"First, I activate the Continuous Spell—Burning Bamboo Sword. Next, I activate another Equip Spell—Cursed Bamboo Sword, and equip it to Baronne de Fleur!"
After equipping the card, he pulled out another card and held it up.
"Finally, I activate the Continuous Spell—Nightmare Pain!"
After activating it, Yusaku looked at Eto.
"My turn ends. Your turn."
The instant Yusaku ended his turn, Kazetaro in the audience seemed to realize something. He slapped his thigh and blurted out excitedly, "So that's what it is. I get it!"
At that shout, the players around him froze for a beat, then all turned to look at him.
"Spit it out! What do you get? Stop keeping us in suspense!"
"Quit stalling! Say it already! You're killing me!"
Kazetaro didn't answer immediately. He raised a hand, signaling for everyone to quiet down, then looked toward the duel and spoke slowly.
"The defining trait of the Kaguya Kaiju deck, you all know it, right?"
The crowd blinked.
"Yeah. You tribute your opponent's monsters with Kaijus, then you Special Summon your own stuff and go into Xyz plays."
Kazetaro smiled faintly.
"Then what card did Yusaku use Beatrice's effect to send to the Graveyard on his own turn?"
"Ghost Meets Girl - A Masterful Mayakashi Shiranui Saga!" someone answered.
"Right." Kazetaro nodded, continuing to guide them. "So if Yusaku deliberately sent that card, and Beatrice still had 1 material left, then on the opponent's turn—what do you think he'll send next?"
At that question, the players frowned and fell into thought.
A moment later, one player suddenly jolted, shouting in alarm, "Don't tell me it's Transaction Rollback?!"
Kazetaro snapped his fingers.
"Exactly. It's that card. It can only be that card."
The instant he finished, the players first went blank, then—like a chain reaction—faces lit up with realization. They were about to start excitedly discussing it, but Kazetaro raised his hand again to stop them.
"Shh. As long as we know, that's enough. Just watch. The other side is about to fire off something big."
Just then, Kouki in the audience pushed up his glasses. A sharp glint flashed in his eyes as he spoke flatly.
"You're not seriously telling me you only saw that much."
The crowd immediately froze, turning toward him with confusion and anticipation.
"There's more?"
"Kouki, talk. What did we miss?"
"Say it already. Don't tease us—break down that combo!"
Kouki glanced at the field and said, "This duel ends next turn."
"And Eto will send himself to the grave with his own hands."
"What does that mean?" The crowd looked utterly lost.
Kouki smiled faintly and said only a few words.
"Think carefully about Burning Bamboo Sword, Albion the Sanctifire Dragon, what monster was used to Fusion Summon Albion the Sanctifire Dragon—and the effect of Nightmare Pain."
After saying that, he fell silent, leaving everyone to work it out themselves.
With Kouki's hint, some of the faster minds in the crowd instantly clicked. Grins spread across their faces as they exchanged looks—then let out low, wicked chuckles.
Once they imagined what was about to happen, they couldn't help feeling sorry for Eto.
On the field, Eto swept his gaze over Yusaku's board and laughed.
"Six monster zones, and you filled five of them. Not bad."
He placed his hand on his Deck, voice brimming with confidence.
"My turn. Draw!"
But the moment he added the drawn card to his hand, Yusaku's voice came across.
"At the instant your Draw Phase ends, I activate Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal's effect—chaining Albion the Sanctifire Dragon's effect as well!"
"First, Albion the Sanctifire Dragon's effect!"
"During the opponent's turn, you can target a total of 2 monsters in either Graveyard. Special Summon 1 of them to each side of the field."
Yusaku revealed two cards in the Graveyard.
"I target Yubel and Palladium Oracle Mahad. I Special Summon Yubel to my field, and Special Summon Palladium Oracle Mahad to your field!"
As his words fell, twin summoning lights flared from Yusaku's Graveyard.
A resolute man in golden armor, holding a golden staff—Palladium Oracle Mahad—slowly appeared on Eto's field.
Palladium Oracle Mahad
[Level 7 / Spellcaster / Effect]
ATK 2500 / DEF 2100
At the same time, Yubel manifested on Yusaku's field.
Yubel
ATK 0 / DEF 0
"Next, I activate Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal's effect!" Yusaku's voice continued, unwavering. "I detach her last material!"
Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal
Xyz Materials: 1 → 0
"I send the Trap Card—Transaction Rollback—from my Deck to the Graveyard!"
"In this moment!"
Yusaku's voice suddenly rose, sharp as a blade.
"I activate Transaction Rollback's Graveyard effect! I banish it and pay half my LP, then target 1 Normal Trap in my Graveyard other than Transaction Rollback. This effect becomes that card's activation effect!"
"I banish it, pay half my LP, and copy the activation effect of Ghost Meets Girl - A Masterful Mayakashi Shiranui Saga!"
Yusaku, LP 6000 → 3000
"Ghost Meets Girl - A Masterful Mayakashi Shiranui Saga's effect is: You Tribute 1 'Mayakashi' Synchro/Link Monster or 1 'Shiranui' Synchro/Link Monster you control. For the rest of this turn, neither player can Special Summon monsters from the hand, Deck, or Extra Deck."
Yusaku's coat snapped in an unseen current. He raised his arm high, voice like thunder, echoing through the entire arena.
"Because Transaction Rollback is becoming that trap's activation effect, for the rest of this turn—neither you nor I can Special Summon monsters from the hand, Deck, or Extra Deck!"
"No way!" Eto's pupils contracted violently. "That trap needs you to Tribute a specified monster as COST! You didn't pay the COST—how can the effect possibly apply?!"
Yusaku flicked him a glance.
"Transaction Rollback copies the activation effect. So the COST required before activating Ghost Meets Girl - A Masterful Mayakashi Shiranui Saga doesn't need to be paid. By the rules, it's even cleaner that way."
The moment his words ended, a blinding red light erupted beneath Yusaku's feet. A transparent shockwave traced with gilded patterns expanded outward from him.
Where it passed, the air seemed to freeze solid—dust hanging motionless in midair. In Eto's hand, every card capable of Special Summoning dulled as if its flame had been pinched out, losing the possibility of Special Summoning altogether.
Eto clenched the cards so hard his knuckles whitened, his face shifting from pale to livid, still forcing calm.
"So I can't Special Summon. Big deal. My Kaguya monsters can still Normal Summon and start plays."
He was about to slap a card down—when he suddenly noticed the Duel Disk's phase indicator. It jumped straight from the Main Phase prompt to the Battle Phase.
The commentator caught it instantly, snapping up the mic, voice full of shock.
"This is huge! What just happened?! Eto's Main Phase 1 was skipped outright! What on earth is going on?!"
Eto looked even more stunned, staring at the Battle Phase display before snapping his gaze to Yusaku.
"What did you do? Why is my Main Phase 1 gone?!"
Yusaku's lips curved slightly, the smile carrying a quiet, deliberate meaning.
"Do you remember why I summoned Isolde? From the very beginning, my goal was to skip your Main Phase."
As he spoke, he tapped a card on his Duel Disk.
The card's information projected into the air.
Eto narrowed his eyes and read it.
"Burning Bamboo Sword… If you activate a 'Bamboo Sword' card while this card is already face-up in your Spell & Trap Zone, you can… skip your opponent's next Main Phase 1."
Yusaku looked straight at Eto.
"After I activated this card, I equipped Cursed Bamboo Sword—a 'Bamboo Sword' card—to Baronne de Fleur. That satisfied the condition, so your Main Phase 1 gets skipped."
Eto thought for a moment, then sneered.
"And what's the point? Even without Main Phase 1, I still have Main Phase 2."
He looked at the monster on his own field.
"You Special Summoned Palladium Oracle Mahad to my side. You obviously have a reason. You want me to attack, don't you?"
"Too bad. I'm not giving you what you want."
Eto snorted, then issued an order without hesitation.
"End the Battle Phase!"
But as soon as he spoke, he realized the phase indicator remained stuck on the Battle Phase. It didn't advance into the Main Phase 2 he was expecting.
The smile on Eto's face hardened and cracked into confusion.
"What's going on? Why can't I enter Main Phase 2?"
"Sorry." Yusaku's smile deepened slightly. "You still have to attack."
"If you don't attack, you can't move into Main Phase 2."
Eto: "???"
"Nightmare Pain's effect: while I control a 'Yubel' monster, your monsters that can attack must attack 'Yubel' monsters."
Yusaku fixed Eto with a steady gaze, enunciating every word.
"I have Yubel on my field. You have Palladium Oracle Mahad in Attack Position."
"So you must attack."
"Come on. Attack my Yubel."
Eto fell silent.
He glanced at Mahad on his field. Yusaku had handed him this monster, then forced him to swing—there had to be a trap. But he had no way around it.
Seconds crawled by. The Duel Disk's timer kept dropping. The arena's tension stretched taut, everyone holding their breath and watching the field.
And at that moment, players who hadn't understood Yusaku's earlier lines finally saw it.
"Now I get it. He used the Isolde line to set up Burning Bamboo Sword and skip Main Phase 1, then used Verte Anaconda to access Fusion and bring out Albion the Sanctifire Dragon."
"And Albion's Fusion materials include Fallen of Albaz plus a LIGHT Spellcaster—"
"Palladium Oracle Mahad is a LIGHT Spellcaster, and on the opponent's turn he gives Mahad to Eto. What kind of genius combo is this?!"
"And it's not just that. With the copied Ghost Meets Girl - A Masterful Mayakashi Shiranui Saga effect, Special Summoning is completely locked. He can't build a board at all!"
On the field, with only twenty seconds left on the timer, Eto ground his teeth and finally issued the attack command.
"Palladium Oracle Mahad—attack! Yubel!"
The instant the order was given, Mahad leapt in place, raising his golden staff high. A massive magic circle flared into existence in the air, and countless violent bolts of lightning erupted from it—carrying a world-ending force as they crashed toward Yusaku's Yubel.
Eto tracked the strike, jaw clenched.
"Your Yubel definitely has reflect damage, or you'd never let me attack this easily. Fine—2500 LP is nothing. Take it!"
Yusaku's coat fluttered gently in the wind kicked up by the attack. Facing the lightning that filled his entire field of view, he still wore that calm, faint smile.
"You don't seem to know Mahad's effect, so I'll explain."
"When this card battles a DARK monster, its attack doubles during the Damage Step."
"And my Yubel is a DARK monster."
Eto's face went bloodless.
"What?!"
In that instant, Mahad's ATK surged.
Palladium Oracle Mahad
ATK 2500 → 5000
"And there's also Yubel's effect."
Yusaku's voice turned into a low, chilling whisper, like something crawling out of the abyss.
"This card cannot be destroyed by battle. Any battle damage you would take from battles involving this card becomes 0."
"Also, before damage calculation, when this face-up Attack Position card is attacked: inflict damage to your opponent equal to the attacking monster's ATK."
"So you'll take 5000—no."
Yusaku looked at Eto, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
"Nightmare Pain has another effect: any battle damage I would have taken from battles involving my Yubel is taken by you instead."
"So you will take… 10,000 battle damage."
The entire audience went rigid, mouths falling open in stunned disbelief.
Even the commentator forgot to speak, staring blankly at the field as if his brain had stopped working. The microphone slipped from his hand.
"Come," Yusaku said softly, almost warmly. "My most loyal servant, Mahad—attack me."
Eto's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
"Stop—!!!"
But the command had already been issued. It couldn't be withdrawn.
Mahad drove the roaring lightning forward without hesitation, slamming it into Yubel.
Yusaku smiled faintly.
"Goodbye."
In the next instant, the lightning struck Yubel—only to rebound with even more savage force.
A wall of gold swallowed Eto's vision. Despair twisted across his face as he screamed hoarsely.
"No… this can't be real—!!!"
Boom!
A deafening explosion detonated across the arena. Surging golden energy engulfed Eto completely. The Duel Platform shook violently as the shockwave rolled outward like a tidal wave, kicking up dust into the air. The impact hurled Eto backward, sending him crashing hard to the ground.
"Gah—AAAAAAH!!!"
Eto, LP 8000 → 0
(End of Chapter)
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