"Gem-Knight Lazuli was the healer of our Gem-Knight Order."
As Lazuli slowly lifted her massive arm, manipulating the puppet strings to draw her cards, White Crystal began explaining through his spiritual link with Hikaru Amagi.
"Normally, after battles with other factions' spirits, she'd tend to our wounded… Damn it, this must've happened when she followed the dimensional traces trying to find me after I was infected. She must've been captured by those bastards while trying to heal me!"
Hikaru could clearly sense the guilt and fury churning inside White Crystal.
It had already been hard on him when he realized his own infection had been weaponized. But now, seeing a comrade—his unit's healer—corrupted and transformed while trying to save him, the self-reproach was unbearable.
Thank goodness Hikaru hadn't arrived too late.
If Lazuli had been fully transformed into El Shaddoll Nephilim, she'd have fallen under Tierra's control completely. That kind of guilt, White Crystal would carry for life.
And right now, her current state closely resembled Gem-Knight Nephilim—a hybrid horror of light and shadow.
Lazuli moved the strings draped over her body and began her turn.
A towering card descended from the sky and slammed into the earth, the oversized card flipping over to reveal itself.
"Brilliant Fusion?" Tierra chuckled. "Looks like you're about to get slapped around by your own cards, Hikaru."
Hikaru didn't respond. The moment he recognized this was Lazuli, not yet fully corrupted, he was ready.
She revealed her two fusion materials, cards hissing as they were set into place.
"Gem-Knight Lazuli and Gem-Knight Tourmaline?" Hikaru observed carefully.
In a twisted, contorted fusion process, a marionette-like monster formed on the field, strung up by threads.
Gem-Knight Sapphire, Level 6, EARTH, Aqua-Type, DEF 2600.
"Aaaaah—"
Brilliant Fusion's glow intensified.
Although it allows fusion using monsters directly from the Deck, any monster summoned that way has its ATK and DEF reduced to 0.
Gem-Knight Sapphire, DEF: 0.
"Opening with Sapphire, huh," Tierra nodded. "For a defensive setup, bouncing one card back isn't bad."
Lazuli then set two backrow cards and ended her turn.
Hikaru drew a card and glanced down. His eyebrow twitched.
...Oof. This opening hand was a disaster.
He glanced sidelong at Tierra, who huffed and turned her back to him. "What're you looking at me for? You think I'd mess with your hand? Me?"
Fair enough.
Hikaru nodded. "Sorry, it was instinct."
So this was just natural bad luck.
Fine then...
"I activate the Spell Card—Shaddoll Fusion!"
"This card lets me Fusion Summon a 'Shaddoll' Fusion Monster using monsters from my hand or field as materials. But—if my opponent controls a monster that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck…"
"Then I can also use monsters from my Deck as Fusion Materials."
"I send Shaddoll Falco and Elemental HERO Avian from my Deck to the Graveyard—Fusion Summon!"
"Fusion Materials: one 'Shaddoll' monster and one WIND monster!"
"Come forth— Shadow of Wind—El Shaddoll Wendigo!"
With a mechanical screech, a massive cybernetic dolphin surfaced from the blackened earth. Threads of control stretched across its body. Standing before it, a pale-faced mechanical girl stiffly raised a dark staff.
El Shaddoll Wendigo, Level 6, WIND, Psychic-Type, ATK 200.
"Falco's effect activates! When sent to the Graveyard by a card effect—it Special Summons itself face-down in Defense Position!"
A shadowy mechanical hawk screeched as it was wrenched from the grave by puppet strings, crashing onto the field cloaked in darkness.
"Battle! Wendigo attacks directly!"
"Whoa, 200 ATK and you're going in?" Tierra smirked.
But with Sapphire at 0 DEF, it was a perfect opportunity.
Wendigo shakily raised her staff. The dolphin behind her flew forward, smashing into Sapphire's shattered shield.
Lazuli hesitated, clearly confused, but instinctively refrained from activating any defense. She let Sapphire be destroyed.
As Sapphire shattered, its sword and shield spun through the air and stabbed into one of Hikaru's set cards. That smoky stone—Falco—glimmered briefly before bouncing back to Hikaru's hand.
Gem-Knight Sapphire's effect: When sent to the Graveyard, return one card on the opponent's field to the hand.
Hikaru didn't react. He didn't care which card bounced. The point was to clear Sapphire and trade it for Sapphire's effect.
"Main Phase 2. I Set a monster face-down," Hikaru declared, setting another smoky shadowed card. "Then I Set two backrow cards. Turn end."
"Aaaaah—" Lazuli cried, her voice torn between a shriek of agony and a haunting melody.
The dimension trembled violently. Spirits ensnared in her strings howled in pain. Even the mechanized, puppet-like humans groaned in torment as their life force was drained.
"Lazuli! No—Hikaru!" White Crystal cried out.
Despite his disdain for those humans, White Crystal's chivalry wouldn't let him condone Lazuli acting this way. She was the healer of their order. This wasn't who she was meant to be.
"You're hopeless," Tierra muttered, annoyed. "You're nothing like him. Not Hikaru, not even the real White Crystal."
She looked visibly disappointed.
Even though she'd benefit immensely from the surge of Shaddoll energy when Lazuli was defeated… she was still irritated.
"You think Hikaru will lose?"
"No! That's not what I meant!" White Crystal quickly corrected himself. "I believe in Hikaru! He will save Lazuli!"
"Then shut up and watch. Or—" Tierra turned to Hikaru, her glowing green eyes flaring briefly into ominous red. She peered straight through him, directly into White Crystal's soul, silencing him instantly.
"—make your decision already."