Chapter 020: Transcendence

''"You seek ultimate perfection, young Reiji," Rex said to him. "The only way to do that is to defeat me."''

''"Fine. Whatever." Reiji said as he walked to the table. "Vanguard is about one thing. And that is the strong dominating the weak. And no Vanguard fighter is stronger than I."''

"We will see about that," Rex answered back, as he walked towards the other end of the table.

"Stand Up! The! Vanguard!" Rex said to his opponent.

"Stand Up! My! Vanguard!" Reiji did the same.

Rex's first vanguard appeared surrounded by a dark aura, generated by being poisoned by the Dark Power. "Chrono Dran."

"Vermillion Gatekeeper."

Meanwhile, on Planet Cray, a scholarly feline was darting through the halls of the Holy Nation's royal residence. She was very much in a hurry. The guards recognized her as a friend, and they allowed her to see the King of United Sanctuary, Alfred.

"It is a welcome relief to see a friend in this dark moment," Alfred greeted her. "What news have you?"

Gasping for air, she struggled for a moment to make words. "They've arrived... Your Grace..."

"Who has arrived?"

"The Dark Armies... have arrived..."

In the skies above the planet's surface, the battle had already begun. Units poisoned by the influence of the Dark Power waged war against those units who were not. A similar battle was waged here centuries ago, between the demonic dragon, Kuromi, and the forces of United Sanctuary. The dragon everyone has feared would return had indeed returned. This time, however, it brought many more friends.

As the fight drew on, Rex was becoming increasingly agitated. Something was not right. Reiji, on the other hand, remained confident.

"Ride! Blue Dust!" Reiji declared. "Call! Blue Dust and Crucio Vampir! My vanguard attacks!"

"No guard." Neither of Rex's damage checks were triggers.

"Drive check. Critical Trigger. All effects to the vanguard. Crucio Vampir, fuel my vanguard." Reiji discarded a card from his hand and put Crucio Vampir into the soul to restand Blue Dust. "As well, Blue Dust's skill: Soul Charge 2. The rear-guard Blue Dust attacks!"

"No guard. Damage check, Heal Trigger. Power to the Vanguard and heal."

"Grr... My vanguard attacks once again!"

"Guard! Gun-blast Dragon!"

"Drive check, no trigger..." Rex was at three damage. Reiji had two.

Silence filled the room once again as Rex was pondering his next move.

"I ride!" Rex declared. In the fighters' imaginations, a gear dragon appeared from a temporal vortex to enter the battlefield. "Chronojet Dragon! Imaginary Gift, Force I! Call two Gun-bezel Dragon!"

"What is that card...?" Makoto asked.

"Here it comes..." Destiny said quietly.

"Comes what?"

"The true power of the Gear Chronicle..."

"Chronojet Dragon's skill: I use Wedgemove Dragon as the cost!" Rex began to say. "Now show me, Gear Chronicle! Show me the future I truly desire! Transcend the Vanguard!!! Chronodragon Nextage!!!" A burst of wind swept through the estate, nearly sweeping everyone off their feet. Reiji and Rex, however, remained standing.

"I am going to defeat you this turn, Reiji," Rex told his opponent. "You aren't worthy of the title of First Vanguard. Chronodragon Nextage attacks Blue Dust!"

"I will show you," Reiji answered him. "No guard!"

"Now for the Twin Drive, Draw Trigger! The power goes to the left side Gun-bezel Dragon. Critical Trigger! Power to the right side Gun-bezel Dragon, Critical to the Vanguard!"

"Damage check..." Reiji answered, suddenly feeling the pain of the battle. "Draw Trigger! Draw Trigger! Power to Blue Dust!" In their imaginations, Chronojet Dragon reappeared on the battlefield where Nextage previously stood.

"Follow it up, Gun-bezel Dragons!" Reiji guarded the first attack with Cursed Doctor and Blue Dust, but allowed the second attack through.

"Damage check, Draw Trigger! Power to the vanguard!"

"That's three damage triggers," Makoto observed, "giving Blue Dust 39000 Power."

"But Chronojet Dragon has 33000 Power and a drive check," Asahi added.

"Reiji still needs to guard this attack," Destiny added.

"Chronojet Dragon, destroy the vanguard!!!" Rex declared what he thought was the final attack.

"Perfect Guard!" Reiji defiantly answered. "March Rabbit of Nightmareland!"

"Why did he use a Perfect Guard at this point?" Makoto asked.

"It's the Dark Power," Destiny answered him. "It is making Reiji reckless, making it to where Rex could take full advantage of any mistakes he makes." Rex ended his turn with five cards in hand, the same number of cards Reiji had.

"I'm not sure who you think you are," Reiji told his opponent, cracking his knuckles, "telling me I'm not worthy of a title that I've worked my whole life to earn. I've defeated Aichi Sendou. I've defeated Naito Sakaki. Who else do I need to defeat in order to be recognized as the greatest fighter in history?"

Rex laughed very loudly. "It doesn't matter who you defeat," he then said, "or how many people you defeat. You will never get the recognition you want with that kind of attitude. Boo hoo Reiji because the people don't love him." Rex was taunting his opponent by now. "Is that what this is about? Were you not hugged enough as a child?"

Normally, Reiji would become furious. This time, however, he remained steady, almost as if the words failed to faze him.

"I've heard about enough from you," Reiji told him. "This is the FINAL TURN!!!"

"Final Turn?" everyone asked at once.

"Once I'm through with you," Reiji continued, "the future will be mine for the choosing. I will have the life I was destined to have. "Gaze into the heart of darkness, and see the pure despair gaze back at you! Demonic Madness Dragon, Kuromi, arise! Imaginary Gift: Protect I! Also, Kuromi's skill: Soul Charge 2, and Kuromi gets Power+2000 for every two cards in the soul. There's eleven cards, so that's Power+10000. Call! Gwynn the Ripper! Dauntless Vampir! Doreen the Thruster!"

"Reiji's called a full board," Asahi observed. "That's four attacks and Rex has five cards in hand."

"Attack! Gwynn the Ripper!" Rex did not check a damage trigger that time. Four damage to Reiji's five. "Kuromi! Eternal Black Fury!!!" In their imaginations, Kuromi blasted away at the enemy with an intense energy beam.

She did much the same thing on Planet Cray, but her enemy was not Chronojet Dragon, but rather countless other Cray units fighting against the forces of the Dark Power.

The scholarly cat and Alfred were among a group of Cray leadership assembled in the throne room of the Holy Nation. Together, they struggled to come up with a plan to defeat the enemy forces.

"It seems," Alfred began to say, "there is only one thing we can do at this juncture. We must hope for a miracle."

"Perfect Guard!" Rex responded to the attack defiantly. "You still aren't good enough to defeat me!"

"Checking the Twin Drive!" Reiji protested. "Critical Trigger! Critical Trigger! All the effects go to the vanguard! Kuromi, arise once again! Eternal Black Fury!!!"

"The power of that attack is how much?" Hanako asked her brother.

"92000 Power," Makoto answered her, still staring at the battle.

"92000?! That's got to be a record or something!"

"No guard." Rex answered with a sneer.

"Rex isn't guarding?" Hanako asked the group. "What does that mean?"

"It likely means Reiji wins," Makoto answered her.

"Checking the Twin Drive!" Reiji said once again. "Heal Trigger! Critical Trigger! Give the critical to the vanguard and the power to Gwynn the Ripper on the right side. It's over for you!"

"The force of destiny bends to my will now, boy," Rex answered defiantly.

"You have four damage," Reiji sneered. "And you have to perform four damage checks. There's no way you can't lose now."

"You aren't listening," Rex told his opponent bluntly.

"What?!"

"I control this fight. Not you. First check, Heal Trigger! Power to the vanguard."

"That's not bad," Reiji taunted him. "Three more."

"Second check, Heal Trigger as well. Power to the Vanguard and heal one."

"That's two Heals in a row..." Asahi observed. "I've never seen anyone heal more than twice in one attack."

"Third check, no trigger." Five damage for Rex now. "Final check, Heal Trigger."

"Three heals in one attack?!" Makoto was shocked. Everyone was shocked.

"That's... That's not possible!" Reiji protested.

"What's not possible is victory for you," Rex answered back with a sneer.

"Gwynn!" Reiji fought back with all he had left in him.

"Guard."

Reiji fell onto the table. He had nothing left. That last attack exhausted him beyond comprehension. Rex had no sympathy.

"Stand and draw. Once again, I ride Chronojet Dragon. Force I acquired." Rex noticed Reiji still slumped over on the table. "You have a Protect I marker in your hand. However, you won't be needing that where you're going."

Reiji barely lifted his head off the table. "What?!"

"I shall save the world," Rex told the crowd, and the world as well. "The hour of reckoning has come. The past, the present, and the future will all belong to me! I alone will save the world! By using Wedgemove Dragon as the cost, Transcend the Vanguard!"

On Cray, another temporal vortex appeared in the sky. From it, appeared a golden dragon with an assorted array of gears floating around it. Two large clock arms could be seen on the creature's back.

"Interdimensional Dragon, Victory Dragon. Skill activated. I send ten cards from my bind zone into the drop zone, then put ten cards from my drop zone on the top of the deck in the order of my choosing."

"He just stacked the top ten cards of the deck?" Asahi was stunned.

"That can't be!" Makoto protested.

On Cray, for each card put on top of Rex's deck, the clock arms moved slightly until both were pointing up towards space.

"Power+15000, Critical+1, and for this battle, you cannot use a Perfect Guard," Rex finished his explanation.

"No Perfect Guards at all?" Makoto asked rhetorically.

"Victory Dragon has 60000 Power, 2 Critical, and Twin Drive," Destiny added. "I've never seen a card quite like this before."

"Victory Dragon, show the worlds why you earned your name," Rex told the unit on his vanguard circle. "World, Rewrite!"

Reiji managed to find just enough strength to get up. However, he didn't have enough cards in hand to guard an attack like that. He had lost.

The fight left Reiji unable to stand. He lay on the floor, conscious but extremely exhausted. Makoto and Asahi attempted to run over to Reiji to see if he would be okay but were stopped by Rex.

"Makoto, it's your turn."

Makoto clenched his fists. "I'm not sure why you are doing this. But it needs to end."

"I don't plan on ending this," Rex answered him. "Even if I wanted to stop it, I would not be able to unless I lost in a serious Cardfight."

"What if Destiny is correct?" Makoto asked him. "And the people of Planet Cray would be destroyed in the process?"

"Did you see the same future I saw?" Rex asked in response. "I can't tell for sure what will happen to them. But whatever happens, no price is too high for making this world perfect."

"That's not how the force of destiny works," Destiny tried to reiterate. "There is supposed to be balance. If there is no balance, everyone suffers."

"Have you ever experienced loss, Destiny? Makoto? Asahi? The viewing audience?" Rex asked. "If so, you will not experience that heartbreak, that pain, that suffering anymore."

"Makoto, you have to stop him," Destiny told him. Makoto nodded in understanding. As the last person standing in the now-canceled tournament, he was the only one who could.

"Regardless of whether you agree with me or not, Makoto," Rex began to tell him. "Fate has dictated that you fight."

"You planned on fighting me from the beginning..." Makoto realized.

"Not you specifically," Rex corrected him. "But yes. I made it to where only a Vanguard fight could resolve this matter, as it is meant to be."

"You watched us fight so you could make a strategy to defeat the last one standing," Makoto realized.

"It is a bit painful, but the truth nonetheless," Rex answered back. "I did what I had to do to ensure that humanity could achieve perfection."

Makoto thought for a moment on what to do.

"The only guarantee I can make is if I somehow lose," Rex then told him, "humanity will never achieve perfection. Is that risk worth saving the lives of people we can only see in a children's card game?"

"Rex..." Makoto could not find any words to say.

"To be honest, there's nothing else that can be done," Rex told him. "If you do nothing, I'll just find someone else to fight, and they'll definitely lose. So what will it be? What are you going to do?

"Fine," Makoto finally answered after Rex pushed him far enough. "I'll fight you."

"I knew you would cone around," Rex told him.

"Let's get this over with, Rex."

"Vanguard Fight!!!"

In a flash of light, both Rex and Makoto disappeared.