Chapter 274: Your Love Is Too Twisted. I Cannot Accept It.
The truly powerful cards: even the costs they demand are part of what makes them powerful.
Without question, Pot of Despair was that kind of card: a hand so extreme it matched the nature of the Dark Game itself, where every outcome led exactly where Kikawayu wanted.
After drawing three cards, Kikawayu sent every last card in her Duel Disk to the Graveyard.
From a future perspective, that evaluation was Amano's own. In the actual GX era, before Graveyard-based effects had grown into what they would become, Pot of Despair might genuinely have been a double-edged gamble requiring everything.
Aster, outside the barrier: "What a costly card to play!"
Kaiser Ryo, measuring the situation with his usual gravity: "But if the opponent cannot win this turn, Amano takes it."
After Pot of Despair, Kikawayu had no cards left to draw. If she could not close out the duel this turn, she would lose at the start of the next Draw Phase simply because no cards remained in her Deck.
Though the real question was: were Kikawayu's cards actually from the GX era?
Inferno of the Sacred Beasts - Uria, Lord of Searing Flames was clearly not a card that should exist in the GX period. It matched nothing in Amano's knowledge of either the real TCG Uria or the anime version.
And the mass Graveyard load had given Inferno of the Sacred Beasts - Uria, Lord of Searing Flames an attack value that dwarfed even the combined form of Armityle the Chaos Phantasm.
Kikawayu explained: "After Pot of Despair resolved, the 15 remaining Trap Cards in my Deck all entered the Graveyard. So Inferno of the Sacred Beasts - Uria, Lord of Searing Flames now has..."
[Inferno of the Sacred Beasts - Uria, Lord of Searing Flames] [ATK: 5000 -> 20000]
1000 ATK per Trap, twenty Trap Cards total: the divine flame surging around that elongated crimson body had doubled against Armityle the Chaos Phantasm, reaching 20000 ATK.
"And I activate Inferno of the Sacred Beasts - Uria, Lord of Searing Flames's effect!"
[Once per turn during either player's turn: Target 1 Spell or Trap Card on the field; destroy it. Neither player can respond to this activation.]
Amano's back row currently held three unrevealed set cards alongside the Power Frame equipped to Eve.
Kikawayu raised her hand and made her selection. "I'll destroy your middle set card."
[Trap Card, D2 Shield: Destroyed]
"Your luck is as bad as ever, Kikawayu."
The Trap Amano had originally set for use with a Defense-Position Eve had become completely irrelevant the moment everything on his field moved to Attack Position. Kikawayu had hit the single most useless card on his field out of three.
There was no way around it: where Amano's luck ran toward the extraordinary, Kikawayu's had always run in the opposite direction.
Kikawayu was entirely unbothered. "No worries. My luck is bad and yours is good. We're a perfect match, don't you think?"
She delivered that without missing a beat.
With D2 Shield now in the Graveyard, the Trap count climbed to 21.
[Inferno of the Sacred Beasts - Uria, Lord of Searing Flames] [ATK: 21000]
"Your position can no longer hold, Rei!"
Kikawayu pointed upward at the roaring Inferno - Uria in the sky.
She was not wrong. If this became a Battle Phase, Amano genuinely had no block available.
The Sacred Beast Fusion Monster Special Summoned via Fallen Paradise of the Sacred Beasts was immune to Spell and Trap Card effects activated by the opponent. Only monster effects could reach it. And neither of Amano's two monsters, the Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice and Armityle the Chaos Phantasm, carried any stopping power of their own. One was a pure Normal Monster. The other was, functionally, a high-ATK Normal Monster that could not be destroyed by battle.
"I will not allow it. Before you enter the Battle Phase this turn, I activate a monster effect from my hand!"
Amano interrupted the moment Kikawayu moved toward her Battle Phase declaration, triggering an effect from a monster card held in his hand during her Main Phase.
"During the opponent's Main Phase, I activate the effect of Gem Dragon - Imperial Topaz Dragon!"
[Gem Dragon - Imperial Topaz Dragon]
[When this card is revealed from your hand during the opponent's Main Phase: Conduct 1 Tribute Summon of a "Gem Dragon" monster.]
[This card can only be Tribute Summoned by Tributing 1 Normal Monster.]
In one sense, this card had also come from the lower districts. Just not in the same era as the rest of the deck. It was a card Amano had drawn from a lower-district terminal one month after enrolling, when he had gone back to District 32 to resolve the situation with Chiha and the Eva system bug.
It was not itself a Normal Monster, but it required Normal Monsters to bring out, and it was at its strongest when used alongside them.
"I Tribute the Normal Monster on my field, Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice, to Tribute Summon Gem Dragon - Imperial Topaz Dragon!"
Amano was not reluctant to sacrifice his own 10000-ATK Eve for this Tribute. He had no other option: Inferno - Uria was at 21000.
"A soul of the Normal Monster is poured in, and from the vein of the earth the uncut stone is carved into the Topaz of an emperor!"
"Tribute Summon! Gem Dragon - Imperial Topaz Dragon!"
[Gem Dragon - Imperial Topaz Dragon] [Level 6 / EARTH]
[Dragon / Effect]
[ATK: 2600 / DEF: 0]
The gem-born dragon erupted from the earth's cracked veins, inheriting the Normal Monster's soul from Eve, and rose to face the enormous Inferno - Uria burning in the sky above.
Amano drove the card onto his Duel Disk. "When Tribute Summoned, both of the following effects apply!"
[This card's Tribute Summon activates both of these effects:
1. Negate the effects of all face-up monsters your opponent controls.
2. Banish all face-up monsters your opponent controls that share a Type or Attribute with any Normal Monster in your GY.]
From within the uncut stone, the light carved into it by the Normal Monster's soul exploded outward, coating the Gem Dragon's entire body in a brilliance that had evolved beyond anything a vanilla monster could usually produce.
Both effects activated simultaneously.
"I negate Inferno of the Sacred Beasts - Uria, Lord of Searing Flames' effects! And because my Graveyard contains the LIGHT Normal Monster Yuyu, I banish your Yuyu from your field!"
The divine fire burning around the crimson Sacred Beast went out in an instant. The 21000 ATK that had been sustained entirely by Inferno - Uria's own effect vanished entirely under the light of the gem.
[Inferno of the Sacred Beasts - Uria, Lord of Searing Flames] [Effects Negated] [ATK: 21000 -> 0]
[Yuyu: Banished]
Just like that, the push into the Battle Phase had been stopped by the Gem Dragon before Kikawayu could even declare it.
"Zero's deck has monsters in it I had absolutely no idea about."
For just a moment, something left Kikawayu's eyes. Then it came back.
"But once this duel ends, that kind of thing will never happen again. From then on, there will be no more secrets between us."
"What's worth looking forward to about that, Kikawayu? We're not each other's possessions. Would a life like that actually make you happy? I think the way things were between us before was better."
"That's only because you thought it was better, Rei. You're really quite selfish, you know." A sharper edge crept into Kikawayu's voice. "Do you have any idea how much I've been through, spending every single day close to you, loving you, and never being able to reach you?"
"Then... you should have just told me."
"The reason it hurt was precisely because I couldn't say it!"
It was not only the fear inside Kikawayu: the fear that Amano could not accept her as a girl, and that even the "best friend" relationship would shatter if he found out.
There was also the practical reality: per Yubel's warning, revealing her ability before the age of 20 risked detection by the Eva network. The worst case, as Yubel had described it, was forcible expulsion from Eden.
But inside a Dark Game beyond Eva's reach, that worst case no longer applied.
And the desire to become one with Amano Rei had now completely taken over the eighteen years of suppressed longing packed into Kikawayu's mind.
"I activate the effect of Trap Card Sacred Beasts Combined Assault from my Graveyard!"
[Sacred Beasts Combined Assault]
[Trap Card GY Effect: Banish this card from your GY; using monsters from your hand and/or field as Fusion Materials, Fusion Summon 1 "Phantom Beast" Fusion Monster.]
"I banish Sacred Beasts Combined Assault, then Fuse my field's Inferno of the Sacred Beasts - Uria, Lord of Searing Flames with Calamity of the Sacred Beasts - Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder and Infinity of the Sacred Beasts - Raviel, Lord of Phantasms from my hand!"
For the second time in this duel, Kikawayu performed a three-Sacred-Beast Fusion Summon.
This time, however, the three Fusion Materials were not the standard GX-era Sacred Beasts: they were the three entirely new forms.
"The gates of the Phantom Beasts throw open! The divine flame of Uria's Calamity, the sin-cursed thunder of Hamon, the infinite power of Raviel!"
"Where all three converge, surpassing even the original chaos far beyond!"
"Fusion Summon! The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts!"
[The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts] [Level 10 / DARK]
[Fiend / Fusion / Effect]
[ATK: 5000 / DEF: 5000]
[3 Level 10 non-Tribute-Summonable monsters]
[Effect 1: Once per turn, up to 2 times per turn: This card cannot be destroyed by effects.
Effect 2: Up to 3 times per turn during either player's turn: Target 1 face-up opponent's monster; negate that monster's effects until the End Phase; then, gain LP equal to half that monster's ATK.]
What Fusion Summoned onto the field was, in the author's estimation, less a true fusion in the classical sense and more like all three Sacred Beasts packed into a single card.
And at 5000 ATK, it appeared to be outmatched by the 10000-ATK Armityle the Chaos Phantasm sitting on Amano's field.
Kikawayu pointed at Gem Dragon - Imperial Topaz Dragon and declared the effect.
"The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts' effect: negate the effects of Gem Dragon - Imperial Topaz Dragon, and gain LP equal to half of its ATK!"
Gem Dragon had already used its Tribute Summon effect, so the negate was mostly a formality. But the LP recovery was the real point.
Kikawayu LP: 24000 -> 25300
"Next, I activate Quick-Play Spell, Armed Revive from my hand, and use its effect to equip Brittle Blade from my Graveyard to The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts!"
[Brittle Blade]
[Equip Spell Card:
1. You can only have 1 "Brittle Blade" face-up on your field.
2. The equipped monster gains 2000 ATK.
3. Battle damage caused by battles involving the equipped monster is taken by both players.]
A massive blade with the luminance of crystal descended between the Sacred Beasts, and the central figure, Raviel, Lord of Phantasms, reached out and gripped the hilt.
[The Chaotic Phantasmal Sacred Beasts] [ATK: 5000 -> 7000]
"Brittle Blade's effect: battle damage involving this card is taken by both players! I won't make you bear it alone, Rei. Whatever pain comes, I'll share it with you. Because I love you that much!"
Kikawayu, you are a yandere who has spent way too long thinking about this.
Sharing battle damage was generous to say when Kikawayu was sitting at 25000-plus LP. In Amano's case, 7000 ATK versus Gem Dragon's 2600 was a 4400 point swing. At his current 3200 LP, that pushed him directly into a one-hit kill.
"Now can I enter the Battle Phase, Rei?"
"Yes."
The previous Battle Phase declaration had been cut off by Gem Dragon's hand effect in Kikawayu's Main Phase. For the second declaration, Kikawayu politely waited for confirmation.
And she got it.
"But you can't attack! Quick-Play Spell, Command Silencer! The Battle Phase is forcibly ended, and I draw 1 card!"
Kikawayu's mismatched eyes went wide. One moment she entered the Battle Phase; the next she was right back out.
"Well. If Rei won't let me fight, then I won't fight. I'm very cooperative, aren't I?"
Kaiser Ryo's composure cracked slightly. "Hold on: if she can't fight, that means..."
Aster finished the thought. "Amano wins!"
With Pot of Despair having emptied Kikawayu's Deck, she had nothing left to draw. If she could not end the duel through combat this turn, the next Draw Phase would end it for her.
"But even without fighting, the one who wins is still me, Rei!"
Forced into Main Phase 2, Kikawayu displayed the two remaining cards in her hand. Two copies of a familiar Spell Card.
"I activate two copies of Soul Release! I target the cards in Rei's Graveyard!"
[Soul Release]
[Spell Card: Target up to 5 cards in either GY; banish those targets.]
Two copies allowed targeting up to 10 total cards. Amano's Graveyard held exactly 7. Soul Release scraped it completely clean.
"And then I activate the GY effect of Transaction Rollback! I pay half my Life Points to copy the effect of a Normal Trap in my Graveyard!"
Kikawayu LP: 25300 -> 12650
The card she copied: a Trap effect that, used at this exact moment with Amano's Graveyard empty, would completely reverse the game state.
"I copy the effect of Reversal of Day and Night!"
[Reversal of Day and Night]
[Trap Card: If you have 15 or more cards in your GY: Pay 1000 LP; each player shuffles their GY into their Deck, then sends their Deck to the GY in its place.]
Kikawayu pulled the full mass of her 60-card Deck out of her Graveyard zone. Holding that much in her hands gave it a noticeable weight.
"Your Deck is empty right now, Rei. The duel is over!"
Each player swapped their own Graveyard and Deck in one motion. Kikawayu's Graveyard, packed with every card she had milled this duel, shuffled and moved to her Deck zone. Her empty Deck zone became her new Graveyard.
Amano's side worked the same way: whatever remained of his Deck swapped to become his Graveyard, and his Graveyard went to his Deck. But his Graveyard had just been emptied by Soul Release. His Deck, emptied into his new Graveyard, made his main Deck 0 cards.
"The moment I declare end of turn, you're done, Rei!"
If Kikawayu simply ended her turn, Amano's next Draw Phase would find nothing to draw.
"But I'll give you one chance. If you accept my love right now, I'll concede immediately. I meant everything I said last turn: I would give you everything I have, body and soul."
Kikawayu smiled with the warmth of absolute certainty, and asked patiently: "Well? You can't really refuse this time, can you?"
"No."
"Why?!" Kikawayu's confidence shattered in an instant, her eyes losing focus from sheer shock.
"Kikawayu: your love is too twisted. I can't accept it right now. And I've already said: I also can't accept any outcome that comes from a Dark Game's win or loss conditions."
"But you've already lost, Rei! This is unavoidable! Why won't you just accept it?"
"Because the answer to who's won hasn't come out yet."
From the Graveyard zone on Amano's Duel Disk, swollen with cards from the Reversal of Day and Night, one card ejected itself.
"You were the one who called this a card I love using. So how could I not play it? I pay half my Life Points and activate Trap Card, Transaction Rollback, copying the effect of a Trap in my Graveyard!"
Amano LP: 3200 -> 1600
Kikawayu pointed out: "Activating a Trap right now won't change the fact that you have no cards left to draw from your Deck!"
"It changes everything! With this Trap!"
Among the cards Jaden had pressed into Amano's hands before the barrier split was this one. He had handed Amano the complete Neo-Spacian lineup and kept only the original Elemental HEROs for his own battle against Yubel.
"I copy the effect of Favorite Contact!"
[Favorite Contact]
[Trap Card: Return the Fusion Materials required for a Fusion Monster (from your hand, field, GY, or banishment) to the bottom of your Deck in any order; then, Special Summon that Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, ignoring its Summoning conditions. If Elemental HERO Neos was returned to the Deck by this effect, neither player can return the Special Summoned monster to the Extra Deck.]
A Trap that assembled Neos Contact Fusions from anywhere on the field, in the GY, or in banishment, returning the materials to the Deck in the process.
Amano's Graveyard, now stocked with the former contents of his Deck via the Reversal, held the cards Jaden had given him: Elemental HERO Neos, Neo-Spacian Dark Panther, and Neo-Spacian Glow Moss.
"I return Elemental HERO Neos, Neo-Spacian Dark Panther, and Neo-Spacian Glow Moss from my Graveyard to the bottom of my Deck!"
Three cards sliding back into the Deck simultaneously. And since Elemental HERO Neos was among them, the clause activated: neither player could return the Fusion Summoned monster to the Extra Deck.
"The radiance of the cosmos and the depths of the void make contact!"
"Burst forth, the soul of a hero born where light and dark cross!"
"Favorite Contact, Special Summon!"
"Elemental HERO Chaos Neos!"
[Elemental HERO Chaos Neos] [Level 9 / DARK]
[Warrior / Fusion / Effect]
[ATK: 3000 / DEF: 2500]
["Elemental HERO Neos" + "Neo-Spacian Dark Panther" + "Neo-Spacian Glow Moss"]
[During the End Phase: Shuffle this card into the Extra Deck; then change all face-up monsters on the field to face-down Defense Position. Flip 3 coins; for each coin result NOT obtained, apply the following effects:
- 3 heads not obtained: Destroy all monsters your opponent controls.
- 2 heads not obtained: Negate the effects of all face-up Effect Monsters your opponent controls until the End Phase.
- 1 head not obtained: Return all monsters you control to the Extra Deck.
(This card's effect can only be used once per turn during your Main Phase.)]
Because Elemental HERO Neos had been returned to the Deck via Favorite Contact, neither player could send Elemental HERO Chaos Neos back to the Extra Deck. The End Phase shuffle-back effect could not fire.
Elemental HERO Chaos Neos was here to stay.
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