Chapter 246: ATK Rising Without Limit! Surpassing Infinity!
The moment Kaiba Chiaki slammed The Wicked Avatar onto the Duel Disk, two black suns were on the field simultaneously, and both Duel Disks immediately entered a state of computational overload.
"Im... impossible!" Tenma Yako's expression had passed beyond any recognizable range of shock.
"The Deity Tamer occupation never even activated," Amano noted. "And The Wicked Avatar still descended."
The shock was not limited to Tenma Yako and the spectators on the rooftop. The critical draw had rippled outward: Yugi Muto and his companions, currently fighting their way through the card combat specialists floor by floor inside Kaiba Corporation, were also jolted by what was happening above them.
The absolute darkness compressed from two overlapping abysses crashing into each other swept through the Kaiba Corporation building and the surrounding area, swallowing everything in infinite black.
Feeling the ominous darkness descending from the roof above, the Pharaoh in the middle of a personality shift furrowed his brow slightly. "The person fighting at the top of this building is... Kaiba Seto? No. Amano Rei!"
The influence of two black suns hanging in the sky together had already extended beyond the Chronicle's boundaries.
In a middle school classroom, Amano Shio was busy patting the gently glowing pendant on her chest. "What is it this time? Settle down, little Shiyue. If you keep this up I'm going to have to punish you."
On the rooftop, Tenma Yako staggered back several steps as sparks flew from the overloading Duel Disk on his arm.
"Two copies of The Wicked Avatar, the mightiest Evil God! That cannot happen! There is no reason for that to exist!!"
He had duplicated the other two Wicked Gods, The Wicked Eraser and The Wicked Dreadroot, as counterfeits for his subordinates to carry. But The Wicked Avatar was different. That card was absolutely impossible to replicate.
"Is this the butterfly effect of a distorted history?" Amano said.
He had entered this Chronicle carrying strength from the future. That future-era power appearing in the past had strengthened the past's version of The Wicked Avatar. The butterfly effect had propagated, causing larger distortions in the historical timeline, and now the only solution was to fight the past's strongest Evil God with the future's strongest Evil God.
"I think we have thoroughly wrecked the historical timeline at this point. But we have come this far, and a wrecked timeline is still better than losing."
Kaiba Chiaki raised her arm, the sparking Duel Disk crackling with arcs of electricity. "This time, I am finally going to finish this properly! Let the Evil Gods tear each other apart!"
[This card's ATK and DEF are always equal to the highest ATK or DEF on the field plus 1.]
Two copies of The Wicked Avatar on the field simultaneously meant both of them needed to always be the highest ATK presence on the field. The result was a paradox with no stable resolution.
They were no longer imitating the silhouette of Beast King Barbaros. The two Wicked Avatars, each perpetually surging their ATK to outpace the other, had shifted to imitating each other: two black suns hanging in the sky, each one swelling larger as its ATK climbed, feeding on the other's growth.
[The Wicked Avatar] [ATK: 7,891,021]
[The Wicked Avatar] [ATK: 7,891,022]
The endless plus-one increments locked into an infinite loop, and the numbers representing both sides' ATK climbed to figures that had no business appearing on a normal Duel Monster card. All the way to the limit. Then beyond it.
[The Wicked Avatar] [ATK: infinity + 1]
[The Wicked Avatar] [ATK: infinity + 1]
Both had surpassed pure infinity itself, landing on the strange designation of infinity plus one. The two massive black suns had grown large enough to split the city between them, each one blotting out an entire half of the sky.
Amano remembered from the manga: even an Obelisk the Tormentor empowered to infinite ATK had not been able to destroy The Wicked Avatar head-on. The real number that could break through it might lie somewhere inside this infinity plus one.
"But the monster fighting the Evil God right now is not a God," Kaiba Chiaki said.
Even as the two Wicked Avatars had been racing their ATK skyward, both processing for an extended stretch of real time, the monster that had actually triggered Kaiba Chiaki's Performapal Coin Dragon draw effect with its direct attack declaration was Beast King Barbaros on Tenma Yako's field.
Having the word "King" in its name did not make it the same category as a true God.
"Because of Performapal Coin Dragon's effect, Beast King Barbaros must attack The Wicked Avatar!"
A 3000-ATK monster now had to launch itself at an Evil God that occupied half the city sky with infinite ATK. One strike from that collision and Tenma Yako would be dragged into an infinite abyss in the Dark Game, with no return.
"I activate a monster effect from my GY!"
Pushed to the very edge of the abyss, Tenma Yako urgently ejected a monster card from his sparking Duel Disk's GY slot.
The second card he had discarded through Card Destruction: Pigeonholing Books of Spell.
[Pigeonholing Books of Spell]
[Effect: During the Battle Step of a battle involving a monster, banish this card from your GY. Negate that monster's attack. This effect can be activated during either player's turn.]
"I banish Pigeonholing Books of Spell from my GY! Beast King Barbaros's attack is negated!"
He negated his own monster's attack. In the instant before Barbaros's lance could touch the vast black sun and drag its wielder into the infinite abyss, Tenma Yako hit the brakes at the edge of the cliff.
[Beast King Barbaros: attack negated]
Tenma Yako was drenched in cold sweat. He had genuinely come within one step of an unrecoverable fall.
But just stopping the battle was not enough. Beast King Barbaros was still on the field. If it took another attack from the Evil God next turn, the danger would be exactly the same.
Tenma Yako threw his last card into the Duel Disk. "Spell Card, Trade-In, activate!"
[Trade-In]
[Spell Card]
[Tribute 1 Level 8 monster you control. Draw 2 cards from your Deck.]
"I Tribute the Level 8 Beast King Barbaros on my field and draw two cards!"
The monster that could not participate in a divine confrontation was converted into two more draws. With two fresh cards added to his hand, Tenma Yako's eyes stopped on whatever he had just drawn.
"Ha ha ha. So that is my fate. Then come."
Something like a decision settled over him. Tenma Yako pushed one card into the sparking Duel Disk.
"I set one card face-down. Turn end. Your move, Amano Rei."
"My turn! Draw!"
Kaiba Chiaki drew her card under the shadow of the massive black sun overhead.
Since Tenma Yako's Wicked Avatar had been Tribute Summoned, the Spell and Trap sealing effect had locked her out for two turns. This was the first of those turns.
But right now, Kaiba Chiaki only wanted to do one thing.
She raised her arm and pointed at the two enormous black suns blotting out the sky above.
"It is finally time to fall, Evil God."
Even when Obelisk the Tormentor had been drawn up from the ground of the mid-level district, The Wicked Avatar had not been destroyed by battle in that encounter. The duelist had fallen before the God did. But this time, the black sun was finally going to meet its end.
"Battle!" The hand that had been pointing at the sky swung forward to point at the field. "The Wicked Avatar attacks The Wicked Avatar!"
The moment she issued that order, Kaiba Chiaki felt something tear at her soul from below: a force rising from the abyss, the will of a divine being resisting a duelist's attempt to make it destroy itself. A threat held at soul level, the God preparing to take its controller down with it if forced to comply.
"Do you think that can stop me? Naive."
Kaiba Chiaki swung the burning Duel Disk with full force. The arc of fire it traced through the air became the blade of absolute command, a duelist's will made manifest.
"You are a God, and you will still obey your duelist's orders! I command you to attack!"
Resisting the agony of her soul being torn at, Kaiba Chiaki issued the attack declaration for The Wicked Avatar a second time.
This time, there was no further resistance. Under the absolute authority of Kaiba Chiaki's duelist soul, the Evil God that filled half the city's sky obeyed and drove itself toward the other.
Like the opening crack of the end of all things, two Evil Gods each carrying infinity plus one ATK collided above Kaiba Corporation's rooftop: a sight that would never have appeared in any normal historical timeline.
Only in a distorted history could the strongest Evil God ever face itself.
Future strength in support of the past. Arriving at this paradox of reversed causality.
The two colossal black suns shattered against each other simultaneously. The infinite abyss that poured from the cracks in the black spheres surged outward for an instant, then was immediately swallowed by the fractures tearing open in the sky's very fabric.
"And this is where you end, Evil God."
[The Wicked Avatar: destroyed]
[The Wicked Avatar: destroyed]
In this moment, The Wicked Avatar had been genuinely destroyed by battle. Both copies, in a single clash.
Fighting the abyss's grip on her soul with everything she had as a duelist, Kaiba Chiaki had finally defeated the mightiest Evil God.
Even as her legs could barely hold her upright, the smile at the corner of her mouth did not waver.
"I finally did it. I actually beat this thing."
For the past two years, this Evil God had held Kaiba Chiaki in place and refused to let her move forward. In this moment she had finally broken free of that invisible chain buried at the bottom of the abyss.
"You did it, Chiaki-senpai," Amano said. "You really did. That was something else."
He specifically checked: the Deity Tamer occupation icon was still greyed out in the system. Which meant Kaiba Chiaki had not used any system power to summon and command The Wicked Avatar. She had done it entirely on the strength of her own soul.
No surprise there. A descendant of the Kaiba bloodline, carrying the Pharaoh's lineage. Her own soul's power alone was more than enough to command a God.
"Heh heh ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
But from the other side of the shattered abyss, Tenma Yako had thrown his head back and was covering his face with both hands, releasing a laugh that was deeply, visibly wrong.
"Ha ha ha ha ha! In the end it is I who have the superior skill, Amano Rei! I am the true victor of this Evil God battle! At this moment, I am invincible! Absolutely invincible!!"
Mokuba could not help himself: "Did Tenma Yako just lose his mind completely because the Evil God got destroyed? Talking about being invincible is just absurd."
Kaiba Seto, who had also been shaken by the sight of the abyss shattering a moment ago, had suddenly gone very still. His eyes had locked onto something. "That person. That person's Life Points!"
Only after Kaiba Seto pointed it out did everyone notice.
The spectacle of the infinite abyss collision had been so visually overwhelming that even Amano had not caught the one face-down card Tenma Yako had flipped during the battle.
Trap Card: Holy Javelin.
[Holy Javelin]
[Trap Card]
[When an opponent's monster declares an attack: Gain LP equal to the ATK of that attacking monster.]
The Gods were immune to Trap Card effects. But this Trap Card's effect was not directed at the God.
Unlike Draining Shield, which attempted to negate the God's attack, Holy Javelin made no move against the God at all. It simply read the attacking monster's ATK and converted that number into Life Points.
And the attacking Wicked Avatar's ATK had been infinity plus one. Every last point of that had been converted directly into Tenma Yako's Life Points.
Tenma Yako LP: infinity.
No wonder he had been laughing about being invincible.
"Now, all the power of the mightiest Evil God has been absorbed by me. The power of the abyss is mine to command! You have no path to victory remaining, Amano Rei!"
Having absorbed the full force of the abyss, Tenma Yako's expression had gone somewhere beyond warped: the whites of his eyes had been stained a deep, bottomless black. He no longer looked anything like a human being.
"Of all the things to happen, the Evil God was right there, and then at the very last moment..."
Kaiba Chiaki's focus scattered. She had been fighting at 99 LP through the Dark Game, then summoned The Wicked Avatar on pure soul strength and forced it into a mutual destruction. Even Kaiba Chiaki had reached her absolute limit.
"You did everything you could, Chiaki-senpai," Amano said.
"Amano Rei?"
"And now it's my turn."
A golden light pulsed on the wrist: the spot where the Eva Terminal normally sat.
"Switch!"
The moment Kaiba Chiaki's soul had burned down to its last reserves, Amano found that he could finally reclaim control of the body that was rightfully his.
The background spirit soul swap transferred: the body that had been about to buckle straightened back up, and Amano stepped in to face the second infinity.
"Amano Rei?"
"Leave the rest to me, Chiaki-senpai."
Back in his own most familiar body, looking at his own most familiar cards, Amano set a monster sideways on the Duel Disk and placed it in the monster zone.
"I set one monster in face-down Defense Position. Turn end."
"You have 99 Life Points, a guttering flame about to go out, and you think you can hold out against my infinite Life Points, Amano Rei?"
Tenma Yako drew aggressively. "My turn! Draw! I Normal Summon Enraged Battle Ox in Attack Position!"
[Enraged Battle Ox]
[Level 4 EARTH]
[Beast-Warrior / Effect]
[ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1000]
Still Tenma Yako's preferred Beast-Warrior type. The axe-wielding minotaur materialized on the field.
"Enraged Battle Ox's effect: while this card is on the field, Beast, Beast-Warrior, and Winged Beast monsters gain piercing damage when they attack Defense Position monsters! Can you withstand it at your current Life Points?"
With only 99 Life Points remaining, any monster in Amano's Normal Monster pile that got hit with piercing damage through Enraged Battle Ox's effect meant the duel was immediately over.
"Attack the Defense Position monster! Enraged Battle Ox!"
But at a critical moment like this, there was no way Amano had carelessly set some random Normal Monster and ended his turn.
"My face-down monster..." As damage calculation was about to resolve, Amano flipped the hidden card face-up. "Rise: Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice!"
[Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice] [DEF: 2100]
Eve: "Amano, where is my cool summon chant? Even Kuriboh got one!"
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