Yusaku lifted his eyes to Senjo, a mocking curve tugging at his lips. His voice was quiet, but every word carried clearly across the field.
"As a descendant of the Tomb Keepers, you abandoned the Egyptian Gods and turned instead to the power of fiends. Don't you feel ashamed?"
"Ashamed?"
Senjo's face darkened instantly.
He clenched his fist and let out a cold snort.
"It was the Gods who abandoned me first!"
Yusaku glanced at him.
"Sometimes I really don't understand what goes on in your head. Wouldn't it have been enough to just do your job as a gravekeeper? To simply protect what you were meant to guard? Yet you had to covet power that was never yours to begin with."
"Who wouldn't want greater power?"
Senjo growled through gritted teeth, a flash of madness in his eyes.
"Enough talk. In this duel, I'll prove to them that choosing you was their mistake!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he raised a hand and pointed toward Dark Summoning Beast on his field.
"I activate Dark Summoning Beast's effect! By tributing this card, I can Special Summon 1 Sacred Beast monster from my hand or Deck, ignoring its Summoning conditions!"
The fiend on the field dissolved into a streak of blue light and vanished into the air.
Senjo thrust his arm high, his voice burning with fanatic fervor.
"Gather, wills of the fiends! And for the sake of leading this world into that lightless end... descend!"
Virtual light exploded once more.
The earth shook violently, cracks racing across the ground. Then a gigantic hand clad in blue skeletal armor burst up from below, its claws ripping through the arena floor. Slowly, a colossal demon rose from the depths, its massive body blotting out the sky and radiating a crushing pressure that made hearts seize.
Raviel, Lord of Phantasms
Level 10 / Fiend / Effect
ATK 4000
"I'm not done yet!"
Senjo's voice remained as sharp and forceful as ever.
"At this moment, the effect of Opening of the Spirit Gates activates! Once per turn, if I control a Level 10 monster, I can add 1 Continuous Spell from my Graveyard to my hand!"
He slapped the Duel Disk.
"I add the Continuous Spell that was sent to the Graveyard by Reasoning at the start of the duel - Kaiser Colosseum!"
The instant the card reached his hand, Senjo didn't pause for even a second.
"And now I activate Opening of the Spirit Gates' other effect! Once per turn, I can discard 1 card to Special Summon 1 Fiend monster with 0 ATK and 0 DEF from my Graveyard!"
"I discard 1 card from my hand, and Special Summon Chaos Summoning Beast from my Graveyard!"
Chaos Summoning Beast
ATK 0
The moment Chaos Summoning Beast reappeared on the field, Senjo barked out his next move.
"Now I conduct a Link Summon!"
Two beams of light shot into the sky, feeding into a Link Marker overhead as the arrows Left and Down lit up.
"Link Summon! Link-2 - Barricadeborg Blocker!"
A massive mechanical construct carrying a shield and a crimson energy blade descended from the Link Circuit, its metallic frame shining with cold, rigid light.
Barricadeborg Blocker
Link-2 / Machine / Link / Effect
ATK 1000
The giant had barely touched the field before Senjo continued.
"I activate the effect of Chaos Summoning Beast in my Graveyard! I banish it to add Fallen Paradise from my Deck to my hand!"
He banished the card, and a Spell immediately sprang from his Deck into his palm.
"And I'm still not done! I activate the effect of Dark Summoning Beast in my Graveyard! I banish it to add 1 Sacred Beast from my Deck to my hand!"
"I add Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder!"
His entire sequence flowed without the slightest hitch. As soon as that card reached his hand, Senjo drew out the newly added Spell and slammed it down.
"I activate the Spell Card - Fallen Paradise!"
The moment the card was activated, the entire Duel Stage seemed to transform.
The level stone floor vanished, replaced by a dark and barren wasteland. Heavy storm clouds smothered the sky, and a deathly silence full of despair spread over everything.
"Effect of Fallen Paradise!"
Senjo looked at Yusaku, his eyes brimming with confidence, as if everything were already under his control.
"If I control any of the Sacred Beasts, I can draw 2 cards!"
Two cards slid into his hand. Senjo gave them a quick glance, tucked them away, then immediately slapped two more cards onto his Duel Disk.
"I activate the Continuous Spell Kaiser Colosseum! And also Swords of Concealing Light!"
Two golden lights ignited beneath his feet, while the phantom images of two Continuous Spells revolved above him.
"Now I've gathered three face-up Continuous Spells on my field!"
Senjo raised the card in his hand high.
"And that is exactly the Summoning condition for Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder! A Summon this simple is something the Egyptian Gods can't even compare to!"
"I send my three face-up Continuous Spells - Kaiser Colosseum, Opening of the Spirit Gates, and Swords of Concealing Light - to the Graveyard!"
"Ignoring its Summoning conditions, Special Summon - Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder!"
"O golden demon god, command the countless bolts of Lost Paradise and tear through the darkness! Let all the mediocre fools of this world tremble in despair!"
The instant he finished speaking, a deafening peal of thunder erupted from the clouds overhead.
Purple-gold lightning tore through the heavens. Darkness and thunder fused together into a pillar of light that crashed down from above.
A golden fiend slowly descended.
Its skeletal body crackled with writhing arcs of electricity, its monstrous silhouette somehow both grotesque and strangely beautiful. It did nothing more than stand there, yet the pressure it radiated alone was enough to make it hard to breathe.
Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder
Level 10 / Thunder / Effect
ATK 4000
"And finally!"
Senjo pulled out the last two cards left in his hand, activating one and setting the other.
"I activate the Continuous Trap Awakening of the Sacred Beasts! Then I Set 1 card! My turn ends!"
One face-up Trap and one Set back row rested silently on Senjo's Duel Disk.
He folded his arms and looked up at Yusaku, his voice dripping with challenge.
"Your turn, Yusaku."
Yusaku swept a glance over the Sacred Beasts looming behind Senjo, and a faint smile touched his lips.
"Interesting. You brought out all three Sacred Beasts in a single turn."
Then he placed his hand on top of his Deck and shouted:
"My turn. Draw!"
He had only just added the card to his hand when Senjo immediately cut in.
"The moment your Draw Phase ends!"
He flipped his face-up Trap fully open.
"I activate Awakening of the Sacred Beasts!"
After revealing the card, Senjo folded his arms again and looked at Yusaku.
"Now my field is finally complete."
"Awakening of the Sacred Beasts gains effects based on how many Sacred Beasts I control!"
He held up three fingers.
"One: as long as I control at least 1 Sacred Beast, every time you Normal or Special Summon a monster, I gain Life Points equal to that monster's ATK."
"Two: as long as I control at least 2 Sacred Beasts, the activated effects of all monsters you control are negated."
"Three: if I control all 3 Sacred Beasts, any monsters that would be sent to your Graveyard are banished instead."
Then he glanced at the face-up Spell at his feet.
"And Fallen Paradise. Since it's on the field, my face-up Sacred Beasts can't be targeted by your card effects, and they can't be destroyed by your card effects either."
His voice abruptly rose.
"And this card has another effect. As long as it remains on the field, if any face-up Sacred Beast I control leaves the field, all damage I take for the rest of the turn becomes 0!"
"With this card in play, you're not taking me down this turn!"
Then he pointed toward the Link Monster in his Extra Monster Zone, his tone once again full of smug certainty.
"And as for this Link Monster - as long as Barricadeborg Blocker stays on the field, all face-up Spells I control can't be destroyed by your card effects. If you want to remove my Spells, you'll have to deal with it first."
He paused, then let out a sneering laugh.
"But Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder has another effect. While it's in Defense Position, you can't target any monster for attacks except it. So tell me - do you really think it'll be that easy to get rid of?"
Senjo spread his hands, taunting him openly.
"All right. It's your turn now, Yusaku. Go ahead. Let me see how you plan to break this board."
Hearing that, many duelists in the stands couldn't help sucking in a sharp breath.
"No wonder he's the top disciple of Genius Academy. This board locks together layer after layer..."
The students from Genius Academy straightened up proudly, their faces full of swagger.
"Of course! The field Senjo-senpai built is unbeatable! Even if the Egyptian Gods came out, they still wouldn't win!"
"Summon the Gods? Don't make me laugh! With Awakening of the Sacred Beasts on the field, he won't even get the chance to gather three Tributes!"
Over among the players, someone twitched their mouth and muttered:
"He kept saying he'd show Yusaku the power of the Sacred Beasts, but isn't this basically just a stun board?"
Hearing that, someone else thought it over for a moment before replying:
"He's not exactly wrong, though. Every Spell and Trap on his field right now is tied to the Sacred Beasts."
"This is rough," one player sighed, his face full of worry. "Senjo's board has negation, protection, and back-row shielding. And Awakening of the Sacred Beasts is completely absurd. It's like Skill Drain, Macro Cosmos, and a Graveyard lockdown all mashed together. This is going to be hard to get through..."
At that moment, the three Sacred Beasts stood side by side above the Duel Stage, their colossal bodies nearly blanketing the sky itself.
Boundless shadows poured down, swallowing the entire arena.
The sheer oppressive force of their presence made the air itself feel almost frozen.
Countless eyes turned in unison toward the boy standing at the center of the field.
Compared to those three towering Sacred Beasts, Yusaku looked as small as a single drop in the ocean.
"Can he really break a board like this?"
Someone couldn't help murmuring under their breath.
...
(End of Chapter)
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