Chapter 223
"Fusion Summon! Ultimate Dragon Wizard!"
The unprecedented Fusion light erupted from Chiaki's Duel Disk and projected itself onto Amano's field. A roar split the arena. Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's three-headed silhouette materialized, but the figure standing atop its back pushed it past anything that form alone could convey. A Chaos Magician stood at the summit of the Ultimate Dragon, recreating the legendary posture of the Ultimate Dragon Knight, transcending time in the shape of Ultimate Dragon Wizard.
This was the strongest Fusion Amano could currently produce.
Though calling it entirely his own accomplishment was probably too generous.
Just as his strongest Synchro, the four-layer convergence of True Crimson Nova, had required Rin Seiya's cooperation to achieve, this strongest Fusion had only been possible because of Kaiba Chiaki herself. If she had not been his opponent today, the current Amano could not have assembled these materials.
The difference, of course, was that Rin Seiya had been his ally. Kaiba Chiaki was his opponent.
Chiaki stared at the monster that had just emerged before her and went completely still.
The killing energy Twin Burst Dragon had been building in both its heads could not find an outlet and gradually dissipated. A 3000-attack monster willing to attack a 5000-attack opponent while the opposing player sat at 800 Life Points was not a choice anyone would make. Chiaki withdrew the attack and ended the Battle Phase.
"Amano. Is this the answer you wanted to show me?"
She forced the words out through clenched teeth.
The duel had been framed as a contest between Synchro and Fusion. And now Amano had ultimately reached for Fusion himself. He had always been able to use all three main Summon methods. Chiaki had known this since watching his match against Karl. But knowing it and watching it happen to you were different experiences.
What she found harder to accept was that he had done it entirely with her cards. He had used her Graceful Charity, stolen her Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon straight from her deck, then used her own monsters to produce a Fusion her side of the field had never seen.
There was not a card in Ultimate Dragon Wizard that had come from Amano's own resources. Just her. All of it.
Was that even a legitimate way to duel?
Amano Rei, the Slum Duelist, genuinely did not understand why that should be a problem.
"Isn't my answer already obvious, Kaiba?"
He had never once claimed that Synchro was a superior Summon method. He had never conceded that Fusion was stronger, either. For that matter, Xyz was just as full of potential as everything else. The answer was not a ranking. It was not a debate.
Amano's answer was: all of it.
A true duelist mastered every Summon method and advanced toward the apex by bringing them all to bear together.
"I withdraw Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon's attack and end the Battle Phase."
Without a path forward in combat, Chiaki made the rational call. But ending the Battle Phase opened a different problem. She had already changed Twin Burst Dragon's battle position this turn, which meant she could not change it again. If Twin Burst Dragon entered Attack Position against a 5000-attack opponent and Chiaki had only 800 Life Points to spare, one wrong exchange would erase them. She had pushed Amano's Fusion to a point she had not anticipated, and now her own side of the field felt suddenly narrow.
A Fusion stronger than my own Fusion.
Her expression hardened.
"I absolutely refuse to accept this."
Chiaki surveyed her hand, made a decision, and turned over the card she had set in her back row.
"Quick-Play Spell, Aura of the Blue-Eyes."
Aura of the Blue-Eyes read: Send 1 Blue-Eyes monster from your hand or deck to the Graveyard, then target 1 face-up monster on the field. While that monster remains face-up, it cannot attack.
She could not have used this against Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon. Chaos MAX was immune to targeting. Ultimate Dragon Wizard carried no such protection.
Azure light flowed across the arena toward Ultimate Dragon Wizard, and for a moment it looked as if the sealing effect would connect.
It did not.
The roar of the Chaos Magician standing atop the Ultimate Dragon shattered the incoming magic before it could land.
"Ultimate Dragon Wizard's effect." Amano raised his hand. "When an opponent activates an effect, negate that activation and destroy it. This effect can negate Spell, Trap, and monster effects once each per turn."
"I negate Aura of the Blue-Eyes."
"Ultimate Forbidden Curse."
Aura of the Blue-Eyes: negated and destroyed.
The arena erupted.
True counter-effects were already uncommon in Eden Tower's competitive environment. A single-type negate could shift an entire duel. But what Ultimate Dragon Wizard carried was something that had not been seen before on any serious competitive field: an effect that could negate any category of card, once per category, per turn. Three different types. Three independent negation windows.
The audience collectively grasped what it meant.
"That effect is incredible!" Finesse's eyes were wide. "This is Amano's Fusion card?"
From the teacher's observation platform, the headmasters of Synchro Academy and Fusion Academy had already started arguing over each other.
Raiden: "Does a monster like that actually exist? How could you summon something this powerful out in the open, Amano?"
Grafa: "This is what Fusion truly represents at its peak! This should rightfully belong to a student from my academy! It's your fault, you insufferable old man, for fighting over him with me in the first place!"
Chiaki had used Aura of the Blue-Eyes as a probe. The cost of that probe, a Blue-Eyes monster sent from her deck to the Graveyard, had still been paid even though the effect was negated.
She knew Ultimate Dragon Wizard's capability now. And she had sent a specific card to her Graveyard.
She bet her pride on the three Blue-Eyes White Dragons sleeping in her deck. Everything she had left went onto the Duel Disk.
"I Normal Summon one monster in face-down Defense Position. I set one card face-down. And finally, I activate a Quick-Play Spell."
Because Ultimate Dragon Wizard had already used its Spell negation this turn, Chiaki's last Spell Card passed through cleanly.
"Quick-Play Spell, Magical Textbook."
Magical Textbook read: Discard your entire hand. Draw one card from your deck. If that card is a Spell Card, activate it.
Amano blinked.
He knew this card. For anyone with his knowledge of Yu-Gi-Oh's history, it was impossible to forget. This was the card that had turned the tide when Yugi Mutou defeated the Pharaoh in the Ceremonial Duel. The fact that Chiaki carried it meant she possessed the same caliber of duelist's spirit.
After all, a player whose right hand was not strong enough could never control a card like this.
"My hand is zero. There is nothing to discard. I am betting the entire fight against Ultimate Fusion on this single draw."
This was why she had waited until her hand was empty to activate it. Zero cards discarded meant the full power of the draw with no wasted resources. Yugi himself had used it the same way in the Ceremonial Duel, hand at zero, one draw to decide everything.
The empty hand also confirmed something to Amano: whatever Chiaki had set just now was a Trap card. With only one Spell and one Trap left in hand when she activated Magical Textbook, and knowing Ultimate Dragon Wizard could negate one of each, she had played the Spell through first to avoid both being countered next turn.
"Draw!" Chiaki looked at what she had pulled and allowed herself the faintest smile. "The card I drew is Pot of Destiny."
One of the three legendary draw cards from the anime era. Drawn by a player who had gambled everything on a single pull.
Pot of Destiny read: Roll a die. Draw cards from your deck equal to the result. Then banish cards from the top of your deck equal to the same number.
The die spun through the air and landed on four. One less than the ceiling, and without the brutal side effect of the more powerful variants.
"I draw four cards from my deck and banish the top four."
When the cards came into Chiaki's hand, something shifted in her expression. The deep blue of her eyes caught a pale azure light, and she did not quite manage to keep the tremor out of them.
"I set one more card face-down. Turn end."
Two set cards. Two monsters, one of them Twin Burst Dragon at 3000 attack, the other still hidden face-down in Defense. That was the final configuration Chiaki could produce this turn.
"My turn. Draw." The Continuous Spell activated at the same moment. "The Will of the Commoners triggers. I reveal Elemental HERO Sparkman and draw once more."
Amano considered the field.
Chiaki's monsters were Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon at 3000 and an unknown face-down. Ultimate Dragon Wizard at 5000 could defeat Twin Burst Dragon in battle and reduce Chiaki's 800 Life Points to zero in a single attack. The face-down monster did not need to matter.
Except that it clearly did.
"Trap Card." Chiaki flipped her set card without hesitation. "Ballista Unit."
Ballista Unit read: Tribute 1 monster on your field. Target 1 card on your opponent's field and destroy it.
"I tribute Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon to destroy Ultimate Dragon Wizard."
"I'm not letting you destroy it. Ultimate Dragon Wizard's effect negates Trap Card activations."
Ballista Unit: negated and destroyed.
The field changed anyway.
By the rules of the game, a card's activation cost must be paid regardless of whether the effect resolves. Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon had already been released as the cost of Ballista Unit. The Trap was negated, but the Tribute had happened. Twin Burst Dragon was gone.
Chiaki had almost certainly known her Trap would be negated. She had activated it for the cost, not the effect. Without Twin Burst Dragon as the obvious primary target, Amano could no longer ignore the face-down monster.
"Normal Summon, Elemental HERO Sparkman in Attack Position."
Elemental HERO Sparkman: Level 4 LIGHT Warrior. Attack: 1600. Defense: 1400. No effects.
The lightning-charged hero materialized on the field.
Because Ultimate Fusion had returned all three of Chiaki's Blue-Eyes White Dragons to the deck to produce Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, her Graveyard held no Blue-Eyes at all. True Light had already been destroyed. There was nothing available to intercept with.
"Battle Phase. Sparkman, attack the face-down monster. Flash Impact!"
Even if it was a Flip Effect monster, Ultimate Dragon Wizard's monster-effect negation remained unused.
Sparkman's electric arc tore into the hidden card and flipped it face-up. The creature of the tainted swamp crackled and shattered beneath the burst.
King of the Swamp: Defense 1100. Destroyed.
Amano stared at it.
King of the Swamp was a card he had genuinely wanted to acquire. Its rarity meant it had never circulated through normal channels, and the academy exchange shop did not carry it. Its effect allowed it to substitute for any one named Fusion Material in a Fusion Summon.
If he had this card, he could use it in place of Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and fuse Ultimate Dragon Wizard without needing the actual Ultimate Dragon on hand.
The fact that Chiaki had deliberately placed King of the Swamp as a wall in front of Ultimate Dragon Wizard sent a single cold note of unease through him.
There was no other option now.
"Direct attack, Ultimate Dragon Wizard!"
Chiaki's last face-down card remained. Everything came down to this single line.
Ultimate Dragon Wizard gathered the intertwined energies of light and darkness through both its three dragon heads and the Chaos Magician standing above them. The combined force built toward a single point of release.
"I have assembled everything I need as well, Amano."
"What?"
"The answer to matching the Ultimate Dragon." Chiaki's voice rose as her hand snapped the final set card open. "Right here!"
The last Trap activated. Ultimate Dragon Wizard's Trap negation had already been used on Ballista Unit. This one passed through.
"Trap Card, Dead Soul Fusion."
Dead Soul Fusion read: Select Fusion Materials listed for one Fusion Monster from your Graveyard and remove them face-down from the game. Fusion Summon that Fusion Monster from the Extra Deck. The Fusion Summoned monster cannot attack this turn.
The materials available in Chiaki's Graveyard included King of the Swamp, which had just been destroyed moments ago. It could substitute for any named Fusion Material.
The second material's identity made Amano understand everything in one instant.
A Ritual Monster. Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon.
Not Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon. A different card entirely. Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon was the Blue-Eyes monster Chiaki had sent to her Graveyard when she paid the cost of Aura of the Blue-Eyes. The effect had been negated. The cost had not.
She had set this up in her own previous turn when she activated that Spell. She had known then.
"I fuse Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon and King of the Swamp from my Graveyard. As a Fusion Material substitute, King of the Swamp stands in for Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon."
A Chaos Ritual Monster. Plus what functionally constituted Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.
The students watching in the audience gasped in unison. Those were not just recognizable materials. They were the exact same two categories that had just been used the previous turn, in the duel that was still happening in front of them. Everyone watching remembered.
The Duel Disk on Chiaki's arm blazed with the strongest Fusion light any of them had ever seen, and this time it illuminated her own field.
"We carry the same Blue-Eyes soul. I absolutely refuse to lose to you in Fusion, Amano!"
For the record, Chiaki had clearly printed this card through sheer duelist's willpower. She had not known Ultimate Dragon Wizard existed until Amano Fusion Summoned it. And yet here she was.
"Where legend and legend meet, where chaos and the power of the ultimate are sealed into an eternal pact!"
"The ultimate Fusion that surpasses the Ultimate Dragon!"
"Fusion Summon! Ultimate Dragon Wizard!!"
A second Ultimate Dragon Wizard descended onto Chiaki's field.
The arena fell into an astonished silence that lasted for several long seconds.
Then everyone spoke at once.
Two Ultimate Dragon Wizards in the same duel. Two Blue-Eyes wielders had pushed each other so far that the same apex Fusion Monster had appeared on both sides of the field simultaneously. Even among the students who had registered to challenge the Gold Stage themselves, the sight of it carved a clear line between their own capabilities and what they were currently watching.
None of them could have won this duel. Not against either player.
At the outer edge of the crowd, Kaiba Chiha had stopped thinking analytically several turns ago and had simply been watching. She had not noticed until this moment that she had said it out loud.
"Onee-sama, you did it!"
The honorific had returned without her realizing.
"Is that your answer to my Ultimate Dragon, Kaiba?"
Fighting the strongest Fusion with the strongest Fusion. That was a perfectly valid strategy. It also presented a problem for Amano. His remaining hand held only one monster card and one Spell Card. The true triple negate had suppressed both sides, not just Chiaki's. Two cards could not stop an incoming 5000-attack monster.
If Amano ended his turn now, next turn Chiaki's Ultimate Dragon Wizard would attack Elemental HERO Sparkman and close out the 800-to-700 gap in a single move. That outcome was certain.
Standing between a definite loss and an unknown outcome, Amano made his choice without hesitation.
"I'm not withdrawing."
Even after Chiaki Fusion Summoned her own Ultimate Dragon Wizard onto the field, Amano did not pull back the attacking monster. Because the monster he had declared an attack with was also Ultimate Dragon Wizard.
"Continue! I attack with Ultimate Dragon Wizard. Target: Ultimate Dragon Wizard!"
"Counter with yours, and I'll counter with mine!" Chiaki did not back down either.
The greatest Fusion collision in the history of the Academy Challenge Tournament sent the intertwined chaos spiral of Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and the Chaos Magician crashing into an identical formation across the field. Black and white coiled into each other and met at the center.
Amano and Chiaki, together: "ULTIMATE CHAOS BURST!!"
The black-and-white spiral detonated against its mirror image. The physical feedback from the impact of two 5000-attack forces shattered Gold Stage's floor into a spreading web of cracks and threw the nearest spectators off their feet. Those further back had to brace themselves to stay upright.
In the chaos, Shio noticed something unexpected. Through all the energy crashing around her, the azure gemstone pendant at her chest was glowing more intensely than it had at any point this morning.
"Shiyue?"
Shio knew her pendant's seal was not supposed to react like this. Unless Shiyue was somehow resonating with something that had happened during this duel.
Ultimate Dragon Wizard was destroyed.
Ultimate Dragon Wizard was destroyed.
The impact faded and left the arena silent.
But the turn was not over.
Amano and Chiaki spoke in the same breath: "Ultimate Dragon Wizard's effect activates."
Ultimate Dragon Wizard's second effect read: When this card leaves the field face-up due to the opponent's action, Special Summon one Blue-Eyes or Chaos Ritual Monster from your Extra Deck or Graveyard.
Chiaki: "I Special Summon from my Graveyard."
Amano: "I Special Summon from my Extra Deck."
Both, together: "Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"
Two Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragons answered the call simultaneously, one from each Graveyard and Extra Deck, descending onto opposite sides of the battlefield.
Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon: Attack 4500.
Six combined dragon heads roared into the air, and the two warriors at the center of the most intense Fusion duel the academy had ever staged pushed forward into its final act.
"I attack with Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. Target: Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"
"ULTIMATE HYPER BURST!!" Both players, once more in unison.
Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's triple Burst Stream collided with an identical triple Burst Stream. The Gold Stage shook. The light was blinding.
Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon was destroyed.
Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon was destroyed.
When the last shockwave finally dissipated and the long chain of collisions reached its end, the arena stilled. Both fields were empty. Both players were standing.
Then Chiaki raised a card above her head.
"When my Ultimate Dragon is destroyed, I call forth this one. The azure dragon sleeping in the abyss of time."
Behind her, a vision appeared: space fracturing, the long flow of three thousand years of history visible through the cracks.
"The pure white power at the source of infinite time, raise wings trembling with the resonance of crossing souls!"
"Emerge from the azure abyss!"
"Deep-Eyes White Dragon!!"
Deep-Eyes White Dragon: Level 10. LIGHT. Dragon-type Effect. Attack: 0. Defense: 0.
Deep-Eyes White Dragon's first effect read: When a Level 8 or higher Dragon-type monster on your field is destroyed, this card can be Special Summoned from the hand.
The dragon that had waited in Chiaki's hand through the entire length of this duel materialized at last. Its eyes held the quiet depth of something that had observed everything and was only now choosing to move.
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