Hikaru returned smoothly from the Despia dimension to the Great Universe Workshop.
Or was it the "Branded" dimension? The "Teaching" dimension?
Hard to say. Even Hikaru couldn't tell.
Having just returned to the Great Universe Workshop, before he could even check his things, Hikaru felt a wave of dizziness, then instinctively started dry-heaving. But within a few minutes, he adapted to the state.
Compared to him, Flame Sword, Black Flame, and White Crystal were in worse shape. Though all high-level spirit warriors, the three spirits were swaying and dizzy within two seconds of returning. Flame Sword even gave up outright, collapsing on the spot, clutching his head and spinning in place.
"It seems you can't just casually go to that type of dimension." Tierra scanned the three spirits' body data with her eyes nearby, then looked at the several Infernoid mechanical demons she had summoned, and shook her head.
Several of the machines showed varying degrees of malfunction, performing roughly like the earlier "Assembler," though far less severely.
Clearly, operating in that kind of "red-light-infected dimension" wasn't a simple matter. Even high-star spirits would take a serious hit.
She looked at Hikaru again.
It seemed that Hikaru, having been gazed upon by the "red light" itself, had far higher mental and physical resistance to this kind of dimension than the spirits.
Only, where the limit of this resistance lay, and whether continuously entering "red-light-class dimensions" was dangerous, was hard to say.
Of course.
Hikaru looked at the three spirits.
More importantly, these three clearly couldn't go again. Not just them, but the several lower-tier Earthbound Immortal kin nearby couldn't go again either, at least not for a while.
Tierra pondered for a moment.
She could resist these mental assaults through her own personal ability, so that was no issue. But however versatile she was, it would be hard to take away all the "fragments" from under countless covetous, red-light-empowered, deranged spirits.
It wasn't a matter of ability, but of whether she could split her attention that much.
Hikaru would definitely be going to another red-light-infected dimension next, the "Dark World." If the spirits there were also like the Branded dimension just now, a single spirit formed of a heap of spirits stitched together, then completing the "Selfless Painting School's" work would be anything but simple.
But on second thought, she figured it was normal.
The way it looked now, that Selfless Painting School was absolutely an unbelievably powerful "god." Even at her living peak, in full condition, she might have been much inferior. After all, even she now couldn't claim to take a hit from the red light and survive in the shape the Selfless Painting School had.
If so, how could the Selfless Painting School's work be that easy?
And besides...
She looked around the Great Universe Workshop.
In the Great Universe Workshop, the "three knights" weren't the only ones who could work.
The "technician" combination of Witchcrafter Haine, Mudragon the magician, and Golden-Eyes Idol could also assist Hikaru.
But that would somewhat waste the three spirits' specialties. Witchcrafter Haine had finally gotten a chance for a vacation, so Hikaru probably wouldn't make it follow him.
But it wasn't a big problem. There were still high-end combat forces like the Sacred Beasts and the Chaos warriors.
The Sacred Beasts ate and drank in the Great Universe Workshop every day doing nothing, so they ought to give some return too.
Of course, Hikaru still had many other spirits here. Thunder Dragon, Gladiator Beast Andal, A Assault Core, and so on... But these combat forces weren't quite enough. Tierra felt that taking them to this kind of dimension probably wouldn't be very safe.
As if sensing the meaning in Tierra's gaze, Gladiator Beast Andal's body gave a jolt, its previously smug thoughts instantly vanishing without a trace.
Some time ago, in the Gladiator Beast dimension, it had earned the praise of the "Legion Commanders" and successfully passed the "Captain"-level athletics and martial-arts trials. It had been rather pleased, even quite smug. It had finally made it through, and from now on, it would never again be a "slave."
But now, after watching Hikaru's duel in that dimension just now, and being so casually swept over by Tierra's glance, it shivered from head to toe.
It certainly worked hard every day, but what truly freed it from its "slave" status wasn't its own effort, but Hikaru!
It couldn't get complacent!
It recalled the "Selfless Painting School" information Hikaru and the others had collected earlier.
This information seemed like a jumbled mess to Hikaru, and almost impossible to realize. But for it, a Gladiator Beast by origin, it could just barely understand and accept it.
The Gladiator Beast dimension was a special dimension. It wasn't divided by "clans" like other dimensions, but by "rank."
A slave was a slave, the lowest-tier spirit, with no right to participate in "battle," able to use only one or two Gladiator Beasts' power. The next rank up, the "Centurion"-level spirits, could command at least 5 lower Gladiator Beasts and 1 Fusion Gladiator Beast. Then came the "Commander"-level spirits, able to simultaneously use 10 lower spirits and 3 Fusion Gladiator Beast powers.
At that level, it was already the limit of what an ordinary Gladiator Beast spirit could achieve!
But above that, there were still higher-level spirits, the rulers of the Gladiator Beast dimension.
The Legion Commanders!
Absolute powerhouses who mastered all 25 lower spirits' powers while also mastering at least 6 Fusion Gladiator Beast forms...
Because they had mastered the traits and powers of all lower Gladiator Beast spirits, this level was generally called "myriad martial arts."
But, the way it looked now, the Legion Commander still wasn't the limit!
The Emperor!
Following this line of thinking, the Emperor should be the most perfect Gladiator Beast, mastering all lower Gladiator Beasts, Fusion forms, and even Spells and Traps!
It had to advance toward this direction. It couldn't fail to live up to the lord's passion, couldn't keep muddling along like this...
Hikaru still didn't know that, just from Tierra's brief glance, one spirit in his team had gotten fired up. He was now observing those shattered "spirits."
Or "that one"?
From the earlier duel, the "Despian Quaeritis" that had dueled him possessed independent thought, independent ideas, independent action, and personality, so it was essentially "one spirit."
But when Hikaru, controlling the power of the Earthbound Immortals, defeated Despian Quaeritis, the power binding the entire Despian Quaeritis together broke, and it was shattered into several spirits like a Lego set coming apart.
This sort of thing wasn't actually all that rare in the spirit world, so Hikaru wasn't particularly surprised.
Because in the original work, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, this sort of thing did happen.
In the original, the Supreme King's subordinate, one of his strategists, the Skull Knight, could normally split into two spirits, Tainted Wisdom and Ancient Brain. When needed, Ancient Brain could laugh and then fuse with Tainted Wisdom into the Skull Knight.
Both had their own will and capacity for action. Combined together, they then had a shared consciousness.
Yes, spirits weren't necessarily "single entities." They could be mixed.
But in the original, the Skull Knight performed the fusion and decomposition on its own initiative, so it wasn't strange, and the "Fusion Material" didn't go wrong either.
But the "Despian Quaeritis" that fought Hikaru clearly wasn't the result of one or two spirits, but the stitching-together of multiple spirits!
Hikaru looked at the several spirits lying on the sickbeds, stroking his chin, murmuring their names.
The leftmost one, the dark-skinned youth who looked malnourished and kept letting out low, pained groans, needless to say, was precisely the most important target Hikaru had been searching for all this time, the most crucial existence in the entire "Branded" world: Fallen of Albaz.
As a "humanoid Super Polymerization," Albaz's strength was beyond doubt. Its many Fusion guises were also a point Hikaru rather liked. More importantly, Hikaru was different from the "Despian Quaeritis" he'd just dueled.
In his hand, he had Branded Fusion.
Despian Quaeritis never searched Branded Fusion to the very end, clearly not having it. Albaz's related Fusion forms were probably only one or two for it. But Hikaru was different. He genuinely had Branded Fusion, only he'd never had the chance to use it.
If there was a specific form of Albaz Fusion, then Hikaru could immediately play the strong and flashy "Predaplant Branded" or "Fallen Angel Branded."
As for the other...
Hikaru looked at the limp, unresponsive second "spirit"...
It was a suit of female armor, pure white but also with multiple purple "contaminations" on it. The reason for using such a "description" wasn't Hikaru joking, but that it was literally a suit of "armor."
Just like robot spirits and undead spirits, a suit of armor could likewise be a card, such as the famous "Magician's Rod" and "Magician's Robe."
Hikaru looked carefully for a while, confirmed the armor was empty, and only then was certain of its name.
White Knight of Dogmatika, which was also the "armor" in the lore of that "Iris Swordsoul" Hikaru had met earlier in the Magician domain. Before the Iris Swordsoul joined the Swordsoul, the armor she wore as the holy maiden and knight of the Dogmatika Dragon Nation was this very set.
Looking at it this way, it made sense.
Because Despia's "Whom Do You Seek" was indeed the knight-sister's armor too.
Hikaru stroked his chin and looked at the last two spirits.
Despian Tragedy and Ad Libitum of Despia. These two should be the "Despia" parts.
Following Despian Quaeritis's Fusion Materials, pairing one of Tragedy or Ad Libitum with any one of Albaz or White Knight of Dogmatika could transform into "Despian Quaeritis." But with four spirits mixed together, it got a bit deranged.
The several spirits looked to be in terrible condition. Fortunately, Hikaru had the invincible Philosopher's Stone to heal their states, and could let little Lulu slowly prepare a treatment plan to cure them.
Hikaru didn't stay idle during this time either.
Having gone once to the Branded dimension and discovered that "red-light-class dimensions" were indeed dangerous and couldn't be entered casually, Hikaru didn't rashly head to the "Dark World." Just like exploring the Selfless Painting School, he wasn't in a rush to go, first dispatching some robots to gather intelligence.
The good news was, the degree of damage was far less than the Selfless Painting School.
The bad news was, Hikaru saw spirits of more than one "faction" in the Dark World!
Generally speaking, in a single dimension, there's only one "faction" of spirits, either one race, one series, or simply entirely same-name monsters.
For different races and different systems of spirits to appear in the same dimension, it either had to be a racial holy land like the "Magician domain" or "Warrior domain," or else a research institution like the Spellbook Academy that welcomed spirits from all over to visit and study.
The Dark World might be a dimension similar to the latter, only, because of the red light's influence, that dimension had become even more chaotic and disordered.
Another aspect was that, in that dimension, what you encountered was completely random. Hikaru didn't know what situations would arise or what kind of spirits he'd meet, so naturally there was no way to prepare countermeasures in advance.
Pure randomness made it hard to say what you'd run into.
Of course, during this free time, Hikaru didn't just wait around. Besides his daily studies, preparing for final exams, and sharing insights with classmates, he also took time to keep asking the "Selfless Painting School" questions.
Only, compared to last time, the Selfless Painting School didn't answer as properly this time. It was more like sleep-talking and gibberish, dizzying for Hikaru even to read.
Of course, considering it had said before that it normally did nothing but space out and sleep, it might have genuinely fallen asleep. Hikaru didn't want to actually enter the Selfless Painting School's dimension to check, so he didn't dwell on it.
Getting some useful intel was good enough.
After finishing the final exams, Hikaru took first in the grade as always.
Without Bastion Misawa, Chazz actually struggled to pose a threat to him. If Bastion Misawa were still around, he certainly wouldn't have had so much spare attention to spend his time on anything but review.
At the third-year graduation ceremony, Professor Crowler wept bitterly. Atticus patted his back to comfort him, and the students lamented the swift passage of time. Of course, what was even sadder was that the various professors also had to return to their respective branch schools after this.
Jesse, Jim, and the others didn't mind too much, because now that they knew how to enter the "Reverse World," friends could gather there every day. But about the professors' parting, everyone was very sad.
Every professor still at the school had their own ingenious ideas and special learning. Setting aside everything else, Professor Paladin's Paladin jokes were hell-jokes many students loved to play with. Now learning of the parting, they were naturally sad and regretful.
And Professor Paladin felt the same way.
Although leaving here meant he could escape the terrifying jokes that made him feel awkward, this school, these students, and the comparison and academic exchange with the many professors in evaluations and assessments had also given him a long-lost sense of excitement. The mutual encouragement, help, and battles "beneath the darkness" had also given him a feeling akin to comradeship.
Professor Strongman laughed heartily, telling everyone not to be sad.
Scenes of parting, he had seen countless times already. As long as you're a duelist, you'll meet again sooner or later in this world, if not on the dueling field, then on some other stage. There would always be a chance.
Besides, this semester was over, so wasn't it the perfect chance to visit their branch schools over summer break?
He didn't hold back either. Right at the graduation ceremony, he directly invited anyone interested to visit his place. Because his happened to be a relatively new branch school, also short on faculty, if graduating third-year students had no short-term employment goals, it was a perfect chance to give his place a try.
Duel Academy's employment direction had always been like this.
After that, the branch-school professors left the main campus one after another. Jaden bid a sad farewell to Professor Strongman, yet received from him a set of coordinates to the "Ancient Warriors" dimension, with him saying he'd probably go to that dimension from time to time to participate in competitions. If Jaden was lucky, he might run into him at one of them, which excited Jaden quite a bit.
These branch-school professors couldn't stay at the main campus too long. They still had their own branch schools' third-year graduation ceremonies to attend. So after completing their assessments and earning Professor Crowler's affirmation of "you're the best branch-school professor," they boarded their planes or ships full of confidence.
"Amagi." As the branch-school professors and students were gradually leaving, Adrian sought out Hikaru alone.
He'd originally wanted to find Aster too, but Aster's mind was solely on finding "Tragoedia" and beating him to death. He had no interest in the graduation ceremony at all, and had gone off to grind in the Reverse World early in the morning. Adrian had no way to find him, so he only sought out Hikaru.
He was very grateful for Hikaru and Aster's help, and said that next he planned to return to his homeland, starting from the smallest things, to build the beautiful nation and peaceful society he envisioned.
Of course, he would also help Aster in the Reverse World, working together to save the spirits trapped in that world and the spirits who had lost their homes.
He hadn't found Aster today. He'd go to the Reverse World later to look for him again, but Hikaru rarely went to the Reverse World to explore these days. Afraid that if he missed today he'd have no chance later, Adrian thanked him alone.
"Hahaha... There's no need for that." Hikaru shook his head. "Classmates helping each other out is only normal."
Honestly, in Adrian's matter, his own contribution had been hardly anything at all. It had basically all been Aster.
Although Aster had decided because of Hikaru's influence, Hikaru hadn't really done anything himself.
But Adrian still expressed his gratitude to him.
More importantly...
"Oh right, this card, you absolutely must take it."
Hikaru blinked, a bit puzzled, and reached out to take the card. He glanced at it, then his eyes widened in surprise.
Exodia the Forbidden One!
The hardest-to-collect "Exodia" piece in this world!
This was Adrian's only remaining Exodia piece, and also the recognition and gift he'd obtained when he challenged Exodia again in the "World of the Forgotten" some time ago.
This was a recognized, genuine "Exodia" possessing the willpower of Exodia!
"I'll keep searching for Exodia's power, to create an even more beautiful world. This first card, please take it, Amagi, as a testament to our experiences and my will. I'm counting on you."
Hearing Adrian say all that, what reason did Hikaru have to refuse? He silently nodded and accepted the card.
To think his first Exodia would be given to him by Adrian.
In the unseen workings of fate, there was a kind of guidance too.
Then the two said their goodbyes.
Hikaru wasn't too sad. After all, with the Reverse World's existence, they could reunite in a very short time, so there was no need to particularly mind the distance in reality.
After that, the main-campus students also had to start preparing to go to the Synchro Dimension.
Several classmates were a bit nervous, especially Serena. This was her first time heading alone to such a large dimension without Hikaru. Of course, she'd courted disaster before, but precisely because she had, she knew clearly that if she caused trouble on her own, there would be no Hikaru to clean up after her.
Lulu was a bit nervous too.
Although everyone in the Fusion Division was very friendly, and someone like senior Jaden could be seen at a glance to be a carefree person who wouldn't harm them, deep down she still only trusted Serena and Hikaru for now. This was unavoidable. She was an unlucky soul who had genuinely been abducted by humans of the Fusion Dimension, so she feared people of the Fusion Dimension from the bottom of her heart.
This was an instinctive fear, a psychological issue, not something that would heal in a short time.
Before the dimensional gate, the two girls paced back and forth. Anyone could see the panic and tension in their hearts.
"Alright, you two." Seeing the originally confident Serena and the originally calm Lulu both become fidgety, Hikaru reached out, grabbed both of them by the back collar, lifted them together, then spoke. "You don't need to be so nervous. If worse comes to worst, just contact Yusei once you get there. Find Rin, gather together, and you'll surely feel a bit happier, right?"
The two exchanged a glance, feeling Hikaru was quite right.
If they could gather with a local friend, they'd surely not be so afraid.
And "Rin," a person who looked exactly like them, was naturally the most suitable local to make them less nervous.
"But... Hikaru," Lulu wasn't used to calling Hikaru "Amagi," so she'd slowly started calling him "Hikaru" directly. She asked, "How exactly do we contact Yusei...?"
"Isn't that simple? Once you reach that dimension, just find any camera and shout his name." Hikaru spread his hands.
That was true.
Only then did the two girls remember that Yusei secretly monitored everything throughout the entire City. Perhaps Yusei would be unfindable like before, but if they had something they wanted Yusei's help with, he'd probably contact friends or directly find Rin and Yugo, which would put them at ease quite a bit.
Of course, the two of them were at ease, but Hikaru couldn't stop worrying about Serena.
Although there was Lulu, the more level-headed "Zuzu," Hikaru was very worried about Serena, because she was just too mischievous. During Darkness's seal, Professor Crowler had originally told the lower-year students to move about outside less.
As it turned out, Serena and Lulu walked around the outskirts all day because Serena had egged Lulu on to go out and save people, under the noble pretext of sharing the pressure on the upperclassmen and senior sisters. Hikaru believed they really did want to help him, but within that, there was absolutely Serena's intention to have Lulu test her "spirit power" too.
So, before the students left, Hikaru still asked Chazz to keep an eye out.
Chazz wasn't surprised in the slightest.
He'd guessed Hikaru would definitely come to him for help.
Honestly, he didn't feel at ease about these two girls on his own either. A lesson from past experience!
Last time, Serena had gone to the Fusion Army's base right under his and Jaden's noses. This couldn't be taken lightly.
But he wasn't too tense, and said, "Fine, I'll help you look after them ahead of time for a while."
He deliberately said "for a while," then smiled, waved his hand, and bid Hikaru farewell.
Hikaru raised an eyebrow.
"This human friend of yours called Chazz Princeton really is clever enough." Even Tierra rarely gave him a couple of words of evaluation. "He seems to have guessed you'll find a way to go to the Synchro Dimension?"
Hikaru silently nodded.
Chazz was clever enough, sharp enough, and didn't have amnesia either. Since Hikaru had gone to the Synchro Dimension once before, there was no guarantee he wouldn't go again this time.
Chazz actually saw it very clearly.
Hikaru and Bastion Misawa had a good relationship to begin with. The two weren't only classmates both hailing from "Slifer Red," they'd even traveled together. There was no way Hikaru would let everyone else care only about "Zane Truesdale" and not worry as much about Bastion Misawa. Even if Jaden hadn't actively taken up the task of finding Bastion Misawa, Hikaru couldn't possibly forget.
And Hikaru and Zane Truesdale were good friends too, at the very least friends who'd fought together, so he'd put in some effort to help search.
In this situation, for Hikaru to voluntarily give up the opportunity was, by any measure, not something Hikaru would do.
So Chazz guessed Hikaru would use that method he'd used before to go to the Synchro Dimension once more.
But since Hikaru asked him for help at this point, he figured Hikaru's teleportation probably wasn't real-time, that he'd be a bit later than them, and so he agreed.
And so, amid waving farewells, Hikaru watched his classmates and professors board the dimensional train and leave the Academy.
The Crimson Dragon's voice grew ever clearer in his ear.
Hikaru knew he too would soon be going to the Synchro Dimension.
But before that, he still had a few things to handle.
The next day, under the gaze of Hikaru, Tierra, and other beings, the several spirits finally slowly woke up.
The first to awaken was the "armor," White Knight of Dogmatika, next were Tragedy and Ad Libitum, and last of all was Fallen of Albaz.
When the several spirits first awoke they were all a bit dazed. Among them, the White Knight even directly raised its weapon to attack, but after the "split," Tierra flicked her hand and bound it up with countless puppet strings.
Seeing the White Knight's wretched state, the remaining three spirits gradually calmed down too.
After questioning, the several spirits gradually pieced together some information, and Hikaru successfully understood the matter.
Just as he'd always known.
The spirit world and the "true original canon" were not the same thing. Just as the DT dimension had not only "El Shaddoll Winda" but also "Winda, Priestess of Gusto" and "Spiritual Beast Tamer Winda," a single existence could exist in the spirit world as several individuals, even from different periods.
The "Branded world" was the same.
In the same spirit world, there could simultaneously exist Dogmatika Fleurdelis the Knighted, White Knight of Dogmatika, Despian Quaeritis, The Iris Swordsoul, and Despian Luluwalilith. Before this, the "Branded" world had been countless spirit factions, either cooperating or hostile. But one day, when that "red light" descended, it caused the spirit dimension to split.
Originally, the many factions of the Branded dimension had also wanted to divide into separate clan dimensions like the spirits of other dimensions. But unexpectedly, as a dimension very close to the central zone, the residue of the red light's power caused incomprehensible changes in this dimension.
This led to a serious error throughout the entire dimension during the separation.
At the same coordinates, the same time, the same location, different things appeared!
Quite a few spirits simultaneously possessed two bodies and outcomes of "past and future."
Originally, there was still a solution to the overlap of multiple dimensions, because spirits could still be separated. But because of the powerful boost the "red light" power gave spirits, some spirits who fell into chaos failed to control themselves, developed the urge to devour, fused with one another, and brought about the present situation.
Ad Libitum rubbed its forehead.
It was the chief culprit behind the mixing of the four spirits, but it hadn't wanted to do this itself either. It was driven by instinct. And after the four spirits completely mixed into "Despian Quaeritis," they gained terrifying power beyond what ordinary spirits possessed, namely "Despian Proskenion" and "Masquerade the Blazing Dragon."
Under the inducement of such powerful force, the four spirits' bodies instead mixed all the more, finally becoming Despian Quaeritis completely.
Now saved by Hikaru, Ad Libitum was quite grateful to him, but it loved watching tragedies, so it didn't plan to return to its own dimension to resolve anything. Instead it planned to go settle in some other demon dimension and watch the fun. Tragedy had the same idea.
This was also the survival principle of these "Despia" spirits.
But it was a fact that Hikaru had saved their lives, so they were willing to leave behind their own power as a token of thanks.
Only, it was a great pity that, because they'd been beaten apart, the power of the red light had flown out of their bodies. There was no more Despian Proskenion or Masquerade now, so they could only tell Hikaru their regrets.
The White Knight had no particular thoughts. Its mind was closer to that of a Machine-Type monster. About its world's catastrophe, it didn't have many thoughts. Only, since Hikaru had saved it, it was willing to serve as a knight guarding Hikaru. This way, at least there was one more spirit guard.
Among these many spirits, only the most inconspicuous one, and in the four's memories the earliest one absorbed, "Fallen of Albaz," covered its eyes in pain while saying in a low voice, "Lord Hikari... I think this shouldn't be so..."
Although it was the weakest, the one devoured earliest, after the disassembly it felt no attachment to that powerful force. Instead it believed this baseless mixing was not only unreasonable but also rather evil.
To cast aside the self for powerful force, it could understand. But to mix baselessly, driven by power to devour one another, such a deranged "Fusion" was truly a bit much.
Because this was not the will of the "Fusion" subjects toward one another! It was like grabbing a random heap of things and tossing them into a blender, paying no heed to the result or effect, a reckless mishmash!
"Whoa..." Flame Swordsman exclaimed beside them.
Black Flame and White Crystal even outright applauded.
"Interesting, Hikaru. Looks like you've found a brand-new companion." Tierra remarked offhandedly.
Hikaru nodded, reached out his hand toward Albaz. Albaz blanked for a moment, then with difficulty raised its right hand and clasped it together with Hikaru's.
"I don't know whether you still have any residual memory, but it doesn't matter. I can say it again." Hikaru said with a smile. "I am a Fusion duelist who pursues the ultimate Fusion, Hikaru. I want to seek out all like-minded companions. Lord Albaz, I very much agree with your philosophy on Fusion. Let me work together with you in that dimension, slowly mending everything."
Albaz blanked for a little while, then slowly broke into a smile and said with a strained smile, "Wonderful, Lord Hikari... It's just a pity we no longer have the powerful force from before. I hope I won't drag you down."
It truly didn't have much confidence. These were just words spoken on passion and instinct.
Back when its dimension hadn't yet split, it had never won the Ritual of Dueling. It could be called the most shameful one among its kind.
"It's fine." Hikaru shook his head.
In fact, Albaz itself was a "reinforcement" for Hikaru!
What's more.
Hikaru looked down at the cards Ad Libitum and Tragedy had left behind. Besides their own selves, there was also "Despian Quaeritis."
What's more, this Albaz itself also carried a card of the "Titaniklad the Ash Dragon" form, so it was at least not a blank slate.
In most cases, it could already deal with enemies!
Listening to the dragon's roar in his ear, Hikaru moved his body a bit and did some warm-up exercises.
"Next... it's time to head to the Dark World."