"Huff... huff..."
Adrian knelt on the ground, panting heavily. His clothes were soaked through with sweat, as if he'd just been dragged out of the water.
But it wasn't physical torment—it was entirely mental. He could barely stand; he felt he had never been so exhausted in his life.
"Was that... a Shadow Game?" Adrian muttered.
But he quickly rejected that thought.
No, the duel itself wasn't a Shadow Game. The damage from the holograms was normal; his body hadn't taken any extra burden.
As Kira had said, he'd merely inserted a dark mini-game into the duel.
Kira had used dark power to make Adrian's deck reflect his life, then used an infinite shuffle loop to force him to confront his life and true heart, reawakening the ideals and wishes he'd suppressed and making him remember his first dream.
"Looks like you remembered, Adrian Gecko."
Kira walked up and offered a hand to Adrian, who was still crouched on the floor.
Adrian started, hesitating as he looked at the offered hand.
He didn't take it; instead, after a moment, he couldn't help asking, "You're not going to kill me?"
Kira raised an eyebrow. "Why would I kill you?"
"Uh... then are you going to cast me into the eternal abyss of darkness?" Adrian asked.
Kira's expression grew even stranger. "And what would I gain from that?"
The floating Eye beside him squinted into a crescent moon with a grin. "Looks like someone has a pretty bad reputation in the outside world~"
Adrian frowned. "And you're not going to confiscate my deck?"
"Your Cloudians aren't some ultra-rare print. Why would I—wait, why are you talking like I grab any random person's deck and yank the cards out?"
Kira frowned.
"I only pull the decks of truly heinous villains. That's called confiscating criminal tools, okay?"
Adrian: "..."
He looked unconvinced.
Kira sighed. "There's no duelist more righteous than me. How come it sounds like I'm the villain when you say it?"
Adrian was at a loss for words.
No, you looked pretty evil while you were dueling just now...
He thought this guy had a severe lack of self-awareness, but considering his own position, he kept his mouth shut.
Now he understood the duel hadn't really been an even match.
Adrian used to think he had a king's qualities—leadership and dueling alike, he was one in a million. He believed he could match anyone in strength; he just didn't like chasing fame in global tournaments.
If it came down to strength, he thought he was already in the world's top echelon.
But now, he realized he'd been a frog at the bottom of a well.
This opponent hadn't even gone all-out in the duel—or rather, he hadn't exerted himself to win. From the start, the other party never considered the possibility of losing.
He never set up or planned for victory at all.
But there was still something Adrian didn't understand.
He looked up at Kira, puzzled.
"Why?"
Kira tilted his head. "Why what?"
"Why do all this?" Adrian asked. "You forced me to reexamine my life, to remember the parts I'd forgotten.
You made me face the darkest parts of my heart... for what?"
He couldn't figure it out.
He was just an intruder, attempting to trespass into the other's territory. Why do this for him?
And even if he helped him see these things, what would it mean? Did he want to incite him to take his brother's position and thereby control the entire Gecko Conglomerate?
Thinking of this, Adrian felt it might be possible. He raised his head, frowning at Kira.
"Don't tell me your target is the Gecko Conglomerate?"
Kira laughed.
"Maybe you guys think you're a world-class conglomerate," Kira shrugged. "But KaibaCorp and Industrial Illusions both owe me big favors. I can mobilize most of their resources at will.
So honestly, the behemoth you see—your family's conglomerate—is dispensable to me."
Adrian frowned. He didn't like the contempt shown for his family, but he said nothing.
"Then why..."
But Kira didn't answer directly. He cut in: "In this world, your path to kingship won't work.
Even if you have the aptitude, the resources, the potential, you can't cross the hurdle in your heart."
Kira said.
"You can't bring yourself to strike at your brother, to take what's his. Besides..."
He paused, smiling.
"Even if you did, what you could achieve in this world is ultimately limited. At the end of the day, this world doesn't need a king."
Adrian frowned. "What are you getting at?"
"Giving you an opportunity."
Kira stepped back, revealing what was behind him.
It was a circular void.
As if space had torn open, forming a massive vortex. Lightning churned within, like an abyss.
Adrian's pupils contracted slightly.
"This is..."
"Another world," Kira said. "A world that needs a king—and where you can truly become one. Want to see it?"
Adrian was silent for a few seconds.
Then he finally took Kira's hand, stood up, and walked toward the vortex with him.
A sudden sense of weightlessness struck; everything vanished. It felt like free-fall, falling for who knows how long, as if his organs were being pulled out of him.
When he came to, he was standing on a giant rock.
Beneath his feet seemed to be a small hill. Looking out, the sky was ashen, the land barren. Smoke linked earth to sky; dark clouds shrouded everything.
Adrian: "This is..."
"A dimension filled with power and miracles," Kira said softly, hands in his coat pockets, aura farming. "Once, there was a supreme king here.
The king ruled this world through absolute violence and tyranny. The strong ran rampant; the weak were oppressed. That was the normal order of this world."
"But now, the king has been overthrown. Yet the fall of a dictatorship doesn't mean dawn for the people—it means greater chaos."
"Everyone with even a little power now thinks they can be the next tyrant. They're fighting everywhere, grabbing territory and resources. The chaos is worse than under the Supreme King's rule."
"Toppling the dictator is only the first step—it doesn't solve the problem. To truly fix things here, you need..."
Before Kira finished, Adrian continued, "You need a true king. One who can build an equal, ideal new world—a benevolent king."
As he spoke, a blazing light had already ignited in his eyes.