“My turn.
Draw!” The moment the dragon claw pulled the card free, a gust carrying the chill of the abyss swept across the dueling platform.
Grapha’s crimson slit-pupils swept over the new card.
A brief flash of light passed through them, and it tucked the card into its hand.
The six cards it now held were: Dark World Corridor, Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World, Dark World Dealings x2, Silva, Warlord of Dark World, and Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World.
“I’ll start with this one.” The jet-black claw gripped a Spell Card wreathed in black mist and slid it precisely into the Duel Disk slot.
“Spell Card, Dark World Dealings.
Its effect causes both players to draw one card from their decks, then each player who drew discards one card from their hand.” Twin black magic circles unfurled above both decks simultaneously, a rotting luminescence slowly rising from within.
But just as the effect was about to resolve…
The great crimson dragon on Nate’s field suddenly threw its head back and let out a deafening roar.
Its breath swept out like a wave and snuffed out the glow of the activated Dark World Dealings.
Watching the Spell Card dissolve into scattered motes of light on the Duel Disk, Grapha raised one scaled brow, a flicker of surprise crossing its crimson pupils.
“Drawing and discarding would have been useful to you too.
Why did you immediately spend your negation on it?
That was the only counter on your field.” Nate heard this and offered a mild smile.
“Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss’s effect can only negate cards activated on the field.
I had no way of knowing whether you had Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World in hand, which is your first form, the one that can destroy a card on my field when it’s discarded by an effect.” “So rather than hold it and gamble on you not drawing into one, I spent it now to cut off your resource loop.” Grapha was silent for a beat, then let out a low, rumbling laugh, like thunder rolling beneath the earth.
“Interesting!
Boy, you have far more sense than that fool before you.
Not greedy, and your reads are sharp.
But…” The laughter cut off.
The temperature around it plunged to nothing in an instant.
“I have more than one copy of Dark World Dealings!” It whipped out a second Dark World Dealings.
“And I already have a copy of Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World right here in my hand!” The Spell Card’s glow blazed to life again.
Both players drew one card from their decks.
They each pressed a hand to their deck and drew.
Nate glanced at what he had pulled, his expression unchanged, and pressed one card from his hand into the Graveyard.
On Grapha’s side, the dragon claw flipped over and fed a card into the Graveyard slot.
The instant the card made contact, its voice shot up.
“What I discard is none other than Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World!” “And in this very instant, its effect activates!” A black rift tore open in the Graveyard with a thunderous crack.
A dragon claw, armored in scales as cold as obsidian and wreathed in ghostly green hellfire, burst through the tear.
The abyssal power of the Dark World poured out like a burst dam, and it seized the Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss by its throat.
Crack!
The crimson scales shattered piece by piece.
The Archfiend Abyss let out a roar of indignation as its massive body was torn apart by that black energy, dissolving into a cascade of red light.
“Good.” Grapha surveyed the now-empty field across from it, a cruel smile curling at the corner of its maw.
Without hesitation, it played the card it had just drawn.
“Next, I activate the Spell Card Pot of Greed.
Draw 2 cards from my deck!” A golden pot-shaped phantom spun through the air, and two cards flew into its hand.
Grapha scanned them and, without a moment’s pause, slapped one onto the field.
“I activate the Spell Card Trade-In.
By discarding one Level 8 monster from my hand, I draw two cards from my deck.” With that, it sent Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World into the Graveyard, then drew two cards from its deck.
At that point, a puzzled voice rose from somewhere in the crowd.
“Wait…
isn’t Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World a Dark World monster too?” “It was just discarded to the Graveyard.
Why didn’t its effect trigger?” “Right, in the duel against the vice president, every Dark World monster that got sent to the Graveyard went off.
Grapha triggered when it was discarded just now.
So why did Reign-Beaux get discarded without making a single sound?
Is it holding back again?” The words drifted onto the field.
Grapha’s dragon eyes shifted slightly, and a laugh rose unbothered from its throat.
“Several hundred years have passed…
and the human duelists of today have fallen so far behind that they can no longer even distinguish between card effects?” The few students who had spoken felt their faces flush red, but none of them dared talk back.
They pressed their mouths shut with sheepish looks.
Nate heard this and smiled slightly, cutting into the mockery.
“They’re all first-years.
They haven’t been studying structured dueling for very long, and getting the fine print on some cards confused is completely normal.” “The condition for a Dark World monster’s effect to trigger is being discarded by a card effect.” “When Trade-In discards a monster, that discard is the cost of activating the card.
It does not count as a discard by effect.” “So the effect of Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World cannot trigger.” He paused, then continued.
“Kai, everyone in Class 10, remember this.
If you ever run a Dark World deck, never make that kind of mistake.” “If you want to trigger Dark World effects consistently, you can run cards like Dragged Down into the Grave or Farrell, Fiend of Dark World in your deck.” “Those discards qualify as effect discards, and they’ll reliably set off your Dark World monsters’ effects.” “Ah, so that’s how it works…” The students who had asked began nodding, understanding dawning on their faces.
The way they looked at Nate shifted in that instant.
Beneath the crushing pressure of this dark and very real duel, Nate had not shown even the faintest trace of nerves.
He was calmly breaking down rulings like a textbook and even taking the time to coach the people watching.
That composure gave no small number of the first-years a strange, settling sense of security.
“Ha!
Hahahahaha!” Grapha suddenly threw its head back and laughed, and the shockwave sent fragments of stone raining down from the ceiling of the tomb.