Yu-Gi-Oh: Chaos of the Virtual World [PG-16]

[Sunshine Jesse]

I feel like I'm going to alienate a lot of people because there's no dueling in the first chapter. REGARDLESS. Here I go!

All characters I use in here that do not belong to me are credited by their original creators, whether they are in the roleplay saga or in the actual series.


I'm still working out a writing style so bare with me!
But please tell me how I could improve my writing skills.

[spoiler=Card Glossary]
[spoiler=Leif]

*Slash Draw!
[Spell/Normal]
Send a number of cards from the top of your Deck to the Graveyard equal to the total number of cards on the field. After that, draw 1 card from your Deck. If the card drawn by this effect is "Slash Draw!", destroy all cards on the field, and inflict damage to your opponent's Life Points equal to the number of cards destroyed by this effect x 1000. The activation and effect of this card cannot be negated by any other card.
RULING: The mill effect is a cost, so cards that activate upon being sent to the Graveyard are activated.

Reaper Zakra
Level 4; Fire
[Zombie/Effect]
This card cannot be tributed for a tribute summon. This card cannot destroy other monsters in battle. If this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent, your opponent cannot conduct their Battle Phase next turn. Place this card on top of your deck during the End Phase of the turn that it is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up.
Atk/1100 Def/900

Reaper Deya
Level 4; Wind
[Zombie/Spirit]
This card cannot be tributed for a tribute summon. This card cannot destroy other monsters in battle. Once per turn, you may select one attack-position monster on the field and reduce its Atk to 0, but it cannot be destroyed by battle this turn. Place this card on top of your deck during the End Phase of the turn that it is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up.
Atk/700 Def/1700

Reaper Adegos
Level 4; Water
[Zombie/Effect]
This card cannot be tributed for a tribute summon. This card cannot destroy other monsters in battle. While this card is face-up on the field, monsters with 'Reaper' in their names are unaffected by your opponent's card effects. Place this card on top of your deck during the End Phase of the turn that it is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up.
Atk/1300 Def/800

Trickster Reaper
Level 1;Dark
[Zombie/Tuner/Effect]
When this card is sent to the Graveyard, select 1 card in your Graveyard and place it at the top of your Deck.

Reaper Call
[Spell/Quick Play]
Pay Life Points in multiples of 1000 to Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower “Reaper” monster in your Graveyard for every 1000 Life Points played.

Power Wall:
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Power_Wall
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Agents in general:]

Temporal Samurai
Level 4;Light
This card can attack during the first turn of the duel by discarding 1 card.
ATK/1500, DEF/1500

Temporal Reset
[Trap/Normal]
Activate during the second turn of the duel when a card you control would be destroyed. Return all face-up cards on the field, in both player's hands, Graveyards, and out of play to the Deck. Then, both players draw 5 cards and lose half of their Life Points. You cannot conduct your next Draw Phase.

Temporal Machine God Sandaion:
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Temporal_Machine_God_Sandaion

Celestial Transformation:
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Celestial_Transformation
[/spoiler]
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Prologue: Rule Sharking Kills People]
[b]Characters introduced:[/b] Arthias, Zarkus, Mysterious Being


MMOs are one of the most popular genres of gaming. Throughout the history of video games, MMOs have sucked the lives away from millions upon millions of people, with hours of grinding dedicated them. Entire lives have been ruined over them. This is a story of one such MMO, a large game created by Kaiba Corporation based off of the world-famous Duel Monsters card game. With the world-famous card game behind it, and the extreme lengths KC went through to make this game good, it predictably took off. And of course, with every game comes hackers, but most of them were banned by Arthias before their attempts could cause any damage to the playerbase or the reputation of the game.

Arthias was the most valued GM of the staff He was kind to the players, but firm with the rules, and knew enough about hacking himself to track anyone down who dared try and stop them. One of his best friends was a player, Zarkus, who Arthias himself was training to be a GM. When Zarkus was finally ready, Arthias teleported him to the GM room where he could submit his application to the GM council. Right when Zarkus finished, Arthias sensed another hacking attempt.

“I'll return shortly.” Arthias said, teleporting away from the area to where the hacking attempt was. Upon reaching the location, Arthias looked around him, absolutely shocked, as the area he was in was absolutely corrupted, seemingly beyond repair. Normally, Arthias would be able to sense the corruption in the area before it got so bad, leading him to conclude that whoever was capable of this managed to insert this area into the virtual world from the outside, something that Arthias thought was impossible considering the intense security of the area.

Arthias began to explore the area, looking at the corrupted data. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before, the corrupted data in the area seemingly coded in a completely different programming language from the coding of the game, yet was perfectly compatible with it. This left Arthias dumbfounded, as he had no idea on how to remedy the issue. Suddenly, he heard an incredibly loud screeching noise. Not only did this hurt his ears, but it also did something else he thought was impossible.

It also caused him pain in his chest.

He fell on his knees, as he coughed up blood in real life. “What's going on here...?!” Arthias said, standing back up. He turned around, and attempted to teleport out of the area, but couldn't, as he began to perspire. He grew more and more anxious, as his heart started to race, as Arthias ran around the area and desperately looking for a way out, like a rat trapped in a cage. Or more accurately, a human buried alive.

He kept up his desperate searching for what felt like hours, before falling on his knees once more, completely exhausted. The loud screeching noise resonated throughout the room once again, as he coughed up blood, and fell on his hands. Arthias was growing increasingly weak, his body unable to take the stress he was feeling. He stood up once more and looked behind him, seeing a humanoid figure that looked exactly like a reversed version of Zarkus: White hair and green eyes, instead of Zarkus' black hair and red eyes.

“It's you...” Arthias said, as an 8000 appeared over both of their heads. A duel disk appeared on both of their arms, as a deck was loaded into the being's disk. Arthias' duel disk remained empty, however. “...but... I don't have a deck. Why would you... do this to me?” Arthias said in an increasingly desperate tone. The being smiled and slowly began to walk towards Arthias, as a blade appeared in his hand.

“Then you are disqualified.” the being said in a voice devoid of any humanity.

Arthias slowly began to walk back, sweat pouring down his brow, as his breathing grew more and more pained. His heart continued to race, as he was quickly cornered, a cliff leading into the unknown reaches of cyberspace. behind him. Arthias opened his mouth, and spoke a few last words: “This... wasn't supposed to hap-...” Blood trickled out of Arthias' mouth, as the being's sword was now lodged in his heart. The sword was torn out of his chest, as Arthias fell back into the abyss. In real life, his heart completely stopped and his brain activity ceased once and for all.

The being teleported away from the area, Arthias' blood still resting on his blade...

[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Prologue Revisited]
MMOs are one of the most popular genres of gaming. Throughout the history of video games, MMOs have sucked the lives away from millions upon millions of people, with hours of grinding dedicated them. Entire lives have been ruined over them. When there's a problem with a game, however, players flee. The internet is a dangerous place- but Kaiba Corporation's MMO claimed to be the opposite.

Arthias was the most valued 'Game Manager' on the Kaiba MMO. Safety was key to him, and he was both strict, and kind. The man was adored by the players, due to the many events he hosted in their honor. The man gave away free, high level gear constantly, and was always happy to lend a helping hand. However, he had one flaw. Hackers. If Arthias got even the hint that somebody was hacking, he would strike down with horrible anger, his banhammer hitting harder than most.

This is what had led to the more recent events.

“I'll return shortly.” Arthias said, teleporting away from the area to where the hacking attempt was. 'Hackers. Damn.' his mind spat, as he materialized into a new area, one that he had never seen before. The general theme of the game was a stereotypical Swords and Sorcery mideval-esque era with some call-forwards to the late 1800s, but the area he found himself in now was a fully industrialized larger city, except with random points in the city replaced by 0s and 1s, as well as the sky being blood red. The area was obviously very corrupted in nature.

The first mistake Arthias made was to teleport directly to the area instead of checking the place around it. GMs have had a history of being deleted for teleporting directly to the areas where hackers resided, but it wasn't that big of a deal for Arthias because he had many backups, but in this particular situation it would prove to be his downfall.

He wandered throughout the area, intruiged by the nature of its coding. It was seemingly programmed directly into the game, but used a completely different programming language. Arthias was confused by this, but he thought he knew exactly how to deal with it. A keyboard appeared in front of Arthias, as he began to type several different things on to it. "Firewall program activate." he said, as a literal wall of fire appeared around his body. It grew in size, eventually hitting the buildings, but stopped there.

This was his second mistake, as he had literally locked himself in.

"Hm... I wonder what the issue is here." he said, attempting to cause the firewall to lower, but failing. This scared him a bit, but he just tried a second, third, and fourth time, all of which failing, each time growing more frantic. He ran towards the firewall and smashed his fists against it, eventually burning them. He quickly moved his hands away from the firewall, and looked at them.

"I... I actually felt that..."

He began to frantically run around the area, feeling true, primal fear, like a caged rat. His attempts to teleport out the area failed, hitting the firewall and further burning himself, the pain translating to real life as a small amount of blood trickled down his mouth. He eventually found himself giving up, standing in the center and looking around the area. "I don't understand.." he said, failing to find a way out.

Suddenly, he heard an ear-piercing screech behind him as he coughed up blood in real life. He turned around to a sudden presence behind him, as he saw a man. The man had long, white hair and green eyes, with classic mideval armor, with a long broadsword in his left hand. His face didn't look aged at all despite having white hair, the man himself not looking a day over 25.

"It's... you!"

The white-haired man walked towards Arthias, an 8000 appearing over his head. A duel disk appeared on both of their arms, as a deck was loaded into the being's disk. Arthias' duel disk remained empty, however. “...but... I don't have a deck. Why would you... do this to me?” Arthias said in an increasingly desperate tone. The being smiled and slowly began to walk towards Arthias, holding his sword up.

“Then you are disqualified.” the man said in a voice devoid of any humanity, or emotion.

Arthias slowly began to walk back, sweat pouring down his brow, as his breathing grew more and more pained. His heart continued to race, as he was quickly cornered, fire right behind him. The man drew his sword back and thrust it forward into Arthias' chest, as a large hole appeared in it, a small glowing sphere floating out and into Arthias' hand. "...you're deleting my character and stealing my data? Why? Why are you d-..."

Arthias suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest, like hundreds of blades were piercing his heart. His consciousness began to fade, as he coughed up blood. His player character fell back into the firewall, the flames bathing his body and burning his player character's data into nothingness, every bit of data slowly deconstructing. Seconds felt like years as he and his character painfully died and he fell down from where he was sitting. Arthias looked up at his screen and futiley reached towards it, before finally going limp.

"God... damn it."

The being teleported away from the area, Arthias' blood still resting on his blade.
[/spoiler]
[Spoiler=Chapter 1: Everyone is Cannon Fodder]
[b]Characters Introduced:[/b]: Leif, Suited Man, two cannon fodder GMs.

When news upon Arthias' death became public, Kaiba Corporation did what any logical corporation would: They covered it up. He was getting somewhat old after all, so it was easy to say that he just had a heart attack while playing. The people naturally believed it, having no reason to think that they were being lied to. It was also easy to cover up because no further events happened after that. Zarkus quickly became a GM regardless of the events that transpired with Arthias, and also became somewhat popular with the players. A month passed after Arthias' death, and everyone settled down.

“Another day at work. Joy.” Zarkus said, as he sat down on a chair and logged into the game. Looking through the news section, he noticed that there was finally announcement on “immersion pods”, which allow people's consciousness to be transferred into the game itself. “I get the strangest feeling this won't end well but whatever.” Zarkus said, as his character loaded into one of the starting areas: A green forest with such intricate detail to it that it obviously took weeks upon weeks to make. And of course, whenever a GM logs on to an MMO, people come begging for stuff that they do not really deserve.

In order to find peace, Zarkus vanished from sight completely in an overdramatic display of graphics and appeared in an area he was working on, a cathedral loosely based off of a cathedral from one of his favorite video games. The cathedral wasn't exactly large, but there was a good amount of detail to it, as Zarkus tried to make it as accurate as possible. He didn't expect it to take off, as it was just a large cathedral in the middle a gigantic lake with nothing really special to it, but it would just be a sentimental place that he could relax in with pretty good background music.

While Zarkus was finishing up the final touches, two more GMs appeared behind him from portals. The GMs wore black cloaks that obscured their entire bodies, as they preferred to be anonymous unlike Zarkus does. “Leon, Amanda... what are you two doing here?” he said, walking towards them. The one on the left lowered his hood, revealing a head short brown hair, green eyes, glasses, and trace amounts of hair on his chin. The other one lowered her hood, revealing a feminine face with long black hair, and brown eyes.

“We have important news. Come with us.” Leon said, opening a portal. Zarkus walked in it, finding himself in the main GM room, a large round table with a screen at the end. The screen revealed yet another corrupted area, a city with random textures replaced by green 1's and 0's, as well as a red slime surrounding some of the buildings. Zarkus looked at the buildings with shock. “That's impossible...” he said, wondering how nobody could sense it before.

Amanda opened up a portal in the room. “We have no choice. We have to investigate.” she said, as she brought her deck with her. Leon did the same, and Zarkus looked up at the two of them, dumbfounded. “...so we're going to go to the same place that Arthias died. A place that no players can go to yet... and yet we're going to risk our lives for it. Genius.” he thought, but not speaking out because he didn't exactly want to get fired. He loaded his own deck into the disk and walked through the portal, appearing in said corrupted zone.

They wandered around for a short while, not really finding many leads, but definitely collecting date on it. “It's weird... the corrupted data doesn't even seem to be written in a programming language.” Amanda said, typing things on a see-through data keyboard. Zarkus looked up in the sky, a moon with an Alpha insignia on it floating above them. He could sense something very odd from it, something that he thought he'd never sense from a video game: Actual malice.

Suddenly, a low pitched roar echoed throughout the area, as all three of them jumped. “...we have to go.” Leon said, attempting to open a portal, but failing. Every time he tried, it immediately closed, none of them able to get through it. All three of them started to sweat, as a loud ear-piercing scream echoed throughout the area. Not only did it harm their ears, but it caused all three of them to cough up blood as well.

“...h-how...” Amanda said, grasping her chest in pain. Leon began to grow increasingly desperate as he ran off, trying to find a way out. “Wait!” Zarkus shouted, but it was too late, but Leon kept running. Another roar could be heard from the area, as Amanda ran off as well. “No! Dammit!” he said, reaching out to her as well, but to no avail. Looking around the area, he had no idea what to do, but eventually heard a scream from the direction Leon was coming from. A voice echoed throughout his head, the voice of a robotic female, the same one that happens whenever a GM takes an action.

“Leon's character has been deleted.”

Zarkus grew increasingly freightened, as several low-pitched roars bellowed throughout the area. He stood completely still, but eventually heard another loud scream resonate throughout the area, this one clearly belonging to Amanda.

“Amanda's character has been deleted.”

Zarkus then lost his s***, running throughout the area with no aim or logic behind it. He saw Leon's corpse with a large hole in his chest, and eventually ran across Amanda's as well, with the same large hole. Zarkus ran into an alleyway and breathed in deeply, trying to relax.

Then he turned around.

Behind him was a man in a suit and sunglasses, with short black hair. “...looks like whoever did this is a fan of The Matrix.” he said, making a joke to himself to conceal his crippling fear. A black battle-city duel disk appeared on the arm of the suited man, as an 8000 appeared over Zarkus' head. “If you win, I'll let you go.” the man said in a robotic voice, as Zarkus loaded up his own duel disk as well and drew five cards. “I go first!” Zarkus said, looking at his opening hand, which was pretty amazing, and made a great opening play. The suited man drew 5 cards as well, and smiled.

Zarkus didn't even last a single turn.

Zarkus' Life Point meter decreased to 0, as he fell to his knees. The suited man appeared in front of Zarkus and lifted him up by his neck. He thrust his hand through Zarkus' chest, and began to pull out a small orb, as Zarkus began to suffer a heart attack. Suddenly, the man's arm was detached from his body by a large beam of energy, as a figure appeared in front of him.

The man wore a black shirt with white pants and a green trench coat, as well as a Sherlock Holmes styled hat. His face was angular, mostly pointed, making him look small and meek, despite him being at least 6'3. However, his face was obscured by a red drama mask, concealing the rest of his facial features. Zarkus fell back, the suited man's arm disintegrating in his chest, and looked up one last time as he began to lose consciousness, an 8000 appearing over the masked man's head.

“Why not pick on someone your own size?” the masked man said, the last words Zarkus heard before he lost consciousness, although not permanently. Zarkus was quickly rushed to the hospital by his roommate, and was rendered comatose for a week, requiring several heart surgeries to save his life. The other GMs weren't so lucky, however, as all of them died on the spot. Zarkus' life had been saved by the mysterious man who showed up, but even then, the memory of this event was permanently carved into him in the form of a large scar on his chest.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Chapter 2: Mandatory Boring Exposition Chapter]
Once again, Kaiba Corporation’s Virtual World division had to cover up the deaths of 2 Game Masters and the coma another was in. The people were growing increasingly paranoid, but their fears were quelled once they realized that only GMs were being targeted. There was no decrease in players at all, and no other corrupted areas to the knowledge of the GMs.

Six days after Zarkus was rendered comatose, two particular GMs found himself investigating the situation more in-depth. One of them, named Sigma, wore an odd looking mask with two of his ash grey bangs coming out over the top. His ash grey hair was styled in a pony-tail at the back, which reached his shoulders. He wore Kaiba style coat and long brown pants, with a lavender shirt and a pair of knee-high black boots. The other one, Haru Wakashudo, wore no shirt, but had blue tattoos in his chest, long brown pants, and a violet cape reminiscent. His appearance was pretty much a carbon copy of Kamina’s, except he had brown hair.. He was obviously a huge fan of Gurren Lagann.

“Zarkus was the only survivor… I wonder why he of all people was saved.” Sigma said, looking through the footage right until the cut-off point, where the mysterious man appeared and saved his life. Sigma rubbed his chin, thinking to himself “That man… who could he be?” Haru sighed, obviously finding this job boring, but was still curious as to what happened because he really got along with Zarkus. Suddenly, a beeping sound resonated throughout the room, the signal of a private message being sent. Sigma opened up his mailbox, and read the message.

From: Leif
Subject: Meet me at the Cathedral.
Message: I have important news regarding the events that transpired yesterday.

Sigma wasted no time in teleporting there, dragging Haru with him against his will. Upon reaching the cathedral, both of them gasped at the sheer level of detail Zarkus put into it. “…is he autistic or something?” Haru said, the comment being met with a firm slap upside the head by Sigma. They walked in the door, the same man who saved Zarkus standing in the top of the stairs, looking at an angelic statue. “Who the heck are you?” Haru said rather rudely, Sigma holding back the urge to hit him yet again as he was trying to make a good first impression on him to get information out of him easier.

The man walked down the stairs, sporting a blue mask this time. “I am Leif. Leif Sennes. Nice to meet you.” He said, holding his hand out for Sigma to shake. Sigma returned the handshake, smiling under his mask. “Let us skip the foreplay.” Leif said, opening a video projector and revealing how the duel between him and the suited man went. Leif barely managed to end the duel in a draw, but it was enough to drive him away.

“These suited beings are called ‘Agents’. They are programs created by a certain incredibly powerful virus that has managed to seep itself into the virtual world.” Leif said, holding out a mysterious cube with 1’s and 0’s floating in it, and a white core residing in the center. A weird energy radiated from it, unlike what one would expect from the virtual world. “This cube has the data the three collected, plus the data I collected from the duel.” He said, tossing the cube over to Sigma.

Sigma was shocked at all the man had gotten done, and surprised that he managed to end a duel in a draw where 4 other GMs failed to even do damage to him. “By the way Sigma, when Zarkus returns to the game, tell him that he needs to use that inner power of his that he’s kept hidden for so long.” Leif said. Sigma looked up at Leif, gritting his teeth. “…but Zarkus is comatose. What if he never wakes up, and what makes you think he’ll even play this game again after what happened to him?”

“He will.” Leif said, smiling under his mask.

Suddenly, a low-pitched roar could be heard throughout the area, as the area began to grow corrupted. Sigma and Haru gasped, as their logout and teleport commands failed to initiate. Leif sighed, as his duel disk activated. “They’re here.” He said, as yet another man in a suit appeared in the cathedral, standing behind both Sigma and Haru. “Wh…what?” Haru said, a look of fear on his eyes. The both of them jumped back, as an 8000 appeared over the heads of everyone in the room.

“I will be your lone opponent, Agent.” Leif said, loading his duel disk and walking towards the agent. The agent smiled, loading his own duel disk. “After you die, they’re next.” He said, not willing to accept Leif’s proposal. Haru stepped forward as he loaded his own duel disk, but Sigma pulled him back, preventing him from joining. “…why can’t we help? He can’t actually –win- against this thing!” Haru declared. Sigma merely looked over at Leif, sighing. “He knows. He has a plan.” Sigma said, as Leif and the Agent both drew their first five cards.

Meanwhile, in the hospital, Zarkus gasped and opened his eyes for the first time in almost a week…
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Chapter 3: Holy s***, Somebody Finally Duels]

“I go first.” the Agent said in a completely robotic voice as he placed the next card from his hand onto his duel disk as a knight in red samurai armor with a clock on the breastplate and a single sword in his left hand appeared from the ground. His face appeared completely blank, with no facial details whatsoever, making it look like he was nothing more than a host for the armor and blade

ATK: 1500
DEF: 1500

“I summon Temporal Samurai. With his effect, I can attack you directly on the first turn of the duel at the cost of a single card in my hand.” he said, placing a Monster card in his Graveyard, which appeared to be a level 4 effect Monster, but Leif couldn't catch the name. “That's cheating!” Haru declared, as the samurai dashed forward and slashed Leif across the chest, dropping his Life Points from 8000 to 6500. The Agent set 2 cards and ended his turn, both Haru and Sigma completely oblivious to his strategy, but only Haru still showing shock. Leif had already dissected it however, and merely smiled.

H:2
S/T: 2
M:1
LP: 8000
Graveyard: 1

Upon drawing his card, he looked at his opening hand. “Excellent. With this, my strategy comes together.” he said, placing his first card in his Spell and Trap card zone. “I activate Reaper Swarm. With this, whenever I summon a Reaper Monster, once per turn, I can send one card from the top of my deck to my Graveyard to summon another.” he said, as he laid down the first card in his hand.

Leif's plan was simple. He was going to manipulate the size and contents of his deck in order to maximize the effect of his Slash Draw card and take control of the duel. “I summon Reaper Zakra.” he said, as a person rose from the ground. He wore a vest, pants with a slight puff near the bottom, and a jacket over his coat, all of them died crimson, as well as a Red Oni mask with two horns that came out from the top out from the top, with long hair, spiked near the top coming out from behind it. His weapon was unlike that of what one would expect from a reaper, instead being an odd hybrid of a claymore and a rapier, a wide yet incredibly thin red blade. “And now I send the top card of my deck to the Graveyard to call forth my Reaper Deya.” he said, the top card of his deck being a level 4 effect monster with a blue colored card art, but the rest of the details were obscured.

Zakra: ATK: 1100
Deya: ATK: 700

From the ground, a little girl with a grass green skirt, a similarly colored shirt, and long brown hair, with her face covered by a green oni mask with one horn. She couldn't have been more then eight or nine years old in appearance. Her weapon was a green scythe way too large for her body, but somehow she carried it perfectly. She seemed to bounce around the field like a little girl, with Zakra looking at her and rubbing his head out of frustration. “Both of you, come here.” he said, flicking his wrist, both of the monsters now standing in front of him.

“Now I activate Reaper Call.” he said, as his Life Points dropped from 6500 to 5500, and a man with long blue hair, unbound but cascading out from behind a long, blue Oni mask. Appeared from the ground. Unlike Red's Elizabethan-era Brittish clothing, he wore old japanese-styled training clothing. His weapon was obviously a traditional katana, a contrast to the weapons of the other two. “I summon Reaper Adegos, who shields my other reapers from card effects.” he said, a blue veil surrounding all three of his monsters
.
Adegos: ATK: 1300

“Did he just summon a bunch of monsters in one turn?” Haru said, looking at the three reapers ahead of him. Nobody responded to his comment though, which made him sad

“I activate the effect of Deya, reducing the attack points of your monster to 0.” he said, as Deya waved her arm, green sparkles flying over the samurai, disintegrating its sword. “And now my three monsters attack!” he declared, as each one dashed forth and slashed the samurai. The samurai wasn't destroyed, but the damage still took a large chunk out of the Agent's Life Points.

LP: 8000 → 5900

“And now I activate Slash Draw.” Leif declared, sending the card in his hand and the top 7 cards from his deck to the Graveyard. “One of the cards I sent was Trickster Reaper, allowing me to select 1 card from my Graveyard and place it at the top of my deck when he's sent to my Graveyard.”he said, placing a card on the top of his deck, and drawing it. .

“The card I drew is Slash Draw.”

Suddenly, time grinded to a complete halt around the area, as the Agent revealed his face-down card. “I activate Temporal Reset.” he declared, as every face-up card on the field and in both player's hands converted into a white orb, flying back into their Deck as well as every card in the Graveyard of both players.

“When Temporal Reset activates, all face-up cards on the field and in both players hands and Graveyards are returned to the Deck. Then, both of our Life Points halve, and we each draw five cards. This card can only be activated on the second turn of the duel.” he said, his face-down card remaining on the field.

Agent: 2450
Leif: 2250

“The effect of Slash Draw still resolves, destroying your card.” Leif said, as a large blade of energy cut the card in half. (Agent's LP: 2450->1450) As the card was sent to the graveyard, the Agent smiled. It was a Mirror Force which Adegos prevented anyway, but the Agent obviously had something planned despite the fact that he was behind. “I set three cards and end.” Leif said, leaving himself open to attack.

Hand: 2
Monsters: 0
S/T: 3

The Agent looked at his hand. “Due to the effect of my Temporal Reset, I'm not allowed to conduct my next Draw Phase.” he said, placing his hand up against his ear. “Permission to use that?” he said, speaking to someone through a device on his head. A voice could be heard near him, saying “Yes” in a calm female voice, as the Agent reached toward his hand and laid down his next card. “I activate Celestial Transformation. With this effect, I can call forth a Fairy monster from my hand at the expense of half its ATK value.” he said, reaching for another card in his hand, and placing it down.

“Arise, Temporal Machine God Sandaion!”

Showing some sort of emotion for the first time so far, the monster rose up from behind him, a yellow-colored machine-esque monster with a mirrored chest, a male face reflected in said mirror. Oddly enough, it was a Fairy type despite it's name and appearance. “Now I activate my Spell card Forced Battle, allowing me to conduct my Battle Phase despite any card effects activated within the past two turns.”

ATK: 4000 → 2000

“Sandaion attacks you directly.” he said, as the monster created a lance out of yellow energy and threw it towards Leif, hitting him head on, creating a large explosion around the area and forming a cloud of dust above his head. “I flip my Trap card, Power Wall. With this, I can send cards from the top of my Deck to the Graveyard to reduce damage by 100 each.” he said, dropping 20 cards from the top of his deck to the Graveyard, one of which being Trickster Reaper, allowing him to place Slash Draw at the top of his deck.

“The effect of Sandaion activates, making you take 4000 damage.” the Agent said, as the cloud of dust above Leif began to glow, sparks of electricity in it.

“No! Leif!” Haru shouted, reaching out toward him, but he was pulled back by Sigma. “Sigma.. why?” he said, looking up at him. Even though you couldn't see through his mask, he was perspiring as well. “Because... he has a plan.” Sigma said, shaking.

Leif sighed, as he flipped his next face-down card. “I didn't want to have to rely on luck so much, but I guess I have no choice. I flip my Spell Textbook. By discarding my entire hand, I can draw 1 card and activate if it it's a Spell card.” he said, as he flipped his second card. “Then I chain Reaper Call, allowing me to summon Reaper Zakra and Reaper Adegos.” he said, his two reapers rising to the field in attack position. Leif drew one card and revealed it to his opponent, placing it in his Spell/Trap card zone.

Leif held 1 copy of Slash Draw left in his deck and one in his Graveyard, along with two copies of Trickster Reaper. With 14 cards left in his deck, he had a one in seven chance of getting rid of one of his two Trickster Reapers. If that failed, upon sending the top 5 cards of his deck to the Graveyard, he had a one in nine chance of drawing the remaining Slash Draw and winning the duel.

“And now... I activate Slash Draw!”

[/spoiler]
[Spoiler=Chapter 3 Duel Summary]
Duel Summary:

Agent's Turn.

-Drew a card (Hand: 6)
-Normal Summoned Temporal Samurai (1500 ATK)
-Discarded 1 card and attacked directly. (Hand: 4) (Leif: 8000 → 6500)
-Set 2 cards and ended his turn.

Leif's turn:
-Activated Reaper Swarm
-Summoned Reaper Zakra (1300 ATK)
-Special Summoned Reaper Deya (700 ATK)
-Milled Reaper Adegos
-Activated Reaper Call, allowing him to pay LP in multiples of 1000 to Special Summon 1 reaper for every 1000 LP paid. (Leif: 6500 → 5500)
-Summoned Reaper Adegos
-Haru tries to make a Yu-gi-oh abridged reference but is cut off
-The effect of Deya activates, reducing the ATK of Samurai to 0.
-All three of his Monsters attacked. (Agent's LP: 8000 → 5900)
-Leif activated Slash Draw, milling Trickster Reaper and another copy of Slash Draw, as well as five other cards.
-The effect of Trickster Reaper activates, allowing him to place one card from his Graveyard at the top of his deck.
-He drew Slash Draw.
-Agent activated Temporal, resetting the field and both player's hands, and halving their Life Points, except for his one-face down which was destroyed by Slash Draw. (Agen'ts LP: 2450-> 1450)
-Leif set 3 cards and ended his turn.

Agent's turn:
-Temporal Reset renders him unable to draw a card.
-Agent activates Celestial Transformation, allowing him to summon Temporal Machine God Sandaion with half ATK
-Agent activates Forced Battle, allowing him to conduct his Battle Phase despite Zakra's effect.
-Sandaion attacks
-Leif flips Power Wall, milling 20 cards and reducing damage to 0
-One of the cards was Trickster Reaper, allowing him to place
-The effect of Sandaion activates, inflicting 4000 damage.
-Leif chains Spell Text Book, allowing him to draw 1 card and activate it if it's a spell, at the cost of his hand.
-Chains Reaper Call, allowing him to Summon Zakra and Adegos
-Leif draws Slash Draw and activates it.

To be continued...
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Chapter 4: Climax, Foreshadowing, and Emo Main Character]

“I activate Slash Draw!” Leif declared, as he sent the top five cards of his deck to the Graveyard, none of which were his Trickster Reaper. The tension around him could be cut with a knife, but Leif was completely calm as he revealed the card he drew. “I drew the card Veil Reaper.” he said, as the chain link resolved and a large blast of lightning shot from the cloud, striking Leif head on. Above him, a cloak surrounded his body.

“I activate the effect of Veil Reaper. When I take damage, I can send cards from the top of my Deck to the Graveyard to decrease the damage by 500 each. I send eight cards.” he said, sending the cards from his hand and deck to the Graveyard, the lightning dispersing around him. By the effect of the two Trickster Reaper cards he sent, he placed two cards on the top of his deck.

“So you managed to buy yourself a turn. Even so, you only have three cards left in your deck. With my final spell card, nothing will be able to bridge the gap between us.” the Agent declared, Sandaion looming down on Leif. “I activate Temporal Revitalization. Now, my Life Points become what they were two turns ago. I end.”

Agent's LP: 8000

“It's my turn. I draw!” he said, looking at what he drew and placing it in the Spell/Trap card zone. “I activate Reaper Advent! I can draw one card from my deck and reveal it to you. If it's a level 4 or lower Reaper monster, I can Special Summon it and draw again. If it's not a Reaper, it's returned to my deck instead.” Leif picked up the card from his deck: Reaper Deya, and summoned it to the field in attack position, all three of his Reapers now on the field.

Leif drew the last card in his deck and looked at it, smiling. “So this is the final card my deck had in store for me, huh? Heh... it won't win me the duel, but I'll still be able to leave my mark on this world! Spell card, activate!” he said, placing his card in the Spell and Trap card zone. Adegos an d Zakra converted into orbs of energy, which flowed into the card.

“United Fighting Spirit!”

Every Monster in his hand, deck, and Graveyard also converted into an orb of pure energy, which surrounded Leif. Leif's blue mask turned pure white, as two angelic wings formed on his back, and a large blade formed in his hand. Leif walked forward into his spell and Trap card zone, the frown on his drama mask turning into a smile.

“Arise, Legendary Method Actor – Leif.”

The barrier surrounding the cathedral vanished and the corrupted areas began to recover, as the Agent looked upon Leif's new form. “Wh-...what are y-?” the Agent said, his programming being jammed by the sheer amount of power radiating from him.

“I use the effect of my Legendary Actor – Leif. By Tributing him, I can Special Summon 3 different “Modified Reaper Gods” from my Extra Deck. Arise, Modified Reaper God – Zakra Red, Modified Reaper God – Adegos Blue, and Modified Reaper God – Deya Green.” Leif said, as he rose his hand up into the sky. Three orbs appeared from his hand; one green, one blue, and one red, as they flew through Leif's chest. Three reapers appeared from the orb, each one looking closer to a stereotypical grim reaper except with scythes and cloaks in their corresponding colors.

“Since I cannot win the duel, I will give my life to ensure a future for this world. I KNOW that you pose a threat larger than this simple game, and with this sacrifice, I will carve a path to tomorrow. Adegos, Deya, Zakra, go forth!”

Leif's body began to disintegrate, as all three of the reapers rose up their scythes, large streams of energy shooting from them up into the roof of the area, creating a multicolored barrier that surrounded the entire cathedral. The reapers converted into pure energy and flied through the Agent's chest, pulling out a small core of data which landed in Sigma's hands.

“Who are you...?” the Agent said, the power he felt from Leif unlike anything he has felt before. For the first time in his life, he had felt fear. His body began to disintegrate rapidly.

“I am nothing but an actor.”

Leif turned around to Sigma and Haru, smiling at them. A core floated out of his chest and split into three pieces, each one flying into the chest of one of his reapers, as they converted into streams of energy, flying towards the Agent and completely destroying his body, then vanishing into nothing, all traces of their data gone.

Haru and Sigma both looked at what had just occurred, dumbfounded as to what happened and why. Quickly, Sigma got to analyzing the core he held in his hand, shocked at all the information inside of it. “What did you find out?” Haru said, looking over at Sigma, who opened up a screen with all the information displayed on it.

“It's not much, but we have leads now. You see, this is all caused by a virus, which was created by a single man from corrupting the code of the virtual world itself. This is all I know for now, because...” Sigma said, a bit of worry in his voice now.

“Because... what?” Haru said, confused and slightly worried himself.

“...because this Agent was of the weakest class out of five.” Sigma said, closing the console

“...well... s***.” Haru said, unable to respond to that much more. He tried to say something else, but nothing came to mind.

Zarkus logged into the virtual world and quickly went to the cathedral, noticing the barrier surrounding it. He walked through the barrier with no issue, and noticed Sigma and Haru. “...what are you guys doing here?” he said to them, although the two of them were dumbfounded as to why a man who just came out of a coma logged into an online game. Sigma didn't say much, and just opened up the console and explained what happened.

“...so, you mean?” Zarkus said, looking up at Sigma. Sigma just nodded, as Zarkus turned around. “...so you mean to say I couldn't even save the person who saved my life? First Arthias... and now him?”

“Don't blame yourself... you had no control over it!” Haru said, reaching out to Zarkus. Zarkus simply walked away, ignoring him, and vanished from the area. Sigma looked disappointed and angry at how Zarkus acted, but Haru sighed. “He always gets like this when he loses someone who meant something to him...” Haru said, but he was still unsure on what to do in these circumstances. “...but now is NOT the time!” he said, storming off out of the cathedral, leaving Sigma behind.

Zarkus walked around in a town area, modeled after NYC in the 1920s with his head held down, as he received message after message.

“will send u boobs for gm!!!!11!”

“i deserve cards! I have a huge win record and treat everyone nicely!!!!”

“make a roleplay server plz”

“hey this guy cheated in our casual duel! Admin! Help!”

“To grow your penis twenty inches, click here.”

Zarkus just ignored the messages and continued to sulk throughout the town, sitting on a bench in front of a pond. “I really dropped the ball, didn't I?” he said, talking to himself, then looking down at the floor and sighing deeply.

“Why are you so emo?” a voice said from above him. Zarkus looked up and saw a little girl with a Gothic Lolita-styled dress, really long blonde hair that was almost down to her ankles, blue eyes, and vampire fangs.

“Oh god another f***ing Twilight fan. I thought that series died 20 years ago.” Zarkus thought to himself, then standing up and rubbing the back of his head. “I'm not emo. I'm just tired.” he said, walking past the girl. The girl turned around and promptly jumped on his back. “...get off of me!” Zarkus yelled, shaking and trying to get her off of him, but to no avail.

“Nope. I'm sticking to you until you feel better!” she said, vehemently refusing to let go. Zarkus sighed, frustrated that the girl wouldn't let go, but he just shrugged, not wanting to disappoint another person and increase his ever-growing guilt.

“Okay fine. You can stick around. But only if you listen to my story.”

Meanwhile, in a large corrupted building where there were 1s and 0s instead of windows, the mysterious body-double of Zarkus was sitting down in the top room, a mirror-image of the GM room. Upon hearing the news of the first Agent being destroyed, he rubbed his forehead and sighed. Pressing a button on his chair, a screen opened up in front of him, showing the profiles of all the GMs.

“Which one should I target next...” he said, looking through the profiles. Sigma and Haru interested him the most, as they were the GMs closest to Zarkus. “I'm not giving them another chance. I'm sending a rank five Agent after them.” the mysterious being said, as he pressed another button on his chair, sending a signal out.

Haru walked throughout the town Zarkus is in, trying to find him. “Where is he?” Haru said, clenching his fist. He eventually stumbled upon Zarkus, talking to the little girl he had just met. “Well he must be in a better mood.” he said, slowly beginning to approach him.

“You have a depressing life, mister.” the girl said, looking up at him with wide eyes. Zarkus looked down at her and smiled.

“Well aside from the heart attack and that one incident, it's not that bad.” Zarkus said, laughing.

“Hey! Zarkus!” Haru said, running towards the two of them. “Glad to see you're feeling better... I assume. Anyways, who's the girl?”

“Oh, this girl? Her name is...” Zarkus said, but was interrupted by a low pitched rumbling sound. In the area they were in, the data volume was beginning to greatly increase, and the people around them began to slow down, almost as if time was grinding to a halt. A bright flash of light surrounded them, as they vanished from the area, appearing in a corrupted version of the city they were in. All of the buildings were colored red, missing pieces, and the sky consisted of 1s and 0s instead of blue.

“...oh no. Not here! Not now! Not with her!” Zarkus said, looking at the girl below her. In front of all 3 of them, another Agent appeared, except this one with one black angelic wing on the right side of his body, and white hair instead of the brown that a normal Agent had. An 8000 appeared over the heads of all 3 of them, as the Agent activated his duel disk.

“Which one of you... will be my first victim?” the Agent said, activating his duel disk. Zarkus stepped up, but Haru ran in the way.

“You're in no condition to duel. I'll take care of this.” he said, activating his duel disk and loading his deck. He tried to be as confident as possible, but in reality he was terrified, knowing that he would probably lose. However, he hoped that he would be able to buy time for Zarkus and the girl with him to find a way out.

“I go first.” Haru said, drawing the first card of his deck. He looked through his hand, thinking of his options. “I summon Elemental Hero Neos Alius in attack position. I set two cards and end.” he said, a bead of sweat moving down his brow. He honestly wondered if he would even last a turn, but shook his head and decided to fake being confident. “Come at me!” he declared, pointing directly at his angelic foe.

Meanwhile, the data volume in the area began to increase further, signifying that something else of great power was about to show up, but all of the four people there were too preoccupied to notice.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Chapter 5: I Originally Planned a Longer Chapter, But Decided to End It There]

“I draw.” The Agent said, looking at his opening hand. Picking the first card from his hand, he placed it down in his Monster card zone. “I summon Temporal Shinobi. (ATK: 1200) With his effect, I can increase or decrease the turn count by two. I choose to decrease it by two, making the turn count 1, since it cannot go to 0.” he said, as a ninja wearing an all-black outfit appeared from the ground. Like Temporal Samurai, this creature had a clock on his chest and the hand pointing to 1. “With his effect, I can discard 1 card to have him attack you directly during an odd-numbered turn.” he said, sending a level 4 Monster from his hand to the Graveyard, as his shinobi dashed forward.

“Not so fast! I chain my Super Polymerization! By discarding one card, I can fuse our monsters together!” Haru said, sending “Elemental Hero Ocean” from his hand to his Grave. Their two monsters were absorbed into a large vortex of energy, as the vortex began to take shape. “I summon my Elemental Hero Great Tornado!” Haru declared, placing said monster into his spell/trap card zone.

“I set two cards and end.” the Agent declared, his facial expression remaining the same. Haru was slightly unnerved by this, but he drew his next card anyway.

“I flip my next face-down, Trap Stun! Now your trap cards are sealed for my turn.” Haru said, looking at his hand. “I activate O – Oversoul to summon my Neos Alius once more! And now I'll bring out my Elemental Hero Prisma, and use his effect to send Elemental Hero Ocean to my Graveyard to change his name! And now all three of my monsters attack!” he said, as his three heroes dashed forward, striking the agent head on.

1900+2800+1700=6400
Agent's LP: 1600

Zarkus stared wide-eyed at Haru's last move. “holy... s***...” he thought to himself, surprised that Haru could get so much done in a single turn against such an opponent.

“I set two cards and end. It's your move.” Haru said, placing the last two cards in his hand in the spell/trap zone. He had a formidable field now, and two face-down cards. He was more confident then he was before due to his most recent turn.

...unfortunately things don't always work out that way.

The Agent drew one card, looking at his three-card hand now as well. “I activate Temporal Revitalization. Now my Life Points become 8000 again.” he said, revealing the spell card in his hand. However, Haru just flipped his face-down Magic Drain. “I'll choose to let it negate it.” the Agent said, sending the card to his Graveyard. “And now I activate my Trap card- Temporal Gift. Every time the turn count changes, the current turn player draws one card.”

The Agent reached towards his hand, and activated yet another Spell card. “I activate Valhalla, the Hall of the Fallen. This card allows me to Special Summon a Fairy-type monster from my hand once per turn. I chain my Temporal Star. Every time a Monster is Special Summoned, the turn count advances by the Level of the Summoned Monster.” he said, placing a Monster in his monster card zone, the turn count advancing by 10, and the Agent drawing another card.

Current turn count: 13

“Awaken, Temporal Machine God Gabrion! Attack Elemental Hero Prisma!”

Haru quickly flipped his face-down Gemini Spark, tributing his Neos Alius to destroy Valhalla and drawing one card. His entire field was swept up in a large torrent of water, returning every card on his side of the field to his deck. “I set one card and end.” the Agent declared, smiling.

“I draw!” Haru said, drawing an extra card due to the effect of Temporal Gift. He looked at his hand and grit his teeth, not knowing what to do. “I set one card and end.” he said, sighing.

“Gabrion returns to my Deck. I draw twice, activate Valhalla yet again, and summon Temporal Machine God Michion.” the Agent said, drawing yet another card and attacking with his new monster, halving Haru's Life Points.

The next few turns didn't bode well for Haru. Everything he tried was rather easily countered and used against him. His once massive advantage was now reduced to 1400 Life Points against the Agent's 1600. While he had a lot of cards in his hand, all of them were bounced and the turn count rose to a massive 63.

“He got off to such a good start...” the girl said, looking at Haru as he was once again knocked back by another attack from the Temporal Samurai, his Life Points dropped to 200. The Agent still had one monster left on the field, but Haru still had a remaining face-down that he intended to use.

“...No...” Zarkus said, reaching out towards Haru.

“I guess it's time to go out with a bang.” Haru said, as he started to flip his face-down card. “I activate Ring of D...-”He was interrupted by a red mist surrounding the area, the data volume in the area greatly increasing to the point where it began to crash. In front of Haru, a man looking exactly like Leif's Reaper Zakra descended to the ground in front of the two of them.

Just like Reaper Zakra, the man was wraithlike, wearing in bright red cloth clothing. He wore a vest, pants with a slight puff near the bottom, and a jacket over his coat, all of them died crimson, along with a red Oni mask and long, red hair. “Yo'.” the man said, waving his arm as the arena was covered in static, and shut off just like a TV.

When the trio opened their eyes, they were in the exact area they were before the Agent showed up, like nothing had ever happened. The man that just appeared was still standing there, looking directly at the three of them.

“...but I was about to end the duel in a draw.” Haru said to the man, disappointed. The man opened up a screen, revealing what was in his hand.

“Temporal Veiler. 'When the turn count is 30 or higher, you can discard this card to negate any damage and inflict it back on your opponent. Then, halve the current turn count.' You would've assured your defeat with that. Not only that, but rank 5 Agents work on a different set of rules. If you ended in a draw, you still would've died.” the man said, sighing. “I saved you by overloading the data in the area you were in. I'm composed of a lot of data, you see.”

Haru merely looked at the man with a blank expression, speechless and having no idea what just happened despite his oh-so articulate explanation. Several thoughts flowed through his mind, but he could only think of this as a response:

“wat.”
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Chapter 6: Haru’s bad acid trip]
“Was I not clear?” the man said in a slightly disappointed tone. Haru just looked at the man, scratching his forehead. He really had no idea what the man was talking about. He wasn’t a programmer or any expert on data; he just loved the game and got along with people. The man rubbed the back of his head and sighed, a chalkboard appearing behind him, as he wrote several things on it.

“Okay. My name is Red. Who I am is of no importance, I’m just a being comprised of enough data to overload small servers. In order for higher ranking Agents to duel and exist in the virtual world, they must create their own areas which function as servers. This is because, otherwise, they could possibly damage the virtual world itself by dueling. Not only that, but it allows their existence to be more discreet, which helps their goals. When I go to the server, I overload it and force it to shut down, forcing them to leave and go back to where they came. Before you ask, I am not aware of their goals yet. Any more questions, Haru?”

Zarkus nodded his head, showing that he knew exactly what the agent was talking about, but Haru himself still barely understood. But he just nodded and smiled. “So, how do we defeat them?” Haru said, remembering back to his most recent near-loss. He really had no clue, as the Agent he fought turned around the duel in a single turn and rendered it almost impossible for him to win. His only option for victory would be to use something that he was not prepared to.

Red looked over at Haru, and sighed, frowning under his mask. “I am not sure. We can only escape them. I can possibly take the lowest ranked Agents, but not much else. We’ll have to come up with a plan, regroup, find and use better cards…” he said, then looking over at Zarkus. “And hope that we tap in to a hidden potential that we didn’t know before.”

Haru looked over at Zarkus, finally remembering the statement that Leif made previously. “…yeah uh. What did Leif mean when he said about your ‘inner power’? He said it might be the key to our victory.”

Zarkus sighed and stood up, opening up a console and typing a few things on it. He was trying to avoid the question, but decided to half-ass an answer to appease Haru. “I dabbled in a few things I shouldn’t have a few years back, and s*** happened. One thing led to another, and now I’m one f***ed up person.” Zarkus said, sarcastically laughing. Haru wasn’t exactly satisfied by this answer, but he decided not to press the issue because Zarkus was noticeably distressed by bringing it up.

“And who exactly are you?” he said, approaching the girl next to Zarkus. As the girl opened her mouth to speak, the first thing Haru thought upon noticing the vampire fangs was “Oh god… another Twilight fan.” But, like Zarkus, he didn’t say anything.

“Asellia. I met this emo guy a few hours ago and want to make him feel better.” The girl said, looking up at Haru.

Haru stared directly into her blue eyes for a moment. “…holy crap she’s adorable.” Haru thought to himself, but once again didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to look like a creeper. “Nice to meet you, Asellia. I can see you’ve done a fine job; Zarkus seems to be in a better mood already. I think you two will get along fine. I’ve known Zarkus for a few years and he tends to get along with those who can make him happy.”

“I’m not having sex with him.” Asellia said in a deadpan tone.

There was an awkward silence that lasted for a long while.

Haru didn’t even bother responding to that and smiled. “Well I must be going now.” He said, turning around and walking away. Zarkus and Asellia continued to talk about god knows what, occasionally laughing. Haru laughed to himself as he walked away, glad that things were working out.

Meanwhile, thousands of gigabytes away in an alleyway, one of the players there was standing around, apparently waiting for someone. He was rather average in size, being no taller than 5’9, and had short, black hair with a green mask. The mask had two black eyes and a red mouth, obscuring most of his face. He wore a long, black cloak, black pants, and a black shirt, obscuring his entire body aside from a (you guessed it!) black duel disk on his arm.

An Agent was across from him, handing him a card with a crimson glow surrounding it. “Make sure to play this card whenever you draw it. It’ll win you most duels.” The Agent said, vanishing into nothingness. The man took the card in hand and smiled, placing it into his deck and walking out of the alley, bumping into Haru in the process.

“Oh… sorry.” Haru said towards the man, but the man merely grunted and walked away, prompting Haru to respond with “…what a dick.” As he vanished away to the main GM room, the same room that Sigma currently resided in. “So, are we still going to hold the tournament despite the current events?”

Sigma sighed. “It might not be a good idea, but the only people targeted so far are GMs, so I suppose we might as well.” He said, typing a few things on the console. On the screen, there was a bracket showing a tournament consisting of a massive amount of people, 1024 to be exact. “I feel sorry for those people who missed signing up. But oh well.” Sigma said, turning around to Haru.

Haru didn’t like the prospect of risking people’s lives for a tournament, but he’s seen weirder things, such as the Battle City tournament which still baffles him to this very day. “Well, okay. Make sure to monitor every duel closely.: “enyuushinjyo vs Hikaru… wait. Tenyuu was that prick who ran into me in the city.” He thought to himself, but shrugged it off, deciding not to get offended over it. Conveniently, the tournament was in a few days.

Several days passed without any incident, not so much as a viral signal in the entire game. On the day of the tournament, Sigma, Haru, and Zarkus sat in the main GM room, Asellia still hanging on Zarkus' back. “She doesn't leave you alone, does she?” Haru said, looking at the girl.

“It's 'cuz I'll spam his inbox with messages if he take me with him everywhere. I have to make sure that he doesn't go emo again!” Asellia said, still hanging on tight. Zarkus just awkwardly laughed at what she said.

“I'll just go along with it.” he said, looking at the truly massive arena in front of him.

Sigma stood up, and pressed a button as a microphone appeared in front of his face. “First 128 duelists, please stand forward.” he said, as the duelists quickly stood in front of their areas. Tenyuushinjyo stepped forward, facing his opponent who had his hand held out. Hikaru had short, brown hair, and brown eyes. He wore chainmail armor, with a large shield for his duel disk.

“May the best man win.” Hikaru said, but Tenyuu just ignored him and activated his duel disk, prompting yet another “what a dick” response from Hikaru.

“Round one, begin!” Sigma declared through the microphone, as the people began their duels. Tenyuu's duel was pretty much a complete curbstomp. For every move Hikaru made, Tenyuu responded with a trap card that perfectly and absolutely countered it. It seemed as if he was just toying with his opponent, waiting to draw a certain card. Several turns into the duel later, Tenyuu had five cards in his hand while Hikaru had one, and only one face-up monster: a Vorse Raider, with no face-downs and only one card in his hand.
“...turn end.” Hikaru declared, having only 200 Life Points left, he was prepared to lose next turn. Tenyuu drew a card, and smiled under his mask.

“I summon Mara of the Nordic Alfar. Now, I tune him with two Nordic Monsters in my hand: Garmr of the Nordic Beasts and Ljosalf of the Nordic Alfar!” he said, as two circles appeared in front of him. He tossed the cards in his hand into the two circles, as a large curtain opened up under him.

“...hm. This is an unexpected turn of events.” Sigma said, as all eyes were on Tenyuu's duel, ignoring the 100ish duels that were still going on.

"The trickster God who was born from deception, show us your absolute power, and may your laugh echo throughout the world! Synchro Summon! Descend, Polar God King Loki!"

The being entered through the curtain and smiled, his laugh indeed echoing throughout the area. Tenyuu took the next card in his hand and placed it into his spell/trap card zone, as a red comedy mask appeared on Hikaru's face.

“I activate my Viral Mask and use its second effect, allowing me to summon a Token on your side of the field with zero attack and defense points.” he said, as Hikaru began to desperately claw at his face, trying to get the mask off.

“Get it... off of me! Take it off!” Hikaru screamed, as Loki looked down upon him, pointing his finger towards Hikaru.

“Loki, attack Hikaru directly.” he said, as a blast of energy hit Hikaru head on. A small orb flowed into Hikaru's player character, too small for anyone to see or even notice, as his Life Points hit 0.

The next few rounds of the tournament were a clean sweep for Tenyuu, as he annihilated his opponents without much trouble. Even in the finals, he won by a rather large margin, winning with the exact same viral mask as before, each time only using the second effect.

“It looks like we have a winner. Would you like to take the spoils of your victory now, or would you like an exhibition match against a GM?” Sigma said, holding a card in his hand. To Tenyuu, the answer was clear.

“I want to duel a GM.” he said, reshuffling his deck. Sigma walked behind Haru and pushed him onto the arena.

“Hey hey! I never agreed to this!” Haru shouted at Sigma.

“Just shut up and do it.” Sigma whispered towards him, using Haru to find out data on that card. Of course it meant using him as a potential sacrifice but hey. Haru was strong. Supposedly.

Both of the players activated their duel disks, an 8000 appearing over their head.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Chapter 7: Haru's backstory!]

Haru drew the first card from his deck and looked at his hand. “I'll go first.” he said, placing two face-downs in his spell/trap card zone, and a monster in his monster card zone. “I summon Elemental Hero Stratos!” Haru declared, the blue hero rising from the card. Haru picked “Elemental Hero Neos Alius” from his deck, and added it to his hand, then ending his turn.

“I set two cards and summon Mara of the Nordic Alfar.” Tenyuu said, almost immediately tuning Mara with two cards in his hand. Loki rose up from a curtain behind the arena, as his mouth opened wide, completely flabbergasted that Tenyuu summoned his key monster so quickly. Tenyuu was not done, as he placed his next card in the spell/trap zone. “I activate Viral Mask.” Tenyuu said, as the same crimson-red drama mask appeared on Haru's face.

“Oh god dammit.” Haru said, not even bothering to claw at his face like the previous duelists that Tenyuu dueled. He sighed and flipped his face-down card, Super Polymerization, sending Elemental Hero Prisma from his hand to the Graveyard.. “I fuse the Viral Mask and Stratos together.” He said, as the viral mask on his face cracked and shattered, fusing into Stratos. Stratos’ body began to morph shape, now covered in black armor, and gained two demonic wings on its back. “I summon Elemental Hero Escuridão, who gains 100 ATK for every Elemental Hero in my Graveyard (ATK: 2500->2700).”

Tenyuu was unphased by this, as a small red orb flowed into Escuridão’s card. “Loki, attack Escuridão.” he said, as an orb of energy formed in Loki’s palms, which ejected out towards Escuridão, overtaking his body.

“I send my Elemental Hero Iron Avenger to my Graveyard. One Elemental Hero monster I control can no longer be destroyed by battle, but all battle damage I take is doubled. (ATK: 2700->2800)” he said, as Escuridão turned gray, the backlash to the blast instead hitting Haru.

LP: 7000

“I set two cards. Turn end.” Tenyuu said, unfettered by Haru's moves.

“I draw, and activate Trap Stun!” Haru declared, picking up the next card from his deck. He was completely confident that he would win despite the slight advantage his opponent already had.

Haru was always a rather big fan of the game, but in all honesty he sucked at it. Very badly. At least up until recently. When he first started playing Duel Monsters, he was the best out of a group of incredibly terrible people, but then Zarkus came along and steamrolled everyone in the group, causing 75% of them to quit. Feeling badly about it, he decided to train Haru, eventually molding him into a great duelist and forming a great friendship between them.

Around ten years prior to the current events of the story, both of them joined the virtual world as players. This caused a large amount of problems for Haru; Namely, his horrible luck with women reared its ugly head. After five years of failed relationships, he decided to just flat-out quit trying, and became somewhat depressed.

Just somewhat.

A few months following his most recent breakup, Zarkus finally approached him, and proposed something to Haru, something that Zarkus believed he needed.

“And now I summon Elemental Hero Neos Alius!” Haru declared, the monster rising from the ground.

Haru needed a hero. Someone to look up to, and someone that Haru could strive to surpass. To Zarkus, a goal is the best way to drive off depression, and he hoped that would be able to help Haru. So Haru decided to give it a shot, and researched several different duelists to see which one he'd look after. After about a month of searching, he finally found the perfect person. You see, Haru was a big fan of underdog stories, so he chose the most famous underdog of them all.

Jaden Yuki.

So he continued to research the Elemental Hero monsters, and noticed a disturbing trend: That people who have tried to succeed Jaden insisted on running the most terrible of the Hero monsters yet completely lack his luck, resulting in many embarrassing losses that made a mockery out of the archetype. Haru set out to change that. Through a tireless amount of playtesting, he built what he thought was the perfect Elemental Hero deck. So he took it to the world championship...

And lost in the first round.

Oddly enough, this didn't dissuade him. He kept taking his deck to tournaments, thoroughly playtesting it, thinking through all of its weaknesses and planning against them. Exactly two years prior to the current events of the story, he took it to the world championship... and finally won. After winning the tournament, he received a special mail from an anonymous person, and three incredibly powerful cards.

“Congrats! You've captured the true spirit of the Heroes!”

“For being able to summon such a powerful monster, right here and now, I'll show you the respect you deserve! I activate Super Polymerization!” Haru declared, activating a second copy of the card in his hand, discarding Elemental Hero Ocean. A large vortex appeared in the sky, absorbing Escuridão, Alius, and Loki. A large, warrior descended from the sky, size rivaling that of Loki, with large purple flame-like wings, black armor, and a large skull on his chest. His face was that of Escuridão, except with radiant purple eyes, and he carried a long, green energy sword.

“Awaken, legendary hero of darkness! Bring destruction upon those who obstruct justice! Fusion Summon! The Hero of Shadows, Elemental Hero Midnight Horizon!”
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Chapter 8: Do not panic. He is Tenyuu.]

Tenyuu looked up at the mighty warrior in front of him and grit his teeth, surprised at how easily his monster was defeated. Not only that, but it couldn’t come back because it wasn’t destroyed. “I still have the Viral Mask.” he thought to himself, the card having subtly returned to his hand by its effect.

“The effect of my Midnight Horizon activates! Once per turn, I can remove one monster in either player’s Graveyard or field from play to have him gain the ATK of the removed monster until my End Phase!” Haru declared, as the monster pointed its blade towards Tenyuu’s Graveyard and shot a black chain out of it. It pulled on the chain, as Loki’s card flew out and was absorbed into Midnight Horizon.
ATK: 4000 -> 7300

“Midnight Horizon, attack Tenyuu directly! Negative Blade Breaker!” Haru declared, as the monster swing its blade towards Tenyuu, the attack hitting him head on and causing a large dark explosion around the area they were in. (LP: 700) The ground below them cracked a bit, as Tenyuu’s player character was distorted by static for a moment, but nobody aside from Sigma noticed. “I set two cards and end my turn.” Haru said, placing the last two cards in his hand into his Spell and Trap card zone.

Tenyuu drew the next card from his deck and looked at his hand, smiling. “I activate my face-down Trap card, The Killing Joke. By removing 5 Trap cards in my deck from play face-down, I can activate them at the appropriate time. Now I chain my next trap card – Imperial Customs, preventing my card from being destroyed. Of course, they won’t be around for long.” He said, activating the effect of his Killing Joke trap card and summoning Metal Reflect Slime. Haru was confused by this, thinking over what this could possibly mean.

“What other cards use Trap cards in a similar way to Loki…” he thought, but then it hit him, and he widened his eyes. “You couldn’t be… those cards were-“

“I sent my Imperial Customs, The Killing Joke, and Metal Reflect Slime to the Graveyard.” Tenyuu said as he pulled the card he just drew from his hand, and placing it in his monster card zone. Virtual lightning struck the ground, as a large torrent of flames appeared from the sky, taking the form of a red dragon. The dragon let out a loud roar that shook the entire arena. “I summon Uria, Lord of Searing Flames. (ATK: 3000) And now, when my Killing Joke trap card is activated, I can add the cards I sent to my hand, as long as they weren’t previously activated.” He said, placing the 4 cards into his hand.

Haru looked at the massive hand his opponent had, but sighed in relief knowing that it was mostly Trap cards. After all, Midnight Horizon was immune to Spell and Trap cards. Of course, things don’t always work out as planned.

“If I control a Level 10 or higher monster, I can Special Summon my Herald of Conquest.” he said, placing the card in his monster zone, as a black orb of light appeared on the field. The orb multiplied, as Tenyuu summoned another one from his deck with the original’s effect. “And then I set 4 Trap cards.”

“What are you planning?” Haru said, looking at their fields. The area around them was corrupted with more and more static, Tenyuu’s appearance flashing to that of the same high ranking Agent that almost killed him before. “It can’t be… can it?” Haru questioned, widening his eyes.

“I tune my Herald of Conquests to Uria, Lord of Searing flames.” he said, two large rings remerging from the Heralds and surrounding Uria’s body. The rings converted into flames, as Uria began to change shape, growing black armor over his body and his wings igniting.

“Rend the heavens and sunder the earth, great overlord of fire. Harness the power of the big bang and return all to ash! Synchro Summon! Emperor of Hellfire – Uria!”

The data volume in the area began to greatly increase, as the arena Haru and Tenyuu resided in was covered in a great dome of fire. “I draw 2 cards by the effect of my Herald. And now I activate my Viral Mask, equipping it to Uria. But it won’t last that long, or have time to use its first effect, as I activate the effect of Uria, wiping the field of either our Spell and Trap cards or Monsters, and giving him 1000 attack points for each.” He said, as flames from around the dome targeted each and every one of the cards, destroying them and increasing Uria’s ATK to a massive 7000. Uria opened its mouth, as a massive orb of red energy focused into it, launching outwards in the form of a massive beam blasting Midnight Horizon into atoms. The aftershock of the blast hit Haru as well, causing minor burns all over his body. The injuries transferred into real life as well, Haru’s heart rate going up and his body being covered in pain.

Haru’s LP: 4000
The stakes in this duel were higher than Haru originally thought. Due to the nature of his opponent, if he lost, he would die.
“When Midnight Horizon is removed from the field by my opponent, I can Special Summon 1 Level 8 or lower Elemental Hero fusion monster from my Extra Deck or Graveyard. The monster Special Summoned by this effect gains the effect of Midnight Horizon.” Haru said, looking through his options. He had several cards he could use, but only two cards in his deck could win him the duel. Luckily, he ran three of each, so the odds were rather good. Not only that, but the monster he summoned with Midnight Heaven inherited its effect. “I summon Elemental Hero Nova Master!” Haru declared, as the counterpart to Tenyuu’s own fire monster was summoned to the field in attack position.

“I set 1 card and end.” Tenyuu said, as Viral Mask returned to his hand. However, Haru wasn't going to offer him the chance to activate it again.

“It's my turn! I draw!” Haru declared, looking at the card he drew. He looked at Tenyuu's facedown, and decided to risk it either way. “I activate the inherited effect of Midnight Horizon to remove Uria from play!” Haru said, as Nova Master pointed his finger towards Uria.

“Trap card open. Burning Retribution. When a monster I control would be removed from play or destroyed by a monster effect, I can destroy the monster and damage you equal to its ATK. Not only that, but it negates said effects until my End Phase.” Tenyuu said, as a large pillar of flames shot out of the trap card, enveloping Nova master and burning it to ashes. The flames then surrounded Haru's body, exploding outwards. Haru screamed, his Life Points dropping to a mere 1400, as he fell down to his right knee, his heart rate greatly escalating for a moment, pain echoing throughout his body.

Haru looked at the card he drew and began to pant, his vital signs slowing down. However, despite his damaged body, he merely smiled. “I activate my next card – Miracle Fusion. “

“...what card could you have left?” Tenyuu said, not expecting another trump card.

“Just who the hell do you think I am!? I am a duelist sustained by willpower, even when mocked as reckless and crazy! Even in situations such as this, I always have something up my sleeve! And now, I fuse Elemental Hero Escuridão, Elemental Hero Nova Mater, and Elemental Hero Neos Alius!” Haru yelled out, as the three aforementioned monsters rose from his Graveyard, merging into a portal above the arena. A large light shone down from the portal, piercing the dome of fire and extinguishing it, as a warrior shrouded in light descended from the sky.

“ Far beyond the farthest horizon, the ultimate hero of justice awakens! The blazing sun of a hero's soul will break through any obstacle! Fusion Summon! Elemental Hero... Crimson Heaven!”

The light surrounding the hero disipated, as it's appearence was revealed. Crimson Heaven had bright red armor in contrast with Midnight Horizon's dark armor, and his face was that of Nova Master's. In its right hand, it held a bright red energy sword with flaming orange wings on his back. Instead of a skull on its chest, there was a large pair of red sunglasses unlike that of what Haru was wearing. “Crimson Heaven, attack Uria now!” he said, raising his blade up. The hero swung it foward, as a sphere of flames surrounded Uria.

“The effect of Crimson Heaven activates. When he battles, the effects of all other cards on the field are negated. Not only that, but I can choose to prevent eithermonster from being destroyed by battle to instead inflict damage to my opponent equal to Crimson Heaven's attack value. Tenyuu, this duel is over. Crimson Heaven, effect activate!” he said, as the sphere of flames decreased in size, eventually reaching the size of a grape. The small sphere abruptly exploded in front of Tenyuu, as his Life Points dropped to 0.

Tenyuu's mask cracked and shattered, as he dropped to his knees. His eyes were devoid of any semblance of emotion, almost as if it was sucked dry from his body. The Viral Mask card in his hand disintegrated as well, preventing Sigma from obtaining data on it. “God dammit.” Sigma said, teleporting to the arena. “Well you still won all of the other duels, so here's the first place prize.”

However, Tenyuu didn't move. He was completely silent for a while, before eventually falling over. The data volume in the area greatly increased once more, as a portal appeared under Tenyuu which he slowly sunk into. Any attempts to chase after him were quickly met by a barrier blocking entry into the portal. This also managed to piss Sigma off. Badly. KC didn't even try to cover up this event, although that would come to bite them in the ass later.

However, every player Tenyuu fought was infected with a stealth virus, and it spread like wildfire across the virtual world. For what purpose? Only time will tell.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Chapter 9: …oh –crap- ]

Several weeks passed after the tournament, the small virus that Tenyuu installed in every player spreading like wildfire. However, it was so protected that it was completely undetectable, and had no discernable effect at this time. No incidents involving the Agents happened either, and everyone went on with their lives like normal, except Sigma who searched for something every day of his life, not being able to detect anything.

“Hrn… there’s still something different about that card.” Sigma said, typing several things into a keyboard, studying the duel from every perspective available. No matter how hard he looked, it looked like the viral mask had nothing special to it at all, but Sigma knew better.

“You sure are committed to your job.” Zarkus said, walking into the GM room and looking over Sigma’s shoulder. He looked over the data, and widened his eyes at just how much research Sigma did within the past few weeks. “Any luck yet?”

“No. No matter how hard I look, I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Even the readings coming from the card are the same as any other card. But… Haru saw different.” Sigma said, changing the perspective on the screen to Haru once more, seeing the exact same things that he did. What he saw was obscured by the large wall of fire, so nobody else had any idea what was going on aside from the final results of the duel.

“Well, I gotta get going now.” Zarkus said, walking out of the GM room and teleporting to the city area. He looked down and noticed Asellia, who promptly jumped on his back. “I get the feeling that you’re going to follow me until the day I die.” he said in a sarcastic tone, but he was only half joking considering that Asellia has pretty much stalked him for the past few weeks.

“Duel me again!” Asellia, said, a duel disk appearing on her arm. Zarkus sighed, not really wanting to go along with it because they dueled a lot within the past few weeks, and he beat her. A lot. He only really lost when getting horrible hands or running shitty throwaway decks. But hell, she was committed. She jumped off his back and activated her duel disk, going first.

Naturally, Zarkus won.

“See, you shouldn’t expect to win against someone who mentored a champion.” Zarkus said, laughing a bit. Asellia just sighed and jumped up on his back once more.

“Just shut up and take me to the park.” she said. Zarkus obliged and began to walk forward, as the data volume in the area began to greatly increase. Red quickly appeared from out of nowhere right in front of the two, prompting Zarkus to jump back in fear.

“…excuse me while I go change my pants.” Zarkus said, his heart racing.

“That won’t be necessary at the moment, as I bring bad news.” Red said, opening up a console. He showed the profiles of several characters, each one with a small red orb in them. It showed a diagram that revealed how the virus was transferred. “Every time someone duels, they transfer it to another person when they win. The virus has now infected every player but the GMs and a few others. Any questions?”

“So wait. A virus has infected a majority of the playerbase which has an unknown effect and you’re only JUST telling us? It’s like your sole purpose is to provide exposition and then not do anything to help us until it’s too late! And how come Sigma hasn’t found out?!” Zarkus questioned in an angered tone.

“Two things: One, you don’t need my help, and two, I didn’t detect it until recently. And Sigma didn’t know because of who I am. Let’s just leave it at that.” Red said, ignoring the obvious look of dissatisfaction on Zarkus’ face. “And before you ask, no, I do not know what’s going to happen. “

“…from now on, your name is Boring Exposition Guy. I’ll just call you BEG for short.” Asellia said, sticking her tongue out at him.

Red just ignored it, looking back at Zarkus. “Just remember: The power that resides inside of you is our best hope for victory in this fight.” Red said, pointing towards Zarkus’ chest. Zarkus simply looked down and sighed, as Red began to walk away. However, a slight rumble could be felt throughout the area, as the skies began to grow dark. Red looked up, and widened his eyes. “They should know by now that they can’t fit me as well as an Agent into an area…”

Suddenly, a large pillar of light descended from the sky, overtaking Zarkus and Asellia, yet leaving Red out of it.“Oh crap.” Zarkus said, as an Agent began to descend to the ground, the exact same one that almost defeated Haru, with the same golden hair and a single angel wing on the left side of his body. “Oh crap.” The Agent activated his duel disk, as an 8000 appeared over his head. And 8000 appeared over Zarkus’ head as well. “Asellia, run!” Zarkus yelled, as Asellia jumped off his back and ran into the barrier that surrounded the field, being repelled.

Red walked up to the barrier and tried to touch it, as his hand was burnt. “No good…” he thought, looking up to Zarkus. “I’m sorry, but you’re on your own here.”

“Why is my life being decided by a f***ing card game?!” Zarkus yelled, but he quickly released he didn’t have a choice when the Agent drew his opening hand and made the first move.

“I summon Temporal Shinobi.” The Agent said, placing the first monster card down. A shinobi rose up from the field, with the typical black ninja outfit, except having no discernable facial features and a clock on its chest. The Agent discarded one card, as the shinobi immediately attacked Zarkus, reducing his Life Points to 6500. “My monsters can attack during an odd numbered turn by discarding one card. This includes the first turn of the duel. I also advance the current turn count by 2.” The Agent said, setting 2 cards and ending his turn.

Zarkus was bemused by the blatant cheating, and drew his first six cards. “I activate Trade-In, discarding my Darklord Superbia to draw 2 cards from my deck. Then I discard my Darklord Zerato to Special Summon my Dark Grepher.” Zarkus said, the dark warrior rising from the ground. “And now I use his ef-“

Suddenly, Grepher fell into a large trap hole below him. “I flip Bottomless Trap Hole. I know what you’re trying to do, and I won’t let you get such a powerful monster out so soon.”

“-ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuck.” Zarkus cursed, as his plan was to get exactly 4 Darklord monsters in the Graveyard to summon Darklord Beelzebub, which would allow him to control the field; the same tactic that he tried against the first Agent. Of course, that didn’t work, but Zarkus had a slightly better hand this time and would’ve been able to control the duel easier. “I set two cards and a monster in defense position. Turn end.”

“During my End Phase, I activate Temporal Gift, allowing the current turn player to draw a card.” The Agent said, flipping his last face-down.

“YOU SON OF A b****.”

“I use the effect if Shinobi to advance the current turn count, making it 7, allowing me to draw yet another card. Then I activate Temporal Star, allowing me to advance the current turn count by half the level of a monster I summon. I summon Temporal Samurai, making the turn count 9.” He said, the same Samurai that had been used in a few duels before rising to the field. “And now both of my monsters attack you directly.”

Zarkus smiled, and flipped his face-down Mirror Force, as a large wave of energy radiated from the Trap card, wiping out all of the Agent's monsters. “I might actually be able to win this...” he said, now having field advantage. The Agent just sighed, setting two cards and ending his turn. “It's my turn! I draw! I chain my Trap Stun to my Draw Phase, rendering your next trap cards useless. And your Temporal Gift allows me to draw an extra card as well!”

Zarkus was putting out an air of confidence, but in reality he was scared shitless. However, he couldn't show such fear in front of Asellia, as he had to make her feel as if he could win. “I flip summon my face-down Monster, Fabled Kushano. Then I Normal Summon my Darklord Herald, and use his effect to summon my Darkworld Greater Archfiend!” he said, as a small creature wearing a purple cape and a Mideval plague mask arose from the ground. The creature snapped its fingers, as a large demon creature rose from the ground. The demon had red skin, the legs of a horse, and two large black wings. “And now, I tune my Darklord Herald and my Darklord Greater Archfiend together!” he declared, drawing 4 cards.

“God of apathy, show your foes the destructive power of inaction! Synchro Summon, Darklord Belphegor in defense position! (ATK: 2000, DEF: 2900)”

Current turn count: 10+1+2+2=15

From the ground below, a rather large demon creature rose from the ground. He had black armor and a black halo over his head, as well as two large semi-mechanical wings. “Belphegor, activate your special ability. Once per turn, I can inflict damage equal to his ATK.” Zarkus said, as Belphegor rose his hand up, a large blast of energy shooting out and enveloping the Agent. The Agent shook it off like it was nothing, but he did end up losing a large chunk of his LP, bringing him down to 6000. “And now I tune my Fabled Kushano and Darklord Belphegor.” he said, drawing another card.
Current turn count: 19
“God of greed, open the gateway to hell and drag all mortal men with the temptation of riches! Synchro Summon, Darklord Mammon! (ATK: 3300, DEF, 2500)”

Yet another monster arose from the ground, this one more bird-like in appearence. He had dark colored armor with a slight purple tint to it, and two large semi-mechanical wings. Zarkus drew two cards by his effect, and looked at his now massive hand. “Mammon, attack the Agent directly!” he said, as the creature dashed forward. However, a large clock appeared in front of Mammon, blocking the attack.

“I send Temporal Veiler to the Graveyard, allowing me to decrease the turn count to decrease the damage by 100 each, then destroy your monster. I decrease the current turn count to 1, but I still take 1500 damage. Since it's the first turn of the duel and all, you can't battle anymore.” he said, as the clock exploded around Mammon. Two monsters arose from the ground, one Belphegor and the other a new monster, who was very slim in appearence, with two golden wings and sporting black armor, with a large blue energy source in its chest.

“By the effect of Mammon, I can call forth 2 level 5 or lower Darklord Synchro monsters from my Extra Deck or Graveyard. I summon Darklord Belphegor and Darklord Leviathan (ATK/DEF: 2500) . I set two cards and end my turn.” Zarkus said, sighing. However, at that moment, two more monsters rose from the ground; one large dragon and one magician not unlike the Magician of Black Chaos. The magician had no facial features but the same clock on his chest as all the other monsters. The dragon on the other hand looked like Timeaus, a large blue dragon with a large clock on its chest, once more with no discernable features.
“When the turn count increases or decreases by 15 or more, I can special summon my next key cards. I summon Temporal Great Dragon and Temporal Great Magician. And now I draw twice.” he said, looking at his next two cards. “I use their effects, forcing you to randomly discard 1 card and destroy your second face-down Trap.” Zarkus sent Darklord Superbia from his hand to his Grave, but chained the targeted trap card, Threatening Roar. However, a dark lightning shot out of the Agent's other face-down, negating it. “I flip Seven Tools of the bandit.” the Agent declared, a smug grin on his face.

You could see the rage in Zarkus' face right about now. He was like a tomato. Of rage.

“And now I attack both of your monsters with my own.” The Agent said, his creatures dashing towards both of Zarkus' monsters. However, a large aura surrounded the his monsters, preventing them from being destroyed.

“I flip Shadow Duelist's Aura. By sending the top 3 cards of my deck to the Graveyard, I can prevent battle destruction this turn, halve battle damage, and draw once for every battle.” Zarkus said, his two monsters still remaining on the field. The Agent just shrugged and ended his turn, as Zarkus looked at the top card from his deck. “Come on... come on...”

Both Haru and Sigma appeared on the scene right then and there. Haru attempted to run into the barrier, but failed rather miserably, being deflected away. He slowly got up and rubbed his head, beating against the barrier but to no avail. He noticed it was Zarkus' turn shortly after, and grit his teeth. “Zarkus! Come on! You can do this!” Haru declared, as Zarkus looked at the top card of his deck.

“He's right. I can. I just have to draw the right card! Come on deck, show me the way to victory!” Zarkus declared, drawing his next card. He looked at it and smiled, placing it in his Monster card zone. “I use the effect of Belphegor to drop your Life Points to 4000, and then summon my Darklord Herald, then use his effect to summon Arcana Force 0 – The Fool from my deck! Now, I tune them together!”

“Servant of Hell, arise from the deepest depths of the underworld! Become the pathway to a mighty power! Synchro Summon, Darklord Lesser Archfiend!”

The demon rose from the ground, looking like your stereotypical lesser demon. It had one green eye, two wings, and was rather small in statue. Suddenly, it vanished into two rings that Leviathan and Belphegor flew into, as their bodies began to change shape. A massive cloud of energy appeared in the sky, a monster shrouded in dark light beginning to descend to the ground. With the card he just played, victory was all but assured.

“When the shadows engulf the heavens, the Fallen Ones will shower the world in darkness! Delta Accel Synchro! Awaken, the Harbinger of Wrath: Fallen Angel Amon!”

Suddenly, the large cloud of energy was surrounded by several pitch-black chains, the monster no longer descending from the ground. “I activate Chains of Eternal Torment, removing your monster from play when it's Summoned. Not only that, but it returns to the field during your next Standby Phase, but makes you lose life points equal to its ATK value.” the Agent said, flipping his face-down card.

Zarkus widened his eyes and grit his palm. His heart began to race once more, as he looked up at the Agent. “...I... I can still win this. I set two cards and end.” Zarkus said, preparing himself for the worst.”

“I draw. And now I fuse my two monsters together.” he said, as the two monsters converted into pure streams of energy, flowing into a portal. A massive roar could be heard from the portal, as a black, armored dragon entered out of it, with a large clock on it's chest. “I summon Divine Temporal Magical Dragon.” the Agent said, as the dragon let out a mighty roar.

“I flip Waboku.” Zarkus said, hoping his endeavor would buy him time.

He was wrong. Suddenly the massive dragon disintegrated, the small orbs of light from its body forming into the shape of the mirror. The face was a pure-red drama mask, reminiscient of Tenyuu's Viral Mask card. “Ultimate Temporal Machine God Luxuria, awaken.” the Agent said, as the monster's body began to form. It was incredibly large, with crimson red limbs and a black flame on its head, but otherwise it looked exactly the same as Sephiron. “And now I attack.”

The machine waved its hand, as a large crimson flame enveloped Zarkus' body. Every card in his hand returned to his deck, and the top 10 cards from his deck were sent to the Graveyard.
Zarkus' LP: 3500
“There... there must be some sort of mistake.” Zarkus said, looking for a way out.

“There is no escape. No matter what move you make, what you draw, or who you believe in, as soon as I end my turn, you lose the duel.”

“Zarkus! NO! f***! f***! f***! NOT HERE!” Haru yelled, beating on the barrier, but to no avail. It was apparently completely indestructible.

“W-wait... please...”

“And now...

“There... there must be something in my deck that can save me.”

'I end my turn.”

A massive bolt of lightning struck Zarkus' body, as he let out a blood-curdling scream.

Zarkus' LP: 0

He slowly fell to the ground, a sphere floating out of his chest, as his vital signs once again grinded to a halt. Once more, he was suffering a massive heart attack, the feeling of a thousand blades piercing his chest and shoulders. He coughed up blood and fell to the ground, slowly shutting his eyes.

And unlike before, this time there was nobody to save him.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Chapter 10]
Chapter 10: Fodder. Fodder everywhere.
Zarkus fell to the ground headfirst, the heart attack happening so quickly that he couldn’t even squeeze out a few final words. He looked up at Asellia, as he realized that he could not protect her any longer, as a single tear rolled down his eyes. Zarkus went limp as his eyes shut, his body now completely unresponsive.

Asellia quickly ran to the orb that flowed out of Zarkus’ chest and grabbed it, then ran over to him and tried to force it back in. Any attempts at doing so failed, as it just wouldn’t stay in. “…why? Why won’t it go back in?!” Asellia yelled, futilely trying to push it back in. She didn’t even know the purpose of it, but she thought that it would help. “Please… don’t die! Please!” she cried, holding the orb in his chest, but no matter how hard she tried, it failed.

“Please... wake up…”

“I need more than just the orb, girl. Stand aside.” The Agent said, walking up to Asellia. He lifted his foot up, kicking her directly in the stomach, propelling her into the barrier. “And now… we win.” He said, lifting Zarkus up by his neck, and thrusting his hand into Zarkus’ chest. This caused the armor surrounding Zarkus to disintegrate, revealing his human body in it, and causing blood to seep down onto the floor.

“You… son of a b****! I won’t let you get away with this!” Haru declared, as he reared his fist back. Suddenly, a massive amount of energy focused into his fist, taking the form of an even larger fist as he threw it forward into the barrier, cracking and shattering it. Haru looked at his fist, and then the barrier, and widened his eyes.

“Don’t go there you retard!” Sigma yelled, but it was too late. Before Haru could even get out the “holy shit” expression he was thinking about, he jumped into the barrier which quickly regenerated behind him. “Okay, fine. But when both of you guys are dead and we’re all doomed, don’t come crying to me!” Sigma yelled.

Haru ran over to where Asellia was, and helped her up. “It looks like there’s only one thing I can do…” Haru said, looking at the barrier around him. There was no escape for either of them, as only the Agent knew the way to lower the barrier. However, Haru had a theory involving the barrier. The Agent tried to leave through a portal, but it was immediately closed when Haru activated his duel disk.

“So my theory was correct.” Haru said, an 8000 appearing over his head. The Agent looked up at him, surprised that Haru found out the nature of the barrier. “Your barrier closes shut when a duel starts, preventing anyone from entering or exiting, including you.” He said, drawing his first 5 cards. He was definitely prepared to lose, but couldn’t let Zarkus’ death be in vain.

“Hmph. I guess his brazen stupidity will buy me enough time to rebuild Zarkus’ character.” Sigma said, typing several things on his console. A hologram of Zarkus’ character appeared on screen, as every little bit of its data began to reform, but it was an incredibly slow process.

Haru and the Agent stood across from each other, as the Agent placed his first card on the field. “I summon Temporal Samurai.” He said, as the samurai dashed forth, aiming a strike across Haru’s chest. Haru placed a monster in his monster card zone, as it blocked the attack.

“Protect me, Battle Fader!” Haru declared, as the Agent ended his turn. Haru placed yet another monster down, as Elemental Hero Stratos Rose from the field. The hero dashed forward towards the Samurai, striking him down in one move.

The duel was so fast paced that it was like two armies fighting rather than two men dueling. Haru and the Agent summoned monster after monster, each one of their strategies coming together.

“My Neos Alius attacks your Temporal Shinobi!” Haru declared, the hero dashing forth. However, it was deflected as a large wave of energy flew across the field, wiping out all of Haru’s monsters.

“I activate Mirror Force! Now I Special Summon Temporal Seahorse!” the Agent said, as a small seahorse with a clock on its stomach rose up from the ground. However, it was quickly destroyed.

“I flip Hero Blast, allowing me to add Neos Alius to my hand and destroy your monster!” Haru declared, adding the monster to his hand.

The Shinobi dashed forth, striking Haru across the chest, but Haru shook it off and took his next turn, placing his Neos Alius on the field. “Alius, attack the Shinobi!”

Their battled continued for quite a while, each one continuously one-upping the other. “They’re really going at it.” Red said, looking at Sigma’s progress. Sigma was about 20% done with reconstructing Zarkus’ character, surprised at how slow the process is.

“And now I activate Miracle Fusion, summoning Elemental Hero The Shining, who attacks your Temporal Beast, and my Alius attacks you directly.” Haru said, both of his monsters dashing forth. However, a large veil appeared in front of the Agent, blocking the second attack.

“I use the effect of Temporal Veiler, decreasing the current turn count by 19 to block Alius’ attack.” The Agent said, taking two cards from his monster card zone and placing them down. “Awaken, Temporal Great Dragon and Temporal Great Magician! I draw, and use my monster’s effects.” he said, as both of them fired a wave of energy at Haru, eliminating one card in his hand. However, Haru sent a card from his hand to the Graveyard, negating the effect of the Magician.

“I sent Effect Velier to negate my monster’s destruction!”

“Then I tribute both of my monsters to summon the Divine Temporal Dragon, and tribute my Dragon in order to summon Ultimate Temporal Machine God Luxuria.” The Agent declared, as the massive dragon rose from the ground, quickly disintegrating and forming into the same monster that plagued Zarkus.

“I’m tired of being useless…” Asellia murmured to herself, as she looked up at Haru. Haru screamed, as he was hit by a massive wave of yellow energy, his Life Points dropping to 1700 and his field being emptied. “Haru! No!” Asellia screamed, as Haru slowly stood back up, blood dropping from his cheeks.

“It’s my turn! I draw…” Haru said, looking at the only remaining card in his hand. He set it down in his Spell and Trap card zone, and fell on his left knee, his mind clearly damaged by the attack. “This pain… I didn’t feel it before!”

The Agent smiled, drawing his next card. “Haru, the monster I just summoned is special. It was programmed with the same methods as I was, so any damage I inflict to you with it is real, and when I finish you off, you’ll die. Now, Luxuria, finish the duel now.” He said, the massive machine forming a large spear of energy in its hand and launching it forward.

“Haru! No! Not you too!” Sigma screamed, lamenting his inability to do anything to help.

“I activate… Soul Recall.” Haru declared, flipping his face-down card. From his Graveyard, Neos Alius arose from the ground, his Life Points dropping to 100. “Now… my Life Points cannot drop to 0 as long as my monster remains. Although my monster is still shuffled into my deck, it buys me a single turn..” he said, as Neos Alius returned to his deck. Haru’s vision started to blur, as he drew the next card in his deck. “I can… still win this. I activate…” he said, but was interrupted by a strong pain in his chest, causing him to cough up blood and drop to the ground.

“It looks like you couldn’t muster the resolve needed to win. Such is life, I suppose.” The Agent said, walking over to Haru and lifting him up by his neck. The Agent reared his hand back and thrust it forward, but found his hand being held back by Asellia.

“I’ll finish the duel for him…” she said, activating her duel disk, a 100 appearing over her head. The Agent merely smiled and jumped back, his monster still on the field. Asellia placed her hand over the card from her deck, and grit her teeth. “Zarkus… this is for you! I draw!” she said, drawing a card and looking at it.

“Like lambs to the slaughter.” The Agent said, prepared to win the duel next turn.
[/spoiler]

[Quiksilver]

Cool. For the first chapter of my YGO fanfic, I didn't post any duels either.

But onto the actual story- you don't seem to post any description. I have no idea what this game looks like, how people play it, or what the characters even look like (I always skip stupid "character" sections, which I will expand upon later). As such, your writing is both confusing and bare, as with all the "teleporting" and "corruption" you almost make it seem like we're supposed to know about these things already, but we don't, and it's hard to make heads or tails of what you are trying to imply.

The character section is weird as well. If all you are going to post are ages and the smallest excuse for a description, why do it at all? Related to what I said before, is the fact there is a description in the character section the reason you didn't post anything about that in the actual story. Well, if you'll notice, this is the Fanfic section and not the Infodump section- I would talk about such things in-story, if I were you.

However, that does not mean your writing is all bad; the parts I were able to read were nicely written, and as a whole this is better than 75% of all fanfics out there. Spelling and grammar mistakes are low as well- in fact, the only mistake I see is when you said, "I'm still working out a writing style, so bear with me!", you spelled "bear" as "bare". Work on describing things and expanding more on your subjects and this could be a good fanfic.

[Sunshine Jesse]

[quote name='Luxray' timestamp='1300643937' post='5085362']
Cool. For the first chapter of my YGO fanfic, I didn't post any duels either.

But onto the actual story- you don't seem to post any description. I have no idea what this game looks like, how people play it, or what the characters even look like (I always skip stupid "character" sections, which I will expand upon later). As such, your writing is both confusing and bare, as with all the "teleporting" and "corruption" you almost make it seem like we're supposed to know about these things already, but we don't, and it's hard to make heads or tails of what you are trying to imply.
[/quote]
Noted. I'll expand more upon this in the next chapter.

I just wanted to see if anyone was interested in the concept.

[Quiksilver]

Actually, I was going to make a Virtual World fanfic myself, so, yes, I would say I'm interested. Though it is a bit different from what you have going...

[Sunshine Jesse]

Chapter 1 is up.

[Spoiler=Chapter 1: Everyone is Cannon Fodder]
[b]Characters Introduced:[/b]: Leif, Suited Man, two cannon fodder GMs.

When news upon Arthias' death became public, Kaiba Corporation did what any logical corporation would: They covered it up. He was getting somewhat old after all, so it was easy to say that he just had a heart attack while playing. The people naturally believed it, having no reason to think that they were being lied to. It was also easy to cover up because no further events happened after that. Zarkus quickly became a GM regardless of the events that transpired with Arthias, and also became somewhat popular with the players. A month passed after Arthias' death, and everyone settled down.

“Another day at work. Joy.” Zarkus said, as he sat down on a chair and logged into the game. Looking through the news section, he noticed that there was finally announcement on “immersion pods”, which allow people's consciousness to be transferred into the game itself. “I get the strangest feeling this won't end well but whatever.” Zarkus said, as his character loaded into one of the starting areas: A green forest with such intricate detail to it that it obviously took weeks upon weeks to make. And of course, whenever a GM logs on to an MMO, people come begging for stuff that they do not really deserve.

In order to find peace, Zarkus vanished from sight completely in an overdramatic display of graphics and appeared in an area he was working on, a cathedral loosely based off of a cathedral from one of his favorite video games. The cathedral wasn't exactly large, but there was a good amount of detail to it, as Zarkus tried to make it as accurate as possible. He didn't expect it to take off, as it was just a large cathedral in the middle a gigantic lake with nothing really special to it, but it would just be a sentimental place that he could relax in with pretty good background music.

While Zarkus was finishing up the final touches, two more GMs appeared behind him from portals. The GMs wore black cloaks that obscured their entire bodies, as they preferred to be anonymous unlike Zarkus does. “Leon, Amanda... what are you two doing here?” he said, walking towards them. The one on the left lowered his hood, revealing a head short brown hair, green eyes, glasses, and trace amounts of hair on his chin. The other one lowered her hood, revealing a feminine face with long black hair, and brown eyes.

“We have important news. Come with us.” Leon said, opening a portal. Zarkus walked in it, finding himself in the main GM room, a large round table with a screen at the end. The screen revealed yet another corrupted area, a city with random textures replaced by green 1's and 0's, as well as a red slime surrounding some of the buildings. Zarkus looked at the buildings with shock. “That's impossible...” he said, wondering how nobody could sense it before.

Amanda opened up a portal in the room. “We have no choice. We have to investigate.” she said, as she brought her deck with her. Leon did the same, and Zarkus looked up at the two of them, dumbfounded. “...so we're going to go to the same place that Arthias died. A place that no players can go to yet... and yet we're going to risk our lives for it. Genius.” he thought, but not speaking out because he didn't exactly want to get fired. He loaded his own deck into the disk and walked through the portal, appearing in said corrupted zone.

They wandered around for a short while, not really finding many leads, but definitely collecting date on it. “It's weird... the corrupted data doesn't even seem to be written in a programming language.” Amanda said, typing things on a see-through data keyboard. Zarkus looked up in the sky, a moon with an Alpha insignia on it floating above them. He could sense something very odd from it, something that he thought he'd never sense from a video game: Actual malice.

Suddenly, a low pitched roar echoed throughout the area, as all three of them jumped. “...we have to go.” Leon said, attempting to open a portal, but failing. Every time he tried, it immediately closed, none of them able to get through it. All three of them started to sweat, as a loud ear-piercing scream echoed throughout the area. Not only did it harm their ears, but it caused all three of them to cough up blood as well.

“...h-how...” Amanda said, grasping her chest in pain. Leon began to grow increasingly desperate as he ran off, trying to find a way out. “Wait!” Zarkus shouted, but it was too late, but Leon kept running. Another roar could be heard from the area, as Amanda ran off as well. “No! Dammit!” he said, reaching out to her as well, but to no avail. Looking around the area, he had no idea what to do, but eventually heard a scream from the direction Leon was coming from. A voice echoed throughout his head, the voice of a robotic female, the same one that happens whenever a GM takes an action.

“Leon's character has been deleted.”

Zarkus grew increasingly freightened, as several low-pitched roars bellowed throughout the area. He stood completely still, but eventually heard another loud scream resonate throughout the area, this one clearly belonging to Amanda.

“Amanda's character has been deleted.”

Zarkus then lost his s***, running throughout the area with no aim or logic behind it. He saw Leon's corpse with a large hole in his chest, and eventually ran across Amanda's as well, with the same large hole. Zarkus ran into an alleyway and breathed in deeply, trying to relax.

Then he turned around.

Behind him was a man in a suit and sunglasses, with short black hair. “...looks like whoever did this is a fan of The Matrix.” he said, making a joke to himself to conceal his crippling fear. A black battle-city duel disk appeared on the arm of the suited man, as an 8000 appeared over Zarkus' head. “If you win, I'll let you go.” the man said in a robotic voice, as Zarkus loaded up his own duel disk as well and drew five cards. “I go first!” Zarkus said, looking at his opening hand, which was pretty amazing, and made a great opening play. The suited man drew 5 cards as well, and smiled.

Zarkus didn't even last a single turn.

Zarkus' Life Point meter decreased to 0, as he fell to his knees. The suited man appeared in front of Zarkus and lifted him up by his neck. He thrust his hand through Zarkus' chest, and began to pull out a small orb, as Zarkus began to suffer a heart attack. Suddenly, the man's arm was detached from his body by a large beam of energy, as a figure appeared in front of him.

The man wore a black shirt with white pants and a green trench coat, as well as a Sherlock Holmes styled hat. His face was angular, mostly pointed, making him look small and meek, despite him being at least 6'3. However, his face was obscured by a red drama mask, concealing the rest of his facial features. Zarkus fell back, the suited man's arm disintegrating in his chest, and looked up one last time as he began to lose consciousness, an 8000 appearing over the masked man's head.

“Why not pick on someone your own size?” the masked man said, the last words Zarkus heard before he lost consciousness, although not permanently. Zarkus was quickly rushed to the hospital by his roommate, and was rendered comatose for a week, requiring several heart surgeries to save his life. The other GMs weren't so lucky, however, as all of them died on the spot. Zarkus' life had been saved by the mysterious man who showed up, but even then, the memory of this event was permanently carved into him in the form of a large scar on his chest.
[/spoiler]

[Sunshine Jesse]

I'm going to continue writing this even if nobody reads it

[spoiler=Chapter 2: Mandatory Boring Exposition Chapter]
Once again, Kaiba Corporation’s Virtual World division had to cover up the deaths of 2 Game Masters and the coma another was in. The people were growing increasingly paranoid, but their fears were quelled once they realized that only GMs were being targeted. There was no decrease in players at all, and no other corrupted areas to the knowledge of the GMs.

Six days after Zarkus was rendered comatose, two particular GMs found himself investigating the situation more in-depth. One of them, named Sigma, wore an odd looking mask with two of his ash grey bangs coming out over the top. His ash grey hair was styled in a pony-tail at the back, which reached his shoulders. He wore Kaiba style coat and long brown pants, with a lavender shirt and a pair of knee-high black boots. The other one, Haru Wakashudo, wore no shirt, but had blue tattoos in his chest, long brown pants, and a violet cape reminiscent. His appearance was pretty much a carbon copy of Kamina’s, except he had brown hair.. He was obviously a huge fan of Gurren Lagann.

“Zarkus was the only survivor… I wonder why he of all people was saved.” Sigma said, looking through the footage right until the cut-off point, where the mysterious man appeared and saved his life. Sigma rubbed his chin, thinking to himself “That man… who could he be?” Haru sighed, obviously finding this job boring, but was still curious as to what happened because he really got along with Zarkus. Suddenly, a beeping sound resonated throughout the room, the signal of a private message being sent. Sigma opened up his mailbox, and read the message.

From: Leif
Subject: Meet me at the Cathedral.
Message: I have important news regarding the events that transpired yesterday.

Sigma wasted no time in teleporting there, dragging Haru with him against his will. Upon reaching the cathedral, both of them gasped at the sheer level of detail Zarkus put into it. “…is he autistic or something?” Haru said, the comment being met with a firm slap upside the head by Sigma. They walked in the door, the same man who saved Zarkus standing in the top of the stairs, looking at an angelic statue. “Who the heck are you?” Haru said rather rudely, Sigma holding back the urge to hit him yet again as he was trying to make a good first impression on him to get information out of him easier.

The man walked down the stairs, sporting a blue mask this time. “I am Leif. Leif Sennes. Nice to meet you.” He said, holding his hand out for Sigma to shake. Sigma returned the handshake, smiling under his mask. “Let us skip the foreplay.” Leif said, opening a video projector and revealing how the duel between him and the suited man went. Leif barely managed to end the duel in a draw, but it was enough to drive him away.

“These suited beings are called ‘Agents’. They are programs created by a certain incredibly powerful virus that has managed to seep itself into the virtual world.” Leif said, holding out a mysterious cube with 1’s and 0’s floating in it, and a white core residing in the center. A weird energy radiated from it, unlike what one would expect from the virtual world. “This cube has the data the three collected, plus the data I collected from the duel.” He said, tossing the cube over to Sigma.

Sigma was shocked at all the man had gotten done, and surprised that he managed to end a duel in a draw where 4 other GMs failed to even do damage to him. “By the way Sigma, when Zarkus returns to the game, tell him that he needs to use that inner power of his that he’s kept hidden for so long.” Leif said. Sigma looked up at Leif, gritting his teeth. “…but Zarkus is comatose. What if he never wakes up, and what makes you think he’ll even play this game again after what happened to him?”

“He will.” Leif said, smiling under his mask.

Suddenly, a low-pitched roar could be heard throughout the area, as the area began to grow corrupted. Sigma and Haru gasped, as their logout and teleport commands failed to initiate. Leif sighed, as his duel disk activated. “They’re here.” He said, as yet another man in a suit appeared in the cathedral, standing behind both Sigma and Haru. “Wh…what?” Haru said, a look of fear on his eyes. The both of them jumped back, as an 8000 appeared over the heads of everyone in the room.

“I will be your lone opponent, Agent.” Leif said, loading his duel disk and walking towards the agent. The agent smiled, loading his own duel disk. “After you die, they’re next.” He said, not willing to accept Leif’s proposal. Haru stepped forward as he loaded his own duel disk, but Sigma pulled him back, preventing him from joining. “…why can’t we help? He can’t actually –win- against this thing!” Haru declared. Sigma merely looked over at Leif, sighing. “He knows. He has a plan.” Sigma said, as Leif and the Agent both drew their first five cards.

Meanwhile, in the hospital, Zarkus gasped and opened his eyes for the first time in almost a week…
[/spoiler]

[evilfusion]

Ehhh...I'll point out that I'm a critical person by nature and that criticisms do not indicate a lack of skill unless I specifically say "this is bad".

[b]Prologue[/b]

What I probably am most inclined to say was mentioned previously, and the first chapter is better at the errors than this, so I guess no reason to keep kicking around the flaws here.

I will note something that annoys me to no end. Never describe a character based on the physical appearance of another character, especially if you never described the character that serves as the base. Your "enemy" or whatever is described as a reversed version of Zarkus, but aside from vague description of hair and eye color, that's all we've got on him or Zarkus. This is also common in other fics where characters are said to look like their relatives/canon counterparts, with no further elaboration (this is why I hate it so much).

[b]Chapter 1[/b]

It's more detailed, but you thrive on being vague, ambiguous, or just refusing to beat around the bush, in the process not giving the readers more than a glimpse of anything.

Ooh, I got it, how about I specifically point out these things for you.

[i]Looking through the news section, he noticed that there was finally announcement on “immersion pods”, which allow people's consciousness to be transferred into the game itself. “I get the strangest feeling this won't end well but whatever.” Zarkus said[/i]

I'm going to assume that's foreshadowing. However, Zarkus acknowledges a suspicion that this is a BAD thing, but otherwise doesn't seem to give a damn. At all. Now I assume he doesn't actually have a lot of weight in such matters, but I considered him kind of a prick for that line, especially after his GM mentor DIED a month ago.

[i]And of course, whenever a GM logs on to an MMO, people come begging for stuff that they do not really deserve.[/i]

Having never played a MMO, I have no idea what this means, and even a single example of a player bugging the GM could have illustrated the point or been humorous. Clearly the line was irrelevent because nothing comes of it aside from Zarkus leaves the area.

You're much better at description in following sections, but I find myself reading about "portals" and "teleporting" and feeling like I'm missing something. Maybe MMOs and the like do involve a lot of "appear wherever the hell you want in an instant" mechanics for their GMs, but because I'm not familiar with this, I get the impression you just like giving the air of GMs being akin to gods, by letting them do anything and everything in a moment, and it feels super sloppy in execution, even if the idea is sound. Kind of like "Yup, now let's teleport here, and nope, got to go somewhere else, teleport there, ooh, let's open a portal to this place and..."

[i]“...so we're going to go to the same place that Arthias died. A place that no players can go to yet... and yet we're going to risk our lives for it. Genius.” he thought, but not speaking out because he didn't exactly want to get fired.[/i]

Remember how I said Zarkus seems like a prick or at the very least an apathetic a******? Not helping. His job means more than his life, and his job is in jeopardy if he hesitates at all and mentions the potential of mortal danger. The fact he nearly dies and 2 people DO die makes me think he's either super-apathetic or a complete moron.

The next section was actually pretty good, although I felt a bit disoriented and confused through most of it.

[i]“I go first!” Zarkus said, looking at his opening hand, which was pretty amazing, and made a great opening play. The suited man drew 5 cards as well, and smiled.

Zarkus didn't even last a single turn.[/i]

How...anticlimactic.

I dunno, I suppose you've got a solid idea and know what you're doing with this, but a sizeable portion gives me the impression you take for granted that most people probably have no clue what you're talking about. You did say or indicate it's based on your RP series, which is good, although I always think your RPs are convoluted as hell because they feel like sequels to things I never watched, drawing so heavily upon the past incarnations that I wonder why "new" people are even invited to join, since maybe 3 people know everything and everyone else knows nothing. So with that in mind, I hope this turns out to be more coherent.

Just a question. Is the name "Zarkus" significant to anything other than your username? Because otherwise the character seems like a self-insert (probably intentional) and it looks more amateurish than I'd like to believe.

[Sunshine Jesse]

Zarkus I just a common name for my OCs. And i'lll expand on why he's such a prick later on
Thanks for the criticism

[Sunshine Jesse]

[spoiler=Chapter 3: Holy s***, Finally Somebody Duels]

“I go first.” the Agent said in a completely robotic voice as he placed the next card from his hand onto his duel disk as a knight in red samurai armor with a clock on the breastplate and a single sword in his left hand appeared from the ground. His face appeared completely blank, with no facial details whatsoever, making it look like he was nothing more than a host for the armor and blade

ATK: 1500
DEF: 1500

“I summon Temporal Samurai. With his effect, I can attack you directly on the first turn of the duel at the cost of a single card in my hand.” he said, placing a Monster card in his Graveyard, which appeared to be a level 4 effect Monster, but Leif couldn't catch the name. “That's cheating!” Haru declared, as the samurai dashed forward and slashed Leif across the chest, dropping his Life Points from 8000 to 6500. The Agent set 2 cards and ended his turn, both Haru and Sigma completely oblivious to his strategy, but only Haru still showing shock. Leif had already dissected it however, and merely smiled.

H:2
S/T: 2
M:1
LP: 8000
Graveyard: 1

Upon drawing his card, he looked at his opening hand. “Excellent. With this, my strategy comes together.” he said, placing his first card in his Spell and Trap card zone. “I activate Reaper Swarm. With this, whenever I summon a Reaper Monster, once per turn, I can send one card from the top of my deck to my Graveyard to summon another.” he said, as he laid down the first card in his hand.

Leif's plan was simple. He was going to manipulate the size and contents of his deck in order to maximize the effect of his Slash Draw card and take control of the duel. “I summon Reaper Zakra.” he said, as a person rose from the ground. He wore a vest, pants with a slight puff near the bottom, and a jacket over his coat, all of them died crimson, as well as a Red Oni mask with two horns that came out from the top out from the top, with long hair, spiked near the top coming out from behind it. His weapon was unlike that of what one would expect from a reaper, instead being an odd hybrid of a claymore and a rapier, a wide yet incredibly thin red blade. “And now I send the top card of my deck to the Graveyard to call forth my Reaper Deya.” he said, the top card of his deck being a level 4 effect monster with a blue colored card art, but the rest of the details were obscured.

Zakra: ATK: 1100
Deya: ATK: 700

From the ground, a little girl with a grass green skirt, a similarly colored shirt, and long brown hair, with her face covered by a green oni mask with one horn. She couldn't have been more then eight or nine years old in appearance. Her weapon was a green scythe way too large for her body, but somehow she carried it perfectly. She seemed to bounce around the field like a little girl, with Zakra looking at her and rubbing his head out of frustration. “Both of you, come here.” he said, flicking his wrist, both of the monsters now standing in front of him.

“Now I activate Reaper Call.” he said, as his Life Points dropped from 6500 to 5500, and a man with long blue hair, unbound but cascading out from behind a long, blue Oni mask. Appeared from the ground. Unlike Red's Elizabethan-era Brittish clothing, he wore old japanese-styled training clothing. His weapon was obviously a traditional katana, a contrast to the weapons of the other two. “I summon Reaper Adegos, who shields my other reapers from card effects.” he said, a blue veil surrounding all three of his monsters
.
Adegos: ATK: 1300

“Did he just summon a bunch of monsters in one turn?” Haru said, looking at the three reapers ahead of him. Nobody responded to his comment though, which made him sad

“I activate the effect of Deya, reducing the attack points of your monster to 0.” he said, as Deya waved her arm, green sparkles flying over the samurai, disintegrating its sword. “And now my three monsters attack!” he declared, as each one dashed forth and slashed the samurai. The samurai wasn't destroyed, but the damage still took a large chunk out of the Agent's Life Points.

LP: 8000 → 5900

“And now I activate Slash Draw.” Leif declared, sending the card in his hand and the top 7 cards from his deck to the Graveyard. “One of the cards I sent was Trickster Reaper, allowing me to select 1 card from my Graveyard and place it at the top of my deck when he's sent to my Graveyard.”he said, placing a card on the top of his deck, and drawing it. .

“The card I drew is Slash Draw.”

Suddenly, time grinded to a complete halt around the area, as the Agent revealed his face-down card. “I activate Temporal Reset.” he declared, as every face-up card on the field and in both player's hands converted into a white orb, flying back into their Deck as well as every card in the Graveyard of both players.

“When Temporal Reset activates, all face-up cards on the field and in both players hands and Graveyards are returned to the Deck. Then, both of our Life Points halve, and we each draw five cards. This card can only be activated on the second turn of the duel.” he said, his face-down card remaining on the field.

Agent: 2450
Leif: 2250

“The effect of Slash Draw still resolves, destroying your card.” Leif said, as a large blade of energy cut the card in half. (Agent's LP: 2450->1450) As the card was sent to the graveyard, the Agent smiled. It was a Mirror Force which Adegos prevented anyway, but the Agent obviously had something planned despite the fact that he was behind. “I set three cards and end.” Leif said, leaving himself open to attack.

Hand: 2
Monsters: 0
S/T: 3

The Agent looked at his hand. “Due to the effect of my Temporal Reset, I'm not allowed to conduct my next Draw Phase.” he said, placing his hand up against his ear. “Permission to use that?” he said, speaking to someone through a device on his head. A voice could be heard near him, saying “Yes” in a calm female voice, as the Agent reached toward his hand and laid down his next card. “I activate Celestial Transformation. With this effect, I can call forth a Fairy monster from my hand at the expense of half its ATK value.” he said, reaching for another card in his hand, and placing it down.

“Arise, Temporal Machine God Sandaion!”

Showing some sort of emotion for the first time so far, the monster rose up from behind him, a yellow-colored machine-esque monster with a mirrored chest, a male face reflected in said mirror. Oddly enough, it was a Fairy type despite it's name and appearance. “Now I activate my Spell card Forced Battle, allowing me to conduct my Battle Phase despite any card effects activated within the past two turns.”

ATK: 4000 → 2000

“Sandaion attacks you directly.” he said, as the monster created a lance out of yellow energy and threw it towards Leif, hitting him head on, creating a large explosion around the area and forming a cloud of dust above his head. “I flip my Trap card, Power Wall. With this, I can send cards from the top of my Deck to the Graveyard to reduce damage by 100 each.” he said, dropping 20 cards from the top of his deck to the Graveyard, one of which being Trickster Reaper, allowing him to place Slash Draw at the top of his deck.

“The effect of Sandaion activates, making you take 4000 damage.” the Agent said, as the cloud of dust above Leif began to glow, sparks of electricity in it.

“No! Leif!” Haru shouted, reaching out toward him, but he was pulled back by Sigma. “Sigma.. why?” he said, looking up at him. Even though you couldn't see through his mask, he was perspiring as well. “Because... he has a plan.” Sigma said, shaking.

Leif sighed, as he flipped his next face-down card. “I didn't want to have to rely on luck so much, but I guess I have no choice. I flip my Spell Textbook. By discarding my entire hand, I can draw 1 card and activate if it it's a Spell card.” he said, as he flipped his second card. “Then I chain Reaper Call, allowing me to summon Reaper Zakra and Reaper Adegos.” he said, his two reapers rising to the field in attack position. Leif drew one card and revealed it to his opponent, placing it in his Spell/Trap card zone.

Leif held 1 copy of Slash Draw left in his deck and one in his Graveyard, along with two copies of Trickster Reaper. With 14 cards left in his deck, he had a one in seven chance of getting rid of one of his two Trickster Reapers. If that failed, upon sending the top 5 cards of his deck to the Graveyard, he had a one in nine chance of drawing the remaining Slash Draw and winning the duel.

“And now... I activate Slash Draw!”

[/spoiler]

Because fanfic duels tend to be boring, I decided to include a duel summary:
[Spoiler=Chapter 3 Duel Summary]
Duel Summary:

Agent's Turn.

-Drew a card (Hand: 6)
-Normal Summoned Temporal Samurai (1500 ATK)
-Discarded 1 card and attacked directly. (Hand: 4) (Leif: 8000 → 6500)
-Set 2 cards and ended his turn.

Leif's turn:
-Activated Reaper Swarm
-Summoned Reaper Zakra (1300 ATK)
-Special Summoned Reaper Deya (700 ATK)
-Milled Reaper Adegos
-Activated Reaper Call, allowing him to pay LP in multiples of 1000 to Special Summon 1 reaper for every 1000 LP paid. (Leif: 6500 → 5500)
-Summoned Reaper Adegos
-Haru tries to make a Yu-gi-oh abridged reference but is cut off
-The effect of Deya activates, reducing the ATK of Samurai to 0.
-All three of his Monsters attacked. (Agent's LP: 8000 → 5900)
-Leif activated Slash Draw, milling Trickster Reaper and another copy of Slash Draw, as well as five other cards.
-The effect of Trickster Reaper activates, allowing him to place one card from his Graveyard at the top of his deck.
-He drew Slash Draw.
-Agent activated Temporal, resetting the field and both player's hands, and halving their Life Points, except for his one-face down which was destroyed by Slash Draw. (Agen'ts LP: 2450-> 1450)
-Leif set 3 cards and ended his turn.

Agent's turn:
-Temporal Reset renders him unable to draw a card.
-Agent activates Celestial Transformation, allowing him to summon Temporal Machine God Sandaion with half ATK
-Agent activates Forced Battle, allowing him to conduct his Battle Phase despite Zakra's effect.
-Sandaion attacks
-Leif flips Power Wall, milling 20 cards and reducing damage to 0
-One of the cards was Trickster Reaper, allowing him to place
-The effect of Sandaion activates, inflicting 4000 damage.
-Leif chains Spell Text Book, allowing him to draw 1 card and activate it if it's a spell, at the cost of his hand.
-Chains Reaper Call, allowing him to Summon Zakra and Adegos
-Leif draws Slash Draw and activates it.

To be continued...
[/spoiler]

Will write up a card glossary shortly.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

Hmm...Zarkus, I'm impressed. Very good work.
And thanks for the Duel Summary.

[Sunshine Jesse]

Thanks bro.

And the card glossary is up. Will be updated every time there's a duel.

[Sunshine Jesse]

chapter 4 is up. It's not as long as I originally intended but I didn't want it to drag on.
[spoiler=Chapter 4: Climax, Foreshadowing, and Emo Main Character]

“I activate Slash Draw!” Leif declared, as he sent the top five cards of his deck to the Graveyard, none of which were his Trickster Reaper. The tension around him could be cut with a knife, but Leif was completely calm as he revealed the card he drew. “I drew the card Veil Reaper.” he said, as the chain link resolved and a large blast of lightning shot from the cloud, striking Leif head on. Above him, a cloak surrounded his body.

“I activate the effect of Veil Reaper. When I take damage, I can send cards from the top of my Deck to the Graveyard to decrease the damage by 500 each. I send eight cards.” he said, sending the cards from his hand and deck to the Graveyard, the lightning dispersing around him. By the effect of the two Trickster Reaper cards he sent, he placed two cards on the top of his deck.

“So you managed to buy yourself a turn. Even so, you only have three cards left in your deck. With my final spell card, nothing will be able to bridge the gap between us.” the Agent declared, Sandaion looming down on Leif. “I activate Temporal Revitalization. Now, my Life Points become what they were two turns ago. I end.”

Agent's LP: 8000

“It's my turn. I draw!” he said, looking at what he drew and placing it in the Spell/Trap card zone. “I activate Reaper Advent! I can draw one card from my deck and reveal it to you. If it's a level 4 or lower Reaper monster, I can Special Summon it and draw again. If it's not a Reaper, it's returned to my deck instead.” Leif picked up the card from his deck: Reaper Deya, and summoned it to the field in attack position, all three of his Reapers now on the field.

Leif drew the last card in his deck and looked at it, smiling. “So this is the final card my deck had in store for me, huh? Heh... it won't win me the duel, but I'll still be able to leave my mark on this world! Spell card, activate!” he said, placing his card in the Spell and Trap card zone. Adegos an d Zakra converted into orbs of energy, which flowed into the card.

“United Fighting Spirit!”

Every Monster in his hand, deck, and Graveyard also converted into an orb of pure energy, which surrounded Leif. Leif's blue mask turned pure white, as two angelic wings formed on his back, and a large blade formed in his hand. Leif walked forward into his spell and Trap card zone, the frown on his drama mask turning into a smile.

“Arise, Legendary Method Actor – Leif.”

The barrier surrounding the cathedral vanished and the corrupted areas began to recover, as the Agent looked upon Leif's new form. “Wh-...what are y-?” the Agent said, his programming being jammed by the sheer amount of power radiating from him.

“I use the effect of my Legendary Actor – Leif. By Tributing him, I can Special Summon 3 different “Modified Reaper Gods” from my Extra Deck. Arise, Modified Reaper God – Zakra Red, Modified Reaper God – Adegos Blue, and Modified Reaper God – Deya Green.” Leif said, as he rose his hand up into the sky. Three orbs appeared from his hand; one green, one blue, and one red, as they flew through Leif's chest. Three reapers appeared from the orb, each one looking closer to a stereotypical grim reaper except with scythes and cloaks in their corresponding colors.

“Since I cannot win the duel, I will give my life to ensure a future for this world. I KNOW that you pose a threat larger than this simple game, and with this sacrifice, I will carve a path to tomorrow. Adegos, Deya, Zakra, go forth!”

Leif's body began to disintegrate, as all three of the reapers rose up their scythes, large streams of energy shooting from them up into the roof of the area, creating a multicolored barrier that surrounded the entire cathedral. The reapers converted into pure energy and flied through the Agent's chest, pulling out a small core of data which landed in Sigma's hands.

“Who are you...?” the Agent said, the power he felt from Leif unlike anything he has felt before. For the first time in his life, he had felt fear. His body began to disintegrate rapidly.

“I am nothing but an actor.”

Leif turned around to Sigma and Haru, smiling at them. A core floated out of his chest and split into three pieces, each one flying into the chest of one of his reapers, as they converted into streams of energy, flying towards the Agent and completely destroying his body, then vanishing into nothing, all traces of their data gone.

Haru and Sigma both looked at what had just occurred, dumbfounded as to what happened and why. Quickly, Sigma got to analyzing the core he held in his hand, shocked at all the information inside of it. “What did you find out?” Haru said, looking over at Sigma, who opened up a screen with all the information displayed on it.

“It's not much, but we have leads now. You see, this is all caused by a virus, which was created by a single man from corrupting the code of the virtual world itself. This is all I know for now, because...” Sigma said, a bit of worry in his voice now.

“Because... what?” Haru said, confused and slightly worried himself.

“...because this Agent was of the weakest class out of five.” Sigma said, closing the console

“...well... s***.” Haru said, unable to respond to that much more. He tried to say something else, but nothing came to mind.

Zarkus logged into the virtual world and quickly went to the cathedral, noticing the barrier surrounding it. He walked through the barrier with no issue, and noticed Sigma and Haru. “...what are you guys doing here?” he said to them, although the two of them were dumbfounded as to why a man who just came out of a coma logged into an online game. Sigma didn't say much, and just opened up the console and explained what happened.

“...so, you mean?” Zarkus said, looking up at Sigma. Sigma just nodded, as Zarkus turned around. “...so you mean to say I couldn't even save the person who saved my life? First Arthias... and now him?”

“Don't blame yourself... you had no control over it!” Haru said, reaching out to Zarkus. Zarkus simply walked away, ignoring him, and vanished from the area. Sigma looked disappointed and angry at how Zarkus acted, but Haru sighed. “He always gets like this when he loses someone who meant something to him...” Haru said, but he was still unsure on what to do in these circumstances. “...but now is NOT the time!” he said, storming off out of the cathedral, leaving Sigma behind.

Zarkus walked around in a town area, modeled after NYC in the 1920s with his head held down, as he received message after message.

“will send u boobs for gm!!!!11!”

“i deserve cards! I have a huge win record and treat everyone nicely!!!!”

“make a roleplay server plz”

“hey this guy cheated in our casual duel! Admin! Help!”

“To grow your penis twenty inches, click here.”

Zarkus just ignored the messages and continued to sulk throughout the town, sitting on a bench in front of a pond. “I really dropped the ball, didn't I?” he said, talking to himself, then looking down at the floor and sighing deeply.

“Why are you so emo?” a voice said from above him. Zarkus looked up and saw a little girl with a Gothic Lolita-styled dress, really long blonde hair that was almost down to her ankles, blue eyes, and vampire fangs.

“Oh god another f***ing Twilight fan. I thought that series died 20 years ago.” Zarkus thought to himself, then standing up and rubbing the back of his head. “I'm not emo. I'm just tired.” he said, walking past the girl. The girl turned around and promptly jumped on his back. “...get off of me!” Zarkus yelled, shaking and trying to get her off of him, but to no avail.

“Nope. I'm sticking to you until you feel better!” she said, vehemently refusing to let go. Zarkus sighed, frustrated that the girl wouldn't let go, but he just shrugged, not wanting to disappoint another person and increase his ever-growing guilt.

“Okay fine. You can stick around. But only if you listen to my story.”

Meanwhile, in a large corrupted building where there were 1s and 0s instead of windows, the mysterious body-double of Zarkus was sitting down in the top room, a mirror-image of the GM room. Upon hearing the news of the first Agent being destroyed, he rubbed his forehead and sighed. Pressing a button on his chair, a screen opened up in front of him, showing the profiles of all the GMs.

“Which one should I target next...” he said, looking through the profiles. Sigma and Haru interested him the most, as they were the GMs closest to Zarkus. “I'm not giving them another chance. I'm sending a rank five Agent after them.” the mysterious being said, as he pressed another button on his chair, sending a signal out.

Haru walked throughout the town Zarkus is in, trying to find him. “Where is he?” Haru said, clenching his fist. He eventually stumbled upon Zarkus, talking to the little girl he had just met. “Well he must be in a better mood.” he said, slowly beginning to approach him.

“You have a depressing life, mister.” the girl said, looking up at him with wide eyes. Zarkus looked down at her and smiled.

“Well aside from the heart attack and that one incident, it's not that bad.” Zarkus said, laughing.

“Hey! Zarkus!” Haru said, running towards the two of them. “Glad to see you're feeling better... I assume. Anyways, who's the girl?”

“Oh, this girl? Her name is...” Zarkus said, but was interrupted by a low pitched rumbling sound. In the area they were in, the data volume was beginning to greatly increase, and the people around them began to slow down, almost as if time was grinding to a halt. A bright flash of light surrounded them, as they vanished from the area, appearing in a corrupted version of the city they were in. All of the buildings were colored red, missing pieces, and the sky consisted of 1s and 0s instead of blue.

“...oh no. Not here! Not now! Not with her!” Zarkus said, looking at the girl below her. In front of all 3 of them, another Agent appeared, except this one with one black angelic wing on the right side of his body, and white hair instead of the brown that a normal Agent had. An 8000 appeared over the heads of all 3 of them, as the Agent activated his duel disk.

“Which one of you... will be my first victim?” the Agent said, activating his duel disk. Zarkus stepped up, but Haru ran in the way.

“You're in no condition to duel. I'll take care of this.” he said, activating his duel disk and loading his deck. He tried to be as confident as possible, but in reality he was terrified, knowing that he would probably lose. However, he hoped that he would be able to buy time for Zarkus and the girl with him to find a way out.

“I go first.” Haru said, drawing the first card of his deck. He looked through his hand, thinking of his options. “I summon Elemental Hero Neos Alius in attack position. I set two cards and end.” he said, a bead of sweat moving down his brow. He honestly wondered if he would even last a turn, but shook his head and decided to fake being confident. “Come at me!” he declared, pointing directly at his angelic foe.

Meanwhile, the data volume in the area began to increase further, signifying that something else of great power was about to show up, but all of the four people there were too preoccupied to notice.
[/spoiler]

[Sunshine Jesse]

Duel log will be up shortly.

[spoiler=Chapter 5: I Originally Planned a Longer Chapter, But Decided to End It There]

“I draw.” The Agent said, looking at his opening hand. Picking the first card from his hand, he placed it down in his Monster card zone. “I summon Temporal Shinobi. (ATK: 1200) With his effect, I can increase or decrease the turn count by two. I choose to decrease it by two, making the turn count 1, since it cannot go to 0.” he said, as a ninja wearing an all-black outfit appeared from the ground. Like Temporal Samurai, this creature had a clock on his chest and the hand pointing to 1. “With his effect, I can discard 1 card to have him attack you directly during an odd-numbered turn.” he said, sending a level 4 Monster from his hand to the Graveyard, as his shinobi dashed forward.

“Not so fast! I chain my Super Polymerization! By discarding one card, I can fuse our monsters together!” Haru said, sending “Elemental Hero Ocean” from his hand to his Grave. Their two monsters were absorbed into a large vortex of energy, as the vortex began to take shape. “I summon my Elemental Hero Great Tornado!” Haru declared, placing said monster into his spell/trap card zone.

“I set two cards and end.” the Agent declared, his facial expression remaining the same. Haru was slightly unnerved by this, but he drew his next card anyway.

“I flip my next face-down, Trap Stun! Now your trap cards are sealed for my turn.” Haru said, looking at his hand. “I activate O – Oversoul to summon my Neos Alius once more! And now I'll bring out my Elemental Hero Prisma, and use his effect to send Elemental Hero Ocean to my Graveyard to change his name! And now all three of my monsters attack!” he said, as his three heroes dashed forward, striking the agent head on.

1900+2800+1700=6400
Agent's LP: 1600

Zarkus stared wide-eyed at Haru's last move. “holy... s***...” he thought to himself, surprised that Haru could get so much done in a single turn against such an opponent.

“I set two cards and end. It's your move.” Haru said, placing the last two cards in his hand in the spell/trap zone. He had a formidable field now, and two face-down cards. He was more confident then he was before due to his most recent turn.

...unfortunately things don't always work out that way.

The Agent drew one card, looking at his three-card hand now as well. “I activate Temporal Revitalization. Now my Life Points become 8000 again.” he said, revealing the spell card in his hand. However, Haru just flipped his face-down Magic Drain. “I'll choose to let it negate it.” the Agent said, sending the card to his Graveyard. “And now I activate my Trap card- Temporal Gift. Every time the turn count changes, the current turn player draws one card.”

The Agent reached towards his hand, and activated yet another Spell card. “I activate Valhalla, the Hall of the Fallen. This card allows me to Special Summon a Fairy-type monster from my hand once per turn. I chain my Temporal ---. Every time a Monster is Special Summoned, the turn count advances by the Level of the Summoned Monster.” he said, placing a Monster in his monster card zone, the turn count advancing by 10, and the Agent drawing another card.

Current turn count: 13

“Awaken, Temporal Machine God Gabrion! Attack Elemental Hero Prisma!”

Haru quickly flipped his face-down Gemini Spark, tributing his Neos Alius to destroy Valhalla and drawing one card. His entire field was swept up in a large torrent of water, returning every card on his side of the field to his deck. “I set one card and end.” the Agent declared, smiling.

“I draw!” Haru said, drawing an extra card due to the effect of Temporal Gift. He looked at his hand and grit his teeth, not knowing what to do. “I set one card and end.” he said, sighing.

“Gabrion returns to my Deck. I draw twice, activate Valhalla yet again, and summon Temporal Machine God Michion.” the Agent said, drawing yet another card and attacking with his new monster, halving Haru's Life Points.

The next few turns didn't bode well for Haru. Everything he tried was rather easily countered and used against him. His once massive advantage was now reduced to 1400 Life Points against the Agent's 1600. While he had a lot of cards in his hand, all of them were bounced and the turn count rose to a massive 63.

“He got off to such a good start...” the girl said, looking at Haru as he was once again knocked back by another attack from the Temporal Samurai, his Life Points dropped to 200. The Agent still had one monster left on the field, but Haru still had a remaining face-down that he intended to use.

“...No...” Zarkus said, reaching out towards Haru.

“I guess it's time to go out with a bang.” Haru said, as he started to flip his face-down card. “I activate Ring of D...-”He was interrupted by a red mist surrounding the area, the data volume in the area greatly increasing to the point where it began to crash. In front of Haru, a man looking exactly like Leif's Reaper Zakra descended to the ground in front of the two of them.

Just like Reaper Zakra, the man was wraithlike, wearing in bright red cloth clothing. He wore a vest, pants with a slight puff near the bottom, and a jacket over his coat, all of them died crimson, along with a red Oni mask and long, red hair. “Yo'.” the man said, waving his arm as the arena was covered in static, and shut off just like a TV.

When the trio opened their eyes, they were in the exact area they were before the Agent showed up, like nothing had ever happened. The man that just appeared was still standing there, looking directly at the three of them.

“...but I was about to end the duel in a draw.” Haru said to the man, disappointed. The man opened up a screen, revealing what was in his hand.

“Temporal Veiler. 'When the turn count is 30 or higher, you can discard this card to negate any damage and inflict it back on your opponent. Then, halve the current turn count.' You would've assured your defeat with that. Not only that, but rank 5 Agents work on a different set of rules. If you ended in a draw, you still would've died.” the man said, sighing. “I saved you by overloading the data in the area you were in. I'm composed of a lot of data, you see.”

Haru merely looked at the man with a blank expression, speechless and having no idea what just happened despite his articulate explanation. Several thoughts flowed through his mind, but he could only think of this as a response:

“wat.”
[/spoiler]

[Sunshine Jesse]

I re-wrote the prologue, if anyone's interested.
[spoiler=Prologue Revisited]
MMOs are one of the most popular genres of gaming. Throughout the history of video games, MMOs have sucked the lives away from millions upon millions of people, with hours of grinding dedicated them. Entire lives have been ruined over them. When there's a problem with a game, however, players flee. The internet is a dangerous place- but Kaiba Corporation's MMO claimed to be the opposite.

Arthias was the most valued 'Game Manager' on the Kaiba MMO. Safety was key to him, and he was both strict, and kind. The man was adored by the players, due to the many events he hosted in their honor. The man gave away free, high level gear constantly, and was always happy to lend a helping hand. However, he had one flaw. Hackers. If Arthias got even the hint that somebody was hacking, he would strike down with horrible anger, his banhammer hitting harder than most.

This is what had led to the more recent events.

“I'll return shortly.” Arthias said, teleporting away from the area to where the hacking attempt was. 'Hackers. Damn.' his mind spat, as he materialized into a new area, one that he had never seen before. The general theme of the game was a stereotypical Swords and Sorcery mideval-esque era with some call-forwards to the late 1800s, but the area he found himself in now was a fully industrialized larger city, except with random points in the city replaced by 0s and 1s, as well as the sky being blood red. The area was obviously very corrupted in nature.

The first mistake Arthias made was to teleport directly to the area instead of checking the place around it. GMs have had a history of being deleted for teleporting directly to the areas where hackers resided, but it wasn't that big of a deal for Arthias because he had many backups, but in this particular situation it would prove to be his downfall.

He wandered throughout the area, intruiged by the nature of its coding. It was seemingly programmed directly into the game, but used a completely different programming language. Arthias was confused by this, but he thought he knew exactly how to deal with it. A keyboard appeared in front of Arthias, as he began to type several different things on to it. "Firewall program activate." he said, as a literal wall of fire appeared around his body. It grew in size, eventually hitting the buildings, but stopped there.

This was his second mistake, as he had literally locked himself in.

"Hm... I wonder what the issue is here." he said, attempting to cause the firewall to lower, but failing. This scared him a bit, but he just tried a second, third, and fourth time, all of which failing, each time growing more frantic. He ran towards the firewall and smashed his fists against it, eventually burning them. He quickly moved his hands away from the firewall, and looked at them.

"I... I actually felt that..."

He began to frantically run around the area, feeling true, primal fear, like a caged rat. His attempts to teleport out the area failed, hitting the firewall and further burning himself, the pain translating to real life as a small amount of blood trickled down his mouth. He eventually found himself giving up, standing in the center and looking around the area. "I don't understand.." he said, failing to find a way out.

Suddenly, he heard an ear-piercing screech behind him as he coughed up blood in real life. He turned around to a sudden presence behind him, as he saw a man. The man had long, white hair and green eyes, with classic mideval armor, with a long broadsword in his left hand. His face didn't look aged at all despite having white hair, the man himself not looking a day over 25.

"It's... you!"

The white-haired man walked towards Arthias, an 8000 appearing over his head. A duel disk appeared on both of their arms, as a deck was loaded into the being's disk. Arthias' duel disk remained empty, however. “...but... I don't have a deck. Why would you... do this to me?” Arthias said in an increasingly desperate tone. The being smiled and slowly began to walk towards Arthias, holding his sword up.

“Then you are disqualified.” the man said in a voice devoid of any humanity, or emotion.

Arthias slowly began to walk back, sweat pouring down his brow, as his breathing grew more and more pained. His heart continued to race, as he was quickly cornered, fire right behind him. The man drew his sword back and thrust it forward into Arthias' chest, as a large hole appeared in it, a small glowing sphere floating out and into Arthias' hand. "...you're deleting my character and stealing my data? Why? Why are you d-..."

Arthias suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest, like hundreds of blades were piercing his heart. His consciousness began to fade, as he coughed up blood. His player character fell back into the firewall, the flames bathing his body and burning his player character's data into nothingness, every bit of data slowly deconstructing. Seconds felt like years as he and his character painfully died and he fell down from where he was sitting. Arthias looked up at his screen and futiley reached towards it, before finally going limp.

"God... damn it."

The being teleported away from the area, Arthias' blood still resting on his blade.
[/spoiler]

[Sunshine Jesse]

Should I rewrite chapter 1 as well or just get on with the plot?

[TheRobloxian]

Get on with the plot. I wanted to do something like this, but then you took it away. . But better then i was going too .

[DARKPLANT RISING]

Well yeah, so to be honest everything here is either: (a) Awesome ([color="#000000"]b[/color]) Good ([color="#000000"]c[/color]) Horrible. Something microscopic like 0.05% goes in a. 90% are c. Meanwhile this goes in Good. In short, take this as a compliment. I hardly give compliments.

It's a bit orthodox at times - "Mysterious accident relating to YGO happens and kills people. Then people go seek the truth". But the description is somewhat good, and that's something you can always love.

Maybe work a bit on character development, though.

By the way could you care to take a look at [url=http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/244050-the-beast-of-extrarius-dark-fantasy/]my story[/url]? *Obligatory way to force people to read*

[Sunshine Jesse]

Going to edit chapter 1 a bit to fit in with the new prologue.

[Sunshine Jesse]

Chapter six is finally up!
[spoiler=Chapter 6: Haru’s bad acid trip]
“Was I not clear?” the man said in a slightly disappointed tone. Haru just looked at the man, scratching his forehead. He really had no idea what the man was talking about. He wasn’t a programmer or any expert on data; he just loved the game and got along with people. The man rubbed the back of his head and sighed, a chalkboard appearing behind him, as he wrote several things on it.

“Okay. My name is Red. Who I am is of no importance, I’m just a being comprised of enough data to overload small servers. In order for higher ranking Agents to duel and exist in the virtual world, they must create their own areas which function as servers. This is because, otherwise, they could possibly damage the virtual world itself by dueling. Not only that, but it allows their existence to be more discreet, which helps their goals. When I go to the server, I overload it and force it to shut down, forcing them to leave and go back to where they came. Before you ask, I am not aware of their goals yet. Any more questions, Haru?”

Zarkus nodded his head, showing that he knew exactly what the agent was talking about, but Haru himself still barely understood. But he just nodded and smiled. “So, how do we defeat them?” Haru said, remembering back to his most recent near-loss. He really had no clue, as the Agent he fought turned around the duel in a single turn and rendered it almost impossible for him to win. His only option for victory would be to use something that he was not prepared to.

Red looked over at Haru, and sighed, frowning under his mask. “I am not sure. We can only escape them. I can possibly take the lowest ranked Agents, but not much else. We’ll have to come up with a plan, regroup, find and use better cards…” he said, then looking over at Zarkus. “And hope that we tap in to a hidden potential that we didn’t know before.”

Haru looked over at Zarkus, finally remembering the statement that Leif made previously. “…yeah uh. What did Leif mean when he said about your ‘inner power’? He said it might be the key to our victory.”

Zarkus sighed and stood up, opening up a console and typing a few things on it. He was trying to avoid the question, but decided to half-ass an answer to appease Haru. “I dabbled in a few things I shouldn’t have a few years back, and s*** happened. One thing led to another, and now I’m one f***ed up person.” Zarkus said, sarcastically laughing. Haru wasn’t exactly satisfied by this answer, but he decided not to press the issue because Zarkus was noticeably distressed by bringing it up.

“And who exactly are you?” he said, approaching the girl next to Zarkus. As the girl opened her mouth to speak, the first thing Haru thought upon noticing the vampire fangs was “Oh god… another Twilight fan.” But, like Zarkus, he didn’t say anything.

“Asellia. I met this emo guy a few hours ago and want to make him feel better.” The girl said, looking up at Haru.

Haru stared directly into her blue eyes for a moment. “…holy crap she’s adorable.” Haru thought to himself, but once again didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to look like a creeper. “Nice to meet you, Asellia. I can see you’ve done a fine job; Zarkus seems to be in a better mood already. I think you two will get along fine. I’ve known Zarkus for a few years and he tends to get along with those who can make him happy.”

“I’m not having sex with him.” Asellia said in a deadpan tone.

There was an awkward silence that lasted for a long while.

Haru didn’t even bother responding to that and smiled. “Well I must be going now.” He said, turning around and walking away. Zarkus and Asellia continued to talk about god knows what, occasionally laughing. Haru laughed to himself as he walked away, glad that things were working out.

Meanwhile, thousands of gigabytes away in an alleyway, one of the players there was standing around, apparently waiting for someone. He was rather average in size, being no taller than 5’9, and had short, black hair with a green mask. The mask had two black eyes and a red mouth, obscuring most of his face. He wore a long, black cloak, black pants, and a black shirt, obscuring his entire body aside from a (you guessed it!) black duel disk on his arm.

An Agent was across from him, handing him a card with a crimson glow surrounding it. “Make sure to play this card whenever you draw it. It’ll win you most duels.” The Agent said, vanishing into nothingness. The man took the card in hand and smiled, placing it into his deck and walking out of the alley, bumping into Haru in the process.

“Oh… sorry.” Haru said towards the man, but the man merely grunted and walked away, prompting Haru to respond with “…what a dick.” As he vanished away to the main GM room, the same room that Sigma currently resided in. “So, are we still going to hold the tournament despite the current events?”

Sigma sighed. “It might not be a good idea, but the only people targeted so far are GMs, so I suppose we might as well.” He said, typing a few things on the console. On the screen, there was a bracket showing a tournament consisting of a massive amount of people, 1024 to be exact. “I feel sorry for those people who missed signing up. But oh well.” Sigma said, turning around to Haru.

Haru didn’t like the prospect of risking people’s lives for a tournament, but he’s seen weirder things, such as the Battle City tournament which still baffles him to this very day. “Well, okay. Make sure to monitor every duel closely.: “enyuushinjyo vs Hikaru… wait. Tenyuu was that prick who ran into me in the city.” He thought to himself, but shrugged it off, deciding not to get offended over it. Conveniently, the tournament was in a few days.

Several days passed without any incident, not so much as a viral signal in the entire game. On the day of the tournament, Sigma, Haru, and Zarkus sat in the main GM room, Asellia still hanging on Zarkus' back. “She doesn't leave you alone, does she?” Haru said, looking at the girl.

“It's 'cuz I'll spam his inbox with messages if he take me with him everywhere. I have to make sure that he doesn't go emo again!” Asellia said, still hanging on tight. Zarkus just awkwardly laughed at what she said.

“I'll just go along with it.” he said, looking at the truly massive arena in front of him.

Sigma stood up, and pressed a button as a microphone appeared in front of his face. “First 128 duelists, please stand forward.” he said, as the duelists quickly stood in front of their areas. Tenyuushinjyo stepped forward, facing his opponent who had his hand held out. Hikaru had short, brown hair, and brown eyes. He wore chainmail armor, with a large shield for his duel disk.

“May the best man win.” Hikaru said, but Tenyuu just ignored him and activated his duel disk, prompting yet another “what a dick” response from Hikaru.

“Round one, begin!” Sigma declared through the microphone, as the people began their duels. Tenyuu's duel was pretty much a complete curbstomp. For every move Hikaru made, Tenyuu responded with a trap card that perfectly and absolutely countered it. It seemed as if he was just toying with his opponent, waiting to draw a certain card. Several turns into the duel later, Tenyuu had five cards in his hand while Hikaru had one, and only one face-up monster: a Vorse Raider, with no face-downs and only one card in his hand.
“...turn end.” Hikaru declared, having only 200 Life Points left, he was prepared to lose next turn. Tenyuu drew a card, and smiled under his mask.

“I summon Mara of the Nordic Alfar. Now, I tune him with two Nordic Monsters in my hand: Garmr of the Nordic Beasts and Ljosalf of the Nordic Alfar!” he said, as two circles appeared in front of him. He tossed the cards in his hand into the two circles, as a large curtain opened up under him.

“...hm. This is an unexpected turn of events.” Sigma said, as all eyes were on Tenyuu's duel, ignoring the 100ish duels that were still going on.

"The trickster God who was born from deception, show us your absolute power, and may your laugh echo throughout the world! Synchro Summon! Descend, Polar God King Loki!"

The being entered through the curtain and smiled, his laugh indeed echoing throughout the area. Tenyuu took the next card in his hand and placed it into his spell/trap card zone, as a red comedy mask appeared on Hikaru's face.

“I activate my Viral Mask and use its second effect, allowing me to summon a Token on your side of the field with zero attack and defense points.” he said, as Hikaru began to desperately claw at his face, trying to get the mask off.

“Get it... off of me! Take it off!” Hikaru screamed, as Loki looked down upon him, pointing his finger towards Hikaru.

“Loki, attack Hikaru directly.” he said, as a blast of energy hit Hikaru head on. A small orb flowed into Hikaru's player character, too small for anyone to see or even notice, as his Life Points hit 0.

The next few rounds of the tournament were a clean sweep for Tenyuu, as he annihilated his opponents without much trouble. Even in the finals, he won by a rather large margin, winning with the exact same viral mask as before, each time only using the second effect.

“It looks like we have a winner. Would you like to take the spoils of your victory now, or would you like an exhibition match against a GM?” Sigma said, holding a card in his hand. To Tenyuu, the answer was clear.

“I want to duel a GM.” he said, reshuffling his deck. Sigma walked behind Haru and pushed him onto the arena.

“Hey hey! I never agreed to this!” Haru shouted at Sigma.

“Just shut up and do it.” Sigma whispered towards him, using Haru to find out data on that card. Of course it meant using him as a potential sacrifice but hey. Haru was strong. Supposedly.

Both of the players activated their duel disks, an 8000 appearing over their head.
[/spoiler]

[.P3]

My Heart stopped once I reached the end this FanFic made me Jizz in my pants.

[Sunshine Jesse]

Thanks. What did you like about it in particular?

[Hydra of Ages]

[i]This is a perfectly awesome fanfic. There are no flaws in it whatsoever. It is the greatest.
I totally don't have any sort of conflict of interests here or anything, nope.[/i]

All joking aside, the story really does seem to come together a lot more in the later chapters. You could stand to add a bit more description and have the events slowed down a little -as it is, quite frankly, a lot to take in-, and reign in the chaos a bit, as we have a lot of characters introduced pretty quickly.

As it is, since it moves so fast and spares little time on explanation, it's easy to get lost in it- though you really are doing better in the later chapters. I wouldn't say having 'filler' is the answer, but you might want to consider putting the main plot on hold for a chapter now and then so you have time to do some character development, explain some background events, flesh out personalities, etc.

All in all, I'm rather impressed with it, which I rarely am around here.

[Sunshine Jesse]

Thanks for the input
I was actually planning on having a few chapters devoted to character development after the next.

[Sunshine Jesse]

Killed two birds with one stone with this chapter.

[spoiler=Chapter 7: Haru's backstory!]

Haru drew the first card from his deck and looked at his hand. “I'll go first.” he said, placing two face-downs in his spell/trap card zone, and a monster in his monster card zone. “I summon Elemental Hero Stratos!” Haru declared, the blue hero rising from the card. Haru picked “Elemental Hero Neos Alius” from his deck, and added it to his hand, then ending his turn.

“I set two cards and summon Mara of the Nordic Alfar.” Tenyuu said, almost immediately tuning Mara with two cards in his hand. Loki rose up from a curtain behind the arena, as his mouth opened wide, completely flabbergasted that Tenyuu summoned his key monster so quickly. Tenyuu was not done, as he placed his next card in the spell/trap zone. “I activate Viral Mask.” Tenyuu said, as the same crimson-red drama mask appeared on Haru's face.

“Oh god dammit.” Haru said, not even bothering to claw at his face like the previous duelists that Tenyuu dueled. He sighed and flipped his face-down card, Super Polymerization, sending Elemental Hero Prisma from his hand to the Graveyard.. “I fuse the Viral Mask and Stratos together.” He said, as the viral mask on his face cracked and shattered, fusing into Stratos. Stratos’ body began to morph shape, now covered in black armor, and gained two demonic wings on its back. “I summon Elemental Hero Escuridão, who gains 100 ATK for every Elemental Hero in my Graveyard (ATK: 2500->2700).”

Tenyuu was unphased by this, as a small red orb flowed into Escuridão’s card. “Loki, attack Escuridão.” he said, as an orb of energy formed in Loki’s palms, which ejected out towards Escuridão, overtaking his body.

“I send my Elemental Hero Iron Avenger to my Graveyard. One Elemental Hero monster I control can no longer be destroyed by battle, but all battle damage I take is doubled. (ATK: 2700->2800)” he said, as Escuridão turned gray, the backlash to the blast instead hitting Haru.

LP: 7000

“I set two cards. Turn end.” Tenyuu said, unfettered by Haru's moves.

“I draw, and activate Trap Stun!” Haru declared, picking up the next card from his deck. He was completely confident that he would win despite the slight advantage his opponent already had.

Haru was always a rather big fan of the game, but in all honesty he sucked at it. Very badly. At least up until recently. When he first started playing Duel Monsters, he was the best out of a group of incredibly terrible people, but then Zarkus came along and steamrolled everyone in the group, causing 75% of them to quit. Feeling badly about it, he decided to train Haru, eventually molding him into a great duelist and forming a great friendship between them.

Around ten years prior to the current events of the story, both of them joined the virtual world as players. This caused a large amount of problems for Haru; Namely, his horrible luck with women reared its ugly head. After five years of failed relationships, he decided to just flat-out quit trying, and became somewhat depressed.

Just somewhat.

A few months following his most recent breakup, Zarkus finally approached him, and proposed something to Haru, something that Zarkus believed he needed.

“And now I summon Elemental Hero Neos Alius!” Haru declared, the monster rising from the ground.

Haru needed a hero. Someone to look up to, and someone that Haru could strive to surpass. To Zarkus, a goal is the best way to drive off depression, and he hoped that would be able to help Haru. So Haru decided to give it a shot, and researched several different duelists to see which one he'd look after. After about a month of searching, he finally found the perfect person. You see, Haru was a big fan of underdog stories, so he chose the most famous underdog of them all.

Jaden Yuki.

So he continued to research the Elemental Hero monsters, and noticed a disturbing trend: That people who have tried to succeed Jaden insisted on running the most terrible of the Hero monsters yet completely lack his luck, resulting in many embarrassing losses that made a mockery out of the archetype. Haru set out to change that. Through a tireless amount of playtesting, he built what he thought was the perfect Elemental Hero deck. So he took it to the world championship...

And lost in the first round.

Oddly enough, this didn't dissuade him. He kept taking his deck to tournaments, thoroughly playtesting it, thinking through all of its weaknesses and planning against them. Exactly two years prior to the current events of the story, he took it to the world championship... and finally won. After winning the tournament, he received a special mail from an anonymous person, and three incredibly powerful cards.

“Congrats! You've captured the true spirit of the Heroes!”

“For being able to summon such a powerful monster, right here and now, I'll show you the respect you deserve! I activate Super Polymerization!” Haru declared, activating a second copy of the card in his hand, discarding Elemental Hero Ocean. A large vortex appeared in the sky, absorbing Escuridão, Alius, and Loki. A large, warrior descended from the sky, size rivaling that of Loki, with large purple flame-like wings, black armor, and a large skull on his chest. His face was that of Escuridão, except with radiant purple eyes, and he carried a long, green energy sword.

“Awaken, legendary hero of darkness! Bring destruction upon those who obstruct justice! Fusion Summon! The Hero of Shadows, Elemental Hero Midnight Horizon!”
[/spoiler]

[Haru123]

It holds a lot of humour and I enjoyed it without doubt. What I think it could use would be a lot more chararacter interaction during the duels, not just the people playing but maybe the side character cheering and what not, well, you have done this but it was rather lacking in the most recent chapter. Another thing is suspense, it could probably use a bit more of this, to build it up to the point where something seems impossible to just have it broken down by sheer luck or absolute logic. I dunno, I'm just rambling.

Good work.