Saio groaned, the sight of his opponent's smiling face made him increasingly displeased.
The desire to tear apart that irritating smile grew stronger.
"You may have temporarily avoided the wrath of the World, but it's only for this turn."
Saio said coldly.
"I'll allow you to live for one more turn. My turn is over!"
Mizuchi breathed a small sigh of relief.
After all, a King is a King, even managing to block such a terrifying attack as a turn skip.
Yet, even so, it still seemed like Saio had the advantage. In this duel, Saio displayed a combat style and strength completely different from his usual self, showing terrifying dominance from the start.
This also made her more confident that her choice to patiently bide her time was correct. If she hadn't been patient and had chosen to fight desperately against this evil persona, she realized now that even if she risked her life, she might not have caused any trouble for him.
The power gap was too vast.
"My turn, draw." Yugen glanced at the card he drew and said, "It seems my time resumes moving this turn.
In my standby phase, the effect of 'Yellow Springs Frog' in my graveyard is activated.
During the standby phase, if there's no card in my Magic Trap Zone, the Yellow Springs Frog in the graveyard can be Special Summoned to the field."
A golden light shot out from his graveyard, landing on the front field. The little frog with a halo on its head flapped its angelic white wings and landed on the field.
"Special Summon 'Yellow Springs Frog.'
[Yellow Springs Frog, Defense Power 100]
"Next, I sacrifice 'Yellow Springs Frog' for an Upper-level Summon!"
Yugen raised the card in his hand. In the sky, there was a sudden flash of lightning and thunder, followed by an explosive thunderous roar from the swirling black clouds, crashing down in the middle of the field.
"The Emperor who wields the power of light and thunder—
—Summon Thunder Emperor Zaborger!"
It was as if celestial thunder descended. The Thunder Emperor, wrapped in lightning, was majestic like a general leading a vast army.
[Thunder Emperor Zaborger, Attack Power 2400]
"When Thunder Emperor Zaborger is successfully Upper-level Summoned, destroy one of the Monsters on the field," Yugen said, "and of course, it's 'Secret Ceremony Power 21 - World' that will be destroyed."
Thunder Emperor crossed his palms, incandescent electrical light entwined in his hands, transforming into a lightning spear that shot forward. The World was pierced through, its metallic body bore a transparent hole, and endless electric snakes quickly spread from that hole, rapidly extending across its body like a web of cracks until the entire body shattered into countless pieces.
"Damn, how dare you destroy my World..." Saio muttered.
"Thunder Emperor Zaborger's direct attack."
Thunder Emperor extended his palms, and boundless thunder roared towards Saio. Blinding white lightning stabbed through the sky, accompanied by roaring thunder.
But Saio also revealed a hand card.
"Then discard 'Secret Ceremony Power 14 - Temperance' from my hand to activate its effect," Saio said. "Discard this card from my hand to make all battle damage inflicted upon me become 0."
Much like the Kite Robot earlier, the image of Temperance also turned into a ghostly phantom that appeared and spread its arms to block in front of Saio. Thunder Emperor's immense lightning all struck it, fully blocked, and inflicted no damage.
The Secret Ceremony Power exclusive Chestnut Ball, the same card that Ed once drew in the animation's first turn to block a Satellite Cannon's 4000 attack point shot.
This made Saio one of those rare bosses with his own exclusive hand trap.
"Blocked it, huh," Yugen said. "Then set two cards, and end my turn."
"My turn, draw!"
Saio drew a card and then revealed a hand card.
"Activate Magic Card 'Holy Grail A.' Flip a coin to determine the effect based on heads or tails. Heads, I draw two cards from my Card Deck; tails, the opponent draws two cards from their Card Deck.
Of course, here the card rotation's clockwise or counterclockwise position will replace the coin's heads or tails."
Yugen shrugged, having no objections.
Whether it's card rotation or a coin, the result remains unchanged. In this duel, controlling all coin flip cards' outcomes is Saio's superpower.
Of course, the result came with no surprise.
The card rotation stopped, and the Holy Grail card too stopped at the correct position.
"I draw two cards from my Card Deck," Saio said.
For this kind of guy, Holy Grail A is equivalent to Pot of Greed, with no difference.
"Then, the Magic Card 'Angel's Charity,' draw three cards from my Card Deck, and then discard two cards from my hand."
Saio drew three cards and then selected two cards from his hand to discard.
"Next, activate Magic Card 'Necromancy Sacrifice,'" Saio said, "Select one to two Monsters from your graveyard to Special Summon onto your opponent's field, and thereby reduce the number of sacrifices needed for your Upper-level Summon." (Original Card)
He raised his Duel Disc, and two golden lights shot out from the graveyard, falling to Yugen's field to his left and right.
"Special Summon 'Secret Ceremony Power 4-Emperor,' 'Secret Ceremony Power 12 - Hanged Man' on your field!"
Then he paused and smiled.
"Of course, you can decide the display position."
"Then I'll set them to Defense position," Yugen said.
"Oh, providing you with a Monster and you're just setting it in Defense position, are you so fearful of my absolute destiny's power that you don't dare get close?"
Saio sneered.
"Do as you please. But when Secret Ceremony Power Monsters appear, they need to rotate to determine the exact effect."
This Necromancy Summon Magic was used by Saio during the duel with Ed. Back then, Ed naively believed he could utilize the effects in correct position this time. But of course...
"The Emperor is in the opposite position, while the Hanged Man is in correct position," Saio smiled.
As prophesied, the two Secret Ceremony Power on Yugen's field stopped at the correct and opposite positions respectively.
Mizuchi bit her lip: "He indeed...can freely manipulate fate..."
"That's not certain."
Yugen shrugged and smiled.
"If he truly could manipulate fate, he wouldn't have to keep avoiding me. I had to search high and low, finally bringing him out thanks to Mizuchi?"
Saio snorted heavily at his words.
"I haven't dealt with you earlier only because the time wasn't right. Don't get too conceited, Duel King.
I'll make you realize that now!"
Saio then drew another card from his hand.
"Using Necromancy Sacrifice's effect to replace two sacrifices by Special Summoning two Monsters on the opponent's field, I can conduct an Upper-level Summon! Appear! The ruined Secret Ceremony—
—Secret Ceremony Power 15-Demon!!!"