Chapter 12

Playmaker starts his turn by activating Cynet Closure to remove from the game a select card in his deck. He then normal summons Flame Buffalo and uses the continuous effect of Cynet Optimization to summon Formud Skipper.

{1} Flame Buffalo {+} and {1} Formud Skipper {=} set

Link summon! Link 2 Cyberse Witch

Cyberse Witch: [800 ATK]

Since Formud Witch was sent to the graveyard, Playmaker adds a level 5 or higher cyberse-type monster from his deck to his hand. Adding Degrade Buster to his hand, Playmaker then activates the monster effect of Flame Buffalo.

Since Flame Buffalo left the field, Playmaker discards the cyberse-type Dotscraper from his hand and draws two cards. The discarded Dotcraper then revives itself from the graveyard.

Using Cyberse Witch's monster effect, Playmaker removes the Cynet Closure in his graveyard from the game to add the ritual spell Cynet Ritual and the ritual monster Cyberse Magician from his deck to his hand.

Ritual! A summoning method available in all worlds that no one has used on the list so far.

Playmaker removed two cyberse-type monsters in his graveyard from the game to special summon the Degrade Buster from his hand.

Degrade Buster: [2500 ATK]

Degrade Buster didn't stay on the field though as it was used as tribute for Cynet Ritual.

Ritual Summon! Cyberse Magician

Cyberse Magician: [2500 ATK]

Cyberse Witch's monster effect activates and revives Playmaker's discarded Clock Wyvern. The revived Clock Wyvern halves its ATK to special summon a token to Playmaker's side of the field.

Clock Wyvern: [900 ATK]

Not stopping, Playmaker special summons Sea Archiver from his graveyard since a monster was special summoned to a Link monster's link zone.

Sea Archiver: [2100 DEF]

{1} Cyberse Witch {+} and {1} Token {=} set

Link Summon! Link 2 Clock Spartoi

Clock Spartoi: [800 ATK]

With the Clock Spartoi link summoned, Playmaker activates his monster effect to add the spell card Cyberse Fusion from his deck to his hand.

{1} Dotscraper {+} and {1} Clock Wyvern {+} and {1} Sea Archiver {=} set

Link Summon! Link 3 Transcode Talker

Transcode Talker: [2300 ATK]

An orange Decode Talker in armor arrives on Playmaker's side of the field. Using a series of combos, Playmaker was able to summon to his side of the field several strong monsters. This type of play wasn't practically impossible in a majority of the other worlds.

That shows how capable the VRAINS world was.

Playmaker wasn't done though. Using Clock Spartoi's monster effect he revives Clock Wyvern and revives Decode Talker using Transcode Talker's monster effect.

With a flourish, Decode Talker special summons to Transcode Talker's link zone.

Playmaker then activates the spell card Cyberse Fusion to perform the first fusion summon the VRAINS world has seen so far.

Fusing Decode Talker, Clock Wyvern, and Clock Spartoi, Playmaker fusion summons Cyberse Clock Dragon.

Cyberse Clock Dragon: [2500 ATK]

Using Cyberse Clock Dragon's monster effect, Playmaker then sends the top five cards of his deck to the graveyard and increases Cyberse Clock Dragon's ATK by an overwhelming 5000!

Cyberse Clock Dragon: [7500 ATK]

Playmaker then attacks Fire Phoenix with Cyberse Clock Dragon but Ai was ready. The trap card A.I.'s Show. The trap card special summons cyberse-type monsters from Ai's extra deck whose total ATK is equal to or less than Cyberse Clock Dragon's and ends the battle.

Playmaker's attack backfired!

Ai special summons Earth Golem, Light Dragon, and Wind Pegasus before ending the battle.

With Playmaker's efforts fruitless, Ai then talks about his past. He used to be one of six Ignis who didn't get along with each other. Yet, they all went away and he became the last of them. Much like how Yusaku used to be.

The screen then flashes back to a younger Yusaku standing in a bright white room with a lifeless look on his face.

Both Yusaku and Ai are people who know how painful it is to be alone. While Yusaku denies the loneliness, Ai in his own way embraces it.

Having emotions is both the Ignis' greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Emotions are one of the greatest sources of torment a being can experience.

In the GX world, the traveling (GX) Yubel looks up at the screen and feels a sense of kinship with the sentence. Yet, it will not turn back on its king as it continued to make its way towards Duel Academy in Viper's body.

The (VRAINS) Ignis all stare off into the distance, unsure of how they would act in Ai's place.

Ai then shares the last piece of information he withheld about his cloning technology. In order for his clones to have free will, his own will be broken down and spread among them. At the end of this duel, Ai will cease to exist no matter what.

This is a man, or AI, with a death wish.

Ai starts his turn and surveys Playmaker's field. Clock Dragon and Cyberse Magician when they are both on the field together make a dangerous team, so Ai will have to play it smart if he wants to win.

Ai activates the spell card A.I. Contact to return the field spell A.I. Land in his hand to the deck and draw three additional cards. Ai then activates the monster effect of Wind Pegasus to destroy Code Hack and Cynet Optimization on Playmaker's field.

Ai summons Hiyari @Ignister and uses its monster effect to tribute Fire Phoenix and add A.I.'s Ritual from his deck to his hand. Two can play the ritual game.

Since Ai tributed a Link monster for Hiyari's monster effect, Hiyari's level increases by that amount and adds a Ritual monster to Ai's hand from his deck.

Level {1} {+} Link {3} is {=} Level {4}

Ai then activates the ritual spell card A.I.'s Ritual to tribute the level 4 Hiyari and remove from play the level 4 Pikari in his graveyard in order to ritual summon the level 7 Ritual monster Water Leviathan @Ignister.

Water Leviathan: [2300 ATK]

When Water Leviathan is ritual summoned, its monster effect sends the Transcode Talker that has equal ATK as it back to Playmaker's extra deck. Since Playmaker no longer controls a Link monster, his lock is broken.

Water Leviathan attacks Clock Magician, reducing Clock Magician's ATK in half using its monster effect. The Clock Magician's monster effect activates, reducing the battle damage to half.

Playmaker: [3475 LP]

Since Water Leviathan dealt combat damage, Light Dragon's monster effect activates. Ai revives the Fire Phoenix in his graveyard and uses it to attack Cyberse Clock Dragon.

Judgement Arrow's continuous effect activates, doubling Fire Phoenix's ATK.

Fire Phoenix: [4600 ATK]

When Fire Phoenix battles, its monster effect activates dealing damage to Playmaker equal to its ATK.

4600 damage!

Ai is the real deal!

Playmaker uses Overfloater's monster effect in his graveyard to remove itself from the game and negate the monster effects of all monsters with the same ATK or less as Fire Phoenix. That includes Fire Phoenix itself so Playmaker will not take the effect damage.

Since Playmaker didn't lose the duel, Cyberse Clock Dragon strikes back at Fire Phoenix destroying it and dealing a large amount of damage to Ai.

Ai: [1100 LP]

With Ai driven into a corner, he uses his special technique "Fighting Spirit!" Lame jokes aside, the spell card FA.I.ghting Spirit resurrects Fire Phoenix and completes Ai's field.

With each of the different attributed @Ignister boss monsters on Ai's side of the field, he has built a field reminiscent of the Ignis family.

"Why am I getting flashbacks of Nash vs Yuma?" (DM) Joey asked his friends.

"Those are his bonds," (ARC-V) Yuto explained to Yuya.

"His comrades," (ZEXAL) Shark muttered to himself.

In the VRAINS world, the various Ignis look up at the screen with a strange feeling in their chests as the black sheep of the family is fighting with all of them in his heart.

"This is my perfect field. This time, we will all become one," Ai solemnly says.

"Appear! The circuit that guides the dark!"

Using each of the different attributed Ignisters, Ai constructs a Link monster composed of six link arrows.

Link Summon! Link 6 The Arrival Cyberse @Ignister!

The Arrival: [? ATK]

Since The Arrival was link summoned using six link materials, it gains 1000 ATK for each of them equaling up to 6000 ATK. It then gains 1000 ATK for each card on Ai's side of the field so it gains an additional 4000 ATK.

The Arrival: [10,000 ATK]

10,000 ATK?!

Ai uses The Arrival's monster effect to place a counter on itself. He then destroys Cyberse Clock Dragon using The Arrival's monster effect. With an explosion, Playmaker's dragon is destroyed and a small token is special summoned to Ai's side of the field in defense mode.

The Arrival: [11,000 ATK]

Since Cyberse Clock Dragon is gone, its monster effect activates. Since it was destroyed by one of Ai's card effects, Playmaker adds a spell card from his deck to his hand.

Ai looks at his token summoned by The Arrival. If left as it is, Playmaker may be able to use it to break down his defense. Not wanting that to happen, Ai sets the link markers using the token to link summon the Link 1 Darkwight @Ignister.

Darkwight: [0 ATK]

Darkwight's effect makes it so that Playmaker cannot target it for any attacks while it is linked to a Link monster. Using this tactic, Ai forces Playmaker to focus all of his attention on The Arrival on his side of the field.

Playmaker starts his turn by summoning Cyberse Gadget. With its monster effect, Playmaker revives the level 2 or lower Formud Skipper in his graveyard.

{1} Formud Skipper {+} and {1} Cyberse Gadget {=} set.

Link Summon! Link 2 Cyberse Wicckid

Cyberse Wicckid: [800 ATK]

With Formud Skipper sent to the graveyard, it adds a level 5 or higher cyberse-type monster in Playmaker's deck to his hand. Cyberse Gadget's monster effect then activates special summoning a token to Playmaker's side of the field.

Since the token was special summoned to Cyberse Wicckid's Link zone, Playmaker is able to remove the Dotscaper in his graveyard from the game to add the Cyberse Synchron in his deck to his hand. The Dotscaper that was removed from the game special summons itself using its monster effect.

{1} Cyberse Wicckid {+} and {1} Dotscaper {=} set.

Link Summon! Link 2 Exslayer

Exslayer: [1000 ATK]

Since Playmaker Link summoned a Link monster, he can special summon Parallel eXceed from his hand using its monster effect. The special summoned Parallel eXceed becomes a level 4 monster and special summons a copy of itself from the deck at level 4 as well.

Level {4} Parallel eXceed {=} and level {4} Parallel eXceed {=} overlay!

XYZ Summon! Rank 4 Firewall eXceed Dragon!

Firewall eXceed Dragon: [2500 ATK]

It's an XYZ summon this time! This VRAINS world has the ability to use the other summoning methods!

While Synchro hasn't shown up yet, Playmaker has already shown a Cyberse Synchron tuner in his hand that seems synonymous with Synchro summoning.

Since Playmaker summoned an XYZ monster to Exslayer's Link Zone, Exslayer's monster effect activates tributing the token on Playmaker's side of the field to special summon the level 4 or lower Widget Kid in his hand.

With Widget Kid special summoned, it uses its monster effect to special summon the Cyberse Synchron in Playmaker's hand. The Cyberse Synchron's monster effect doubles the level 4 or lower Widget Kid's level from level {3} to level {6}.

Level {1} Cyberse Synchron {+} and level {6} Widget Kid {=} tuning!

"Wait," Ai screamed. "I know this one! 1+6= ... 8!"

Synchro Summon! Level 7 Cyberse Quantum Dragon

Cyberse Quantum Dragon: [2500 ATK]

"Ah," Ai stomped his feet. "You didn't fall for it."

Didn't fall for it? Does Ai take Playmaker for an idiot?

Only fools fall for that kind of thing.

Meanwhile, some mathematically challenged people in the myriad worlds whistled to themselves in embarrassment since they fell for Ai's trick.

Cyberse Quantum Dragon attacks The Arrival, intending to use its monster effect to return The Arrival to the extra deck. Unfortunately, since The Arrival has a counter placed on it it will be immune to Cyberse Quantum Dragon's monster effect.

The Arrival, counter attack!