Grapha’s claws closed over the top of the shadow Duel Disk and drew a card.
“My turn!” “Then the instant your Draw Phase ends!” Kujo’s voice cracked out before Grapha could even act.
“I activate my Set card, the Continuous Trap — Crimson Lotus Domain!” The Set card beneath his feet flipped face up, rippling with dark violet light.
Kujo lifted his chin and spread his arms wide, brimming with confidence.
“My three monsters and this trap, all together, give me effect negation, attack-step negation, and destruction!
And Tyrant Red Dragon Archfiend can blow up your entire field during my Main Phase!
If you can’t get rid of it this turn, the duel ends on the next one!” Grapha swept a glance across his monsters, then gave a cold laugh.
“Thy monsters are not as fearsome as thou claimest.” Kujo’s brow furrowed.
“What did you say?” “Effect negation can only negate cards already on the field.” Grapha’s gaze drifted to the monsters before him.
“Attack-step negation…
I shall clear thy monsters away before we ever reach the Battle Phase, so it will never trigger.
And as for that trap…” It paused, the crimson light of its eyes settling on the card.
“That card can only activate its effect while a Red Dragon Archfiend remains on the field.
Is that not so?” Kujo’s face darkened.
“You…
how do you know all that?” Grapha let out a hoarse laugh, and dust shook loose from the stone walls above.
“Thou thinkest…” The great dragon slowly lowered its head, crimson eyes locking onto Kujo, the searing heat of its breath washing over his face.
Kujo’s pupils shrank.
“Long ago, it was a man wielding this very deck who sealed me in this place.” Grapha’s voice rolled through the stone chamber.
“Thou askest why I know so much?” The whole crowd erupted.
“Sealed away?
This thing was sealed in here?” “Someone using a Red Dragon Archfiend deck sealed it?” Grapha paid the murmuring no mind and went on remembering.
“That one…
was far stronger than thee.
Wherever he went, he carried a set of golden scales, and called himself…” “A Signer.” Hearing this, Nate, who had been watching the show, gave a small start.
Golden scales, and a Signer.
His mind raced.
The golden scales might well be the Millennium Scale that Shadi carried in the original Yu-Gi-Oh!
— one of the Millennium Items, able to weigh the very heart of a person.
And a Signer was one who bore the Mark of the Dragon in 5D’s.
Both of those things, on the same man?
It seemed this world was not nearly as simple as he had imagined.
“So thou seest, thy strength is not enough to challenge me!” “No matter.” Grapha drew a card from its hand.
“Let me show thee the gulf between thy power and mine!” With that, it revealed a Spell Card.
Nate’s eyes ran across the card art, and when he saw what it was, the corner of his mouth twitched.
Oh, brilliant.
A true final boss.
Opens with a card that’s been banned for ages.
“Spell Card…
Graceful Charity.” Grapha’s low voice echoed through the chamber, the card’s face giving off a soft yet suffocating white glow.
“The effect of Graceful Charity.
Draw three cards from the deck, then discard two from the hand.” Grapha’s claw rested on the top of its deck, but it did not draw at once.
Instead it looked at Kujo.
In an instant, every eye in the chamber swung to him.
Fine beads of sweat broke out across Kujo’s forehead.
The only monster on his field with a negation effect was Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss.
If he spent its effect now, he would have no resistance left afterward.
But if he held it, his opponent would draw three cards, and that hand advantage would be enormous.
And worse, he didn’t know whether the dragon was bluffing.
If it was a bluff, he’d waste the effect for nothing.
Two seconds of thought, and he chose to keep his resistance.
“Don’t think you can trick me!” Grapha was silent for a moment, then let out a low rumble, laced with cruel amusement.
“Thou hast just thrown away thy chance to live a little longer.” Kujo blinked.
Grapha’s claw closed on the deck and drew three cards.
Then it turned two identical cards face up.
“The cards I shall discard,” Grapha said, sliding the two dragons into the Graveyard slot, “are myself.
That is to say…
Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World.” The instant the two cards entered the Graveyard…
BOOM!
Two pillars of black flame burst skyward from the Graveyard.
The pitch-dark fire surged up like a tide rising from the depths of hell, wrapped in pure destructive will, swallowing the light above the field in a heartbeat.
“The effect of Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World.” Grapha’s voice rolled in like muffled thunder.
“When this card is discarded from the hand to the Graveyard by a card effect, you can target one card your opponent controls and destroy it.” It paused, crimson eyes fixing on Kujo’s monsters.
“And this effect carries no once-per-turn restriction.” Kujo’s pupils contracted violently.
“What?!” The words had scarcely left his mouth when two streams of black flame shot out of the Graveyard at once, one to the left, one to the right, like a pair of poisoned daggers, piercing clean through Tyrant Red Dragon Archfiend and Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss.
The two great beasts had no time even to roar before the black flame devoured them, scattering into shattered points of light in the air.
One strike, two monsters gone.
The watching crowd burst into gasps.
The students of Class 5 went pale.
The few who had been singing Kujo’s praises a moment ago now stood with their mouths open, unable to get out a single word.
Two of his three monsters wiped out in an instant, and his opponent hadn’t even entered the Battle Phase.
“Not finished yet.” Grapha turned another card in its hand face up.
“Spell Card…
Dark World Corridor.” Nate looked at the card and gave a slight shake of his head.
“It’s over.” At that, Kai gave a start and turned to him.
“Nate, what do you mean?” “Dark World Corridor’s effect.
Add one Dark World monster from the deck to the hand, then choose and discard one card from your own hand.” Nate’s tone was flat.
“What he’s searching is the third Grapha, and that’s what he’ll discard too.” As if to confirm his words, Grapha’s voice rose again across the chamber.
“The effect of Dark World Corridor.
I add the last Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World from my deck to my hand, then discard it.” Grapha drew the card from its deck and, without a flicker of hesitation, pushed it into the Graveyard slot.
A third pillar of black flame roared up from the Graveyard.
This time its target was the last monster on Kujo’s field — Red Dragon Archfiend.
The black flame ran the dragon through, and Red Dragon Archfiend’s roar was choked off in its throat, breaking apart into a sky full of scattered light.
Less than a minute.
Three powerful monsters, all annihilated.
Kujo’s field was swept clean.
The Crimson Lotus Domain, the only thing still glowing in his backrow, had lost the Red Dragon Archfiend it depended on.
Its effect could no longer activate.
It was nothing now but a dead card.
And Grapha had barely spent a single card from its hand.
In the span of one turn it had used only two Spell Cards, and both of those drew cards on their own.
So in real terms it was down by exactly one card, with five still left in hand.
The tomb was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.
Kujo stared at his empty field, fingertips trembling faintly.
He glanced at the cards in his hand, and after a long silence forced out his bravado.
So you destroyed my monsters.
What of it?
He drew a deep breath and forced himself calm.
I still have 8,000 Life Points.
As long as you can’t cut me down all in one turn, next turn I can rebuild off the resources in my hand.
But when Grapha heard this, it gave a low, rolling laugh.
“Thou still imaginest there will be a next turn?”