"Hope Utopia? Boring, boring! You're a Fusion Academy student, and you're using a damn Xyz Summon?!"
With nowhere else to vent, Luca stomped her rage down onto unconscious Megan's backside. She wanted to settle things with Aisha right away, but it wasn't the time. If she stepped in now, with both HEROes and Utopia present, she'd just get crushed.
The Millennium Ritual barrier was already set. As long as she followed the plan, Livorden's fall was only a matter of time. After all, not everyone in this fog was Aisha Carlos. The darkness stirred within each heart by the barrier would eventually feed the Sacred Beasts—none of the duelists in the capital could escape.
"Well, I'd better get back to work. The palace side should be ready by now. If I recall, the Third Princess is quite the adorable little loli, isn't she?"
At the word "adorable," the scar at the corner of Luca's eye suddenly stung, and her gaze hardened.
"All this anger inside me, I'll heal it with the sight of that cute princess crying in despair! I can't wait~"
Leaving Megan behind, Luca skipped off cheerfully, her mood flipping from fury to humming a nursery rhyme.
…
Meanwhile—
"Forgive me, Ren-chan!!"
Smack~~
"Stop hitting me!"
Pinned beneath Aisha, Ren finally grabbed her wrists, stopping her. The cost: four stinging slaps.
"No, this is the Iron Fist of Love, delivered for my best friend."
"I told you, I'm awake now! Little Ai, are you… getting back at me? Using that as an excuse?"
Ren suddenly realized. "Wait… are you mad about Miles?!"
"Ugh!?"
Aisha averted her guilty eyes. To say she had no grudge was impossible. But how could she admit that?
"Of course not! I'm the representative of hope, Number 39! Unlike you—an Evil HERO."
But even with Ren slapped back to normal, her Evil HERO cards scattered on the ground hadn't disappeared. The Pandora's Box she had opened showed no sign of closing. Normal or not, Ren's desires had already been laid bare.
Realizing this, her cheeks burned red to her ears.
…Had she… just confessed?
("I can give you all my cards, so become my HERO, Miles!")
"Why did I say something so embarrassing?!"
Smack!
Another slap, this one from Ren to herself, wishing she could dig a hole and disappear.
"So… Ren-chan, you like Miles too?"
The hellish shame-attack from Aisha, with Ren still pinned beneath her, gave her no escape. And a HERO couldn't run from battle.
"Yeah, that's right!" Ren squeezed her eyes shut and admitted, cheeks hot enough to toast bread. "I like him! From the moment he saved me in that first Shadow Game, I've liked him… so much it's unbearable! I can't stop thinking of his voice every night, what else can I do?!"
Once humans open the gate of shame, the flood is unstoppable. In seconds, Ren said things she'd never dared in her life. The raw honesty even left Aisha blushing and flustered. Even Miles, in the Millennium Puzzle's Soul Room, had never been confessed to so directly… not in either of his lives.
"Scumbag!"
Jealousy boiling over, Dark Aisha went beyond kicking Miles's leg. Her petite body sprang up, arms wrapping around his neck in a suicidal chokehold.
"Are you happy right now?!"
"Ugh—nghh! A-Aisha, nghk—stop—!" Miles gagged, choked halfway by her arms, while her heel slammed into his shin again and again. "Khh—Aisha, you're mad at the wrong person…! It's not like I wanted this!"
Even so, being confessed to so bluntly by a beautiful girl stirred Miles's heart. Though being choked by another wasn't pleasant.
Besides, he didn't even have his own body back yet—he couldn't respond to Ren's feelings even if he wanted to.
"So… Ren-chan, that's how you've always felt…"
Climbing off her, Aisha almost admired her courage. She'd never said such words herself, not even after spending so long with Miles.
"So! Even if I didn't win that duel, I didn't lose either! So, so…!" Ren panted, heartbeat racing toward fainting.
"So I won't give up. I haven't lost to you yet, Little Ai!"
Finally speaking the words she'd held inside, Ren exhaled in relief.
"Not give up? Ren-chan, do you mean… you still want to fight me?"
"Not duel. I mean, from now on, I won't give up. Because right now, fighting each other isn't what we should be doing."
With the fog and Shadow Duelists around, this wasn't the time for infighting. Slapped back to her senses, Ren was calmer now.
"Phew." Aisha sighed in relief. "I'm glad you're back to normal."
"Here—your Millennium Puzzle, Little Ai. As your best friend, stealing it was my mistake. I admit it, and I apologize… please forgive me (monotone)."
Ren returned the Puzzle, adding firmly, "But don't misunderstand. I said the Puzzle is yours. Miles isn't. He doesn't belong to you or me. Though he might belong to me in the future."
"Ren-chan, that confidence… it feels like once your shame switch flipped, you became fearless."
To Aisha, this was her toughest rival yet—for Miles's heart.
"Oh, right. There's something very important, isn't there, Little Ai?"
"Something important? Oh, that's right… What was it again?"
Her ahoge curled as Aisha strained to remember—something critical, something important, something, something… something very significant but interrupted earlier?
Miles, freeing himself from Dark Aisha's chokehold, reminded her, "Professor Field, Aisha!"
"Professor Field? Oh, right—the Professor!"
She recalled how he'd stayed behind alone against a Shadow Duelist so she could save Ren.
"Strange… should a duel really last this long?" Anxiety gnawed at her. Ren vs. Megan, and Ren vs. Aisha—two duels were done, but Professor Field still hadn't arrived.
"Could something have happened? No, no—that's the Iron Demon. He'd never lose to a Shadow Duelist."
Even so, Aisha grabbed Ren's hand and ran back along the tracker's signal.
…
"Old man, you're still standing? It's been over ten turns! Are you even human?!"
Professor Field's Shadow Game against the masked duelist had lasted far beyond a normal duel. That was why he hadn't returned.
[Professor Field, LP: 4000]
[Shadow Duelist, LP: 4000]
Dozens of turns in, both still had full Life Points.
The reason was clear from the Shadow Duelist's continuous cards:
[Gravity Bind – Continuous Trap: Level 4 or higher monsters cannot attack.]
[Level Limit - Area B – Continuous Spell: All face-up Level 4 or higher monsters are changed to Defense Position.]
[Insect Barrier – Continuous Spell: Your opponent's face-up Insect monsters cannot declare an attack.]
[DNA Surgery – Continuous Trap: Declare 1 monster type; all face-up monsters become that type (Insect declared).]
A full lock-stall setup. With so many turns passed, his hand overflowed, so he just played them all.
Two [Embodiment of Apophis] sat in Defense Position with 1800 DEF each. Field couldn't attack through the stall.
Normally, stall decks pair with burn or deck-out strategies. But this duelist's deck was pure stall—like he only wanted to waste time. The only win condition was the Shadow Game itself. Without a Millennium Item, a normal person's mind breaks in just a few turns. Even magicians can only endure a bit longer.
That said, this duelist had never faced someone like Field. A graying man of fifty, yet still standing tall after dozens of turns, unshaken, eyes sharp enough to stare down death itself.
"Are you even human? No Millennium Item, no mana—and yet you endure this long?! Why won't you fall?!"
"Because everyone's still fighting," Field said firmly.
Not through special power, but sheer will. A veteran soldier's iron will.
"Everyone?"
"My students, my soldiers, this capital, this nation! They're fighting your kind. As a professor and a soldier, I will not fall first!"
Who knew how many turns in, but Field drew—his back still straight despite the Shadow Game's toll.
"Fallen one, did you see the light?"
"Light? That pillar just now? So what?"
"You wouldn't understand. That was the light of hope—duelists bringing change to this capital! Those who walk in light will not lose to darkness!"
"This geezer… he still thinks he can win?!"
"Not think. I must win. As a teacher guiding the future, I must always show the strongest, most righteous back to my students!"
At last, the card he needed.
"Spell Card, activate—[Ancient Gear Fusion]!"
[Fusion Summon 1 "Ancient Gear" Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from your hand or field as Fusion Materials. If you use "Ancient Gear Golem" or "Ancient Gear Golem - Ultimate Pound" you control as material, you can also use monsters from your Deck.]
And on his field—stood Ancient Gear Golem.
"I fuse Ancient Gear Golem on my field with three more Ancient Gears from my Deck! Fusion Summon!"
As a Fusion Academy teacher, he had to demonstrate the ultimate Fusion.
Ancient parts interlocked, chaos technology reforged—
"Ancient power shaking the earth—open the path with your iron body! Fusion Summon! [Ancient Gear Chaos Giant]!"
[Ancient Gear Chaos Giant] Level 10│DARK│Machine│4500 ATK / 3000 DEF
"4 "Ancient Gear" monsters"
The titanic steel body stood in the fog like a projection of Field's will.
"Even with 4500 ATK, my continuous locks mean you can't attack!"
The moment Chaos Giant descended, the traps tried to bind it.
"Useless! Fusion creates the future! Chaos Giant's effect!"
[Unaffected by Spell/Trap effects; your opponent cannot activate monster effects during the Battle Phase.]
The steel titan erupted with steam, shattering every stall card.
"What kind of monster is this?!"
Terrified, the Shadow Duelist staggered back. His fake Millennium Ring couldn't save him. By contrast, Field's iron will was unyielding.
"This is the Fusion that will smash the darkness!"
[This card can attack all monsters your opponent controls once each. It inflicts piercing damage.]
It attacked both [Metal Reflect Slime], its overwhelming power blasting through.
"Darkness—be gone! Chaos Pulverizing Cannon!!"
The colossal blast wiped the field, taking the duelist's Life Points with it.
[Shadow Duelist, LP: 4000 → 1500 → 0]
...
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