The bird-man is resolved, and the entire underground city is basically captured. The remaining Winged Beast Warriors don't seem to have much fighting strength left, almost all surrendered without much resistance.
Occasionally, some who have a Duel Disc and can fight a bit have been thoroughly dealt with. The smarter ones surrendered directly, sparing their lives. The more stubborn ones followed in the footsteps of their commanding officer, and after being subdued through dueling, still couldn't avoid the fate of having their Card Deck stripped.
Not lingering for long, the battle in this dimension temporarily came to an end.
Led by Tania and her Amazon Warriors, everyone quickly found the entrance to the next tier dimension.
It looked like just an ordinary iron black door, about three people tall, embedded in the ice-blue cliff.
According to Yubel, this was built back then after the Twelfth Dimension was unified by The Supreme King. The twelve dimensions are interconnected, each has hidden doors like this, facilitating travel between the dimensional worlds.
"Well then, I'll send you off here." Tania stopped by the door and said, "Thank you very much, the matters of this dimension are left to me and my comrades now."
"No, we should be the ones thanking you." John Anderson said cheerfully, "Thanks to your guidance, everything went so smoothly..."
After a pause, he looked curiously towards the side of Tania.
"But speaking of which, are you... Rokuzawa? What are you doing over there?"
Unbeknownst to him, Mitsuzawa had naturally stood on Tania's side, his face instantly dark: "It's Mitsuzawa! Mitsuzawa!"
Why can no one remember his name?
He calmed his breathing and explained to everyone with a smile, "You guys go ahead, I want to stay here."
"Eh?" Kenzan was startled, "Mitsuzawa-san, have you decided to stay with Tania..."
Xiang interjected, "...and live a shameless life in the Other Dimension?"
Mitsuzawa's face reddened, "No... it's not! It's just that there are still too many mysteries in this world that need to be unraveled. To solve these mysteries, I want to learn more about the stories of the Other Dimension people...
...Eh, wait, teacher what are you doing?"
While speaking, Jaden suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and with amazing arm strength, lifted Mitsuzawa up with one hand, smiling as he spoke to Tania, "Sorry, my student is bothering you."
"No, it's not a bother." Tania gave a tough girl smile, "Mitsuzawa wants to stay, I'm very welcoming."
Mitsuzawa struggled, "Teacher, I want to stay to solve the mystery!"
"No, you don't."
"Teacher I promise, once I find the truth I'll catch up with you!"
"Hah, who'd believe you?"
Everyone knows, in the original story, Mitsuzawa-san disappears here, never to return in the later stages.
He kept saying he'd catch up after solving the mystery, yet once separated from his teammates here, he never appeared again all the way to the finale.
No, not merely didn't appear. When the Other Dimension arc ends and everyone returned to reality, filled with joy, no one seemed to even notice they had lost a little companion.
Logically speaking, even if someone died and earned a boxed lunch, old buddies would at least shed a few tears, at worst give a few camera shots to memorialize their partner who stood by them for two years.
Yet nothing happened. They seemed to have forgotten all about Mitsuzawa, as if the world line shifted, literally erased by the will of the Macro Cosmos from the anime list, vanished into thin air...
So Mitsuzawa's ending likely stays here, parting ways with his academy pals, spending his life in the Other Dimension, living shamelessly with the tigress.
Jaden as the mentor clearly didn't agree with such an ending.
Finally, they've drawn a rare character—though likely the rarest in terms of presence—you can't just run off?
Impossible!
You're stuck with me for life!
Tania studied the antics of some who lagged behind, finding their behavior quite curious.
"Those Duelists... what are they doing?"
Youyu followed the direction of her finger to see a few card players standing at a precarious spot on the cliff edge, some standing, some sitting, some lying down, while stones kept trickling from the edge nearby.
"They... uh... are taking a commemorative photo." Youyu explained helplessly.
"Huh?" Tania was puzzled.
In fact, since the city's battle had ended, these clowns had changed their tone. Like shifting from a pack of hungry beasts to a carefree tour group.
They walked while striking odd poses, as if everything here intrigued them.
Before, Tania noticed someone standing in front of a bird-man nest they'd conquered, talking to no one in particular, saying "Hello everyone, we're now dueling at the bird-men's grave"...
She also saw two people on the rooftop of bird-man's nest, jumping and twisting meaninglessly, calling it a "duel dance". A girl beside them laughed so hard it hurt, yelling "You two stop it, fighting like this won't kill anyone"...
Completely clueless.
Tania shook her head.
She gave up trying to probe the minds of these Duelists.
For fear that truly understanding their thinking might never return.
"Alright, break's over." Youyu said, "Let's continue."
He reached out and pushed open the door in front of them.
The massive door creaked open slowly, a blinding light poured from the other side, unveiling a brand new world.
Stepping through the door, the scene instantly changed.
It was a bizarre and cold cityscape filled with medieval European-style architecture. The chilling dawn shrouded the town, sunlight shone on black cobblestones, streets eerily empty.
A frigid wind swept past the city buildings, a smothering damp aura pervaded the air. The town seemed lifeless, dead, and breathless.
This didn't match Youyu's impression of Judai and the others passing through Winged Beast-Type dimension to reach this next world.
Youyu glanced at the guiding Yubel beside him: "Where are we now?"
Yubel frowned, uncertain: "I can't say for sure. I've rarely returned to the Twelfth Dimension over the years, with all dimensions in constant battle, much has changed.
But this feeling... probably either controlled by the 'Dark World' dimension, or..."
"Ah ah ah!" Xiang suddenly clung to Kenzan's sturdy body, "Help, there's a ghost!!!"
His scream attracted the players who were looking around, and they swarmed over excitedly like hungry wolves catching a whiff of meat.
"Ghost? Where?"
"Male or female?"
"Wanna duel?"
They soon noticed what Xiang was referring to.
A pair of scarlet eyes, like ghostly flames, lit up within the darkness between building gaps. A shadowy outline emerged.
It was a man with an eerily pale complexion, red eyes, a terrifyingly sinister gaze... and a pair of iconic fangs.
A Vampire.