Chapter 149: Thunder Among the Mountains

"Heyoooo——————"

On a vast, empty mountain, a tall boy wearing the blue Duel Academy uniform was shouting toward the mountains.

"Wow, I've always wanted to climb a mountain, but I never expected it to feel this exhilarating once I actually got here! Hahaha~" Alexis Rhodes shouted with all his strength, then, when he ran out of breath, he propped his hands on his knees and laughed heartily.

At this moment, he stood atop a massive mountain with Tenjo Hikari.

From their center, as far as the eye could see—front, back, left, right—mountains surrounded them; white clouds drifted beside them, distant thunder rumbled in the sky, and birds flew past, occasionally spotting them and chirping a few friendly calls.

Alexis Rhodes waved at them, then casually picked up a camera and snapped several rapid shots.

"Hmm... hmm hmm, this is great—coming here with you was definitely the right choice!" He looked at the photo printed from the camera, at the beautiful scene of clouds, and couldn't help but smile.

"What's that, Senior?" Tenjo Hikari asked, eyeing the camera in his hand.

It looked like a new model.

Given the technological level of this world, devices like cameras and computers should have long surpassed the world Tenjo Hikari had crossed into—but since most technology was devoted to Duel techniques, other areas had stagnated.

After all, in most cases, a Duel Disk was enough.

Only AI and high-end aerospace and dimensional technologies had advanced rapidly.

The camera in Dark Chui Xue's hands, while not highly advanced, was clearly not a product an ordinary student could obtain.

"Ah, you know, right?" Dark Chui Xue grinned upon hearing Tenjo Hikari's question. "Back when I was in school, I was called one half of the Twin Pillars alongside Ryo."

Tenjo Hikari nodded. "I heard you also had the title 'King.'"

"Hmm... 'King' just doesn't sound as cool as 'Kaisa.'" Alexis Rhodes laughed. "But anyway, because of Ryo's performance in the professional circuit and his earlier X-Dimensional Duels, some companies took notice of me too."

"Because I was his equal."

"Huh?"

Though he was laughing, Tenjo Hikari sensed Dark Chui Xue's resentment.

Although Alexis Rhodes, in the original work Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, was a "Legend of Never-Winning," comparable to Dragon Long Qi, he differed from Dragon Long Qi.

Because in the end, he firmly stood by Judai's side, even willing to sacrifice himself to summon 【Darkness】 and search for clues—his own abilities were simply insufficient.

"I chased all those guys away, and then... hey, a strange company contacted me." He grinned and raised a thumb. "It was a photography company—they saw the photos I took of Asuka and thought I had talent. They asked if I'd be interested in becoming their photographer—even though I'm not even a Duelist."

"Because I'm good-looking, right? And my photography talent isn't bad either, so they wanted to invite me."

"They didn't know me at all—they didn't recognize me."

"So that's how it is." Tenjo Hikari understood.

Despite his carefree demeanor and apparent indifference, Alexis Rhodes had his own pride.

"But I can't let those guys think I'm just a sleazy brother who takes pictures of his sister to make money."

Huh?

Isn't that true?

Tenjo Hikari recalled the past six months.

At the school festival, everyone was dueling, and he was photographing cosplay Asuka.

At the exchange meeting, everyone was dueling, and he was photographing hardworking Asuka...

During the "sparring" with the Fusion Division, everyone was...

And weren't all those photos sold to the Asuka Club fans at the academy?

All under the pretense of covering his tuition after his year-long disappearance!

"Anyway, I thought about it—if I'm this handsome, this talented, and universally loved, why not become a whole new me—a Spirit Photographer!"

"Wow!"

"I'm a genius!"

He laughed heartily again.

Tenjo Hikari pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Tenjo Hikari, if you learn from this human, I'll throw you off this mountain." Ye La rubbed her arms, unable to help reminding her divine devotee.

"Of course, I do have personal motives—after all, this is the 【Mountain】—the habitat of Dragon, Thunder, and Bird-Beast clans, all of which connect to my deck."

Dark Chui Xue didn't react to Ye La's words at all—in fact, even if he heard them, he wouldn't care. He glanced around, thinking: "But this place is too huge—if we walk, it'll take days just to find a suitable Spirit."

Tenjo Hikari nodded.

Upon closer inspection, the 【Mountain】 world showed few giant dragons or birds flying; the entire realm felt empty. Even when a few large Spirits were spotted, they seemed to be guarding smaller ones.

"Then—" He drew a card directly from his deck, didn't even look at it, and shouted toward the empty air, "Come forth!"

"Phoenix King Armor Gearfried!"

As he shouted, a giant bird appeared before them, its body and feathers fully inlaid with armor, glowing golden like a stage lighting technician. He reached out, grabbed it, leapt lightly onto its back, then turned and extended his hand toward Tenjo Hikari.

Seeing this, Ye La—who had been acting completely indifferent—grabbed Tenjo Hikari's arm, preventing him from taking Dark Chui Xue's hand. Then she snapped her fingers, and a tiny demon, no bigger than a palm, appeared beside her.

Immediately, countless purple puppet threads flew from nowhere, wrapping around the demon. The next second, the threads encased it into a massive sphere.

With a loud "Boom!" the puppet threads exploded outward, revealing a demon swollen to several times its original size—taller than both men, even larger than the Phoenix King Armor Gearfried.

"Whoa..." Dark Chui Xue gasped in surprise.

And it even has a seat!

"Ah Guang, your Spirit is incredibly powerful!"

"Uh... yeah, I guess." Tenjo Hikari couldn't explain why Ye La was so powerful. Under Ye La's firm tug, he sat with her on the back of "Satan."

After flapping its wings, the two rose from the ground and flew into the sky.

"Hey————" Dark Chui Xue pulled out a massive megaphone from somewhere and shouted into the air, "Hey———— Is anyone—no—any Spirits here!!!!"

"We are students from the Noble Duel Academy of the Human World, welcoming any Spirit to join us!"

"I am the future world's greatest Spirit Photographer, and this person beside me is a Fusionist pursuing ultimate fusion!"

Tenjo Hikari noticed that the once bird-chirping, flower-scented, tranquil 【Mountain】 world was gradually darkening.

The thunder sounded louder than before.

Dark clouds slowly gathered around them, but Dark Chui Xue seemed completely unaware of the changing environment and kept shouting.

Until the sky was choked with clouds, lightning flashed, and thunder roared!

"Who dares disturb the young ones' training?!"

A commanding voice rang out with a colossal thunderclap—this single shout actually silenced Dark Chui Xue's loud voice, leaving even his Spirit stunned for a moment, nearly forgetting to fly and falling from the sky.

Amidst a furious crackling sound, a massive dragon, its entire body wrapped in lightning, slowly emerged from the dark clouds.

It was a majestic, four-horned dragon-beast, its body pure white, scales purple-black, surrounded by countless lightning orbs—identical to the divine dragons of Chinese mythology.

Thundering Dragon—Lei Long!

At this moment, it glared at Dark Chui Xue with furious anger.

"Oh dear..." Dark Chui Xue, seeing the furious dragon before him, muttered involuntarily, "I messed up."

Trouble!

He realized why he hadn't seen any large Spirits.

The 【Mountain】 was clearly a training and resting ground for young Spirits!

Chapter Two, please vote~~

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(End of Chapter)