“We have pleted the evacuation.” Lady Hunter had flown to us to tell us the good news. “But we weren’t able to get everyone, as some refused to follow our orders.”

  “That is fine. You did your best.” I told her. “And they might try to rush inside when… well, wheion starts. Try to keep a small door open for them. I’ll also have a small hole in the barrier that they run through. If they don’t … Well, stupidity is something I ’t do anything about.”

  “How long do we have remaining?” Lady Hunter asked.

  “I don’t know.” I lied. “But you should pull back to the wall. It should be any minute now.”

  We were actually te for the fourth bell I told her about, but because I was going to be the one popping open this fissure, there was ime ch. And we weren’t overly te, so I could easily expin this away by saying that accurately anticipating a dimensional fissure is impossible, even for the Goddess and the System. And I’m reasonably sure that isn’t even a lie, as they only tell me it will happen on ‘i specific date here’. No time of day or anything included.

  After I firmed that Lady Hunter was on the wall, I got ready to start. So I turo Alid said: “I guess it is time to pop this fissure.”

  “I activate Dimensional Fissure.” I said to activate the tinuous Spell.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]This was just going to be a quick test. In theory, this card should open up a dimensional fissure, as that is what it is called. Then as soon as it has opened one up, I deactivate it, so I fight without having that banish effect being active. And no. I don’t have to destroy tinuous Spells just because I want to deactivate them. Just like I unsummon my monsters, I just … deactivate the spell by removing it from my duel disk aurning it to my Colle. No Mystical Space Typhoon required.

  Anyway. Enough funny facts, because I just opened up a dimensional fissure. Let’s get to work. First, I quickly deactivated Dimensional Fissure aur into the Colle. Ae that, the crag purple mess before us didn’t disappear. Not that I was expeg it to.

  “Wall of Revealing Light!” I quickly activated the best barrier card I have, making a barrier along the city walls. And with 10,000 HP being used to power it, the barrier should hold up to anything except direct attacks.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]

  “Alright. is the big one.” I said, as I set out five cards on the light bde portion of my duel disk. I wao still have some slots open for other monsters, in case Alieeded help dealing with whatever es out of that fissure, so I had fully activated my duel disk.

  With the cards set and ready to go, I began a t. It wasn’t actually necessary or anything, but ever since I ted for the Sacred Beasts, I felt like Exodia deserved a t as well, so I tried to e up with one.

  “Oh, Forbidden One sealed away in stoablets

  I require yht to assist me in my endeavors

  I break the s that once bound you

  As I’ve gathered your pieces to make you whole

  So with all five pieces of your true might I summon you

  Exodia the Forbidden One!”

  Spoiler[colpse]Yeah, I know. It isn’t the best t. But it is better than what I did earlier. And this is a lot more fun, even if only Alice got to hear my t. I need some sort of voice amplification skill, so that those watg from further away hear my ts as well. What is the point in ting, if no one hears, right?

  And this t was arguably my most important one, as with it, out came my golden giant. From the pentagram of light, out stepped my over fifty meters tall monster. My truest ace monster, Exodia.

  I wonder how the people spectating from the city wall are feeling about seeing it? I should ask Lady Janina ter.

  [Ami Janina POV]

  “So that is the Golden Giant…” I said almost without thinking.

  “My Lady?” The tengu o me asked. Kiara Hunter was her name.

  “Brian’s Golden Giant. He just summo.” I told her. “I’ve only heard of it, never seen it. And I definitely feel why he doesn’t summon it more often.”

  “... so the pressure is ing from it. I thought it came from that … purple blob.”

  She wasly wrong, as the dimensional fissure was also somewhat imposing. But the energy emitting from that Golden Giant. It was really something else. In a way it was simir to the energy I use, a mix of both mana and miasma, but this was eveer. It had something more. I don’t know what it is, but I could feel it.

  “... it might be able to defeat me…” I muttered. I’m not pletely sure if it could, but that energy. It really might be able to.

  Ever since my teacher passed away, I’ve not met anyone as strong as I am. I am the stro. That is what I know to be the truth. Even the humanoids legends like the Hero were no mate. And non ever grew up to match my strength, as they couldn’t exceed their natural lifespan like I had. And because I had nothing to strive for, I don’t try to improve myself. Because why would I? What is there that match up to me? I only did what was necessary. Living until a new dragon that could exceed the limits of a lifespan was born, so I could pass my knowledge to them and then move towards the other world.

  When I heard of the human child capable of summoning dragons as powerful as ?????? [Agunan], I got excited. Because those dragons weren’t his stro summons. While the scout had only seen it by a glimpse, I had heard of this Golden Giant. The being more powerful thaer dragons.

  Then I got to fight that Brian child. And even though I asked him t out his stro beast, he didn’t bring out this Golden Giant. And while the three he brought out were impressive, and I could definitely see why ?????? couldn’t defeat them, for me, they were only oppos until I realized how they gain their strength. From there, I could power myself up just as quickly as they power themselves up, and even exceed their strength gain. Because I copy temporary power like that, no ohat has to rely on temporary power will ever defeat me.

  But this Golden Giant. It might be able to best me.

  I could feel my body tingling. Not my avatar that currently held the active part of my soul, but my real body. It might be all the way bae, but I could feel the excitement radiating through my body. I want to fight this Golden Giant. I want a real challenge. A challenge like I haven’t faced since my childhood.

  “... one day, I will fight you.” I spoke aloud my promise.

  It got the attention of the people close enough to hear, but they soon got something else to focus on.

  I suppose I should have expected this. With the amount of mana and miasma p out of that … dimensional fissure Brian called it, it is only a matter of time until that power solidifies into a monster.

  Now, show me how you will deal with this, young Brian.

  [Brian POV]

  “Alice, something’s ing. Summon your monsters.” I told Alice, as soon as I realized that our oppo was about to appear. Our pn was that Alice would fight it, unless she needed help. And if she did, I do have a monster or two that I want to test out in a real fight.

  “Alright. I activate Polymerization. I fuse together Red-Eyes Bck Dragon aeon to summoeor Bck Dragon.”

  Spoiler[colpse]Alice began by summoning out the fiery dragon that I once summoo impress a certain assistant guild master. And with its appearance, came a wave of radiati.

  “Now I summon Red-Eyes Bck Dragon. I then tribute my dragon to summon the Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon!” Alice called fourth her seonster.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]

  Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon was quite the sizable dragon, standing at about 23 meters tall. It was actually just a bit bigger thaeor Bck Dragon, which I found iing. Still not quite as rge as Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon though. Also, because Alice just had three dragons go oh cooldown, her Darkness Dragon should have 3300 attack at this moment.

  “One more. I summon Dark Padin.” Alice summoned her third monster.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]And there is her third ‘ace’ monster. Or maybe I should call Dark Padin Alice’s true ace monster. And with Book of Secret Arts and Bck Pendant installed into Dark Padin, Dark Padin had a base stat line of 3700/2700. Add to that the 1500 attack it will gain from 3 dragons in the GY, and another 1000 for the twons on the field, and you have yourself a 6200/2700 monster. Definitely impressive, and likely capable of dealing with whatever happens to e out of that fissure.

  And just in time as well, because something was starting to exit the dimensional fissure. A giant paw, with five extremely long nails was the first thing we could see. The nails were shining blue in color, as if they were filled to the brim with mana. Behind the paw, out came a rge arm, and after it, the rest of the body of a massive monster.

  It looked like… well, it was a giant bear. Standing on its hind legs, it stood over 40 meters tall. Not quite as rge as Exodia, but still sizable. Well, I guess if it dropped onto all fours, it would be a bit smaller than the behemoth Alice fought. It just looks bigger as it is standing on its hind legs.

  (That is a Ursa Major, also known as the Star Bear.) Kekri was the one who identified the monster for us. (SS-rank. Immensely powerful, and it is known to use both Spad Light magic. Be careful.)

  (Thanks Kekri. Brian, I think I hahis.) Alice said.

  (Go for it. I’ll e in if you need help.) I told her.

  A mix of spad light magic, huh? I didn’t think monsters could use Space magic, so that is something.

  (Laura. Make sure we get all of that bear's attacks on record. I might be able to use some of them myself.) I reminded Laura. No way I was going to let info on Space magic slip between my fingers.

  (I will. But you should take some distance, so you don’t get caught in the fight.) Laura told me.

  (Yeah. That does sound like a good idea.) I admitted.

  Taking a hold of my own body with Telekinesis, I quickly levitated myself a bit further away from the fight. Not too far, but far enough where I probably won’t immediately get caught in it.

  Now Alice, let’s see what you do.

  [Alice POV]

  “... so Light and Space magic… How should I..?”

  (We o pull it away from Exodia first.) Kekri reminded me. (We have to let Exodia focus on repairing the fissure.)

  “ht. Then… Darkness Dragon! Attack that bear as attentio’s pull it away from the city!” I quickly ordered my Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon. “Meteor Bck Dragon, you as well.” I added, as I wasn’t sure if only one dragon would do it.

  I decided to keep Dark Padin on stand-by until we get a bit further away. Unlike my dragons, he block a magic spell quite easily, so if one heads towards the city, or Brian and Exodia, Dark Padin stop that attack.

  My twons did a flyby and both attacked the Ursa Major with their breaths. Meteor Bck Dragohed out fmes, while Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon attacked with a breath of darkness. Dark and Fire. These dragons really are perfee.

  ROAR!

  The Ursa roared out, possibly annoyed from getting attacked.

  “Dark Armor!” I used Quick Cast to t a spell that increased my defenses. A thin yer of darkness surrounded me and would defend me from attacks. I did this because when I fought the behemoth, its roars were in themselves an attad did some damage to me. So having something to redue of that damage away will be good.

  But I was wrong. That roar was just a roar, with minimal or maybe no mana in it, as I took no damage from it.

  After their attacks, my dragons quickly turned so they could fly away from the Ursa Major. The Ursa swiped its paw in the air, an attack that had no ce of getting anywhere close to the dragons. But from the Ursa’s cws, a magic attack was unched. It looked like five bdes of… something. They weren’t light, I know that much, so it robably some kind of a Space magic attack. The bdes of space flew straight, so they weren’t too difficult for my dragons to dodge.

  ROAR!

  The Ursa let out another roar. This time, with some mana infused in it, so it did a bit of damage, but not that much. Then it got on all fours and began to chase after my dragons.

  Perfect. We are getting it away from the city, just as pnned. I took into the sky with Mana Flight and chased after the Ursa.

  As I flew, I took two more monsters from my Card Summoner’s deck box and got ready to summon them. I probably could do this without them, but Brian always says I shouldn’t take ces.

  After I decided we were far enough, I told my dragons to break to the left and right. They did just that, and the out another set of breath attacks. Now, two more monsters.

  “Appear, my two Magi's Valkyria!”

  Spoiler[colpse]

  My Magi's Valkyria might not be powerful monsters, but their effect was extremely strong. I don’t know why or how, but they drew attacks targeting Spellcaster-type moowards themselves. And whewo of them were out at the same time, the attack would first aim for one of them, then turn towards the other, then back to the first, then to the sed and so on. Infinitely. Until the attack ran out of power and fizzled out of existence.

  And while they couldn’t protect my dragons, their effect would protect them, Dark Padin and myself. When I asked Brian why that is, he theorized that my race, Magical Girl, is treated as Spellcaster in the eyes of his cards.

  The only weakness of Magi's Valkyria was that area of effect attacks would still work. But even with that, the prote they offered was more than handy. Maybe I get a card from Brian that stop the AOE attacks? I wonder if he has one?

  With my dragons fog on annoying the Ursa Major, and the Magi's Valkyria on standby ready to draw in its attacks, Dark Padin and I were free to attack the giant bear.

  I pulled my steel and aluminum swordstaff from Ste, so I could attack with it. Brian still hasn’t givehe mithril swordstaff he promised, so I was still stuck with using this. From what I’ve heard, the sword part of the on is already plete, but the staff is still in the works. The Spellcaster monsters had already made multiple staves, but none of them was satisfactory, so they made another. And another. And because of that, I still didn’t have a mithril swordstaff.

  Dark Padin and I both charged out swordstaves with mana, ready to un attack. As more maered my swordstaff, it began to vibrate. This was the sign that my on was reag its resonant frequency. Dark Padin had told me about it. It was the point at whiore mana should be inputted into a on, as there is a high likelihood that the on will be uo hold more, and will break. And steel isn’t that good at transferring or holding mana, so the amount I could input was quite low, only about 100 mana. pared to the time I held Dark Padin’s swordstaff, 100 was nothing. With his staff, I could input my entire mana pool into the on, and the on never reached its resonant frequency. But with his, I could also do something I couldn’t do with mine.

  I looked at Dark Padin. His swordstaff wasn’t just like it usually was. The bde on, it glowed with powerful mana. The mana even exceeded the normal size of the on, making a rger bde that was c the real bde. It was a teique called Mana Bde. It could be doh ons that are made of magical metals, like mithril and orichalcum. Sadly, steel wasn’t good enough at mana trao produce a Mana Bde.

  But that doesn’t matter at this moment. I foyself, as I better my grip on my swordstaff. In sync with Dark Padin, we rush at the Ursa Major, ah use our swordstaves to strike at the bear. Mine leaves a reasonably deep cut, which would be dangerous for a smaller beast, while Dark Padin’s bde cuts a deep groove into the beast, even cutting some bones.

  The bear rain, this time out of pain. Good. Now let’s…

  “Pull back!” Dark Padin calls out.

  “Yes!” I agree, as something strange is happening with the Ursa.

  On its usually dark hide, tons of small spots of light are f. The light dots are making his hide look like a starry sky.

  “My dy! Get behind me. I’ll block that attack.” Dark Padin instructed me.

  I did as he asked, aated behind him. I carefully peaked over his shoulder, just to see the lights on the Ursa Major explode outwards, shooting out beams of light.

  Dark Padin blocked the ones ing towards us two, but my two Magi’s Valkyria weren’t so lucky. Their effect couldn’t block this attack, and they both were hit by a beam, causing them to perish. My twons were also hit, but as her got a direct hit, or maybe just because they are more durable, they both were able to withstand the attack.

  I quickly took a look towards the dimensional fissure, Brian and Exodia. Brian was levitatiween Exodia and the Ursa Major, and it doesn’t look like anything had hit Exodia. Maybe Brian used a card to defend them? I probably should have dohe same.

  Quickly turning back to the Ursa Major, I got ready for my attack. But as the bear’s hide was still shining with light, I don’t think approag it is a good idea, so let’s do sed magistead.

  “Dark, make spheres of burning darkness and strike my enemy, Dark Burning Barrage!” This was the attack I decided to use. It was the one I used to finish off the behemoth. For a while, I couldn’t use it, but through training, I was now once again able to. I still couldn’t shoot as many of them as I had against the behemoth, but I was able to fire 10 Dark Burning Attacks at the same time.

  The Dark Burning Attacks hammered themselves oer another into the exact same spot on the Ursa Major, digging a deep wound into the beast. Then, without even a and from me, my twons flew towards the bear and unleashed their fire and darkness breaths into the fresh wound, deepening it even more. Following their attack, my Dark Padin rushed in. With his swordstaff’s bde more that double its inal size, because of the Mana Bde surrounding it, Dark Padin flew into the wound and swung his swordstaff. Owo, three… multiple sshes were unleashed, and all ihe Ursa’s body. Each hurting the bear more and more.

  The bear was stunned from the pain, but I wasn’t sure if it was going down, so I prepared my attack.

  “Darkness, e the light and abrogate my enemy,” I began my t, but waited until I saadin fly out of the Ursa Major. I didn’t want him to be caught up in this attack after all. But as soon as I saw him fly out, I said the final words and shot out my spell. “Darkness Bster!”

  Darkness Bster was my current stro spell, and the powered up version of Dark Bster. Like Dark Bster, I could put as much mana into it as I wanted, but it’s base cost was a lot higher. But iurn, the power it gained per point of mana was also more, so it was my new finishing teique.

  My spell flew straight and hit the Ursa Major, pierg all the way through the bear’s body aing out the other side.

  The spell had exhausted my mana, so I was falling out of the sky, barely keeping my self scious. But before I hit the ground, I felt something catch me. I almost expected it to be Brian, but the one who picked me up was Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon. I was now riding on his babsp;

  I was just barely able to turn my head, so I could look at the Ursa Major. Aweeernal sshed Dark Padin released, and my Darkness Bster, the beast was done.

  It fell to the ground with a loud thud.

  “... I won.” I quietly said to myself.

  I did it. Again. This time, with no injury, and no help from Brian. I had taken down my sed SS-rank monster. I could feel a smile spreading ay face, as my mana exhaustion caught me and I passed out.

  nro_8