The duel was over. Millennium-Eyes Restrict looked thoroughly dejected.
Seeing that it didn't want to talk, Hikaru didn't linger in the laboratory. As soon as the doors opened, he walked out.
Pegasus thanked Hikaru first, then entered the laboratory himself, clearly intending to have a thorough conversation with Millennium-Eyes Restrict about everything that had led to this point.
His expression lacked the calm, gentlemanly composure he'd shown when first greeting Hikaru. The fact that his opponent had been Restrict and had used a card like Mind Crush left him looking somewhat embarrassed.
Still, embarrassment aside, he was the Father of Duel Monsters, a man who had weathered countless rounds of "philosophical debate" from all manner of formidable duelists and had his various cards stolen left and right over the years. He quickly regained his composure and prepared to have a proper talk with Millennium-Eyes Restrict.
After Hikaru came out, Chumley and Anselm excitedly congratulated him on his victory. But they were, after all, members and trainees of Industrial Illusions, so when they saw Pegasus enter the laboratory, they hurried after him despite their lingering unease and fear of the mind-reading ability.
That left Hikaru sitting alone on a corridor bench outside the laboratory, reviewing his Deck.
Today, Hikaru had used a relatively balanced milling Deck. Though it contained Gem-Knight components, it leaned more heavily on LIGHT monster components.
After checking through his Deck, Hikaru found that no cards had changed. He gave a small nod.
If any card in this Deck had transformed, he would have felt it was a serious loss.
Fortunately, although some of the Fusion-support Spell Cards weren't technically Fusion cards, none had been forcibly fused away by Super Polymerization.
Hikaru lightly clenched his right fist.
Based on how things felt, unless the card in question was particularly irrelevant, his current level of Spirit Adaptability should prevent Super Polymerization from forcibly fusing his cards into something else.
That was good news.
And there was even better news.
Hikaru reached into his side deck, pulled out a card, and let the corner of his mouth lift.
Beautiful!
Claw of Hermos!
This possibility he had obtained from Rex Raptor was now finally complete, having become a real, fully realized card!
Like The Eye of Timaeus, this was a Fusion Spell that could perform a Fusion Summon with a single card. Though the monsters it could Fuse into were far less versatile than what The Eye of Timaeus offered, Hikaru was still thrilled.
Perhaps the current Hikaru wouldn't invest too heavily in Claw of Hermos components, but since he was walking the path of "ultimate Fusion," acquiring more powerful Fusions was only natural.
Dueling against a legendary duelist had finally brought this card to completion. That meant Hikaru was now only missing The Fang of Critias, the one that could transform Trap Cards into Fusion Monsters.
"Since dueling that human called Rex Raptor yielded the base card for Claw of Hermos, the same method should work for obtaining the other cards." Tierra remarked from beside him. "Now that you have two, the next one should emerge regardless of who you duel."
Hikaru nodded.
His duels against legendary duelists weren't over yet. He wondered whether, once he assembled all three, he could obtain Timaeus the Knight of Destiny the same way he had obtained Armityle the Chaos Phantasm.
Timaeus the Knight of Destiny required all three Legendary Knights on the field to perform the Fusion. As a Fusion Monster, its ATK equaled the highest ATK among monsters on the field, and it was also unaffected by other cards' effects.
Those two effects alone were extremely powerful in this world.
After all, in this world, highly efficient removal monsters like the Kaiju series were actually quite rare. The better-known ones were really just Lava Golem and Volcanic Queen. Others, like Santa Claws, weren't nearly as well-known.
Of course, the current issue was that the two Legendary Dragons in Hikaru's possession weren't true Legendary Dragons. They were purely cards imbued with exceptionally high-quality spirit energy that could assist Hikaru in duels. They definitely couldn't manifest actual dragons or knights and then combine into one the way the three originals did in the original series.
So going forward, Hikaru would probably need to think about the Three Knights and things related to Timaeus the Legendary Dragon?
The more he thought about it, the more complicated it seemed. It was going to be a long road.
But fortunately, this world had quite a lot of "legendary duelists."
And someone like Rex Raptor, whose soul had been incomplete due to the Seal of Orichalcos and had only recently recovered, was actually the exception rather than the rule.
Duelists like the Paradox Brothers and Pegasus were classic examples of legendary duelists he could challenge multiple times.
So Hikaru wasn't worried about being unable to collect the remaining cards.
Besides, at absolute worst, even if Hikaru truly couldn't find anyone else, Rex Raptor was now fully "revived." He could always spar with Rex to squeeze out some duel energy.
He organized his cards for a while, then put them away and chatted idly with Tierra.
Tierra had no interest in human affairs, so she had paid no attention to the dispute between Millennium-Eyes Restrict and Pegasus, and hadn't mentioned it to Hikaru beforehand.
Millennium-Eyes Restrict's mind-reading ability was genuinely formidable. Even a duelist of Hikaru's caliber had his thoughts read during the duel.
But Tierra had never cared about such things.
The reasoning was simple: whatever she wanted to do, she would do it. In fact, if it were possible, she would announce it to the entire world and let everyone know she was up to something.
Compared to that, what she found slightly unfortunate was not being able to have a "you call the shots while I play" duel, or an "I possess your body, your consciousness leaves, I close my eyes and you operate" duel.
Because the moment she thought about it, she was certain that strategy would have easily dismantled Millennium-Eyes Restrict.
Because although she had learned a great deal of dueling knowledge and understood Fusion quite well from being around Hikaru, asking her to actually pilot Hikaru's Fusion Deck was far beyond her abilities.
In that scenario, she might not even be able to figure out what a drawn card was useful for. Even if Millennium-Eyes Restrict were truly invincible and could read the innermost thoughts of a Creation Deity like her, it probably wouldn't help. It might even start doubting its own ability.
"Wait, isn't this Hikaru guy supposed to be a world-famous duelist? Why is his head completely empty?"
Unfortunately, Hikaru had wanted to challenge himself and try out an entirely new branch of Fusion.
That such an entertaining opportunity had been missed was a mild disappointment for Tierra, who had nothing to do most days.
After all, entertainment like that didn't come along often.
But she understood.
Hikaru wanted to push toward an even more extreme, more ultimate form of Fusion. Relying on "brainpower," "strategy," and "mind games" had already become very slow progress. Expanding his horizons through different approaches was an essential step. He had to try, or else walking only one path could never be called "absolute" or "ultimate."
After chatting for a while, the laboratory doors finally opened again. Pegasus and his group emerged. Several Industrial Illusions employees looked weighed down, while the Paradox Brothers and Pegasus both wore expressions of relief, as if a great burden had been lifted.
Hikaru stood up.
"Thank you so much, Amagi-boy!" Pegasus smiled again, spreading his arms wide in gratitude.
Hikaru looked at the open door and asked curiously, "Mr. Pegasus, what about Millennium-Eyes Restrict?"
Pegasus gave a light clap, then tapped his prosthetic left eye with his right index finger.
It had taken up residence directly inside his body?
Hikaru was quite surprised.
"I must thank you once more, Amagi-boy. If not for you, I'm afraid I never could have reached an understanding with Millennium-Eyes Restrict." He lowered his hand and spoke again in his signature singsong tone.
Hikaru frowned in confusion. "So, Mr. Pegasus, what exactly happened?"
"Well, that is quite the story."
He began explaining the details to Hikaru.
The situation was actually quite simple.
Although Pegasus no longer participated in duels, he had always loved Toon monsters and wanted to see Toon spirits. That was why he had been training his spirit power.
As his training progressed, his Spirit Adaptability grew higher and higher. After all, he was a world-class billionaire, the Father of Duel Monsters, and a former wielder of a Millennium Item. His training had gone remarkably smoothly.
Under those circumstances, he gradually attracted spirits connected to him.
Just as it was for the vast majority of duelists in the world.
Heroes attract heroes. Warriors attract warriors. The vessel of the White Dragon attracts the White Dragon.
But here was the problem: the first spirit to appear at Pegasus's side wasn't a Toon. It was Restrict!
Thousand-Eyes Restrict, that ancient dark god, that powerful monster he had designed, finally found him as his power grew.
It infiltrated Industrial Illusions, wanting to observe Pegasus's character, only to discover that he had completely abandoned "Restrict."
Not only that, to prove he had let go of the "past," Industrial Illusions reprinted Thousand-Eyes Restrict and Relinquished every few years, to the point where even Duel Academy students could toss Relinquished into wishing wells like it was nothing.
Because reality differed from expectations, and because of its resentment at being ignored, Thousand-Eyes Restrict merged with remnants of the "past," fragments of imagery from Pegasus's history, and traces of the Millennium Eye's power that Pegasus had once wielded. It accidentally evolved into Millennium-Eyes Restrict, reigniting Pegasus's mind-reading ability and ultimately going berserk.
"This was my fault." Pegasus gently touched his left eye.
He had been so focused on art, cards, and his business, so fixated on seeing Toon monsters, that he had neglected the other presence in his Deck. This was the result.
"Cards are innocent." He couldn't help but sigh deeply. "Back then, I used Thousand-Eyes Restrict because I wanted to defeat Yugi-boy and fulfill my deepest wish."
Those intentions had been wicked, but the card itself harbored none of Pegasus's motives.
So his favoritism, his neglect of Thousand-Eyes Restrict, had undeniably been wrong.
And it was precisely because of its resentment toward Pegasus that Millennium-Eyes Restrict had been opposing him at every turn, even pulling stunts that made Pegasus want to disappear from the face of the earth.
Like reading minds and then using Mind Crush.
In truth, after the previous duel where Millennium-Eyes Restrict had beaten Pegasus so badly he spent over a month bedridden, Restrict's anger had somewhat subsided. But since Pegasus still hadn't figured out what was going on, Restrict simply continued sulking out of spite.
Although Pegasus had picked up on some of Restrict's feelings during the duel, afterward his head had been entirely occupied with the Millennium Eye's power and the possibilities of a new Type. He hadn't given much thought to the emotions behind it all.
That was also why, despite this matter having absolutely nothing to do with Chumley or Franz, he had brought both designers along anyway.
He had wanted to see if this duel might spark inspiration in two promising juniors.
It wasn't until Millennium-Eyes Restrict revealed its true form that he finally realized what a mess he had been making all this time.
"Randomness. The future. Amagi-boy, you've given me an entirely new way of thinking." Pegasus mused deeply. "Perhaps my eagerly awaiting the Toons was wrong from the start. Because our future is never certain.
The people we meet, the things that happen to us, none of it is guaranteed. Just as I believe Duel Monsters should have more design sensibility, more artistic beauty, rather than what's happening now: the pursuit of newer, stronger cards driven purely by dimensional development."
Pegasus tapped his forehead lightly, clearly in the middle of a brainstorm. "Even I, the so-called Father of Duel Monsters, shouldn't presume to declare what Duel Monsters ought to be. Oh dear."
He looked at Chumley and Franz. Both stiffened with tension. Then Pegasus smiled gently. "No need to be nervous, you two. What the future of Duel Monsters design should look like, I'll leave that to your upcoming creations."
"Yes, President!" "R-Right, Mr. Pegasus!"
Pegasus then turned back to Hikaru and continued. "Now then, Amagi-boy, regarding the entirely new Type, I actually have some leads already. In the future, I should be inviting you back again. Look forward to it!"
Hikaru nodded eagerly.
The Illusion Type! That sounded wonderful!
Then Pegasus drew a card from his Deck. "And this card wants to go with you."
He handed Hikaru a card.
A Fusion Monster.
Millennium-Eyes Restrict!
Hikaru flinched in surprise, then looked up at Pegasus.
"This is the card it chose to give you. Unfortunately, with your victory over it, the Millennium Eye's power that had been swirling around this island has completely dissipated. Neither it nor I will ever be able to read another person's thoughts again.
But I believe, whether it's the card or myself, we both sincerely feel that this card is better suited for you. For you, the most Fusion duelist in the entire world!"
As he spoke, he spread his arms wide and proclaimed it to the heavens.
The Paradox Brothers, Anselm, Chumley, Franz, and the several bodyguards nearby all nodded in agreement.
"Then I'll gladly accept." Hikaru didn't hesitate for a second. He took the card without reservation and said to Pegasus, "Thank you so much, Mr. Pegasus. I promise this card will walk the path of Fusion alongside me."
"HAHAHA! That is simply perfect!"
...
STONES???