"My Phantasm, how could it be so easily... impossible, impossible!"
Kagemaru was shocked.
"What did you do!?"
Immediately, he saw the light.
The dark clouds were torn to shreds in an instant, with beams of golden light piercing through like spears. A brilliant golden sphere seemed to ignite the entire sky, the clouds appeared to be burning in flames.
Just like the sun itself.
Youyu chuckled softly and revealed a card in his hand.
"'The Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere Mode,'" Youyu explained, "This card can be Normal Summoned on the opponent's field by using the opponent's three monsters as a tribute."
[The Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere Mode, Attack Power ?]
Perhaps because of the GX era system card pool update, or maybe because the proud Winged Dragon had grown fond of Youyu over time and granted him more usage permissions; in any case, Youyu had drawn this card not long ago by spending money.
When he drew this thing, Youyu was quite pleasantly surprised.
"The Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere Mode" was one of the three forms of the Winged Dragon in the animation, but after being made into a physical card, K Consortium specially printed this card.
In some ways, this card is even more useful than the animation's Winged Dragon. Because it can almost endlessly devour any three monsters on the opponent's field without targeting or affecting the opponent's monsters themselves, meaning that it can indiscriminately swallow those untargetable, unaffected, or effect-negated boss monsters.
Yes, whether it's the Three Egyptian Gods themselves or President Kaiba's Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, which boasts the strongest resistance, the invincible Sun God can devour them all without fail.
At times like this, the opponent might fall into disarray... just like President Kagemaru now.
After painstakingly gathering the Three Phantasms to unleash the ultimate power of the Phantasm...
...in the end, with one careless moment, the invincible Three Phantasms turned into an egg with 0 attack and defense and no effect?
President Kagemaru was dumbfounded.
Heard of people giving away eight-star big monsters, but giving away Egyptian Gods is really a first!
Youyu showed a friendly smile.
Cheer up, Kagemaru, it's an Egyptian God! Have you heard of the Winged Dragon? It's awesome!
Of course, this isn't for nothing.
"Magic Card 'Owner's Seal'!" Youyu said, "All monsters on the field return to their original controller's field! Come back, Winged Dragon!"
Thus, Kagemaru saw this cursed golden egg gobble up his Three Phantasms in one go, then cheerfully float back to Youyu's field, leaving Kagemaru in confusion in the wind...
"And at this moment, activate the Quick-Play Magic 'Emergency Provisions,' sending the activated 'Owner's Seal' and the Continuous Magic 'Spiral Spear Strike' to the graveyard, recovering a total of 2000 Life Points."
[Youyu, LP 400 → LP 2400]
"'The Winged Dragon of Ra - Sphere Mode,' activate the effect!" Youyu declared, "Tribute this card to Special Summon 'The Winged Dragon of Ra' from hand or deck!
Moreover, The Winged Dragon Special Summoned by this effect... its attack becomes 4000!"
The spherical Winged Dragon began to transform, the smooth spherical body began to disintegrate. Enveloping golden wings gradually unfolded, the golden head of the noble divine bird emerged.
The extremely high temperature made its image appear somewhat hazy and distorted, the sacred flames continuously burned on its back. This was the divine being with the supreme status among the Egyptian Gods, rendering any darkness under its gaze unable to hide!
[The Winged Dragon of Ra, Attack Power 4000]
Kagemaru felt his heart and lungs almost stop.
"In the end, it actually Summoned the supreme Egyptian God..."
"The Winged Dragon of Ra, activate the effect! Pay 1000 Life Points to destroy one monster on the field." Youyu said, "I pay 2000 Life Points to destroy both Phantasm Tokens!"
[Youyu, LP 2400 → LP 400]
The Winged Dragon flapped its massive wings, the sacred flames turned into a scorching storm, instantly turning the two Phantasm Tokens into ashes!
Kagemaru's front field, which had five monsters—including three powerful Phantasms—was swept away by the power of the supreme Egyptian God in an instant!
"Battle." Youyu waved a hand, "The Winged Dragon of Ra, direct attack! Divine Power Flame Cannon!!!"
The divine bird opened its mouth, the golden sphere behind it, as brilliant as the sun, continuously charged power into its mouth. The Winged Dragon's eyes turned crimson like blood as the spiraling cannon flame pierced through space!
"It's not that easy." Kagemaru shouted, "Flip Cover Card! Continuous Trap - Hyper Blaze!!!"
Youyu's eyes shifted.
Another Hyper Blaze?
"'Hyper Blaze' can, once per turn, discard a card from hand to revive any of the Three Phantasms in the graveyard!"
Youyu squinted his eyes.
Obviously, Kagemaru wanted to revive Uria, Lord of Searing Flames. The other two Phantasms had attack power of 4000, but at this stage, Uria's attack power would be over 10000 upon revival!
"Discard 'D.D. Crow' from the hand," Youyu said, "This card can be discarded from the hand to banish a card in the opponent's graveyard from play."
D.D. Crow, once a hand pit favored by mainstream players, was used by Bakura, the rabbit-eared Great Demon King, against the Three Evil Gods before.
"I banish 'Uria, Lord of Searing Flames' from the game!"
Seeing Uria's card snatched away by that abominable black crow, Kagemaru was infuriated and snorted: "Then here, I will summon the strongest Phantasm—
—Raviel, Lord of Phantasms!"
The ground cracked open, and the strongest Phantasm (allegedly) emerged from the earth! Its body was as if it pierced straight into the clouds, its form like a towering blue mountain standing before the Winged Dragon!
[Raviel, Lord of Phantasms, Attack Power 4000]
"It's still time to back down." Kagemaru sneered.
"It doesn't matter." Youyu said, "Winged Dragon, continue to attack!"
Kagemaru: "!"
He wants mutual destruction?
Kagemaru instinctively wanted to discard the "Celestial Tyrant Fist" in his hand to give the Phantasm an additional 4000 Attack Points for a counterattack, but then he suddenly realized that his "Raviel, Lord of Phantasms - Shimmering Scraper" had already been sent to the graveyard by Youyu's earlier "Hand Destruction".
Kagemaru's eyelids twitched, abruptly realizing a terrifying fact.
Could it be that when activating "Hand Destruction", the Duel King already anticipated this scenario?
Regardless, there was nothing more he could do. The strongest Phantasm defiantly swung its fist at the Winged God.
The devil's claws clutched into a fist, enveloped in a blue blast, fiercely colliding with the golden cannon expelled from the Winged Dragon's mouth.
The two formidable energies repelled each other, bursting out in opposite directions, mutually impacting and balancing out, like water and fire consuming each other.
The impact of the Divine Power Flame engulfed the entire body of the Lord of Phantasms. The so-called strongest Phantasm was burned to nothing in the sun-like heat.
But at the same time, the noble body of the Sun God was also struck by the Phantasm. The chest of the Winged Dragon deformed under the exaggerated external force, its wings, shining with gold, weakly flapping, its gigantic body tracing a brilliant golden path as it plummeted.
Like the moment of sunset.
The last afterglow of the sun faded away, the brilliantly shining light snuffed out, darkness once again took over the field.
Only then did Kagemaru let out a long breath.
To be honest, this development was entirely unexpected for him. He thought that in their awakened state, the Three Phantasms were nearly invincible, and they wouldn't fall behind even against the Three Egyptian Gods.
He even thought that with the Three Phantasms present and in full awakened power, the opponent wouldn't be able to summon any God cards.
Monster effects were all negated, and the graveyard resources were sealed, in principle making this state very difficult to break through.
But reality proved that Kagemaru seemed to have underestimated the potential of the Egyptian Gods. He never expected that a single Winged Dragon could so effortlessly break his supposedly invincible field, even nearly pushing him to the brink.
Fortunately, he endured.
Thinking of this, Kagemaru couldn't help but perspire with lingering fear, while revealing a sinister chuckle.
With this, it should indeed be settled.
Youyu cannot summon any more monsters this turn, and the ultimate card Winged Dragon has already perished along with the Lord of Phantasms. In contrast, next turn on Kagemaru's side, the "Hyper Blaze" effect can be utilized, no matter which Phantasm is revived from the graveyard, it can directly secure victory.
He had won.
Just as this thought fell, Kagemaru's pupils contracted sharply, almost unable to believe the scene reflected on his retinas.
He saw light, fiercely burning like eternal flames, swirling in mid-air, forming a mighty and awe-inspiring being...
...the reborn Phoenix!
The Winged Dragon of Ra - Immortal Phoenix, summon!!!
Kagemaru felt his breath halt.
The Winged Dragon was enveloped in perpetual flames, its body's lines, along with the whole outline, blurred in the blaze, only the eye region glowed a dim red, when locked by that gaze for a moment, it was as if the blood in his veins ceased to flow.
The thought of "death" dominated his whole being.
He struggled to control his lips, as if parched by the sun's heat, to speak: "Ho... how can this be..."
"The sun does not extinguish, and neither does the Winged Dragon."
Youyu smiled gently, wavering the card that had jumped out from the graveyard.
The Winged Dragon of Ra - Immortal Phoenix. When "The Winged Dragon of Ra" on your field is sent to the graveyard, Immortal Phoenix can be Special Summoned from the graveyard.
Additionally, the opponent cannot activate any effects in response to this summon. In other words, not even the all-powerful Elder of Despair "Solemn Judgment" can prevent the advent of the Immortal Phoenix.
"By the way," Youyu said calmly, "Divine Phoenix does not accept any magic, trap or monster effects... Of course, judging by your look, it seems you have no other move left."
[The Winged Dragon of Ra - Immortal Phoenix, Attack Power 4000]
Kagemaru's face had already started to distort.
"No, no, it's impossible... I already possess the power of Phantasm, the strongest power in the world. My duel is flawless, I will not lose, this won't happen..."
"Divine Phoenix," Youyu shouted, "direct attack!"
The Phoenix streaked across the sky, as if igniting the entire firmament. The burning divine bird, like a meteor, crashed fiercely, hitting Kagemaru's body, a pillar of flame light piercing into the sky.
[Kagemaru, LP 2900 → LP 0]