3300 damage was instantly reflected back, his Life Points dropping in a flash to a candle flickering in the wind.
Placido felt suffocated inside. By all rights he clearly had absolute advantage on the field, yet he'd just hacked himself down to seven hundred Life Points with his own sword.
And on top of that he'd been forced to blow up the Stardust Dragon he'd gone to all that trouble to absorb, just to barely scrape out a chance to cling to life...
He, Placido, one of the dignified Taiyi Three Emperors, who had walked through the long river of history along countless timelines with almost no defeats, when did he end up in such a miserable state?
"Life Points are only seven hundred now, you're gonna have to be extra careful from here on out." Yugen was still chuckling. "With that tiny bit of Life Points, if you slip up even a little I might 'accidentally' one-shot you, just saying."
That smug expression just made him even angrier.
Placido snorted. "Activate Magic Card 'Aurora Draw'!" (Original Card)
Placido slid the Magic into his Duel Disc, and above the ghost he controlled, a rippling seven-colored aurora spread across the night sky, light and shadow dazzlingly gorgeous.
"Aurora Draw can only be activated when this is the only card in your hand. Draw two cards from your Card Deck!"
Placido drew two cards, glanced over them, eyes narrowing slightly, then picked one out and swept his hand to Cover it.
"Then I Cover another card to the back row, and the next card is also a Magic Card, 'Aurora Draw'!
Draw two more cards from the Card Deck!"
Placido fired off Aurora Draw twice in a row, pulling four cards in one go.
"Next is the Magic Card 'Burial Spell Treasure Scroll'. Banish three Magic Cards from the graveyard from the game, then draw two cards."
"Then I set two Covering Cards. Turn end."
Yugen clicked his tongue. "Oh? Looks like you've got a lot of faith in those Cover Cards. I'd better test properly what you've set.
My turn, draw!"
Yugen raised his arm.
"Chaos Warrior - Messenger of Creation, effect activate!
Once per turn, target any one Monster on the field, and that Monster is banished from the game!"
Yugen paused, then pointed at the Machine Emperor's massive energy core on the opponent's field.
"The Machine Emperor looks like it's fused into a single Monster, but in essence it's still five separate parts, each its own card, occupying five Monster Zones. Chaos Warrior's effect can only banish one of them at a time.
So of course the one I'm going to banish is this card at the very core of the Machine Emperor! The Machine Emperor's torso, Machine Emperor Divine Wisdom ∞!"
The Machine Emperor's torso section is where its energy core resides, and is also its weak point. If a Monster whose name contains '∞' is not present on the field, all the other Machine Emperor parts will self-destruct.
So as long as you take out the torso, it's equivalent to taking out the entire Machine Emperor.
"Messenger of Creation's banish ability is indeed powerful, but did you really think I wouldn't have accounted for something like that?"
Placido shouted.
"Activate Cover Card! Continuous Trap 'Demon Race's Chain'!
Use this card to bind Messenger of Creation, making Chaos Warrior unable to attack and its effect also become negated!"
Green Demon Lock Chains shot out, coiling around Chaos Warrior's body like tentacles. The sword mid-swing froze in midair, unable to continue cutting down even half an inch.
"Hoh, as expected of the Machine Emperor piloted by one of the Taiyi Three Emperors, a trick like this really won't go through." Yugen laughed softly.
By now he was no longer some newbie Transmigrator just arriving; he'd long since figured out some of the basic rules for card battles in this world.
Great Opening was a Monster he'd already summoned last turn, and its banish ability had been open information on the board for a while. As long as the opponent's Destiny Power wasn't completely trash, this kind of telegraphed play was almost guaranteed to be met with a counter this turn.
Only the weak would draw absolutely nothing to deal with it. Placido was still one of the Taiyi Three Emperors, and moreover someone capable of piloting the anime Machine Emperor, that ultimate brick pile of junk parts, so his Destiny Power naturally wouldn't be too bad.
Not being able to simply use Great Opening's effect to banish Divine Wisdom this turn was, basically, within expectations.
"Then next, I activate Magic Card 'Handwriting Erasure'." Yugen revealed a card in his hand. "Both players discard all cards in their hands, then draw the same number they discarded."
Placido manipulated the ghost to discard his hand, then drew anew.
"And then this card..."
Yugen snapped his fingers.
"Continuous Trap 'Great Cosmos'!"
The field background abruptly shifted. What had been a night backdrop instantly turned into a starry sky, and even the road beneath their feet transformed into complete Darkness, scattered stars dotting the pitch-black canvas.
"While Great Cosmos is on the field, every card sent to the graveyard by either of us doesn't go to the graveyard, but is directly banished from the game instead."
Placido: "!"
Directly erasing both graveyards' effects was indeed a pretty aggressive, shut-in style effect. Once it went through, it'd be somewhat tricky to deal with.
Placido hesitated briefly.
Granted, it was a rather Underworld-tier effect, but his Machine Emperor was already on the field now. Unless the opponent dismantled his Machine Emperor and then paired it with Great Cosmos to directly launch it into the Other Dimension...
The instant his thoughts reached that point, a bad premonition suddenly welled up from deep within Placido's heart, as if his instincts were warning him something truly awful was about to happen next.
He shouted loudly, sweeping his hand to activate the back row: "Activate Cover Card, Counterattack Trap 'False Activation'!
Pay 500 Life Points to negate the activation of one Trap on the field, then set it back face-down on the field!"
[Ghost, LP700 → LP200]
Great Cosmos's activation was negated, the starry background instantly vanishing as it returned to being a Trap Covered back onto the field.
With that, Great Cosmos now counted as having just been set this turn and couldn't be activated again within this same turn.
"Oh? So you saw through my intent?"
Yugen looked at Placido with interest.
"Or was it purely on instinct? If that's the case, your sense for dodging danger is actually pretty good..."
Indeed, if Placido had let Great Cosmos go through here, he might well have been beyond saving.
"Next, I tribute your 'Machine Emperor Divine Wisdom ∞' and 'Divine Wisdom Attack Department 5', and present this powerful Monster to you as a gift!"
Yugen said, grinning.
"Awakened from the lava of the abyss, power of destruction and rebirth——
——Level 8, Lava Demon God!"
Placido: "???"
The next instant, boiling magma surged up from under his feet. The scalding liquid hissed white steam, completely swallowing Divine Wisdom's main body.
The burning lava instantly melted the Machine Emperor's alloy; deprived of the torso, the remaining Machine Emperor parts immediately clattered apart.
A giant burning palm slammed into the ground, leaving behind a charred, smoldering palm-shaped crater. A giant with an abstract face slowly crawled up from the lava pit, empty black hollows for eyes. A cage of blackness locked Placido inside, chunks of magma dropping piece by piece, constantly burning out pitch-black lava holes right in front of him.
[Lava Demon God, Attack Power 3000]
At the same time, once the torso was gone, the remaining three Machine Emperor parts each let out a series of booming blasts, exploding into one fireball after another and burning away to nothing.
"Looks like the Machine Emperor's parts self-destruct once they lose their torso." Yugen chuckled. "So, all the Machine Emperor parts on your field are destroyed."
Placido: "..."
He now understood what that Great Cosmos had been for just now.