Duels should be played with a smile.

Equip Spell Cards can be equipped to any monster that meets the requirements unless there are special requirements, but Raphael's act of aiding the enemy has confused many people.

Except for Atm.

"As expected, you do have the means to resurrect monsters from the graveyard!"

Raphael glanced at Atm, but didn't reply. Instead, he continued with what he was doing.

"Activate the supreme fruit, restore 2000 LP."

"And then there's this card!"

"[Soul Replenishment], I Special Summon 2 monsters from my Graveyard, then lose 2000 LP!"

"Return, my monster!"

The Echo Sword equipped on Gaia suddenly emitted a crisp echo.

"【Guardian Alma】Can only be Special Summoned when Echo Sword is on your field. I will also Special Summon Weapon Summoner from my Graveyard."

Two monsters were resurrected from the graveyard. As soon as they appeared, the power of Orichalcos took control of them, strengthening them while also marking their foreheads and taking away their rationality.

"By excluding the Iron Knight and the puppet, you have cut off my ability to continue using the infinite loop, but at the same time, you have opened another door for me!"

"Now, there are no monsters in my grave!"

"My guardian who has always protected me like family! Ethos! Heed my call and descend!"

"[Guardian Ethos]'s effect: If there are no monsters in your Graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from your hand!"

A guardian, as pure and innocent as an angel, fluttered her pure white wings and landed beside Raphael. But before she could tell Raphael what was on her mind, the mark of Orichalcos was forcibly imprinted on her forehead.

[Wind · 8★ · Angel · Attack Power 2500→3000]

Her eyes were filled with crimson, and before she lost her mind, all she could do was cast a pleading look at ATM across from her.

"There are three monsters on the field. Are you now going to sacrifice Ethos, whom you consider family, to summon the arrival of an evil god?"

Answer me, Raphael!

Atm was now somewhat confused. He couldn't quite figure out Raphael's current situation or why so many significant changes had occurred in him from the beginning until now.

Even though he had already borne the darkness in people's hearts, Atm had to admit that the human heart was still the most complex thing in the world. He knew that Raphael's heart had been occupied by darkness, but he had no way of knowing what Raphael was thinking at this moment.

"Of course not, Aetos is my family, I would never use her as a sacrifice!"

"Your monster is the one destined to be sacrificed!"

"I activate the Spell Card [Soul Intertwined]! Target Gaia on your field. If I Tribute a monster this turn, I must Tribute your Gaia first!"

A hazy mist enveloped Gaia, as if trying to draw her soul away.

"I will release Alma, the Weapon Summoner, and Gaia on your field as sacrifices!"

"God who obliterates all other gods! The ultimate god who leads all things to their end! Descend!"

"【The Destroyer of Evil Gods】!"

[God · 10★ · Evil Divine Beast · Attack Power? → 4000]

"The attack and defense of the Evil God Annihilator are 1000 times the number of cards on your field! So it now has 4000 attack!"

As soon as the colossal evil god appeared, it opened its massive maw and absorbed the power of the other cards on the field, converting it into its own power.

“Based on the number of cards… could it correspond to Osiris?” Atm quickly realized this and made his own guess.

"I can't enter the battle phase if I use Soul Replenishment or Soul Interchange, so I'll end my turn like this."

Holding the last card in his hand, Raphael raised his head, calmly looked at Atm, and slowly spoke.

"You cannot defeat me... Once I was chosen by fate, no one can stop my path..."

"Even if you treat your guardians, who are like family to you, as sacrifices to an evil god?" Atm demanded sharply.

"You keep saying that Ethos is your family and won't become a sacrifice to the evil god, so isn't Alma your guardian who protected you, and therefore not your family?"

"You claim Ethos is your family, yet you allowed the evil power of Orichalcos to control her!"

"I would rather you never have summoned her than see her summoned, then corrupted by evil forces, lose her mind, and become unable to even hear your voice!"

"enough!"

Raphael suddenly interrupted Atm with a shout. His face was gloomy, and the light emanating from the dark green mark on his forehead was extremely dim.

"You seem to know a lot of things, but do you really know my past?"

Raphael calmly recounted his past, as if he were telling a story unrelated to himself.

His past was no different from what Atm knew.

After losing his family and living alone on a deserted island, he survived only with the protection of elves, but the news he received after his survival was devastating.

From that time on, his heart was buried in the past.

From the moment Dartz appeared before him, deceiving Ethos who had always protected him and awakening another guardian who should have been dormant, the clock of his life came to a standstill.

"My family is gone, why am I the only one who survived? You can't answer that question... It was that great one who gave me the answer, allowing me to..."

“I can give you the answer,” Atm said in a deep voice.

"what?!"

"I can give you the answer, and your answer is very simple!"

Atm's mind was filled with memories of three thousand years ago, when his father passed away and he inherited everything from his father to become the new Pharaoh.

He inherited his father's glory and his father's responsibilities.

He is himself, and at the same time, he is a continuation of his father.

This is a primal inheritance that humanity has possessed since ancient times, engraved in our blood.

"The reason you choose to live on alone is to live on in place of your departed family members, along with their share of life!"

Death and giving up are the easiest things, but the hardest thing is carrying the burden of the deceased and continuing on.

"If you can't even see through something this simple, then there's no need to continue!"

"My turn! Draw a card!"

"Let me use my own methods to pull you out of the abyss called the past!"

"I activate the face-down trap card [Spiral Resurrection]!"

"You can activate this effect by targeting 1 Level 7 or lower Dragon-Type monster in your Graveyard. Special Summon that monster."

"Return, Gaia, the Sky Dragon Knight!"

The knight who transcended dimensions broke through the barriers of the underworld and returned like lightning!

"It's no use. Without the power of the Spiral Fusion, Gaia cannot break through the Annihilator. The power of the evil god is not comparable to that of ordinary monsters."

Raphael did not reveal the true power of the Annihilator.

That powerful ability to destroy everything.

Moreover, in his plan, even an incomparably powerful evil god was not his last resort.

Even if the Pharaoh could produce the three Egyptian God cards, he would not be afraid at all, especially since, as far as he knew, the three Egyptian God cards were still in the hands of the Duel King.

"It can't compare to ordinary monsters, but as long as it's not an ordinary monster, that's fine, right?"

The deck fulfilled Atm's expectations, and the card best suited to deal with the Annihilator came into his hand during this turn's card draw.

"The evil god possesses the same resistance as the phantom god, and the evil god destroyer happens to correspond to the Osiris Sky Dragon... Perhaps, sometimes, it really is destiny..."

He held that card, which seemed destined for him, high in the air, and all the spectators saw its magnificence through the information displayed on the ring.

"That is?!"

"He is the messenger of justice! He is the god of vengeance!" Atm declared loudly.

"It takes the sun and moon as its companions, the stars as its food, and wields the power over the birth and death of all things, commanding the origin of all things!"

"When he descends to earth, all living beings must be sacrificed; when he manifests himself, gods will perish!"

"Raphael! Witness the arrival of the God-Slaying Dragon!"

"I will Special Summon three monsters from my Graveyard, namely the Light-attribute [Gaia the Raging Dark Knight], the Earth-attribute [King Gaia the Dark Knight], and the Dark-attribute [Gaia the Awakened]!"

"This is the beginning of all things!"

"Descend, [Great Star Primal Dragon]!"

Six-colored light swirled around its pale golden body. The slender dragon shadow shrank its majestic form to a size large enough for it to descend, carrying its planet as it landed here.

[Dark 11★ Dragon 2500 Attack Power]

"Daixingyi...the Primal Dragon?!"

This scene seems familiar.

Whether it was Raphael, Atm, or audiences worldwide, the moment they saw this first dragon, also a god-slaying dragon, descend, they all recalled the duel that had just taken place.

It seems that, as Atm said, perhaps this was destiny.

The moment when Daisei Yoshi ended the dragon's slaying of the god is still etched deep in the memories of countless duelists, and is occasionally brought up from their memories to revisit.

So, when the Primal Dragon, which shares a similar name with the Great Star Extinction Dragon, faces the [Evil God Annihilator], which corresponds to the Sky Dragon of Osiris, will it etch another precious image in the hearts of countless duelists?

"Great Star Primordial Dragon! Heed my command, and let all things return to their origin!"

"The effect of 【Great Star Primal Dragon】is that once per turn, you can declare 1 attribute of a monster on the field, destroy all monsters with the declared attribute on the field! And until the end of the next turn, neither player can Special Summon monsters with the declared attribute."

"This is the beginning of heaven and earth! The origin of all things!"

"The attribute I want to declare is a divine attribute that belongs exclusively to God!"

I say, God will no longer exist in this world!

Sitting in the audience, the gamer felt a moment of disorientation. He felt that the figure that looked exactly like his own back seemed to overlap with the back of the person who had defeated him.

Is this another version of me from another world? In his world, did he also lose to him?

Then, his choice was to become him?

No, he did not become himself; he remained himself. He was the beginning, not the end.

The vast and boundless universe flashed before everyone's eyes. When they came to their senses, the so-called god who was said to be able to annihilate other gods, the evil god annihilator, had already been annihilated by the Great Star Primordial Dragon.