Episode 93. - Dark Heart Of Cyber Empress

Libra spied the familiar figure sitting slumped at the table, long before she was sure of who it was. She had no reason to believe that the person was going to be there, and, though her last encounter with him had been recent, her mental image of him still did not register the fact that he had become considerably taller.

Finally, she finished the minor cleanup duties she had been helping the KirriCorp staff with, and had time to go check exactly who the lanky young man was. Closer inspection confirmed her original feelings, though the lack of familiar Kaijudo unnerved her...

"Chris? Christopher Murray? What are you doing here of all places?"

She sat opposite him at the table, and he acknowledged her presence, barely, before answering her in a low voice.

"Looking for someone..." was the cryptic remark. She sensed something off about the way he said it. He looked tired, and rather depressed, in her opinion. Hair looked slightly shaggier than she remembered, and there was still the issue of barely any familiar Kaijudo. Now that she was closer, she could feel it again, and was slightly reassured, but something felt... off.

"Is he all right? Where's Sopian?" Shtra asked her, appearing in her mind. Libra's answer was one of confusion. She had no more idea than Shtra did. She sat there in silence for awhile, looking around occasionally. At one point, he looked up from his slump, at the same instant that she looked at him. Their eyes made contact, and somehow this sparked some instant transmission of information. They paused for a bit longer before saying simultaneously...

"Kettou da."

There was an awkward silence, then Chris reached into his backpack and produced a deck. Libra shuddered slightly. Something was still missing. He began to shuffle, and she saw something that confused her... flashes of green and red amidst the blue. In fact, equal with it.

"Um... what are you doing? I meant for you and I to seriously duel."

"This is the deck I seriously use now... it's fast and effective," Chris replied simply, deploying his shields. Libra looked uncomfortable about the whole thing, but finished shuffling the deck she had produced from its case, and played her five shields also.

He made no move to go first, and so... Darkness mana, in the form of Dark Reversal, entered her mana zone. The violent surge in her own power shocked her, and dragged them both into the dual mindspace instantly. An ocean meeting the shore of an island, at sunset. She was used to this. Many of her duels took on this form.

Water mana entered Christopher's mana zone. An Aqua Surfer. He summoned an Aqua Guard. Her hopes rose. Maybe Sopian had simply decided to add Fire and Nature to the forces.

"Speed is such a funny thing. Without control of it you still have nothing really..." she noted, placing Scout Cluster into mana and summoning a Propeller Mutant.

"I feel in control when I use this deck," he reassured her, "When I use my mono I feel weak."

"Feeling weak..." she answered as he charged Fire-Nature mana, "I suppose I got used to it."

"Luck scares me," he said, watching her similarly charge Water-Darkness mana, "That's why I don't like relying on Shield Triggers."

"Well, I'm no good at probability..." she noted. Another Aqua Surfer went into his mana zone, "It defies everything I understand, consistently. But drawing cards is the same... lucky or not lucky. Dark Reversal to mana. Summon Vile Mulder, Wing of the Void."

The huge Demon Command now appeared in the water, with the Propeller Mutant almost happily circling its colossal frame. She did not order any attack.

"I tried to decrease that factor," Christopher noted now. The strange energy Libra had been feeling before, was now returning. This was not the same as usual.

"I wonder if one can ever decrease it enough. It's so much effort..."
Her thoughts now were projected into his mind. She was deep in her own imagery, though his was not yet matching it in intensity. His answer was not given to her mind though. Chris continued to speak normally.

"I can draw cards, search cards, and I even have two finishers to make me feel safer," he noted, drawing his card and placing a third Aqua Surfer into his mana zone, "Three Surfers..."

"But you still drew all your Surfers..." she communicated to his mind again, "Luck is inescapable... probability is improbable. It taunts us... our calculations mean nothing."

"That's why I don't rely on shield triggers. I use the Aqua Surfer because it can evolve, unlike Corile or the Unicorn Fish. Pyrofighter Magnus, ikei!"
The red Dragonoid shattered the shield instantly, with no trouble. It skimmed back over the water with incredible speed also, stopping again on the shore.

"I like to let Emeral do its thing..." was her answer. The Cyber Lord was the next card she drew, and it appeared in the water near Mulder, as Chris continued to speak.

"I only ever use Emeral because of Illusionary Merfolk."

"But I can never figure out the right thing to do... I just end up angry and feeling twisted."
Her Soderlight, the Cold Blade, went into her mana now, causing the darkness of her underwater facility to spread out towards the island. She summoned an Emeral, and cast Spiral Gate on his Aqua Guard.

"Still. Calculations are not totally useless... Mulder, ikei!"
With a sound that was truly inhuman, the Demon Command lurched forward toward the island, heaving its massive bulk in an attempt to break Christopher's shields. The first did not trigger. The second prompted Chris to mutter something about errata, leading Libra to believe that it must have been a Soulswap. The Propeller Mutant swooped in next, shattering another.

Christopher placed his Crystal Lancer into his mana zone, causing a slight spike in his psychic energy, more along the lines of what Libra was used to, from him, but still only barely. He summoned his Aqua Guard to defend further against strikes, and his Pyrofighter Magnus.

The Dragonoid's speed allowed it to run up the body of the Vile one, striking at any weak point it could find, toxic essence spilling out at every such strike, poisoning the Pyrofighter's body. Finally, it reached Mulder's head, stood, saluted the form of Chris on the shore of the island, and fell, finally exhausted and overcome, into the water, with a splash. That splash vanished quickly as the huge Demon Command fell lifeless into the water also a moment later.

"So many possibilities, and they always confuse us... But this is never confusing, and I am thankful..." Shtra growled, dark Kaijudo now swirling off Libra.

"Emeral, evolve into Hydrooze, the Mutant Emperor!"
The darkness from the facility engulfed the small one, causing debris and old technology from the sea floor to swirl around it, encasing it in a powerful new outer shell. The dark Cyber Lord now grinned, and launched a stream of missiles and torpedoes at the island shields. The first one shattered, and a soothing light appeared on the shore...

"Faerie Life..." Chris noted, taking the top card of his deck and placing it into his mana zone. The Volcano Charger made his energy rise for some unclear reason. The Propeller Mutant, enhanced by Hydrooze, also streaked past the Aqua Guard, to break the last shield.

"I see. He'll fall..." Shtra noted. Another calculation. The sixth mana card... the rise in Christopher's energy, the momentary glimpse of just what was really the form of the duelist before her... it all came together to one conclusion. One that Chris confirmed by saying...

"Not before we roar."
He drew his card, and muttered something hopeful, before Libra corrected his assumption.

"Not you... my dear Hydrooze will fall... I wonder if my deck will give me another way..."
The Mutant Emperor floated in the water, its power momentarily depleted. The darkness in the water around it now seemed to be merely a shadow.

"I see..." Christopher noted, looking at the cards in his hand, "Even if I stop one, there is still another creature there..."

"I built, as you once did, trying to make probability my friend..." Shtra began, then trailed off, the bitterness in her expression clearly apparent.

"All it would take is a Spiral Gate or something... Aqua Hulcus to mana. Summon... Twin-Cannon Skyterror!"
The beast's roar sent a shiver through the girl. The power radiating off Christopher now was that of a person who had just summoned their avatar, but as far as she knew, that could not be true. Christopher's avatar was...

"Twin-Cannon. Attack Hydrooze! Ikei!"
There was no time to think, only to brace herself for what her mind now witnessed. The power of one of the greatest Armored Wyverns in existence, descending upon the amalgam of technology and darkness that Emeral had become. Hydrooze met the cannon blasts with missiles, filling the sky with projectiles and streams of dark Hedrian energy, as the Skyterror winged its way through even this, each blast either striking the evolved Cyber Lord, or filling the air around it with steam as water exploded upward. Finally, with a howling cybernetic shriek of agony, Hydrooze sank back into the water, defeated.

Christopher ended his turn, his 'avatar' flapping over his island, leaving Libra feeling even more unnerved than before. He spoke without much emotion now, expecting whatever she drew, to end the duel, finally simply stating, "Good game."

"Not yet, it seems..." she said, looking at the card she had drawn. A Splash Zebrafish. She summoned it immediately, and the whirlpool returned her Dark Reversal card to her. Immediately, she cast it, and dark ooze bubbled up from where Hydrooze had sunk beneath the waves mere moments ago. Christopher knew exactly what that would mean. She ended her turn there, their Kaijudo clashing on multiple levels.

"Speed always finds its ways," she sighed, "And me? Well, I just hope."

"As I said..." Chris growled, "I cannot defeat two."

Libra felt, only for a moment, that he suppressed the powerful raging energy of his avatar, in order to consider further whether or not his statement was absolutely correct. He was analyzing the cards in his hand.

"Or maybe I can? Rumbling Terahorn to mana. Cast Soulswap on your Splash Zebrafish."
The whirlpool, now undone, produced a Scout Cluster from her mana zone. A moment later, a blast of volcanic power from beneath the Propeller Mutant destroyed that creature, leaving her with nothing from which to evolve Hydrooze. The Mutant crashed into his shore, causing him to discard another of his Crystal Lancer.

"Incredible as usual..." she muttered, contemplating. She would need a Critical Blade or Spiral Gate to defeat him immediately. No other card would do. She drew Vile Mulder, Wing of the Void, and placed it into mana. Within her, Shtra began to calculate, as the strange darkness within seemed to fight those calculations at every moment, insisting that there was no need to calculate. That the duel was already almost over.

Still, in the end, the Cyber Lord's calculations won, and the decision was that the necessary card had too low a probability of being drawn. The best action, would be to attack...

"Scout Cluster, ikei!"
The energy spiked within Libra with such forceful frustration at her decision, that she nearly retched. The Scout Cluster, of course, was blocked by the Aqua Guard, and destroyed it. A turn later, Christopher doubled the mental pressure on her...

"Aqua Surfer to mana. Summon Aqua Hulcus, and Twin-Cannon Skyterror! Skyterror, ikei! Destroy Scout Cluster!"

The Cyber Cluster was no match for the cannon blasts. Libra drew her card, and the Kaijudo that had just been so painful within, now gave her an encore of epic proportions. Critical Blade. All attempts to point out that the Aqua Surfer could have rid Chris of the threat of the Scout Cluster just as easily were ignored. The pain still seared her mind.

"I told you we would roar first," Chris growled, as she ended her turn. He summoned his Rumbling Terahorn now, and searched out his Pyrofighter Magnus. It too, made its way into the battle zone by his will, and the final assault began.

"What I count on now is too much, yet again..." Shtra noted, as the Skyterrors swooped in to shatter her shields. None of the four triggered at all.

"Seems that even fate can't catch us..." Christopher smirked, his energy now crackling with fiery power, "Pyrofighter, todomeda!"

Rather than causing the normal reaction of defeat and surrender in Libra, Chris found that his final attack caused a powerful backlash of unidentified Kaijudo instead. Libra spoke again, her voice dark and bitter...

"Maybe it is my own fate, catching me... but this... no! We duel again! This time, I want to duel the real you! Bring... out... Sopian!"

He scoffed, but humored her, reaching into his bag to retrieve his other deck.
"I've changed this one too... I have only heard 'Sopian' once in a long time... and what I was told, was that Sopian missed the other Cyber Lords. So here we are..."

"This time..." she intoned, her voice dripping with negativity, "I think I understand. Spiral Gate to mana. End turn."
Though it was only her first mana card, the mindspace instantly formed, and her Kaijudo filled the area around her. This time, the network of logic that normally represented her, seemed to be filled with dark corruption... twisted data and blank outputs.

"As I like to get things over with as fast as I can," Chris said, his Kaijudo still radiating the aura of the Twin-Cannon Skyterror. For the fourth time that day, he placed his Aqua Surfer into his mana zone. His own Kaijudo rose powerfully also. Despite the fact that his deck was pure water, the fire within him burned strongly.

"Probability isn't defying me... I'm letting it control me..." she growled, placing an Aqua Soldier into mana. The mindscape this time was of an ocean at night. Both duelists had visualized themselves partially submerged in the water, their shields lightly illuminated. Chris drew another card, and placed a fifth Aqua Surfer into his mana zone.

"See?! Probability isn't 'logical'! That's the lie!" she snarled, as his Aqua Guard came into being. The waves around her own form were beginning to become violent, and the area around them would have felt deathly cold to anyone unfortunate enough to wander into the vicinity. Her Vile Mulder went to mana. Her Aqua Soldier appeared beside her.

"At least I can play with bad hands now," he sighed, charging Eureka Charger to mana, "Aqua Guard, evolve into Crystal Spinslicer! Ikei!"

"That's where they make me falter!" came her disjointed, frustrated thoughts, as the shield shattered, "That because something is likely to happen... that it 'should'! Spiral Gate to mana... Summon Shtra."

The Kaijudo field around her tripled in its 'density' as her avatar came into being, and with a wave of a hand, returned the Spiral Gate from her mana zone, and caused Chris to pick up his Eureka Charger. The full effect possible, of the Cyber Lord.

"Maybe I need two decks... two avatars... two styles..." Chris said, suddenly seeming contemplative, at the sight of the other Cyber Lord standing on the surface of the ocean in the distance, even as Shtra commanded the Aqua Soldier to shatter the first shield, "Maybe I should never have avoided this... so what if there is an extra me?"

"And maybe I need to rely on something beyond mere calculations..." she noted, the corruption seeming to spread swiftly through her Kaijudo now. Chris summoned an Aqua Hulcus, and his Spinslicer cleaved Libra's Aqua Soldier in two with a flying circular blade.

"The Beast Folk... the Dragons... even the ones from the Light seem to have 'hearts'..."

"Hearts..." Christopher echoed softly, looking at the card he had drawn with the Aqua Hulcus' effect. Sopian. The Skyterror within him roared again...

"Maybe no matter how crazy something 'feels'... no matter how improbable..." she muttered, the blackness finally consuming her network of Kaijudo altogether, "...maybe I'm just supposed to ditch the calculation and do it."

"Thinking only... can only do so much..." Christopher noted, the image of his Skyterror flashing momentarily over the water, behind him, "That's something you taught me."

"Well, in the end, I'd be less miserable, right?" she huffed, drawing her card. She spent the next twenty seconds staring at it, in disbelief, before finally mouthing softly "...it ... came..."

A Critical Blade. She had wanted it to come. Felt it would come. Practically willed it to come, simply so that she would not need to evolve Shtra into Hydrooze just to stop a Spinslicer. There were only two Critical Blades in the deck. Probability would have dictated otherwise.

"Hmm..." she grinned, the black energy seeming to configure itself now within the network, restoring some of the liquid order, "It seems that 'heart' isn't so useless after all. Aqua Soldier to mana. Cast Critical Blade on your Spinslicer, and Spiral Gate on your Hulcus! Shtra, ikei!"

"That is what I keep telling myself..." Chris said, "But I never go through with it. I will not change who I am for nothing, and anybody who says otherwise needs to learn."

He drew his card, placed one Sopian into his mana zone, and summoned the other, muttering to her, "Try getting through to that."

"Sopian!" Shtra greeted joyfully, "We meet again, and battle with more than calculations!"

There was no response, but Shtra continued anyway, "I've found my 'heart'! And it is dark! And I don't care!"

With that, black energy streamed around Libra's avatar, integrating itself into her network. There was a surge of it, then a black 'flash' that obscured the transformation from view. When it was clear again, beneath the starlit sky, Shtra had become... Hydrooze.

"Then enjoy your strange contentment while it lasts," Chris said, still not speaking to her mind, only to her ears, "You'll feel lonely soon. The darkness is always empty."

Something in his tone, and the fact that neither Sopian nor Chris seemed to wish to address her in the mindspace, made the Mutant 'Empress' furious. Her missiles and torpedoes streaked in at one of the shields, and it shattered, trapping her in a swirling pocket of teleportation energy. Spiral Gate Trigger.

"Faith did not even let the 'three' of us have a reunion," Chris noted, "You are the one who stopped that by evolving. There's nothing wrong with evolution itself but it has its flaws. And I am the one who knows these things best. Summon Aqua Hulcus."

Shtra now shrieked at Sopian, in their mindspace, before responding to Chris.
"Maybe, but I can only follow my flow path. If you must remain static, so be it."

"Change some things. Not everything. Summon Emeral... I still can't hear him, Libra."
Emeral did its work, rewiring one of the shields.

"Some things need changing! Wake up, Sopian!"
There was no response from the creature in the opposing waters.

"Loneliness feels strange. Nothing will wake up that which wants to sleep."
Shtra had come into being again, returning another Spiral Gate to Libra's hand. Chris picked up the second Sopian. Emeral joined Shtra a moment later, no doubt setting that Spiral Gate in the same way as Chris' Emeral had set a shield trigger. Chris drew his card and placed an Emeral into his mana zone.

"Maybe you just have to discover your 'true self'. Even if you don't like who or what that is. Maybe the darkness really is 'you'. Just don't forget your watery ways. Maybe you could try and balance the two..."

"I think I can. It won't make me win, and it may make me a monster... but I am still a Cyber Lord!"

Chris nodded, summoning another Sopian and an Aqua Guard, and sending the first in to break the shield that had not been set. A Shield Trigger. Aqua Jolter.

"Faith again. The other is Spiral Gate. Therefore I cannot attack. End turn. Bring it on. Koi!"

"You chose... not to strike," Libra said, finally speaking aloud again. She drew her card, and the energy within her shifted strongly. Her second Hydrooze.

"Because I would lose if I did. As I said, my shields are not enough protection for me," Chris explained. Shtra watched the two Sopians, waiting eagerly for either to speak to her, to confirm that such a calculation had come from the creature she had, until today, known to be Christopher's avatar, but nothing came.

"I see. Then what I must do now is stranger than ever," she said, apparently contemplating, slightly hesitating, the darkness becoming discordant within the water network yet again.

"This rose is not yet black enough to sacrifice troops for a win. This Lord would rather die for his people," Chris declared, "Now as I said... koi!"

"You still think about it!" Libra projected into his mind, her own thoughts augmenting Shtra's angry pulses of energy directed at the unresponsive Sopian, "You and I are still the same! But now you've given me what may be the hardest choice I've ever faced..."

"Think about what, may I ask? All I'm trying to do is find something to pull me out of this darkness I thought I wanted..." Chris replied.

"Or wait... is the choice that hard? Or am I calculating again? Maybe... maybe I do know a way. One of those shields is a trap..."

Chris interrupted here with, "Maybe, maybe not."

"Your hand of cards is as always, ready with options..."

"Remove my blocker if you wish to strike me," he said simply. She hesitated. Her hand contained another Critical Blade now. The power to do just that. It would make sense. It was one of the two Liquid People in his battle zone. Removing it was necessary to protect herself from the threat of a Spinslicer or Lancer.

"I don't have to... and yet... wait... I can... feel it..."
The darkness grew again, this time in the mana resources of her facility. Emeral appeared, and the darkness took it immediately, transforming it. Hydrooze was back.

"Aqua Jolter, attack Hulcus! Ikei!"
Chris seemed surprised at this, and blocked the strike. The Jolter and Guard crossed blades on the surface of the starlit ocean, and battled until neither could move any more. Emeral now slid through the water, easily, to hack into and dissipate the Aqua Hulcus.

"This is my darkness... and my fate. I'm sorry, Sopian."
Shtra now moved through the water herself, enhanced by Hydrooze, unstoppable, stronger, to strike down the other Cyber Lord. The Sopian did not respond even to the deathblow.

"Let your Spinslicer end it, or whatever you wish. I've done... what I was supposed to do."
Her turn ended, Shtra seeming remorseful over defeating the opposing Cyber Lord.

"Now I should be the one to apologise. Corile, I'm sorry, but I have to borrow your strength."
The fourth Cyber Lord appeared in the battle zone, and with a wave of a limb, Hydrooze was transported back to whence it came yet again. Libra gritted her teeth in frustration, as the second Sopian now attacked her Emeral. Without any enhancement, Emeral was no match.

"If I have to, I will try and show you the correct way if this is not your correct path. Emeral, ikei! Break last shield!"

"Shield Trigger. Spiral Gate, to return your Corile!"
No sooner had this occurred, than Hydrooze reappeared, firing blasts and projectiles at Emeral. Shtra now seemed enraged at being ignored, and used her enhanced power to obliterate the second Sopian with no remorse.

"Wake up! Fight! Even if all you can do is lose! Fight!" was her furious command, "Fight for your power! Fight for your meaning! Fight for the 'darkness' in your heart! Just fight!"

"As I said," Chris began, drawing his other Corile, and smiling inwardly, "I will keep the darkness at bay for as long as possible. You've made your choice."
Corile again appeared in the moonlit water, and waved Hydrooze away yet again.

"We both know victory is yours..." came Shtra's thoughts, as an Emeral, Propeller Mutant, and Scout Cluster, all appeared in her battle zone. Somehow, she could feel it. She could feel that he would be able to immediately move the Cluster. Her 'heart' told her that despite all 'improbability'... another Corile was coming. She moved in to break the shield that had not been set. It was over.

"Let's just hope 'he' can help you," Chris said, charging one last mana.

"This is a familiar feeling..." Libra noted, accepting it and bracing herself. Surely enough, Christopher Murray's Corile appeared in the battle zone a moment later, waving away her deployed Scout Cluster.

"Corile, todomeda."
It was Libra who said the words, not Chris. He echoed them a moment later, his hand reaching out to tap the card. In their minds, Corile floated up to Libra, and placed one flipper-limb on her forehead...

The black network shut down. The seething Kaijudo died away. The ocean became calm. Libra's eyes glazed over, and one more tiny spike of darkness jolted her slightly, before she slumped forward onto the table.

The former Irish champion duelist sighed, picking up his cards and returning them to his bag, then took one last look at the 'other Cyber Lord' before him, and turned to walk away.