But—
This arrival was a little different.
Because, right in front of where they appeared, a figure with closed eyes was floating there.
It was a red figure in a black Witch's Robe, twin ponytails tied up; she kept her eyes shut, just quietly standing there in front of both Tenjo Hikari and the others.
A Nekroz dancer?
Or maybe…
Tenjo Hikari noticed that beside her, white and black energies were floating.
Is she Nekroz of Sophia? But her appearance was far from that mature.
So…
"You've come." Tierra suddenly slowly landed beside Tenjo Hikari, stepped onto the ground, and looked ahead.
"Tierra…"
"Sofia."
When the two stood facing each other, they could instantly sense and perceive one another.
Tenjo Hikari had thought that once the two of them locked eyes, they'd go straight into a full-on brawl—open with a Superpower War and sink half a continent or something—but contrary to expectations, both were extremely restrained.
They didn't even reveal their true forms.
"You're looking for me," Sofia asked calmly.
Tierra pondered for a moment and said, "You scattered those Cards to other Dimensions just to find me, didn't you?"
"Just some meaningless things." Sofia didn't care about that at all.
Sharing Cards with the Pendulum Dimension, in her view, had no real meaning; it was just a kind of "ritual of action."
While Tierra seemed to have revived to quite a high degree, Sofia had one advantage Tierra didn't.
Namely, she was this world's orthodox God!
When she woke, the beings of this world slowly began to offer her energy, and when she spread this Dimension's Cards to other Dimensions, that energy recovery grew ever faster.
Starting late and still catching up, for her, was not something she couldn't do, not something impossible.
And as long as she revived, she was absolutely confident she could defeat Tierra again.
Just as she was thinking that, for some reason, Tierra suddenly started laughing.
Sofia's brows knit slightly.
She didn't understand.
This familiar "sister" seemed to have become somewhat different.
Tierra no longer felt like the Tierra in her memories, yet Sofia was still the Sofia in Tierra's memories.
"You're not planning to make a move against me, are you?"
"Or are you thinking of striking now?"
"You should know how the world Rules of this era operate, right?"
"A Duel? Nothing difficult. Just have to take one look and you'll get it."
Though Sofia, like Tierra, hailed from this battle-hardened planet, she differed from Tierra in that her personality was relatively better, more friendly toward life. Upon learning of the Rules of the new era, she naturally accepted that reality.
"Hahahahaha—" Tierra burst out laughing wildly.
This was the first time Crystal and the other Spirits had seen Tierra laugh so unrestrainedly.
"Really? Well, in that case, why don't you give it a try? Don't worry, even though I'd love to kill you right this instant, you know very well that as long as we make an agreement, we won't suddenly attack each other.
In this Dimension, Spirits are everywhere. As long as they run into each other and don't like the look of one another, they'll decisively start a Duel—ah, there's a Spirit passing by over there, why don't you go Duel it and see?"
Sofia was at a loss; she didn't know what medicine Tierra was selling in that gourd, but she didn't care.
Just as she herself thought.
She was this world's orthodox God!
As long as it was a creature of this world, it would instinctively fear and revere her.
So it wasn't hard for her to intercept a passing Spirit and invite it to a friendly Duel.
She couldn't understand why Tierra was laughing so hard.
Dueling, while it looked complicated, was ultimately just words and math. For Gods like them, who excelled in management and Creation, what could be hard about that…
Ten-plus minutes later, Sofia dazedly bid farewell to that passing Spirit, casually gifting it a bit of energy. Seeing the massive energy—enough for her to copy one of herself—that Spirit looked like a meat pie had fallen straight from the sky, showered Sofia with endless thanks and worship, then hurriedly left.
Ran into an amazingly good Spirit on the road!
She'd lost…
Lost so miserably it was unbearable to look at.
Sofia stayed dazed for a long time. To prove that Dueling was simple, she had deliberately used the same Deck and series as her opponent, and the result… was a loss.
But compared to that…
"Hahahaha—hahahaha—" Tierra pressed her head against Tenjo Hikari's shoulder, burying her face deep, hands gripping Tenjo Hikari's shoulders, laughing like crazy.
Sofia's hands trembled a little; the "Divinity" she'd maintained all along was starting to slip, her face flushing red.
Tenjo Hikari coughed once.
Perfectly normal.
Having eyes higher than her hands is a symptom all beginners share; that's how he'd been when he first started playing Duels.
Even though the lines of play, Duels, and battles all seemed traceable, with plenty of "formulas," once you were actually in a real Duel, you'd find that a lot of things were nothing like what you'd imagined—especially in real-card Duels; the moment the brain gets slightly overloaded, you don't even know how to use your Cards anymore.
Sofia was a bit flustered.
Others might not see it, but she could tell at a glance that over the past few days, the one actually taking part in the Duels wasn't Tenjo Hikari, but Tierra.
Tierra's Duel today had even earned praise from quite a few Duelists as "excellent tactics," while she couldn't even play her cards right.