Because both sides left their D-wheels, the Duel was ruled invalid and brought to an end.
The towering wall of flame slowly faded, and the souls that had been swallowed by the Earthbound Immortal returned along their original trajectories into their own bodies.
Kiryu struggled to his feet, set his D-wheel upright, and looked toward Yusei.
Compared to himself, Yusei was already riddled with wounds, and his body, seemingly dulled by all the modifications, had been blasted flat onto the ground. If he really wanted revenge, as the one who was "less injured," he could still go over and finish the job.
But—
Looking at Yusei lying on the ground at this very moment, what flickered in his heart was not hatred, but a kind of emptiness that was hard to put into words, impossible to tell anyone about… a hollow void.
The one who had most thirsted for "fulfillment" now felt like the emptiest person in the world.
He stayed silent for a long time, then tossed out a line: "Hah, looks like even without me lifting a finger, you're about to die soon anyway—without the positive and negative Synchro forces, a man-made God is fake in the end.
Just cherish the last bit of your life, Yusei!"
With that, he swung onto his D-wheel and left out the other side without looking back, his trademark mad laughter trailing after him.
Seeing this, Shinji hesitated for a moment, then quickly started up his D-wheel and went after Kiryu before Sector Security could get there.
Vroom—
Tenjo Hikari and Crow also arrived at Yusei's side at this time. Crow stopped his bike and immediately hooked his arm under Yusei to haul him up as best he could, while Tenjo Hikari carefully examined his condition.
"That Undead wasn't wrong." Tierra glanced Yusei over a few times beside Tenjo Hikari, then said to Hikari, "This human… this United God, really isn't going to live much longer.
About two years at most—gone in the blink of an eye."
Two years… Forget someone like Tierra with such a long lifespan; even for a human, two years was already pretty short.
"Yusei!" As the helicopter neared the ground, Jack jumped straight down from the sky, making the two girls inside scream.
Jack tumbled across the ground, then hurried over to help Crow support Yusei. "You bastard, you've been hiding from us this whole time, and you went and did something like this all by yourself!?"
"Hey, don't hold him like that, you'll just make his injuries worse." Tenjo Hikari shouted at the two of them.
The two were startled and quickly followed Tenjo Hikari's directions, propping up the D-wheel and laying Yusei flat on the bike.
Tenjo Hikari played doctor for the moment, taking out tools and instruments to run a few quick tests, then asked, "Yusei, what Kiryu said earlier wasn't just nonsense. You know that yourself, don't you?"
Yusei struggled to open his eyes, a surge of electricity crackling across the right side of his face, making Jack and Crow flail in panic.
"It's fine, I've been prepared for this for a long time."
"Damn it, Yusei! You still have to settle things with me—you're not going down this fast!"
"Yusei, you've been afraid to show yourself lately because of the modifications, right? Why didn't you tell us? Don't you trust us?"
Jack and Crow each grumbled in their own way, but the concern and worry for Yusei in their words was still something Yusei could clearly feel.
He put on a faint smile and calmly looked at his friends.
A moment later, he finally spoke. "It's just that, looking the way I do now, I'm liable to scare people, so I haven't really been going out."
Then Yusei stopped hiding things and told them what he had experienced these past days.
On a certain day—during that Duel with Jack—because of the resonance between Stardust and Red Archfiend, the Red Light was triggered, and at the very end of the Duel he accidentally arrived in the future—
A far-off future, who knew how many years from now.
Almost instantly, he was discovered by the humans of that time, but at the same time, he also learned that…
Humanity had already been destroyed.
Because human malice triggered the Moment to run amok, the will of Earth manifested as the "Meklord," which ultimately wiped out human civilization.
He learned of the war of The One and heard that person's thoughts.
The reason this world has always gone through "cycles of pain" lies in the fact that countless years ago, cooperation and harmony between Gods gave birth to a strange power called "Synchro." That power sparked wars between Gods, and then, from the top down, it slowly spread, causing the Angels, Archfiends, Spirits, and humans of this world to be affected and to begin competing for and using Synchro power.
And in the distant future, because human wickedness finally caused the Moment—born from Synchro—to reverse, the "Meklord," a "Synchro-killer" created to annihilate humanity, appeared in this world and indiscriminately slaughtered all humans.
In the end, humanity died by its own sin.
So the humans Yusei met there gave him a proposal: "If that's how it is, then just go back to the very beginning and stop Synchro from being born, stop it from spreading. Erase this power from all Dimensions entirely."
It seemed like a once-and-for-all solution.
But Yusei refused.
He suggested another possibility. He wanted to carve out an entirely new future—a future where Gods, Spirits, and humans could truly understand each other, join hands, and completely resonate together.
Because from the very beginning, Synchro was born from countless Gods working side by side to create a better world, a power filled with cooperation and hope for the future!
Power has never been wrong.
"Hah… I was inspired by you too, Hikari." Lying on the bike, he thought back to that Duel in the Friendship Cup.
To the people of the F Dimension it was just a small interlude.
But to Yusei, it was one of the most important turning points that changed the life he has now.
In that tournament, he gained the chance to enter the "Fortune Cup," the chance to Duel Jack again and understand Jack's thoughts. In that Duel he met friends from the F Dimension and learned what human society was like in other Dimensions. In that tournament, he met Tenjo Hikari, a technical scholar from another Dimension, and came to know the technology of other Dimensions.
Just like Tenjo Hikari could draw inferences from Yusei's construction of his D-wheel to understand higher-level Alchemy, Yusei in turn figured out many physics problems he had never been able to solve before.
And most important of all was Tenjo Hikari's trust and faith in the "Polymerization" of her own world.
That spirit of not being cowed even when seeing the more advanced, more convenient Synchro; that courage to not belittle Yugo, and even to speak up for him when the police got involved because of his identity; and that mindset of not looking down on Synchro even after defeating Yugo.
Yusei believed that the bond between him and his friends, his partners, was not an illusion. So he also believed that there had to be a way to forge a brand-new future.
So he chose the more difficult option, the one with no guaranteed chance of success: to undergo Unification with the artificial lifeform created by that person, and as a United God, bring an end to this cycle of suffering and doubt.
He wanted to stop this meaningless internal strife!
As a human!
[Even for me, this is a completely untested possibility, Yusei. This is a path whose outcome can never be foreseen and is destined to be the most difficult route.]
[Out of countless choices, this is the hardest and most dangerous road.]
[If you choose this path, every living being will doubt you. Those Divine Chosen who crave Synchro Power, those lunatics who think only they deserve to rule the world, those self-righteous Fools who think they're creating a "peaceful" world, those who don't understand you, who don't believe someone as selfless as you could exist—all of them will see you as their greatest enemy. And you, in turn, have to make them believe you, make them lay down their conflicts with each other?]
[That is almost impossible, because the history of humanity is a history of war.]
[Because the human heart is full of desire and malice, that is why our world truly came to ruin.]
[Are you really going to try this?]
Of course.
He didn't repeat his final conversation with that person aloud; he just briefly stated his own ideas.
Jack turned his head away and Crow wiped at his eyes with his arm, but neither of them opened their mouths to scold Yusei.
"Hah, I get it now. It's fine. Just like back in the Lower City Area, we'll just paint this world black, that's all!" Jack said, clenching his fist as if flames were igniting all over him.
"Yeah—no big deal. First, we've got to drag our Captain back. Can't let that guy run around doing whatever he wants!" Crow said firmly, answering Yusei in turn.
Sunlight pierced through the clouds and fell over them. Yusei finally showed a smile that had been gone for a long time.
By now he had more or less caught his breath. He put his helmet back on, making him look a lot less eerie.
"So, the thing you want to ask me to do is?" Tenjo Hikari asked.
"Hikari, you're the most important one. No one but you can do this… Without you, I probably never could." Yusei opened his mouth and said, "I want to ask you… to help me find a chance."
"What kind of chance?" Tenjo Hikari asked, though she had more or less already guessed.
In this world, for something Yusei himself had no confidence in and needed Tenjo Hikari's help with—
There was only one answer—
"A chance to communicate… with the Earthbound Immortal of Polymerization, the one rejected by this world."
Polymerization!