Purple Spiral Chapter 6: Spiral 6: Ultimate Battle, a yu-gi-oh! arc-v fanfic

Hello guys! As usual, hope you guys had a good week and welcome back to my story!

The reimagined final battle through the lens of realism and complexity is coming. Thirteen Lancers versus Academia, what will happen?

To Guest 01: Yes I agree that a proper argument where both sides listen to each other's comments and criticism patiently and properly is the most important lesson to learn when we eventually grow up and become adults, and I tried my best to empathize that point even though I am not sure if I correctly addressed all of those flaws. Though at the same time there is a breaking point as shown with Ruri (and little spoiler, something really nasty involving her coming soon).

Have a good time reading everyone!

Spiral 6: Ultimate Battle

"Dad, Mom, how are you doing?

I know it has been quite a while since I last called or texted you two, I am sorry about that. But the final semester is coming close and you know the ratio. I cannot let myself become distracted. Besides, you know how strict Academia is on family calls.

I know it is hard for you two to keep up with the tuition, I really should have not insisted you two for my dream. It was too selfish of me no matter how much you deny it.

But I promise this: I will do my best and I will make you proud of me.

See you all next month.

Your dear son.

Dennis MacField."

Quite a short letter indeed, but as always, it is hard to keep up the façade every time.

Dennis clicks the "Send" button, the process of sending the electronic mail begins and quickly ends, the miracle of Internet. He wonders whether how easy and convenient this way of keeping connection makes him neglect his duties of a son, or rather, of an Academia Duel soldier.

Or both.

After shutting down the laptop, Dennis lies his head down and stares at the family picture placed on the left side of the table. His mind begins writing an autobiography.

…

Starting out as a normal boy in Gardena whaling at his parents for coming home late due to hard work yet quickly melting down into sweet talks at the sight of gifts from them like everybody else, the Japanese-American Dennis Macfield found his passion for Dueling through the various livestreamed competitions around America and Japan. Captivated by the glamour of this kind of sport and the luxurious future it might give to him if he tries hard enough, Dennis convinced his parents to make him enroll in a Dueling school. At first they refused, but seeing his serious determination and proof by winning a special scholarship of Academia Japanese branch, Dennis' parents accepted and they returned to Japan to help Dennis chase his dream.

The first few years for Dennis in Academia Japan were just like any other school out there with all of the basic lessons plus the foundation of professional Dueling, but when the chancellor Akaba Leo announced the special mission of uniting the four fractured dimensions on the verge of total imminent collapsing of his generation of students, that was when his life and purpose changed forever.

Military training was added to the curriculum: mental training, harsher physical exercises which included mandatory Krav Maga, simulations against A.I opponents to get the hang of the battlefield, restricted conversations with other students. Due to the nature of this secret mission Akaba Leo entrusted to the students, they cannot say anything about it to their friends and families outside Academia and Dennis was no exception; all of their forms of communication to the outer world (or rather, Fusion dimension) were detained and unauthorized phone calls were forbidden. It was hard for everyone inside, many even gave up; yet strangely Professor allowed those who could not keep up to return to normal life or transfer to another branch in the world if they wanted to. But with that, was not he afraid of them letting out the secret? That is the question Dennis was wondering but not have enough time and space to think about too long, for the promise of glorious paradise and a proud mark to the book of history have gotten over him and everybody else.

Hence, he accepted his new life and began training hard. Perhaps due to his hard work plus natural extrovert-ness and excellent social-butterflying, Dennis was promoted to a higher rank in Professor's inner circle and received special spy training, which he put into good use during his tenure in the Xyz dimension and then Synchro and Standard. With that, he had successfully carried out the mission of capturing Kurosaki Ruri and Rin and getting enough people in Xyz carded for Professor's ultimate plan of saving the four dimensions from destruction.

…

"Hello girls. Cozy in there?" Dennis says to the microphone; looking at the CCTV screen right behind it, he sees Yuzu and Rin reacting to the voice.

"This voice…" Rin says and looks to the front door.

Yuzu glares up at the camera. "Dennis Macfield…!"

"Uh, nice to meet ya again Yuzu." Dennis says cheerfully, ignoring the obvious burn marks in her body and her death glare. "Though I wish it was under better circumstances… and with Ruri and Selena too."

"There's no better circumstances for you, spy asshole." Strong resistance from the Standard girl indeed.

"Woah woah woah, watch your mouth lady."

"Watch yours first you son of a bitch."

Dennis smirks. "Can't believe the girlfriend of my favorite fellow Entertainment Duelist would be this foul-mouthed. Deserved that burned body I guess, too hard of a meat to smash for him." Crossed the line of course, but it worked.

"F**k you Dennis!" Rin quickly defends Yuzu. "Shut the f***k up you sexist f**k! You led that son of a bitch Yuri to us two and Ruri and now you dared to say that to Yuzu?!"

The mention of the name turns the restrained grin on Dennis' mouth into a heavy frown.

Quietly watching Yuzu crying and Rin trying to comfort her with words, Dennis feels Apollo and Diana eyeing him from outside the prison control room.

"What?" Dennis turns off the microphone and turns to the two guards. They say nothing but the angry eyes of disapproval from the large one and especially the scowl from the slender one behind tell him all he needs to know.

"Don't pretend you never said something like that as a male Apollo, no one's morally better than another here. And you Diana." Dennis eyes at the female guard. "That palm's still wet ever since last month at the toilet."

"Shut up!" Diana raises her voice and approaches Dennis; Apollo quickly places a hand to stop her.

"You say something like that again, I will ensure that body won't remain intact." Apollo warns.

Remaining silent and keeping the intense stare for a bit, Dennis lets out a small smirk. "I'm looking forward to it. Anyway, special mission from Professor any minute now, better than staying in this stinky basement for months. Even Obelisk Force are better than you two."

He turns away, making a thumbs down at the two guards without bothering to turn his head around.

"Losers."

…

However, one thing was not accounted for: Entertainment Dueling.

The glamour of Dueling that Dennis got himself attracted to also included the flamboyance of many duelists who dueled with varied styles to attract viewers, and during his first week of spying the Xyz dimension for Kurosaki Ruri, he met Sakaki Yusho by chance during one of his street performances.

Despite knowing who he really was from Professor's info and his clever concealment of Real Solid Vision (as Xyz at the time did not have it), Dennis could not help but feel charmed by the middle-aged man's beautiful display of Entertainment Dueling and he decided to learn this style of dueling from him. It was beautiful realizing the real old original childhood desire, yet at the same time it was so frustrating nearly forgetting the reason why he was there in first place.

It was fun unleashing the wild side of himself in the battlefield, yet it was painful seeing the beautiful Heartland he once truly lived his childhood dream in crumbling down into ruins and darkness.

It was fun chatting with his comrades after each campaign comparing the number of cards they racked up to each other, and at the same time, nothing can erase how twisted everything they all did here no matter how noble the goal really is…

Standing at the purple line between Entertainment Dueling and loyalty to the cause, the cheerful smile on his face struggles to keep the genuineness under it. The self-chosen line that is supposed to help Dennis set up his place in the four dimensions now only leads to, what he hates to acknowledge, self-destruction.

…

"Professor." Dennis salutes Akaba Leo as soon as he got in the mission room. He notices Edo and the Tyler sisters are also there too.

"At ease Dennis. Sit down" Leo says. "I suppose you had a good day?"

Dennis quickly sits down on the chair and answers. "Yeah Professor. Good day indeed." Hopefully the sharp eyes and ears of everyone around here do not pick up the slight hint of nervousness.

"Still hyper and smiley even at night?" Grace playfully jokes.

Dennis winks at her. "Uh huh pretty girl."

Edo interrupts. "Hey, I'd hate to break the flirting, but you all knew why we were called down here right? And you're a minute late."

"C'mon Edo." Dennis pouts. "We're soldiers, but soldiers are humans too, have to enjoy life a bit. Or you stopped that ever since you killed Shun and is afraid Ruri might come?"

"What did you just say?!" Edo raises his voice. "It's natural after what I did, I know. But that's a bit much coming from a Sakaki Yusho student like you."

Gloria reacts with surprise. "Seriously? You're still minding that petty hatred?"

"Alright all of you, suck it up." Leo stops the incoming verbal fight. "We're here for a mission, not an argument."

"I'm sorry Professor." Edo and Dennis bow down.

Gloria looks at Leo. "What's the mission Professor?"

"Academia have spotted a phenomenon recently." Leo works on his Duel Disk, sending the information to the four enforcers. A map of Japanese opens as they check up the info.

"This place…" Dennis notes the red marker spot on the map.

"Nagasaki?" Grace touches the spot, images of the place's surrounding scenery come up.

"About an hour ago." Leo speaks up. "Strong energy sources were detected around that area, the same kind of energy created during dimensional traveling."

"Dimensional traveling?" Edo's eyes widen up. "Lancers?!"

"Who else it might be?"

"Do we know how many of them Professor?"

"We counted eleven signals. Including Sakaki Yusho and Tenjoin Asuka, thirteen Lancers are in this dimension now."

"But why Nagasaki?" Gloria asks. "If they appeared in this dimension to attack us, they should have chosen Tokyo or neighboring cities like Kawaguchi or Soka. Nagasaki is too far."

Dennis realizes. "Could it be… Selena?"

"Most likely. The Lancers knew Selena betrayed them so naturally they will try to capture her. They chose Nagasaki because Selena is there."

"And if the Lancers are here…" Grace connects the dots.

"It also means Ruri is in this dimension too…" Edo speaks in a low tone. "Grieving girl hungry for vengeance, they cannot force her to stay in Xyz no matter what."

"At least all thanks to you, we ensured that the remaining two girls are at the same place in this dimension now." Dennis says.

Edo glares at him. "I won't take it as a compliment, but yeah."

"Hold up." Grace chimes in. "Professor, you said that Selena has been hiding in that area. There aren't that many people in the countryside, but they all have a house each in there and Selena is basically a homeless girl ever since she deflected us again."

"Therefore, someone from her past must have been helping her." Gloria concludes. "Her old foster parents?"

"That's right." Professor confirms by clicking a button on his Duel Disk, images of the woman, her current home and location show up on the four enforcers'. "Ayukawa Emi. Lost her husband and son a few months ago in a car accident, became a reclusive ever since. She's been trying to sell her old foster home for money which was abandoned last time we checked."

"And that house is her new one. Such a shameful downgrade." Dennis notes at the picture. "So, Selena has been staying at the house of this woman Ayukawa Emi and now the Lancers captured her. We had no idea where they are now, but this woman might give us an idea."

"Hence, this mission. A two-phase mission." Leo begins the proper debrief. "The first phase, capturing Ayukawa Emi for information. Dennis Macfield and Gloria Tyler, you're up."

"Copy that Professor."

"The second phase, after finding out what Ayukawa Emi got, Grace Tyler and Edo Phoenix will come in." The two nods. "All four of you will locate the possible positions the Lancers might be hiding, but do not attack. Report everything after that then return to Academia."

"Why not attack right away sir?" Edo asks. "A sudden ambush will do the job just fine."

"This dimension at large still does not know what we are doing, therefore, we cannot risk putting our faces on the news. Furthermore, we do not know what the Lancers brought along with them which might later on be used to attack us. Got it?"

"I got it Professor."

"In case the woman does not cooperate." Leo slides two cards to Gloria and Dennis. They pick up and look at it.

"This is…?" Gloria looks at the card in awe.

"Special cards from our science department."

"Oh yeah…" Dennis smirks a bit at the name of the card. "I guess you still kept in touch with your old days Professor."

Smirking, Leo stands up. "I'll be in the control room monitoring the mission. I want this to be done quietly and quickly, so gear up now."

All four say in unison. "Roger that Professor!"

…

Holding heavy grocery bags on both hands, Dennis knocks the door with his right leg.

"Mom! Come out please, my hands are full."

"How about your dad?"

"Still trying to park the stupid car mom, hurry!"

"Alright alright I'm coming."

Dennis' mom opens the door and he quickly dashes past her to place the bags on the table but not forgetting to say hello to her, nearly tripping over during the way.

"Why did you carry this much anyway Dennis? And you almost fell!"

"I'm feeling good today mom; these bags are nothing!"

"Feelings do not equal to capacity Dennis. Weekends are meant to rest, not to work or learn."

"C'mon mom, I'm not home often with you two, I should do something to make up for the time."

"I admit he got a good point." Dennis' dad speaks up from the door. "Although a car's not stupid. It's useful."

"Whatever dad. Anyway let me help you with dinner mom."

At least after blowing his cover and suffering the disastrous attack from Satellite Cannon Falcon, being allowed to return home to his parents to rest for the time being is like a gift from heaven to Dennis. A familiar feeling of surreality ever since the invasion of Xyz, switching from the duty of a Duel soldier in the Hunting Game battlefield to the mundane family life with his parents.

Dennis could still remember the first time he returned to the embrace of his parents after the war finally began by his own hands. To them it was the usual reunion after a month of separation that they always gave the warmest welcome to but to Dennis, it was the warmth he desperately needed to keep his shit together.

Even with the mental training from Academia plus the element of surprise, Dennis did not expect the secret about Real Solid Vision got revealed somehow to the entire Earth of Xyz; the simple Hunting Game he and his friends had repeated thousands of times in the training ground suddenly became a real battlefield of life and death for his own side too. When the invasion stopped being one-sided and hit a slate-mate, that was the time Dennis and his friends/comrades finally got hit with the realization of reality which they coped with different ways to varying degrees of success.

He could still remember the commanders of the teams congratulating the attacking force for converting 90% of the population of Xyz Earth into cards and destroying most of the world's infrastructure or the proud faces of his comrades when they happily showed each other the number of carded victims they managed to harvest; the saddened expression of many of the youngsters who lost their friends and comrades when the people of this dimension somehow fighting back and carding them, and most disturbing of all, the ferocity of the top soldiers who found fun in this.

Right, the likes of Edo, the Tylers, Fubuki, Kagemaru, BB, Yuri.

And Dennis himself.

Had it not been for his dad giving him a speech to keep believing in what he thinks is right after hearing how difficult and uncertain the Dueling future has for him (which is of course a lie), he would not be able to keep standing at the purple line he has chosen to this day.

…

A light purple energy sphere manifests. From it, Gloria Tyler and Dennis Macfield appears.

"Is it the place?" Dennis speaks up, wiping the raindrop falling down from the leaves covering them from above off his jacket.

"Yeah." Gloria confirms. "Just like the images."

"Hey uh…" Dennis speaks hesitantly. "Gloria…"

"What? We don't have time to talk Dennis, we're in a mission."

"I just uh… wondering." Dennis speaks up, rather unsure and pretty shaky.

"Wondering what?"

"Why didn't Professor tell me that?"

Noticing what Dennis is troubling about, Gloria sighs. "C'mon Dennis, you know why. You'll refuse immediately."

"But he's my-"

"Just someone you sometimes talk to." Gloria shuts him up. "It's not easy for me and Grace either Dennis, but for the greater good, we had to do it."

Dennis darts his eyes away from Gloria and sadly looks down. "Fine…"

"Now don't waste time anymore Dennis. Call the Professor."

Dennis touches his earpiece. "Control, this is Alpha. Do you copy?"

"This is control, copy that Alpha." Comes the slightly distorted voice from the in-ear device.

"We have arrived at the location. Standby for orders."

"Copy that. Move in and get information about where Selena is."

"Roger that Professor. Alpha out."

Nodding at each other, Gloria tells Dennis. "Let's go."

Opening their umbrellas, the two late teens walk out of the tree and trail towards the place. Standing in front of the door, Gloria presses the bell and readies her Duel Disk, not forgetting to take away the umbrella and get herself and Dennis soaked a bit in the rain before. The curtains get pulled out and through the tinted glass a woman looking exactly like the intel said peeks out.

"Uh… hello? Who are you?"

"Hello miss." Gloria tells the woman. "We got caught in the rain outside while we were cycling out of here and we got a flat tire. Would you mind letting us take shelter here until the rain stops?"

Emi hesitates, fearing that Academia spies are standing right at the door even when she really saw the bike behind the two strangers with the back wheel flattened.

"Umm… miss…?" Dennis fakes hesitance.

Deciding it was too much speculating and delaying further would only make those two get wet more and more, Emi looks at them and says. "Ok…"

The moment Emi opens the door, an electric current shocks her.

"Ayukawa Emi-san." Gloria says as the woman drops down to Dennis' embrace like a fallen mannequin, the bike behind the two youngsters disintegrates into purple dust. "Thank you for the introduction to Selena."

After gently laying down the unconscious woman back to the sofa in her house, Dennis turns behind to face Gloria.

"Good job on the bike hologram Gloria. I'll search for intel; you check for any bugs in the house."

"Got it."

Dennis places another card in his Duel Disk and presses the "Yes" button, then he places the front of it close to Emi's head. The progress bar appears in the interface of his Duel Disk.

…

"Finally…" Dennis then calls Gloria through the earpiece. "So far so good?"

"So far so good. How about you?"

"Starting now."

Combining Real Solid Vision, Duel Monsters with mundane science, Professor and Academia scientists have created this special memory-searching card reserved for this mission. By scanning and recording the activities of the brain, theoretically this device can obtain memories from 48 hours ago maximum. Per Professor's mandate, these kinds of special cards are only created to use with Academia Duel Disks and also on demand only to avoid potential of abuse from Academia itself.

Three minutes later, the progress bar reaches 100%, the same moment Gloria finishes searching the place.

"No bugs. Good thing for us." She says as she comes down to the living room.

"Yes, I'm done with my part over here too. Let's review."

Dennis touched the recorded video and adjust the time frame to try to find where Selena has been doing and has headed. As expected from an on-demand-and-without-much-testing product, the memories are not 100% clear and precise, corrupted frames and audio all over the place.

What they got from it is still enough though.

"Airport? Not a good sign for us…" Gloria comments as she hears the world. "Checking for departures is gonna be a nightmare…"

"Let's hope not. Academia confirmed the Lancers captured her." Dennis searches again. Only Selena and Emi are visible in the frames he manages to see, but eventually one of them catches his attention.

"What…?!"

"What?"

"Look…"

A party-corrupted image, but the visage and the hair are still clear enough.

"Yuri?!"

"How? Professor killed him?!" Gloria gasps. "How could he be there? Some kind of glitch?"

Dennis searches more and more and to both of his and Gloria's utter shock, more frames of Yuri appear with different levels of visibility and the accommodating audio only confirms one thing.

Yuri is still alive.

"What the… I can't believe it…!" Dennis covers his widened mouth.

"How could that bastard…?" Gloria mutters, not believing what she just saw.

"I dunno… but if it's true, then it might be similar to it too…"

"What it?"

"Yuri has talked to us about Yuzu's bracelet right?"

"Uh… yeah… so what?"

"Then… something like that must have happened too. Some kind of supernatural power kept him alive."

"This is getting confusing… Professor's not gonna like this…"

"But at least Yuri is-" Dennis stops himself from saying anything else, he nervously glances at Gloria who caught him.

He swallows, trying a nervous smile to calm down. "…possibly captured along with Selena too… and uh…" Dennis eyes at the still unconscious Emi. "How about the woman over there? What do we do with her?"

So strong is the feeling of uneasiness that despite the tiredness from the distress-driven all-nighter, Akaba Leo cannot sleep at all, even the alarming volume of vodka the Professor of Academia has consumed since last night only did the good job at increasing his agitation further and further instead of the usually effective lullaby for the old man.

After Dennis and Gloria reported about Selena's last known location, Leo sent Grace and Edo in to check out possible hideouts around Nagasaki that the Lancers might be using to hide along with the former two. One of those locations is the abandoned harbor not too far from there which naturally everyone would be suspicious about, but even with all of the spying effort from his four enforcers, nothing concrete was spotted and they had no choice but to teleport back to Academia and rest.

No, the Lancers is an obvious threat to his ARC Area Project, nothing unexpected. They will come eventually and Academia is ready to protect the plan at all costs.

The other problem is what actually concerns him:

Yuri.

Is.

Still.

Alive.

"I can't believe it… so even THAT could not kill him?!"

The moment he first saw Yuri, he knew that the young and innocent boy would eventually become a thorn in his side one day or another and with the circumstances that placed him into that position, it was only a matter of time before the worst nightmare of his life began again. Therefore, as soon as the Human Sealing technology was completed, he secretly tested the function on him right at that night when he was sleeping inside the cage after enduring the daily whipping from Sanders. He thought he would feel bad for that instructor from then on after Yuri was carded, but despite activating the function many times, Yuri was still sleeping tightly at the corner of the steel prison.

For a long time, there was nothing Akaba Leo could do to Yuri besides giving Sanders the permission to beat him up more viciously than before and trying different methods of ending that threat with futile results. However, after Obelisk Force reported the news of Hiragi Yuzu receiving third-degree burns from the duel against Sergey Volkov, he was happy to find out the one possible permanent solution: fire.

And yet, it still did not work.

"That kind of dark Duel Monsters magic… can't believe how strong it is…!"

Three door knocks.

Akaba Leo sighs, not bothering to fix up his visual or the poor room after his thrashing. "Come in."

The door opens.

"Professor-oh…"

The tall and thin old man exclaims at the mess he is seeing.

"Uh… Professor… I'll be leaving-"

"Stay." Leo says emotionlessly. "Doctor."

"…Uh… Sir…?" Doctor nervously asks.

"What do you got? You came here to report right?"

"Uh… that's right Professor…"

"Bring it."

Still feeling a bit uneased, Doctor swallows his nerves and speaks up in a professional manner. "We have spotted suspicious activities, probably from the Lancers."

Leo takes a deep breath and looks straight at the old man who turns on his Duel Disk and shows the Academia commander the holographic images.

"So, it's our monthly cargo ship and the weekly student transport cruiser on the way. What's wrong with them?"

"It's the number of passengers in the cruiser Professor. Before the captain starts sailing, he must report to us how many students are there and it must match the number we got the day before. Today was no exception, but there was something abnormal: we found six more passengers than the expected number."

"Parents or relatives?"

"No sir. No one came along with their students today."

Akaba Leo nods. "Lancers… So they have begun their attack… Separating twelve into two ships huh?"

"We quickly reported to you and are now waiting for your further orders sir."

He quickly gets up and walks out of his messy room along with Doctor. "Do we have our people in those two ships?"

"Yes sir. In light of the imminent attack from the Lancers, we have Obelisk Force and Juvenile Officers already aboard those two ships."

"Tell them to check for intruders."

"I got it." Doctor quickly give the order to the control room through the radio.

Stopping at the door to the control room after a bit of walking, Leo turns to Doctor. "Doctor."

"Yes Professor?"

"The Lancers have made their move. It's time for ours as well."

"You mean…?"

"I approve of your suggestion to use your latest creations in battle."

Delighted by the approval, Doctor salutes Leo.

"Roger that Professor!"

…

With the many anti Real Solid Vision emitters planted under the sea two nautical miles away from the island of the school, Academia ensures any retaliating forces cannot use flying monsters powered by the hard light technology to fly in from above and the only way they can dare to attack is to use mundane water transportation: boats, cruises, cruisers, ferries, rafts, ships, tankers, scooters and so on. Smaller vehicles can be spotted early through binoculars or satellite images and for larger ones, especially during this alarming time, many personnel from Academia or hired by Academia are onboard to ensure safety.

And their efficiency is of no doubt, confirmed with the finding of two personae non gratae wearing Obelisk Force masks on the student boat and the cargo ship.

From the live feed of the small cameras tied to their shirts, Akaba Leo and the monitors watch the cat and mouse game going on. The one on the student boat dashes through the officers and holds up his position at the swimming pool area. Academia personnel then corners him and engages in a many-versus-one Battle Royale after making sure the innocent students on the cruiser are safe.

The situation on the cargo ship is similar as well: the intruder trying to slip past through the gap from the lower deck and eventually he is cornered standing on the top containers. Based on the impressive display of acrobatics, Akaba Leo suspects they are Lancers originated from Resistance which is confirmed when they bought out monsters using purple Overlay Units to fuel their strength.

"Xyz monsters…" Akaba Leo notes.

"They are Break Sword and Shark Drake, the most used monsters of Resistance members Yuto and Kamishiro Ryoga." Dennis speaks up, having come to the control room along with Gloria as per Leo's order and both have their gear equipped and Duel Disk ready as well.

"The Lancers have begun their attack." Gloria notes. "But why only these two? Where are the other ten?"

"The others are checking for them, but nothing is found so far."

Thinking a bit about the Lancers' possible attack plan, Leo turns to the two soldiers.

"I want you two to get ready outside now, standby for my orders. Dennis, bring your new recruit to battle too, he is with Doctor at the moment."

"Roger that Professor." Dennis and Gloria run out.

A few minutes later, the two outnumbered duels end with the predictable outcome: the losses of Yuto and Ryoga. The masks fly off of their faces as they are painfully sent flying backwards to the pool and the lower container respectively.

"Tell them not to card them yet, beat the information about the other Lancers and the position of Kurosaki Ruri and Selena out of them." Leo issues the new order and watches the beating going on.

Suddenly, their bodies distort like some sort of computer glitch and before the shocked duelists around them can do anything they disappear out of thin air. Only a small device dropped down to the ground at the moment they are gone gives anyone present a clue of what happened.

"What is that?" A monitor wonders.

"Some kind of… hologram projector?" Another one tries to guess.

"No…" Akaba Leo says in a low tone. "That's a Real Solid Vision hologram projector used for science or long-distance communication… or some stupid magic tricks…"

From the live camera feed, the personnel also came to the same solution backed up by the news of no other possible Lancers hiding on both ships and five more small projectors on each.

Leo gives a small smile, admitting he got a bit outplayed. "You're damn good Yusho… From magician to tactician…"

"Sir! We found two speedboats approaching fast from the south! One mile away!"

"That's them!" Leo speaks. "They used hologram projectors to draw our forces to those two boats while they actually try to sneak in from the back!" He touches a button on the monitor. "Dennis, Gloria!"

"Yes sir."

"The Lancers are approaching from the south, bring your team to intercept!"

"Copy that Professor!"

Leaning back on his chair after turning off the microphone, Leo takes out a card from his pocket and turns the front to his eyes: a picture of a younger himself and a younger Sakaki Yusho celebrating the invention of Real Solid Vision.

"So… the ultimate battle has begun now my friend…"

"Let's see what you got."

Voila! The final battle has begun!

Oops, a familiar ugly face with a strange creation returned… Things cannot be good.

For the fear of overpowered Entermage, or would I say, bad card design, Dennis sadly got sidelined. Not here. That's when things got interesting.

Dennis clearly enjoys taking part in destroying Heartland, yet he is also a normal teenage boy who genuinely loved Yusho's Entertainment Dueling. Ultimately a normal person with hope and dream like everybody else but bounded by misguided duty.

That's right, the banality of evil.

And no, I am not clearing Akaba Leo's crimes here, just exploring a different side of it.

Next chapter preview:

Spiral 7: First Wave

Figuring the infiltration plan of the Lancers, Akaba Leo quickly counters. The battle of blood and tears finally begins, yet something does not feel right…?