Inside the research room, Declan Akaba watched the person in the duel field, lightly pushed up his glasses, and recalled and pondered.
That "Pseudo-Deity Engine" in the laboratory hadn't actually been built recently.
As a filial son who had prepared from childhood to one day do great battle with his own father, Declan Akaba naturally wouldn't do anything unprepared. Long ago, he had set about researching together with Yuya Sakaki's father, Yusho Sakaki, and built a machine for simulation and testing.
This machine's hypothetical enemy was precisely "Leo Akaba."
And according to Yusho Sakaki, he actually had something he worried about even more. That was the existence "behind" Leo Akaba.
Back then, Leo Akaba had betrayed their research team, alone attempting to monopolize "GOD," which led to the disappearance of Zarc and his own daughter Ray Akaba. If it had truly been simply Leo Akaba's ambition, that would actually have been fine. But what Yusho Sakaki worried about more was that this "GOD" had perhaps also been involved in this event occurring.
For this, he devised the "Pseudo-Deity Engine" plan, which was also one of their dimension's extremely rare applications of "spirit power."
However, after Sophia appeared in their dimension, Declan Akaba stopped using this kind of "simulation machine." For one thing, he'd detected the machine's flaws. For another, with Sophia's existence, he could raise his own dimension's power more quickly and more effectively.
Of course, there was one more meaningful thing that changed Declan Akaba's thinking.
That was that by researching the "reflection" Sophia had left behind in their world, he could build even better machines. This high-consumption, high-power, poor-effect Pseudo-Deity Engine naturally lost its reason to exist.
Until... today.
With the brand-new technology provided by the Synchro Dimension, and the "D-Wheel perpetual motion machine" delivered to his laboratory to provide energy, the Pseudo-Deity Engine suddenly became usable, even quite excellent!
Because there was no longer an energy-consumption crisis, the Pseudo-Deity Engine's inherently high ceiling could be fully brought out. Even using it to help Sophia conduct simulated duels against "Tierra" became possible.
He looked at the Pseudo-Deity Engine, his brow tightly furrowed.
That worry in his heart hadn't dispersed. On the contrary, it had grown ever more pronounced.
Strange, what on earth was it... why?
While he was pondering, in the duel field, the Pseudo-Deity Engine had already completed its turn.
It set Qliphort Scout at Pendulum Scale 9 on the left, then searched Apoqliphort Towers other than Qliphort Scout, then Set three cards and ended its turn.
A fairly standard turn.
Then it came to Sophia's turn.
In the glass reflection, Sophia lightly raised her right hand. Then a card flew from outside the reflection into the glass reflection.
"Set card, activate." The Pseudo-Deity Engine's red light flickered for a moment, then a signal lit up.
Qliphort's End.
Declan Akaba silently watched that card transform into a monster and appear before the machine.
One of the Pseudo-Deity Engine's major functions, and their Pendulum Dimension's finest technology, "Solid Vision technology," was a technology extremely suited to simulated battles.
In this world, the vast majority of cards had their "master." Ordinary people could often only assemble a deck of Normal Monsters. Cards unique to one owner, like "Qliphort," were things others couldn't even catch a glimpse of.
But with Solid Vision technology, through data analysis, virtual cards could be created, and then a duel could be conducted.
This was also one part of their Pendulum Dimension's rather famous "Entertainment Dueling."
Conducting duels with random Solid Vision, random decks through a special duel field was the most explosively popular project in their world, and the "Entertainment Dueling" that Yuya Sakaki's father Yusho Sakaki advocated.
Nothing was more interesting than unknown possibility.
Of course, for Declan Akaba, using Solid Vision technology to directly simulate "Tierra's" cards and turn them into an image duel was obviously more useful.
Yes.
Including "Apoqliphort Towers," he could imitate it all!
"Continuous Trap Card, activate."
"Escalation of the Monarchs."
The Pseudo-Deity Engine's left claw raised, directing the card: "This card, once per turn, can activate its effect during the opponent's Main Phase or Battle Phase. I Tribute Summon 1 monster."
"I release Qlife's End, Tribute Summon, Level 10, Apoqliphort Towers!"
The illusory giant machine slowly surfaced. A stroke of rainbow-colored radiance gradually adorned the research room. Beneath the light's glow, with the rainbow tube at its center, an enormous multi-legged machine slowly emerged.
Apoqliphort Towers. Level 10, EARTH Attribute, Machine-Type. ATK 3000.
Success!
Watching this scene, Declan Akaba beside them suddenly widened his eyes and clenched his fist in excitement.
Even "god-tier" power could now be simulated with the "Pseudo-Deity Engine"!
Sophia, meanwhile, looked at Apoqliphort Towers and lightly raised an eyebrow.
Of course, she had always kept her eyes closed. Using "look" to describe it wasn't accurate. But precisely because she wasn't "looking" through her eyes, she could all the better understand that the Apoqliphort Towers this Pseudo-Deity Engine had now summoned, although not as enormous in build as the one Tierra summoned, its "internal structure" was already completely identical to the Apoqliphort Towers she'd summoned back then.
In principle, as her "God's Chosen" and "contestant," the more and stronger Declan Akaba's side's things were, naturally the better. But Sophia couldn't help furrowing her brow.
It seemed somewhat inappropriate.
She observed for a while, then looked at her own hand.
Better to finish the test duel first.
After several days of hellish "sea-of-questions training," Sophia certainly no longer looked down on "dueling" the way she had before.
In the DT spirit dimension, she'd conducted deep, 24-hour nonstop testing. The content of the testing was to use the same deck as her opponent, imitate the opponent's tactics, and conduct dueling tests. But in the end, her win rate was under 20 percent.
Of course, if she really employed "power" to stabilize her own hand or the opponent's cards, she would surely have every advantage. But she hadn't done so.
A very simple principle: her next opponent was a "sister" who had fought alongside her for countless ages, a sister who, apart from preferences and tendencies differing from hers, was almost a one-to-one "replica."
At most, her own offense was stronger, and Tierra's counter-ability was stronger.
If she couldn't even achieve a "stable win rate under identical conditions," then it was absolutely impossible for her to catch up to Tierra, who had contacted dueling earlier than she had.
Of course.
Although Tierra had contacted dueling earlier than she had, in the end it was only a matter of a year or two. For humans, this year or two was enough to change many things. But for gods, a year or two was truly too brief.
No matter how much had changed, the instincts and habits of a god wouldn't receive much deep influence.
Unless it was an influencer more extreme, more exaggerated than herself.
Hikaru was indeed very extreme, but unless Tierra proactively studied and had prolonged contact, no change could possibly occur.
She understood Tierra too well.
Rigid, stubborn, gloomy, and more importantly, never giving up.
Never giving up was a virtue in ordinary people, a defining trait. But for a stubborn person, never giving up might mean not resting until you crash into the south wall.
She finished studying her hand and fell silent for a long while.
Over the span of more than half a year, she had, through various methods, sent the DT spirit dimension's cards to other dimensions. Although the main target of dissemination was still the Pendulum Dimension, it had achieved some initial results, adding a great deal of power to her. It was also the confidence behind her arriving later yet surpassing, daring to challenge Tierra.
Although she and Tierra were both "creator gods" of the DT world, she was relatively more orthodox. And moreover, the creations under her were more affable than those Tierra had created.
Rather, the true creations under Tierra, Infernoid and Qliphort, had utterly vanished from the human world, things that didn't exist.
The many creatures she had created, meanwhile, had spread to quite a few worlds. And precisely because of this, her rate of recovering power was much faster than Tierra's.
Naturally, she could also acquire power more quickly and create cards suited to her use.
Yes.
This time, she'd decided to no longer copy the opponent's deck, but to duel using her own "cards."
To be honest, after about a week of hellish sea-of-questions training, she'd gradually discovered that whether human or spirit, only by using cards that "belong to oneself" would one's performance be better. Even though in a duel Sophia would secretly suppress both sides' "power" to nonexistence, this concept still existed.
This was no longer a question of luck or personal ability, but a kind of peculiar existing rule of this world.
A duelist can perform better using cards that accord with their own convictions and habits.
Having studied the cards in her hand, she hesitated a while, then activated one.
"Quick-Play Spell Card, Nekroz Mirror."
"This can be activated during my or my opponent's Main Phase. I Tribute, or substitute for the Tribute by sending Nekroz monsters from my Extra Deck to the Graveyard, monsters from my hand or field whose combined Levels equal or exceed the Level of the Ritual monster to be Ritual Summoned, then Ritual Summon 1 Nekroz monster from my hand or banished zone."
"Mm, Shurit, Strategist of the Nekroz can be used as the Level Tribute needed for a Nekroz monster's Ritual Summon."
"I Ritual Summon Nekroz of Trishula from my hand."
A trace of ice crystal slowly appeared in the desolate laboratory. Then the frozen ice assembled into a suit of dragon armor, fitted onto the warrior's body.
Nekroz of Trishula. Level 9, WATER Attribute, Warrior-Type. ATK 2700.
"Nekroz of Trishula, activated only when it's Ritual Summoned. I banish a random card from the opponent's hand, plus 1 card each from the field and Graveyard, 3 cards in total."
"Shurit's effect, activated only when this card is Tributed. I add 1 Warrior-Type Nekroz Ritual Monster from my Deck to my hand."
Sophia looked toward the opponent's field.
Actually, before this duel, she had slightly tested this deck of hers.
And then she'd discovered the awful aspect of this card, Nekroz of Trishula.
Although at first glance it was a powerful card that could directly banish 3 cards, its own effect had a problem.
It required "three cards." As long as the opponent had no cards on their field or in their Graveyard, Nekroz of Trishula's effect couldn't activate!
All she could say was that Sophia was extremely grateful to have met Tierra early, and even to have been set straight by Tierra. Otherwise, if she really had gone up against Tierra with this "own" deck, she wouldn't even know how she'd died.
"Set card, activate."
The Pseudo-Deity Engine silently opened its Set card.
"Continuous Trap Card, Skill Drain, activate."
Pseudo-Deity Engine, LP: 3200 → 2200.
Skill Drain.
Sophia lightly knit her brows.
As long as this card existed on the field, the effects of face-up monsters on the field were negated.
But because Apoqliphort Towers was unaffected by Spell and Trap cards, this card was actually a one-sided Trap card against Sophia.
For a long time, Sophia had always felt this kind of "mutual harm" card should be useless, until she was set straight by Tierra and began truly dueling. Only then did she gradually come to understand.
Dueling was precisely something that used so-called "flaws" to make a normal contest different.
Just like now, her Nekroz of Trishula's banish effect was instantly negated. Not only that, because of Apoqliphort Towers's effect, its ATK also had to drop 500.
Nekroz of Trishula, ATK: 2700 → 2200.
2200 wasn't nearly enough to fight Apoqliphort Towers.
But the good news was that she could still use Shurit's effect to add a Warrior-Type Nekroz Ritual Monster from her Deck to her hand.
She opened her Deck and searched through it a little.
Warrior-Type, Warrior-Type...
There weren't many.
She looked at the Ritual Monsters in her Deck, her brow furrowing slightly.
If she could, she wanted to search "Nekroz of Decisive Armor." That card could, by discarding itself, raise a Nekroz on the field by 1000 ATK.
But Nekroz of Decisive Armor's Type was Dragon, so she couldn't search it.
Seeing Sophia fall into thought and not act for a long time, Declan Akaba lightly pushed up his glasses, tapped the window, and reminded her: "Nekroz of Unicore."
Nekroz of Unicore...
Oh.
She saw that Nekroz of Unicore could discard itself to add any 1 Nekroz monster other than Nekroz of Unicore from the Deck to the hand.
In other words, as long as she went through a process, Shurit could search all Nekroz monsters?
She was a bit puzzled by it.
Since that was the case, wouldn't it just be simpler to have Shurit able to search all Nekroz from the start?
She shook her head, added the card to her hand, then activated Unicore's effect, discarding it to add Nekroz of Decisive Armor from her Deck to her hand, then discarded that too.
"During my or my opponent's turn, I discard this card from my hand. Target 1 Nekroz monster on my field to activate. That monster's ATK and DEF increase by 1000 until the end of the turn.
I raise Nekroz of Trishula's ATK by 1000."
Nekroz of Trishula, ATK: 2200 → 3200.
"Battle. Nekroz of Trishula attacks Apoqliphort Towers."
Swish!
The Trishula warrior swung the lance in its hand and hurled it into Apoqliphort Towers, causing the Pseudo-Deity Engine's Life Points to plummet in an instant.
That's wrong.
Watching this scene, Declan Akaba couldn't help pushing up his glasses again.
She's playing it wrong.
Sophia had shown him her deck before and asked him to help analyze it. Out of the basic courtesy of cooperation, since she'd shown him her deck, he naturally wouldn't hide too much information either, and so he'd offered Sophia quite a few suggestions.
And it was precisely because he'd seen this "Nekroz" deck that he clearly knew Sophia's current dueling was mistaken.
Because she could actually win right now.
Nekroz Mirror in the Graveyard could, during the Main Phase, be activated by banishing it along with a Nekroz monster. Add 1 Nekroz Spell card from the Deck to the hand.
Banish Shurit, then search Nekroz Kaleidoscope. As long as she assembled the monsters' Levels, she could Ritual Summon a Ritual Monster from the Graveyard, that is, Ritual Summon Nekroz of Decisive Armor.
Although Nekroz of Decisive Armor's effect was useless against Apoqliphort Towers, through this method she could directly assemble monsters with 3200 and 3300 ATK. As long as she battle-destroyed Apoqliphort Towers, then had Nekroz of Decisive Armor attack directly, she could win.
But.
Sophia had clearly forgotten about the cards in her Graveyard.
That gave the opponent an opening.
Sure enough, just as he'd thought, after Sophia ended her turn, when it came to the Pseudo-Deity Engine's turn, it wouldn't be polite to her at all.
First, it once again paid 800 Life Points, searched another Pendulum component of the Qliphort deck, Qliphort Monolith, then Pendulum Summoned Qliphort Stealth.
ATK 2800.
100 higher than 2700, and that makes it king!
However, after seeing this monster, Sophia couldn't help furrowing her brow again, seeming to fall into thought.
When it came to Sophia's turn, she seemed to finally remember the monster in her Graveyard, and belatedly searched the Ritual Spell, then Ritual Summoned Decisive Armor. But, just as Declan Akaba had thought earlier, because she'd missed the best chance for the finishing blow, letting the Qliphort deck assemble its Pendulum Scales, Qliphort Stealth could now be Special Summoned from the Extra Deck every turn. Even though Decisive Armor's ATK was higher, she couldn't stop it, and could only watch the Qliphort Special Summon Pendulum monsters from the Extra Deck every turn.
Declan Akaba instinctively pushed up his glasses.
A genuine, plainly visible novice duelist. Although he hadn't seen what that god called Tierra actually looked like, since she could defeat several opponents in a world-class duel like the WRGP, she certainly wasn't a "rookie" anymore.
To duel a Tierra like that, this Sophia in the reflection before his eyes fell short by probably not just a little.
But at the same time he was a bit puzzled.
Barring surprises, Tierra should be a god much like Sophia.
The kind of genuine "transcendent god" who resets dimensions at the drop of a hat and takes no interest in humans or mortal things. After all, Sophia had mentioned many times that Tierra was almost her equal.
But under these circumstances, Tierra's dueling, never mind how much "artistic sense" it had, at the very worst would still be normal.
You have to understand, although Sophia had also asked him quite a few dueling questions during this time, she often asked halfway then researched it herself or tossed it to the back of her mind, not "taking it to heart" at all.
He naturally didn't care, since he himself still doubted Sophia's existence.
Tierra's awakening time wasn't much earlier than Sophia's. This too was what Sophia had said.
So what kind of person could make Tierra learn to this degree?
Could it be that Hikaru wasn't only superb in dueling skill, but dimension-tier at teaching and cultivating people too?
While he was letting his mind wander with wild thoughts, the situation on the field finally changed. A fortune amid misfortune, Sophia finally drew the crucial card, Heavy Storm.
With this, having lost its Pendulum Scales, the Pseudo-Deity Engine finally, gradually, couldn't hold on and was thoroughly defeated.
"Whew."
Sophia was quite pleased.
Although slightly tired, she'd won.
Of course, she knew clearly that the machine before her was, after all, only a simulator, with no way at all to compare to Tierra herself. But being able to defeat the "Qliphort" deck had already let her recover a bit of confidence.
Dueling actually wasn't that hard.
Until she watched everything in the laboratory begin to "flow backward." Declan Akaba reversed the Pseudo-Deity Engine's turn back to the second turn, quietly pointed at Sophia's Graveyard, and named a few cards. Only then did Sophia suddenly realize.
So she could have won on the second turn?
This was really...
Her thinking was too limited, limited to throwing a single punch and blowing the enemy up. She hadn't considered the connections between card and card. This was a very great shortcoming.
But after learning this, she didn't mind either.
Since it could be this easy, that meant her cards had no problem.
The controller was the problem, and wasn't that perfectly normal?
She was a god quite skilled at accepting reality. In the first moment of her awakening, she'd found the DT dimension in a state of foul chaos, its nature ravaged into a scene of utter devastation, and so she'd resolved to reset the planet. But at that time, the efforts and performance of that world's life and the life of the cosmos had won her recognition, leading her to choose to give up, to not fully choose to reset the planet.
Compared to Tierra, she was still more willing to trust the "individual thoughts" of living beings, rather than "collective, mechanical thinking."
From the day Tierra had laughed at her, she'd known her dueling definitely wasn't up to par. Now was merely another new example appearing.
However, this terrible world still filled her with immense disgust. If she could, she would be very willing to accept this dimension.
Then she lightly shook her head.
As for what remained, she'd go do repetitive training in the DT dimension world.
At least master each card's effects and abilities. She couldn't be like when she fought the Pseudo-Deity Engine. The Pseudo-Deity Engine had Declan Akaba's time-adjustment, so she could think with infinite time. In a duel she couldn't stand there dazed like that.
This wasn't the time for her to be thinking about how to shape plants.
In the glass reflection she held her chin with one hand, deep in thought with eyes closed. The fluctuation of her eyelids showed she really was thinking about something.
"The Pseudo-Deity Engine will be prepared for you. You can use it anytime."
"The Pseudo-Deity Engine? No, Declan Akaba, you'd best not research the Pseudo-Deity Engine any further."
Declan Akaba's pupils contracted slightly. Without a trace of expression, he asked: "Why?"
"This machine is quite dangerous. It can actually completely simulate Apoqliphort Towers's... feeling. This is very dangerous, Declan Akaba. It means this machine can genuinely simulate the existence of a god."
Declan Akaba's heart pounded wildly.
A true simulated god!
He suddenly understood what that worry and excitement in his heart were.
As long as they had their own dimension's technology, and had the perpetual motion machine, then they actually had a chance to directly create an artificial god!
After all, infinite energy combined with solid-image materialization was infinite matter!
And infinite matter with infinite energy, that was a genuine "domain of god"!
With this terrifying power, their Pendulum Dimension would have no need to fear invasion from other dimensions at all!
"Do not attempt to touch this domain. Perhaps this is a good thing for humanity, but humanity does not necessarily need so-called gods."
This sentence left Declan Akaba a bit surprised.
She herself was a god, yet Sophia said this kind of thing?
But in fact, Sophia herself saw through it very clearly.
Never mind that she said she wanted to reset this Synchro Dimension. In truth, this god herself was far more reasonable to deal with than Tierra. Apart from the "path of star-creation" she couldn't coexist with Tierra over, she was actually unexpectedly very tolerant toward ordinary life.
This could be seen in how, after the DT dimension spirits defeated her, she would generously bestow power upon the spirits, letting them grow.
To her, this wasn't a bad thing. What was truly bad were beings who didn't dare accept reality.
And what she said about "not necessarily needing gods" came from the same thought as how she'd let go and given the world to ordinary life.
Although she would reset the world if she was dissatisfied, she had also genuinely handed the world over to all living beings, letting them develop freely.
Only in the situation where she felt "these damned creatures are beyond saving" would she, in a fury, reset the planet, returning everything to its origin point, remaking a perfect ecological structure, giving the planet a beautiful, abundant, and vibrant environment.
As for things like race, to an existence like her, they held no meaning.
Just as even Tierra wasn't purely mechanical, but still had many structures of natural life.
The Pendulum Dimension itself had no god, yet could develop normally to this state, thousands or tens of thousands of times better than this Synchro Dimension. This meant the Pendulum Dimension itself had merits worth valuing. Learning from the Synchro Dimension for no good reason was asking for trouble.
"I understand." Declan Akaba lightly pushed up his glasses.
Sophia didn't continue to explain anything. As if issuing a command, she ordered Declan Akaba not to cross the red line, as always. In her view, this was the normal, correct way to make contact and communicate with mortals.
Excessive contact and personal emotion would both cause the situation to change, which was bad for the world.
Declan Akaba, as always, verbally agreed but was slow to actually spread the DT dimension's Ritual-related cards in his own dimension. He simply gave a response, then pushed up his glasses and said nothing more.
He didn't trust Sophia. What's more, during the tournament, Sophia had already clearly told him that she wanted to obtain the status of the "Synchro One God," reset the Synchro Dimension, and recreate the cosmos. In Declan Akaba's eyes, Sophia was already more dangerous than his own father.
After all, what she wanted to do was directly destroy all life in a cosmos.
And she didn't hesitate in the slightest.
This was a god no less dangerous than that so-called "Tierra, who would destroy the world upon awakening"!
He trusted no one except Yusho Sakaki!
...
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