The beam tore through the vampire without a shred of mercy. Fourteen thousand in damage almost pixelated her entire being. With a scream, the long-legged vampire collapsed to her knees, hands on the ground, gasping in pain.
Zane had won.
The path had looked bumpy, but Kira had never been surprised by the outcome. To him, Camula was a strong Dark Duelist by common standards, but her duelist power wasn't exceptional; her strength was propped up by forbidden cards and outright hacks like Illusion Gate. She shouldn't be Zane's equal.
If the win seemed laborious, it was partly because Zane's heart had been shaken—he was in the midst of remaking it, and that uncertainty bled into his play. And partly the protagonist's customary at 1 HP drama—dangerous on the surface, stable underneath, with low odds of a true upset.
In the original, when Camula used Illusion Gate, she also cheated off the table. Illusion Gate should stake the user's soul, with the loser paying the price. But she was a ends-justify-the-means duelist bent on reviving her race—honor meant nothing to her. She exploited the main cast's ignorance of dark power, rewriting the terms with her own magic—swapping in Syrus' soul in place of her own.
That way she bore no risk, and if Zane won, Syrus's soul would be taken instead. No risk to her, a leash on her opponent, and a table-flipping cheat—easy win.
But now, afraid of drawing Kira's eye, she ambushed Zane in secret. There were no bystanders to snatch as her soul's substitute.
Only Kira was present. She hadn't watched Duel City finals in person, but as a Dark Duelist she'd heard enough—this Duel King had won after gods fought a world-ending boss.
Cheating in front of ignoramuses is one thing. Trying tricks in front of someone like that would just get her killed worse.
Hence her end.
With the duel over, Illusion Gate rose behind her again. The massive door opened slowly. Beyond it—nothing. Only bottomless dark.
A demon's hand reached out, closing around Camula's pale throat. Her white face flushed red under the choke; her voice broke into ragged, helpless screams—she couldn't form a single word.
Kira wanted to intervene—this was the second Shadow Riders he'd caught. He'd come hoping to try the trick that hadn't worked on Dark Atticus—to see if he could use his power to influence the rules of a Shadow Duel, keep Camula alive as a remote-controlled puppet, and have her lead him back to the Shadow Riders' base for intel.
But no luck. Though his dark power had grown, and he could tweak a Shadow Duel's stakes a little when Zane won, he couldn't shake Illusion Gate's rules.
A brief probe told him the card's power vastly outstripped the Shadow Duel Camula had started. The Sacred Beast force beyond the door was absolute; it would not allow its promised soul to be spared.
Forcing it would risk a backlash from beyond—and that wasn't worth it. So Kira withdrew, watching Camula caught in her own web.
The Sacred Beast power dragged the vampire into a hellish abyss. Screams that seemed to come from her very soul echoed from behind the door, lingering long before fading.
The door shut.
The Sacred Beast was satisfied. The door became a fading image; the bat upon it smirked in mockery, as if waiting for the next fool to open it.
The second of the Shadow Riders—done for.
Zane stared at the alluring body now empty of a soul. In his head, her final struggles echoed—the despair as she was dragged into the dark. He said nothing.
If he'd fallen short—if he hadn't turned it around and had lost to her—
Zane dared not finish the thought.
He clenched a fist, looking down at his Duel Disk and the card still set upon it—Chimeratech Fortress Dragon.
The first card he'd received from Kira's lab.
The card that had plunged him into doubt back in Duel City—and then saved his life today.
Suddenly, he felt the worth of victory more keenly than ever.
Victory meant standing here alive, greedily breathing free air.
Defeat meant ending like Camula—cold, a lifeless doll on the ground, soul dragged into an unknown darkness for endless torment, a demon's plaything.
His fist tightened.
"Thank you, Kira."
"Ah?"
Kira looked up from deftly pocketing the vampire's deck.
"Thanks for the intel today. This vampire wasn't weak—if she'd learned my deck in advance and teched against it..."
A shiver ran through Zane.
If not for Kira's warning—if Camula hadn't mistaken him for Dragons but had peeked his real build—
If she'd prepared to lock down Machines and he'd been forced to fight under that pressure...
The thought alone made him sweat.
"And... thank you for the deliberate guidance," Zane said solemnly.
When he'd faced Kira in the Duel City qualifiers, he hadn't thought much. Then Kira went on to win the whole thing—cutting through all comers to become Duel King.
If Kira had been merely an excellent classmate before, he was now a legendary grandmaster.
Looking back on that duel, Zane suddenly saw it—the other had glimpsed the limits of his path and used the duel to nudge him.
And indeed, only after that duel had he stepped outside his old tunnel vision—and today, he'd had his moment of sudden clarity.
Guidance personally delivered by the Duel King—he knew its worth. In the dueling world, it was priceless.
"Ah, that? No big deal. We're classmates—we sharpen each other."
Kira smiled—and slipped Camula's deck into his pocket.
Two Shadow Riders in a row, both uncontrollable. He'd need a different plan to probe this organization.
After saying goodbye, Zane turned away. He was wrung out from the battle; his racing heartbeat hadn't fully slowed. Yet his steps were lighter than they'd been in a month, and the road ahead had never looked clearer.
He remembered.
When Master Chancellor taught him the Cyber style, he hadn't passed down everything.
What Zane inherited was only the "Outer Cyber Style." There was also an "Inner Cyber Style."
The Outer was light; the Inner stood opposite to the light—dark.
That power was too strong—and too evil. The Cyber Dojo sealed it and passed it to no one. Zane had believed his master's teachings and never considered that deck.
But now, his thinking had changed.
Light or dark—if it wins, any necessary means should be used to their fullest.
He would make the Cyber school whole again in his hands.
He would seek out the dark secret of the Cyber Dragons—sealed away by history.