"Damn it… Damn it!!!"
A furious roar.
But it wasn't coming from Roxen, or at least not from Roxen himself.
As Saturn detonated, the blast swept past Roxen, and the duelist from the Society of Light collapsed with a look of endless unwillingness.
But the angry howling didn't stop—it only grew stronger. Blinding light burst from his body, piercing the fire and forming a twisted white silhouette in midair.
It looked like some shape made of light, with a vague, contorted face. The face roared with rage.
"Saturn… Big Saturn… Ahhh!"
Apparently, someone was very unwilling to be blown up by Saturn.
At least in his final moments, he finally understood: the core of Kira's tactics really was Big Saturn, but Kira never planned to fight head-on.
The Backfire + Saturn combo, and the traitor Exploder Dragon combo… All aimed at Saturn's self-destruction.
When the self-destruction combo wasn't available, Saturn's 2800 ATK was still formidable, and could be boosted to 3800 by paying LP—almost on par with Obelisk.
If the opponent tried to remove it with destruction effects, all the better; less work for Kira. If not, Kira would do it himself.
A walking powder-keg.
The light of destruction from beyond the stars clearly didn't understand the underhanded tricks of the locals. He was indignant, even resentful.
That's normal. Kira had once felt the same way when trolled by friends with Saturn + Self-Destruct decks, ending in a forced draw. Let alone this time, where it wasn't even a draw—his opponent was blown to bits.
But Roxen was now down for the count, and the thing appearing before Kira was the fragment of the light of destruction that had been attached to Roxen.
"Revolver… revolver."
The fragment glared at him.
"You were irrelevant before. But from now on… this is personal."
Kira smiled and nodded.
"I couldn't ask for more."
It was true. He'd found the Society's base, but it seemed they'd cleared out in advance. Roxen, left behind to set a trap—the light left his body after defeat, and even if he woke up, he'd be of no use.
That's the common feature of Society of Light members in the anime. Chazz and Alexis both lost their memories of their time in the Society after being defeated.
It's likely a mechanism to prevent brainwashed members from leaking secrets.
But that makes it harder to take down the Society.
The remaining fragment of light slowly dissipated before him, the twisted face turning to dust.
"Boss, what do we do next?"
Chick quietly appeared behind him, speaking in a low voice.
Don Zaloog hesitated, wanting to speak but holding back in the end.
I got here first, but now he's the boss?
Kira thought for a moment.
"Sartorius and the other Society members are missing; we can't find them. But there's one we can."
"Who?"
Kira tapped his KC-branded terminal, bringing up the image of a handsome young man in a white suit with silver hair.
"Pro duelist, Aster Phoenix."
....
"Aster, you've been doing well lately," Sartorius said, placing a tarot card face down on the table.
"You've beaten all the top-50-ranked duelists so far."
The silver-haired young man behind him smiled confidently.
"They weren't much of a challenge," Aster said. "They couldn't even make me use my full power."
Sartorius chuckled.
Aster was known as an Elemental HERO user, but he hadn't revealed his true strength yet. His real ace deck was the one-of-a-kind Destiny HERO deck, left to him by his father, a card designer at Industrial Illusions.
"Still doing those pointless nightly hunts?" Sartorius asked casually.
Aster smiled.
"Just for fun," he said.
He knew what Sartorius meant. The newspapers reported an anonymous vigilante punishing criminals in the city, always using duels. The public loved this dueling hero, but the authorities considered him a vigilante to be apprehended.
Aster and Sartorius both knew the vigilante's true identity—Aster himself.
"These criminals aren't the one you're looking for," Sartorius said quietly.
Aster smiled. "Is that another of your predictions, Sartorius?"
Sartorius didn't answer, continuing to shuffle his tarot cards.
"Of course, if you're just doing this to vent your anger, then that's another matter."
Aster admitted there was some truth to that.
Years ago, his father had been murdered, and the legendary Destiny HERO card—Ultimate D (Destiny Hero - Plasma)—was stolen. Since then, Aster had hated all criminals. His greatest purpose was to find the killer and recover his father's legacy.
"So," Aster looked at Sartorius, "has my destiny changed?"
Sartorius flipped over a tarot card and placed it in the center of the table.
The Chariot.