Welcome Back Ladies, Gentlemen, and Fans both Patient and Impatient!
I know what you're thinking! I finally get a spark of inspiration six months ago, only to fall victim to another hiatus again! Why oh Why?
Well this is the moment we have all been waiting for and as a result, it is ten times more important than any other chapter before this one that I make this confrontation between two characters who have been built up to finally fight each other bigger and better than anything I have done before. As a result, I have been spending the past several months, writing, scrapping, rewriting, and scrapping again several different ideas on how this next story ARC can go down!
BUT REJOICE! I HAVE FINALLY DONE IT!
And now I have a very special present for each and every one of you readers who still wish to follow this story to the end!
The star of the show in both this chapter and at least the next two chapters is none other than everyone's favorite Barian Psychopath, VECTOR!
What else can I say, but I hope you can feel all the appreciation I have for you readers with every word you read!
Enjoy!
Chapter 44: Stone Cold Revenge
On the top floor of Heartland Tower, a red portal to the Barian World opened inside the darkened hallway and the Queen of the Barians herself stepped out.
She had taken a great risk coming here, knowing full well the other Barians would try to stop her, insisting that she needed to rest longer before continuing this vengeful quest, but this could not wait. If she delayed even a second longer, then Vector would escape again and she would be back to ground zero looking for him.
For a moment, she felt rather guilty lying to her friends and telling them she would wait, but her vengeful side rationalized it was an innocent white lie which could easily be forgiven, and when Vector was brought back to the Barian World, dead or alive, preferably dead, they would see things her way and understand the risk was worth it.
She saw the door in front of her leading to Mr. Heartland's office. Her senses indicated there was no human presence beyond that door, but there was one energy signature inside, a presence she recognized immediately. She had Vector cornered now! At last, revenge would be hers!
She extended her arm to open the door when she suddenly felt a cold and boney hand grab her shoulder.
"Hello My Little Jewel. Expecting to find someone behind that door?"
The Ice Queen froze on the spot. She knew immediately who it was. How in the world did he sneak up on her like that?
She turned around, and sure enough, the identity of the newcomer was exactly who she suspected it was.
"Number 43!"
The masked demon narrowed his red eyes at her, his clawed hand still not letting go of her. Despite her best efforts to maintain a stoic expression and not show any fear, Merag found it quite difficult. She had never seen Number 43 this angry before.
"Merag, we need to talk!" Number 43 spoke in his cold and raspy voice.
Merag hardened her expression again and forced Number 43's arm off her shoulder.
"Whatever you have to say to me, it can wait! I'm not talking with anyone until I get my hands on Vector! He has a lot to answer for, and I'm not waiting a second longer!" She hissed at him, but her reply only angered the Number even further. This time he grabbed Merag's shoulders more forcefully and pulled her close to where she was mere centimeters away from his masked face.
"Not so fast, Merag! I'm not taking no for an answer this time! We didn't exactly get a chance to properly chat last time since you were busy with the tournament, but now that you are alone, we can discuss the terms of that little deal you made with me all those years ago, and how you never held up your end of the bargain!"
Merag's face turned twice as pale as it already was, but she still tried playing dumb. Now she remembered why she hated walking around in her human form. Human faces give away their emotions way too easily.
"What are you talking about? The veil is torn, and the only way the Astral World can repair that damage is if they collect all the Numbers, which won't happen! You've won!"
That was the wrong answer, as it only resulted in Number 43's clawed hands squeezing tighter on her shoulders, and his third arm was now dangerously close to her throat.
"Sweet Merag, you may be an expert at telling clever lies to your Barian friends, but you cannot lie to me! I know for a fact that you were not the one who tore down the veil between the Astral and Barian Worlds. You got too comfortable sitting on that throne, and since you found out that I had been captured by the other Numbers and imprisoned in the Emperor's Key, you thought you could just weasel your way out of the deal and rule the Barian World without destroying the Astral World."
"How did you know?" She whispered as she tried inching her head away from Number 43's claw while still attempting to remain composed.
"Vector would not stop boasting about tearing the veil open himself when we got to know each other!" The Manipulator explained. "He told me he did it quite a long time ago, and the only reason the Astral World is still standing was because he wanted his method of destroying the Astral World to be as slow and agonizing as possible, and he would gain a great deal of amusement in watching the Astralians scramble around in panic trying to repair something impossible to fix."
"I would have preferred that he just use something to destroy the Astral World instantaneously like one of those ingenious human inventions. What was it called again? Ah yes! The atomic bomb! Marvelous work of technological ingenuity if I do say so myself. For all their inferior vermin like qualities, these humans are masters of compensating for their lack of power with creativity and intellect." He mused to himself, confusing Merag as he sounded furious just a moment ago.
"But you would know all about that, wouldn't you Merag?" He whispered. "Neither you nor your fellow emperors were born Barians, and we both know why that is, don't we?"
"That's in the past and it stays in the past!" said Merag. "Princess Marin and Rio Kamishiro are nothing more than distant memories that no longer matter! They were false lives, illusionary replicas of my true identity! Merag is the only incarnation of myself that matters!"
"Oh really?" Growled the Manipulator, the sinister fury returning to his voice. "Well let me tell you something about the past that does matter. We had a deal!"
Now his third arm wrapped itself tight around her throat, squeezing it ever so softly, not enough to cause her any pain but just enough to remind her who was in control, and Merag's face betrayed her. She promised herself she would never show fear in front of the manipulator and now that promise was broken.
"You were given a choice between two prices for the throne of the Barian World. You would get to rule the Barian World provided that you destroy the Astral World. The other option was giving me the seven over hundred Numbers that were serving as Guardians of the Barian World. The power of a Normal Number Monster PALES in comparison to a Number Monster with the power of the Barian World coursing through its veins, especially when someone of equal Barian Power forms a symbiotic bond with those Numbers just like I instructed you to do! Imagine what someone who collected all seven of them could do?"
"Destroy all three worlds just by snapping your fingers?" Merag finished for him with a deadpan remark.
"More or less, but I'm the Manipulator, not the Destroyer, so that is not the end result of my grand vision." Number 43 continued his explanation.
"The point I'm trying to make is that is that I gave you only two choices of how to pay me back for that extra generous gift of saving the lives of you and your friends and giving the seven of you new bodies for your souls to inhabit. On top of that, I allowed the seven of you to reincarnate as rulers of an entire dimension, but instead of upholding your end of the bargain, you chose option number three, none of the above! Now I appreciate someone with a talented gift of cunning, but flat out betraying me simply because the choice was too difficult to make? That simply breaks my heart! I thought what we had was special!"
"WHAT YOU PROPOSED WAS IMMORAL!" Merag shouted as red lightning surged from her body, blasting the Number Monster backwards and freeing her from his iron grip.
"I'm not going to commit genocide simply because someone tells me to, and on top of that, you didn't exactly mention that once a Barian forms a symbiotic bond with an over hundred Number, separating them from their over hundred number will kill them unless they give the Number away by their own volition! I would live if I gave Ragna to you, but I saw how each of my fellow Barians connected with their respective Numbers. They would never willingly give them up!"
"I was not going to betray my friends by forcing them to betray their partners and give them to someone who would torture them to squeeze their power out of them, and I know you would have just used the power of the seven over hundred Numbers to destroy the Astral World yourself if I gave them to you, so really it was only one choice disguised as two choices. The Astral World would have been destroyed whether I gave the seven over hundred Numbers to you or not! My heart may be cold as ice, Number 43, but I still have a set of standards!"
"Hmph! Morality is a subjective illusion!" The manipulator argued. "What one considers immoral, the other considers perfectly justifiable. Besides, you changed your mind some time down the road, and you didn't seem to have a problem destroying the Astral World earlier until that naïve human boy, Yuma Tsukumo proposed that peace treaty! You even said so yourself that peace was a pipe dream!"
"That was before that monster Eliphas threw the first punch!" Merag explained. "The two of us met in Poseidra many times before just so we could make absolutely sure that we weren't stepping on each others toes as we ruled our respective dimensions, and I tolerated his disdainful attitude no matter how many times he reminded me that he hated my kind with a passion. I didn't even know it was Vector who tore the veil at the time, but the last time I met Eliphas was shortly before Vector killed me, and no matter how many times I tried to explain that none of my people were responsible, he refused to believe me, and so we declared war! Nobody threatens my people and gets away with it! If he wanted to send his precious Astral to destroy my home, then his world will receive the same treatment!"
"Besides, I am no monster, unlike him. The Astral World would have been destroyed, its soldiers completely wiped out, its King's head on a spike, but its civilians will be under my protection! The women, the children, the commoners who wouldn't hurt a fly, I intended to save them! I know that the very first Barians were former Astral Beings transformed by Don Thousand. Well Don Thousand is no longer the ruler of the Barian World, I AM! If he can do it, I can do it, and so the Astral Beings I rescue will live in my Utopia as newly reincarnated Barians!"
"You honestly think they will be grateful that you transformed them into the opposite of what they are after destroying their home?" Number 43 questioned her.
"I expect some of them to hate me! Most of them would likely be Brainwashed by Eliphas' Anti-Barian Propaganda, but I will teach them otherwise, and they will learn to love me the same way all Barians love their queen, and as for you!"
Her eyes narrowed, and all traces of fear vanished. Now she was a lioness ready to defend her territory from poisonous snakes like Vector and vultures like the Manipulator.
"I knew this day would come! I knew one day you would return to collect the debt I owe you and realize that I have no intention of paying up, so from the moment I decided not to keep my promise to you, I dedicated one thousand years of my rule to training and increasing my power, so that on the day you return, I would be strong enough to kill you! So I am warning you right now, Number 43, if you even think of trying to retaliate against me, then you will lose!"
"We'll see about that." said the Manipulator, his anger transforming into a tone of amusement.
"So what happens now?" asked Merag. "Was that a challenge? You are aware that we can't just have a street fight right here, aren't you? I still have Number Cards in my possession courtesy of Misael, and no matter how much you try to portray yourself as something greater than the Numbers, you are still one of the original one hundred Number Monsters, and we both know the rules of taking a Number card! If you want revenge on me for betraying you, then you will have to defeat me in a duel!"
"Calm yourself, Merag!" Number 43 responded with his three arms raised in the air as a gesture of peace. "I have no intention of dueling you at the moment. Right now we have a common enemy, and I would greatly appreciate it if you took care of him for me! Vector is right behind that door, and so we both benefit from his demise. You get your revenge and I get to watch a very annoying insect getting squashed! Everyone wins! Well, everyone except Vector of course!"
"What do you have to gain from Vector's death?" Merag asked, growing suspicious.
"I confess that the two of us have been working together for quite some time!" said the Manipulator. "Since you decided to betray me, I needed to find someone who was much more cooperative! Of course, I was merely using him so he could collect more Number Monsters for me, but now he has outlived his usefulness, especially since I caught him talking to himself about stabbing me in the back and taking my power for himself! I will not stand for yet another betrayal! Puppets are forbidden from cutting their strings and betraying the puppeteer! If he whispers words of treason then he must die! However, Vector is unpredictable, so I think I will have him killed first before dealing with you! Regardless of the outcome of your upcoming duel with Vector, I get to benefit since both duelists are people who had the nerve to betray me!"
"I see..." muttered Merag. "And considering how infamous of a liar you are, how do I know this isn't a trap?"
"Smart Girl!" Number 43 chuckled. "I would be quite disappointed if you didn't suspect foul play from me! If this does turn out to be a trap, then you have no choice but to walk directly into it and spring the trap, otherwise Vector will escape and cause more trouble for you, and I know for a fact that your vengeful desires forbid you from taking the risk of letting Vector go!"
"Fair point" said Merag. "If that's the case, then get out of my way!"
"But of course!" The Dark Number answered, his phantom body floating to the side giving Merag access to the door, but as he drifted past her, his face crept next to her ear to whisper another cryptic warning.
"But remember, I will return again soon, and if you do not abandon this foolish agreement of a peace treaty and tell Yuma Tsukumo that the war will continue by the time we meet again, then the consequences will be quite severe. In case you don't understand the gravity of my words, here is a little parting gift!"
The Manipulator tossed one of his mannequins into Merag's arms. Merag was confused by the gesture until she saw that this was no ordinary mannequin. When she gazed at the face of the lifeless wooden doll, her heart stopped.
"What's wrong, Merag?" asked the Manipulator. "I would have assumed you would be quite happy about this since he burned your brother alive."
"IV... Thomas... Thomas Arclight... no... I showed him forgiveness... He had been punished enough already... I never wanted this..."
"Then you had best do as I say and fulfill your end of our bargain, or the next lifeless body you hold in your hands will be DURBE!"
With that, the manipulator vanished in a cloud of smoke, leaving a very shaken Merag behind. She glanced down at the mannequin once again and gently stroked it.
"Oh Thomas... I'm so sorry..." Was this her fault? Was this a result of her vengeance going too far? Was the warning that she was acting like Tron coming true?
"No... this is just another person to avenge... I will kill Vector, have this, ugh... "Peace Talk" with Yuma and Eliphas..."
Mentioning Eliphas caused disgust to leak out of her voice. She could argue with herself that even though she hated Vector for killing her and Nasch, she hated Eliphas even more, but she gave Yuma her word, and Yuma was her friend before this war started. If only he hadn't chosen the wrong side, then she would never have needed to fight him in the first place.
"And then I will return to the Barian World and rule it for the rest of my days as I rightfully deserve, with... him... by my side..."
The thought of Durbe sitting in her lap as she sat in her throne replaced her senses of dread and rage with joy. It was a vision of the future she always wanted, a vision that could calm her rage and put all her fears and insecurities at ease, a vision that convinced her that every sacrifice she made was one hundred percent worth it.
"Mmmmmmmmm" thought Merag, lust accompanying her joy. "I think its high time I make Durbe my king when this is over. He more than deserves it."
Not wanting to waste anymore time and Vector escaping from her again, Merag blasted the door open with Barian Lightning, sending shrapnel everywhere.
"Alright Vector! Where are you?!" She snarled. "Come out and..."
"SUPRISE! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MERAG!"
"Anni... WHAT?!"
Merag's entrance into Mr. Heartland's office instantly led to the lights in the room turning on and brightly colored confetti scattering the room. Red Balloons the same color as Barian Crystals decorated the sealing as if it was a five year old child's birthday party, and right in the center of the room was the lunatic responsible for this acid trip of a sight. There was Vector, jumping out from the wall and into the center of the room with a birthday party hat on his head.
However, that wasn't the strange part. The strange part was that Vector was in his Barian form even though there was no chaos energy in Mr. Heartland's office! How was that even possible?
Vector's eyes were infested with the same madness he possessed the last time she saw him, while his pale skin and dark purple robes along with the wing like appendages on his back gave him the twisted appearance of a hybrid between a hellish demon and a bizarre cartoon character.
"Well..." said Merag, not even sure what to think as her infinitely confused mind still tried to process what was going on. "At least Number 43 wasn't lying when he said you were in this room, but what the hell is all this?! Is the fact that I am here to brutally murder you just a big joke, or are you genuinely celebrating because you actually want to die! For the record, I hope it's the latter!"
Vector began his explanation with a fit of screeching laughter.
"Don't you remember?! It's the anniversary of the day I killed you! Well, not exactly! I couldn't remember the specific date and time that I killed you since it was soooooo long ago, but since today's the day I'm going to get the chance to kill you a second time, I decided to celebrate today! So come on in! Join the party! Look! I even baked you a cake!"
Sure enough, the madman wasn't lying! On a pedestal next to him was a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting that had the words "Happy Death Day Merag" written on it.
"Go on Merag!" Vector continued to tease her in a sing song voice. "Make a wish and blow out the candles, but remember! You can't wish for me not to kill you! That wish won't come true! Of course I could give a nice present to the rest of the Barians and wish for Durbe to have proper taste in women!"
"Enough of this! Time to die!" Merag fired another blast of red lightning at the insane Barian, but Vector was more than prepared.
"Too slow!" Vector side stepped the lightning and picked up the cake off the pedestal, throwing it in Merag's face with a loud SPLAT!
Merag stopped dead in her tracks, completely stunned by the defensive tactic she never saw coming. Now she remembered all the other reasons she had grown to hate Vector, other than the fact that he killed both her brother and herself. Everything about him was random. She could never form a contingency plan against anything he did because she had no idea what to expect in terms of the words that came out of his mouth or the actions he performed.
"I am not... going... to get... Angry..." Merag's voice quivered as she rubbed the cake frosting off her face while simultaneously trying to keep her temper in check.
"I am just going to kill Vector... Get Out... and go home..."
"Oh Merag, you never fail to make me laugh!" Vector mocked her. "For a second there I thought you said you were going to kill me! Now that has got to be the funniest joke you ever told me! I mean it's just like I said before I killed you! I hated you from the moment we laid eyes on each other in the Barian World, but it's hilarious words of nonsense like that which prevented you from scoring extra points!"
"Now that's the one thing I don't understand!" Merag told the former Barian Lord. "When I saw you kill Nasch and asked you why, you said it was because you hated me, and that you didn't need a proper reason! All you needed was that little point system to turn your hatred of me into some twisted game, but that just doesn't seem right! You were perfectly sane and perfectly kind when you first appeared to me in the Barian World all those centuries ago, but slowly and surely you began to descend into insanity! I know I would pull rank and prevent you from undermining my authority, but I tried to help you, Vector! I did not want you to become the monster you are right now, and I never wanted to hate you, but you instantly received my hatred when you stabbed my brother's heart! Nobody stabs my brother and gets away with it, so there is nothing you can do to make me forgive you for that!"
"When you pushed me off that cliff, I did more than curse your name! A single question burned into my mind. Why? Why turn on me after everything I did for you?"
Silence filled the room as Vector stared at the Ice Queen for what seemed like hours. Merag's eyes widened as she made direct eye contact with Vector and saw that his eyes were coursing with venomous fury and hatred, but despite his anger, the Barian broke out into the loudest and longest fit of maniacal laughter she ever heard.
"Heh... Heh Heh... AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"
"EVERYTHING YOU DID FOR ME?! WELL WHOOPTY FREAKING DOO!"
"Praise the great Queen Merag for resurrecting her enemy from the dead and forcing him into a life of eternal immortal servitude to protect a world that is basically an overgrown garbage dump, the quarantine zone of the people the Astral World never wanted! You didn't help me by giving me this chance to be a Barian! You enslaved me! When I could have rested in the sweet release of death after I died at Poseidra all those years ago, you decided you weren't done with me yet! You decided to bring me back to life as a servant to you in your little land of make believe where you could pretend to be the queen you never got to be when we were humans!"
"You didn't help me, you sent me to HELL!"
Merag gasped. It couldn't be! It was impossible, but the knot that her stomach was tying into forced her to realize that the shocking speech of Vector was true.
"You... You remember your past life as... as a human..."
"Just as you still do!" Vector growled. "And so I remember our little history with each other! I remember how all of our lives ended because of you!"
The most evil grin imaginable would have been present on his face if he had a mouth. "I remember what you did!"
" He knows..." Merag's mind echoed with horror. "H-H-H-How... How did you get your memories restored." She had no answers to that question. It couldn't have been Number 43 who restored Vector's memories because he wasn't there! He never set foot in the Barian World during her entire millennium of ruling since he was captured and imprisoned in the Emperor's Key shortly after she reincarnated and became queen, so if Number 43 didn't restore Vector's memories, then who did?
"How, you ask?" Vector continued. "Well how does one start to go crazy? When they start hearing voices of course!"
"What are you talking about? What voices? Answer me!" Merag demanded.
Vector had no intention of giving her a straight answer!
"Wouldn't you like to know! I think it will be more fun to torture you with that teensy weensy detail that you want to know so very bad but will never find out! What I'm curious about is what will happen if the other Barians have their memories restored? What will they think of their precious Queen when they find out their lives have been nothing but lies, that the woman they would lay down their lives for erased their memories and programmed them like robots to believe they were born as Barians!"
"How will Durbe react to the day you broke his heart?"
Merag was now shivering as if she was falling victim to the cold and ice she had control over. They weren't allowed to know. They couldn't know!
If they did, then they would never speak to her again! She would lose everything that mattered in her life! She would lose her brother! She would lose Durbe's love for her!
"I w-w-w-was t-t-t-t-t-trying to save them..." She shuddered. "I was trying to save Poseidra. I was trying to give them a new life in a Utopia, where they would never know suffering or the war they fought in! I erased their memories so they would never remember the horrors and trauma of the war, the friends and families they lost. That burden should be mine to bear alone! I... I didn't want to live in a world where they were not in it. It wasn't fair that I got to live while they all died. It wasn't fair that they had to pay my consequences. I should be the only one who pays the consequences of my actions and no one else, especially not them!"
Her gaze softened for a brief moment, although her voice regained its ice cold strength.
"And Vector, you didn't deserve to die the way you did! You didn't deserve to suffer the way you suffered! I was trying to give you a chance to start over!"
"You were TRYING to be queen!" Vector argued. "Don't lie to me, Merag! You were trying to cover your own ass! That's why you erased their memories! You knew if they found out what you did in order to "save" your precious Poseidra, then you wouldn't get to be Queen! You wouldn't get to be their friend anymore, and boy oh boy did you blow it with Durbe the first time around! You knew you couldn't take back your screw up, so you erased his memories so he would fall in love with you all over again!"
"Stop it! You're wrong!" Merag screamed at him, but Vector wasn't done!
"Now let's not forget about Nasch! The only reason you wanted to save Poseidra was because you wanted to rule it instead of him! Now how would you go about doing that when Nasch was heir to the throne and not you? By proving to your parents, who constantly ignored you and spoiled him, that you were a better candidate for the throne than Nasch! Hell, Nasch was a terrible ruler! He couldn't function without you! Who came up with all the good ideas? YOU DID! Who did all the real work in the kingdom? YOU DID! Who formulated countless strategies to keep your enemies at bay when Poseidra was attacked? YOU DID, but who took all the credit for it? YOUR BROTHER!"
Vector could see Merag squirming and he loved every second of it, so he kept going!
"You couldn't be Queen in your human life, so you journeyed to a world where you could be queen of your own little fantasy world where you would be in control and your brother would be nothing more than a servant! You're not a hero, Merag! You are just as much of a power hungry monster as I am! The only difference is that your actions are far more pathetic!"
"SHUT UP!" Merag finally lost her temper and fired a blast of ice at Vector, and this time she scored a direct hit. Within seconds, Vector was pinned to the wall, his body completely encased in red ice, and even after being caught off guard and rendered helpless, he was still laughing.
"Revenge is a dish best served COLD, hey Merag? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! I guess we both really need to CHILL OUT! HA HA HA HMMMMMPPPPPFFFFFFFF"
Vector's mad ranting was cut short when Merag muzzled him with another blast of ice to his face, leaving only his eyes and his ghost white hair exposed.
"Now then, Vector. We are no longer going to be discussing anything to do with Poseidra or the deep dark secrets that I carry with me! Today isn't the day where we punish me for what I did! Today is where we punish you for everything you did, so Here is what is going to happen!"
Merag spoke to Vector with a disturbing level of calm in her voice as she walked closer to him.
"I can sense that you have Numbers with you, and since I need all one hundred Numbers in order to save the Barian World from total collapse, which I am running out of time to do, I am not going to kill you just yet, much to my displeasure. If I were to kill you, then you know what happens! The Numbers will scatter again looking for new appropriate hosts and I will have no idea where they will land until someone bonds with one! They could end up on the other side of the planet for all I know! So we are going to duel, I am going to win, and I am going to take your Numbers and then take your life, do you understand?"
Merag snapped her fingers and the ice shattered, freeing Vector from the wall. Then the Barian Queen proceeded to walk back to the center of the room, walking backwards since she wouldn't dare turn around and take her eyes off her enemy lest he try something nasty!
"Oh I understand perfectly, Merag!" Vector replied, his voice like a viper. "But even after everything you said to me, how you tried to help me and never wanted to hate me, you still intend to kill me and punish me? Whatever happened to helping me? Well? GO ON! HELP ME! SEE WHAT HAPPENS!"
"It was a mistake to resurrect you!" Merag spoke with sadness and regret. "You should have been allowed to rest in peace, and I should have chosen someone else to become the seventh emperor of the Barian World. All I wanted was to give you a second chance because at the time I felt sorry for you, so perhaps I am not angry at you. Perhaps I am angry at myself because once again another one of my mistakes nearly costs me everything. Today I correct my mistake! You dared me to help you, Vector? Well this is helping you! I will help you by putting you out of your misery!"
She paused for a moment. "Or should I call you by the name you used in your previous life? Rei Shingetsu!"
"SPARE ME YOUR PITY, I HAVE NO NEED OF IT!" Vector snarled. "But at least you see the truth now, the truth of how pointless your endeavors were! That's what makes it so ridiculously funny! You tried to build a new life for your friends and your brother so you could protect them from suffering, only to run into more suffering when you got the Barian World caught in yet another war! You should have just understood that the only two forms release from the suffering life throws at you are power and death!"
"You chose to pursue power so you wouldn't have to suffer, but there is a problem with choosing power! Enough is never enough! I discovered that rather quickly when I dabbled in some naughty activities of my own, so it looks like death is the only other option, but I have no intention of embracing the sweet release of death just yet, not when I have unfinished business to attend to! I will not rest until I am the last man standing! So in the mean time, I will get my pleasures and amusements whenever I can! That's what the point system was for, to give extra value to something I took a great deal of pleasure in doing! "
"That is the key to having value in your life! My life mattered more than yours because you were dead and I was not! My life matters now because I see what everyone else is too blind and stupid to understand! Only when every single one of these brain dead idiots on these three miserable dimensions have been killed in the most violent way possible will I give myself the mercy you wanted to show me!"
Vector's fiery demeanor suddenly ended and he put his finger to his mouthless face as if he was thinking about something. Then his finger perked up as if he had an idea.
"Awwwwwww but wait a second! All this mopey saddy sad talk of death and suffering is making both of us all miserable, and its making you take pity on me, which is enough to make me throw up! I liked it better when you hated me, so let's get back to comedy shall we? Let's get to the part where I get to mess with you every step of the way and laugh at you as you lose this duel in the most embarrassing way possible!"
Vector giggled like a child on Christmas as he activated his duel disk, while Merag did the same, silently throwing a Barian Sphere Cube into the air and allowing the Red Dome to engulf the office.
"BARIAPHOSE!" Merag chanted as she discarded her human form and transformed into a Barian once more!
This was the moment both of them had been waiting for, the duel to end the crusade of revenge!
Duel Gazer Set
Augmented Reality Vision Online
Merag: 4000
Vector: 4000
DUEL!
"The first turn goes to the most handsome Barian in the room, and that would be yours truly, so I draw!" Vector announced.
"You're about as handsome as a genital wart" muttered Merag under her breath.
"I shall start this duel by summoning Gorgonic Golem in attack position, and now that I control a Gorgonic Monster, I can Special Summon Gorgonic Gargoyle as well!"
The name Gorgonic caught Merag by surprise. She was expecting Vector's iconic Umbral Horror Monsters, the monstrous purple phantoms she fought many times in the past. What she received instead were two monsters she had never seen before, a small statue of an armored man whose green helmet resembled the hood of a snake, followed by a pink statue of an actual snake with dark purple jewels decorating its body and emerald green jewels inside its eyes.
Gorgonic Golem: Level 3/DARK/Rock/1200 ATK/600 DEF
Gorgonic Gargoyle: Level 3/DARK/Rock/1000 ATK/500 DEF
"You changed your deck!" Merag stated in a blunt realization. "What happened to your Umbral Horror cards?!"
"Now what fun would that be to not change things up a bit?" Vector replied in a false innocent tone of voice. "After all I would be at a huge disadvantage against you if I used Umbral Horrors considering you know how all of the Umbral Horror Cards work! Well now it's you who is at a disadvantage since I guarantee that you're unfamiliar with these bad boys! Besides, if there is one thing I like to be against my enemies, Merag, it's upredictable! Now I overlay my Gorgonic Gargoyle and my Gorgonic Golem!"
"With these 2 Level 3 Monsters, I construct the overlay network!"
"XYZ SUMMON! ARISE! GORGONIC GUARDIAN!"
The overlay network devoured the two beasts and out of the portal rose an enormous Naga like creature. Her stone body was a deep shade of purple with an orange stripe draping down the midriff of her underbelly. In an identical fashion to the Greek Monster, Medusa, a writhing mass of pink snakes served as the creature's hair while two heterochromia eyes, one red and one blue, stared at Merag with an eerie glow like a pair of shiny jewels.
Gorgonic Guardian: Rank 3/DARK/Rock/Xyz/1600 ATK/1200 DEF
The sight of the medusa like creature sent a wave of terror into Merag. She may not have recognized the monsters Vector used to summon this creature, but she definitely remembered this one all too well, and she hoped she would never have to see this monster again. The only reason she didn't realize Vector was going to summon it was because she knew the monster's face, but didn't know its name.
"Where... where did you get that card?" She whispered.
"What can I say? I know where to find the good ones!" Vector answered, taking pleasure in Merag's fear. "Or more specifically, I know how to push your buttons, and what better way to push your buttons during this duel than to summon the monster that came inches away from burning Poseidra to the ground, hey Merag?
"Or should I call you by YOUR human name? Not Rio Kamishiro, but the name of your first human life, Princess Marin!"
Merag didn't answer. She was too busy clutching her face and covering her eyes as waves of traumatic memories slammed into her mind.
Fire spreading everywhere!
Screams of terrified citizens!
Buildings collapsing, some of them on top of fleeing civilians!
Dozens upon dozens of the same abominations slithering out of the water and onto the beaches, advancing closer and closer to the palace.
"AWWWWW! Is poor widdle Merag having a Flashback?" Vector taunted her as if he was talking to a little girl who scraped her knee. His words snapped her out of her vision and the wall of ice she used to keep her fears at bay returned with an extra layer. She clenched her fists together. This was low, even for Vector!
"You know there is such a thing as pushing someone's buttons a bit too much!" Merag hissed. "That's when your taunting comes back to bite you!"
"You're going to have to win the duel in order for me to pay the consequences of messing with you!" Vector reminded her. "And that, little Merag, is just not going to happen! For my next move, I activate the continuous spell card, Gorgonic Venom! With this card, all Gorgonic Monsters I control gain eight hundred attack points! Now Gorgonic Guardian and Ragna Zero will be evenly matched when you summon her!"
Upon activation, the two fangs inside the creature's mouth grew longer like a boxcutter extending its blade, while a green corrosive liquid dripped from each tooth.
Gorgonic Guardian ATK: 1600 + 800 = 2400 ATK
"I shall also activate this card, Magical Sealing Coffin! This card allows me to declare the name of one card in your deck, and if you so happen to have that card in your deck, then I get to steal that card and place it inside the coffin. However, should you destroy my coffin, you get to add the card I stole from you to your hand!"
"Now let me see, Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, what sort of card should I steal from you that would get your thong in a twist even more?"
"Ooooooooooooooh! I know! How about Rank Up Magic the Seventh One!"
A large black coffin appeared behind Vector and opened its lid. The secret weapon Merag used against both Tron and Yuma appeared inside the coffin and then the coffin closed once again.
"Pretty smart strategy, hey Merag? Now it's completely pointless to destroy my Coffin to get Rank Up Magic the Seventh One back because you have to draw that card in order to activate it! If you add it to your hand by any other means, then it's stuck in your hand as a completely useless dead draw!"
Merag wanted to lash out, but she knew better. Losing her temper again was exactly what Vector wanted her to do, so she remained silent, although her twitching narrow eyes served as a dead giveaway to her thoughts.
"Oooooooooooh you look so cute when you're angry, Merag! Is the little ice princess gonna crack, or is she gonna cry? Does she need her precious knight in shining armor, Durbe to fight all her battles for her, or perhaps her little brother Nasch?"
Once again, Merag said nothing, not falling for any of Vector's verbal bait, much to the psychotic Barian's disappointment.
"Awww, you're no fun when you're not reacting properly to my jokes! I end my turn!"
"Then it's my turn, I..."
SPLAT!
Merag's draw phase was rudely interrupted by another sticky object hitting her in the face.
"Oh by the way, Merag, I made a second cake!" Vector called out to her. "Didn't want to let it go to waste!"
"Not... going... to get... angry..." she repeated as she removed the cake icing a second time. It was everywhere now, and some of it clung to her hair.
"Draw!" Merag hissed, and she immediately activated the card she drew!
"I shall activate the continuous spell card, Funeral Memorial - Ice Monument!"
Merag raised her hand into the air and a glacier erupted out of the ground and onto the battlefield. As if being carved by an invisible chisel, the glacier cracked away at various specific points until it transformed into an ice sculpture of Merag's Number Monster, Ragna Zero.
"This card grows in strength once it gains a significant number of funeral counters. You'll find out what purpose they serve soon enough."
"Now I normal summon Frozen Royal Infantry! When he is normal summoned, I can special summon Frozen Royal Mermaid!"
Merag's words kicked up a fierce blizzard inside the Barian Sphere Field and like two phantoms, her monsters appeared, a blue skinned samurai and a blue tailed mermaid with ghostly white hair. Both monsters possessed diamond like armor all over their bodies, while their eyes shined with a bluish white glow.
Frozen Royal Infantry: Level 4/WATER/Zombie/1500 ATK/1200 DEF
Frozen Royal Mermaid: Level 4/WATER/Zombie/1600 ATK/1400 DEF
"I now overlay my Infantry and my Mermaid! With these 2 Level 4 Monsters, I shall construct the overlay network!"
"XYZ SUMMON! APPEAR NOW! THE INCARNATION OF MY COLD SOUL! NUMBER 103: RAGNA ZERO THE FROZEN FUNERAL MAIDEN!"
Merag conjured an overlay network of her own, sending the two ice ghosts spiraling into it, conjuring forth her ace monster. The ice geisha leaped onto the battlefield, brandishing her twin katanas made of the sharpest ice crystals, and upon seeing Vector, the Number Monster glared at him with a cold blooded hatred that matched that of her mistress.
Number 103: Ragna Zero: Rank 4/WATER/Fairy/Xyz/2400 ATK/1200 DEF
"Vector..." The Number Monster spoke in a voice infested with disdain and venom.
"RAGNA!" Vector shouted, pretending to show excitement and cheer. "How have you been, baby girl? It's been so long since we last saw each other, I almost didn't recognize you! Did you do something with your hair, or did you get your nails done? OH WAIT! DON'T TELL ME! You lost weight! Yeah that has to be it! You definitely lost weight, ALOT of weight!"
"There appears to be something different about you as well." Ragna replied, trying her best to ignore the fact that Vector just called her fat. "Where is Masquerade?"
"Ragna, what do you mean by that?" Asked Merag. "Vector hasn't summoned Masquerade yet, so he's in Vector's extra deck."
"No, I mean I can't sense Number 104 anywhere!" Ragna informed her in a state of confusion, a confusion that spread to Merag the moment she heard it. That had to be incorrect. It was one thing to throw away his Umbral Horrors in favor of a deck that would psychologically mess with her, but no Barian, not even Vector, would part ways with their over hundred Number. The power they held within their bodies courtesy of absorbing it from their home doubled when their monster was on the field. Did Vector give Masquerade away to Number 43? That couldn't be right because Number 43 said Vector was planning on stabbing him in the back!
Unless Vector and the Manipulator were still working together! While it seemed more likely that Vector would betray the Dark Number Monster, inevitably later if he hadn't done so already, she couldn't dismiss the possibility that Number 43 was still helping him, and if that was the case, then this really was a trap!
Something was very wrong here, and she hated not knowing why, but she steeled herself anyway and continued her turn.
"Thanks to the effect of both of Frozen Royal Infantry, I can place two Ice Counters on my Ice Monument since I used him as an Xyz Material to summon a water attribute Xyz Monster. Additionally, my monument has its own means of gathering funeral counters. Once per turn, when a water xyz monster is special summoned, it places two more ice counters on itself for a grand total of four counters. Lastly, since I used my mermaid to summon Ragna Zero, I can add one Spell or Trap card with Funeral in its name from my deck to my hand."
Funeral Memorial - Ice Monument: 4 Counters
"You shouldn't have increased your monster's attack points with that spell card Vector! Now your Guardian is at the mercy of Ragna Zero's effect! By detaching one overlay unit, I can target one monster on the field whose current attack power is different from its original attack power and destroy it! GUIDANCE TO FUNERAL!"
"I DON'T THINK SO!" Vector screeched with delight. "I chain to your monster's effect by activating the effect of Gorgonic Guardian! By detaching one overlay unit, the effect of Ragna Zero is negated and its attack power is reduced to zero!"
"WHAT?!"
Ragna Zero raised her arms into the air to conjure her ice magic, only for the monstrous stone serpent to interrupt her. Gorgonic Guardian absorbed one of its overlay units into its right eye and then fired a blue laser from the jewel inside it, blasting Ragna Zero in the chest. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, only for Ragna Zero to drop her katanas two seconds later when she saw her hands turning to stone. The Number Monster began to panic as the curse spread up her arms and petrified her entire body. She had just enough time to turn her head and beg for a rescue of any kind.
"Merag! Help... Me..."
Silence followed her plea as the curse finished its work, turning Merag's Number Monster into nothing more than a lifeless grey statue.
Just like so many others during the War of Poseidra...
Ragna Zero ATK: 2400 - 2400 = 0 ATK
As Ragna's power drained away, Merag came to the sudden realization that she had fallen into yet another one of Vector's traps, and the consequences were far from over!
"Now the effect of Gorgonic Venom activates! Since a monster's attack points were changed to zero, you take damage equal to half its original attack points!"
The guardian's eyes glowed again and the monster sprayed a green corrosive acid from its mouth, burning Merag's skin as the liquid struck her body.
Merag: 4000 - 1200 = 2800
"You didn't have that spell card on the field to power up your monster at all!" Merag realized "You were using it to trick me into summoning Ragna Zero right away!"
"You catch on fast!" Vector replied sarcastically. "Now it's you who is at the mercy of my monster, not the other way around! How does that make you feel?"
"It makes me feel like you are losing your touch, Vector!" Merag replied with a silver tongued insult of her own.
"I expected a less cliché and pathetic trick from you, and don't think for a moment that your Guardian is safe simply because you stopped Ragna's effect. My Ice Monument can do what she could not! By removing three Funeral Counters from itself, I can destroy one card on the field, and if I just so happen to control a Water attribute Xyz Monster, I can destroy two cards instead. I shall destroy your Gorgonic Guardian and your Magical Sealing Coffin!"
"My Guardian is here to stay!" Vector countered with his own card. " I can send Gorgonic Venom to the Graveyard to prevent my Guardian from being destroyed!"
"That may be so" said Merag. "But with your Venom spell in the Graveyard you won't be inflicting burn damage anymore, and with your Magic Sealing Coffin destroyed, Rank Up Magic the Seventh One returns to my hand!"
"Ah, but remember!" Vector sneered. "You can't activate it since you didn't draw it during your draw phase! Destroying my coffin was pointless! You might as well have added a piece of garbage to your hand!"
Merag rolled her eyes and tried her best to ignore him. "My Ice Monument has one more effect! I remove one counter from itself in order to add one Level 4 or lower WATER Monster from my deck to my hand provided that it is a Zombie or a Winged Beast. Finally I set two cards face down. Turn end."
Funeral Memorial - Ice Monument: Zero Counters
"Then it's my turn again! I draw!"
"I activate the spell card, Gorgonic Gathering! With this spell card, I can discard one Gorgonic Monster from my hand in order to Special Summon a different Gorgonic Monster from my deck! Appear! Gorgonic Ghoul!"
A new statue appeared alongside the Guardian. It was smaller than the others that came before it, but its red bear trap shaped jaws that took up its entire face more than compensated for its size, while its fat bipedal body and brown skin gave it the appearance of a troll or an ogre.
Gorgonic Ghoul: Level 1/DARK/Rock/100 ATK/100 DEF
"Now the best part of my little gathering is that I can add two more Gorgonic Ghouls from my deck to my hand since I control a Gorgonic Xyz Monster, and now that my Ghoul's Ghoulish brothers are in my hand, Ghoul Number One can bring them out on the field! By paying three hundred lifepoints, I can special summon another ghoul, so by paying six hundred lifepoints, I can special summon both of them!"
Gorgonic Ghoul surrounded itself in an evil black aura, and from the sinister light in its body, two more clones of the monster manifested next to it.
Vector: 4000 - 300 - 300 = 3400
"Next, I shall Normal Summon this monster, Gorgonic Cerberus! When he is normal summoned, all Gorgonic Monsters I control become Level Three!"
Vector's command summoned three mechanical heads out of the ground that resembled a hybrid of dog and snake, and then the rest of the monster burrowed out from the earth revealing that all three heads were connected to the same black quadrupedal body, their six eyes staring ahead like tiny soulless flashlights.
Gorgonic Cerberus: Level 3/DARK/Rock/1300 ATK/300 DEF
"Now you have four more level three monsters out on the field, enough for two rank three xyz monsters." said Merag. "And that means..."
"It means my poor little Guardian won't be lonely anymore! I overlay my Gorgonic Cerberus with one of my Ghouls and I also overlay my two remaining ghouls together!"
"With these 4 Level 3 Monsters, I construct the overlay network twice!"
"XYZ SUMMON! APPEAR NOW! GORGONIC GUARDIAN NUMBER TWO AND GORGONIC GUARDIAN NUMBER THREE!"
Just when Merag thought things couldn't get any worse, the powers of fate slapped her in the face by giving her three Gorgonic Guardians to deal with instead of one. Two overlay networks appeared on either side of the first guardian and in a flash of light the single abomination of rock and darkness became a trio.
Gorgonic Guardian: Rank 3/DARK/Rock/Xyz/1600 ATK/1200 DEF
"Now let me see, I could attack right now since your Number Monster is completely helpless, but there is still the matter of your face down cards. They could be deadly traps for all I know, and that just goes against your proper purpose in this duel! You're supposed to fall for traps, not set them, so lets correct that shall we?"
Merag knew something even worse than three guardians was coming and it didn't take listening Vector's rambling to figure that out.
"My Guardians aren't the only ones capable of doing turning your cards to stone!" Vector explained. "While the Guardians on my field can turn your monsters to stone, the Gorgonic Golems in my Graveyard can turn your back row to stone! When I detached one Golem from my Guardian last turn, and then discarded for the cost of my gathering spell this turn, I acquired two Gorgonic Golems in my Grave, and now I shall put them to good use! By banishing both Golems from my Graveyard, I can target both your face down cards and render you unable to activate them for the rest of the turn!"
"In that case I'll just chain my set card to the activation of your Golem's effect by activating my trap card immediately!" Merag announced.
"Actually you can't!" Vector interrupted her. "My Golems prevent you from activating the cards they target with their effects in response to their own!"
"WHAT?!"
"Now to take care of that pesky over hundred Number! Even if I attack her, she still won't die by battle since my Gorgonic Guardians aren't Number Monsters, but I can easily fix that with the second effect of Gorgonic Guardian! Once per turn, I can target one monster on the field with zero attack points and destroy it! Say goodbye to Ragna!"
This time, the Gorgonic Guardian's red left eye started glowing, and the snakes on its head came to life, shooting forward and wrapping around the statue of Number 103. Like actual anacondas, the glowing red snakes started squeezing the statue until Ragna crumbled into rubble underneath the pressure. Then the pieces of stone on the ground dissolved away into ashes.
"The destruction of Ragna triggered the effect of my Frozen Royal Mermaid!" Merag announced her response. "Since she was attached to Ragna Zero when she was destroyed, I gain lifepoints equal to her original attack points, and then I can place one Funeral Counter on my Monument!"
Funeral Art - Ice Monument: 1 Counter
Merag: 2800 + 2400 = 5200
"Awwwwwwwwww, and here I thought I was about to win!" Vector pouted. "But hey, look on the bright side! With you keeping the duel going we can spend so much more time together, and I can spend all that time making you suffer! BATTLE! Gorgonic Guardian Number One, attack Merag directly!"
The middle guardian charged forward with a shocking level of speed and agility and slapped Merag in the stomach with its massive tail, knocking the wind out of her, and that wasn't the end to her pain. The damage from Vector's monster caused the Barian Sphere field to deliver Merag a massive electric shock.
Merag: 5200 - 1600 = 3600
"Gorgonic Guardian Number Two, attack Merag directly!"
Merag staggered back on her feet only to be smashed in the exact same spot. She clutched her chest in pain as the second Gorgonic Guardian returned to Vector's side.
Merag: 3600 - 1600 = 2000
"Gorgonic Guardian Number Three, attack Merag directly!"
Merag braced for impact and the final guardian's tail smashed into her body, and this time it sent her flying backwards into the walls of the sphere field where the shock was ten times more painful than the previous two. It took every ounce of stubborn willpower she had not to scream.
Merag: 2000 - 1600 = 400
"Ooooooooooooooooooh that's gonna leave a mark!" Vector laughed. "I really wish I could do that over and over again, but sadly I am only allowed three attacks!"
"Setting one card face down! Turn End!"
Merag quickly recovered and gave Vector and his Guardians a hard icy glare. This was frustrating beyond comparison. Any monster she summoned would just fall victim to one of his guardians and lose both its offensive strength and its effects, and with three of them on the field, she couldn't force Vector to waste the effect since he could use it multiple times. Ragna Infinity would make mince meat out of those fiendish monstrosities, but she had no way of summoning it to the field thanks to Vector removing her ability to draw Rank Up Magic the Seventh One. Regular Barian's Force wasn't going to help her unless she used a different card to special summon Ragna Zero back from her Graveyard, and at the moment she didn't have any cards in her hand like Monster Reborn or Call of the Haunted, which could do just that.
She was stuck. She had no way of summoning a monster that was safe from Vector's Gorgons, and no way of getting Ragna Infinity on the field.
Unless...
"Draw!" She whispered, and she looked at her card. Satisfaction decorated her face. "Well Vector it seems lady luck wants me to kill you too! You seem to have a habit of angering every woman you encounter! To start my turn, I remove one counter from my Ice Monument in order to add one Frozen Royal Monster from my deck to my hand."
Funeral Memorial - Ice Monument: Zero Counters
"The monster I chose to add to my hand is Frozen Royal Priestess! Since I control no monsters, but I do control my monument, I can reveal her in my hand, place another counter on my monument, and then Special Summon her. Since this effect activates in the hand, your guardians can't stop it."
A ghostly figure phased out of the walls of the monument and onto the field. She was dressed in the attire of a Shinto Priest, with her robes as white as snow, her skin grey as ash, and her hair as blue as the ocean. She carried a long metal staff with a glowing sapphire crystal at the tip. The moment she manifested on the field, she turned around and tossed a bouquet of flowers onto the monument with a sad and depressed look on her face.
Frozen Royal Priestess: Level 4/WATER/Zombie/1700 ATK/1700 DEF
Funeral Memorial - Ice Monument - 1 Counter
Now I activate the effect of Frozen Royal Priestess. Since she was special summoned while there is a Water Xyz Monster in my Graveyard, namely Ragna Zero, I can destroy one card on the field, so I shall destroy one of your Guardians!"
"CHAIN! I activate the effect of one of my Guardians!" Vector declared. "Your monster's effects are negated and her attack points drop to zero!"
The middle Gorgonic Guardian fired another blast from its blue eye and the ghost woman's facial expression transformed from melancholy to fear as she suffered the same fate as Ragna Zero, turning to stone.
"You'll have to do a lot better than that, Merag!" Vector mocked her again, laughing as he did so.
"Oh I shall!" Merag snapped. "I normal summon this monster, Frozen Royal Necromancer! When he is Normal Summoned, I can Special Summon Ragna Zero from my Graveyard and when I do, all your Guardians will lose attack power equal to her rank multiplied by two hundred! That's eight hundred attack points lost!"
Another ghostly figured clothed in robes phased through the monument and onto the field, but this one was a man and his robes were black instead of white.
Frozen Royal Necromancer: Level 4/WATER/Zombie/1100 ATK/1500 DEF
"CHAIN AGAIN!" Vector stopped her with a wave of his hand. "I have two more Guardians, and one of them has a rock solid solution to deal with your Necromancer! I detach one overlay unit from my second Guardian to negate the effects of your Necromancer and reduce its attack points to Zero!"
The Necromancer placed his hands together and began chanting a spell to revive Merag's Number Monster, but before the resurrection could finish, the second stone serpent blasted him with its petrifying laser, turning the Necromancer to stone before he could revive Ragna Zero.
"Ragna Zero is going nowhere!" Vector sneered with sadistic delight. "She is going to stay in the place where you will be going very soon, six feet under!"
"I'm not out of options yet, Vector!" shouted Merag. "Trap card Activate! Funeral Art - New Beginnings! By destroying my Necromancer, I can Special Summon one Level Four or Lower Water Monster from my deck, provided that it is a Zombie or Winged-Beast, and when I do, that monster gains attack power equal to the attack of the monster I destroyed."
Merag's trap card summoned forth a ray of heavenly light from above, and the petrified necromancer rose up in the air and floated into the Great Beyond. In the Necromancer's place, a single blue rose as tall as Merag herself sprouted from the ground with its blossom closed.
As usual, Vector commented on her move with an insulting joke. "And here I thought ALL your cards were gloomy goth girl nonsense which you use to overcompensate and try way too hard to look edgy! It's almost like you forgot how to be happy! Nice to know there's something in your deck that looks cheerful and not a total buzz kill!"
"Mock Me all you want, Vector, but this new monster is a very old friend of mine, who has been dying to fly down and say hello! Show yourself! Blizzard Falcon!"
The blossom of the rose burst open to reveal one of the signature monsters Merag used during her time as a human, the enormous blue bird of prey with wings and talons made of hardened crystal ice.
Blizzard Falcon: Level 4/WATER/Winged-Beast/1500 ATK/1500 DEF
"Now my Blizzard Falcon gains attack points equal to the attack of my Necromancer, which triggers its effect! Since its attack points have changed, Blizzard Falcon will hit you with a whopping fifteen hundred points of damage!"
Blizzard Falcon ATK: 1500 +1100 = 2600 ATK
"Well you know I can't allow that to happen, although I think by this point you're expecting what I'm about to do!" said Vector. "CHAIN! Gorgonic Guardian Number Three, be a friend and take care of that pesky little birdie won't you? You will?! Awwwww that's so sweet! You're the best monster a homicidal maniac could ask for!"
Once again, Merag's monster turned to stone before it could use its ability, courtesy of Gorgonic Guardian's soul crushing power!
Blizzard Falcon ATK: 2600 - 2600 = 0 ATK
"It doesn't matter what you do Merag! Any monster you throw at me will be crushed by my Guardians!" Vector boasted, soaking up the suffering his enemy experienced.
"That may be true." answered Merag. "But each of their effects can only be used once per turn. You can only stop me three times, and now I have two level four monsters on my side of the field. Whatever monster I Special Summon from the Extra Deck will be completely safe from turning to stone!"
"Big deal!" huffed Vector. "Ragna Zero was your best card, and I crushed her into dust, so anything else in your extra deck is even easier to deal with!"
"Don't get cocky, Vector!" Merag warned him. "That will be your undoing. I overlay my Preistess and my Blizzard Falcon! With these 2 Level 4 Monsters, I construct the overlay network!"
"XYZ SUMMON! ARISE! LONELY WANDERING GHOST IN THE SNOW STORM! FROZEN ROYAL QUEEN - YUKI ONNA!"
The two petrified monsters suddenly broke free from their stone prisons and cheered as they regained their flesh and blood. With renewed vigor, the ghost and the falcon gave themselves to the overlay network and conjured a huge blizzard from their offering. The snow and wind began to take shape until it took the form of a tall adult woman floating in the air. Her regal looking white robes matched her title of queen, along with the silver tiara adorning her head, but her bluish grey transparent skin and her silky snow white hair served as obvious indicators that she was a ghost.
Frozen Royal Queen - Yuki Onna: Rank 4/WATER/Zombie/2000 ATK/2500 DEF
"Yuki Onna automatically places a counter on my monument when she is summoned." Merag explained. "Also, my monument's effect activates and places two more counters on itself since I just performed an Xyz Summon for a total of four counters!"
Funeral Memorial - Ice Monument: 4 Counters
"Now that I have a significant amount of counters on the field again, Yuki Onna can reap the benefits! I activate her effect, detaching one overlay unit to reduce the attack of your Guardians by six hundred for every Funeral Counter I have on the field! That's twenty-four hundred attack points lost, and with your Guardian's original attack points at sixteen-hun, the effect takes away all its power and leaves it with Zero!"
Yuki Onna pulled back her hair and floated closer to the middle Guardian, revealing the indescribably beautiful face of an angel underneath, but her captivating beauty was short lived as her face contorted with anger and transformed into the face of an ugly screaming banshee. The now scary ghost woman placed her emaciated hands on the Guardian and the instant her hands touched it, the stone serpent was frozen in a block of ice.
The ghost observed her handy work as her face restored its beauty, and she gave a playful giggle at the Guardian's misfortune as she floated back to Merag's side of the field.
Gorgonic Guardian ATK: 1600 - 1600 = 0 ATK
"It's not so fun now when you're on the receiving end of such an insidious effect, now is it, Vector?" Merag scolded her enemy as she took satisfaction at the appropriate Karma.
"It's not like this attack is enough to finish me off!" He argued. "My lifepoints mean nothing to me provided they don't get to zero, so what are you waiting for? COME ON! HIT ME! GIMME YOUR BEST SHOT!"
"Oh I shall! BATTLE! Yuki Onna, attack the middle Gorgonic Guardian! MELODY OF THE DEPARTED!"
Yuki Onna began to sing again, but instead of screaming like a banshee, she sang the beautiful tune of a world class soprano opera singer. It was soothing at first, but then it got louder and louder with each passing second until finally the ice covered Gorgon shattered into pieces.
"Trap Card Activate!" Vector yelled. "Gorgonic Glare!"
While the Gorgon's body lay dismembered, its head was still intact. Suddenly, the head of the Gorgon floated into the air and flashed its eyes, surprising both Merag and her monster. The severed head of the Gorgon fired another laser blast from its eyes and Yuki Onna screamed when it hit her, turning the beautiful phantom to stone.
Yuki Onna ATK: 2000 - 2000 = 0 ATK
"What happened?!" Merag cried out. "How did your monster do that, and why haven't your lifepoints dropped?!"
"My Gorgonic Glare served as compensation for the fact that I could only use the effects of my Guardians three times!" Vector explained. "Since you destroyed one of my Guardians, my trap card reduces any battle damage I would take from that attack to zero while also reducing the attack of your monster to zero! Unlike my Guardians, your monster keeps its effects, but that is no concern to me since you can only use Yuki Onna's effect when she's attacking, not when she's being attacked."
"At least I destroyed your Guardian." said Merag. "One down, two to go! I end my turn!"
"Draw!" said Vector with a loud cackle following suit when he looked at his card. "So what was that you were saying about Lady Luck wanting you to kill me? I think she's on my side this time around! I activate another copy of Gorgonic Venom! This gives both my Gorgonic Guardians an additional eight hundred attack points. Also, if your monster's attack points get changed to zero by a card effect, you will take damage equal to half its original attack points. Shame your Yuki Onna's attack points became zero before I activated this card, otherwise you would already be on your knees and I would have a knife sliding across your throat!"
Gorgonic Guardian ATK: 1600 + 800 = 2400 ATK
"Oh well! I activate the effect of Gorgonic Guardian! Once per turn, I can target a monster with Zero attack points and destroy it!"
The Gorgon's eyes flared to life once again and the petrified Yuki Onna was helpless as the stone snakes on the Guardian's head came to life and constricted her stone body until they crushed her into a pile of rocks, which then faded away in a cloud of ash.
"You shouldn't have done that!" Merag replied. "Since Yuki Onna was destroyed, she can target one of your Guardians and reduce its attack by six hundred for each Funeral Counter I control, leaving it with zero once again. Now only one of your Guardians is capable of inflicting battle damage this turn."
"HA HA HA HA! Merag, it doesn't matter!" Vector cackled. "I only need to inflict battle damage once to take you out! IT'S OVER! Now you will get the death you deserve!"
"Don't worry! I'll be sure to spread the good word to Durbe and the other Barians of how much you screamed and begged for death when I finally decided to be rid of you! You should be thanking me! Now you will be free of your own suffering! No more stress of ruling the Barian World, no more guilt and trauma from your past haunting you and denying you sleep, and no more having to worry about your lost cause of saving that garbage dump of a dimension you call a kingdom! BATTLE! Gorgonic Guardian, attack Merag directly and end this duel!"
"Trap Card Activate!" Merag shouted. "Funeral Art - Spirit Cleansing! In order to activate this card, I banish three Frozen Royal Monsters from my Graveyard, and now the battle damage I take is reduced by seven hundred for each monster I banished. The battle damage is now reduce by twenty one hundred points, so now I only lose three hundred lifepoints, leaving me with just enough to keep going!"
Of course, Merag's trap card didn't stop the incoming assault of Gorgonic Guardian's battering ram of a tail which slammed into her stomach and caused the Barian Sphere field to deliver another painful electric shock.
Merag: 400 - 300 = 100
Vector gave an annoyed sigh. "Can't I ask you just nicely to lose? Would that help? I mean you said that before I stabbed your brother, you wanted to help me and treat me like a comrade, so how's about you help your dear old buddy Vector out and just let him win? Please?"
"No!" a very annoyed Merag replied.
"Pretty please?" Vector asked again, trying his best to make his face look like an adorable kitten.
"No!"
"Pretty please with sugar on top?"
"NO!"
"Double pretty please with two eggs and a slice of bacon?"
"NO!"
"Triple pretty please with a large pepperoni pizza, a loaf of garlic bread, some hot wings, two scoops of strawberry ice cream, and a large diet soda?"
"Vector if you don't shut up right now, I am going to hit you with such a powerful blast of ice, your genitals will get the worst case of frost bite imaginable!"
"FIIIIIIIIIIIINE!" Vector relented. "Sheesh, nobody in the Barian World has any sense of humor! No wonder that place is a dump!"
"ANYWAY!" Merag yelled to finally silence him. "My spirit cleansing trap card has another effect! Since I banished three monsters from my Graveyard, I can place the same number of funeral counters on my monument, giving me a total of seven, and now I can show you why seven is such a lucky Number!"
Funeral Memorial - Ice Monument: Seven Counters
"So that's why when I betrayed you guys and left the team with only six emperors, the Barian World started falling apart! See! I'm you're lucky charm! What would you do without me?" Vector spat out another one of his twisted infuriating jokes.
Merag once again resisted the urge to lash out, and she continued her turn.
"Seven is a lucky Number because if I have seven or more cards on my Monument after the effect of Spirit Cleansing resolves, then Spirit Cleansing lets me draw three cards since I placed three counters on my monument, but now I must place two cards on the top or the bottom of my deck. I place this one on the bottom of my deck."
She paused for a moment after shuffling the first card in. "And THIS ONE on top of my deck."
Vector raised an eyebrow. "Why would you want to deny yourself a better draw next turn by placing a card that's already in your hand... on...top...of...your... deck..."
Vector's voice trailed away as he figured out what Merag just did, and his emotional state transformed from confusion to pure horror.
"OH CRAP!"
"Did you get it now, Vector?" asked Merag as the proud feeling of triumph began to grow inside her. "Now you're going to get reacquainted with my Number Monster, and I guarantee you, she is quite angry at you for turning her to stone!"
"HA! As if your Number scares me!" Vector snapped back. "We both know that Ragna can still be targeted by my Guardian's effect, so the moment you summon her chaos form to the field, she will be rendered as helpless as she was when I took her base form out!"
Merag shook her head as if to silently call Vector a fool.
"Then why don't we test to see if that theory is correct, shall we? It's my turn, and now I will show you why you should never have crossed me in the first place! All who sin against the Queen of the Barian World will suffer the full wrath of the Barian World's power!
Merag's eyes and hands glowed a bright red as chaos energy started pumping through her body like an intoxicating drug. Then she placed her hand on top of her deck and drew her card.
"BARIAN! CHAOS! DRAW!"
SPLAT!
"REALLY!" Merag shrieked. "AGAIN?!" Right in the middle of her draw, Vector threw yet another cake in her face. "WHERE DO YOU KEEP GETTING THESE CAKES?!"
"What can I say? I had a lot of time on my hands, and didn't exactly know how many guests were going to show up to this little party of ours, so I made ALOT of cakes!" Vector joked. "Besides, it was funny the first two times, so I am just checking to see if it was going to be funny a third time!"
"Oh sweet high powers above, what did I do to deserve this?" She muttered to herself in extreme annoyance as she wiped off even more cake frosting from her face.
"Oh you know what you did to deserve this, Merag!" Vector reminded her. "We talked about it in great detail right before we started the duel! You want me to go over it again?"
"ENOUGH! I ACTIVATE RANK UP MAGIC THE SEVENTH ONE! I REVIVE RAGNA ZERO FROM THE GRAVEYARD AND TRANSFORM IT INTO A CHAOS NUMBER!"
"Maiden of Ice, symbol of my soul, become one with the chaos and evolve into your true nature! Absorb it until your power becomes infinite and become the mother who would defend her children to the very last breath! Become the guardian who will smite the wicked and send them to their graves! BECOME DEATH ITSELF!"
"CHAOS XYZ EVOLUTION! APPEAR NOW! THE TRUE EMBODIMENT OF MY SOUL! CHAOS NUMBER 103: RAGNA INFINITY THE DEATH MAIDEN!"
Ragna Zero rose from the grave and felt the power of chaos course through her veins, transforming with each word of Merag's incantation. The maiden of ice traded her geisha robes for her purple and black armored dress, and she discarded her ice katanas in favor of her double bladed crimson scythe. Her black crown covered her face and her mechanical black wings burst from her back. She took to the skies, spinning her scythe in the air with the grace of an acrobat, roaring a battle cry of power as her transformation was complete.
Number C103: Ragna Infinity: Rank 4/WATER/Fairy/Xyz/2800 ATK/2400 DEF
"Hello again, Vector." Ragna greeted the enemy of her mistress in a voice that was so soothing it was actually scary. "And goodbye!"
"You're right!" replied Vector. "GOODBYE TO YOU! I activate the effect of Gorgonic Guardian, reducing Ragna's attack points to zero and negating her effects! Let's see how you like being turned to stone a second time, Ragna!"
"This time I came prepared!" shouted Merag. "Remember when I said I was going to demonstrate why seven is a very lucky Number? Well my Ice Monument spell card has one more additional effect that can only be accessed if it has seven or more counters on it! By removing all seven counters and then destroying my monument, both your Guardians and your Gorgonic Venom Spell Card will have their effects permanently negated! Also, your monsters lose five hundred attack for each card negated by this effect! That's three cards negated, so your monsters are frozen in ice and suffer a major case of frostbite in the form of losing fifteen hundred attack points!"
The eyes of the ice sculpture on top of the monument opened, revealing two glowing red voids of chaos energy. Seven points on the Ragna sculpture's geisha dress flashed across her body like a red Christmas tree, and then the lights left her body like homing missles being launched. The two Gorgons writhed in agony as the lights of the monument speared them through the chest, spreading across their bodies until their bodies were completely frozen in ice.
Gorgonic Guardian ATK: 2400 - 800 = 1600 - 1500 = 100 ATK
"With your Guardians neutralized, I can activate the effect of Ragna Infinity! By detaching one chaos overlay unit, you take damage equal to the difference between your Guardian's current attack and its original attack and then your monster is banished from the field! GO! GUIDANCE TO PURGATORY!"
On her command, Ragna spun the blades of her scythe so fast that she conjured a glowing red vortex, and one of the frozen Gorgons crumbled apart piece by piece as the vortex sucked the dying monster into the void like a vacuum. Then came the damage to Vector's lifepoints in the form of a blast of chaos energy from out of the portal, knocking Vector off his feet and into the walls of the sphere field. Strangely, he didn't even seem to flinch as the electricity of the field surrounded his body, as if the lightning didn't hurt him at all.
Vector: 3400 - 1500 = 1900
"Are you scared now, Vector? Are you realizing that this form of death won't be a mercy! You will die lonely and disappointed and filled with the same regret I feel. You could have stayed loyal to me! You could have accepted my attempts to heal your mind! You could have realized that even after all the scolding I gave you as I pulled rank against your crazy ideas, after all the times we hurled vicious insults at each other, after all the times you displayed your hatred towards me, I still considered you part of the team, part of the FAMILY! MY FAMILY, and you threw your second chance away to bathe yourself in madness and carnage! Well just like Tron, you dig your own grave, and now I put you out of your misery! DIE VECTOR! RAGNA INFINITY, ATTACK GORGONIC GUARDIAN! CHAOS BLADE DANCE!"
Instead of cowering in fear, instead of begging her to stop, instead of displaying a hint of remorse or regret for what he had done, or perhaps doing the opposite and just laughing in the face of death like typical Vector behavior, he did none of those things. All the Barian did was stare blankly at the incoming attack.
That feeling of suspicion and unease creeped into Merag's mind again. Something still wasn't right, but what could it be? But there couldn't be anything wrong right now, could there? She had won, so why did she feel like this wasn't over yet?"
Ragna divebombed down from the sky towards the final Gorgon and sliced across the monster's torso with her scythe, cleaving it into and causing it to explode into millions of black shards of rock. Then Ragna barreled towards Vector and struck him too, sending him flying into the walls of the field and then down onto the ground.
Vector: 1500 - 2800 = 0 (LOSE)
Winner: Merag!
The Barian Sphere Field vanished upon Vector's defeat, causing Merag to transform back into her human form. She stared at Vector's unconscious form, unable to believe it for a second, and then she finally breathed an exhausted sigh of relief.
It was over! Vector was finally defeated!
As Merag readied herself to unleash the Barian Hand to take Vector's Numbers, the unconscious body of her enemy did something unexpected!
The body began to melt, dissolving into a puddle of smoking black slime.
"WHAT?! What's going on?!" Merag exclaimed in surprise.
"Ohhhhh Nooooo…." the ghostly form of Ragna appeared alongside her mistress.
"Now I understand why I couldn't sense Number 104 inside Vector! That's not the real Vector!"
"You mean to tell me we were dueling an imposter this entire time, which means I fought tooth and nail for nothing?! VECTOR!" Merag screamed, her temper pushing itself over the edge once again. "VECTOR YOU SNAKE! COME OUT AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"Right here!" said the voice of Vector as the Barian crept out of the shadows.
"There you are!" Merag roared. "I know you are many things, Vector, but I didn't expect to add coward to the list of your vices and sins! Why I should..."
"OH NO! I'm right over here!" said another voice, and Merag felt a nasty chill go up her spine as she heard the voice of Vector on the other side of the room, even though she was staring at Vector right now! Her suspicions were confirmed. There was a second Vector creeping out of the same shadowed spot to join the first one.
"OH NO! NOT TWO OF THEM!"
"Naaaaaaaaaaah! Make that three!" Another Vector clone popped out of nowhere!
"Or what about four?!" said another one to the left of her.
"Don't forget me!" said yet another one to the right of her.
"The more the merrier!" another Vector clone directly above her jumped off the chandelier and landed in front of her with the other five.
"Now who is this handsome devil?" The clones spoke at the same time as they pointed at each other, their voices fusing together as they talked.
"Oh now I understand the surprise!" The first Vector clone spoke up. "This isn't just a death day party for Merag! It's a Vector family reunion!"
"Naaaaaaaaaaah, I can't be related to these guys!" said the second one. "They're just too darn handsome!"
"Well don't sell yourself short, buddy boy!" the third chimed in. "I wish I had that chiseled torso!"
"I wish I had that million dollar face!" The second retuned the compliment!
"Well I wish I had that cute fluffy hair!" said the fourth!
"And I wish I had those gorgeous sexy eyes!" added the fifth!
"Hey wait a second, we all have those adorable qualities!" the sixth and final clone exclaimed.
"BECAUSE WE'RE ALL THE SAME GUY!" They joined their voices together in unison and spoke their punchline at the same time.
"SURPRISE! HAPPY DEATH DAY MERAG!"
The sight of the six Vectors completely cracked Merag's mind. She was too paralyzed with shock to move, too dumbfounded to even speak. Anything that came out of her vocal chords for the next several minutes was nothing more than babbling gibberish until finally they transitioned back into proper words.
"No... No... Oh no... Oh dear lord No! TWO?! THREE?! FOUR?! FIVE?! SIX VECTORS?!"
"NO! NO! DOES NOT COMPUTE! I REFUSE TO STAND FOR THIS!" She shrieked at the top of her lungs. "One Vector is bad enough! I can tolerate the crazy stunts and maniacal behavior of one Vector, but more than one is just too much! You clones go away and turn back into one Vector right now! I demand it!"
"OR WHAT?!" The six Vectors growled at her, advancing closer and closer as the Barian Queen grew more and more panicked.
"Did you honestly think the real Vector would be stupid enough to confront you face to face? Oh no! That's just not his style, and that's just not enough fun for him! This way is much more entertaining for him and it provides a guaranteed victory! No matter how many of us you defeat, more of us will appear, again, and again, and again! We are infinite, but you are only one stupid little girl! For all your power, you are not invincible! You will eventually begin to tire, and when you finally collapse from sheer exhaustion, we will begin cutting you into teensy weensy bite sized pieces as we watch the light leave your eyes at last!"
Then each of the six Vector clones activated their duel disks as they cackled in Merag's face like a pack of wild ravenous hyenas.
"So, Merag, you still think you're the one who is going to walk away from this fight alive?"
Merag betrayed herself once again when she realized she was shaking. She backed up against the wall and slammed her fist against it, leaving a large dent in the metal walls. How could she have been so stupid as to come alone?! Of course this was a trap! Of course Vector set the whole thing up just to mess with her, likely with Number 43's help! She should have listened to her brother! She should have listened to Durbe. With them at her side, she truly was invincible, but Vector was right. She may be powerful, but she was just one woman.
Well now was the chance to show this psychopath what one Barian woman could do! Merag activated her duel disk again and prepared for the fight of her life!
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to both Barians, the Manipulator phased his body through the walls like a poltergeist to watch the show from a safe distance where Merag couldn't see him. His glowing red eyes stared down at the single mannequin he cradled in his third hand.
"Well it seems I found a practical use for my trophies after all!"
As Number 43 mused over the success of his malicious scheme, the mannequin in his hand began to dissolve into a semi-liquid state as he molded and shaped it with his claws like a ball of clay, until the mannequin resembled a perfect identical clone of Vector!
Author Made Cards:
Frozen Royal Queen - Yuki Onna: Rank 4/WATER/Zombie/2000 ATK/2500 DEF
2 Level 4 WATER Monsters
Effect: When this card is Xyz Summoned, you can place one Funeral Counter on a face-up card you control. When this card attacks an opponent's monster, before damage calculation, you can detach one Xyz Material from this card; the opponent's monster loses 600 ATK for each Funeral Counter on the field. When this card is destroyed, you can target one monster your opponent controls; it loses 600 ATK for each Funeral Counter on the field.
Frozen Royal Infantry: Level 4/WATER/Zombie/1500 ATK/1200 DEF
Effect: When this card is Normal Summoned or Special Summoned, you can Special Summon one Frozen Royal Monster from your hand. When a WATER Xyz Monster is Xyz Summoned using this card as Xyz Material you can target one card on the field that can have Funeral Counters placed on it; place Two Funeral Counters on it.
Frozen Royal Mermaid: Level 4/WATER/Zombie/1600 ATK/1400 DEF
Effect: When a WATER Xyz Monster is Xyz Summoned using this card as an Xyz Material, you can add one "Funeral" Spell/Trap card from your deck to your hand. When a WATER Xyz Monster is destroyed while this card is in your Graveyard, you can banish this card; gain Lifepoints equal to that monster's original ATK.
Frozen Royal Shaman: Level 4/WATER/Zombie/1700 ATK/1700 DEF
Effect: If this card is in your hand and you control no monsters, you can reveal this card in your hand and target one card you control that can have Funeral Counters placed on it; place one Funeral Counter on that card and if you do, Special Summon this card from your hand. When this card is Special Summoned while you have a WATER Xyz Monster on the field or in your Graveyard, you can destroy one card on the field.
Frozen Royal Necromancer: Level 4/WATER/Zombie/1100 ATK/1500 DEF
Effect: When this card is Normal Summoned or Special Summoned, you can target one WATER Monster in your Graveyard, except Frozen Royal Necromancer, Special Summon it to your field in face-up defense position, but its effects are negated. If there is a card on the field with Funeral Counters on it when you activate this effect, all monsters your opponent currently controls lose ATK equal to the Level/Rank of the Special Summoned monster x 200.
Funeral Memorial - Ice Monument: Continuous Spell Card
Effect: When a WATER Monster is Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, place two Funeral Counters on this card. You can remove any Number of Funeral Counters from this card (Quick Effect) then apply one of the following effects; You can only use each effect of Funeral Memorial Ice Monument once per turn.
1 Counter: Add one WATER Zombie or Winged-Beast Monster from your deck or Graveyard to your hand.
3 Counters: Target one card on the field; destroy it. If you control a WATER Xyz Monster, you can destroy 2 cards instead.
7 Counters: Negate the effects of all face-up cards your opponent controls. Also those monsters lose 500 ATK for each card negated. If you use this effect, destroy this card.
Gorgonic Venom: Continuous Spell Card
Effect: Gorgonic Monsters you control gain 800 ATK. Once per turn, when a monster's ATK is changed to Zero, you can inflict damage to your opponent equal to half the original ATK of that monster. If a Gorgonic Monster you control would be destroyed by an opponent's card effect, you can send this card to the Graveyard instead.
Gorgonic Gathering: Normal Spell Card
Effect: Discard one Gorgonic Monster from your hand; Special Summon one Gorgonic Monster from your deck. If you control a Gorgonic Xyz Monster, you can also add up to two Gorgonic Monsters from your deck to your hand that have the same name as the special summoned monster. You cannot Special Summon Monsters from the Extra Deck during the turn you activate this card, except Xyz Monsters. You can only activate one Gorgonic Gathering per turn.
Gorgonic Glare: Normal Trap Card
Effect: When an opponent's monster declares an attack on a face-up Gorgonic Monster you control, reduce any battle damage you would take from that battle to zero. Then at the end of the battle phase, reduce the attack of the monster that attacked to zero.
Funeral Art - Spirit Cleansing: Normal Trap Card
Effect: If you would take damage, Banish any Number of "Frozen Royal" Monsters from your Graveyard (Max 3) Reduce the damage by 700 for each monster banished by this effect, then you can target one card you control that can have Funeral Counters placed on it and place an equal Number of Funeral Counters on that card. If the targeted card has 7 or more Funeral Counters after this effect resolves, you can draw cards equal to the Number of Funeral Counters placed on that card by this effect, then place an equal Number of cards (Minus One) on the top or the bottom of your deck. You can only activate one "Funeral Art - Spirit Cleansing" per turn.
Funeral Art - New Beginnings: Normal Trap Card
Effect: Destroy one WATER Monster you control; Special Summon one Level 4 or lower WATER Zombie or Winged-Beast Monster from your deck, and if you do, that monster gains ATK equal to the ATK of the destroyed monster until the End Phase, but that monster cannot attack directly. If that monster inflicts battle damage to your opponent this turn, you can target one card you control that can have Funeral Counters placed on it; place 2 Funeral Counters on it.
Authors Notes:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND CLIFFHANGER!
Yes, for those of you who are familiar with Yugioh ARC V, then you will realize that thanks to the help of Number 43, Vector just pulled a Jean Michel Roger on poor unsuspecting Merag, effectively cheating!
It's the first chapter where he duels, not counting when he dueled alongside Yuma as Rei Shingetsu, so I needed to make a huge entrance for him that showcases his trickster nature and his willingness to use the most underhanded tactics imaginable, luring his opponents into traps and having them completely at his mercy!
And before any of you comment on why I used Merag's English dub name a couple of times and why she called him Rei Shingetsu, fear not! It's all part of the plan!
If Gilag had a different name back in his past life as a human, Kiraku Sohachi, then why didn't the others? So now you know where Vector got the name, Rei Shingetsu! It was his original name! So now you all can notice that I am going to make SIGNIFICANT changes to the backstory of the past lives of the Seven Barian Emperors! Although, to save trouble, only Vector and Merag changed their names when they reincarnated.
Some people have also been asking whether or not the Legendary Numbers will make an appearance, and I will finally give you guys an answer!
The answer is yes! They will make an appearance but in a completely different way from canon. I will say no more than that as giving anymore details about that strays into spoiler territory!
So what did you think of the chapter? Did you like it? Did you not like it? Whatever your opinion may be, feel free to leave a review and let me know!
Until Next Time! This is Nox Descious signing out!