Chapter 90

A white giant slowly rose from the ground, blue-purple machinery forming its massive skirt, and countless purple puppet strings shrouded the entire sky above the station.

No, not just this station.

The entire volcanic region was, at this moment, shrouded in the shadow of this massive giant.

Countless purple puppet strings covered the sky above this area, and a few strings fell beside the students, emitting an incomprehensible radiance.

El Shaddoll Construct, Level 8, Light Attribute, Fairy-Type, ATK 2800.

Tenjou Hikari looked up.

He had never imagined this scene.

He never expected that one day, he would see Shaddoll on the opponent's side.

To this day, Tenjou Hikari had encountered Gem-Knights, Jurrac, and Infinitrack, but he had never seen a second person besides himself use Shaddoll.

"It... it's actually Shaddoll?!" Misawa Daichi also looked at the sky, at the giant.

"I never thought I'd see another El Shaddoll monster appear..."

"This, is Master alright?" Serena was a bit worried about Tenjou Hikari.

Having an opponent use your own monsters to fuse into an even more powerful monster should logically affect one's mentality easily.

"Shaddoll Falco's effect: if it's sent to the Graveyard by a card effect, this card is Special Summoned to the field in face-down Defense Position." Tenjou Hikari really hadn't expected to encounter this kind of scene, but he still had to make his move.

"Heh... it doesn't matter! Tenjou Hikari, let me show you my duel under the power of the Reaper and the power of Construct!

I activate the Trap Card, Return from the Different Dimension!"

Haruki LP: 2800 → 1400.

Wow...

Exaggerated.

So that was the tactic he was using.

However...

If that was the case, the logic seemed a bit flawed, right?

"Pay half your Life Points and Special Summon as many of your banished monsters as possible. Monsters Special Summoned by this effect are banished during the End Phase!"

"I Special Summon, Dimension Synthesizer, Barrier Statue of the Light!"

Two monsters appeared on his field again.

"It's not over yet!" Haruki wore a cold smile, his confidence overflowing. "That Colossus - Thunder Dragon of yours has the effect of replacing destruction with a Thunder-Type monster in the Graveyard; if I don't take it out, I can't continue the duel—so I'll use this.

Continuous Spell Card, Interdimensional Matter Transporter!"

He grinned: "Select 1 monster on your field and 1 monster on the opponent's field to be banished. I choose Barrier Statue of the Light and the Colossus - Thunder Dragon on your field!"

The figures of the two monsters gradually became illusory; Colossus - Thunder Dragon wanted to help Tenjou Hikari, but it disappeared from the field in an instant.

"Activate Dimension Synthesizer's effect: banish the top card of the Deck, ATK increases by 500!"

Dimension Synthesizer, ATK: 1300 → 1800

"Battle! El Shaddoll Construct attacks Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon!"

Controlling the giant that reached into the sky, Haruki's consciousness didn't seem very clear; he slowly raised his hand, commanding the giant to attack.

"What? Attack Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon?"

"The ATK is the same, isn't that just mutual destruction?"

"A high-level monster summoned with such difficulty, is it just going to collide and be destroyed?"

Many students were surprised.

"Hehehe, Hahaha—any monster summoned by Special Summon is no match for Construct!"

Accompanied by a dazzling light, the blue-purple skirt armor on Construct turned pure white: "When Construct battles a monster Special Summoned by Special Summon, it doesn't battle, it destroys the opponent's monster directly!"

"Boom!"

Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon didn't even have time to react before it was bound by countless puppet strings and then shattered with a boom.

"Ah?"

"It actually has such a powerful effect?!"

"Doesn't that mean even Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon couldn't possibly be its opponent?"

"Hiss..." Misawa Daichi gasped. "Although I've thought about what kind of effects other El Shaddoll monsters might have, this effect is too exaggerated."

In this world, duelists rely mostly on high-level, high-ATK monsters, and among them, using various card support to perform Special Summons to summon their aces is the most common method.

This Construct can destroy any monster summoned by Special Summon, which for the vast majority of duelists, is an unstoppable monster.

Moreover, even high-level summoned monsters would find it difficult to defeat Construct, which has 2800 ATK.

It could almost be called an "invincible" monster.

However, in Tenjou Hikari's view, this was actually Construct's weakest effect.

Construct's other two effects: the first effect is that if it is successfully Special Summoned, you can send any 1 "Shaddoll" from your Deck to the Graveyard. The third effect is that if it is sent to the Graveyard, you can add any Shaddoll Spell/Trap card from your Graveyard to your hand.

There's a song that goes well: Shaddoll Fusion into Construct, Link Summon Gravity Controller, recover Shaddoll Schism...

Understanding this song basically means understanding how to play Shaddoll.jpg

However, in this world, because others lack other Shaddoll cards, for them, the second effect is indeed stronger.

"Battle continues, Dimension Synthesizer attacks your face-down monster—Shaddoll Falco can revive a Shaddoll monster from the Graveyard when flipped, right? I already saw that card's effect just now, I won't let you activate it! After all, Shaddoll low-level monsters seem to only be able to choose one effect per turn."

Falco was sucked into the Synthesizer's magic orb and then went silent.

"Turn ends, at this time, Synthesizer is banished from the game—"

Haruki laughed loudly, "Did you see that? Tenjou Hikari, this is the power Mr. Saiou gave me. This is the power of destiny!"

Tenjou Hikari lowered his head and rubbed his neck slightly.

He felt an inexplicable urge.

An urge to kneel down and worship the giant—while he was thinking this, a few students nearby whose mental resistance wasn't very strong subconsciously knelt down and began to worship Construct.

"Hmm... it seems that even if you get that card, you'll have to clean it up again," Tierra said, looking at the scene around them.

Construct was originally a central control device, and on top of that, Saiou seemed to have added other powers, so even Tenjou Hikari, who was in the middle of the duel, was somewhat affected.

But after Tierra's reminder, she snapped her fingers, and this mental influence disappeared.

A bit outrageous.

Tenjou Hikari clenched his fists.

The Shaddoll series is indeed a special monster; the Midrash card itself has some peculiarities, and now this Construct, even without Tierra's power, could achieve such things.

If he lost the duel, he might end up like Manjoume in the original work, becoming a lackey for Saiou.

"My turn, draw."

Tenjou Hikari finished drawing and glanced at it.

"Speaking of which, your Reaper's power can make people draw any card they want, right?"

"Yes, that's right?" Hearing Tenjou Hikari's question, Haruki was slightly surprised.

"Then, since that's the case, why use [Fusion]?"

"What kind of question is that?" Haruki was even more confused than Tenjou Hikari. "You, the absolute Fusion user, are actually asking others why they use Fusion?"

"That's not what I meant. I mean, there are clearly more suitable cards, right?" Tenjou Hikari touched his chin, raised a finger, and said, "Why not use Fusion Gate?"

Haruki was stunned for a moment.

Tenjou Hikari continued to think: "Your own Deck should be a Dimension Deck with a banishing theme. Beyond that, you added other cards Saiou gave you, making your Deck stronger, and relying on the Reaper's card, you can also accomplish things you couldn't before.

Since that's the case, why not replace Fusion with three Fusion Gates?

Fusion Sage can search for Fusion, and you can also use Terraforming to search for Fusion Gate.

And as long as Fusion Gate is on the field, you can directly use its effect to banish Joan and Falco. That way, not only can you use Return from the Different Dimension to Special Summon Joan, but you can also banish my Falco, preventing Falco from being Special Summoned to block the attack, right?"

Of course, Tenjou Hikari still had set cards; wanting to one-turn-kill Tenjou Hikari was impossible.

"Eh... uh?" Haruki was stumped.

No.

Or rather, Haruki's own "consciousness" began to think.

Not just him, the students nearby couldn't help but nod repeatedly.

"That's right, if you're going to use this banishing tactic, Fusion Gate is clearly much better than Fusion."

"As expected of Tenjou Hikari, as long as it's about Fusion, he can immediately have new ideas."

"Not to mention the luck of drawing cards, in terms of construction, that guy's construction is clearly flawed!"

"Tch, that guy Tenjou, even though the opponent is a guy blocking the station to collect badges, he's still kind enough to point out the problems in his opponent's Deck..."

A group of students chattered—still, the students in this area were, more or less, elite students; at least in terms of dueling, they all had their own insights.

After hearing Tenjou Hikari's words, they almost immediately realized that he was definitely correct.

If he had succeeded, he could have even won in one turn, defeating Tenjou Hikari directly in that previous turn.

Yet he hadn't done so.

"No, impossible, shut up—my construction has no problems, you bastard, I don't even use Fusion, why would I think so much—" This discussion seriously affected Haruki.

The reason he was chosen to be the user of the "Reaper's card" had two most important points.

His luck was good.

Second, he hated others discussing his Deck construction; he always believed that his Deck had never had any problems, just like Tenjou Hikari could duel with a full Fusion Deck, his Deck had no problems.

And beyond that, adding Construct made his already good spirit power even stronger.

Under the blessing of both, coupled with Saiou's brainwashing, his duel carried large-scale mental power, plus the influence of the power of light; if Tenjou Hikari was hit, he would even suffer mental damage—in fact, although he didn't take a direct hit, Tenjou Hikari also had a short period of dizziness. Normally, through mental offensives, even if he couldn't beat Tenjou Hikari, he could leave a mark of "light" or "destiny" in Tenjou Hikari's heart.

The problem is, he doesn't even use Fusion, so stuffing these cards into his Deck would of course be strange and unreasonable, isn't that obvious!!!

As a result, this instead became a point for Tenjou Hikari to counter-attack him mentally.

"Ugh... eh..." Haruki covered his head, feeling some pain.

I don't know if it was because he was somewhat confused, but the surrounding puppet strings began to crack, and the light emitted by the giant that reached into the sky also dimmed quite a bit.

Tenjou Hikari looked up.

He looked at his hand.

"It's about time to end this."

"?" Although he was a bit confused about the situation, Haruki could still react. "End? Now that you've lost everything, how will you defeat Construct, which can destroy any monster?"

"No matter how strong a monster is, it has weaknesses, not to mention that Construct is only [invincible] in battle."

Tenjou Hikari grinned: "Student Haruki, it seems you are the type who is often nagged by classmates and teachers in daily life, saying your Deck has problems, but you firmly refuse to change it and only want to duel with your own Deck, right?"

"So what?"

"Nothing, I just think it's quite good," Tenjou Hikari said with a smile. "The only problem is, perhaps you should replace some components and use more suitable cards as replacements—other than that, I, who only uses Fusion, have no reason to persuade you."

Haruki nodded instinctively.

He had seen Tenjou Hikari criticized by Mr. Kabayama of the Yellow Academy, saying his Deck construction was very unreasonable, and therefore points were deducted.

So he knew that Tenjou Hikari was someone who understood him, so he also knew that Tenjou Hikari's statement was not wrong.

Under the gaze of the students of the Society of Light, they saw as if the rays of light were absorbed, all absorbed into Tenjou Hikari's body, making him, who originally looked like an ordinary student, appear so bright.

"Since you are dueling me with such a duel, then, I must also respond with the same thing—"

"Using my Fusion, using my Shaddoll!"

"I activate the Spell Card, Brilliant Fusion! When this card is activated, I can use monsters from my Deck as Fusion Materials to Fusion Summon 1 Gem-Knight Fusion monster, changing its ATK and DEF to 0!"

"I fuse Gem-Knight Lazuli from my Deck and Thunder Dragon from my Deck!"

"Come forth, the brilliant, light-refracting knight—

Gem-Knight Seraphinite!"

Swish—

Captain Lazuli made a brilliant entrance!

After appearing, he looked at the giant in front, and immediately froze.

Gem-Knight Seraphinite, Level 7, Earth Attribute, Thunder-Type, ATK 2450

Seraphinite, ATK: 2450 → 0

"Next, activate the effect of Thunder Dragon Fusion in the Graveyard, banishing this card that was not sent to the Graveyard this turn, to add one Thunder-Type monster from my Deck to my hand.

I add Gem-Knight Obsidian to my hand."

In this way, Seraphinite's "ammunition" was also ready.

Your good partner for clearing the field, Seraphinite!

"But, even so, Seraphinite's ATK is still 0!" Although he knew, Tenjou Hikari already had the means to destroy Construct.

However, Seraphinite had no ATK, it was still useless!

He could rely on the Reaper's power to draw the card he wanted to draw, and in this way, he could win instantly!

Because Tenjou Hikari no longer had any cards that could block it.

Tenjou Hikari shook his finger gently.

On the other side, Tierra even reached out directly, took a card from Tenjou Hikari's hand, and put it into the Duel Disk.

"There is no such thing, because this card is enough to win—

Activate Spell Card, Shaddoll Fusion!"

Eh!

"The opponent has a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck on the field—this card can use monster cards from the Deck as Fusion Materials!"

Tenjou Hikari grinned, opened his Deck, and took out two cards: "I send Shaddoll Hedgehog from my Deck and Vampire Fraulein from my Deck to the Graveyard, Fusion Summon—"

He suddenly widened his eyes: "Heavens!"

"All things—"

"My fellow students!"

"You should have all heard that name!"

"Listen!"

"Voice of God, Word of God, understand and analyze,"

"This command of God!"

"Fusion Summon!"

"Level 5—"

"El Shaddoll Midrash!!"

Swish—

The puppet strings that filled the sky suddenly rose abruptly.

A magic staff fell from the sky, and immediately after, a beautiful figure with a long ink-green ponytail slowly fell from the sky and landed in front of Tenjou Hikari.

It opened its hands, controlled the staff, and those endless puppet strings were actually all drawn to her magic staff!

Compared to Tierra beside Tenjou Hikari, it lacked spirituality, but this mechanical texture was actually the real "Midrash."

El Shaddoll Midrash, Level 5, Dark Attribute, Spellcaster-Type, ATK 2200.

Haruki widened his eyes and watched this scene: "How is this possible? A low-level El Shaddoll dominates a high-level El Shaddoll?"

"Level?

Naive—there is only one leader of Shaddoll, and that is, Midrash!"

"Discard Gem-Knight Obsidian from my hand, destroy your Construct!"

"Dare to reach out to the commander, and you shall be punished!"

Seraphinite's spear aimed at Construct, while Midrash, under Tierra's snap, pulled the staff gently, and it collapsed with a boom.

Smoke and light shone on the entire sky.

But this scene was completely different from before!

In Haruki's eyes, that petite and cute magician didn't seem like a girl, but a monarch commanding thousands of troops.

"Light, actually lost to darkness?"

"Dueling doesn't distinguish between light and dark, student—" Tenjou Hikari pointed forward gently:

"And then... of course."

"Midrash attacks directly!"

Countless purple puppet strings instantly passed through Haruki, tearing the white on his body to shreds, and when the Reaper swung its scythe, trying to harvest his life, the Reaper was also caught by the strings and turned into another puppet!

Haruki LP: 1400 → 0.