The Sky Sage: I'm late. I'm so, so late. And I'm so, so sorry for it. Life went crazy, COVID-19 became a thing and it was difficult, dare I say impossible to write and publish in between depressive episodes, so I focused on one thing before I got to the next. I wrote. And I wrote a lot.

No, I'm not done. I wish I was. But I'm currently sitting on an extra twenty chapters and I'm just starting to make the transition from Battle City which, let's admit, has been crazy (something I'm sure this chapter will confirm) to Millennium World which is promising to be a clusterfuck if the transition chapters are any indication. Hell, I'm dealing with the Battle City remnants and it's promising itself to be a bloody fireworks display with a lot of things going sideways. But I am done with Battle City and I promised myself that I would start publishing again once I reached that point.

So, without further ado, here's the rest of Battle City. I will be publishing a chapter a week and, if I feel it necessary, I will leave a comment, but other than that, I hope you enjoy. Oh, and please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times, this is going to be a wild ride.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

The Butterfly Effect

Chapter LXXIV

Three hundred to three thousand and a hundred. Lilith had a two thousand attack monster on the field, but no way to feed it to attack. It didn't matter though, because she would drain my life points through reversing my God's Blessing's effect thanks to Bad Reaction to Simochi. This meant that I had seven turns, seven of them, to make anything happen.

And that was only if I didn't do anything to lower my life count, and she didn't try to expedite the process.

I wasn't an idiot. I knew, had seen that they were cards that could potentially ruin my chances. I was backed up against a wall and it wouldn't take much for the balance to tip in either person's favor depending on how we played. And I knew, from the card in my hand, that I didn't have much of a choice in the way I was going to take this.

Recklessness might not have been the name of my game, but Jason had been right. The crazy plays came when you started struggling, and you had everything to lose.

"Summon The Agent of Wisdom — Mercury!"

"Desperate?"

Which I did. I had everything to lose.

If I died here — I wasn't optimistic enough to think that it would go any other way should I lose — I was going to make too many people sad. I was going to have my big brother crying over my dead body and an eleven-year-old feeling like he hadn't done his job correctly. Yami would forever blame himself for something he was not guilty of. And Bakura… Bakura would be someone I had failed. After his efforts in containing the Thief before the seal failed, he would be really left alone, with no one to believe in him.

I had everything to lose, and if I had to make crazy plays to make a win happen, I would. I most definitely would.

"Your turn."

And Lilith was about to know that in the most base way possible.

… I should not have felt any elation when my reply seemed to tick her off. I should not have felt any joy at the fact that she'd possibly built my anger and my "high-horse" in the hopes of making it crash and burn by the end of it, only for it to miss in the end.

This was simply the bed she'd made, and now she was going to lie in it.

"Activate Upstart Goblin!"

… She sounded almost like a petulant child.

"And activate Pillage to take your Forgiving Maiden and summon Fallen Angel Marie!"

A child that still believed in a connection that I would give her, if only for one thing.

We used the same tactics. Her reasons were just very, very different from mine.

I watched her sacrifice the Forgiving Maiden for Fallen Angel Marie. I half wondered if she was trying to taunt me by sacrificing the piece of a fusion for another but also wondered how rage had managed to blind her so quickly. And part of me was half worried, half scared when I lacked any reaction to the fact that I was going to be taking a thousand in damage next turn, only looking at Mercury whom, it felt, was returning the look before giving an imperceptible nod.

But the other part of me, some part that felt confident and knew that I had placed my hopes in the right place, just drew, the countdown to twenty-one hundred barely ringing in my ears as I looked at the cards.

Fusion and Goddess of the Mind's Eye. This duel was now out of my hands.

"Pass."

And into new ones that didn't feel like mine.

I wondered, struggled for just a moment with the question of this being what Yami had called the heart of the cards. This strange sensation that, no matter what your opponent did, you were going to win. You were going to come out on top, no matter the actions the other took.

And the fact that it seemed to confirm itself with Lilith summoning Dragon Egger unto the field just felt like confirmation.

Mercury simply took a knee and didn't even scream as he exploded. I drew my card, took a quick look at it, and simply activated it knowing, just knowing that it was the right card and that the plan, whatever it had been, had been played perfectly.

"Activate Dead One's Revival to revive the Forgiving Maiden before activating Fusion and combining her with the Goddess of the Mind's Eye. St-Joan, awaken."

And the champion had been called.

Joan didn't hesitate. Without my signal or word, she readjusted her hold on her sword and attacked Dragon Egger, aiming straight for the crack between the shells, slicing the dragon in half as Lilith's life points did their final countdown towards zero. She disappeared just as swiftly as she'd appeared, the match coming to an end, and leaving me to stare at Lilith who only seemed struck dumb before she smiled again and began to laugh.

And the scene around us began to blow.

… She hadn't meant for either of us to survive.