After Hikaru's encounter with Masaki, he was able to continue life as normal. He left the hospital with his family and returned back to his routine, daily life. The day afterwards, he returned back to Mr. Yamazaki's class and reunited with the rest of his classmates. In a few hours since school began, it was lunchtime as everyone went their own ways. This of course included Yuushi, Ayumi and Hikaru who met up with Ryoko as the four sat in the second floor corridor of the school.
Ryoko was the first to speak, "Hikaru, how was your duel with Masaki? Natsumi told us that he helped you recover."
Hikaru shook his head, "Well, it would have been nice if I won but he beat me. Just need to improve as a duelist so that I'll be the one doing the beating next time. It was pretty fun though."
"You seem like you're back and as long as you're trying to improve, then that's a nice extra," Yuushi commented while taking a sip of his drink.
After a bit of food, Hikaru continued, "The only thing I didn't like is that I didn't get to be in the WDC. That would have been the biggest tournament I've been in, ever!"
Ayumi pondered something, "Well, you would have gotten to see and experience dueling on a world stage. If you made it to the WDC finals, you probably would be on television and the internet."
Yuushi agreed with Hikaru, "It's not just that. We didn't even get to compete. We might not have made it all the way to the finals but it would have been a nice experience. That sort of opportunity doesn't come too often."
"Speaking of finals. That starts in a week or two, right?", asked Hikaru.
Ryoko took a bite of food before answering, "Something like that. It'll be hard to miss. Everyone will be taking about it and there will probably be advertisements, posters and fireworks. The last thing I heard was that there was going to be some fancy party on the day before the finals started."
Hikaru was excited, "Can anyone come to the party?! I bet all the people there are strong duelists to have made it that far!"
His voice was a bit loud but Ayumi answered back, "From what I heard, it's pretty much for finalists and their guests only. There's going to be entertainment, music, desserts, dinner and some other things. It's a formal event so they're going to be in suits and dresses."
With a sigh, Hikaru continued eating, "Lame. Sounds pretty high class. That's fine though, doesn't suit my style anyways. But what you said Ayumi, just makes me want a dessert after this. I wonder if the cafeteria has anything."
Ryoko remembered something, "Say Yuushi, your dad wanted you back at the lab right?"
"Since it's the weekend, he said he'd prefer we did some more research and studying on the cards inside the dragon-head box," Yuushi said before suddenly remembering something as he looked to Hikaru, "By the way Hikaru, my dad asked me to..."
Hearing about the box, Hikaru interrupted, "Hey, you guys have to bring me along too. I haven't seen this box yet."
"Sure, why not. I was about to say that my dad wanted to see if you could come so that he could ask you some questions about what happened during that duel in the Iron Curtain with those Nightfall people," Yuushi said.
A tense moment passed before Hikaru sighed and chuckled, "Sure, sounds good to me."
After lunch passed, the students went back to their respective classrooms before school continued. A few hours after lunch, the final bell sounded off and echoed throughout the school as another day of classes ended and everyone left the classroom. In front of the monorail station, Yuushi, Ayumi, Hikaru and Ryoko all made their way inside to buy tickets to the lab and eventually boarded the monorail. As the lab was near the outskirts of Heartland City, it took about an hour for the monorail to eventually arrive at their station as the four of them talked to each other on their way to the lab to pass some time.
"I can't wait to see that box," Hikaru said on the way.
"How about we show it to you after you talk to my dad then? Speaking of which I'll let him know where we are while we're walking," Yuushi suggested
Hikaru thought about it for a moment, "Alright, that's fine with me since I won't have to worry about it afterwards. I can spend as much time as I want seeing the box that you guys saw. Just don't spoil it for me. I want to see what's inside for myself."
Ryoko spoke up, "There's one thing that won't spoil you. About the warning, the 'threat' that was mentioned. I know your dad talked about it Yuushi but do you really think it's the Iron Curtain?"
To be honest, Yuushi had given it a good amount of thought ever since his duel with Jun, "No idea. One thing's for sure though, even though Hikaru and I were both out for a while, I don't think that Nightfall group or whatever has stopped doing whatever they were doing before."
Ayumi agreed but pondered something, "There's still news about the Iron Curtain incidents going around. The only thing I heard about the attacks is that they have been occurring less frequently. I wonder why?"
"Maybe they gave up or someone beat them up really bad," suggested Hikaru.
Ayumi was skeptical, "Wouldn't something like that be in the news? Maybe we just don't keep up with recent events around Heartland all that well."
Ryoko looked over the horizon and saw a large building, "How about we worry about that when the time comes? Pretty sure that's the lab ahead."
The others kept walking and they soon arrived at the front of the lab where Dr. Sakudo was waiting and met up with him. Normally, they would just walk right in but with the contents of the dragon-head box, experiments and other research expedites taking place, security was heightened and they wouldn't just let anyone, especially high school students, just walk in.
Yuushi thought about something for a minute before asking his dad, "Anything interesting happen at the lab, Dr. Sakudo?"
At home, he would have probably just said 'dad' but in the lab, Yuushi felt obligated to act a bit more professionally and show his dad some respect. The group was nearly at the main entrance to the lab now.
Dr. Sakudo answered back, "Nothing much. Since the Iron Curtain attacks have been happening less frequently, it's hard to gather new data and compile a profile on the incident. We're doing the best we have with the data available. A few other projects have been running smoothly. The database has been running a bit slow lately but we have people working on fixing that."
Hikaru was the first inside the building, "You had something to ask me right, Dr. Sakudo? We sort of talked about it on our way here already. Could you show me the box afterwards?"
The doctor nodded, "Yes. I already asked Yuushi several questions already but I would prefer if I got another perspective from you. Being two extremely rare cases where people have recovered from the Iron Curtain, I would like to see if I can find out how and why you recovered and to see if my team could replicate the results on others currently suffering from whatever happened."
After some security clearance and other procedures, the group reached the doors to the room with the dragon-head box inside as Hikaru and Dr. Sakudo started to turn another direction.
"We'll be back in about an hour or so," Dr. Sakudo stated.
Hikaru was a bit disappointed as he expected that it would take less time than that for some questions but he didn't mind too much as the two walked away.
Yuushi and the girls walked inside the room and then due to certain other restrictions, Yuushi was the only one actually allowed to enter the room with the dragon-head box while the girls watched from a glass room above with some other scientists. Ayumi was mostly investigating the machines and other data on the screen while Ryoko was on her D-Pad checking on things herself.
A scientist hit a button which activated a speaker from the glass room above, "Yuushi, are you ready? We're just going to have you do a few test duels. Just duel like you normally would."
"Alright!", Yuushi simply yelled out.
He made his way over to a table and opened a small container with his modified deck. He used a combination of his old deck, Ayumi's cards that she gave him the other day and cards from inside the dragon-head box. A few scientists were rapidly typing things on the console as Ayumi observed that there were digital charts with several different measures on multiple screens. For a duel, this seemed really complex as she could see that some charts would gauge voice, energy, heart beat, pressure and other things she couldn't make out.
Yuushi took a glance at the deck and thought to himself, "Seems like the changes are here. I've used this deck for a short while and I'm pretty much used to it by now but there might be other modifications I want to make."
He then shouted out, "I'm just going to change the deck a bit more if you don't mind!"
"Sure. Take your time," the scientist replied.
After several minutes and some thought, Yuushi changed a few cards around as he finally grabbed his deck and slotted it into his Duel Disk, "I'm ready whenever!"
A machine with a front door began to lower in front of Yuushi as the machine touched the ground and a robot came out the door. This startled Yuushi for a moment as he wasn't expecting something like that.
"Are you ready?", the robot said in a mechanical voice as it raised up its arm causing a Duel Disk extension to be brought out from inside its wrist and arm.
Yuushi similarly got prepared as he hit a button on his glasses to activate its D-Gazer function. With a brief flash, the Augmented Reality Vision function was activated as his dark green D-Pad extended out while he slotted in his deck which automatically shuffled.
"Duel!"
Several turns into the duel, Yuushi had the Field Spell, Magical Citadel of Endymion up along with Endymion himself while the robot had a large wolf creature of ice on the field. Yuushi declared the effect of Endymion the Master Magician as the Spell Crasher effect shattered the wolf monster into ice shards.
"Now attack him directly!", the human duelist commanded.
The Spellcaster monster charged up a dark purple sphere of energy at the tip of its powerful staff. After charging, the large sphere was shot out at the robot as an explosion of magical power and electricity surged through causing the robot to shut itself off as its Life Points reached 0.
In the glass room, Dr. Sakudo had just entered seeing a few scientists and the two high school girls watching the events below.
"Well, Yuushi just won the first duel," Ayumi said a bit excited.
"There will probably be more tests than that," commented Ryoko, " I wonder how Hikaru is doing too?"
"Knowing him, probably being bored," Ayumi said jokingly.
One of the scientists commented to her co-worker, "Is this something? It sort of looks like something but the reading only showed for a brief second. Is it just an error or brief outlier?"
A male scientist walked over and Ayumi looked at the chart herself and couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.
A third scientist activated a speaker to talk to Yuushi, "Alright, we're just going to set-up the next trial. Feel free to take a small walk around that room or sit around until then. Thank you for your cooperation so far."
"No problem!", shouted Yuushi.
The boy took off his D-Pad and Duel Disk and separated his deck and placed the items on a nearby table.
"I wonder how much longer this will be?" Yuushi thought to himself while taking a stretch.
After several minutes of walking, stretching and looking around, the scientist spoke up, "Just a few more minutes, we're just making some final adjustments. Sorry for the delay."
Yuushi looked around the room and noticed some cameras on the wall, lights on the ceiling and some drawings and posters on the wall of some sort. He glanced over to the left and saw some boxes near the ground along with a chair and a table where his deck was.
The scientists then asked Yuushi, "We're ready on our end. You can pick up your deck at any moment."
The high school boy went over to his deck and inserted the deck into his Duel Disk. Suddenly, a flash of silver light began to engulf the area as the radiance caused Yuushi to shut his eyes and look away. He felt some sort of strange jolt while closing his eyes. Not only that but a strange energy briefly surrounded Yuushi as the silver flashes of light faded.
When he opened his eyes, Yuushi shook his head in disbelief as he was now in a completely different location than the lab. It was nearly nightfall as some sort of light illuminated the area with a moon of some sort in the dark blue skies. There were trees, both alive and dead ones, and a haze along the ground in an open field. Not only that but there was a forest in his field of vision and a tall mountain over the horizon with a few large rocks to one side of the field. He looked at himself and he seemed relatively normal with his clothes and Duel Disk still on him.
"So I have no idea where I am and even worse, how I got here. This is just great," Yuushi noted to himself sarcastically.
Suddenly, Yuushi heard a loud roar followed by another different but just as ferocious roar coming from nearby. Next, he heard large wings begin to flap followed by a brief gust of wind.
Yuushi was startled and was getting really nervous but took a deep breath, "Alright, just calm down. Panicking doesn't help anyone. At least it's not burning hot or something."
Without warning, the gust of wind intensified as Yuushi heard a roar and looked up to see a brief glimpse of two dragonic figures, one black and red while the other was white and silver. It was hard to make them out but suddenly they crashed into each other and disappeared in a radiant flash as a pillar of light shot down from their location in front of Yuushi. The pillar of light disappeared and revealed a large human-sized warrior wearing black and silver armor. However, this warrior was a dragon hybrid of some sort as the warrior had a dragon's head complete with horns, claws for hands and the feet of a dragon. In response to the dragon warrior landing, Arcanite Magician began to glow which caught the dragon warrior's interest.
Yuushi didn't know what to say or do as the warrior was the first to talk, "So you are the person who the stars have chosen to have Arcanite Magician?
Although Yuushi was taken aback by the sudden appearance of this warrior, he wondered how the figure knew about Arcanite Magician already. At this point, this person could be friend or foe and something told the boy that lying about Arcanite Magician wouldn't do him any good right now as he replied, "Yes, I have Arcanite Magician. What about it?"
"Just as Arcanite Magician is a denizen of the Spirit World, I am also a being from that world too. Nevertheless, I am here to test your soul and to see if you are worthy to have that card in your possession," the dragon warrior stated back.
His statements confused Yuushi, "Why do you need to test me anyways? Can you at least tell me about the Spirit World or why you're here?!"
"I am a messenger from the Spirit World. My master has sensed many large disturbances caused by humans through the eyes of his servants. If unstopped, these changes could lead to widespread damage threatening not only your world but ours as well. Such damage from the Numbers and strange veil in Heartland City are only two such examples in a long line throughout Duel Monsters history," the warrior began to explain.
"Numbers...and the veil thing must be referring to the Iron Curtain," Yuushi reasoned to himself.
The warrior continued on, "This is why we are here in the Spirit World. This trial will determine if you have the strength to wield Arcanite Magician as an aid or as a risk to the world around. Whether you are of light or darkness, if you are threat, then we will be the everlasting chaos that purges it."
On one hand, the warrior's explanation confirmed a few things and on the other hand, there was more to ask. Overall, Yuushi was really confused and didn't really feel like dueling in this place as he yelled back, "Trial or not, I have to get back! People will be worried about me if I'm gone this long!", Yuushi yelled back.
The warrior let out a brief chuckle as he took a different stance, "Your fate will be the same as the other human who contains a card similar to yours. A duel with someone from the Spirit World to test your worthiness. As for those humans worried about you, do not worry. The flow of time has ceased and they are not even aware that you are missing. Do you understand?", the dragon warrior asked before shifting to a defensive stance.
Hearing about someone with a card like Arcanite Magician, Yuushi briefly remembered something Jun stated during their duel, "That's never happened before. Hayato was right, that card certainly is like Koji's."
Yuushi shouted, "Is this other person Koji then?! From a group called Nightfall?!"
"I am not obligated to answer that. My role is to test you and your role is to be tested. That is all and I intent to fulfil my role no matter what," the dragon warrior plainly spoke back.
"So time has stopped," Yuushi contemplated with some worry, "I don't really trust what this person said. On the other hand, if I'm in the Spirit World, then I'm in trouble. This person seems to know what's going on and unless I go along with this, I don't think he's going to help or talk to me."
Yuushi was now the one in a defensive stance, "I don't exactly like this situation but I don't think you're giving me a choice. You want a duel? Then let's get started!"
The warrior did something different as the dragon warrior raised up its arm which emitted a white glow as white particles started to converge onto his arm. From out of nowhere, a black dragon tail-shaped Duel Disk materialized onto his arm along with the warrior's deck.
"Strange, my AR vision isn't even on and I don't recognize that model of Duel Disk...well I guess that's the least of my problems if time has stopped or that I'm stuck here," Yuushi thought while trying to go along with things the best that he could.
With a single motion, Yuushi attached the Duel Disk onto his arm and activated his D-Gazer glasses with his other hand as the D-Gazer lit up upon activation. Both duelists drew five cards as they prepared themselves.
"Duel!"
Yuushi- 4000 LP
Dragon Warrior- 4000 LP
"Draw!", shouted Yuushi as he swiped off the top card of his deck and looked at his hand, "I'll set this monster card down along with this set card."
Two face-down cards appeared on Yuushi's side of the field. One was horizontal in his Monster Zone and the other was vertical in his Spell/Trap Zone. Coincidentally, the Spell/Trap Zone facedown was a card Ayumi had given Yuushi.
"I end my turn!"
His opponent didn't seem too impressed but calmly started his own turn with a draw, "I activate Dragon Ravine, a Field Spell."
The area around them terraformed itself into a place of mountains and canyons as the two duelists were now standing on two different cliffs at a fair distance from each other with a ravine in between them and a forest and river below. Despite this, Yuushi's cards were floating in the air seemingly unaffected by the ravine as the moon was still shining down on the battlefield.
"I activate one of the effects of Dragon Ravine by discarding a card from my hand. Now, I can send a Dragon-Type monster from my deck to the graveyard and my choice will be Eclipse Wyvern."
Yuushi took a quick look at the card send from the warrior's hand to the graveyard which was identified as Axe Dragonute while a Monster Card with a red and white dragon under a shining red sky popped out from the dragon warrior's deck as it went to the graveyard as well.
"Now I activate my Eclipse Wyvern's effect. When this card goes to the graveyard, I banish a Level 7 or higher Light or Dark Attribute dragon from my deck such as my Level 7 Light Attribute Lightray Diabolos," explained the mysterious opponent as that named card went from the deck to the Banished Zone.
Before playing the next card in hand, the dragon warrior stared at Yuushi as the card was swallowed in a haze of darkness, "Let me show you a glimpse of my power, he who holds Arcanite Magician."
Yuushi felt a strange, relentless yet extremely powerful force in the warrior's hand as the being's graveyard emitted a strange wave of light and darkness, "Energy of darkness that shadows the universe. Take form and become a primal force incarnate. Special Summon! Darkflare Dragon!"
As the card was played, a ray of light and darkness shot out from the dragon warrior's Duel Disk and into the sky. The two rays collided with each other turning into a mysterious energy that crashed down onto the warrior's side of the field. The energy morphed itself into a black and red multi-winged dragon who landed with enough force to shake the ground below (ATK: 2400, Level 5).
Yuushi looked on with a bit of curiosity yet worry as well, "Never seen that card before..."
The warrior looked at Yuushi sensing his bewilderment, "This card is special from most cards since it can be Special Summoned from my hand by banishing a Light and Dark monster from my graveyard."
"Axe Dragonute and Eclipse Wyvern. A Dark and Light Attribute monster respectively. I've heard stories and rumors about cards like that but never seen one in person until now," Yuushi muttered slowly.
After a brief nod from the warrior, the being's graveyard was signalling for something once more as the warrior went on, "Now you'll see something interesting, human. If you recall moments ago, Eclipse Wyvern's effect banished Lightray Diabolos. I can now bring my Level 7 monster back to my hand since Eclipse Wyvern was just banished in my graveyard."
"That's not good," Yuushi commented as the card returned back to the warrior's hand.
"Now I shall summon Mirage Dragon!"
The card hit the otherworldly Duel Disk as a glowing white fog emerged and was followed by a menacing yellow dragon with a scythe for a tail (ATK: 1600, Level 4).
"I foresee a grave outcome for you already at the rate it's going," the warrior taunted.
Yuushi wasn't fazed, "Key words being 'at the rate it's going'."
"Darkflare Dragon, Flame Execution!", the warrior ordered while ignoring Yuushi's last statement, "Not only that but Mirage Dragon's effect activates now! Since battle is starting, you cannot activate any Trap Cards."
The white fog from Mirage Dragon expanded and enveloped Yuushi's side of the field as his lone face-down in the Spell/Trap Zone vanished in the fog. Yuushi looked at that face-down briefly before it disappeared, "So much for defending..."
Subsequently following the mist, Darkflare Dragon roared fiercely as a ring of flames expanded from its body and with a blast of energy, the flame ring shot outward towards Yuushi's face-down monster which flipped over. The monster wasn't much of a monster but rather a library of information that many Spellcasters coveted as the structure raised up a magical barrier (DEF: 2000, Level 4).
Despite the barrier, it didn't take long for it to shatter as the flame ring went straight through Royal Magical Library, incinerating anything it came across.
Right after the attack, another one was on the way, "Mirage Dragon, direct attack!"
The dragon lunged forward with impressive speed through the air as the monster rammed straight into Yuushi sending him flying back several feet away on his back as he screamed in pain. The rocky ground of the field was not pleasant to land on at all but still, Yuushi struggled with injuries before making it to his feet as he started to pant.
Yuushi- 2400 LP
Dragon Warrior- 4000 LP
Just like with the duel with Nightfall members, this wasn't just virtual damage and some of it was actually real as the monster left a large visible bruise on his chest and potential bleeding, scrape marks on his back. Though Yuushi couldn't see it under his shirt, he could feel it.
"Again with the real damage...", Yuushi noted to himself as he touched the bruise on his chest to confirm it.
The dragon warrior put his hand out as it glowed with a dark radiance, "Though the attacks are over, Darkflare Dragon's effect can activate at this point since there is now a card in the graveyard. I send a Dragon-Type monster from my hand and one from my deck to the graveyard to banish a card in the graveyard. My target will be the only card in the graveyard, Royal Magical Library. Now, to the grave with both of you, Eclipse Wyvern and Divine Dragon Apocralyph."
The black and red dragon roared as the area started to shake before the dragon was surrounded with a dark purple aura. Above the duelists, a magical dark purple portal of some sort shattered the boundary of space as both duelists' decks responded. From the dragon warrior's hand, Divine Dragon Apocralyph went to the graveyard as Eclipse Wyvern from the deck soon followed. Yuushi's Duel Disk was being dragged up to the portal as Royal Magical Library appeared only to be sucked upward into the void.
Seeing a second Eclipse Wyvern in the grave, both duelists knew what would happen next, something that Yuushi didn't want to see again, "Once again Eclipse Wyvern's effect activates as the monster has been sent to the graveyard. This time I'll banish Dark Horus, a Level 8 Dark dragon from my deck."
Just like that, Dark Horus was send from the deck to the Banished Zone as the dragon warrior's deck was shuffled automatically. Yuushi briefly remember Ayumi's duel with Jurou who also had a Dark Horus in his deck too.
"Turn end!"
Now it was Yuushi's turn after his opponent's long chain of events as he analyzed the last move, "Deck, Hand, Graveyard, and even the Banished Zone. Cards are being used to fill and manipulate resources from all those areas. I can't let my guard down."
He put his hand on his Duel Disk, "Draw!" and then he grabbed a monster, "I summon Blast Magician!"
In a small field of light, a Spellcaster with purple robes and large red garments on top appeared before the two duelists carrying a scythe-like weapon (ATK: 1400, Level 4).
"Now I activate the Spell Card, Dark Core. I discard Foresight Magician to banish your Darkflare Dragon," Yuushi continued as he send his monster to the graveyard.
At the time that Yuushi's card went to the graveyard, lighting started to crackle around Darkflare Dragon. A sphere of dark matter started to form around the black dragon as the monster wass quickly engulfed in the black sphere before the sphere and the dragon disappeared off the field.
Right afterwards, a small red-orange fireball spawned around the magician as red mist started to form on Yuushi's side of the field as well (Blast SC: 1).
"Blast Magician gains a Spell Counter every time a Spell Card is played but I'll show you its other effect very soon. Second, I play an Equip Spell this time, Bound Wand and I'll equip it onto my monster."
A black staff with a white skull-shaped midsection and a large red crystal tip materialized into Blast Magician's hands, replacing the monster's former scythe-like weapon (Blast ATK: 1400+400= 1800, SC: 1+1= 2)
"Not only does Bound Wand give my monster 100 ATK per Level but it gains a Spell Counter thanks to its own effect as well," Yuushi explained before grabbing the only card left in his hand, "For my last card, I activate Spell Power Grasp."
Blast Magician raised up the Bound Wand it was holding straight above its head as red mist began to spiral around and collect inside the red crystal on the staff. As the red mist was absorbed into the staff, it emitted a red glow as the staff was brought back into normal position with four small fireballs surrounding Yuushi's monster now (Blast SC: 2+1+1= 4)
"Once per turn, one of my cards gains a Spell Counter thanks to the effect of Spell Power Grasp and since a Spell Card was played, I'm sure you know the second effect it has. However, Spell Power Grasp has another effect which lets me add another Spell Power Grasp from my deck to my hand."
A card stuck out from Yuushi's deck as he added a second Spell Power Grasp to his hand before continuing on, "Though I have four Spell Counters, I only need three for the next part of my turn. Blast Magician's effect activates! By removing Spell Counters on this monster, I can destroy any monster with less than or equal to the amount of Spell Counters I removed multiplied by 700. Unless I got horrible at math recently, that makes my threshold 2100 ATK which is more than your Mirage Dragon's 1600 ATK so take this!"
The magician channelled its power into the Bound Wand as three out of the four small fireballs suddenly enlarged quickly with each becoming more notable in size (Blast SC: 4-3= 1). With a swing of the wand, the three large fireballs were shot out at the yellow dragon causing three subsequent explosions and destroying the dragon.
"Now attack him directly!," Yuushi exclaimed.
Yuushi's monster leaped upwards as the crystal on the Bound Wand lit up and gathered power. As Blast Magician reached the peak height of its jump, it grabbed the end of the wand with both hands. The dragon warrior raised its arm up to defend as Blast Magician smashed downward using the magically enhanced Bound Wand as a blunt weapon. The attack caused a small eruption as Blast Magician jumped back to Yuushi's side of the field and the dragon warrior was left holding its shaken arm momentarily.
Yuushi- 2400 LP
Dragon Warrior- 2200 LP
"Not too bad. I think my arm is numb...", the warrior said without any real concern.
Sure enough, the warrior recovered quickly as Yuushi seemed shocked. He knew that if he took an attack like that, it could do some damage to his arm for sure. Not just Yuushi, any human would have suffered serious injury or worse which further cemented that this dragon warrior was certainly extraordinary. Then again, the whole situation wasn't exactly ordinary.
"No choice but to keep going and see what happens after," Yuushi mentioned to himself before remembering that he was still in a duel, "That about evens it up. I'm done my turn."
The dragon warrior drew a card, "Even, you say. Then let's see how you'll handle a more fitting display for a trial."
With the warrior giving Yuushi an ominous warning, he grabbed onto his most recently drawn card which radiated a bright white light as Yuushi felt a similar pulse of energy mirroring the event from before, "Power of light that slices through the universe. Emerge forth and bring down the force of judgment. Special Summon! Lightpulsar Dragon!"
Similar to before, a ray of light and darkness was released into the skies above the duelists. With a violent clash, the two rays melded into an energy pillar that came crashing down and lit up the ravine causing a blinding flash as Yuushi closed his eyes. Soon after the flash, Yuushi noticed another similar sized dragon-shaped shadow inside the energy pillar. On the contrary, this dragon was white and silver with a core in the center of its chest causing particles and rays of light to circle around and infuse the new dragon with a mysterious power (ATK: 2500, Level 6).
The human was in awe as the dragon warrior proclaimed, "This dragon can be Special Summoned in the same way as Darkflare Dragon, by removing two monsters such as Eclipse Wyvern and Divine Dragon Apocralyph to meet its Light and Dark monster condition."
Dark Horus slotted out from the dragon warrior's Banished Zone as the warrior added it to his hand and stated, "In case you forgot my Eclipse Wyvern's effect in the graveyard triggered when it was banished so I can add Dark Horus right into my hand to help maintain my usage of cards."
Arcanite Magician suddenly began to glow from Yuushi's own Duel Disk as he could feel that his monster was picking up on something strange. It wasn't a concrete fact but there was something that he could unexpectedly and undeniably feel now. Even the wind began to blow as the moonlight became exceptionally bright and Yuushi's heart started to beat at an increased rate.
Yuushi prepared for something powerful as the dragon warrior played a card in his initial hand, "I activate D.D.R.- Different Dimension Reincarnation. My real test for you is about to begin once I discard Dark Horus from my hand to pay for the cost of this activation. Now! Return to us!"
The Equip Spell emerged but also brought forth a strange phenomenon as the air in front of the dragon warrior began to twist and contort as the boundary of time and space bent and formed a white hole of some sort. A familiar roar was heard through the void as Darkflare Dragon flew out into the sky and landed onto the ground. The black and red dragon was almost completely as Yuushi remembered but revived with a strange white energy connected to the white hole (ATK: 2400, Level 5).
The high school boy from Delta could feel the power from these dragons as both roared fearsomely towards their opponent. The power of Darkflare Dragon was now familiar to him, but Lightpulsar Dragon's presence was an unknown.
His opponent declared with confidence, "I wonder if Arcanite Magician was drawn to your strength or whether it was pure coincidence. That's what my master wants to know and he will by the outcome of this duel. Let me tell you this now, if you duel me at the previous levels my master has observed of your defeats with Arcanite Magician, then you will have no chance at victory."
Hearing that this warrior's master has been scouting him, Yuushi was getting anxious,"Who knows what could happen if I lose? No, I only need to worry about getting back and finding out what this warrior wants and maybe even things about this 'master' or the Iron Curtain. If he has nothing to do with Nightfall, then is there some other party interested in Arcanite Magician? If I have to beat him to get some answers then, just like he told me before, that's all I need to do."
Chapter 25 Preview
Yuushi: This dragon warrior doesn't really seem to be a part of Nightfall. So why's he here and how does Nightfall play into all this?
Yuushi: First though, I have to deal with these two dragons at least. This isn't good, they're not staying down even with Arcanite Magician going all out.
Yuushi: Chapter 25: Cosmic Resonance. My opponent seems to really know what he's doing but so do I!