"So, I heard you've already met with Mr. Pegasus?"
It was nine in the evening. Mr. Phoenix was walking with his son on the way home from the company while talking on the phone with Youyu.
Young Ed was hopping along, as if jumping a bit higher might help him hear what was being said on the phone.
"Yes, we had a conversation," Youyu said, "Mr. Pegasus hopes I can assist in the development of the 'Elemental Hero' series and mentioned designing a new card deck for me."
"Oh? Congratulations, indeed. Mr. Pegasus usually doesn't personally get involved in design work these days," Mr. Phoenix said. "But it's often the case that only the cards he designs himself are top-notch."
That was certainly true. In the Duel Monster Realm, it was well-known that the Egyptian God Cards, symbols of the pinnacle of this field, were created by Pegasus.
Before Pegasus, any designer who attempted the creation of the Egyptian God Cards either died or went mad; only Pegasus, bearing the power of the Millennium Eyes, was able to complete the task.
The attack points and text descriptions on Duel Monster Cards are not simply written by the creator at will. The effect and strength of each card generally depend on the strength of the extraordinary power contained within the card.
As many now know, Duel Monsters was initially not a card game but an ancient ritual passed down from Ancient Egypt.
Back in those days, the Card Spirits were sealed within tablets, and the Duelists would directly compete in terms of spirit strength, without bothering with attack or defense points or effect descriptions.
Today, in the card game era, the attack power and effect text of each card are the manifestations of the power contained within the card, bound by the rules of the game known as "Duel Monsters."
The simplest example is the Egyptian Gods. The Gods certainly couldn't allow a designer to randomly write effect text on their cards. If even one word was wrong or any effect description was unsatisfactory to them, divine punishment might swiftly follow.
So, to be precise, about eighty percent of the Egyptian God Cards' effects are likely imprinted by the Gods themselves. More specifically, it's the Divine Power manifesting as text under the rules of the Duel Monsters game, resulting in a powerful effect that breaks the balance of the current gaming environment.
Sometimes, there are powerful spirits like Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and Dark Magician, whose manifested cards appear ordinary or even as Normal Monsters, simply because the spirit's power hasn't been fully developed.
Whether Blue-Eyes, Red-Eyes, or Dark Magician, their spiritual power isn't solely sealed within their core cards. They have a plethora of supportive series cards, and there are spin-offs like the Magician of Dark Dragons and Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon, all representing the spirits' potential power.
"By the way," Youyu asked, "how is your Destiny Hero development going?"
Mr. Phoenix smiled mysteriously: "Well, after our last duel, I made significant progress. In fact, to tell you the truth, a card that has been in development for a while has finally been completed.
This is a piece I'm extremely proud of and should be the pinnacle of my achievements as a designer. This card embodies what I envision as the ultimate form of Destiny Hero, akin to how the Egyptian God Cards are to Mr. Pegasus..."
Upon hearing this, Youyu's expression shifted slightly.
Whoa, could that card be...
At this moment in the conversation, Mr. Phoenix's voice on the other end suddenly changed: "Who are you? What are you doing? Ed, get behind me..."
"..."
The voice ended there.
Youyu shouted into the phone for quite some time but received no response, only the unsettling busy tone.
Youyu put down the phone, frowning.
Judging from what Mr. Phoenix mentioned earlier, it seemed that the card referred to as "Ultimate D," Destiny Hero Plasma, had already been completed.
In the animated timeline, a third-rate duelist named D.D. murdered Mr. Phoenix and took the Plasma card from him. D.D. was then possessed by the enormous evil power sealed within the Plasma card, selling his soul to a demon in exchange for immense power.
Evidently, this murderer gained enough 'power' from the Plasma card to instantly become a high-level duelist. He transformed from a starving, third-rate duelist into a world champion, maintaining the title for ten consecutive years, becoming a legend in the professional dueling league.
But Youyu remembered that in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX memories, it was supposed to be a home invasion, with the location being Mr. Phoenix's residence.
Could it be that a shift in the world line caused slight changes in the original events?
But he had no time to ponder further. After hanging up the phone, Youyu immediately called the Nightwalker World.
President Tosawa Mukuro quickly answered the call: "Hello? Youyu? What's going on?"
It sounded like he was at the base, as the background noise was extremely chaotic. Youyu heard a rough voice singing loudly, and vaguely caught someone angrily shouting, "Who just stripped my pants..."
...The sound alone conjured images of a bunch of burly men dancing and singing.
Youyu went straight to the point: "I need to track a phone number, for a call I just had half a minute ago. I need to know the other party's location, quickly."
"What? Oh... alright, wait a moment."
Although the Nightwalker World seemed to be developing into a macho club card group, it was actually a Dark Duelist organization with involvement in numerous industries and fields, lacking no top-tier hackers.
Even Dark Duelists had to keep pace with the times.
With modern technology so advanced, the Dark Duelists were delighted to discover that many issues could be resolved beyond just dueling...
Given Youyu's current reputation and status within the organization, leveraging resources was merely a matter of asking. President Mukuro didn't even ask for the details or reasons and directly arranged to fulfill the request.
...
"Dad... Daddy." Young Ed fearfully shrank behind his father, clinging to his leg.
Standing before them was a shabby-looking middle-aged man, with unshaven stubble on his chin. He wore a pair of cracked glasses, and behind the lenses were dangerous, beast-like eyes, with pupils faintly glowing red.
Mr. Phoenix asked in a deep voice: "Who are you? What do you want?"
The man let out a sinister laugh, slowly raising his arm... and the Duel Disc attached to it.
"Let's duel," the man said coldly, "...with that Ultimate card as the wager!"