Ending his turn, Alpha looked up at You Xuan, remaining silent for a long time.
Suddenly, he asked, "A man with your level of strength... even in today's world, you must be considered a top tier duelist. Why...?"
He paused, lowering his voice.
"...Why are you helping that Seto Kaiba?"
You Xuan met his gaze with an expressionless face.
"You seem to have misunderstood something," You Xuan said calmly. "I'm not 'helping' Seto Kaiba. As I've told many people, I don't actually know him that well. But then again, I don't see any reason why I'd have to join you instead, do I?"
Alpha fell silent for a moment before continuing. "Seto Kaiba is not the man many of you think he is today."
"Oh? What kind of man is he then?"
"A great duelist, a pioneer of the path... perhaps those descriptions are accurate, but he is much more than that," Alpha said icily. "Seto Kaiba is a criminal with blood on his hands, the most wicked man in history.
He wasn't even worthy of the name 'Kaiba' originally. He was once utterly worthless. He was fished out of the depths of hell, from a forgotten world. He was gifted a noble surname, status, and everything a normal person could only dream of."
"But how did he repay the man who gave him all that the man who taught him to read, to write, and provided him with all those resources? He stole everything that man owned. He drove him to a dead end,
leaving him to die in despair and pain, before like a cuckoo usurping a magpie's nest, he took over the entire KaibaCorp for himself. During his climb to the peak of power, he stepped over a mountain of corpses..."
"Yeah, I know," You Xuan nodded.
The second half of Alpha's sentence was immediately choked back into his throat.
"You know?"
"Of course. Isn't that common knowledge?" You Xuan shrugged.
No one would believe that an orphan could climb to his current position entirely on his own without using any unsavory methods or getting his hands dirty. Only Kaiba himself likely understood the extent of the intrigue and darkness he had endured to reach the top.
"You know?" Alpha pressed. "You know all this, yet you act like it doesn't matter?"
"Yeah," You Xuan said calmly. "What does it have to do with me? Or rather, as far as I'm concerned, Seto Kaiba has at least made this world a better place."
Seto Kaiba and Gozaburo Kaiba both had their own schemes from the very first moment they met; in the end, Gozaburo simply lost. A President who did whatever it took to reach the top might not be a purely "good" person, but he was certainly better than Gozaburo.
"When Seto Kaiba was in the orphanage, he made a promise to his younger brother. They were going to build a paradise that would bring joy to everyone in the world. He might have been unscrupulous,
and he might have done things he isn't proud of, but looking at the man who has reached the top today, I can see he hasn't forgotten where he started. Even now, even after going through hell, that dream remains unchanged."
You Xuan spoke with a flat tone. "I only see a man trying to make the world better."
Alpha grit his teeth. "You..."
"My turn, Draw!" You Xuan interrupted him. "I set one card face-down. Then, I activate the Spell Card, Card of Demise! I draw from my deck until my hand has five cards." (Original anime effect)
"Kaiba's card," Alpha said coldly. "But that card has a side effect."
Ah, right, the side effect...
You Xuan made a pained expression. "However, after five turns, I must discard my entire hand..."
Inwardly, he thought: If you hadn't reminded me, I might have forgotten there was such a huge risk.
Alpha glanced at the card You Xuan had set in his backrow.
That set card was likely Butterfly Dagger - Elma, the core of the Gearfried the Iron Knight combo the opponent was using. However, that was fine. He had a countermeasure ready.
"I Normal Summon Fire Princess!"
[Fire Princess, ATK 1500]
"Next, I activate the Continuous Spell, Morale Boost," You Xuan continued. "As long as this card is on the field, each time the controller of an Equip Spell equips it to a monster, they recover 1000 Life Points. Furthermore, every time an Equip Spell leaves the field, the controller takes 1000 damage."
Alpha's eyes widened. "As long as an Equip Spell is activated, you can... Masaka!?"
"Correct. I activate the Equip Spell, Butterfly Dagger - Elma, and equip it to Gearfried the Iron Knight. In this moment, due to the effect of Morale Boost, I recover 1000 Life Points."
[You Xuan: LP 2800 → LP 3800]
"And in this same instant, the effect of Fire Princess activates," You Xuan said. "Whenever I recover Life Points while Fire Princess is on the field, my opponent takes 500 damage."
The princess waved her staff, unleashing a blast of fire that slammed directly into Alpha's face.
"Ugh..."
[Alpha: LP 5000 → LP 4500]
"Then, due to Gearfried's effect, the Butterfly Dagger equipped to him is destroyed," You Xuan explained. "Because an Equip Spell was destroyed, the effect of Morale Boost triggers, and I take 1000 damage."
[You Xuan: LP 3800 → LP 2800]
"However, when Butterfly Dagger - Elma is destroyed, it returns to my hand." You Xuan calmly revealed the card again. "And then, I activate Elma once more."
"Another infinite loop..." Alpha grit his teeth.
He had known it.
Every time Elma was activated, the effect of Morale Boost allowed You Xuan to recover Life Points, which triggered Fire Princess's effect to deal 500 damage to Alpha. Then, Elma would recover itself from the Graveyard...
This time, it was an infinite burn loop!
Alpha felt a chill run down his spine. This was an incredibly suffocating combination. If this cycle continued, even if his Absorbing Shield from the previous turn had gone through, his infinite Life Points would still have been whittled down to zero.
However...
"Stop your infinite combo right there!" Alpha roared. "I activate my face-down card, the Quick-Play Spell, Cosmic Cyclone! By paying 1000 Life Points, I can banish one Spell or Trap card on the field!"
[Alpha: LP 4500 → LP 3500]
He pointed at the Butterfly Dagger on You Xuan's field.
"Chaining to the activation of your Butterfly Dagger - Elma, I banish that card from the game!"
Elma could only recover itself if it was destroyed and sent to the Graveyard; it was powerless if it was banished.
By this point, Alpha had already realized that Gearfried and Elma were the absolute core of that deck. The infinite ATK of Mythical Beast, the infinite ATK of Magical Marionette, and now the infinite burn... the foundation of every infinite loop was built on that disgusting Equip Spell. If he didn't eliminate it, who knew what other strange things the opponent would pull out to exploit that cycle?
As long as he removed the most critical card, the loop could not continue, and any combination would fall apart.
You Xuan shrugged indifferently. "Well, even though you've banished Elma, it already activated one more time. According to the effect of Morale Boost, I first recover 1000 Life Points, and then take 1000 damage when the equipment leaves the field. My Life Points remain the same, but in the process, the effect of Fire Princess triggers again, and you take another 500 damage."
[Alpha: LP 3500 → LP 3000]
A mere five hundred damage was something Alpha took without concern.
Watching Elma's card fly into the dark vortex along with the cyclone, Alpha's racing heart finally settled slightly. He followed up with a cold sneer.
"Your combo has been broken. It was indeed a powerful combo that gave me a shock, but it ends here." He paused, adding with a hint of mockery, "You talked a big game earlier, calling me a third or fourth rate imitator. How do you feel now?"
You Xuan ignored him, simply drawing another card from his hand. "Then, I activate the Spell Card, Creature Swap. Both players choose one monster on their side of the field and swap control of them."
Alpha was stunned. "Creature Swap? What is the point of activating that now...?"
"I see. Since your loop was broken, you've turned your eyes toward my dragons' overwhelming power to suppress me? Hmph."
Alpha thought for a moment. Gravi-Crush Dragon had the ability to send a Continuous Spell on its own field to the Graveyard to destroy an opponent's monster. If he gave Gravi-Crush Dragon to the opponent while they happened to have a Continuous Spell on the field, the situation would be very unfavorable...
"I choose Dark Blaze Dragon," Alpha decided.
"In that case, I choose Gearfried the Iron Knight."
The iron knight leaped over to Alpha's side of the field, while Dark Blaze Dragon flapped its wings and arrived on You Xuan's side.
"Giving up Gearfried..." Alpha sneered. "I see. Knowing the loop is dismantled, you've decided to abandon your other key component as well?"
"Is that really the case?" You Xuan smiled.
Alpha's heart skipped a beat. That demonic smile gave him another ominous premonition.
"I activate the Equip Spell, Cursed Armaments." You Xuan revealed another card from his hand. "The monster equipped with this card has its ATK decreased by 600 for every monster on its controller's field."
Alpha flinched. "!"
I see.
If You Xuan equipped that card to the Gravi-Crush Dragon on Alpha's field, the behemoth's ATK would drop by 1200. Dark Blaze Dragon destroying Gravi-Crush Dragon would deal 1200 points of battle damage in one go.
Then, Dark Blaze Dragon's effect would deal damage equal to the destroyed monster's original ATK another 2400 points. If that attack connected, it would deal a total of 3600 damage, and he would lose immediately.
What an underhanded brat!
However... Alpha glanced at his remaining set card and sneered inwardly. His final face-down was Waboku. For the rest of the turn, he would take zero battle damage, and his monsters could not be destroyed by battle. It was the absolute defense.
The opponent's move was clever, but unfortunately, it was destined to fail...
"I equip Cursed Armaments to the Gearfried the Iron Knight on your field," You Xuan declared.
Alpha was bewildered. "???"
What is going on? Equipping it to the Gearfried he just swapped over? But Gearfried's effect is...
"That's right. Due to Gearfried's effect, any Equip Card equipped to him is destroyed," You Xuan smiled. "However, before that happens, because another Equip Card was activated, the effect of the Continuous Spell Morale Boost triggers once again. The controller of the Equip Spell which is me recovers 1000 Life Points. In that moment, the effect of Fire Princess deals 500 damage to you."
[Alpha: LP 3000 → LP 2500]
"Then, Gearfried's effect destroys the Cursed Armaments equipped to him. Naturally, I take another 1000 damage from Morale Boost." You Xuan waved a hand. "But Cursed Armaments has another effect. When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, you can choose one monster on the opponent's field and equip this card to it."
Alpha's eyes bulged. "N-Nani!?"
When it's sent to the Graveyard, it can be equipped to a monster on the opponent's field? The monsters on the 'opponent's' field are...
He looked at his own field in shock, only to see Gearfried the Iron Knight standing tall with his arms akimbo, looking back at him with an expression that almost seemed to say, "I'm the traitor," with total composure.
"You... you bastard..."
"Cursed Armaments equips itself back to Gearfried the Iron Knight according to its own effect. Then, Morale Boost's effect activates, and I recover 1000 Life Points. Fire Princess's effect triggers, and you take 500 damage..."
Alpha's face turned incredibly pale.
Yet another infinite loop? Even after blowing away Butterfly Dagger - Elma, he still couldn't stop this loop?
He looked up at You Xuan with difficulty, finding the boy's figure appearing increasingly hazy under the moonlight.
This guy... just who is he?
"...The infinite loop check has passed. After an infinite number of cycles, the damage dealt to you is infinite," You Xuan said. "Therefore, take the effect of Fire Princess... the damage of an infinite fireball."
Fire Princess raised her staff, and the rolling flames condensed, gathering into what was likely the largest, most exaggerated burning ball she had ever conjured.
Alpha screamed, "Waaaaargh!!!"
[Alpha: LP 2500 → LP 0]
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