Ren: "Is he asleep?"
Irena: "No, he's dead."
Aisha: "ノ)?Д?(!"
After a brief examination of Yog-Tos's "corpse," Irena gave her conclusion.
This body was now much closer to the state of death.
Arnold cursed, "Cultist! Even in death, he deserves no pity! If he'd been left alive, who knows how many more people he'd have killed."
Regardless, the strange thing was that the Contract Duel used by the cult was different from a Shadow Game. It shouldn't have caused substantial damage to the duelist's body.
And yet after losing the duel, Yog-Tos's body had indeed lost all signs of life.
The only explanation was the thing Yog-Tos himself had mentioned during the duel.
"Every loyal believer, as long as they offer up their soul, can wield the power of the Wicked from the abyss."
"Did the Wicked devour his soul?"
Regaining control of her body, Aisha shuddered uncontrollably, glancing again at the [The Wicked Eraser] card in her hand.
Though anyone could use the Wicked's card, the cost demanded of the user was none other than their own soul.
"Is it really safe to keep such a dangerous card around, Mr. Miles?"
Miles did not answer Aisha's concern. At that moment, back in his Soul Room, he was facing an entirely new crisis.
"Miles, this woman… who is she?"
The cold, merciless gaze of Dark Aisha was like when they had first met.
And the 'woman' Dark Aisha was glaring at was casually fluttering her wings as she hovered beside Miles.
"So this is where you live, huh, Miles? Not bad at all. Way better than that Pyramid of Light I was stuck in!"
"Pyramid of Light?" That familiar voice and self-reference made Miles instantly realize the identity of the girl with dragon wings before him.
"You're Stardust Dragon, aren't you?"
"Of course! Miles, you summoned me yourself, so don't you dare back out now!"
"It's not about backing out… but weren't you supposed to be in the Pyramid of Light?"
"I only stayed in the Pyramid of Light because I was lost, with nowhere else to go. Now that there's a better place, who'd want to stay stuck there?"
That better place was his Soul Room.
In theory, the space of a Soul Room was limitless, so carving out a place for Stardust wouldn't be an issue.
Despite that, now, there was clearly someone very unhappy about it.
"Aisha, are you okay with this?" Miles asked.
"Mm, totally fine. (gnash~~)"
"If you're fine, then why are you grinding your teeth so hard they're making noise?!"
"This is your place, Miles. I have no right to object. (clench!)"
Stardust tilted her head, "Looks like there's some pretty complicated history here…"
To Stardust, it certainly looked like a tangled mess.
Aisha, the owner of the body, not only had two souls but also a strong, handsome Duel Spirit hanging around.
Anyone else would be lost in confusion in such a situation.
But as the saying goes: fools counter masters. As long as she didn't think too hard, there was no problem at all.
"Doesn't bother me one bit! After hundreds of years of loneliness, I'm looking forward to a livelier life!"
Stardust simply accepted it, without overthinking.
"From now on, let's be neighbors and friends, okay, Aisha~"
Fluttering her wings, she flew right in front of Dark Aisha, grabbed her hand, and beamed.
"Neighbors? Friends…"
The twisted, introverted girl, suddenly confronted with such an outgoing Stardust, was like meeting her natural enemy. In an instant, she was disarmed, her cheeks flushed as her hands were taken.
"…Fine. (super quiet)"
What Miles had expected to be a battlefield of jealousy fizzled out completely under Stardust's influence.
So this meant… he was actually going to live with a dragon from now on?
Realizing he had just achieved the ultimate dream of a card fanatic, Miles couldn't even tell if he should be happy.
'Wait a second…'
If Stardust Dragon's soul had left the Pyramid of Light, then that pyramid had become an empty vessel.
Exactly what he had hoped for.
"No problem, Stardust. You can live here as long as you like. You're more than welcome!"
"Huh?" Stardust scratched her hair with the tip of her wing.
"Miles, you suddenly being this welcoming actually makes me nervous… Well, whatever, I'll just pick myself a nice spot!"
The Soul Room space was infinite, but how it was arranged was up to its residents. They could cluster together or keep their distance.
After circling around a few times, Stardust chose her ideal spot and, folding her wings, flopped down right on Miles's bed.
—Indeed, the best spot.
With the Old Dominator of the abandoned church defeated, the threat to the town was lifted. Nobody wanted to linger in that eerie place another second, so they hurried back to Fusion Academy.
Compared to the silent Dark Forest, the brightly lit Fusion Academy always gave a sense of reassurance.
The only thing out of the ordinary was how the Wicked's near-sky-devouring self-destruction had become the hot topic of discussion once again.
And the focus of that discussion: the Stardust Dragon that had suppressed the explosion, and the gigantic square-shaped shadow that had physically 'suppressed' the Wicked—what monster was that?
"That huge square shadow… could it have been Mokey Mokey?"
"No way, impossible! …At least it would've had to be Mokey Mokey King."
Whenever Aisha brushed past other students at the Academy, she could hear whispered guesses about that mysterious shadow.
"Sigh, even though I didn't do anything, I feel so tired, Mr. Miles."
"Not entirely nothing. Just your body alone…"
Leaving aside the oppressive force of the duel with the Wicked—
Just running all the way to and from the abandoned church was already far too much for Aisha, who'd spent the whole vacation lazing in bed.
"Rest well tonight. If I recall, tomorrow's the second-year Practical Test."
"Mm!"
After parting with everyone, Aisha returned to her dorm. The lights inside were already on.
Having lived alone for a semester, she had gotten used to coming back to a pitch-dark dorm room. Seeing warm light inside now, she thought having a roommate wasn't so bad.
"Looks like Lishia's back already."
Abruptly, then, as she opened the door, waiting inside was the anxious Princess Nova.
"Aisha, you're finally back."
The moment she saw Aisha, Nova rushed over.
"What do we do? Lishia, she… transformed!"
"...Henshin?"
...
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