The first thing that caught Coral's eye was Tiamat, so colossal that she had to tilt her head back sixty degrees just to see its face. The overwhelming pressure forced her to instinctively retract her wings.
"An enemy of this magnitude... can I even be of help to you?" Coral wondered inwardly if she should just surrender. After all, she was never much of a fighter among fairies.
"Yes, you can. Here, you'll definitely be of assistance to me."
With Melusine's destruction of Anti-Genesis, the restrictions on servant effects were lifted.
"Coral's effect: Upon Normal Summon, Special Summon one Fairy Knight from the Graveyard to the field. Servants summoned by this effect cannot activate their effects!"
Fairy Knight Lancelot: Attack Power 2800
Lancelot returned to the field. Jiang You glanced at Coral's effect—this thing was actually a Tuner Servant! As a Synchro Material, the servant summoned would gain 500 Attack Power and be immune to enemy servant effects during the summon turn. So that's Aurora's replacement, he thought. Meaning Melusine must have a Synchro-compatible form.
"1 + 8 = 9! I tune myself with Coral!"
Melusine and Coral transformed into starlight, aligning nine stars in a straight line across the sky. "Never stopping, never able to stop! Sorrowful Dragon who could not return to the Inner Sea of Stars! Spread your wings and soar once more!"
Melusine, her True Name unleashed, revealed her strongest form as the Fairy Melusine. Her violet armor had shattered, and her body had partially transformed into draconic form. Only a blue-black inner garment barely covered her vital areas, preserving the last vestiges of her human modesty.
Melusine Attack Power: 3500 → 4000.
"Wow, so cool!" Jiang You exclaimed sincerely, genuinely liking her transformed appearance.
"I wouldn't exactly call this form 'beautiful'," Melusine retorted.
In a way, this form was an imitation of Aurora's appearance. After all, her true essence was a fragment of the Dragon of Albion, and she originally possessed no human form.
"Still, it's gratifying to receive praise from someone so powerful. But that won't make me give up!"
Jiang You had earned her respect, but some things couldn't be explained by the brutal Law of the Wild. She would fight for Aurora one last time.
"Not enough!"
In this turn, Melusine wouldn't be affected by her opponent's servant effects. By the next turn, that advantage would be gone, making this her only chance to break through Tiamat's defenses! "Therefore, I activate the Quick-Play Spell Card 'Horizon of Light'! This card allows me to target a Fairy Knight on the field, increasing its Attack Power by 1000 and adding a corresponding Noble Phantasm card to my hand! I target myself, so I add 'Unknown Pure Pulse' to my hand!"
"Did you just say 'choose'?"
Tiamat's absurd effect activated for the first time. "I activate Tiamat's effect! When the opponent activates a spell, trap, or monster effect targeting a card on the field, I can randomly discard one of their hand cards to negate the activation and destroy the card! So your card is negated! Discard a card!"
After discarding one card, Melusine still had four left in her hand. In this synergy-driven meta where decks could easily empty their hands, managing to retain so many cards after multiple combos was a testament to the deck's excellent efficiency and effectiveness. Jiang You thought it was a solid deck that could even be played competitively on its own—powerful enough to rival Grand-level opponents.
"How can such an effect exist...? It's truly terrifying."
Using someone else's resources to negate and destroy their effects is beyond outrageous.
"Then I activate my own effect! Discarding one card from my Hand..."
Jiang You finally shifted his attention from Melusine's body to examine the specific effects of her current form.
1. Once per turn: Target one monster on your opponent's field. Send that card to the Graveyard. If the target is successfully sent to the Graveyard, send all cards with the same name from your opponent's Hand and Deck to the Graveyard as well.
2. When your opponent activates an effect: Discard one card from your Hand to activate. Negate that activation and destroy all cards on your opponent's field. This effect can be activated up to twice per turn.
3. When this card leaves the field: Target one "Fairy Knight Lancelot" in your Graveyard. Return this card to its owner's Extra Deck, then Special Summon the targeted monster.
"What 'Majestic Star Dragon'? Melusine, you really are a Star Dragon after all!"
Jiang You muttered as he reviewed the effects. Though slightly different, the similarities were striking. He'd had a hunch about this all along, suspecting the developers had been influenced by those obsessive fan theories—though he himself was no exception.
Melusine didn't understand terms like "Majestic Star Dragon." Although both were dragons, she felt they had nothing to do with her. Seizing what she perceived as an opportunity, she refused to dwell on the matter. "I discard a Hand Card to negate Tiamat's effect! Though Tiamat can't be destroyed, its effect is still negated!"
"Oh, right," Jiang You added casually, to dispel any lingering hope Melusine might have. "Tiamat is immune to the effects of other cards. So your negation won't work either."
"!"
Melusine was stunned. Each time she tested her strategy, the glimmer of hope she saw was instantly extinguished by Jiang You. Fortunately, she hadn't activated its first effect yet, or the cost of her trial and error would have increased again. Glancing at the cards in her hand, she realized there was still an opening. If Tiamat couldn't be destroyed by effects, then she'd destroy it in battle!
"As expected, breaking through your Mother's defenses won't be easy," Melusine murmured, taking a deep breath. "Though I despise this skill copied from another, I'm immensely grateful it's proving useful now. I activate the Quick-Play Spell Card Endless Martial Prowess (Peridancer)! This card grants all Fairy Knights on my field +1000 Attack Power this turn and prevents them from being destroyed by battle until the end of the turn!"
Melusine's Attack Power: 4000 → 5000.
"An Attack Power of 5000 isn't insurmountable! Stamina and magical power rising. Mana release!"
Magical power surged within Melusine as she prepared to challenge the Mother of All Things. As a Demonic Dragon—though only a fragment of one—she refused to yield.
"Entering the Battle Phase! Behold, this form is called Albion. The final Dragon to unlock the borders...!"
Melusine charged toward Tiamat. Their 5000 Attack Power clashed violently, but Melusine's indestructible buff allowed her to successfully send Tiamat to the Graveyard.
"Success!"
In her eyes, Jiang You could only pin his hopes on his next card draw, while her current form remained on the field. With three cards in hand and her Calamity Form about to return, Jiang You had no chance left.
"Indeed, you've succeeded... but only halfway. Tiamat, after all, is immortal."
The black sea began to churn, radiating an even more intense magical power. This oppressive aura far surpassed that of even Tiamat's previous form.