How come the Ace of Cups isn't considered the Holy Grail?

In the silence, the buzzing sound of bees flapping their wings seemed to still linger in my ears, making me feel extremely uncomfortable with the atmosphere.

【FNo.0 Future Dragon Emperor Hope】

[Attack power: 3000]

【No. 69 Heraldry and Shield - Wrath of the Gods】

[Attack power: 3100]

Faced with two monsters whose attack power was equal to, or even slightly greater than, that of the Gun King, the player with the highest attack power on the field, the Pale Knight, having used up all his cards, gave up on entering the battle phase.

"End of round."

"My turn."

After taking over the turn from the Pale Knight, Yuwatari didn't rush to draw cards. Instead, he looked at the situation, which was almost a one-on-one battle, and breathed a sigh of relief.

The ability to block Summon and Special Summon means that no new monsters will be summoned on Yuwa's field this turn. Even if you want to negate the effect of the Gun King, it won't work because the Noble 5 Material Gun King is unaffected by the effects of other cards.

You can only use these two monsters on the field to try to clear the Pale Knight's Life Points this turn.

After all, his monsters don't have the noble all-resistance of 5-material Gun King. Maybe the Pale Knight will draw a suitable card next turn... or he might just play a Dark Rebel, whose attack power has been halved, and he can then play GG.

So... in order to secure a victory in this duel, he's going to go!

Amidst the curious gazes of the crowd, You Du raised his right fist high.

At the same time, the words "[ZEXAL Power: EX]" in the innate skill section of his panel flashed with a golden light.

The sound of his heart pounding was like thunder at that moment, and You Du slowly opened his mouth.

"I... I stacked myself!"

Everyone: "?"

Wait, what are you going to stack?

The crowd's doubts couldn't keep up with the speed at which Youdu turned into light.

Enveloped in a blend of red and blue light, the two-colored orb, trailing a long tail, rose from the ground like a rocket, hurtling towards the nebula vortex in the sky.

"When two distant souls meet, the power passed down through generations will manifest! XYZ, transform!"

He's doing the work of two people all by himself!

what?

Just as everyone was stunned by You Du's actions, his voice suddenly rang out in the empty city.

The nebula vortex in the sky did not explode with a roar like in the duel, but continued to rotate clockwise and expand, growing larger and larger until it covered the entire sky of Snowfield City before stopping.

Ayaka Sajou even suspected that the reason it stopped expanding was because this dream world was only the size of the entire Snowfield City, which was why it stopped.

Then the nebula vortex that had enveloped the entire sky began to shrink toward the center, and the golden light, the dark clouds, and the faintly visible two-colored light at the center were all concentrated into one point at this moment.

Wearing a white undershirt and crimson asymmetrical armor, Yuwatari's hair was dyed gold, making his hairstyle quite flamboyant. His whole body was surrounded by golden spheres, and he wore a duel disk that looked like feathers or scales. Like a meteor, he swooped straight down from the sky.

"ZEXAL!"

Returning to where he had just been, before anyone else could process what they had just witnessed, You Du, surrounded by soft golden light, raised his hand once more, and countless golden rays gathered toward his right hand.

What are you going to do now?

"All your light! All your strength! Reside in my right hand! Illuminate the path to hope!"

"The duels of the strongest duelists are all inevitable! Even the card draws are created by the duelists themselves! Flash Draw!"

Retracting his right hand, which was now enveloped in light, Yuuto drew the card coated with gold from the top of his deck. The golden card traced a bright arc in the air, its brilliance almost blinding.

But the moment he drew the card, or rather, the moment his fingers touched it, Yuuto already knew that this was definitely the card he needed!

It was as if a voice deep inside him was calling out, 'It's it! Yes! It's the one!'

"Let's fight!" Yuwatari declared without hesitation, signaling the start of the battle.

"【FNo.0 Future Dragon Emperor Hope】Attacks 【Phantom Knights Broken Sword】!"

【FNo.0 Future Dragon Emperor Hope】

[Attack power: 3000]

【Phantom Knights Broken Sword】

[Defense: 1000]

The Attack/Defense clause means the monster will not deal damage to the opponent, but...

"At this very moment! I unleash the quick-play spell [Future Drive] from my hand!"

Yuuto inserted all the cards he had drawn that turn into the Duel Disk, and several phantoms of Hope, each with a different color and shape, appeared on the field and all merged into the body of the future Dragon Emperor.

"This card can only be activated by targeting 1 'Future Royal Hope' Xyz Monster you control. This turn, that monster can attack each of your opponent's monsters once!"

During the Damage Step when that monster battles the opponent's monster, that opponent's monster's effects are negated! And—

Each time a monster destroys an opponent's monster in battle, it will deal damage equal to the destroyed monster's original attack power!

That's right!

I'll take care of the opponent directly!

"Go! Hope Sword Future Slash!" With Yuwatari's angry shout, the Future Dragon Emperor flapped his iron wings and flew into the sky, throwing one of his twin swords at the Broken Sword and the other at the Pale Knight.

The Broken Sword, with only 1000 points of defense, was undoubtedly pierced through by the descending blade, and the Pale Knight also took 2000 points of damage from the Broken Sword's original attack power due to the blade that flew towards him.

Pale Knight LP: 4000 → 2000

"Well……"

"This is the final blow! Future Dragon Emperor! Attack the [Phantom Knights Rusty Moonblade Axe]! Hope Sword Finishing Slash!"

The future Dragon Emperor in the sky suddenly descended, landing on the Pale Knight's field with lightning speed. He grabbed the knife that had pierced the Broken Sword and threw it at the Rusty Moonblade Axe. With his other hand, he grabbed the knife that had pierced the Pale Knight and swung it down at him for the final blow.

【Phantom Knights Rusty Moonblade Axe】

[Attack power: 2100]

"Ugh—!" A hoarse voice forcefully suppressed the pain that pierced his soul, and the pale knight's humanoid body, which had been formed, began to crumble at this moment.

Pale Knight LP: 2000 → 0

[Yudou: Win!]

Chapter 284 Nighttime Explosion

As the duel ended, Yuwatari's transformation also ended, and the surrounding environment gradually began to change back to the appearance of a hospital room amidst a series of green codes.

When Kuang Qiuchun saw the Pale Knight fall, she was about to go over to check on his condition when, before she could take a step, she and Hansa disappeared along with the surrounding environment.

After all, they were teleported from the Garden of Dreams to the Snowfield City in the Dream by Yuuto's Noble Phantasm, so naturally they had to return to that Garden of Dreams now.

The Pale Knight collapsed to the ground and slowly dissipated into a cloud of black mist. Two cards enveloped in light emerged from the remaining mist and fell into Yuuto's hand, revealing their true forms.

[No.75 The Shadow of Bewildering Rumors] and [No.86 The Heroic Champion Annihilates the Gun King].

Yay! It's Gun King! We're saved!

Suppressing the involuntary upward curve of his lips, Yuuto put the card back into his extra deck and turned to look at the Pale Knight who was leaving the field.

Although you suddenly produced a 5-material gun king, which startled me, you're actually a pretty nice person!

Pale Knight: "..."

The Pale Knight, who seemed to have made some progress in his willpower, didn't want to speak. He simply left a small cloud of black mist behind and disappeared into pure magic before Yuuto and Ayaka Sajou.

【Cursed Mist: A+】

[The mist formed by cursed magic, when it infects living beings, drags their consciousness into a dream through the curse, causing them to fall into a coma and develop red and black spots on their bodies.]

The thick fog wasn't large; You Du could easily hold it in one hand. When he first saw it as a fog, he was considering whether to put it in a bag. But when he actually handled it, he found that it felt like slime.

Of course, he had never actually touched a live slime; he was just using it to describe its bouncy texture.

The surrounding snowfield city scenery had completely disappeared, and the two were back in that white, oppressive hospital room without even a single window.

"finished?"

Ayaka Sajou breathed a sigh of relief. After witnessing the fate of Kyoshinoko after losing her duel, her heart had been in her throat when she saw the monsters on the Yudo field being blown to smithereens during the duel.

Fortunately, Yuuto made some moves that Yuuto couldn't understand as usual and won the duel.

So why do people stack themselves up?

The familiar environment of the hospital room gave Ayaka Sajou a sense of security, like being back home... because the hotel room they were staying in didn't have windows either.

Looking at the emaciated body of Kugaoka Tsubaki lying on the hospital bed, she recalled the little girl she had seen in her dream who looked no different from any other child.

"..."

Will Saber have a way to cure her?

Ayaka Sajou suddenly had this idea, but after thinking about it, she felt that it was unlikely, so she didn't ask it rashly. She just planned to ask about the ferryman tactfully when she had time after leaving.

As for how to be tactful...

For details, please see the tutorials related to the 'I Have a Friend' starting move.

She turned to look at You Du, only to find a drop of bright red liquid with a few strands of gold floating in his hand, looking just like blood.

Although she was used to Yuu Watari suddenly producing things she had never seen before, Ayaka Sajou still couldn't help but feel a little puzzled when she saw that drop of liquid.

What is this?

Before she could even ask, she saw Yu Du flick the drop of liquid into the slightly open mouth of Kuang Qiu Chun on the hospital bed.

"Alright, the matter is settled, Master, let's go—"

As You Du turned around, before he could finish speaking, the two heard an explosion.

The sound wasn't loud. If you heard it in a regular hospital ward, you'd think it was just a small explosion, maybe someone set off a firecracker or something.

But their current ward is a completely enclosed space without windows, designed to isolate germs, and yet they were able to hear an explosion under these circumstances...

Either the explosion site was extremely far from them, or the explosion was of extraordinary magnitude.

Could it really be a natural gas pipeline explosion?

The church has been using this as an excuse every day, and today it actually encountered a natural gas explosion?

Yuuto raised an eyebrow, summoned the Black Magician, and quickly left the ward with him and Ayaka Sajou, heading unimpeded towards the hospital rooftop.

Let me see what's going on!

After the two left, the furrowed brows of Kugaoka Tsubaki on the hospital bed relaxed, and Hansa, who was lying on the ground, twitched his fingers slightly, as if he was about to wake up from that dream.

It took Yuuto and Ayaka Sajou some time to be led to the rooftop by the black magician. Since they didn't know where the explosion had occurred, they could only look around as much as possible.

The floors of the Snowfield City Central Hospital weren't the tallest in the city center, but they were still high enough for them to get a panoramic view of Snowfield City.

“Saber, look over there—” Ayaka Sajou noticed thick smoke rising from the industrial area on the outskirts of Yukihara City, and an unusually large, alien shadow was reflected in the rising smoke. She quickly called out and looked at Yuto in the direction behind her.

However, when she turned around again, both the thick smoke and the shadows had vanished completely, and the quiet scene in the industrial area was as if she had just hallucinated.

Ayaka Sajo murmured in confusion, "Strange, it was clearly over there just now..."

Following her finger, Youdu looked towards the outskirts of Xueyuan City and saw the same tranquil industrial area, as still as a lake.

He figured that, according to the classic script, he should say something like, "There's nothing there? Are you hallucinating?" and then fool Ayaka Sajou, who was actually seeing something, into missing this important information...

It feels so stupid, let's just forget about it.

"Master, you just saw some movement over there, didn't you?"

Ayaka Sajou nodded: "Yeah, but now it seems I might have misjudged—"

She was speaking when the black magician led the two of them and jumped off the hospital rooftop. Their figures disappeared in mid-air and reappeared on the ground.

“...If possible, I hope you can let me know in advance next time you do something like this.”

Having already experienced the ordeal of jumping off a building to save time, Ayaka Sajou wasn't so frightened that she collapsed to the ground. She simply gave Yuuto a resentful look.

Fortunately, she was still in relatively good health; otherwise, she would have definitely had a heart attack from You Du's impulsive act of pulling someone to jump off a building at the drop of a hat.