The Liberating Strike

"My turn, draw!"

Hikaru drew a card and glanced at it.

"Utterly crush me?" Upon hearing Hikaru's words, Morishima couldn't help but laugh like he had just heard a joke. "Do you even understand what that means?"

He raised his hand and pointed at the massive Hamon beside him. "Hamon is one of the strongest monster cards. Its power can make any spirit submit. In this entire Union dimension, no machine can rival Hamon!

Are you saying you can accomplish what an entire dimension couldn't?"

'Hah...' Hikaru sighed inwardly and chuckled at his words.

'Union, those machines, huh?'

He could already picture it: how Morishima fought those robots and used Hamon to crush them.

As one of the top-tier cards, maybe the Sacred Beasts are a bit embarrassing among the "top bosses," but to ordinary spirits, they are still overwhelming in strength.

Moreover, the machines in this dimension can't stand up to the power of the Sacred Beasts. Even though that doesn't mean the machines here are doomed to lose in a Duel!

If Hikaru had ABC, VW, or XYZ-type monsters, he felt like he could slam Hamon down with ease—Spirits are spirits. Card power is card power!

"Besides, as far as I know, your strongest monster is just the 4400 Attack Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem, right?" Morishima folded his arms and laughed wildly. "How are you supposed to defeat me with that?"

'How to defeat you?' Hikaru glanced at his hand and smiled faintly.

"Hikaru, he's right!" Tierra looked a bit troubled. "Your hand's all green cards. This might be hard, right?"

"Hard? Heh, not at all!" Hikaru pointed to the Graveyard and suddenly shouted, "I activate the effect of Duality in the Graveyard!

During my Main Phase: I can banish it from your Graveyard, then target 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK monster in my Graveyard; shuffle both into the Deck, then draw 1 card."

Hikaru raised his Duel Disk as the Graveyard cards rotated and displayed automatically. "I return Elemental HERO Prisma and Winda from my Graveyard to the Deck. Then I draw one card."

Hikaru shuffled the cards back into the Deck and Extra Deck, then drew a card—

'Got it!' Seeing the golden monster, Hikaru's eyes lit up.

His original goal could now be fulfilled!

"You returned Winda, huh? Heh, I knew it. Refusing to fuse was the right call." Despite half his body already being demonized, Morishima still retained a large degree of reason and composure.

Hikaru shrugged. "Then—I activate the Continuous Spell, Brilliant Fusion!"

"This card can only be activated once per turn; when activated, I send Fusion Materials listed on a Gem-Knight Fusion Monster from my Deck to the Graveyard, then Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck, but its Attack and Defense become 0."

"Wait, Hikaru, you don't have any Gem-Knight cards in your hand. You can't summon Zirconia without them, right?"

"Don't need them!" Hikaru's eyes narrowed as he shouted, "I will prove it head-on, with the simplest, most direct, and purest power!

That I can defeat my enemies head-on!

I send Gem-Knight Crystal and Gem-Knight Sapphire from my Deck to the Graveyard!"

"Fusion Materials: a Gem-Knight monster and a Rock monster!"

"Gentle sapphire of serenity, diamond of unity and friendship—

Now, at this moment, become one, and step into a new realm!

Fusion Summon, Gem-Knight Zirconia!"

Captain Crystal appeared on the field, with Sapphire swirling around him. Countless rocks detached from Crystal and merged into Sapphire's body, finally forming a knight clad in Crystal's armor, yet even larger and more muscular!

[Gem-Knight Zirconia] Level 8│EARTH│Rock│2900 ATK

[Gem-Knight Zirconia, ATK: 2900 → 0]

Due to Brilliant Fusion's effect, its ATK decreased to 0.

"Hahahaha! Putting a monster with 0 Attack in Attack Position? Hikaru, you really have gone insane!"

He waved a hand and laughed loudly. "A monster with only 0 Attack, how could it ever defeat the invincible Hamon?"

Hikaru chuckled—He looked off to the side, at the wall, as if seeing through it to another Duel happening elsewhere, "On the far end of the Hangar, a student from our Academy, from the Obelisk Blue dorm, accepted a challenge, to complete a Duel Spirit's trial using only monsters with 500 or less Attack.

Heh, maybe not even 500. Maybe they're all just 0."

"Ha?" Morishima was dumbfounded. "That's impossible. No way that can work."

"Heh, I believe he can do it."

Morishima raised an eyebrow… It sounded like utter nonsense.

He had dueled those Spirits before, and even if they couldn't defeat him, using only monsters with 500 or less—or even 0 Attack…

'No way!'

"Doesn't matter. Either way, you and that guy are both going down in this world!"

"Is that so?" Hikaru offered no rebuttal.

"I activate the effect of Evil HERO Adusted Gold in my hand by discarding it!

I add 1 Dark Fusion or 1 card that specifically lists it from my Deck to my hand, except another Adusted Gold."

Hikaru tossed the monster away.

This card was given to him by Jaden after they fought the Shadow Riders together and faced the Golden Spirit, though he'd never had the chance to use it until now, and it had been lying dormant in his Deck.

"I add Dark Calling to my hand."

A dark aura surged into the brightly lit room, clinging to his hand.

"Dark Calling—could it be that flaming winged demon? But you don't have its Fusion Materials in the Graveyard! Then—"

"Fusion Materials: 1 Fiend monster and 1 Rock monster!" Hikaru's eyes widened as he raised Dark Calling. "I activate the Spell Card Dark Calling!

I banish monsters from my hand or Graveyard as Fusion Materials, then Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster that can only be summoned with Dark Fusion!

I banish Gem-Knight Crystal and Evil HERO Adusted Gold from my Graveyard!

Using these two monsters for Fusion—Witness the Anti-HERO who commands the power of darkness!

Crush everything!

Fusion Summon!"

He clapped his hands in front of him—shattered rocks, broken debris, the corpses of Spirits—everything seemed to lose gravity and twist in place!

"A hero born from inner darkness—

Evil HERO Dark Gaia!"

Dark Gaia was an evil hero clad in rock armor with bat-like wings. He floated in mid-air, facing Hamon directly.

Though they looked different, they were built almost identically.

[Evil HERO Dark Gaia] Level 8│EARTH│Fiend│ATK ?

"Dark Gaia's Attack is the combined Attack of the Fusion Materials, which means—4550!"

"F-Four thousand, five hundred and fifty!?!" Morishima staggered back. "How is that possible? That Attack… It surpasses even the legendary Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

"Nothing is impossible. This is the power created by our Academy's new generation—so different from yours!"

"Ugh..." Morishima winced. "Even so, even if you restore Zirconia's Attack to 2900, I still have Life Points left—"

He quickly did the math, estimating how much LP he had remaining.

"No!" Hikaru shouted. "This was my goal from the start!"

Red light flared behind him, his eyes flashing, "I activate the Equip Spell Spirit Illusion!"

"Ah!!?" Morishima's eyes widened in horror. "No way—you can't! How could you do this to the unbeatable Hamon—"

Spirit Illusion can only be equipped to a Fiend or Zombie Fusion Monster. Not only does it enable Fusion Summoning, but when attacking, it reduces the opponent's monster's Attack by the equipped monster's Attack!

That's 4550 points!

"It's too late!" Hikaru shouted. "Battle! Dark Gaia, set it free!"

This was the moment he had been waiting for!

Dark Gaia leapt forward, facing Hamon as black mist erupted from its body and wrapped around Hamon.

Hamon let out a pained shriek, its Attack rapidly plummeting!

As its Attack fell, brilliant white lights burst from its body, flying behind Hikaru, into shattered mechanical shells, or directly into cards. And along with them came countless voices.

"Thank you."

"Much appreciated."

"Forever grateful"—

Some lights even flew out of this dimension, off to unknown worlds—

The Machine-Type Spirits in the lab began to recover as their worn, damaged shells were instantly renewed and restored, gleaming as if newly forged!

"No! You can't do this!" Morishima screamed hysterically, running toward Hamon.

Those were the hard-earned souls of extradimensional Spirits!

"Too late!"

Right then, Hamon's Attack was already 0!

Yet… instead of showing anger, Hamon looked ecstatic—it opened its mouth and laughed, shattering the ice on its body, and voluntarily collided with Dark Gaia!

"Uwaaaaaaaaaghhh!!!"

Chunks of ice smashed into Morishima. This once-calm Duelist could no longer keep his composure and rushed at Hamon, only worsening the impact!

As if intentionally, Hamon hurled itself into him!

"Ah!!!"

[Morishima, LP: 1800 → 0]

Hikaru punched the ground in victory!

'Beautiful!'

Victory—Rescuing all the Spirits was his true goal!

Otherwise, why would he have provoked Morishima into summoning the Sacred Beast?

And now, he had succeeded beyond expectations!