Super Polymerization Will Give You the Answer

RUMBLE...

With the Sacred Beast collapsing, Morishima was crushed beneath its massive body, his already battered form finally falling into unconsciousness.

Hikaru waved the smoke away and walked forward through the rubble.

"H-How is this possible? Even the Commander lost?!" The Union Doctor's face turned pale with fear. He fell to the ground, flailing his arms and legs in panic.

In his memory, Commander Morishima could overcome any enemy with ease.

He scrambled to his feet. That's when he noticed that the robot spirits around them had slowly begun operating again.

Terror surged in his heart.

Because Hamon's Attack had dropped to 0, all the energy and life force it absorbed from the spirits had returned to their rightful owners.

Which meant he still didn't understand what these machine card spirits really were.

They were mechanical, dismantled by his hands, yet still had "life." When their life force was returned, even broken shells and shattered gears could regenerate and renew themselves, transforming into pristine machines, as if freshly assembled!

No, this wasn't the time to be thinking about that!

The Union Doctor's expression changed.

He had disassembled those mechanical spirits. Now that they had regained their vitality, they would surely come after him.

That couldn't happen. He still had research to do!

With that thought, he scrambled up and reached for the nearby lever.

However, as his hand landed on it, he realized that no matter how hard he pushed, even using both hands and leaping down on it, it wouldn't budge.

He looked closely and saw that the lever was entangled in purple puppet strings wrapped lightly around the handle, seemingly easy to break, but despite that, no matter how hard he pulled, he couldn't snap them.

There could be only one reason. This thing belonged to that spirit beside Hikaru!

Panic hit him instantly.

Meanwhile, Hikaru had already made his way through the wreckage and reached Morishima.

'No.'

It didn't seem like unconsciousness at all.

"His life force was absorbed by the Sacred Beast," Tierra said with a single glance. Well-versed in reincarnation, she quickly explained to Hikaru, "The summoning of a Sacred Beast comes at a price. Until now, he had sustained the use of the card by sacrificing the lives of the spirits in this lab."

She glanced back and added, "The ordinary fusion soldiers, too."

'I see.'

Following her gaze, Hikaru looked over and then shook his head.

This wasn't true death.

They had simply been temporarily absorbed by the Sacred Beast's spirit. As long as their bodies didn't rot, if the Sacred Beast ever released their souls, they could come back to life.

Of course, that would require someone kind enough to do so.

They may not all have been evil people, still, based on Morishima's behavior, he certainly hadn't just been brainwashed.

Morishima was calm, precise, and rational. He knew exactly what he was doing—sacrificing spirits to fuel his climb upward using the Sacred Beast card. He wanted to become a general, a "superior human" who could enslave spirits and humans alike.

Someone like that, Hikaru had no reason to pity.

He stepped to Morishima's side, fanned away the surrounding smoke again, knelt down, removed the Duel Disk from his arm, and carefully picked up the scattered cards.

Detaching the Deck, Monster, and Spell/Trap Zones, he shuffled the cards together, skimming through them fast.

It was different from Kanbayashi's case.

Kanbayashi had prepared in advance to "assassinate," so after he lost the Duel, his cards had become scrap—clearly temporary replicas, especially the Sacred Phoenix, which shattered after one use.

Be that as it may, this was different.

Morishima's Deck used the spirits of this dimension—real, forcibly controlled cards. Even though Hamon wasn't the original, unlike Kanbayashi's test copies, this one wasn't just for experimentation.

From its appearance, this was a legitimate card.

However, Hikaru could feel it. Hamon's spirit had already left this card.

Because the replication quality was higher than before, the card could briefly summon Hamon, just like how Hikaru's Flame Swordsman could appear across different Flame Swordsman cards, Hamon, as a Sacred Beast, could manifest even through replicas.

Even so, that wasn't important; Hikaru could hardly command the true Sacred Beast either. His real goal was to liberate the spirits trapped inside Hamon, and he could sense it; Hamon had clearly "chosen."

Rather than devour greedy fusion soldiers to its content, it preferred not to be forcefully controlled at all.

So this card had been perfectly under shackles!

"This Sacred Beast is surprisingly considerate," Tierra nodded. "Even if it were shattered, it wouldn't matter, but having the full card saves us a lot of trouble."

Hikaru nodded. Just as he was thinking that, his chest suddenly grew hot, and his arm began to tingle.

The Hamon card in his hand suddenly emitted a blinding electric light.

'?'

Simultaneously, a red glow shone from the spare Deck box on his belt.

What was going on?

Before Hikaru could make sense of it, a card shot out from his Deck, and from the spare Deck, a burst of flame surged like a fire dragon.

His hand loosened slightly, and Hamon floated up into the air.

Three cards formed a triangle, spinning in midair.

Uria, Lord of Searing Flames.

Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder.

Hex-Sealed Fusion???

"No, wait, don't!"

Hikaru suddenly felt like he was back a year ago, when his Ancient Gear Golem and two other cards fused into Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem.

"Whoa, such power," Tierra blinked in awe. "So these three demons weren't that weak after all."

As a divine being, she had never seen a "divine-level fusion" before. Seeing it now was truly astounding.

"So the third Sacred Beast must be a DARK-Attribute Fiend?"

Hikaru shrugged and nodded. "Most likely."

He knew what the third Sacred Beast was.

The strongest of the Sacred Beasts- Raviel, Lord of Phantasms, a DARK Fiend monster.

And the three Sacred Beasts could fuse!

That would be the true form of the Sacred Beasts, the ultimate one- Armityle the Chaos Phantom!

He had considered whether his Sacred Beast cards might one day fuse into Armityle under Super Polymerization.

But he thought it would only happen after he got Raviel.

'Never expected this!'

Hikaru rubbed his head.

After the whirlwind ceased, the three cards descended. Hikaru caught them, they had become a single card, emitting only a faint purple glow.

Just like Winda earlier—no, even more incomplete.

"Well, this card will probably take a long time to mature."

Losing the Hex-Sealed Fusion wasn't a surprise; Hikaru had long prepared for that.

In exchange, he now had Armityle the Chaos Phantom!

With this card, he would never have to fear any Sacred Beast again. Because now, he was their master!