Yugioh the Dark Dimension

[MewMew3]

Duel 15 – Tighter Knots
 

Maya struggles to stand on her feet, her knees wobbling and her chest burning from her fractures ribs, but she forces her way onward. She cannot lose this tournament. She might as well die if she had to because if she loses she won’t have a life, anyway. Maya even realizes the humor in these words; people would laugh if any other Yugioh character said it, and maybe some would even laugh at her, but she needs the money more than anything. The banks would use her crushing debts to drive her homeless and, well, she might as well striptease or turn tricks for Wall Street stockbrokers, but as enticing as the thought of a rich a****** snorking coke from her ass seems to her, it is not a fate she will tolerate.
 

Maria: 4600 | Maya: 1500

MAYA’S TURN: “I play Jewels of the Valient; each time I banish a card from my Graveyard, I get a mill a card. Dark Summoning Beast gives me the perfect opportunity; I banish it to add a Sacred Beast monster to my hand, and this lets me mill a Carboneddon. Next, the Permanent Spell Card Triangle Force, putting three more from my Deck to the field, and I destroy them all to Special Summon Hammon, Lord of Striking Thunder. I offer my Phantasm Token to Tribute Summon my second Dark Summoning Beast, and Tribute it to Special Summon Uria, Lord of Searing Flames from my Deck!”

The bright sky broils into dark clouds yet again, hailing the dark advent of two more huge fiendish beasts; all three together resembling the three Egyptian Gods: Raviel for Obelisk, Uria for Ositis, and Hammon for Ra. “I activate Fallen Paradise to draw two cards, and I use Uria’s effect to pop Maria’s faecdown card.” The red fiend of illusions blasts away its target with a gust of flames. “I combine the Sacred Beasts together – I don’t need Polymerization to fuse them. – I call form Armityle the Chaos Phantom!” Raviel, Uria, and Hammon melt into each other, their limbs and organs fusing together into a serpentine body, Uria’s head becoming the left arm and Hammon’s head becoming the right, creating the ultimate illusion beast.

Mathias himself gases at the ancient creature in wonder. Maya’s titan truly calls back to the dark mystic past before the gods of Olympus and their era of Apollo’s glowing beauty. It is the closest embodiment to Typhon he can think of, holding ginormous 10,000 ATK!

Maya is still yet to fisnish. “I have two Carboneddon sleeping in the Graveyard; I banish them to Special Summon two Dragons from my Deck: Labradorite Dragon and Wattail Dragon.” As carbon is forged into diamond, Maya’s two lowly dinosaurs are ground under immense pressure to create two rare, bejewled dragons, one of light, the other of darkness.

Maria knows what will happen next; Maya will bring out the same Tzolkin combo Matthew did in his duel, and says as much to suggest Maya is not so inventive after all. But Maya dismisses the suggestion outright, “No, I am being even less inventive.”

She calls once more upon Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal, this time two dragons rather than Dante become the Xyz Material. “I use her effect to mill Calabrina, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, and use its effect to bounce your other facedown card.” And Maya’s target vanishes in due time. “Two down, one to go. I’ll burn the last one out with an attack! Raviel, destroy Chaos MAX Dragon! Eat 10,000 ATK for afternoon brunch!”

Marai springs her trap, “Negate Attack!” And the phantom’s beasts onslaight is repelled, sparing Maria and her monsters.

“I expected as much.” Maya bemoans. “I set two cards and end my turn.”

Seto Kaiba, scowling and unreadable as ever, surveys the battle in a way he had never done before; there is something very new at work. Nearly every duelist until now, himself included, built their decks as a pyramid, their strategies culminating into an ace monster they held a special bond with, such as his Blue-Eyes White Dragon; his stronest servant, his very pride and soul. Everything revolves around that monster, or a few key monsters, creatures that a duelist puts all his faith in carry him to victory.

But Maya’s entire strategy is inverted; her deck a spider web of equally interconnected parts, with Beatrice as the spider in the middle, her gravity holding everything else together. From that center, Maya can reach into any corner of her web to achieve any effect she desires; there is no true ace monster. Kaiba saw only a few such atheists back in his day: Pegasus turned whatever cards his opponent used against him, Bakura used his monsters as fodders to achieve a terrifying lock combo, even Yugi used various strategies where his Dark Magician was a favorite but one of many. To think people worship that twerp but completely miss his gaming style.

Kaiba snorts at Maya’s performance with contempt, “The Sacred Beasts are bootleg copies of the Egyptian Gods at best, the poor man’s form of divine strength. What is Armityle’s 10,000 ATK compared to the Infinite ATK of the Gods fused together?

MARIA’S TURN: “I activate Trade-In, discard a Blue-Eyes to draw two cards. Maya, your Armityle is strong but only during your turn. Now, on my turn, its ATK is 0. Chaos MAX, destroy Armityle! DARK NOVA!”

But the light-warming destructive energy never reaches it’s target. Maya refutes her with Fiend Grieving, “I return the Blue-Eyes you discarded to your Deck, and I mill Fiendish Rhino Warrior, which lets me mill Farfarello, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, and I use it’s effect.”

“That won’t save you! Even if Chaos MAX is banished I still – Oh!” Armityle dissapears, leaving Maria to still adjust her eyes to the titanic-sized voide left behimd from it’s dissapearence. “I instead direct Chaos MAX to kill Beatrice, and since she is in Defense Position I inflict double piercing damage!”

“I use Beatrice’s effect to mill Scarm, and I play Damage Diet!” Maya’s fair angel is vaporized, leaving the offending dragon’s wrath to pursue its true mission, but the Trap Card slows it down enough until only a mild blast hits Maya. Getting punched in the ribs doesn’t hurt – Getting punched in the broken ribs doesn’t hurt! (Maya LP 1500 → 300)

But though Maya barely hangs on the game, she still shows her infinite resiliance. “Beatrice was destroyed, letting me Special Summon directly from the Extra Deck Dante, Pilgrim of the Burning Abyss!” Dante returns, completed by Beatrice, his journey to God complete. “With his arrival, I discard Ciriatto, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss and draw a card, then use its effect to Special Summon Graffiacane, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss from the Deck.” Her old fiend, the nasty dog, returns, making a painful contrast with the great pilgrim.

An understanding dawns on Maria; that this scene of devout and devil forms the core of Maya’s character, but the devil tugs on its leash as a rougue hound, tearing its noble but weak master to wherever its caprices demand it must go. A similar insight reveals itself to Mathias. Yugioh really is a strange game.

Maria sees another fatal weakness in Maya’s forces: her Cherub; being a Link Monster, it can’t defend itself. “Firewall Dragon, attack Cherub!” The online dragon creates a gateway, then launches from it a deadly virus code to kill the black cherub.

But Maya has more tricks up her nonexistent sleeve, activating, “Absolute King Back Jack! Banishing it from the Graveyard, I excavate my Deck’s top card, and if it’s a Trap Card...” If there is such a thing as the Heart of the Cards, Maya could sure use it now, and she prayed to God/Satan/Buddha/Flying Spaghetti Monster/Great Spirit/Orochi the Neckbeard/The Universe/No One/Whatever it would be the right card. She drew it... “I play Raigeki Break!” She discards a card from her hand, and directs the lightning to destroy her own monster, breaking her black cherub. And as if that isn’t enough, she mills another card due to Valient.

Maya breathes a deep sigh of relieve and winks at Maria, saying, “I needed a lucky break too.”

Maria reluctantly admits that Maya survives another turn. “Blue-Eyes, destroy Dante! Dragon Spirit of White, destroy Graff!” Saint and fiend burn to ash, letting Maya use their effects: Dante forces Maria to discard a card while Graff lets Maya Special Summon Calcabrine, Malebrache of the Burning Abyss, yet another Fiend, to the field. Maria sets two cards, ending her turn, which lets Armityle to return and Scarmiglione, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss to fetch yet another Burning Abyss monster for its master.

MAYA’S TURN: “I activate my facedown Toy Vendor, the one I set facedown two turns ago, then activate Fluffal Wings, banishing itself and Fluffal Bear, and popping Toy Vendor, to draw two cards. Then I use Vendor’s effect to search for Fluffal Dog.”

Now for the turn proper. “I Normal Summon Rubicante, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, and tune it with Calcab to Synchro Summon Dante, Rock Star of the Burning Abyss! And I use its effect to bounce your facedown card.” The red-faced terror and grace-stomper vanish into a white portal so the famous Roman poet descends from Elysium to Earth, and as soon as he does so Maria loses one of her defenses. “I use Destiny Hero – Malicious from the Graveyad, banishing itself to bring out another one from the Deck, then I overlay it and Virgil to bring out a second Beatrice, Lady of ther Eternal!”

As soon as the holy angel finishes her advent, Maya turns her attention to a possible victory, but most likely, as Maya fully knows, a strategic step to burn out her defenses. Not having a backrow of facedown cards did not guarantee a sucessive hit these days. “Armityle, take out Chaos MAX!” The titan combines darkness, fire, and lightning to recreate the dark primeval waters of myth, and pushes them unto Maria’s field as a massive tital wave, threatening to overwhelm everything.

“I play the Hand Trap Soul Desperation!” Maria calls forth a huge black altar, her tone as desperate as her card implies, offering her entire dragon army to the hungry altar, leaving her wide open but increasing her Life enough to withstand the dark waters of Armityle... and the light fires of Beatrice. (Maria LP 4600 → 16600 → 4100) The combined attacks become so strong, Maria is nearly thrown off the arena, only saving herself at the last moment by grabbing the ledge for dear life, dangling like a rag doll. Maria, however, is lucky enough not to have endured having her ribs broken, her flesh bruised, or her conscience racked with stress and guilt; and she gets back to fight with a resiliance that even impresses Maya.

Maya even comments, “This is probably the longest, most high level, most exciting duel I ever had. I will kill Stella if she doesn’t deliver a duel at least as good as yours.”

“Assuming you win.” Maya says, chastizing Maya for her arrogance.

“Don’t get your hopes up. I claimed a huge field advantage after much struggle. You can drag the duel on until the heat death of the universe, but I will win in the end. Unless you’re Yugi, no amount of ass pulls will save you.”

MARIA’S TURN: “That’s where you’re wrong, Maya. I just drew Dragon’s Mirror, and I play it to banish all three dead Blue-Eyes to Fusion Summon Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!” Three spirits, dragons of white, merge through a looking glass, and the triple-headed king of dragons manifests from the other side. “Neo Blue-Eyes, attack Armityle!”

Maya, at most expressing mild surprise, defends herself with ease. “I activate Beatrice, to mill another Farfarello, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, and use its effect to banish your dragon this turn.” And Maya’s goblin grabs hold of the dragon, transorting itself and the gigantic beast far away from the battlefield.

Frustrated, Maria moves on to a second plan. “I play Melody of Awakening Dragon. I discard a card and add 2 High Level dragons to my hand. I end my turn.” Maria knows she’s on the ropes. Yes, she has a powerful monster, and more Life, and only needs to hit Maya with one attack to win the duel, but she feels as if she is losing. “Why?” She thinks to herself, but she soon understands. Maya’s Deck is, ironically, more consistent. She knows how to access her entire Deck at a given point. Maria can only make her hand bigger.

Maya, on the other hand, knows it is time to make her true assault, now Maria was vulnerable enough to penetrate. She suspected Maria’s fatal weakness for a long time, but only now, in this duel, could she say for certain. “It makes perfect sense now.” Maya pretends to speak to herself, just loud enough for Maria to hear her.

“What do you mean?” Maria asks.

“At first I thought you used a Blue-Eyes Deck simply because you weren’t creative, but it is obvious that you are creative and intelligent, too much so to practically netdeck Kaiba. I wondered why, and thought of the drunk fun we had together last year, and it dawned on me. You truly love Kaiba and want him to love you in return, but your frustration will last forever. It’s desperate. It’s pathetic. You have ‘Please notice me, sempai!’ writ all over you.”

“Quiet!” Maria shouts more loudly than she ever shouted in her entire life. “Enough of your lies, you fiend! You manipulative, callous, destructive...” Maria summons the most hateful word she can think of. “Jerk!”

“Yes, I’m a cocksure sarcastic b**** who is as funny as Amy Shumer, I know.” Maya assures her. “But I know that pain; I felt it with Yukio.” And she feels it with Sophia, but she doesn’t say it. “All you can do is stand strong on your two feet, and you certainly can, Maria. Kisara is, for all intents and purposeses, Kaiba’s companion cube, but you are not Kisara, and even if by some wierd accident of reincarnation you are, you are far stronger than that. Don’t be the innocent waif possessed by the dragon, be the dragon!”

Maria remains unmoved, at least at the surface. “As if a left-handed compliment isn’t bad enough, you now condescend to me.”

“Hey, it’s your life.” Maya shrugs. “If you want to depend on someone else for your happiness, that’s your problem, but have no illusions. You will be no better than the millions of girlfriends and wives abused every day, and as someone who was abused, I can assure you there is nothing romantic about a moody, jealous boyfriend.”

[MewMew3]

Duel 16 – Full Jump
 

 
Kaiba, who stood watching Maya’s and Maria’s encounter has enough. “Maria, cease talking to Maya at once!” He orders her. “Maya’s using her forked tongue to shatter our bond. Don’t you dare give in to that snake! Only the weak use psychological tricks instead of the powerful monsters who choose their rightful duelists. That fact will decide your victory over this reptile! Make her rue the day she ever picked up a duel disk!”
 
“Um, hello?” Mathias points to himself. “One of the world’s greatest over here. Screws with people’s minds all the time. Beat Kaiba a few years back. Fanboys still hate me for that.”
 
Maya brushes Kaiba’s threats aside with a comical swipe of her hand, as if the threats are literal pests. “Yes, yes, the luck of the strong, might makes right, destiny chooses the winner, all those fallacies aside. Bourgeois gamers pretending to be feudal overlords would amuse Marx until he is red in the face, before making his head explode.”
 

Maria: 4100 | Maya: 300

 

MAYA’S TURN: “4500 ATK is impressive but it’s only appetizer compared to the main course. Armityle, attack Neo Blue-Eyes!” The phantom king conjures another wave of dark chaotic waters, but Maria is prepared.
 
“I activate Rescuer from the Grave, and banish five cards from my Graveyard!” A new wave of water, one from the global flood, challenges the dark tsunami, crashing its attack to a standstill.
 
“Hmm, this is a problem. I set a card facedown.” Maya mutters under her breath.
 
MARIA’S TURN: “Your Armityle is now weak with 0 ATK, as it is my turn. Kill it, Neo Blue-Eyes, and win me the duel!” Its three heads join forces to fire one neutron blast.
 
“I activate Beatrice!” Maya says, detaching its last Xyz Material. “I mill Electromagnetic Turtle, now banish it from the Graveyard to activate it!” Maria’s dragon swings at Maya with the strongest force of all of Maria’s dragons, but the electromagnetic barrier surrounding Maya disperses it, similar to how the Earth’s field defends itself from solar winds. “As my Turtle banished itself, I activate Jewels of the Valient, milling a Glow-Up Bulb.”
 
“Wait, why would you use Glow-Up Bulb of all monsters in a Burning Abyss Deck?” And the third epiphany this duel hits her like a rock, though to be fair Maya has her fair share of head bruises. “Oh no! Oh no!!!”
 
MAYA’S TURN: “I play Pot of Acquisitiveness, returning 3 banished cards to my Deck to draw 2, and activate my Set Trap Jar of Avarice, recycling 5 cards in my Graveyard to draw 2. Now, Monster Reborn! Revive Cherubini!” The black cherub resurrects through Egyptian magic.
 
“Beatrice is my guide this duel, but she has fulfilled her purpose; I link her with Cherubini to Link Summon Spadiavolo, Swordsman of the Burning Abyss!” A new, exceedingly wicked devil makes its entrance, wielding a huge broadsword to cut sinners to pieces. “I Normal Summon Fluffal Dog and Special Summon Glow-Up Bulb from the Graveyard with its effect, and I tune it with Fluffal Dog to Synchro Summon Naturia Beast!” Weevil jumps for joy at seeing one of his favorite monsters make a cameo. “Armityle, attack Neo Blue-Eyes!” Maya orders.
 
“No! I banish five cards to activate Rescuer from my Graveyard! ” But Maya mills two cards from her Deck so her Beast can negate Maria’s magic with its own. Maria banishes more cards to activate her Spell Card again, and Maya negates it in kind, carrying the cycle through until Maria has no cards left to banish, though it does somewhat injure Maya’s Deck. Armityle finally has the last laugh, overwhelming Neo Blue-Eyes with its tidal forces.
 
But Maria is not gone yet. “I activate Counterlife!” She receives no damage and instead the shattered remains of her dragon sublimate into healing energy, granting her new Life. (Maria LP 4100 à 8600)
 
“You’re not safe from my wrath, Maria! Naturia Beast, maul her!” Maya’s beast assaults its prey under its master’s command. “I attack with Spadiavolo, and mill four Burning Abyss monsters to increase its ATK!” Four demons from Hell emerge from the sulfurous pit, their evil spirits infesting their new host body, but rather than suffering the swordsman fiend only doubles in strength. Maria gasps; it has 4000 ATK! “WATCH THIS! Devil’s Revolution!” The fiend mercilessly cuts loose into Maria, the force of its strength battering her in a wild gust of filthy wind; Maya laughs horribly the whole time. (Maria LP 8600 à 2400)
 
“I activate Barbarriccia, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, banishing itself and 2 more of its kind to dish out your just deserts!” Three of Maya’s fiends emerge from the Graveyards as flaming ghosts to burn a little bit of Maria’s flesh. (Maria LP 2400 à 1500) And in one fell swoop Maya equalizes the game. “Had enough punishment yet, Maria? I told you, I will grind you down in due time! The hourglass to your death is ticking!”
 
“But hourglasses don’t tick.” Maria almost collapses to the ground, sweating and gasping for air. Maya’s attack was too much; her vision begins to get blurry.  
 
Maya looks she cannot care less of Maria’s suffering. “This is how 6000 odd damage feels like. Contrapasso is a jabroni. I set a card facedown, now it’s your turn to hopelessly struggle.”
 
MARIA’S TURN: “I set a card facedown. Maya, make no mistake; I will win this duel.”
 
“No, you will not, Maria.” Maya rebukes her as sternly as she has ever done before. “You fight for a man’s love. I fight for my life. No amount of Twilight romance or Happy Potter love will overcome a woman’s desperate struggle for survival.”
 
“Wow, what a hardass.” Kaiba comments with stinging sarcasm.
 
“Please, ‘Kaiba boy’.” Maya shoots at him darts of her own. “You sound more like a Nietzsche fanboy than I ever could.”
 
Pegasus chuckles to himself in amusement. “Honestly, Kaiba boy. You would do better with Maya than ever with Maria. Your temperaments match and, I dare say, I can taste the belligerent sexual tension all the way over here.”
 
“EW NO!!!” Maya shrieks, curling away at the very thought as a vampire exposed to sunlight.
 
“Say that one more time and I will kill you.” Kaiba growls at Pegasus. “You have been warned.”
 
Is Pegasus intimidated by such a threat? Nope! He replies with, “And what then, Kaiba boy? Not even Kaibacorp could endure the years of litigation that would descend on your ass the instant you lay one hard hand on one soft hair on my head.”
 
MAYA’S TURN: “By all means, keep struggling, Maria. If I indeed am a reptile, then you are a baby bird, and nothing like moving prey more excites a reptile to hunt. Monsters, attack!”
 
Maria blocks the assault, “Return from the Different Dimension!” Cutting her Life in half to return her three Blue-Eyes White Dragons back to the field.
 
Grunting, Maya calls off her titan’s attack, sets a card facedown, and ends her turn, letting Maria’s dragons become banished once more. Better to have a Blue-Eyes banished then in the Graveyard.
 
MARIA’S TURN: She places her hand on her duel disk, almost ready to surrender, but pushes herself onward. If she lost the duel, everything would be ruined, and she cannot let that happen, no matter what! She pleads to the spirit of Atem, the great pharaoh, to lead her to victory. She draws her card.
 
“I play Monster Reborn to resurrect Neo Blue-Eyes!” True to her word, her dragon rises from its tomb in a miraculous comeback. “Neo Blue-Eyes destroy the fiend Armityle, and grant me victory!” And her dragon delivers its last assault.
 
Maya reacts on cue, “I trigger Hate Buster! Our monsters die and you lose 4500 Life!”
 
“That won’t happen! Card Guard!” Maya discards a card in her hand, the storm of hellfire expands outward from Armityle and rages over the entire field. Maya counters with her Naturia Beast, but Maria is prepared even for that. “I discard Effect Veiler to negate your Beast! My dragon is safe.” The king of phantoms burns away in its hateful fury but a floating shield spares Neo Blue-Eyes its life. “In want of a new target, Neo Blue-Eyes, assault Spadiavolo!” And it continues its assault.
 
“I activate Phoenix Wing Wind Blast!” Maya declares in her final refutation this duel, discarding a card from her hand. Maria’s great dragon bursts into flame, but rather than being destroyed, it rises up and away as a phoenix taking flight, returning to the Extra Deck.
 
Maria collapses to her knees in despair. “I lost. Just finish me off already.”
 
MAYA’S TURN: “I draw!” But she pauses. As Maria said, she lost. Maya had already crushed her spirit. There is no point in torturing her any more. Her bloodlust satisfied, Maya calms down, breathing deeply a few times, her flaring temper snuffing out, letting all holograms dissipate on their own.
 

Maria: 0 | Maya: 300

 

Maya offered her fallen rival a hand, saying, “I know I’m a terrible person, but at least I am fair. All potshots aside, you are an amazing duelist, the strongest one I have ever faced in my life, and had I not been forced to evolve in my skills you would have easily defeated me. Though trying to get someone to like you is foolhardy and insulting to your humanity, any man who is not a fool should at least treat you with admiration and respect.”
 
Maria, as much as she still hated Maya, took her hand, using it to stand up. Pegasus, Mathias, even Rex and Weevil gave warm applause for the great game they just bore witness to, certain it would be saved for posterity. Meanwhile, Matthew seethed in rage as ever and Kaiba remained dead silent, sinking his head in shame.
 
Maria jumped down the arena to embrace Kaiba. “I know I lost the duel, Seto, but I dueled so well; everyone thinks so.”
 
Kaiba pushed her away in disgust. “You lost to a dreg using a Blue-Eyes Deck, a terrible humiliation I can never forgive you for. Get out of my sight, loser dog.”
 
Maria, upon hearing those words, shrank away, heartbroken, but shed no tears, showing nothing more than a look of vague disgust. “I hoped you had actual human emotions above ambition, resentment, and greed; I thought you had something deeper within you than selfish frustration, but I was wrong. Goodbye.” And the couple parted.
 
Pegasus mimicked a burning noise on his finger. “That was savage.”
 
“Couldn’t think of anything better. “All I could do is make some lame joke comparing Seto Kaiba to Donald Trump, though it would be pretty funny to watch them duel. Hmm, wonder what kind of Deck Trump would use.”
 
“ENOUGH!” Kaiba roared as a lion, the full power of his temper exploding, quickly straddling himself on the duel arena. “I have tolerated enough of your insults during the duel, but no more, dirty trash! You dare mock my Blue-Eyes White Dragon, I will beat you down so bad you will walk sideways for the rest of your life!” He readied his duel disk, his intentions clear to everyone.
 
Maya did likewise. “Look at that temper, big guy! Wanna’ screw me over like you did your ex already, huh? Talk about a pure deep love affair!”
 
“Stop this instant!” Pegasus ordered, but neither duelist listened, so everyone else took it upon themselves to persuade the two fighters to cease their quarrel, an affair that lasted for five tense minutes. Maya and Kaiba stepped down, an decision that disappointed every Yugioh fan in the world, but one that was for the best.
 
Isono the referee declared, on schedule, “All surviving duelists will now commence a thirty minute break, wherein afterwards Matthew Carter will duel Mathias Blackheart and Svanhildur Minervudottir will duel Marina Bozuslowsky. Surviving duelists are free to alter their decks as they see fit during this time period.”
 
And so, exeunt al.     

[MewMew3]

CREATED CARDS:

 

MARIA’S CARDS:

 

Soul Desperation

Counter Trap

·      You can activate this card from your hand if you control no Spell or Trap cards.

·      Destroy all monsters you control and gain Life Points equal to their combined ATK.

 

Counterlife

Normal Trap

·      When your opponent’s monster attacks your monster: activate this card just before the damage step.

·      You take no battle damage this turn. Gain Life Points equal to the ATK of your monster, then destroy your monster.

 

MAYA’S CARD:

 

Spadiavolo, Swordsman of the Burning Abyss

DARK/Fiend/Link 3/ATK 2000/Top, Bottom Left, Bottom Right

·      Monsters this card points to cannot be destroyed by card effects.

·      Once per turn, if this card battles: send up to 4 Burning Abyss monsters from your hand, field, or Deck to the Graveyard. This card gains 500 ATK for each one during the damage step only.

[Dr. Cakey]

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

I can see why nobody comments on this. Aside from the fact this forum is all but dead, I mean. The writing level​ of this story is much higher than that of its peers, but the actual writing quality​ and mastery of language is about the same. For example, here's a thing from the prologue:

 

Seto Kaiba...stood tall with his shoulders crossed as a bronze memorial statue...

"Seto Kaiba stood tall" is a perfectly acceptable sentence, but the rest is...problematic. First of all, his shoulders are crossed rather than his arms. I'm not quite sure what crossing one's shoulders looks like, but I don't think it's possible while alive. As for the second prepositional phrase, 'as' just plain doesn't belong there; the correct word is 'like'. In its current position, "as like a bronze memorial statue" is modifying "with his shoulders arms crossed", whereas I assume it's supposed to be modifying "Kaiba stood tall", in which case it should be moved. "Kaiba stood tall like a bronze memorial statue", "Like a bronze memorial statue, Kaiba stood tall", and even "Kaiba stood tall, his arms crossed, like a bronze memorial statue" are all options. It's unclear what 'bronze' is here for; seeing as Kaiba is light-skinned and wearing a silver jacket, there's nothing bronze about him, though they generally don't make impressive statues out of tin. A copy editor could probably quibble about 'memorial statue', as well as the inordinate length of the sentence as a whole, but that's above my paygrade. Because my paygrade is zero.

 

I usually have nothing to comment on when I read a story on here, but in this case I probably have something to say about every single sentence. You say you don't like the style of novels but, like Oedipus, your attempt to escape destiny has only resulted in its fulfillment (I can reference the classics too). This is, to use the terminology of the vulgar masses, the noveliest novel to ever novel. What I've read - just the prologue and first chapter, because the first chapter kind of killed me - is deeply passive, very novel-y and not at all visual, overflowing with sentence after sentence of thoughts and other interiority. Along with that, the story engages in one of the hallmarks of bad fanfiction - introducing each and every character with a long, detailed description of their appearance.

 

I actually don't like being negative, and every time I start reading somebody's story I resolve to be more positive and upbeat. It never sticks. The closest I can come is some advice. I think fanfic isn't your medium. An original story might be able to gel better with your...let's call it a 'literary' writing style, though your own word - pretentious (in the actual meaning of the word) - works too. Dropping the Family Guy-esque referential humor would probably be for the best as well.

 

Okay, of everything I said, being compared to Family Guy probably offended you more than anything else.

 

 

I guess I should try to end with something positive, so...f*** yeah, eating eyeballs. That's awesome. Totally my jam.

 

EDIT: i already regret this post

[MewMew3]

You bothered to comment, so I'm cool. Please write more.

[MewMew3]

Anyway, a serious response is in order whether or not @not_a_car replies back.
 
To @not_a_car: thank you for a thorough and honest reply.
 

The writing level​ of this story is much higher than that of its peers, but the actual writing quality​ and mastery of language is about the same.

 
I get the comment about quality, but what do you exactly mean by level? Are you referring to the overall structure of the story such as character development and plot, or something else entirely?
 

I usually have nothing to comment on when I read a story on here, but in this case I probably have something to say about every single sentence. You say you don't like the style of novels but, like Oedipus, your attempt to escape destiny has only resulted in its fulfillment (I can reference the classics too). This is, to use the terminology of the vulgar masses, the noveliest novel to ever novel. What I've read - just the prologue and first chapter, because the first chapter kind of killed me - is deeply passive, very novel-y and not at all visual, overflowing with sentence after sentence of thoughts and other interiority. Along with that, the story engages in one of the hallmarks of bad fanfiction - introducing each and every character with a long, detailed description of their appearance.

Perhaps I should have been more specific. I dislike the general style of modern novels and modern writing style in general. The writing structure of novels, unlike poetry for instance, is very loose, and so most novels come across to me as a mesh of characters talking to each other in clunky dialogue and doing superfluous things that don't really add to the overall meaning of the story. 
 
Modern English writing is gutted by the rules of Standard Edited American English and other modern standards of writing. Writers of older times are "sloppier" (such as being full of long sentences our editors would not approve of) but their main concern was linking ideas together to create a solid whole. Many modern writers seem, to me at least, seem bound by the need to be "clear and simple".
 
For example, I like the Harry Books in general, but there are certain points where I dislike the writing.  Here is an example of something in Harry Potter style, a dialogue I made up with a little exaggeration to make my point clearer:
 
----------------------------------------------------------- 
 
Harry stared. A large tawny own flew through the dark creaking door. It perched itself on a large tree branch. It stared back at Harry with an inquisitive look as if it wanted to ask him something.  
 
"I think it wants something." Harry said.
 
"What?" Ron ejaculated loudly. 
 
"Obviously." Hermione quipped. 
 
She had a stern face, her bushy brown hair even bushier then before. She hit Harry and Ron over the head with a broomstick for being so stupid. 
 
----------------------------------------------------------- 
 
Feel free to ridicule my bad writing as much as you want, but I want to escape that kind of style. My last two stories are indeed in the modern novel style, something I dislike, and I'm trying to write something that flows better, has a powerful drive, but smooth and detailed as well. To be honest, I dislike the overall form of the novel itself but, as long as I write fanfics, I am condemned to write novels, no matter the writing style.
 

I actually don't like being negative, and every time I start reading somebody's story I resolve to be more positive and upbeat. It never sticks. The closest I can come is some advice. I think fanfic isn't your medium. An original story might be able to gel better with your...let's call it a 'literary' writing style, though your own word - pretentious (in the actual meaning of the word) - works too. Dropping the Family Guy-esque referential humor would probably be for the best as well.

 

I want to write my own non-Yugioh stuff pretty badly, but I want to finish my Yugioh series first. I spent over ten years on this project and there is no way in Hell I will cut it short midway. In the meantime, I use it as training wheels to explore different writing ideas. And I really like Family Guy, and I love humor and satire; and I am exploring that area too. Yes, I'm a pretentious twat, but I'd rather be that than Dan Brown, who is also a pretentious twat but at least I deal with real ideas, however badly, instead of Illuminati thriller bullshit. 

[Dr. Cakey]

I get the comment about quality, but what do you exactly mean by level? Are you referring to the overall structure of the story such as character development and plot, or something else entirely?

I used 'writing' to describe both 'level' and 'quality' for aesthetic effect; the term I should have used is "reading level". The difficulty of the vocabulary, the complexity of the sentences, and so on. As in, The Butter Battle Book is at a kindergarten reading level, and The Last of the Mohicans is at a high school reading level. But in terms of prose quality, Dr. Seuss is one of the great wordsmiths of the 20th century, while James Fennimore Cooper wrote slush.

 

That's what I meant when I said the writing reading level was higher, but felt the actual quality of the prose was not.

 

Modern English writing is gutted by the rules of Standard Edited American English and other modern standards of writing. Writers of older times are "sloppier" (such as being full of long sentences our editors would not approve of) but their main concern was linking ideas together to create a solid whole. Many modern writers seem, to me at least, seem bound by the need to be "clear and simple".

Well, I'll take competence over ambition any day, so "clear and simple" sounds pretty good to me. But I do agree contemporary English is getting a bit dull. And I do like a good comma splice. But I think there's a bit of dissonance where on the one hand you mention the tightness and economy of poetry, while on the other you want to spill lots and lots of ink. The two ideas seem contradictory to me. 

 

Harry stared. A large tawny own flew through the dark creaking door. It perched itself on a large tree branch. It stared back at Harry with an inquisitive look as if it wanted to ask him something.  

 

"I think it wants something." Harry said.

 

"What?" Ron ejaculated loudly. 

 

"Obviously." Hermione quipped. 

 

She had a stern face, her bushy brown hair even bushier then before. She hit Harry and Ron over the head with a broomstick for being so stupid.

It's been a very long time since I've cracked open a Harry Potter book, so my memories have pretty much faded into void, but I'm sure J.K. Rowling knew that using 'ejaculated' as a synonym for 'said' is punishable by death in most developed nations. This snippet also reads a lot like parts of chapter 1 of this story, which makes sense considering you wrote it.

 

I want to write my own non-Yugioh stuff pretty badly, but I want to finish my Yugioh series first. I spent over ten years on this project and there is no way in Hell I will cut it short midway.

I can't spend ten hours​ on a project without abandoning it, so I do admire your dedication.

[MewMew3]

I used 'writing' to describe both 'level' and 'quality' for aesthetic effect; the term I should have used is "reading level". The difficulty of the vocabulary, the complexity of the sentences, and so on. As in, The Butter Battle Book is at a kindergarten reading level, and The Last of the Mohicans is at a high school reading level. But in terms of prose quality, Dr. Seuss is one of the great wordsmiths of the 20th century, while James Fennimore Cooper wrote slush.

 

 

Fair point. What do you think of the story behind the words (character development, plot, conflict, the duels etc.)? That, to me, is the most important thing. For instance, I spent a few months drafting the characters before I wrote the first chapter.

 

Well, I'll take competence over ambition any day, so "clear and simple" sounds pretty good to me. But I do agree contemporary English is getting a bit dull. And I do like a good comma splice. But I think there's a bit of dissonance where on the one hand you mention the tightness and economy of poetry, while on the other you want to spill lots and lots of ink. The two ideas seem contradictory to me.

 

 

That's precisely why I like poetry, classic rhetoric, epics etc. because the structure disciplines my autistic rage (I have Aspergers, so I'm allowed to make fun of myself). The novel is so loose I spill everywhere, though you should see my two older stories. I spent about 8 to 10 Word pages per chapter in the old stories. Now I spend only 4 to 5 Word pages on a chapter; an improvement. It would be pretty funny and epic if I wrote the next story in iambic pentameter, just to see how it would look like, which could work. Like Millennium World, there will be very few duels book 4 onwards. 

 

It's been a very long time since I've cracked open a Harry Potter book, so my memories have pretty much faded into void, but I'm sure J.K. Rowling knew that using 'ejaculated' as a synonym for 'said' is punishable by death in most developed nations. This snippet also reads a lot like parts of chapter 1 of this story, which makes sense considering you wrote it.

 

Ron ejaculated loudly in book 5 in Umbridge's first class. It stuck to my memory precisely because it was that dumb. And I did this kind of clunky dialogue a lot more in first two stories.

 

I can't spend ten hours​ on a project without abandoning it, so I do admire your dedication.

 

 

 Ambition does breed pretension. 

[MewMew3]

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Trying to curb the long sentences, but I still want to convey nuance of the characters, and I dislike block sentences. Let’s see how things work out now.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE2B_kCfvss

 

Duel 17 – Hollywood Sickness

 

Sophia and Yukio had taken the first flight back to New York as soon as the finalists had boarded Kaiba’s jet to that mysterious island to fight in the finals. Jolene had greeted them at as soon as they entered her apartment to stay for the night, showing sweet kisses on their faces, and had quickly joined them to watch the finals live on TV. Even JC had arrived, returning from Chicago to his home city and reuniting with old friends, to see the great event unfold before their eyes.

 

With the intense quarterfinals finished at this point, everyone took a break they sorely needed, even though they did not duel themselves, taking out Thai food and watching YouTube videos. Jolene set up her Google Plus, calling Maya with it…

 

Nothing came through to her phone on the other side. JC, grumpy as usual, gave a loud deep snort. Of course Kaiba and Pegasus wanted their finalists to be totally isolated! With no one to help them, they could only rely on themselves. Yukio agreed but added that the finalists would, through battle, alone, would mirror nothing less than each other’s hearts. Sophia added her own view; this is what Maya wanted. Such a contest was bound to happen sooner or later.

 

JC slapped Yukio in the back, scoffing: “That’s weird!” He pointed at Sophia, almost hitting her nose with his finger. “You’re weird! You’re all weird, like Saiyans from Dragonball Z! You have a death wish where you push yourself to your limits and die trying, don’t you?”

 

“Hey, I thought that was what you wanted.” Yukio said with a twinkle in his eye. “You ranted on the Internet four years ago how about how you wanted to die young in a ball of glory, fully aware that you were dying, instead of dying in sleep an old man. A lot has changed in four years.”

 

Jolene took advantage of the opportunity to eat all the Thai food she could, but Sophia endeavored to do the same, and they scrapped each other with chopsticks.

 

Jolene remarked: “Jeez! This little thing bites after all!”

 

“I’m taller than you.” Sophia reminded her.

 

“By one inch!” said Jolene.

 

JC and Yukio gave each other knowing glances, enjoying the show but wishing more. The only thing better than a catfight was a naked catfight, and our young men were very happy inside.

 

But Jolene had a very different idea, pulling out a deck of tarot cards, setting five of them in a diamond shape, the fifth card as the center. JC and Yukio balked at her; JC screeching how dumb and gay and stupid and fat and gay and irrational were New Age things like tarot cards; Yukio snidely commenting how Jolene needed to stop rubbing crystal balls and start rubbing other balls instead, if you what I mean.

 

Maya would have used a booster pack of random Yugioh cards to predict a mundane and ridiculous event that was bound to happen; like Jolene would s*** her bowels out after eating too many chili dogs in a party with friends after Maya returned. In fact, she actually did that four years ago. Jolene scoffed at the idea; eating chili dogs was a vice JC indulged in, not she.   

 

Sophia, however, was tolerant, and said nothing.

 

Jolene flipped the first card, representing the past: “The Devil; we have been enchained to our base desires, our lusts, our materialism; in the throws of the depths of the unconscious.” She flipped the second card, representing the present. “The Thunderstruck Tower reversed; the impact of sudden, groundbreaking change, is not as severe as we fear and is avoidable, or we are trying out hardest to prevent change, unwilling to let go of what we are used to.” And the last card, the future: “The Fool reversed; recklessness, poor timing, naivety, fear of taking risks and settling for the mundane… None of this makes any sense.”

 

Yukio waxed philosophical, “What is human life but a gant clusterf*** where we attempt to find meaning when there is none.”

 

“I told you tarot cards were dumb and gay and stupid and fat and gay and irrational.” JC grunted, and he proceeded to convert Jolene to extreme atheism; not that gay mealy-mouthed agnostic s***, real atheism. “Have you ever heard of Christopher Hitchens, our Lord and Savior?”

 

“I heard he is a fat drunk.” Jolene said, infuriating JC to argue with her. Yukio jumped to her defense and took up the lively mockery of a debate in her. He was no longer her boyfriend but still sometimes acted like one.

 

Sophia looked in the mirror in boredom, but what she saw caught her eye. The tarot cards seemed to make sense now; the Fool for the past, the Thunderstruck Tower for the present, the Devil reversed for the future, and behind them all lay a small globe of the earth.     

 

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

 

Maya searched the whole island for Stella but in vain, checking the steps of the pyramid, the sandy road to the large cabin, including each room inside. Stella was nowhere to be found.

 

Maya noticed how the paintings of each bedroom for each finalist vaguely reflected the inner natures of their tenants: Matthew’s room crowned with gold pyramids and obelisks; Hannibal’s room adorned with wistful Greek ruins; Weevil’s room like a diorama from the American Museum of Natural History; Mathias’ room a pale copy of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment; Tamas’ room left blank; Stella’s room surrounded by a prelapsarian herd of unicorns; Maria’s room shining with a Blue-Eyes White Dragon under the moon; and Maya’s own room blazing with a Blake-inspired sun above and a simple wooden desk below.

 

But none of these rooms held Stella within them, so Maya continued her search, finding Stella sitting on the beach wistfully gazing at the waves ahead of her, her eyes unfocused. Maya said, “Stella, you will face me in the semifinals. You can’t run away from me anymore. Let’s talk.”

 

Stella spoke in a voice so low it was almost a whisper. “Odd. Now you want to talk things out instead of avoiding any intimacy between us.”

 

“If we don’t resolve it now we will resolve it in our duel.”

 

“No, Maya, dueling can’t resolve this problem. Nothing can heal my heart from what you did to me.”

 

Maya got utterly exasperated at this point. “Can you please explain to me why our past relationship weighs so heavily on your shoulders, and why you decided until now of all times to bring it up. I never hit you. I never cheated on you. I never spent your money. I never spoke ill of you to others. Stop acting like a typical movie girlfriend; it is unbecoming of your character. Don’t be coy with me.”

 

“Wow, talk about internalized misogyny.” Stella remarked.

 

“Shallow Hollywood directors and dogmatic feminists have internalized misogyny, not me.” Maya snapped at her. “What I do despise is people acting along such stereotypes instead of killing them with extreme prejudice, such as you are doing right now.”

 

By this point Stella stood on her feet, brushing the sand from her jeans, and contested Maya, face to face. “Yes, you quit your libertine habits, all for me, and I am grateful for it. You were a fine partner, but only with basic human decency that everyone should have. When I got to know you better it made sense; no one had ever shown you basic human decency when you were growing up, so naturally you assumed such decency was an extraordinary kindness.

 

“I learned who you truly were. You became so cold with me, never giving me the kind words or thoughtful gifts you used to do. You became so distant, no longer sharing your thoughts with me, even in bed. You became such a bitter misanthrope, always complained about how terrible everyone was and how hopeless we all were.”

 

Did Maya not have to remind Stella again? She refuted her, “I told you I was getting sober, figuratively from Hollywood sickness and literally from drink. You don’t understand; I grew up in a project building with no future other than becoming a bank teller, a cop, or going into the military. – I made tomato sauce for spaghetti with ketchup I stole from McDonald’s, eating such a meal with my father at least fifty times. – ‘Following my dreams’ of becoming a great writer and musician was never an option. Dueling was a miracle from God; do you know what it is like to suddenly get so much wealth and power, how such a sudden change is like to a former nobody like me?”

 

Stella did not give up reaching to her former lover, she said, “I know, but when you got sober, so to speak, I saw you behind the mask. – Are you even aware how often you put it on? – Yes, you are fierce, witty, lively, driven to succeed, but underneath you are a peevish, melancholic, and pathetic woman. No amount of success and dominance, not even becoming world champion, will make you happy.  

 

“Before you tell me how you only want to win to pay off your debts or whatever excuse; baloney, you’re doing it to conquer the world and prove a point. I don’t know what your point is – I don’t even think you know what exactly is – but it’s not for money. There is no way someone like Bandit Keith could make Yugioh equal to chess or into a kind of art as you did.”

 

Maya cast her head down, looking at Stella’s shoes, the sand between them, the shadows behind them. “You fell in love with me. You thought you knew me. Now you know me.”

 

“I worry most of all about you.” Stella touched Maya’s cheek, trying to reach her, but Maya dared not be anything but stone. “What more will you want after this tournament, and what desperate horrible things will you do afterward to get it? I must be honest; seeing you become world champion would be like Hitler winning World War II.”

 

Maya said, “Oh, you shouldn’t have. I never thought I’d have that much influence.”

 

“Keep your jokes to yourself.” Stella said, checking her iPhone for the time. “Five minutes left. I’ll prepare my deck for our upcoming fight.”

 

“You’d better. I’m coming for you.”

 

“Please stop being a creep.”

[MewMew3]

Duel 18 – Advent of the Titans
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLJOYwR4xSE
 
“THE SEMIFINALS BEGINS NOW! MATTHEW CARTER VERSUS MATHIAS BLACKHEART!”
 
Matthew Carter and Mathias Blackheart ignored Isono’s declarations, as well as all the other duelists coming to watch the battle. They would duel at their own pace.  Mathias timidly opened the first volley of the duel; words: “Perhaps you are angry about five years ago, when you wanted to be a Saint and I rejected you.”
 
Matthew shook his head in a casual way, which was surprising. “I am not. You beat me in a duel but told me, in essence, that I was selfish, petty, and lacked imagination. I was reactionary, a fatal flaw to you, and you know what? That’s fine. I understand how everything means so little.”
 
These remarks truly puzzled Mathias, but he knew better than to ask. He would find his answers in the duel. “Matthew, if you’re having an existential crises, do yourself a favor and pay a shrink to deal with your issues. You have more than enough money.”
 
“Touche, Blackheart.” Matthew stretched his ruined his right as a demon’s claw, his magic blocking out the sun and all the sweet island around with an oppressive black mist. The shadow game had begun.    
 

Matthew: 8000 || Mathias: 8000

 
MATTHEW’S TURN: “I set a monster and two cards. A right timid opening; the student copies the master.”
 
MATHIAS’ TURN: “Very well. You gave me an opening, and I will use to full effect! I Normal Summon Valkyrie of the Nordic Ascendant, and use her Effect: I banish two Nordic Monsters to Special Summon 2 Einherjar Tokens. I tune them all to Synchro Summon ODIN, FATHER OF THE AESIR!” One Valkyrie – no, three – surprisingly sweet and mild, offer themselves to the father god. Finding the offerings to his liking, the lord of all Nordic monsters appears.
 
“Odin, destroy Matthew’s monster!” The god stretches his hand. He smites the hidden creature with ease. “I set a card.”
 
Before Mathias could say, “You’re move.” Or something like that, Matthew ended the turn for him, “I play Dragon Buffer!” Matthew’s Trap conjures 4 Buffer Tokens made of stone.
 
MATTHEW’S TURN: “Bringing it all out, I see. I want nothing less from the master. I want you to justify to me why you are a master who can reject prospecting students.”
 
“I am because I said so.” Mathias tersely rebukes the insolent young man. “Now SHUT UP and make your move! No one talks more than I do!”
 
“I will let my cards speak louder than you ever could. I link 2 Dragon Buffers to Link Summon Hieratic Seal of Celestial Spheres, and activate Polymerization, fusing the other 2 Dragon Buffers to Fusion Summon The First of the Dragons!” Two dragons appear; an ascendant trinity of spheres floating above and a primitive dragon yet to develop arms and legs crawls below.
 
“I banish the monster you destroyed; Janur, the Dark Dragon Held, to Special Summon Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6!” A silver hawk-headed dragon with a hawks head, a smaller version of Mathias’ own spirit Ka, bursts from a torrent of flames below, screeching loudly to announce its coming. “But I have a gift for you, Mathias, you get 2 Dragon Shade Tokens on your field. Horus, destroy one of them!” Matthew’s dragon dissipates the shadow with its fiery breath as darkness vanquishes light. “I end my turn, and with it Horus LV6 evolves into Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8!” The silver dragon bursts in flames, growing larger, its scales turning from silver to bronze-gold.
 
The whole event triggers a series of flashbacks within Maya. Matthew conjured Horus within their very first duel, and that’s how he beat her. Is he now trying to tell her a message? The Horus Deck Matthew used at the time was a secondary deck, a fun deck he took for a spin, but now he merged Horus into his real deck. Maya is impressed, not just by Matthew but from Maria, even from Weevil of all people. She has the challenge she wanted.  
 
Mathias, meanwhile, is too stricken to make his move. Matthew grows impatient, demanding why, and Mathias answers, “As you know, we Saints are based in an Irish monastery, sworn to protect the world from evil. The Headmaster warned with a prophecy, that the Devil would reveal himself to us as a great red dragon, threatening to destroy the world. I know it sounds like a lame movie plot, but…”
 
Mathias breathed deeply and concentrated, letting his spirit Ka grow out of him. He throws all caution to the wind of how the people of the world will react when they see that ancient magic is real. Matthew reveals his own Ka, with even less care.
 
All of this pleases Matthew greatly. “No matter how this duel ends, you lose the game. If I win, the Devil destroys the world. If you win, well, you might be the Devil after all.” Mathias, the mighty Saint, is only human after all.  
 
MATHIAS: “Don’t get cocky, brat! If I am the Devil, you have Hell to pay!” Odin, strike down the Hieratic Spheres!” The Spheres shine from their pleasant yellow glow to a harsh white light; Matthew is using their Effect to try to bounce Odin. But Mathias has none of it. “I activate Breakthrough Skill, negating your Spheres!”
 
“Oh no.” Matthew gasps, the Hieratic Spheres burn out into orbs of black ash. Odin smites the pagan Spheres as the Lord smote Sodom and Gomorrah, and likewise the wrathful hail of fire strikes Matthew down. (Matthew LP 8000 à 4000)
 
Mathias uses the object lesson to admonish Matthew, “This is why you cannot be a Saint. You got cocky, so you blundered, and suffered my wrath.”
 
Matthew revives himself with great strength and groaning, but is hardly deterred. Calmly, he explains, “As you know, Hieratic Spheres requires me to tribute a Hieratic monster, and that monster was Hieratic Dragon of Su. And as you know, when a Hieratic Dragon gets tributed, I Special Summon a Normal Dragon from my Deck. Appear now, Hieratic Seal of the Sun Dragon!” A new sphere appears in the air, but far larger, and as bright as the sun itself.
 
Mathias easily sees his upstart opponent’s ploy. “So you have a contingency plan. I’m genuinely impressed. You know what truly disappoints me, Matthew? It is your squandered potential; how you have the right intellect of a Saint but a perverse will. Do what you will. Gather your Materials to Summon your Golden God Dragon.”
 
MATTHEW’S TURN: “If you insist, old man. I overlay Horus LV8 and Hieratic Seal to Xyz Summon Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon and overlay it to Xyz Summon Number 95: Galaxy-Eyes Dark Matter Dragon!” His two large golden dragons give way to a new dragon as black as night, its wings so vast they cover the entire field. “And with its Summoning comes its Effect: I mill 3 Dragons from my Deck.” And Mathias banishes 3 monsters from his.
 
“Dark Matter Dragon, destroy Mathias’ pathetic Dragon Shade Token!” And the dark dragon easily absorbs such a tiny shadow into itself. “I set a card and end my turn.”
 
“I set a card and end my turn.”
 
MATHIAS’ TURN: “I set 1 card facedown.”
 
MATTHEW’S TURN: “Dark Matter Dragon, destroy Odin!” Matthew declares with an animals ferocity, letting all his hate and anguish boil to the surface.
 
“You asked for it!” Mathias shouts in defiance. The two huge beasts clash in a spectacular struggle, but only the dark dragon remains. Odin falls, its collapse nearly shattering the entire dueling arena.
 
Matthew’s plan gains momentum, and its author dare not stop it. “I activate Xyz Reborn, reviving Dark Matter Dragon!” Matthew’s monster reappears as a stylized ankh; it glows, then transforms back to its old self. “Attack Mathias directly with your greatest attack!” The dark dragon strikes Mathias down with a sphere of black lightening, throwing the Saint to the very edges of the field. (Mathias LP 8000 à 4000)   
 
Mathias chuckles in amusement and spits blood from his mouth. “Looks like the prep school brat can pack a punch after all. I guess we’re now even.”
 
Matthew sets a card, ending his turn.
 
MATHIAS’ TURN: “I play Pot of Acquisitiveness, returning 3 banished monsters to my Deck and drawing a card. Next, Rainbow Return! I bring back 3 banished Nordic monsters to the field but I can’t attack this turn!” Matthew and the other finalists can see the vague form of a vast tree, the World Tree, behind Mathias, and a rainbow spiraling it, and through it the monsters Svartalf of the Nordic Alfar, Tanngnjostr of the Nordic Beasts, and Mimir of the Nordic Ascendant return.
 
“I tune them all to Synchro Summon LOKI, LORD OF THE AESIR! I SUMMON THEE!” Lightning from high above destroys the three offerings, and the great trickster god is summoned.
 
Weevil blinks three times, remarking, “Mathias Summoned Loki before Thor? What alternate dimension are we living in?”
 
“I don’t care!” Rex grabs Weevil with all his strength, the two huddling together. “I’m scared!”
 
“I hope you’re not a pussy like those two.” Mathias challenges Matthew, pointing to Rex and Weevil below. “You’re move, kid.”
 
MATTHEW’S TURN: “Challenge accepted, prick. I activate Pre-Preparation of Rights, adding a Ritual Monster and Ritual Spell to my hand. And here they come: Hymn of Light; I Tribute a monster in my hand to Ritual Summon Saffira, Queen of Dragons!” A generic Hieratic monster appears, dissolves into white shards, and reorders itself into a graceful sapphire dragon. “I use her Effect to draw 2 cards, then discard 1. I next activate Monster Reborn, reviving my Hieratic Spheres!” The trinity of bright orbs takes to the sky once more.
 
“My Materials are all in place! I banish them all to Super Transcendent Dimension Summon my greatest servant; GOLDEN GOD DRAGON!” His monsters transform into four celestial rings: one violet, one blue, one black, and one dark blue. All align into one column, appearing from everyone’s point of view as four circles reflected from a point of light far above, each lower circle bigger than the one above it. The light flares, shooting through all rings, and the titanic gold dragon forms gradually, a higher dimension being slipping through the lowly third dimension.
 
Mathias says, “Super Transcendent Dimension Summon. Really?”
 
“Yes, I made it up because it was cool!” Matthew protests, his pride scorned. “Burn me at the stake, will you!”
 
“Sweet Irish Jesus, you are a pretentious twat.”
 
“Says the guy ignoring that black Jew witch over there!” Matthew points indignantly at Maya. “That woman is trying to be the next Beethoven, but with children’s card games!”
 
Maya shrugs the petulant insult off her shoulders without a care in the world. “A game can be a sport and an art. – You know, half and half. – This one tournament raked in five times the money the Super Bowl did. Not like I had the opportunity to refine my better talents, unlike someone I know.”
 
Matthew’s voice changes suddenly, dropping an octave into a low threatening growl. “You ruined my life.”
 
“You ruined your own life.” Maya quickly strikes back. “You had four years to recover after I beat you. When you beat me, I didn’t even have one day.”
 
“Believe me when I say this,” And Matthew swears under the sun. “Once I beat the Saint I will bury you, the Devil, next.”
 
“Guess your sheet granddad should’ve named you Michael.” Maya’s remark throws Matthew into a terrible tantrum; the man curses the entire world, even his grandfather for daring to be his idol only to be broken.
 
Kaiba has enough, throwing a terrible tantrum of his own. “I don’t care who the Devil is! The Inquisition is over! Continue your witch trial after the duel!” He curses at Mathias in a low voice, “Goddamned Catholics.”
 
“I HEARD THAT!”

[MewMew3]

Duel 19 – Dead Stalemate

 

 

 

Matthew has just summoned his ace monster, the Golden God Dragon, while Mathias lags behind, holding only two Nordic Gods in his camp. The duel rages on.

 

Matthew: 4000 || Mathias: 4000

 

MATTHEW’S TURN: “It’s time you feel the full power of all my dark magic.” He stretches out scaled mangled hand as far as he can, gathering the dark storm around him in a tighter and tighter swirl. “But more than that, I want to show how I am strong enough to be a Saint!”

 

“No amount of secondhand dark magic will make me proud of you.” Mathias gives his rebuttal. “Might as well show me a used car. Xiaoyi, your current ‘master’, sold you cheap, pretending your car was brand new.”

 

Matthew throws himself into a blind rage upon hearing those words, calling on the darkness, throwing bolts of black lightning wherever he can. Everyone drops down, fearing for their lives, except Mathias who calls upon his Ka to protect them; two wide golden-bronze wings form out of the darkness, embracing the field around him. Matthew’s shoots his angry bolts as hard as he can until he wheezes from fatigue, but none of them pierce through Mathias’ guard.

 

Mathias allows all of his Ka spirit to materialize from the darkness: Horus the Black Flame Dragon. And he gives Matthew utter reproach, “You’re an Aston Martin Lagonda; an old-fashioned dork trying to be cool and edgy. You can’t even decide if you want to be a sports car or not. But I am a 1961 Jaguar; mature as old wine, an honored classic. Xiaoyi sold you as a used car and will throw you away like a used condom when all is said and done, even if you win this tournament.”

 

Maya finds too much vault in Mathias’ words to bear, so she has to speak. “Is not pride a deadly sin, Mathias? If any Pixar movie deals with hubris it’s definitely not Cars. – And old wine is overrated, by the way. Make sure you’re not a bottle of concentrated grape juice, because that tastes like –––––, ––––––, and ––––– on a –––––, but if you like serving that ––––– be my guest.”  

 

Matthew grows tired of this banter. “I’m getting my metaphors confused; am I car or do I drive a car, am I used for protection, or are we in Beauty and the Beast!? And how do you know about Xiaoyi!?”

 

“I saw her come to your rescue in our battle in Cairo.” Mathias explains. “And seeing her Ka spirit she most likely gave you knockoff of her dark powers. I divined who she was by using the dark magic known as GOOGLE!”

 

Matthew groans and rolls his eyes. “I’m tired of your lame jokes.” He calls upon the darkness to distillate a dark cloud, which forms into Matthew’s own Ka spirit: Horus the Black Flame Dragon. A moment passes where both duelists look at each other as if through a mirror, then Matthew distillates his spirit inside his Golden God Dragon.

 

“My powers are at maximum! Dragon, destroy Odin!” And his monsters beats its giant wings, crashing Odin into pieces, but not before the Nordic king of gods strikes the dragon in the heart with an attack of its own. “I banish a Dragon in my Graveyard to save it.” Matthew declares. “Your monster on the other hand…” The dragon’s wave of flames, amplified by Matthew’s dark powers, sweeps over Mathias; burning his skin and singing his clothes. Mathias gasps in shock. Matthew really isn’t kidding.

 

But as Matthew ends his turn, Mathias makes a move of his own: “I banish a Nordic Ascendant from my Graveyard to revive Odin and draw 1 card.” His wizened elder god returns to play.”

 

MATHIAS’ TURN: “I activate Dimension Recycle! Once per turn: I return a banished monster to its grave, and this turn I choose the monster I just banished.” The master duelist analyzes the field. Their battle will be a war of attrition, not just between the gods themselves but the duelists as well. “Odin, attack Golden God Dragon!” And his god calls upon a mighty blizzard only for Matthew to banish another Dragon to save from certain death. Odin, however, dies again, but the ice storm it conjured assails Matthew with hard pelts, bruising him.

 

The battle makes Mathias realize how hard his task will be. Matthew has at least ten Dragons in his Graveyard, not even counting the ones that may be in his hand. He must use a different plan, and bide his time for now. “I activate Dimensionhole: banishing Loki until my next turn.” The massive Loki shrinks into a dwarf, then disappears.

 

“I set a monster facedown. You’re move. If you think you’re worthy enough to be a Saint, prove it by beating me.” As he speaks those very words, Odin resurrects from the Graveyard; Mathias banishes a monster from the Graveyard and draws a card.

 

MATTHEW’S TURN: “With pleasure, old fool! Dragon, attack Odin!”

 

Just as Mathias wants. “I activate Shift, switching your dragon’s attack!” Matthew scoffs at the play. Is Mathias an idiot? Golden God Dragon can’t be targeted! – But wait! Odin and the mystery monster disappear and reappear in an instant, the unknown creature revealed to be Super-Nimble Mega Hamster before it dies. Mathias allows himself a tiny smirk to help lighten his mood. “Shift technically targets my monster, not yours.”

 

“Stupid gerbil…” Matthew grumbles, his plans foiled.

 

“Hamster, Matthew. Life is in the details. And with its Effect I set a Level 3 Beast facedown, but I also activate Tanngnjostr of the Nordic Beast, Special Summoning it from my hand.” A goat of dark fur leaps from Mathias’ hand unto the field in Defense Position.

 

MATHIAS’ TURN: “My turn begins, and so Loki returns.” And Loki does return, but in a normal Monster Zone, meaning Mathias has space for one more god. “I flip Tanngrisnir of the Nordic Beasts faceup and put Tanngnjostr in Attack Position, which means I use it’s Effect to Special Summon Guldfaxe of the Nordic Beasts from my Deck.” A fiery steed joins the company of the dark and light goats. “I tune all three to Synchro Summon THOR, LORD OF THE AESIR!” His monsters transform into majestically big rings and stars, and from this portal the hearty and barbarous Thor, the last Nordic God, arrives.

 

“I use Dimension Recycle to return my banished Nordic Ascendant monster, and end my turn.”

 

Everyone gazes at the three Nordic Gods in awe. – Weevil almost soils himself just from remembering his last match with Mathias. – Even Matthew enjoys the sublime sight. “So this is the Holy Trinity assembled. It’s beautiful, but I have a question: how does the Holy Trinity go to the bathroom anyway? Is it three mouths, one bowel?”

 

Mathias darkened his features on hearing such blasphemy. “What do you mean?”

 

So Matthew accounts his argument: “I learned that a God can’t exist, at least not a good one. Otherwise there would be no suffering in the world. I would still be America’s national champion. I would never have lost everything, even the memory of my grandfather. I would have never spiraled in depression. I would not be here now.”

 

“I won’t dignify such a petulant opinion.” Mathias barks back. “Did your dog die too? Everyone suffers. We would not be human nor have free will without suffering, gifts so sacred not even the angels have them.”

 

Matthew sighs, shaking his head in wistful melancholy. “Me being rich and famous meant something deeper: that everyone had a unique place in the world and a rightful destiny along with it. I was rich and famous because I had a higher nobler soul. I stopped believing in God since I was ten; it simply fazed out, but I understand how my views came from a God I no longer believed in. Everyone had a unique place, but team Dark Duelists,” He glances at Maya for half a second, “chose their own destiny, and they won.”

 

Mathias offers his wisdom: “Yes, we are made in God’s image, but we are fallen creatures. Yet we always have a choice; we can strive to realize God in virtue and perfection in whichever way is best for us. God gives us the power to choose, but nothing more. Our mothers give us a little push, and we walk on two feet from there onward. We can never be like God, but it is always a goal worth striving for, and it is our imperfection that gives us infinite potential.”

 

“That is a rather existential way of being a Christian.” Maya comments. She expects nothing less from Mathias. Borrowing from the Saint’s worldview, she speaks to Matthew, “As you were once Christian, you will understand your soul will reach a final destination, which reflects nothing less than what you chose. Thy will be done. Do you will to spiral into madness, burning yourself out as you do so? Do you will to be a pawn for an uncaring marshal, a little piece who gets sacrificed, then is forever forgotten?”

 

Maya hopes her words will edify Matthew in some way, but they do not. The rogue young man clenches his first so hard his untrimmed nails pierce the skin. “I am no pawn! I am a king!” Matthew shouts in defiance to the world. “I don’t follow some stupid God as sheep Christians do! When I win this tournament, my dark powers will be complete! I will make my own world as a man, the highest stage of evolution!”

 

Maya bursts into laughter, while oddly burning with anger, as Matthew’s little manifesto is silly and infuriating. “You jumped from reactionary Christian to reactionary atheist. Congratulations! I tip my fedora to you. What will you do with your boundless power after you win, little Ubermensch? I bet nine times out of ten you will jabroni about women not dating you, then you will shoot up a school before killing yourself. If your grandfather could see you, he would disown you.”

    

“Maya NO!!!” Mathias screams in fear, but it is too late. Matthew screams as a lunatic, careening off the deep end, his dark powers bursting with terrible lightning storms around him, threatening to destroy the entire pyramid with his blind rage. Mathias once more extends his metaphysical wings to protect the arena, but his powers could only protect the finalists from Matthew’s direct attacks, not from its devastating effects.  

 

Stella hops away from the cracks in the ground threatening to cave the entire duel arena, admonishing to Maya, “You said that just to piss him off, didn’t you?”

 

“Of course!” Maya shouts to Stella over the earthquake growling beneath them.

 

“Typical! Just typical!”

 

[MewMew3]

Duel 20 – Clash of the Titans
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGeGUr6IGfY
 
Matthew draws his next card, forcing all his rage into the duel. He will kill Mathias, smash his head to the ground!
 

Matthew: 4000 || Mathias: 4000

 
MATTHEW’S TURN: “I activate Mound of the Bound Creator!” The Field Spell raises the pyramid top to the ground, four towers gilded with huge chains jettisoning to the top. The Act changes to another Scene. “Golden God Dragon, attack Thor!”
 
Mathias catches on to Matthew’s plan, thus countering, “I play Negate Attack! Your golden dragon’s Monster Effect is too slow to stop a Counter Trap!”
 
“As I foresaw.” Matthew then counters the counter. “Trap Jammer!” And the Trap Card shatters, and Thor shatters too. “And with Mound’s Effect, you take another 1000 damage!” Matthew commands thunder to spring from the four primeval pillars acting as lightning rods to strike Mathias down. (Mathias LP 4000 à 2500) Matthew snorts on seeing the pathetic sight, “Look how the mighty have fallen. I set a card.”
 
But as Matthew ends his turn, the frazzled Mathias jumps back to his feet, as strong as ever. “I banish a Nordic Beast from my Graveyard to revive Thor!” The smoky remains of the fire from Matthew’s dragon, gather together and blaze again, reforming the Nordic god, as if time is reversing. “And you take 800 damage.” Thor strikes Matthew down with lightning of its own from its fingertip, the impact knocking him to the ground. (Matthew LP 4000 à 3200)
 
“You’re pathetic, Matthew, to see you struggle from one little bolt.” Mathias scoffs at his would be student. “I set a card and end my turn.” On the inside of the mind, Mathias mulls over his strategy yet again. Matthew is like a glass cannon; he inflicts more damage but has a much weaker body. Perhaps Mathias can win the war of attrition and he won’t need to play his dangerous trump card. Atem used it against Malik in the Battle City finals, as it was the only Spell that could destroy the nigh invincible Winged Dragon of Ra. Matthew’s Golden God Dragon is clearly a similar beast.
 
MATHIAS’ TURN: “I use Dimension Recycle to return a banished Nordic monster. I switch Thor and Loki to Defense Position and set two cards facedown.” Mathias holds a small glimmer of hope. He drew one piece of the puzzle needed to defeat Matthew.
 
MATTHEW’S TURN: The young man lifts himself up with much effort, recovering slowly, but he powers through. His small reveal of weakness is humiliating enough. Speaking of which: “3000 ATK plus monsters in Defense Position? Have you no shame?” He snorts at such cowardice. “Let me fix that for you: Final Attack Orders!” The two Nordic Gods stand once more ready for battle.
 
“Golden God Dragon, destroy Thor!” Under Matthew’s command, his dragon incinerates Thor once more. “And Mound deals you 1000 damage.” Matthew comments, gathering thunder from the pillars once more.   
 
Mathias stands prepared, and acts at the key moment. “I activate Cosmic Cyclone! I banish your Mound of the Bound Creator!” A raging storm sweeps over the arena, dissolving Matthew’s Field Spell and returning everyone to the pyramid Scene.
 
“But you lose 1000 Life to play it, and soon you’ll lose far more. The result is the same!” Matthew argues back in resentful defiance, his golden dragon’s flames burning Mathias once more, but the Saint refuses to back down. (Mathias LP 2500 à 1000) “I set a card facedown.”
 
“And Thor rises again to deal you 800 damage.” Mathias counters, reviving Thor again through the usual means. “Now bow before God!” Thor strikes Matthew again, forcing him on his knees. (Matthew LP 3200 à 2400)    
 
Matthew struggles back on his feet, grumbling, “You’re deadliest sin, pride, will come back to haunt you, Mathias.”
 
“Touché. Now it’s my turn.”
 
MATHIAS’ TURN: “I reuse Dimension Recycle once more to return a Nordic Beast monster. I play Pump Up on Thor!” His Spell doubles the god’s ATK to the 7000! The Lord of the Aesir busts in a golden aura, shattering his cloak and armor, its muscles bulging into terrible huge shapes.
 
Weevil and Rex duck for cover, both crying out, “Oh God, it turned into a Super Saiyan!”
 
“Thor, slay the dragon!” Mathias’ giant swings its hammer about to strike the head off its enemy. Thor swings in, coming centimeters close to ending the duel.
 
But Matthew wills the duel to continue; such is he, driven by an infernal hatred. “I play Storming Mirror Force! Now your God will bow before me!” But Mathias refuses, activating Trap Stun. But Matthew has a countermeasure in store. “I play Widespread Ruin!” But Mathias is one step ahead of him, activating Loki’s Effect to dispose of the Trap. But Matthew is yet another step ahead. “I activate Divine Wrath!” He discards a card from his hand; judgment reigns from on high to punish the trickster Nordic god for its impudence; while Thor is obliterates in an explosion from Matthew’s booby trap.
 
Mathias grits his teeth in frustration but feels a flicker of pride, not for himself but for Matthew. “That was an amazing chain. You would give Maya a hell of a fight in the finals, and I would want to see that more than anyone else. But you’re dueling me! I revive Loki and Thor, returning a Trap Card to my hand and giving you 800 damage.” The two gods reform from the darkness as if nothing happened to them, and Thor flicks Matthew with another thunderbolt. (Matthew LP 2400 à 1600)
 
MATTHEW’S TURN: “I destroy Thor with Golden God Dragon!” The cycle repeats; Matthew’s dragon wipes out Mathias’ Thor; Mathias revives Thor and deals Matthew his just desserts.
 
Both duelists have reached their limits, with Mathias standing at 500 Life while Matthew clings on to 800 Life. Matthew fairs far worse among the two, his legs warbling, his body slightly crouched and leaning ahead as if he is on shaking ground. Mathias looks a little worse for wear but he retains good shape with his usual confidence.
 
Yet Mathias’ resilience does not sooth Maya and Stella’s worries any bit. Mathias may look good but he is losing the duel, and if he does lose… he will fall into a coma as Hannibal did a mere two hours ago. Mathias has been nothing but a good friend to them, his odd affection rubbing off on them throughout the tournament. Mathias seemed so invincible both women forgot he was mortal after all, but now his very real chance of dying struck them with awful realization, like a poisoned dagger to the heart.
 
Stella recalls how she took her mother’s very existence completely for granted until she got breast cancer, and Maya paid for her surgery, greatly easing the financial burden. The same fears overtake her and the same tears well in her eyes, ready to fall at the slightest push.
 
Maya recalls her own mother, sweet and deeply warm yet never smiling, succumbing from her own cancer. She witnessed her mother’s dying in full, down to the death rattle leaving her throat and the light leaving her eyes, but felt nothing, overwhelmed by a kind of numbness. It was as if the conflicting emotions of grief on the one hand and a perverse kind of satisfaction on the other would tear the young girl to pieces if they warred against the other, so her body shut them down.
 
MATHIAS’ TURN: Mathias draws his next card. YES!!! The last piece of the puzzle! Finally the nightmare would end and he would have a blast taking Maya out in the finals and – one great Red Dragon would remain; he. Will it not prove him to be the evil the Headmaster had predicted?
 
“I set 2 cards…”
 
MATTHEW’S TURN: “I activate Night Beam, popping your middle facedown card!” Surely enough, a surveillance camera of sorts emerges from the darkness, fries the hidden Trap Card, Trap Stun, and discreetly dissolves away to whence it came. “I set a card and end my turn.”
 
MATHIAS’ TURN: The Saint gathers his courage to draw his last card. The moment of judgment is at hand. He pleads to his God with a quick and silent prayer; please may Matthew not win and the Headmaster’s prophecy not come to pass. “I activate the Set Spell Name Change! I treat Odin as ‘Dark Magician’, Thor as ‘Dark Magician Girl’, and Loki as ‘Magician of Black Chaos’! Now, my true Spell Ragnorak!”
 
Mathias banishes every monster he owns except for his Nordic gods, the field flooding with a spiraling train of Matthew’s monsters, the precession so grand it even catches the stoic Kaiba and Maria off guard. Maya and Stella jump with hope, even hugging each other for a second before remembering how they hated each other.
  
Pegasus tosses his hands in the air. “HALLELUJAH!” He ejaculates in adulation.
 
“I banish a Dragon from my Graveyard to save my monster!” Matthew cries, but Mathias soon corrects him. Ragnorak can’t be negated and no monster can avoid destruction. Odin, Thor, Loki, all three gods embrace Matthew’s one god, trapping it in a magic circle. A column of bright searing gold falls from the sky to the earth to return the golden dragon to its origins.
 
With Matthew’s field clear of monsters, Mathias can make an attack. “Now my Lords of the Aesir, smite the sinner and grant me victory!” The three Nordic gods strike Matthew with their strongest attacks – except they don’t. All the attacks bounce away from their target as if Matthew is protected by a massive wall, which he is. His Golden God Dragon has returned!
 
Mathias is dumbstruck. How!? Then he sees Matthew’s Permanent Trap: Dimension Gate. Matthew must have secretly banished his own monster when the beam of light from Ragnorak struck it, which should have finished Matthew off but only gave him the key to victory.
 
“You could have beaten me!” Mathias gasps in shock. “Why did you not attack last turn?”
 
Matthew smirks. “Pity.”
 
Matthew seizes the chance to victory, launching his devastating attack. “Dragon, kill him.” The Golden God Dragon rises into the black sky as a phoenix and crashes down on Mathias, the field overtaken in a deadly tornado of flames. Mathias screams in the agony of the damned, his Nordic gods burn away to ash, the finalists duck for cover.
 
Mathias thinks of his comrades, Dan and Ivy, once more, telling his heart he loved them, as if he could send his thoughts beyond the flames and darkness around him to reach them, and blacks out. His vengeance satisfied, Matthew calls upon his Golden God Dragon to leave. The flames die down, the dragon returns to the sky, the darkness lifts to reveal Mathias laying motionless on the ground. The Saint has fallen.
 

Matthew: 800 || Mathias: 0

[MewMew3]

MATTHEW’S CREATED CARDS:

 

Golden God Dragon

LIGHT/Dragon/Fusion-Synchro-Xyz-Link/Level-Rank 10/ATK 4000/no Link Arrows
4 Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, Xyz, or Link Dragon-Type monsters

·      Must first be Special Summoned from your Extra Deck by banishing 4 Fusion Materials you control of different Card Types (you do not use Polymerization). If this card was Special Summoned with the following Materials, it gains the the following Effects:

o   FUSION: If this card would be targeted by a Card Effect; you can banish 1 Dragon from your hand, field, or Graveyard. Negate and destroy your opponent’s card,

o   RITUAL: If this card would be destroyed; you can banish 1 Dragon from your hand, field, or Graveyard, and this card is not destroyed.

o   SYNCHRO: If this card destroys your opponent’s monster by battle: it can attack once more.

o   XYZ: If this card is destroyed; you can Special Summoned 1 banished Dragon during your next Standby Phase (ignoring all Summoning conditions.)

o   LINK: Once per turn during your Standby Phase; you can send 1 Dragon from your Deck to the Graveyard.  

 

Dragon Buffer

Normal Trap

·      If a Dragon you control was destroyed this turn and you control no monsters: Special Summon 4 “Buffer Tokens” (EARTH/Dragon/Level 1/ATK 0/ DEF 0) in Defense Position.

 

Janur, the Dark Dragon Herald

DARK/Dragon/Level 4/1800 ATK/1600 DEF

·      You can banish this card from your Graveyard: Special Summon 1 Level 6 or lower Dragon from your Deck, and Special Summon 2 “Dragonshade Tokens” (DARK/Dragon/Level 1/200 ATK/200 DEF) on your opponent’s field.

 

MATHIAS’ CREATED CARDS:

 

Rainbow Return

Normal Spell

·      Special Summon 3 banished “Nordic” monsters. They cannot be used as Tributes and are banished at the end of this turn. You cannot attack or activate any other Spell or Trap Cards this turn.

 

Dimension Recycle

Continuous Spell

·      Once per turn: if one of your monsters was banished last turn; you can return 1 banished monster to your Graveyard.

 

Name Change

Continuous Spell

·      You can target up to 3 different monsters on the field. Target 1 monster; change its Name. After you activated this card 3 times: send it to the Graveyard.    

 

ANIME CARDS:

 

Pump Up

Normal Spell

·      Target 1 monster you control: double its ATK until the end of this turn.

 

Ragonorak

Quickplay Spell

·      Activate this card if you control 2 monsters with the Names “Dark Magician”, “Dark Magician Girl”, “Magician of Black Chaos”, or “Dark Sage”. Banish all monsters in your hand, Deck, and Graveyard: destroy all monsters your opponent controls. This card’s activation and Effect cannot be negated, and all Effects that would prevent a monster from being destroyed cannot be activated.

[MewMew3]

Took the Myers-Briggs test for my characters for fun. Here is what I got.

 

Maya- ENTJ

Xiaoyi - ENTJ

Sophia - ENFP

 

Matthew - ISTJ

Mathias - ESTP

Stella - ENFP

Maria - ISTJ

 

JC - ESTP

Yukio - INFP

Jolene - INFP

 

Me - INTJ

[MewMew3]

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’m reading the collection of Orwell’s essays titled All Art is Propaganda. In one of those essays, Orwell discusses the big gap – chasm, really – between writ English and spoken English, and suggests ways to set spoken English down on paper. Internet chats, like on Facebook and Twitter and Reddit, create a bridge in their own unique way. What you read now is how I sound like when trying to explain something complex to someone, after I tidied it up a bit; taking out my Valley Girl “likes” and “you knows”, erasing repeated phrases, joining block sentences together to link ideas together – I mentioned this before – and so forth. I will try writing future chapters the way I tell a story to someone, with refining.

 

I have a larger ambition to rebuild the English language as we speak it from the ground up. I try avoiding most words with more than three syllables unless I’m forced to for some reason. I try making real physical people do things, not abstract concepts that do not truly exist. Epistemic poststructuralism does not state truths, Derrida states truths. I try using the active tense as much as I can. I try replacing a person’s “state of being” with actions that person. I try avoiding any jargon as much as needed. Rather than merely state a general truth or theory, I SHOW it with concrete examples.

 

I know, I still write badly. I talk about how to write, so my Author’s Note is pretty abstract. I will probably violate my rules even more, but I will try. Writing prose like the spoken word is pretty hard, but I can be more forceful and direct. What do you think?

 

Duel 21 – Two Sides of the Same Coin

 

 

Mokuba jumped up the pyramid’s platform to attend to Mathias’ body, amazing since he was so small and short, and Stella hid her teary face with her hands, no longer able to control her grief. The tournament hosts looked on at a distant space far out the arena as if nothing special happened; Kaiba cold and scowling, Pegasus bemused as if watching Funny Rabbit. Rex and Weevil cried out together in shock and huddled around Stella. Even Maria came over to lend Stella a hand over her shoulder.

 

But Maya remained numb; she was locked to the tiny space of the ground she stood on, unable to move. She looked on with such a daze her vision became unfocused, vaguely making out the blurs she saw to be the doctors Mokuba summoned hauling Mathias’ large corpse away, doubting she ever felt as helpless in her life as she felt right now.

 

Matthew happily hopped off the arena, as satisfied as a fat cat after a hearty meal; his inner darkness apparently got full from the shadow game version of Fancy Feast. But our inner darkness, whether vengeance or envy or greed, or in Matthew’s case all three, is a bottomless stomach. Nothing truly satisfies it. Matthew looked pretty smug at this point, whispering in Maya’s ear, “I just beat buffalo chicken pizza man at his best game. I doubt you can bear the girth of my dark powers in the final duel.”

 

Maya did find a way to express her emotions, badly as usual. She fisted Matthew in the stomach as hard as she could, only half aware of what she was doing, and Matthew returned her favor by kicking her c***, and Maya gave him a facial, clocking him the jaw. Both playground children clutched their wounds after their scrap, but neither would dare say they were hurt.   

 

“I didn’t know you were a man, Maya.” Matthew taunted her, as if she needed balls to be wounded in the crotch.

 

Maya admitted he was right. “At least I have balls. You have nothing to kick.” And both duelists parted on that note.

 

Maya arrived to the medical room, seeing Mathias lying comatose next to Hannibal. Rex and Weevil sat against the wall, Stella sitting on a chair near the hospital bed. “Full yourself together.” Maya told her with a stiff voice. “Our duel is in fifteen minutes.”

 

Stella shot up from the chair like a rocket and grabbed Maya’s shoulders. She shook her. Her friend’s brain just probably died and she just stood there like Kaiba! What is her problem! Stella pulled at Maya like she was a shut clam, trying to force her open, but Maya struck back like a stubborn ass, kicking Stella away. Maya gripped the ivi needle penetrating Mathias’ vein, ready to pull it out, and roared like a wild animal, “Want to know how I feel! I am so distraught and angry I don’t know who to kill more; I want to kill Matthew like I wanted to kill my dad for years for doing everything he did, but I want to kill Mathias for failing us the way my mom failed protecting me and decided to drop dead instead! Words cannot describe the satisfaction I felt when Mathias finally died!”

 

Maya and Stella stood at exactly the same height yet Maya menaced over her, her black locks seeming to stand up, making her look larger the way a beast does when threatened or enraged. Mokuba and his team of doctors arrived to protect their patients, Mokuba threatening Maya with an ominous taser gun. Maya was sure pissed but she wasn’t stupid. She backed away from Mathias’ body.

 

“I knew you were messed up but I never thought you were an abuser.” Stella told her. “But I should’ve known better; you had all the signs.”   

 

“I never so much as squeezed you’re tits too hard when we were together.”

 

“Until now, when you could’ve given me a miscarriage if I was pregnant.”

 

“It doesn’t count. We’re not together anymore.”

 

“It does matter. You abuse friends. It will only be a matter of time when you abuse partners too, assuming you didn’t abuse anyone before you met me.”  

 

Maya complained, “You know, I never have these problems with men. Be pretty, f*** him often, and a man is happy. A man is simple and reasonable, but a woman complicates all that is petty and unworthy of serious thought with their stupid feelings. What more did you want me to do when we were together, Stella? Did you want me to buy presents for you every day? Hug you and say ‘I love you’ every passing hour? Happily let you do anything you wanted even if you were wrong?”

 

Stella stood her ground; she stared the beast in the eye and did not budge. “No, Maya. That is not what I – what women – what everyone – what even you need. We all have emotional needs to keep our hearts full. I’m sorry your heart starved throughout your life, so of course you wouldn’t know how feed it or anyone else’s.”

 

Mobuka prodded them both, his patience gone. “Divorce court is open air. Out.”

 

The two women sulked away from the medical room, Maya mumbling, “Mokuba being assertive? That’s a new one.”   

 

She held Stella’s hand with her own hand, as if saying sorry for the violence she did earlier. Stella said, “I totally get you hating your dad and all, but why hate your mother for dying? She didn’t decide to die from lung cancer.” Maya refused to say anything, but Stella understood. Maya’s mother could have stopped Maya’s father father from hitting Maya until she bled and burning her mother’s hands with boiling water, but did not. “Can you please forgive your mother and your father? They’re only human. Don’t do it for me, do it for yourself.” When Maya said no, Stella added with the right force, “You will never defeat Matthew’s dark powers as long as you have darkness inside.”

                                                   

“Did Yugi tell you?” Maya could not help but make sarcasm. “You must’ve watched episode 134 because Yugi lectured Kaiba on that very thing, as if Yugi ever had any real demons. Then again, he supposedly is a reincarnated pharaoh or something stupid like that, which makes him a god anyway.”

 

“But he spoke the truth; it’s still valid.” Stella responded, keeping her voice firm. “Can you forgive your parents?”

 

Nothing embarrassed Maya more than airing her daddy issues, like dirty laundry, out in the spring air, but when she felt Stella tighten her grip on her hand, and vowed, “I know I don’t show sentiments easily. What other people show with feelings I show by deeds. I promise you, as certain as the sun directly above us, I destroy Matthew in the finals and restore Mathias and Hannibal to life. You have my word.”

 

Stella placed her other hand on Maya’s cheek, caressing it with all the warmth and softness of a spring breeze. “You have to beat me first, silly.”

 

Maya remembered their first date, when Maya dueled Stella for her affection and barely won. “Then it’s a date.” And Maya headed off to the arena. 

[MewMew3]

BTW Napping-Kirby-Who-Is-Totally-Not-A-Car, this chapter is only 3 Microsoft Word pages long, including the lengthy intro.
 

[MewMew3]

Duel 22 – Huge Clash, Tiny Arena

 

 

Maya touched the hologram cards projected from her duel disk, moving them this way and that to edit her deck. Yes, she beat Maria but she was horrified at how bad her was; bit to the very sixty-card limit, it was bursting from the seams. The Sacred Beasts were powerful all right but they were unwieldy was a giant club. Maya took a few cards out, added a few more; Burning Abyss needed more support. She would deal with the Sacred Beasts later, but she had no time at the moment.

 

Stella quietly and solemnly made her way up to the arena, and Maya realized at this moment how tiny the arena truly was. People were like vast gulfs unknown fathoms deep, but blocked from each other by mountains. Games, at least this one, were a way to make the mountain vanish for a while, and when the two gulfs blend you get a tempest. Maya doubted any arena could contain such a thing.

 

Maya saved her file in her duel disk; her deck was ready. She said to Stella, “Ready to give everything you have?”

 

The air was very tense, and both duelists couldn’t properly breathe, but Stella did answer, “If we were any closer I would punch you in the face.”

 

“That’s the spirit!”

 

STELLA: 8000 || MAYA: 8000

 

STELLA’S TURN: “No mercy, Maya! Here I come! I play Yang Zing Cycle, I tribute 3 Wyrm monsters to Ritual Summon Wu’Tien, Dragon Empress of Yang!” The famous yin-yang symbol appears behind her as three Chinese dragons dissolve into the yin half of the cosmos circle, then the empress of light flies out from the white dot in the darkness. “And with her Effect I revive Toatie, Shadow of the Yang Zing and Bi’an, Earth of the Yang Zing!” The dragons of shadow and earth, one large and muscular, the other small, appear beside their queen.

 

“I activate Qu’Tien again, destroying Taotie to draw a card, and from Taotie’s death I Special Summon Bixi, Water of the Yang Zing from the Deck.” Enter a new dragon of water, resembling a turtle, to replace the old one. “I tune Bixi and Bi’an to Synchro Summon Denlong, First of the Yang Zing, and use its Effect to searh for Zefraxi, Treasure of the Yang Zing, and I Normal Summon it.” Water and earth blend into a primitive dragon of white hot light, and a small dragon of jewels joins it. “I tune Denlong and Zefraxi to Synchro Summon Yazi, Evil of the Yang Zing, and from Denlong’s Effect I Special Summon Chiwen, Light of the Yang Zing!” A large black dragon of evil replaces the first dragon of light, taking its jeweled friend with it, but a new light dragon now joins the party, small and bright as a lightbulb.

 

“I play Soul Charge to revive Denlong, Pulao, and Taotie!” And three Chinese dragons return from the Graveyard, but Stella pays a steep price to make it so. (STELLA LP 8000 à 5000) It is well worth the effort. “I set a card facedown and end my turn.”

 

 MAYA’S TURN: “I draw!” Maya finds Stella’s army formidable, but also amusing. She used to spam the field with monsters too, just a week ago in fact. Well, it is time to see if she truly matured in her strategy. “I set a monster and a back row card. I end my turn.”

  

“What?” Stella can’t make out such a move. She has an entire army of the Dragonstar Ten and Maya just baits her? She could at least set three cards or something like that! “You will pay for disrespecting me!”

 

STELLA’S TURN: “I’ll get rid of what little defenses you have. I use Yazi’s Effect to destroy itself and your back row!” Dragon and card shatter instantly.

 

Maya rejoices, “Good! You fell for my true trap! You destroyed Blaze Accelerator Reload, which triggers it’s Effect: I banish it to mill Volcanic Scattershot from my Deck, which lets me mill 2 more!” The cumulative power of all these moves is a tidal wave of fire; the disaster burns all of Stella’s monsters to a crisp before washing away the ashes. (STELLA LP: 5000 à 3500)

 

Almost all. Wu’Tien remains standing, as regal as ever. Stella let herself smirk at the result. “Sorry, Maya. That may work against Maria but not me! I had Wu’Tien pop one of my monsters to save herself, and you forgot one crucial fact: Yang Zing monsters can replace themselves! I call forth Jiaotu, Darkness of the Yang Zing; Bi’an, Earth of the Yang Zing; Suanni, Fire of the Yang Zing; and Pulao, Wind of the Yang Zing!” Four new dragons appear from the orient, with all the colors of the rainbow.

 

“Hmph!” Maya bushes away this new development with scorn.

 

“I tune all my Yang Zing monsters to Synchro Summon Chaofeng, Phantom of the Yang Zing!” The rainbow of dragons returns its source of white light, from which comes their emperor of many colorful flags. “I activate Path of the Yang Zing: I shuffle 3 Yang Zings back in the Deck and draw 2! Wu’Tien, slay the facedown monster!” The empress readily obeys her master, ironically, and splits the monster beneath it with her elegant curved sword.

 

The monster is Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, but Maya knows she can’t use it, because Chaofeng stops all monster Effects with Attributes used to Synchro Summon it. In fact, the only monsters she can use for Effect purposes are LIGHT and WATER monsters, and she has none of the latter. And that’s not all! Chaofeng can’t be killed by battle or effected by Spells either. This is bad.

 

Stella holds the lights of joy and victory glinting in her blue eyes. “Chaofeng, hit Maya directly!” The great dragon hits Maya with a savage gust from its wings, propelling her on her back. (MAYA LP 8000 à 4700) “I end my turn. I told you I’d punish you for a flippant move!”

 

“And so you have.” Maya says in a nonchalant way as she resumes her posture, not revealing the extreme pain wracking her chest. Dueling is the last thing you should do with broken ribs. With every breath making Maya feel like she is being stabbed, it was a wonder indeed she didn’t faint from the first duel.

 

“However,” Maya reveals to her former lover, winking at her. “You showed your hand too early, and no army of Technicolor dragons can compensate.”

 

“I’m not worried. No amount of cockiness will cover that bluff.”   

 

“But you should be, Stella. You walked away from me last duel. You don’t know all my strategies. Who is disrespecting who again?”

 

Stella bites her lip on hearing those words. Maya is right.

 

 Matthew, that manchild, comes up with something he thinks is the cleverest idea in the world. He calls upon the dark powers Xiaoyi bequeathed him, once more smothering the arena in a fog so black no sunlight can pierce it. The young man laughs in a villainous triumph, “The ultimate shadow game has begun! Former lovers, now you are the bitterest enemies! For the ultimate sadistic choice, only one of you can make it out alive, the other dies! How ironic, the one person you once loved more than any other is the person you kill! Who will it be!”

 

Maya and Stella both freeze from the news, but only for a moment. They effortlessly laugh it all off, throwing Matthew into bewilderment and frustration. “Are you kidding me!” Stella shouts from up the arena. “Everyone wants to kill their ex! Lamest! Supervillain! Plotwist! Ever!” Before she convulses into coughs.

 

“NO!” Matthew screams. “NO! NO! NOOOOOOO! You’re supposed to be full of despair!”

 

Maya yells at him, “You’re not Jigsaw! Take a seat, you amateur, and shut up! We’re having couples therapy over here!”

 

“But Xiaoyi says I’m a special villain. When will it be my turn to win for once?” Matthew whimpers with his eyes staring at the ground, and that just causes Maya and Stella to ridicule him even more.    

 

MAYA’S TURN: “Speaking of which, I play Triangle Force, letting me activate 2 more from my Deck, and I set two cards. Good luck, Stella.”

 

STELLA’S TURN: “I’ll punch your confidence to the dirt with Matthew, where both belong, and because it’s a shadow game, you’ll feel the damage for real.”

 

“Nearly getting my ribs broken twice felt pretty real.” Maya objects.

 

“Then wait until you see my Yang Zings nuke you like China would nuke Japan if they wanted to; monsters, attack!” The dragon empress swung her sword at Maya while her partner fired a volley of wind and thunder, blowing the typhoon over to knock out the puny human that stood in its way.

 

“You fell for my second trap!” Maya declared. “I activate my 2 Traps, Power Wall!” Maya mills a total of 13 cards from her Deck, and both dragon emperors are rendered impotent. “I can’t use Burning Abyss monsters, but I can activate Toy Vendor in my Graveyard, adding a Fluffal Bear from the Deck to my hand.”

 

“Damnit.” Stella grits her teeth in frustration, then makes a gentle laugh. “You are slippery snake, aren’t you.”

 

This left-handed complement makes Maya smirk ever so slightly; she says, “Oh please, Xiaoyi called me a snake too, and both of you embarrass me. A snake implies mystique and elegance, and I have neither, nor would I want them. I’m more like an ass or a pig: stubborn and shameless, but shrewd and with good memory.”

 

“So that’s why you don’t eat pork. It would be cannibalism.”

 

MAYA’S TURN: “I activate Toy Vendor from my hand, then I banish Fluffal Wings and Fluffal Bear, and destroy Toy Vendor, to draw 2.” And the vendor appears and vanishes with a snap of the fingers. “I use Toy Vendor’s Effect in the Graveyard, adding a Fluffal Wing to my hand.”

 

Maya gives herself pause at this moment to relish what will come “Yes, everything is in place! It’s time for a little old combo to come back from the grave.” Before Stella can even ask what that cryptic comment means, Maya says, “People look with nostalgia to the past, until they experience it again. I banish two Burning Abyss monsters and Tour Guide to Special Summon DARK NECROFEAR!”

 

The dark arena grows even darker, if such a thing is even possible, as a ghost haunts the field, its presence so eerie even Kaiba gets the chills. “Come out!” Stella shouts, her voice growing in fear. “Show yourself!” And the fiend obliges her, condensing into human form from the darkness: of a tall gaunt woman in dark blue skin, holding the cracked remains of a baby doll.

 

Stella’s fear turns into fury. “What are you trying to pull, Maya!”

 

And Maya answered. “Donkeys live very long. You’ve never seen a dead donkey, have you? I set two cards facedown. Attack me, if you dare.”      

[MewMew3]

Duel 23 – Tactics Mashup

 

 

Stella suddenly remembers: Maya is playing Bakura’s Occult Combo from the first Battle City! Armed with this knowledge, Stella overcomes her shock and gazes at Dark Necrofear in the eye; she is indeed a sinister creature, her true power unleashed when she is slain; but the last time Stella studied her, her Effect was greatly watered down from its original power through countless reprints over the years, and the same is true for Destiny Board. How can Maya even assemble all the Spirit Messenger pieces anyway, what with milling her Deck and all?   

 

The Occult combo isn’t scary at all! Stella gets that feeling of relief when you shed light on a sinister shadow in the dark and it turns out to only be furniture. Maya splashing out Dark Necrofear was nothing but a cheap jump scare to psyche her out, like those modern horror films pass for genuine terror these days. Now Stella transforms again from being terrified to relieved to annoyed, and so she chastises Maya, “Acting like a copycat fangirl is no way to duel in the finals. You’re flippancy is really starting to piss me off now. How dare you treat our relationship as a joke!”

 

“No jokes here, I’m dead serious.” Maya says, and she means it; the way she locks down her gaze at Stella tells it so. “And to prove it, I promise you I will never use my god card against you this duel.”

 

Matthew falls back in shock, in total disbelief he cries out, “What! But you never played it once!”

 

“You’re right.” Maya dignifies him with an answer. “I don’t play cheap cards like you do, like the way Yugi pulled the god card Osiris out of his ass to beat Bakura at the last moment. Winning with a god card does not show your skill; it shows the opposite; you might as well say, ‘I can’t beat you with my own skills so I have to use a broken card instead!’ Yugi and Kaiba did just that for their entire careers.”

 

Kaiba contorts his face into an even deeper scowl than the one he usually has, seething, he growls, “You insolent parasite to society, I will disqualify you right now –”

 

“And what’s gonna’ happen then, big guy? Half of all duelists will quit Yugioh. You’re company will go bankrupt within a week, Google or Disney will buy it out, you’ll shoot yourself in your office, and Mokuba will return to the orphanage. – By the way, Joey is a working class hero.”

 

Kaiba prepares himself to give the most disparaging retort we can think of but Pegasus cuts the discussion short. “Can we please return to the damn duel already! Have sex after the tournament!”

 

STELLA: 3500 || MAYA: 4700

 

STELLA’S TURN: “You missed one important thing, Maya.” Stella declares. “My Chaofeng stops the Effects of DARK monsters. You’re strategy is shot! Chaofeng, destroy Dark Necrofear!” Her dragon easily burns away the darkness with the radiant light from its body. (MAYA LP: 4700 à 3600)

 

“Now, Wu’Tien, attack directly!”

 

Stella fell for the first trap, so Maya triggers her second one, “Light-Imprisoning Mirror!” Both of Stella’s monsters get coated with a halo of sorts, but one that pulls them down like dead weight, and with that, Maya shouts! “SPIRIT BURN!” A ghost, the one from Dark Necrofear’s baby doll, leaps out of Stella’s monster and shoots through Stella like a bullet, cutting away her Life and giving the spoils to Maya. (STELLA LP 3500 à 2100, MAYA LP 3600 à 5000).

 

Stella gasps in shock and frustration. “sheet!” Maya is using a Dark Necrofear of original print! How did she get her hands on such a rare card! Regardless, Stella’s turn is over. “I set a card facedown.”

 

Now for Maya’s final trap. “I activate Destiny Board!” The deceased spirit of Dark Necrofear rises from the grave with a Ouija board, looming over Maya’s field, and moves its planchette to the first letter. A ghostly fiend rises forth with the first message: the letter “D”, as in “D”, “E”, “A”, “T”, “H”. Once Maya spells DEATH within four more turns, she will instantly win the Duel.

 

Stella gasps, her moods changing again within fifteen minutes: from terror to relief to annoyance to frustration to wonder. “And it’s not censored! That’s so cool! If only Mathias could see this!”

 

Matthew shrinks away in disgust, mumbling to himself. “Lousy hypocrite, using broken cards…” And he mumbled some more.

 

MAYA’S TURN: “Everything is in place,” Maya speaks to herself. “Let me built my counterattack while Stella is distracted. – I still didn’t draw Jewels of the Valiant. Crap.”

 

“I banish Dark Summoning Beast in my Graveyard to add a Sacred Beast to my hand, and so I send my 3 Triangle Force to the Graveyard to Special Summon Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder!” The dark skies around them loudly bellow with lightning to herald, as trumpet fanfare, their lord.

 

“Preparations are not yet done. I discard Fluffal Bear from my hand to Set Toy Vendor from my Deck, then I activate it: I discard Fluffal Wings to draw a card.” Maya takes the vendor’s cheap prize and shrugs, discarding it: a useful Trap Card called Breakthrough Skill. “Anyway, I banish Fluffal Wings and Fluffal Bear, and destroy Toy Vendor, to draw 2 cards.” Once Maya did that, she used Toy Vendor’s other Effect to search for yet another Fluffal Wings, and she finally finished her chore.

 

Time to attack; Maya commanded her monster, “Hamon, launch your lightning at Chaofeng and destroy him!”

 

Maya’s monster is very large and intimidating indeed, but Stella easily stops it. “I play Storming Mirror Force!” All the sand of the island seems to gather around them as a hail storm and, raining hard on the lord of thunder, forces it to retreat back to Maya’s hand.

 

Maya sets a card and ends her turn in a huff.   

 

STELLA’S TURN: “Maya, you’re Occult combo was an awesome surprise but that can’t beat me.”

 

“You know what they say, a player surprised if half beaten.” Maya says, winking at her.

 

“But only half. I’m not scared of Dark Necrofear and her aborted fetish baby, not even when they’re dead. If I intuit things right, Dark Necrofear’s Effect most likely resembled the modern print of Dark Sanctuary. Your Spirit Burn attack depends on the flip of a coin, like a fifty-fifty chance a fetus becomes a boy or a girl.”

 

“And what if it lands on its side?”

 

“Then we’ll call the little hellspawn transgendered and I’ll buy you a Bourbon, but only if you beat me.” Stella then clenches her fist, steeling her resolve, hoping luck is on her side. She drew a card she needed to seal Maya’s monsters forever, but she wants to hit Maya while she can, and Maya must play her part by destroying it.  

 

“Wu’Tien, hit Maya directly!” Stella commands. The empress dragon does not, can not attack; the spirit possessing the field leaps out of her again, tearing away more of her life. (STELLA LP 2100 à 700, MAYA LP 5000 à 6400) Yet Stella is not frightened by such a move, she moves in for another attack, throwing her life to chance. And chance rewards her! Chaofeng smashed Maya with bars of light sprouting from its body, with no evil spirit blocking it. (MAYA LP 6400 à 3100)

 

Stella sets 2 cards, and as she ends her turn the spirit of Dark Necrofear spells another letter on her Ouija Board: “E”.

 

MAYA’S TURN: “I play the Trap Fiend Grieving: I return a Yang Zing monster from your Graveyard back to your Deck while I mill Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, and use its Effect to Special Summon Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss from my Deck.” Two fiends from the fourth malebolge arrive from Hell on schedule, but only one stays.

 

“I link up Cir to Link Summon Charono, Ferryman of the Burning Abyss, and use his Effect to Special Summon a second Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss from my Deck.” The Link 1 monster rows his way through the air from the River Styx to the field, a humble yet dangerous monster.

 

“And more, I use my second Graff to Link Summon another Charono, Ferryman of the Burning Abyss, and use his effect to Special Summon Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss from my Deck, and my second Graff, now destroyed, does likewise, so I also call upon Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss!” Another ferryman appears with a couple of Fiends attending to him.   

 

“I Tribute Summon Dark Summoning Beast and Tribute it to Special Summon Uria, Lord of Searing Flames from my Deck.” One of Maya’s ferrymen vanish to make way for a larger more savage creature, which in turn dissolves away to bring forth a large vicious red dragon. “And I use its Effect to destroy your facedown card.” The great red dragon emblazons with fury and destroys the hidden trap. Stella nearly jumps for joy, as Maya hit the jackpot, but she would never dare reveal it.     

 

Thankfully for Stella, Maya can’t attack with Uria this turn. Still unfinished, Maya maneuvers even more through her convoluted dance, making Stella wish she drew the exact card sooner. “I overlay Farfa and Scarm to Xyz Summon Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss, and send Calcab to the Graveyard to Xyz Summon Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal!” The two fiends collapse to form the famous Dante, who sublimates in the eternal feminine to summon Beatrice.  

 

And with the Effect of Calcab, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, Maya bounces one of Stella’s backrow cards to her hand. Stella doesn’t care, as Maya already fell into her trap. Regardless, Maya did assemble all the infernal society to her court.

 

Matthew moans in utter boredom at the sidelines, and hollers out to everyone, “Can you please finish your turn already!”

 

“If only I could.” Comes Maya’s replay. “The game would be far less tedious.” She resumes her turn yet again. “I activate Jewels of the Valiant and banish Dark Summoning Beast from my Graveyard to add the last Sacred Beast to my hand, and with that I use Jewels to mill a monster. I set a card and end my turn.”

 

Matthew sighs in relief, acting like a little boy when he finally gets a marshmallow his mother promised him.

 

Now it is Stella’s turn to sigh in relief. She said, “I’m sorry, Maya, but you fell into my trap. I activate The Lost Ark in my Graveyard! Since you destroyed it this turn, I can Set any Trap Card from my Deck facedown. You gave me exactly the card I needed to smash your occult combo!”

 

Maya is all too eager to see Stella try, for it would be boring if Maya did win with Destiny Board, and regains a fondness for Stella she did not feel in a very long time. But a duel is a duel, so she pretended to be nervous and incredulous. All she said was, “Bring it!”    

[Dova]

Just finished reading it, and the last chapter just got me thinking about Duels in fanfics.

 

I must say, you have got keeping the Duelists in dueling interesting down pat. In the latest chapter, I hoped for this sort of development of Maya, and the various lines like “Then we’ll call the little hellspawn transgendered and I’ll buy you a Bourbon, but only if you beat me." really scream of personality from both sides. You even got interruption from other Duelists not being just exposition, or awkward and out of place. However, I don't know how I feel about the odd, if fitting, splashing in character Decks, such as Maya's Fluffal engine. It makes sense IRL, but in a story...hm.

 

I do like the serious, yet humorous route you've taken with this. You're sacrificing epicness and complete comedy for something that I enjoyed reading. The varying references to the actual show as a show, the villain being taken seriously on and off...I'm not entirely invested in this world you've built, but as someone who's started reading at this Season 8, I think I'll continue.

[MewMew3]

Just finished reading it, and the last chapter just got me thinking about Duels in fanfics.

 

I must say, you have got keeping the Duelists in dueling interesting down pat. In the latest chapter, I hoped for this sort of development of Maya, and the various lines like “Then we’ll call the little hellspawn transgendered and I’ll buy you a Bourbon, but only if you beat me." really scream of personality from both sides. You even got interruption from other Duelists not being just exposition, or awkward and out of place. However, I don't know how I feel about the odd, if fitting, splashing in character Decks, such as Maya's Fluffal engine. It makes sense IRL, but in a story...hm.

 

I do like the serious, yet humorous route you've taken with this. You're sacrificing epicness and complete comedy for something that I enjoyed reading. The varying references to the actual show as a show, the villain being taken seriously on and off...I'm not entirely invested in this world you've built, but as someone who's started reading at this Season 8, I think I'll continue.

 

Thank you so much for the comment! I'm glad you like the personalities, humor, and naturalness. It's very hard doing that sort of thing. The drama blended with comedy? I was inspired by Team4Star's Dragonball Z Abridged. They do an amazing job.

 

I called it Season 8 just because I see it as a continuation of Yugioh Duel Monsters, which is 5 seasons long. My series is truly 3 seasons long so far. Combine that with DM and you've got 8 seasons.   

 

And Maya? She's trying to be this guy. This is my favorite video from his channel.   

 

[MewMew3]

Duel 24 – Slaying the Dragon

 

 

Stella finally has her key card in place, a card that will seal Maya’s fiends back in Hell where they belong.

 

STELLA: 700 | MAYA: 3100

                                                                                

STELLA’S TURN: “I Normal Summon Night Dracolich!” As the black draconic skeleton crawls up from the dust below, Stella muses to herself that this is the first time she Normal Summoned this entire Duel. Yugioh was such a different game back then…

 

“Chaofeng attack Charono!” The ferryman is a weak Link Monster, and as such, Maya can’t switch it to Defending Position to spare her Life Points. As her heavenly dragon readies himself for the attack, Stella sprung her trap, “I activate Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror!” And as the evil spirit from Dark Necrofear haunting the field leaps from the dragon to strike Stella down and finish the duel, a magical mirror catches the evil spirit and puts it in place.

 

Free from evil restraints, Chaofeng pulverizes Charono with the light from its body. (MAYA LP 3100 à 700) Maya looks mildly surprised and amused, but Stella can see the bead of sweat falling from her forehead. “Wu’tien, attack Uria and finish the Duel!” Stella knows Uria needs Continuous Trap Cards in Maya’s Graveyard to gain power, and with only 2 buried there, its ATK is very weak.

 

“GOTCHA!” Maya seems to jump from out nowhere, like she popped from the darkness itself. “I banish Fiendfyre and a FIRE monster from my Graveyard!” Wu’tien leaps to the attack with her sword but a wall of flame generates from thin air, knocking the dragon empress back. The wall of flame collapses into a meteor, and Stella knows what will happen next.

 

“I destroy Dracolich for Wu’tien’s effect!” The empress dragon tosses her subject to the meteor to take the hit, dispersing the flames. Stella’s monster is spared and Stella does not take the damage that would have finished her. But her Battle Phase ends all the same.

 

“I set a card and end my turn.” Stella says, admitting her campaign failed, and Dark Necrofear spells another letter: “A”.

 

“Two more turns left.” Maya reminds her with the obvious, just to rub it in her face.

 

MAYA’S TURN: “I play Pot of Avarice!” She returns 5 dead monsters to her Deck and draws 2 cards. “Rats…” Maya softly speaks to herself; she has a nice big hand but it does not look promising. Maya did not believe a duelist could generate so much advantage and still have nothing, until now. “What a terrible deck. I must redo it.”

 

Maya thinks about how Mathias would have a field day with Maya playing Pot of Avarice. The Saints have a little in-joke amongst themselves where Maximus owns the prized card and Mathias makes every desperate attempt he can to get Maximus to trade it away. And with that brief thought, noticing the void where a big man with an even bigger garrulous laugh would be, Maya feels her heart pierced with a terrible sadness.  

 

Maya had not felt this way since her mother died. Mathias did his best, giving all of his strength to protect her, and the world, from Matthew’s wrath, and Maya realizes her mother did nothing different. The poor woman, abused from her husband, did all she could to protect herself and her child. And Maya’s father? He did not have an easy life, and was disowned by his family, but so was Maya’s mother. That was no excuse.

 

“I put all my monsters to Defending Position, and I use Uria to destroy your facedown card.” Her monsters meekly obey her, but Uria does give Stella a sly punch below the bely by destroying her facedown Trap Card.

 

Maya destroys her Link Monster, protecting her Life, “I Tribute Charono to Set a monster facedown and set a backrow card. My turn is over.”

 

STELLA’S TURN: Stella knows Maya has something up her sleeve. She never admits defeat unless she ruses the opponent to play a dirty trick, but what other choice does Stella have but to fall for it? “Chaofeng, destroy Beatrice, the center of Maya’s Deck!”

 

The dragon volleys three balls of white-hot fire at the fair Lady of the Eternal, but Maya has something up her sleeve, “I activate Delta Barrier to negate your attack!” She revives 2 Continuous Traps from her Graveyard to aid the first one in blocking the dragon’s attack.

 

Undeterred, Stella barks, “Wu’tien, destroy Uria!” Her dragon empress slays the dragon demon by cutting off its head.

 

It would be hilarious if you nerfed Destiny Board at the last moment.” Maya jokes. “Boy, would I be salty!”

 

“You will be.” Stella replies in kind, “To gloat so early! I activate A Wing Beat of Giant Dragon! I return Wu’tien to my hand to destroy ALL Spells and Traps!” The reigning dragon queen rises to the heavens for the last time, her wings growing bright in tremendous size. She shunts her wings once, and vanishes in a flash, blowing away the Destiny Board, and Dark Necrofear dies a second time.    

 

“Well I’ll be damned!” Maya shouts in utter shock as her strategy is shot to bits.

 

“You’ll never beat me with such a cheap trick!” Stella remonstrates her opponent. “I should slap you just for being that arrogant.”

 

Maya admits, “You losing to Destiny Board would disappoint me. I’m very happy you overcame the Occult Combo, but I must ask; why not destroy it sooner?”

 

“That’s my secret.”

 

“Or your mistake. I play a second Pot of Avarice!” Maya turns to you and all the other readers. She asks, “Can someone tell me what Pot of Avarice does?”

 

“Stale jokes are stale, Maya.” Stella nags impatiently, “Make your damn move already.”

 

“Very well. I set a monster. Turn over.”  

 

STELLA’S TURN: “Well that was short. Not much to do when losing. I activate Preparation of Rites. I return a Ritual Spell and add a Ritual Monster to my hand, and I activate Yang Zing Cycle!” She Tributes Wu’tien herself in a surprise move; and as the sun has the moon, as light casts a shadow, as the mountain shares the land with the valley, a new darker dragon empress emerged. “I Ritual Summon Ci’xi, Dragon Empress of Yin!”

 

“When she is Ritual Summoned, Ci’xi adds two Wyrm monsters to my hand. Now Chaofeng, destroy Beatrice!” The old dragon succeeds in conquering the maiden this time, but his success is short lived. As Beatrice dies, Maya gives rise to Dante, Pilgrim of the Burning Abyss!

 

“I use its Effect.” Maya says. “I discard a Burning Abyss monster to draw a card.” When Stella reminds her that Chaofeng can now block the Effects of DARK monsters, Maya retorts, “Nah, really?”

 

“Ci’xi, destroy Dante!” The dark dragon empress draws her sword, a straight blade barbed with deep grooves like a shark’s teeth, screams a savage roar, and mercilessly butchers the pilgrim. Stella discards a card from Dante’s Effect; the penalty a player pays for slaying him. “I destroy a Wyrm in my hand to have Ci’xi attack again! Destroy a facedown card!” The evil queen slaughters the innocent Fluffal Wings under its hiding place.

 

“Since I destroyed Chiwen, Light of the Yang Zing, I Special Summon Taotie, Shadow of the Yang Zing from my Deck; and then, Taotie, destroy Maya’s last monster!” The second dark dragon pounces on its prey, killing the Fiend underneath.

 

“I set a card and end my turn.” Stella then understands the awful truth. Maya never planned on winning with the Occult Combo; she used it merely as a distraction to build a counterattack. In Battle City, Bakura played the Occult Combo as his ultimate strategy. Maya used the king as a pawn.   

 

MAYA’S TURN: “I banish Fluffal Wings and Fluffal Bear to draw a card. I now use the other Effects of the Burning Abyss monsters: I Special Summon Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss; Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss; and Graff Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, and I Tribute them all to Special Summon Raviel, Lord of Phantasms!” Three devils from the malebolge appear soon to give obeisance to the last Sacred Beast.

 

“I activate Fallen Paradise. It’s just like…” Maya pauses to prompt a response.

 

“Pot of Greed.” Stella groans.

 

“Exactly. It allows me to draw 2 cards from my Deck.” And Maya does so, enjoying the vista created from her Field Spell, especially the large withered tree and the forbidden fruit clinging to a ruined branch. “Raviel, attack Chaofeng! It can’t be destroyed in battle, but you can!”

 

“I activate Damage Diet! I take half the battle damage!” Stella counters; both she and her monster are spared from death. (STELLA LP 700 à 450)  

 

“Very well. I set a card. You’re move.”

 

STELLA’S TURN: “Ci’xi, attack Raviel!” As the dark dragon queen leaps to split the fiendish titan in two, Stella adds, “I destroy Zefranu in my hand to double her ATK!”

 

“And I activate Power Wall!” Maya mills 4 cards and spares her Life. Ci’xi fails to even scratch Raviel with her blade and, seeing this, bounces back to her space in retreat.

 

“Good grief! That was situational!” Laments the astonished Stella. “I end my turn!” Stella does not worry too much. She has one last Wyrm monster in her hand, ready to sacrifice it to double Ci’xi’s ATK any time.

 

MAYA’S TURN: “To win is not enough,” Maya tells herself, “You must win to make a point. I must defeat Stella in a more intimate way. Please, let this work!”

 

Maya says, “I activate Good & Evil of the Burning Abyss! I Tribute Hammon from my hand to Ritual Summon Malacoda, Netherlord of the Burning Abyss!” Maya loses her entire hand to complete the ritual, giving rise to an imposing fiend brandishing its own deadly rapier.  

 

“It will be a devil, not a knight in shining armor, that will slay the dragon. Malacoda, kill the dragon queen!” The dragon queen and chieftain fiend joust together, clashing blades, locked together in mortal combat.  

 

On seeing the combat, Stella remarks, “How fitting an end. I’m the dragon queen, the best Dragon Duelist in the world, and you are a wicked fiendish person.”

 

“Yes,” Maya agrees, seeing the battle unfold. Her father was a fiend, but so is she; how could she complain and not be a hypocrite? She became like her father. He was a broken man who broke her; so Maya reasons she is forever broken too, and she instinctively touches the side of her mouth and eye.

 

She burns with anger; she hates her father with every inch of her body, down to the strands of her hair and tips of her fingernails becoming hot with fiery anger, for breaking her, for crippling her for life. Maya tightly squeezes her face with her hand, lost in the black smog of her hatred, but a clear light, a sudden thought, bursts through; we are all helpless in this world in some way or another, and understanding that and forgiving a bad person does not support or condone their evil. Maya doesn’t need to hate him anymore.

 

It is interesting how thoughts work. Maya took three seconds to complete the entire journey.

 

Stella announces, “I use Ci’xi’s Effect: I destroy Suanni in my hand to double her ATK.”

 

Maya snaps out of her thoughts, “I use Malacoda’s Effect: I mill another Malacoda to bring her ATK down.”

 

“But Chaofeng stops you!”

 

“I know, why I activate Breakthrough Skill! I banish it to negate Chaofeng’s effect!”

 

Cixi requests assistance of Suanni, the fire dragon, who willingly gives its life to power its queen’s blade. Malacoda, in turn, commands aid from another devil in Hell, and from the power of its spirit, the captain of the Hellish squad breaks Ci’xi’s blade. Disarmed, outraged, but not beaten, the dark queen impales Malacoda with her first, killing him. (MAYA LP 300 à 100)

 

“Good!” Maya thinks to herself. She baited Stella to waste her last defense. “Raviel!” Maya commands as a general in victory, “Destroy Chaofeng! Win the game!” The dragon of light and lord of darkness clash in an epic struggle, but Raviel wins the arm wrestle, slashing Chaofeng with a mortal wound that kills him. Ci’xi and Stella can only watch helplessly as their army falls in ruins. Maya, through Malacoda, made her real retribution; not by killing Ci’xi, but by letting her live to suffer her defeat. (STELLA LP 450 à 0)

 

STELLA: 0 | MAYA: 100

 

Stella dropped to her knees, feeling utterly weak, the dark magic surrounded everyone was already doing its work, draining her life force away. Maya sprinted to her as fast as possible, grabbing Stella’s shoulders to keep her from falling. Maya said, nearly crying, “I understand now. I forgave my parents. They were only human. I’m sorry, Stella, for everything I did.”

 

Stella put one tender hand on Maya’s cheek. “I know.” She fell into darkness, the darkness leaving with her. Maya holstered Stella’s body on her back; her body trembling and stressed, the warm spring breeze felt as ice as to her, and she carried the coma Stella to the hospital herself.

 

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

 

CREATED CARDS

 

STELLA’S CARDS:

 

Wu’tien, Dragon Empress of Yang

LIGHT/Level 8/Wyrm

2600 ATK/2800 DEF

Ritual Monster

·      This card must first be Special Summoned with the Effect of “Yang Zing Cycle”.

·      When this card is successfully Ritual Summoned: Special Summon up to 2 Wyrm monsters from your Graveyard.

·      Once per turn: you can destroy 1 Wyrm monster you control; draw 1 card.

·      If this monster would be destroyed by battle or Effect: you can destroy 1 Wyrm monster you control, and it is not destroyed.

 

Ci’xi, Dragon Empress of Yin

DARK/Level 8/Wyrm

2800 ATK/2600 DEF

Ritual Monster  

·      This card must first be Special Summoned with the Effect of “Yang Zing Cycle”.

·      When this card is successfully Ritual Summoned: return up to 2 Wyrm monsters from your Graveyard to your hand.

·      Once per turn: you can destroy 1 Wyrm monster from your hand or field; double this cards ATK.

·      Once per turn: if this card destroys a monster in battle; you can destroy 1 Wyrm monster from your hand or field, and this card can attack once more.

 

Yang Zing Cycle

Ritual Spell

·      Tribute Wyrm monsters from your hand or field whose Levels equal 8 or more: Ritual Summon 1 “Wu’tien, Dragon Empress of Yang” or “Ci’xi, Dragon Empress of Yin” from your hand.

 

MAYA’S CARDS:

 

Fiendfyre

FIRE/Level 1/Fiend

600 ATK/ 500 DEF

·      If your opponent’s monster attacks while this card is in your Graveyard: you can banish this card and 1 other FIRE monster; destroy the attacking monster and, if you do, inflict damage equal to half the monster’s ATK. End the Battle Phase.

[MewMew3]

Duel 25 – The Final Duel

 

 

The doctors in the medical room tended to Stella’s corpse as best they could: the whole procedure; IVs, EKGs, eye reflex exams: Stella did not return. She was truly in a coma. Maya no longer had the strength to be angry anymore to anyone, dropping to her knees in tears. Stella might as well be dead. Perhaps if she defeated Matthew in the final duel, if she killed him in his own twisted game, the act would revive his victims. Such a thing happened in the first Battle City, supposedly.

 

Maya suspected, in her grief, that Matthew’s defeat was a false promise at best. Xiaoyi minted Matthew to copy Malik, but only from zinc. What made her think Matthew would be man enough to fulfill such a promise? Maya held nothing but a false promise, and she had to kill another human being to get it, maybe. She was so tired of this stupid tournament, so tired; Yugi could only have felt the same way. Money, fame, finding yourself, fulfilling a destiny: none of it was worth such toil and murder.

 

Mokuba Kaiba set a few white flowers he brought with him on a stand by Stella’s bed. His older brother, Seto Kaiba, of course did not bother to look at the mess he made, but Mokuba was to blame too. He allowed his older brother to prepare and execute the entire tournament, down to the final duel where Maya would fight Matthew.

 

And Pegasus? Well, Maya thought, a dapper aesthete was a true nihilist if there was one. She wondered if Sophia was just a shiny trinket to him, a pearl he trusted to her to briefly care for, like Maya was Jared’s. And Maya? She played her part just by participating. She did put Stella in a coma after all, but oddly enough, she felt slightly better understanding that responsibility. It meant she had some power, and not everything was beyond her control. If she could defeat Matthew in his own shadow game, maybe, just maybe, Stella, Mathias, and Hannibal would all return to life.

 

Seizing her power, Maya edited her Deck one final time; now it was time to use her own God Card, finally, and the Deck would focus on bringing it out. She climbed back up the pyramid to the arena on top, and she discovered Matthew already there. Her heart was so lacerated, she had gone through so much stress; she was too tired to even hate him. She simply disliked him at this point, like he was another low-rated douche of the week she had to defeat.        

 

And she judged this cooler attitude was for the best. It would not cloud her reason.

 

The day had reached high noon, and Matthew gazed at the horizon where ocean met sky with a wistful unfocused look. He said, “You know the Pyramids at Giza used to be coated in white and capped in gold? Now they are mountains of rubble. And you know our great city, New York, with its silver and grey skyscrapers clawing at the sky like Gothic cathedrals, and all that? It will soon be an empty place, a junkyard with tons of rusted metal. I used to believe that our city, our civilization was worth protecting, keeping pure, but I don’t care anymore.”

 

Maya coughed a bit as snot went down her throat, and she scoffed at him, “I really don’t care about the white man’s existential crisis. Civilizations, especially the property-owning classes you truly refer to when you say ‘our city’, are by nature poor excuses of human societies. ‘Our civilization’ was never mine, and people like you love to drive that point home. Everyone, everything, dies. Attacking scapegoats, like you did, only showed you to be a desperate coward, but I’m glad you finally understand the obvious, even if you needed to become an exile of your own city to get it.”

 

Matthew laughed bitterly at hearing everything Maya said. “You ruined my life, Maya. I can’t wait to kill you in this duel.”

 

And Maya said, “I will kill you, Matthew. I will be done with you once and for all.”

 

Maya remembered something Yukio said, which was: “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.” Maya hoped they would support her; though they could not telepathically send her good thoughts like anime characters magically do, she thought it somehow help. It wouldn’t hurt.

 

Far, far away, way back in a New York City apartment, JC, Yukio, Jolene, and Sophia watched the duel commence from Jolene’s laptop.  

 

JC drank a large bottle of coke, and grumbled, “She’d better kick his ass or I’ll fist her harder than the parade guys who live here.”

 

“You fist gay guys, JC? Gross!” Yukio joked, sipping a beer. “I only wish for Maya to win. She worked so hard with us for this goal, she risked so much; she only deserves total victory.”

 

Jolene bid everyone clasp a crystal, which everyone did while groaning. She offered what would be called a prayer everywhere else: “Please, may the cosmos bless Maya so she may win and be happy.”  

 

Sophia had nothing witty or silly to say, and didn’t even know if she liked Maya that much. She simply said, “Good luck, Maya. May success be yours.”

 

DAY 13 : 12:00 PM : ?????

 

Back at the pyramid top, Seto Kaiba snapped his fingers with impatience. “Isono! Begin the duel now!” He commanded.

 

The referee readily obeyed, announcing, “MAYA BROOK VERSUS MATTHEW CARTER: THE GRAND FINAL DUEL FOR THE THIRTEENTH BATTLE CITY CHAMPIONSHIP! DUEL START!”

 

MAYA: 8000 | MATTHEW: 8000

 

 

MAYA’S TURN: “I Special Summon Primitive Butterfly from my hand, and activate Brilliant Fusion, milling Lazuli and Fluffal Wings to Fusion Summon Gem-Knight Seraphinite!” Two pretty creatures worlds apart, an emerald butterfly and sapphire knight meet in one space. “I use Butterfly’s Effect to raise its Level to 6. I Tribute Seraphinite to Summon Destiny Hero – Malicious, then overlay it with Butterfly to Xyz Summon Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal!”

 

Matthew smirks at the arrival of the blessed lady, “I never thought someone like you believed in the eternal feminine.”

 

“I don’t.” Maya corrects him. “Her dress and manners are pompous and gauge, yes, but she’s a great coworker. I activate Jewels of the Valiant and set a card.” Maya’s voice is joyless; her hand might as well be a dead draw.

 

MATTHEW’S TURN: “My God… My God…” He screams in an exalted yet despairing laugh. “Yes, I have the perfect hand! Prepare to see my grandfather in Hell!”

 

“Bring it!” Maya braces herself for the worst.

 

“Oh, I will. Revenge is mine.” Matthew gloats. “I Normal Summon Hieratic Dragon of Eset, and Special Summon Hieratic Dragon of Su with Hieratic Dragon of Nebthet as the Tribute, which activates, letting me Special Summon Hieratic Seal of the Sun Dragon Overlord!” A parade of three gaudy Egyptian dragons arrive in pomp and circumstance.

 

Maya comments at the sight, “Dragons from China, dragons from Egypt, dragons from Dragon Tales… I’m tired of these grandiose creatures. When will it end?”

 

“When thou shalt succumb to mine Wrath & Die the Death!”

 

“Even the way you talk is old-fashioned.”

 

“As opposed to what, modern degenerate existential dread!”

 

“Um,” Maya blinks twice in astonishment, amazed at Matthew’s lack of self-awareness. “I know I’m the black person here, but damn you sound like the pot right now.”

 

“Enough of your ridicule!” Matthew roars, his shout nearly shaking the ground, “I overlay Eset and Su to Xyz Summon Hieratic Dragon King of Atum, which I activate to: Special Summon a second Hieratic Seal of the Sun Dragon Overlord!” Two more dragons join the army. “I banish Atum to Special Summon Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, and use its Effect to revive Su!” Matthews field now totals to four great reptiles.

 

But his turn isn’t over, of course it’s not; with a Hieratic player? “I link up Red-Eyes and Su to Link Summon Hieratic Seal of the Celestial Spheres, and overlay my 2 Hieratic Seals to Xyz Summon Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis!” The nine celestials Enneads and the supreme sun god arrive, hovering high in the air above the reach of mere mortals. “I Tribute 2 monsters in my hand so Heliopolis can destroy your entire back row!”

 

Maya quickly declares, “I activate Fiend Grieving: I shuffle a dead monster back to your Deck and mill Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, then use it’s Effect!” A winged fiend springs from Maya’s Graveyard to banish the nine glowing spheres, at least for now.

 

“Not enough!” Matthew continues to build his army. “Hieratic Dragon of Nebthet and Hieratic Dragon of Eset activate as I Tributed them: I Special Summon Luster Dragon 2 and Galaxy Serpent from the Deck, then tune them to Synchro Summon Stardust Spark Dragon!” Two dragons great and small, emerald and white, merge in stars of white and green to bring forth the iconic dragon.

 

All of Matthew’s dragons stare down at Beatrice in menace, but the lady remains stoic in the face of danger, much like Maya does. Matthew doesn’t care. The game is his! “Dragons, destroy Beatrice and kill my sworn enemy, once and for all!” The entire army merges its firepower into a single devastating blow, but even that world-shattering power bounces harmlessly off Beatrice.

 

Matthew demands, in fury and frustration, what happened, and Maya reveals to him the trick. “I used Beatrice to mill Electromagnetic Turtle, then used it to end your attack.”

 

Matthew ends his turn in vain, cursing everything from his birth to Xiaoyi to Maya herself. How could Maya utterly refute his grand opening turn with one pathetic card? The Enneads return, the heavenly beings uncaring of the turmoil the mortals endure below.    

[MewMew3]

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I won’t write duel terms like “Normal Summon” or “Effect” with capitals anymore. They make reading harder. I will embolden all the important cards so readers can easily follow what cards are being used and when.

 

Duel 26 – Power Struggles

 

 

 

MAYA: 8000 | MATTHEW: 8000

 

MAYA’S TURN: As Maya draws her next card, she speaks to herself, “Matthew may bounce Beatrice with his Celestial Spheres, but he must lose a Dragon to do so. He doesn’t want that. He wants to build his Materials to summon his God.” Maya sets a monster and ends her turn.

 

MATTHEW’S TURN: “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue? No more wisecracks to throw at me? Golden God Dragon is mine!” Matthew gloats. “I normal summon Manju of Ten-Thousand Hands, and use its effect to add a Ritual Monster from my deck. Then I activate Red-Eyes to revive Hieratic Seal, and then I play Hymn of Light, releasing Hieratic Seal to ritual summon Saffira, Queen of Dragons!” A human-like dragon of great beauty graces the stage, and with her arrival, Matthew uses her effect straightaway; he draws 2 cards, and discards 1.

 

Maya refutes him with a complex argument, “Hold your horses! I use Beatrice to mill Blaze Accelerator Reload, then banish it to mill a Volcanic Scattershot, and use its effect to mill 2 more of its kind! I destroy ALL your monsters!” She commences her military operation, step by strategic step, throwing a tidal wave of flame at Matthew to burn away his entire army and scald his flesh. (MATTHEW LP 8000 à 6500)

 

Matthew quickly puts out the fires on his clothes, saving his life but burning his shoulders and chest, hurt by his own dark magic. He then recovers, “I play Dragon Mirage!” His whole army returns, but its ATK and DEF halved, and it’s unable to attack. “How predictable.”

 

MAYA’S TURN: As soon as Maya draws, Matthew declares, “I activate Celestial Spheres! Return Beatrice to your Deck now!” He shatters his red-eyed dragon; the Enneads sublimate Beatrice back into pure light. “Look at you, Maya. You have no field and only one card in your hand. Surrender now and I will spare your life, hell, I’ll even make you queen of my new world!”

 

Matthew never intends to keep his promise, of course, and Maya easily sees through the lie. “I used to respect you as a rival, but you went full generic anime villain just now. I might as well kill it with fire.”

 

Matthew scoffs, “Ha! What can one card do for you?”

 

“Lots. I normal summon Fluffal Dog, using its effect to search for Fluffal Bear, and discard it to play Toy Vendor from my deck. I banish Fluffal Wings and Fluffal Bear, and destroy my Vendor to draw 2 cards, then activate Toy Vendor in my graveyard to search for another Bear.”

 

With the first cycle complete, Maya proceeds to the next one. “I discard Fluffal Bear to play Toy Vendor from my deck. Now I use Vendor’s effect: I discard Fluffal Wings and draw 1 card.” Maya did so, and shouts, “JACKPOT! I special summon a second Fluffal Dog!” And as she conjures her second stuffed animal to join the first, she concludes the cycle. “I banish Fluffal Wings and Bear, and destroy Vendor to draw 2, and use the destroyed Toy Vendor to add a Fluffal monster to my hand.  

 

Matthew becomes astonished; Maya gathered two level 4 monsters, which means… “Oh. sheet.”

 

“I’m not done preparing yet! I overlay the two Fluffal Dogs to xyz summon Number 39: Utopia, and overlay it; I upgrade it to Number S39: Utopia Prime and then to Number S39: Utopia the Lightening!” The valiant space warrior, the emblem of all xyz monsters, travels the overlay network to arrive to our dimension, then emboldens its armor and weapons, evolving to a higher form. “Yukio and my other friends will give you a message! Utopia, destroy the Celestial Spheres; I detach 2 materials to double its ATK!”

 

Maya and Yukio’s monster bounds high in the sky, cutting down all nine Enneads. It jettisons to the ground, landing right in front of Matthew, and strikes him with a devastating blow. Matthew screams in pure agony, blown off the arena, almost falling off the pyramid itself. He coughs blood, writhing, his head and shoulders dangling off the edge. (MATTHEW LP 6500 à 1500)

 

First blood, just like last time.” Maya smirks. Damn does that feel good.

 

Maria objects, “But that isn’t first your first damage; that was your Volcanic Scattershot combo.”

 

But Kaiba corrects her, “Pathetic effect damage doesn’t count.”

 

Matthew crawls his way back up the arena, hobbling from his injuries. While gathering his bearings, Maya sets a card, ending her turn.

 

MATTHEW’S TURN: “Woman, I swear to God, the Devil, and all in between, I will burn you to ash, piss on you, and scatter you to the winds! Mark my words!

 

“I activate Xyz Drain, detaching 1 material from your Utopia and my Heliopolis; I draw 2 cards. I play Monster Reborn to revive the Celestial Spheres. I have gathered all my offerings to the gods! I banish them all to summon GOLDEN GOD DRAGON!” Lightning shoots from the sky, blasting Matthew’s monsters, and the supreme god, finding the offerings to its liking, descends from the highest heavens.

 

“Golden God Dragon, destroy Utopia!” Matthew screams with all his hatred. The dragon blasts Maya’s warrior with golden flames, and Maya too is burned. (MAYA LP 8000 à 6500) The attack briefly forces Maya on her knees since, unlike Matthew, she had sustained many injuries before the battle began.

 

“On your knees, whore; that is a woman’s true place.”

 

MAYA’S TURN: “I set a monster. My turn is done.”

 

MATTHEW’S TURN: “Just what I thought. My God Dragon, destroy both her facedown monsters!” The dragon merely brushes its wings to scatter its prey’s ashes. “And I set a card.”

 

“Good.” Maya says under her breath, more to herself than to Matthew. “You destroyed Graff, Malebrache of the Burning Abyss and Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss. With Graff, I summon from my deck Cir, Malebrache of the Burning Abyss, and with Scarm, I add Tour Guide to my hand.”

 

Matthew comments, “Fitting you use fiend monsters. Hell awaits you. I set a card.”

 

MAYA’S TURN: Hopefully, Maya’s next turn will kill Matthew, and if it doesn’t, she will at least mill her deck. “I link up Cir to link summon Charono, Ferryman of the Burning Abyss: with its effect I summon another Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss from my deck, and with the effect of Cir, I revive Scarm.

 

“I link up Graff to link summon another Charono, Ferryman of the Burning Abyss, using its effect to summon Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss from my deck, and use Graff’s effect to summon Rubic, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss from my deck. I link up both Charonos and Calcan to link summon Spadiovolo Swordsman of the Burning Abyss!” Maya finished her infernal parade with her ace fiend, the devil with a sword who divides the bodies of schismatics in Hell.

 

 

Maya then orchestrates her angelic parade, wedding Heaven and Hell together. “I overlay Farfar with Scarm to xyz summon Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss, and use its effect to mill 3 cards. I detach Farfa to do so, so I bounce Golden God Dragon back to your deck!”

 

The fiend leaps unto the celestial dragon, grasping it, slowly dissolving it. Matthew is dumbstruck; how can this be? Then he understands; the materials used to summon his dragon determine its effects. He did not banish a fusion monster, so his dragon can’t block itself from being targeted.  

 

Matthew responds with, “Skill Prisoner!” The trap cards renders his dragon immune, shooing the fiend away as if it is a fly, sending it back to the underworld. “Cute loophole abuse, but it won’t work on me.”

“Nevertheless, I banish Destiny HERO – Malicious and Carboneddon from my graveyard to summon another Malicious and Wattail Dragon, then overlay them; welcome back, Beatrice!” With Dante and Beatrice reunited, Maya turns her attention to other matters. “Spadiovolo, destroy his Red-Eyes!” And her fiend slays the dragon as a noble knight would; it even wields the same rapier as the infamous Earl of Demise.

 

MATTHEW’S TURN: “Resistance is futile. May God strike you down! God, destroy the filthy Beatrice and Spadiovolo!” The dragon blasts Maya’s monsters with all its fury, understanding the hatred burning within its master. The fair lady screams, dying flames and agony, but the fencing fiend however…

 

“I use Beatrice to mill a card, then I use Spadiovolo’s effect!” Maya rebukes her opponent, milling no less than 4 Burning Abyss monsters, doubling her creature’s ATK. Dragon and fiend collide, but only one monster dies. Matthew had used the effect of Golden God Dragon to save his monster. Meanwhile, Maya uses the dead Beatrice to instantly summon Dante, Pilgrim of the Burning Abyss.

 

“I set a card and end my turn.” Matthew grunts in disappointment. The duel rages on, neither warrior giving ground.

[MewMew3]

THE CLIMAX OF 3 YEARS OF WORK HAS COME!

 

Duel 27 – The Hero Comes Full Circle

 

 

MAYA: 6500 | MATTHEW: 1500

 

MAYA’S TURN: “I activate Dante, milling 3 cards. I normal summon Tour Guide From the Underworld and use its effect to special summon Rubic, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss.” Arriving from the underworld, a trolley drops off a comely little stewardess with red hair and a horned demon around the same size. “I activate Preparation of Rites, returning a ritual spell from my graveyard to my hand and adding a ritual monster from my deck. I play Good & Evil of the Burning Abyss, offering Tour Guide and Rubic to ritual summon Malacoda, Netherlord of the Burning Abyss!”

 

Matthew, observing the chief of the Malebranche arrive, speculates that Maya must have used Beatrice to mill Good & Evil. He thinks Maya may have milled it randomly with Dante, but he knows better. His opponent is a true woman, a true black, a true Russian, a true Jew; whatever mud the mongrel is made of. The thought reminds him of his Cuban mother, but thinking of even that pale woman gives him shame.

 

Maya remains unknowing and uncaring of Matthew’s hidden shame; she had gathered all her materials. She cried, “I banish Dante the Pilgrim, Malacoda, Dante the Traveler, and Spadiovolo, to bring forth GOLDEN GOD PHOENIX!” A chasm opens from the ground, and all Maya’s monsters fall into the fiery pit. The god beneath, devouring the offerings, finds the taste to its liking, and so rises from the depths to greet its master.

 

Pegasus chastises Maya, “It’s about time you summoned your god card! I know the element of surprise is fabulous and all, but goddamn did you need until the eleventh hour!”

 

Maya snarls, her bare teeth something a dragon would recognize as a smile, her eyes glaring with savage light. “Golden God Phoenix, destroy his dragon!” The two colossal monsters smash into each other, their struggle erupting a cyclone of golden fire. Everyone ducks for cover, except Kaiba, who gazes at the fight: stupefied, making a distorted grin, his whole body convulsed in orgasm.

 

Rex and Weevil hide as turtles do in their shells. “I just peed a little.” The pathetic Weevil whimpers, and he didn’t lie.

 

“Idiot!” Matthew shouts at Maya over the maelstrom, “I banish a dragon in my graveyard to protect Golden God Dragon!” And with his words, his dragon won the fight, burning away the golden phoenix it battled.

 

Maya retorts, “You know what a phoenix does, don’t you? Use your common sense! I banish a fiend from my graveyard to revive Golden God Phoenix!” And with her words, the mighty undead beast rises from the fiery pit once more. “Phoenix, battle his dragon again!”

 

The two titans smash each other once more. Each time Matthew saved his dragon and Maya’s phoenix died, Maya resurrected it and battled yet again. Matthew understands the infernal woman’s plot, but too late, spending the last dragon in his graveyard to protect his god. Maya, however, still had a rich store of dead fiends to fuel her god.

 

Maya declares yet another attack, making sure Matthew’s golden dragon is destroyed for good, but Matthew doesn’t let it happen! “I play Negate Attack!” Thus ending the engagement. Maya lets out a hoarse sigh, and sets two cards facedown.

 

“Seriously, how many more god cards will you make?” Kaiba gripes to Pegasus.

 

“As many I want, because I am God.” Pegasus says.

 

MATTHEW’S TURN: “I play Pot of Cupidity! I banish 10 cards from my deck to draw 2!” It is a desperate move, and Matthew knows it.

 

The young man shakes his head, “Oh, Maya, the irony. When we first dueled you were truly the underdog, but how easily you changed all that. Do you still think yourself a rebel, a fighter of the people? I hope not. At bottom, you’re a tyrant.”

 

This news shocks Maya a little bit. “What?”

 

“You’re a queen bee, an alpha jabroni, a jabroni in sheep’s clothing. Can I say more? Yes, you grew up in public housing on the lower east side, and you joined a ragtag posse of rebels, you can’t change your nature. Had you lived as I did, you would be Regina George. I watched your every move for the last four years. You wasted your money, hopped from boy toy to boy toy, destroying the career of every female rival.”

 

Maya wearies of this conversation. “Look, you creepy loser, how I choose to live is not your business, even if you watch me in the shower. I gave prize money to many nonprofits as well as to booze; every man I boned knew what he was getting into; and I defeated all my female opponents fair and square.”

 

“But worse, Maya, you’re a killer. Oh yes! I know what you did! Xiaoyi told me! You killed Heishin! You’re a murderer, a criminal, a thug! A stone cold killer! When this tournament is over, you will be arrested, tried for crimes against humanity!”

 

Maya, though keeping a straight face, begins to crack underneath. She can’t understand why killing a dictator and saving thousands of lives would haunt her. Perhaps because she did killed a man, something she never thought possible. Perhaps because she killed a man so coldly, an act so simple and decisive: as if she flipped a switch. Perhaps because, by killing Heishin, she truly understood the consequences of her actions in a way most people never learn.

 

Maya liked thinking of herself as a devil, a fiery person who broke the rules, laughing at the fools around her while she did so. But was she truly a devil, a real devil?

 

Matthew leaves her to think about it, long and hard. “I activate Future Fusion, milling 5 dragons. I set a card. You’re move.”

 

MAYA’S TURN: “Golden God Phoenix, attack his dragon!” It is still strange for a woman to court a man, and with so much fervor, but the struggle began once more. Maya and Matthew burn through their recourses.

 

Matthew rekindles his fuel. “I activate Buriel from the Different Dimension, returning 3 banished dragons to my graveyard!” The monsters collide once more until Maya is forced to banish a fiend from her hand to revive her phoenix for the umpteenth time. That is how Matthew knows she is low.

 

Maya admits as much, saying softly, “I set a monster and end my turn.” Matthew can hear her lose confidence with ever word she spoke, and it makes him giddy.

 

MATTHEW’S TURN: “I enter the standby phase, meaning I fusion summon Five God Dragon!” The great dragon bursts into existence out of nowhere, fully formed with five terrible heads made of different elements. “I activate Pump Up, doubling the ATK of my Golden God Dragon.”

 

Maya lurches back, what little confidence she has left snuffed out. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

 

“Quote Star Wars all you want in Hell! Golden God Dragon, destroy her facedown monster!” Maya’s monster, though unknown to Matthew, easily dies either way. “Now my golden dragon, destroy her golden phoenix!” Matthew’s dragon, blazing with an outstanding 8000 ATK, completely annihilates Maya’s phoenix. (MAYA LP 6500 à 2500).

 

The spiraling blaze falls on Maya with all its weight, burning her skin and clothes, the force blasting her off the arena. Maya never endured so much pain in her life. She coughs blood, her already broken ribs stabbing her with the force of a thousand hot serrated knives while new ribs broke. Facedown on the floor, Maya nearly blacks out from the pain.

 

Too many moments of torture pass, Maya unmoving. Kaiba, unmoved, orders Isono to begin a boxing count. Isono readily obeys, announcing, “If Marina Bozuslowsky does not rise within eight seconds, Matthew Carter shall be declared the winner! ONE!”

 

“TWO!”

 

“THREE!”

 

“FOUR!”

 

“FIVE!”

 

“SIX!”

 

“SEVEN!”

 

Maya remembers all her friends, waiting for her back home, counting on her: Yukio, Jolene, JC, Sophia, especially Sophia. She cannot lose now. She loses all care of her pain; thinking of it merely as weakness leaving the body, she summons the strength to stand up.

 

“EIGHT!”

 

Maya stands on very shaky ground, or is it her legs? Either way, she survived, hobbling back up the arena.

 

Matthew laughs at how stupid Maya looks. “You look really, really bad. I’m glad you stood up. I want nothing than to utterly defeat you. Five God Dragon, knock Maya down, forever!”

 

“I activate the monster you destroyed: Fiendfyre! I banish it and a FIRE monster from my graveyard!”

 

“And you will destroy my dragon and my life! Oh no, whatever shall I do!” Matthew gloats. “I banish Skill Prisoner from my graveyard to protect Five God Dragon!” Thus Maya’s fiery bullet bounces off Matthew’s dragon, leaving not so much as a scratch. “Let’s continue! My dragon, destroy her!”

 

All five of the dragon’s heads assault Maya with the four elements, but Maya uses all her strength to keep her ground. “I activate Dimension Exchange! I banish Golden God Phoenix from my Graveyard!” Her phoenix flies from the grave, rockets through the colorful fireworks from Matthew’s dragon, binds to the five-headed beast, then burns itself and its prey away.

 

Matthew grunts, disappointed. How persistent! Two turns later, Maya will revive Five-Headed Dragon to her field.

 

MAYA’S TURN: “Golden God Phoenix is banished during my standby phase, meaning I special summon my banished Malacoda!” The demon leader returns and, turning its real towards Matthew, makes a trumpet of its ass. Maya flips Matthew off to drive the point home.

 

“I set a card and end my turn.” Maya wears her proud and confidant mask, as always, yet beneath she writhes in doubt and self-loathing, like most of the time. She never believed in the heart of the cards, but if she could draw one more card…

 

MATTHEW’S TURN: “I’ve had it with your insolence! The duel will end now!” Matthew roars. He calls upon all the darkness of his body and soul, and lets the fires from his dragon overwhelm him. Flaming with hatred, Matthew leaps on top of his dragon in a single bound, binding himself with his monster. “Now I am a monster! I am the Golden God Dragon!”

 

“That’s new.” Maya comments wryly.

 

“You fool! I will blast you into oblivion!” Matthew slams Maya’s fiend with all his fury.  

 

“I activate Spiritual Swords of Revealing Light!” Maya declares, paying 1000 life so the wall of shining swords can protect Malacoda. Enraged, Matthew lashes out again, and again Maya pays 1000 life to save her by the skin of her teeth. (MAYA LP 2500 à 500)

 

The beastly dragon roars, “I end my turn! There is nothing you can do, fool! Give up!”

 

Maya glares back at him, defiant as ever. “No one, not even the readers of this book who can see you’re most secret thoughts and emotions, will remember you as anything more than a spoiled child.” With these words, Maya draws her last card.

 

MAYA’S TURN: “Yes!” Maya speaks to her heart, drawing the card she needed. Her physical strength returns, and with it she gains the moral strength to look within her heart. Yes, Maya is a murderer, which means she can always become a monster, like Matthew, like every other human being. She is no longer an edgy teen living with an abusive father, or a celebrity in existential despair. She is a grown woman, which means making hard decisions and accepting the consequences of your actions. Matthew is too dangerous to be left alive.

 

Maya knows she has friends waiting for her at home, and a life worth living. Matthew threw away both. She has to defeat him once and for all. Their rivalry is over at last.

 

“I normal summon Necroface, and use its effect to return all banished cards to our decks!” A baby doll’s face, smashed, decaying, infested by a foul creature, absorbs the souls of every dead monster and every banished card into its body, the creature within growing in size until it rivals the size of Matthew himself.

 

“5600 ATK!” Matthew despairs. “NO!”

 

“I activate Pre-preparation of Rights, adding a ritual monster and ritual spell to my hand, and play Good & Evil of the Burning Abyss! I tribute Necroface and the Fluffal Dog in my hand to ritual summon a second Malacoda, Netherlord of the Burning Abyss!” Her offerings vanish, transforming through fire into Malacoda. “I use both their effects. I mill 2 Graff to cut you down to size.”

 

The ghosts of the recently deceased fiends possess the swords of their commanders. Both generals point their swords to Matthew in the sky, then, using their swords as reverse lightning rods, let the ghosts within strike their target.

 

Matthew limps in the air, his flight killed. Desperate, he screams, “KILL ME AND YOU’LL BE A MURDERER TWICE! YOU WILL BE A MONSTER FOREVER!”

 

“Goodbye, Matthew.” Maya bids these final words to her rival. She feels no hate, no regret, but oddly tranquil, the feeling of release when exorcising a demon. And fatigue. She is so tired, so very tired…

 

“Both Malacodas, kill Matthew.” Maya declares her last attack. The two fiends leap into the air and strike Matthew down from the sky. Matthew roars, cursing the world, and falls beyond the pyramid in golden flames, crashing to his fiery death in the darkness beyond. (MATTHEW 1500 à 0)

 

MAYA: 500 | MATTHEW: 0

 

All darkness vanished, leaving only the blazing sunlight in the early afternoon. Isono raised his hand, declaring, “THE 13^TH BATTLE CITY TOURNAMENT IS OVER! MARINA BOZUSLOWSKY WINS THE TITLE KING OF GAMES!”

 

Maya walks, in a complete daze, to the center of the arena, looking down at Kaiba, at Pegasus, at the other finalists, and turned her vision to the wide horizon, to the infinite sky above and the infinite ocean below. The sun blazes her black hair, surrounding her head like a halo. The light only darkens her; her skin, her hair, her eyes, her look, and makes her look truly evil. Everyone gazes upward at Maya in awe, even Kaiba, even Xiaoyi watching from far away, even Sophia.

 

Maya lifts her hands in the air and looks at the sun directly, celebrating her victory in the only perfect moment in her life. Spending all her strength, she collapses into darkness.

 

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

           

CREATED CARDS

 

MAYA’S CARDS

 

Golden God Phoenix

DIVINE/Zombie/Fusion-Synchro-Xyz-Link/Level-Rank 10/ATK 4000/No Link Arrows
4 Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, Xyz, or Link monsters

·      Must first be Special Summoned from your Extra Deck by banishing 4 Fusion Materials you control of different Card Types (you do not use Polymerization). If this card was Special Summoned with the following Materials, it gains the the following Effects:

o   FUSION: If this card is targeted by a Card Effect; you can banish this card. Return it to your field during the End Phase.

o   RITUAL: If this card would be destroyed and sent to the Graveyard: you can banish 1 Fiend or Zombie; Special Summon this card.

o   SYNCHRO: If this card is Special Summoned from the Graveyard: inflict 500 damage to your opponent.

o   XYZ: If this card is banished, during your Standby Phase: you can Special Summon 1 banished Fiend or Zombie, ignoring all Summoning Conditions.

o   LINK: Once per turn during your Standby Phase; you can send 1 Fiend or Zombie from your Deck to the Graveyard. 

 

Dimension Exchange

Continuous Trap

Banish 1 monster from your Graveyard: target 1 monster your opponent controls; banish it. During your 2^nd Standby Phase after you activate this card: Special Summon your opponent’s monster, ignoring all summoning conditions.

 

MATTHEW’S CARDS

 

Golden God Dragon

DIVINE/Dragon/Fusion-Synchro-Xyz-Link/Level-Rank 10/ATK 4000/No Link Arrows
4 Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, Xyz, or Link monsters

·      Must first be Special Summoned from your Extra Deck by banishing 4 Fusion Materials you control of different Card Types (you do not use Polymerization). If this card was Special Summoned with the following Materials, it gains the the following Effects:

o   FUSION: If this card would be targeted by a Card Effect; you can banish 1 Dragon from your hand, field, or Graveyard. Negate and destroy your opponent’s card,

o   RITUAL: If this card would be destroyed; you can banish 1 Dragon from your hand, field, or Graveyard, and this card is not destroyed.

o   SYNCHRO: If this card destroys your opponent’s monster by battle: it can attack once more.

o   XYZ: If this card is in your Graveyard during your next Standby Phase; you can Special Summoned 1 banished Dragon during your next Standby Phase (ignoring all Summoning conditions.)

o   LINK: Once per turn during your Standby Phase; you can send 1 Dragon from your Deck to the Graveyard.

 

Dragon Mirage

Spell

Special Summon all Dragon monsters destroyed this turn. Their ATK and DEF are halved, they cannot attack, they cannot activate their Effects.

 

Xyz Drain

Spell

Detach 1 Xyz Material from 1 Xyz monster your opponent control and 1 Xyz monster you control: draw 2 cards.

[MewMew3]

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I have many duties to do outside writing, so I must power through the last three odd chapters. Enjoy!

 

Duel 28 – Spring Showers in December

 

 

Maya rose from bed; she got real tired of entering scenes by waking up. It was so lame the author even began a story with her main character waking up from bed. Maya hated being passive like that; that was how Maria should begin a scene. She took her time to explore her room because it was surreal: a hospital room so white it was like a generic afterlife scene in a movie. She noticed an ivee penetrated her arm and punched the port to make sure she was alive. ARGH! She was alive!     

 

Maya wanted nothing more than to leave the hospital right now, but she was still weak, and the doctors would sedate her if she tried a “daring” escape anyway. So she sat down and watched a few channels from the small flat screen TV bolted to the ceiling. “Let’s see what went on in the world while I took a nap.” Maya mumbled to herself, turning on the news.

 

KAIBACORP AND INDUSTRIAL ILLUSSIONS CONTINUE COURT TRIALS

REPORTER 1: “Good morning New Yorkers! I am Dave and this is Susan. We continue our story where Seto Kaiba and Pegasus Crawford, leaders of the two biggest corporate giants of the gaming world, are continuing to undergo a tidal wave of lawsuits following the 13^th Battle City World Championship. Their prosecutors, including Amnesty International, the United Nations, and grieving parents of deceased duelists, are charging them with violations of international law and crimes against humanity. Susan, can you fill us in on the details?”

 

REPORTER 2: “Certainly. According to Ali Treki, President of the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Kaiba and Mr. Pegasus purposefully hosted their tournament in war torn Egypt to generate controversy and boost ratings, a trick commonly performed in reality television. There is nothing quite like a gladiator death match, at least that is what Mr. Kaiba and Mr. Pegasus thought. But was all the death and turmoil in Egypt worth it? We now turn to Hernandez de Istulto, expert economist, President of the Cato Institute, and pioneering investor of BitCoin.”

 

ECONOMIST: “Thank you, Susan. As of now, the exact motives of Mr. Kaiba and Mr. Pegasus are still unknown to us. Their behavior defies any good judgment of rational self-interest. Yes, as you said, they obtained controversy (i.e. attention), boosted ratings, and gained huge widespread appeal from duelists around the world, but at what cost! Surely, such a speculation had too high risk and too little reward.”

 

REPORTER 2: “Do you think their behavior reflects the huge boom and bust of the 2008 economic crisis? They seemed to have so few restrictions on their power, it’s as if they became deluded and thought themselves free of consequences.”

 

ECONOMIST: “No, no, no. A benefit to the corporation benefits the economy. It improves the competitive process that improves the individual and is inherent to such a good economy. Mr. Kaiba and Mr. Pegasus are the best businessmen in their field. It is unlikely they would endanger their businesses so recklessly: it defies rationality.”

 

REPORTER 1: “Thank you for your contribution, de Istulto. Now we turn to Jeremy for an eye-witness account of the trial at hand.”

 

CORRESPONDANT: “Thanks again, Dave. We see a massive crowd of people surrounding the courthouse at this moment. OOF! OUCH! They’re practically bulldozing past me right now. Hey, you there! What brings you to witness this occasion?”

 

PROTESTER: “We are protesting KaibaCorp and Industrial Illusions for their corporate greed and crimes against humanity. Did you know that Kaiba uses slave labor in Taiwan to make duel disks?”

 

CORRESPONDENT: “No, I did not know that. Are any duelists protesting right now?”

 

PROTESTER: “Well, you should know! I am a duelist. Sadly, there are a small number of duelists – they’re the basement-dwelling type – who defends Kaiba and Pegasus. They claim Political Correctness has gone mad and gamers are facing censorship from journalists.”  

 

CORRESPONDENT: “Who are these people?”

 

PROTESTER: “As I said, basement-dwellers. That’s why you’ve never heard of them.”

 

CORRESPONDENT: “So why bother telling me about them?”

 

PROTESTER: “Maybe too much time on the Internet distorts your sense of reality.”

 

CORRESPONDENT: “I’ll say!”

 

REPORTER 1: “There you have it folks, on-the-ground action from Jeremy. He’ll be live in the court house right after this commercial break.”

 

Maya found herself enraptured in the details of these strange events, when a nurse came to her room, speaking. “Oh, thank goodness you’re awake! I never thought I’d see the day! You have visitors.”

 

Maya shut the TV off. All her friends quickly arrived. Everyone cried in excitement and hugged each other in a moment of pure joy, one that once in a blue moon. – Even Rex and Weevil came all the way from Japan! And Mathias came to check her out too!

 

“Thank God you came back!” Mathias exulted in prayer; while Yukio explained to Maya she was in a coma for three months. Maya looked dumb in surprise, and Yukio told her it was indeed true.

 

Everyone exchanged gifts, and Maya received first edition prints of all the link monsters she used in the tournament; a consolation Pegasus gave to all finalists after the tournament, monster cards printed before their official release. Likewise, Pegasus, being a man of his word, gave Maya a check of 2 million dollars. Maya held her prizes, astonished; she struggled so hard to earn the prize money, and it sat in her hands, all of it.

 

But Maya felt a deep guilt. She had paid for her prize in blood, not just her blood, but Matthew’s blood, the Ghouls’ blood, the blood of every other duelist who died. Yet she felt a weird kind of excitement knowing she fought such an epic battle and triumphed in the end, almost smelling the blood of her enemies on the cards, arousing her the way a shark becomes when smelling its prey. But the guilt remained.

 

Maya pushed away her prizes, and she was almost about to destroy them when Mathias stopped her. He spoke very sternly, “I know how you feel but destroy your prizes and everyone would have died in vain. Maximus and me lost our dearest family when we accepted our divine gifts and became Saints. We chose to use our gifts to aid the world. You must do the same.”

 

Yukio comforted Maya by putting his hand on her shoulder. “Look, if a Catholic is telling you not to feel guilty, maybe you shouldn’t.”

 

Maya listened to reason, something she didn’t do often. “I hope Stella is fine, back in Iceland with her family and comrades. Maybe I’ll finally see my dad; maybe he’ll be nice since I don’t depend on him anymore. Yes, that would be very nice.”

 

Everyone became dark and solemn in look, and Maya, looking at them, knew all too well what it meant; she knew happiness never last long, least of all with her. She asked what their saturnine looks meant, and Sophia answered, “Stella and Hannibal became brain dead soon after you won. You’re father died while you were in a coma.”

 

Maya shivered; the room seemed to become frigid. She really loved Stella, despite everything that happened between them, while she had no idea how to feel about her father. He ruined Maya’s entire childhood and the scars he left behind darkened her character and her life forevermore. He was the source of all the evil in Maya’s life, but that evil was all she had, and now the evil died she might as well fall through the floor. Maya instinctively touched her abdomen, feeling the substantial bump in it. What was this?

 

“You’re pregnant.” Sophia said joyously as Yukio clasped Maya’s hand, and Maya clasped his. Maya had no idea what to do or even how to feel at this point.

 

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

 

Seto Kaiba and Pegasus Crawford underwent their trail for months on end but a solution was met at last, and the news all too eagerly reported on it.     

 

KAIBACORP AND INDUSTRIAL ILLUSSIONS BAIL OUT

REPORTER 1: “Good morning New Yorkers! I am Dave and this is Susan. Today a major development occurred in the lawsuit against Mr. Seto Kaiba and Mr. Pegasus Crawford. The two CEOs were charged for twenty years prison and their companies charged with 3 billion dollars, but both were recently bailed out. Susan, if you may fill us in on the details.”

 

SUSAN: “Of course, Dave. The various businesses partners of KaibaCorp and Industrial Illusions; including Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, Google, even NASA, paid the bailouts for Seto Kaiba and Pegasus Crawford. They also saved both companies from bankruptcy, but the heavy cost of the weighty lawsuit was enough to send thousands of employees out of work.

 

“Yet there could be more to this story. WikiLeaks has just disclosed a document between the American CIA, the Pentagon, Industrial Illusions, and Kaibacorp, which concerns a KaibaCorp blueprint for building a space station linked to the earth by an elevator. Why would Mr. Kaiba, after disbanding his father’s military operations when he inherited the company, want to return to military projects? What is the end of such designs? Could Kaiba have made a deal with the devil? – Hold on, I just received a letter at my desk. What do you mean I’m fired!?”

 

REPORTER 1: “Oh ho ho! Someone was unprofessional for a moment there! In other news, another sex tape of the Kardassians was released online, where it has been shared all across the Internet. Uh oh! Looks like somebody forgot to make sure what happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas!”

 

In either case, life rolled on as usual on all corners of the globe. Maya spent the next few months settling her affairs, boring chores leaving scarce time to spend with her friends. Not drinking or smoking pot for nine months due to her pregnancy was the least of her inconveniences. She first paid back all her debts so she would not evicted, but later sold her scant Chicago apartment to buy well-to-do quarters in the upper east side, a place she wanted to live in since forever. Then, she judiciously donated her prize money to charities and research projects she deemed best. – She did not give Amnesty International one damn sent. She canvassed for them before. She knew what those pricks were like.

 

Maya then moved from matters of the world to address matters of the spirit. She visited Iceland so as to aid Stella’s grieving family pay for the funeral expenses, but the family rejected all her money and spat in her face. Maya accepted their rebuke, and did not punch them in the face as she would otherwise do, as she was dealing with grief herself. She was now an orphan, just like Kaiba. “Eh, at least I wasn’t adopted.” Maya joked to herself while traveling back to New York.

 

Paying for her father’s funeral was a far easier task. For one, Maya did not have to deal with any family issues. Both her father’s and mother’s parents disowned their offspring when the children married out of wedlock, and Maya was glad of the fact for the first time in her life. Two families made of such bigoted fools did not deserve to attend her father’s funeral.  

 

Maya made it a simple affair, inviting no one but Yukio, JC, and Jolene to the Long Island Cemetery. Mathias had long returned to Ireland; Rex and Weevil to Japan; and Sophia to Pegasus’ home in Las Vegas, only to pack her bags and move out to God knows where. Maya and her friends lowering her father in the grave themselves – Maya insisted on it – There, mother and father would remain together while their child, free from their grasping shadows, would live and die far away, where they could not reach her. Their simple tombstones read thus:    

 

ALEXANDER BOZUSLOWSKY

OCT. 17, 1956 – SEPT. 25, 2009

 

SHARBAT ALI

NOV. 19, 1962 – JUN 30, 1997

 

A grim but interesting fact: Maya buried her father on her twenty-third birthday: Dec. 15, 2009. Maya had been so busy attending to other affairs; she paid the morticians to leave her poor father’s corpse a mummy pumped with formaldehyde and frozen in an ice chamber, in part to exact futile revenge on the man who once was. Her father made her alone from everyone else and forced her to wait for years to undo the damage he did to her, a process Maya would never finish. Thus, Maya made him wait, alone and frozen, before granting him the right to rest with his wife in peace.  

 

JC put flowers on the grave, Jolene put precious drawings she made when a child, Yukio read a poem (or song) he wrote for this moment, and as he recited his work a small shower of rain gently fell on the small party: as if it was spring. Then sun refused to leave as he usually does as the solstice draws near; instead he cast his light on the world with all his might.

 

Tyrant men flaunt all their great might

Then die, forsaking their rights

To the earth, once in lovely gold,

Entombs them in dark wintry cold.

 

The sun, ever giving, returns

As meek flowers grow from bones,

As Spring’s gentle rainy showers

Nurtures young, yearning Sunflowers.

 

The gods have died; not one shall rise

To wipe the tears from my eyes,

But our strong hearts burn and glinter;

We alone bring Spring to Winter.

 

The gentle rain had washed all the dirt from the two tombstones away. With clean hearts and clear minds, the friends returned to life and celebrated the future with dance and play that day.