The duel is over.
All the illusions around began to retreat.
The dark clouds began to disperse, the sun and moon started to reappear, the boundary between light and darkness gradually converged, leaving only the blue flames continuously burning on the translucent seal, proclaiming everything that had transpired before.
Once here, the gods of machinery and demons fought against the near-divine fallen angels.
The images slowly faded away, Tierra's gigantic form transformed into flames slowly combusting, and after a moment, it returned to a humanoid shape, slowly floating onto the dueling arena.
Manjome and Ed stared wide-eyed at the scene, feeling as though they were seeing Tenjo Hikari for the first time.
After some time in shock, they gradually came back to their senses.
No matter what kind of "soul" mix Tenjo Hikari has, it's not important; what's important is that as long as Tenjo Hikari is still the Tenjo Hikari they know.
Tenjo Hikari put away his Duel Disk and walked a few steps forward, with Ed quickly catching up.
Although the duel was over, who knows if Professor Seraph might act desperately and use Lucifer's power for one last chaotic act?
"Guh…"
Seraph was half-lying beside a tree burned to ash by Void Fire, his eyes lost color, his halo completely shattered, fallen onto the ground.
A bit exaggerated—
Tenjo Hikari simply thought it was absurd.
Tenjo Hikari last charged full force with anger towards the Darkness and directly attacked, and Tierra wouldn't hold back against humanity, yet Seraph could still breathe?
Then, Tenjo Hikari noticed a card in Seraph's graveyard slowly shimmering.
Solemn Warning?
The card emitted a glow, and as Seraph gasped, the light on that card grew dimmer and dimmer, eventually the card stopped shimmering light, and as if growing wings, slowly dissolved in the world.
...
That was…
The [true] Solemn Warning!
Tenjo Hikari was greatly shocked inside.
In this world, "Solemn Warning" and "Solemn Judgment" are not those extreme Spirit Cards; actually, Judai has Solemn Judgment and has used it several times.
But just like dimensions with magic, as long as it is a card, naturally it has its behind-the-scenes "Spirit".
Seraph is a genuine "Blessed by the Gods".
The other two students realized this too.
Seraph gasped, his eyes lost color, his body gradually weakened.
Despite the last Solemn Warning's protection at the cost of its dispersal, the duel winner is Tenjo Hikari, Solemn Warning isn't a true descent, those fated to die still must die.
"...God... thank you, I finally understand…"
Seraph trembled, raising a card slowly and handing it out.
Tenjo Hikari reached out, taking the card from Seraph's hand.
As the card fell, Tenjo Hikari quickly retracted, his right hand felt like it was electrocuted, the card was directly tossed out.
Beside him, Tierra, with quick reflexes, immediately wrapped several Puppet Strings around the card, but as soon as the Puppet Strings touched the card, a radiant light like the sun instantaneously turned the strings to powder.
Tierra frowned, snapping his fingers before the card hit the ground.
Crack crack.
A gray-white Mechanical Demon spread its wings, transformed into a physical form, caught the card with its body, its palm dissolved in the light, yet as it dissolved, blue flames burned its ashes, reconstructing its body anew.
In this situation, Tenjo Hikari finally saw that card.
The First Darklord Lucifer.
Tenjo Hikari looked back at Seraph.
Manjome witnessing the scene, ran directly beside Seraph, trying to support Professor Seraph while shouting: "Professor, hold on—"
Seraph's mouth curled slightly, looking as if he wanted to smile, but soon his smile faded under the pain, his eyes completely lost color, his arms drooped powerlessly.
And with his passing, his body seemed to melt away, transforming into points of golden light dissolving into the world; accompanying his departure were the white and black cards from his deck, one by one slowly dissolving, until it seemed like Seraph no longer existed in the world.
Return glory to the Lord.
"This…" Manjome looked at his own hands in silence, then could only grit his teeth and shake his head.
Elsewhere, Ed picked up Seraph's Duel Disk, there was still one card inside, it was Darklord Morningstar in the graveyard, however, when Ed tried to touch that card, it erupted with light even stronger than The First Darklord, making him completely unable to touch it.
"Seems like only the Head can have the opportunity to touch it…"
Ed analyzed.
Looking at the situation, if Professor Seraph hadn't last raised his hand to hand the card to Tenjo Hikari, Darklord Morningstar would have also disappeared along with Seraph's death, along with other Darklord cards disappearing from this world, returning to some unknown "Heaven" or "Hell" dimension.
Tenjo Hikari nodded.
The two "Lucifers" should be the same "Spirit" or… angel?
In any case, it seems that in the end, Seraph, on the brink of death, heard the true "Apocalypse"?
No matter what, when "returning to the Lord", he resolved to pass the true "Darklord" card to Tenjo Hikari, who like him, once "summoned demons" in a Duel.