Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

As John finished speaking, the students who remained behind the bunker had completed their summoning of their respective monsters. Although some monsters without special abilities, like the Silver Chariot, could not join the battle because there was still a certain distance between the front line and the final line of defense, many monsters of the mage race, demon race, and machine race were able to provide long-range fire support.

Lightning, fireballs, and ray attacks landed on the front lines after a brief delay, instantly suppressing the card sprites' offensive. This relieved the students' fighting pressure and created numerous opportunities for counterattacks. Thanks to this timely rear support, the students seized the chance to fight back and gradually expanded their advantage, eventually holding off the card sprites' attacks and no longer being suppressed.

In the air, [D·hero Blood Demon-D] and [D·hero Destroyer Phoenix] attacked from two directions simultaneously, restricting [Yubel Phantom]'s escape route and intending to shoot it down.

Even the True Demonic Beast - Gazette was staggered by the most powerful attacks from the support provided from the rear, and its struggle with Professor Chronos's Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant was no longer a stalemate, and it was somewhat at a disadvantage.

"Impossible! A mere reptile could actually hurt me!?" Seeing the situation was not good, [True Demonic Beast - Gazette] hurriedly used its wings to take off, taking advantage of the fact that [Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant] couldn't fly like a certain red behemoth that could wield the Cliff-Shattering Sword, and chose to catch its breath in the air.

"Troublesome guys, I'll take you out first, Demonic Flame—" With its gaze sweeping towards the direction from which the attack had just come, [True Demonic Beast - Gazette] was about to unleash a ranged attack from the bone armor on its chest, but it was blocked by two cannon shots fired from below by [Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant].

"Although the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant can't fly, don't think we can't hit you just because you're airborne!" Because the battle on the ground was too chaotic, Professor Chronos moved to the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant after the battle began, sat in the spherical cockpit reserved in its abdomen, and piloted the robot like a pilot. The cannon fire that just blasted down the True Demonic Beast - Gazette was even aimed by him manually controlling the cannons on the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant's arms.

"How's that? The power of my Mega Particle Cannon!"

As they spoke, the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant was about to continue firing under Professor Chronos's control, while the True Demonic Beast Gazette wanted to retaliate, but having just been shot down, it couldn't even maintain its posture in mid-air, and it looked like it was about to be struck again by the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant, which had anticipated its advance!

Just then, a sharp sword suddenly flew in and blocked the path between the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant and the True Demonic Beast Gazette, cutting through the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant's barrage!

Some of the severed artillery fire flew into the sky, narrowly missing Ed and [Yubel Phantom], who were locked in combat, while the rest landed on the ground, the explosions kicking up towering dust and wounding countless collateral damage soldiers.

Raising the giant sword that he had transformed from the bone armor on his chest, a second, colossal demon appeared, bearing a striking resemblance to the Great Beast Gazette, except that the bone armor had turned gold and it possessed wings that resembled a cape when folded. It looked at the True Beast Gazette and said, "You dared to sneak away, True Beast Gazette, you bastard!"

"【Beast Emperor - Gazette】!" Looking at the being with the same name as himself, 【True Beast - Gazette】 said with a hint of displeasure, "Tch, you saved my life."

Just as the True Demon Beast Gazette and its original form, Synthetic Demon Beast Gazette, were based on the two classic super robots, "Mazinger Z" and "True Demon Beast Z," the Demon Beast Emperor Gazette, which evolved from the Great Demon Beast Gazette (based on the Great Demon Beast), also had a super robot as its prototype: the successor to the Great Demon Beast, "Mazinger Emperor G."

The prototype mecha "Mazinger Z" and "Great Mazinger" have an extremely complex relationship. Similarly, [Beast Emperor Gazette] and [True Beast Gazette] are also acquainted. Although the latter's attack on Duel Academy was a sneak attack under the instigation of [Yubel Phantom], it was obviously not kept secret from [Beast Emperor Gazette].

"This is the last time." With a casual remark, he forgave his companion's sneaking away. [Beast Emperor - Gazette]'s claws swept across his sword, his eyes filled with bloodlust as he looked at the [Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant]. "Now, let's hunt these reptiles!"

"Mommy, Mommy!" Professor Chronos swallowed hard. Although he had just managed to suppress [True Monster - Gazette] with the firepower support from Coach Napoleon and the others, being able to suppress one enemy did not mean that he could hold his own against two. This was bad.

Almost without giving Professor Chronos time to consider a countermeasure, [True Demonic Beast - Gazette] charged out, as if retaliating against Professor Chronos's earlier attack, thrusting both of its fists forward. Its elbows snapped off, exposing the bone, and its two broken fists were flung out, spewing out large amounts of flames from the broken surfaces to accelerate it!?

"Spinning Explosive Flying Fist!"

"Whoa! I managed to dodge the attack!" He quickly maneuvered his mech to avoid the attack, but in that short time, [Beast Emperor - Gazette] had already taken cover under the cover of his teammates and hid in the blind spot of the [Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant]'s main monitor, rapidly closing in on Professor Chronos!

The emperor's sword in his hand gleamed with a cold light; being struck by it would be no laughing matter!

"I won't let you shoot it down!" Although it was his first time piloting it, Professor Chronos hadn't wasted his years of experience using the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant. He instantly switched to the other monitors on the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant.

—Although not very conspicuous, the shoulders, feet, arms, and even torso of the [Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant] retain the eyes of the [Ancient Mechanical Hound] as monitors, and the observation angle is actually very large. It can even be said that even if the main monitor on the head is destroyed, Professor Chronos can calmly shout "Broken, the monitor is gone."

The cannons on both arms switched to mechanical clamps, and the [Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant] twisted his upper body behind his back in a bizarre posture using the pivot of his waist, precisely clamping down on the giant sword that [Beast Emperor - Gazette] was slashing with his bare hands!

"Hmph, close combat is to my advantage, huh!" Just as Professor Chronos was about to gloat, he was stunned speechless by the massive impact from the machine. Although the [True Demonic Beast - Gazette], with its severed arms, was slowly regenerating its hands, its legs were perfectly fine. Taking advantage of [Demon Beast Emperor - Gazette] drawing attention, it delivered a "Gazette Flying Kick" to the chest of the [Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant]!

Even after being kicked and losing control of his arms, [Beast Emperor - Gazette] used his freed greatsword to execute a V-shaped slash, severing the [Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant's] arms and waist, turning him into a "human stick"!

"Hmph, my 'MAV tactic' with [Monster Emperor - Gazette] is invincible!" [True Monster - Gazette] laughed arrogantly after rendering [Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant] powerless.

Meanwhile, the Warcraft Emperor Gazette planned to take advantage of the temporary lack of assistance to eliminate the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant: "I'll use this Emperor's Sword to cut off your head!"

Having no experience fighting against the mechanical race, it seemed to think that cutting off the head of the [Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant] would mean certain death, but before it could even raise its sword, a voice was suddenly heard by both of the enormous demons at the same time.

"MAV tactics? What kind of weird stuff is that?" Hayato casually placed a card on the duel disk. "When I wasn't around, you bunch of wild dogs were pretty arrogant, weren't you?"

The trembling desert was like a sleeping behemoth being awakened, its open mouth transforming into a massive rift that precisely separated the students of the Duel Academy from the wild Card Spirits. A contradictory existence, as radiant as the sun and as dark as the moon, revealed its serpentine form.

More majestic than the gods, more evil than the devils, the power of creation and destruction were respectively held in its arms. It seemed to be a colossal being that controlled the survival and destruction of the world. After being freed from the constraints of dueling, the scale it displayed even surpassed that of [Monster Emperor - Gazette] and others. It looked down on the living beings on the ground from high above!

—【Hellfire Machine Tiera】, standing tall on the earth!

Chapter 1801 Speed ​​Race

Professor Chronos emerged from the cockpit of the Ancient Mechanical Chaos Giant looking rather disheveled, but he breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Hayato's Hellfire Machine Tierra spinning like a top as he whipped the two gigantic monsters that had just been dominating him.

"I'm relieved now..."

Although he recognized that "teachers have a responsibility to protect students" and had already taken concrete action to fight on the front lines, he certainly didn't want to lose his life like this if he could. He was almost scared to death when [Monster Emperor - Gazette] appeared, but now, watching Hayato slaughter these card spirits indiscriminately, who could understand that unparalleled sense of security?

As the saying goes, "When there is no danger, Hayato Kobayashi is the biggest source of danger, but when there is real danger, Hayato Kobayashi can give people a sense of security."

Isn't this the best example right now? The enemy they fought for so long but couldn't defeat will be solved as long as they hold out until Hayato arrives. The current scene is just a chaotic massacre!

"Wow, that's amazing." Edward, who descended from the sky, was quite surprised as he watched Hayato wield the [Hellfire Machine - Tiera] monster across the battlefield. "That monster only has an attack power of 3400 points, but its combat power is much stronger than those monsters with higher attack power?"

"Because once a monster's combat power is no longer suppressed by those stats on paper after the duel rules are broken," Hayato explained calmly, glancing at Edward who had come to his side. "Level, attribute, attack power, or effects are just supplementary factors in battle, no longer decisive ones. For example, a level 7 Dark Magician can fight a level 8 Blue-Eyes White Dragon to a standstill, while also using their respective area-of-effect attacks to kill other higher-level monsters watching from the sidelines."

"It's hard to set specific criteria, but it generally aligns with certain intuitions. For example, can you imagine Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon defeating Obelisk the Tormentor, which has a lower attack power?"

"I see, I understand completely now." Edward said this, though he didn't really understand. But when he saw the one-piece spirit being chased by Hayato's monster, his eyes suddenly turned serious, and he reminded Hayato, "Hayato-sensei, that guy over there is the one that Jaden and the others saw with their own eyes, the one who brought us to this world. Don't let it get away!"

"I think it must have a way to take us back to our original world. Even if it can't do that, it should at least kill the enemy here!"

Upon hearing this, Hayato also looked in the direction Edward pointed. At first glance, even he recognized it as [Yubel Phantom] and was about to have [Hellfire Teara] concentrate its firepower there when he frowned.

"Tsk, wait, that guy isn't the real one."

Just as Hayato sensed, after being hit by a beam of light released by Hellfire Teara, [Yubel Phantom] showed a synchronized hit feedback and was knocked down on the sand. However, even after being directly destroyed by subsequent attacks, it did not react further and was simply killed like an ordinary cannon fodder.

But this goes against intuition; at least Hayato doesn't think Yubel is a minor character who can be taken down so easily. Undoubtedly, the "Yubel Phantom" that Edward and Hayato saw was most likely another of the "shadow clones" or similar tricks Yubel used when he ambushed Hayato in the past.

So here's the question: with such a big fuss to draw everyone's attention here, and leaving behind a fake body to further restrain Hayato's actions, where is the real Yubel now?

Although he has the advantage of having read the script, Hayato is not omniscient or omnipotent. At least the current "monster siege" is a scenario he has never seen before. However, he does know at least part of the purpose of Yubel's operation. In addition to "Vanilla Jaden" as the underlying logic, she has a great need for dueling energy and the darkness in people's hearts. Supplementing those things can even give her the power to briefly contend with Hayato under certain conditions.

In addition, the power of darkness is something she can utilize. If there were something like a "Millennium Artifact" here, it might double Yubel's combat power, or she could also use the power of the dark card spirits.

—So that's how it is. So they were still after those things!

Following this line of thought, Hayato finally remembered what Yubel had done on the other timeline. Within the Duel Academy, Yubel, using Gana Malden as a host, spread a zombie virus to collect dueling energy for himself and incidentally hinder Jaden and the others. Taking advantage of this, he found the "Seven Spirit Gates," originally located in the dense forest on Duel Academy Island, which had been transferred to the Spirit World along with the Duel Academy. He opened it and obtained the cards of the "Three Phantom Demons."

Hayato wasn't entirely sure how Yubel managed to excavate the underground portion without preserving the forest above ground during the teleportation, but he knew that if Yubel's goal remained the "Three Phantom Demons," she would absolutely not succeed.

When Kagemaru came to Duel Academy Island to take the "Three Phantom Demons" cards, Hayato had already made preparations in advance, and secretly replaced the cards placed in the "Seven Gates of Renewal" with the sleeping [Holy Knight - Atorius]. Although Kagemaru actually managed to print new "Three Phantom Demons" cards on the spot using the power of "Darkness" and the stone slab left by Daitokuji in the underground laboratory of the abandoned old school building, and even planned to use the "Seven Gates of Renewal" to absorb life energy to complete the cards on the spot, Yubel couldn't possibly be able to print cards like Kagemaru.

The power of "Darkness" is able to do this because "Darkness" is a power that calls itself "the darkness flowing into the interior of the planet," in other words, something like "the memory of the earth." Theoretically, the reason why Kaiba was able to "draw cards from the floor" without the [Obelisk the Tormentor] was also due to a similar method—reading the memories underground and printing cards out of thin air.

However, the power of the "Light Wave" that Yubel obtained, which the "Light Wave" claims to be the power of "evolution," manifests as the "Light of Destruction" because "the end of evolution is death"—this once made Hayato suspect whether the "Light of Destruction" had watched "EVA" on Earth while it was possessing Saio.

Putting aside the conflict between the powers of "darkness" and "light," the prerequisite for printing "Darkness" cards is having specific memory marks to "copy" the cards, which can achieve a high degree of fidelity but is relatively difficult to surpass the original; while printing "Light Wave" cards is to "evolve" the original cards, which is why it was possible for Yubel, who inherited the power of "Light Wave," to imitate and grant others the power of Synchro Summoning after Hayato demonstrated the world's "first" Synchro Summon.

For example, Professor Cobra's "Reptile Fairy" and Amon Garam's "Undead Synchro Summoning" are both examples of Synchro Summoning. Although the latter was Yubel's clever use of the "Astrop Particles" power activated by Hayato, the former was a legitimate Synchro Summoning under Yubel's power.

However, there is a special prerequisite for using the power of "Light Wave" to print cards. That is, "evolution" must first have a foundation existing before "evolution". For example, the "Star Particles" on Amon Garrum combined with the zombie virus that Yubel intended to spread but was thwarted by Jaden, which created those Undead Synchro Monsters. Professor Cobra's Synchro Monsters are also based on his "Snake" deck.

Therefore, even if Yubel went to the "Seven Gates of Release" that sealed the "Three Phantoms," he would not be able to obtain the cards of the "Three Phantoms"—not only because of the various limitations of the power of "Light Wave," but also because although Hayato did put the cards of the "Three Phantoms" there, it was not all of them; one of them, "Thunder Emperor - Hamon," is now in John's hands.

Although John himself thought that the card was just a weakened copy and not the real [Thunder Emperor Hamon], what Hayato didn't tell John was that the card was actually the genuine [Thunder Emperor Hamon]. It's just that the "Seven Essences Unlocking Gate" had long been modified from the original device that absorbed the life force of the entire island to nourish the sealed card to a reverse device that absorbs the power in the card and in turn feeds the life force back to the island.

The reason why the effect of 【Thunder Emperor - Hamon】 was weakened to the physical card version instead of the original version is because its power has been reduced, resulting in a "degeneration" phenomenon. The same is true for the other two "Phantom Demons". If they had been kept in the "Seven Essences Unlocking Gate" seal for another two years, they might not have been able to fuse them into 【Chaos Phantom Demon - Amitel】. This is also the main reason why Hayato kept the "Three Phantom Demons" cards in the seal.

If Yubel's intention is to acquire the power of the "Three Phantoms" and take their dark power for herself, she might gain something, but not much, and it might not even be as much as the energy she expended in subduing the rebellious "Phantoms." It would be a losing proposition, and having only two "Phantoms" would also prevent her from unleashing her full power due to their incompleteness.

Even knowing that Yubel would likely fail, Hayato wasn't about to let her plan succeed. How dare she take his card without his permission? This wasn't just a minor act of petty misconduct; he had to deal with it decisively!

Thinking of this, Hayato decided to quickly clear out these Pokémon. Although a single [Hellfire Teara] was enough to easily defeat them, it wasn't efficient enough. Hayato simply took out four more cards and filled his Duel Disk all at once.

"I've had enough of this red tape! Everyone, let's get this over with!"

The giant mobile suit named after Jormungandr—the Crystal Machine - Central Serpent—appeared after the Hellfire Machine - Tiera unleashed a wave of demonic flames, and frozen ice crystals spread in front of the fleeing elves;

Next up was the equally massive [Earth Spirit God - Gransol], who, despite being an Earth-type, wielded lightning to bombard the enemy card spirits;

The wind-type Crystal Wing Synchro pursued the Pokémon trying to escape through the air, but the final bell tolled for this "massacre" was tolled by the light-type Dragonite Chomper. With an attack power of 5000, Dragonite Chomper raised his arms and then slammed them down, unleashing a carpet bombing of "Dragon Stars" that saturated the surrounded Pokémon.

"Done!" Hayato snapped his fingers and was about to instruct Professor Chronos to clean up the mess when he suddenly noticed something and looked sharply in another direction.

Because Yubel's spatial teleportation completely disrupted the original layout of the Duel Academy, even Hayato had difficulty finding the "Seven Essences Unlocking Gate," which was now buried deep beneath the desert. However, he was certain that the aura he was sensing was not from the location of the "Seven Essences Unlocking Gate," because the aura he sensed this time was just as chaotic as that of the [Beast Emperor - Gazette] he had sensed earlier.

That was an aura similar to the "Beast Tide" of Card Spirits that Hayato had just wiped out, and the aura was coming from another direction. It seemed that Yubel had summoned more than one group of Card Spirits to besiege Duel Academy?!

"More than one wave of elf attacks? So you're trying to hold me back with this plan... Hey! Yubel, you're something else!" Hayato frowned, then grinned maliciously. "Because you're afraid to confront me head-on, you want me to run around protecting the students and the school. Well then, let's see if you can get the 'Three Phantom Demons' faster or if I can clear out the 'reinforcements' you've brought!"

"Grandma said that I evolve faster than light, and no one in the entire universe can match my speed of evolution!"

[Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon] landed on the ground and transformed into [Phantom Wing Synchro Dragon], which then became [High Speed ​​Going Robot/Phantom Wing Mount]. Hayato sat on it and turned to greet Edward and Professor Chronos, saying, "The monsters attacking the academy aren't just here. You two will lead the team to take the students back to the academy. I'm going to reinforce the other side."

"Full speed ahead!"

Despite the rugged sandy terrain, the speeding motorcycle barely slowed down due to the terrain, carrying Hayato and kicking up dust as it rushed in another direction to meet the attacking spirits.

Hayato had no choice but to accept Yubel's scheme. Now it was a matter of whether Hayato could maintain his fighting strength after eliminating a large number of spirits and find Yubel in time, or whether Yubel would be faster and be able to obtain the cards in the "Seven Spirits Unlocking Gate" before Hayato could eliminate all the spirits and find her.

Both Hayato and Yubel had enough confidence in themselves, and this race that wasn't really a race began amidst the roar of engines!

Chapter 1802: The Philosophical Question of How Much Discount Should the Earth Be Offered?

When the first wave of card spirits launched their attack on the academy, Hayato rushed to Professor Chronos and the others' location, but he didn't forget to arrange for the students, including Jaden, to go.

If possible, he would certainly like to keep all the students in a safe place and have all the enemies target him, which would make it much easier for him to kill those elves. However, this idea is obviously not realistic, at least the elves in the elf world do not really agree with it.

Sometimes he would think that the Bird and Beast Forest was also a place where the strong preyed on the weak, but it was much more orderly than here. At least after Hayato subdued the [Wind-Walking Bird], they completely submitted to Hayato and no longer had any ulterior motives. Unlike here in the desert, where killing one would only result in a second one jumping out in protest. The key point is that they are separated by a long distance, and Hayato would have to travel thousands of miles to kill the second one.

Besides, it's really impossible to get the students like Jaden to stay obediently in the academy, right? While Professor Chronos and Coach Napoleon were leading the students back to campus to treat the injured, Jaden and his classmates, who had just returned to the academy, were planning to go out.

"Huh? Jaden, where are you guys going?" Professor Chronos looked at Jaden and the others and asked in confusion, "It's very dangerous outside right now, you know. Who knows when a new monster will attack."

“But we can’t leave everything to Hayato-sensei alone.” Jaden also had his reasons: “Rather than staying in a safe place and watching him work so hard, I’d rather go out and help.”

"And unlike you useless adults like Professor Chronos, I, Manjoume, am the number one in the 'Second World Martial Arts Tournament'!" Manjoume stood next to Judai, indicating that he would also go out to help Hayato in battle.

"Useless adult stuff..." "That's so hurtful, ugh..."

Asuka glanced at Manjoume and retorted, "Do you still have to brag about this now? Manjoume, you bastard... Anyway, the more effort we put in, the more energy Hayato-sensei can save."

“This crisis is too suspicious. Mr. Hayato has already messaged us. He suspects that this incident is most likely the work of the guy who transported us to this world.” Jim clenched his fist. “Although we don’t know what they’re planning to do now, we absolutely cannot let them succeed!”

“Yes, especially since that guy actually incited so many elves to attack the academy,” John said angrily. “Unlike before, when those card elves attacked the school spontaneously because of the temptation, it could be considered part of the natural cycle, and even I could kill them; but now, too many innocent elves have been used as tools for that guy to satisfy his ambitions!”

“Calm down, John Anderson. You mustn’t act impulsively, given the immense power you possess,” O’Brien warned John. Kenzan and Sho also chimed in, “Yes, John, you are our greatest hope.” “Our chances of returning depend on you, John-senpai.”

Just as the group stopped at the academy entrance, a voice rang out from behind them.

"Are you setting off to intercept that golden elf? Count me in."

Jaden turned around and saw Amon Garrum putting on his Duel Disk as he walked towards them: "Huh? Amon-kun? Have you recovered?"

When Yubel possessed Amon, he didn't care about Amon's physical condition at all in order to extract the darkness of his mind and the residue of "Star Particles" from his body. In fact, during the duel with Jaden, if the Alchemist of Wisdom Stone hadn't intervened and separated Amon from Yubel, he might have died in that duel.

This is actually the standard outcome for most objects possessed by external forces. After all, if possession is used, why would they care about the life or death of the pieces? Self-harming tactics to gain efficiency are commonplace.