Back at the Cosmo Workshop, the clinking and clanging of metal echoed endlessly through the halls.
While Hikaru had been away in the World of the Forgotten, something had been proceeding in orderly fashion inside the workshop.
Before the alchemical crucible, Alkahest and Witchcrafter Haine were carefully directing the workshop spirits as they layered materials.
Crystal, who normally focused on nothing but his own work and never involved himself in other spirits' affairs, was watching the crucible with rare nervousness. Tierra stood beside him, yawning, looking thoroughly uninterested.
"What are you so nervous about? Are you going to doubt my calculations?"
"That... of course not, Lady Tierra... It's just..." Crystal didn't know how to respond. He was simply nervous.
Tierra huffed twice. The moment she sensed Hikaru's return, she shifted her attention away from the crucible. Her exchange with Crystal had been nothing more than an offhand remark after noticing how tense he looked.
As several mechanical spirits transported metals and gemstone-trimmed fabrics, depositing them precisely into the crucible, a cry of "Perfect!" burst from Alkahest.
He cheered with excitement.
It wasn't "gold," but he had taken yet another step forward on his path. Today, he had transmuted metal into gemstone!
Boom.
The crucible ceased operation. Massive amounts of steam and residue were drawn out. As the firelight illuminated the interior, Haine gently wiped the sweat from her brow.
Success!
She thought to herself, elated.
She had successfully achieved "Fusion" through "craft magic" outside of Witchcrafter Bystreet.
As the two spirits in charge of coordination finished their work, the crucible slowly opened. A graceful figure stepped out from within.
She wore a cloak similar to Crystal's, but her figure was far more slender and elegant. Gold filigree decorated her from head to toe. This was Gem-Knight Lapis, the subject of the modification experiment.
But now, she was not only much taller than before, her appearance had fully matured.
She had transformed into a Fusion Monster: Gem-Knight Lapis Lazuli!
The moment she emerged, she burst into excited cheers, nothing like the withdrawn loner she used to be. She had become far more lively and energetic.
"It worked..." Hikaru breathed a sigh of relief.
"Naturally. I oversaw it personally," Tierra said, tilting her chin upward.
She hadn't initially understood why Lapis couldn't evolve into a Fusion Monster. In truth, Tierra wasn't omniscient.
Just as she had never understood why Flame Swordsman and Dark Flare Knight couldn't evolve for so long. In her assessment, they had more than enough power to qualify.
Though Tierra was indeed a "god," she wasn't the conceptual "omniscient, omnipotent" type. She was a god of ecosystems and the cycle of life.
But if someone identified the problem, like Hikaru, who had been researching and stumbled upon the situation where Shaddoll creatures had been forcibly fused into Chaos Phantasms, and then set about extracting those creatures and investigating until he discovered the root cause, then Tierra would know how to help resolve things.
Before this, she had assumed Lapis simply didn't want to go on adventures with Hikaru's team, that she wanted to return to the Gem-Knight order. So Tierra hadn't bothered. But then Haine explained that Lapis's problem wasn't an inability to evolve or insufficient energy. Her evolutionary direction had been forcibly locked in place. She was stuck.
When had Tierra ever encountered something like that?
In her world, a Gem-Knight or any other creature could fuse however it pleased, could become whatever form of life it wished.
Because that was how things had been designed from the very beginning.
She had used her own techniques to revive Winda, then made her a herald, naming her Midrash. After that, Midrash had successfully helped revive Tierra herself, and from that point on, Tierra hadn't paid Midrash much attention.
The result was that the fully revived Midrash, no longer under Tierra's control, had gone back to living with her old friends and family.
The concept of "unable to transform" simply didn't exist in Tierra's mind!
The environmental modification machines she had built with her bare hands were proof enough. As long as any species resonated with those machines, different evolutionary paths could be created. How could there be limitations?
All she could say was that spirits, as a form of life, still had many aspects of their ecology she couldn't understand.
But regardless.
Now that the problem had been identified, for her, the solution was simple.
Because it was straightforward. With her current abilities, altering her own "state of life" was effortless. She had demonstrated it in front of Serena before. Forget mechanical life forms; she could even transform herself into a carbon-based organism.
With Haine's expert guidance, it took Tierra only a few days to figure out how to convert Lapis into her "Gem-Knight state" and even a "universal spirit state."
While she was at it, Tierra decided she might as well recreate a possibility from her memories so Lapis wouldn't seem so "out of place" among Hikaru's spirits.
After all, Lapis was one of the few spirits whose Fusion form didn't belong to her own faction's Fusion monsters.
Originally, Hikaru should have overseen this process himself, but since the World of the Forgotten could only be accessed at specific times, Tierra told Hikaru to go on his own and leave everything to her.
If she didn't show these feeble mortal creatures what she was capable of, being a god would be far too boring.
"Thank you so much, Lady Tierra!" Lapis bowed excitedly. "Now I can finally volunteer for battle!"
Mm, mm.
Tierra nodded silently, waving Lapis off with a dismissive gesture.
She was fond of "Lapis," admired "Crystal," and was satisfied with "Winda," referring to their originals.
Though this Crystal wasn't her Crystal and this Lapis wasn't her Lapis, she didn't find it particularly important anymore.
Having experienced so much alongside Hikaru and watched so many duels, she had made her peace with the whole "Duel Terminal Spirits" situation.
Being happy was what mattered most.
"Thank you for your hard work." Hikaru thanked Tierra from nearby.
"Ha ha." Tierra laughed two genuine laughs.
Because the timing was so tight, Hikaru hadn't dared set aside time to personally oversee the experiment on Lapis with Haine and the others.
He had already contacted Anselm and Chumley, scheduling a meeting. He had to leave for Industrial Illusions within days, and the World of the Forgotten required arriving at a precise time. Not knowing how long that side would take, he'd had no choice but to divide the tasks.
Whatever else could be said about Tierra, when it came to transforming life forms, she was one of the most qualified gods across multiple dimensions.
Her "colleague" Sophia probably wasn't even as specialized as her in this area.
So on this matter, Hikaru had absolute confidence in Tierra.
"If I'd known it would be this simple, you should have just handed the whole thing to Alkahest." Tierra folded her arms, looking thoroughly bored. "I watched that duel. That world's future trajectory seems to have been locked in by your Fusion.
But that kind of process will be extremely slow.
If I were there, I could accelerate the entire dimension's evolution effortlessly."
"You haven't fully recovered yet, and you want to waste your power like that?" Hikaru spread his hands. "Force your way through the resentment and suffering of every spirit in an entire dimension, then speed up the world's evolution?"
He saw Tierra raise an eyebrow, looking quite displeased.
"Fine, I admit you could probably pull it off. But you're not fully resurrected. How long would you need to hibernate after something like that?"
"Ha! A god's power is far greater than you imagine, Hikaru. As my chosen one, you should have faith in me!" She glanced sideways.
"Yes, yes, yes."
Hikaru chuckled, responding casually.
He could tell that Tierra, having transformed Lapis's life state in front of so many spirits at the Cosmo Workshop, was very keen on asserting her authority. She was even willing to make bold claims like that.
Still, there was no need to completely call her bluff.
Claims like those... once she was fully resurrected, she might actually be able to back them up.
At the very least, letting Tierra appear more impressive in the spirits' eyes wasn't a bad thing. He noticed that even the Frightfur and Phantom spirits watching the procedure were visibly stunned, whispering among themselves.
This mysterious god called "Tierra" really did have some ability. No wonder Hikaru trusted her so much?
Taking a transformation that should theoretically require countless hours and complex processes, and forcing it through in just a few hours or even less, with zero side effects, as if the spirit called Lapis had been born that way all along...
That kind of performance.
Reshaping an entire world's ecosystem and cycle of life... maybe it wasn't impossible after all?
Impressive. Quite impressive.
Hikaru didn't dwell on these questions. He took out his previous Deck. In addition to the Memento cards he had obtained earlier, other cards from the World of the Forgotten... no, from Mementomictlan, had come along as well.
Hikaru carefully removed the forgotten cards from his Deck and placed them in his side deck to prevent Super Polymerization from transforming them.
If all went as expected, these monster cards would eventually become Memento spirits. Until then, he would let them experience the world of the living, of those who are cherished, once more.
"Mementotlan Mace." Tierra leaned in, peering at the new monster in Hikaru's Deck. "Hm... Nice design. I like it."
Though its skeletal angel aesthetic differed from the Infernoid mechanical demon style, it had its own charm. The design was quite interesting, right within her preferences.
Hikaru nodded in agreement.
He had always liked the Memento series card art as well.
Speaking of card art...
Hikaru pulled out Keeper of Dragon Magic. The monster, whose card art had a distinct style that was clearly drawn based on him in an anime-inspired fashion, glowed with a faint purple light.
Mm.
A bit of preparation, and it would be time to take the ship to Industrial Illusions.
Hikaru spent two days readjusting at the Cosmo Workshop. On one hand, Tierra told him to cleanse the "spirit resentment" clinging to him and heal some of his wounds. On the other, he was also continuing to lay low.
Though the frenzy surrounding him at Duel Academy had begun to subside, there were still plenty of persistent reporters. Before the semester started, Hikaru preferred some peace and quiet.
Aside from finding time to tell Professor Crowler that Aster might be attending school next semester, Hikaru spent his days studying the Emerald Tablet.
Honestly, he was a little surprised.
He had always assumed he had completely mastered all of the alchemy Professor Banner had left behind. But after fully obtaining Trismagistus, he discovered that several pages were still sealed from him. It wasn't that he couldn't break the seal; rather, after solving the puzzle, he found that Professor Banner had left a message asking Hikaru not to break the second seal.
In other words...
Could these be the "dimensional coordinates" related to the mastermind behind the splitting of the spirit worlds?
Hikaru suspected that was possible.
Among them was a coordinate page that Hikaru vaguely recalled but which had been buried deep.
Eldlich's domain.
He doesn't recommend I go there either?
Hikaru naturally knew that Professor Banner was acquainted with Eldlich the Golden Lord. After all, both Jaden's Golden Captain and Hikaru's Golden-Eyes Idol had studied under him for a time.
He flipped through a few more pages.
The Dark World dimension, Shadow Dystopia, and... "Ecole de Zone"?
He could more or less understand the first one.
But why the second?
Especially Ecole de Zone. Hikaru was surprised to find that Professor Banner had left a note after this coordinate, the only special annotation in the entire Emerald Tablet:
"Artists are all lunatics!"
Hikaru was bewildered.
He recalled that this was just an ordinary card from the 5D's era. He hadn't expected Professor Banner to give the Ecole de Zone dimension such a review.
Even as Hikaru said his goodbyes to Professor Crowler and boarded the ship bound for Industrial Illusions, this was still on his mind.
The more someone tells you not to look, the more curious you become. Especially since Hikaru already knew about the Eldlich dimension. Seeing his alchemy teacher specifically mark certain dimensions as places he didn't want Hikaru to visit only made him more curious.
And among all those curiosities, Ecole de Zone seemed unremarkable at first glance, yet it had been placed alongside a collection of "high-level dimensions" and even given special attention. That made it all the more intriguing.
More importantly...
The president of Industrial Illusions, the Father of Duel Monsters, the bearer of the Millennium Eye, Maximillion Pegasus...
He was a genuine artist. A painter of extraordinary talent!
A few days later.
Hikaru disembarked with the other passengers and looked up to see Anselm waiting for him.
Anselm wore his usual smile, showing no trace of his private troubles, and greeted Hikaru warmly. "Well, well! Look who it is! If it isn't the world's number one Fusion master, Hikaru Amagi!"
"Ah... um..." Hikaru stiffened as he walked down the gangway, unusually failing to respond smoothly to his friend.
The reason was simple.
All around the port, chibi versions of Hikaru were hanging as balloon decorations. The absurd grins and exaggerated proportions were enough to make even Hikaru, a man who could proclaim his beliefs before crowds of thousands, feel a twinge of embarrassment.
Not far off, the Paradox Brothers were waving at Hikaru, while Chumley scratched the back of his head awkwardly, clearly not used to this kind of scene either.
"Ha ha ha! Surprised?" Anselm suddenly burst out laughing.
"The president prepared all of this especially for you! Pretty fun, right? Ha ha ha! Anyway, come on, Amagi. The president has been waiting for you for quite some time!"
"Waiting for you, the pure Fusion duelist who left him truly amazed!"