Chapter 80: The Divine Messenger

At night, Tenjo Hikari routinely organized his deck.

It had become his habit.

The Game King has infinite possibilities; even the strongest deck can be defeated by two copies of Book of Eclipse, and his deck was "infinite possibility" itself—because even he didn't know what his deck would look like in the next duel.

"Previously, I drew Pot of Greed and it turned into Exchange Fusion; Solemn Rebirth turned into Re-Fusion. The latter's hard to explain—it had other special combos—but the card effect difference in the former is way too big." Tenjo Hikari rubbed his hand cards, and soon his eyes suddenly lit up, "Whoa! Whoa whoa!?"

"What—is this?"

He excitedly recalculated from start to finish, opened his spare card box, and meticulously counted again.

The normal monsters given to him by Wan Rong the Alchemist, the random cards he bought in Ciyuan City—most of them had vanished, dozens of cards reduced to just one—

ddd Snail Slime!

"Is this real? Even this card got printed?" Tenjo Hikari strained to recall, "Logically, cards created by Super Fusion should relate to my dueling opponent and the cards in my deck—so why did it produce this?"

It was a powerful card: if in hand, it could directly perform Fusion Summon during the Main Phase by tributing hand cards to summon one ddd Fusion Monster.

Simultaneously, it could banish itself from the graveyard to Special Summon a ddd monster from hand.

Though still a "card loss," in terms of card efficiency, this card was already outstanding in this world.

But—it was his only ddd card.

And what puzzled him was—why did this card appear?

"Could it be?" He thought of a possibility.

Because he had been opposing Ma Ling Wang, had Super Fusion recognized that?

"So hard to understand—how many details remain undiscovered?" Tenjo Hikari stroked his chin, recalling carefully.

Super Fusion's scope was astonishingly vast; now it seemed to judge everything Tenjo Hikari did.

As he pondered, Tenjo Hikari suddenly felt something was off.

Why was the room so dark?

"My Lord!" "Your Excellency!"

He heard the spirits' cries of alarm.

In the next instant, he felt the familiar "power"—Bai Jing's Captain had attached to him, radiating light; at the same time, he swiftly turned his head toward his spare cards.

Inside the spare card box, a thick, swirling "shadow," like ink, wrapped in purple light spun wildly.

What is this!?

He was momentarily stunned.

"Your Excellency, be careful!"

Bai Jing's Captain spoke too late—Tenjo Hikari was struck squarely on the shoulder by a rapidly flying metal shard; fortunately, because Bai Jing's Captain was attached, though painful, he was unharmed.

Amid the purple storm, he scanned his surroundings.

Many of his alchemical materials fluttered, gathered, and swirled in the strange wind; in his astonished gaze, the metal components slowly assembled and transformed—gradually, a steel puppet hand emerged before him, then a staff materialized out of thin air; the next moment, with purple light flashing from the staff, a petite figure appeared before him: its joints were steel, its body mechanical puppetry, even its hair clearly twisted into strands.

Shadowlord Midrash.

"So that's it!" Wan Rong the Alchemist materialized beside Tenjo Hikari, "Master, you've already completed this card—but— it didn't want to move!"

Is that so?

Indeed, in this world, there existed cards that refused to be used by their owners—cards that forcibly prevented the Duel Disk from recognizing them, or even struck users with lightning—but only extremely powerful spirits or outright "gods" could do that!

"Wait—how can I see you now?!" Tenjo Hikari suddenly realized.

"My Lord, your power has been strengthened by it!" Yan Yan Jian and Hei Yan had been beside Tenjo Hikari all along, but he hadn't seen them before; now noticing his gaze, they quickly spoke up.

"Strange… the cards you forged were all ordinary cards… why this one?" Hei Yan frowned.

"Apologies, Your Excellency—I'm probably to blame!" Bai Jing's Captain, upon seeing Midrash, finally understood that familiar feeling: "She's likely a spirit from the same world as me; because of my presence, she noticed…"

So that's it.

Tenjo Hikari understood.

He'd always known his alchemy was too weak to fuse Fusion Monsters—how could he possibly create an artificial lifeform like a spirit? He wasn't that extraordinary.

If this was true, it made sense.

The spirits chattered among themselves, letting Tenjo Hikari grasp the full story; meanwhile, the green-haired spirit floating in midair twisted her head, arms, and joints.

She was clearly not a normal being—her head moved in jerky stops, her limb joints bent both forward and backward; she glanced at Bai Jing, expressionless, and spoke: "Long… time… no… see."

Bai Jing shuddered.

The next moment, the spirit turned to Tenjo Hikari: "Human, you, without permission, created, me me me————"

As she spoke, she suddenly froze, slapped her own head, twisted her neck joint; just as she prepared to continue, her entire form stiffened—then her demeanor visibly brightened, becoming more lifelike; a smile appeared on her face, and she radiated vibrant energy.

Tenjo Hikari stared, dumbfounded.

"Ugh, Bai Jing?" "Huh? Human?"

"Midrash" looked at Tenjo Hikari, grinning maniacally: "I never thought spirit cards could reach the human world! Looks like I've got another chance to revive!"

No—

She wasn't Midrash!!

In that instant, Tenjo Hikari realized a problem!

She was absolutely not Midrash—no—she "was" Midrash!

Bai Jing was confused.

He'd seen many "Midrash" spirits—he'd fought the Shadowlord clan—but he'd never seen a mechanical puppet spirit wear such an expression.

"…Tierra?" Tenjo Hikari ventured.

"You've heard of me?" "Midrash" smiled, unsurprised, "So my divine name has reached other worlds."

Hiss—

Tenjo Hikari understood.

Another "darkness."

The Creation God Tierra!

One of the two "Creators" of the dt world.

Simple logic: if darkness could use aliases, then Tierra could too. Midrash was the "Voice of the God," essentially Tierra's "messenger"; in the card lore, Midrash was always controlled by Tierra—the only Shadowlord monster without "control strings," because quite simply—she was directly linked!

It seemed the original Midrash spirit had intended to duel him to determine if he was worthy to be her owner—but Tierra had cut in.

"Compared to the wretched creatures in my world, humans are quite nice."

Tierra nodded repeatedly, praising: "Human, if you find my world and help me revive, reset the planet, and purge the filthy, ugly beings, I shall grant you the name Adam of Humanity, making you the progenitor of all humans in my world—how about it?"

"No." Tenjo Hikari immediately interrupted.

What's the difference between this and believing Qin Shi Huang will revive me and make me a general?

"Get out of Midrash's spirit—she's my card now!" Tenjo Hikari clenched his fist, saying, "She's the symbol of Fusion!"

Tierra instinctively leaned back.

In thousands or tens of thousands of years, how many dared speak to Him like this?

"Since you've heard of me, aren't you afraid?"

Tenjo Hikari smiled.

He'd already learned about the Spirit World from Bai Jing.

To spirits, the dt world was ancient history—so ancient it was "before creation"; Tierra's physical form was long dead!

Probably turned to oil by now!

Remember, to wield power, you need a "vessel."

Even Light Creation needed three Phantom Gods as vessels—how much power could a single Midrash card provide?

Should I ask about my Super Fusion?

He might not unleash its full power, but since Tierra hadn't turned him into a robot yet, her power was clearly far from complete—he could just block her with Super Fusion.

Without further words, he removed the card from around his neck.

"Wait, stop—you can't channel its power with this body! Are you trying to die with me?" Tierra opened her tiny hand, slightly panicked, blocking Tenjo Hikari; as her rank, she recognized instantly what he held, "I've been dead long ago, so I don't care—but without you, I'll wait another unknown length of time. How about this? Follow the New Era's rules, alright?"

She smiled: "You won't refuse, right?"

"You can duel?" Tenjo Hikari was surprised.

"Uh… no, but I can learn." Tierra hadn't felt this awkward in ages.

"Heh." Tenjo Hikari laughed.

In this world, if you can't duel, you'll become just another darkness, laughed at by everyone!

"I have conditions."

"What conditions?"

"Cards." Tenjo Hikari bargained with her, "Help me create cards—you can do that, right?"

"This body is weak. I've seen her memories—ordinary spirit cards can't directly create cards." Tierra shook her head, "But if you have that thing in your hand, maybe I can try."

"Don't casually peek into others' memories!" Tenjo Hikari shouted, stopping her utterly terrible behavior, then said, "Deal."

"In a few days, I'm going to the World of the Magicians, and I have a club—I'm also teaching disciples; I can let you observe plenty."

"Great!" Tierra nodded with a smile.

Then, belatedly, she reflected.

Wait a minute.

Wasn't my original goal revival?

Couldn't I have traded card creation for revival?

But after a moment's thought, she abandoned this meaningless speculation.

As a deity, keeping one's word is the most basic requirement!

Moreover, since the new era has entered the age of duels, it's fine for me to find a human to learn dueling!

As long as I turn him into my believer, I can always resurrect him later! A hundred or two hundred years won't matter!

The editor suddenly reached out to me and said the strong recommendation PK had passed, so I don't need the Three Rivers slot—I can go straight to premium release. After all, the word count is already substantial, and I thought it made sense anyway, since the little trumpet promotion is already up. So I'll launch tomorrow—tomorrow I'll unleash a massive update!

Please support with recommendations and monthly tickets!!!

Now my goal for this month is to rank in the top ten for new book monthly tickets, haha.





(End of chapter)