Chapter 245: The Strongest Against the Strongest! God Against God!
"I activate the Continuous Spell Card, Dark Burning Magic!"
The Continuous Spell settled into the Duel Disk. Dark Magician raised his staff high, and at the very tip a blade of light began to condense and take shape.
Kaiba Chiaki pressed another monster card onto the Duel Disk's monster zone.
"And this turn's Normal Summon! Lightning hero, let your electric light reach the heavens and stand against the evil God!"
"Advance! Elemental HERO Sparkman!"
[Elemental HERO Sparkman]
[Level 4 LIGHT]
[Warrior / Normal]
[ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1400]
It was genuinely impressive: Kaiba Chiaki had written a custom summon chant for every single monster in Amano's deck.
Chiaki-senpai. I fully respect your commitment to the dramatic.
Elemental HERO Sparkman, feeling the weight of Kaiba Chiaki's dedication flowing into him, seemed to crackle with unusual energy.
"When a Normal Monster is successfully summoned, Dark Burning Magic's effect activates!"
[Once per turn, when you Normal or Special Summon a non-Token Normal Monster, draw 1 card.]
"I draw one more card from my Deck!"
"Any monster you bring out will have its ATK halved by The Wicked Eraser's effect!"
[Elemental HERO Sparkman] [ATK: 1600 to 800]
Tenma Yako laughed dismissively. "Dark Burning Magic lets you draw one card. Do you honestly think one extra card is enough to defeat a God? You are the most naive duelist I have ever faced."
"Then let's find out, Tenma Yako."
Kaiba Chiaki tightened her grip on the cards in hand and declared the Battle Phase.
"Dark Magician! Attack The Wicked Eraser!"
Receiving the attack command, Dark Magician's staff transformed into a blade of light capable of cutting through darkness itself. He leapt forward and drove toward the massive Wicked Eraser ahead.
"Before Dark Magician's attack declaration, Dark Burning Magic's second effect activates!"
[When one of the following monsters you control declares an attack on an opponent's monster, that monster's ATK increases by the opponent's monster's ATK until the end of this turn.
- Level 5 or higher Normal Monster
- A Ritual Monster Summoned using Normal Monsters
- A Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz Monster using Normal Monsters as material]
Dark Burning Magic supported ATK boosts for Normal Monsters, and Dark Magician himself fell squarely within the condition: a Level 5 or higher Normal Monster.
"When Dark Magician declares an attack on The Wicked Eraser, Dark Magician's ATK increases by The Wicked Eraser's ATK of 4000!"
Dark Magician raised the blade of light skyward, driving it through the churning thunderclouds overhead while synchronizing the power of The Wicked Eraser into his own form.
Tenma Yako countered immediately: "It won't work. Even if you add 4000 ATK, The Wicked Eraser's halving effect operates at divine priority. It overrides everything else!"
He was right. The Wicked Eraser's ATK-halving aura was a persistent field effect: by its nature it resolved last, after all other calculations.
Any ATK Dark Magician gained from Dark Burning Magic would still be halved by The Wicked Eraser, meaning the 4000 boost was effectively only 2000.
[Dark Magician] [ATK: 1250 to 3250]
Tenma Yako swept his hand forward. "Destroy yourself through your own arrogance! Counter, Wicked Eraser!"
"Abyssal Terror Blast!!"
"This is the moment!" Kaiba Chiaki's eyes dropped to the face-down card at her feet.
The one Amano had specifically told her to hold last turn, when Blue-Eyes White Dragon came under attack.
As if she needed him to tell her that. The sharpest edge is saved for the sharpest moment.
"Trap Card, Limiter Removal, activate!"
[Limiter Removal]
[Trap Card]
[Discard 1 card from your hand. Target 1 face-up monster you control. Until the end of this turn, that monster gains 1500 ATK.]
"I discard 1 card from my hand and boost Dark Magician's ATK by 1500!"
Even Limiter Removal's 1500-point boost would be halved to 750 by The Wicked Eraser's field effect. But the cumulative stack had reached its destination. Seven hundred and fifty added to 3250 was enough to cross the line.
[Dark Magician] [ATK: 3250 to 4000]
[The Wicked Eraser] [ATK: 4000]
"This is it!"
"The strike that cuts through darkness!!"
The blade of light on Dark Magician's staff extended without limit, cleaving upward through the dark storm clouds, then swept down from above in a single motion that drove straight into The Wicked Eraser.
The light split the darkness cleanly down the middle. Dark Burning Magic had just put on a live demonstration of its own card name.
The Wicked Eraser's body split apart and fell to either side.
[The Wicked Eraser: destroyed]
[Dark Magician: destroyed]
Mokuba drove his fist into the air. "Incredible, Amano! The God card is gone!!"
Dark Magician had gone down with The Wicked Eraser in a mutual destruction, but Kaiba Chiaki still had another card on the field: Elemental HERO Sparkman.
Kaiba Chiaki thrust her arm forward. "Direct attack, Sparkman!"
Sparkman's ATK was 800 under the suppression, but Sparkman was still on the field. And Tenma Yako's remaining Life Points were 1500.
"Lightning Blast!!"
Wrapped in arcing electricity, the lightning hero burst through the gap between the two halves of the fallen Evil God and drove a crackling fist directly into Tenma Yako.
"Ugh!!"
In a Dark Game, taking a direct attack hit produced real, physical impact. Tenma Yako's expression contorted in a way that was not remotely composed or dignified.
But his Life Points had not reached zero.
"Trap Card! Draining Shield!"
Tenma Yako's last face-down card.
[Draining Shield]
[Trap Card]
[When an opponent's monster declares an attack: Negate that attack, and gain LP equal to that monster's ATK.]
"I give you this card!"
Still pulling his face back from the impact expression, Tenma Yako flung the card in his hand across the field to Kaiba Chiaki.
Kaiba Chiaki caught it and looked: it was Dandylion, which Tenma Yako had recovered from his GY last turn via Dark Bribe.
Tenma Yako LP: 1500 to 3500 to 1900.
"He had LP recovery after all," Amano said.
It made sense. If Tenma Yako was running the strongest Wicked God card, he would have thought through the edge case of the God being destroyed before it could win. Even without going to the extreme lengths Shiyue Yi had, he would at minimum have built in some recovery to avoid the scenario where the God was still on the field but the duelist dropped dead to a direct attack. Some LP cushion was basic construction logic.
"Tch." The closest she had been to winning, and it slipped past her again. Kaiba Chiaki clicked her tongue in open irritation.
"I set one card face-down. Turn end."
With that last card set, Kaiba Chiaki's hand now held only the Dandylion that Tenma Yako had forced on her.
"Heh heh ha ha ha ha ha!" The warped expression had not faded. If anything it had intensified. The silver-haired, normally handsome face was nowhere near the word anymore.
"You missed your only chance, Amano Rei. Victory in this duel will never be yours now!"
"My turn! Draw! Then I activate Spell Card, Card Destruction!"
[Card Destruction]
[Spell Card]
[Both players discard their entire hands, then each player draws the same number of cards they discarded.]
After activating Card Destruction, Tenma Yako had two cards in hand. Both went to the GY and he drew two replacements.
Kaiba Chiaki discarded the Dandylion Tenma Yako had given her, and drew one card.
"You just sent Dandylion to the GY. Then I activate the effect of Dandylion in my GY: Special Summon three Fluff Tokens to my field!"
The Dandylion had been in Kaiba Chiaki's hand when it was discarded, but per the rules, a card discarded from the hand goes to the original owner's GY. The effect resolved for Tenma Yako.
[Fluff Token] [DEF: 0] x3
"I activate Spell Card, Pot of Greed! Draw two more cards from my Deck!"
After the extra draw, the expression on Tenma Yako's face reached its peak of unhinged intensity. A silver-haired, objectively handsome man who currently looked nothing of the sort.
"Even that subplot made it into the Chronicle," Amano observed.
He remembered it. Tenma Yako had used the Wicked God cards so many times that his mind had been completely eroded by them. He had become a vessel for the God, fully consumed, a spokesperson for The Wicked Avatar speaking through a human body.
Once that process was complete, this Dark Game would keep expanding in influence, eventually spreading across the entire city.
"From this point, your probability of winning is zero! I Tribute all three Fluff Tokens! Answer the call of my soul's sacrifice, supreme and absolute!"
This time, the three Fluff Tokens were not just swallowed by darkness. They were pulled into something deeper, a layer of abyss beneath the abyss, as though falling into a void from which no light had ever returned.
"My soul as the vessel, the true God beneath my feet as the offering!"
"False creation! All things cast under this shadow become executors of your will!"
"Tribute Summon! The mightiest Evil God! The Wicked Avatar!!"
[The Wicked Avatar]
[Level 10 DIVINE]
[Fiend / Effect]
[ATK: ? / DEF: ?]
Kaiba Seto snapped to attention and looked at the sky. "It came!"
A black sun fell from the edge of the sky and crashed onto the field, like a disaster star making landfall. In an instant, the entire Kaiba Corporation building and the surrounding city blocks were painted in an absolute darkness that poured up from the abyss.
This was Amano's first time facing a properly Tribute-Summoned Wicked Avatar. Even Shiyue Yi's copy had been Special Summoned. There was a difference.
"When The Wicked Avatar is successfully Tribute Summoned, its effect activates: all Spell and Trap Cards are sealed!"
[When this card is successfully Summoned, activate this effect. For 2 of your opponent's turns, they cannot activate Spell or Trap Cards.]
The abyssal darkness contaminating the entire Kaiba Corporation building pressed down against the face-down card at Kaiba Chiaki's feet, locking it in place, making it impossible to flip.
Amano had held a small hope. He remembered from the Yu-Gi-Oh! R source material that The Wicked Avatar did not originally have a Spell and Trap sealing effect. But the Chronicles had twisted the history again, producing a version that diverged from the source. This was the Wicked Avatar as it existed in Eden: the strongest version that had ever appeared.
"The Wicked Avatar's effect permanently grants ATK and DEF equal to the highest ATK or DEF on the field plus 1!"
The fallen black sun shifted shape. It now mirrored the appearance of the only other monster currently on the field: Elemental HERO Sparkman, though rendered entirely in shadow and darkness.
[The Wicked Avatar] [ATK: 801]
"I then activate Equip Spell, Mark of the Rose!"
[Mark of the Rose]
[Equip Spell]
[Can only be activated when 3 copies of the same-named monster card are in your GY. Target 1 of those monsters and Special Summon it to your field, then equip this card to it. When this card is destroyed, destroy the equipped monster.]
"There are now three copies of Beast King Barbaros in my GY. I Special Summon one to my field!"
Two copies of Beast King Barbaros had been destroyed in battle during the duel. The third could only have come from one of the two cards Tenma Yako discarded through Card Destruction.
[Beast King Barbaros] [ATK: 3000]
"And since the highest ATK on the field has changed, The Wicked Avatar's ATK rises with it!"
The black sun shifted shape once more. This time it took the form of a shadow Beast King Barbaros, lance held upright, standing on Tenma Yako's field with unmistakable authority.
[The Wicked Avatar] [ATK: 3001]
"This duel ends here! The Wicked Avatar, attack Elemental HERO Sparkman!"
Mirroring Beast King Barbaros's charging stance, the Avatar thundered across the black-mud-covered helipad surface, lance driving straight through the Sparkman standing in Attack Position.
[Elemental HERO Sparkman: destroyed]
Amano LP: 1500 to 99.
The intensifying Dark Game environment hit Kaiba Chiaki with a piercing pain through her chest that felt completely real. It was bad enough that she nearly lost her footing. No matter how many times she rejected the existence of Dark Games, the agony of standing before a dark God in this moment was as genuine as anything she had ever felt.
"Is this as far as I go..."
She had lost to this God too many times to count. It felt like the Kaiba family's personal nemesis: a black sun that hung forever above Kaiba Corporation's rooftop, raining down this particular despair.
"No. That's wrong." The shaking legs stamped down onto the helipad surface and held firm. The unfocused eyes snapped back to clarity. Kaiba Chiaki's will to fight came surging back.
She was standing here specifically to defeat The Wicked Avatar. To break the curse that had hung over the Kaiba family, she had faced this God again and again.
Amano's deck had no Deep-Eyes White Dragon, the card her ancestor Kaiba Seto had prepared across three thousand years to counter The Wicked Avatar specifically.
But Kaiba Chiaki knew there was one card in Amano's deck that could shatter this field. A card whose arrival would push the entire duel to the very edge of collapse.
Everything on this one draw.
"You have no chance left!" The God-eroded Tenma Yako roared. "Direct attack! Beast King Barbaros!"
The real Barbaros charged once more across the black-slicked surface, crimson lance aimed at the empty field where Kaiba Chiaki stood.
"When you declare a direct attack, this effect activates!"
"Nothing can activate! The Wicked Avatar has sealed all of your Spell and Trap effects!"
"The effect I'm activating is a monster effect. From the GY."
Kaiba Chiaki raised her arm. The Duelist Kingdom-style Duel Disk on her wrist was flickering with one last faint pulse of light in the GY zone.
It was the only card she had discarded from her hand across the entire duel: the cost paid when she activated Limiter Removal.
"I activate the effect of Performapal Coin Dragon from my GY!"
[When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: Banish this card from your GY. Draw 1 card from your Deck. If that card is a monster, you may Special Summon it. If you do, the attacking monster must attack that monster instead.]
"Kaiba!" Amano said.
One draw. This was the only chance.
Kaiba Chiaki had failed here more times than she could count. She knew what that meant: real chances appeared once, maybe twice, across all those attempts. Not more.
But Kaiba Chiaki had never retreated because the odds were long. Through every single failure, as long as you kept fighting, as long as you were still standing at the end, that was how you won the destined battle.
Ancestor Kaiba Seto had faced the Pharaoh that way. And she would do the same.
Betting everything on the one winning card in Amano's entire deck: surpass the Kaiba family's curse, here and now.
"Draw!!"
The moment Kaiba Chiaki drew the card, the Evil God's darkness spreading beneath her feet erupted into a rolling boil.
Not the kind of boiling from last time, when Amano had drawn Obelisk the Tormentor from the mid-level district ground and ignited the black mud with divine fire.
This was different: two overlapping darknesses colliding, two layers of abyss crashing into each other, forcing a crack open in the infinite black from which something even deeper and more absolute came surging out.
"Special Summon! Come!"
"Let the abyss that has circled above the Kaiba family be turned to my use, here and now!"
"The Wicked Avatar!!"
The card Kaiba Chiaki drew on her critical pull was another Wicked Avatar.
Identical to the God on Tenma Yako's field. The exact same card.
When the second black sun descended into the boiling abyss between them, both Duel Disks erupted simultaneously in overloaded sparks and fire.
This was after Duelist Kingdom. The redesigned Duel Disk was not the fragile first-generation model that had gone critical just from a meteor strike during Amano and Kaiba Seto's calibration test. A Duel Disk that could handle the three Phantom Gods going to war was not supposed to have a computational ceiling.
But two Wicked Avatars on the field at the same time, each feeding the other in a loop, each perpetually recalculating in response to the other's perpetually rising ATK: that infinite recursion was pushing the system to the absolute edge of what it could process.
[This card's ATK and DEF are always equal to the highest ATK or DEF on the field plus 1.]
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