[Sher, LP 0]
With life points reduced to zero, the ritual of the duel came to an end. The Orichalcos Barrier began to whirl and contract, slowly closing in towards Sher's location.
But at the same time, a powerful force erupted from his card deck.
The Phoenix Flame transformed into a blaze soaring into the sky, briefly forming the silhouette of a phoenix in mid-air. The blaze swept across the entire field, enveloping the three individuals involved in the duel with its dazzling light.
After a flash of blinding light, the scene appeared.
It looked like an ancient battlefield from a distant time, with the world engulfed in endless wailing. The sky seemed like a torn canvas with a terrifying crack exposed.
In that crack, an ominous evil god seemed to dwell vaguely. With deep and cold eyes, it appeared to want to devour all living beings.
The demonic army surged like a tide across the battlefield, their silhouettes menacing under the sunset's glow. There were those with horns clad in armor, those flying in mid-air with wings spread, and bloodthirsty demons with ferocious roars shaking the earth.
A brutal war erupted on the land, flames consuming everything. A burning phoenix fell from the sky, its feathers glistening with dazzling light in the flames, and its mournful cry echoed endlessly on the battlefield.
"This is... a vision of the past?" Judai murmured.
Although it was just a guess, they all seemed to understand its meaning.
The forces of the evil god invaded the spirit world, triggering a fierce war in a dimension unknown to humans. That fallen phoenix might have been Nephthys' Phoenix God.
This vision might be the Phoenix God expressing that it wasn't unwilling to help them back then, it was simply too weak, already defeated...
The fallen phoenix dissipated, and the flames it released were absorbed into a certain stone tablet.
It seemed that after that battle, the spirit of the Phoenix God entered a sealed state. The reason it could convey these messages now was due to the remaining bit of Phoenix Power absorbed in the tribe's relic statue.
The scene then shifted from the spirit world to reality.
It was an ancient village nestled within mountains.
The gentle sunlight was suddenly obscured by thick clouds, and monsters surged in from all directions like tides. The forms of various monsters flickered in the dark mountain forest, and the village was reduced to ruins under their rampage.
And behind all these monsters, under the ominous cloudy sky, a massive dark shadow watched everything with a sinister grin. The forehead of the shadow bore the Hexagram mark of the Orichalcos.
"How could it be...?" Sher murmured in disbelief.
Suddenly, he understood.
No, perhaps he should have realized long ago that there were many dubious points about the invasion of his village. However, until now, his mind had been under the influence of the Orichalcos, deliberately guided to ignore these points, unable to think in that direction.
Now, with his defeat in the duel and as his soul was about to dissipate, the connection to the Orichalcos finally broke. The Phoenix God seized this moment to convey the truth to him.
From the start, the demons that invaded his homeland were summoned by the God of Orichalcos.
They orchestrated this invasion themselves, then at the moment of despair, appeared as saviors, providing Sher the opportunity to gain power. This way, he willingly sold his soul to work for New Doma.
Yugen, on the other hand, wasn't surprised at all; he had more or less already guessed something like this.
Because this was an old trick that Old Doma also loved to use.
The Three Musketeers of Old Doma were also recruited through similar means. Dazi, using his power to glimpse the paths of fate, saw the potentials in Balrog, Lafiru, and Ameluda, deciding they were destined to become the Three Musketeers of Doma.
So Dazi manually crafted the tragedies of their childhoods, planting seeds of darkness in their hearts, and step by step guided them to voluntarily seek power and join Doma, becoming his strongest Three Musketeers.
It was an old trick, nothing new.
After another flash of bright light, the vision vanished, and the ethereal form of the Phoenix God gradually dissipated. It seemed the last bit of its power had also burned out.
Meanwhile, the Orichalcos Barrier had almost contracted completely onto Sher.
"Was I wrong...?" he closed his eyes gently, letting out a long sigh.
"Sher!" Judai attempted to reach out to him.
Sher glanced at Judai one last time, with a slight smile.
"You have great companions," he said, "I hope your future... will be different from mine."
With that, his soul departed from his body, merging into the green pillar of light, soaring into the sky, and disappearing without a trace.
This might have been the first time Judai personally witnessed someone losing their soul after being defeated in a duel.
It seemed to have a considerable impact on his young mind.
Judai looked a bit complex for a moment. But Yugen remained as calm as always, stepping forward and respectfully retrieving the card deck.
"There's nothing else we can do," Yugen said, inserting the card deck into an empty card case he carried, "We can only carry on his legacy and keep moving forward."
Along with inheriting his card deck.
Judai remained silent for a while.
"...Yeah."
"Alright, it's about to be dawn back at the Academy. Let's head back."
"..."
They likely only spent the night in the spirit realm, but the gains were not insignificant. A skeleton deck, an insect deck, and then the Phoenix God and the King of the End...
However, it's hard to call those latter two a full deck, as upon closer inspection, there were only a few cards in total. Strictly speaking, Sher's deck was also a bit of a chaotic pile, combining several disparate elements and a bunch of even more unrelated magic traps for support.
Yes, it indeed proves his might.
Yugen now had the support of spirits and had been training in the Academy for a long time, so he couldn't be considered completely inexperienced with divine draws anymore. Now, even he could be a bit more daring with his deck-building, though even his boldness was just adding a few obscure cards to increase the ceiling.
Seeing pure high-level builds like these always leaves him in awe.
The bit of power left in the Phoenix God card seemed to have just been expended. Although it could still be used, it had reverted back into just an ordinary card. But after seeing the Phoenix God's visions, holding this card suddenly felt like finding an item to trigger a hidden storyline in an RPG game...
As for the King of the End, things were still unclear. Although the "King of the End - Demis" card now in Yugen's hand seemed inert, showing no sign of a spirit inhabiting it, the recent duel indicated it was no simple card.
Yugen decided to err on the side of caution, avoiding the use of such a card with an unclear background until it could be studied and tested back home.
Some cards in the Yu-Gi-Oh! world are dangerous. Some malicious cards require a price to wield and might even backfire on the duelist. This "King of the End - Demis" seemed to be such a type.
Yugen summoned the Great Opening, slicing through space with a single stroke.
Just before stepping into the rift, Judai's steps suddenly halted for a moment.
Yugen turned his head slightly: "What is it?"
"Oh, nothing, just..."
Judai seemed thoughtful, pausing for several seconds.
Then he raised his head, wearing his usual sunny, optimistic smile again.
"...Even though a lot of the things that guy said are still unclear to me for now, I suddenly felt... it was really great to come to Duel Academy and meet someone like you, Yugen."
Yugen smiled slightly.
"Yeah, I think the same."
He turned back around.
"Let's go, don't keep them waiting too long."
Judai: "Alright~"
They both stepped forward, and with another sensation of spinning like when they came, soon found themselves slightly dizzy and back on solid ground.
Precisely at the spot where they had left, in the abandoned dormitory of the Duel Academy, in a room engraved with ancient writings and the symbols of the Thousand-Year Divine Artifact.
Upon landing smoothly, the first person they saw was someone unexpected.
It was Keihei Kaiba.
Keihei turned his head and, upon seeing the two land, his eyes lit up: "Ah, you're already back?"