Chapter 290: The Ceremonial Duel! Yugi vs. Kaiba vs. Amano
Three simultaneous "Duel!"s rang out, and three columns of light erupted from three new-model Duel Disks toward the luminescent data sky above.
Like a ceremony invoking three great pillars, the ultimate passion for dueling reached toward an awakening.
"Is that... can a Duel Disk projection actually do that?"
Joey Wheeler stood in the audience and said out loud what most of the people around him were thinking. The scale of the volumetric projection above the stage dwarfed anything any previous-generation Duel Disk had produced, an effect less like the familiar holographic display and more like something that could punch through to an entirely different plane of existence.
Inside KaibaCorp's headquarters, in the president's office that required biometric entry and should have been empty while its occupant dueled: there was a figure in a silver-white coat.
No one knew how Kaiba Chiaki had entered a room that required a retinal scan. Chiaki herself did not know, because she had come to consciousness already standing here.
What made it more uncomfortable was that Kaiba Seto had not yet left the office when she landed.
Much like Amano's first moment in the Chronicle had been looking at Sera, Chiaki's first moment had been looking at her ancestor, who was in turn looking at her.
In front of her entire corporation, Chiaki could maintain absolute composure while promising things she could not yet guarantee. In front of this specific ancestor, she had always found herself doing something that could only be called flinching. It came from somewhere she could not explain, possibly the blood itself.
With Kaiba Seto watching her silently, Chiaki was working herself up to some kind of explanation when he spoke first.
"Third time we have met, by your count, Kaiba Chiaki."
"Ah? You... you know who I am?"
"Not ordinarily. But I received some information about you from the future. Tell me: has the Deep-Eyes White Dragon I prepared served you well?"
"The future..."
The future Kaiba Seto was referring to would have been the 5D's WRGP Chronicle, the session where Amano had dueled Jack Atlas. In the version of twenty years forward, the middle-aged Kaiba Seto had learned Chiaki's identity and given her the unlock code for the Deep-Eyes White Dragon.
Chiaki lowered her head. "I'm sorry. I received Deep-Eyes White Dragon, but I was unable to win."
"Hmph." A sound of cool disdain. "Still as difficult as ever, even across three thousand years. Amano Rei." He paused. "Lift your head, Chiaki. There is nothing to reproach yourself for."
"Kaiba... Seto..."
"That you are here is proof that my theory is correct."
This was another thing the forty-something Kaiba Seto had said to her, in that other time. Different circumstances, identical certainty.
"Chiaki. There is now a task only you can accomplish."
...
Back in Eden: Kurosaki, Chiaki's secretary, received an emergency transmission on KaibaCorp's internal channel from a number that should have been offline.
Connecting the video call, Kurosaki found himself looking at Chiaki, who was visibly not in the president's office despite the background behind her being indistinguishable from the president's office, as if the image came from a parallel version of the same room.
"Is this a new camouflage program from the R&D division?"
"Don't ask questions, Kurosaki. Route my urgent transmission data through to KaibaCorp's main control computer."
"Ah, yes, of course." When the president gave an order, a professional secretary did not ask for elaboration.
Two minutes later, even Chiaki's eyes showed something she could not name.
It had actually connected.
KaibaCorp's main control computer, three thousand years in the past, had linked with KaibaCorp's main control computer three thousand years in the future.
If this was real, which it appeared to be, then everything Kaiba Seto had told her carried a proportionate weight.
Following Kaiba Seto's instructions, Chiaki entered the administrative takeover password.
Authorization shift: Eva Network, Full-Eden Sync.
"It worked!" Chiaki stood up from pure reflex.
Through the cross-temporal connection, KaibaCorp Eden's main control computer had obtained a portion of the Eva mainframe's own permissions.
[Full-Eden Broadcast Access]
Inside Eden Tower: every surface that could reasonably be called a screen activated simultaneously.
In the Synchro Academy classroom, Nanki'in Sakuya had been quietly working her way through her own reading during evening study hours when the display screen at the front of the room turned on by itself.
She looked up. Her first instinct was that she was experiencing a phenomenon caused by thinking about Amano too much: a mild hallucination.
Amano Rei was on the screen. Dueling.
"Rei?"
"Amano?"
"The class rep?"
Other students reacting with audible confusion confirmed it was not her imagination.
The same feed was visible everywhere: not just Synchro Academy classrooms.
"Amano?" In the History Film Appreciation Club room, the television mid-episode suddenly switched over. Rin Seiya and Nanami Misaki were looking at the same image.
"Hey, that's Amano-bro." Mizuki's computer screen had the same feed.
"Senpai?" In the villa living room, Saotome Rei, Amano Shio, and Finesse watched from the sofa.
Every screen in Domino City's projection had already carried this duel to the assembled crowd. Now that feed had been extended to a different world, three thousand years forward, reaching every display surface in all of Eden Tower. The commercial plaza's oversized LED display, which rented for a figure that would end careers, had been commandeered along with all the rest.
For one moment, all of Eden had the same thing to look at.
What was this duel?
"My turn, draw!"
Kaiba Seto, who had secured first turn at the cost of his Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon, drew his opening card.
This was the ritual through which three of the strongest duelists alive would awaken a dormant king. By that standard, it could be called the Ceremonial Duel.
Kaiba Seto lit the data glow at the left eye of his new Duel Disk and swung a card forward.
"Spell Card: The Melody of Awakening Dragon, activate!"
[The Melody of Awakening Dragon: Discard 1 card; add up to 2 Dragon monsters with 3000 or more ATK and 2500 or less DEF from your Deck to your hand.]
"I discard 1 card from hand and add Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon to my hand! And now I reveal the Dragon I am holding to call forth a new dragon soul!"
The next moment, projected through the new Duel Disk in clarity and detail that made earlier-generation holographics look primitive, a white dragon roared into the field beneath the data sky.
[White Phantom Blue-Eyes White Dragon] [Level 8 / LIGHT]
[Dragon / Special Summon / Effect]
[ATK: 3000] [DEF: 2500]
[This card cannot be Normal Summoned. You can Special Summon this card by revealing 1 "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" in your hand.]
A Blue-Eyes White Dragon, but with the prefix "White Phantom" set before its name. Every feature of the legendary dragon was present: the same furious energy, the same white beam of annihilation already forming in its throat. But it was something more.
Amano genuinely wondered whether Kaiba Seto had quietly given his summons special treatment when designing the projection parameters.
"My turn ends!"
A single White Phantom Blue-Eyes White Dragon and no set cards: the first turn of a duel where no one could attack anyway. This was the freedom of going first with nothing to fear from either opponent. The Chaos MAX Dragon's sacrifice had purchased this composure.
Turn passed to Yugi Muto, who had sacrificed Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior for his second-turn position.
"Kaiba: I didn't expect you to try to reach him this way." Yugi's smile carried a particular warmth, the kind that did not perform itself. "But you really have changed. And maybe another version of me would be happy to see it too."
"Less talking, Yugi! Start your turn!"
"Yes. And if dueling passion can cross the boundaries of time, then I'll give this everything I have."
Yugi pressed his fingertip to his new Duel Disk.
"My turn, draw! Then I Normal Summon Chocolate Magician Girl in Attack Position!"
[Chocolate Magician Girl] [Level 4 / WATER]
[Spellcaster / Effect]
[ATK: 1600] [DEF: 1000]
The new Duel Disk's projection rendered the magician girl in a texture quality that had never existed in dueling before: the precision of a high-definition illustration made physically present, down to the actual surface detail of her skin. Somehow even more adorable than she had been in card form.
"Chocolate Magician Girl's effect activates! I discard 1 Spellcaster monster from my hand to draw 1 card!"
After the filtered draw, Yugi placed three cards face-down.
"I set three cards. Turn end!"
The contrast between the two players' opening gambits was striking: one had committed a single monster with no back row at all, the other had set three cards with only an attacker on the field. Both were legitimate opening strategies for a format where attacking was not yet possible.
"Your turn, Amano!"
And now: the turn of the player who had sacrificed Yuyu at 300 ATK.
Yuyu, for the record, had now technically outlasted Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon and Berserkion the Electromagna Warrior in the same duel. Win record: undefeated.
"My turn, draw!"
The left-eye glow of the new Duel Disk blinked blue as Amano drew.
Watching the screen in the Synchro Academy classroom, Sakuya found herself speaking without quite meaning to: "That Duel Disk is beautiful."
"It really is." Kikawayu, seated nearby, swallowed and quietly agreed.
Objectively, the new-model Duel Disk was in a different class from anything that had come before. Cards did not come out of a physical disk: they were summoned as AR data from the wrist-mounted unit and swung directly toward the sky or ground, the projection appearing at the point of release. Monster cards unfolded from data directly into solid-looking holograms without the intermediate step of a loading animation.
If a skin for something like this were sold in Eden, it would break every sales record on launch day.
"I set Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice in Defense Position!"
[Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice] [DEF: 2100]
Through the technology that had just arrived from three thousand years in the future, the long-haired girl materialized in the pale blue data glow and settled into place in front of Amano: feet light on the floor, hair spread by the faint wind of the projection field.
Eve looked down at herself and tilted her head. "What's so next-generation about it if it can't render what isn't there?"
Eve: there is nothing to render.
"Then I activate Spell Card: Draw From Another Dimension! I banish this card, and it will return to my hand next Standby Phase. When it returns, both players draw 2 cards."
Two more cards went to the back row.
"I set two cards face-down. Turn end!"
The opening round of the Battle Royale concluded in apparent calm. This was not peace: it was the mandatory restraint of a format where nobody could attack on their first turn. The real confrontation was beginning now.
Incidentally: under the Dark Side of Dimensions film's rule structure, each player's starting LP was 8000 rather than 4000, a format choice that shifted dueling incentives toward aggressive play. With more LP to absorb, duelists could afford to take risks.
"My turn, draw!" Kaiba Seto drew.
"Our duel will reach its evolution in this moment! With this card, I will shatter all who stand before me!"
Kaiba Seto held an oversized card between two fingers and drove it forward.
"Spell Card: Dragon-Calling Flute!"
[Dragon-Calling Flute: Activate if there is a Spellcaster-Type monster on the field. Special Summon 1 Level 5 or higher Dragon-Type monster from your Deck. If your opponent controls 2 or more monsters, you can then Special Summon 1 additional monster with the same name as the first monster you Special Summoned.]
An oversized card in this Chronicle. On this merged timeline, which Eva had already confirmed allowed Synchro and Xyz, the presence of crossover technology was apparently not limited to Summon methods.
The activation condition: a Spellcaster present on the field. Neither Kaiba Seto's White Phantom Blue-Eyes nor anything else he had controlled was a Spellcaster. But the Chocolate Magician Girl on Yugi's field was, and so was the Priestess on Amano's.
A card shot from Kaiba Seto's Duel Disk, and the sound it arrived with announced something significant:
"The breath of phantoms sweeps the field, white wings stir a proud soul into action!"
"Arrive in your evolved form!"
"Special Summon! White Phantom Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
[White Phantom Blue-Eyes White Dragon] [Level 8 / LIGHT]
[ATK: 3000] [DEF: 2500]
A second White Phantom, arriving to join the first.
Rin Seiya watched from the television in the club room. "So many 3000 ATK Blue-Eyes White Dragons."
After the second White Phantom landed, Kaiba Seto's field held three white dragons at 3000 ATK: the original, the Alternative, and now two of the Phantom variant.
Wait: the original card at the start of the turn was Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon, not another White Phantom. At this point Kaiba's field was: 1 White Phantom from Turn 1, 1 White Phantom from Dragon-Calling Flute's primary effect, plus Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon. Three different Blue-Eyes cards.
"Our evolved power does not end here!" Kaiba Seto raised his hand. "When Special Summoned, White Phantom Blue-Eyes White Dragon's effect activates!"
[When this card is Special Summoned from hand or Deck: destroy all monsters your opponent controls. This turn, you cannot declare a direct attack except with "Blue-Eyes" monsters.]
"Everything on your fields is gone. White Phantom, open fire!"
Rin Seiya in the club room: "Hold on, that's basically Lightning Storm as an effect. Is this thing even a Blue-Eyes White Dragon anymore?"
Both of Kaiba Seto's White Phantoms charged the beam simultaneously: the same legendary obliteration, but directed at two targets on two separate fields. A board wipe spread across the duel stage in a wall of white light that the new Duel Disk projection made into something that briefly erased the visual field entirely.
[Chocolate Magician Girl, destroyed]
[Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice, destroyed]
The self-restriction on White Phantom's effect:
[This turn, you cannot declare a direct attack except with "Blue-Eyes" monsters.]
Against three Blue-Eyes cards on Kaiba Seto's field, this restriction was meaningless.
"Battle! White Phantom Blue-Eyes White Dragon, direct attack!"
No hesitation about target selection: Kaiba Seto went straight for the three-set opponent.
The decision reflected the read of a top-tier duelist: three set cards in the opening was a more dangerous board than zero set cards. The ATK of a direct hit was manageable. A hidden counter-play was not.
"Phantom Burst Stream of Destruction!!"
Yugi Muto took 3000 points of damage directly and the physical feedback from the new Duel Disk sent him rolling across the stage floor.
Yugi LP: 8000 to 5000
He came to a stop, half-crouched, and looked up without the expression of someone who had just been knocked down.
"Impressive, Kaiba. You've grown stronger than before. But I haven't been standing still either. After the other me left, I kept moving forward."
Still on one knee, Yugi flipped open a face-down card.
"Trap Card: Dark Zone!"
[Dark Zone: During the Battle Phase, when you take battle damage: Special Summon 1 DARK Spellcaster-Type monster from your Deck with ATK equal to or less than the battle damage taken.]
Yugi rose and swung a card from the revived Duel Disk with the motion of someone who had been waiting for the moment.
"I Special Summon Dark Magician!"
[Dark Magician] [Level 7 / DARK]
[Spellcaster / Normal]
[ATK: 2500] [DEF: 2100]
The card that had stood across from Blue-Eyes White Dragon at every decisive moment in the history of the game, the one that had been present at every turn of the Pharaoh's journey: Dark Magician materialized from the storm of data, staff raised to combat position.
"Dark Magician." Kaiba Seto did not attempt to halt the Summon. "Continue the attack. White Phantom Blue-Eyes White Dragon, destroy Dark Magician!"
Battle City. After a year, the two legendary rivals' signature monsters were meeting again, this time on a stage built for something much larger than either of them alone.
Yugi flipped a second face-down: "Continuous Trap: Formed Mound!"
[Formed Mound: Target 1 Level 4 or higher monster you control; this card becomes a Level 4 EARTH Rock-Type monster with 1000 ATK/1000 DEF and is Special Summoned to the Monster Zone. The targeted monster is treated as an Equip Card equipped to this card. You gain DEF equal to the ATK of the equipped monster. This card is also treated as a Trap Card.]
"I Special Summon Formed Mound in Defense Position and equip Dark Magician to it!"
[Formed Mound] [DEF: 1000 to 3500]
A rampart of grey rock erupted beneath Dark Magician's feet, encasing him in structure: the magician rose to the top of it, arms folded, looking entirely untroubled by the arrangement. The DEF climbed to 3500, past the 3000 ATK mark of the incoming White Phantom.
The charging beam faded.
A DEF value that a 3000 ATK monster could not break in battle. Kaiba Seto was not going to throw his Blue-Eyes into a wall for zero result.
"Then I change targets. White Phantom Blue-Eyes White Dragon, direct attack Amano Rei!"
The moment before the beam connected, Amano had already half-expected this. Once the 3500 DEF wall stopped the first attack, going after the player with no on-field protection was the clean call.
The physical feedback from the new Duel Disk was exactly what the description had promised: a sensation that rolled him across the stage floor the same way Yugi had just been rolled. Same choreography, different direction.
Amano LP: 8000 to 5000
He came up in the same half-crouch and flipped his own face-down.
"Trap Card: Damage Capacitor, activate!"
[Damage Capacitor: When you take battle damage: discard 1 card from your hand; Special Summon 1 monster from your Deck with ATK equal to or less than the battle damage taken, in Attack Position.]
Yugi had taken 3000 damage and summoned 2500 ATK Dark Magician.
Amano was not going to be outdone by 500 ATK.
The card ejected from his Duel Disk in a flash of pure white.
"I Special Summon! Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
"ROARRRR!"
[Blue-Eyes White Dragon] [ATK: 3000]
The original. No prefix, no variant, no special designation. The fourth one, soul-bound, the one that had been with him since the gene identification back in District 32. It raised its head and bellowed at the three White Phantoms across the field.
The combined audience reaction from thousands of people was what it was when a sound could not be avoided even in a space this large.
Four Blue-Eyes White Dragons on the field at the same time: three of them Kaiba Seto's White Phantoms, one of them Amano's, summoned as a counter to the attack that had just taken 3000 damage. The projection quality of the new Duel Disk turned all four of them into something that had to be witnessed to be fully processed.
Rin Seiya watched from the club room television and said nothing. The look on her face said everything that needed to be said.
Eve glanced down at the card that had just been played and then back up: "I notice only one of these is the real thing."
She was correct. The three White Phantoms had effects. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon standing in front of Amano was a Normal Monster. No effects. Not a single clause on the card. The most expensive piece of cardboard in Eden, doing nothing except existing at 3000 ATK.
There was something in that.
"Now we are all at 3000 ATK, Kaiba!" Amano called across the field.
Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon, still on Kaiba's field, was also 3000 ATK. Any attack into Amano's Blue-Eyes would be a mutual trade, and Kaiba Seto was not going to waste a dragon on even exchanges.
"I exit the Battle Phase and activate Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon's effect!"
[Once per turn: target 1 monster your opponent controls; destroy it. This card cannot attack the turn this effect is activated.]
The Alternative Dragon's once-per-turn effect: target one opponent monster and destroy it, at the cost of its own attack. Kaiba's attack count had already been depleted after the White Phantom attacks; the self-restriction was not meaningful.
But this time Kaiba redirected at Yugi.
"Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon's effect: destroy Formed Mound!"
A beam of white energy, controlled and focused rather than broadly destructive, sheared through the stone rampart and brought it apart from top to bottom.
[Formed Mound, destroyed]
The reason Kaiba chose the Formed Mound over Amano's Blue-Eyes was simple: Formed Mound's 3500 DEF would beat any of the 3000 ATK Blue-Eyes in battle next turn. Amano's Blue-Eyes at the same 3000 ATK was a coin flip at best.
"Dragon-Calling Flute's second effect!" Kaiba continued. "During Main Phase 2, I can banish this card from the Graveyard to draw 1 card!"
He banished the Flute from his Graveyard and drew, then set one card face-down.
"I set 1 card. Turn end!"
Kaiba Seto's first real offensive turn: self-replaced field wipe through White Phantom's Summon, three attacks combined for 9000 damage dealt between two opponents, 3500 DEF wall blocked the final Blue-Eyes, and a GY draw recycled the search Spell. All of it from a DM-era perspective, a level of output that would be considered formidable in the two eras that followed.
"My turn, draw!" Yugi called.
Dark Magician had gone to the Graveyard when Formed Mound was destroyed.
"I activate Field Spell: Magician's Salvation!"
When a Field Spell was activated through the new-model Duel Disk, no additional zone opening was required: just raise the card overhead and the augmented reality environment spread outward from that point, replacing the floor beneath all three players with the golden geometry of a Dark Magician-style arcane circle.
[Magician's Salvation: When this card is activated: you can Set 1 "Eternal Soul" from your Deck. When you Normal or Special Summon a "Dark Magician" or "Dark Magician Girl": you can target 1 "Dark Magician" or "Dark Magician Girl" in your GY with a different name than the monster you Summoned; Special Summon it.]
"And then: a card that represents my newest power!" Yugi gripped the card's edge and flipped it facing out.
Another oversized card.
"Spell Card: Dark Magic Curtain!"
[Dark Magic Curtain: Both players can Special Summon 1 DARK Spellcaster-Type monster from their respective Decks. If that monster's original name is "Dark Magician" or "Dark Magician Girl," you can also add 1 Spell/Trap Card that mentions "Dark Magician" by name from your Deck to your hand.]
"Get ready, Amano!" Yugi was looking directly at Amano's side of the field.
Dark Magic Curtain applied to all players in the Battle Royale, not just Yugi. Kaiba's Deck almost certainly carried no DARK Spellcasters, or he had no interest in activating the effect. Yugi's glance had gone to Amano because Amano did.
"Let's go, Yugi!" Amano confirmed without hesitation.
Both of them swung from their Duel Disks simultaneously.
"I Special Summon Dark Magician Girl!"
Yugi and Amano, in unison.
[Dark Magician Girl] [Level 6 / DARK]
[Spellcaster / Effect]
[ATK: 2000] [DEF: 1600]
Two of them. Identical in appearance, summoned through the new Duel Disk's projection system to two different positions on the stage, waving their staffs in greeting across the combined field.
The world's rarest monster card, currently appearing twice in the same duel.
Yugi did not look surprised by this. Whether because the rules of the Chronicle normalized it or because he had anticipated the possibility: his expression was simply settled focus.
The fact that the two projections had not interfered with each other suggested that the two cards were different objects, whatever the circumstances.
"By Dark Magic Curtain's secondary effect, since I Special Summoned Dark Magician Girl with the name 'Dark Magician Girl,' I can also search 1 card mentioning Dark Magician from my Deck. I add Dark Burning Magic to my hand." Yugi continued: "And Magician's Salvation now activates! Because I Summoned Dark Magician Girl, I can Special Summon a 'Dark Magician' or 'Dark Magician Girl' with a different name from my Graveyard. I revive Dark Magician!"
The teacher and student duo were together on Yugi's field: Dark Magician rising from the glow of the revival circuit while Dark Magician Girl floated beside him, one hand at her chin as she looked at Yugi with the easy familiarity of someone who had been through everything together.
[Dark Magician] [ATK: 2500]
"With the teacher-student pair on the field, I can activate the Dark Burning Magic I just searched!"
"Activating Dark Burning Magic!" Yugi swung the Quick-Play Spell.
[Dark Burning Magic: If you have "Dark Magician" and "Dark Magician Girl" on the field: destroy all cards your opponent controls.]
Teacher and student raised their staffs together, the combined weight of a bond built across years and lifetimes. The arc of dark magic spread forward.
"Another board wipe?!" Amano shook his head.
The previous turn had been Kaiba Seto using White Phantom to blow the table. This turn was Yugi Muto using the teacher-student combo to blow it again. Was the three-way Battle Royale format specifically designed for people who felt strongly about AOE destruction?
Dual magical detonations spread outward from the staffs of the Dark Magician pair, enveloping both Amano and Kaiba's fields.
The key difference from White Phantom's earlier effect: Dark Burning Magic read "all cards your opponent controls," which in this context included Spells, Traps, and monsters: everything on the field, front and back row.
Facing the total annihilation of his three Blue-Eyes, Kaiba Seto snapped open a face-down.
"Trap Card: The Ultimate Creature of Destruction, activate!"
[The Ultimate Creature of Destruction: Target 1 "Blue-Eyes" monster you control; until the End Phase, it is unaffected by other cards' effects and cannot be destroyed by battle. If your targeted monster destroys a monster by battle, the destroyed monster's controller takes damage equal to that monster's ATK.]
A trap that concentrated the full defensive capability of an "unaffected by and undestroyable" clause onto one Blue-Eyes: the choice mattered.
"I select Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon!"
The dark magic fire swept across the field, removing both White Phantoms and everything else from Kaiba's field. Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon stood in the wreckage, radiant and entirely unaffected.
[White Phantom Blue-Eyes White Dragon x2, destroyed]
On Amano's side, with both fields on fire:
"I chain the last set card! Quick-Play Spell: Dark Magic Arts!"
[Dark Magic Arts: Fuse 1 Spellcaster-Type and 1 Dragon-Type monster from your field into 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck.]
"I Fuse Dark Magician Girl and Blue-Eyes White Dragon into Timaeus the United Dragon!"
A Fusion spiral ignited in the center of Amano's field, the vortex pulling in both monsters at the moment of Dark Burning Magic's resolution. The destruction wave hit the fusion point and caught nothing but the energy signature of cards already in mid-Fusion.
The result emerged from the spiral.
"Fusing the legend of Dark Magic with the legend of Blue-Eyes White Dragon! Rivals turned partners, across all boundaries!"
"Fusion Summon! Timaeus the United Dragon!"
[Timaeus the United Dragon] [Level 10 / LIGHT]
[Dragon / Fusion / Effect]
[ATK: 2800] [DEF: 1800]
["Dark Magician" or "Dark Magician Girl" + 1 Dragon-Type or Spellcaster-Type monster]
The legendary dragon in black magical armor arrived on the field just as the dark fire around him finished burning, the destruction effect finding nothing left to destroy in the zone it was directed at. Timaeus had not quite arrived in time to qualify as unaffected: he had arrived during the chain, at a timing that meant the destruction simply had no target to resolve against.
[When this card is Special Summoned: until your next End Phase, this card is unaffected by other cards' effects.]
The Summon itself granted the immunity that the quick-play Fusion had leveraged a half-second earlier. From the moment Timaeus's feet touched the field, he was an untouchable point on the board.
"Outstanding, Kaiba! Outstanding, Amano!" Yugi said, without irony. Being on the receiving end of two impenetrable counters to what had been a definitive board clear seemed to make him genuinely happy. "Struggling through pressure and finding the line: that's dueling."
Kaiba Seto's brow furrowed. Whatever unspoken commentary he had about Amano's specific choice of counter had apparently been suppressed.
Yugi's position: two Spellcasters, nothing in the back row that Amano had not just destroyed, and a field spell still running.
"I set 1 more card. Turn end!"
"During your End Phase: Timaeus the United Dragon's effect!"
[Once per turn, during your opponent's turn: you can target 1 Spell or Trap Card on the field; destroy it.]
"I choose to destroy your oldest face-down card!"
Three face-downs from Yugi's opening: one had been Dark Zone, one had been Formed Mound, and one had been the one Yugi set most recently. The original opening set card had been sitting there since Turn 1, untouched and untriggered.
Something waiting for exactly the right moment was the most dangerous kind of waiting.
"Well done, Amano!" The reaction from Yugi was genuine, which was the signal.
[Trap Card: Lure of the Serpent, destroyed]
[Lure of the Serpent: Set this card. When this Set card is removed from the field by an opponent's card effect: Special Summon 1 monster from your Deck or Extra Deck.]
Lure of the Serpent: a bait trap. A card with no effect unless the opponent's cards destroyed it, at which point it immediately paid out a free Summon from the Deck or Extra Deck. Yugi had placed it as a planted counter against exactly the kind of strategic targeting that Amano had just deployed.
The destruction had triggered it.
"From my Extra Deck, I Special Summon the Fusion Monster Dark Magician the Dragon Knight!"
[Dark Magician the Dragon Knight] [Level 8 / DARK]
[Spellcaster / Fusion / Effect]
[ATK: 3000] [DEF: 2500]
["Dark Magician" + 1 Dragon-Type monster]
The knight of the legendary pairing: Dark Magician in armor that reflected both his spellcaster lineage and the Dragon-Type that had joined his story. 3000 ATK materialized on Yugi's field with the activation of the trap that had been set there since the opening.
[While this card is in the Monster Zone: Spell and Trap Cards you control cannot be targeted or destroyed by your opponent's card effects.]
As long as Dark Magician the Dragon Knight held his position, Yugi's back row was locked against destruction targeting. No further effect from Amano's or Kaiba Seto's side could reach those cards.
Kaiba Seto's frown deepened. His unspoken reaction to Amano: you made that trap worse, actually.
Fair criticism.
"My turn, draw!"
"And at my Standby Phase: Draw From Another Dimension returns to my hand, and both players draw 2 cards!"
Kaiba and Yugi each pulled 2. Amano drew the 2 he had earned from his own Spell Card returning to hand.
An oversized card had been in each of the other players' Hands from the beginning of the turn. Kaiba Seto had opened with Dragon-Calling Flute; Yugi Muto had opened with Dark Magic Curtain.
Amano was not going to be the only person at this table without an oversized card.
He had one. Courtesy of the Riding Emperor.
"From my hand, I activate Star Junk Synchron's effect!"
[When this card is in your hand: target 1 Level 2 or lower monster in your GY; Special Summon this card and Special Summon that target with its effects negated.]
"I Special Summon Star Junk Synchron, and simultaneously revive Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice from my Graveyard!"
[Star Junk Synchron] [Level 3 / DARK]
[Warrior / Tuner / Effect]
[ATK: 1300] [DEF: 500]
The star-field Tuner arrived with the trailing light of its oversized card art: the figure with the Synchron engine blazing behind it, trailing constellations. Beside it, the long-haired Priestess returned to the field in the quiet way she always did.
"A Tuner!" Both Kaiba Seto and Yugi Muto registered it at the same moment and their expressions shifted to something more serious.
In the club room, Rin Seiya jumped up from her seat: "No way! A Synchro Summon in that era is impossible! Back when there was a Kaiba Seto with all his dragons, the Synchron particles hadn't been activated yet! That's why I lost to Kaiba Chiaki even when she had no Blue-Eyes!"
That was a memory that had apparently not faded.
However: the Chronicle's own preliminary note had been explicit on this point.
[Note: This Chronicle runs on a merged timeline. Synchro and Xyz Summons are usable. Survive until the end using everything at your disposal.]
Eva had provided her own endorsement.
Let them see what Summoning methods from the future actually looked like when they met the past.
Star Junk Synchron activated the engine behind it. The star ring expanded outward, enveloping the Priestess: a circuit of three levels and two levels combining into five.
"I tune the Level 3 Tuner Star Junk Synchron with the Level 2 Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice!"
"Come together, all you wishes for tomorrow! May the wind flowing through the veins of the world carry you, racing and blazing, into paths of light!"
"Synchro Summon! Level 5: Junk Speeder!"
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