The Cosmic People walked with a wail.
This was a road filled with torment and pain, a path of death. On this road, the simple Cosmic People from the stars personally experienced the despair of watching the God of Death approach step by step, powerless to do anything.
Their hand cards were whittled down to just one, and even that last one was thoroughly exposed, posing no threat. Unable to draw a card, it felt as if tied to a pyre, watching helplessly as the kindling was piled higher underfoot and the flames grew ever fiercer. The blaze engulfed them inch by inch, starting from the toes, as they watched wide-eyed, powerless...
But of course, although the Flame Lady dealt 400 burn damage each turn and could indeed execute a slow death, the Cosmic People didn't actually die from the flames.
If it were Yugen, he might have simply taken no extra actions for safety's sake and let the opponent burn to death slowly at 400 damage a turn.
But Judai, being kind-hearted, couldn't stand to see suffering. After a few turns of burning and shaving down the opponent's life points sufficiently, he directly used the Flame Lady to take out the Light Source Beast Gandil Dragon, and finally, Aqua Neos delivered a descending hand strike from the sky, putting an end to the vanguard of the Light of Destruction.
However, even in these few torturous turns, the mindset of the Cosmic People had already begun to change.
After all, it had gone through a few turns of its own as well. But even when its turn came, there was virtually nothing it could do.
So it began by cursing frantically in idle frustration, using phrases like "no card ethics"—a feeble vocabulary that suggested it hadn't learned Earth language for long, with far too little aggression. After a long bout of cursing, it hadn't even gotten around to insulting anyone's family, proving itself amateur.
After cursing, it turned to blaming heaven and others, starting to resent its previously smug "Light Incarnation," the embodiment of the Light of Destruction's power, its trump card Light Source Beast Gandil Dragon.
Why on Earth is there a stupid trump card that prevents itself from drawing cards? What kind of idiotic card is this?
This might have been the first time in its life that it had massive complaints about its Light Incarnation. It even fleetingly thought that the power of Light was such foolishness. By contrast, the Dark Camp expertly utilized the "Hand Card Disappearance Technique," which wiped out its hand cards cleanly in the blink of an eye...
What's left to change into Light?
Before, it had no choice. Now, it wanted to defect to the Darkness...
Unfortunately, Darkness did not give it that chance. That shameless Elemental Hero Ultraman leaped and delivered a hand strike from above, reaping its life along with its resentment.
"I win!"
Judai exclaimed excitedly, striking a standard POSE.
"What a delightful duel!"
Cosmic People: "@#%&"
It seemed it wanted to say something more, but apparently finally lacked the strength to speak, and expired directly.
"The Cosmic People don't seem very powerful."
Judai put his hands on his hips and then looked excitedly at his new Card Deck.
"Or is it that my new Card Deck is too strong? The righteous Cosmic Hero's Deck! It's like a dream, amazingly fantastic!"
Yugen pondered, thinking it might be a bit of both. The opponent wasn't strong to begin with, and Judai's New Space—at least from the animation effect combo he just shown, did indeed seem a bit overwhelmingly powerful.
Without the once-per-turn card peeking and hand detonating Brother Dolphin, discarding a hand to blow up two of the opponent's cards with Aqua Neos... Across the whole Yu-Gi-Oh! card pool, merely looking at this card-shaving quality places it among the best.
Once Judai had finished his play, Kaiba Group's people immediately clustered around.
Some proceeded to collect the Cosmic People's remains, while others surrounded the Cosmic People's spacecraft. After all, this was a genuine living Cosmic People, something even Kaiba Group hadn't captured before. It wasn't merely an upheaval in the Dueling Realm anymore, but a monumental advancement that shocked the world.
After tonight, humanity would know they are not alone in the Cosmos. Everyone would know that there are other life forms in the starry sky, other civilizations...
...and they play cards.
This validated Seto Kaiba's theory as correct. Even if life forms are different, the languages and cultures entirely disparate, there exists one thing in the Cosmos that connects all beings, one common language of life.
And that is cards.
Only through card games can we communicate with friends from the Cosmos and embrace companions from the stars.
Only through card games can we fight against interstellar evil and fend off invaders' invasions.
So naturally, Judai became the center of attention as well. Everyone surrounded him like observing a rare animal, as if afraid he might escape if they lost sight of him for a moment.
Judai couldn't withstand the enthusiasm of the Kaiba Group's researchers. No matter what, they insisted he stay to assist them with their research.
They soon became shocked and certain that Judai had acquired a whole new Deck of Elven cards.
The Deck acquired from the descending light sphere, containing everything from small monsters to a trump, including inconspicuous little guys like Dandelion Lion, all were Elves.
Among them, the Elf Card called Neos exhibited a level of energy that left everyone dumbfounded.
Solely judging by Elven strength, it was undoubtedly a Legendary Level Elf!
Yet they had only glimpsed an iceberg of this Elf's combat potential at that moment; what they saw were more layers of latent potential, not the true strength itself.
Know that Neos, similar to the original Black Mage, belonged to the slow-to-develop type of Elves. Initially appearing as a 7-star, 2500 attack Mortal Bone, easily outdone by others like Demon Summon, which had the same 2500 attack but demanded fewer sacrifices, rest assured though, that's just for appearance's sake.
Strong Elven abilities aren't merely reflected in the card itself. Like Atom's Black Mage with its extensive array of specialized assistance Magic Traps, various Fusions, transformations, and wardrobes endlessly emerging, so too is Neos, the M78 Civil Servant incarnation, not to be outdone.
The disguise of Neos ranks at the top even among the main monster protagonists of each generation. It had the potential to change forms according to different operational environments and opponent characteristics for better adaption in combat.
To put it bluntly, it was more convenient for card printing...
Many times, animated big monsters give one the feeling that their effects serve no clear purpose or utility. But that is the observation of Physical Card players based on the premise that a card's effect has been firmly fixed.
Physical Card players grasp a card with a confirmed effect and attempt to find a suitable operational environment for this effect, often discovering too few applicable conditions, so these animated cards seem seemingly pointless.
But it's crucial to know that in animations, the situation is precisely the reverse.
Instead of seeing cards seek environments, animation protagonists encounter specific situations designed for addressing a specific situation through special card creation. In some cases, they go as far as to coin themselves and the opposing boss into the card art during duels…
Therefore, for animated protagonists, their on-the-spot generated trump is the optimal solution and the strongest card given the specific situation and duel.
In contrast, Physical Card players bearing these pre-determined cards ponder the suitable environment for their use, naturally perceiving difficulty in practical application.
And indeed, to the Duel Kings in animations, they never search for environments for cards; they create suitable cards for environments.
Neos truly represents the monster capable of switching forms to adapt to operating environments, and it's not just talk.
Yugen followed along with the busy researchers through the barricades, arriving at the spacecraft already fallen to the ground.
"The Light of Destruction..." Yugen murmured.
This is just the beginning.
The war between darkness and light has only just begun.