With Captain Crystal's situation resolved, Hikaru explored the fractured dinsion with the help of his two swordsn.
Most Spirits remained unconscious or near death, while the puppet soldiers of the Fusion Army were scattered across the ground like shattered dolls.
Brutal.
Far too brutal.
He lifted a fragnt of rubble that had once been the card puppet Lapis used. Now, it was just a splintered stone, fallen into this broken world.
Hikaru searched for quite a while before finding a small Spirit amidst the ruins. It still bore traces of a Shaddoll form, but had largely reverted to its Gem-Knight appearance.
Tierra glanced over and said to Hikaru, "Even though its hatred and power were absorbed by Captain Crystal due to losing the duel, it barely had any consciousness to begin with. Awakening it might take a few months.
"Which isn't too long, right?"
To her, a few months might as well be a blink.
"Captain, can I leave this to you?"
"Please leave it to !"
Despite being too sore to move properly, Crystal gladly accepted the task. In fact, this job was ant for him.
Under Tierra's control, Lapis and the other Spirits were turned into cards. Hikaru rummaged through his Duel Disk, but most of the cards had been fused into that massive deck.
Still, this wasn't a huge issue.
Even if those massive cards couldn't be slotted into a normal Duel Deck, Hikaru could just re-refine and resize them.
He definitely wanted to recover Gem-Knight Master Diamond and the cards for Ruby and Citrine.
If he got lucky, maybe he'd even extract sothing weird and interesting from them.
After that, Hikaru visited the Fusion Army's temporary base. Since this base lacked experintal facilities and was mainly used to convert puppet soldiers, Hikaru didn't find any valuable research materials.
"Sigh…"
Tierra exhaled in disappointnt.
Last ti, at the Union Hangar, she discovered the Fusion Army was experinting on artificial Dark Magician Spirits, and even found a Dark Magician card. She used that excuse to ask Hikaru to build a new body part for her.
Since arriving in this broken dinsion, she had been bored and was hoping to find sothing useful. In the end, she found nothing.
This place really was just a "military factory."
Even so, Hikaru thought the opposite.
He found way more valuable intel here than he expected!
On a computer they hadn't had ti to remove, he discovered information about Leo Akaba!
Since the Sacred Beast incident, or even before that, Hikaru hadn't seen Leo Akaba at all.
In fact, not just Hikaru. Even the KaibaCorp investigators hired by Chazz hadn't seen him. Once those investigators discovered that Leo's research team was connected to the Princeton Group, Chazz decided to beco the group's leader.
Kaiba dumped the matter entirely on him, said it was a family affair, and told Chazz to handle it.
Though knowing Kaiba, maybe he just wanted to test Chazz's ttle.
In any case, since then, aside from Leo once "warning" him through Kanbayashi Kana's body, Hikaru hadn't heard a word about him.
The academy, the Polyrization Club, they seed to have been handed off. Leo himself had disappeared.
Now, while searching the computer, Hikaru discovered Leo hadn't forgotten about the Raid on the Xyz Dinsion. He was in his "stronghold," preparing for war.
'Seriously?'
'So soon?'
Hikaru studied the report.
When exactly was the invasion?
He combed through it.
Couldn't find a date. '…Maybe it hasn't been decided yet?'
Hikaru pondered.
In Arc-V, it was Aster Phoenix who led the Fusion Army to invade the Xyz Dinsion.
That said, the exact timing was never made clear.
Logically, it should be during Aster's third year. That would make sense.
But Aster wasn't an ordinary Duelist. Even if he beca a commander as a freshman, it wouldn't be that surprising.
Hikaru recalled how the pro Duelists of the Fusion Army had once "invited" Aster to join them.
With that in mind, he hurried to search for any information on Aster.
And he found it.
Hikaru stared at a lengthy report, full of over-the-top praise for "Professor Leo Akaba." It was clear the writer idolized him. Regardless, the important part was the content.
According to the report, Leo had made a deal with soone to have Aster assist them. Despite that, not only did Aster not help, but he actively opposed them. This was a major breach of contract, so the two sides decided to "settle it."
Of course. In this world;
A "settlent" only ant one thing: a Duel.
"Aster's affiliated group... that must be;"
'Obviously!'
'The Society of Light!'
A grin spread across Hikaru's face. The kind of gleeful grin that said he lived for watching villain infighting.
Tierra tilted her head, watching him giggle at the computer, confused.
What could make Hikaru, who only cared about Fusion, this happy?
There weren't even any new cards.
Hikaru didn't notice her look. He kept reading.
The report didn't include the duel's outco. Just so "words from the Professor."
"Which ans, at the very least, they didn't win."
Hikaru nodded.
Given the report's style, if Leo's side had beaten the Society of Light, there'd be no reason to hide it. They'd be shouting it from the rooftops.
Albeit, one line caught Hikaru's eye.
"The Professor said they gained even more light from their opponents? So they won overwhelmingly? Massively?"
Evidently, rhetorical. But knowing Leo, losing a duel yet claiming victory wasn't out of character.
And the aning behind those words made Hikaru narrow his eyes.
'Could it be…'
He thought of Celina.
In the original, Leo never said Celina was his daughter. He just valued her.
However, in this world, he openly called her his daughter, using that to pacify and manipulate her, shaping her into a heartless dueling machine.
He went beyond the original.
Could it be Leo Akaba himself was infected with the "Light of Destruction"?!
Everything started making sense!
No wonder the Xyz Dinsion, Synchro Dinsion, and this world didn't feel like splintered off realms. He wanted a dinsional war!
If the goal was to unite his daughter, he'd only need to find the four counterparts.
But Leo Akaba just wanted war!
...
Bonus Chapter
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