Chapter 217: Obliterate! Absolute Sovereign Power
"What is that number of Extra Deck cards?"
The crowd watched 130 cards rain across the arena sky, and suddenly they understood exactly why Ryoushuu had taken so long to choose a single one. Nobody could have moved faster through that.
"Are all of those really Rei's Extra Deck?"
Kikawayu's surprise matched everyone else's. That Amano could pull out monsters from any summoning method was common knowledge by now, but the sheer scale of what was falling from his Duel Disk was something else entirely. Even cards printed through a duelist's own willpower should not reach this number. It was not normal.
But Kikawayu knew Amano better than anyone. There was no version of events where he had secretly assembled this many Extra Deck cards without her knowing. The quantity alone made no sense by ordinary rules.
And then she remembered something.
She remembered what Jaden Yuki had said to Amano at the end of the Chronicle, in that last quiet moment before the world dissolved.
"Remember this, Rei. Every era you traveled through had meaning. Every journey had a reason for existing."
"The power you gained along the way was never granted to you from outside. It was always your own power. Use it without hesitation, my friend."
Was that what this was? Were these 130 cards each a mark of a battle Amano had fought across different eras? Every dragon roaring as it fell, every card carrying the memory of a duel from somewhere along the road that had brought him here?
The cards themselves did not hit the ground. The shower was a projection from the Duel Disk system, a visual display of the transfer already complete. Every one of those 130 Dragon-Type Extra Deck monsters had moved directly to Amano's Graveyard zone.
"Let's test this one first." Amano raised his hand. "Effect of Synchro Monster Gold Cloud Beast, Malong, from the Graveyard."
When this card is sent to the Graveyard, target 1 face-up card on the opponent's field and return it to the hand.
Three golden synchronization lances shot up from Amano's Graveyard and buried themselves into the massive and unsettling ritual body of Dogmatika Alba Zoa.
"It won't work." Ryoushuu's voice cut through immediately. The lances shattered and scattered as the light hit Alba Zoa's frame without leaving a mark. "Effects activated by Synchro Monsters don't touch my Dogmatika monsters."
Dogmatika monsters your opponent controls are unaffected by the effects of Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and Link Monsters your opponent controls.
That immunity was exactly why Ryoushuu had made her gamble. And now Gold Cloud Beast, Malong was sitting in the Graveyard as the fourth Extra Deck monster.
"Effect of Dogmatika Cardinal, Four Sacred Dragons, from my hand."
To Special Summon this card from the hand, banish a total of 4 Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, or Link Monsters from either player's Graveyard.
Ryoushuu's eyes swept across Amano's Graveyard, which now held more monsters than she could count. She did not have time to think carefully. The last time she had tried to pick carefully from his Graveyard, the system clock had nearly run out on her.
"I target Black Rose Dragon, Stardust Dragon, Red Dragon Archfiend, and Assault Black Feather Dragon from your Graveyard. Those four are banished."
Apart from Black Rose Dragon, chosen specifically because it carried no revival restriction, the other three were essentially random picks grabbed before the clock hit zero.
Four streams of dragon energy tore out of Amano's Graveyard and poured into the card in Ryoushuu's hand.
"Embody the truth of the four Dogmatika teachings. Descend in the form of a sacred dragon."
"Special Summon. Dogmatika Cardinal, Four Sacred Dragons."
Dogmatika Cardinal, Four Sacred Dragons. Level 11. LIGHT. Spellcaster. Special Summon. Effect.
ATK 3200. DEF 3200.
A complete departure from the elegant aesthetic of every Dogmatika monster before it, this was not a person, not even a recognizable creature. It was a colossal idol, a towering effigy carved in the image of a divine dragon, solid as a monument and radiating a weight that had nothing to do with ATK.
Two hundred points past Blue-Eyes White Dragon's ATK, at Level 11. And with an effect that could dismantle anything that stood against it.
"Now I will completely destroy your field."
Before entering the Battle Phase, Ryoushuu fired the Ritual Spell she had retrieved through Preparation of Rites.
"Nadir Servant, activated."
Nadir Servant: Ritual Summon 1 Dogmatika Ritual Monster, using monsters from your hand, field, or by banishing Fusion or Synchro Monsters from your Graveyard as tribute.
"As a substitute tribute, I banish the Level 4 Fusion Monster Elder Entity N'tss from my Graveyard, and Ritual Summon Dogmatika White Relic from the Graveyard."
The four stars of the banished Fusion carved themselves into the face of the Ritual Spell, and the silver-hammered girl rose from the Graveyard once more.
Dogmatika White Relic. ATK 500.
"When Dogmatika White Relic is successfully Ritual Summoned, I target 2 face-up monsters. One of them gains ATK equal to the other's current ATK."
"I target Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon and Dogmatika White Relic. White Relic gains Crystal Wing's 5500 ATK."
Dogmatika White Relic. ATK 500 to 6000.
The final field took shape. An ATK 3200 divine idol standing beyond the reach of Extra Deck monster effects. A 4000 ATK ancient catastrophe granting immunity to every Synchro negation Amano could throw. A 6000 ATK silver-hammered saint standing behind walls that nothing from the Extra Deck could touch.
This was what Ryoushuu had been building toward since the moment the 130 cards hit the ground.
"This is the absolute power I've been pursuing. In this world, pure power is the one thing that will never betray you."
"Come and face it, Amano Rei."
Ryoushuu declared the Battle Phase and sent Dogmatika Cardinal, Four Sacred Dragons forward. The divine idol locked onto Blue-Eyes White Dragon and fired a destructive beam straight at it.
Amano flipped his last set card. "Trap Card. Graverobber."
The reason Amano had stayed composed from the moment Alba Zoa's effect fired was simple. The card he needed was not only in his own Graveyard. It was also in Ryoushuu's.
"Graverobber copies the effect of Waboku from your Graveyard. My monsters cannot be destroyed by battle this turn, and all battle damage I take is reduced to zero."
A curtain of golden light from the Waboku copy settled around Blue-Eyes White Dragon, blocking the idol's beam outright.
"That won't hold." Ryoushuu activated Cardinal's effect without hesitation. "When Dogmatika Cardinal, Four Sacred Dragons battles a Special Summoned monster, this effect activates at the start of the Damage Step. Destroy all Attack Position monsters on the opponent's field. Then inflict 800 damage for each Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, or Link Monster destroyed by this effect."
The single focused beam split into a blanket of scarlet light flooding every corner of Amano's field.
"Faith's Light: Divine Dragon Ascension."
The sweep of the idol's radiance was not aimed at one target. It cut across everything.
Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon destroyed.
Blue-Eyes White Dragon destroyed.
"Because one Synchro Monster was destroyed, you take 800 damage."
Amano LP: 1700 to 900.
Even behind the Waboku barrier, the sweeping effect cut through. Amano's field was cleared and he took the effect damage regardless.
Ryoushuu pressed on. Alba Zoa and White Relic still could not attack due to the remaining Waboku effect, but Cardinal had finished its task. The rest of her monsters stood ready for the next turn.
She set her final card and ended.
"You didn't win the bet. I did." Amano's expression held the calm of someone who had been waiting for this exact moment. "You thought those 130 filler cards in the Graveyard would cost you nothing. But the equation for victory was already assembled down there while you were building your field."
End Phase.
A dragon roar erupted from Amano's Graveyard zone, one that carried an energy Ryoushuu recognized.
"Graveyard effect of Abyss Dragon, White World Dragon of Reincarnation."
When this card is sent to the Graveyard during the turn it is sent, activate this effect at the End Phase: add 1 Polymerization Normal Spell Card from the Deck to the hand.
A dark shape wreathed in deep crimson fire surged up from the Graveyard and howled at the sky.
Ryoushuu's eyes went wide. "White World Dragon of Reincarnation. Why do you have that card?"
The Fusion Summon condition for White World Dragon of Reincarnation required a Descendant of Albaz plus one or more Dragon-Type monsters. It was part of the Dogmatika family of lore, a card associated specifically with that archetype's mythology. Ryoushuu did not run a Descendant of Albaz, so she had no way to Fusion Summon it herself. But Amano's deck had nothing to do with Dogmatika. There was no reason in the world he should have this card.
And yet it was there.
At the same moment, Ryoushuu's own Graveyard reacted. The card face of Dogmatika Ecclesia, the Virtuous began to glow with an odd light, trembling as though straining to answer the call from the sky above. It almost looked like it was about to jump out.
"What is happening to Ecclesia?"
"White World Dragon of Reincarnation's effect." Amano announced his search. "I add 1 Polymerization Normal Spell from the Deck to my hand."
The Spell he searched was something he had prepared specifically for this tournament. It honored both summoning methods at once. It was proof that he belonged in the Synchro Academy and had the right to stand on the Fusion Academy's stage.
"I add Miracle Synchro Fusion to my hand."
The name landed on the crowd like a stone dropped in still water.
Kikawayu blinked.
Sakuya tilted her head.
Finesse straightened up.
What kind of card had both Synchro and Fusion in its name?
The relationship between Fusion and Synchro was supposed to be like the two academies themselves, opposing forces with nothing to share. The three schools had maintained their rivalry for a century over exactly this kind of ideological separation.
Only Amano could have unlocked this card. Because he had mastered both methods in the ranked exchange shop, he had been able to access something built on the junction between them.
"My turn. Draw. I activate Miracle Synchro Fusion."
He threw the card onto the Duel Disk.
Miracle Synchro Fusion. Normal Spell. Banish Fusion Materials from your field or Graveyard to Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from the Extra Deck that lists a Synchro Monster as a Fusion Material.
A Fusion that used Graveyard materials. A Fusion that specifically required a Synchro Monster as part of the recipe. A spell that crossed both summoning boundaries at once.
"I use Shooting Star Dragon and Elemental HERO Avian from my Graveyard as Fusion Materials. Miracle Synchro Fusion."
Two monsters with nothing in common, a Synchro Dragon and a WIND Warrior, each burst out of the Graveyard in separate streams of light and climbed toward the miracle spiral forming overhead.
"Gathered prayers, awaken the dragon knight who carries the pulse of a new resonance. By the power of Fusion, reach across the infinite possibilities of Synchro."
"Fusion Summon. Wave Dragon Knight."
Wave Dragon Knight. Level 10. WIND. Dragon. Fusion. Effect.
ATK 3200. DEF 2000.
Materials: Dragon-Type Synchro Monster plus Warrior-Type Monster.
A Fusion Monster clad in deep blue armor and carrying an enormous knight's lance materialized from the miracle spiral and landed on the field.
Wave Dragon Knight had arrived on the Fusion Academy Silver Stage.
A silence settled over the arena, followed by an explosion of noise.
"Fusion and Synchro just connected with each other."
"This is a historic moment."
"Only someone who controls both summoning methods can even attempt something like this."
"Did Amano Rei just make history?"
He had been trying to make history from the moment he registered for this tournament. Not just the unprecedented Miracle Synchro Fusion, but the first time Fusion Academy's Silver Stage had ever been cleared. He intended to accomplish both with the same monster.
"Effect of Wave Dragon Knight." Amano pointed forward. "Once per turn, I can banish 1 Dragon-Type Synchro Monster from my Graveyard. Until the End Phase, Wave Dragon Knight is treated as having the same name as that monster and gains its effects."
Every Dragon-Type Synchro Monster sleeping in the Graveyard made that effect available to him right now. Ryoushuu had sent them all there herself.
"And since I get to choose from everything Ryoushuu piled into my Graveyard for me, naturally I'll take the strongest one."
Four columns of fire erupted from the Graveyard. The infernal silhouette of the ultimate evil dragon roared behind Wave Dragon Knight's shoulders and stretched upward until it filled the sky above the arena.
"Blazing star of the heavens! The battle scars etched across the earth!"
"Ring out, the drumbeat of the soul! Turn, the impulse of destruction!"
"When all four forces align, the new star reaches its apex!"
"The ultimate soul that belongs to me. Scar-Red Nova Dragon."
The roar that shook the Silver Stage came from behind Wave Dragon Knight as the phantom of the twelve-star dragon blazed into full manifestation overhead.
"I banish Scar-Red Nova Dragon from the Graveyard. Wave Dragon Knight inherits its name and effects."
Scar-Red Nova Dragon's effect: this card gains 500 ATK for each Tuner Monster in the Graveyard.
The number of Tuner Monsters currently sleeping in Amano's Graveyard was not The White Stone of Ancients alone. That was the original count. Things had changed.
Among the 130 Dragon-Type Synchro Monsters in the Graveyard, there were nine different types that carried both the Synchro and Tuner designations simultaneously, led by Life Current Dragon. Amano had deliberately loaded three copies of each type into the Extra Deck when building for this tournament. Nine types multiplied by three was twenty-seven. Plus The White Stone of Ancients. Twenty-eight Tuner Monsters total.
Twenty-eight times five hundred was fourteen thousand.
The phantom dragon's fire behind Wave Dragon Knight condensed into a single pillar of flame burning straight through the sky.
Bathed in the light of absolute power, Wave Dragon Knight raised its lance.
"By the effect of Scar-Red Nova Dragon, Wave Dragon Knight gains 14,000 ATK."
Wave Dragon Knight. ATK 3200 to 17,200.
Ryoushuu was physically forced a step backward by the heat radiating off the holographic field. "17,200 ATK?"
Even with Alba Zoa's immunity protecting her monsters from effect interference, even with a full 4000 LP remaining, the number in front of her made everything feel insufficient.
"Jinguuji Ryoushuu, I'm going to pin you to the history of this academy with this lance."
Losing here, as the first person to allow the Silver Stage to be cleared, would be remembered forever.
"Before the Battle Phase, I also activate Assault Mode: Type Zero from the Graveyard. I set 1 Assault Mode Activate Trap Card on the field. Since it was set by this effect, it can be activated the turn it was set."
The familiar card shimmered into existence in Amano's back row.
"Now. Wave Dragon Knight, attack."
The phantom dragon's entire pillar of flames was channeled into the lance. Wave Dragon Knight drove it forward like a detonation.
"Target: Dogmatika White Relic."
"Burning Soul: Ultimate Assault Lance."
On the Fusion Academy Silver Stage, a crimson nuclear explosion formed a towering mushroom cloud. The stage itself, already cracked from the earlier volleys, now had fire seeping into every fracture.
Even outside a Dark Game, an attack of this scale produced enough physical feedback to let everyone in range feel the heat pressing against them.
From the Synchro Academy Gold Stage in the distance, Rin Seiya had been complaining to herself about the unusually thin audience on her side of the tournament grounds. She wondered out loud whether Synchro Summoning was falling out of fashion.
Then she turned and saw the mushroom cloud rising from the Fusion Academy stage.
The students streaming past her in that direction told her everything.
"Move, move, the Fusion Silver Stage is doing something insane over there."
"Did someone actually break through Silver? Is that possible?"
"The stage itself is almost gone. You have to see it."
"If a virtual attack caused this much physical feedback, it's already worth everything I paid for the ticket."
Dogmatika White Relic: destroyed.
Inside the purple school uniform now wrapped in virtual flame, Ryoushuu set her jaw and flipped her final face-down.
She was not losing here. She refused.
"Trap Card. Hallowed Life Barrier. I discard 1 card from my hand. All battle damage I take this turn becomes zero. I draw 1 card."
Eleven thousand two hundred points of battle damage absorbed. Ryoushuu remained standing by the width of a single card.
"Second wave." Amano activated the second effect he had copied from Scar-Red Nova Dragon through Wave Dragon Knight. "Scar-Red Nova Dragon's effect."
Once per turn, during your turn or your opponent's turn: banish this card along with all cards on your opponent's field and in their Graveyard. Then, Special Summon 1 Red Nova Dragon from the Extra Deck, treated as a Synchro Summon.
"I banish Wave Dragon Knight. Special Summon Red Nova Dragon from the Extra Deck."
"Not my Dogmatika." Ryoushuu's voice was firm. "While Dogmatika Alba Zoa is on the field, my Dogmatika monsters cannot be affected by effects activated by Fusion or Synchro Monsters. They cannot be banished."
"Even without banishing them, Red Nova Dragon carries the same ATK-boosting effect."
Red Nova Dragon. ATK 3500. Plus 14,000 from Tuners in the Graveyard. Total: 17,500.
Red Nova Dragon. ATK 17,500.
"Attack target: Dogmatika Cardinal, Four Sacred Dragons."
"Explode. Ultimate Scorching Fire: Burning Soul."
The same enveloping red fire, this time crashing into the towering dragon idol.
"When Dogmatika Cardinal, Four Sacred Dragons battles a Special Summoned monster, it activates: destroy all Attack Position monsters on the opponent's field."
"Faith's Light: Divine Dragon Ascension."
The idol's annihilation beams swept toward Red Nova Dragon.
"Won't work. Red Nova Dragon cannot be destroyed by the opponent's card effects."
This time, the howling Synchro Dragon simply ignored the idol's destruction beams and drove straight through them. The divine idol shattered under the impact.
Battle damage: 14,300 points.
Ryoushuu discarded Kuriboh from her hand. "When I take battle damage, I discard Kuriboh to reduce that damage to zero."
She had survived again, barely, trading away her last hand card.
Amano paused just long enough to acknowledge it. Even betraying an ally for family interests, Ryoushuu's will to fight as Fusion Academy's second-ranked duelist was real enough that she had pushed through three separate kill shots. He was not going to wrap this up without emptying her hand and exhausting every card she had left.
Which was exactly why he had saved this for last.
"This is my final card. In the Battle Phase, I activate Assault Mode Activate from the field."
Assault Mode Activate had been set on the field this turn by Assault Mode: Type Zero's Graveyard effect. Because it was placed by that effect, it could be activated immediately.
"I release Red Nova Dragon."
The deep crimson of the Assault Mode armor rose from the card surface and locked around the blazing body of Red Nova Dragon, encasing its roaring dragon form in heavy plates of black and red.
"A new form that surpasses both the king and the demon. The savage soul of the Assault, a cry that shakes the foundation of creation."
"Special Summon. The ultimate Assault Mode. Descend."
"Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode."
Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode. Level 12. DARK. Dragon. Special Summon. Effect.
ATK 4000. DEF 3500.
Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode. Once wielded by Jack Atlas, the man who had changed the course of 5D's history inside the Chronicle. Now the Assault Mode that had rewritten the past would be inherited by Amano Rei to carve out a new chapter of history.
"Since this is a Special Summon in the Battle Phase, battle continues."
"Attack target: Dogmatika Alba Zoa."
"Burning Soul: Assault Blast."
Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode carried no ATK-boosting effect. Its 4000 ATK matched Dogmatika Alba Zoa's exactly.
Deep within the unsettling darkness of the most powerful Dogmatika, the enormous wrongness that could not be called a creature raised one arm. The Assault Mode dragon in heavy black-and-red armor raised its claw to meet it.
The clash between 4000 ATK and 4000 ATK produced a sound like the air itself being torn in two. Everyone in range flinched.
Then both monsters began to crack.
The great wrongness of Dogmatika Alba Zoa let out a sound that rolled through the entire arena, something between a scream and a lament.
Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode roared as its plating split open. But the split was the armor, not the dragon underneath.
Dogmatika Alba Zoa: destroyed.
Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode: destroyed.
"And this is the last effect." Amano's voice rose over the collapsing field. "When Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode is destroyed, Special Summon Red Nova Dragon from the Graveyard."
The final stroke. The Assault armor explodes, and from the wreckage the dragon returns.
Ryoushuu's field was now completely empty. Her hand was empty. Every card she had was spent.
Red Nova Dragon rose from the Graveyard. The twenty-eight Tuner Monsters in the Graveyard still answered its call.
Red Nova Dragon. ATK 17,500.
Ryoushuu looked at the monster in front of her. She had no cards left. Nothing to intercept this attack. She was still on her knees from the earlier impacts, and the fire from two previous blasts had not finished burning off her uniform.
"This is absolute power," she said.
"Direct attack."
"This is the attack that creates history. Ultimate: Burning Soul."
The final explosion was not the largest in terms of visual spectacle, but it was the one that mattered. The direct strike from 17,500 ATK on an empty field, with nothing between the blow and Ryoushuu's 4000 Life Points.
Ryoushuu's scream and the erupting fire column rose together into the sky above the Academy City tournament grounds, burning into the air like a pillar that had stood there for a century.
Ryoushuu LP: 4000 to 0. Overkill: 13,500.
From below the stage, unable to look away even as her own chest tightened, Masayo watched her sister fold under the same wave of fire that had put her on the ground the match before. "Amano Rei, my sister..."
The Silver Stage did not survive the final impact intact. The cracks that had been spreading through it since the first board-wipe now let the heat all the way through. Stone and projection material alike crumbled under the king's fire.
That day, for the first time in the history of Fusion Academy, its Silver Stage was cleared. Amano Rei broke through it with sovereign, absolute power, and the stage itself shattered under his feet to mark the occasion.
Standing in the wreckage, Amano looked upward.
On the Gold Stage above him, Kaiba Chiaki stood with her arms folded, looking down.
Their eyes met.
Every obstacle between here and that stage had been swept aside. What remained was the destined confrontation with the Kaiba line itself.
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