Duels should be played with a smile.

"Battle has begun! Little bunny, attack Chorus Little Glass!"

While the little rabbit was completely confused, Ella gave the order to attack. The little rabbit, who couldn't beat anyone, had no choice but to climb down from under its tree stump and slowly walk up to Little Liuli, thinking about how to launch an attack.

Little Liuli flies in the sky. No matter how much it jumps, it can't reach her!

"The instant you declare your attack, I activate the Nightingale Gathering effect!"

With a slight sense of unease in his heart, Ze Du spoke.

He didn't know what Ella was going to do, but doing something was better than doing nothing.

"Gather the Nightingale's effect, detach 1 Xyz Material, and until the end of this turn, my Lyric Robin monsters cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects, and I take 0 battle damage."

With the help of their companions, the birds united as one, the gentle breeze enveloping them and warding off all harm.

No matter what happens next, at least Zetsu himself will be fine. Whether Ella's attack was suicidal or not, it won't affect his victory!

"No chain reaction, your effect will be handled normally, and then I will continue the attack!"

Without any other obstacles, the little rabbit's attacks could not stop. Unable to jump up and hit Xiao Liuli's knee, Xiao Liuli launched a counterattack first.

“At this very moment!” Ella suddenly spoke.

Her actions captivated everyone's attention, as this move would determine the outcome of the duel.

"I activate the Quick-Play Spell Card [Forbidden Codex]! It can only be activated during damage calculation when monsters battle! Until the end of the Damage Step, the effects of cards other than this card are negated, and damage calculation for that battle is performed using their original ATK and DEF!"

A book containing forbidden knowledge was opened, and the mysterious power emanating from it enveloped Xiao Liuli and the little rabbit.

Little Liuli lost the power brought by her companion and fell to the ground. The rabbit, which was not dangerous to begin with, was naturally incapable of doing anything cruel. The rabbit and the bird stood on the ground and shook hands peacefully, thus ending the fight.

"Original attack power?! Wasn't that all zero? This kind of battle... wait a minute?!"

Zedu realized what was happening, but he still didn't understand.

Even if it's only ineffective during battle, and there's a Little Ruri who can be summoned back to her hand after the battle ends, Ella still has no hope of turning the tide.

"Battle over, proceeding to main phase 2."

Ella's clear voice rang out again, this time with a different meaning.

It seems... to have a somewhat lively feel to it?

"Main Phase 2, I'm going to activate this card!"

A huge mechanical device appeared on the field—on both sides' fields.

"Spell Card [Capture Device]: Both players select 1 monster each on their field, and control of those monsters is exchanged! The controller of this card must select a face-up Normal Monster on their field!"

“I choose the little bunny, and I’ll give this adorable creature to you,” Ella said softly.

"Then you should hand over your Nightingale Gathering to me. This effect is not targeted, and even your Cobalt Spinel Finch cannot stop it."

"Are you kidding me?" Ze Du's tightly furrowed brows relaxed. This magic card was somewhat unexpected, but he felt that Ella had made a mistake this time.

"How could I possibly give you the Nightingale with 5 more materials? That would be handing you the victory for nothing! I'd definitely give you Little Ruri... Wait?!"

Zetsu realized... he seemed to have dug his own grave.

The golden bird clung tightly to Xiao Liuli's wing, preventing her from entering the enormous device, while the nightingales on the other side were pale and filled with reluctance.

But there was no other choice.

"Looks like you remembered." Ella crossed her arms and said casually, the simple gesture making her already impressive figure even more "proud".

"Because your Little Glass has canaries as its material, the control cannot be changed. You can only choose to give me the Nightingale Gathering."

Zedu has no choice now.

The little rabbit happily hopped out to play. It had just had a pleasant chat with Little Liuli, and now it could continue the game it had just finished.

Meanwhile, Nightingale, along with her five materials, arrived on Ella's field.

"Then... please witness!"

Another card with forbidden power has appeared on the field.

"The Quick-Play Spell Card in my hand, [Forbidden Grail]! Target Little Ruri on your field and activate this effect. It gains 400 ATK until the end of this turn, but its effects are negated!"

The Holy Scripture was used to temporarily disable Little Glass's effect in order to take advantage of the Canary's effect. Now, in order to prepare for the final judgment, we must first control this little bird with magical powers.

The forbidden drop from the Holy Grail fell on Xiao Liuli, stripping her of the power she had just regained. Although it gave her some power to prevent her from crashing, she could not quell the anger that was already present in her body, which was capable of targeting even god-slaying weapons.

The moment Xiaoli's power was stripped away, Zedu's entire demeanor instantly turned somber.

Before Xiao Liuli's attack was nullified, he still held onto a sliver of hope. He thought that the incredibly powerful monster might not appear here, and that even if one of the Nightingales was taken away, there was still room for maneuver.

But now he knows.

Completely, utterly finished.

"Nightingale, with your melodious voice, become the messenger guiding the thunder!"

Ella commanded the gathered nightingales to fly high into the sky, with five streaks of light shining brightly beside her.

"This is the pinnacle and end of Xyz Summoning! It summons the final judgment of annihilation for all things!"

The aura of the source code was faintly revealed in Ella's hand; her unique God-Slaying Spear was about to descend!

"RankUpXYZChange!"

"Ultimate Ascension Summon! Rank 12! Return all things to their origin! [Skybreaker Aeus]!"

Chapter 86 Fairy Tale Animals: Pancake Frog

Rather than a spear that slays gods, Ayra's unique Athena is more aptly described as a sword that cleaves the heavens.

The birds transformed into orbs of light, guiding the supreme being to descend. In the clouds above the sky, a sharp blade revealed its unparalleled edge, splitting the clouds in two.

If the earth weren't so solid, no one would think that this sharp blade falling from the sky wouldn't be able to cleave the earth as well.

As if a sacred hymn surrounded the descending blade, He descended amidst the soft chanting.

Some monsters are born to turn everything upside down.

The moment the Thunderclap arrived, the outcome of the duel was completely reversed.

As we all know, there are many powerful monsters among those whose effects are not limited to once per turn, and those that are second fastest and have no limit on the number of times they can be activated in a chain are the strongest of the strong.

Fairy Tale Princess Shirayuki and Aeus are both heroes among them.

Of course, if a card meets the above conditions and is not yet on the banned card list, it is generally subject to equivalent restrictions. Snow White needs to banish cards, and Arceus needs to remove Xyz Material. These restrictions are meant to give them a way out.

But now...

Six massive orbs of light, composed of Nightingale and her companions, revolved closely around Arceus, giving him an unparalleled aura of power in his defensive stance.

There's no situation that can't be solved by flushing the toilet once; if there is, then flush twice! Three times!

"The Sky Thunder, with its appearance like this... hid its strength in the semi-finals, and I actually fell for it. I don't know whether to say I was too stupid or you were too deceptive."

Zetsu was now extremely annoyed. The moment he saw this special version of Aeus, whose appearance bore no resemblance to the ordinary Aeus, descend, he knew that a large, red-glowing "danger" character had appeared above his head.

It's very common for alternate art cards to exist in card games, since alternate art cards are generally rarer and more visually appealing than the original versions.

In this world, alternate art cards also exist.

However, in this world, alternate art cards are not just about changing the image.

Just as a dynamic card illustration represents a spirit residing within it, an alternate art illustration also signifies that the cardholder and the spirit of that alternate art card have a deep bond—and also possess extraordinary strength.

If you lack strength and don't gain the full recognition of the spirit, even if you have a good relationship, you still can't make the spirit in the card evolve or sublimate according to your wishes.

That's right, each alternate art card represents a "customized and enhanced" exclusive spirit.

Even if the effects and stats of alternate art cards don't change during a duel, there are many things you can do outside of a duel.

Besides those that can protect duelists in the real world, some Pokémon possess special abilities.

For example, in the Masked Heroes series, which is very famous in the Fusion Dimension, if you have an evolved Alternate Spirit card, it's not impossible to perform a Masked Transformation with Masked Heroes outside of duels.

There's no need to elaborate on the various dragon-shaped monsters that are even more famous. When Zetsu was in the Pendulum Dimension, he often saw duelists disregarding traffic control and piloting their dragon-shaped spirits, flying around in the sky, indulging in the thrill of being dragon riders.

Then, almost immediately, they would be caught by the public security brigade and thrown into a detention center to reflect on their actions.

Then he humbly accepted criticism and education, but after being released, he remained incorrigible.

There's no way around it; for a dragon-loving duelist, the allure of being a dragon knight is simply too great.

According to a user named Zedu who wished to remain anonymous, a certain Tomato Head once evolved all the cards in his hand during an Action Duel. Afterwards, this Tomato Head did many earth-shattering things with the evolved cards in his hand.

In addition, according to incomplete statistics, the ratio of alternate art cards born from male elves, female elves, genderless elves, and other non-biological elves is approximately 2:5:1:2. This somewhat strange ratio can only be described as "those who know, know".

Zetsu himself has an alternate art version of the Elf, but it doesn't fit into the deck he's currently using, so he didn't include it.

Incidentally, the reason he went to Kurosaki Ruri to request a copy of this Lyrics Warbler deck was because he planned to evolve his Arceus into an alternate art card—this was the only deck he could access that could easily generate more Arceus materials, and he wanted to deepen his bond with Arceus by summoning multiple Arceus materials.

But right now... our own Arceus hasn't changed yet, but the enemy Arceus is getting on our heels.

Zetsu is in a terrible mood right now, and can only watch helplessly as Ella snatches his monster away and turns it into the alien painting Aeus that he can't help but covet.

At the same time, he was also very curious as to why the alternate version of Arceus, which belonged to a somewhat arrogant female duelist, was a tall giant.

The cold glint of the blade in the giant's hand sent a shiver of pain through his body just by looking at it.

Ella, of course, had no idea what Zetsu was thinking. Without making any unnecessary movements, she ended her turn without even using the fairy animal effects to let them come out and play.

This was the first time she had summoned her alternate version of Acius in public. Able to sense the emotional changes of the people around her, she was now also feeling the audience's opinions of this Acius.

Most of the reactions were amazed, but many were also mixed with doubt. The amazement came from seeing such a magnificent creation, while the doubt stemmed from the fact that not everyone could come into contact with beings like the Otherworldly Spirits.

Not to mention, gaining the approval of the Zeus spirit and obtaining the right to use Him is not an easy task in itself.

Just facing the pressure of twelve god-slaying spears at the same time is something that ordinary people cannot do—Ze Du was able to obtain an Ace of Zeus as a reward for helping a duelist from a superdimensional dimension once.

Ella's Arceus design is indeed unique enough; even if it's not as good as Leyou's, it's not far behind.

His body was made of exquisite silver armor, with sacred and noble patterns engraved on it, showing the glory he had won in countless battles.

A metal ring, cast by God, floated above His head, guiding Him on His way.

The longsword in his hand was unremarkable, but when held by the giant god, no one could ignore its sharpness.

A bright red cloak fluttered behind him, like a banner returning victorious from the battlefield.

When these elements intertwine into a harmonious whole, they create the supreme Heavenly Radiance Divine Weapon.