With 3300 damage instantly bounced back, Primo was left with only a sliver of life.
Despite dominating the field only moments ago, he'd ended up slicing his own LP down to 700.
And that wasn't the worst of it. He'd even been forced to blow up the hard-won Stardust Dragon, just to barely keep himself alive.
He, Primo, one of the proud Three Pure Nobles of Iliaster, undefeated across countless timelines—when had he ever been reduced to such a hilarious state?
"Only 700 life left. I'll have to be extra careful now…" Kira said cheerfully from across the field, grinning even wider. "With so little LP, you might just get OTK'd if I'm not careful!"
That smug face only pissed Primo off even more.
Primo snorted, "Activate Spell Card 'Aurora Draw!'"
Primo slotted the spell into his duel disk, and above the ghostly figure he controlled, a resplendent aurora shimmered in the night sky.
"'Aurora Draw' can only be activated when it's the only card in my hand. I draw two cards from the deck!"
Primo drew two cards, glanced at them, narrowed his eyes for a moment, then set one.
"Set one card in the back row. Then, another Spell Card—'Aurora Draw'! Draw two more cards!"
Double Aurora Draw, four cards in total.
"And now, Spell Card 'Card of Burial Magic'—banish three Spells from my graveyard, and draw two more cards."
"Set two more cards. My turn ends."
Kira clicked his tongue. "Oh? You seem pretty confident in your back row. I'll just have to see for myself what you've set.
My turn, draw!"
Kira raised his arm.
"Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, activate effect!
Once per turn, target a monster on the field and banish it from the game!"
Kira paused, then pointed straight at the Meklord Emperor's core.
"The Meklord Emperor may seem like a single monster, but in reality it's five separate cards, occupying five monster zones. BLS can only banish one at a time.
Of course, the core is the real target—the torso, Meklord Emperor Wisel!"
The torso is also the energy core, and the Meklord Emperor's weakspot. If a monster with "∞" in its name leaves the field, all remaining Meklord Emperor parts will self-destruct.
Take out the torso and the entire Emperor goes down.
"Envoy's banish effect is strong, but did you really think I wouldn't have planned for that?"
Primo bellowed,
"I activate a Set card! Continuous Trap—'Fiendish Chain!'
With this card, Black Luster Soldier is now bound—unable to attack and its effect is negated!"
Green demonic chains shot out, binding Black Luster Soldier. His blade, mid-swing, froze in the air, unable to move forward.
"Heh, as expected of a Three Pure Noble piloting the Meklord Emperor. Looks like my move won't work." Kira smiled lightly.
He was no rookie now; he'd learned the most basic rules of card games in this world.
BLS was summoned last turn, and its banish effect had been open knowledge since then. Unless fate itself intervened, it was almost guaranteed the opponent would prepare some way to stop it on this turn.
Only weaklings would draw nothing useful in a crisis. Primo, as one of the Three Pure Nobles—and a master of handling the "junkyard" that was the animated Meklord Emperor—certainly wasn't unlucky.
Being stopped this turn was no surprise.
"Then I'll play Spell Card 'Card Destruction.'" Kira revealed a card in his hand. "Both players discard their entire hand, then draw the same number of cards."
Primo made his ghost discard and redraw.
"Next, this card."
Kira snapped his fingers.
"Continuous Trap—'Macro Cosmos!'"
The background instantly changed; the night sky turned to a star field, the highway beneath their feet dissolving into void, scattered with floating stars.
"While 'Macro Cosmos' is on the field, all cards sent to the graveyard are banished from play instead."
Primo: "!"
Instantly locking down both players' graveyard effects—an extremely aggressive, self-closing field effect, and if it stayed, very troublesome.
Primo hesitated for a split second.
It was a nasty effect, but his Meklord Emperor was already out. Unless the opponent broke it and used Macro Cosmos to banish his Emperor to another dimension...
That thought triggered a primal sense of foreboding in Primo—something bad was coming.
He shouted, activating a backrow card: "Trap Card—Counter Trap 'Malfunction'! Pay 500 LP, negate a trap's activation, and Set it face-down instead!"
[Ghost, LP 700 → LP 200]
Macro Cosmos fizzled as the starfield vanished, the card returned face-down.
Now, Macro Cosmos was "just" a freshly set card—not eligible for this turn.
"Oh? Did you see through my plan?"
Kira regarded Primo with interest.
"Or is it purely instinct? If you can sense danger that well, I'll give you credit."
Indeed, if Primo had allowed Macro Cosmos through, he likely would've lost outright.
"Now I'll tribute both your 'Meklord Emperor Wisel' and 'Wisel Attack 5'—and send you a little gift!"
Kira smiled mischievously.
"From the fires of the abyss, awakened with the power to destroy and revive—
—Level 8, Lava Golem!"
Primo: "???"
In the next instant, bubbling magma fountained under his feet. Hissing streams of molten rock engulfed Wisel's torso, instantly melting even its alloy.
The main body's destruction triggered the rest of the Meklord Emperor parts to fall apart with a clatter.
A giant smoldering palm slammed down, leaving behind a charred crater. An abstract giant crawled from within the molten pit, empty black holes for eyes, a black cage sealing Primo inside. Globes of magma seared new holes into the ground right before him.
[Lava Golem, ATK 3000]
With the loss of the core, the remaining three Meklord parts detonated, going up in gouts of flame.
"Meklord Emperor parts self-destruct if the core leaves the field," Kira smiled, "So all your Meklord components are destroyed."
Primo: "…"
Now he understood what Macro Cosmos had really been for.
…