Fear of Power, Fear of Corruption (Open)

[Robert Zanrou]

"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
-1st Baron Acton

In his dreams, Robert felt like he was in a void. Black was all around him, and his body felt numb. What was this, he couldn't feel anything, he couldn't speak, all he could do was watch. The void was then washed over by white, forcing him to clench his eyes shut. This was a scary situation, and what was this white out that ensued?

When the white had cleared, he opened his eyes. A palace, filled with soldiers and a man and women in shackles were around him. Was he one of the prisoners? When he had looked at his body, no shackles were present. Just a cape suited for a man of power was embracing him. Otherwise, his outfit consisted of his old leather pants, gloves, boots and the coat. The collar mask was raised, covering his face.

The numbness crippling his body was gone, but something else was there. Something even worse than losing feeling. He was walking towards the prisoners, a blade in hand. This is not what he wanted to do at all, if he were in control, he'd work to free them. The soldiers were calling to him, cheering him on to 'slay the traitors.' Clearly, they were serving him, or at least what was controlling him.

The man and woman pleaded for life. And if he had any say in this, he'd let them go. Surely they had been through enough hell as it is. But instead of what he would say, the words that passed out of his mouth were, "For the crime of treason, I sentence you to death!" This was horrifying for Robert to hear, and even worse, he hacked the head off of the male and had stabbed the woman in the chest. Both were executed, coldly and tyrannically.

The soldiers cheered the tyrant on, and he raised his arms. Accepting the praise from 'his' loyal soldiers. Just then, an assassin came in, the soldiers powerless to stop him. As the assassin took his sword to the tyrant, his body clashed swords with him. After what was a short fight, the sword of the assassin was flung out of his hands.

Without mercy, 'Robert' seized the assassin by his throat. "For the crime of attempted assassination, attempted murder and treason, you are sentenced to death!" This was horrifying for the real Robert to hear. Whatever it was Robert was influenced by stabbed the assassin stabbed him in the abdomen, killing him instantly. He then tossed the rogue's body to the side like a rag doll.

As sickening as all this was, Robert grinned under his mask. Taking his throne, the soldiers who were knocked around by the assassin had gotten up. Was this what he had really become? Was a blood thirsty tyrant really his future? What could have caused him to become a monster? Just then, the controller took something off of his necklace, a deck box.

Wait, what the hell was this!? The deck box was the one labeled with the Gladiator on it. When the controller took out the cards and had sifted through them proudly, he was shocked. However, there was no way he could express this shock, as something had control over him. The Gladiator Beasts, a powerful deck had corrupted him. Was the man behind the Arena really passing off a cursed deck?

Robert had awoken from his sleep, screaming in a cold sweat. What the hell was that all about? The time now was the time to wake up. He can't believe that he didn't wake up earlier. Was that just a dream, or a vision of the future? Was his deck really a source of evil and tyranny?

He wiped his face with a towel in order to dry off. What a horrible nightmare. And the scream was loud enough for at least a decent number of the dorm to hear. And luckily for them, it was the time to wake up. He wasn't disturbing anyone's sleep, but it was a loud scream. And he still look like he had seen a ghost.

That man who ran The Arena, was he trying to pass on a curse, and why? Was that man trying desperately to escape the curse? Was he a victim of the curse, and trying to spread its corruption to others? Was he behind this horrid corruption? Was he even aware of such corruption? Was the deck even cursed at all? Either way, if what he felt during the tag duel scared him, this was so much worse.