Chapter 40: Chaos Xyz!

"Go Chaos Xyz Evolution! Appear Chaos Number 32: Shark Drake Veiss!"

[Number C32: Shark Drake Veiss – Rank 4 ATK:2800/DEF:2800 OU:3]

From the swirling chaos hole Sharks monster re-emerged, its white form glaring bright against the dark skies. The white hunter was ready to devour his prey.

"And by Xyz Summoning this monster I can special summon <Xyz Slidophin> to the field from my hand." Said Shark as a yellow dolphin happily splashed onto the field.

[Xyz Slidolphin – Lv4 ATK:1200/DEF:1800]

"I then sacrifice my Slidolphin to summon <Eagle Shark>. With Eagle Shark on the field I can then special summon <Panther Shark>."

[Eagle Shark – Lv5 ATK:1000/DEF:1800, Panther Shark - Lv5 ATK:1100/DEF:2000]

"With these two monsters I now Xyz summon <Number 73: Abyss Splash>!"

[Number 73: Abyss Splash – Rank 5 ATK:2400/DEF:1400 OU:2]

With a mighty roar the trident wielding warrior of the deep rose from the murky depths of the Overlay Network to stand beside his master.

"By using one Overlay Unit I banish Depth Shark from my graveyard, then my Shark Drake Veiss reduces your monsters attack and defence to zero."

[Number C32: Shark Drake Veiss – OU:3 > 2]

With a satisfied roar the chaos Number swallowed one of its Overlay Units. It was looking forward to taking down the insolent Number in front of it down a peg or two. Dark Mist's arrogance and sense of superiority had rubbed the normally direct and brutal Number 32 the wrong way.

"So you intend to sacrifice one of your Numbers to take down Dark Mist, then finish me with the remaining monster?" Number 96 seriously asked as a wave of energy rushed towards Dark Mist.

If Dark Mists attack was zero even if he used 'Shadow Gain' it would only raise Number 96's attack to equal the attack of which ever monster it fought. Destroying both of them and leaving the field open for a direct attack. Or so Shark might think.

"But I activate my face down <Xyz Block>. By sending a Overlay Unit from Dark Mist to the grave this trap negates the effect and destroys your monster! You won't be beating me this way." gloated Number 96.

[Number 96: Dark Mist – OU:2 > 1]

One of Dark Mists Overlay Units shot out from its orbit, piercing through the rushing wave of energy before exploding against the indignant Shark Drake Veiss, destroying monster.

*Boom*

"I'm not going to just beat you. I intend to crush you. I activate <Rank-up-magic Barian's Force>!" Shark raged, the power of Chaos inside of him bursting forth into the magic card in his hand.

It was a strange card that Shark had found in his deck after his duel with Kite, one of several. He had never seen it before, yet it felt so very familiar to him the moment he set his eyes on it. It looked like part of the seal on the door that Shark had opened to gain his Chaos power. The Seal of Barian World.

He could feel the Chaos energy that filled in, it resonated with the power inside Shark filling him with strength. This was the first time Shark had the opportunity or desire to use it. But he could already use it like an expert.

An invisible wave of power erupted out as a black vortex wrapped in red and violet lightning appear over Sharks monster and sucked the Number into its maw.

"With this I now rebuild the Overlay Network to rank up my Abyss Splash into a Chaos monster. Power born of the world of Chaos, fill now this Number and birth a new future. Chaos Xyz Change! Appear Chaos Number 73: Abyss Supra Splash!"

[Number C73: Abyss Supra Splash – Rank 6 ATK:3000/DEF:2000 OU:3]

"Interesting…" murmured Number 96 as it watched Sharks monster descend, transformed before his eyes.

The Overlay Units orbiting Abyss Supra transformed from orbs of light into floating, four pointed red crystals that lined up before the Chaos Number.

"That's not all, thanks to the power of Barian's Force my Chaos Number now absorbs all your monsters Overlay Units, transforming them into its own Chaos Overlay Units." explained Shark with a savage look, as Dark Mists only Overlay Unit flew over to Sharks monster and transformed into another red crystal.

[Number 96: Dark Mist – OU:1 > 0]

[Number C73: Abyss Supra Splash – OU:3 > 4]

"Magnificent!" Number 96 praised.

"Now that you monster has no Overlay Units it can't use its special abilities. So I now attack Dark Mist with Abyss Supra. Go Chaos Fall!" cried Shark.

If this attack got through then Number 96 was finished. Pulling back its arm Abyss Supra Splash prepared to throw its deadly trident.

"HAHAHAHA! Well done Shark, but don't celebrate too soon. I activate my Trap <Destruction Ring>! With this I can destroy my own monster to deal 1000 damage to both our life points."

Number 96 only had 300 life points left while Shark had 500. neither of them could withstand this blow.

A brass ring formed around the neck of Dark Mist, a bomb with a lit fuse its only adornment, as Abyss Supra threw its weapon forward. As the trident flew through the air the fuse finished burning down and there was a massive explosion filling the field with smoke and knocking down both duellists.

"Arrgh!"

[Shark - LP > 0, Number 96 - LP > 0]

<<DRAW>>

Shark lay helplessly on the floor, his body bruised and battered from the force of the Number duel. Around him cards from his duel disk were scattered about. A draw he thought, a sense of failure appearing within him. Even using the power of Chaos he had failed to win. Did he really need to rely on the Seal of Orichalcos? Was there no other way for him to be strong enough to accomplish his goals? To take his revenge?

The smoke cleared around Shark to reveal Yuma's body standing over the fallen duellist, it looked no better than Sharks own battered body but Number 96 was able to push his stolen vessel beyond its normal limits.

"What… are you… doing?" Shark croaked out at the sight of the evil Number.

"What does it look like?" the Number asked as it picked up one of Sharks cards from the floor before tossing it away.

"I may not have won the duel, so I can't take your Numbers. But I won't be going away empty handed." He stated as he picked up another card and Shark fell unconscious.

A wicked smile lit up Yuma's face as the Number found the card he was looking for. Rank-Up-Magic Barian's Force. Now to find any other copies of the card in Sharks deck. In fact, as far as Number 96 was concerned Shark should also have copies of the Seal of Orichalcos on him.

As an evil body snatching Number, Number 96 had no problem with the idea of stealing from his helpless opponent. But before he could further act on his desire, Number 96 heard the rapid approach of footsteps. Perhaps it was City Security, or more likely it was New Order reinforcements. Worse, it could possible be Drake having finally tracked him down.

Whichever it was, it was far too dangerous to spend even a second more here in his current condition. So he would have to make do with only this single card. Although he had failed to acquire Sharks Numbers this could still be considered a good haul he thought as he moved back to the alley and melted away into the darkness.

Moments later dozens of New Order operative and the White General, Tempest, arrived on the scene.

"Get General Blue back to base, spread out and find whoever was responsible!"

---

In a tower that stood high over Heartland city, in a room where only a handful of people were allowed to enter, all alone lay Dr Fakers youngest son and Kites younger brother, Hart. He was connected to various medical machinery as usual which monitored his condition constantly, except for but a moment now, as all the machine around Hart mysteriously glitched.

The moment that, far away from here, Shark activated the power of Barian's Force, and a power unseen in this world for thousands of years returned. A purplish aura gathered around the boy's still form before a whisper escaped his lips.

"…Nash…"

While at the same time in Yuma's house, around Drakes neck, Yuma's golden Key gave a faint glow unobserved by the Chosen of Critias, who was still working deep in his mental world. Then the moment was gone, the room, Hart and the distant key returned to normal. And no one was the wiser of what had been set in motion.

---

The next morning Drake awoke late after a long night of preparations to find that he had had a delivery From Heartland and the WDC. It was the details of the next round and… a duel disk.

It was a blocky silver device, a rectangular design unlike the mainstream of this worlds duel disks or of any other world that Drake knew of. The closest match to it Drake could think of was Kaiba's third generation solid vision duel disk from the 'Dark Side of Dimensions'. And from reading the enclosed instructions it seemed to work in a similar way.

One loaded their deck into a special deck box that fitted into the duel disk, which then scanned the card data from the box and generated a purely virtual interface. The cards a duellist drew, the play area they were used on, it was all virtual. One could even save multiple decks into the disk's memory allowing a duellist to switch between what deck they used at the touch of a button.

It was horrible!

Not the concept, Drake could certainly see the appeal of virtualising practically everything. What was horrible was that Drake knew that these disks must have been designed by Dr Faker. He knew the real purpose of the WDC, and these duel disk were surely a trap. A means to monitor duellists and study the cards in their decks. To compete in the second round one must use the provided Duel Disk.

A normal duellist would have nothing to worry about. But what about Drake? What about New Order? Could either of them feel secure placing cards like the Seal of Orichalcos, like the Fang of Critias, or even the Zexal Number Drake had received, into a device that was surely able analysis them in detail. Even Number holders would be revelling the fact that they held Number cards to Faker and Heartland.

What could a genius like Faker learn about these otherworldly cards. And what could he do with that information.

This put Drake in a dilemma.

Drake knew the smartest thing would be to leave out Astral's Numbers and Critias from his deck, but how would that impact his performance? Especially if he had to deal with New Order Generals. It looked like it was a good idea for him to give up on trying to create Zexal cards and focus on more ordinary cards last night.

For now Drake put the matter aside and turned his attention to the rest of the instructions. Taking out his Heart Key Drake took it off its chain and fitted the key into an opening on top of the Duel disk. Following which it began to beep and ping as it read the data off of the key. Drakes duel identity and WDC record.

A holographic display projected itself in front of Drake, it read:

<<System initialized…. Welcome Duellist: Drake Atlas…. Calculating Duel points…. !!CONGRATULATIONS DUELLIST!! As holder of the Purple Heart you are awarded 7000 Duel point and the Personal Skill 'DRAGON EVOLUTION'. Do you wish to register a new deck now? Y/N>>

No. Drake selected before opening up the pre-installed second round rules. It explained many things, including the purpose of Heart lights. The Heart Light a duellist had gathered would be converted into Duel points. Each level of Heart light was equivalent to 100 points. Meaning a full Pink Heart (The minimal entry requirement) was 1000pts, a full yellow was 2000pts, Green was 3000pts, Blue 4000, Gold 5000. And the secret Purple Heart was worth 7000.

Duellists could use these points during the second round to purchase and use special duel skills or fulfil special unnamed requirements. At the moment he only had details of his own person skill. An individually tailored skill presented only to Purple Heart duellists.

Drakes was called Dragon Evolution, a permanent skill which allowed Drake to once per duel exchange a dragon type monster card in his hand for a random Dragon from his deck that was level 5 or higher at the cost of 500 duel points.

Drake found it quite suitable for his play style and was surprised that Heartland didn't sabotage him in some way. Then again, who knows how powerful other duellists personalised skills were? Just how many duellists achieved a Purple Heart? Was the cost of 500 points considered high? Drake had no way of knowing at present, all he knew was that 7000pts was enough to use this skill in 14 duels.

This was assuming he didn't purchase any other skills and that there was no way to accumulate more duel points during the round. From its description as a permanent skill Drake could also infer the existence of consumable skills in the second round.

Drakes thoughts about the second round were interrupted by the appearance of Akari at the table. She looked terrible, as though she had spent the night crying.

"Anything?" Drake quietly asked.

She shook her head.

"I promise you we will get him back."

"Like you promised to look after him." she accused.

Drake had no reply to that.

"He could be anywhere by now." She said in despair.

"No, he is still here and he will be in the next round of the WDC." Drake stated with confidence.

"How can you be so sure?"

"I understand Number 96. What he wants is absolute power and to achieve that he needs the Numbers, he needs Astral and he will want the power of the Orichalcos. And in the WDC he can find all of these and more."

"Then why haven't you been able to find him so far?" She asked close to tear again.

"Because he knows that he can't beat me yet. He knows what I can do, even if he can't understand how I do it, and he will want to avoid me until he is sure that he has gathered enough strength to crush me. But whether he can avoid me or not, he will not give up on the chance the WDC gives him. He is too greedy.

He can hide from me in this great city, but let's see how long he can avoid me when we reach Heartland Island. Who knows? Perhaps I will even have a chance to catch him on the ship tomorrow." Drake replied as he move to gently hold her.

"So are you going out again today?" she asked.

"No, now the first round is over its more likely that he will hold up until the ship is set to sail." Drake replied as the door bell rang.

It was Bronk, as the only other person among Yuma's friends to still be in the Duel Carnival, Drake knew the two of them needed to come up with a plan to maximise their chances of catching Number 96 and had invited the boy round. Even if it meant giving up on the finals, they had to recover Yuma's body.

Tomorrow the hunt for Number 96 would begin again. And this time they would not fail.