"So Miles is… Aisha's guardian spirit? Are you serious? You're not messing with me, right?"
Forcefully dragged back to Viel's backup witch workshop warehouse by Krista, Lost saw two familiar faces from Fusion Academy—and was also informed of a truth so shocking it left her stunned.
Krista really had no choice. After the Duel ended, the look in Lost's eyes, overflowing with desire, was one step away from outright devouring Miles.
Without a doubt, Miles—who had obtained a new body and crushed Lost in a Duel—had landed squarely in this love-brained delinquent's strike zone.
And based on Krista's understanding of Lost, once this girl decided to latch onto Miles, she would be like a giant slug stuck to your body—the kind you could never shake off.
"That can't happen!"
To prevent the worst possible outcome, Krista decisively chose to reveal the truth directly to Lost.
And so came the scene just now—Lost standing there dumbstruck after learning the truth.
Ren shot Miles a sideways glance, utterly exasperated, and sighed. "Honestly, Miles, why is it that every time you go out for a walk, you come back with another woman?"
"This one's not someone I brought back," Miles protested, feeling thoroughly wronged. "Krista's the one who brought her back."
Hearing that, Krista also shot Miles a sideways look, just like Ren had. I'm doing this to protect you from a hooligan, and you don't even have the self-awareness for it.
"Maybe… that actually explains everything!"
Aoyao, who had quietly followed along, was very different from Lost in her simplicity. She had already been questioning Miles' true identity.
And after learning the truth, the withdrawn girl suddenly saw the light—everything finally fell into place.
"So that means, during the Academy Turbo Duel Tournament, the one who used Stardust Dragon to fight us… wasn't Carlos at all."
After several weeks together at the academy, even if they weren't close enough to be called friends yet, at least Aoyao no longer shut down the way she had when she first stepped off the airship, too timid to even speak.
"And the one who used Stardust Dragon to save Axet all along… was you, Miles!"
Why this mysterious boy possessed Stardust Dragon, and why he could use Krista's Stardust Spark Dragon, had actually already been shown to everyone during the battle against the Earthbound God.
It was just that at the time, Miles had been acting as Aisha Carlos' guardian spirit, using Aisha's body.
"That's basically it," Miles admitted.
"What a shocking truth," Aoyao's gaze shifted to Lost, who was currently in a state of total confusion. "So, Lost, you actually lost to Miles a long time ago."
On the very first day, Aisha and the others arrived in Axet, Lost—under the pretense of a 'welcome ceremony'—had challenged the guardian-spirit version of Miles to a Duel.
The result, of course, was that Miles and Stardust Dragon beat her senseless.
"Eh? Really?"
Only after Aoyao's detailed analysis did the slow-on-the-uptake Lost finally react.
"So that means… I've been running into destiny since way back then!"
"You really didn't understand the situation at all, did you?" Krista complained helplessly.
Hoping that Lost would back off after learning Miles was Aisha Carlos' guardian spirit, Krista realized she had been far too naive.
Come to think of it, both she and Ren knew Miles was Aisha's guardian spirit… had either of them backed off?
"Of course I can't understand the situation!" Lost planted her hands on her hips, looking completely justified. "You're telling me the very real, living Miles is a guardian spirit? How am I supposed to understand that?!"
"Is it really that hard to understand?"
Aoyao's mouth fell open a little. She had understood it at once: she hadn't expected Lost to be even dumber than she imagined.
"Just saying it isn't convincing at all. No matter how you look at it, it sounds made up! I don't believe it! Unless you show me proof."
"Proof, huh…"
Miles and Aisha exchanged a glance.
Since Lost wanted proof, all they had to do was demonstrate the Millennium Puzzle's new soul-traversal function.
"Go ahead, Mr. Miles!"
"Then here goes!"
Miles focused all of his mental power on the eye-shaped Millennium Item mark imprinted on the back of his hand.
Responding to the resonance of souls, the Millennium Puzzle on Aisha's chest gently swayed, emitting a golden glow.
The next moment, when Miles opened his eyes again, he had forcibly taken over Aisha's control—his soul plunging into the girl's body.
At the same time, Miles' own body collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut after his soul departed.
However, midway through the fall, Ren—who had been ready and waiting for this moment—moved faster than Krista, catching the unconscious body and steadying it in her arms.
"Tch, too slow," Krista clicked her tongue in annoyance.
"Does this count as proof, Lost?"
Controlling Aisha's body, Miles looked seriously at Lost before him.
"I've already possessed Aisha's body. Do you believe me now?"
"Th-this…"
Lost looked at Aisha, whose manner of speaking had instantly become Miles', then at Miles' unconscious body lying in Ren's arms.
Then she slammed her fist into her palm, realization dawning.
"You act pretty convincingly. This really looks like actual possession! What kind of performance art is this? Is it called a double act?"
"I think this is actually real." After seeing Miles possess someone firsthand, Aoyao's last trace of doubt finally disappeared.
Because she often tucked herself away in a corner without speaking, habitually observing her surroundings in silence, Aoyao had long since noticed subtle inconsistencies.
During the Synchron Academy Turbo Duel Tournament, Aisha in the Duel and Aisha outside the Duel were like two completely different people, whether in behavior or speaking style.
Now it was clear that the reason lay in Miles's possession.
"Aoyao-san, you actually believe it? Wow, you really are an idiot~"
"You're the idiot here!" Aoyao's refined face reddened with a rare hint of anger.
One of the most infuriating things in the world was being called an idiot by an idiot.
"What should we do, Mr. Miles? She doesn't believe it at all."
Inside the Soul Room, Aisha spoke up worriedly. She also didn't want Miles, who had just obtained a body, to get tangled up with some strange delinquent girl.
"It's fine. I still have one last trump card!"
"(?Д?)ノ A trump card? That sounds amazing."
"It's amazing when you see it in action too~"
With that, Miles removed the chain of the Millennium Puzzle from around Aisha's neck.
"Hold on to this, Lost!"
Solemnly placing the removed Millennium Puzzle into Lost's hands, and ignoring the question marks all over her face, Miles focused his mental power on the mark on the back of Aisha's pale hand.
Soul traversal—Miles first returned to his own body.
Then, without missing a beat, he carried out another soul traversal with the Millennium Puzzle.
The two previous times he had traversed into Aisha's body had already confirmed one fact for Miles.
That was that the soul traversal function of the Millennium Puzzle, after its upgrade and enhancement, was domineering enough to forcibly change control of a body without the host's consent.
Both previous traversals had sent Aisha straight back into the Soul Room with no ability to resist.
But this third soul traversal had a different target.
At present, the Millennium Puzzle was being held in Lost's hands.
If Miles's calculations weren't wrong…
When he opened his eyes once more, his viewpoint was noticeably higher. Lost herself was tall among women, at least taller than the other girls present.
A brand-new body, a transformed field of view—Miles's experiment had succeeded.
By using the upgraded power of the Millennium Puzzle to traverse souls, he had successfully seized control of Lost Vela's body.
And he had done so by downright ignoring the host's will—an outright forced possession.
"What is going on here?!"
As expected, the moment the possession succeeded, Lost's incredulous shout echoed directly inside Miles's mind.
Her soul had been kicked into the Soul Room, and now Lost could only share Miles's vision, unable to control her own body in the slightest.
"Do you believe it now?"
Trying to move Lost's body a little, Miles found that despite her tough, delinquent personality, her body was unexpectedly supple, with excellent flexibility.
It seemed she was the same type as Ren—someone who definitely didn't lack exercise.
Aisha: "(￣ー￣) So sorry about that rigid, untrained body of mine."
"Does that mean… I've been possessed by you too, Miles?"
"Who else would it be?"
Even a straightforward idiot like Lost couldn't keep doubting after experiencing it firsthand.
"This is amazing. So this is what it feels like to have your body controlled by someone else? Surprisingly, I don't hate it at all! It's super cool!"
"That's what everyone says."
It wasn't Miles praising himself, but up to now, the satisfaction rate for his possessions had remained at a perfect 100%.
"There there, this is Aisha Carlos inside the Soul Room. There's some brand-new intel, Miles."
The Aisha Carlos who directly addressed Miles could only be the dark side of Aisha within the Soul Room.
While possessing Lost, Dark Aisha's voice suddenly rang out in his mind. It seemed that something new had happened inside the Soul Room again.
"What kind of new intel is it, Aisha?"
"Congratulations, scumbag. You've acquired yet another new body."
Needless to say, Dark Aisha was once again being sarcastic about Miles gaining another body.
"Ahem. Miss Aisha, let's focus on the intel first, shall we?"
"The intel is this: after the scumbag gained another body, the number of doors inside the Soul Room increased again."
Before Dark Aisha, several doors now stood—among them, one newly added door marked with the emblem of a blazing demonic dragon.
Stardust Dragon, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dragonmaid, Red Dragon Archfiend.
At this point, the Soul Room already contained four doors, each representing a different Dragon-type Deck form.
Anyone who didn't know better might think this was the room of some hopeless dragon-obsessed Duelist.
...
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