Passing through the dimensional gate, Hikaru and the others arrived in the Reverse World.
Contrary to everyone's expectations, there was no toxic miasma or black fog. Quite the opposite: this world was bathed in brilliant sunshine. Everything looked beautiful.
Birdsong, fragrant flowers, pleasant scenery. It was virtually identical to Duel Academy's landscape.
Of course, if you counted the Mr. T's surrounding them like cockroaches, stretching as far as the eye could see, the view wasn't quite as pleasant.
Several Mr. T's erupted with black fog, transforming into dark monsters that charged at Hikaru. Aster swept his left hand forward, leaping ahead. A blood-red hero materialized in the air. Crimson blades rained down like a shower, annihilating the Mr. T's.
But even pierced through, these Mr. T's wouldn't die. The shattered card fragments reassembled into an enormous mechanical golem that swung its fist.
"Armed Dragon!" The towering dragon appeared with a thunderous roar, catching the golem's fist. When that didn't work, dozens of Mr. T's dissolved into black sludge, flew skyward, and assembled multiple dragon heads from black cards.
Five-Headed Dragon!
Before long, the dozens of Mr. T's composing the dragons began inhaling deeply, clearly intending to obliterate Hikaru's group outright.
At that moment, divine light descended from the sky. A seven-colored rainbow illuminated all directions. Overwhelming hope arrived. "Rainbow Dragon!"
Jesse followed immediately, summoning his most trusted companion. Facing Five-Headed Dragon's breath, the colossal dragon god shielded everyone with its wings, blocking the five-colored torrent entirely.
Seeing this still couldn't stop Hikaru's group, more Mr. T's transformed into cards to block them. But the prepared group naturally wouldn't surrender.
At that moment.
CRACKLE...
Suddenly, the sky turned black. Sunlight vanished. Storm clouds gathered.
Mountain-like black clouds crushed down upon the entire world.
Some of the physically weaker members found it hard to breathe.
The assembled Mr. T's dissolved into black cards amid a gust of wind, reformed into human shapes, then teleported to the sides of the road.
A mass of shadow.
A mass of death.
Appeared directly before the students.
Appeared before the gates of this noble Duel Academy, face-to-face with Hikaru and the others.
It was a skeleton draped in a black robe. Its body was entirely composed of bones. Its head was that of a ram, like the demons described in scripture.
"Darkness!" Jaden stepped forward. "Your manipulation of everyone's memories and lives ends here!"
"Interesting." Darkness extended a skeletal hand from beneath its black robe toward Jaden. "You wish to settle things here?
Then, as a human, I ask you, Jaden Yuki: do you have the right to represent all of humanity and duel me?"
Hearing this, Jaden hesitated slightly.
In the original story, Jaden dueled Darkness because barely any humans remained. As one of the last few, he naturally had that right.
But now, he couldn't say "I represent everyone."
However, that kind of rhetoric didn't work on Hikaru.
"We don't represent anyone. I won't represent anyone else either. I only represent myself." Hikaru looked at Darkness, enduring the stinging mental pain, and spoke. "Even if I can't destroy you, those who come after will step over my corpse and defeat you with better tactics."
"Heh heh heh. Hikaru, saying something like 'tag-team dueling' without hesitation. You don't seem embarrassed at all?"
"Why would I be? Since you can trick spirits into attacking us, use mental control, memory manipulation, existence erasure, and send these Mr. T's to assault us in waves, we can naturally do the same." Hikaru put it simply. "There's no reason we can't use the same approach."
Hikaru's style was always: if the enemy caused trouble, he'd cause bigger trouble right back.
He had originally planned to scout alone. But with this many people here, even if he had to grind Darkness down one turn per person, he'd do it without hesitation.
Of course, for now, he wouldn't resort to that. Darkness had long been prepared as well.
"Heh heh heh... Very well, humans. I'll give you one chance. A chance to truly defeat me." Darkness didn't care much about verbal sparring.
Bottom line, whether it was Hikaru's group or Darkness, they had only one goal: destroy each other!
What Darkness had told Hikaru and Chazz before was already crystal clear.
Coexistence was not an option.
Darkness itself didn't mind "tag-team dueling."
But that didn't mean it would happily accept it.
The reason it had arrived at this era from the distant future wasn't boredom or a death wish. Having surveyed every critical juncture in history, this era, where the King slumbered, dimensions were connected, the new generation hadn't yet emerged, and multiple dimensions had no formal alliances, was the optimal time to divide and destroy humanity's every "hope."
Any earlier, and the Nameless King would still exist. Any later, and multiple dimensions might formally cooperate. Neither scenario favored Darkness.
From Hikaru's perspective, if Darkness were patient enough, it could wait until the end of time, then crush humanity during a moment of weakness to ensure its own "eternal existence."
But in reality, that wasn't possible.
The reason was simple. This world had already determined its future development path: dimensional travel.
This world had already established exchanges with multiple dimensions. This world already understood the spirit world. This world would never follow its original trajectory, would never perish under "perpetual motion machine meltdown."
Perhaps civilization would be destroyed by spirits, or by multidimensional war, or by various other reasons. But it definitely wouldn't match the ending Darkness desired.
So it wasn't that Darkness couldn't wait. It was that it no longer deserved to wait.
The longer it waited, the greater the possibility of its natural "death" and "disappearance"!
There was no helping it.
Now was humanity's most vulnerable moment. The time when dimensional travel education had just begun expanding, when dimensional travel applications were being scaled up, when humanity's understanding of the dimensional concept was weakest and most defenseless.
And now, with Hikaru having found its location and turned the tables, it could no longer afford to "wait."
After all, Hikaru wouldn't even give it the chance to regroup and resume "waiting."
As for the "tag-team dueling" Hikaru mentioned, Darkness wasn't worried at all.
Hikaru talked big, but not just anyone could actually duel Darkness. Even with dimensional travel and spirit studies, even with these excellent academy students gaining spirit protection and power, dueling Darkness wasn't something you could just decide to do.
Most people simply couldn't withstand any battle damage it controlled.
Ultimately, only people at the level of Jaden, Jesse Anderson, and Hikaru could duel it.
These thoughts cycled through its mind. Then it spoke quietly. "Very well, Hikaru. I'll give you a chance to challenge me."
It slowly raised one finger. "I'll allow two of you to duel me. In return, I'll create a clone to serve as my teammate for humanity's final duel.
If you win, it proves you've surpassed my existence and earned the right to never go extinct.
If you lose, as the price, I will take your influence on this world, your positive impact, everything you are."
Everyone exchanged glances.
"I'll go!" "Let me!" "I'm in!"
They didn't dwell on the stakes. They raced to volunteer.
"If it's only two... I'll go." Hikaru wasted no words and stepped forward first.
Seeing Hikaru speak up, everyone exchanged looks, fell silent for a moment, then unexpectedly nodded in unison, accepting this without question.
Every single person present believed in Hikaru from the bottom of their hearts!
Next, they began discussing who should be Hikaru's partner.
Jaden and Chazz, both with extensive tag-team experience alongside Hikaru, volunteered. They had partnered with him multiple times and knew each other's Decks well. Tag dueling would be no problem.
But soon, after a moment's hesitation, Chazz voluntarily stepped down.
Although he was confident in his synergy with Hikaru, in this Reverse World, under the blackened sky after Darkness's appearance, he already felt suffocating pressure.
The duel would likely be even more grueling. He didn't want to hold Hikaru back. He only cursed himself for not developing his spirit power further.
"Just in case, Hikaru, take these cards." After thinking, Chazz pulled out his Deck, selected several cards, and handed them over.
Hikaru paused, then nodded.
Seeing Chazz's gesture, Aster, Serena, and the others quickly checked their own Decks, finding cards that could work with Hikaru's.
On the other side, Jesse and the others also pulled out cards and handed them to Jaden.
"Interesting... Not a group assault, but using this method to fight me collectively?"
Hikaru didn't respond to Darkness.
"Acceptable. Nothing is unacceptable." Darkness spoke slowly. "Furthermore, in this duel, you may freely use all your power and all your cards.
Deck size, Extra Deck, use them all without limit."
Hearing this, Hikaru's hands paused. He looked at Darkness thoughtfully.
"The more sentiments stored in your Decks, the greater the impact on humanity from this duel."
"Make your choices, humans."
A threat.
The implication was clear: the more outside power Hikaru and the others used in the duel, the greater Darkness's influence on the human world in return. If the "power balance" wasn't managed, even if Darkness and Hikaru's group agreed on duel terms at the start, the excessive inflation of duel energy could force Hikaru and Jaden to become "the humans bearing all of humanity" dueling "the entity symbolizing humanity's end."
At that point, even if Hikaru and Jaden didn't want that title, losing the duel would become "humanity's final hour."
Hikaru frowned slightly, assembled his cards, and took a deep breath.
He wouldn't be intimidated by such threats.
"I will fuse all their thoughts and convictions, and defeat you."
Just win. That's all that matters!
Moments later, the two prepared duelists stood before Darkness.
The rest positioned themselves alongside, cheering while staying vigilant against surrounding Mr. T's, ready to respond to any surprise attack.
After all, throughout this ordeal, the behavior of Darkness's spirits and agents had been plain to see. They didn't trust these beings.
But from Darkness's perspective, such precautions were unnecessary.
Although it would grant some power to its subordinates during their duels, letting them contribute, when it personally took the field, it would abide by every rule. It would never use extraneous abilities.
"Then..."
Darkness extended its left hand. Black fog mixed with countless cards flew out, forming a shadow at its side. This shadow materialized a Duel Disk. Simultaneously, from its left hand, countless pale bones began shifting, gradually constructing a Duel Disk of its own.
Hikaru and Jaden stood before the two "Darknesses," simultaneously preparing and loading their Decks.
"The duel symbolizing humanity's end begins."
CLAP CLAP CLAP.
CLAP CLAP CLAP.
Among the spectators behind Darkness, the nearest Mr. T's began applauding. Then those further away joined in. Applause swept across the hills and valleys like ocean waves, like a hymn celebrating this duel's beginning.
Several Mr. T's grinned viciously, mocking Hikaru and Jaden for bringing their companions' power. This would transform the duel into an unstoppable final battle.
Facing this, Serena was the first among Hikaru's group who couldn't hold back. She cupped her hands around her mouth and screamed: "GO!! MASTER!! GO, JADEN!!"
Her voice alone wasn't loud enough. But amid the ocean of applause, it still shone brightly.
Following her lead, Chazz, Jesse, Aster, Adrian... every classmate and friend who had come began cheering for Hikaru and Jaden.
No matter how thunderous the applause, their voices reached them!
"DUEL!" x3.
"This duel follows standard Tag Duel format! The format you humans know best!
I take the first turn!"
Humanity's End, the World's Reverse Side. Darkness and its Clone, LP: 8000.
Duel Academy, Darkness of the Cosmos, Hero Master Jaden Yuki & Humanity's Light, Fusion Master Hikaru Amagi, LP: 8000.
"My turn. Draw!"
Darkness's first turn.
"I pay 2000 Life Points."
Darkness LP: 8000 → 6000.
Opening with 2000 LP paid.
"I activate the Spell Card..."
"Final Countdown!"