"You want to know my fear? Alright then..."
"Then take a look."
Yugen snapped his fingers.
In an instant, the images of the Three Evil Gods shattered, dissipating like illusions.
With Yugen's current level, he could easily see that what appeared here were not real Evil Gods, but mere phantoms. In fact, most of what he saw in this space were illusions.
Their purpose was simply to disturb his mind, to interfere with Yugen's momentum before the duel. This was a common tactic used by experts, trying to use mild psychic interference and mind control to disrupt the opponent, similar in essence to the trash talk used before a match to affect the opponent's state.
However, such mental influence among experts was more advanced and more effective than trash talk. If lucky enough to catch someone weak-willed, it might even swallow their inner darkness, making them surrender without a fight.
But Yugen had witnessed and experienced too much; even the Three Evil Gods, with their domain advantage, couldn't fully revive, so they couldn't disturb him anymore.
As Yugen snapped his fingers, the pitch-black domain instantly transformed. Their consciousness seemed swept into a rapidly changing vortex, and the entire field's background expanded tremendously.
Like a starry sky background... no, it was something more magnificent, something void.
It seemed like a void beyond the Cosmos, with countless worlds interconnected, existing in this spatial domain, as if nurturing infinite possibilities.
"This is... the world beyond the barrier!?"
The Eraser was stunned, exclaiming, "You... you're just a human, yet you know of the world's existence beyond the barrier?"
Countless worlds, countless realities, exist parallel in their dimensions, almost without intersection. Numerous barriers lie between each world, isolating each dimension from one another.
Yet it is these countless worlds that hold infinite possibilities, even offering these Three Evil Gods a chance to awaken and escape, opportunities that originated from worlds beyond the barrier.
And this was only the beginning.
Immediately following, the Evil Gods saw things even they hadn't touched, things that seemed to involve the world's core essence.
The background changed again, the void enlarged, focusing seemingly on one of the myriad worlds.
It was a world blessed by starlight. The dazzling starlight surrounded this world, like stars embracing the moon. Under the starlit sky, a few stars etched green rings, while others fell into those rings, forming a starry avenue like a path leading to the galaxy's end, emitting endless light.
The scene then transformed again, focusing on another world. A dimension where starlight and chaos intertwined, a golden ray flew out of the Starlight Domain, and a dark glow came from the Chaos realm. The two beams crossed mid-air, entering a vortex of a certain dimension. As if the space was being torn apart, the forces intertwined in the vortex seemed to generate an even stronger existence.
In the next world, hanging under a planetary background was a crystal-like radiant pendulum. The pendulum swung gently under the starlit sky, leaving arcs of starlight across the sky, as if engraving shining marks in the long stream of time and space.
The next world brought forth a rushing data stream. In the illusory world, vast amounts of data transformed into towering tidal waves and raging storms, nurturing countless powerful beings within that data storm...
Even the Evil Gods were shocked.
They mocked, thinking mere humans were ignorant of the heavens above, unaware of skies beyond skies.
But now...
What was this human's mind filled with!?
What were these things? Other dimensions? Other worlds?
Was it his wild imagination?
No, impossible.
All these visions, every world seemingly experienced through the illusion, although just phantoms, still exuded a trace of a chilling aura, an aura that even made Divine Entities shiver.
Some aura seemed to touch the upper laws of the world's core.
Yet he was just a human. Despite his dueling talent, he was merely human. How could he contact such a level of things?
And at the pinnacle of these myriad worlds, a figure stood proudly above all. With a cold, unparalleled beauty, noble, elegant, timeless, Immortal...
Bam.
The dark domain shattered.
Yugen stood firmly on solid ground, facing the darkness ahead, speaking softly.
"You say I have fear? Indeed."
"I fear I'm not strong enough, fear that no one in this world is strong enough. People call me the Duel King, saying that I've reached the pinnacle of the Dueling Realm, but I know that's not true."
"I know there are skies beyond skies, and beyond this world, there are far mightier beings surpassing this entire dimension. So I must always become stronger, always lead in development and exploration. Because no one knows better than I do how insignificant the power I currently hold truly is."
Pausing, he curled his lips into a smile.
"Well, but if it's just you three useless things... even if you come at me together, what's there to be afraid of?"
The darkness ahead churned violently, indicating the Evil Gods seemed to feel enraged.
Soon, a large black sphere emerged in mid-air, suspended in the air like the sun during an eclipse. Then a shadow of darkness separated from the sphere, landing on the ground and transforming into a humanoid shape.
Yugen knew, that was the Divine Incarnation's form.
"You taunt us."
The shadow slowly lifted its head, observing Yugen for a moment.
"Interesting, it's been so long since someone dared to taunt us like this, especially when we're united as the Trinity. It seems we underestimated you, shouldn't have regarded you as an ordinary human.
But this won't change any outcome."
The Evil God's hand coalesced into a Duel Disc.
"Words are pointless. The King representing the human pinnacle, against us Evil Gods, let's wager this world's fate, come on."
"Duel!" x2
[Yugen, LP4000]
[Evil God, LP4000]
Yugen: "I'll go first, draw card."
The indicator lights on the Duel Disc lit up, indicating the right of choice for the turn came to Yugen. Unhesitant, he picked two cards from his hand, discarding one and playing the other.
"Discard a card, Special Summon 'Deceitful Mage' from my hand!"
The Magician with a question mark on his chest appeared on the field, cloaked and covered in question marks, like a new skin for the Riddler.
[Deceitful Mage, Attack Power 2000]
"Though Deceitful Mage is an Upper-Level Monster, by discarding a card, it can be Special Summoned directly to the field!"