072 The Traitorous Dragon of the Underworld Descends!

"...My turn ends."

Glancing at the three spell cards in his hand, each adorned with pink ribbons and blue gift boxes, Youyi pondered for a moment before deciding not to activate them just yet.

[Youyi: 4000 LP, Hand: 6, Monster Zone: Neospace Hero · Sky Hummingbird, Neospace Hero · Dark Panther, Neospace Hero · Glimmering Moss, Neospace Hero · Marine Dolphin, Royal Magic Library, Spell/Trap Zone: 0, Field Zone: Magical City · Endymion]

"My turn, draw!"

"At this moment, the effect of 'Slime Breeding Furnace' activates for the third time! I Special Summon a third Slime Token!"

As he watched the three Slime Tokens spewed forth by the Breeding Furnace, the Malik behind the scenes, controlling his puppet, put on a wild, maniacal grin.

"Hehahahahaha! Hmphahahahaha! President! I may not understand the purpose of your little agreement, but now, let me tell you: you are about to pay a terrible price for your arrogance!"

Raising a crimson card high, Malik roared with all his might:

"I offer the three Slime Tokens on my field as tribute! Advanced Summon!"

("Sealed Miracle"—The music of the descent of a god resounds.)

In an instant, the clear sky turned black and thunderous!

"Boom!"

A golden bolt of lightning crashed down, followed by several more, each as brilliant as the last. To the shock of all present, each strike left a basketball-sized crater in the ground, far beyond what any holographic projection could achieve!

"Boom!—Bang!"

Another bolt of lightning struck, but this time its target was Malik's continuous spell—Slime Breeding Furnace!

This turn, Malik summoned a god to his field. According to the negative effect of Slime Breeding Furnace, the moment any monster other than a Slime Token is summoned—be it normal, flip, or special summon—the continuous spell destroys itself.

The three little Slime Tokens, along with the shattered remains of the Breeding Furnace that had summoned them, seemed magnetically drawn up into the thunderclouds above.

As the tokens and the fragments of the furnace vanished into the storm, it didn’t keep the two duelists waiting long—a massive sphere of blinding white light appeared overhead, so bright it was impossible to look at directly.

When the orb of light vanished, the space it occupied seemed to twist and swirl like a watery vortex.

"Hehahahahaha!"

Amid Malik's roaring laughter, a colossal pillar of light, wreathed in golden lightning, crashed into Malik’s Monster Zone with a deafening boom.

A giant dragon, its back and body a fiery red, its belly streaked in dark stripes, and with bony wings sprouting near its head—a fusion of Eastern and Western dragons—descended slowly from the vortex.

"The Underworld Red Dragon of the Three Divine Beasts—Osiris, descends!"

"ROAR—!!!"

With a single breath, the dragon sent sand and stones flying across the ground. Youyi, his opponent, instinctively shielded himself with his arms and braced his stance to avoid being knocked over.

"So this is one of the Three Divine Beasts, the symbol of both good and evil, the red dragon that shakes the heavens—the 'Sky Dragon of Osiris'..."

A voice, familiar to both duelists, suddenly rang out. Turning, they spotted Yugi, his school jacket draped over his shoulders, the white-coated Seto Kaiba, and Kaiba's younger brother Mokuba. At some point, the three had arrived.

They now stood on a grassy slope nearby, gazing up in awe at the red divine dragon that blotted out the sky.

"Hey~ I didn’t expect you two to show up as well!"

Casually ignoring the unrelated child Mokuba, Malik greeted Yugi and Kaiba as if meeting old friends.

"Malik... the man behind the Gurus Corporation..."

Staring at the bald puppet addressing them, Yugi and Kaiba frowned. The reason the three had come was that Youyi, while following Malik here, had secretly contacted Kaiba to inform him that the mastermind of the Gurus Corporation—Malik Ishtar—would soon appear and summon one of the Three Divine Beasts: 'Sky Dragon of Osiris.'

Hearing news of a Divine Beast, Kaiba immediately ordered Jino at headquarters to locate Yugi, then rushed to pick him and Mokuba up in a KaibaCorp helicopter, flying straight here without pause.

Stepping off the helicopter and hurrying over, they arrived just in time to witness the crimson dragon’s dramatic descent!

"This overwhelming pressure, as if my body isn’t my own—can this really be just a virtual holographic monster…?"

Though it was Youyi dueling the Sky Dragon and not them, even at a distance of over ten meters, the three could feel the immense, almost tangible pressure of the Sky Dragon—a force far beyond any usual holographic monster!

"Moshi moshi, Kamida!!"

All three: !!

They collectively drew in a sharp breath.

"A god's arrival is no mere child's holographic game—it is the true form descending to the mortal realm!"

Malik proclaimed triumphantly, savoring the shock on their faces.

"Big brother... can a god so powerful it shakes the earth and sky really be defeated?"

Little Mokuba, lacking the resilience of the older two, trembled as he hid behind his brother, peering out cautiously.

"No!"

As if he'd overheard Mokuba's whispered worry, Malik declared with absolute certainty:

"There is no way in this world to defeat the Sky Dragon, one of the Divine Beasts!"

"Before Osiris's infinite attack power, any duelist is powerless! Whether it’s Youyi, the new president of the Illusion Corporation, or Yugi, the vessel of the Pharaoh himself! Only you, Kaiba, who possesses the second Divine Beast card, the God of the Obelisk, could have the strength to face the Sky Dragon! Hahahahahaha!"

Kaiba: ???

Me, possessing Obelisk? When did I ever get that card?

Yugi & Youyi: "..."

Why are the Three Divine Beasts called the "ultimate weapons" of the dueling world?

Because in front of these gods, every effort any duelist makes is in vain! Unless another Divine Beast of equal power is summoned, it is impossible to defeat any one of the Three Divine Beasts!

"Infinite power?"

Yugi caught that phrase—'infinite power'—in Malik's words, and only now did he notice that the 3D projector displayed Osiris's attack and defense as "?", with no specific value!

(In the animation, a monster's stats are always displayed when summoned. In this story, spectators rely on the projected data to know a monster’s attack and defense, which update with every change.)

"Exactly! Now let me tell you about Osiris’s special effect!"