"Wrrrrrrrry!"
Mello roared in unwilling fury, barely sounding human. The Accelerator's bombardment pulverized his entire field—towering blasts, as if his very soul were blasted out of his body.
Not an exaggeration—literally. The barrage blew a white mass out of Mello's body, like an out-of-body spirit.
That white thing howled even more violently once expelled, swelling to several times its size. At first it was only about half a man tall; in mere seconds of manic bellowing it had grown to twice a person's height.
A face like blank paper now showed abstract features: eyes brimming with savagery, a mouth roaring hurricanes.
The Light of Destruction.
Kira knew that the thing confronting him from the start was essentially this. It attaches to humans like a parasite, using the host as a medium to exert power.
From its depiction in the anime, the Light of Destruction might be a symbiote-like existence. It possessed The D, the thief of Plasma; it possessed Plasma's card; it possessed Sartorius; it even attached to Yubel and evolved her into two new forms she didn't originally have.
The Light can attach to spirits and humans, control the host, and greatly amplify or even develop new abilities. But it likely can't act alone; without a host, it loses most of its power.
Like right now.
The light howled and raged, baring fangs in ferocity. But Kira could tell that beneath the bluff exterior, it was already spent.
As it tried to pounce, an iron cage slammed down from above.
The Light of Destruction froze.
Its lunge stalled for two seconds, then it slowly looked up.
A steaming, red-hot cage descended out of nowhere to trap it. Over the cage was Kira's ace—Lava Golem. The blazing giant lowered his head and cocked it to the side, locking eyes with the Light inside.
They stared at each other awkwardly for a few seconds.
Then the big lunk slowly reached out, pressing its open palm atop the cage.
Endless magma oozed and hissed, pouring down in rolling sheets, drenching the Light of Destruction in the cage as if a bucket of filth upended over its head.
The Light shrieked miserably, struggling desperately in the cage. It tried to push out, but the instant it touched the bars, the cage seemed to ignite, glowing as red as fire. It screamed even more shrilly and recoiled, its huge body rapidly shrinking under the deluge, like a guttering flame ready to go out.
"No!"
Mello, who had been limp on the ground, suddenly leaped up and rushed the cage, heedless of the heat.
But the moment his hands grasped the bars, he let out an equally sharp scream and tumbled, writhing on the ground. In that instant of contact, his hands were seared into mangled flesh.
The Light of Destruction wailed in the cage, straining toward the outside as if calling to Mello.
Mello lay prone, painfully stretching out his mangled hand toward the Light inside.
One inside the cage, one outside—arms reaching for each other, just an arm's length apart, yet separated by an impassable cage of magma like a chasm.
Kira: …
Do you have to make it look like tragic star-crossed lovers? How am I suddenly the villain tearing you apart forever…
Well, since he'd finally blasted the Light out of its host, Kira certainly wasn't going to let them reunite.
He stepped forward and casually planted his foot on Mello's outstretched hand.
Mello screamed a hundred times worse, trying to yank his arm back but failing, his body convulsing helplessly.
"You weren't controlled by the Light of Destruction, were you?"
Kira looked down and asked coolly.
"Or at least—not completely."
This wasn't his first time dealing with this cosmic force. He'd already seen many people infected by the evil light regain freedom and reason under his righteous guidance. Once freed, they quickly returned to their original selves, showing marked changes from before.
But Mello didn't.
Kira was sure Mello had been freed—the Light was clearly ejected from his body. Yet he still clung to this evil cosmic parasite, desperate to rejoin it.
Mello glared up at him in fury.
"What do you know!?"
He roared.
"So what if I'm being controlled?"
"I know it brainwashes me, uses me—so what? Before I met it, I was a failure. I was nothing!"
"Is that so?"
Kira looked down at him.
"Even if its goal is to destroy this world?"
"This world never cared about me anyway. Let it burn," Mello said coldly. "At least before that, I won't be meaningless."
He gritted his teeth at Kira.
"How would someone like you understand?"
"You, with your extraordinary talent—born to be a king—destined for a life others look up to. How could you understand the pain of a loser?"
Kira watched him, expressionless.
"Believe it or not, I do," Kira said lightly. "And I've never thought I was anything special."
He meant it.
In his previous life, he was painfully ordinary—no waves, nothing outstanding. Like the most nameless NPC around you, with no particular skill.
Even in Yu-Gi-Oh!, the only thing he was decent at, he was just a casual enthusiast. He liked studying meta history, old decks, offbeat combos; sometimes he made videos to eke out a few clicks online. But he thought his play was average—he'd never achieved convincing tournament results.
But he considered himself very lucky.
Because he'd gotten a second chance, in a world where his strengths could finally be useful.
Still, he didn't think he was special—he was standing on the shoulders of predecessors, using their experience to achieve all this. He believed many duelists in his shoes could do even better.
Kira took Mello's Deck, turned toward the door, and gestured without looking back.
"Finish it."
Lava Golem received the order. Its flames surged, and a lava poured into the entire cage.
"Yamero—!"
Mello screamed in despair, but the bursting flames surged out of the bars. The struggling Light of Destruction was finally obliterated in the blaze, scattered to smoke on the wind.