The car pulled itself up to the shopping center on the edge of town. “It appears they are behind the store over there.” Even though he gestured in the direction, she already knew where the rift in the dimensions was located intrinsically. Even though the creature himself was nothing but a nuisance, his powers were quite useful.

“So, who’s Ripper duelling? I can’t see it for some reason…” Rebecca broke herself from the meditative state that allowed her to observe from a distance. “It is being hidden from you for a reason…”

She removed the seatbelt, stopping for a moment, “Wait. Are you the one blocking me from observing?! Why?”

Spirit for once kept quiet for a moment before finally speaking in it’s plain monotone voice, “It is for the best that you do not know.”

Rebecca shook her loose lion’s mane of hair, “Geez, you’re so stupid some times! Didn’t our boss say to keep an eye on him? We should be able to see who’s gonna duel before they do so! We need to make sure he doesn’t overstep himself!”

“Meltlilith is certainly the more calm of the two, but like most human partners, ‘Ripper’ is driven by his emotions.”

“I knew there wasn’t a good reason to trust them…” Rebecca jumped out of the car and ran through the alley to an open field behind the older plaza. Just behind the brick building, a giant grey dome coated in swirling energy tossed and turned silently on the infertile land. “Ah poop! It’s already too late…”

As she snapped her fingers and felt guilty for a moment of indecency, another young woman standing near the sphere turned to look at her.

Rebecca’s breath was caught. She never swung that way, but the way her hair sparkled in the sunlight, the way the light danced around her perfect features, her large, emotive eyes stirred something within her.

“Watch out, Orty! Someone else is here!”

She tapped her partner on her shoulder, a tall pale woman with slightly greyer hair. “Yeah, yeah. Known about her for a bit. That’s old news.” She waved her wielder off without glancing behind, “There’s someone way worse I’m more concerned with though…”

The dark haired beauty still held an alert stance as Rebecca approached and touched the dome, “So, who’s he duelling?”

“As I have said before, it is best that you-”

“I’ll tell you once you tell us who ‘he’ is in the first place.” The pale woman turned around, revealing herself to be a Sea Sage, an ACE from the depths of Alcademia’s Academia Rex. Rebecca knew of another one in Miranda’s new coalition.

With an overexaggerated shrug, Rebecca made her way from the miniature pale white storm and shook her head, “Can’t really say. All I know is that he can change the way that he looks. Not exactly my jurisdiction to know!”

The Sea Sage lifted her hand to her chin, receding into her own thoughts for a second before speaking once more, “Sarah Weatherford, wielder of the Gemless Carbuncle.”

Her heart dropped.

“As I have now twice said before, it was best that you did not know.”

“Orty! That’s something we could’ve used for negotiation!”

Shooting up her free hand to her partner’s lips, the Sea Sage maintained her distant gaze, “No need. She knows just as much about our foe as we do. Most likely intended as such to prevent something like this from happ-”

Rebecca stormed off in the opposite direction, nearly crushing her phone in her hand. At a far enough distance, she raced through her contacts, single mindedly searching for one name through her rapidly blurring vision, “I need to find him. I need to find him. I need to find him…”

She maintained her mantra until she finally found the right number.

“Eh?! What’s tha deal, Melt? Nothing wrong if one o’ the lapdogs find out, we just say she star’ed it!” The boy’s American southern accent quickly changed to one you’d hear on the streets of London. His tone still maintained the youthful timbre, however. “I mean, it’s true! She challenged us to the duel!”

The faceless woman strode forward until she reached the center of the duel’s offsides, “It is far worse than that. Miranda’s own right hand discovered our little ‘active observation’...”

A look of terror flashed across ‘Logan’s’ face before being swallowed up by his wild look once more. “Eh, it’s nothin’! Ain’t nothin’ she can do now tha’ we’re in ‘ere!”

Sarah ping-ponged her gaze between the two as they continued to fight.

“No, but if she really needed to, she can get someone else who can…”

Crossing her arms, Sarah fixed her gaze onto Carbuncle, just as confused as she was. Someone who can end ACE duels? How does that fucking work?

“Shit, you’re right... “ The boy cupped his hands around his mouth and leaned into the shout, “‘Ey Shortstack! You better fuckin’ move if ya wanna settle the score ‘ere!”

Looking down at the card that appeared in her hand, Sarah blinked a few times. “Right. It was my turn…”

Part of her wanted the duel to end out right, preferably if they both just call it quits. The other screamed over demanding the thrill of victory.

“First!” She held a card out, which promptly shattered, “I’ll summon Kellja, Night’s Wing!”

A small cloaked figure dropped out of the sky, nailing a perfect three-point landing before her. A long beak and black feathers peeked out from behind, despite the humanoid shape she held.

“When I summon Kellja, I get to negate one of your creature’s effects, removing both [Blocker] and [Float] from your Malkuth!”

As the last word echoed through the starglittered void, the tiny cloaked bird leaped into the air before diving forward with a dagger drawn, slashing the gaudy man. Jumping backwards, she returned to her original spot, hiding the dagger from view once more.

Snapping out of the spectacle of watching a tiny bird shank a guy, Sarah continued, “Next, I’ll evolve her into Leilah, Night’s Wing Leader!”

Once the card shattered from Sarah’s outstretched hand, the cloaked figure stretched upwards. At the peak of its height, the figure ripped the small cloak from her now full figure. Dressed in only a white tank top, a bandolier of knives of various shapes, and low riding ripped jeans, the new woman still was coated in black feathers, but now maintained an even closer humanoid shape. Her beak was far smaller than the young bird’s but the crest utop her head closely resembled sharp bangs and led to a ponytail hanging off behind her head,

“And, uh, I’ll attack your shields with both my Leilah and Sixth Storm Oracle!”

The two animalistic people charged forward, one far more graceful than the other, before destroying two glass panes before the young man.

What’s great is that Leilah can negate any [Shield Skill] he might have just by detaching Kellja underneath!

“Eh? What’s tha’ smile about?” The young boy leaned in with his smug grin, sucking the joy from Sarah, “Don’ forget, this is a game o’ life and death, missy!”

Gaining his sixth play point he looked between the two shields he had remaining and chuckled to himself. “All right, ‘ow about we do somethin’ about my shields?” Raising a card in the air, Nix, having sat useless after it’s abilities were removed, began to shake violently.

The strange plane began to twist and snap, turning the wings into arms and hovered upright. A Gregorian choir’s voices rose from nowhere, echoing in the vacuum of space. When the transformation was complete, the relatively simple looking jet plane made from bone had become a sort of top-heavy robot with an emerald green paint job. If it was not floating, there would be little reason to believe such a surreal mess of shapes would exist.

“I’ll evolve Nix into Pluto, Firmament’s Chariot!”

Shit… I haven’t seen that card since Isaac used it on me a while back. The card was a 4 play point, 4 attack point creature with [Blocker] and prevented a shield from being destroyed by just discarding two cards from the owner’s hand.

“Tha’s not all! I’ll also summon a Topaz Spellbot and swap a shield on my field with a card in my ‘and!”

The tiny robot rose from a strange portal in what Sarah assumed was the ground. About the size of a desktop computer tower, it looked lazily made as it hovered with it’s long mechanical arms dangling down. Notably, just above the simple looking metal face, it held a large yellow crystal just above.

“Now, I’ll just beat over your Thief with my Pluto and take out your Oracle with my Malkuth!” The tacky looking man simply pointed at the more shamanistic wolfman on her field as a light shot out, piercing his head. Simply as the surreal Satellite was a machine of war, a number of missiles fired out, scattering all around the space around them before converging onto Leilah, leaving nothing after the explosion. “Oi, now there’s some firepower!”

Looking at her hand, Sarah was stumped. With Revolution Guillotine in my hand, I can destroy any number of creatures that add up to 9 attack points. Since his Pluto has 6, his Spellbot has 1, and his Malkuth has 4, I can only pick two of them...

Sarah looked across her field, empty once more. “Shit dude, nice display,” She clapped slowly, “but you’re about to get fucked!”

Her eight play points dimmed as she held a card before shattering. Promptly, the sound of metal scraping on metal began to fill the space. Meltlilith turned around, still overlooking the battle from the offside, to see a gigantic piece of machinery scrapping towards her, pulling itself with mechanical arms as it grasped the invisible space beneath them as easily as the earth. It was a gaping maw of falling blades attached by ropes and smoke as it dragged itself forward, easily large enough to run through the center of the field, destroying everything in between the shields. As the madman’s combine continued to screech forward, the robed pale man made a small circle in the air and opened a portal, before stepping inside.

“I play Revolution Guillotine!” Sarah shouted over the cacophony of mechanical grinding, “I can destroy any number of creatures who’s attack power is less than 9! A bit of a waste, but Pluto’s 6 attack and Topaz Spellbot’s 1 is within that restriction!”

Stained crimson from blood, the machine callously dragged itself through the field, leaving nothing behind as it pulled itself towards some stars in the distance.

Meltlilith wiped her brow as she ran back to the safety of her wielder’s side just in time, “I’ve always hated these games…” She muttered.

“Ah, Melt! You love ‘em as much as I do!” ‘Logan’ patted the still weary woman on the back, laughing loudly. “Tha’s a good move ya did, right there!”

Sarah looked down at her hands, pointedly ignoring the obnoxious child before her. It’s so weird. Last time, I was a fucking wreck, sweating and crying… But this time… This time I’m having fun?

“Alright, my go!” A seventh orb began to join in the slow moving ring around him.

With her long, spindly fingers emerging from her azure robes, the strange looking woman lifted her hand and waved to the still alert Carbuncle, who growled back in response.

“Well, I might as well build back board presence!” ‘Logan’ held out a card, shattering in his hand. As it did, a meaty yellow tendril dropped down from his hand with a loud ‘plop!’. Just as quickly as it appeared, the tentacles split and blindly crawled out in all directions. The center of the mass shot upwards over 10 feet into the air, ending with four distinct fronds reaching out, forming a strange Simpsons-esque palm tree.

“This ugly mother is a Starlight Palm! It ain’t as pretty as me, but it’s prob’ly a bit more useful since it stops any beastie wit’ less than 2 attack points from attackin’!”

Rolling her eyes, Sarah glared at the small boy dancing around, hooting and hollering. I think the big difference is because I actually want this kid dead.

“Oh, right! I’ll summon another Topaz Spellbot!” Another copy of the bejeweled robot from before took to the field. “And this one I’ll evolve into Spellbot Unit Medusa Emerald!”

Retracting it’s mechanical arms, the tiny robot expanded in telescopic segments, resembling more of a worm with a wide head. Eight mechanical arms, similar to the two it’s previous form before held, sprouted from behind its head. It still had the same metallic faceplate as the previous form, but whereas there was a yellow topaz crystal, it had been replaced to a much larger and multi-faceted green emerald.

“Oh shit! That’s way cooler than how it looked in the art!” Sarah could not help but stare at the pristine green and silver paint job.

“Innit?” [Expend]ing the card underneath the newly evolved creature, a new card appeared in his hand. “Well, ‘ow ‘bout you get a closer look?”

Both the mechanized monster and Metatron charged forward, each colliding into one of Sarah’s five shields. Receiving the two cards in hand yielded no pleasant surprises.

With her now ninth play point, she shuffled her hand frantically. Shit. I seriously don’t have a lot to do here… A quick count of attack points on his field opened a familiar option, pretty much the best she had. I could bring out my Strike Leader Judgement, but since I have more shields, I can’t get the [Sonic Strike]...

“With Medusa and Malkuth at 4 attack points each and Palm at 1, this is the perfect chance for-!” The card she held shattered, returning a familiar ghastly sound of metal-on-metal grinding.

The horrid contraption dragged itself through the field once more, catching the three creatures in it’s violent maw. With the sounds of screeching and scraping echoing throughout the space around them, the field was left empty once more.

“Well, now you’re just ruinin’ all my fun!” A sour look held on the young boy’s face before washing over with the wild grin he maintained thus far. “So what’s your plan? You’re just playin’ ‘keep away’ now! Can’t let me get anythin’ on the board, eh?”

Looking down at a particular card in her hand, she shook her head. Don’t let him get to you, one more turn and I can get him on the back foot…

“Well, let’s just get on the board again!” With two more cards shattering in his hand, the gaudy alien man returned with his dragging cloak and full suit returned once more to the field. “I’ll summon Malkuth, Lord of Firmament and a Homunculoid Slime!” From up somewhere up above, a mass of gelatin splattered on the ground before quickly reforming into a large spherical shape.

A card shattered in his hand, fading upwards into the aether before another one came into his hand, “Homunculoid Slime lets me trade out a creature in my hand for another from my deck with a higher play point cost.

Now, you’re gonna like what comes next!” He winked and leaned in, “I don’t have to tell ya, but I swapped out a useless Pluto for the cutest girl I know!”

Melt cupped her head. While lacking any facial features, she blushed as well as any human could.

Looking his opponent up and down, his grin widened, “Sorry love, but you’re just not my type!”

The young boy’s wink almost sent Sarah off a cliff. “It’s alright, I know a few Kindergarteners that might be more your fucking speed.”

With the big payoff at hand, Sarah excitedly held out a card, “Finally! Let’s fucking end this with Sterben, Keeper of Fiction!” With the card shattering, a moment passed in silence.

Just before she looked around, the stars all around them began to blink out one by one. Slowly at first, but soon hundreds of stars were disappearing every second. Surrounded by a pitch black void, purple lightning streaked all around. Melt looked around nervously, as Carbuncle tore his glares away from his foes for the first time. Looking down, Sarah soon realized they were no longer on some invisible plane, but on flesh. Dark violet, the skin continued for miles around becoming more and more apparent from the brackish infinity around, only broken by the frequently increasing amount of purple lightning.

“Oh fuck!”

Pointing above her, the boy who had a coy grin seemingly inseparable from his visage melted into abject terror. Turning around, a pair of shining violet irises twinkled in the distance nearly visible to the naked eye. The flesh beneath them flexed tentatively as it dawned on her. “We’re in just the palm of his hand!”

With another glimmer from the eyes above, a loud clattering sound rose from where ‘Logan’ stood. As if he played all of them in rapid succession, cards ascended before shattering all around. “What’s goin’ on?!”

“Oh shit…” It all became clear to her, “Sterben destroys every card in your deck until you only have three left! And once you run out…”

“Then she’ll win the first round.” Meltlilith seemed to return to her calm demeanor, despite notably not taking another step. “Terrence, we need to hurry up and win.”

“Ya don’t t’ink I’m fuckin’ doin’ that?” With a quick shuffle of his hand and the addition of his ninth play point he sighed, “I’m just glad I gotcha outta there before tha’ smarmy fucker snagged ya!

Homunculoid Slime’ll attack one’a your shields!” The globular creature shot out a bolt of slime, breaking the third of Sarah’s shields.

Still looking as if he had a gun to his head, ‘Logan’ looked to his partner.

Shit. He even kinda looks like a kid when he looks like that… Sarah felt something building before fading back to wherever it came from.

“I ‘ate doin’ this, but I’ll summon Meltlilith, Artificial Justicar!”

The prim and proper woman alighted with a bright halo at her feet, adding a new dimension to her already extravagant robes. This time walking onto the battlefield proper, she dragged her hand before her towards the opposing creature.

While there was no notable change with their new terrain, Sarah felt as if her creature suddenly became weak.

“She’s a beaut, isn’t she? She turns all your creature ‘Strikeless’ then draws me a card for every creature on the field that’s all tapped out!” His eyes widened, “But I’ll opt out of the draw, given my… Circumstances.”

The vitriol in that final word was not wasted on Sarah. Just gotta keep him from doing anything crazy… I got a 11 attack point creature on the field. Should be easy to let him draw his last two cards and lose when attempting his one after that!

Taking a closer look at the creature, a question emerged. “Wait, she taps creatures and draws you cards? Aren’t those-”

“Ya finally noticed, huh?” Manifesting the card back into his hand while his creature remained on the field, he tossed it across the field towards Sarah.

The card was strange. Normally, every card had a singular color overtaking most of the front, quickly denoting what civilization the creature belonged to at a glance. This one was yellow on the left fading into a blue on the right.

“Melt’s pretty damn special! She’s what’s called a ‘Multicivilization Creature’!”

Sarah looked to Carbuncle who returned her confusion. “So that means…?”

“That means my dear Melt is both an ‘Alcademia’ and a ‘Miracle’ creature! The best o’ both worlds! No pun intended!”

The card faded from her hand, much different than the shattering when a card was played. Creatures that come from two civilizations? That’s kind of like Miranda’s ACE...

“Anyways!” The boy cleared his throat, “Since Melt only costs 6 play points, and I got 3 left, let’s use Malkuth’s [Float 3] and take care o’ your big boy up there!”

The pale man pointed upwards towards the irises and fired yet another finger lazer. With a low groan, the hand beneath them faded, leaving them back in an endless black void.

“Don’t really care about the new scenery, but I can’t let ya keep that big man!”

Okay. Shit. On to plan B.

Having reached the maximum of 10 play points, all the comets around her nearly formed a pearl necklace of miniature suns. “I’ll spend 9 of my play points to call forward my Strike Leader!”

Streaks of light rose from below ascending towards a singular point above. Rays of reds, yellows, and purples shot by against a bright white background, almost giving the illusion as if they were falling rapidly past each of these points of light. And in fact, they were slightly. Small articles drifted upwards, like Sarah’s pigtails and the boy’s bandana ascot. From behind her, the sounds of loose steel plate rustling before a monstrous step drew closer and closer.

Turning around, a gigantic suit of purple armor took up most of her vision. Aside from the figure, not a shred of humanity could be found as any and all space between pieces and under the visor was as black as the void they just left. Drawing a laser sword akin to a beam saber from some old nerdy movie Crystal was into, the blade was alternating between purple, yellow and red, much similar to the space around them.

“I summon High Prosecutor, Judgement!”

Three of the comets around her blasted like fireworks, leaving her with only seven left, one still alight. “I’ll destroy three of my play points to destroy your Malkuth, Homunculoid Slime and Meltlilith!” Escaping from their orbit, the remains of the three destroyed play points flew into the suit of armor, stirring it to life once more. Stepping onto the field over his player, the armor jammed it’s blade into the ground, dragging it into the three creatures on it’s sworn enemy’s field.

“Terrence!” Meltlilith screamed before shattering along with her allies. She reached out to her wielder to little avail.

“Your turn, shithead.” Sarah crossed her arms, the sensation of falling still lifting her curled pigtails.

‘Logan’ stood still, a far cry from the happy-go-lucky kid dancing around when he played a card. A cold, piercing gaze emanated from him.

The look of a murderer.

With now only two cards in his deck, he felt his options dwindling. “I’ll summon Brazos Del Mar.”

Similar to her last World Game, the wind picked up once more. Confoundingly blowing from behind her while the lights and her hair continued their ascent upwards towards infinity, a familiar ground found it’s way beneath their feet.

“Aww, what’s that frown about?” Sarah leaned in with her hands on her hips, “Is this grown ass baby about to cry over losing a card game? You seemed fine with it back in the shop!”

On her now tenth turn, an eight play point returned. “Let’s slow this game down a little, huh? That’s what your partner would’ve wanted, huh?”

With half the lights dimming in her orbit, another bird-person appeared from the sky, this one male. “I’ll summon Ankleslicer!”

Spinning the knife in his feathery fingers, he jammed it downwards into the back of the majestic whale they found themselves on. “He’s great because he shuts down any and all keywords, including your Brazos’s [Blocker] and [Double Strike] effects!

And since I’ve got some points left,” She held up another card which shattered into the air, “Let’s bring back Leilah, Night’s Wing Leader from the graveyard, back into my hand.” A card readmitted itself back into her grip, letting her hide behind it more effectively, “That card would be nice if you had it, huh?”

Thankfully, the cards in the boy’s hand were tangible holograms, causing no damage as he crushed them in his palm. “I’ll fuckin’ gut you, you little bitch.”

Without lifting the card, it shattered from his hand. As a response, a number of planes similar to Nix, Firmament’s Blade flew in. Filling the already confusing perspective of the sky with their exhaust trails and acrobatics, they each flew in and fired lasers at both the iron giant and the small bird in a cloak indiscriminately. “I’ll hard cast Victorious Claim, leaving your fucking creatures strikeless and kill your fucking Ankleslicer with Brazos.”

A cry called out from the creature at their feet, carried on the winds it pushed through, destroying her thief.

Nearly recovered from her Strike Leader’s effect, a ninth play point re-entered the ring. “Welp! Do you give up, you twerp?”

Having drawn his last card, it finally appeared this drawn out duel was about to end via deck out.

The boy offered nothing in exchange, leading Sarah to shrug.

“I’m sure you’d do the same if you were in my situation, fucker. You were doing it this whole time anyways!” Pulling a card from her grip, Carbuncle ran from her side and onto the field. “I’ll summon my ACE creature! My precious and most valuable ally, Gemless Carbuncle!”

She reveled in his souring mood, “I’m sure you know, but when he’s summoned, I get back my last play point, getting rid of anything your partner left behind!”

By now, if the cards in his hand could have been destroyed, they would be dust.

“I think I won’t even waste the time attacking.” She held her hand out and pretended to be looking at her nails, “Go ahead and give me the win already. You’ve taken enough of my time already.”

With the card he would have usually received not appearing, his two remaining shields shattered simultaneously, returning the two to the plain expanse of white they found themselves in when they started the round.

“Good game, loser.” Sarah crossed her arms as Carbuncle returned to her side.

Without an answer she shrugged once more, “You’re right; what has happened to manners nowadays?”

Drawing his knife from a pocket, ‘Logan’ choked the grip of the handle.