The duel was settled quickly. The Seal of Orichalcos began to contract, the six-pointed star spinning in reverse until it shrank to the feet of the burly beastman.
The soul was drawn away by the green light, absorbed into the sky, vanishing without a trace.
Even as he finally collapsed to his knees, the Divine Messenger's face was still full of shock and deep regret—
—regret that he hadn't run for his life the moment he met this monster.
If he could have another chance, he'd never, ever duel someone like this again.
"Your deck's not bad, but your skills still need some work."
Kira stepped forward. The soulless body of the large beastman quickly glowed gold and disintegrated into sparkling points of light.
Kira bent down and picked up the deck.
This opponent's deck was strong, but Kira could sense that his level of destiny power was lacking. Even with the seal's boost, he was still a notch below Kira as he was now. So, while the deck was a top-tier one for its era, it wasn't too tough for Kira to handle.
In fact, with his persistent training and the deepening power of the spirits, Kira's destiny power was now only slightly below that of the top characters from the original story. Even disregarding deck construction and just talking about draws, he was already among the elite in the dueling world.
So to him now, this deck was a bit wasted in the Divine Messenger's hands.
But that didn't matter.
From now on, the deck will be in the right hands and realize its true value.
If the Divine Messenger could know that his deck would shine brighter in someone else's hands, he could probably rest easy.
Kira tucked the deck away, quite satisfied with his haul.
Honestly, his body here was just a virtual projection; he'd vanish from the spirit world as soon as he logged out, so the decks he collected here couldn't be taken back directly.
But that was fine. He couldn't take them himself, but his spirits could bring them back to reality for him.
Also, while the Divine Messenger's build was close to top-tier Baboon decks, it was mostly just specialized around Green Baboon; its strength mainly came from how powerful the card was by itself. But his deck still differed from the true meta builds.
Kira figured he could study it later and probably optimize it further. Once perfected, it could be a very powerful deck.
Besides the deck, he also picked up some trinkets.
For example, a fragment of Orichalcos—he recognized this now, it was like a badge of rank within the Orichalcos cult.
But this time, he also found a blank card.
That surprised Kira a bit.
White cards (blanks) weren't unheard of in the original anime and were always overpowered. The first appearance might have been in DM's Orichalcos arc—the blank card Pegasus printed.
Everyone knows the biggest advantage of blanks is "they can become anything you want." The blank space is left for you to print whatever effect you need on the spot, depending on the duel's situation—limited only by your imagination.
But not just anyone could use them. Usually, you had to have a "Jellyfish head" or a "Yugi" in your name, and the atmosphere had to be right...
Kira thought that while his destiny power had improved, he was probably still far from being able to print cards at will. Getting a blank card felt like more than he could handle.
But the BLS quickly corrected this thought.
"That's a mission card," BLS said.
"Mission card?"
"Yes. We've heard about these from captured evil god minions before, but this is my first time seeing one," BLS explained. "Simply put, it's a tool the evil god uses to assign tasks to his minions.
When summoned by the evil god, the once-blank mission card will display an image, and the text below will give the task."
"I see."
Kira pondered.
So if the mission card showed instructions, it meant they might, to some extent, get wind of what New Doma was up to in the spirit world. If lucky, maybe they could even get involved.
If so, wouldn't that mean he was unknowingly getting closer to infiltrating the enemy's inner circle?
Of course, Kira hadn't planned anything that far ahead—he was just going with the flow. Even being mistaken as the Divine Messenger in the bunker, and somehow ending up as vice warden, hadn't been his intention.
As the saying goes, plans can't keep up with changes, and no matter how well you plan, fate has its way. Maybe that's what destiny power is all about.
Anyway, the day was done. Time to call it a night.
Kira stood up after collecting the loot and swaggered out the front door. Every demon he passed looked at him like they'd seen a ghost, scrambling to avoid him—probably more terrified than if they'd met Satan himself.
And it was no wonder.
The commotion from the duel had been huge. The Seal of Orichalcos had already drawn a big crowd; anyone with the right to wield such a barrier was a high-ranking figure in the cult—unreachable for common citizens.
Then, many had witnessed that big shot get utterly defeated within his barrier, even seeing a terrifying creature with infinite attack power appear...
This wasn't reality, and duels weren't just virtual projections. A creature with infinite attack power in a duel would exert a soul-level pressure on any watching spirit—just seeing it would leave them petrified.
Especially seeing the Divine Messenger get one-shotted into mosaic by Worm Gulse —those onlookers probably wouldn't sleep for a week.
As Kira exited, a demon woman nervously ran up and handed him a wad of cash.
"Sir… you forgot this."
"Hmm?"
Kira was surprised.
Wasn't this the entry fee he'd paid?
But since it wasn't his money, and demon currency was useless outside anyway (plus he still had plenty left), he waved it off generously, "Keep it."
The demon woman forced a smile, "It's better if you take it, sir. To be honest, we're afraid to keep it!"
Kira didn't waste any more time and just took it back.
After that, the Mirage City never saw this duelist again.
But from that day on, the legend of the mysterious passing duelist—whose true identity no one knew—remained in the city.
PS: Next Goal: 500 PS