Duel Masters 1. Flames

Tamma sighed. The boy looked at his own reflection in the rocket's window and saw a now eighteen year old duelist. His crimson spiky hair was still held backwards thanks to his black bandana, but gone was the childish enthusiasm from his eyes. Without his youthful energy and curious behavior, the real Tamma was no more. What was left of him was a decayed husk of a teen. But why was he like this? What happened?

_The day before the final exam of the Duel Masters school took place. Passing that exam meant not only graduation, but also the receiving of a diploma that would qualify one as an expert duelist. And how much Tamma hoped he would pass it! Everyone was counting on him: his family, his friends, his classmates, and most importantly, his two idols… But alas, that never came to be. He was the only one in his class to flunk the test, and such; he was taken to the office of Principal Wally. _

"_I did my best!" cried Tamma._

"_And it was still not enough." replied Wally, who was dressed in a black suit with a red tie. "To think I was actually holding my fingers crossed for you. I should have expected you to fail all along; after all, you were always the weakest of the chosen duelists."_

"_But I…"_

"_No buts! You are deemed worthless not only to the school, but also to the dueling society! That means you have to receive your punishment."_

"_Punishment?"_

_The brown haired male reached for something in his drawer and pulled out a note that he offered to the red haired teen._

"_Take this; you'll need it for your trip tomorrow." Wally explained and then he returned to his computer and began typing quickly._

"_Huh? Where am I going?" a confused Tamma asked._

"_You will soon see. Until then, I am sending an e-mail to your mother so that she knows what a failure of a son you've turned out to be."_

_Tamma rubbed his face. He still couldn't believe that it all ended up to that. It must have been some sort of terrible nightmare. But before he could delude himself into that way of thinking, a shriek from Wally made him turn around and run out of the office._

"_You're still here? Get out, you shame of a human being!" _

_He had received no greetings from his mother, just a slap on the cheek as he got home, her disappointment being more than obvious. All of the tutoring hours she paid for, all the days she spent feeding and flying him to school, all that time and all those resources spent into making Tamma grow into the man she hoped to see had failed. _

_The next morning was a cloudy one. As he woke up, he saw that his luggage was already prepared – a suitcase with a pajama, two sandwiches and his cards. His mother escorted him to the rocket and afterwards she turned her back and never looked at him once. _

In those times, in a society where dueling was playing a higher role more than ever, it was unacceptable for one to fail their final exam at the dueling school. If you flunked it, that meant that you were not skilled enough as a duelist and you would not be able to compete in tournaments or defend your city in case there was an invasion or a catastrophe. Because summoning creatures from cards into the real world proved to be far more effective than any other weapon mankind could have designed. But one had to tame those creatures too, for if they failed, they would end up putting everyone in danger. That was why that exam was so important, for the knowledge of everything that meant to be a duelist was going to be tested: from the game's knowledge to the safety ways in which one could control their creatures and own kaijudo energy. But now Tamma had failed, and he would have to face the consequences of being a social reject.

And now there he lay all alone in the back seat of a taxi rocket that was flying him all the way to the middle of nowhere. Both sandwiches had already been eaten, as more than half a day must have passed since they left. The driver spoke no word to him, no matter how many times he tried to strike a conversation. Outside it started raining, but it was no ordinary rain, it was a usual summer rain: sudden, abundant and loud. However that did not hinder the travel at all.

Over the course of those hours Tamma managed to reflect upon his whole life, upon his heroic deeds, his achievements, but also upon his mistakes and wrong doings. It was tough admitting to himself that in certain places he was wrong, but in the end he had no choice. The loneliness of the travel forced him to analyze himself lucidly. And now he had come to a conclusion: he would go back, he would study harder and he would attempt to regain what was once lost. Yes, that was he was going to do.

But just as the teen was about to get up from the back seat and tell the driver to turn around, the rocket began to land. The boy looked at what lied ahead of him and saw an immense factory out of which smoke was rising into the raining sky. There were few lights shining through its small windows and it seemed that there was no parking lot or main entrance into the building.

"Your journey ends here, kiddo." the driver finally spoke.

"Huh?" interjected Tamma.

"Get your luggage outta here. This is your final destination."

"This place?"

"Do I have to repeat myself? Move it!" the now impatient driver snarled.

In a few moments Tamma found himself out in the rain with just a suitcase in his right hand. The rocket had taken off and he watched the fire its engine was leaving in the sky slowly disappear in the rain. Looking back at the place he came from, he could barely distinguish a few hills. Once again the boy sighed and then he turned around to the factory, the place where his future lied.

Now that he caught a better glance at the factory, he noticed that its furnaces had sharp mouths shaped like arrows, the building was symmetrically shaped, and hanging above the center of the roof was a wheel that he immediately recognized as the Fire civilization's symbol.

"What is this place?" Tamma whispered.

The screech of a door made his heart suddenly beat faster. He looked to a corner and noticed that out of a small opened door came a tall skinny figure dressed fully in black and with a gas mask covering their head.

"Hey you; get inside now!" a cold demanding voice came from it.

Tamma nodded and followed the stranger inside. As he stepped in, the door slammed shut. The teen gulped and looked around. There were few neon lights shining from the ceiling, some of them flipping on and off. The walls were rather rusty, the temperature was rather hot, the narrow hallway seemed endless, and to top it off, he spotted a black spider knitting its web in a corner.

"May I see your document?" the strange man's voice shifted to a calmer one.

"Oh yes, sure!" Tamma exclaimed, remembering the small piece of paper that Wally offered him.

In a matter of moments the paper ended up in the gloved hands of the tall man. In order to read it, he pulled off his mask and revealed the almost skeletal face of a skinny old man with grey long hair extending from the back of his head, shining baldness at the top of his head, and a pair of black eyes with a cold stare in them. After reading the contents of the paper, he gave Tamma a disgusted glare and spoke:

"Ah yes, another failure, you kids just aren't happy until one of you flunks it, no?"

"I tried…" Tamma murmured sorrowfully.

"That's what they all say." the old man dismissed and took Tamma's luggage. "I'll take this to your room. But until then, let me show you the whole factory."

"What is this place?"

"Oh, you'll soon see. And you better get used to it, 'cause you'll be spending the last days of your wretched life here."

The sound of those last words made Tamma shiver. Was he going to spend the rest of his life there? Would he never see his friends and family again? Would he simply be forgotten by everyone in the middle of nowhere? Unfortunately, the answer lied ahead of him.

The boy reluctantly followed the strange elderly man and together they wandered through different halls, climbed a few stairs, and at one point even took an elevator. The path they were taking was so confusing to the young duelist that he could barely remember how the first hall looked like. On his way, he could not help but notice the few red stains on some of the doors' dirty windows. Also, besides the heat that sometimes was growing, there was also a strange stench that bothered him and he had trouble of hiding his distaste. At one point, his guide broke the silence that lied between them, making their tour a little more comfortable.

"Oh, where are my manners? I am Doctor Edward Nieg, the only medical personnel you'll find in this place." the man introduced himself without even turning his head to the teen. "However, there aren't many people that require my medical treatment nowadays besides the big boss."

"And just who is this 'big boss'?" Tamma asked curiously.

"Don't you worry, you'll meet him soon, I assure you. But for now I expect you wonder what we are doing here, no? Well, for your information, this factory has been built almost a century ago on the premise of making machine pieces. Then something happened, something that made the men at that time shift a part of their work into something else. That something was fuel. And we needed lots and lots of fuel."

"Fuel? Fuel for what?"

"For everything! Look around you, kid, this is the twenty second century, everything around us is mechanical, and everything relies on fuel to work! Some prefer solar energy and electricity, but we've found another way of fueling our machines."

"And what might that be?"

"Fire!"

Right in that moment the two stepped in a large room, they walking on a corridor that was suspended above. It was clear to Tamma that the room was at least two levels big. When he looked down, he saw many conveyor belts moving strange metallic pieces and a handful of tall muscular masked people hammering them. In the middle of the room lied a large engine that was making the entire conveyor belts move, and under it there was a burning fire that was keeping it move. The red haired boy leaned a bit on the safety bars to have a better look at what was going on.

"Wow, who are they?" he asked, fascinated of the sight.

"They're just the regular paid workers. The ones with a salary and a decent job. Enjoy their sight, you won't be seeing them again where you're going. Scum like you only deserve to work with those of your level." the doctor coldly answered.

"Hey, I may have failed an exam, but that doesn't make me a scum!" Tamma frustratingly replied, being fed up with being treated like garbage for almost a day.

"Lie to yourself all you want, but that will never hide the truth." came the final response from the old man who then resumed walking.

After a few more minutes of wandering, they finally ended up in front of a large door upon which the words 'WARNING – UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL KEEP OUT' were written in red upon black. With a small secretive grin on his face, the old doctor opened the door and then he turned to Tamma, uttering:

"Why don't you go meet your new friends while I prepare your room?"

"Friends?" Tamma repeated.

"Why yes, your fellow co-workers. Or did you think that we would make you go through this all alone?" the doctor spoke satisfactorily.

Now the red haired duelist was highly panicked. Was he actually going to work the rest of his life as a slave in the factory? Was that what cruel fate had in store for him? It just did not seem fair to him. But before he could complain, the doctor pushed him inside and slammed the door shut, just like he did before.

What lied ahead of him was a large windowless room that was dimly lit by red neon lights. He could distinguish a handful of people working, their hands lying on conveyor belts. There were also four muscular men lying in each corner of the room, each dressed similarly to the workers he had seen before. Sitting against a wall was a large wingless red dragon with a blonde mane and samurai gear upon its body. The creature held two cross shaped swords that seemed to be rusting. Also, its eyes were shut, seemingly sleeping.

"G-Genji Double Cross…" Tamma recognized the creature. "What's he doing here?"

But then Tamma's attention switched to something else. In the very center of the room, lying imposingly was a giant wine glass shaped contraption under which all conveyor belts ended. Unlike the engine he had seen before, this one did not function by the use of fire.

"Well, well, looks like we've got a visitor." a male voice resounded right from the strange machine.

Immediately everyone's attention shifted from their work to Tamma. The sight of all those eyes staring down upon him did not delight him at all. Then again, nothing around him did. The person sitting above everyone slowly descended on the machine's stairs while making his welcoming speech:

"Ladies and gentlemen, stop your work for a few moments, because today's prisoner is a very special guest. I bring you – Tamma Gochi! He is the former chosen fire duelist, and now a dueling school dropout, hehe."

Nobody caught on with his humor, but the masked male did not care. He resumed his discourse:

"I suppose you've been called worthless and all that stuff by now, am I right? Well don't fear, kid, for they were all a pack of lying pieces of shit. From now on you will prove to be very useful for us all."

"How? By serving as your slave in this terrible place?" Tamma cried.

"Now, now, I wouldn't call it terrible, not after knowing the beauty of how everything works here. I suppose the good doctor gave you some introductory explanations. In that case, I'll continue from where he stopped. You see, our fuel is indeed fire, as he probably told you. But what he didn't tell you… were how this fire is being made, and more importantly, who came up with the idea!"

Right now the strange figure was face to face with Tamma, and the teenager could observe the red colored eyes through the gas mask.

"A long time ago, the factory workers were approached by a mysterious man who suggested that they use a new type of fuel for their work. When asked what he was speaking of, he revealed that he was in fact possessed. But it was no ordinary demon, no. It was none other than the great Dorballom, Lord of Demons."

"D-Dorballom…" a few shocked whispers came from the enslaved workers.

"The Lord of Demons used the man to spit out a new type of fire; we call it Black Fire, which fueled all of the factory's engines to such a magnitude that they needed nothing else for a few weeks. Dorballom explained to them that the only way they could harness such power was by channeling enough kaijudo energy that belonged both to the Darkness and Fire civilizations. Once enough energy is channeled through a source, Black Fire will erupt into the source and could thus be used for the factory's goals."

"Then why do you need us all here?" Tamma's question arose.

"I'm glad you asked that. You see, this is the fun part. Sadly nowadays you can barely find any strong duelists to gather enough kaijudo energy, so we needed something else to boost things up a little."

In the next moment the man's right hand reached for his head and pulled off his mask, revealing messy red hair that was shaped like a flame, a pair of cold red eyes and a smirk of pure sadism. A few workers gasped and Tamma's eyes widened. It was Rad Flames! Tamma's predecessor, a hero in his own rights and an all time racing champion, the Rad Flames was there in that cursed factory. It had to be a dream, some sort of twisted nightmare. Tamma could never believe that one of his childhood idols was working in such a place. All of a sudden, he began to feel dizzy and the room span with him until, not being able to resist, he collapsed on his knees.

Rad, now a man that was six months away from the age of twenty five, leaned to Tamma so that his psychotic face could meet the eighteen year old boy's scared expression.

"Surprise, Tamma!" he greeted but received nothing except for more stares of disbelief. "What's the matter, Tamma? You look like you've seen a ghost." he continued teasing him.

"This can't be…" Tamma mumbled.

"Oh but it is! Take a good look at me, Tamma, because this is the true me. This is what I'm up to when there are no cameras around."

"Why… Why are you doing this?"

"I'll get to that soon, but first I think I've got some explaining to do." Rad said while backing off and then he resumed his speech. "You see, there was only one way we could gather up enough energy, and that was through human lives! We devised this machine in such a way that we could have a duel on it, gather kaijudo energies from the match, no matter how weak they were, and when all was over, the defeated one would grant the remaining energy required for the machine to channel Black Fire. In fact, let me show you a test run."

With the explanation being done, Rad unzipped his costume and revealed his red racer suit that was decorated with yellow flames. He turned around and walked to the bunch of scared workers, asking delightfully:

"Are there any volunteers today?"

All that he received were glares of hate, this disappointing him due to the fact that he would have to once again pick someone at random. Their lack of courage to face him annoyed him and made him wish to be done with them even quicker.

Suddenly, a bald teen erupted in running and headed desperately for the opened door from the other side of the room. Rad crossed his hands as he watched two of the guards rush at him and then he spoke:

"Seems like I've found my volunteer."

Unfortunately for the would be fugitive, the guards were much faster than him and when he was a few steps away from freedom, he was pinned down to the ground, his arms and legs immobilized. To punish him, the guards had him electrocuted with tasers. Then they brought him up to the two dueling tables from the machine while Rad himself climbed the stairs as well, eager for a match.

The two guards pushed the bald teen in front of his dueling table where his deck had already been prepared by a third guard. In the meantime, the fourth guard was making sure all the four entrances to the room were locked.

"No, I don't want to duel! I can't take this anymore!" the desperate prisoner cried out.

"Well too bad, because you've lost your freedom of choice a long time ago, punk." Rad replied coldly while placing his deck on the dueling table, all cards emanating a dark red aura. "Heh, beat me and you'll win your ticket to freedom."

Freedom, such a beautiful word, but sadly, it lost its meaning to the boy a long time ago. Even if he would have defeated Rad, he never expected to be granted freedom as reward. Still, it was his only chance left, so he had to take all the risks. Reluctantly, he set up his shields and then he looked at his opponent.

"Duel start!" both declared.

Their first turns went off normally, both charging mana and ending, Rad's being Fire while the teen's being Darkness. Then Rad's turn came again, he sliding a Nature card in his mana zone, tapping both and showing two cards from his hand.

"I cast Faerie Gift and make the next creature I summon cost three mana less. Then I summon Magnum, Fast Attack Puppet!"

An eyeless puppet dressed in blue jeans, a blue shirt covered by a brown vest, a dark brown cape, a pair of cowboy boots and a cowboy hat with flames on it landed by Rad's side. The puppet raised both its guns and aimed them for the prisoner's shields.

"Heh, my Magnum's not only a 3000 powered speed attacker, but while he's in the battle zone, whenever we put creatures in the battle zone without paying their cost, those creatures are destroyed." Rad explained. "Now go, Magnum, break a shield!"

The trigger happy puppet immediately had one of the five shields penetrated by its rain of bullets. With that the racer's turn ended.

"I cast Emergency Typhoon." the bald male showed the Water spell card that allowed him to draw two cards, after which he discarded Necrodragon Guljeneraid. "I end my turn."

"I summon Ochappi, Pure Hearted Faerie." Rad made a peach haired faerie dressed in a white kimono appear by his side and make the Faerie Gift spell from his graveyard go to his mana zone as a fourth card. "Magnum, break another shield!"

Another wave of merciless bullets came from the cowboy puppet and they managed to break another shield down in pieces. However, this time a shining green light came from the broken shield. The boy showed it to his opponent, uttering:

"Shield trigger, I cast Faerie Life and put the top card of my deck to the mana zone!"

"Heh, maybe you might prove to be a challenge." Rad smirked.

"I summon Phantom Spear Zircon." the prisoner said and an ice creature with spear like limbs and only one eye lying on its sharp head appeared by his side, allowing him to draw a card and discard a second Necrodragon Guljeneraid. "I'm done."

"You sure are done." the racer's menacing voice replied.

Immediately Rad's right hand erupted with a flame shaped red aura. Four cards tapped in his mana zone as he showed another pair of two cards to his opponent, saying:

"I cast another Faerie Gift. Then I summon Genji Double Cross, Blastdragon!"

The dragon that had slept all that time in the room finally opened its eyes. But gone was the heroic stare of those eyes that had once witnessed great battles against invading demons. That had been replaced by the shining red lights of the fires of hell. The dragon growled, revealing its teeth, as it approached the dueling table.

"How pathetic, getting a blocker out in the hope of stopping my attacks. Well, let me disappoint you by saying that my Genji destroys a blocker every time he attacks." Rad broke it to his opponent.

"But that means…" the bald teen mumbled.

"That it's all over. Genji Double Cross, destroy Zircon and double break his shields!" the racer ordered and immediately the dragon rushed at the opponent, swinging one of the cross shaped swords and cutting the ice creature in half, the other sword also being swung and used to slash two shields.

But it seemed that the second sword went a little farther than the shields, because after the attack blood started coming out of the prisoner's forehead. Seeing that his face was bleeding, the boy dropped his cards, starting to panic.

"Ochappi, break his final shield!" Rad ordered, not being moved at all by his opponent's suffering.

The faerie jumped in the air, swinging her white staff, and with a general kung fu move coming from her, the final shield was down as well, leaving the opponent defenseless.

"Magnum, finish the job, todomeda!" came Rad's order for the final attack.

The cowboy puppet took a cool pose as it aimed its right gun at the terrified victim. Immediately it pressed the trigger and a single bullet made its solitary journey through the air and into the right side of the bald male's chest. The teen fell on the floor, crying in pain.

Rad had become famous in the dueling world for the very fact that his duels were quick and swift. With his Genji Gift deck, as he dubbed it, almost all of the opponent's forms of defense were easily dealt with at the very early stages of the game, all while he could keep attacking until he would win.

Looking down at the suffering bald teen, he couldn't enjoy the sight any more. Gesticulating with his right hand, he made one of the guards go to the closet and bring him a red samurai sword with one side of the blade being shaped like a chainsaw. Upon receiving it, he fondled the straight side of the blade, all while looking down at the machine he was sitting on. Two tubes were being filled with red and purple energy that was going downwards. It was such great luck for him that his opponent used Darkness, that way he did not have to use other means into getting Darkness kaijudo energy. As for Fire, he himself was a Fire user, and a strong one, so that part was easily dealt with.

Now time for round two came. Rad pulled a lever and before the bald teen knew it, the machine had tied him up with chains and raised him up above a hole, holding his body by his limbs in an X position. The racer slowly approached, grinning at the sight of his victim's despair.

"Now that you've shown me what a weakling you are, it's time to at least put your body to some good use." Rad chuckled.

Until the prisoner could even comprehend all that he said, the red blade pierced through his upper torso, not far from his bullet wound. He screeched out in pain, terrifying all other factory slaves, but delighting his tormentor. Rad moved the sword down his body in a diagonal way, and then when he reached the half, he raised it once again up, also in a diagonal way, making a perfect V on the body. Then, with a simple swing, he pulled the sword out and let the blood splash his own body as well as the machine. Not being able to endure the pain anymore, the teen lost his consciousness.

Rad did not care anymore. He simply swung his sword again and sliced the victim's belly open, letting the intestines slowly fall out in a pool of blood. Slash! Another sword's swing made the intestines land on the machine alongside the pancreas, liver, kidneys and bladder. The sight of those guts was more than pleasant to him, almost a cathartic experience. No matter how many duels or races he would win, it would never have granted him as much pleasure as this.

Taking another look at his victim, he noticed that the heart was slowly ceasing from pumping blood. Unfortunately, that signaled that his fun was over. He needed the body alive for the machine, but in the same time he also wanted a small prize. Rad dropped the sword, took the bloody intestines and pushed the rest down the hole with his foot. Afterwards he pulled the lever back to normal and the chains untied from the still living victim, causing them to fall after their organs in the machine.

That was it; this was how the defeated one would grant enough energy for the machine to produce Black Fire. Their own body's energy and more importantly, their own life was the thing that combined with the kaijudo energies unleashed by the duel helped the machine channel the desired fuel. In a matter of moments, out of the small hole at the lower part of the machine, shaped like the foot of a wine glass, Black Fire emerged. Its burning darkness was terrifying all of the workers, but that did not matter. The flames were poured upon a really small engine and that was what made the entire conveyor belts run even quicker than usual.

As for Rad, he had gotten his real prize. Not caring for who was watching he unzipped his suit's jacket and let it fall behind him. Then he pulled off his red shirt and tossed it away, revealing his upper body. He was no muscular fighter, that much was clear, but he was not skinny either. The years of training in rocket racing had built up his body a bit, just enough for him to be able to compete. And now he took a lustful look at the bloody intestines that he so masterfully butchered out of that slave. In the very next moment, he began rubbing them all over his chest and belly, almost as if they were a sponge with which he was washing himself. The feeling of blood falling down his skin, the smell of flesh, all was so pleasant, so arousing. It was as if he finally knew what heaven felt like.

Tamma, who had noticed everything that happened, was beyond shock. In less than half an hour, the man he looked up to his entire life had degraded himself into a monster. What was worse, in the course of a day and a half, all of his childhood dreams had been shattered to pieces. Now all that he wanted was to somehow escape the factory, run away as far as possible, and inform the world of the atrocities that were going on there. But for that to happen, he needed to find a way out. All of the doors were locked, that was a problem. There were four guards, an even bigger problem.

The sounds of running feet awoke him to reality. Tamma noticed that now all of the workers had been terrified of Rad's behavior, and not wishing the same fate, they all spread in the four places of the room, heading to each of the locked doors. The guards were about to go and stop them, but with a single gesture from Rad's right hand, they stood back and watched how Genji Double Cross attacked them like a wolf jumping at its prey. The dragon used its cross shaped swords and then blood was splattered on the walls. That's when Tamma realized that the dragon's swords were not rusty, and that in fact they were bloodstained. Having finished with one side of the room, Genji lashed at the prisoners from another, not leaving a single one alive. Those who were fortunate enough to reach the doors had the misfortune of seeing them locked. They knocked at them desperately, begging for someone to save them, but to no avail. They all fell as prey to the samurai dragon.

There was no time for Tamma to feel sorry for them or to cry at his own fate. He had to find a way to escape the damned room. The guards would certainly pose a problem to him. Then there was Genji Double Cross, whose swords awaited to slice and dice. Wait a minute, that was it! That was his way out. But for that he needed to distract those around him, a hard thing since he was the only prisoner left. Tamma reached for his deck, but noticed that it was not there. Remembering that he left all of his cards in his suit case, he spat, cursing:

"Shit!"

He took another look at Rad, the sight of the racer now disgusting him. But then he hatched up another plan. If all worked well, he could distract everyone and be out of there in the same time. The problem of escaping the factory would be dealt with afterwards.

"Why are you doing all of this?" Tamma cried out, finally catching the murderer's attention.

Rad let go of the intestines and then he took his red shirt and put it back on his bloodied body, not caring that he would stain it with the river of life. Then he descended on the machine's stairs and approached the brave Tamma who looked him in the eye all the way.

"Why? WHY?!" Rad lashed out at him. "I don't really believe in motives, Tamma. You see, it's a lot scarier when there is no motive."

"Bullshit! You couldn't have done all this out of nothing!" the red haired teen tried to reason.

"Well you're going to die one of these days, so I guess you probably deserve to know the truth. You see, kid, seven years ago I faked my death. Many people thought that I survived by a miracle, but in reality everything was an elaborate plan. I had received a message from this factory to join them in order to gain more income, but with the price of sacrificing a year or two of my life to work here. I agreed and when everyone thought I was dead, I came here. Me being the awesome fire duelist that you know, I was an important element for them. I dueled many workers and had them die before my eyes. I remember the first time someone died because of me. I was shocked beyond belief. I wanted to quit it all and run away. But then something ticked in, when I saw him desperately struggle to not fall in the machine, I felt an immense power like never before, I had strength over him, it was as if I was actually dominating him. And that's how it all began. At first I was just a simple duelist that defeated everyone not only to supply the machine with required energies, but also to ensure that I myself don't end up in it one day. And as long as I won, I never had to fear that. Then again, I also wanted to run away from this place as fast as possible and tell the world of everything that was going on here. But there was only one way to do that. Yes, I secretly worked myself up to becoming the manager of the factory. Yes, I own it now. How? You don't know how simple it was to poison that motherfucker that used to own this place. That was it; I could finally leave this place and end it all. But something else happened, something that made me not only stay, but continue this business both as manager and chief executioner. A year had passed since I faked my death, and I decided it was the perfect time to return to the world. I rejoined my friends and acted all normal. Nobody suspected a thing. And to make things better, with all the income that the factory gained from selling its machine pieces and also with the secret sales of Black Fire over the black market, I could finally afford many things, such as my mansion back in our city as well as new racing gears for my rocket and… But anyway, that's all you need to know."

"I thought you cared for me…" Tamma whimpered. "I was your protégé. I trained so hard to take that exam. I wanted to become a dueling champion just like you. I wanted to make you proud of me. You were like a big brother to me. Now that means nothing to you? Are you actually going to leave me for the dead? After all we've went through…"

Those words changed the psychotic look on Rad's face into one filled with wrath. The glare in his eyes seemed to have reverted to the one the teen once knew. Rad grabbed Tamma by his shoulders tightly and growled into his face:

"I did care! You had potential, kid, that's why I taught you all the secrets I knew of the Fire civilization. I trusted you. In fact, you were the only one that kept my humanity alive." Rad shouted in Tamma's face and he noticed that small salty liquids formed in his red eyes. "Failure was not an option, you had to pass that exam and prove to everyone that you didn't need luck to be a true duelist. When you failed that exam, you didn't just fail the school and yourself, but you've failed me, and trust me, failing Rad Flames is the last thing you want to do." while uttering those words, Rad's stare reverted to the previous sadistic one as he let go of Tamma's shoulders. "Now you're dead to me. Gee, thanks, kid, you've managed to kill the last shreds of humanity that once existed in me."

Taking another look at him, Tamma felt sorry for Rad. He felt sorry for what his idol had become, and he knew that it was not the racer's fault. It was the factory's fault. It was the machine's fault, no, not the Black Fire producing machine, but the machine in which all workers were caught. Rad may have been the leader now, but he was yet another cog in that great machine that encompassed all that was in that factory.

"What happened to you?" Tamma uttered, even if he already knew the story.

"Victims… aren't we all?" Rad grinned at him.

Seizing the opportunity of the racer having lowered his defense, Tamma jumped in the air and used his foot to kick him in the stomach and have him fall on his back a few feet away. The four guards rushed at him, but Tamma ducked and all of them knocked each other in the head, the quartet falling wounded on the floor. Then there was Genji Double Cross. The dragon ran towards the red haired teen, its swords ready to be stained with even more blood. But just when one of the swords was about to cut Tamma's body in half, the boy jumped to the left, avoiding it, and having the blade that was the size of a human pierce through the main entrance door. Tamma jumped and landed on the dragon's head, kicking it in the forehead and knocking the creature out. Afterwards he rushed through the opening made by the sword and thus he was free.

"No!" came Rad's shout. "Don't let him get away!"

But the guards had all passed out. Angered, Rad kicked one of them in the stomach and spoke to himself:

"Worthless bastards… If you want to get a job done nowadays, you've got to do it yourself."

Tamma ran through the corridors in the opposite direction from where he previously came. It didn't matter where he was going; all that he knew was that he had to go forward, as far away as possible from that accursed room, and hopefully, near the exit. But that factory was so big, so maze like, that finding an exit was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Moreover, the halls looked so similar that they could easily give anyone lacking a map the impression of running around in circles.

Soon Tamma heard other running footsteps coming from behind. Turning his head, he had the horror of witnessing an angered Rad running athletically towards him, seemingly catching up. No, he couldn't allow himself to get captured and go back there. He had to somehow get out of that nightmarish place and inform the world of what was going on. But for now he had to hide. Yes, he had to hide in order to ensure that his own life was safe so that he could live to tell the tale. In the next moment he turned to the corridor from the right and immediately hid in the very first room his eyes laid upon. Luckily for him, Rad didn't take into consideration the fact that he was hiding and just kept rushing down that corridor.

Tamma wiped the sweat off his face and sighed. His heart's beats were rushing worse than a racing horse. So much was at stake and now everything was lying by a thread. Trying to concentrate, he turned around and saw that he was in a janitor's room. Not exactly the most exquisite hideout, but it had to do. Then he also saw that there was a man around Rad's age lying against a window, gazing at the cloudy sky from which tears were falling. He distinguished the pair of dark blue jeans and the short sleeved black T shirt upon which there was the mark of the Darkness civilization – a four horned mask, half black, half white, with its oval eyes also half black and half white. His black mane was falling gracefully on his shoulders. It was obvious to Tamma who this was. He exploded in cries and hugged him, crying:

"Brother Subaru, it is you! I missed you so much!"

But there was no response coming from the one called Subaru. Tamma kept weeping:

"I'm so scared! Help me, please! Brother Rad's gone mad!"

To Tamma, Subaru was his last light of hope. Ironically, since he was once the chosen darkness duelist. Also, Subaru was the other idol that Tamma looked up to. Thanks to him and Rad, the boy was now using both the Fire and Darkness civilizations in his deck. For once, the fears of Rad and of the factory had disappeared, because with Subaru by his side, he knew that he would be able to find a way out. Unfortunately, those final hopes were shattered as Subaru whispered to him in a malicious voice:

"We all go a little mad sometimes."

Those words struck him like lightning. Tamma let go of the hug and backed down, looking at the one in front of him. Subaru grinned, revealing sharp fangs. He then opened his eyes, that were black instead of white, and the brown iris had shifted into shining red. Tears of blood formed and swelled down the cheeks of the darkness duelist.

"Not you too!" Tamma exclaimed.

"Oh Tamma, dear little Tamma, do you happen to know what the greatest and most tempting sin is?" Subaru asked, slowly approaching him, making the teen back down.

"N-no…" he murmured, afraid.

"It's giving up the last bits of sanity that you were born with and surrendering to the inner beast." the black haired man explained with a deep hissed and growled voice that sounded worse than a dog's coughing.

If Tamma hardly handled one shock, a second one almost blew him to pieces. Even his second idol had gone over to the dark side. Or were they both together in this to begin with? What about the rest of the team? What about Sora, Edo and Tsugumi? Did they mean nothing to them? There were so many questions and no answers.

"Do you want to play with me?" Subaru's question struck him.

Tamma watched how the demonic version of the once warm hearted darkness duelist approached him with the same killer intents as Rad. But while Rad was simply out of his mind, Subaru looked like he was possessed. Not wasting one more second, Tamma immediately rushed out of the janitor's closet and resumed his running down the corridor, trying desperately to find any sort of exit: a window, a vent, a door, anything. During those haunting moments of insanity in which survival instinct had taken over, the run seemed even more tiresome and the corridor even longer.

"There's the brat, get him!" Rad's shout was heard from the corridor, waking the boy to reality.

Tamma looked behind him and saw two muscular masked workers dressed fully in black rush after him. In front of him, Rad was waiting with his arms open wide. That was it, he was cornered. Or so they thought. The red haired boy looked above himself and saw an opened air vent. Not thinking twice, he jumped and grabbed it with his arms. Then he quickly entered it and disappeared through the ventilation pipes.

"Fuck!" Rad yelled and kicked a wall. "And you two shitheads, you just couldn't grab him before he jumped up there, could you?"

"But sir…" one of them tried to defend himself only to receive a punch in the face.

"I'm surrounded by fucking morons!" the racer complained and then he looked up at the air vent. "But don't think it's over, Tamma, I won't rest until I personally slice you open and see your insides. That's a promise."

The air ventilation pipes were getting narrower the more Tamma advanced. The feeling of suffocation was persistent due to the lack of clean air. Also, with hardly any light to see, the darkness seemed dominating, eternal and pure, as if he were one with it. But he didn't let himself distracted by those details, he had to move on and find a way out of there. Then all of a sudden, he heard voices echo in his head. They were not at all normal in any sense. They were mysterious, alluring, and in some cases, demonic even.

"Tamma…"

"Come to me…"

"You know you want to…"

"There is no escape…"

"You will become one with the others…"

"Tamma…"

The teen put his hands on his head, struggling hard to escape the maniacal melody of their choir. He closed his eyes and snarled:

"Get out of my head!"

"Tamma…" one of the voices sounded closer than the others.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a pair of red dots shine in the darkness in front of him. Right then he was grabbed by a pair of hands and pinned down against the cold metal. Whoever or whatever it was; now it crawled on him. And he could feel its breath on his soaking cheeks. Fear had gotten the best of him, no matter how much he tried to suppress it. And in the end, it was fear that had doomed him, for it rendered him weak in front of the enemy right in that very moment.

"No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering." Tamma immediately recognized the devilish voice as belonging to Subaru.

"Get off me!" Tamma shrieked and punched him, making the black haired one fall off and disappear in the darkness of the vent.

No, he would not submit to fear, not after how far he had gone. He had to finish his quest before it was too late. But just as Tamma tried to gather his thoughts, he heard noises coming from behind. When he looked back, he had the horror of witnessing Rad crawling through the tight metallic spaces. His shirt was torn in many places, probably due to the climbing inside; his head was bleeding from the right side, possibly from hitting it once he got in. He didn't care how many scratches he was getting from the metal, not even the blood that was falling on his right eye didn't hinder him one bit. Now he was set only on catching Tamma, no matter the cost.

"Come back here, you little fuck, I'll rip you to shreds!" the psychopath shouted murderously.

The teen tried to resume his running, but he saw the two red dots shine in front of him. Behind him the blood thirsty racer was fast approaching. He was cornered by both Rad and Subaru. He was like a rat in a cage. But he could not accept the situation. It did not have to end like this.

There was only one way out, but once again he had to tempt luck's hand. Tamma began to kick the metal beneath him as fast as he could, and luckily there were many dents. The noises made by him were loud and disturbing, but that served as a nice distraction, for they were making both Rad and Subaru back down from him. After a few seconds, he finally made a hole in the ventilation pipe and he immediately fell out of it, landing back on the corridor.

Right in front of him, there was a big door with the word 'EXIT' written on it. A wide grin made its way on Tamma's face, all up to the cheeks. Never would he have expected to have this much luck. There it was. There lied his gateway back to freedom, the thing he desired ever since he had set foot in that horrible building. But there was no time to waste.

The loud noise of metal cracking open made Tamma jump scared as Rad and Subaru fell out of the ventilation pipe as well. The murderous duo got up and stretched their arms, blocking the path and imposing their figures like gods. Their glares had surpassed the borderline of sanity and they took sadism to a whole new level.

"I've got you now." Rad growled, revealing the fact that he was growing tired of the chase.

"In your dreams, asshole!" Tamma spat at him and rushed through the exit door happily.

But right then it struck him. They were still at the fourth floor of the building. He had not gone down any stairs or used the elevator during the chase. That meant that he was four levels above the ground, and since gravity was always a bitch, he fell. During his fall, he could hear the heart piercing laughter of the demonic Subaru as well as Rad's mocking voice:

"He never was too bright."

And then all turned black.

When Tamma opened his eyes, he was back at the factory's main room, all tied with chains, and hung above the machine's hole by his limbs. In front of him, Rad and Subaru were hugging and, to his surprise, kissing passionately. He watched with disgust as the two males played with their tongues and then Subaru's fangs bit Rad's lips, making more blood come out and stain his chin and neck.

"I've got to say, we've done yet another good job." Subaru whispered tenderly.

"It's always a pleasure working with you." Rad replied in the same manner. "But now if you excuse me, I've got a little failure to take care of."

"Alright, make sure you keep some blood, I'd like to have a nice drink once in a while." the black haired man winked.

"Your wish is my command." the red haired made a joke bow to him, both murderers laughing. "I'll be sure that once I'm through with him, Lord Dorballom will get his soul."

"Yes, he will be a fine toy to add in his collection." Subaru hissed and licked his bloodstained lips and fangs.

And so, Rad walked up to Tamma with his sword ready in his hands. The weakened teen noticed that the red haired man that stood in front of him had small marks on his skin, many holes torn in his red shirt, blood almost all over him, and his flame hair got even messier than usual. The only thing that even reminded him of who this man used to be was his crimson eyes in which the cold stare had permanently installed itself.

"Be honored, I'm the one doing it." Rad whispered to him.

The last thing that Tamma felt was the sharp sword's cold metal going through his flesh.


	2. A new nightmare

_The clouded sky was darker than usual on that spring late afternoon. The children and teens all ran to their homes, happy that another school day had finally finished. Dueling instruction courses had been harder than usual that day. Relieved that their hardships had passed for the moment, they were all looking forward eagerly to the impending weekend. But little did any of them know that at the school building that they were leaving behind something of great importance was happening. _

_Most teachers had left home too and there were only three janitors mopping the first floor's hallway. When the school was deserted on a time like that, its emptiness gave a vague impression of haunting. The shadows of the trees that were darkening the classrooms did not help to get rid of that impression either. If one bothered to look up at the principal's office, they would see through the window two figures. The first one no doubt belonged to Principal Wally himself and he was backing away from the other figure that was a little taller than him and held a sword in the air. _

"_Now are you going to agree with my plan?" a menacing male voice resounded._

"_Yes, yes, I'll do as you say, just don't hurt me!" a desperate Wally complied._

A month had passed since then. The ends of the spring season were being slowly marked by the strong summer sun whose powerful rays were making the atmosphere hotter than usual. Way far from any sign of civilization laid a long and deep forest upon the eastern hills, gracefully hiding one thing, one secret that was far too great to be revealed. And that secret was a factory.

A tall brown haired man in his twenties, whose body was being covered by a large dark brown cape, was wandering in those woods. His darkish grey boots stepped upon logs while crossing a river, as well as stones while climbing the rather abrupt hills. His dark blue pants were muddy from the few swamps that he had come across. Where he was heading to? Nobody knew, not even him.

Suddenly as he stepped out of the woods there was a wind that blew against his brown hair. He looked up and to his surprise saw that the clear sky was getting populated by thick clouds quickly. The heat was starting to go away. Looking ahead of him, he saw a grassy hill upon which stood a factory imposingly. Scratching his small beard, he analyzed the situation. He did not intend to cease his wandering so early that day, but a storm was coming and he had to find shelter somewhere. Thus he took the decision of spending the night there.

But as he climbed that hill, he felt a strange sensation going through his stomach. Also, the wind was blowing powerfully against him, trying to push him back towards the woods, far away from the factory. However, he resisted and he moved on until he found himself lying in front of a metallic black door. There was no sign of any doorbell, so he simply took his chances and knocked. Right then the door opened by itself and a metallic creak pierced into his ears. Surely the hinges had not been oiled in a long time.

Stepping in, he found himself in a dark room that was lit only by a small light bulb that hung from the ceiling. All that he could distinguish were a few crates lying against the opposite wall and a stairway at his left.

After climbing the stairs he found himself in a long corridor that was filled with many closed doors. While he was thankful for it being lit, but the temperature was really high, being even hotter than outside. This prompted him to take off his cape, revealing his bare chest that was scarred and bandaged. Walking by with the cape on his right shoulder, he took a look at each door, only to see that all of their windows had one thing or another blocking the view from what was inside. Some were really dusty, others had black curtains covering them, some had cracks, and a few were bloodstained, thing that disturbed the wanderer a bit.

Suddenly someone or something touched his left shoulder. He immediately reacted by jumping forward, turning around and putting his right hand on the sword that lied in the sheath that was hanged onto his belt. He saw that the one in front of him was an old man with long grey hair on the back side of his head, a bald scalp and black eyes with a piercing stare. The man was in his early sixties, tall and slim, his body being covered by a laboratory suit.

"I am sorry, did I scare you?" the old man spoke with a friendly voice.

"Who are you?" the wanderer demanded.

"I am Doctor Edward Nieg, and I bid you welcome to the factory." he gesticulated to the opened door of his cabinet. "Come in, your journey must have been tiresome, and you must need to eat and rest."

The man analyzed his situation and came to the conclusion that the old doctor was harmless and so he entered the place in which he had been invited. The doctor's cabinet was not very big, having a large metallic table with two chairs next to the window, two shelves next to the walls opposing the window, in one shelf he kept all his instruments in the other his medicines, a sink next to the instruments shelf, a refrigerator in the corner that was closer to the door and a computer in the opposing corner. There was also an entrance to another room that was separated by a long and thick green curtain.

"Here, have a seat." the doctor invited and then he went to the fridge.

"Thanks." the man shortly replied and sat down; keeping his eyes on the elderly man that was searching for food.

Soon thereafter he was being treated with a sandwich and a glass of wine. The doctor sat down as well, munching on candy from a small bag he was holding.

"So what is your name, young man?"

"Oh?" the wanderer swallowed his food. "The name's Blane Kaminaga."

"Kaminaga… the snake god… that's an interesting name you got." the old doctor reflected. "It has a nice oriental touch."

"I guess?" Blane shrugged his shoulders and finished his sandwich.

"Your eyes are… quite strange, to put it nicely." the doctor couldn't help but comment on Blane's eyes, that had their iris half red and half yellow.

"Yeah, I used to wear sunglasses for some time."

"May I ask what happened to them?"

"Nothing much, just a little accident."

"I understand. And what brings you up here in the middle of nowhere?"

"Well I was searching for some people. They disappeared like seven years ago."

"And just who are these people?"

The answer to the doctor's question immediately arrived. Blane had tossed a photo to him that landed on the table. The old man picked it up and noticed a group of five teenagers, three boys and two girls. One of the boys had flame shaped red hair, wore a red racer suit with yellow flames and was flexing his left arm while grinning at the camera. One of the girls had green hair and strange green marks all over her face; she wore green robes that did not cover much of her body. She was holding her hands clasped together modestly and looking at the camera with a shy expression from her face. The other girl was sitting in the middle, smiling happily and looking all jolly, her long golden hair gently falling upon her red dress and well built body. Another boy was brown haired and he wore a blue suit and a tie. He was laughing as he was messing the longer black hair of his buddy, the last of the five, who wore a black T shirt with the Darkness civilization symbol and a pair of blue jeans. From the looks of it, he did not seem very happy of the brown haired male's intervention during the photo shoot and was trying to get him to stop.

"These five were once great protectors of this world. More important, they were my friends." Blane explained.

"I see." the doctor nodded, pretending to not know much.

"Have you by any chance…"

"Seen them? I'm sorry, lad. These faces are not the least familiar to me."

Blane sighed and took the photo back. Once again he did not have any luck. It seemed as if he was moving in circles. At first he did not find them in the city after searching every possible corner, and now after a week of search outside the city, there were still no results. It was as if the quintet had disappeared into the ground. That only meant that after a nice nap, tomorrow morning he would be on his way.

"So what do you guys do here?" Blane struck up a conversation.

"Most of the workers here both create fuel and work on metal pieces for different machines. Some here carry crates, others fill them, and all of us are doing tiresome work. I for one have to heal whoever gets wounded." the doctor explained.

"It's rather hot in here, don't you think?"

"Yes, I agree. That's because of the special fuel that we are using. But that's beside the point. I think you're not interested in hearing all this technical language."

"How much are you paid, doctor?"

"I for one am paid pretty well, mostly because the big boss himself requires more healing than any of the workers. This has assured me enough money to buy myself more equipment, but sadly I don't really have any place to put it in."

"And who is this big boss?"

"You wish to meet him? Sure, I will take you to him, but first you should finish your drink." the doctor threw a suspicious look at the glass of wine, Blane not catching it.

"Alright, then." the brown haired man shrugged his shoulders and finished the whole glass at once, not noticing the elder man rubbing his hands and grinning conspiratorially.

And so they both got up and left the room. But before stepping out, Blane heard a few moans of pain coming from behind the thick curtain. Thinking that the patients were having a hard time recovering, he shrugged it off and moved on.

After around half an hour of the factory tour in which he had been taken by the doctor through numerous corridors, climbed a few stairs and had a trip with the elevator, Blane ended up in front of large door upon which the words 'WARNING – UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL KEEP OUT' were written in red upon black. That was when the old man stretched his right hand to him, saying:

"Your luggage, please?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Blane asked confused.

"In this room the main work of the factory takes place. I was hoping that while you are seeing what's going on in there, I could have your luggage so I could take it to your room. You wish to stay here for the night, right?" the doctor explained himself.

"I guess so. Fine."

And so Blane handed the doctor his sheathed sword and his deck, after which he proceeded inside the room all by himself. He did not know how much he would regret doing that. The brown haired man found himself in a windowless room that was lit by red neon lights, conveyor belts with metallic pieces being dispersed all over. In its center there was a strange machine that was shaped like a wine glass. Four guards fully dressed in black were scattered in each corner of the room. A crowd of people was gathered near the machine, meaning that something was going on.

Willing to see what was happening; Blane made his way through the crowd and got a front row view. Up the machine there was a duel going on, and the right side had the upper hand, having none of their shields broken and a large field.

"Genji Double Cross, Blastdragon, todomeda!" an all-too-familiar voice commanded.

The red dragon dressed in samurai gear rushed at the opponent, the creature's blonde mane flowing in the air. With just one hit from both cross shaped swords, the young man fell on his back defeated.

"How does the fire burn you now, motherfucker?" asked the opponent, obviously referring to his creature that belonged to the Fire civilization.

Not waiting for an answer, he pulled a red lever and had the defeated one tied with chains and hung above a large hole. Afterwards he took up a sword that lied on the machine's floor and moved his fingers on the saw blade first, then on the normal sword blade. Noticing that his own fingers were bleeding, he grinned and spoke loud enough for those at the bottom to hear him:

"Perfect, it's been well sharpened."

Right then Blane managed to catch a better glimpse at the one wielding a sword and he was greatly shocked of what he saw. It was one of the five he was looking for, the red haired male from the photo, Rad Flames! But what was doing at that factory? And more importantly, what was he doing with that sword?

Unfortunately, the answer to the latter question soon came. With just one swing, Rad penetrated the young man's belly, breaking a rib. The victim's scream of agony brought a great smile on his face. He pulled the sword out, letting the blood stain his face and hair. Then he swung again and the red blade had now pierced the opponent's right arm, tearing his biceps and triceps apart. Another scream followed and it gave the tormentor even more pleasure. After pulling the sword out yet again, Rad rubbed his chin and took a better look at the suffering victim just like a painter would do with a painting that was in the process of creation. The young man was in pain, that was all fine and dandy, but the red haired duelist needed something more. He had seen the same sights of digestive systems and broken bones. He needed a new sight. And then it struck him. Rad immediately swung the sword for a third time and then the blade of doom had pierced the young man's crotch, causing him to shriek out his entire soul.

Blane could not bring himself to believe it. Was that monster up the machine the same Rad that he knew? No, it must have been an illusion or maybe a twin brother, there was no way a loyal and honorable racing star and dueling hero like Rad would be capable of such things. The worst thing Blane could even conceive of him doing was him being really mean and arrogant to people. But cutting them to pieces? No way, not even in a million years.

Not being able to view that hideous scene of Rad slashing the poor man apart, Blane lowered his sight only to see a black haired figure sitting with their arms crossed by the stairs of the machine, watching the slashing show. The brown haired man immediately ran to it and shouted:

"Subaru? Subaru, is that you?"

No response came from the called one. When Blane reached it, he shook its shoulders while saying:

"Subaru, what's gotten into Rad? Answer me!"

In the next moment the person turned their face to him, and he saw that he was right; it was indeed Subaru Geki, the black haired male from the photo. But he had changed too. His eyes turned from white to black, their irises shining red. Blood was dripping from them unto his cheeks in the form of tears. He grinned at Blane, revealing sharp fangs that were also bloodstained.

"Welcome, Blane, it's great to see you again!" he greeted in a rather hissed voice.

"Woah!" Blane reacted by taking his hand off Subaru's shoulder quickly and backing away. "Wha-what the hell happened to you, man?"

"Let's say that I've gotten better." Subaru replied while approaching him slowly. "And now you're about to get better as well."

Suddenly the whole room began to spin around Blane. He could not keep his feet stable anymore. A strong headache struck and in a few seconds he collapsed on the floor unconscious.

The sounds of raindrops falling against the metallic roof of the factory woke Blane up. He found himself lying on a bed with white sheets and a large pale blue pillow. He saw that he was in a small room with a table and a wardrobe. There were no windows and only two doors, one of them being open and leading to a bathroom. But what caught his attention was a red sphere from one of the four pale green walls.

"Ah, I see that you are awake." a voice resounded in the room, more specifically from Blane's right.

"Who…" he uttered while getting up and he saw Doctor Edward Nieg sitting on a chair next to his bed. "What did you do to me?"

"Nothing much, just drugged your wine and brought you here." the old man responded with a casual tone.

"Why are you doing this? Just what the hell is going on in this place?!" Blane spoke exasperated.

"If you want answers, I think I got them." another voice brought chills to the brown haired man. "Of course, let's see if you can get them."

Subaru walked out of the shadows, ending up at the left side of Blane's bed. The doctor lay against the backrest and crossed his arms, watching the two men with great interest. With a strange sort of elegance, Subaru put his elbows on the bed, rested his head in his palms that got stained by his bloody tears, and looked at his guest with a malicious smile. Blane on the other hand still could not help but be surprised of what had become of his friends. He needed to know what happened right then and there, and he would find his answers.

"What happened to you and Rad?" the first question came.

"Let's say that we've become serious factory workers." Subaru answered giggling. "In fact, we are so serious about our new jobs that we now own this place."

"And what exactly is going on in this factory?" a second question followed.

"The industry of mechanical pieces is really strong at the moment, so we're just doing our thing to rival other factories. And so far we are at top, all thanks to our little secret." an answer filled with satisfaction was shot back.

"Little secret?"

"Yes. It's called Black Fire, and you will soon not only see it, but also be a part of its making."

"Why was Rad stabbing that guy back then?"

"He was just having fun." Subaru stuck his tongue out.

"Don't bullshit me!" Blane grabbed the black haired man by his shirt and both ended up eye to eye. "Why did he fucking kill an innocent person?"

"Why whoever said anything about innocence? You're totally mistaken, Blane, there's no such thing as innocence to be found in our slaves."

"Say what?"

"What you've just heard. All of our enslaved workers have each failed their dueling exams and thus proved just how worthless they are to the dueling society. But luckily, our factory can make good use of them, both as laborers and materials."

"That's what those poor people are to you?"

"Oh please, they could not even pass a basic and important exam regarding dueling, for crying out loud!" doctor Nieg intervened. "If they lack the intellectual capacities and dueling skills, they are not worthy of both the titles of duelists and human beings, at least not in our age, anyway."

"But that just doesn't sound right!" protested Blane.

"I'm afraid that opinions differ, my friend, and unfortunately for you, we are in charge here." Subaru broke it to him. "How ironic, this is pretty much how every sort of political rule got established – a difference of opinions and the majority that agreed with one of them and was also in power established it. The human works in such strange ways…"

"And just who was so screwed up in the head to agree with you two?"

"Technically we did not come up with this whole idea, everything began way back. The good doctor will tell you how this place came to existence, for I have more important matters to attend."

"Out of curiosity, what happened to Edo, Sora and Tsugumi?"

"Heh, guess." Subaru grinned at him suggestively.

"You didn't…" Blane gasped in horror.

In the very next moment Subaru got into his face and he could see better the haunting stare in those shining red irises that was almost luring him in a strange trance. The bloody tears were now landing on his cheeks as well, causing strange itches to his skin. If there was a moment in his life when he truly felt helpless and afraid, that was it.

"Listen here, Blane, and listen well, because I will never repeat these words to you ever again. From this moment on you are a slave of our factory. Starting from tomorrow you will begin to work in the main room. Whatever you are tasked to do, you will do it, otherwise you will be punished accordingly. Attempting an escape is futile and will only bring you closer to Rad's execution list. Lastly, I want you to remember these words: Abandon all hope, for you have entered here."

With his speech being over, Subaru retreated in the shadows and only two glowing red dots were still seen shining until they disappeared. How he left the room was a mystery that Blane tried not too hard to think of. That night all that mattered was that his life had been changed without his own will.

"You see those blood marks?" the old doctor broke the silence and pointed to the red sphere from the opposing wall. "The previous inhabitant was fed up with this place and broke his skull open there. Whoever said that suicide is the biggest fuck you was right. He did not let us play with him."

"Tsh, suicide is for the weak willed that can't face their demons." Blane spat.

"In that case, I trust that you will enjoy your stay at our factory."

Upon watching the doctor leave his room, Blane contemplated on what he would do next.

He was caught in the lion's cage and there seemed to be no way out. That meant one thing: he had to wait until such a chance would be revealed. But for the moment he fell back on the bed, his head landing on the pillow, and he closed his eyes. Tomorrow would be a long day.

And so a month had passed. During those four weeks Blane got to learn exactly how the factory functioned. The building was so maze like that not even the oldest workers could memorize all the paths. That was why nobody managed to escape. Besides helping make machine pieces, he was also assigned to carry heavy crates and mop the blood dripping from the Black Fire producing machine. He soon found out that the more time he spent there, the angrier he got. Soon he would end up fighting against other workers, at first for defending himself and his own food, later for his own pleasure. Sometimes fighting had become a necessity to him. Whenever he was too angry or afraid, he had to take down his frustrations on someone weaker. Many tried to escape his wrath, but he would not leave them alone until they were bloody and begging for mercy. The factory was slowly but certainly changing him.

Then on that day, a month since he had ended up in the factory, as Blane was carrying a heavy crate containing metallic pieces with the help of an eighteen year old boy, his helper tripped and fell on the floor, dropping the crate and spreading its contents everywhere. In that moment the bomb that lied deep inside the brown haired man finally detonated. As the boy got up to apologize, Blane punched him in the face and had him land on his back. Then he jumped on him and kept punching his face, using his feet to sometimes kick the rest of his body as well. The idea that he would die because of a simple mistake of someone else had angered Blane beyond the point of reason. No matter how much the poor bleeding boy underneath him was begging for mercy, he would not grant it.

Soon the two found themselves surrounded by guards. The aggressor finally became conscious of what he had done. He took a look at his bloodied fists and then at his harshly wounded victim. He couldn't believe it. Raising his head in order to escape the disgusting sight, Blane met the eyes of Rad. The racer's red colored iris was the only thing that remained the same from the person he once was. The white in his eyes had long changed into a cold stare due to the excessive murders committed by him.

"What's going to happen now?" Blane asked him straightforward.

"Kill him." an authoritative reply came from Rad.

A knife appeared in Blane's sight. The red haired man sitting in front of him was offering him the sharp weapon. Whether he wanted to do it or not, Rad's demanding eyes made him grab the sharp small blade.

"Look into his eyes as you do it. I want you to see the fear coming from him as you take away his worthless life." Rad indicated.

Blane turned back to the wounded teen and looked him in the eyes. He then raised his knife in the air and saw exactly what the racer had told him. But he could not bring himself to do it. It was too much even for him. Seeing his hesitations, Rad intervened once again:

"That bastard dared to put your own life at risk. Now is your chance to make him pay for such a mistake."

As much as Blane didn't want to admit it to himself, Rad was right. His hand began to tremble as he clenched his fist around the knife's handle. Like a wicked mantra, the racer's words continued to stir something in him.

"Do it and prove to me that Subaru wasn't wrong." Rad insisted. "Shove that knife down his throat and make him breathe his own blood. Do it now!"

All of Blane's attention shifted to the one beneath him. In a split second the knife had made its journey into the teen's mouth and all the way down his throat and esophagus. He could hear the boy both crying and choking on the blade and his own blood. Not wasting much time, he began slashing the insides of him, pulling the knife out with its blade fully red. A sadistic smile of satisfaction appeared on Rad's face.

Later that night Blane could not get any sleep. His body moved from left to right and right to left, trying its best to find a comfortable position, but unable to. The thoughts of what had happened that day kept haunting him. The sweat moving down his body was bothering him. There was too much energy inside that begged to be released.

Not being able to take it anymore, he jumped out of his bed and rushed into the bathroom. Turning on the sink's water, he desperately tried to wash off the blood from his hands, but no matter how many times he rubbed them, they were still red. He then tried washing his face, but he could not get the strong smell of blood coming from his hands get away. When he looked up at the mirror, he no longer saw himself, but instead he saw Rad, grinning, staring at him with those maleficent eyes.

"You loved doing it today, admit it." Rad spoke.

"No." Blane denied and shook his head.

"Yes you did. And you'll love it even more the next time."

"No!"

"The blood will never wash away. It will follow you to the grave."

"Stop it! It was you, you monster, it wasn't me!"

In a fit of rage, Blane punched the mirror and broke it in tens of shards. The sound of the glass shattering pierced through his ears and woke him up to reality. He stared down at one of shards and saw that it was only his reflection, meaning that he was talking to himself. Was he going mad? He simply did not know anymore.

A few hours later the sun was rising. Subaru wandered down the corridors, a haunting shadow; casting his darkness everywhere he passed by. Ever since he joined the factory, his mission was to do night patrol, preventing escapes and bringing fear upon anyone that walked in the hallways all alone. During the past years he had killed around a hundred, much less than Rad, but he enjoyed it nonetheless. Rad may have loved seeing his victims' guts all over, but Subaru had a different way of torturing someone. Whenever he saw fear, whenever he could terrify someone to the point of a heart attack, whenever he could resort to psychological torment, he was feeling a much greater power upon others. True control to him was to paralyze someone with terror. And the best thing about it all was that most of the time his victims would just fall unconscious and not die, meaning that Rad could have his way with them too.

Of course, due to his night patrol, Subaru would spend his mornings until late afternoons sleeping, but until the sunset he would have some free time for himself. Rad on the other hand had a different schedule. He would wake up early in the morning and manage the factory the best he could until around midnight when his energy would finally go away and make him fall in the realm of dreams. There were a few days in which Rad left the factory, Subaru having to wake up earlier or not sleep at all in order to take his place. The red haired racer was the only one that kept contact with the civilized world, mostly by shopping, participating in grand prix races and visiting Principal Wally. None of the workers, not even doctor Edward Nieg, were allowed to leave the factory. And while Subaru had such a freedom at his disposition, he never used it. That was due to the fact that he had nothing to return to at the city of his origins. His family was dead, most of his friends were dead and his former home was gone. Besides a few memories, that city meant nothing to him anymore.

Entering the room that he shared with Rad, he found that his partner was not lying in their two person bed anymore. The bathroom's lights were turned on, some of their rays falling upon the collection of books that Subaru owned. The black haired man rubbed the blood off of his face, his eyes reverting to his normal white color with brown irises. The fangs also reverted to his usual human teeth. He took off his black shoes and grey socks and tossed them aside. Then he grabbed his laptop and fell on the bed on his belly, beginning to browse the internet.

Small bits of hair fell in the sink's running water along with white shaving foam. The blade fell upon the left cheek of the red haired man and took off the last bits of unwanted facial hair. Now his face was finally clean in his eyes. But then he noticed something strange. A small red stream fell from his left cheek. He had cut himself. The free left hand ascended to the face and with the index and middle fingers he took a bit of the crimson liquid and raised it to his eyes. Rad may have accidentally cut himself in the past, but he never managed to give his own blood the same attention he gave to that of his victims. Whenever he murdered someone he always felt a sort of ecstasy and spiritual pleasure, the sight of their rivers of life being true eye candy for him. But now when it came to his own, he realized that he never had an intimate moment with it, he never truly got to know it, even if it had been flowing through his veins for over twenty four years.

He sniffed his fingers. They smelled like normal human blood. He licked it off them. It was as salty as the other types of blood he spilled. If this was another way to know himself, he was more than eager to try it again some other time. But that had to wait since there was another day of work ahead of him.

Rad put on his red shirt and walked out of the bathroom only to find Subaru browsing sites with black backgrounds and disturbing creepy pictures.

"Hey, good morning!" the red haired male saluted.

"Same." the black haired one replied, not moving his eyes from the screen for one second.

"So what are you reading now?"

"Creepypasta. This is pretty much the urban version of the horror genre, albeit shorter and with a more realistic feeling to add to the overall creepiness."

"What happened to you reading those magic books and works of philosophers?"

"Let's say that sometimes too much of a great thing can bore you. Besides, I need to get more insight into the current fears of our modern society. That way I will know how to best awaken the nightmares of my victims."

"Taking your job seriously as usual." Rad remarked and sat on the bed, more specifically with his belly on Subaru's back. "I like that. I like that quite a lot."

"You know me." a short response came from the one who was busier reading.

"Blane's proven that he's worthy." the racer changed the subject.

"Yes, I know that, I've seen him struggle just before he fell asleep. He's slowly turning insane and we must keep him that way." the reader replied. "You shouldn't worry; he's on the right path as long as we keep him there."

"And then he will become like us. You know, seven years ago I never would've imagined that we'd end up here… like this." Rad reflected and finally he stirred his partner's attention, who turned his face away from the laptop to look back at him. "I never even expected you to like men."

Those words made Subaru reflect upon his past. Sure, he had spent his life up to that point loving a girl, but now she was gone from his life and the one next to him had taken her place. But in all honesty, he never had considered gender as being important. If Rad were a young woman with the same murderous habits, same energetic attitude, same red eyes, he would most likely have felt the same way.

"I don't like men." Subaru replied shortly and approached his face. "I like you."

"Haha, such an honor, I'm flattered." Rad replied, half amused and half grateful.

The two united in an embrace and fell into the bed's sheets. Even if their schedules were against it, they were going to take some time and enjoy themselves.

Later that day, towards everyone's surprise, Blane was back at the machine room, no longer a slave, but now a guardian. Up until the day before he had been in the shoes of those he would now command. It was all thanks to Rad and his intervention.

But since he was at his beginnings, he did not receive a full black suit and a mask, but instead he just got a black vest with an ID card that had his name on it. Due to the heat, he could not wear his cape, so he only had the vest to cover his bare chest. Now as a guardian he had new duties. Gone were the days in which he would work on machine pieces, carry crates or mop up blood. Now he had to guard the entrances and discipline those that were either too slow or broke the work etiquette. Having killed that boy back then had awakened new pleasures that he had not experienced before. Now he longed for that lively feeling that he got as he had full control over his victim.

Much to his surprise, his disgust towards Rad had morphed into respect and admiration. What was once a depraved psychopath had become a true hero to him. Whenever Blane got the chance of seeing the racer bring fear to slaves of all kinds by a simple stare, he craved to master his art of gaining control over others. The brown haired man had become more violent, zapping slaves with his newly acquired taser for every slight mistake. He was now more violent than ever, bringing fear even into some of his colleague guardians. In a matter of days he made himself a reputation of being the one man from which everyone strayed away if they knew what was good for them.

Getting to see Rad's daily executions had become an entertaining show for Blane. When he saw the racer entering the room for the very first time that day, he would stop from doing whatever he was doing and enjoy the show. He had memorized almost every aspect that he knew what to expect. The first step was holding the speech to the slaves. The second one was the picking of a victim. Then came the duel on the top of the machine in which Rad would quickly dispose of his opponent with his Genji Gift deck before he or she could do anything. Afterwards the climax of the process followed in which Rad was mutilating his victim in horrid ways, all while making sure that they were still alive. Then, once he was done satisfying his bloody lust, he would let the slashed open living body fall into the machine which combined with the Darkness and Fire kaijudo energies that were unleashed from the duel would create what was known as Black Fire.

One day, however, something different happened. Rad was late at his killing session, this time arriving around 4 PM. But this time he entered with someone else, that being his demonic partner Subaru. Even though all the workers knew of the existence of both, never did they manage to see the two walk together. Upon taking a good look at all the slaves, the black haired man shook his head, making his mane flow in the air and letting everyone admire his beauty for a few moments. Afterwards he stared with his demonic eyes upon a girl with long brown hair that was wearing a torn grey dress. He grinned at her with his fangs and pointed with his index finger, saying:

"That one."

The girl backed down, moaning in fear due to the prospect that she was next. But there was nothing that she could do anymore. Blane came and pushed her to the machine's stairs with his taser. Subaru calmly climbed the other stairs, taking out his deck that was surrounded by a dark purple aura.

"Watch and learn, soldier." Rad spoke to Blane, pulling him closer to the machine. "This will be one match you'll never forget."

The crowd's whole attention shifted to the machine at which another execution would most likely occur. Once the terrified girl reached her dueling table, she received a case that held her deck in it from her opponent.

"What is your name, miss?" Subaru hissed at her with his otherworldly voice.

"R-Rose…" she uttered helplessly.

"What a beautiful name. Do you know how I like roses?"

"H-how?"

"Blackened and bloodstained."

With those words being said, Subaru deployed his shields. The girl did not have any hope of winning the duel, but she would still try her best to fight her way out of there, so she deployed her shields as well, beginning the match. The first turns went by pretty fast, the two doing basic moves.

"I cast Faerie Life." Rose said and got the top card of her deck to the mana zone.

"I cast Ghost Touch." Subaru said and discarded a card from Rose's hand.

"I summon Bronze-Arm Tribe." the girl brought to the battle zone a fat green horse-like humanoid that wielded a large wooden fork and a shield, the creature's effect sending the top card of her deck to the mana zone.

"I summon Jenny, the Suicide Doll and destroy her." the man brought to the battle zone a white haired doll dressed in a dark red dress that stabbed herself with a large razor blade and caused herself to explode, making the girl discard her last card.

"No…"

"Yes, your hand is now empty; the first part of my control is complete."

As much as she did not like to admit it, he was right. With no more cards in her hand, her playing options were really limited. She depended on whatever draw the top of her deck would give her. At least she had more mana than him, so maybe luck would help her. Sadly, the card she drew was of no use, so she simply placed it in her mana zone as the sixth and tapped the card she had in the battle zone, saying:

"Bronze-Arm Tribe, break his shield!"

The horse-like humanoid rushed at Subaru and used its fork to pierce through one of his shields. The shield shards went past him, his body not moving one instant. When the attack was over, the shards united into a card that went into his hand. Then his turn came.

"I summon Batou Shoulder, Shadow of Fiction." Subaru said and then a blue ghost that had snakes coming from its body like those of gorgons and two burning candles on its shoulders appeared by his side. "Batou Shoulder increases the cost of your spells by one for each spell in your graveyard. And it's so great that you have three spells there, no?"

"I summon Bolmeteus Samurai Dragon!" Rose ignored him and made a red armored quadruped winged dragon with a sword in its mouth appear by her side. "Bronze-Arm Tribe, break another shield!"

A second shield was broken to pieces thanks to the horse like creature. But Subaru did not seem to mind at all. The girl's offensive did not bring the least unease to him.

"Look, the poor little thing thinks she can play with Dragons! Oh how sweet it is to break people's dreams." Subaru spoke ironically. "I cast Hide and Seek, send Bolmeteus Samurai Dragon to her hand and discard it!"

A blue water hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the girl's dragon, making it disappear and causing the card to go back into her hand. Then a purple cloud hand came and grabbed the card from her hand, tossing it to her graveyard. Her hopes began to fade away as she saw that her draw was yet another useless card. Still, she had to try her best to survive, so she put it in her mana zone and said:

"I attack with Bronze-Arm Tribe, break a shield!"

A third shield was taken down by her creature. Then her opponent's turn began.

"I cast Energy Stream and draw two cards. Then I cast another Energy Stream and draw two more cards. I end." Subaru finished his moves rather quickly.

"Great, I summon Bolmeteus Steel Dragon!" Rose said and a blue colored robotic dragon with laser cannons on its shoulders appeared behind her and roared at her opponent. "And I end here."

"Ah yes, Bolmeteus Steel Dragon, the shield burning Dragon. Too bad he won't be able to touch my last two shields too soon. I summon two Maxval, Electro-Fuuma. Now these beauties reduce the cost of my Darkness creatures by one each and they are also blockers. Heh, then I summon Jenny, the Suicide Doll and end."

"I summon Jasmine, Mist Faerie. Bolmeteus Steel Dragon, attack and send his last two shields to the graveyard!"

"Got you!" the black haired man suddenly spoke to the girl and showed a Darkness card from his hand to her. "Ninja Strike 7, I summon Hanzou, Menacing Phantom!"

A purple ninja frog demon appeared in the battle zone and used its mace like tongue to hit the robotic dragon, weakening it.

"What happened?" the girl asked surprised.

"When one of your creatures attacks or blocks, I may use Ninja Strike and summon one of my Shinobi creatures. In this case, I summon Hanzou whose effect gives -6000 power to your Bolmeteus Steel Dragon, reducing it to merely 1000." the man explained. "And since both my Maxval blockers have 2000 power…"

"Oh no, this can't be…"

"Maxval, block Bolmeteus Steel Dragon!"

The blue devil with tentacles engulfed the girl's robotic dragon, killing it in a matter of seconds. Shocked by what had just happened, she chose to end her turn there.

"I summon Jenny, the Dismantling Doll for just two mana. Then, with my remaining six mana, I summon Zabi Mira, the Reviving Shaman!" Subaru exclaimed and then a headless purple demon with three pairs of arms, a large mouth in its chest and a red horn in the place of its neck appeared by his side, causing three of his creatures to explode. "With its effect I destroy my two Jennies and Batou Shoulder. Then I replace them with Volg Thunder, Thunder Tiger and Cheval, Temporal Demon Spirit from my hyperspatial zone."

Out of the smokes of the three explosions a red demonic wolf with a blue sword in its paws, a black demonic tiger with golden rings on its paws and a golden armored demon emerged.

"Then, since I have three or more Demon Commands… Gravity Zero!" Subaru exclaimed and showed to his opponent a Darkness creature cost that had a cost of 12 and a power of 12000. "I summon Dulanzames, Jet-Black War Demon for free!"

A dark blue demon wielding an axe and a sword appeared next to his kin, all of them staring upon the scared girl.

"When Dulanzames is put in the battle zone, I return all the creatures from my graveyard to my hand!" Subaru explained smiling evilly as he received his three Jennies and Batou Shoulder back into his hand. "I end, and since I have two or more Demon Commands with a cost of six or more, Cheval awakens into Cheuxvelt, the Awakened Demon Spirit."

The situation did not look good at all for Rose. Subaru now had three double breakers, one triple breaker and two blockers. The next turn he would begin a powerful attack that would most certainly defeat her. Despair was slowly taking over her. Her options were running out quickly. She had to finish it quickly or else.

"I… I…"

"Yes?" Subaru asked delightfully.

"I… I evolve… Yes, I evolve Bronze-Arm Tribe into Quatro Fang, Super Gang Leader!" Rose exclaimed and the horse humanoid morphed into a giant white panda warrior.

But then a third shield appeared by Subaru's side much to her surprise.

"Huh? How?"

"Whenever you put a creature in the battle zone, Cheuxvelt grants me one more shield."

"I've had enough of this - Quatro Fang, double break shields!"

Subaru smiled as he watched the desperate attack of both his opponent and her creature.

"Jasmine, Mist Faerie, break his final shield!" Rose shouted and the green haired faerie dressed in a brown dress courageously made her way to Subaru and went full head straight into his final shield.

"My turn, Psychic Link, Volg Thunder and Thunder Tiger unite into Volg Tiger, Thunder Beast." Subaru announced.

The two mentioned demons got surrounded by purple auras and united, morphing into a two headed demonic tiger warrior with purple wings and a sharp purple katana.

"You fool; your reckless attacks had given me all the cards that I needed from my shields. Without even knowing, you gave me the upper hand. No wonder you failed your dueling exam." Subaru harshly spoke to her as he raised in the air a card from his hand. "Time to finish this – I evolve Zabi Mira into Dorballom, Lord of Demons!"

The purple headless demon cracked open as rays of a brighter purple came out of its body. When the remains of Zabi Mira were no more, golden tentacles that ended in goat heads emerged from the purple light. A pair of red wings flapped in the air, spreading their feathers all around the room. A white goat head with blue eyes and a blue crystal in its forehead arose and then the full body of the Lord of Demons followed. Rose made a step back, now utterly terrified.

"When Dorballom enters in the battle zone, all of our non-darkness creatures and mana are destroyed." the black haired man explained and then he watched how he just lost two mana cards – Cebu Aquman Jr and Falconer, Lightfang Ninja – while the girl had lost all of her creatures and mana.

"My creatures… my mana…" Rose uttered in disbelief. "They're gone…"

"Cheuxvelt, attack, double break her shields! Then, Dulanzames, triple break her shields!"

Heeding their master's orders, the two demons swung their swords and disposed of all of the girl's shields. Now she had no more creatures, no more mana and no more shields.

"Yes, feel the despair. You have nothing left, both in this game and in your worthless life. All that is left for you is the endless void of darkness." Subaru tapped his last card. "Time for you to join the others… Dorballom, finish her off, todomeda!"

Waving his three pair of hands, the Lord of Demons created a blue energy sphere that he then cast upon the girl as she yelled out her fears.

When Rose opened her eyes, she found herself tied by her limbs with chains, hung above the machine's hole. Subaru and Rad were sitting in front of her, ready for the execution. But this time Dorballom also sat in the background, admiring the scenery.

"Oh master, witness how we pay to you this tribute!" Subaru spoke to the goat.

"Go on, produce the Black Fire." a deep echoed voice came from the creature.

Upon seeing that her fate was going to be sealed, the girl clenched both her fists in prayer and spoke out loud:

"Please, God, free me from this hell, I beg of you!"

Right then Rad's red blade went through her left fist, piercing through her bones and making three of her fingers fall off. Rose screamed in pain while unclenching her other fist and then she spat at them:

"You devils, may you burn in the deepest bowels of hell!"

The sword then pierced through her right palm, causing her even more pain and bringing out of her even more screams.

"Don't worry." Subaru's whispers reached her ear, the girl barely noticing that the one who defeated her was now behind her, his breath touching the back of her neck and his black mane falling upon her shoulders. "It ain't gonna mean a thing, no matter what you do or say. It ain't gonna mean a thing, no matter who you curse or pray. It ain't gonna mean a thing, because no matter what… the family still cries for blood."

"Family? What family?" Rose barely spoke.

"The sword is family." Rad replied instead and drove his bloodied blade into her womb.

At that point the girl lost consciousness completely. When the red haired man pulled out his sword, he also ripped out the girl's uterus and ovaries. It was the very first time for him when he saw that organ, and frankly he was more than happy. He kept slashing out the lower bowels of the girl until there was nothing left from there except for a bloody hole. Having had his fun, Rad took the reproductive organs as prize and left Subaru to lick the blood off of the girl's body for a few moments. When the black haired man was done with her as well, he went to his partner and the two pulled the lever together, making the still living body fall into the machine along with the lower parts of her digestive and excretory systems. In a matter of seconds the machine produced the Black Fire that was necessary for the conveyor belts and other factory utilities to move quicker.

"Excellent." Dorballom clapped his main pair of hands and then he made a small glowing sphere come out of the machine and land in one of his tentacles. "I will also take my prize as well."

"Have fun tormenting her soul, master." Subaru gave the demon a thumb up.

"Trust me, I will. Keep up the good work, you two!" the Lord of Demons wished them and then he disappeared in thin air.

And so the two descended from the machine, both proud of the work they had done. The slaves turned back, terrified of the sight of their future tormentors. Blane stood there, arms crossed; a wide smile on his face, for his eyes had witnessed an incredible show indeed. Now all that he wanted was to be like them, to instill such fear and pain into his victims until they would lose their own humanity.

Subaru passed him and he felt a strange chill, almost as if a blizzard had gone by. There were no words, no crossed sights, nothing. Then Rad passed, but he stopped a few steps behind Blane and gave him an advice:

"If you want to excel at this job, you've got to be a hammer and hit the nail through the skull to the brain. If you'll be a true hatemonger, you will get to be a little stronger and ascend in this place. Now don't make me regret my decision."

Those words were like food for Blane's soul. He memorized them in an instant and for the rest of the day that was the only thing he thought of along with the blood fest that the two murderers had caused.

The very next day when Rad came in the room again, Blane greeted him with the severed body of a slave. He proudly explained himself to his boss, narrating how the young teen annoyed him by always complaining and not working sufficiently. Usually he would just give the nuisance an electroshock to put him back in line, but that day he was fed up with the whining, so he did more. He spoke in detail about how he used his sole knife to open the young boy's body and reveal to him his entire insides. Afterwards he used the taser to electrocute the stomach and lungs. Then he moved the same taser to the mouth, close to the brain, and shocked him so good that he had a really painful death. All of this was retailed with such passion and excitement that Blane would never have expected to feel.

Rad was more than pleased. But the slaves and fellow guards were mortified of having witnessed such a sight. The racer placed his right hand on Blane's left shoulder and began a new speech:

"You did a fine job today, soldier. That means a lot to me, you know. I am looking for those of your kind that have the guts to finish their jobs, but I'm mostly surrounded by weak hearted pussies. I'd like to promote you directly to my circle of right hand men. What do you say? Think you're up for this sort of responsibility?"

"It would be an honor." Blane kneeled loyally, in awe of what he had just heard.

Later that day the brown haired man had moved into another sector of the factory, closer to the better kept rooms. The next day he found out from Subaru that his former friend Tamma had been at the factory that night but he did not survive since he attempted an escape. All that he could do was laugh at the news.

Now that he belonged to the upper class of the factory, Blane had finally received his deck and his sword back. From then on he would do new jobs such as being a tour guide for future slaves and scaring them until their time to join the others in labor would come.

Besides that, he was sometimes tasked with taking Rad's place as chief executioner or with helping doctor Nieg in his cabinet.

That was when he learned that those moans that were coming from behind the curtain were indeed from the patients, but they were not recovering at all. Instead the good old doctor was making experiments upon them such as replacing their organs with those of animals, injecting strange substances into their veins in order to see their body responses, amputating their limbs and sowing them back together to see if the nerves were still working, surgically attaching tails to the ends of their spines, attempting to insert fish scales into their skin, trying to change their stomachs so that they would either no longer feel the need for food or have it digested without any remains, and the worst of them all – trying to unite the male and female genitalia in order to create hermaphrodites capable of reproducing without a mate. Of course, the crazy old man had more ideas, but he did not have time to put them into practice yet. His main goal was that of creating the perfect worker for their factory, and even if his experiments failed and his test subjects would end up as wrecks of human beings, he would still send them to Rad for the machine, so it was not entirely a waste.

His new assistant gladly helped him with whatever he needed, enjoying the gory sight of what was going on in the cabinet. By the end of the day, Blane always had some sort of blood stain his hands. At that time everything seemed perfect. He was no longer a slave, but an oppressor, he was close to Rad, the man he admired, and he was taking part in the action. But during those nights the memories of the ones he brutally murdered began to haunt him one by one. Regret was slowly finding its way into his heart, albeit it was two months late. Still, he had already picked his path and it was too late to walk back. He had to keep on going.

Blane woke up on a late July day. The heat was greater than usual since he was fully sweating. Having not had much sleep, he reluctantly dragged his body to the shower to cleanse himself up. Later he was dressing up in the clothes with which he had arrived at the factory in his first day. Now he was ready for work.

Walking down the corridors, he was saluted by guards and normal workers while the slaves would whimper at the sight of him. He had finally made himself known in that factory; he had built himself a name and a reputation. And yet deep down inside there was something else for which he longed. Ignoring that thought, he changed the course to an unknown part of the factory. He noticed that as he went by, the lights were getting weaker, almost as if he was descending into total darkness. But that was not true, as there was light shining at the very end of the strange corridor.

Taking a better look, Blane realized that ahead of him lied a balcony. At long last, after two long months, he finally found a way to connect to the outer world. But that could wait, for he had more important things to take care of. Turning to the right, he ended up in front of a dark brown metallic door with a golden handle. He placed his hand on it only to have his fingerprints and palm scanned, after which the door opened by itself. Inside there was a round table at which Rad, Subaru and Doctor Edward Nieg were all seated. A fourth chair was ready for him.

"So, you finally came." Rad smiled at him. "Come on, we were about to begin our discussion."

Blane nodded and sat down, the red haired racer starting to speak in the meantime:

"I suppose you all wonder why I called you here. You see, there was a recent matter that caught my attention. A month ago a certain Tamma almost escaped from the factory, Subaru and I not being able to catch him until the fool fell for the fake exit trap. Now I ask you guys, what mistake did we make?"

A moment of silence fell upon the room in which the other three thought up a response. The doctor was the first to bring forth his theory:

"It was the guards, right? I mean, they were tricked by one kid who easily got away."

"Oh?" Rad's attention turned to the old man. "Continue."

"If our guards were better trained, such a thing would have been prevented. Maybe we should implement a training program for those that are supposed to guard the factory, and if they fail, we turn them into slaves." the doctor suggested.

"Wrong!" the racer cut him short. "It doesn't matter how well trained those guards are, they would never have been able to catch the brat. And seriously? Training programs? Those guards aren't like those pathetic slaves. They and the regular workers are… way better than that so to say."

"What do you mean by that, sir?"

"That's none of your business, doctor! Now, are there any other brilliant theories?"

"The slaves are the real reason." Subaru brought up. "They're younger and their bodies are much lighter, they could easily slip away and run off."

Blane expected to see yet another ironic response from Rad, but instead the red haired man snapped his fingers and spoke with a devilish smile on his face:

"Exactly! And this is why I came up with a new idea. Gentlemen… we're going to cut off the legs of those bastards."

The proposal hit Blane worse than any punch he had received in his entire life. Slicing open weaklings was one thing, but cutting off someone's legs and letting them live the rest of their days like that was crossing the line of cruelty. That was downright humiliation. And for what should they invalidate a person? To avoid the risk of an escape which they would easily deal with anyway? Either way, it was the last thing he would do to a defenseless person, no matter who or what they were.

"You'll be the one in charge of the operation." Rad turned his head to Blane.

"Who? Me?" Blane mumbled, still shocked of what he had heard.

"No, your person." the boss replied sarcastically. "What's the matter? Why are you hesitating?"

"Oh!" the brown haired man exclaimed, noticing that Rad was getting suspicious. "I was just wondering where I would be doing the job, sir!"

"I knew you were fit for the task. You'll start tonight just when the sun sets. The operation will take place at doctor Nieg's cabinet."

"I understand. In that case, would you excuse me? I've got some matters to attend at the first floor."

The other three nodded and Blane got up from his seat and left the room. Once he closed the door behind him, he rushed at the balcony that lied at the end of the corridor. All that he wanted at that moment was to be alone with himself and reflect on everything that was going on.

The sun's rays gently fell upon his body and he landed with his belly against the metallic bar of the balcony. Underneath him the forest and the hills stretched majestically into the horizon. For the first time in two months he could breathe fresh air, and how relieving it was for him. The summer heat was nothing compared with the Black Flames induced heat from inside.

In those minutes of seeming freedom he tried to recall his life before ending up in the factory, but instead the memories of those he killed came instead. The terrified faces, the screams of agony, the blood, all came to haunt him even when he simply sought peace. Not being able to take it anymore, Blane simply let his tears fall and cried his fate. He had become a monster, but unlike those around him, his humanity had not gone away.

The sounds of footsteps woke him up and made him get back on his feet and wipe his tears. He tried to look as emotionless as possible for whoever it was.

"Life is nothing but a puppet show." Subaru's voice resounded from behind and then the demonic man appeared in the balcony next to him. "And we have become the puppeteers. We've created our own world inside an even bigger world and now we control everything that is going on here." Subaru looked at Blane in the eyes, tears of blood falling down his cheeks and onto his fangs. "I am God. You are also God. We now rule over this place and those weaklings down there are nothing more but mere pawns that we can play with as much as we like."

"Indeed, we've done a good job." Blane nodded. "What happened to your eyes, by the way?"

That question brought satisfaction to his interlocutor and made his smile go bigger.

"These are demon eyes. My fangs are also demon fangs. The reason my eyes bleed is as a reminder of those I tormented. Whenever more blood falls, a new victim had fallen."

"So their memories haunt you too." Blane deduced.

"Not at all." Subaru shook his head. "These bloody tears are more or less a trophy for my achievements, so to say. But anyway, I've got to say that you yourself have done a good job."

"Thanks."

"Look back at what you were and now look what you are. You were once a weakling living in the shadows of fear while we controlled everything from up here. Now you have joined us and will be doing the same to others."

"Yes…"

"But keep this in mind, Blane. It took you two months to get up here, but in just a split second you could fall back to where you came from. I've noticed you might be developing a conscience. My advice: forget it, if you know what's good for you."

And so Subaru left the balcony and Blane ended up more astonished than before.

"My eyes are always watching…" the hissed demonic voice echoed once again from the hallway.

He then realized what a terrible mistake he had done. Now he had to prove to everyone that he was still the cold hearted murderer that they knew. And he had to do that quickly before suspicions would arise regarding his loyalty.

And so that day had passed and the sun had set. Blane found himself in the doctor's cabinet. A pair of eighteen year olds that were recently brought to the factory all ended up in there like cattle herded up for slaughter. The old doctor had finished tying up one of the girls to the operation table and he also put two buckets in which her blood would be collected. Then he backed down and made a sign to Blane that everything was good to go.

The brown haired man gulped and pulled his grey sword out of his sheath. Approaching her, he got a better look at his victim. The girl had blonde long and curly hair that stretched to her elbows. She was dressed in nothing but a white dress that from that moment on would be forever stained in red. Her warm blue eyes were begging for mercy and he could hear her heartbeats moving faster by each second.

"What are you doing? Please, don't…" she barely murmured with tears coming out.

Blane tried to ignore her but couldn't. The sword however was raised in the air and with just a swing her limbs would be forever detached from her body. Doctor Nieg sat against a wall and was waiting for the procedure to happen. But Blane hesitated. He could not bring himself to harm someone that much, especially a girl.

"What's taking you so long? Hurry up!" the impatient doctor called out.

Taking another look at the helpless girl, he no longer felt the power that he once had over his victims. Now all that he felt was compassion and he hated himself for what he had done to the others. He hated himself even more for allowing Rad and Subaru to change him. The pleading stare from those blue eyes was breaking his heart and almost made him want to cry as well.

"Come on already, cut that bitch!" the doctor shouted.

All of a sudden, Blane burst out with a cry of rage that scared everyone in the room. In the next moment he lashed at the elderly man and his sword met the doctor's face, forever scarring his left cheek and cutting out his left eye. Doctor Nieg fell on the floor with disbelief that what was soaking the floor was his own blood. But when he realized that it was, he fainted.

Blane turned to the teens that were staring at him with disbelief. Taking another look at the helpless girl that was strapped to the operation table; he swore that he would never murder another innocent life again. He then swung his sword a couple of times and the leather belts that were holding her had been cut off.

"Thank you." she whispered to him, smiling gratefully.

Blane nodded to her and then he spoke to everyone that was gathered in the room:

"Listen up, people, if you haven't noticed by now, this factory is a slaughter house. You weren't exiled here, you were brought here to work the last of your days and then become the victims of the maniac that owns this place. But today this is going to end. I am planning to make an escape. Now who is with me?"

"Why should we trust you?" an African-American boy spoke from the crowd. "A minute ago you were about to slice and dice her."

"You're right, I'm not trustworthy." Blane sighed.

"Plus there's no way out. The door from which we were brought is locked up tight!" an Asian boy added.

"True, but I know something that none of you do. Upstairs at the last floor there is a balcony. To get to it we need to take the elevator that lies at the end of the corridor. Now will any of you take your chances and come with me?"

A hand was raised in the air. The girl he had just spared wanted nothing more than to come with him to freedom. The two boys that argued with him raised their hands as well and the rest of the group followed. Suddenly Blane felt a strange pang in his chest. This emotion from which he had been alienated for the previous months had finally returned. He was once again happy. He was happy that he would at least spare that dozen of poor souls in front of him from the horrors that he had seen inside that accursed place.

Taking the attitude of a leader, Blane made his way to the cabinet's door. He opened it and stuck his head out. The coast was clear. He then returned to his group of fugitives and gave them the following instructions:

"There's nobody out on the corridor. Once we get out, we'll all head to the left wing of the building where the elevator awaits us. If anyone notices you, don't worry, they are outnumbered by us. The best they can do is turn on the alarm, but we still have the advantage. All you can do is run as fast as you can. Stay close to one another and don't wander off. Now, are there any questions?"

The group fell silent, all of the teenagers staring at him with determination in his eyes.

"Good. Then let's go." Blane nodded and was about to open the door when…

"You're not going anywhere!" a fierce voice came from behind them.

Everyone turned their back and saw the devilish Subaru sitting at the patients' room open door. He had been there the whole time and had witnessed everything that happened.

"What did I tell you, Blane? My eyes are always on you!" Subaru affirmed and approached the tall brown haired man. "And now you've made your worst mistake yet. Prepare to lose, you traitor."

"You're wrong, Subaru." Blane faced him with defiant courage. "This isn't about winning or losing. This is about breaking free!"

In the very next moment he grabbed Subaru and pushed him against the wall. Before the demonic man could even look at him in the eye to instill some terror, he received a punch in the face.

"You fool!" Subaru uttered and spat blood. "You, a mere mortal, dare to go in a fight against God?"

Blane's response was a kick in the crotch. Afterwards he punched him even harder in the stomach, knocking him unconscious.

"You're every bit as mortal as I am, you sick fuck." the brown haired man spoke to him and let him fall on the floor. "Kids, get ready, tonight we're getting out at all costs!"

And so the small group walked out of the room and discretely walked down the corridor, trying their best to not make any noise. Their luck was that at that time of the night most workers were asleep and they could easily go unnoticed, especially since the one who was supposed to handle night guard duties was now fainted.

After crawling on the bridge hung above a room where the regular workers did their jobs, they pretty much assured their safety. Now they were all freely walking to where Blane lead them, approaching the elevator that was a mile away from them at the end of the corridor. The blonde girl approached the group leader and shyly spoke:

"Thank you for what you did back there."

"Meh, it was nothing." Blane rubbed his nose with small pride. "It's the least I could do to wash a bit of my sins."

"After what you've done today, I am sure that you will become a hero." she smiled at him.

"No, I am no hero, after all the lives that I've taken here I'm not worthy of any forgiveness. Now I can only try to do some good for once." he sighed and looked ahead. "What's your name? I now realize I never got the chance to ask you."

"It's Sarah. Sarah Shi…"

"Well, well, what do we have here?" a familiar voice snarled in the hallways.

In the very next moment they saw that Rad sat in front of them with his arms stretched and his sword ready for action. He was blocking the way to the elevator and from the looks of it; he had no intentions of letting them advance any further.

"What were you thinking, Blane? No, really, what was in that fucked up mind of yours? Did you really think that you had a chance of escape? Hah, I thought that seeing all those examples Subaru made of those wannabe fugitives made it clear to you. There's no escape from this place!"

"Listen up, Rad, I don't have time to play games." Blane approached the racer, ready to give him the same treatment he gave to his partners in crime.

"Na'ah, I wouldn't come closer if I were you." Rad said and showed a black remote with a red button. "With one simple click I will have the entire guard force of this factory alerted of what's going on. You guys may be desperate, but my guards outnumber you."

Blane clenched his fists and growled in anger. Rad smirked at him, enthralled by the fact that he was one step ahead of them all.

"Now what are you going to do?" the factory owner arrogantly asked.

Blane turned to the group of panicked teenagers that were beginning to lose hope. Through eye contact he told them to go on without him at his signal. Then he waited for a few moments. When he sensed that Rad lowered his guard, Blane rushed at him, punched his left hand making him drop the remote and then their swords collided.

"Go, kids! Take the elevator to the last floor and go to the right until you reach the balcony at the end of the corridor! I'll hold him enough for you to get away."

"But what about you?" Sarah asked.

"Don't worry; I'll catch up with you guys later." Blane winked. "Now go!"

One by one the teens rushed by the two swordsmen on their way to freedom. As the two struggled in their fight, Rad growled out his frustration at him:

"To think I was actually considering making you my second in command and leave the factory in your hands whenever I was gone. I was such an idiot, you wouldn't resist in my boots for one day."

"As if I'd ever work with the likes of you again, the only reason I did what I did was because you tricked me and brainwashed me." Blane replied with disgust. "I was never truly by your side."

"You disappoint me, Blane, and disappointing Rad Flames is the last thing you'd want to do."

With just one move, Rad made both their swords fly in the air, after which he quickly fell to the ground and pressed the remote's button, thus turning on the alarm and waking all the guards up.

"It's over, Blane, you lost." the racer laughed victoriously.

"Son of a bitch…" the brown haired man uttered and pulled out his deck.

"Oh? You wish to duel me? Fine, I'll enjoy kicking your sorry ass to kingdom come."

Rad took out his deck as well and two metallic dueling tables rose from the floor. The duelists each placed their decks on them and raised their shields, thus beginning their match.

"I cast Pixie Life." Blane said and got the top card of his deck to his mana zone.

"I summon Taiga, the Warrior Savage." Rad said and had a humanoid dressed in a tiger like armor with a gun for its right arm appear by his side. "Go, Taiga, break his shield!"

The humanoid aimed its gun at one of Blane's shields and blew it to smithereens. However the shield shards quickly united into a card that went to his hand and shined with a bright green light.

"Shield trigger, I cast Faerie Life." Blane said and once again the top card of his deck went to his mana zone. "My turn, I summon Mitsurugi Boost, Matchless Dragon Demon."

A red armored green winged dragon with two burning swords as its weapons appeared in the battle zone and slashed Taiga, killing the creature. Afterwards the dragon itself vanished.

"I send Mitsurugi Boost to the mana zone and destroy your Taiga." Blane explained.

"Tsh, I summon Bronze-Arm Tribe." Rad said and the green horse like humanoid materialized in the battle zone and made the top card of his deck go to the mana zone.

"I cast Seventh Tower!" Blane said and then the top three cards of his deck went into his mana zone since he had seven mana. "I end."

"Got so quickly to ten mana? That means I'll have to finish this quickly." the racer deduced. "I cast Hyperspatial Shooting Hole and put Gaial Kaiser in the battle zone!"

A red armored dragon with long horns that stretched to its back, a long tail and two flaming swords attached to its arms appeared by Rad's side, who then ordered an attack:

"Gaial Kaiser, double break his shields! Bronze-Arm Tribe, break his shield!"

In a matter of seconds Blane was left with just one shield. But the good thing was that he had gotten enough cards in his hand. Smiling, he placed an eleventh card in his mana zone and said:

"Let's dance!"

All cards in his mana zone tapped and then he showed a Zero civilization creature that had a cost of 11 and a power of 14000.

"I summon Kaiser "Demon Fang", Zenith of "Certain Victory"!"

A white, purple and golden armored Dragon with two pairs of arms, a long tail, a rainbow colored sword and a long red mane appeared in the arena and shrieked with might.

"When Kaiser "Demon Fang" is summoned, we play Hardcore Judge for each shield you have and for each time I win, I get to put a Hunter from my hand, mana zone or graveyard in the battle zone." Blame explained. "Now let's do this – Hardcore Judge!"

Hardcore Judge was a game in which both players revealed the top cards of their decks. The winner was the one whose card's cost was equal or more than that of the opponent. And so they played, Rad's top card being Faerie Gift while Blane's was Evolution Burst – Into the Wild. It was 1 VS 6, so Blane won and he put Eternal Meteor Kaiser from his mana zone to the battle zone. Then they played Hardcore Judge again, Rad getting Geo Crashing Miranda, the Dimensional Force and Blane getting Pixie Life. It was 5 VS 2, so Rad won. Afterwards they played for a third time, Rad getting Genji Double Cross, Blastdragon and Blane getting Bolshack Superhero. Even if it was 6 VS 6, it still counted as a win for Blane who put Diehard Ryusei of Invincibility from his mana zone to the battle zone. Once again they played Hardcore Judge and Rad got Come On Pippi while Blane got Gachinko Roulette. It was 5 VS 3, so once again Blane lost. And finally they played for a fifth time, since his opponent had five shields, and Rad got Dual Shock Dragon while Blane got Mitsurugi Boost, Matchless Dragon Demon. It was 6 VS 5, so Rad won. Still, Blane had managed to get out two powerful Dragons out thanks to the effect of Kaiser "Demon Fang".

"Eternal Meteor Kaiser makes all of my creatures speed attackers, so I now attack with him. Also, since one of my Dragons attacked, Diehard Ryusei's effect sends one of your shields to the graveyard. Go, Eternal Meteor Kaiser, double break his shields!" Blane ordered and Rad got one of his shields sent to the graveyard, the card being Father Earth, while two other shields were slashed away and their cards went to his hand. "Diehard Ryusei, break his final shields!"

After the second attack was done, Blane couldn't believe it. The man to whom he looked up was lying there on the verge of defeat, all thanks to him. Never in his deepest fantasies would he have dreamt of defeating the Rad Flames. If it were not for the context he was in, he would have cheered with joy at the prospect of such a victory.

"Any last words?" Blane asked with confidence.

"You know, while you were taking out your deck I could have easily grabbed my sword and killed you." Rad brought up.

"Really? Then why didn't you do it?"

"I don't know, maybe I was expecting that something in you would make you return to our side."

"Heh, this is where you've made your first mistake, Rad Flames."

"And to think… I hesitated." the racer spoke with regret.

"You've killed your last victim. Good bye and good riddance." the brown haired swordsman said and tapped his Kaiser "Demon Fang" card. "Todomeda."

An explosion occurred in the corridor, out of which Blane jumped victoriously with his deck back in his pockets and his sheathed sword attached to his belt. He went in a hurry towards the elevator with the hope that everyone else made it on time. But what awaited him was a gory sight that he so hoped he would not see.

The guards had reached the group of teenagers and they fought. Even though the armed ones had the upper advantage, the kids did not give up without a fight and thus people from both sides lied dead on the corridor near the elevator. There was only one survivor. Sarah lied in the middle of the massacre with her face in her palms. Blane approached her and laid his palms gently on her shoulders while asking:

"Hey, are you alright?"

"You survived!" the girl cried and hugged him. "We all thought you were dead."

"What happened here?" Blane asked.

"It turns out they were waiting to ambush us at the elevator. The only reason I'm still here was because I pretended to be dead. Oh, it was horrible!" she tried to hold back her tears. "Anyway, you're too late, our plan has failed."

"I didn't expect Rad himself to come in our way. Anyway, you should be glad you're alive. As long as at least one of us makes it out of here, there's a hope that one day this place will go down to hell where it belongs." he compassionately spoke and then he helped her get up. "Come, we still have a chance."

Blane pressed a button and called the elevator. When it arrived, they quickly got it and went to the fourth and final floor. During those moments in which they were ascending to it, their hearts were beating faster. They were both on the verge of collapsing mentally, for they were so desperate to escape that they feared every possible threat to their plan.

Once the elevator's doors opened, they noticed something strange. All of the lights from the last floor were turned off. Still, the moon's rays were shining at the balcony, their only light of hope that was left. Holding each other's hands tight, they rushed at it, their feet making loud noises in the lone hallway that could wake the dead.

At long last they reached it. They were in the balcony, staring at the starry sky and at the vast forest that stretched underneath them. Freedom was at just one step from them.

"This is it. Are you ready to jump?" Blane asked and the girl responded with a nod. "Okay. At the count of three. One, two…"

Suddenly something pulled the blonde girl back into the dark corridor. Blane turned to her, intending upon rushing to save her, but then he heard shrieks of pain coming from her.

"No…" he murmured, after which he shouted. "Sarah!"

Two shining dots appeared in the darkness. A beastly growl was heard that made him back down. Whatever took the girl was making slow steps, ready to attack him as well. Not taking any chances to find out what it was, Blane immediately jumped off from the balcony. The fall was great, but he pulled out his sword and stabbed the factory's walls, slowing his falling and assuring a safe landing.

Now that he had finally reached the ground, there was no turning back. Blane ran into the forest, trying desperately to get as far away as possible from that place of nightmares. All that was ahead of him were trees, but that did not stop him one bit. He just ran, ran until his feet had gotten tired. Breathing hard, he rested on a log and tried to get a glimpse of his surroundings, thing which was hard when he had only the moon's light to aid him. He had been running for such a long time, at least they would not find him. Or so he thought.

The sounds of footsteps coming from behind and the sights of flashlights brought panic into him. It was them. Somehow they managed to follow him. But he could not let them capture him, not when he had gotten that far. Not wasting one more second, Blane immediately got up and kept running away.

Suddenly he fell into a pool of mud. From the looks of it, he had gotten into a swamp. As far as he was concerned, it was the perfect hideout. The flashlights shined towards him, but he was lying underneath the mud and thus he was not spotted. He waited until the lights went away and he heard the steps disappear in the dead of night. Now that the coast was clear, he would resume his traveling.

But then something grabbed his foot from underneath and pulled him deeper in the mud pool. Struggling in the dirt, Blane tried his best to escape, but to no avail. Then he saw something shining in the darkness. It was the ghost of his very first victim. The teenage boy approached him with his neck slashed from the inside and pointed the knife at Blane saying:

"Let's see how you like it!"

"No, get away!" Blane shouted.

"How about an electroshock?" the second teen that he had killed spoke from behind and slowly walked to him with a taser and his own insides hanging out of his body.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry!" the desperate man tried to apologize.

"No, you killed us all!" more voices shouted, from which he recognized both as belonging to his victims and to the kids he had tried to rescue.

"Please stop! Please…" he mumbled, still struggling to escape the mud.

"You will never escape." a familiar voice affirmed.

"No, not again, no!" Blane snarled and jumped out of the mud with his full force.

But then the handful of ghosts also came out of the mud and much to his shock, the demonic Subaru rose as well, leading them. He backed down and ended up against a tree. The supernatural entities approached him and with just a snapping from the black haired man's fingers, he ended up tied to that tree.

The summer rain fell quickly as the ambulance rocket transported its patient to the hospital. On its way, the two drivers were having a discussion about the one behind them.

"So how bad is it?" one asked the other.

"It seems that he has suffered severe mental trauma. It will take a good couple of years for him to recover." the second one replied.

"Poor lad, I wonder what he saw that brought him to this state."

On the backseat of its rocket Blane sat with a straitjacket holding him tight. He kept moaning 'no' as the visions of two smiles and two pairs of red eyes haunted him.


	3. End

**Doctor Edward Nieg's journal entry (26th of October 2109)**

…_and through these darkened dense labyrinths we wander in, are we ever going to find the treasure we seek? For how long must we suffer in our search? I for one am starting to get tired. But I digress…_

_It's been three months since Rad's imposed his new project of cutting off the legs of all slaves. I couldn't care any less what happened to those pathetic wastes of space that once dared to call themselves duelists. But for some reason our most recent ally seemed to have cared. He went as far as to betray us for those good for nothing little… you get the idea. Fortunately he paid for that dearly. _

_Anyway, things are starting to get worse for us at the factory, and to be quite honest, I kind of expected it to take this course. The slaves are no longer able to escape as none can run, so most have started to commit suicide. It didn't help that a few also died due to heavy bleeding after I removed their legs. Because of this, the production of Black Fire has severely decreased and now it's more than apparent that we'll have to keep it to warm ourselves or use it to make as many machine pieces as possible. _

_Either way, it seems that a long and hard winter awaits us all._

* * *

Many teenage girls screamed ecstatically as a man in his mid-twenties walked out of his racing rocket, dressed in a red racing suit with yellow flames and boots of the same fashion. With a smirk of confidence on his face, he headed to the podium where the first place spot and the cup with money awaited him. Reporters were crowding over who would be the first to take an interview with the champion. So much craze, and all for one single man who did nothing more than fly his rocket in a race, be the quickest and win the race. Truly, mankind had some strange values. But he didn't care, as long as he was getting money and he had people idolizing him, it was all that mattered for his public image.

"And the prize of ten million dollars goes to the winner of this year's Grand Prix, Rad Flames!" a voice resounded from the large speakers, soon being followed by the loud cheers of those gathered there.

Rad climbed the podium and let the cameras capture his beauty. He was awesome and he knew it. And now this awesome fellow had to go through a routine that he adored a lot. Getting the prize, giving a short interview, signing a few autographs and then going home with his catch. His public image was one of the things that fueled his pride and made him have a double life, one whose excitement he enjoyed every second.

After roughly half an hour he was surrounded by a crowd of fan girls, signing autographs and listening to many stories about how he had impressed them or changed their lives in one way or another. If only they knew he did not give one damn about them and it was only their money he desired. But then something unexpected happened. One of the girls who came to him had rather large breasts and her body's round shapes were really luring. To make matters worse, the short white shirt she wore that exposed her breasts had some ketchup on it, possibly from eating recklessly some fast food.

Rad fixated his eyes upon the red stained chest of the girl and it all struck him. In his head the visions returned. The screams, the blood, the torn off flesh, they all seemed to resound like a sudden pleasure that he chose to forget for the time being. While a normal man would have done other things with said breasts, the only thing that Rad wished was to rush back into his rocket, take out his sword and slowly use it to penetrate that pumped out chest, feel the girl's crimson liquid pour all over his hands, hear her screeches of pain, see that terrified and submissive look in her face. And he wanted to do it now; he needed to release this urge that was growing quick inside of him.

"Sir, would you sign my shirt, please?" she asked and offered him a pen.

While a few others had noticed how he was staring at her breasts and rumors started spreading between them that he might have finally found a girlfriend, he ignored them and took the writing instrument, trying to hide his instincts as much as possible.

The pen's top touched the shirt's lower side where the stomach was located, and he could feel it go against her skin. It went up until it formed a stick, then it went to the right, making a semicircle that stopped at the half of the stick, only to move to the lower right, thus creating the letter R. He raised the pen up a bit and once again he landed it on her shirt, this time feeling as if he was stabbing her. Not caring how much he was pushing its top, he raised it up and then moved it down, forming an upside down V. Then with a little line he formed the letter A. It kind of hurt her a bit, but the girl thought he was just playing around. Finally, he raised it once again, this time his hand slightly trembling and a few drops of sweat racing down the back of his neck. And then…

Stab! The pen made tore her shirt as he raised it up to make another stick and then made a semicircle for the letter D. The girl stared at him flabbergasted as he offered her writing instrument back.

"Sir…" she murmured, shocked of the act.

But no response came, as he tucked his hands in his pockets and left, the crowd of girls starting to gossip even more. Once Rad was in his rocket, he took off and headed for the desired destination – the factory.

Atop a balcony, a male with long black hair, wearing a pair of white sneakers, a pair of blue jeans and a black T shirt with the Darkness civilization symbol was sitting on a chair with his legs crossed, listening to the news on his laptop that lay on a small table next to him and enjoying a nice read of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

"And the winner of this year's Grand Prix is Rad Flames! The racing champion remains undefeated for seven years! What do you have to say about this, Mister Goldsmith?" a voice spoke from the laptop.

Smiling inwardly, the man ignored the rest of the conversation and turned his sight from the book to the vast forest that lay beneath him. Such a beautiful sight, even if the autumnal rains had filled the land beneath the trees with mud. The fresh chilling mountain air was indeed a nice change compared to the enclosed hot air that the factory offered them daily. But what he did not like was the fact that the weatherman announced the following two weeks to be very rainy and that large black cloud coming from the west did not please him at all.

Reaching his hand to the table, he grabbed a glass of wine with two ice cubes and let the wine slowly fall into his mouth and then down his throat, burning it. Once the glass was finished, he let the two ice cubes have the same fate, but he chewed on them a bit before swallowing. Then he laid his head on the chair and closed his brown eyes, trying to reflect a bit upon the past days. But lo, his moment of peace was disturbed by the sounds of steps approaching from the corridor behind him. Usually he would have panicked, but since there were only two people who had access to that level of the factory other than him, he knew exactly who it was. With a sly smile on his face, he spoke:

"Nice afternoon, isn't it, doctor Nieg?"

Out of the hall's darkness a slim figure wearing black boots, a white lab coat that had a few stains, mostly of sweat walked in. His head bore a skeletal face that had its left cheek scarred and a black patch covering an orbit which used to once host his left eye. The sun's fading rays shined into his scalp's baldness as the grey long hair he still had fell upon the back of his neck and his shoulders.

"How did you know it was me?" Edward Nieg asked as he stepped inside the balcony.

"I have my ways. Please do take a seat." Subaru kindly invited him, one of the rare instances in which he was actually nice to the good old doctor.

"No thanks, I've got a pretty busy schedule as always. A new transport with duelists is arriving in an hour and I must prepare the crafts for the surgery."

"Ah yes, the feet removal, it's always lovely to assist at such a beautiful scene."

"If gore is your definition of beauty…"

"It is not the gore that I admire, doctor. It is the very fact that those worthless kids receive what's coming to them – a punishment worthy of their crime. Also, the overall sentiment of fear that they exhibit as you walk out of your cabinet with your devices for amputation is simply orgasmic to me. I love to see them in their weakest moments, doctor, when fear takes over their mind and kills the last bits of rationality."

"Of course, someone like you would enjoy scaring others. But I was wondering…"

The old doctor paused for a moment and looked at the sky that would soon get clouded since the sun was half hidden behind the menacing cloud.

"What is it that you were wondering, doctor?" Subaru asked curiously.

"Is it really worth it to mutilate those kids? A few don't manage to survive and many lose any hope to live. You've seen that the rate of suicides has grown higher ever since Rad put into practice this new rule of his." Doctor Nieg explained with worry. "I fear that we might end up to a point where we won't have enough slaves to provide us with Black Fire to keep the lights around here. It doesn't help that December's soon coming."

"The answer is easy, doctor, we'll simply find new kids. On this overpopulated planet there have to be brats that are high school dropouts or who have failed their final dueling exam. Fear not, humans are a resource that never disappears." the black haired one assured with confidence. "As for cutting off their legs, that method is just too pleasant and effective for us to drop. It assures us that attempts of escape will be futile."

"But how long do you think this will last, Subaru? How long until…"

"It will last for as long as we want it to last, doctor!"

Subaru's voice suddenly changed to a more hissed one and anger was easily felt in it. His teeth were also beginning to sharpen, much to the doctor's fear. The last thing he wanted was for the black haired one's dark side to have something against him.

"I understand." the old man bowed politely, which calmed his interlocutor down and ceased the unwanted transformation. "Now if you would excuse me, my work awaits!"

"Sure, doctor Nieg. Good luck!" Subaru wished him and resumed reading his book.

Now that he was left all alone once more, he put both of his feet on the metallic bar and leaned his head against the chair in a relaxing position, holding the novel to his eye level. He would read until that cloud would have completely covered the sky, at which point he would pack his stuff and go downstairs to resume his job.

In about an hour he was bothered yet again by something. This time it was a ringtone that played a grim and yet sad piano song.

"Hello?" Subaru answered his phone.

"Hurry up and choose a slave. I'm coming home and I need to sacrifice someone quick!" a rather irritated Rad demanded.

"No problems. Is something the matter?" the black haired man asked with concern.

"I saw a girl back at the racing track, and she made me feel strange." the racer confessed. "All that I know is that I wanted to rip her guts out, so I had to leave quicker before I did something stupid."

"I see… don't worry, I'll prepare everything for your arrival."

With that being said, Subaru hung up. The time had come once again.

Heat was filling the air of the working room. The poor slaves, none younger than eighteen, few older than twenty which were really lucky to not get noticed in two years' time by the owners, were all working upon the factory pieces that came on conveyor belts as the Black Fire fueled everything from the wine glass shaped machine. The dim red neon lights did not help them visually, some could barely do a thing since their bodies still hurt after the recent suffered amputations, few were still clinging on the fake hope that maybe a miracle would save them from that living hell, but most were still there because they did not have the courage to free themselves from that nightmare through the only solution – suicide. Either the fear of death or the fear of the painful way they could join it discouraged them from such an act. But with the threat of a painful demise being certain due to the rulers of the factory, was there any reason not to shorten their sentence quicker?

Since the number of slaves had been reduced, so has both the production of Black Fire and machine pieces. This did not please Rad at all, who now chose to double his daily executions in order to keep up with the product, not realizing or simply not caring at this point if the number of working slaves was decreasing. The survivors had gotten used at this point with the routine of having him walk in, hearing his usual speech about how they were worthless, living through the fear of knowing that one of them would be chosen, sighing with relief when seeing that they were not the one picked, watching their comrade in suffering lose miserably, hearing his screams of pain and then returning to work once Black Fire had been produced. But maybe, just maybe, someone could defeat Rad once again, and then they could somehow escape, even without their feet. That was the dream that held them alive, but for how long? And then there was Subaru…

The sound of the door screeching turned their attention to it. The guards did not react and neither did the resting samurai dragon known as Genji Double Cross. Nobody stepped in and yet they felt a chilling breeze freeze their hearts. Somehow, something else got in the room and the young ones did not know whether they should worry or rejoice. Suddenly a pair of hands grabbed the shoulders of a gorgeous blonde girl whose long orange skirt covered the remains of what used to be her legs.

"You will be the one!" a hissed voice resounded into her ears, thing which stopped her breath for a few moments.

Turning around, she was greeted by the shining red irises of Subaru's demonic black eyes. His bloody tears soon were landing on her cheeks and his fang-filled smile made her forget of everything and concentrate only on that feeling of fear. When she woke up from her state of shock, she saw that she had been transported to the dueling tables atop the machine and she had been lifted upon a chair so that she would be able to reach her deck and table. Subaru had readied his own cards and was waiting for his opponent to do the same.

"You know the deal, defeat me and you will acquire freedom." Subaru anxiously spoke, as he hoped that this fake promise would determine his opponent to put up a fight.

"I'll put an end to this evil!" she replied with determination, thus falling into his game.

Five blue rectangular shields arose on both sides and thus their match began. The others all looked up at them and hoped that this would be their long-awaited ticket to freedom.

"I cast Faerie Life!" the girl said and the top card of her deck went into her mana zone.

"Very well, then I cast Mind Reset." Subaru calmly said and the cards in his opponent's hand revealed themselves to him as Cocco Lupia, Shrine of Rebirth, Endra Pappi and Jasmine, Mist Faerie. "Heh, I discard Shrine of Rebirth and end."

"I summon Jasmine, Mist Faerie and destroy her!"

A small green haired fairy dressed in a brown dress appeared for a few moments and then it exploded, causing the top card of the blonde's deck to go into the mana zone.

"I summon Batou Shoulder, Shadow of Fiction."

By Subaru's side a blue ghost with two white candles burning upon its shoulders and with gorgon snakes coming outs of its body appeared.

"Batou Shoulder increases the cost of your spells by one for each spell in your graveyard."

The girl gulped, she had two spells in her graveyard, which meant that half of her deck would be affected. She drew and was disappointed to get a Hyperspatial Bolshack Hole, a five cost spell that she could not use, so she put it in her mana zone and said:

"I summon Cocco Lupia and Endra Pappi!"

A red bird made of fire, wearing a small crown and a belt holding a horn appeared along with a small yellow bird with red eyes and a silver knight armor covering its frail body, both flying around her.

"Cocco Lupia makes her Dragons cost 2 mana less and Endra Pappi lets her draw a card whenever an Angel Command or Dragon enters her battle zone. This will be interesting." Subaru thought and then he spoke. "I summon Shackle Armor, Fuuma Saint."

A gorgon looking devil with snakes coming out of its head, dressed in a golden armor and wielding a golden spear in its right hand and a golden shield in its left hand appeared next to its blue ghostly counterpart.

"Shackle Armor's effect increases the cost of your spells by one as well as reducing the cost of my spells by one."

Just great, exactly what the girl didn't need, more impediments to her spell casting… But she tried to hide her displeased attitude, for she knew that would bring great joy to her opponent. Instead, she hoped she would have lucky draws to help her. And fortunately for her, fate was on her side.

"I summon Bolshack NEX!" the girl revealed the card she drew and then a horned red skinned dragon with blazing claws, a grey armor and a long tail with zig-zag marks upon it appeared in the battle zone. "By its effect I search my deck and bring a second Cocco Lupia in the battle zone. Also, Endra Pappi lets me draw a card!"

"Interesting, unlike other noobs, this one is not recklessly attacking and is actually waiting to build her battle zone. Good to see some potential in this sea of weakness. However, this isn't a dueling test, she's had her chance and she's flunked, so I'll show no mercy." Subaru made up his mind, after which he showed a Darkness card to his opponent and announced. "I summon Funk, Guard of Hope."

A horned creature with long purple claws and an X scar on its chest, riding a skull motorcycle and wearing a red fur jacket materialized in the battle zone and the wheels of its vehicle fired a wave of darkness that hit the girl's birds and killed them all.

"While Funk is in the battle zone, all of your psychic creatures get -5000 power. Also, all of your non-psychic creatures get -1000 power. And as most of you should know, a creature with 0 or less is destroyed." Subaru explained, enjoying the surprised look that her eyes betrayed, despite the fake image of calm she tried to keep.

"I summon Mach Lupia."

A red bird with long black wings, one of them holding a fan, appeared above Bolshack NEX. With that move, the blonde ended her turn. Subaru placed the sixth card in his mana zone and with a smile on his face he revealed the last card in his hand and said:

"It's fun time – thanks to Shackle Armor, I cast Aquan Jr.'s Delivery for just two mana."

The top three cards of his deck revealed themselves as Jenny, the Suicide Doll, Hyperspatial Emperor Hole and Chief de Baula, Machine King of Mystic Light, the first two being Darkness, the third being Light, all going into his hand. Afterwards the other four cards in his mana zone tapped themselves as he revealed the Darkness spell and continued:

"I then cast Hyperspatial Emperor Hole which destroys Mach Lupia and puts Dias Zeta, the Temporal Suppressor in the battle zone."

In the next moment the bird blew up and then out of a hole in the ceiling a winged hybrid between a demon and a dragon descended, its dark blue skin making it almost merge with the shadows, its sharp swords threatening all its opponents.

"I summon Gaga Pikarian!" the girl said and a white baby alien piloting a small mini submarine appeared. "With its effect I draw a card. Then I summon another Gaga Pikarian and I draw another card. I'm done."

"Heh, you sure are…" Subaru maliciously grinned. "My turn, I cast Aquan Jr.'s Delivery."

The top three cards of his deck revealed themselves as Miraculous Snare, Pakurio and Ghost Touch. The middle went into his graveyard for not being Light or Darkness while the other two he took into his hand.

"Then I cast Ghost Touch to discard that card from your hand. Afterwards I cast Miraculous Snare and send a Gaga Pikarian to your shields."

A small black hand made of smoke grabbed the Seventh Tower from her hand and tossed it in her graveyard, after which a blue shield enveloped one of her Gaga Pikarians and made it disappear, giving her a sixth shield.

"Then I attack with Dias Zeta and use his Annihilating Soul Recall effect! With this effect I choose four cards from both our graveyards and return them to the bottom of our decks. For each four cards, you'll have to choose one of your creatures and send it to the bottom of your deck."

One by one, Aquan Jr.'s Delivery, Hyperspatial Emperor Hole, Mind Reset and Ghost Touch went to the bottom of Subaru's deck while Endra Pappi, Mach Lupia and two Cocco Lupias went to the bottom of his opponent's deck, after which she unwillingly chose her remaining Gaga Pikarian and Bolshack NEX, both of which suffered the same fate of going to the bottom of her deck. Now she had no creature left and she watched how the dragonic demon slashed two of her shields.

"I end my turn, and since three of your creatures left the battle zone, I now awaken Diabolos Zeta, Annihilation Awakened!" Subaru exclaimed and in the next moment the blue creature unleashed a loud roar that shook the room as a purple aura surrounded its body and made it grow in size, turning it into a horned skeletal dark purple serpentine demon with two swords in its hands and two cannons upon its shoulders. The girl's jaw dropped at the sight of the monster.

"Diabolos Zeta gives -5000 power to all of your creatures and +5000 to all of mine. Couple that with Funk's -1000 and all of your non-psychics now have -6000. So much for your Dragons coming out to save you, hehehe." the black haired one laughed.

The cards in the girl's hand were Hyperspatial Shooting Hole, Silver Shovel and Peace Lupia, none of which could help in her current situation thanks to the evil known as Diabolos Zeta. Not knowing what to do, she simply punched the table and yelled:

"Shit!"

"Yes, despair, embrace it, for it is the prelude to your actual torment. Diabolos Zeta, quadruple break her shields!" Subaru ordered and the demon swung both its swords and used them to slash off the girl's remaining four shields. "Funk, Guard of Hope, todomeda!"

The raging sounds of the motor's engines echoed in the room as the creature's wheeled vehicle drove towards the slave and knocked her out, her cards spreading all around. Clapping sounds came from the door and Subaru turned to see a proud Rad applauding him for his victory. The darkness duelist nodded and waited for the fire one to join him up there. Once the girl awoke, she found herself bound by chains, her body in an X position sitting above the hole in the machine. A few feet away from her was the one who defeated her, holding a red sword. At the machine's stairs, his red haired partner in crime sat with his arms crossed, eager to see the spectacle.

Drops of sweat quickly fell on the metallic floor. Her breath was growing heavier by each moment that passed. Subaru took his time and the more he stalled, the more he could admire her fear. The sight of him served only to terrify her even more. With each step that he slowly took, she felt that it was getting closer. And how much she wished it were all just a horrible nightmare. But that relief did not come.

"Prepare to meet Eros and Thanatos." was the only thing the black haired man whispered to his victim's ear.

All that the poor blonde could do was whimper and struggle in vain to escape the chains that imprisoned her in front of fate's cruel hand. The red blade touched her cheek without harming her and then it tenderly moved down her neck, afterwards on her chest and belly. His right hand grabbed her left breast with great desire, squeezing it hard even if it was causing her pain. His tongue joyfully danced on her neck, licking the salty drops of sweat greedily. And then the worst of her expectations came true – the blade penetrated her belly button, tearing into her intestines. Blood came out of her mouth, getting mixed with her abundant tears.

Subaru took the blade out and used it to cut her neck open, having its blood fall on her luscious breasts. He leaned to them, sucking on the left one and fondling the other. Unfortunately for her, she was still alive. Having finished his job with her chest, he kneeled in front of her and pulled her underwear off with a fake expression of sensuality on his face. Afterwards he inserted his sword into her genitalia, moving up and down continuously.

The girl was crying with the small power her vocal cords gave her. She was being torn apart in the most painful ways possible and there was nothing she could do about it. Once he felt that he had done enough with the womb, the bloodied sword came out and was inserted into his mouth. The sadist's tongue enjoyed the taste of vaginal blood that he had happily harvested out of her. Then, with one last swing, her breasts fell off.

Subaru walked up to Rad and returned the sword to its rightful owner. A small hint of jealousy was easily read on the racer's face.

"What's the matter?" Subaru asked.

"You handled her in the same way as Tsugumi." Rad replied with a rather annoyed voice that made his partner laugh.

"Haha, don't you worry, you'll get yours tonight, baby."

And with that being said, the darkness duelist descended the stairs, leaving to Rad the honor of sending the girl into the machine to create their beloved Black Fire. As much as he would have liked to sit around and watch the fire duelist pick a victim of his own, he was tired and wanted to catch some rest before his usual night patrol.

* * *

**Doctor Edward Nieg's journal entry (30th of October 2109)**

…_for tough is the path of life, a path we had all been cursed to take ever since birth. The question is when will we reach its final destination?_

_Is it just me or even those two are starting to feel this decline? Subaru has been less interested of patrolling the corridors or scaring those pathetic excuses for duelists lately. Rather, he's spending more time all alone on that balcony whenever he's assured the weather's fine. And when it is not, he stays locked in his room, always buried beneath books or surfing the internet. As for Rad, his temper is growing slowly; he's starting to lash at anyone for the least of mistakes. His murders have become even more brutal, he making sure that every part of his victim feels pain before its mutilation. _

_Speaking of the devil, he's all of a sudden interested in my project of creating a perfect worker for this factory, but instead he wants it to be a 'perfect duelist'. He told me he's disappointed in the state of those slaves and facing them in duels no longer brings him entertainment due to how low their skills are, as well as they can't supply enough fuel for our precious energy source. Gee, you think? They are dropouts for a reason, you dolt! But I digress. The plan is to create the 'perfect duelist' for them two to face in order to supply the machine with enough kaijudo energies to create that Black Fire, so that he'll have only to kill the slaves and not be forced to duel them anymore. _

_I must confess, the thought of giving birth to a being through my own experiments, no, my own medical skills has tempted me for a long time, but my experiments in this domain have always ended in failure. But a duelist? A human being capable of channeling kaijudo energy and bringing to our world creatures from another realm? Who knows? It might just be the biggest achievement in my career._

_Now one must wait for time to pass in order for the answer to come._

* * *

The stench of rotting flesh made the doctor's cabinet and lab impossible to breathe in for anyone except for the old man himself, for he had long gotten used to such smells. All around him, bloodied limbs and organs were spread on the floor, the few ones unlucky enough to survive having to lie on their beds and slowly die while watching the madman sow parts of their bodies together on the operation table. What he was trying to create, they did not have the power or care to think of anymore.

The door opened and Subaru cautiously walked in, his red irises shining in the dimly lit room. He was surprised to see the doctor not react to his arrival and instead concentrate on his project like the devoted man he was. That pleased him. Walking to him, the black haired man took a look around and admired the gore filled scenery. Out of amusement, he stuck his finger inside the opened belly of a 'patient' and got a desired moan of pain as a response. Giggling, he turned to the old man and said:

"Another hard working day, I see?"

"Be quick, I don't have time for your lengthy drivels." Edward Nieg bluntly replied, not even turning his head to greet his guest.

"Now that's rude of you." Subaru faked offense and went to the table to see the creation.

What lay there could have easily been classified more as a mannequin than a human. It lacked skin, and the muscles and meat that were covering its organs made it seem like a red creature of sorts. It still had no eyes, but the doctor was more concerned about its oral cavity, now planting teeth into its gums.

"Beautiful specimen you've got there, have you found out how you will bring it to life?" Subaru asked.

"That's not a problem. I've done this process countless times before and with success. What's more important is to help it adapt to life like a normal human." doctor Nieg explained.

"Its adaptation is not as important as being able to channel kaijudo energy. Do you have any clue as to how you will be able to give it that feat?"

"I am still working on that. Most humans are born with this feat, but managing to implement that into my creations will be my biggest challenge yet."

"One whose success you have to achieve soon for your own good. Rad's growing more and more impatient." the darkness duelist announced and then he leaned to the old man's ear to whisper. "And you know how he gets when he's irritated."

"Yes, I understand perfectly the situation. Be sure to keep him calm, because promising results are what I will bring you!" the doctor reassured.

"I do hope for your own good that it will be so."

In the next moment the mad scientist was all alone with his patients. There was no sign of his visitor to have gone out by the door or window. It was typical of him to perform mysterious disappearances, one character trait of his that Edward Nieg had gone used to see from Subaru.

Rad took a walk through the factory. There were eight years since it had become a part of his life and seven years since he had taken over. Now the machines, the guards, the workers, the slaves, all were his. He could boss them all around and toy with the teens as much as he liked. And to make matters better, he had a successful business and he was not even twenty five yet. Truly, he was an accomplished man who lived life the way he wanted.

Whenever he passed a working room, he stood there for a few moments to admire the scenery, smiling maleficently to whomever dared to raise their sight to him. After living there for so long, he had learned how the human's psyche works under factors of pressure, stress and fear. Thus he knew how to impose himself upon them all, total obedience being all that he demanded. As for those who dared rebel, he and Subaru had made countless examples in the past.

But did his aspirations grow further? Surprisingly, no. Unlike other monsters of human history, he did not want to extend his influence. That single factory with the money he produced and the kids he murdered were enough for him. Plus, it was like Subaru told him, if one wished for too much; they would lose everything they already had. It seemed that now it all satisfied him.

However, there was one little detail that remained stuck at the back of his head. When he looked at the small black flames burning in the machines, he was reminded that their production was in decline, a thing which he could not accept. Selling days were soon approaching and he couldn't afford to get lesser money than usual. He had to produce more, and for that he needed Black Fire, but for Black Fire he needed more kids. Lately the supplies of dropouts from Wally's school had lowered in numbers. Gone were the tens he received per month, now the number resuming to barely five on a good day. Such a thing was unacceptable, and it was a problem he had to deal with quickly before the decline would be felt by the others.

The loud noise of a rubber hitting metal resounded as Rad's boot opened the door to the doctor's cabinet. He walked in with an angered expression on his face, pushing aside the tables with medicine that separated him from the old man, not caring how many vials broke. Edward Nieg got up from his seat and went to greet him.

"Hey, there's no need to break those, they're precious substa…"

Before he could finish his sentence, the tip of Rad's sword's red blade reached his neck, causing him to back down and end up against a wall. Those red eyes pierced right through his soul and he knew there was nothing he could do or say to object to them.

"I don't give two shits about your precious crap! I'm here to talk business." Rad's wrathful voice calmed down a bit, still maintaining its imposing sound.

"Alright, alright, what is it you want to talk about?" a nervous Edward Nieg replied.

"You see, doctor, a business can't go on with lessened production, you should probably know that by your age." the racer alluded and the doctor nodded. "In that case, when am I going to get that perfect duelist? I am growing impatient with all this waiting!" he growled at him and made the man feel the blade slowly press against his neck's skin.

"S-s-soon… I promise it will be done in two weeks' time, I still need to adjust some details, so please don't hurt the process!" the old man begged in a nutshell.

"Tsh, it better be so, doctor." the young one affirmed and sheathed his sword. "Or else both you and your failed experiments will become our brand new Black Fire fuel."

The simple hearing of those words was enough to petrify doctor Nieg. He simply stood there and stared into nothingness as Rad left the cabinet with a malicious laughter. Now it was more than clear to him, it wasn't a matter of saving the business; it was a matter of saving his own life.

Two moans echoed simultaneously as the two males climaxed together. Subaru fell off Rad and landed next to him unto their bed, both holding each other's hand tight. Their breaths of relief united as they turned to look each other in the eye with happy smiles. Night had fallen and soon the black haired one would have to go patrol while the red haired would go to sleep. But first they would share a little more moments together.

"Boy, I never get tired of this." Rad winked and stuck his tongue out a little.

"We must live our youth for as long as we have it." Subaru philosophized and stuck his hand out to take a bottle of wine from the table. "How about we have a little toast? Tonight's a special time, of course."

"Of course, that idiot's birthday." the racer reflected as his partner poured the vine's liquid of drunkenness into two glasses. "Boy was it a pleasure to slice him open. Back then I never thought I'd be rid of that loud mouth of his!"

"Now, now, you know it's not nice to speak ill of the dead." the black haired one joked. "Then again, he was a good friend and all he wanted was for us all to be happy. In the end, he had pure intentions."

"And was an annoying sack of shit in my book ever since day one. Trust me I'm more than glad I chopped him to bits. Hopefully he's burning in hell right now."

"I guess sometimes death and time's passing don't solve all grudges. Here."

As Subaru offered a filled glass, Rad caught his hand and looked at him with tender eyes, admiring his beauty. To think that such a handsome man was able to cause so many heart attacks and even more gruesome murders… surely he was his soul mate. The other hand of the racer reached the long and dense black mane of his partner and he stroked it gently, his fingers enjoying the soft touch of his hair. Blushing a bit, he spoke:

"I know it's kind of sappy for me…"

"Mm?"

"…but I love you." Rad got up, his lips uniting with those of his partner in a short kiss.

"The feeling's the same." Subaru nodded and then both their wine glasses knocked. "A toast! In the memory of our idiotic friend and for our life together! May we live like this forevermore!"

* * *

**Doctor Edward Nieg's journal entry (2nd of November 2109)**

…_ye cruel life, why hast thou bestowed upon me such heavy weights to carry on my back? _

_Ah yes, I felt a little poetic for once in my lifetime, hence the old English. I simply don't know what to do anymore. Rad marched in all angry and impatient on me. I barely managed to buy two more weeks, but if my experiment won't satisfy him by then, it's all over for me._

_Why? After all these years when I treated his wounds and performed my cruel acts upon all those kids, is he willing to betray even me just for that Black Fire of his? Is really that materialistic? Has our friendship mattered at all to him?_

_Today from what I understand is the birthday of one of their chosen duelist friends, the Water one, I think. Called Edo Kanda or something, but from what I heard he was nothing more than a happy-go-lucky lad with a child's heart. What reason could they have had to kill him? Oh right, they wanted to cut most contact from the outer world, that meant their three teammates too. _

_This should be a sign. From the looks of it they are willing to betray even friendship for murder. That means that they only care about each other and that's it. Such damned hearts._

_To think that those two took over our glorious factory, I should have known seven years ago that inexperienced youngsters will only lead us to failure. Reckless killing, greed for money, devaluing our products by selling as much as they could… it was a recipe for disaster and I was blind to it for over half a decade. But it's too late to go back now. They're too stuck in their delusion of bloody glory to listen to any reasonable advice._

_As for me, I'll have to give my best in creating this 'perfect duelist'. I do have a few brief ideas that I can try. Bringing a new human to life is quite easy, even if the living bodies end up being worthless. But this one should have worth, as I have discovered a way to make its hands channel kaijudo energy, all that it needs is a little external help. _

_Until then, may science guide me and Subaru keep his lover under control._

* * *

It was a rainy November day. At the Duel Masters school the program was over and students and teachers alike were leaving the building with umbrellas or rainproof coats, while a few preferred to call rocket taxis to fly them home. Sitting all alone in his office, Principal Wally was browsing through some emails he had received from the education minister.

All of a sudden, the door creaked open. He did not pay attention as he was too absorbed in the information his computer's screen was offering. With a passive voice, he spoke:

"If it's you, Luna, leave the tests of the students on my desk and you're dismissed. I'm kind of busy here."

A hand quickly slapped his keyboard and made him jump off his chair in fear.

"Hello, Wally!" Rad greeted him and then he did not wait to be invited to take a seat.

"What are you doing here?" the suited man asked, arranging his brown hair nervously.

"Oh I was just passing by and I thought why not visit an old friend." he alluded while taking a look at the pictures on the walls featuring various Zero creatures such as Wedding, Zenith of "Celebration", Beethoven, Zenith of "Horror" and Yomi, Mankind God.

"I'm happy that you still value our friendship." Wally forced himself to smile, though in his mind he was thinking something else. "Right, you give as much of a damn about friendship as you would about the turds you flush down the toilet."

"You know, I've been paying attention to the news lately and I've seen that this Yomi person and his cult of Oracles are growing in power here."

"Yes, he has this kind of flair in the way he speaks, that's how he's managed to convince many humans to join his cult. But as you've seen in my pictures and probably have guessed, Yomi is not a human, but a creature."

"As if it were hard to notice… Let's be honest, Wally, who the hell in this day and age has long white hair, two pairs of pink wings on their head and dresses up like a priest that worships the granddaughter of that slut from a hundred years ago, I think Lady Gaga was her name?"

"If I were you, I wouldn't rush to judge Yomi by his appearance, especially when your taste in fashion is no better."

"Yeah right, at least I look way cooler than whatever the hell he's supposed to be. And don't worry, I've heard Yomi preach, and it's the usual mumbo jumbo about how worshipping their Gods and conforming to their bullshit beliefs we'll all live in peace. Been there, heard that."

"You fail to understand the true meanings behind Yomi's words, Rad. He intends to use the power of Zero to fix the damage that wars have done upon our countries. Also, the beliefs of the Oracle cult are about using power to bring harmony upon the world. While other religions of this world have only caused 'holy wars' to impose their beliefs upon others, the Oracle cult wishes to impose themselves through miracles, because in the end actions speak louder than words."

"Miracles, you say? And just what miracles did this guy do?"

"He and his Oracles preserved the power of Zero and used it to revive fallen creatures as Oraclions which are now worshipped in special cults dedicated to them."

"Hahaha, that's it?" Rad laughed. "If reviving creatures is a miracle, I should probably get myself an Inferno Sign or Babelginus, Demonic Dragon and start reanimating my creatures. Maybe that's how I'll have people worshipping me as some bullshit high priest."

"Rad, please don't mock the Oracles! They are trying their best to finally bring harmony in our dueling society! Once we've been rid of the scummy weaklings and the strong duelists have reached their peaks, this entire world will be unified in total peace under the leadership of Yomi!" Wally affirmed, but his interlocutor could do nothing besides laugh even more in his face.

"Come on, Wally, cults, religion, Oracles? Do you even listen to yourself? Wake up and smell the bullshit, history's repeating itself! Subaru's shown me how many times these cult leaders get corrupted by power and end up manipulating those inside their cult to achieve their own goals. Do you really think that gay pride parade loser isn't planning to brainwash you all into obeying him?"

"That's enough!" the principal hit his desk with a fist in a fit of rage and got up, staring angrily at the racer. "I will not allow you to insult the greatness of Yomi anymore! Our utopia will arise soon and there is nothing you or anyone else can do about it! Now get out before I call the guards to escort you!"

In the very next moment Rad pulled the sword out of his sheath and used it to stab the security alert button. Then he turned the blade to Wally, who gulped and backed away, ending up against the glass wall.

"You seem to be forgetting who the boss here is, Wally." the fire duelist affirmed and placed his sword's tip upon the chest in which the brown haired man's heart raced. "I could slice you to shreds with just a few swings and not be caught even in a million years."

Wally looked better at him and saw nothing but anger into those pools of red that lied in his orbits. If Rad Flames were ever a hero, that time was long gone, because now he fitted the best profile of a villain.

"What do you want from me?" the brown haired principal mumbled.

"Oh I think you know very well." the red haired racer whispered maliciously.

"If it's students, I can't send any to you this week!" Wally confessed, his body beginning to tremble.

"And why the hell not?!" Rad growled, the sword tearing through the brown suit.

"It's as surprising to me as it is to you, but somehow this year most of my students have become more serious with their studies and now they excel in their domains quite a lot. I don't know what happened with them, but there are very few in my school who have no interest whatsoever in learning the secrets of this game. In a way it pleases me to see that they are finally maturing."

"I don't give a fuck what pleases you! All I want is material for my factory, and I want to know when I'm going to get it! Or would you like to become said material?"

"No, no, listen, Rad, I think I know how we can work this out."

"Oh, you do? Be sure to cook something good if you value your pathetic life."

"Sure, just put that sword away."

With skepticism, Rad sheathed his sword and allowed Wally to sit at his desk once again. Now he stood behind his chair and watched what the principal was typing on his computer. Upon the screen a calendar appeared and Wally said:

"During the last week of December and the first week of January we are having winter holidays. When the school starts again, I'll do an evaluation of the students and send the weakest to you if you wish."

"Do you think I have that much time? Make it the last week before the holidays!" Rad demanded and Wally sighed, nodding in compliance.

"Alright, I will give them a test in the middle of December and those with the lowest results will be sent to your factory. Are you pleased now?"

"Very pleased, actually. Just know this, Wally, if I don't get a good amount of students, I'll come back once again, and next time I don't think I'll control myself anymore."

As Rad walked out of the office, Wally rubbed his temples. His day had been tiresome enough with all those projects he had to send to the minister of education and the last thing he needed was a visit from that crazy nut. On one hand, his goals had been accomplished at last and his school and city had been mostly purified from the weak duelists that were putting their game to shame. But on the other hand, his life was now threatened. What could he do about it? If he even dared bringing up the fact that their deal was over, he would most likely be chopped to pieces. The only solution was to sacrifice some of the weaker students, even if they were up to his standards. How much it pained him to do this, but he had no other choice. He had made a bet with the devil and now that devil was striking him hard for such a mistake.

Rad's rocket landed on a hill and its pilot got out, with his hands in his pants' pockets and the humid air's breeze blowing against him and messing his hair even more, he took a look at the city. So many memories, childhood, early teens, friends, family, all those had been left behind in pursuit for his true pleasures. Now in those eight years that city had become even shinier than before and he could notice that they were working on erecting a new temple that would be the tallest building in that metropolis, overshadowing the mall. No doubt, it was the Oracle cult of that Yomi guy. Things had changed and yet he had not once bothered to look for his close ones. He had murdered his fellow chosen duelists and he had also cut contact with his parents. Speaking of which, were they even alive? A small smile appeared on Rad's face, for he knew that his mother would mostly likely cry many streams of tears if she were to meet him again, while his father would scold him for not talking to them anymore and making them worry. But having in mind that he had always appeared on TV with his Grand Prix races, most likely they had shunned him or were dead. Spitting on the ground, he got back in his rocket and flew off, as rain once again began to fall from the sky.

* * *

**Doctor Edward Nieg's journal entry (7th of November 2109)**

…_is there no limit to how much one can endure? Oh death, why are you and your relief so far from my reach?_

_It feels like these days I'm losing my mind more and more. I barely get any sleep, and when I do, he's always there, with his sword ready to slash me awake and make me resume my work out of fear. These past five days have been living hell and it will certainly keep on going. _

_The perfect duelist, it's doing fine so far, but there are still too many details to work upon. Sure, the body is technically ready, but I still have to decide whether it should have a gender at all. Also, before I give life to it, I need to be sure that the organs I sowed in place will be able to assure life. This one has to be different from the others, who all died in less than a day. Yes, this one must and will have a normal human's lifespan! This is why I am so obsessed with details, I cannot fail this time! _

_Theoretically, the kaijudo energy channeling won't be a problem, as I have devised a machine through which I can transfer some of mine into its hands until it catches on. The problem is… that it requires the perfect hands for such a mission, and my materials are weakling dropouts. I will have to hope for the best on this one. What shall make me sure that the channeling will work for this subject will be when I program this machine of mine to artificially use said energy, as if it were alive. If it will be able to bring even the smallest of creatures from the other realm into ours, then this step will be done and its lifespan will be my only worry._

_But to be quite honest, I am starting to crave for the old days. Back then we thought that we would live this sort of life forever… I have been keeping this e-journal of mine ever since I was hired at this factory fifty years ago. It is both a history of this place's events and my personal testimony to my achievements in life. So much time has passed, so many faces came and went, yesterday's friends became today's memory. _

_How I long for the sixties and seventies, when this place was nothing more than a normal factory where people produced mechanical pieces and sold them in a clean and official business. The workers, the guards, the medics, we were all a family that worked together for our common survival. But that was until that fateful year of 2079 when that cursed demon came in our lives and turned us in either victims or executioners. And now here I am, the last one of my generation who is still standing against time's cruelty. Now I realize, those two are nothing more than Dorballom's pawns. Subaru is that goat's chosen duelist and Rad had been corrupted by madness to serve their goals. I wonder, are they even aware of that? Even if they are, they probably don't care, as long as they live their twisted life._

_Curse that demon, because of him this place had been turned into a slaughter house. Even I, who have sworn the oath of Hippocrates, have been reduced to nothing more than a mad butcher. Yes, I confess, I too have fallen into this madness. Seeing so many slaughters for so long snapped something in me and had me wish to do some of my own. All of my previous pages are testimonies of how far I have went with my experiments, and now as I look back at all of them, I wonder if it was all worth it. In the very end, no matter how many we kill, death will also come for us one day. But if Dorballom thinks that I'll keep on playing his game, he's got another thing coming!_

_Yes, this is my factory, I am one of its first workers and I will not it fall into the hands of two butt buddies who worship a goat! Even if I will rejoin my true friends in nonexistence or whatever afterlife there might be, I'll be sure that before I go, this place will not remain in their hands. This is the second oath that I will make in my life!_

* * *

**Doctor Edward Nieg's journal entry (16th of November 2109)**

_I don't believe it, another glorious experiment has failed! Why? Why did it have to fail? It was my hardest effort upon which I put all of my knowledge. It didn't have to fail! Not after the sacrifices that I made…_

_I had realized soon after testing many hands that those weaklings simply can't channel proper amounts of kaijudo energy, so I picked the only option I had left. I had amputated my left hand and attached it to the perfect duelist. It had my own hand, it shouldn't have failed! But it still did… A few hours ago, after sticking skin upon its body, I went for the last part – the animation process. You know the deal, the good old zapping its heart until it starts beating. And it worked, it was alive! Blood was flowing through all those vessels I carefully placed in the exact places, it was breathing through those lungs… you get the general idea. But then its left hand erupted with so much kaijudo energy that went out of control and before I knew it, the entire body exploded. All of my hard work went goodbye in a few seconds. It was then when I remembered that we humans are born with this energy channeling through our hands, but when we are little it is in small amounts and we have time to learn how to tame it until adulthood. Here? I gave my own matured hand to something that had just been born. Such a terrible and elementary mistake, maybe I am going senile._

_In the end, what am I going to show Rad today when he comes in my laboratory? If he sees another failed experiment, it's curtains for me, and I don't want to go like this. If I want to survive, I'll have to cook up a good plan. It's come down to this, either I go or they go. The nightmare has to end and I think I've got an idea on how to combat them. _

_If fate wishes that I don't survive today, this shall be my final entry. Whoever reads this, know that everything which I have typed here is true. The factory exists and the atrocious things committed inside need to be stopped, not only for the good of mankind, but for the triumph of human morality over our inner animal._

_This is Doctor Edward Nieg, signing out. If there is a God out there, may he be with you, for he has abandoned me a long time ago…_

* * *

Letting out a sigh, the old man pressed the 'send' button and mailed his lengthy Microsoft Word document, after which he closed the laptop. He then turned to the mirror to see a life-struck figure upon which the wrinkles of age changed a once young and filled with life face. The eye patch and scar on the left side of his face had truly made him unrecognizable from the young ambitious medicine student he once was. He raised his left hand, which was now a metallic prosthesis, and rubbed his cheek to feel its coldness.

The door slammed open and Rad's voice resounded in the cabinet:

"Time's up, doctor!"

It was then that it hit Edward Nieg, the time had come. No more reflections, no more planning, he had to act now, or else everything would have been in vain.

Rad stepped in with his sword ready to perform the punishing act in case he would have been greeted with failure. Pulling away the curtains, he only saw a massive amount of dying mutilated bodies that belonged to the student failures. Upon the operation table, the few remains of what should have been the perfect duelist.

"Why that fucking son of a bitch…" Rad spat and he started pushing around tables and closets, breaking apart many vials and syringes. "Where are you?! Come out, you good for nothing geezer!" his shouts filled the entire lab.

But little did he know that the good old doctor had a little emergency escape pod lying under the bathroom's sink which he used to get out to the corridor. Now he was running around, trying desperately to find the one room in which he could perform his plan, and when all would be said and done, the factory would no longer be the same.

"Nieg!" the racer's voice shrieked in the halls as he walked out of the room.

"Sir!" two tall muscular masked guards dressed fully in black ran to him.

"Go find Edward Nieg and bring him to me immediately!"

"Understood, boss!"

With two quick salutes, they ran to the southwestern side of the factory while Rad went in the opposite way. The fire duelist pulled out his phone, typed a number and spoke:

"It's the doctor. Find him and hold him until I get there."

"He failed, right?" Subaru's concerned voice spoke from the other side of the line.

"Miserably, and you know what that means." Rad alluded.

"Such a pity, he was a good doctor."

"Was."

As Edward Nieg had been aware, most of the factory's personnel were searching for him. In order to induce them in error, he avoided that one room he sought for some time, instead opting to visit places such as the cafeteria, the storages and so on where he left misleading clues of his presence like dropping a syringe, spilling a bottle of medicine or tearing a piece of his lab suit.

While he was pushing eighty years of age, his hearing was still pretty well, just as his sight. As such, he was able to listen to the running steps and deduce when his pursuers had reached the places where he had planted his fake clues. Like he suspected, they followed the fake trail and went in the opposite direction to his, assuring that he would not be bothered.

And now there he was, in front of that large door upon which the words 'WARNING – UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL KEEP OUT' were written in red upon black. How many times he had passed by that place, how many times had he participated to the horrors that were going on inside, but there was always a chilling sensation that he felt whenever he would even think of that room, almost as if the devil himself was in charge of it.

"All or nothing!" the man whispered as he pushed it open.

The windowless room that was dimly lit by the red neon lights greeted him with the smell of blood mixed with that of machine pieces. Sitting against a wall, the large wingless red dragon with a blonde mane and samurai gear upon his body opened his eyes and set them upon the intruder. Before Genji Double Cross could do something about it, a humanoid like creature the same size as him, made of liquid, lashed at him and the two had a small struggle until the dragon was knocked unconscious by Truename Academian and fainted on the floor. The creature then disappeared along with the blue aura from the doctor's right hand. With that final disturbance out of his way, he could concentrate on his mission at last.

There, in the very center of the room, lying imposingly was the giant wine glass shaped contraption under which all conveyor belts ended. That cursed machine in which so many had been sacrificed, all just to create that Black Fire in a way that resembled a gory ritual perfectly. The very root of young Rad's insanity, for the doctor recalled the very day he had seen the racer sacrifice his first victim to that device, and he had witnessed how that fear of his turned into dominance and bloodlust.

"Well, it's time to get to work." Edward Nieg affirmed and he pulled out of his lab coat a few computer programing devices which he attached to it.

Figuring out how to break the machine's system's codes was a hard task, but with the help of a few hacking tips he had gotten from the internet, he would try his best. Unfortunately for him, time was running out, as those that pursued him had already reached the half of his faux trail. Around midnight they would have realized that they were on a wild goose chase and thus would turn their attention to the only unexplored place left, the very one he wanted them to stray away from.

The minutes that went by seemed like hours, especially for someone whose expertise wasn't in computers, but the task had to be done. Reprogramming was a pain, but the bigger pain was installing new security codes. All that he needed was just the time. Fortunately for him, it seemed that fate was on his side, as a rat fell out of the air vent above his cabinet. When the guards had found the opening to the vent, they assumed he had used it for his escape and a new search was started there.

"It's done." the doctor concluded and disconnected his devices off of the large contraption. "For once, a successful experiment…" he proudly spoke with a hint of sadness in his voice.

The melody of the quick raindrops coming from outside was there to congratulate him on his work. And yet for some reason the air was getting unusually chilly in the room. A faint smile appeared on the old man's face and he turned to see what it was.

"Murderer!" the body of a girl with her belly dissected wide open shouted, she grabbing his arm with her cold hand and looking at him with vengeful eyes.

"My very first victim…" he reflected.

"Sadist!" the body of a short young teen with a tail attached unto the end of his spine and animal skin sown upon his own pulled his pants.

"My first experiment…" the doctor noticed.

"Tormentor!" a tall boy with his entire skin peeled off of him growled and grabbed him by his lab coat.

"My first punished one…" the old man remarked.

"Failure!" an artificially sown human grabbed his head and forced him to look into his Frankenstein-like face.

"Heh, my first human…" Edward Nieg spoke melancholically.

"Interesting." Subaru said as he walked out of the shadows. "There are no signs of guilt, shame, nor fear."

"When you are capable of serious introspection, such tricks are nothing more than pitiful attempts to your eyes."

"Now this is something new."

With a simple snap of his fingers, Subaru called off the ghostly illusions, the demonic man going face to face with the doctor, who dusted himself and spoke:

"Keep your Halloween games for those weak enough to buy into them. I am not your fool."

"You're brave, doctor, I like that." Subaru said while his hand played in his long black mane, the shining red irises of his black demonic eyes being fixated on the traitorous medic. "And here I expected you to be running away from your impending punishment."

"I've been running away my entire life. It is time I faced my demons." doctor Nieg affirmed with a conformed voice.

"Since you want to play with cards on the table, tell me, doctor, is there anything that can scare you anymore?"

"When I see the faces of my victims cursing me in my sleep and now recently Rad and his sword threatening my very existence? No, young one, I have gone beyond the borders of human fear."

"Why? Out of them all, why you, doctor Nieg? You were our most valuable friend and ally. It shouldn't have come to this."

"Save your compassion for your ass buddy, Subaru. He's the only one you truly care for anyway. And to answer your question, time changes us all; regardless of how much we like to delude ourselves that we are still the same. In the end, I simply evolved naturally apart from you two and your sick goals."

"You don't know how sorry I am to hear this."

"Don't show me your pity. It's the last thing I want from you after what you two have done to me."

After all these years in which Subaru successfully instilled paralyzing fear into all of his victims, exploiting their innermost phobias and struggles, he had finally met his match. Doctor Edward Nieg looked like he had nothing to lose anymore and did not fear fate's cruel hands. Since he was no longer attached to anything in this world and seemed like he was ready for the big journey, he was truly out of Subaru's reach. As such, he was defying him in this position.

"There you are!" Rad spoke from the entrance.

"Well, well, look who's joined the party." the doctor greeted him with open arms.

"You motherfucker have a lot to answer." the red haired one spoke while approaching slowly like a predator, the blade in his hand thirsty for blood.

"And answer I shall, if you allow me."

Much like Subaru, Rad was surprised that the old man showed no sign of intimidation whatsoever. He stopped by his partner's side and said:

"Well, let's hear your explanation, and it better be a good one."

With the aura of a researcher, Doctor Edward Nieg started walking in circles, holding a speech that would have been more suited in an academic environment.

"As you know very well, this factory has been basing its work on the production of Black Fire. The way this otherworldly resource has been produced was through the sacrifice of still living mutilated human bodies, mixed with Darkness and Fire kaijudo energies. However, in the past months I had been doing some independent research on my own. I secretly took a bit of Black Fire in a small container and analyzed its components in my lab. From the looks of it, our world's air cannot keep it burning for long, hence the need to perform this daily ritual of yours. It was last week that I discovered the best way to conserve it. I have created a perfect environment and after twenty four hours I had seen that in such an environment these darkened flames burn with the same power."

Such a discovery shocked both Subaru and Rad. While the demonic one stared at the doctor in disbelief, the racer's eyes were being fixed on the floor, as he whispered:

"I've run this place for seven years. I've seen friends of mine pass these doors and massacred by my very own hands. And now here you come to tell me…" his voice then rose to a shout. "…that it was all for nothing?! That everything could've been avoided from the very beginning? Are you fucking kidding me, doctor?!"

"You are wrong, Rad, I have recently discovered this new method! But now it's pointless to dwell in the past, now we must think of the future. There will be no need to murder any more kids! We can just replicate this Black Fire and get back on our feet. If back then our business was the most flourishing, imagine how it can be when we conquer all the black markets. Once the news about our resource is spread, everyone will want to work with us. Our resource will be infinite and we can charge for it as much as we want. Just think of it all, boys."

"Do you realize what shit you've just spewed out of your mouth?" came the cold reply from the fire duelist. "We're doing this entire world a favor by getting rid of those worthless excuses of human beings that have the nerve to call themselves duelists. After so much killing, do you think we can just forget it all and start from scratch? Besides, how the fuck do you expect me to market our place when there are few people who know about what we've been doing and whom so far I've managed to keep their mouths shut? If we do become the top of the industry market, how long do you think it will take until they decide to spill the beans and ruin our supposedly clean business?"

"What's wrong with you, Rad? I have proposed to you the best way to save our business without casualties and you're willing to refuse it just because you're aroused by bloodshed?!" a frustrated Edward Nieg shot back.

"Yes. In case you didn't get the memo, I'm an insane fuck." Rad bluntly replied. "Subaru's also insane, and you were once the same. And it seems the regaining of your sanity is what shall cost you your miserable life."

"Before you decide to do anything to me, know that I've completely reprogrammed your dear machine which you've used to slaughter many with. It can no longer absorb kaijudo energies and I have implanted in it the airless environment it needs to sustain Black Fire. Here, take a look at the flames you've created a few hours ago."

And so, the doctor stepped aside, and to the amazement of both Rad and Subaru, the Black Fire did not lose its power, there were no small black flames, instead it was burning as strong and majestic as when the slave had been sacrificed for its creation eight hours ago.

"This can't be… what he said actually worked…" a stunned Subaru uttered.

"And know that you cannot program it back to how it once was. The new codes I've set are unbreakable even by the smartest of hackers." the doctor crossed his hands as he enjoyed with satisfaction the shocked looks on their faces. "Face it, this nightmare is over. The factory will turn to a new page in its history."

"You bastard!" Rad punched the old man, who fell on his back. "Do you realize what you've just done?!"

"Offered you a new alternative, that's what I've done." Edward Nieg got up and wiped the blood falling from his nose. "Now are you strong enough to change yourselves as well?" he asked while pulling out his own deck. "Or in the end, will we have to resort to this yet again?"

"You should know the answer by now…" the red haired male replied and took out his deck as well.

The two decks shined brightly and two pairs of dueling tables arose from the floor. Both walked to them, set their cards and began their match.

"I summon Aqua Teacher!" the doctor said and a humanoid made of liquid dressed like a professor and holding a book in its left hand appeared by his side.

"I summon Kodamanma, Gil Gil Puppet!" Rad said and a white doll with sharp claws, no eyes and a large mouth with sharp teeth and a snake tongue appeared. "With its effect I return one of my shields to my hand. Strike Back – Fire, I discard Roadster, Double Blast and put Dual Shock Dragon in the battle zone!"

A red armored dragon with golden wings and two swords in its hands appeared, causing one of Rad's shields to go to his graveyard, the card being Genji Double Cross, Blastdragon.

"I summon Aqua Vehicle!" Edward Nieg said and a green submarine made of water appeared. "Aqua Vehicle has no effects; it's a vanilla creature, so Aqua Teacher lets me draw a card for summoning it."

"I summon Bronze-Arm Tribe!" the racer said and a green humanoid horse wielding a large fork and a shield appeared, causing the top card of his deck to go to the mana zone. "Dual Shock Dragon, double break his shields!"

"I block with Aqua Teacher!"

The mighty dragon flew towards the doctor, but the liquid professor stood in its way and received the slashes from its swords instead.

"Kodamanma, break his shield!" came another order from Rad and the white doll successfully took down one of the doctor's shields.

"Shield trigger, I cast Spiral Gate, send Dual Shock Dragon back to his hand!" the doctor showed the Water spell he had gained from his shields and watched how a whirlpool surrounded the dragon and made it disappear, its card going into Rad's hand. "My turn, I summon Aqua Evoluter and attack with Aqua Vehicle, break his shield!"

A blue liquid humanoid with a purple cape appeared in the battle zone and the green submarine went towards its opponent's side, breaking one of his shields as well.

"Strike Back – Nature, I discard Faerie Gift and put Ochappi, Pure Hearted Faerie in the battle zone!" Rad said and an orange haired fairy dressed in white and wielding a staff materialized in the battle zone. "With its effect I send Faerie Gift from my graveyard to my mana zone."

"I end my turn." the doctor announced.

"It's fun time, I summon Magnum, Fast Attack Puppet!" the racer announced and a doll dressed in a cowboy suit consisting of brown boots with red flames, blue jeans, a blue shirt covered by a brown vest, a brown cape and a hat with red flames covering its head appeared and loaded both its guns, eager for battle. "Magnum is a speed attacker and whenever we put a creature in the battle zone without paying its cost, it will be destroyed. Go, Magnum, destroy Aqua Vehicle!"

The puppet loaded its guns and a rain of bullets made the submarine explode.

"Then, Ochappi, Bronze-Arm Tribe and Kodamanma, break his shields!" came another order and the creatures obeyed it, attacking the opponent and reducing the number of his shields from four to one.

"Shield trigger activate, I summon Aqua Surfer!" doctor Edward Nieg said and the blue surfer appeared in the battle zone, hitting the white doll with its surfboard. "With its effect I send Kodamanma back to your hand!"

Unfortunately for him, after Aqua Surfer got rid of the white puppet, the cowboy one shot it to death with its bullets.

"Of course, it was a shield trigger creature, I didn't pay for its cost." the grey haired man sighed. "My turn, since Aqua Evoluter makes all of my evolution creatures cost one manaless, I evolve him into Crystal Super Paladin!"

The caped liquid humanoid then morphed into a blue crystal centaur with four arms, wielding two swords and two shields.

"Go, Crystal Super Paladin, destroy Magnum!" the doctor ordered and his creature galloped towards the cowboy puppet and slashed it into pieces with its swords.

"Nice match, doctor, but I think it's time you became a bad memory. I summon Pulsar, Trans Suction!" Rad said and a red haired humanoid with a vacuum in its stomach appeared. "With its effect I discard my hand and draw two cards." he said and tossed into his graveyard the cards of Kodamanma, Gil Gil Puppet and Dual Shock Dragon in exchange of two new ones from his deck."Then I summon Taiga, the Warrior Savage!" he continued and a humanoid dressed in a tiger armor and with a gun for a right arm also materialized. "Bronze-Arm Tribe, break his final shield!"

The horse swung its fork and used it to penetrate the old man's final shield. Unfortunately for him, he had no shield trigger to rescue him.

"Any famous final words?" Rad asked, his hand ready to tap Taiga's card and give the final attack.

"Just this…"

Before the racer could react, Edward Nieg tossed one of his cards upon his opponent's hand, giving him a small cut and stopping him from giving the finishing blow. Then he ran up the stairs of the machine.

"Rad, are you alright?!" Subaru ran to his lover.

"Don't worry about it, it's just a cut." Rad replied and pulled out his sword, heading after the doctor.

Having reached the device's top, the misunderstood scientist stood at the edge of its hole, staring at the Black Fire burning beneath. It seemed that in the end he could not reach to them, but at that point it didn't matter to him anymore. He had lived a long life, enriched with every beauty of the human experience, as well as every ugly part. He had known happiness and sadness, pleasure and pain. But most importantly, after devoting himself to science and having suffered the disappointment of many failed experiments, at least his very final one has both been a success and its impact had changed the course of the factory in which he had spent three quarters of his life. In that aspect, he was an accomplished man.

"There's no escape for you anymore!" Rad awoke him from his thoughts once he got up, his sword ready to taste the old man's flesh.

"You know, I have done many mistakes in my life. My biggest one was without a doubt conforming to your way of thinking." Edward Nieg explained with a smile, his arms stretching in a cross position. "In the end, I was just another one of your victims…"

And so he fell into the pit, his arms greeting the devouring Black Fire with an embrace of death, his tired eyes finally closing for his craved eternal rest.

A month had passed since that fateful day. Back at the city, Wally was sitting on a chair along with other important people from the city such as the mayor, the chief of police, the prefect and so on. They were all gathered there in the new temple to hear Yomi, the leader of the Oracle cult, preach.

"And as such, once they all conform to our new doctrine, our utopia will be finally installed upon this world." Yomi firmly declared, receiving many 'amen' responses.

But Wally did not pay attention on that day's sermon. His mind was somewhere else, clouded by his worries. His school's students had all scored 80% or above at his recent test, and he was sure he would include many hard questions too. But no, this time there was no sign of lack of knowledge, they were all good at what they were doing. And his heart hurt him a lot; he couldn't possibly have allowed having those with lower scores be sentenced to death, especially when their results were still good. Then a possibility hit him hard, making him realize what a mistake he made. He was too pessimistic, he did not help the failures learn, he did not support their will to learn, he did not see that even they had potential and could have made use of it if they were simply guided. So many duelists he could have helped, and instead he just treated them as pieces of meat that deserved to be mercilessly. Truly, he was a shame to his position as a principal of the most famous Duel Masters School, for the example he had set was in no way a good one.

"Is something the matter?" Yomi's calm benevolent voice asked.

Wally woke up from his thoughts. The sermon was over and everyone had left the temple but the two of them.

"Yomi-sama, forgive me, I have done a terrible mistake!" the brown haired man wept.

"Do tell me what happened." the concerned cult leader demanded and sat next to him.

"For many years I have known of a terrible evil existing in our planet, and I did nothing to stop it. Rather, I had helped it. I don't know what to do anymore!"

"What sort of evil do you speak of?"

"See for yourself."

Wally leaned and pulled up his suitcase, opened it and got out his laptop. On the portable computer's screen they saw the opened document which contained Doctor Edward Nieg's journal. A few hours had passed and at last Yomi had finished reading it.

"Now do you see what I was up against? Rad forced me to have my mouth shut and keep providing him with student failures. This is why my students are all perfect now, because those who were not had become that madman's 'materials' as he calls them." the guilt filled Wally confessed and fell on his knees crying. "Forgive me, Yomi-sama, I was too much of a coward to stand up against them! But now I cannot give him my students anymore, I don't know what to do."

"Worry not, Wally. It is good that you have brought this matter to me. In a week we shall organize a little expedition to this factory which you shall lead. If we have to, we will close that place by force!"

"I understand, Yomi-sama. If this is be a way for me to wash some of my sins, I will gladly lead this expedition."

"Good." the man with long white hair smiled to him. "I suggest you go home to rest and then prepare yourself for the battle that is about to come. And fear not, for the power of the Zero is with the Oracles, so we shall not fail!"

To Wally, Yomi's kind words were the only comfort he needed. Under his leadership he felt safe and knew that he would have the power to defeat this evil that had haunted him for too long.

One more week had passed and on Christmas Eve snow had begun falling upon the forest surrounding the factory. Inside the building, things had indeed changed. The Black Fire was burning stronger than ever and thus the production had vastly increased. The normal workers had doubled their efforts, seeing how well all the machines moved; while the slaves could barely keep up, as between them a little flu epidemic had struck. Since there was no more need for it, they had no longer been sacrificed to the terrible device and now roughly a hundred of them had remained. It was the only light of hope that they still had, despite their lack of feet, despite the awful conditions in which they were enslaved, they still held on to it, so that maybe one day they could breathe the air of freedom once more.

Upstairs, in their bedroom, Rad was lying on the bed covered by a towel after a comforting shower, trying to think of the future of his factory while Subaru desperately tried to invoke Dorballom, Lord of Demons. Sitting on his knees, the black haired man had both his hands with purple auras upon the Darkness card and with tears coming from his brown eyes, he cried out:

"I beg of you, Lord Dorballom, answer me!"

But like all the other tens of times he attempted the past weeks, it ended in failure. The demon did not appear to him and he was just standing there, talking to a card.

"Why have you forsaken us, master? What have we ever done to deserve such a thing?" Subaru desperately asked. "Were we not worthy enough? Have we not followed your orders as you wished us to? Give us a sign, dammit!"

"Fuck that goat, Subaru, he's abandoned us and we don't need him anymore." Rad awoke him to the harsh truth.

"He couldn't have, we were his chosen ones to carry his mission…" the darkness duelist rationalized.

"And yet he won't talk to us anymore. I say we stop caring. He's not worth our time. We've got a factory to rule over and we don't need his advice anymore." the fire duelist suggested and with a small sob, his partner nodded. "Good."

"I honestly don't know what we should do anymore, Rad. The business is going great, but without any necessary murders, it just doesn't have the same magic anymore."

"Don't worry, we'll figure something out eventually. Until then, how about you come here and keep me warm?"

Now that was an invitation which Subaru could not refuse. He responded to Rad's patting on the bed by taking off his own shirt and joining him in the covers, where lied his only remaining happiness.

A few hours later, they were both asleep in each other's arms, one of the few peaceful moments that their life offered. But alas, it wouldn't be long lived, as the sounds of sirens awoke them both. It was night and the snowfall had stopped. Rad put on a red bathrobe with yellow flames, designed in the style of his suit, and he headed to their room's balcony. To his surprise, he saw many rockets parked outside and a large army of humans dressed in robes, each wielding a staff, all gathered in front of the factory. No doubt, they were Oracles.

"What's the meaning of this?!" he shouted from the fourth floor, gaining their attention.

"Rad Flames, you are under arrest for the crimes of human traffic, illegal business and murder to name a few!" Yomi's authoritative voice echoed. "Surrender now and there will be no more unnecessary casualties in this place!"

Rad took a better look at them all, an army of fanatics thinking they were holding some great power, and they were obviously led by a corrupt madman who wanted to change the world after his own pleasure. And between them all was Wally, whose fear was still read in his eyes, no matter how well he hid it behind the numeric strength of his team. But in the end Rad realized something, compared to Yomi, he at least had the guts to be honest with himself and who he really was, but this one, like any respectable cult leader, was masking his egomaniac madness under a mask of purity and perfection. How pitiful…

"So let me get this straight, you guys came all the way here to arrest me?"

"Yes, that is correct, and we will not ask a second time for your surrender." Yomi stood his ground.

What followed next was a hysterical laughter coming from Rad. Never before had he been amused so much. Did those deluded cultists not know who he was? If Wally had informed them of the reputation he had in his factory, they would have thought twice before coming to face him.

"You all made your biggest mistake coming here. I dare you motherfuckers to come inside and take me alive!" was his last response before he rushed back in the factory.

Outside, the army of Oracles had all aligned themselves, waiting for their master's orders.

"Men, unfortunately it has come down to this. We shall march in and arrest them all. Be sure to keep them all alive so we can interrogate them better. If for self-defense, you may take their lives. By the dawn of Christmas morning, this factory shall be ours! All hail the Zero!"

The Oracles raised their staffs in agreement and with a war shout they all marched inside, leaving many footsteps upon the snow covered ground. The door was not hard to break open and soon they were making their way through the narrow hall. But as they approached the elevator at its end, they were greeted by a large army consisting of muscular men, all dressed in black and with their heads covered by black masks. Through the speakers came Rad's voice:

"Yomi and co, I bring you the regular workers and guards of my factory. Have fun with them!"

They all reached their hands in unison and pulled off their disguises, revealing themselves to be humanoids with spiky hair, wearing sunglasses and each having one of their limbs turned into a deadly weapon.

"It's the Outrages!" an Oracle gasped.

And how right he was… While the Oracle cult was formed with the intention of global peace under its doctrines, the Outrages were a rebellious group that appeared as a back clash to the cult, rejecting their values in favor of rebellious freedom, even if that meant chaos and anarchy as consequences. Thus, the two groups were at opposite spectrums, and from the looks of it, the Outrages had been working for Rad all this time.

"My men, there is a change in plans, as this factory has been a hideout for these rebels; we shall take them down tonight! Spare no Outrage scum!" Yomi's voice suddenly changed to that of a ruthless tyrant.

What followed next was a huge clash between the two sides.

With the unwanted visitors being kept out of the way for some time, Rad focused on his other priority. Obviously, Wally had to pay for his betrayal, but first he had to get rid of those that they had come to rescue. In no way would he allow anyone to live and tell the tale outside.

The news of the Oracles coming to rescue them had reached the enslaved teens unintentionally when they heard Rad's speech. As such, they agreed to resume their work and not do anything suspicious while waiting for their saviors to come and liberate them from that nightmare. Little did they know that their final light of hope would quickly be shut.

The door slammed open and a grim looking Rad stepped in. They all pretended not to notice him and instead resumed manufacturing the machine pieces. But this time it was different, the head of the factory did not hold any speeches. Instead, he walked to his beloved device which for so many years had helped him produce his desired Black Fire. And now he stared there at those dark flames which would be burning for eternity, always with the same power. As much as he hated to admit it, Edward Nieg had triumphed from the grave.

Rad recalled the first moment he had created that unholy resource, and with a smile on his face, he reached his hand and rubbed the machine with a tenderness that he only showed in bed. Giggling at the happy memories, he muttered:

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust..."

And suddenly, his smile disappeared as he pulled out his sword and turned to the teens. With a swing from the red blade and a scream from one of the girls, his first victim had fallen. But he did not waste time slicing his body open, instead he lashed at another one with the intention of striking one killing blow. It was then that they all realized his true intentions and jumped off their chairs, legless as they were, and crawled with their elbows to the door. Unfortunately for them, Rad had anticipated this move and he locked the door just after he walked in. Now he had all the time in the world to execute them all.

One by one, they all fell in pools of blood on the floor. The sword either stabbed their backs, chests, necks or heads, and by the time the first one had reached the door, there was barely half of teens left. He tried both pulling and pushing the door, but to no avail.

"It's locked!" he let out a desperate shout.

That caused the survivors to scatter around the room, looking for the smallest hint of an exit, but it was futile. They were trapped in the lion's cage and the cat was hungry. Broken bones, brains, eyes, intestines, lungs, hearts, all splattered on the ground as Rad mercilessly slaughtered his victims, no different than a rabid predator. Their cries of help echoed in the room, but nobody on the outside heard them.

Subaru used his own key and unlocked the door, but what greeted him inside were mutilated body parts and the stench of death. And there, near a conveyor belt, Rad pulled off a girl's head from his sword, the last of his victims. The red haired man let his bathrobe fall off him, revealing his naked body which was stained with the blood of all his victims. He admired his sword with pride, the psychotic smile stretched to the edge of his face. Tears fell down his cheeks, washing a bit of the crimson liquid. He raised his left hand which was dipped with the river of life and used it to rub his face, all while coughing a sound that was at the border between laughter and crying.

"Rad…" Subaru whispered, unsure if he should feel happy or sorry for him.

At the first floor, it seemed that both the Outrages and the Oracles had been equal in forces, as the two sides managed to kill each other. There seemed to have been no survivor from those who had fought in the battle, but out of a closet, both Yomi and Wally emerged.

"It was a great idea you thought of this hideout, Yomi-sama."

"Sacrifices have to be made for the greater good, but our cult needs me. Wally, listen, I am going back to our rockets to call for reinforcements. In the meantime, I need you to find your surviving students, if any, and rescue them. Don't look back at our fallen comrades and don't let their memory cloud your mind, they have died for peace and it is your duty to honor their memory by helping accomplish our mission!"

"I understand, Yomi-sama. You can count on me!"

With a formal salute, Wally and Yomi parted ways, the cult leader heading for the exit while the principal entered the elevator. Fortunately for the brown haired man, doctor Nieg's journal helped him a lot, for it gave him the indications to the exact place of the slaves' work room. It was located at the fourth floor, near the center of the factory building. All he had to do was to sneak in without being noticed and get out whatever survivor he found. It would not be an easy task, having in mind that Rad and Subaru must have had their guards up and were ready for anything, but he had to try.

There he was, wandering through the corridors, enduring the closed air, heat and stench of blood and rotting flesh. Wally imagined how his students must have felt the first time they had set foot there. Surely, not the most delightful experience. And he tried to convince himself many times that it was what they deserved, that he was doing society a favor by cleansing it of such lazy scum, but now as he was in their shoes, he realized that nobody deserved such a punishment, no matter how big their sins towards mankind were.

All of a sudden, a chilling breeze filled the hallway, the sudden change on temperature taking him by surprise. The neon lights began to flicker, some even ceasing from shining, darkening the corridor somewhat. The more he walked, the more he noticed that the windows of certain rooms were broken, that the walls had red stains, and that stench persisted more and more. No doubt, he was getting closer.

When he was just a few feet from his desired destination, he saw that a figure stood there, with its back turned against him. Whoever it was had long black hair and was wearing a pair of white sneakers, a pair of blue jeans and a black T shirt. Upon seeing the details better, Wally guessed who it was, and most likely it meant trouble. But why was he standing there? Was he waiting for him? One thing was certain: he had to get his answers. Wally made a few careful steps to the one whose back was turned to him, but suddenly he felt pairs of hands grabbing his feet. When he looked down, he had the shock of seeing the bodies of many of his former students, all with glowing white eyes that lacked irises, all crawling on the ground, all with smiles on their faces.

"What is the meaning of this?!" the principal exclaimed in fear.

"Welcome to your judgment day, Wally." Subaru turned to him, revealing his fanged mouth and demonic eyes that bled tears. "Trust me; your students had missed you."

"Argh, no, you can't do this!" Wally struggled, trying to free his feet from their grips. "I have to rescue them, I have to!"

"Rescue whom? Sorry to break it to you, but they're all dead, Rad just dealt with them all."

"What? Impossible, there were still too many!"

"Indeed they were, but Rad went out of his way to make sure that none of them would survive and be rescued."

"Why? Are you really that cruel that you don't care for the fates of a few poor children at all?!"

"Don't you dare request we have sympathy for those failures when you yourself didn't have any when you gave them into our hands! The deed's been done, Wally, and there's no turning back."

"No, Edward Nieg was right, this nightmare has to end!"

Suddenly Wally's hand erupted with a powerful white aura that symbolized kajudo energy belonging to the Zero. Said aura pushed away all of the zombie illusions and thus he was free. Then he took out his deck and went to Subaru.

"Ah yes, the eternal solution to our conflicts, a duel… Fine, I shall grant you one!" the demonic man replied and pulled out his deck as well.

Two tables arose from the floor and both set their cards on them, starting their match.

"I cast Faerie Life." Wally said and the top card of his deck went into his mana zone.

"I cast Aquan Jr.'s Delivery." Subaru said and revealed the top three cards of his deck which were Falconer, Lightfang Ninja, Hyperspatial Revive Hole and Mil Armor, Mecha King Vizier, all of which went into his hand.

"I cast Prelude of Horror! With its effect the next Zero creature I summon costs 5 mana less, so I now summon Pearljam, Faerie Left God!"

A green haired fairy wearing a mask to cover her face and dressed in a large pink kimono, who was wielding a sword, appeared in the battle zone, giving off a scary woman's laugh. By her effect, Wally sent the top card of his deck to the mana zone.

"I summon Cebu Aquman Jr." Subaru said and a little white baby alien with an X covering its only eye and a mouth filled with sharp teeth appeared in the battle zone, causing the top three cards of his deck to reveal themselves as Berlin, Bell Gravekeeper, Divine Punishment of Heaven and Olzekia, General of Decapitation, all of which went into his hand.

"I summon Massive Attack, Battle Attacking Right God! With its effect I draw a card. Then I link Pearljam with Massive Attack and activate the effects of both! I get another card in my mana zone and draw yet another card."

A blue Cyclops robot with two golden horns on its head and who was wielding a staff appeared and united with the green haired fairy.

"Pearljam Massive Attack, triple break his shields!" Wally ordered and the linked Gods attacked with their sword and staff and took down three of his opponent's shields.

"Shield trigger activate, I cast two Ghost Touch!" Subaru said and watched how Wally discarded Kraft Kwerk, Twin Heaven Right God and Hyperspatial Faerie Hole. "My turn, I summon Jenny, the Suicide Doll and destroy her!"

A red eyed white haired doll dressed in a dark red dress appeared in the battle zone and stabbed herself with her large razor weapon, exploding and causing Wally to discard his last card which was Devo, Twin Horse Left God.

"Then I cast Miraculous Snare and send Pearljam Massive Attack to your shields!" Subaru continued and he watched how the fairy side of the linked Gods disappeared, the blue robot remaining. "I end."

"My turn, I summon Justice, Lord of Spirits Left God!" Wally said and a white lion headed angel appeared in the battle zone while he looked at the top five cards of his deck, out of which he selected one and let the others fall into his graveyard. "I cast Shrine of Rebirth for free and send Faerie Life and Hyperspatial Faerie Hole from my graveyard into my mana zone. Then I link Justice with Massive Attack and draw a card. Go, Justice Massive Attack, break his final shields!"

"Ninja Strike 4, I summon Falconer, Lightfang Ninja and block your attack!"

A white plane like creature flew into the battle zone and took the full blow of Wally's Gods' attack, being destroyed. Thus Subaru had managed to protect his last two shields.

"My turn, I summon Phal Pierro, Apocalyptic Guardian and destroy him! With its effect I return Miraculous Snare to my hand. Then I cast Miraculous Snare, send Justice Massive Attack to your shields!" Subaru said and he watched how the blue robot side disappeared and his opponent gained a seventh shield. "Gravity Zero, I summon Bloody Shadow, Mystic Light Death Knight for free since I cast a spell! I end."

Wally drew his next card, but much to Subaru's surprise, he did not charge mana with it or use it. Instead, he tapped his remaining God in the battle zone and ordered:

"Justice, double break his shields! Attack Chance: Zero creature, I cast Triple Zero, Secret Hell!"

He then revealed the card in his hand which was a cost 7 Zero spell depicting his glorious leader Yomi surrounded by three birds, a yellow, a blue and a green one.

"With Triple Zero's effect I add the top card of my deck to my shields. Then, since I have a Zero creature with cost 6 or more, I draw a card and put the top card of my deck to my mana zone! Go, Justice, break his final shields!"

"Block it, Bloody Shadow!"

The lion angel created a blue energy sphere in its hands and casted it upon its owner's opponent, but then the ghostly knight stood in its way and got destroyed while defending the shields. And now Subaru's turn came again. He drew a card, charged mana and said:

"I summon Jenny, the Suicide Doll and destroy her!"

The suicidal puppet returned once again and did her self-sacrifice routine, this time Wally discarding New Order, Demonic Eye Right God.

"Then I cast Hyperspatial Revive Hole and return Falconer, Lightfang Ninja from my graveyard to my hand. Afterwards I put Black Ganveet, Temporal Soldier in the battle zone and destroy Justice!" Subaru resumed and a horned demon dressed in a golden armor and wielding two blue scythe swords descended from a hole in the ceiling into the battle zone, riding its skeletal horse.

Black Ganveet made his horse gallop towards the lion angel and with two swings from his swords the creature was history. Wally gulped. Now he really was in trouble. If at the end of his turn he had no cards in his hand, Black Ganveet would awaken into Darkness Ganveet and that would mean the end of him. But if he kept cards in his hand, Subaru would most likely discard them on his next turn. He needed a miracle to escape such a situation.

Alas, that miracle came when he drew his next card. His smile of relief brought worry to Subaru.

"You won't keep me in a stalemate forever, you know." the principal confidently spoke.

"What do you mean?" his opponent curiously asked.

"I summon Cyber N World!"

Subaru gasped upon seeing that creature. To Darkness decks that focused on discarding and milling, Cyber N World was ruining both strategies perfectly, recycling both players' graveyards back into their decks, shuffling their hands in their decks as well and giving them five brand new cards in their hand. That meant one thing, the threat of Black Ganveet no longer existed.

He sighed and watched with frustration how that black robotic creature with white armor reset everything he had worked so hard to maintain.

"Then I cast Prelude of Horror and summon Massive Attack, Battle Attacking Right God for just one mana, after which I draw a card!" Wally thus concluded his turn.

"You cheap bastard, you'll pay for this!" Subaru threatened. "I summon Big Day Out, Evil Demon! With its effect I destroy Cyber N World and tap Massive Attack!"

A four armed bull demon that had a skull instead of legs appeared in the battle zone and roared, after which it swung its blue sword and used it to slash the black robot.

"Then I attack Massive Attack with Black Ganveet!" Subaru continued.

"Trying to reset Ganveet? Sorry, can't allow that – Ninja Strike 4, I summon Falconer, Lightfang Ninja and block Black Ganveet!" Wally said and another plane appeared and stood in the way of the demonic cavalry.

"Heh, since you blocked my creature's attack - Ninja Strike 7, I summon Hanzou, Menacing Phantom!" the black haired man showed his own ninja and a demonic purple frog appeared and with its mace tongue it took down the other robot as well. "I give -6000 power to Massive Attack, destroying him!"

"So he has more tricks up his sleeve… I'll have to finish this quick before I regret dragging this duel too long." the brown haired man thought and then he spoke. "I cast Faerie Gift and with its effect I summon Justice, Lord of Spirits Left God for just four mana!"

The white angelic lion reappeared and allowed its owner to look at the top five cards of his deck and select a spell to cast for free yet again.

"Then I cast Prelude of Horror and I summon Daft Punk, Lord of Demons Right God for two mana! With Daft Punk's effect I revive Massive Attack and draw another card!" Wally said and a purple horned bird demon appeared by his side, followed by the blue Cyclops robot, the angel and the demon uniting. "God Link – Justice Daft Punk! And since I linked those two Gods, they don't suffer of summoning sickness, so I attack with Justice Daft Punk, break his final shields!"

"Argh!" Subaru growled as the shield shards hit him and he remained defenseless.

After so many years of dueling weaklings, the black haired man had forgotten what it was like to have a real challenge. And now there he was, cornered by his opponent. He had underestimated Wally and with a single card the game had been turned against him. But was it the end? No, he wouldn't give up that easily, that was simply not the way Darkness worked. His hand erupted with a large purple aura as he drew his next card and quickly placed it upon his table, shouting:

"Black Ganveet, evolve into Ballom, Lord of Demons!"

The golden armored demon got surrounded by a similar aura and it morphed into a blue winged and blue skinned goat demon, wearing an armor made of white bone and a pair of red pants, its feet crossed in a meditation position.

"When Ballom is put in the battle zone, all non-Darkness creatures are destroyed!" Subaru announced and he watched how his goat demon fired a wave of darkness which killed his Cebu Aquman Jr. along with Wally's Massive Attack and the Daft Punk which he unlinked. "Now go, Ballom, attack Justice!"

The blue goat demon waved its hands, creating a purple energy sphere which it cast upon the white angel and made it explode. With that, Subaru ended his turn. He was one mana short from summoning Dorballom, so he had to wait until next turn, and then he would have won the game. In his battle zone he had both Ballom and Big Day Out, which were Demon Commands that he could evolve into his desired finisher.

"Please, Yomi-sama, I pray that the power of Zero help us!" Wally thought and then he spoke to his opponent. "My turn, I summon Yomi, Mankind God! With his effect I draw three cards!"

"What?!" a surprised Subaru reacted.

The leader of the Oracles materialized in the battle zone, the long white hair and pink wings from his head flapping in the air, his red, orange, black and white robes making his stature imposing.

"Your prayers have been answered, Wally." Yomi said with a benevolent voice as his duelist drew three cards.

"Thank you…" the principal replied with gratefulness, after which he turned to his opponent. "I cast Faerie Gift and then I summon Pearljam, Faerie Left God for three mana! God Link, Pearljam Yomi!"

The fairy wearing a pink kimono returned once again and this time she united with the Oracle leader. That meant that they lacked summoning sickness and could attack, and since Subaru had no more Falconer, Lightfang Ninja in his hand to protect himself, it was game over for him.

"Impossible… this can't be the end…" the demonic man uttered.

"Good bye, old friend." Wally sighed and then he tapped his card. "Pearljam Yomi, todomeda!"

What followed next was an explosion which caught Rad's attention. The fire duelist quickly put his bathrobe back on and he walked out of the room to be greeted by the image of his wounded lover while Wally was running away back to the elevator.

"Oh no, Subaru!" he shouted and shook the darkness duelist. "Come on, wake up, please!"

"Rad…" he barely opened his eyes, which were reverted to their normal human form, those brown pools in an ocean of white. "Don't worry… it will all be fine…"

"Don't speak, I'll take you to the cabinet!" the racer spoke in a nutshell and was about to help his partner get up.

"No, don't bother… Remember what I promised you on that day…" Subaru said while grabbing his hand tight. "No matter what… we'll be together… for eternity…"

And thus, he closed his eyes. Rad stared at him for a few moments as certain emotions that he had rid himself of began making their way into his supposedly cruel heart. Yes, he felt it once again, the pain, the sadness, the longing, they all returned and reminded him that at the end of the day, he too was human.

The corridor was suddenly filled with Rad's screams of inner pain and before Wally knew it, he heard quick footsteps rushing in his direction. He knew what that meant and thus he himself hurried. He had to get out of the factory quick, for Yomi told him that he had brought reinforcements and they had all decided the best way to end this nightmare was by setting the entire building on fire so that it would burn along with the grim memories of mankind's inner animal.

"Come back here, you fucking asshole!" Rad's shrieks reached Wally's ears. "I'll tear you up bit by bit!"

They only served to instill even more fear into the principal, who hastened his steps. It was a chore to remember all the twists and turns to take in order to reach the elevator, but he had to think fast, or else he was done for.

It was then that the temperature rose extremely high in the upper levels. The sounds of materials crunching only meant one thing, that the Oracles had already started their plan. Rad stared with disbelief at the flames that began to slowly devour the chambers, starting from upstairs and slowly descending upon the other levels as well. But they did not have the intimidating effect that Wally had hoped, instead they made his pursuer even more determined to hunt down both the principal and his Oracle allies.

Fortunately for the zero duelist, he had reached the elevator and pressed its button to have its doors open. But just then the red sword went past him, cutting his left cheek and stabbing the button, thus stopping the elevator's doors halfway. Not waiting for an explanation, he quickly got inside, managing to fit perfectly through the opening. Then he pressed the button that would lead him to the first floor and to his luck it descended just as Rad reached him.

"You're not getting away that easily…" Rad growled as he pulled his sword out of the elevator's button.

The racer went to the stairs that were parallel to the elevator and made a quick jump, he managing to land at the first floor on his feet. Then he went to said elevator and when it reached the same floor, he stabbed the door many times with the sword. But little did he know that Wally had anticipated this and he switched the command for the second floor, got out and pressed the button for the first floor, after which he had gone down the stairs just after he saw Rad land there.

Having successfully snuck behind the psychopath, the principal was now heading to freedom. The heat of the flames covering the factory was starting to get to him and he unbuttoned his jacket and rubbed the sweat off his forehead. On his path he stumbled upon the sea of Outrage and Oracle dead bodies. So many souls had died for another pointless battle in the name of greed and violence. He only hoped that with the disappearance of that cursed place, that evil would be finally vanquished into history's dark bowels.

An earthquake shook him back to his senses and he resumed his pursuit of freedom, making his way through the pile of bodies, on a path that he thought many of his former students would have wished to take. Very soon, the entire first floor of the factory became a huge sauna, as upstairs the contraptions, conveyor belts, produced machine pieces and so on were being mercilessly devoured by the wild burning flames. Soon said flames were seen from the ceiling, but Wally was just two right turns away from the door that led him to freedom.

Just then, he felt a stab on his back which threw him forward and had him land on his belly. Spitting blood, he forced himself up, pulled out the sword and dropped it, resuming his path and not looking back at all. In a few moments Rad reclaimed his weapon and then he followed his prey, ready to finish him when he least expected it.

"Oh Wally, you should've learned by now that besides me, nobody gets out alive!" the former hero laughed.

There it was, the exit so revered by many. Wally was just a few steps of it, and outside he saw Yomi and a dozen of other Oracles waiting for him with blankets and medicines. But little did he know that a few feet behind him, Rad and his sword were preparing the finishing blow.

Just then, a pile of burning rubble fell from the ceiling upon the racer, who screamed in agony. His noises scared the brown haired man, who quickly jumped out of the raging inferno and landed on the snow, seconds before the entire ceiling collapsed upon the first floor's corridors, thus blocking anyone else's chance of escaping. The medical staff rushed to attend Wally's wounds while Yomi looked at the cursed factory which was now meeting its fate by the very thing it produced. It was all over at long last.

Days later, after the New Year's celebration, a now healed Wally and Yomi were both visiting the ruins of what used to be the factory. While the flames had devoured all the bodies and a part of the production, the machines had somehow survived, as well as most working rooms. Besides a good part of the external walls which could not resist to the flamethrowers, the rest of the building held its ground pretty well, like a bug that would not die no matter how much it were crushed underfoot.

"So what are we going to do now?" Wally asked.

"Once this winter passes, I will have my men come here and we will have this place sanctified and turned into a brand new Oracle temple. Gone are the days in which demons and their unholy fires dwelled in this place!" Yomi declared and then he turned around. "Are you coming?"

"Go without me, Yomi-sama. I would like to stay a little more and remember…"

"Alright, peace be with you, Wally."

Once he heard his master's rocket take off, the principal sighed and took a small tour of the factory. He had been through so many, and it all amounted to that – more death to stop the cycle of death. Fate truly had an ironic take.

The elevator no longer worked, so he went up the stairs, which while squeaking whenever he took a step, they were still in pretty good shape. As he climbed them, he remembered his career as a teacher, all those courses he held explaining the mysteries of this game, the reforms he applied at the school, and then the beginning of his downfall when he decided to strike a pact with those devils. Closing his eyes, he swore he would never repeat such a mistake once more.

Upon arriving to the fourth floor, he wandered through the corridor, reminiscing the duel and chase that he had on that night. Deep inside, it hurt him having to do that to those who were once his friends, but in the end he had no other choice. All he could hope was that their bloodthirsty souls had at last found their peace, along with those of the poor students he had condemned to that living hell.

And in the end he arrived at in front of it. The famous door upon which the words 'WARNING – UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL KEEP OUT' were written in red upon black. But how exactly did the room in which those teens worked their last days look like? And how did that nightmarish contraption which once produced those dreaded dark flames look like? Stretching his arm forward, he was about to open the door and find out the answers to those questions.

All of a sudden, two arms grabbed him in a tight grip. His heart raced faster as he felt a cheek uniting with his own and he saw blood racing down both skins.

"But how… ?" he whispered in utter shock.

"Evil is eternal." the devilish Subaru affirmed and then he revealed his fangs to him.

Wally's screams echoed throughout the corridor. Inside the working room, Rad paced alone and took off the bandages from his back and arms. His burns had almost healed. Taking a look at the imposing wine glass shaped contraption, he was happy that it had both survived and kept the last sample of Black Fire inside it as well. With a sadistic smile on his face, he declared:

"The Fire will keep burning in the Darkness."

THE END


End file.
