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Trading Game

22nd Pack

Fusion Contact

-

Today was the day.

And by that, she meant the first start of the actual Academia yearly tournament. In which she and Yuri would be participating in it.

Along the week, she and the others, excluding Mamoru and Edo who had other business during some of the preliminaries, had watched the preliminaries that the other classes had gone through.

It was actually quite exciting, watching the other classes, and by that she meant watching the many duelists of Ra Yellow and Osiris Red dueling amongst themselves using their various decks.

She doesn’t want to talk much of the preliminaries of the Obelisk Blue, that was simply a brick fest of Ancient Gears.

But again, there were many varied decks that she saw during those preliminaries, for example the Ra yellow top three that she had once dueled against, they had a great run, and in fact a pair that was made out of the boy and girl who pilots Batteryman and Darklords respectively.

But there were still some other varied deck users that made the tournament varied, unlike the absolute mirror tag duel match that was the Obelisk Blue preliminaries.

Even in the Osiris Red preliminaries, their decks were varied, she saw a number of them running floodgate, most of them are simply Summon Limit, but there was one who ran pure Monarchs with Erupt and got quite far.

It actually made her incredibly excited at the prospect of dueling those decks in the upcoming tournament, even if most of them aren’t quite meta competitive and are rouge at best, she was quite sure that Yuri was also excited for that.

Currently they are heading back to the man made island from a break, coming back from the orphanage after a short break to prepare themselves for the upcoming tournament that will be held in the Academia.

So here she was, along with Mei and Sister Claire who came to watch the tournament,  all three of them are riding the ferry boat that’s taking them from Academy Island to Academia.

The nun-garbed woman looked at her and smiled, petting her head. “You’re quite excited for this aren’t you Yuuna?” She said, and she responded with a nod of her head.

“Un! Of course!” She said matter of factly, puffing up her chest. “It’s not every day that you get to duel in such highly competitive stakes, that and their decks seemed interesting to go against! Especially with my new deck!” She answered, incredibly hyped at the upcoming tournament.

After all, she knew that at this point, some of those that made it through would run a counter strategy against her deck, and to some aspects, Yuri’s deck. If anything, the most disastrous card that could possibly be run against their decks is possibly Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror which would negate all of Yuri’s monster effects.

But since chaos typing was a deck that seemed to make most of the top cut that made it out of the preliminaries, she didn't think that they would run those kinds of cards, but even if they do, she was running a few backrow removal in her deck.

So if anything they would mostly likely run anti dragon cards instead, especially since out of the top cut, only their decks were the ones that run dragons. There’s also a large chance that they would all run Summon Limit, as the only decks that she could call combo decks.

So she was running a completely different deck, a hard control deck in the form of Lair Despia Albaz, with Lair being a card that would combo well with Yuri’s own deck, especially with how he had somehow manifested Triphyoverutum out of nowhere.

Which was still quite the mystery, she had asked the purple haired boy where he had gained the card, only for him to answer that he had simply gotten the card. Just like Starving Venom, and the evolution of the card, he simply had it, or more correctly, it had appeared in his Extra Deck when he needed it.

She had simply concluded that it had something to do with him being what was basically an anime protagonist, or rather antagonist for his case. The same case with how he kept drawing the cards that he would need whenever he needed them.

She knew that the boy had some… violet tendencies. She had confronted him about it after the end of their match, and it had seemed as if he had been possessed, he said that he was just heeding what the audience wanted, violence.

She… doesn’t know what she felt from his answer. She held a lecture on how no, card games are not an outlet for violence, and actually hurting your opponents would simply lead to people not wanting to duel against you.

The last part seemed to strike something with the boy. Because deep down, he loves the card game as much as the others, and not having opponents to hone his skills, to duel against, would simply kill his enjoyment of the game.

She left it at that, seeing as just like Serena, the boy had to stay at the Academia twenty four seven, something that seems to coincide with them being main characters.

But in any case, the reason as to why she was playing a Lair Despia Albaz, was to help turbo out cards like Triphyoverutum and Starving Venom faster and easier with Super Poly, although the Despia Field Spell does somewhat help her opponent since it can help them fuse a monster once per turn, albeit only Level 8 Fusion Monsters.

She had wanted to play Albaz Invoked Dogmatika Shaddolls, though the latter Albaz cards were cards that she had never seen before, but any cards that lets her mill cards and summon a body for free is always good, that and Mirrorjade the Iceblade Dragon is quite a neat Boss Monster that she could summon with simply a single card.

It took her a good amount of her DP to actually pull the Fusion Wyrm, but if it's for the sake of what was in her opinion, the premiere Fusion Deck that is essentially filled with engines, then she thinks that it was quite a good investment while she is still in this dimension and locked to its summoning methods.

Though she still hasn’t pulled DPE yet, and thus she wasn’t running the card in the deck.

But the reason as to why she was intending to play Lair Despia Albaz instead of Albaz Invoked Dogmatika Shaddols, was simply because of the restrictions that the deck usually locks into, or rather the Dogmatika portion of the deck.

Punishment was, after all, an incredibly good card that fills out as a form of interaction and removal for the deck, one that would also get pluses for the deck as it allows her to dump Fusion Monsters with graveyard effects, but at the cost of locking her, or rather Yuri as they share turns, from the Extra Deck.

And that would simply kill her partner’s deck completely as his deck focuses on Extra Deck monsters.

She could have played the deck without the small Dogmatika package of course, but opted not to. Believing that Lair Despia Albaz would mesh well with Yuri’s Predaplant better than Invoked Shaddoll Albaz would, especially since Winda would possibly hurt their combo decks more than their opponent’s.

Done with what was basically an explanation session between herself as to why she would be running the deck that she would during the tournament, she turned to the other passenger that sat with them, Mei who had been quite quiet all along their journey from and back to the Academia, and frowned. 

Of course she knew what was possibly plaguing the small girl that sat next to her, in fact she had experienced the same thing that she had many years ago.

She had played the game competitively before after all in her previous life, and she had blundered into a loss in a tournament more than once. Many had experienced so of course, some falling out of the game entirely at their defeat.

She had given the girl some room for the past few days, not before giving the girl some encouragement of course, though it already seemed that the girl was already pulling herself back together.

Though she probably had to thank Serena for that one, it seemed that Mei's partner had already given her some words herself.

“There’s always a next time.” She said to the girl next to her without looking towards her, though she could tell that Mei was looking towards her. “It’s not like everyone would top every tournament that they are in. The fact that you got chosen in a special class, and your first ever tournament coming second, is already a testament that you’re a great duelist.”

On the corner of her eyes, she could see the girl smiling slightly, and silently nodding her head. She smiled, and the three of them sat on the boat in silence, the only sounds that filled said silence was the crashing of the waves.

-

“Serena-sama, it is time.” Said a large military-like man with dark green spiky hair that was swept back, his conversation partner was a girl that wasn’t even half his height, with purple hair tied in a short ponytail with a large yellow ribbon.

Serena glanced at the large man that was her designated body guard for the day, something that the Professor insisted she had at all times and would shadow her, and couldn’t help but scowl. “What?” She growled out.

The man was indifferent to her distaste of him, stoically replying to answer her. “It is time for us to meet the Professor for another checkup, we must make haste to the laboratory.” Saying so, the man moved back a few steps, opening the door for her, never leaving his eyes off of the girl.

The scowl that was on Serena’s face turned into a small frown, she nodded silently, and started to walk towards the designated laboratory, followed suit by her newly appointed bodyguard, and the other guards that were guarding her room outside.

Had it been a year ago, she would have followed Barret’s order, or rather heed the Professor’s call, with gusto. In fact, she would have ran all her way towards the laboratory to meet with the Academia’s own principal and meet him along with the Doctor.

But now, after her meeting with Yuuna, and having formed bonds alongside her and the others in their group, she had started to have doubts on these so called ‘laboratory’.

It was first pointed out by Fubuki, who kept asking where she would go at the end of the week, a time when Mei and Yuuna would usually leave and head back to Academy Island to go to the orphanage and tend to the children with Sister Claire.

And she had answered truthfully, after all she had no need to hide it, so she answered that she went to her weekly laboratory run to go meet both the Professor and the Doctor.

Hearing that caused concern to well up in their group, asking if she perhaps contracted some sort of illness to need to have weekly check ups with both the Doctor and the Professor.

The answer was a resounding ‘no’, if anything she was in peak healthy condition, which then brought up a larger concern for the red haired girl. After all, if she wasn’t ill or had any kind of sickness whatsoever, then what was the need for her to go to a weekly checkup?

She had tried asked the question to the Professor and the Doctor at one of her so called ‘weekly checkups’ but she hadn't received any sort of answer, the two adults had simply shrugged her off, saying that she doesn’t need to know, and how it was for the greater good.

She… grew suspicious. She was indebted to the Professor, he was the one who took her in, gave her a special scholarship to attend the prestigious dueling school that was the Academia, where she met people that she could call friends.

But now, she couldn’t help but be suspicious of the man that had graciously given her this life of her’s, this chance to become a pro duelist, the man who had given her a chance to get friends. 

“-na-sama.” A hand placed on her shoulder shook her out of her stupor, she flinched from the physical contact, and she instinctively slapped the hand away. She turned to see Barret, who had his eyes narrowed and his hand pulled back.

She didn’t quite know what exactly was her thought back then, but something inside her screamed, whispered in her ear for her to get out, to run as far away as she could from her bodyguards, from the grasp of the Professor.

And so she ran.

She doesn’t know what had possessed her at that time, but she ran, ran as fast as she could, never noticing the slight glow that her bracelet took on. 

-

And at the same time, in an empty hidden laboratory unknown to most, a tube-like machine lit up with electricity, and from it came a grey haired boy with red framed glasses. 

-

“Find her! Don’t let her get away!”

That was the first thing that he had heard after he started to explore this strange castle-like place that he had ended up upon after finicking with the strange machines in his father’s lab when he tried to search for clues to his disappearance.

He immediately went and hid behind one of the many pillars that the hallway had, thankful that no one had been near the vicinity of where he had ended up on, and watched whatever commotion it was from afar.

He peeked his head slightly, finding the figure of a girl, possibly younger than himself, running from what seems to be militaristic teens and adults, though he simply judged that by the way that they were all dressed.

One stopped at the intersection of where the hallways connected, turning his head around and almost finding his hiding spot had he not reacted quick enough to hide himself. After a few seconds, the teal haired man continued to catch up with his comrades, and he followed suit, following them in secret in an attempt to find out where exactly he was.

And if possible, find out if this was where his father had ended up disappearing to.

Eventually they managed to get out of the building with him following behind them without notice, going towards a clearing where the group of men managed to corner the indigo haired girl in a dead end. He watched over them, hiding behind the small wall above them.

The blond haired official, who he assumed was the leader of their small group by the different clothing that he wore, walked forwards from his allies. “This is an order from the Professor.” The man started. “Please come back, Serena-sama.”

The girl whose name he now knew was Serena seemingly disagreed. “I’m not going to come with you! Not until I get some answers!” She declared loudly, placing a hand over her chest. “Why is it that I have to go to this ‘laboratory’ weekly?! What is the purpose of all that testing?! Give me some answers!”

“But the Professor doesn’t allow you to know that.” The man whose hair was in a vintage style answered back, not at all perturbed by the girl talking back to her and rebelling against what was seemingly the authority in the situation.

The indigo haired girl scowled. “Then I won’t come with you no matter what.” She growled out, pulling her left arm up, and a black and blue holographic sword appeared beside it, and that in itself shocked him. “I won’t let anyone stand in my way!”

‘A duel disk?!’ He thought, eyes narrowing behind his red framed glasses as he looked down towards them. ‘I’ve never seen a duel disk like that in Maiami City, even duelists that come from outside never use a different kind of duel disk.’

But the duel disk that the girl used was completely different. Unlike the sleek, smartphone-like duel disk whose touchscreen was shaped in a rectangle and the duel blade that was in an obtuse angle, the duel blade was shaped to that of a sword, and the duel disk itself was akin to that of a shield.

It was a form and kind of duel disk that he’s never seen before, and as the heir of the Leo Corporation, he was quite sure that he had seen any and all models of available duel disks that are currently on the market.

“It cannot be helped then, seize her!” The rotund man declared, waving his hand forward. Said man then walked back to stand behind the green military dressed men, all who brandished their arms and activated their own duel disks.

Without even declaring that they would even start a duel, the girl started first with summoning a monster. “I’ll summon Lunalight Kaleido Chick! And with her effect I’ll send Lunalight Panther Dancer to the graveyard to treat her as Panther Dancer! And now, I’ll activate Polymerization and Fusion Summon Lunalight Leo Dancer!”

 

He was quite honestly, entranced at the amount of skill that the girl had shown in but a single turn, managing to summon an incredibly large and strong Fusion Monster on the first turn. 

But what shocked him more was how without even using an Action Field and a large scale Solid Vision Projector, the damage that was dealt felt real, it felt as if the attacks of the monsters actually held weight behind them.

As expected of course, the duel was incredibly one sided in the girl’s favour, even with the teal haired man joining in mid battle, the girl still held advantage even when faced against four opponents at once.

“Is the strength of an Academia instructor just this?” She growled out, quite frustrated at how easily she had dispatched her opponents’ monsters, and even defeating some of them in quick succession.

“Academia?” He sounded out the strange name of what was seemingly a dueling institution that he had never heard of. Or at least, that was what he thought it was, as he concluded from how they seem to be dueling and them being called instructors by the girl.

“Don’t be afraid! Hurry up and defeat her!” The blonde rotund man ordered the still remaining duelists, and it was at this point that he intervened.

“I’ll summon D/D Cerberus!” He shouted aloud, garnering everyone’s attention as he played his card, and the three headed Fiend’s solid holographic projection appeared on the field. “Battle!” And with that declaration, the monster attacked, destroying one of the Machine Monsters that their enemy has.

He then reached his hands out towards the girl below. “This way!” With his newly summoned monster blocking the way for the men to catch up, the girl jumped and took his hand, and he pulled her up and ran.

He didn’t know how long they had ran, turning from one crossroads to another, getting as far as possible from their pursuers. Eventually they made it out from the main building, out from the winding paths and corners that made out the Academia.

“Let me go!” the girl shouted, pulling her arm off from his grip. “You-you’re not from Academia are you?” She said with narrowed eyes. “Where’s your ship!”

“Ship?” He asked confused at what she was saying, and he took a look around the place where they had ended. It was a dock, one made out of pure steel and metal, with waves crashing into it occasionally, though there was no boats currently docked.

His brain couldn’t help but short circuit at the revelation, the revelation that he was teleported into somewhere far, far away from where he was. He had a inkling that the machine was some sort of teleporter, he had ended up in this strange ‘Academia’ place after all, but he never knew the scale of how had he had been teleported to.

He was in Maiami City before, in his father’s laboratory to search for clues on his disappearance, and while the Paradise City was indeed a coastal town, the place that he had ended up seemed to be a whole island surrounded by the ocean.

“The ship that you used to come here! If it’s with that then I can-”

“You will not be leaving this place any time soon , Serena.”

The both of them snapped their heads to turn towards the source of the voice, both of them was shocked at the newly arrived group for different reasons. The group that came was a four men, or were they teens? Wearing matching blue and white uniforms and white masks that covered their faces.

But the person that caught their attention was the man leading them, the man that stood in the middle wearing a regal purple militaristic outfit  with several black buttons and a purple cape along with a pair of grey boots. The most noticeable trait that he also had are the armoured plate at the left side of his head with what appears to be a red circular lens, and pronounced blood vessels on the top of his head.

“P-Professor!” The girl beside him shouted, her eyes wide at the man’s appearance.

“Father!” He too shouted aloud at the appearance of his father, a myriad of emotion swirling in him at seeing the sights of his long lost father. He couldn’t help the many questions that floated through his head, asking ‘where had he been?’, ‘what had he been doing?’, ‘where is this place?’, and many more.

But he disregarded him, the son that he hasn’t met in years, and focused his light blue eyes on the girl beside him. “Serena… I am the man who knows best of your powers.” He said in a cold tone, a tone that he had never heard his father ever used before in his life.

“Then why do you cage me on this island?” The girl asked, glaring at the bald man ahead of them. “Why do you not use my powers! Why, what's the purpose of all those testings! Of all those medical check ups!?”

“Now is not the time, be it to use your powers nor to talk of the purpose of the research.” His father said calmly, his tone never shifting whatsoever.

“Then when!?” She shouted out angrily, seemingly swallowing the next words that she was about to say. “I-is it after you destroy XYZ and Synchro?” She said lowly, but loud enough to be heard by everyone on the dock.

“XYZ? Synchro? Destroy?” He kept turning his head back and forth from the angry girl behind him and back towards his stoic and unmoving father and the men behind him, utterly confused at the whole confrontation that was happening right in front of him.

“I heard it from the rumours, I don’t think that the others know, but there’s rumours that you’ve launched an attack to the XYZ Dimension.” Had it been before she had met the others, she would have offered him, begged him to use her powers for his benefit.

But after seeing that last match between Yuuna and Yuri against Ryo and Fubuki, seeing the pained looks that her friends had as they had been defeated, the pained look on Yuuna’s face as she saw the two boys being thrown and hurt, had rattled her conviction.

She started doubting the Professor’s intentions with her starting from the weekly medical checkups that he had her undergo, but now she had started to doubt what his goals really were.

“What do you gain from-from destroying the other dimensions!? Explain it to me! What’s so special about me that you have kept me on this island for more than a year!” She shouted out her complaints towards him, hoping to get an answer to her questions.

“I cannot.” He answered her simply, closing his eyes for a second. “It seems that your interaction with your… friends, seems to have changed you. But it doesn’t matter. You still have something that you have to do besides that.”

“Wait a minute!” He shouted, glaring with his purple eyes at his father’s own light blue orbs. “What do you mean by destroying Synchro and XYZ!? Where is this!? What is Academia!?” He shouted out all the main questions that had been plaguing his mind, also hoping for answers like the girl who stood beside him from his father.

“You left the company without telling myself and mother! What exactly is happening, father!” He shouted.

“Have you found out about the dimensions in this world?” His father answered his question with a question of his own, getting him even more frustrated and confused at the whole situation that was happening. 

“Dimension?” He asked aloud.

“What?” The girl beside him asked aloud as well, looking at him strangely.

Both snapped their heads behind as they heard footsteps coming from behind them, and found another group of blue and white uniformed men wearing white masks like the same group that was standing behind his father the whole time coming up to them.

The group of men in blue took the indigo haired girl by the hand, pulling her up so that she could not escape. “What are you doing!?” She shouted aloud while trashing away in their grip. 

“Stop it!” He shouted as well, rushing forwards to try and help the girl, only for someone to suddenly appear behind him, and just like the girl, they captured him, the man even put his hand over his mouth to prevent him from speaking.

“Let me go! Let me go!” She kept trashing as the two men brought her before his father, the man not moving one bit, and his eyes never leaving the captured girl. He too, was brought towards his father.

“Serena, no matter where you go I will always find you.” He started to say, the octave of his voice still monotone and unchanged. “And I will always bring you back! Always!” And at his declaration, he saw his eyes take on a determined shine.

“Take her away.” He ordered the men, and the two men who carried the indigo haired girl wordlessly complied to his orders, bringing the girl who continued to struggle and shout back inside the institution.

The girl eventually left the premises, and his father’s focus turned towards him, their eyes meeting one another. “You should go back as well.” He said simply, expression unchanging.

“Before that, give me an explanation first! What is this place!” He shouted back in frustration, glaring at the man angrily, knowing that if he had ignored him for this long ever since they met, then he would certainly not answer any of his questions.

Surprisingly, the man took a few seconds to consider, before opening his mouth to answer. “This is the Fusion Dimension.” He started. “Academia is my shelter where I will achieve my goal.”

“What goal!?” He shouted back once more, frustration and anger piling together, continuously glaring at the bald man that was his father.

His father closed his eyes. “One day you’ll understand.” He whispered lowly, nut just loud enough for him to hear him. Soon enough the man opened his eyes again, and gave out another order to his men. “Put on the item.”

“Understood.” The man who stood in front of him said, and approached him. 

The man then started to put on a strange device on him, one that is similar to that of a watch, but from the context clues that he has had, it certainly was not one. “What are you doing!?”

“I have put it on.” The man reported, having placed the strange device onto him. 

“What is this thing!?” He shouted all while trying to free himself with no avail, all while glaring both at the item that was forcibly placed onto his right hand and at his father who still showed no change in emotion.

“You’ve used the dimensional travel tool without knowing where it would lead you to. I have sealed the gate that you had used to come here.” His father informed him, giving him an insight on what exactly the machine that was in his laboratory was.

He glanced at the red wristwatch that was in his hand as his father kept talking on. “After returning to your original dimension, that tool will self-destruct on its own. Your place is not here! Return to your own world obediently!”

With his piece said, his father then turned tail and started to walk away. Seeing his father’s retreating figure,he couldn’t help but shout out to him once more. “Wait! There’s still things that you haven’t explained! What do you mean attack!? destruction!?”

The bald man that was his father stopped for a moment, and turned his head to glance towards him. “All to unite this world.” The man ominously said, which only gave him more questions.

“Unite this world? What do you mean, father!”

“He means exactly what he said, boy.”

Before he could even blink, he felt his feet leave off the ground, and his arms were no longer held by the two masked men. He felt something hit his right arm and wince, and before he knew it, the strange device that was on his right hand had already been removed from him.

His point of view was completely changed, while before he had to crane his neck up to glare at his father, his new position made him look down on them, and he saw the shocked faces of the teens in blue and white, though their facial expressions were still  hidden behind their masks.

His father’s expression remained unchanged, but he saw the tiniest furrow of his brow.

He looked up, seeing who had exactly saved him from the grasps of his father’s men, and saw a person wearing a nun’s garb, carrying him like a sack of potatoes under one arm. On her other arm was the indigo haired girl who had escaped with him, seemingly in the same state of shock that he was.

“It seems that you are in good health, Professor.” The nun greeted him condescending, no slice of sincerity in her words.

-

It was sudden really, but she really should have noticed it, a ticking time bomb like Chekov’s gun.

It all started with Sister Claire standing up without prompt, startling the both of them and making them look up towards the blond nun. “Claire nee-san? Is something wrong?” She asked her in worry, having never seen the woman this distressed other than the time where she and Mei had told her that they intended to go to the Academia.

The nun didn’t answer her question, simply looking out of the boat’s window with narrowed eyes. “You two stay here. And don;t go anywhere.” She said to them, as if it wasn’t obvious that they weren’t going to go anywhere while they were in a moving ship.

“Wha- what do you-”

“Your friend, Serena, she’s being confronted by some Academia students, Obelisk Force, and… he’s also there.” The blond nun said her tone went grim at the end, and both of them jolted and turned to look towards the window, trying to see what the orphanage’s caretaker was talking of.

She couldn’t see quite well, the Academia was still a few meters away, but having squinted her eyes, she could see a bob of purple hair alongside grey hair being confronted by a group of people in blue, and one dressed in purple, someone who she had never seen before.

She was honestly quite amazed that Sister Claire could see that far. This was at the point of super human eyesight wasn’t it? “But what do you mean we should stay here?” She asked the blonde nun.

The nun took a deep breath, closing her eyes before letting a breath out and looking at them with a hard stare. “That man, he’s the Professor, the head of Academia.” She said with a scowl. “And it seems that my worries were true, he was planning something.”

She took out her duel disk and tapped a few buttons on the screen, from the looks of it she was messaging someone. “You’re both immediately going back to Academy Island, forget about going to the tournament, you both are going to the orphanage and join everyone on the very leaving the island.”

Her brain had turned off for a few seconds, taking time comprehending what the nun was saying exactly. As soon as she did, however, she snapped her head towards her caretaker and mother figure in this life and shouted aloud. “WHAT?!” She got some strange looks from the other passengers, but she ignored them in favour of focusing on the blonde nun.

“We’re not arguing about this.” She said with a low tone that hinted her to not argue back. “I…I’ve planned it ever since you told me about it. About that task that you were given. Planning for an escape route for everyone in the orphanage.”

The nun kept going, explaining the reasoning behind why exactly she had ordered them so. “I’ve always known that Academia was a… terrible place. Their treatment of Osiris Red, or lower classed duelists in general, the gruesome training that they have them all go through, and… the carding.” She said the last line with a large scowl, clenching her fists as she does so.

And it was at that moment that she had actually remembered what she was here for, why she was in the Academia in the first place.

She was an idiot, an absolute buffoon of the highest order, why hadn’t she remembered the purpose she was even here for!? 

She was complacent, too complacent. Having been swept by the atmosphere of the whole academy, while she managed to ward off most of what was basically the school’s brainwashing agenda, she had managed to forget the whole reason she had been in this school in the first place!

The festive atmosphere of the tournaments and the many squabbles that she had against the other classes had managed to make her forget about researching about the school’s agenda! 

She should have noticed it! Why didn’t she notice it sooner!? She should have investigated more about the strange happenings of the Obelisk Blues! She already knew from bits and pieces from her past memories that they were basically vanguards of the dimensional invasion, so why didn’t she investigate them!?

And at that moment, a part of her brain clicked. No, thinking back on the matter it made sense why none of the quirks and antics of the Obelisk Blues that she met had raised any suspicions in her, it was because the ones that she had met had simply just been the ‘normal’ students in the class.

Without her noticing it, she was hyperventilating, her breath getting ragged as her brain raced. She remembered them slightly, she saw their glimpses, people wearing Obelisk Blue uniforms, more neat and ornate, but paired with an equally ornate white mask. 

She heard from rumors how they were the ‘elite’ Obelisk Force, the ‘true’ Obelisk Blues, they were the Obelisk Blue students who were extremely loyal to the Academia, too loyal in fact.

On the surface Academia was like any other dueling academy, only more prestigious as most of, if not all, of their graduates were high impact duelists, or become pro duelists who were more renowned than those that came from other schools.

But it wasn’t just that, those duelists had a large sway in the media, in the entertainment industry, which meant that that sense of the world was under the control of the Academia, giving the school a large influence in the world, in this dimension.

And in turn, the Professor, the founder and headmaster of this whole school, the ones whom those duelists are loyal to, has control over a large part of this world.

It was how he got his funding, enough to make a grandiose school like this, and considering how that man was undoubtedly the one that found a way to travel between dimensions, also funded his research and made his own personal army.

How did she not know that!? How did she not notice this!? She had a God damned mission to stop the whole invasion from happening!? How was she swayed in by the school’s propaganda and the festive atmosphere!? How had this all been her ‘normal’!?

“-uuna! Yuuna!” She heard Sister Claire call her name and shook her physically, snapping her out from the trance-like state that she had entered. She saw the nun’s worried gaze, along with Mei’s, and apologized.

“Sorry. I-”

“Please.” She started cutting her off from saying anything, her cracking from worry. “I beg of you two. Please go back to Academy Island, back to the orphanage, and leave this place. You can be pro duelists on other institutions, you two are great duelists, there’s no doubt in my mind that they would accept you both.”

“And leave Serena behind?!” Mei hissed out, being the first line of dialogue that she had said ever since the start of their trip. “If we’re leaving Academia, then she’s coming with us!”

“I know, and she will.” The nun assured them both. “I will get her to go with us, that boy too, Yuri was it? If possible I’ll get them to come with us. Along with your other friends. There’s more than enough room for spare in the boat.”

“You’re really doing this.” She said in a low whisper, almost unheard by the nun, but she had caught the words that left her mouth. “You really did believe what I had said, about the invasion and everything, and you’re going to evacuate everyone from the island?”

“Not everyone, just the children from the orphanage.” She shook her head as she answered her. “The reach of Academia, the Professor, is far. Far too great for me to not worry if you’re all anywhere near here.”

“But still-” She started to argue, only to be cut off. If there was anyone who was responsible for this, it was her. She was the one who was given a mission, a mission that she accepted, a mission from God’s System, so-

“We’ve talked too long.” The nun said standing up. “I’m going to go, I… please go back to the orphanage, and out of the island. Please. You’re both children, haven’t even reached your teens. This is a matter that should be left to the adults.” With that the nun left, not hearing their cries as she did so, jumping with superhuman strength and agility from one ship to another and leaving them.

“I-” She looked at the violet haired girl sitting beside her, incredibly befuddled at the revelation that had just been dropped on them, on how sister Claire had been preparing for an escape route, and how she seemed to know the deeper darkness to the Academia.

“What exactly just happened?”

-

“I should have known.” The Professor muttered lowly, loud enough to be heard by all those who stood in the docks. The man turned his body and craned his head slightly to stare at the nun who carried the two childrens under her arms.

“Oh?” She mouthed in mock surprise, raising an eyebrow. 

“I knew that those two were under your care, it was no surprise that they became duelists as good as they are if you, the former leader of the elite Obelisk Force squad, were the one who taught them.” He spoke aloud, not eliciting a response from the nun other than her keeping silent.

“Perhaps it should have been obvious that you had sent them here to spy on us. A befitting move for a traitor like yourself to use children under your care.” He said with a huff, as if mocking the nun for what he thought was her effort to spy on him.

“Those two are not spies!” She roared out, her glare towards the bald headmaster of the Academia intensified. “I am not as low as you to use children for those kinds of means! They came here on their own volition! Even after I had warned them of how warped this school is.”

“Oh? So they aren’t here on your orders then?” The man asked with a raised eyebrow, though he already knew the answer to the question that he asked himself. “Then they might prove useful then. Their capabilities are higher than the normal duelists after all.”

“You-!”

“No matter.” The man waved her off, raising one hand up as a signal to his men that the nun recognizes. “Capture them.” He said, and the group of elite Obelisk Force operatives all ran and jumped to follow the order.

For both duelists who were carried under the arms of the blonde nun, the whole situation felt like riding a roller coaster, much to how the comment would fly over the indigo haired girl’s head, as they kept dodging and weaving from the hands of the operatives in blue and white, avoiding capture and hiding from their sights.

The further they ran, the farther they got from the docks, and the nun had no doubts that the Professor had already given orders to stop and hold any and all transportations out from the island now that they were on the run.

She bit her lip, metally apologizing to Yuuna, Mei, and the other children and caretakers of the orphanage. “Boy.” She called out to the grey haired boy that she carried, dodging another arm that came from the Obelisk Force behind her.

She ignored his screams, focusing more on dodging the grasps of her opponents, and shouted towards the boy once more while shaking him slightly. “Boy! Listen!” It seemed that that shocked the boy enough to stop him from screaming, and he glanced at her.

Good, she has his attention. “The gate. The one that the Professor said he closed after you came through it, do you know where it is?” 

“Huh? I don’t remem-”

She clicked her tongue, already guessing before he could finish his words that he doesn’t remember where the facility that held the gate that he went through was. “Was it underground? Did you go through any kind of stairs or elevators?”

He shook his head in response, and she plotted a route from where they were. “It’s undoubtedly in one of the prohibited areas. From what I heard from Yuuna and Mei none of it changed from when I was here, so-”

It left a bitter taste in her mouth, the thought of leaving the orphanage and the children behind, of leaving this whole dimension in order to escape the grasp of the Professor. But it was her best bet, even if she had overheard that the Professor had sealed the gate off, there should at least be a way to unseal said gate.

And if not, then she’ll do her best to at the very least let these two escape. Even if she has to… even if she has to card those that she met along the way.

-

“Disaster.”

And it certainly was one, and that was the word that left her mouth as soon as they had arrived at the port of Academia, only to be immediately ushered off to their dorms by the Obelisk Force.

Now they were locked in their room, with those masked teens guarding the one and only door. Her head was still a jumbled mess, especially with the mass amount of information that she now had to digest all of the sudden.

She had thought that she would have some more time, expected that she would have some leeway and would get access to confidential information eventually if she kept having good grades and positioned herself as a high ranking duelist, that she would be able to intervene or sabotage the plans for the eventual XYZ invasion.

She thought that she had more time, considering that the plot for usual anime would have their main cast be in their teens. She thought that she had a few more years give or take considering how old both Yuri and Serena were.

But the plot had reared its ugly head earlier than she had expected, and she was faced with responsibility that she had thought she could push back to deal with far down later in life.

Sister Claire went off and helped them, she couldn’t see quite well from her seat, but she thinks that they managed to escape. Though for how long they will manage while the whole Academia was on lockdown, she doesn’t know.

But she can only assume that it won’t be long before they would be seen, and eventually captured. 

Her stomach churned at the thought, her mind whirling at the scenarios of what would eventually happen, what was the worst that happened to those that face Academia? They annihilated a whole dimension with solid holograms using solid vision technology, the glimpses of photos of a ruined Heartland that she saw can attest to that, but what happened to the people?

In serious matches of the original series, people could die in shadow games, sent to the Shadow Realm for the translations, the same happens in the other series be it GX or 5Ds, even some duels in ZEXAL ended with the loser dying in one way or another.

But what was the fate that awaits the losers in this world of Arc-V? What happened to the many citizens that used to live in the XYZ Dimension?

She couldn’t help but think of the worst possibilities to happen. She was used to dueling under stress, everyone who has played the game competitively basically has at one point of their life, either betting one thing or another while playing against friends, be it cards or cash.

But a duel which will decide whether they live or die? That was a matter that she wasn’t sure her mind was capable of dealing with mentally, even if it is done under the belief of the greater good.

Her brooding was cut short as she heard a knock on her window, and her head snapped to look towards the source of the sound.

She only knew one boy who was crazy and athletic enough to not only brazenly waltz into the girl’s dorm, but to go through the window of the two story building where her room was located.

And sure enough, knocking on her window was the familiar purple figure of Yuri, his brows furrowed and the usual grin that he had gone and replaced with a worried frown.

She hurriedly opened the window, and the boy leapt onto her room. She couldn’t help but idly think that the purple haired boy’s wild antics of breaking into their rooms was one of the reasons as to why she had become normalized to the antics of the Academia, and essentially this whole world and its inhabitants.

The boy glanced over both of them, the worry that was in his heart grew as he saw the downhearted look that Mei and herself had. “What’s happened?” He asked slowly with the most gentle tone that had ever left his lips.

“I heard that the whole school went on lockdown, so I went and decided to look for you all since you just came back to the school but…” He glanced around the room once more, eyes narrowing as he found a missing figure that was usually in the room.

“Where’s Serena?” She flinched at his question, and the boy’s purple eyes narrowed as he focused towards her.

She couldn’t help but squirm under his intense gaze, even though she was supposed to be a full blown adult on the inside, she somehow felt small under the boy’s scrutiny. 

“They took her.” Hearing the small whisper, Yuri turned his attention towards Mei, who was hugging her knees while sitting on top of the bed. “They tried to take her, but Claire nee-san- Claire nee-san-!”

“Calm down!” He said aloud as he held the small girl who started to hyperventilate, and soon enough the purple haired girl straightened her breathing, calming herself down, though the worry was still clearly seen in her eyes.

She bit her lip as she watched the two interact, Yuri who would never usually show sympathy towards others was doing exactly that, doing his best trying to calm the girl down. It was truly an unusual sight, but she couldn’t help but still feel the churn in her stomach.

Out of the both of them, Mei looked up to Sister Claire more than she does, more likely due to the fact that she sees the nun as her mother figure while she herself does not. She couldn't quite imagine what she was going through, the headmaster of the school that she had always dreamed of going into, the same school that she had managed to get into, was now hunting down her friend and said mother figure.

It was no doubt that it was heart wrenching, two figures that she admired for differing reasons were clashing against one another, and the girl was agonizing over the whole matter.

Once more, something clicked in her head. 

This, this whole jumbled mess of dimension invasions and whatnot, it was all that man’s fault wasn’t it? It was because of him that a whole dimension and its inhabitants would eventually be destroyed, ruining the lives of not only people in that dimension, but also robbing the future of the many people that he had brainwashed along in order to get onto the position that he was in.

Yeah… no matter how she thought about it, she had no attachment whatsoever with this school or its students, no, in this dimension other than the handful of people that she truly do care for.

In this new life, she was reincarnated as an orphan, the one who cared for her when she was a mere child until now was Sister Claire, the one who raised her was Sister Claire, and the one that believed what was more or less a crazy story that was her Mission and System was also Sister Claire.

The others that she cared about was of course Mei, her sister in all but blood. The small girl that used to cling to her everywhere she goes, following her like a little duckling, one that grew to be the confident girl that she was today.

Another that grew on her was Serena, the fiery girl with a hard headed personality. The girl who the System had dubbed, the Fusion Dimension’s own ‘Bracelet Girl’, a character that was no doubt important to the plot, but was none the less one of her friends.

And so was Yuri, while the boy was quite wild, willing do do things that was undoubtedly outside of the norm, only supported by the Professor basically giving him free reign to do so, and has quite a duel hungry type of personality, was also an important friend to her.

So was Fubuki, Ryo, Edo, the twins, and Mamoru to some extent. They were all her precious friends that she had made in this new life through the card game that was Yu-Gi-Oh! And they all share the same kind of love for the game.

And there after much deliberation, after a long session of wracking her brain, she had come to the conclusion that the Professor was indeed misusing the card game that she loved to death, and was intending to use it for purposes that would not only hurt others, and included her precious people in his schemes.

That man was an interdimensional criminal, one that would ruin the lives of many for a goal which she still does not know. Her main reason when she first received the mission to stop the XYZ Dimension invasion was that it was the right thing to do, the humane thing to do, genocide was an irredemable crime in her eyes.

Ah, at this point it wasn’t about stopping the XYZ Dimension invasion anymore was it? At this point it was a personal vendetta for her, stopping that man from hurting her friends and family, and stopping him from misusing the game that had let her create said friends, the game that she hold dear, was only a natural development.

-

Emergency Grand Mission!

[Dimension Mastermind Confrontation]

Confront the Professor, Prevent the Professor’s plans, and defeat him in a duel.

Rewards: 1500000DP, Fusions Pendulum Pack Unlocked, Reputation Up (Sister Claire), Reputation Up (???), Reputation Up (???), Reputation (Academia) Reset to Zero 

Failure: Fusion Parasite Brainwash/Carded

-

Ah, so that’s what the worst case scenario was. Should she lose against the Professor, and or any of the Obelisk Force that are basically his grunts, she would be a victim of his brainwashing via whatever Fusion Parasite was, though she vaguely remembered there was a card with that name in the game.

She doesn’t quite know what being carded was exactly, but she could guess from its name alone. She remembered watching some of the original series, and if she wasn’t wrong there was a point in the original anime where a person’s soul was turned into a card.

She could connect the dots from there, the Academia people would destroy the XYZ Dimension and turn their inhabitants to cards, their fates after that though, was unknown to her, and she knew not if it was something that was reversible.

She steeled her will, walking towards her cupboard where she kept her clothes and started shuffling through the many clothes that she has, in search of a certain piece of clothing.

“Yuuna?” She ignored the call that came from the only boy in the room, finding the clothing that she wanted. It was a red jacket, different from the one that SIster Claire had given her when she managed to get accepted to the Academia. It was a red jacket that you could find anywhere, a common one that was sold in Academy Island.

And another article of clothing that she had searched for was a simple red hat, paired with a black strapped silver goggles with blue lens.

She took off her normal jacket, taking some time to look at it longingly before stuffing it onto the cupboard. She put the plain jacket on, quickly making a makeshift braid with her long hair and stuffing it under the hat.

Briefly, she looked at her reflection on the mirror, and saw that with her new set of clothes, she looked similar to that of the infamous Red Hat, the character that everyone of the orphanage had taken on as they sold cards around Academy island.

“Yuuna?” This time she turned towards Yuri as he called for her, and she could see his eyes narrowing. “What are you doing? What happened? Why did Mei mean that the Professor took Serena!? What is it with Claire nee-san and Serena!?”

“I don’t know myself.” And that wasn’t a lie. “I don’t really know what the Professor wants with Serena, and what is it with Claire nee-san and him, but what I know is that he’s most definitely up to no good.”

“The Professor is?” He said lowly, his voice underlined with disbelief.

“As far as I know, the reason why the Academia was on lockdown, why the Obelisk Force elites are all on the prowl, it’s because Serena almost escaped the Academia, and right now Claire nee-san is running away from them.”

“Wait- hold on- the Obelisk Force are out there trying to capture them!?” He shouted once more, eyes wide at the thought that the ‘elites’ of the Academia are out there going after the orphanage head and the indigo haired girl.

“There’s another boy, I think, I don’t know who he is but he has grey hair.” She added, moving towards the window where the boy had entered through. She looked down and slightly winced at how high it was, and Yuri climbs this high on a daily basis!?

If she didn’t know that the boy was civilized she would have thought that he was a monkey.

“Wait! Yuuna! Where are you going!?” She heard the boy shout, and she lowered her hat slightly to hide her eyes as she looked back to see the boy’s worried expression.

“Isn’t it obvious?” She said, voice stern and unwavering. She’s determined now, she had thought that she could have worked behind the shadows trying to sabotage the whole invasion, but the plans had been changed.

She wasn’t letting them anywhere near Sister Claire and Serena, she’ll beat any and every single duelist that she meets along her way to prevent them.

“I’m going to help them.”

And nobody is going to stop her.

-

She ran as soon as she managed to climb down from the window.

She ran and ran and ran, going as fast as she could trying to search for where they could have ended up at. They started at the dock, and went deeper into the midst of the Academia. She doesn’t know if there’s a secret exit from the island somewhere, but considering that every single one of the exits are all blocked, she can only think of one place where a secret exit could be.

The prohibited section of the school, one where normal students aren’t allowed to come near to. Arguably the most suspicious and well guarded location in the entire school, if there is anywhere in this whole academy that someone would put a secret exit, then it’s most definitely there.

So with a destination in mind, she began running with a direction in mind. Ignoring the many warning and prohibited signs that she met along her way.

“Hey!” She heard someone shout out towards her, their voice stern and serious. She glanced briefly, her eyes still hidden under her newly worn red hat, but she could see that the one who called her out was none other than a group of Obelisk Force.

“This is a restricted area! No one is-” She didn’t bother listening to whatever it was that he said, continuing her trek and rushing past them. “Wha-” The glorified guard shouted in alarm, “Wait! Intruder!”

And now she was running away from the guards. Though considering her physique, it was inevitable for her to get caught at the pace that they were running, even with this head start that she had.

So she stopped running, screeching to a halt as she turned around to face them. She then activated her duel disk, and stood her ground.

The group of three soon stopped as well, taking a second to look at each other. One of them grinned as he looked at what in his point of view, was a pathetic display of resistance. He scoffed, “You think that you can get away if you duel against us?”

“Well, why don’t we show this intruder what happens when they fight against an Obelisk Force?” Saying so, the grinning masked teens activated their own duel disk, and a three versus one battle royale started in the hallway of the Academia.

““““DUEL!!””””

Obelisk Force 1: 4000LP

Red Hat: 4000LP

Obelisk Force 2: 4000LP

Obelisk Force 3: 4000LP

“I’ll go first.” The smiling mask wearing Obelisk Force operative said. “From my hand, I’ll summon Ancient Gear Hunting Hound!” The duelist took a card from his hand, and placed it on his red glowing sword projection, the mechanical hunting hound then appeared on the field, letting out a growl as it did.

Ancient Gear Hunting Hound - Earth/Machine/Level 3/Effect: 1000/1000

“Now I’ll activate Hunting Hound’s effect! If this card is normal summoned, I can inflict 600 points of damage to my opponent!” He declared so while pointing towards her, and the hunting hound then opened its maw, charging a shot of beam.

She placed a hand on her throat and massaged it for a slight second, deepening her voice to become somewhat androgynous as she declared, “I’ll activate the effect of Effect Veiler in my hand.” She said.

“During my opponent’s Main Phase, as a Quick Effect, I can send this card from my hand to the graveyard, then target one Effect Monster my opponent controls and negate the effects of that face-up monster until the end of this turn.”

Done with explaining the handtrap’s effect, she pitched it for cost, and pointed towards the one remaining monster on the field. “I’ll target Ancient Gear hunting Hound and negate its effect.”

The winged Spellcaster then briefly appeared above her opponent’s monster, his transparent wings engulfing the mechanical monster, and negating its effects until the end of the turn. This not only negated the small burn effect that would have reduced her Life Points by a not meagre amount considering she only has 4000 Life Points to start with, but would also negate the monster’s activation effect that would allow it to Fusion Summon.

After all, there was no doubt that that was what he was aiming for. For an Ancient Gear deck, the best start would have been either Wyvern or Catapult targeting their Field Spell, or any face-up non monster card.

Starting off with Hunting Hound telegraphed that he didn’t open with any of those cards, and also telegraphed that he didn’t open any spells that would let him Fusion Summon.

The masked duelist frowned at seeing the monster’s effect getting negated,but continued with his turn. “I will set one card.” He said, setting a card as his back row. “And I’ll end my turn.” And simply ended his turn, finishing it with only a single monster and a single back row on the field, still having three cards remaining in his hand.

“Then it’s my turn.” She said, still masquerading her voice to differentiate it from her normal one. “I’ll draw.” She drew her card for her turn, starting the duel with five cards in her hand. She glanced at them, and thought of the plays that she could do with them.

It was a hand that was mostly filled with spells. Each and every single one of them is strong enough to build a relatively strong board on their own. The cards being Magical Meltdown, Shaddoll Fusion, Branded Fusion, Scarlet Sanguine and Dogmatika Maximus.

She should have expected from this deck really, it has an incredible number of one card starters. This was undoubtedly a deck that was way ahead of its time considering the current stage of the game in this dimension, but this wasn’t a duel where she intended to have fun.

Lives were on the line, she would show no mercy to those who had intended to hurt her friends and family.

“I’ll start by activating the Field Spell, Magical Meltdown.” She declared, and on the floor of the hallway that they were situated in, a large magical circle formed, one which was formed of runes and indecipherable language that spun overtime. 

“When this card is activated, I can add one ‘Aleister the Invoker’ from my deck to my hand.” She explained the Field Spell’s on activation effect, and revealed the blue boy from her deck, adding it into her hand as her opponents’ doesn’t respond with anything to its activation and declaration.

“While Magical Meltdown is on the field, the activation of cards and effects that include an effect that Fusion Summons a Fusion Monster cannot be negated. And the opponents’ cards and effects cannot activate when a monster is Fusion Summoned this way.” She explained the Field Spell’s on board effect, one that now lets both players Fusion Summon without them being negated.

“Now I’ll normal summon Aleister.” She placed the card onto her duel disk, and the grimoire wielding Dark Spellcaster appeared onto her field. Closing the magical book that he held to swing his staff to point towards her enemies.

Aleister the Invoker - Dark/Spellcaster/Level 4/Effect: 1000/1000

“Aleister effect.” She declared, activating the monster’s on summon effect. “If this card is normal summoned or flipped face-up, I can add one ‘Invocation’ from my deck to my hand.” The Spellcaster opened his grimoire, and from it, formed a large blue magical circle which soon disappeared, the holographic animation as she added the signature fusion spell with its effect.

“And I’ll activate it.” She declared immediately, activating the fusion spell that she had just added to her hand. “Invocation allows me to Fusion Summon one Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck using monsters from my hand as fusion materials.”

“Oh? You’re going to Fusion Summon?” One of them said with a condescending tone. “It seemed that we’ve underestimate you, but using a fusion spell that lets you only Fusion Summon using monsters from your hand is-”

“However.” She said with a harsh tone, cutting off whatever the rude Obelisk Force duelist was saying as she continued her explanation. “If I were summoning an ‘Invoked’ Fusion Monster this way, I can also banish monsters from my field and or either player’s graveyard as fusion material.”

Since there wasn’t any monster in her opponents’ graves, not that she was running Invoked Magellanica with the already tight Extra Deck that she had for the deck, she chose the two targets for the Fusion Summon.

“I’ll fuse Aleister the Invoker and Effect Veiler in my graveyard.” She banished both Spellcaster, respectively from the field and the graveyard, and the Dark Spellcaster opened his grimoire and raised his staff, creating an incredibly large magical circle with the Light Spellcaster in the middle, fusing themselves into one singular monster.

She raised her hand to snap her fingers, but stopped herself from doing what was at this point her signature pose that came with her chant, and instead fixed her hat’s position. “Fusion Summon.” She said, “Appear. Invoked Mechaba.”

And through the magical circle, a Fusion Monster appeared. One whose form was a mechanical armored chariot riding warrior, the mechanical rider raised its weapon and shield, while the equally armored monster that pulled its metallic magical carriage went forth.

Invoked Mechaba - Light/Machine/Fusion/Level 9/Effect: 2500/2100

Now she had an optional omni negate, though more importantly, she has a trap negate as she has a certain trap card on her hand. “I’ll activate the effect of Invocation in my graveyard.”

She took the card from her graveyard, and showed it towards her masked opponents and began explaining once more. “If this card is in my graveyard, I can target one of my banished ‘Aleister the Invoker’, shuffle this card into the deck, and if I do, add the monster to my hand.”

And she did just that, creating what was arguably an infuriating loop of normal summoning Aleister as she added the monster that was removed from play, and shuffled back the fusion spell to her deck.

“Now I’ll activate the spell, Branded Fusion.” She placed the second card from her hand onto her duel disk, and the holographic projection that showed two opposing Fusion Monsters on the same archetype appeared on the field.

“This card lets me Fusion Summon one Fusion Monster that lists ‘Fallen of Albaz’ as material from my Extra Deck using 2 monsters from my hand, deck, or field as fusion materials.” She explained the card’s effect, one that is jarringly similar to that of the conditional second effect of Shaddoll Fusion to fusion with cards from the deck without the condition.

Though she could not see her opponents’ faces as they were hidden by the masks that they wore, she could see how their body jolted and straightened up at the explanation of the card’s effect, obviously shocked at how strong the card was.

She took two cards that she would use for her Fusion Summon, two cards that are undoubtedly incredibly important in her deck which was more or less a pile. “I will fuse Fallen of Albaz and Eldlich the Golden Lord from my deck.”

The two monsters that she had declared appeared and floated high above her head, the shining gold lord of the cursed land floating alongside the humanoid dragon that was Albaz, both combining with one another to become one singular monster.

“Fusion Summon. Descend, Albion the Branded Dragon.”

With an explosion of dark fire, the red burning dragon appeared on the field, spreading its large red wings as it roared loudly, the singular large Fusion Dark Dragon filling the entire hallways as it reached its full wingspan.

Albion the Branded Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Fusion/Level 8/Effect: 2500/2000

The three Obelisk Force operatives gawked at the Fusion Monster, one that was summoned with only a single card activation, though she didn’t fully explain the card’s effects. Not that she needs to explain how she was now locked to Fusion Monsters, she had always been locked to Fusion Monsters in this dimension.

“Albion the Branded Dragon’s effect.” She declared, snapping them all out of their trance. “If this card is Fusion Summoned, I can Fusion Summon one Level 8 or lower Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck, except another copy of ‘Albion the Branded Dragon’, by banishing fusion materials listed on it from my hand, field, and or graveyard.”

She took out a card from her graveyard, revealing that it was the monster that she had used for a Fusion Summon of the monster whose effect was being activated. “I’ll fuse Fallen of Albaz from my graveyard, and Albion the Branded Dragon on my field.”

She performed a third Fusion Summon for the turn by raising her right hand, using the summoned Albion and the Albaz in her graveyard. The red burning dragon roared, and the humanoid dragon rose from the grave. The Nullius Filius of Albus then absorbed the Dark Fusion Monster, turning into an even fiercer Fusion Dragon whose sheer size and presence almost destroyed the building that they stood on with how large it was.

“Fusion Summon.” She said, bringing her hand down slowly. “Descend. Dragon of eternal cold. Mirrorjade the Iceblade Dragon.” And the monster that descended was her second form of interaction, the incredibly large Dark Fusion Wyrm whose entire form was covered in layers of reflective ice, with four jagged ice blades infused with blood floating beside it.

Mirrorjade the Iceblade Dragon - Dark/Wyrm/Fusion/Level 8/Effect: 3000/2500

The masked teen kept scowling as they saw the Fusion Monster appearing onto her field, but could do nothing to respond against the monster’s summon as Magical Meltdown still remained on the field. So she continued her turn, intending to create as much advantage during this turn as possible.

“I’ll activate the effect of Eldlich the Golden Lord in my graveyard.” She declared so, and took the card out from her graveyard to reveal it. “If this card is in my graveyard, I can send one spell or trap I control to the graveyard to add this card to my hand.”

She first paid the cost, pointing down towards the red glowing magical circle below them. “I’ll send Magical Meltdown to the graveyard, and add Eldlich the Golden Lord to my hand.” The Field Spell was sent to the graveyard, ensuring that  she could interrupt her opponents’ Fusion Summon with it no longer face-up now that she was no longer Fusion Summoning any monsters.

“Then I can special summon one Zombie monster from my hand, and if I do, until the end of my opponents’ turn, it gains 1000 attack and defence and cannot be destroyed by card effects.” She continued explaining the monster’s graveyard effect.

“I’ll special summon Eldlich the Golden Lord in attack position.” She placed the card onto her duel disk’s sword projection, and the zombie lord of the cursed Eldland appeared on the field, its golden armour shining and it's dark purple cape flowing with the wind.

 

Eldlich the Golden Lord  - Dark/Zombie/Level 10/Effect: 2500/2800

And as it was summoned with its own effect, the Zombie lord has its attack and defence boosted by one thousand, getting it to be over the three thousand threshold.

Eldlich the Golden Lord  - Dark/Zombie/Level 10/Effect: 3500/3800

“Battle.” She went to the Battle Phase, having set up three monsters, and a battle trick in the form of Aleister in her hand. Sadly she could only at best defeat one of her three opponents this turn as the damned battle royale rules prevents her from attacking those that haven't had their turn yet.

“I’ll attack your Ancient Gear Hunting Hound with Eldlich the Golden Lord. Adelantado Huelga.” With the order given, the golden armoured Zombie struck, Striking the mechanical hound with its fists, destroying it and sending it to the graveyard and dealing a ton of damage from a single attack.

“Gyagh!?” He shouted aloud as the force of the attack shook him, the explosion that engulfed him led him to raise his hands in order to protect himself from the smoke that came from the remains of the monster.

She noted that the damage of the attack felt real. That it felt more heavy. The attacks would certainly deal actual damage against her opponents.

Obelisk Force 1: 1500LP

“Now I’ll attack you directly with Invoked Mechaba.” She gave out that order, intending to get that one duelist out of the sudden battle royale that had begun, and the Machine Fusion monster rushed in for the kill.

“Kuh-! I’ll activate my trap card!” The masked duelist declared loudly, flipping the one set card that he had set, and revealing it. “Fusion Dispersal!” He shouted the card’s name as it shone on the field.

She narrowed her eyes under the cap of her hat, glaring at the set card that had just been revealed. She… doesn’t know what card it was, which was quite understandable as she doesn’t quite know every single battle trap that is in the game, but she does know the good ones, and that certainly was not one of the ones that she knew of.

The Obelisk Force duelist then began explaining what the card does. “When an opponent’s Fusion Monster declares an attack, I can target that attacking monster and return it to the Extra Deck!” He started with a large grin.

“And if I do, I can then end the Battle Phase!” He shouted aloud and pointed towards Mechaba, intending to remove it from her field in a way that doesn’t destroy it.

Ah, that certainly won’t do. “I’ll activate the effect of Invoked Mechaba.” She declared so, activating the Fusion Monster’s situational omni negate. “Once per turn, when a spell or tap card or monster effect is activated, as a Quick Effect, I can send the same type of card from my hand to the graveyard to negate the activation and if I do, banish that card.”

Though the Obelisk Force duelist had a mask that hid his face, she could see the shock that went through him, how he took a step back and had his mouth agape. “I’ll discard the trap, Eldlixir of Scarlet Sanguine, to negate the effect of your trap, and banish it.”

The chain resolves, and Fusion Monster swung its blade, and the battle trap has its effects negated and was then banished from play. The attack continued, the mechanical chariot rushing past through the masked duelist, only for him to be hit directly with Mechaba’s blade, knocking him away and throwing him straight into a wall.

The sound of the smack resounded around the empty hallway, and the Obelisk Force elite duelist then slowly slumped and fell onto the ground, falling unconscious after being defeated and kicked out from the match. The dinging sound sounded from his duel disk as his Life Point counter reached zero.

Obelisk Force 1: 0LP

His two companions stared at their fallen comrade with their mouths agape, before turning and snapping their heads back towards her with a snarl. “You-you will pay for what you have done!”

She ignored what he said, or more correctly ignored him completely. She ignored the implication of camaraderie that they all had, the implication of how under those brainwashed masks that they all wore, they were still humans who formed bonds with one another.

It would have been easier if she had ignored it, but in the end she couldn’t, they were still people with lives of their own. She knew not of what their fates would be after she eventually defeated them, but she could only assume that it would not be anything good.

In the end they were simply fighting on different sides, if she wanted to save and defend the people that were her precious people, then she would have to hurt them, it was simply that.

“I’ll activate the effect of Eldlixir of Scarlet Sanguine in my graveyard.” She declared the trap card’s graveyard effect. “I can banish this card from my graveyard to set one ‘Golden Land’ spell or trap directly from my deck.”

So she paid the cost, banishing the trap card that has the effect of getting Eldlich into rotation from her graveyard and revealed a card from her deck to her two remaining opponents. “I’ll set Conquistador of the Golden Land directly from my deck. And I’ll end my turn.”

And with that, she ended her turn. Passing to her two opponents with three monsters on her field, a spell or monster negate in the form of Mechaba considering the cards that she had on hand, Eldlich that turns on the non targeting destruction effect of Conquistador, and a monster banish from Mirrorjade, one whose target to send as cost was Titaniklad which would then turn on the Dogmatika engine that she had, and three cards in hand, one being the battle trick that was Aleister.

It certainly wasn’t an unbreakable board, cards like Dark Ruler No More or Evenly Matched certainly cleans up the whole board, but considering the deck that her opponent has, and considering the going second card pool that was currently out, she was quite confident in the board that she had built.

“Che-! My turn! I’ll draw!” The second duelist of the Obelisk Force started his turn, going through his Draw Phase and Standby Phase without activating anything, moving directly into the Main Phase with six cards in his hand.

“I’ll activate the Field Spell, Geartown!” He said, activating the first card of his six card hand, that being the archetypes own Field Spell. The hallway shifted once more, the walls being replaced with mechanical buildings made of gears and metals. 

“I’ll then activate the spell, Ancient Gear Catapult!” He activated the card in a new chain, activating the spell that could only be activated while he controls no monster. “While I control no monsters, I can target one face-up card I control and destroy it, to special summon one ‘Ancient Gear’ monster from my deck ignoring its summoning condition!”

She pondered for a second whether or not to negate the spell’s activation, especially since it essentially gives him two bodies on the field, and should he summon Wyvern to search for Box, it would get him a total of four materials, which was enough to summon Chaos Ancient Gear Giant.

After all, this was as a choke point, the card that gave out the most value that leads out to Ancient Gear Wyvern. And although the card was a three off that he could possibly have one in hand, and considering how he still hasn’t used his normal summon, he could possibly have it in hand.

But she would rather not let him get any recourses or advantage, especially considering how she would still have to deal with another person with six cards in hand during the next turn. “I’ll activate the effect of Invoked Mechaba. I’ll discard Shaddoll Fusion, to negate and banish Ancient Gear Catapult.”

With the cost paid and no further cards chained, the chain resolves, and as the mechanical Fusion Monster swung its blades, the spell was negated, and was then removed from play. Preventing the use of its graveyard effect with it being banished.

The masked teen clicked his tongue, scouring the other cards that he had in his hand in search of any other plays that he could do. And he certainly did find one, grinning as he did so, he took out a card from his hand and revealed it.

“I’ll set a card, and I’ll normal summon Ancient Gear Wyvern!” And as she had expected, he had hard drawn the Wyvern, meaning that he would be gaining a lot of mileage out of that one card, enough to possibly even Fusion Summon. That is, if he already has a card that would let him do so.

Ancient Gear Wyvern - Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1700/1200

“Ancient Gear Wyvern’s effect! If this card is normal or special summoned, I can add one ‘Ancient Gear’ card from my deck to my hand!” He declared the monster’s searching effect, glossing over the condition that he wouldn’t be able to set cards for the rest of the turn and immediately revealed a card.

“I will be adding Ancient Gear Box to my hand!” And as she had expected, he decided to add the extra body to his hand, and continued to activate its effect. “And now with Box’s effect, I’ll add Ancient Gear Knight!”

He added the two cards with the activation of a single Wyvern, and now with essentially three Ancient Gear names in total and two unknown cards remaining, the masked teen grinned from ear to ear.

“Kukuku! Now behold! I’ll activate the spell, Polymerization!” He slammed the normal spell to his duel disk, and  the holographic card’s projection shone brightly. “I’ll fuse Ancient Gear Box and Ancient Gear Knight, and Ancient Gear Hunting Hound in my hand, with the Ancient Gear Wyvern in my field!” 

The masked Obelisk Force declared as he activated the spell card and raised his hands, the four monsters on his designation too being lifted towards the spiral of blue and orange. “O ancient giant! Wyvern of the heights! Along with spirits residing in mechanical machineries, become one now and show your great powers!” He intertwined his fingers together and brought it down to complete the fusion chant.

“Fusion Summon! Appear! The strongest God of Destruction! Chaos Ancient Gear Giant!” The mechanical monster that was the archetype’s Boss Monster then appeared on the field, letting out a loud mechanical roar as it did so, both of its arms spread apart  as it stood menacingly, its full form being somewhat minimised to fit the hallway that they were on.

Chaos Ancient Gear Giant - Dark/Machine/Fusion/Level 10/Effect: 4500/3000

“Behold! The ultimate monster of the Academia! Of the Obelisk Force!” He gloated, the grin never leaving his features as he said so. “With its 4500 attack, It will decimate all of your monsters! And it’s immune to both the effects of spells and traps! It’s the ultimate machine of-”

So he managed to summon the Fusion Monster, annoying, but not something that she can’t deal with thankfully. “I’ll activate the effect of Mirrorjade the Iceblade Dragon.” She declared in response to the monster’s summon.

“Once per turn, as a Quick Effect, I can send one Fusion Monster that lists ‘Fallen of Albaz’ from my Extra Deck to the graveyard, to banish one monster on the field.” And as she had finished the explanation of her other Fusion Monster’s form of interaction, the ear to ear grin that the second Obelisk Force duelist had was turned into a jaw dropped maw.

“Wha-!”

“I’ll send Titaniklad the Ash Dragon, and banish your Chaos Ancient Gear Giant.” She cold said as she paid the cost for the monster’s effect activation, and the Fusion Wyrm shot one of its four ice blades, stabbing it directly through the enormous Machine Fusion Monster, and banishing it as it exploded into a gory of mechanical holographic parts.

“GUGAH!” The masked duelist cried out as he too was thrown into a wall from the explosion like his comrade before him. Although he hasn’t yet blacked out, it was clear that he was extremely close to it, seeing as he stood back limply, the mask covering his face having been cracked from the impact. 

Her heart ached, feeling sympathy and rage both towards her injured opponent and herself who had injured him, but she simply kept herself going, continuously chanting the phrase ‘it was better him than her or her friends and family’ over and over in her head.

“This effect of Mirrorjade the Iceblade Dragon cannot be used again next turn.” She said slowly, loud enough to be heard by all, but no doubt the voice was drowned by the cries of the fallen Obelisk Force duelist and his comrade’s call for his name.

“I-” He coughed out and stumbled for a bit before managing to pull himself back together. “I-I’ll end my turn.” And with that, he ended his turn. His board empty for other than the set card he had set and the Field Spell that now decorated the hallway, no other cards remaining in his hand as he had spent all his resources summoning the now banished Fusion Monster.

“On the End Phase, I’ll activate the effect of Titaniklad the Ash Dragon in my graveyard.” She said as they moved towards the End Phase. “During the End Phase, if this card is in the graveyard because it was sent there this turn, I can add to my hand or special summon one ‘Fallen of Albaz’ or ‘Dogmatika’ monster from my deck.”

She took out a card just as she had planned all the way during the start of her turn, revealing a Dogmatika monster from her deck. “I’ll special summon Dogmatika Ecclesia, the Virtuous in defence position.”

And the monster hits the field, swinging her battle hammer easily with one hand, the ever faithful white armoured girl appeared beside her other monsters, standing in defence position unlike the others.

Dogmatika Ecclesia, the Virtuous - Light/Spellcaster/Level 4/Effect: 1500/1500

“Now Ecclesia’s effect, If she’s normal or special summoned, I can add one ‘Dogmatika’ card from my deck to my hand. But at the cost that I can’t special summon from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn.” Not that she would be going through her Extra Deck next turn considering that it was still her opponents’ turn next, that and she doesn’t have Shaddoll Schism on field.

“I’ll add Dogmatika Fleurdelis, the Knighted to my hand.” And so she added another form of interaction to her hand, a hand trap monster negate in the form of Fleurdelis, though this one vies for a spot in her Monster Zone with the Conquistador that she had set the previous turn.

The last duelist who still had not yet had his turn looked frightened beyond belief. His head turning back and forth from his fallen comrades and herself, who no doubt, even with her small stature, looked like quite the intimidating figure with what she had just easily accomplished.

“I-I-I-!” He kept stuttering his words, his whole body shaking with fear and wrecked with anxiety. The fate that awaits him would be the same as his friends, any and all plays that he would met would be met with whatever interaction she would respond with, and on the crack back she would finish them off with her monsters.

“D-don’t- don’t falter!” The still staggering and heaving Obelisk Force beside him shouted, making him snap his head towards him. “The training that we had gone through was worse than this!”

“I-I can’t!” He shouted, tears leaking out from under his mask. “I CAN’T!” He shouted out as he turned tail and ran, running away intending to leave escape and leave the match. He did not get far, as his duel disk shone, and electrocuted him, hard.

“GYAAAH!” He shouted, electricity coursing through his entire body for a full few seconds before stopping. He fell soon after, the smell of burning flesh permeated through the hallway and she gagged at the fate that befell him.

Obelisk Force 3: 0LP

“You fool…” The one remaining operatives of the Obelisk Force whispered wistfully, looking away from the one who had attempted to run away from the duel, only to meet what she thought was probably a system that was placed onto all of the Obelisk Force’s duel disk to ‘encourage’ them to not run away from duels.

It… it made her sick down to her core. This was inhumane. Was this how the Professor treated all of those under him!? He had basically strapped a dead man's switch onto their duel disks that prevented them from surrendering or forfeiting the match!

 Her eyes focused on the one other remaining duelist that she faced, who gritted his teeth as he looked down to the ground. “My turn.” She said, silently drawing her card for the turn, though she didn’t need to look at what it was, knowing that she already has far over lethal with what she has on board. 

With a change as due to the battle royal rules, as all of her opponents’ turn has ended, the attack and defence of Eldlich reverted back to normal, and it lost its invulnerability to effect destruction. 

Eldlich the Golden Lord  - Dark/Zombie/Level 10/Effect: 2500/2800

“Forgive me.” She whispered under her breath. “Finish it.” She gave her orders to her monster, moving straight onto the Battle Phase, and dealt way over lethal damage to her one opponent.

“GYAAAH!” He shouted out as he was hit with her monsters’ attacks, reducing his full Life Points to zero in a single Battle Phase. He was thrown back down to the ground, and he lay there unconscious from the blow he received from the solid holograms.

Obelisk Force 2: 0LP

And so she stood there, the sole winner of the battle royal, and she could not feel any joy and warmth that came from winning the game- no, the one sided slaughter that she had all but done.

She looked down at her hands, shaking, bile rising up her throat at what she had done to them. She wanted to throw up, wanted to cry herself to sleep, to hope that all of this was merely a nightmare, and that when she wakes up she’ll see Serena, Mei, Sister Claire, Yuri, and all of her friends, and have her daily life continue like it usually would.

But it won’t, it never will, this was reality now, she should have known that this was reality, the Professor truly was planning on destroying a whole dimension to achieve whatever it is that he had planned, dooming millions upon millions of lives for his goal. 

But deep down, under the mask of humanity that she wore, she felt that she truly does not care for them all. She doesn’t care for the Obelisk Force duelists that she had defeated, she doesn’t care about the fates of the faceless inhabitants of the XYZ Dimension that she doesn’t know, she doesn’t care what it was that the Professor had planned for all these years.

Worlds would burn and lives would be lost, thus was the natural cycle of dimensions and worlds as shown to her by God. The only reason as to why she was even attempting to stop the Professor’s plans was simply because her System told her to, promising her rewards for doing so, and because he had roped her friends and family into his schemes, and using the one thing that she loved as a method to achieve it.

She had resolved to stop the Professor for simple, selfish reasons. Not even knowing what was truly at play in the grand scheme of it all, and in truth she doesn’t quite care.

The Professor had simply pissed her off, and she was now going to do her damndest to derail his entire plans.