The moon hung like a silver blade over Kaiba's blimp, slicing the night into hard lines of shadow and light. Floods of cobalt from the landing bay washed over the gathered finalists—faces tight, eyes narrowed, every breath visible in the cool air. Joey's fists worked open and shut. Mai leaned into one hip, arms folded, gaze like a scalpel. Connor and Rebecca stood shoulder to shoulder, small but unflinching. Bakura smiled a little too easily. Marik twitched with a hungry anticipation only Odion seemed to restrain. Jason's glasses caught the lamps, making his stare two flat coins.
At the center of the dueling platform, two disks ignited in the dark.
On the left: the Pharaoh, no Puzzle at his throat, yet unmistakable in the set of his jaw and the gold-hard focus in his eyes.
On the right: the Duelist Exterminator, coat hanging off his shoulders like a battle-worn standard, face pale, breath measured, a tremor traveling the length of his left hand before he crushed it into stillness.
Kaiba's voice cracked through the hangar like a judge's gavel. "Finals, Round One. Life Points start at 4000. Begin."
The platform ring slid apart, revealing the glass floor that mirrored every move like an omen. The night hummed. The city below glittered. Somewhere in the bowels of the airship, engines thrummed like a giant's heartbeat.
The Pharaoh drew his opening hand—five cards sliding with a clean whisper—and lifted his eyes.
Pharaoh—LP: 4000
Exterminator—LP: 4000
Turn 1 — Pharaoh
A single card hit the Pharaoh's Duel Disk. "I set one monster. Two cards face-down." Three rectangles flashed into being, blue at their edges, the air around them rippling with invisible pressure.
He didn't look away from his opponent. "Your move."
Jason didn't blink. Behind his lenses, his irises were tiny pinpricks. Let's see how you came back, Pharaoh. Without your Puzzle to guard you, what exactly are you now?
Turn 2 — Exterminator
The Exterminator's fingers were steady when they slotted his first card. "I activate Allure of Darkness. Draw two." The deck obliged; he studied the pair, eyes hooded. "Banish a dark monster for it cost." A card slid into the void.
"Then Terraforming—I add a Field Spell to my hand." A card floated up from his deck like a secret surfacing. He palmed it.
He flicked a monster forward. "I summon Giant Germ (DEF 100)." The air spat out a globular, veined thing that pulsed like a diseased heart.
The Exterminator's jaw ticked. He saw it. Felt it. An echo of his grandson's question pressed under his ribs.
Do monsters feel fear, Grandpa?
He set two cards. "Battle will wait. End."
Turn 3 — Pharaoh
The Pharaoh's draw was one smooth motion. The corners of his mouth didn't move, but the blade of his gaze brightened. "Flip Summon." The facedown rose—Magician's Rod (ATK 1600), staff thrumming with a violet pulse. It pointed across the field like a judge's finger.
"When this is summoned, I add a Spell or trap which has dark magician in its name." A card lifted to his hand which is a copy of a thousand knives. The Exterminator did not blink, but the temple vein in his forehead showed.
"I normal summon Skilled Dark Magician (ATK 1900)." A second figure materialized—robes stitched with glyphs, sigils orbiting his shoulders like pale moons. Both spellcasters turned their heads slightly toward the Germ.
The Germ shivered.
"Battle," the Pharaoh said.
"Rod—attack Giant Germ." The staff cut a crescent of light. The Germ squealed, a wet, infantile scream that crawled along the spine. It burst into ash.
Pharaoh—LP: 3500
"Germ's effect," the Exterminator said, his voice low but carrying a certain predatory satisfaction, "deals 500 points of burn damage when it's destroyed by battle."
The words hung in the air like the smell of ozone, and a sharp crack of light shot from the field into Yugi's chest display—LP 4000 → 3500.
The Exterminator's smirk widened, eyes glinting under the arena lights. He slowly slid two cards out of his deck and onto the Duel Disk with a precise, deliberate motion.
"And," he continued, "it also summons two more Germs from my deck… right to the field."
The holographic projectors flared to life, birthing two more grotesque, throbbing Giant Germs onto the arena floor. They pulsed in unison, their flesh-like surfaces twitching, faint tendrils coiling along the shadowed ground.
Giant Germ (ATK 1000)
"Skilled Dark Magician—attack the first Germ. Dark Spiral Seal!"
A coil of violet sigils drilled through the second Germ. It broke like rotten fruit.
Exterminator—LP: 3100
Pharaoh—LP: 3000
The third Germ hopped backward, quivering. The Exterminator watched it, something unreadable at the hinge of his jaw.
"End phase," the Pharaoh said.
Turn 2 — Exterminator
Draw.
The Exterminator's hands looked older in the floodlight—thin, veined, the skin like paper that had seen too much sun. He didn't waste time.
The Duelist Exterminator's lips curled into the faintest smirk as he slid a card onto his Duel Disk. His voice was low, deliberate, carrying the weight of someone setting a trap they'd planned for hours.
"I activate the Spell Card—Double Summon," he announced, his eyes locked on the Pharaoh. "This allows me to perform two Normal Summons this turn."
The hologram shimmered to life behind him, its twin-arcane circles spinning slowly like gears in a guillotine.
"And for my first… I summon Double Coston."
A grotesque, spectral entity materialized on his side of the field, its twisted form wreathed in faint green fire.
"Its effect," the Exterminator continued, his tone sharpening, "is that it counts as two tributes for the Tribute Summon of any Dark monster."
He tapped the monster's stat display with his finger—ATK 1700—as if to punctuate the threat. The creature hissed, its eyes glowing in anticipation of the sacrifice to come.
"I tribute Giant Germ and double coston," he rasped. The last Germ let out a mewl and evaporated into a smear of shadow. It stepped out—an outline before a hurricane: The Wicked Eraser.
Not so much summoned as revealed, the thing unfolded into the arena like a skyscraper remembering it used to be a dragon. Its "hide" was made of chalkboard scratches, all jagged algebra and screaming lines; its wings cut the floodlight and threw geometry across the glass floor. Where its face should have been was a crisis of angles—and yet, unmistakably, two pits of red that looked back.
Every duel monster on the field leaned away—Magician's Rod lifting a hand as if to shield its face, Skilled Dark Magician's pupils contracting to pinpricks.
"The Eraser's ATK equals the number of cards on your field × 1000."
Kaiba's lenses flashed as he tallied. "Field count: Pharaoh—two monsters, two backrow. ATK 4000."
The Wicked Eraser's outline thickened, numbers surging along its body like mercury climbing a glass tube.
"Eraser," the Exterminator said, voice thinner, "tear the Magician's Rod (1600 ATK)."."
The monstrosity moved like a thunderhead deciding on a city. It leaned and the world bent. A sheet of black geometry hammered down. The Skilled Dark Magician lifted a sigil like a shield, eyes wide—
Pharaoh—LP: 1100
Eraser's ATK dropped to 3000.
The Exterminator swallowed. His tongue felt of iron. In his nose—just for a flicker—something acrid, hot, wrong.
Burnt… toast?
He blinked hard. The smell was gone.
"End."
Turn 3 — Pharaoh
"Draw."
The Pharaoh's voice cut through the silence like a blade. His gloved fingers slid a card from his deck with the smooth precision of ritual, the sound of the draw — shfft — echoing faintly in the charged air. He didn't glance down; his eyes were locked forward, fixed on his opponent with unwavering fury.
A gust of air from the blimp's ventilation brushed past his cloak, making it ripple like a shadow. The Millennium Puzzle glinted faintly against his chest, the light catching its golden edges as if in warning.
He spoke — not to the crowd, not even to his foe — but to the air, his words heavy with judgment.
"You will pay for taking away Yugi's soul… for forcing him to bear the Seal of Orichalcos."
His tone was low, reverberating with a quiet power that made the Duel Disk hum faintly at his side. His jaw tightened, the muscles along his cheek twitching with restrained anger. For a heartbeat, the darkness behind his eyes flickered — grief, guilt, and wrath colliding all at once.
Across the field, his opponent shifted uneasily. The Pharaoh's presence was suffocating; his aura seemed to swell, filling the chamber with ancient pressure. Even the holograms around them shimmered as if reacting to his fury.
He raised the newly drawn card slowly, the movement deliberate — controlled — his gaze never breaking.
"This duel will not end until justice is done."
The Exterminator's eyelid twitched. Jason's smile became a thin incision.
"I will stall for time until I can deal with your wicked god card." A card snapped down. "Swords of Revealing Light."
Three luminous blades spiked into the glass between them, then rose to form an aurora that pressed down on the Eraser's angles. The beast flinched, wings hitching. Mathematical lines unraveled around its forelimbs and rewove into shackles only it could feel.
"You cannot declare attacks for three of my turns."
"Every time a Spell Card is activated," he said, his gaze never leaving the Exterminator, "Skilled Dark Magician gains a Spell Counter. And when he has three… his true master takes the field."
The robed warrior on Yugi's field straightened, the jewel in his staff glowing faintly as the first counter appeared, swirling like a miniature galaxy above his head.
The Exterminator's throat clicked again.
"Next, I summon Breaker the Magical Warrior (ATK 1600)." The red-armored knight strode forth, a rune-counter blazing on his pauldron. "Breaker gains +300 ATK (1900 ATK). I remove his counter to destroy your facedown."
The Exterminator's set card popped with a quiet grief. He did not look to see which it was.
"End my turn."
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