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Beginning to step through the cave, Nine was soon stopped as the legend had issued a warning to them. With his hands in his pocket, Nine looked behind to at first see nothing there. However, soon enough, as if he suddenly started to slowly slip into and exist within reality, a Banette had appeared before them. His entrance aside, Nine could already tell something was off with the man who had appeared before them. And the more he talked, the more he felt something absolutely sinister stewing within the Banette before him. As he finished his introductions, Nine was left frozen as the man had effortlessly changed the scenery around them - Shaymin no longer being alongside them. Looking at Raphael, Nine felt something he hadn't for quite some time. A pinging in the back of his head that made every hair on his body stand on end as the demonic figure looked at them. Fear. His hand trembling, Nine could tell that this man was something else. Something terrifying. Something that made him feel as though he needed to escape from here as fast as possible. He couldn't help but feel as though this was the worst possible situation to be in. No godslayer could match up to him. Even legends, though they had a different bearing he still was simply as imposing. Nine had always thought that a Disciple was the worst possible opponent he could ever face off against, and even then there was something different about him. Both Kushiel and Azriel had a calm, yet forceful air about them. Their presence commanded order and respect, completely eclipsing anything else in the same room as them. Raphael, however, had an almost suffocating aura of chaos and malevolence about him. It wasn't as though his presence eclipsed everything around him, but rather threatened to tear apart anything that got close. Looking at the foe before him, though, recognizing him again to be a disciple, Nine's hand stopped trembling for a moment. Perhaps it was something within his blood, something fundamentally wrong with him that made him feel something else. It wasn't as though the fear was gone, but rather paired and in tandem with an almost paradoxically complimenting emotion. His stunned expression slowly changing to a small smile, the Houndoom knew he simply had to take things one step at a time. That he had to simply go to the basics of how he fought everyone he had ever come across in this journey. And the first step was the same as always. Conversation. "Now, now, I don't think I really want to fight you but, well, care to answer a few questions for the soon to be deceased?" "Oh? Questions? For me? Hmmm....Answer, red is my favorite color. So sweet of you to ask." Nine couldn't help but let loose a nervous chuckle as the man answered. "Well, I'm a fire type and we're often seen as the red kind, so I'm sure we'll get along well." Being on guard but still seeming amiable he'll say, "just to make it clear, you're Giratina's Disciple. Which means, that after all your traveling as a Chaser, Giratina chose you. Correct?" Raphael sat down on the edge of the coffin, kicking his legs, swaying side to side. "Travelling? No, no travelling. Those others did that. But not me. Giratina never got the chance to do things like that. I just killed soooo many people that they decided I would be the one they whisper to." Nine paused for a moment, slightly raising an eyebrow before going back to his smile. "Oh? Well, sorry for presuming otherwise, but congratulations. You must feel truly blessed to simply be chosen. But, well, I'm curious you see. Amongst all of those people you killed, were any of the legends?" "Not yeeeet." Raphael giggled. Nine felt a sense of relief wash over him at this. He was a disciple. But he had never done his journey as a Chaser. And he had never slain a legend before - likely meaning he had either never met one or never defeated one. Nine had no idea where this sense of relief had come from. It wasn't as though he was any less terrifying an individual. It wasn't as though the foe before him looked any weaker. Relief may not have even been the best word to describe it. Yet, there was something about it that calmed his nerves. And something that bolstered his resolve even further. As this indescribable sensation overcame him, he couldn't help but smile more pleasantly at this. "I see, I see. Well, then fret not. When I meet him, I will be sure to converse with just as I would any other legend, godslayer, disciple or common folk." "Hmmmm?" His head tilted to the side, his mouth smiled wider than should be possible, and he let out a growl. "You won't see anyone. But if you're lucky you'll see some of your insides before you die." Nine felt a sudden rush of pain overcome him as the Banette growled. As the Banette winced, Nine as well suddenly understood what this now familiar sensation of pain was as he started to feel a curse eat away at him from the inside. "No, that's not right, you are supposed to hurt even more...here, have this too." Clutching his chest, Nine then felt a sudden pain rush through him as Raphael seemed to feel better, from his own self inflicted pain. Without any words to accompany it, Nine simply waved his hand and let loose a dark pulse almost immediately as the pain was beset upon him. Chuckling a bit to himself as he winced in pain the boy said, "see, if you had come to me any other time, I may have despaired. But I'm a Chaser, and your legend is the last one I need to meet before I finally finish my challenge. With the finish line so close, even if you were Arceus's disciple I don't think I could stand to lose. And besides that, I have a reason far greater for defeating your master than even that." Raphael, however, didn't seem to bother avoiding the attack. In fact, he instead flipped off the coffin, taking the blow head on before flipping back onto the coffin. As he did, still smiling, Nine felt a different sensation of pain rush through his head. "I see why you wanted to talk. You're. So. Weak." Nine's body felt as though it simply didn't want to use dark pulse anymore, less that he couldn't and more that it simply didn't wish to repeat the same attacks over and over. Letting out another pained chuckle as things turned from bad to worse for him. "Of course. Everyone I've ever stood against has stood on a mountain, far too high for me to see the peak of. So in the face of them." Nine began to ran towards the disciple, sending a rush of flames from his hand towards him. "What else can I hope to do but what I know I'm good at?" With nominal effort, Raphael merely launched a shadow ball through his flames. Knowing that there was no way he'd win in a head on clash, Nine stopped his attack and deftly rolled to the side to avoid the attack. Summoning a smaller flame in his palm he said, "so, I hope you'll have fun conversing with a weakling like me." Crushing the flame in his hand, Nine was enveloped in a glowing aura of sunlight, feeling the healing properties of his aura fight the eating feeling of the curse within.

Normal Trap Target 1 face-up monster on the field; while that target remains face-up, your opponent's Deck is turned upside-down. A monster Tribute or Ritual Summoned by Tributing the targeted monster, or Special Summoned from the Extra Deck using the targeted monster as material, gains the following effect. • At the start of the Battle Phase: Destroy this card, and if you do, you take damage equal to its ATK on the field.

4/EARTH/Dinosaur/1600/1200 You can reveal 1 Dinosaur Normal Monster in your hand; apply 1 of these effects, or both if you revealed a Level 5 or higher monster. • Make this card's ATK become double its original ATK, until the end of this turn. • This card can make a second attack during each Battle Phase this turn. If this card is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can Special Summon 1 Dinosaur Normal Monster from your hand. You can only use each effect of "Twin Rex the King of Dinosaurs" once per turn.

Agreed with Nyx. Magical Arm Shield in hand trap form can be quite something, and IMO an acceptable change because the Trap is not doing anything competitively speaking. IDK how relevant this would actually be but it's cool to see a card that at least attempts to make the Battle Phase more relevant. Getting Plant support is welcomed, but with Lonefire around, makes me think you could get away by making the effect also usable while the monster is on the field, similar to Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit's activation condition.

Field Spell When this card is activated: You can add 1 "Gate Guardian" from your Deck to your hand. When a monster is Normal Summoned/Set: You can place 1 "Suijin", "Kazejin" or "Sanga of the Thunder" from your hand or Deck face-up in your Spell/Trap Zone as a Continuous Spell. Cards placed by this effect can be Tributed to Special Summon "Gate Guardian" through its own method. If "Gate Guardian" you control would be destroyed, you can banish 1 Level 7 monster from your GY instead.

Pays homage to Rex Raptor obviously. He never got around using all that many effect monsters, did he? XD It is pretty cool wording on the application of the effects in which you can get both bulleted effects from revealing Level 5 or higher. I might have to borrow bits of it somewhere down the line. The effects aren't ground breaking by any means, but if one is willing to go the extra mile to get both effects you can run Fossil_Dig and Summoner's_Art to get your Level 5 or higher Normal Dinosaur more consistently. And be able to float into it when this guy dies. Although, it probably won't see all that much play given Normal Dinos aren't the most sought after Deck in the world, I can appreciate this tribute to Rex's old school Deck. Oh and one more thing, for flavor purpose you could include revealing a Normal Dragon as well as floating into it when it gets destroyed... Considering Rex in the anime for some reason was the original owner of Red-Eyes_B._Dragon and Serpent_Night_Dragon.

I am curious... Flavor wise, is this related to one of Ishizu_Ishtar cards: Blast_Held_by_a_Tribute. It seems to pay homage to her "prophetic" powers and the fact that she tried to use that card against Kaiba. Anyways, I like the built in "Convulsion of Nature" effect as it gives you knowledge of what to expect. Last effect is nifty as it can put your opponent in a stand still for their Link monsters that used what ever you targeted, and it can kill your opponent or prevent them from battling in the event that they summoned something that has ATK over there current LP.

I see so the name change effect is to make the respective "Metal" counter parts of the Normal monster you sent more accessible to Summon. It is a shame the "Metal" monsters are just beaters though. XD I am even more disappointed that we haven't got Heavy_Metal_King yet. I mention this because in the event that we ever get it, its non-"Metal" counterpart, Musician_King, is non-Effect Fusion, not just a Normal Monster... So may want to emphasize sending a 1 Non-Effect monster from your Deck Extra Deck or GY just in case.

While anything would be good for Gate Guardian and his trio of outdated misfits... And this is certainly no exception: it is great for what it does. But, I feel this is a bit too straightforward for my taste. It essentially gives any Deck that is capable of Normal Summoning/Setting a big beatstick with multiple destruction prevention. Personally, I would rather see multiple archetypal support for these that would facilitate getting out the trio quicker and perhaps even a retrain of Gate Guardian than just 1 generic card consolidated for the purpose of just getting out Gate Guardian for any Deck. On to what can actually be done with this card though. And because there is no once per turn here: You could technically run Decks capable of multiple Normal Summons like Hunder to get more copies of the trio from your Deck if you have any which could be used for fueling a few things for crazy hybrid Decks (e.g. True Draco, Scrubbed_Raid , etc.).

So basically a hand trap Magical Arm Shield? Magical Arm Shield on its own isn't good (least not in this game state), but a hand trap variant is more ideal. Less prone to removal, and not as slow. Sure, there's monster effect negation. But unless your opponent discards (Mind Crush, Card Destruction, Morphing Jar, ect.), they're not going to remove this easily. It's neat. Shares a spot with Sphere Kuriboh (or most Kuriboh monsters), Battle Fader, Swift Scarecrow, and the like.

October 1. SPOOPY TIME Now to fade back into obscurity

Adelheid Sigrdifa "This sure is a bad time for jokes to turn into reality." Adel shook her head. While she would not say that her joke earlier was not without basis, actually seeing it becoming the consensus on what actually happened to the village was... honestly quite unpleasant. Less about the potential power of whoever the adversary they would face here, but it was more a matter of principle. Regardless, Adelheid followed the conversation following the revelations in silence. In the first place, she wasn't the type to talk a lot. And Catriona definitely had found herself a lead without her help too. After the search in Acantha's house not leading to much meaningful revelation other than the fate of its owner, Catriona had decided to check on the town hall. Following the beaver along, they would soon find themselves on it. "We should start searching. We might be able to find something here." "On it." As with everyone else, Adel began searching around the house. The opulent lifestyle that the mayor was living in was quite a contrast with the previous house they were in. It was a little revolting, in a way. One by one, everyone began finding things of their own. She overheard that Penelope found out that the mayor was seemingly wanting to leave a message, and she also saw by her own eyes how Tsetseg accidentally stumbled upon a metal key from the floor. She was sure that Sienna also found something too, if her glances were right. All these youth really were one-upping her, but it couldn't be helped with how unfocused she was. Before her now was two places. One was the latrine, which didn't smell as bad as it should, but it was still striking enough, and alternatively, she could go upstairs, hopefully to the mayor's private quarters. Adel paused. The thing about this situation was none of the group really had any idea on what to search for. Well, sure, they were all trying to find hints on whatever the hell happened to this village, but what that "hint" supposed to be, nobody had any idea about. It might as well be as random as Tsetseg stumbling upon the key to somewhere, earlier. Right now they might as well be raiding this guy's house in guise of investigation. Ah, it sure reminded her of the old days. However, this really was not the time for that. Adel's mind was still blanking, but she tried her best to think of something. Magic of this scale was completely absurd, of course, but... if something was this big, it wouldn't come out of nowhere, right? Tales, legends, childhood stories... She doubted that she would recall anything from what she had heard before, but doing so helped her to focus on the situation regardless. And with that on her mind, she went upstairs, intent on raiding the mayor's belongings even if she didn't find anything worthwhile as a clue. "I'll go check up here. Will that be fine?" Ciela Celestinia "Though according to Alois, it is not a chapel, but rather a town hall. Still, we tried the doors earlier and they were locked. I doubt we'd be able to enter the building lest one of us can pick locks." "Can't we just break the door? Turning everyone back to normal is more valuable than some minor property damage, right?" Ciela replied to what Cat had to say about going to the church, but Cat already went on the move, following the beaver that used to be the human owner of the house they were in. Before she went away however, she overheard Cora's angry reply to Edrick's suggestion earlier. She didn't say anything, but she kept that on her mind. She really should try going to the church after this, even alone. But now, it was time for the mayor's house. Putting aside the gaudy-ass house they passed, this place clearly was a step above everywhere else on the village. The mayor really was one loaded person, and it was visible from everything in the house. And once the house was unlocked, that fact became clearer than ever. Well, compared to her old place, it's still nothing, but the effort to be fancy was visible. "We should start searching. We might be able to find something here." "Sure, yeah." And so, the group began their search. Ciela chose to follow Sienna as her starting point. However, as Sienna seemingly found something interesting on the stone landing near what seemed to be a locked door, Ciela's attention was soon taken by something else. A small shelf filled with several bottles of wine. For a moment, Ciela forgot that she was supposed to investigate here. She wasn't exactly an expert, but wine was sort of a specialty of hers from her many raids into Lord Lucati's cellar. She did have developed a taste for vintage wine from quite an early age this way. She eyed upon the selection, and was pleasantly surprised to see that the mayor kept quite a varied collection. Wines from various parts of the continent, with varying age to them as well as the type of processing used. And some of them in particular were widely known to be a rare treat. Shamelessly, Ciela took one of those rare bottles, and put it on her bag. If everyone's an animal right now, surely they wouldn't mind a little bit of charity, right? Only thing stopping her was that her bag wouldn't allow her to fit in another bottle or two. "Nothing interesting over here!" ---

Link quietly caught up to the group as Catriona briefed everyone. He learned several things listening to it. A) the spell had seemingly swapped the roles of the animals and humans. B) it hadn’t swapped them into another body, like some fairy tale, but had given the animals and human each unique respective forms to call their own. C) The plan was to inspect the Mayor of this little village’s house for clues. When all things were considered, he agreed with the course of action, but all the talk of magic still left a bitter taste in his mouth. Great dragons and deities, living dead, humans becoming animals and animals becoming humans, it was all a little—okay, a lot—overwhelming. These weren’t the type of issues a footsoldier like him knew how to handle. Part of him wanted to bury his head in the dirt, let those better suited to the situation take the lead, and swing his sword at whatever they asked him to just like the old days, but that wasn’t even a possibility for him. The group started to move toward the Mayor’s house, following a beaver he assumed to have been once been the Mayor. During the trip he had to remind himself several times that the villagers had been turned into animals. He hadn’t forgotten, but sometimes, the incredulity of it all overwhelmed him and his beliefs. At times like that his hand fumbled for the hilt of his sword. It was his lightning rod for negative emotions. If he gripped it tightly enough, eventually the emotions would go away, siphoned into his sword and eaten by the physical manifestation of his duty. His fears, his reservations, his loves and his hates, none of those mattered in the face of his oath to the crown. As they passed through the town square, Link saw Rohns chasing a large hare around at full speed. Rohns was grinning from ear-to-ear in a wicked way that only wolves could, pouncing here and there, enjoying a chance to torment another creature a bit too much. When the cub ran past the soldier, Link tried a tactic he had seen Licorice employing and snatched the cub up by the scruff of his neck. The effect was insane. Rohns growled for a second before immediately going limp. Neat. It would probably only work while he was still very young, but it was helpful for the time being. Link took note of the method and carried Rohns away to Town Square with them, only letting the cub down once they were a safe distance away from any small animals he could torment. "Is this the place then?" Catriona asked, glancing at Alois once they got to a house much larger than most of the others in the village. Link was surprised to find anything constructed with this level of ability inside a village like Phar. The beaver—the Mayor—slid into an opening in his door and somehow managed to turn the lock. Led by Catriona, everyone began to pour into the building. Link was going to follow, but before he could, Rohns bolted around the side of the house. The wolf smelled something, probably, and wanted to chase it. Well… Licorice planned to stand guard in the front, from what he saw, but it wouldn’t hurt to patrol the entire area. Link thought about what to do for a second, unsure if he should just let the cub run, when an idea struck him. He briefly entered the house to inform Catriona he was going to scout the outside area, then came back to the front, where Licorice was posted. “Hello,” Link said. His voice had returned to him at full strength, finally, but he still wasn’t used to talking anymore. “Rohns, er, well, that is to say, the wolf cub, he ran off to the back. I’m gonna scout the area so I can stay out here and keep an eye on him.” Right, she was staring at him. It must have been because she wanted to know why any of that mattered to her. “I’m left-handed. I’m good enough to fight with my offhand, but better safe than sorry, so I was hopin’ you would join me?”