The air inside the air-raid shelter carried a stale, rusty scent, and the dim emergency lights overhead buzzed faintly.
Although they had temporarily escaped the open environment, this sealed reinforced concrete structure did little to bring the students any sense of security.
Groups of high schoolers huddled together along the walls, many hugging their knees and sobbing quietly. The space that had originally been meant for storing wartime supplies was now packed to the brim with frightened figures.
Raku leaned against the heavy blast door, the collar of his coat slightly raised. Unlike the others, who were anxiously at a loss, he pulled out his phone, its screen already cracked in places, and rapidly swiped across the dim blue display.
On social media, Duelist forums from all over had already exploded.
[Urgent! My deskmate just summoned "Judgment Dragon," and suddenly collapsed… he won't wake up no matter what!]
[Something happened at Star City Third High too! Two cases of people summoning Level 8 Dragons and getting drained dry. Even ambulances can't get in!]
[These bought high-level monsters are basically curses… everyone, don't use them!]
The screen's glow reflected on Raku's calm, unruffled face. He made a rough estimate: in the past half hour, the number of reported cases had already exceeded three digits.
"Cases like the Weasel's… have they already reached this scale?"
He murmured, closing the blood-soaked incident image.
This wasn't a coincidence. It felt more like something long premeditated.
He turned to glance at Akira, who had been placed on a makeshift field bed by the school doctors.
Meanwhile, Thorne was pacing in a small open area at the center of the shelter.
His green suit had been smeared with dust during the evacuation, and his tie hung crooked, but he still forced his chin up. The golden feather pen brooch on his chest reflected a faint arc of light under the emergency lamps.
"Everyone, please remain calm."
Thorne cleared his throat, his voice echoing through the hollow tunnel, carrying a deliberately constructed authority.
"Even though the city alarm sounds frightening, pay attention to your footing. There's no significant tremor, which means this isn't a large-scale tectonic event like an earthquake."
He raised a finger, tapping rhythmically against his palm.
"At present, our network is still functioning. That wouldn't be possible in a truly catastrophic disaster.
"So this is most likely a rare super thunderstorm, or some kind of widespread electromagnetic interference.
"Staying calmly in the shelter is currently the most… elegant choice."
Raku watched him maintain his composure even while fleeing for his life.
Though he found it somewhat ridiculous, he had to admit that this line of reasoning did have some effect in calming people. The restless crowd gradually quieted down, and even a few timid girls stopped crying.
The school doctor, busy administering oxygen to Akira, carefully took out a card from the medical case when Thorne approached.
It was the culprit:
[Dark Hole Dragon].
"Teacher Thorne, you're well-traveled… what exactly is going on with this card?" the doctor asked in a low voice, eyes full of apprehension. "That aura just now didn't feel like an ordinary card at all."
Thorne took the card. The moment his fingertips touched it, his pupils shrank.
That cold, viscous sensation tinged with a greedy hunger seemed to crawl through his fingertips, almost drilling into his pores. Outwardly, he maintained a serious expression, examining the black vortex on the card as if nothing were wrong.
"Hmm… this pattern… this coating…"
Thorne muttered as if deep in thought, while his mind frantically searched for information about illegal cards.
Meanwhile, in truth, half of his so-called knowledge of the Spirit World was real, while the other half had been exaggerated for sales.
At that moment, a phantom visible only to him appeared beside his shoulder.
It was [Majespecter Raccoon - Bunbuku]. Its fluffy tail swayed uneasily as it leaned close to Thorne's ear, its voice filled with undisguised disgust.
"Hey, narcissist, stop touching it. Careful, it might bite you."
Thorne's heart skipped a beat.
The raccoon continued muttering in his ear, its voice audible only to its contractor, exploding in his mind. "The darkness on this card is so dense it's practically dripping.
"That said, this is just a vessel, not the source. Haven't you noticed? It's… trembling."
"Trembling?" Thorne questioned inwardly.
"It's constantly channeling spirit power toward the center of the city, like a straw stuck into a blood vessel. The mastermind must be at the city center, planning to use these kids' lives to make something big."
Cold sweat instantly broke out across Thorne's back.
So those widespread collapses were actually a citywide soul sacrifice?
"So that means… a Shadow Duelist is distributing these problematic high-power monster cards to harvest Soul Power on a massive scale?"
Thorne's face turned pale. Forgetting all about maintaining appearances, he hurriedly pulled out his phone, his fingers shaking as he dialed the emergency hotline of the Duelist Association.
"Something of this scale… it has to be reported immediately… hello? Pick up!"
From a distance, Raku watched Thorne in his frantic state, then glanced at the weakening signal bars on his own phone.
The unease in his heart finally solidified.
Thorne pressed the phone to his ear, but all that came through the receiver was a lifeless busy tone.
"Come on… just a little more…"
Pa!
At the instant Thorne dialed, the already flickering emergency lights were cut off at the source, plunging the entire shelter into suffocating darkness.
Silence.
In the pitch-black void where nothing could be seen, the hum unique to electronic devices vanished.
"The power grid… is down?"
Rikka's frightened voice rang out beside Raku, her rapid, fear-filled breathing especially clear in the darkness.
"Damn it! The signal's gone too!"
Thorne angrily slapped his phone, but in this deeply shielded underground space, no signal could carry that life-or-death warning anymore.
In that empty darkness, the only thing still emitting a glow was the [Dark Hole Dragon] card in the school doctor's hand. The black-and-white halo on its surface pulsed slowly in the dark, like some living creature greedily breathing.
The darkness was like a thick, mildewed old quilt, pressing down on the breathing of the hundreds of people in the air-raid shelter until it felt heavy and suffocating.
Raku leaned against the cold concrete wall, listening to the overlapping whispers around him, many of them trembling with suppressed sobs. He let out a soft sigh.
This kind of fear of the unknown wasn't really any different from a child being afraid of the dark.
The reason people stop fearing the dark as they grow up isn't that they become braver, but because they've seen more; they know there are no fanged, clawing monsters lurking in the night, and so they stop being afraid.
However, now, in this so-called "dueling world," there really were monsters in the darkness.
"Big brother… will we be okay?"
Rikka's voice drifted from beside him, as soft as a mosquito's buzz, trembling noticeably.
In this pitch-black environment, stripped of vision, that unease was amplified countless times.
"It'll be fine."
Raku replied calmly. He couldn't see her expression, but he could feel her oversized black coat trembling.
"Will someone come save us?" Rikka asked again, her hand gripping the card case, her fingertips scraping against its metal edge.
Raku fell silent.
Though he wanted to comfort her with some standard line from a hero movie, the reality was: power outage, network failure, and the citywide incidents he had just seen on his phone.
Something had to slip from control.
At a time like this, those so-called "heroes" were probably busy dealing with the bigger mess at the city center; they wouldn't have time for a remote school's air-raid shelter.
"Big brother, do you think… Starry Dragon will protect me?"
Raku assumed she was just seeking reassurance and answered gently, "Believe in Starry Dragon. It will protect you."
However, the "frightened kitten seeking protection" he had expected did not appear.
In that thick darkness, Raku felt the presence beside him suddenly change. The previously uneven breathing born of fear steadied within seconds, becoming firm and powerful; it carried even a sharp, unfamiliar pressure that made him uneasy.
Rikka suddenly raised her head. Though the darkness obscured everything, Raku could feel her gaze locked toward the shelter's exit.
"I'm going to stop all of this."
There was not a trace of trembling left in her voice; only unwavering determination.
Before Raku could react, a series of rapid footsteps rang out in the darkness. Rikka moved with incredible speed, using the residual glow of the emergency lights like a guide, darting toward the stairs leading to the surface like a swift white bird.
"Rikka?!"
Raku froze.
He genuinely hadn't processed it. This was the same sister who would shirk doing dishes, who would hide behind him during horror movies… how could she run straight outside at a moment like this?
His thoughts stalled for half a second.
Ever since arriving in this new world, Raku had subconsciously maintained the mindset of a passerby in a "card game." He believed that as long as his deck was strong enough and his play was steady, this world was nothing more than a real-life battle platform.
He had overlooked one fundamental truth: this wasn't a tournament arena. The cards here… chose their Duelists.
If those tempted by false power chose [Dark Hole Dragon], then how could [Starry Night, Starry Dragon], which symbolized pure protection and light against darkness, choose someone who would flee at the critical moment as its wielder?
The fate of a deck is often decided the moment it chooses its Duelist. A user of the Starry Knight deck is destined to stand at the very front when darkness descends.
This wasn't because the deck brainwashed her through some supernatural means; it was because Rikka was originally the kind of fool who would step forward at critical moments.
That's why the Starry Knight deck had chosen her from the very beginning.
It was a choice born from the justice hidden deep in her heart… and it was destiny calling her to duel.
"…Seriously, you really don't treat me as your big brother."
Raku muttered under his breath, but the corner of his lips twitched. He had originally planned to stay hidden in the shelter with her until morning, waiting for everything to settle.
People like him hated trouble the most.
However, now, trouble had grown legs and run off.
"Do I look like someone who runs away at the last moment?"
He spoke to himself as he stood up. His previously lazy posture straightened in that instant. He strode forward hastily, his leather shoes striking the concrete steps with a steady, rhythmic sound.
He was convincing himself and telling the part of him that still wanted to remain a spectator; that duels in this world carried weight.
When he rushed out of the shelter and into the underground parking garage, Rikka was already gone.
Only the empty lanes remained, along with the oppressive dark purple glow seeping in from the distant exit.
"Gone that far…"
Raku pushed open the heavy iron door leading from the garage to the surface. A blast of cold wind mixed with thunder rushed in instantly. He pulled up his coat collar, looking at the streets that had fallen into silence due to the power outage.
In the distance, toward the city center, that pillar of dark purple light shot straight into the sky, as if trying to punch a massive hole through it.
If that foolish sister of his was really acting out of that so-called "sense of mission," then she would definitely be running toward the brightest point of that light.
"Just don't mess up those cool lines before I find you, you idiot."
Raku took a deep breath and stepped into the night, facing the wild, foul-smelling wind.
Behind him, the students who hadn't yet evacuated watched through the shelter's opening, terrified, as the two figures moved against the current.
Thorne stood at the top of the stairs, gripping the glowing [Dark Hole Dragon], watching as the boy who usually had no presence in class disappeared into the darkness without looking back.
"Hey… have you both lost your minds?"
Thorne shouted shakily, but his voice was carried away by the raging wind, receiving no response.
...
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