The duel ended, and Fink became food for the Earthbound Immortal, swallowed whole.
Hikaru lifted his head and looked toward the security officers, then locked eyes with Lilos. He raised his left hand:
"Come down."
Lilos clenched his fist so hard his knuckles cracked.
Being provoked, especially by Hikaru, a duelist who openly opposed their entire Fusion Army, was already beyond what anyone could tolerate.
And on top of that, Leo Akaba had personally told him before leaving:
'If that noble fool fails to defeat Hikaru, then you handle it yourself.'
He almost pulled his Deck from his uniform, but halfway out, he forced himself to stop and slowly put the cards back.
Right now, dueling Hikaru head-on would be suicide.
Even after all his research, even after crafting anti-Fusion tactics specifically to beat Hikaru…Fink still lost.
Sure, part of that was Fink's arrogance, but even if Fink had followed Lilos' exact strategy to the letter…would he really have won?
After all, Hikaru had just proven something terrifying:
Even without using Fusion Spells, he can still Fusion Summon and keep fighting.
Hikaru wasn't mocking their "Fusion Army" for style, he was stating a painful truth:
They weren't "fusing" at all.
Lilos' fist trembled. His teeth ground together.
But he still couldn't move. Everything he had prepared, was now completely meaningless.
"Hikaru."
"I understand," Hikaru said calmly.
"If you're so desperate to prove that your Fusion is the correct path…then next time, I'll defeat you using my own true Fusion."
With that, Lilos leapt back up toward the cliff above.
"Hmph."
Hikaru snorted in boredom.
Compared to beating some random aristocrat from Sector S,the Fusion Army was far more motivating.
Besides…
Hikaru looked down at the Earthbound Immortal card in his hand.
There was a feeling coming from it.
Apathy.
The Earthbound Immortal should have been overflowing with violent, corruptive power, enough to drag out the madness in any human heart.
But Chacu Challhua was utterly silent.
Hikaru probed it with his own power.
No resistance. No malice. No domination.
Just…
Resignation.
A complete, utter refusal to care.
Hikaru began to understand.
This world was not the original 5D's world. Here in the Synchro Dimension, the "One God War" had repeated countless times.
Sometimes different gods won. Sometimes the "Only God" changed hands. But either way…even among Earthbound Immortals, there were those who had grown exhausted by the endless cycle.
Chacu Challhua…might be one of them.
After all, even if the original didn't choose Greiger here, no true god of its rank would ever choose a vessel like Fink: a man with no duelist spirit, no courage, no resolve.
It made no sense.
The good news was that this thing was also classified as a "Earthbound" monster.
That meant it could be used as Fusion material for Earthbound Servant Geo Kraken, so Hikaru didn't need to worry about this card being overwritten or erased by his "Fusion" power.
And with that settled;
Even though Chacu Challhua itself had shown no will or vitality,its power was undeniably real. It could greatly supplement Hikaru's dueling aura and spirit power.
Hikaru's own spiritual force was already extremely high, with Tierra's blessing, he was near the upper limit a human could reach.
But if it could grow even stronger…who would ever turn that down?
And that wasn't all.
After the duel finally ended, the silhouette of Geo Kraken also loosened completely, the chains and bindings that wrapped its body fell away, and it too turned into a card that drifted into Hikaru's hand.
Harmonic Synchro Fusion.
The anime version of the card!
You had to understand: the biggest difference between the anime version and the printed OCG/TCG version was that the printed version only performs a "Special Summon," which counts as neither a Fusion Summon nor a Synchro Summon.
Meaning: Hikaru's downgraded version could not fuse Fusion Dragons, and it couldn't summon Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon either.
How was that supposed to be "Synchro Fusion"!?
He couldn't even summon an S-Dimension Duel Dragon with it!
But the anime version was completely different, it counted as both a Fusion Summon and a Synchro Summon.
It was immeasurably stronger than the downgraded one.
Most importantly:
Its card name was different from the one Hikaru previously obtained from the Skull Knight.
Because the downgraded version of that card had the full name"Ghost Fusion – Ghostly Fusion," Hikaru could never search it with a custom-made Ghost Wyvern, and Skull Knight's gift was stuck being unsearchable.
But this card…
"Harmonic Synchro Fusion" was the exact same name as the OCG-downgraded version.
Which meant: It could be searched directly, by Earthbound Servant Linewalker's effect.
Ecstatic, Hikaru immediately slid the card into his Deck.
Then he looked back at the roadway and turned to the security officers.
"So? Are you still planning to arrest me?"
The officers glanced at each other, and eventually, all of them turned to Tetsu.
Tetsu looked extremely awkward.
He scratched the back of his head and sighed.
"Come on… you little punks only remember I'm your captain at times like this, huh?"
He turned toward Hikaru.
"Well… what can I say, Hikaru.
We're Security Officers, we can't disobey orders from nobles. Since Baron Fink said you could go if you won, then you can go. We won't stop you."
"Hah."
Hikaru let out two short laughs.
He pushed his D-Wheel forward, rolled back onto the racetrack,and put his helmet on once again.
"Before I go, Officer… I don't know exactly how things work in your dimension, but if a noble dies while under your 'protection,' those nobles will definitely blame you, won't they?"
Tetsu's expression froze with embarrassment.
"That man just now, Lilos, his backing organization is called the Fusion Military.
They're a terrorist group in our dimension, bent on conquering every dimension."
"What?" Tetsu's embarrassment instantly vanished, replaced by shock.
"A piece of good news is: I happen to have the footage of their invasion of X-Dimension. Ha… that brat Chazz really prepared well."
Hikaru muttered the last line under his breath, then pressed a button on his D-Wheel, sending the footage to the nearby patrol car.
"Here, take it. With this, you should be able to report back to your superiors. When it involves dimensional invasion… heh, this should make quite a useful bargaining chip, right?"
Hikaru wasn't sure how the Security Bureau worked in this dimension.
But he did know one thing: If Godwin could smack the nobles once, he could smack them a second, a third, and countless more times.
Once the transfer finished, Hikaru looked at Tetsu from behind his visor.
"Officer Tetsu, these past few days… you've probably seen a bit of this world's actual 'truth,' and what some nobles really think, haven't you?
I hope, when the time comes, you make the right choice."
"The… right choice?"
Tetsu looked completely lost.
Hikaru chuckled.
Usually other people were the ones playing riddles with him. Today he finally got to be the one acting mysterious.
But since it would all erupt within a few days anyway, there was no need to explain.
He twisted the throttle and left his final message:
"Well then, farewell."
His D-Wheel automatically accelerated, racing off the way he came.
Tetsu watched Hikaru's silhouette disappear, then glanced at his men, all gathered around the patrol car, watching the footage.
And he remembered what the nobel said earlier:
"A bunch of parasites wasting society's resources…They barely count as human. Letting them become fodder for a better future is already a blessing for them!"
To obtain power, sacrificing human beings directly to monsters…?
How had his world… become like this?