[Yumi, LP 4000]
[Aporia, LP 4000]
[Paradox, LP 4000]
[Z-one, LP 4000]
Seeing the three beings from the future floating before him, Yumi couldn't help but feel a little... amused.
According to the original timeline, these three were supposed to appear during the era of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, which took place several years after the events of GX. They belonged to a much later period of history, long after the generation Yumi was currently living alongside had already passed.
Yumi looked at the three of them for a moment, taking in their presence without showing the slightest hint of nervousness. If anything, the situation seemed to entertain him.
"To think all of this was caused by you three posers from the future. How amusing," Yumi said with a smirk.
Although this had been set up as a four-way free-for-all, Yumi knew that, realistically, it was a one-on-three duel.
The Meklord, Malefic, and Timelord archetypes were all extremely powerful when used properly, but each of them had their own requirements and strategies that depended heavily on having the field to themselves. Their decks were built around their own monsters and support cards, meaning that having three completely different archetypes sharing the same field would only weaken them.
If they tried to duel Yumi under the same conditions as Paradox's battle against Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei.
Then Yumi believed that even his Kuriboh Deck would probably be enough to defeat all three of them in that condition.
"Draw!"
Yumi drew a card, his eyes immediately shifting toward it.
"Spell Card, Take Over 5. I send the top five cards from my Deck to the Graveyard."
Five cards shot out from the top of his Deck and landed in his Graveyard.
"Shadow Mist's effect and Bassols's effect activate!"
Two cards glowed within his Graveyard.
"When Shadow Mist is sent to the Graveyard, I can add a HERO monster from my Deck to my hand. And when Bassols is sent to the Graveyard by a Spell effect, I can add a 'Change' Quick-Play Spell from my Deck or Graveyard to my hand."
Two cards popped out from the top of his Deck. Yumi caught both and held them up for the three beings from the future to see.
"I'll add Elemental HERO Airman and the Quick-Play Spell, Mask Change."
He placed both cards into his hand before picking up another card and placing it onto his Duel Disk.
"I activate the Spell Card, Fusion Deployment. By revealing the Fusion Monster Elemental HERO Electrum from my Extra Deck, I can Special Summon one of its Fusion Materials from my hand or Deck."
The ghostly image of Electrum appeared beside Yumi as his Deck shuffled itself. A card then shot out from it.
"Show yourself, Elemental HERO Bubbleman!"
Bubbles suddenly rose from the ground before Yumi as the blue-armored warrior appeared among them. Bubbleman landed on one knee before crossing his arms.
[Elemental HERO Bubbleman, 1200 DEF]
"Bubbleman's effect! When he's summoned while I control no other cards, I can draw two cards."
Yumi drew two more cards.
The three beings from the future looked down at him with mostly disinterested expressions.
Originally, they had traveled back to this time because of the sudden distortion in space and time and the arrival of an outsider who had shifted the balance of power. But after seeing Yumi use what appeared to be a simple Elemental HERO Deck, some of their concern had faded.
Still, the fact that this outsider seemed to know who they were was unsettling.
"I Normal Summon Elemental HERO Solid Soldier!"
Yumi placed another card onto his Duel Disk. A warrior wearing black tights and silver armor with crystallized diamond plating appeared beside the kneeling Bubbleman.
[Elemental HERO Solid Soldier, 1300 ATK]
"Solid Soldier's effect. When he's summoned, I can Special Summon a Level 4 or lower HERO from my hand."
Yumi immediately placed another card onto his Duel Disk.
"Show yourself, Elemental HERO Airman!"
A blue-and-white armored warrior appeared on the field.
[Elemental HERO Airman, 1800 ATK]
"Airman's effect! When he's summoned, I can add a HERO monster from my Deck to my hand."
Yumi's Deck shuffled itself once again before another card shot out. He caught it and held it up.
"I'll add Masked HERO Dust Crow to my hand."
A card immediately rose from his Graveyard.
"I banish Masked HERO Bassols from my Graveyard to Special Summon Masked HERO Dust Crow!"
Yumi placed the card onto his Duel Disk as Bassols disappeared from his Graveyard.
White light surrounded him. A masked warrior clad in black armor appeared beside the other HEROes, a dark cape billowing behind him.
[Masked HERO Dust Crow, 1200 ATK]
"Dust Crow's effect activates! When he's summoned, I can add a Masked HERO from my Deck or Graveyard to my hand."
Yumi's Deck shuffled again, and another card popped out.
"I'll add Masked HERO Furnace to my hand."
He immediately raised the card.
"I activate Furnace's effect! It lets me add Polymerization to my hand, but I have to discard one card."
His Deck shuffled once more before the chosen card shot out. Yumi added Polymerization to his hand, then sent another card from his hand to the Graveyard.
"I activate Double Fusion!"
Yumi placed the Spell Card onto his Duel Disk and continued his play without hesitation. He already knew the three beings before him had no way to interrupt him.
"By paying 500 Life Points, I can perform a Double Fusion."
[Yumi, LP 4000 -> 3500]
A massive Fusion vortex appeared behind him.
"I fuse Airman and Bubbleman on my field!"
The two HEROes leaped into the vortex, their bodies merging together as the swirling energy consumed them.
A burst of freezing wind swept across the field.
A warrior clad in pure white armor stepped forward, each footstep spreading frost across the ground. A white cape billowed wildly behind him as the temperature around Yumi dropped.
Yumi's magenta hair whipped around in the freezing wind as the warrior stood beside him with his arms crossed, both of them looking up at the three beings above.
"Elemental HERO Absolute Zero!"
[Elemental HERO Absolute Zero, 2500 ATK]
"Now I fuse Dust Crow on my field with Furnace in my hand!"
Yumi raised both cards as another Fusion vortex appeared behind him. The two masked warriors leaped into it, their bodies merging within the swirling energy.
A warrior clad in black and white landed on Yumi's other side. A black-and-white scarf trailed behind him in the cold wind.
"Contrast HERO Chaos!"
[Contrast HERO Chaos, 3000 ATK]
The appearance of another powerful monster finally caught the attention of the three beings from the future.
Their eyes widened as they studied the monsters standing before Yumi.
As BOSSes of Yu-Gi-Oh, they understood that a powerful duelist was someone capable of summoning multiple monsters in a single turn. But what caught their attention even more was the nature of Yumi's monsters.
These weren't holograms. They were actual spirits capable of physically interacting with the world.
That alone made Yumi more dangerous than they had originally assumed.
And the fact that he still had five cards in his hand made the situation even more unsettling.
Yumi spun another card between his fingers before raising it above his head.
"I activate Polymerization!"
Another Fusion vortex appeared behind him.
"I fuse Solid Soldier on my field with Sparkman in my hand!"
The two armored warriors appeared before Yumi. They leaped into the vortex together, their bodies merging as they disappeared into the swirling energy.
A warrior clad in red armor stepped onto the field, his blue cape waving behind him as warm sunlight spread across the battlefield.
"Elemental HERO Sunrise!"
[Elemental HERO Sunrise, 2500 ATK]
"I activate Solid Soldier's effect, then chain it with Sunrise's effect!"
Yumi's Deck shuffled itself again.
"Sunrise allows me to add Miracle Fusion to my hand, while Solid Soldier allows me to Special Summon a Level 4 or lower HERO from my Graveyard in Defense Position."
Yumi added the Spell Card to his hand before picking up the card that had emerged from his Graveyard and placing it onto his Duel Disk.
[Elemental HERO Airman, 300 DEF]
"Airman's effect! I get to add a HERO from my Deck to my hand."
A card shot out from his Deck. Yumi caught it between his fingers and raised it high.
"I'll add Sky Striker HERO - Yumi to my hand."
Yumi immediately placed the card into his Spell & Trap Zone.
"I activate Sky Striker HERO - Yumi's effect! I'll equip this card to Chaos, increasing its ATK and DEF by 1000."
A digital version of Yumi appeared behind Chaos, rapidly moving its hands across several floating screens.
[Contrast HERO Chaos, 3000 -> 4000 ATK]
"Sunrise's continuous effect! The monsters I control gain 200 ATK for each different Attribute I control."
Sunrise released a bright, warm glow that spread across the field and enveloped Yumi's other monsters.
Because Sky Striker HERO - Yumi could be treated as all Attributes except DIVINE, Yumi's monsters gained an enormous boost.
[Elemental HERO Absolute Zero, 2500 -> 3700 ATK]
[Elemental HERO Sunrise, 2500 -> 3700 ATK]
[Contrast HERO Chaos, 4000 -> 5200 ATK]
Yumi looked over his field before drawing three cards from his hand.
"I set three cards face-down."
Three cards materialized behind his monsters before turning face-down. Yumi lowered his hand.
"Turn End."
"My turn. Draw!"
Aporia drew a card, his eyes shifting toward it.
At first, he, Paradox, and Z-one had only been concerned because of the distortion in space and time caused by Yumi. But after seeing that this unknown individual was using a HERO Deck, their worries had eased somewhat.
That feeling quickly returned. Only this time, it was ten times heavier. A suffocating pressure seemed to settle over the field.
Who would have thought that this unknown individual could summon three powerful boss-level monsters in a single turn?
Each one of them had more than enough power to suppress even a Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
Even they, people from the future, couldn't pull something like that off in a single turn.
The world of Yu-Gi-Oh! had plenty of duelists with powerful cards and Decks. But compared to the Decks built by players in the real world, most of them were, to say, very limited in their way of deck building.
The one advantage they had was that some of their cards were absurdly powerful compared to their real-life counterparts.
If Yumi hadn't been the one to cause such a massive shift in the balance of power in his world, forcing everyone to grow stronger just to survive, he might have eventually grown bored with the game.
Just like the President had, until he discovered the existence of the Strongest Slifer Red.
After realizing what world he was in, Yumi continued pushing his power higher and higher, eventually reaching the top of the Dueling Society. To the point where even the BOSSes were forced to be cautious around him.
"I activate the Continuous Spell, Meklord Assembly!"
Aporia placed a card onto his Duel Disk. The Spell flipped face-up beside him.
"This allows me to-"
"Chaos's effect!"
Yumi cut him off.
"I target your Spell and negate its effect!"
The half-black, half-white warrior thrust his hand forward. A beam of black-and-white energy shot toward Meklord Assembly, causing the Spell to lose its color as its effect was negated.
Aporia's eyes widened. He slowly lowered his gaze toward the cards remaining in his hand.
Seeing that he had... well, bricks.
The Meklord archetype was powerful. But only under very specific circumstances.
Most of their main monsters revolved around stealing the opponent's Synchro Monsters, making them particularly dangerous against Synchro-based Decks. Their anime boss monster was even more demanding, requiring a specific Trap Card to banish the three Meklord Emperor cores, Wise, Grand, and Sky, from the Graveyard.
And those three cores had their own conditions to be useful.
Wise, Grand, and Sky needed to be destroyed by card effects before they could bring out their respective Meklord Emperor parts.
Each Emperor consisted of five different monsters, and ironically, only the main Meklord Emperor had a somewhat decent effect that allowed it to Special Summon itself from the hand.
As for the rest? Well, they are bricks if left in the hand.
So, a good portion of Aporia's Deck was already dead weight.
Even if he managed to draw his core monsters, he still needed to get them onto the field and have them destroyed by a card effect before they could actually do anything.
And the Meklord Emperors didn't even have protection against destruction by card effects. Once an Emperor was destroyed, all of its support units went down with it.
"Then I activate the Spell Card, Destruction!" Aporia placed another card onto his Duel Disk. "This forces all players to discard their entire hands and draw the same number of cards."
It was the only remaining play he could make with the terrible hand he had been dealt.
But before he could even move them to his graveyard zone.
"Then I'll activate Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring!" Yumi raised the single card in his hand. "Since your card effect allows you to add a card from the Deck to the hand, I can discard her to negate that effect."
He sent the card to his Graveyard. A small dog-eared girl appeared in a burst of light, giggling mischievously as she flew toward Aporia's Spell.
She grabbed it and quickly flew off into the distance before disappearing into the night.
Aporia: "..."
He stared at the empty space where his Spell had been and remained silent for a moment. Then, with nothing else he could do, he placed one monster face-down and set a single card.
"I set one monster face-down and one card face-down."
He lowered his hand.
"Turn End."
And just like that, Aporia's turn ended with nothing more than a single face-down monster and a single face-down card.
Seeing one of their friends get completely shut down left the other two feeling a little sorry for him. Still, they knew that this was a duel, and there was nothing they could do but watch.
"My turn. Draw!"
Paradox drew a card, his gaze shifting toward his hand as the unease from before faded. His usual calm composure returned to his face.
"I activate the Field Spell, Malefic World."
The moment the Spell hit the field, the world around them changed. The scenery took on an inverted color scheme, while a strange glass-like texture covered everything around them.
"I send Guardian Eatos from my Deck to my Graveyard to Special Summon Malefic Guardian Eatos from my hand."
Paradox's Deck shuffled itself. A monster card shot out from the top and was sent to the Graveyard before he placed the card from his hand onto his Duel Disk.
An angel appeared on the field, dressed in tribal clothing with the head of a large black bird covering her own. Her once-white feathered wings had become mismatched, one black and one white.
[Malefic Guardian Eatos, 2500 ATK]
"Oh..." Yumi's eyes became slightly more interested.
A monster that didn't originally exist.
To be fair, Paradox's Malefic archetype wasn't exactly powerful. The entire strategy relied heavily on the Field Spell, Malefic World. Without it, the Malefic monsters would simply destroy themselves.
But compared to the Meklords and Timelords, Yumi thought the Malefic archetype had the most potential of the three.
The basic idea behind the Malefic monsters was simple. Take already existing monsters and turn them into corrupted, darker versions of themselves. It was similar to what Yumi had done with his own Shaddoll monsters.
"Next, I send Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier from my field to the Graveyard to Special Summon Malefic Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Malefic Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier!"
The two monster cards were sent to the Graveyard.
A pair of three-headed dragons appeared side by side.
Their faces were covered by black metallic masks, while their massive wings were coated in black metal. Both dragons spread their wings and released a deafening roar as they took their places on the field.
[Malefic Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, 4500 ATK]
[Malefic Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, 2900 ATK]
Seeing this, Yumi couldn't help but rub his hands together.
Paradox really was such a nice guy.
Not only had he come all the way back to find the person who had robbed him, but he had even brought some new cards. And he brought his friends too.
Truly, what an amazing person.
Paradox suddenly felt a chill run down his back. For some reason, he had the distinct feeling that Yumi was planning to do something terrible to him.
His gaze slowly shifted toward the boy blew, seeing that Yumi was still smiling. Which somehow made it worse.
Still, Paradox refused to let the strange feeling discourage him.
"I activate Trishula's effect-"
"I activate Chaos's effect! I negate your dragon's effect!"
Once again, Yumi stopped him before he could even get started.
Paradox clicked his tongue. He was annoyed that his play had been interrupted, but unlike Aporia, he still had options.
"I Normal Summon Malefic Paradox Gear."
He placed a card onto his Duel Disk.
A large, strangely shaped gear appeared on the field, three smaller gear-like arms attached to its body.
[Malefic Paradox Gear, 0 ATK]
"Quick-Play Spell, Mask Change!"
Yumi suddenly raised his hand and flipped one of his face-down cards face-up.
"I send Airman on my field to the Graveyard and Special Summon a Masked HERO with the same Attribute from my Extra Deck!"
Airman's body began to glow. The blue-and-white armored warrior was covered in golden light. Cracks began to spread across the glowing shell before it suddenly shattered.
A masked warrior clad in deep green armor emerged from within, a glowing red scarf wrapped around their neck.
"Henshin! Masked HERO Blast!"
[Masked HERO Blast, 2200 -> 3400 ATK]
"Blast's effect! Once per turn, I can return one Spell or Trap you control to the hand!"
Yumi spread his arms with a smug grin.
"I'll return your Malefic World."
[Yumi, LP 3500 -> 3000]
Paradox: "!!!"
The strange, inverted world immediately began to fade.
Malefic World was ejected from the Field Spell Zone and returned to Paradox's hand.
And without the Field Spell protecting them, all of his Malefic monsters shattered into particles before his eyes.
Paradox: "..."
He stared at his now-empty field for a moment, understanding how his friend had just felt.
His trembling fingers moved to his hand to set a card.
"I'll set one card. Turn end."
In the end, just like his friend beside him, Paradox could only begrudgingly set a single face-down card and pass his turn.
Z-one shifted his gaze between his two friends, who were both forced into kneeling positions with their arms raised defensively.
He looked down at his own hands before shifting his gaze toward Yumi's field, his eyes landing directly on Chaos.
The Timelords were an extremely powerful archetype. Their monsters were difficult to destroy, had powerful effects, negated battle damage, and most of them could easily withstand destruction from both battle and card effects.
The problem was that most of them had 0 ATK.
They could only Special Summon themselves through their own effects if their controller had no other monsters on the field, and the entire archetype relied heavily on their effects to function.
More importantly, they needed to attack in order to trigger those effects.
And that was where the problem began.
Chaos could negate their effects.
If a Timelord attacked one of Yumi's monsters, its effect could simply be negated, leaving the Timelord with nothing to show for it.
In other words, sending one of his Timelords into Chaos would be no different from kicking himself in the balls.