"Impossible. Just a mirror image."
"It was only…"
The Supreme King's golden pupils contracted.
He looked up and saw the abyssal darkness swirling around him begin to dissolve.
As if a small flame had ignited in that icy abyss—so tiny, so seemingly insignificant against all that darkness—yet stubbornly burning, blooming within the night.
The boy in red walked forward from within that flame.
"...Why?"
The Supreme King asked, incredulous.
He was genuinely confused.
His Evil HEROes were a complete upgrade—just like the symbol of himself compared to that boy. He was the one with power, stripped of needless feelings, existing solely to win, never to lose again.
So why did he still lose to this person?
"Maybe you really are stronger than me," Jaden said with a smile. "Through our duel, I felt your strength—honestly, it's a power I can't compare to."
"But even so, I still won. Because I have something you don't."
The Supreme King looked at him, blank.
"Like I said," Jaden chuckled, gesturing at his Deck, "irreplaceable partners."
"In the past year, I've seen possibilities in dueling I'd never imagined. I realized that even the HEROes I thought I knew inside out still had avenues I'd never discovered."
"He taught me all that."
"He also taught me, first of all, that dueling isn't always joy—it can be heavy. As duelists, we must bear the cruelty of victory and defeat."
"Our losses might affect the destinies of those we aim to protect."
"Our victories might harm those we have to defeat."
Jaden spoke softly.
"I only vaguely understood that before. After facing you today—after our duel—I truly understand. All this time, you carried the darkest burden for me. Thank you."
"But just like I said, from now on—the pain, the guilt of battle—we'll bear it together."
"…"
Jaden thought he'd delivered a pretty good speech.
He hadn't planned it out, but every word came from the heart. He understood now that this shadow of darkness really was part of himself—the darkness within that he'd lacked.
Everyone has inner darkness—especially powerful duelists. Even the Pharaoh back then had his own giant shadow.
Light and shadow have always coexisted; without that darkness, one is incomplete.
So Jaden had decided to face his inner darkness head-on. From now on, the darkness and sins the Supreme King bore, he would shoulder them too, and keep moving forward.
He felt it should have been a moving scene.
Until the Supreme King, as if reminded of something, suddenly glared at him with those murderous golden eyes.
In a flash, the Supreme King remembered the duel in the other dimension.
That egg that suddenly gobbled up his three strongest Evil HEROes, and that Kuriboh that slapped him to death like an insult.
He could still savor the humiliation of that slap.
And now the dignified Elemental HEROes were being looped into a miserable lockdown by his sunny mirror image. A four-attribute fusion Electrum—such a heroic big brother—had been twisted into an infinite Catapult Turtle battery…
The style clicked into place all at once.
"The friend you mentioned," the Supreme King said stiffly, "was that guy from last time?"
"Eh?"
Jaden's mood jarred to a halt.
He scratched his head, a bit sheepish.
"You mean Kira? How did you know?"
Supreme King: "…"
So it really was him.
He's the culprit!
…
"Are you sure you're okay?"
Standing in the conquered Supreme King's castle, the three regrouped, and Joey couldn't help asking.
The great hall was littered with the Supreme King's officers and soldiers, sprawled in heaps. While Jaden was inside settling the main event, the other two hadn't been idle either; they'd mowed down squad after squad of guards outside.
Most were sent packing by straight-up brawling, with just a few elite handled over a couple of turns of card play. But for both Kira and Joey, it was warm-up difficulty at best—easy wins all around.
"Yeah, I'm good."
Jaden nodded.
He glanced back at the room behind him. The Supreme King's chamber door had been shut tight, like a demon sealed in the deepest vault of the castle.
"It's over," Jaden said. "Though the process was a bit winding… I won."
He paused, then turned to Kira. "I used 'that move.'"
"Oh? You used 'that move,' huh."
Kira nodded slightly.
As if to say: not bad—promising kid.
He couldn't help but imagine the Supreme King's reaction as he was slowly shredded by the Electrum Cannon's infinite lockdown. Though that iceberg poker face might not show much, the murderous glare would be priceless…
Huh?
In his daydream, Kira suddenly felt something and glanced oddly at Jaden.
"What's up?" Jaden looked back at him.
"Nothing…"
Kira looked away, puzzled.
Was I imagining things?
I could've sworn I just felt the Supreme King's murderous stare…
"As long as you're fine," Joey stretched. "Well, it's finally over. One more thing off my mind. What a slog this was…"
He'd only ended up in the Twelve Dimensions by chance after being ambushed by that little crayfish. But seeing the people suffer here, the hot-blooded youth with power couldn't just walk away.
It took a long time, but they'd done it.
"By the way, you seem… different somehow?"
Joey studied Jaden for a moment.
"You're really okay, right?"
"I'm fine," Jaden nodded. "I just fused with the Supreme King. He's… sort of inside me now."
"Oh, that's how it is."
Joey nodded, satisfied.
Half a minute after turning away, his head slowly swivelled back.
"Hold up, you said what!?"
His eyes bulged, incredulous, staring at Jaden.
"You're telling me that lunatic dictator we came all this way to find—the dueling machine with ultimate dark power…
"Is now inside you."
"Uh, it's not that serious…" Jaden scratched his head. "But yeah, more or less."
Joey: "…"
He suddenly wanted to say: your definition of "fine" might be different from ours…