The duel between Tierra and Sophia had ended.
The exaggerated opening, the absurd showdown, and the peaceful ending at the last exceeded almost everyone's expectations.
In fact, even Hikaru, when the duel truly ended, hadn't known what would actually happen.
Because hatred did make people become radical. Even Hikaru, when truly enraged, wouldn't show mercy. Those soldiers dead in the Fusion Army were the most persuasive evidence of this.
But in the end, the duel had closed with a relatively beautiful punctuation mark.
Although given the karmic bond and hatred between Tierra and Sophia, one duel couldn't directly resolve things. Still, even if they truly clashed again in the future, there presumably wouldn't be such earth-shattering commotion.
Perhaps the next duel would be more peaceful, wouldn't affect the DT Spirit Dimension's life.
Of course, there was another possibility, which was that they'd make an even bigger scene than today. Because when caught up in a duel, they might not be able to control their instincts.
But with today's confrontation, they might say something like the warriors in a certain sphere-collecting series: "It's too cramped here. Let's go somewhere spacious to fight!" And go far from the spirits' habitations to duel.
This possibility should be somewhat higher. After all, this time, Sophia clearly held back, worrying slightly about the watching spirits getting hurt. Tierra, though she hadn't cared at first, would surely also be displeased since Sophia hadn't used all her energy. It wouldn't feel satisfying to fight.
Winning was certainly a joy.
And beyond these matters, some things Hikaru had wanted to do earlier finally bore fruit on this side.
First was Captain Crystal and little Ryu's situation. Although the two had long decided to join Hikaru's team and uphold justice across the dimensions, saving spirits like little Ryu who'd been controlled or maliciously treated, however you looked at it, both of them were proper "active-duty knights." Especially little Ryu, an important medical knight of the order. Without reporting in, they always felt something was a little off.
After completing this matter, they also gathered with old friends, considering it a way to settle their earlier concerns. Both their minds and bodies felt considerably lighter.
Beyond this, Hikaru also opportunely obtained some information he'd very much wanted to know.
That was the locations of a few important "sites" in the DT Dimension.
Naturia could be set aside for now, because Sophia had already handed him a Naturia Exterio for free.
But the Ritual Beasts the Steelswarm had told them about, Hikaru had never been able to find. Now he could finally use the coordinates obtained directly from the spirits, bypass the tedious pathfinding, and go straight to the Ritual Beast clan's stronghold.
Although the Ritual Beast deck was extremely, extremely brain-taxing to play, as a Contact Fusion type deck that could Fusion Summon without actually Fusion Summoning, Hikaru rather liked this deck.
And the deck's "big brother" was also very cool.
Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio, possessing the effect: when a monster effect, Spell, or Trap Card is activated, banish 1 Ritual Beast card from the hand to activate. That activation is negated and destroyed.
A genuine cancel-master.
But in Hikaru's view, strong as this card was, compared to today's acquired Naturia Exterio, it was still just slightly inferior.
Naturia Exterio, like Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio, was a Level 10 Fusion Monster.
Compared to Ritual Beast Ulti-Gaiapelio, its effect range wasn't as broad. Naturia Exterio's effect was: when a Spell or Trap Card is activated, banish 1 card from my Graveyard, send the top card of my Deck to the Graveyard to activate. If this card exists face-up, that activation is negated and destroyed.
Compared to Gaiapelio, Exterio couldn't handle monster effects. But its advantage was that it didn't consume hand cards. As long as the Graveyard and Deck still had cards, it could restrict the opponent's Spells and Traps without limit, lowering the risk of hand consumption.
Additionally, although both Level 10 and both Fusion Monsters, the Fusion Material requirements were also different.
Gaiapelio's Fusion Materials were 1 "Ritual Beast Ulti-" monster, 1 "Ritual Beast Tamer" monster, and 1 "Spiritual Beast" monster, three in total. Naturia Exterio's Fusion Materials were "Naturia Beast" and "Naturia Barkion."
At first glance, Gaiapelio required three Fusion Materials, but since the Fusion Materials had no card name restriction, it seemed Gaiapelio was easier to bring out.
But...
That was for normal, ordinary duelists. For Hikaru, this was entirely different.
Because Gaiapelio had to have its Fusion Materials banished from the field to be Special Summoned. That meant a Contact Fusion was required.
Naturia Exterio, on the other hand, was "this card's Fusion Summon cannot be conducted without the above cards."
This was the difference in summoning conditions.
Gaiapelio absolutely required Contact Fusion, while Naturia Exterio could use various methods to conduct Graveyard Fusion or other substitute Fusion methods.
Beyond this, there was one more thing only Hikaru could do: Metamorphosis!
Using a Level 10 monster to directly Metamorphosis into Naturia Exterio, bypassing Naturia Exterio's tedious summoning method to bring it out directly!
This was also one of the reasons Hikaru particularly favored this card. Compared to the tedious gathering of materials, he clearly had more, higher-quality methods to bring Naturia Exterio out. As long as it successfully appeared, it could exert a huge influence on the situation. Very meaningful.
After summarizing all this, Hikaru's life seemed once again to return to its everyday appearance.
The WRGP tournament continued as usual. After Hikaru's duel had concluded, Team 5D's members let out a breath, breathing easy for their god-partner Hikaru's victory. Then they began their lively, everyday bickering.
Jack boasted about how handsome he'd been during his duel. Crow, as always, poured cold water on his head.
Yusei, after listening to Jack's matter, thought about Tierra and Sophia's duel and formed some thoughts in his heart.
This Synchro world, from the very beginning, had been a world where gods and living beings lived together. So if there was to be true "synchronization," discarding either side would not do.
He had to win the One God War as a human, but that didn't mean chasing out all the other gods!
Jack's duel with that Red Nova had been right. It should indeed be like that.
Only, beyond this, some details still eluded him.
That was the "position" between gods and humans.
Gods were naturally above other life forms, but this clearly didn't match the concept of "resonance."
Because resonance and synchronization meant everyone working together, then reaching a perfect conclusion.
So there absolutely could not be distinctions of high and low, noble and common.
This returned to that classic question.
Why was this world so terrible.
This world had excellent Summoning methods, had powerful, merciful, rational gods, had astonishing technology beyond other dimensions' comprehension. And yet the humans of this world lived the worst.
City's former upper and lower districts had been this world's greatest problem.
Nobles and commoners had never been equal. And that was without even speaking of the "barbaric countries" outside "City."
It was still Halldor's question.
In the end, how could he prove his sincerity? How could he prove it to the other "One God candidates," get them to acknowledge him, and then all strive together?
Under this line of thinking, the WRGP preliminaries were also gradually approaching their close.
Those advancing advanced. Those eliminated were eliminated.
The eliminated teams, though not particularly happy, still had received free D-Wheels from the WRGP officials, which was extremely beneficial for their countries. So they also didn't have much dissatisfaction, only sighing in their hearts that their skill wasn't as good as others', and there were still too many experts in the world.
The advancing teams, meanwhile, calmly accepted this, even appearing extremely nonchalant, as if they'd long known these thirty-two teams were destined to advance.
Even Yusei actually understood clearly that the teams entering this tournament's elimination round were destined to be those related to the "One God War."
But this way, there still seemed to be some problem?
He faintly felt something was off.
Only, he didn't know exactly where the "off" was.
But clearly, on this road of "resolving the world's difficulty," he had no one else to seek out or to help him.
Even Crow couldn't understand what exactly he was struggling and puzzling over.
As for Hikaru.
He could indeed help Yusei as a reference. After all, he did more or less know some "original work information" as a reference, and though it had nothing whatsoever to do with this world, it could always be used as reference, and he could always draw parallels.
But the problem was, Hikaru didn't even know what the "problem" was, so how could he "answer" the question?
This was currently Yusei's greatest difficulty.
However, Hikaru believed that Yusei would definitely obtain an answer of his own.
This wasn't consolation, but trust. It relaxed the tension that had been on Yusei's face for many days considerably.
Beyond this, Hikaru had also had quite a few other matters during this period.
As the preliminaries neared their end, Kite Tenjo of the Xyz Dimension, whom he'd once met, intended to invite him to go once more to the "Star War Dimension," in order to obtain the qualifications to directly face Team Despair.
This was the key point.
Although they were one of the 32 "advancing" teams, this wasn't because they were related to the Synchro Dimension, nor because of behind-the-scenes manipulation.
Rather...
Kite was strong enough!
To this day, even though the WRGP officials had almost openly arranged super-strong opponents for Team Xyz, they still couldn't stop Team Xyz's advancement. Because at the very start, the left and right arms had already dueled three or four times without a loss. By the time the WRGP officials realized Team Xyz would advance and arranged powerful opponents for them, Kite Tenjo had already appeared.
Even the God's Chosen, faced with this "human," were absolutely incapable of victory. Several God's Chosen teams, upon seeing his duels, began to doubt their own convictions!
This was Kite Tenjo!
An extremely absurd human.
But no matter how absurd, Kite Tenjo wasn't a God's Chosen. So Team Xyz suffered various forms of suppression and behind-the-scenes manipulation.
What was frightening was that Kite Tenjo was likewise a very calm, wise person. On matters not involving his younger brother, he was always calm. Therefore he'd long since sensed this suppression.
He realized that if he wanted to more deeply understand Team Despair's situation, he had to find a sufficiently qualified reason.
Therefore, he thought once more of that AA-ZEUS matter.
So he was preparing, after the preliminaries ended, to take a trip to that dimension. For this, he needed a collaborator.
Hikaru would certainly be willing.
He still couldn't forget the "Great Leader" of that dimension. If possible, he really wanted to know what kind of cards the other party could provide him.
Beyond this, Hikaru also had other matters in preparation.
Something more recent was the "Gladiator Beast Emperor" challenge. Andal's training had already been plenty, but there was still some insufficiency. However, the off-season after the preliminaries would be long enough. Hikaru would have time to take Andal to the Colosseum for one more special training.
Also, so many days having passed, Hikaru also needed to go check on the Branded Dimension's situation.
And there was El Dorado. Professor Banner had already said things were ready over there, so Hikaru was naturally very curious and expectant, considering whether he should find an opportunity to go take a look.
In sum, many things to do.
But excluding all of this, there was one more thing that was particularly important to Hikaru.
...
One thing he couldn't avoid.
With the end of Tierra and Sophia's duel, everything within the Great Cosmos Workshop had also returned to its proper track.
Perhaps because everyone had watched Tierra and Sophia's duel and knew Tierra's magnitude, everyday work had become more confident and forceful.
Some factions cooperating with the Great Cosmos, like the Alliance Hangar, the Vampire Empire, and the Branded Resistance, after seeing Tierra's performance, also had more confidence in the cooperation. Their worry over their own worlds' crises had also lightened considerably.
During this period, when spirits coming to the Great Cosmos Workshop encountered difficult problems and dared to ask Tierra, Tierra would lift her hand and tell them the answer, or simply take action and solve it for them.
This point excited quite a few spirits.
After all, having such a formidable big shot above you, and having the big shot directly resolve your difficulties, was an exciting thing for anyone at work.
But...
Another group, an earlier group that had come to this dimension, or rather, those spirits completely subordinate to the Great Cosmos Workshop faction, wore troubled expressions.
Not because Tierra had helped those other spirits and made them feel excluded or anything of that sort.
Rather...
The atmosphere.
The atmosphere was off!
Her Excellency Tierra was not a deity so easy to speak with.
Her Excellency Tierra ordinarily wouldn't have so much leisurely spirit to spare on the workshop!
She wasn't the merciful, kind-hearted sort of deity!
Although she possessed knowledge in the tens of thousands, she rarely taught or directly applied it. She had no interest at all in spirits.
She was only interested in her lord. Most of the time, she'd only accompany her lord on adventures!
This was very much not right!
Those companions of Hikaru gradually realized Tierra's uncanny change. This change made them feel an eerie suffocation, as if a great matter was about to occur.
And very soon, this suffocation-like atmosphere also transmitted to the cooperating spirits, leaving the lively Great Cosmos Workshop, which was now the intersection of seven or eight different spirit dimensions, inexplicably fallen into severe silence.
Because they all realized that something they had long foreseen, long known would happen in their hearts, but always thought was "still far off"...
Seemed to be, in the blink of an eye!
...
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