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| - “Hey Cole” he shouted, Cole then causally walked beside him as he too then began to stare out at the statues. “Those are the monarchs right?” he asked. “Yes your right. They’re all here, Mobius monarch of water, Zaborg monarch of light, Ciaus monarch of Dark, Riazia monarch of wind, Thestalos monarch of fire and Grandmarg monarch of earth. Strange, why are they here as these statues.” He said holding one hand to his chin. Michel only looked up at him still with his arms folded on the railing. As the ship soon pulled into the dock the stairway on the ship lowered as everyone on board began to make their way off of the ship. Masses of people seemed to swarm off the ship towards a large open space, surrounded by tall buildings, all of which seemed to hold a certain colour and marked with the same symbol as the monarch statues. Further ahead was a tall gateway between two of the buildings leading off into the distance, above this a large screen was currently lit up with large neon lights, displaying the message “Welcome Duellists.” With everyone now inside the wide open space a large number of guards began to make their way from within the gateway, now lining themselves up blocking the entrance while another group did the same from behind. Everyone seemed confused and disorientated as the screen suddenly went blank. Everyone was now staring at the blank screen. Soon an image of an elderly man in his 40’s was displayed on the screen, short silver hair flowing around his wrinkled face with his small emerald eyes looking down at the crowd. “May I have your attention please” he said, as the large speakers echoed throughout the vast open space. “I would first like to welcome you all to the city of endeavours, however I regret to say that not all of you will be staying here.” His words provoked anger among the minority of the crowd, Michel and Cole both with their arms folded carefully listened and watched the old man on screen. “Before we discuss matters further allow me to introduce myself, I am the senior president of Endeavour industries and also the mayor of Chimera City Mr Raphael Hertargi. Now I must explain the circumstances regarding the city. Every year our population grows substantially, as a result our open spaces are limited. Therefore, only those who can prove themselves to me and my advisors may enter our realm. To do so you must duel one of our artificial intelligence duelling programs, the result of which will provide you with a score, your entrance into the city will allowed or denied based on your score. Should you pass I will then speak to you again. I wish you the best of luck, but most of all have fun.” With those words he gave a slight wink to everyone watching as the screen then turned blank. Michel was still looking as determined as ever but Cole seemed to be a little disturbed, when Michel looked up to him Cole put on a brave face trying to hide his embarrassment. Michel’s only response was to start laughing, after which Cole started to laugh as well. The two were soon interrupted as bright lights lit up the surrounding buildings, as they looked around they could hear a voice calling out to them through large speakers surrounding the area. “Could everyone please make their way to their preferred attribute. Each building is marked with one of the six attributes and this is where you will be staying for the night.” The two of them both shook each other’s hand as they parted ways and walked off in different directions, all the time the voice was still giving out instructions. “Be aware that once you have chosen your attribute you cannot change it until much later on. At the entrance you will be given a key to your room, once inside your room you will find a note with directions and time for where your duel will take place.” Receiving his key Michel made his way inside the building. The inside was really dull when compared to the luxurious ship they had travelled on, plain white walls was all there was to see and the long bar lights stretching the length of hallways. The staircase was just as dull, the same tarnished white finish with the boring lights which went on for what seemed like miles. Having reached the floor printed on his key he began to walk down the hallway and up to a light grey door. Unlocking the door he walked in calmly closing the door softly behind him, once the door closed he noticed a small device with a blinking green light. Michel picked it up and pressed down on top of the light, as he did it projected a map on the nearby wall. There was a flashing red dot in a large area and above that the time at which he was scheduled for. Feeling confident he pressed the button again causing the map to vanish, he then placed the device inside his jacket pocket and set down his guitar at his bead side. Once again he picked up his small wooden box opening it the same as before, picking out five of his cards and the photo. Looking down at them again he felt a warm sensation running through himself. Placing them back into the small wooden box he clipped it back onto his belt and made his way over to the window. Just ahead he could see the towering structures of the city centre, such a great height they seemed to touch the stars in the sky. With his mind at ease he slowly made his way back to the bed and fell backwards spreading his arms out in a relaxed fashion, closing his eyes his soon drifted off to a deep sleep. As the time passed everyone had soon made it over to their own bedroom. Something however was causing a stir with some of the guards outside. They noticed that the lights illuminating the builders were beginning to flicker. One of the guards reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone. “Hello” he said “We are picking up some strange activity from the lights towards the port side of the city. Is the city’s power grid functioning properly?” “We are not receiving any abnormal energy readings for the power grid” replied a deeper voice. “However we are experiencing some similar problems on our end, it is possibly because of the recent solar flares. Everything should be fine. They said we may be likely to suffer from this for a few days, if anything other than that occurs be sure to notify us ASAP.” “Roger that.” The guard put his phone away as another came running up to him at a frantic pace. “Is everything ok?” the second guard asked “Everything is fine, just a solar flare, it sounds like this could be a regular occurrence for a while.” With the flickering lights happening all over the city Michel seemed to be slightly disturbed by the events while he slept. Tossing and turning in his bead he seemed to be having a nightmare. All of a sudden he heard a voice call to him. “Michel” echoed a soft deep tone voice, “Michel Ryo.” Michel soon sat up in a cold sweat. Panicking his grabbed hold of his left arm and stared at it, turning his hand round slightly he breathed a sigh of relief as he then fell back, turning his head and looking out the window to see the flickering lights. His face grew an unmistakeable sigh of curiosity as he continued to stare out the window. Closing his eyes again he seemed to entre a trace of sorts, he could see himself standing in a completely white area, nothing and no one to be seen for miles in any direction. Once more he heard the voice call out to him. “Michel,” he looked all around until something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. Whipping his head around he could see a lone figure in the distance, unable to see what the figure was he made his way closer to the lone figure. Still unable to see what it was he began to run. Running faster and faster the figure never seemed to grow any larger. The moment he blinked, for a split second, the figure seemed to appear right before him making him stop in his tracks. A tall slim warrior, shining white armour and a large circular shield in one hand with a long double ended sword in the other. Its helm had a vast length of yellow hair stretching down to his knees, with his brightly coloured yellow eyes looking down at Michel. Michel overcome with surprise fell over backwards. Looking up into the eyes of the unknown warrior it only stood there staring right back at him. With his surprise he began to look away, only to notice the strange twelve pointed star symbol on his shield. A sudden ringing sound soon woke him up from his trance like state. Rapidly sitting up he looked around seeing the clear blue sky out the window with the ringing still droning on. Putting on his jacket he pulled out the small device from the last night to see it flashing, now pressing down on the button he displayed the map once again. Picking up his guitar and strapping it his back he flung the device in the air and caught it as he then made his way out the door beginning to run at a frantic pace. As he made his way passed the large gateway he continued to run onwards thinking to himself. Reaching the end of the long pathway stretching from the gateway he found himself before a large sign, above another gateway which was currently sealed off. On it were six arrows marked with the elemental symbols as he had seen before on the statues by the port. Having noticed the light symbol pointing to the left he ran off. Making his way further down he noticed a large gathering of people around duelling areas, some people waiting to duel while others stood there to spectate. Nearing his goal something caught his eye, a large red dragon in the middle of the field, filled with curiosity he barged his way through the crowd to see Cole currently in the middle of his duel. Cole being himself was as calm as normal. Michel seemed to be confused as his field resembled that of his duel with him on the ship. Cole’s life points were at 3300 while the AI had only 600 left. Cole’s mighty red dragon with his noble warrior upon its back with a facedown card in play. Looking over to the other side of the field he became confused at what he saw, the machine at the far end, the AI computer had some strange looking monsters. The monsters had the looks of pile of rocks which seemed to be held together by a strange dark aura. One monster resembled the shape of a catapult while the other looked like a totem pole. Michel turned over to the guy standing next to him. “Say, just what sort of monsters are those anyway?” “Those are the Bouldark monsters” he replied. “I never heard of those before.” “It because they were created here in this city. All of the decks used by the AI duel computers use custom made cards created within the city, this is only one of them.” Michel still looked slightly confused. “Although the AI difficulty has been turned down, mostly to keep the true potential of these monsters hidden but also so it’s not impossible to defeat them.” “Well, let’s just see what these Bouldark monsters are like” said Michel boastfully. The AI was now about to take its turn as Cole looked on with his arms folded with the AI having its cards spread out in front of it. “Draw” replied the computer in a mono-tone voice. “Bouldark Ballista effect. Defence becomes zero equals Bouldark Giant to Grave and 800 damage.” The catapult object seemed to lose all of the rock surrounding its body, leaving only the shadowy aura. The shadowy aura launched a bolt of darkness towards Cole, he showed no signs of hesitation as his life points fell by 800 as the AI continued. “Bouldark Totem effect, tribute Bouldark Ballista equals plus one level.” The shadowy aura of the catapult object became absorbed by the totem object to form another section which sprouted from the top end as it became covered with rocks. “Bouldark Totem second effect, minus 1100 defence equals special summon Bouldark Boulder, attack mode.” The rock formation on the totem began to fade leaving small portions behind as the rocks then formed the shape of large rounded objet with arms and legs with the same black aura formed around this new object. “Spell card, Bouldark Tomb, Bouldark Boulder attack becomes zero equals remove your monster”. The aura from within the monster began to stream outwards towards the mighty dragon, enveloping it completely before it consumed it and vanished, leaving Cole wide open. “Bouldark Boulder effect, minus 800 defence equals add Bouldark Giant to hand. Tribute two monsters, summon Bouldark Giant.” The two shadowy aura rock monsters glowed brightly as they became small particles, the particles then reformed into the shape of a large being, towering over the area. Bulky limbs, massive body and a single evil red eye now squarely focused Cole. The guy beside Michel began to tremble. “That’s not good, it’s the archtype’s ace monster, with its 2400 attack points he’s only going to have 100 left”. Michel himself remained calm with his arms folded looking on with a delighted smile. The person beside him started to moan towards him. “How can you be so calm, he’s going to lose, there is no way he can win.” Michel only sniggered slightly. “Then you obviously don’t know who he is.” The person beside him became slightly confused. “That’s Cole Viceman.” He suddenly became stunned in response. “I know Cole, he won’t let 100 life points stop him from winning.” The AI proceeded with its turn as the large monster raised its fist. “Bouldark Giant, direct attack”. The giant slammed its fist into the ground causing stalagmites to burst forth one after another making their way to Cole. Once impacting him he was flung into the air, coming down he landed firmly on his feet holding out one hand. “Don’t think it’s over, I play my quick play spell Fires of Doomsday” Cole looked up as two dark blue flame like bodies appeared on the field both with a single disturbing eye. “Turn end” said the AI with the central core now turning off its green light. “I draw” shouted Cole as he swiftly drew from his deck. Looking at the card he closed his eyes and began chant. “Unholy darkness warp the souls of the faithful and turn the god’s to the dark side. Rise up from the abyss. Dark Horus.” The two flame creatures shot upwards spiralling together bursting into small particles in the sky. From the particles a large ominous sphere formed above the crowd, a swirling vortex of shadowy colours which seemed to grow larger. Without warning two menacing red eyes opened wide from within the sphere, followed by an explosion of darkness the enveloped the field. As the darkness began to fall, a demonic dragon opened its wings violently blowing away the remaining darkness. With is colossal talons compared to its tiny claws it let out an unholy roar. As the dragon descended Cole stood there with one hand pointing to the giant mass of rocks. “Now then my almighty dragon” shouted Cole in a demanding voice. “Strip apart that abomination and show him the true power of darkness.” The mighty dragon let out another demonic roar as it flapped its wings darting off towards the much larger giant that stood before it. As the dragon began its assault the towering giant reached out its hand in effort to stop the dragon. The dragon simply burst through its hand like it was nothing more than wall of dust, the once giant hand now crumbling to the ground. The fierce dragon flapped its wings again causing it to gain speed now aimed directly at the head of the giant. Blasting though it ripped the pile of rocks that formed its head to pieces causing the shadowy aura to spew forth. The giant still mobile turned round trying to grab the dragon with its other hand, before it even got the chance to the dragon unleashed a sinister ball of shadowy fire, impacting the ground beneath it blasting upwards it a tower of unholy fire. The result caused a massive explosion of rocks and darkness reducing the AI’s life points down to 0. With the game now over, Cole made his way towards the crowd as they were letting out a round of cheers, Cole in response lifted his hand in the air. “I wonder” Michel thought to himself. “Would Cole have done the same in our duel on the ship.” With Cole now exiting the field he spotted Michel and walked over to towards him, still feeling full of himself. “Hey Michel” he said. “You done your duel yet?” “Oh dammit, I still haven’t done mine yet.” He replied now running over to shake Cole’s hand. “Nice work taking out the monster, I would love to stay and talk but if I don’t hurry I’m likely to miss my chance.” Michel soon shot off towards the field at the far end on the area while Cole shouted over to him. “Hey wait up Michel, I want to see this.” Cole then dashed off in pursuit of Michel, running down an endless pathway, passing by a wide variety of monsters along the way all the while crowds gathering round and watching those currently giving their all. Reaching the furthest field which seemed miles from the main gateway, the two of them came before a guard. The guard stood outside the entrance to the playing field holding a clipboard looking at his watch. As soon as they arrived the guard raised his hand. “Who was scheduled for the one o’clock slot” he shouted. “That’s me” replied Michel waving his hand in the air while trying to catch his breath. The guard opened up that gate as Michel then having caught his breath walked inside. “Good luck Michel” shouted Cole. Michel turned towards him giving a thumbs up, now with his attention back to the task at hand he changed his guitar back into a duel disk with the press of a button and readied himself as the computer at the far end engaged with its green light and five cards now being projected in front of it. “The AI will take the first turn, you may begin” said the guard. The life point counter for both players rose to 4000 and the field became lit up with the ocean of vibrant colours as the AI began to make its move. “Draw” said the AI in a stale mono-tone voice. “Monster set, set one card, end turn.” The green light of the AI soon faded as Michel began his turn. “I draw” he shouted swiftly drawing from his deck, “It’s time for my new guys to shine, I will summon my Shining Angel in attack mode”. A portal opened in the sky as a white cloaked angled descended with its golden feathers floating to the ground. “Now my angel attack that face down, divine providence”. The angel placed out its hand as it shot forth a thin but powerful burst of light piercing the face down monster. The monster was revealed to be a small human like shape comprised of white and yellow spherical and cylindrical shaped objects held together by blue blots of electricity. light of the AI reacted, turning green again. “Dynamo Stunbot destroyed, Dynamo Stunbot in grave equals no more attacks from the monster that destroyed it.” The angel became paralysed by blue bolts of electricity that sparked from the human shaped object before it suddenly vanished like shattering glass. Michel gritted his teeth as he then placed his cards into his duel disk. “I will now set two cards face down and end my turn.” “Draw.” Another card became projected in front of the AI as its camera lens began focus closely on its cards. “Field spell Thunderstorm.” Large sinister clouds formed above the field, blocking out the once clear blue sky. “Continuous spell Black-out.” The entire field grew dark with only the angel and Michel’s duel disk becoming visible. “Black-out effect, special summon Dynamo Shocker and normal summon Storm Tower in attack mode”. A similar human shape object like the one from before appeared on the field; beside it was a large pylon like structure, reaching to the height of the dark clouds, the yellow features now glowing in the dark. A sudden flash of lightning then struck down the angel causing it to disintegrate, causing Michel to cover his face. “Thunderstorm effect, thunder monster summon equals destroy one card. Black-out effect equals half attack of monster summoned while in play.” Michel only sniggered as he pointed towards the AI. “You triggered my trap, Soul Rope. By paying 1000 life points I am able to special summon a level four monster when one of my monsters is destroyed, so I shall choose my Y-Dragon Head.” A blinding tower of light shot up from the ground as a metallic crimson dragon flew upwards letting out a great shriek with its ice blue eyes looking down at the two strange monsters the AI had. “With its 1500 attack points even without your Black-out in play you can’t hope to destroy it without risking your own monster.” During the duel between Michel and the AI the guard received an unexpected call on his phone. The ringing caught the attention of both Michel and Cole. “Hello” said the guard. “A solar flare…Roger that.” The guard put away his phone as he began to waves his arms towards the crowd. “Could I ask everyone to stand back, there are reports of an imminent solar flare so we need to clear the area.” Michel suddenly became distraught. “A solar flare” he muttered to himself “Not here, not now.” As everyone stepped back the guard ran up to the control panel at the side of the field. Opening the panel a keyboard extended and monitor flashed on with the logo of the city.. “I have got to try and shut this thing down else there could be some drastic consequences.” Said the guard frantically typing away at the keyboard. “What do you mean by that?” asked Cole with a concerned voice. The key board suddenly blew a fuse in a puff of smoke and the monitor screen went black as it cracked, the guard became startled as he then shouted over towards Michel. “Get out of there it’s not safe.” Michel still distraught wasting no time ran towards the exit. He was stopped suddenly by a bolt of lightning which impacted the ground leaving a smouldering crater. The bolt of lightning caused Michel to fall over backwards; looking over to the AI he noticed the green light was currently blinking. Confused and curious he continued to stare at it as it soon changed from a bright green to a sinister red. The AI then called out in a more aggressive but slurred voice. “Activate spell, Static Cannon”. A large cannon with similar features to the human like figure materialized on the field, “Effect, add Dynamo counter to Dynamo Shocker and destroy black out equals attack to normal.” The cannon shot a bolt of blue electricity towards the human shaped object causing a small segment of it to light up with a vibrant blue while the darkness vanished. “Dynamo shocker effect, reduce attack by 500 equals 200 damage for every Dynamo counter”. The human shaped object put out its hand and let out a flurry of sparks which impacted Michel causing him to let out a painful scream dropping his life points down to 2800. He fell to his knees looking down at his left arm. “That pain, but how, there’s no way, it’s just a hologram, a simulation.” He paused briefly thinking to himself. “A solar flare should not cause this effect…unless.” “Storm Tower effect.” Michel looked up towards the AI to notice that the pylon had lit up on the lower level. “Dynamo monster reduces its own attack equals Storm tower gaining Dynamo counter.” Michel hand now managed to stand up as the AI continued with its onslaught. “Repeat Dynamo Shocker effect.” The human shaped monsters attack fell down to 500 blasting another bolt of electricity bringing Michel’s life points down to 2400 causing the another level of the pylon to light up. Michel let out yet another cry of pain as it hit him. “Repeat Dynamo Shocker effect.” A final bolt of electricity shot out as Michel’s life points dropped down to 1800. With Michel now lying on the floor hardly able move the orb on the top of the pylon began to glow a bright blue. “Storm Tower effect, three dynamo counters on it equals attack and defence at 2500. Strom Tower attack’s Y-Dragon Head.” The orb upon the pylon flashed a bright blue unleashing a bolt of lightning which began to rip its way towards Michel tearing up the ground as it slowly made its way closer towards Michel. Distressed at what was going on Cole shouted out to him. “Michel.”
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