Satellite.
The cement roads were covered in cracks, while garbage and industrial waste littered the ground.
Dilapidated concrete houses and chaotically assembled wooden shacks formed the main scenery of this place.
Even though it was noon, the sky remained dim and overcast, thick clouds blocking out the sunlight all year round.
This city district, resembling a post-apocalyptic wasteland, was filled with vagrants, criminals, and thugs.
The roads leading to the outside world had been physically severed, isolating this abandoned “hell” from the magnificent “heaven” of the upper districts.
Amid the roar of an engine, Kazumo drove his D-Wheel through the underground garbage disposal tunnels, returning here from the upper districts.
The D-Wheel bumped across the cracked roads.
Its streamlined, technologically advanced gleaming body looked completely out of place amidst the surrounding environment.
On both sides of the road, drifters hidden in the darkness cast looks of jealousy and fear toward him, silently watching until he disappeared from sight.
At last, Kazumo arrived at his destination.
It was a two-story building with exterior damage but a relatively intact structure.
The rolling shutter door on the first floor was tightly shut.
Kazumo walked forward, braced both hands beneath the shutter, and suddenly exerted force.
Accompanied by harsh grinding noises, the door rolled upward.
Before him lay the dim, empty, dust-covered interior of the first floor.
Kazumo pushed the D-Wheel inside before turning around and pulling the shutter back down.
After patting the dust off his hands, he followed the faint light shining through the crack beneath the door and climbed the concrete stairs to the second floor.
This was his room.
Cracked floors, walls covered in fractures, shattered window frames sealed shut with wooden boards.
The only furniture consisted of a dirty gray-green sofa and a wooden table and chair set.
Kazumo sat at the table, took out a lighter, and lit the oil lamp on the table.
Firelight illuminated the shabby room.
Within the flickering firelight, Kazumo pulled a card from the pocket on his chest: Earthbound Immortal Aslla piscu.
He had obtained this card three days ago when he became a Dark Signer.
Albeit over the past few days, no matter how he tried, the card never responded, nor could it be used on a Duel Disk.
Only yesterday, after defeating Tetsu, did he eventually sense fluctuations of power coming from the card.
Kazumo placed the card upon the table whose surface had darkened with age.
Looking at it, he asked:
“Hey, now that you’ve finally responded, can you at least explain the situation a little?”
Suddenly, the card erupted with dazzling purple light that enveloped Kazumo.
He felt the scenery around him begin twisting and changing.
When the light weakened, he discovered in shock that he was floating high above the sky, while the land beneath him unfolded like a painted scroll.
Gods truly existed beneath this land.
Ten thousand years ago, the ancient people known as the “People of the Stars” still lived in primitive tribal societies.
To survive within the harsh environment, they offered sacrifices to the gods upon the earth and prayed for protection.
The gods were not singular.
Thus, in order to ensure the purity and correctness of their faith, they recorded the images of the gods they worshipped through geoglyphs.
From that moment onward, those gods recorded through geoglyphs became known as the Earthbound Immortals.
Under the protection of the gods, humanity prospered and flourished upon the earth.
However, as the population increased and unexplored lands became fewer and fewer, human tribes began fighting over resources.
In the end, war broke out.
This war was not only a struggle for resources between humans, but also a war of differing ideologies between the gods.
At the height of the conflict, countless people were devoured by the flames of war every single day.
In response to the unwilling prayers of those dead, the geoglyphs of the gods upon the earth ignited with violet-black flames.
The Earthbound Immortals answered their prayers.
The gods descended!
The true forms of the gods descended upon the earth, and the war entered the era of divine descent.
Mere collisions destroyed cities, while their fierce battles transformed the earth into a wasteland.
In their despair, humanity once again prayed to the gods for peace.
This time, five human heroes who wielded divine emissaries answered their prayers.
Through the “Duelling Ritual,” they obtained the divine power known as the “Ultimate Gods.”
As proof of their power, glowing red dragon-shaped marks were engraved upon their arms.
Afterward, the five heroes commanded five dragons to seal away the seven Earthbound Immortals ravaging the world, and peace finally returned to the earth.
Now, five thousand years later, the seals have weakened, and the Earthbound Immortals once imprisoned have begun reviving.
“So couldn’t you just talk directly?
Did you really have to force me to sit through a movie for several hours…?”
His consciousness returned, and Kazumo sat at the old wooden table while holding his aching head, unable to resist complaining.
On the tabletop, the card emitted a faint purple glow, as though responding to Kazumo.
Bzz…
A faint humming sound emerged from the card, seemingly conveying something.
Strangely enough, Kazumo understood its meaning right away.
“Because the Duelling Ritual was interrupted before completion and you were sealed away, you now want to complete the unfinished Duel against the Signers?”
The so-called Duelling Ritual referred to Dueling itself, and it was the term the spirits used for Duels.
After hearing the hummingbird god’s explanation, Kazumo finally understood everything.
So back then, the five heroes and the Earthbound Immortals hadn’t even finished their Duel.
They stopped halfway through, pulled the plug, and then turned around and sealed all seven of them away.
If it were him, getting interrupted halfway through a Duel and then imprisoned for five thousand years by his opponent…
Once his sentence was over, he would definitely do something extreme to his opponent too.
In the end, neither side had truly been wrong from their respective positions, so Kazumo found it hard to judge either of them.
“Then what’s our current situation now?”
Kazumo asked the question he cared about most.
Bzzzt.
“Because I’m still alive, a living person, I can’t fully bring out your power even though I’ve been chosen?”
Hearing this answer, Kazumo, who was familiar with the original plot, immediately understood.
In the original 5D’s storyline, it had been mentioned that only the dead could form contracts with Earthbound Immortals and become Dark Signers.
Of course, there were exceptions.
One of them was Roman Goodwin, the older brother of Rex Goodwin, the current supreme director of New Domino City’s Public Security Maintenance Bureau.
He was a monster of a man who had obtained both the Crimson Dragon mark and the Dark Signer mark while still alive.
However, he ultimately chose to embrace death and become a true Dark Signer, becoming the current leader of the Dark Signers.
Back to Kazumo’s situation.
Although he had been chosen by the Dark Sign and became a Dark Signer, his transmigration had apparently bugged the process and left him in this awkward state.
However, Kazumo had no intention of embracing death and turning himself into a genuine Dark Signer.
According to what he knew, official Dark Signers were controlled by the Earthbound Immortals, essentially becoming puppets of the Earthbound Immortal spirits.
Faced with this situation, he could only sigh helplessly.
“Haa…
Looks like I can’t count on you Earthbound Immortals after all.”
Still, becoming a “half-baked” Dark Signer wasn’t entirely without benefits; the one advantage worth mentioning was obtaining spiritual power.
Spiritual power was also one of the signature abilities of the Yu-Gi-Oh!
world.
Those who possessed this power could perceive the spirits within Monster Cards and communicate with them.
For example, Luna in the current 5D’s world could see spirits and often converse with them.
Of course, not every card possessed a spirit.
Besides that, spiritual power could also grant its wielder the ability to materialize spirits.
Jaden could physically manifest his “Ultraman” and launch literal physical attacks against enemies.
It could even evolve into the power to initiate “Shadow Duels,” where both Duelists would suffer real injuries during the Duel.
Right now, his greatest problem was how to face Goodwin and the Signer protagonists.
According to the 5D’s plot, Goodwin planned to gather the powers of all Signers and Dark Signers in order to recreate the world.
As one of the Dark Signers, what awaited Kazumo next would be the powerful assassins under Goodwin’s command, along with the Signers whom he had manipulated into joining him.
In the original story, every defeated Dark Signer returned to death.
Kazumo had no desire to gamble on whether he could revive after losing, especially since he wasn’t a “local.”
At present, the only thing he could do was adjust his Deck to deal with the trouble that could arrive at any moment.
A sudden humming sound interrupted Kazumo.
The humming came from outside the room, almost as though someone were knocking and calling out to a friend inside.
Kazumo’s expression darkened.
He hadn’t expected the first ones to come knocking to be other Dark Signers.
Kazumo did not panic.
He picked up the Duel Disk loaded with his Deck from nearby and snapped it onto his left arm with a click.
Only after confirming the Duel Disk was functioning properly did he slowly stand up and walk toward the door.