Chapter 21 (Double-sized)

When it comes to the three most talked about duelists on the list, it is a clear distinction from the rest.

The third is the unfortunate Yubel.

The second is the most feared Darkness.

The first though, by leaps and bounds is the charismatic and loyal Nash.

If it is seemingly peaceful, then these three duelists will come up in the conversation.

Especially Nash who will come up in conversation even during the more chaotic times.

After all, most of the feuds in the myriad worlds are situations forcing two different parties to fight one another. While not every avenue for peace has been pursued so far, those who are still fighting are doing so because they seemingly "have no other choice."

That's where Nash enters the conversation. Nash is a symbol of self-sacrifice and no way for two sides to coexist.

The (DM) Evil Spirit of the Millenium Ring will not stop its hunt for the Millenium Items because it wants the resurrection of Zorc. It is impossible to coexist with the Pharoah.

(GX) Darkness is a force of nature and acts without any will so there is no bargaining with him.

(5DS) Z-ONE has seen the end of humankind and will risk everything for the outcome he most likely believes in. Isn't his intentions noble and self-sacrificing?

(ARC-V) Z-Arc isn't going to lie down and not try to revive himself if he can help it. Knowing this, wouldn't Leo Akaba do every imaginable thing possible to stop him?

Everyone has a bottom line.

It is when (ARC-V) Reiji and his father were meeting that the line started to become apparent. All of Leo's actions and motivations were spilled onto the table but Reiji for all intents and purposes was still a rash young man. Without proof, how can he accept his father's solution?

That's when the oh-so-familiar screen came to play. It was the ARC-V world's turn again and this one might possibly provide the proof the negotiation's been waiting for.

"Next duel. (ARC-V World) : Yuya Vs Yuri."

(ARC-V) "Yuri." "Yuya." Two similar voices sounded out. One held disgust while the other held hope.

In (ARC-V) Academia, a twisted smile could be seen on Yuri's face as he longed for his coming duel.

The screen loaded abruptly in the aftermath of another duel. While Yuya was restrained to a pillar, he watched as his father who he had just been reunited with, has been carded by the similar-looking Yuri.

"Smile... Yuya," Yusho's voice hangs in the air.

Everyone who knew Yusho was dumbstruck as this promiscuously prominent figure just vanished in a matter of seconds.

For those people living in other worlds though, they know now the fate of Shun's people.

"Why do I feel like I've seen this before?" (DM) Maximillion Pegasus muttered to himself.

Yuri walked over and picked up Yusho's card before showing it to the confined Yuya. A surge of dark energy surged out of Yuya as he pushed forward on the golden bars confining him and breaking the pillar holding him.

"Is that really Yuya?" (ARC-V) Gong muttered awestruck by Yuya's physical prowess.

Billowing black energy, Yuya stands before Yuri who is also swatched in his own black aura. Despite seeing Yuya's menacing gaze, Yuri taunted Yuya with Yusho's card. A black aura surges from Yuya, knocking back Reiji who wants to stop Yuya's rampage.

"All that anger and power," Yuri says. "If you become one with me, that will become mine."

Become one?! Not in the sense like Jaden and Yubel or Playmaker and Ai, Yuri seems to want to be the dominant one in this new body he's seeking.

"If you want this card," Yuri says putting Yusho's card away. "You will have to duel for it."

Yuri's taunt works as a vengeful Yuya activates the field spell Cross Over to start an action duel. Golden cards burst all over the room and the duel commences.

[4000 LP] [4000 LP]

Yuri takes the first move and normal summons Predaplant Ophrys Scorpio. Using its monster effect, he discards Predaplant Stapeliaworm to special summon from his deck Predaplant Darlingtonia Cobra.

Since Darlingtonia Cobra was special summoned, Yuri uses its monster effect to add the spell card Polymerization from his deck to his hand. He then activates it to fuse the Darlingtonia Cobra and Ophrys Scorpio on his field.

Fusion Summon! Level {8} Starving Venom Fusion Dragon!

Starving Venom: [2800 ATK]

A disgustingly ferocious dragon spewing venom towers over Yuri's field.

Seeing Starving Venom, pain shoots through Yuya's chest. It then becomes apparent to the viewers of the myriad worlds that Yuya and the Yuto from the last video now share the same body.

"My Starving Venom is looking for a friend," Yuri intones. "Yes, I mean your dragons."

Yuri sets a card and ends his turn.

"Those three on the screen look remarkably similar to one another," (GX) Professor Crowler remarks.

"Almost like they were originally one," (ZEXAL) V hypothesizes.

"Could the absorption process be an attempt to fill in the gaps from splitting the original?" (VRAINS) Baira wonders.

Yuya stares down at his hand and sees Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon ready to meet Starving Venom in battle. When he draws his card though, visions of his father's last words come to mind as the drawn card is Yusho's signature spell card Smile World.

For a second, Clarity comes to mind before Yuri's taunts bring his mind back into chaos.

In the face of the dragon's attractive force, an unfocused mind simply falls into a battle frenzied state. Yuya's hand creeps towards Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in his hand but his father's words keep bringing him back.

"Father," Yuya mutters begging for help.

The darkness recedes into Yuya's body, not expanding farther than the edge of his skin.

Yuya then shows the myriad worlds a new summoning that they've never seen before that is unique to the ARC-V world: Pendulum Summoning.

Set the Scale {1} Stargazer Magician { > < } and the Scale {8} Timegazer Magician.

Two magicians clad in starfields rise to the sky and overlook the battlefield. Not long after, two blue beams of light fly onto the battlefield from an imaginary pendulum in between.

Pendulum Summon! Level {7} Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and level {4} Performapal Coin Dragon.

Coin Dragon: [1700 ATK]

Odd-Eyes: [2500 ATK]

A great Red dragon and a small Golden dragon appear from the beams of light, shocking the myriad worlds' audience.

With one summons, two monsters are now on the field with little cost. That is Pendulum summoning.

Yuri's eyes dart to Odd-Eyes on Yuya's field, happy to see Starving Venom's brethren.

Under the attractive pull of the two dragons, an intense pain coalesces in Yuya's chest. On the side, Reiji and Reira watch the duel with trepidation.

"Yuya's resisting it," Reiji watches approvingly.

"But brother," Reira says, pouring cold water on Reiji's hopes. "Ray says Z-Arc's resurrection is inevitable."

Z-Arc's resurrection is inevitable?

For many viewers in the myriad worlds, these words are fruitless but for (ARC-V) Leo Akaba this is a thunderclap in his ears. He had a feeling, a hypothesis, and needed his daughter to be revived to confirm otherwise but now it looks like Z-Arc will truly be returning after all.

Reiji on the video still has hope though for Yuya to find another way.

Yuya struggles to fight the dragon's pull as he activates the monster effect of Pendulum Coin Dragon to increase his dragon-type monsters' ATK by 500.

Coin Dragon: [2100 ATK]

Odd-Eyes: [3000 ATK]

Odd-Eyes attacks Starving Venom and Yuri activates the trap card Predaprouting to protect Starving Venom and rebound the destruction to Odd-Eyes. Thanks to his Coin Dragon though, Yuya protects his Odd-Eyes from destruction. Since Starving Venom is level 8, Odd-Eyes inflicts double battle damage when battling it.

Yuri: [3600 LP]

Since Yuri protected his Starving Venom with Predaprouting, he special summons three level {1} tokens to his side of the field. Coin Dragon immediately attacks and destroys one of them. Yuya then sets a card and ends his turn.

Yuri tributes one of his tokens and tribute summons the level {6} tuner monster Predaplant Banksiogre.

Tuner?!

Level {6} Predaplant Banksiogre {+} and level {1} token {=} tuning.

Synchro Summon! Level 7 Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!

Clear Wing: [2500 ATK]

"Clear Wing?!" (ARC-V) Yugo cries out in shock. Why's his dragon on Yuri's side?

The attractive force pulls stronger on Yuya and Yuto now that there are three dragons on the field.

"With Clear Wing and Starving Venom on Yuri's side of the field, Yuya will lose to the same combo his dad did!" Reira cries out.

Using its monster effect, Starving Venom tries to steal away Odd-Eyes's card effects but Yuya is ready. With a flurry of purple miasma, Yuya activates the continuous trap card Starlight Force to negate the monster effects of all monsters special summoned from the extra deck and change their levels to {4}.

Clear Wing attacks and destroys Coin Dragon, removing its ATK buff from the field before attacking Odd-Eyes with Starving Venom.

Yuya: [3400 LP]

Upon their destruction, Yuya's Pendulum monsters return to the extra deck. Yuri sets a card and ends his turn.

Yuya strategizes with Yuto on how he can defeat Yuri. Since Starlight Force will bring Yuri's monsters up a level on the following turn if Yuya brings out Yuto's Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon he can weaken Yuri's dragons to the point he can win.

Now there are several dragons waiting for the last one to appear, Yuya doesn't believe Dark Rebellion will ignore his summons.

Yuya starts his turn and draws his card and a seemingly useless level {5} monster enters his hand. Starlight Force activates and increases the levels of Clear Wing and Starving Venom to {5}.

Everything is set, if Yuya uses the monster effect of Performapal Drop Gallop he can have two level {4} monsters on his field and Xyz summon Dark Rebellion. With Odd-Eyes though, that will make it so all four Dimensional Dragons are on the field. Can he endure?

Yuto believes in Yuya so he can do it.

Using the set Scale {1} and Scale {8} Pendulum Scales, Yuya Pendulum summons.

Pendulum Summon! From the extra deck, level {7} Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and level {4} Performapal Coin Dragon. From the hand, level {5} Performapal Drop Gallop.

Three monsters take up Yuya's board, showing how resourceful Pendulum summoning is.

Odd-Eyes, Clear Wing, and Starving Venom roar at each other, waiting for their last counter-part to appear.

Since Drop Gallop was Pendulum summoned, Yuya draws a card for each of his Pendulum summoned "Performapal" monsters. Drawing two cards, Yuya then uses the monster effect of Drop Gallop to change its level to {4}.

Overlay Level {4} Performapal Drop Gallop {=} and level {4} Performapal Coin Dragon.

Xyz Summon! Rank 4 Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon!

Dark Rebellion: [2500 ATK]

Synchro, XYZ, Fusion, and Pendulum are now on the field!

An intense gale stirs up the field as the resonating dragons start to bring down the building around them. Yuya struggles to maintain control as memories of the people he cares about fill his head, helping to bring him clarity.

Yuya moves to activate Dark Rebellion's monster effect but Yuri activates the continuous trap card Dragonvine to steal Dark Rebellion from Yuya's side of the field. Unease fills Yuya as the voices of his three other selves and the Dimension Dragons call for him to become one with them.

Agonizing cries are heard as Yuya feels his soul being tugged at by the others.

"Yuto!" (ARC-V) Shun cries out.

"Yuya!" (ARC-V) Gong similarly cries out.

"Why?" (ARC-V) present-day Yuya wonders. Why does something like this have to happen, Yuri?

In another room, Leo succeeds in merging Serena with her dimensional counterparts and brings forth his plan to integrate the multiple dimensions.

"Leo Akaba!" (ARC-V) Serena snarls, not noticing how the Academia members around her are acting.

"Father?" (ARC-V) Reiji questions his father in the room.

All around, the people on the screen start noticing the dimension starting to warp. Yet, for the participants in the duel, all that mattered was the merger. The three Dimensional counterparts call for Yuya to join them and become one, pulling at his soul and attracting Z-Arc's power. Reiji however reminds Yuya of his father and Yuya takes another look at Smile World in his hand.

It is mainly thanks to Yusho's signature Smile World being in Yuya's hand all this time that he's been able to endure it so far. Yuya sets a card and ends the turn. Starlight Force's effect ends, destroying itself.

Yuri attacks with Starving Venom, destroying Odd-Eyes but rewarding Yuya with an action spell card on the rollback.

Yuya: [3100 LP]

Clear Wing attacks Yuya directly but Yuya activates the picked-up action spell card Evasion to negate the attack. Yuri jumps up and grabs from a platform the action spell card No Action to negate and destroy Evasion.

Yuya: [600 LP]

Yuya is sent flying as Sora and Aster come into the room.

"Hmm," (GX) Aster ponders. "Is that me?"

An array is set up covering the duel field courtesy of Leo Akaba. Until the dimensional integration plan succeeds, Z-Arc's counterparts cannot be part of the other dimensions. So they must now duel away from everything.

Yuya's friends crowd around Yuya wanting to support him but Yuri's energy sends them flying to the side. Yuri then tries to end it with Dark Rebellion's attack and Yuya jumps to one of the floating platforms for an action spell card.

Yuya is about to send the action spell to his graveyard as a cost to activate his set card but Yuri uses the action spell card Action Crush to destroy the action spell in Yuya's hand. Left with no other choice, Yuya discards his father's Smile World to activate the trap card Break Away in order to end the battle phase.

Dark Rebellion flies past Yuya as Yuri sets two cards and ends his turn.

On the other side, Yuya covers his face as he apologizes to his father over and over. With his father gone, Smile World was the last reminder of his father to keep pushing forward. Yet, now it's gone!

"Sorry, Dad!" Yuya cries. "I'm so sorry!"

In the myriad worlds, many parents feel heartbroken seeing Yuya so devastated about what he's done. He truly cares for his father and relied on him for support, now he's left without it during his darkest time.

"Yuya," (ARC-V) Yusho bitterly mumbles. He's always believed in his son and believed he would get through this duel on his own merits. Yet, no father wants to see his child so heartbroken and be unable to do anything about it.

Reiji calls on Yuya to keep fighting the way Yuya would fight until the end, so he shouldn't be willing to give up just because he no longer has Smile World. Yuya's friends encourage him to keep fighting even against all the odds.

Yuya draws his card and reminds himself that what he's known for is being the creator of Pendulum summoning so that's how he will fight.

Using the set Scale {1} and Scale {8} Pendulum Scales, Yuya Pendulum summons.

Pendulum Summon! From the extra deck, level {7} Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. From the hand, level {2} Performapal Trap Mimic and the level {5} Performapal Flatrat.

Yuya endures Z-Arc's call as he uses the monster effect of Trap Mimic to destroy the continuous trap card Dragonvine on Yuri's side of the field. Dark Rebellion returns to Yuya's side of the field.

Yuya then activates the effect of the destroyed Dragonvine using Trap Mimic's monster effect to place it in the spell and trap card zone to take control of Clear Wing Synchro Dragon.

Yuto and Yugo's dragons are now fighting on Yuya's side of the field!

Yuri activates the trap card Predaplant Reborn and revives Stapeliaworm from his graveyard. With Stapeliaworm, if Yuya would change the ATK of a monster on the field using a card effect that effect would be negated and the card destroyed.

Since Stapeliaworm was special summoned, Yuya uses the monster effect of Flatrat to change its level to {5}.

Yuya then attempts to use Dark Rebellion's monster effect to steal half of Starving Venom's ATK but Yuri activates the monster effect of Stapeliaworm to negate and destroy Dark Rebellion. Since Stapeliaworm is level {5}, Clear Wing's monster effect activates to negate the effect of Stapeliaworm and destroy it. Clear Wing then gains ATK equal to the destroyed Stapeliaworm's ATK.

Clear Wing: [2600 ATK]

Since Stapeliaworm's effect was negated, Starving Venom loses half of its ATK and Dark Rebellion gains that much ATK. This effect can be used as many times as Dark Rebellion can detach XYZ materials so Yuya activates the effect of Dark Rebellion one more time.

Starving Venom: [700 ATK]

Dark Rebellion: [4600 ATK]

Seeing Yuya about to win, Yuri activates the trap card Ridicule World to increase the ATK of all of Yuya's monsters by 100 and stop them from attacking this turn. Sinister laughter echoes around the room as spectral entities infect the opposing dragons. Yuri laughs at Yuya being unable to deal him the finishing blow.

The effect of Performapal Flatrat activates, tributing itself to return one of his monster's ATK back to its original. Yuri sneers saying that Starving Venom's effect will trigger when it's destroyed and wipe out the last of Yuya's LP but Yuya reminds Yuri that he needs to survive past Starving Venom's destruction to use its effect.

Yuya uses the effect of Flatrat to return Odd-Eyes ATK to its original amount. Odd-Eyes attacks Starving Venom and activates its monster effect to deal double damage to Yuri's LP.

Yuri sees his defeat and laughs uncontrollably. Finally! He will feel what it was like to lose and be unable to do anything about it.

The (ARC-V) present-day Yuri joins in with his other self as they both exist for the sake of ridiculing those weak enough to lose a duel. Even if that is themselves.

Yuri: [0 LP]

With Yuri defeated, the field breaks, and Yuri prepares for his fate. Yuya's friends sneer at Yuri for thinking Yuya was like him but before they knew what happened, Yuya was already standing before Yuri.

"I won," Yuya states. "I won because I only thought of winning. As you all wished!"

The screen closes in on the sight of Yuya's malevolent eyes looking back at his friends.

"I will continue to win," he continues. "Until we destroy this entire world!"

A sinister aura envelopes Yuya as his patented pendulum falls off his neck. A mysterious white magician rises into the sky and commands the four Dimension Dragons to its side. Yuya's haunting words ring around the myriad worlds as they watch him command the Magician to fuse the ARC-V world's four dimensions!

Z-Arc is revived!

"No," (ARC-V) Reiji muttered in despair.

"It can't be!" (ARC-V) Yusho exlaims.

"Why?" (ARC-V) Yuya asks in bewilderment.

"(ARC-V World) : Yuya Vs Yuri. The winner of the duel is Yuya."