Chapter 185: Heroes Do Not Lose! Soul Energy MAX
"That is. Is that. Is that Obelisk the Tormentor?!"
Shiyue had not understood how he had done it. She had watched the whole duel. She had not seen the moment when any logical pathway opened to this outcome.
He had read the divine will out of the artificial earth itself.
That was genuinely unreasonable.
The five Destiny HEROes that had been standing on Amano's field did not all survive Obelisk's arrival. Three of them dissolved into radiant light the moment the divine colossus began to materialize.
"A god's Summon requires three Tributes! I release Destiny HERO - Diamond Dude, Destiny HERO - Dominance, and Destiny HERO - Disk Commander!"
"When its coming arrives, the scalding gale must ravage the earth and all living things must fall. When light and darkness converge, begin the ritual of the obelisk."
Amano drove the card into the Duel Disk with all of Finesse's strength.
"God calling!"
"Descend, Obelisk the Tormentor!"
Obelisk the Tormentor. Level 10, Divine-Beast/Effect. ATK: 4000. DEF: 4000.
The colossus emerged completely from the boiling earth, and its presence did not require a broadcast screen to convey. Anyone anywhere in the mid-level district who looked up could see the deep blue divine body rising between floor and ceiling, a figure of such scale that the space of the district barely contained it.
From the helicopter above, Kaiba Chiaki stared at the card that had just been played by what was supposed to be Finesse Wein's hand, and she could not look away.
You wanted her to believe that Finesse Wein called Obelisk the Tormentor? She appreciated the attempt at humor. The only duelist in all of Eden who could have done that was the one who cleared Kaiba Seto's Chronicle, and as far as she knew that person had exactly one chance to use it.
He had spent his one chance on this.
"But can it actually work, Amano Rei?"
Nobody understood the Wicked Avatar's strength better than Kaiba Chiaki. She had that particular distinction by virtue of losing to it every single week. In the Chronicle, even Obelisk the Tormentor could not overcome the Avatar.
"You pull this out at the end and this is what you do with it?!" Shiyue flung her arm up at the black sun above. "But the Wicked Avatar's ATK still surpasses even a god's!"
The black sun transformed.
Wicked Avatar. ATK: 4001.
The final image of the duel resolved: the deep blue colossus facing its own mirror image in absolute black. Two divine figures of such scale that bystanders who had been evacuating stopped moving just to stare. The black liquid that had been spreading across the mid-level district halted, as though the Wicked Avatar had redirected its full power toward this one confrontation.
"Obelisk's effect! I release the remaining Destiny HEROes on my field: Destiny HERO - Drill Guy and Destiny HERO - Malicious!"
Three lives for the divine's arrival. Two more for the divine's power.
Every single card that had broken destiny and risen again in the previous turn, Amano poured directly into the god.
"Soul Energy MAX!"
The sky changed color. The thunderclouds that had always symbolized this god's presence in the original series erupted above the mid-level district, their detonation loud enough to feel in the chest. The deep blue giant absorbed both warriors through clenched fists, the thunder raging around its entire body.
Obelisk the Tormentor. ATK: 4000 to infinity.
There was no number for this value. It had not existed in the card game since the original series, since the era when gods fought gods and the concept of a ceiling on ATK had simply been set aside.
"The true ceiling is mine!" Shiyue's declaration cut through the thunder. "When the Divine Soldier's ATK becomes infinity, the Wicked Avatar's ATK surpasses infinity!"
Wicked Avatar. ATK: infinity plus one.
The black colossus absorbed the same thunderous atmosphere, becoming a black mirror of the blue god at exactly one point above its peak.
Could infinity plus one exceed infinity? In any rational mathematical framework, no.
In the original Yu-Gi-Oh manga, in the context of divine cards whose power was specifically written to transcend limits, the answer the story had given was yes. It was the kind of rule that existed only in a story about gods, and this was exactly that kind of story.
On her D-Wheel, Rin Seiya could barely hold the handlebars straight.
"You cannot win even with infinite ATK? What kind of unreasonable thing is this?"
"We are going to win!" Amano pulled a card from the hand. "We will gather every hero's power and exceed the Wicked God! I activate..."
His eyes went dark.
His vision collapsed.
When it returned, Amano was in Fujiwara's arms, being carried princess-style at a brisk jog, the evacuation crowd moving around them on all sides.
"Location report for the class rep: the student council rep is awake!" Fujiwara announced immediately.
Sakuya looked over. The expression she had was not the joyful relief that Class 1-E had been expecting.
"Wait. Amano. Why are you back?"
"I think the time ran out."
The two-hour limit on the Back Seat Soul ability.
He had complained to himself once about what kind of situation could possibly require a full two hours of possession. He had found out today. Taking stock of the elapsed time: arriving in Finesse's body, assessing the scene with Sakuraba Nao, observing the hospital situation, two consecutive Dark Games, the detour into the data world simulation, and then the god-versus-god duel that had just consumed an enormous amount of clock time.
It had run out at that moment. Of all moments.
Sakuya was already looking at the broadcast screen.
"Then the one currently dueling is..."
The answer was obvious before she finished the sentence.
Finesse had her own body back.
She stood on the rooftop surrounded by holographic gods, looking at the card Amano had been holding, the card he had been in the process of activating when she had suddenly found herself alone again.
"Amano? Amano?"
No response. He was gone.
He had left her Obelisk the Tormentor and two gods on the field and the most critical card in the hand and absolutely no guidance on how to finish this.
Shiyue's confusion lasted about three seconds before understanding arrived.
"Ha. Amano Rei's travel authorization expired at the critical moment." She started laughing. Genuinely. "The most useless Wein sibling, holding Obelisk by herself. Look at that face."
Finesse stared at the field. She did not know Obelisk's effects the way Amano did. She did not have his card game knowledge or his instinct for reading a duel. She knew her own deck. She knew the HERO cards she had spent years building.
She looked at the card Amano had been about to activate.
"You cannot even speak? Is the reality already too much for you?" Shiyue's amusement was running hot and careless. "You have been chasing me for years and in the moment it counts you freeze. You are useless all the way to the end, littlest Wein."
"You said. Chasing you for years."
"You want the Puppeteer, right? The person on the identity card that is long gone? That was me personally. Since we are here, hello."
"Then you are. You are the one who killed my mother."
"Ha." Shiyue tilted her head and made the sound of someone genuinely trying to remember. "That woman in the simulation did look familiar. Right, I did kill her. Sorry about that. It was my first time as the Puppeteer and I was a bit too excited. Oops. I promise next time I will show more restraint."
"What do you think human life is worth, you monster?"
The voice came from behind Finesse.
Latir Wein had not fully stood up. She was somewhere between half-collapsed and upright, both hands braced, her face carrying the kind of controlled fury that takes years to learn how to hold without spending it immediately.
"Auntie Iris was one of the most genuinely good people I have known. And you killed her because you were excited. I will never forgive this."
"You knew my mother." Finesse processed this slowly. "You called her Auntie."
Latir was four years older. Their mother had been working for the Wein family before Finesse was born. Latir would have known her through all of that.
And never said a word.
"After your mother died, I tried to investigate. But the dark organization connected to it was too dangerous. You were young. I thought protecting you meant keeping you from knowing. I was wrong to do that." Latir's voice was steady in the way things are steady when they have been held that way for a very long time. "I am sorry, Finesse."
"But Finesse." Karl's voice arrived from a different direction. He had forced himself back to standing despite everything his body had taken. "You were the bravest of all of us."
"When everyone else gave up and when the family tried to stop you, you were the one who kept going. I told everyone I wanted to be a hero. Truthfully I was a coward the whole time." He exhaled with something between a laugh and a breath of relief. "But you, Finesse. You are the actual hero."
Shiyue looked between the fallen siblings and Finesse with an expression approaching genuine surprise.
"You lost a dark game against a Wicked God and you are still on your feet? Is this what all you hero types are made of?"
"My most reliable little sister is still in this duel." Karl held himself upright through something that looked like pure decision. "I am not going to lie here while she fights."
"Obsession, revenge, justice: none of it has to be perfectly clean." Latir looked at Finesse directly. "You made it all the way to the end. Now take that chain of hatred that has been running through this family for decades, and cut it yourself."
Finesse remembered the night she and Amano had first met properly. She had asked him why he would risk his life in underground duels for the sake of his sister.
His answer had stayed with her since.
That is just what family is.
From somewhere outside the barrier, in the evacuation crowd, Amano was watching the same broadcast that everyone in Eden was watching.
He could not return. He was out of time. But he could still shout.
"You can do this, Finesse. You have the will of every hero who fought today inside you. You can be the Phoenix too."
"Finesse is the name my mother gave me."
She picked up the card in her hand. The one that had been waiting for her to be ready for it.
"I will pass judgment on you myself. Puppeteer Shiyue."
Fusion Destiny hit the Duel Disk.
"Spell Card, Fusion Destiny! From my Deck, I send Destiny HERO - Dreadmaster and Destiny HERO - Plasma to the Graveyard as Fusion Materials!"
For the first time in this duel, the person executing the fusion was not Amano. The card that had always been in Finesse's own deck, the card that represented everything she had been building toward, answered without hesitation.
"Let the destiny flame burning at its end, in the name of the Phoenix that is my name, sever this fate!"
"Fusion Summon! Destiny HERO - Destroy Phoenix Enforcer!"
Destiny HERO - Destroy Phoenix Enforcer. Level 8, DARK, Warrior/Fusion/Effect. ATK: 2500. DEF: 2100.
The Phoenix descended into the duel at last. Not through Amano's hands. Through hers.
"Another ridiculous hero fusion when gods are fighting? That thing has no standing in a battle between divine powers!"
"You are going to regret saying that."
Finesse held the two remaining cards in her hand: the "hero's legacy" that Latir had passed to her before losing consciousness. Karl had used his card to delay the Avatar's Tribute Summon and prevent the Spell-Trap lockout. Latir had saved hers for the killing blow.
The first of the two: the Quick-Play Spell.
"Mask Change activates!"
Mask Change. Quick-Play Spell: Target 1 HERO monster you control; send it to the Graveyard, then Special Summon 1 Masked HERO from the Extra Deck with the same Attribute.
"Simultaneously, I chain Destroy Phoenix Enforcer's effect!"
Once per turn, either player's turn: destroy 1 card you control and 1 card your opponent controls.
"I am not burning the god. I am burning what protects it."
The Phoenix flame that had been ignited by Destroy Phoenix Enforcer's effect split perfectly into two streams: one consumed the activating Mask Change on Finesse's own field, and the other found its target.
"Destroy Phoenix Enforcer destroys Mask Change on my side, and Soul Barrier on yours!"
"Destiny Phoenix Fate Reversal!"
Soul Barrier: destroyed.
The permanent immunity to battle damage that had made Shiyue untouchable for the entirety of this duel burned away in the Phoenix's flame.
Mask Change continued resolving. The Phoenix's fire transformed.
"Henshin!"
The dark armor assembled itself piece by piece over Destroy Phoenix Enforcer's frame as the transformation sequence ran, black plates locking into place across the hero's body, the Masked HERO emerging from the burning destiny fire.
"I send Destroy Phoenix Enforcer to the Graveyard and Special Summon the DARK-Attribute Masked HERO from my Extra Deck!"
This transformation was the accumulation of every hero's will that had fought in this duel. Every card that had been laid down and lost and remembered.
"Fight to the end of destiny's flame. From the Phoenix's body, become the blade of shadow that stands above gods."
"The black hero's soul, awakening here."
"Armor combination: Masked HERO Anki!"
Masked HERO Anki. Level 8, DARK, Warrior/Fusion/Effect. ATK: 2800. DEF: 1200.
The black armor hero stood on the field, and the rooftop that had been a battleground for gods now had three enormous presences on it: Obelisk in deep blue, the Wicked Avatar in absolute black, and a hero in dark armor standing between them.
"Useless! Completely useless!" Shiyue was still insisting, though something in her voice had shifted. "Any number of transformations and none of them can exceed a god! These heroes cannot interfere in a divine battle!"
"What comes next is not a hero alone. It is a hero who has caught the god's power."
Finesse raised the last card. The final piece of Latir's legacy.
"Spell Card, Primal Force!"
Primal Force. Spell Card: Target 2 face-up monsters on the field; until the end of this turn, 1 targeted monster has its ATK halved, and the other targeted monster gains ATK equal to the amount lost.
"I target Obelisk the Tormentor and Masked HERO Anki. Half of Obelisk's ATK transfers to Anki."
The divine power in Obelisk's body flowed toward the dark hero standing at its feet.
Half of infinity is still infinity.
Obelisk the Tormentor: ATK remains infinity.
Masked HERO Anki: ATK 2800 plus infinity. ATK: infinity.
Anki stepped from the ground onto Obelisk's shoulder in a single motion. In the instant the divine power entered a human hero's body, the silhouette it cast behind the dark armor was not a hero's silhouette any longer. It was something from a deeper mythology. The shape of a demon god's roaring face, radiating from the back of the hero who had climbed above gods.
Even Sakuya's composure broke.
"There are now three monsters on the field with infinite ATK."
Shiyue had been retreating during this entire exchange. She caught herself.
"Infinite ATK on a hero? This cannot be right. This does not happen!"
"You know Anki's effect." Finesse stepped forward. "You know what it means."
Even with infinite ATK, Masked HERO Anki cannot win a direct confrontation with the Wicked Avatar. The Avatar is always one point higher. Always. That rule does not bend.
But Masked HERO Anki's effect says it can attack directly, bypassing all monsters on the field. The direct attack damage is halved.
Half of infinity is still infinity.
The Wicked Avatar could not be beaten in battle. But it could be walked around.
This duel had never been about defeating a god with a greater god. It had been about a hero stepping past the god to reach the person behind it.
"Heroes do not bend."
Finesse walked forward, Anki matching every step.
"Heroes do not fall."
Every hero who had fought today: Karl opening the path, Latir providing the decisive tools, Amano drawing the impossible card from the earth, and now Finesse at the end of the road her mother's name had been pointing her toward since before she understood what that meant.
"Heroes do not lose."
She raised her arm.
"Battle Phase! Masked HERO Anki! And this is Anki's effect!"
This card can attack directly. That direct attack's battle damage is halved. Half of infinity is still infinity. The Wicked Avatar will not interfere with a direct attack.
The dark hero left the ground.
From above the black sun, from the highest point the rooftop could reach, Anki dove. The god's roaring face on its back screamed as it descended, and behind it the shadow of Obelisk's fist rose to match the kick that was falling.
"Go break destiny yourself!"
All of Eden was watching.
Amano, Latir, Karl, all three of them, at the same moment, the same words:
"Go, Finesse!"
Finesse's red hair burned behind her like the Phoenix fire it had always resembled.
"This is the final strike! Go!"
"Divine Fist Shatter times Destiny Knight Kick: Infinite Impact!"
The kick concentrated every unit of infinite soul energy into a single point of impact, combined with the shadow of the divine soldier's punch erupting from behind. The attack split the dimensional space of the duel from the sky down to the ground.
Direct attack.
Damage.
Infinity.
"This cannot be. How. How can this be happening?!"
Shiyue could not finish the sentence before the impact reached her.
She had managed her LP with absolute precision for the entire duel. Not a single point of battle damage throughout. She had climbed from 4000 to 16100 through accumulated recovery, through every draw and every exchange, through a system she had built specifically to make herself unreachable.
One attack took all of it.
Shiyue LP: 16100 to 0.
Dark Game: end.
WINNER: WEIN FAMILY FOUR SIBLINGS.
From the evacuation crowd, watching the broadcast screen that had been playing across every device in Eden, Amano Rei stared at the title of the victory declaration.
"Am I also a sibling?"
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