Unlike before, there was only one hallway between Phil and another room with life in it. The first sign was the light in the distance. Unlike how it remained motionless in the hallway, what light could be seen from the distance moved in a way that caused shadows to dance across the walls. It was all from that same type of reverse-candles Phil had seen earlier, where the wax itself was aflame while the wick on top remained completely untouched by fire. The second sign was the screeching laughter, sounding like a bird stuffed in a sack that was being mercilessly beaten against a wall.

  “Krkrkrkrk! DEATH I SAY! DEATH!!!!”

  Phil burst through the door, immediately skidding to a halt once the sight within was revealed to him. Behind him, Lumina hit the brakes in her stride with just enough time to avoid running into him.

  Before Phil was a room not unlike where he had dueled Kalim moments before. Deep wooden valleys sank low into the floor. On the opposite side of the room was a closed door, and in the very middle was a standard dueling table. On one side of the table, with his back to the closed door, was a grim man. His skin was heavily tanned, like that of a man who tended to work long days outside under the sun. His hair was jet black and long enough to almost reach his shoulders, though it was not unkept in the slightest, instead falling down in neat curtains. On his brow was an unremarkable golden circlet which had no decorations or symbols on it to speak of. His clothing was simple, nothing more than plain grey cloth stitched together to form something similar to a monk’s habit. Tied around his waist was an ordinary white cord that seemed to function like a belt.

  Opposite the grim man was a familiar bird, a stork with black-and-white plumage standing proudly amidst a sea of swirling darkness that surrounded the dueling table. Its long, spindly legs ended in the same red boots it had worn ever since Phil had first met the odd fellow, though the boots still looked to be dampened with scarlet blood that was only a shade darker than the material of the boots. However, no longer did a leather satchel hang around its neck, tucked under its wing like a postman’s would. It was gone, cast to the ground nearby to allow the edges of the stork’s wings to… bend, clutching a hand of five cards within it like a human’s hand would.

  Phil glanced at the life point counters.

  Kounotori Tori: 4000 Malik: 4000

  The stork’s head half-turned to observe Phil. His beak opened and closed several times before any sound came out of it.

  “Yes… It seems, yes yes indeed it seems, man-creature Phil has done well to survive. You have faced an opponent of your own?”

  Malik… Phil narrowed his eyes at the name. Like Kalim before, this one also didn’t ring a bell, not unless it was some idiotic misspelling of ‘Marik’. But then again, the man looked absolutely nothing like Marik Ishtar, the main villain of Battle City.

  “I did. A fellow named Kalim.”

  Kounotori Tori let out a noncommittal hum, his eyes flicking between Phil and the cards in his own wing… or was it his hand? Phil wasn’t quite sure himself.

  “Not Pink Winter…” Kounotori sighed in disappointment, which was a strange sound to hear coming from the beak of a stork. “Nor does it sound like one of the other seasons. Stupid. Stupid! Where are they WHERE ARE THEY! SHUT UP! STUPID, STUPID HUMAN!” Kounotori continued, rapidly changing from calm tones to an ear-splitting screech at the end of his speech. His words of anger seemed entirely directed at Malik, who faced the tirade without even blinking.

  “Seasons?” Phil tilted his head in confusion. A thought dawned in his head as he recalled his pondering during the duel with Kalim. Red Summer. Pink Winter. Color plus season. He had indeed thought that was important.

  “The leaders~ of the sons~. The Sons of Kul Elna~.” Kounotori said in a mocking, singsong voice. “They introduce themselves as such. Would not call themselves any other name but that, no no no. Not here at least. Not when secrecy no~ longer matters~. Stupid, stupid creatures! Worthless! Prideful! GARBAGE THAT SHALL BE CRACKED OPEN BETWEEN MY BEAK LIKE A ROTTEN NUT! A ROTTEN NUT! KRKRK!”

  The Sons of Kul Elna.

  Phil looked at Malik all the more carefully. The name was both familiar and unfamiliar to him at the same time, entirely by virtue of the name 'Kul Elna'. Kul Elna had been a village of thieves back in the day of Ancient Egypt, the very same place where the Millennium Items themselves had been born in exchange for the blood sacrifice of all 99 of the village’s residents, other than two who had escaped – the Thief King Bakura, and a spirit known as Tragoedia. Phil had fought Tragoedia in the past and knew of the Thief King Bakura through reading the manga. Both of them were bad news. Hell, every time Kul Elna was brought up in the manga was bad news.

  “Purple Fall. Blue Spring. Pink Winter. Red Summer.” Kounotori spoke the names like a chant, eliciting a slight narrowing of the eyes from Malik with each word uttered. “The first one dead, dead~ dead~ dead~, the others very. Much. Alive. Make no mistake… PINK WINTER WILL DIE CHOKING ON HIS OWN BLOOD UNDER MY BOOTS!”

  So, this Malik person wasn't a 'season'. Did that mean he was just a grunt? If he were anything similar to Kalim, Phil could believe that. But if none of those seasons were here, when Kounotori had seemingly expected them to be, where were they?

  There was no more elaboration from Kounotori as the stork moved his left wing to pull a card from the stack of five clutched in his right wing.

  “Krkrk! Summoning Sacred Crane (1600/400) in attack mode! Two cards facedown! Turn end!”

  The rapid subject change was like whiplash against Phil’s face, but Phil paid it no heed. He walked closer to the dueling table. Judging by the life points and the lack of cards on Malik’s field, the duel had likely just begun, with Kounotori taking the first turn.

  The monster, Sacred Crane, was not entirely unfamiliar to Phil’s eyes. It was a crane covered with pure white feathers, with a few jet-black feathers on the underside of its wings and covering about two-thirds of its neck. Flowing down from the top of its head was a long mane of scarlet hair, stretching all the way down to the end of its spindly feet to flow in a nonexistent breeze.

  Phil looked at Malik, then the closed door, and back to the table. While he thought, Lumina slipped over to the door, turning visible for a brief second to test the handle with her palm.

  “Locked. Magically, I’d guess.”

  Phil blinked in understanding. This was probably the same situation as his own duel. Malik would need to be defeated to unlock the door. And if Kounotori being in this room was any indicator, the possibility of Jean facing his own opponent in the next round was getting greater by the second. Phil stepped back a few feet to sit on one of the wooden beams decorating the edges of the valley. There was nothing he could do other than wait for the shadow game between the mage and the stork to finish.

  “I summon Dark Lucius LV4 (1000/300).” Malik said in a voice as grim as his expression. A fiendish monster with grey skin and blood red eyes sauntered onto the field. Though the monster was far weaker than Kounotori’s Sacred Crane, a confident look remained on Malik's face. Then, like Kounotori, Malik placed two cards face down and ended his turn.

  Kounotori tilted his head slightly, shifting his red-booted feet in place as his left wing elegantly took the top card of his deck to add to his hand in his draw phase. He clacked his sharp beak experimentally and then launched into his main phase.

  “Tell me~, stupid, stupid creature! Where where where where is Pink Winter~?” Kounotori crooned. “Ba-ttle-phase. Sacred Crane, attack Dark Lucius!”

  The crane launched into a ferocious dive bomb, but as soon as the creature’s sharp beak was too close to Dark Lucius to abort the attack, Malik revealed one of his facedowns.

  “You have activated my trap card.” The man grimly intoned. “Bark of the Dark Ruler! My fiend monster is battling, so in the damage step I can pay life points in multiples of 100, lowering your monster’s attack and defense by that much!”

  Kounotori Tori: 4000 Malik: 3300

  Sacred Crane (1600/400 -> 900/0).

  A spectral face loomed out of the darkness to let loose a terrible howling which sent Sacred Crane’s feathers into disarray, allowing Dark Lucius LV4 the perfect opening to rend the bird’s chest wide open with its razor-sharp claws.

  Kounotori Tori: 3900 Malik: 3300

  Kounotori’s beak opened in an almost humanlike sneer.

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  “Krkrk! Useless! Useless! Shut! Shut up! Trap card activate, Call of the Haunted! Come back to me, Sacred Crane!”

  Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the crane once more took the field. No longer were its feathers in disarray, but instead they were all neatly preened as if it had never been defeated to begin with.

  “Sacred Crane’s effect activates. As it was special summoned, this stork may now draw a card! Then! Attack! Kill! Maim!”

  “Book of Moon.” Malik solemnly announced as a large blue book covered in mystical symbols spun onto the field to force Sacred Crane into a facedown defense position.

  “Keh.” Kounotori spat in irritation. “One monster in face-down defense position. One card face down. End turn."

  Malik drew a card. "Standby phase. As Dark Lucius destroyed a monster in battle, I shall now send it to the graveyard to level up. Come to me, Dark Lucius LV6 (1700/600)!”

  The LV6 version looked similar to the LV4, except that the tentacles growing from its back were much longer, and the monster now wielded a sword of black steel.

  “Battle. Dark Lucius, destroy the new face-down monster!”

  Kounotori merely watched as the fiendish monster sliced through his face-down, revealing the fading form of Sangan (1000/600).

  “Sangan’s eff-“ Kounotori began, but Malik cut him off with a triumphant shout.

  “Is negated! As Dark Lucius LV6 was properly summoned, the effects of all monsters it destroys are negated!”

  Kounotori spat out several irritated curses, but ultimately allowed Malik to continue his turn.

  "One card face down. Pass."

  Phil shifted in his seat as Kounotori drew a card. Right now the game was still iffy. Dark Lucius had been leveled up once, but from his own familiarity with the card, it wouldn't truly be formidable until it leveled up one more time to reach its final LV8 form, which would not only possess 2800 attack points, but it would also banish every monster it killed, along with negating their effects. However, to achieve that, two conditions were needed.

  The first was for Dark Lucius LV6 to destroy a monster by battle and negate its effect. It sounded simple enough, but not every monster had an effect that could be negated. This condition had been met with the destruction and negation of Sangan.

  The second condition was for it to survive until Malik’s next standby phase. Depending on what cards remained in Kounotori’s hand and field, this could be a difficult condition to meet.

  “Summoning! Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds (1000/1000) in defense position!” Kounotori screeched, slamming a card down onto the table.

  Phil let out a long, low wolf whistle. “Yeah. That’d do it.”

  Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds was a part of the notorious 'Barrier Statue' archetype, a line of weak monsters that all had a simple effect. While one remained on the field, neither player could special summon any monster that wasn't the same attribute as the Barrier Statue in play. Meaning, until Barrier Statue of the Stormwinds was destroyed, both Malik and Kounotori could only special summon wind monsters. And since leveling up Dark Lucius counted as a special summon, and that monster was an earth attribute creature, the level up could not happen until the statue was dealt with.

  "Trap card! Trap Hole!" Malik stalwartly replied. Underneath a large block of green jade carved in the shape of a birdman appeared a large circular pit, into which the statue disappeared to the accompanying sound of shattering glass. “When a monster with 1000 or more attack points is summoned, I may destroy that monster.”

  Kounotori let out a ‘tch’ of annoyance. He flipped Sacred Crane face up and ended his turn. Phil furrowed his brow. A strange move. His gut tingled. There was more to this. There had to be a reason to flip Sacred Crane face-up. He could tell. But could Malik?

  “Draw!” Malik added a card to his hand and then declared the effect of his Dark Lucius in his standby phase. “Level up! By sending Dark Lucius LV6 to the graveyard, I summon the embodiment of despair, the ultimate fiend swordsman! Come forth, Dark Lucius LV8 (2800/900)! Then, I summon Twin-Headed Wolf (1500/1000) in attack position!”

  A fiendish wolf with two pairs of slavering jaws padded onto the field. Next to it was a giant six-winged monster, a devilish figure that casually held a formidable black greatsword in the palm of one hand.

  “Battle phase. Dark Lucius LV8 attacks Sacred Crane.”

  “Trap card! Icarus Attack! By sacrificing my Sacred Crane, I destroy your Twin-Headed Wolf and your face-down! Krkrk! Die! Die!”

  As two rays of orange fire tore down from the heavens to incinerate those targets, a bout of mocking laughter tore from Malik’s throat.

  “Leaving your field undefended! Dark Lucius, strike directly!”

  “Stupid! Trash! My final facedown activates.” Kounotori deftly countered, flipping the card over with his wing to reveal a quick-play spell. “Scapegoat! Four Sheep Tokens (0/0) will be summoned to defend me!”

  An orange fluffy sheep came between Kounotori and Dark Lucius’s massive greatsword just in the nick of time to avoid the direct attack, leaving the air between the two covered in torn colored fur from the helpless token’s destruction.

  “A desperate attempt.” Malik sneered, but the mockery went ignored by the stork.

  “Draw.” Kounotori softly began. His beady eyes stared deep into Malik’s eyes. “Stupid, stupid human. Never thinking, no no. Not. Thinking. At. All. Why~ would this stork leave your strongest monster alone, when Icarus Attack could snuff its life like a candle~? Stupid, stupid human! Brainless! Incompetent! Shut up. Shut up! Quiet! Silence! There will be silence! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!”

  Each word was accompanied by a threatening clack of his beak.

  "For this, of course, of course. By banishing two Sheep Tokens on my field and Sangan from my graveyard, I summon forth your doom. Come, oh master of the winds! Destroy this worthless, incompetent trash! The Atmosphere (1000/800)!”

  In an instant, the room was filled with a multitude of howling winds as a giant bird with four cream-colored wings descended from above, clutching a sphere of hardened air between its claws.

  Phil let out a laugh. This card… he’d never seen it before! But Kounotori did not leave him in the dark for long, leaping into an explanation with a voice oozing malice.

  “Once per turn krkrkrk, one monster may be selected by The Atmosphere to take as an equip card, increasing my monster’s attack and defense by the target’s. My choice… is your Dark Lucius LV8! The very card this stork has been waiting for all along!”

  The Atmosphere (1000/800 -> 3800/1700).

  As a maelstrom of winds swept the giant fiend into the sphere of air clutched between the bird’s talons, Phil let out an even greater laugh.

  "Not bad!" Phil called out. Then, to Lumina, who was looking at him with the sort of gaze that carried the unspoken words of 'stop being dramatic and explain, or you die', he muttered his observations.

  “Don’t quote me on this, but I’m starting to think once he observed the level up requirement of the LV4 version, that sneaky son of a bitch actually let the Dark Lucius level up to its full power so he could yoink it with The Atmosphere. Otherwise, he could have easily dropped it with Icarus Attack, which he instead used to clear Malik’s remaining backrow and monster to ensure a lethal hit. Gotta say, I am a fan of using Scapegoat to meet that summoning requirement, too. Normally banishing two monsters on your field would be a bit tricky. Here? Easy as pie. Just use the sheep tokens.”

  Phil shook his head in amused disbelief. “Interesting way of doing things. Risky, but interesting.”

  “Battle phase.” Kounotori softly yet maliciously declared. “Your field is empty. The Atmosphere, strike. End this farce.”

  The Atmosphere spat out a barrage of winds from its beak, each one sharp enough to slice through steel like scissors through paper. And like that, in only a few turns, it was over. Kounotori had only lost 100 life points in total.

  Kounotori Tori: 3900 Malik: 0

  Phil moved forward to congratulate the bird, but Kounotori hopped over the table to stand over the fallen form of Malik. The man’s body was riddled with bloody slashes, and several of his organs had spilled out onto the floor, but there was no sign of pain in his eyes.

  There was nothing in those eyes, but at the same time, they were not lifeless or glassy with death just yet. Those eyes were as empty as Kalim’s had been.

  Kounotori placed a booted foot on Malik’s chest. Fresh blood joined the dried blood splashed across his red boot.

  “Stupid, stupid human! Where is Pink Winter! Where! Where! WHERE WHERE WHERE WHERE WHERE WHERE WHERE!”

  Malik laughed. Kounotori increased the pressure of his foot on Malik’s chest, causing blood to bubble out of the man’s mouth.

  “I… don’t know. Somewhere in the true castle, I think. Him and Blue Spring both. So sayith… the wise Red Summer. What is it to you?” Malik eventually choked out the question. His mouth moved unnaturally, like it was out of synch with his words. Phil could see his actions were as stiff and halting as Kalim’s had been.

  “Vengeance.” Kounotori replied with a sense of barely suppressed rage. “He killed someone… important to me.”

  Malik’s laughter intensified, only stopping when Kounotori’s foot pressed down and the sound of several ribs breaking could be heard.

  “You’ll…” Malik let out a wet cough. “Have to be more specific. Living this long, we’ve all killed many people. I… haha, I hardly pay attention now. They blur together, even the important ones, don’t they? Faces into names, all the same. A blurry mess. And… I doubt your friend was important.”

  A snarl of rage was Kounotori’s only reply before his booted foot tore through Malik’s ribcage in an explosion of gore, followed by a sea of surging shadows as they ate away at the rest of his body. Malik’s flesh shuddered, his mouth opening to spit out an orb of grey light that flew into the air with such speed that Phil could hardly track it. Yet, while the orb was fast, Kounotori was faster. The stork’s neck bobbed as his beak flashed forward to catch the orb within it like a fish scooped from the water.

  “Mm, mhm!” Kounotori made several noises of satisfaction as the orb disappeared down his gullet. Phil watched in morbid fascination as a visible lump slid down the stork’s throat.

  “The soul.” Kounotori remarked once he noticed Phil’s attention. “Nestled within this long-dead body, the stupid, stupid human could not survive for long. No, not at all. Not at all. Once the corpse is dead once more, the soul must flee. Flee right into my stomach~. Such a shame~. Nothing but a worthless stupid, stupid grunt. Waste of time. Waste of time!”

  Phil glanced at the door. Still locked. It seemed like before, it would take a few minutes to open.

  “So… this… Pink Winter you’re searching for. He… killed someone you knew?”

  A beady yellow eye fixed its gaze on Phil. Three minutes of silence passed before Kounotori spoke.

  “Krkrk. Not personally. Just the cause. My sister. Saint Seven.”

  Kounotori turned to fully face Phil. His voice was filled with sorrow. That name… he partially recognized it. One of Jean’s opponents before Chet tried to screw them over, if he remembered right.

  “In the darkness of the Domino City Duel Parlor, my older sister was… murdered. She was always kind to me. Even after my form was changed.” Kounotori spat out the word ‘murdered’ like a particularly bad piece of food. “Murdered by the man known as Mac N’ Cheese. Only, this stork later found that the man’s mind was not his own. Not his own, no no not at all. Krkrk. He was possessed, as I later found. This is for certain, as it was scried by the wielder of the Millennium Necklace herself. For a price! A price, krkrk!”

  Kounotori’s beak opened and closed several times with a light ‘clacking’ sound. His head dipped down to catch the strap of his discarded leather satchel, and then with a bob of his head, the satchel returned to its usual place looped under his wing.

  “He was possessed by the foul Pink Winter. I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”

  The door clicked open.

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