Chapter 221: This City Will Become a Battlefield!
A month later.
"According to your request, Hayato, the new Duel Disk is ready. Here it is." Mokuba bent down, took a Duel Disk from the shelf next to the control panel, and placed it in front of Hayato. "Even though they're all just a bunch of random functions, they were simple enough. I handled it all by myself, hmph!"
"With this, I can defeat any Sun Monster. Thank you, Taro."
"Now I'm not even a human anymore!" Mokuba retorted, but judging by his expression, he seemed accustomed to Hayato's jokes. "Speaking of which, Hayato, why would you want to add such strange functions to the Duel Disk?"
"What's strange about a function that plays BGM when your Life Points drop below 1000? If anything, it'd be strange if a Duel Disk didn't have that function. Honestly, I even asked Seto to record a few lines for it, but that guy absolutely refused."
Hayato put on the Duel Disk Mokuba had given him. Its weight had been rebalanced; despite being such a large metal "arm blade," it wasn't heavy on his hand, and special functions were added for automatic deck shuffling and cutting, as well as automatically ejecting cards from the Deck and Graveyard. However, according to Mokuba, these automation functions had just been completed and hadn't undergone debugging, which was why they hadn't been implemented in Hayato's Duel Disk yet.
"It's a miracle that Big Brother managed to hold back from hitting you, Hayato," Mokuba quipped, continuing to busy himself at the control panel in front of him. The swirling data on the screen was dizzying, and Hayato stared at it for a long time but couldn't understand what any of it meant. However, not understanding the specifics didn't prevent Hayato from grasping what kind of data it was. He walked a few steps past Mokuba's control panel towards the window, and there, Hayato saw Seto Kaiba dueling a robot on a spacious field below.
Hayato had come to KaibaCorp this time not only to pick up the modified Duel Disk he had asked Mokuba to work on, but also to discuss numerous Battle City rules with Kaiba. The most crucial among these was that "Fusion Monsters could attack on the turn they were Summoned." Originally, Kaiba had considered imposing a restriction on himself because his "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" was so powerful, but Hayato taught him a lesson with "Change of Heart" – blindly summoning powerful monsters that couldn't be used was no different from giving them away for free.
"Seto really likes dueling AI, huh." It seemed that from this point on, Kaiba had officially embarked on the path of an AI Dueling King: "meek and hesitant in real duels, but a heavy hitter against AI"?
Mokuba didn't catch the hidden meaning in Hayato's words, thinking Hayato was praising KaibaCorp's Duel Robot, and said somewhat proudly, "Hmph, I've loaded that Duel Machine with every dueling video released to date. The dueling data of famous duelists has all been collected and learned by that machine. Thieves, fishermen, Kings of the Seas, Insect users, Dinosaur users, Cyber Style duelists—even the data of Pegasus, Yugi, and you, Hayato, has been collected," Mokuba proudly raised his head. "In other words, the program I designed for that Duel Robot is the culmination of all duelists in the world."
"However—"
As he spoke, Mokuba looked somewhat hesitantly at Kaiba, who stood before the Duel Robot. "Big Brother, he said he wanted to 'test the limits of the gods' power,' and gave his three 'Blue-Eyes' cards and his own Deck to the robot to use, while he himself is using a weak Deck."
On one hand, Mokuba was quite confident in the Duel Robot, whose program he had helped design, believing it to be invincible in the game of Duel Monsters. On the other hand, as his younger brother, Mokuba didn't want to see Kaiba suffer a crushing defeat.
"Duel Monsters can't be simply reduced to data," Hayato comforted Mokuba. "Even if you calculate the Deck's order, the cards used, and the duelist's tactics, the bond between a duelist and their Duel Monsters cannot be quantified. And even when using a weak Deck, the power of a god will not be limited."
The worry on Mokuba's face didn't dissipate in the slightest, because he saw that the Duel Robot facing Kaiba had, with a powerful combo of "Lord of D." and "The Flute of Summoning Dragon," summoned two "Blue-Eyes White Dragons" to the field at once. Adding the one that had already been summoned, the Duel Robot now had all three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons" on its field!
Meanwhile, Kaiba's field only had five wall monsters, none of which had an ATK exceeding 2000 points, and the attack of the three "Blue-Eyes" was imminent!
At this critical juncture, Kaiba flipped over the only facedown card in his back row: "Trap Card Activate, 'Negate Attack'! Negate the attack of 'Blue-Eyes' and end your Battle Phase!"
"Set one card. Turn end." Its attack negated, the Duel Robot assessed the situation, Set a card, and ended its turn.
However, despite narrowly escaping, Kaiba's crisis was far from over. The "Negate Attack" he had just activated was his last facedown card. Although he still had "Tribute to The Doomed" in his Hand, it would be useless against "Blue-Eyes" due to the presence of "Lord of D."
In that case, all hope rested on his next draw.
"My turn! I draw, betting everything!" Kaiba violently drew a card from his Deck, and its unique blue border made him momentarily pause. Then, he suddenly burst into loud laughter. "Hmph ha ha ha ha, I've been waiting for you, Obelisk!"
"I offer three monsters from my field as Tributes to the god! Tremble, wail, fear, despair!" Slapping the "Obelisk" card from his hand onto his Duel Disk, a colossal entity, unlike any Duel Monster projection, rose majestically from the earth behind Kaiba. "Descend! With a burning gale, sweep across the land and turn all things into corpses!"
"Obelisk the Tormentor!"
["Obelisk the Tormentor"][Level 10 / DIVINE]
[Divine-Beast / Effect]
[ATK 4000 / DEF 4000]
"Doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo..." As Obelisk descended, a stirring melody suddenly echoed across the Duel Field. Kaiba involuntarily turned his head to look at Hayato above.
"A god's first battle can't be dull! The music composed for the god has already begun to play." Hayato, looking at the 'Sacred God Soldier,' 'Black-Soles,' and 'Giant God Soldier' behind Kaiba, released his hand from the music player. "Oh, god who transcends Duel Monsters, return to the world and display your divine might to all!"
"Those are my lines!" Kaiba interrupted Hayato. If he kept talking, that guy might even come up with names for his attacks himself.
Just then, the Duel Robot activated its facedown card: "Facedown card Activate, 'Instant Fusion'! I fuse the 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon,' 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon,' and 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' on the field to Fusion Summon 'Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon'!"
Facing Obelisk, with its 4000 ATK, the Duel Robot immediately made a judgment call, sending its three "Blue-Eyes" from the field to the Graveyard and summoning "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon," whose ATK was 500 points higher than that of the god.
"'Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon,' at the pinnacle of Duel Monsters—can even a god not surpass it?" Mokuba looked with some worry at "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon," which had appeared opposite Kaiba.
"'Muda muda muda, don't try to imagine Obelisk's power with the mindset of Duel Monsters! This isn't a monster, it's a god!'" Kaiba pointed at "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon." "'Blue-Eyes, even you, standing before me, are destined for nothing but defeat!'"
Obelisk's two palms each grabbed a "Dark Strider" and an "Earth Star Swordsman." Without any apparent effort, the two monsters were crushed into particles of light and then absorbed into Obelisk's body.
On Obelisk's fist, a dazzling white orb of light appeared, which it then fiercely smashed into the "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" before it—
"'Obelisk's effect activates! By Tributing two monsters from my field, I release Obelisk's true power, increasing its ATK to infinity!'"
"God Hand Crusher - Shockwave!"
With just one strike, "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon," once hailed by Kaiba as "Tough! Invincible! Strongest!", was annihilated by "Obelisk the Tormentor" whose ATK had soared to infinity. The overflowing damage even exceeded the Duel Disk's simulation limits. The Duel Robot facing Kaiba exploded with a "boom," and even the connected control panel emitted black smoke.
Admiring the destruction wrought by the "God of Destruction," Kaiba watched as Obelisk gradually faded away. His face appeared expressionless, but inside, he was overwhelmed with excitement. 'This is the kind of power that truly deserves the name of a god!'
'I've fully understood Obelisk's power. Wait for my return, Yugi!'
"Congratulations, Seto. It seems the power of a god satisfies you," Hayato clapped and applauded as he watched Kaiba return to the control room.
Kaiba glanced at Hayato. "Hmph, mada mada. There are still two other gods with such power. To become the strongest without flaw, no matter who stands in my way, I will obtain those two cards. That goes for you too, Hayato. If you wish to taste the pain of defeat again, then by all means, try to stop me."
"You talk as if I lost that time. You're the one who ran away halfway through, you bastard," Hayato said dismissively, standing up and following Kaiba outside. This was the top floor of the KaibaCorp Headquarters Building, the tallest structure in Domino City. From here, one could easily take in the entire cityscape of Domino City.
On the helipad on the rooftop, a helicopter was already prepared.
A few minutes later, Hayato and Kaiba, riding in the helicopter, arrived above a bustling shopping street in Domino City. On the large screens on both sides of the street, which normally displayed advertisements, Kaiba's face was now simultaneously projected.
"In one week, KaibaCorp will hold a Duel Monsters tournament in this city!" Kaiba stood at the helicopter's doorway, looking down at the duelists gathered on the ground, alerted by the previously leaked information. Among them, he instantly spotted Yugi with his distinctive star-shaped hair.
'Hmph, so you came after all, Yugi. Our rivalry will be settled in this tournament!'
He pointed a hand towards the sky, and even the helicopter's rotors couldn't drown out Kaiba's booming voice: "The battle stage is the entire Domino City!"
"Starting next week, this city will become a battlefield!"
(end of chapter)