"Hmph... Draw a card."
The strange Kaibaman swiftly drew a card, and in the mausoleum, countless lights suddenly ignited. Within the glow, Tenjo Hikari felt as if countless blue eyes were observing him.
Kaibaman glanced at his hand cards.
"Boasting to come here and dare to speak such arrogant words, let me see if you truly have the capability." Kaibaman picked up two cards, showing them directly, "Normal Spell Card, Cards of Consonance, activate!"
Adjustment?
Tenjo Hikari's eyebrows furrowed instantly.
"This card allows you to discard a Dragon-Type Tuner Monster with Attack Power 1000 or less from your hand to draw two cards from your deck." Kaibaman pinched the card between his fingers, displaying it to Tenjo Hikari. On the left was Cards of Consonance, and in his right hand was The White Stone of Legend.
He placed the two cards into the graveyard, then smirked as he drew two cards.
"Monster Effect of The White Stone of Legend—when this card is sent to the graveyard, you can add one 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' from your deck to hand."
"Come forth, Blue-Eyes."
Without even checking his deck, he drew a card—astonishingly, it was a Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
Tenjo Hikari clicked his tongue slightly, while beside him, Tierra couldn't resist exclaiming, "This strange... creature? How exactly does it do that?"
Even Tenjo Hikari couldn't achieve such a feat.
"Normal Summon, Kaibaman, Ally of Justice."
He summoned himself.
A monster almost identical to him appeared. The difference was that he wore a card necklace, whereas the monster did not.
Kaibaman, Ally of Justice, LV 3, Light Attribute, Warrior-Type, Attack Power 200.
"Then—activate its effect, offering it as a sacrifice to special summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon from the hand!"
Kaibaman directly picked up Blue-Eyes White Dragon and showed it to Tenjo Hikari:
"Behold, this is the true light you wished to reach but will never touch!
Come! Descend, my servant!
Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
"Roar!!!"
A dragon's roar echoed as a white outline sketched its shape in the air. Shortly after, a mass of light gathered at the spot, eventually forming into a genuine entity.
Blue-Eyes White Dragon, LV 8, Light Attribute, Dragon-Type, Attack Power 3000!
The standard values and stature, the strongest Normal Monster, Blue-Eyes White Dragon!
"Then, set a card, turn end."
"Huh, is that really the end?" Tierra seemed a bit surprised.
A Normal Monster and a set card—the scene felt very average, so much so that not only Marufuji Ryo or Manjome Jun, but even some of the other quarter-finalists might effortlessly achieve even more.
"What's the matter, aren't you starting your turn?" Kaibaman wore a confident smile, seemingly indifferent to Tierra's words, "Or, merely seeing Blue-Eyes made you shiver in fear?"
"Fear... No, it's excitement!" Tenjo Hikari, upon hearing Kaibaman's words, first took a deep breath, then showed a smile, "Finally, the excitement of dueling the legendary White Dragon!"
"Hmph... Interesting."
Tenjo Hikari narrowed his eyes, looking at his hand cards.
Even though he had dueled many original characters, the GX group was growing, and being classmates felt less of a challenge.
But the opponent was different.
Though it might not be Kaiba Seto himself, the tone, demeanor, actions, and cards were undoubtedly "Kaiba."
The only question was what "state of Kaiba" he truly was.
AI, Spirit, or even past Kaiba were all possibilities.
Yet, those didn't matter.
"My turn, draw!" Tenjo Hikari glanced at the drawn card.
Dreamland?
Alright—
A promising start!
"Activate Field Spell Card, Dreamland!"
The interior of the Mausoleum of White suddenly became unreal, as if shrouded by a filter. Gazing at a desk lamp, it seemed to sprout tentacles, yet when rubbing your eyes and looking again, the lamp appeared unchanged.
"Then... Ha, I normal summon Keeper of Dragon Magic."
A monster resembling Tenjo Hikari appeared on the field.
"Oh?" Seeing this monster, Kaibaman reacted a bit differently.
Keeper of Dragon Magic, LV 4, Dark Attribute, Dragon-Type, Defense Power 1300.
"Monster Effect of Keeper of Dragon Magic — upon normal or special summon, discard a hand card to activate. From the deck, add a Normal Spell Card with 'Polymerization' in its name to hand.
I discard Elemental Hero Prisma, then add Fusion Deployment to hand."
"Fusion... Interesting, it seems you're not spouting nonsense indeed." Though using only one card, hearing its effect description allowed Kaibaman to ascertain that Tenjo Hikari truly understood Fusion.
"Activate Spell Card, Fusion Deployment." Tenjo Hikari didn't respond to Kaibaman's words, activating the spell, "Reveal a Fusion Monster in the Extra Deck, from hand or deck special summon one named Fusion Material Monster as written by that Fusion Monster.
"What I'm about to show you is the Fusion Monster, Master of Chaos."
"What?" Kaibaman's smile froze instantly.
"The Fusion Materials for Master of Chaos are [Dark Magician] and a [Chaos] Ritual Monster. I will special summon from the deck — come forth, Dark Magician!"
The red magician spun and flew out of the deck, lightly landing on the ground.
Dark Magician, LV 7, Dark Attribute, Spellcaster-Type, Attack Power 2500.
"A red Dark Magician... interesting, so you are a Dimensional Duelist possessing the Dark Magician?" Kaibaman quickly regained his composure, folded his arms in front of him, and said, "Interesting, but if you think having just a Dark Magician is enough to challenge me, you're gravely mistaken."
Hearing this, Tenjo Hikari pondered the possibilities.
It's either "the Kaiba of the past" or "AI Kaiba"; doesn't seem to be a spirit.
"Then... I activate this card! The Eye of Timaeus!"
Kaibaman held his chin with one hand, squinting his eyes slightly.
"This card's name is treated as [Legendary Dragon Timaeus] according to the rules. Only one card with this name can be activated per turn."
"Activate by targeting 1 {Dark Magician} monster on your field. Use that 1 monster as the Fusion Material to Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster that lists that monster card name as Fusion Material!"
"I use Dark Magician as the Fusion Material to perform a single-card fusion!"
The attire of the Dark Magician began to change, as the shoulder pads, armor, shield, and long sword of the Black Luster Soldier gathered from all directions, fitting onto him.
"Fusion Summon!
LV 8, Master of Chaos!"
"... Interesting," Kaibaman's interest was thoroughly piqued, "I thought you were just some pretentious clown, but it seems you are not a, run-of-the-mill duelist just here to pass the time."
Master of Chaos, LV 8, Dark Attribute, Spellcaster-Type, Attack Power 3000.
"Dreamland's effect: If there's a Fusion Monster on the field, once per turn, if a monster from your hand or field is sent to the graveyard by an effect, you can draw one card. The effect of Master of Chaos: When this card is successfully Fusion Summoned, you can target one Light or Dark Attribute monster in your graveyard and Special Summon it.
Revive Elemental Hero Prisma, then draw a card—"
Tenjo Hikari glanced at the card he drew and then looked at the warrior reflecting the light on the field.
Elemental Hero Prisma, LV 4, Light Attribute, Warrior-Type, Attack Power 1700.
"Activate Prisma's effect, once per turn, reveal a Fusion Monster from the Extra Deck and send one card with that Fusion Monster's name as written to the graveyard; this card is treated as the same name until the end of the turn.
Reveal Frightfur Sheep and send Edge Imp Chain from the deck to the graveyard."
Elemental Hero Prisma → Edge Imp Chain.
"Finally, Keeper of Dragon Magic's effect: reveal one Fusion Monster from the Extra Deck and Special Summon one monster from the graveyard that is listed as Fusion Material for it in face-down defense position!"
"Special Summon Edge Imp Chain in face-down defense position!"
The Chain Archfiend opened its red eyes and ominously appeared on the field.
"Impressive, Tenjo Hikari," Tierra exclaimed in surprise, "To think you could Special Summon so many monsters at once?"
Having watched so many duels, she understood somewhat that Tenjo Hikari used one Keeper of Dragon Magic and one The Eye of Timaeus to create this situation, where the returns far exceeded the expenditure and instantly met the conditions to activate Master of Chaos' effect.
"Activate Master of Chaos' monster effect, by releasing one Light Attribute and one Dark Attribute monster from your field to the graveyard, banish all monsters on the opponent's field!"
"Release Prisma and the face-down Edge Imp to banish your Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
Master of Chaos raised his hands, and Prisma and Edge Imp turned into lines of different colors that flowed into his sword and shield.
"Interesting..." Kaibaman suddenly spoke up, "No wonder you dared to challenge me; you do indeed have some skill — but how naive!"
"Trap Card!"
"Toughness! Invincibility! The Strongest!"
Tierra thought Kaibaman was just shouting slogans like they do in the S Dimension, but she suddenly realized that the Trap Card Kaibaman flipped over was actually named this!
Tenjo Hikari's pupils suddenly contracted at the sight of this card.
"Target one {Blue-Eyes} monster on your field to activate. This turn, that face-up monster is unaffected by any other card effects, cannot be destroyed by battle, and the monster that battles it is destroyed at the end of the Damage Step!"
"Witness true power! The strongest power! Repel the power of the Dark Magician, Blue-Eyes!"
As he spoke, Master of Chaos had already slashed his sword, tearing space and pulling the Blue-Eyes White Dragon into its maw, but the Blue-Eyes White Dragon shone with a terrifying white light. It then inhaled and exhaled a terrifying white light that collided with the Dark Hole, and finally, they obliterated each other…
Tenjo Hikari furrowed his brows tightly.
"Impressive... Just a monster and a Set Card, yet it can completely avoid all possibilities!?" Tierra blinked in amazement next to Tenjo Hikari.
Honestly, the previous duels between Marufuji Ryo and Manjome were already impressive to her, yet she hadn't expected this strange "creature" before her to respond in such an unchanging way that even Tenjo Hikari couldn't deal with this Attack Power 3000 Normal Monster.
Tenjo Hikari stroked his chin, pondering and speaking, "Edge Imp Chain's effect activates when sent from the hand or field to the graveyard. Add one {Frightfur} card from the deck to the hand.
I add Frightfur Patchwork to my hand."
If the effect succeeded, from Tierra's viewpoint, Tenjo Hikari could even use this card to win, but obviously, Tenjo Hikari wasn't hoping for an instant victory.
"I activate the Frightfur Patchwork I just added to my hand, from the deck add one Edge Imp and one {Polymerization} to the hand."
"So it's the orthodox fusion this time, huh?" Kaibaman said, watching Tenjo Hikari's actions with interest.
Up to now, although Tenjo Hikari had used quite a few cards, each card was in service of fusion, which indeed piqued his interest.
It wasn't purely for power nor some random mishmash of cards that form a substandard deck but rather a deck that fits his own ideas and philosophy.
Tenjo Hikari checked his hand and the field, thinking about the effect of "Toughness! Invincibility! The Strongest!" and found it a bit troublesome.
"Set one card, end turn."