The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　He fought his way from the loser's bracket to the finals, truly like a "hero." According to the popular storyline that most people like, the next step should be "the hero slaying the dragon" or "the hero defeating the demon king."

　However, the current ritual is unrelated to such legends.

　Dark's current role should be that of the "Emperor" among the three incarnations. He stands on the field, in opposition to Jax.

　Immediately afterwards, as if sensing some kind of unseen guidance, the two sides opened their duel domains almost simultaneously.

　Without hesitation, Dark activated the "Life Card" with 16000 health points, granting himself a 16000-point health shield.

　Even in magical duels involving gods, 16000 health points are usually enough to withstand an attack. Even if it's insufficient, it can be used to block the aftershocks of some powerful finishing moves.

　Dark then placed his deck into the Duel Disk and activated the automatic shuffle. Both players acted almost simultaneously, cleanly and decisively, without any hesitation. And immediately after the shuffle, they entered the next phase. Both players drew cards at the same time.

　After drawing five cards from his deck, Dark glanced down at them briefly before focusing his attention on his opponent.

　He instinctively felt that Jax was a completely different opponent from the other Fallen Ones, and that he had to go all out to defeat him.

　On the other side, Jax naturally already knew that he was not Thompson at all.

　But that will only make Jax more excited and even more crazy.

　He also changed his deck, which was his strongest deck that he couldn't reveal to others!

　"Battle Phase" [30s]

　Darkness descends, mystery and unease descend.

　As the ceremony drew to a close, the atmosphere within the cave grew increasingly mysterious.

　Dark focused his mind, his magic reaching its peak, and began to silently chant a summoning mantra.

　"In the name of Darkdemon, I summon the Guardian of the Golden Land!"

　This "Dark Crystal Cave" is filled with dark power and is extremely secretive, making it a perfect place to test this deck.

　Otherwise, he had absolutely no experience using the "Golden Kingdom" deck. Even if he suddenly brought it out in the main tournament, he wouldn't be able to use it perfectly.

　However, the "Guardian of the Golden Land" is a light-type creature. Although its light attribute is somewhat unique, allowing it to be compatible with undead species, it's uncertain whether it will be affected by the dark aura within this cave.

　Let's summon it first!

　As the golden summoning circle appeared before him, Dark took the initiative to control it, instantly materializing the "Guardian of the Golden Land".

　That was a six-star Spellweaver resembling a saber-toothed tiger, a golden sculpture. The three-star, six-star, and nine-star Spellweavers in the "Golden Kingdom" deck possess the ultimate skill "Alchemy Ritual," allowing these three Spellweavers to be summoned as Ritual Cards, meaning they can be summoned directly without any tributes!

　The "Guardian of the Golden Land" is primarily defensive, with stats of 2500/2000/3000.

　After summoning it, Dark immediately ordered it to use its ultimate move, "Golden Guardian," without any hesitation.

　The "Guardian of the Golden Land" suddenly raised its head, and its golden, sculpted body released a bright white light. The light element burst forth, but it did not conflict with the surrounding dark element, which was astonishing.

　Jax paused noticeably after completing his initial summoning maneuver. It was unclear whether it was due to the peaceful coexistence of light and darkness, or something else entirely.

　But Dark was already focused on his Life Card shield. Ever since Lance Gascoyle demonstrated the Life Card's invincibility bug on the dueling stage, Dark had been thinking about similar things.

　Therefore, the target of this ultimate move, "Golden Guardian," is the life shield he creates using "Life Cards"!

　The effect of "Golden Guardian" was triggered perfectly.

　The life shield created by the "Life Card" has the same defense as the "Guardian of the Golden City," which is a full 3000 points!

　With 3000 defense points and 16000 health points, Dark felt as if he had put on a tortoise shell.

　Furthermore, before the curse mark of "Golden Guardian" disappears, "Golden Land Guardian" can withstand 50% of the damage.

　Additionally, actively activating the curse seal can increase both sides' defense by 50% for 30 seconds, up to 4500 points.

　But through calculation.

　The "Guardian of the Golden Land" has 2500 magic points, meaning it can only withstand a maximum of 2500 points of damage.

　Once it takes more than 2500 damage, the "Guardian of the Golden Land" will die, and its protective seal will naturally disappear.

　Therefore, Dark's actual maximum damage tolerance during the duration of "Golden Guardian" is only 5000 points.

　He completed the calculation in an instant and prepared to summon and activate the next magic card. "Guardian of the Golden City" is primarily defensive and not good at attacking.

　He summoned the "Guardian of the Golden City" at the start to guard against a sneak attack. He looked at the opponent, his expression solemn.

　But then, a humanoid magical sprite emerged from the dark summoning circle in front of Jax.

　The humanoid magical elf was covered in black armor, with two horns standing on its helmet, resembling a demon.

　It is tall and thin, with long, disproportionate limbs, and exudes an extremely dangerous aura.

　It was a nine-star magical spirit!

　Jax didn't make any prior arrangements; he just summoned a nine-star demon right from the start!

　Although Dark could also use the "Alchemy Ritual" to directly summon the nine-star "Golden Cavalry," this was, after all, his hidden trump card. Seeing that Jax could do the same, he was understandably surprised.

　Moreover, the aura emanating from that nine-star demon was unusual. Judging from its appearance, he seemed to have seen it before in his history of magic course. "That's right, it's Demon General Aldington! Holding a Named Magical Spirit Card!" Dark's mind instantly flashed to Demon General Aldington's special ability—"Reverse Blood"!

　Aldington, the Demon General, is a mutated vampire. The biggest difference between him and a normal vampire is that his "Embrace" is completely reversed from that of a normal vampire. He can inject "reverse blood" through his vampire fangs, causing his life to degenerate.

　For example, a vampire could temporarily degenerate into a blood demon, or a blood demon could temporarily degenerate into a blood slave.

　Although it can only regress life forms by one stage and is not lasting, it is an extremely terrifying ability on the battlefield.

　Humans bitten by him will exhibit "atavism," which may not be outwardly apparent, but their cognitive abilities will deteriorate significantly, making them resemble intellectually disabled individuals.

　And if this special ability were applied to a super-evolved magical spirit…

　Dark suddenly realized that this was a magical spirit specifically designed to counter the evolutionary system.

　He even wondered if a magical creature like a "Charizard" would turn into a "Little Charmander" if it bit it.

　However, [Demon General Aldington] is only a nine-star magical spirit, so it should not be effective against fourth-tier magical spirits that have rank bonuses.

　and.

　He's currently using the "Golden Card" deck.

　For magical spirits that have no prior form and no intelligence to begin with, "Reverse Blood" is completely useless.

　Despite the possibility that "Reverse Blood" might be useless, [Demon General Aldington] still rushed over under Jax's command.

　It has no wings, but when it runs, blood-red light blooms under its feet, as if it transforms into blood and escapes, so it should also have the ability to fly.

　The distance between them wouldn't take it more than a few seconds for it, but it was enough for Dark to launch a second summon.

　Moreover, when [Demon General Aldington] pounced in front of him, the "Guardian of the Golden Land," which stood like a stone lion at the gate, suddenly turned from stillness and bit off Aldington's arm before he could react.

　—Although the defenses were not breached, the cursed seal has been planted!

　The ultimate move, "Golden Curse Seal," can render a magical spirit imprinted with the curse seal incapable of attacking.

　A white curse mark appeared on the arm of [Demon General Aldington], causing his claws, which were reaching for the "Guardian of the Golden City," to suddenly stop, as if his entire body was bound and he could no longer move forward.

　"Get back!"

　Jax's voice suddenly rang out, and [Demon General Aldington] retreated abruptly, his scarlet eyes flashing with ferocity.

　Aside from its passive ability and "Reverse Blood," all of its ultimate skills are offensive.

　Now that "Reverse Blood" is useless and has lost its attack ability, it's practically useless!

　Jax made a quick decision, ordering the enemy to retreat to defense while he himself continued with the next summon.

　His second summoning took a rather long time, requiring the infusion of additional magic to complete. That's why he started by summoning [Demon General Aldington].

　Therefore, when Dark activated the "Alchemy Ritual" and summoned the nine-star magical spirit "Golden Knight", he was still summoning.

　As Dark saw the dark elements gathering on the magic card in his hand, he immediately knew that it must be an extremely powerful magic card.

　He raised an eyebrow and immediately ordered the Knight of the Golden Country to charge, then unleashed his ultimate move on Jax—"Death Gaze"!

　Although "Death Gaze" uses eye contact as a medium, its actual casting distance is not far; one must first get close to the target.

Chapter 1583 Demon King's Castle VS Golden Kingdom (4k)

　However, once the "Golden Cavalry" gets close enough, they can unleash a soul strike on Jax, instantly killing him.

　If the instant death check is successful, Jax will die on the spot, bypassing the health shield provided by the "Life Card" and ending the duel directly.

　Even though this behavior doesn't align with the principles of magical duels, this duel isn't a traditional one either; its objective isn't victory, but rather the elimination of the opponent.

　Dak did not hesitate.

　The "Golden Cavalry" is a magical elf that has never been shown before, so Jax couldn't have taken any precautions against "Death Gaze".

　But at the same time.

　As the Knights of the Golden City ran some distance, the magic card in Jax's hand finally emitted an intense black light.

　The black light instantly filled the entire cave, plunging the dueling area into darkness.

　A moment later, the light returned, and an enormous, pitch-black magic circle unfolded at Jax's feet.

　The magic circle was so enormous that it even exceeded the area of ​​the venue. Jax raised his head, his eyes beneath the mask dark and deep.

　The ground beneath his feet trembled instantly, and a black tide surged out of the magic array, flowing outwards like a flood.

　The hooves of the "Golden Land Cavalry" stepped into the black tide and were as if stuck in the mud, unable to move forward, and their running speed immediately slowed down.

　Black mist emanated from the black tide, winding upwards along its four hooves, turning its golden body black.

　If the "Golden Land Cavalry" weren't undead ghost-type beings, they would have been further weakened by the corruption of this black energy.

　Beneath Jax's feet, as the ground trembled, a black tide surged forth, and a colossal castle emerged from it.

　The castle, though "enormous," was only relative to the surrounding area. It was actually a miniature of a truly massive castle, currently occupying only about fifty meters in diameter, with the overall structure correspondingly smaller and inaccessible. However, at the very top of the castle, in the very center, a throne materialized. Jax tossed aside his black robes and sat upon the throne, instantly unleashing a dark aura and radiating terrifying demonic power.

　Dark's eyes narrowed sharply as he recognized the Demon King's Castle, a place recorded in the history of magic!

　"The Castle of Aleister Aldridge, the Undying Demon King"

　In that instant, he suddenly had a realization.

　The castle Jax summoned was none other than the Demon King's castle, the "Undying Demon King's" castle.

　And the person who can create this venue card is the only one who can be chosen.

　"Could it be that Jax is the third of the 'Undying Demon Kings'?" "Is he the 'God Lord' that the red-faced man spoke of?"

　"If the mastermind behind this is the Demon King, then the purpose of this dark ritual could be..."

　In that instant, Dark's mind worked to its limit.

　In a very short time, he recalled all the past events and connected all the clues.

　Then doubts arose.

　If Jax is equivalent to the God or the Demon King, the most likely ultimate goal he could achieve by entering the game and performing this ritual is to merge the other two Demon Kings into one.

　The other two demon kings are "Demon King Number One" and "Demon King Number Two".

　However, "Demon King Number One" and "Demon King Number Two" have already been transformed into "Demon King Aleister" and "Demon King Aldridge".

　"Demon King Number Three" had once hidden in the academy, and there were signs that they were searching for these two Demon Kings.

　Dark is also in the ritual, and unsurprisingly, his card pack contains "Demon King Aleister" and "Demon King Aldrich".

　If Jax is indeed "Demon King Number Three," and the entire ritual is indeed ultimately aimed at him.

　Therefore, when Jax defeats Dark and achieves final victory, it is indeed possible that he can reclaim "Demon King Aleister" and "Demon King Aldridge" and merge them with himself to form a new "Undying Demon King".

　Once this "three-in-one" combination is achieved, the "Undying Demon King" will be a completely different being.

　Because whether it's "Demon King Number One," "Demon King Number Two," or "Demon King Number Three," they are all true Demon Kings born for different reasons.

　Each of them is a complete individual.

　This fusion is definitely not just about resurrecting the original form. It will inevitably result in the three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons" fusing into a "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon," transforming the "Undying Demon King" and even allowing him to reach the throne of godhood!

　These thoughts flashed through Dak's mind one by one.

　But then he had a sudden thought, and using his magical perception, he saw that neither "Demon King Aleister" nor "Demon King Aldrich" reacted.

　Even if "Demon King No. 3" has the ability to hide itself and block this self-awareness.

　Even during the period when he first completed his reincarnation and then awoke again, it was difficult for him to do so completely.

　While at the academy, Dark frequently had "Demon King Aleister" and "Demon King Aldridge" spy on him, but to no avail. The actions of the "God Lord" could not have been accomplished in a short time; they must have involved considerable preparation and planning.

　In other words, if Jax equals God and "Demon King Number Three", then "Demon King Number Three" must have awakened long ago.