Obelisk Blue Dorm.
"Meow."
The moment Jaden pushed open the door to his room, Pharaoh's familiar call greeted him.
Ever since Professor Banner went "missing," Pharaoh had stayed with Jaden.
With the professor's physical body gone, the academy had officially declared him a missing person. Left with no other choice, Jaden had reluctantly taken on the responsibility of becoming the fat cat's new owner.
The plump feline possessed a truly astonishing appetite. It polished off nearly half a bag of cat food every day, yet always seemed ready to beg for more.
After filling Pharaoh's bowl to the brim, Jaden walked over to the bed and sat down. A glowing system interface materialized before his eyes.
[Would the host like to redeem: "Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon"?]
Following a brief pause, Jaden pressed the confirmation button.
Defeating Professor Banner had rewarded him with a massive hoard of Duel Points. Now, with the threat of the Sacred Beasts looming near, spending a heavy sum to secure this card was an absolute necessity.
Brilliant light gathered in Jaden's hand.
As the radiance subsided, the card art and effects of Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon came into view.
By then, Pharaoh had finished gorging himself and let out a hearty burp.
Riding that very burp, a tiny mote of light drifted from the cat's mouth and floated over to Jaden.
"My, the power sealed within that card is truly extraordinary," a faint apparition of Banner murmured, squinting as he floated beside Jaden.
"..." Jaden glanced sideways at him, letting out a weary sigh.
"Oh? Jaden, you can see me?" Banner blinked, waving a translucent hand in front of Jaden's face.
"Yeah. Loud and clear."
Jaden propped his chin on his palm.
As the Supreme King, Jaden perceived countless things ordinary humans were blind towhether they were duel spirits or lingering souls.
Even without his physical vessel, Banner's spirit had bound itself to Pharaoh. So long as the cat remained around, the professor was unlikely to move on.
"Meow, to think I would end up possessing a cat, meow," Professor Banner remarked cheerfully, entirely unbothered. Smiling warmly at Jaden, he chuckled, "Conveniently enough, I have no desire to leave this world just yet. I want to see for myself just how far down the duelist's path you can go, Jaden."
Well, wasn't this something?
Other duelists had at most a single spirit lingering behind themif any at all.
Yet look at him. Having duel spirits wasn't enough; now he had an eccentric human soul tagging along as well.
Oh well. Professor Banner was an alchemist, after all. Who knew when his arcane expertise might prove useful?
Jaden comforted himself with the thought.
"Meow~"
"Aaaahh!"
Before Jaden could get another word in, Pharaoh pounced forward, opened his jaws, and swallowed Banner's floating spirit whole.
Burp.
After a contented belch, Pharaoh sauntered off at a leisurely pace.
Jaden stared in disbelief. "..."
Forget it.
While he certainly had questions for Banner, now was not the time. His utmost priority was resolving the looming crisis of the Sacred Beasts.
Looking down at the card in his hand, Jaden pondered for a moment, then retrieved his deck from its case and set about rebuilding it.
Relying on standard HERO monsters alone would never be enough to overcome the Sacred Beasts.
It seemed high time he returned to his old ways.
A cold smirk played at the corner of Jaden's lips.
His most ruthless Evil HERO deck was about to take the field.
...
A few days later.
The commotion surrounding the Shadow Riders had gradually subsided throughout the academy.
The students who had stepped forward to repel the invasion resumed their normal classes. Aside from the Alchemy course being handed over to a newly arrived instructor in Professor Banner's absence, life on campus carried on as if nothing had happened.
Everything appeared entirely normal.
And yet...
"..."
Alexis Rhodes stared at the empty seat in the Obelisk Blue lecture hall.
It belonged to Jaden. Because he had been absent for days, the desk remained vacant.
Of course, that in itself was hardly unusual. Jaden had always been a free spirit, and getting him to sit quietly through lectures was practically impossible.
Even so, a gnawing sense of foreboding weighed on Alexis's heart.
Though the Shadow Riders had been defeated, Professor Banner remained missing, and Jaden had not shown up at his favorite spot by the stream for days.
Every sign pointed to the fact that the ordeal was far from over. Jaden was still facing some grave, unseen trial.
...
Alexis was not the only one troubled.
Chazz, Atticus, Bastion, and Zane all sensed an unspoken pressure bearing down on Duel Academy at breakneck speed.
Rumble, rumble...
As classes concluded, the clear sky was steadily swallowed by encroaching shadows.
Ojama Yellow popped up beside Chazz, looking up at him with anxious eyes.
"Boss, I've got a really bad feeling about this..."
"A bad feeling?" Chazz cast a puzzled glance at Ojama Yellow.
"Yeah, Boss... There's this super creepy, evil vibe rushing straight toward us!" Ojama Yellow nodded frantically, terror etched across his ugly little face.
Chazz's brow furrowed.
Stepping out of the main hall into the open air, he looked toward the distant ruins where the Sacred Beasts were supposedly sealed.
Thunder roared and lightning struck, crackling through the air like a dense, luminous web.
"What in the world is going on...?"
Chazz swallowed hard, his heart hammering against his ribs.
"What's happening, Chazz?!"
"That disturbance... it's coming from the Seven Stars Sector!"
Behind him, Bastion, Zane, Atticus, and Alexis all rushed out to join him, staring into the distance.
In the very next instant, towering pillars of light erupted toward the heavens, surging one by one from the seven corners of the island.
BOOM!
The Gate of the Seven Stars, which had held the Sacred Beasts imprisoned, burst wide open.
The blinding radiance illuminated the sky, splitting the heavens between eerie twilight and brilliant white in a breathtaking, apocalyptic spectacle.
"The... the Gate of the Seven Stars opened?!" Alexis gasped, covering her mouth in sheer horror.
"How is that possible? Weren't all the Shadow Riders defeated? The Spirit Keys should have been returned to Chancellor Sheppard..."
Exchanging grim glances, the group sprinted toward the towering pillars of light without a second thought.
Their hearts raced wildly. Every single one of them could feel the suffocating pressure in the aira dread that seemed capable of plunging the entire world into ruin.
The world-ending Sacred Beasts...
Had finally awakened!
🚨 Note: Consider supporting this story on Patreon.com/Flokixy to access 400+ advance chapters and 2 new chapters daily! (Full story bundles also available without a subscription).