Chapter 256: Final Act! Cut Through the Flames With This Blade
[No single soundtrack could do this one justice. Pick your own hype track and play it loud.]
"Link Summon! Link-2! Combination Technique - Cross-Flash Zero Style!"
[Combination Technique - Cross-Flash Zero Style] [LIGHT]
[Machine / Link / Effect]
[ATK: 1500 / LINK-2]
[2 LIGHT or DARK monsters. This card is always treated as a "Sky Striker" card.]
LIGHT and DARK in combination: Sky Striker Ace - Raye and Sky Striker Ace - Roze, opening a Link-2 circuit together. Two girls packed into a single card frame, jointly gripping a mechanical greatsword that was larger than either of them. The last official Link Summon this duel had to offer, and it had produced this.
The card had two effects. But with two Fusion-Summoned Albion the Branded Dragon still on the field and their 600 LP tax per card effect activation, Amano could only afford to fire one of them.
[Effect 1: When this card is Special Summoned, target 1 monster on the field with 2500 or more ATK; negate that monster's effects until the end of the turn.]
All of Domitsu's monsters met the ATK threshold, but negating a single monster's effects was a drop in the ocean compared to the current situation. Effect 1 was not the play.
So Amano went all-in on Effect 2.
"I enter the Battle Phase!"
Up to this point, the entire turn had burned zero effect activations. Normal Summon, Link Summon, Battle Phase declaration. No LP paid.
"Not so fast. Before you enter the Battle Phase!" Domitsu cut in. "I activate the effect of Death Prison Realm Actor - Quiritis!"
[During your or your opponent's Main Phase: Negate the effects of all monsters on the field except Level 8 or higher Fusion Monsters until the end of this turn.]
"Zero ATK for everything that isn't a Level 8 or higher Fusion! Tragic Lament - Who Do You Search For?!"
An eerie, lilting melody drifted through the Branded city Field Spell. The effect landed on Amano's monsters only. Domitsu's Fusions were untouched.
[Combination Technique - Cross-Flash Zero Style] [ATK: 1500 -> 0]
"Doesn't matter!" Amano swept a hand forward. "Even at 0 ATK, I'm still going into the Battle Phase! Cross-Flash Zero Style attacks Albion the Branded Dragon!"
In the viewing area, Yukihime's beautiful eyes were wide. "She's sending a 0 ATK monster into a 2500 ATK attack?"
At 1600 LP remaining, this battle would wipe the field without needing any effects at all.
Muramasa's expression was fixed and serious, every scrap of his attention locked on the stage. "But if it's Amano's move, this is not a suicidal play. That blade is about to turn this whole fight around."
On Nanki'in Sakuya's field, the two tachi girls sharing the mechanical greatsword looked at each other. Then, together, they screamed the name of a combination technique built from genuine bond and nothing else.
Amano pointed forward and declared: "This is the effect of Combination Technique - Cross-Flash Zero Style!"
[If "Sky Striker Ace - Raye" and "Sky Striker Ace - Roze" are in your GY, you can activate this effect at the start of the Damage Step when this card attacks. Destroy all monsters your opponent controls.]
Raye and Roze, the two cards that had just been used as Link Materials, were now sitting in the Graveyard. The activation condition was met.
Because the effect triggered at the start of the Damage Step, no battle damage would be taken.
"With this one effect, this one and only effect activation, I destroy every single monster on your field!"
Nanki'in Sakuya LP: 1600 -> 400
The life cost of the LP tax was paid first. Then the greatsword's energy ignited and erupted, the blade extending upward from its tip and becoming a beam of light shaped like an enormous tachi.
The two girls pulled it back together.
And then swung it down.
"Take this! Cross-Flash Zero Style: Star-Mowing Great Tachi!!"
The light tachi crashed down in a vertical cut, then swung horizontal to clear the field completely. Not one point of ATK on the blade made any difference.
[Death Prison Realm Actor - Quiritis destroyed]
[Albion the Branded Dragon destroyed]
[Albion the Branded Dragon destroyed]
[Albion the Branded Dragon destroyed]
"Complete wipeout!" From somewhere in the banquet hall, Jinguuji Ryoushuu had been watching the duel from a hidden corner. She was surprised despite herself. "She actually did it with a single effect activation."
She had believed she could carry this era on her shoulders and lead the Jinguuji family past the Nanki'in. And the Nanki'in Sakuya standing on that stage right now was displaying a level of power that genuinely surprised even her.
"It's not over!" Domitsu called out. "When Death Prison Realm Actor - Quiritis leaves the field because of an opponent's effect, I activate its effect!"
[When this face-up card leaves the field due to an opponent's effect: Add 1 "Death Prison Realm" monster or 1 "Fallen of Albaz" from your Deck to your hand, or Special Summon it.]
"From my Deck, I Special Summon Despair Tragedy of the Death Prison Realm in Defense Position!"
[Despair Tragedy of the Death Prison Realm] [Level 8 / DARK] [DEF: 2000]
"And I also activate the GY effect of Albion the Branded Dragon! Because you control a Link monster, this card Special Summons itself from the Graveyard once per turn!"
[Albion the Branded Dragon] [Level 8] [DEF: 2000]
Even after the total wipeout, Domitsu still had two monsters standing. And looking at raw numbers, his side still outgunned Amano's. The only thing on Sakuya's field was Cross-Flash Zero Style, which had just attacked and was now sitting at 0 ATK.
"But the locks are off now!" Amano lifted the last card in Sakuya's hand with those slim fingers.
This card had been searched from the Deck during the End Phase last turn by Sky Striker Ace - Shizuku's effect, before everything else happened.
And right now, every properly Fusion-Summoned Albion the Branded Dragon had just been wiped from the field. The ones Domitsu had just Special Summoned from the Graveyard and Deck did not have the LP-tax effect. Amano could activate card effects freely.
"Quick-Play Spell, Sky Striker Mobilize - Linkage!, activate!"
[Sky Striker Mobilize - Linkage!]
[Quick-Play Spell: This card can only be activated if you control no monsters in your Main Monster Zone. Send 1 other card you control to the GY, then Special Summon 1 "Sky Striker Ace" monster from your Extra Deck to the Extra Monster Zone. If you have a LIGHT and a DARK "Sky Striker Ace" monster on your field and/or in your GY, the Summoned monster gains 1000 ATK.]
Because Combination Technique - Cross-Flash Zero Style was placed in the Extra Monster Zone, Sakuya's Main Monster Zones were clear, satisfying the activation condition.
And because Linkage was a Special Summon rather than a Link Summon, it would not consume any of the allotted Link Summon count.
"I send Cross-Flash Zero Style to the Graveyard and Special Summon 1 Sky Striker Ace monster to the Extra Monster Zone!"
The wind came back. But this time the one summoned from the Extra Deck was not the version of Raye that carried the rail cannon.
"Open, the link circuit to our decisive battle!"
"Safety threshold fully unlocked, blaze data at maximum output! Link circuit engaged, target confirmed, blazing-edge armament fully deployed!"
"Special Summon! Descend to the battlefield in crimson! Sky Striker Ace - Kagari!"
[Sky Striker Ace - Kagari] [FIRE]
[Machine / Link / Effect]
[ATK: 1500 / LINK-1]
The figure who arrived this time wrapped herself in burning flame and summoned eight floating blade-wings of fire to orbit her head. Raye had changed into her combat loadout. The code designation: Kagari. In her hands, balanced flat and level in front of her, a great tachi of living fire.
This was the final Link form for the duel. Sky Striker's last stance.
Amano pushed his next declaration through Sakuya's voice: "Sky Striker Ace - Kagari's ATK rises by 100 for each Spell Card in my Graveyard! And upon Special Summon, Kagari's effect activates, adding 1 Sky Striker Spell from the Graveyard to my hand!"
The Graveyard currently held five Spell Cards.
[Sky Striker Ace - Kagari] [ATK: 1500 -> 2000]
"Even if she gained ATK, that still only puts her on level with the Phoenix's DEF."
But Amano was already slamming the card from Kagari's SS effect onto the Duel Disk. The ATK boost was a bonus. This was the move that mattered.
"And now Sky Striker Ace - Kagari's Special Summon effect! I retrieve a Sky Striker Spell from the Graveyard, and I activate it immediately here in the Battle Phase!"
"I add Sky Striker Mecha - Widow Anchor to my hand and play it right now!"
[Sky Striker Mecha - Widow Anchor]
[Quick-Play Spell: If you control no monsters in your Main Monster Zone: Target 1 face-up Effect Monster on the field; negate that monster's effects until the end of this turn. Then, if you have 3 or more Spells in your GY, you can take control of that monster until the End Phase.]
It looked like a negation card. Nothing more. But with enough Spell Cards in the Graveyard, Widow Anchor turned into a full control steal.
"My Graveyard contains Reinforcement of the Army, Sky Striker Mobilize - Linkage!, Dark Ruler No More, and Half Shut. Four Spell Cards!"
"After I negate the effect of Garunix Eternity, Hyang of the Fire Kings, I take control of it until the End Phase!"
A mechanical grappling hook launched from the Spell Card and locked onto the divine bird of undying flame. The Phoenix, still burning, was dragged across the field under protest, its crimson fire leaving a burning trail through the air. It came to rest on Nanki'in Sakuya's side.
Amano: "Now your field is wide open, Domitsu."
Domitsu: "My LP is 2500. Even if you hit me with a direct attack, I won't go down immediately. And Sky Striker's ATK isn't going to be enough to finish the duel. You are completely out of cards."
Sky Striker Mobilize - Linkage! was the last card in Amano's hand. Official Link Summon slots were gone. Even if this turn passed without a decisive result, Garunix Eternity would return to Domitsu's field at the End Phase and next turn would belong to Domitsu. That was the game.
"This one cut is enough."
Fire effects swept across and lit up the scene of Nanki'in Sakuya. Amano drove the last card into the Duel Disk.
"This is the hidden final blade."
Domitsu had only seen the ATK boost from Kagari's Graveyard Spell count. What he had not noticed was that the moment Kagari was Special Summoned, another card in the Graveyard had also activated.
The card that had delivered maximum output across the entire duel. Sky Striker Maneuver - Justice Sword.
[When this card is in the GY and a monster is Special Summoned: Target 1 "Sky Striker" Link Monster you control; equip this card to that target as an Equip Spell that grants it 1500 ATK. This effect can only be used once while this card is in the GY.]
"Justice's blade will always cut through the dark schemes of the wicked! Sky Striker Ace - Kagari's true ATK is..."
[Sky Striker Ace - Kagari] [ATK: 1500 + 500 (from 5 GY Spells) + 1500 (Justice Sword) = 3500]
"Three thousand five hundred!"
The first time in this entire duel that a monster on her side had truly broken past Blue-Eyes White Dragon's ATK ceiling.
The great tachi of living fire in Kagari's hands blazed with light. The righteous edge of Justice Sword swept the darkness of the Branded city's towering walls apart in front of her.
"Step down from that stage, Domitsu! It's your turn to exit!"
The blade of fire, destroying evil, slashing through wickedness.
"Direct attack! Sky Striker Ace - Kagari!"
At Amano's attack order, Sky Striker Ace - Kagari poured every flame burning in the surrounding field into this absolute final strike. She leaped into the air.
And came down hard.
"Celestial Blaze: Scorched Sky Descending Strike!!"
The slash she unleashed shattered the Branded city's dark walls. The wave of flame that followed her blade forward moved like a furious tide that swallowed the ocean, and it consumed Jinguuji Domitsu entirely.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
In the fire, only Jinguuji Domitsu suffered the full feedback of the darkness he had opened, a real scream tearing itself out of him.
Jinguuji Domitsu LP: 2500 -> 0
[Farewell Banquet]
[Victor!]
[Amano Rei x Nanki'in Sakuya!]
If you're enjoying the story, toss a Power Stone or drop a review — it helps more than you'd think.
Advance chapters → patreon.com/Eatinpieces