Chapter 292: The Floor Draw! A Battle Memory Spanning Six Thousand Years
Inside a ward at Eva Public Hospital, Kaiser Ryo lay in bed, his eyes fixed the whole time on the television screen mounted in the room.
"So this is Amano Rei's Synchro Summoning."
In the week since arriving in Eden, Kaiser had already seen plenty of Synchro Summons while challenging the professional dojo masters.
But an Accel Synchro like Amano's, one that fired off a Synchro Summon during the opponent's own turn and wiped the board on the way, was something Kaiser had never seen before.
Tsukiyu Yukishiro said, worried, "Ryo-sama, the doctors said your body needs rest right now."
"No. I'm watching this duel to the end."
Even Kaiser Ryo, a duelist with a real name for himself on the professional circuit in both worlds, had never seen a duel operating at this level, let alone a triple clash pulled off inside a three-way free-for-all.
How many waves of board-wiping AOE was this now?
Board-clearing effects, rare enough in an ordinary duel, were coming out of these three like they cost nothing at all.
If you wanted a comparison: it was three players in a card game where every hand held nothing but bombs.
Don't be fooled by the fact that Amano's Satellite Warrior only destroyed three cards. That was every single card left on the field that could be destroyed.
Yugi's back row was protected by Dark Magician the Dragon Knight, and the two Dark Magicians up front were protected by Eternal Soul in turn. None of it could be blown up, so in the end Amano had no choice but to destroy the innocent, adorable Dark Magician Girl.
And on Kaiba Seto's field, the only two monsters he had, Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End and Deep-Eyes White Dragon, were both wiped out by that single shot from Satellite Warrior's orbital cannon the moment it arrived.
With that, Amano had successfully shut down Chaos Emperor Dragon's absurdly overtuned effect, the one that cleared the whole field, dumped every hand, flipped the table, and smashed the very concept of a fair game, an effect banned for good reason.
Kaiba Seto raised a hand toward the lingering azure glow still hanging in the sky. "Then when Deep-Eyes White Dragon is destroyed, its effect triggers automatically! It destroys every monster my opponents control!"
Deep-Eyes White Dragon's parting light burst outward, gathering into one last radiant dance across its ornate ring-shaped wings, pouring its board-annihilating effect over Amano's and Yugi's fields once again.
This time, though, the azure light plunging into the abyss took no monsters with it.
The four monsters currently on the field, Yugi's Dark Magician the Dragon Knight and Dark Magician, and Amano's Stardust Dragon and Satellite Warrior, were all immune to the effect.
For Yugi, that was thanks to the protection granted by Eternal Soul in his back row.
For Amano, it came down to Accel Synchro Stardust Dragon's effect.
"A monster Synchro Summoned through Accel Synchro Stardust Dragon's effect is unaffected by my opponents' activated effects this turn!"
That immunity didn't only cover Satellite Warrior, the monster produced through Accel Synchro. It extended to the original Stardust Dragon Summoned directly as well.
Even Kaiba Chiaki was startled. "Deep-Eyes White Dragon didn't take out a single monster. What level is this duel even operating at?"
It had only been two weeks, and Amano had already grown stronger than he'd been when he dueled her.
But her own ancestor, this era's Kaiba Seto, was every bit as frighteningly strong.
Against duelists of Yugi's and Amano's caliber, he hadn't been pushed back once the entire duel, and his Life Points were still the highest of the three, a perfect score.
"If effects won't work, then I'll break through with raw force!"
Kaiba Seto swept out another card, and in the AR image displayed by the new Duel Disk in front of him, lit up three Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards as Fusion Material.
"Burn the form of this dragon, evolved into its strongest self, into the depths of your eyes!"
"Spell Card: Dragon's Mirror, activate! I banish the two Blue-Eyes White Dragon and the Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon from my Graveyard!"
"Ultimate Fusion of the three white dragons!"
In the new Duel Disk's most extreme projection yet, three white dragons burst free and soared into the sky, converging into a blinding, ultimate light.
"Appear now! Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"
[Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon] [Level 12 / LIGHT]
[Dragon / Fusion / Effect]
[ATK: 4500] [DEF: 3800]
["Blue-Eyes White Dragon" + "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" + "Blue-Eyes White Dragon"]
The three fused heads of the ultimate dragon roared savagely ahead, and in the projection's most lifelike detail yet, radiated the presence of an absolute king.
"While Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon exists in my Extra Deck, Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon can attack three times in one turn!"
[If "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" is in your Extra Deck: Once per duel, this card can attack 3 times. This card is destroyed at the end of the Battle Phase of the turn this effect is used.]
"Fight, strongest of all evolved ultimate dragons!"
Since effect destruction wasn't getting through, Kaiba Seto had decided to tear open his opponents' guttering Life Points with brute-force battle destruction instead.
Amano, for his part, didn't need to worry about being picked as Kaiba Seto's target.
Ultimate Dragon's 4500 ATK was high, but Satellite Warrior, after blowing up three cards, was sitting at 5500, a full 1000 higher.
Which meant Kaiba Seto's target was, in all likelihood, going to be Yugi.
"Go! 'Ultimate High-Energy Burst: First Shot'!"
A high-ATK monster unloading a rapid-fire barrage of attacks. Amano couldn't shake the feeling he'd lived through this exact scenario not long ago, like it had happened just yesterday.
The blinding light fired simultaneously from all three heads of Ultimate Dragon struck first, shattering the 4000-ATK Dark Magician the Dragon Knight.
[Dark Magician the Dragon Knight, destroyed]
Yugi Muto LP: 900 to 400
His Life Points crept further toward the danger zone. Yugi threw both arms up in front of himself, barely managing to push aside the last traces of the destructive light.
"'Ultimate High-Energy Burst: Second Shot'!"
Ultimate Dragon's second attack made equally short work of Dark Magician, sitting in Defense Position.
"'Ultimate High-Energy Burst: Third Shot'!"
With Yugi's field empty, Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon charged its third high-energy shot to the absolute limit.
Yugi lit up the tablet on his field. "Right now, once per turn, Eternal Soul's effect activates! I revive Dark Magician from my Graveyard in Defense Position, and by my Field Spell's effect, Dark Magician Girl comes back in Defense Position too!"
Master and apprentice of dark magic, veterans of a hundred battles who refused to stay down, rose again to stand between Yugi and the sliver of Life Points he had left.
Dark Magician the Dragon Knight couldn't be revived this way, because the Special Summon triggered by That Grass Looks Greener wasn't a proper Fusion Summon. The restriction on reviving it hadn't been lifted.
The third Ultimate Burst came down on Dark Magician once more.
That left only Dark Magician Girl crouched in Defense Position on Yugi's field, and Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon had used up its attacks for the turn.
"You didn't think it ended there, did you? We're nowhere near finished. Get ready to keep taking the assault of my proud Ultimate Dragon!"
Kaiba Seto swept out a Quick-Play Spell in the middle of the Battle Phase.
"Quick-Play Spell: Dragon's Fighting Spirit, activate!"
[Dragon's Fighting Spirit] [Quick-Play Spell Card: Target 1 Dragon-Type monster you control that was Special Summoned this turn; for each monster your opponents currently control that was Special Summoned this turn, it gains 1 additional attack during each Battle Phase this turn.]
"Bathed in the pride of battle, the fighting spirit erupting this turn will make my dragon stronger still!"
"This turn, since the two of you Special Summoned four monsters between you, Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon gains four additional attacks!"
Both Amano and Yugi had made Special Summons this turn. Amano had Special Summoned Stardust Dragon and Satellite Warrior, and Yugi had brought back master and apprentice of dark magic. Four in total.
In a three-way duel, all of it counted toward the Special Summon tally, and all of it became extra attacks for Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.
It took Ultimate Dragon straight from a three-hit combo to a seven-hit combo. Absolutely ridiculous.
Kaiba Seto roared out the fourth Ultimate Burst, swallowing a visibly terrified Dark Magician Girl in a wave of annihilating white light.
[Dark Magician Girl, destroyed]
Yugi's field was empty now, and Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon still had three attacks left.
"And that's the end of you, Yuuu-giii!!"
"Direct attack, Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"
All three heads of Ultimate Dragon reared back, charging for the finishing blow aimed at Yugi.
"My battle, our battle, isn't going to end here, Kaiba!"
Yugi lit up the data displayed at his left eye by the new Duel Disk and swept one card from his hand forward.
"The instant you declared your attack, I activate Ankha Kuriboh's effect!"
[When an opponent's monster declares an attack: Discard this card from your hand, then target 1 monster, other than this card, in your or an opponent's GY; Special Summon it to your field. A monster Special Summoned by this effect is sent to the GY during the End Phase.]
The instant Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon attacked, Yugi discarded the Kuriboh from his hand and revived a monster from a Graveyard to take the hit for him.
"It won't help, Yugi! Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon still has three attacks left. No monster can block them all!"
"Is that really so, Kaiba?"
Yugi swept a hand toward the sky, and the brilliant Summoning light gradually shifted into an azure abyss.
"What if the card I revived was this one!"
"Appear now from the azure abyss, Deep-Eyes White Dragon!"
"Roooar!"
The illusory wall of dimensional space shattered once more under the dragon's roar, as Yugi used Ankha Kuriboh's effect to Special Summon Deep-Eyes White Dragon out of Kaiba Seto's Graveyard, onto his own field, in Defense Position.
"By Deep-Eyes White Dragon's effect, when this card is Special Summoned, 600 damage is dealt for every Dragon-Type monster in either player's Graveyard!"
The Dragon-Type monsters in the three Graveyards: Yugi's Dark Magician the Dragon Knight; Amano's Accel Synchro Stardust Dragon, Timaeus the United Dragon, and Blue-Eyes White Dragon; and, left over after Kaiba's banish-and-Fuse play, Chaos Emperor Dragon and the white phantom beast, Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
Six Dragon-Type monsters in all: 3600 points of damage.
Amano stared at his own remaining Life Points, sitting at exactly 1900.
"Hold on, Yugi, you're blocking a hit for yourself, sure, but how does that end up killing me too?!"
If he lost to something like this, Amano felt like he'd basically been kicked to death by accident. Deeply embarrassing.
I refuse to accept that.
Amano flipped up his set Trap. "Trap Card: Energy-Absorbing Monolith, activate!"
He'd packed this Trap specifically to counter the anime-version effect on Kaiba Seto's Deep-Eyes White Dragon. He hadn't expected Yugi to be the one to force it out of his hand.
[Energy-Absorbing Monolith] [Trap Card: Activate only when an opponent's Spell, Trap, or Effect Monster activates an effect that would inflict damage to you. In place of taking that damage, you gain Life Points equal to that amount.]
It functioned like a version of Rainbow Life aimed at effect damage instead, with the advantage of not needing to discard a card, which mattered since Amano had no cards left to discard anyway.
In place of taking the effect damage, Amano would gain an extra 3600 Life Points instead.
The azure blast swept across the entire field.
Amano Rei LP: 1900 to 5500
Kaiba Seto LP: 8000 to 4400
Kaiba Seto gritted his teeth. "Damn you, Yugi!"
Not only had Yugi revived his own Deep-Eyes White Dragon and blown away nearly half his Life Points with it, but with Deep-Eyes White Dragon sitting on the field even at 0 ATK, Kaiba Seto had no way to keep attacking.
The anime version of Deep-Eyes White Dragon triggered its board-wipe whether it was destroyed by battle or by an effect, and the effect resolved the instant it was destroyed while still on the field, not from the Graveyard afterward.
Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon itself had no protection against it.
Forcing an attack into Deep-Eyes White Dragon would only end in mutual destruction.
It really was the only monster in any Graveyard that could stop Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's seven-hit combo.
"Attack Stardust Dragon! 'Ultimate High-Energy Burst'!"
Kaiba Seto switched targets, unloading his remaining attacks onto Stardust Dragon instead.
[Stardust Dragon, destroyed]
Rin Seiya: "You Kaibas are just despicable!"
As for the remaining Satellite Warrior, Kaiba Seto had no way to attack it either.
"I end the Battle Phase!"
The instant Kaiba declared the end of the Battle Phase, Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon slowly faded away above his head.
Having activated its triple-attack effect, Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon was destined to be destroyed at the end of the Battle Phase.
Just then, Mokuba's voice crackled through the earpiece in Kaiba Seto's ear.
"Brother, the Dimensional Domain System is almost fully charged! The energy this duel is generating really is enormous!"
"Hmph. That's exactly the outcome the theory predicted. When the three strongest duelists this world has produced cross the boundary of time itself successfully, it's not exactly an unreasonable miracle."
A faint, satisfied curl touched the corner of Kaiba Seto's mouth, his gaze settling on Amano.
The Dimensional Domain System was the very machine Kaiba Seto had used, in the end, to cross three thousand years of time.
Kaiba Seto had claimed, in words, that this duel was about using the strongest passion for dueling to wake the Pharaoh sleeping inside the Millennium Puzzle.
But given Kaiba Seto's personality, he was never going to bet everything on a possibility that idealistic.
Faith in science was the principle Kaiba lived by. Whether or not the Pharaoh's soul woke in the end, he intended to use this very duel to shift the timeline itself, past and future both.
Atem wasn't the only person who had disappeared still striking the pose of a winner, leaving behind an obsession that trapped someone else in its wake.
Which was exactly why all he had to do now was fight with everything he had.
Kaiba Seto scanned his hand, then set every remaining card face down.
"I set three cards. Turn end! Your move, Yugi!"
"My turn, draw!" Yugi began his turn.
"Spell Card: Pot of Greed, activate! I draw 2 more cards from my Deck, then Normal Summon Silent Magician Zero in Attack Position!"
[Silent Magician Zero] [Level 4 / LIGHT]
[Spellcaster / Effect]
[ATK: 1000] [DEF: 1000]
Silent Magician Zero was, in truth, the same Silent Magician LV0 Yugi had used in the anime, his signature monster and the very card that had defeated Pharaoh Atem in the Ceremonial Duel.
The instant Kaiba Seto saw the monster Summoned, something in his eyes visibly flickered.
Never having witnessed the Ceremonial Duel firsthand had become a knot in Kaiba's chest he couldn't undo. But given his personality, he'd surely gone to every length he could to investigate and reconstruct exactly what happened.
So when he saw the very monster that had defeated the Pharaoh and sent him on his way, no matter how tightly he held his expression in check, something heavy still echoed inside Kaiba's chest.
"Yugi. Atem. Ghosts still wandering somewhere inside me, are you."
"Get ready to fight, Kaiba!"
Yugi Summoned only Silent Magician Zero, then declared the Battle Phase.
"Silent Magician Zero, direct attack on Kaiba!"
1000 ATK looked harmless enough on paper. But in the final moment of the Ceremonial Duel, Atem had faced this exact monster, at this exact ATK, and it had been enough to bring him to defeat.
Just like this very Battle Phase, right now.
The instant he declared the attack, Yugi activated a card in his hand. "Quick-Play Spell: Silent Burning, activate!"
[Silent Burning] [Quick-Play Spell: During the Battle Phase, if you control a "Silent Magician" monster, and have more cards in your hand than your opponents: Each player draws until they have 6 cards in their hand. This card's activation and effect cannot be negated.]
An effect on par with Card of Sanctity, letting every player draw up to a full hand of six.
"And at the same time, every time an opponent draws, Silent Magician Zero levels up and grows stronger!"
[If your opponent draws a card(s): Increase this card's Level by the number drawn. While this card's Level is higher than its original Level, it gains ATK equal to the difference x 500.]
For every card an opponent drew, Silent Magician Zero's Level climbed by one, and its ATK rose by 500. Identical, down to the letter, to LV0's effect in the anime.
In the Ceremonial Duel, Yugi had activated Card of Sanctity in the final moment, forcing Atem to draw five cards in a row, sending the ATK up to 3500 and turning the tables to defeat him.
This time Card of Sanctity had been swapped out for Silent Burning, but the effect was the same: force the opponents to draw and grow stronger off it. This moment was a mirror of that one.
Yugi's hand went from one card to six. Amano's and Kaiba Seto's hands each went from zero cards to six.
In a three-way duel, every card Amano and Kaiba drew counted toward Silent Magician Zero's draw total.
"My opponents drew twelve cards between them, so Silent Magician Zero's Level rises by twelve, and its final ATK increases by 6000!"
[Silent Magician Zero] [Level 4 to 16] [ATK: 1000 to 7000]
In a single instant, the small girl clutching a staff grew into a terrifyingly powerful, mature sorceress.
7000 ATK. Even stronger than the version that had defeated Atem in the Ceremonial Duel.
Even with 4400 Life Points remaining, taking this direct attack head-on would mean defeat for Kaiba Seto.
"'True Silent Burst'!!"
Kaiba Seto's eyes locked onto the pure white blast of light bearing down on him.
Was this the same sight Atem had seen back then?
An ending met inside the light. Is that what you were chasing, Atem?
"I won't allow it. I won't allow you to end things like this! Yugi, no, Atem!"
"I refuse to lose here the way you did."
"Atem, I was the one who was supposed to be the one to put you to rest with my own hands. And the ghost of that obsession is still wandering through my mind, unfulfilled, to this very day!"
Kaiba Seto's fingertips trembled faintly as he flipped up a set Trap Card in his back row.
"Trap Card: Counter Gate, activate!"
[Counter Gate] [Trap Card: Activate when an opponent's monster declares a direct attack. Negate that attack, and draw 1 card. If the drawn card is a monster, you can Normal Summon it face-up in Attack Position.]
Seeing the president flip up Counter Gate genuinely startled Amano.
As Amano recalled from the Chronicle's background summary, because he'd personally stopped Aigami, Kaiba Seto had never dueled Aigami in this timeline, and so the classic anime scene of Counter Gate's floor draw pulling Obelisk shouldn't have existed here at all.
But he must have been overthinking it.
Counter Gate's effect Normal Summoned whatever monster was drawn. If it was a high-Level monster, that meant a Tribute Summon, and Summoning a God required three Tributes.
In the anime, that moment had only worked because Kaiba Seto's field was already packed with monsters during his Duel with Aigami under the Dimension Duel rules, and the direct attack that bypassed them to trigger Counter Gate was what let him pull off the Tribute Summon for Obelisk.
With his field completely empty right now, Kaiba Seto shouldn't have been able to pull that off.
"Brother, the Dimensional Domain System is fully charged now! At this point, this will can absolutely be carried across, all the way back three thousand years!"
"Then watch closely, Atem! This will, read out of the sacred ruins themselves, this memory of battle!"
In that instant, the new Duel Disk's pale-blue data glow seemed to suddenly boil over, transforming into a sacred stream of golden light.
Kaiba Seto raised his palm to the sky. The data network projected by the new Duel Disk, one that had blanketed the very heavens, now poured countless streams of golden light together into his open hand.
"Is he serious?" Amano's brow furrowed hard.
Even if he drew it, there was no way he could actually Summon it.
"I chain a second Trap Card to Counter Gate's effect!"
Kaiba Seto hadn't drawn yet, which meant Counter Gate's effect hadn't resolved. By the rules of chains, the Trap Card activated later had to resolve first.
Trap Card: Return from the Different Dimension
[Pay half your Life Points to activate. Special Summon as many of your banished monsters as possible to your field. Monsters Special Summoned by this effect are banished again during the End Phase.]
Kaiba Seto LP: 4400 to 2200
Before Counter Gate's draw could even resolve, a rift tore open across Kaiba Seto's field, and all five monsters banished the turn before came surging back out of it.
The three Blue-Eyes White Dragons banished for Dragon's Mirror, and the white phantom beast and Death Guardian banished for Chaos Emperor Dragon.
"He, he actually filled his entire field under these circumstances!"
Only after the chained Return from the Different Dimension had finished Special Summoning all five monsters onto Kaiba Seto's field would Counter Gate's draw effect continue to resolve.
A field packed with monsters, on top of Counter Gate's draw.
Holding the golden stream of light gathered from the data network overhead, Kaiba Seto turned his gaze one last time to where the Millennium Puzzle hung suspended above the stage.
"Take this, Atem. Yugi!"
"Draw!!"
Kaiba Seto slammed the golden light gathered in his hand down against the ground, and it burst into a pillar of light connecting heaven and earth, finally taking shape as a colossal god standing upon the land.
The three Blue-Eyes White Dragons answered the call, dissolving into flight toward the golden light, releasing themselves for the Tribute Summon of the God Card in this single instant.
"Descend! Obelisk the Tormentor!"
[Obelisk the Tormentor] [Level 10 / Divine]
[Divine-Beast / Effect]
[ATK: 4000] [DEF: 4000]
So the floor draw missing from this Chronicle's storyline had been made up for right here.
This time, Kaiba Seto had done it in front of the witness of every duelist in Domino City. No, more than that: with the broadcast reaching all of Eden as well, and with the will of it carried three thousand years back through the Dimensional Domain System.
Spanning a dimension six thousand years wide, Kaiba Seto had Summoned Obelisk the Tormentor on the highest stage a duel could offer.
This was a battle memory that belonged to him alone: Kaiba's refusal to accept that the Pharaoh had simply left, an obsession that had woken, once again, the god of the earth he'd lost to Atem back in Duelist Kingdom.
Amid the resonance between the light and the towering god, Kaiba Seto threw an arm up and roared, pointing straight ahead.
"Obelisk's effect, activate!"
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