Just as he was thinking this, he faintly heard the cry of a dragon.
He jolted in alarm and opened his eyes wide, only to find himself standing in a pristine white space.
He blinked. The scenery before him gradually shifted from pure white to ashen gray. In every direction, all he could see were ruins and wasteland. Hikaru glanced left and right, sensing not a single trace of life. The silence was deathly, like hell itself.
He looked up. In the sky above, yellow machines patrolled intermittently. Spinning energy rotated inside their bodies, an infinity symbol oscillating within each one.
Meklord Emperors?!
No, Granel...
Hikaru's furrowed brows slowly relaxed.
Although he had encountered an entirely new situation, this development actually provided an explanation for the doubts that had been nagging him. That made him feel considerably more at ease.
He turned around. Behind him, the world had once again turned pure white. At a rough glance, the entire world seemed to have become one enormous grid, blindingly, impossibly white.
It was as if, in an instant, Hikaru had been sealed inside a colossal laboratory.
But Hikaru wasn't nervous. He simply looked left and right until he found a white cockpit floating in the air.
...
Hikaru felt a faint sense of meeting an idol.
Among the people Hikaru admired most in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, the figure before him was easily in his top three.
"My name is Z-ONE," a mechanical voice echoed through the space. "Interdimensional Fusion wielder... it has been a long time."
Z-ONE!
"Z, 1" is the last person. The last human being in the world of humanity. An existence that could be called "humanity's god."
"You're the one who's been helping Yusei, right? He's told me about you many times." Hikaru asked politely.
The floating machine gently bobbed up and down, a nod. Through the machine's shell, Hikaru could see aged skin, and those blue eyes identical to Yusei's.
"I imagine you have many questions. But before I answer them." A massive mechanical arm beside Z-ONE's cockpit suddenly shot upward, grabbing something and hurling it at Hikaru's shoulder. A strange device merged directly into Hikaru's Duel Disk, then slowly transformed into a card, leaving Hikaru momentarily stunned.
Elder Entity N'tss.
Huh.
Hikaru looked at the card, somewhat surprised.
Wasn't this a "god" from their world?
As if anticipating Hikaru's thought, Z-ONE spoke: "Just like the Old Entity Hastorr and Dreamland that you already possess, this card is merely a projection of these deities in their dreams. Their true forms are not connected to our world, or even to the Spirit World. They exist in a specific, dreamlike realm. So it is not strange for the same Old Entity or Elder Entity to appear on three or even more cards simultaneously."
"I see."
Hikaru nodded. As a greeting gift, it was quite nice.
"Interdimensional Fusion wielder, this is the true reason the Crimson Dragon brought you to this world."
!?
Hikaru jolted, finally understanding.
"Just as the Elder Entities, Old Entities, or Outer Entities can project their consciousness and cards into different worlds, certain powerful, difficult-to-eradicate beings can also project their abilities and power into other dimensions.
Darkness."
Z-ONE spoke a name softly, one that, in Hikaru's recollection, Z-ONE should never have known and should never have uttered.
"Although the name sounds like mere darkness, its true nature is the 'fate of human extinction.'" As he said this, his tone became exceptionally grave, carrying an extraordinary weight of pressure.
He was nothing more than a dying old man who couldn't survive without machines. Yet in this moment, he seemed terrifyingly powerful, as if the very air and space would shatter under the force of his words.
Z-ONE suddenly waved his hand again. The entire laboratory began to reshape under his control, and countless images appeared throughout the space.
They were...
One "annihilation" ending after another.
A world destroyed by machines, devoid of a single person. Worlds where dimensions waged war against each other until interdimensional conflict obliterated everything. Worlds destroyed by inexplicable spirit rampages. There was even a world where the sky suddenly darkened, the entire planet was swallowed by shadow, and humanity simply perished. And yet another where a dragon came from nowhere and shattered the planet itself.
World after world flashed by. Hikaru could spot familiar faces within them.
Trudge, Shinji, and Crow had all appeared in those images, but their worlds were ultimately unable to escape destruction.
"Impressive... These appear to be this planet across different timelines." Tierra couldn't help but exclaim from beside him. "This human... is no ordinary man."
"I have been trying endlessly to save this world. But no matter how I alter the past, no matter how I change the timeline, this world is ultimately destroyed." Z-ONE spoke. "Not only that, but in every other human world I've observed, they all eventually perish for one reason or another."
So that's how it is.
Hikaru took a deep breath and nodded.
"Finally, not long ago, I discovered the root of everything."
"The reason the world ends, Darkness. The 'fate' of humanity's demise. A predetermined 'fact.'"
Darkness was not simply a being of shadow. More accurately, it was the "effect" in a chain of cause and effect.
Because humanity would be destroyed, Darkness would be born in the future. And because Darkness was born, humanity was destined for destruction.
Z-ONE suddenly raised his right hand again. The images above began to shift, transforming from countless scenes of world annihilation into two duels.
One: Hikaru's duel against Sayer, where Hikaru had defeated Thought Ruler Archfiend outright. The other: Hikaru's duel against Leo Akaba, where Hikaru's Super Polymerization had left numerous powerful beings speechless with shock, causing them to take notice of him.
But more importantly... in the second duel, Hikaru spotted a familiar dark shadow!
"Darkness was present during the second duel too?!"
Hikaru broke into a cold sweat.
He hadn't noticed at all!
Even though he had carefully surveyed the situation, even though he had Tierra help him search, even though he had been vigilant throughout, he had completely failed to detect Darkness's presence. He hadn't even realized that Darkness might have been right beside him.
"As a person of the 'present,' you cannot detect it when it doesn't want to be found." Z-ONE said. "But I can observe it."
Oh!
Because for Z-ONE, these were records of events that had already "happened" in the past.
Of course.
"I have discovered that Darkness was born from your dimension."
"Are you saying this is our responsibility?"
"No, since it was born in your world, that makes you the first target for destruction."
That... was also true.
Hikaru slowly furrowed his brow.
Without anyone noticing, Darkness had already devoured Tragoedia. It was even absorbing energy and possibilities from other dimensions...
And that wasn't even mentioning... since the time of Atticus, Darkness had already made its move in Hikaru's world. Far, far earlier than in the original story.
The Light of Destruction, at least, had the possibility of dialogue.
But Darkness was the enemy of humanity itself.
For Hikaru, it was, in the truest sense, his greatest enemy.
Then, a thought suddenly struck him.
"So that means, I understand now. The reason the Crimson Dragon brought Yusei to your era and the reason it brought me to this world, they're one and the same?"
Z-ONE slowly turned, gazing at the countless images. "The 'pure' Crimson Dragon is an absolute god of good."
He had never hated or opposed the Crimson Dragon. In fact, when Yusei chose to relinquish its "power," the Crimson Dragon had been overjoyed. Because that represented a more driven "possibility" for humanity. For the Crimson Dragon, that too was a form of encouragement.
Hikaru pinched the bridge of his nose.
The pure Crimson Dragon... meaning there truly was an impure Crimson Dragon as well?
So it seemed the Crimson Dragon really did have two aspects.
Which meant that in the end, Yusei would still have to fight the Crimson Dragon that sought to monopolize "Synchro."
Z-ONE seemed to have said nearly everything he needed to. The surrounding environment began to distort. He raised his hand once more, and beside him, enormous blueprint sheets rose into the air, then shrank under the light before flying into Hikaru's hands.
Hikaru caught them and glanced over them. They were schematics for Pendulum machines, Leo Akaba's devices.
But with just a glance, Hikaru was certain: these were far more refined and far more stable than anything Leo Akaba had built.
As expected of Z-ONE!
But that wasn't all. Z-ONE pointed toward Hikaru's waist, where a card began to glow. Hikaru opened his card case and found a "White Stone," and beside it now sat a Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon. The Malefic Blue-Eyes slowly dissolved, and then the White Stone inexplicably began to hatch, growing at a frightening rate.
Before long, the Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon had completely vanished, and Hikaru's "dragon egg" was on the verge of becoming a true White Dragon!
Hikaru's eyes lit up with excitement.
Z-ONE said nothing more. He offered no encouragement, no urging. He simply met Hikaru's gaze one final time, then silently turned and flew away.
He was the last human being in this world. He had the right to do this, and the duty to fight against Darkness.
And Hikaru, in a daze, found himself back on the tour bus. He looked down at the machine blueprints in his hands and fell silent.
...
This week PS Goal- 700
If we reach that, I'll upload 5 bonus chapters.