"Oh! You woke up!"
Carefully putting Winda's "rough draft" away, Hikaru walked toward Gem-Knight Crystal. The two Flame Swordsmen quickly positioned themselves beside Hikaru, vigilantly watching the knight stuck in the ground.
Crystal struggled weakly for a while, trying to pull himself out of the earth. Unfortunately, after being thoroughly beaten, he had no strength left.
After trying two or three times, he gave up and stopped struggling. Instead, he looked at Hikaru and solemnly said, "Thank you for saving me. I am Crystal, a knight of the Gem-Knight Order."
Seeing the knight seemed to have regained some of his sanity, the two Flame Swordsmen relaxed a bit and lowered their guard.
"How did you end up here?" Hikaru asked curiously.
"Sorry, I don't remember..." Crystal wasn't sure either. "I only remember I was leading a team to clean up pollution—ah, I remember now! I was controlled by the power of shadows, almost becoming their puppet, and if my comrades hadn't forcibly expelled me from our world, I would have infected the others."
'Expelled? Banished?'
Hikaru couldn't quite understand what he meant.
He then explained the recent events to Crystal, causing Crystal's head to drop lower and lower, almost as if he wanted to bury himself in the earth. Only then did Hikaru ask about Crystal's past.
Through this, Hikaru learned a new piece of information, or rather, "remembered" something he had never cared about before.
As everyone knows, a Yu-Gi-Oh! card has not only text but also an important part, the "card art."
Otherwise, just holding a bunch of papers filled with text wouldn't be very interesting.
The card art connects different cards. For example, Gaia evolves from a knight into a Chaos Warrior, the story of Beast King being beaten by various beasts, or the tale of an angel who had no self-awareness playing with various sacred artifacts and eventually being punished by the gods.
These are all classic small stories. Outside of these, there are also large "series."
Such as the "DT" world where the Gem-Knights exist, and the "Dragon Swordsman" world where the Alchemist resides, these large continuous stories often involve many related characters, factions, and events, filled with death, separation, friendship, and terrifying disasters that threaten the survival of entire worlds, and so on.
The "DT" world, where the Gem-Knights exist, is especially fraught with disasters, with apocalyptic-level catastrophes appearing one after another. From the "first episode" to the grand finale, there are hardly any disasters smaller than the destruction of a clan. At the very least, they can wash the surface of the planet.
However, the story Crystal spoke of was different from what Hikaru knew.
According to Crystal, he was just one of many "Crystal Knights." Although he was a captain, he was certainly not the same Crystal captain Hikaru knew, who was at the Stardust level. His usual job was handling various pollutants and training new knights for "combat," which meant dueling.
And this was the biggest difference between "card art stories" and "dueling spirits!"
In the "DT" world, there were no cards and no duels; people fought with real weapons. If you didn't fight well, you'd die. But Duel Monsters were different. They were about training to "play cards."
The relationship between the two is like "origin legends" and the "fairies born from those legends."
To put it simply, the "Crystal" from before is like King Arthur from ancient legend, regal, mythic, and steeped in tradition. But the one in front of Hikaru now? He's more like Saber from Fate/Stay Night, same origin, but reimagined into a whole different battlefield. Connected in spirit, not in substance.
However, the path of evolution for spirits is no longer singular. This "Crystal" could also become the "savior" of the DT world or even maintain his current state forever.
Similarly, the Alchemist from the other world was in the same situation.
And, this kind of thing was also depicted in the original work. For example, in the original, the "Shadow Realm" in the spirit world was full of evil and misdeeds, but in the card art story, the "Shadow Realm" actually had two factions, one good and one bad.
"Hikaru-sama, thank you for waking me up." After Crystal finished speaking, it seemed like he had regained some strength and struggled to pull himself out of the earth.
He knelt on one knee and said to Hikaru, "I am willing to offer my strength to you and become your knight. However, my comrades are under attack by shadows and darkness. I cannot let them survive alone!"
Hikaru didn't mind much. Whether or not he got the knight didn't matter.
But the Alchemist, standing nearby, seized the opportunity to show his worth. "Do you know how to get back?"
"Ah?"
"From what you said, your knight order has encountered this situation before. You would send the infected creatures to a different dimension to isolate them and then slowly figure out how to cure them. So I ask you, do you remember which dimension you were sent to?"
"Do you even know which dimension you're in now? You were sent to a broken dimension for unknown reasons, then discovered by a human, and after many twists and turns, you ended up in this dimension where I am. How did you find your way back? Did you just crash into a dimensional wall?"
Crystal was sweating profusely, unsure of what to say.
"In my opinion, you might as well follow this human. The world this human comes from has already developed dimensional exploration technology. Perhaps one day, they might find your home, don't you think?"
"Ah, you have a point..." Crystal nodded in confusion, then bowed again to Hikaru.
"Hikaru-sama, please allow me to offer you my strength."
"Good! Of course!" Hikaru responded cheerfully. It felt nice to have someone speak for him.
Immediately, in front of Hikaru, Crystal's body emitted a dazzling white light. His body began to slowly shrink, transforming into a brilliant gem, and in the end, into a card.
[Gem-Knight Crystal]
Crystal's physical condition wasn't good, so he could only revert to card form to recover.
'How rare,' Hikaru thought, catching the card and putting it away. It was rare to obtain a usable monster for his main deck.
Hikaru looked toward the Alchemist, who gave a slight bow. He didn't appear to have any overwhelming power, instead exuded elegance. "Rest assured. As an alchemist, I am more than happy to follow a greater fusion master. Besides, we've already agreed to a deal."
'Fusion master…'
As a spirit, the Alchemist always followed his word. Since Hikaru saved him, he naturally wouldn't break his vow. After watching Hikaru's duel, he realized Hikaru was truly a "fusion master" beyond his expectations, making him even more satisfied.
That's why, when Crystal wanted to leave, he spoke up to keep him from going. He didn't follow the usual practice of dueling Hikaru to settle things before following him.
"Not at all, not at all. I'm still far from that level," Hikaru humbly replied.
Compared to the plain Crystal, this Alchemist was an entirely different kind of monster—
Fullmetalfoes Alkahest was a fusion monster with... 0 attack and defense, besides a level 1 monster!
The fact that both his attack and defense were 0 would likely make many seasoned card players uneasy, yet being a level 1 fusion monster only highlighted how terrifying he truly was.
Actually, in Hikaru's eyes, even considering his currently unusable Master of Chaos and the Ultimate Ancient Gear Giant which could only be used occasionally, none of his fusion monsters were as strong as this Alchemist!
Above all, he was essentially a "Thousand-Eyes Idol" that could activate its effect during the opponent's turn! He could turn the opponent's monsters into his own equipment during their turn! Truly a master among Monsters!
Although summoning him was more difficult than summoning Thousand-Eyes Idol due to the condition of must-fusion-summon, there were always other ways.
So, his final haul consisted of a Crystal Knight, a Psychic Alkahest, and a rough draft of Winda. A truly bountiful return! Far exceeding Hikaru's initial expectations!
All thanks to the man who sent them.
"Heh, Professor Akaba is such an honest person."