The entire DT world, in this instant, was split into two different "worlds"!
Countless native spirits, seeing this strange sky, couldn't help beginning to seek out the source of it all. Under fear and worry, they gradually locked onto this place. Some high-tier spirits instinctively halted, stopping outside the two's aura fields.
Following this unusual first-move contest, the duel officially began. As the duel started, more and more spirits gathered outside the "dueling arena," watching the two gods from afar.
Their appearance was similar to characters and companions from some local spirits' memories. But the power they displayed was absolutely not something the spirits of this world could compare to!
Even that dragon sealed by the Ice Barrier paled in comparison to them!
"My turn!"
Tierra raised her left hand and drew two cards: "I Set two cards!"
The first-move opener was setting hand cards.
This scene left many spirits confused, but the humans who knew and recognized Tierra all changed color at the same instant.
This action, could it be!
"Activate, Equip Spell Card, Future Fusion, launch!"
Tierra without hesitation put down the card in her hand. The card flew out from her hand and transformed into an enormous flood of time, sweeping across the entire DT dimension. "Reveal 1 Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck, send Fusion Materials from my Deck to the Graveyard as if for a Fusion Summon!
The one I want to fuse is my half-body, Infernoid Tierra!"
Infernoid Tierra!
This name fell into quite a few spirits' ears like a thunderclap, instantly stunning them. The Shaddolls, watching this duel from afar via projection magic, directly recognized her existence.
It's that self-proclaimed god!
"Infernoid Tierra!" Jaden watched this scene, feeling immense pressure.
Beside him, Yubel wore a grave expression too.
Infernoid Tierra, when Fusion Summoned with 10 materials, could directly wipe out both players' hands. In this situation, how was the second-turn player supposed to respond to this?
Even the finest duelist, going second with no hand while their opponent had a full field, would probably have their head spinning.
It wasn't a question of whether it could be done. It was a genuinely prison-tier experience!
Tierra was coming straight for the decisive victory!
So, as Tierra's opponent, what about that red-haired goddess?
How was she supposed to handle a situation like this...
Could it be... the opening was the ending?!
"I activate the effect of a monster in my hand."
Only, Sophia inexplicably raised her right hand and revealed two cards.
"Nekroz of Sophia. During my or the opponent's Main Phase 1, discard this card and 1 Nekroz Spell Card to activate. During that Phase, the opponent cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck!"
"Priestess who inherited my power, correct time!"
A red-haired woman who looked larger than Sophia appeared on the field. Pure white and pitch-black power intercepted Future Fusion, keeping Tierra's activation from succeeding.
The next second, time and environment returned to normal. On the dueling field, only two acquainted girls remained.
"Ugh... An ability that locks Extra Deck Special Summoning?"
"Is this that goddess's ability?"
The Duel Academy classmates watching the duel cried out.
Locking the Extra Deck, although only during Main Phase 1, was actually already strong enough!
After all, this card's effect could be activated directly from the hand, no need to Set. Even if the opponent went first, it could prevent the opponent from developing!
Especially when going first, since there was no way to enter the Battle Phase, there was no "Main Phase 2" to speak of. So this card had actually completely locked down Tierra's entire turn!
"Hmph..."
Tierra watched this card sent to the Graveyard, gave a cold snort, and somewhat regretfully sent Future Fusion to the Graveyard.
"A bit of a shame." At Duel Academy, seeing this scene, Chazz couldn't help shaking his head. "Her Excellency Tierra used the equipped version of Future Fusion, likely to summon herself as quickly as possible. This also meant the Fusion Summon and the sending of materials to the Graveyard happened simultaneously. Without Special Summoning, you can't just send monsters to the Graveyard.
But if it were the Continuous version of Future Fusion, she could have sent monsters to the Graveyard this turn and then activated their effects."
The crowd nodded on hearing this.
Tierra now knew this too. It was just that compared to milling, she'd wanted to sweep her opponent's hand clean all at once.
"Then, activate from my hand, Reasoning."
Seeing her opening tactic hadn't succeeded, Tierra snorted and revealed the Spell Card.
Because she'd previously been thinking of fusing all her body-part cards from the Deck, Reasoning had become useless. So she'd chosen to Set other cards and keep Reasoning in hand. But now that Future Fusion hadn't succeeded, she could naturally use Reasoning's effect.
"The opponent declares a Level from 1 to 12. Until a monster that can be Normal Summoned appears, reveal cards from the top of my Deck. If that monster's Level equals the declared Level, send all revealed cards to the Graveyard. If not, Special Summon that monster and send the remaining cards to the Graveyard."
A luck card?
Or truly a reasoning card?
Spirits and humans alike were curious.
"Speak, Sophia! What number will you choose!"
Sophia furrowed her brow, thought briefly, then said: "Level 4."
Tierra let out a "heh" laugh, corners of her mouth curling: "Fine, then Level 4!"
She extended her left hand. Her Deck floated directly in the air and began auto-flipping.
First card, Fire Recovery. Second card, Shaddoll Fusion. Third card...
"Level 4, Infernoid Astaroth."
Yes, Level 4!
Sophia lightly chuckled.
But...
"Although Astaroth's Level is 4, it cannot be Normal Summoned. So it doesn't fall within Reasoning's Special Summon range. Continue flipping!"
Sophia's brow instantly furrowed tightly. The smile vanished.
Moments later, Tierra finally flipped up a monster that could be Normal Summoned.
But correspondingly, Tierra had already sent six Infernoid cards to the Graveyard!
"Special Summon, Level 3 Tuner Monster, Genex Controller."
The ancient mechanical man was slowly drawn onto the field by puppet strings, then took a defensive stance on the field.
"Eh! It's the Controller!?"
Among the many spirit spectators, some recognized this familiar card.
"This is the next generation's combat unit, right? Actually seeing it here."
At this point, it still hadn't understood what was happening.
Genex Controller. Level 3, DARK Attribute, Machine-Type. DEF 1200.
Missed.
Sophia gave a cold snort.
"The effect of Shaddoll Core in the Graveyard. When this card is sent to the Graveyard by a card effect, target 1 Shaddoll Spell/Trap Card in my Graveyard other than Shaddoll Core. That card is added to my hand. I choose Shaddoll Fusion."
"This time it's Shaddoll?" "It's the Fusion of those dangerous folks!"
"Genex Controller..." Sophia paid attention to more additional information. She looked at this machine and her anger surged. "Tierra, you're disgusting. Secretly manufacturing this kind of thing while I was sleeping! I was clearly the one who won!"
In the original DT history, she had obtained victory and created the beings of this planet. But Tierra, sealed inside the planet, hadn't been well-behaved either, and had manufactured this machine to modify the environment.
"Hmph, who cares about you. I didn't lose." Tierra snorted back in retort. "Besides, if it weren't for it, could this planet have maintained such a good environment?
Those things you created, the Jurrac ones, tore up this planet into a mess. Wasn't it my machines that maintained the environment?"
This was also the truth.
Although the two disagreed on the topic of life creation, neither would destroy this planet. The final result was that in theory, the next generation, which should have been reshaping the world to be more suitable for the life Tierra created, was on the contrary devotedly repairing the natural environment destroyed by the life Sophia created.
"If not for your machines, they wouldn't have altered their evolutionary direction midway. They should have been mining their own potential. They wouldn't have created decisive weapons and joined alien weeds to destroy this planet!"
The two started arguing as they went. The content of their argument was especially frightening. Many spirits watching around had their faces go pale.
They felt that after just two more sentences, their "spirit registration" would get cut off.
Tierra took Shaddoll Fusion into her hand, then looked at her own Graveyard.
Hm...
The cards in her hand weren't useful at the moment.
"Open Set card." Tierra saw this and directly activated her Set card. "Continuous Spell Card, Void Imagination. While this card exists on the field, Infernoid monsters on my field whose original Level is 2 or higher become Level 1, and battle damage those monsters inflict on the opponent is halved."
Then, she waved her big hand: "Infernoid Pirmais, Infernoid Antra, Infernoid Harmadik in the Graveyard, prepare to launch. Banish from the duel! Standby release, combat activate! Level 10, Infernoid Onuncu!"
Blue raging flames burned behind Tierra. Terrifying fires gradually climbed higher. Gradually, this world's sky began to burn with purgatorial fire!
The metallic golden demon shook its wings, revived in this world!
Infernoid Onuncu. Level 10 → 1, FIRE Attribute, Fiend-Type. ATK 3000.
"3000 ATK!"
"An upper-tier Fiend summoned directly!"
"A monster I've never seen before. Is it also a life form of our dimension?"
The spirits chattered as they discussed.
At this moment, these spirits who normally fought to the death over territory were, as if they'd become companions fighting side by side, sitting directly around the outside of the dueling arena, curiously watching within.
Some sharp spirits had already realized that this duel might be exceptionally important for their world, and might even become an opportunity for many spirits to grow!
"I Set one more card. End turn."
Tierra ended her turn with a cold snort.
If Future Fusion had gone through, she could have used Void Imagination to lower Infernoid monsters' Levels to Special Summon Onuncu and Devyaty. But now, in her Graveyard there was only Onuncu, no Devyaty. This was quite awkward.
However, the good news was that even so, her first-mover advantage was already quite substantial.
"Then, my turn..." Sophia slowly drew a card from the top of her Deck, glanced at it, and pointed at the Graveyard. "Then, I activate the effect of Nekroz Divinemirror in the Graveyard. During my Main Phase, banish 1 Nekroz monster and this card from my Graveyard to activate. Add 1 Nekroz Spell Card from my Deck to my hand."
"That mirror, could it be an Ice Barrier relic?"
"Really, it does seem so."
A search card?
Tierra furrowed her brow and began to ponder.
She instinctively wanted to turn around and ask about this card, this series's uses. But she quickly restrained the thought.
Her showdown with Sophia could not have any other people, any other matters mixed in. Only that way would it be a true showdown.
Whatever the case, searching was very important for a deck. Especially since Sophia was using a Ritual deck, it seemed she needed to search Spell Cards even more.
"I activate Nehemoth's ability. Once per turn, when a Spell or Trap Card's effect is activated, tribute 1 monster on my field to activate. That activation is negated and the card banished!
I tribute Genex Controller on my field to negate your search."
The magic hadn't yet completed, and raging flames burned onto the mirror, draining its color. Seeing this, Sophia wasn't surprised. On the contrary, she gave another cold laugh: "Meritorious, decorated creation, so casually discarded by you. Can you really call yourself a god like this?"
"Machines should look like machines. As machines, after completing their tasks, hibernating and waiting for new work is the reasonable thing!"
"Cold machines, machines that only know how to obey orders, can they really be called living beings?"
"Since a soul exists, then naturally it can be called life!"
The two seemed about to argue again.
This scene finally made many watching humans understand why the two couldn't sit down and talk.
Clearly, the two had one enormous divergence they'd both failed to consider.
One held firm that only naturally-grown existences could be called life. The other firmly believed that even things forged of metal, so long as they had their own soul, were naturally life.
At least at present, the monsters Tierra used could substantiate her thoughts.
Mechanical demons, robots, these were all the monsters she used.
"I Normal Summon this monster grown in great nature... Naturia Mole Cricket."
Naturia!?
Following Sophia's motion, a tiny little creature flew out from the earth, then flew about the field.
Quite a few spirits familiar with Naturia changed color at the sight of this monster.
Holy crap, it's Naturia!
One of the most troublesome spirit forces of this dimension, and one of the top-three spirit warriors no dueling warrior wanted to run into!
Naturia Mole Cricket. Level 1, EARTH Attribute, Insect-Type. ATK 0.
"Naturia Mole Cricket's growth trait. During my or the opponent's Main Phase, tribute this card to activate. Special Summon 1 Naturia monster from my Deck. If the opponent controls the monster with the highest ATK, this effect can Special Summon 2 monsters."
Tierra furrowed her brow.
Life forms of nature, huh...
"I tribute Naturia Mole Cricket. Two different life forms grow on the field."
The mole cricket slowly dispersed. Two phantom images slowly rose from the earth.
First was an enormous rock, then something on top of the rock.
"Life amidst great nature.
Naturia Cliff. Naturia Cherries."
Naturia Cliff. Level 4, EARTH Attribute, Rock-Type. ATK 1500. Naturia Cherries. Level 1, EARTH Attribute, Plant-Type. ATK 200.
"Eh, rocks can be life too?"
"Never mind that, why do those two cherries have eyes."
The humans were thoroughly confused.
This, this counts too?
"Nature's power is wondrous. So long as it grows naturally, all things can possess their own soul and life." Sophia took out another card. "Normal Spell Card, Leodrake's Mane. Target 1 face-up monster on my field with 'Naturia' in its name to activate. The chosen monster's ATK becomes 3000 until the end of the turn, and its effects are negated."
"I choose Naturia Cliff."
A patch of orange-yellow grass fell from the sky and lightly landed on the wall's body. Then, its ATK abruptly surged.
Naturia Cliff, ATK: 1500 → 3000.
"Oh, same ATK as Nehemoth!"
"Whoa, they're tied!"
"Battle, Naturia Cliff attacks Nehemoth!"
"Respond to her, Nehemoth!"
Flames burned, the earth cracked open. Blue pillars of fire surged up from the crevices. And yet with every step Naturia Cliff advanced, the ground closed a bit more and bloomed beautiful flowers. In this wild contest of strength, the world was by turns scorching and cool, by turns thick with cold air and warm and gentle.
Boom!
Under the fierce collision, both monsters perished at once.
Of course, Sophia's field still had the 200-ATK Cherries.
"Mutual destruction? Sophia, is this what you wanted? You speak of my problem, aren't you also destroying your own things?"
"Because I have to utterly crush you. Only then can I be at ease!" Sophia retorted directly. "What's more, Naturia Cliff's trait. When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, I can Special Summon 1 Naturia monster whose name has 'Naturia' with a Level 4 or lower from my Deck to my field!"
Sophia's Deck flew up, spinning rapidly in the air. All beings of the natural world revealed themselves at this moment.
"Generated from the Deck, Level 4 Naturia Spiderfang."
At the spot where the rocky wall shattered, a small flower slowly rose. Then, a spider composed of leaves and fruit slowly surfaced.
Naturia Spiderfang. Level 4, EARTH Attribute, Insect-Type. ATK 2100.
"With this, Big Sister Tierra has no monsters on the field. The red-haired big sister can attack directly." Serena, watching, was so tense she even began to bite her fingers.
The scene before the duel and the current dueling situation made her realize that Tierra and Sophia's duel wasn't a "duel" at all, but was aimed at physically killing the opponent.
If Big Sister Tierra lost the duel, she dared not imagine what would happen.
"Naturia Spiderfang, direct attack!"
"I activate Trap Card, Counter Gate." Tierra, cold-faced, opened her Set card when the opponent's monster was about to declare its direct attack. "Activated only when the opponent's monster declares a direct attack. That attack is negated. I draw 1 card from my Deck. If that drawn card is a monster, I can Normal Summon that monster in face-up Attack Position."
The top of Tierra's Deck flashed. A card burst into blue flames and then flew into the air.
She took the card and glanced at it: "Monster Card, Genex Solar."
"Because its Level is 7, it can't be Tribute Summoned. So I cannot summon it."
"Then, Cherries, direct attack."
Sophia's Naturia Cherries, like a meteor, flashed by in an instant with a boom, cutting Tierra's left cheek and tearing open a strip of skin. And after this, the Cherries didn't slow, tearing straight through the small hill behind Tierra with a rumble.
Seeing this scene, the spirits gathered to watch quickly retreated further back.
Too terrifying. This really was meant to kill the opponent!
Tierra, LP: 4000 → 3800.
200 points of damage was nothing to Tierra. But this 200 damage made her recall the past.
More importantly, this 200 ATK was as if hinting something to her.
Nekroz of Sophia's ATK was 3600. Infernoid Tierra's ATK was 3400!
Tierra's hand trembled. Not from fear, but from anger.
"To think I'd be the one to inflict damage first." What was more terrifying, Sophia was gloating on top of taking the advantage. "Clearly you revived earlier, and yet your level doesn't seem all that impressive. Or should I say, my creations really are more outstanding after all?"
"Cut the nonsense." Tierra didn't accept this at all. "Just a 200 LP advantage!"
Indeed, just a 200 LP advantage.
Sophia herself understood this clearly.
If a 200 LP advantage were useful, there wouldn't be so many duels among human duelists where they came back from 100 LP.
She wouldn't gloat.
"Enter Main Phase 2."
She raised her right hand. Light from all directions began to gather in her hand: "Level 1 Naturia Cherries and Level 4 Naturia Spiderfang, Tune!
Grown in the great earth of nature, my kin, appear before me, once more protect all things!
Synchro Summon, Level 5, Naturia Beast!"
"Rooar!!!"
A green tiger composed of plants roared toward the heavens and crouched before her.
"Ugh, it's Naturia Beast."
"I'm gonna throw up, it's Naturia Beast."
"This being actually summoned Naturia Beast with just one card..."
Tierra could hear all the surrounding spirits' voices and analyze their words. The moment they saw Naturia Beast, they seemed to grow quite uncomfortable.
This monster seemed quite dangerous?
Naturia Beast. Level 5, EARTH Attribute, Beast-Type. ATK 2200.
"Naturia Mole Cricket's trait. While it exists in the Graveyard, activated when the opponent Special Summons a monster from the Extra Deck or when I Special Summon a Naturia monster from my Extra Deck. Special Summon this card."
Naturia Mole Cricket reappeared on Sophia's field.
Similarly, Sophia could also hear the surrounding spirits' discussions. This eased the tension in her chest quite a bit.
"Did you hear that, Tierra. Those creatures around us are all praising me. The creatures I created are clearly more suited to this planet."
"Ha, don't make me laugh, Sophia. The spirits are not the same species as the creatures you created." Tierra retorted at once, and even raised the cards in her hand, flipping them over as she shouted at Sophia.
"What's more, if the things you created were truly that perfect, why did you have to use the reincarnation-and-rebirth system I created! It's precisely because the creatures you manufactured only cared about self-development, without any internal cyclical logic!"
"That's because they can grow into features of their own. The Gem-Knights were born this way!"
"Nonsense. If not for the planet's power, how could the Gem-Knights possibly have been born!"
Crystal, hearing the two gods argue their way onto its own clan's topic, couldn't help beginning to murmur. It looked left and right, found colleagues from the knight order, thought about quickly contacting them afterward, then reported to Hikaru.
Hikaru naturally wouldn't stop it. He nodded and let it go handle its own business, continuing to watch the duel.
If this kept up, he felt the two gods were going to flip each other's underwear inside out.
Just as he was thinking this, the two's argument did indeed escalate.
At first they were only arguing over this world's rights and wrongs, whether the creatures they made were right or wrong. As they argued on, they'd already begun arguing over preferred colors, natural environment designs, and even more detailed things.
Hikaru could feel that at this point, the two women's argument was no longer fixated on "right and wrong," but on refuting each other.
You like red, so I must like blue and hate red. You say a river designed this way looks better, so I must drag it to another region.
Refuting the opponent had become their "political correctness." Whatever it was, they had to refute each other.
But actually, they, or rather, at least Sophia thought, in this duel, they still had one consensus.
"Stop with all the pretty talk. As a Star-Creating Goddess, don't you want to become the One God of the Synchro Dimension and correct that terrible world?" Sophia crossed her arms, looking coldly at Tierra.
Veins bulged on Tierra's forehead.
She wasn't sore because Sophia had jabbed at a sore spot.
It was that Sophia, upon realizing that Synchro Dimension humans really were garbage, had thought of "succeeding as the Synchro One God to change the Synchro Dimension," while she herself was absorbed in adventuring alongside Hikaru and had completely failed to think of this!
This made Sophia look more responsible, more devoted, more like a proper Star-Creating Goddess, while she herself was the one playing sidekick!
This was something she absolutely could not tolerate. So she immediately started another big argument with Sophia on this issue.
Things like the Synchro Dimension's humans not being creatures of their world, like perpetual motion machines not fitting her aesthetic, since these were things she actually would say, Sophia didn't detect any of Tierra's slight defensiveness and continued arguing with her.
The topic grew increasingly dangerous, and the surrounding spirits' faces grew increasingly pale.
Two young girls discussing this kind of thing before them, under normal circumstances, they would mostly laugh it off, even wonder what edgelord had wandered into their world.
But these two "gods'" performance was genuinely apocalyptic!
This made the DT Spirit Dimension, already shaking from their duel, look on the verge of collapse, as if it might crumble at any moment!
"Tsk... I Set two cards. End turn."
Argued without result, Sophia cursed under her breath, Set two cards, and ended her turn.
Tierra tidied her hair a bit and drew a card from her Deck.
She glanced at the drawn card, then at her other cards.
For now, prioritize Shaddoll Fusion.
"Spell Card, Shaddoll Fusion. When the opponent's field has a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, this card can Fuse monsters directly from my Deck." Tierra revealed the Shaddoll Fusion she'd retrieved last turn.
As long as this card resolved, then Tierra could Special Summon El Shaddoll Construct. Under those circumstances, she could activate at least two Shaddoll monster effects, using Shaddoll Dragon and El Shaddoll Grysta to destroy the backfield while continuing to mill the Graveyard.
If nothing else, she could still mill "Shaddoll Beast" to nauseate Sophia's Naturia Beast.
She rather liked this situation.
But...
It wasn't so easy.
Sophia had thought this through before the duel. Based on her understanding of dueling as a combat format, wanting to catch up to Tierra in a short time was somewhat too ambitious.
She was Tierra's nemesis, and also Tierra's twin sister. She knew Tierra intimately.
She judged that she absolutely could not catch up to Tierra. So she absolutely could not.
But precisely because of this, she understood all the more clearly that this was her only chance.
Because from here on, on the path of dueling, she'd only be pulled further away. Because she hadn't seriously studied dueling, and Tierra, under the influence of a certain human, had been progressing at breakneck speed.
But have Sophia herself go find a human mentor to focus and study, rather than teach herself?
Impossible.
She couldn't do such a thing, nor did she feel Declan Akaba was really worth her expectations. More importantly, she was only doing a bit of cooperation with Declan Akaba.
Therefore, she'd thought it through before the duel. If she wanted to win, there was only one line of thinking.
That day, the dueling strategy she'd seen...
Counter!
And it just so happened this was something she could do whether going first or second!
...
Stones 💎💎
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