"Do you know why I should be thanking you?"
Hearing that, Karasu frowned slightly. "Why?"
Yusaku held up the card pinched between his fingers and gave a faint smile. "Because of Triple Tactics Talent. I can only activate this card during my Main Phase if you've activated a monster effect this turn."
"It has three effects: draw two cards; take control of one monster on your field until the End Phase; or look at your entire hand and force one card back into the Deck."
At Yusaku's words, Karasu's pupils shrank—so it could actually peek at the opponent's hand.
He glanced at the card in his own hand. If it got shuffled back, then next turn, his whole plan could finally get rolling.
Just as he was bracing for the worst, Yusaku's voice came over, and the tight knot in his chest loosened.
"I'll draw two cards."
After drawing, Yusaku looked at Karasu and noticed him wiping cold sweat from his forehead. Yusaku chuckled. "So you've got something really important in your hand, huh?"
Karasu shot him a sidelong look. "Doesn't matter now. You already chose to draw two."
Then he folded his arms. "If I were you, I'd look at my opponent's hand and shuffle away the one card that actually matters."
Yusaku smiled calmly. "That might work on other people. But against you two, it's not necessary."
Karasu and Nishimura Yuta both froze.
A beat later, Nishimura let out a sharp, mocking snort. "Big talk. If you lose after acting this smug, you'll get your face smashed into the floor."
"This isn't smug." The curve at Yusaku's mouth deepened. "It's confidence. Confidence in my Deck."
Before the last word even finished, he flashed a card from his Extra Deck, his voice suddenly rising.
"Dark Magician of Destruction! This card can be Special Summoned not only by Fusion Summon, but also—if a Spell effect was activated this turn—by banishing a Level 6 or higher DARK Spellcaster I control."
Yusaku looked straight at them. "I just resolved Triple Tactics Talent, so I can banish my Dark Magician Girl and Special Summon Dark Magician of Destruction from the Extra Deck!"
He slapped the card down.
"Come forth—Dark Magician of Destruction!"
The shout rang across the entire arena. The blonde girl on Yusaku's field broke apart into glittering particles of light and vanished. The next second, a figure in jet-black robes slowly emerged, gripping a staff set with a dark red gem, thick black magic coiling around him like smoke.
Dark Magician of Destruction
Level 8 / Spellcaster / Effect
ATK 2800
"Dark Magician of Destruction's effect!" Yusaku called.
"When this card is Special Summoned, I can add to my hand either one Dark Magician, or one card that lists 'Dark Magician' in its text. I'll add Magician's Rod!"
"Not happening!"
Yusaku's words had barely landed when the voice from across the field cut in.
"I don't recognize every card you're playing, but I remember Magician's Rod crystal clear. Dark Magician Decks live and die by that card!"
Karasu snapped a card out and activated it.
"Effect Veiler has no once-per-turn limit. I can activate it again—negate the effect of your Dark Magician of Destruction!"
"That's exactly what I was waiting for." A glint flashed through Yusaku's eyes as he instantly drew a card from his hand and slammed it onto his Duel Disk.
"I activate the Quick-Play Spell—Called by the Grave! I target the Effect Veiler in your GY, banish it, and until the end of the next turn, its effects are negated!"
The ground split open with a violent crack. A green skeletal hand burst up from the fissure, seized the Effect Veiler that had just hit Karasu's Graveyard, and yanked it straight into the darkness of the banished zone.
Staring at the card being banished without mercy, Karasu suddenly threw his head back and laughed—sharp, smug, and triumphant.
"You fell for it, Yusaku. Everything before that was cover. The card I really wanted to play was this one!"
He snapped up another card.
"Mulcharmy Fuwalos!"
"This card's effect—during either player's turn, if I control no cards—I can discard it from my hand. After that, each time you Special Summon a monster from the Main Deck or the Extra Deck, I draw one card…"
"And during the End Phase, if I have more cards in hand than the number of cards you control plus six, I shuffle that difference back into my Deck at random."
Karasu folded his arms again, looking pleased with himself. "You already used one of your 'Called by' cards. If you want to stop me now, you'd have to draw another one. I don't buy that your luck is that good."
"Funny you say that." Yusaku's smile turned downright playful. "Because my luck really is that good—right?"
Karasu's grin locked up. "?"
Yusaku slapped down another card. "I activate a second Called by the Grave. I target the Mulcharmy Fuwalos in your GY, banish it, and until the end of the next turn, its effects are negated!"
The black earth split again. That same green skeletal hand surged up, clamped down on the Mulcharmy Fuwalos Karasu had just sent to the Graveyard, and dragged it into the banished zone without hesitation.
Watching it disappear completely, Yusaku looked Karasu in the eye, his tone cutting in the most infuriating way possible.
"The second Called by the Grave? I drew it off Triple Tactics Talent. So yeah—I really should thank you."
He took a small sip of tea.
"This only happened because you used Effect Veiler at the start of my turn. You literally blocked yourself."
Karasu's expression turned ugly, and he let out a hard snort. "Fine. But you've only got two cards in hand now. Two cards won't build any kind of real board."
"Don't project your thinking onto me." Yusaku's smile was calm and dismissive. "Two cards can't build a board for you. Not for me. Since you were kind enough to let me draw two, I'll keep it simple—let me build a clean lockdown field for you."
Karasu: "???"
Nishimura Yuta: "???"
The moment the words "lockdown field" hit, Nishimura's pupils tightened. He immediately looked at Karasu.
"Doesn't your Millennium Rod let you peek into people's minds? If you'd checked at the start, you'd know what he was doing. Then you wouldn't have fired Effect Veiler, and none of this would've happened!"
Karasu's face darkened even further. He clenched his teeth and hissed, "You think I didn't want to? First off, he's protected by an Ignis. Second, he's carrying a Millennium Item himself—I can't read him."
"And besides, mine's a replica. How the hell is a fake supposed to punch through a real Millennium Item's defenses?"
"Then what about the scrub next to him?" Nishimura snapped. "They're teammates. He should know something about Yusaku's Deck. Don't tell me you can't read him either."
Karasu's face went so black it looked like ink. He practically squeezed the words out through his teeth.
"His head is sludge. Nothing but random, useless images—garbage I can't make sense of. Not one scrap of real information."
"The hell did you call sludge?!" Kazetaro immediately blew up, rounding on Karasu. "So that's why you kept predicting my plays when we dueled! You were cheating with that knockoff Rod!"
"Figures—you're with Gurus. You'll do anything to win, even if you've got no shame!"
"That's right! Disgusting!"
"So he's been mind-reading to cheat this whole time?! I'm never dueling him again!"
The crowd around them erupted. Duelists started shouting accusations, pointing at Karasu. The ones who'd faced him before went pale and instinctively backed away, widening the gap between them and Karasu.
Yusaku's eyes drifted to the Rod in Karasu's hand. He clicked his tongue, sounding genuinely disappointed.
"I thought that was the real Millennium Rod. I was planning to borrow it after the duel and mess around with it. Turns out it's a fake. How boring."
He looked away. The amusement in his eyes drained out completely, replaced by a cold edge.
"If it's a counterfeit, then I'm not interested in wasting time with you anymore."
He lowered his voice, sharp as a blade.
"Then, resolving Dark Magician of Destruction's effect, I add Magician's Rod from my Deck to my hand!"
After the search, he immediately slapped the card down.
"Next, I Normal Summon—Magician's Rod!"
Light burst across the field. A figure holding a staff appeared, wreathed in hazy blue afterimages—its look and presence strikingly similar to Dark Magician.
Magician's Rod
Level 3 / Spellcaster / Effect
ATK 1600
The instant it hit the field, Yusaku continued.
"Now I activate Magician's Rod's effect! When it's Normal Summoned, I can add one Spell/Trap that supports Dark Magician from my Deck to my hand."
He selected a Spell, flipped it up, and showed them.
"The card I add is the Quick-Play Spell—The Gaze of Timaeus!"
"Now, I Link Summon!"
He raised his hand and swept it forward.
"Appear—circuit that guides the future!"
"I use the Magician's Rod I just Summoned and Dark Magician of Destruction as Link Material!"
"Link Summon—Link-2! Day-Breaker the Shining Magical Warrior!"
A glowing Link Circuit formed in midair, lighting up two arrows. The next second, a sharply armored magical warrior dropped from the circuit, sword and shield in hand, his shield and plate traced with black-and-gold patterns that gleamed like neon.
Day-Breaker the Shining Magical Warrior
Link-2 / Spellcaster / Link / Effect
ATK 1600
"Day-Breaker's effect," Yusaku said. "When this card is Link Summoned, I place one Spell Counter on it."
Day-Breaker the Shining Magical Warrior
Spell Counters: 0 → 1
"Next, I activate the Quick-Play Spell—The Gaze of Timaeus!"
A blue-and-cyan Fusion vortex spiraled open behind him.
"This card lets me target either Dark Magician or Dark Magician Girl on my field or in my GY, shuffle only that monster into the Deck as Fusion Material, then Fusion Summon a Fusion Monster that lists that name as material—treated as though it was Fusion Summoned by The Eye of Timaeus."
"You can fuse using the field or the Graveyard, and you only need one card?!" Karasu's pupils shrank as he finally realized something was very, very wrong. "And you don't even have to assemble all the materials?!"
Yusaku lifted his arm high.
"My Dark Magician of Destruction in the GY is treated as Dark Magician while it's on the field or in the GY, so I shuffle it back and Fusion Summon!"
"Steel cavalry that bears the truth of magic—master and apprentice riding the storm of darkness!"
"By my will, tear through the rift in time and space—and charge forth!"
Light and darkness twisted together inside the vortex, erupting into a surging tide of chaotic power. In the next instant, Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl burst out side by side, landing together in a smooth spin, light as feathers.
The Dark Magicians
Level 8 / Spellcaster / Fusion / Effect
ATK 2800
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]