Chapter 169: The Meteorite Falls! Divine Fist Detonation!
"A meteorite?!"
The vision overhead looked exactly like the end of the world. It was not just the group watching on the rooftop who stopped and stared: most of Domino City had tilted its collective gaze toward the sky.
One card, producing a sight that shook an entire city.
That was what it took to even approach the true limits of Duel Disk performance. Future Duel Disks, as shown in the anime, would eventually need to handle duels where the outcome determined whether the world survived. Startling a single city was nowhere near the ceiling.
Boom!!
The overheated Duel Disks on both arms detonated in small simultaneous bursts.
Even so, even with its internal components exploding, the prototype stubbornly kept running. Kaiba Corporation quality, evident from the first generation.
"What is this monster?" Kaiba Seto looked upward with genuine disbelief. "Something that can suppress even a god's oppressive presence?"
"It is not just suppressing the god's presence! It is consuming the god itself!"
Amano raised his hand above his head. The card held between his fingers showed the same image as the object descending from the sky.
"I will Tribute the god along with every other monster on the field! This is the effect of Nibiru, the Primal Being!"
During the Main Phase of either player's turn, if your opponent has Normal Summoned or Special Summoned 5 or more monsters this turn: You can Tribute as many face-up monsters on the field as possible, then Special Summon this card from your hand.
The meteorite from beyond the sky, arriving to face the invincible divine soldier, had been an outer-space adversary all along.
Tributing Obelisk the Tormentor the moment it arrived was not exactly a dignified entrance for the most famous of the Three Phantom Gods. That apology would have to be delivered retroactively.
Kaiba staggered back a step. "Impossible! A monster that can actually affect a god?!"
"Of course it can. Nibiru, the Primal Being is Level 11. That puts it beyond the range of the Egyptian God Card protections!"
Level 11 surpassed the threshold at which the Egyptian God Card immunity applied.
"With this descent, destroy heaven and earth! I Tribute Obelisk the Tormentor and Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon from your field, and Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon and Blue-Eyes White Dragon from mine! Nibiru, the Primal Being, Special Summon in Attack Position!"
Nibiru, the Primal Being
Level 11 / LIGHT
Rock / Effect
ATK: 3000 / DEF: 600
Rin Seiya stared. "You just used that extravagant a Tribute lineup and got something with only Blue-Eyes White Dragon-level ATK?!"
Under normal circumstances, Kaiba Chiaki would have had something sharp to say in response. Right now she had no attention left for Rin Seiya's running commentary.
The legendary Obelisk the Tormentor had been Tributed away the instant it appeared on the field.
When had Amano Rei gotten this kind of power?
Back at the family dinner, she had been genuinely curious to see where Amano's growth trajectory would land by next month's academy tournament. His climb from the slum district in a single month had been worth watching.
But now, with the tournament approaching, standing as the academy's second-ranked duelist and watching someone who had been enrolled for less than a month, she was feeling something she did not often feel.
A faint but unmistakable pressure.
At the dinner, she had estimated that even at his fastest growth rate, Amano would at best be challenging for Fusion Academy's bronze seat. But looking at what she was seeing right now, she had a quiet feeling that even Jinguuji Ryoushuu, the silver seat holder and Fusion Academy's second-ranked duelist, would not be able to stop him.
The shockwave from Nibiru's impact swept across the entire field, wiping every monster on both sides off the field simultaneously.
The card art looked like a meteorite, but technically speaking, Nibiru was a planet. Its descent brought not just its own Special Summon but also awakened the mysterious primal lifeform dormant within the planet's core.
Nibiru's follow-up effect.
After the Special Summon, place 1 Primal Being Token on your opponent's field in Attack Position. That Token's ATK and DEF each equal the combined original ATK and DEF, respectively, of all monsters that were Tributed.
Tributed monsters' original stats combined:
Obelisk the Tormentor: 4000 ATK + 4000 DEF
Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon: 4500 ATK + 3800 DEF
Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon: 4000 ATK + 0 DEF
Blue-Eyes White Dragon: 3000 ATK + 2500 DEF
"I Special Summon the Primal Being Token to your field in Attack Position!"
Primal Being Token: ATK 15500
The bizarre massive creature, having absorbed the combined ATK and DEF of a god and every Blue-Eyes variant simultaneously, awakened and materialized on Kaiba's field.
Joey's voice hit a register usually reserved for serious distress. "ATK 15500?! You put something that terrifying on the opponent's field?! Amano, what are you thinking?!"
Ask Amano what he was thinking?
Even at 15500 ATK, the token was a vanilla monster with no effects. If Obelisk had been left standing on the field instead, Kaiba could have triggered its OTK effect: Tribute two monsters, destroy all of Amano's monsters, deal 4000 direct damage. In a 4000 LP format, that was the most unstoppable one-turn kill in the game, by any measure. The token could not do that.
Kaiba still had one card in hand. Amano had already predicted exactly what it was.
"I activate my final Spell Card. Monster Reborn!!"
Kaiba Seto drove that last card into the sparking, crackling Duel Disk without hesitating for an instant.
The holy light of resurrection shone across his field.
"Return to my field, Obelisk the Tormentor!"
Obelisk the Tormentor: ATK 4000
Exactly as predicted.
If Kaiba could assemble two more monsters alongside Obelisk, the OTK effect would become live. But right now he had only Obelisk and the 15500 ATK Primal Being Token: two monsters total. He needed three, with two to Tribute. That combination was one monster short.
Tea pressed her hand to her chest, visibly struggling to process the sight. "The task Kaiba gave Amano was to stress-test the Duel Disk. Surely this already qualifies. Why are they still going?"
Joey: "You ask why they keep going..."
Yugi looked at both duelists across the field. "I think this must be a duelist's pride."
Even if the Duel Disk exploded in the next second, as long as the fire burning in their arms and their souls had not gone out, neither Kaiba nor Amano had any intention of stopping.
"Since you placed the token in Attack Position on my field, Amano, I will not run from it. I will attack with it."
"Come on then, Kaiba! If we don't fight like this, neither of us will walk away satisfied!"
"Battle!!" x2
They entered the final Battle Phase together.
Kaiba commanded the 15500 ATK Primal Being Token forward. Amano had two cards set in his back row, but a bluff involving an Attack Position token was not in Kaiba's character.
"Attack..."
Boom.
The Duel Disk exploded again. Worse this time. Kaiba did not even blink.
"Attack! Primal Being Token!"
The massive white creature reached out with countless strange tendrils toward the 3000 ATK Nibiru standing on Amano's field.
"Hit back, Nibiru, the Primal Being! And the moment of the attack, I flip my set Trap Card!"
Amano turned over one of the two face-downs at his feet.
"Trap Card: Sacred Armor - Mirror Mail!!"
"That card is..." Everyone who had witnessed Amano's pack opening at Solomon's shop earlier that afternoon recognized it in the same instant.
He had opened that card today. And now he was playing it in the single most pivotal moment of the duel.
Sacred Armor - Mirror Mail
Trap Card: Activate when a face-up monster you control is chosen as an attack target. The ATK of the attacking monster and the ATK of the targeted monster become equal.
"Sacred Armor - Mirror Mail's effect! Nibiru, the Primal Being's ATK becomes equal to the ATK of the Primal Being Token!"
Nibiru, the Primal Being: ATK 3000 -> 15500
Amano's Nibiru, now carrying the same ATK as the attacking token, charged head-on to meet it.
Another impact wave that swept across the entire rooftop in every direction. Inside the projections running at the Duel Disks' absolute breaking point, the meteorite and the token crashed into each other and erased each other completely.
Nibiru, the Primal Being: destroyed.
Primal Being Token: destroyed.
"The field is mine now, Amano Rei! Take Obelisk's final direct attack!
"Sacred Fist Strike!!"
Obelisk the Tormentor wound back a massive divine fist and charged it at Amano's empty field.
"I will leave this to you, Eve. I activate Kuribandit from my Graveyard!"
Kuribandit was in the Graveyard?
The shock on Kaiba's face was not just that the card had a Graveyard effect. It was that it had ended up there with no visible indication of when it was sent.
"Planted from the very beginning."
Amano pulled the card from the Graveyard slot of his Duel Disk. The discard that activated Dragon Knight Dark Magician Girl's destruction effect at the very start of the duel: that had been Kuribandit.
Kuribandit
When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: Banish this card from your GY, then draw 1 card from your Deck. If the drawn card is a monster, you can Special Summon it. The attack target then shifts to that monster.
Rin Seiya's eyes went wide with sudden recognition, the recording entirely forgotten in her hand. "Wait! A god card, a direct attack, Kuribandit! I have seen this exact sequence before! Which means Amano's next draw card is going to be..."
Amano pressed his fingertip to the edge of the Duel Disk. It was producing sounds that suggested it had approximately one more operation left in it.
This turn was going to be the last. The Duel Disk would not survive another round. One draw, one final chance to decide this duel.
"Draw!!"
He yanked the card from the exploding, flame-spewing Duel Disk. The card flickered with starlight at its edges as it came free.
"Block the god for me, Eve!
"I Special Summon Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice in Defense Position!"
Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice: DEF 2100
Rin Seiya's hand dropped completely, the recording terminal forgotten. She stared with a hand pressed to her mouth.
It was exactly the same as the first time Amano had faced an Egyptian God Card.
Standing against Obelisk the Tormentor, against a monster that could destroy anything in its path, this Level 2 Effect-free monster had stepped forward again.
"What exactly is going on with this card?!" Even Kaiba Chiaki had started to wonder, genuinely, whether "trash monster" was actually all there was to the Priestess.
Eve materialized in full, her star staff pointing defiantly at the oncoming divine fist.
"Let me be clear: I am the actual ace of Amano's deck! Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Dark Magician Girl can wait their turn!"
Kaiba Seto felt genuine surprise at the luck Amano was showing. But he was not going to stop the attack. Obelisk, revived by Monster Reborn, could only remain on the field for a single turn. With 200 LP remaining, he could not afford to stall. Even if winning this turn was off the table, he had to destroy everything he could.
"Continue the attack, Obelisk!"
The almighty divine fist that moved the heavens and split the earth drove straight at Eve in Defense Position, the Duel Disk crackling with sparks in every direction.
"You know why you are going to lose to me, Kaiba?"
"You say I will lose?"
"Because you abandoned your soul card and chose to put your faith in a god."
Amano had seen this clearly.
Early Battle City Kaiba Seto was deeply, almost compulsively, dependent on the Egyptian God Cards. No matter the opponent, no matter how small the stakes, he had to summon the god. He had to demonstrate the absolute power that stood at the pinnacle of every duelist.
"But I will defeat both you and your god together. With my own soul card."
"Defeat a god with your soul card? You mean that trash monster, Amano?!"
"That is exactly right. With this trash monster.
"And with this last Trap Card!"
Amano flipped his final face-down.
"Useless! Trap Cards have no effect on Egyptian God Cards!"
"This Trap Card was not prepared for the god! It was prepared to kill one! Now hit back, Eve!
"Trap Card: Nioh Stance, activate!"
Nioh Stance
Trap Card: Target 1 face-up monster on the field. Double that monster's DEF. During the End Phase, that monster's DEF becomes 0.
Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice: DEF 2100 -> 4200
The Priestess, already famous for the defensive wall her DEF represented, stood with doubled power at 4200 points. That exceeded Obelisk's 4000 ATK.
Amano had called it from the start. Kaiba's downfall was the god dependency.
If he had used Monster Reborn on Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon instead, the duel could have continued. But he chose Obelisk.
"You lose, Kaiba!"
"OHHHHH!!"
Eve threw her star staff aside and took a guardian deity's stance: feet planted, fist drawn back, concentrating everything into the one hit. The girl's strongest punch, backed by a DEF that had just surpassed the divine fist in front of her, crashed into Obelisk's attack in a direct counter.
Fist against fist.
Obelisk the Tormentor and Eve met in an epic collision at the exact moment both Duel Disks exploded in earnest. Obelisk's massive arm began to crack from the inside, brilliant starlight bleeding through every fissure.
In the final instant of a battle fought far past every limit, Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice dealt exactly 200 points of battle damage to Kaiba Seto.
"These 200 points are the weight of a soul card's hit, Kaiba!"
"AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"
Kaiba Seto LP: 200 -> 0
The moment his Life Points reached zero, the test Duel Disks, which had been refusing to die through sheer stubbornness for far longer than any prototype had a right to, finally powered down entirely. The holographic projection of Obelisk and Eve's clash vanished with them.
"He... he won?" Right up to the final instant, Kaiba Chiaki had not let herself believe it. But Amano Rei had defeated an Egyptian God Card with a two-star monster with no effects.
The Chronicle notification arrived immediately to confirm it.
Chronicle Clear Condition: Earn Kaiba Seto's Recognition - ACHIEVED
Chronicle Hidden Reward Condition: Detonate the Duel Disk - ACHIEVED
Chronicle Hidden Reward Condition: Defeat Kaiba Seto - ACHIEVED
Chronicle Clear Rating: SS
High-Rating Clear Reward: Choose 2 cards from the available reward list.
Hidden Reward: Obelisk the Tormentor - one-time use.
Multiple hidden clear conditions, as it turned out.
One of them had literally been "Detonate the Duel Disk."
Mainframe Eva, do you genuinely consider this a reasonable thing to require?
As for the hidden reward itself: a single-use authorization to summon Obelisk the Tormentor.
Looking at it, Amano could only picture one scenario. Pulling Obelisk dramatically from beneath the floor at the exact right moment, exactly like that scene from the theatrical film.
You are absolutely setting me up for that, aren't you.
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