Bricks clattered against each other under the unbearable, suffocating blanket that was the crushing silence of the night sky. Everywhere the group looked there was destruction. What was left of the Obelisk Blue dormitory was engulfed in a fiery inferno. The administrative buildings no longer existed as buildings, but rather piles of rubble. The infirmary was shattered.
The Ra Yellow dormitory was a junk pile of bricks, splintered wooden beams, and scorched drywall.
Phil closed his eyes in irritation. He’d never met Bon Lectro, only knowing the man even existed solely because Sartorius had mentioned the name after their duel. That man had fallen to Vellian Crowler before they had the chance to meet. It was both expected and unexpected. Along with Ninja Nan, Bon Lectro had been one of the two captains leading the first half of the invasion of the island. Nan focused on sneaking their men through the checkpoints and securing the docks while Bon Lectro struck like a mad viper against anything that could be used for shelter or to create chokepoints that would stall the invasion.
By now, both of the original captains had fallen, to be replaced by him, and to a lesser extent, Crowler and Hibiki.
Phil turned away from the ruins. It would take far too long to dig through them with only the barest chance remaining that his binder was still intact in the face of the extensive damage to the structure.
Sartorius had called out to Phil before the boy fully disappeared into the jungle, causing him to halt and look back expectingly.
‘And what will you do if Bon Lectro was efficient enough to annihilate the dorms after dealing with his primary targets?’ The seer had questioned. Already there were a multitude of tarot cards floating in the air in front of the man, speaking of concealed results to a divination that was unknown to Phil.
‘Simple.’ Phil tilted his head and stared at Sartorius. In his eyes was a chilly light, almost arctic in its feel. ‘If recovering my binder is no longer an option, then the next best move is to advance on the last bastion of resistance on the island. Jaden will likely be gone by then, no doubt sent in pursuit of you by Bastion. However, by assaulting Banner's classroom, pressure will not only be placed on the defenders but on Jaden as well. If you can find some way to show him my duels during that time, he may become more reckless than usual when he sees his friends being hurt, giving you a chance to exploit that weakness.’
Sartorius sagely nodded. ‘Even if he stays calm, by your actions I’ll still have more soldiers available for use. Very well, my champion. Go forth and find victory on this auspicious day.’
Indeed. He’d already prepared for the possibility before even seeing the dorms with his own eyes. It was physically impossible to acquire the binder before Jaden could reach Sartorius. Even if a duel spirit would help, the cards would likely just get damaged beyond any usability. Not only that, but even with magical help the excavation would take at least an hour considering the amount of rubble. Which would not be as long as it would have taken if he didn’t know the rough location of his dorm room, but an hour was still an hour – far too long. Knowing Jaden’s luck and physical ability, Phil could easily imagine the boy finding the seer in under half that time.
With that decided, Phil gestured to his followers and started trooping toward the clamor in the distance, the biggest sign that the fighting in and around Banner’s classroom was still ongoing. Behind him, Crowler and Hibiki moved on unsteady feet. Their progress was slow. Slow enough that it even annoyed Phil.
Crowler still leaned on Hibiki’s shoulder as he walked. His legs trembled. Even in his possessed state, a state that would normally take away the majority of the pain he felt, the giant professor barely looked conscious. His face was ashen, sweat soaked his brow, and there was a fist-sized hole in his lower stomach.
Another reminder that even the Light had its limits concerning the fragility of the human body.
Hibiki was hardly better off. Her face was a mask of blood and she staggered under her fellow professor’s weight. A possessed woman, but one who was still obviously loathe to leave her comrade behind. Was it the Light being unwilling to waste resources, or were parts of her original personality still poking through the suppression? It was hard to say for sure. Harder, considering he didn't particularly care about the answer to that question.
Both could still duel. The Light saw to that. The only uncertainty was if they could finish a duel they started.
“Move around to the sides.” Phil snapped at them. “Flank and break into the classroom. Bonus points if you finish up in there before I break in. I’m going on ahead.”
He didn’t even wait for them to respond before walking off at a brisk pace.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Thirty-odd duels were happening before her eyes. That was what Alexis could see from where she stood defending the door to the classroom. There were probably more happening in places she couldn’t see. As one would expect, thirty-odd duels produced a lot of noise. Screaming monsters, roaring dragons, the battle cries of warriors, and the grunts of pain following life point damage accumulated in the shadow games.
That was why she instantly noticed when something was wrong.
The grounds in front of the classroom fell silent. It was like a suffocating shadow had fallen over every duelist in the vicinity. Possessed, normal, it didn’t matter. They all fell silent. The duels continued, but they were silent.
Alexis’s breath hitched in her throat once she saw the cause of that silence.
“Phil…”
Somehow the Ra Yellow, who she always remembered as a cheerful, snarky scoundrel who was always on the brink of dropping a terribly cringy pun or launching into crazy shenanigans…
That same Ra Yellow looked utterly terrifying. For the first time since she’d met Phil, she felt not just a sliver, but a full-on tidal wave of fear as he walked closer. He wasn’t even doing anything out of the ordinary. He was just walking.
Perhaps that was what scared her so. He was walking through the collection of duelists like he was out for a Sunday stroll through a quaint little garden. No one bothered him. No one confronted him. Possessed duelists, normal duelists, everyone in his path stepped away as fast as possible.
As he got nearer her heart continued to fall. His chest was dented. Like a vehicle had run right into it. One of his shoulders was weeping blood, the fabric of his tattered mustard yellow jacket torn to shreds around the wound. Then there were his eyes. Where Phil's eyes normally gleamed with mischievous light, they now were filled with nothing but disdain, malice, and pure arrogance. It was like he saw everyone around him as nothing but annoying ants he could crush under his foot whenever he wanted to.
Alexis hadn’t wanted to believe Bastion when he first said it, but now she had no other choice but to fully understand.
Phil had fallen.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Phil took the sights in like a refreshing breath of spring air. The sides were balanced, the number of duelists serving the Light and the number of students were about equal. His eyes roamed the crowd. There was something in play… something that was the biggest variable in keeping those sides equal. Otherwise the fact that the Light-aligned duelists were largely unaffected by the damage incurred by the shadow games would have caused them to win out due to attrition alone.
Who could it be? Who was providing that balance? He could see Alexis in the doorway, but she seemed primarily focused on preventing any Light duelists from entering the classroom. Bastion was probably in there desperately plotting away. Either that or it was being used as a makeshift infirmary. There was no other reason to have a bouncer in the doorway. Chazz… he couldn’t see Chazz anywhere. Odd. From what he remembered of the boy… well, his mind was a bit foggy lately, but that Obelisk Blue should have been in the thick of things. His pride would demand it and his skill would make it necessary.
A series of movements distracted Phil's pondering and he looked to the side. Those two were familiar…
The thundering voice screamed and ranted in Phil’s mind. He resisted the urge to clutch at his skull, distilling the reaction to a nearly unnoticeable wince.
“Phil.” Zane Truesdale greeted him. Atticus merely shot a nod at Phil, otherwise remaining silent.
Phil stared at them for several heartbeats before he was able to remember the significance of those two. Then, he grinned. The grin was somehow wide and empty at the same time.
“Zane Truesdale and Atticus Rhodes. The strongest of the previous generation. Heh.”
Phil’s eyes were wide, but as empty as his smile. His duel disk snapped open. The classroom held people of some importance, but this chance to defeat the two duelists responsible for keeping the balance…
It was simply too great not to take!
“I wonder.” Phil laughed, “Atticus, your sister is watching right now. I wonder what she’ll feel to see you be re-possessed right before her very eyes!”
Phil: 4000 Zane and Atticus: 4000
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Atticus didn't answer the ghoulish boy. Yes, ghoulish. Phil looked less like a human and more like a man who knew he shouldn't even be capable of moving anymore, but reveled in the fact that he was still moving. This Phil was different than the one he knew. Honestly, he hadn’t been particularly close to the guy. It was more of a loose friendship caused by the fact that Phil was friends with Lexy and friends with Syrus, which meant that his best buddy Zane was also hanging around doing his best to repair his relationship with the little guy. Nevertheless, Phil was a good dude.
That was how he knew that it was the Light talking when the boy spoke. Still, that didn’t do much to blunt the pain of those words. His own hands trembled at the thought.
Not at the thought of being hurt during the duel. No, he’d taken plenty of glancing blows in the duels before that.
Instead, his fear was the nagging voice in his head. The nagging voice that asked him one simple question: ‘What if you lose? What if you and Zane aren’t enough?’
Atticus knew what would happen if he lost. He would be a prisoner in his own mind again. He would be forced to hurt his little sister, the light of his world. With a lowercase ‘L’, of course. It was what gnawed at him most from what brief flashes he could remember of his time as Nightshroud. The fact that he’d caused not only physical pain to Alexis during his duel, but emotional pain when he’d been missing for all those years.
A hand settled on his shoulder, jolting Atticus out of that cursed cycle of thoughts. He looked over to see Zane, as steadfast as ever, giving him a reassuring nod. Atticus returned that nod with a smile, both teens ignoring how shaky that smile was.
It was two versus one. Shared life points. That meant the duel would go faster. That also meant both he and Zane held an extreme advantage: Zane specialized in one-turn kills, and Atticus's deck packed a whole lot of burn.
Atticus grimly smiled. The action was no longer shaky. He could feel Alexis’s worried gaze boring into his back like a drill tearing through soft earth. Through his actions, he would wordlessly tell her not to worry.
He would wordlessly tell her that her big brother had this covered, that her big brother would take care of it all so they could all go home happy and get some ice cream together.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
No one had claimed the first turn. Not Phil, not Zane, not Atticus. It was still up in the air. The same air that crackled with tension.
Until Phil smiled once more. His teeth were covered in a thin layer of blood that lent a savage air to his every move.
“I think I’ll go first.”
Those words uttered by Phil sent an invisible wave of shock rippling through every duelist around. Possessed, normal, it didn’t matter. They all stopped and turned, leaving duels unfinished and attacks undeclared. They all stopped to watch the game and the duelist who had declared the first turn against the two men who specialized in going second.
Phil ignored the ants as they formed a rough, yet wide circle around the three boys. They would either be smart enough to give them enough room, or they would be caught up in the backlash of attacks.
“I draw.”
Zane and Atticus, still wearing expressions that were a good mixture of shock and interest, said nothing as Phil started his turn.
Phil’s eyes widened with glee.
“I activate the continuous spell, Card of Safe Return!” Phil laughed, “While this card is face up, each time I special summon a monster from my graveyard, I can draw one card! Next I activate Painful Choice! I will select five cards from my deck, those being two Ronintoadin, two Swap Frogs, and one Dupe Frog! Then you two will choose one of those cards to add to my hand, with the rest going to the graveyard.”
Zane and Atticus nodded toward each other, with the former stepping forward to choose Ronintoadin.
Phil casually tossed four cards into his graveyard and added the fifth to his hand. All of a sudden, his mannerisms, once filled with a sick sense of contempt, changed to become as still and cold as a frozen lake.
“I summon Ronintoadin (100/2000) from my hand in defense position.” Phil stated. “The effect of Ronintoadin in my graveyard will activate. Banishing Swap Frog to special summon it in defense position. This triggers my continuous spell card to draw one card.”
The air thickened. It thickened to the point that it became extremely difficult to breathe. It was as if a great and terrible presence was looking down from the heavens above, staring at the three duelists with a merciless sense of unyielding malice.
“I overlay my two level two Ronintoadins to XYZ summon the amphibian soldiers of the Light, Toadally Awesome (2200/0).”
The watching crowd took several steps back, the possessed duelists taking the movement in unison while the others fell back in a more disorganized sort of panic. The air thickened even more.
Then the thickened air trembled. It trembled and visibly split as one pale leg after another stepped through the crack in the sky.
It was two pale toads, the smaller one stacked right on top of the larger one, with a single peach on the back of the smaller one. Normally it was a sight that would have been quite comical, but the atmosphere betrayed a sense of underlying fear that rippled around the surrounding duelists.
“Hi! I’m Bottom Toad!” The larger toad on the bottom cheerfully announced. He paused for a moment, as if waiting for the toad on top to introduce himself. However, the top toad remained silent, staring off into the distance through sockets that were devoid of eyes.
“And on top of me is Top Toad!” Bottom Toad eventually pointed toward the creature in question. “Together we make Toadally Awesome! Oh boy, I cannot wait to see what adventures are in store for us in this duel! Don’t you agree, Top Toad?”
Top Toad remained silent. The only hint of motion that came from his body was a line of pale blood that dribbled from its eye sockets. Foam lined the creature’s mouth and it seemed almost… catatonic.
Phil ignored the duo in favor of placing four cards face down and passing his turn.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“I’ll go next!” Atticus shouted with a wary glance at the new monster. XYZ summoning… that was something he’d never heard of before. A wordless agreement had already been passed between him and Zane to not underestimate the card in the slightest. It had to possess some sort of nasty effect that made it worth going to all that trouble to summon. But there was little he could do about that at this point.
Phil’s arm twitched. “In your standby phase,” He coldly declared, “Toadally Awesome’s effect activates. I detach one XYZ material to special summon one Dupe Frog (100/2000) from my deck to my field in defense position.”
Before the scholarly blue frog even finished forming onto the field, Atticus jumped into his main phase.
“A good defense!” Atticus congratulated his opponent, using the carefree words to try and lighten his own heart, to try and go back to his usual relaxed attitude. “It’s a good thing I don’t give a darn about breaking through it yet! First off, I activate Cards of the Red Stone. By sending my level seven Red-Eyes Black Dragon from my hand to my graveyard, I can draw two cards. Then, once I’m finished drawing, I can send any one level seven Red-Eyes monster from my deck to my graveyard. That’s gonna be Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon!”
In an instant several beams of pure red light seeped into Atticus’s graveyard, but the Obelisk Blue wasn’t quite done yet.
“Now activating Pot of Greed! I draw two more cards!” Atticus shouted. “Then I normal summon Red-Eyes B. Chick (800/500) and use its effect immediately!”
Phil continued to look on at the proceedings with a cold light suffusing his eyes. Despite his four face down cards, he said nothing.
Atticus gestured to his monster, a tiny black dragon poking its head uncertainly out of the shell of an egg that was dark red in color.
“I can send Red-Eyes B. Chick to the graveyard to summon one Red-Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000) from my hand to the field.” He explained. “Of course, I can’t attack just yet, but I can do this! Activate, my spell card! Inferno Fire Blast! The full attack points of Red-Eyes Black Dragon are inflicted to you as effect damage!”
As soon as the jet-black dragon flew onto the field, it opened its mouth to release a screaming ball of pink and black energy that tore through the air to slam into Phil’s chest, causing him to drop to one knee from the force of the impact.
Phil: 1600 Zane and Atticus: 4000
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Alexis’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates and her hands flew up to cover her mouth as she watched Phil stand back up after the brutal strike from her brother. His jacket was obliterated, with only part of the sleeves and back remaining. So was his undershirt, and the skin of his chest was scorched like a well-done steak that had just taken off the grill moments before. Alexis knew if she was closer to the duel, she would be able to smell the sickening scent of burned flesh.
Yet her friend stood without a shout of pain or even a look of discomfort. Phil stood and stared at his two opponents as if he was puzzling together the best and cruelest way to utterly break them.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Zane’s eyes narrowed to the point that only part of his pupils could be seen. The first attack was his. Phil’s life points were already below half thanks to Atticus’s usual unforgiving playstyle, a combination of constant attrition via burn damage backed up by his never-ending stream of dragons. But for some reason, he got the sense that their opponent was toying with them.
Maybe it was because not a single one of Phil’s five face downs had been activated yet. Or perhaps it was how their opponent allowed Atticus to place two cards face down and end his turn without a fuss. Or it could be how after he drew a card, Phil used the effect of his strange toad monster to call forth another copy of Dupe Frog to the field in defense position, meaning that until one of those two frogs was removed, Zane would be unable to attack at all due to their effect.
Zane’s eyes tightened and he threw away those concerns. What would happen, would happen. Until then he would do as he did best.
“Come to me, Cyber Dragon Core (400/1500)!” Zane roared out the words as he summoned the fragile snake-like machine in defense position and activated its effect, adding the quick-play spell card Cyberload Fusion to his hand. Then… he looked toward Atticus, who shot him a nod. Zane hid a smile. He hadn’t needed to even verbally voice the question. Atticus knew what he was going to do just as well as Zane himself knew. With this next play, either they would find out precisely what Phil’s face downs were…
“Or we’ll win here and now!” Zane’s formidable shout caused the watching duelists to take several more steps back. “I activate Harpie’s Feather Duster to destroy all spell and trap cards you control, Phil!”
“As predictable as the moon moving through the sky.” Phil’s icy expression melted into one that dripped with sheer contempt for his opponents. “My response is simple: Solemn Judgment!”
Before the feather duster could fully sweep through the field, an old man swathed in robes grabbed the tip of it with a wrathful expression and snapped the cleaning implement over his knee.
Phil: 800 Zane and Atticus: 4000
"Which lets me move into the next part." Zane countered, "What say you to this card! I activate Dark Hole!”
This was the real play. Feather Duster was nothing more than a greeting to a fellow duelist. If Dark Hole went through… Zane shot a glance at Atticus’s face down cards. He knew precisely what trap card his friend had lying in wait. All that was needed was for his dragon to be destroyed, and it would be over. Death by burn damage. It was far from the first time the duo had made this savage play in a tag duel before.
Phil sneered and gestured at his monster. "Toadally Awesome's effect activates in response. By sacrificing one of my Dupe Frogs, I can negate, destroy, and steal your spell card.
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Zane kept his poker face up and running. It was a pity, but Phil was a good duelist. A win this early would have been a bit unexpected. No, what was more important was that not only a Solemn Judgment was out of play, but they now knew another aspect of Toadally Awesome’s effect. It could summon frog monsters as long as it had ‘material’, and it could send a frog monster to the graveyard to negate a card effect. Concerning, but no longer a complete unknown. In addition to that, the Dupe Frog lock was no longer in play. He would be forced to destroy the remaining Dupe first, but that mattered little.
“Alright! Next up I activate Polymerization!” Zane declared after sending another wary look toward Toadally Awesome. “Fusing a Cyber Dragon in my hand with Cyber Dragon Core, whose name becomes ‘Cyber Dragon’ while on the field or in the graveyard, to fusion summon Cyber Twin Dragon (2800/2100)!”
Phil visibly winced and just like that, his fiery contempt froze back into the icy wasteland once more.
“On the resolution of your summon.” Phil said in a monotone voice, “My trap card, Needlebug Nest, will activate. I send the top five cards of my deck to my graveyard.”
Zane blinked in surprise, his poker face slipping for a moment from the unexpected and rather strange play. A duelist willingly sending that many cards straight to their graveyard for no immediate gain. He didn’t know what to think.
“Very well.” Zane dipped his head in acknowledgment. “My battle phase will begin!”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Phil’s head pulsed in agony from the voices inside of it. It was too much. The Light screamed and ranted about a man in a space station… he could see flashes of a familiar boy in a red jacket approaching Sartorius…
Then the voice got even louder. It made two demands that shut out all other thoughts from his head. Hurry it up, and make his opponents suffer before the end.
Phil wrenched his eyes open to force his focus away from his migraine and back to the duel, just in time to see Dupe Frog torn apart by a pair of metal jaws belonging to a twin-headed dragon of steel. His eyes flashed icy contempt. His distraction made it too late to save his monster, but Dupe Frog was expendable anyway.
“An opening!” Phil shouted. “When he is destroyed, Dupe Frog’s effect activates to take one copy of Swap Frog from my graveyard to add to my hand! Then, I activate my trap card Lost Wind, permanently negating and halving the attack points of your fusion monster!”
Phil waited a moment to see if any of his opponents wished to respond, but there was nothing but expectant silence.
“And since I’ve activated a trap card, I can use the effect of Paleozoic Leanchoilia, who I milled via Needlebug, to special summon itself in attack position as a monster with 1200 attack and zero defense.”
Cyber Twin Dragon (2800/2100 -> 1400/2100).
Now that the fusion monster’s effect was negated, therefore preventing it from attacking twice, Zane could do nothing but grit his teeth and end his turn after placing one card face down.
Phil drew a card and considered his options. He had to end this fast. He had to he had to he had t-
He shook his head violently but only succeeded in making the migraine worse.
His vision was only half-focused on the duel. The other half watched the scene of Jaden Yuki approaching the seer from a distance, like he was viewing a silent movie in a theater. He slammed his eyes shut and yanked them open, but nothing changed. The difference in sight was literally sickening. He could feel his stomach roil as his mind tried to come to terms with one of his eyes seeing what was in front of him, and the other seeing some strange vision.
The voice screamed incoherently about a satellite and Phil used the pain from the headache to force his mind back to the duel at hand.
“I draw!” Phil shouted, pouring his mental agony into a mold that turned it into a volcanic form of hatred for his opponents. He had a good idea of what Zane’s face down card was. It was either the quick-play fusion spell he searched for earlier or some sort of irritating battle trap. Either way it was worthless at the moment. Atticus had two face downs. One was likely triggered by the death of his dragon, considering the glance he'd seen the two share before Zane tried to blow up the field. That was what Red-Eyes did. Burn damage, equip spells, and revival. The other face down could be anything.
Meanwhile… Phil observed his Toadally Awesome and the carefree living fossil that was swimming around in the air in front of him. The summoning of Leanchoilia from the graveyard was able to net him another draw from Card of Safe Return. He had three Dupes in the graveyard, one from Painful Choice, one sent via Toad’s negation effect, and one destroyed by battle.
And then it hit him like a meteor. The Light sensed his intent at the exact same time and a surge of pleasure roared through their connection. It would be brutal and ironic at the same time. He had the resources. The Light… it was willing to force that unnatural play, to bend the rules with the same power it had used to cloak its magic from the eyes of D.3.S. Frog.
The only problem was Atticus’s face down cards. Phil was 99 percent sure at least one of them was a burn card. Either that or they were making him second-guess himself after seeing that look. It might have just been a tacit understanding that Atticus was okay with losing his dragon.
On the other hand, Phil had been on the receiving end of Red-Eyes burn cards too many times in the past to count back on Earth. They liked to trigger on the death of a Red-Eyes and during battles. About half their archetype was burn, a quarter messed with equips, and the other quarter badly supported a series of fusion monsters that weren’t too bad if… well, their fusion spell didn’t turn off other summons for the turn. An archetype cursed to be gimped by its own cards. That hardly mattered though. The presence of a Red-Eyes player who actually bothered to play Inferno Fire Blast meant Atticus was likely on the pure burn strategy.
Phil’s eyes grew colder, if that was even possible. He would play it safe and see what would happen. For now…
“I summon Swap Frog (1000/500) to my field in defense position, activating its effect to send my final Swap Frog from my deck to my graveyard. Then, overlaying Swap Frog and Leanchoilia, I XYZ summon Paleozoic Opabinia (0/2400)! Opabinia’s effect activates, detaching Swap Frog to add Paleozoic Olenoides from my deck to my hand.”
That trap card was activated right from his hand in short order, with Phil targeting Atticus’s leftmost face down card and activating the graveyard effect of Paleozoic Dinomischus in response to summon it in defense position.
Phil’s concerns were immediately proved correct. Atticus’s face down card was revealed to be Red-Eyes Burn, a trap that only required Atticus’s face up Red-Eyes monster to be destroyed. Once that cost was paid, both players would take damage equal to the dragon’s attack points.
Phil drew another card through Card of Safe Return and revealed it without a single bit of hesitation.
“As Opabinia remains on the field, I can continue to activate Paleozoic trap cards from my hand without setting them first. Here’s another Olenoides! Targeting your other facedown, Atticus!”
Atticus’s eyes narrowed with concern, and he flipped over his face down card.
“Trap card activate, Threatening Roar! No attacks for you this turn!”
Phil nodded. It wasn’t worth stopping. Not when Zane had a face down waiting in the wings that was potentially more damaging than losing a battle phase. He was beginning to understand things now. Atticus was the rock. Providing traps and punishing Phil with burn damage when he attacked. Zane was the storm. Summoning fusion monster after fusion monster in an attempt to overwhelm. Neither the rock nor the storm could be fully ignored, lest he fall to that burn damage or a lucky attack.
After all, 800 life points were quite easy to tear through if one was careless enough.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Phil passed his turn after placing two cards face down. Atticus resisted slumping his shoulders in relief. Another one of those strange monsters had appeared, with an even stranger effect. Even though their life points were still at 4000, even though Zane had a powerful fusion spell waiting for an opening to use, even though his own hand was far from tapped out, it felt like they were barely keeping up with Phil.
Atticus could see past Zane’s poker face. His buddy was feeling a similar pressure. He looked again, disguising the movement as him simply looking through his hand. Zane was still different. He obviously felt pressure, but Zane still felt somehow confident they would win.
That realization sent a surge of fighting spirit through Atticus. He stood up straight once more. Because not only was his friend still fighting… but a quick glance behind him told Atticus even more. His baby sister, little Lexy-lex, was still watching.
A fearsome smile split across Atticus’s face. Yeah. He was pressured, but he wasn’t going to lose. Not when Alexis was watching! Not now, not ever!
“I activate Monster Reborn, calling back Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon (2400/2000) from the great beyond. Then, because I have yet to use my normal summon this turn, I’ll use it to unlock Black Flare Dragon’s Gemini effect. From this point on, if my monster is involved in any amount of damage calculation for any reason, I can inflict damage to you equal to my monster’s original attack points!”
Atticus moved into his battle phase. He could almost taste it. Not certain victory, but a chance.
“Strike! Black Flare Dragon will attack Toadally Awesome!
Phil’s eyes iced over even more.
“Trap card. Paleozoic Canadia.”
Just like that, Black Flare Dragon was flipped into face down defense position.
Atticus didn’t give up, nor even hesitate a single second.
“Strike! Red-Eyes Black Dragon! Destroy Toadally Awesome!”
Phil revealed a second Canadia and used that same activation to special summon the first Canadia from his graveyard in defense position. Then, in accordance with the effect of Card of Safe Return, he drew a card.
“It’s up to you, buddy! I throw down a facedown and end my turn.” Atticus passed the baton onward to Zane. He didn't end up dealing any damage, but that was two more powerful trap cards out of the way.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Zane’s eyes roamed the field as he contemplated his strategy for this turn. He had a Cyberload Fusion available. He had the materials at his fingertips to go into Cyber Eternity Dragon, another Cyber Twin Dragon, or a Chimeratech Overdragon. The third option wouldn’t have enough fuel to make it worth the cost. Cyber Twin would be more of the same, a strong attacker but with no protection. But Cyber Eternity would have protection from targeting effects if he could find a way to get his face-up Cyber Twin Dragon into the graveyard. However, there was the negation effect of Toadally Awesome to consider. Would Phil consider his fusion spell worth stopping? He hadn’t bothered to stop the Polymerization earlier.
It was a crying shame he hadn’t the fortune to draw another Harpie’s Feather Duster. That would have been a perfect way to force the negation effect. His mind moved like the gears that made up the insides of his monsters, underneath their sleek and shining exteriors. Should he risk it? Or was there something he was missing?
It was at that moment that a strange presence brushed against his mind. It was an unknown feeling. It felt almost… slimy. Damp. Amphibian-like. Zane flinched at the feeling, but then a commanding, yet reassuring croak halted his actions. His eyes flickered downwards to look at his fusion deck.
It was glowing. Glowing with a green watery light. It was as if someone had activated a glowstick at the bottom of a tranquil pond fully enveloped by the merciful shade on a scorching summer day.
He could feel it all. Emotions not from his own heart, but from the same outside source that was brushing against his mind.
A tadpole swam through the unfathomable deep. Not a pond as mortals would see it. No, it was more comparable to an ocean without an end to its crushing depths. One could keep going further down past infinity itself and still not see the bottom. Countless creatures swam through the currents. Some could be seen, others were more of formless ideas only given the barest suggestion of shape once gazed upon, for the mere moments that a mind could keep its sanity in the face of those existences. A great leviathan with a green six-pointed star on its back. An angel of gold and silver that looked upon all creatures with nothing but love and affection, yet there was still unfathomable power hidden in its gaze.
The tadpole grew. It learned. Ate. Devoured. Tadpole to frog. Bigger and bigger as the centuries, as the millennia passed by. The leviathan fell in battle. The angel evaporated a great beast of darkness and rage. A flaming eagle, a roaring serpent that commanded lightning, a blue wrathful god, rose and fell. Rose and fell. Just like the frog, rising and falling next to them. Never lesser, never greater than those final three.
But always alone.
A mighty pharaoh forged unbreakable bonds with the eagle and the serpent. A prideful king walked alongside the wrathful god. The dragon of black and red found a schoolchild who possessed a delinquent mindset similar to its own. Dragons with eyes of blue. A magician clad in purple armor. All these spirits and more found duelists and forged bonds.
But the frog, mighty as he was, still walked alone.
Until one day came to pass. An ordinary day in the spirit world, but in another world it was a day known as Christmas. In a world without magic, a boy was gifted a single pack of cards by his father. The pack was split open with youthful glee. What would he find? What would he see?
For the first time in his existence, D.3.S. Frog was cherished, as the boy's first and strongest card. Even five years, ten years, fifteen years, and twenty years later the boy kept that card. He gained countless newer, more shiny cards, but the boy still kept his first card by his side.
The frog was no longer alone.
Until the Light took his one true friend away from him. Ceaseless rage. Unending sorrow. An outpouring of regret. For once in his long, long life, he wished to be stronger. To have been strong enough to pierce through the wards of the Light to fully reveal its filthy, cheating nature. To enact what justice the rules demanded when the sacred rituals were sullied by scum.
Zane’s eyes were bleeding from the force of the alien memories that overwhelmed his mind. His sense of self felt like it was on a precipice. Those memories, barraging his mind with such strength, threatened to ruin his very mind. But then, they stopped.
Zane’s hands moved with the automatic precision of a machine. He wasn’t possessed. Nor was he ignorant of what he was doing. Whatever existence, whatever creature was on his side…
It told him precisely what he needed to do, and sacrificed part of its power to give Zane the ability to do it.
His duel disk stopped shimmering and his fusion deck was now several cards larger than it had been before.
Part of his mind, the professional part, screamed that adding to his deck in the middle of a duel was cheating. The other part, buoyed by the creature, responded that he didn’t care. He was protected, whatever that meant, and he couldn’t. Lose. In. Front. Of. His. Brother.
Yes, his brother. He couldn’t see for himself, but the creature simply showed him. Syrus was watching from the other side of a window. He was watching his big brother duel and shouting his heart out for Zane to win.
Zane’s head snapped upwards to look Phil directly in his eyes. So great was the fighting spirit roaring through Zane’s every movement that even Phil looked surprised before the icy expression filled his face once more.
“Cyber Repair Plant activates! Because I have a Cyber Dragon in my graveyard, I can add one light machine monster from my deck to my hand. Cyber Dragon Herz, come to your master!”
Phil nodded his head, a look of detached curiosity on his face that was once more quickly wiped away to form an emotionless expression. But Zane wasn’t done yet.
“I summon Cyber Dragon Herz (100/100) in defense mode! Just like Core, it too becomes ‘Cyber Dragon’ whilst on the field! Then, I activate Machine Duplication! By targeting a machine monster with 500 attack points or less, I can summon two monsters from my deck with the same name. Come on out, Cyber Dragon!”
Cyber Dragon (2100/1600), Cyber Dragon (2100/1600).
“Then.” Zane steeled himself. The presence warned him this next bit would be agonizing. But as long as he only did it twice, he should be able to remain standing until the duel was over. After that, it could make no promises. "Then. I… I overlay two level five Cyber Dragons to XYZ summon Cyber Dragon Nova (2100/1600)!”
Phil’s eyes went wide with surprise. This time, the icy expression failed to return. Zane couldn’t appreciate that, however. It felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to his chest and poured a lethal dose of electricity through his heart. Hell, he could even feel his heart skip a beat. Several beats.
Zane bared his teeth in a savage grimace. He tried to ignore Atticus’s shouts, only factoring in that they weren’t shouts of concern – they were roars of support. As expected. His friend, his best friend in the world, his brother in all but blood held his resolve in the highest of regards. Even the slightest consideration toward voicing any concern would be like spitting on that resolve.
“That’s not all. I won’t use Nova’s effect. Do you know why?”
Zane didn’t wait for Phil to answer.
“Because I now XYZ summon Cyber Dragon Infinity (2100/1600), which can be summoned by using Cyber Dragon Nova as the material, transferring the material under Nova to Infinity!”
Thick streams of blood poured out from under Zane’s eyes, but it mattered not. His limbs trembled, but it mattered not. All that mattered was the moment.
A machine of black and silver stalked onto the field with all the grace of a predator. Steely wings, a chest with a glowing orange orb, and a winding, snakelike tail. That was Cyber Dragon Infinity. The monster given to him at great cost by D.3.S. Frog, and summoned at equally great cost by Zane Truesdale.
“While Infinity remains on the field, it gains 200 attack points for each material attached to it.” Zane explained.
Cyber Dragon Infinity (2100/1600 -> 2700/1600).
“And in my graveyard, the effect of Lost Wind activates.” Phil’s cold voice interrupted. “I set it back to my field, though I cannot activate it this turn.”
Zane nodded with some amount of difficulty. His bones felt… fragile. Like they were made of delicate glass. One sneeze and he’d be on the floor.
“Infinity, activate your second effect.” He stalwartly commanded. “Absorb Toadally Awesome as material.”
“Toad’s effect activates in response.” Phil shot back. “Sacrificing itself to negate and destroy your monster.”
Zane nodded. As expected. “I will activate Infinity’s other effect in turn. I detach a material to negate your negation.” Though Toadally Awesome would not be absorbed as material, since it was tributed as a cost to activate the negation effect, it was still completely out of play.
Phil then wordlessly activated the effect of Toadally Awesome in the graveyard to add one Ronintoadin back to his hand, which Zane ignored. It was a problem for the next turn. Now? He would try once more to end the duel.
“Firstly," Zane muttered. His common sense told him to keep his words short. He would lose less precious energy that way. "I activate my face down trap card, Cybernetic Overflow. Banishing Core, Cyber Dragon, and Herz to destroy Opabinia, Dinomischus, and Canadia.”
Surprisingly, Phil allowed the card to go through. Odd. Very odd. Was he this used to using XYZ monsters? Phil hardly seemed phased by the summon or its effects other than the shock he’d shown when Zane had first summoned Nova.
Very well then. Zane moved on to his battle phase. Phil didn't have any monsters left, but still, Zane felt a hint of caution in the back of his mind. Lost Wind wasn't an issue. It couldn't be activated this turn. But the other face down… would he have been better off destroying it instead of the Paleozoic monsters? Opabinia had to go. And if the other two remained on the field, they could be turned into more XYZ monsters. Yes. He’d pulled the least crappy decision out of a pile of turds.
“Battle phase. Infinity attacks directly.”
“Quick-play spell, Scapegoat.” Phil’s face was overtaken with a sickening grin once more as the four multicolored goats took their place on the field, baaing and screaming as they floated aimlessly around.
Zane nodded listlessly. Infinity charged at a token, but Phil wasn’t done.
"Rise to Full Height's graveyard effect activates!" The Ra Yellow declared. "Banishing it from the graveyard, which allows me to select the goat token you are attacking. For this turn, you can only attack that specific token."
“Cyberload Fusion activates.” Zane responded by revealing a quick-play spell in his hand. Now that Infinity had destroyed the token, he couldn’t attack. However, he could still reinforce his own board, doing what little he could do to capitalize on Phil’s mistake of holding Rise to Full Height instead of activating its graveyard effect in response to Cybernetic Overflow. “Returning my banished Cyber Dragon, Core, and Herz to my deck to fusion summon Cyber Eternity Dragon (2800/4000) in defense position.”
This metal dragon was the complete opposite of Infinity. Where the XYZ monster was dark and foreboding, Eternity shimmered under the moonlight, its white and gold metal skin resplendent in the night sky. Its body was long, longer than any other dragon on the field. Its tail stretched far past the ruined dorms to curl over the jungle itself.
The duel academy students broke out in cheers. Zane had not one, not two, but three monsters from his fusion deck face up on the field. A weakened Cyber Twin Dragon, a powerful defending Cyber Eternity Dragon, and the never-before-seen Cyber Infinity Dragon. Their champion, the strongest of the previous generation, now held an extreme advantage.
“I end my turn.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The voice in his head fell silent. Phil no longer needed instruction. Atticus’s field was not relevant at this time. Next turn, maybe. But there would be no next turn. Zane’s field would soon fall.
Now that he'd resolved Scapegoat and only Atticus had a face down card, it was over. One way or another. Either he would win with his next move or Atticus would find a way to burn him for his last 800 life points.
How exhilarating. This was it. The yammering in his head didn’t matter. The sickening coldness of his body was worthless. In this moment, he was truly alive.
Phil’s grin widened and he opened his mouth with a soulless, yet still sickening look on his face.
“Look at you two. Two big brothers dueling in front of your precious siblings. I can see them, you know. They’re hoping that you will win. Praying that you will win. The Kaiser and the Elder Rhodes, saving Duel Academy once again.”
He took a moment to savor the beginning of the end.
“But you won’t. You’ll fall before their eyes and I will make you hurt them. Though, congratulations. Truly. I don’t know how you got those cards, but you successfully XYZ summoned after seeing it for the first time this duel. Not many could do that. Now. Do you want to see another thing you haven’t ever seen before?”
Phil paused. He could feel the magic flowing through his body. Waiting in preparation like a viper in the grass about to strike. As soon as he gave the word it would change things. It would force his plays to be allowed.
“I normal summon Ronintoadin (100/2000). And now that I have four monsters on the field, the preparations are complete. Heh heh. Your siblings have hope. It will feel so sweet, so delicious to crush that hope in front of them. I send two Sheep Tokens to the graveyard to link summon Missus Radiant (1400/Link-2)!
Phil's duel disk crackled and sparked as it grew two new zones. The grinding of gears, incoherent screams, and even space itself seemed to crumble in the face of the impossible summon. The impossible summon that was made possible. Tendrils of light snaked around Phil's duel disk to reinforce the zones. Magic thrummed around him, causing his hair, matted with blood, to stand up perfectly straight.
A fancy brown dog with a handlebar mustache and a horn sticking out of its head pranced onto the field, but Phil wasn’t done yet. Another Sheep Token was turned into Linkuriboh (300/Link-1).
"Then," Phil said as his eyes streamed with blood, as the injuries he'd suffered through the consecutive shadow duels worsened by the second. "Then I send Missus Radiant, Linkuriboh, and Ronintoadin to link summon the architect of your doom, Borrelsword Dragon (3000/Link-4)!”
All three of those monsters disappeared into a flash of light that brightened like a star turning into a supernova, and then darkened. It darkened into a red and black dragon, with wings of bright yellow light and two literal Gatling guns for hands. The air shuddered. Several of the duelists possessed by the Light vomited pure white liquid, falling to the ground in motionless heaps. Phil’s duel disk creaked from the magical modifications made to the otherwise very physical piece of gear. One thing was quite clear – the device barely worked at this point.
“I’ll now activate Lost Wind! Targeting Cyber Dragon Infinity for negation!”
Zane was so mesmerized by the sight of the raging machine monster that he nearly didn’t respond in time.
“Infinity’s effect triggers!” Zane hurriedly shouted. His monster would still likely fall to the strange new dragon, but this way he could save a few more precious life points. Another material was detached from the XYZ monster, dropping its attack down to 2300 points, but also halting the effect of Lost Wind.
Phil’s eyes turned to look at Atticus, then to Zane. He smiled.
“Now that the negate is out of the way, I have one more housekeeping item to take care of before I end this. I banish Swap Frog from my graveyard to special summon Ronintoadin in attack mode. Borrelsword! Activate your effect! In return for changing Ronin to the defense position, Borrelsword gets a second attack this turn. Battle phase!”
The atmosphere was crushing. All three duelists could feel it. Something was staring at them. Something that was beyond human comprehension, an amalgamation of all malice, of all hatred, of all violence that humanity was capable of, and more.
The Light was watching them. The Light was watching its champion claim another victory.
Phil’s arm scythed forward.
“Borrelsword Dragon! Attack Cyber Dragon Infinity! Use your effect to halve its attack and add that same number to your own!”
Borrelsword Dragon (3000/Link-4 -> 4150/Link-4).
Cyber Dragon Infinity (2300/1600 -> 1150/1600).
The black and silver metal of the cyber dragon’s form fell to the ground in a smoking ruin, torn in half by the ferocity of the dragon’s attack. Atticus and Zane muffled their grunts of pain from the backlash. They had lost. They both knew it.
Atticus glanced at his remaining face down card. Return of the Red-Eyes was a powerful continuous trap, capable of reviving his Red-Eyes Black Dragon over and over again. In many different duels it had been the difference between life and death.
That card didn’t matter now. Another Red-Eyes on the field couldn’t shift the balance. It couldn’t stop Borrelsword’s second attack. Nor did either of them run Kuriboh or any other card that could be sent from the hand to stop an attack. It was always something they’d deemed unsuitable for their strategies.
Now?
Phil: 800 Zane and Atticus: 1000
They’d lost. Yet, their siblings were watching. What kind of older brothers would they be if they cried out in pain, or in fear, in front of the ones they were supposed to attack? No. Backs straight. Chins up. Heads held high. They fought with honor and with every ounce of their skills.
More importantly, they bought time. They revealed more of Phil’s strange new cards. The old generation had done their job. Now it was time for the next generation to step forward.
“Bastion better have fin-“ Atticus began to grumble, but before he could finish the sentence, Borrelsword tore through Cyber Twin Dragon. Even at the end, Phil had avoided striking Atticus’s dragon, extremely wary of another Red-Eyes Burn lying in wait.
Phil: 800 Zane and Atticus: 0
As soon as the final attack landed, Phil completely disregarded his fallen foes and began to walk toward the door. He could see Alexis's ashen face from where she stood in his way. In the window, Syrus's tear-stained visage poked out. Soon enough, the blue-haired boy leaped out of the window to race toward his brother, who was struggling to his feet.
Phil ignored him. The twin dragons of Obelisk Blue had fallen. The rock and the storm. That meant the next strongest duelists on the academy’s side were Chazz, Bastion, and Alexis. If Banner was still in there… he could get a third professor for his collection.
Though, Phil considered, cocking his ear to listen to the wind. The back door sounded a bit noisy. There was a slight bit of jazz in the air that made him wonder if the cat professor had been caught up in the flanking action he’d ordered his other teacher minions to enact after departing from the Ra Yellow dorm.
An amusing possibility. A former shadow rider dueling two fellow professors, their allegiances completely swapped across the board. He smiled at the thought, causing Alexis to flinch as he approached her. Then the thundering voice screamed out again, and his thoughts were once more submerged under that icy surface.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The undergrowth of the jungle parted to reveal a brown-haired boy in a red jacket. The boy, normally boisterous and carefree, wore an uncharacteristically serious expression. His duel disk was extended, already ready to go before any formal challenges had been made.
Perhaps that last part was unnecessary, though. Standing on the edge of the cliff was a man with long black hair. He wore a coat of pure white, and twelve tarot cards floated in the air in front of his chest.
“You must be that ‘seer’ fella.” Jaden looked the man over with a considering expression. His arms were crossed, but the way his body practically vibrated with suppressed excitement was as clear as day – despite the terrible circumstances, Jaden simply couldn’t help himself. He was excited for the duel, excited to try his hand at someone who could defeat Phil, who could pressure the academy so.
Sartorius waved his hands and the cards fluttered away, leaving only the Wheel of Fortune card floating in the air. For a moment it hung in the air in front of Sartorius’s chest, until it wavered and spun to rest directly between the two duelists. The card was sideways. Undetermined.
“I suppose I am.” Sartorius coolly answered. “My strategist advised me against accepting this duel, but it seems that fate has other plans for the two of us.”
“Fate schmate.” Jaden dismissed with a wave of his hand. “You know what I say to that?”
Sartorius tilted his head to the side.
“I say get your game on!”
Jaden: 4000 Sartorius: 4000