"L-Lord Kuraz!"
"Your Majesty!"
The knights and vassals who were jeering at Gaia earlier now trembled in terror. Several collapsed onto the ground, unable to believe what they were witnessing.
The one born noble, blessed by the heavens, Kuraz the Light Monarch, had lost?
And lost to the Fusion deck, he looked down on the most, a deck composed solely of "the weak" banded together.
Worse still, it was a pure Fusion deck that had only used two Main Deck monsters in the end!
The Duel Spirits glanced toward Hikaru, but the moment they met his eyes, they shrieked. Clambering on two legs, or six, they scrambled out of the arena like the wind.
"Yay, they're running away!" some small Spirits cheered.
Gaia materialized beside Hikaru, clearly eager to chase down the fleeing Spirits. But seeing Hikaru's expression, he paused.
Because Hikaru didn't pursue. Instead, he tilted his head up, staring at the throne in the arena.
There, a distorted mass of light twisted wildly.
Suddenly, a rift cracked open in the sky. Hikaru reacted instantly, yanking the card hanging from his neck and raising it high.
Gaia felt something stir, not wind.
A black hole.
A terrifying black hole seemed to open, centered on the card in Hikaru's hand, dragging the writhing light toward it.
No matter how desperately the light struggled, no matter how early it had begun to flee, the outcome was inevitable.
Under the thunderclouds and lightning, it was sucked entirely into the card Hikaru held.
Hikaru lowered his hand, glancing at the card.
A blank card gradually formed in his palm. The design started to take shape, coalescing until it finally shimmered as a complete card.
On it was a Warrior-type monster, two long arrows strapped to its back, a gaping mouth on its abdomen, and an appearance reminiscent of a Kamen Rider sugar-coated warrior.
Hikaru raised an eyebrow.
He reattached Super Polymerization to his necklace and examined the card in hand.
"That strange light didn't seem to have a concrete form," Tierra commented. "Even though this card was born from it, the impulse to destroy is gone. It's now just an ordinary card."
Hikaru had expected this.
In the original lore, the Light of Destruction spanned multiple arcs as a "final boss," but it never had a true physical form. Unlike Darkness, it didn't possess avatars, instead, it imbued its power into various cards, compelling their users to destroy everything.
From Destiny HERO - Plasma to White Veil, Arcana Force, and Yubel, any card corrupted by the Light of Destruction would tread a path of ruin.
Even worse, the Light had a terrifying assimilation ability: when a powerful user of the Light defeated a weaker Duelist with destructive intent, it could directly brainwash and control them.
Since it was merely a power inhabiting cards, it could distribute varying amounts of strength to multiple cards. Even if one wielder lost, it hardly mattered.
But, there was one exception.
Super Polymerization.
Forcing the Light into an ordinary card was impossible for normal humans or Spirits. But with Super Polymerization, it was achievable.
Granted, Hikaru hadn't fully mastered Super Polymerization yet.
But then, Kuraz hadn't been carrying much Light of Destruction within him anyway.
And Hikaru was the winner!
So, of course, he scored a card from the Light of Destruction.
"Kaiki the Unity Star?" Gaia, fresh off his victory, peeked over, curious. "A Warrior that can trigger a Fusion Summon for Warrior monsters upon Special Summon?!"
Seeing this glorious new Fusion mechanic, Gaia couldn't help but feel a bit jealous.
Hikaru chuckled, telling Gaia to handle things here while he sorted the card later. He tucked it away.
If he remembered right, Kaiki the Unity Star was one of the monsters from the Lian Shanbor archetype in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V. It later had Fusion forms like Barlei Sei, Basheng Sei, and Badou Sei, with decently easy Fusion requirements.
Either way, it had nothing to do with the Light of Destruction.
Hikaru tapped the card against his forehead.
This meant, from now on, whenever he encountered light clusters not fully embedded in cards, he could drain them with Super Polymerization.
Stripped of its destruction and ruin impulses, the Light of Destruction became pure energy, the conceptual "source of light in the universe." That could be shaped into any card.
As long as he Dueled, as long as he wielded the power of Super Polymerization, he would always forge a Fusion-related card.
Be it a Main Deck monster or a Fusion Monster!
For someone like Hikaru, who constantly struggled to decide on new Fusion monsters while using the same old Main Deck lineup, this was fantastic news.
Of course, he didn't desperately need more Main Deck monsters, so there was no reason to hunt these light clusters constantly.
After all, he knew where the Light of Destruction's "main body" was
Yubel.
Myth-tier background, capable of controlling the Sacred Beasts, filled with a manic urge for destruction, obsessed with Judai, and possessing the knowledge to destroy all twelve dimensions.
With such a perfect host, the Light of Destruction had no reason to look elsewhere.
While Hikaru mused over his new card, Gaia got to work.
First, he toppled Kuraz's throne. Then, standing tall, he proclaimed that his lord had defeated the false king. From this day forward, the "Land of Glorious Knights" would be a place where only true knights could reside. Those who bullied weaker warriors would be expelled, or hunted down.
If this were the human world, such a speech would accomplish nothing.
Schemes, traps, politics, it'd overwhelm Gaia.
But in the Spirit World, the warrior who won the Duel had the absolute right to set the rules of the land!
Disagree? Then step up and challenge Gaia!
Otherwise, pack your things and run to another region before the regime change fully sets in.
Spirits were simple and pure.
Even Kuraz, for all his malice, was simply driven by crude desires.
Thus, after Gaia's declaration, the Spirits who had followed him erupted in cheers, celebrating that their "great lord" had finally restored the proper knightly way.
In short;
One Duel was enough to reshape the society of an entire region of the Spirit World.
And now, Gaia was the undisputed "great lord" of this land!