While Damien had pulled off a very impressive comeback, Glen's Metal Reflect Slime would make things more difficult for sure. One could only guess when Damien would draw anything strong enough to destroy it if at all, so his top priority right now was to dispose of his Thunder Giant. Sure, it pained him to do it, but as long as the hero remained on the field, it would only make his defeat more likely to happen.

But just as he was about to lose faith in himself, he heard a familiar voice exclaim, "Hey, Damien, are you alright!?"

The man had his mech turn toward a certain red mech, Scarlet smiling and saying, "I came to watch your duel," Damien's eyes widening as he asked, "But what about-?"

"It's okay," Scarlet replied, "I took care of the strongest soldier on that side. The others should be fine."

Damien smiled lightly as the redhead turned to Morgan and asked, "So, what's going on?" the general replying, "Well, Damien's in the midst of a duel with New Domino's general, and before you ask, yes, that's the mech created from the parts that were stolen from us."

"For your information, I only had two parts stolen!" Glen retorted, "The rest my soldiers got for me fair and square!"

"Wait, this is their general?" Scarlet uttered before narrowing her eyelids and asking, "Damien, how are you holding up?"

"Not very well," Damien replied, "Unfortunately, I've used up most of my hand and if I don't end this quickly, I could end up failing."

Scarlet took a deep breath and had her mech raise its hand. Even though Damien was protected by the sphere, the redhead still implied a slap to his face as she exclaimed, "I DON'T WANNA HEAR YOU TALK LIKE THAT!"

Damien blinked as the woman added, "Seriously, your fighting spirit has grown even stronger than mine! Every time you're in a bad spot, you always find a way around it! I know that if anyone can beat this guy, it's you!"

"Oh, god, how many more people are going to give speeches like this!?" Glen groaned as Damien sighed, "Hopefully no one else will need to because she's right. I can defeat you and I will."

With this in mind, Damien drew his next card and breathed a sigh of relief. Sure, this was not a game-changer by any means, but it was still a much-needed improvement. As such, the man had his mech dismantle Nightmare Wheel with its blade before piercing Thunder Giant.

The hero let out a loud cry of pain and fell flat on his face, sinking into the floor. But it did not end there as he was soon replaced by 'Flame Cerebrus'. Sure, Damien's vitality had dropped to sixteen hundred and fifty as a result, but at least now he would no longer take in damage during Glen's standby phases.

"I see," the general stated, "So you've managed to delay the inevitable. No matter. This is but a minor setback."

"Yeah, you tell him, sir!" exclaimed one of his soldiers as another shouted, "Show that loser who the real boss is!" Morgan growling.

And it seemed Glen was capable of fulfilling their wish as he drew his next card and smirked. With that, he first activated a spell called 'Double Summon'. As the name implied, this meant he could now summon two monsters this turn.

Before anyone could respond to this, Glen had his mech lift up his Reflect Slime and crush it into drops of goo as the remains swirled together, a new monster taking its place. Damien's eyes widened as the slime was replaced by a man with black and white robe and a staff. This man's name was 'Gravekeeper's Chief' and he had an attack power of nineteen hundred.

The only upside to this was that since Metal Reflect Slime was still technically a trap card, Damien did not lose any vitality this time. But that hardly seemed to matter as Glen had much more in store for him.

However, Necrovalley raising his attack power to twenty-four hundred was not the only reason Glen summoned him as the general explained, "My chief is a very useful effect. See, when he is tribute summoned, I can return any Gravekeeper's monster I want from the graveyard, and Necrovalley won't stop him from doing it."

On that note, the man returned his Spear Soldier as he added, "I'll be perfectly honest. I don't really care which of my monsters I bring back because I have no intention of using any of these two against you."

Drake's eyes went wide with shock as Glen sacrificed both of his monsters. And since it was two monsters instead of one, Coffin Seller absorbed an even bigger orb from Damien's mech as his vitality dropped to one thousand and fifty.

Now things truly looked over for Damien as a large scorpion stood before him. This bug was purple with blue spikes lining his back. His feet had three claws on the ends and the creature had an Egyptian eye attached to his back. This was 'Mystical Beast of Serket' and he had an attack power of twenty-five hundred.

"Behold," Glen said with a grin as the other New Domino soldiers all went wild at the sight of this, "This is the strongest monster in my deck! Sure, he may not seem like much now, but just watch! He'll be even stronger by the end of this turn!"

Morgan gulped as Scarlet asked, "What exactly does he mean by that?" the general groaning, "You're gonna find out soon enough."

The scorpion then proceeded to crawl over toward Flame Cerebrus as he grabbed hold of the dog's shoulders with his pincers. The dog howled in pain as the insect opened his mouth wide and bit into his head. After a few seconds, he had completely devoured Flame Cerebrus as he had legs expanded in width and two more heads sprouted out of his neck.

To make matters worse, his attack power rose to three thousand as he spat out all three of Cerebrus' skulls. They flew into Damien's mech and brought his vitality down to six hundred and fifty, and thanks to Coffin Seller, that number was soon reduced to three hundred and fifty. Now Damien could no longer afford to have even so much as one monster defeated if he was to win this duel.

It did not help much when Glen activated the card he had just drawn, 'red potion', thus increasing his vitality to twenty-six hundred and fifty. Now things had gotten even worse.

"As you can see, there is nothing you have that can possibly defeat my Serket in less than one turn," Glen said with a smirk, "Unfortunately, the only downside to this monster is that the removal of Temple of the Kings destroys him, but I wonder if you even have something that can help with that."

Damien had to admit that the general had a point. Unless he could draw some kind of miracle card, he was finished. But even so, he could not give up as he slowly drew his next card.

Scarlet bit her lip and said, "It's okay if you lose, honey. I'll finish him off," Morgan adding, "And I'll help, so don't feel bad if you fail."

"It's okay," Damien replied as he took a deep breath, "Because I won't fail."

All went silent as one of the New Domino soldiers whispered, "He's totally bluffing, right?" a Crystal City soldier remarking, "As if. You're talking about Emma's son, here."

And as it just so happened, Damien had drawn a card that would definitely turn things around. Sure, it would not guarantee him a victory, but it was still a vast improvement as he activated 'Parallel World Fusion.'

"What!?" Glen spat as everyone else stared silently, Damien saying, "That's right, I have the monsters necessary to create one of four fusions in my graveyard, but there's only one that I know can defeat you."

With this in mind, Damien brought out Sparkman and Avian. Glen's eye twitched as he uttered, "Wait, Necrovalley should cancel this effect!" Damien remarking, "If it could, then why is the effect working? These mechs are designed to follow the rules of the game to a tee, so clearly this spell doesn't violate the rules of Necrovalley."

Both Sparkman and Avian merged together as a bright light shone. Soon enough, Elemental Hero Great Tornado stood in their place as Glen stared in stunned silence, a wide grin forming on Morgan's face. Damien was right, he had drawn a true winner.

Sure, twenty-eight hundred attack points seemed like too little, but when the hero unleashed a huge torrent of wind from his shoulder fans, Glen knew what was coming. And sure enough, Serket's attack power dropped to fifteen hundred as everyone in the surrounding area stared in complete shock.

"ALRIGHT, SHOW HIM WHO'S BOSS, DAMIEN!" Morgan exclaimed with a wide grin, Scarlet adding, "You're the man!"

Drake and the others stared in stunned silence as Taylor asked, "So does that mean Emma's son is going to win?" the others hoping for a different result as Great Tornado flew toward Serket and punched the scorpion hard in the face.

A powerful gust of wind came from his arm as soon enough, the scorpion's entire body was covered in cuts, blood spraying from each one. After a few seconds, the bug collapsed and sank into the floor of the sphere while the hero proceeded forward and punched Glen's mech hard.

Glen's eyes and mouth twitched as his vitality dropped to thirteen hundred and fifty. But seeing this, the Crystal City soldiers seemed a tad disappointed as they had forgotten Glen had enough vitality to survive this attack. And this only seemed worse when Coffin Seller absorbed another orb of light from Damien's mech and brought his vitality down to fifty.

But it seemed something else was off as a strange beeping sound could be heard from Glen's mech, everyone nearby confused by this. It was just loud enough that even Drake and his companions could hear it from their resting spot on the ground.

"Hey, anyone know what that sound is?" Damien asked as Morgan shrugged and replied, "Hey, I only know what parts were used for this mech, not how these parts work."

"Actually, this is the result of an extra part," Glen explained in a dark and monotonous tone, "See, this mech would have had only sixty-three hundred vitality if it hadn't been for this very part. Do you remember that red diamond that was discovered in the Ruby Swamp?"

"Oh yeah, the one Drake took from Matt," Morgan replied, "Are you telling me you actually installed it into the mech?"

"That's exactly what I did," Glen replied, "See, there were two major benefits of having it inside of my mech. The first of these is that it gave the mech an additional two thousand vitality, but now I'll reveal the best part. This diamond is also an ancient bomb that can only be activated with extremely high pressure. If anything, the explosion that would result from my mech's vitality reaching zero would be more than enough to activate it."

Drake and the others stared wide-eyed as Cindy squeaked in panic, Scarlet asking, "Are you telling me you didn't even need those other two bombs you sent after us?"

"Those were merely decoys!" Glen replied with a wicked smirk, "I knew Morgan would pick up on them and have her most powerful soldiers go after those! Little did I know her strongest soldier would not be one of them, but no matter."

"So, what exactly was your master plan?" Damien asked as the general subconsciously rested his hand against a button that started a conference call with all of his soldiers, including those not close enough to hear him, and replied, "It's quite simple, actually. See, once I got close enough to your base, I would have had my mech destroy itself. With its attack power being as high as two thousand, it would only take a few hits to pull it off and when that happened, not only would your entire base be destroyed, but everything within a two mile radius would be effected as well. This means a fraction of the city would go down with it. Sure, I'd rather all of Crystal City be destroyed, but I think this is more than enough to prove that my family is superior!"

All went silent as Angela uttered, "But I thought his plan was to spare everyone," Drake nodding and saying, "This was not supposed to end with casualties, was it?"

"To think everyone bought into this whole 'defeat your opponent but don't kill him' crap!" Glen exclaimed, "Even you fell for it! This is a war! People die in wars all the time! It's astounding all of your soldiers are still alive seeing as each has suffered defeat at least once!"

"Back up," Damien remarked, "You were at least going to inform your men of this soon, right?" Glen saying, "Actually, that completely slipped my mind," New Domino's soldiers staring in shock as he added, "That's right! I don't care about your pathetic, miserable lives!" as he drew his next card and exclaimed, "In love and war, the ends will always justify the means!"

However, while yelling, the man had done something incredibly stupid. He had just hit his hand up against a button labelled 'end phase' and as a result, he had just skipped his last turn. This meant he was wide open and Damien could finish him off for good. And of course, now all of his allies knew what was going on.

"I can't believe it," Katherine uttered as Katie groaned, "I've been helping a murderer?"

Felicity's eyes and mouth were wide with shock as she uttered, "I helped him put this plan into action," many other soldiers outraged by this news. Angela held Aadil tight as Morgan exclaimed, "EVERYONE, EVACUATE! THIS IS NOT GONNA END WELL!"

Damien nodded and said, "That's right, now that you've stupidly skipped your last turn, I'm gonna use this chance the best way I can," Glen shaking his head as his eye twitched, the man uttering, "No, you're not gonna rely on such a cheap tactic, right? Surely, I deserve another chance to defend myself."

"No you don't," the black-haired man retorted, "I already felt that you didn't deserve to win this war with such a petty reason to fight us, but after hearing your plan, now I know you don't deserve to win! Seriously, if Drake was the one leading this attack, I'd eventually accept defeat!"

Drake grinned and said, "He really is a good guy," the blue-haired man rising to his feet as he reached for his jet pack. And soon enough, the others followed suit and started to evacuated the area. After all, it was just as Glen said. The soldiers needed to be two miles away if they were to survive the resulting explosion.

"But wait," Scarlet uttered with a look of terror in her eyes, "What about you, Damien? You won't be able to make it in time!" Morgan's eyes widening as she groaned, "That completely slipped my mind."

Cindy squeaked in panic at the sound of that before flying close and pleading, "Wait, Damien, you don't have to do this! We can't lose you!"

The man shook his head and replied, "No, I have to do this. If this man succeeds, we'll lose more than just one life," Glen's body shaking as he slapped his hand against his deck in the hopes that his mech would accept his surrender and fly away.s

Unfortunately, this could only work if it was his turn and since it was still Damien's turn, Glen could not surrender. But at the same time, he did not wish to have a plan that had taken him so long to initiate fail.

"Look, fly to safety," Damien said with a light smile, "Trust me, it'll all be okay."

Scarlet let down a light tear as both she and her mech nodded their heads. She then let out a brief, "I love you, Damien," and headed off into the distance.

Cindy gave the man an army salute and fled from the area herself. She then noticed Drake and his friends trying to escape as she flew next to them.

"Cindy, what are you-?" Drake asked as the pink-haired woman said, "Come into my mech. You'll be safer there," the pink mech extending its hand toward them.

Drake nodded as Taylor spat, "Are you crazy!? She's with Crystal City!" Katherine sighing, "She's also trying to save our lives. Seriously, I'm supposed to be the paranoid one, not you!"

With that in mind, all five soldiers landed in the pink mech's hand as Cindy opened the hatch and let them inside. However, upon seeing her, Katherine and Aadil both recognized her as fear coursed through her veins.

"Um, do you know her?" Angela asked as Aadil shrugged and replied, "Leave it to Drake to let a Crystal City soldier into our base and not tell us," Katherine sighing, "He's so selfless that he'd even return one of them to her home instead of turning her into the authorities."

"Thanks, Cindy," Drake said with a grin as Cindy blushed bright and uttered, "Our job is to win battles, not kill people, right?"

Once everyone was far from the area, Glen trembled as Damien had his mech fly toward the black mech before him. With that, Damien rammed his blade into the mechanical being as its vitality dropped to six hundred and fifty. And with one strike from the blue mech's claws, Glen's vitality was reduced to zero as his mech started to sputter.

"Well, you can flee now," Damien said as Glen sighed, "No, this is the moment where the general goes down with his suit."

Damien's eyes widened as he wanted to protest against this. But he knew he had little time as the sphere vanished. As such, the black-haired man did his best to fly away when after a few seconds, Glen took a deep breath and sighed, "I almost did it, Father. I almost finished what you started."

After ten seconds, a red light came from the black mech as a huge explosion formed. Damien's eyes widened as he upped the speed of his mech. Unfortunately, he was unable to get away in time as he was soon caught in the blast, a huge shock wave headed toward the others who were well out of harm's reach.

As the explosion cleared, a large cloud of smoke lingered as all went silent. Morgan bit her lower lip as Scarlet let down light tears, sniffing all the while. Cindy have her mech give the red one a hug while Taylor said, "He gave up his life just to save all of us. Wow, even I wouldn't have gone through with something like that."

"I still can't believe we all helped that madman," Katherine growled, "I feel so stupid," Angela whimpering while Aadil patted the Asian woman on the shoulder and sighed, "We were all wrong to follow him, but I honestly thought he was a good guy."

"I thought he was pretty cool," Steven said as Matt groaned, "I just can't believe it! He helped us in so many ways, more than I think even he realized!"

But as the smoke cleared, Scarlet's eyes widened as she had her mech point at the ground and shouted, "LOOK!"

While Damien's mech had fallen to pieces, the one thing that miraculously stayed intact was the torso. And everyone was even more shocked when the hatch opened up and Damien slowly rose up from under it, rubbing his head and groaning, "Oh my god, I'm still alive!"

Upon seeing this, Scarlet bit her lower lip as a big smile formed, tears falling down her cheeks like two small waterfalls. Cindy had a wide open-mouth smile while Matt and Steven both grinned and cheered. Even the New Domino soldiers were relieved to see this as they all broke out into heavy cheers, Damien looking up at them with his eyes wide open. He could not believe that he of all people had actually earned such praise, especially since he did not believe he could amount to anything when he first arrived in the army.

Morgan folded her arms and said, "Wow, I knew that mech's coating was tough, but I didn't think it was that strong," one soldier exclaiming, "YOU RULE, DAMIEN!"

"GREAT JOB!" another one shouted as many others started to chant the man's name. Damien had not only saved the lives of many but he had even managed to survive an explosion no one else could have.

Even so, a part of him did not feel like celebrating. After all, it was partly his fault that Glen had died. Even if the general tried to escape, there was no doubt he would not have been able to make it, not when he only had a little more than ten seconds to do so. Even Damien's mech could not escape at full power.

Even so, his spirits lifted when Scarlet's mech landed next to him. The redhead then climbed out of the mech and ran toward Damien with her arms spread out. The black-haired man had no time to respond as she held him tight, her lips pressed up against his.

A light smile formed on Damien's face as he said, "Well, I can guess we can go on a real date now," Scarlet shaking her head as the two shared another compassionate kiss. However, Damien was rather shocked when the redhead took hold of his wrists and pressed his hands up against her chest.

Upon seeing his face, Scarlet winked and said, "Hey, I wouldn't allow anyone else to do it," as Damien grinned and said, "I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this to some degree."

And with all said and done, things had finally calmed down. The soldiers all had bright futures ahead of them, but what would they do now? They no longer had a reason to serve in the army. Whatever the case, they knew that nothing would stop them now.