"Spread the London fog—Jack Illya's effect!"

In a fleeting instant, the assassin's figure vanished, hiding within the pitch-black fog where nothing could be seen.

"Fog… what is this now?" Facing Hoshino's seemingly endless stream of trump cards, Hela—who had already staked nearly everything—struggled even to respond.

"'We' are fire, rain, power…"

Accompanied by Jack Illya's soft voice echoing from within the darkness, the fused magical death fog further engulfed the Dyson Sphere summoned by Xyz Revenge Shuffle, and in an instant, its mechanical steel body began to dissolve.

"When Jack Illya is Special Summoned, all monsters on your opponent's field are changed to face-down Defense Position, and monsters changed this way cannot change their battle positions until the End Phase!"

"I see!" Mokuba suddenly realized. "By forcing it face-down, the moment it's attacked, Dyson Sphere already misses the timing to activate its effect!"

"Because monsters in face-down Defense Position can't activate their effects, right!" Eve added excitedly.

"Exactly—now, the Absolute Underworld God attacks once more!"

In unison, Hoshino and Atem declared the thunderous strike of the Underworld god. With power great enough to shatter mountains and reshape the land, the lightning blasted toward the Dyson Sphere, which was dissolving within the fog.

"—Superconductive Thunder Cannon!!"

A full-force strike combining Ereshkigal and Slifer. Even in face-down Defense Position, the Chaos Xyz—with its hidden 3300 DEF—had no chance against 5000 ATK.

[Number C9: Chaos Dyson Sphere destroyed]

"I've won!" With every obstacle cleared before her, Hoshino declared her path to victory against the now-exposed Hela.

"I have to completely separate you—and the land of death you control—from our world! Zombie monster, Magical Girl – Jack Illya, this is the final direct attack!"

Even after losing the god card, even as the Zombie World crumbled across the land—at this moment, Hoshino and Atem had fulfilled every condition for victory, pouring humanity's unyielding will into the cold blade flashing within Jack's mist.

"Hoshino Chiyuki… now I can finally be certain of the truth behind the legend…" Hela lowered her head.

"A legend?"

"The girl chosen by the World, who awakened the power of Synchro, who stood against the Nine Realms and ultimately brought about Ragnarok—the one who personally wiped out all life and death across the nine worlds… a terrifying demon!"

Mokuba protested angrily, "Calling Hoshino a demon? You look more like one yourself!"

"…No, maybe that's exactly it." Surprisingly, Hoshino didn't deny it. "If only one can survive—the nine worlds connected by the World Tree, Yggdrasil, or our own world!"

"So you would destroy nine entire worlds just to preserve this flawed one?!" Queen Hel demanded.

"You don't get to judge whether our world is right or wrong!" Atem shot back angrily. "If you hadn't planted the World Tree here and started a war that should never have existed!"

"…Actually, that's not quite it," Eve said quietly. "Once this world obtained Xyz power, the connection between the two dimensions became inevitable. It was a destined collision."

"So… we're the ones who connected the two dimensions and allowed the World Tree to take root here?" Mokuba's eyes trembled as he looked at Kaiba in disbelief.

"What makes humans truly terrifying… is their ignorance." Glancing at Mokuba, Hela raised her hand and sneered. "Ignorance of power, ignorance of fate—and ignorance of the sky itself!"

"The sky?" Hoshino Alter wondered. "You mean the Overlay Network?"

"You've already encountered the Light King of the Elf World, haven't you? That foolish woman who can only glimpse the past—she misunderstood everything, thinking the polluted purification lake was the root cause."

Through the transparent walls of the Duel Tower, Hela gazed down upon the island—a land piled high with the remnants of weapons, a steel hellscape.

"But I can see the future. The true cause leading this world down a path of destruction… is humanity itself! As long as humans exist, this world's destruction is inevitable!"

"—Even so, would you sacrifice nine worlds just to save humanity?!"

YES?

NO?

To deny humanity—to deny this world. Hela's words overlapped in Hoshino's mind with another figure.

"'All humans must be killed. They must be burned. Not a single life can remain upon this planet's surface.

If you ask why, then I shall answer—because this is the limit of your existence, your most valuable end.'"

"…How ironic. After everything, it all comes back to this, doesn't it, Goetia."

With a faint smile, Hoshino didn't hesitate. The answer had already been decided long ago by Chaldea's young Master.

"Sorry, Hela. My answer is—"

Before she could finish, Kaiba stepped forward, answering firmly:

"Even if the path ahead is wrong, we will never choose to give up! Even if the future holds endless destruction, I, Seto Kaiba, will lead humanity to carve out a path to survival!"

Hoshino stumbled, annoyed. "Damn it… Kaiba stole my cool line!"

—Even so, would you sacrifice nine worlds to save humanity?!

YES!! YES!! YES!!

"Even if we're demons in your eyes, it doesn't matter. We'll wager everything we have—this world will never lose to the Nine Realms!"

Guiding the long-charged, cold blade within the mist with her pale fingertips, Hoshino declared the final direct attack.

"I will become the villain today if I have to!"

"Then I'll wager everything to stop you right here!" Hela flipped her final set card. Though it was a Normal Spell, under the effect of Spell Sanctuary, it activated instantly.

"—Spell Card Final Destiny!"

[Discard 5 cards from your hand. Destroy all cards on the field.]

A near table-flipping spell—but Hela didn't have enough cards left in her hand to pay the cost.

Which meant…

The five-card discard cost would have to be paid by Marik, who had remained silent until now.

"Go, Marik!" Hela ordered. "If we blow up the entire field, there's still a chance to seize victory—destroy all the cards they have left!"

"Heh… heh heh heh heh… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA—!"

Throwing his head back, Marik burst into laughter that echoed across the island for nearly a full minute. This laughter was decisively different from before, his body trembling as it rang out.

"Pay the cost for Final Destiny? I refuse!"

"What did you say?!" Hela was stunned. The very body she had summoned using her own power was now defying her.

"Watch your words, Marik! To oppose me—the King of Death—you understand the consequences!"

"Oppose you? Don't make me laugh. I never planned to follow your orders from the start!" Marik declared. "I told you—I only cooperate if our goals align. And now… I've changed my mind."

Turning his gaze toward Hoshino, Marik, for once, dropped the twisted grin he had worn the entire time.

"Hoshino… I still want to drag you down to hell. But right now, I'd rather watch you struggle and crawl in this doomed world!"

"Damn you, Marik—!"

Enraged by the unexpected betrayal, Hela lashed out with clawed hands infused with the power of the death realm, tearing apart Marik's borrowed body and absorbing it.

"You think betraying me will stop my effect?! Give back everything you gained from me—your body, your soul, and your cards!"

After assimilating Marik, Hela took his remaining hand into her own, a sinister smile forming.

"Oh? You were holding onto quite the interesting cards. Since you won't use them properly, I will!"

Now holding a total of eight cards, she selected five as the cost.

"I discard five cards from my hand to activate Final Destiny—destroy all cards on the field!"

Standing atop the roaring Slifer, Ereshkigal frowned sharply at Hela.

"How cruel… Even I, ruler of the Underworld, find this hard to watch."

"I'm furious too!" Hoshino gritted her teeth. "You've really crossed the line! I activate the effect of Ereshkigal Slifer—!"

"You still had another god effect hidden?!" Mokuba exclaimed.

Raising her crimson cloak, Ereshkigal swung her spear upward, her immense power clashing against the destructive force of Final Destiny.

"This is absolute dominion over the Underworld—any monster that comes to the Underworld becomes power for the Absolute Underworld God!"

[Once per turn: You can banish 1 monster from either player's Graveyard; until the End Phase, this card gains that monster's effect. This can also be activated during your opponent's turn.]

Eve's eyes sparkled. "It can gain the effects of monsters in the Graveyard—so that's why it's called the authority of the Absolute Underworld God!"

"But even so," Mokuba said, "how can gaining a Graveyard effect stop Final Destiny…?"

"No—this isn't about gaining an effect now. It's about using one already obtained."

Atem revealed a card from the banished zone. From the moment the Underworld God was summoned, he had already activated this effect—and had been waiting.

"The monster I banished and gained the effect of is—Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon! And at the moment you activated Final Destiny, I activate Dragoon's negation effect!"

[Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon Effect: Once per turn, when a Spell/Trap/monster effect is activated, you can discard 1 card; negate that activation, destroy it, and this card gains 1000 ATK.]

"You held onto Dragoon's effect from the very start… saving it for this moment?!" Kaiba clenched his fists, suppressing the complex emotions surging within him. "Yugi… you're still as terrifyingly unreadable as ever!"

"I discard one card—negate Final Destiny!"

As Atem discarded a card, Ereshkigal's spear shone brilliantly, completely suppressing the explosive force of the spell and forcing it back into nothingness.

[Final Destiny is negated and destroyed]

[Ereshkigal Slifer ATK 5000 → 6000]

"This is the true final strike—Illya!"

Breaking through the fading shockwaves, Jack Illya leapt from the mist, her small figure spinning as twin blades slashed toward Hela's throat.

"I—I'm not finished yet! I activate Battle Fader from my hand!"

Clutching the hand trap she had taken from Marik, Hela prepared to end the Battle Phase—

But just as she was about to play the card, her body froze completely.

"No… you don't get to win anymore. So just stay here and lose, Hela!"

From within her, the voice of Marik—whose body had been torn apart and absorbed—resounded once more, forcibly halting her movement.

"Marik…?" Hoshino's eyes widened in shock.

"To stop me at a moment like this… Marik, you wretched traitor!" Even as she nearly crushed her teeth from rage, Hela couldn't play Battle Fader.

She couldn't understand how a mere human could exert such overwhelming will to suppress a king's soul.

"Traitor? Hahaha… Even if my body and soul are gone, one thing doesn't change—I was human from the very beginning!"

Because this Marik wasn't the dark persona—it was his original human self. Even if he still harbored hatred toward Hoshino, at this moment, his shattered soul displayed the very limit of human will.

"There's one thing I lied about earlier, Hoshino… I said the destruction of this world didn't concern me. But this world… is where my sister and Odion live!"

His sister and his lifelong friend Odion—those bonds etched deep into his soul could never be forgotten, even in death.

"This is my final cry as a human—! Even against the Nine Realms, you can win, Hoshino! You're the unrivaled King of Duelists! I leave this world—the one where my sister and Odion live—in your hands!"

Hoshino Alter urged, ["Do it, aibo—Marik's soul won't last much longer!"]

"I know," Hoshino smiled softly. "I'm just surprised—even someone like you has something you want to protect."

"Let slaughter descend upon this place!"

"—Maria the Ripper!!"

A cold blade flashed across Hela's body. Until the very end, the Battle Fader that could have ended the Battle Phase was never played. And with that final strike, the concept of the land of death was completely severed from the connection between the World Tree and the human world.

"I won't forgive you, Marik! Damn youuuuu—!"

"Heh… then come to hell with me, Hela!"

[Marik & Hela LP: 400 → 0]

[Duel Over — Winners: Hoshino & Atem]