"Release your Obelisk the Tormentor and Slifer the Sky Dragon!
I offer you this powerful monster—keh-heh-heh-heh-heh!"
"Kisama!!"
Watching his freshly summoned Three Egyptian Gods get at once traded for a pile of molten rock, You Ling could feel his fists itching to declare an Attack Position—if only the screen wasn't in the way.
"Hahaha! Kimochi~ Ghost! How does it feel to see the Three Divine Beasts you forced into your deck get sacrificed right before your eyes?"
Even through the screen, You Ling could picture his childhood friend's smug grin—no doubt wearing a full-on Marik-style face-twist of glee.
"You bastard! You actually brought that kind of card? What happened to our promise of a 'duel between real men'?"
"'Duel between real men'? Sorry, but this is no ordinary match—this is a Shadow Game, where the loser must obey one condition set by the victor!
For the sake of victory, I cast away all useless things!
I respect only one thing—winning!"
"And besides, what age do you think this is? You're still running the 'Three Egyptian Gods'?
You fossils from the old era—your ship's already sunk! Make way for the new generation!"
The cold voice echoed through his headset. You Ling's tone stayed tough, but his heart had gone cold.
Great. I just wanted a flashy little combo, and now I've turned the circus into a funeral.
He looked at the face-down card that had been sitting there collecting dust for eight hundred years, then at his hand—nothing but garbage that matched his opponent's tempo, including the infamous "Last Card of Destiny" and that one utterly meaningless card he'd drawn at the start.
Eh~ maybe I should just log off and go clear that Marineford raid instead…
No! It's not over yet! I still have Life Points left. If I can just survive this turn, I can—
He shook his head, steeling his resolve again.
"Oh? Don't forget—before your Life Points run out, your deck might hit zero first~"
That perfectly timed taunt made You Ling wonder if his opponent could actually read his thoughts.
Did this guy go to Egypt and secretly pick up a Millennium Eye or something?!
But since his opponent brought up the deck count, You Ling glanced over.
"Wait… only one card left?!"
It was over—no time to even buy a return ticket.
Next turn—You Ling's demise!
Duel Standby!
"Turn end! Enjoy your final turn, You↑ Ling↓~"
"Nyeh-heh~ What condition should I make you fulfill, I wonder~?"
Everyone knows—the closer a Yu-Gi-Oh! player gets to victory, the less humanity they retain.
His opponent's voice was already morphing into something deranged, as if savoring the taste of the victory screen to come.
...
Seconds dragged on. You Ling seemed to have accepted his fate.
But just as his opponent began to lose patience, a burst of intense BGM suddenly blasted through the mic—followed by a passionate, full-lunged shout:
"Sore wa… dō kana!!"
"Holy crap, you scared me! Don't tell me you spent all that time setting up random background music?!"
Ignoring the complaint, You Ling continued dramatically,
"You just said something about a 'flickering candle,' didn't you?"
"So what? This isn't the anime—there's no such thing as a miraculous top-deck draw."
Getting serious again, his opponent sneered, "With my Life Points and back row, you can't possibly wipe me out in one turn.
When this turn ends—it's your loss! That's right, all I need to do is wait!"
"Thanks for the reminder. But don't forget—I only have one card left in my deck!
Meaning, I already know what my next draw will be!"
"So what? With just one card you can't possibly—"
"For a duelist, nothing is impossible! I'll show you victory right here and now!"
"My turn! Draw!"
A golden light flashed across the screen as You Ling drew his final card.
"YA☆DA☆ZE!
I activate my face-down—Monster Reborn!
Arise once more, Obelisk the Tormentor!"
"What?! You've been sitting on a Monster Reborn that whole time?!"
Clearly, the other player hadn't expected to be bluffed for so long by a simple Spell Card.
"Is this really your first time dueling me?"
"…Fair point. That is your style. But so what? Even if you resurrect every monster in your Graveyard, you still can't finish me this turn!"
You Ling ignored him, narrating like a pro commentator:
"I banish The Revived Sky God from my Graveyard to retrieve Monster Reborn!
Now, rise again—Slifer the Sky Dragon!
And next, from the card I just drew—Millennium Revelation!
I send The Winged Dragon of Ra from my hand to the Graveyard, and once more, I retrieve Monster Reborn!"
"Ma… masaka!"
"That's right!
I activate Millennium Revelation again! By sending it to the Graveyard, I can Special Summon The Winged Dragon of Ra while ignoring its summoning conditions!
The Winged Dragon of Ra! Burn my enemy to ash! Special Summon!!"
"?!
Wait—you're not actually summoning that, are you?"
The panic in his opponent's voice was now unmistakable.
"You guessed it!
When Obelisk, Slifer, and The Winged Dragon of Ra stand together on the same field, the puzzle of victory is complete!"
The meaningless card that had been in his hand since the start began to glow faintly, as if answering the duelist who had never given up on it.
Without hesitation, You Ling responded to its call.
He straightened the trio of genderbent Egyptian God figures he'd crafted himself, gripped the freshly assembled Millennium Puzzle hanging from his neck—because, hey, if you're gonna go out, go out with style.
"In the name of the Pharaoh, I unite the Three Divine Beasts!
Descend now—Holactie the Creator of Light!!"
He shouted the summoning chant without a shred of shame.
So lost in the moment was he that he didn't notice the Puzzle's Eye of Wdjat starting to glow in sync.
"Take this—Toilet Cleaner—eh?"
His excited cry cut off abruptly as both he and his desk full of figurines were swallowed by blinding light, vanishing entirely.
Only the fallen chair bore silent witness that someone had been sitting there moments ago.
The mic icon on his screen still flickered—but no one remained to answer.
"Hey! Damn, that light effect was insane! What mod are you running, man?"
"Why aren't you moving? Did you crash the game again with your busted mods?"
"Yo, you there? If anyone's screwing things up, it should be me!"
"Come on, man, I'm a fair duelist! Even if the game bugged out, I'll count this round as your win."
"Oh, by the way—did you finish assembling that Millennium Puzzle I sent you? That wasn't some cheap Bandai plastic knockoff—I traded for it with a collector when I was traveling in Egypt.
Felt like it was made from some special material. If it had come with instructions, I would've built it myself—but since it was your birthday, I figured you'd have the patience for it."
"And how about those genderbent Egyptian God figures you were sculpting? Done yet? My birthday's coming up too, y'know.
cough You know I've always been a big fan of the Dark Magician Girl, hehe~"
"…Bro?"
"You there? Lava Golem's also acceptable."
"You Ling?"
"Ghost?"
"…"
...
Somewhere deep within an unknown void, in a place undetectable by any instrument—
A body of light flickered, containing the fragmented soul of You Ling, whose consciousness was barely holding together.
No—not barely. His soul really had been shattered into three roughly equal parts, only one of which retained a faint spark of awareness.
"Wait… did that 'Toilet Cleaner' blast actually hit me?
Tch, guess you can't joke about Egyptian Pharaohs.
Blasphemy gets punished fast…
All that guy ever did was call me 'Ghost,' and now I've really become one."
Feeling even his last thoughts fading away, You Ling's soul sank slowly into darkness.
The pure white light contracted, splitting into two orbs of red and blue that wrapped around two fragments of his soul.
The remaining light turned a divine gold, enveloping the final shard before leading all three deeper—toward a world that was almost entirely ocean.
Below, a blue planet turned—its seas split into four Blues, a Grand Line cutting across it like a scar, a Red Line rising like a wall, and somewhere out there, a World Government watching the seas.
On one of those seas, a stormfront was forming.
A golden comet of soul-light streaked toward it.
A new name was waiting to be written on those waters—
Valeria Skystorm.
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