The time has finally come. Ichika, Houki, and Hector all have the ten stars needed to enter the castle. They made their way to the gate and saw why the stars needed. The lock had a slot for each of the ten stars. As Hector placed the last one in, the lock opened up.
"Here we go." Hector said as they pushed the gates open and they were able to get inside the castle.
"This is it." Ichika said as they were all ready for whatever it is they needed to face. 'Just hold on a little longer, Chifuyu. I'll save you.' He thought as he kept going from it.
"Weird. There's no one here to greet us." Rin said.
"Indeed. You think there would be someone waiting for us." Cecilia said. "Where is everyone?"
"Let's see if we can have a look around." Charlotte said. They all roamed around the inside of the castle until they came across the last person they wanted to see.
"Bane?!" Houki said.
"Hey." Bane said.
"You know this guy?" Hector asked.
"That scoundrel tried to trap us in a cave." Laura said as none of them forgot about that.
"How did a creep like you get in here?" Rin said.
"You don't need to worry about that now." Bane said. "You might be interested in what's going on down there." He pointed down to a lower level. All of them looked to see Conner was standing on a pathway that cut through a part of the castle.
"Conner?" Ichika said.
"What's going on?" Ryu asked.
"A great show." Bane said. All of them looked on the other side of the pathway. They saw Peggrin walking out to face Conner.
"Well, Conner, a deal's a deal. You finally get your chance to face me like you've always wanted." Peggrin said.
"About time. You had this coming for a long time." Conner said. "I'm going to make you wish you never messed with my company or my little sister."
"I'm sure you'll try your best." Peggrin said. "This is sure to make a great duel. The two heads of two successful companies going against each other. That's what I call entertainment. It's a good thing we have an audience." Peggrin pointed to the upper levels. Conner looked up and was surprised to see Ichika there.
"Orimura?!" Conner said. He didn't think Ichika would get in so soon.
"I figure we let the finalists of my tournament watch." Peggrin said. "A little preview of what they'll be up against when I defeat you."
"Don't be so sure you're going to win." Conner said. "First thing's first. Where's Mila?! Tell me where my sister is and what you did with her!"
"Impatient, aren't we." Peggrin said. "I had a feeling you would say that. Here." He snapped his fingers and the doors behind him opened up. All of them were surprised to see Mila being escorted by one of his employees, but she was in chains and didn't look well. There was no life in her eyes.
"Mila!" Conner called, but she didn't respond or anything.
"What's with Mila?" Houki asked.
"She's acting like a zombie. She's in some sort of trance." Charlotte said.
"Peggrin, what did you do to her?" Conner said with fury in his voice.
"How quickly we forgot." Peggrin said. "You can walk out of here with Mila's body, but her soul remains here." He held out the card with Mila's soul in it.
'Her soul?!' Ichika and Ryu thought as they knew what was going on. They knew only Peggrin's mystical artifact would have the power to do something like that.
'Her soul was captured too?' Ichika thought. 'Now I get it. Now I see why Conner was so willing to pay the ultimate price. He might have saved her body, but Mila still would have been Peggrin's prisoner.'
"Peggrin, I swear I will make you pay for all that you've done to me." Conner said. "Remember that when I beat you in this duel, you give me back my sister, my company, and you get the heck out of my life."
"How rude of you to say, but I do remember our deal." Peggrin said. He had his employee take Mila away as he got himself ready for this duel. Peggrin took out his deck and insert in his duel disk. "You should feel honored, Conner. I usually use a miscellaneous deck. I rarely use my actual deck, but I'll make a special exception for you."
"I couldn't care less about whatever deck you use." Conner said as he got himself ready. "All that matters is that you are beaten." Both of them placed on their duel disks and got ready for this. This duel is all or nothing for Conner.
"Conner's really going to take on Peggrin." Houki said.
"He's trying to save his company and Mila, but I doubt Peggrin is going to make it easy." Ichika said as he knew what Peggrin was capable of.
"Let's duel!" Both of them said as they started and had 4000LP.
"I'll make the first move." Peggrin said. "I'll start by activating the field spell Luminous Coliseum." When he plaed the spell, the walls changed to match the design of a coliseum. "We'll get to what this does in a moment. Next, I summon Luminous Sparta to the field!" He summoned out a white armored gladiator-like warrior to the field with him having a battle dagger and 1000atk points. "Next, I activate Sparta's ability. By sending one card to the graveyard, I can draw a new card." He discarded one card and drew another. "That activates the effects of Luminous Gladius. When he's discarded, he appears to the field." He summoned a second warrior with it holding a sword and had 800atk points. "That activates the effects of Luminous Coliseum. When a Luminous monster is special summoned, they gain an extra 400atk points." Both of his monsters got an increase in attack points that rose to 1200 and 1400. "Next, I activate Gladius' ability. I send one card to the graveyard and he gains another 200atk points." He discarded another card and Gladius' attack points increased to 1400. "I think that's enough for this turn."
"My turn!" Conner said as he drew his next card. "I'm going to start this duel by summoning my Rage Archfiend to the field in attack mode!" He summoned out a red winged demon wearing black ripped pants and was breathing out fire. It had a total of 1200atk points. "You're in trouble now. Whenever my Archfiend attacks, it will gain an additional 400atk points before damage is dealt. Rage Archfiend, attack with Burning Mad Fire!" His archfiend went on the attack as it was getting ready to breathe fire.
"Oh, Conner. How could you fall for such an easy trap?" Conner said. "I activate Luminous Spark! This trap card not only blocks your monster's attack, but it will also block your monster from using his special ability, and all it costs me is one card from my hand." He discarded the card and a dazzling light went off that shocked Conner's monster and stopped it from doing anything. "I'm afraid there's more."
"What more?" Conner said.
"The card I discarded was Luminous Churon." Peggrin said. "When he's discarded, I can draw two extra cards." He drew two more cards with Conner getting annoyed.
"I'll just place one card facedown to end my turn." Conner said.
"Peggrin seems to have control of the duel so far." Hector said.
"That Luminous deck of his seems to be rather tricky. It seems it revolves around discarding cards to activate their true effects." Ryu said.
"Has anyone ever even heard of these cards?" Cecilia said.
"Chifuyu mentioned it once." Ichika said. "The Luminous deck is a deck that holds warriors of light and purity. It is also said that they are loyal and mindless servants. I think that's a fitting deck for someone like Peggrin, someone who turns others into mindless slaves like he did to Mila."
"It's my turn now!" Peggrin said as he drew his next card.
'Try whatever you like Peggrin.' Conner thought. 'My trap card, Disruptive Interruption will protect me from any damage you might throw at me up to three times. I'm not as naïve as you might think.'
"You think your little trap will help you? Think again." Peggrin said. "You're going to need more than Disruptive Interruption to stop my attacks."
"What?!" Conner said as he was shocked Peggrin knew about his trap.
"Watch. First, I'm going to sacrifice both Sparta and Gladius to summon Luminous Crixus!" Peggrin said as he released both of his warriors and summoned a new one. This warrior wore white armor as well with a blue mohawk in the helmet and carried a spear. It also had 2400atk points. "Next, I activate Crixus special ability. By sending one card in my hand to the graveyard, I can destroy any card on the field. I'll simply put this away to destroy your trap." Peggrin discarded a card and when he did, Crixus unleashed lightning from his spear and destroyed Conner's trap.
"No! He somehow knew what I had planned for him." Conner said.
"I'm afraid it's not over quite yet." Peggrin said. "Crixus, attack his Rage Archfiend with Everlasting Lightning!" Crixus twirled his spear around and gathered electricity. It slashed down and destroyed Conner's monster with Conner's life points dropping to 3100. "Next, I activate the effect of the card I discarded. The card I discarded was my Luminous Blight spell. When it's in my graveyard because it was discarded, I can add it back to my hand." He took the spell out of his graveyard and add it back to his hand.
"Peggrin's really on game." Houki said.
"It was almost like he knew what was coming." Laura said. "His battle instincts are sharp." They might not know the truth, but Ichika and Ryu do. It's all that patch Peggrin wears over his eye.
"Next, I activate Judgement Offer. This spell card takes a monster that was tribute summon and returns it to my deck." Peggrin said. "I'm also able to summon one of the monsters that was used to summon him. That means Crixus returns to my deck and I'll bring back Sparta." Crixus left the field and Sparta came back.
"Why would he do that?" Cecilia said.
"He must be saving his best monster for another moment. Plus, special summoning a monster activates that field spell." Hector said as Sparta's attack points increased to 400.
"Now, I send one card to the graveyard to draw a new card thanks to Sparta's ability." Peggrin said as he did just that. "Since I discarded Luminous Blight, it returns to my hand once more."
"I'm starting to get nervous for Conner." Charlotte said. "That Peggrin has a difficult deck that appears to have a variety of tricks and abilities that can be used in one turn."
"That's what happens in a duel." Houki said.
"I'll place one card facedown to end my turn." Peggrin said.
"My turn!" Conner said as he drew his next card. 'Peggrin just got lucky. He won't get lucky next time.' He looked down at his hand and saw a combo. 'Virus Illness and Peten the Fiend Clown. This combo will get him.' He thought as he'll get the drop on Peggrin this time. "I'll place one monster facedown with one card facedown."
"What's Conner planning?" Rin said.
"If I had to guess, I say it would be that virus combo he played on Ichika before." Laura said.
"Don't be so sure. No matter what Conner tries, Peggrin knows what's coming." Ichika said.
"It's my turn once more!" Peggrin said as he drew his card. "I'll start by playing my facedown. It's my Luminous Blight spell. Thanks to this spell, all monsters are transformed into the light attribute with there being Luminous Sparta on the field. Do you know what that means? Your virus combo is useless."
"But how?!" Conner said as he couldn't believe Peggrin saw through him again.
"There's nothing you can hide from me." Peggrin said. "Sparta, why don't you clear the field of that clown." Sparta attacked as Peten came out. Peten only had 1200def points. He slashed against Peten and destroyed it. Since Peten was transformed into a light monster, Conner couldn't use his trap.
"How can this be? He saw right through my trap again?" Conner said.
"Oh, Conner. You have no idea what I'm capable of, and I'm just getting started." Peggrin said. Thanks to Peggrin's patch, he can read Conner's mind. He'll know what his opponent is planning and will be able to stop it. How can anyone really defeat him?
To Be Continued...