Chapter 238
After the sixth unit was destroyed, the machines trailing behind did not rush in to continue the consecutive duel the way the first replacement had. They seemed to have recognized that repeating the same approach would only get them locked down and shut out by Cosmic Blazar Dragon all over again.
A brief hesitation. A deceleration. Then the convoy erupted into a grinding screech of mechanical collision.
Units crashed into each other in groups of two and three. What looked at first glance like a series of traffic accidents produced no explosions, no fire. Instead, the D-Wheels and bodies that slammed together behaved like Meklord Emperors absorbing machines: shattered components flew apart and reassembled themselves into unified new forms.
Rin Seiya's voice carried clear alarm. "They're fusing? Duelists fusing together in the middle of a public road? Is that really appropriate behavior?"
Amano made a mental note to someday search the seemingly tidy rooms of Rin Seiya's inner mental space for whatever was apparently stored under the bed.
The collision-merged units that emerged were roughly twice the size of the originals. Like the Meklord Emperor trio from the anime, they had abandoned the posture of riding a D-Wheel entirely. Their lower halves had converted directly into D-Wheel mechanisms. And they had finally dropped the pretense of wearing half of Amano's face. Fully mechanical now, top to bottom, without a trace of human features.
Prayassea. Speed Counters: 20.
The Jose-from-the-meme had apparently been folded into the name as well.
The consecutive duel resumed. Facing Cosmic Blazar Dragon's three-negate coverage, Prayassea went straight to its D-Wheel Duel Disk and threw down a monster.
"I Special Summon Cyber Dragon Eltanin from my hand!"
[Cyber Dragon Eltanin]
[Level 5 LIGHT]
[Machine / Effect]
[ATK: 2100 / DEF: 1600]
[If you control no monsters, you can Special Summon this card from your hand.]
The frame-breaking Cyber Dragon materialized and surged across the track, its silver-white mechanical body moving with fluid, unsettling speed.
From the arena screens, Amano Shio stared. "Cyber Dragon Eltanin? I have never heard of a Cyber Dragon like that!"
Prayassea raised a heavy mechanical arm. "Cyber Dragon Eltanin's effect activates! When this card is Special Summoned, I target one face-up monster you control and negate its effects until End Phase! Cosmic Blazar Dragon, your effects are negated! Evolution Shockwave!"
Amano's hand was already on the Cosmic Blazar Dragon card before the declaration finished. He sent it to the banish zone.
"Cosmic Blazar Dragon's effect! I banish Cosmic Blazar Dragon until the End Phase to negate and destroy Cyber Dragon Eltanin's effect activation!"
[Cosmic Blazar Dragon: banished]
[Cyber Dragon Eltanin: effect negated and destroyed]
Eltanin was gone. But Prayassea's intent had been obvious from the start: forcing out the negate was the whole point.
The thick mechanical arm reached for another card. "Spell Card, Power Bond, activate!"
Rin Seiya blinked in her mind room. "Wait, a Normal Spell?"
"Wait," Amano said at the same time. "Power Bond?"
[Power Bond]
[Spell Card]
[Fusion Summon 1 Machine-Type Fusion Monster using monsters from your hand or field as Fusion Materials. The Fusion Monster Special Summoned by this effect has its ATK doubled. During the End Phase of this turn, you take damage equal to the amount the ATK was increased by this effect.]
Prayassea threw three cards to the Duel Disk as Fusion Materials.
"I fuse Cyber Dragon from my hand with Meklord Emperor Wisel Infinity and Meklord Emperor Skiel Infinity! Fusion Summon! Chimeratech Terminator Dragon!!"
[Chimeratech Terminator Dragon]
[Level 10 LIGHT]
[Machine / Fusion / Effect]
[ATK: 4000 / DEF: 2800]
[3 Machine-Type monsters each with 2100 or more ATK]
[This card cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. Each effect of this card's name can only be used once per turn. 1: If only LIGHT monsters were used as Fusion Materials, you can pay 4000 LP to add 1 "Limiter Removal" from your Deck to your hand; if this card is in Defense Position when attacked, deal the opponent battle damage equal to its DEF minus the attacking monster's ATK. While this card has higher ATK than its original ATK, it can attack 3 times per Battle Phase.]
Using Machine-Type monsters with 2100 or more ATK meant the two Meklord Emperors satisfied the Fusion requirement alongside the Cyber Dragon. The Chimeratech Terminator Dragon materialized and flew above the track, its massive steel frame crackling with the overloaded current of Power Bond's energy surge.
Who fuses Meklord Emperors with a Cyber Dragon? Who comes up with that as a strategy?
Then again, the opponent was not exactly a person. And it had enrolled at Fusion Academy a hundred and ten years ago, so knowing Fusion techniques made a certain amount of sense.
Prayassea announced: "Since this card was Fusion Summoned using Power Bond, Chimeratech Terminator Dragon's ATK is doubled!"
[Chimeratech Terminator Dragon] [ATK: 4000 to 8000]
"And since you activated a Normal Spell in a Riding Duel," Amano shot back, "you take 2000 points of damage!"
Prayassea LP: 4000 to 2000.
"Battle! Chimeratech Terminator Dragon, attack Shooting Star Dragon! Eternal Evolution Light Strike!!"
Three interwoven beams of radiance erupted from the three mechanical dragon heads and converged on Shooting Star Dragon.
Amano picked up the Shooting Star Dragon card from the D-Wheel Duel Disk and sent it to the banish zone.
"Shooting Star Dragon's effect activates! During the opponent's turn, I banish this card! This turn, negate one of the opponent's attacks!"
"Useless! Chimeratech Terminator Dragon's effect: while this card has higher ATK than its original ATK, it can attack three times per Battle Phase!"
Power Bond's doubling effect pushed Chimeratech Terminator Dragon past its original ATK, triggering the triple attack condition. Shooting Star Dragon's self-banish could cover exactly one attack.
Amano flipped the card he had specifically set before the attack sequence last turn. "I activate the face-down Trap Card, Zero Force!"
[Zero Force]
[Trap Card]
[Activate when a face-up monster you control is banished. All face-up monsters currently on the field have their ATK become 0.]
"Since Shooting Star Dragon was banished, all face-up monsters on the field have their ATK drop to zero! Power down, Chimeratech Terminator Dragon!"
[Chimeratech Terminator Dragon] [ATK: 8000 to 0]
"That is what I am talking about!" Rin Seiya's voice rang out from the mind room. "Now Chimeratech Terminator Dragon has no threat left. And at End Phase, Power Bond's backlash deals it 4000 damage!"
Prayassea laughed. "No matter. My body exists only as fuel to bring down Synchro. Spell Card, Overload Fusion, activate!"
[Overload Fusion]
[Spell Card]
[Banish, from your field or GY, Fusion Material Monsters that are listed on a DARK Machine-Type Fusion Monster, then Special Summon that Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck.]
Rin Seiya caught it immediately. "Another Normal Spell? That thing had no intention of surviving this turn from the beginning!"
Between the Power Bond backlash due at End Phase and the Overload Fusion cost, Prayassea was burning through the last 2000 Life Points on purpose.
"I banish Cyber Dragon from the GY alongside the remaining fourteen Meklord monsters as Overload Fusion materials!"
A massive mechanical fortress materialized above the track. Fifteen mechanical dragon heads of different sizes and shapes emerged from within, all merging outward.
"Fusion Summon! Chimeratech Overdragon!!"
[Chimeratech Overdragon]
[Level 9 DARK]
[Machine / Fusion / Effect]
[ATK: ?]
[Cyber Dragon + 1 or more Machine-Type monsters]
"Chimeratech Overdragon's ATK is 800 for each Fusion Material used!"
[Chimeratech Overdragon] [ATK: 12000]
Fifteen fusion materials. Twelve thousand ATK. Prayassea had completed its mission and was now finished. The D-Wheel lower half cut power and crashed out of the track.
Prayassea LP: 2000 to 0.
"At the forced End Phase, Cosmic Blazar Dragon returns to my field!"
[Cosmic Blazar Dragon] [ATK: 4000]
Then the full weight of the situation landed on everyone watching.
Under Consecutive Battle rules, the losing side's turn ends and the new opponent immediately takes over. Which meant it was still the opponent's turn.
Prayassea Type 2. Speed Counters: 2 to 3.
This battle style only worked if you had unlimited replacements.
Amano Shio was furious enough to stamp her feet. "That is completely underhanded! This is not dueling! We absolutely refuse to recognize this as a legitimate match!"
Prayassea Type 2 threw down three cards: "Spell Card, Power Bond, activate! I fuse the three Meklord Emperors in my hand!"
Prayassea Type 2 LP: 4000 to 2000.
At 2000 LP as the non-Speed Spell cost, they had reconstructed a new Chimeratech Terminator Dragon at 8000 ATK. On top of the inherited Chimeratech Overdragon with 12000 ATK still on the field.
"Battle! Chimeratech Terminator Dragon's three consecutive attacks and Chimeratech Overdragon's fifteen consecutive attacks! The last stronghold of Synchro Summoning meets its end in the light of evolution!"
Eighteen steel dragon heads aligned in the high-speed circuit and discharged their annihilation beams simultaneously at Amano and Rin Seiya's position.
"I banish Cosmic Blazar Dragon and activate its effect!" Amano roared back.
He had not used Cosmic Blazar Dragon to negate Power Bond this time. Shooting Star Dragon's destruction-negate could handle the Chimeratech Terminator Dragon, but the fifteen-attack Chimeratech Overdragon operating under its anime effect could not be stopped by Shooting Star Dragon alone. Cosmic Blazar Dragon was needed for what came next.
The third option.
[When your opponent declares an attack, negate that attack, then end the Battle Phase.]
Using itself as the cost, Cosmic Blazar Dragon reached into the Speed World's flow and brought the entire Battle Phase to a forced halt.
The attacks were stopped. For now.
But the crisis had not passed. Amano had already been cut out of one of his own turns. At this rate, locked out of drawing and replenishing resources, the war of attrition would eventually grind them down.
"Power Bond's End Phase backlash! I take 4000 points of damage!"
Prayassea Type 2 LP: 2000 to 0.
Another self-destruction on End Phase. The mechanical units' revised strategy had successfully ignited a level of outrage at the Academy Challenge Tournament venue that had no precedent.
"This is not dueling!"
"This is pure exploit abuse!"
"Even if they breach Synchro Academy's stage through this, we refuse to acknowledge it!"
"Agreed. Even from Fusion Academy, we will not recognize a victory won this way!"
"Xyz Academy will not accept this kind of fighting either!"
It was not only Synchro Academy's students whose anger had been lit. All three academies were burning. Everyone in attendance was young and had blood in their veins, and they understood instinctively that wins and losses had to be decided fairly. Every time Eva opened a duel, she announced it: "Victory and defeat are the scales that weigh a duelist's soul." What was happening right now was producing a result without any meaning behind it.
Then, from somewhere outside the sealed track, a voice cut through the noise.
"Machines that only execute system commands have no ability to understand what souls and fairness are."
Amano turned toward the sound and saw something that made no immediate sense.
The road was sealed by steel walls. No outside D-Wheel should have been able to enter and interfere with the duel.
But the man approaching was not riding a D-Wheel. He was riding on top of the steel barrier itself, standing upright on a board, and he was moving fast enough to match the racing circuit below.
A closer look showed that the board was connected directly to his Duel Disk. This was not a simple skateboard. It was a D-Board: a Riding Duel device that had appeared in the anime. Small enough to ride on surfaces a D-Wheel could not access.
And the man's face.
Amano recognized it before he could finish the thought.
"Yuma Tsukumo!" Rin Seiya's voice came first.
"It really is Yuma Tsukumo!" Amano confirmed.
The age was wrong for the anime's middle-school setting, but the face was distinctive enough to be unmistakable the instant it appeared. The person carving down the top of the steel barrier at full speed was genuinely the twenty-year-old original.
Yuma grinned. "Rin Seiya! Last time we saw each other was the Joint Challenge Tournament two years ago, wasn't it. I did not expect you to be Synchro Academy's number one already, just two years later. Though right now, the person in there probably is not you, is it."
He apparently already knew Amano was operating Rin Seiya as a background spirit.
As he said it, Yuma shifted his trajectory and dropped off the barrier into the inside of the track, pulling up directly in front of the third Prayassea unit that was preparing to take over the consecutive battle.
"I will handle this one. With your combined abilities, you should not lose against the rest of the mass-produced units. But just not losing is not enough to solve a system crisis targeting Synchro from the inside!"
Yuma engaged the third merged Prayassea unit in a Riding Duel immediately, moving first.
"I Normal Summon Utopia the Onomatopeia in Attack Position!"
[Utopia the Onomatopeia]
[Level 4 LIGHT]
[Warrior / Effect]
[ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1500]
The miniature Utopia figure materialized beside Yuma's D-Board, holding a small Hope Sword.
"I activate Utopia the Onomatopeia's effect! I Special Summon Gagaga Magician from my hand!"
[Gagaga Magician]
[Level 4 DARK]
[Spellcaster / Effect]
[ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1000]
"Two Level 4 monsters are now on my field! Construct the overlay network! Awaken, radiance of hope, and soar into the limitless sky!"
Level 4 overlaid with Level 4.
"My battle does not end here! White wings of hope carrying the wishes of all: toward the infinite and unending future!"
"Appear! Number 39! Utopia!!"
[Number 39: Utopia]
[Rank 4 LIGHT]
[Warrior / Xyz / Effect]
[ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2000]
[Level 4 monsters x2]
"Junior!" Rin Seiya's voice carried genuine excitement from the mind room. "I have never seen that Utopia before! It looks incredible!"
"Focus, Senpai. Our duel is still running."
But the next thing Yuma did surprised Amano as much as the new card had.
Though it was not a direct transformation, a luminous phantom shape blazed into existence around Yuma's body: the silhouette of the Union of Kindred Spirits from the anime, blazing above the track.
"I discard Rank-Up-Magic Union Force from my hand as a cost! Xyz Summon using the overlay method!"
Discarding the Rank-Up-Magic as a cost rather than activating it meant the Speed Spell restriction in a Riding Duel did not apply. The Xyz Summon resolved cleanly.
"The bonds we share point the way to the memories of those who came before!"
"Receive the infinite power of hope and split open a new era for what is yet to come!"
"Xyz Summon! Shining Number Zero! Hope Zexal!!"
[Shining Number 0: Hope Zexal]
[No Rank, LIGHT]
[Warrior / Xyz / Effect]
[ATK: ? / DEF: ?]
[3 "Number" Xyz Monsters of the same Rank. This card can also be Xyz Summoned by discarding 1 "Rank-Up-Magic" Normal Spell from your hand, Xyz Summoning over a "Utopia" monster you control.]
[This card's Xyz Summon cannot be negated. When this card is Xyz Summoned, your opponent cannot activate effects. This card's ATK and DEF are each equal to the number of Xyz Materials on it multiplied by 1000. Once per opponent's turn, you can remove 1 Xyz Material from this card. This turn, your opponent cannot activate effects.]
A Rank-less Xyz Monster blazed into the riding circuit in the full radiance of the Union of Kindred Spirits.
"I set one card and end my turn."
"My turn! Draw!"
"At this moment, Shining Number 0's effect activates!"
[Once per opponent's turn, remove 1 Xyz Material from this card. This turn, your opponent cannot activate effects.]
The opponent's entire turn was locked out before it had started. The third merged Prayassea unit could not move.
Amano stared at the screen feed in disbelief. "It completely shuts the opponent out of playing the game. That is the card that has a permanent residence on the banned list, Union of Kindred Spirits style. That thing is absurd."
"Junior." Rin Seiya's tone was patient but pointed. "Stop watching. Our turn is starting."
Yuma accelerated his D-Board and drew alongside them, facing Amano directly.
"Union of Kindred Spirits is not simply a boost to absolute power. And it is not simple fusion, either. Different individuals each pursuing the same goal with everything they have: that is the Kindred aspect. And the bond those individuals create in that pursuit, the bond capable of awakening miracles across space and time: that is the Union."
He reached into the front of his shirt and pulled something free. Then he threw it directly to Amano without hesitation.
Amano caught it cleanly. Rin Seiya's pale hand opened and revealed what sat in the palm: a brilliantly golden Emperor's Key.
"He has already departed. But even as a symbol, a symbol still carries meaning."
The conditions for Union of Kindred Spirits had already been met: different targets, an existing bond. The only thing remaining was to awaken the miracle that crossed space and time.
"You can do this. Use the Union of Kindred Spirits to surpass what Eva's system has set in place."
Union of Kindred Spirits.
Amano suddenly remembered. He actually had that skill.
After multiple attempts had produced no effect whatsoever, he had quietly set it aside. Not only was the trigger unclear, the description itself had been deliberately vague to the point of uselessness.
But when Amano opened the system right now, the skill's name was blazing with active light. Its activation state was unmistakably ready.
[Union of Kindred Spirits]
[After a successful union, unlock the corresponding Legendary Duelist.]
A description short enough to almost mean nothing. And yet it was the most advanced skill the system currently carried.
To solve a system crisis targeting Synchro, just not losing was not enough.
"Got it!" Amano said. "Then that is what we are doing!"
"What... what exactly are we doing?" Rin Seiya's voice from the mind room carried a very particular edge of both confusion and anticipation.
"Let's fuse together, Senpai."
A pause.
"Fu... fuse? We are fusing? The two of us?"