"Why is that guy Miles here?"
Hidden in the shadows of the forest, Alice frowned deeply, the conflict plainly visible on her delicate face.
She had no idea how Miles had ended up encountering an attacking Shadow Duelist on the outskirts of this small town.
But judging from the sword-drawn tension before her, things had undoubtedly developed into the worst possible scenario.
If nothing was done, a first-year student from Fusion Academy facing an experienced Shadow Duelist would certainly die.
"Should I step in to stop this? Or…"
"What's there to stop?"
Just as Alice was struggling internally, Elra's voice suddenly sounded from within the Millennium Ring.
"Isn't this exactly what you want, Alice? Just pretend you didn't see anything. Let this guy die at the hands of a Shadow Duelist, and you won't have to worry about your sister anymore."
The soul residing within the dark artifact whispered like a devil echoing beside Alice's ear, striking directly at the deepest desires of the human heart.
"You're saying… I should stand by and watch Miles die?"
"What do you mean, 'stand by'? This is just an accident. He was unlucky enough to run into a Shadow Duelist and lose his life. And you're just an ordinary person who isn't even a Duelist—"
"How could that be called standing by and watching?"
"An ordinary person…"
If she really were an ordinary person, Alice wouldn't be struggling like this right now.
"If Miles dies here… Aisha will be heartbroken, won't she?"
Although Alice desperately didn't want to admit it—really didn't want to admit it—from Aisha's attitude tonight, Miles had already become extremely important to her.
"Duel!" ×2
The internal struggle between angel and devil had wasted too much time. By the time Alice snapped back to her senses, it was already too late to stop the Shadow Game from unfolding.
Shadow Duelists like Bryce didn't possess Millennium Items—not even counterfeits.
However, even without Millennium Items, these people of darkness still had ways to initiate Shadow Games.
The method was to crush capsules they carried on them, engraved with dark spells, expanding a domain extremely similar to a Shadow Game space and enclosing both duelists within it.
It was said that these capsules themselves were secretly developed by the Holy Varian Empire, which placed the greatest emphasis on military power.
How they eventually leaked out was unknown, becoming instead a carnival for those of darkness.
"Tch. Now I'm too late."
Still, since this Shadow Game wasn't activated through a Millennium Item, if Alice wished, she could force her way into the duel to some extent using the power of the Millennium Ring.
Albeit since it had already begun, Alice decided… to watch for now.
Not out of apathy, but because she was curious—curious to see what kind of fighting style this man who had her sister absolutely captivated actually possessed as a Duelist.
"My turn, draw!"
Under the shroud of the dark domain, the duel officially began, with Miles taking the first move.
After scanning his opening hand, Miles placed a monster sideways on the dark field to summon it.
"I Normal Summon in Defense Position—go, Mokey Mokey!"
[Mokey Mokey] Level 1│LIGHT│Fairy│300 ATK
A faint light pierced the darkness as the tofu block that called itself an angel materialized and floated on Miles's field.
"This is!" The familiar summon made Alice's expression, hidden in the shadows, grow even more astonished. "Aisha's card!"
Elra couldn't help but laugh. "Hahaha, this is really getting interesting."
It wasn't that there was a rule saying only Aisha could summon Mokey Mokey. But as far as Alice knew, the only person who ever used Mokey Mokey in duels was her sister, Aisha.
And now, Miles was the second.
"Miles… is using the same type of cards as Aisha. Is this a coincidence?"
Actually, it wasn't the same 'type'—they were literally your sister's cards.
If Miles added something like, 'Your sister's cards are really easy to use,' Alice would probably vomit blood on the spot.
"Nani, a trash monster?" Bryce raised an eyebrow.
If a somewhat knowledgeable Duelist like Bryce saw Mokey Mokey summoned by Aisha Carlos, he might show a bit of caution.
But the boy before him was obviously not Aisha Carlos—he didn't even match the gender.
In that case, this thing -_-? was nothing more than a trash monster.
"I Set one card and end my turn!"
The classic Mokey Mokey opening of one face-down monster and one face-down card—Miles ended his first turn.
"Hmph. Is this all the strength the Carlos watchdog has?"
Since he was livestreaming this job to his peers, bounty hunter Bryce naturally had to display absolute confidence and arrogance.
A mere block of tofu didn't even qualify as a threat.
"My turn, draw!"
After drawing, Bryce looked at Miles across the field.
"Kid, what do you think is the most important thing in a duel? Monsters? Resources? Life points?"
Without hesitation, Miles answered, "The most important thing is obviously… not losing."
Truly enlightening—like hearing nothing at all.
"It's luck! Only those blessed with strong luck can control the entire duel!"
Pulling a card from his hand, Bryce flung a Spell Card forward.
"And I am the one favored by the Goddess of Fortune! I activate the Spell Card [Cup of Ace]!"
[Toss a coin. If heads, draw 2 cards. If tails, your opponent draws 2 cards.]
A coin-toss card whose heads effect was essentially [Pot of Greed], while tails gave your opponent a Pot of Greed instead.
Miles's evaluation: Why not just run Pot of Greed directly?
"Remember this well—the one who can grasp the flow of fortune is me, Bryce!"
The coin projected by Spirit Eyes spun rapidly in the air.
This coin-toss method, possible only on the Spirit Continent, had the advantage of eliminating any chance of cheating by tampering with the coin.
It was a pure contest of luck.
Result: Heads!
Just as Bryce had claimed, he successfully seized fortune.
Clack, clack!
Turning Cup of Ace into the effect of Pot of Greed, Bryce drew two cards from his Deck.
"Keep it going! I activate the Spell Card [Cost Down]!"
[Discard 1 card; this turn, all monsters in your hand have their Levels reduced by 2.]
"I discard [Barrel Dragon] from my hand, reducing the Level of the Level 6 [Blowback Dragon] in my hand down to Level 4!"
Reducing a monster from Level 6 to Level 4 meant that a monster that originally required one Tribute could now be Normal Summoned directly.
"I Normal Summon in Attack Position—[Blowback Dragon]!"
[Blowback Dragon] Level 6→4│DARK│Machine│2300 ATK
A monster shaped exactly like a revolver handgun materialized and stepped into the Shadow Duel field.
"Next, [Blowback Dragon]'s effect—load and chamber it! The gamble of Russian roulette!"
Russian roulette—the most dangerous of all gambles, a wager that staked one's very life.
You bet that your gun has no bullets. Lose the bet, and the outcome is a bullet to the head.
[Once per turn: You can target 1 card your opponent controls; toss a coin 3 times. If at least 2 of the results are heads, destroy that opponent's card.]
Converted into the effect of a Gun Dragon, it meant tossing coins and destroying the opponent's card based on the result.
Toss results: Heads, Heads, Heads.
All three tosses came up heads. Bullets blasted out from the gun-barrel body, piercing straight through the tofu block's Defense Position form.
"Now then, kid, you've got no monsters left on your field. Prepare to accept a direct attack from the Shadow Game!"
"Oh? Is that really what you're seeing?"
"What!"
As the gunpowder smoke dispersed, after Bryce shattered [Mokey Mokey] with [Blowback Dragon]'s effect, square tofu blocks were still floating on Miles's field—now increased to two.
"It split?"
"Trap Card [The League of Uniform Nomenclature] lets me Special Summon all cards with the same name, [Mokey Mokey], from my Deck."
Chaining to Blowback Dragon's effect, Miles flipped the Trap Card he had Set last turn, instantly increasing the number of Mokey Mokey on the field to three.
That way, even if the original [Mokey Mokey] was destroyed, Miles still had two tofu blocks left to serve as walls.
"So Miles's Deck also has three Mokey Mokey?"
Seeing this, Alice grew even more unsettled.
To her, this was totally the kind of fighting style Aisha would use… now perfectly reproduced by Miles.
Just what kind of relationship did these two really have?
"Actually, Miles is my boyfriend!"
Alice wasn't stupid. On the contrary, the fact that she had seized opportunities within just a few months to engineer the Carlos family's dramatic comeback from fortune proved that her intelligence and emotional intelligence were both extremely high.
The relationship between these two was unquestionably not as simple as boyfriend and girlfriend.
Being able to witness Miles summoning three Mokey Mokey like this showed that her decision to watch without acting had been the right one.
Bryce sneered. "A wall built of tofu is still just a tofu construction in the end."
Next, he flung another Spell Card from his hand to the ground.
"—Equip Spell Card [Premature Burial]!"
[ Pay 800 Life Points; target 1 monster in your Graveyard. Special Summon it in face-up Attack Position and equip this card to it. When this card is destroyed, destroy that monster.]
"I pay 800 Life Points to revive the [Barrel Dragon] I just discarded to the Graveyard!"
[Bryce, LP: 4000 → 3200]
[Barrel Dragon] Level 7│DARK│Machine│2600 ATK
The triple-barreled gun dragon resembling a revolver roared as it materialized and charged into the Shadow Duel field, its pitch-black mechanical body perfectly matching the darkness of the Shadow Game.
"Then let's see just how many shots you can take. [Barrel Dragon]'s effect, activate!"
[Once per turn: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls; toss a coin 3 times. If at least 2 of the results are heads, destroy that monster.]
The revolver forming the dragon's body spun and cocked again—once more, a coin-toss effect.
Toss results: Heads, Heads, Heads.
This time, even Miles's expression changed slightly.
"This guy… he's flipped seven heads in a row?"
The probability of seven consecutive heads was one over two to the seventh power. If the coin toss weren't being performed by Spirit Eyes, Miles would've suspected outright cheating.
A dueling style that relied on overwhelming luck.
If Ren was the person Miles had seen with the best dice luck, then the top-tier Shadow Duelist before him was the one with the best coin-flip luck he'd ever seen.
"Fire!"
At Bryce's command, the fired bullet pierced and shattered another Mokey Mokey.
If Bryce could guarantee heads on his coin tosses, then each Gun Dragon effectively had a once-per-turn, unconditional monster destruction effect.
Honestly, it was more troublesome than Miles had expected. He'd thought the triple Mokey Mokey wall would at least easily hold through the first turn.
"Continue to bathe in gunfire! Battle—kid!"
Declaring entry into the Battle Phase, Blowback Dragon attacked, destroying the final Mokey Mokey by battle. Then Barrel Dragon followed up with a direct attack, its bullets piercing straight through Miles' body.
[Miles, LP: 4000 → 1400]
The soul-rending pain was exactly as Miles had anticipated. No matter how tough the physical body was, damage that struck directly at the soul in a Shadow Game was not to be underestimated.
"Enjoy this pain properly and regret becoming the Carlos family's watchdog. I Set two cards and end my turn!"
Holding a decisive advantage, Bryce Set his cards and declared the end of his turn.
"Making a first-year student deal with a Shadow Duelist of this level really is pushing it too far, huh?"
Spirit Eyes with faint cracks along Alice's arm lit up. She was already prepared to step in at any moment and forcibly interrupt this Shadow Game.
"Tch!"
What exactly was she doing?
She'd definitely expose her identity.
Even though the opponent was a detestable guy trying to steal her sister away, could she really just watch him die?
"'Because I haven't eaten my sister's cooking in so long. The taste was just too nostalgic.'"
What a kid who really knew how to tug at people's sympathy.
Elra: "Wait a bit longer, Alice. Something's wrong!"
Just as Alice had steeled herself to intervene and stop the Shadow Game, Elra stopped her again.
"What's wrong?"
"The Shadow Game itself is wrong. Is this abyss-like darkness really something a mere Shadow Game can produce?"
Extremely sensitive to darkness, and yet when Miles began his turn again, the power that erupted was a darkness so profound that even Elra found it difficult to control.
"So who is the prey in this Shadow Game, really?" Elra immediately reached a conclusion. "That guy named Miles is hiding something monstrous!"
"My turn, draw!"
Drawing his card, bathed in a darkness deeper than the Shadow Game itself, Miles activated the Spell Card in his hand.
"—I activate the Spell Card [Tri-Wight]!"
[Target 3 Level 2 or lower Normal Monsters in your Graveyard; Special Summon them.]
"By Tri-Wight's effect, I Special Summon all three Mokey Mokey from my Graveyard!"
[Mokey Mokey ATK: 300] ×3
Special Summoned, the three floating tofu blocks instantly assembled on Miles's field, fulfilling the required number of monsters.
At that point, what Miles intended to do next was already obvious.
To use the darkness from the abyss to crush this paltry, second-rate darkness before him.
"Contract established. The loser's soul shall belong to the evil god. Using the three Mokey Mokey on my field as Tributes, I advance summon—A GOD!"
"God?" Bryce staggered back a step in panic.
A god-summoning that seemed to tear the night sky itself apart. Countless stars were swallowed into a spiraling abyss, heralding an ominous sign.
"Annihilating God of Darkness, raise your accursed head amid the raging flames of souls! The summoning of Kami—The Wicked Eraser!"
[The Wicked Eraser] Level 10│DIVINE│Divine-Beast│ATK: ? DEF: ?
[Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set except by Tributing 3 monsters you control]
Descending slowly from the abyssal spiral that devoured stardust from the heavens, one of the Three Wicked Gods—the Eraser—reigned over this darkness.
Elra: "Does this guy really need you to step in and save him, Alice?"
Bryce: Save me, please.
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