Hikaru, who had been lying in wait, took the first turn.
He had actually been waiting here for some time.
In fact, before anyone had even asked Bonaparte about the food situation, Hikaru had already thought of this possibility.
As someone with "prior experience," references like the Battle of Guandu and fire-attacking grain stores came to mind naturally. Moreover, even before seeing Professor Viper, he had been thinking about future dangers. So the previous night, he had already discussed and arranged a "food transfer" with Professor Crowler.
The reasoning was simple: in case spirits suddenly attacked their "granary," leaving them unable to afford even rice.
Crowler was also receptive to good counsel. Setting aside his already close relationship with Hikaru, even if an ordinary student had made such a suggestion, he would have given it serious thought.
Because spirits could now materialize on the academy island, the transfer was extremely fast. Professor Sartyr was currently organizing and cataloguing supplies at Warehouse No. 2.
Hikaru had stayed here today primarily to lie in wait. If anyone did have such intentions, he could intercept them immediately.
The supplies had been moved, but an extra layer of security never hurt.
And now...
"I activate the Continuous Spell: Flame Swordsrealm!"
Flames gradually spread around Hikaru, driving the white chill away from his surroundings.
"Flame Swordsman..."
Chazz and Aster found a spot at a safe distance, watching the field and exchanging quiet words.
"It looks like the Chief is taking this duel very seriously." Aster said in a low voice.
"After all, everyone's safety is at stake." Chazz nodded. "I haven't seen Hikaru open with Flame Swordsman in a long time."
More than just the opening. Chazz hadn't seen Flame Swordsman deployed in quite a while.
"Flame Swordsrealm's effect: once per turn, I send a monster from my hand to the Graveyard to activate it. I Fusion Summon a Flame Swordsman from the Extra Deck."
Hikaru raised a card from his hand, silently sent it to the Graveyard. A flame dragon surged upward, blazing, then took the shape of a longsword.
"I send Salamandra, the Flying Flame Dragon from my hand to the Graveyard. Fusion Summon: Flame Swordsman!"
Flame Swordsman swung his longsword, leapt nimbly, and landed before Hikaru.
"After the Fusion Summon succeeds, I activate the effect of Salamandra, the Flying Flame Dragon in the Graveyard. When this card is sent to the Graveyard: add one Salamandra Spell/Trap from my Deck to my hand."
Several cards wreathed in raging fire flew before Hikaru's eyes. He glanced over them and selected one.
"I add the Equip Spell Salamandra Fusion to my hand!"
"Next... activate!"
Hikaru immediately played the Spell. "Equip Spell: Salamandra Fusion! This card can only be equipped to a FIRE Warrior monster. The equipped monster gains 700 ATK."
Flame Swordsman plunged his longsword into the ground. Then he raised his right hand as an enormous flaming greatsword slowly blazed to life in his grasp.
"While Salamandra Fusion is equipped to a Fusion Monster on the field, I can activate its Fusion effect! I send the equipped monster and this card to the Graveyard to Fusion Summon a Flame Swordsman or a Fusion Monster that mentions it in its name!"
BOOM!
Blazing fire rose before the warehouse entrance like a pillar of flame. Endless flames descended. Flame Swordsman's armor and weapons transformed in the inferno, taking on an entirely new form. In moments, the previously lean swordsman had become a towering warrior!
"My most trusted partner!"
"Fusion Summon!
My partner, my friend, my symbol!"
"Level 8: Ultimate Flame Swordsman!"
Ultimate Flame Swordsman. Level 8, FIRE Attribute, Warrior-Type. ATK 2800.
"Ultimate Flame Swordsman!"
"He summoned it right away?"
Both spectators were taken aback.
Ultimate Flame Swordsman possessed powerful effects and offensive capability, typically reserved for finishing blows. Yet this time, it appeared on the very first turn!
"The Chief is still getting stronger!" Aster couldn't help but praise.
He had thought that having broken through his own struggles, he would be the one growing fastest. He hadn't expected Hikaru, who had already "peaked" among his peers, to still be pushing forward on the path of Fusion.
Chazz, listening beside him, felt the same admiration.
Indeed, when someone with little room for improvement continued to grow, it wasn't that surprising. But Hikaru was already the top-ranked student and still striving for Fusion on an uncharted path. That was no simple feat.
And that was precisely why their classmates respected and admired him so much.
"Impressive. To summon your ace so effortlessly..." Seraph nodded repeatedly at the sight. "In terms of dueling alone, I'm afraid there's nothing this professor can teach you. After all, our areas of expertise differ."
Hikaru raised an eyebrow and opened his Graveyard. "In the Graveyard: Salamandra, the Flying Flame Dragon's effect. While this card is in my hand or Graveyard, it can equip itself to a Warrior monster I control as an Equip Spell."
From the Graveyard, a flame dragon spiraled out and circled around Ultimate Flame Swordsman.
"When Salamandra is equipped to Flame Swordsman or a monster that mentions Flame Swordsman in its name, it increases that monster's ATK by 700."
Ultimate Flame Swordsman, ATK: 2800 → 3500.
"3500 ATK. That already surpasses Master's Blue-Eyes White Dragon."
Aster nodded as well.
Although for current duelists, 3000 ATK wasn't an unreachable number, and both he and Chazz could achieve ATK beyond 3000, "3000" remained a watershed for monster ATK. To summon a 3500 ATK Fusion Monster this simply and effortlessly was something even they couldn't easily replicate.
Hikaru studied his remaining hand cards, deliberated briefly, and selected one. "I Set one card. Turn end."
"I've heard that Ultimate Flame Swordsman has the ability to destroy one opponent's monster during their turn while it has an Equip Card." Professor Seraph was in no hurry to draw. "And beyond that, you've Set a Trap Card.
Hikaru, although I've only taught you a few times, I know you well. Your Set cards are never about surviving the turn. They're always about victory, about Fusion. So that Set card might be something to restrict me. Like Salamandra with Chains, perhaps?"
Hikaru frowned. "Professor, it sounds like you have a lot more you want to say to me?"
"Of course." Seraph spread his hands. "Even if you say you want this to be my last class, I'm still a Duel Academy professor. I'd still like you to learn something, Hikaru."
Hikaru was mildly surprised.
He hadn't expected that the Seraph who talked about "wiping out humanity" would actually be less unhinged during the duel itself.
"Then why did you say those things?" Chazz demanded from the side.
"Those things? Which things... oh, that humanity is too ugly?" Seraph listened, then shook his head. "The answer is simple, Chazz. Because it's established fact."
"Wha..."
"You've all seen humanity's ugliness firsthand, haven't you? Leo Akaba, D.D. You know them, don't you?"
"You know about D.D.?!" Aster pressed. "You know him?"
Seraph shook his head. "No, I don't know them personally. I'm just giving examples. You're... Aster Phoenix, right? First year? Why weren't you enrolled earlier?"
Aster didn't answer.
"I heard from Professor Crowler that he was once attacked by a Darklord user. That person was part of Leo Akaba's forces, trying to release the Sacred Beasts... Professor Seraph, are you the same?" Chazz took a deep breath and considered another possibility.
"Obaro? I know he did attack Acting Principal Crowler... But I'm entirely different from him." Seraph raised his left hand. "He sought power, received the Darklords' blessing, and became an angel's apostle.
I'm different... I received a Revelation."
A Revelation?
All three of them looked at him like he'd lost his mind.
"Heh, don't doubt it. A genuine Revelation. Just as the legendary Saint Joan received inspiration from angels, from God..." Seraph lowered his head slightly, then pointed at the halo above it. "As you can see, this thing is the genuine article."
They were inwardly alarmed.
The real thing?
"Before I became a Duel Academy teacher, I was a priest in a remote small town." Seraph rubbed his chin, eyes closed, speaking quietly of his memories. "I was born with abilities unlike ordinary people. As a child, I could see spirits. Later, I received the angels' blessing and could command them. In that town, I listened to the senior priest's teachings and followed doctrine and morality.
I believed that from the moment I was born, my purpose was to help God spread His mercy."
"Did something bad happen?" Aster asked, drawing a parallel to his own experiences. "Was the town destroyed? Were the people killed?"
"Ha, what are you talking about? If that were the case, I'd have been hunting down the culprits, not teaching."
Aster was momentarily at a loss for words.
"One day, I was counseling a child." Seraph seemed to sink into deep memories, unwilling to stop until he'd finished. "The boy had stolen something. I caught him, advised him to return it, and guided him not to steal again.
But before long, I discovered he had stolen again."
"One time, two times, three times... As a priest, I persistently tried to guide him onto the right path. If he stole food, I gave him food. If he stole clothes, I gave him clothes. Then one day, I saw the truth."
The kindness on his face gradually faded, replaced by severity. "I had always assumed his thievery was due to sin, bad habits, poor upbringing. Until I discovered that everything he did wasn't for himself. It was because he had a bedridden mother and a frail little brother. And the reason their family was in such dire straits was that the land that once belonged to them had been seized by the church."
He looked at his own hands. "I investigated further and discovered that some company wanted to develop a cross-dimensional project. They had their eye on that land, and the local church, eager for money, had caused multiple tragedies, ultimately leading to disaster."
"That's..." Chazz and Aster exchanged glances.
It sounded like a collapse of faith?
"I simply couldn't accept it. No matter how much I searched through scripture, daily conduct, or doctrine, I couldn't find an answer. I couldn't accept the fact that what I had given that child may have originally belonged to him. My mercy may have actually been malice. That was why the boy was so hostile toward me, why he refused to listen."
His expression grew increasingly intense. He clawed at the air, speaking through gritted teeth. "But it didn't matter. I was someone who had received Revelation. I was blessed. I'd had the angels' protection since childhood. If humans and books couldn't give me answers, then I would ask... God!"
He looked up at Hikaru. Hikaru now understood the "origin" of everything about this professor.
"You understand now, don't you? From that day on, I began studying ritual summoning. I researched demon rituals that the church considered forbidden. I tried summoning demons, summoning angels. And then, that day, I truly made contact with... God."
"Darkness?" Hikaru asked cautiously.
"Darkness." The professor replied calmly.
"But that so-called Darkness is nothing but an evil god!" Chazz shouted from the side. He had heard about Darkness from Hikaru and knew full well that for humanity, Darkness, the embodiment of "humanity's ultimate extinction," was an evil god!
"How foolish, Chazz."
!?
Chazz stood frozen.
He'd just been called foolish?
His mind was among the sharpest in the entire school.
"For humans, that entity is indeed an evil god. But the point isn't whether it's an evil god or a benevolent god. That's completely irrelevant." Seraph spoke calmly. "I covered this in class, didn't I?
In demon ritual summoning, whether the spirit you summon is the one you wanted isn't what matters most. What matters more is whether you can learn from that ritual.
Even if the ritual ultimately fails and your spirit power takes a hit, it doesn't matter. If through contact with that spirit you become more skilled at rituals or learn a new dueling technique, then it was all worthwhile."
Seraph drew a card from his Deck, beginning his turn. "For me, whether Darkness is the answer I was searching for doesn't matter. What matters is that through my conversations with it, I finally understood.
If you stretch the timeline of this world to infinity, a day will come when the era of sublime, righteous humanity I longed for arrives. But as long as the sublime exists, there will always be someone at the lowest point of moral failure. And to remedy that requires infinite time, waiting for humanity's knowledge and ethics to rise until every last human becomes a person of absolute righteousness.
On this evolutionary path of all humanity, eventually, one small misstep, and humanity will perish. Whether because progress becomes impossible, the universe can no longer sustain them, or all things return to silence...
In other words, the inevitable extinction. That is... Darkness.
Unless, someday, humanity can transcend that final death!"
The blood-red halo above his head began to glow. "So then, I just need to do what I want to do! Whether it's right or wrong is irrelevant!"
This?!
Chazz was utterly incredulous.
He never would have imagined that Seraph's motivation wasn't rooted in "nobility," "glory," or "morality." He simply wanted to do this. He simply wanted to summon Darkness's power to this island!
This was unlike any scenario Chazz had considered!
A manic expression spread across Seraph's face. "Whether I win and kill everyone, or you win, Hikaru, and defeat me, stripping away my blessing, none of it matters!
Act, then await the result. That is what matters most. This is my demon ritual!"
"Chazz... your studies are sorely lacking." Seraph criticized him harshly. "I will absolutely be giving you a zero on your semester report.
And now, Hikaru. You are exactly what I sensed in class: the only person who has conducted a genuine demon ritual. That Winda isn't really Winda, is it? I can feel it. A power that doesn't belong to this world, doesn't belong to spirits, something that transcends the mortal realm.
I am, after all, an expert."
Hikaru's eyebrow twitched, then he responded with a sigh of recognition. "I see... You're right, Professor. She is my partner. Tierra, the Star-Creating God. I contacted her by accident during an unintended transmutation. A god from beyond this world."
Aster and Chazz stared at this exchange in shock. This was the first time they were hearing this.
No wonder Hikaru never called that spirit "Winda" but always "Tierra." So it really wasn't her?!
Tierra herself studied Seraph with rare interest.
A madman, but a genuine seeker of truth. This kind of human didn't bore her.
"As I thought... Our meeting here was also the Lord's design."
Seraph smiled. "I, who opened the gates of darkness, and you, who prepared to stop it all from happening..."
"It seems this duel will be very enlightening.
Your wait is over. Let us begin our duel over the fate of all humanity!"