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[Shelter, LP0]
Life Points dropped to zero, and the duel ceremony concluded. The Orichalcos Barrier began to rotate and contract, slowly closing in on Shelter's location.
But at the same time, a powerful force erupted from his deck.
The soaring flames created by the Phoenix of Flames briefly transformed into a phantom image of a phoenix in mid-air. The fire swept across the entire field, its dazzling brilliance enveloping all three duelists.
After a blinding flash that stung their eyes, an image appeared.
It looked like a distant, ancient battlefield, where heaven and earth were engulfed in endless lamentation. The sky, like a shattered painting, was torn open, revealing a shocking rift.
Within that rift, a terrifying evil god seemed to be vaguely dwelling. Its deep and cold eyes seemed to devour all living beings.
Armies of monsters surged like a tide across the battlefield, their figures incredibly hideous in the afterglow of the setting sun. There were horned creatures clad in armor, winged beings flying in mid-air, and blood-curdling demons whose roars shook heaven and earth.
A brutal war erupted on the land, with raging flames consuming everything. A burning phoenix fell from mid-air, its feathers sparkling with dazzling light in the flames, its wails echoing long and far across the battlefield.
"This... is an image from the past?" Jaden murmured.
Although it was just a guess, they all seemed to understand what it meant.
The forces of an evil god invaded the world of spirits, and a fierce war broke out in a dimension unknown to humans. That fallen phoenix was perhaps the Phoenix God Nephtys.
This footage might be the Phoenix God conveying that, back then, it wasn't that I didn't want to help you; I was simply too weak and had already fallen.
The fallen phoenix dissipated, and the released flames were absorbed into a certain stone tablet.
It seemed that since that battle, the Phoenix God's spirit had entered a sealed state. The reason it could convey these things to everyone now was by utilizing the residual phoenix power they had just absorbed from the statue in this tribal ruin.
Immediately, the scene shifted, moving from the spirit world to reality.
It was an ancient village surrounded by mountains.
The warm sunlight was suddenly obscured by thick dark clouds, and monsters surged like a tide from all directions. The figures of various grotesque beasts loomed in the shadowy mountain forests, and the village was trampled into ruins by the monsters.
And behind all those monsters, beneath the cloud-shrouded sky, a certain shadowy giant figure grinned sinisterly, watching it all. The six-pointed star symbol of Orichalcos was reflected on the forehead of that dark shadow.
"How could it... be like this?" Shelter muttered, his face filled with disbelief.
Suddenly, he understood.
No, or rather, he should have realized much earlier that there were many suspicious points about the invasion of his village back then. It was just that his mind had been under the influence of Orichalcos until now, intentionally guided to ignore these things, making it impossible for him to even think in that direction.
Now that he had been defeated in the duel and his soul was about to dissipate, the connection to Orichalcos was finally severed. Only then could the Phoenix God find a gap to transmit the truth to him.
From the very beginning, the demons that invaded his homeland were summoned by the God of Orichalcos.
They orchestrated this invasion themselves, then appeared as saviors in their moment of despair, offering Shelter the opportunity to gain power. Only then would he willingly sell his soul and dedicate his life to the new Doma.
Yusei was not surprised at all; he had more or less guessed some of it already.
Because this was an old trick that the old Doma also loved to use.
The three swordsmen of the old Doma were also recruited using similar methods. Dartz, relying on his power to glimpse the fate's trajectory, saw the potential in Valon, Rafael, and Amelda, and decided that the three of them were destined to become Doma's three swordsmen.
So Dartz manually created the tragedies of these three in their childhood, planted dark seeds in their hearts, and then step-by-step guided them to voluntarily join Doma in pursuit of power, becoming his strongest three swordsmen.
It was an old trick, nothing new.
After another strong flash, the image disappeared, and the Phoenix God's illusory body gradually dissipated. It seemed its only remaining bit of power had been completely burned out.
At the same time, the Orichalcos Barrier had also shrunk to almost cling to Shelter's body.
"Was I wrong?" He gently closed his eyes and let out a long sigh.
"Shelter!" Jaden tried to reach out to him.
Shelter took one last look at Jaden and smiled faintly.
"You have good companions," he said, "I hope your future... will be different from mine."
With that, his soul left his body, soared into the sky in a pillar of green light, and disappeared into the horizon.
This might have been the first time Jaden had personally witnessed a person losing their soul after being defeated in a duel.
It seemed to have quite an impact on his young mind.
Jaden's expression was complicated for a moment. But Yusei remained as calm as ever, simply walking forward peacefully and bending down to retrieve the deck.
"There's nothing else we can do," Yusei said solemnly, inserting the deck into the empty deck box in his jacket. "We can only inherit his will and continue forward."
Inherit it along with his deck.
Jaden was silent for a moment.
"...Mm."
"Alright, it should be dawn at the academy now. Let's go back."
"..."
They probably stayed in the Spirit World overnight this time, but the harvest was quite substantial. A Bone deck, an Insect deck, and then the Phoenix God and the King of Armageddon.
However, the latter two, rather than being decks, upon closer inspection were actually only a few cards in total, so it's hard to call them decks. Strictly speaking, Shelter's deck was also a somewhat chaotic pile of cards, capable of mixing several completely unrelated archetypes together and then stuffing in a bunch of even more unrelated spell/trap support.
Hmm, it was indeed proof of a strong duelist.
Actually, Yusei now had the blessing of a spirit and had been practicing at the academy for so long, so he could no longer be considered a complete layman in the art of the God Draw. Now, even he could be a bit bolder in his deck construction, but even in his own eyes, his boldness was at most just adding a few more obscure cards with unclear meanings to raise the ceiling.
Every time he saw such a pure "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" style (meaning, using unconventional, seemingly unrelated cards to achieve victory) deck construction by a master, he couldn't help but feel amazed.
The residual power in the Phoenix God's card seemed to have just been completely released. Although it could be used, it had returned to being a regular card. However, after seeing the images displayed by the Phoenix God earlier, holding this card now suddenly gave him a strange sense of déjà vu, like picking up a hidden side quest item in an RPG game.
The King of Armageddon was still hard to say. Although "King of Armageddon - Demise" now seemed to have returned to normal in Yusei's hand, and showed no signs of a spirit dwelling within it, it was clear from the duel that this card was also not simple.
Yusei decided to be cautious. Cards with unclear backgrounds like this should not be used casually for now. He would go back and research and test them first.
Some cards in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! were very dangerous. Some evil cards required a price to wield and could even backfire on the duelist. This card, "King of Armageddon - Demise," looked like that kind of type.
Yusei summoned Dimension Gate and split open space with a single sword slash.
Just before stepping into that rift, Jaden's footsteps suddenly paused.
Yusei turned his head to look: "What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing, justâ"
Jaden looked thoughtful, pondering for several seconds.
Then he looked up, a familiar bright and cheerful smile returning to his face.
"...Although there's a lot that guy said that I still can't quite figure out for now. But I suddenly feel that coming to Duel Academy and meeting someone like you, Yusei, is truly wonderful."
Yusei smiled slightly.
"Hmm, I think so too."
He turned around.
"Let's go. Don't let them wait too long."
Jaden: "Okay~"
The two stepped into it. With another dizzying sensation of the world spinning, just like when they arrived, they soon landed back on solid ground, feeling a bit disoriented.
It was exactly where they had left: the abandoned dormitory of Duel Academy, in that room carved with ancient texts and Millennium Item symbols.
But upon landing steadily, the first person they saw when they opened their eyes was somewhat unexpected.
It was Mokuba Kaiba.
Mokuba turned his head and saw the two land, his eyes immediately lighting up: "Ah, you're already back!"