Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

【Armored Knight Dragon - Knight Armored Dragon-】【3☆/Wind→8☆/Light】

"Did you deliberately turn a Level 8 monster into two?"

Seeing Marufuji Ryo's confusion, Manjoume said smugly, "That's right, but the key point isn't just that I have two Level 8 monsters, but that I already have two Level 8 Dragon-type monsters on my field, one Light and one Dark. And that fulfills the necessary condition for my true ace monster to appear!"

“Last turn I only used one of the effects of [Dark and Annihilation Dragon], now I’m going to activate its second effect.” Picking up the cards [Dark and Annihilation Dragon] and [Armored Knight Dragon - Knight Armored Dragon-] from the Duel Disk, “Without a Fusion Spell Card, I’ll use monsters from my hand and field as Fusion Materials to Fusion Summon this Fusion Monster from my Fusion Deck!”

"The required materials are a Level 8☆ LIGHT Dragon-Type monster and a Level 8☆ DARK Dragon-Type Fusion Monster. Send my [Armored Knight Dragon] and [Dark and Destroy Dragon] as Fusion Materials to the Graveyard!"

"Chaos coming into contact and merging!"

The Dragon Knight and the jet-black dragon leaped into the air together, merging into one under the enveloping magic flames. Looking up at the still-developing fusion monster, Ryo Marufuji said, "I see. So that's why all the monsters on the field were made Level 8. But, if the [Light and Ascendant Dragon] that was returned to the deck had a similar effect to [Dark and Annihilation Dragon], wouldn't it also be possible to gather enough fusion materials?"

"Of course it's because revenge that isn't taken by him himself isn't satisfying enough." Manjoume held up a Fusion Monster card with a purple border. "After being bullied by your monsters several times, of course we have to bring out [Darkness and Annihilation Dragon] again to retaliate for the previous suppression."

Raising the card in his hand, Manjoume shouted, "By perfectly harmonizing the light and darkness that have been intertwined across time and space, and constructing an absolutely invincible and resilient body, a dazzling golden power is born!"

"Unfurl your wings of gods and demons that transcend all living beings, and roar, Wagatsumashi!"

Just like before, the black and white body, which merely gathered the power of light and darkness but had not yet fully harmonized, appeared in the sky above the vast arena. The dragon immediately used its claws to grab the center of its body and then pulled it to both sides.

(Reference action)

Previously, the black dark power and the white light power were merely orbiting the dragon like celestial satellites. Now, with the dragon's movements, both powers converged towards the very center of its body.

On that enormous body, the black and white areas began to decrease, and then it was as if the body was being torn apart. The light and dark forces that had been mixed together converged into gold and appeared in the very center of the dragon's body!

Although it failed to completely cover its body with gold, proving that there was still room for evolution, the dragon at this time had surpassed its past self, gaining power ten or even nine times stronger. Golden patterns were also attached to the pure white and pure black parts of its body, adding to its kingly aura!

"Fusion Summon! Level 10☆!!"

"【Dragon of Light and Darkness】—no, now it should be—"

Setting down the duel disk, Manjoume clenched his fist in front of him, a fierce smile on his face.

"【The Dragon King of Light and Darkness】!!!"

【Dragon King of Light and Darkness】【10☆/Light】

[Dragon/Fusion/Effect]

[3400/3000]

Compared to the previous [Dragon of Light and Darkness], the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] has increased its level by 2 stars, and its attack and defense have both increased by an additional 600 points, easily exceeding the 3000-point threshold and becoming an ace attack power that surpasses most decks. In addition, its dual attribute characteristics have also been retained.

"As long as it exists in my Monster Zone, the attribute of [Light and Darkness Dragon King] can also be used as DARK, and it also has the same power as [Light and Darkness Dragon] to negate the activation of monster effects, spell cards, and trap cards."

Manjoume looked at Marufuji Ryo's face-down cards in the back row: "Of your face-down cards, only two are actually useful, right? Even if you need to lower your attack power twice, [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] still has the power to wipe out your remaining 2300 points."

"Because the effect of [Armored Knight Dragon - Knight Armored Dragon -] that I sent to the Graveyard will activate at this moment! When this card is sent to the Graveyard, target any Dragon-Type monster I control and increase that monster's ATK by 1000 points—that is, [Light and Darkness Dragon King]!"

【Dragon King of Light and Darkness】【ATK3400→4400】

Seeing that the effect of [Armored Knight Dragon - Knight Armored Dragon -] was successfully activated, and that [Light and Darkness Dragon King] did not automatically activate its effect to nullify the effect of [Armored Knight Dragon - Knight Armored Dragon -], was unexpected by Marufuji Ryo: "The effect did not activate automatically? Could it be that with evolution, [Light and Darkness Dragon King] has gained control of its previously uncontrollable effect and can now activate it actively?"

"Of course that's right—I wanted to say that, but I didn't." Manjoume paused, then said nonchalantly, "There are always trade-offs. Compared to the [Dragon of Light and Darkness], which cannot be specially summoned, the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] is much easier to summon, but her effects are weakened to some extent."

"The ability to nullify effects is still forced to activate, but the required reduction in attack and defense has doubled from 500 to 1000. Tsk, even though attack and defense have increased, the number of times the effect can be used has decreased from four to three. What's going on?"

"But no matter what, your two face-down cards can't possibly negate the effect activation of my three times. Even after using the effect of [Armored Knight Dragon - Knight Armored Dragon -], [Light and Darkness Dragon King] will still have a full 2400 ATK points, which is higher than your remaining Life Points!"

"Thus, I enter my battle phase and launch a direct attack on my duelist! [Dragon King of Light and Darkness]!" With a wave of his hand, Manjoume decisively declared the start of the battle phase. "Give my hope light, bestow my despair with darkness, pierce the world, and bring the end to all things!"

"Dual Wrists, Zero-Time Clustering!"

Between the claws of the black, white, and gold dragon, the black and white forces of light and darkness began to converge. They were then stained with other colors by the mixed chaotic power, turning into two energy spheres of golden yellow and dark purple.

Pushing forward, the two spheres, like twin stars attracting each other, traced a double helix trajectory in the air and flew out, finally meeting just before reaching Marufuji Ryo. The chaotic power between light and darkness was completely dissipated, and the two repulsive forces collided instantly, transforming into a suddenly expanding pitch-black singularity—a pseudo-black hole!

"Chain the opponent's monster's attack, send the cards at the top of my deck to the graveyard, activate this trap card, [Power Wall]!" Just when Manjoume thought the duel was about to end, he heard Marufuji Ryo suddenly speak up.

(Because I'm using the anime version of the effects, I'm using the anime version of the card art, but it doesn't really matter, since they're all going to be negated anyway. I just wanted Caesar to destroy the deck.)

Pressing the button to activate the face-down card, Ryo Marufuji boldly pulled out a huge stack of cards from his deck. "For every card I send to the graveyard, I can reduce the damage I take from my opponent's monsters by 100 points. My deck has a total of sixty cards, and I currently have thirty-nine left. I'm going to send thirty-four of them to the graveyard to reduce battle damage by 3400 points!"

As he spoke, Marufuji Ryo threw the cards in his hand, and instantly, a rain of cards fell in front of him!

(Don't worry about why there are Fusion Monsters; Caesar just likes to put Fusion Monsters in his deck.)

"Here we go again, that feeling of not treating cards like cards, it's just like Hayato-sensei!" Manjoume frowned. "But Muda! Have you forgotten the effect of [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] that I mentioned earlier? It only costs 1000 points of attack and defense, and it can easily negate your [Power Wall]!"

"At the same time, although the activation is negated, the cost you paid to activate it—those cards that were sent to the graveyard in large numbers—will not return to your deck. Now your deck only has the last five cards left, just like your Life Points, it's almost gone!"

Linked to the [Power Wall], the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] unleashed an additional dragon breath, shattering it to prevent it from resisting the power of its attack. Although this reduced its attack and defense by 1000 points, the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness]'s attack power was still above Marufuji Ryo's base score!

"The effect of [Dragon of Light and Darkness] can only be activated once in a chain, and this flaw seems to have been inherited by [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] as well." Just then, Marufuji Ryo's voice rang out, tinged with a hint of mockery, "You've made a mistake, Manjoume, what a pity!"

"By chaining the effect of [Dragon of Light and Darkness], I activated another face-down card, the Continuous Trap Card [Mirror Wall]. As long as this card is in the Spell & Trap Zone, the ATK of your opponent's attacking monsters is halved."

"The attack power of the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] will first be reduced to half by the [Mirror Wall of the Silver Screen], and then its own effects will be dealt with, reducing it from 4400 points to 2200 points and then to a mere 1200 points. This level of damage is simply too weak!"

"It's actually [Mirror Wall of the Silver Screen]!? Tsk, what a troublesome card." Manjoume frowned, glanced at the card in his hand, and immediately pulled it out, saying, "Even so, I still have this card that I can activate!"

"The Quick-Play Spell Card [Dragon's Shadow] can be used once per turn. I used the first effect before, and now I'm going to use the second one, which is to target one Dragon-Type monster on my field and increase its ATK by 200 times its Level."

Pointing to his only remaining unit on the field, the [Light and Darkness Dragon King], Manjoume exclaimed, "That means the level 10☆ [Light and Darkness Dragon King] will have its attack power increased by 2000 points!"

C1 [Wall of Power] C2 [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] C3 [Mirror Wall of the Silver Screen] C4 [Dragon's Shadow Light], Manjoume and Marufuji Ryo stacked the chains again in a few breaths, and the first thing to be dealt with was the effect of [Dragon's Shadow Light].

The [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] suddenly absorbed the power around her into her body, which not only had no duration but permanently increased her attack power by a full 2000 points. With the [Armored Knight Dragon - Knight Armored Dragon -] buff, her attack power instantly broke through the 4500-point mark and soared to a full 6400 points!

【Dragon King of Light and Darkness】【ATK4400→6400】

However, in the next moment, the [Mirror Wall of the Silver Screen] was also dealt with, compressing his newly expanded power back down to half, even worse than his initial state without any enhancement.

【Dragon King of Light and Darkness】【ATK6400→3200】

That's not all. Next comes the effect of the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] itself. In order to nullify the effect of [Power Wall], she automatically activates the effect and pays 1000 points of attack and defense to nullify the activation of [Power Wall], further weakening its power!

[Dragon King of Light and Darkness] [3200/3000→2200/2000]

Once everything was dealt with, the direct attack of the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] on Marufuji Ryo was dealt with normally. The next instant, the expanding black hole exploded with a roar, and the powerful shock wave stirred up a gale that made it difficult for people to open their eyes. Among the audience in the front row, except for Hayato who had somehow put on a pair of glasses and was unaffected, almost no one could see what was happening on the field.

Quick-thinking duelists like Misawa had already calculated the damage that the final [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] could inflict, but most, like Jaden, were confused by the long chain of attacks and could only watch the arena and wait for the result.

As the strong winds gradually subsided, Ryo Marufuji was revealed.

[Ryo Marufuji: 2300→100LP]

"Just 100 points left? Tch, you got lucky, Caesar." Manjoume said with some annoyance, not expecting to miss the chance to win despite having such a huge advantage. He glanced at the last four cards in his hand. Although he had drawn a lot of cards with [Heavenly Treasure], unfortunately, not many of them were useful. In fact, he had drawn all three copies of the quick-play spell card [Dragon's Shadow] in one turn.

He had already played two cards this turn, and he only had one more [Dragon's Shadow] left in his hand. This was the only card in Manjoume's hand that was still somewhat useful. He had no choice but to place the card face down on the back row and say, "End the battle phase, then set a card in Main Phase 2, and my turn ends here."

"But can you defy me, Caesar, who possesses the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness]?"

【Manjou: 2000LP, 3 cards in hand】

【Dragon King of Light and Darkness】【ATK2200→4400】

【Gaikka (Dragon's Shadow)】

Chapter 1316 This is the last monster you will ever see!

Only 100 basic points remain;

You only have one [Cyber ​​Dark Chimera] in your hand;

The only cards on the field are the Continuous Spell Card [Cyber ​​Dark World] and the Set [Cyber ​​Emergency Call];

In fact, only the last five cards remained in the deck.

Undoubtedly, Marufuji Ryo was in dire straits, but at this moment, there was no trace of solemnity on his face; instead, he was laughing heartily: "This is the feeling, this hellish pressure. The more oppressive it is, the more glorious and radiant I will feel when I achieve victory!"

Seeing the smile on Marufuji Ryo's face, Manjoume raised an eyebrow: "Even now, you can still smile?"

"Isn't that because you yourself said it, Manjoume? The essence of 'duel brings smiles' is that only the victor among the Duel Monsters can laugh. I can clearly see victory approaching, how can I not laugh out loud?"

Marufuji Ryo smirked as he looked at his deck: "To defeat you and win, I need two more cards, and those two cards weren't sent to the graveyard by the effect of [Power Wall] before, they're still in my deck. And now, the probability of drawing one of them in a single draw is only about 20%."

"My turn, draw a card!"

Without hesitation, he drew a card from his deck. When he saw the card he had drawn, Ryo Marufuji's smile became even more unrestrained: "And now, I have victory in my grasp!"

“During my preparation phase, I forgo paying the 2000 Life Points required to maintain [Mirror Wall] and let it destroy itself.” Watching the Continuous Trap Card leave the field, Ryo Marufuji pressed the button to activate a face-down card. “Next, I open this face-down card in the back row, [Cyber ​​Emergency Call], adding my last [Cyber ​​Dragon] from my deck to my hand!”

Upon hearing that Marufuji Ryo was going to search for "Cyber ​​Dragon" again, Manjoume frowned. Although he didn't know what kind of combo Marufuji Ryo was planning, he decided to ignore it for now and just check it out!

"Don't even think about it! [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] still has two more effects to activate, reducing her attack and defense by 1000 points and nullifying your [Electronic Emergency Call]!"

[Dragon King of Light and Darkness] [4400/2000→3400/1000]

Completely deprived of external support, and with its defense reduced to only one last effect, [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] unleashed a dragon's breath, negating the activation of [Electronic Emergency Call] that Marufuji had just revealed on the back field, and sending it to the graveyard.

However, the invalidation of the activation itself triggered the second effect of [Electronic Emergency Call]. In the same chain, the effect of [Electronic Emergency Call] took effect, and Marufuji sent a card from his hand to the graveyard, saying, "Does this look familiar? This is the second time this has happened, but you haven't learned your lesson at all, Manjoume."

"No, perhaps it's just that you're powerless to change the effect you forcibly activated on your own monster?"

Hearing Marufuji Ryo mock him, Manjoume gritted his teeth, looking displeased. But what could he do against [Dragon King of Light and Darkness]? Because of [Dragon King of Light and Darkness]'s forced activation effect, Hayato-sensei even gave her the nickname "Youthful Traitor Dragon." He had originally thought that with the new evolved card, this flaw might be improved, but who knew that she would actually retain this flaw!

(【Dragon King of Light and Darkness】: I removed most of the irrelevant flaws, but kept the biggest one, because only in this way will you know that you are playing the new card of 【Dragon King of Light and Darkness】)

After retrieving the [Cyber ​​Emergency Call] card from the graveyard, Ryo Marufuji continued, "The card I sent to the graveyard was the second [Cyber ​​Dragon Core]. When this card is sent to the graveyard, add one other [Cyber ​​Dragon] from my deck or graveyard to my hand."

"However, the effect of the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness], which is also forcibly activated, will be nullified!"

[Dragon King of Light and Darkness] [3400/1000→2400/0]

Watching the [Dragon King of Light and Darkness], who hadn't even waited for his command and had automatically unleashed a breath of dragon fire at Marufuji Ryo's shout, shattering the [Electronic Dragon Core] that had emerged from the graveyard, Manjoume felt his blood pressure rise a little.

They say there are no bad nicknames, only bad names. Nicknames like "Panda Dragon" are fine if they refer to appearance, but Principal Hayato's description of "Youthful Traitor Dragon" is really apt (gritting his teeth)!

"Although you have exhausted the number of uses of the [Light and Darkness Dragon King] effect, it is still a stronger form than the previous [Light and Darkness Dragon], and still retains 2400 attack power, which is higher than your [Electronic Dragon]."

Manjou looked at the two cards in Marufuji Ryo's hand. "That [Cyber ​​Emergency Call], even if you manage to retrieve the last [Cyber ​​Dragon] in your deck, it still won't break through [Dragon King of Light and Darkness]."

"Furthermore, I can tell you in advance that the third effect of [Dragon King of Light and Darkness] is the same as that of [Dragon of Light and Darkness]: if a monster is destroyed by my opponent through any means of effect or battle, it can Special Summon a Dragon-Type monster from my Graveyard. At the same time, if a monster on my field is destroyed, it can also activate the effect of [Awakening Dragon - Young Infernal Wind God] in my Graveyard, Special Summon it to the field, and activate its effect a second time to search for cards from my Deck."

Getting carried away, Manjou explained proudly, "My Fusion Deck doesn't just have one 'Dragon King of Light and Darkness'. As long as I revive 'Dragon of Darkness and Annihilation' and then use the effect of 'Awakening Dragon - Young Infernal Wind God' to search for 'Dragon of Light and Ascension' in my deck, 'Dragon King of Light and Darkness' will be Fusion Summoned for the second time next turn!"

"You have absolutely no chance of winning, Caesar!"

This arrogant explanation of his strategy wasn't because Manjou was stupid; he was actually deliberately trying to get Marufuji Ryo to focus his attention on the "Dragon King of Light and Darkness" and the dragon monsters that could be resurrected in his graveyard, so that Marufuji Ryo would ignore the face-down card in his back row—"Dragon Shadow Light."

He didn't quite understand the specific effects of the [Cyber ​​Dark] monsters in the so-called "Cyber ​​Flow". Five monsters had their effects revealed so far, but only one [Cyber ​​Dark Chimera] was known to have an effect that could be activated when it was sent to the Graveyard. And because of the previous effect of [Cyber ​​Dark Claw], that monster was currently in Marufuji Ryo's hand.

If that [Cyber ​​Dark Chimera] has the same effect as cards like [Cyber ​​Dark Dragonbone] that equip Dragons in the Graveyard, then Ryo Marufuji could easily summon a monster with the same 2400 ATK to take down [Dragon King of Light and Darkness], and then use [Cyber ​​Dragon] to attack him directly.