Chapter 1439: Pendulum

"Ancient Gear Golem's effect activates!" Fujiki You Xuan said, "Once per turn, during my Main Phase, I inflict 1000 points of damage to the opponent!"

The Golem's cannon barrels all adjusted their angles, locked onto their target, and fired in unison. The shells dragged trails of exhaust flames as they erupted toward Reiji Akaba. Boom, boom, boom—a series of explosions followed, the firelight almost swallowing Reiji Akaba's field, kicking up continuous black smoke.

【Reiji Akaba, LP4000 → LP3000】

Of course, based on the principle of friendly sparring and harmonious dueling, this duel was just a casual entertainment match. There was no real damage, no mental shock, so President Reiji could calmly pose while taking the damage, adjusting his glasses as if nothing had happened.

"Using effect damage for output on the first turn when you can't attack," Reiji said. "In that case, you're the type of duelist who focuses on rushing damage."

"Rushing damage? Hahaha, not at all, you seem to have misunderstood, President."

Fujiki You Xuan smiled.

"My Ancient Gear style is a bit different from others. It seems you might not be very familiar with it, so I'll briefly explain the current situation."

Fujiki You Xuan smiled, first pointing at the Golem on the field.

"Ancient Gear Golem—President, you probably think it's quite lackluster as a Fusion Monster summoned in Defense Position with only 1800 DEF, right?"

Reiji Akaba:

"Don't worry, I assure you this is definitely an opponent worth fighting," Fujiki You Xuan said with a smile.

"Ancient Gear Golem's monster effect is: this card on the field is unaffected by any other card effects."

"I see," Reiji said calmly. "Unaffected by card effects—a monster with rare full-resistance. Absolute resistance combined with the ability to steadily burn for damage every turn..."

"That's right, it's my strongest shield," Fujiki You Xuan said.

Reiji Akaba said calmly, "But as the 'strongest shield,' isn't its base DEF a bit too low?"

Absolute resistance sounds cool, but with only 1800 DEF, it could be easily run over.

Fujiki You Xuan laughed: "That's true. But that's why I'm going to add this card next..."

As he spoke, another Spell Card was inserted into the backrow slot of his Duel Disk.

"'Messenger of Peace' Continuous Spell! As long as this card exists on the field, monsters with 1500 or more ATK on either side cannot declare an attack!"

"I see!"

Yugi Muto was the first to praise.

"Monsters with 1500 or more ATK cannot attack, so it's impossible to defeat the 1800 DEF Ancient Gear Golem. Plus the absolute resistance..."

Clearly, this combo turned the Ancient Gear Golem into a self-contained meat shield that couldn't be touched and could steadily burn for damage.

Yugi Muto's eyes lit up. He liked this tactic.

Reiji Akaba: "So that was the plan..."

"That's right. Of course, I must pay 100 LP during each of my Standby Phases to maintain Messenger of Peace; if I don't maintain it, it will be automatically destroyed."

Fujiki You Xuan smiled.

"But compared to the damage you have to take every turn, President, this clearly doesn't count for much. So, my turn ends. Alright, President, how will you launch your counterattack now?"

Reiji Akaba said calmly: "My turn, draw."

He drew a card, then looked up and said calmly: "It's a beautiful tactic. But if you think this level is enough to make me retreat, you're underestimating me a bit too much."

As he spoke, he revealed his hand: "Spell Card 'Hand Destruction'. Both players discard their entire hands, then draw the same number of cards from their decks."

Both players discarded their hands, then drew cards from their decks to replace them.

"Next, among the cards I just discarded was the Spell Card 'Card of Compensation'," Reiji Akaba said. "When this card is discarded from the hand, I draw two cards from my deck."

Reiji Akaba drew two more cards.

Then, a sharp glint flashed in his eyes.

"Next, I will use this power!"

He held up two cards in his hand and shouted loudly.

"I set 'D/D Savant Copernicus' and 'D/D Cerberus' in the Pendulum Scales!"

Bystanders: "!??"

Judai: "What did he just say... what scale?"

Yuma: "Whoa, two strange monsters appeared in the sky!"

It was as if two transparent pillars of light descended on the far left and far right of the field; the Savant and Cerberus floated within those pillars like two ghosts. A huge crystal-like Pendulum swung back and forth between the two scales.

Even Ray was shocked by this: "Reiji, you... when did you become able to use the power of Pendulum again?"

"Just recently," Reiji Akaba said calmly.

Pendulum, the representative new summoning method of *Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V*.

Just as there were a group of monsters with special properties called "Tuners" in the Synchro era, there were also some peculiar monsters in the Pendulum worldview that possessed the ability to "Pendulum."

In addition to having regular Levels, these monsters also had an attribute called "Scale."

For example, if you set Pendulum Monsters with Scale 1 and Scale 7 on the left and right sides of the field respectively, the duelist could perform a Pendulum Summon of monsters with Levels 2 through 6 from their hand or Extra Deck once per turn.

By rule, a player can only perform one Pendulum Summon per turn, but there is no limit to the number of monsters summoned this way. As long as they meet the "Level within the Pendulum Scale range," any number of monsters can jump out at once.

Rapidly spreading out a large number of monsters is one of the important characteristics of Pendulum.

And precisely because of this nature, Pendulum was initially designed to be a summoning method that could quickly link to various other summoning methods.

For example, Pendulum Summoning multiple monsters of the same Level at once makes it easier to summon Xyz Monsters that require three Xyz Materials and were originally difficult to bring out.

Pendulum Summoning a Tuner and a non-Tuner at once can also assist in rapidly unfolding a Synchro Summon.

But judging from Ray's reaction, it was clear that the power of Pendulum Reiji Akaba was using at this moment was not common even in this dimension.

"Pendulum Summon—after the four dimensions integrated, this power should have become exclusive to Z-ARC," Ray murmured.

"Yes, I had also lost the power of Pendulum. But after unremitting research over the past period, I only broke through the technical barrier again in the last two days and found back the possibility of Pendulum."

Reiji Akaba clenched his fist.

"This will also be one of my trump cards for the next time I challenge Z-ARC, betting everything on the final battle."

As he spoke, he reached out to Fujiki You Xuan again, making a provocative gesture.

"Defeat me, and surpass the power of 'Pendulum.' If you can't even handle a Pendulum of my level, then there's no need to talk about facing Z-ARC!"

After all, Z-ARC was the true source of Pendulum in this dimension. ===== CHAPTER 1440 =====