The towering giant loomed amidst the clouds, and as its final strike landed, it slowly began to fade.
Crowler sat on the ground, panting heavily, needing quite a while to catch his breath.
"Mamma mia... I really need to start working out..." he muttered as he climbed to his feet. He picked up the box containing the sealed keys and walked to the seal, carefully retrieving each key and placing them one by one back into the container.
"C-Crowler..."
"Yikes!!" Crowler jumped, almost dropping the box. He spun around and realized the pale Obaro still had the strength to speak.
Or maybe... it was just a final spasm before death?
Even Crowler, who didn't understand Shadow Duels, could tell: this man was on the brink.
"Heh..."
Crowler had expected some parting threat, but instead, Obaro just laughed faintly, then fell completely still. As if, just by giving Crowler one last scare, he'd fulfilled all he needed in life.
What the hell.
Was that meant to be a joke?
Still clutching the box, Crowler nervously watched the man.
After a while, he heard footsteps, KaibaCorp staff in black suits rushed into the forest.
No one on the island could have missed that colossal titan in the sky. The moment they realized something had happened, the KaibaCorp agents sprinted to the scene.
Fortunately, upon discovering that the Acting Principal had seemingly defeated a rogue Duelist, they relaxed.
One suited man moved to lift Obaro, just as he reached him, a cloud of black miasma erupted from Obaro's body, hurling the staffer backward into a wall.
Then, as if controlled by something else, Obaro's body lifted off the ground, floating midair.
"Mamma mia..." Crowler blurted instinctively.
"Crowler." A voice echoed from within Obaro's body.
The moment he heard it, Crowler, who had been nervous and scared, immediately straightened, eyes wide.
"It's you!"
He hadn't heard it often.
But even if it turned to dust, he'd never forget that voice.
Leo Akaba!
"So you finally couldn't resist making an appearance, could you?!"
What?
Crowler froze for a second at Leo Akaba's words. But as a teacher, no, as Acting Principal, he could afford to be afraid of anyone except Leo Akaba.
So he summoned the last of his strength, standing tall to face Obaro. Black flames flickered around Obaro's body, slowly burning his clothes and skin to white ash. Yet the black flames bathed the forest in light.
"Please step back, Principal Crowler!" said one KaibaCorp staffer, moving in front of him.
"No need! I'm fine right here!" Crowler refused.
He stared straight at the floating silhouette and lowered his voice:
"Professor Akaba. Where are you now? If you turn yourself in, KaibaCorp's judgment may yet be lenient."
"Even now, you think you can fool me? Crowler."
Leo Akaba's voice emerged from Obaro's body. With arms open, he declared:
"You're still shackled to one dimension. However, I… I've transcended such limits."
He indeed still saw Crowler as just another ambitious rival.
"So what if you interfered? You've disrupted my plans for now… but what about your student? Without your protection, they're sheep in a slaughterhouse in the other dimension."
Crowler's brows knotted.
"The day I round up you and your disciple isn't far off. Just you wait, Crowler!"
And with that, Obaro fell from the sky.
Thud.
He collapsed, lifeless.
Crowler stared at the body in silence for a while.
So...
That's it?
That ominous speech was the whole encore?
He nudged Obaro's body with his foot. Confirming there was no response, he stepped forward, picked up Obaro's Duel Disk, and began searching him with the KaibaCorp staff.
Inside his clothes, they found a card shrouded in black smoke.
Darklord Zerato.
His ace monster… and seemingly the source of his power.
Crowler opened his Deck and examined the contents, finding that most of the "Darklord" cards had changed into generic Fairy monsters like Goddess of Whim and Wingweaver.
It seemed clear.
Crowler immediately understood the type of "Spirit Card" this was.
It was exactly like what happened with Atticus.
As a professor, he always monitored the well-being of his students.
There had been a time when Atticus Rhodes broke down because every card in his Deck turned into Red-Eyes during a Duel. Back then, Crowler had approved his and Amaki Hikaru's request to go to The Mountain Dimension, so he knew what this was.
It appeared that simply wearing Darklord Zerato, combined with having Fairies in your Deck, allowed one to wield its power, converting the cards into Darklords.
KaibaCorp staff scanned Darklord Zerato and then handed it to Crowler.
Though KaibaCorp sometimes acted like the world's Duelist police, their true mission was to protect Duelist rights.
Since Crowler had won, and Obaro had not only used dark power but committed theft, everything rightfully belonged to Crowler now.
He picked up the card. His right hand tingled slightly, but no inverted cross appeared.
Clearly, he wasn't one of the so-called "blessed."
Still, Crowler couldn't pretend he didn't know.
As Acting Principal, with someone trying to steal the Shadow Rider Keys today, he needed to make more decisions in this world for the Academy's benefit.
The GX Tournament had been entrusted to him before the Principal resigned. He couldn't let things go wrong now, especially with the Principal already under fire.
So he needed to focus on both reality and the tournament.
"Mamma mia..." Back in the principal's office, Crowler slumped into the chair, feeling like all his bones had fallen apart.
Too exhausting.
Mentally, physically, the past month had been more taxing than the whole of last year.
Still, he forced himself to focus. He pulled out a sheet of stationery and began drafting a letter. After finishing, he paused, then placed the Darklord card and another card into the envelope.
That second card, his extra "compensation" from KaibaCorp after his month-long interrogation, he intended to send it to Amaki Hikaru.
That's right. He had written to Amaki Hikaru.
He couldn't leave the Academy. He had to hold the fort.
With things as they were… he had to trust his students.
As a teacher, if you can't trust your own pupils, who can you trust?!