Chapter 78: Stardust Explosion in the Dark
"OW!!"
[Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice — destroyed]
Eve: "Amano, if I ever turn evil, you bear fifty percent of the responsibility!"
Sorry about that, Eve. You're a card spirit — you can take more punishment than I can.
In practical terms: if Amano had been the one to absorb those direct attacks without Eve cycling as a buffer, this duel would have ended at his first life points screen. A 3000 ATK mechanical giant hitting a duelist directly in a Dark Game wasn't something you walked away from without consequences.
"Flying Dragon — direct attack!"
Amano Rei & Rin Seiya LP: 4000 -> 2300
The mechanical dragon's tail caught Amano across the chest and sent him several meters into the pavement. The impact wasn't simulated. The Dark Game didn't simulate anything — every joule of it went directly into the body, and the pain that radiated outward from his ribcage was specific and real and deeply unpleasant.
Physical damage and the constant psychological grinding of the Dark Game working simultaneously. His thoughts were getting slower at the edges.
"So this is what a Dark Game actually feels like."
He got back to his feet. Slowly.
The Puppeteer looked down at him from behind Bart's eyes.
"You're still standing. I suppose a duelist with a card spirit protecting them is harder to put down than average."
"I activate Continuous Spell — Ancient Gear Castle! Field Spell — Geartown!"
The two cards Bart's effects had searched this turn went back onto the field. The mechanical architecture rose again around them — the same towering fortress, the same gear-covered streets, rebuilding themselves from nothing as if the Heavy Storm had never happened.
The current hand still held those cards without a way to activate them offensively this turn. That was the only thing keeping the Puppeteer from instantly replicating the opening sequence again and pulling out two more 3000 ATK monsters.
"Ancient Gear Dark Golem's effect prevents me from Setting cards this turn. My turn ends."
First turn survived. Barely. Field wiped, LP at 2300, and Amano's hand wasn't showing him anything that could reverse the momentum cleanly.
Second turn, and he was already gambling on his draw.
That was the Dark Game at full difficulty. Every turn that passed without a solution was a turn the psychological pressure tightened. The barrier didn't let anyone out. The longer this ran, the harder clear thinking became.
He reached for the deck.
A flash of light exploded at the edge of the Dark Game barrier.
Then a sound that Amano recognized instantly — a Synchro chant, halfway through, and a voice he knew.
"Stardust Dragon — 'Shooting Sonic'!!"
The barrier cracked.
Stardust Dragon's attack landed against the Dark Game's outer wall like a physical blow, and the structure that the Puppeteer had called impenetrable split open. Light poured through the gap — starlight, specifically, scattered and bright and cutting through the darkness with something that felt like momentum.
A figure came through the broken barrier at speed, white hair catching the light, landing in a practiced slide that ended with one knee on the ground.
Rin Seiya looked up.
"Still alive, Amano?"
"Barely counts, but yes."
She'd come through the barrier gap like she'd planned the whole entrance. Amano stared at her for a moment.
"Stardust Dragon just — broke through a Dark Game barrier. From outside."
He turned inward. "Eve. You told me before that card spirits couldn't break through a Dark Game barrier."
Eve: "I have zero ATK. That thing has how much?"
2500. Fair point.
"You're alive. Good enough." Rin's Duel Disk opened on her wrist — white, distinct, built for her specifically. "Eva system — Intrude Duel!"
[DATA NETWORK FORCED CONNECTION]
[DUEL RULE: INTRUDE DUEL]
[SPECIAL RULE: 2 VS 1]
An Intrude Duel. Forcing your way into an active duel and joining as a second participant. Not a battle royale — an actual two-on-one, with every mechanical shift that implied.
"This turn is mine, Amano!"
Rin's starting hand dealt itself rapidly — five cards plus the opening draw, six total, all at once.
In a two-on-one Intrude Duel, the turn order cycled through all three participants. With Amano having gone first, the sequence ran: Amano — Puppeteer — Rin — Puppeteer — Amano. Both sides of the team shared a single Life Point pool. The single-player side compensated by drawing two cards per turn instead of one.
And because joining an active duel uninvited came with a penalty:
"For the Intrude Duel punishment — 2000 damage to the joining side!"
"AHHHH—!"
The electric discharge that came with the penalty didn't discriminate between team members.
Rin: hit.
Amano: hit again by association.
Rin Seiya & Amano Rei LP: 6300 -> 4300
"...Did you just zap yourself to get in here?"
"Yes." Rin shook out her hand and continued drawing her cards without visible embarrassment. "I didn't report it to the authorities either."
"Why not?"
"I've watched enough 5D's to know that the police have never successfully stopped a Dark Game. Not once in the entire historical record."
That was a completely airtight argument based on anime footage.
"So you just came yourself."
"Bart is my loss to clean up." She was already reading her hand. "He wouldn't be here if he hadn't faced me yesterday."
The logic was questionable, but Amano wasn't in a position to argue with a rescue.
Rin's first card hit the field.
"Vice Dragon's effect — when my opponent controls a monster and I control none, I can Special Summon it from my hand, but its ATK and DEF are halved."
[Vice Dragon] [5-Star / DARK / Dragon / Effect]
[ATK: 2000 -> 1000 / DEF: 2400 -> 1200]
The halved stats weren't the goal. The Level was.
"Normal Summon — Debris Dragon!"
[Debris Dragon] [1-Star / LIGHT / Dragon / Tuner / Effect] [ATK: 500 / DEF: 2000]
"Level 1 Tuner Debris Dragon — Level 5 Vice Dragon — tune!"
The Tuner's ring expanded outward and passed through Vice Dragon's massive frame, stars scattering from the resonance point.
1 + 5 = 6
"Holy wings that gather the rain of stars — let the soul ride the wind and circle the world!"
"Synchro Summon — Stardust Spark Dragon!!"
[Stardust Spark Dragon] [6-Star / LIGHT / Warrior / Synchro / Effect]
[ATK: 2000 / DEF: 1300]
The Synchro materialized in a burst of golden light — a warrior-form built from stardust, blades of light running along its back like wings.
"When Stardust Spark Dragon is Synchro Summoned, I draw one card!"
The drawn card went straight to the field.
"Spell — Reinforcements!"
[Reinforcements] [Spell: Target 1 face-up monster you control; it gains 1500 ATK until the end of this turn.]
"Reinforcements — Stardust Spark Dragon!"
"OHH!" Stardust Spark Dragon responded with something that sounded like a battle cry, star energy flaring outward.
[Stardust Spark Dragon] [ATK: 2000 -> 3500]
Rin swept her arm forward.
"That puts it above Blue-Eyes White Dragon's ATK!"
Amano: "You know about Blue-Eyes?"
"Of course I know about Blue-Eyes."
"Stardust Spark Dragon's effect — it can attack every Special Summoned monster the opponent controls, once each!"
The Puppeteer's field held two monsters at exactly 3000 ATK — Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon and Ancient Gear Dark Golem. Both Special Summoned. Both now in Stardust Spark Dragon's targeting range.
The starlight that had been gathering since the Synchro chant released at once — not a single strike but a cascading barrage, blades of concentrated light shearing outward in sweeping arcs. The two enormous mechanical bodies barely had time to register the impact before the first one cut through, and then the second, trails of broken steel and shattered gears scattered across the battlefield.
"'Stardust Vortex Slash'!!"
Both Ancient Gear monsters collapsed into fragments.