Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: Divine Record

by Frost190

At the age of 7, Kento Hijiri was kidnapped. Ten years later, Kento receives an anonymous package containing an avatar and coordinate that leads him to the destroyed Cyberse World where he encounters a Duelist who urges him to fight alongside Playmaker if he wants to move on from his past. Taking the name Holysaber, Kento's battle begins. OC insert and partial rewrite.

7. A Fraction of Anger

RESPONSE TO REVIEW:

Big thanks to tsukikami02, Ulrich362, Kaiser Vision, Guests, and HunterHQ for reviewing the previous chapter!

Guest 1: Yes, Takeru will use his Synchro Monster in later chapters.

Kaiser Vision: Thank you very much. I'm glad that you have enjoyed reading the story so far. I'll do my best writing this story until the end.

Ulrich362: Thank you for pointing those out. I forgot to fix those parts. I'm sorry that the girls will lose, but I truly promise that they'll get their satisfying victories in later chapters. I can only ask for your patience until that time comes.

Tsukikami02: Yeah, Kazue being a mechanic was partially inspired by Yugo and Rin when they built their D-Wheel. Lol

HunterHQ: Even if there's backlash or boycotting, it's not enough to put the company down. Season 3 showed SOL Technologies was still holding 30% of the network's infrastructure, which is the very proof that the company is still very influential and successful. Also, you should be able to see that Playmaker being placed a bounty is not considered a big deal to the general people even if he has saved the network. They still enjoy logging into LINK VRAINS without a care and not making any complaints about Playmaker's bounty. Either they believed it's none of their business or they believed that Playmaker won't be easily captured.

I've already mentioned in my previous chapters that SOL Technologies and the other Lost Incident children won't be neglected. They'll have more roles, but still much later. And Yusaku's mother was already mentioned at the beginning of chapter 5. I won't answer more than this to avoid spoilers. I'll say this again, I already planned everything down to the last details.

No, I won't make Pendulum hybrids. Link Summon is still the main focus of Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS' summoning method and I'd like to respect that aspect, so I won't be adding any Pendulum hybrids to avoid a shift in focus of the summoning method. And on top of already having Divine Deck with multiple summoning methods, giving Kento/Holysaber Pendulum hybrids feels it'll make him overpower and I don't want to do that. If I were to give a Pendulum hybrid, it would be strictly to Link Pendulum and nothing more.

I already mentioned before that I planned an original story arc. No further answer to avoid spoilers.

Guest 2: Sorry, but I can't answer that question either because it'll be spoiler.

For anonymous reviewers, please write down a name instead of leaving it as just "Guest", so I can at least differentiate if this is the same anonymous reviewer or a different one. Thank you.

I hope you'll enjoy reading this chapter!

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Chapter 7

A Fraction of Anger

怒りの一部

(Ikari no Ichibu)

---

Shion's Office – SOL Technologies – Den City

Shion finds himself back in his office after he was defeated by Holysaber. Opening his eyes, the first thing in his view is his personal assistant, Isamu Toriumi, who has been waiting for him the whole time while observing everything what happened online. They could've joined Akira in the Command Room, but Shion preferred to do things on his own accord.

"You're back, Chief Amagi." Isamu welcomes his superior.

"Have you recorded the Duels as I've told you to?" Shion asks his assistant, not minding the concern given by his assistant. He only has a minor headache, nothing serious.

"Yes. I recorded the Duel between you and Holysaber, Soulburner and Onizuka, and Playmaker and Blood Shepherd. I've rewatched them myself for a double check, and positive there's nothing missing in the recording." Isamu shows the three CDs containing the recording of the said Duels.

"Good work. I'll watch it later for my next Duel against him." Shion stands up from his chair. The sudden movement causes him to feel sluggish momentarily. If not for his assistant holding him up, he would've fallen.

"Chief, please don't push yourself. Take a sit even if it's just for a few minutes." Isamu beseech his superior. Unfortunately, Shion merely raises his hand to insist that he's fine. Isamu can only sigh in exasperation.

Isamu has been working as Knight – as Shion Amagi's assistant for three years now. It has only been three years, but Isamu feels that the job has taken up most of his lifetime with all the workloads given to him. But he could never bring himself to complain because the company pays well. If you dig into the handy glossary, you can see that there's pretty fierce competition for the position of a high executive's assistant. This might be considered bragging, but becoming an assistant at Isamu's age is a huge deal and was proof of his bright and promising future.

However, Isamu is more than often wondering if keeping this job is the right thing to do.

How does it feel to work under Chief Shion Amagi? If someone ask him that, he'll give a straight honest answer:

It's a constant abuse.

Chief Amagi tells him to do things that are humanly impossible and reasons him it's part of Isamu's training. Sometimes he psychologically tortures him through the means of overworking or ditching his work on him. Sometimes he hit him or challenged him to a Duel as a form of discipline. Just trying to keep up with him is exhausting because he's freakishly strong. To put it in a simple description, Chief Amagi has no idea how to go easy on his coworkers.

Also, he loves weird-tasting food that Isamu has been wondering countless times from what kind of store that he bought those foods. Where on earth he found them. What kind of taste buds he has. To make it worse, Chief Amagi always makes him eat it first to test it. And by "makes him", he means shoves it into his mouth.

But his intelligence and skill as Knight are real deal, and he seems to be really fixated on his work, so Isamu honestly respects him. Even though he's clearly still suffered from the backlash of the forceful logout after that last attack, the Chief of Security remains strong.

"But I wish he'd also consider his assistant who has to clean up after him." Isamu laments in his mind. Assistants like Hayami and the other two who worked for Rook and Bishop seems to not be having the same trouble as he is. How envious he is of them.

"What do you think of Holysaber, Isamu?" Shion inquires.

"He's certainly a skilled Duelist on Playmaker's level. His victory against Blood Shepherd was not a fluke or luck. And the fact he could control a Data Storm means that he has solved the Ignis algorithm and used Data Material. He's not an ordinary programmer. I dare say his programming skill is above any of us in SOL Technologies." Isamu is not sure if it's okay for him to express his opinion like this because it might sound like he was degrading SOL Technologies employees. But he can't lie either. Chief Amagi can tell if he lies.

The programmers working for SOL Technologies are by no means amateurs or only have average skills, all of them are true professionals carefully picked among the best. However, not even them able to crack the Ignis algorithm. It takes a genius at Dr. Kogami's level to be able to achieve that feat.

"Excellent observation. You're fully aware of the difference of skill between Holysaber and our employees." Shion praises Isamu. Many employees at SOL Technologies are prideful to a fault. They don't like it when someone from outside their company does better than them and tries to make themselves look better by making excuses. That's why Shion likes Isamu. He doesn't hesitate to accept facts no matter how bitter it is.

Although, there's one thing about his assistant that needs fixing...

"Speaking about Holysaber, it's not like you to hold back in that Duel, Chief Amagi. You could've done more to defeat Holysaber. Or...could it be you're not in your game today? You did look like you're taking a liking on Holysaber." Isamu is trying to lighten up the mood since his superior looks so stiff for some reason. Sadly, he has chosen the wrong topic to joke about. With the words already left his mouth, it was too late for him to realize his mistake.

Isamu has a bad habit of taking the light of an experience and making it into a joke without properly reading the other person's mood. He means well, only that he needs to learn to know when the joke is appropriate.

This case is one of the many that he failed to realize not to joke about.

Shion is smiling down at his assistant, but his smile doesn't reach his eyes. He places a hand on his right shoulder. The nails of the hand placed on Isamu's shoulder dug deep and nearly crushed the poor assistant.

"Isamu-kun, recently I bought a spicy miso flavor chocolate. Perhaps you'd like to try some?" Shion's other hand is reaching to his pants pocket and brings out the said bizarre-tasting chocolates. He threateningly extends the chocolate close to Isamu's face, as if gesturing to forcefully open his assistant's mouth and shove the chocolates into his throat.

"I'm sorry. I spoke out of turn. My lips are tightly sealed." Isamu quickly shuts his mouth. His face pales at the sight of the bizarre-tasting snack in superior's hand. He was already traumatized by what happened last time when the Chief of Security forcefully fed him with curry-flavored cookies after his big mouth accidentally told his superior to stop being a workaholic and get himself a wife.

Shion smiles in satisfaction at his answer and removes his hand.

"I'll see how Zaizen and the bounty hunters are doing. You stay here and prepare to watch the Duel recordings. You better already finished when I return." Shion orders his assistant. Isamu didn't waste any second rushing into the personal auditorium to prepare everything, bringing the CD recordings with him.

---

Unknown Server – LINK VRAINS

After defeating Knight, Holysaber proceeded down until he arrived at what appeared to be a corridor. So far on his way, he hasn't encountered any traps or other bounty hunters, making it smooth for him. It didn't take long until he finally saw familiar figures riding inside the same corridor ahead of him.

"Playmaker! Soulburner! You're okay!" Holysaber calls out to his friends, finally catching up to them.

"Yeah! We defeated Blood Shepherd and Go Onizuka!" Ai says proudly while expressing his relief at Holysaber's arrival.

"I knew it, Blood Shepherd also came..." Holysaber is not pleased that his bad feeling came true. And knowing Blood Shepherd, this won't be the last time they'll encounter him. At least, Playmaker managed to defeat him for now.

"You're here means you also defeated your opponent." Flame comments on Holysaber's presence. They were surprised and worried when the guy in the mask suddenly dragged Holysaber away from them. Though they knew Holysaber's skill, it was still worrying to be separated so suddenly like that.

"Who was that guy? Another bounty hunter?" Soulburner asks. Kazue already told them about Onizuka and Blood Shepherd, but not that masked guy.

"No. He was called Knight. He claims to be one of SOL Technologies' high executives." Holysaber reveals.

"SOL's high executive?!" Ai exclaims in shock.

"Looks like SOL Technologies is quite desperate to get their hands on the Ignis and my Deck." Holysaber adds, explaining how Knight was personally tasked to join the bounty hunters in capturing the Ignis and get the Olympios Stratos Deck.

"But what are they being desperate for? It's not like they're going bankrupt or anything." Ai wonders. It was already troublesome having to deal with Onizuka and Blood Shepherd, and now they also must watch out for SOL's higher executive. He doesn't want to imagine that more higher executives would come for their neck next time. What makes them so obsessed with getting the Ignis and Divine-Attribute Deck?

"We'll figure that out later. We're close to the gate now." Playmaker dismisses the discussion as the corridor eventually ends, and the three duelists end up in a vast central space with several hexagons of data floating around.

"What is this place? Is our target still further ahead?" Ai looks at the wide deep blue space around them.

They keep flying until they see a green spot on the horizon. Getting closer, the green spot resembles a whirlpool with a bright white light in the center.

"Is that the gate?" Ai asks.

"Bohman must've gone through that," Playmaker surmises.

Playmaker leads the way through the gate as Soulburner and Holysaber follows behind him, entering the gate. Unlike the deep blue space from before, once they went inside, they are like inside a green tunnel of data passing by them on all sides.

"How far does this go?" Ai asks as they keep going and still not seeing any change, "Are we safe?"

"We can't go back anymore," Playmaker responds. They've already gone too far to turn back now. Not that they have any intention to do so. This is the only clue they finally found about Bohman, about Jin. They won't

"Exactly. You'll understand when we get there." Flame said.

Playmaker and Holysaber then sense something ahead of them. As they go further, they're engulfed in a bright light, as if something is pulling them. The next thing that happens, they're already out of the tunnel and are welcomed by strong gusts of wind surrounded by large canyons. The sudden change of weather and environment almost caused them to panic.

To protect themselves from the wind, the trio raises the tip of their D-Boards and keep their balance the best that they can. Unfortunately, the wind is too strong for them and it's only a matter of time before they fall should they keep this up.

"This wind is dangerous!" Ai screeches as Playmaker struggles to safely ride the wind while barely avoiding the cliff in front of them.

"Stay focused. If you crash into the cliff, you'll be hurt!" Flame warns them.

"I know!" Soulburner tries his best to be careful, keeping his eyes focused on his surroundings to maneuver his D-Board properly. Sadly, it's getting harder and harder the more he proceeds, and seeing Playmaker and Holysaber, they're not faring any better.

"It's only a matter of time until we fall!" Ai can see that their human friends are reaching their limit. There's only choice left. "Flame! It's up to us!"

"Seems so." Flame understands what Ai is telling him to do and has no objection to it. That's the only way they could think of to safely pass this canyon.

Ai and Flame put both of their arms forward. Purple light appears from their palms. Seeing the light, Holysaber's eyes lit up, realizing what they're trying to do. He positions himself and then places his right arm forward.

Ai and Flame summon the Data Storm, forming a shield that blocks the wind from their human partners.

"You're using the Data Storm to negate the wind," Playmaker realized. Though only slightly, his tone sounds impressed. "I see. That's a good idea."

"Right? Praise me more!" Even under these circumstances, praise from his partner is something he'll happily accept. It's not every day Playmaker would praise him. However, he couldn't bask himself in this praise as he remembers something very important.

Unlike Playmaker and Soulburner, Holysaber doesn't have his Ignis partner with him. That means nobody can help him create a shield from Data Storm.

"Wait! Holysaber doesn't have–"

Ai gasps when he looked at his left side and saw something he could hardly believe. Seeing Ai's reaction, the others couldn't help but to take a glance and they immediately expressed the same reaction.

Holysaber is forming a Data Storm on his own, shielding himself from the wind.

"Holysaber, you can control the Data Storm?!" If Flame had a mouth, he'd be gaping wide right now.

"I studied your algorithm on my way here. I still need to learn though. This is the best I can do." Holysaber admits. Having to create a Data Storm to block the wind while riding his D-Board is a daunting task. A slip in concentration would cost him.

---

Akira's Office – SOL Technologies – Den City

Akira is sitting on his chair with his chin resting on the back of his hand while facing four people standing in front of him, namely Onizuka and his two teammates, and Blood Shepherd. Immediately after they were defeated and got logged out, Akira had Hayami checked on their conditions. Fortunately, it doesn't look like they're suffering any damage. The only thing that ruined their moods is the fact that they have failed their hunt, at least in the case of Onizuka and Blood Shepherd. Kenmochi and Yoroizaka didn't even get the chance.

"Why did you activate the trap when we're chasing after them?! That trap got us too!" Yoroizaka makes his complaint.

"That's right! If you just leave it to us, we would've cornered them!" Kenmochi also expresses his dissatisfaction.

Akira's face is as calm as usual, but he is actually feeling a little guilty for what happened. He purposely set that trap to hinder the bounty hunters' pursuit. It's quite a gamble since it'll also endanger Playmaker, Soulburner, and Holysaber, but Akira had faith that they'd get through it. He also needs to keep up his image as the loyal dog of SOL Technologies. He can't let anybody know that he has his own agenda regarding the Ignis. That's why he had asked Emma and Aoi to secretly follow Playmaker and get the Ignis before SOL Technologies can. He can't trust SOL Technologies to handle the Ignis.

That said, he still feels bad because he presented himself as Security Manager who requested the bounty hunters' help, keeping them in the dark that he never really supported them.

"Hmph. You have nobody but your incompetence to blame." Blood Shepherd snorts at Kenmochi and Yoroizaka's protest. Playmaker and his friends and Onizuka have shown how they dealt with the trap. But these two instead were making excuses for their own failure. Blood Shepherd can only think of them as nothing more than pathetic, "For people who are working as a team, your teamwork needs more polishing. Never mind supporting Onizuka, you guys are just a deadweight."

"What did you say?!" Kenmochi growls at Blood Shepherd. Yoroizaka is also glaring at him. However, they are stopped by Onizuka who raises an arm in front of them.

"Blood Shepherd, I'll admit it's their own fault, but they are far from being deadweights. I personally picked them to support me because I trust them." Onizuka says in his teammates' defense.

Sensing the tense atmosphere between Onizuka and Blood Shepherd, Akira knows that he must put a stop to them before things escalate for the worse. The sound of the door opening along with footsteps entering the office gains everyone's attention; they all turn to the door to see a new occupant has just arrived.

"Am I interrupting something good?" Shion asks nonchalantly.

"Who are you?" Blood Shepherd asks.

"Let me introduce him to you. He is Knight, the Chief of Security who also joining us in pursuing Playmaker's team." Akira stands next to Shion as he introduces the Chief of Security.

"The Chief of Security himself joining the hunt?" Blood Shepherd looks at Knight suspiciously.

"I merely following the order from my boss. And you don't need to worry. Just like how you prefer to do things alone, I also prefer to do things on my own accord." Shion addresses this not only to Blood Shepherd, but also to Onizuka, Yoroizaka, and Kenmochi. Even though they were called a group, they don't have what it takes to work together.

"In any case, I believe we should share what we learned from our Duels, no?" Shion changes the topic. That's the reason why he came here. He would watch the recording of their Duels, but he also wants to know what Onizuka and Blood Shepherd think about their opponents as professional Duelists. They may see things that's not shown in the recordings.

Onizuka first shares his Duel against Soulburner, explaining how his Salmangreat monsters have various effects related to battle and GY recursion. Their monsters work best when summoned with another monster of the same name. Soulburner is also capable of Ritual Summon, not just Link Summon. Then, Blood Shepherd also shares his Duel against Playmaker, how the hero of LINK VRAINS has mastered not only Link Summon and Ritual Summon, but also Fusion Summon, emphasizing how Playmaker has grown stronger than before.

"I see. They're surely not easy prey to hunt. Holysaber's DIVINE-Attribute Deck was also powerful. And that's still the least of my worries." Shion admits, now it's his turn to share his finding.

"The least of your worries? What do you mean?" Akira asks. What could be more worrying than the DIVINE-Attribute Deck that Knight himself admitted to being powerful?

"Holysaber is capable of controlling the Data Storm and use a Skill similar to Playmaker's Storm Access." Shion reveals, eliciting low gasps from the other occupants of the room.

"Controlling Data Storm?! Are you serious, Knight?!" Akira can't believe what he just heard. To control a Data Storm, the Data Material, one must solve the Ignis algorithm. Nobody in SOL Technologies can achieve such a feat, but Holysaber could?

"Yes. You can watch the recording of my Duel if you don't believe me that much." Shion replies, silently amused by the reaction he got. He then turns to Blood Shepherd again, "He didn't use that Skill against you. Looks like you're not a threat enough for him."

"What was that?" Blood Shepherd glares at Shion, offended. But he quickly shut his mouth and says no more. Judging from the Chief of Security's attitude, he was trying to rile him up for amusement's sake. Getting angry at him would only get him nowhere. He'll make him eat his words once he gets the job done.

"I'll have my assistant to give you copies of the recording. We can watch and learn from these Duels. Perhaps next time, we'll do a better job against our targets." Shion informs them.

Though Shion is polite, and it sounds like he's trying to help them, the underlying implication is clear to Akira, Onizuka, and Blood Shepherd. He said, 'do a better job', not 'win'. Knight doesn't expect them to ever win against Playmaker and his friends.

"Knight...why is he provoking Onizuka and Blood Shepherd like this? What is he planning?" Akira wonders. Onizuka already has deep insecurity towards Playmaker. Then, he lost to Soulburner, and now Knight is igniting his sense of inferiority. Blood Shepherd has better control of his emotions, but Blood Shepherd won't let that remark slide. Is this Knight's way of motivating them? No, Akira quickly doubts that's the case.

"Has there been a call from Queen? I had expected she'll roast us for our failure." Shion asks Akira. He is surprised that they haven't heard anything from their boss.

"I haven't made the report to her. I'm planning to do so after this meeting." Akira answers.

"Then I'll be the one to deliver the bad news." Shion turns his back on them, walking towards the door, "Zaizen, just focus on that unidentified gate you've found. Holysaber and the others must've gone through that gate by now. I'll report everything to Queen myself."

Shion doesn't wait for an answer and walks out. He got the intel that he wanted. He successfully provoked Onizuka and Blood Shepherd. People with huge egos tend to become impatient. When people are impatient, they make hasty decisions with little or no thought process behind them, may become easily frustrated when things move slower than they would like, leading to decreased productivity and missed opportunities. Onizuka has already begun to sink, and though Blood Shepherd didn't show it, that A.I.-hating bounty hunter will double his efforts in finding the Ignis.

"I won't make things easy for them..."

Knight smirks as he makes his way back to his office.

---

Unknown Server – LINK VRAINS

"Not good!" Ai says as his arms start to strain. So was Flame and Holysaber. They can't keep blocking the wind any longer.

"I'm at my limits too!" Flame can barely hold his arms up.

A gust of wind and dirt hit them as all the three shields disintegrated, no longer blocking the wind. The three Duelists tumble, closing their eyes as they prepare for an impact. However, the impact never came. All of a sudden, the wind just disappeared completely, clearing their path.

"Eh?" Ai looks at their surroundings, not feeling any pressure or even the slightest bit of breeze, "The wind…"

"It stopped blocking us?" Playmaker is as confused as his Ignis partner.

"This is our chance. Let's go quickly. We don't know what'll happen if we remain here too long." Holysaber suggests. The wind might have disappeared now, but he won't dismiss the possibility it'll appear again.

They continue flying through the canyon. The path is clear. They don't sense even a bit of wind as they fly. They keep flying until they see a distant cliffside. Floating near it is a massive stone building surrounded by trees. Landing on the base of the building, they see the building closer in front of the damaged staircase and a few pillars. It is a temple with a design that bears resemblance to Etruscan architecture.

Now here, all five of them feel uncomfortable. The place is too quiet. There's not a single thing that shows any sign of life. They're online, so everything is made up of data, not exactly alive, but even other places that they knew online still have something that gave a lively atmosphere. This? It's like they're standing inside a ghost town.

They walk upstairs, hoping to find something. At the end of the stairs is a forest. And that is when Holysaber and Playmaker's instinct kicks in.

"Someone's here!" Playmaker alerts his friends.

Holysaber's eyes shift to the trees in front of them, prompting Playmaker and the others to do the same.

As if on cue, the branches of the trees in front of them rustles, something black and large appears from the trees, revealing itself. It's a being – a monster with a single red eye and a ribcage on the outside of its abdomen, and a pair of yellow claws. The monster roars at them, eliciting a scream from Ai while the rest quickly make a defensive posture.

Flame, however, tenses up at the sight of the monster.

"This monster is..."

Because he recognizes that monster all too well. He won't forget it. He can't even if he wants to. He had seen that monster before, when his home world, the Cyberse World, was destroyed to the ground. He remembers very clearly how this monster blasted down the Ignis' tower and crushed their lands.

"The monster that destroyed Cyberse World!" Flame reveals.

"What?" Playmaker exclaims without turning his attention away from the monster.

"This guy?" Ai looks at the monster even more cautiously.

The monster's mouth widens, gathering energy. The action makes everyone even more tense up, clenching their fists as they prepare for what is going to come at them...

"Gyahahahahaha!"

...until they heard loud laughter coming from the monster's mouth.

The energy in the mouth disappears. Instead, a small light green figure floated in front of the monster's mouth.

"I tricked you!" The green figure gloats while making a dancing motion, "I'm so happy!"

"You were okay?!" Ai instantly recognizes the dancing green figure.

"Yeah." The green figure stops dancing to properly face them.

Holysaber blinks as he looks carefully at the small green figure. That light green body and wind-like markings are familiar. He had seen it somewhere. He narrows his eyes, trying to recall the sense of familiarity. Then it hit him. Yes. He had seen this little guy in one of his visions, or to be precise in Divine Ignis' memories. And it just happened to be something he had seen only a while ago during his Duel against Knight.

"Ai, is that your friend?" Playmaker asks his partner, still cautious.

"He is the Wind Ignis." Holysaber identifies the green creature in Ai's stead. Though he said so, there's an unnerving uncertainty in his chest when he looks at the Wind Ignis.

"Yes, I'm the Wind Ignis." The said Ignis confirms before looking behind him and says, "Echo, you can come back."

The monster glows green and gradually turns into a humanoid in light blue and dark blue robes. The Wind Ignis lands on its left wrist.

"Well? Was my Ignis joke funny?" Wind Ignis asks without the slightest bit of guilt in his prank.

"You went too far! Flame was so scared that he farted!" Ai protests.

"No, that was you." Flame counters in annoyance at the Dark Ignis taking any chance to make fun of him.

"Fart? Just because of this? You've hung out with humans for so long that your senses are out of whack." Wind Ignis says with a tone close to condescending.

"Shouldn't you be looking for your Lost Incident partner?" Flame asks, changing the subject.

"I can't trust humans like you do. I don't want to be captured." Wind Ignis replies.

His answer sounds unpleasant for Soulburner and Holysaber, but they're not making any excuses considering that there are humans who are targeting the Ignis. They can't blame Windy for being distrustful of humans. They were lucky to have Ai and Flame who are more open-minded.

"You're no fun." Flame grunts. Though he understands why, he wishes Wind Ignis would at least give more consideration to connect with his partner like he and Ai do than outright denying it.

"Then how about Divine Ignis? I don't see him with the guy who is supposed to be his partner here." Wind Ignis points at Holysaber, whose Duel Disk has nothing but his Deck, "He's always interested in humans, but after what happened five years ago, it won't be strange his interest fades and he doesn't want to have anything to do with humans anymore."

Holysaber can't say anything to that. Even though he shares memories with Divine Ignis, he knows little about him and mostly knows about him from second-hand account courtesy of Ai and Flame. It's possible that the reason why Divine Ignis hasn't made an appearance is because he had lost faith in humans, including Holysaber, his own Origin.

"You don't know that! Divine Ignis must have an important reason why he won't show up!" Ai says in his best friend's defense.

"Enough. Wind Ignis, did you create this world?" Playmaker asks before Windy could say more.

"Wind Ignis, huh..." The green figure crosses his arms in thought at the way Playmaker is referring him. "That name is a bit lacking. But the Ignis' real names are too hard for humans. But I don't want a weird name… So call me Windy!"

"Windy?" Ai looks at the Wind Ignis doubtfully at his choice of name. It's unexpected he'd pick a simple and cute-sounding name to call himself. But if the guy himself wants it, then Ai has no reason to convince him otherwise. It's none of his business anyway.

"This is Echo," Windy said, pointing at the humanoid whose wrist he is standing on. "A program I created."

"I'm Echo. A program created by Master Windy." Echo introduces himself.

"Windy, what are you doing here?" Playmaker asks. He can understand why Windy avoids looking for his Origin, but that doesn't explain why he created this world and stayed here the whole time. From the looks of it, he already knew the three of them, then he should've known that Ai and Flame are with them. Why didn't he just reach out to them?

"So, you're Playmaker. The hero who saved LINK VRAINS." Windy evaluates Playmaker before turning to look at the other two Duelists who are with him, "And you two are Soulburner and Holysaber."

Under Windy's evaluating gaze, Holysaber finds himself uncomfortable inside. Now meeting the Wind Ignis directly, Holysaber feels there's something odd about Windy. The Wind Ignis he saw in his vision gave off a different vibe from the one in front of him. He had only seen Windy in Divine Ignis' memory once, so there are a lot of things he still doesn't know about the Wind Ignis. Judging by how Flame and Ai reacted, Wind Ignis' behavior is not out of ordinary, this is how Wind Ignis usually is.

But strangely, for some reason, there's something...wrong.

Holysaber can't put it into words, but something is not right about this Windy in front of them.

"Well! No point standing around talking here. Follow me." Windy beckons them to follow into the temple.

The three Ignis and three humans cross a small bridge over a stream leading them to a stone gazebo decorated with red roses at the center of the garden.

"Windy, I'm glad you're okay, but answer that question. We're in a hurry." Flame demands. They don't know when Bohman will make his move. They must go and confront him first before he disappears again.

"About why I created this world? And what I'm doing here? For the first question, I was waiting for my friends to show up." Windy refers to Ai and Flame, causing Ai to perk up.

"You were waiting for us?" Ai asks to make sure he heard it right.

"Yeah. If I connected a world of wind to LINK VRAINS, I thought you'd eventually sniff it out and come here." Windy confirms. Flame makes a sound of understanding, and Windy then continues to reveal his intention, "Sure enough, you came. If we're all together, we can rebuild Cyberse World."

"Rebuild Cyberse World…" Ai muses. After being far away from home for five years, Ai wants nothing more than to return and once again live his peaceful days with his friends. To have returned only to see his home was destroyed broke his heart. He wants to restore the home that he knew, or even make it better than before. Not just Windy, Ai is sure that the rest of his Ignis friends shares the same wish.

"Not a bad idea." Flame says in approval, confirming Ai's unspoken wish.

"Secondly, I wanted to lure the enemy here. If you can sniff this place out, the one who destroyed Cyberse World will too." Windy reveals his second objective.

"What'll you do after luring the enemy?" Ai asks. He never expected Windy to create this world with that kind of intention in mind.

"Fight 'em, of course. They must atone for destroying Cyberse World. Even I – who's always calm and collected – feels resentment." Windy says, surprising the other two Ignis.

"I didn't know you had such passion." Flame never takes Windy as the type who'll be willing to exact revenge like this. Sure, it's normal to get angry, but Windy usually prioritize on safety until the right time comes. For him to go through such lengths to lure the enemy feels almost out of character.

"I do. It's just harder to tell than you." Windy says defensively.

"But you'll fight? You've never been that strong." Ai looks at Windy skeptically.

Ai knows he had been separated from his friends for five years, but looking at Windy, Ai don't think that Windy's Dueling skill has improved greatly. As far as he remembers, even though Windy is the best at controlling Data Material than any of them, Windy is a bit like him. Though not lazy, Windy is more carefree than the other Ignis, second only to him. He also liked to play a lot of pranks on the other Ignis. As long as he has Data Material, he doesn't care much for anything else.

"That's why I created this world. Strong winds created from Data Material make this place a trap. I control Data Material better than anyone. But it did take time to gather the Data Material scattered throughout the network." Windy continues with his explanation.

"That's why this world only appeared now." Playmaker doesn't know the process of creating this world, but knowing how scarce Data Material is, he can partially imagine the efforts that it took to complete this world.

This should make their talk easier. Since part of Windy's intention creating this world was to lure out the enemy who destroyed the Cyberse World, then they are sharing the common goal.

"Windy, we're after someone. His name is Bohman. He stole my acquaintance's brother's consciousness data. If we don't retrieve it, he'll be asleep forever." Playmaker tells the Wind Ignis. Since Bohman disappeared at the location where Windy's gate is, it's certain that he has entered this world.

"He had the same card as the one who destroyed Cyberse World." Flame reveals.

"Oh? That's very interesting, but I don't know anyone named Bohman." Windy denies.

"Seriously? He fled into this world. You didn't notice?" Ai asks again. Windy created this world, so how could someone enter this world without him noticing.

"Lots of people come here, but most of them self-destruct to the trap. My security's perfect. I can't watch every little thing." Windy argues at the accusation.

"Then, do you know any Duelist who wears Melpomene mask? When I met Ai in the Cyberse World, this Duelist attacked us." Holysaber asks.

"Hmm... Nope. I never saw or heard of anyone like that before." Windy also denies. He then then cocks his head like he just remembers something. "Wait a sec. I once sensed a strange presence at the edge of this world."

"That's it!" Ai points out.

"Is there a chance that someone created a new world by going through this world?" Flame asks. Bohman has shown that he is capable of digitizing and stealing a human's consciousness directly from their body. And then there's that Link Magic he's using. His avatar is also high quality. That requires exceptional programming skills. It's safe to assume that creating a new world is not out of Bohman's abilities.

"And use my trap as a cover? That's smart." Windy contemplates that possibility.

"Will you help us?" Playmaker asks.

"Please, Windy. For my sake." Ai begs.

Windy narrows his eyes, seemingly in deep contemplation. Emphasize "seemingly", because only several seconds afterwards, he quickly gives his reply.

"I refuse." Windy answers. That's not the answer Ai expected to hear.

"You said your target came here. And that they created a new world. But those are only assumptions. If you want my help, you need to bring evidence." Windy says with a relaxed tone despite the upmost urgency in Ai and Flame's gestures. He ignores their reactions like it's nothing important, "But forget that and live here instead. Instead of helping humans, we can rebuild Cyberse World quicker if the Ignis come together."

"Well…" Ai can't deny that Windy's idea doesn't sounds bad to him. And part of him is tempted to accept the offer.

"It's true that the Ignis wish to rebuild the Cyberse World," Flame admits. He loves his home world and wants to rebuild it again, so they can live there preacefully like in the old days.

Playmaker, Soulburner, and Holysaber can't say anything to it. They understand how much their Ignis friends miss their home world. Each of them has their own reason to fight, and the culprits behind their reasons happened to be related with each other. That's why they decided to fight together. When Flame asked for Playmaker's assistance, if it weren't for Bohman possessing the same Link Magic as the one who destroyed Cyberse World, Playmaker would've prioritized finding and rescuing Jin over investigating the Cyberse World's destruction. The three humans can't force their Ignis friends to stay with them if they decide to prioritize rebuilding their home world. Besides, with SOL Technologies hunting them down, perhaps it's safer for them to stick together and hide away.

Fortunately for them, their worries were unfounded.

"But I'll pursue the culprit, I want to know the truth about Cyberse World's destruction." Flame refuses to let the culprit get away. He needs to know why they attacked them and destroyed the Cyberse World. The destruction of their world and Bohman's attack also opens the possibility that their enemies may try to attack them again and destroy the Ignis for good. It's pointless to rebuild the Cyberse World if they're going to be attacked again.

Soulburner smiles in relief, glad knowing that his partner will stick with him.

"I feel the same for now." Ai also agrees with Flame. He can't forgive the one who destroyed the Cyberse World. Knowing the culprit is still out there unnerves him. He can't live peacefully while wondering when the culprit will attack again.

"So I'm being premature…" Windy growls, not exactly pleased by Ai and Flame's reply.

"That's right. We'll uncover the whole truth and then rebuild Cyberse World." Flame affirms his and Ai's decision on the matter.

"I see. I'm just happy to know you guys are okay, so I'll help a little. I'll weaken the Data Storm leading to that strange area." Windy agrees to give his assistant, much to Ai and the others' relief.

"That's plenty. We'll do the rest on our own." Though Windy won't help them directly in finding Bohman, Flame is still grateful he'll do this much to help them.

"But I have one condition."

"What condition?" Ai asks.

"Do something about them!" Windy snaps his fingers, making a screen appear. The screen shows two women on their D-Boards, flying through the same canyon they passed earlier while protecting themselves with bluish green shield.

"Ghost Girl!" Playmaker recognizes the treasure hunter.

Seeing closer, Ghost Girl now has a slightly different design. She no longer covers her mouth with a mask, her collar has been changed, her mauve stripes are now hot pink, her gloves have been altered and, along with her belt, are now dark purple. Part of her sides are now white, she has shoulder pads, the belt buckle is now in the shape of a gold and dark olive "G" with a similarly colored diamond to where her zipper was.

"Who's the other?" Soulburner looks at the unknown woman next to Ghost Girl.

She has middle length hair reaching past her shoulders with two bangs and she wears a pink heart-shaped clip on the right side of her hair. Her outfit and the way she dresses is similar to Ghost Girl. Her outfit is a one-piece outfit consisting of a white, blue and pink vest with a zipper and shorts, stockings and blue boots. She also wears a belt with a deck box on both sides and dark blue elbow length fingerless gloves.

"They're tougher than I thought. I think they'll make it here. Can you chase them away? If you defeat them in a duel, they'll be ejected from this world." Windy requests.

"Do it yourself." Ai tells the Wind Ignis. This is his world, so it's his responsibility to take care of it from intruders.

"No way! I don't want to reveal myself, and I don't want to risk putting myself in danger." Windy refuses.

"And it's okay to put us in danger?" Holysaber retorts. He said he created this world to lure out the enemy and yet he doesn't want to put himself in danger, that's rather contradictory. It doesn't look like he's asking out cowardice, he just finds it a hassle to personally handle them, which makes it all the more irritating.

"Weaken the winds around them. If you do, we'll take care of them." Playmaker agrees.

"Hey!" Ai protests.

"Playmaker, are you sure with this?" Holysaber frowns at how Playmaker readily accepts the request.

"We fought Hanoi together, so I'm on good terms with Ghost Girl. We can talk and work it out." Playmaker reasons. He doesn't know who the other woman is, but Ghost Girl won't cause altercation without a justify reason. She's a treasure hunter who mainly works for profit, but she's not joining the bounty hunters employed by SOL Technologies. It's safe to assume that she most likely feels indebted to him. That' will open a chance for discussion.

Holysaber is not sure, but since Playmaker said so, he'll go along with it. He knows Ghost Girl when using his Tsurugi avatar, but he doesn't want to reveal that identity to her. At least not when he still doesn't know where she stands. He must keep that possibility in mind. In case Ghost Girl turns out to be against them, he can use his alternate identity as Tsurugi the cyber sleuth to get information out of her later.

"Negotiations complete." Windy concludes. When they're about to depart, Windy turns to the Olympios Stratos user, "Hey, Holysaber."

"Yes?" Holysaber faces the Wind Ignis again.

"I saw you used the Data Storm to block the wind. You can use our algorithm?" Windy asks, his tone sounds more serious than before.

"Only to a certain extent. I'm still studying Ignis algorithm, but I think I'll get the hang of it soon." Holysaber answers truthfully. Again, the uncomfortable feeling that he felt from Windy a while ago returns. No, it's even worse than before. He doesn't like it. It's like being drenched in cold frozen water.

"…Is that so..." Windy sighs softly before turning away from Holysaber, leaving it at that, "For now, you lot deal with those two intruders, and I'll ease the Data Storm so you can find this Bohman."

"Thank you, Windy." Playmaker thanks the Wind Ignis before turning to his friends.

The three of them nod at each other and then jump to their D-Boards, flying back to the canyon.

---

Canyon – Windy's World – LINK VRAINS

Holysaber can't brush off the feeling he has towards Windy. When he saw Windy in his vision, he felt warmth, the same warmth when he saw Ai together with Divine Ignis in his dreams. The warmth that is like flowers blooming in spring, like how he feels when he's spending time with his friends and family. The Windy that he just met, however, perturbs him. Perhaps it's strange coming from him who knows little about Ignis, but the Windy in his vision and the Windy he just met are like two different people.

"Are you okay, Holysaber? You look like you're lost in thought." Playmaker asks, looking back at Holysaber with concern.

"Sorry. I'm just thinking about Windy." Holysaber replies.

"What about him?" Ai looks back as well at the mention of his Wind Ignis friend.

"I'm just wondering, is he always like that?" Holysaber asks Ai and Flame.

"Yeah. Pretty much. He's still the same prankster that I know. Him and his joke are never funny." Flame sighs with a tinge of annoyance as he recalls the old times when Windy often pulled pranks on them. The worst part was that out of all the Ignis, he was the one whom the Wind Ignis targeted most because he found his lecture particularly hilarious.

"I liked to pull some pranks, but even I never went as far as he did. It's a pain in the ass." Ai adds, equally annoyed like Flame while recalling his time with Windy years ago. He was a bit envious of Light Ignis and Water Ignis who were exempt from falling victims to Windy's prank because their leader was too fast for him to prank on, and their sub-leader could always see through lies.

"But you guys seem to trust him." Holysaber can see that even though they were annoyed, neither Flame nor Ai doubted Windy. They took his words without hesitation.

"He has a terrible hobby, but he does his job diligently in maintaining the Cyberse World. Unlike Ai here." Flame jabs at the Dark Ignis, which Ai responds with a pout but can't deny.

"Is that so..." Holysaber says nothing more. He can't tell them that he's suspicious of the Wind Ignis. He has nothing to support this suspicion except for his intuition. Ai and Flame have been with Windy since the beginning, they know him better than Holysaber does who only learned recently. Perhaps he's overthinking things. Even though he can't trust Windy, he ought to trust Ai and Flame. And so, he decided to put this concern behind him.

"There they are!" Soulburner points to the two people ahead of them.

The trio intercepted Ghost Girl and her partner, repositioning themselves so that Playmaker and Holysaber are on the right with the latter behind the former, while Soulburner is on their left.

"Long time no see, Playmaker." The girl with blue hair greets the hacker.

"Long time no see?" Playmaker repeated confusedly.

"I owe you for the Tower of Hanoi, but I'll pay you back someday." The girl says as she removes the shield protecting her from the wind that has now disappeared.

"Could it be...you're Blue Angel?" Playmaker deduces.

"Yes. Call me Blue Girl when I'm using this avatar." Blue Girl confirms.

"Really? You seem pretty different." Soulburner comments excitedly at Blue Angel's new avatar design, "But your new avatar is cool! Maybe I'll change my avatar too."

"What's the point? No one knows you." Flame immediately crushes Soulburner's excitement.

"So you're Soulburner, and you're Holysaber." Ghost Girl addressed the Duelists accompanying Playmaker, disintegrating her shield as well. The mention of their names perks up the said two Duelists.

"Seems we're unexpectedly famous." Soulburner glances down at his Ignis partner who just a moment ago said that no one knows him, which Flame totally ignores.

"I'm the Fire Ignis, Flame." Flame introduces himself.

"So you're also a victim of the Lost Incident?" Ghost Girl directs the question to Soulburner. Since Playmaker is a victim of the Lost Incident and Ai is his Ignis partner, she could only think that the same also goes for Soulburner.

"Yes." Soulburner confirms.

"I don't have Divine Ignis with me, but I'm also a victim of the Lost Incident." Holysaber reveals, not seeing a reason to hide it from the two women since they already knew about the incident.

"Divine Ignis?" Blue Girl repeats the name questioningly.

"You must have heard that the Lost Incident kidnapped seven children, right? Each of those children became the basis of creating the Ignis and each represents Duel Monster Attributes. In my case, just like my Deck, the Ignis based on me is of DIVINE-Attribute." Holysaber explains.

"After seeing your DIVINE-Attribute Deck, we don't have a choice but to trust your story." Ghost Girl doesn't ask him further in that topic, and instead ask a different question that everyone, or to be precise Akira, wishes to know, "The Knights of Hanoi – who caused the Lost Incident – are gone. So why are you three people and two Ignis teaming up?"

"We only want to retrieve stolen consciousness data." Playmaker answered.

"Consciousness data…" Ghost Girl remembers the man with Link Magic that Dueled Playmaker before. That man must be the one who stole this consciousness data.

"Why are you here?" This time, it's Playmaker's turn to ask.

"You're gonna use us again, aren't you?" Ai frowns, specifically to Ghost Girl due to their history.

"Yeah. No point hiding it, so I'll tell you. We came to find the Ignis." Ghost Girl admits honestly.

"For SOL Technologies?" Playmaker assumes, which Ghost Girl confirms again.

"So SOL Technologies didn't only hire rough-looking hunters." Soulburner comments. The bounty hunters pursuing them before were all men who are all too eager to hunt them down that conversation is close to not possible with them.

Ghost Girl smiles at that comment. "Didn't expect to see such beauties?"

"Never said you were beauties." Flame denies.

"Seems I'm not attractive for Ignis." Ghost Girl remarks with dejected smile.

"I'm sure SOL- I mean, my brother can help you." Blue Girl says in attempt to convince them to their side.

"You don't understand," Soulburner says, confusing Blue Girl. "The Lost Incident made us suffer for a long time. SOL Technologies was also responsible for that. Entrusting our future to them?"

"Not a chance." Ai dismisses the idea.

"Blue Girl, I know enough that your brother only has good intentions for us, and I appreciate that, however, even your brother can't go against the company, especially when a SOL Technologies already sent one of their higher-ups to hunt us down." Holysaber had only ever seen Akira Zaizen from afar when he's speaking to Kazue's father, but he could tell from those exchanges that Akira is a kind-hearted man.

"Thanks for willing to help, but we'll solve our own problems." Playmaker calmly rejects the offer. It's not that they don't trust Zaizen. Playmaker knows that he can trust Zaizen won't harm them. The one they can't trust is the company he's working for. Zaizen's position is not high enough to guarantee their safety.

"In that case, those Ignis were originally under SOL Technologies' control," Blue Girl said aggressively. Her friendly tone changes to annoyance. "How about you give them back?"

Holysaber stiffens when he processed what Blue Girl just said.

"...What...?" Holysaber utters in disbelief.

Did he just hear it right? Did she just say what he thinks it is? She's got to be joking to say that straight to their faces.

"Huh? That's crazy!" Soulburner objects to Blue Girl's conclusion.

"Blue Girl!" Ghost Girl calls in admonishing tone. They should be trying to convince them to let Akira meet the Ignis, not taking them by force. Since they arrived here, her partner has been too impatient. If they could've just listened to them a bit more, understanding more of their situation, maybe they can reach a compromise.

Too bad for Ghost Girl, Blue Girl is too stubborn to even try listening to her, already believing she's in the right. Any attempt to convince her is pointless. Words enter one ear only to get out from another.

"If we get their Ignis, we may learn the other Ignis' location. If you won't accept our help…" Blue Girl's tone turns threatening.

"You'll settle this in a duel?" Soulburner finishes what he assumed to be her answer.

"That's right!" Blue Girl confirms.

"You...you're seriously saying that...?" Holysaber asks, hoping that he has misheard her or that she realized the meaning of her own words and quickly take it back. To his disappointment, Blue Girl raises her Duel Disk, ready to Duel. She truly means it. Does she not realized how insensitive her words were?

"Of course I am! I won't let you get away!" Blue Girl declares. She is so fired up that she doesn't notice the change air around Holysaber.

Holysaber feels something boiling. His fists clench and teeth lock up. The inside of his stomach feels hot. Like, there's a build up steam, threatening to burn him, to burn the person on the receiving end. Along with this steam, a scream from deep within him is trying to force its way from his mouth, it is as if his terrified soul is unleashing a demon.

His mind sees a scared child within, the boy who was forced to fight and starved for food. He sees the pain beneath it and his soul drowning in never-ending nightmares. The boy trapped in darkness as he craves the sunlight. His pitiful child-self whose eyes slowly lost his light as days passed until they reflected nothing, becoming heartless eyes of solitude as despair swallowed him whole.

"You knew yet you push that fact to the side like it's nothing..." Holysaber murmurs. He narrows his eyes, looking sharply at Blue Girl, "Bring it on. We'll settle this with a Tag Duel. Me and Soulburner against you and Blue Girl."

"There you go, Playmaker! It's not often that I get to Duel Blue Girl, LINK VRAINS' savior." Soulburner is more than motivated to accept the challenge. He already Dueled Onizuka, and now he gets to Duel Blue Girl. In a way, this is a lucky day for him.

"Playmaker, Ai, you go on ahead. We can't let this chance slip from our fingers. You don't need to waste your time with them. Soulburner and I will kick them out of this place." Holysaber urges Playmaker to go first. While they're arguing with the two women, Bohman may get away. At least one of them must go.

"Soulburner, Holysaber, I leave this to you guys!" Playmaker entrusts the Tag Duel to them, accelerating his D-Board to fly to their designated destination.

"Wait, Playmaker!"

Ghost Girl attempts to stop Playmaker from leaving, wishing to try one more time to convince him through words. Her path is blocked by a Data Storm suddenly appearing in front of her, pushing her away from Playmaker. She tries to give a chance once she regains her balance, but then another Data Storm stops her from moving towards the direction where Playmaker is going. In his stead, Holysaber is flying on his D-Board in front of her. He snaps his fingers, dismissing the Data Storm instantly.

"If you want to go to him, you'll have to go through us." Holysaber tells her.

Blue Girl immediately flies to Ghost Girl's side, glaring at Holysaber and Soulburner.

"Fine by me. We won't lose." Blue Girl accepts the challenge.

Ghost Girl sighs. So much for a discussion. Now that it comes to this, there's nothing she can do to stop them.

Blue Girl had decided since the moment she woke up after the battle at Tower of Hanoi that she'll become stronger for everyone who supported her. For her brother, who believes in her, entrusted her with this mission. She had enough with having other people rescue her. This time, she'll be the one to protect them.

"I'll win this Duel with my improved Deck!" Blue Girl declares. It's an affirmation to herself, to her will to see this through. She'll win this Duel and acquire that Ignis. And it'll lead her to the other Ignis. After losing to Specter, she analyzed her skills and strengthened her Deck. Her Trickstar Deck is not the same as before. She knows that she can win with the improvement she has made.

"By the way, do you have any strategy? Her Deck uses a variety of combos to shave your LP." Flame asks Soulburner and Holysaber. Blue Angel is a famous Idol Duelist, so knowing how her Deck works is like common knowledge for him.

"Yeah. We can't win unless we stop that." Soulburner already studied Trickstar Deck from watching Blue Angel's Duels available on the internet, so he knows what he must do if he goes against her. "I'll set my formation before she starts her combo."

"And you, Holysaber? Know anything about Ghost Girl's Deck?" Flame didn't bother to look up on Ghost Girl, so he knows almost nothing about the treasure hunter.

"Ghost Girl's Deck has swarming and disruptive capabilities supported by Traps. And like Trickstars, most of her monsters have low ATKs. Making her playing second, Trap removal cards, and high ATK monsters should do the job." Holysaber explains. He has plenty of experience with Ghost Girl that

One common thing shared by both Trickstar and Altergeist Decks to use their fullest is that they must go first. If Holysaber and Soulburner managed to make the first turn, it'll give them an advantage in setting up their field to prevent their opponents from forming their respective combo.

"Holysaber, between the two of us, can I go first?" Soulburner asks for permission.

"I don't mind. Be sure to go first before them though." Holysaber relents. He trusts Soulburner to set their field to counter against the Trickstar and Altergeist.

Soulburner approaches Blue Girl, proposing that the person who flies through the canyon bridge first gets to go first. Blue Girl agrees, and the two Duelists quickly race towards their designated finish line. Blue Girl gets momentarily blocked by a ledge, allowing Soulburner to get the lead. But this doesn't last long as a falling boulder crashes onto the bridge, causing its pieces to slow down Soulburner who must fly while dodging them, which leads to Blue Girl flying through the finish line first.

"I win. I go first." Blue Girl smiles victoriously.

"Good going." Ghost Girl praises her partner.

"You did what you could. We'll think of something." Holysaber tells the dejected Soulburner. It'll make things difficult for them, but it doesn't mean there's no other way. It might cost them some of their LP, but they'll come up with a counterattack.

Holysaber absolutely refuses to lose in this Duel. He refuses to lose against Blue Girl.

"Speed Duel!"

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 4000

Blue Girl & Ghost Girl LP: 4000

"I activate Magic Card: Trickstar Vision! I Special Summon a Trickstar monster from my hand!" Blue Girl Special Summons Trickstar Lilybell in Attack Position to the Main Monster Zone.

Trickstar Lilybell (FAIRY/EFFECT/ATK: 400/DEF: 2000)

"When this effects Special Summons a monster, its ATK are halved, and its effects are negated." The A.I. from Blue Girl's Duel Disk explains the following effect.

"And we both draw one card." Blue Girl reveals the last effect. She, Ghost Girl, and her two opponents then draw a card from the top of their Decks.

"Lycoris activated her effect on Lilybell! She Special Summons herself!" Blue Girl returns Lillybell that she just summoned to her hand and then Special Summon Lycoris in Attack Position in the Main Monster Zone.

Trickstar Lycoris (FAIRY/LIGHT/EFFECT/ATK: 1600/DEF: 1200/LV: 3)

"Lilybell's effect! When she's added to my hand other than by a draw, she Special Summons herself!" Blue Girl summons back Lillybell that she just returned to her hand to the right zone next to Lilybell in Attack Position.

"Shine! The circuit of courage and determination!" Blue Girl summons the Link Summoning portal above her. She set Lillybell and Lycoris in the Link Markers, placing Lillybell on the Bottom-Right Arrow, and Lycoris on the Bottom Arrow.

"Link Summon! Appear, Link 2, Trickstar Divaridis!" Blue Girl summons her Link Monster to the Extra Monster Zone.

Trickstar Divaridis (FAIRY/LIGHT/LINK/ATK: 1800/LM: Bottom-right, Bottom/LNK: 2)

"I activate Divaridis' effect! When she's Special Summoned, you take 200 damage!" Blue Girl reveals. Divaridis emits sparkling yellow lights around her body, which she then sends to Soulburner and Holysaber, inflicting damage to them.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 4000 = 3800

"I'm not done! From my hand, I activate Field Spell: Trickstar Live Stage! When this card activates, I can add a Trickstar in my Graveyard to my hand!" Blue Girl returns Lycoris to her hand before pointing at Live Stage again.

"Live Stage's additional effect activates! Once per turn, it Special Summons a Trickstar Token in Defense Position to a zone a Trickstar Link Monster points to." She Special Summons one Trickstar Token to the bottom-right zone Divaridis points to in Defense Position.

Trickstar Token (ATK: 0/DEF: 0)

"I release Trickstar Token to Advance Summon Trickstar Bidhelm!" Blue Girl releases the token, summoning a Trickstar monster with a winged helmet to her field.

Trickstar Birdhelm (FAIRY/LIGHT/EFFECT/ATK: 0/DEF: 1800/LV: 5)

"As Birdhelm was Normal Summoned, I can activate its effect to inflict 200 damage to my opponent and then drawing a card." Blue Girl once again has her monster inflict another 200 damage to Holysaber and Soulburner.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 3800 = 3600

"But since I used this effect, I can't Battle this turn." Blue Girl reveals the payment from using the effect.

"You can't Battle on the first turn anyway." Flame retorts at Blue Girl's cheeky smile. She knew she could use Birdhelm's effect without ahving to worry about Battle Phase since she got to go first.

"I Special Summon Lycoris from my hand! I can reveal this card and then target 1 Trickstar monster I control except itself to return that monster and then Special Summon Lycoris!" Blue Girl returns Birdhelm to her hand and then summons Lycoris.

"You return your Advance Summoned monster to your hand?" Soulburner senses something fishy from her move.

"I activate Birdhelm's effect! This monster can equip herself onto a Trickstar Link Monster I control!" Blue Girl equips Birdhelm to Divaridis. Birdhelm removes her helmet, throwing it at Divaridis who then wears it instead.

"I end my turn." Blue Girl finishes her turn.

"My turn! Draw!" Soulburner draws a card. Immediately after that moment, Blue Girl interrupts him.

"By adding a card to your hand, Lycoris' effect activates! You take 200 damage!" Blue Girl activates Lycoris' effect. Lycoris swings her sword, sending the same spakling tiny lights towards Soulburner and Holysaber, inflicting damage to them.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 3600 = 3400

"It's bad that she was able to go first." Soulburner laments his failure for preventing Blue Girl from going first.

"Due to Lycoris, you can't use Burning Draw." Flame remarks.

"Your Skill – Burning Draw – is powerful. By lowering your LP to 100, you can draw one card for every 1000 LP you lost." Blue Girl learned from watching Soulburner's Duel. In case she must Duel against him, she prepared Lycoris to prevent him from using his Skill.

"But the instant I activate my Skill, I lose." Soulburner speaks the fact. It's quite frustrating that his trump card has been sealed.

"Not just yours. The same would happen if I use my Skill." Holysaber breaks the bad news. He can't explain what his Skill is right now since it's not the time and place, only the cost of activating it.

"Seriously?!" Soulburner feels dismayed. He had hoped this Duel might give him the opportunity to see what kind of Skill Holysaber has.

Blue Girl is glad that she took the time to properly rearrange her Deck in preparation for this Duel. Her combo also prevents Holysaber from using his Skill is a pleasant surprise. And Lycoris isn't the only one that can stop Soulburner's Deck. She has another monster behind her sleeve in case they manage to stop Lycoris.

"I activate Salamangreat Meer in my hand! By sending a Salamangreat monster from my hand to the Graveyard, it Special Summon itself!" Soulburner sends Salamangreat Falco to the Graveyard, summoning Meer to his Main Monster Zone in Attack Position.

Salamangreat Meer (CYBERSE/FIRE/EFFECT/ATK: 800/DEF: 600/LV: 2)

"Divaridis' effect! When my opponent Normal or Special Summoned a monster, I can inflict 200 damage to my opponent!" Blue Girl activates Divaridis' effect.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 3400 = 3200

"Each hit isn't much damage, but it'll add up." Soulburner looks at Divaridis and Lycoris with calculating gaze. He was the one who asked Holysaber to let him go first. Since he failed to stop Blue Girl from taking the first turn, he'll make it up by turning the tide to their favor. He must summon a monster that can destroy Divaridis while they still have LP.

"I activate Falco's effect in my Graveyard! By returning a Salamangreat monster I control to my hand, it Special Summon itself!" Soulburner returns Meer to his hand and then Special Summon Falco to the Main Monster Zone in Attack Position.

Salamangreat Falco (CYBERSE/FIRE/EFFECT/ATK: 1200/DEF: 1600/LV: 4)

This causes the effects of both Divaridis and Lycoris to activate, inflicting 400 damage in total to Soulburner and Holysaber.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 3200 = 2800

"When Meer was added to my hand other than Draw Phase, it Special Summon itself!" Soulburner summons back Meer to his field, which consequently causing Divaridis effect to activates again.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 2800 = 2600

"From my hand, I summon Salamangreat Wolvie!" Soulburner summons Wolvie to the Main Monster Zone in Attack Position.

Salamangreat Wolvie (CYBERSE/FIRE/EFFECT/ATK: 1700/DEF: 1000/LV: 4)

Divaridis activates her effect again, inflicting another 200 damage to Soulburner and Holysaber.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 2600 = 2400

Despite the damage they received, Soulburner knows that they can't launch a counterattack if they don't summon a powerful monster, so enduring this continuous damage is a necessary payment. Blue Girl also realizes that he summoned three monsters knowing he'd take damage can only mean one thing.

"Go, Soulburner!" Flame cheers for his partner.

"Appear! The circuit that changes the future!" Soulburner summons the Link Summoning portal.

"Arrowheads confirmed! The summoning condition is at least two FIRE Effect Monsters! I set Meer, Falco, and Wolvie to the Link Markers! Circuit combined!" Soulburner set the three Salamangreat monsters.

"Link Summon! Appear, Link 3, Salamangreat Heatleo!" Soulburner summons his ace monster to the Extra Monster Zone in Attack Position.

Salamangreat Heatleo (CYBERSE/FIRE/LINK/ATK: 2300/LM: Bottom-left, Top, Bottom-right/LNK: 3)

"It's here!" As she expected, Soulburner did summon his ace monster. All according to her calculation, "But Divaridis effect deals you damage!"

Divaridis activates her effect and inflicts 200 damage to them again.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 2400 = 2200

"But due to Heatleo's effect–" Soulburner is about to use his monster's effect that when Link Summoned, he can target 1 card in his opponent's Spell & Trap Zone and then shuffle it into the Deck, but Blue Girl cut him off.

"Too bad! I won't let you use Heatleo's effect to return cards from the Spell & Trap Zone." Blue Girl interrupts as she reveals, "Your effects can't target the equip card Birdhelm and the equipped Divaridis."

"So that's why you equipped it." Flame now understands why she equipped Divaridis with Birdhelm. That only leaves only one alternative left.

"But I'll destroy it!" If he can't return it to the Deck, then Soulburner will destroy it by force.

Soulburner set one card before he points to Divaridis.

"Battle! I attack Trickstar Divaridis with Heatleo!" Soulburner declares his Battle Phase.

Heatleo roars before advancing towards the Trickstar Link Monster, intensifying its flame. Blue Girl watches the Salamangreat Link Monster coming at them, but her demeanor remains calm, which bothers Holysaber.

Blue Girl has reassessed her Deck many times until she finally settled with her current Deck. Her Deck's weakness is that her monsters have low ATK. She kept losing because her opponent broke through before she erased all their LP.

But this time, it'll be different.

"I activate Trickstar Calobane's effect from my hand! By sending her to the Graveyard, the battling Trickstar gains ATK equal to its original ATK until the end of the turn!" Blue Girl sends Calobane to the Graveyard, raising Divaridis' ATK equal to its original ATK, which is 1800.

Trickstar Divaridis ATK: 1800 = 3600

"What?!" Soulburner didn't expect that Blue Girl would come up with the means to strengthen her monster.

"So this is what she meant by improving her Deck." Holysaber had a bad feeling when Blue Girl looked so confident. Her improvement was better than he imagined. She's not just all talk.

Next to Blue Girl, her partner, Ghost Girl, is as much impressed. Putting aside her behavior, Blue Girl has proved herself that she has indeed become stronger. She knows what Aoi is capable of, only that the old Aoi, Blue Angel, lacked the motivation of her own, needing someone else to give her the push, too attached to her brother. The current Aoi, Blue Girl, is taking her own initiative. If Akira could see her right now, he would be proud of his younger sister.

"It would be better if she calms down a little though." Ghost Girl thinks in the back of her mind. Once this Duel is over, she'll have to make sure Blue Girl won't do anything rash.

As Heatleo is getting closer, Divaridis yells to her mic, unleashing destructive soundwave that stops the Salamangreat monster from advancing further. The impact causes a huge explosion engulfing Heatleo and inflicts Holysaber and Soulburner with bigger damage than Divaridis and Lycoris combined.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 2200 = 900

Blue Girl smiles as she believes that she has dealt with Heatleo. When the smoke is cleared, however, Heatleo still remains on the field, surprising Blue Girl and Ghost Girl.

"As Wolvie was used as a Link Material for the Link Summon of a Salamangreat Link Monster, that Link Monster cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects this turn." Soulburner explains. He failed to destroy Divaridis, but at least they won't be completely defenseless since he get to keep Heatleo on the field as their defense.

"I end my turn." Soulburner concludes his turn.

With Soulburner's turn coming to an end, Calobane's effect also ends, reverting Divaridis' ATK to normal.

Trickstar Divaridis ATK: 3600 = 1800

"I can see why you're the Charisma Duelist and hero who saved LINK VRAINS!" Soulburner knows they're not in a good situation, but if it's not like this, Duel won't be fun.

"An Idol must always entertain her fans. I can't make them smile if I only do the same thing over and over. Don't you agree?" Blue Girl replies wittily.

"Yeah. You won't disappoint your fans with this." Soulburner expresses what he genuinely feels.

"You're saying that right now?" Flame intrudes Soulburner's exchange with Blue Girl.

"It's the objective truth that we're behind." Soulburner tells in return.

"But you have one huge edge over Blue Girl. You have an excellent A.I. partner. Me." Flame says proudly and confidently.

"Singing your own praises?" Make no mistake, Soulburner is grateful to have Flame as his partner, but sometimes he is taken aback whenever the Fire Ignis boasts about himself.

"If I help you, your dormant abilities may bloom." Flame tells him.

"So what'll you do for me? Can you actually do anything?" Soulburner asks.

"I can be a compassionate observer from up close." Flame replies like it's the obvious thing to do.

"I don't need that!" Soulburner feels like an idiot to expect a serious answer from Flame.

"I think that's not a bad thing. Having someone silently cheering for you by your side feels reassuring." Holysaber knows that Flame is saying these things now to keep Soulburner from feeling down. Soulburner may feel excited now, but part of him must be feeling tense.

"See? He understands." Flame smiles smugly.

"Holysaber, you don't need to play along with him." Soulburner looks at Holysaber sympathetically.

"Flame is sharp. He can observe this Duel and give us input about their Decks after the Duel is over. We're going to win this Duel, right?" Holysaber smiles encouragingly at Soulburner and Flame.

"As he said, and what I said before. I have no intention of leaving you." Flame reaffirms what he has decided.

"Yeah. Of course!" Soulburner smiles back, feeling more fired up now.

Holysaber observes Blue Girl again. She has certainly learned from her previous Duels. She properly reflected on her Deck, identifying her vulnerabilities and how she can cover for her weaknesses, while building her core style of chipping away at her opponent's life.

"As a Duelist, she has grown... But not as a person." Holysaber bitterly recalls what Blue Girl said before the start of the Duel.

For someone who claimed they want to offer help, Blue Girl completely disregards the other party's situation and feelings. How ridiculous. Kazue said that Aoi Zaizen is a kind girl and it'll be nice if they can become friends. Their few exchanges at school didn't give much of an impression on him. Meeting her now though...Holysaber will admit that she's not a bad person, but there's an issue with the attitude she's displaying. It's irritating how she acts ignorant regarding the victims of the Lost Incident.

"Whatever reason she has, she needs to be put in her place." Holysaber thinks determinedly.

From the corner of her eyes, Ghost Girl has been observing Holysaber who's mostly being quiet so far. This is the first time she meets and speaks to Holysaber directly. Other than watching his Duel against Blood Shepherd, she knows nothing about him. He is as good as Playmaker in erasing his track, so there's no way to learn about his real-life identity. His ability to control the Data Storm is another attestment to his skill as a programmer.

As a Duelist, he is a strong one. No amateur could defeat Blood Shepherd, one of the best bounty hunters in Den City. Based on that Duel, he has preference to use Pendulum Summon. But considering they're in a Tag Speed Duel, he'll likely adjust his strategy with Soulburner and refrain from using Pendulum Summon to avoid filling the Spell & Trap Zone.

"Then, the biggest concern would be his ace monster, Elpizo Harpe. Elpizo Harpe's effect will increase his own ATK depending on the difference between the player's LP and the monster pointed by Elpizo Harpe's Link Arrow." Being the very first and only Divine-Attribute Deck in existence to date, Holysaber's Olympios Stratos leaves a big impression on Ghost Girl. No. Not just her, it leaves a big impression on everyone.

Though Holysaber's presence was an unexpected coincidence, Akira requested them to investigate more about Holysaber and his DIVINE-Attribute Deck. This is a perfect opportunity. She initially wanted to make a request to Tsurugi for his help in the investigation, but he announced that he's going to take a break for an indefinite time, so he won't be accepting any request. It's too bad she couldn't use her most reliable connection, but she doesn't dislike working only with Blue Girl like this. And she is curious on testing the DIVINE-Attribute Deck herself.

"I'll have you show me more of your cards, Holysaber." Now that it has come to this, Ghost Girl won't back down.

"My turn! From my hand, I summon Altergeist Marionetter." Ghost Girl summons Marionetter in Attack Position to the Main Monster Zone next to Lycoris.

Altergeist Marionetter (SPELLCASTER/DARK/EFFECT/ATK: 1600/DEF: 1700/LV: 4)

"When Marionetter was Normal Summoned, I can activate its effect to Set an Altergeist Trap Card from my Deck." Ghost Girl takes out a Trap Card directly from her Deck and then Set it.

"Here it comes. Be careful, Soulburner." Holysaber warns his Tag partner.

"I activate Trap Card: Altergeist Cursed Tomb's effect! Since Cursed Tomb was Set by the effect of an Altergeist monster, it can be activated the turn it was Set! With its effect, I can send an Altergeist card from my Deck to my Graveyard and then Set an Altergeist Magic or Trap Card." Ghost Girl sends an Altergeist Card from her Deck to the Graveyard before once again setting a face-down card in the Spell & Trap Zone, replacing Cursed Tomb.

"A Trap that can be set and activated on the same turn?!" Soulburner looks at the activated Trap Card in disbelief.

"That's a troublesome effect." Flame comments.

"Since a Trap Card was activated, I can Special Summon Altergeist Multifaker from my hand!" Ghost Girl places Multifaker to the zone next to Marionetter.

Altergeist Multifaker (SPELLCASTER/DARK/EFFECT/ATK: 1200/DEF: 800/LV: 3)

"Now, open before me! The circuit that connects to the unknown parallel universe!" Ghost Girl joins her hands together and then opens them wide as if pulling marionette strings, summoning the Link Summoning portal.

"I set Marionetter and Multifaker to the Link Markers. Circuits combined!" Ghost Girl sets Marionetter to the bottom Link Marker and Multifaker to the right Link Marker.

"Link Summon! Appear, Link 2, Altergeist Hexstia!" Ghost Girl summons her Link Monster to the zone pointed by Divaridis' bottom Link Arrow in Attack Position.

Altergeist Hexstia (SPELLCASTER/DARK/LINK/ATK: 1500/LM: Bottom, Right/LNK: 2)

"When an Altergeist Link Monster is Link Summoned to my field, I can target other 1 Link Monster on the field and then Special Summon Altergeist Fijialert from my hand to the zone that target points to!" Ghost Girl targets Divaridis before summoning Fijialert to the zone next to Hexstia in Attack Position.

Altergeist Fijialert (SPELLCASTER/DARK/LINK/ATK: 1400/DEF: 1200/LV: 4)

"Also, the targeted Link Monster is treated as an Altergeist monster until the end of this turn." Ghost Girl adds, temporarily changing Divaridis' archetype to Altergeist.

"Why does she need to make Divaridis treated as Altergeist?" Soulburner wonders.

"Isn't her aim to summon Fijialert? Treating Divaridis as Altergeist monster is something that comes with that, but it doesn't actually matter. What matters is that Fijialert is successfully summoned." Flame deduces.

"I doubt so. She's a sneaky treasure hunter." If working with Ghost Girl has taught him anything, every move she made was done with a scheme in mind.

"Appear once more!" Ghost Girl once again summons the Link Summoning portal.

"I set Hexstia and Fijialert to the Link Markers!" This time, she Sets her Altergeist Link Monster and Effect Monster to the Link Markers.

"Link Summon! Appear, Link 3, Altergeist Primebanshee!" Ghost Girl summons her ace monster to the zone where Hexstia used to be.

Altergeist Primebanshee (SPELLCASTER/DARK/LINK/ATK: 2100/LNK: 3/LM: Bottom, Bottom-right, Right)

"I activate Primebanshee's effect! During my Main Phase, I can Release 1 other Altergeist monster I control to Special Summon 1 Altergeist monster from my Deck to the zone this card points to!" Ghost Girl turns to her partner, winking at her while saying, "Blue Girl, I'm borrowing your Divaridis."

"Huh?" Blue Girl didn't even get the chance to say her respond as Ghost Girl just go through with her plan.

With Divaridis being treated as Altergeist monster due to Fijialert's effect, Ghost Girl Releases it and then Special Summon Altergeist Meluseek to the zone next to Primebanshee in Attack Position.

Altergeist Meluseek (SPELLCASTER/WATER/EFFECT/ATK: 500/DEF: 300/LV: 1)

"She removed Divaridis to summon a lower level monster?" Soulburner blinks in confusion at Ghost Girl's decision. With Divaridis out of the picture, that means they can't use her effect to shave their LP anymore.

"I won't be sure about that, Soulburner." Ghost Girl wiggles her index finger, confusing Soulburner.

"Altergeist Meluseek can attack opponent directly." Holysaber reveals. Meluseek is one of monsters that he had seen Ghost Girl used when they worked together.

"Battle! I attack directly with Meluseek!" Ghost Girl declares her Battle Phase.

Meluseek summons blue glowing bubbles that she shoots towards Holysaber and Soulburner. The bubbles explode upon direct contact, inflicting damage to the two Duelists.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 900 = 400

"I activate Meluseek's second effect! When this card inflicts Battle Damage to my opponent, I can target one card my opponent controls and send it to the Graveyard!" Ghost Girl obviously chooses the only monster on their field, Salamangreat Heatleo.

Meluseek extends both her hands and forms a magic circle. Energies is gathering at the center of the magic circle, ready to destroy the opposing Link Monster.

Soulburner doesn't make it easy, however.

"Not so fast! I activate Quick-Play Spell: Salamangreat Triangle! I target one Salamangreat Link Monster I control that was Link Summoned using 3 FIRE Monsters as materials; that Link Monster is unaffected by monster effects this turn!" Soulburner activates a card from his hand, summoning triangular flame that forms a barrier blocking Meluseek's spell.

Despite the Trap foiling her plan, Ghost Girl doesn't look perturbed.

"It's not that I never expected this. I already have a backup in case this happens." Ghost Girl opens the screen that shows her Graveyard and presses one of her Trap Cards, "I activate Altergeist Cursed Tomb's additional effect! I banish this card to move my Altergeist Monster to the Extra Monster Zone and then Special Summon one Altergeist monster or monster treated as Altergeist monster that was destroyed this turn."

"A monster treated as Altergeist... That means...!" Holysaber gasps as he realizes which monster that Ghost Girl intends to summon.

"Correct! I summon back Divaridis from the Graveyard!" Ghost Girl moves Primebanshee to the now empty Extra Monster Zone and then revives Divaridis to the Main Monster Zone, placing herself in the zone next to Meluseek. Due to Fijialert's effect, Divaridis is treated as Altergeist monster until the end of turn. Since Ghost Girl's turn is not over yet, Divaridis is still an Altergeist monster, so it's possible for her to be summoned back.

"And since Divaridis is Special Summoned, she inflicts 200 damage to the opponent." Ghost Girl reactivates Divaridis' life-shaving effect.

"I'm not finished either! I activate Continuous Trap: Gate of Fire! Neither player takes effect damage if the amount is less than or equal to 300!" Soulburner opens his other face-down card, forming a fiery gate that blocks Divaridis' hurtful light.

"I didn't know you can use Divaridis' effect like that with your cards." Blue Girl is genuinely surprised that Ghost Girl took her monster's combo into account to form her attack.

"I told you that I'll give her back. Besides, you're my partner. Partners support each other. Isn't that so?" Ghost Girl winks at Blue Girl, who smiles back in gratitude.

Watching the exchange between the two Girls, Holysaber can't help himself to make a comment, "They do make a great duo. They remind me a bit like you and Flame." He glances at Soulburner and his Ignis partner.

"Us? Like them?" Soulburner points to himself and Flame questioningly.

"I beg to differ. We are partners, but I have quite a hard time babysitting him due to his immaturity." Flame shakes his head dismissively.

"Hey, don't treat me like a kid!" Soulburner protests.

"I wouldn't if you stop acting like one." Flame retorts what he believes to be undeniable fact.

Holysaber sighs at how dishonest the Fire duo next to him. They don't realize that they're proving his point. Soulburner and Blue Girl are more immature compared to their partners, Flame and Ghost Girl, respectively. In turn, Flame and Ghost Girl act as their babysit– their chaperone to make sure they're not straying from the right path. Although Ghost Girl is not doing a good job in keeping Blue Girl in check. If she has, they won't be Dueling right now.

"I end my turn." Ghost Girl concludes. It's too bad that her attempt to destroy Heatleo and inflict more damage with Divaridis' effect failed, but she's doesn't dislike this turn of event. Now, she'll get to see Holysaber in action.

"My turn. Draw." Thanks to Soulburner's Gate of Fire, they won't receive any more damage from Blue Girl's combo, so he can safely summon monsters without having to worry about their LP being shaved each time he summons a monster.

Both Ghost Girl and Blue Girl have watched his Duel against Blood Shepherd, so they already knew about his Pendulum Summon and some monsters he's using, especially one of his two aces, Elpizo Harpe. Using Pendulum Summon in Speed Duel, and Tag Duel at that, will limit the slot of Spell & Trap Zone that they both are sharing. If he Set a Pendulum Scale, the slot would be full since Soulburner already has Gate of Fire activated. He's not going to take the risk of troubling Soulburner with his Pendulum Scale, so he won't perform Pendulum Summon in this Tag Duel.

With their current LP, he can use Elpizo Harpe's effect to destroy their opponent's low ATK monsters and inflict huge damage. But he is sure that Ghost Girl and Blue Girl are expecting him to summon Elpizo Harpe. Blue Girl made preparations to counter against Soulburner's Deck. It's possible that they have done the same against his Deck.

"Even so, with my current cards in my hand while in this LP, Elpizo Harpe is my only choice." Holysaber makes his decision. Even though he can't defeat them on this turn, he'll help Soulburner to ensure he'll deliver the finishing blow.

"From my hand, I summon Saint Kuriboh." Holysaber summons Saint Kuriboh in Attack Position.

Saint Kuriboh (CYBERSE/DIVINE/EFFECT/ATK: 300/DEF: 200/LV: 1)

"When a DIVINE-Attribute Monster is Normal or Special Summoned to my field, I can Special Summon Olympios Stratos – Lerefs from my hand." Holysaber summons Lerefs in Attack Position next to Saint Kuriboh.

Olympios Stratos – Lerefs (CYBERSE/DIVINE/EFFECT/ATK: 1000/DEF: 500/LV: 4)

"When I control two or more Olympios Stratos monsters on my field, I can Special Summon Olympios Stratos – Kalogeros from my hand." Holysaber summons Kalogeros, also in Attack Position, next to Lerefs, filling the entire Main Monster Zone.

Olympios Stratos – Kalogeros (CYBERSE/DIVINE/EFFECT/ATK: 1500/DEF: 1000/LV: 5)

"Three Effect Monsters. It's coming, isn't it?" Blue Girl immediately realizes what Holysaber is planning to do next.

"Yeah. It must be that monster." Ghost Girl also thinks the same.

"Appear! The circuit that lights up the future!" Holysaber summons the Link Summoning portal above him.

"Arrowheads confirmed. The summoning condition is 2 Effect Monsters. I set Saint Kuriboh, Lerefs, and Kalogeros on the Link Markers! Circuit combined!" Holysaber Set Saint Kuriboh in the bottom-left Link Marker, Lerefs in the right Link Marker, and Kalogeros in the top Link Marker.

"Sacred sword that embodies hope. Descend from the heavenly sky and guide the tormented souls away from the evil oppressors! Link Summon! Appear, Link 3, Olympios Stratos – Elpizo Harpe!" Holysaber summons his ace monster to the zone points by Heatleo's bottom-left Link Marker.

Olympios Stratos – Elpizo Harpe (CYBERSE/DIVINE/LINK/ATK: 2300/LM: /LNK: 3)

"When a Link Monster is summoned to my field, I can Special Summon Olympios Stratos – Phyrges from my hand or Graveyard!" Holysaber summons a male humanoid monster wearing a soft conical cap with the apex bent over.

Olympios Stratos – Phyrges (CYBERSE/DIVINE/EFFECT/ATK: 1600/DEF: 1200/LV: 3)

"I activate Phyrges' effect! By Releasing this card, I can move a Link Monster in my Extra Monster Zone to a zone points by other Link Monster's Link Arrow!" Holysaber moves Heatleo to the zone points by Elpizo Harpe's right Link Arrow, fulfilling the condition to activate Elpizo Harpe's effect.

"I won't let you give your monster a significant power up." Ghost Girl says. She has been waiting for this, "Skill activates! Secret Cure! I excavate cards from my Deck until a Monster Card is revealed. That monster is added to the hand, all non-Monster Cards are sent to the GY, and both players gain LP equal to that monster's ATK!"

Ghost Girl begins to draw from her Deck. The card that she draws is Altergeist Malwisp with 1500 ATK, meaning both she and Blue Girl, and Holysaber and Soulburner gains 1500 LP.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 400 = 1900

Blue Girl & Ghost Girl LP: 4000 = 5500

It slipped Holysaber's mind about Ghost Girl's Skill. That said, as he suspected, they have a countermeasure to deal with Elpizo Harpe's effect. Thanks to that, the amount of ATK that Elpizo Harpe received has lessened. That still won't stop him. She may have lessened the amount of ATK that Elpizo Harpe received, but Elpizo Harpe can still inflict more damage with his additional effect. He'll deal as much damage to them to give Soulburner the opportunity to deliver the finishing blow.

"I activate Elpizo Harpe's effect! When this card points to a monster, it gains ATK equal to the difference between that monster's ATK and our current LP!" Holysaber activates Elpizo Harpe's effect. His and Soulburner's current LP is at 1900, while Heatleo is at 2300, that makes 400 points difference, so Elpizo Harpe's ATK is raised by 400 points.

Olympios Stratos – Elpizo Harpe ATK: 2300 = 2700

Holysaber observes Ghost Girl and Blue Girl's field. Divaridis has the most troublesome effects out of all of them, but thanks to Soulburner's Gate of Fire, they negated the LP-shaving effect. Primebanshee has the highest ATK, but her effect is not as troublesome as the Trickstars in their current situation. Lycoris and Meluseek, on the other hand, both have low ATKs, but their effects are also troublesome, especially Meluseek's effect that can attack directly and destroy a monster when inflicting damage.

With Heatleo and Elpizo Harpe, he can only attack two monsters. To choose between the four Monsters, he'd pick...

"I'll decrease their LP as much as I can!" Holysaber decides his two targets.

"Battle! I attack Trickstar Lycoris with Salamangreat Heatleo!" Holysaber declared his Battle Phase, first attacking the weaker Trickstar with Soulburner's ace monster.

Heatleo whirls its body, enveloping itself with burning flames, becoming a tornado of fire incinerating the Trickstar monster.

Blue Girl & Ghost Girl LP: 5500 = 5000

"Next, I attack Altergeist Meluseek with Elpizo Harpe!" Holysaber continues his second attack with his own ace monster.

Elpizo Harpse swings down his sword, cutting the mermaid-like Altergeist monster into two, destroying it.

Blue Girl & Ghost Girl LP: 5000 = 2800

"I activate Elpizo Harpe's effect! When this card inflicts Battle Damage, I can inflict damage to my opponent equal to the ATK of a monster pointed by its Link Arrow!" Holysaber activates his ace's additional effect, unleashing a stream of silver light that strikes the two women.

Blue Girl & Ghost Girl LP: 2800 = 500

With this, he has lowered their LP to red. It'll give Soulburner's bigger chances to deplete their LP on his next turn.

"I won't make it easy for you the next time!" Ghost Girl opens her face-down card, "I activate Trap Card: Altergeist Dark Mist! When an Altergeist monster I control is destroyed by Battle, I can halve the ATK of the opposing monster!"

Just as Elpizo Harpe inflicted damage to her and Blue Girl, black mist surrounds Elpizo Harpe's body, causing the Olympios Stratos monster to wobble as he feels himself growing weaker.

Olympios Stratos – Elpizo Harpe ATK: 2700 = 1350

"With this, you can't destroy neither my Primebanshee nor Blue Girl's Divaridis even if you're using Elpizo Harpe's effect." Ghost Girl tells them. This is the least she can do to lessen their danger.

"I end my turn." Holysaber finishes.

"My turn! I activate the Field Spell, Live Stage's effect!" Blue Girl reactivates her Field Spell's effect.

"Once per turn, when there's a Set card in the opponent's Spell & Trap Zone, you can Special Summon a Trickstar Token in Defense Position." Blue Girl's A.I. explains in her place. Trickstar Token is placed in the zone where Altergeist Meluseek used to be.

"If I control a Trickstar Fusion Monster or Link Monster, I can Special Summon Trickstar Hoodie from my hand!" Blue Girl summons a purple-hooded Trickstar monster in Attack Position to the zone where Lycoris originally was.

Trickstar Hoodie (FAIRY/LIGHT/EFFECT/ATK: 600/DEF: 1800/LV: 2)

"I activate my Skill! Trickstar Gig!" Blue Girl declares, causing the pink heart-shaped symbols on her outfit to glow.

"For every Trickstar monsters on my field, I send a card from the top of my Deck to the Graveyard!" Blue Girl controls three Trickstar monsters in her Main Monster Zone, so she sends three cards to the Graveyard.

"Then, I can add a Trickstar card in my Graveyard to my hand. What I add, is this card!" Blue Girl adds a Trickstar Spell Card confidently, alarming Soulburner and Holysaber.

"I equip Trickstar Birdhelm to Divaridis!" Blue Girl once again equips a copy of Birdhelm in her hand to Divaridis.

"I'll show you the strength of my powered-up Trickstar Deck!" Blue Girl declares.

"Shine! The circuit of courage and determination!" Blue Girl summons the Link Summoning portal, setting Trickstar Hoodie and Trickstar Token to the Link Markers.

"Link Summon! Appear, Link 2, Trickstar Holly Angel!" Blue Girl summons her Blue Angel persona's ace monster. She summons it to the zone points by Primebanshee's bottom Link Marker.

"I activate Dark Mist's effect in the Graveyard! Once per turn, I can switch the zones between an Altergeist monster with another monster!" Blue Girl switches Primebanshee's position with Divaridis, placing Primebanshee to the Main Monster Zone and Divaridis to the Extra Monster Zone.

"I activate Live Stage's effect! I Special Summon a Trickstar Token next to my Trickstar Link Monster's Link Arrow!" Blue Girl summons another Trickstar Token to zone points by Divaridis' Link Marker, filling the Main Monster Zone full.

"I'll use the card I added with my Skill! Magic Card: Trickstar Fusion! I send a Fusion Material from my hand and field to the Graveyard to Fusion Summon!" Blue Girl sends Holly Angel and Trickstar Token to the Graveyard.

"I'll let you hear the song of the Trickstar! Fusion Summon! Trickstar Band Sweet Guitar!" Blue Girl summons her Fusion Monster to the zone points by Divaridis' bottom Link Arrow in Attack Position.

Trickstar Band Sweet Guitar (FAIRY/LIGHT/FUSION/ATK: 2200/DEF: 1200/LV: 7)

"A Trickstar Fusion Summon?!" Soulburner is shocked at the appearance of the Fusion Monster.

"That's not recorded in my data. It means she's continued to grow." Flame states calmly despite the sudden turn of event.

"By Fusion Summoning Sweet Guitar, take Divaridis' effect!" Blue Girl activates Divaridis' effect. The Link Monster raises her mic, the red crystal of her mic shines in response.

"That's pointless! Due to Gate of Fire, 300 or less damage is negated–"

"When linked to Sweet Guitar, a Trickstar's effect damage is doubled!" Blue Girl interrupts Soulburner. As Sweet Guitar is linked to Divaridis' bottom Link Arrow, Divaridis' effect damage is doubled, making it 400 damage in total.

Sweet Guitar plays her guitar, amplifying Divaridis' sound wave as she sings, striking Soulburner and Holysaber with intensified damage.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 1900 = 1500

"Since I dealt you effect damage, I activate Sweet Guitar's effect! She gains ATK equal to the Trickstar's effect damage!" Blue Girl increases Sweet Guitar's ATK by 400.

Trickstar Band Sweet Guitar ATK: 2200 = 2600

"I banish Trickstar Fusion from my Graveyard to activate its effect! I can add a Trickstar to my hand, but the monster I get can't be summoned or Special Summoned this turn." Blue Girl banishes his Magic Card and then adds Calobane to her hand.

"I'll end you this turn! Battle! I attack Elpizo Harpe with Sweet Guitar! Ambitious Code!" Blue Girl declares her Battle Phase.

Band Sweet Guitar plays her guitar with strongest intensity from before, unleashing barrages of destructive soundwaves towards the Olympios Stratos monster.

"At this moment, I send Salamangreat Racoon from my hand to the Graveyard to activate its effect! I regain LP equal to the opponent's monster's ATK!" Soulburner sends Racoon to the Graveyard, recovering his and Holysaber's LP by 2600.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 1500 = 4100

"And you can't activate Magics, Traps, or Monster Effects during this Battle! That includes Calobane's effect in your hand." Soulburner adds, emphasizing Calobane. "And Elpizo Harpe cannot be destroyed by Battle!"

"But you still take damage!" Blue Girl reminds them.

A barrier is formed in front of Elpizo Harpe, protecting it from Sweet Guitar's attack.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 4100 = 2850

"Again, I attack Elpizo Harpe with Altergeist Primebanshee!" Blue Girl declares her second attack using Ghost Girl's ace monster.

The four snakes on Primebanshee opens their mouths, shooting purplish red magical energy towards Elpizo Harpe, who is still protected by Salamangreat Racoon's barrier.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 2850 = 2150

"Lastly, I attack Elpizo Harpe with Divaridis!" Blue Girl declares her third and final attack.

Divaridis sings once more, unleashing destructive soundwaves from her shining red mic that is again blocked by a barrier that protects Elpizo Harpe from being destroyed.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 2150 = 1700

"You can't end us this turn." Soulburner retorts to her earlier statement, making Blue Girl click her tongue.

"I end my turn. It's true I couldn't defeat you this turn. But we will next turn!" Blue Girl replies.

"When Sweet Guitar attacks, her ATK return to normal at the end of turn and I can add a Trickstar monster in my Graveyard to my hand." Blue Girl concludes, reverting her Fusion Monster's ATK to normal.

Trickstar Band Sweet Guitar ATK: 2600 = 2200

"You did well, Blue Girl. Leave the rest to me, I'll be sure to finish this on my turn." Ghost Girl assures her partner. They're so close now.

"This situation is pretty bad." Soulburner states. The excitement he had earlier was starting to fade.

"You know, you could've just let them destroy Elpizo Harpe. Then, they won't be able to attack Heatleo since Divaridis and Primebanshee's ATKs are not strong enough against Heatleo. You've sealed Calobane's effect with Racoon's effect, so Blue Girl couldn't have used its effect to increase Divaridis' effect." Holysaber explains after reassessing the earlier Battle Phase. When Soulburner makes a dejected face, he quickly explains, "I'm not scolding you. I'm happy that you care enough about me that you protected my monster and I appreciate that. But you need to look closer at the bigger picture."

"Precisely. In this situation, looking from a different angle, Blue Girl failed to win and you're the one trying to seize victory." Flame joins in, looking at his dejected partner. He then pats Soulburner's Deck. "There's a card in your Deck that'll break you out of this situation."

"You mean that card." Soulburner knows which card Flame is referring to without needing to have him spell it out. True. With that card, he can swiftly win this Duel.

"My turn! Draw!" Soulburner begins his Draw Phase. When he looks at his card, however, he frowns. It's not the card that he needs. "The goddess of destiny has forsaken me."

"Goddess aren't attracted to you." Flame says nonchalantly, earning him ire from his partner, but Flame remains calm. "Instead of moaning about destiny, Draw the card yourself. Or do you lack the courage to drop to 100 LP against her combo?"

"What?!" Soulburner is offended by his partner's implication.

"Will you face your destiny or run from it? This is the turning point. If you're my partner, you should face it with confidence." Flame encourages his partner. A Duel won't be settled unless one of the players loses their entire LP. Low LP shouldn't be used as an excuse to give up, not when there's still a chance to take.

"Soulburner, as long as we still have our LP, no matter how small it is, the Duel is not over. Every move matters. Don't miss the chance that you have, even if it means we're gambling our LP for it." Holysaber agrees with Flame. It's risky, but it's worth a try than nothing at all. He refuses to lose without fighting back.

"Besides, a hero usually unleashes their power when they are in a pinch, right?" Holysaber adds grinningly to ease Soulburner's growing doubt.

"You heard him. What are you going to do now, Partner?" Flame questions Soulburner, seeing resolution lit up in his partner's eyes.

"Interesting. If you said that far, I have to do it!" Soulburner extends his hand, surprising Blue Girl and Ghost Girl.

"Burn your soul, Soulburner!" Flame exlcaims as his body envelopes in flame.

"Skill activates! I lower my LP to 100 and draw a card for every 1000 LP that I give!" The gem on Soulburner's chest glows and extends to Soulburner's right arm, heating up Soulburner's hand.

Holysaber & Soulburner LP: 1550 = 100

"Burning Draw!" Soulburner draws a card from the top of his Deck, forming a fire as he draws the card.

"You drew our card of destiny!" Flame says cheerily. He did it. His partner has drawn the card that will lead their path to victory.

"Here I go! I activate Magic Card: Fusion of Fire! I send Fusion Material Monsters to the Graveyard to Fusion Summon!" Soulburner subsequently activates the card he just drew.

"He's Fusion Summoning too?!" Ghost Girl is shocked, not expecting Soulburner to also possess a Fusion Monster.

"Fusion Monster is your secret weapon? But if you summon a monster, Divaridis and Sweet Guitar's combo will end you!" Blue Girl reminds her excited opponent.

"Are you sure?" Soulburner asks back, confusing Blue Girl. "My Fusion Monster materials are Heatleo and one Link Monster. I could've used Elpizo Harpe, but not for this time if I want to stop your combo."

"What do you mean?" Blue Girl is even more confused by that. Other than Heatleo, they only have Elpizo Harpe, a Link Monster, on their field. How else can he perform Fusion Summon if not using Elpizo Harpe?

"Fusion of Fire lets me use monsters on both our fields to Fusion Summon! I Fusion Summon using your Link Monster, Divaridis!" Soulburner answers Blue Girl's confusion, to the dismay of Blue Girl.

"Appear! The origin of a crazy soul! The magical beast whose flesh gathers the weapons of evil beasts! Fusion Summon! Salamangreat Violet Chimera!"

Divaridis and Heatleo turn into blue and orange flames, forming into a tornado of flames mixing together until it erupts like a volcano, the purple lava from the eruption then takes shape of a violet-colored Salamangreat Fusion Summon.

Salamangreat Violet Chimera (CYBERSE/FIRE/LINK/ATK: 2800/DEF: 2000/LV: 8)

"Getting materials, stopping combos, eliminating monsters, and summoning his ace. He did all this at once?" Ghost Girl looks at the Fusion Monster in disbelief.

"Violet Chimera's effect activates! When it was Fusion Summoned, until the end of turn, its ATK is increased equal to the half the total ATK of the Fusion Material Monsters used for its Fusion Summon!" Soulburner increases Violet Chimera's ATK by 2050.

Salamangreat Violet Chimera ATK: 2800 = 4850

"Battle! Violet Chimera attacks Trickstar Band Sweet Guitar!" Soulburner declares his Battle Phase. If this attack hits Blue Girl and Ghost Girl's LP at 500, it'll be over for them.

"No! I won't let it end now! I activate Calobane's effect in my hand! By sending this card to the Graveyard, Sweet Guitar's effect is doubled!" Blue Girl doubles Sweet Guitar's ATK.

Trickstar Band Sweet Guitar ATK: 2200 = 4400

"And I'll reduce the damage that we'd take!" Ghost Girl joins in, "At this moment, I also activate Altergeist Dark Mist's effect in my Graveyard! By banishing it and an Altergeist monster I control, I can recover LP equal to the destroyed Altergeist monster's ATK!"

Ghost Girl banishes Dark Mist and then destroys Primebanshee, recovering hers and Blue Girl's LP equal to Primebanshee's ATK, which is 2100.

Blue Girl & Ghost Girl LP: 500 = 2600

With this, Blue and Ghost Girl can still survive this turn by still having 2150 LP left.

At least, that's what they've believed.

"We knew you'd do that." Soulburner smiles expectantly. "You examined your own weaknesses, and you chose a card to deal with it. That's why I knew you'd use Calobane!"

"Using Dark Mist to increase your LP to lower further damage you'll take is a smart move on your part, but that's the only extent you can." Holysaber remarks. He didn't expect Dark Mist to have that kind of effect, but ultimately, it's still not enough to stop Violet Chimera.

"What are you trying to say?" Blue Girls questions sharply.

"I activate Violet Chimera's additional effect! When it's battling a monster whose current ATK is different from its original ATK, I can double Violet Chimera's ATK during the damage calculation!"

Salamangreat Violet Chimera ATK: 4850 = 9700

"An ATK of 9700?!" Blue Girl is almost dumbstruck. With that ATK, the damage they receive would be 5300. Their LP is far too low to survive that attack.

"Go! Violet Soul!"

Violet Chimera propels itself by boosting the blue flames coming from its back, flying towards Sweet Guitar until it's close enough to slash down its arm blade, destroying the Trickstar Fusion Monster.

Blue Girl & Ghost Girl LP: 2600 = 0

Blue Girl and Ghost Girl are hurtling down the cliff, where they land on a ledge. Soulburner and Holysaber flies to them, the two women are still struggling to get a hold of themselves after the strong impact.

"Blue Girl, you're stronger than before. And Ghost Girl, you peroperly adjust your strategy to match with your partner's combo." Soulburner acknowledges the Trickstar and Altergeist users.

"But you didn't have an excellent A.I. like me." Flame tells them.

"Continue being my compassionate observer." Soulburner doesn't retort this time. He did get motivated thanks to Flame, and of course, Holysaber.

"You won this Duel because of the bond between an A.I. and a human?" Blue Girl looks at the duo in bewilderment. Ignis, an A.I., is a program. And yet, Soulburner's behavior to Flame is no different from how humans interact with each other. Soulburner and Flame act like they're...truly partners. Not just them. Thinking more about it, Playmaker and Ai also act the same.

Holysaber jumps down from his D-Board. He reaches out his hand, holding Blue Girl by her arm and seemingly helps her up...

SLAP

Right as she stands up, a nice sharp sound rings out around them. Blue Girl faces to the side and her cheek turns red following the sharp sound. Nobody was expecting that, as their eyes went wide. Holysaber brings his hand back down to his side and glares at the Trickstar user with a sharp expression.

"H-Holysaber, what are you doing?!" It takes a few seconds until Soulburner fully processes what Holysaber has done.

"You mentioned the Lost Incident. That means, you knew what happened to us." Holysaber starts talking, his eyes are colder the more he speaks. He must speak his mind now otherwise he'd lose it. He can't let Blue Girl slide after everything she said.

"You knew what the Knights of Hanoi did to us to create the Ignis, the suffering that we were forced to endure for those six months." The more he speaks, the colder his tone is. His mind drifts to the time he spent in captivity, where he must Duel or he'd be starved to death.

"SOL Technologies decided to bury the incident under the rubble because they don't want to lose their source to make money. Despite knowing this, you demanded us to give Ai and Flame to SOL Technologies?" Holysaber grabs Blue Girl by her collar, pulling her closer to him harshly.

"Who do you think you are?" Holysaber can barely restrain his anger anymore. After that incident, he lived a life filled with nothing but despair. He had given up on the world, on himself, that he believed death was his only salvation. That's all because those responsible for the incident got away with it. And Blue Girl spoke like his suffering is but a trivial matter.

Holysaber roughly pushes Blue Girl, pinning her back to the ledge behind her.

"If we're using your words... Rather than those money-hungry bastards who's more than happy to overlook our suffering, I believe that us, the victims who had to endure those tortures to create the Ignis that are based on us have more rights to keep the Ignis." All the seven Ignis were created based on them. Their partners. So, it's only fitting for the Ignis to be by their side.

"Knights of Hanoi might be the culprit behind the Lost Incident. But to me, SOL Technologies is equally guilty. They knew about the incident and covered it up to avoid responsibility, so they can keep their pocket money full." SOL Technologies got a lot of profit from using the beings created from their suffering, while they must live with the trauma that keeps haunting them, not giving them a chance to be freed from their unending fear. It's incredibly unfair.

"It must be nice being an outsider like you. You think you can just say anything you want because it has nothing to do with you. So what if we suffered? As long as you can get the Ignis, then what happened to us means nothing to you. Isn't that it?" Holysaber says sarcastically, his tone is filled with evident resentment that threatens to explode.

"No! I just–" Blue Girl wants to deny his accusation, but she can't say anything when faced with Holysaber's rageful gaze.

"If this is how you're doing things, be sure to tell your brother once you're back that his help is unnecessary." Holysaber says coldly before letting go of Blue Girl's collar and pushes her back.

Ghost Girl can't defend Blue Girl on this one. Even she has to agree that her partner is the one in the wrong here. And not just at this moment, Blue Girl has not been in brightest mindset since they entered the gate. She was acting irresponsibly and just did her own thing. The way she just demanded the Ignis to be handed over has crossed the line and blew their chance to settle things peacefully. She could understand Blue Girl was sick and tired of being saved by others, but the decisions she had made this far were not the best way to start.

However, Ghost Girl feels she was also at fault. She gave up getting her to listen too easily. As the one who has more tons of experience than Blue Girl does and being an adult, she should've guided her younger partner better and made more efforts to stop her from making the wrong decision.

Blue Girl is too shocked to react that she's speechless. She just let her back hit the ledge and slid back down on her knees. She remains silent on her spot with her face down, not daring to look up at Holysaber's face. Holysaber doesn't say anything further, he merely brings out an orb of purple data and then throws it at the unmoving Blue Girl.

"Blue Girl!" Ghost Girl shouts out, shocked as her partner disintegrated into blue data before she reached her. She turns to Holysaber for answer, "What did you do to her?"

"I had her logged out. Rest assure that she's not harmed." Holysaber answers simply, his expression and tone are still stern. "You and your partner have lost the Duel, so both of you will withdraw for today."

Ghost Girl won't argue. They lost the Duel fair and square. And without her partner, there's nothing much she can do on her own against Holysaber, Soulburner, and Playmaker together.

"You're right. But I can't promise this will be the last time you'll see us. We'll meet again later. Hopefully, the next time we meet, it's under a better circumstance." Ghost Girl genuinely hopes that what happened today won't be repeated. She'll need to talk with Aoi once she's back.

"Then use this," Flame holds up an identical orb of data that Holysaber used on Blue Girl, giving it to Soulburner.

"What's this?" Soulburner asked, taking the orb.

"A copy of the escape program I received from Ghost Girl." Flame answered. Just in case, he decided to make a copy of the escape program when they were on their way into the gate.

"Here." Soulburner throws the program to Ghost Girl, which Ghost Girl accepted with a smile.

"You might be cuter than Ai-chan." Ghost Girl tells Flame, winking at him.

"Eh?!" Flame's cheeks instantly turn pink at the compliment.

"I'll withdraw for today! Let's meet again someday." Ghost Girl logs out.

"She's a goddess!" Flame said with his still blushing face, completely charmed. He did say he never said Ghost Girl was a beauty, but that doesn't mean he believes Ghost Girl is ugly. She's certainly pretty and she's got good eyes. Looking closer, perhaps it's not an exaggeration to call her beautiful, she did look shining just now.

"Don't be serious..." Soulburner said in disbelief at his Ignis. He turns to Holysaber, who is still standing on the spot where Blue Girl was. His stern face has loosened up a bit, but Soulburner can see there's still some bitterness.

"Holysaber..." Soulburner approaches his friend with concern.

Holysaber gasps softly when he hears his name being called. He lets out the breath that he has been holding. Along with that breath, he is drown by a sense of shame slowly flowing into him. He had lost it. How long has it been since he lashed out like that? He even raised his hand against a girl who had already lost. So much thinking he had gotten better at controlling his emotions. He still has a long way to go.

"Sorry. I showed you something unsightly." Holysaber apologized to the two Fire users. That could've been an opportunity to gain more allies, but he totally blew it. He should've spoken more gently after the Duel was over. Like, telling them to tell Akira that if he wanted to talk with Ai and Flame, then he only need to ask Playmaker for a chance to speak with them.

"I'm sorry too, Flame. I didn't mean to objectify you and the other Ignis..." Holysaber turns to Flame apologetically, feeling even more ashamed. He knows that the Ignis are not just ordinary A.I.s, they are living beings with free will like humans are. They don't deserve to be treated as properties that can be taken or given so freely like a bargain sale. And yet, he spoke as if Ai and Flame are things that he owns. No matter how emotional he was, what he said was inexcusable.

"You don't need to apologize. I don't trust SOL Technologies for the same reason." Soulburner smiles in understanding. What Blue Girl said to them also sounded unpleasant to hear for him as a victim of the Lost Incident. Though he felt quite bad for Blue Girl being slapped, he was relieved when Holysaber told her off in their defense. If Playmaker and Ai were here, they wouldn't blame Holysaber either.

"That's right. I know you didn't mean what you said. With her attitude, it's normal to be angry. Blue Girl was the one in the wrong there, so don't beat up yourself too much, Holysaber." Flame leans closer and pat Holysaber's arm to comfort him and shows he's not angry in the slightest. It must be pent up frustrations that have built up overtime. Better to let it all out now than keep bottling them up.

"You're not the only one getting fired up like that. I did the same too before." Soulburner remembers when he used to beat up people for getting on his wrong side. Compared to what he did, Holysaber's slap was still far more lenient. Now that they have each other's back, they'll learn together not to let the incident control them.

"We'll get through this together, 'kay?" Soulburner extends a fist to Holysaber, going for a fist bump as an encouragement to the Olympios Stratos user.

Holysaber feels more at ease seeing the fist offered to him. He is ready to raise his own fist to bump it to Soulburner's until the Salamangreat user suddenly wobbles and falls to one knee. He then holds a hand to his head, indicating that he feels dizzy.

"Are you alright?" Holysaber looks up and down at Soulburner. He doesn't see anything severe, but judging from his body gestures, the Salamangreat user is not in good shape.

"Sorry, it's always like this after I used Burning Draw." Soulburner's body won't listen no matter how much he wants to move on. Like it or not, he must take a rest for several minutes at the minimum. If he forces himself, he'll only slow his friends down. "You go on ahead. I'll catch up to you and Playmaker."

Holysaber isn't sure of leaving Soulburner and Flame by themselves here when there's so little to know about this world that Windy created. Even though Ai and Flame trust Windy, Holysaber cannot. But they can't leave Playmaker and Ai alone either. If Bohman is here, it's most likely that Playmaker and Ai will encounter him. Bohman has an accomplice, that boy named Haru. Before, he only watched from the side, but there's no guarantee that Haru will stay quiet this time. Taking on two people alone won't be easy no matter how skilled Playmaker is. He can't let Playmaker fight alone.

Holysaber helps Soulburner to sit down on the ledge before riding his D-Board again. He and Soulburner exchange nods before departing to follow Playmaker and Ai.

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NEXT CHAPTER PREVIEW:

Chapter 8 – Young Warrior of Light: As Soulburner used up most of his strength during the Tag Duel, Holysaber goes ahead to catch up to Playmaker and Ai. On his way, Bohman's younger brother, Haru, blocks his path to prevent Holysaber from interfering with Bohman and Playmaker's Duel, commencing a Duel of their own between them.

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LIST OF ORIGINAL CARDS:

Holysaber's Cards

Olympios Stratos – Phyrges (CYBERSE/DIVINE/EFFECT/ATK: 1600/DEF: 1200/LV: 3): When a Link Monster is Special Summoned to your field, you can Special Summon this card from hand or Graveyard. By Releasing this card, you can move a Link Monster in your Extra Monster Zone to a zone pointed by the Link Monster's Link Arrow.

Soulburner's Cards

Salamangreat Triangle (Quick-Play Spell): Target 1 Salamangreat Link Monster you control that was Link Summoned using 3 FIRE Monsters as materials; that Link Monster is unaffected by monster effects this turn.

Ghost Girl's Cards

Altergeist Cursed Tomb (Trap): If this card is Set by the effect of an Altergeist monster, it can be activated the turn it was Set. You can send 1 Altergeist card from your Deck to your Graveyard and then Set an Altergeist Magic or Trap Card. You can destroy this card to Special Summon 1 Altergeist monster or monster treated as Altergeist monster that was destroyed this turn.

Altergeist Dark Mist (Trap): When an Altergeist monster you control is destroyed by Battle, you can halve the ATK of the opposing monster that destroyed the Altergeist monster. When this card is in the Graveyard, once per turn, you can switch the position of your Altergeist Monster with another Monster. you can banish it and an Altergeist monster you control, recover your LP equal to the ATK of the banished Altergeist monster.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Originally, I meant for this to be two separate Duels between Soulburner vs Blue Girl like in the anime, and then Holysaber vs Ghost Girl. But after considering their situation, I concluded that having a Tag Duel would be more logical than two separate Duels. The beginning and the end of the Duel are not so different from the one in the anime because even with the addition of Holysaber and Ghost Girl, Blue Girl and Soulburner should still show their skills more here. I promised that the girls would get their moments to shine, but as I said before, it'll take a while. I especially couldn't cheer for Blue Girl here when I watched this episode in the anime.

Perhaps you think that Holysaber slapping Blue Girl was too much, but honestly, I don't believe it was. Blue Girl already heard what happened during the Lost Incident, the suffering that Playmaker and Soulburner had to go through. But even knowing this, she still dared to tell them to give Ai and Flame to them because the Ignis were originally under control of SOL Technologies, as if she's overlooking the crucial detail of the Lost Incident victims being tortured to create the Ignis and SOL Technologies hid this truth for their own greed. I was very frustrated when Blue Girl said this. I understand she was tired of being saved by others and wished to help her brother, but that didn't excuse her words and actions. To an extent, Holysaber in this episode expressed my frustration towards Blue Girl. Especially, Holysaber suffered to the point of developing suicidal urges, so Blue Girl's remark sounded that she didn't care to him, hence, his reaction.

The next chapter will feature Holysaber vs Haru. I never like how Haru was completely sidelined until his last moment in the anime. He has so much potential as an antagonist, and he could've shown another facet of Bohman's character due to their bonds as brothers. I'll be sure to give him more chances to appear in this story. And I already planned new Olympios Stratos monsters with more unique effects. I've been itching to write the Duel between them. (^w^)

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TRIVIA:

– Etruscan architecture that described Windy's temple is an ancient Rome architecture created between about 900 BC and 27 BC, when the expanding civilization of ancient Rome finally absorbed Etruscan civilization. From about 630 BC, Etruscan architecture was heavily influenced by Greek architecture, which was itself developing through the same period. In turn it influenced Roman architecture, which in its early centuries can be considered as just a regional variation of Etruscan architecture. But increasingly, from about 200 BC, the Romans looked directly to Greece for their styling, while sometimes retaining Etruscan shapes and purposes in their buildings.

– Phyrges is based on the Phrygians, an ancient Greek umbrella term to describe an ancient Indo-European speaking people who inhabited central-western Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) in antiquity.

– Melpomene mask is a mask of tragedy, one of a pair of two masks known as Comedy and tragedy masks, one laughing and one crying. The crying mask is often ascribed the name Melpomene, after the Muse of tragedy in Greek mythology. Melpomene is described as singing songs of mourning for people of note after they die, particularly for poets.