Chapter 28: Heroes Unite! The Birth of Trinity Neos!
In an instant the situation in Jaden’s duel with Tamao had gotten as bad as it could possibly get. Though Jaden had summoned the three Legendary Knights, immediately retaliated by summoning the resurrected form of The Great Leviathan, Leviathan Omega. The summoning of the cybernetic terror had literally blown the roof off the stadium. Remarkable no one had been hurt by the collapse of the roof, but everyone who was watching the duel looked on in terror. And what was worse was that Tamao had yet to begin her attack.
“As you can see, Leviathan Omega has 5000 ATK, but it’s the effect of my Levitathan that you should really worry about.” Tamao revealed. “I activate that effect now by discarding one card, and with that the ATK of all my opponent’s monsters is halved until the end of the turn. Not only that, but Leviathan also gains the combined amount of the ATK points it just drained.”
The Leviathan gave out a mechanized roar, and suddenly purple colored energy began to drain from the three knights into the Leviathan’s open mouth. Timaeus, Critias, and Hermos all fell to one knee, breathing heavily as they held themselves up with their swords.
“Oh no! Now Leviathan Omega has 9200 ATK!” Tsubomi exclaimed. “There’s no way Jaden can survive an attack like that!”
“Time to put an end to this! Leviathan Omega, attack Critias with Omega Death Cannon!” Tamao commanded.
Everyone watching the duel averted their gaze as the cannon on the Leviathan’s head began to charge. A beam of black energy burst forth from the barrel of the cannon moments latter.
“Bad move! I activate Critias’s effect!” Jaden quickly announced. “By removing a Trap card from my Graveyard I can activate its effect, and the card I remove is Draining Shield!”
Critias raised his sword, and as he did the blade began to glow with a blue light. The blast from the Leviathan’s cannon suddenly began to be sucked in by the sword. After several moments the attack finally ended and Jaden’s life points rose to 13150.
“Now you’re starting to annoy me.” Tamao said with irritation in her voice. “Fine, I’ll set one card on the field and end my turn! And with that the attack of all our monsters return to normal.”
The three knights glowed briefly with a green aura before getting back to their feet. Meanwhile Jaden drew his next card.
“I’m ending this now Tamao! First I activate the Spell card, Ancient Rules! This let’s me summon Elemental Hero Neos!” Jaden announced. The white hero of space appeared on the field.
“I don’t see what good that monster will do.” Tamao told him.
“Neos has the hidden power to combine with any monster!” Jaden explained. “So now I activate the effect of Timaeus and remove Polymerization to activate its effect! And I use that effect to combine Neos with the Legendary Knights!”
Timaeus raised his sword and the blade began to glow with a blue light. A fusion vortex then appeared in the air and Neos flew into it.
“We put out faith in the power of Neos!” Timaeus proclaimed as he, Critias, and Hermos flew into the vortex after Neos.
In moments there was an explosion of gold light. The light faded to reveal Neos in a new form. On his chest he wore golden armor connected to gold shoulder plates. On the chest of the armor surrounding the blue orb that was normally present on Neos were three inverted triangles, with the top left colored green to represent Timaeus, the top right colored purple to represent Critias, and the bottom colored orange to represent Hermos. On his head Neos wore a golden helmet similar to the ones worn by the three knights, only it had a three-pointed crest on the front. Golden armor also adorned Neos’s waist, and around his wrists and ankles were golden bands. In his right hand Noes carried a sword with a golden handle, and in his left a shield formed in the shape of a dragon’s head. On Neos’s back was a flowing red cape.
“Say hello to Trinity Neos!” Jaden announced.
“4500 ATK, impressive.” Tamao commented. “But it’s not quite enough to defeat the Leviathan.”
“Don’t be so sure! I activate the first effect of Trinity Neos and cut the ATK of Leviathan Omega in half!” Jaden announced.
The green triangle on Trinity Neos’s armor glowed, and his sword began to glow with a green light. With a swing of his sword Trinity Neos sent a blade of green energy at the Leviathan, causing it to cry out.
“Now I activate the second effect of Trinity Neos!” Jaden announced. “By removing an effect monster from the Graveyard, Trinity Neos gains that card’s effect until the end of the turn! And the monster I remove is Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!”
The orange triangle on Trinity Neos’s chest armor glowed. A ghostly image of Flame Wingman appeared and flew into Trinity Neos’s back.
“Now Trinity Neos, attack Leviathan Omega with Sword of Destiny!” Jaden commanded.
Trinity Neos flew at the Leviathan as the blade of his sword began to glow with a gold light. With a swing of his sword he sent a golden blade of energy at the cybernetic terror.
“Nice try, but I activate my Trap, Sakuretsu Armor!” Tamao announced. “Now your champion knight is destroyed!”
“I don’t think so! Because now I activate the third effect of Trinity Neos and negate the effect of Sakuratsu Armor!” Jaden announced.
The purple triangle on Trinity Neo’s chest armor and his shield flashed with a purple light. In an instant the large representation of Tamao’s Trap card shattered. At the same time the blade of gold light split Leviathan Omega down the middle. It kept going until it hit Tamao, almost knocking her off the stage. Her life points fell to 9250.
“Because Trinity Neos has Flame Wingman’s effect, you take damage equal to the difference in his ATK and the ATK of Leviathan Omega.” Jaden reminded Tamao.
“Well played.” Tamao said with a sinister smirk as she recovered from the attack. “But I’m afraid my Leviathan has one more surprise. When it’s destroyed it takes all other monsters on the field with it.”
The two halves of the Leviathan began to crackle with electricity. Suddenly both halves exploded creating a massive cloud of black smoke.
“You may have taken out my Leviathan, but this duel is far from over.” Tamao boasted. Just as she did however, Neos flew out of the cloud of smoke in his original form with the three knights following close behind. “WHAT?”
“Trinity Neos had one more effect up his sleeve too.” Jaden revealed. “You see if he’s destroyed by the effect of an opponent’s monster I can summon the original Neos back to the field, along with Timaeus, Critias, and Hermos! Now let’s end this! Timaeus, attack Tamao directly!”
“Sword of Justice!” Timaeus cried as he flew at Tamao’s right and slashed her with his sword. Tamao cried out and her life points dropped to 6450.
“You’re up next Critias! Attack Tamao directly!” Jaden commanded.
“Sword of Wisdom!” Critias called out as he came at Tamao from behind and slashed her. The attack not only dropped Tamao’s life points to 3650, but also cut the white bow holding her hair in place.
“We’re not done yet! Hermos, attack Tamao directly!” Jaden commanded.
“Sword of Courage!” Hermos cried out as he came at Tamao from the front and slashed her. Tamao cried out and her life points fell to a mere 850.
“End this Neos!” Jaden commanded. “Attack with Wrath of Neos!”
Neos flew at Tamao with his fist raised. Out of fear Tamao screamed and raised her hand with the Orichalcos Stone ring to protect herself. Neos’s fist made contact with the ring, causing it to crack and explode in a flash of green light. The force of the explosion blew Tamao right off the stage. At the same time her life points had dropped to zero, causing the monsters left on the field to vanish. From the remains of the ring came a shadowy serpent-like creature that shrieked before exploding. Several cards that had fallen from Tamao’s duel disk burst into black flames and burned away.
* * *
Meanwhile back in Tamao’s room at the dorms, the souls of the duelist that Tamao had captured flew from the device used to revive the Leviathan flew off into their respective bodies. Moments later both Clive and Striker woke up in the Miator infirmary.
“What the hell happened?” Striker said as he sat up.
“That you Striker?” Clive asked from the bed on Striker’s right.
“Clive? Are you really awake?” Striker asked sounding surprised and overjoyed.
“Of course I am!” Clive confirmed as if the fact was obvious. “Though I’ve no clue what happened to me.”
“So you guys are awake.” A voice suddenly said. Striker and Clive turned to see that it was Mika. Hiyori was standing there next to her.
“What’re you guys doing here?” Striker asked as he narrowed his eyes in suspicion at the two girls.
“Relax, we’re not your enemies anymore.” Mika told him. “In fact the reason you guys are awake is because your side won.”
“You mean the Fusion Master beat Tamao?” Clive asked.
“I think that should be obvious.” Hiyori cut in. “And somehow by winning, Jaden has set free all of the souls that Lady Tamao had captured.”
“Hey! What’s going on here?” a gruff voice demanded from behind a hospital curtain in the room. Both Striker and Clive recognized the voice as that of Dirk Peters. “Why the hell am I cuffed to this bed? When I get my hands on whoever the hell did this they’re gonna be in a body cast!”
“Excuse me a sec.” Mika said with an irritated expression before going behind the curtain.
“Shut the hell up!” Mika yelled before punching out Dirk.
* * *
Back at the stadium, Jaden watched as the medics came out to tend to Tamao. Everyone who had been watching the duel had remained silent. At last, Hikari and Amane came back on stage.
“Okay, well that was a pretty nerve wracking duel we had there. But at last we have a winner!” Amane announced into the microphone. “The winner and champion of the Astraea Star Cup is Jaden Yuki!”
With this proclamation the crowd erupted in cheers and applause. Though Jaden was not paying much attention to that. His attention was more focused on Tamao, and he continued to watch as the medics carted her away.
“Relax, I’m sure Tamao will be fine.” Yubel assured him as she appeared.
“I hope so.” Jaden told her.
“You have done well Jaden Yuki.” Timaues said after he, Critias, and Hermos reappeared in their knight forms. “We thank you for your help in slaying the Leviathan and destroying the Orichalcos once and for all.”
“I should be thanking you guys. I couldn’t have done any of this without your help.” Jaden pointed out.
“It was our honor to fight at your side.” Critias told him. “You are truly a powerful warrior.”
“And now we must take our leave.” Hermos cut in. “With the Leviathan and the Orichalcos no more we must go to continue protecting our realm.”
“It was a blast meeting you guys.” Jaden said as he gave them a thumbs-up.
“As it was for us. Live well, Jaden Yuki.” Timaeus said before he and his brothers faded into thin air.
* * *
The next day the dust of the tournament had begun to settle on the island. The night before, there was a banquet to celebrate Jaden’s victory. During which he was awarded a silver trophy and a check for a rather large sum of money. That morning, Jaden, Jessie, Stirker, and Clive had gather down at the island’s pier as the boat to take the visiting duelists from the island had come.
“So you’re really going to stay here on the island?” Jessie asked Jaden.
“Only for a few days to make sure Tamao is okay.” Jaden answered.
“I still don’t see why you’d waste your time after all the trouble she caused.” Striker said bitterly.
“Easy now Striker. Like the Fusion Master told us, it was all because of that weird magic rock of hers.” Clive pointed out.
“Besides, Tamao doesn’t remember anything she did while using the Orichalcos.” Jaden revealed. “In fact she doesn’t remember anything that’s happened to her in the last two years.”
“Is it because the Orichalcos was destroyed?” Jessie asked.
“That might be part of it, but the doctors who examined Tamao after the duel think that blow to the head she took gave her some kind of amnesia.” Jaden answered. “Either way though, Tamao’s not the same girl who tried to destroy the world.”
“I still don’t think I can forgive her for what happened, but whatever.” Striker relented. “Good luck Jaden.”
“You too guys.” Jaden said as he shook Striker’s hand. “I hope I’ll se you guys again.”
“You can count on it.” Jessie assured him.
With that, the three duelists got aboard the boat. Jaden watched and waved at them on deck as the boat pulled away from the dock, and in moments they were gone.
“So you’re really going to stay here longer just for Tamao’s sake?” Yubel inquired as she appeared next to Jaden.
“Tamao really needs friends right now, and up until now I haven’t been a very good one.” Jaden pointed out. “Back then when I was on this island searching for the Wicked Gods I became more concerned about Shizuma and Nagisa than Tamao. I know that the Orichalcos is to blame for what happened after, but I can’t help but feel that a little of this is my fault.”
“You never change, do you?” Yubel sighed as she shook her head.
“Would you want me to?” Jaden asked.
“No, I don’t think so.” Yubel replied honestly.
“Well, we should get going. Chikaru and Tamao are expecting us for tea.” Jaden told Yubel, and with that the two headed back towards the schools.
