Chapter 7: The Sleeping Dragon.

It took Drake several more hours to calm Akari down and reassure her of his intentions. He told her what he thought she could accept and made sure she understood not to dig into the matter anymore. If the Orichalcos discovered anyone getting close to them and their secrets, they would surely take action. It was too big of a risk. Drake wanted to face them on his terms not theirs.

It was almost dawn by the time he reached his bed.

But before he could rest, he had one more thing to do.

Closing his eyes, the Dragons Eye duel gazer tattoo around his eye appeared and lit up. Its power pulsating in time to Drake heartbeat. Drake felt himself falling, falling deeper and deeper into himself. Then from the darkness, came light.

Drake had entered the deepest parts of his mind that had been shaped into a construct the form of a great medieval castle surrounded by forests. This was a recreation of the Domain of the Beasts where the Legendary Dragons were once sealed for thousands of years ago.

It was where a Legendary Dragon now slept.

With a thought Drakes spirit body descended from above to enter the castle and moved to the shrine of the dragons. There in the centre of the platform that in the true Duel Spirit World was where the crystal statues of the dragons once stood, now lay but a single dragon.

His scales were a dark almost greyish blue while his underbelly was a lighter blue, between his eyes, which were closed in slumber, was a large blue diamond. Critias, the dragon who had chosen Drake to be his duellist, giving him new life and purpose.

Drakes expression was pained.

When Drake had awoken in this world it was to find the dragon had already fallen into a deep sleep that he would not rise from. This was the price the Dragon had to pay for him and Drake to cross the Dimensional Rift, and Critias was showing no signs of waking, he just lay there, helpless. It also meant that Drake could not use his card, The Fang of Critias to duel with.

In Drakes hand appeared his newly won Numbers Card. Here in Drakes mental world it was wrapped in an inky cloud of darkness, a pulsating power that tempted the soul with its hearts desire. Drake tossed the card closer to the sleeping dragon. Once in range of the dragon's aura the card became trapped, like a fly in a spiders web, unable to free itself as the sleeping beast subconsciously began to syphon the Numbers energy to replenish its own strength.

Not that Drake would allow Critias to completely drain all of its power. After all, Astral would need it in future and he had promised to return the Numbers he gained when he was through with them. But Critias needed some of its power now.

Soon Drake retrieved the weakened card before examining Critias's condition. There was a marked improvement to his senses. Perhaps if he could obtain a dozen or even just a half dozen more Numbers then Critias could recover his strength within a week rather than the months or even years Drake had originally thought.

"Later Critias, sleep well. Don't worry, just leave everything to me."

Leaving the chamber Drake moved to another sealed room within the castle. This was his treasury, or in other words, where he kept his card collection. His duels today and with Kite had highlighted some flaws with his deck, which was not odd. No deck could solve every problem and the effectiveness of a deck depended on the duel environment it fought in.

Which duellist didn't tinker with his deck, striving to improve, to perfect, as new cards and strategies were made available?

But more importantly, over the day he had finally acquired enough duel energy to use the Mirror of Critias. The Mirror of Critias was in simple terms, a card creator engine. It could take the imagined form of a card and turn it into a reality so long as it conformed to the governing laws of the world. But it needed large amounts of duelling energy, the stronger the card the more energy it required and Drake could only secretly harvest a small amount of such energy during his duels.

Critias had created the mirror for Drake before coming to this world as a backup if something happened to him, which it had.

Fortunately the mirror could also store card designs to be created at a later date so Drake didn't have to waste anymore of his time tonight, he had already designed dozens of cards for different situations. He still had to retune his deck, it was already very late and he had a full day of duelling ahead of him.

The mirror itself as a tall free standing, unadorned silver mirror in a decorative dragon themed frame. It stood a little taller than Drake in the corner of the treasury room. Drake placed his right hand on the mirror and chanted the passcode he had chosen to activate it.

"Mirror, Mirror in my hall, create now a card for one and all."

This may be the deepest and most well defended place of this mental world but Drake didn't believe in taking chances with a device this potent. And Drake believed that nobody, not even people who knew him, would ever guess he would use such a silly variation from a fairy tale as a passcode.

The silver surface transformed into a image similar to a computer desktop screen with options for design, catalogue, storage and others. Working like a touch screen Drake brought up the stored designs.

Comparing the energy required to create the cards he had already designed against the energy he had available Drake finally decided to create three new cards for his use. A spell card, a XYZ monster and with what little energy remained, a small effect monster.

He couldn't wait to face Kite again. Next time he would crush him beneath the might of his dragons.

---

Kite stood watch over the bed that his brother was sleeping in, there were atop a tall tower, high above Hartland city. Its windows opened up to the most fantastic cityscape one could imagine, even more so when dawn would break transforming to become one of the greatest sights in the city. Not that Kite had the heart to enjoy such a view with his brother lying sick before him.

Many medical contraptions stood nearby watching his condition, slowly beeping or twirling away. All this advance medical technology and they were still almost helpless in front of his brother's condition. At least Hart was stable for now. Every time Kite left, he secretly feared it would be the last time he would see his brother alive. But if he didn't collect the Numbers then he had no hope for a cure.

"Kite my boy, how are you this fine morning."

Kite was woken from his dark thoughts by the most unpleasant of voices.

"None of your business Heartland." He snapped.

Kite detested this man, the Mayor of Heartland City and his fathers close confederate. Mr Heartland.

"Well I can at least see that Harts condition is stabilized. That should make you happy right?"

Kite was in no mood for pleasantries with this man at the best of times, let alone now. He detested the man, a snake in fine clothing.

"This time, but what about the next time, or the one after that, or the time after that…"

"That's why you need to continue gathering the Numbers my boy. To save your brother."

There it was, the prod that drove him. Which Heartland never failed to remind him as if he didn't know already. He just wanted to see Kite jump and squirm.

"Quiet! Do not mention my brother again Heartland or I will feed you to my dragon. Now what do you want."

"Oh you are particularly tetchy today aren't you. Fine, your father is quite pleased at the progress the WDC is progressing at, soon we will gather all the strongest duellist and the rest of the Number cards in one place. All the easier for you to collect once you win."

Kite couldn't help but suddenly think back to the duel he had earlier tonight, to the strong duellist called Drake. Flashing back to the sight of that dragon he had summoned. Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon… Such power. A beast that was maybe superior to his own Galaxy-Eyes...

Although he told himself that he had everything in hand, that he would have crushed Drake like all the others he had hunted, there was something unnerving in the confidence he had seen in Drakes eyes, as if Kite himself was the one being hunted.

He would surely have to duel him again in the WDC. He didn't believe such a strong duellist like Drake didn't have a Number, not if he could move through his Time Freeze. But even of it was true, Kite was still confident he would see Drake in the finals and with his skill he would surely have gathered many Numbers by that point. Kite would have the chance to claim them then.

"Provided I can win…" he whispered.

In the silence of the room Hartland had no problems hearing this murmured statement.

"Oh is the Great Kite doubting his abilities now? What could have caused this then? With your skills, the cards created by your fathers research and your brother as motivation you still have doubt?" He mocked. He mocked that which he didn't know or understand.

"Never you mind!"

"Well in that case you should be pleased to know that Dr Faker has had a recent breakthrough in his research. He should soon have developed some stronger cards that will make your deck invincible. Now isn't that nice of your father Kite. Now don't forget to take the time to max out your heart light, you wouldn't want us to gather the Numbers together only for you to be disqualified, right?"

"Such a stupid tournament."

"But necessary Kite. You must fight for Hart sake."

*Humph*

Mr Heartland turned to make his leave, but before he reached the door however.

"Heartland!"

"Huh? You want something Kite?" now that was rare.

"You are also collecting the duel data records in this tournament, aren't you?"

"Of course, all the better to tack down the Numbers after all."

"I want all the data you gather on a certain duellist."

"Now here a novelty, have you found someone interesting, a duelling sweetheart perhaps?"

"Just do it Heartland."

"Very well, what the name?"

"Drake Atlas"

---

In a computer control room Mr Heartland was studying charts and figures of duelling data. In particular was the file on one Drake Atlas. While Heartland like to mock Kite and push his emotional buttons, he wasn't so stupid as to ignore a duellist Kite was paying attention to.

The data was strange.

He could find no records of this duellist before he suddenly appeared several days ago, his ID was fake, a good fake but not good enough to survive such close scrutiny by the city's government. But he could find no other identification. No birth certificate, no hospital or school records, no travel documents, nothing.

It was like he had just fallen out of the sky.

And his deck! The data here could only record the cards actually played in a duel disk during the tournament and not the unused ones in the deck or hand, even Kites duel with him had been recorded. But just what he was looking at here…

Mirror Force, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, no wonder Kite wanted this data, just where had he acquired such cards. It looked like he had even obtained a Number card soon after his duel with Kite.

"You look troubled Heartland."

Another man entered the room.

"Oh! Dr Faker, good morning. It's nothing just a duellist your son wanted me to check up on."

"Oh?"

Kites father looked at the data on the screen more closely.

"Interesting… and how goes the task of locating the other Numbers."

While the data on Drake was strange it was nothing but a distraction in Dr Fakers eye's, a distraction from their real objectives. The collection of all the Numbers and the destruction of Astral World.

"We have already identified a number of Number holders Dr Faker and are tracking them even now."

Pictures of more than a dozen various duellist covered the monitor, including Drake. Each of them was confirmed to have at least one Number card.

"What about these reports of strange energy surges?"

"We're not too sure about that at the moment Doctor, throughout the day we had several of these surges in the duel network from an unknown source. The Duels involved were all in isolated locations without monitoring equipment. By the time we mobilized ground force to the locations the only thing we could find were duellist in a comatose state."

"And what are you doing about it Heartland?"

"We have hush up the victims families and I have already arranged the deployment of satellite surveillance systems, we should know more soon."

"Good, send all the data you collect about this new energy to my lab and keep me informed. And how go the arrangements concerning that boy, Reginald Kastle."

"I have already made the arrangements to have the Number reach his hands. Dextra and Nistro are also prepared to play their part and give him the necessary push. Do you really think this will awaken the sleeping power of his blood?"

Hartland had some doubts about the plan, and to give away a precious Number…

"Yes! He may not have awakened his power naturally like his sister, but with enough pressure and stimuli the ancient power should be triggered. And once we harvest that power and gather the Numbers, not even He will be able to stop us, Hahahahahahahaaa."

If only they knew they were not the only ones with designs on the boy…