[Amelda, LP 0]
Life Points were reduced to zero, and the Space Fortress, his ultimate card, was shattered into pieces under the mighty fist of the Earth King's Giant Warrior. One of Doma's Three Musketeers, Amelda was utterly defeated.
As the duel was decided, The Seal of Orichalcos immediately responded. The enormous magic circle contracted, and the array spiraled under Amelda's feet. An invisible force gripped his soul, and the green Protective Talisman hanging on his chest shattered into sparkling powder, drifting away with the wind.
Yet Amelda had no regrets. Perhaps because the darkness within him had been dispelled by the Egyptian God's strike, he felt an unprecedented calm.
At the brink of death, he turned to look at Mokuba nearby.
Compared to his brother, Mokuba was actually a pretty simple kid. Understanding that the other party was also a victim of Kaiba Company, sharing a similarly tragic past with him and his brother, Mokuba sympathized with Amelda from the bottom of his heart.
Amelda smiled at him and took out the broken, faded toy from his pocket, casually tossing it to Mokuba.
Mokuba instinctively caught it and was taken aback: "But this... isn't this the most important to you..."
"Miruko would want it to stay in your hands."
After speaking, Amelda looked up at Kaiba.
"Kaiba Seto, don't repeat my mistakes," he said calmly. "Protect your brother, don't... let something like this happen again."
Kaiba snorted: "I know that without you telling me."
The duel ended, the image of the Giant Warrior vanished, and everything returned to normal.
The array of Orichalcos transformed into a pillar of green light, ascending into the sky, taking the soul of this Doma swordsman with it.
Youyu watched in silence at the rare interaction between these two adversaries.
Though the Orichalcos arc in Yu-Gi-Oh! DM was an original storyline, from the perspective of character development for the President, he personally felt the duel between Amelda and the President was a stroke of genius.
Amelda was indeed very similar to the President. A proud heart, a tragic past, and the pain of losing everything.
Ironically, if there's anyone in the world who could truly understand Amelda's pain, it might just be his sworn enemy, Kaiba Seto.
Yet in the animation, when faced with Amelda's lament and accusations, Kaiba acted callously, as if he couldn't care less, even ridiculing the other's misfortunes as if entirely indifferent.
So, was the President really indifferent?
Of course not. It's just that Kaiba understood Amelda had become an obstacle in his path, a hurdle he had to overcome.
For his dream — to build Kaiba Land, where all children could play happily — Kaiba had long been accustomed to trampling over the suffering of others for his childish goal. It was through unrelenting means and stepping over countless sacrifices that he reached where he is today. And to realize that dream, he must forge ahead even further.
"You can't create a new future without shattering the past," is one of Kaiba's most iconic lines. He knows that ideals can't be as beautiful as in fairy tales. To continue forward, he must carry all the hatred, a resolve he's had for a long time.
Therefore, for Kaiba, Youyu defeating Amelda on his behalf was, in a way, a relief.
This meant he didn't have to personally defeat this enemy or carry all the hatred alone.
...Though, of course, Kaiba would never admit this aloud in this lifetime.
Kaiba glanced at Youyu, who was picking up the "Obelisk the Tormentor" card from the Duel Disc, his expression complex.
Drawing "Obelisk the Tormentor" at the very last moment, summoning the God by gathering three sacrifices in a single turn, and even managing to gather two sacrifices to activate "Fist of Fate Shock Wave"...
Kaiba asked himself if even when Obelisk was in his hands, he didn't seem to achieve that.
At this moment, Kaiba felt his right hand becoming restless again.
...You↑yu↓, I really want to duel you again now!
Youyu, feeling Kaiba's intense gaze, felt a chill down his spine, a sense of foreboding...
At this moment, Youyu wisely chose to ignore it, pretending he didn't notice.
After the duel, the feeling of power that had just filled him instantly vanished. Opening his panel to check, the Duelist level remained stubbornly at 7 stars, unchanged.
Youyu pondered and tried shuffling this original "Obelisk the Tormentor" back into his card deck, then opened the panel again, and it still remained at 7 stars, unchanged.
He somewhat guessed what this Egyptian God meant. Perhaps the God was implying, "Humph, I just let you use it once as an exception, don't get arrogant, human!"
...Well, as expected of an Egyptian God, each more prideful than the last.
But it's okay.
As everyone knows, things are either zero or countless times; once doesn't exist. Once there's a precedent, he wouldn't worry about it in the future.
Besides, Youyu opened the skill panel and found that the skill named "Divine Wrath" was still available.
This meant that in the next duel, this skill might still be usable.
Just look, some Gods say no, no, but have been betrayed by the skill panel...
But speaking of this duel, the commotion it caused was truly remarkable. The moment The Seal of Orichalcos was activated, it blasted this house into pieces, and the room was a mess like... like the Nightwalker World's strongmen had just spent a whole night playing wild ball punching here.
Not to mention that all the windows from the living room to the bedroom were shattered, and just a moment ago, there was also a giant Space Fortress and a blue-bodied Earth King hero floating outside the building.
If no one around noticed anything amiss, it would seem that the entire city was inhabited by blind people.
But that's not something Youyu needed to worry about. The omnipotent and invincible Kaiba Company would surely find a way to handle it.
Anyway, if the sky falls, the President will hold it up; this part wasn't Youyu's problem to worry about.
...But why does the President keep staring at me?
During the duel, Youyu noticed something was off. As he got carried away while dueling and said whatever came to mind, he became a bit complacent.
Then, when he looked back, he found the affinity above the President's head was continuously rising...
That's when he felt something was amiss.
Uh-oh, with the President's affinity possibly reaching peak levels tonight and planning a midnight raid on his room...
... to seize him for a forced duel?
The more he thought about it, the more probable it seemed.
Youyu, quick-witted, glanced at his watch, pretending to realize something.
"Oh yeah, I need to... pick up a few people." Youyu retreated to the doorway, "Well then, President, if there's nothing else, I'll... um... be on my way."