"Hey! Snap out of it! Are you still conscious?"
Carefully storing away Little Winda's "body," Tenjo Hikari approached the Gem-Knight Crystal. Two Flame Swordsmen quickly guarded Tenjo Hikari's side, warily eyeing the knight pinned in the ground.
Crystal struggled with effort, trying to pull himself out of the ground. Unfortunately, he was just beaten severely, leaving him with no strength at all. After attempting two or three times, he gave up struggling and looked at Tenjo Hikari, solemnly saying, "Thank you for saving my life, my lord. I am a knight of the Gem-Knight Order, Crystal."
Seeing that the knight seemed somewhat rational, the two Flame Swordsmen eased their vigilance a bit.
"How did you get here?" Tenjo Hikari asked curiously.
"...Well, sorry, I don't remember...?" He was uncertain. "I only remember being in charge of clearing contaminations when—ah, I remember now, I was controlled by shadow forces, almost becoming their puppet. If not for my comrades forcefully exiling me from the world, I might have infected other colleagues...."
Exiled?
Bannished?
Tenjo Hikari couldn't understand what he meant and recounted what had just happened to him. This caused Crystal to lower his head more and more, almost burying himself completely in the ground, before asking about Crystal's experiences.
And with that, Tenjo Hikari learned new information, or rather, "remembered" something he never cared about before.
As everyone knows, a Yu Gi Oh card, in addition to the text, has a very important component, which is the "Card Image."
Otherwise, holding a bunch of paper full of words wouldn't be interesting.
And the Card Images are interconnected, for example, Gaia's evolution from a knight to a Black Luster Soldier; the story of King of All Animals being thrashed by various beasts; the tale of Angels without a clue continuously playing with Holy Artifacts and finally being punished by the Celestial God, and alongside these classic stories, there are larger "serial dramas."
Like the "DT" World of Gem-Knights and the "Dracoslayer" World of Fullmetalfoes Alkahest, these are grand continuous stories. These stories often have numerous related characters, factions, events, filled with death, separation, friendship, and terrifying disasters that concern the life and death of a world.
As for the "DT" world of the Gem-Knights, it is even more fraught with catastrophes, with World Destruction Level disasters happening one after another from the "first episode" to the finale, rarely less than a tribal extinction-level catastrophe, at the very least able to wipe the surface clean.
However, the story Crystal spoke of was different from what Tenjo Hikari understood.
According to Crystal, he was just one of many "Crystal Knights." Although a captain, he certainly wasn't the Goddess Level Captain Crystal Tenjo Hikari was familiar with. His usual duties included dealing with various contaminations and training new knights in "combat"—that is, dueling.
And this is the biggest difference between "Card Image stories" and "Duel Spirits"!
In the "DT" world, there is no concept of cards or dueling; everyone fights with real weapons, and one wrong move means death. However, Duel Monster Spirits are different; they hone their skills in "card games."
The relationship between the two is roughly "the original legend" and "fairies born from the legend."
To better understand, the former's "Crystal" is Lü Bu from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, while the Crystal in front of Tenjo Hikari is like the Heroic Spirit Lü Bu in FGO. Although related, they are quite different. However, as a result, a spirit's evolution path is no longer singular; this "Crystal" can also become the "Savior" form of the DT World and even maintain that state.
Similarly, Fullmetalfoes Alkahest over there is in the same situation.
This kind of thing is also shown in the original works; for instance, in the original, the Dark World in the Spirit World is wicked and villainous, but in the Card Image stories, Dark World is actually two factions, both good and bad.
"Lord Tenjo, thank you for waking me up." After Crystal said this, he seemed to regain a bit of strength, struggling to pull himself from the ground, then knelt on one knee before Tenjo Hikari, saying, "I am willing to offer you my strength and become your knight.... However, my comrades are being attacked by shadows and darkness; I cannot live selfishly by myself!"
It didn't matter much to Tenjo Hikari, who didn't mind not having a card person, but the Fullmetalfoes Alkahest seized the opportunity to show its value: "Do you know how to return?"
"This?"
"Even I, an Alchemist, don't know, do you, with your head full of rocks and muscles, know?"
"Ah?"
"As you mentioned, your Knight Order had encountered similar situations before; contaminated beings were transported to another dimension for isolation, then slowly treated. So let me ask you, do you remember which dimension you were transported to? Do you know which dimension you are currently in?
You were transported for unknown reasons during the contamination to an unknown Broken Dimension, discovered by a human, and finally, through several turns, reached the Fragmented Dimension I'm in. How are you going to find your way back? By running into dimension walls?"
Crystal, covered in sweat, had nothing to say.
"If you ask me, it would be better to follow this human; this human's world has already developed dimension exploration technology, and who knows, one day you might find your home, right?"
"Uh, you make a good point..." Crystal Knight nodded blankly, bowing to Tenjo Hikari once again, "Lord Tenjo, please allow me to offer you my help."
"Good! Of course, that's good!" Tenjo Hikari happily agreed, enjoying the feeling of having someone speak on his behalf.
Immediately, before Tenjo Hikari's eyes, Crystal emitted a dazzling white light, and his body began to gradually shrink, eventually transforming into a shimmering gemstone, then turning into a card.
Gem-Knight Crystal.
Due to his poor physical condition, Crystal can only restore himself in card form.
What a rarity, Tenjo Hikari caught the card and stowed it away. It was rare to acquire a useful main deck monster card.
Tenjo Hikari then looked at Fullmetalfoes Alkahest. Fullmetalfoes Alkahest gave a slight bow, showing more elegance than power, "Please rest assured, Master, as an Alchemist, I am also willing to follow a more exceptional Fusion Master. Besides, we already made an agreement."
Fusion Master...
As a spirit, Fullmetalfoes Alkahest kept promises, following Tenjo Hikari after being saved, never breaking its vow. After witnessing Tenjo Hikari's duel, it realized that Tenjo Hikari was a "Fusion Master" beyond imagination, naturally becoming more satisfied. As a result, it intervened on behalf of Tenjo Hikari to retain Crystal when he wanted to leave, without engaging in a customary duel to determine victory or defeat before following.
"That's too much of a compliment, I'm far from it," Tenjo Hikari humbly replied.
Compared to the plain and simple Crystal, this Fullmetalfoes Alkahest, is an entirely different kind of monster—
Fullmetalfoes Alkahest, an ATK and DEF 0, LV 1 Fusion Monster!
The fact that its attack and defense are both zero would make many card veterans feel uneasy, and the fact that it's a LV 1 Fusion Monster highlights its fearsome nature.
In Tenjo Hikari's opinion, even when compared to the current unusable Master of Chaos and the Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem only usable at certain times, none of his Fusion Monsters were stronger than Fullmetalfoes Alkahest!
Because it is practically a "Thousand-Eyes Restrict" that can activate effects during the opponent's turn! It can turn an opponent's monster into its equip during their turn!
Truly a master among the Battle Ox!
Although it must be Fusion Summoned to be summoned, making its summoning slightly more challenging than Thousand-Eyes Restrict in his deck, there are always methods.
This time, his ultimate gain was a Crystal, a Fullmetalfoes Alkahest, and a Winda base—
Truly a bounty beyond Tenjo Hikari's expectations!
Thinking about how Little Winda and Crystal were sent by Akaba Leo, Tenjo Hikari couldn't help but sigh.
"Ha ha, Professor Akuma is quite an honest man."