Chapter 293: This Strike Belongs to My God!
"It's Obelisk the Tormentor!"
"A god has actually descended!"
"Am I really watching this duel with my own eyes?!"
Amano felt like the God's Wrath theme had suddenly started playing in his ears.
On Kaiba Seto's field, the towering god that had descended onto the stage out of nowhere pulled every eye in the place toward the deep-blue body piercing the sky above.
Through the new Duel Disk's ultimate projection, the god seemed to have genuinely crossed three thousand years of time, arriving from ancient Egypt to stand in front of the present-day Kaiba Seto.
The Millennium Puzzle, still suspended above the stage, flickered with a visible pulse of gold light across the eye symbol at its center the moment the god descended.
At the same time, Amano felt a golden glow leaking out from the pocket of his jacket.
"The Millennium Key?" Amano didn't even need to check his pocket to know where the light was coming from.
The Millennium Items had sensed the god's arrival and started responding.
If the duel kept going at this rate, maybe the Pharaoh really could descend.
Kaiba Seto was almost certainly thinking the exact same thing, because the instant he'd pulled Obelisk the Tormentor off the floor, he'd activated the god's effect without a moment's hesitation.
It was Yugi's turn right now, but the original Obelisk the Tormentor's effect could be activated as a Quick Effect during an opponent's turn as well.
"Obelisk's effect, activate! I offer up 2 monsters on my field as tribute, dealing damage equal to Obelisk's 4000 ATK across the entire field!"
Obelisk's thick arms swept out, one left and one right, closing around Death Guardian and the white phantom beast, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, on Kaiba's field.
After tributing two monsters, Obelisk the Tormentor gained a choice between two abilities.
"Soul Energy MAX," which raised its ATK to infinity, or "God's Fist Crush: Shockwave," which dealt 4000 damage across the entire field.
Dealing 4000 damage to the entire field was the anime's own particular way of describing the effect. In plain terms: Obelisk the Tormentor threw a single punch at every monster and every duelist on the field.
Duelists would take 4000 points of battle damage, and any monster on the field with less than 4000 ATK would be destroyed outright by the blow. A terrifying combination of board wipe and Life Point drain, all in the same instant.
But at this moment, Amano's monster on the field, Satellite Warrior at 5500 ATK, and Yugi's monster, Silent Magician Zero at 7000 ATK, were both too strong to be destroyed by the god's blow.
Which meant Kaiba Seto's reason for activating the effect right now was simple: he was going after the duelists themselves.
"'God's Fist Crush: Shockwave (God Hand Impact)'!!"
Amano: "WAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The violent gust of the punch tore straight past Satellite Warrior and slammed into him directly, sending Amano flying backward and giving him the full, authentic experience of what Diva had gone through in the movie.
Amano Rei LP: 5500 to 1500
His Life Points plummeted at a brutal rate, but since Amano had just absorbed a wave of effect damage from Deep-Eyes White Dragon and converted it into LP, the cushion was just barely enough to survive Obelisk's punch.
Yugi's situation was different.
Yugi Muto LP: 400
With Yugi already deep in the danger zone, Obelisk's single punch was worth ten times whatever LP he had left.
"I activate Kuriboh's effect from my hand, discarding this card from my hand to block this instance of battle damage!"
Having just topped his hand up to six cards during the Battle Phase, it wasn't especially surprising that Yugi could pull out another Kuriboh.
Just as the effect described, what Obelisk the Tormentor dealt was battle damage, and Kuriboh, which negated battle damage, could block it. This exact play was on record from Duelist Kingdom.
His own god's decisive counterattack, blocked once again by the very Kuriboh he'd once dismissed as small fry. It was hard to guess what was going through Kaiba Seto's head right now.
But Yugi's 7000-ATK Silent Magician was blocked too, and with Kaiba Seto's 4000-ATK god still standing on the field, even reviving master and apprentice of dark magic through Eternal Soul's effect wasn't going to get through it.
After ending the Battle Phase of his own turn, Yugi looked over the hand he'd just topped up during it.
"I activate the Spell Card: Magical Contract Door!"
[Magical Contract Door] [Spell Card: Add 1 Spell Card from your hand to your opponent's hand, then add 1 Level 7 or 8 DARK monster from your Deck to your hand.]
"Here, Amano, this one's yours!"
Yugi picked a Spell Card out of his hand and flicked it across to land right at Amano's fingertips.
"What's this?" Amano's eyes narrowed in surprise as he scanned the card that had inexplicably landed in his hand.
By Magical Contract Door's effect, once Yugi handed a Spell Card over to Amano, he could search a Level 7 or 8 DARK monster from his Deck.
"I add Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition to my hand, then activate the Quick-Play Spell: Quick Summon!"
[Quick Summon] [Quick-Play Spell Card: Normal Summon 1 monster. If your opponent controls a monster at that time, you can Normal Summon a Level 5 or higher monster without Tributing.]
"Since my opponents control monsters, I can Normal Summon Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition, the one I just added, without any Tributes at all!"
Yugi raised the monster card he'd just searched high overhead, and the seal etched into Magical Contract Door's face shattered as this Summon broke through it, a scene like chains being torn apart.
"Tyrant dragon of black and gold, break the chains that have kept you sealed in the cracks between worlds, and bring ruin to my enemies!"
"Appear now! Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition!"
[Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition] [Level 8 / DARK]
[Dragon / Effect]
[ATK: 0] [DEF: 0]
The dragon of ruin, its whole body sheathed in black-gold armor, roared as it descended in front of Yugi. Red points of light flickered across its black hide, an omen of destruction to come.
"I activate Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition's effect, destroying every monster on the field!"
Countless beams of red light, the mark of ruin, burst violently from Gandora-X's body. Wherever the lasers swept, the new Duel Disk's projection made it look as though the surrounding buildings themselves were genuinely starting to collapse.
"It won't work, Yugi!" Kaiba Seto roared. "A mere monster's effect can't touch a god!"
Level 8 Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition couldn't reach a Level 10 god.
"The only thing Gandora-X is going to destroy is your own monster, Yugi!"
"Not quite. Mine's getting wiped out too." Amano's brow furrowed, exasperated.
Kaiba's god had protection, but Amano's Satellite Warrior didn't. The immunity granted by Accel Synchro Stardust Dragon had only lasted one turn, and Satellite Warrior, swallowed up in the red laser fire right now, shattered and vanished along with everything else.
"After destroying monsters, Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition's effect deals damage equal to the highest ATK among the destroyed monsters, and its own ATK becomes that same value!"
Just as Kaiba Seto had activated the god's effect not to destroy monsters on the field but to hit the duelists directly.
Yugi activating Gandora-X's effect wasn't about destroying the god either. His target was exactly the same as Kaiba Seto's: the duelists themselves.
[When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: Destroy all monsters on the field other than this card, then inflict damage to your opponents equal to the ATK of the monster with the highest ATK among those destroyed. This card's ATK becomes equal to that same value.]
Among the monsters swallowed by the countless beams of destruction were both Amano's Satellite Warrior and Yugi's own Silent Magician Zero, and it was Silent Magician Zero that held the highest ATK of them all.
"Take 7000 damage, the same as Silent Magician's ATK, both of you, Amano, Kaiba!"
Amano & Kaiba: "Trap Card, activate!"
Both of them declared it almost in perfect sync, flipping up their last set cards in the face of Yugi's brutal damage effect.
Amano Rei: Trap of Darkness
Kaiba Seto: Transaction Rollback
Though the two of them flipped their cards up nearly simultaneously, since the next turn belonged to Amano, his activation took priority and went onto the chain first, followed by Kaiba Seto's. By chain-resolution order, Kaiba's effect resolved first.
"I pay half my Life Points, and by Transaction Rollback's effect, I copy the Energy-Absorbing Monolith sitting in your Graveyard, Amano!"
Kaiba Seto LP: 2200 to 1100
Energy-Absorbing Monolith turned incoming effect damage into a Life Point gain instead, the very Trap Amano had activated the turn before to absorb Deep-Eyes White Dragon's damage effect.
"You owe me one here, Kaiba. If I hadn't been running this card, you'd already be dead."
"Hmph. And you don't need it yourself?" Kaiba Seto didn't so much as blink.
Fair point. Amano needed it just as badly. The effect of the Trap Card Amano had activated, Trap of Darkness, was as follows.
[If your LP is 3000 or less: Pay 1000 LP, then target 1 Normal Trap in your GY, other than "Trap of Darkness"; this card's effect becomes the same as that target's activated effect, then banish that target.]
Amano Rei LP: 1500 to 500
The target Amano copied the effect from was the same Energy-Absorbing Monolith.
A single card, copied by two different people on the same chain: quite the promiscuous little card, wasn't it.
Energy-Absorbing Monolith's effect applied to both Amano and Kaiba Seto at once, wrapping the two of them in matching shields of Life Point absorption.
Kaiba Seto LP: 1100 to 8100
Amano Rei LP: 500 to 7500
Between the two of them, their Life Points had climbed back to almost exactly where the duel had started.
As the red laser fire sweeping the field finished, Silent Magician Zero and Satellite Warrior were destroyed one after the other and sent to the Graveyard. Gandora-X inherited the ATK of Silent Magician, the higher of the two.
[Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition] [ATK: 7000]
With Satellite Warrior destroyed, a double ring of Synchro starlight flared back to life in the Graveyard zone of Amano's new Duel Disk.
"When Satellite Warrior is destroyed, its effect activates!"
[If this Synchro Summoned card is destroyed: You can Special Summon up to 3 Level 8 or lower "Warrior", "Synchron", and/or "Stardust" Synchro Monsters with different names from your GY.]
"Take flight once more along the star chart's path! I revive Stardust Dragon and Accel Synchro Stardust Dragon from my Graveyard!"
Amano raised a hand to the sky, and as Satellite Warrior's light faded, two dragons spreading their wings in a shower of stardust took flight over his field once again.
Yugi said, impressed, "You really are amazing, Amano. Synchro Summoning. Is this the power you carry with you across the future?"
You'd do well to cut back on the compliments, Yugi. Even sincere praise from you set off alarm bells in Amano's head.
"Finally, I set two cards, then use Eternal Soul's and The Magician's Rescue's effects to revive master and apprentice of dark magic from my Graveyard. Turn end!"
[Dark Magician] [DEF: 2100]
[Dark Magician Girl] [DEF: 1700]
"At the end of my own turn, Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition halves its controller's Life Points."
Yugi Muto LP: 400 to 200
"My turn, draw!" It was finally Amano's turn again.
In a three-way duel, the gap between one player's turns stretched out considerably. One turn of action meant having to survive two turns of assault before it came back around.
But the free-for-all was about to end here. Amano decided that this turn's offense would take out either Yugi or Kaiba first.
For that, the trump cards Amano had prepared were more than enough.
It was time to unlock yet another Summoning method in this Chronicle duel across a timeline thrown into chaos.
Amano swept a hand toward the two Stardust Dragons soaring overhead.
"Two Level 8 monsters on the field. Let's build an Overlay Network out of them!"
"An Overlay Network?"
Once again, a term the DM-era duelists had never heard came out of Amano's mouth.
The instant Amano declared the Overlay, the double ring of Synchro starlight on his field bent toward yet another light of infinite possibility.
"I overlay the Stardust Dragon and Accel Synchro Stardust Dragon on my field!"
"Galaxy shining bright in the darkness! Vengeful spirit that dwells within, forge an aurora to stand against the gods!"
"Xyz Summon! Descend!"
"Rank 8! Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!"
[Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon] [Rank 8 / LIGHT]
[Dragon / Xyz / Effect]
[ATK: 3000] [DEF: 2500]
[2 Level 8 monsters]
A shift from stardust to galaxy: Amano's Xyz Summoning, absent for a long while, made its return.
Spreading wings of unmatched, radiant photon light, Rank 8 Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon burst free of the stardust and carried the light of the galaxy onto Amano's field.
"Galaxy-Eyes!"
Inside a private villa belonging to KaibaCorp Eden, alone in a dim room, Kaiba Chiha stared at her computer screen, at a light that felt almost too bright and yet impossibly familiar.
Chiha had lost count of how many days she'd been shut up in this room.
Ever since Chiaki had lost to Amano, Chiha hadn't felt anything like the satisfaction she'd expected. If anything, she felt like she'd lost her purpose, and her life had only grown more listless since.
Greasy pizza boxes scattered everywhere in the room, hair that hadn't been washed in far too long, and a shapeless outfit thrown on with zero regard for appearance: all the evidence of someone thoroughly holed up and run down.
If Chiha still looked passable at all right now, it was purely thanks to the Kaiba family's excellent genes carrying her through on looks alone.
Chiha hadn't particularly wanted to watch this duel at all. She'd been about to load up a video game instead. But the screen simply refused to turn off, playing on and on as if infected with some kind of virus forcing it to broadcast.
Until that familiar galaxy-bright light, through the screen she couldn't shut off, spilled into her dim room.
This Xyz Summon dragged Chiha's mind back to District 32, to the tag duel she'd fought alongside Amano and Ivaliss to save the chaotic lower districts.
Back then, she felt like she'd been happier than she was now.
"Amano, you absolute menace. You just don't go away, do you."
[Kaiba Chiha] [Affection +2] [Affection: 69]
Amano paid no attention to the tsundere brat's mysteriously rising affection score. Her number bounced around on its own often enough even when he wasn't doing a single thing to cause it.
With even Xyz Summoning on the table now, this was the moment to throw everything he had into the offense.
Fusion on the first turn, Synchro on the second, Xyz on the third.
If Kaiba Seto's floor-drawn god represented power reaching back three thousand years, then Amano's Summons were reinforcements arriving from three thousand years ahead.
The first Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon's Xyz Summon marked the opening move of the Galaxy-Eyes stacking strategy.
"Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon's effect, activate! I detach the Xyz Material Stardust Dragon to take control of 1 monster my opponents control!"
Amano pointed at Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition on Yugi's field.
"I take control of Gandora-X, and by the effect, its own effect is negated and its ATK becomes 3000!"
"'Photon Stream Cast'!"
An Xyz Monster below Rank 10 still couldn't touch the god, so taking control of Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition, at 7000 ATK, was the best play available right now.
"Xyz Summoning, right after Synchro. Amano, how many more unknown possibilities are you keeping in reserve?"
"I'll show you next, Yugi! I overlay onto Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon again!"
"Where the light of the galaxy leads, the door to a new world is about to open!"
"Xyz Evolution! Appear now, a brand-new avatar of light! Galaxy-Eyes Full Armor Photon Dragon!"
[Galaxy-Eyes Full Armor Photon Dragon] [Rank 8 / LIGHT]
[Dragon / Xyz / Effect]
[ATK: 4000] [DEF: 3500]
[This card can also be Xyz Summoned by using a "Galaxy-Eyes" Xyz Monster you control, other than "Galaxy-Eyes Full Armor Photon Dragon", as material.]
Evolving from wings of photon light into a form clad in heavy armor, Galaxy-Eyes Full Armor Photon Dragon, wrapped in an armor as black as the depths of the galaxy, roared onto the field in an Xyz Evolution.
"Galaxy-Eyes Full Armor Photon Dragon's effect, activate! I detach the Xyz Material Accel Synchro Stardust Dragon to destroy 1 face-up card on the field!"
Amano pointed at Yugi. "Yugi, I'm destroying your Eternal Soul!"
Master and apprentice of dark magic had bounced back and forth too many times this duel already. With Dark Magician the Dragon Knight's back-row protection gone, it was time to finally smash this tablet that kept generating resources forever.
"'Full-Armed Galaxy Spiral Strike'!!"
Full Armor Photon Dragon fired a single shattering blast, gathered from the radiance of the galaxy itself, straight into Yugi's back row.
"Before it's destroyed, I chain Eternal Soul's effect!"
Since it was going to be destroyed either way, Yugi decided to squeeze one last use out of Eternal Soul before it went.
Beyond reviving Dark Magician from the Graveyard, Eternal Soul had one more effect.
[Add 1 "Dark Magician" or "Thousand Knives" from your Deck to your hand.]
"I add Thousand Knives from my Deck to my hand!"
With Yugi's search off Eternal Soul used for the last time, the tablet that had stood on the field since the opening of the duel finally shattered under Full Armor Photon Dragon's spiral blast.
And Eternal Soul wasn't the only thing that single shot destroyed.
As every duelist knew, a card that powerful always came with a price to match, and the tablet's classic backstab effect was as standard a price as they came.
[When this face-up card leaves the field: Destroy all monsters you control.]
The instant Eternal Soul was destroyed by the light of the galaxy, master and apprentice of dark magic on Yugi's field were destroyed and vanished right along with it.
"It's not over yet!" Amano thrust an arm toward the galaxy spiral overhead. "I can still overlay!"
The Galaxy-Eyes stack could keep climbing higher still!
"The blade of the galaxy swings toward a farther reach of the cosmos! Tear a rift of light through the endless dark!"
Overlay after overlay, in one continuous Xyz Evolution, Galaxy-Eyes Full Armor Photon Dragon's body completed its final transformation.
"Xyz Evolution! Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Blade Dragon!"
[Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Blade Dragon] [Rank 9 / LIGHT]
[Dragon / Xyz / Effect]
[ATK: 3200] [DEF: 2800]
[This card can also be Xyz Summoned by using a Rank 8 "Galaxy-Eyes" Xyz Monster you control as material. This card cannot be used as Xyz Material.]
The final Galaxy-Eyes stack. Cipher Blade Dragon's ATK fell short of Full Armor Photon Dragon's, but it could destroy face-down set cards instead.
"Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Blade Dragon's effect! I detach the Xyz Material Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon to destroy your set card, Yugi!"
A blade slicing through the galaxy itself came down in fury on Yugi's back row, splitting the unknown set card clean in two.
[Final Geas, destroyed]
"So that's what it was."
The very Trap Card that, in the original timeline of Dark Side of Dimensions, Yugi had used to finally defeat Kaiba Seto.
Did destroying it himself count as a convergence of the timeline back toward what it should have been?
From the moment his turn began, Amano hadn't stopped moving for a second: Xyz Summon after Xyz Summon, overlay after overlay, board wipe after board wipe.
But the entire crowd in the venue had gone unnervingly quiet the whole time. Only once Cipher Blade Dragon's final slash landed did the stunned audience gradually start to come back to themselves.
"Wh, what kind of Summoning is that?"
"Summoning again and again on top of the same monster, chaining effect after effect?"
"Th, that's way too cool!"
Somewhere in the watching crowd, a kid with a shock of jellyfish-shaped hair had eyes lit up with excitement, staring at the duel unfolding on the highest stage of all.
"Amano Rei, that's so cool! I want to be a duelist that cool too!"
Mokuba's voice came through the comms to Kaiba again. "Brother, your read on this was right after all. Amano really is something special! His Summons are blurring what should be a fixed timeline. If we push just a little further, we might actually be able to bring the Pharaoh back into this era!"
"A little further, is it." Kaiba Seto studied the field with a serious expression.
Amano's entire Galaxy-Eyes overlay rampage had all but emptied Yugi's front and back row, leaving him with only one last set card.
But because of Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon's own restriction, none of the other monsters on Amano's field could declare a direct attack this turn.
Which meant Yugi, sitting on an empty field, was in no danger.
And on Kaiba Seto's field, Obelisk the Tormentor still stood at 4000 ATK, more than Amano's current monsters could break through.
"Amano Rei, can you go even further than this?"
"That's an odd thing to ask, Kaiba. Don't go regretting it in a minute!"
Amano pinched a card between two fingers, ready to play it. "I haven't used my Normal Summon for the turn yet."
One way or another, he had to take someone out this turn. Not being the first one eliminated in a free-for-all should count as clearing whatever condition Eva had set for this Duel Chronicle.
"I Normal Summon Neo-Spacian Dark Panther in Attack Position!"
[Neo-Spacian Dark Panther] [Level 3 / DARK]
[Beast / Effect]
[ATK: 1000] [DEF: 500]
Watching the cloaked black panther Amano Normal Summoned onto his field, a young Jaden Yuki in the crowd looked even more thrilled than before.
"Whoa, what monster is that? So cool!"
It lined up perfectly with exactly the kind of monster young Jaden used to dream up.
"Hmph. Summoning a small-fry monster with 1000 ATK. Is that your limit, Amano Rei?"
"No, this is going to be your limit, Kaiba! I activate Neo-Spacian Dark Panther's effect!"
[Once per turn: Target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; until the End Phase, this card's name and effect become the same as that monster's original name and effect.]
"Wait, that effect!" Kaiba Seto, who a second ago had still been mocking a small-fry monster, realized what was coming the instant Amano activated it, his body instinctively leaning back a few degrees.
With Yugi's field completely empty, Dark Panther's effect could only target a monster among his other opponents' fields.
As far as Amano was concerned, there was exactly one monster left that qualified as a target.
"I'm copying Obelisk the Tormentor's effect!"
In this moment, Amano turned the very edge of his limit toward a god.
Since this effect didn't target or affect the god itself, Obelisk's own protection couldn't cancel it out.
By Dark Panther's effect, it would gain the exact same card name and effect as its target for the rest of the turn.
Gaining Obelisk the Tormentor's effect, and gaining Obelisk the Tormentor's very name, meant that right here, right now.
"You are Obelisk the Tormentor!"
[Neo-Spacian Dark Panther -> Obelisk the Tormentor]
Amano's own Obelisk the Tormentor, a second earth-shaking god piercing the sky, took shape on the field.
Amano felt the God's Wrath theme start playing in his ears once more. Except this time, it was playing for him.
This wasn't some small-fry monster. This was a god.
Standing between two gods facing each other down, Amano threw his arm up and roared, pointing ahead.
"Obelisk's effect, activate!"
"I release my Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Blade Dragon and Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition as Tributes!"
"Raise Obelisk the Tormentor's ATK to infinity!"
"'Soul Energy MAX'!"
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