[Eldlich the Golden Lord]'s other effect!
"When this card is in the Graveyard, you can send 1 Spell/Trap you control to the Graveyard; add this card to your hand, then you can Special Summon 1 Zombie monster from your hand. A monster Special Summoned by this effect gains 1000 ATK/DEF and cannot be destroyed by card effects until the end of your opponent's turn."
"I send my Continuous Spell Card, [Cursed Eldland], from the field to the Graveyard to activate the effect and Special Summon [Eldlich the Golden Lord] to my field!"
As his words fell, the Continuous Spell on Mizuki's field scattered into a cloud of radiant butterflies and vanished.
In its place, a majestic lich king in a purple cloak and gleaming golden armor strode forth, his imposing figure standing tall on Mizuki's field.
[Eldlich the Golden Lord]
[Level 10 / Zombie / Effect]
[ATK: 2500 → 3500]
"Then I'll trigger the follow-up effects: the effect of the [Cursed Eldland] I just sent to the Graveyard, and chain to it the effect of [Eldlixir of Scarlet Sanguine]!"
"First, I activate [Eldlixir of Scarlet Sanguine] in my Graveyard!"
"By banishing this card from my Graveyard, I can Set 1 'Golden Land' Trap directly from my Deck to my field! I banish [Eldlixir of Scarlet Sanguine] and Set a [Golden Land] card from my Deck!"
After finishing the Set, he continued calmly:
"Next is [Cursed Eldland]'s effect. If this card is sent from the Spell & Trap Zone to the Graveyard by its own effect, I can send 1 [Eldlich the Golden Lord] monster or 1 'Golden Land' Trap from my Deck to the Graveyard."
"I choose to send the Trap [Golden Land] card in my Deck to the Graveyard."
The moment the card slipped into the Graveyard, the silhouette of a Golden Land trap briefly surfaced in the pale light above the Graveyard.
"And once a card is banished, my [Swordsoul Supreme Sovereign - Chengying] can activate its effect. Whenever a card is banished, it can banish 1 card from your field and 1 card from your Graveyard!"
He suddenly thrust his hand out, fingertip stabbing toward Mizuki's side of the field:
"I banish your [Eldlich the Golden Lord] on the field, and the [Golden Land] card you just sent to the Graveyard!"
As his declaration rang out, Chengying's massive form loomed high above, greatsword sweeping through the air. Two invisible blades of qi shot out in twin arcs toward Mizuki's field and Graveyard, slicing cleanly through the designated cards and erasing them from play.
"Haha, Yusaku, I've won!"
Mizuki suddenly laughed, lifting the last card in his hand, a cold smile tugging at his lips.
"I already figured out what your [Swordsoul Supreme Sovereign - Chengying] could do. I deliberately sent those cards to the Graveyard and banished them just to bait out that effect."
With that, he slammed the card onto his Duel Disk without hesitation:
"I activate the Spell Card [Cursed Eldlixir of Black Awakening]!"
"The effect of this card is: I can target 1 face-up Spell/Trap I control, send that card to the Graveyard, then Special Summon 1 Zombie monster from my hand or Deck. If there is no [Eldlich the Golden Lord] on my field, the monster I Special Summon with this effect must be [Eldlich the Golden Lord]."
"I use this effect to Special Summon [Eldlich the Golden Lord] from my hand!"
As his voice fell, another lich king clad in golden armor materialized on Mizuki's field, its oppressive presence pressing down on the entire arena.
[Eldlich the Golden Lord]
[DEF: 2800]
With the second Golden Lord successfully summoned, Mizuki locked his eyes on Yusaku, then flipped up another card with a sharp motion.
"This is the real card I wanted to activate."
The instant he finished speaking, Mizuki raised a Continuous Spell high.
"I activate the Continuous Spell [Seven Cities of the Golden Land]!"
"The effect of this card: I can send Fusion Material monsters listed on a Fusion Monster from my field to the Graveyard, then Fusion Summon that Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck. The Fusion Materials must all be Zombie monsters."
"Also, if my LP is lower than yours, I can treat up to 1 Zombie monster in my hand, Deck, or Graveyard as Fusion Material as well."
Mizuki glanced at Yusaku.
"Right now my LP is lower than yours, so I can use that additional effect."
"After resolving the effect, I'll send all required monsters to the Graveyard!"
Yusaku looked at the lone card left in Mizuki's hand.
"You've been trading resources this whole time just to protect the one card you really wanted to play, right?"
Hearing that, Mizuki's lips curled into an unreadable smile.
"Think you can guess it?"
He immediately raised his voice:
"Since you're not chaining anything, then according to [Seven Cities of the Golden Land]'s effect, I'll send my [Eldlich the Golden Lord] in Defense Position on the field, plus the Level 6 Zombie [Changshi the Spiridao] from my Deck, to the Graveyard as Fusion Material and Fusion Summon—"
"Descend! [Eldlich the Mad Golden Lord]!!!"
The instant his shout echoed through the arena, the two monsters turned into blazing pillars of light and shot up into a swirling Fusion vortex that had formed in the air.
A heartbeat later, a gigantic lich king encased in massive golden armor stepped forth from the whirlpool of light, crashing down onto Mizuki's field with crushing force.
[Eldlich the Mad Golden Lord]
[Level 10 / Zombie / Fusion / Effect]
[ATK: 3800]
"Then I activate the follow-up effect of [Changshi the Spiridao], which I just sent as Fusion Material!"
"When this card is banished, I can banish 1 Zombie monster from my Graveyard to Special Summon this card."
"I banish [Doomking Balerdroch] from my Graveyard to Special Summon [Changshi the Spiridao]!"
[Changshi the Spiridao]
[Level 6 / Zombie / Effect]
[ATK: 2000]
As soon as the monster hit the field, Mizuki swept his arm through the air and shouted:
"I activate [Eldlich the Mad Golden Lord]'s effect! I can Tribute 1 Zombie monster I control, then target 1 face-up monster on your field; I gain control of that monster, and it cannot attack or activate its effects until the end of the turn!"
"I Tribute my [Changshi the Spiridao] and target your [Baronne de Fleur], taking control of her! Until the end of this turn, that monster can't attack or use its effect—"
"So? Are you going to respond this time?"
Yusaku raised an eyebrow.
"You tell me."
Mizuki: "?"
The moment he finished speaking, Yusaku snapped his arm forward.
"I activate the effect of [Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess]! Each time I activate her effect, her ATK is reduced by 800, and that activation is negated!"
[Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess]
[ATK: 2400 → 1600]
As his voice fell, the elven maiden atop the white bear once again drew her luminous bow, a sacred arrow of light forming between her fingers.
An instant later, a silent shockwave exploded outward. The arrow of light tore through the air, piercing the dark magic array at the feet of [Eldlich the Mad Golden Lord]. A flash of gold rippled out, and the Fusion monster's effect was forcibly negated, its activated energy scattering as motes of light.
Watching the Fusion monster he'd gone through so much effort to summon get its effect negated yet again, Mizuki's pupils shrank violently.
"Your monster's effect… doesn't have a 'once per turn' restriction!?"
Yusaku gave him a sidelong glance.
"[Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess]'s effect is tied to her own ATK. As long as she still has at least 800 ATK left, she can activate it one more time. In other words, she can still use her effect two more times."
Hearing that, Mizuki's face instantly darkened.
Not only had [Baronne de Fleur] on the other side yet to use her effect, there was also this troublesome Apollousa. The "trump card" in his hand suddenly felt like it had nowhere safe to land.
Yusaku crossed his arms, gaze calm as he looked at Mizuki.
"You've been desperately trying to force out my negates. That last card in your hand should be [That Grass Looks Greener], right? Since you're running a 60-card Deck, that card's your real win condition."
"So I'll let you play it."
Yusaku's words left Mizuki momentarily stunned.
"You… you serious?"
"A man's word is worth its weight in gold."
"Then don't regret it!"
Without another second of hesitation, Mizuki slammed the last card in his hand onto the Duel Disk.
"I activate the Spell Card [That Grass Looks Greener]!"
"[That Grass Looks Greener] can be activated only if I have more cards in my Deck than you. I send cards from the top of my Deck to the Graveyard until my Deck has the same number of cards as yours."
"I currently have 45 cards left in my Deck, and you only have 19, so I can send 26 cards from the top of my Deck straight to the Graveyard!"
As soon as he finished, Mizuki reached for the top of his Deck and prepared to dump a thick stack of cards into his Graveyard, but Yusaku's voice cut across him once more.
"At the moment you activate [That Grass Looks Greener], I activate [Dogmatika Fleurdelis, the Knighted] from my hand!"
"The effect of this card: during either player's Main Phase, if there is a monster Special Summoned from the Extra Deck on the field, I can Quick Effect Special Summon this card from my hand."
"I Special Summon [Dogmatika Fleurdelis, the Knighted] to my field!"
As his words rang out, a warrior-maiden bound in chains, clad in divine armor and carrying the bearing of a valkyrie, descended onto Yusaku's field in a flare of light.
[Dogmatika Fleurdelis, the Knighted]
[Level 8 / Spellcaster / Effect]
[ATK: 2500]
"Now, go ahead and send those cards to the Graveyard."
Frowning slightly at the new monster on Yusaku's field, Mizuki hesitated for a brief second, then still committed.
He sent all 26 cards from the top of his Deck into his Graveyard in one go.
Seeing Mizuki dump 26 cards at once, the stands behind Yusaku erupted into an uproar.
"Dumping 26 cards in one shot, that's an insane amount of resources!"
"With that much in the Graveyard, if his Eldlich engine gets going, who's supposed to survive that grind?"
Hearing the anxious mutters around them, Kouki smacked his lips thoughtfully.
"Relax. If he didn't have something planned, Yusaku would never have allowed him to resolve that card."
Kazetaro nodded in agreement.
"I don't know why, but I get the feeling Yusaku deliberately lured Mizuki into playing [That Grass Looks Greener]. What if this was the moment he'd been aiming for from the very start?"
That remark left the students on-site momentarily speechless; they were just about to continue speculating when Yusaku's voice once again echoed across the plaza.
"The moment you finish sending all those cards to the Graveyard, I activate [Dogmatika Fleurdelis, the Knighted]'s effect!"
"When this card is Special Summoned from the hand, I can set 1 'Dogmatika' Trap Card directly from my Deck to my field. As long as there is a face-up effect monster with 2500 or more ATK that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck on your field, a Trap I Set with this effect can be activated the turn it was Set!"
"I Set [Dogmatika Punishment] from my Deck!"
Yusaku had just finished setting the card when Mizuki, about to start leveraging his overflowing Graveyard, found his thought process cut off yet again by Yusaku's voice.
"Not so fast."
Mizuki: "?"
"The moment [Dogmatika Punishment] was Set, the Dogmatika hymn was already ringing."
"I activate [Hop Ear Squadron] from my hand!"
"During your Main Phase, I can target 1 face-up monster I control, Special Summon this card from my hand, then immediately after this effect resolves, use this card and that monster as Synchro Material to conduct a Synchro Summon."
"I target my Level 8 [Dogmatika Fleurdelis, the Knighted], and Special Summon this card from my hand!"
A rabbit-like monster with long, drooping ears fluttered its ears and hovered into view on Yusaku's field.
[Hop Ear Squadron]
[Level 2 / Beast / Tuner / Effect]
[ATK: 300]
Seeing this monster appear, the onlookers froze for a beat, then someone suddenly realized the key point.
"Level 8 plus Level 2, and he just deliberately let his opponent fire off [That Grass Looks Greener] to load the Grave… he's not… he's not about to Accel Synchro into that monster again, is he?!"
Hearing that, a number of people instantly put the pieces together, exclaiming:
"I get it now! No wonder Yusaku insisted on bringing out [Swordsoul Supreme Sovereign - Chengying] earlier. The foreshadowing was laid down right then; this was the plan all along, damn…"
"..."
(End of Chapter)
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