Road to Paradise

Road to Paradise is designated as **Arc 3** of Dueltopia X. It is narrated by server member Desdinova Incarnate and focuses around a hunt for the 7 World Legacies, a group of powerful relics from an ancient civilization which, when brought together, is said to be able to grant any wish. After the prologue in Arc 3.1, the story has been split into 7 sub-arcs called raids. Currently, raid 2 is nearing its conclusion.

## Background Lore

In an age long long forgotten, a group of super advanced civilzations fought a war for word domination. One of these civilizations, the Mu, discovered a supernatural power source from another dimension, the Duel Spirit world, and harnessed it to gain an upper hand in the war. Hearing of this, the other civilizations began conducting espionage operations on the Muand eventually managed to obtain their new fuel source. Each civilization created their own innovative piece of technology: The Hollowstar Power Battery-**World Chalice**, The Chaos EX Machina-**World Armor**, The Central Defense System-**World Sheild**, The Reverse World Mirror-**World Lance**, The Star Ladder-**World Wand**, The Crown of Succession-**World Crown**, and The Recolonization Domain-**World Ark**. Each legacy was a great boon to its people, but it was still a time of war. So the people of Mu, in a bid to end the war and rule the world, created an 8th Legacy meant to hijack the controls of the other 7 by hijaking chaos energy fueling it. During a decisive battle, the World Key was activated. It was said to have channeled the power of the World Legacies and through the wish of its operator, brought forth what is now known as the big bang, remaking the universe. But, somehow, even in this new universe, the Legacies survived... sealed away in card from. Perhaps a last ditch effort to prevent anyone from abusing their power before its creators were lost to the ages.

In Modern day, Carter King, the son of an rich philanthropist, discovers the legend of the World Legacies while on a research trip to the middle east. Seeking to grant his wish of ending the bloodshed of war, Carter begins researching their locations and eventually pinpoints both the World Key and World Chalice to Crypha City, Ethnos in Europe. He arrives there and begins bidding his time, planning for just the right moment where he can seize both Legacies.

## Plot

### Chapter 1: Road to Paradise

During the Regional Tournament, a masked terrorist interrupts the duel between Carter King and Graham Masters with a smoke bomb. He snatches the World Key from a reknowned Duel Spirit researcher watching the tournament and escapes. This is later revealed to be Carter's younger brother, Aleister King. A little while later, Grave Akama incurs the wrath of the German National Champions, the Kako brothers, who in their fondness for crooked tactics, kidnap her and hold her hostage. Carter approaches two of Grave's friends, Raiko and Arian, with a way to save her: his newly acquired World Key, capable of creating a pocket dimension that forces people inside to duel, with the loser suffering some sort of punishement set by the winner. Arian gets really angry at his opponent, Kaotic Kako, and uses the out of control World Key to kill him. Carter is confronted about this by the then principal of the duel academy, Yami no Koutei. Carter takes this moment to announce his plan to awaken the other 7 Legacies and grant his wish by any means necessary, even if how said wish is granted might endager the world. Carter, alongside Arian and Raiko, disappear and aren't heard from again until a few months later, when a mysterious cult of dueling fanatics surfaces. During a confrontation with the cult, Carter is revealed to be their leader, along with two mysterious allies, Sil Faw and Julius Dragnov. After the defeat of Raiko and Aleister, everything seems to be going well until Carter prematurely awakens the World Chalice using the energy gathered from the duels. After this, Arian leaves the cult, but Raiko leaves the country alongside Carter, Sil, and Julius to find the other Legacies.

### Chapter 1.5: Millenium Judgment Carnival

The remaining cult members, led by a brainwashed Duel Academy student named Edward Kelly, go around town dueling criminals and changing their hearts before forcing them to join the cult. Some of the academy's students band together to challenge Edward and manage to undo his brainwashing, thus disbanding the cult, at their main base in an abandoned mall which also used to be Carter's makeshift laboratory. Before leaving, they are met with Galatea, Team Paradise's AI, who taunts and teases them before the communication device she was inhabiting is carried back by the students.

### Chapter 2: Legacy Crisis

Before leaving Crypha, Carter was confronted by Takuya Akama, who hoped to stop Carter's plans early. However, Carter defeated him swiftly. He gives Takuya seven tickets to hand to students at the academy who Carter hopes would see reason and ally with him, thus setting the catalyst for a resistance group of students to go travelling around the world to try and stop Carter. This chapter is split into 7 Raids set in the locations where the World Legacies are said to be sealed away, of which 1 is finished and the 2nd is almost complete.

## Gallery

Chapter 1 BannerChapter 2 BannerRaid 1 BannerRaid 2 Banner
## Trivia

* This arc has, coincidentally, a number of strange Fate series references.
	1. Carter's goal of granting a wish to save humanity using a magical artifact is similar to that of Kiritsugu Emiya's and of Shirou Tokisada Amakusa in Fate/Zero and Fate/Apocrypha respectively.
	2. Some of the members of Via Paradisi, the main antagonist group, resemble some of the Fate characters in terms of character archetype or arcs. Julius and George are both people who have lead a life of violence and war who wish to help people with their wish, again like Kiritsugu. Galatea is an artificial lifeform tied to the operation of one of the Legacies, like Illya and Irisviel are homunculi made to contain the lesser Grail. Eibon is an experienced mage much like Archibald and Tokiomi, and Rail Vanir is a neutral figure with a facination with people's fates similar to Kirei in Fate/Zero.
	3. The World Chalice... The Holy Grail... oh boy
	4. Via Paradisi, a group of 7 semi-sympathetic people trying to replace the current societal order through some supernatural means. The Crypters from Fate/Grand Order are similar, too. And it doesn't help that one of the possible outcomes, and the one Carter deems most favorable, is the merging of the human world and the Duel Spirit world, much like how the Lostbelts supplant various locations to create new versions of human history.
	5. There's probably more odd coincidences if I look hard enough

* The actual inspiration for this arc was the plot of Cardfight! Vanguard G Stride Gate and Girs Crisis. Specifically, Ryuzu Myoujin's plan to end world conflict by awakening the Zodiac Time Beasts. Of course, the outcome of Ryuzu's wish and Carter's wish are different.
* The original plot for Road to Paradise was planned to be much smaller, shorter, and involve alien abductions. But, this never went anywhere and the current plot was born instead.
* It is currently the longest running arc in the RP. This, unfortunately, is mainly due to a long drought of server activity starting around late Spring of 2021 and ending around mid Fall of the same year.
* The main antagonist group, Via Paradisi, is more commonly refered to as Team Paradise in the RP. How this came to be is a mystery. Probably a communication mistake from Desdinova Incarnate.
* Via Paradisi is latin for "Road of Paradise" or "Paradise Road"... funny.