Chapter 196: Soul Cards Overlay! The Neo Galaxy That Transcends Time and Space
Eve's fist had shattered Utopia, much to Ivaliss's visible envy.
But that one punch was the last defiance Amano and Chiha could manage.
Just as Chiha had described at the start of her turn: facing the Special Summon lock combined with Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon stolen by Snatch Steal, she had nothing left to do.
Calling Eve and recovering Blue-Eyes White Dragon had been every action available to her this turn.
Looking at the last card in her hand, Chiha glanced between the two Eves on the field, then shifted her attention to Amano.
"Can I trust you with this, Amano?"
"Of course." He said. "There's a saying: the more formidable an opponent, the more dependable they become as a partner. Isn't that right, Miss Kaiba Chiha, my former defeated opponent?"
"You just had to rub that in! I set one card face-down. Turn end!"
She pressed the last Set card into position. Chiha was down to one card in hand now: Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the one Dark Factory had recovered.
"If you're as good as you claim, then win and prove it, Amano Rei!"
She probably already sensed it. This duel was not coming back around to her again.
"At the End Phase, I activate the Trap Card: Xyz Reborn."
Xyz Reborn
[Trap Card: Target 1 Xyz Monster in your Graveyard. Special Summon that target, then place this card underneath it as a new Xyz Material.]
"Return to my field, Number 39: Utopia!"
Number 39: Utopia [ATK: 2,500]
The Utopia that Eve had just knocked out revived through the Trap's effect and returned to the field, complete with a new Xyz Material to block one attack.
"My turn, draw."
The cycle passed to Ivaliss. She drew two cards and immediately activated a Graveyard effect.
"Invocation's second effect: once per turn, I can shuffle this card back into my Deck from the Graveyard and add the banished Aleister the Invoker to my hand."
Aleister's endless self-refueling engine. Another Invoked Fusion was coming this turn. The only question was how many variants Ivaliss had copied into her data pool.
"I Normal Summon Aleister the Invoker. His effect searches Invocation. Then I activate Invocation. I banish Aleister and Kurigalzu from my Graveyard as Fusion Materials. Opening the FIRE dimension's fusion summon!"
Kurigalzu? Whose retainer was this, and when had it ended up in the Graveyard?
Amano traced back through every card effect and identified the only unknown Graveyard entry: the card blindly milled from the top of the deck by Arms Hole earlier. Whatever it was, it sat in the Graveyard among the LIGHT monsters. And with Ivaliss now specifically choosing a FIRE-attribute Invoked instead, the deck data apparently did not contain a duplicate Extra Deck monster.
"Blazing flames of Hell piercing through the underworld, incinerate every enemy in your path."
"Fusion Summon: Invoked Purgatrio!"
Invoked Purgatrio [Level 7, FIRE]
[Fiend / Fusion / Effect]
[ATK: 2,300 / DEF: 2,000]
[Aleister the Invoker + FIRE Attribute monster]
Invoked Purgatrio
[Fiend / Fusion / Effect]
Aleister the Invoker + FIRE Attribute monster
(1): This card gains 200 ATK for each card the opponent controls.
(2): This card can attack all opponent's monsters once each. When this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict piercing damage.
The FIRE Invoked monster came with multi-attack and piercing. One card capable of flipping Amano's entire field.
With two monsters and two Set cards on Amano and Chiha's side totaling four cards, Purgatrio gained 800 ATK.
Invoked Purgatrio [ATK: 2,300 to 3,100]
Eve: "Blue-Eyes White Dragon got outpowered again!"
Ivaliss: "Blue-Eyes keeps getting surpassed. Blue-Eyes really does have a good temperament."
What were these two flat types chatting about on their own?
"Battle."
Ivaliss's field this turn: Utopia, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, and the 3,100 ATK all-attack piercing Purgatrio.
Formidable. But at least this turn, neither Amano nor Chiha was panicking.
Amano still had one Set card.
"Trap Card: Hallowed Life Barrier!"
Hallowed Life Barrier
[Trap Card: Discard 1 card from your hand. This turn, all damage you take from the opponent becomes 0.]
"Chiha, discard!"
"This is literally my last card, Amano Rei! I am completely out of resources!"
Since Amano had zero hand cards, he could not meet the discard cost himself. But Chiha still had Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
She discarded Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Against the penetrating FIRE Invoked's assault, Hallowed Life Barrier materialized, shielding Eve and Ivaliss from the scorching heat that could be felt before the flames even made contact.
Blue-Eyes gets mocked by everyone, yet it not only does not hold a grudge, it even sacrifices itself to protect the mockers. Remarkable card.
"Hallowed Life Barrier also negates battle damage from monster-to-monster combat! So my monsters will not be destroyed by battle either!"
This was not improvised. The card's old-style text came with a specific rules clarification. Immunity to all damage, including battle damage between monsters, meant the monsters could not be destroyed by battle.
"I even protected her?" Ivaliss stared at the barrier in front of her. The eyes that had lost their brightness in dark data form showed the faintest tremor.
In fairness, there was no choice. Ivaliss had 0 DEF, and Purgatrio's piercing would have gone straight through her.
After the Battle Phase ended, Ivaliss threw both remaining hand cards into play at once.
One side was running on empty. The other was going all-in.
Blades of radiant light filled the field, stabbing into Amano and Chiha's positions from every direction.
"Spell Card: Swords of Revealing Light activates. For three turns, you cannot declare attacks."
Even this card was in her arsenal. Amano genuinely had not seen that coming.
If Swords of Revealing Light remained on the field, even with Ivaliss down to 1,250 LP, it could buy at least three turns of stalling.
"And I set one card face-down. Turn end."
Front row: Utopia, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, and Invoked Purgatrio.
Back row: Swords of Revealing Light and one unknown Set.
"Can you actually win this, Amano?!" Chiha could not hold back the question.
"Yes." Amano pressed a finger to his deck and took his draw stance.
"If you pull that off, then I... I..." Nothing she could promise actually mattered under these circumstances. Chiha settled on the most meaningful thing available: "I'll admit you're actually impressive!"
"That's enough."
Getting that out of this girl was already the highest praise.
"I stake this on the title of ten-time champion of the District 32 New Year Community Poker Tournament!"
Hearing that title again after so long, something shifted briefly in Chiha's expression.
She had not known what it meant before, dismissing it as some trivial lower-district competition. But Yui had since explained: that poker tournament drew hundreds of participants every year.
Someone had won it consecutively at that scale in a game of pure luck?
Ten consecutive years meant Amano had been winning it from age eight through eighteen.
That kind of luck was operating at a level beyond natural.
"My turn! Draw!"
Amano pulled the last card from his deck.
The reversal card sleeping in the deck was, fittingly, a Kaiba family heirloom.
He threw it into his Duel Disk.
"Quick-Play Spell: Enemy Controller activates!"
You spent this whole duel turning our cards against us, Ivaliss. Now it is our turn.
I am really taking control of you now, Ivaliss!
Enemy Controller
[Quick-Play Spell: Choose 1 of the following effects.
- Target 1 face-up monster the opponent controls. Change that target's battle position.
- Tribute 1 monster you control, then target 1 face-up monster the opponent controls. Take control of that target until the End Phase.]
A giant game controller appeared in front of Amano. Different button combinations triggered different effects.
He was choosing the second option.
Reaching for the buttons, Amano entered the code.
"Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A! I Tribute a monster I control and take control of an opponent's monster!"
"I Tribute Ivaliss, Phantom Rupture and take control of Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!"
It was technically categorized as a Change of Heart-style effect, but this Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon had always belonged to Chiha. The black data chain marks from before the duel still showed on the card, designating it as her most important ace.
Inside the light of Ivaliss's release, her knowing smile finally settled into something at peace. "Is this the end? Show me your way of fighting one last time, Amano Rei."
Ivaliss, Phantom Rupture: Tributed. Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon: returned.
"Amano, you actually took my Galaxy-Eyes back!"
Now on Amano's field stood both Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice and Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon: the two soul cards marked at the start of the duel.
And with Ivaliss gone from the field, the Special Summon restriction was lifted.
"This is what soul cards are. They never let us down. Not even in the worst moments. They carry the hope of the entire deck all the way here!"
One Set card remained on Amano and Chiha's side. Chiha had been unable to use it herself, so she had Set it during her own turn specifically to leave it for Amano.
"Let's go, Chiha!"
Amano flipped the card.
"Spell Card: Galaxy Queen's Light activates!"
Galaxy Queen's Light
[Spell Card: Target 1 Level 7 or higher monster you control. Until the End Phase, all monsters you control become the same Level as that target.]
"I target Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. All monsters I control become Level 8!"
The galaxy light of shared conviction blazed through the data space. The radiance was intense enough to pierce through the space itself, escaping through the fractures to illuminate the real world beyond, shining down on the peak of the garbage mountain at the highest point of District 32.
Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice [Level: 2 to 8]
"Now I have two Level 8 monsters on the field!"
An entire duel's worth of Special Summon blocks, and the first Special Summon after breaking free would be the one that tipped the scales of this duel.
"I Overlay Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice and Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon for a Rank 8 Xyz Network construction!"
The two marked soul cards stacked on each other in this moment, pushing the teamwork of this duel to its absolute limit.
From outside the space, Yui marveled: "Did you know in advance that these two would coordinate this well, manager?"
The shop owner's smile was hard to read. "This honestly exceeded my expectations a bit."
He had expected their individual Trap combinations to represent their peak coordination. He had not anticipated the moment where both players' soul cards would overlay into a single monster.
Defeating Ivaliss's current field required dismantling three cards simultaneously: Utopia's ability to negate attacks, Swords of Revealing Light's attack lock, and the unknown Set card.
The two soul cards surged upward into the Xyz network, their overlapping light forming the symbol of "No."
No. 97!
"Gravity singularity, shatter time and space, dragon sovereign of ultimate shadow!"
"Dragon god-king wielding the authority of Numbers, break free of this data light-cone cage!"
"Xyz Summon, Rank 8!"
"Number 97: Draglubion!!"
Number 97: Draglubion [Rank 8, DARK]
[Dragon / Xyz / Effect]
[ATK: 3,000 / DEF: 3,000]
[Level 8 monsters x2]
[The opponent cannot target this card on the field with card effects.]
Chiha's jaw dropped. "A Rank 8 Dragon Xyz, and it's not a Galaxy-Eyes monster?"
The slender dragon form radiated the starlight of a divine phantom. Unlike the Western dragon form of Galaxy-Eyes, Number 97: Draglubion carried the aesthetic of an Eastern dragon.
3,000 ATK and 3,000 DEF at Rank 8, with built-in targeting immunity.
"But targeting immunity and 3,000 ATK alone won't be enough to win, Amano!"
"This card is not here to fight. It is here to guide a new Galaxy Xyz Summon."
"A new Galaxy Xyz?"
"Number 97: Draglubion's effect activates!"
[Once per turn, detach 1 Xyz Material from this card. Select 2 different Dragon "Number" monsters from your Extra Deck or Graveyard other than "Number 97: Draglubion." Special Summon 1 of them, and attach the other as an Xyz Material to the Summoned monster.]
"I detach Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice as Xyz Material. From my Extra Deck, I select two different Dragon Number monsters!"
The light of the Number symbol blazed and burned its mark into the field once more.
No. 107!
"The two Number monsters I am selecting are Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon and Chaos Number 107: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon!"
"I Special Summon Chaos Number 107: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon, and attach Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon as its Xyz Material!"
The Displaced Singularity's data space began shaking violently.
From within the shattering of time and space and galaxy and data itself, the chaos-powered Number monster awakened at the outermost limit of what Xyz Summoning could produce.
"Galaxy piercing through the reversal point, awaken before the birth of time itself, dragon star that surpasses eternity!"
"Appear, tyrant of subjugated time!"
"Rank 9! Chaos Number 107: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon!!"
Chaos Number 107: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon [Rank 9, LIGHT]
[Dragon / Xyz / Effect]
[ATK: 4,500 / DEF: 3,000]
[Level 9 monsters x3]
Chaos Number 107: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon
[Dragon / Xyz / Effect]
Level 9 monsters x3
(1): Once per turn, detach 1 Xyz Material from this card. Until the End Phase, negate all other face-up card effects on the field. After this effect is activated, all card activations on the field require this card's controller's permission until the End Phase.
(2): If this card has "Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon" as Xyz Material, it gains this additional effect. Tribute 2 other monsters you control; this card can attack all monsters up to 3 times during the same Battle Phase.
Born from dual fractures in time and space, the Chaos-powered Neo Galaxy-Eyes manifested as a Number Xyz Monster carrying chaos energy.
"What is this?!" In the violently shaking space, Chiha stared up at the enormous dragon blazing with golden light. "I have never seen Galaxy-Eyes in this form before!"
Galaxy-Eyes came in many shapes, but most fit a standard dragon silhouette. This Chaos Number 107 was something else entirely: a colossal dragon body like golden machinery, three golden dragon heads roaring in unison toward the sky.
"This form, 4,500 ATK. It really does look like... like Sister's Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon."
Ah. Sister's Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon?
When did Yui get a Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon?
Amano very much wanted to deliver that remark directly. But the data space was visibly fracturing and collapsing, and it was not going to give him time to enjoy the joke.
"Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon cannot do what I'm about to do."
"Chaos Number 107: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon's effect activates!"
"Tyrannical Tachyon: Time Sovereignty!!"
[Anime effect: Once per turn, detach 1 Xyz Material. Until the End Phase, negate all other face-up card effects on the field. After this activation, all card activations on the field require this card's controller's permission until the End Phase.]
When Amano detached the Galaxy-Eyes material and activated Neo Tachyon's effect, the violently shaking data space went completely still.
As if the flow of time had genuinely been suppressed by the effect.
All card effects on the field except Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon's were negated.
On Amano and Chiha's side, Swords of Revealing Light was negated, and all those blades of light vanished from the field. Attack declarations were open again this turn. Utopia's negation effect was also negated, meaning attacks would not be blocked.
"Battle, Chaos Number 107: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon!!"
Amano commanded the tyrant of time and space into the Battle Phase.
The three-headed dragon roar that shook the space to its foundations was, to Amano's ears, the most beautiful sound imaginable. This was the soul cry of Neo Galaxy-Eyes surging toward victory.
"One-hit kill! Chaos Number 107: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon, attack Number 39: Utopia!!"
The accumulated damage from Ivaliss's battles had driven Ivaliss's LP down far enough.
A 4,500 ATK attack on Utopia at 2,500 ATK dealt 2,000 points of battle damage, enough to clear what remained.
Not a single battle from the entire duel had been wasted. Every point of damage had been a step toward the final conclusion.
"It is over. Fake Eva born from a data bug: disappear the way a patch closes a vulnerability!"
Amano pointed forward. Three golden dragon heads blazed and roared in the same direction.
Ivaliss slowly raised her hand to mirror him across the collapsing time-space. "I activate the Set Trap Card: Power Wall!"
"Denied!" Amano cut off the last resistance before she could finish. "Chaos Number 107: Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon's effect: all card activations on the field require this card's controller's permission!"
Since Amano had become the tyrant ruling this time-space, his answer was singular.
That answer was: denied.
Activate nothing. Accept your defeat.
"Ultimate Tachyon Spiral Burst!!"
Swords of Revealing Light, negated. Utopia's effect, negated. The Set card's activation, denied.
All three simultaneous obstacles were suppressed by Amano at once.
From three golden dragon jaws, three beams of light spiraled together into a collapse-point blast that shattered Number 39: Utopia and swept onward to engulf the Ivaliss standing behind it in a blazing spiral of galaxy light.
Number 39: Utopia: destroyed.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!!"
For the first time in the entire duel, Ivaliss's final cry carried genuine emotional weight.
Ivaliss LP: 1,250 to 0.
[DUEL VICTORY]
[VICTORS: AMANO REI and KAIBA CHIHA]
[DISPLACED SINGULARITY: REPAIR SUCCESSFUL]
The duel ended. Amano and Chiha lost their footing simultaneously. With the bug repaired, the collapsing data space began disappearing.
"You two get out now! Do not get trapped inside!"
No reminder needed. Both of them were already sprinting toward the diamond-shaped rift exit ahead.
But passing by the spot where Ivaliss had stood, two floating cards caught Amano's attention.
The shop owner's voice came through urgently: "If you can still make it, would you mind picking up my confiscated ace card on the way out?"
That was the shop owner's ace card that Ivaliss had taken from him?
No time to think. Amano grabbed both floating cards as he ran through the collapsing space.
One of them was Aleister the Invoker.
So this was you, shop owner. You lost this card, and that sent us into a completely brutal duel.
The other card was Ivaliss, Phantom Rupture.
Ivaliss: "Could you take me along, Amano Rei?"
Amano: "Staying in a collapsing data space forever doesn't seem great. Then come along!"
Ivaliss: "Heh heh. Alright."
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