On the field, Hamon, controlling Instructor Claire's body, waved her hand. "Next, I activate the second effect of the Spell Card Take Over Five from my Graveyard! I banish this card and another copy of it from my Deck to draw one card!"
Drawing one more card, Hamon glanced at it briefly before declaring, "Then I activate the Spell Card Pot of Greed! I draw two more cards from my Deck!"
After drawing the two cards, Hamon didn't even bother to look at them before slotting three out of four cards into the Duel Disk. "I Set three Spell Cards, then send them to the Graveyard to Special Summon!
"With the thunder of fallen grace, I purge the filth of this world! Descend, Phantasm of Ice and Thunder who commands the arcane—my avatar, Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder!!"
The wind howled. From endless storm clouds above, arcs of cerulean lightning slithered like serpents. Frost crept across the ground as the temperature plummeted.
Spikes of ice rose skyward, forming pillars that reached the clouds. Then, a blinding thunderbolt struck one of the ice pillars, shattering it completely.
From within the fragments emerged a dark-golden demon—an otherworldly blend of beauty and terror, holiness and malice embodied in a single skeletal form. One could almost believe that this golden skeleton once belonged to a magnificent living being.
Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder—the skeletal demon said to have been created by humans as a mimicry of the Egyptian God representing the sun, The Winged Dragon of Ra. Its name was taken from Hamon, the Seventh Demon of Solomon's 72 Pillars.
And now, this ancient monstrosity had returned to the world once more!
[Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, ATK: 4000]
"Four thousand Attack Points! As expected of a Sacred Beast—they really are monsters!"
"Blast! We just beat one, and another's already here!?"
"It's fine! With the Dean's strength, this so-called Sacred Beast won't stand a chance!"
The newly summoned Hamon radiated an unimaginable pressure throughout the academy building. Yet since Aleister had already defeated one Sacred Beast with ease, everyone still believed their Dean could take down another.
On the field, after summoning his avatar, Hamon waved his hand. "Now I activate the effect of Card of Compensation I just sent to the Graveyard—I draw two cards!"
Two flashes of lightning burst forth as Hamon drew. Without pause, he placed one of the new cards into his Duel Disk.
"Now behold the power that belongs to me! I activate the Continuous Spell Card Cerulean Skyfire!!"
As the card was placed, a bolt of blue-white lightning struck Hamon's body. In that instant, his overwhelming presence intensified to an even more terrifying degree. The surrounding terrain froze solid, and arcs of lightning danced wildly across the sky, occasionally crashing to the ground in bursts of ice and light.
Seeing this, Aleister narrowed his eyes. "So it's not just Uria—you've reclaimed a portion of your power as well. It seems that even without my students, it was only a matter of time before you gathered enough strength to break your seals on your own."
At those words, the gazes of all three Sacred Beasts inside Claire's body grew solemn.
In that moment, the trio shared a single thought—this man knew them. He knew their history. And he knew it intimately.
They didn't know how or why… regardless, no matter what, they had no intention of ever being sealed away again. There was only one path left: to fight with everything they had.
With that resolve, Hamon raised a hand. "Battle Phase! My avatar attacks your Invoked Purgatrio—Fallen Thunder Strike!!"
ROAR!!
Hamon lifted his head and bellowed. Lightning burst from his body, arcing into the clouds above. Moments later, three massive bolts of lightning crashed down upon the fiery demons.
However, at that moment, Aleister shouted, "I activate my Set card—Trap Card Cerulean Skyfire! This turn, my monsters cannot be destroyed by battle, and I take no battle damage!"
Three robed maidens appeared on Aleister's field, their golden barrier enveloping his monsters. The bolts of divine thunder struck the barrier but could not pierce it.
Seeing this, Hamon stared silently at Aleister for a long moment, then inserted his last card into the Duel Disk.
"I Set one card. My turn ends."
Outside the arena, Alicia let out a sigh of relief. "That was so close! I thought the Dean's monster was going to be destroyed!"
"Yeah, it was close," Yuui agreed, though his brows furrowed as he watched Aleister. Something about the old man's composure made him uneasy.
Alicia noticed. "Yuui-san, what's wrong?"
"Nothing. Keep watching. Maybe Aleister will finish this Duel more easily than I thought."
On the field, Aleister seemed to hear Yuui's muttering. A faint smirk crossed his face. "My turn—draw!"
He examined the card he drew, then glanced toward Hamon's field—his Continuous Spell Cerulean Skyfire and the Continuous Trap Hyper Blaze.
After a moment of thought, Aleister inserted his newly drawn card into the Duel Disk.
"I activate the Spell Card Mystical Space Typhoon! I target one Spell or Trap on the field and destroy it! I choose to destroy your Continuous Trap, Hyper Blaze!!"
A dark storm coalesced into a raging tornado, tearing toward Hamon's back row.
Seeing this, the watching students and teachers erupted in excitement.
After several turns, they all understood how powerful that Continuous Trap Hyper Blaze was—capable of Special Summoning a Sacred Beast by ignoring its conditions with just a single card. Destroying it could surely tip the scales toward the Dean.
Abruptly, their smiles vanished in the next instant.
Hamon scowled and bellowed, "Foolish human! I activate the effect of my Continuous Spell Cerulean Skyfire! Once per turn, if Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder is face-up on my field in Attack Position, I can negate the activation of an opponent's Spell or Trap!!"
ROARR!!
The thunder lord roared again, its Spell Card erupting with blinding lightning. A torrent of blue energy surged forth, obliterating the oncoming storm in an instant.
"Incredible… it's an effect negation ability!" Inside the academy, Kexi's expression turned grim. His own ace monster possessed a similar power, so he knew just how dangerous such effects could be.
That was one of the most powerful abilities in the entire Duel Monsters system.
"I am the Phantasm who commands magic," Hamon declared coldly. "Before me, your Spells and Traps are worthless! That said…" He paused briefly. "Using this ability comes at a cost. Yet that only proves you'll never break through my defense!
After negating your Spell, the second effect of Cerulean Skyfire activates—Hamon changes to Defense Position!"
[Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, ATK: 4000 → DEF: 4000]
"To think that after negating an opponent's Spell or Trap effect, it can also switch its monster to Defense Position—this level of defense is just absurd!"
Outside the field, Alicia was still marveling at Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder's power, yet Yuui beside her revealed something even more astonishing.
"It's not that simple," Yuui said with a frown. "The Three Sacred Beasts belong to a race completely different from ordinary monsters—the Phantasm Beast Type, a race even stronger than Dragons.
Monsters of this race have absolute resistance to Trap Cards—no Trap effect can affect them. Moreover, they are unaffected by Spell effects that weren't activated this turn, by Spells that remove them from the field, or by effects that would take control of them. The only exceptions are effects born of their own power—for example, Cerulean Skyfire, which is part of Hamon's strength, can apply effects outside its own turn.
Otherwise, even field-destroying Spells like Raigeki or Dark Hole cannot eliminate the Three Sacred Beasts."
Hearing Yuui's explanation, Alicia gaped at the mighty Hamon on the field. She couldn't believe a monster could possess such terrifying resistances—wasn't that on the level of a literal god?
Then she whispered nervously, "Th-then, Yuui-san… how do you even defeat them?"
Yuui glanced at Aleister on the field and replied softly, "There are three methods. First, you can simply overpower them with a monster that has higher Attack—that's always the most straightforward way.
Second, use special summoning effects that send them to the Graveyard, then find a way to banish them afterward. That's what your Dean did earlier.
And finally, the simplest method—use monster effects to destroy them.
The Three Sacred Beasts have immense resistance to Spells and Traps, but none against monster effects. So even a Level 1 monster with a destruction effect could potentially defeat them. That's the greatest difference between them and the Egyptian Gods.
While they stand on equal footing in race—the Phantasm Beast Type mirroring the Divine-Beast Type—they lack the Divine Attribute. That's why they're so vulnerable to monster effects."
Alicia turned toward Yuui, her eyes wide. For the first time, she found her Yuui-san unbelievably cool and commanding.
Those so-called Three Sacred Beasts possessed terrifying might, yet Yuui-san spoke of defeating them as if it were nothing.
Maybe what he'd once told her—that he was the creator of Duel Cards—wasn't a lie after all.
Otherwise, how could a single person, or even a Spirit, speak with such confidence?
After a moment, she asked again in a small voice, "Th-then, Yuui-san, should we tell the Dean how to defeat the Three Sacred Beasts? He seems to be at a disadvantage."
"No need." Yuui shook his head, glancing toward Aleister's composed expression. "That man surely knows their weaknesses. We have nothing to worry about."
On the field, Aleister smirked slightly and muttered under his breath, "They've got quite a bit of faith in me, huh? Albeit… I won't let that brat underestimate me either!"
Straightening his back, his eyes burned with fierce determination.
"I Normal Summon my avatar—Aleister the Invoker!!"
The robed sorcerer holding his staff and grimoire appeared once again.
[Aleister the Invoker, ATK: 1000]
"I activate Aleister the Invoker's effect! When this card is Normal Summoned, I can add 1 Invocation from my Deck to my hand! I add Invocation to my hand!"
Yuui nodded slightly as Aleister retrieved Invocation once again.
The Aleister archetype revolved around two core cards—Aleister the Invoker and Invocation.
Aleister's effect let him search Invocation from the Deck upon being summoned, while Invocation allowed Fusion Summoning by banishing monsters from either player's field or Graveyard that matched the Fusion Materials.
Nonetheless, the true strength of the Invoked engine wasn't its summoning method—it was its sustainability.
For example: you summon Aleister, search Invocation, then use it to fuse your Aleister with a key monster in your opponent's Graveyard to summon an Invoked monster of the corresponding Attribute. Invocation then returns to the Deck, while the banished Aleister returns to your hand.
This means you've banished an opponent's crucial card, summoned a strong monster, and still kept your resources intact since both Aleister and Invocation return to your hand and Deck, respectively.
And most impressively… you can repeat the process every turn.
With just one Aleister and one Invocation in the Main Deck, a Duelist could perform this cycle infinitely.
Simple summoning, limitless sustainability—that was why the Invoked engine had earned its legendary reputation in Yuui's old world.
...
If you want to support, please consider Patreon, and read advanced chapters! Your support keeps this series going!
[Patreon.com/RedZTL]