With Darkness's death, the "darkness" of the entire shadow world began to dissipate.
Several beams of light flew from Darkness's body, leaving this world, this universe.
No. 9, No. 28, No. 40, No. 86...
These cards flew out of the darkness, out of the world, and into someone's hands.
Or rather, into a "god's" hands.
The goddess collected the cards, looked at the images depicted on them, and shook her head with a sigh, thinking of their owners: those humans drawn to her power, gradually walking toward despair.
Haruto Amagi, IV, V... The Number cards in these humans' hands had all been handpicked by her, each one formidable. Among them, only Heroic Champion - Rhongomyniad had been one she had schemed for Haruto to seize.
"A shame Darkness never managed to summon you. I would have loved to see whether those humans fell into despair..."
Darkness had been collecting powerful cards across different eras and different universes. They had crossed paths before, and she had lent him the most invincible power at her command.
What a pity.
He had failed.
Truly a pity.
She tucked the cards away with a tinge of regret, preparing to return them to those humans.
Then she glanced up.
A streak of pitch-black light shot across the "sky," vanishing into the unknown.
Oh?
Tragoedia had seized the chance to escape?
She considered whether to chase it down and take its share of dark power, then shook her head.
Never mind. Better to leave it for the humans. Let them deal with it. That would divide their attention nicely.
And so, the shadow world returned to silence once more.
The Mr. T figures that had existed only because of Darkness crumbled into black dust, merging into the fabric of this world. Meanwhile, waves of light gathered and flowed into every human in this realm.
The light was distributed by magnitude.
Ordinary humans, unaware of what had transpired, received only scattered motes of light.
Those who had faced the crisis without resenting Hikaru, who had quietly supported him, received a few more motes in their sleep.
Certain powerful duelists who had remained lucid even as darkness engulfed the globe received additional light still.
And in the shadow world, Hikaru's companions each received a full measure of radiance. Nearly all of it crystallized into cards, merging into their Decks.
Jaden reached into his pocket and pulled out several cards.
As a duelist, his injuries looked severe on the surface, but as the one who had shouldered the role of "taking the hits," he had received an enormous amount of power. The light had flowed into his Deck, his body, his soul. Countless cards now awaited his call.
"Whoa, Flame Wingman evolved! So cool!"
Among the many new powers, Jaden spotted that gallant hero. And because of that recognition, the hero was the first to take shape and be born. The remaining light merged into his body, leaving only a single Neos Spirit quietly watching over him.
Yubel, standing nearby, looked somewhat displeased. She huffed twice, then realized that a few motes of light were flowing into her as well.
Not many, though.
She understood immediately.
As the spirit who had aided Jaden during the duel, lending him strength, she had received humanity's blessing. But her past actions demanded repayment, so she couldn't receive more than the bare minimum.
Hmph. Whatever.
She would create new cards with the life she shared alongside Jaden. Starting with this Neos Spirit!
She steeled herself in quiet competition.
Of course, the lion's share...
The light of hope flowed almost entirely into Hikaru's body.
Hikaru looked at the card in his hand.
Yes!
The Philosopher's Stone!
Hand-crafted!
Still warm!
He hadn't expected this.
But looking down at it, the difference from Professor Banner's Philosopher's Stone was night and day. That one could pay half your Life Points to replace it with any card you owned, usable a total of three times across all duels.
His hand-crafted version? Pay half your Life Points, replace one card in your Deck, usable a grand total of once.
A half-finished product.
Impressive at first glance, but in a pinch, you wouldn't even need the search.
One search? What do I need you for?
But thinking about it, it made sense.
Professor Banner's Philosopher's Stone was the culmination of a lifetime, crafted with immeasurable time, effort, and materials.
And his?
Power siphoned straight from Darkness. The creative force of Darkness itself.
The light completed the Philosopher's Stone in Hikaru's hand, but in his mind, this card would eventually be refined into Super Polymerization. That was its true final form.
Under that boundless light, Hikaru felt his body grow lighter, more free.
It wasn't like the red light before, which had directly enhanced his abilities and spirit power. But it felt as though a weight had been lifted.
And beyond that.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out four cards at once.
He looked at them, then his eyes went wide.
D/D Orthros! Lunalight Wolf! Edge Imp Cotton Eater! Predaplant Cephalotus Toad!
Each card flickered with the orange glow of Effect Monsters and, simultaneously, the green shimmer of Spell Cards!
Pendulum Monsters!
Four of them!
And every single one was tied to Fusion!
Among them, Lunalight Wolf and Predaplant Cephalotus Toad were Pendulum Monsters capable of performing Fusion Summons! Edge Imp Cotton Eater was Fusion support!
And D/D Orthros...
That was an incredibly convenient removal card!
Setting everything else aside, if a certain bald villain suddenly came back to life and challenged him to a duel, this single card would be enough to shut down a Pendulum strategy cold.
But more importantly...
These cards were all in their completed state!
Hikaru stared at them, eyes perfectly round.
This...
Did this mean that, at this moment, humanity's pendulum had swung toward other possible endings?
Oh!
That tracked!
It clicked for Hikaru.
Then...
He rummaged through his card case and found it.
"Whoa!"
Tierra snatched up the card in excitement.
Stealth Qliphort Materialism!
Fully formed, just like that!
Well, of course.
If Pendulum cards had been born, then the "Materialism" prototype he had been trying to build in order to create Pendulum technology had naturally been completed long ago.
Counting the Infernoid Pirmais that had been fully created and completed during the duel, Tierra's body had now recovered at least half of its full power.
A moment later, Hikaru put everything away.
With Darkness's death, the Mr. T figures vanished along with him, dissolving into nothing.
But this world continued to exist.
Or rather, it had become a permanent "alternate dimension" overlaid on their Earth.
Unlike other dimensions, leaving this place didn't require the rest and recovery that traveling to the Spirit Dimension demanded. With Darkness gone, this world had essentially become a complete "second Earth."
Hikaru and the others tested it and found that the buildings, trees, and everything else here were hollow imitations. They couldn't farm the land. It seemed useful for nothing but sightseeing. But for humanity, it was still "another world."
After a brief exploration of the area around the Academy, Hikaru and the others returned to reality.
In the real world, nothing seemed to have changed. Everything continued as before: classes went on, studies continued. Only occasionally did something odd happen.
Students who had never liked Hikaru would suddenly greet him out of nowhere. Classmates who used to mock Jaden for sleeping through lectures would smile and return his hellos.
No one could pinpoint exactly why, but Hikaru, who had already been popular, became even more so. It wasn't just classmates and friends. Even strangers would instinctively smile when they saw him.
After the incident, when Hikaru went to shoot a commercial with Pegasus's company, even passersby on the street would greet him without thinking. Even thugs in rougher neighborhoods wouldn't bother him.
Tierra explained that Hikaru and Jaden had become genuine "heroes of humanity," so humans would instinctively feel a sense of closeness toward them.
It was the same for all humans, just as nearly every human had been susceptible to Darkness's influence, even the legendary duelists.
Besides, this affinity only made people feel Hikaru was approachable. It wasn't anything resembling mind control. Anyone who hated Hikaru would continue to hate him no matter how charming he seemed. That wouldn't change.
Though there were very few people in this world who hated him to begin with.
With the crisis behind them, Hikaru felt the simple joy of daily life more keenly than he had in a long time. He attended classes, studied as usual, ate, slept, played games, and took first place on exams as always, much to Chazz's grinding frustration.
The professors were also evaluated on their conduct during the crisis. Aside from a handful who had been dead weight, the rest had stood with the students during the "Darkness Incident" and earned commendations and excellent ratings.
Between their studies, Hikaru and the others also explored the "shadow world" on a daily basis.
On one hand, traveling there consumed almost no energy at all. On the other, there might still be loose ends that needed tying up.
They remained curious about whether the world hid anything and worried about potential Darkness remnants, so they stayed cautious.
When the battle ended, a streak of black light had crossed the sky. Most people hadn't noticed, but Aster had watched it with sharp eyes. He suspected Darkness remnants might still exist in this world, so on days when his classes didn't interest him, he would go straight to the shadow world to investigate.
Given that he could pilot boats, surf, and fly planes, his exploration went smoothly. During this time, Aster uncovered several things.
First, a Darkness remnant did exist. After discussing it with Hikaru, they concluded the entity was Tragoedia, the card Darkness had used.
How it had survived Darkness's death and Mr. T's disappearance was unclear, but it had indeed escaped and hidden itself in this world, even attempting to rally the remaining Darkness forces.
That's right.
Darkness "forces."
That was the second thing Aster discovered.
Though Darkness had vanished and Mr. T along with him, Darkness's influence extended beyond those avatars.
The shadow world was home to a massive number of Duel Spirits!
Because of the red light, the Spirit World had begun collapsing. Many spirits' homelands had been shattered, and they had joined Darkness's ranks in search of shelter.
Not all of them had been used as cannon fodder in the invasion of Duel Academy to apply pressure. The spirits that hadn't invaded the human world had been hiding in this one.
Among them were spirits that had formed part of Darkness's Deck!
Spirit monsters, Gemini monsters... it seemed this dimension harbored many such beings!
The cards Darkness had wielded had now scattered across this world.
They existed as ownerless cards. Any duelist who earned their recognition could take them along, just like spirits in the Spirit Dimension.
In other words...
The shadow world had effectively become an enormous world of opportunity!
It was vast enough to hold an entire Earth's population!
It was rich with energy, inhabited by countless spirits!
These spirits ranged from weak ones that Darkness hadn't even bothered deploying to powerful ones incorporated directly into his Deck. Monsters strong enough to be selected for Darkness's Deck were formidable beyond measure!
Even the ones that never appeared in the duel could become the ace of any duelist's Deck.
And cards like that could be hidden anywhere in this world!
This was both dangerous and thrilling for Hikaru and his friends.
Dangerous, because some of those spirits undoubtedly harbored hatred toward humans.
Thrilling, because for duelists, this entire shadow world represented incomparable treasure!
Students who were more independent in their studies, like Jim and Axel, one an archaeologist and the other a former mercenary with little interest in academics, dove into the shadow world every day, exploring and attempting to collect powerful cards.
As for Aster, who had already dedicated himself to tracking down and eliminating Tragoedia, he would spend days at a time in this world.
Chazz believed the shadow world held enormous development potential. It might even replace the "Dimensional Gate" Hikaru had set up for the Fusion Club, relieving Hikaru of maintenance duties. It might also carry significant commercial value, so he helped gather data and compile intelligence, trying to map out optimal exploration routes for everyone.
Of course.
For Hikaru, the most important discovery might not have been any of that.
Rather, through Aster's investigation, they found that Darkness's world potentially connected to numerous Spirit Dimensions associated with "apocalypse" and "catastrophe"!
These were dimensions reachable on foot, direct routes requiring no extra energy expenditure.
Furthermore, within the shadow world, there were zones that had been bathed in the "red light." Those areas had turned completely crimson!
Even Tierra could collect residual "extinction" energy left by Darkness there. On one hand, it would provide more "spirit power" to sustain the Infernoid bodies. On the other, it could assist Hikaru in crafting new cards.
In summary, beyond Darkness's destruction and humanity's evolution, the very existence of this world was a treasure for humanity!
And Hikaru and his friends could explore that treasure to their hearts' content!