"Three Nordic Gods, huh?"
Yusaku's gaze swept across the three divine phantoms standing shoulder to shoulder on Johannes's field. A playful curve tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Now this is starting to get interesting."
With that, he set his hand on his Duel Disk. "Then it's my turn. I draw!"
He pulled a card, glanced at it, and had only just added it to his hand when the voice from across the field cut in.
"At the exact moment your Draw Phase ends!"
Johannes sharply raised an arm and slashed it down. "I flip my face-down!"
The instant the card turned over, a pitch-black glow rippled across its surface like spilled ink.
"I activate the Continuous Trap, Mask of Restrict! As long as this card remains in the Spell and Trap Zone, neither player can Tribute!"
As the Trap's effect took hold, twisted black patterns exploded outward from the card, and an invisible, oppressive wave of darkness rolled across the entire arena, as if even the air had been stained with a suffocating hush.
"I'm not done yet!"
Johannes's voice climbed higher and higher.
"Then, I chain and activate another Continuous Trap, Rivalry of Warlords!"
A second face-down snapped open. A reddish-brown light spread across the card face like dried blood, interweaving with the earlier black glow and knitting a net over the field that felt airtight.
"Ohhhhh!"
The commentator's shout nearly blew out the mic. He shot to his feet in the booth, his voice trembling with disbelief and excitement.
"What an unexpected chain sequence! Duelist No. 28, Johannes, actually teched Mask of Restrict and Rivalry of Warlords into his deck!"
"No matter how strong your monsters are, it's meaningless if you can't keep your board! With Mask of Restrict, the final puzzle piece for the Nordic Gods is complete. They get to wield powerful effects without ever being Tributed away!"
"And Rivalry of Warlords is practically a set of custom-made shackles for Yusaku! Compared to the Nordic Gods, the Egyptian God Cards have brutally strict summoning requirements. You must offer three Tributes for them to descend! With this card on the field, the odds of assembling three Tributes drop to almost zero!"
"Egyptian Gods versus Nordic Gods! Which side comes out on top? I can't wait to see it!"
The commentary ignited the crowd. Johannes's fans instantly erupted, waving glowsticks and screaming his name, a roaring cheer that threatened to lift the roof off the stadium.
Hearing that, the other Duelists in the audience looked unimpressed.
"He's really running Traps? That makes the Nordic Gods feel kinda low-rent."
Sitting in the front row, Kouki adjusted his glasses in a calculated little gesture. "And what, you thought the Nordic Gods were supposed to be some untouchable high-class act?"
"Isn't this exactly what the Nordic Gods' game plan looks like?" another Duelist snorted. "I remember when I first watched the anime, I thought their entrance would be insane, but they still relied on a pile of Traps to lock people down. The whole bunch only has Odin with a Spell Speed 2 effect. Their hype is nowhere near the Egyptian Gods."
"Hey, you can't say it like that." A man dressed like the Nameless Duelist from Duel Links tugged his cap lower. "The Nordic Gods' graveyard self-revival is basically unfair. No matter how they hit the GY, they revive unconditionally during the End Phase."
"Revive?" Kazetaro crossed his arms and let out a scornful laugh. "And what, you think my Called by the Grave and D.D. Crow don't exist?"
"You guys are completely missing the point!" A crisp voice suddenly cut through the argument. "Shouldn't we be talking about how Yusaku-senpai is going to play through this, or summon a God, in a situation like this?"
That made the surrounding Duelists pause, and they all turned toward the speaker at once.
Then someone couldn't help blurting out, "You don't seriously think the Egyptian Gods can only be Normal Summoned, do you?"
On the field.
Yusaku glanced at the two upright cards on Johannes's back row and gave a quiet snort. "Mask of Restrict plus Rivalry of Warlords, huh? Interesting."
"That's right, you see it perfectly." Johannes folded his arms, a confident grin on his face. "Now, my field is finally complete!"
He let out a cold laugh.
"I looked up every Duel record you have. I know you like running Tribute monsters like Lava Golem, so before facing you, I specifically stuffed Mask of Restrict into my deck!"
At that, he deliberately paused, the curve of his smile growing even more arrogant.
"And Rivalry of Warlords, this card is a gift I prepared just for you! The three Nordic Gods on my field are all Divine-Beast, so this card doesn't affect me at all. But your Egyptian Gods require three Tributes to summon! With this card on the field, unless you can Special Summon three monsters of the exact same Type, your Gods will never, ever descend!"
He threw his head back and laughed, his tone dripping with mockery.
"Three monsters of the same Type? That's not easy. And you don't even dare spend your Normal Summon on anything else. The moment you do, you'll never get your Gods out."
Yusaku raised his eyes and flicked him a glance. "You don't seriously think the Egyptian Gods can only be summoned by Normal Summon, do you?"
Johannes frowned slightly. "You can Special Summon them? But in the intel I gathered, I've never seen you Special Summon them…"
Halfway through, his eyes widened as something hit him. He jerked his head up. "A Trap Summon?!"
But after only a second, he relaxed again and scoffed.
"So what? It's your turn! If you want to use a Trap's summoning effect, you'll have to wait for my turn!"
"Trap Summon?"
Yusaku lifted an eyebrow. His mind flashed back to the time he'd used The Revived Sky God to summon Slifer the Sky Dragon. He chuckled, looking at Johannes's self-assured face, that same amused curve returning to his lips.
"Have to wait for your turn, huh? Then what if I told you I'm holding Temple of the Kings, or Makyura the Destructor, something like that?"
Johannes narrowed his eyes and glanced at the cards in Yusaku's hand, then snorted. "You really have it? I don't buy it. There's no way your luck is that good, and even if you did, so what? At most you'd bring out Slifer the Sky Dragon. That doesn't threaten me."
"Trying to clear my Nordic God board in a single turn? Keep dreaming."
His voice spiked sharply.
"Even if you actually send my Nordic Gods to the GY, what then? In the End Phase, they'll revive unconditionally! The Nordic Gods are immortal! Next turn, I'll use them to finish this Duel for good!"
Yusaku glanced at him. "Next turn only matters if you survive this one. Oh, and…"
He dragged the words out on purpose, looking at Johannes with a teasing edge to his voice. "Summoning the Egyptian Gods isn't limited to Trap Summons, you know."
Johannes: "???"
Before the last syllable even fell, Yusaku snapped a card out and slapped it onto his Duel Disk.
"First, I activate Graceful Charity! I draw three cards, then discard two cards to the GY!"
Two cards streaked into the Graveyard in a blur. Immediately after, he pulled another card and slammed it down.
"I activate Foolish Burial! I send one monster from my Deck to the GY!"
The instant the card hit the Graveyard, Yusaku's fingers were already pinching another card, its golden face gleaming under the stadium lights with a sacred sheen.
"I activate Monster Reborn! I Special Summon the monster I just sent to the GY, The Winged Dragon of Ra!"
"Bzzzzzz!"
The moment his declaration landed, the sky above the arena violently changed color. Black clouds churned like ink, lightning roared like raging dragons, and the heavy, crushing pressure of that dark canopy felt like it could collapse the entire stadium. Every spectator seemed to struggle just to breathe.
Seeing the heavens convulse like that, Johannes's pupils shrank, and he blurted out in shock, "The Winged Dragon of Ra?!"
"That's right. You heard me." Yusaku thrust an arm high, his fingertip stabbing toward the heavens, his voice cutting cleanly through the thunder and echoing across the whole arena.
"Appear. The Winged Dragon of Ra!"
A pillar of golden light blasted upward like countless holy blades punching through the storm clouds, as if an unseen hand had torn the sky open.
From the裂 in the clouds, a sphere of radiant gold slowly descended, like a miniature sun, pouring out a suffocating, divine pressure.
Just hovering there, it already radiated a presence comparable to the three Nordic Gods on Johannes's field.
The crowd stared up at the golden sphere, eyes wide, breath catching in their throats.
If the pressure alone was this terrifying, then how strong would Ra be if it revealed its true form?
On the field, Johannes clenched his teeth as he stared at the rotating golden orb behind Yusaku.
"The summoning requirements for The Winged Dragon of Ra are unbelievably strict! Only someone who can correctly recite the ancient priestly script is qualified to command this power of the gods! So what if you summon it? If you can't recite that script, then it's nothing but a blank monster with no effects!"
His voice turned frantic, almost hysterical.
"Only the Gravekeeper clan and the Pharaoh who has returned to the underworld know the priestly script! You're just an ordinary Duelist. There's no way you could possibly know that ancient incantation!"
"Oh?" Yusaku raised an eyebrow, his tone openly amused. "That's not necessarily true."
At that, Johannes froze, then looked up at Yusaku. "Don't tell me you…"
He didn't even get to finish before he heard a crisp snap of fingers.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]