I can feel my body leaving me. I look at my arms, and I can see through them. Am I disappearing? My body tumbles forward as my legs disappear, and I close my eyes as I slowly lose consciousness... I guess this is how I die, huh?
What a shitty, unfair life. Fuck off... Man
"I would not accept this death."
A voice makes its way into my ear.
It sounds young... yet experienced. It's got some sort of authority, so strong I find myself standing up and opening my eyes on my own.
The darkness surrounds me as I do. Inside the dark game, the void around me had some sort of foggy mix between blue, green, black, and different tones of gray.
This time it is different. I'm surrounded by an infinite sea of black. Pitch black, in every direction. I can tell this isn't the Dark Game I was on before.
Not only does it look different, but the pain from both my body and mind is gone. And I feel surprisingly lighter. As if there wasn't anything weighing me down.
As I start looking for the source of the voice, a light blinds me. I've seen it before, inside The Emperor's deck. But it was faint when I saw it. I shield my eyes to look at it, and the Light slowly fades.
"...Are you going to?" The voice from the light asks me.
It comes from what seems to be human. Its silhouette, which is the only thing I can see right now, seems human. However, I feel like he isn't a human, even though he looks like one at first.
As the light reduces its brightness slowly, I progressively become able to see better. The monster wears blue armor, with a red, ragged scarf that flows behind him. There's no air, yet it still waves as if there were.
He wears another ragged red cloth, this one around his waist. With two samurai swords resting inside their sheaths. His face is covered by a white mask with two vertical lines where his eyes should be. Only one of the two openings for him to see has an eye behind, a yellow glowing eye.
From underneath the mask, on the top, something expands outwards. It appears to be hair, yet it looks metallic.
Lastly, it has a sort of spiky, long hat. Two spikes. I figured it out already. He is not human. I don't know what he is, though.
All I know is he's covered by a bright yellow light... Wait, I have seen that light before.
"Are you... A monster?"
"I'm the Spirit of a card, yes."
"Why did you leave The Emperor's Deck to speak to me? And where am I?"
"You're inside your consciousness. The Emperor was once a normal duelist. He had a normal Deck and used me often..."
"What happened?"
"Obsessed with power, he searched for that artifact and replaced his right eye with it. After he got it, he slowly replaced his deck..."
— The monster seems nostalgic, and disappointed in his old duelist — "Eventually, the only thing left from his original deck was the trap card 'Solemn Lament' and me. But he doesn't even have Level 4 Monsters to summon me."
So, this monster saw the duelist who had him in his deck slowly corrupt into darkness. Changing his deck to that dark deck with shadowy monsters and disgusting effects.
That's gotta suck.
"Why is he down here?"
"Men wither, and so he did."
"Better question, why am I here?"
"The eye chose you."
Those replies don't really clear any doubts...
"Naaaah... No way. I lost the Duel!"
"Yet you're alive."
"You must've saved me."
"I did not. You're only alive because of your own... Stubbornness." — he pauses, extending me his hand — "I want to destroy the eye, but I need your help. If you're not entirely gone, there must be something you're fighting for."
I sigh, I always thought card spirits were just a childish story made up to make duelists dream in the 'heart of the cards'. Bullshit. Total bullshit. There's nothing other than luck involved in drawing cards, yet... Apparently, I was wrong about the other part; Card Spirits might be real.
I gotta say, though, am I really the stubborn one here?
Well, I guess that is why he decided to help me. I grab his hand. I'm not going to accept this death, I can't
"For someone, not something."
"Is that so?" He nods. Is he acknowledging me?
I find myself standing up in the Dark Game. My Lifepoints have reached 0, but I'm not dead. My body seems to be gathering itself, pulling the fragments that shattered after the attack and putting them back together.
Don't worry, Haru. Your big brother ain't gonna leave so soon.
The pain and mental fatigue quickly settle back in as I recover my form, making me fall to one knee. However, I'm alive. And The Emperor seems surprised.
"Maybe the temple was right after all. Impressive"
"Dude, fuck off."
"To think that you'd survive my strongest attack, 4400 Overload Damage. And look at you, breathing."
"Really, just shut the fuck up. You're just repeating yourself, spitting unnecessary stuff everyone already knows."
My head stings hard, which I guess is proof that the consequences of the attack won't be gone with one Ibuprofen. The Emperor Laughs, adjusting his posture on his throne. He raises his arm, and I'm immediately grabbed by some bandages. Bound.
What did the monster spirit say? That the eye chose me? Is he gonna try to put that thing inside my eye socket? Ah hell naw.
"Spirit?" The Emperor asks me, wait... How does he know?
"The fuck you mean?" I try to play dumb
"You have a card spirit?"
He approaches me, standing up from his throne. His movements are slow; he's clearly weakened. Probably both by the Duel and his age, if what the monster told me is true.
"I don't have any."
"Bullshit!"
This asshole, how does he know I saw the spirit? The card spirit isn't even mine. I really don't know how he seems to have guessed.
"Wait..." He speaks again, seemingly having figured out something. I see that golden flicker on his Deck again. He stops approaching and takes the card out of his Deck. The funny light was surely more than just that.
"One-Eyed Skill Gainer, have you betrayed me?"
I can feel his expression shift under his bandages; he's certainly mad. But it quickly transforms into a laugh. A psychopath's laugh.
"Hahahah! I see... Not only the temple, but my ace has also chosen you."
"How dare you say it's your ace!? I know you haven't used it in a-"
"Enough!"
He throws the card away, discarding it. As if it wasn't worth staying inside his deck any longer. Or, perhaps, as if he wouldn't need the card anymore. Then, he keeps approaching me, slowly, but surely. I can't even move. I'm trying to break free from these bandages that have wrapped around my arms, but it's futile.
With one last step, I can see his body towering above me. He's even huger from up close. He looks down at me, even though he's come this way, I can see him looking at me with some sort of... disgust. Or perhaps, regret? I don't know, I can't know.
"You know, I once fought a duelist with a Toon Deck. It's a shame yours is a piece of shi-"
I am blinded by an intense light, and by the time I can open my eyes, The Emperor is down on one knee. One sword has pierced right through his chest.
"Nghh!!" — he turns his head to look behind him, and seems clearly mad at the spirit — "One-Eyed Skilled Gainer! What card attacks its owner!?"
"You just discarded me."
"Tch... That won't stop me."
The Emperor pulls the golden eye out of his face and starts moving it towards mine. I can't do anything but hope the One-Eyed Skill Gainer can save my ass... Another flash of light appears as the One-Eyed Skill Gainer pierces The Emperor with his second sword.
However, The Emperor just chuckles. The spot where his mouth is covered by bandages is tainted red from his blood. Yet he doesn't stop; the Golden Eye only gets closer. So close I can see it start to glow faintly.
However, that glow is insignificant next to a sudden red light that surges from the One-Eyed monster, absorbing the power from a card inside my deck. I wonder what monster it chose. My thought gets interrupted after the One-Eyed Skill Gainer pulls both of his swords out of The Emperor's body.
The Emperor groans from the pain, but that only makes him flinch for a second. "It's futile, no matter how many times you stab me... The Eye will keep me alive until I pass it on!"
"No, I know." The spirit says
Pass it on? Is he trying to shove that ugly thing inside my eye socket? My thought process is cut off again, this time by a card that appears from my terminal right in my right hand. I flip it up, and I immediately understand.
The One-Eyed Skill Gainer qualifies as my monster now, and it has copied the effect from my Toon monster, 'Toon Masked Sorcerer'.
Due to still being inside the Dark Duel dimension, I can activate the card I drew thanks to the Spirit, 'Comic Hand'! The toy sinks inside The Emperor's deck, and for a second I hesitate... What am I supposed to pull out?
"Lava Golem!"
"Wha-"
"Got it!"
The Lava Golem, a strong Level 8 Monster with 3000 ATK. I guess it was in The Emperor's Deck since it can tribute enemy monsters to summon itself to the opponent's field. With such a high Attack stat, while technically still being in the Dark Duel... Maybe it can...?
The Lava Monster spits flaming rocks right at the Golden-Eye. The heat from the lava makes me flinch. It's right next to my face! The attempt is admirable; it's a great plan. And it works, as the object is melted.
However, no plan survives contact with the enemy, and the remains of the melted artifact fall right onto my right eye.
"Ahh!!!"
The melted material burns, searing my eye, but I can't close it. The Emperor uses his last strength to keep my eyes open, using his binds to force it that way.
Tears fall down my cheeks from the pain, it's burning, it's melting. And it's covering my eye on it. It's painful, insufferable.
The whole right side of my vision is completely covered in a golden layer. I can't stand the pain anymore.
However, I manage to see a glimpse of something through the left side of my vision. The Emperor's body crumbles into dust. One last sentence, from The Emperor. One that wishes to haunt me for the rest of my life.
"I told you... You can not stop the Millennium Eye."
That's the last thing I hear before losing consciousness again.
...
"𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖜𝖊𝖗𝖊𝖓'𝖙 𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖞 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍 𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖎𝖓𝖌."