The Ultimate Interdimensional War
Chapter 26: Zorc, Trueman, and Mayhem
Date: May 5th, 2024
There must be at least 60 of us attacking the transforming Yami Alexander at the moment. I was lucky to be among them after what Yami Marik ended up doing to me. Due to all of that, we clearly do a lot of damage but somehow, it didn't change a thing. It had no lasted no impact on our foe. What's more is that Resef the Dark Being is not far behind him standing motionlessly as if it's waiting for him to fully transform. Before our eyes, his human form is destroyed in favor of an average looking Barian form. However, he then draws from the power of the corrupted cityscape around him. While it is easy to still recognize the area as the area near Kame Game Shop, there's also elements of Barian World mixed in and that's what he draws from unconsciously. Around him, he builds up a massive amount of power as his Barian form is also destroyed in place of a higher Barian form. For the first time ever, we watch someone completely lose the body that make them human on the outside at least completely. I don't think there's even a human form left waiting for Yami Alexander when he needs it. He is now dressed in a Barian Emperor inversion of Alexander The Great's armor and other clothing. The villain laughs as the mark of an imaginary number appears on him. In the sky, a familiar red eye appears. Don Thousand is now watching the battle closely from far away. He is even more ready than absorb any more of his subordinates who end up failing him in the end. And that was not good news for us. Blaze exclaims: "This is terrible! It's worse than we feared!" Yami Alexander laughs as his transformation finishes up: "Fools, I am now unstoppable! You were able to best me up to now only because I let you best me!
Now that I'm using all of the power that I've gained, I will crush power and take the power to rule this entire world myself from the Pharaoh! But to really crush you, I'm going to require a few changes to the situation of this fight!" With a snap of his fingers, Alexander's subordinates and their capsule monsters appear behind him. He immediately forces them to become part of Reshef The Dark Being(I have spelled it wrong.. whoops.). Once that is done, he says: "Reshef The Dark Being, you will now crush them all for me! I don't need to waste my power on these pathetic fools including the Pharaoh! I will rule-" He suddenly experiences pain and holds his forehead with his hands: "No! WHATS HAPPENING TO ME?! WHAT IS THIS THING THATS TRYING TO BEND ME TO ITS WILL?! I DONT BOW TO ANYONE, I AM KING ALEXANDER, I DESERVE TO RULE ALL ON THIS WORLD!" Don Thousand's voice speaks: "I have grown tired once again of failure and disobedience. Now that you are a new Barian Emperor, you are directly subject to my plans and will. I will not tolerate your insubordination. I have allowed you and my other pawns too much freedom to do as you wish. Because of that, my plans have failed over and over again outside of my primary mission which has not been truly impeded by anything so far. You and my other Barian Emperors and even my lower subordinates as well will do what I say and desire for now on. No matter what. I have learned from the time in which Yuma, Astral, and Nasch worked together to defeat me. My original ultimate plan set in motion over thousands of years was destroyed that day. But now, I have a much more grand goal as you are aware.
Yami Alexander, you are mine and you will only act in the interests of me and my empire from now on. Resistance is useless. My imaginary numbers make certain that the likes of you cannot defy me any longer. I am the sole ruler of everything in my empire. You will never betray me. Submit willingly and this will be easier on you. Resist and suffer as I make you mine in both mind and body. I gave you so much power to become worthy of being one of my Barian Emperors but you have already begun to fail." Yami Alexander protests and screams but Don Thousand easily blended him to his will. As a result, the villain quickly became much more malevolent: "Change of plans! I will finally once again merge with Reshef The Dark Being in order to crush all of you for the glory of Barian! Don Thousand will rule everything that exists! All timelines, universes, dimensions, eras, universes, pocket dimensions, and even the Nexus itself! Hahaha! I'm going to enjoy this!" Sinon speaks: "Damn. It's like we're going to be fighting a really tough Floor Bosss!" Shun replies: "That may be true but we must never give up! I will fight with and show my fury, my very passion!" Our foe begins attacking with what look to be giant versions of Reshef's energy blasts. I yell: "Crap! Those attacks are huge! Well then, I must go in to intercept now that even my armor is in great shape again! There is much merit to how relationships affect battles conducted by Miitopian miis. We must all draw upon that more than we have so far even though all of it is the kind of thing you find elsewhere as well! Haaaaaaa!" I run to tank one of the giant energy attacks. I firmly hold my ground and refuse to move as the full force of it tries to force me back.
"No you won't! I refuse to move until this attack dissipates! My defense is stronger than my offense thanks to my armor after all!" It took some time for the attack's energy to run out and I managed to endure it with only some damage done to me and my armor. Wiping a small amount of blood from a new cut on my face away, I get ready for whatever's happening next. I see the Darker Lord attempt to take Yami Alexander's face but that doesn't work so instead, the monster with Yami Marik's face is sent in to fight our foe. They managed to hold out and steal the villain's attention for several minutes before finally being defeated. Aliens from Miitopia's Otherworld and New Lumos were barely able to save the monster from certain death by firing their blasters. One of them managed to hit Yami Alexander, rapidly accelerating his age by several decades. He yells: "Impossible! How have I become this elderly? Oh well, I will still crush you all for Barian! After all, Reshef is acting as my body now! There is nothing you can do to stop One Supreme World!" A certain other villain laughs: "I wouldn't be so sure of that if I were you!" Crow states: "Okay, why is Frieza here?" The tyrant scowls at the Blackwing duelist: "I'm only here to get a little payback for what Don Thousand has done to me in the past and I happen to be really bored. That's all so once this inferior ruler dies, I will just be on my way again to plot how I will destroy each and every one of you after taking away everything you know and love." Frieza transforms into his strongest form and goes at Reshef and easily destroys the monster before turning towards Yami Alexander himself.
"That Don Thousand, he really believes he has made his subordinates strong enough to be much of a threat, doesn't he? But he didn't see me coming so it looks like he only thought of making them strong enough to handle you weaklings from the BRAINS Collective. What an arrogant mistake! It's going to cost him in very short time! After all, my fellow villains and I are considering attacking this empire of him ourselves not very far into the future from now. It'd do well for us to get a piece of it while it still exists! And then, we can turn it on you BRAINS weaklings once Don Thousand is nothing but a memory of a fool who thought he could bring all of existence under his control!" "How dare you stand in my way as someone who once worked alongside Barian?!" "Ha, funny. Did you really think I wanted to be a true collaborator in his pathetic empire? I deserve to rule. In fact, I will show exactly what I mean. Frieza Force, why don't you kill Yami Alexander for your Lord Frieza?!" A massive rebuilt version of the Frieza Force appears in the sky, including even the Ginyu Force and others who were previously killed off even just in this war alone. Dabara and Zarbon were also among them. They attack Yami Alexander at once, using energy blasts to break through his armor. The split personality screams: "I won't go down like this! I will die on my own terms but that won't be for thousands of years! Haahahaha!" But then, old age gets to him, causing him to falter just when he was about to perform a terrifying counterattack. He is overwhelmed and crushed by the Frieza Force. Don Thousand appears to absorb the now defeated Yami Alexander who couldn't even use his imaginary number to turn the tables on them.
But Frieza has other plans. He grabs Don Thousand and throws him to the ground. The Barian god stares coldly at Frieza after easily getting back up: "Frieza, you will not stand in the way of my plans." The two fight it out but Frieza is quickly forced to give up: "Frieza Force! Retreat! That's an order! Don Thousand is too strong even for me! But that's only for now! When I get my way, that's going to change and that's a promise I'm going to keep for all of eternity if I must do so!" They all vanish before Don Thousand could get them. Similarly, we do not engage Don Thousand. His power level is off the charts, none of us could hope to stand a chance against him right now. We are forced to let him absorb Yami Alexander before he disappears as well. Romin speaks: "What are we supposed to do now?" We hear explosions coming from 2 different directions." Reiji replies: "While it is true that 2 great fights are currently going on as indicated by the direction of those explosions, we must first focus on any weaker enemies to take out." Myself and the others who faced Bandit Keith ended up going towards the same "small fry" enemy together. Once we were there, we saw the likes of Espa Roba, Honda, and other duelists not really known as top duelists. Oh and Anzu ends up joining us as well. Sora speaks up: "Interesting collection of comrades here already. Also, who are they even fighting?" I see the Masked Beast towering over everyone and going on a rampage: "It appears to be Lumis and Umbra they are fighting right now." Umbra laughs: "This is too easy! You weaklings are nothing against the power of Barian or our Masked Beasts! We will serve Don Thousand and crush you all in the process!"
Anzu exclaims: "It's those two! Yugi told me all about them! They appear to be so much tougher than how Yugi described them to be!" What's worse is that those two were fighting our comrades along with their Masked Beast. I summon my main ace monsters again through my duel disk before joining the fight with the others. We immediately begin to try to defeat Lumis and Umbra. However, we now knew it wasn't going to be so simple. Despite my sword attacks, I am unable to do anything more than like 5-10 points of damage to them or their monster. That's not nearly enough to make much of a difference here. It just isn't. But it wasn't long before things turned on Lumis and Umbra. After all, they were overconfident and somewhat silly during Battle City; even turning against each other at one point. They were doing a lot of damage to us but it was easy to deal with when compared to what Yami Marik was able to do to us. Or even when compared to dealing with those damn nightmares xenomorphs. As a result of that, we basically were soon able to overcome them. The finishing moment for them was when they began arguing over which of them was doing a better job at hurting us. Pair that with the blunders they were making every so often and they became so angry with each other not to mention distracted that they just kind of descended into chaos and begin trying to beat each other up. That was when we struck back and quickly finished them off. Don Thousand absorbed them right away and that was the end of Lumis and Umbra. We knew trying to interfere in Don Thousand's absorbing of villains was the quickest way to being crushed so we once again avoided that. As much as we wanted to finish him off right here and now while he was still in the city. We fought Lumis and Umbra right around the first time they were defeated: before they wore masks over half of their faces.
When Kaiba one shotted them in a true over the top display of power and wrath. In the fight, the buildings in the area took a lot of damage, causing some skyscrapers to even fall apart. Some of us were nearly buried alive during the fight due to that. But once that those two were finished, we went onto help finish off the other remaining minor foes. Once that was done, there was only Gozaboro and Zorc/Yami Bakura left. We had to take our pick for who to face next. We chose Zorc given that he was the bigger threat for obvious reasons. We arrived to a fight area filled with chaos and destruction. The bodies of Barian soldiers were littered all over the place, explaining the lack of Barian soldier encounters up to this point. Zorc laughs: "More pathetic mortals?! Fools. You do not have the power to stand against me. I am a being of pure darkness now with the power of Barian and an imaginary number. I will fulfill Don Thousand's orders for me and bring an end to all of you. Prepare to be destroyed, mortals! This is the end for all of you!" He unleashes a giant fire attack infused with Barian energy, aiming to burn us all to cinders. I'm among those who runs forward to take the heat for most of the others. Herbsalvin and Blaze end up being among them as well. "Awoo! Our armor can withstand the heat! Our comrades aren't getting incinerated today!" Herbslavin nods: "As knights, this is exactly what we must do in this situation. We must hold out and show our strength through all of this." I reply: "You're both right. Let's do this." Zorc is shocked: "How can this be?! How are you mortals able to withstand my flames?!" Dark Paladin replies: "You cannot so easily melt our armor to get to our skin."
Black Luster Soldier adds: "Those of us who have chosen to block the flames of your attack from our comrades don armor that has been designed or upgraded to resist flames as strong as yours." I sweat heavily due to the flames, meaning that my armor isn't able to completely protect me from them but still. This is a lot better than what would happen in a modern world with no magic or sci fi technology. Metal armor would easily melt under these flames and just about everything and everyone else would be reduced to ash unless it happened to be made specifically seriously fireproof. Zorc keeps trying to melt our armor to no avail. In fact, individuals able to use ice attacks begin countering with it. That includes Number 19: Freezadon and Number 21: Frozen Lady Justice. Zorc is further angered: "Mortals, numbers, I will ensure you fall one way or another. You are successful at the moment but that will not last forever. You will all die at my hands! Not even the Shadow Realm would be as painful as what I'm going to do to finish all of you off for eternity. That is a promise." He begins making his flames much hotter. Blaze, Herbsalvin, and I are forced to withdraw. We're dealing with flames that are quickly reaching the temperature of the Sun's surface. Concentrated flames of that temperature are not something our armor can currently stand up against in large part because there's no known element on the Periodic Table that can stay solid at such a high temperature. Even with all of elements and metals we have access to that go beyond anything on the Periodic Table, including those used in our armors, there's nothing that can stay solid under the heat of the Sun's surface.
The Sparrow(Zexal) yells: "Armor is useless against these flames! Back away, anyone who wears armor! Before it's too late for you!" Yuzu adds: "Can anyone unleash anything close to Absolute Zero?!" Asuka Rhodes sighs: "Unfortunately, we don't have anyone like Hyoga with us at the moment. It's just us duelists along with some of the miis, furries, and Tomapieians as well as our friends from Twisted Land." A nightmarish frost spirit, representative of Twisted Land's The Freezing haunted house speaks: "I cannot reduce anything to Absolute Zero but I can still freeze an entire city and blanket it in snow and ice." Dominic adds: "I can get atoms to freeze to a millionth of a degree from Absolute Zero." Girag further adds: "Ice Hand can help as well!" Darker Lord Brayden laughs: "Don't forget about us Miitopian monsters. Some of us can freeze our foes!" And soon, Don Thousand's fire attacks are completely put out constantly by moves that can even nearly freeze all atoms. But Absolute Zero is something that cannot be replicated by science so Dominic cannot do so either. In fact, Absolute Zero is pretty impossible because it clashes with thermodynamics. Such is connected to the Schrödinger's cat problem. Only the likes of Camus and Hyoga can create Absolute Zero given that Athena's Saints are capable of unleashing attacks at light speed, requiring a huge amount of energy to do so. However, it didn't take long for Zorc to give up on fire attacks because of all of this.
In one fell swoop, he unleashes a move powerful enough to crush everyone who was stopping his flames from doing anything. That includes Dominic. I caught him before he could hit the ground hard. Blaze takes him from me and yells: "I'll be right back! Our friend will be in a safe place soon enough! I promise!" And with that, the wolf was off before I could even blink. They come back not even 3 seconds later and ready their sword which has gotten a really cool upgrade in appearance: "Blaze, is that what I think it is?" "That's right! Exactly like from the artwork you commissioned of me from Opalite!" "Aka Yams The Fox as of this year. You got the idea of the sword transformation from the artwork. Shoutout to Opalite. Now then, what say we try to help our comrades beat Zorc even though it appears to be even more difficult than we thought it would be?" "Awoo! Let's do it!" The two of us are quickly joined by Herbsalvin as we charge together with our swords. Our capes would have flown and swished around as we did that if it weren't for the fact that tucking capes beneath armor during an intense and dangerous battle has become a common practice that started because of me and a few others. Even Barla ends up joining us right before we hit one of Zorc's giant legs. "Hell yeah! Let's do this together y'all! Time to give Zorc an annoying ache in his step at the very least!" And that's exactly what we in fact do but the villain wasn't bothered that much. Currently, he is laughing hard while unleashing attack after attack. The 4 of us expertly dodge several of those attacks consecutively. But that doesn't even faze the villain. He thinks he's definitely going to kill us all no matter what we try to do against him.
That's obvious and as clear as day. Will we give up? No. Despite the virtually impossible odds we are once again facing, we won't. Like we even have a choice in the matter. Retreating will only make things worse in this fight. We need to stay with our comrades to the very end, no matter what that turns out to be. We will fight and will keep doing so until we can't anymore or this ends. It takes an incredible amount of willpower to keep fighting against these kind of odds. We are putting pretty much everything on the line here. We may be rescued later but if we lose here, that could lead to a chain of events that ends the BRAINS Collective, dooming the multiverse in the process. We fight and we fight, taking on attack after attack while being unable to deal much damage to our enemy. This is what it means to give our all and to fight for a better future. After some more intense fighting, Zorc yells: "Pathetic mortals, you continue to cling onto existence no matter what I try to do to you! My patience is wearing thin. I am close to being forced to use my full power on foolish mortals I have no specific interest towards. I want to save my full power for the Pharaoh so I can finally get my revenge after so many centuries. The power of darkness and Barian will crush you all and I will enjoy seeing your bodies littered across the ground beneath me." Shinji yells: "That's a bold goal of yours but we won't be defeated so easily even by your full power! Unite and fight! Unite and fight!" The villain laughs: "It is time for me to get more physical about dealing with all of you weak mortals." Zorc changes tactics to using physical attacks instead of energy attacks. Despite being alert for such surprises, Herbsalvin, Blaze, Barla, and I were not able to escape from the sudden switch up.
In fact, Zorc's giant claws mutated by Barian power are able to rip through our armor and get to our insides easily without any effort. Zorc didn't even pay much attention to us when that happened. It was like we were only a mere afterthought to him now. The claws only got worse after they nailed us. In fact, they even began radiating all kinds of destructive energies all at once. As the 4 of us went down hard and pools begin to form below and around us, we heard the screams of many of our comrades. I struggled to sit up at least. "He got us.. Damn it.. It hurts so much. The only relief is that at least it got us instead of others. I'd rather be hurt than have someone else be hurt instead. In that situation, I'd be somewhat at ease knowing that it's my burden instead of theirs. At times, I've been so selfish, stubborn, and rash in my life. But my friends.. I'm still so worried about you. Trying to speak calmly the way I am is much harder than it looks to be. I can feel my strength rapidly leaving my body. I don't think any of us 4 look worst of all in terms of condition right now.." But we don't spend long being verbally concerned about each other. We do our best to heal ourselves and get back up even with the damage done to the armors we wear. Looking down at myself, I sigh: "I guess I'm going to have a few more scars now after all. My body has started to get more and scarred lately despite the fact that I'm already dead in this body. I have a 4 year old scar on my right leg of my other body so scars are far from new to me. It hurt even to just move a little bit until we did what we could to treat our injuries."
We were unable to fully heal ourselves in part due to the danger zone we're in so we had to help bandage some of each other's wounds or at least some of the visible wounds. There are wounds below the intact parts of our armors. Barla gives a warm smile: "We can still fight. Let's try to make a difference despite the shapes that we're in!" We let out battle cries before moving around in order to go after Zorc's underside, the best place to hit him without being immediately attacked right back. It was obvious that even he must still have a blind spot in that area given his massive size and all the individuals fighting him right now including us. I summon as many of my ace monsters as I can once again. Regnes speaks: "We heard your call and will once again aid you. But this time, we are going to stick around no matter what happens to any of us." I nod: "Glad to hear it. We need everyone we can get to defeat Zorc." Seconds later, we start attacking Zorc's underside towards the back of his body in order to best avoid drawing his full attention towards us. We aren't going to let ourselves fall so easily the next time he tries to instantly get rid of us. We are quickly joined by Edo, Jounochi, Ghost Gal, and several others. But once we begin our attacks, something else happens. A screaming Gozaboro Kaiba is heard coming closer towards us. We run out of Zorc's shadow to see what's going on for a few seconds before hurrying back underneath him. That was long enough to see Gozaboro in "Explodia" form, a formlessbeing of fire with yellow eyes being sent crashing right into Zorc by the Egyptian Gods, the strongest known Blue Eyes monsters, and more.
Of course, Gozaboro's current form is much bigger and more frightening looking than it once was due to the whole becoming a Barian Emperor thing but that only made the crash that much more devastating. Zorc was set on fire as a result as Gozaboro attempted to stay together as a cloud of flames and that required him to use Zorc's body as fuel. The former CEO's fire is not normal fire. It seems to be fire that can burn even beings infused with Barian power which should have made them practically fireproof to begin with but didn't. Because of all of this, we hear Gozaboro and Zorc go at each other with words as well as Zorc tries to extinguish Gozaboro's form. "Gozaboro Kaiba! You dare use my body as fuel for your flames?!" "I had no other choice! My son and the others almost ended up! If I had hit the ground instead of you, it would have been over for me! Now let me use your body as fuel so that I may continue to survive in order to keep serving Barian! That's an order!" "I am a lord of darkness and you are a mere mortal who was once successful in your silly modern world. That matters little to me. It is I who will continue to serve Barian. I will not turn against Don Thousand like I once did in the past. In an ironic turn of events even I could not foresee, I have become loyal even to the likes of him." Due to both being incredibly powerful, Zorc is forced to fight against Gozaboro and focus only on doing just that. We are given a breather, now being able to attack Zorc without fear of being attacked right back as soon as we landed any blow, no matter how strong or weak it is. Due to this, we are quickly able to rack up quite the damage on Zorc.
He seems to be losing on 2 fronts now. It's like it's all over for him now. But none of us were gullible enough to think he wouldn't just face this while figuratively lying down. No, he yells: "I am left with no other choice! Prepare for oblivion as I begin to use my full power! I even see the Pharaoh join in on trying to kill me! Perfect timing, I will be able to kill all of my enemies in just a few short moments as you humans would say in the modern world!" Gozaboro fights even harder to hold on but Zorc reaches into the stubborn man's flames to steal away his imaginary number, causing him to weaken greatly. The evil being uses the opportunity to finally stamp out Gozaboro for good. Don Thousand appears to absorb what's left of Gozaboro now: his now wandering soul and energy before leaving once again just like always. Oh and he takes the imaginary number Don Thousand snatched with Zorc gladly allowing it. And now, he turns his attention towards all of us. The villain laughs: "I am the only being now standing in the way of you taking this city for yourselves! Ironic, isn't it? But that's all you're going to hear before you die. You're going to perish at my power in less than one of your minutes. When that is done, there will be very little left of you and I will make sure you can never be returned to life no matter what you try to do in order to do just that!" Many of us can do nothing against the next onslaught he unleashes towards us. Myself, Blaze, Herbsalvin, and Barla are once again left in a really bad shape in just seconds. We are bleeding again but we can't even move this time around.
I utter weakly: "He got us again.. He got us harder and even more easily than before. He'll focus on finishing us off later if we aren't taken out by our injuries. I'm already dead so I will be still lying here later unless something changes." Blaze sighs: "The pain.. It's so great.." Herbsalvin adds: "Even if I were to transform into my Pegasus form now, it wouldn't do me any good. I am too injured to fly in that form now. If I tried to, I would only hurt myself even more than I've already been hurt. This is a bad time now." Out of nowhere, a blinding light appears around us and once it fades, we are shocked to find ourselves in a forest of some kind. Before that happened, I think I felt a massive shockwave caused by a huge clash. That would explain whatever the hell just happened. Barla coughs a lot before saying: "Does anyone at least know where we are?" At that moment, we all sensed something very dangerous. No, 3 very dangerous things. No, make that more than 3. At least 5. 3 of them are very dark and close together. Upon looking more around us, Blaze says: "Nooo! Look at the forest! It's all corrupted by Barian energy!" There's huge Barian crystals making towers that go far above the trees. We can only see a couple of them due to lying on the ground and bleeding a lot. I start coughing a bit myself and struggle to get that under control. Once I do, I say: "Hey, is that a person coming towards us?" I was right as sure enough, a person who wasn't turned into a Barian even by right this moment comes fully in view wearing a uniform that denotes them as belonging to Duel Academia.
They yell: "Fellow resistance members, we have some survivors in need of medical attention here!" But then, a whole group of people wearing mostly white versions of the Duel Academia student uniform design appear and activate their duel disks. Their leader steps forward: "I don't think so. They will die here or join us by seeing the light." I weakly utter: "Not the Society Of Light.." My monsters are still with us and show themselves. Undead Jammer speaks in a deep and dark voice: "You will not have your way with these 4. Duel Academia member, get help. We cannot heal our friends ourselves at the moment. Make sure they get here before any of them die from the blood loss." The person nods after Regnes performs a feint that causes the cultists to take several steps back. They then run off to presumably meet with some others. After that, I force myself to get back up despite my injuries. One of our foes shouts: "How the hell are you able to stand with those injuries?!" "Blaze, Barla, Herbsalvin. Stay still for now. You could die by moving at all right now." "You! Answer me!" "I'm already dead. I'm a zombie. I don't look it but I am. I can lose my arms and all of my blood but that wouldn't stop me because it wouldn't kill me. After all, I'm a walking corpse. Injuries just hurt a lot for me and weaken me, even hampering my movements. But in this confrontation, I have to take a stand since 3 of my dear friends can't and I don't feel like I'll be instantly obliterated by any of you. I will fight on for them!" "Go back to the dark ages! You don't stand a chance against us! Against our power, a knight like you even if you weren't severely injured wouldn't stand a chance!"
"That's what you think. But it is far from the reality. I've been weakened but did you know that these monsters were summoned by me?" "No! No! No! Whatever! Let's get them to see the light or die! Either way, they will not stand in our way for much longer!" A fierce fight ensues. Despite the shape I'm in, I'm more than a match for them. Due to this, our foes are shocked at seeing our teamwork overcome everything they throw at us even though they're literally attacking right along with their summoned monsters. And one by one, they go down until their leader is left who says: "That's enough! It's time to stop holding back now that it's clear that these deviants won't be so easily beaten! Go, Barian Battlemorph!" "*unison* Go, Barian-" They are cut off as Zorc rampages through the area, having been sent here as well apparently. That's when an emergency message is broadcast including to my Quantum Leap band. "Attention all BRAINS members who were just in Domino City. This is an emergency message to inform you that you have all been somehow teleported across the Duel Academia island in the GX universe." Zorc crushes all of them to death to our shock and horror. Yeah. Even we couldn't have foreseen something like that. Through my band, I stay calm as best as I can while responding: "If anyone can hear me, I'm with my monsters as well as Herbsalvin, Blaze, and Barla. We are in the middle of a forest on the island. There should be a medical team of some kind coming to us because we aren't exactly doing too great apart from my monsters. We are hurt badly and just saw adversaries get crushed to death by Zorc. We need to set up a place to meet because I can't sense any other comrades even with my Ki right now for some reason."
I hear several replies to what I said as well as the emergency broadcast and sigh while my blood continues to come out of my wounds. "So much pain.. No time to numb the pain with the pills.. There's no other choice but to focus on keeping my dear friends alive.. And to stop myself from bleeding any further and try to get back into good enough shape for a fight.." I had a few healing items on me and urged my friends(and lover) to use them: "Please, drink these! Help still isn't here! I don't need to see anyone else die today if I can help it! I will help you drink them if you need me too! Just, keep holding on!" After they were somewhat healed by my efforts, I pull out spare poisons and withering potions I happened to have in my ender pouch and start drinking up. They taste awful by the way. I have to make myself drink them when I need to because the taste of each one alone is already horrible enough as it is. When I was done, my body began to heal as usual very quickly. Feeling better, I still decide to wait for the help to arrive. When it arrives, my monsters and I see a fully fledged medical team. I was impressed given what has happened to the entire universe we're in. The Duel Academia member from before is among them and says: "You're all still here good! ..Wait! Why are you standing and how are your wounds healed? Nevermind, I've heard of something like that a lot lately." "So you're with the GX BRAINS branch." "All of us are! It's how we've survived this long!"
I help them get my friends and lover onto stretchers. My monsters and I were reassured that they were going to be okay once again very soon. After they left, I used Repair to fix my armor. I speak: "No time to waste, I know they're going to be okay. They're in good hands. We need to get moving. I can hear the fight with Zorc still raging on from here." We head in the direction of the sounds of battle at full speed. Undead Jammer plays an action packed tune for once as we do so. But before we could reach the fight's current location, a certain underling of Zorc confronted us. Aknadin. Aka Shadow Magus. He laughs: "And where do you think you're going?!" Regnes replies: "We are going to help defeat your master. And he will scream as he fails and is killed once again." "Straight to the point but that matters little! You see, now that you have to deal with me, there is no escape for any of you!" A familiar voice shouts: "I don't think so! Frightfur Chimera! Do it!" Aknadin is shocked as he is ambushed by Sora's Frightfur Chimera. Joining him are mostly duelists from the Duel Monsters universe. Espa Roba smiles and waves: "We just had to help you out. With my now actually real telepathic powers, I was able to easily figure out how strong this guy is so we're here before he can kill anyone." Aknadin growls: "How dare you interrupt-" But before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly had what looked like a heart attack and dies. Ryuk appears while cackling: "Heh, that odd one stood no chance against the power of my Death Note. He's going to add quite a few years to my lifespan, I just know it."
Pegasus laughs: "Looks like someone stole the show. But now's not the time to muse over that any longer. We have to stop Zorc before he destroys us all along with everything in sight!" But then, someone yells: "Timber!" Just before we hear a really loud grunt and crash. Anzu sweat drops: "We really came out here for almost nothing.." Jounochi scratches his head: "It just got a lot more quiet around here for some reason.." Singing starts from somewhere. "Ding Dong, Zorc is dead!" I sweat drop: "This is not the time for humor. But more importantly, how did Zorc just die?" We end up going towards where we hear the singing to find out. As a result of that, we find a lot of individuals wielding axes and Zorc's legs cut off from the rest of the body. That includes the duel monster Battle Ox. And the likes of Klaus aka the "Axe Of Destruction" from Beyblade Metal Saga, and a number of SAO survivors. Looks like we have reinforcements now. Honda blurts out: "Okay, how did you all even manage to pull this off?!" Judai grins: "I think I know exactly how they managed to pull it off! I was too busy blocking Zorc's attacks to notice anything until I heard 'Timber!' being yelled. So I can only guess at the moment. But, I'm willing to bet a few duel monsters booster packs and golden eggwiches that those axes have been upgraded and some are even legendary weapons. Aren't there a few legendary axes from mythology?" A individual with a Romanian accent speaks: "Oh but it really doesn't matter how Zorc was killed, does it?" Don Thousand absorbs Zorc but I only barely notice him doing that. Chronos screams: "Not her! It's Camula!" "Ah, I remember you. And it appears you remember me too."
Titan appears from the shadows. Asuka exclaims: "I thought you were finished off for good in the Infinityverse!" "I was but Don Thousand had other plans for me and my shadows are still so hungry.." Darkness/Nightshroud steps forward too, clearly possessing Fubuki's body again and is joined by Trueman as well. All of us duelists activate our duel disks if they aren't already active from before. "Generate action field: Crossover. Action cards dispersed." Asuka exclaims: "Darkness has my brother again!" Trueman smirks: "That's right and soon, all of you will cease to exist in this world. I will erase as many of you as I can. Show yourself, Dark Archetype. I also activate the field spell Clear World. Your monsters will soon be erased for having attributes." Others show up as well in time for our separated comrades to find us. Noboru Gongenzaka speaks: "Finally, we're all back together!" A unexpected voice replies: "You're not the only group back together." Judai yells: "Professor!" Pharaoh the cat appears alongside Amnael who speaks further: "Judai and everyone else.. You were fools for thinking I really was your friend. I've been waiting for this moment for a long time now. Did you notice how Pharaoh and I mysteriously vanished after this dimension was conquered? Well, now you know why. All along, I have been gathering information on all of you while gaining your trust so that you all may be crushed in the end! And the end will arrive here on Duel Academia island soon enough! And with the power of alchemy at my side, none of you can stop the return of the Shadow Riders or Trueman's plan!" Tania shows herself too Al h with all of the other Shadow Riders. Daichi shouts: "Tania, why are you with them instead of us?!"
"I have my own reasons and I will not be telling you them. No, I will be showing you them. Go, Barian Battlemorph." The Shadow Riders plus Trueman and even Pharaoh transform into Barians. Chronos panics: "It can't be! It's Chairman Kagemaru! This can't be!" Chancellor Samejima replies: "Stay calm, Chronos." Kagemaru replies with a young and truly strong Barian body as his now current form: "I have learned of a better reason to use the Shadow Riders. The multiverse will all become Barian and all of you stand in the way of that. We will stop your interference right here right now." I choose to go along with those who also wish to face Amnael(Professor Daitokuji). Amnael leads us to the Abandoned Dorm on Duel Academia campus. It is even creepier than it was in the Infinityverse. It's like the place has aged centuries since Judai's last battle in it not long after people began vanishing due to Trueman dueling them and easily beating them before having clones of himself replace each and every person he made vanish. Amnael chuckles: "Welcome, 'comrades' to the Abandoned Dorm. It is here where alchemy will be what puts you to an end. You will rest for eternity inside my spell book which is also my shadow charm. Judai, I have been with you for years now. I will make you watch as your friends fall one by one at my hands. And then, it will finally be time for you to join them!" We are led to the chamber that lies within the creepy dorm. A malevolent duel spirit appears while cackling madly: "Foolish Amnael, you have given me the very souls I want to consume without even realizing it! Your plans will now be destroyed in favor of my plan!"
Sho exclaims: "That's not going to happen, Jinzo!" "Oh so you remember me, do you?!" Amnael laughs: "Your threats do not scare me, Jinzo. Quite the opposite, in fact. Your intrusion here is perfect because I will also use you as part of alchemy's cost through the rules of equivalent exchange to do what needs to be done to crush all of these fools who really believed I was someone they could trust!" "Professor! Don't do this!" "Judai, how many times do I have to say it? I have been using you this entire time. Even Pharaoh wants nothing to do with you anymore. Isn't that right, Pharaoh?" The cat hisses at Judai but it looked kind of staged to me. Edo sighs: "I do not like this at all. Return to the battle, my Destiny Heroes!" Girag smirks: "I bet not even alchemy can easily top my full strength!" "Be careful what you wish for. Our fight will be unlike any other fight that is currently in progress or soon will be. For you see, I am overwhelmingly outnumbered but by sacrificing Jinzo and various objects as well as energies, I can use alchemy to make enough clones of myself to take you all one on one at the same time!" Jinzo reacts: "What?!" Seconds later, he and a bunch of other things vanish only to be replaced by clones of Amnael who then says: "But this still isn't enough for a fair fight in which we can all focus on one individual each. It is easier to take all of you one on one than fight all of you at once just like how it is easier for you to each individually face me alone, is it not? Even if the answer is no, this fight is mine to dictate and you will not prevent me from doing so by any stretch. I will now do something else before we begin.
If you do not allow me to do this, you will suffer greatly for it. I will now create individualized weapons for myself and my clones. I will take into account all of your styles of dueling AND combat." And soon enough, I am facing a sword wielding Amnael clone who I will just refer mostly as Amnael for now to make things easier to communicate. Amnael speaks: "Are you ready to battle me for everything you hold dear?!" "I am ready. Come at me." "Very well!" He attacks but I easily block before counterattacking, pushing him back, feinting, and getting a solid uppercut in. "I see you indeed hold up to the title of knight. I never spent much time watching you fight. However, I have spent years studying. I know exactly how to counter your every move and exploit your weaknesses. I was only letting you think you had the upperhand so I could do.. THIS!" He unleashes a relentless set of sword attacks that force me into an actual corner of the chamber. I try with all of my might to get out but he keeps countering my every move while showing the power he holds in his Barian form as well as the power of his imaginary number. "Damn it. You're so much better than I expected with the sword." "Thank you for your compliment." "Wait.. Did you just thank me in a genuine way?" "I believe I have sufficiently fooled the other Shadow Riders now and you have been pushed hard enough at my hands. You deserve to know the truth. I rejoined the Shadow Riders and even accepted Barian power all in the name of helping the BRAINS Collective in a way only I could.
Our enemies are even more powerful than any of you believe. I need to prepare all of you for that and joining the Shadow Riders again also was the only way I could get an inside look at Don Thousand's empire as well as regain my spell book. It also allowed me to more fully attune myself with the power of alchemy, allowing me to serve as a better member of BRAINS in battle. I fed false information about BRAINS to our foes. That is how all of you were able to bring down the likes of Bandit Keith without having more trouble doing so than you did. The false information goes back months and helped contribute to other victories throughout the multiverse as well. Don Thousand has tried to use his power to make me completely loyal to him. However, my revived original body is not the one I inhabit right now. It is a homunculus body created with alchemy once again. Because of that, Don Thousand is unable to control me nor is the imaginary number. You see, the body possesses certain non organic properties and other characteristics that Don Thousand never accounted for when choosing subordinates to give imaginary numbers. Swiftdrawer, you continue to prove yourself as a knight even though you have somewhat followed a path of darkness. I look forward to fighting alongside you and everyone else once again. In fact, I wish for you to come with me. We're going to crash another fight that's going on.
Enough of you and enough of me are around for us to interfere in every other ongoing battle in pairs." I follow him. He leads me to the battle against Tania in which Daichi is suffering the most. Tania laughs: "All of you are too weak! Come on, is there anyone strong enough to take me on along with my Amazoness monsters?!" Amnael speaks to me again: "In case you're wondering why your monsters suddenly vanished upon entering the Abandoned Dorm and reappeared just now, it's because I set up a signal jammer for Arc technology as part of my rouse to fool everyone from Kagemaru to Don Thousand. I can easily play the part of someone who serves them but that isn't actually what's going on in the slightest." Tania notices us: "Oh so 2 new- Amnael, what are you doing with that BRAINS member over there who I so happen to know is pretty strong?" Amnael replies: "I am a traitor to the Shadow Riders and I am not afraid of saying such because my loyalty lies with BRAINS even now." "I see. So that's how it is? In that case, it's about time I stop pretending-" Suddenly, she gasps in pain as the imaginary number mark on her glows violently. Daichi yells: "Fight it, Tania! I'm so glad you're still on our side! You completely fooled me!" "Daichi.. It's too late. All of you, defeat me now while you still have the chance! Something inside of me is trying to take hold! I can't resist for much longer! Please, listen to me!"
Amnael exclaims: "I won't allow that to happen! *summons a bunch of knocked out Menos from the Bleach universe*" I yell: "Where the hell did you get those nightmares from?!" "The Shadow Riders sent me on some scouting missions as I have long proved that I am quite intellectual as Kagemaru put it. One of those was to the realm where that Las Noches exists. I visited the Menos Forest and captured some Menos. But they are no ordinary Menos. They are Menos whose souls have become so corrupted that they're slowly falling apart with no possible way of repairing them. I will use them in this next alchemical exchange! Tania! I won't let Don Thousand control you either! Witness what I'm about to do because there's no choice but to do it!" He sacrifices all of the Menos in order to create some kind of card. He hands it to Tania: "Use this card! It is a powerful card that is solely designed to destroy foreign presences and influences inside of someone!" Tania shakes her head: "I can't. My hands won't respond to me anymore." "In that case, I will put the card firmly in your hands so tightly that not even what's inside you can make your hands drop the card!" With his help, Tania gets the card and it immediately has on effect on her. The imaginary number inside of her is forced right out of her along with the Barian energy as well. Tania shouts: "I'm free! But now, we must destroy that card to interfere with Don Thousand's plan in earnest and full! If he can't get back all of his imaginary numbers, that might be the thing that defeats him when some of our comrades face him in his throne room in the near future!"
Amnael replies: "I have a better idea. I will sacrifice it with alchemy to get something else in return." Through that, the imaginary number is sacrificed completely, causing something extraordinary to appear in its place. "The imaginary number's power.. It was so great that I couldn't decide what to replace it with. So this came instead. And I know exactly what it is. It is a great power that must be protected at all costs including a host if we allow someone to obtain its full power. It is immortality. It can make one specific individual eternally young." I speak up: "I'm sending it away to the space station which should be well back to normal now that it's been so many hours by now since the xenomorphs along with their eggs were completely destroyed. It will be sent specifically to a walled off and secure room where dangerous and powerful energies are contained within tubes. That even includes some anti-electrons because anti-matter destroys matter. My universe should have had all matter obliterate each other but for some reason, there was more than enough matter for anti-matter to be unable to crush everything that was made of matter. We still don't know why that's a thing at all." Once all of that is taken care of, a lot of healing is done and all of us in the area run together. Amnael shouts: "We must save Fubuki from Nightshroud next!" We soon see a scene of destruction at the top of the volcano on Duel Academia island. Ryo is actually taking him on AND Trueman in a duel at the moment. Ryo has gone back to his darker side from season 2. He laughs: "Your Red Eyes Ultimate Darkness Dragon stands no chance against me!"
Trueman replies: "We have made those who came with you vanish already and you will be next. Do not forget my threat from earlier. Once again, another of your monsters will be destroyed for having an attribute. Vanish, Cyberdark Dragon." "*unison* Intrusion penalty. 2000 life points." "Rank Up Magic Multiverse Force! I now use you to once again rank up Regnes who will now become the once impossible rank of 13! Go, Rank Up Xyz Evolution!" Darkness laughs: "More victims to crush and make disappear! This is going to be so much fun!" Myself and several others draw our weapons. Tania speaks: "Did you really believe we would simply only use our cards to fight you?!" Trueman smirks: "No. But you won't interrupt this duel." Practically countless Trueman clones appear, wielding duel disks and summoning Dark Archetype. They speak as one: "You will all vanish before you or your monsters can land a hit on even just one of us. Disappear, disappear." We underestimated them. Amnael shouts: "Damn it! I thought we would stand a better chance! But look at Trueman's power! It is fully one with an imaginary number as well as Barian power! All of you will be sent to whole other dimensions! I'm only just a clone so this is where I must say goodbye!" All of our monsters are destroyed and we are easily crushed ourselves by the Trueman clones. I am then lost in a world of pleasure and despair where my dreams and joys intertwine with my fears, nightmares, insecurities, bad memories, and more. So much fun I don't want to leave yet so horrifying that I want to leave. Kind of like living in Ohio where trans people are being heavily legislated against but there's also good food and world class roller coasters, museums, and more. I live in Ohio in my other body.
I am torn between the two until my misery racks up enough due to the opening of figurative wounds within me. The human negativity bias only makes that worse. As a result, the world I've been sent to becomes one completely full of despair, horror, and agony. From guilt I felt and feel to my fear of being killed by fascists while I sleep at home for who I am in a even more fascist United States than the one I'm from already is even though it doesn't seem like it. But I am desperate to feel better. I start thinking of possible solutions. When I feel despair, I want it to go away. Sometimes, I try to actually make it go away but it's hard when I'm all alone in dealing with it. Through sheer force of will, I start regaining my composure enough to think harder on how I can escape. It took all I had but I managed to break out of the dimension and return to where I was, destroying a Trueman clone made to replace me in the process. My comrades even forgot I ever existed because of Trueman but now, that doesn't apply anymore. The others return in time as well though I wasn't the first. Ryo smirks as the darkness inside of him calms down upon seeing all of us: "You underestimated them. We have too much hope for you to keep any of us trapped inside of the worlds you create forever. Additionally, we have all been made aware of what you can do, Trueman. We anticipated your eventual appearance in battle. Myself and several others made it a point to speak of the threat you may pose against us all. And now, you have come to try to make all of us vanish."
Darkness laughs: "That doesn't matter because I'm still here! In fact. It is time for me to show you my true form. But that's not all. Trueman has chosen to be more direct than usual. Now that he's become more powerful just as I have, he no longer needs tainted darkness cards to manifest and there's no room for disguise in our plans to serve Don Thousand. It appears we will have to destroy all of you ourselves. I have no need of Yusuke Fujiwara. That is why you haven't seen him under my control but I have also made it impossible for any of you to revive him." Seconds later, Darkness is in his true form and even merges with Trueman into a truly terrifying form. Judai shouts: "We have to fight them, together!" The other Shadow Riders, apparently having had changes of heart appear with our other comrades. Camula speaks: "I have been informed that you are willing to take me in and give me sanctuary as a vampire. I no longer seek revenge for what some of you humans did to my fellow vampires. I was defeated in battle fair and square but Amnael still saved me from being absorbed by Don Thousand." Kagemaru sighs: "Power went to my head once more. I am sorry again for what I have done. All I wanted originally is restored youth through the Sacred Beasts. Thankfully, they are still sealed below this academy, meaning no one can use them again as has happened too often as of late." Trueman Darkness staggers: "What, why are all of you working together?!"
Fubuki, now freed of Nightshroud's control regains consciousness and immediately joins with us to fight too without skipping a beat. But then, Placido interrupts by driving into battle followed by a revived version of his army of Ghosts: "Go, my Ghosts! Let us help get rid of this pest once and for all! Let us bring chaos and confusion! Now then, Wisel, let's do this!" Dominic's metal clones appear along with GADGET's clones, Cat's feline friends, a bunch of Miitopia monsters, a RCT3 peep army, and more. Together with their help, we are able to beat Trueman Darkness who became too frustrated over being outsmarted and outplayed to fight us effectively, a weakness stemming from Trueman who is normally calm while speaking or doing anything else for that matter. Due to time constraints, I'm not writing much more about how we beat our fused foes but we did do so, I assure you. The Shadow Riders played a huge role in our victory as well. That and light monsters and hope as well as light magic and so forth were very effective in all of this. But it was obvious that the Sacred Beasts are growing in power and that another power was also rising. One that felt strange and alien. Our work isn't done here yet. To be continued..