Chapter 320: The Final Strike That Links to the Future and Surpasses Fate
"An Extra Monster Zone?"
"Wait, isn't this supposed to be a Middle District duel?"
"Am I actually watching a pro-tier match right now?"
When Nanki'in Sakuya Synchro Summoned Shiranui Squiresaga, most of the audience hadn't even registered the change in the field itself, not until the girl, burning katana in hand, stood atop the radiant blue data of the Extra Monster Zone.
Nanki'in Sakuya flung a card down onto the Duel Disk's Extra Monster Zone. "I activate Shiranui Squiresaga's effect!"
"Activating an effect?" Finesse's brow furrowed.
Even standing in the field's own central Extra Monster Zone, that zone still belonged to Nanki'in Sakuya. There was no dodging Destiny HERO - Bloo-D's negation aura by standing there. Shiranui Squiresaga's effect was still sitting negated.
"Finesse, this is the fate you've laid out for me." Blue light still flickering in her eyes, Nanki'in Sakuya flung out another card.
"And now, chaining off Shiranui Squiresaga's effect, I activate the Quick-Play Spell Card Sky Striker Mobilize - Linkage!"
Without an extra Extra Monster Zone available, this Linkage card, the one Finesse herself had rearranged to the top of the deck, would have been an unquestionably dead card.
Because Linkage required that "there be no monster in your Main Monster Zone" to activate.
And right now, Nanki'in Sakuya's only monster stood in the Extra Monster Zone, leaving all five of her Main Monster Zones empty and satisfying that exact condition.
[Sky Striker Mobilize - Linkage] [Quick-Play Spell: Activate only if you control no monsters in your Main Monster Zone. Send 1 other card you control to the Graveyard, then Special Summon 1 "Sky Striker" monster from your Extra Deck to the Extra Monster Zone. If you control a LIGHT and a DARK "Sky Striker" monster on the field and/or in the Graveyard, the Special Summoned monster gains 1000 ATK.]
"I chain Linkage's effect, sending my own Shiranui Squiresaga to the Graveyard, and Special Summon a Sky Striker monster from my Extra Deck!"
With only a single connection to spend, Nanki'in Sakuya could feel with total clarity that this was the absolute limit of what she could pull off right now.
"You really are amazing, Amano... you truly are the strongest."
Her mind drifted to the times Amano Rei had Link Summoned Sky Strikers again and again during that Dark Game, turning around Jinguuji Domitsu's Death Prison Realm.
The more she compared herself to him, the more clearly Nanki'in Sakuya could feel just how terrifyingly strong Amano Rei really was.
But she couldn't let herself stop moving forward either. She'd already made up her mind to chase after that light and shadow ahead of her.
"Appear! The circuit that links to the future!"
Nanki'in Sakuya recalled the exact motion Amano Rei had made the very first time he'd Link Summoned, blue light flickering and shining across her own eyes.
"A racing network of blades, breaking through the data blockade! Link circuit, construct, confirm... manifest above the raging wind!"
"Special Summon, Link-1! Sky Striker Ace - Hayate!"
[Sky Striker Ace - Hayate] [Bottom-Left, WIND]
[Machine/Link/Effect]
[ATK: 1500] [Link-1]
Materializing from the radiant data light of a Link Summon, descending into the field's own Extra Monster Zone, Raye's silhouette flickered as if changing outfits entirely, swapping into a strike-type tactical armor and taking to the air under the codename Hayate, cannon in hand.
"A Link Monster?" The crowd watching this whole campus queen showdown unfold had long since run out of ways to express how stunned they were.
This wasn't just a matter of skill level anymore.
Link Summoning, a technique that had vanished from Eden for years now, and here it was, being pulled off by a freshman girl at Duel Academy.
Nanki'in Sakuya added, explaining the effect. "Since I have a LIGHT and DARK Sky Striker monster in my Graveyard, Linkage's effect raises Sky Striker Ace - Hayate's ATK by 1000!"
[Sky Striker Ace - Hayate] [ATK: 1500 to 2500]
A Wind Blade that could skip past monsters and attack the opponent directly. Against Finesse, sitting at just 1400 Life Points remaining, it wouldn't even need that ATK boost to finish her off.
But theory sounded beautiful. Reality wasn't going to cooperate.
Because Bloo-D was still on the field, Sky Striker Ace - Hayate's effect was negated too, meaning it couldn't declare a direct attack on Finesse at all.
Finesse said, "Even with 1000 extra ATK, it's not going to matter, Nanki'in Sakuya!"
And a plain, vanilla 2500 ATK on its own couldn't beat Bloo-D, and certainly couldn't beat Dominance either.
But Nanki'in Sakuya hadn't chained Sky Striker Mobilize - Linkage's effect to Special Summon a Sky Striker just to throw it against the strongest Destiny HERO on the field.
Forget the Wind Blade. Not a single one of the other elemental Sky Striker Link Monsters could have beaten Bloo-D after it absorbed Chengying's effect.
But Nanki'in Sakuya still had one hidden blade left up her sleeve.
The Sky Striker's own katana was a blade of raging wind, and the Shiranui blade sitting in her Graveyard was a hidden blade of raging fire.
Once Sky Striker Mobilize - Linkage's effect had fully resolved, only then did Shiranui Squiresaga's effect get processed.
Because Linkage's own cost had sent Shiranui Squiresaga to the Graveyard, it was no longer on the field, and Bloo-D's field-wide negation aura had no hold over it anymore.
Amano Rei's eyes went wide. "Using Linkage's own cost to dodge Bloo-D's effect entirely, is that really a play Sakuya could pull off?"
Sure enough, his class rep might not be much for homework and exams, but she genuinely had real talent for dueling. Otherwise there was no way she'd have inherited the Shiranui deck this young.
"This is my own two-sword style for cutting down fate itself!" Wind blade in her left hand, flame blade in her right, Nanki'in Sakuya declared Shiranui Squiresaga's effect.
[Once per turn, during your Main Phase: Banish 1 monster from your Graveyard or from among the face-up monsters you control. Then, apply the following effect(s) based on that monster's type(s):
Undead: All monsters you control gain 300 ATK.
FIRE: Target 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field; destroy it.
Synchro: Target 1 monster on the field; destroy it.]
"I banish Shiranui Squiresaga itself from my Graveyard!"
Shiranui Squiresaga's effect applied three different bonus effects depending on the type of the banished monster.
And Shiranui Squiresaga itself was simultaneously an Undead-type monster, a FIRE-attribute monster, and a Synchro Monster all at once.
Banishing itself satisfied all three categories at the exact same time, triggering all three effects together.
"Let my own body become flame itself!"
A massive blazing katana erupted from Nanki'in Sakuya's Graveyard, carrying scorching gusts of wind and waves of fire, and cut straight into Finesse's field.
Though Shiranui Squiresaga's destruction wouldn't be negated by D-Force, Bloo-D, having absorbed Swordsoul Supreme Sovereign - Chengying, had already gained Chengying's own resistance to being destroyed.
But Shiranui Squiresaga's effect resolved strictly in the order written on the card.
[Undead: All monsters you control gain 300 ATK.]
[Sky Striker Ace - Hayate] [ATK: 2500 to 2800]
[FIRE: Target 1 Spell/Trap Card on the field; destroy it.]
"I destroy Swordsoul Supreme Sovereign - Chengying on your field, currently being used as an equip card!"
Since the effects resolved in order, the Spell/Trap destruction happened first, before the monster destruction.
Once Swordsoul Supreme Sovereign - Chengying, absorbed and turned into an equip Spell, was destroyed, Bloo-D lost the destruction resistance it had gained from Chengying.
[Synchro: Target 1 monster on the field; destroy it.]
"And finally, I destroy Destiny HERO - Bloo-D! This is Shiranui Squiresaga's own demon-cutting blade, burning itself to ash!"
At last, Shiranui Squiresaga's burning katana drove itself deep into Bloo-D's chest, cutting down the strongest D there was.
[Destiny HERO - Bloo-D, destroyed]
With Bloo-D destroyed, Nanki'in Sakuya was finally freed from that field-wide lockdown.
Following the flame blade, the wind blade came next. Sky Striker Ace - Hayate released the wind pressure from the electromagnetic railgun in her hands, skipping straight past Destiny HERO - Dominance and locking its cannon squarely on Finesse herself.
[This card can attack directly.]
"Direct attack!" Nanki'in Sakuya swung a hand, giving the order. "Fire, Hayate!"
Fully armed, the Wind Blade released the charged railgun shot held in her hands out into open air.
"Weapons deployed, system online, domain field generated! Zero-type railgun, maximum charge! Overlimit Drive: Particle Pulse Cannon!"
Crossing through howling wind and thunder, the railgun blast tore straight past Destiny HERO - Dominance on the field and slammed directly into Finesse.
Facing that raging gust head on, red hair and cape both whipping back behind her, Finesse flipped up one of the two set cards at her feet.
"Trap Card, D-Fortune, activate!"
[D-Fortune] [Trap Card: Activate only when your opponent declares a direct attack. Banish 1 monster with "Destiny HERO" in its name from your Graveyard; end the Battle Phase.]
"I banish Destiny HERO - Disk Commander from my Graveyard, ending this turn's Battle Phase!"
Cancelling out the howling wind pressure, both duelists had now each forced the other's Battle Phase to a premature end once.
But there was a difference. After activating D-Fortune, Finesse had only one set card left to work with.
Because D-Force sat on top of her Deck, Finesse still couldn't draw a card at all.
Nanki'in Sakuya had only one set card left too, the Trap Card Dimensional Prison, but at least she could still draw normally.
[Dimensional Prison] [Trap Card: When an opponent's monster declares an attack, you can target that attacking monster. Banish that monster.]
A targeting, banishing effect had no way of touching Bloo-D while D-Force was still in play.
But now that Bloo-D had left the field, Dimensional Prison could safely shut down Destiny HERO - Dominance's next attack, buying time for Sky Striker Ace - Hayate to launch a second direct attack next turn.
On top of that, Nanki'in Sakuya's 2200 Life Points weren't exactly abundant, but they were healthy enough to work with.
"Trading your own future for the power to draw, this duel has no future left for you anymore, Finesse Wein."
Bloo-D, which had traded away the future of drawing cards for absolute power in the present, against Sky Striker, whose Link circuit connected straight through to the future itself.
Finesse and Nanki'in, in a certain sense, really did represent two total extremes.
"Just like you and Amano have no future either." Normally a girl of few words with a deadpan, honest face, Nanki'in Sakuya delivered a rare, venomously precise follow-up strike.
"Class rep, please, I'm begging you, say less." Amano Rei was already fantasizing about bolting from his front-row seat.
"My turn ends."
Having driven Finesse into a corner, Nanki'in Sakuya's blue-lit eyes dimmed just slightly the instant she declared her turn over.
Under normal circumstances, there was no way Nanki'in Sakuya would ever have said something like that. It was probably the connection between her consciousness and Eva's network causing some subtle shift in her personality.
"My turn..."
She couldn't draw.
With D-Force still sitting face-up on top of Finesse's Deck, she had no way to draw a card at all.
With no cards in hand, all Finesse had left was Destiny HERO - Dominance and one final set card.
"No future? Ha. Hahahaha!"
But rather than crumbling under Nanki'in Sakuya's earlier venomous jab, and the sheer frustration of being locked out of drawing thanks to D-Force, Finesse burst out laughing, hand pressed over her HERO helmet.
Kikawayu shook his head. "It's over. Lady Finesse must be completely furious now."
Amano Rei: "I have a feeling I might be completely done for too."
Amano Rei was already seriously considering not going back to the villa for a while, maybe crashing at Mizuki's place instead.
"No future? Then I'll forge my own future with my own two hands! How could power that commands destiny itself ever lose to some vague, uncertain future! I activate Destiny HERO - Dominance's effect!"
[Activate during your Main Phase. Look at the top 5 cards of your Deck or your opponent's Deck, then return them to the top of the Deck in any order you choose.]
"This time, I'm reading the top 5 cards of my own Deck!"
"Right, there's that move too!" Karl realized it all at once.
Using Dominance's effect to rearrange the top 5 cards of her own Deck, Finesse could shuffle D-Force further down, letting herself draw again.
"But it's a little late for that." Latir said.
Finesse had already burned through one draw this turn. If Nanki'in Sakuya's Wind Blade landed another direct attack next turn, even if Finesse created herself the chance to draw, she'd lose before she ever reached her own Draw Phase.
The five cards, D-Force included, appeared in front of Finesse now, and beneath her helmet, her silver-gray eyes trembled violently.
"I see, hahaha, so that's how it is, so this is the fate I get to command!"
"What in the world is going on?" Finesse's inexplicable reaction was, if anything, starting to make Nanki'in Sakuya nervous.
"How did Amano put it again..." Finesse rearranged the card order, gave a stylish sweep of her hand, and sent all five cards back into her Deck. "Fate is calling me into battle!"
Watching Finesse finish reordering her cards, the crowd all scratched their heads in confusion.
The card sitting on top of the Deck was, quite clearly, still D-Force.
Putting D-Force right back on top, wasn't she still stuck unable to draw?
"This is a draw that pierces straight through fate itself!" Finesse flipped up her last remaining set card. "Trap Card, D-Push, activate!"
[D-Push] [Trap Card: If "D-Force" is face-up on top of your Deck, draw the 2 cards directly beneath it.]
The two cards sitting beneath D-Force, that was the true fate of battle Finesse had actually rearranged.
"Draw!"
Drawing two cards at once, Finesse stepped back onto the path of battle.
"Nanki'in Sakuya, once I take care of you, it'll be Amano's turn next!"
Amano Rei: "I have to die too? Wait, that card is!"
One of the two cards Finesse had drawn by piercing straight through fate itself.
"Quick-Play Spell Card, De-Fusion, activate! I break apart Destiny HERO - Dominance's fusion, Special Summoning its Fusion Materials, Destiny HERO - Captain Tenacious, Doom Lord, and Dunker, to my field!"
Dominance, clad in heavy armor, split into three amid a burst of light.
Dominance's own ATK had already been 100 higher than Sky Striker Ace - Hayate's. Now, broken apart into three lower-level monsters, none of them stood any chance at all.
But with only one card left in hand, Finesse's grin beneath her HERO helmet had never looked more confident, more brazen, carrying just the faintest touch of a corrupted, seductive edge.
"I release all three Destiny HERO monsters on my field as tributes!"
"Three tributes, again!"
"A Summoning condition that rivals a god card! Did she draw another Bloo-D?"
Not Bloo-D. Amano Rei knew for a fact that his lady's deck only held a single copy of Bloo-D.
Which meant the other card requiring three tributes could only be...
"This is a real god card!"
Raising her last card high, a colossal divine figure draped in bleach-white bone armor rose up behind Finesse, shaking the entire Blue-Eyes White Dragon Dome to its foundations.
"Dominating the entire field, echoing with the voice of terror itself!"
"Summon of the gods! The Wicked Dreadroot!"
[The Wicked Dreadroot] [Level 10 GOD]
[Wicked God/Effect]
[ATK: 4000] [DEF: 4000]
A Wicked God standing on par with Obelisk the Tormentor itself, raising the massive claws at the end of both its arms, throwing its head back and roaring into the chaotic, thundercloud-wreathed sky.
"So it really is a god card!" That familiar, ominous presence, Amano Rei had already sensed it the instant before Finesse drew the card.
The very same "two-in-one" god card Amano Rei had once slipped into Finesse's deck before that Dark Riding Duel, testing showed it could shift back and forth between Wicked Eraser and Wicked Dreadroot.
Since the monthlong trade cooldown hadn't finished yet, Amano Rei had never gotten around to taking the god card back from his lady.
He hadn't expected Finesse to just keep carrying the thing around in her deck this whole time?
That was way too dangerous!
Sure, unlike the three Egyptian Gods, Wicked God cards didn't come with any hard rule requiring a Millennium Item connection to Summon them.
But if you had no fateful connection to a god card at all, using one of the Wicked Gods would gradually let the god corrupt your own will instead, the same way it had happened to Tenma Yako in the manga.
Did that mean his lady had already been carrying a Wicked God card around in her deck for nearly a month now?
And she still hadn't fallen to corruption?
No, actually, at this point, Amano Rei genuinely couldn't say for certain whether Finesse had fallen to corruption or not.
Having Summoned the Wicked God card, standing in front of the Wicked Dreadroot, Finesse was clearly looking directly at Amano Rei.
Her mouth was moving, over and over, as if mouthing something to him silently.
Amano Rei tried to read her lips, one syllable at a time: I. Will. Kill. You.
Yeah. She'd definitely fallen to corruption.
His own sweet, kindhearted lady had never once used language that crude before in her life.
Following the Link Summon, and now a god card Summon on top of it, the current bloodthirsty crowd surged to their feet as one, roaring in absolute ecstasy.
"Is this really a duel I only paid 3000 points to watch?"
"Anyone who doesn't know better would think we couldn't afford better tickets!"
"I'm worried the organizers are going to lose money on this. Take another 3000 from me, right here!"
Amid the deafening, jubilant roar of the crowd, Finesse raised her hand forward and declared the effect.
"While the Wicked Dreadroot is on the field, every other monster on the field, besides this card, has its ATK and DEF halved!"
A soul-crushing voice of terror echoing across the entire arena left Sky Striker Ace - Hayate, standing on Nanki'in Sakuya's field, visibly trembling in fear.
[Sky Striker Ace - Hayate] [ATK: 2800 to 1400]
"This is a strike from a god that surpasses fate itself!"
"Take this, Nanki'in Sakuya!"
"The Wicked Dreadroot, attack Sky Striker Ace - Hayate!"
Nanki'in Sakuya's whole body went rigid too, gripped by the same terror radiating from that abyssal god, but she gritted her teeth and held firm, flipping up her set card before the Wind Blade could be destroyed.
"Trap Card, Dimensional Prison, banishing the attacking monster!"
"That's not a monster, that's a Wicked God card!"
"Gods aren't affected by Trap Cards!"
"You lose, Nanki'in Sakuya!"
"Abyssal Detonation: Wicked God's Claw!"
A massive, bone-white claw came crashing down from above onto Sky Striker Ace - Hayate, smashing the girl in her tactical railgun armor into scattered fragments of data with a single swipe.
At 4000 ATK against Hayate's halved 1400 ATK, the final damage from that one divine strike came to 2600 points!
[Sky Striker Ace - Hayate, destroyed]
Nanki'in Sakuya: "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Nanki'in Sakuya LP: 2200 to 0
Standing beneath her colossal god, amid a roaring, deafening wave of cheers loud enough to lift the roof off the entire arena, Finesse thrust her arm forward, pointing straight down at Amano Rei below.
Just like the very first time, back on that underground platform, when Amano Rei had raised his own hand and pointed at Finesse below him.
"Click!"
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