Is there enmity?
Come to think of it, probably not.
Paradox felt a bit dazed. During the recent duel, somewhere along the way, he naturally started feeling it was a personal grudge. Yugen's reminder brought him to the realization that, indeed, this was their first encounter.
Moreover, initially, Yugen was not even his target. Meeting Yugen here was completely an unexpected accident. However, Yugen's duel was frustrating, and his use of dark forces emitted a sinister aura. From the way he played, Yugen seemed to be exactly the kind of Underworld-style duelist Paradox despised, one who easily sapped others' enthusiasm for dueling.
The future from which Paradox came was destroyed precisely because all duel enthusiasm had been completely worn away. Thus, he was instinctively repelled by Yugen, but now that the duel was over and his mind was clearer, there was no evidence that Yugen had any connection to the apocalyptic future.
Also, Yugen's questioning was indeed reasonable. If a single person could easily cause an entire world's future to sink into apathy, then historically, there have been duelists like Yuki Judai and Yusei Fudo with hearts in the right place who dedicated their lives to inspiring others with their fervor. Yet, the world was still destroyed.
In the history that Paradox knew, Fujiki Yugen did not exist, yet Judai and Yusei certainly did.
Paradox sighed deeply.
Deep down, he knew all along that Yugen was right. Their world's destruction was not due to past generations; looking for the faults of ancient figures was just shifting the blame.
The Perpetual Motion Machine spiraled out of control, leading to future destruction—these were the failings of their own generation, not the fault of anyone else. Even infinite energy could not satisfy humanity's ever-expanding greed, and through generations, humans became increasingly lazy, unwilling to work or do anything, yet wanting more and more.
On some day, negativity and endless demands finally pushed the Perpetual Motion Machine past a critical point, triggering an irreversible catastrophe.
But even understanding this truth, what can be done?
Z-ONE tried, truly tried their best. Z-ONE is the leader of these survivors, and they all recognized Z-ONE as their leader because Z-ONE was the smartest and most dedicated among them.
Under Z-ONE's guidance, they tried to lead people to restore the correct mindset and calm the rampaging Perpetual Motion Machine. They worked hard and tried many times. But it was futile—it was already too late.
If there were another choice, Paradox would not have chosen such an extreme measure as to "erase Duel Monsters from history."
Others might not understand these things, but Yugen knew very well. He understood that the villain group in 5DS was not really villains; they were just different from the protagonist's camp. From a personal perspective, Yugen admired these people for the sacrifices they made to save their world, which is why he spared Paradox's life.
In fact, if Yugen hadn't used Eraser's field-clearing effect to send Sin World to the graveyard earlier, even if he restrained the Evil God's hand to show mercy, Paradox should have died.
In the original movie, Paradox was supposed to die by his own Sin World. At the time, though Game and Judai both had the ability to control Dark Games and make duel damage real, Yugen believed that as protagonists, they probably didn't intend to kill Paradox. The fact that Paradox died after losing the duel was likely due to the real damage from his own invoked Sin World.
Sparing his life also made it convenient to gather more information from him later. For instance, Paradox said Yugen shouldn't exist in history; he mentioned errors in the current timeline, and there were still many doubts.
Of course, his life was spared, but the tools of his offenses had to be confiscated.
So, Yugen directly acquired the complete "Sin" Card Deck, including the top-tier Elves from various temporal realms.
Such as the Electronic Ultimate Dragon, True Red-Eyed Black Dragon, Rainbow Dragon, and even Stardust Dragon, which shouldn't exist in this era.
Including three copies of the universally limited Blue-Eyes White Dragon. With these and the Blue-Eyes he won from President Kaiba during Duel City GX, Yugen now holds a total of four Blue-Eyes, one more than President Kaiba.
However, Paradox, despite having three Blue-Eyes, didn't have the "True Ultimate Blue-Eyes Dragon."
Yugen speculated that the cards Paradox seized from various realms were only those he had developed into "Sin forms." Whether a Monster had developed a Sin form was a mark of whether Paradox could successfully control that Monster.
For example, Paradox developed the "Sin: Blue-Eyes White Dragon," indicating he had mastered the power of Blue-Eyes. Yet, the Sin Card Deck lacked "Sin: Ultimate Blue-Eyes Dragon," showing he couldn't yet control the Ultimate Dragon form.
However, this isn't a big problem. In the animated world, Fusion Monster Cards aren't always necessary; when fate allows, one can fuse with specified Fusion Material to spontaneously generate a Fusion Monster Card. This is somewhat akin to card printing, but it's the simplest kind in card-printing techniques.
Like in DM, when Game fused Kaiba's Ultimate Dragon with his Chaos Warrior to create the Ultimate Dragon Knight, he told Kaiba, "As long as you firmly believe this Monster exists, it exists." Or like how the Overlord casually grabs any Monster on the opponent's field to Super Fuse and create a corresponding Fusion Monster—all are printed based on need.
Not only Fusion Monsters, many vestiges derived from Elves are also similar. For instance, Blue-Eyes White Dragon is the absolute core of the Blue-Eyes Card Deck; Kaiba gradually developed his entire Blue-Eyes Card Deck, printing card by card, based on three White Dragons.
Now, with all three White Dragons gathered, Yugen can consider completing the entire Blue-Eyes Card Deck.
Although in terms of recognition by the White Dragon, deck synergy, Destiny Power levels, and other criteria, he's not in the same dimension as President Kaiba and can't compare, he is better in one aspect. That is, he can foresee the future forms of Blue-Eyes that haven't yet appeared, knowing which direction the deck should take next.
Later, he hopes to have the opportunity to get President Kaiba onboard to help, printing more White Dragon vests, and perhaps he can snag one or two copies.
Apart from these strong Monsters from various times and spaces, the greatest gain is this card.
Yugen looked at the Trap in his hand, revealing a smile full of satisfaction like a seasoned farmer seeing ripe chives during harvest season.
Skill Extraction.