"Bloom—here and now—the radiant sacred tree that purifies all filth planted in this place!"
The emerald-glowing bolt shot straight into the very center of the lakebed.
Like a drop of energy falling onto a mirror-still surface, the power spreading across the boiling lake gradually calmed the waters.
"Hoshino Chiyuki… what exactly are you trying to do?"
Queen Mardel, whose defeat had already been declared after being pierced by Robin Hood's final 10,000-damage direct attack, was no longer concerned about the result of the duel. Instead, what worried her most now was the fate of the sacred land of her Kingdom.
"Queen Mardel, you said the human world is already beyond saving… But even after observing human history for thousands of years, you've merely seen a few superficial truths as an outsider."
Beneath Hoshino Alter's feet, the lake's surface slowly calmed.
The black energy, filled with malice and impurity, spiraled toward the very center of the lakebed.
It was as if someone had pulled the plug at the bottom of the Lake of Purification, causing the accumulated filth to leak out from below.
The truth, however, was different.
Through the power of Robin Hood's Noble Phantasm, the seed of the sacred yew tree had been shot deep into the lakebed where the impurities had settled. Then, using the magical power of the Pyramid of Light, it was forcibly made to grow within the filth.
"Bloom within the Lake of Purification—Yew Bow!"
When used as a Noble Phantasm, the poisonous yew tree that could catalyze toxins could also absorb impurities as nourishment.
The tree absorbed as much of the foul energy—accumulated for centuries and never fully purified—as it could. From the lakebed, an emerald-colored yew burst upward, breaking through the water's surface and blooming above Queen Mardel's palace.
Meanwhile, the lake's surface had returned to crystal clarity.
The hellish, boiling scene from just moments ago now seemed like a lie.
"You… purified the Lake of Purification itself? The King of Light among humans can actually accomplish something like this?" Queen Mardel exclaimed in shock as she gazed up at the enormous yew tree covering her entire palace.
As the queen of the Elf Kingdom, she could never be deceived by false illusions. She could clearly feel that the impurity energy accumulated within the lake had been emptied in an instant.
Even Hoshino asked doubtfully,
["Even I don't know… Can the King of Light really do something like that? Even Robin Hood's Noble Phantasm shouldn't be able to purify this much filth instantly."]
"Of course it can't," Hoshino Alter said, mischievously closing one eye as she quietly explained to Hoshino.
"Whether it's the 'King of Light' or the 'King of Darkness,' they're still human at their core. Their power isn't much higher than that of the Nine Kings of the Realm. So if even the Elf Queen couldn't do it, how could I?"
Hoshino blinked.
["If you can't… then what's with this yew tree?"]
"Well, the yew does have some ability to absorb toxins. But honestly, that's just to make everything look more convincing. It's mostly for show."
Shaking the Pyramid of Light hanging on her chest, Hoshino Alter reminded her:
"Queen Mardel mentioned earlier that the impurities that couldn't be purified were formed from human negative emotions, right? In that case… this girl must be very happy about it."
Wicked Avatar:
["Hey! Don't treat me like some kind of garbage disposal! This is the power of a god that stands above kings!"]
"But you look pretty happy about it."
The Three Evil Gods, born from the gathering of humanity's negative energy, were actually quite similar in nature to the Lake of Purification.
"Tch." The Evil God clicked its tongue.
["I won't deny it. This kind of rare, concentrated negative energy… having it once in a while feels like upgrading from plain rice and tea to gourmet cuisine."]
Hoshino sighed.
["So my magical power is just plain rice and tea, huh? Sorry about that."]
"I admit it… I have completely lost, King of Light among humans."
Finally acknowledging her defeat, Queen Mardel slowly bent her waist and gave a respectful bow.
"Whether in the duel… or in the capacity of a king, I have lost to you. Congratulations, Hoshino Chiyuki and Minazuki. With your resolve, you have proven the possibilities of humanity and conquered me—the King of the Light Realm."
"We did it! Senpai and the others won!" Alexis shouted excitedly.
"Amazing, Minazuki," Misawa admitted. "You actually managed to keep up with the Headmistress and execute that final reversal strategy."
"So they've already defeated two kings… what an unexpected result." Kaiba Man looked up at the sky thoughtfully. "If we could suppress all nine kings without relying on the power of the Star Grail Priestess, that would be ideal."
To be honest, even Kaiba Man felt that the priestess who inherited the Star Grail was unreliable in many ways. He still didn't understand why King Solomon had specifically emphasized her importance before.
Hoshino Alter put away her Duel Disk and quietly let out a sigh of relief.
"As for 'kingly capacity,' I won't comment… but in terms of dueling skill, Queen Mardel, you're actually stronger."
[Duelist Rank Evaluation Complete]
[Duelist: Queen Mardel]
[Overall Rank: EX]
[Reward: 200 Saint Quartz]
[Remaining Saint Quartz: 240]
If she hadn't teamed up with Minazuki—starting with five extra cards—and summoned the triple-stacked Rank 9 Beast-Warrior "Cu Chulainn Alter," Hoshino Alter's chances of winning this duel would have been extremely slim.
"The power Duel Monsters can exert comes from the duelist's heart placed within the cards and the bond the cards respond with. At least in that regard, Hoshino… you completely surpass me."
With the danger of the Lake of Purification removed, Queen Mardel had no reason left to oppose humanity. In fact, Hoshino Alter—who had restored the sacred land—had become a benefactor to the Elf Kingdom, and her tone grew much gentler.
"After all… I still prefer cute human girls," she said with a smile. "Please don't be shy. Stay in my palace tonight and allow me to entertain you properly~"
"I won too, you know! Why are you only entertaining the Headmistress?" Minazuki protested anxiously.
"Even though you won together, Minazuki, you're still far behind," Syrus said while patting his shoulder with a mischievous grin. "And the only turn you handled—if the Headmistress's trap hadn't saved you, your monsters would've been wiped out."
Hoshino blinked in surprise.
["Stay in the palace tonight? D-does that mean… the legendary sleeping attendance?"]
"No! Absolutely not!" Alexis immediately interrupted. "You can't do that, Senpai! They tried to invade the academy! Who knows what they might do to you in bed!"
…But nobody had even mentioned getting into bed. How did Alexis interpret it that way on her own?
Hoshino muttered,
["A beautiful, sexy, mature onee-san… I feel like I could handle it!"]
"Hold on a second, aibo!" Hoshino Alter protested. "I'm the one who won that duel! If the Queen's offering hospitality, I should be the one enjoying it!"
The Pyramid of Light shook violently.
The two souls within Hoshino's body clashed for control—fighting over something like this for the very first time.
And then—
Hoshino's body vanished before everyone's eyes, as if it had teleported.
Resting her slender fingers against her cheek, Queen Mardel's face flushed slightly as she sighed dreamily.
"Even the way she leaves is so dashing… The human King of Light is truly charming~"
Outside the World Tree — Duel Academy
"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!"
Just like Akasha earlier—who had been rejected before even entering—Hoshino was suddenly flung out of the portal opened by the Valkyries without any warning.
The three Valkyries looked at each other and exclaimed in admiration:
"As expected of Master! After such a long delay, the Elf finally rejected you!"
Hoshino Alter complained:
["It's all because of you, aibo! Your impure heart forcibly took control of the body again, and the rules of the Elf Kingdom immediately punished us! Give me back my mature, charming onee-san!"]
"No way!" Hoshino shot back. "If someone like you counts as 'pure-hearted,' then the rules themselves must be broken!"
With Hoshino's return, the other students who had entered the Elf Kingdom were also safely sent back by Queen Mardel.
Of course, none of them returned in such a miserable manner as Hoshino. For them, it had probably felt like a magical trip to a fantasy land—they never truly sensed the danger of a battle that could determine the fate of humanity.
"Akasha, where did you go earlier?" Alexis blinked innocently when she saw Akasha waiting outside the World Tree. "I didn't see you anywhere. Did you get lost?"
"┌(.Д.)┐ I… I… I…"
Akasha's face was full of embarrassment. She couldn't bring herself to admit that she had never entered at all. After all, aside from some male students with impure motives, almost everyone—especially the girls who followed Hoshino out of admiration—had been allowed inside.
"I… was worried about Jaden, so I went to check on him at the Red Dorm."
She made up an excuse on the spot. Since Jaden had been taken away by Professor Banner after fainting, he conveniently became the perfect scapegoat.
"Jaden fainted because he lost a duel? That's pretty rare for someone with his personality…" Hoshino said with concern.
"So how is he? He's not seriously hurt, right?"
"Cough, cough—he's fine! Totally fine," Akasha answered while glancing away awkwardly.
"That's bad, nya!"
Professor Banner suddenly ran over from the direction of the Red Dorm in a panic, mercilessly shattering Akasha's awkward lie.
"Jaden… he's gone, nya!"
Alexis looked at Akasha in confusion.
"That's strange. Didn't you just say he was doing fine? How did he suddenly disappear?"
Please, Alexis—stop. Akasha was about to be killed by your naturally airheaded savagery.
Banner hurriedly explained:
"I thought Jaden fainted because he was hungry, so I went to the kitchen to cook some rice porridge. But when I came back to the dorm, he was already gone, nya!"
After rummaging through his pocket, Banner pulled out a deck of cards.
"And in Banner's room, the Duel Disk was taken, but his Elemental HERO deck was left behind."
Minazuki analyzed:
"Maybe he was unwilling to accept losing the duel and secretly went off to do some special training… But if he only took the Duel Disk and didn't bring his deck, that doesn't make much sense."
"It's fine. We don't need to worry about it here," Hoshino said, roughly guessing what Jaden had gone to do.
"That guy doesn't need people worrying about him too much. He's the type who gets stronger just by being left alone."
"Gets stronger just by being left alone?" Akasha asked skeptically. "This isn't some idle training mobile game. Isn't that a bit exaggerated?"
"Not exaggerated at all," Hoshino replied confidently. "Jaden will become very strong. Extremely strong."
Strong enough to be comparable to an EX-ranked duelist in the Nine Kings War.
Or rather, for the system's ranking, EX was already the limit. Beyond that was the realm of gods fighting gods—something that couldn't simply be measured with levels.
"Well then," Hoshino yawned as drowsiness set in, climbing onto her D-Wheel. "We dealt with two kings in one night. Time to head back and get some rest."
According to Akasha earlier, three kings had attacked tonight.
Counting the Iron King defeated by Zane and the Light King defeated by Hoshino Alter and Minazuki, the only one left was the Sword King, who had a duel appointment with Jaden.
Although Hoshino could use the Valkyries' power to open portals to the nine realms of the World Tree and proactively challenge the other kings before they descended—
In their current condition—with Jaden missing, Zane exhausted from overusing his body, and very little information about the other king races—starting battles prematurely carried more risk than benefit.
"You guys should get some rest too," Hoshino waved as she started the D-Wheel. "Tomorrow is the official first day of school after spring break. Don't be late."
"Even at a time like this, we still have to attend class…" someone muttered. "The Headmistress may be small in some places, but her heart is really huge…"
.
..
...
Hoshino Residence
"That's some incredibly efficient repair work. As expected of Da Vinci-chan~"
When Hoshino returned to her room, the wall that Eve had smashed with her head earlier had already been perfectly repaired during her absence—as if by magic.
Meanwhile, Eve, who had fallen asleep on Hoshino's bed earlier due to excessive magical energy consumption during the support card draw, had already been "safely" transferred to the guest room by Nightingale.
Whether all her limbs were still intact, however… remained unknown.
"Well, worrying about it won't help. Time to sleep~ We need to recover our stamina for the battles ahead!"
Hoshino Alter continued muttering resentfully:
["I should be lying in the bed of that beautiful spirit onee-san right now… It's all aibo's fault…"]
"Stop obsessing over that," Hoshino said as she comfortably lay down. "For all we know, Minazuki might be right—Queen Mardel might be bigger than me down there."
Hoshino Alter replied:
["Bigger than your chest, aibo? I can already tell without her taking it out."]
"…You realize that insult hurts both of us equally, right?" Hoshino sighed. "Besides, no matter how luxurious a queen's palace bed is, it definitely can't be as comfortable as your own bed."
With that, she happily rubbed her cheek against the pillow Emiya had freshly replaced.
Since it had been thoroughly dried under the sun, it carried a faint scent of sunshine. Some people said that smell was actually dust mites being roasted, but Hoshino liked it anyway.
"Aibo, you go ahead and sleep first," Hoshino Alter said.
"I still have something I need to take care of (´v｀)."