A perfect finish.
Kira put away his Duel Disk and looked at the Queen—already "broken" after being taken turns on by the hulking Dark World monsters—and nodded in satisfaction.
Yes. This is exactly how it should feel.
"You really are a guy with an awful personality," Eye said beside him, narrowing its gaze.
"I just realized—every time you're up against a lady, you try even harder than usual to come up with disgusting deck, don't you?"
It was that kind of twisted mindset—"She's so cute; if I punch her once she'll cry for ages."
Kira shot it a look. "Then next time I run into an enemy like this, I'll go easy on them. How about I just hand you over as a gift?"
Eye startled, then hurriedly laughed it off. "A-ahaha, I was joking! Honored Master has shielded me from so much trouble. I've always been grateful—no matter how many times I were to be shattered, I could never repay your kindness…"
As it spoke, the big eye rubbed itself hard against Kira. It only had an eyeball right now—if it had a tongue, it probably would've been licking him already.
But it wasn't just this Eye. Even the Dark World troops—the main force of this battle—were secretly shaken.
—So this is how we can play?
Yes. Kira's "Dark World family pack" had been snatched directly from the Supreme King's own extradimensional spirits, so basically the entire deck had corresponding spirits. If he took this full deck to another world, it would literally be a battle-hardened Dark World army.
He hadn't brought the original bodies of those spirits over, so most Dark World spirits existed more like projections. But this army, in practice, already belonged to Kira.
The previous ruler, the Supreme King, nominally commanded the entire Dark World host—but when he dueled, he only liked using his Evil HEROes. He'd never consolidated his Dark World subordinates into a unified whole.
So even though these Dark World members were "in the same archetype," the same in-theme family, they'd spent years fighting separately—never once gathering under a single duelist's leadership.
In the anime, these Dark World spirits dueled plenty—Jaden alone took out several. But even when they appeared, they often didn't use a Dark World deck in duels. They didn't even do the classic "I summon myself" bit that often, preferring to duel with unrelated decks.
Because Dark World as a concept—if you can't build a full archetype and only have one or two cards—many of them are like Kira used earlier: effects that feel like traitors with no clear purpose, with practical value hovering below zero.
Only now—after the Supreme King's fall—once Kira had marched east and west across dimensions and unified them into a single whole, the Dark World spirits finally realized, stunned—
—Holy shit. We're actually this strong?
Like what Kira had just demonstrated: wiping the field and stripping the hand in a single turn. Many of the spirits present were commanders who led troops, and they themselves dueled often. Each one, imagining the queen's perspective, couldn't help but feel a chill.
Especially after having the hand completely shredded, and then crashing headfirst into a Sealing of the Marked at the end—under the Dark World's rule that duels determine life and death, it was hard to imagine the despair, the fear, the sheer mental torture of the doomed person's final turn: no cards to play, nothing to do but stare helplessly.
This master… is so strong. So twisted.
So… so lovable.
Well, of course. They were called Dark World, after all. Their race was Fiend. They looked vicious and feral. They'd never been part of the "good guy" camp among spirits.
The more ruthless and dark the master's methods—and the stronger he was—the more wholeheartedly they would submit, convinced they hadn't chosen the wrong leader this time.
"But I really didn't expect that cult chasing you had a spirit among them," Kira said.
He crouched beside the Queen. The spirit now looked like a toy that had been played with until it broke: knees bent, sitting collapsed on the ground, eyes hollow and staring up at the sky—like a delicate porcelain doll.
Eye sighed. "I didn't know either."
"Yeah, I know you didn't." Kira nodded. "You can't even figure out who you are."
He'd already stopped expecting to get any information out of this spirit. He'd only stepped forward to take her deck—the enhanced Allure Queen deck was honestly pretty interesting.
But then, Kira's brows knit slightly.
He saw something—something that looked like it was about to come out.
From inside this Allure Queen.
In the next instant, the porcelain-doll face suddenly changed. Black energy surfaced across the pale features. Her mouth seemed forced open against her will, and a terrifying presence erupted from her mouth and nose—and from her eyes as well.
Kira had seen a similar scene before. Like Tragoedia back then: splitting off fragments of itself, possessing a host, and then peeling out of the host's body—this was what it looked like.
A mass like black fog exploded into the air, roiling and twisting without fixed form. Quickly, the darkness gathered—as if condensing from gas into substance—forming an enormous face.
Its features were indistinct, but it had a pair of eyes that seemed to gather the malice and resentment of the entire world. Coldly, they fixed on Kira.
"So… that's how it is."
The shadow spoke in a deep, resonant voice.
"So this is the King of the present age?"
Kira met its gaze for a moment.
"Let me guess. You're that so-called 'Evil God'?"
"Correct," the shadow admitted without hesitation.
"You make your followers call you an evil god?" Kira chuckled. "That's rare. Not many villains are so unmasked and unapologetic."
"There is nothing worth hiding," the Evil God said. "The essence of this world is already destined to stand on my side."
Kira: "How so?"
"It was decided at the birth of all things. This world's future will inevitably move toward darkness. That is fate. No matter the process, no matter the cause, the result will be the same.
All things are born in darkness, and all things will return to darkness—just as every life that is born is destined to face death."
"That's an interesting claim." Kira nodded, smiling. "But I have a question.
How about you come down in person, and we exchange ideas through a duel? Let's see if your argument really holds up."
The Evil God made a strange sound—almost like laughter.
"Not so fast, Duel King. Not today. Not now."
"But it's close. Soon, I will come for you. Because you are… someone worthy to be chosen. Until then, watch that spirit well. Wait for us to come and take it ourselves…"
The voice grew fainter and fainter.
Until the black fog returned to a gaseous state, broke apart, and dispersed into nothing.
Eye blinked twice, looking at where the darkness vanished, then at Kira.
"Chosen? You? What does that mean?"
Kira frowned slightly, and said nothing.
…