The duel ended.
Of course, saying it ended, in reality it hadn't ended.
The duel forever remained at the scene of Garura, Wings of Resonant Life being Summoned last. Everyone knew that as long as the attack went through, Hikaru would win. But at the very least, in the final impression left in people and spirits' minds, that duel seemed not to have ended yet.
But regardless, at the very least, "this matter" had ended.
However, this matter still set some people thinking.
First was naturally the "eternal-love guardian," the respected Lady Yubel, who had been smirking before the match, grave during the match, and severe after the match.
Before the duel, when she learned Hikaru and Tierra were going to conduct a fated, agreement-bound duel, she'd been dying for the two to have a falling-out.
Not that she held grudges. She actually had no grudge against Hikaru. Although she'd once been pointed at and cursed at by him, that experience had already been compartmentalized. It was all Ruin Light and Darkness that had made her so extreme .jpg
So she definitely wouldn't hold that against Hikaru.
What truly displeased her was actually Tierra.
Don't fear a hard life. Fear that peers are doing well.
Tierra's positioning was similar to hers.
But the lifestyle?
Every day inseparable from Hikaru, pointing at his hand cards during duels asking this and that, and Hikaru would chat with her outside of duels.
All the spirits under Hikaru's command listened to her orders. Not a single spirit would question her directives.
She could borrow Hikaru's body to duel, and even switch midway through a duel to use her own deck against opponents.
Honestly, all this was fine. After all, she used cards like "Eternal Love Guardian." She could console herself.
Today's duel between Hikaru and Tierra, she had anticipated for a long time, because she felt no matter what she'd already "won."
But...
Hikaru and Tierra's duel had them both using each other's cards.
Cards like Metalfoes Fusion, Fusion Substitute, were these Tierra's cards?
One look and you could tell they'd been swiped from Hikaru's spare cards!
From the very start, neither of them thought of killing the other. On the contrary, they'd been thinking all along how to coexist. So the cards they used were all related, interconnected cards!
At most, Hikaru seemed not to have Infernoids, and Tierra seemed not to have Gem-Knights. That was it.
But did that matter!?
By the end, it grew even more absurd.
Tierra reviving herself used Hikaru's power. Hikaru drawing Future Fusion used Tierra's power.
Wasn't this crushing people's mental state!
But Yubel couldn't lose her temper, because she genuinely felt it was rather nice.
"How infuriating."
"What is it, Yubel?"
"Nothing... nothing."
Yubel was uncharacteristically not straightforward, only feeling her gums about to bleed from her biting.
Oh.
There was no such thing as blood.
If she really wanted to bleed, she'd have to find a way to ask Tierra how she herself could "become human."
How infuriating...
Although indignant in her heart, although feeling uncomfortable all over, she still had to admit, she'd have to consult Tierra like a good studious child later.
On all fronts.
Another one falling into thought, likewise having watched the whole thing, was a certain goddess.
Sophia, the Goddess of Rebirth.
However, compared to Yubel, Sophia appeared much more nonchalant.
On one hand, her own personality was rather... laid back. On the other hand, although she and Tierra had contradictions that could never coexist, this contradiction seemed to have ended along with this duel.
Their future lives might become parallel lines, difficult to intersect again.
Perhaps in a few years, a dozen years, or after thousands of years, they'd reunite once more, then punch each other and duel just like at the start.
But they could no longer return to the past.
Just like this duel, perhaps under Tierra's power one could return to "the very beginning of the beginning," but in the end nothing could be changed.
When the turn counter lit up "fourth turn," when Hikaru drew that brand-new, unknown yet already-known new card, both the duel and life had taken a new step forward.
Dueling...
Truly a fascinating, wondrous form of battle.
Sophia couldn't help continuing to think.
Perhaps in this brand-new era, she should more seriously continue researching dueling. Perhaps she'd feel differently?
But after thinking for a bit, she felt bored again.
She...
No longer had the motivation.
Perhaps opposing Tierra had been the sole joy of her existence. But this level of motivation could hardly make her truly seriously, diligently live.
Perhaps she must reconsider a brand-new problem.
That was, the meaning of existence.
Later she'd travel to the spirit world. Perhaps she'd encounter something interesting.
But before that, she had to bid farewell to the current Tierra.
Whatever the case, she was Tierra's "big sister."
"So that's it. I understand."
Yusei, having watched the entire duel, felt he'd attained enlightenment.
He'd been thinking all along about this world's difficulty, thinking about how to coexist with the Crimson Dragon itself. Now he finally understood.
Whether god or human, actually, they were all missing one thing.
That was, during this duel, the core of how Hikaru and Tierra truly treated each other. Equality.
Hikaru treated Tierra as an equal. Tierra placed Hikaru in the most important position.
This was crucial.
Because only equality could earn respect.
Only equality gave one a voice.
Humans and gods... were not equal.
He finally understood where the core of the problem he'd been unable to find lay.
Inequality!
Even if he participated in the One God War as a human, what was the actual result?
The vast majority of ordinary people in this world didn't actually know about this matter!
Those excellent duelists participating in the WRGP, simply because they lacked a god's blessing, were influenced by all sorts of manipulation and in the end regrettably left the field.
Of all the WRGP preliminaries, only an extremely small handful of duelists had no "backing"!
Was this a competition of dueling?
No!
This was a competition of whose god was stronger!
How could a duel like this be reasonable? How could a duel like this speak of "equality"?
In the eyes of gods, of god-servants, of god-favored, the One God was higher, nobler than humans!
Because in the eyes of gods, humans, though important, were ultimately merely "grass and weeds."
After all, once one became the One God, that god could freely create or even modify human history, create brand-new humans, change every human's social position...
This wouldn't do.
Only when both parties were placed equally in the same position could all existences truly have a mind for cooperation and mutual progress!
So that was it, so that was it!
Yusei kept exclaiming in his heart, kept thinking.
Originally, Hikaru's duels had made him understand that Synchro had its own meaning belonging to it, and that had already left him deeply moved.
Today, Tierra and Hikaru's duel had made him completely realize the key point on his own side.
Although he certainly wouldn't get along with the Crimson Dragon the way Tierra and Hikaru did, the fundamental logic within was the same!
He looked at Crow, looked at Jack, and gradually formed a brand-new idea.
This idea, perhaps in the WRGP main tournament, he would once more display.
That was...
Let all humanity support him!
Let the gods support him!
Let the Crimson Dragon support him!
Even let enemies, let malice, all support him!
This kind of thing...
To be honest, was a little terrifying, and a little dangerous. He'd instantly become the target of all. All people, all gods, might view him as their number-one enemy.
Only at this moment did he understand the deeper meaning of what ZONE had once said to him.
"Choosing this path, all life will doubt you. Those God's Chosen craving Synchro power, those madmen with self-aggrandizing designs on ruling the world, those fools thinking themselves in the right for wanting to create a 'peaceful' world, those doubters who don't understand you or believe someone as selfless as you can exist, will all view you as their great enemy. And you must make them believe you, make them set aside their strife with each other?"
So... at that time, you'd already thought of my current impasse, ZONE...
This line, he'd been recalling every day, thinking about every time. But whenever this line flashed through his mind, his mind was covered by even more doubts.
And today, he finally understood.
Long ago at that time, ZONE had actually already realized how difficult Yusei's path would be. Even at that time, he'd already known Yusei's "question," and even known Yusei's "answer."
Because...
ZONE was "Yusei."
So when ZONE, with the advantage of more intelligence and information, heard Yusei's choice, he'd instantly realized all the questions, all the difficulties, all the "impossibilities" Yusei would encounter next.
While Yusei was busy settling old grudges with Jack, while the Synchro, Xyz, and Fusion Dimensions were beginning to gradually appear in this world's news, while everything was happening, the last humans, already in the apocalypse, had already been thinking through every possibility.
But...
The answer Yusei gave was a road ZONE would never have chosen, would not have even considered.
Because he'd never had that opportunity, never had that choice.
But even so, he was still willing to trust Yusei, willing to help Yusei make this attempt.
Yusei thought of Team New World.
No wonder... ZONE had separately sent a team to participate in this WRGP tournament.
Because he needed me to prove I could do it, wasn't that it?
He looked at his own arm.
He also thought of Team Ragnarok.
Halldor's question was indeed also a problem for many heroes dedicated to saving the world.
So...
Just like Hikaru and Tierra, he too had to make his own choice as equals!
And in the very center of the ended duel, Hikaru was at this moment leaning his head together with Tierra, looking at Tierra's card.
Tierra, Source of Destruction!
A card cool to an absurd degree, extremely difficult to bring out, but the result exchanged for after her appearance was also very excellent.
With Tierra's current dueling knowledge, she could easily judge that as long as she could appear during Main Phase 1, she basically won.
After all, her "clearing" effect was too, too fierce.
Field, Graveyard, hand, even including Pendulum monsters, all washed back into the Deck!
Consider, being banished and sent to the Graveyard still had cards that could chain, but returning to the Deck...
That was extremely, extremely rare!
"Did you see, Hikaru? This is my true form. Simply strong to a shocking degree." Tierra said joyously.
Beside them, some of Hikaru's primary battle spirits nodded in deep agreement.
They'd never seen Tierra's true form. Before, they'd thought "Infernoid Tierra" was already Her Excellency Tierra's full strength. They hadn't expected there was an even more real, even more powerful strength.
If "Infernoid Tierra" was destruction and death, then clearly, Tierra, Source of Destruction's power was true "reincarnation" and true "revival."
Although the final result was Her Excellency Tierra's loss, not one of them would look down on Tierra.
After all, if not for His Excellency Hikaru, who could turn defeat into victory with a single card in this situation?
Her Excellency Tierra still had 3400 ATK no matter what!
Hikaru actually thought so too.
This world's environment wasn't the 8000-Life-Point environment in his impression.
The instant Tierra landed, the opponent had no way to counter. So long as it wasn't a Number 41 or Skill Drain type situation, wasn't it instantly clearing every other card? As long as the opponent's Life Points were below 3400, it was an instant kill.
And even in the world in his impression, Tierra, Source of Destruction was actually already extremely powerful.
Because after Tierra, Source of Destruction landed, she could instantly convert to Fiendsmith LINK-1, throw out a Fiendsmith combo, and the opponent next turn, unless doing a monstrous development, could almost only pass. By then wasn't it playing however he wanted?
Also...
Actually somewhat absurd was.
Hikaru looked at another card at his side.
That wasn't something that had appeared in this duel, but a purple, brand-new Fusion Monster.
Only, this monster card's completion level was extremely, extremely low, so low it seemed almost nonexistent.
Fiendsmith Lacrimosa!
Eh...
There really is one, brother.
Although without "Fiendsmith Engraver," without Link monsters, this card's "2 LIGHT Fiend" Fusion condition was still too lenient, and... too valuable.
Although he'd long accepted that Super Polymerization, based on the current situation, based on the duel's content, even ignoring "time" and "existence," would randomly give him cards, Hikaru still felt some surprise.
Regardless, having cards this strongly related to Link appearing was truly wondrous.
But that was fine.
He and Tierra rather liked this card.
Finally, the duel completely ended. The spirits returned to their homes, reminiscing about this duel's wonder. The spectators learned much beneficial content.
Team 5D's and the Duel Academy friends gathered at one base. Jaden was pestering to duel Yusei once.
Everyone was very happy.
The reunion of nearly two years, Jaden's and Yusei's lives had undergone earth-shaking changes. But...
Just as was said within the duel.
Time was striding toward a brand-new "day."
...
STONES 💎
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