"An ATK 4500 Deep-Eyes White Dragon? So scary, so scary~"
With two Millennium Items at her slim waist, Luca Slint, who had intruded at the final moment of the Shadow Game, lit up her Spirit Eyes as well.
"But in a 1v3 duel, the rules say I go first. My turn, draw!"
With the turn order reset, Kaima and Ren still had monsters on the field, but after 'True Forced End of Turn' resolved, the first turn went to Luca.
Aisha said, "Is Luca really going to take on all three? I remember she… wasn't very strong."
Even Aisha Carlos, once the tail ender of Fusion Academy, could say Luca was "not very strong." The titles 'Winless Beast' and 'Legend of Never Winning' had clearly stuck.
Miles replied, "Yeah, it looks like a death wish. Though… why insist on doing this?"
With those exaggerated movements just now, Luca could have simply fled with two Millennium Items while everyone here was exhausted and battered.
If she'd chosen that, no one present could have stopped her.
Anyhow, she didn't. She chose to continue the duel, taking over an empty field and empty hand right after the Shadow Game where the three Sacred Beasts were beaten.
Drawing her sole card, Luca's pale-blue eyes slid, finally settling on the Millennium Puzzle as she muttered:
"This is my last chance. I have to take the Puzzle here."
Within the Millennium Puzzle, Aisha shivered, as if a greedy gaze were licking across her skin.
Though Luca was disadvantaged in a 1v3, Miles's field was also empty. If she could summon even a 2000+ ATK monster and attack directly, she could knock Miles out of the duel first.
"I Set a monster in face-down Defense Position. Turn end."
Fortunately, on her first draw, Luca simply set an unknown monster and ended.
In a 1v3, turns proceed in random order. Ren's Spirit Eyes lit next.
"My turn then!"
Feeling power flow from her Spirit Eyes, Ren drew a card with a sweep of her fingertips.
"Even if Miles has no monsters, with us it's enough, right, Kaima-senpai!"
To avoid giving trouble time to grow, they had to end this forcibly extended Shadow Game as quickly as possible.
"Let's go straight to battle, Kaima-senpai!"
Ren declared her Battle Phase. The remaining HERO and white dragon readied together.
"Flame Wingman attacks—destroy the face-down Defense monster!—'Flame Shot!'"
Justice fire erupted from his draconic arm, incinerating Luca's set monster in an instant.
[Magical Merchant, DEF: 700] destroyed
Like torching a cockroach—700 Defense was nothing before Flame Wingman.
"Flame Wingman's effect—when it destroys a monster, deal damage equal to that monster's original ATK!—'Exploding Spark!'"
Magical Merchant's original ATK was only 200—a pittance. Even so, in the Shadow Game, a real flame licked up Luca's sleeve.
"Tch!" She flicked her arm to snuff the fire, clicking her tongue.
[Luca Slint, LP: 4000 → 3800]
Kaima swept her hand. "The real hit is here!"
Deep-Eyes White Dragon blazed with gorgeous radiance, beating its wings as it moved to attack directly.
With the 4500 ATK inherited from Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, one blast would be enough to erase Luca in the light.
"Wait!" Luca thrust out a hand. "Before that, I activate Magical Merchant's Flip effect!"
A Flip effect triggers when a monster is turned from face-down to face-up.
[When this card is flipped face-up: Reveal cards from the top of your Deck until you reveal a Spell/Trap. Add that card to your hand, also send the remaining revealed cards to the GY.]
An excellent mill until a Spell/Trap appears.
Luca pressed a fingertip to the top of her Deck. The two Millennium Items at her waist and the Millennium Ring at her chest formed a triangle.
First reveal—Necro Gardna, sent to the GY.
Second reveal—Phantom of Chaos, sent to the GY.
Third reveal—Inferno Reckless Summon, added to hand.
Only two cards milled—but the second would be her lifesaver.
"I banish the Necro Gardna I just sent to the Graveyard to activate its effect!"
[During your opponent's turn, by banishing this card from your GY: negate 1 attack from an opponent's monster this turn.]
A heavy armored guardian rose behind Luca, darkness wrapping her body and shutting out Deep-Eyes's brilliance.
"She actually lived!"
Using Magical Merchant to mill Necro Gardna exactly—Luca's near-suicidal line, like licking a knife's edge, left Ren stunned.
"Was Luca always this good?"
"This is the difference in resolve. I have a reason I must win—so I'm here facing you!"
"You…"
For the first time, Luca's presence pressed Ren back. Her eyes regained the seriousness she'd shown in the Shadow Game against Professor Field.
"Sorry. I underestimated you. However, in resolve, we won't lose either—we have our own reasons we absolutely can't lose!"
After the Battle, Ren threw down the card she'd drawn.
"—Spell Card 'Fifth Hope', activate!"
[Target 5 'Elemental HERO' cards in your GY; shuffle all 5 into the Deck, then draw 2 cards. If you have no other cards in your hand and on your field when you activate this card, draw 3 cards instead.]
"I return five HERO cards from my Graveyard—Bubbleman, Clayman, Avian, Burstinatrix, and Bladedge—shuffle, then draw 2!"
She all but emptied her GY of HEROs, leaving only Sparkman.
After glancing at the two new cards, Ren sneaked a look at Miles.
Even in a Shadow Game, the suspension bridge effect can spark if you're with the one you like.
"I set two cards. Turn end."
"My turn, draw!"
Drawing a second time, Luca's three Millennium Items shone continuously.
"Here we go!"
With triple Millennium power, the inverted triangle of light seemed to grant a fake destiny draw. Luca's eyes lit at the card—she slammed it down without hesitation.
"I activate the Spell 'Monster Reborn' to revive Phantom of Chaos in my Graveyard!"
[Phantom of Chaos] Level 4│DARK│Fiend│0 ATK / 0 DEF
[Battle damage to your opponent from battles involving this card becomes 0.]
Despite the vast resources in the Graves of Locke, Reigun, and Field, Luca had a wealth of powerful revival targets.
Yet she chose to revive the formless monster she had just milled—a patch of black shadow.
"Then, when Phantom of Chaos is Special Summoned, I chain my Quick-Play Spell 'Inferno Reckless Summon' from my hand!"
Two cards spent—summoning lights flashed in succession on Luca's field.
[When you Special Summon a monster(s) with 1500 or less ATK while your opponent controls a face-up monster: Special Summon as many monsters as possible with the same name as the summoned monster, from your hand, Deck, and GY, in Attack Position. Then your opponent chooses 1 face-up monster they control; they Special Summon as many monsters as possible with the same name, from their hand, Deck, and GY.]
"When Phantom of Chaos is Special Summoned, Inferno Reckless Summon lets me Special Summon as many copies as possible from my Deck! You can also choose a monster you control to do the same."
Luca smirked. "Assuming your Decks even run duplicates~"
She knew Ren's Flame Wingman and Kaima's Deep-Eyes had no second copies in their Decks.
[Phantom of Chaos, ATK: 0] ×3
Three formless Phantoms now drifted on her field—still all at 0 ATK.
Aisha: "Three monsters with 0/0… what is Luca planning?"
Since hearing Miles's maxim that "ATK 0 / DEF 0 are the scariest monsters," Aisha had learned to be very cautious.
"I activate the effects of my three Phantom of Chaos!"
[Target 1 Effect Monster in your GY; banish that target, and if you do, this card's name, original ATK, and effects become the same as that monster's, until the End Phase.]
"I target the three Sacred Beasts in my Graveyard and banish them—each Phantom copies one!"
Their forms swelled, taking on the shapes of Raviel, Hamon, and Uria. Names, effects, towering stats—identical to the Sacred Beasts.
With two-card synergy, Luca had recreated a field of three Sacred Beasts—enough to flip the board at once.
Only one drawback: Phantom of Chaos can't deal battle damage. Even with copied power, it couldn't end the duel.
Even so, the Sacred Beasts' 'return' in another form shocked everyone.
Princess Nova frettedm "How? The Sacred Beasts we finally beat… are they back again? Can those monsters die?"
"Not enough—!"
Driving her three Phantoms, Luca swept her arm forward, brushing across all three 'Sacred Beasts' on her field.
"Using the three Sacred Beasts gathered on my field—I awaken the ultimate chaos Fusion! One thought to demon, one thought to angel—I fuse the three Sacred Beasts (Phantom of Chaos)!"
"Fuse the Sacred Beasts?!"
Hands pressed together, Luca stood amid a howling Fusion storm, the Millennium Ring at her chest chiming as the gale battered it.
The golden needles around the Ring clinked like wind chimes—ringing as if across time.
The chime reached ten years into the Holy Varian Empire—another time when a Millennium Ring jingled on a girl's chest.
"Stop, you brat! You dare steal from me? You're dead today!"
"If I'm dead, obviously I run!"
In a border town of the Empire, a blonde girl sprinted with a bag of bread, the chime giving away her position no matter where she fled.
No matter how many times she threw it away or it was stolen, it always returned. She'd gotten used to it.
In the end, the Ring got her caught.
Another beating in an alley—so bad she vomited up the bread she'd gulped while running.
Maybe realizing someone could die over a bag of bread, the shopkeeper settled for a warning and a spit, then left in a rage.
"Heh… still not dead."
The small body crawled to the trampled bag of bread. Gritty with sand and dust, she still shoved it into her mouth.
An orphan in the slums doesn't fuss over taste—food is food.
"And it's super tasty besides!"
"You survived another day. Well done," said the voice from the Millennium Ring.
"Ring—no, the other me. You said we can change this world. How?"
Mouth full of bread, she asked it in her head, practiced at the routine.
"I've told you—collect the other six Millennium Items. By the way, what kind of world do you want?"
"Simple. No class divide—where everyone has enough to eat."
"That's not simple. That's the top difficulty."
The Ring fell silent, as if foreseeing something.
Minutes later, the quiet border town erupted into noise.
People lined the street edges, whispering why the lofty Empire Marshal, Locke Slint, had come to such a place.
Dozens of attendants followed him. Yet he turned into an alley—stopping before the bewildered girl.
"As in the report—the Millennium Ring." The Millennium Eye fixed on the Ring at her chest.
"Who are you?" It was her first time seeing such a man—stern uniform, black cloak, aged yet imposing.
"How dare you speak to the Marshal—"
"Enough." Locke waved the attendants back and looked at the battered, half-clothed girl. "Brat. Come with me."
"What's in it for me?"
"What do you want?"
"Food."
"Done."
"Then I'll go."
A simple deal. Less than a minute.
"That said, I have a condition. Tell me—do you have the resolve to stain your hands with blood?"
"What does that mean?"
"To kill."
"I haven't tried. Don't know."
Shing—!
The Marshal drew the sword at his waist and handed it to her.
"Try."
"Who?"
"Whoever you want."
"I don't want to kill anyone."
"Then the one who did this to you."
"Is that required?"
"It is."
"Okay."
She gripped the hilt with both hands and stood before the shopkeeper who had dragged her into the alley.
It was the first time she'd seen such despair on his face.
However, she had seen the same on starving faces in the slums.
Pinned by the Marshal's attendants, the shopkeeper couldn't resist.
Easily—no difficulty at all—the blade pierced his heart.
Hot blood sprayed across her face, washing the grime and revealing delicate features beneath.
"Hahaha! A talent indeed—worthy of being chosen by the Items!" Locke laughed. "From today, you're with me!"
From then on, the girl with the Millennium Ring was taken in by the Empire Marshal, named Luca Slint. As Locke hoped, she awakened Spirit Eyes at ten and became a Duelist.
To enter the altar where the Slint family sealed the Sacred Beasts, Locke proclaimed without hesitation that Luca was his granddaughter.
Life in a great house beat the slums by a hundredfold, yet it wasn't happy. She saw the ugliness of the upper ranks. And since Locke lacked mana, Luca had to command the family's dark duelists at the Sacred Beast altar to harvest souls for their cards.
A life of watching killings or doing the killing—she understood why he'd given her the blade that day.
At least the food was good. And those fancy dolls in shop windows she'd never dared dream of.
Only one regret… the plated food somehow lacked flavor.
Years of bad habits left her with a strange quirk: food dropped on the floor tasted better.
For that, she'd often get lectures from her 'father,' Cameron Slint.
"By the way—do you still want to change the world?" the Ring asked.
"Of course."
"However, you've eaten your fill."
"Others haven't."
Her childhood dream hadn't changed.
Without nobles scheming for power, without wealth wasted on empty 'face,' this rotten world might inch closer to her ideal.
…
Amid the roaring Fusion winds, Luca shouted:
"Born in the seam where light and darkness cross—the ultimate chaos of angel and demon! Fuse the three Sacred Beasts—Armityle the Chaos Phantasm!!"
[Armityle the Chaos Phantasm] Level 12│DARK│Fiend/Fusion│0 ATK / 0 DEF
[Uria, Lord of Searing Flames + Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder + Raviel, Lord of Phantasms]
[Must be Special Summoned (from your Extra Deck) by banishing the above cards from your field (you do not use 'Polymerization').]
No 'Polymerization' needed—banish the three Sacred Beasts on your field to call forth the chaos Fusion.
It had Raviel's head, Hamon's body and wings, and Uria's arm and tail.
From its form alone, it was undoubtedly a fusion of the three Sacred Beasts, yet this ultimate demon bore the name Armityle.
Black and white, good and evil, angel and demon—together as ultimate chaos.
Aisha's eyes shot wide open, "That can be 0/0 too?!"
The '0/0 are terrifying' maxim grows truer the higher the Level. The Level 12 Armityle, born of the three Sacred Beasts, may be the best proof.
Its colossal body towered over the city, visible even through the fog. Duelists waking across the capital wondered if they were still dreaming.
"Armityle gains 10,000 Attack during battle! I'll end you with this strike—Aisha Carlos, Miles!"
Though its card text showed 0 ATK—surpassing the printed 5000 limit, the chaos energy of 10,000 locked onto Miles's empty field.
...
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