"A monster with the DIVINE attribute... a god card?"
Even a desperado who had survived countless life-and-death Shadow Games, Bryce had never witnessed a scene like this.
A darkness that surpassed even the abyss of Shadow Games—at this instant, the hunter was reversed into prey.
It was as if Bryce's soul and heart were being tightly gripped by the claws of the wicked god before him.
At the same time, as this scene was broadcast on the live feed, the tavern where Shadow Duelists gathered instantly erupted into chaos.
"Holy shit, a god!"
"The Carlos family's watchdog actually has a god card?"
"Why would a duelist who possesses a god card be willing to serve as a bodyguard under an ordinary family?"
"That's one vicious hound. Bryce is in for it now."
Would these Shadow Duelists worry about Bryce's safety?
Of course not.
To this group of Shadow Duelists, only profit and desire mattered.
Compared to whether Bryce could return alive, info about the god card was far more important.
As for Bryce's life or death?
That could only be chalked up to a vicious hound within, life and death left to fate.
"That can't be possible!"
Elsewhere, Alice, who was hiding in the shadows and watching the duel on-site, saw the wicked god appear and immediately understood that the nature of this duel had utterly changed in her eyes.
According to Alice's intelligence network, the cards of the Three Wicked Gods should all currently be in Aisha's possession.
The proof was that Alice had personally witnessed Aisha, in Axet, summon the strongest wicked god during a Turbo Duel.
And now, although this was not the divine incarnation of the strongest wicked god, the Eraser, one of the Three Wicked Gods, had appeared in Miles' hands.
Combined with the three Mokey Mokey cards from earlier.
An unbelievable yet disturbingly reasonable speculation surfaced in Alice's mind.
Could it be that Miles was actually using Aisha's deck?
But how could something so totally unreasonable happen? Two different people using the same deck.
Of course, all of this was merely Alice's one-sided speculation, lacking any decisive evidence.
The Mokey Mokey could be Miles' own, and as for The Wicked Eraser, as a tradable card obtained through a Shadow Game, perhaps Aisha had given it to Miles.
"Let's keep watching."
At the very least, after Miles summoned The Wicked Eraser, the situation had instantly reversed. Alice no longer needed to worry that Miles would easily lose his life in a Shadow Game.
Forcing himself to regain his composure, Bryce, a top-tier Shadow Duelist in a duel where life and death were on the line, would never abandon the duel outright just because of the arrival of a single card.
"A monster with Attack set to '?'... just what is going on here!?"
"This is a god card!" Miles waved his hand and declared the effect. "The Wicked Eraser's Attack and Defense become the number of cards on your field × 1000 points!"
The wicked god's slender body ignited with murky soul flames within the forest outside the town of Lukao, drawing power from the opponent's cards.
An extremely terrifying sight in the darkness. If any townsfolk happened to wake up in the middle of the night and saw that massive being wreathed in burning soul flames outside their window, they would probably be scared into wetting themselves on the spot.
Five cards—Bryce's two gun-dragon monsters, one Equip Spell [Premature Burial], and two unknown face-down cards—provided The Wicked Eraser with a full 5000 Attack.
[The Wicked Eraser, ATK: ? → 5000]
With such Attack power, it was not something mere gun dragons could withstand.
"It's time to battle, wicked god!"
He declared entry into this turn's Battle Phase. The Eraser's horrifying head tilted toward the chaotic, pitch-black sky and let out a furious roar, gathering energy before bombarding the attack target Miles pointed to.
"Destroy the target [Blowback Dragon]!—Soul Erasure!"
The soul-burning energy roar tore across the dark field, the final 5000 Attack crashing into a 2300 Attack gun dragon.
"You fell for it, brat!"
The moment Miles declared the wicked god's attack, Bryce excitedly flipped open the card he had set in his back row.
"—Trap Card activated, [Storming Mirror Force]!"
Violent wind pressure instantly swirled and condensed within the dark domain, forming a barrier of atmospheric pressure that stood in front of Bryce.
[When an opponent's monster declares an attack, activate. Return all Attack Position monsters your opponent controls to the hand.]
"Using the effect of [Storming Mirror Force], I bounce your [The Wicked Eraser] back to the hand!"
A god card that required three monsters as Tributes to be Tribute Summoned—if it were returned directly to the hand, summoning it again would be no easy task.
However, ideals were often beautiful, while reality was incomparably cruel.
Relying on this single [Storming Mirror Force] to turn the tide, Bryce could only watch as the protective barrier of compressed air was forcibly shattered by a single roar from the wicked god.
"Impossible!? The monster wasn't bounced back to the hand!"
"I told you already, this is a god!" Miles waved his hand forward. "[The Wicked Eraser]—god cards are unaffected by your trap effects!"
The universal trap resistance of god cards allowed the Eraser to easily break through Bryce's defensive barrier.
Perhaps the only meaning in Bryce activating that trap card was that it reduced the number of cards on his field by one before damage calculation, lowering The Wicked Eraser's Attack by 1000 points.
[The Wicked Eraser, ATK: 5000 → 4000]
Even so, the wicked god's 4000 Attack, combined with the god card's impact amplified many times over in a Shadow Game, still shattered the gun dragon, soul flames engulfing Bryce's body.
[Blowback Dragon] destroyed
[Bryce, LP: 3200 → 1500]
"Ughhhhhh!"
Although the damage from this strike was not as severe as what Miles had suffered the previous turn, Bryce's scream was incomparably piercing.
The real damage inflicted by god cards in Shadow Games was something ordinary monsters simply could not compare to.
Without exaggeration, in Shadow Games, god cards even possessed a cheating form of combat that did not pass through Life Points at all, but instead shattered a duelist's consciousness through physical means.
After the murky soul flames dispersed, Bryce's once-burly body looked significantly shriveled. As if hollowed out, white smoke from intense heat drifted off his entire body.
"I... I... how could I possibly... die in a place like this!"
Perhaps during those few seconds of being swallowed by the soul flames, Bryce had seen the panorama of his life flash before his eyes.
Like a survival instinct being triggered, he stood back up in front of the terrifying, wicked god.
"I still have one more trump card left!"
Flipping the card in his hand, the card face clenched in Bryce's grip was revealed to be the third gun-dragon monster.
"When a DARK Machine monster on my field is destroyed, the effect of [Desperado Barrel Dragon] in my hand activates!"
[If a DARK Machine monster you control is destroyed by battle or card effect, you can activate. Special Summon this card from your hand.]
As a hand trap, [Desperado Barrel Dragon] could leap directly from the hand by pairing with the destruction of the gun dragons on the field, all of which were DARK Machine monsters.
"Special Summon—my desperado revolver!"
[Desperado Barrel Dragon] Level 8│DARK│Machine│2800 ATK│2200 DEF
A higher-level revolver than the previous gun dragons, Desperado Barrel Dragon's silver-gray steel body began loading its bullets the instant it appeared.
"The effect actually activated?" Miles said in surprise.
The two gun dragons that had appeared earlier could only toss coins and activate their monster-destruction effects during their controller's Main Phase.
But this Desperado Barrel Dragon, Special Summoned as a hand trap, seemed to be different from the previous two.
Bryce declared, "Desperado Barrel Dragon is a gun dragon that can activate its effect during both your Battle Phase and your opponent's Battle Phase!"
[Once per turn, during Battle Phase (Quick Effect): Toss a coin three times. Destroy up to the number of face-up monsters on the field equal to the number of heads that result. If all three tosses are heads, draw 1 card from your Deck. You cannot attack with this card during the turn you activate this effect.]
The silver-gray revolver spun as it loaded, and after The Wicked Eraser destroyed Blowback Dragon, the duel was still in the Battle Phase.
And the coin-toss destruction effect of [Desperado Barrel Dragon] was even more outrageous. Each head could destroy one of the opponent's monsters. That meant Bryce only needed to land a single head this time.
Coin toss results: Heads, Heads, Heads
"Ten heads in a row... is that even possible?"
If they weren't in the middle of a duel, Miles would have torn out Bryce's Spirit Eyes to check whether this guy was cheating behind the scenes.
With three heads, the additional effect triggered, and Bryce drew one more card from his Deck.
At the same time, three revolver bullets chambered in succession, the explosive force blasting toward the massive body of the wicked god.
Among the Three Wicked Gods, The Wicked Eraser was the only one without monster-effect resistance. This had already been personally proven by Stardust Dragon during its first appearance.
The triple volley pierced through, punching three pitch-black holes straight through the Eraser's slender body.
However, despite lacking monster-effect resistance, The Wicked Eraser possessed a final effect powerful enough to erase everything.
From the three pitch-black holes, ominous black sludge slowly seeped out, abyssal darkness staining the land.
"When [The Wicked Eraser] is destroyed, its effect activates!"
[If this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, you can activate. Destroy all cards on the field.]
"When the wicked god falls, it takes everything on the field with it! Open—The Abyssal Gate that Erases All Things!"
The Eraser's final effect exploded, engulfing Bryce's two remaining gun-dragon monsters and one unknown face-down card within the domain of this abyssal gate.
"Chaining to [The Wicked Eraser]'s effect, I activate my set card!" Bryce flipped over his last face-down card.
[Impenetrable Attack: During the Battle Phase, choose one of the following effects to activate. ● Target 1 monster on the field; the chosen monster cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects during this Battle Phase. ● Your battle damage becomes 0 during this Battle Phase.]
"I choose the first effect—during this Battle Phase, my [Desperado Barrel Dragon] won't be destroyed by card effects!"
Since he could only leave one monster behind under the wicked god's destructive final words, Bryce naturally chose to keep the strongest one, [Desperado Barrel Dragon], on the field.
Forcing its way through The Wicked Eraser's final destruction, when the dark abyssal gate finally closed, only that silver-gray steel body remained standing.
Alice said, "This Shadow Duelist really does have some skill. To actually endure a god card like that."
From Alice's experience of crushing countless Shadow Duelists, Bryce—an industry-top-tier bounty hunter—undoubtedly possessed strength that surpassed most Shadow Duelists.
After all, the other families weren't fools either. They wouldn't band together and spend a fortune to hire a weakling.
Miles smiled mysteriously. "Facing a wicked god that erases everything, you actually went out of your way to leave me a monster behind. Nicely done, desperado~"
"What do you mean, leave you a monster behind?"
"Too bad you made the wrong final choice!"
As the Battle Phase ended, Miles drew a card from his hand, lightning crackling around his fingertips.
This next move from Miles was even more shocking to Alice, who was watching from the shadows, than the descent of the god card itself.
"That card is...? There's no way I could be wrong!"
If Alice's earlier suspicions needed a decisive piece of evidence, nothing could have been more fitting than this card.
The final wrong step Bryce made as a bounty hunter was using [Impenetrable Attack] to protect Desperado Barrel Dragon on the field, rather than the other gun dragon.
If one were to ask what the difference was, it was this—[Desperado Barrel Dragon] had activated its effect this turn.
"Turn yourself into a dragon, ignite the flames of The Immovable Protector of Wisdom! Devour the heretical sword of wisdom-fire, unleash breath like twenty trillion thunderbolts!"
Chanting the summoning incantation, a monster from the legend of "The Immovable Protector of Wisdom"—a blazing crimson dragon—burst into the battlefield without warning, tightly coiling around Desperado Barrel Dragon's steel body.
If there was any proof that Miles was using Aisha's deck,
Then this devouring card, originally born from Alice's own power, was the answer.
[This card cannot be Normal Summoned. It can only be Special Summoned by Tributing all face-up monsters on the field that activated their effects in the opponent's Monster Zone during this turn.]
A monster that could only be Special Summoned by Tributing all monsters that had activated their effects this turn.
The crimson darksteel greatsword slammed down. Together with the flame dragon coiling around the steel body, they launched a simultaneous assault, the massive blade piercing straight through the metal.
Until now, the cards Miles had been using belonged to the younger sister. But the one that completed this sudden turnaround was the elder sister's card.
"Devour the opponent's monster—using [Desperado Barrel Dragon] as the Tribute, I Special Summon—Kurikara Divincarnate!"
As the darksteel greatsword was pulled free from the pierced gun dragon, the resistance and dignity of a top-tier Shadow Duelist shattered along with the disintegrating revolver dragon.
Within the space of the Shadow Game, a barefoot, pink-haired little girl wreathed in flames appeared proudly, her petite figure accompanied by a fire dragon dancing behind her.
Only this card, Alice would never mistake. "Miles... just who are you, really?"
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