— The next day, 1:12 AM. Fifty minutes remained before Operation Gurren Lagann Breakthrough — the plan to counter King Utgarda — was scheduled to commence.
As Hoshino and the others waited at the harbor, the atmosphere had never been heavier.
To avoid causing panic on the island, news of King Utgarda's impending arrival had been kept strictly confidential. Aside from those who had been present at the meeting — including Principal Sheppard — no one else on the island knew anything about it.
"You guys don't think the Dwarf King was just pulling our leg, do you? Maybe there isn't actually a giant King at all," Minazuki prayed. "Honestly, that would make a lot more sense."
"That's right, no ne!" Crowler rubbed his hands together and nodded frantically. "Maybe nothing will happen tonight, and we can all just go back and sleep peacefully, no ne~"
Looking at the two deadweights as though they were idiots, Akasha said:
"Why would the mighty Dwarf King come all the way here just to play a pointless prank like that?"
Staring calmly at the distant horizon, Zane and Kaiba analyzed the situation.
"Rather than wondering whether King Utgarda will really appear…"
"…I'd be more concerned about whether that so-called decisive mech will arrive on time."
["I knew it. These two really are alike."]
The sea remained tranquil, with only the gentle sound of waves filling the silence. Beneath the night sky, there wasn't the slightest sign that a monster the size of an entire continent was about to appear.
Everything was so peaceful that even Hoshino began wondering if perhaps the Void World King Battle wouldn't come after all.
"I'm so sleepy~~~"
Letting out a long yawn, Akasha rubbed the corners of her eyes and looked into the distance.
"Doesn't it feel like the sky's getting darker? We should've been asleep ages ago."
"Akasha, are you so sleepy you've gone dumb?" Minazuki retorted. "It's already past one in the morning. The sky got dark a long time ago. How could it possibly get even darker?"
"No… the sky really is getting darker…"
At the same time, Hoshino and Yugi looked toward the horizon, their expressions turning grave.
At the boundary where the sea met the sky, something immense seemed to blot out the heavens themselves. The already dim night sky grew even darker as an enormous black silhouette gradually swallowed it whole.
"…King Utgarda?"
The name flashed through Hoshino's mind instantly. She had never seen King Utgarda before, yet instinctively knew that the massive black mass eclipsing the sky could be nothing else.
"Headmistress, is that thing in the sky the King?" Minazuki asked in shock.
Grinding her teeth, Hoshino replied:
"We instinctively assumed that something as enormous as King Utgarda — something the size of a continent — would be floating on the surface of the sea. But we were wrong. This King is even more abnormal than we imagined."
A creature with a landmass comparable to Eurasia… was actually floating in the sky.
No wonder the Dwarf King had described the remaining three Kings as beings beyond all reason.
Just thinking that there were still two more unknown monsters on that level sent chills down Hoshino's spine.
"But if that's really King Utgarda," Zane said uneasily, "then it arrived earlier than expected, didn't it?"
According to the Dwarf King's calculations, it should have taken at least another fifty minutes before anyone on Duel Academy Island could see it with the naked eye.
"Mamma mia… Did they miscalculate, so the mech won't make it in time?" Crowler despaired.
"It made it in time!"
The clear voice of the young Dwarf King rang through the air like a hymn of salvation.
"You mean… the giant mech built to rival the King is finished?!" Hoshino exclaimed excitedly, instinctively looking up into the sky.
"It's underneath!"
From beneath the violently churning sea, a gigantic pitch-black mech slowly rose from the depths.
The Anti-King Mech — a hundred times larger than the original Iron King mech.
The colossal waves it generated just by surfacing looked powerful enough to tear the entire sea apart.
"(✧◡✧)!! So awesome! It's HUGE!"
Minazuki's eyes sparkled as he stared at the magnificent machine rising from the ocean. His entire body trembled with excitement.
"As expected~ Men really do love big things," Akasha sighed knowingly.
"Behold! This is the greatest masterpiece forged by the Dwarf Kingdom with all its strength! The decisive battle mech built to defeat King Utgarda — its name is… Savior Mk. II!"
The supermassive Savior mech fully emerged before everyone. Only for a brief instant, as it rose from the sea, could they glimpse the shape of its head.
Now, however, its upper body had already disappeared deep into the black night sky. Even craning their necks upward, they could no longer see its top.
"Mk. II?" Kaiba asked curiously. "Does that mean there's a Mk. I?"
"How are we even supposed to get up there?" Hoshino wondered. "It's taller than Kaiba Corporation's headquarters."
Minazuki's eyes shone with even greater anticipation.
"A Super Robot like this should be boarded through sheer fighting spirit! Or maybe it'll fire a gravity beam and suck the pilots inside!"
From the top of the Savior mech, two floating platforms descended — one to the left and one to the right — before gently stopping in front of everyone.
"Come aboard, everyone," the Dwarf King instructed. "The two Duelists should stand on the platform to the left. Everyone else, take the one on the right. Hold onto the handrails. If you fall into the sea, I'm not fishing you out."
"So this is how we board it?" Akasha teased, glancing at the thoroughly disappointed Minazuki. "That's… unexpectedly ordinary."
"Ready, Yugi?"
After exchanging a silent glance with Yugi, who had barely spoken since earlier, Hoshino stepped onto the left platform first.
"What? Having second thoughts?" Kaiba mocked as the decisive battle drew near. "If you switch to Atem now, there's still time."
"No, Kaiba."
Shaking his head, Yugi answered firmly:
"I won't run away. This is a step I have to take myself. I already made a promise with my other self."
Following Hoshino, Yugi stepped onto the left platform — the Duel platform.
"Let's fight side by side, Hoshino. We'll survive this… and claim our victory."
Once everyone had boarded, the left platform carrying the two Duelists floated toward the cockpit located in the Savior mech's chest.
Meanwhile, the right platform, carrying everyone else — the official spectators — ascended toward the mech's towering head.
"Yugi, you mentioned earlier that you made a promise with your other self. What kind of promise was it?" Hoshino asked as the platform continued to rise.
She had noticed that ever since everyone had gathered that evening, Yugi had barely spoken. He had most likely been talking with Atem's soul inside the Millennium Puzzle the entire time.
"Well…" Yugi hesitated, as though unsure whether he should say it.
Hoshino quickly waved her hands.
"Of course, if it's something you can't talk about, don't force yourself. I was just a little curious."
"It's okay."
Yugi smiled gently, narrowing his eyes.
"My other self just told me… that if it's you, Hoshino, then it's fine. I can tell you."
"Three years from now, when the Millennium Eye has been restored and all seven Millennium Items have been reunited… Hoshino, do you remember the inscription from the ritual?"
When the sword is held, the Pharaoh's soul shall not depart; only through peaceful rest may the law be fulfilled.
"I remember." Hoshino nodded. "It's the method Odion spoke about — the way to return Atem's lingering soul from the world of the living back to the Underworld. Three years from now… someone has to defeat Atem in a Duel Monsters duel."
"And I want to be the one who defeats my other self."
"But Yugi…" Hoshino said, unable to understand. "If you do that… Atem's soul will return to the Underworld. Won't you be lonely?"
["If you told me you were going to personally send me off, Aibo, I'd definitely cry!"]
Resting his fingers lightly on the Millennium Puzzle, Yugi spoke softly.
"I'll be lonely… very lonely. But this is the promise I have to fulfill with my other self. Besides… that's where he truly belongs."
"Yugi…"
"So we have to win this battle, Hoshino! Only if we survive can I keep that promise… and continue moving toward the future."
At that moment, Yugi's fighting spirit surged forth, completely overturning the gentle, timid impression people usually had of him. For an instant, he seemed to overlap with the soul of Atem standing behind him.
"That's right, Yugi. Everything else can wait until after we've won this battle!"
The platform reached the cockpit and rose through the opened hatch.
Before Hoshino spread a futuristic control room, surrounded by advanced technology. A massive panoramic display covered nearly every angle, allowing them to observe the outside world in all directions.
"Ahem… Testing, testing. Can you hear me?"
The cute avatar of the Dwarf King appeared in the lower-right corner of the holographic screen.
Before Hoshino or Yugi could answer, she continued speaking.
"I'm just going through the motions. Of course you can hear me — this is the greatest masterpiece of the Dwarf Race, after all. Now listen carefully while I explain the controls. Don't act on your own."
The light clanking of machinery echoed throughout the cockpit.
The interior split apart, forming two separate pilot compartments — one on the left and one on the right — each designed specifically for Duels.
"Hoshino, Yugi — you each enter one of the cockpits. Once you're inside, you'll immediately see the deck-loading slot. Insert the Deck you've prepared for this Duel."
"I see. So instead of using Duel Disks, we load our Decks directly into the cockpit and use the entire Savior Mk. II as one gigantic Duel Disk."
Even Hoshino couldn't suppress her excitement.
The moment she loaded her Deck, it felt as though her spirit of steel had been ignited.
"Everyone… I'm counting on you!"
[Deck Synchronization Complete! Duel System Mode — Switching!]
The moment Hoshino and Yugi inserted their Decks, the system announcement echoed through the cockpit.
From the control console, black Duel Disk-like devices sprang out and stopped before the two of them.
"These are your weapons for this battle," explained the Dwarf King. "They've already synchronized all the information from the Decks you just loaded. Just draw cards and Duel like you normally would."
"Wait, I have one more question."
Hoshino raised her hand.
"You said this mech was modified for a two-person Tag Duel. But there's only one Savior Mk. II. How exactly are two people supposed to Duel with a single mech?"
No matter how gigantic it was, the Savior mech still retained a humanoid form to facilitate Dueling.
Under normal circumstances, one humanoid machine shouldn't be able to support a two-person Duel.
"Well…" The Dwarf King scratched her head helplessly from the corner of the screen.
"Even the Dwarf Race couldn't build a Savior Mk. III in such a short amount of time. So the best modification we could make for Tag Dueling… is this!"
She slammed the activation switch.
Heavy metallic sounds thundered throughout the Savior mech as both arms transformed simultaneously.
Countless mechanical components shifted and recombined at incredible speed, forming gigantic Duel Disk armaments on both the left and right arms.
"This is… the Dual-Wield Style! Two-Person Duel Mode!"
"D-Dual-wielding?" Hoshino's mouth twitched. "You can actually do something like that…?"
Normally, Duel Disks were worn only on one arm.
But the Savior mech had one mounted on each arm, making it look exactly like a dual-wielding swordsman.
"As everyone knows," Minazuki exclaimed, his enthusiasm instantly returning after being disappointed by the ordinary boarding procedure, "dual-wielding means you're twice as strong!"
"The idiot Jaden insisted on becoming the Supreme King and missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like this. When he gets back, I'm definitely going to brag nonstop while enjoying the look on his face!"
"Enough chatting. There's no more time."
The Dwarf King switched the holographic display to focus on the approaching King Utgarda in the distant sky.
Only through the Savior mech, which reduced the overwhelming difference in scale, could they finally make out the King's true appearance.
"Rather than a continent…" Hoshino murmured uneasily, "it looks more like a castle floating in the sky. Is something like that really going to Duel us?"
"Of course it will."
"But first… we have to make it notice us!"
Gripping the control stick, the Dwarf King's eyes locked firmly onto the distant King Utgarda.
"O King who stood above our race ten thousand years ago… don't think we'll bow our heads to you any longer!"
"Take this!"
"Savior Mk. II Anti-Void Armament — Super Thermal Beam Shot!!"
Brilliant crimson lasers gathered within the Savior mech's eyes.
The next instant, an overwhelming beam erupted forth, tearing through the heavens and evaporating the sea as it blasted toward the floating King Utgarda.
"So that's the military technology of another world…" Kaiba muttered gravely.
Having been raised by Gozaburo Kaiba, whose business centered around the arms industry, Kaiba knew weapons well.
He didn't even need to analyze the Savior mech itself.
From that single blast alone, it was obvious that the Dwarf Race's military technology far surpassed humanity's.
If humanity were ever to wage war against them, they would undoubtedly suffer a crushing defeat in terms of military power alone.
"ROOOOAAARRR—!!"
A deafening howl echoed from the floating King Utgarda, shaking the entire sea.
"Now you can't ignore us anymore!"
The Dwarf King tightened her grip on the controls, closed her eyes briefly, took a deep breath, and shouted:
"Now's the time! Begin the Duel, Yugi! Hoshino! Drag this absurd monster into our battlefield!"
"Roger!"
Putting on the black Duel Disk that had ejected from the cockpit, Hoshino reached into its mechanical frame and drew her opening card.
"Operation Gurren Lagann Breakthrough officially begins!"
"Duel!!"