The effects in the GY—Mermail and the Continuous Trap Sorrels' Lament of the First Life—begin a chain of their own.
Chain Link 1: Mermail fusion.
Chain Link 2: the Lament searches a Tearlaments monster from the Deck.
Effects resolve in reverse order:
CL2: The Lament adds Red Mermail (Tearlaments Kashtira) to hand.
CL1: Mermail in the GY + King of the Swamp fuse to Special Summon Tearlaments Lulucaros.
"Field Spell Pearl World activates: whenever one of my Tearlaments monsters is shuffled back into the Deck, I can target and destroy a card you control.
I choose to destroy your Felice, Lightsworn Archer!"
"Next, Red Mermail's effect—she Special Summons herself from the hand, then banishes the Normal Spell First Life – Vortex Echo from my GY, and then mills three.
After that, I pay half my Life Points. The Desire Dragon in the GY targets a Siren on the field and Special Summons itself; its Level becomes 3!"
"I tune Level 3 Desire Dragon with Level 7 Red Mermail—Synchro Summon the Level 10 Baronne de Fleur!"
"Glow-Up Bulb's effect in the GY—mill 1, Special Summon itself.
I set it and Siren to the Link Arrows—Link Summon Predaplant Verte Anaconda.
Then my Sword Saint in the GY activates—banishes itself to return Red-Eyes Fusion, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and Dark Magician from the GY to the Deck.
Verte's effect activates—Fusion Summon Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon!"
By this point, Minerva's holy expression had turned completely blank.
Even the surrounding Lightsworn spirits were stunned speechless.
Especially Judgment Dragon and the other boss monsters—they didn't know Lulucaros, but they did know Baronne… and Dragoon.
Two monsters with omni-negates.
One pops two monsters, the other pops any card.
How is anyone supposed to duel against this?
This wasn't a duel—this was a system violation.
The consistency and extension power of this "Tearlaments deck" was simply terrifying.
Fusion with no Fusion Spell.
No self-restriction.
Field Spell that searches and pops.
Multiple extenders fill the board.
Just thinking about it made their scalps numb.
Even these beings who upheld justice all year round were now questioning the Duel System itself—
What was the system thinking when it allowed Tearlaments to exist?
With Minerva's surrender, You Ye used Dragoon to blow up the Arbiter, then declared direct attack for the win.
"Yuye… your Tearlaments field isn't complete yet, is it?"
After the duel, even the monsters Yuye had summoned remained materialized.
Minerva looked at him with sparkling eyes.
"???"
Before Yuye could reply, both Lulucaros and Kaleido-Heart—whose forms were beginning to dissipate—narrowed their eyes at Minerva.
Yuye being recognized by other spirits and gaining more Fields—that was something they welcomed.
But if Minerva dared to imply that Tearlaments was "incomplete," and use that as leverage?
Then they wouldn't mind paying a visit to the Lightsworn realm later.
"What Field do YOU have?
What mills do YOU have?
Trying to steal our Duelist?
Do you want to go extinct?"
"Yes. The damned System placed a ton of restrictions on my Tearlaments.
Right now, I only have one copy of each main-deck Tearlaments card."
Yuye nodded, not hiding his irritation toward the rules.
"Since our deck also relies on GY triggers… Yuye, until you collect the entire Tearlaments archetype, do you want to fuse our Lightsworn into your deck?
Make Tearlaments the core, Lightsworn the engine—let the two Fields combine to produce power beyond one or two—maybe three or four."
Minerva offered sincerely, watching his reaction nervously.
As soon as she finished speaking, Lulucaros dissipated contentedly, while Kaleido-Heart gave Minerva a "you know your place" look.
Minerva only gave a tiny, helpless smile.
Was she unwilling to let Yuye run Lightsworn as the main deck?
Of course not.
It's because she had evaluated nearly a thousand Duelists before—she knew very clearly which archetypes were strong, and which were… not.
And Tearlaments—especially Yuye's version, with cards that even high-rank Duelists could never obtain—was the definition of over-spec.
If she suggested making Lightsworn the core deck…
That would be brain-dead.
"I already had that idea.
The decklist is ready."
Yuye smiled.
Lightsworn Tearlaments, before getting Kshatri-La Arise-Heart (Trueblood Duke), was a perfect transitional deck.
Good for information asymmetry.
Once he obtained Arise-Heart?
Sorry—he would switch to Horus Tearlaments.
When he finally collected the full Tearlaments lineup, plus support engines, he'd move into Healthy Tearlaments.
And in the end—
Puremill Tearlaments (现冥珠泪).
"Good. Then I'll give you the entire Lightsworn Field."
Minerva smiled, though her heart trembled.
She sensed Yuye wasn't bluffing—he truly had a powerful decklist prepared.
Half an hour.
That's all it took for him to figure out a fully synergized Tearlaments–Lightsworn hybrid?
She finally understood why Ash Blossom, Maxx "C", and Baronne had all chosen him.
His talent was simply too overwhelming.
For any other archetype, she'd say—
"If you meet him, you give him your Field."
But she didn't know—
Lightsworn Tearlaments were already fully developed in Yuye's previous life.
He only needed slight adjustments to personalize it.
Half an hour later, having received the full Lightsworn Field, Yuye followed Minerva toward the altar that led out of their world.
They chatted along the way—mostly Minerva explaining how Lightsworn spirits upheld justice.
Carefully, she avoided moral coercion.
She wasn't telling Yuye he must fight evil now.
She only wanted him to understand their personalities.
"You spirits live pretty interesting lives.
Unlike me, before I opened my shop, all I could do was farm Master Duel and bully rookies."
Yuye sighed nostalgically.
"Bully rookies? Yuye, other Duelists said, unless you have a breakthrough, opponents should always be similar in strength.
How were you bullying rookies?"
Minerva tilted her head curiously.
"No helping it.
Once you become rank one, the gap between you and rank two becomes too big."
This wasn't bragging.
Some people are ranked one because rank one is the highest.
Not because they're actually "first place."
"Rank… one?"
Minerva froze on the spot.
Master Duel rank one… weren't those usually legendary King-tier Duelists?
How did a mere Yellow-tier—no, not even Yellow-tier at the time—reach that level?
And Yuye talked about it like he was discussing the weather.
If she couldn't sense the sincerity in his tone, she would've thought he was pretending.
Not believing him?
Impossible.
Everything fit perfectly now.
His insane card pool.
His impossible strength.
"Relax."
Yuye gently took her hand and pulled her forward.
Every time he said something like this, spirits reacted the same way—shocked.
Minerva's holy face flushed at the touch, but she didn't pull away.
Instead, she held his hand back.
"Yuye, you go far beyond what I imagined.
After our duel, I thought that with your level and incomplete Tearlaments, we Lightsworn barely matched you.
But now… it seems we're the ones reaching upward."
She whispered as they approached the teleportation platform.
"There's no 'too high' or 'too low'.
Before I build Healthy Tearlaments, Lightsworn Tearlaments can easily win through information advantage."
Yuye reassured.
"That's enough."
Minerva smiled warmly.
As one of the Lightsworn bosses, she knew the deck's limits better than anyone.
They stepped onto the platform.
Minerva reluctantly let go of his hand, raised her staff, and said:
"Yuye—
The Lightsworn Field… will always bless you!"
A burst of radiant light engulfed him, and Yuye vanished.
Human World — Duelist Association
Tian Nan, Zhao Jingqing, and others watched the unconscious Yuye.
"It seems he's done.
I wonder what he'll receive."
Zhao Jingqing murmured as faint lights began appearing on the certification platform.
"Let me think…
The record holder for Profound-Rank certification is Lord Bird King.
When he finished, he received a boss monster and an out-of-system Wind Monarch, Dimensional Fissure, and the heaviest prize of all—the Wind Barrier Statue."
Tian Nan explained.
Silence.
Bird King was not a pretender king—he was a true King-tier Duelist, one of the strongest in the world.
His legend began at Profound-Rank.
Profound and Earth Rank with a boss and Wind Monarch—absolutely oppressive.
With access to Wind Barrier Statue before its effect leaked publicly, he had a 95% win rate against same-tier opponents.
Even after the effect leaked, it never dropped below 80%.
No one dared compare themselves to him.
"Of course, Yuye will surpass him!
Your so-called human 'King Duelist' legend—I've heard it.
He's strong, but compared to Yuye when he was Yellow-tier?
Could he defeat Earth-tier Duelists?"
Muning said sharply.
Silence again.
No one refuted it.
A Yellow-tier defeating two Earth-tier Duelists?
That was unprecedented.
In the silent hall, the light grew brighter.
Then—
A single purple-gold radiance appeared.
Everyone stared, stunned.
Holy—!
Purple-gold in a Profound-Rank certification!?