“Activating the effect of Red Rising Dragon, and chaining the effect of Lord of the Red, Flame’s Sin!” Nate’s voice climbed sharply.
“First, resolving Chain Link 1, the effect of Lord of the Red, Flame’s Sin!” His fingers came down on his deck.
“When this card is sent to the Graveyard as a Synchro Material, I can send one Normal Trap Card from my Deck to the Graveyard!” A card slid out from his deck.
He drew it free and pushed it straight into the Graveyard slot.
“The card I’m sending is a Trap Card.
Great Soul!” The card vanished soundlessly into the Graveyard.
“Next, resolving Chain Link 2, the effect of Red Rising Dragon!” He threw his hand upward, and a pillar of crimson light erupted from the Graveyard, surging toward the ceiling.
“Targeting one Resonator monster in my Graveyard, I Special Summon it.
Return to me, Soul Resonator!” The blood-red fiend took shape again out of the void, descending slowly to settle at the feet of Red Rising Dragon.
Soul Resonator, ATK: 500.
Nate didn’t pause for even a breath.
His arm swept across.
“Now I tune the returned Soul Resonator with the Level 6 Red Rising Dragon once more!” Both monsters leapt skyward at the same instant.
“The pulse of a king beats in my ears.
O demon dragon slumbering deep beneath the earth, wake now from your rest and sweep aside every obstacle in my path.
Awaken, Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss!” As the words fell, the two monsters burst into two blinding streaks of light and shot up into the heights of the tomb.
The radiance of the Synchro Summon poured down like a waterfall, and the entire chamber trembled faintly.
“Roooar!” With a roar that shook heaven and earth, a demon dragon clad in crimson scales beat its wings and soared out of the light, blazing flames coiling around its claws.
Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss Level 9 / Dragon / Synchro / Effect ATK: 3200 Nate slowly lowered his hand, his expression calm.
“Last, I set one card.” “Turn end.” The moment the words left his mouth, Grapha’s voice rose.
“Then, during your End Phase, the effect of Savior Demon Dragon activates, returning it to the Extra…” It never finished.
Nate’s finger was already pressed against his Duel Disk.
In the Graveyard slot, a dark golden light flared to life.
“Before you activate your effect, I activate the effect of Great Soul in my Graveyard.” Grapha’s dragon eyes narrowed a fraction.
Nate lifted his gaze, and the smile at the corner of his mouth deepened slowly.
His fingers swept above the Graveyard slot, and a card surfaced amid the glow.
“Great Soul.
When I control a Level 10 or higher DARK Dragon Synchro monster, I can banish this card from the Graveyard at the moment a monster’s effect activates.” “It negates that effect, and raises the ATK of one Synchro monster I control by 2000, until the end of my next turn.” He drew the card from the Graveyard, pinched it between two fingers, and gave it a light wave toward Grapha.
“I banish Great Soul to negate the effect that returns Savior Demon Dragon to the Extra Deck!” He paused for a second.
“And to raise its ATK by 2000.” Savior Demon Dragon threw back its head and loosed an earth-shaking roar.
The crimson veins along its wings lit one after another, as though set alight.
The terrible pressure in the air more than doubled in an instant.
The very air buzzed with the force of it, and dust drifted down from the stone walls.
Savior Demon Dragon ATK: 4000 → 6000 “…I see.” Grapha’s low voice echoed through the chamber.
“You used a negation effect to dodge the compulsory effect that returns Savior Demon Dragon to the Extra Deck.” Its dragon eyes shifted, settling toward the Graveyard.
“And that Great Soul was sent there deliberately, by the effect of your Lord of the Red, Flame’s Sin.” It lowered its massive head, its voice sinking lower.
“Which means, from the very beginning, you had already calculated this far ahead.” “You opened with a monster that couldn’t be destroyed by effects, just to grind through that first turn.” The moment it said this, the onlookers fell silent all at once.
“Six thousand…
six thousand ATK?
And it can’t even be destroyed by effects?!” “Is this guy really from the bottom-ranked class?
Why do I feel like this deck is more terrifying in his hands than it ever was in Kujo Shin’s…” “Shh!
Keep it down, Kujo Shin is standing right there!” But Kujo Shin had no energy left to spare for the murmuring around him.
He stared up at the great dragon bathed in crimson-gold flame, his lips moving without a single word coming out.
A monster with four thousand ATK was, in his understanding, already a struggle to summon.
Yet Nate on the field had not only called it out as though it were nothing, he had pushed its ATK to six thousand in the blink of an eye.
The confidence he had built up bit by bit since entering the academy was shattered to nothing in that one moment.
He suddenly remembered the words the other had spoken when they first entered the ruins.
Maybe…
the other had never taken him seriously at all, from the very start.
On the field.
Hearing Grapha’s words, the corner of Nate’s mouth curved up.
“You can think of it that way.” Grapha let out a cold snort, a glint of frost flashing through its three pairs of dragon eyes.
“It’s only a single turn.” Its bladed tail slammed down on the stone platform, and the whole chamber shook.
“Next turn, this monster of yours returns to the deck all the same.” But Nate only smiled faintly, not the slightest waver in his expression.
“Its job is already done, isn’t it?” The moment the words landed, Grapha’s dragon eyes snapped narrow.
It glared at Nate, as if trying to read something off that calm face, and in the end only let out another cold snort, its enormous body slowly straightening.
“…Sharp tongue.” “It’s my turn now.” Its claw closed over the deck woven from shadow, and slowly drew a card.
“My turn.
Draw!”