Chapter 31 - Return of the Monarchs

Rest In Peace Kazuki Takahashi, the series that you created has inspired many, including myself and this series. 

-

"It's been a while since I've been here." She said as she appeared at the Gate, looking around the empty garden that was her Duel World, an empty world where only she could access.

And it has indeed been quite the while since she has ever been here, she would usually duel at least once or twice in this place almost religiously, to farm DP to keep grinding out cards that she could give out to the childrens of the orphanage to sell.

But then she had to prepare for the tournament, and she mostly tested her deck with Yuri and rested for the night to not overwork herself, and after that the whole incident with That Man occured.

And she hadn't visited back to this place since, and now that she was quite sure that she had at least stabilized herself to a certain point, at least she was quite sure that she wouldn't let herself fall into a trance and hurt her opponent while dueling.

But she still wasn't perfectly sure that she wouldn't, because she knows that if she sees someone who was connected to the Academia in any way, connected to That Man and supported him and his beliefs, then she was sure that she would see red.

So she decided to healthily confront her problems, and that is of course, by venting her raw emotions in a place where she wouldn't do any harm. Or at least, any permanent form of harm, anything that she doesn in this Duel World doesn't leave and real consequences after all.

She stared at the large floating red Gate right at the middle of the garden, and soon enough a figure started to emerge, taking the form of none other than the original Red Hat, or at least this world's rendition of the duelists.

She could hear her heartbeat in her ears, the anticipation of actually dueling after such a long time, and to duel against a Red Hat in her Duel World who would always use a different random deck every time, it made her blood boil.

She snapped her left arm outwards, activating her newly minted duel disk, the metallic steampunk styled duel disk manifesting an obtuse angled hard light construct, and her opponent did so with his own duel disk as well.

"DUEL!!"

Yuuna: 4000LP

Red Hat: 4000LP

"I'll go first!" She declared as she took the first turn, briefly glancing at her hand as she refamiliarised with the deck, with the itch of having cards back in her hand after only a full week, and though it was a week filled with trading and selling cards to gain some amount of DP, it had still felt oh so long.

It was a feeling that she relished in, even if it had only been a week that she had opted out of dueling, this was the game that she loved with all her heart, the game that her new life has revolved around for over the last decade. 

So she continued to return to doing the one thing that she loved,and taking a card from her five card hand, one which had been modulated thanks to her Skill. "I'll start with the Spell, Tenacity of the Monarchs!"

And as she activated the first spell card of the game, the card holographic image appeared in front of her, the image depicting Caius shining as it manifested. She didn't quite need to explain the card's effects like she would normally as she was in the Duel World and she was basically facing something akin to an A.I., but for the sake of reintegrating herself back to the game that she loved, she did so anyway.

"This spell allows me to reveal one monster in my hand with 2400 attack and 1000 defence, or 2800 attack and 1000 defence, to add one 'Monarch' spell or trap card from my deck except another copy of Tenacity. I will reveal Ehther the Heavenly Monarch." She said aloud as her opponent allowed the card to go without a response, quite honestly glad that he did not open an Ash Blossom in hand.

Which had happened before, and though she still hadn't gotten even a single copy of the card as a drop even after farming over a hundred of Red Hats, she still at least has a playset of Infinite Impermanence and Veiler.

Not that she actually has any space in this deck to run those kinds of hand traps.

"Then I will add Pantheism of the Monarchs to my hand." Having revealed her one form of interaction that she had as a cost for the spell card's activation, she added the draw spell and shuffled her hand.

"Now I'll activate Pantheism." She said, playing her next card which was the draw spell that she had just added to her hand. "Which allows me to send one 'Monarch' spell or trap card from my hand to the graveyard to draw two cards."

And she revealed the card that she would send to the graveyard as a cost. "I will send  the Continuous Spell, March of the Monarchs to the graveyard." And with no response to the card's activation, she continued on. "And I'll draw two cards."

Drawing her two cards, she shuffled her hand. The annoying part of dueling in this world with duel disk, no matter how amazing solid vision was and how she still gushed at the realistic heft that the duel disk gave, the fact that she couldn't see her opponent's deck, or rather Extra Deck, was quite annoying.

After all she couldn't exactly see whether or not her opponent was playing a pile deck, a deck which used the maximum amount of cards that someone could legally play, nor could she see if her opponent was also playing an Extra Deckless deck like the deck that she was playing right now. 

And something like this of course matters, having an insight on what kind of deck your opponent was playing was quite important after all, especially for a control deck player like herself.

"I will activate the graveyard effect of Pantheism of the Monarchs." She declared. "I can banish it from the graveyard, to reveal three 'Monarch' spell or trap cards from my deck, and for you to choose one of them to add to my hand while shuffling the rest back into the deck."

And as one would, she revealed three copies of the same cards, this one being a floodgate that one would normally find in a monarch deck. "I will reveal three copies of The Monarchs Erupt."

And having revealed three offs of the Continuous Trap, because as much as she wanted to add Domain, she realized the Field Spell are easily removable in thai strange mish mash of a format. And with how many of the relatively strong decks that she had seen the Red Hat of this place plays their own Field Spell, picking the floodgate as her floodgate of choice wouldn't be quite wise.

So instead, she added the Continuous Trap card into her hand, shuffling the rest back into her deck,and continued on with her turn. "I will activate the Spell, Reinforcement of the Army."

She activated the one spell card, the infamous RotA, and the spell's image appeared in front of her as it shone. "Which lets me add a level 4 or lower Warrior monster from my deck to my hand, I'll add Edea the Heavenly Squire."  

While she had opened a copy of Eidos, getting Edea into rotation was always appreciated, especially with its graveyard effect to recur her banished Monarch Spells and Traps, which means that she can easily recur the Pantheism that she had just used earlier for her next turn.

"And I will normal summon Edea the Heavenly Squire." And she summoned her first monster of the game. And the Light Warrior appeared, her heavenly visage looking angelic as she descended.

Edea the Heavenly Squire -  Light/Warrior/Level 1/Effect: 800/1000

"And Edea's effect activates." She declared on her monster's summon, activating her effects. "If this card is normal or special summoned, I can special summon one monster with 800 attack or 1000 defence from my deck in defence position, but I can't special summon from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn."

Having explained the card's effect, she revealed one of the two targets that she has in this iteration of the deck. "I will summon Eidos the Underworld Squire." And with Edea's effect, she summoned her dark counterpart in defence position.

Eidos the Underworld Squire -  Dark/Spellcaster/Level 2/Effect: 800/1000

"Now Eidos' effect." She declared on the card's summon, activating the Dark Spellcaster's on summon effect. "If this card is normal or special summoned, during my Main Phase this turn, I can tribute summon one monster in addition to my normal summon this turn." She explained.

"Now I'll tribute both Eida and Eidos!" She shouted aloud as she whipped her arm forward, the two monsters in front of her disappearing with her command. "And I'll tribute summon Erebus the Underworld Monarch!"

And with that declaration, a wave of darkness enveloped the field, and as if ascending from the underworld itself, a dark figure emerged, sitting upon a large throne was none other than Erebus, the Monarch of the Underworld in all of his glory, summoning the better Monarch that has a going first utility that she had drawn out of Pantheism.

Erebus the Underworld Monarch -  Dark/Zombie/Level 8/Effect: 2800/1000

"Now I will activate the effect of Erebus! And I will chain the effect of Edea as well!" She declared both monster's effects in a chain. And it then resolved. "If Edea is sent to the graveyard, I can target one of my banished 'Monarch' spells or traps, and add it to my hand!"

A slot opened up in her new duel disk, and she chose her one and only target. "I will target the banished Pantheism of the Monarchs, and add it to my hand." She said as she took the card back, and shuffled her hand.

"And Erebus' effect! If this card is tribute summoned, I can send two 'Monarch' spell or trap cards from my hand or deck to the graveyard, to shuffle one card from your hand, graveyard, or side of the field back into the deck!"

"I will send another copy of Pantheism of the Monarch, and a Return of the Monarchs from my deck to the graveyard." She said as she sent the two cards as an effect and not cost for the activation of Erebus' effect.

Of course, without having a target in the field or graveyard, she would be using Erebus' effect to loop a card in her opponent's hand, randomly of course. "I'll choose to randomly return a card from your hand into the deck."

And she did, with the dark monarch of the underworld raising a hand and shot forth a wave of darkness, a card from her opponent was then randomly shuffled back into the deck, starting their hand with 4 cards, though since they were going second they would essentially start with 5 cards in hand.

"I will set a card face-down." She said as she placed a card in her spell and trap zone, the set was of course the already known Erupt that she had added through Tenacity this turn. "And I will end my turn." And so she ended her turn with three cards in hand, the cards being the Known Ehther and Pantheism, and the last one being the Eidos that her Skill had modulated into her hand.

And Red Hat then started his turn. Drawing a card for his turn, he started his turn with five cards as his starting hand. And took out a card from his hand to activate, seemingly summoning a monster with its innate special summoning condition.

And the monster that appeared was a small fairy-like monster, that being a small statured shining silver haired girl, carrying with her an equally small, snow petal-like umbrella positioned above her head.

Rikka Snow Princess - Water/Plant/Level 4/Effect: 0/0 

"Rikka Snow Princess, so it's the innate summoning condition to special it from hand for free huh." She mused as she narrowed her eyes at the monster that her opponent had summoned, a free special from hand that locked him from special summoning anything other than Plant Monsters as long as it is face-up on the field.

"So an XYZ Deck then. That's new." The decks that she has been facing in this Duel World has always been either decks that don't rely on the Extra Deck like Subterrors, or Fusion based decks.

Does it have something to do with her now being in the XYZ Dimension? That probably means that her chances of getting a drop for an XYZ Monster, or at least an XYZ support card should be possible, or at least something that could open up a specific XYZ support pack.

The monster was a negate, a monster negate to be exact, though it doesn't destroy the monster. Though said negation can only be activated by shuffling the card from the hand or graveyard back into the deck, and at an added cost of tributing a Plant monster, all while a 'Rikka' monster is on the field.

It has quite the convoluted condition, one that the deck could easily achieve of course, essentially it can act as a hand trap should he control a Rikka monster on the field. And with its activation happening in either the grave or hand, it was something that her Erupt can't negate.

Which, while annoying, was still something that she could deal with.

Red Hat then continued by revealing another monster in his hand, this one he tribute summoned instead of summoning it with its innate summoning condition. The monster being a purple dress wearing Plant monster, one who has a flower-like accessory on her head, and carrying the same snow-like umbrella in her hand, summoned in attack position of course.

Mudan the Rikka Fairy - Water/Plant/Level 6/Effect: 1000/2400 

And he activated the monster's effect, activating it's on summon effect that would add a Rikka spell or trap from his deck to his hand. And annoyingly enough, it was something that she couldn't respond with.

"So he has a way to circumvent Erupt huh." She said with a click of her tongue. The Monarchs Erupt was a strong floodgate, essentially it was a Skill Drain that doesn't affect tribute summoned monsters.

And with Mudan not being summoned with its innate special summoning condition but instead was straight up tribute summoned, it meant that she couldn't negate its search effect.

"And now he also has Snow Princess in the graveyard too, darn that's quite annoying." She said aloud as she watched Red Hat added a card with the monster's effect, the card being the archetype's titular Field Spell.

And activated it, the field around them immediately turning into a field of flowers and snow. Yeah, if she had searched for Domain it would have instantly been outed then, glad that she had searched for Erupt instead.

Red Hat then activated the Field Spell's, Rikka Arrival's effects, and immediately set a Rikka spell directly from the deck, though locking him out of anything but summoning Plant monster for the rest of the turn.  

And he immediately activated the spell, Rikka Glamour, and with Rikka Arrival's effect tributed her Erebus to pay for the spell's cost. Which meant that her Ehther was completely dead in her hand, and she won't have any interactions.

Which was… troubling. She just hopes that she won't get one turn killed from this position.

And he added two monsters with the spell card's effect as he had tributed a monster for the extra cost, adding another copy of Rikka Snow Princess and Primula the Rikka Fairy to his hand.

And immediately activating Primula's effect, activating its special summon effect as he had tributed a monster and started a new chain. With no forms of response, the pink haired twin-tailed Rikka appeared onto the field, bringing of course her own small umbrella as she was summoned in defence position.

Primula the Rikka Fairy - Water/Plant/Level 4/Effect: 800/1800 

Then he activated Primula's effect for Level modulation, stretching an arm forward towards Primula herself as he increased only her Level with the effect.

Primula the Rikka Fairy - Water/Plant/Level 6/Effect: 800/1800 

And with two Level 6 monsters on the field, he of course performed an XYZ summon. Overlaying the two Level 6 monsters, and creating an overlay network, the two monsters turned into blue motes of light that entered a dark and gold spiralling vortex.

And out from said vortex came one of Rikka's tribal XYZ Monsters, the Rank 6 ornately dressed black haired girl with a flower-like decoration on top of her head, carrying a large snow petal-like umbrella which she twirled around.

Kanzashi the Rikka Queen - Water/Plant/XYZ/Rank 6/Effect: 2400/2400 OV: 2

Thankfully it wasn't the Rank 8 that could disrupt her turn, but it was still annoying in its own way. 

And he immediately went to the Battle Phase, not having drawn any form of extension and attacked directly with Kanzashi. "Tch!" She grunted as she received the direct attack which left her with a measly amount of Life Points left.

Yuuna: 1600LP

Red Hat then set a card face-down, and proceeded to end his turn. With a board of a singular XYZ Monster and a set card, along with three cards in his hand, one being the known Snow Princess as a form of interaction, though he was more likely to use the copy in the graveyard for the negation effect.

If the Red Hat followed the pattern of playing main deck archetype sets like they usually do, then that meant that the set was likely to be one of the two Rikka trap cards, which meant that it was either the in archetype Back to the Front, or their tribal monster negate that can, on certain condition, act like Widow Anchor.

The problematic card however, was the Field Spell. It essentially turns any and all forms of cost that he would have needed to tribute Plant monsters for the additional effect to become non targeting removal spells, one that would bypass destruction protection and the likes.

But she at least has already thought of a way to out the Field Spell. 

"My turn! I'll draw!" She said as the turn player changed back to her, and drew her card for the turn, adding the fourth card to her hand. "I will activate the effect of Pantheism of the Monarchs in my graveyard!" She declared to start off her turn.

"With its effect, I will reveal three copies of Domain of the True Monarchs." She immediately went, forgoing the explanation and revealing the card that she would be using to out the position that she was in.

And of course, having revealed three of the same cards, she proceeded to add her own Field Spell to her hand, and proceeded to activate it. "Now I will activate the Field Spell, Domain of the True Monarchs!"

The field of snow-like flowers then immediately disappeared upon her activating her Field Spell, and was instead replaced with dark pillars that erupted from below the ground, and a dark mists that then engulfed the entirety of the field.

She had essentially used her own Field Spell as removal, something that she was quite glad as this deck doesn't run that many backrow removal, if at all. This strange format truly does make the strange interaction with Field Spells and the like.

But now that she outed the annoying Field Spell, now she could actually continue and combo off.  "I will activate the effect of Eidos the Underworld Monarch in my graveyard." She declared. "I'll banish it from the graveyard to target one monster with 800 attack or 1000 defence in my graveyard, except another copy of itself."

She banished the monster as cost to activate the effect, and declared the target. "I will target Edea the Heavenly Squire." And seeing that her opponent does not negate the effect with his Snow Princess, the effect resolves.

"I will special summon Edea the Heavenly Squire from my graveyard in defence position." She said as she took the card off from the graveyard, and placed it onto her duel disk, the heavenly warrior then once more appeared onto the field.

Edea the Heavenly Squire -  Light/Warrior/Level 1/Effect: 800/1000

"And once more, I will activate Edea's effect to special summon a monster with 800 attack and 1000 defence from my deck!" She declared again, and.

"And I will summon Eidos the Underworld Squire with Edea's effect." She continued to resolve her part of the chain, summoning her last copy of Eidos from her deck in defence position.

Eidos the Underworld Squire -  Dark/Spellcaster/Level 2/Effect: 800/1000

"Now Eidos' effect." She declared on the card's summon, activating the Dark Spellcaster's on summon effect. "If this card is normal or special summoned, during my Main Phase this turn, I can tribute summon one monster in addition to my normal summon this turn." She explained.

Even that however, did not prompt for the activation of the Snow Fairy, though that was understandable as she still has her normal summon and doesn't quite need the additional tribute summon for the turn.

"I will activate the effect of Domain of the True Monarchs!" She declared aloud, activating her Field Spell's effect. "Once per turn, I can reduce the Level of one monster with 2800 attack or 1000 defence in my hand by 2 until the end of this turn!"

She of course, revealed the one large Monarch that fits the Field Spell's specifications in her hand. "I will reveal Ehther the Heavenly Monarch in my hand, and reduce her Level by 2!" Which meant that for this turn, she only needed to tribute one monster for its summon.

"Now I'll tribute both Eida the Heavenly Squire!" She shouted aloud as she whipped her arm forward, the two monsters in front of her disappearing with her command. "And I'll tribute summon Ehther the Heavenly Monarch!"

And in total contrast to the summon of Erebus in her previous turn, a bright light seemed to rain down, parting the clouds above. And as if an angel descending from the heavens itself, the Heavenly Monarch then appeared and descended upon the field.

Ehther the Heavenly Monarch -  Light/Fairy/Level 8/Effect: 2800/1000

"And now I will activate the effect of Ehther! And I will also chain the effect of Edea in my graveyard!" She declared both activations in a chain, chaining the two effects in a way so that the effect of Ehther would not be negated by Snow Princess.

And instead, her opponent opted to activate the effect of Kanzashi the Rikka Queen as well, as a monster was indeed tributed in the previous chain, and by detaching one material from the card, in order to special summon a monster from the either graveyards and treating it as a Plant monster

Kanzashi the Rikka Queen - Water/Plant/XYZ/Rank 6/Effect: 2400/2400 OV: 1

But of course, she can't really let that resolve. "And I will chain the Continuous Trap, The Monarchs Erupt!" She said, flipping up the floodgate that she had set since her first turn. "This card can only be activated if I have no cards in my Extra Deck, and while I control a tribute summoned monster!"

Then she started to actually explain the floodgate's effect. "While this card is face-up, it negates the effects of all face-up monsters on the field while they are face-up on the field, except monsters that were tribute summoned!"

But then her opponent turned their set card face-up, revealing the trap that was Rikka Tranquility. It was the in archetype Back to the Front, a card that essentially special summons one Rikka monster from the graveyard in defence position.

But just like all the other Rikka cards however, it has the added cost of tributing a Plant monster to gain an added effect, and her opponent chose to dodge her in archetype Skill Drain by tributing his Kanzashi to also special summon an additional Plant monster from the graveyard, also in defence position.

The five card chain then resolved, starting to resolve backward from the last card chained, that being the effect of Rikka Tranquility, and two monsters were then special summoned from the graveyard.

The two monsters that Red Hat chose were the monsters that had the highest defence in his repertoire, those being the XYZ Monster that he had just tributed, Kanzashi, and one of its material, Mudan.

Kanzashi the Rikka Queen - Water/Plant/XYZ/Rank 6/Effect: 2400/2400 OV: 0

Mudan the Rikka Fairy - Water/Plant/Level 6/Effect: 1000/2400 

And then her The Monarchs Erupt resolved, and it did achieve something as it would negate Mudan the Rikka Fairy's on summon search effect, but the chain then continued.

And as the Kanzashi whose effect resolved had left the field, where it's effect would have been negated thanks to The Monarchs Erupt, Red Hat then special summoned one monster from her graveyard, that being Erebus the Underworld Monarch being summoned in attack position, his large dark throne and all.

Erebus the Underworld Monarch -  Dark/Zombie/Level 8/Effect: 2800/1000

And then the chain continued to resolve backwards as it does, that being the second card that was chained which was Edea. "With Edea's graveyard effect, she cycled back the banished Pantheism back and added it into her hand, of course not forgetting to shuffle after she added the card. 

"And with ether's effect, I will send another Domain of the True Monarchs, and The Monarchs Stormforth to the graveyard." Taking the two copies of the card that she had declared from her deck, she sent them to the graveyard as Ehther's effect.

"And I will special summon my second copy of Erebus the Underworld Monarch from my deck in attack position!" And then proceeded to special summon an Erebus directly from her deck, the large monarch sitting ominously as it glared at the counterpart that Kanzashi had summoned from her graveyard.

Erebus the Underworld Monarch -  Dark/Zombie/Level 8/Effect: 2800/1000

"Battle!" She declared as she immediately went on to the Battle Phase. "I will attack your Erebus with my Ehther!" And with her command, the giant Fairy rose from her throne, and swung her golden staff.

"Now the effect of Domain of the True Monarch activates! If a tribute summoned monster I control attacks an opponent's monster, it gains 800 attack during the damage calculation!" And the dark pillars around them glowed, and Ehther's figure glowed with divine golden light.

Ehther the Heavenly Monarch -  Light/Fairy/Level 8/Effect: 3600/1000

And with that attack boost, Ehther was powerful enough to punch through her opponent's Erebus, managing to deal a measly 800 points of damage to her opponent.

Red Hat: 3200LP

And with that instance of the Damage Step over, Ehther's attack then returned to what it was originally, the golden light surrounding her dissipating.

Ehther the Heavenly Monarch -  Light/Fairy/Level 8/Effect: 2800/1000

"Now I will attack your Kanzashi with Erebus!" And then she continued to attack, using the Erebus that she had special summoned with Ehther to engulf the XYZ Monster with a wave of darkness, turning her into motes of light.

"Now I will activate a Pantheism of the Monarchs, I will discard my other Pantheism to draw two cards." She said as she pitched the Pantheism that she had added, both with the graveyard effects of Edea, and drew two new cards.

"I'll set one card face-down." She said, setting a card face-down in the column adjacent to Ehther, always wary of having two cards in the same column even if she was facing a deck that probably wasn't playing Mekk-Knights. "And I will end my turn. And Erebus returns to my hand." And soon she ended her turn with three cards in hand once more, the known cards being her last copy of Eidos, the returned Erebus, and an unknown.

And the turn player changed, with her returning the turn control to Red Hat once more, and he drew his card for the turn, adding that fourth card into his hand. "On your Draw Phase, I will activate the Continuous Trap, The Prime Monarch!" She said as she flipped up her face-down card.

"I will shuffle back another copy of The Prime Monarch, and one Pantheism of the Monarchs back into the deck, to draw one card." She said as she cycled back the two declared cards with The Prime Monarch, and drew to make her hand to four cards.

And now his turn actually started, moving fast through the Standby Phase and immediately into his first Main Phase.

Red Hat started by revealing, the Snow Princess in his hand that he had added with Glamour in his previous turn, and special summoning it onto the field. Another one of the bluish-silver princess of snow then appeared onto his side of the field.

Rikka Snow Princess - Water/Plant/Level 4/Effect: 0/0 

And then Red Hat proceeded to normal summon a monster, the monster being none other than Rikka Petal, the small fair-like Plant monster appeared as it stood atop of a small flower petal

Rikka Petal - Water/Plant/Level 1/Effect: 0/0 

And then he revealed another card in his hand, this one she saw was Snowdrop, and by tributing the Rikka Petal that he had just special summoned, to special summon both itself and Hellebore the Rikka Fairy, both umbrella wielding ladies appeared onto the field, with Snowdrop summoned in defence position, while Hellebore was summoned in attack position.

Snowdrop the Rikka Fairy - Water/Plant/Level 8/Effect: 1200/2600 

Hellebore the Rikka Fairy - Water/Plant/Level 8/Effect: 2600/1200 

And though there were two Level 8 monsters on the field, there was sadly no way for him to overlay the both of them, as with Domain of the True Monarchs on the field, he was now locked entirely out of the Extra Deck.

Had the Field Spell not been there, he could have instead tributed the special summoned Snow Princess, overlay into Teardrop and then crash into her Ehther, after that then he could have popped off from there.

But still, he attacked. Moving on towards the Battle Phase, he did what he could and attacked her defence position Eidos and destroying it in battle with Hellebore, sending it to the graveyard before ending his turn, with no cards left in his hand, and four monsters on the field.

"Then it's my turn once more, I'll draw." She drew a card for her turn, getting up to five cards in her hand. "And I will trigger The Prime Monarch, I will shuffle Return of the Monarchs and a Tenacity of the Monarchs to the deck to draw another card." And drew another one to get that sixth card into her hand.

Annoyingly enough, she couldn't exactly swing for game, not with this many bodies on field. Monarchs were certainly not known for their ability to for hard pushes. It was certainly helped with this 4000 Life Point format, but even then clearing this almost full board wasn't easy for a control deck like this one.

But she could still clear up the board to a certain extent, and hopefully she could deal a good amount of damage this turn. "I will activate the effect of Pantheism in my graveyard. I will banish it to reveal three copies of Tenacity of the Monarchs."

And having shuffled the one copy of the spell card that she had used at the start of the game back into the deck, she essentially guaranteed that she would add back the card into her hand with Pantheism's graveyard effect, shuffling her hand as she did so.

"And I will activate it. I will add the Monarch Stormforth to my hand with it's effect." And added the quick-play spell into her hand. "And I will immediately activate it!" She shouted as she activated the card.

With the holographic projection appearing as it shone, she said the card's effect aloud. "Once during this turn, if I would tribute a monster for a tribute summon this turn, I can tribute one monster you control even though I do not control it."

But she wasn't quite done yet. "Now I will activate the graveyard effect of my second Eidos, I will special summon Edea back from my graveyard." The Heavenly Squire returned to the field once more, the same copy of the monster appearing for the third time for the game.

Edea the Heavenly Squire -  Light/Warrior/Level 1/Effect: 800/1000

"Now I will tribute Edea and your Snowdrop, to tribute summon Erebus the Underworld Monarch!" A giant tornado engulfed the silver dressed maiden, and along with Edea, both were tributed to mark the return of the Underworld Monarch.

Erebus the Underworld Monarch -  Dark/Zombie/Level 8/Effect: 2800/1000

"Erebus chain one, Edea chain two." She said lowly as she chained the two cards in succession, once chain blocking the effect of the monster who would stay off the field as Snow Princess' negation does destroy.

But her opponent still does so, responding to the last card chained with the graveyard effect of the first Snow Princess in his graveyard. It was kind of understandable why he hadn't done it last turn where she did the exact same chain with Ehther as Kanzashi was his only monster, and it does tribute as cost, which meant that he wouldn't have been able to do the chain that had gotten him this many monsters as walls in the first place.

He tributed the other Snow Princess to satisfy the cost, and without any other cards to chain, it resolves. With Edea's graveyard effect being negated, she wouldn't be getting that banished Pantheism back, but she already has more than enough resource in hand, not to mention that she could loop them with The Prime Monarch.

"Then with Erebus' effect I will send another copy of The Monarch Stormforth and Return of the Monarchs, to send Mudan to the graveyard." And as she used the Underworld Monarch's effect to non targeting send his monster to the graveyard, his field is left with a single monster.

Ah, and what do you know, she has lethal on board. "Battle! I will attack your Hellebore with Erebus!" She declared her first attack, attacking the attack position Hellebore. "And with Domain, he gains an additional 800 points of attack!" The dark Monarch glowed with eerie darkness as its attack was strengthened.

Erebus the Underworld Monarch -  Dark/Zombie/Level 8/Effect: 3600/1000

And the attack connects, dealing a good chunk of damage towards her opponent. Dealing enough damage to leave him in lethal range with an open field like that.

Red Hat: 2200LP

"Now I will attack you directly for game with Ehther!" And just like that, the Heavenly Monarch swung her golden staff and struck the finishing blow, dealing slightly over lethal with the direct attack, sending a large cloud of dust from the explosion of the attack.

Red Hat: 0LP

And with that final attack dealt, the Red Hat disappeared and the holographic projection of her cards along with him, and much to her chagrin, he dropped no sort of cards at his defeat. But still. "Whew, that was quite the first game to return to." She said with a wide dopey grin as she wiped the sweat off of her brow.

It may have been only merely a week, but it does feel quite good to return back to the game again. Really if anything it reaffirms her love for the game, especially with how duel disks and solid vision amping the experience of playing the card game.  

And said love only strengthens the opposite feelings of hatred that she held towards the Professor and his doings.

She shook those dark thoughts from her head as she rubbed her chin in musing the duel back once again. "But still, that last attack actually… dealt some damage huh." She said as she glanced at the spot where the defeated Red Hat had once stood upon, or rather the spot where Ehther had dealt the finishing blow for the duel.

And saw that there were some scorch marks left in the solid tiles that made up her Duel World. Clearly, in the heat of the moment, she had somehow made the damage that her monster dealt to actually leave lasting damage, even more than solid vision would normally give.

And though she knew that the damage would disappear from her Duel World the following morning, it still showed that she couldn't control whatever this… spiritual connection power thingy that she has with her cards.

Well, it meant that she needed more training to actually control her emotions during dueling.

And what better way to fix that problem other than dueling more?

-

Alright, she needs to be honest to herself.

She's lost.

With the World Duel Carnival coming in just a few weeks, apparently Heartland's own premiere dueling school were holding exhibition matches where the school itself would be holding a small tournament.

From what she heard from Myu, the tournament would be a single match quick tournament, where the dueling school's branches are pit against one another, and the winner of the tournament was given a free sponsor to enter the World Duel Carnival.

Not a pass from the tournament's preliminaries and getting a guaranteed ticket for one of the 12 seats for the tournament proper, but it was just that the school would give them an instant pass to enter the World Duel Carnival, no need to pay any DP and a free sign up.

Because the sign up did cost quite a good amount of DP, it wasn't a wonder that they were willing to put out a million DP as the grand prize considering that it had a ten thousand DP entry fee.

Because of course, the World Duel Carnival was, as its name implies, is a tournament that could be entered by any duelist all over the world as long as they registered and made their way to the venue this time being Heartland City.

And as far as she knew, there was no guaranteed way for a duelist to guarantee themselves a spot at one of the twelve final duelists for the tournament, though there probably are some shady background dealings to do so, one that would cost a great amount of DP that is.

Because for a tournament at this grand of a scale, there are most certainly something like back door and illegal dealings like bets and all, the latter being something that she might even need to dip into with how her DP situation kept drastically changing with her spending it at an absurd amount quickly.

Though saying that, she wasn't here to enter the Heartland Duel School's small inter branch tournament. It was a closed tournament after all, limited to only those students in the Heartland Duel School, but instead she was here for three things.

The first was, of course, the reason why she was even here in the first place, that being to watch and cheer on Myu, her first acquaintance in this strange land, her first customer that was quite adamant on her coming to watch her match.

Her second reason for even coming all this way from her recently rented four tatami room, why the futuristic city of Heartland had a Japanese based apartment she had no idea, but she at least now had a place to call her home base, was to observe the level of duelists in this dimension, or rather in Heartland Duel School.

Which left her with barely enough pocket DP to even open enough packs to buy some staples, which means that she's broke again, but that's beside the point.

She had of course seen the dueling level of Myu, Sayaka, and Allen, and though she wasn't sure if Anna also attended the dueling school, she had a good grasp on the current level of meta, but getting a first hand look at one of the premiere dueling schools and the students studying there

And a secret objective of finding characters, or rather people that she could possibly recognize while she was there. After all, since this was something of a mix between the original ZEXAL world added with some Arc-V characters, that means that there should at least be some people that are 'characters' so to speak.

And if her System works just as she thinks it will, it means that if she duels them she could unlock packs that could specifically support their decks and sell them those cards, just like how dueling against Serena had unlocked the Beast-Warrior package, and how dueling with Ryo had unlocked her the Cyber Dragon one.

Either that, or to sell them a card or two just like she had done with Kaito, because that had also unlocked her a pack that specifically helps his Galaxy Eyes deck, even though she still hasn't bought or opened any of the pack.

And last but not least was… the exhibition match, something that could also fulfil her secret objective of unlocking card packs for specific 'characters' that correspond with their deck.

It's as its name implies, a session of the tournament where anyone in the audience could challenge the contestants, which is a far more sophisticated way to challenge someone to a match rather than a stranger to just appear out of nowhere and challenge you to a duel.

And since this was Heartland's very own dueling school, she was quite sure that there are one or two 'characters' that she should know of, and should she challenge them then she could unlock packs that corresponds with their decks, and hopefully get enough DP in the case where she winds up winning to buy some packs and sell their cards separately at a higher price.

Because right now, after a full day's rest and a few days free from dueling, she believed that she was in a good enough state to duel against someone and not cause bodily harm or anything of the sort.

Though the inkling to murderize someone still existed and lingered in the back of her head, she believed that she could hold the urge and keep it at bay until she could find a better way to relieve her stress, or at least find someone that she could legitimately use as a stress ball.

Such as of course, any and all people who have the slightest bit of connection with the Academia and that man. Because knowing him he would have most surely sent out a spy or two in this dimension.

"Now if only I can find where the venue is..." She muttered aloud in an annoyed tone as she crumpled the school pamphlet that she had in her hand, lost in the vibrant and confusing futuristic architecture that was the Heartland Duel School.

The map most certainly doesn't help! Who designed this place?! It's an actual maze for goodness sake! Why does it have to have so many arches and bridges that essentially leads to nowhere?! 

Now that she thinks about it, the Academia also had those winding and confusing hallways with dead ends. Is that the generic architectural style that the dimensions have?! Well if so that's stupid!

"Um…" She heard someone call from behind, and she turned around to see someone and stopped as she saw the absurd hair do that was a staple for 'characters' as far as she knew. 

And for some strange reason, the boy seemed familiar for some reason. It was as if she knew the boy from somewhere, or at least she had met him passingly somewhere, though she can't quite remember.

She was quite sure that she's never met someone wearing a black and cream coloured jacket over a black shirt, that and his purple and black spiky hair would have most certainly been memorable.

She shook her head as she tried to clear her mind of that stray though, and addressed the strange haired stranger with a smile. "Ah. Sorry about that. Is there something that you need?" 

"Ah, it's just a question that I have." The formal wear wearing boy asked her as he held his hands up. "Are you perhaps… lost?" He asked, and she could only groan at the accurate question that he shot.

But then again, wandering the same place for over fifteen minutes could more or less show the black and purple haired boy that she was indeed very much lost. "Yes…" She admitted as she hung her head low. "Even with a darned map this place is confusing, do you perhaps know where the venue for the inter branch matches are?"

The spiky haired boy gave her a knowing smile as he nodded to her question. "I do. In fact, I was just heading there when I saw you… well. Being lost." And she groaned at his jab, and waved it off as he started walking, with her following in tow.

"Believe it or not, finding guests and visitors being lost is actually a common occurrence. It's almost a yearly occurrence every time the school holds a tournament of some sort." The boy said with a tired smile.

"I'm pretty sure Kaito had to help over five lost visitors just in the last hour alone… how he's not tired and still has enough energy to duel I have no idea." The boy muttered, and she raised an eyebrow at the mention of a familiar name.

"Kaito… So he's a student here?" She muttered thoughtfully, not remembering that tidbit from ZEXAL since he was more shown to show up randomly to challenge or aid the main character and the cast, or was it an added bit from the Arc-V storyline?

"Hm? Are you one of Kaito's acquaintances?" The spiky haired boy asked as he looked back to her, and she scratched the back of her head as she thought of what would be the correct response to his question.

"I guess? Though honestly, not really. We've only met once and I had just sold him a few cards. That's about it." She answered, of course not mentioning how she had essentially met the Galaxy-Eyes duelists in an alley and begged him to buy her cards.

"You sell cards?" The boy asked with a raised eyebrow, intrigued by her apparent occupation. 

"I dabble." She answered off-handedly, not even mentioning how she had effectively ruined the wallets of many poor souls back in the Academia by effectively scamming them with multiple copies of Ancient Gear Golem in their decks and essentially making them brick more often than not.

Which was, funnily enough, things that did happen back when she faced hordes upon hordes of Obelisk Force, honestly the only positive and amusing memory that she had of that blasted day.

The boy hummed, "That sounds interesting. I haven't sold any cards before, well, at least probably not as much as you probably have. I had traded some cards that I don't need before." The boy said as he scratched his cheek. 

"It is a trading card game after all. Normal duelists like yourself who aren't dedicated card traders probably would only trade the occasional card or so, or probably sell back pack filler that you don't find interesting." She mused aloud.

And wasn't that the truth. Back then, in her world before, she wasn't quite the card trader, she was a semi competitive player, only participating in the occasional tournament and usually buying singles instead of packs.

But she does have some experience in the card market, experience that was certainly added now with her ability to create cards, being a wholesaler and distributor and all that. And though she did one time inflate the amount of Ancient Gear Golem in the market, essentially dropping the price for the 'rare' card with the amount that now circulated in the Fusion Dimension.

She kind of pitied that one guy that had 'bought out' her Ancient Gear Golems, he probably won't be getting a good return for that monetary decision.

"Ah, I haven't introduced myself have I?" The boy said as he turned back to her with a smile, extending a hand towards her, offering a handshake. "My name is Yuto, I'm a student of Heartland Academy as you can already tell. Though unlike Kaito, I'm in the Spade Branch. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

And once again, just like her first meeting with Anna, her brain seemed to have stopped working for a good second, before once more restarting. She gave him a smile as she hid her nervousness by fixing her cap.

"Likewise." She said as she reciprocated and shook his hand. "My name is Yuuna, though I go by the moniker of Red Hat when I go on selling and trading cards." SHe informed him all while her mind raced a mile a second.

Yuto, he was one of the four Yu-Boys if she remembered correctly, that's why he felt familiar, it was because he was a 'character', and if she squinted hard enough, he could see him resembling Yuri somewhat.

They have the same height, frame, and face, but that's essentially it. In every other aspect, be it choice of clothing or personality, they seemed to be completely different people, she could garner that from the small talk that they made as he led her to what seemed to be an auditorium in the maze that is the Heartland Dueling School.

She couldn't get how, from what she remembered from snippets of the anime, people could confuse the four of them with one another with how extremely different they seemed to be.

"Then I'll be taking my leave." The kind boy started. "I have my own match coming up in a few more minutes, you said that you came to watch a friend of yours right?" He said as he pointed out towards another building, one of the many auditoriums that the large school has.

Which was quite a good number, if what she read in the pamflet correctly, they have four, one for each branch of the school. And that's not mentioning the large stage that they have where they would be holding the finals of this in school tournament.

"Yes, I am." She answered with a nod. "I'll be watching the Heart Branch of the tournament, though with how late I am I don't know if I already missed her match." She said sheepishly with a wry smile.

She saw Yuto flinch at the mention of the branch of the school that Myu was attending, and saw with interest how he avoided eye contact. "Ah… so your friend is in the Heart Branch huh…"

She raised an eyebrow at his reaction. "Is something wrong?" She asked as she gauged his reaction.

The black and purple haired boy flinched, keeping off of eye contact he scratched his cheek. "No! Nothings wrong! It's just…" He trailed off before letting out a long sigh.

"It's just that the Heart Branch of the school is facing the Clover Branch, the branch where Kaito is." He stated. "He's… honestly, there's no doubt that Kaito's the best duelist that's currently, and the Heart Branch is…" 

There wasn't really a need for him to elaborate that statement.

She may have only been here for a week, and though she has kept her distance from Heartland Duel School with her recent unflattering experience with the 'dueling school' that she had all but officially left from, she had often heard rumors surrounding the branch of the school that her friend attended..

And honestly, the picture that the rumors drew was quite unflattering. Out of the four branches of Heartland Duel School, the Heart Branch, although it shares the name with the city itself, was the… let's say that it was the least developed of the branches.

It was the branch of the school where anyone can enter, the branch with the lowest level of admission compared to the other available branches. Essentially, it was the classes filled with rejects of the other branches, a class filled with failures and rejects.

And Myu was one of those students.

In contrast, the Clover Branch was the most prestigious of all the classes of the Heartland Dueling School, the branch filled with the best of the best students, the students with the most potential for growth.

The picture that immediately went through her head was of course that of the Obelisk Blues as soon as she heard that description, which gave her quite the negative reaction. And the only saving consolation that the branch had was the fact that Kaito was a part of said branch, that and his known reputation to be kind to any and all students.

And though she was quite sure that Myu's level of dueling was at least above average, what with the one to one tutoring that they have been doing over the week, she had to admit that she was nowhere near the level of a main character like Kaito.

Though she said that, she didn't quite know how good Kaito was. Even if he was the top of his branch, and was at the level of a Pro Duelist, she doesn't know how strong that was in a competitive level that she was more familiar with. But if she considered how competent Edo and Ryo were, then Kaito should at least be as strong as them.

That, and the term 'at the level of a Pro Duelist' doesn't really mean much to her, especially considering what she personally considered as 'professional level'.

"I do admit, she certainly is not at the level to defeat someone like Kaito." She nodded as she conceded on the point that the boy, she had after all, only given the girl what was essentially a crash course on competitive dueling, but she should at least be competent enough to pilot a relatively simple deck like Dino Rabbit to get far enough in the tournament.

She'll believe in her and her capabilities, she at least believed that the girl would pass through her branch's own preliminaries at the very least.

"But I do believe that she would make it quite far." She said with a small smile. "If her match ends soon, or if her match has already ended for that matter, I will go and watch yours."

That earned her a wry grin in response as he scratched the back of his head. "Ah, well, I don't know if my match would be interesting to watch. But I would be glad if you could-"

"Yuto! Hurry up, your match is coming up!" A girlish shout caught their attention, or more correctly Yuto physically jolted at the mention of his name as his head snapped immediately to the source.

"I'm coming!" He shouted back, briefly turning briefly to her and giving her an apologetic look. "Sorry I-"

"It's fine, its fine." She cut him off as she waved him to go. "You've done more than enough. You have a match coming correct? Hurry up and go then! You don't want to be late for a match after all." Having a player being late for a match is annoying, especially for the judges and staff who had to organize the whole event, not to mention the time rules and all.

Yuto gave her a smile and waved as he went off to one of the other auditoriums "Thank you, I hope your friend does well in her matches!"

"You too!" She shouted back as she saw him in the distance start talking with a long haired girl and a taller boy, or rather see him get berated by the girl by the looks of it. 

She remembered briefly how every single Yu-Boy that was separated in the four dimensions always seemed to be near a Bracelet Girl as they were called, so that meant that the girl was probably this dimension's own Bracelet Girl.

And considering how she was a part of the main plot of the 'series', that meant that she was someone important that she should note of. Someone who would most likely be a target of that Man and his machinations.

She shook her head as she turned and entered the auditorium, her eyes scanning the inside of the building and saw that many of the bleachers were already filled with people, children and teens who seemed to be students of the dueling school, and many others coming to watch.  

"Heey! Yuuna! Over here!" She heard someone shout out her name, and she turned around to see a poncho wearing boy standing up from the top end of the bleachers, waving his arms wildly to grab her attention, getting a lot of weird looks from many others.

Though funnily enough, everyone who seemed to be the students of the school was seemingly used to Allen making a scene, while Sayaka who sat next to him looked exasperated as she massaged her temple.

Amused, she walked towards the boy who was making a commotion, holding a hand up lightly as she greeted the duo. "You're late! You almost missed the match you know!" Allen pointed towards her as he commented on her lateness.

"Well hello to you too." She grumbled as she rolled her eyes at his comment. "You can't blame me. This whole school is built like a darned maze. Anyway, I see that you've saved me a seat." She eyed the empty seat next to Sayaka, and Allen grinned.

"Well duh! Myu said that you'll be coming to watch, so of course we saved you a seat! Though you were late enough to miss the preliminaries though." So she did miss the preliminaries, she was lost for quite a while so it was inevitable that she would miss a match or two.

"I see, that's a shame." And it truly was. She would have loved to watch and observe what level the duelists of the Heartland Dueling School had to offer, certainly their level would be higher than the level of street dueling that she's been seeing over the week.

"Hmph. Well at least you made it to watch the remaining finals." Allen grumbled as he sat down with a loud thump, crossing his arms as he turned and looked away from her, a notion that made her raise an unseen eyebrow under her signature red hat. 

Sayaka gave her an apologetic look, which along with the sudden change of Allen's mood confused her. "Well… you missed quite a lot of the matches. Including Allen's." The lilac haired girl said as she fidgeted. "Anna-san couldn't watch since she's in the Diamond Branch, which is matched against the Spade Branch in a whole other auditorium."

"I've heard about that, yes." She nodded along to the explanation that Sayaka was giving her as she sat down, letting the glasses wearing girl continue on.  "Ah, it's just… he was just quite excited to show you that he's improved. Especially since you taught us many things to improve ourselves, and also gave us a lot of cards."

"Well you were also excited to have her watch your matches too weren't you! Don't make it look like it was just me Sayaka!" The poncho wearing boy grumbled out with a blush as he huffed and hissed towards Sayaka.

"N-no! Well, yes but! It isn't like that! It's just-" Sayaka flustered at his accusation, and shrinked as people turned at the source of commotion, that being none other than the two of them.

"Now, now, why don't we calm down." She said as she gave the watching onlookers a look, and a chill was felt through their spine as they all hurriedly turned away from them and resumed to waiting for the next match.

She blinked, and shook her head as she had apparently done something that was probably spiritual in nature by accident, again. She really needed to get that under control. 

"-nd not to mention that I had lost to Myu of all people! Again!" And caught on to Allen as he continued to grumble even through the scrutiny of others, huffing and venting his frustrations, and left a tidbit that she latched on to.

"You fought Myu?" She asked aloud.

"Yeah…" Allen grumbled disheartened by his apparent loss, or more correct to say that he was annoyed that he had lost.. "And I was so close to winning too! She just had to have drawn Fissure of all cards!"

"So she has more wins again then." She mentioned, quite amused at the back and forth that Allen had been having with the silver haired girl over the week. Both of them would always duel whenever they meet, and with this newest loss, it seems that Myu once more has the better win-loss rate.

"And I got outed from the tournament last round when I had to duel against Kaito-san…" Sayaka said as she informed her of her own loss, having been at the hand of Kaito. The brackets for the finals were randomized if she remembered correctly, the best duelists of each branch that passed their respective preliminaries were placed in a randomized bracket against another bracket, in their case the Heart Branch against the Clover Branch.

"Yeah, no one seriously saw that someone from the Heart Branch was going to make their way to the finals." Allen said with a grin.

"Myu did? That must have been a surprise." And a surprise to her too.

"They're starting!" Sayaka pointed out, and as she turned her head towards the two duelists made their way towards the center of the auditorium, and the two duelists were none other than Myu and Kaito, just as they had said. She saw both duelists activating their duel disks, and started the match.

""DUEL!!""

Myu Chiyoda: 4000LP

Kaito Tenjo: 4000LP

"I'll go first!" The twin tailed girl declared as she went on and chose to go first, not being a bad choice considering the deck that she was playing. "I'll start by activating the spell, Unexpected Dai!"

And her first play was to activate the normal spell in her hand, and the card that featured Warrior Dai Grepher in its artwork shone as it was activated. "This spell card can be activated when I control no monsters, and lets me special summon one Level 4 or lower Normal Monster from my deck!"

The blonde duelist narrowed his eyes as he heard the spell card's effect, the gears in his mind working as he thought of the possible decks that the girl could possibly play with the monster that she would be summoning.

And the silver haired girl then took out a card from her deck and showed it for all to see. "I will special summon a Sabersaurus from my deck in attack position!" And the girl placed the girl to her duel disk, and the ferocious dinosaur appeared onto her field.

Sabersaurus -  Earth/Dinosaur/Level 4/Normal: 1900/500

"Now I will normal summon Sabersaurus from my hand!" And she continued her play by normal summoning another copy of the Normal Monster from her hand, the blade horned dinosaur letting out a roar as it appeared, its large form dwarfing its summoner.

Sabersaurus -  Earth/Dinosaur/Level 4/Normal: 1900/500

And Kaito then closed his eyes as he nodded with a small smile on his face. "I see. I didn't think that you could do something with simply Normal Monsters. This is quite amazing."

"T-thanks I guess…" Myu stuttered as she blushed and looked away from the praise that the blond gave her, and shook her head and declared her next move. "I-I'll overlay both of my Level 4 Sabersaurus'!"

A black whirlpool of energy then appeared in the large space in the middle of the arena, and as both Sabersaurus' roared, they turned into brown motes of energy that both entered said black whirlpool.

Myu then raised her hand upwards as she chanted the summoning chant to XYZ Summon. "With these two monsters, I'll construct an Overlay Network!" And the black whirlpool then exploded in the colour. "XYZ Summon! Appear! Evolzar Dolkka!" 

And with that, the silver haired girl then managed to summon what was arguably her Boss Monster, the XYZ Monster spreading out its pristine white wings as it appeared with a roar, appearing with an explosion of lava as two brown orbs orbited around its body.

Evolzar Dolkka -  Fire/Dragon/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 2300/1700 OV: 2

"I'll set a card face-down, and I'll end my turn." Myu said as she set a card face-down right behind her XYZ Monster, ending her turn with three cards remaining in hand, and quite honestly a good board for the meta that they were in with two monster negates in Dolkka and an unknown set card.

"Then it's my turn. I'll draw!" And starting out his turn, Kaito drew his cards and took the sixth card into his hand, and she along with the audience bated in anticipation as they waited for what plays he would do in order to break the board.

The grey eyed duelists briefly glanced at the cards in his hand, before shuffling it and taking out a card in his hand. "I will start by activating the spell, Galaxy Cyclone." He said calmly as he played the normal spell card that she had managed to sell him in their first meeting, flinching slightly as she saw it being used against Myu.

"Galaxy Cyclone allows me to target one set spell or trap in the field, and destroy it." Kaito explained the card's effect as he pointed towards the one legal target on the field. "I will target your face-down card, and destroy it!"

And with no response, the set card that Myu had was destroyed, the trap card briefly being revealed before it was then destroyed by the bluish cyclone that engulfed it. But she noted that destroyed trap card, it was one of the cards that she had sold the silver haired girl yesterday at their meeting after being separated from Anna and the others.

And Kaito continued with his turn after he managed to remove the one set card that Myu had set on her field. "Now If my opponent controls a monster that was special summoned from the Extra Deck while I control no monsters, I can special summon Cipher Twin Raptor from my hand!"

And the blond duelist then summoned his first monster of the duel, summoning the winged dark brown raptor, its tail shining in light bluish energy as its wings shined with its rainbow cipher pattern, summoning it with its innate summoning condition.

Cipher Twin Raptor -  Light/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1600/800

She blinked a few times as she saw the monster that Kaito played, the monster not being the Galaxy or Photon monsters that she had known Kaito to have played back in ZEXAL. Cipher… she thought that she had heard of the archetype before… and she immediately opened her Shop as she punched in the name to see the pool of cards that the archetype had.

It was a… small archetype. It's pool nowhere near the pool of Galaxy and Photon cards, but it is connected to the Galaxy-Eyes series with its Boss Monster being a retrained XYZ version of the infamous Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon.

So it was the deck that the Arc-V Kaito played? Seeing the small pool of cards that it had, it would most certainly be weaker than the Photon and Galaxy archetype, especially considering that the original deck that the Kaito that she knew was quite the XYZ counter with its signature monster.

She narrowed her eyes as she continued to watch the boy continue with his play, saving her criticism for his choice of deck to herself. "I will activate the effect of Cipher Biplane in my hand!" Kaito said as he revealed another monster in his hand.

"If a 'Cipher' monster is normal or special summoned to my field, I can special summon this card from my hand!" He said as he explained the monster's effect, starting a chain as he activated its effect.

"I'll chain the effect of Dolkka!" The silver haired girl shouted in response to the monster's effect activation. "When another monster's effect if activated, as a Quick Effect, I can detach one material from this card to negate the activation, and if I do, destroy that monster!"

Done with explaining the monster effect, the white Fire Dragon roared loudly as it consumed one of the two XYZ Material that it had floating around its body, releasing a wave of energy that negated the effect of the monster in Kaito's hand, destroying it and sending it to the graveyard.

Evolzar Dolkka -  Fire/Dragon/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 2300/1700 OV: 1

"I see, so it has that effect." Kaito muttered as he adopted a thoughtful look briefly, before deciding on his next play. "Then I'll activate the effect of Cipher Twin Raptor on my field." He said as he motioned to the one monster that was on his field.

"I can discard one card, to special summon one 'Ciper' monster from my hand or deck, and I cannot special summon monsters for the rest of this turn, expect 'Cipher' monsters." He explained the monster's effect. 

"I will discard Cipher Etranger in my hand." The blond duelist said as he revealed a card that he would pitch as cost to activate its effect, and proceeded to discard it as he sent it into his duel disk.

"And I'll activate the effect of Dolkka again!" Myu responded with a shout once more. "I'll detach one material from Evolzar Dolkka to negate Cipher Twin Raptor's effect and destroy it!"

"Wha-! That monster's effect isn't a once per turn?!" She heard someone shout from the crowd, and for the second time of the turn, Dolkka roared as it absorbed it's last XYZ Material to negate the effect of Cipher Twin Raptor, destroying it and clearing Kaito's field.

Evolzar Dolkka -  Fire/Dragon/XYZ/Rank 4/Effect: 2300/1700 OV: 0

But Kaito stayed calm even as he saw his monster's effect was negated, and instead activated another card's effect. "I'll activate the effect of Cipher Etranger in my graveyard." He said.

"If this card is sent to the graveyard, I can add one 'Cipher' spell or trap from my deck to my hand." He said, activating the graveyard effect of the monster that he had sent to the graveyard as cost for Cipher Twin Raptor's effect.

"I will add the Quick-Play Spell, Rank-Up-Magic Cipher Ascension from my deck to my hand!" Myu's eyes widened as she saw the card that Kaito added to his hand. For him to add a Quick-Play Spell of all things… could only mean that he has a way to continue his play.

And as he hadn't even used his normal summon for the turn and managed to bait out the two monster negates that Dolkka had, it was quite understandable.

"I will normal summon Cipher Wing!" The blond haired duelist said as he used his normal summon, summoning six winged Machine Monster with the cipher-like rainbow pattern on its wings. 

Cipher Wing -  Light/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1400/1200

"And if I control a 'Cipher' monster, I can special summon Cipher Wing from my hand!" And he continued by playing one of the last few unknown cards in his hand, summoning a second copy of the rainbow cipher patterned machine into the field.

Cipher Wing -  Light/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1400/1200

"Two monsters-!" Myu gritted her teeth as she saw her opponent managing to summon two monsters of the same Level. But their Levels were 4, and with Ciphers only having a Rank 8 monster as their Extra Deck option, though he isn't under the lock of Cipher Twin Raptor as its effect was negated.

"And now I will activate the Continuous Spell, Double Exposure!" And he played the last unknown card in his hand, revealing it to be a Continuous Spell as the card's holographic projection appeared behind Cipher Mirror Knight. 

"And I'll activate it's effect!" He declared. "I can target two Level 6 or lower monsters with the same name on the field, their Levels are doubled!" And Myu's eyes widened as she heard the card's effect.

"I will target the two Cipher Wings on my field, and double their Levels to 8!" Kaito declared his targets, and the two monsters then shone as their Levels were both doubled.

Cipher Wing -  Light/Machine/Level 8/Effect: 1400/1200

Cipher Wing -  Light/Machine/Level 8/Effect: 1400/1200

And now, he managed to get two Level 8 monsters onto his field, Myu could already tell what his next play would be. "Now I will overlay the two Level 8 Cipher Wings!" he said as he raised his hand, and the same dark whirlpool littered with golden star-like spots appeared between their fields.

"With these two monsters, I'll construct an Overlay Network!" To which the two monsters that he had on his field entered as they turned into golden motes of lights.

"O galaxy that shines in the darkness! Become my servant to achieve my goals!" The blond duelist chanted as the whirlpool exploded with golden lights. "XYZ Summon! Descend! Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon!"

And the XYZ Monster then descended from the dark whirlpool, its eyes shining like the galaxy itself as it unfurled its large wings which shined with its rainbow cipher-like pattern, the dragon letting out a roar that shook the whole stadium as it appeared.

Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon -  Light/Dragon/XYZ/Rank 8/Effect: 3000/2500 OV: 2

And Kaito managed to summon his Ace Monster, the XYZ retrained version of the Galaxy Eyes Dragon that she had known from ZEXAL, though she had seen the card itself being played as the prime Rank 8 target to play in the Galaxy Photon deck, though it of course competes with the other good Rank 8 that the deck could summon.

"Now I'll activate the effect of Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon! Cipher Projection!" Kaito declared as he shotgunned the XYZ Monster's effect, the dragon roaring as its wings shone bright with rainbow-like colours.

"Once per turn, I can detach one material from this card, then target one face-up monster my opponent controls, monsters I control cannot attack my opponent directly for the rest of this turn except this card, and I can take control of the targeted monster until the End Phase!" He explained the XYZ Monster's effect, attempting to steal Myu's one and only monster and end the game through direct attack.

The giant dragon roared loudly as one of the two XYZ Material that it had was absorbed into its chest, and it then expanded its large wings, which then rained down shining motes of lights towards Dolkka.

Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon -  Light/Dragon/XYZ/Rank 8/Effect: 3000/2500 OV: 1

"Kuh! I'll activate the effect of the Trap Card in my graveyard! Survival's End!" Myu shouted loudly as she raised her hand, and the holographic image of the Trap Card briefly returned back onto the field.

"I can banish this card from my graveyard, then target one Dinosaur-Type monster I control and one card that you control, and destroy them!" She declared as she banished the cards from her graveyard as cost, and declared the two targets, and Kaito's eyes widened.

"I will target my own Evolzar Dolkka, and your Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon, and destroy them!" A cold wave then engulfed the entire field, freezing both of the targets as they were then frozen solid in ice.

"A Trap Card with a graveyard effect… one that could be activated in the opponent's turn…!" He muttered, realising the gimmick of a Trap Card's graveyard effect being a spell speed 2, and can be activated just like they were on the field 

"Then I'll activate the Quick-Play Spell, Rank-Up-Magic Cipher Ascension!" Kaito declared in response, chaining the Quick-Play Rank-Up Magic that he had added earlier this turn. 

"During either player's Main Phase, this card allows me to target one 'Cipher' XYZ Monster I control and special summon from my Extra Deck, one 'Cipher' XYZ Monster that is one Rank higher than that target, by sing that target as the XYZ Material!" He explained the Rank-Up Spell's effect.

The Extra Deck slot opened up from his duel disk, and Kaito took it out as he started to chant for the summon. "Rank-Up XYZ Change!" He shouted as he raised the card and placed it onto his duel disk's crescent projection..

"O galaxy that shines in the darkness! Spread light that shall never go out! And become a light that will shine the future!" He chanted as his monster started to change, morphing as it shone. "Descend! Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon!"

And he summoned a higher ranked XYZ Monster on top of his Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon, which changed as its wings became larger, the rainbow cipher-like pattern in its wings shining brighter as the armour that adorned its body became more sleek and added with shining energies, the three headed dragon roared again as it appeared, shocking the audience in awed silence with its form.

Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon -  Light/Dragon/XYZ/Rank 9/Effect: 4500/3000 OV: 2

"A-A Rank 9?!" Myu exclaimed with wide eyes as she stepped back and gaped at the monster that her opponent had summoned, for not only had he summoned a Rank 8 easily after two disruptions, he even managed to rank it up into a Rank 9.

"And with it changing through the Rank-Up Magic one of the targets for Survival's End now disappears." She muttered as she saw the boy essentially using his Rank-Up Magic as a way to dodge the negation.

"But the effect would still continue as it doesn't fizzle. Which means that her monster will still be destroyed." And sure enough, through the effect of Survival's End, Myu's Evolzar Dolkka was then destroyed, the frozen monster shattering into small pieces of ice.

"However, as the effect of Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon prevents me from attacking with other monsters but itself, I can not attack with Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon." Kaito noted out loud, nodding slightly with a small smile on his face.

"To think that you would be able to do so much with merely Normal Monsters… and but two cards as well. It's quite the feat. Then with that, I will end my turn." Kaito said as he praised Myu once more before passing, ending his turn without any cards in hand and but a large beatstick in the form of Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon in his field.

"Kh! My turn! I'll draw!" The silver haired girl declared as she drew her card for turn, adding up to four cards in her hand. But here lies the problem that she has to face, to out the large beatstick that her opponent has on her field.

On an XYZ only format like the one in this dimension, such a thing shouldn't be too hard all things considered. And with a Rank 4 based decks, the options that she had are numerous, be it cards like Castel or even something like Vylon Disigma.

The only problem is, she has none of those Extra Deck options that she could easily go into to out Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon. Or rather, she hasn't pulled any of those cards nor has she sold them yet.

Instead, the cards that she could even possibly use to out it are her main deck removal, just like the Survival's End that she had used to bait out the Quick-Play Rank-Up Magic that Kaito used in the previous turn.

And as far as she knows, that Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon has no form of protection whatsoever, which means that it is vulnerable to any and all removal spells, be it Fissure or even Hammer Shot.

The latter was a card that she had shoved onto the girl, as her deck lacks any and all form of monster removal and quite honestly works far better than Survival's End, Myu was lucky that Kaito has sniped it off from the field and she could survive for another turn, so in the end it was a problem of whether or not she drew the out.

In the end, it all comes down to the luck of the draw.

The silver haired girl's face scrunched as she saw what she had drawn for the turn, and played her turn. "...I'll set a monster." Which was to set a single monster face-down. "And I'll end my turn…" And belatedly ending her turn with just that, her deck having run out of gas and not having drawn any outs to the large monster, she passed back with three cards remaining in her hand.

"Then it's my turn once more, I'll draw!" And Kaito drew his card for turn, replenishing his hand to a measly single card. "I will start by activating the effect of Cipher Etranger in my graveyard!" He declared. 

"If this card is in my hand or graveyard, I can target one 'Cipher' XYZ Monster I control, and attach this card to it as an XYZ Material. But as I can only activate one of its effect per turn, I cannot activate its other effect." He explained, and another golden orb then started to orbit around his XYZ Monster.

Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon -  Light/Dragon/XYZ/Rank 9/Effect: 4500/3000 OV: 3

"Battle!" Kaito immediately declared as he instantly moved on towards his Battle Phase. "I will attack your face-down monster with my Neo galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon! Destruction Cipher Stream!"

And his monster the attacked, all three heads opening their maws as they all shot out a combined stream of energy, hitting the set monster and flipping it face-up. And the small green Reptile that was Evoltile Westlo was revealed, and with its defence it had no hope of surviving the oncoming attack.

Evoltile Westlo -  Fire/Reptile/Flip/Level 3/Effect: 700/1900

But it was still flipped face-up, and just as any other Flip monster, Westlo's effects then activates. "Evoltile Westlo's effect activates!" Myu declared with beads of sweat running down her head.

"When it's flipped, I can special summon one 'Evolsaur' monster from my deck!" And she took out a card directly from her deck, and revealed a card that she would summon. "I-I'll summon Evolsaur Pelta from my deck!"

And she summoned a monster directly from her deck, the green dinosaur with blood red spikes protruding from its back based on a Sauropelta appeared, being summoned in defence position to act as a defensive wall.

Evolsaur Pelta -  Fire/Dinosaur/Level 4/Effect: 1100/2000

"And since it's summoned by the effect of an 'Evoltile', Pelta gains 500 defence…" The twin tailed girl mentioned, but with her opponent's monster being as big as it is, the miniscule defence boost meant nothing.

Evolsaur Pelta -  Fire/Dinosaur/Level 4/Effect: 1100/2500

"Then I will set a card." Kaito said as he set a face-down card on his spell and trap zone. "And end my turn." And promptly ending his turn after doing that, passing once more on his Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon and now a newly set card with no cards in hand.

"M-It's my turn again!" Myu declared as she placed her hand over her duel disk. "I'll draw!" And she drew another card, making her hand four cards once more. And her eyes widened as she saw the card that she had top decked.

"I'll activate the Spell, Fissure!" Myu said as she started her Main Phase one by immediately playing the removal spell that she had drawn for turn. "Which lets me destroy one face-up monster you control with the lowest attack!" And with only one target on the field, it was obvious which monster she wanted gone off the board.

"Then I'll chain the Trap, Cipher Bit!" But too bad for Myu, her blond haired opponent had drawn an exact counter for the specific situation, flipping up the set card that he had also drawn for his own turn, Kaito revealed a trap card. 

"Cipher Bit allows me to target one 'Galaxy-Eyes' or 'Cipher' XYZ Monster that I control, and attach this card to it as an XYZ Material!" And just like that, the Trap card then turned into another overlay unit for the three headed dragon, now having four of them orbiting around it.

Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon -  Light/Dragon/XYZ/Rank 9/Effect: 4500/3000 OV: 4

"And if I do, the next time it would be destroyed by battle or card effects this turn, it is not destroyed!" And Myu's eyes widened as the newly acquired overlay unit turned briefly into a large cipher-patterned shield, one that had protected the XYZ Monster from the spell card exactly.

"I-" Myu frantically looked back and forth from the large beater that she has no outs against, and the cards that she has in her hand, before gritting her teeth and doing her play. "I'll set a monster. And I'll end my turn…" Which was to belatedly end her turn by setting a monster, ending with two monsters and two cards remaining in her hand. 

"Then it's my turn again. I'll draw!" And Kaito continued to start his turn by drawing a card, only giving it the briefest of glances before proceeding with his play, already knowing that he could win this turn.

"I will activate Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon's effect! Cipher Super Projection!" The blonde Galaxy-Eyes duelist declared as he stretched his hand outwards, and the three headed dragon roared as it unfurled its large wings.

"Once per turn, I can detach up to 3 XYZ Materials from this card, and though monsters that I control can't attack directly for this turn except this card, I can take control of one of your face-up monsters until the End Phase!" He explained the monster's effect and rainbow coloured lights rained down from the monster's wings.

"I will detach one XYZ Material, to take control of your Evolsaur Petla!" And just like that, one of the dragon's overlay units disappeared, and the control of the Evolsaur monster summoned by the effect of Westlo switched to Kaito.

Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon -  Light/Dragon/XYZ/Rank 9/Effect: 4500/3000 OV: 3

It was essentially the same effect as its previous iteration, attack restrictions and all. The only difference being that Neo galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon's effect is not limited to one target, and the fact that it doesn't target in the first place.

"And while this effect is applied, the monster that I take control of has their effects negated, their attacks becomes 4500, and their names become 'Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon'!" And with that added bonus, the green dinosaur then turned and morphed into a translucent version of the three headed dragon, attack and all.

Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon -  Fire/Dinosaur/Level 4/Effect: 4500/2000

And Myu's eyes widened as she took a step back in fright, having her monster stolen and facing two incredibly large dragons. If her set monster wasn't another Westlo that could summon another body, or anything that could stall for another turn and prevent an attack, then this was pretty much game.

"I will switch the second Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon to attack position." Kaito said as he switched the transformed Pelta to attack position, eliciting a roar from the transformed monster.

"And I will go to the Battle Phase!" He declared. "First, I will attack your set monster with my second Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon! Destruction Cipher Stream!"

And his monster the attacked, all three heads of the stolen monster turned copy opening their maws as they all shot out a combined stream of energy, hitting the set monster and flipping it face-up. And it was revealed to be a mere normal monster, a Megalosmasher X to be precise, summoned in defence position to defend from attacks, even with a nonexistent defence.

Megalosmasher X -  Water/Dinosaur/Level 4/Normal: 2000/0

And the Normal Dinosaur monster then was promptly destroyed in battle, leaving Myu's board to be empty as the original Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon prepared the final blow. "It was a good effort, but it ends here! Go! Neo galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon! Destruction Cipher Stream!"

And the actual XYZ Monster then attacked directly, and with its extremely large attack stat, it instantly reduced her Life Points to zero with but a single attack. "Kyaaa!" The silver haired girl screamed as she was hit with the attack.

Myu Chiyoda: 0LP

And with that, with that single direct attack, the exhibition match ended. The real holograms that littered Kaito's field dispersed into motes of light as cheers erupted from the audience seat, with many even standing abruptly and clapping their hands.

Kaito walked and approached Myu, a gentle smile on his face as he extended a hand towards her. "It was a great game. You did quite well."

"But I still lost…" She said, and she waved it off. 

"Losing is fine. It's normal really." She said as she patted the silver haired girl's head. And she also turned to look towards the other two duelists that were also cheering the silver haired girl. "Tell you what, since I missed your matches, how about we duel after this is all over?"

"Huh, wait-you duel?!" Allen shouted aloud as he looked shocked at her mention of dueling them.

She gave him a look at his outburst, wasn't it obvious that she played the game with the amount of information that she has? That and being a card trader and her duel disk basically shows that she's a duelist. "Of course I do. I just took a short break from dueling the past week, that's all."

"Huh. I just thought that you were some retired pro that went on to sell cards or something." He mused.

"Hey! I don't look that old!" She might be tall for her age, a bit taller than Kaito and all, but she didn't look that old did she? She shook her head to clear her mind and continued on. "We should make way to watch the grand finals too, who knows who managed to win in the match between the Spade Branch and Diamond Branch."

Though she could possibly guess who would be the victor of that match.