciousness.

 

The Saints dispatched for a medical team while Yukio and Sophia offered her food, which she devoured like a wild animal. They took Maya to have a thorough bath and gave her light, bright clothes so she may be clean again. Nurses and a doctor arrived to put her in bed, test her blood sugar levels, put many bandages on her scratches and burns, and put an IV in her arm. Maya didn’t really care as she easily fell to sleep, resting as a mummy in its tomb.

 

DAY 11 : 7:34 PM : LUXOR

 

Maya slept for a total of thirteen hours. During that time Yukio and Sophia planned what would happen in the finals. They decided to meet during the sunset of the twelfth day, which would be tomorrow. They called Jolene and JC, telling them the good news, and rejoiced when they returned good news to them. Jolene recovered in a hospital and returned to JC’s apartment in Chicago. The Ghouls were nowhere to be seen, but neither was Xiaoyi to their puzzlement.

 

Hassan meanwhile, with the assistance of Heishin’s former general, gathered his troops in Luxor. They planned to invade the capitol building late at night. Hassan humbly requested if the Saints would help them to which Mathias nodded. Heishin had more than an army. He had occult powers too.

 

Yukio and Sophia, who sat by Maya as she slept, were surprised when she woke from her huge slumber. Maya beaconed for her friends to come closer. “I met God.”

 

Yukio and Sophia crept to her bedside. “And?”

 

“She’s black.”

 

Yukio laughed, nearly shoving her off the bed as he pushed her in jest. “Really?”

  

“Well, no. He’s really a neck beard who plays World of Warcraft and posts on Reddit. His name is Orochi the Basement Dweller. I swear.” And she spoke of the Yugioh dimensions and how everyone was a character in a five novel series. She turned to the audience, saying, “Hey, you reading this! You know I’m right!”

 

“Did your head crack when you fell?” Yukio said to her. “Who are you talking to?”

 

“The audience.”

 

Yukio threw his hands up in the air. “Whatever. I think you just got stoned and forgot about it.” He and Sophia gave Maya more food to each, which she ate enthusiastically, and briefed her on their plans. While she was asleep they entered their Millennium Item Cards into the Duelist Network database, which told them the location of the finals. At ten o’clock at night sharp, a special jet would arrive at the Cairo Airport. The people at the gate would not accept tickets and would only allow eight duelists with Millennium Item Cards. Only one person per team could come.

 

Our heroes became gloomy. It meant they would be separated; one of them would go alone to fight the final battle with Matthew, who would be there as surely as the sun rises to the sky. They overheard Hassan speaking with Matthew. They would invade Heishin’s army tonight. Maya started to get up but Yukio pushed her back in bed, saying to her, “Don’t you even think about it. You can’t even control your Ka let alone fight him.”

 

“But I can, at least when in huge danger.” But Maya’s objections were quickly silenced. Yukio would not let his love risk getting killed again.

 

Mathias gestured Yukio and Sophia to follow him. He briefed them on the protocol. If they would not fight they would stay in the village, far away from any large cities. Was that understood? The two nodded. Mathias patted them on the back. “Take care.” The Saints, Hassan, and his troops jumped on jeeps and armored vans and began their drive to the capitol.

 

Yukio and Sophia returned to the small bedroom to check on their friend only to see the bed was empty. Maya sneaked out at the first opportunity. Her IV chord lay on the floor as she had torn it off to escape.

 

Yukio felt a deep sinking feeling in his stomach. “Oh no.” Why didn’t she ever listen to him? How could one person be so stubborn and perverse? And he thought he was a crazy rock star!

 

Sophia hugged him. “She did the right thing. She’ll make it. I know she will.”

 

DAY 11 : 10:45 PM : CAIRO

 

Heishin sat in the President’s chair in his office, tense as a man in the Hall of Judgment. Matthew and Alexis stood opposite to him across the desk while Xiaoyi oversaw his conduct from behind. Xiaoyi crafted the perfect plan for Heishin to crush his rivals and take his son back to his camp where he belonged. Everything was set. Xiaoyi set a spell on his soldiers so they would strike at the right time.

 

Meanwhile, Hassan, the Saints, Maya, and his troops descended on the capital. The streets were blocked with cars as usual but no troops or tanks were to be seen. It was too quiet. Hassan saw how Heishin’s reign of terror scarred the city. Entire streets were destroyed, buildings shut down, people lined up for rations even this late at night. He pointed his observations to the Saints and Maya.

 

The capitol building was unguarded and, as Hassan and company cautiously poked their way inside, deserted too. Things were not good. Hassan steeled his nerves, knowing the conflict that was to come. He ordered the Saints to secure the main chamber while he led the way to the President’s office with Maya by his side. As they stepped into the office, Hassan saw how eerily it represented the oval office, the office of the American President Barrack Obama.

 

Heishin stood from his chair to greet his son. “It’s been some time since we last met, boy. I salute you for making it this far. But it all ends here. I haven’t come this far to be beaten by a child.” He waved his cursed black hand, a call to battle, and the door behind his rivals slammed shut.

 

Every door in the capitol building slammed shut. The Saints perked their ears, knowing the battle would begin soon. They were right. Hundreds of Heishin’s troops appeared from nowhere as if they made themselves invisible somehow. The Saints knew they probably did. Now their charm wore off they were ready to strike their quarry down.

 

Heishin’s soldiers fired their machine guns and the Saints combined their powers to shield Hassan’s soldiers with a dome of mirrors. The enemy’s bullets rebounded, shooting themselves. But the Saints’ advantage quickly ended. Mathias and Alexis appeared, calling forth their dragons of fire and ice once more to break the barrier down by force. The Saints strained their bodies and spirits to hold the barrier but it cracked and later collapsed.

 

Heishin’s troops resumed the battle, gunning Hassan’s soldiers down. The Saints summoned their own ka. Mathias and Ivy fired at their enemy’s ka together. But Matthew was smarter than he thought. Rather than meeting them head on, Matthew and Alexis grabbed their dragons, then made them dodge the attack, carrying their owners to safety. The Saints’ attack whizzed past their target to break the entrance door to pieces.

 

Matthew and Alexis struck back, their dragons striking Maximus directly. Maximus summoned his ka, Swordswoman Crusader to block the attack, but the combined strength of two incredible people was too much even for him. Both man and ka were thrown back to a pillar. Maximus crashed to a pillar, his Ka vanishing.

 

The brutal pair shot their fiery energies at Maximus again. Ivy instinctively blocked their assault on her husband with the magic from her bare hands, but it was too costly. She too collapsed, by her husband’s side.

 

Matthew sneered at their defeat, “Love conquers all, huh.”

 

Mathias glared at Matthew, clearly intending to kill him. If Matthew did not believe in love, then he would pay for it. He had a plan. “Horus! Attack!” His dragon ignited its attack of black flames. Matthew and Alexis braced for the attack together. But Mathias didn’t aim at them. He aimed at the ceiling! The vault crumbled, heavy stones and concert hurling down at his foes. Matthew and Alexis jumped away in desperation, barely avoiding their deaths.

 

Now they were separated. Mathias cruised towards Alexis, taking out enemy troops with ease. He hurled one attack after another at Alexis, who fought back with all her might but could not resist a veteran of battle such as Mathias. His dragon slammed her beast against a hall wall, sending Alexis crashing against the wall too. “Matthew! Help me! Please!” She called out.    

 

Matthew saw what Mathias was up to! He wanted to kill Alexis! He saw a fork in the road. Maximus and Ivy shrunken at his right and Alexis in peril at his left. If he defended Alexis he would take such a heavy blow he might die. Two of his three enemies were sitting ducks. He called for his dragon to attack.

 

Mathias could not believe it! Matthew was ready to sacrifice his love in the blink of an eye. Actually, he could believe it. He knew selfish prep school kids such as Matthew like the back of his hand. He couldn’t even count the number of them he humiliated in Yugioh. Now his comrades were in danger! He left Alexis to defend them.

 

Matthew shuddered in immense pain before he could command an attack. A senior general, Hassan’s second-in-command, shot him in the ankle. Matthew roared, his dragon stomped on the general with its clawed foot, breaking his bones and tearing out his organs. Then he saw a comet of black flame blazing his way, a shot fired by Mathias! He dodged the attack.

 

Mathias bought himself enough time to regroup with his allies and Matthew did the same with Alexis. Ivy used the time she had to heal Maximus and herself a bit. She told Mathias and Maximus her plan. “Now we attack together.”

 

Mathias and Ivy held each other’s arms and together their dragons of ice and fire threw their attack at the enemy. Matthew and Alexis regrouped and redoubled with their own attack. All four attacks crashed in the middle, battering every soldier around the building, scorching all desks and paintings to ash. Both factions pushed each other with all of their will. Mathias and Ivy fell on their back foot, and tried to push back as much as they could, but this time they could not. Matthew and Alexis did not suffer from fatigue this time. They were too strong at their full power.

 

Maximus made a bold move. He dashed at the center of all the chaos. “Brother, no!” Mathias called as Maximus disappeared in the flames. Maximus called his ka forth, Swordsman Crusader, and threw her at his opponents, weathering the smelting crucible he was in.

 

Matthew and Alexis saw a mighty armored woman appear out of nowhere and slice open the hearts of both their dragons. Both sorcerers redoubled in pain, letting go of their concentration. Mathias and Ivy seized their chance, pushing back with all their might. Their attacks collided with Matthew’s and Alexis’ ripping them to pieces and burning the pieces to ashes, throwing Matthew and Alexis against a wall.

 

The two young adults twitched, coughing blood. The Saints’ spirits soared in victory but not for a long. A wave of pure darkness swept over, picking up the defeated Matthew and Alexis at its center. Mathias saw only the glimpse of a small pale woman with long black hair before she vanished, carrying Matthew, Alexis, and the black waves she summoned with her.

 

Ivy took the injured Maximus by her side to tend to his wounds. Mathias continued with the battle, sicking his dragon on any enemy soldier he could find. None were a match for him, letting him clear the opposing army with ease. The battlefield was secure.

 

But the battle was not yet one. Meanwhile, in the President’s office, Heishin summoned his behemoth ka, Gate Guardian, while Maya summoned hers, Deadstar Dragon. The two clashed violently, their attacks striking at the center of the office. Maya and Heishin destroyed the entire office with their fiery wills. Heishin gained ground, inching closer and closer to Maya as he did before. Maya fell back bit by bit. Bent on her back foot she decided it was enough. She doubled her efforts, pushing past the very limits of her will.

 

Their attacks crashed at the center of the office again but slowly the center moved to Heishin, inch by inch. Heishin struggled back, but no matter what he did Maya steadily advanced towards him, inch by inch. Heishin grunted under the pressure, incredulous. “How! Can! This! Brat! Be! So! Strong!” He looked over his shoulder in terror. “Xiaoyi! Help me!” He begged. But Xiaoyi bailed out of the fight a long time ago and never had any intention of helping him. Maya’s attack hit him, destroying Gate Guardian an entire side of the President’s building.

 

Heishin crashed on the President’s desk, which splintered and crumbled under the pressure of the duel. He nearly fell off the building and to his death; Maya’s attack was so fierce she blew up a wing of the building to the outside world.

 

Heishin felt his back break under the pressure. He slumped to the floor, vomiting blood from his mouth. But he was not defeated yet. He reached for a small hidden gun. He aimed at Maya for the kill. – But Hassan shot his hand! He dropped his gun, grabbing his bloodied hand. Maya picked up his gun, pressing the muzzle on his forehead. Could this girl kill him? It couldn’t be!

 

Maya glared at him below, her eyes broiling with volcanic flames, her frightening face bent into an expression of pure hatred. Hassan lowered his gun, lifting his other hand. He gently murmured to her to calm her down. “It’s okay, Maya. He lost. See how he resigned himself in defeat. He surrendered. I know he hurt you and your friends. He hurt all of us but we’re better than he is.”

 

Heishin sighed more deeply than he ever did in his life. “It’s pointless, my son.” Tears welled in his eyes. “I failed as a ruler, soldier, father, and a man. I failed Allah but I failed you most of all. I never bothered to understand you, my son. For that I am truly sorry.”

 

Maya’s hatred was so great Heishin’s words did not move her in any way, and the fallen man knew this. He said to his, “Don’t bother convincing the girl. I knew the moment I looked into her eyes that she was a killer. May I die with honor, whether I arrive to Paradise or Hell.” He looked into Maya’s eyes and saw only the promise of Hell. He looked at Hassan one more time. “I love you, son.”  

 

Maya fired the gun, blowing Heishin’s brains out.

 

Duel 36 - Where to Now?

 

 

DAY 12 : 12:13 AM : CAIRO

 

Maya stood completely still as if frozen by time, locked in the present. Everything else seemed still. The corpse of the man she killed lay quiet as if made of stone, as if the man was asleep. Maya was so locked in the moment she could only take small bits of information at a time. The burned smell of the fired gun she held. The metallic smell of blood. The broken desk. The split face of her victim. Yes. Her victim. She killed him. Maya could barely accept the fact. She was a murderer. She dropped the gun in disgust, backing away from the corpse, shuddering, and wept in her hands.

 

Hassan stood in shock, dropping his gun. He could not believe Maya killed his father. He hated her more than anything in the world and wished he had the strength to kill her, to send her to Hell where she belonged. But he realized how pointless it would be, and how pointless it was to wish his father did not die. There was no way for Heishin not to die. If he did not die in battle he would be put to death in a military court for sure. It was pointless to hate Maya.

 

Maya expected him to lurch back from her in horror at what a monster she was but he didn’t he. He pulled down her hands from her face and hugged. “It’s over.” He said to her over and over again, somewhat like the Maya comforted Sophia. “It’s all over.”

 

Maya too was relieved it was all over. Except it wasn’t. The finals lay ahead. She preferred to ignore it but if she did she would dwell on her murder but thinking about the finals was worse. She always knew she was a difficult person. Even in high school she would steal from people and damage property but she knew she was a good person who stood for everything right deep down. She never thought she could kill someone like a truly evil person could. But proof of her evil was in front of her.

 

She was terrified. If she could murder someone what other atrocity could she commit? If God did not exist than everything was permissible and likewise Maya had no limits to her actions. She thought she did and she was a good person who did the right things at the end of the day but she destroyed those illusions with her own hands. In college she could still pretend to be a rebellious teenager and do as she wished. She worked in the adult world, influenced the adult world for many years, but now she had to fully admit she was in that world and understand the heavy consequences she reaped with her actions while in it.

 

Hassan tapped her on the shoulder. “Let’s go.” He left for the main chamber, Maya silently following him. The building’s center was a horrible mess with soldiers scattered everywhere in bloody heaps and furniture burned into charred splinters. Only a few soldiers were alive, all of them serving Hassan. The winning leader saw the Saints together at a corner, Ivy tending to Maximus’ burn wounds. Mathias gave him a wry thumbs up. We won. Hassan returned the gesture.

 

He said to Maya, “I’ll bring your friends over here with all their belongings to the Cairo Airport. My troops will guard it with their lives. You will be safe. Your tournament is over.” He radioed his troops with his walkman. “Deliver all duelists throughout Egypt to the Cairo Airport.”

 

Hassan recognized a crushed corpse as the remains of the senior general. He ran to the corpse and wept fresh tears. The senior general was his private tutor in his earliest years. The man was a second father to him. Now he was died. But Hassan was a man now, a man of his people. He paid his guardian his final respects before escorting Maya to the airport.

 

DAY 12 : 3:18 AM : CAIRO

 

Yukio and Sophia greeted Maya warmly at the airport with many hugs. Maya ached inside but refused to tell her friends what bothered her. She didn’t want Sophia, who she loved with all her heart, to hate her. She didn’t want Yukio, her lover, to leave her. Nothing is worse than aching and having friends you can’t reach out to even when you are close enough to touch them. Such was Maya’s state and she resigned herself to it, her first murder weighing heavily in her heart. She had truly grown up.

 

DAY 12 : 5:13 AM : CAIRO

 

Hassan’s troops escorted more duelists to the airport. Our heroes noticed Stella and her team and instantly greeted with them. They passed the time recounting their adventures together, trying to put the war behind them. The Saints arrived to the airport, battered and bruised but not broken. Mathias was irrepressible as ever. He challenged our heroes to a pizza battle. Whoever ate the most buffalo chicken pizza faster would win a free Pot of Avarice.

 

Mathias’ bait was all too tempting. Maximus took it in a second. Their game was on. The buffalo chicken pizza duel began! With Ivy as referee! Our heroes and Stella’s team watched with bemused horror as two grown men greedily wolfed pizza down like hungry children. The contest was fierce but Maximus’ short body didn’t hold up against Mathias’ large one. He excused himself to go to the bathroom.

 

Everyone laughed at the Saints’ mischief. Even Maya in her terrible state of mind couldn’t stop herself from laughing. Life goes on, even for killers.

 

Rex and Weevil arrived to the scene too late. A disgruntled Rex complained that if they only went in the army car a few minutes sooner they would’ve seen the entire contest. A disappointed Weevil corrected him, insisting they didn’t have a choice when the Gestapo seized them by force. Weevil finished, “And I might add, you farted in the van! You stink like a skunk! You stunk up the place so bad even soldiers fainted!” And the two dorks kept on quarreling.

 

Maria’s team and Akira’s team arrived. Our heroes paid them cordial greetings, civil with each other but most definitely not friends. Michael and his team arrived, long disqualified from the tournament, as did other teams that didn’t make it to the finals. Maya those that did, spying her competition. The Saints and Stella were her most obvious rivals, as was Maria, who she wanted to settle things with once and for all. Rex and Weevil somehow made it to the finals, in the first time in their entire career in fact. Would Matthew be there for the finals? She had no idea.

 

Sophia suddenly spaces out. She stares at one point but doesn’t really look at it. She sees a vision; deep in space an ominous black hole looms ahead, a center of darkness, with debris orbiting it, dangerously close to falling in. She sees three people standing, a family of one woman, one man, and one child looking onward as if ready to brave traveling past the event horizon.

 

Sophia returned to the airport. Yukio waved his hand in front of her face. “Yoohoo! You here?”

 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Sophia replied to him. “I think we have many challenges ahead.”

 

“Of course we do.” Yukio said. “But no matter what happens we’ll be together. And yes, Maya, I mean it. It’s not a cliché. If we stick together, trust each other, help each other, we can overcome anything.”

 

Sophia gave Yukio a high five. Maya did not.

 

Ra, the sun, once more rose to the sky as he always did, driving out the chaos of night and blessing the land with daylight. Yukio reminded Maya and Sophia that details on the finals would be released at noon, when Ra reaches his highest point. It was best to sleep while they could.

 

Our heroes agreed on it. They created makeshift sleeping bags using blankets in their suitcases and used their backpacks as makeshift pillows. Yukio and Sophia easily fell to sleep while Maya did not, her thoughts still weighing heavily on her. She turned to you, reader, and said, “I don’t know what future lies ahead but I must always face it with courage and take it in stride. I would say something witty right now but I’m out of jokes. More will come in the third novel, that I assure you. May you face any challenges ahead of you with courage, with feet light and head held high. I the way I did. If you need my strength ask and I will give it to you. Good morning.” And Maya fell asleep.