Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

Players still in the central courtyard and not yet in other worlds discovered that as a beam of light fell from the World Tree, their target, and struck the area around the World Tree guarded by the guards of [Sword King War - Frode], they saw the entire world begin to shake, and all the mountains visible in the surrounding area began to move at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Continental plates shifting? No, it's the sleeping serpent of the mortal realm—[Eternal Realm King War - Jormungandr]—awakening!

Even from the top of the World Tree in Asgard, through the clouds at the edge of the world, Jaden and the others could still clearly see the ferocious head of King Kai: Jormungandr, who had raised his body and stood tall!

That wasn't all. Inside the portal to the realm of the dead, a woman wielding a skull staff appeared on the other side, grinning as she directed a large number of undead soldiers to invade the other nine realms.

"Fenrir, Jormungandr, and Hela—of my three most powerful children, only Fenrir is a pity for not being born into this world. But both Jormungandr and Hela became part of the [King's War]. To protect this world that would have fallen into my hands, I put Jormungandr into a deep sleep and left Hela in the deepest part of the Underworld. But it doesn't matter now, so destroy everything! [Eternal King's War - Jormungandr], [King's War of the Dead - Hel]!"

After ordering his subordinates to eliminate the other players scattered throughout the Nine Realms, [Shadow of Kings - Lopte] turned his gaze to Judai and the others, "And you bunch of bastards, I'll personally take you down!"

"First, there's the inherently evil 'Dan Kuroto,' then your group of friends, then all the living beings within the [Todoroki] realm, and then everything and everything within the Nine Realms!"

"To personally toy with and kill all things!"

"...You mean everything? Is that so? I see. That's what you just said, right, [Shadow of the King's War - Lopto]?" Jaden looked at the ferocious expression on [Shadow of the King's War - Lopto]'s face and nodded. "No matter how neurotic a madman is, he shouldn't be able to say that, right? Hmm, he shouldn't be able to say that."

"Kill everything? I see. So, if you've absorbed the power of the [Kings], you can say things like that—"

Judai abruptly opened his eyes and angrily retorted, "How could I possibly let you do that, you idiot!"

"Idiot!? How dare you...!" [Shadow of the King of War - Lopto]'s expression twisted. "If it were 'Dan Kuroto,' it would be one thing, but someone like you dared to do that! Absolutely unforgivable! No matter what your reason was!"

"You can give me as many reasons as you want!" Judai stepped forward resolutely without fear. "It's justice! It's heroism! You want to hurt my teacher, my friends, and my classmates? I absolutely cannot let you go!"

"Huh? I thought you'd start yelling at this point, huh?" [Shadow of the King - Lopto] looked at Jaden with disdain. "So that's it, so that's it. It's just that kind of pride that heroes have, huh? But don't take the prophecy I had [Vara] spread as a complete lie. If I can't become the King of the Nine Realms, then I'll become the Demon God who will destroy the Nine Realms. Let me listen to your delusional dreams of becoming the last hero of this world one last time!"

"Why did you pick up the cards? Why did you throw yourself into battle!" [Shadow of the King - Lopte] sneered. "'Hero,' what is justice?"

"You don't need to answer, or rather—use your wails and screams as your answer!"

As he spoke, [King's Shadow - Lopto] began his first real attack, shooting a laser beam at Jaden's heart, attempting to kill him instantly.

However, before Jaden could even send E. Hero back to defend, a water curtain suddenly rose from beneath the frost on the ground, seemingly thin but easily blocking the attack of King's Shadow - Lopto!?

From within the water curtain, [Water Descendant of the Temple] emerged and respectfully stepped aside to greet Hayato. [Shadow of the King - Lopto] turned his head and saw that an identical water curtain had appeared within the energy shield he had set up. It seemed that the two water curtains were connected and could be used for spatial transfer.

“Don’t be so surprised. The [Aramaichair Ritual] can easily summon heroes from other worlds, let alone transfers within the same space.” Hayato patted the head of [Sanctuary's Water Sprite], causing the latter to show an expression of rapture and infatuation, as if it were about to ascend to heaven. Then, looking at [King's Shadow - Lopto], he said, “Want to hurt my student? I’m sorry—”

"—Here, Accelerator is permitted!"

"Hmm! It's a pity! What's important to you is nothing more than a toy in this world on the verge of destruction! Playing the tune of anguish—an instrument embellished with lamentation, sorrow, and tears!" [Shadow of the King's War - Lopto] looked at Hayato, "You alone, can you stop me—and my army?"

Behind [Shadow of the King - Lopte], [Curse of the King - Vara] launched a sneak attack in the silence with extreme cunning. An aura of the dead, transferred from the underworld, approached Hayato and the students around him from all directions. But at the same time, a huge golden magic circle suddenly opened on the ground, completely isolating the incoming death energy!?

"—Hayato, you've finally made your move. Now I can stretch my legs a bit." Holding the card [Black Magician - Dark Magician], the taciturn magician followed Yugi, with [Demon's Light], [Silent Swordsman Zero], and [Silent Magician Zero] appearing behind him one by one.

Meanwhile, the [Three-Colored Gadgets] jumped down from the energy shield that had previously imprisoned the game and began to disperse to dismantle the energy shield containing Anzu, Rebecca, and Mai the Peacock. It seemed that they were the ones who had just removed the restrictions on the game.

As for Jonouchi? Seeing that Hayato and Yugi had both left, he didn't pretend this time, but instead forcefully elbowed the energy shield.

Shattered energy shield: Man, what can I say?

Unable to contain his curiosity, the game player asked, "Jonnouchi, doesn't your hand hurt?"

Jonouchi, who was about to gasp in pain, noticed that Hayato's students were all looking at him after the game's question, so he stubbornly pretended that nothing had happened: "I don't feel anything!"

"Even an energy shield can't contain you!? Tch, perfect. Slaughtering pigs and dogs at the mercy of the slaughter is nothing compared to crushing their dying struggles. Since you refuse to submit to slaughter, then your decisions and desires—I will tear them apart and destroy them right here!"

"Crush them—[Jormungandr]!"

Upon hearing the command of [Shadow of the King - Lopt], ​​Manjoume turned around in alarm and saw that the head of [Jormungandr], which had appeared in front of them earlier, had turned towards [Hōkai]. The enormous World Serpent had actually stretched its body from Midgard all the way to the Divine Realm, and was letting out a threatening roar at them!

"Don't get in the way! There's no room for a big guy like you here!" Seeing that [Eternal King Battle - Jormungandr] was about to smash its massive head down on the group, Jonouchi quickly pulled out the [Crimson King] card, held it up in front of him, and shouted, "HenShin!"

"【The Crimson King】!"

Flames enveloped Jonouchi's body, and like a Kamen Rider transforming, Jonouchi instantly donned armor. With a high-flying kick, he actually stopped the descent of [Eternal Kaio Battle - Jormungandr], and even carried him back down towards the central courtyard below to prevent it from interfering with the battlefield!

"【Jormungandr】!" The silent 【King's War Curse - Vara】 was about to make a move when she saw that 【Eternal World King's War - Jormungandr】 had been taken away by one of Jonouchi's people, but a bolt of lightning swept past her.

The Demon's Light behind Yugi lowered its hand; this was merely a warning from Yugi. Yugi then turned to Hayato and said, "It's a pity Jonouchi stole what seemed to be the most powerful Jormungandr. So, Hayato, at least leave me one opponent—like this one who's also skilled in magic?"

"I have no objection. As long as you're not afraid that Kyoko and Rebecca will be jealous because you challenged a woman to a duel," Hayato shrugged nonchalantly, looking at [King's Shadow - Lopte]. "As for this arrogant idiot, I'll take care of him."

"By the way—you just said you wanted to be what kind of king?"

[Shadow of Kings - Lopte] shivered. This should have made him ashamed, angry and frustrated by his cowardly reaction, but he couldn't vent those emotions at the moment.

Because, even though Hayato didn't even make a move to draw a card, countless terrifying auras began to spread around him: puppets in the shadows, tragic theatrical actors, demons bound by the earth, and even phantom demons that preyed on life.

He dared to attack Jaden and his group because he knew they couldn't muster any powerful monsters, but if he were to attack this terrifying creature before him—

Will it win?

It's sealed shut!

"Duel!" Refusing to beg for mercy or be ganged up on by these terrifying beings, [King of War Shadow - Lopto] resolutely shouted, conjuring a duel disk on his arm. His voice remained defiant, refusing to yield an inch. "I am the King who will destroy the Nine Realms! My illusions, my mockery, will here destroy your future! I will crush you with your most proficient dueling ritual!"

"This time, your [Divine Stele] can no longer defeat me!"

Lopte: 4000LP, 5 cards in hand

Chapter 1401 A family should always be together.

"【Divine Stele】? Who in their right mind would play with a divine stele?"

Because his deck was still missing a few cards, such as [Golden Drops' Divine Stele], Hayato had no intention of using [Divine Stele] to fight [King's Shadow - Lopto] again. "Besides, you, a piece of trash I killed in one turn, actually chose to duel me again?"

"You think I wanted to?!" [Shadow of the Kings - Lopto] sneered, glaring at the concealed phantom behind Hayato. "Before, I only used randomly collected cards to fight you to avoid revealing my true power. But now I'm different. The deck I'm using is the remainder of 'Levantin's' power—that is, the [Kings'] deck formed by unifying the power of the [Kings'] from the Nine Realms!"

"Although you've lost the power of [Jormungandr], the power of [Hel] is included within it. Without [Divine Monument], what powerful deck can you possibly pull out?" [King's Shadow - Lopt], ​​who hadn't witnessed much of Hayato's duels but had seen him with many powerful monsters, said arrogantly, "While I know you have many powerful monsters, powerful monsters don't necessarily mean they're equally effective in duels. The stronger the card, the stronger its limitations!"

"Yes, absolutely right."

However, Hayato didn't even glance at [King's Shadow - Lopto], only giving him a perfunctory reply while he pointed at the air in front of him.

He wasn't using the control panel that everyone in the "Duel-Links" world had; instead, he opened the [Shop] of his own "Syria Q Duelist System," searched for and bought a few cards, and casually remarked, "By the way, don't you have [Jormungandr] in your deck? What a pity, I was thinking of reuniting the siblings."

"After all, a family should be together all the time."

Hayato casually sent a few cards into the deck. [King of War Shadow - Lopto] vaguely saw that one of the cards seemed to have the word "Fenrir" in its name, but he didn't pay it any mind. Could it be that the opponent could conjure up a powerful card with the name "Fenrir" out of thin air?

It's important to remember that when [King of War - Lopt] was still [Emperor of the Extreme Gods - Loki], the [Fenrir] in his [Astral Plane] was the extremely powerful [Polar Star Wolf - Fenrir]. Even if Hayato really pulled out some powerful card, he probably wouldn't be able to withstand the powerful [Polar Star Wolf - Fenrir], right?

In the end, they'll probably only be able to pull out Fenrir, which shares the same name, to put on a show. So there's no need to take it seriously; it's just bluffing!

Behind Hayato, seeing that the three legendary duelists—Yugi Muto, Katsuya Jonouchi, and their principal Hayato Kobayashi—had each accepted the challenges of [King's Curse - Vara], [King's Eternal Battle - Jormungandr], and [King's Shadow - Lopto] as their respective opponents, Jaden and the others felt relieved.

“As long as Principal Hayato launches an attack, everything will be fine,” Marufuji Sho said casually.

However, Fubuki cautioned, "It's not time to relax yet. Although Principal Hayato will defeat that person and rescue Akira, the others in the academy are not safe."

“That’s right, didn’t that person say he was going to have his subordinates destroy everything in the Nine Realms?” Asuka nodded and looked at Judai. “Only we have come to the [Todoroki World], but the other students who entered the game are still scattered in the other Nine Realms.”

"Ohara, Ohara, Kagurazaka, and the others?" Jaden scratched his head. "But dying in this virtual world doesn't seem like a big deal, does it?"

While sitting in the audience earlier, Jaden had talked with Manjoume and the others about their experiences in this virtual world. He learned from Manjoume and Misawa that after they died in this world for their own reasons, they did not really die, but were resurrected in a specific location like in other online games.

"Why can you remember the names of people you've only fought once, but not mine?!" Misawa complained, but continued, "It's not just Oohara and Kagurazaka, but many more classmates. Most of them entered this game with a playful attitude and didn't even think about being wary of the dangers around them."

"And that [Shadow of Kings - Lopte] just now said he wanted to reverse reality and illusion, and even said he wanted to kill our spirits here..."

"Could it be?!" Maeda gasped in surprise. "Then we'd better act quickly, or something terrible will happen!"

"Huh? What's the big deal?" Junko and Momoe exchanged a glance, still not understanding the situation. "Can't you two explain yourselves more clearly?"

"Even someone like me, an Osiris-Red, can understand this, so how did you guys get into Obelisk-Blue—no, nothing at all!"

Marufuji Sho was halfway through his rant when he was forced to shut up under the fierce, condescending gazes of two girls, both a head taller than him. He quickly said, "What Jiutang means is that if we die here from now on, we might really die."

"Huh?" Upon hearing this, Junko and Momoe panicked and quickly grabbed Asuka's arms, one on each side. "W-What do we do, Asuka? Are we really going to die?"

"I've never even been in a relationship! I'm still an innocent young girl, and I don't want to die young like that. At least not after I find a boyfriend, right?!"

"Ah, I can help with this kind of thing—uh-huh!"

Retracting her fist from Fubuki's stomach, Asuka looked down at her brother, who had actually attacked her best friend, with an icy gaze: "How pathetic."

"That's so mean, Asuka-chan!" Fubuki clutched her stomach, wincing in pain. "What if getting injured here affects reality too!"

"Isn't that perfect? ​​Using a scumbag like you, who falls in love with every woman he meets and flirts with everyone, to test just how much impact the harm he suffers in this world has on reality is just the right thing to do."

Seeing Fubuki's pathetic state in front of Asuka, Daitokuji smiled with narrowed eyes: "Oh my, as expected, Tenjouin-san is meant to be suppressed by Tenjouin-san, meow."

"But there's no more time for everyone to waste, meow, it's almost time."

“That’s right, we must act immediately.” Seeing the undead soldiers emerging from the [Realm of the Dead] about to enter the portals to the other nine realms, Judai quickly sprang into action. “It’s not heroic not to lend a helping hand to those in need!”

"Don't steal all the limelight, Jaden. I'm counting on recovering my popularity after losing to Akira." Watching Jaden ride on his back with the [Support Dog] as his mount, Fubuki patted him on the shoulder with a smile, then summoned the [Red-Eyes Dark Dragon]. "But, it's no problem to give you a ride too."

"Oh! Thank you, Fubuki!"

Seeing Jaden and Fubuki with their arms around each other and laughing, and Asuka standing behind them with a gloomy face, having already summoned [Ancient Saint Dai - First Dragon] but Fubuki beat them to it, Maeda, Manjoume, Misawa, and Marufuji Sho exchanged glances and silently mourned for Fubuki for almost a second.

As Jaden and the others left, [King's Shadow - Lopto] completely ignored them, sneering, "The situation here is exactly the opposite. I have to admit that those mortals are indeed quite skilled, but the use of cards and the use of power in battle are two different things. Do you think a mere few people can withstand the army that I had [Hel] send out?"

"However, I might finish you off before they are swallowed by the endless undead. And then, will your kin mourn your death, Dan Kuroto?"

“What Grindelwald?” Hayato retorted, waving his hand. “You’re not the Dark Lord, I’m Roger Dorn… I mean, Hayato Kobayashi, that’s my real name.”

"Duel!"

With his deck fully loaded, Hayato drew five cards from it, which were lined up in the air in front of him. Although it was the first time he had exchanged and used them, he still managed to draw one of the cards that he had specially added to his deck before this duel. He looked at [King of War Shadow - Lopto] and smiled brightly: "Then let's begin this delightful torture."

[Kobayashi Hayato: 4000LP, 5 cards in hand]

"I'll take the initiative and draw a card!" Even though Hayato said he wouldn't use the [Divine Monument] deck this time, [King's Shadow - Lopto] didn't believe Hayato's nonsense. He thought it was like he was just being mysterious by saying something about "reuniting the siblings" before the duel. How could anyone easily give up such a powerful card?

However, as long as I have this card in my hand—heh heh, I'm completely safe!

"This is a trial, a trial to overcome my past. The humiliating defeat I suffered at your hands—I will grow stronger after overcoming it." Because of his perfect hand, he felt no fear even if Hayato was still using that disgusting [Divine Monument] deck. He arrogantly played [Shadow of the King - Lopto], "Spell Card, [Trial of the King] activated!"

"You can only activate one card with this name per turn. Reveal one 'King of Kings' monster from my hand to your opponent, and then add up to two 'King of Kings' Spell/Trap Cards from my Deck to my hand, except for 'Trial of Kings'. You can have a maximum of one card with the same name."

"After that, the [King's Battle] card that was shown to the opponent is returned to the bottom of the deck."

Having explained the effect, [Shadow of the Kings - Lopto] revealed the card in his hand: "Under the effect of this card, which possesses the power of [King of the Swords - Frode], the [King of the Swords] monster I'm about to reveal is naturally this one, [King of the Swords - Frode] himself!"

"I've added 'Stage of the King' and 'Domination of the King' to my hand, and then returned 'Sword World King - Frode' to the bottom of my deck." With the card back in its deck, 'Shadow of the King - Lopte' said disdainfully, "Without 'Sword of Victory,' 'Sword World King - Frode' doesn't even deserve to be my puppet."

"Ah, I get it, I get it. Although it's a second-speed card that can only target monsters and can't clear the back row, it also has the negative effect of letting the opponent draw cards. I wouldn't want to use it either. To be honest, it's already strange that that card is still in your 'King of Kings' deck." Because Jonouchi had mentioned 'King of Kings - Frode' to him, Hayato, who didn't have a deep memory of the 'King of Kings' deck, also knew its effect, and had an expression that showed he quite understood the operation of 'King of Kings - Lopt'.

Frowning without saying anything, [Shadow of the King - Lopte] played another card, saying, "Next is this card. The Nine Realms will become a stage for me to play with at will. Unfold, this hopeless world that will eventually perish!"

"Field Spell Card, [Stage of the Royal Battle] activated!"